Most of us are fully vaccinated for Covid-19 now, so I wish you a healthy, safe, and active summer!   Please join our upcoming Class Zoom on Thursday, June 10 at 9a.m. EDT.  Our Zooms to date have featured specific programming, but the June event is designed to simply reconnect and chat.  If you have not joined us before, we would love your participation.  Register by contacting Judy Stein at  judystein13@gmail.com.  This time, our Zoom is scheduled when classmates overseas can conveniently take part, which means  those of you on the West Coast will need to set your alarm clocks!

President Sonya Stephens and her team delivered an online State of the College report on May 21 during graduation weekend.  Here are a few facts gleaned from the presentation:   This past semester, MHC had an enrollment of 2019 students, 700 of whom were on campus.  Ninety-seven percent of classes had fewer than twenty students.  To accommodate remote learning by students around the world, class times went from 8a.m. to 10:30p.m. Eastern Time.  The College performed 2000 Covid tests weekly, with a positivity rate of 0.1%, and held on-campus vaccination clinics.  New academic offerings include a 5-year B.A./M.A. program with the Graduate Institute in Geneva, for students interested in international relations and global development.  The MHC Semester in D.C. went virtual this year, with participating students doing remote internship work for 20-24 hours per week.  The Miller-Worley Center for the Environment (named in part for our classmate Sarah Miller and her sister) has set a goal of carbon neutrality for Mount Holyoke by 2037.

Please extend a special welcome to the incoming Class of 2025 if you have the chance to meet them.  This is our Connections Class, the class who will graduate at the same time we hold our 50th Reunion.  Over the next four years, your Class Board will find ways for us all to get acquainted with these young women and offer them support and friendship. If you have ideas, please contact me.  Now that the College is reopening to outside visitors, those of us close to campus will have the opportunity to visit occasionally and share intergenerational stories with the 2025’s.  This should be fun.  This fall’s class is 80% domestic and 20% international, with half of the international students coming from China.  A recent admissions survey revealed that 92% of entering students choose Mount Holyoke for academic excellence, with only 65% selecting MHC because it is a women’s college.  Appreciation for Mount Holyoke as a women’s college develops later!

Mount Holyoke notifies your Class Board of the death of a classmate every few months, and in April, Laura Horner Weinbarger sadly passed away.  If you hear of classmates who are seriously ill or have been adversely affected by Covid, please notify the Class Board so we can offer support.  And keep your good news coming!  Class Scribe Eileen Leahy Epstein would love to hear from you at batescolby2@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Stone

Class of 1975 Co-president

elizabethmstone@hotmail.com