Welcome to the 2026 spring semester

Greetings from Mary Lyon Hall, 

The winter storm notwithstanding, Mount Holyoke’s spring semester has arrived! Thank you very much to our dedicated staff who took care of our students and the campus over the last several days. 

Welcome back students, faculty and staff, and a special welcome to our 34 springies, including new first year students, transfers and Frances Perkins Scholars. As you begin your journey, the Mount Holyoke community is cheering you on! I am also delighted to welcome new visiting faculty, new staff and faculty members returning from sabbaticals.

Congratulations to everyone who made last week’s Sophomore Institute a smashing success. Featuring sessions on career preparation and development, this immersive experience is a cornerstone of MHC’s career readiness program, as outlined in MHC Forward. I extend special thanks to the 308 generous alums who participated and to Mount Holyoke’s Career Readiness team for their extraordinary work. Sophomores, I was very impressed with your deep engagement over the course of the Institute. By the end you were all networking like pros!

A number of other exciting events will bring us together this semester. This week and last we celebrate the legacies of Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Keynote, with activist and filmmaker Judy Richardson, will take place this Thursday, Jan. 29. Later this semester, we’ll welcome Chief Operating Officer of Reddit Jen Wong to campus. Our tenth annual Building On Our Momentum (BOOM!): Community Day will be Tuesday, April 28. And of course, for those graduating in May, the race to Commencement starts now. Mount Holyoke’s one hundred eighty-ninth Commencement takes place on Sunday, May 24; more information about the ceremony and other senior celebrations will be shared in the months ahead. 

Important initiatives at the College that will continue this spring include our three new, cross-divisional MHC Forward working groups: Artificial Intelligence; Cultivating Creativity: Arts, Creativity and Entrepreneurship at MHC; and Campus Climate Justice and Action. The search for our next Chief Information Officer is making excellent progress; we expect finalists to visit campus in March. In May, the Board of Trustees will vote on a finalized Comprehensive Campus Plan to ensure that our infrastructure continues to support our mission for years to come. And we are laying the groundwork for the public launch in fall 2026 of the most ambitious comprehensive fundraising campaign in Mount Holyoke’s history. Thank you to everyone whose passion, creativity and commitment are contributing to all this terrific work.

Regrettably, world events continue to impact our communities, families and friends. The December shooting at Brown University saddened and alarmed us all. Safety and security are top priorities at Mount Holyoke. In summer 2023, the College proactively underwent an external assessment of our campus security, which confirmed that MHC’s campus is a safe place located in a secure community. This past fall, we updated our community on our work to implement recommendations from this assessment. Also, as a reminder, our Department of Public Safety and Service operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Officers plan and practice with South Hadley police and firefighters regularly and also maintain strong relationships with their counterparts within the Five Colleges and with the Massachusetts State Police. Additionally, a campuswide Emergency Response Team does careful advance planning all year to prepare for emergencies. We have robust policies, such as those governing building access and security camera use, and training has also been stepped up for the entire campus. I encourage everyone to take an ALICE training; further opportunities and future training plans will be announced this semester. Finally, my Senior Team will take part in a rigorous training next month with a national higher education safety expert. We hope never to need the skills we are cultivating across our campus, but we are and will remain ready for every possibility.

The political climate remains top of mind and has heightened anxiety and fear, particularly among our international, immigrant, queer and trans communities. The College is responding by bolstering our supportive programming, building upon the long history of advocacy that exists within these communities. Please consult the events calendar and Embark regularly, and continue to make use of our care and support resources. Faculty and staff can also access the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

I hope your break was restorative and that you’re as happy as I am to be back in community with one another. As it happens, I spent time over the break reflecting on the remarkable community we have built at Mount Holyoke. These musings were inspired by the work of Phyllis Lee Levin ’41, who passed away in November at the age of 104. A New York Times reporter and author, Levin published an article in 1960 about the disillusionment many college-educated American women experienced after graduation, when society expected them to turn their attention to home and family. Admittedly, Levin wrote from a privileged perspective, but she captured the delight that is an intellectual community, one that enlightens, challenges, surprises and supports its members. 

Thank you for the valuable contributions you make to our community, which will sustain and encourage us for a lifetime. I wish you all a semester of discovery, growth and — eventually — the bright blooms of spring.

Sincerely, 

Danielle R. Holley

President