SOUTH HADLEY — Mount Holyoke College President Sonya Stephens announced Tuesday night that she would reverse her administration’s decision to close Gorse Children’s Center in June.
The announced closure drew outrage from protesters and petitioners who demanded the child care facility be kept open.
“This interim solution means that children will continue to be cared for at the Gorse Children’s Center beyond July 1. Anyone seeking to enroll a child there should contact the Center directly at (413) 265-2024,” Stephens said in an email message to the Mount Holyoke community.
“Mount Holyoke has now secured a one-year extension of the current contract with Bright Horizons,” she said.
Bright Horizons has operated the center on the college’s behalf for the past decade.
The president was inundated with resistance to her decision last week.
Stephens was sent a petition on Friday with more than a thousand signatures from parents whose children use the facility and former parents, who are not college employees.
Signers included faculty and staff and Mount Holyoke students.
A separate petition with about 200 signers went to Stephens from faculty and staff.
These actions followed the initial decision on Feb. 23, to close the center -- a decision Stephens now says was ill-advised.
There was also a protest Thursday at the main gate of campus attended by nearly 100.
“First, let me say how deeply sorry I am. The College leadership team and I continue to examine the errors and lessons we have all learned from this experience, and we commit to establishing more collaborative processes for decision-making on issues of such consequence. As president, I take full responsibility for these errors, for the decision and for the enormous stress and turmoil it has caused,” Stephens said in Tuesday night’s email.
She added, “First among these mistakes was our decision to suspend early childhood education at Gorse without a clear plan for continuity of care. Over the last few days, we have made it our priority to address this and to ensure that continuity for both Mount Holyoke and community families.”
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