Dear Classmates,

Fall greetings! I hope all of you who ordered 45th Reunion books have enjoyed poring over them, and that you are finding ways to stay busy during the pandemic. In a few days, you will receive a Survey Monkey email on alumnae engagement written by Sandy Fotiades. Please respond to the survey, so your Class Board learns how we can best serve you and promote new connections within our class. Also, if you hear of any classmates who are ill from Covid-19 (or any serious illness), please contact me or co-president Sandi Carbonari, so we can send a get well message on behalf of the Class of ’75.

For now, class activities such as mini-reunions will not occur, but your Class Board is looking for ways for us to make new friends and keep the old. If you have interest in leading a Zoom program on a topic of importance to you, please contact me. For speed of communication and cost savings, nearly all of our class communications will be by email and will also be posted on the Class of ’75 webpage at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu If you are in touch with a classmate who is not receiving MHC-related emails, urge her to update her alumna profile, also at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu.

I continue to be impressed by creative classmates who are active in the arts as a second career or avocation. For example, Susan Wetmore will be a published poet as of January, when her book will be available on Amazon. A collection of Susan Castle’s photos of clouds, “Captivating Clouds”, was displayed in an art gallery in Florida. Judy Glazier is now a painter, selling her works at art shows. If you have creative accomplishments to share with the class, our closed Facebook group, Mount Holyoke ’75, is a good place to display your work. Don’t be shy, please post!

As MHC and our country go forth with ongoing conversations about race and police violence, I urge you to watch Mary Mazzio ’83’s film, “A Most Beautiful Thing”, now on cable TV (I found it on the Peacock Channel). This film tells the story of four severely disadvantaged youth from the West Side of Chicago who comprised the first-ever all black high school rowing team in the 1990’s. Two decades later, the same people reunite as grown men to race again, this time in a joint team with the Chicago police. As MHC alumnae, we can be proud that a fellow alumna has told this compelling and inspiring story.

In September, several of your Class Board members participated in the MHC Alumnae Association’s annual Volunteer Training Conference, all online. President Sonya Stephens and her team updated participants on the state of the College. The following facts come from my notes from this conference: Mount Holyoke closed Fiscal Year 2020 with a balanced budget due to shared sacrifices from all areas of the College. Our endowment ended at $793.6 million. Now, the College faces additional financial challenges, due to the difficult decision to keep all learning online. Faculty have been forced to quickly adapt to Zoom teaching. Previous models of online college teaching, usually designed for part-time adult students, are not suited to MHC, where student-teacher interaction in small classes has been the norm. This has forced some faculty members, who have taught the same class in the same way for years, to totally rethink how they teach- not necessarily a bad thing! Scheduling class meeting times has been a challenge, as classes are comprised of students living in multiple time zones. Student retention for fall enrollment was down 7%, not surprising considering the pandemic. The Office of Admissions yield this year was 581 students, but 20% have taken a gap year. (In a typical year, only 20-25 admitted students request a gap year.) Forty percent of this year’s first-year class applied early decision. The average SAT score was 1380 and the average GPA of admitted students was 3.9. In the coming year, all college admissions work will be online, and the College hopes to recruit more American students, to become less reliant on tuition income from foreign students.

Last weekend, our Head Class Agents, Sandy Fotiades and Ruth Dillingham, had a productive Zoom meeting with Amy Schrom, a representative of the Development Office who will work with our Class over the next five years, to discuss 50th Reunion planning. The 50th Reunion is a really big deal, so get ready

I hope this letter finds you well. The coming months will be a challenge for us all, so please stay in touch by sending notes to our Class Scribe Eileen Epstein or posting to our Facebook group. And, Happy Belated Mountain Day!

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Stone, Class Co-president elizabethmstone@hotmail.com