SUMMER
2003 • VOLUME 8, NUMBER 1
SPECIAL ISSUE: REAPING THE REWARDS OF
THE PLAN FOR MOUNT HOLYOKE 2003
 Many
of the core values of the College (and The Plan for Mount Holyoke
2003)--respect for the natural world, learning beyond the
classroom, diversity, even globalism--are present in microcosm
in Mount Holyoke's Botanic Garden. The College's campus was designated
a botanical garden in 1878, and that garden now encompasses a
glasshouse complex, a solar greenhouse, a 250-acre living collection
of woody and herbaceous plants and 300 acres of relatively undisturbed
land. In addition to beautifying the campus, the College's plant
collection supports and enhances teaching and research for faculty
and students. The garden also promotes conservation of the world's
natural resources and a better understanding of the relationship
between humankind and the rest of the natural world. The Botanic
Garden even takes part in an international seed exchange with
other botanic gardens, arboreta, and universities. An outgrowth
of The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003 is the goal of extending College
founder Mary Lyon's vision of the campus as an outdoor teaching
laboratory. Emphasized in the next plan will be increasing the
academic and cocurricular vitality of the campus through landscape
and architecture. To this end, Mount Holyoke recently adopted
a campus master plan, which will guide the shaping of the campus
over the next twenty years.
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