On the behalf of SGA, May Yang, the SGA President wrote a letter to Dean Liz Braun, Rene Davis, Joe Cohen, Dean Penny Gill, Andrea Whitmal, Douglas Vanderpoel, the SGA Senate and The Mount Holyoke News regarding the new OneCard policy. She asked the administration to re-examine this policy and to join in the ongoing SGA dialogue regarding future student input in decision-making processes.

Although the administration has apologized for the new OneCard policy, the Mount Holyoke News feels the need to still address this issue because it continues to affect many of us in the student body. It is not just about the new OneCard policy, but the administration’s lack of concern for student interests and their repeated decision making without considering students. Students have the right to be upset and criticize their decisions.

This year, the administration forced students to get new OneCards at the start of the fall semester, removed the summer storage option for international students and then removed hot breakfast; in these cases, the student body at large was not informed. Were it not for word of mouth, students would not have known about the new OneCards, and were it not for the Mount Holyoke News’ coverage of the storage space removal story, the majority of the student body would have been in the dark. In fact, many students were not aware of the removal of hot breakfast until they noticed that there were no more breakfast order sheets.

Not only did the administration make this changes without our consent, but in some cases they did not send a mass email informing us of these changes.

Now, once again, the administration has made a policy change without informing the student body, and their apparent blindness to the importance of OneCard colors as a form of identity on this campus belies a deep lack of understanding of and communication with the majority of the Mount Holyoke student community. If students allow the administration to continue to make decisions without our consent, we will be limiting our own freedom of speech. What else will the administration decide to change without asking us first?

The administration should make sure to solicit feedback from students before making changes of this magnitude. Instead of phasing in a change that affects all of us, open it up for debate. Give students time to read about it in the newspaper and discuss in Senate and among themselves. That’s what these institutions are for: to inform and empower students to voice their concerns. If the administration makes these changes without consulting us, they undermine the premise of higher education. Particularly after we’re told that “Mount Holyoke women rule,” trying to placate us—rather than responding to our arguments—suggests that talk is cheap.

Related posts:

1. Students, alumnae take concerns over OneCard to administration
2. Staff Editorial
3. Staff Editorial
4. Staff Editorial
5. New OneCard works beyond campus and benefits College