Mount Holyoke News AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1917 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2021
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College operations suffer from staffing shortages Guard to compensate for school bus driver shortages across the state. James Hartley, chair of the Mount Mount Holyoke College is facing the Holyoke economics department, says same staffing shortages that have been incentives not to work can be narrowed affecting the rest of the country since down to three factors: unemployment the start of the pandemic. Employment benefits, the eviction moratorium and in the United States is down nearly 3 fear of COVID-19. “The general phenomenon, we can million jobs from March 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, say, is you think about why people want with about half of those jobs coming to go to work in the first place,” Hartley from the food industry. The 1.5 million explained. You go to work because you workers who have not yet returned want the income from the work.” “If you were making $40,000 if you make up about 12 percent of the food inwere going to work and $38,000 if you dustry’s workforce. Mount Holyoke’s campus is no ex- stayed home — do you want to work ception. Dining Services is still under- for 40 or stay home for 38?” Hartley staffed. Chisato Kimura ’22, a student said. “Everybody will have a number at dining manager who oversees student which they’ll say, ‘I want to go to work.’” Employers, he continued, have a employees working in the Dining Commons, estimates the school is still look- choice: they can offer higher wages now and attempt to win ing to fill roughly 10 back workers, or they full-time positions. “A lot of [the “Mount Holyoke doesn’t pay can wait for workers to lose their incentives to work] has kind of enough. For its student work- stay home and return come on[to] the ers; for its full-time staff. ... at the same pre-panstudents,” Kimura They don’t pay enough, so ob- demic wages. said. “We’ve had a In a survey conlot of great student viously people aren’t going to ducted by One Fair cashiers who have work.” Wage, as published really stepped up, in Time, 76 percent of because we don’t - Chisato Kimura ’22 food service employhave as many caees said low wages shiers as we used was one of their top to, and all the students are doing great in stations — but five reasons for leaving, and 55 percent cited concerns about COVID-19 as one definitely a lot of shortages.” Kimura noted that the number of of their top five reasons. “The awful truth is that hundreds of student workers in dining reaches nearly 400, and the open positions give more thousands of people have died, and a lot people opportunities to work, especially of those people were service industry as the College has capped each student’s workers, so it’s unfortunately not super surprising to me that there’s a worker employment at 15 hours per week. Still, according to Kimura, student shortage,” Kimura said. For Kimura, workers have every workers cannot run stations themselves. “It’s pretty obvious that if we had reason not to return. “This is an institution-wide probenough people, the Perk would be open, the Pub would be open,” Kimura added. lem. It’s not just dining,” Kimura said. “I think it’s pretty clear that we’re not “Mount Holyoke doesn’t pay enough, for its student workers, for its fulloperating at full capacity right now.” A lack of employees is not only af- time staff,” Kimura added. “It’s also fecting the nation’s food industry, how- an American problem. They don’t pay ever. Massachusetts governor Char- enough, so obviously people aren’t golie Baker is using the state’s National ing to work.”
ELLA WHITE ’22 NEWS EDITOR
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Upperclassmen readjust to MHC
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Photo by Ali Meizels ’23 A sign in Blanchard Hall announces the Breakfast All Day station remains closed due to staffing shortages.
Mount Holyoke College enters COVID-19 ‘Operating Level One’ KATIE GOSS ’23 BUSINESS MANAGER & NEWS EDITOR
The College announced changes to its COVID-19 and fall break guidelines in a Sept. 22 email detailing the recent shift in operating levels from “Semester Launch” to “Operating Level One.” This new operating level is described as “normal COVID-19 operations,” where transmission is controlled and cases are low on campus. This change came after a week with no COVID-19 cases reported on campus. Additionally, the College announced that the mask mandate for indoors was extended through October. They will officially review the visitor policy before the end of September and will notify the community with any changes, but Admissions tours are still the only permitted visitors within campus buildings. The testing policy for both students and
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employees will continue until at least the end of the fall semester. Marcella Runell Hall, vice president for student life and dean of students, also sent out an email explaining testing policies for fall break from Oct. 9-12. Students are able to travel over the break across any distance, but the College asks that students refrain from visiting COVID-19 hotspots, as designated by Mayo Clinic. Students are required to test twice during the week of fall break, with one of those tests on the Monday or Tuesday during break, regardless of travel plans. If a student has traveled off campus for the break, they are required to provide a negative COVID-19 test on the Monday or Tuesday of break before classes restart. The testing center will be open from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 11, and from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 12.
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