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Essay Abstracts
All the abstracts were written by Jeannie Curry.
Sara M. Belding - A Comparison of Mount Holyoke College’s Academic Calendar in 1948 vs. 2004
The 1947 academic calendar differs in many ways from it’s 2004 counterpart. From her letters and the 1948 College Bulletin, it is evident that while Mary Elizabeth Browning was at Mount Holyoke the academic year was generally pushed back a couple of weeks from the calendar students are accustomed to at present. Classes began in mid-September, and the first semester exam period was longer and took place in January, after the holiday break; this indicates that what students now know as January Term (or “J-term”) did not exist for Mary Browning. Second semester exams in 1948 were also later in the year than they are today, and Commencement was two weeks later as well. Some events that have changed entirely include the removal of mid-semester examinations for the removal of conditions and general examinations for seniors from the calendar, and the added marking of the last days to add and drop classes.
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Kimberly A. Bellerose - From Hazing to Dis-O
Mount Holyoke traditions are an important ingredient in holding the student community together while on campus, and represent a commonality among alumnae as after graduation as well. Hazing Day was a popular tradition in 1947, and Mary Elizabeth Browning wrote an entire letter home about how she and her friends stayed up all night making their costumes, and were ran around campus singing silly songs for their seniors. After hazing was prohibited in Massachusetts in 1985, the tradition was changed to Dis-Orientation and is now a week-long period of bonding between first-years and seniors in each dorm, characterized by wearing similarly silly costumes and singing songs. Durkheim says that despite minor differences in form, rituals must have the same objective meaning across time and place to provide a foundation for a community; in spite of the differing details between Hazing Day and Dis-Orientation, the memories students in 2004 make will mirror those Mary Browning made in 1947.
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Maria E. Carriedo
The experience of leaving home to go to college is accompanied by the same feelings of homesickness, rebellion, and independence today as it was in fifty years ago. In 1947, Mary Elizabeth Browning communicated with her parents, especially her mother, through letters and with great frequency. The content of her letters are the same topics students typically tell their parents about today: the weather, class schedules, academic progress, extra curricular activities, and the health and welfare of family members. One difference is that more students in 1947 had mothers who had graduated from a Seven Sisters college, which may have provided an increased bond or understanding between mother and daughter. The largest difference in communication between Mount Holyoke students and their families in 2004 from 1947 is the means of communication: e-mail, cellular phones, and instant messaging being three of the most popular.
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Maragareta Casanave
No submission.
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Saleha Chaudhry - An Exploration of Community at Mount Holyoke College Through the Years
Zygmunt Bauman says that we must relinquish our freedom and individuality in return for the security of a true community, which is to say that conformity promotes a stronger sense of community. The Mount Holyoke student population in 1947 was much more heterogeneous than it is in 2004; students typically came from financially comfortable nuclear families, prepared themselves for marriage, and started their families following graduation. Today there is much more diversity of experience, illustrated by the wide variety of activities and organizations listed in the student handbook, and the decline of traditions such as Big Sister/Little Sister that students previously took part in automatically. The most prominent aspect of student life that remains unchanged in 2004 is the college’s high academic standards and the students’ history of hard work.
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Laura J. Curry - Mount Holyoke: 1951 and 2004
Mary Elizabeth Browning frequently wrote home to her parents about her heavy workload at college, and letters about social activities that she participated in often ended with a promise to complete all the schoolwork she had temporarily neglected. This conflicting pressure to excel academically and still have fun at Mount Holyoke was reflected in the 1947/48 College Bulletin, which listed expected academic standards for students and also included sections that encourage students to keep their studies in perspective, and participate in campus social functions. The same conflicting message to work hard and excel while still having fun with friends persists on campus today. During finals the library is always open to allow students to study around the clock, but at the same time the campus newspaper runs articles about the negative effects of high stress levels on students. Mount Holyoke women felt the effects of these paired pressures from parents, faculty, and fellow students in 1947 and they feel them the same way today.
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Jessica M. Dupont - Academic Standards At MHC: Then and Now
The grading system used at Mount Holyoke is different in 2004 than the one in place in 1947, but the academic standards remain high. When Mary Elizabeth Browning was a student, she wrote to her parents that she had almost gotten a 2 in her French class; at this time, students received a numerical grade between 1 and 6, with 1 being the best and 6 meant failing. Today, the college uses the letter grade system of A, B, C, D, and F, with A as the best and F for failing; when calculating a student’s grade point average, though, each letter has a corresponding numerical point value. Regardless of the technical differences, students in 1947 risked being asked to withdraw from the college if they failed to achieve a certain GPA, and they are held to a similar standard today. In 1947, grades were deemed by the Student Government Association handbook to be under the jurisdiction of the faculty, a sentiment that is echoed in the 2003/2004 Student Handbook as well.
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Jessica K. Gordon - Mount Holyoke College Dissimilarities
Finding a fiancée was a much more acceptable and visible pursuit for a Mount Holyoke student in 1947 than it is today. The social life on campus in 2004 reflects the changing role of the college in helping women to meet men and differs dramatically from the way it was in 1947; social events that do remain today resemble their predecessors in name only. Mary Elizabeth Browning’s letters and passages in the yearbook describe the pressure for every student to find a date for events like Snow Ball, Junior Prom, and Senior Ball, and these were rare nights when the usual nightly curfew was extended until 2 am. For these reasons, social events like these dances were highly anticipated for students who welcomed a small break from the school’s strict regulations. Today, with students having much greater independence to determine their lifestyles, and a much more visible lesbian community on campus, events such as dances do not bring the same influx of boys nor represent such a significant element of college life.
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Alexis M. Lewis
The Career Development Center, or CDC has, in 2004, replaced the office called the Appointment Bureau in 1947. Then, the appointment bureau served as a placement agency; all seniors were required to register with the bureau and discuss their plans for after graduation with it’s director. The appointment bureau hosted employment recruiters and lectures by professionals to give students insight into various fields of work, and obtain appointments with prospective employers for graduating students. It also secured positions for underclasswomen looking for summer work. Today, the CDC still hosts recruiters and aids students pursuing similar goals of employment, but the expectation is for them to take advantage of the office’s services voluntarily. The CDC helps all students, not just seniors, with their job searches by offering help writing resumes and cover letters, seeking internships, and applying to graduate schools.
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Holly Mead
The homogeneity and conformity of the student population at Mount Holyoke in 1947 was maintained by traditions, strict rules and expectations for student conduct that have declined in significance or disappeared altogether in 2004. The waning focus on the Big Sister/ Little Sister tradition of pairing each first-year with a junior “sister” and the fact that Hazing Day no longer exists illustrate how campus traditions have changed over time. Regulations regarding curfew, regular Chapel attendance, and having a car on campus, as well as required instruction in areas such as hygiene and posture, have long since been removed. Students today are allowed much greater independence in constructing their college experience, but this in turn leads to a decreased sense of “togetherness” among the student body.
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Anne K. Meade - Then & Now: Big & Little Sisters, Hazing Day, and Elfing 1947-2000
Traditions intended to help first year students develop relationships with upperclasswomen have been ongoing and though altered, are clearly recognizable from 1947 and 2004. In 1947 every first year was assigned a big sister from the junior class who would pick her up at the train station and answer all her questions about college as she began to settle in. Today, the tradition exists but in a looser form; not all first years ever meet their big sisters, and the same importance is not placed upon the relationship as it was before. Hazing Day, formerly a tradition in which every first-year is paired with a senior and made to perform silly stunts and songs, has morphed into Dis-Orientation, a week-long period of bonding between the seniors and first-years in each dorm. Elfing, the only completely new tradition, was created in 1965 to provide an opportunity for bonding between the sophomores and first-years; each sophomore is assigned a first-year for whom she leaves small surprises at her door each day for a week.
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Christine A. Padilla - Comparing the relationship between upper classmen and freshmen during the early 1950’s (while Mary Elizabeth Browning was a student at Mount Holyoke) and the present upper classmen—first-year relationship, specifically focusing on the Big Sister-Little Sister tradition.
Traditions bringing the first-years into contact with the other classes have for the most part continued and remain in place in 2004, though modified in ways since 1947. In October of 1947 Mary Elizabeth Browning wrote home about participating in Hazing Day, mentioning that she was paired with a very nice senior. The Big Sister/ Little Sister relationship was also a prominent tradition in 1947, and there was a heavy emphasis placed on the camaraderie between the first-years and juniors; sister classes would serenade one another one night of the year, and informal afternoon receptions were held for the classes to get better acquainted. The tradition of class bonding continues today at Mount Holyoke as first-years are still assigned a big sister from the junior class, get “elfed” by a sophomore student, and participate in tradition of Dis-Orientation (the successor of Hazing day) with the senior class.
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Kristin S. Raines - A Mount Holyoke Winter
The weather has remained as consistent as the traditions of Laurel Parade or Mountain Day from 1947 through 2004, every Mount Holyoke student has experienced a New England winter in her time on campus. Although cold weather may seem an insignificant part of the college experience, Mary Elizabeth Browning mentioned the weather in nearly twenty letters to her parents between November of 1947 and February of 1948. Likewise, Mount Holyoke students today take note of the weather in postings on the internet discussion board MHC.chat.
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Meredith C. Reece
No submission.
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Jillian A. Robbins
No submission.
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Inge B. Schmidt - Connected by Similarities: Distribution Requirements in 1947 and 2004
Academic distribution requirements from 1947 at Mount Holyoke closely resemble those that students are obligated to complete now, in 2004. Requirements to take a minimum number of courses across multiple disciplines remain in place today as they were then so that students get a well-rounded education. The importance placed on speaking and writing skills is also unchanged since 1947, although at that time courses were not designated as “speaking or writing intensive” the way they are now. In 1947, students who performed poorly on a speech test were required to take speech training, and all were required to take six hours of English composition, specifically to learn to write. Additionally, physical education requirements exist today as they did then, although it is debatable whether they are intended to serve the same function, or if the college was more concerned with body image in 1947 than it is today. The consistency of academic requirements reflects the college’s ongoing commitment to the values of a liberal arts education, which is something that Mount Holyoke graduates across many generations can share.
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Adrienne Shaw - Physical Education in 1947 and 2004
This essay compares physical education requirements, as well as the purpose of these requirements, at Mount Holyoke in 1947 and 2004. Major differences include the presence of varsity athletic teams in 2004, and the types of courses that are offered in the two different eras. Drawing on Mary Browning’s letters home, and the course catalogs from both years (among other sources), Adrienne examines her initial assumption that physical education in 1947 was geared towards helping students achieve a more ideal female body, and that in 2004 this goal is long outdated. Reading the course catalog descriptions with Maurice Halbwachs’ theory of collective memory in mind, it appears as if the purpose of physical education did not differ as much in the two time periods as one may think, and it is quite possibly only the way we choose to interpret the past that differs from the present. Adrienne concludes that the purpose of physical education is essentially the same at Mount Holyoke now as it was 50 years ago, and the differences are mostly in the wording.
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Melissa Simon - Religious Life and Mount Holyoke College: A Now and Then Look at Faith
Religious life at Mount Holyoke has changed greatly from 1947 to the present, and so has the religious diversity represented in the student body. In 1947, students were required to report their religious denomination and a small percentage of the student body was non-protestant; all students, regardless of faith, had to attend chapel services. Today, it is illegal for the Office of Admissions to collect such information, and there are no mandatory services anymore. The Fellowship of the Faiths was the old religious organization on campus, and although it was intended to encompass Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish religions, it was affiliated with the Christian church and all religious activities were held in Abbey Chapel. Today, there is a Multifaith council with representatives from each of the nine active faith groups on campus, and a building called Eliot house serves as the Center for Spiritual Life and Community Service. Even part of Abbey Chapel, the Christian prayer chapel, has been converted into Abbey Interfaith Sanctuary, intended to be welcoming to an increasingly diverse group of students.
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Heather K. Superson - Mountain Day: Then and Now
Mountain Day one of Mount Holyoke oldest traditions, and it has taken place since 1838 with the exception of two years: during the Civil War, and one year on account of a fire. A few minor changes distinguish the original Mountain Days from the tradition students experience today, such as time of year, and the giving up the former practice of separate days for different classes, but for the most part the annual cancellation of classes so that students may climb Skinner Mountain has remained true to its original form. A comparison of Mary Browning’s description of Mountain Day in her letters home with the description in the current student handbook demonstrate the continuity surrounding this yearly celebration. The continuation of Hazing Day, now slightly altered and called Dis-Orientation, is another example of how ongoing campus traditions help generations of Mount Holyoke students to bridge the gap in time and maintain community.
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