Honor System
The Honor System, established and operated by the students, sets the fundamental principles of conduct for members of the College. It applies to all academic matters such as examinations, written material and laboratory reports—both at Harvey Mudd College and at the other Claremont Colleges—and to the safety of individuals, and private and college property.
Standards of Conduct
When students enter Harvey Mudd College, it is assumed that they have an earnest purpose. Students are expected to act as responsible individuals, to conduct themselves with honesty and integrity both personally and academically, and to respect the rights of others. The college considers these standards to be essential to its academic mission and its community life.
In this context, the College is an inclusive community of faculty, students and staff. Those who make up the community have participated in developing the standards and the policies that they believe will support the primary purpose of the educational community and the personal development of the individual students.
Unbecoming behavior or violations of College policies or procedures are referred to the student Judiciary Board or the Disciplinary Board for action. These authorities may impose penalties of varying degrees of severity, including expulsion from the college. Students should be aware of federal regulations that require all colleges to implement programs to prevent illicit drug and alcohol use and alcohol abuse by students and employees. It is the policy of HMC to abide by these regulations. Violations may incur legal and college sanctions.
Students are expected to know and abide by all College policies, regulations and procedures, and to report any violations of these.
New Student Orientation
The program of orientation, which begins prior to the opening of classes each fall, includes transition-to-college-life programming, social events, placement examinations and academic orientation. All new students are expected to attend.
Schedule
Since most courses meet three times a week and the normal academic program is five courses, most students spend three to five hours in class each day except Saturday and Sunday. In addition, most laboratory periods are scheduled in the afternoons. Most students do approximately three hours of academic work outside of class for every hour they spend in class (not including laboratories). Students should consult with their academic advisors to devise a realistic schedule that provides adequate time for study, extracurricular and social activity.
Housing Facilities
There are eight residence halls. All first-year students are required to live on campus. Single rooms, doubles and suites for three or more are available. Lounges in each building afford additional space for meetings and social activities.
Dining Facilities
Students may eat at HMC’s Hoch-Shanahan Dining Commons or at any of the other dining halls of the undergraduate Claremont Colleges. In addition to standard cafeteria meals, each meal plan provides a weekly allocation of “Board Plus” dollars for food purchases at campus retail sites.
Social Life
The social life of a student at Harvey Mudd College may be as active as the student wants. The Claremont Colleges’ Calendar includes at least one concert every month, outside speakers almost daily, a dozen art exhibits a year, frequent theater presentations, two distinct athletic programs (CMC-HMC-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer), cinema series, intramurals and many other events. Student-led committees sponsor a myriad of activities for the student body, including trips to Los Angeles for sporting and theater events, movies, amusement parks and museums; beach trips; camping and hiking trips; campus parties; dances; and more.
The Dean of Students Office
The Dean of Students' staff assist students in all aspects of their college lives. Off-campus recreational and cultural activities are planned in conjunction with student organizations. The campus life program, led by the Dean of Campus Life, operates cooperatively with residence hall presidents. Emotional health support is offered by a licensed clinical social worker, who serves as Associate Dean. These, and many other services, are designed to support students as they mature personally and academically.
Student Counseling
All members of the Dean of Students Office staff, the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and members of the faculty and staff are readily available to help individual students with academic, career and personal questions. The Associate Dean for Student Health and Wellness provides crisis intervention and brief counseling for students needing support while enrolled. The Associate Dean works closely with The Claremont Colleges’ Monsour Counseling and Psychological Services that provide, without charge, the services of full-time psychologists. The service offers personal counseling, and all matters are confidential. Members of the staff also lead personal growth groups on topics such as psychological fitness, human sexuality, and relaxation and stress management.
Student Health
The Claremont Colleges maintain a fully-equipped health center with physicians and nurse practitioners in attendance. Medical advice and care are available to students in the colleges, with certain reasonable limitations. (See General Regulations for details.)
Office of the Registrar
The Office of the Registrar provides information about the academic schedules and records of students, present and past. The office also processes classroom scheduling, class enrollment, major changes, adviser changes, degree audits, grades, Dean’s List notation, enrollment verifications, transcript requests and degree verifications. In cooperation with the other four undergraduate colleges in The Claremont Colleges Consortium, the office produces the Undergraduate Schedule of Courses each semester.
Career Services
The Office of Career Services provides resources to assist students in making informed career decisions. Throughout the academic year, workshops are conducted on resume writing, interviewing, networking, negotiating and researching. On-campus recruiting occurs annually during Career Fairs that typically attract over 60 companies to campus. Various specialized nights are held during the academic year, including National Labs Night. All events are advertised to students on the Web and via e-mail. The Career Resource Library includes periodicals, how-to books, directories and industry-specific books. A database of companies provides additional resources for students. Individual career counseling is also available.
Writing Center
The Harvey Mudd College Writing Center offers an arena where students can work through the writing process and improve the expression of their ideas by participating in workshops and individual conferences with trained peer consultants. Student writers of all skill levels and disciplines are able to work with student consultants, who offer feedback and encouragement during any stage of the writing process, from developing an idea to polishing a final draft. Peer consultants are also trained to help students with graduate school and fellowship essays, resumes and cover letters. The Writing Center is open five evenings a week throughout the academic year. In addition to individual conferences and topical group workshops, the center offers a variety of print and electronic resources for writers.
Office of Institutional Diversity
The Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) serves as the hub of diversity training, information, consulting and programming for the HMC community, as well as partners with a wide variety of HMC departments and 5-C units to design, implement and evaluate diversity activities. OID also provides direction and advice to its partners to insure that diversity goals and objectives are obtained. The office coordinates and facilitates a wide range of diversity programs and educational activities for HMC students, staff and faculty. Such programs include:
- Asian Heritage Month
- Black History Month
- OID Book Club
- GAYpril Events
- Friday Forum
- OID Movie Series
- Women’s History Month
- Cinco de Mayo
OID maintains a comprehensive library of diversity resources (movies, videos, documentaries, books, magazines) which is available to the entire HMC community on an honor-system basis, provides on-going advising, mentoring and counseling to underrepresented students at HMC, and serves as a supplementary advisor to the following student organizations:
- Asian-Pacific Islander-Support Program at Mudd (API-SPAM)
- People Respecting Individuals’ Sexualities at Mudd (PRISM)
- National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
- Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
- Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
The office also hosts the Summer Institute, an intensive two-and-a-half-week summer residential experience that offers new students an early introduction to HMC.
ROTC
Students interested in pursuing a commission in the United States Air Force concurrently with obtaining a degree may do so by enrolling in Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFROTC). Through a joint agreement with the University of Southern California, Harvey Mudd College offers AFROTC to the students of The Claremont Colleges and other four-year institutions in the local area. Additional information about Air Force ROTC, including course descriptions, scholarship opportunities and faculty contact information, can be found at the AFROTC website.
Athletics and Recreation
Harvey Mudd College, Claremont McKenna College and Scripps College are associated in a joint program of intercollegiate athletics, intramural and recreational activities, physical education and club sports known as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS). CMS facilities include a football field, gymnasium (an aerobic fitness room, a weight room with both free weights and a Nautilus system), a soccer field, a lacrosse field, a nine-lane 400-meter track, a baseball field, a softball field, an aquatics center with a competition pool for swimming, diving and water polo, 18 tennis courts, volleyball courts, and numerous intramural and recreational fields.
The intercollegiate athletic program is one of the most successful athletic programs in the country. A member of the NCAA Division III and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), which has eight members, CMS sponsors 21 intercollegiate sports for men (the Stags) and women (the Athenas).
Students who do not participate in intercollegiate competition may join intramural teams like inner-tube water polo, flag football, volleyball, soccer, basketball, softball, bowling, billiards and table tennis. Club sports of men’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s rugby, Ultimate Frisbee, volleyball, cycling, roller hockey and archery are additional pasttimes. An extensive list of offerings is available for physical education credit, which may be pursued even beyond the three-semester requirement.
HMC’s Linde Activities Center (LAC) is the hub of students’ recreational and fitness activities. The LAC has aerobics and weight rooms, meeting rooms, a computing lab, and basketball, badminton and volleyball courts. It is open to all HMC students and their guests.
Student Government
The College encourages students to participate in the governing of student life through the Associated Students of Harvey Mudd College (ASHMC). Student body and class and dorm officers manage committees that plan and coordinate many extracurricular and social activities. ASHMC’s Committee for Activities Planning, composed of students, plans and promotes off-campus activities for students, ranging from concerts to rock-climbing. All students are encouraged to participate and contribute ideas for upcoming events.
Other Activities
Many other activities of interest to students may be found on the Student Activities web page.








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