The process has been long. Rodner’s office began by conducting a survey of alumni and students to evaluate opinions on the College’s logo and broader graphic identity. After receiving feedback that was “good, but not great,” the administration felt justified proceeding with a formal project to change the logo.

Since then, administrators have worked with a graphic designer specializing in university branding – who has created logos for a number of other schools, including several UCs and liberal arts colleges – to create some 25 sample designs, which were recently shared with students in a series of focus groups.

On the current status of the project, President Gann explained that “senior staff, the alumni board, students, the Board of Trustees and administrative staff have all reviewed dozens of concepts. Nothing has been decided, but a lot of options have been eliminated. The field is greatly narrowing down. People seem to be gathering around a more modern iteration of the globe, the book and the scepter.”

Gann also described student reactions as “really positive” and, although she declined to set a deadline, hoped to “conclude the process early summer, or next fall.”

A recent student focus group explored several categories of new designs, emphasizing enhancing the current logo, adapting other logos, revising the typography, and creating new ideas.  The results range from the conservative to the comic.  The most popular were those which hewed closest to the current design, either streamlining the globe/book/scepter design or even leaving it unchanged and only updating the font. At the opposite end of the spectrum was an adaptation of the “Campaign for Claremont McKenna” logo, one in which the CMC acronym was used to form a sun rising over mountains, and one rather clearly inspired by the signature logo of the Obama Campaign.

The administration plans to select a few finalists from the current designs and move on to a final decision soon.

Many students feel that the room draw process is as arbitrary as drawing names from a hat.

In the past, students applied for apartments in groups of four, entering a weighted lotto in with each student was assigned a point value based on his or her number of credits.  This system divided students by semester as well as year, making it nearly impossible to get an apartment if you were a semester behind (or even one class short of completing a semester) without having another member of your apartment balance you out by being a semester ahead.

Under the upcoming system, which the administration plans to announce soon, there will be no more arcane points totals and unforgiving margins of error.  Students will simply be sophomores, juniors, or seniors, aligning the system with that used by the registrar’s office and making it rather more generous in the process.  This system will allow students who are behind academically, even to the point where they will be December graduates the year after their proper graduation date to be counted as members of their entering class for the apartment lotto, benefiting students who took a semester off or otherwise ended up behind in credits.

The committee also considered a scheme in which each member of a group would be assigned an individual lotto number and the group could use the highest of them in consideration for an apartment but it was poorly received by the Deans and abandoned.

The new College Park apartments will be integrated with the revised lotto system.

Although the administration did not disclose many details of the program, Huang commented that, “If students prefer to rent directly from College Park, they may do so provided they sign up to live off-campus next year,” suggesting that students renting from CMC will be subject to the College’s rules, while those renting directly from College Park are on their own. This year, Dean of Students has created a Resident Assistant position at College Park, which serves as a further indication that CMCers living at College Park and renting from CMC will indeed governed by the Basic Rule of Conduct.

Until more details are announced, several questions remain about the impact of this plan. The price of a CMC College Park apartment compared to a dorm room or the Senior Apartments (or even to privately-managed apartments) is still unknown, and students have expressed concern, despite its small scale, about the impact of the new housing on campus life.

Expect updates (or campus-wide emails) on the matter as the story develops and more details are made available.

Ben Kraus, the ASCMC Dorm Affairs Chair, worked to coordinate the efforts, which included the door-to-door visits in the dorms and senior apartments, a dorm challenge with an In-N-Out reward to incentivize donations, and numerous dorm events, while the Community Service Office arranged a pizza party in Claremont Hall to help collect contributions.  If free fast-food is what it takes to make us donate, I guess there are worse things.

Although the original dorm challenge ended on January 31, donations continued to pour in, and the Community Service Office was contacted by an alumnus, Adam Sherman ’09 who offered to match student donations up to $5,000.  Many students also contributed to relief efforts on a personal basis, and Courtney Dern, who works with the CSO, reports that “people who have donated on their own (and have proof of donation) want to see if they can add it to the communal pot to be matched. If that’s the case then we’ll have over $1000 more to add.”  Nevertheless, that leaves CMCers some $1500 more to contribute if we want to squeeze the most out of the matching opportunity, which the CSO hopes to achieve by the end of the month.  The CSO aims to plan one more fundraising event before then, as well as an alumni campaign.  Meanwhile, Ben Kraus and ASCMC today announced another fundraiser– ASCMC will be holding a raffle for an Amazon Kindle, selling tickets outside Collins for $3 each from Wednesday, February 24 through Friday, February 26.  ASCMC also plans to accept donations at the White Party.

Although CMCers’ efforts have been impressive, there have been bumps along the way.  The money raised through ASCMC and the CSO has been raised for Partners in Health, a large health care charity with decades of experience working in Haiti, while Sherman would prefer to see donations made to Fonkoze, a (very CMC sounding) microfinance institution which provides Haiti’s poor with microloans in the hopes of “building the economic foundations of democracy.”

Career Services is currently searching for a replacement and has hired on an interim Assistant Director, Jason Jeffrey, to fill her position. Jeffrey, who will take over the sponsored internship program, starts at CMC on January 11.

After Dean Huang’s interview with (and ultimate decision to decline an offer from) Amherst earlier this semester, not to mention his replacement as Dean of Students by Mary Spellman, Beth Ricca’s departure rounds out something of a tumultuous semester for the administration.

The first of these classes, BIOL 84LJT: Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology, which will be taught by Professor Emily Wiley of the Joint Science Department and Professor Steven Casper of KGI, debuts next semester and promises to “introduce students to molecular concepts and techniques underlying the evolution of genetic engineering for commercial purposes including pharmaceutical development/production, cloning, tissue generation, genetic testing, and biological enhancement.”

These courses will also de-emphasize traditional lab-based study and instead use lecture, discussion, and case-studies in an effort to draw out the connections between policy, economics, and science.  According to Chris Wiedey, CMC’s Director of Foundation & Corporate Relations, the new classes aim to “align more closely with the existing college curriculum, while still presenting fundamental scientific concepts. These courses will not be isolated, compartmentalized components of the curriculum. Instead, we expect them to complement CMC’s demonstrated strengths in economics, government, and public policy.”

One current Joint Science professor, who wishes to remain unnamed, admits that some students can be “adversarial” about their GEs and hopes that “the more concrete idea of showing exactly how scientific thinking affects other fields would help engage otherwise leery students,” and that “anything that would encourage students to take a science course early and of their own volition will ultimately lead to happier outcomes for everyone… excitement and enthusiasm go a long way towards making a course worthwhile… students feeding off of the faculty’s enthusiasm and vice-versa in a feedback loop.”

The scheduled implementation of the new curriculum means that most of us will never experience it, but it represents a not insignificant step in CMC’s ongoing efforts to balance its dual nature as a liberal arts school and a government-econ specialist.

The Search Committee for the Dean of Students, which has solicited applications for the position since Lieber’s decision to step down, has narrowed the number of candidates to four. They include Senior Associate Dean of Student Affairs at Bowdoin College Margaret Hazlett, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at Claremont McKenna College Jefferson Huang, Senior Associate Dean of Students at Amherst Charri Boykin-East and, finally, Dean of Students at Georgetown University Law Center Mitchell Bailin.

“The goal is to have someone as soon as we possibly can [to fill the position],” said Tekla Harms, Professor of Geology and chair of the Search Committee. “One of these four candidates is liable to become our Dean of Students.”

Yesterday, the first of four candidates visited Amherst to meet with faculty, administrators and students. Over the next three weeks, the other three candidates will make similar appearances.

Lieber, Amherst’s current Dean of Students, actually sought to step down last year but the college could not find a suitable replacement in time and he agreed to stay on until one could be found.  Considering Lieber’s rush to leave, we can only imagine that if Huang is chosen he will be expected to start very soon.  According to the Student, Huang is planning to visit Amherst in the next few weeks.  With tough competition from Georgetown, Amherst, and an internal applicant however, we may not be saying goodbye to Huang just yet, something he emphasized when The Forum reached him for comment,

I get calls like this fairly frequently; just yesterday, I was contacted by a headhunter for the Dean of Students position at Swarthmore College, who said I had been recommended by someone else for the position. I’ve been asked to apply for similar positions at Yale, Brown, Rice, and others. Each time, my answer has been, “No, thanks.” I’m happy at CMC, and was not actively looking to make a move.

I felt that Amherst’s position was worth taking a look at for personal reasons. I have family in Massachusetts, and I spent several of my summers during college living on the campus of Amherst, working as a summer RA. So I decided to talk to them about the position.

I wouldn’t get too worried or excited (whichever it may be) about my potentially leaving CMC at this point.

No news right now as to what CMC’s administration would do should we lose Dean Huang.

CMC also rakes in three Bs, the explanations for which seem rooted in all the methodological rigor of a third grade science fair.  Key factoids include the distribution of sustainability information during orientation, the board of trustees’ “Beliefs and Principles” document in support of a bike-friendly campus, our four buildings with low flow toilets (actually dual-flush toilets that seem to do high flow no matter which way you flip the handle), and the installation of Claremont Hall’s insanely annoying ecofriendly lights.  You know, the ones half the dorm leaves on 18 hours a day because we hate waiting 15 minutes for them to warm up.

Then there are two Cs (Administration and Climate Change & Energy) and an F (Endowment Transparency).  God only knows what endowment transparency has to do with being green but a few random clicks couldn’t find any schools with a score better than a C besides Mudd and frankly, who cares?  There’s no explanation for the two Cs (the blurbs instead focus on the positive aspects, presumably to keep our spirits up) but they sound important so I knew what to do– compare them to Pomona’s scores!

Turns out Pomona got an A- overall (one of 26 nationwide) with a B in Administration and and A in Climate Change.  Torn between my fathomless apathy towards the environment and competitive instinct towards Pomona, I figured we had to at least be beating one of the five Cs.  Turns out we are!  Scripps got a C- overall, Mudd a B-, and Pitzer, no doubt driven to conceal the terrible secret of their environmental hypocrisy (or too high to fill out the forms) wasn’t even listed.

Considering the report card’s methodology I guess we can look forward to endless new “green” features that nobody actually wants or uses for the sake of climbing the rankings.

Through a generous gift from the Bon Appetit Management Company, we will begin issuing one free container to every CMC student who is on a board plan. Distribution will be next week in Collins. The container we selected is currently in use at Pitzer College.

Free containers! We go to the best school ever! Free containers!  Incidentally, since we’ll be using the same containers as Pitzer, I suspect we might be able to use them at both cafeterias (unless insidious measures are devised to stop us).  As for why Bon Appetit was so eager to give us free containers, the administration explained that Bon Appetit’s greater buying power, “circle of responsibility” philosophy, and hopes of creating a prototypical green cafeteria for their marketing plans came on like a rush of generosity.

When I shared the news with students, reactions ranged from joyous to mysterious.  Elise Viebeck ’10 described it as “lifechanging,” while Abhi Nemani ’10 warned me that “freedom isn’t free.”  Wade Vaughan ’13 said what I actually wanted to hear: “two thumbs up!”  Share your thoughts below.

More than a few minutes of the debate were devoted to a discussion of science’s place in a liberal arts curriculum.  Although nobody mentioned that the only science to make it into the traditional liberal arts was astronomy, it was a subject that hit close to home for me.  Ilan Wurman (supported by other members of our campus’s conservative cabal) argued that if CMC grads are to be truly well-rounded in the liberal arts tradition, then they should actually study actual science, rather than watered down “theme” courses.  What Ilan said was that we shouldn’t be studying Energy and the Environment or the Living Sea.  He went on to say that we should not be studying East Asian Feminist Cultures or the Experiences of Slave Women.  What Ilan was trying to say is “we shouldn’t be studying bullshit.”  I won’t attempt to judge the merits of feminist, ethnic, or any other niche history course, but his suggestion that they do not jibe with the goals of a liberal arts education is well taken.

Ilan’s attack on the bullshit sciences established a false dichotomy between science courses for majors and pointless thematic courses for nonmajors.  The fact of the matter is that five minutes years from now, I will not remember how to model a chemical reaction if I take O Chem.  Liberal arts is not about the specific facts you learn.  What Ilan was advocating was a multidisciplinary technical education.

Now back to that anonymous texts thing: I sent something like 30 texts (and at least half of them made it past Peaslee’s exacting censor), one of which was “great ideas in science is liberal arts as hell.”  Regrettably, none of our debaters understood me or took me seriously.  There is one Joint Sciences class which is in fact “liberal arts as hell”– PHYS 77L, Great Ideas in Science.  The course introduces students to the type of scientific issues they read about in books and magazines: quantum physics, genetics, global warming, and the like.  It does so as a means of teaching them how to think like a scientist.  The course yields skills that will last long after I forget the basic Newtonian math it taught me, namely how to read and parse scientific papers and discourse with scientists on their own territory if not on an even footing.

The Living Sea is not a science in the liberal arts tradition, but neither is Introductory Physics.  Great Ideas in Science captures the essence of a liberal arts college and translates it into science.  Were every CMC student taught it as a freshman alongside their Freshmen Humanities Seminar (FHS), perhaps we would have a greater appreciation of the sciences’ role in the liberal arts.

I hear there’s already change afloat on this matter– we got a grant to have better science for nonscience major courses.  Switching gears from Debate Night and the liberal arts, I’ll be covering the changes in science courses next week.