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Campus Updates

New Calendar of Religious Observances

The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life has worked with the Office of Communications and Marketing to create a new . This calendar is not exhaustive  and should be used as a guide. How an individual may practice their faith or spiritual tradition may differ from region to region and person to person. You will also find the form (PDF) to request an accommodation on this page.

Faculty and staff should all have received an email on January 17 from Dean of Faculty Jon Western and Dean of Students Marcella Runell Hall, encouraging instructors and work supervisors to add a note to their syllabi or to job expectations affirming this commitment to religious accommodations, so that students feel at ease in making their needs known.

The American Talent Initiative

Earlier this month, I signed an agreement committing �Ӱ���̳ to the important work being undertaken by the . This organization brings together America’s highest performing colleges and universities to work collaboratively in expanding opportunities for highly talented lower-income students at institutions where they generally succeed and from which, statistics show, they are most likely to graduate. 

The American Talent Initiative includes some critically important goals that we embrace: 

• A sustained national campaign to raise public and private sector awareness about the incredible talent in low-income communities and create momentum among higher education leaders to act on improving access and success for lower-income students. 
• Setting aspirational, measurable goals, including the endorsement of the shared national target of 50,000 additional lower-income students by 2025 and sustaining that increase thereafter. Members will set individualized goals with a focus on: 
  • Recruiting students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds through robust outreach. 
  • Ensuring that admitted low- and moderate-income students enroll, feel included and engaged in the campus community, and are retained.
  • Prioritizing need-based financial aid. 
  • Minimizing or eliminating gaps in progression and graduation rates between and among students from low-, moderate- and high-income families.
• Research and knowledge dissemination facilitated by  and  to identify and promote replication of effective practices and elevate American Talent Initiative member efforts, including: 
  • Cross-institutional practice-sharing and working groups to leverage collective wisdom to overcome challenges. 
  • Data-sharing to help benchmark institutional progress. 
  • Research papers detailing promising strategies for increasing access, opportunity and success. 

This collaboration comes at an important time for us, as we address the hidden costs of attendance and prepare for a targeted fundraising campaign in support of scholarships and financial aid.

Linda R. Chen Studio for the Collaborative Arts

At the beginning of this semester, the new Linda R. Chen Studio for the Collaborative Arts, housed in the Art Building (room 222) and supported by a gift from Linda Chen ’79 and Robert Sculthorpe, opened its doors to students and faculty. 

The Chen Studio is an innovative, collaborative space for film production and capture, as well as an acting studio, with a sprung floor and black-out capabilities, and variable lighting features. The studio is also equipped with green-screen technology, a tripod dolly with tracks, a gimbal, and two shoulder mounts with follow focus and assorted professional lenses to facilitate production compositing and other visual effects.

The purchase of much of the equipment in the Chen Studio for the Collaborative Arts was supported by the Sherman Fairchild Foundation as part of the larger vision outlined in the College’s MEDIAL Project (MHC Empowering Discovery, Innovation and Artistic Learning).

A new director at the Miller Worley Center

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Olivia Aguilar as the new Leslie and Sarah Miller Director of the Miller Worley Center for the Environment and as associate professor of environmental studies. Aguilar is a first-generation college student who completed her B.S. and M.S. in horticulture science at Texas A&M University, where she studied children’s gardens and their effect on youth environmental attitudes. After teaching in public schools, she went on to receive her Ph.D. in natural resources at Cornell University, studying theories of learning in environmental education. Her scholarship lies at the intersection of community, race and transformative learning in environmental education. Specifically, she examines how and why environmental and science learning communities are exclusive and how they can be more inclusive of groups that are traditionally marginalized. 

In addition to this new appointment, a search is underway for a new director of sustainability, who will support environmental efforts at the Miller Worley Center and across campus. This is a critical position as we move forward with our goal of carbon neutrality, with our focus this year being on a utility master plan. To this end, we have launched a study with MEP Associates, a firm that has worked with other colleges (Carleton, Smith and Wellesley for example) on energy stewardship, leveraging engineering solutions to reduce, repurpose and recover energy.

The Miller Worley Center for the Environment is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and there will be a celebration of that milestone, and the Center’s new leadership, later in the academic year.

$2.5 million Mellon award to the Five Colleges

I am pleased to share that the Five College Consortium has received . Awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the grant will help us transform how we approach Native American and Indigenous studies, with the goal of enhancing teaching, learning and scholarship in the field. This grant is one of the largest received by the consortium in its more than 50-year history. The four-year grant will be used to develop and enhance the curriculum and programming, hire more faculty in the field, and recruit more Native American students. 

�Ӱ���̳ will receive bridging funds to hire a faculty member in the history department.

Debra Martin Chase ’77’s “Harriet” nominations

Cynthia Erivo was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of best actress in a leading role for her performance in “,” produced by . “Harriet”  was also nominated in the original song category for “Stand Up,” with music and lyrics by Erivo and Joshua Bryan. “Harriet” was screened on campus in mid-November for an audience of over 600 people and was followed by a Q&A with the celebrated producer. This event was hosted by the Division of Student Life, the Division of Advancement and the Alumnae Association.

Faculty Highlights

A number of faculty received grants last semester. These include:

• Jane Couperus, Psychology and Education received funding from the National Science Foundation for a five-year project focused on preparing undergraduates for research in STEM-related fields using electrophysiology.
• Evan Ray, Mathematics and Statistics, was awarded research support through a subaward from the University of Massachusetts Amherst by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This five-year project will establish an influenza forecasting center of excellence.
• Katie Berry, Biochemistry, received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for a three-year project entitled “R15 Genetic Identification of Bacterial RNA Chaperone Proteins and their Mechanisms of Action.”
• Valerie Barr ’77, P’15, Computer Science, received funding from the National Science Foundation for an 18-month project entitled “CUE Ethics: Collaborative Research: Evaluating Frameworks for Incorporating Computing Across the Curriculum.” Barr was also named a 2019 Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), for outstanding educational contributions to computing.    

Others were recognized or mentioned in media outlets, including Becky Packard, Psychology and Education, for her work on  (Diverse Education); Kavita Khory, Politics, on  (Connecting Point); Rebeccah Lijek, Biological Sciences, on  (New York Times), as well as coauthoring an opinion piece on  (The Scientist); and Jessica Maier, Art History, who was mentioned in “” (Boston Globe). 

Tom Burbine, Astronomy, was recognized by the American Astronomical Society with  for his undergraduate textbook “Asteroids: Astronomical and Geological Bodies” (Cambridge University Press, 2017), a comprehensive interdisciplinary introduction to minor planets, their meteorite fragments, and their comet and trans-Neptunian object cousins. 

I also want to express my appreciation to Kathy Aidala, Physics, for presenting on the Fimbel Maker & Innovation Lab and the accomplishments of some who use the Fimbel Lab in support of the Alumnae Association’s Alums in Tech affinity events in California last month.

March4MHC

Over the coming weeks, you will be seeing more about , a new effort that the Office of Advancement is launching next month to engage alumnae, faculty, staff, students, families and friends in philanthropic support of the College. This 48-hour community-wide challenge on March 4 and 5 has a goal of $400,000 and 4,000 donors. Every 500 donors will earn $50,000 additional for �Ӱ���̳ from a group of anonymous alums. 

I invite you to view the first �Ӱ���̳ Philanthropy Report (2019), Inspiring �Ӱ���̳, which was distributed in hard copy to some donors and foundations, and which, in the online version, lists all fiscal year 2019 donors to the College and features ways in which giving impacts the work that we all do together.

Media and Communications Updates

A number of media outlets have featured �Ӱ���̳ recently, beyond the stories including our faculty that are detailed above. US News & World Report ran  that led with �Ӱ���̳ and included a quote from Kate Meacham ’20. 

The Office of Communications and Marketing was recognized for a number of design achievements by the Universities and Colleges Design Association. Among the creative projects recognized were the Office of Admission’s yield-campaign materials, the “Why a Women’s College?” series, and the “” recruitment video; The Office of Advancement’s 2019 investment report; and two publications for the Division of Student Life, �Ӱ���̳ Traditions and Be Well. I extend my congratulations to Aaron Haesaert, Emily Malloy and Grace Fitzpatrick, as well as their partners in the divisions mentioned above for this recognition of their outstanding work.

I would like to draw your attention to the College’s Media Access Policy, which requires members of the press to check in with the Office of Communications and Marketing prior to coming on campus, and to wear an official lanyard at all times. With increased media attention at this time, we encourage you to be in touch with Christian Feuerstein, director of news and media relations, if you have questions about how and when to interact with the media, or to call Campus Police (ext. 2304) if you have any concerns about media presence.