Academic Resources

Dean of First-Year Studies
413-538-2855
Email: Dean of First-Year Studies
The dean of first-year studies oversees all academic advising of first-year students. If your academic advisor is not available or you require additional advising, you can contact the dean of first-year studies.

Library, Information, and Technology Services (LITS)
413-538-2225
Mount Holyoke is one of the nation's first undergraduate institutions to have merged its library and computing services. The result is Library, Information, and Technology Services (LITS), which combines the College's vast library, computing, foreign language, and media resources, and electronic services.

Mount Holyoke is nationally recognized for integrating technology throughout academic and cocurricular life, and LITS plays a critical role. With more than 65 staff members, LITS provides extraordinary support to students, faculty, and staff as they explore the information and technology opportunities across campus.

McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives/Study Abroad
413-538-2072
Email: Global Initiatives
Deans are available in this office to offer advice about study abroad. They can talk to you about program selection, application procedures, requirements, and deadlines. The office maintains a resource library with information about programs and also holds informational meetings. If you have particular questions or concerns, you may arrange an appointment with one of the deans.

Disability Services
413-533-2550
Email: Disability Services   
Disability Services works in conjunction with the student and will collaborate with various offices and departments on campus to coordinate services and provide reasonable accommodations.  The types of disabilities that are handled through this office include physical disabilities, hearing, mobility and visual impairments, chronic medical conditions, substance use disorders and/or psychiatric disabilities. This office also works with the Offices of Learning Skills for those students with learning disabilities and/or attention deficit disorder.

Students requesting any type of accommodation must pre-register and can do this by completing the registration form found on the Disability Services website and submitting that along with documentation from their clinician.

Offices of Learning Skills
413-538-2504
Email: Learning Skills
For students with learning disabilities and/or attention deficit disorder, this office is an important resource. Students can work with the assistant dean of the College for learning skills to negotiate reasonable accommodations related to the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Office of Learning Skills provides one-on-one counseling and instructional workshops on learning skills and time management. Psychoeducational testing for learning disabilities is available for a fee.

Harriet L. and Paul M. Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts
413-538-3071
Email: Weissman Center
The Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts advances students' abilities to become effective agents of change in their chosen professions and communities. The center collaborates with faculty, students, alumnae, student organizations, and College offices to advance initiatives that engage students critically with important problems; that foster their commitment to public and civic life; that build their abilities to analyze, argue, and promote their views; and that increase women's preparation to take action and bring about positive change.

The Weissman Center promotes active-learning pedagogical strategies that enhance students' ability to think independently and analytically, to participate in informed and vigorous discussion, to grapple with uncertainty and complexity, and to work in groups across difference. In particular, the Weissman Center focuses on teaching students to speak, argue, and write effectively—through the Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program (SAW), and to apply theory judiciously toward the solution of real problems—through the Community-Based Learning Program (CBL) and the case method.

To enhance the understanding of important issues of public concern and the possibilities for solutions and action, the Weissman Center focuses on a specific public problem each semester. It promotes different educational activities to increase awareness and understanding of the critical problems of our times and to engage the whole community, on and off campus, in discussions about feasible solutions.

Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program (SAW)
413-538-3028
Email: SAW
The Speaking, Arguing, and Writing Program is designed to assist even the most accomplished students in strengthening their critical thinking, speaking, arguing, and writing abilities. The program sponsors speaking- and writing-intensive courses across the disciplines. You can also take advantage of more general SAW resources, which include a mediated classroom studio for planning oral presentations, a library of support materials, and workshops focusing on speaking, writing, and thinking in a variety of contexts. Sessions with trained student assistants can be scheduled for working on writing and speaking tasks at any stage.

Career Development Office (CDC)
413-538-2080
Email: CDC
For many students, the Career Development Center is an invaluable source of academic, as well as career, advice. You can consult with CDC counselors about everything from selecting a major and minor to finding a summer or January Term internship that connects to your studies or special interest. The CDC is also an important resource for fellowship and graduate school advising and on-campus employment. We encourage you to visit the CDC from your first year at Mount Holyoke.