grade of 'A+' by Niche in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. The college holds one main dining area and offers two floors of seating. All meals and catered events on campus are served by Bates Dining Services, which makes a concentrated effort to purchase foods from suppliers and producers within the state of Maine, like Oakhurst Dairy and others. The Den serves as an on-campus restaurant. While on campus, enrolled students and faculty have access to round-the-clock emergency medical services and security protection. The college also holds an annual "Harvest Dinner" during Thanksgiving that features a school-wide dining experience including a New England buffet and live musical performances. Martin Luther King Day at Bates is celebrated annually with classes being canceled, and performances, events, keynote talks are held in observance. It is a day marked by keynotes from well known scholars who speak on the subjects of race, justice, and equality in America. In 2016, the college invited Jelani Cobb to speak at the college on MLK Day. The college offers students 110 clubs and organizations on campus. Among those is the competitive eating club, the Fat Cats, Ultimate Frisbee, and the student government. The largest club is the Outing Club, which leads canoeing, kayaking, rafting, camping and backpacking trips throughout Maine. Although Bates has since conception, rejected fraternities and sororities, various social groups exist. Student media The Bates Student Bates College's oldest operating newspaper is The Bates Student, created in 1873. It is one of the oldest continuously published college weeklies in the United States, and the oldest co-ed college weekly in the country. Alumni of the student media programs at Bates have won the Pulitzer Prize, and have their later work featured on major news sources. It circulates approximately 1,900 copies around the campus and Lewiston area. Since 1990, there has been an electronic version of the newspaper online. The newspaper provides access free of charge to a searchable database of articles stretching back to its inception on its website. In 2021, the college administration requested the student newspaper to retract an article that focused on the ongoing unionization among faculty staff members and replace it with an article that also included anti-union arguments. Some students accused the administration of censorship over this issue. WRBC WRBC is the college radio station of Bates College and was first aired in 1958. Originally started as an AM station