Photo Credit: Jessica Dang

On Thursday, February 2, the Forum and the Claremont Port Side sat down with Claremont McKenna College President Pamela Gann to discuss the recent SAT reporting scandal.

President Gann began the discussion by emphasizing honesty, integrity and the core values of the college. Gann felt it was important “to recognize all of the historical work of prior leaders within the college that makes this community what it is.”

The College’s overarching goal was to get to the “root of the problem.” Gann stated that, “there was never a question that we would be forthcoming” about the falsified SAT data. The College wanted to be open and transparent in their findings and get the information out “quickly but accurately.”

Gann went on to explain the chronology of recent events and how the falsely reported data first came to her attention. On January 9, an unnamed source from within the college approached President Gann and raised a question about the accuracy of the SAT data for CMC’s 2011 incoming class.

That day, Gann asked Vice President and Dean Emeritus Jerome Garris to look into the questions raised about the SAT scores. Gann noted that Garris is a man of unquestionable integrity. Over two weeks later, on January 24, Gann sent an email to Garris to check-in on the investigation. She awoke on Wednesday morning, January 25, to an email from Garris. The email included news that someone within the Office of Admission had confessed to falsely reporting SAT data since 2005.

President Gann was in disbelief when she first heard the news.

Richard C. Vos, former Vice President & Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, is widely assumed to be at fault and resigned on Monday after news of the scandal was made public.

On the morning of January 25, Gann immediately notified Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Harry McMahon ‘75, of Garris’ findings. McMahon formed a small working group of board members that met later that day by phone. McMahon, the Board of Trustees, and Gann worked in parallel through this process. “The board was totally in sync with us as we did our work,” said Gann. Gann then held an executive committee meeting over the phone on Thursday and a full meeting of the board on Friday.

Early Monday morning, January 30, the college began telephoning all entities to which the affected data was reported and informing them of the falsified data. At 9:00 AM, Gann met with her senior staff to inform them of the news, and at 10:00 AM, she met with the Office of Admissions and Financial Aid staff. Gann’s email was sent at 11:00 AM to all students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents of current students.

Soon after, Gann informed this year’s Early Decision I applicants—those who had already received notification of their binding admission—and Early Decision II applicants about the falsification of SAT scores.

On Wednesday, February 1, the college formally released the corrected data and sent it to outside agencies, including the New York Times, the LA Times, the college’s auditors, Moody’s Investors Service and other interested parties. The corrected data has not been sent to all entities, but the college hopes to finish their distribution by the end of the day.

Photo Credit: Jessica Dang

Gann emphasized the important distinction between data construction and data reporting. Data construction, she explained, is the way in which the college compiles the data internally. Applicants often take the SATs and the ACTs more than once, and all scores are sent to the college. Like many of its peer institutions, Claremont McKenna takes an applicant’s highest critical reading and highest math score to create the combined SAT score used for the college’s admission decision. If a student’s ACT score is higher than his or her SAT score, the former score is used in the admission process.

Gann explained that now, nearly fifteen to sixteen percent of applicants only submit ACT scores to the college. Since a higher ACT score can trump the SAT score, Gann said, “There will not be an SAT score for every student.”

Data reporting, she explained, is the way in which the college’s admissions data is presented to outside entities. According to Gann, the manipulation of SAT score data was an issue of data reporting and not data construction.

“As far as we know,” said Gann, “there was no falsification of data construction.”

Gann noted two main reasons for how the data could have been misreported for over six years. First, she said, “a sole person had too much authority over the reporting of data.” Gann admitted that there was “no internal checks and balances system in place” when the senior administrator was falsifying reports of the data.

Second, the reported SAT scores “did not trigger suspicion,” said Gann. Gann explained that the data were relatively flat, and “the falsified numbers were almost the same every year.” Nothing in the data raised any suspicions amongst those who saw it.

Citing personnel matters, protected by California privacy law, Gann could not comment on the former senior administrator’s motivation behind fudging the numbers. She also could not comment on whether the person responsible was asked to resign and whether there was a resignation letter.

President Gann has said the college will move forward next week with an independent review conducted by the law firm O’Melveny & Myers and led by the Board of Trustees. Gann emphasized that no one from within the college can be responsible for leading the independent review as it would be an obvious conflict of interest.

Though she can’t predict when the review will be completed, Gann said she hoped it would be finished quickly. The findings of the independent review will only be made public if the Board of Trustees chooses to do so. Although the college has no reason to believe that other data has been falsely reported, the independent investigation will look at data before 2005.

Photo Credit: Jessica Dang

Gann believes the college acted quickly and “used good governance” to address the root of the problem and manage the situation. Gann asserts that the College has “been very prompt, open, and honest” in its handling of the issue.

While some students have expressed frustration with the minimal communication from Gann and the college administration, Gann emphasized that her plan of action thus far has prioritized (1) obtaining the right information and (2) getting the correct information out to the appropriate agencies. Now, she said, the college is in the midst of her third objective—to repair the trust of the community—and will continue to reach out and inform students as best it can.

Gann thought going to student publications such as the Forum and the Claremont Port Side was more effective than immediately holding a town hall-style meeting. However, Gann has been present in college dealings over the past week. She attended a senior class reception on Tuesday evening, appearing at a Board of Trustees meeting breakfast with students, and may appear alongside Vice President of Public Affairs Max Benavidez on Monday evening at the ASCMC Senate meeting.

President Gann could not speculate on how this incident will impact CMC’s rankings in the future. On NPR’s All Things Considered, Robert Morse, director of data research for U.S. News and World Report, indicated that the dip in scores is likely to have only a small effect on the ranking. “It’s certainly not going to drop the school to twentieth place,” said Morse, “but I guess there’s some chance that it could drop out of the top ten.”

President Gann added that she does not see any data that suggests rankings drive a student’s decision to go to a college. “The primary reason that students come here is the high quality education and the academic program is a good fit for them,” said Gann. She continues, “rankings and guides are only part of the process.”

Many believe that rankings played a role in causing this incident. Gann stated that the Office of Admission has no explicit goals for SAT scores. “Our aspiration is to have a talented student body,” said Gann, “and SAT scores are a part of that.”

In 2002, the Board of Trustees adopted a general policy statement to guide the admissions office on shaping incoming classes. Some considerations include leadership, diversity, and support for co-curricular programs. According to Gann, one change in this policy since the beginning of her presidency was to increase the number of international students.

Despite the recent SAT score incident, President Gann believes that Claremont McKenna remains a strong institution. “We have wonderful students, wonderful faculty, and I’m very proud of this college,” she said.

Gann hopes that this unfortunate incident will also become a learning experience for students. She explained that the past week has been an excellent lesson in “crisis leadership.” Gann stated that, “lapses in leadership are where you learn the most.”

Updates: February 2, 2012 at 3:14pm

Since the incident first came to light, the college has taken a number of steps to ensure that this will never happen again.  Before any data is released from the Admissions office, two Vice Presidents in different areas of the college, that have no authority in the Office of Admission, must sign off on the data.  President Gann believes this method should be extended for all data reporting at the college. Vice President for Administration and Planning, General Counsel, and Secretary of the College, Matthew Bibbens, and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty, Gregory Hess, signed off on the corrected SAT score data before it was released yesterday. President Gann also signed off on the SAT data.

Heath Hyatt ’12, Caroline Nyce ’13, and Nathan Falk ’14 contributed reporting.

Editor’s note. This article was updated on February 2 at 2:37pm. The original article stated that a senior administrator had “falsified reporting” of SAT data since 2005. The updated article clarifies and states the administrator confessed to “falsely reporting” the data.

On campus, the Forum broke the news of President Gann’s email concerning the fudged reports and compared a google cache of the Office of Admission webpage to its current page, and later highlighted former Dean Vos’ resignation. On Wednesday afternoon, the Forum publicized an official statement from CMC’s student government, ASCMC. Nationally, The New York Times and The LA Times were among those to first pick up the story, offering background on the events of the incident, including the score falsification, Richard Vos’ resignation, President Gann’s email to students, and the move to hire a law firm to investigate the matter more fully.

Photo Courtesy of CNN

A variety of reports have concluded that the college’s rankings will only be mildly affected, if at all.  CNN reported that according to U.S. News and World Report, SAT scores “account for about 7.5% of a school’s total score in the formula.”  In an interview with NPR, Robert Morse, the director of data research for U.S. News, speculated that while the score change wouldn’t have dire effects on the college’s ranking, it could likely drop out of the top ten.

USA TODAY interviewed Robert Franek, the senior vice president of publishing for The Princeton Review who stated that “he had never heard of a college intentionally reporting incorrect data.” However, Franek also told the Forum that he didn’t believe the score inflation would make a real difference in CMC’s standing with the Princeton Review, as their reviews are based entirely on student opinion.

Rankings aside, the Claremont Port Side conducted an in-depth investigation into how much the scores had been altered to create an upward trend in scoring. Reporter Jeremy B. Merrill ’12 published graphs which reveal critical reading scores were inflated by “an average of more than 17 points,” suggesting the score manipulation was more drastic than President Gann had originally suggested. Merrill reported an elevated mean during the past years to cover up a dip in scores and the fact that, “the freshmen admitted in 2011 — the class of 2015 — had mean Critical Reading scores that were the lowest since the class admitted in 2007.”

TIME magazine’s online newsfeed was sympathetic to CMC and criticized the rankings system for putting undue pressure on colleges to present a flawless face.  The Chronicle of Higher Education also reported on the competitive world of admissions and gave examples of several colleges in similar circumstances.  The article concluded by reaffirming, “We also maintain the belief that the system is fair and honest, and try to head off the cynicism that our families could easily adopt by viewing college admission as a rigged game of numbers and self-interest.”

As for the man responsible, The New York Times also confirmed that it was in fact Richard C. Vos the former Vice President and Dean of Admission and quoted him as saying, “No comment. It’s an internal personnel matter.”

The New York Times Education Section spent time on campus for an article entitled “Students at Claremont McKenna More Worried About Reputation Than Rankings” interviewing students who generally agreed that although the score adjustment was regrettable, it did not reflect negatively on their fellow students. Most students echoed senior Blake Bennett’s sentiment, “It’s still a great school. I just wish this wasn’t why it was getting headlines.”

ABC News reported on campus in front of the Kravis Center, gathering footage of sweatshirt-clad CMC students as a background to its report on the recent controversy.  More recently, ABC News reported that a spokesman for CMC, Associate Vice President for Public Affairs, Communications and Marketing, Max Benavidez, stated “We’re not hiding anything,” he said. “We’re the ones volunteering to tell people what took place and what we’re doing to fix it.”  The report also quoted Aditya Pai ’11, ASCMC Vice President, as saying, “[Vos’s] actions do not reflect the strength of our community, the excellence of our education, or the caliber of our people.”

Students continued to ask for answers as Nathan Falk ’14 called for a further explanation from the administration. “Only shedding light on the issue will bring us closure,” Falk said in his Forum op-ed.

In a positive take on recent events, Caroline Nyce ’13 defended her college and its community in another Forum op-ed published Wednesday morning. Nyce wrote, “The CMC they’re writing about? That’s not my school.”

The degree to which scores were doctored varied by year. SAT data obtained from the college’s “factbooks,” assembled yearly by the Office of Institutional Research, show the difference in reported and actual scores. In 2009, for example, the median critical reading score was 680 while the factbook shows a median of 700 for that year. The scores, which are calculated by ranges (e.g., 650-690 or 700-740), were exaggerated to bump up individual student scores to the next highest bracket.

Photo credit: hhsprincipalsoffice.wordpress.com

The corrected data also shows evidence of effectively hiding students who scored lowest on the exam. Between 2004 and 2011, eight students had scored below 500 on verbal/critical reading, and only one was reported.

Ranked the ninth-best liberal arts college in the country by U.S. News and World Report, Claremont McKenna is among the most selective liberal arts institutions in the country. Though the changes to the data were slight, the corrected data may affect the college’s ranking.

Rob Franek, author of The Best 376 Colleges and Senior Vice President of Publishing at the Princeton Review, spoke with the Forum and doesn’t expect the misreported SAT scores to affect CMC’s rankings in the publication.

Rankings in the Princeton Review are based entirely on student reviews, said Franek, and they are not likely to change because of the newly corrected SAT scores. More likely, Franek believes this incident will force institutions of higher education to ask, “Why is there such a frenzy around testing?”

The conversation, says Franek, will be less about the story surrounding Claremont McKenna and more about ”the story around the increased attention to the SAT and ACT, how important it is to the admissions process, and how important it is to report those numbers honestly. I think that’s where the discussion is going to go.”

On NPR’s All Things Considered, Robert Morse, director of data research for U.S. News and World Report, indicated that the dip in scores is likely to have only a small effect on the ranking. “It’s certainly not going to drop the school to twentieth place,” said Morse, “but I guess there’s some chance that it could drop out of the top ten.”

President Pamela Gann first announced the discovery of falsely reported data on Monday morning in an email message. Richard C. Vos, former Vice President & Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, has since resigned. Georgette DeVeres, a longtime employee of the college and member of President Gann’s senior staff, was appointed interim head of admissions yesterday afternoon.

The revelation of the fudged SAT scores has triggered dialogue amongst Claremont McKenna students. Some believe the error at the Office of Admissions is symptomatic of an obsession with college rankings, and others are calling for more transparency in the administration’s handling of the incident. Still others assert that the recent news is in no way a reflection on the college culture, students, or faculty.

The Forum has been tracking student reactions and will continue to do so as the story progresses.

Former Vice President & Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Richard ‘Dick’ Vos resigned on Monday following the news of an SAT reporting scandal, in which a senior administrator at the college’s Office of Admission confessed to fudging the school’s SAT scores since 2005. Though the admissions administrator has yet to be named by the college, Max Benavidez, the Vice President of Public Affairs, Communications, and Marketing, has confirmed that the person responsible has resigned.

Georgette DeVeres, Photo Credit: CMC Public Affairs and Communications

Ms. DeVeres, a member of the college’s Senior Staff at the Office of the President, has worked at CMC since 1983. She has served nine years as a Trustee of the College Board and two years as the chairperson of its Board of Trustees. Ms. DeVeres currently serves on the Reauthorization Task Force of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA), an organization responsible for ‘reauthorizing’ financial assistance funds granted to major federal student aid programs by the Higher Education Act of 1965.

In 2005, Ms. DeVeres was featured in the Spring issue of CMC Magazine and discussed her career as director of Financial Aid at CMC and her work with the College Board, including the change in the SAT format earlier that year. The new test added an essay component to the critical reading and math sections of the exam, bringing the highest possible combined score of 1600 to 2400.

The article mentions former Dean of Admission Richard Vos’ praise for Ms. DeVeres, citing Ms. DeVeres as having “the knack for inspiring confidence in the people around her, as well as an ability to bring out the best in those who work with her.”

Linda Clement, vice president for student affairs at the University of Maryland and past College Board chair, also praises Ms. DeVeres in the 2005 article, noting, “All of the College Board Trustees have enormous respect for Georgette.”

Clement goes on to say that Ms. DeVeres “brings to the task tremendous experience, an outstanding level of commitment to students and their families, and an understanding of complex political issues.”

The email announcement from President Gann regarding Ms. Deveres has been reproduced below. Check back with the Forum for continuing coverage of the SAT scandal and the resignation of Richard Vos.

Dear CMC Community,

I am pleased to announce that effective today Georgette DeVeres, Associate Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid, will become the interim head of the College’s Admission and Financial Aid Office. She has worked at Claremont McKenna College since 1983, and is a member of my senior staff. Georgette is well-respected and nationally known within the admission and financial aid professions. She served nine years as a Trustee of the College Board, and served two years as the chairperson of its Board of Trustees.  Georgette received a Distinguished Leadership Award from the Western Region of the College Board. Presently, she serves on the Reauthorization Task Force of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Georgette is an honorary member of the CMC Alumni Association, in recognition of her many years of service to the College. I look forward to continuing our work together.

Sincerely,
Pamela B. Gann, President

A report from the Chronicle of Higher Education noted that Max Benavidez, Associate Vice President for Public Affairs, Communications, and Marketing, “confirmed that Mr. Vos is no longer employed by the college.”

Former Dean Richard "Dick" Vos

Mr. Vos’s resignation followed an email message sent yesterday, Monday, January 30, to the CMC community from President Pamela Gann. In the memo sent to students, faculty, alumni, and others close to the college, President Gann stated that “a senior administrator” at the college had taken sole responsibility for falsifying SAT statistics since 2005.

SAT scores on the critical reading and math sections of the test were “generally inflated by an average of 10-20 points each,” according to President Gann’s message. The most recent scores for the fall 2010 class given to publications like U.S. News and World Report reported an inaccurate 75th percentile score of 1,510 when the actual score should have been 1,480.

In a Tuesday morning meeting with the Forum, Mr. Benavidez confirmed that someone from within the college informed President Gann of the fudged SAT reports.

“This only came to our attention this month, in January,” said Mr. Benavidez. “It’s still January, and the matter has been resolved, in the sense that the person who took sole responsibility stepped forward, resigned, and is no longer with the college.”

Mr. Benavidez confirmed that the college engaged in the outside legal counsel of O’Melveny & Myers and believes the firm was brought in as of last week.

The news has propelled the college into the national spotlight, gaining attention from CNN, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Benavidez also made a statement to the Forum over the phone on Tuesday morning, stating that, “We moved quickly, took care of the matter, and now we’re fixing it. That’s what people have to focus on.”

The last official piece of news from the college was President Gann’s email memo sent at 11:42 AM on Monday morning, and the school is awaiting further developments.

According to Mr. Benavidez, the school plans to announce the next head of the admissions office in the near future, now that Mr. Vos has resigned. Mr. Benavidez could not provide any additional details on this announcement.

“We had the facts before us and took care of it,” said Mr. Benavidez. “We are taking care of business. The data are being corrected as we speak.”

The new SAT data, once corrected, will be posted on CMC’s website and sent to “all the agencies such as US News & World Report that receive this information,” noted Mr. Benavidez.

The actions on the part of the school to handle the matter have elicited responses from alumni and others outside of the school who, according to Mr. Benavidez, appreciate the swiftness of the response and believe it shows the integrity of the college.

The Forum‘s attempts on Tuesday morning to contact the Dean of Students Office and the Office of Admission for comment were unsuccessful.

Upon receiving reports of misreported SAT scores for the fall 2011 entering class, President Gann and the Office of Institutional Research conducted a further investigation into the reporting practices of the Office of Admission, which revealed varied inaccuracies in the reporting of SAT scores for past classes. Statistics for the fall 2010 class were the most recent to be reported publicly, and the investigation revealed the inflation of a combined median score of 1,400 to 1,410.

In her email, President Gann noted that, “while overall statistics were manipulated, we do not have reason to believe any student’s individual score was altered.”

The Forum has reproduced President Gann’s email below. We welcome and encourage your reactions to the news. Please check back with the Forum as it continues its coverage of the incident and as new information comes to light.

January 30, 2012

Members of the Claremont McKenna College Community,

I am writing to inform you about an important matter related to the accuracy of the Office of Admission’s reporting of admission data.

Earlier this month, I received information from within the College that the Office of Admission had reported inaccurate SAT statistics for the fall 2011 entering class. Upon receiving this information, I asked Jerome Garris, Vice President and Dean Emeritus, to conduct a review of this issue in coordination with the Office of Institutional Research. During Dean Garris’ review of this matter, a senior administrator in the Office of Admission disclosed that he had been solely responsible for falsely reporting SAT statistics since 2005.

Although the degree of inaccuracies varied over time, we understand that the reported critical reading and/or math SAT scores were generally inflated by an average of 10-20 points each. For the fall 2010 class, which is the most recent year that has been reported generally to the public, the individual reported a combined median of 1,410 when the actual should have been 1,400, and reported a 75th percentile score of 1,510 when the actual should have been 1,480. It is also important to note that, while overall statistics were manipulated, we do not have reason to believe any student’s individual score was altered. 

As an institution of higher education with a deep and consistent commitment to the integrity of all our academic activities, and particularly our reporting of institutional data, we take this situation very seriously.  I have therefore initiated a series of actions to respond to this matter. First, the individual has taken full responsibility and has resigned his position from the College effective immediately. At this time, we have no reason to believe that other individuals were involved. If we learn otherwise, we will take prompt and appropriate action.

Second, we have engaged outside legal counsel from O’Melveny & Myers to complete an independent review of our admission-related data processes. In addition, we are contacting and cooperating with external groups that may have received erroneous information to provide corrected data. Finally, we are reviewing our internal data gathering and reporting processes and will strengthen them to ensure that this type of conduct will not occur in the future.

While I am sorry to report this to you, I remain deeply committed to ensuring that Claremont McKenna will respond to this matter in a manner that is accurate, honest, and that will reflect the longstanding integrity of our great college.

Sincerely,
Pamela B. Gann, President

UPDATES, Monday, January 30

A comparison of the Office of Admission’s current webpage titled “Admission Staff Members” and the same page’s Google cache as of 7:42 PM on Saturday, January 28 reveals that the biography and contact information for Vice President and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid Richard “Dick” Vos has been removed. The change can be seen in the screenshots pictured below.

Google Cache from January 28 (left) and current webpage from January 30 (right)

Henry Kravis ‘67 knows a thing or two about Claremont McKenna College’s oft-heard tagline “leaders in the making.” As co-founder of the international private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Mr. Kravis has built a multi-billion dollar empire and made serious waves in the business world.

Mr. Kravis is among CMC’s greatest benefactors and most recently, contributed the funds for the new Kravis Center facility located on the westernmost part of campus. The $80 million building is the largest on CMC’s campus and houses faculty offices, classrooms, and a much-needed underground parking structure. The Kravis Center also unites five of CMC’s touted research institutes under one roof.

Three years after breaking ground, CMC celebrated the opening of the Kravis Center on Friday, October 21, 2011. As part of the convocation ceremonies, Mr. Kravis spoke with Tova Markowitz ’12 and Heath Hyatt ’12 at an Athenaeum luncheon. Mr. Kravis discussed lessons learned as a major corporate figure at KKR and emphasized the importance of a liberal arts education in today’s globalized world. In his opinion, successful CEOs are those that can innovate to adapt to a changing world and shifting markets. “There are very few companies today that aren’t somehow affected by what’s going on in the rest of the world,” said Mr. Kravis.

Below is a video recording of Mr. Kravis’s visit to the Athenaeum. The video also appears on CMC’s website.

Conversation with Henry Kravis ’67 from Claremont McKenna College on Vimeo.

CMC plans on accepting fewer than 600 of these applicants in order to avoid housing shortages. According to their calculations, this would place CMC’s acceptance rate for next year at just 11.7%. The admission rate for the Class of 2015was 13.8%.  CMC could be the most, or one of the most, selective liberal arts colleges in the nation.

Photo by Karan Malik

Last year, Pomona College just barely beat out CMC’s 2015 acceptance rate with 13.6% admittance but, as early reports indicate, growth in Pomona’s number of applications has essentially remained flat. The Office of Admissions also pointed out that Amherst college, last year’s most selective liberal arts college in the nation, had an acceptance rate of 12.8%. Swarthmore College admitted just under 15% of its applicants to the Class of 2015.  Williams College, the top liberal arts college in the nation, announced a 17% admission rate in 2011.

Over the past few years, CMC’s acceptance rate has been plummeting, and this year is a good sign that we might see that trend continue. In 2010, the school accepted 17.2% of applicants, and last year, when 4,481 applied to be a part of the class of 2015, the acceptance rate fell to 13.8%.  If those were great years, the next one may be amazing.

CMC benefits from a dropping acceptance rate. Although the administration may have to say no to more potential Stags and Athenas, increased selectivity will hopefully produce a stronger freshman class, composed of great students and promising leaders. This is just one more sign pointing to a bright future for CMC.  As it continues to grow more selective and appears higher and higher in the rankings each year, it will draw more attention from all corners of the country.  That means more public interest, more renown, and, hopefully, the end of that “I swear it’s not a community college” conversation for non-Californians.

For students here at CMC, there isn’t any doubt that we are attending one of the best school’s in the country. With any luck, this unprecedented admittance rate will force others to take notice as well. For anybody interested in watching CMC take its proper place at the forefront of America’s elite colleges, the Office of Admissions’ announcement is great news.

The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) is seeking highly qualified students to participate in their alternative spring break trips from March 10-17, 2012. There will be two separate trips: a domestic trip to Johnson City, Tennessee, and an international trip in Costa Rica. The CCE will partner with existing organizations working to meet the needs of the communities that they serve. These trips are designed to provide students with the opportunity to work in partnership with community members on a particular project, as well as to participate in a cultural exchange.

Those participating in the domestic trip will be helping to rebuild and renovate low-income housing, while the students going on the international trip will work with communities surrounding the village of Mastatal. Check out some more info here. CCE Director Amy Bibbens encourages students to apply and says that “the Alternative Spring Break trips will enable students to have an enriching service experience during the Spring Break period while creating a positive impact on a community, both domestically and abroad.”

Students wishing to be chosen for either trip must fill out a written application and may be selected for an interview. These applications have been emailed to students and are available for download on the CCE website. If you are accepted for the trip, Bibbens promises a quick turnaround of required paperwork, leaving students enough time to purchase their plane tickets.

The trips are open to all on-campus CMC students and require those participating to attend mandatory pre-trip meetings, complete a short outside reading assignment, participate in post-trip campus research and have a passport and visa valid until October 2012 (international trip only). The CCE will cover all costs including flight, lodging, most meals, insurance, and ground transportation.

All those interested should take a look at the application here! But be quick, applications are due this Thursday, January 19th!

Questions? Contact the Center for Civic Engagement at cce@cmc.edu

Monica Cason is a sophomore at CMC and works for the Center for Civic Engagement

“I have heard a lot of frustration from several students who find the spaces available to be too crowded or limited in hours,” said Mao. “The spaces in the proposal are ones where students should have increased access. Several other institutions allow 24-hour access to classrooms and a 24-hour library space. We’re a top academic institution, but lack these qualities of our peers.”

The SSTF submitted a proposal on Tuesday, December 6, to Dean Jefferson Huang, Vice President for Student Affairs, and Dean Gregory Hess, Vice President for Academic Affairs, which suggests how study spaces on campus can serve to satisfy what they identify as six primary student needs: a 24-hour (1) individual study space, (2) group meeting space, (3) group study space, (4) computer lab space, (5) outdoor space and (6) an informal gathering space.

Photo Credit: David Leathers

Identifying and detailing the proposed use of six spaces–the Hub, Frazee, the Living Room, the Kravis Center terraces, classrooms and the Crocker Reading Room–the proposal seeks to ameliorate the difficulties CMC students have recently encountered with procuring appropriate study spaces. The SSTF also suggests measures to increase the efficiency of printing in computer labs and ways to increase the availability of information to the CMC student body regarding hours of the study spaces.

The proposal recognizes the advancements made in the Hub over the past year, but points out that it is not being fully utilized by the student body. The Hub is most often used during the weekdays, when students can get meal replacements, snacks or socialize with friends. But, as the Hub grill only serves food after 8pm on weekends, the space is nearly empty for much of the day, excluding mealtimes. Thus, in the short-term, the proposal suggests that an expansion in the hours of operation would lead to students making better use of the Hub over the weekends as an informal hangout space. In the long term, the proposal suggests that the Hub should be accessible to students 24-hours a day through key-card access. Furthermore, as the Hub lags significantly in terms of food and aesthetics in comparison to its counterparts across the five colleges, the proposal suggests renovating the Hub as part of next summer’s North Mall Renovation Project.

In its proposal, the SSTF questions the effectiveness of Frazee, the newly created study space on campus, in creating a comfortable and suitable study environment for CMC students. In particular, the proposal sites the ‘chair room’–the room adjacent to the Hub Store–as an inconvenient answer to increased study space. In the short-term, the proposal suggests the conversion of the ‘chair-room’ into a 24-hour conference room for students by removing all the chairs and adding a table. The SSTF suggests that with this change, the room would be more useful as a group meeting space or a group study space. The long-term proposal suggests the elimination of the walls between Frazee’s two rooms to create a much bigger study space.

The Living Room does not currently serve as an appropriate study or a lounge space as the tables are too short for studying to take place and limited access to the building itself prevents students from taking full advantage of its resources. The proposal suggests that it is necessary to increase the accessibility of the room to 24-hours a day.

The SSTF also cites limited access to the Kravis Center terraces as seriously inconveniencing students and preventing use of the space for group meetings, group studying, or more social student interactions. The proposal suggests that day-time access to the second and the third floors should be granted to students every day of the week. ID card readers and security cameras will ensure that students are safe and treat the building respectfully.

According to their proposal, the SSTF assert that there is no group study space on campus where group collaboration can take place. The library and the reading room have restrictive noise rules, making them excellent places for peaceful studying but less great for rowdy meetings. Meanwhile the dorm lounges and the Hub are too noisy. The proposal suggests that classrooms in Kravis Center, Roberts, and Bauer be available for students to work in a group after-class hours. Currently, the Dean of Students Mary Spellman and Registrar Elizabeth Morgan are looking into this while Assistant Dean of Students Eric Vos and Dean Huang are also looking into the matter.

The Crocker Reading Room does a good job of providing a quiet, individual study space to students. The proposal suggests that the Presidential Collection on the second floor be moved elsewhere in order to allow for an extension of hours and access to the reading room. By moving the collection, students would be able to appreciate the collection at a more secure place and there would be no need for student monitors outside the room. The monitors could be reallocated to supervise the Ducey weight room, which would ensure that the student monitors are still employed. The proposal highlights this particular recommendation as it has a few costs for the college, with many benefits for the students.

To the SSTF, printing remains the main problem in the computer labs. Many students rely on the availability of computers at labs like Poppa in order to quickly print reading and study materials; more often than not, however, students arrive at a lab only to find that no computers are available for a simple print job. The proposal notes that these circumstances lead to one of two things: students leave unsuccessfully or interrupt students already at work. To remedy the problem, the proposal suggests the creation of 1-2 ‘printing stations’ in Poppa lab – computers designated for students who come in solely to print. This would solve the problem by allowing students to get in and out quickly, while preventing any additional equipment from being added to the lab.

Perhaps most important in the SSTF’s recent proposal is what they cite as the underlying reason for why the Kravis Technology Classroom or Frazee are underutilized: a general lack of communication. The proposal seeks to address the communication gap between students and the administration and suggests that the “Student Gateway” page of the CMC website include a detailed list of study spaces with availability and hours of operation.  Rather than sending out school-wide emails regarding the hours for a particular study space, the information could be consolidated in an easily accessible and readily available format on the school’s website.

SSTF hopes that with their proposal comes a marked change in how the CMC administration will assess and evaluate the existing–and potential–study spaces on campus. It is clear that procuring appropriate study space for college students is a high priority issue, and the SSTF hopes that their initiative will draw the attention of both administration officials and the CMC student body to this reality.

The full text of the proposal is here.