Students received a rather cold welcome back from break when showers across campus failed to run hot water. While not all students were not affected, many in the Quad and Tower Court neighborhood reported not having hot water for over a week. According to Mike Lane, director of facilities management, at the beginning of the semester, the College’s plumbing staff “replaced more than 40 hot water shower valves.” In an email to The News, Lane said these valves often get stuck in a cold position that prevents hot water from reaching the shower. He added that the valves do not give any indication or warning that may have failed, so it is difficult for facilities to address this problem early on. Students who are facing issues with their hot water should contact the Facilities Customer Service Desk (x2767) or submit a service request.

Co-ops reopening

El Table has reopened for the spring semester. This co-op is located in Founders basement, and they will be open from Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Café Hoop, located on the first floor of Lulu, has also reopened for the spring semester. They will be open on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. 

Financial aid forms due

The due date for financial aid forms, including FAFSA, the CSS profile and income documentation (including all personal and business tax returns, W-2s, forms and schedules) was Feb. 1. All materials required to be uploaded are on the MyWellesley portal.

Summer research program application due

Applications for Wellesley College’s science center summer research program are due Feb. 10 at 11 p.m. Students can choose from a list of research projects conducted by professors of varying departments, including biological sciences, chemistry, environmental science and computer science. This program is open to all rising sophomores, juniors and seniors with an interest in research. Available projects and more information about the program can be found on Wellesley’s website under the “Science Center; Summer Research Program” tab. 

Valentine’s Day spirit

Valentine’s Day excitement has spread across campus with the marketing of candy grams. Both SBOG and Freestyle are offering candygrams for varying prices. See spam around campus. 

According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), my mother was right about the rising price of flour. Among other consumer goods, the latest data showed that flour prices have increased by 16.3% in the last year. Others have noticed the increase in the cost of groceries as well. According to the Pew Research Center, as of June 2022, 96% of Americans expressed concern over the rising price of food and other goods.

The CPI Survey is the federal government’s way of tracking price changes in consumer goods and services. The latest report, released on Jan. 12, documents the kinds of price increases that are worrying consumers (among them my mother). The most recent data includes inflation numbers for Dec. 2022 and provides a snapshot of how inflation has changed over the past 12 months. 

The CPI data, which is collected by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, is grouped into three main categories: food items, energy and all items less food and energy. While average prices decreased by 0.1 percent from Nov. to Dec. 2022, they increased by 6.5% from Dec. 2021 to Dec. 2022. Energy prices saw a slightly higher 12-month jump of 7.3%, and food prices saw the largest increase in the past year of any category with 10.4%. In particular, food purchased from grocery stores, referred to by CPI as food at home, increased by 11.8% over the same period.

The main explanation circulating is that the rise in food prices is due to similar increases in the price of fuel and transportation. As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the price of oil has been particularly volatile. Part of this increase in the cost of producing and transporting food is likely passed on to consumers through higher prices. Consequently, the cost of food is rising and will continue to in 2023. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, at-home food prices are predicted to rise by 8.0% in 2023, with intervals of 4.5 to 11.7% per good.

While these price increases hurt all consumers, the reality is that low-income families bear the brunt of the cost. A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that the bottom 40%  of households are facing a higher rate of inflation than the national average, mainly given the increased cost of food and housing.

Engel’s Law, created by statistician Ernst Engel in 1957, explains this reality. It asserts that as a household’s income rises, the percentage of its income spent on food decreases. Put another way, low-income families spend a higher share of their income on food. Additionally, according to the Brookings Institute, while the share of income spent on food has shrunk significantly for middle-class families over the past 30 years, it has remained constant for low-income families. As a result, even minor increases in price can have huge impacts. For example, in a Dec. 2022 survey, the Pew Research Center found that 52% of low-income families did not have enough money for food in the past year.

The impacts of the rise in food prices are being felt beyond households. The latest CPI data also showed a 305.2% increase in the cost of food at elementary and secondary schools. The School Nutrition Association’s 2023 School Nutrition Trends Report found that 99.8% of schools polled indicated that increasing costs posed a challenge to their school nutrition program. According to the report, 60% of school meal program directors said they had to increase the price of school meals due to rising food costs. The high cost of breakfast items, entrees and snacks is especially troubling. Breakfast items, in particular, are among the foods that have faced the highest inflation in the past year. For example, the cost of cereal and bakery products has risen by 16.1% on average.

Those like my mother who have noticed the price of groceries rising are not alone. At the same time, while food price increases have impacted everyone, the effects have been felt most dramatically by low-income consumers. With food inflation predicted to rise further in 2023, it is worth keeping an eye on how these disparate effects continue to widen the gap between low-income and high-income households.

Those currently in the country are not the only ones affected. Many Pakistani students at Wellesley are feeling the effects of the crisis. 

When Natasha Khoso ’25 was still at home in Pakistan over the summer, she did not realize the extent of the flood damage. Because Khoso lives in Karachi, she did not feel the impacts of the flooding as acutely as the rural areas of Pakistan did. Her family living in the rural areas, however, were severely impacted by the flooding. For example, the flooding hit the area where Khoso’s father and uncles grow rice especially hard, wiping out all of their crops.

“It’s really heartbreaking to see what’s happening at home,” Nuzaina Khan ’23, who is also from Pakistan, said. “On the one hand, I am incredibly lucky and blessed to be getting the education I’m getting at a place like Wellesley, but at the same time, I feel guilty and useless seeing what’s unfolding while so far away from home.”

According to Khoso and Khan, the flooding speaks to a bigger issue of climate change, the effects of which extend beyond the more severe monsoon season. Khoso also pointed to hotter summers and colder winters as impacts of global warming on Pakistan. She added that “women are disproportionately impacted… even those who were literally eight months pregnant [are] working under the sun all day.”

“Yeah, we’re getting that attention, but it’s so unfair, because we’re not even the ones causing the problems and they’re affecting us,” Khoso said. “Pakistan and other developing countries are having to face the problems created by the west. It’s criminal.”

A study in the Lancet Planetary Health Journal found that the US and the Global North were responsible for 40% and 92% of excess global CO2 emissions, respectively. According to Khoso, the highest-emitting countries should provide more assistance to countries like Pakistan that are feeling the most severe impacts of climate change.  

“People talk about climate change futuristically sometimes, but the future is now,” Khan said. “It is happening and those who are being more impacted by it are those that have the lowest carbon footprint and have contributed the least.”

The Wellesley Pakistani Students Association (PSA), which both Khoso and Khan are a part of, has been raising money for organizations helping to mitigate the consequences of the flooding since late September. According to the PSA Instagram, the two organizations are the Edhi Foundation, a “well regarded, non-profit social and humanitarian aid organization based in Pakistan,” and the Human Development foundation, which is a non-profit founded by Pakistani Americans, that provides flood relief kits to those impacted.

“It feels really good,” Khoso said of the fundraisers. “Especially when I came here, I felt so weird being away from home when this was happening, because you feel so helpless.”

 PSA has partnered with Slater International Student Organization and Wellesley Association of South Asian Cultures to raise money during their culture shows, along with three fundraisers the organization has held independently.  As of Nov. 14, they have raised $2,300 from their fundraisers and an additional $800 from donations solicited during the Slater Culture show. Khoso also mentioned that several alums reached out with offers to have their workplace match the donations that PSA has raised.

The email also announced that the College would no longer use a hotel for isolation and that students are expected to quarantine in the residence halls if they test positive for COVID-19. Continuing from last year, visitors must still be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, and all campus buildings will still be closed to the general public, though invited guests are permitted inside. 

Compared to peer institutions, Wellesley maintained stricter COVID-19 guidelines through the 2021-2022 school year, including mandatory masking in all campus buildings except for residence halls, and required twice a week testing. In a statement to The News from Piper Orton, vice president for finance and administration and treasurer, and Karen Petrulakis, general counsel, the College spent a total of $13 million on COVID-19 measures from the start of the pandemic. According to Orton and Petrulakis, $5 million in funding came from federal COVID relief funding. 

According to the statement, the College decided to shift its policies to be consistent with the “best practices at our peer institutions.”

“Our own experience with the Omicron variant last year, and particularly the increase in cases following Marathon Monday, suggested that isolating students off campus eased concerns but did not appear to significantly mitigate the risk to roommates of spread of the Omicron variants,” Orton and Petrulakis said in their statement to The News. “A significant number of roommates and other close contacts of COVID-positive students tested positive several days later because they had already been exposed prior to the onset of symptoms. This does not mean that a roommate or close contact of a COVID-positive student will inevitably contract the virus.”

Wellesley’s guidelines remain stricter compared to other colleges in the area. The Massachusetts Institute for Technology, for example, dropped their testing and masking requirements in January 2022. During the Sept. 26, 2022 Senate meeting, Dean of Students Sheilah Shaw Horton drew attention to this fact. 

“A lot of institutions have stopped having [testing], so I do think it’s a great thing that we’re still offering it,” Dean Horton said. 

According to Orton and Petrulakis, for the week of Sept. 19 to Sept. 23, “241 faculty and staff and 616 students tested at the College Club.”

Housing concerns

When Tristen Wallace ’24 got COVID-19 during the second week of school, one of her biggest fears was infecting her roommates. In accordance with the new COVID-19 guidelines, Wallace quarantined in her Tower triple with her two roommates. Wallace said she was worried about infecting her roommates and other people when she went to get food from the dining hall and ran into someone she knew. 

“I could potentially be spreading COVID to a lot of people,” Wallace said. “I [felt] really guilty about it.”

According to Wallace, when she brought the concern up during an appointment with Health Services, they pointed her towards the Stone Center. However, Wallace said she felt addressing the lack of quarantine accommodations for students was more important than her own guilt. Neither of Wallace’s roommates tested positive for COVID. 

When Warren*’25’s roommate got COVID, Warren chose to stay outside the room during his roommate’s isolation period. 

“My roommate got COVID, and I haven’t had a place to stay given that my girlfriend is immunocompromised,” Warren said. “I have been [sleeping] in common rooms and [waking] up early so that I am not seen by facilities.”

Warren told The News that he no longer feels safe at the College and preferred when students with COVID-19 had to isolate in specific quarantine housing. 

Warren and Pauline Paranikas ’24 both emphasized that they ultimately felt unsafe, given the current quarantining protocol. 

“When the College agrees to give you housing, the presumption is that they’re going to give you safe housing — so they’re not going to give you a building that’s going to fall down on you, they’re not going to give you a building with a rotten foundation; they’re going to put you in a place where it’s safe to live,” Paranikas said. “That’s not the case when your roommate has COVID. I don’t think it should be the burden on students to find a new place to live; I think it should be the burden of the College to provide them with a space in which they can live safely.”

According to Orton and Petrulakis, accommodations are provided to high-risk students including for those who are immunocompromised. In their statement to The News, they mentioned that these were considered during the housing selection process.

Other concerns

Wallace, Warren and Paranikas also expressed concern over the new testing and masking guidelines. In contrast to last year, there is only one testing center, the College Club, which will only be open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting Oct. 3 — during which the College Club continues to offer free rapid and PCR tests. Additionally, according to a Health Services representative, students can schedule a testing appointment through Health Services, though they are subject to availability. Dean Horton explained that since only 500 people have enrolled in testing, it did not seem feasible to hire an additional team of testers on West Side.

Since Wallace is living in Tower this year, she emphasized that it was difficult for her to get tested, given how far she lives from the College Club. Both Warren and Paranikas also said they would have preferred if testing were mandatory. 

Similarly, while masking is required by default in the classroom, the ability to go mask optional worried Wallace, Warren and Paranikas. According to Paranikas, although one of her professors originally made masking optional, after learning about the rise in COVID cases, they required masking once again. 

Looking forward

Due to a lack of information on the long-term implications of COVID-19, Paranikas said that she still believes it is the College’s responsibility to protect the community. Some students have gone a step further and taken matters into their own hands by organizing meal delivery systems for students with COVID and bathroom sign-ins. 

“As long as COVID continues to be a really strong risk and exposing others to COVID continues to be a very risky thing to do for immunocompromised or elderly people, as long as that risk is present, the college should be taking care of students and preventing them from getting it,” Paranikas said. 

*Names have been changed to maintain anonymity.

Soren Rose ’22 has a picture like that from their first semester at Wellesley. Now, they are one of the students calling for 9 ¾’s removal due to its association with transphobic “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling. 

The earliest instance of Rowling’s transphobia dates back to at least 2014 with a scene involving a trans character in one of her “Cormoran Strike” novels, but it was not until 2020 that one of her tweets gained particular notoriety. In June of that year, she retweeted an op-ed titled “Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate,” with the complaint that the headline did not use the term “women.” After facing backlash for the tweet, Rowling published a long essay attempting to explain her stance on trans identity in which she perpetuated many harmful stereotypes about trans people.

The area that 9 ¾ occupies is relatively public. The hallway is visible from College Road, and many students pass by it when walking from the Science Center to the Academic Quad. As a trans person, Rose said it was “weird and uncomfortable” seeing 9 ¾ occupy such a prominent space on campus. 

“It’s just a symbol [that] this children’s story that came out before people were born matters more than trans people’s comfort,” they said. 

For many students, Rowling’s transphobia cannot be separated from the content in her books. In late April, a group of students painted over 9 ¾ with a mural of the transgender flag. About a day later, presumably another group of students re-drew 9 ¾ over the flag. The trans flag was subsequently repainted. Then, on April 22, 2022, the mural and all the paint underneath it, including the 9 ¾, was power washed off by workers associated with the College. In a statement to the Wellesley College community, Dean of Students Sheilah Shaw Horton said that both drawings were removed because “the College considers painting on our historic buildings to be vandalism.”

If you don’t really care or you don’t get why it needs to change, you probably just need to google “JKR transphobia.”

For Wallis** ’22, who requested anonymity because he is not out to his family, seeing the trans flag mural was “really cool.” He felt that it affirmed trans people’s rights to be at Wellesley and “to claim this space over [Rowling].” At the same time, he felt like administration’s statement did not go far enough in denouncing the transphobia associated with Rowling and 9 ¾ and made it seem like “trans students were breaking the law and being bullies.”

“The 9 ¾ [drawing] is really, at this point, a symbol of hate to me. I don’t think [Rowling] should have any cultural relevance at this point. She’s a TERF… She’s making trans people’s lives worse every day,” Wallis, who referred to 9 ¾ as “thinly veiled transphobia,” said. “There’s no reason to celebrate her in the first place, and there’s no reason to celebrate now.”

Rose said they were shocked to see students respond to the trans flag mural by painting over it with 9 ¾, especially seeing that some went as far to put posters up around campus, including one that said “EVERYTIME YOU VANDALIZE PLATFORM 9 3/4 , WORKING CLASS PEOPLE HAVE TO PHYSICALLY LABOR TO CLEAN UP YOUR FELONY.” 

In her email, Dean Horton urged students to “engage in difficult conversations” outside of painting on buildings. She encouraged students to work with the Office of Intercultural Education and College Government to plan facilitated conversations on the topic and find a different place to celebrate trans students at Wellesley. For Wallis, however, this statement ignored the context of the mural’s location. 

“It really ignores the context of why it was that hallway. Like sure, we could hang a trans flag somewhere else on campus, and that would be cool, but she’s just acting like [it was just done] in this random hallway … it’s not like that,” he said. “It’s a targeted political statement; it’s targeted political art. It’s almost like she wanted to paint it as a coincidence.”

Ultimately, both Rose and Wallis see the permanent removal of 9 ¾ as a win, regardless of whether the mural of the transgender flag stays up.

Regardless of how you feel, your actions hurt people. It hurts people at Wellesley, and especially people who are already marginalized.

Other students, like Gabrielle Shlikas ’22, disagree. For Shlikas, 9 ¾ is a symbol now divorced from Rowling, and there is “nothing hateful about it.”

“I fully disagree with the sentiment that 9 ¾ being spray painted on a hallway was violent or causing anyone harm. It was a spray-painted number, in my opinion,” Shilkas said. “Even if it did make people uncomfortable, in my opinion, the only place that you’re owed comfort is in your own room. We come to college to become challenged academically and socially. Just because something makes you uncomfortable doesn’t mean you get to destroy it, I mean you can try to change it, you can raise a dialogue, but I don’t think you get to take it upon yourself to do something without a vote.”

Not all students agree with this view. Van An Trinh ’24 said that even if students believe that Rowling’s trans rhetoric is insignificant, leaving up 9 ¾ is harmful. 

“Regardless of how you feel, your actions hurt people. It hurts people at Wellesley, and especially people who are already marginalized. It costs you nothing to not do that,” they said, adding that attending a school with such a vibrant transgender and gender nonconforming student body has helped them feel more comfortable with their own gender identity. “Their wellbeing and their feeling of safety and community matters so much more than painting 9 ¾ for a movie series that ended 10 years ago.” 

Rose added that students who don’t believe that Rowling transphobia is relevant to 9 ¾ should, in general, think more critically about the series. 

“I would just implore [students to] consider what it would mean if the author of their favorite children’s book took a very solid stance to say ‘I don’t think you deserve healthcare,’” they said. 

Additionally, Wallis said there was a lot the College needed to do to improve the lives of trans students at Wellesley, including dismantling gendered language use by professors, students and admissions. Wallis added, however, that in the past, a lot of this work has been the labor of transgender students, which he believes should not be the case.

“There’s no reason to defend 9 ¾ at this point. It’s not historical; those books were written in 1997. It doesn’t represent anything good,” Wallis said. “I don’t really need the trans flag to be up there forever, I just need the 9 ¾ down. If you don’t really care or you don’t get why it needs to change, you probably just need to google ‘JKR transphobia.’”

For LGBTQ+ students who want to discuss their experience, please reach out to AJ Guerrero, Coordinator of LGBTQ+ Programs and Services. She can be reached out ag100@wellesley.edu. Students can also check out the LGBTQ+ resource guide. 

**Name changed to protect anonymity.

Emilie Zhang contributed reporting to this article. 

“That was just a brutal experience for us, personally,” Professor Battat said, pointing to early morning daycare drop-offs, long train rides and not being able to come home until midnight.  

Professor Battat initially accepted a position at Harvard as a temporary lecturer, before accepting a position in the writing department at Wellesley. The non-tenure track position at Wellesley was supposed to be temporary — until she fell in love with teaching and spent her last six years as a professor in Wellesley’s writing department. 

“I made a choice that had financial consequences,” Professor Battat said, adding that she was aware she would receive a decrease in pay in a non-tenure position.  “[There were] ways in which my choices were constrained, not only by a job market that does not sustain families or partnerships …  [but by] gendered expectations for caregiving really shaped my choices.”

For Professor Battat, the choice was worth it. However, the low pay and lack of job security for non-tenure track faculty at Wellesley has left her in a difficult position. 

Not only does a tenure track position not guarantee job security, but besides a one-time adjustment in 2020, the salary of non-tenure track faculty has not increased since 2008. According to The $60,600 salary for a professor with a family of four qualifies a visiting lecturer for low income housing assistance in Massachusetts (with the limit being $66,150). According to a survey of non-tenure track faculty conducted by Wellesley’s branch of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the majority of non-tenure track faculty members reported salary as the “greatest area of dissatisfaction in their work at the College.” 

AAUP is an advocacy organization that represents the needs of faculty across the US. Its three mandates are academic freedom, advancements in shared governance and promotion of economic security. An internal survey conducted by the AAUP showed that the majority of members were concerned with the last tenet of the organization’s mission, specifically in the context of non-tenure track professors. 

Professor Battat serves as co-president of Wellesley’s chapter of the AAUP with Professor of Peace and Justice Studies Catia Confortini. In response to member concern with salary equity, Professors Battat and Confortini have focused the efforts of the organization to support the work of non-tenure track faculty. Both also added that issues of under-compensation were extended to staff across all departments as well. 

AAUP is not the first organization on campus to represent non-tenure track faculty. The Faculty on Term Appointments, Instructors in Science Laboratory, and Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics Faculty Advisory Committee (FIPAC) in Academic Council is made up of six faculty members that represent their interests in Academic Council. Since it is an advisory committee, however, it does not make any decisions on policy, and works instead to advise senior leadership on policies regarding non-tenure track faculty. 

“FIPAC has always worked within the governance structure of the College. It became clear that going through official channels and continuing to work through committees became insufficient,” Professor Confortini said, adding that that is where AAUP comes in. “The idea is that there needs to be some advocacy and some pushing from outside because otherwise the wheels of official channels are slow and insufficient. We need some other organization from the outside that pushes for senior leadership to do the right thing that needs to be done.”

As part of the recent advocacy work, AAUP assisted with planning the Teach In. The purpose of the event was to raise consciousness about the issues faced by non-tenure track faculty through a community focused, rather than public facing, event. AAUP also worked with Wellesley Against Mass Incarceration (WAMI). 

The event was held on April 7 from 12:45 to 2:00 p.m. in Clapp Library and on Zoom. Professor Battat spoke at the beginning and was followed by about five other professors who shared their experience as non-tenure track faculty members. 

Professor Stella Kakavouli of the computer science department spoke about her experience as a faculty member for 21 years, having only received one minor increase in her salary. According to Kakavouli, the starting salary of the students she teaches is 30% more than the salary she receives as a member of the faculty for 21 years. 

“I can’t help feeling a little underappreciated,” she said.

During the event, professors spoke about the gender inequities of lower paid non-tenure tracks offered by the College. According to Professor Battat, 71% of non-tenure track faculty at Wellesley identify as female, compared to 57% of tenure-eligible faculty. Professor Battat believes that one reason why non-tenure track faculty are less valued by the College and colleges across the country, was because they tend to be more teaching oriented. Compared to research, teaching was historically “women’s work.”

“Women often have to or are pressured to make painful career choices and sacrifice career for caregiving obligations,” Professor Battat said. “Given gendered expectations for caregiving in our society, it’s women who are the ones who make those difficult choices.” 

According to Professors Confortini and Battat, they have not yet received a response to the teach-in form administration, even though members of upper administration were invited to the event. While Provost Andrew Shennan sent out an email to faculty and staff regarding concerns raised by non-tenure track faculty, he did not address the teach-in in particular. Both professors added that administration has not reached out to AAUP directory.

“At nearly every level of the College, Wellesley employs more women than men, including tenured professors and non-tenure track faculty. We strive to promote gender equity in both pay and positions across the institution, with differences based on years of service and experience. Currently, for example, more than 25 non-tenure-track faculty members, 76% of whom are women, earn more than the full-time equivalent of $100,000 a year,” Provost Shennan wrote in his email. 

The provost also added that “the College has embraced important changes to integrate FIP faculty into our governance and appointments structures.” He pointed to the 9% raise in 2020 and the “all non-tenure-track faculty will receive the recently announced salary increases of 5% for faculty and administrative staff for the next academic year and additional contributions to 403(b) plans.” Provost Shennan added that his office was adjusting the overload compensation rate for courses and labs taught by tenured, tenure-track and FIP faculty.

According to Professor Confortini, AAUP is waiting to discuss its next steps with its members before figuring out other advocacy avenues. 

“I hope that Wellesley will do the right thing, but if public pressure is what is needed, then that’s the step we’ll take,” Professor Battat said. 

According to Hannah Grimmett ’25, the leader of WAMI’s Labor Advocacy Task Force, the faculty involved in the teach-in collaborated with the organization to tell students about the event.

“[WAMI] designed the spam, we hung it up around campus. We did a lot of the legwork with promoting [the event], putting the lawn signs up that you’ll see around campus,” she said. “We also helped with the funding for some of those signs because as faculty they don’t have funding in the same way that our organization would. They also don’t really have access to a social media presence in the same way that we do as a student organization.”

WAMI became involved in the teach-in as an event in their Union and Labor Advocacy challenge, a month-long educational event on worker’s rights. Grimmett was reaching out to the staff union on campus, the Independent Maintenance and Service Employees of America, and in trying to focus on campus-specific issues, happened to speak to a professor who was involved in the organization of the teach-in. Grimmett viewed the issue of low and stagnant wages as a system issue.

“I would really implore students to view the inequalities that both groups experience, rather than as two separate issues, as one systemic issue of Wellesley College employees across the spectrum of employment being underpaid and undervalued for their labor,” she said. 

Quinn Etoll ’23, an attendee of the teach-in via Zoom, was struck by how the faculty reported feeling undervalued.

“The Wellesley administration claims to put a high value on our education,” she said. “The reality of the situation [that] we’re not properly valuing people who do the actual providing of our education is egregious.”

Grimmett was overall hopeful due to the turnout at the event, but did acknowledge that there was a significant challenge to keeping this energy sustained.

“The really striking thing to me has been that there have been students that came before us who were aware of these kinds of issues, if not specifically non-tenure track faculty issues, then it was other labor issues on campus,” she said. “They would make noise about it and they would say this is wrong, and something needs to be done. But after those students are gone, the next wave of students just doesn’t know that those problems were ever even there to begin with. I think that it’s just really important that we try to really maintain this momentum.”

Grimmett believed that student awareness and advocacy was crucial to push administration to make non-tenure faculty conditions better. 

“I think the most important thing that students can do right now is to continue staying aware of this issue, educating themselves, and just making it clear that their support is there,” she said. “The most important thing that students can do is really show administration that this is an issue that they deeply care about, and that we as the students of Wellesley College are very upset to see our professors being undervalued for all of the work and mentorship that they have provided.”

In response to the decision, students have been voicing their concerns regarding the lack of support for the department and the consequences this discontinuation can potentially bring to students’ future plans on becoming an educator. Organizers for Wellesley Students of Education created a petition calling for support for the teaching licensing programs, the hire of one more tenure track faculty member in the education department and increased transparency about the administration’s decision to sunset the ELTP. As of April 18, the petition has garnered 373 signatures. 

According to Dean Michael Jeffries, dean of academic affairs, the program is being phased out, so that the College is “able to offer sustainable academic programming that most closely reflects the demonstrated interests of our students.” In a statement to The News Dean Jeffries wrote that all current students who have declared interest and made significant progress towards the elementary education license will be able to complete it. According to the education department’s website, the program is closed to students graduating after 2025, though Bella Perreira ’24, who helped organize the petition, said it would be almost impossible for current first-years to complete the program before it is phased out.

Jessie Cohen ’25, who wants to pursue a career in early childhood education, was part of the program when the administration announced that all elementary school-related content will be closed due to low enrollment. 

“I am still planning to complete my licensure, but it is definitely frustrating as a student in the education department who is passionate about this work to see that the administration does not really understand why it’s important,” Cohen said. “The administration told me in a meeting that if I want an elementary school teacher degree, I can get a master’s, but that’s a huge financial burden on students, and they do not seem to realize how difficult it would be for some.”

ELTP is one of three possible licenses students may obtain by participating in the Wellesley Teacher Scholars Program, and students do not necessarily need to declare an education major or minor to participate in the program. Along with the high school and middle school programs, it allows students to graduate with a teaching certificate/license, which is not offered to many undergraduate students. According to the directory, seven current students have declared Teaching and Learning Studies minors, four of them in the Class of 2022. 

Especially for some underclass students, the program and early education courses were a fundamental part of pursuing studies in elementary education, and the decision has been impacting future plans they set for each academic year. First-years and sophomores hoping to complete the ELTP will have to alter their schedules to fit in all the 300 level classes required as they will no longer be offered after the 2022-2023 academic year. 

Several are finding that this conflicts with their original four year plans. Destidy Perez ’24, for example, was hoping to study abroad in the spring semester of her junior year in Japan, while completing the majority of necessary elementary education courses for her major beforehand. However, this is now no longer an option.

“I wanted to study abroad next year with my friends in the spring because I have taken multiple Japanese courses, but now I can’t,” Perez said, adding that it wouldn’t be the same if she studied abroad her senior year. “It would have been so nice to go to Japan with people I have continuously taken classes with and have seen me grow … I do not know how to tell my Japanese professor who has seen my growth in the language and planned this whole study abroad plan with me.” 

Cohen also expressed concerns for the incoming Class of 2026, as she messaged a prospective student who planned on attaining the elementary licensure in Wellesley. 

“I was talking to a girl who is part of the incoming Class of 2026 this fall, and she told me her plans on an elementary licensure at the College,” Cohen said. “But I had to be the one to tell her that it is no longer offered, when the licensure program was one of the major reasons she committed to this school — and there are still a lot of prospective students who do not even know about this decision yet.” 

According to Perreira, the College intends to inform incoming students who expressed interest in the program that it will no longer be offered. For current first-years and sophomores, the education department and academic deans are attempting to find programs at neighboring institutions that would allow students who are currently enrolled in the program to finish it. 

In efforts to oppose the discontinuation of the elementary teacher licensure program, Wellesley Students of Education recently wrote a statement and put together a petition, aiming to circulate information to the public and prospective students. Students emphasized greater transparency and increased support for the education department, and for the administration to release specific details behind the recent decision. 

“I don’t understand why they are taking away this program and not following up with an investment of resources in the education department,” Perez said. “To take away a program that is meant to create teachers that will help the future and society feels backwards to me. I really believe early education is extremely important because it’s what sets up kids to love to learn. I’m not saying that the end of this program is an end to early education, but it is making it less accessible to us when this is one of the things that the school promised to students.” 

Perreira believes the phasing out of the elementary education program stemmed from a broader under-appreciation of the education studies department. The department was formed in 2019, with the first cohort of students graduating with an education studies major in 2020, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research. 

As reported in the Wellesley Directory, the number of students who have declared education studies majors has increased, with 22 in the Class of 2022, 15 in the Class of 2023 and 10 in the Class of 2024. 

According to Perreira, unlike departments with similar numbers of declared majors, the education studies department only has one tenured track faculty member, Professor Soo Hong. According to Dean Jeffries, “he Education Department will search for a new tenure-track faculty member in Education Studies during the ’22-’23 academic year, with the hope that we are able to welcome a new tenure-track faculty member to the department in fall of ’23.”

Correction on 4/26: An earlier version of this article did not include the statement from Dean Jeffries. 

After a week of active campaigning, occurring in-person for the first time since March 2020, on March 8, 2022, Wellesley students elected their 2022-2023 College Government (CG) cabinet. For the CG elections committee (EC) planning had been ongoing since mid-February, right after elections for EC were held. EC is composed of the sitting CG president, a cabinet representative, a House President’s Council representative, a Multicultural President’s Council representative, a non-voting Senate Policy and Ethics Committee (SPEC) member, two Senate representatives and one student-at-large representative. Of the positions, three were contested: CGP, CG vice president and organization’s chair. 

CG elections typically happen over the course of a week during which candidates are allowed to actively campaign. While all events were held in person, some virtual options were presented for students who preferred to join via Zoom. Activities that have previously been a staple of Wellesley CG elections were showcased such as candidate crawl, in which candidates visit house council, and the cabinet debates. 

Next year’s cabinet includes: 

President: Alexandra Brooks ’23

Vice President: Alex Asack ’24

Chief Justice: Nuzaina Faisal Khan ’23

Secretary-Treasurer: Michelle Jung ’24

Student Bursar: Amy Rose ’23

Political Engagement Chair: Liz Huang ’24

COIL: Joni Lee ’23

DOOCA: Abby Lucier ’23

Organizations Chair: Sofia Rubio ’23

Rise in COVID-19 cases

In the past week, Wellesley’s COVID dashboard has reported a large increase in COVID cases. While cases decreased after an initial peak during move-in, in the past three weeks, more and more student cases have been reported, with a peak at 24 student cases between March 6 and 12. According to Dean Sheilah Shaw Horton, cases have exceeded rates from the fall and are “higher than we expected at this time of year.” Overall cases in Massachusetts are currently falling. While the administration will not change the guest policy at this time, students are now required to wear masks in the residence halls for gatherings of more than 10. 

First week of new guest policy  

The new guest policy went into effect March 7 and will last through Spring break. After March 25, the College will re-evaluate the policy. According to an email from Dean Horton, if COVID cases do not rise, then “we should be able to resume having guests in the halls.” In the meantime, guests are expected to submit proof of vaccination at least one business day prior to arrival, must be masked in the residence halls and should only use designated guest bathrooms.

Public Safety Presentation
Chief of Campus Police and Director of Public Safety Meshia Thomas gave a presentation on the role of Campus Police. Thomas discussed the College’s shift from Campus Police to public safety. For example, she would like to hire unarmed security personnel. The blue light system will hopefully be fixed this semester, and Thomas also expressed a desire to create a student advisory committee.

Office of Student Involvement
Director of Student Involvement Jessica Grady explained the role of the Office of Student Involvement (OSI). The OSI office is now located in Lulu 301. Grady also introduced OSI’s Assistant Director Amanda Kaufman. She discussed event guidelines and suggested avoiding scheduling events in the week after spring break because of the possibility that students may need to follow guidelines similar to those implemented after Thanksgiving.

Recreational Grant
Senate voted on the Cabinet proposal to allocate recreational grant funds to purchase masks. The proposal passed.

Wallis was not alone in this experience. When they first arrived at Dower during the week first week of December, they were greeted by five or six other residents. By the time they left, around Dec. 20, Dower had approximately 13 residents. According to Wallis, every student was vaccinated and at least one had their booster shot. 

Wallis was quarantined during the College’s highest case count to date. After a total of nine student cases between Aug. 22 and Nov. 27, there were 52 student cases between Nov. 28 to Dec. 25; the total number for faculty and staff stood at 28 through this period. The uptick in cases has been attributed by administration to Thanksgiving travel as students were allowed to leave Massachusetts during the break.

After returning from Thanksgiving, one of Wallis’ blockmates tested positive. As a close contact, Wallis spent the next five days isolating and getting tested. After the five day period, Wallis said that Health Services told them they were free to return to their regular activities, since they had not yet tested positive. The next day, Wallis began experiencing symptoms. The day after that, they tested positive for COVID-19. 

​​“There’s this shame to it,” Wallis said. “You feel like you’re about to be stoned. It’s a really weird experience.”

Contact tracing identified eight close contacts that Wallis may have exposed to COVID-19. Wallis thinks that number was likely higher, but said they were told by Health Services not to contact people who had not been identified by the official tracers as close contacts. 

“It’s also worrying because the [College] has been really hard about giving [students] tests,” Wallis said. “People who I ended up giving it to wanted to get rapid tests, but the school didn’t give it to them, and they ended up testing positive in the pool.”

Isabel Flessas ’24, a student worker at the College Club testing center, described that the atmosphere at the center shifted soon after Thanksgiving.

“Before, it was kind of like ‘good job getting tested,’ you’re going to be negative, it’s going to be fine,” she said. “But now, it’s much more tense — the employees kind of seem a little more tense — just because so many people are testing positive.”

Winnie* ’24 had a similar COVID-19 experience to Wallis. After her roommate tested positive, and she had also begun experiencing symptoms, she became increasingly worried that she had COVID-19. She initially tested negative on a rapid test the day her roommate was confirmed to be positive, but tested positive the next day. 

“I completely freaked out,” Winnie said. “I was like, there’s no way that I’m not testing positive. According to the school [after the negative rapid test], I was fine to do everything and go to class, but it was such a moral dilemma … it felt completely wrong.”

Both Wallis and Winnie recounted similar difficulties and highlights of quarantining in Dower. When they were both there, Health Services said that it was okay for students in Dower to hang out with one another unmasked. Both Wallis and Winnie took this as an opportunity to bond with the other students quarantining by eating meals together and even planned a birthday party. 

“We [were] trying really hard to make a community,” Wallis said. 

However, the quarantining period was not without its difficulties. Both Wallis and Winnie struggled to keep up with their classes due to the lack of a remote option. Additionally, COVID-19 symptoms made it difficult for them to concentrate. 

“It’s so hard to get work done in this building,” Winnie said. “When classes were happening, I could not focus on anything that was school related. It took an entire day to finish an assignment that would usually take a few hours.” 

Winnie also mentioned that planning to leave campus at the end of the semester had been difficult. Health Services changed her quarantine end date, which made it difficult for students to figure out when they could leave. Additionally, since Winnie was planning to travel internationally, she struggled to get all the requirements that would allow her to do so while she was quarantining. 

Both students also found communication from Health Services and the school to be inconsistent. According to Wallis, every student was supposed to receive a daily call from Health Services to monitor their symptoms, but Wallis’ contact with Health Services was inconsistent. Additionally, Wallis found that when they first moved in, unless they reached out directly to Director of Residential Life and Housing Helen Wang, it was difficult to get anything they needed. 

“She’s definitely doing her best to make sure we’re well taken care of,” Wallis said. 

Towards the end of the semester, students who tested positive moved from Dower to The Verve Hotel to finish their quarantine. This is a similar policy to the one the College is using for the Spring move-in period. 

Despite these measures, Wallis and Winnie still felt that the College’s plan was insufficient.

“They really want to stop an outbreak, but they’re not willing to revise many of their policies or revisit them,” Wallis said. “It just feels like they want to protect their image of Wellesley.”

*Name changed to protect anonymity.