Fall Class of ’75 Newsletter

Posted on by
 
MOUNT HOLYOKE COLLEGE CLASS OF 1975 FALL 2021 NEWSLETTER

Dear Classmates, 

Happy Mountain Day in advance, and wherever you may be, get outdoors this fall!  However, come back in to your computer on Tuesday, October 5 at 4p.m. Eastern Time for a Class of ‘75 social hour Zoom for you to meet and greet your classmates.  Share your latest news, or if you wish, reminisce about how you felt as a new college student, a full five decades ago!

Also, mark your calendars for Saturday, Nov. 20 art 11a.m. EST.  Join us for an informational Zoom on real estate, featuring a panel of ’75 realtors, Liz Hirsch, Carol Grunebaum Kelly, and Fran Schofield.  If you are thinking of downsizing, moving to a new location, or buying a second home in retirement, this program will certainly interest you.  Thanks to Liz, Carol, and Fran for sharing advice on the real estate market today.  Watch your inbox for the links to these events.

The Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association is planning over 20 online alumnae programs this year, listed at alumnae.mtholyoke.edu  You’re also invited to an Indigenous People’s Day teach-in on October 11 and the keynote speech for LatinX Heritage Month on October 14.  For details, go to events.mtholyoke.edu

 Here’s a sampling of news from the recent virtual Alumnae Association Volunteer Conference:

  • Our Connections Class, the Class of 2025, is in South Hadley!  These students will graduate as we celebrate our 50th Reunion.  614 new students are on campus, including 100 students who took a gap year last year.    25% are students of color, 15% are first generation college students, and 19% are international students.  The average combined SAT score of incoming first-years is just over 1400 (submission of SAT scores has been optional in recent years).  Food for thought-  the present Mount Holyoke seniors are the only current students who have ever spent a full year at the College.
  • 95% of students are fully vaccinated for Covid, 4% are partially vaccinated (foreign students who received vaccine upon entry in the U.S. ), and <1% of students are exempted from vaccination.  Students wear masks for class and indoor gatherings, and are tested for Covid twice weekly.  They are SO happy to attend college in person, that they eagerly support health and safety measures.
  • Repairs on Mead Hall, damaged by a lighting fire this summer, will be completed by second semester.  Students who were supposed to live in Mead are temporarily housed in Hampshire College dorms, with frequent bus shuttles to MHC.
  • Co-curricular and athletic activities are in full swing.  The huge tent normally erected on Skinner Green at reunions is up at all times this fall, to encourage students to spend more time outdoors, even for study.
  • Last year was an extraordinary year for alumnae giving to MHC, the second highest in College history!  Remember, alumnae giving and the size of the endowment boost MHC in the U.S. News annual rankings.  This year, we tied with Bryn Mawr in the rankings, but Smith and Wellesley beat us.  Sandy Fotiades and Ruth Dillingham continue to do a stellar job as our Head Class Agents.

I welcome any questions you may have.  With best regards,

Elizabeth  Stone, Class Co-President, 

elizabethmstone2712@gmail.com

 

0

June Newsletter from Class President Elizabeth Stone, also Class Zoom Thursday, June 10th

Posted on by
Dear Classmates,

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

 

If you wish to be removed from this group’s mailing list, click here

0

Mount Holyoke Class of 1975 Winter 2021 Newsletter

Posted on by

MOUNT HOLYOKE CLASS OF 1975 WINTER 2021 NEWSLETTER

Today is February 5, and I’m wearing red for Women’s Heart Health Day.  Take care of your hearts, everyone, as I am sure the anxiety of scrambling to schedule a Covid vaccine has raised your blood pressure several points!  Hopefully, our next class Zoom will bring you some cheer. To replace Covid anxiety with hygge, the Danish feeling of winter well-being, Holly Hughes is planning another Class of ’75 Trivia Night.  Mark your calendar for March 11, 7 p.m. EST to join the fun!  Holly’s January trivia night was travel themed, but her March theme will be TV, movies, and pop music.  Our Zoom coordinator, Coral Grout, will send a registration email to your inbox soon.

As a biology major at Mount Holyoke, I was well aware of groundbreaking MHC science faculty such as Lydia Shattuck, Emma Carr, and Cornelia Clapp, but I had never heard of geologist Mignon Talbot until recently.  Talbot was on the MHC faculty from 1904-35, and was the first woman to discover, unearth, and scientifically report the discovery of a dinosaur.  Near Mount Holyoke, she discovered one of the two dinosaur species that have ever been discovered in Massachusetts.  Her finding of Podokesaurus holyokensis, which translates to “sure footed dinosaur of Holyoke”, was made in 1910 and reported in the American Journal of Science the following year.  The Podokesaurus holyokensis fossil was displayed in the old Williston Hall, and was tragically lost when Williston Hall burned to the ground in 1917.  Fortunately, replicas of the fossil remain for today’s paleontologists, and now in 2021, legislation is underway in to make the “Mount Holyoke dinosaur” the State Dinosaur of Massachusetts!   Courtesy of MHC geology prof Mark McMenamin, the attached photo shows Mignon Talbot (left) and her students, forlornly searching for her lost fossil among the rubble of Williston Hall.

Williston rubble photo, pages file

Following are some highlights of the January State of the College update by President Sonya Stephens and her team.  Stephens stated that although the Covid-19 pandemic has presented an “existential threat” to liberal arts colleges,  MHC remains in a strong position.  The past year has given MHC the opportunity to address inequities, work collaboratively, take risks that lead to new accomplishments, and create new courses relevant to the pandemic.  Although faculty research and publications, which are important to obtain tenure and promotions, are down, faculty continue to be innovative and invested.   Most students are still studying remotely.  However, in mid-January, 725 students returned to campus staggered over a 4-day move in, where first-years were given a welcome package which included a Mount Holyoke mask.  All students have single rooms, all meals are picked up “to go” from Blanchard, and all students get tested for Covid twice weekly.  Students quarantined for two weeks upon arrival, and signed a compact that they would not have any off-campus visitors.  A virtual Student Involvement Fair took place for the 72 campus groups which are valiantly continuing co-curricular activities online.  Each day, a “Be Well” program features online fitness classes.  

The Admissions Office reports applications are up 13 percent so far this year, with the increase largely coming from the western and southern U.S.  This matches current trends in the national distribution of the American high school age population.  Early Decision applications were down, and international applications are flat.  

Mount Holyoke has an excellent anti-racism action plan which was well underway before the events of last summer.  In January, the College held special events for a Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King week.  Online events like these are available to alumnae at events.mtholyoke.edu

Financially, MHC’s fiscal year 2020 ended with a balanced budget after $22.6 million in spending cuts, but FY 2021’s revenue has a $28 million shortfall.  To address the shortfall, there will be a maximal use of restricted funds and an increase of $1 million spending from the College Endowment.  The endowment has increased 14% in value in the first 6 months of this fiscal year, and there is a goal of bringing endowment spending down to 5% from a current 5.1%.  

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and Mary Lyon’s birthday is February 28, so why not contact an old Mount Holyoke friend on those days to say hello?  Please feel free to contact me at any time with concerns relevant to our Class.

With best wishes for a healthy and safe February,

Elizabeth Stone, 
Co-president, Class of 1975

0

Class of ’75 Trivia Night (Trivia Afternoon for West Coasters) January 27, 2021

Posted on by

Due to the success of our December Holiday Class Zoom, we are having another get-together this month.  This event will be held on January 27, 7p.m. EST.  

Our own Holly Hughes ’75, a travel writer, is leading the program, a trivia night with a travel theme, where participants will break into teams for the trivia competition.  Register in advance for this meeting at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUkceqrqTsjH9cE1yfSaiJkxAYIpqP0RVkf 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the fun.

0

First-ever CLASS OF ’75 ZOOM PROGRAM and HOLIDAY PARTY, December 17th!

Posted on by

YOU’RE INVITED!  

 

Join us for the first-ever MHC CLASS OF ’75 ZOOM PROGRAM AND HOLIDAY PARTY!

 

Thursday, December 17, 2020, 4p.m Eastern Standard Time

 

RSVP to Coral Grout, cmgrout@comcast.net, as soon as possible.  After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

 

Season’s Greetings, Classmates!  Your Class Board has reviewed your Survey Monkey results, which indicated interest in an informal online get-together or event with specific programming.  We have all missed the ability to travel this year.  Therefore,  on December 17, we are having a Zoom program on travel, featuring Ellie Shulman Bartolozzi (Italy), Sandra Reed (the U.K. and Spain), and Tita Gottfried de Herrera ( Mexico)!  Each classmate will informally share her favorite travel destinations in her country.  Thank you in advance to Ellie, Sandra, and Tita for sharing your expertise and whetting our appetites for places to go once this pandemic is over.

 

We will all miss holiday parties this year.  So, log in with cocoa and cookies, or a more invigorating libation and some great hors d’oeuvres!  Wear a Christmas sweater, that sensational dress that’s been languishing in your closet, or join us in your sweatpants (preferably, Mount Holyoke sweatpants!).  Join the meeting a few minutes early, or linger at the end to say hello to other classmates.

 

This is the first time ’75 has hosted an event like this, so please register in advance, allowing our Zoom coordinator, Coral Grout, to plan accordingly.  Apologies to anyone who will have a conflict with work, but we must accommodate the time zone difference between Ellie and Sandra and our classmates in North America.

 

Stay well and safe, and hope to see you on December 17!

 

 

submitted by

Elizabeth Stone, co-president, Class of 1975

0

A few 45th Reunion Yearbooks are still available. Get yours now!

Posted on by

Denise Terrazas writes-

45th Reunion Books still available 

We currently have 20 books available: 10 soft cover and 10 hard cover. If you or your friends are interested, please send check, including class dues, to:
 
Alice Maroni
15 Franklin Ave
Alexandria, VA 22314-3828
 
Class dues only for 2021-2025:     $50
Class dues and soft cover book:    $75
Class dues and hard cover book:   $85
 
Alice notifies me by text and I mail the books.
 
Thanks,
Denise
0

Class of ’75 Fall 2020 Newsletter

Posted on by
October, 2020

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

the next five years to discuss 50th Reunion planning The 50th Reunion is a really big deal so get readyfor 2025!

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

 

0

List of classmates with missing email address

Posted on by

Class Co-President Pebby Stone has submitted this list of missing classmate emails.  If you are on this list, please go to

https://securelb.imodules.com/s/1660/aamhc/index.aspx?sid=1660&gid=2&pgid=3

and add your email to the Alumnae’s list.

MEMBERS OF THE CLASS OF 1975 WITH MISSING EMAILS

The Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association lacks emails for the below alumnae. As our class communications shift to email for speed and cost savings, the below women may miss out on class news if we can’t we reach them! In a spirit of friendship, if you can provide an email address for any of these classmates, please send it to me at elizabethmstone@hotmail.com Thank you!
Sincerely, Elizabeth Stone ’75, Class Co-President, 2020-2025

A-D
Anne Charm Abel
Evelyn ReHill Bandlow
Heather Stoddart Barros
Linda Bedrosian
Elizabeth Beecher
Barbara Leonard Bennett
Dorte Bistrup
Patrician Black
Deborah Blades
Denis Borden
Julie Borowski
Cheryl Bowers
Denise Cress Boyd
Deborah Brunt
Patricia Casey
Margot Oliver Cavalier
Susan Chan
Nancy Marshall Chapple
Jane Coakley
Elizabeth Nassikas Cobbett
Kathleen Cole
Amy Gosling Cooperstein
Marina Cossio
Mary Craig
Denise Gorman Crowley
Mary Curtis
Nancy Greene Curtis
Anne Daly
M. Veronica Daly
Maura Daly
Susanne Tierney Daniel
Joyce Fisher Darson

E-J
Geraldine Eure
Josiane Pierre-Noel Faubias
Ninette Piquette Ferm
Caroline Flint
Eleonore Gaines
Polly Gault
Naomi Gobelle
Theresa Caputo Godek
Maria Mora Goff
Joanna Miles Griffith
Dorothy Gutwil
Robin Sharillo Haffenreffer
Janis Hall
Cynthia Hamady
Kyle Clancy Harcourt
Leslie Davidson Harrington
Marianne Scheibel Harrington
Amy Hauck
Lucia Anzola Haugg
Jessical Whalen Haverstick
Marcy Herscovitz
Nancy Holyoke
Barbara Hughes
Alexia Jacobs
Gayana Jurkevitch
Kathleen Jurkowski-Phillips
Mary Moor Kane
Naomi Kantrowitz
Sharon Lewis
Cherie Lockett

M-P
Judith Mackos
Laurie MacLeod
Isabelle Denoyer Maddox
Cynthia Geoghegan Manzetti
Nancy Martin
Evelyn Martinez
CharlottelMatteson
Elizabeth Mayo Melanchook
Dorothy Olmsted Mensel
Carmela Merlo
Frances Palamara Mesagno
Kemp Miles Minifie
Ellen Homes Misita
Jo Borstein Moorefielde
Kim Mulkey
Alice Murray
Bonnie Neggers
Ingrid NelsonDiane Noel
Judith O’Leary
Helen Morse Olson
Mena Parton
Elizabeth Jackson Paul
Lorette Petersen A Cheswick
Ruth Eichling Pulliam

Q-T
Linda Reis
Alexandra Renton
Panmela Rhodes-Rogers
Pamel Morse Roberts
Deborah Robinson
Denise Wisehaupt Royer
Carol Barkauskas Rutan
Francisca Sanchez
Lisa Satlin
Gjertrud Schnackenberg
Susan Sidlauskas
Gigi Simocko-Walker
Alice Sinkevitch
Sarah May Slade
Nina Smiley Wilkins
Marion Smiley
Sandra Smilga
Margaret Briggs Smith
Mavis Felman Smook
Nancy Snyder-Kraus
Priscilla Cunningham Sperling
Catherine Hunt Sprague
Katherine Fariss Stewart
Lisa Teot
Kirstin Thompson

U-Z
Monica Weblud Valenti
Salma Waheed
Leslie Bonn Westman
Paula Foley Woodhull
Katherine Kapinos Woronko
Karen Jo Libhart Young
Gretchen Zierick

 

0

Class Dues are due!

Posted on by

The new officers for the Class of ’75 met via videoconference in July.  As we move toward our 50th reunion, they want to know what we all think about our links to the class and to Mount Holyoke.  Look for an upcoming class survey by email.

If you haven’t checked to be sure that the college has your current email and physical address, please do, by going to the Alumnae Association website.  Many of us have retired or moved in recent years and the Alumnae Association does not track you down! 

With the installation of our new class treasurers, class dues for the next five years are now due.  Class dues for the next five years are $50 (that’s only $10 per year), payable to ‘MHC Class of ’75’.  They should be sent to Alice Maroni, 15 Franklin St, Arlington, VA 22314.  What are dues for?  They pay for some reunion costs, and most snail mailings to the class. 

Many thanks to Judy Stein ’75 for creating the Class Yearbook despite the pandemic,  and the classmates who have contributed.  It is coming out soon, available for free electronically and for hardcover or softcover purchase.

0