BEHIND THE BALLOT BOX Behind the Ballot Box: A Citizen's Guide to Voting Systems, MHC politics professor Doug Amy's new book, received a nice plug on the influential online journal of opinion, TomPaine.commonsense. In a piece titled "Instant Runoff Voting: A New Way to Vote," retired New York Times columnist Tom Wicker pushed for a preferential voting system that would improve on current United States systems in which candidates who receive less than a plurality of votes often emerge as the victors. Amy's guide explains the workings of a variety of voting systems and details pros and cons. COMING UP FOR OXYGEN On October 12, (oxygen) sports, a division of a new cable enterprise affiliated with Oprah Winfrey, spent more than twelve hours on campus interviewing MHC students, coaches, and Laurie Priest, director of athletics, for a two-hour special on women's intercollegiate sports. The show, which aired in December, was viewed by an estimated 15 million American households. CREW TEAM CAPTURED REGATTA CUPS The MHC crew team rowed to first place at their home regatta during the first weekend in October, winning both the Magruder and President's Cups. The win marked the ninth consecutive year that the Lyons have won the Magruder Point Trophy, which is based on overall team performance, varsity and novice boats included. Mount Holyoke also recaptured the President's Cup, a varsity trophy that has eluded MHC since 1996.

Darwin Talk Kicked Off Feminism and Science Series October 3

Charles Darwin.

MHC's Women's Studies Program launched a new speaker series, Feminism + Science: Neural Geographies, Digital Anatomies, and Reproductive Choreographies October 3 with a public talk by psychologist Elizabeth Wilson. She discussed "Trembling, Blushing: Darwin's Nervous System." Wilson also gave a faculty seminar titled " ‘In Some Ways We Are Emotional Lizards': On Neurology, Affect, and Evolution."

Armistead Maupin at MHC

Best-selling author Armistead Maupin read from his new novel October 7 in Chapin Auditorium.

Taking the Lead

Take the Lead, a leadership program for high school juniors launched by the College in October, brought a diverse group of thirty-two students from across the nation to campus for four days of workshops, mentoring by MHC students, and special events. More than 650 young women were nominated for the inaugural program, which was developed by MHC faculty and administrators to help high school women build leadership skills and become effective agents of change. As part of the program's application, teens were asked to identify an issue of concern to them. In response, they named major societal problems such as the criminal justice system and racial segregation. These and other issues formed the basis of action projects, for which the teens developed implementation plans. Students have spent the past six months working on their projects--focusing on everything from light pollution in the Rockies to educating Americans about conditions in Cuba. At the end of May, three action projects will receive $500 awards from the College. Forty young woman will participate in Take the Lead October 11-14, 2001. Close to 800 nominations were received for the program.

Former MHC and Smith Presidents Write Novel

Elizabeth Topham Kennan '60, President Emeritus of Mount Holyoke and Professor Emeritus of History, and Jill Ker Conway, MHC trustee and former president of Smith College, teamed up to write the mystery Overnight Float and were on campus to discuss their collaboration October 16.

"Making Democracy Work"

"Making Democracy Work," the second of four Weissman Center fall events to focus on the American democracy, was held October 18. Moderated by Preston Smith, associate professor of politics and chair of African American and African studies at MHC, the panel discussion featured Douglas J. Amy, MHC professor of politics; Frances Moore Lappé, cofounder of the Center for Living Democracy and visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Micah L. Sifry, senior analyst with Public Campaign. Panelists discussed issues ranging from low voter turnout to electoral system reform and third parties.

Reimagining Africa

Sakah Mahmud, associate professor of political science at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and a native of Nigeria, gave a talk titled "Return to the Source? African Political Thought and Philosophy and Contemporary African Conditions" October 16. Mahmud's lecture was the first of four talks in a MHC philosophy department series called Reimagining Africa.

"Where Have All the Leaders Gone?"

On October 25, Joseph Ellis, Ford Foundation Professor of History and a nationally recognized American history scholar, delivered the keynote speech of the Weissman Center's series, American Democracy in Crisis: Money Politics, & Civic Participation. His talk, titled "Where Have All the Leaders Gone? The Presidential Elections of 1800 and 2000," coincided with the release date of his much-anticipated new book, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (which in April won him the Pulitzer Prize for History).

Moby at MHC for Live Performance October 25

Music maverick Moby performed live in Chapin Auditorium October 25. From house innovator to techno punk originator to thrash metal rocker and soundtrack composer, Moby, né Richard Hall, is known for his diverse musical abilities.

Torah Found New Home at MHC

	(L to R) Melissa Simon '04, Michelle Stern '04, and Efraim Eisen, the College's Jewish advisor, wth the Torah.

On October 27, MHC celebrated the arrival of an important religious object on campus--a Torah, a scroll that contains the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. Created in Poland sometime during the 1930s, the College's new Torah survived the Holocaust, during which many Jewish religious objects were damaged or destroyed, and has arrived in South Hadley via New York's Lower East Side.

Documentary Filmmaker and Community Activist Susan Robeson on Campus

Filmmaker and television producer Susan Robeson launched the fall semester's arts focus on arts and social justice by serving as an artist-in-residence at MHC for the week of October 23-30. She also gave a number of public presentations during her time at the College.

MHC Pledged to Promote Environmental Sustainability

In October, it was announced that MHC had signed the Talloires Declaration of the Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (ULSF), joining an international network of more than 270 institutions of higher learning committed to promoting education for sustainability and environmental literacy.

Leila Rouhi '01 Won "Why Don't We Vote" Essay Contest

What began as an essay assignment in politics professor Douglas Amy's class on electoral systems resulted in a lot more than a grade for Leila Rouhi '01. Last February, Amy asked his students to write an essay on the topic "Why Don't We [as in young people] Vote?," which was also the subject of an essay contest for young people being run by the Center for Voting and Democracy, a nonpartisan organization that studies the impact of electoral systems and redistricting on voter turnout, representation, and electoral competition. Rouhi's essay was chosen as the winner out of nearly 9,000 entries. She received her award at an October 16 news conference at the United States Capitol.

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