The e-mail explained that the Torrey Grab ’n Go is being consolidated into one location, the Atrium Café in Kendade, because of low lunch participation at Torrey. Meanwhile, the future of Golden Pears have been discussed at Senate meetings. Dining Services is also looking to extend Ham Hall’s dining hours.
The Golden Pear kitchens are located in 1837, North Mandelle, Mead, Creighton, Porter, and Wilder Halls.

Golden Pears are a campus facility intended primarily for students to prepare special meals. They are meant to include full kitchen facilities, utensils and a dining room table that seats six to eight.
The proposal is not to close the kitchens down, but to find a way to bring the sanitation up to par in order to keep them open. If they are closed, it will be because the health inspector closes them, which is a legal issue.

“Dining Services has no part in Golden Pears,” explained Stephanie Roses ’13, Torrey HP. “In ResLife, I have noticed from previously living in dorms with kitchens that the refrigerators will have expired and moldy food, eggs and milk inside, food is left in the grating of the stove or oven and begins attracting bugs and growing mold, and trash is left everywhere,” she said.

“ResLife currently emails residents on code, holds hall meetings warning about [the health] code violations, and some committees even clean the kitchens themselves – which is not in their contracts. I guess my reaction to kitchens is clear: they are disgusting and there are legal reasons why we need to keep them clean.”

According to Jodie Castanza, director of ResLife, the main concern is that of sanitation, as kitchens in certain dorms continue to accumulate grime.

“The Golden Pears are under review and have not yet been determined to be closed,” she explained. “The health inspector expressed serious concerns about the condition of the Golden Pears related to the cleanliness and sanitary conditions. I have asked Student Government to help us come up with a plan which will address the issues and help maintain the Golden Pears as a resource for students on campus.”

“Closing them entirely is an option ResLife is avoiding because those with severe food allergies or dietary restrictions who cook for themselves need the space,” said Roses, “as well as anyone who uses the refrigerators to store medications if they can’t afford or fit a mini-fridge in their own rooms.”

Dean Davis claimed that this is not a new issue and that Golden Pear kitchens have been shut temporarily previously due to the same reasons. “In recent years, I have temporarily closed the Golden Pears in response to unsafe cooking conditions,” she said. “The change needed is straightforward. We are looking for students to clean up their spills, properly dispose of waste products, and properly store items in the refrigerators. This is an area of self-governance in which the students can direct how the College maintains the flexibility and freedom of use with the Golden Pears.”

“I live in South Delle and they haven’t been that bad,” said South Mandelle HP Sara Amjad ’13. “There have been times where the kitchen has been a bit gross, but I think generally people have been good about cleaning up after themselves and sharing the space.”

While she feels that there are problems, the situation is not unbearable and the Golden Pears should not be closed. “The fridge is a problem because people put things in there and never take them out so they go bad. There needs to be a better way of making sure that [the kitchens] are looked after. I think ResLife should work with Dining Services because there seems to be a gap there.”

While the fate of Golden Pear kitchens is still up in the air, this is definitely Torrey Grab ’n Go’s final semester. With the Atrium Café just down the road, there seems to be little for students to complain about and ResLife does not expect much backlash.

“So far I don’t believe we have heard any reaction from students about the Torrey Grab ’n Go,” said Castanza. “If anything, students seem excited to be gaining possible meeting and programming space in the Torrey Dining area. I know ResLife staff are interested in seeing how we can use that space for things like theater group rehearsals, which we haven’t had as much space for this year.”

“I’m not sad to see Torrey Grab ’n Go leave, however convenient it may be right now,” said Roses. “As HP of Torrey Hall I’ve seen the negative effects of its presence on our hall environment. Dining Services refuses to allow people to eat at the tables in our dining hall during Grab ‘n’ Go based on the principle that people should leave as a to-go meal, so most people sit in our common room to eat. The problem is that our wonderful housekeeper then has to clean up the garbage directly resulting for a Dining Services meal.”

She feels that merging the Torrey Grab ’n Go with Kendade may make Kendade more congested, but will remove the tension between housekeeping, Dining Services and ResLife. It will also save money, as the school will no longer be wasting the plentiful supply of food left over at the food station each day.

The third change that is being made is the extension of dining hours in Ham Hall in order to meet student needs. Dean Davis sees these changes as a welcome adjustment by Dining Services. “I appreciate that Dining Services is so responsive to the use and patterns of the students. I think the extension of dining hours in Ham Hall is a good idea. I see so many students eating on the fly. Dining Services is extending the opportunity for students to sit down and dine in community.”

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Rosa Frias ’13, Kristen Koepsell ’12 and Susanna Labowitz ’12, members of the committee, explained that it was formed in view of the present student conduct processes, which were confusing, contradictory and lacked impartiality.

As a result, a panel was created earlier in the semester with Director of Residential Life Jodie Castanza and Assistant Director of Residential Life Jessica Kaeding; two student staff members of Residential Life, Nazish Munir ‘13 and Snigdha Das ‘13; Assistant Director of Student Programs Joshua Nelson, Dean Angie Whitmal, Assistant Director of Athletics Lori Hendricks, Associate Dean of Students for Diversity and Inclusion Tanya Williams, Chair of the Honor Code Council Koepsell and the two student representatives, Labowitz and Frias.

The committee convened to review the current processes of violations, not the policies they originate from. To gain a better sense of models implemented in similar colleges, the committee broke up into three subgroups charged with examining Mount Holyoke’s current processes, compared with the systems in place at other institutions. They evaluated conduct procedures at colleges such as Wellesley, Hampshire, Smith, Bryn Mawr and other Seven sisters, as well as larger schools such as Stanford. Findings revealed that small, all- women liberal arts colleges were facing similar challenges with implementing an effective conduct process.

The presentation of the Committee to Senate involved the introduction of a collective draft of recommendations made by the group after completion of their research. The purpose of the presentation, conducted by Labowitz, Fria and Koepsell with contributions from Joshua Nelson, was to discuss the recommendations of the committee and to gain student feedback.

Members of the committee explained that many students find the current state of conduct processes to be very confusing. Currently, student conduct violations fall under the following areas: academic dishonesty, behavioral and alcohol and drug use. The committee is hoping to streamline the adjudication of policy violations such as fire safety, which are primarily under the purview of Residential Life, and social violations, which fall to the Honor Code Council.

The Committee recommended a new Conduct Officer, answerable to the Dean of the College, who would oversee cases regarding such social and policy violations. Senators raised the question of whether the officer would be a student or a staff member, or whether that meant the creation of a new position. In addition, it was unclear who would be choosing the conduct officer, and one Senator raised the possibility of an alumna taking the position.

At this point, Joshua Nelson clarified that the committee was still figuring out what department the conduct officer would fall under. He elaborated that, currently, conduct alerts detailing policy violations go to Residential Life Assistant Directors, but with the new officer, the reports would go to him or her. In this way, students would be afforded a more formal appeals process.

“Just the term Conduct Officer sounds like a police officer,” SGA President So Jin Lee ’13 observed, suggesting that another title could be used instead.

According to the committee’s draft, one duty of the Conduct Officer would be to “ensure that public information remains accurate and members of the community are kept apprised of emerging problems.” This would include overhauling the existing system that keeps track of policy violations in order to make repercussions more uniform.

Nelson explained that, under the current model, org leaders or student athletes might only receive consequences if Student Programs or the Athletics Department found out about their policy violations. The new Conduct Officer would be charged with managing confidential information and ensuring public information is distributed to the appropriate office.

Students also raised questions about the existence of the Honor Code Council. Nelson explained that the Honor Code Committee would take the place of the Honor Code Council, but would also draw student representatives to serve on an ad hoc basis similar to jury duty.

The draft also states that “faculty will be encouraged to play a more official role in the review process as participants on the honor code committee and possibly in select governing groups.” Nelson pointed out that currently all changes to the Honor Code Council are under the jurisdiction of the Faculty Senate, not SGA. Many Senators and students raised concern over the lack of student governance in adopting these changes.

Labowitz agrees with those concerns, adding, “The draft is a start and certainly has some good ideas in it, but it doesn’t really address the larger picture issue around the lack of student ownership in ResLife. While our conduct issues need an update, the larger premise on which these judiciary processes is founded is ultimately flawed because students simply don’t have access to the rules to which we are accountable. I have advocated for a suspension of conduct processes since the committee’s inception to rectify this injustice, but that seems unfortunately unlikely at this juncture.”

Keshia Pendi ’13 raised the question of what the new role of the Residential Life hall staff would be with this removal of conduct alert duties. Nelson replied that their job would not be to deal with conduct violations, but to help build community.

Currently, the group is set to meet on April 30 to discuss received feedback and finalize their recommendations. The committee anticipates that these final recommendations will be ready for reading at the second Faculty Senate this fall.

Javaria Khan ’15 contributed to the reporting of this article.

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According to a statement given on April 6 signed by The Students of Mobilizing Smith College, the first act was a Letter to the Editor from alum Anne Spurzem, “[reinforcing] the dominant idea that only white, heterosexual, and affluent women deserve to be at Smith College.”

The letter, published in the February edition of the student newspaper, The Sophian, stated that because the school has accepted more international students, women of color and lower-class students,  increased financial aid needs have forced Smith to drop in rankings and become less competitive.

There were many responses to the message, including letters from alumnae, a Town Hall meeting and “Pearls and Cashmere,” a Tumblr filled with letters and photos of students and alumnae expressing their support for the school and its diversity. However, some responses to Spurzem’s letter were in solidarity with the alumna: two notes, one on March 12 and another on April 1, were slipped under the door of a first-year.

According to a letter to the Smith community, the first note read “Spurzem was right, go back to where you came from you freeloader, sandnigger, dyke.” The second read, “it doesn’t matter how many white friends you have, you are still a sandnigger. You don’t belong here.”

After the second note,  Smith President Carol Christ sent out a letter on April 3 to the Smith community.
“I have heard with great concern and distress that a second racist note was put under the door of a student’s room in Parsons House,” the letter read. “I know that acts like this do not represent the values that the Smith community holds at its core. The spirited response to the ‘cashmere and pearls’ letter vividly demonstrates the pride many of us take in the diversity of Smith.”

President Christ also explained further actions the school will take to identify the writer of the letters, explaining “if necessary, we will employ a handwriting analyst for this purpose.”

In addition to the President’s letter, many other measures were taken, including an all-campus meeting on Monday, April 2.

“Prior to that meeting, which was held after classes, President Christ canceled athletic practices and asked departments to close so that staff and faculty could be present,” said Pamela Nolan-Young, director of the Office of Institutional Diversity & Equity. Beyond the meeting, dialogues regarding race and sexual orientation were held on April 13, as well as a workshop called “How Allies Can Help,” and the Smith Stories Project began on April 10. Young also explained there will be meetings in each dorm.
Further actions will take place when more information is found.

“The College is in the midst of an investigation to identify the letter writer,” said Nolan-Young. “Once the investigation has concluded a decision will be made concerning the appropriate forum for further action.”

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2. Daily Jolt stifles online tension at Smith
3. Pres. Creighton joins students in reviving the campus-wide dialogue on diversity

A whistleblower, going by the name Q, told The Amherst Student that Diwa Cody, a member of the current student government’s E-board and the Association of Amherst Students Treasurer, had unauthorized access to real-time election results, which she allegedly released to one of the presidential candidates.

Q claimed that Cody had contacted presidential candidate Josh Meyer and informed him that the numbers were at 49-30-16 for Tania Dias, him and Alex Stein respectively. Meyer then shared the numbers with Stein, proposing that they should work together to keep Dias under fifty percent or else risk losing the elections.

Chair of the Elections Committee Ian Hatch  confirmed that Cody had unauthorized access to the results, which should have been available to only three other people. However, he immediately acted to suspend Cody’s access.

Initially, Hatch considered the allegations of misuse to be nothing but hearsay, since he had no direct evidence.

Upon realizing that the numbers cited matched the real-time results and began shifting in Stein and Meyer’s favor after the alleged leak, Hatch filed a complaint on the basis that “the validity of the election may have been compromised.”

The Judiciary Committee held a preliminary trial regarding the scandal on April 8. A number of members withdrew participation due to a conflict of interest.

In the meantime, Cody and Stein withdrew their candidacies for Treasurer and President respectively.
Stein and Meyer’s testimonies varied. Meyer denied having cited any numbers to Stein, or having had knowledge of any numbers in the first place.

Statements from each of the candidates, as well as Q, are available on The Amherst Student.
As far as Meyer was concerned, the whole fiasco had less to do with irregularities of the election and was more a result of personal politics within the members of AAS.

Cody cited similar reasons for her resignation. “My resignation comes as a product of all the animosity I have experienced at the hands of this AAS e-board throughout the entire year and from the larger community during this elections period,” she told The Amherst Student.

She also took ownership of sharing the results with Meyer, while asserting that she was merely reassuring a friend, that it had been done many times before and that no specific numbers had been exchanged.

Cody later retracted these statements, without any explanation.

Stein, in an article for the newspaper, wrote that he had withdrawn because he was “frustrated with the tone of our discourse and disappointed in the character of our governance.“ He stressed that unfortunately, the scandal had devolved to people politics.

“The issue itself has been lost in the rhetoric of the scandal,” Stein wrote.

The Judiciary Council (JC), upon deciding that Hatch’s complaint was valid, held a public hearing on Thursday, April 12. Attendance was not mandatory for all candidates. Cody and Stein did not show up at the hearing, but Meyer submitted a statement.

Statements were made by Alex Hurst, Dias’ campaign manager, who initially informed Hatch about rumors regarding the leak, George Tepe, chair of the Judiciary Committee, and Dias.

The JC’s decision depended on the trend of the numbers, but they were refused access to any results by the Dean’s Office.

They decided that the treasurer and presidential elections may have been affected, but that they could not sanction anyone else from running. As a result, only the results of the presidential and treasurer elections were pronounced as nullified. Re-elections for these positions are currently being held and results are expected to be announced sometime tomorrow.

A new amendment was also introduced by the JC, whereby candidates running for e-board positions can no longer be on the election committee, and must resign from the committee in order to run.

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1. Elections stir controversy on campus
2. Elections for SGA positions to be reheld
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Gupta began her lecture by fondly recalling her time at Mount Holyoke, remarking that it was “really wonderful to be back on campus.”

“[I’m] really grateful for the experiences I’ve had here,” Gupta said.  While on campus, she co-founded Asian American Sisters in Action (AASIA). During that time, students were reacting to the Rodney King incident (where an African-American man was brutally beaten by police), and there was also a rise in anti-Asian violence.  “Many, many issues were beginning to erupt on campus” said Gupta.  These experiences shaped her own politics.

Gupta hoped that her lecture would be both depressing and exciting: depressing because of what was at stake, but exciting because of the strides being made.

She informed everyone present that today only 11.9 percent of workers were in unions.   She credited this to the fact that U.S. labor laws make it difficult for workers to form unions, and that employers do not face significant consequences for being anti-union.

There is a 28 percent wage advantage for workers in unions, and non-union workers are four times as likely to lack health care benefits.   “Workers in many countries around the world enjoy more bargaining rights [than workers in the U.S.],” Gupta said.

Gupta recalled people expressing to her how they once could work to be civically engaged, but that was not the case anymore.  “Today, most people feel like all they do is live to work,” Gupta said.
Gupta spoke about senior citizens, who after working their entire lives, were now forced to go back to work and could only find jobs at places like Walmart.

Gupta emphasized differences in the lives and status of corporations and the life and status of the average worker.

In 1955, taxes on corporations made up 4.3 percent of the GDP, and taxes on individuals made up 9.4 percent of the GDP.  Today, taxes on corporations only make up 1.2 percent of the GDP and taxes on individuals make up 12.2 percent.

“Corporations pay significantly less than their fair share of taxes, while working class individuals pay a greater percentage of their income,” said Gupta.

Despite these statistics, Gupta felt hopeful that change could occur if people worked together.
After Hurricane Katrina, corporations began to bring in guest workers from other countries, resulting in the firing of many African American workers. However, instead of being pitted against each other, the two groups worked together to successfully force a discussion.   Many other groups, such as Walmart workers and janitors, have also started protesting.

While optimistic, Gupta emphasized the importance of the people in making change. “We can’t leave it up to policy makers to do it themselves. It’s got to be about people in the streets making that happen.”
After the lecture, attendees were invited to further the discussion with Gutpa in Blanchard 108.

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Included in the Princeton Review’s new guidebook, faculty members for The Best 300 Professors list were chosen on basis of their popularity on RateMyProfessors.com, the country’s popular college professor ratings site.

Representing Mount Holyoke on the list of Top 300 are: Susan R. Barry, Rachel Fink, Amy Frary, Stan Rachootin and Craig Woodard, all from the Biology department; Eleanor Townsley and Kenneth H. Tucker from the Sociology department; Vincent A. Ferraro and Constantine Pleshakov from the International Relations department; Jane F. Crosthwaite from the Religion department; Susan Daniels from the Theatre Arts department; James Hartley from the Economics department; Sam Mitchell from the Philosophy department and Christopher Rivers from the French department.

Ateka Mirza ’15, who is taking Biology 200 with Frary and Fink, felt that the professors deserved to be on the list. “Both professors give detailed explanations, are huge on visual learning and both make rounds to each lab giving advice. Both of them are very enthusiastic and know how to make a course rigorous [and] interesting, but fun nonetheless,” she commented.  Mirza is one of many students who take pride in this achievement. In fact, students and Mount Holyoke faculty alike are flattered by the award.

Sam Mitchell, for example, considers it a great honor to have been named on the list. “I’m particularly pleased that it’s a national honor, given by people who have no interest in favoring any one school[...] These are difficult times for the College, and the fact that we do so well in the teaching part of our mission, plus the fact that it’s been recognized, is a real boost to the College among prospective students and the wider academic community,” he said, calling the achievement, “a real feather in Mount Holyoke’s cap.”

There is still the question of what the selection process entailed. “I do not know all the details of the selection process, but the Princeton Review did take care in asking us questions in their editing process, and I found their attention a source of both confirmation and comfort,” explained Crosthwaite.

Rivers, an included professor from the French department, added, “It is by no means a ‘scientific’ survey of any kind and it certainly doesn’t prove that you’re a wonderful pedagogue in any objective sense, but it does suggest that many students are happy with their experience in your classroom and that means a great deal to me, both personally and professionally.”

The faculty members believe that students are greatly responsible for contributing  to this accolade. “My students contribute an enormous amount to my teaching. It’s a real pleasure to teach such intelligent and gifted young women,” said Mitchell. “I appreciate especially their willingness to be participants in learning and teaching. Sometimes I try things in teaching that don’t work out well, but the students are always willing to try along with me and forgive the failure for the sake of the experiments that work.”

The honor of being included in and topping a book that covers faculty from 122 colleges and 60 academic fields will not be forgotten anytime soon. “I am extremely proud that our faculty have been recognized for their extraordinary dedication as teachers, mentors and role models,” said President Lynn Pasquerella proudly. “These individual faculty members represent an entire community of scholars who are committed to fostering academic excellence and creating the next generation of women leaders.”

Indeed, the prestige it has brought to the College cannot be denied, and its countless benefits will continue to impact Mount Holyoke in the future. In the words of Economics professor Hartley, “It is proof that MHC students are the best in the world.  The amazing students make us better professors.”

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The event, hosted by a number of student organizations including MHACASA and APAU featured four panelists who discussed race, the incarceration system, and recent events including the murder of Trayvon Martin. The panelists included Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, Rosa Clemente, Dr. Jared Ball, and Jasiri X. Dr. Hill is a founding board member of My5th, a non-profit that works to educate youth about their legal rights. Currently, he is a lecturer and columnist and has been featured on NPR and in The Washington Post regarding his work with culture, politics and education.

Rosa Clemente is a black Puerto Rican grassroots organizer and was the 2008 VP candidate for the Green Party and is currently earning her PhD at UMass.

Dr. Jared Ball is a professor of Communication Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, and his interests include mass media, underground journalism and cultural expressions.

Lastly, the night opened with a performance by panelist Jasiri X, an emcee and founder of internet news series This Week with Jasiri X. Jasiri X rapped in a video featuring news clips and pictures of Trayvon Martin at the event.

The discussion was facilitated by Chris Tinson, a professor of African American studies at Hampshire College. Tinson opened with a discussion about Trayvon Martin and the recent news of his killer George Zimmerman’s charge for second-degree murder. He then asked the panelists what the Trayvon case signifies for the types of mobilization “that we’ve been following for for years now.”

Clemente explained that what people can do is more than just buying skittles or signing a petition, and reminded everyone that we are not in a post-racial society. “I feel a sense of rage, I feel a sense of anger…what have we been doing for 15, 20 years, some of us who have been in movements for 15 years, why are we here, in 2012, why do I have to worry about my husband coming home alive, or Jared making it home to his family?”

Clemente continued, explaining that while there are opportunities for social change, there are no movements and only men are often part of this discussion, when in fact race affects families and communities. “Once we find that pain, we can start and continue in the tradition of our ancestors; without their resistance and their willingness to give up their individuality for the solidarity of race, of black and brown people[…]they were starting militias, they were starting revolutions.”

Little also contributed, explaining solidarity created through struggle. “The commitment for struggle is a beautiful thing, and the only thing that will produce the kind of outcomes we’re looking for if we’re looking for justice.” Little continued, saying that for the past 45 days young people have organized and used social media for change. “The problem is if we need 45 days to get an arrest for the most famous murder in the world right now[…]that we suggests we live in a world that is still so unequal, and so unfair and we still have a tremendous amount of work in front of us.” Little reminded the audience this is not always the case, such as in the recent Troy Davis case, and that black men and women are still not welcomed in public space. “Let’s make a commitment to do something.”

Tinson asked the next question, addressing Ball in particular about organization in moments of crisis, and why mobilization often takes so long. Ball explained, “I come before this crowd as a failed organizer,.” His past ventures  had fallen apart, and so he instead  encouraged the public to start studying and preparing for the “next one these that will happen.” By “chasing” unorganized incidents, he explains, efforts to make changes have little impact. Ball also explained that while the media attention for Trayvon suggests change, it may also be tied to the political campaigns for the upcoming election, and that the media could be “using the cache of covering this for ratings.”

Jasiri X also spoke about organization and the potential impact of social media. “I found out about Trayvon through Facebook and Twitter,” he said. “There was so much of an impact from Facebook and Twitter, then mainstream media came behind it.” Jasiri X explained there are tools to organize and have conversations, and often in the past similar crimes committed have gone without media attention because of the lack of social media.

Tinson continued the discussion, asking the panelists about the current prison system. Little expanded on the misuse of the prison system and lack of knowledge surrounding the prisons. “If people understood what it means to be in a prison regime, to live as a prisoner, they wouldn’t be as committed to sending people off to prison or for prisons to expand,” he said.

Little explained there is a business attached to the prison system, and with 2.5 million people incarcerated currently, it has become an industry and provides jobs. “We have expanded laws to criminalize people,” he continued. “We criminalized mental illness. Ronald Regan shut down mental institutions, and put people on the street and made them homeless, and then criminalized homelessness, by criminalizing panhandling.”

A number of students asked questions regarding how to organize and what we can do to gather support, especially those who aren’t of color. “Don’t be afraid to organize, but be willing to sacrifice your privilege,” Little said. “Not just acknowledge, but yield this privilege.”

The event concluded with a reading by Youth Pastor Nyle Fort about Trayvon Martin and other similar incidents.

The event was headed by students Sonia Ballantyne ’12, Halima Ahmed ’13 and UMass student Emahunn Campbell after attending an event in Philadelphia in December. “We were so empowered we decided to bring it back to Mount Holyoke. We were going to do a Taboo discussion, but we decided that wasn’t big enough,” said Ballantyne. “Once it started to gain momentum, people offered to lend a hand.” She explained how all four panelists were decided on in a variety of ways, with Dr. Ball and Clemente at the suggestion by Campbell, and Dr. Hill asking to be involved. “The next step is to move forward, being involved in prison abolition,” said Ballantyne. “This isn’t a black or brown problem, this is an everyone problem.”

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The discussion was primarily led by Laura Garcia, director of Campus Technology and Media Support; cookies and tea were provided. The LITS team is still examining the possibility of the change.

They are assessing the advantages and disadvantages and are between one fourth and one third of the way through. After giving a brief introduction, Garcia opened the discussion up for questions.

One concern was that faculty would not know for sure who the e-mail account would belong to.

“Even if we do decide to move our entire email infrastructure to Gmail, we’ll still remain mtholyoke.edu,” Garcia said. Faculty also raised questions of security.

Although Google has an international database, overall LITS felt that it would be very secure.

“Google does a whole lot to protect the data that is in there,” said Alex Wirth-Cauchon, Director of Research and Instructional Support. “Is it safe from a hacker getting it? Yes, so long as a password is safe,” Wirth-Cauchon said.

In addition to the protection that a password offers, Google provides protection for accounts that require extra security. “I don’t anticipate [that] we [would] enable that for all of our users, but I think that for people who deal with secure data that we might offer it,” Garcia said.

Gmail would offer several advantages for Mount Holyoke students and faculty.

Google Documents, a feature available on Gmail that allows multiple users on different computers to see a document and work on it at the same time, will be available to users.

“It’s very easy to collaborate and share documents, and putting that power in the hands of users is very liberating for people,” Garcia said.

Gmail will also offer the advantage of Google Calendars. “We [currently] do not have integration between our e-mail and calendar,” Garcia added.

He said that with Google, one could accept a meeting proposed in an e-mail and have it appear on the calendar. Additionally, individuals could create personal as well as group calendars.

Gmail will also offer a lot more storage space. “If we were to go Google we would go from 1 GB per user to 25 GB per user,” Garcia said.

Some features of Mount Holyoke’s mail would differ from normal private Gmail. In private Gmail, Google will scan a person’s e-mail for words and then use those words to post advertisements.

However, this will not be an issue if Mount Holyoke switches to Gmail.  Gmail will not scan e-mails for personal information, and no ads will be posted.

Students and faculty who have an opinion on Mount Holyoke switching to Gmail can e-mail their concerns to lits-leadership@mtholyoke.edu.

LITS plans to make a final decision in May 2012.

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President of Afghani Spirit Ellaha Sharifi ’14 helped organize the event and said that it aimed to raise awareness about Afghan culture.

“Afghanistan has always been talked [about] in political context, but we wanted to create awareness about cultural and historical significance of Afghanistan in the world,” she said.

Afghan Spirit is a relatively new student organization on campus. Although Mount Holyoke has a variety of international student organizations, one for Afghani students did not exist until Sharifi took initiative and decided to start one last fall.

Aside from the organization’s participation in VariAsians, this was their first major event. “We had support and help of Afghan Spirit members, friends and family,” Sharifi said.

The theme of the show was “Stereotypes vs. Reality,” and performances included a series of skits, presentations, poetry, comedy, songs and dances.

As the audience piled into the Great Room in Blanchard, it seemed that most of the attendees were from the older generation and from around the valley. The turnout was not  high.

Sharifi felt that this could be because of a lack of information regarding Afghan culture among the student body.

“Those who did show up had an idea or were exposed to Afghan Culture through some avenue and wanted to find out more,” she said.

She added that this could have been a great opportunity for students to find out about the culture and history of Afghanistan, although the attendance was not great. The fact that almost every cultural student organization holds its own personal show in the year means that audience gets spread out. People do not want to keep paying for the same kind of events every week.

Sharifi agreed and felt that low attendence could be further attributed to the number of cultural events at Mount Holyoke.

“If there are more collaborative events like VariAsians, which allow several cultures and countries to come together in front of a big audience, then it will be more appealing to the student body to participate and will be less time-consuming for everyone,” she observed.

After the cultural night, Afghan Spirit held an after party in Blanchard.

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On Saturday March 31, Chapin auditorium witnessed a full house when renowned American television host and political commentator Rachel Maddow came to talk about her new book, Drift.

Maddow hosts the popular show The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, for which The Guardian has called her the “star of cable news.”

The Five College Women’s Studies Research Center, the Odyssey Bookshop and the Gender Studies Department at Mount Holyoke worked together to bring Rachel Maddow to campus to talk about her new book on the military industrial complex and the privatization of war. Professor of German Studies and Director of the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center Karen Remmler, who said that Mount Holyoke wanted to “celebrate Maddow’s work as a tenacious, smart and feminist political commentator,” introduced Maddow to the crowd.

Maddow was greeted by a standing ovation from the audience, followed by a collective happy birthday sing-along. “You’re embarrassing me,” joked Maddow to the audience.

Maddow first read an excerpt from her book to the crowd of Mount Holyoke students, staff and faculty and residents and fans from the Pioneer Valley. The audience often erupted into laughter, listening attentively to Maddow’s witty and captivating narrative about the relationship between houbara bustards in Balochistan, Pakistan and the American military.

Maddow explained how the endangered bustards were popular sport for hunting among wealthy Emirati and Sheikhs from Arab regions. For this reason, the United Arab Emirates bought the strip of land where  these creatures resided from the Pakistani government. However, the same land was also occupied by an American base, which the Pakistani government had been allowing the CIA to run operations from, but which the CIA had also been using for “secret missions.” Once knowledge of these secret missions was released to the Pakistani citizens, their government could excuse themselves simply because the land was no longer in their possession and therefore, they had no authority over the activities it catered to.

Maddow then talked about America itself and how the country was waging “a stateless war.” She said that it was tragic that the country was simultaneously involved in what are two of its longest wars, but that the missions have had less input and concern from the American public than the Vietnam War, for example.

“We are not a country that went to war. We sent our military to war and they left us behind,” she said. “These are changes that have happened over a short period of time.”

Maddow said that American citizenry needed to be more involved in war efforts, but clarified that this did not mean she was pro-drafting. An example she gave was organizing welcome back parades for the returning soldiers from Iraq. Efforts had been made, she admitted, but not in major cities like New York. “I’m a big believer in protest, direct action movements,” she stated.

A question from an audience member asked Maddow to talk about the country’s political parties. She felt that the country’s center is leaning towards one extreme, because conservatives are moving further to the right. While the Republicans are following the conservatives to the extreme right, liberals, in an attempt to seem more moderate, are shifting their center to the right as well.

Maddow said that if the country continues on the path it is now then it would simply build towards a crisis of unsustainability, “just in terms of how we think of ourselves as a country,” she elaborated.

Normally, said Maddow, “peacetime is our default and war is our operation, and that’s been flipped.”

Maddow’s lecture received continuous applause from the audience. During the question and answer session, several people thanked her for coming to Mount Holyoke and for writing her book. The audience asked pertinent questions about what could be done with the current political situation and what she thought about issues like drafting and American involvement in the Middle East. Maddow clarified, on several occasions, that she was not an expert and that there was no “Maddow doctrine,” but that she hoped her book “could be part of naming the problem.”

“She [Maddow] was very impressed with the high level of the student questions,” said Remmler.

One audience member commented, “If there were more Rachel Maddows, this world would be a better place,” to a great applause.

Remmler said that the presence of a diverse audience gave a strong sense of solidarity and committment to public engagement. “[Such an event was] sorely needed as the USA heads into the presidential election,” she said.

After the lecture, Maddow stayed to sign books and take photographs. An Odyssey Bookshop stall at the back of the room sold copies of Drift and gave out free Rachel Maddow bookmarks.

This coming year, the Women’s Studies Center plans to focus on the work of women in the media. “This event was important to highlight the need for more women like Rachel Maddow to help support rigorous and informed debate on issues, such as reproductive rights, democratic process, and foreign policy to name a few,” added Remmler. She said that more women voices were needed on TV, the Internet and social media, and she hoped that the event would encourage students to enter the fray of engaging with news.

Remmler also felt that Joan Grenier, the owner of Odyssey, deserved much of the credit for organizing the event.

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2. Author Julia Alvarez Reads From Her New Book “Saving the World” at the Odyssey
3. Famed animal sciences professor speaks to full house as part of lecture series