But campus student organizations are also popular, and play an important role in preparing Mount Holyoke women to be future leaders. Campus groups cover the environment, politics, volunteer organizations, music groups, academic honor societies, club sports, student government and cultural organizations. Last year, the diverse list of organizations included a Christian a cappella singing group, a lapidary and silversmithing club, the Muslim Student Association, an AIDS Awareness Coalition, Women Advocates for Voter Education, karate, fencing and waterpolo clubs, College Democrats and College Republicans, a campus newspaper and several literary magazines. The college also sponsors plenty of on-campus events that draw in visitors as well as students. This semester's calendar includes visits by Angela Davis, Tales of the City author Armistead Maupin, and former MHC President Elizabeth Kennan and former Smith College President Jill Ker Conway, who will read from their new book, Overnight Float.
Some student activities reach beyond campus, even if just sonically.
Many of the DJs put special emphasis on music by women performers. This fall, MHC is kicking off a new orientation program that introduce students to the surrounding communities. During the day-long program, some students will choose to volunteer for a range of community projects, whether cleaning and caring for animals at Leverett's Dakin Animal Shelter, pitching in on a Habitat for Humanity house in Northampton, cleaning up a park in Springfield's Lower Liberty Heights, or helping to harvest crops at the Food Bank's organic farm in Amherst. Other students will spend the day getting to know more about the region. Which, when you think about it, is a pretty non-sucky way to spend a Saturday.