Welcome to the fall 2026 semester

Greetings from Mary Lyon Hall,

Welcome to the 2026–2027 academic year. We missed you over the summer! This fall 554 first years, 20 new transfer students and 11 new Frances Perkins scholars have joined our community. Ten new tenure-track faculty members bring expertise in fields as varied as studio art and astronomy/physics. Our new Chief Information Officer, Karen Warren ’90, took office in July. Please join me in welcoming all these new faces to our community.

Thanks to tremendous progress on the MHC Forward strategic plan, we are well-positioned for an innovative and impactful semester. In its first year, the strategic enrollment plan resulted in strong applications and matriculation. Residence hall improvements continued over the summer, highlighted by the debut of a renovated Golden Pear and a new study lounge in Mead, as well as a new Golden Pear, accessible rooms and upgraded finishes in Brigham. Infrastructure also saw a major boost with the completion of Phase 4 of the geothermal project, pushing the total pipe distribution past the 90% mark. Strides in student success and curricular developments such as the creation of 8 Liberal Arts in Action seminars and recommendations from last year’s cross-divisional Creativity and AI working groups will keep us moving forward in both academic and administrative excellence. I am also delighted to report that last year’s fundraising surpassed our targets and broke records. Thank you to the entire community for making these achievements possible.

Building on this momentum, a key priority for 2026–2027 will be stewarding the College into the future by focusing on the fourth pillar of the strategic plan, Resource Stewardship. The new cross-divisional Financial Sustainability Working Group (FWSG) will explore institutional practices, policies and structures that can ensure a sustainable future financial footing for the College. Serving in an advisory capacity and in alignment with MHC Forward, the group will examine both revenues and expenses and assess the scope and long-term plans of the institution’s facilities, footprint, programming and staffing. They will generate a set of recommendations toward a sustainable budget that reflects and supports our institutional priorities and values.

We begin this work from a position of strength. Mount Holyoke has a very healthy endowment, strong enrollments and deeply dedicated students, faculty, staff, alums and friends. We are coming off a record-breaking year in fundraising and will publicly launch a comprehensive campaign in support of our strategic plan in October. A substantial amount of our work is made possible through the generosity of donors. Giving to the College is a deliberate choice, and I am grateful to everyone who has put their faith in us in this way.

For all these reasons, we are in an enviable position from which to address the headwinds facing higher education: rapidly rising operational costs, significant political pressures and a shrinking student pipeline. I am entirely confident that Mount Holyoke, forged in dissent, will prevail.

There is much to be enthused about this semester. The Division of Student Life is now the Division of Student Affairs, modernizing the division’s identity in alignment with national professional standards, better reflecting the depth and scope of its work. The new Director of the Weissman Center for Leadership, Caroline Nobo ’07, will join us on November 1. Guests to campus will include activist, author and lawyer Dean Spade and, later, award-winning filmmaker Mira Nair. Grammy-winner, MacArthur recipient and Pulitzer Prize winner Rhiannon Giddens will be our Distinguished Artist on November 3. And the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum will reopen after renovations for its one hundred fiftieth anniversary. I am delighted to celebrate the legacy of the museum and its important role in teaching and learning.

Best wishes for a successful semester. I look forward to seeing you on campus or at my office hours, which can be found on the events calendar.

Sincerely,
Danielle R. Holley
President