“The Analyst Papers,” named in honor of CMC’s first student newspaper, the Analyst, is a five-part series published by the Forum, the official student publication of Claremont McKenna College.

For the first time, the history of Claremont McKenna has been brought online. The Analyst Papers has been published in the form of five accessible articles, with the aim of navigating through years of characters, monuments, and obstacles. CMC’s history is a short one, but a good one, and few know much of it. To learn it is to better understand what CMC stands for, its challenges and its future.

In 1996, the Trustees of CMC commissioned California historian Kevin Starr to write a book commemorating the College’s first fifty years. His remarkable work, “Commerce and Civilization: Claremont McKenna College, 1946-1996”, has been a key source for this series.

Additionally, CMC’s Development Office has opened the College’s archives to Forum staff for this project. We thank them, as well as the CMC Alumni Association, for access to primary sources and first-hand interviews.

Part I: The Founding: An Idea, Long Before a College

Part II: CMC’s Conservative Heart

Part III: The Challenge of the Campus

Part IV: Claremont Men’s College, with Women

Highlights in Part V:

· As the demand for higher education has increased, publishers such as U.S. News have brought unprecedented attention to liberal arts colleges.

· CMC finds itself challenged to remain liberal arts in character while proving itself an outstanding alternative.

· The College’s fourth president, Pamela Gann, discusses CMC’s founding mission going forward.

____________

Part V

Our Place in the Liberal Arts

Politics may have motivated the College’s founding, and economics may have fueled its rise. But from the very start, Claremont McKenna was devoted to the liberal arts. And in America, over the past thirty years, liberal arts colleges have changed.

As a collective group, institutions of this model have risen to a new level of national exposure. Concurrently, the demand for quality education around the world has increased. The result has been unprecedented success. These small, expensive American colleges have become more selective than ever.

But for some, the effects of this exposure go way beyond admissions statistics. As Claremont McKenna continues to gain recognition, the College has been challenged to assert itself as an institution wholly separate from its equals, while still equal nonetheless.

And so, possibly more than any other point in its history, these national trends have tested Claremont McKenna’s mission and identity—one that was already unique among its peers from the start.

· The Liberal Arts Reaffirmed ·

Claremont's campus, seen from the air.

“When we were founded, we were very focused on free enterprise in the private sector, and democracy in the public sector,” Claremont McKenna President Pamela Gann said in a Forum panel discussion with the presidents of the five Claremont Colleges in February 2011.

“How you implement that mission is not static,” she said.

In CMC’s early years, students worked in trailers and lived in basements. Political economy was the dominant theme of the curriculum. The College was devoted to a handful of men.

Since then, CMC has grown to over a thousand students, and has recognized the complexities of breeding leadership in the public and private sectors by growing other departments such as literature, history, and psychology.

The mission of the school has been implemented differently, but with the same vigor, since women were first accepted to the school, in a move that respected the adaptability of the College’s founding vision.

“All the colleges subsequently founded, all of the undergraduate colleges, would be broadly liberal arts in character,” Robert Bernard said in an interview, stored in CMC’s archives. “But we didn’t feel that this would prevent them from emphasizing some special field of learning.”

Alumni meet on Green Beach for CMC's 30th reunion.

Bernard agreed with his colleagues that an essential liberal arts “character” was not exclusive with an adjoining institutional focus. And in a Memorandum on Proposed College for Men at Claremont, edited by Russell Story and published in May 1941, that institutional focus was made clear.

“These men need common perspectives, historical and philosophical,” the document reads. “If it would be unique in its program and its achievements, it must have a breadth of view adequate to encompass the complex economic, social, and political relationships that exist in the functioning of modern government, and in both domestic and world economies.”

The document even calls for students to take up “apprenticeships” during their studies.

Today, it may seem like Claremont’s unique approach contradicts fundamental values of the liberal arts: that no field is taken with more weight than another, that learning should be done for the sake of learning. But Claremont McKenna insists that learning should be done for the sake of doing. It has been the College’s operating principle since it’s founding.

That modus operandi is why the College has succeeded with such haste. CMC started providing a service that simply wasn’t offered before.

· CMC and the Rankings Game ·

But like it or not, Claremont McKenna’s success is not evaluated in light of its history.

High school students in Iowa, curious parents in Thailand, and employers in New York haven’t a clue of the College’s age, much less the age of its elusive name, which is only half that of the school’s existence.

Instead of knowing CMC through its history or its alumni—most of whom are alive today, and who couldn’t collectively fill a football stadium—they likely know about Claremont McKenna because college evaluation today has been standardized through college rankings.

Green Beach in 2011.

Luckily for CMC, where there are college rankings, CMC is often present. That national exposure has been as beneficial as it has been challenging.

U.S. News & World Report, the nation’s premiere college ranking source, has generally benefited the College, as well as its peers. Simply put: by placing Pomona, Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd on a ranking given equivalence to a university list featuring Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia, the smaller, lesser-known liberal arts colleges gain a prominence they could not gain alone with comparatively smaller alumni pools, endowments, and sports teams.

“As a young College, U.S. News has probably helped CMC become better known, as have other, more recent rankings, including Forbes.com last year, the annual Princeton Review, PayScale, and others,” President Gann told the Forum.

McKenna Auditorium does not survive CMC's master plan, which lays the foundations for a larger student body.

One of the biggest problems with U.S. News was well summarized by “Tipping Point” author Malcolm Gladwell, who wrote an article in the New Yorker in February 2011 on the topic. In its attempt to be both comprehensive and heterogeneous, he wrote, U.S. News achieves neither.

Among the top twenty liberal arts colleges in America today, according to U.S. News, are Swarthmore College, a broadly liberal arts institution on the East Coast; Claremont McKenna College, an institution without an arts department or its own science department, but with an economics department with an endowment the size of most other colleges in full; Harvey Mudd College, an engineering school; and West Point Academy, which awards a single degree to its graduates.

So it would appear that Claremont McKenna is not alone in its fight to the top of a ranking unsympathetic to its focus. But whether CMC should shift that focus, that founding mission, is a question that has crept onto campus.

Additionally, with the advent of national college marketing efforts, college rankings with less comprehensive goals have gained in popularity. The Princeton Review, The Daily Beast and College Prowler rank colleges in different categories. Among them, CMC has been featured as the happiest college in America, the best fed, the best housed (a far cry from Coconut Grove), and the largest consumer of beer.

Whether the College lets these outside influences change life on campus is up to the College. But for the first time in its history, that has become a real possibility. Being CMC has gained the school a national reputation; whether a national reputation can change CMC remains to be seen.

· Going Forward, Respecting the Past ·

At a Forum meeting with the Presidents of the Claremont Colleges, Gann reiterates CMC's devotion to democracy and free enterprise, while stating that our mission is "not static."

Claremont McKenna’s fourth president, Pamela Brooks Gann, believes the unique purpose of the curriculum has been the most important factor in its success.

“Our focus on leadership has not changed,” Gann told the Forum, “and we are putting more resources into this aspect of our mission.”

Gann’s statements would imply that, despite the murmurs on campus, Claremont’s focus on business, the professions, and public affairs—“leadership in the liberal arts,” in a catchphrase—will remain at the heart of the College.

Second and third to our mission, Gann attributes our success to our place in California, and to being a member of the Claremont Colleges.

This series has discovered that, without CMC’s founding, the Group Plan would likely have died—and Pomona College would have been the lone liberal arts alternative on the West Coast.

Sixty years ago, President Benson challenged CMC's first students to help realize the school's mission.

Instead, bright students west of the Mississippi River now have a clear choice.

“It’s a place not of armchair exercises,” Gann said at the Claremont Presidents panel, “but a place of high impact, and of people who really want to go out and have a very direct effect on the world.”

In this regard, the College’s leadership understands that Claremont McKenna won’t become better known by changing its values. On the contrary: the only reason we are known at all is because we’ve been faithful to our mission from the start.

Sixty years before Gann, CMC’s first president submitted a note to the Analyst, thanking some of the College’s inaugural students for giving Claremont a chance.

“There are many disadvantages in attending a new college,” Benson wrote. “Procedural points are not clear; temporary class rooms are too hot or too cold; dust is everywhere.”

“But in the long run,” he continued, “the advantages of going to a new college perhaps outweigh the disadvantages. You can watch a beautiful campus develop, watch the administrative difficulties disappear, and take your part in shaping the traditions which will make Claremont Men’s College the outstanding college of the West.”

In many ways, CMCers today still carry that burden. A young college punching above its weight, Claremont McKenna has no more valuable capital than the people who believe in its mission, invest in it, and carry it through. And when faithful, students at this school stand as living proof that its founding mission has succeeded. High impact, indeed.

Sir James Wolfensohn, the ninth president of the World Bank and a Knight by the Order of the British Empire, will be the commencement speaker for the Class of 2011, the Forum confirms.

The Office of the Dean of Faculty made the decision after a months-long search for a business or policy-minded individual. The faculty will meet this Friday to consider giving Mr. Wolfensohn an honorary degree.

Wolfensohn, Australian-born, has been referred to by the Economist as a “modern renaissance man.” Over the years, Wolfensohn has been connected to a slew of significant individuals and enterprises. He has served as a lawyer in Sydney, a director at an investment bank in London, and a senior executive at Salomon Brothers in New York. Wolfensohn founded an investment firm in 1980 with Paul Volcker, and trained on the cello under the tutelage of Jacqueline du Pré. He was an Olympic fencer.

In 1995, Wolfensohn was elected by President Clinton to head the World Bank. During his tenure as president, he traveled across the globe to over 120 countries. He was succeeded by Paul Wolfowitz in 2005, when he was appointed by Condoleezza Rice as a special envoy for Gaza disengagement during the Israeli pullout of the Gaza Strip. The former head of the World Bank has sat on the boards of the Brookings Institution, the Council on Foreign Relations, Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study, the Rockefeller Foundation, the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, and Carnegie Hall. In the past, he has spoken at the commencement of Brandeis University. He is a graduate of the University of Sydney and Harvard Business School.

“The Analyst Papers,” named in honor of CMC’s first student newspaper, the Analyst, is a five-part series published by the Forum, the official student publication of Claremont McKenna College.

For the first time, the history of Claremont McKenna has been brought online. The Analyst Papers has been published in the form of five accessible articles, with the aim of navigating through years of characters, monuments, and obstacles. CMC’s history is a short one, but a good one, and few know much of it. To learn it is to better understand what CMC stands for, its challenges and its future.

In 1996, the Trustees of CMC commissioned California historian Kevin Starr to write a book commemorating the College’s first fifty years. His remarkable work, “Commerce and Civilization: Claremont McKenna College, 1946-1996”, has been a key source for this series.

Additionally, CMC’s Development Office has opened the College’s archives to Forum staff for this project. We thank them, as well as the CMC Alumni Association, for access to primary sources and first-hand interviews.

Part I: The Founding: An Idea, Long Before a College

Highlights in Part II:

· The College’s founding philosophy was rooted in post-World War Two conservative principles. In its first decades, CMC’s leadership openly declared its political affiliations as official positions of the College.

· CMC became the intellectual home of Southern California Republicanism, which created two presidents: Nixon and Reagan. Both were very loyal to the College.

· The 1980s is examined as a capstone era, and a turning point.

Part III: The Challenge of the Campus

Part IV: Claremont Men’s College, with Women

Part V: Our Place in the Liberal Arts

____________

Part II

CMC’s Conservative Heart

This cartoon was featured in California Journal in July 1981, accompanying a piece by William Greenberg on the state of Claremont as a "bastion of conservatism."

When its doors finally opened after decades of struggle, the one thing that seemed secure for Claremont Men’s College was its mission.

That mission, articulated in a variety of ways since the idea first sprouted in the 1920s, may have been put best in a document written by its first board members in 1952, entitled A College Declares Free Enterprise. CMC’s purpose, the pamphlet read, would be to train men “who will help carry on our American free-enterprise way of life.”

Ultimately, it was this motivation—to found a college for the American century, emphasizing democratic and free market values—that became the primary justification for Claremont’s existence. It drove the dozen men who had the conviction to make the College come together. It certainly became an increasingly rare position in higher education. And in post-World War II America, it would be an ideal that would dominate the nation’s political discourse. CMC was at the heart of this struggle, and at the heart of CMC was an agenda.

· A Core Philosophy ·

When a college chooses a motto, it’s safe to assume that they consider it a telling indicator of the institution’s founding philosophy.

Amherst’s motto declares, “let them give light to the world.” Haverford states, “not more learned, but steeped in better learning.” Yale states simply, “light and truth.”

Claremont McKenna says that civilization prospers with commerce.

“The educational program of this institution is primarily related to the public and private corporate character of modern life,” read a document, Memorandum on Proposed College for Men at Claremont, written in May of 1941. Russell Story’s edits of the piece, including frequent rewrites of this declarative sentence, show just how important it was to make clear the College’s purpose.

Kevin Starr, author of the College’s official historical account, believes that CMC, grounded in such a forceful political philosophy, had a conservative character from the start.

“From the beginning, Claremont Men’s College had a point of view and an image,” Starr wrote. “In contrast to the orientation of the usual liberal arts college—New Deal liberal in politics, Keynesian in economics, skeptical in matters of emotional patriotism—Claremont Men’s College acquired, indeed sought, an opposing identity: free market in economics, anti-New Deal Republican in politics, unabashedly patriotic.”

Indeed, virtually all of Claremont’s pioneers were anti-New Deal Republicans, whose greatest political achievement may have been founding CMC.

For the founders of Claremont Men's, there was no question whether or not CMC was different from other liberal arts colleges.

Benson was the most vocal of all. In a speech he gave in 1952, he referred to the New Deal as a “‘Santa Claus’ philosophy of something for nothing”—the idea that “government owes me a living.” Not long after the speech was given, Benson was recruited for a time to work for the Eisenhower administration.

Donald McKenna was no less conservative. He would often note his distaste for the liberal bend of his alma mater’s faculty, and their reliance on pro-debt, pro-inflation Keynesian teachings. In CMC’s early years, McKenna even made frequent calls for the reestablishment of the gold standard.

McKenna’s personal archives, given to the College upon his death, show his political leanings remained steady throughout his life. He held on to an invitation to the “Humane Vision of Conservatism” conference at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, 1981, and wrote fondly of a 1989 dinner he attended with President Reagan at the Century Hotel in Los Angeles. He staunchly opposed the reelection of Bill Clinton in 1994 (shockingly, the year the College Democrats Club was first formed at CMC, according to Forum coverage from the time.)

Another author of the 1952 document, in which Claremont declares itself for free enterprise, was Herbert Hoover, Jr. Notifying Hoover of his election to the board, Benson wrote him that the College, from its founding, had “taken a firm stand in favor of political and economic liberty.”

It even appears as if Russell Pitzer, a founding figure at CMC, had conservative leanings—ironic, given the political leanings of the college that bears his name today.

“CMC is interested in the area where government and economics intersect,” a skeptical David Boroff wrote in “California’s Five-college Experiment,” a Harper’s Magazine 1959 profile of the Claremont Colleges, “militantly committed to free enterprise and ‘intelligent conservatism’ (the adjective speaks volumes).”

Indeed, to put this philosophy into practice, through education, required a different model. Benson suggested a streamlined curriculum would fit, one he called “political economy,” that would emphasize free market economics and constitutional government.

“Claremont Men’s College believes in free society,” the board of trustees upheld in the 1950s. “We cannot maintain our society free if we ask the government for largesse.”

· A Crisis of Mission: Claremont After Camelot ·

For a college to take a political stance, it must accept it will face inevitable trials of conscience. Claremont has had a few.

Some may point out that its very founding was reliant on the brand of government aid the College leadership scorned: the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, better known as the GI Bill.

But part of CMC’s conservatism has been consistent support for the American military. The College’s first class was packed with former aviators, sailors and soldiers, and part of the justification of CMC’s founding was that men would need to learn how to lead in public life, and in business settings, after leading on battlefields. And when the Korean War broke out less than five years after Claremont finally opened, there was a deep fear that the call of duty would deplete the student body to a point where the College wouldn’t long survive.

As the College grew, its conservative roots continued to shape its course. Pictured above: the construction of Bauer Center.

This support held true even during the escalation in Vietnam, when it seemed the conservatism of the country, and CMC, was most clearly under threat.

The 1960s challenged every American college, some with already liberal faculties. Brown, for one, decided to dramatically change course in 1969 with its adoption of the free elective curriculum.

Violence was also bursting out across many campuses. Nationally, the most widely publicized riots occurred at UC Berkeley and Kent State, where the National Guard killed four students in protest. In Kent, one of the primary targets of protestors was the ROTC.

In Claremont, as well, the ROTC was under siege. Over 160 students marched on the base in Bauer Center over the course of two years, the bulk of which occurred in a two-day siege in 1970. But instead of National Guardsmen defending the space, there were three-dozen CMC students. Protestors from the other Colleges used rocks as weapons against them.

To Benson, the decade presented a tremendous challenge to everything he had worked for. The students themselves had a conservative bend—not many other colleges formed clubs like the “CMC Student Committee to Support American Fighting Men in Vietnam”—but to Benson, this was a fight that went beyond a war gone terribly wrong. This was about maintaining calm in a community that was supposed to teach self-discipline and governance.

By 1967, Benson was forced to start compromising. That year he published Balance on Campus, a pamphlet that called for an equality of partisanship in the College faculty.

“A college is not a place for indoctrination,” he stated, “on one side or the other.”

The next year, Benson resigned as president.

It took three years for the campus to grow quiet after Benson left, and not before things degenerated even further. Pomona’s branch of SDS, “Students for a Democratic Society,” threw firebombs at Collins Dining Hall and planted them in CMC trash bins. Story House—CMC’s first true building, and a beautiful one—was fatally burned.

Story House, the heart of CMC's campus in its early years, fell victim to a fire in a period of politically motivated violence in Claremont.

Pomona’s Black Student Union, just days before the Story House fire, had asked CMC’s faculty whether they wanted to see the Colleges burned down, Harry Jaffa and Ward Elliott recall.

“If I were to choose,” Elliott tells the Forum, “I would bet on arson over the official story.

“Hot radiator pipes don’t burn down buildings,” he adds.

But while events fired up on campus, the mission of the College seemed to hold steady. A document referred to by the administrative leadership as the “McKenna Report”, issued by Mr. McKenna in 1968, reported that the identity of the College had survived the decade uncompromised. And steadfast through the heat, unwavering like others, CMC moved into an era where its core philosophy would reach a national stage.

· Ground Zero for Republican California ·

CMC’s first students were fresh off the Pacific front, but the College struggled to bring ROTC to campus. The organization has a one-station policy per university, and Pomona already hosted. So Benson appealed to his friend, and congressman, Mr. Richard Nixon.

Nixon would become a friend to the College, before his presidency and throughout. CMC even made a noble effort to locate his presidential library on campus, before the Watergate scandal erupted, and the College stepped back.

This advertisement for ROTC was featured in a Forum edition from the 1980s.

But Nixon wasn’t the only prominent conservative to put stock in Claremont. Barry Goldwater, Milton Friedman, Leo Strauss, and William F. Buckley were hailed during their frequent visits, Strauss and Buckley in particular. Faculty member Harry Jaffa was considered a brainchild of resurgent Republicanism. And Ronald Reagan, a friend of Claremont before his bid for the White House, would lean on the College throughout his presidency.

“I was going to write and let you know how proud I am to have so many of your graduates and faculty members serving here in my administration,” President Reagan wrote to Jack Stark by hand in 1981.

“I have long enjoyed my association with Claremont Men’s College,” Reagan continued. “The contribution of your school… is invaluable.”

Reagan’s victory, and the historical legitimacy he brought as president to modern conservatism, represented a capstone on grassroots efforts that began in 1940s Southern California. Indeed, it would be difficult to separate that effort with the founding and the rise of Claremont, which shared with Reagan a similar trajectory, congruent challenges, and through the turbulence, a conservative heart.

Read Part III: The Challenge of the Campus.

Tough Road: Admission to CMC has become extraordinarily selective, particularly for Californians.

The acceptance rate to Claremont McKenna is projected to hit a record low of 13-14% in 2011, with 4,453 high school students submitting applications to join the Class of 2015.

A preliminary overview of the applicant pool by the admissions committee showed trends continuing from last year, including an increase in the number of international students applying, as well as an increase in applicants from California— likely due to growing concerns with recent budget cuts to the University of California system.

Despite these concerns, top-ranked UCs have reported an increase in applications as well. But the drop for CMC will be a particularly dramatic one, as the College has witnessed an acceptance rate fluctuating between 16-19% since the recession began in 2007.

This building used to serve as CMC's Admissions Office, back in the day when its acceptance rate was a reasonable 19 per cent.

As the state of California tries to grapple with a financial crisis all of its own, institutions of private higher education, with the resources to provide substantial aid, have filled a need. And the admissions office sees only two major weights on the entire West Coast that can compete with the UC system: Stanford and the Claremont Colleges.

Claremont McKenna Dean of Admissions Richard Vos notes that, despite notable advances from Claremont, Stanford is still the 800-pound gorilla in California, a state in which one-eighth of all Americans reside.

Admissions uses that figure to defend the percentage of California locals in the student body, which has held steady at roughly a third for years now.

CMC sends recruiters to East Coast cities for about a month every year, where they go school to school to speak with prospective students. Collectively, they spend more time in the region than in any other.

But nevertheless, admissions has put a huge emphasis on East Coast recruitment, with officers spending more time in the region than anywhere else in the country.

“There’s much more of an appreciation for private higher education on the East Coast,” Vos told the Forum. “Williams doesn’t worry too much about losing people to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Out here, the UCs are respected, and powerful. And there are very few private schools out here.”

Add to that Claremont McKenna’s youth— it has only had its current name for thirty years— and the admissions office finds it hardly surprising when smaller crowds show up for brochures in Manhattan high schools.

Vos admits that, as in recent years, the acceptance rate for applicants from the East Coast is likely to be higher than the total rate— and that, conversely, the acceptance rate for California students will be lower.

“We want to have geographical diversity, and so, when we’re down to the final throes of the admissions committee process, and we find a student that could go either way, we take the student from Vermont, or Pennsylvania,” Vos said. “We do give a bit of a nod to geography in that case, yes.”

“But often,” Vos added, “mom says, ‘I don’t want you going that far.’”

In a given year, Claremont McKenna will have four people enroll from the Horace Mann School in New York and three from Phillips Academy at Andover. The following year, it may be that neither school will be represented.

But feeder schools don’t really exist for CMC in California, either. In a class of 280 students, most high schools are likely to only have one student a year accepted and enrolled.

Ultimately, the emphasis on East Coast recruitment is about more than geographic diversity. The majority of liberal arts colleges are there, and because of that, some argue that college presidents tend to vote in U.S. News reputational rankings with a regional mindset.

“In that one aspect,” Vos agreed, “East Coast bias, or favoritism, does rear its head.”

“The Analyst Papers,” named in honor of CMC’s first student newspaper, the Analyst, is a five-part series published by the Forum, the official student publication of Claremont McKenna College.

For the first time, the history of Claremont McKenna has been brought online. The Analyst Papers has been published in the form of five accessible articles, with the aim of navigating through years of characters, monuments, and obstacles. CMC’s history is a short one, but a good one, and few know much of it. To learn it is to better understand what CMC stands for, its challenges and its future.

In 1996, the Trustees of CMC commissioned California historian Kevin Starr to write a book commemorating the College’s first fifty years. His remarkable work, “Commerce and Civilization: Claremont McKenna College, 1946-1996”, has been a key source for this series.

Additionally, CMC’s Development Office has opened the College’s archives to Forum staff for this project. We thank them, as well as the CMC Alumni Association, for access to primary sources and first-hand interviews.

Highlights in Part I:

· There were three major attempts to start the school, the first two cut abruptly by the Great Depression and Pearl Harbor.

· Pomona, whose leadership gave up on the Group Plan by the 1940s, actively opposed CMC’s founding.

· CMC was nearly named Pitzer, after a key donor. Other possible names included Clarke College or Bauer College.

Part II: CMC’s Conservative Heart

Part III: The Challenge of the Campus

Part IV: Claremont Men’s College, with Women

Part V: Our Place in the Liberal Arts

____________

Part I

The Founding: an Idea, Long Before a College

Who was McKenna, anyway?

“An individual,” writes Kevin Starr in Commerce and Civilization, “who had typed a multipage, single-spaced letter on a transcontinental train trip in 1945 outlining the postwar possibilities of a third college.”

Your average loyal and loving CMC student is expected to know at least the basic history of the Claremont Colleges. The brochures usually cover it as if it were a fairytale. Pomona was the founding member, molded in the New England type; its third president, James Blaisdell, had the wise and bold idea of creating a consortium on the Oxford model, so as to preserve the integrity of the small liberal arts college while acquiring the resources of the large university; and CMC, at first Claremont Men’s College, was ultimately founded with some strong momentum built by America’s victory in the Second World War.

All of this is truth, though truth that mystifies and simplifies a wonderful story of characters with familiar names– Story, Benson, Bernard, Mudd, Pitzer, and of course, McKenna. All were idealistic men tested by trying times. The great idea of a men’s college in Claremont was actually born in the 1920s– when the business of America was business, when capital was flowing fast into Southern California, and when the town of Claremont was still desert brush in the shadows of mountains.

· The American ‘Oxford’ Model ·

These pamphlets, called the Claremont Papers, were the Federalist Papers of CMC's founding.

Before Claremont McKenna’s founding, its fathers had the college envisioned for more than twenty years. Claremont may be the academic product of the post-World War II era, but the idea of Claremont long preceded the war.

Pomona President Blaisdell’s “Group Plan”, as the Claremont Colleges plan was called, first became his brainchild after Pomona’s trustees voted in 1920 to limit the student body to a mere 750 men and women– half of what it is today. It was then that the president realized an opportunity to build something greater than Pomona could ever be standalone: a new type of academic federation, in a brand new place.

The key was finding the funds, and at first, they were readily available. Blaisdell’s biggest achievement was the solicitation of Ellen Browning Scripps, a self-made woman living in La Jolla who, with her brothers, had built the largest newspaper chain west of the Mississippi. In a letter to Scripps, Blaisdell wrote this oft-circulated quote:

“My own very deep hope is that instead of one great, undifferentiated university, we might have a group of institutions divided into small colleges– somewhat on the Oxford type– around a library and other utilities which they would use in common. In this way I should hope to preserve the inestimable personal values of the small college while securing the facilities of the great universities. Such a development would be a new and wonderful contribution to American education.”

Enticed by the idea, Scripps gave a large donation to buy 250 acres of land surrounding Pomona’s campus for future colleges. Based on the purchase, the Articles of Incorporation of Claremont Colleges were approved in Sacramento in 1925, with Blaisdell, Seeley Mudd (Harvey’s father) and Scripps’ lawyer as trustees. And within a year, Scripps completed her commitment to the plan by funding the founding of the first full-fledged consortium child, Scripps College for Women, in 1926.

It all seemed so easy. Within just a few years, the vast wealth of the 1920s had produced a great new project in the Pomona Valley, where the sun beat down on rolling citrus groves and untold academic promise. Blaisdell became convinced his plan would be realized in full, and quickly began sketching a third head of the Group: a men’s college that would, with no stitch of humility, serve to sharpen the fundamental tools of modern democratic society. In Claremont, men would learn commerce as a liberal art.

But shortly after CMC was first dreamed up in 1927, crisis hit Claremont and the nation. Black Friday quickly buried the hopes of the college’s founding, and in a sad twist of irony, ugly economics brought the project to a halt.

· Keeping the Plan Afloat ·

The hopes of most, at least; but not Blaisdell. Announcing his retirement in 1935, Pomona’s most visionary president made a passionate plea for CMC’s founding his last words on campus. “Blaisdell’s report not only endorsed the concept of the third college but argued additionally that it was crucial to the survival of the Group Plan,” wrote Kevin Starr in his account. “Only by achieving a three-college synergy, Blaisdell stated, could the Group Plan demonstrate its true capacity for further federalization.”

The men that held that dream together are now considered the true founders of the Claremont Colleges. Harvey Mudd, a man of serious money and influence on the coast, insisted the plan could come together with incremental gifts over several years. Russell Story, a succeeding president of the Claremont enterprise, focused on giving the vision more organization by making public relations pamphlets for possible donors and commissioning a detailed curriculum draft. The drafter, Arthur Coons, spent much of his time in Oxford at Nuffield College – the university’s twenty-second, also founded to prepare students for professions in public service and business.

In a very real way, the fate of the college rested on the motivation of less than a dozen men.

Story began looking early on to George Charles Sumner Benson, his former student of politics at Pomona and a senior tutor at Harvard’s Lowell House, to fill a position of leadership that had long remained void. Benson showed great interest in leading the third college, but showed an equal amount of reservation; the plan had failed once before, and moving out West was a great commitment to a college that didn’t yet exist.

And in a telegram the Forum obtained written to Richard Bernard, a passionate Claremont board member and the name behind Bernard Field Station, Story detailed another serious, seemingly endless concern: fundraising.

“The foundation chase is about over. With Rockefeller and Carnegie it is a closed chapter so far as general education is concerned,” he wrote. “The Men’s College will have to go on its own. Everyone admits to its excellence and appeal, but no money. So be it… my convictions have been deepened, but the plan will have to carry itself.”

Despite all of Story’s momentum, another catastrophic event hit at the heart of America, and this time the world as well. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, attention was invariably drawn away from the Claremont Plan by the war effort.

“The venture,” Story wrote to a friend at Johns Hopkins, “which was so close to being established in 1929, is now the victim of another set of circumstances equally catastrophic, if not more so. Certainly the idea will find embodiment some place, somewhere, some time.”

Shortly after the war began, Story died of a heart attack.

· Pomona Turns as McKenna, Mudd & Pitzer Run ·

Donald McKenna is Claremont’s very own entrepreneur and Harvard dropout. Born into a steel family that became key to the war effort, McKenna, second cousin of Andrew Carnegie, tried going his own way in the turbine business before rejoining the family project. McKenna steel had high percentages of tungsten, making it a tougher alloy produced at the perfect time.

As a student at Pomona College, Donald McKenna was a fine student– sometimes.

The family became wealthy right when McKenna found a passion. He became involved in the third college project– by 1942, synonymous with the very experiment of collegiate federation in America– once he moved back to Claremont in the 1940s. Originally he, like most other Claremont founders, had gone to Pomona for undergrad.

Slowly but surely, McKenna committed himself as the third college’s largest financial contributor. He eventually promised up to half what was necessary for the college to open. Harvey Mudd, now chairman of Claremont’s board, approved of the college’s founding if they secured the final funding needed. But they needed double McKenna’s gift, and there were very few donors in sight.

McKenna and Bob Bernard went on a scurried hunt for the final donor needed. They found one in Russell Pitzer, one of the largest citrus growers in the region (yes, that’s what the Pitzer orange tree icon is all about).

Claremont College Undergraduate School for Men – the first official name of the institution, contrary to popular belief – was finally set for its founding in 1946. The school would open without an endowment, riding on the gifts of McKenna, Pitzer and the saving grace of the GI Bill.

Not soon after its founding, Pitzer would offer another major gift to put his name on the college. CMC’s leadership turned him down, not quite ready for a namesake, much less one with little substantive significance. Instead, Pitzer gave half the donation he originally offered for the construction of Claremont College’s first academic building. Pitzer Hall was completed in 1950, and was torn down sixty years later to make room for the Kravis Center.

Other names for the college, mulled throughout its history before settling on Claremont McKenna, include Clarke College, after a key figure who donated a large sum but had no interest in taking the school’s name; and Bauer College, after Modestus Bauer gave the college its largest gift to date in the ‘70s for the construction of Bauer Center.

Another milestone gift came from Lawrence Green, solicited by Benson in the winter of 1947.

“It involves many headaches and anxieties, but it is a real pleasure to watch a vital educational institution grow,” Benson wrote, in a letter kept in the College’s archives, “especially one with a program as significant to American higher education as is ours.”

But while Mudd, Pitzer and McKenna ran with the mantle of collegiate federalism taken from Blaisdell and Story, they found one final, surprising obstacle in their way that would threaten the entire enterprise: Pomona College.

Pomona’s longest-serving president to date, Elijah Lyon, led an active and cunning campaign to block the founding of CMC. Lyon and the faculty feared, as Starr wrote, what might become a “competitive enterprise” in Claremont: an in-grown alternative to what was supposed to be the East Coast college of the West.

Lyon’s first move was to attempt a seizure of the third college property, which he said was needed for additional faculty housing. Scripps’ faculty strongly objected; after all, their girls had been promised a male-college counterpart for over twenty years. And Lyon managed to infuriate Harvey Mudd, who went ahead and purchased the land for its safekeeping.

At a meeting between Pomona Dean Edward Sanders and Bernard, even the very subject of CMC’s founding began to frustrate the administration.

“Oh, isn’t it about time that we wrote that off?” Pomona’s dean howled.

After decades of struggle, Claremont finally had its first convocation in 1947.

When Lyon failed to confiscate CMC’s promised land, he targeted its leadership. The Pomona administration made Benson an offer he couldn’t refuse: the college would create an entirely new department based on the curriculum and philosophy of Claremont Men’s, and would pay Benson big bucks to run it. Benson would avoid risking his career on a shaky venture, and by incorporating CMC into Pomona, the need for a third college would be eliminated.

To such a threat, McKenna and Bernard made a final counteroffer. While focusing on directing CMC to its founding, Benson would be given a five-year position as head of Claremont’s graduate programs. Benson accepted, and the third college had its leader and, later, first president.

Bernard would later reflect on that moment in an oral history, now buried in the College’s archives.

“The people that entered into the plan did so knowing full well that this was a new undertaking, that it was a pioneer undertaking, that it was a struggle,” he said.

He added: “There was more than Pomona at stake in Claremont.”

There was great irony in Pomona’s betrayal of the Group Plan: after all, the very idea had originated at Pomona, and virtually all of its advocates had studied there. But the founders did differ from the Pomona norm in one key respect. While its faculty had remained liberal throughout the great traumas of the early 21st Century, CMC’s founders had become entrenched in a hardened, ambitious conservatism – a trait that would define their budding college in the years to come.

Read Part II: CMC’s Conservative Heart.

The Thesis Party, celebrated by seniors where freshmen are first initiated, has evolved dramatically over the years.

Claremont McKenna’s Dean of Students Office will allow ASCMC to resume registering Thursday night parties this week, after an incident in early September led to heated backroom politicking between the two organizations.

The exchange, which at one point led to a walkout by ASCMC officials, marked a climax in a conflict over alcohol that addresses both realities and perceptions of CMC’s social life.

Student government officials see a change in social culture being imposed by the administration, after the cancellation and suspension of a string of traditional events on campus. The Dean of Students Office (DOS), in contrast, sees a line that has been crossed, a reputation being tarnished and a student body increasingly putting itself in danger.

After three kegs were found at the first Thursday Night Club (TNC) of the year – two more than allowed by college policy – DOS expected “negative ramifications” from the student body once informed of another suspension notice.

“We now have no trust in ASCMC and all the promises they have made us,” one DOS official wrote in an e-mail to staff members.

ASCMC President Tammy Phan echoed the mood.

“I think there’s a deeper meaning behind every action they’ve taken,” she said. “I think ASCMC needs to be very cautious about what DOS is doing.”

Dean of Students Mary Spellman, the subject of much controversy surrounding alcohol policy review over the past several months, reiterated the e-mail’s claim in softer terms.

“The voices that are heard – and the voices that ASCMC caters to, in many ways – are the students that choose to drink,” Spellman said. “You will very rarely hear a group of students stand up publicly on the Forum, or any other forum, and say no. And the college has to serve all students.”

The Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) at UCLA reported in 2009 that 91% of Claremont McKenna students drink beer on a frequent or occasional basis, while 95% report drinking wine or liquor with the same frequency.

CMC’s figures are markedly higher than comparable institutions, UCLA’s report showed, such as Middlebury, Dartmouth and Harvey Mudd.

What students now perceive is an administration hostile to these reports and the publicity that comes with them, such as our presence on Princeton Review’s “Most Beer” list or the Daily Beast’s “Happiest College in America” ranking. With the alteration of TNC and Dry Week, drama around the Thesis Party, and the cancellation of Madrigal – all major events surrounding alcohol – deep suspicion has begun to take root within the CMC community over what the DOS Office intends.

The decision to hire Mary Spellman as Dean of Students last January, on face value, seemed to confirm those suspicions.

THE SPELLMAN HIRE

“Let me take a step back,” Spellman told the Forum. “When I first got here, I did not come with a mandate or an expectation that I would look at alcohol. That was never part of the conversation.”

At the time of Spellman’s arrival, a conservative student blog linked to a report from the Sadie Lou Standard that implied otherwise.

“Responsible, periodic, socially-endorsed drinking seems to be a concept that completely eludes Mary” at Sarah Lawrence, the anonymous student author wrote, claiming Spellman had succeeded at “putting students on the defensive for events.”

Many students made the assumption that Vice President of Student Affairs Jefferson Huang, in charge of the search, was hiring Spellman based on this record.

While Spellman said she stands by her record at Sarah Lawrence, she asserts that the article was skewed. “The particular event in question was a pumpkin carving in the middle of the quad in the early evening,” she noted. “It didn’t necessarily seem appropriate for the event.”

For his part, Huang is deeply displeased with what he sees as the “vilification” of Spellman, who was “absolutely not” hired for her past work on college alcohol policy. “I think she’s been unfairly scapegoated,” he said. “I’d like to think that my word is worth something, and I’m saying I did not hire her to go out there and be the alcohol czar.”

He added: “I have several times asked her, ‘should I be out in front of this?’ And she has said, ‘I’m the Dean of Students, I need to do these things.’”

Spellman does admit to her involvement in the review of alcohol policy at Sarah Lawrence, and even says her “legacy” may very well be a policy that is “perceived as being more stringent.” The college had previously no standard protocol for handling case-by-case drinking indiscretions, and she sat on a committee to organize such a protocol. And while she didn’t chair it, she was responsible for making sure the committee came together – and that it accomplished its aims.

TARGETING THURSDAYS

Whether or not Spellman was brought in for this specific purpose, alcohol policy review was a clear priority to DOS before her arrival, and has been ever since.

In 2009, an Alcohol Task Force was commissioned by Dean Huang to review the state and success of the current college policy.

CMC's "red cup" policy is unique amongst its peers.

Among over two dozen suggestions, the task force recommended the reduction of high-risk drinking be designated an “institutional priority by all groups” at the school; a reevaluation of Dry Week dates, which occurred; more Friday class offerings; and a thorough evaluation of the “Hall Monitor” model of residential living.

The Thursday party “phenomenon” was the target of many of the report’s recommendations.

Last year, a record low number of Friday classes were offered – only 4.3% of all classes at the school – partly due to professorial interest in expanded research hours.

“I don’t know if it’s the college policy to diminish Thursdays,” Spellman said. “But it’s not meant to be a party night. And it is concerning to me that more and more students consider their academic week as shorter.”

In recent years, ASCMC has hosted Thursday Night Clubs throughout the campus, often centered around North Quad dorms. The parties in these facilities have proven difficult to control because of their porous structure, and guests, from both CMC and other Claremont Colleges, frequently “front-load” alcohol before the party in the privacy of their own rooms.

One answer to the front-loading, “pre-game” problem is a hall monitor system, where resident assistants are given stricter directives from deans to enforce policy within student rooms.

Dean Huang says such a policy shift is “on the table for consideration,” noting that, in the past, the sanctity of the room has almost always been protected.

“I suppose we could go there,” he said. “I didn’t want to go there, and I don’t think our students want us to. But we don’t generally go looking for problems unless they present themselves to us.”

The combination of enforcement difficulties, DOS officials say, creates a daunting threat to the safety of students on a regular basis. And for the few that don’t participate, it causes notable disturbance.

“We get a fair number of complaints, but they’re usually pretty quiet,” Spellman said. “Those are the students that either suffer in silence, which a lot do, or they don’t want to be known as the person that’s complaining because its not popular. The popular sentiment is that Thursday night is our party night, and that CMC throws great parties.”

She added: “You may want a CMC education, but you may not want the CMC party culture.”

A ‘PARTY’ REPUTATION

There is no reasonable evidence to believe the administration has a clear, set plan – or a “conspiracy,” as Dean Huang called it – to crack down on alcohol. But there is certainly concern amongst its officials over the direction that drinking is pushing the school’s image.

“The college wouldn’t be doing its job if we didn’t talk about the things that impact students coming here,” Spellman asserted.

Spellman agrees that it is not about a shortage of applicants, with CMC accepting just 15% of students who apply. “But do you want that reputation to be attached to your degree?” she asked rhetorically. “It’s not just a reputational issue and us wanting to be perceived as the best; it’s what it says about you, and the experience you had, and the degree.”

“It’s reputational in that aspect, and in a very powerful way,” she continues. “It snowballs. That’s how schools get reputations.”

Other members of the administration blame various articles and rankings on the Internet for promoting the party image, which, to some, appears mutually exclusive with academic rigor.

“I don’t want us compared to a lot of schools we’re often compared to on the party list, because I don’t think they’re very good academic schools,” Huang asserted. “I think it discredits the institution to do that.”

Asked whether CMC could be called a party school today, Huang replied: “We’re creeping into that zone. I worry about that.”

The admissions office has been challenged most directly by the reputation question, and its dean, Richard Vos, has expressed concern. Over the past year, overnight stays offered to prospective students on Thursday nights have been cancelled, and some of the best candidates, he told the Forum, have cited the college’s drinking culture as the reason they chose to enroll elsewhere.

“For the past few years Jeff Huang, Pamela Gann, and I have been talking about the effect on CMC’s admission program as a result of the negative perception,” Vos said. “We have evidence that the perception that CMC has a strong drinking culture has hurt our admission efforts.”

It brings up a question prospective applicants ask themselves frequently: is it possible to have it all?

CMC students clearly think they can. When ranked the happiest college in the country last year, students prided themselves on their ability to balance work and play by citing the ranking’s methodology, which compiled a mix of data from both U.S. News and College Prowler guidebooks.

“Students here are treated like adults,” Phan stated. “Part of our education is learning how to socialize and network in the real world, and the real world includes alcohol.”

Huang, on the other hand, had mixed feelings on the ranking. “You know, I’d rather be two or three,” he said. “One is a tough place to be.”

CIRP at UCLA found that 58% of Claremont McKenna students partied 3-10 hours a week, versus comparable schools, where the number stood at 40%.

Acknowledging the worry, Dorm Activities Chair Alexander Reichert, who coordinates Thursday night events, rejected the notion as paranoia at best, derision at worst.

“Some say that Dartmouth has a party school reputation, but nobody compares Dartmouth to ASU,” Reichert stated. “We’re absolutely not a party school. Labeling us as one not only insults the faculty and the alumni. It insults the students, who continue to demonstrate success in whatever field they choose to pursue.”

Nevertheless, the worry is growing. And it may explain why parties, as students have lived them, are changing in tone and frequency.

“I want it to be the place where students are incredibly talented, and gifted, and hardworking, and they also happen to throw some kick-ass parties,” Spellman added. “That’s very different than being a party school.”

WHAT ABOUT TRADITION?

Forum editions from 1983 and 1993 give a history to the College's relationship with alcohol.

To ASCMC, the core issue is really what is at stake beyond the day-to-day drink: the tradition of CMC students being able to just enjoy it.

That tradition has manifested in various forms over the years, from day parties on Green Beach to Keg Thursdays in North Quad.

Students argue that they chose this school in part for such freedoms, and that a college’s alcohol policy is a barometer for how much it trusts its students.

But that position assumes the student culture has historically been constant, that traditions at the college have had long lives, and that parties today are of similar scale to parties thrown twenty years ago. And that does not appear to be the case.

Jim Nauls, the Assistant Dean of Students who has been with the college for seventeen years, remembers a period when parties had a dozen kegs, a period when parties charged students entry, and another period when bartenders were hired for every event.

“It’s constantly evolving,” Nauls said. “It tends to reach this peak every three or four years, when new students come in and the old ones leave, and people tend to forget how things were.”

Huang, who has been with the college as long as Nauls, shared similar sentiments.

“I can remember a time when the Senior Thesis Party was a champagne toast. Then I remember the time when the speakers came out. Then I remember when faculty started complaining about the music. Then I remember, just recently, a student had her laptop damaged and, just this past spring, someone was injured by broken glass.”

Since the college officially went co-ed in the mid-70s, the nature of its traditions has changed. Few have stuck. With the changeover in students every few years, a mental relapse occurs, and traditions, first crystallizing, never fully form.

But ASCMC, to its credit, has made efforts to change that.

“The registrar’s office used to give out champagne to every senior who turned in their thesis, which led to the fountain party,” Phan added. “They stopped doing that. ASCMC stepped in to foot the bill. And Madrigals never started with ASCMC, but with the threat of losing it, Brad Walters revived it when he was president. And we’re doing the same thing now.”

“We try to preserve the culture here,” she continued, “as we know it.”

So whether change is due to student actions or wobbly policy is up for debate. But as a result, what exists of CMC traditions has succumbed to the ebb and flow of our drinks and our tolerance for it all.

President Gann escorted the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister to the Athenaeum on Monday, where he was awarded the College's 50th honorary degree.

Dr. Al-Sabah was on campus to receive an honorary doctor of laws. The minister was originally notified of the honor during President Gann’s trip to the Middle East in March, at which point they began coordinating a visit to campus for him to accept the degree.

Typically, honorary degrees are awarded by colleges and universities during commencement ceremonies each spring. But as Dr. Al-Sabah is unable to make CMC’s May 15 graduation, an Athenaeum luncheon was hosted instead.

At the lunch, Dr. Al-Sabah described his alma mater as having a special place in his heart. “Let your heart float and drift in the sea of passion,” he said. “There is no love but your first love.” The sheikh had turned down an invitation from Condeleeza Rice to speak at Stanford the same day, he noted, as his visit to California was for Claremont.

Dr. Al-Sabah, 55 years old, is the fiftieth person to receive an honorary degree in the College’s history. The dignitary has already earned a PhD from Harvard in economics in addition to his BA from CMC, which he earned cum laude in 1978.

In the past, honorary degrees have been given sparingly. Until 2002, only one or two individuals were awarded such degrees each year, if any were given at all. Ceremonies were traditionally separate from commencement, which was an unusual practice. While almost always doctor of laws degrees (LH D), CMC has occasionally awarded doctor of humane letters degrees, to figures such as Marian Miner Cook and George Van Tubergen. The Board of Trustees revised their honorary degree policy in 2003, and as a result, the number of degrees awarded annually has increased.

Dr. Al-Sabah will not be the only Kuwaiti awarded an honorary degree this year. Abdulatif Al-Hamad, Chairman of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and another CMC alumnus and parent, has also been chosen to receive a doctor of law.

The main windows of Collins Dining Hall were painted over last night.

Late last night, “Fuck CMC” was painted on the main windows of Collins Dining Hall.

Pomona students are alleged to have committed the act, based on a continued graffiti trail back to the Sagehen campus. But Dean of Students Mary Spellman said there is no evidence to support this claim, and said that Campus Safety was continuing an investigation into the matter.

“I just received a report this morning,” Spellman said, adding she knew nothing else of the event.

The incident comes in light of a long history of similar episodes. CMC students infamously broke into Frary Dining Hall and defaced Prometheus years ago, and Pomona has damaged the Flamson Plaza fountain outside the Athenaeum in recent past.

The graffiti, which included phallic imagery along with the slur, was promptly cleaned up this morning. Today is one of two major on-campus days for prospective students.

During his visit to Claremont on April 15, Governor Mitt Romney sat down with the Forum for an exclusive interview. Romney was a guest of the Res Publica Society, speaking in Orange County to the college community over lunch before coming to campus in preparation for his speech at the Athenaeum.

Below is the full transcript of our interview with the former presidential candidate.

Michael Wilner: As you may know, Claremont McKenna has some of the strongest government and economics departments in the country. These two fields have come to shape the college, and your career alike.

When you were CEO of Bain, you were creating jobs across the nation and around the world. Many students here aspire to such a position of power and influence. How did you come to the conclusion that being governor of Massachusetts would do you more good?

Michael Wilner interviewed Mitt Romney in the residence of the Athenaeum during his visit to Claremont in April.

Mitt Romney: Actually, I participated in my career in the business world because I enjoyed it, but also because it made a living for me and for my family, and it turned out to be far more financially rewarding than I would’ve ever imagined. And when I had been successful in that endeavor, I was approached by the governor of Utah asking if I would come help organize the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake… they were in deep difficulty. The experience I had learned in the private sector to turn around troubled industries – or companies, rather – had given me some skills to be helpful there. And my view was I’ve reached a point where I could afford to leave my business, and the earnings of a private-sector job, and I could go serve. And really, running the Olympics, and then running for governor, and becoming elected – those things were about service, rather than about furthering a career interest of mine or something of that nature.

Wilner: The last week of March, President Obama called you the “now presidential candidate” for 2012. Having traveled to Iowa and New Hampshire quite recently, do you see why he, and others, would suspect that you’re running?

Romney: Actually, I’ve traveled to 19 states as part of my book tour, and it is not surprising that would include states where I am relatively well known, like Iowa and New Hampshire. The other 17 states were not mentioned by those who follow politics, for obvious reasons. But I’m keeping the option open, as a number of people are doing. There are probably ten folks who might be considered as potential candidates for the Republican nomination. My guess is that some of the ten will run, and some of us won’t.  And that’s a decision you make at the moment you need to, which is probably after the November elections, and not before. But whether or not I’ll get in is a decision which my family and I haven’t made yet, but we’re keeping the door open.

Wilner: But yes or no – do you want to be president? I guess that’s a different question than whether you’ll run.

I don’t feel the same way he does. I feel differently than that. But I thought his was an amusing response. I think people who really want to be president, and want the trappings and benefits of president will perhaps best be disqualified, and that, instead, people who believe they have a contribution that would be critical at an essential time in American history would be the ones that you’d hope would actually run. I think that probably tends to be the case. And in my case, I’m not someone who’s pining after being president. The decision I made last time to run was based upon my belief that my backgrounds and skills in the private sector were very much in need in government. But that was then, and who knows what it’s going to feel like two or three years from now.

Wilner: Do you believe the GOP should try to completely embrace the Tea Party Movement, or try to keep its distance?

Romney: I think the Tea Party Movement is a citizen’s movement, focused on eliminating excessive taxation and reducing the interest of this government. That’s very similar to the message of my party – when it’s abiding by its principles. So it is different than the Republican Party, but it is consistent with our philosophy. And I think it augurs well for our prospects. So I embrace the fact that the silent majority is silent no more, and the tea partiers are expressing their views on issues that America cares very deeply about. I think it is a positive development and good for the country, and may well be good for our party.

Wilner: What would you say is the defining difference – the defining difference, if there were one – between your Massachusetts healthcare bill and Mr. Obama’s bill?

The former governor of Massachusetts told the Forum he expects to make a decision on whether to run for president after the November midterm elections.

Romney: Ours was a state solution to state problem, and his was a federal intrusion on the rights of states. His is a federal, one-size-fits-all plan. Ours was tailored to the needs of our citizens. And because ours was a state plan, we didn’t have to raise taxes. We didn’t have to cut benefits to seniors. We didn’t have to put in price controls. His plan does all those things, because it’s a federal plan, and that was the wrong way to approach an issue like healthcare.

Wilner: How would you have approached it otherwise?

Romney: My view, when I ran for office and since, has been that the federal government should let states receive the federal moneys they have been receiving that allow states to care for their poor – but to use those moneys to help people buy insurance so that you reduce the roles of the uninsured, letting each state craft their own plan, but receiving flexibility from the federal government in the use of federal funds.

Wilner: How would you fix California?

Romney: By electing Meg Whitman!

(Laughs)

I think she has the private sector experience to know what the right answers would be, and the backbone, and conviction, to actually do what’s necessary to get the job done. I happen to believe that California’s people are going to need to be part of this process – that it’s not something that even a great governor alone can accomplish. It’s going to need the people letting their legislators know what’s the right thing to do, maybe even voting for ballot initiatives that are necessary to get the state back on track. But frankly, California is teetering over the edge financially, and this is going to take a very effective leader who can communicate with the citizens of California how she and they, together, need to restructure California’s finances.

Wilner: But do you think there’s validity to the worry of many Californians that she was apolitical before? That she hadn’t registered before she decided to run?

Romney: I think it’s a testament to the fact that she’s not a politician. If Californians want a politician who has spent his entire life in politics, well that’s Jerry Brown. And if you think what we really need in California are more politicians running things then he’s your person. But if, instead, you think you want somebody who is not a politician, who has not been involved in politics, who has been leading in business, then Meg is your person.

Wilner: More than anything else, what did you learn from your run in 2008?

Romney: That it’s more fun to win than to lose?

(Laughs)

But also that it’s important to define your message rather than letting the media, and your opposition, define who you are. And that means making sure that you focus your remarks on those issues you care most about. In my case, it’s about strengthening the foundation of America’s economy so that we can not only be prosperous, but we can protect our freedom.

Wilner: I’m going to ask – who is your favorite Democrat alive today?

Romney, Wilner, and Laura Sucheski, managing editor for news and opinion, after the interview. Photo credit: Carl Peaslee.

Romney: Who is my favorite Democrat? Let’s see – I just signed a book the other day to someone who I said, ‘you’re my favorite Democrat.’ You know, I have a number of Democrats who were supportive of me in my campaign, so I’m going to be hard-pressed to pick out a favorite Democrat. I’ve got a lot of Democrats who support me. I had during my administration as governor a number of Democrats who served – Doug Foy, who was my secretary of economic matters; Bob Pozen, who was another cabinet secretary of mine, he’s a Democrat. I have a number of Democratic friends who I consider good friends. But I’m not going to pick a current elected official, because – at this stage – I’m not going to endorse someone. It’s like the kiss of death.

Wilner: Fair enough. And how do you think Hillary Clinton is doing at the State Department?

Romney: I don’t know how much she is responsible for in terms of our new foreign policy, but I think our new foreign policy is badly misguided, and that the administration is making mistakes everywhere from Latin America to the Middle East. And I believe that the consequences of these mistakes are very severe. I don’t know if that’s Secretary Clinton’s responsibility or whether it’s been the president’s direction. My guess is, when the books are written and history unfolds, we’ll know where she stood and where he stood on these matters.

Wilner: Sarah Palin – I know you’ve addressed this a lot. She said she’d be happy to sit on the ticket with you, if you were to run. Would you be comfortable with such a ticket?

Romney: She’s a terrific powerhouse in the Republican Party. It would be presumptive of me to start talking about even my running, but I think the world of her and have respect for what she’s been able to do to help to generate enthusiasm and passion in our party.

Wilner: Would you say it’s presumptive of her to be talking about it?

Romney: I – I welcome, with some delight, her generous comments about me, and I feel the same way about her.

Wilner: Well governor, thank you so much for coming to Claremont. Welcome.

Romney: It’s great to be here, Michael.

For more information on this interview and Governor Romney’s visit, e-mail forum@ascmc.org.

Michael Wilner: You’ve been at Al Jazeera since 1998. Since you joined the network, two major wars have been waged by the United States and numerous conflicts have flared between Israel and Palestinian groups.

Coinciding with these changes, Al Jazeera has grown into a worldwide organization.

How would you say things have changed in Arab media, given all the geopolitical changes that have occurred since you arrived?

Michael Wilner sat down with Joumana Nammour at the Athenaeum. Nammour has been called the Katie Couric of Al Jazeera, and has become a celebrity in the Middle East as the network's first female daily news anchor.

Joumana Nammour: Things have changed a lot with the wars. But Al Jazeera brought a new type of coverage to the region, even before Bush. Before, the Arab world was not represented – its perspective was not shown. At the same time, we were the first network in the region to bring Israelis on the air. We covered areas that were not covered before.

Wilner: What would you say your audience is looking to hear about these conflicts?

Nammour: This is funny… “looking to hear.” What they look for and what they hear are often two different things. We show what is there, and what is undeniable truth – like when a photo is taken, or a video is taken, and there is something provable. Sometimes people are looking for their perspective only, and do not hear that from us. And we will cover what happens in under-developed nations, and the politics and conflicts, while the Western networks will not.

Wilner: Now, you say that Western networks don’t cover under-developed nations. But you certainly all cover major conflicts in the region. How would you contrast Al Jazeera’s coverage of these events from that of CNN, say, or the BBC?

Nammour: The wording. We will talk about a resistance, for instance, occurring in Afghanistan – men resisting against an occupier– when other networks will often call them terrorists. Other times we will simply report on things they ignore – like the killing of young children in a small town in Gaza. But we also have our correspondents be from the location they report from. We see this as important. The West calls this bias, but how many Arabs are reporting for CNN in Washington?

Wilner: On wording: during the Israeli campaign in Lebanon in 2006, your network kept a “martyr count.” Don’t you feel this reflects a bias in coverage?

Nammour: I find this strange, because I was in Lebanon at the time. They were asking me: why do you call the Palestinians martyrs, but you do not call us martyrs? So I find it strange that we kept a martyr count then.

Wilner: Well then let’s talk about the word “martyr.” Why is it used to describe all Palestinian deaths?

Nammour: This is one cause that unites the Arabs. It is the Arab cause.

Wilner: But if this is a cause that all Arabs are united behind, doesn’t that mean it is also Al Jazeera’s cause? And what are the implications of that?

Nammour: That is the central question, which I address in my remarks tonight. We ultimately tell the story – we tell what is happening, the truth. But there is also a perspective here. People want to hear… they want them together. Objectivity is relative. Is anyone ever really objective? Is any organization?

Wilner: Okay. And how would you describe Al Jazeera’s portrayal of Israel and the Jewish people?

Photo Credit: Carl Peaslee

Nammour: We report on what the Israeli Army does by looking at the facts. We see children being killed and we will report on it – the worst, when children are dying. Journalism is about reporting death counts, really. Or we find out – with hard facts – that it is using white phosphorus in Gaza. But I cannot think, in my twelve years, of a time when Al Jazeera said anything general about the Israeli people, specifically.

Wilner: You speak of the Gaza campaign, but I was wondering more generally. Did Al Jazeera portray Israel any differently before 2009?

Nammour: No, because before that there was Lebanon, and there were others before that.

Wilner: Okay. And if there was one thing you have learned from covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, what would that be?

Nammour: Bloodshed only leads to more bloodshed. We cannot solve the conflict by fighting through it. But I know Arab governments who have put deals on the table, and their people have yelled, “take that deal back!” And they haven’t. And those deals are still sitting there; they have not been picked up.

Wilner: You have covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan extensively. What would say are some of the challenges covering two campaigns that are viewed so unfavorably in the region?

Nammour: Well the bombing of our bureaus, in both countries. I remember talking to a close coworker who was on a rooftop reporting, very proud – wearing all the gear. Just a few hours later, he was killed. The office was very affected by that – it was personal. But we were all working very hard, and it was difficult, with the circumstances.

Wilner: There clearly was a change of atmosphere at Al Jazeera’s headquarters after the wars began. But how about during 9/11, and in the immediate aftermath?

Nammour: Bush made this very difficult, because he made things very black and white. Suddenly we were either with his decisions or against them. We were put in black and white. And it made things difficult, even before the invasion.

Wilner: Well thank you for joining us, Ms. Nammour, and welcome to Claremont.

Nammour: Thank you.

For more information on this interview and Ms. Nammour’s visit, e-mail forum@ascmc.org.