HOLYOKE – Holyoke Community College recently welcomed Linda Chavers, Ph.D., as the inaugural director of its new office of Restorative Practices and Mediation. A published writer, educator, and consultant, Chavers has spent her career examining structures of institutional inequality and reimagining what justice can look like in the field of education.

The State of the Schools is an opportunity to pause, take stock, and reflect honestly on what our students need from us next. As we gathered for our second annual State of the Schools address recently, this perspective grounded our conversation and guided our reflections. Student voice shaped the event in meaningful ways.

SPRINGFIELD – When Officer Tequila M. Taylor-Evans walks her beat in downtown Springfield as part of the Police Department’s walking patrols, she brings more than a badge and uniform. She brings her lived experience, her determination as a mother of three and her perspective as a student in Springfield Technical Community College’s Criminal Justice program.

Ever since the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, stripping abortion protection from the Fourteenth Amendment, scholars have warned that other rights grounded in that same constitutional provision could be next.