Mount Holyoke College, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts, has established language-based floors in a student residence hall on campus. The college has a Spanish floor and a French floor in Mead Hall. Both floors are staffed with a community adviser and a language assistant. The floors are open to any student including those who speak French or Spanish as their native tongue and those that are just beginning to learn the language.
Marcella Runell Hall, dean of students at Mount Holyoke College, said that the language floors “offer an opportunity for students to have that global exchange experience without leaving campus.” She notes that other language floors may be established in the future, depending on student interest. But she adds that “we’ll always maintain halls where people can live together with students of different years, different majors, and different interests.”
Dr. Hall has been dean of students since 2014. She is a graduate of Ramapo College of New Jersey and holds a master’s degree from New York University and a doctorate in social justice education from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.