February 2024 Board of Trustees Meeting Summary

Dear members of the Mount Holyoke College community,

The Board of Trustees held its winter meeting from February 24–26, 2024, via Zoom. Strategic planning was the primary focus. The Board was very pleased to have the opportunity to consider the excellent work led by President Holley and the Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) this year, with input from the entire Mount Holyoke community. Since spring 2022, more than 1,000 students, faculty, staff, alums and friends have participated in over 40 separate listening and feedback sessions. Ideas for each of the plan’s initiatives have come directly from those conversations, making the plan a true reflection of our collective ambitions for Mount Holyoke.

President Holley presented a draft of the plan to the Board at the February meeting, followed by trustee breakouts and culminating in a full group discussion. We thank the members of the SPC for facilitating the breakout sessions, during which we scrutinized the plan’s priorities, pathways and initiatives. We noted the boldness of the draft and its vision. We appreciate the ways it builds on tradition, leverages our distinction and envisions an exciting future. The Board discussed the need to raise significant funds to ensure the strategic plan achieves its intended outcomes.

President Holley and the SPC are currently engaged in previewing the strategic plan draft with the campus community, now revised to reflect the Board’s feedback. They are holding in-person and virtual sessions throughout the month. You can also share your thoughts via email at mhcstrategicplanning@mtholyoke.edu. The Board anticipates voting on the final plan in May.

The Board was also delighted to meet with members of the Student Conference Committee (SCC), as we do each year. The SCC presented the results of its spring 2023 student survey. As always, the Board was very interested to learn more about students’ perceptions of their Mount Holyoke experience in order to inform key institutional decisions.

The Board’s formal business is described below. We congratulate the March 2024 degree recipients and our faculty members awarded tenure or reappointed to their positions. We also thank and congratulate our retiring faculty,professors Alan Werner and Craig Woodard, for their many years of extraordinary service to the College, and for the impact they have had on their students and their disciplines. Finally, we welcome our new Board members and thank them for their willingness to lend their extensive expertise and deep wisdom to Mount Holyoke. Our trustees who have fulfilled their terms will be honored at our annual tribute dinner in May.

The formal actions of the Board included:

• Approving the academic year 2024–2025 comprehensive fee at $86,702. This represents a tuition rate of $66,780, a housing rate of $9,876, a food rate of $9,808 and the SGA fee of $238 (set by the Student Government Association).
• The awarding of degrees, on March 8, 2024, to 81 seniors and 1 graduate student.
• The awarding of tenure to professors Ali Aslam, Hannah Goodwin, Adam Hilton, Ren-yo Hwang, Rebeccah Lijek, Christopher Mitchell, Lynda Pickbourn, Noah Ilya-Alexis Tuleja and André White.
• The reappointment of professors Isabelle Beaudry and Amanda Maciuba.
• At the October meeting, the election of Mary Ann Deignan ’84 to a five-year term as trustee beginning July 1, 2024.
• The election of Hope Giles ’87 to a five-year term as trustee beginning July 1, 2024.
• The election of Oyinade Wielock ’07 to a five-year term as alum trustee beginning July 1, 2025.

The Board of Trustees wish all of you a happy spring, an intellectually adventurous remainder of the semester and a joyous Commencement and Reunion.

Sincerely, 
Karena Strella ’90, Chair of the Board of Trustees 
Danielle R. Holley, President