Mount Holyoke News, 50 College Street, South Hadley, MA (2026)

02/27/2026

BY SINDY MALDONADO ’27
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Feb. 8, hosted in Blanchard Hall’s Great Room was a watch party for the National Football League’s 60th annual championship game, better known as the Super Bowl. The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots faced each other at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Super Bowl LX had been a long awaited rematch of these two teams, having last played a Super Bowl against each other in 2015, where the Patriots took home the Lombardi trophy. This time around, the Seahawks avenged that loss.
The game officially began at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time, with the Patriots winning the coin toss — giving the winning team the option to kick the ball and begin on defense, or receive the ball and begin on offense — and electing to defer to the second half, meaning they would receive the ball at the start of the second half. Throughout the first two quarters, the Seahawks were able to score three field goals, placing them nine points ahead of the Patriots, who had zero until the fourth quarter, when they scored a touchdown.
Despite the buzz online around the Patriots’ quarterback, Drake Maye, one of the strongest players at the Super Bowl was Patriot cornerback Christian Gonzalez, who kept Seattle out of the endzone until the third quarter with four tackles and three passes defended. The greatest determinant of the game’s outcome was the Seahawks’ strong defense.

Photo by Sarah Ann Figueroa ’28

02/26/2026

By Quill Nishi-Leonard ’27 Editor in Chief

Years before she published this year’s Common Read, “Parable of the Sower,” Octavia Butler wrote and released “Dawn.” “Dawn” is one of the most brilliant and creative science fiction works I’ve ever read, and my personal favorite among the first contact subgenre, which comprises works of fiction dealing in humanity’s first contact with alien life. Throughout the book, Butler jumps to confront often-warring ideas about autonomy, adaptation, imperialism, gender and anthropocentrism — the idea that humans are inherently superior to all other lifeforms — head-on. Time and time again, she sticks the landing.
The book opens with its protagonist, Lilith Iyapo, waking up in a white room that appears to be some sort of prison cell. This is the slowest part of the novel, and once Lilith is let out of the room, the pace quickly accelerates. She comes to learn that she has been “rescued” — though the use of that word is somewhat debatable — from an apocalyptic Earth by a group of aliens known as the Oankali. Lilith also learns that there are other survivors from Earth who she must unite and ensure the wellbeing of, similarly to Lauren Olamina’s task from “Parable.” However, the Oankali haven’t been preserving humanity for free, and expect a rather hefty return on their investment.
Lilith is a more mature and less sheltered version of Lauren in a lot of ways. She’s highly educated, incredibly adaptable, resilient and future-focused. Before the world ended, she had a husband and a son, and studied anthropology at university. She applies her previous experiences and skills to connect with other survivors and study the Oankali, which gives her narration a unique perspective I don’t think any other character could’ve provided.

Graphic by Audrey Hanan ’28

02/25/2026

BY QUINLAN COOKE ’29
STAFF WRITER

The 68th annual Grammy Awards were held on Feb. 1. The ceremony featured many surprises, including underdog winners, presenter mishaps, and performances. This famous award ceremony is run by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, also known as the Recording Academy, and presents various awards to musicians in a variety of categories. The eligibility period for the most recent ceremony spanned from Aug. 31, 2024, through Aug. 30, 2025.
There are over 75 categories of awards to be given out, but only a select few are televised on primetime. The most coveted awards, known as the “big four,” are Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. These categories sum up the highest achievements of the eligibility period, and people are always eagerly awaiting the results.
Nominations for these categories are very prestigious. Record labels and members of the academy, months prior to the ceremony, submit who they think would be the best fit for certain categories. These suggestions are sifted through to just a few finalists to be nominated.
The first of these four categories to be announced was Best New Artist, and per recent Grammy tradition, the prior winner of this category announces the new winner. Chappell Roan opened this year’s envelope, announcing Olivia Dean as the winner. The other nominees were Katseye, The Marias, Addison Rae, Sombr, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren, and Lola Young. This was a shock to most. Dean has garnered a lot of attention on social media and a lot of play on the radio.
Some believed Addison Rae was going to win this category, as she was the most “pop-girlie”-esque of the nominees and has been building her image for years. However, my prediction had been Lola Young; she quickly rose to fame and has since been through a lot. In Sept., Young collapsed on stage while performing in New York. The blame for this was extreme stress from touring. Young did her first live performance since this unfortunate event at the Grammys during the “Best New Artist” medley performance.

Graphic by Audrey Hanan ’28

02/24/2026

BY MADELEINE DIESL ’28
COPY CHIEF

For many Mount Holyoke students, travel back to campus for the spring semester was interrupted by the large winter storm that blew through much of the eastern United States on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26. Since then, western Massachusetts has suffered consistent low temperatures and high wind chill, prompting several cold weather safety emails from the Division of Student Life and the Office of Residential Life.
During this storm, South Hadley saw around two feet of snow and wind chill temperatures as low as -12 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Visiting Assistant Professor in Geology, Kinuyo Kanamaru, these weather events were the result of “a weakening of the polar vortex.”
The National Weather Service defines the polar vertex as “a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding both of the Earth’s poles.” Kanamaru, who teaches climatology classes at Mount Holyoke College, said that the weakening of this vortex “allowed multiple surges of Arctic air to move southward,” causing both the January snowstorm and the February low temperatures.
“In particular, this winter’s snowstorms were influenced by La Niña conditions, which typically bring colder temperatures and above-average snowfall to the New England region,” Kanamaru said. La Niña, according to the National Weather Service, “refers to persistent colder-than-normal … sea surface temperature anomalies across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.”

Photo courtesy of
Kami Nishi-Leonard

02/23/2026

STAFF WRITER
If you’ve been following the news for the past few years, you’ll have noticed some conversations about how the world is shifting toward more right-wing politics across the board.
The shift between left wing and right wing politics is nothing new. We have seen a constant back and forth between political parties for decades. However, in recent years that shift has been more consistently towards the right.
In 2024, Vox News wrote an article attempting to explain the movement of far-right politics across the globe. Here, they cited political theorist Francis Fukuyama’s take on the future of global affairs, arguing that a “liberal democracy was the ultimate stage in the evolution of society,” but that this stage wouldn’t last forever.
Fukuyama states that it’s not possible to satisfy everyone, “this includes [in a] liberal democracy … dissatisfaction arises precisely where democracy has triumphed most completely: it is a dissatisfaction with liberty and equality.”
Vox goes on to explain how this “dissatisfaction” has begun to reveal itself.
In the 1990s, the far right started to assert its influence in European elections. Vox writes “the 2000s and early 2010s saw varying signs of antidemocratic activity in consolidated democracies.” Then around the 2010s, the “reactionary right had risen to power in the United States, Hungary, Israel, India, Brazil, and Poland.”
Each of these “movements” presented itself as “deeply and authentically democratic,” however their parties would attack democratic values such as “liberalism, multiculturalism, or secularism” Vox reports.
In a statement to the Mount Holyoke News, Andy Reiter, a professor in the politics and international relations department at Mount Holyoke College, shared his reasoning behind this move towards the right.

Graphic by Mari AlTayb ’26

02/22/2026

BY MARRI SHAEFFER ’29
STAFF WRITER

Netflix’s “Stranger Things” began airing its fifth season on Nov. 26, 2025.
Prior to the release of this season, “Stranger Things” was hailed for its intriguing plot and relatable cast of characters. It appealed to nostalgia, with iconic actors like Winona Ryder and consistent callbacks to popular ’80s culture. Within the first 35 days of the first season’s release, the show averaged 14.07 million viewers. It was an instant success, and the next three seasons were met with equal enthusiasm.
However, the release of the fifth season brought that momentum to a speeding halt.
On paper, the season sounded like the perfect conclusion to an incredible show. It would answer questions that had been floating around since the show’s release, feature q***r representation unheard of for a show set in the 1980s, and would end in an epic fight. Unfortunately, many of these promises went unfulfilled.
For many viewers, one of the most intriguing parts of the “Stranger Things” finale was the conclusion of Will Byers’ struggle with his sexuality, which was present throughout the show. Vecna, the main villain of the show, uses Will’s sexuality to control him by convincing him that revealing this secret will trigger rejection from his loved ones. As such, Will is terrified of that part of himself.

Graphic by Gabrielle Orta ’26

02/21/2026

BY ELIZABETH MURRAY ’26
FEATURES EDITOR

Chapin Auditorium was abuzz on Sunday, Feb. 1, as the College’s spring Involvement Fair was in full swing. Held on the first Sunday after the start of classes every semester and hosted by the Office of Student Involvement, the Involvement Fair is where student organizations of Mount Holyoke come together to showcase what they do and hopefully gain new members. “The Involvement Fair is always busy every year; I really enjoyed representing my orgs and learning about old and new ones,” Art Society Co-Chair and Secretary, Mariyah Al-Tayb ’26 said.
These clubs can range from more action oriented clubs like Precious Plastic MHC, which works to create a sustainable way to use plastic on campus, cultural organizations such as Liga Filipina, which celebrates Filipino culture and spreads awareness about the Philippines, or recreational like the Pick-up Games club, which hosts fun recreational matches with no experience required.
Student organizations use the opportunity to drum up interest and reach students who may not have considered joining before. “I tabled for the Mount Holyoke College Economics Review, and I was honestly so happy to see how many people stopped by with questions. What surprised me most was that a lot of them weren’t even economics majors, they were just genuinely curious and excited to learn more about what we’re building. That kind of interdisciplinary interest made it feel really meaningful.” Tiko Dolidze ’26 said.

02/20/2026

BY SARAH ANN FIGUEROA ’28
STAFF WRITER

Friday, Jan. 30, guest speaker Erik Esqueda Sánchez from San Diego State University joined Mount Holyoke students and faculty for the “Activism sin Fronteras: Legacies of Liberation and Community Mobilization” workshop, held by the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Centered around peer collaboration and group discussion, the workshop provided its attendees with fresh perspectives on how they can help protect members of their community who may be targets for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly called ICE.
The official description of the event reads, “This workshop will cover a brief history of undocumented and migrant movements within U.S. context and explore strategies for leveraging your own talents and knowledge to co-build activist spaces.”
Coming all the way from California, this was Sánchez’s first time in Massachusetts. They expressed that they have always wanted to visit Massachusetts, so the excitement to be here outweighed how cold it was. Sánchez is the assistant director of SDSU’s MEChA, the “Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán,” or, in English, “Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán.” Growing up with the MEChA program, they view the work they do today as “Giving back everything that was given to me.”
After introductions around the room, Sánchez made mention of the ongoing ICE raids in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. On the day of the workshop, residents of these cities called for a nationwide strike against the raids, also referred to as the “ICE OUT” protests. As written in an article by Kimberlee Kruesi and Holly Ramer with the Associated Press, “Protesters held ‘no work, no school, no shopping’ strikes across the U.S. on Friday to oppose the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.”

Graphic by Mari AlTayb ’26

02/16/2026

BY HONORA QUINN ’27
STAFF WRITER

Graphic by Quill Nishi-Leonard ’27, reference image courtesy of Pixabay via Pexels

“An Arcane Inheritance” by Kamilah Cole, out Dec. 30, 2025
“An Arcane Inheritance” is technically a 2025 release, but it was originally slated for January 2026. Regardless, this late 2025 entry should still be considered for your early reads in the new year. The author of the “Divine Traitors” duology, a Jamaican-inspired young adult fantasy, returns with her adult debut novel. Pitched as a “dark academia fantasy … perfect for fans of ‘Babel’ and ‘A Deadly Education,’” “An Arcane Inheritance” is set at the fictional Ivy League institution, Warren University: A school steeped in secrets going back centuries. The plot follows freshman Ellory Morgan as questions begin to arise. She believes she’s been at Warren University before, but she’ll need some help to uncover the truth, which of course takes the form of the brooding legacy student that seems to hate her guts.
According to her author website, “Kamilah Cole is a national bestselling author who has been nominated for a Lodestar Award, a Lambda Award and a Dragon Award. Jamaican-born and American-raised, she works in publishing by day, and by night she writes like she’s running out of time.”
“Half His Age” by Jennette McCurdy, out Jan. 20, 2026

02/15/2026

BY PAIGE COMEAU ’26
MANAGING EDITOR OF CONTENT

Graphic by Betty Smart ’26

Over Fall Break, I was able to spend some time with my family and visit our local movie theater to watch “Wicked: For Good.” While I’m generally not a fan of musical theater, my family are, and I did enjoy both “Wicked” and “Wicked: For Good.” However, despite my best efforts to give myself a break as a politics major deep in my senior thesis, I could not watch the film through a neutral lens. Rather, I found myself analyzing it as a piece of political commentary, which I would argue “Wicked” largely is. There are many prevalent themes throughout both films that deserve analysis: The use of scapegoats in politics, the way censorship and propaganda work to uphold non-democratic governments, and how activism can veer into extremism when actors are without hope, just to list a few.
I found one theme in particular especially interesting, considering current discourse around the “Wicked” cast: The way appearance can be used for more sinister ends.
This is rather obvious throughout both movies: Glinda is blonde, white and conventionally beautiful, so she is seen as good; Elphaba is played by an actress of Nigerian descent and her skin tone is green, so she is seen as bad. It is a cliché trope that is easily traced back to the racial prejudices of the time the original “Wizard of Oz” was written. In the real world, however, life is imitating art just a little too well, as the “Wicked” cast continues to endure heavy discourse around their appearances and what ideals they are promoting.

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