Students, faculty, and staff mark the start of Mount Holyoke's 172nd academic year at Convocation 2008 on Wednesday, September 3, in Gettell Amphitheater.

Students, faculty, and staff mark the start of Mount Holyoke's 172nd academic year at Convocation 2008 on Wednesday, September 3, in Gettell Amphitheater.

Students, faculty, and staff mark the start of Mount Holyoke's 172nd academic year at Convocation 2008 on Wednesday, September 3, in Gettell Amphitheater.

The noted psychologist and author Carol Gilligan urged graduates to start "a new conversation about gender, one that transcends the old animosities and resists old categories."

Mount Holyoke's newest a cappella group, the Diversions, recorded their first CD in 2008. Their ever-expanding repertoire includes mostly popular music familiar to their audiences, like Maroon 5's Sweetest Goodbye and Justin Timberlake's Lovestoned. Meredith Spencer-Blaetz '11, who recently joined the Diversions, said the group believes "it's more fun for the audience to hear songs they know and see how the group arranges them.

The Jazz Ensembles of Mount Holyoke College, under the direction of Mark Gionfriddo, presented their third annual 1940s radio variety show, The Big Broadcast! featuring popular tunes from the era, including music by Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Artie Shaw. Dan Elias, WWLP 22 news anchor, returned as announcer "Bob Graham." Cheryl Cobb, visiting lecturer in music, provided sound effects. The event was sponsored by WFCR 88.5 FM, NPR News and Music for Western New England.

A self-described "scruffy Texas populist," Jim Hightower has made a career out of challenging America to live up to its ideals. Armed with a keen sense of the uproarious and hawking his latest book, Swim against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go with the Flow, Hightower came to campus March 12 as part of the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts spring lecture series, Bearing Witness, to share some of the tales he collects of "ordinary people doing extraordinary things" in the service of "economic fairness, social justice, and equal opportunity for all."

Dean of students Liz Braun discusses the challenges and opportunities that more than 600 new students will encounter as they begin their journey at MHC over Labor Day weekend.

Good morning! I'm Jo Jensen, president of the Student Government Association. First, I would like to again extend a warm welcome to the first-years. A welcome back to the sophomores and juniors. And to the seniors--I can't believe we have made it this far!

Tracy Kidder discusses his book Mountains Beyond Mountains, the common reading for the class of 2010.