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1973

Class of 1973 Fall/Winter Newsletter

Dear Classmates:

I hope you enjoyed your summers and the beginning of autumn.

The return to classes always meant, among other things, that Mountain Day was coming. I expect that many of us tried to figure out, mostly unsuccessfully, on what day Mountain Day would fall.

In discussing her class’s Mountain Day, Alyssa Nelson (’11) stated: “Mountain Day reminds us that our Mount Holyoke education is so much more than just academic — it is social and personal, and it has heart.” So much has changed on campus, but Mountain Day continues to thrive. In fact, many classes have Mountain Day reunions, getting together in small groups at ice cream parlors around the country. Recently the name was changed to Mountain Day Alumnae Reunions, signifying the growing number of alumnae who meet for ice cream in locations across the nation. I’m hoping that some of you will be inspired to organize one of these mini-reunions. If you are interested, and would like some assistance, please contact Cheryl Ryan Maloney (maloneycr@gmail.com).

One of my strongest memories of MHC was Mountain Day of our sophomore year. I lived in South Rocky, renowned for its cook, Earl, rumored to be the best chef on campus in those days. That year, the Mountain Day bells rang, and I headed to the kitchen to pack my lunch in preparation for a bike ride. In the kitchen, there were the makings for BLTs, including rashers of bacon. As a girl from a relatively poor home, I had never seen so much bacon, and our BLTs consisted of no more than three pieces of bacon. My sandwich that year must have been piled with ten or so strips of bacon! A group of us went biking, including the women who have remained some of my closest friends — Sabe, Fritz, Chops, Kris, and Jo-jo. How nice it would be to share a Mountain Day ice cream with them every year.

This memory regarding MHC segues into a major initiative the Alumnae Association is spearheading. To encourage increased connections among alums, it has urged classes to “find” members of our Class who have not provided their email contacts. This effort mirrors one of the Five-Year Plans’ objectives our Class Board has developed. Because this letter is the only hard-copy communication that our Class utilizes, I would ask you to join us in meeting this objective. If you’re not receiving regular messages from the College or our Class by email, it means we don’t have your email address. Please take a minute to send it to Class Secretary Kris Aulenbach (aulenbach2@aol.com). We want to be sure you get news from us and can provide feedback on ideas for mini-reunions and our 45th!. And who knows? We all may find long-lost classmates.

As I mentioned in a previous Newsletter, we are focusing upon engaging all of our Class members. Let your classmates know what you’re up to through our Class Scribe, Nancy Friedman Ross. Career changes, retirement, family, education, travel, hobbies, health, romance … inquiring minds want to know! Email Nancy at scribe73@mtholyoke.edu.

Attention Facebook users: we have a closed group for the Class of 1973 and would love for you to join! You can post items that might be of interest to your classmates. The URL is www.facebook.com/groups/276151729208109/.

For those of you on LinkedIn, our group is “Mount Holyoke College Class of 1973.” If you are already on LinkedIn, go to the “Interests” tab and select “Groups.” At the bottom right, you will see a button for “Find Groups.” Click this and type in our group name. From there, you can join it. (In the interest of full disclosure, Jean Lawler, our social media coordinator, provided this paragraph to me — your President is not nearly this technologically skilled).

Did you know you can pay your dues on our Class website? There is now a PayPal button at https://new.alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/classof1973/. What an easy way to take care of getting caught up with this class-funding source!

We are off to a new year in raising our Class Gift this year. Thanks to everyone for our class gift last year. Our 2015 – 2016 goals are $175,000 and 45% participation. Thus far we have raised $40,662 in gifts and pledges from 10% of the class. I can’t emphasize enough that the percentage of class participation is a critical metric for both the College and for the outside world. No matter what the size of your gift, the very fact that you have donated increases our percentage of participation. I know we can meet our goals.  Thank you to everyone in the Class.

 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns that you would like to share with me please email me at sdoherty51@gmail.com or call me at 914-941-5050.

I wish all of you all happy holidays, and a new year filled with health, happiness, prosperity, and peace.

 

P.S. Don’t forget to send your email address to Kris Aulenbach (aulenbach2@aol.com)!

 

Susan M. Doherty

Susan Mikes Doherty

President, MHC Class of 1973

Spring Class Newsletter

Dear classmates,

I hope you enjoyed (or survived, for those of us in northern regions) your winter, as spring threatens to make an appearance.

Many exciting things are happening at our College. Recent College articles, mailings, and websites have been emphasizing Mount Holyoke’s initiatives that help students include career goals into their liberal arts studies. Among these is the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives, which provides cross-disciplinary classes, focusing on comparative aspects. The College also offers a Global Scholar in Residence program, global challenges conferences, and study abroad. In addition, Mount Holyoke has created The Lynk to connect students’ academic studies with practical applications of liberal arts and science. The Career Development Center encourages each student to shape her own experience, and offers universal funding for summer internships. These various offerings have made the College more “outward facing,” a once-popular corporate term.

Our class should not forget the early “outward-facing” initiatives that we were instrumental in molding. The Five College and Twelve-College exchanges were relatively new in 1969, and expanded considerably during our tenure. We also helped develop and institute the “January term,” which allowed students to explore career-related internships. We have also come a long way in our communications with our classmates. As described below, our website has be changing to keep up with new technologies. In fact, I believe this is another first for our class—a class newsletter provided exclusively electronically!

Our class website is also introducing new “outward facing” changes. It has been upgraded to include a PayPal button. Now you can easily pay your dues ($25 for the five years from 2013–18). Percentage of class members who pay dues is an important metric the College uses when analyzing our Class. I urge those of you who haven’t paid their dues yet to take advantage of this easy way to help our class.

Attention Facebook users: we have a closed group for the class of 1973. Right now the url is https://www.facebook.com/MHC73?ref=aymt_homepage_panel, which is very funky. As soon as there are more than 25 “likes” on the page, we can change it to www.facebook.com/MHC73. So, please like our page. For those of you on LinkedIn, our group is Mount Holyoke College Class of 1973. If you are already on LinkedIn, go to the “Interests” tab and select “Groups”. At the bottom right, you will see a button for “Find Groups”. Click this and type in our group name. From there, you can join it. (In the full interests of disclosure, our webmaster provided this paragraph to me—your President is nowhere this technologically skilled?)

As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, we are focusing upon engaging all of our class members. Let your classmates know what you’re up to through our class scribe, Nancy Friedman Ross. Career changes, retirement, family, education, travel, hobbies, health, romance…Inquiring minds want to know! Email Nancy anytime.

We are going to plan a mini-reunion for next year, as many of us will be turning 65 (how did that happen?)… We will be sending out a survey asking about preferences for time and location. Please respond when you see it in your inbox. I attended a similar reunion celebrating our 60th birthdays. We all had such a great time—I hope that many of you will join us for this mini-reunion.

We are doing a great job in raising our class gift this year. Our goals are $135,000 and 40% participation. Thus far we have raised $130,595 in gifts and pledges (only $4,405 more to go!) and 31% participation (only 41 more class donors needed). I can’t emphasize too much that the College puts great weight on percentage of class participation. No matter what the size of the donation is, it counts as participation. I know we can meet our goals. Thank you to everyone in the Class.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns that you would like to share with me, please email me or call me at 914-941-5050.

Wishing you a warm and happy spring,

Susan M. Doherty
Susan Mikes Doherty

President, MHC Class of 1973