Letter from Mason Wicks-Lim

Greenfield Recorder October 15, 2022

I’m a student at Greenfield Community College and I recently learned of plans to discontinue the Gender and Women’s Studies major.

Having taken classes with two professors central to the department (Linda McCarthy and Christine Monahan), I see this decision as a monumental loss for GCC students, GCC, and the broader community. Despite not being a Gender and Women’s Studies major, I deeply value the classes offered within the department and the unique community created through offering them. Linda McCarthy and Christine Monahan are two of the most creative, engaging, intelligent, and kind people I’ve ever had the chance to learn from. In each of their classes, I was challenged to examine complex issues from multiple perspectives, and I acquired skills in writing, critical thinking, and creative problem solving I’ll likely use for the rest of my life.

GCC will not attract and retain such incredible professors if they remove the major they support. The Gender and Women’s Studies major creates a platform for these classes and many others which I assert are indispensable to GCC students. In a broader sense, the administration is sending a clear message to students and to our community by attempting to discontinue this particular major in the wake of the Supreme Court’s devastating reversal of Roe v. Wade.

The study of women’s rights should be emphasized, not deprioritized.

Nonbinary and trans rights are also at stake, making the study of gender especially important right now as well. GCC claims to be a school which “aspires to be an agent for a more equitable, just, vibrant, and resilient world through education.”

Discontinuing a major that undoubtedly perpetuates this vision is devastating and surely undermines the mission of GCC. I sincerely hope that GCC rethinks this misstep and keeps its Gender and Women’s Studies major.

MASON WICKS-LIM Montague

In 2022-23 Mason is a GCC-Traprock Fellow for the second academic year, offering valuable expertise as part of our communications/social media team