Mount Holyoke News – October 7, 2022

Mount Holyoke News

Mount Holyoke ResLife student workers file for unionization

BY SHIRA SADEH

On Sept. 28, 2022, Mount Holy oke College’s residential advisors and fellows filed for union recogni tion with United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1459. As explained by the Mount Holyoke Collective, a campus group fighting for change for RAs and RFs, the roles of Res idential Life student leaders have changed due to the COVID-19 pan demic, and as expectations fluctuate the group wants to ensure they have sufficient power to continue advocat ing for themselves.

The Collective explained in an Instagram post that the act of union izing was not one meant to instigate conflict between themselves and the school administration. The post stat ed that their goals were to continue improving on their communications and to commit to improving working relationships between themselves and the school administration. Ad ditionally, the students in the Col lective explained that unionization discussions have been happening for two years, but have only now come to fruition. The Collective requested that the College voluntarily acknowl edge their legal status as a union, adding that this recognition would ensure a continuation of good-faith bargaining. They added a message

to the larger student body as well, requesting support in the coming weeks as they undergo negotiations with the College.

A second-year RA and Collective member in their first year of the job explained that the group was found ed by RAs and RFs for the purpose

of the Collective explained that the group was successful in negotiating a small salary increase last year. “However, this year during training, we learned that our workload and responsibilities were significantly greater than in previous years; this defeats the purpose of our pay in crease. As of now, our wages only re flect 15 hours of work a week, which is not accurate to the hours we actu ally put in,” they explained.

A second-year RA who is also a member of the Collective spoke to the goals of unionization. “We are hoping to gain more of a voice when it comes to the work we do. Being resi dential supporters on the ground, we know our community’s needs pretty well. Additionally, we want our jobs to have a level of insurance,” they said. “The role of being an RA and RF has drastically changed from a pre-pandemic world. The amount of expectations and responsibilities placed upon us has increased a ton, and we want to improve our working conditions.”

ly, we wanted to be involved with a union that would understand our needs and know how to support us as student workers,” they said.

However, some Collective mem bers have expressed hesitation when it comes to unionization. One source explained this in a recent interview with Mount Holyoke News, stating, “[I initially felt] caution and fear be cause we weren’t sure how it would be received by administration. I am a FGLI student so this job is quite im portant to me,” they said. But after seeing the progress made last year in negotiating for higher pay and Personal Protective Equipment, they expressed more confidence about unionization.

The Instagram post detailing the file for unionization requested stu dents show their support for the Col lective by wearing blue on Sept. 29.

“We asked everyone to support their RAs’ and RFs’ efforts to unionize by wearing blue the next day. Coinci dentally, our coordinated effort fell on Mountain Day.

of fighting for better working condi tions. Many student ResLife workers are a part of it, and it’s been success ful in the past, they said.

Several RAs and RFs readi ly shared their perspectives with Mount Holyoke News. A first-year RA in Pearsons Hall and member

When asked about the decision to join the UFCW, the second-year RA explained that some of the Col lective members met with a union representative last spring at a West ern Massachusetts Labor Federation May Day event, where they learned more about the union. “[The repre sentative] listened to our goals and joined us on this endeavor. Ultimate

The plan was for all the RAs and RFs to wear blue and we just hoped students would show up for us — and they did,” the second-year RA said.

“Being at the top of Mount [Holy oke], I have never been more proud to be a student at Mount Holyoke. There was blue everywhere. Despite being at the top of a mountain, we were surrounded by seas of blue.”

Mount Holyoke students speak about the effects of Hurricane Ian

fected her during the last week of September. Garcia’s boyfriend in Or lando and uncle in Fort Myers also both experienced their cities being ravaged by the storm. “I had no con tact at one point, especially [with] my uncle in Fort Myers. No power, nothing,” Garcia explained. “Fort Myers was hit terribly. I don’t know if you’ve seen the pictures — where it’s just completely gone. So we’re still waiting to receive contact with him. [With] my boyfriend, I’ve man aged contact, but he has no power. So [communication is] very limited. … It’s worrisome.”

On Thursday, Sept. 29, the Col lege contacted students impacted by Hurricane Ian. The correspondence came in the form of an email titled, “Reaching out to you,” and was sent by Dean of the College and Vice President for Student Success Am ber Douglas and Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall.

ic community here on campus. Why was there no support or awareness for that or just talk about that in gen eral?” The deans’ email did not pro vide specifics in regards to funding or resources for receiving emotional support, despite expressing concern. With such a significant number of students in close proximity to Hurri cane Ian, Van Vroenhoven and Gar cia felt that the email could have at a minimum linked specific resources. Garcia stated, “There wasn’t any in formation given besides ‘Oh, we wish you the best. We hope your family’s okay. We have the support you need,’ yet they didn’t specify what support is there, or if they’re holding drives to [support] residents in Florida or the Caribbean islands as well. … As for the school, I feel like there’s not much help or much support. It’s cra zy. It’s frustrating.”

Finally, the letter ended with two short bullet points directing stu dents and faculty to resources. The link, named “resources for care and support,” is the Division of Student Life resource page. There is nothing explicitly relating to natural disaster relief on this page.

Upon learning of the letter and its silent Sept. 29 publication, Van Vroenhoven said it felt like “a last minute thing. Like, ‘I guess we should address this.’”

Students were not formally alerted of Tatum’s letter. It was not linked in the original message from the deans. There was no email sent stating that this letter had been pub lished.

On Sept. 24, Florida declared a state of emergency, alerting commu nities of the approach of Hurricane Ian. A few days later, Hurricane Ian devastated parts of Cuba, triggering a power grid collapse, USA Today reported. On Sept. 28, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, enter ing a three-way tie for the state’s fourth-strongest hurricane, accord ing to The Washington Post. The hurricane’s 155 mph winds battered the Florida coast and caused mas sive flooding in southwest and cen tral Florida cities, according to the BBC.

Mount Holyoke College reached

out to students on Sept. 29 — five days after Florida declared the state of emergency. Although South Had ley’s reach may not seem to stretch so far south, the MHC Facebook says that as of 2022 Florida was the sixthmost represented state at MHC, meaning many students on campus may have been affected by the storm.

Roommates Olivia Van Vroen hoven ’25 and Maria Garcia ’26 both call Florida their home. Despite be ing from Tallahassee and Miami, respectively, two cities not direct ly hit by Hurricane Ian, they both have loved ones who were seriously affected. Van Vroenhoven’s broth er had to evacuate across the state from Daytona Beach to Tallahassee, a dangerous journey that deeply af

The letter read, “We are writing to you because we believe (based on our records) that your family may have been impacted by Hurricane Ian. We hope that everyone is safe. We realize that it is hard to be far from home at times like this. If you should need anything in the coming days or week, please be in touch — there is support available to you.”

Both Van Vroenhoven and Gar cia were troubled by the email’s brevity. Van Vroenhoven said, “I really did not like that the email was sent after the storm. I think that more support should have been shown [in the] weeks prior when the storm was developing. … We have students that are from differ ent regions in the Caribbean. Why was there not support for them? … We have a big Latinx [and] Hispan

When contacted further regard ing the specifics of the email, Hall provided a link to President Bever ly Daniel Tatum’s letter to the MHC community regarding the hurricane. “Extending support to those impact ed by Hurricane Ian” was published Sept. 29 under ‘News & Stories’ on the Mount Holyoke website.

President Tatum wrote, “My heart goes out to our students from Florida, as well as our alums who live there and also to anyone whose loved ones may be directly impact ed.” The following three paragraphs included many references to unre lated College topics and activities — reminding students of the fact that Tatum has addressed climate change and natural disaster before, the availability of opportunities at the Miller Worley Center for the En vironment and a reference to Moun tain Day as “one of the College’s most beloved traditions.”

Van Vroenhoven was disap pointed with Tatum’s message. “I think that the president should have [directly] emailed … those who were affected, because that also shows sympathy and concern from the president who just came to this campus. If you really want to engage with the community, and really con nect with your community, you need to address these topics directly,” she said. She also was angered at the fact that Cuba was not mentioned in the president’s letter. Van Vroenhoven said, “I think that there is a lack of inclusivity. … How can you just ex clude Cuba?”

On Hurricane Ian, Deans Am ber Douglas and Marcella Runell Hall wrote, “We hope that everyone is safe.” In her letter, Tatum stated, “My heart aches … for our students’ families, our alums and all of our loved ones affected by this storm.”

Yet without concrete support or geographic inclusivity, Van Vroen hoven felt that the College treated the hurricane as “a minor inconve nience.”

Mount Holyoke to end the campus wide mask mandate on Oct. 14

BY EMMA WATKINS ’23 MANAGING EDITOR OF CONTENT

The Oct. 5 MHC This Week email to the College community included a letter from Interim President Bever ly Daniel Tatum which stated that the campuswide mask mandate will end “at the close of business on Oct. 14.”

In her letter to the College com munity, Tatum stated, the “COVID-19 case count on campus has dropped dramatically, from a high of more than 50 active cases among stu dents earlier in the month to just 18 last week and only a handful of new positive cases reported so far this week.” Throughout the letter, Tatum emphasized that the College

will operate on a “masks welcome” basis, stating that community mem bers who desire to wear a mask are “free” to do so.

Tatum’s letter also explains that the College “strongly recom mend[s]” anyone who is eligible for the bivalent booster vaccine to re ceive it. Tatum also notified the Col lege community that the on-campus vaccination clinic will not take place until “mid-November” because of “high demand.” She goes on to list various places students can receive the vaccine locally, including the University of Massachusetts Am herst vaccination clinic and stores such as CVS and Big Y.

The letter also outlines that each of those vaccination locations is

available by PVTA and The Division of Student Life is in the process of organizing transportation for Mount Holyoke students to the UMass vac cination site and to CVS.

Tatum went on to outline the importance of “individual responsi bility,” stating, “We are a community that relies on each other to act re sponsibly.” Tatum concluded the let ter by addressing “a small number of immunocompromised members of our community who have special health concerns.”

She wrote that the College has “a process in place to accommodate [the needs of immunocompromised community members], which some times includes masking require ments in classrooms.” She directs

students to contact dean-college@ mtholyoke.edu for further infor mation regarding accommodations and directs employees to refer to a Human Resources document, which she linked in the letter.

Tatum stated that she antici pates the “masks welcome” policy will remain in place throughout the fall semester, including when stu dents return to campus from Novem ber break.

CYDNEY

Photo courtesy of The Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism via Flickr The Mount Holyoke College Collective, a group of ResLife student workers, filed for unionization.

Photo courtesy of user PCHS-NJROTC via WikiMedia Commons Ian’s extremely high-speed winds and heavy rains have caused severe property damage in Florida.

Photo by Jenny Yu ’24 In the face of decreased COVID-19 cases on campus, the College moved to end the mask mandate.

Center Church hosts ‘Voices of Resilience’

NORAH

WRITER

Center Church believes that a community can be strengthened when it knows its roots, and its con gregates aim to put this into action by spotlighting lesser-known histo ries. With the research, insight and curative expertise of Curator Janine Fondon, Exhibit Scholar Dr. Deme tria Shabazz and Exhibit Scholar and Researcher Dr. Lucie K. Lewis, the exhibition “Voices of Resilience: The Intersection of Women on the Move” spotlights the “hidden fig ures” who have given shape to West ern Massachusetts.

The exhibition is a multimedia presentation accompanied by addi tions from local artisans and “wood sculptures, batik prints, an oil paint ing and fabric, all made by local young artists and artisans of Accra, Sekondi, Takoradi and Cape Coast, Ghana,” as described by a press re lease.

It is an engaging historical and contemporary narrative designed to portray the critical and underrep resented role of women of color in the stories that have laid the build ing blocks of these communities. Likewise, the exhibition is meant to pose as a celebration to commem orate the impact of one generation onto the next and provoke a more informed historical perspective in its observers.

As is further described in promo tional materials, “The women pro filed in the exhibit include historical figures such as Elizabeth Freeman of Stockbridge, the first enslaved Af rican American to sue and win her freedom in Massachusetts in 1781; and Lucy Stone, abolitionist and suf fragette who worked to pass the 13th Amendment and end slavery.”

Such panels will also discuss the lives of the curators’ ancestors in order to punctuate the value of understanding familial bonds and recollecting forgotten histories. One story shared at the event is that of Fondon’s own grandmother and trailblazer, Miriam Kirkaldy, who came to America via Ellis Island in 1917 from Jamaica, West Indies. This was a fact unbeknown to her descen dents “until the Ellis Island folks came knocking on the door,” Fon don said in an interview with Mount Holyoke News.

The display will be open until Oct. 15, and visitors are welcome Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and Wednesday 4-7 p.m. or by appointment, free of charge. Group visits are encouraged, and inquiries and reservations can be made at voicescenterchurch@gmail. com.

This will be the first event of its kind held in Center Church. One member of the congregation, Ani ta Sarro, explained that “faith isn’t something that happens for an hour on Sunday. And then you leave it be hind and you go on in your life. You know, those values that you profess to have, really [have] to inform what else you do as an individual and as a faith community.”

She remarked that George Floyd’s murder was the turning point in their community. “Nationwide there were vigils in support of him and mourning his death and calling for accountability,” Sarro said. She recalled thinking, “‘This is really good, but this can’t stop.’ So that led to weekly vigils for racial justice [at

14 years ago, Mount Holyoke alum Reverend Lori Souder ’80 felt a calling to return to South Hadley. “I wanted to be a positive influence in the town for the children and for the adults, so that we can expand and not … be as insular,” Souder said.

As a leader of the congregation, she supports the ongoing effort to open their doors more widely and utilize their space more actively in order to seek justice and provide protection for community mem bers. “[Our role is to reach] out into the community and [listen] to their needs … [and see] how we could meet their needs.”

Over time, some members of the congregation began to reflect on what further action they could take and assess the physical resources in their possession that could be temporarily devoted to their cause. “I’m leaning toward art and music, to lead us to truth,” Souder said. In keeping with that investment, Soud er and Sarro began planning to hold Black, Indigenous and people of col or’s stories and art in the open space in their church. This decision began the search which eventually carried them to the curative work of Fondon.

In a profile by Unbound Visual Arts, Fondon was described to have been “Nationally … referenced in top business publications such as Forbes, Black Enterprise, Entrepre neur Magazine, Boston Business Journal and The Boston Globe. On a regional level, she has been featured in several area publications such as the Worcester Business Journal, BusinessWest, MassLive and The Republican.”

As an entrepreneur, she has engaged in various endeavors, but her central passion is communica tion. “For me, there’s nothing more powerful than the art of storytelling. There’s nothing more impactful than research that has not come to the surface,” Fondon said. “So when you mix those two things, this project really becomes magical, because we are able to see things we might not have known ever existed.”

Fondon believes it’s important to understand the history of where people have come from. She noted

that to be an astute student of histo ry, a person must not only recognize whose shoulders they are standing on, but anticipate who might be standing on theirs.

“We must learn what’s beneath our feet and above our shoulders, and if we can do that, we will find the heart of the matters that drive inclu sion.” Fondon explained that history and space are not stagnant, and to be fully informed participants, people need to pay respect to those who oc cupied the places they call home and to honor their direct ancestors who came before.

“We hope that anyone who real ly goes through and looks at it will begin to see us and see the women and see their communities different ly,” Fondon said. “There are women with stories from their own commu nity, some that look like them, and some that don’t, and most people will probably say, ‘I didn’t know.’ I want people to get to know there are a lot of women who have made a lot of [sacrifices] sitting in their own community.”

While this is the first event of its kind at Center Church, it will not be the last. Sarro and Souder hope that this is the beginning of a deeper rela tionship with advocacy work. Addi tionally, they hope that there may be more collaboration between the Col lege and the church moving forward.

“I know that college experience can be very insular … but a college exists within a community. … I think students and faculty can look to Cen ter Church as a resource [and] as a partner,” Sarro said. “To be around people who are actively in the learn ing process [is] fun. … I think there’s a potential for synergy. … That would be a shame to continue to ignore.” Therein, Sarro described a desire to seek to resolve the gap be tween Mount Holyoke students and the community of South Hadley.

Souder reflected back on her own days at Mount Holyoke. “I used to run three to five miles a day … around the back roads, but I still felt I was living in the country of Mount Holyoke and South Hadley was far away. It was so easy to become iso lated, so easy to get wrapped up in the ivory tower, and [it wasn’t] until I returned to South Hadley as an adult that I realized there’s a lot of people here hurting, they need the College, the College needs them. There [are] ways we could interact with great compassion.”

In recognition of this hurt that she sees in South Hadley, Souder wonders how to draw more students in to be an active participant in the community, to understand their ex pectations of the faith community and encourage them to use their own resources in the people’s cause as Center Church has.

In assessment of the powerful women on display and understand ing yourself as you move through history, Fondon advised, “Be your own voice and respect the [voices] of others. It’s so important. … Every body will have a role to play.”

In the hope to achieve unity of understanding and action, Souder and Sarro are eager for Mount Holy oke students to visit “Voices of Re silience: The Intersection of Women on the Move” as they await their an swer to the church’s call for grit and meaningful engagement in South Hadley. After all, it’s only down the road.

Mount Holyoke hires Maria Cartagena as new director of Community-Based Learning

BY MELANIE DURONIO ’26 STAFF WRITER

This semester, Mount Holyoke welcomed Maria Cartagena as the new director of Community-Based Learning in the Weissmann Center for Leadership.

Cartagena is not new to the community-engagement field. She has been involved for 25 years, during many of which she worked with local nonprofits as a commu nity partner. Her career has includ ed work within the Five College Consortium, within which she has collaborated with faculty through out all five schools. Most recently, she worked with Hampshire Col lege as the director of community advocacy, according to a College profile.

The Community-Based Learn ing program is designed to support students as they become leaders of their communities. According to the College, students work with local lead ers in South Hadley to devel op leadership skills and gain a better under standing of the world around them. This is done through off-campus opportunities such as intern ships and ser vice projects.

questioned. “I often introduced myself as an activist in the womb of my mother. My mother, really at her heart, was about equality.”

As the director of the Com munity-Based Learning program, Cartagena wants to prioritize part nerships between Mount Holyoke and the local community. Specifi cally, opportunities where students and faculty can use their privilege and resources to give back to oth ers.

“Mount Holyoke has always had that spirit. … I just want to elevate that school of thought and say, ‘How are we reciprocal? How are we going both ways? How are those students coming to Mount Holyoke and how are we going into the community and causing less harm?’” Cartagena said.

Cartagena wants to hear di rectly from students. She plans to organize events such as listening circles where she can meet with students re garding their interests and guide them to partnerships. This will allow Cartagena to advance Mount Holyoke’s Com munity-Based Learning initia tive.

I see this work as part of my mission in life to be a social justice activist. The one thing I love most about my job … is being able to look at and be a part of the development of students both socially and emotionally.

– Maria Cartagena

“I see this work as part of my mission in life to be a social justice activist,” Cart agena said. “The one thing I love most about my job … is being able to look at and be a part of the de velopment of students both social ly and emotionally.”

Cartagena comes from a long line of Puerto Rican activists, in cluding her mother, who ques tioned the societal systems that are still in place today. As Cartagena grew older and learned more about systemic inequality, she decided to challenge it through her work as a community leader.

“[My mother] always knew [when] something wasn’t … fair. … I know a lot of times we say in response, ‘Well, life isn’t fair.’ But why isn’t life fair?” Cartagena

She will also be work ing closely with the Office of Di versity, Equity and Inclusion, which has interests that align with her vision for Community-Based Learning. This year, she will be co-leading the Mi Gente LLC along side Assistant Vice President for DEI Jonencia Wood.

“I’m living the dream, hon estly. I’m really looking forward to working with students,” Cart agena said. “For me, [this job] is about sending students out into the world who will make an impact for the common good.”

Overall, Cartagena is excited to be working at Mount Holyoke and looks forward to what her time here will bring.

“When I saw the position at Mount Holyoke, it just felt right,” Cartagena said. “In some ways, it felt like coming home.”

Disability Services introduces Glean, a new way for students to receive notes

BY JESSE HAUSKNECHT-BROWN ’25 & EMMA QUIRK ’26 MANAGING EDITOR OF LAYOUT & FEA TURES EDITOR | STAFF WRITER

This semester, students ap proved by Disability Services for note taking were encouraged to opt in to the new Glean software pro gram while still having the option to use a peer note-taker. An email to students approved for note tak ing from C. Ross, an accessibility coordinator in Disability Services, via ds-notetaking@mtholyoke.edu , stated that “starting in Spring 2023, all students approved for note-tak ing will be using Glean, except in cases where Glean is not compatible with the course, or does not ade quately support the student’s needs. We strongly encourage trying Glean this semester to start.”

According to its website, Glean is a “flexible and effective note-tak ing platform” with the ability to re cord lectures, “generate a transcript, listen back to key moments and add text notes, images, slides and tasks

to create the ultimate personalized learning resource.”

“[Glean is] really helpful be cause we can say here’s one thing, it’s one license, but within that, you can do a lot of different things and you can customize it to how it best supports you, without having to then go to a different app or something else,” Ross said.

According to Ross, there are cur rently over 50 students using Glean, and “the number is slowly growing over the course of the semester.” At this time, it is hard to predict how many students will use Glean and how many will have peer note-takers next semester.

Ross outlined a few key rea sons why Disability Services is try ing Glean this semester. Students have had varied experiences with note-takers and have received notes of “mixed quality,” according to Ross. A system like Glean would be more reliable across the board.

Glean has been effective for stu dents within the other four colleges in the Five College Consortium,

Ross explained. Ross cited this as a reason why the College wanted to switch to this program. “We can look at a lot of the data and ascertain that it’s a good product and from talking to a lot of other colleges that use it, they’ve had positive experience[s] with their students,” Ross stated.

It was difficult for Disability Ser vices to communicate back and forth with students receiving notes, stu dents taking notes and sometimes with professors. However, with

Glean, “it’ll be much more possible to directly connect with the students that are needing the notes and work ing with what’s actually going on with them,” Ross said. “Personally, I like that aspect a little bit more, in that it’s kind of like active trouble shooting or problem solving.”

Additionally, Ross described that it was difficult to know if and how students are using the notes they receive. Ross explained that an other potential positive outcome of the Glean system is that it can help students learn how to take notes in a way that best benefits their learning. “It’s really hard to get data on if stu dents are looking at the notes that are being uploaded, and in general to gauge … how well this is actually working for people,” Ross said. “So we had these focus groups and a lot of questions and thoughts came up around skill building, and students want to learn how to take notes, it’s just really hard for them.”

However, Cindy Ruiz Garcia ’24, who received peer notes, explained that they enjoy being able to see how

another student in their class takes notes. When reviewing notes for an exam, Ruiz Garcia likes being able to see how a different student inter preted a lecture or what their main takeaways were.

“[There are] some things that I feel like weren’t necessarily im portant and then I’ll be studying for a final or a midterm and I realize a professor does want us to focus on that and, let’s say a peer has taken notes on that, where[as] I thought it wouldn’t have been as important,” Ruiz Garcia said.

Clara Murphy ’25, who is a note-taker, explained that they try to incorporate what the professor says, what other students say and their own thoughts into their notes. “[I] try to figure out how the class as a whole is working and not just type down what’s on the lecture slides,” Murphy said.

While Ross made it clear that the peer note-taker position will not be eliminated entirely, they are not

Photo by Xinran Li ’23 Center Church, above, encourages students to engage with the local South Hadley community. Center Church].”

Photo by Jenny Yu ’24 The College hired Maria Cartagena, above, to direct the Community-Based Learning program.

‘Angela Davis, A History of the United States’ staged at Rooke

der. Through the music, written by composer Blade MC Alimbaye, au diences learn about Jonathan Jack son. Protesting the racist treatment of his imprisoned brother in 1970, Jackson opened fire on a California courthouse with a rifle taken from the Black Panther Party’s weapons cache, which was registered to An gela Davis. Switching to a mono logue, Davis describes her time on the run, having to hide her afro and knowing that other light-skinned Black women would be harassed be cause of her “crime,” before finally being caught and charged with mur der and kidnapping.

dodie releases new EP

BY FANG CIEPRISZ ’26 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article dis cusses racism, racialized violence, police brutality and murder.

One might not expect a “History of the United States” from a French theater company, but Compagnie L’Héliotrope’s production of “An gela Davis, A History of the United States” did just that this past week end at Rooke Theater. The one-wom an play features a combination of monologues, music and media that provide an insightful look into the life and work of African-American scholar and activist Angela Davis from an international perspective.

The play begins with a video of

actress Astrid Bayiha portraying Angela Davis in conversation with a French interviewer about Davis’ feminism in the context of present day. Davis tells the interviewer that her brand of feminism is not limited to solely women’s issues but extends to fighting for all oppressed peoples, an idea that could be described as the play’s thesis statement. When the interviewer questions Davis on violence, especially in the context of George Floyd’s death and its after math, the video fades out, and Bay iha takes center stage.

The play is divided into two parts, each centered around the acts of violence that have shaped Davis’ life. When the spotlight first illumi nates her, she begins rapping about being wrongfully accused of mur

The second part of the play shows Davis reaching back further into her past, to her education. She recalls studying French at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachu setts, and visiting France her soph omore year to study French philos ophy. While abroad, Davis learned of the 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in her hometown of Birmingham, Ala bama, the victims of which she knew personally. According to Columbia Law, after completing her degree in philosophy at Brandeis, Davis at tended the University of Frankfurt for graduate school, where she en countered the Karl Marx quote, “The philosophers have hitherto only in terpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” This quote, along with her grief over the Birmingham bombing and the 1965 riots against police brutality in Watts, a Black neighborhood in Los Angeles, inspired Davis to return to

‘Don’t Worry Darling’ makes theater debut

BY AMES FORTUNATO ’26 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article dis cusses gendered violence.

“Don’t Worry Darling,” starring Florence Pugh and Harry Styles was released in U.S. theaters on Sept. 23, 2022. According to Forbes, the film “won the weekend domestic box office with a $19.2 million opening and the approval of fans.” The film, directed by Olivia Wilde, follows a 1950s housewife, Alice (Pugh), who discovers the truth about her hus band Jack’s (Styles) job at an organi zation known as the Victory Project. The cast also features actors Chris Pine and Gemma Chan.

In the central plot twist of the movie, it is revealed that the life Al ice knows is fake. The false reality was created by Frank (Pine), and is known to the outside world as the Victory project. The movie is remi niscent of earlier films such as “The Truman Show” and “The Stepford Wives,” in that it uses the trope of the Platonic Cave. The Platonic Cave trope, derived from Plato’s “The Re public,” tells the story of characters who discover that what appears to be true is actually not true. Within this cinematic trope, this discovery is usually met with some resistance to this false world.

“Don’t Worry Darling” has some excellent aspects to it, but it is also flawed. The most stunning elements of “Don’t Worry Darling” are its cinematography and music. Most of the movie takes place in a bright and idyllic setting, with a few notable exceptions, such as scenes when Alice is in the real world. The cinematography establishes the movie’s tone and creates a sense of perfection, with bright colors and a notably highly-manufactured set ting. Additionally, the cinematogra phy is repetitive, which conveys the sense of monotony of the lives of the women within the project. For ex ample, close-up shots of Alice mak ing breakfast repeat throughout the movie and almost identical scenes of the housewives waving goodbye to their husbands every morning exemplify the unvaried daily rou tines of the wives. Beyond the cine matography, the music successfully contributes to the atmosphere of the movie. During tense scenes, the music is heart-racing, the songs are fast-paced and consistently reach a crescendo at the apex of the scene.

Upon first glance, “Don’t Worry Darling” is a feminist film. The film’s concept hinges on the discomfort and feelings of suspicion Alice has about the world in which she lives. It

is eventually revealed that the con cept of the film surrounds men trap ping their wives in a simulation and controlling them. Ultimately, at the end of the movie, Alice seems to free herself from this simulation, though it is unclear if she was actually suc cessful. Despite a seemingly tri umphant ending for Alice, in many places, the film’s supposed feminism feels surface level.

Wilde described the movie as centering on “female pleasure,” but it’s unclear whether this movie truly depicts it, adding to the superfici ality of the film’s feminism.

Linden Wade ’26 stated that Wilde “said in her statement that [it] is a movie full of female pleasure, [with] only female orgasms in this movie, and I thought, ‘but the sex was never ini tiated by [Alice].” Wade continued, “Considering the whole point of the movie was men taking their wives to an alternate universe where they could make them their objects, how is that a movie about female sexual pleasure?”

Another disappointing aspect of “Don’t Worry Darling” was the com plete disregard for characters other

than Alice.

After the movie’s release, Kiki Layne, who played Margaret, alleged in an Instagram post that many of her scenes were removed. Margaret is the wife of one of the men in the town who has discovered the truth about the Victory Project, so more scenes with her could have made the film much more compelling.

There might have also been more focus on Frank, the creator of the Victory Project.

Frank’s intentions for creating the Victory Project are frustratingly never revealed, although the audi ence can infer them. The assump tions audiences can make — based on the information they are given — are very simplistic, but an explic it statement of Frank’s intent could contribute to more complex and in teresting storytelling.

Overall, “Don’t Worry Darling” wasn’t terrible. It was enjoyable to watch, and after the first viewing, it’s even a good movie. However, by digging deeper into the film itself, it’s clear that it lacked some essen tial filmmaking elements and had room to improve.

BY OAKLEY MARTON ’25 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article dis cusses mental illness.

British singer-songwriter dodie, who got her start as a video blog ger on YouTube in 2011, has just re leased a new EP. “Hot Mess” came out on Sept. 30, 2022, and is her new est release since their 2021 debut album “Build A Problem,” which debuted at number three on the UK charts. “Build A Problem” shows a more serious musical side to the artist, showcasing melancholy, but at times whimsical, songs about love and mental health.

As an early YouTube sensation, dodie’s experience online was in many ways a textbook example of how parasocial relationships can blow up online — even before that was a term fans or creators were aware of. Parasocial relationships are defined by dictionary.com as one-sided relationships that fans form with a performer, celebrity or online creator who does not have

a personal relationship with them. While many of their videos have since been privatized, dodie shared much of her early 20s on YouTube, sharing vlogs documenting pivotal life moments such as their coming out as bisexual, being diagnosed with derealization and sharing their struggles with depression and heartbreak. dodie spoke online and in a NME interview last year about how meeting fans has been over whelming and difficult for her men tal health, and has expressed fear of failing to live up to audience expec tations of her as the “squeaky clean” girl from YouTube.

The singer no longer posts vlogs as regularly to YouTube, focusing in stead on music, and has talked about the importance of her “taking a big step back” from social media, per NME. In the NME video they said,

“I try to write in a sort of floaty way, which is very helpful because now I get to share like I used to, I still get that fulfillment of sharing my inner soul, except now it’s, in a way more

‘Monster’: Netflix releases yet another Jeffrey Dahmer story

BY JADA JACKSON ’26 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article dis cusses murder, sexual assault and racialized violence.

One of Netflix’s newest releases, “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Sto ry” starring Evan Peters, has quick ly become popular. 196.2 million peo ple tuned into the show’s premiere, making it a huge hit for the stream ing network. Referenced in over 50 songs sung by recording artists from Kesha to J.Cole, Dahmer is no stranger to pop culture. According to IMDB, there are also numerous films based on American serial kill er Jeffrey Dahmer’s life and several shows featuring him or a character inspired by his crimes on television. But why is the convicted killer and rapist of numerous Black and Brown gay men so popularized?

True crime has become a part of mainstream pop culture. Mass mur ders, cults and major crimes are oc currences society gawks at. Serenity Higgins-Laka ’26 expressed that“Jef frey Dahmer has tons of documenta ries and shows that in a weird way romanticize him, and that’s just not ok. As you know, he did some ter rible, evil shit. There’s even people who fantasize about him and make fanfics.”

Currently, when looking up Dahmer’s name on popular fanfic tion website Archive of Our Own, 116 results populate. This surpass es the need for the victims’ stories to be heard, and instead serves as a gross fetishization of an evil man. The pattern of recycling stories that traumatize victims “sucks because often the families of the victims are not informed or asked ahead of time … [and are therefore] constantly being confronted with the trauma,” Myrha-Lissa Chery ’23 emphasized.

The sister of Errol Lindsey, one of Dahmer’s victims, spoke out about the Netflix series to Insider, stating, “If I didn’t know any bet ter, I would’ve thought it was me. … That’s why it felt like reliving it all over again,” Rita Isbel said. “It brought back all the emotions I was feeling back then.”

Is there any compassion for these victims? Are their voices be ing heard by the directors and actors who dramatize real, traumatizing events?

While Peters’ fan pages are thirsting over his portrayal, Kaliher Johnston ’26 sees it as “very yucky and exploitative, especially when it portrays serial killers as geniuses rather than actually unpacking po lice incompetence [and] privilege that allowed them to get away,” she shared. Dahmer was a man who used the gross neglect of the police to his own advantage. Rather than focusing on this, the show re-expos es victims and their families to trau ma, all while viewers look on with carefree disregard or disgust.

The deaths of these men aren’t being properly mourned as a result of the show, and instead Dahmer is becoming a meme. Audiences are taking this series as an opportunity to laugh at the preventable death of 17 mostly gay Black and Brown men. The traumas of real people have be come a media spectacle.

Peters isn’t the first major ce lebrity to portray a serial killer and consequently make the media go wild. Actors Ross Lynch and Zac Efron have taken their swing at por traying what Google suggests to be two of the “smartest” killers: Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, respective ly. Yet, does it matter? Does it mat ter how smart these men are or how cleverly they executed their mur ders?

Sydney Driskell ’25 believes this media is “really invasive [and] shouldn’t be [the public’s] business.” Despite this, people continue to tune in to the very real and tragic deaths of society’s most vulnerable for en tertainment. Jeffrey Dahmer is im mortalized in these movies, shows, fanfictions and songs. His crimes live on, while the voices of his vic tims’ families are ignored.

Graphic by Sunny Wei ’23

Photo courtesy of Columbia GSAPP via WikiMedia Commons Students viewed Angela Davis’ life as portrayed in Compagnie L’Héliotrope’s production at Rooke.

Photo courtesy of Radeen Moncrieffe via Wikimedia Commons British singer-songwriter and former YouTuber dodie released

Graphic by Gabby Gagnon ’24

Protests erupt in Iran following death of Mahsa Amini

high net worth individuals in Iran grew by 21.6 percent, way above the global average of 6.3 percent.” Tik Tok user @iconicduck said that the protests oppose a regime that ig nores the will of the people. “It’s not just one demographic that’s affected by this,” they said.

Vincent Ferraro, professor emeritus of politics and founder of the Department of International Relations at Mount Holyoke before his retirement, said that “Amini’s death crystallized many … longterm issues in an easily identifiable manner.” Iran’s previous protests surrounding a “sputtering economy” now meet “the outpouring of anger … against the so-called ‘morality police’” and have led to resentment, anger and action.

due to a head injury, and that she had no pre-existing heart conditions.

Protests broke out after Amini’s funeral on Sept. 17. Videos posted online show women dancing in the streets and burning their head cov erings, as well as protesters being assaulted by police, The Washington Post reported.

that paint them as dangerously an ti-American, Penn State University reported. In a 2018 article for The In tercept, Robert Wright writes about the “asymmetry” of U.S. reporting that causes fear around other coun tries without empathy or balance. But, social media plays a key role in the current coverage of the pro tests, CBC Radio Canada reported. As reported by a CBC News article discussing previous protests in Iran, Mahsa Alimardani, an Iranian-Ca nadian internet researcher, wrote, “Technology really is playing a cen tral role in allowing people to orga nize, share information with each other.”

While visiting family in Tehran, Mahsa Amini was arrested on Sept. 13 by the Guidance Patrols, who ac cused her of violating dress code, MSNBC reported. On Sept. 16, she was declared dead in a hospital after falling into a coma.

Many viral videos have revealed that protesters have limited access to the internet. Many people are worried about their friends and fam ily members who are protesting and have been cut off from the outside world. In a TikTok that has 18.6 mil lion views as of Oct. 6, @tytysplanett asked the platform, “Can you even see us?” Social media users, such as @gal_lynette on TikTok, who said in a video from Sept. 22 that TikTok users should “duet” the content of Iranians before the government can erase it, have said that others shar ing messages of protest on social media will help make sure the move ment stays alive.

BY SOPHIE FRANK ’26 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article dis cusses gendered violence, murder, state-sanctioned violence against women and police brutality.

Photo courtesy of Ladsgroup via Wikimedia Commons Above, demonstraters gather in Berlin to protest Iran’s Guidance Patrols who enforce dress codes. arm of the Law Enforcement Force of the Islamic Republic of Iran, de scribed by The Washington Post as “officers who target women they deem to be improperly dressed in public.” Iranian women — who have been required to wear head cover ings since the 1979 Islamic Revolu tion, the BBC reported — are most affected by this theocracy. However, there are dress code laws for men as well as transgender and gen der non-conforming people. Many LGBTQ+ people have reported po lice violence since the introduction of these dress codes.

The pattern might look familiar to social media users — an event oc curs, social media protests consist ing of visually-pleasing infograph ics begin circulating and the issue takes over social media feeds for a few days. After the initial buzz, it largely disappears from collective consciousness. However, this time the event is a nationwide outcry that’s been decades in the making. The catalyst for the protests was the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini — but the anger of some Iranian people toward their government goes back decades.

In 2005, Iran established an orga nization of “morality police” called the Guidance Patrols. They are one

The current protests call for bodily autonomy for all and for the end of the mandatory hijab. Many women choose to wear head cov erings, and the protesters support personal choice. They oppose the current regime, which has become stricter about dress code laws, harsher with their punishments and increasingly wealthy. In 2021, Forbes wrote that, “In 2020, the number of

After Amini’s arrest, she was taken to a detention center intend ed to educate detainees on the dress code, though Iranians have accused these centers of abuse before, ac cording to Human Rights Watch. In an interview with The New Yorker, Iranian scholar Fatemeh Shams said of Amini’s death, “A collective trau ma was basically activated.” The situation rings familiar because Ira nians have seen women harmed for violating these laws before, especial ly during the political tensions of the 1980s.

The police said Amini collapsed due to a heart attack while receiving training on proper headscarf rules, but her family opposed their claims to the media. A Time Magazine ar ticle shared facts that contradict the official report: Amini’s father said witnesses saw police beating her in the patrol car. He was not allowed to see her in the hospital, but caught glimpses of injuries on her body. Reports indicate that her death was

Western, young people involving themselves in online global politics can create problems. Sometimes, content they share contains mis information or features a skewed Western interpretation, The Repos itory reported. An NBC News article from March 2022 discusses how easy it is for misinformation to spread on TikTok, and said Generation Z “can sometimes feel as though digital natives are impervious to misinfor mation.” Other times, a viral social media campaign is simply ineffec tive, Divya Shanmugam wrote in an article for The Repository. “While spreading awareness is important, … mindlessly reposting the same trite artwork doesn’t contribute to meaningful change.”

Ferraro stated, “Generally speaking, social media has not been a constructive instrument in U.S.-Ira nian relations.” Indeed, media publi cations in the U.S. have been accused of manipulating news around Iran to support American foreign policy and presenting warped views of Iranians

Tiko Dolidze ’26 sees online ac tivism as capable of inspiring in-per son action. She recounted stories of people in her home country, Georgia, creating Facebook groups to share information. The groups soon began hosting rallies. As a result, Dolidze believes that social media activism is “not just tweeting and writing posts. It can lead to actual action.” Both perspectives can coexist. According to experts like Ferraro, historically, social media has been a harmful force in U.S.-Iran relations. But, it is also one of the ways Iranians have been able to share their stories with the world. While online activ ism movements struggle to maintain momentum, in the short term social media has brought the protests to a global audience, something that oth er protests have not achieved. For example, Ferraro pointed to previ ous protests in Iran against econom ic struggles that “have [not] received much international attention.”

Social media is one tool — a tool that Dolidze said must be used responsibly. “Be informed, … be re sponsible. What are [your] goals of doing a specific post … or action on social media?”

Revolutions change as technolo gy does. As the story in Iran devel ops, the way people use social media and fight for justice will continue to evolve.

Brothers of Italy party may elect state’s first female prime minister

BY LAUREN CINCOTTA ’25 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article men tions homophobia, xenophobia, transphobia and antisemitism.

A recent election in Italy is likely to bring the country its first female prime minister and the country’s fur thest-right government since World War II. Giorgia Meloni, leader of the nationalist Brothers of Italy party, is ushering in this change to Italian politics. According to The New York Times, Meloni’s election may be part of a trend sweeping through Europe.

“The victory,” The New York Times noted, “in an election with lower turnout than usual, comes as formerly taboo and marginalized parties with Nazi or fascist heritages are entering the mainstream — and winning elections — across Europe.”

The Washington Post also re ported low voter turnout, fitting with Italy’s broader political situation. “Based on data Sunday evening, voter turnout sank from the level of previous national elections in 2018, a reflection of skepticism in a coun try that has had 11 governments in 20 years,” The Washington Post article stated. “The rapid turnover of governments — generally before leaders have time to follow through on promises — has amplified a sense of alienation. Twice in the last three years Italy staved off snap elections with backroom deals to form new

coalitions, as parties shape-shifted, joined hands and then bickered with each other,” The Washington Post continued.

The same article also empha sized that while the political situ ation in Italy can change quickly, most governments last no longer than 400 days with many “zigzags” in who holds power. The Washington Post also commented that, “Italian voters, rather than cleaved neatly between left and right, are instead cut into countless little slices — each with their own narratives about the ills of the country. Ballots on Sunday had more than a dozen party logos on them, and even so, many voters said they weren’t particularly en thused about any of the options.”

However, the domination of Mel oni’s party is still a salient compo nent of a broader shift in European politics. Meloni herself has espoused anti-immigrant and anti-European Union views. According to Mount Holyoke Dorothy Rooke McCulloch Professor of Italian and Chair of Romance Languages and Cultures Ombretta Frau, “The party’s name is the first line of the Italian nation al anthem and evokes patriotism, together with the 19th-century val ues that the right loves — family, country [and] Christian values. It is a neo-fascist party, even though Meloni is carefully rephrasing many things she said in the past. Her agen da and the party agenda include ‘re forms’ that are anti-abortion laws,

anti-LGBTQIA+ laws and anti-immi grant laws. In short, they are a ho mophobic, transphobic, xenophobic and misogynistic party.”

She added that the election of Meloni “is similar to what happened in the U.S. with the [election of for mer President] Trump: … People who live in rural areas and who struggle financially and profes sionally disagree with mainstream left-wing politics. They see the pro gram and battles of the left as too intellectual and too far from their daily problems. Meloni managed to communicate with these people, she legitim[ized] their struggle and they voted for her.”

The election of Meloni is also remarkable when considering the political culture of her party. Meloni is the daughter of a single mother and is a single mother herself. Frau noted that “[Meloni] overcame gen der and managed to transcend her biggest [perceived] weakness, being a woman, in a deeply misogynistic political faction. Meloni won because she demonstrated [how] to be capa ble, strong, patient and coherent, all qualities that not many politicians … can claim.”

The question now is what im pact this will have on both domes tic Italian politics and Italy’s global role in going forward. The outcome depends on how effectively Meloni’s government can wield power, and how long they can remain the dom inant power.

When asked his thoughts on Meloni’s chances of forming a long term government, Christopher Mitchell, assistant professor of in ternational relations and politics at the College found it unlikely. “This is a fairly commanding victory for the three-party coalition led by Meloni and the Brothers of Italy, and the Brothers are dominant within that coalition, but there’s a lot of behindthe-scenes infighting,” he continued. “An additional complication is that the Brothers of Italy have never

been part of a governing coalition before, so they don’t have any mem bers with experience to fill Italy’s top posts.

… This creates a tension right out [of] the gate, as Meloni will be forced to choose between puting novices in key roles like for eign minister and treasury minister, giving those key posts to her junior partners who would love to toss and replace her, or drafting non-partisan technocrats.”

One of the first issues the new government will face is the question of continuing to support Ukraine in the war against Russia. Mitchell noted that Meloni herself has been supportive of Russia in the past, say ing, “Meloni has backed away from her previous support for Russia and hostility toward the EU and the U.S. If that remains the case, it will prob ably strain intra-EU and Italy-U.S. relations for a time, but not bring a real fundamental change, but it also could lead to a splintering in the proUkraine anti-Russia coalition if Italy goes soft on questions of support for Ukraine and economic sanctions on Russia.”

The future of many issues is un clear, but Mitchell concluded, “A lot of what happens next depends on how the Italian center and left re spond … If they can unite, they can be well-positioned to reap the ben efit if Meloni stumbles, but if they remain divided, that gives Meloni a lot more breathing-room to stumble and recover.”

Lecturer Alex King looks at cultural appropriation through philosophy

BY KIERA MCLAUGHLIN ’26 STAFF WRITER

On Wednesday, Sept. 28, Alex King, associate professor of philos ophy from Simon Fraser University, gave a lecture on cultural appropria tion. The Mount Holyoke department of philosophy hosted her lecture, “Cornrows and a Qipao: Cultural Appropriation and Objectifying the Other,” which was open to all stu dents and MHC faculty. During the lecture, King focused on her thesis, telling the audience how “cultural appropriation is wrong — generally speaking — when and because it ob jectifies the appropriatees.”

The room in Skinner Hall was packed with students and profes sors. King began by providing a definition of cultural appropriation.

In King’s words, cultural appropria tion “is — roughly — when a mem ber of one cultural group adopts … an object, style, etc. from a differ ent cultural group.” King explained why this definition isn’t foolproof, because in theory an oppressed cul ture would be able to appropriate, but as she explained, one can’t ap propriate “upwards.” An oppressed culture can take as much as they want from the dominant culture without losing any autonomy, unlike when a dominant culture takes from an oppressed group. In the end, an oppressed group appropriating “up wards,” as King justified, is basically assimilation.

As her talk continued, King il lustrated the “three types of existing accounts” of cultural appropriation.

The first focused on “cultural prop

erty accounts: What makes cultur al appropriation wrong is that it is a form of stealing others’ cultural property.” Throughout her explana tions, King clarified that Americans rely on a western colonialist idea of property, and asked questions like, “how do you define cultural owner ship?”

King’s second view of cultural appropriation is “reaction-based accounts: What makes cultural ap propriation wrong is some reaction from the appropriatees,” and she shared examples comparing how much offense someone takes, or how they object, or if they give reasons with their objection. King asked the audience questions like, “if someone doesn’t object [to appropriation] does that make it okay?

… Do peo ple have to provide reasons?

And

when they do provide reasons, does it become more about the reasons and less about the objectification itself?” Later in the lecture, King re turned to the idea of reaction-based wrongness and questioned why the wrongness of appropriation is based on how loud and intense the appro priatee objections are.

Finally, she focused on “oppres sion-based accounts: What makes cultural appropriation wrong is that it exacerbates or manifests op pression,” which she identified as appropriation that “causes econom ic harm, or … exacerbates inequali ties.” King followed with questions like: “What if someone [is] alone? Do their actions not affect others?” She suggested that this claim is con sequentialist and that it’s not clear enough when it comes to what’s

wrong about cultural appropriation.

After these explanations, King introduced her proposal that “cul tural appropriation is wrong when and because it objectifies the ap propriatees.” Through this state ment, she provided what objectifi cation entails: reducing someone or something to one definition, style or meaning and by doing so giving them less autonomy. She explained that objectification is to use someone for their culture and style because the objectifier thinks it’s “cool” or “exotic.” King analyzed how people use different cultural aesthetics to express themselves, and how most of the time they don’t take into account the meaning behind those objects, styles, and traditions. She described

Photo courtesy of Borreca nicola via Wikime dia Commons Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Brothers of Italy party, will likely be Italy’s next prime minister.

EPA creates Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights

BY SARAH GRINNELL ’26 STAFF WRITER

On Saturday, Sept. 24, the En vironmental Protection Agency launched a new office dedicated to environmental justice, MSNBC reported. Climate professionals be lieve this signifies a hopeful step to ward a future of climate policy that is equitable and cognizant of the needs of all, an article from the EPA said.

As stated on their website, the EPA is a federal agency charged with the protection of human and environmental welfare, overseeing a myriad of roles in relation to guar anteeing access to clean air, land and water, as well as creating laws pertaining to natural resources, en ergy, agriculture and industry. The EPA website says environmental justice is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all peo ple regardless of race, color, nation al origin or income, with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.” CNN reported that the new office for en vironmental justice will expand the EPA’s duties to better respond to the needs of underrepresented commu nities.

An article from CNN explains how the office will aim to strategical

ly crack down on the “disproportion ate harm that pollution and climate change has caused in low-income areas and communities of color.” To achieve this, the office will utilize $3 billion of the funds raised by the Inflation Reduction Act within its grant programs.

The senate’s recently unveiled Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed earlier this year, will provide $369 billion for “climate and clean energy provisions,” which, if execut ed, would reduce the United States’ carbon emissions by 40 percent, according to an article from CNBC. Over $60 billion of these funds will go toward environmental justice ini tiatives, with a focus on addressing the disproportionate impacts of pol lution on low-income and marginal ized communities.

Mount Holyoke director of sus tainability and associate director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment Raghu Raghavan ex pressed how “we have an extremely unequal society with the most mar ginalized, vulnerable people unable to fend for themselves as the climate catastrophe unfolds.” He continued, “If the problem of injustice is tack led, the climate crisis will be tack led.”

To Raghavan, this is the root phi losophy of environmental justice — the need to connect all the “various

diseases” and “discriminatory pro cesses that we have in our society” in a way that fosters “an equitable community … that has, if not erad icated, minimized very drastically the various discriminations that we have.” According to Raghavan, en vironmental policy is inseparable from social inequity, and therefore society must make strides to “build a healthy community based on . in terpersonal bonding” that can “tack le those disparities.”

EPA Administrator Michael Re

gan expressed a similar sentiment in the agency’s statement, accord ing to CNN. The statement detailed that “from day one, President Biden and [the] EPA have been commit ted to delivering progress on envi ronmental justice and civil rights and ensuring that underserved and overburdened communities are at the forefront of our work.” Regan’s statement continued, “With the launch of a new national program office, we are embedding environ mental justice and civil rights into

the DNA of [the] EPA and ensuring that people who’ve struggled to have their concerns addressed see action to solve the problems they’ve been facing for generations.”

Raghavan expressed cautious optimism regarding the new office. “Do I have hopes for it? Yes I do. But that’s not sufficient,” he said. “Like with any aspect of public engage ment and democracy, … it is import ant for us, meaning the citizenry, to always be vigilant and be engaged in ensuring that what this particular initiative of environmental justice promises, we see through to comple tion.”

According to Raghavan, the pas sage of the initiative itself, therefore, does not remotely signify the end of the battle. Instead, he urged that “we have to be vigilant and constantly participate to ensure that the prom ise is fulfilled.”

Ultimately, only time will tell whether the environmental justice office will serve as the first major springboard toward these necessary changes, but, as Raghavan empha sized, if Americans “take action” and hold this new office accountable to its promises, there could be potential to fix this crisis and catapult America into the future of socially-conscious environmental action required to combat the climate catastrophe in its entirety.

Whale Safe technology helps reduce whale deaths from ship collisions

BY LILY BENN ’24 STAFF WRITER

On Aug. 29, 2022, the San Fran cisco Bay saw its fifth-known inci dent of a whale being fatally struck by a ship, according to The Guard ian. This celebrity humpback whale was named Fran by whale-watcher Ferd Bergholz through the Oceanic Society, the Monterey Herald report ed.

According to The Guardian, Fran had been seen 277 documented times since her birth in 2005. Fran has now become one of over 100 doc umented whales killed between 1988 and 2012, according to The Guard ian. The article emphasizes how this may only be a small proportion of the real number, as most carcass es sink to the bottom of the ocean. The documented number reflects beached whales determined to have been killed by blunt force trauma in areas with lots of large ship traffic, such as San Francisco Bay.

This is especially a problem for endangered whale species. Endan gered species such as humpback whales and right whales spend most of their lives near the surface, in danger of being struck by large, fast-moving commercial ships. The Guardian cites a 2019 study by Va nessa Pirotta and others which re ferred to these whales as “ocean roadkill.” According to the World

Wide Fund for Nature, ship impact trauma on whales is one of the lead ing causes of death for the animals, as many international shipping and ferry lines overlap with the breeding and migration areas of endangered and non-endangered whale species.

In 2020, billionaire Marc Benioff developed Whale Safe, a technology he hoped would help alleviate this issue and save whales from being killed by the ships which share the ocean with them, according to an ar ticle from The Guardian.

The official Whale Safe website detailled how the AI technology

works as a series of ocean buoys with attached acoustic monitoring technology that work to identify pri marily blue, humpback and fin whale vocalizations. According to The Guardian, this is meant to allow the ships to slow down and avoid whales in their trajectory. It then combines the vocalization data with surface data of whale tracking and sighting to create an overall account of whale activity in the area for managers of ships and maritime shipping corpo rations, according to the Whale Safe website methodology.

According to The Guardian, as

James Webb Telescope photographs universe

For example, NASA reported that the images of Neptune’s rings from the telescope are clearer than any from the past 30 years. The view of Neptune was also captured when Voyager 2 detected rings during a flyby in 1989. Jane Rigby, an astro physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, wrote to Scientif ic American: “For me, looking at JWST’s new Neptune image is like catching up with a friend you haven’t seen in ten-plus years — and they look [great],” she said.

son, the Hubble telescope could only collect ultraviolet light and visible light in order to capture images from the galaxy, the NASA article said.

The article goes on to explain that while the Hubble Telescope makes locating dusty regions in the galaxy easier, the JWST ensures that these darker regions are no longer dark.

According to a NASA blog post, not everything has been running smoothly with all of the JWST’s sen sors.

of September 2022 this technology is in use around San Francisco and Santa Barbara, one of the busiest shipping channels around the west coast of the United States. According to Whale Safe’s 2021 data, 58 percent of captains receiving this informa tion cooperated and slowed down to a safer speed that was recommended by the National Oceanic and Atmo spheric Administration, the Coast Guard and the Environmental Pro tection Agency to reduce whale-ship impacts.

John Calambokidis, a senior research biologist and one of the founders of the Cascadia Research Collective, spoke to The Guardian about the new technology. Cascadia Research Collective is a non-profit organization which focuses on ma rine bird and mammal biology, and ecology of marine environments among other issues, according to their website.

Calambokidis told The Guardian that he supports the Whale Safe proj ect, as he believes it brings attention to the conservation of whales. How ever, he explained that he believes it is not a solution to the issue of whale death, as there are many pieces of data missing from this technology that are necessary to locate and thus protect the whales.

He explained that the measure of how many calls there are in a giv en area is not representative of how

many whales there are, as some spe cies of whale make more noise than others. Therefore, Calambokidis ex plains, that the data given to ships may mislead captains, as there may be more or less whales than calcu lated.

The Guardian also spoke with Cotton Rockwood, a senior marine ecologist from Point Blue Conserva tion Science, a non-profit organiza tion specializing in reducing impacts of environmental threats and devel oping “nature-based solutions” to help wildlife and people, according to their website.

In his interview with The Guard ian, Rockwood explained that the tracking data does not necessarily impact captains’ decisions when navigating their ships. Captains may disregard suggestions of heightened whale activity if they do not see whales at the water’s surface and are less likely to slow down in these situations.

The Guardian concludes that both biologists agree that Whale Safe technology is beneficial in spreading the word on the problem of ship-induced whale deaths. In the article, Calambokidis also suggests the addition of institutional changes to protect whales, such as speed re strictions for ships and the changing of shipping lanes to places where whales are less likely to live and mi grate.

BY DIKSHA BATRA ’26 STAFF WRITER

Since the James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Dec. 25, 2021, it has allowed the curiosity of the human mind to travel through space. The JWST has now been in space for almost nine months and has not disappointed with its re markable discoveries.

According to NASA’s webpage about the tele scope’s first images, scientists over the past few months have been able to acquire “full-color, … seemingly three-dimensional” pictures using the JWST. The clarity of its images is a result of the telescope’s multiple sensors and four-foot long mirror which allow it to observe galaxies that were formed 13.5 billion years ago.

Using the JWST, it is possible to see galaxies, such as IC 5332, in a new light, a view that was not possi ble with the Hubble Space Telescope. With the help of Hubble, scientists were able to learn that IC 5332 was a spiral galaxy and could see that the galaxy’s spiral arms are connected to each other. The JWST captures these images through a mid-infra red instrument, or MIRI. The MIRI covers a wavelength range of five to 28 microns and helps to detect light from distant galaxies, newly-form ing stars and faintly visible comets.

The MIRI is a complicated tech nology, because it can only operate in seven degrees Kelvin, or -266.15 degrees Celsius. Cyroccoller, the in strument that cools the MIRI, is used because any vibrations or heat re leased from the JWST can interfere with data collecting.

As explained by NASA, the MIRI helps capture infrared light, which can pass through the interstellar dust, granting scientists a more de tailed view of the galaxy. In compari

“On Aug. 24, a mechanism that supports [the MIRI] modes, known as the medium resolution spectros copy, exhibited what appears to be increased friction during setup for a science observation,” the blog ex plained. “This mechanism is a grat ing wheel that allows scientists to select between short, medium and longer wavelengths when making observations using the MRS mode.”

“Webb and Hubble show what we’ve always known to be true at NASA,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in an article from the ad ministration. “We learn more when we work together.”

According to a CBC news article, the JWST will continue to explore clusters of newly-found galaxies. It has already located clusters of stars formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. As explained by NASA, these images from the JWST will build on the work of the Hubble telescope to guide NASA’s under standings of the oldest galaxies and to uncover the darkest secrets of the universe.

how people take on aesthetics to advertise parts of themselves, but when someone takes from another culture, that person should be care ful about what they’re expressing.

At the end of King’s lecture, be fore she turned the floor to the stu dents and professors, King brought up some “underappreciated” cul tural appropriation accounts. For example, how “appropriative [acts] can change over time,” which she turned into a prompt for the audi ence, asking questions like: “Can you objectify extinct cultures? Or ones that have changed over time?” She also addressed the connections between cultural appropriation and its relationship with commodifica tion. She revealed that “commodi fication makes cultural objects into symbols of the cool [and] exotic,” and explained that it’s in the econo my’s best interest to reduce objects

to those core symbols. King’s final point was that appropriation can go beyond racial and ethnic ties, includ ing categories such as queer culture and social and economic class. She told the audience “unfortunately, but realistically … all kinds of people can be objectified.”

As soon as King’s lecture fin ished, many of the attending stu dents and professors had comments or questions about her studies.

When she opened the discussion, some students shared their own experiences with King and the rest of the audience. Because this event was hosted by the department of philosophy, the Q & A was set up dif ferently. Instead of asking clarifying questions, professors and students alike questioned King’s claims and research. The audience used the Q &

A to debate King’s lecture with her. King seemed to completely welcome this audience reaction, and created a great learning atmosphere.

Lecturer speaks on cultural appropriation in society,

Photo by Artemis Chen ’25 Alex King’s lecture in Skinner Hall explained her understanding of cultural appropriation’s harm.

More people need to start talking about long COVID

BY SILAS GEMMA ’26 STAFF WRITER

President Joe Biden’s “60 Min utes” interview remarks on Sept. 18, 2022, during which he declared that “the pandemic is over,” serve as a painful confirmation that the institu tions meant to protect us — namely the government — have neglected the American public in the face of a more subliminal, yet similarly-grave ailment: long COVID. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that long COVID is a term used to refer to a variety of condi tions that develop after a COVID-19 infection.

Per the CDC, long COVID con ditions cannot be identified until at least four weeks after infection. Symptoms include brain fog, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, sleep prob lems, shortness of breath, stomach pain, joint and muscle pain, heart palpitations and headaches among other symptoms. According to a TIME article, long COVID can per sist from a few weeks or months for some patients, but can extend years for others. People who suf fer from these chronic post-COVID conditions were dubbed “COVID long-haulers” in TIME.

As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in the United States less than three years ago, it is impossi ble to truly tell how debilitating long COVID will be over the coming de cades. The alarming warnings about COVID-19 broadcast at the forefront of the pandemic have diminished in 2022.

The pleas for help from those experiencing post-COVID conditions are going largely unanswered as our leaders desert the fight against the pandemic, seemingly content to live with COVID-19 while attempting to achieve a sense of normalcy. The recent statements from President Biden confirm a government men tality of insouciance about the pan demic.

The relaxing of COVID-19 poli cies at educational institutions such as Mount Holyoke College also ex emplify the growing indifference to the threat of COVID-19 on compar atively smaller scales. This indif ference has proved deadly and will have long-term economic and health implications that many are not will ing to grapple with.

In the nascent stages of the pan demic, health care officials as well as the general public were primar ily concerned with the short-term effects of COVID-19, which includ ed symptoms experienced during

the infectious period as well as the possibilities of hospitalization and death during this window. Yet it has become apparent that the strain on health care systems across the globe will continue as researchers discov er alarming chronic health condi tions stemming from prior COVID-19 infections.

As stated in a TIME arti cle from Sept. 22, 2022, these health conditions include organ failure, which may lead to a litany of health risks down the line. TIME reports that scientists have attributed long COVID to an increase in the risk of developing dementia or cardiovas cular conditions. The hodgepodge of potential symptoms and the varying ways they may manifest have posed a barrier for properly diagnosing the issue and yielding treatments.

The uncertainty also trickles into the etiology of this condition.

A TIME article suggests that long COVID may be attributed to seg ments of the SARS-CoV-2 virus still in the body, the resurgence of pre viously-dormant viruses and even blood clots. The CDC notes that there are many parallels between long COVID and other chronic conditions, likely stemming from a post-infection immune reaction, such as myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic-fatigue syndrome.

Aside from the personal health costs that come with long COVID, the aggregate monetary costs are staggering. The Brookings Institu tion estimates $170 billion of wages annually has been lost in the Unit ed States as a result of long COVID unemployment, but its report aptly points out that this number does not take into account the decreases in productivity among sufferers who are currently working or the costs for the health care system.

The Brookings Institution addi tionally cites a June 2022 survey by the Census Bureau that suggests that out of approximately 16 million Americans of working age who have long COVID, two to four million are not currently working as a direct re sult of their condition.

The wide latitude granted to these statistics confirms the overall uncertainty that surrounds this con dition, supporting the idea that mil lions of people could be suffering in silence or conflating their symptoms with other conditions.

Although government officials are aware of the crisis, they continue to skirt around it in an attempt to di vert the public’s attention from their negligence. The measures they have enacted to combat long COVID are mostly performative and have been

insufficient to address the situation.

As TIME reported, in 2020, Con gress allocated more than $1 billion to the National Institutes of Health for long COVID studies. Although it may seem like a significant contri bution, it has not been adequate to change how the NIH coordinates and runs its studies.

There have been a variety of pro posals and studies surrounding long COVID, both indicators that there are scientists who are actively work ing to find solutions, but the lack of a concerted effort on a broader scale has disillusioned those experienc ing post-COVID conditions, who are anxious for a reprieve.

This desperation and sense of desertion by both the government and health care leaders is only com pounded when considering the re scission of preventative measures that were put in place at the begin ning of the pandemic.

A TIME article reports that the CDC no longer recommends mask mandates, social distancing or as ymptomatic testing for most people.

This backstepping is not only seen with the decisions of the CDC, but

also with various state and local in stitutions such as schools and uni versities, including Mount Holyoke’s own halt of twice-weekly asymptom atic testing.

The idea that long COVID is a rarity or is only seen in groups such as the unvaccinated, immunocom promised or elderly is a dangerous misconception.

Educational institutions such as Mount Holyoke need to be informed about the effects that post-COVID conditions may have on the student body. Due to the neurobiological and overall physical changes that can come with long COVID, schools need to be more prepared to provide for their students beyond the infectious period.

The significant impediments that long COVID brings to the learn ing process necessitates concrete and persistent action. The uncertain ty or newness of symptoms makes it more difficult for students to speci fy what they are experiencing, but more information needs to be dis persed in order to build a network of aid and keep students informed.

The Los Angeles Times report

ed that each COVID-19 re-infection also compounds the risk for the de velopment of long-COVID or could exacerbate or trigger long COVID symptoms. The common defeatist sentiment that COVID-19 is just going to continue to run its course through the population and that there is nothing else that can be done is hazardous.

The menace of long COVID em phasizes that higher-education in stitutions, such as Mount Holyoke, need to be cognizant of the situation and continue implementing preven tative measures to keep their stu dents safe. Two and a half years into the pandemic, Mount Holyoke stu dents are aware of the devastating impacts that COVID-19 shutdowns can have on an educational, psycho logical and social level.

The call for more stringent COVID-19 measures stems from a desire to keep the campus open and able to provide students with a rich college experience.

Looking back at her high school experience with COVID-19 restric tions, Rida Naveed ’26 is looking for ward to an in-person college experi ence, especially as a STEM major, as she recounts difficulties with com pleting labs virtually in high school. “I think the concept of weekly test ing, or at least biweekly testing, is something that should be taken into consideration by the [College] ad ministration,” Naveed said, “because [COVID-19] does impact a lot of peo ple in the MHC community.”

Naveed also stressed the impor tance of masking, especially when in large gatherings. The lack of testing is also creating an environment of uncertainty.

“I’d be much more comfortable if we lifted the mask mandate if we were testing because we don’t know if we can take masks off or not,” Mol ly Brown ’25 said, pointing out that a COVID-19-positive person may not develop symptoms immediately.

She adds that “finding a balance between liberties and precautions” is important, acknowledging that COVID-19 is not something that is going to disappear.

The maintenance or reinstate ment of college COVID-19 policies will not only reduce the short-term risks of having the virus, but also the possibly devastating long-term impacts that COVID-19 can have.

As much of the world moves on, it is becoming more and more clear that the time is now to amplify our voic es, educate others, build community and collaborate to find solutions to this suppressed pandemic.

French theater company comes to Mount Holyoke, cont’d

the United States.

After bridging the two timelines, the screen behind Bayiha lights up again, with images of protests world wide calling for Davis’ release from prison. Atop of the photos reads the text “Free Angela [Davis]” in various languages. Returning to the topic of her imprisonment, Davis highlights the intersection of her identities, be ing both Black and a woman, along side her affiliation with communism, as reasons for her mistreatment at the hands of the judicial system.

She asks the audience: What does it mean to be Black, a woman and a communist? What could three identities and three felony charges add up to? Davis gives us two out comes; the first, she says, would be the triumph of the white establish ment, a life sentence. But the second, more hopeful outcome, was “revolu tion to the power of three.” Davis envisions a revolution incorporat ing Black, feminist and communist movements, echoing the sentiment expressed at the beginning of the play, that feminism is not about is sues solely faced by women.

At this moment, the images on the screen have changed. Instead of showing the worldwide protests in support of Davis, it depicts images of protesters holding signs that say things like “Justice for Breonna Tay lor” or standing defiant against po lice, all in the same black-and-white color as before.

Director Paul Desveaux ex plained the choice to convert the cur rent images into black-and-white to demonstrate a coherent story, that today’s struggles can connect back to protests of the ’60s and ’70s. As these images play on the screen, Da vis continues to deliver her speech about how her identities intersected

in a way that made her a symbol of a movement while at the same time acknowledging that if these events had not happened to her, they would have happened to another woman just like her. The takeaway, it seems, is that a movement’s strength lies not in its leaders, but in the collec tive.

After viewing the play and learn ing about Davis’ travels abroad, per haps the idea of a French history of the United States makes more sense.

Before the show, Assistant Professor of Religion Meredith Coleman-Tobi as introduced the play as “A French company on American soil — in keeping with Davis’ multi-sited life story,” and spoke about the after math of Davis’ release from prison, traveling the world and “extend[ing]

the longheld African American and broader diaspora tradition of find ing and sustaining allied networks outside of our home countries — encouraging camaraderie neither through proximity nor passport — but rather based within sociopoliti cal conviction and sheer nerve.”

In an interview, Bayiha agreed with Desveaux that “This story is not only a story of the United States, because yes, we are French. I am French, and I know Angela Davis. I admire her. She’s an international figure, and I think that her fight, her story, in a way, belongs to everybody. … I am also a Black woman, I am also a woman, so I know, and I feel, I had lived, also, not all the things that she lived, but I know what she means, I know it, and I totally agree

with her thoughts. … In France, we face a lot of things that are not totally the same [as] here, but in a way we can compare them, because police repression, the violence of the state, the racism of the state, of the society, we can feel it and live it also in France. So it’s not so far, for us. It’s in a way, the same fight even if it is not really the same story.”

Just as Angela Davis attended college in Massachusetts and studied abroad, Mount Holyoke students are all members of a multicultural, inter national academic community based in Massachusetts. French-American student Elizabeth Murray ’26 said af ter the performance in French, that not only did she thoroughly enjoy the play, but that “It was also really nice to see a piece in French. It felt like a slice of home. It’s one of the pros of being bilingual that I can en joy art like this.”

However, the play also resonat ed with non-French speakers, like Dominique Smith ’26. “As a begin ner French speaker, I decided to go to the play to get some extra prac tice with the language. But instead, I found myself mesmerized by such an amazing take on the life of Ange la Davis. From the [musical] beats to the acting, this theatrical perfor mance was both fun and so informa tive about this important figure in history.”

While for Murray, the play’s mul ticultural aspect was a way to bring part of her home life here to Mount Holyoke, for Smith, it was a way of broadening her horizons to other cultures. But the play has a reso nance at Mount Holyoke not only culturally but historically.

In her opening remarks, Pro fessor Coleman-Tobias spoke about Mount Holyoke’s own historical connections to the Black feminist movement as a meeting point of the

Combahee River Collective and in tellectual home, past and present, to Black feminists such as Barbara Smith and Professor Sarah Stefana Smith — “At moments, Mount Holy oke has been a friend of Black femi nist thought,” she said.

Given Mount Holyoke’s connec tions to both the international com munity and Black feminism, much can be gleaned from this play. First, a major theme is the tension between thought and action. Davis finds herself torn between studying phi losophy and putting it into practice on the ground, eventually situating herself at the University of Califor nia Los Angeles’ urban campus and taking on the role of scholar-activist.

People often write off small lib eral arts colleges like Mount Holy oke as too insular, particularly due to academia’s tendency to consider issues at the abstract, systemic level without considering the real-world implications.

Angela Davis shows that it is possible to combine academia and activism to enact change. Further more, Davis’ worldwide resonance demonstrates the importance of global solidarity and allyship.

When asked what she hopes Mount Holyoke students will take away from her play, Bayiha said, “I think it’s very important … to nour ish our spirit, our minds. It’s very important to have notions [and] to learn.

… Like Angela Davis, I believe also that then, … you have to act. You have to make acts, to transform your thoughts, your mind, into acts. That’s the most important, because the things don’t have to stay in our head. …We need to interconnect each other. Intersectionality. … I believe in that. …You cannot fight for one struggle. You don’t have to choose one struggle. They are all in terconnected.”

Photo

of Yuriy Ivanov

Angela

Graphic by Natasha Nagarajan

Books of poetry to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

BY AMELIA POTTER ’26 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article men tions child abuse, mental illness, racism and racialized violence.

Lasting from mid-September to mid-October, National Hispan ic Heritage Month is a time during which the cultural contributions and histories of those with Hispanic ancestry are commemorated. The three texts listed below are books of verse by contemporary Hispanic authors.

‘Magnificent Errors’ by Sheryl Luna

This collection of poems details the experiences of individuals of ten marginalized in society such as immigrants, addicts and homeless people. According to Notre Dame Press, the book “stems from Luna’s personal experiences in transition al housing after being temporarily homeless.”

Luna uses evocative and atmo spheric language throughout the book, assuming an array of per spectives ranging from the explo ration of mental health challenges to artistic mediums in order to em phasize the strength and resilience of the subjects. In the book, she re counts her own childhood difficul ties with abuse and mental illness with vulnerability. The Notre Dame Press described Luna’s stories as “lyrical, narrative and often highly personal.”

Luna grew up in El Paso, Tex as, and earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Texas in Con temporary Literature. “Magnificent Errors” won Luna the 2022 Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry. Her initial collection, “Pity the Drowned Hors es,” garnered the Adrés Montoya Poetry Prize for emerging Latinx poets in 2005.

‘Living on Islands Not Found on Maps’ by Luivette Resto

“Living on Islands Not Found on Maps” is a wide-ranging assem blage of poems with a flow that feels “both playfully wise and nec

essary,” board member Urayoán Noel of The Latinx Project wrote on their website. Resto explores differ ent stylistic choices for her verses, including lists and villanelles. The main theme of Resto’s collection is her “moving depiction of the beauty and struggle of interlingual urban lives,” Noel continued in his review. With forceful honesty, Resto also tackles issues seemingly polar in scope — from politics, violence and gun control to gender, sexuality and R.B.F. — “resting bitch face.”

Luivette Resto was born in Puerto Rico, grew up in the Bronx and does most of her work in Los Angeles, CA. “Living on Islands Not Found On Maps” is her third book of po ems. She previously authored “Un finished Portrait” and “Ascension,” both of which feature the wisdom and humor that have become her trademark.

‘Desgraciado (the collected let ters)’ by Angel Dominguez “Desgraciado (the collected letters)” is organized in the form of letters directed toward Diego de Landa, a Roman Catholic Bish op who historically endeavored to eradicate the Mayan written lan guage and culture, as Britannica reported. According to a Goodreads synopsis, Dominguez writes with “critical and tender language,” to explore the “material violence and generational trauma of colonization and systemic racism stored within queer, Latinx memory.”

Nightboat Books writes that the collection “doesn’t seek to heal the incurable wound of colonization so much as attempt to rearticulate a language towards recuperation.” Thus, Dominguez stresses that a reckoning is necessary to reframe the lingering harm of colonialism and the consequential generational trauma it caused.

Dominguez was raised in Cali fornia by immigrant parents and is of Yucatec Maya descent. They at tended the University of California Santa Cruz and Naropa University. Dominguez is the author of the poet ry collections “ROSESUNWATER” and “Black Lavender Milk.”

English department’s new faculty members showcase their writing

BY JUDE BARRERA ’24 STAFF WRITER

Content warning: This article men tions sexual abuse and colonial vio lence.

Students and faculty alike gath ered in the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum to attend readings by Mount Holyoke visiting lecturers T Kira Madden and Lucas de Lima, two new faculty members in the En glish department. The reading took place in the John and Norah War beke Gallery where the crowd was surrounded by works depicting land scapes in the Northeastern U.S., in cluding “View of Mount Holyoke” by David John Gue and “Hetch Hetchy Canyon” by Albert Bierstadt. Both professors took attendees out of the surrounding Massachusetts land scape and into other cities during their readings.

Visiting lecturer in English T Kira Madden was introduced first, her notable accomplishments in cluding service as editor-in-chief of the literary magazine “No To kens,” author of her memoir, “Long Live The Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir” and training as an “am ateur magician,” according to her website. Madden chose to read a passage from her forthcoming nov el, “Whidbey,” which detailed the protagonist’s ferry ride to Whidbey Island. On the ferry ride, the pro tagonist meets an overly-friendly stranger who strikes up a conver sation with her, leading the protag onist to reveal her purpose in fleeing Florida. Madden’s reading explored themes of sexual abuse, misogyny and queerness. The crowd was silent as they listened to Madden’s text.

He was “handsome for a man,” Madden recited, drawing soft chuck les from around the room.

“I hated men,” Madden contin ued, leading to a raucous response.

“Whidbey” currently has no re lease date, but Madden gave an esti mated publishing date of 2025 when asked by a member of the audience during the Q&A portion of the event.

“This new book is split between Whidbey Island in the Pacific and Florida,” Madden said. Madden grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, and the excerpt she read had many ref erences to the state, including men tions of EPCOT, Coral Gables and

New NCAA constitution discusses financial compensation for Division I college athletes

BY GENEVIEVE ZAHNER ’26 STAFF WRITER

The National Collegiate Ath letic Association has been a lucra tive institution since its inception in 1906, bringing in millions of dol lars in revenue every year from its participating schools. The way the NCAA operates has long seemed set in stone, but over the years the question of whether or not Division I student-athletes should be paid has risen to prominence following con versations about the monetization of athletes’ name, image and like ness. Developed in January 2022, a new NCAA constitution that focuses on managing financial benefits for student-athletes and decision-mak ing authority within Division I con ferences went into effect on Aug. 1, 2022, according to an NCAA press release.

The NCAA has undergone scru tiny for the lack of financial compen sation for its athletes. Many believe that these athletes deserve salaries for the amount of effort and com mitment they give to their college or university, as well as the copious amounts of revenue they bring in per season. According to Sportico, the NCAA made 1.16 billion dollars in revenue in 2021, with over 85 per cent of that income generated from the March Madness basketball tour nament alone.

Additionally, the NCAA has been involved in multiple legal battles over whether or not student-athletes should be paid. Associated Press News stated that a Supreme Court ruling from June 2021 held that the organization is not allowed to limit education-related benefits, such as paid internships, study abroad and graduate programs. However, there was no official ruling on salaries for athletes. The new NCAA constitu

tion states that student-athletes are prohibited from receiving financial benefits from participating institu tions for taking part in sports, but may receive educational and oth er benefits in accordance with the guidelines of their athletic division, as reported by CNBC. Unlike Divi sion I schools, the change will likely have little effect on Division II and III institutions, which do not offer ath letic scholarships.

“It seems as though the colleges are finding a way around the payfor-play by labeling these financial benefits as ‘educational benefits,’” Mount Holyoke Lacrosse athlete Hannah Bisson ’24, who is interested in a career in sports management for college athletics, said. “I think for Di vision [III] athletes, we have a great er focus on academics than Division I and II schools, and adding a salary for us would emphasize the impor tance of athletics rather than aca demics. This might cause Division [III] athletes to focus more or all of their attention on athletics and disre gard their academics.” Student-ath letes are already able to be paid by third parties for usage of their name,

image or likeness, but the discussion of whether they should be provided with salaries is still yet to be had, U.S. News reported.

In the past, the NCAA’s Gov erning Board was a committee of 21 members, composed of athletic directors and university presidents, who reported to the Division I Board of Directors, as reported by U.S. News and World Report. This panel is now being trimmed down to nine members, which is made up of six members across the three divisions: four from Division I and one each from Divisions II and III. There are also two independent members, as well as one graduated student-ath lete. There is an additional stu dent-athlete on the board to serve as a non-voting member. Neither iteration of the committee had rep resentation from every conference in Division I.

“I think the panel should have a member from each Division [I] school … Every school should be included in the decision-making pro cess because each school might have

Coral Springs. When asked why she incorporates her home state into her writings in an interview with Mount Holyoke News, Madden replied that “Florida is one of those places where a lot of people flee, … but it’s a place, I believe, that always has its fangs in you.” Madden’s connection to Flori da is omnipresent in “Whidbey” as the protagonist finds herself contin ually thinking of her home, even as she leaves it.

Visiting Professor in English Lucas de Lima was introduced next. They conducted their recitation while wearing a velvet costume gown with the pattern of two chick enson the skirt, complete with a cloth headdress adorned with an image of a blue eye. The headdress had an attached veil, which obscured their face from the audience as they recited during the first portion of the reading. Lima noted the en semble was making its debut at the reading. When moving on to a new section, de Lima ripped the veil off from the headdress. The costume was designed by the Georgian art ist Uta Bekaia, who is a friend of de Lima. Bekaia’s work focuses on art as a performance. The designer de scribes these ensembles as “wear able sculptures” on his website.

Author of “Wet Land” and mul tiple chapbooks, according to the Birds LLC website, de Lima read from their upcoming book “Tropical Sacrifice.” Their reading centered on Brazil’s history of colonialism, Black Indigeneity and their queer iden tity. “Tropical Sacrifice” explores the speaker’s romance with a man named Pinto. Pinto is Portuguese for a baby chicken, but de Lima ex

plained to the audience that it can also be used to refer to a penis. The excerpts de Lima read from meld ed human and animal nature and through the book the speaker be comes the sacrificial chicken. When speaking on their work, de Lima not ed that “having the immigrant expe rience [in the United States] really shaped [them]” and impacted how they discuss race.

After the reading, copies of both professors’ books were on sale out side the gallery, including Madden’s memoir “Long Live the Tribe of Fa therless Girls and advanced copies of de Lima’s “Tropical Sacrifice.” Audience members lined up to pur chase a copy and have their books signed, also taking the opportunity to speak with Madden and de Lima individually.

When asked what drew them to Mount Holyoke College, Madden said that Mount Holyoke “seems like a place that really emphasizes community care outside of more toxic, hierarchical institutions, and that really spoke to me.” De Lima emphasized that they were “drawn by being in a place [that is] gender inclusive and … [has a] dynamic ap proach to teaching.”

Both de Lima and Madden are teaching Introduction to Creative Writing courses during the Fall 2022 semester. Though it has only been a few weeks since beginning to teach at the College, the lecturers have felt welcomed by colleagues and students alike. “Everyone is super approachable and open minded,” de Lima said. Madden echoed the senti ment and said, “Everyone has been incredibly kind to me.”

Volleyball defeats Wellesley College for first time since 1994

BY EMILY TARINELLI ’25 SPORTS EDITOR

For the first time since 1994, Mount Holyoke Volleyball bested Wellesley College in a home match on Saturday, Oct. 1. The Lyons sprung back from a 2-0 disadvan tage, winning the last three sets to defeat the Blue 3-2 (17-25, 22-25, 2515, 25-15 and 15-10). The match was also the Lyons’ first triumph of the season over a fellow New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Confer ence member.

“It felt pretty good to finally beat Wellesley, especially since it’s my last season with the team. … I almost didn’t realize how big it was until our coach jumped up to celebrate with the team,” volleyball player Mar Simon ’23 said.

“Knowing that not only was this our first conference win of the season but that it had been 28 years since we had beaten them made the win all the more special and sat isfying,” team member Lucie Ber claz ’25 said. “The fact that we had been down 2-0 at the beginning of the match and came back to win … really showed the resilience of our team.”

Leading the Lyons were Simon

and Marion Abeja ’23, who secured 10 kills each. McKenna Crosby ’23, who had a match-high kill percent age of 0.389, captured eight kills while Elle Rimando ’26 made six, Madeline Barton ’26 made five and Berclaz and Sadie Duffrin ’26 made one apiece. Together, Mount Holy oke totaled 41 kills and a kill per centage of 0.162.

Berclaz had a match high of 17 digs, trailed by Abeja’s 15 digs and Barton’s 13 digs. Simon and Duffrin made nine digs each while Crosby claimed two digs. Overall, the Lyons performed 65 digs. Simon also had a match high of four service aces.

Mount Holyoke also counted 18 block assists, with five from Riman do, four from Crosby and Abeja, two from Simon and Duffrin and one from Barton. Rimando had the team’s only block solo of the match.

Mount Holyoke Volleyball’s sea son record is 7-7 overall. Next up, the Lyons will face Western New En gland University on Friday, Oct. 7, in a home match at 6 p.m.

“I have complete faith in [the team] to beat Wellesley again,” Simon said. “I can see this team making it a regular [routine to] win against Wellesley in [the] years to come.”

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons The new NCAA constitution, which discusses student-athelete benefits, went into effect on Aug. 1.

Photo courtesy of MHC Athletics Elle Rimando ’26 made six kills in the volleyball match vs. Wellesley College on Saturday, Oct. 1.

Photo courtesy of Kylie Gellatly

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Disability Services trials Glean, cont’d

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sure at this time how many stu dents will use Glean and how many will continue to use peer note-tak ers. Murphy expressed concern over the prospect of not being able to rely on the note-taker job as a source of income.

“As a low income student, I real ly appreciate having a job like that where I can just go to class and not have it take up extra time,” Murphy said. “I think that there are a lot of other people like me on this campus that could really use these jobs.”

Jenny Watermill, a Senior Asso ciate Director at the Career Develop ment Center, explained that in 2018, student jobs were lost when the new Blanchard Community Center was opened. When this happened, the Student Employment Office worked with other campus supervisors to of fer new student jobs. She stated that they will do a similar thing if a sig nificant amount of student jobs are lost to Glean.

“If the new notetaking system does ultimately reduce student jobs in Disability Services, we will again develop and implement a strategy that ensures our work-study-eligible students continue to have adequate access to student jobs,” Watermill said.

One known drawback of Glean is that it is not entirely compatible with language classes. “Languages are the one [difficulty] that we know about given we’ve talked to other col leges and [asked] them when they’ve … struggled with Glean,” Ross said. Glean doesn’t offer transcriptions for other languages, but students can still take notes in other languag es and listen to recorded lectures.

Ruiz Garcia, who opted out of us ing Glean this semester, expressed concerns over Glean’s transcription function, noting that they believe it may be difficult for Glean to pick up what everyone says when they are wearing masks.

“So if certain things don’t get transcribed down and you don’t catch them on your notes, it’d be kind of difficult to go back and make sure you got everything,” Ruiz Gar cia said. “If you did go back and lis ten to the audio, you’d kind of have to listen to the whole class lecture to … be sure that you got everything down.”

Ross is aware that there could be issues with the quality of the tran scription, but noted that it is hard to know how big of an issue that is at this time. “That might be something else that we [will] probably work with students if they’re having trou ble or if their transcription is consis

tently showing up wonky. … Glean is also pretty … responsive about get ting feedback.”

One anonymous Mount Holyoke student said that they signed up to use Glean for one of their cours es and then almost immediately switched back to using a peer note taker.

“It didn’t function well for my needs. The system it uses for notes doesn’t work with how I prefer to take notes, and the general interface didn’t flow well for me at all,” the anonymous student said. “I stopped using it because it would have made note taking more difficult for me … It’s a very audio centered approach, which isn’t great for me because I process written information better.”

However, while they explained that they are not planning on try ing Glean again in the future, they “would consider trying Glean again if it could be used in conjunction with a notetaker, at least for a trial period.”

Ross is hopeful about Glean and encourages students to approach the new software with an open mind. “It’s a tool for managing characteris tics of a disability,” Ross said. “And sometimes even that switch is diffi cult, which I understand, but what I’m hoping that most folks do is that they give it a try.”

dodie releases new EP ‘Hot Mess,’ cont’d

safe place, I think because now there’s … boundaries of floaty vague ness of lyrics.” In her new EP “Hot Mess,” dodie isn’t afraid to show new sides of herself, continuing to push against her sanitized percep tion by some fans and building on the musical prowess unleashed in “Build A Problem.” According to an 8/10 review from Gigwise, “Long gone are the days of ukuleles, sun flowers and ‘dodie yellow,’ with both “Build A Problem” and “Hot Mess” signifying a shift towards a greater sense of musical maturity.” The new EP breaks the mold with and jumps between fast-paced songs like “Hot Mess” and “Got Weird” and the two final songs, “Lonely Bones” and “No Big Deal (I Love You)” whose soft, floating tones recall dodie’s older EPs like “Intertwined” and “Hu man,” but with a more refined edge. “Hot Mess,” the titular first song, encapsulates the worries and adren aline of the start of a new year after heartbreak, with lyrics like, “Wake up, do the same thing / Breakup, then we’re dancing” and “Hack it that I hate you so that I can let go.” In an Artist’s Guide for DORK Magazine, dodie said the song was “the result of the messiest, most intense, pain ful and exhilarating start to the year. It’s a wonky, dramatic but playful cy cle — charging forward but around and around, again and again.” The song carries through that cyclical feeling with a dizzying rhythm and quick lyrics that jump from emotion to emotion, like “brain rot in a pretty dress / I’m a hot mess” to “God, 27 / still crying in cars,” which reference the theme of time passing and — as someone who has many videos of themself crying on the internet — the amount of emotional vulnerabili ty she is able to put out there.

“Got Weird” is the second song on the track and is currently the most streamed on the EP, with over two million streams on Spotify. The song has a drum beat and lower vo cals atypical to much of dodie’s dis cography and is almost more remi niscent of Harry Style’s “Music For A Sushi Restaurant” than “Human.” “Got Weird” covers the breakdown of “a kiss with a girl on a date follow ing a faux-confident arrangement,” according to the Artist’s Guide, and the piecing-together of the anxieties that can come up due to internalized biphobia and lack of representation of sapphic relationships. “Take a deep breath, a big stretch, baby,” their lyrics instruct, leaving the lis tener wondering if she’s talking to herself or the audience, hoping “It’ll feel like a movie, maybe,” the next lyric imagining a “Pep talk in a bath room corner.” “Got Weird” allows dodie’s subject matter to mature, the lighting in the music video flashes mimicking a club and the lyric vid eo shows her passionately kissing a

window. When a fan asked if a music video for “Got Weird” was coming, dodie responded on Twitter with, “There’s a really fucking weird lyric video you’re gonna hate it and I can’t wait,” playfully reveling testing the boundaries of her online perception.

On Sept. 30th, dodie held a mid night release livestream for the EP on YouTube where she played the third track “Lonely Bones” live. They said “Lonely Bones” was one of her favorite songs she’s made, and that their favorite lyrics in the album are in the song’s second verse, which reads, “Over the bridge to midnight / Friends sleep obliviously thick / Something’s making me sick.” “It’s about when I visited Australia in 2015 and I was really spacey, and I didn’t know at the time what that was ― I now know, it’s derealization,”dodie told the stream, “I was sleeping in my friend Fiona’s room, Evan was sleeping next to me, everyone was sleeping and I just felt mental. I was like ‘This is crazy that everyone else is unconscious and I am just ill.’ So that’s that line. I’m glad I got it in a song because I don’t know, it feels useful now, you know, rather than just like, a hellhole.”

“Lonely Bones” is reminiscent of older work beloved by fans such as “When,” which chronicles the feeling of trying to parse out what it is you’re going through at the be ginning of a mental health journey, but is enhanced by polished mu sical interludes that dodie has de scribed as fluttering. Finally, there is “No Big Deal (I Love You),” a soft song about not saying ‘I love you” and minimizing it as “no big deal.” The piano creates a reflective, mel ancholy tone that makes it easy to imagine. When dodie answered questions on their livestream one commenter asked, “How much did you cry while making this EP?” and dodie responded with, “I actually cried a lot when I was rehearsing this song, the last song, called ‘No Big Deal (I Love You),’ because time had passed and that was sad for me and my band members just kind of sat there while I sobbed and I was like, ‘I need to rehearse, just keep going,’ and they were like laughing through it, because what else can you do when you’re sobbing so hard you can’t sing, or speak, or breathe.”

While the emotional vulnerability comes through in the lyrics and sto ry, details about the relationship or personal information is absent. The audience can clearly hear dodie say “this was sad for me,” choose not to elaborate and build healthier bound aries with her fan base. When asked about what they were most proud of about the EP during the livestream, dodie immediately replied, “how different it is.” Through its loveable elements, genre-swapping and excel lent lyrics, the EP brings a new side of dodie to the table that is blowing fans away.

New NCAA constitution proposes restructuring athletic divisions, cont’d

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a different opinion,” Bisson said. “Some Division [I] schools have teams that bring in a lot of revenue from their good sports teams, and they would be more able to provide educational benefits to their student athletes.

“Schools that are not as well-off financially end up not being able to provide as many educational bene fits to their student-athletes, possi bly resulting in the school continu ing in a downward trend; they might not be able to recruit the most talent ed athletes because they cannot pro vide as much to them,” Bisson con tinued. “If these schools’ opinions are not accounted for, it isn’t fair.”

One point discussed in the cre ation of the new constitution was about the budget disparity between schools in Division I. Division I is made up of 350 schools, including larger schools such as Texas A&M University, which have sports bud gets of about 200 million dollars, as well as smaller schools which have budgets of less than 10 million dol lars allocated for sports. The com mittee discussed many ideas in cre ating the new constitution, but there

were major questions of what the requirements are for being classi fied as Division I, and how revenue is shared among the division when bigger conferences are bringing in more money. Division I has become inflated with schools, which led to the question of whether the NCAA should make a sub division out of Division I with a different governing body and different funding strate gies. Wealthier conferences such as the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten are less concerned than the smaller conferences about how revenue should be distribut ed among schools and how money should be spent on athletes for uni forms, facilities and coaching staff, as reported by CNBC.

Division I faces a large overturn in who controls decision-making in the wake of the new constitution with new guiding principles and values. This new constitution will give more power to schools and conferences, allowing each division to govern themselves, according to CNBC. The restructuring of Division I will take time, but the process has already begun and will continue to develop as college sports seasons progress.