Mount Holyoke News – November 18, 2022

Maura Healey wins Massachusetts governorship

BY BRYN HEALY ’24 STAFF WRITER

Maura Healey made history with her win in the Massachusetts guber natorial election on Nov. 8., making her Massachusetts’ first woman elected to the position, Associated Press News reported. Along with Governor-elect Tina Kotek of Or egon, Healey will be one of the two first openly lesbian governors in the U.S., according to ABC. AP News an nounced that Healey beat Trump-en dorsed candidate Geoff Diehl to fill the vacancy left by current Gover nor Charlie Baker, who did not run for re-election. After her win, Healey turned to Twitter to send out an encouraging message to Massachu setts youth, which stated, “We might be the first, but we won’t be the last. To every little girl out there, we want you to know — there’s no ceiling you can’t break.” Mount Holyoke College Interim President Beverly Daniel Tatum also took to Twitter, where she stated, “Congratulations to Gov ernor-elect Maura Healey!”

Healey ran her campaign follow ing her successful tenure as Massa chusetts attorney general and as a civil rights attorney, CBS reported. Healey was the first openly LGBTQ+ state attorney general when appoint ed to the post in 2014, according to CBS. Healey led the fight for gay marriage in the courtroom, bring ing the first state challenge against the Defense of Marriage Act, which banned same-sex marriage. Healey also fought for greater non-discrim ination protections for transgen der people in the state of Massa chussetts. Furthermore, according

to LGBTQ Nation, Healy has also been a key voice in the push for gender-neutral markers at both the federal and state level. In her time as attorney general, her office sued Purdue Pharma, aiming to hold it responsible for its inarguable role in encouraging the opioid epidemic, ac cording to CBS. Her office also sued Exxon Mobil for “misleading Massa chusetts investors about the risks to Exxon’s business posed by fossil fu el-driven climate change,” according to the Massachusetts government website.

Healey’s win received a lot of attention and praise from LGBTQ+ leaders and organizations. The Hu man Rights Campaign congratulat ed Healey on Twitter, where they

wrote, “As one of our nation’s first lesbian governors, she will not only be a champion of pro-equality pol icies, but also a role model for the entire LGBTQ+ community.” CEO of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, former Houston Mayor Annise Parker, told LGBTQ Nation, “In the face of so much hate and intolerance sweep ing our nation, [Healey’s] win is a sign — especially to LGBTQ[+] kids in desperate need of hope — that LGBTQ[+] people have a place in American society and can become respected public leaders.”

Emma Cranage ’25 believes that “at such a politically fraught time, [Healey’s] election brings hope to our community in a way that any other more typical governor might

not be able to deliver.” Cranage went on to explain that Healey’s win in the primary was more important than her win in the general election on Nov. 8 as “her [primary election] victory shows the huge potential in fluence that solid blue states have in creating a more diverse political profile, both at the state level and nationally.” Ida Grace Fendell ’24 “loved her as attorney general” and is “really excited to see what she’ll do as governor.”

Healey ran alongside the lieu tenant governor candidate, Kim Driscoll, according to CBS. As a part of their joint platform, Healey and Driscoll are proposing a program ti tled MassReconnect that would help non-traditional students get educa tion and jobs. According to Healey’s website, Mass ReConnect will fund “free community college certificates and degrees to the Commonwealth’s residents who are 25 years old and up who have not yet earned a college credential, or students that have earned a certificate but are inter ested in earning a degree.“ On the surface, this program seems similar to the College’s Frances Perkins pro gram. Monica Lamberti FP ’23 said, “It’s fantastic that [Governor-elect] Healey wants to support non-tra ditional students.” She explained, “Students who are like me, with out financial parental support, and many of us with kids, think, … ‘How am I going to pay for college?’ And at the same time, ‘What about my kids, who I still need to support?’ Financial assistance is imperative for someone who wants to put in the effort [to go] back to school later in life. A person who is trying their hardest to suc

ceed despite the adversities should be supported.”

Nicolette McGrath FP ’23 had a more complicated view of the pro gram. “After I reached 25, I believed that college was out of the question for me because I had to work to pay my bills and I couldn’t even afford community college. So, I am very excited to see a program that spe cifically targets this demographic. Making sure that classes and all other expenses are covered is most important because a lot of these individuals are struggling to keep their heads above water and many of them can’t spare even $100 for reg istration fees, … let alone textbooks and other fees involved.” However, McGrath also points out some poten tial flaws in the program based on their own experience as a nontradi tional student. “Now, it is absolutely critical that the academic advising that these people receive is not from academic advisors with little to no experience advising non-traditional age students. … Another issue I see is that they seem to be falling short in the idea that this program will be a jumping off point for so many of these [non-traditional] students to go on to getting their bachelor’s degree. … I had no plans [for] get ting my [bachelor’s] when I started community college and definitely no plans on heading to a [doctorate] program, but once I started at Green field Community College, I realized I didn’t want to stop there.” Only time will tell as to how much Healey and Driscoll stay in line with their initial campaign promises and address the concerns brought up by non-tradi tional students like McGrath.

Mount Holyoke’s RA Collective votes 65-0 to unionize

BY SOPHIE SOLOWAY ’23 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Residential advisors and fel lows gathered in Chapin Audito rium alongside other community members on the evening of Nov. 9 to determine the future of the Mount Holyoke Collective and their union status on campus. Officials from the United Food and Commercial Work ers Local 1459 chapter read aloud the individual votes to the hushed room. The silence was broken by applause when it was announced that the stu dent workers had voted unanimous ly to formalize their union member ship.

Of the 78 eligible votes, 65 were cast, containing all ‘yes’ votes and no ‘challenge’ or waived votes. Erin Foley ’24, a residential advisor and member of the Collective, remem bered the night of the vote as being “really powerful, and spoke to how … strongly the desire to have us unionized [was].”

As previously reported by Mount Holyoke News, the Collective met with a UFCW representative in May 2021, with the goal of “airing [their] grievances about the current job po sition and planning next steps,” as they stated in an Instagram post. In the year and a half since, these “next steps” have consisted of regular body meetings that culminated in their fil ing for unionization on Sept. 28, 2022, according to their Instagram.

According to Foley, the Col lective had not always planned to

move toward union membership. Throughout her involvement last semester, Foley remembers priori tizing collaboration with administra tion and working towards pay raises, which were granted for this semes ter. However, upon arriving on cam pus for ResLife training, Foley and her coworkers were surprised to find that their duties had shifted from the last semester. In addition to over all changes brought on during the COVID-19 pandemic, Foley shared that their workloads had “nearly doubled” to include heightened re quirements regarding Inspiration Conversations. These conversations with residents expanded from one to two conversations with residents per semester to three required conver sations alongside paragraph-length write-ups submitted to supervisors.

From there, Foley and other RAs and RFs found unionization to be a possible solution for the insta bility of their roles. “When our job changed yet again, … we realized … there’s no insurance with this job. … There’s nothing preventing the school from backsliding on the pay that we received. … With all the uncertainties that we’ve seen in the world in the past few years, it’s total ly possible that, should something arise in the future, our job could change yet again,” Foley continued. “They could cut back on our pay. All the work that we had done and build ing ourselves up to this fall could be taken away, and so unionizing is re ally just a way for us to protect our

selves as student workers and make sure that there is a solid, insured future for the … working conditions for RAs and RFs.”

As part of their union drive, the Collective also engaged the rest of the student body. On Sept. 29, the College’s Mountain Day, the Collec tive asked the campus community to wear blue to express their support for RA and RF unionization efforts. This practice was repeated on the day prior to the vote, when students were invited to join Residential Life workers for the conclusion of the vote and were asked once again to wear blue in support of the union efforts.

In another show of support on Oct. 20, community members joined the Collective at the College campus’ fire pit for its “S’mores for Solidari ty” event.

Prior to the election, the College had the chance to formally recognize the Collective’s unionship. However, Foley shared that the College did not follow this route.“When we filed, we just continued campaigning, … and if the school wanted to voluntarily recognize us, they could do that, but [they] didn’t. We were still focused on just continuing the path that we had been building toward.”

Despite not formally recogniz ing the union, Christian Feuerstein,

the College’s director of news and media relations, said in a statement that “Mount Holyoke College appre ciates the effort and dedication that our student employees bring to the work they perform on campus while pursuing their academic careers. For more than 185 years, we have respected each student’s ability to advocate for themselves, and we continue to support — and are proud of — their thoughtful and purposeful engagement with the world.”

Now that they have elected to unionize, the RA and RF union will wait for its official certification, which, according to a UFCW official proctoring the vote, should arrive within a week of the vote. Recalling the election, Foley stated, “I think it was a moment of celebration, for sure. And then very quickly, it [turned] to ‘Okay, back to work.’” Foley continued that, as the union awaits its official certification, “The organizing never stops — you’re still organizing, you’re still continuing conversations [and] building those relationships. And we’re doing that in preparation for a meeting with the school at the negotiating table to make sure that we’re representing as many voices and needs as possi ble.”

Feuerstein stated, “We are com mitted to actively participating in good-faith negotiations with UFCW Local 1459 to help strengthen our student employees’ experiences and leadership opportunities on cam pus.”

SGA senate hears presentation on student satisfaction

BY PAIGE COMEAU ’26 STAFF WRITER

On Nov. 15, following a land ac knowledgement and the agenda re view, the Student Government As sociation senate began with updates from the E-Board. It was announced that there would be no senate the following week on Nov. 22, 2022, that the newest edition of the Newsflush would be handed out to hall senators and that free menstrual products have been made available on cam pus. More information about the products can be found on the SGA’s Instagram.

After E-Board updates, SGA did a quick Town Hall debrief consisting of a short discussion surrounding the previous week’s COVID-19 Q&A. When asked how it went with a

thumbs up or thumbs down, answers were mixed, but when asked if there were any questions or concerns, the senators had none. The floor was then opened for announcements and questions, during which various or ganizations announced upcoming events and recent achievements.

Subsequently, the Student Con ference Committee, a subcommittee of the SGA, presented their findings from last year’s student satisfaction survey, which students take annu ally. Generally, most students seem satisfied, accepted and welcomed at Mount Holyoke, according to the data.

Exceptions do exist, however. Some respondents reported that they felt uncomfortable expressing certain religious beliefs, namely Ju daism and Islam. Others noted that first-generation and low-income stu

dents sometimes feel as though they do not belong and that they struggle with the 15-hour work week limit. A few reported being uncomfortable having or sharing more conservative or moderate political beliefs, and many stated that there were some accessibility issues on the campus, both with the actual physical envi ronment and the availability of ac commodations. The key points were that students have expressed an interest in campuswide gatherings, greater access to Disability Services, respecting differences and includ ing more diversity statements. SGA leaders underscored the importance of this survey and the campuswide impact it has. All are urged to take the survey this spring.

Senate wrapped up with com mission work, led by each of the

eight senate commissions: academ ic outreach, accessibility, COVID-19 health and safety, dining, environ mental sustainability, internation al student outreach, mental health outreach and SGA anti-racism.

The commissions were asked to

choose an idea or issue from their last brainstorming session, start a plan and begin to take action. The commissions worked for around 30 minutes, meeting with their desig nated E-Board member and working towards their devised plan.

Photo courtesy of Zgreenblatt via Wikimedia Commons Maura Healey, pictured above for her A.G. campaign, is the first out lesbian governor in the U.S.

Photo by Tzav Harrel ’24

The Student Government Association reviews the results of last year’s student satisfaction survey.

Photo by Ali Meizels ’23 Members of the Mount Holyoke Collective present at the vote celebrate their decision to unionize.

English department hosts Britt Rusert and Carrie Shanafelt

The Odyssey Bookshop hosts conversation with Margot Anne Kelley and Tyler Sage

BY LUCY ISAACS ’25 STAFF WRITER

rine Kurdziel ’25 said.

BY NORAH TAFURI ’25 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article dis cusses slavery.

The study of English offers a lens to critically explore the expres sion of past writers and thinkers as they share their wisdom through time. On two warm November nights, the Department of English at Mount Holyoke College hosted a two-part lecture series on abolition ist authors. The series began with “‘The World is a Severe Schoolmas ter’: Phillis Wheatley’s Poetics of Domination and Submission” an analysis of author Phillis Wheatley’s work concentrating on the libidinal economy of slavery by Britt Rusert, associate professor and director of undergraduate studies in the W.E.B. Du Bois department of Afro-Amer ican Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As noted in her biography by the Poetry Foun dation, Wheatley was abducted from West Africa when she was seven and held in enslavement in a household in Boston. The Poetry Foundation writes, “By the time she was 18, Wheatley had gathered a collection

of 28 poems.” Close readings by scholars have illuminated powerful resistance to the slave trade embed ded in her work, elements that were given increasing clarity and depth with Rusert’s analysis.

The analysis was followed by a lecture titled “Quobna Ottobah Cu goano on Slavery’s Moral and Finan cial Debt” given by Carrie Shanafelt, an associate literature and philoso phy professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Formerly enslaved, Cu goano was an active abolitionist who in his 1787 book “Thoughts and Sen timents on the Evil of Slavery” wrote intensely on the role of the economy in the trafficking of human beings.

In her article “‘A World of Debt’: Quobna Ottobah Cugoano’: The Wealth of Nations, and the End of Finance,” Shanafelt writes, “Cugo ano makes a startling observation that the emerging system of global trade is driven not by the logic of free-market commerce, but by the interests of wealthy financiers who purchase political security by sink ing entire nations under unpayable moral and financial debts.” In her

On Wednesday, Nov. 9, the Od yssey Bookshop hosted a discussion with author Margot Anne Kelley, author of “FoodTopia: Communities in Pursuit of Peace, Love & Home grown Food,” published this August. Kelley was joined in conversation by Tyler Sage, who operates Sage Farm in Bernardston, Massachuestts, and was one of the many farmers fea tured in Kelley’s book. On her web site, Kelley advertises the book as describing the “story of five backto-the-land movements, from 1840 to present day, when large numbers of utopian-minded people in the United States took action to establish smallscale farming as an alternative to mainstream agriculture.” Located on the bookshop’s first floor, the event was intimate, garnering an en gaged crowd including a few Mount Holyoke students.

Kelley taught in the English department at Ursinus College ac cording to GFT Publishing. Kelley also taught photography and art theory at the Art Institute of Bos ton for almost 25 cumulative years, Godine reported. Over the course of the event, she assumed a similar professorial role as she answered questions concerning a wide array of topics. “The audience seemed to know a lot about the topic and knew what specific questions to ask, and they had very good insights. I think that it was more a discussion format than a traditional reading,” Katha

After reading a brief passage from her book, Kelley described its conception in 2016, when she no ticed a scarcity of agricultural move ments among her peers, members of Generation X. While she set out to understand this specific absence, Kelley admitted that she could not land on a cohesive explanation as to why Generation X broadly chose not to engage in “back-to-the-land” farming, but was still drawn to the cycles by which these movements have grown and waned in popularity.

Kelley also shared that she had been fighting cancer as she wrote the book, recalling the challenges associated with balancing hands-on research visiting farms and con ducting research online. She con tinually highlighted the importance of academic databases, which she described as having made the book possible. In a moment of self-effac ing humor, Kelley admitted that her first draft had included over 800 foot notes.

Sage, who is featured in Kelley’s book as an example of small-scale farming, served as a counterpoint to Kelley’s more pedagogical approach, sharing with the audience the details of his life on his farm on which he raises pigs. While being frank about the benefits and the difficulties of participating in a “back-to-the-land” lifestyle, Sage described the effects of rising summer temperatures on his pigs, who he struggles to keep sufficiently cool. Admitting that he hadn’t had a day off in a month,

Sage made clear that while he very much enjoys his subversive agricul tural lifestyle, it is not a particularly easy endeavor. “I really liked having [Sage] there because I think that as cool as the author was, she was more of an academic, so having a vi sual representation of what she was talking about was beneficial. And he brought in a lot of [valuable] points,” Kurdziel said.

Many audience members lin gered after the talk as Kelley en gaged in further conversation and signed copies of her book, which are available for purchase at the Odys sey Bookshop.

Deconstructing and Decolonizing Wellness Fair shows cultural and religious practices

Hadley, Bernardino’s Bakery and LimeRed Teahouse.

The ‘You’re Welcome to Sit with Me’ campaign begins in the Dining Commons

BY REBECCA GAGNON ’23 STAFF WRITER

Rushing against the crowd of the Dining Commons during the busy lunch hour, the search for a familiar face or simply a place to sit causes anxiety to slowly build in the pit of your stomach. Then, you see your holy grail: one student in the din ing hall has a colorful sign stating “You’re Welcome to Sit with Me.” You build up your nerve and take up their offer, resulting in a new friend and a relaxing lunch period before your next class.

The Division of Student Life has developed a new system in the Din ing Commons titled the “You’re Wel come to Sit with Me” campaign, as stated in the “Dean’s Corner” email sent on Nov. 4.

According to the email, the sys tem is extremely easy. A student simply needs to “grab a sign from behind the swipe in station, put it on [their] table and welcome those [they] do not know to eat a meal with [them].”

The idea for the campaign orig inated from observing similar types of programs at other liberal arts col leges, but the Division for Student Life adapted the idea to fit the Mount Holyoke campus and give students the best possible experience.

“We

said.

This new system is a pilot pro gram, Hall explained, so it is unclear at the moment how long it will last. Hall stated that she would love any feedback and suggestions about the program, including on the topics dis cussed at the tables.

Hall recognizes that social anx iety can be a barrier for some stu dents and hopes that the new sys tem will allow individuals to emerge from their shells and get out of their comfort zone.

“Many students with social anxiety [want] to meet new people, so this can be an opportunity for a low-stakes moment to do that,” Hall explained. “If you see someone with a sign on their table, see it as an in vitation. Take them up on their kind offer, ask if they have pets, what they like to study, where they are from — anything that could be a moment to connect.”

In line with Mount Holyoke’s mission to encourage relationship building, this program is a new way for students to make friends and deepen their connections to the Col lege community.

BY JESSE HAUSKNECHT-BROWN ’25 MANAGING EDITOR OF LAYOUT & FEA TURES EDITOR

Numerous colorful flags from countries around the world hung from the balconies in the Great Room in the Blanchard Community Center on Sunday, Nov. 13, during Mount Holyoke’s first-ever Deconstruct ing and Decolonizing Wellness Fair. Mount Holyoke Peer Health Educa tors hosted the fair in collaboration with some of the campus’ cultural and religious organizations. Peer Health Educator and Wellness Chair Nafeesah Ahmed-Adedoja ’23 led the event planning along with the other two members of the Wellness Team, Raven Joseph ’25 and Sean Fabrega ’23, as well as Be Well Area Coordi nator Sarah Garijo-Garde.

Ahmed-Adedoja explained that Joseph had read an article about de colonizing wellness and shared the idea with the team. From there, they came up with the idea for the fair. “We felt it was important to high light practices that may not appear in the mainstream and bring aware ness to [them] in our community,”

Ahmed-Adedoja said.

The team had been working on planning this event since September. They wanted to make sure that they were presenting authentic cultural traditions and wellness practices. In early October, they reached out to the following groups and orga nizations: Mount Holyoke African and Caribbean Student Association, La Unidad, Jewish Student Union, Muslim Student Association, Ori gami Club, Students of Hinduism Reaching Inwards, Asian Center for Empowerment, Counseling Service, Health Services, Daughters of Zion and FAMILIA.

“Firstly, we wanted to ensure that we were accurately represent ing cultures and spiritual [and] re ligious practices from around the world and decided to get organiza tions on campus involved to reach our goals,” Ahmed-Adedoja said.

“We also had to do a lot of research on food, drinks and other items to make our event come to life.” Seven restaurants catered the event: Priya Indian Cuisine, Jamaica Spice Par adise, El Comalito, Oriental Flavor, IYA Sushi and Noodle Kitchen South

The Wellness Team wanted to publicize the event early on and ta bled in Blanch for two weeks prior to the fair. They raised money for the Crisis Text Line and The Trevor Project by selling “flowers and tea” goodie bags. The team anticipated a 40-person turn out and were happily surprised to see over 100 people at tend the fair and, as Ahmed-Adedo ja stated, “learn about cultural and religious wellness traditions, make stress balls, spin the wheel and get a bite to eat.”

Joseph was also surprised to see how many people showed up and was “relieved” to see that students were having a good time and engag ing with the booths. “This event was necessary because it acknowledged the disconnect we have with the or igins of wellness practices seen in mainstream media today,” Joseph said. “Notably, the portrayal of well ness often reflects how it has been stripped of its history to become in accessible and more profitable.”

Ahmed-Adedoja hopes that the Peer Health Educators host more wellness fairs in the future, especial ly because the team received posi tive feedback from students regard ing the fair. “During and after the event people were hoping it would become a long-standing tradition which excited [Fabrega], [Joseph] and I,” Ahmed-Adedoja said.

Ahmed-Adedoja serves as the secretary and Five College repre sentative for the Muslim Student As sociation board and enjoyed running the MSA’s booth at the fair. “Our booth included dates, prayer beads, sweets, quran, henna, prayer mat and zam zam water. As Muslims, we have many ways which we connect to Wellness through our faith and items that are of huge significance in Islamic history and our everyday lives,” Ahmed-Adedoja said. “We hoped to share and enlighten others of what some of these practices were and also provide other Muslims with a sense of empowerment and recog nition.”

Joseph enjoyed getting to work with other student organizations on campus. “I’m glad we collaborated with them because we couldn’t have done this without their hard work,” Joseph said.

Ahmed-Adedoja enjoyed getting to work with Joseph and Fabrega and is excited to plan similar events with them in the future. “Working with [Fabrega] and [Joseph] has honestly been the highlight of my se mester and I am excited to see what we do next semester as we work toward part two of the Deconstruct ing and Decolonizing Wellness Fair, [which will include] a speaker and more.”

Photo by Norah Tafuri ’25 Carrie Shanafelt presents at ‘Quobna Ottobah Cugoano on Slavery’s Moral and Financial Debt.’

Photo courtesy of Nafeesah Ahmed-Adedoja ’23 The Muslim Student Association’s booth, pictured above, featured dates, a prayer mat and more.

Photo by Lucy Isaacs ’25 Tyler Sage and Margot Anne Kelley pose for a photo at the Odyssey Bookshop on Nov. 9.

are hoping that these signs can break down barriers around meeting new people and help build community,” Vice President for Stu dent Life and Dean of Students Mar cella Runell Hall

Photo by Rosemary Geib ’23

The Division of Student Life aims to connect people with communal signs in the Dining Commons.

CONTINUED ON

Students display lakeside installations in ‘Expanded Print Media’ course

BY LENOX JOHNSON ’24 COPY CHIEF & ARTS & ENTERTAIN MENT EDITOR

On Nov. 7, 2022, Mount Holy oke studio art students erected a myriad of artworks along the lush perimeter of Upper Lake. The in stallations were created by students of the Fall 2022 semester “Topics in Studio Art: ‘Expanded Print Media’” course taught by Assistant Profes sor of Art Studio Amanda Maciuba. During the cultivation process, stu dents worked with the Miller Worley Center for the Environment and the 2022-2023 Common Read “Braiding Sweetgrass” by Robin Wall Kimmer er to create printed installations in response to the Western Massachu setts environment, Maciuba shared.

The installations are placed along Project Stream, a waterway boardwalk restoration initiative cre ated in 2012 as a part of the Resto ration Ecology Program, according to the College website. Students con sulted with College representatives like Angelica Patterson of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment and campus grounds officials to pro pose ideas and receive permission to install their artwork along the cam pus, Maciuba said.

The site restoration project ad dresses nutrient pollution in the Mount Holyoke lake system through water filtration and purification processes and aims to “improve the quality of water entering Upper Lake from the tributary stream, … set the site on a trajectory toward dominance by native plant species … [and] encourage site visitors and program participants to engage in the science, practice and social di mensions of ecological restoration through education and outreach en deavors.”

“Braiding Sweetgrass” — avail able to students through the Col lege’s Library, Information and Technology Services — chronicles “the awakening of ecological con sciousness [that] requires the ac knowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world” through

Kimmerer’s experience as an In digenous scientist and woman, as stated on the College website. The novel inspired the works created during the project. “I thought that using Kimmerer’s writings would be a great prompt to lead the artists into a deeper investigation of the environment around them, specifi cally Project Stream,’’ Maciuba said.

“Some students responded very spe cifically to passages in the text while some students just used it as a loose inspiration or a guiding principle for their projects.”

Emily Donahue ’23, an artist who worked on the project, created their printmaking installation as part of the “Expanded Print Media” project.

“Inspired by Braiding Sweetgrass, I was touched by the rules of the Honorable Harvest. We should be respecting the environment that has let us dwell here,” Donahue said. “As well as the work done in re-estab lishing Project Stream, I wanted to emphasize the negative impact that humans have on our world.

Donahue’s “Standing in Re flection” (2022), pitched in a grassy opening along the path surrounding the College’s Upper Lake, is an hom age to “spreading appreciation, re spect and love for the world around us,” Donahue shared. She hopes to inspire self-reflection and introspec tion in viewers. “While standing [among] the wetlands, one ghost stands covered in lavender, to signal calm, while the other has a lively checkerboard pattern. This pattern is meant to have the viewer reflect on their own thoughts and associ ations with patterns, and how that might differ from someone else’s,” she said.

Maeve Kydd ’24, an artist who also contributed to the installation series, views the assignment as an opportunity to delve into the art world beyond the College. Drawing inspiration from the predetermined works served their creative process.

“I’ve done some installation [proj ects] in the past but, … it was nice to … see the site … [and] go through the process like you were a profes sional artist proposing a sculpture

… for a specific site,” Kydd said. “It was cool just [to] go through that process and make something that I really wanted to make in response to the site. [I appreciate] the fact that a lot of people [can] see it.”

Kydd’s installation, “Birds Fly Free” (2022), was inspired by the di verse ecosystem of Upper Lake. Her work, a deep pink mural installation suspended between two trees, draws inspiration from the environment.

“The main idea was just like looking at the surrounding nature and using that as inspiration to come up with [a] repeatable pattern,” they said.

“[It was] my first time, [so] I want ed to do something where I can use more simple elements to create a pattern and use repetition and use the technique of screen printing. …

I also wanted to create something that stands out a lot,” Kydd said. “It [stands] out a lot from nature and I think it was mainly just about look

ing at the surrounding plants and … the scenery [at] Project Stream and using that.”

Students used screen printing in conjunction with other creative processes or fabrication techniques they were familiar with to assemble their installations. The freedom of direction yielded varying interpreta tions. “Some students experimented with fibers and sewing, utilizing the Makerspace sewing machines. Oth ers explored sculpture and painting techniques with their prints,” Maci uba said. “Because every student had a different project goal and different creative skills at their dis posal there ended up being a wide variety of projects made from a lot of materials.”

Artworks ranged from fabric sculptures to metal screen prints. “It was cool to see how people took the basic outline and transformed it,” Kydd said of their response to peer

installations.

The project sprouted purpose ful engagement within the College community. Maciuba hopes the in stallations’ highly trafficked loca tion contributed to increased public absorption, as well as the longevity of its messages and campuswide re flection.

“This installation is very con nected to my heart as an artist. … It has let me reflect on my memories and experiences that have shaped me as a person over my extended years at this College. I hope my installa tion brought a sense of friendship to any person walking by,” Donahue said. “If they so chose to investigate closer, I hope the patterns and hid den words could help them reflect on their associations while appreci ating other people’s. In this way, we have greater perspective and respect for our community, environment and our world.”

AMC’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’ updates the story for a modern audience

N. CIEPRISZ ’26 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article dis cusses slavery, racism and suicid ality.

The final episode of season one of AMC’s “Interview with the Vam pire” premiered on AMC+ Sunday, Nov. 6, and aired on cable on Sun day, Nov. 13. The show adapts author Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chroni cles” series, beginning with the 1976 novel “Interview with the Vampire,” also adapted into a 1994 movie of the same name. “Interview with the Vampire” follows Louis de Pointe du Lac as he tells his life story to a reporter, Daniel Molloy. In the book, Louis begins his story as a plan tation owner in late 18th-century Spanish Louisiana, distraught over the death of his brother and hoping for death himself. When he meets the mysterious Lestat de Lioncourt, his wish is granted in the form of vampirism. The two have an intense relationship and eventually take in a young orphaned girl named Clau dia, whom they turn into a vampire and raise as their own. The three vampires exhibit a pseudo-family dynamic, rife with all the chaos and tension that comes from eternal life as a brutal killer.

While still an adaptation of the book series, the TV show makes many changes. In contrast to the contemporary periods of the book and movie, the show’s numerous ref erences to the COVID-19 pandemic recontextualize it for the modern era. Flashbacks during the interview take us back to the early twentieth century, a starkly different backdrop from the book’s late eighteenth cen tury setting. Another notable differ ence is the show’s casting of a Black man, Jacob Anderson, in the role of Louis.

Louis’ status as a slaveholder is certainly a controversial issue in the book, one that Rice glosses over in an effort to make the character seem sympathetic and relatable to the audience by writing him as dis interested and uninvolved in planta tion work while still reaping the ben efits. The author’s choice to write a character who owns slaves without engaging with that in the text caus es race to be conspicuously ignored throughout both the book and the

movie. Anderson’s casting is, there fore, a complete upheaval of the sto ry, adding an entirely new layer to his characterization and the story as a whole. Despite these changes, the show manages to retain the original spirit of the books, even improving on their shortcomings.

Louis’ race increases his charac ter’s complexity. Instead of being a plantation owner, the show’s version of the character is a wealthy, lightskinned Black man who manages several brothels in New Orleans’ red-light district. Despite apparent differences from earlier iterations, the character’s background — his family and relationship with reli gion — remain similar enough to his literary and cinematic counterparts that the change does not feel jarring. The differences only add to the story rather than detract from it.

From the beginning, viewers see the fine line Louis walks: He is privi leged enough due to his class status to associate with the district’s white businessmen, yet still not viewed as an equal. Once turned into a vampire, Louis continues to live in gray areas — living and dead, human and non human, good and evil. Being a vam pire intersects with Louis’ Blackness

in a truly unique way; even though vampirism comes with benefits — eternal life, super strength, quick healing and perhaps even the ability to fly — Louis still experiences the world as a Black man, with all of the discrimination and disrespect that comes with it.

The show also takes care to demonstrate the difference between Louis’ experience with vampirism and Lestat’s, who is white. Lestat has always played the role of mentor to Louis, but the show’s inclusion of race adds another level to the inher ent power imbalance between the two.

Being both French and a centu ries-old vampire, Lestat lives so far removed from American and human racial hierarchy that he fundamen tally misunderstands Louis’ expe rience and why he is still bound to such a hierarchy despite his vampir ism, which would presumably give him some sort of upper hand. In the second episode, when Louis uses his newfound powers to kill a dis respectful white man, Lestat scolds him for his carelessness in the murder, calling him a “fledgling.” “You need to stop using that word right now, [because] it’s sounding

a little like ‘slave,’” Louis responds. “There’s some things you don’t get about America, Lestat,” he tells him, referring to the obvious differences between them that Lestat overlooks.

This distance only grows deeper when the two men take in Claudia, played by Bailey Bass in the show. Unlike her book and movie counter parts, Claudia is also Black. She ex periences the same power imbalance as Louis, which is further complicat ed because of her age and gender. Race permeates every aspect of the show, further developing the nar rative and the characters’ relation ships.

While the book and movie are rife with homoerotic subtext, the show makes the relationship be tween Louis and Lestat explicit.

Vampires have always been linked by some audiences to sexuality and queerness, as the inherent sensuali ty of vampiric neck-biting combined with the fact that vampires look mortal but are not subject to human social norms makes them the perfect medium through which to explore society’s simultaneous fear of and desire for sex.

Because of this, a male vampire biting another man, such as in “In

terview with the Vampire,” has defi nite queer connotations. “The Vam pire Chronicles” have been hailed for their queer representation at a time when it was uncommon, and Rice has always been outspoken about her support for the LGBTQ+ com munity: “People told me ‘Interview With the Vampire’ was a gay allego ry, and I was very honored by that.

I think I have a gay sensibility and I feel like I’m gay, because I’ve always transcended gender, and I’ve always seen love as transcending gender. In my books, I’ve always created bonds of love that have transcended gen der,” Rice said in a 2017 interview with The Daily Beast.

The bond between Lestat and Louis in the original book is typically read as a romantic one even though it is never made explicit, but the show leaves no room for doubt, with on-screen kisses and sexual activi ty. “I don’t think it’s a horror show, I think it is a gothic romance. And I want to write a very excitable, ag gressive, toxic, beautiful love story,” series creator Rolin Jones said in an interview with Showbiz CheatSheet.

Sydney Bloom ’26 recalled, “I watched the movie for the first time since I was a kid in January with my best friend and we both were shocked about how gay it was. It’s some of my dad’s favorite media so I expected it to be very ‘straight white man,’ and was just surprised it wasn’t. … When the show came out, it was even more gay. I was very hap py to see this queerness in less of a subtextual way.” Louis and Lestat’s relationship is not a healthy one, nor is it a good example to follow. How ever, it is not meant to be portrayed as such, and the show’s effort to portray the complexity of queer re lationships is incredibly compelling.

Despite its many changes to the original story, AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire” is still deeply faithful to its characters. Further more, it diversifies the narrative in a way that adds not only representa tion, but also depth to the storyline and characters. The first season only adapts a portion of the first book in the series, and AMC “entered into an agreement” to acquire the rights to 18 Anne Rice books, with season two already confirmed, AMC Talk reported. Viewers can look forward to much more of Louis’ story, as well as many more of Rice’s vampires.

Photo courtesy of Emily Donahue ’23 “Standing in Reflection” (2022), an installation by studio art major Emily Donahue ’23, was displayed next to Upper Lake this November.

Graphic by Mari Al Tayb ’26

Lula returns to power in Brazil

putting isolated Indigenous people at risk through the spread of disease and potential land conflicts.”

Simone Gugliotta, Smith College lecturer in Italian studies and Span ish & Portuguese, noted that Bolson aro’s handling of the COVID-19 pan demic and economic issues further alienated some voters. “I think he wasn’t governing … all the Brazil ians. There is one part of the pop ulation that aligns more with [the] ideas of his conservative mind, his prejudices, his [ideas] that are not like the ideas of the whole popula tion. So a lot of people wanted him out,” she said.

Activists across Latin America organize to protect water resources

BY LAUREN CINCOTTA ’25 STAFF WRITER

Former President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, also known by the public as Lula, will be returning to presidency in Brazil for a third term after an election held in October 2022. According to Reuters, Lula de feated incumbent President Jair Bol sonaro, receiving 50.9 percent of the vote to Bolsonaro’s 49.1 percent. The election comes at a time of extreme polarization in Brazil, and Lula’s vic tory sparked cries for military inter vention from Bolsonaro supporters, Reuters reported. Bolsonaro himself did not concede the election publicly, though his administration has been authorized by the incumbent to pro ceed with the transition of power, AP News reported.

Despite this lack of concession, “In his victory speech on Sunday evening, Lula pledged to strongly po lice illegal logging, mining and land grabbing that have driven the surg ing destruction of the Amazon rain forest in the past four years under Bolsonaro. Pitching the contest as a battle for democracy, Lula promised to unite his deeply divided country and celebrated what he called his ‘resurrection,’” Reuters reported.

Initially serving two terms as president from 2003-2010, Lula was a member of the Workers’ Party, or PT, and had a long history of trade union organizing prior to his elec tion, BBC reported. His administra tion was shaped by the “pink tide”

of the early 2000s in Latin America, which saw the election of several left-wing governments throughout the region, Reuters reported.

According to the BBC, the eco nomic situation at the time also al lowed Lula to establish social pro grams aimed at decreasing poverty and increasing opportunities for so cial mobility. Lula’s social programs cemented his enduring popularity. However, once Lula left office, an economic crisis and several corrup tion scandals were centered around his party, the BBC reported. His successor, Dilma Rousseff, was im peached, and Lula was also charged in a corruption case. He was convict ed in 2017 but continues to maintain his innocence, stating that the case against him was intended to prevent him from running in the 2018 presi dential election.

According to National Public Radio, Bolsonaro’s administration served as quite a contrast to that of Lula’s. Bolsonaro’s government was more conservative and pro-business than those of his two previous pre decessors. Julia Camargo ’25 is a first-generation American with fam ily living in Brazil.

She noted that Bolsonaro had threatened to end the demarcation of Indigenous territories, adding, “Because of his policies, agribusi ness, loggers and squatters are ad vancing into the interior of the In digenous land where they deforest the jungle, start fires and extract the timber — where they are essentially

Both Carmago and Gugliotta noted that the election of Lula is a complicated event for the Brazilian public. Camargo continued, “I think the re-election of Lula comes with great hesitation for a good portion of Brazilians. With his past involve ment in the large corruption scan dals of the Workers’ Party, many Brazilians lost faith in the left and the Workers’ Party. I think seeing him re-elected showcases how des perate the people of Brazil are for new leadership under Bolsonaro.”

Gugliotta also believes that Lula has many challenges ahead in his upcoming presidential term. She commented that his campaign focused primarily on past actions instead of new plans for the future, though it remains to be seen how new plans take shape. He also faces a divided government with the con servative party gaining more seats in the legislature, according to Gug liotta. In fact, Bolsonaro’s conserva tive ideology still has a foothold in some of the electorate. The issue of polarization also continues to divide the nation. “A lot of people didn’t want Lula back. But they didn’t have alternatives. They voted more with this idea of taking Bolsonaro out of the government. That’s what hap pened,” Gugliotta stated.

However, Gugliotta believes that the world can learn a lot from the re cent elections in Brazil, from the in tegrity of electronic voting systems to changes in why people vote. “Peo ple in general should still believe in democracy in voting, not thinking just about their personal benefits, but voting [and] thinking, …‘How can I change the life for everybody who lives in my country?’ … [Lula] says that he will govern for every body, not just for a certain group of people, [and] when he speaks he tries to be more inclusive. So I hope [for] the world, we learn in the world to be inclusive,” she concluded.

BY KIERA MCLAUGHLIN ’26 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article men tions murder.

Climate change has been at the forefront of international discussion with the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place this November. An event on Thursday, Nov. 10, at the University of Mas sachusetts Amherst discussed the social movements taking place in Latin America in support of the cli mate. The panel discussion, titled “A Blue Tide Rising in Latin America?” was held by the Political Economy Research Institute, and focused on the grassroots movements based on Indigenous peoples’ involvement to make a greener Latin America.

As described on the PERI web page, “Social movements and gov ernments in many Latin American countries are rejecting the heavy emphasis on fossil fuels and mining, and embracing paths that defend their waterways and center on In digenous communities and women.”

The discussion was centered around the book “The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved a Coun try from Corporate Greed” by Robin Broad and John Cavanagh, two of the guest speakers for the event. Along with Broad and Cavanagh, Manuela Picq spoke as the co-founder of So mos Agua in Ecuador, a movement of water defenders.

Broad, a professor of interna tional development at American University, opened the discussion by reading excerpts from “The Wa

ter Defenders” that described the horrific murder of Marcelo Rivera, a water defender who was mur dered and tortured in El Salvador. She read, “Marcelo Rivera became the first of several water defenders to be assassinated in the 21st-centu ry fight over mining in northern El Salvador.” Broad further read about her time in El Salvador with Cava nagh investigating and researching the water defenders. She explained that the Pacific Rim Mining Corpo ration “had filed a lawsuit against the government of El Salvador right before Marcelo’s murder. [Pacific Rim] claimed that El Salvador had to either allow it to mine or pay it over $300 million in costs and foregone profits from future mining,” as Guer nica reported. Rivera’s violent mur der led Broad and Cavanagh to write their book and pursue more about the continuous fight against min ing corporations in El Salvador and more broadly across Latin America. Recently, some Latin Ameri can countries have banned mining in order to preserve water, which is pushing this new so-called blue tide, according to Berkeley Political Review. Cavanagh, a senior advisor and board director for the Institute for Policy Studies, discussed the grassroots movements throughout Latin America and the new elected officials throughout the region push ing greener policies. He explained how, in 2017, El Salvador became the first country in the world to ban mining metals in order to save water and how, in 2016, El Salvador won the

Mount Holyoke hosts film screening of local activists’ documentary

BY SOPHIE FRANK ’26 STAFF WRITER

On Monday, Nov. 7, 2022, the Weissman Center for Leadership hosted a screening and discussion of the documentary “Stop Time.” The film shares the story of Lucio Pérez, a migrant who faced deportation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and took sanctuary in First Congregational Church in Am herst, Massachusetts.

The film was made by Kate Way and Jason Kotoch, both local filmmakers, community members and academics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Way is a lecturer in the UMass College of Education, as well as a photogra pher. Kotoch is a graduate student studying art and a media organizer for the Pioneer Valley Workers Cen ter. They operated as a two-person team while struggling financially as solo filmmakers. Both filmmakers frequently questioned their position as filmmakers and community mem bers. During the discussion, Kotoch shared his reckoning with his own blind spots and privilege, while Way said that she “felt an enormous amount of responsibility to tell this story well and do justice for Lucio.”

Pérez, as the film shows, is mar ried with four children. His legal troubles began during an innocuous road trip, when Pérez and his wife went inside a Dunkin’ to pick up drinks, leaving the kids in the car for a few minutes. When they re turned, Pérez was detained by police on charges of child abandonment, as reported by The Boston Globe. For years after, Pérez faced legal battles and the threat of deportation by ICE. The pressure built when for mer President Donald Trump was elected and signed a bill during his first week in office that prioritized issuing deportation orders for “all who entered the country without

authorization,” The Boston Globe reported. In August 2017, Pérez was given such an order, and was to be forced to leave the country by Octo ber of that year, bringing him closer than ever to being forced to leave the country.

First Congregational Church re sponded to wide spread immigra tion reform and anti-immigration rhetoric during the 2016 election by becoming an “immigrant-wel coming congre gation,” The Boston Globe re ported. This means, in part, that they could offer sanctuary to immigrants facing deportation. When the church heard about Pérez’s case from the Pi oneer Valley Workers Center, which organized to protest Pérez’s de portation, they held an emergency meeting and offered him sanctuary. He moved into the church on Oct. 18, 2017, according to the source.

Both filmmakers frequently questioned their position as filmmakers and community members. During the discussion, Kotoch shared his reckoning with his own blind spots and privilege.

case for permanent residency or citizenship, according to the source. In 2021, Pérez was granted “a tem porary stay in his deportation while he argued to have his immigration case reconsidered … because [he] didn’t receive proper notice of the court proceedings” when he was first threatened with deportation, as reported by MassLive. His case is legally de fensible because “the Supreme Court ruled in Niz-Chavez vs. Garland that the federal gov ernment must provide all required information to immigrants facing deportation in a single notice.” Be cause Pérez is able to prove his de portation was handled unfairly from the beginning, he is now able to re appear in court and argue his case again.

a community who came together around him and his family.

“Stop Time” strikes a difficult balance between focusing on the in justice and heaviness of the subject matter and highlighting the efforts of a small community. Much of the film contends with the turmoil that people dealing with the American immigration system experience. Many church members shown in the film and at the Pioneer Valley Work ers Center had done activist work to oppose ICE and anti-immigration efforts before meeting Pérez, and this film is a continuation of those activist efforts, showing the real peo ple that these systems affect. “We wanted audiences to viscerally feel” these shockwaves of anger, frustra tion and anxiety, Way said. Kotoch reiterated that sentiment, stating, “As people with privilege [it] is okay to be uncomfortable — learn to sit with [these feelings.]”

organized together.” Way described getting to know him and the church community without a camera in her hand, recounting nights where she and Kotoch ate dinner with Pérez and his family at the church. Way said she approached the project as a “storyteller and a community mem ber.” The church members were ea ger to contribute what they could, from driving Pérez’s family to the church to staying with him around the clock, and when Pérez’s stay was finally granted, they cried and hugged each other. Throughout the film, church members had nothing but praise for Pérez, whom the film shows to be a kind man who cares deeply for his family.

For Pérez’s situation, sanctuary meant staying on church grounds and having at least one church vol unteer in the church with him at all times. The church helped him see his family by organizing rides to and from their house in Springfield, Mas sachusetts, and rallied in support of him as his legal battles dragged on. He spent nearly four years living at the church before his stay of depor tation was granted under the Biden administration.

A stay of deportation is defined by legal scholars as “an order direct ly from the Department of Homeland Security to refrain from removing an immigrant from the United States,” according to the Simone Bertolli ni Attorney at Law website. Immi grants may apply for a stay, which, if granted, allows them to remain in the country while they argue their

The kind of religious sanctu ary that Pérez found in the church cannot be easily intervened with by the federal government, ac cording to the American Im migration Coun cil. ICE could have entered the church at any point during Pérez’s sanctu ary and arrested him, but law enforcement agencies generally do not violate religious spaces in that manner. In a CNN ar ticle, a page from the ICE website is displayed that says they “gener ally avoid arrests at ‘sensitive loca tions,’” including churches. Staying in the church gave Pérez some se curity as he continued to fight the immigration system. It also created

Way described getting to know [Pérez] and the church community without a camera in her hand, recounting nights where she and Kotoch ate dinner with Pérez and his family at the church.

In 2018, when Mount Holyoke As sociate Professor of Latina/o Studies David Hernández and his “History of Deportation” class visited Pérez at the church and wrote a joint blog post for Immprint about the expe rience, students recounted “feel ings of empathy, helplessness, gut-wrenching heartache for his personal turmoil and anger over the complicated legal process.”

Though the story is one of gov ernment institutions and legal fights, it is also a powerful portrayal of humanity and community. Both filmmakers worked closely with Pérez to make sure his story was portrayed in an accurate way, with Kotoch describing their relation ship as “one of solidarity [that] we

Kotoch and Way ended the screening by encouraging young people to vote. In particular, they mentioned a Massachusetts law that was on the ballot. During the 2022 midterm elections that took place last week, voters had the option to repeal a law allowing “immigrants who are in the country illegally to obtain state driver’s licenses,” ac cording to GBH News. Since the screening, Massachusetts voted to keep the law. Axios reported that “the … law will extend driving priv ileges to an estimated 45,000-85,000 people over the next three years.”

In 2018, Hernández wrote, “Per haps the issue of sanctuary will move the needle some,” mentioning the way some Trump-era policies exposed people to the struggles of the immigration system, Immprint reported. American politics have changed since then, but Hernán dez’s insights remain relevant. One of the students who contributed to the blog post, Shebati Sengupta ’19, wrote that Pérez’s experience “real ly reflects the possibilities present in community activism,” Immprint reported. The story is one of coming together to protest injustice — a sto ry told with passion and love.

Photo courtesy of Ricardo Stuckert/Presidência da República - Agência Brasil - Secretaria de Imprensa e Divulgação via Wikimedia Commons Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, former president of Brazil, was re-elected in the second-round election.

Photo courtesy of Nicole Dunham Latin American water defenders work to protect their water resources from mining corporations.

COP27 leads to new plans in climate mitigation and adaptation

BY LILY BENN ’24 STAFF WRITER

This year marks the 27th Con ference of The Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, also called COP27. From Nov. 6 to 18, climate activists, negotiators, ministers, mayors, civil society members, heads of state and CEOs will be gathered in Sharm elSheikh, Egypt for the largest annual gathering on climate change and cli mate action, according to the United Nations’ official website.

The conference consists of dai ly sessions, during which officials work to address global environmen tal issues. The welcome message from President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt detailed the urgency of the climate crisis and other ongoing in ternational crises such as food in security and water scarcity. El-Sisi emphasized how these problems are exacerbated by climate change, and how its effects are disproportionate ly impacting Africa.

The official COP27 website lists its overall targets for this confer ence, which include moving from pledging change to implementing change, launching climate adapta tion plans and “delivering climate finance for developing countries.”

One plan proposed during the conference was “The Executive Ac tion Plan for the Early Warnings for All Initiative.” The plan would use $3.1 billion to create early warning

systems — mechanisms that would warn communities of severe weath er and climate disasters — for all people by 2027, and is set to begin implementation in 2023, according to an article from the United Na tions. The proposed $3.1 billion is equivalent to only 50 cents per per son per year, the article reported. The plan was proposed by António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, on Nov. 7, the

United Nations reported. Guterres, in a meeting with government and UN leaders, private sector officials, financing agencies and “Big Tech” companies, explained this plan, high lighting how the issues perpetuated by countries with larger economies are affecting low-income countries the most and putting them at risk of damage from climate change, the article explained. Half of the world’s countries lack early warning sys

tems, according to the UN News. Gu terres also pointed out that people in Africa, South Asia, Central Ameri ca, South America and small island states are the most at risk, and are 15 times more likely to die from climate disasters than people living in other countries, the UN reported.

According to the UN News ar ticle, the $3.1 billion proposed for this portion of the plan would only be a fraction of the $50 billion pro

posed in the overall plan from the conference’s proceedings to be del egated towards adaptation funding as a whole. According to the COP27 website, adaptation in this context means any action in the way of as sisting the imminent and real needs of countries in response to immedi ate climate dangers and disasters.

The World Meteorological Or ganization claimed that early warn ing systems are a “low-hanging fruit” due to their cost efficiency and effectiveness compared to other pro grams, UN News reported. Accord ing to the article, spending only $800 million on early warning systems in individual countries could cut back future losses by $3 billion to $16 bil lion per year. It would be an efficient choice, as the number of recorded disasters has increased five-fold in the past years, and these systems are already in place in more affluent countries, so this technology is read ily effective and available, according to the article.

The newly drawn up “Early Warnings for All Initiative” has of ficially been signed by 50 countries, UN News. The plan is being backed by a new advisory board which is set to be co-chaired by the heads of the World Meteorological Organization and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Prevention, according to the United Nations News article. At the next COP conference, there are plans to check in on the adaptation plan and assess its effectiveness.

Moon blushes red in the final total lunar eclipse for three years

BY SHIRA SADEH ’25 SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT EDITOR

The Earth and moon aligned with the sun on Nov. 8, 2022, to form the second total lunar eclipse of the year, and the last one until 2025, ABC News reported. The article explained that a total lunar eclipse is caused by the perfect alignment of the sun, Earth and moon, when the moon passes directly through the Earth’s shadow. NASA reported that totality occurred between 5:17 and 6:42 a.m.

EST with partial and penumbral phases ending at 8:50 a.m. EST.

According to NASA, lunar eclipses happen during a full moon when the Earth’s shadow falls on the moon, creating a reddish hue on the moon’s surface, which is visible to half of the Earth. This eclipse was visible in areas in North, Central and South America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, NASA said.

Often called a “blood moon” due to its redness, the Moon blush es during a lunar eclipse due to a process called Rayleigh scattering — the same process that causes the

sky to appear blue, the NASA article said. Light traveling in waves has different wavelengths based on the color of the light. While blue light has a shorter wavelength and scat

ters more easily, red light has a lon ger wavelength and does not scatter as easily. As light passes through the Earth’s atmosphere blue light scatters due to dust and clouds, but

red light is able to make it through intact and reach the moon, NASA explained.

NASA explained that although there will not be another total lu nar eclipse until 2025, there will be some partial and penumbral eclips es. In a partial eclipse, the sun, Earth and moon are not perfectly aligned, resulting in the moon only passing through the Earth’s umbra, or the innermost part of the Earth’s inner shadow, NASA reported. This means that the shadow — and its projection onto the moon — never fully covers the moon as it grows and recedes.

A penumbral eclipse similar ly means an imperfect alignment, which results in the moon passing through the Earth’s penumbra, or the outer and fainter part of the Earth’s shadow. In this case, the moon dims slightly, but often not enough for it to be noticeable, NASA said.

According to NASA, the next eclipse will be an annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023. NASA claims that this eclipse will be visible across North, Central and South America,

but specialized eye protection is re quired to safely view the event. An annular eclipse means that the moon will pass directly between the sun and the Earth when it is at its fur thest point, NASA reported. The distance from the Earth causes the moon to appear smaller than the sun, creating what NASA called a “ring of fire” in the dark sky.

EPA seeks public input on how to spend its Inflation Reduction Act funds

BY CATELYN FITZGERALD ’23 SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT EDITOR

EPA submits a ‘Request for Information’ for new programs

On Nov. 4, 2022, the United States Environmental Protection Agency published a press release announc ing “public engagement and input opportunities,” designed to gather feedback from the public on poten tial climate change and pollution reduction programs. These new programs are part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law this past August, accord ing to the press release. The EPA’s public engagement effort is made up of four elements: a “Request for In formation,” expert input, a listening session and a webpage dedicated to the new programs, the press release stated. The RFI consists of six public dockets, each of which describes a potential program and has a section for comments. The press release ex plained that respondents can find the dockets on the Regulation.gov site.

Docket 1: Climate Pollution Reduction Grants

Docket 1 focuses on funding for climate pollution reduction grants. The docket states that $5 billion in funds was allocated to the EPA to “assist states, air pollution con trol agencies, Tribes and local gov ernments develop and implement strong, local climate pollution re duction strategies.” According to the webpage, the program would create opportunities for entities to apply for grants that would fund the planning and implementation of pollution re duction projects. Questions put forth by the EPA include how the program

could best be designed to support un derserved communities, what types of technical assistance should be provided as part of the program and how the program can be designed to encourage high-quality job creation.

Docket 2: Transportation Programs

Docket 2 is in relation to pro grams aimed at reducing transpor tation-related emissions. $4 billion has been dedicated to the program. $1 billion will go towards replace ment of “dirty heavy-duty vehicles” with clean alternatives. The remain ing $3 billion will be used to reduce air pollution from ports through the replacement of equipment with emission-free alternatives and the development of strategic emis sions-reduction plans. Questions raised on the docket webpage in clude what Class 6/7 vehicle sectors should be prioritized for funding, how the program could complement and supplement other existing pro grams and what types of zero-emis sion technologies should be funded.

Docket 3: Methane Emissions Reductions Program

Docket 3 covers a methane emissions-reduction program. The program has allocated $1.55 billion in funds as well as technical assis tance to agencies and individuals for emissions-reduction actions. The program also includes a “waste emissions charge” of $900 to $1,500 per metric ton of emissions on facili ties that emit over 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and other “waste emissions,” the docket reports. Questions listed for docket 3 discuss what kind of technical assistance should be provided as part of the

program and what issues should be considered when implementing the waste emissions charge.

Docket 4: Funding to Address Air Pollution

Docket 4 centers on funding for air pollution reduction in communi ties. The program provided over $300 million in funding to improve air pol lution monitoring methods and data availability, increasing monitoring in communities and addressing air quality in schools. The funding will be used to create grants and provide technical assistance to applicants. Some of the questions raised in this docket are in regards to how the pro gram can be designed to benefit the communities that are most vulnera ble to air pollution, how air pollution data systems can be improved and what emissions-reduction actions should be implemented in schools.

Docket 5: Funding For Implementation of American Innovation and Manufacturing Act

Docket 5 covers the implementa tion of the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act. The AIM Act “directs the EPA to implement an 85 percent phasedown of the produc tion and consumption of hydroflu orocarbons,” according to the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works. Hydrofluorocar bons, or HFCs, are greenhouse gas ses that are found in coolants, such as those used in refrigerators, the committee said. The docket includes $38.5 million in funding for the imple mentation of the AIM act as well as HFC removal and destruction. Ques tions listed in docket 5 touch on what compliance methods should be used

to maximize the impact of the act.

Docket 6: Low Emissions

Electricity Program & GHG Corporate Reporting

Docket 6 consists of $87 million in funding for a “wide range of ac tivities” to promote low-emissions electricity production. These activ ities include education, community partnerships and technical advising. An additional $5 million in funding is allocated to “enhance standardiza tion and transparency of corporate climate action commitments.” Ques tions raised in Docket 6 include how the EPA can monitor corporate sus tainability in a transparent way and what educational resources can be provided to low-income communities to support a transition to low-emis sions electricity production.

How to participate in the Request for Information

While each docket lists specific questions that the EPA is particular

ly interested in receiving feedback on, any comments relevant to the docket are welcome. According to Regulations.gov, comments will be accepted until Jan. 18, 2023. Anyone who wishes to learn more about the dockets and leave a comment can find the press release titled ”EPA Seeks Public Input on Inflation Re duction Act Programs to Fight Cli mate Change, Protect Health and Advance Environmental Justice,” which contains links to each of the dockets. To read the docket details and full list of questions from the EPA, click on the “Browse Docu ments” tab within the docket and download the file that contains the name of the docket. To make a comment, click on the “Browse Documents” tab within the docket and click the “Comment” button on the section labeled “Memorandum Opening Docket for Public Access.” Comments can be written directly in the docket or can be uploaded as a separate file.

Photo courtesy of Ministry of Environment - Rwanda via Flickr Global leaders gather in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, for the 27th Conference of the Parties to draft new climate commitments and adaptation policies.

Photo courtesy of Gauri Kaushik ’23

An enhanced photo taken with the unistellar telescope at the John Payson Williston Observatory.

Photo courtesy of Eric Vance - U.S. National Archives via Picryl

The Environmental Protection Agency started a public engagement efffort for proposed policies.

Photo courtesy of Gauri Kaushik ’23 A blood moon appeared in total lunar eclipse.

Mount Holyoke’s Gracious Dinner merits serious reflection

we have to cook it and put it out on the line. … So you’re not just throw ing some cauliflower away; you’re throwing away all of the resources it took to get that cauliflower into that line,” Kelsey continued. It is easy to forget these layers of time, energy and material when the end product is sitting there nicely, waiting for us each day — never mind when a spe cial tradition distracts and excites our attention.

As I wandered around the dining hall the night of Gracious Dinner this year, I got swept away, letting myself feel exasperated and impatient with the lines without connecting them to the quality of food on the other end. But when I sat down with my friends and had to stack half-full yet already finished plates to make room for the dishes I myself had collected, I felt a sense of shame and guilt at the thoughtless grabbing that I was witnessing and had just participated in. Only the week before, food inse curity had been brought up in two of my classes, and during both discus sions, students displayed genuine concern and frustration with it.

BY LILY NEMIROVSKY ’24 CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, a small sign was put up in front of the swipe-in counter in the Dining Com mons announcing that Gracious Din ner would start that night at 5 p.m. It was almost inconspicuous, and perhaps first-years and new transfer students paid it little attention. But word spread quickly among those who had experienced it before, and group chats flooded with plans to meet up for Mount Holyoke’s annu al Friendsgiving-type celebration, complete with fall-themed decora tions, special menu items like gyros, a berry bar, pumpkin pie and even a turkey-shaped bread display.

Gracious Dinner should be a heartwarming tradition during which students cherish their friends, their access to quality food and the dedication and thoughtfulness of dining hall staff. Instead, as seen on Thursday’s celebration, it has be come one of the most divisive and undervalued events at Mount Holy oke.

The chaos began before the Din ing Commons opened for dinner. Around 4:30 p.m., students started to line up outside the entrance, the line growing and weaving through the first floor of Blanchard Hall by 4:45 p.m. The excitement and rest

lessness of people in line was palpa ble, and the process of waiting itself was a valuable time to spend with friends. However, the pleasant am bience seemed to vanish as soon as people were let into the Dining Com mons. Suddenly, everyone began to rush to food stations, and, within minutes, lines of 20 peo ple or more had formed.

Soon, almost all of the tables were claimed by seven or eight plates full of food, marking the territory of people who had already gotten back in line at a different station. Students were acting as if this was to be the last meal of the year, and that all of the food would run out within 10 minutes. Most people were grabbing way more food than they would normally, and I wondered how much of it was really being eaten. A survey I took of 46 students’ expe riences from Thursday’s Gracious Dinner showed that 78 percent of

respondents used three or more plates, and 46 percent used four or more. 67 percent of students report ed throwing away at least one full Blanch soup bowl’s worth of food.

The responsibility, therefore, lies with the student body itself. We must undertake this task, not of policing other students’ consumption, but rather of raising awareness for the amount of time, energy and resources devoted to each dish, so that students can serve themselves consciously. This starts with a recognition of the long journey food takes before it reaches our plates.

Shawn Kelsey, the assistant di rector of culinary operations at Dining Services, discussed food waste at Blanch with Mount Holyoke News. I was impressed by the front-end effort that the staff make to re duce food waste on a regular ba sis. The school partners with a company called Leanpath to mea sure and cate gorize the waste produced during food prepara tion, according to Kelsey.

All of the kitchen scraps are composted, and by-products of one recipe are redirected for use in an other way as much as possible.

It was clear that pre-consum er waste is certainly being thought about and acted upon; it is post-con sumer waste — food that people take

but do not eat — that goes unad dressed. However, it is not the dining hall staff’s responsibility — or even right — to police what students put on their plates. “We have to treat the student body like adults, and … we don’t want to get involved in policing the students. … There [are] all sorts of personal things that equate to what somebody needs in their diet, and we’re in no place to start trying to [police] that,” Kelsey stated. The responsibility, therefore, lies with the student body itself. We must un dertake this task, not of policing oth er students’ consumption, but rather of raising awareness for the amount of time, energy and resources devot ed to each dish, so that students can serve themselves consciously. This starts with a recognition of the long journey food takes before it reaches our plates.

Kelsey traced the process start ing with, “The resources it took for the farmer [to grow it], and the time, energy and water. … Then it was put on a truck and delivered to a facili ty, and then it was taken from that facility [and] delivered to us. There’s all the gasoline and time and energy that went into that.” But it does not end there. “Then, we have to store it. Then, we have to prepare it — and that’s everybody here’s time and en ergy and resources. And then may be we’re adding more to it, and then

The contrast between this sen sitivity and the atmosphere I felt surrounded by at Gracious Dinner was unsettling. It is not enough to have thoughtful conversations in the classroom; even within our col lege campus bubble, the effects of our daily actions ripple out into the world, and our role as change-mak ers is realized while we are still stu dents.

This is not to say that gratitude was completely absent from the student body. Students expressed irritation with the survival-mode atmosphere, but made sure to ac knowledge and appreciate the hard work that the dining staff invests in putting together such a special meal. Caroline Odlin-Brewer ’24 said, “I think that Gracious Dinner can be a really great opportunity to come together with friends and appreci ate all the work that the Blanch staff puts into our meals.”

However, she wonders “whether or not one meal is worth the amount of time and energy it takes and the amount of waste that is produced.”

Like with the issue of food waste, an increase in gratitude must start from the students. For those who might have missed the opportuni ty at Gracious Dinner, it does not have to wait until next year. We can all pause and savor how fortunate we are to be provided with such a wide variety of high-quality food at every meal. Yes, there are justified complaints, but those should not overshadow the positive aspects of dining at Mount Holyoke. We all owe the dining hall staff a gracious thank you.

Ageism promotes dangerous beauty standards for women

BY HAILEY BALINBIN ’26 STAFF WRITER

From Vladimir Nabokov’s Lo lita in “Lolita” to Britney Spears’ sexy schoolgirl in the music video for “...Baby One More Time,” the media has an extensive history of sexualizing female youth and girl hood. American society in the 21st century puts constant pressure on women to look and behave as young as possible in order to be deemed desirable or worthy of attention. The increasing influence of the cos metic industry as well as pressures from popular culture and Hollywood push certain associations between beauty standards and youthfulness.

The infantilization of women is seen in many aspects of media, products and popular culture, which perpet uates gender roles for women and has led to women going to lengths to look as youthful as possible. How ever, this desire for women to stay young promotes ageism, infantilizes women and is detrimental to gender equality.

The desire for female youthful ness can be seen in the popularity of the plastic surgery industry and in the lengths that some women go to to alter their faces with cosmetic surgery. In a New Yorker article on the so-called perfect Instagram face, author Jia Tolentino writes, “In a world where women are rewarded for youth and beauty in a way that they are rewarded for nothing else — and where a strain of mainstream feminism teaches women that self-objectification is progressive, because it’s profitable — cosmetic work might seem like one of the few guaranteed high-yield projects that a woman could undertake.” Sever

al female celebrities in Hollywood have undertaken this plastic surgery project to battle aging. Some popular celebrities, as listed by Kiki Meola in US Weekly, include Courtney Cox and Chrissy Teigen. As we see celeb rities or influencers praising looking younger and criticizing aging, it fur ther teaches women and young girls to follow a similar aspiration of look ing more youthful.

Additionally, we can see the pressure for women to alter their ap pearance when it comes to body hair and shaving. Tavisha Sood wrote in an article for Queen’s University Belfast’s The Verdict, “The idea of a hairless body being feminine is inherently infantilizing since it imi tates the body of a prepubescent girl and directly ties femininity to physi cal appearance.”

Society associates a smooth, hairless body with femininity and body hair with masculinity. We can see this in the countless targeted advertisements from hair removal companies Gillette and Veet. One Gillette advertisement posted in 2015 advertises their razor. It reads, “Smooth skin. No pain. No chemi cals,” alongside a video of a woman with an already smooth leg, shaving nothing. This reinforces society’s desire for women to be hairless and therefore infantile. This social norm is the driving force of the hair remov al industry. According to Fortune Business Insights, “The global hair removal products market size was valued at 4.01 billion [dollars] in 2019 and is projected to hit 4.94 billion by 2027.” Because of its profitability, the social norm of women staying young will likely always be perpetuated in media and advertising.

The more society portrays wom

en as younger than they are, the more it objectifies them and reifies gender hierarchies. It continues to give men the ability to hold power over women since they are equat ing femininity to childlike qualities. In her article for The Verdict, Sood writes,“Infantilizing language is of ten used against women in the pro fessional workplace where women are called ‘Young Lady,’ ‘Girl’ or even ‘Missy.’

The use of these childlike nick names reinforces the internalized bias about what women are capable of — and how much they should/can be taken seriously.” These terms call attention to the way society views women in an infantile manner, where youth often equates beauty. Because these pet names reinforce the power held by men, they uphold gender roles that say a woman’s role in society is to stay young and beau tiful rather than be intelligent or am bitious. The pressure on women to

be young exists to keep them docile and keeps men in positions of power in the workplace, school and in fam ily dynamics.

The pressure for women to stay young is clearly reflected in the Unit ed States’ entertainment industry.

Taylor Swift spoke about her experi ences of aging in the entertainment industry in her documentary “Miss Americana”: “We do exist in this society where women in entertain ment are discarded in an elephant graveyard by the time they’re 35.

… The female artists that I know of have reinvented themselves 20 times or more than the male artists. They have to or else you’re out of a job.”

Swift builds on how men in the music industry do not face the pressures to look a certain way like women do. If women do not adhere to these certain beauty standards of looking youthful, people will get bored of them and inevitably lose in terest in them. They are constantly

pressured to be youthful and beauti ful while men can retain their perso na for years and keep a fanbase.

Swift’s discussion of beauty and women being discarded is paralleled in recent popular culture discus sions of actor Leonardo DiCaprio’s dating tendencies. Insider cites a Reddit user’s graph collated from British tabloid data, reporting, “Di Caprio, 47, has never dated a woman over the age of 25, and the average age of his girlfriends is 22.9.” The internet widely analyzed Dicaprio’s dating habits this past summer after his breakup with model and actress Camila Morrone, aged 25 at the time, hit headlines. Dicaprio’s tendencies reflect society’s attitude to women when they reach a certain age, a viewpoint that has a negative impact on young girls who have access to social media and information about popular culture at their fingertips.

Beauty industries and popular culture trends teach that a woman’s worth is measured through a stan dard that youth equates beauty. They are valued more when they make efforts to be more youthful. It is un derstandable why some women view aging as a decline in their value, and therefore take lengths to grasp onto their girlhood or youth. However, the resulting culture is dangerous. It reinforces patriarchal structures by constructing women as lacking adult maturity. The mentality that women are more desirable if they look and act younger simultaneous ly oppresses them while men remain in positions of power. We must do better to recognize value and beauty in all women of all ages — only then will we be able to move toward de constructing power that men have long held.

Photo by Carmen Mickelson ’24 The annual Gracious Dinner tradition celebrated at Mount Holyoke College every semester has, according to Nemirovsky, become a reflection of student insensitivity toward dining staff and food waste.

Graphic by Natasha Nagarajan ’26

Victoria VanAlstine-Tauer hired as assistant athletic trainer

BY EMILY TARINELLI ’25 SPORTS EDITOR

Mount Holyoke College’s Ath letic Training staff expanded with the hiring of assistant athletic train er Victoria VanAlstine-Tauer, who joined Head Athletic Trainer El len Perrella and Assistant Athletic Trainer Catie LeBlanc in October 2022.

Before coming to Mount Holy oke, VanAlstine-Tauer graduated from Westfield State University in 2016, where she competed on the cross country and track and field teams and received her Bachelor of Science in athletic training. While a student athletic trainer at Westfield, she had a clinical site at Mount Holy oke, which first put Mount Holyoke on her radar.

“I really liked it [here] a lot,” VanAlstine-Tauer said of the expe rience. She added that an athletic training position may have opened up around that time, but she had already enrolled at Smith College for her graduate studies, where she worked as a graduate assistant ath letic trainer and earned her Master of Science in exercise science and sport studies in 2018.

“Having worked at Smith Col

lege and [being there for] grad school, and then having this experi ence in undergrad, I really wanted to get back to … a woman-centered college,” VanAlstine-Tauer said. “When I saw that the … position was open [at Mount Holyoke again], I wanted to get in on it because it’s very close to where I live and it’s a great opportunity for my family. … I really appreciate the culture that’s on campus.”

Expanding on the culture at Mount Holyoke, VanAlstine-Tauer said that she appreciated the com munity’s closeness, determination and individuality.

“I think the community within athletics alone is so family focused. And then you have the students who are incredibly smart, want to know what’s going on and ask you to be the best you could be for them. I think it’s just a really forward-growth com munity and that’s why I want to be here and why I like Mount Holyoke,” she continued. “I’m a quirky person anyway, and it’s extra quirky here.”

VanAlstine-Tauer said that her experience in dealing with sports injuries combined with an interest in medicine drew her to a career in athletic training.

“I had been injured quite a lot

Club Corner: Introducing Mount Holyoke Dressage

growing up, and I really liked med icine, but I wasn’t fully committed to being a doctor, a physician’s assis

tant or a nurse,” she said. Athletic training, however, “works out pretty well,” she said.

VanAlstine-Tauer worked as a full-time athletic trainer at Amherst Regional High School in Amherst, Massachusetts from February 2021 to June 2021.

She then transitioned to a fulltime assistant athletic training po sition at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Gill, Massachusetts, where she remained until coming to Mount Holyoke. It was during this time pe riod — between January 2021 and June 2022 — that VanAlstine-Tauer acquired a second master’s degree, this time in music business, from Southern New Hampshire Universi ty in partnership with Berklee Col lege of Music.

“I got my second one working full time and going to school full time, so I’m pretty proud of that,” VanAlstine-Tauer said. “It seems like [someone might ask], ‘Why would someone get a master’s de gree in music business as an athletic trainer?’ But the parallels between things like events and budgeting are incredible.”

VanAlstine-Tauer said that the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pan demic motivated her to work to

wards her master’s degree in music business.

“I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, how the heck am I going to be an athletic trainer again?’ Athletics was one of the things that was supposed to be safe,” VanAlstine-Tauer said. “I think when the pandemic … shut ev erything down, … I [didn’t] know if I [was] going to ever be an athletic trainer again, or if it was ever going to be in the same facets.” However, she thought her second master’s de gree would still help her “in essence as an athletic trainer.”

Now at Mount Holyoke, VanAls tine-Tauer reflected on the process of adjusting to a new environment.

“I’m coming from a place where I had 30 kids that I was actively checking in on, and here, it’s [much less than that with] only three or four sports going on now,” VanAls tine-Tauer said. “The grind is here, but it’s much more manageable than other places.”

VanAlstine-Tauer said her favor ite part about working with Mount Holyoke student-athletes is their unique and driven personalities.

“They’re quirky and dedicated and smart,” VanAlstine-Tauer said. “They ask you to be your best, and I think that’s super inspiring.”

Cross Country finishes 11th in regional race, Selkin qualifies for national championships

BY GENEVIEVE ZAHNER ’26 STAFF WRITER

The Mount Holyoke Cross Coun try team earned an 11th place finish out of 21 teams at the National Col legiate Athletic Association Mideast Regional Championships. The race was held at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, on Saturday, Nov. 12. With an overall team score of 327, the Lyons finished behind Connecticut College and ahead of Westfield State University, while Williams College took first place with a total score of 47.

“I felt really confident [because] … our training and racing have been so consistent,” Head Cross Coun try and Track and Field Coach Jay Hartshorn said. “Our goal was to get 11th place, and I knew if we ran the way we have run all year we would be happy with our performance.”

Lauren Selkin ’23 finished in ninth place out of 159 runners with a time of 22 minutes and 51.9 seconds. Her top-35 performance qualified her for the NCAA Division III Cham pionships, making it her second na tional appearance in two years.

In addition, her performance secured her All-Region honors for

a second consecutive season, given her fourth place finish in last year’s regional championship.

“It was the rain and very [slop py] conditions that really made it challenging, but I am fairly satisfied with my finish,” Selkin said. “I did

what I came to do: secure a spot for the NCAA championship in Michi gan.”

Selkin, who also qualified for the NCAA Division III Championships in the 2021-2022 season, was the first runner in the Mount Holyoke cross country program’s history to com pete at the national level, where she finished 48th out of 292 competitors. The top-40 finishers are granted All-American honors.

Tessa Lancaster ’25 came in 69th place with a time of 25:10.0, and Brid get Hall ’24 came in 76th place with a time of 25:28.3, both coming in just a few minutes after Selkin. Other finishes by the team include Greta Trapp ’25, who came in 85th overall at 25:51.5, Olivia Johnson ’25, who came in 93rd overall at 26:11.5, Kim Beaver ’25 coming in just behind Johnson in 94th place at 26:13.3 and Devan Ravino ’23, who came in 108th place overall at 27:03.9.

The regional championship con cluded the regular 2022-2023 season for the Mount Holyoke cross coun try team. Selkin will compete in the NCAA Division III Championships in East Lansing, Michigan, on Satur day, Nov. 19, to have a chance at be ing named an All-American.

BY LAUREN LEESE ’23 STAFF WRITER

Club Corner is a biweekly col umn dedicated to highlighting Mount Holyoke College club sports. This week, Club Corner spotlighted Dressage.

Answers by Ellen Switchenko ’23, captain

1. Describe dressage in three words. Harmony, connection, bal ance.

2. What are the basics of dres sage? In dressage, the goal is to develop a harmonious connection with the horse you are riding. At our competitions, we show off that con nection and ride a series of patterns called a “test.” Specifically in inter collegiate dressage, the horses we ride are chosen that morning at ran dom, so we’re often riding a horse we’ve never seen before!

3. When and where do you practice? We practice Mondays and Wednesdays from 7 to 9 a.m. at the Equestrian Center.

4. What is your favorite team memory? I have so many, but I love setting up the dressage court with the team before each home competi tion. We take a bunch of blocks and boards and build a perfectly rectan gular 20 meter by 60 meter court. It normally takes a long time and a lot of measuring, but we listen to music and always have a great time!

5. Tell me about your coach. Our [head] coach, Ali Ingellis ’07, is an incredible dressage trainer and a very positive force on our team. She constantly pushes us to ride more effectively at practices, emphasizes

correct horsemanship that puts the horse’s well-being first and under stands the various pressures we face as students.

6. What’s the best part about dressage? The horses, of course! I firmly believe that it’s hard to have a bad day when at least part of that day is spent with a horse. The Eques trian Center is open to all, so feel free to come by the barn whenever you need some pony snuggles!

7. If you had to pick a song to describe dressage, what would it be? “Danger Zone” by Kenny Log gins. We always try to push our selves to our limits when we ride!

8. Whom would dressage be perfect for? The Dressage Team is perfect for horse lovers of all skill levels who are looking to improve their knowledge, spend time with cute ponies and build meaningful relationships with other team mem bers.

9. How can someone join the team? For our Mounted Roster, try outs are held at the beginning of each semester and previous horse experience is required. For our Un mounted Horsemanship Roster, we encourage you to also join at the beginning of the semester when we hold our mandatory information meeting. While our Unmounted Horsemanship Roster does not ride, these members get the opportunity to work with horses on the ground and develop their equine knowledge.

10. Anything else to add? We will be hosting a competition all day on Nov. 19 at the Equestrian Center and would love to see you come and support the team!

Water defenders throughout Latin America use local organizations for change, cont’d

case against Pacific Rim. Ex panding on this topic, Cavanagh talked about other movements with grassroots organizations and water defenders in Ecuador, Argentina and Costa Rica. He also discussed how more environmentally cautious officials have been elected, thanks to these movements, in Honduras, Chile, Colombia and most recently Brazil. He described how the organi zation of water defenders there were successful through studying mining and educating the public on the sci entific dangers that come with it.

Cavanagh explained that in El Salvador, the water defenders gained allies domestically in reli gious communities, women’s groups and the Institute for Policy Studies, and created a connection with a for mer minister of the “death squad party,” which was in power during The Salvadoran Civil War in El Sal vador, according to The History Con nection. They also allied with the Catholic Church through the former Archbishop of El Salvador, Saint Ós car Romero. They also reached out globally and became allies with in ternational communities that shared their interests.

In an interview with Mount Holyoke News, the moderator of the event and senior fellow of the PERI, Professor James K. Boyce, comment ed on the water defenders’ outreach, stating,“This whole phenomenon of building alliances, domestically and internationally, in order to support local communities, as they are en gaged in these struggles to protect

their environment, which really is not just their environment, it’s the world’s environment … I would say [is] tremendously important.” This networking and impact outside of El Salvador led to the government, although divided by party, voting unanimously to ban mining in or der to protect their water, Cavanagh said. Boyce explained that because El Salvador had such powerful do mestic and international allies the “relatively small and impoverished and marginalized communities [could] stand a chance … on the pro-environment and the pro-people side, there is a countervailing mobi lization across different sectors in different countries to build an effec tive alliance.”

After Broad and Cavanagh pro vided context, Picq explained the re ality of the situation in Ecuador and the truth behind her own experienc es being a water defender. During the event, she explained that “it is much more dangerous to defend nature than to be a journalist” in Ecuador and many Latin American countries.

By sharing statistics, Picq demonstrated the work that Indig enous peoples are doing in these countries. She explained that almost half of the nature defenders are In digenous peoples, but only five per cent of the world population is In digenous, illustrating the disparities within this movement.

Furthermore, she said, “It’s about self determination. It’s about consent. … It’s not about biodiversi ty, it’s about consent.” She explained that the water defenders and Indig enous peoples are simply defending

their land from corporations that wish to mine the land and pollute their water. In his interview with MHN, Bocle explained, “The refram ing that [Picq] was suggesting is in line with what I think of as the new environmentalism, which is seen [as] environmental struggles, not as nature versus people, but as strug gles of some people versus other people.” He further elaborated, “It provokes an outcry because of the threats to people’s health, to their livelihood, to the well-being of the future generations. These are the things that stir us to try to protect the environment. By protecting the environment, we’re protecting our selves.”

Picq’s reframing of the cause behind environmentalism opens the floor for movements to support and help organize to protect the people affected by environmental changes, as explained by Bolce.

Picq provided a new look into understanding the environmental crisis by bringing the suffering of Indigenous and poor people to the foreground. While this event was portrayed as a hopeful look into the promising policies passed in Latin America, Picq explained that the fight is far from over and Indigenous peoples are still putting in the hard work to defend their land and water.

Boyce said that he was “cau tiously hopeful,” about the future of environmental policies, explain ing, “These struggles are not lost. They’re not hopeless. There have been victories, there have been de feats as well. And I think one needs to have hope without having compla cency.”

Photo courtesy of Anika Goodhue Mount Holyoke Athletics hired Victoria VanAls tine-Tauer as the new assistant athletic trainer.

Photo courtesy of Mount Holyoke Dressage

Mount Holyoke Dressage encourages spectator support at their home show on Saturday, Nov. 19.

Photo courtesy of Mount Holyoke Athletics Lauren Selkin ’23 qualified for the NCAA Divi sion III Championships on Saturday, Nov. 12.

Mount

HOROSCOPES f

Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

Where were you this time five years ago? How much thought do you put into who you once were? Don’t shy away from the person you will become. Breathe.

Do: UV rays | Don’t: Spots

Oct. 23 – Nov. 21

You are sharp like a knife. While this makes you amazing at what you do, it’s easier to hurt others while you do it. Take the time to show your soft sides.

Do: Big three | Don’t: Run

Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

Don’t you remember how strong you are? Utilize your mental, emotional and physical capabilities to secure what you want. It may seem out of reach, but keep trying to get there and it will pay off.

Do: Weightlifting | Don’t: Box dye

Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

You are like the first snow of the year. Bright and clear and exciting. Be wary of those who don’t find joy in the weath er. You are the best time of year.

Do: Gentle | Don’t: Cry

Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

You have set a lot of goals for yourself. You are realistic but still manage to throw in a challenge. Allow yourself to strive for success, and you will find yourself among legends.

Do: Mirrors | Don’t: Tinder

Feb. 19 – March 20

You deserve a celebration this week. So much has happened, and everyone knows you have worked hard to get here. Are you happy with the results? Don’t settle.

Do: Find | Don’t: Spray

March 21 – April 19

Bragging and gloating give a sudden rush but don’t highlight your ability to be kind. Take care of your friends right now. Your perspective makes you the perfect shoul der to cry on.

Do: Rain boots| Don’t: Travel April 20 – May 20

Keep your socks on while you sleep. Stay ing warm is important at this time of year and will support your creativity this week. Try starting a journal.

Do: Stickers | Don’t: Tires

May 21 – June 20

Is the glass half full, or half empty? Actu ally, there’s nothing in the glass. Please drink some water. Take time for yourself.

Do: Partake | Don’t: Shelter

June 21 – July 22

What is it like to be you? I don’t think any one knows, even you. Center yourself on all of your amazing traits, and you will see who you are and what you want.

Do: Noise | Don’t: Lessen

July 23 – Aug. 22

Don’t worry about tomorrow when you ha ven’t finished today. There is a right time for everything. Let the clock run its course, and you will find yourself where you need to be.

Do: Frozen yogurt | Don’t: 90 degrees

Aug. 23 – Sept. 22

Have you done what you said you would? Maybe there’s a reason you haven’t. Don’t push yourself this week, you are exactly where you’re meant to be.

Do: Pencil sharpeners | Don’t: Latex

Mount Holyoke News

Wang ’25, Lily Hoffman Strick ler ’23, Thao Le ’25, Sophie Simon ’25 & Ramisa Tahsin Rahman ’25

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The English department discusses abolitionist authors in two talks, cont’d

u CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

lecture, Shanafelt described her research regarding these relation ships and critically applies them to the dynamics of our world today, speaking also of the role of senti mentality in commerce and the de moralizing effect of debt.

Shana Hansell, English depart ment academic coordinator, orga nized the lecture series and similar events in cooperation with both students and faculty. “It can come from anyone in the department, the idea for it, and then it’s a process of collaboration to make it happen,” Hansell said.

In the case of these lectures, the material for the evenings was com piled from various disciplines to bring the most critical assessment of the coursework under analysis. “The great thing about the English department is our topics can be seen through the lens of three or four oth er departments,” Hansell said.

Alex Moskowitz, a visiting lec turer in English at Mount Holyoke, invited Rusert to speak in the hopes that students in his “Race and Sen sory Perception in Nineteenth-Cen tury American Literature” course, which engages in Wheatley’s work, would appreciate the lecture. Mos kowitz said that within the small community of academics focusing on this particular field “people know each other’s work … and are very, very generous with their time.” He also noted that Rusert was eager to have the opportunity to bring her research to her community in the Pioneer Valley.

Rusert has been teaching about Wheatley for 10 years at the Uni versity of Massachusetts Amherst. Through her instruction and the contributions of her students, she strives to honor Wheatley’s work by using her experience to better un derstand the present. “I think a lot of this work is also related to me trying to understand what it means to live in a place like Massachusetts,” Rus ert said. “While writing the essay from which this lecture was drawn I was struck by how certain forms of white liberalism today parallel what Wheatley experienced in colonial Boston, surrounded by people who imagined themselves to be enlight ened and progressive but who also actively upheld the ideologies of white supremacy and racial subjec tion.”

Moskowitz testified to this as pect of the study of English. “One of the things that … makes the study of literature generally so important is that it can respond to what people are interested in now. … [The] study of literature becomes a powerful tool for understanding our world and thinking about what we care about,” Moskowitz said. “It’s not the study of the dead past, …but I think [it’s] something that’s still very much alive and you replicate that in what you teach, how you read.”

Prompting the second part of this lecture, Kate Singer, an En glish professor at Mount Holyoke College, was inspired to reach out to Shanafelt in order to expand on the course material provided in her class, “Resistance and Revolution

in the Age of Necropolitics.” She explained that the invitation was ex tended as a way to help her students “think more specifically and precise ly about the intersections of capital, resistance and systems of necropoli tics [and] slavery in the late 18th and early 19th century.”

During the COVID-19 pandem ic, Singer found that her students were acutely interested in the role of racial capital in mitigating and controlling acts of resistance and revolt. It was something she sought to explore more deeply. “In this way, the system of slavery is part of a system of capitalist finance that per sists today, and one that constantly intervenes into communities’ abil ities to resist or revolt against such systems,” Singer said. While she had been teaching about Cugoano’s liter ature for some time, the financial as pect of his analysis is something she felt that Shanafelt would be helpful in discussing this intersection.

In “A World of Debt,” Shanafelt writes, “Quobna Ottobah Cugoa no described a causal relationship between corporate financing of na tional debt and the perpetuation of slavery that anticipates more recent analyses of cyclic economic crisis as a legacy of labor abuse since the 18th century.”

In relation to the debt held by the United States, Shanafelt stresses the significance of recognizing the ap plications of Cugoano’s assessment to present financial systems. “The entire political system is being con trolled by the people who own our debt. I think there should be more visibility about who exactly owns our [national] debt,” Shanafelt said. “When we think about somebody who … owns government debt, that person has a vested interest in mak ing us go to war, right? They have a vested interest in letting us suffer ecological disaster, right? Because every time there’s a crisis, then they get to rush in and invest more mon ey to bail us out.”

As Shanafelt relayed the reality of this dire element to the United States’ current financial circum stance, she noted that she felt a heaviness in the room. “The sense of the room was very intense. It felt like everyone was kind of thinking about the same thing,” Shanafelt said. “We might not all agree about every single aspect of it or we might not come to it from the same place, but here we all are thinking about the same problem. That felt really generative.”

Both lectures acted as a guide to wards deeper reflection of an active past. “Hearing the voices of Cugoano alongside Mary Prince, Juan Manza no, or Olaudah Equiano reminds us [that] there are voices that spoke, and continue to speak — that sur vived and come to us to remember their acts of survival,” Singer said.

Utilizing these lessons, as Rus ert mentioned, becomes a careful and continuous practice of evalua tion of then and now. As Shanafelt noted, literature becomes a tool to recognize that history surrounds us and is within us, acting not as a warning in the repetition of history, but as a reminder that we still have yet to break the cycle.

Event Highlights

Saturday, Nov. 19

A Cappella BeneJam

Join Mount Holyoke’s The Nice Shoes, M&Cs, V8s and Smith Col lege’s Groove A Cappella and the Smiffenpoofs for a night of singing in support of Decarcerate Western Mass. Make a donation and purchase tickets at the link on their Embark page.

Community Center - Great Room 4 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 19

An ‘Anti-Racist Writing Workshop’

Hosted by MoZone/Write Here, Write Now, this will be a workshop and dialogue exploring the ways identity and social justice show up in creative writing spaces. There will be activities from Felicia Rose Chavez’s book “The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop.” All are wel come! If participants want to, they may bring a short piece/excerpt of their own artwork to workshop with other participants, though it is not required. We ask that the theme of this piece has something to do with a participants’ own identity/identities including race, ethnici ty, class, gender, ability and religion!

Private Location 6 p.m.

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