According to her email, Gann will be taking a year’s leave during the 2013-2014 academic year before returning to CMC for the 2014-2015 academic year as a Professor of Legal Studies. During her final year as President, Gann says she intend to focus on “completing The Campaign for Claremont McKenna and be involved with moving forward several building projects, as well as the recruitment of our exceptional faculty and students.”

The email was sent to the student body on May 15, 2012. It was accompanied by a letter by Harry McMahon, President of the Board of Trustees, thanking President Gann for her service. Gann’s email is reproduced below.

May 15, 2012

Dear Members of the CMC Community,

About a year ago, I discussed with Harry McMahon, the Chair of the CMC Board of Trustees, my intention to step down as your President upon the completion of The Campaign for Claremont McKenna, as well as my interest in returning to teaching. It has recently become clear that our highly successful Campaign will wrap-up next year, so it feels like the time is right for the College and for me, personally, to move forward with a leadership transition. I therefore officially notified the Trustees at their meeting last Saturday of my plan to step down as your President on June 30, 2013, following 14 years of service. I write now to inform you of this decision, and to thank you for the privilege and honor of serving as the President of this splendid institution.

Leadership changes are healthy for all organizations, and they provide an opportunity for the community to come together to reflect seriously and intelligently upon its future. This leadership change will also come at a time when the College is well positioned to attract an exceptional new President.

I am very proud of the advances made in all aspects of the College over the past several years. The faculty has never been stronger in teaching and research, and it has grown substantially in overall size. It is a faculty that cares very deeply about the central role that it plays in the aims of all outstanding institutions of higher education. Along with our exceptional academic programs, our expanded financial aid policies help us recruit a talented student body nationally and internationally. Our students benefit from an ever larger set of co-curricular, internship, and off-campus study opportunities. Our physical surroundings are being transformed by a set of Master Plan principles that not only take advantage of our exceptional geography and climate, but also reflect, architecturally, the quality and significance of the educational work that takes place here. As a result of this progress, the College continues to contribute to and strengthen The Claremont Colleges. These advances are made possible through the leadership of our Board of Trustees, hard-working staff, faculty and students who care about our College, as well as through the generosity in service and philanthropy of our alumni, parents, and friends.

On a personal level, I will have had the special opportunity to serve in leadership roles at two fine institutions: first, as Dean of the Duke University School of Law for 11 years, and then, as President of CMC for 14 years. It has been a personally rewarding career to be involved as a professor and administrator for more than 37 years in the higher education of so many fine young people. I very much look forward to returning to the activities that drew me to academic life in the first place, particularly teaching and research. After a year’s leave, I will continue to be a part of the CMC community as a College Professor of Legal Studies, which presents a fantastic opportunity to teach our outstanding students.

During the coming year, I will focus on completing The Campaign for Claremont McKenna and be involved with moving forward several building projects, as well as the recruitment of our exceptional faculty and students. I also will work with the Board of Trustees to ensure a successful transition to the next President.

It is a rare opportunity to be asked to serve such a fine liberal arts college, and I will forever be grateful to be a part of this special place of higher education.

With personal appreciation,

Pamela B. Gann
President

 

ASCMC’s Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Sullivan ’12 noted that the original target, set in September, was a $4000 expense.  A few weeks before the party, in late February, party planners realized it was going to cost more than expected and adjusted target expenses to around $8000.

To account for the unexpected extra $12,000 in expenses, Sullivan explained that the lighting for AN21’s set cost $6000 more than anticipated and that the artist fees to bring AN21 were $2,000 more than originally expected. Additionally, ticket revenues were $6000 lower than expected, with about 400 fewer tickets sold than initially intended.

Overall, the White Party resulted in a $20,000 net expense: roughly $36,200 in total expenses while the total revenue was $16,200.

Last year’s ASCMC sponsored concert featuring LMFAO resulted in a $25,000 expenditure, and the year before that Lupe Fiasco’s performance ended in a $50,000 expense. Though each year marks a decrease in expense, the high annual cost raises the question of whether or not this type of event should continue on or, at the very least, be scaled back.  “The White Party was a very expensive success,” said ASCMC President Aditya Pai ’13.  ”It provided great benefit to students, but at great cost. The question going forward for everyone to consider is whether the benefit justifies the cost – or whether we should pursue other options.”

ASCMC conducted a poll to gauge student body’s response that indicated that over 60% of all respondents considered White Party among their top two favorite parties of the year.

“Undoubtedly the White Party was a success,” said Steven Limandibhratha ’14, Social Affairs Chair (SAC), “According to the responses on the survey, over 30% placed the White Party as their favorite party of the year, and over 60% placed the party in their top two parties.

A Breakdown of the White Party Expenses, Totaling Around $36,2000, Provided to the Forum by ASCMC

“Regarding the significant expense of the party, I believe working with the new board, we will be able to reduce these expenses in the future,” Limandibhratha commented,

When asked if the party was worth the money, freshman Liza Farr responded, that depends on what one’s priorities are. “White Party was really fun, a bunch of people went out for it and danced like crazy in a cool location with awesome lights and a fantastic DJ,” she said. “However, it did cost [ASCMC] a lot of money while it didn’t seem all that different from any of other, much cheaper parties.  I don’t think it was worth the immense amount of money spent on it.”

Last week, CMC formally released an external investigative report on the SAT scandal it first discovered in January. The 25-page report, which has been independently authored by the law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP, is publicly available on the College’s website. The main findings of the report are that Richard Vos, the former Vice President of Admissions and Financial Aid, reported falsely modified SAT scores, ACT scores, class rank statistics, and application statistics since 2004.

On April 19, following the release of the report, U.S. News and World Report‘s Bob Morse wrote an article in which he said the College’s ranking would most likely have remained the same whether or not the test numbers were fudged. He interviewed Editor and Chief Content Officer Brian Kelly, who said that the publication is currently reviewing the report and that the “preliminary calculation shows that based on the correct data, Claremont McKenna College’s ranking would not have changed.” He added, “We will decide if further adjustments or explanations to our readers are necessary.”

CMC is currently ranked by the publication as the 9th best liberal arts college in the nation. At the time of the scandal, it was believed that pressure to improve rankings played a central role in motivating Vos to falsify the data. However, the independent report states that Vos did not face any extraordinary pressure “or any form of intimidation that might reasonably lead us to view the pressure exerted as coercive or improper.” The report highlighted that increasing CMC’s ranking was not Vos’s motivation for reporting false data and that it “believes the VP’s (Vos’) assertion to be true”.

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EVENTS

Friday, April 27

Noon: Scholarship Lunch at the Athenaeum

If you are the beneficiary of a scholarship here at CMC, take some time to stop by the Ath at noon to speak to and thank your benefactors. Besides, a free meal at the Ath is never a bad thing.

2:00 – 5:00 PM: Women and Leadership Alliance Negotiation at Pickford Auditorium

The Robert Day School is sponsoring this workshop for students and alumni. Participants will engage in a dialogue regarding negotiations, compensation, professional development, and social interaction. Alumni will be presenting and discussing all the topics, as well as role-playing various negotiation-based scenarios.

2:00 – 3:00 PM: Rose, Kravis, and Roberts Institutes Open House

Employees of the various institutes can come to hear alumni reminisce about redistricting, leadership, and environmental studies in years past.

2:30 – 4:00 PM: Speed Thesising Outside Bauer

Now that seniors have finished their theses, the alumni would like to see and hear about them. Come and pitch your thesis (if you can bear to think about it anymore)!  Email Meghan Grebing with your topic by tomorrow if you wish to participate.

3:00 – 5:00 PM: Open House at International Place, Chicano/Latino, and Black Student Affairs Offices

Come hang out with affiliated alumni and see where their degrees have taken them, be it domestic or around the world.

4:00 – 5:00 PM: Mi Casa Es Su Casa Reception

Swing by the Alumni Tent outside of Bauer to hear from alumni who may have lived in the same dorm room that you now occupy. If you want to, you can accompany alums back to their old dorms to relive and reminisce about some of their glory years.

9:00 – 10:30 PM: “Into Poverty: Living on One Dollar” in Pickford Auditorium

10:00 PM – 12:00 AM: RDS Speakeasy with the Winston Churchill Society in the Bauer Founder’s Room

Join the Winston Churchill Society for one of CMC’s finest traditions. Interact with professors and alumni over cigars, scotch, and a healthy amount of conversation. A non-smoking area will be provided for those who wish to avoid the smoke.

Saturday, April 28

8:00 AM: I Ran with Goldhammer

Consider this 5K around campus the unofficial Pirate Party warm-up.  Runners should meet at the Tiernan Field House on Scripps’ campus.

12:00 – 3:00 PM: Stag-a-palooza!

This is an alumni only event, but the Alumni Relations Office is looking for student volunteers who can work at the game and competition booths in exchange for a wristband to access food trucks. Email James Lippincott with your availability from 1pm to 4pm if you are able to volunteer.

2:00 – 7:00 PM: Pirate Party

A CMC classic.  Come out to Green Beach to soak up some sunshine and play pirate on the inflatable slides.  ”Please be respectful of visiting alumni…no water balloon attacks!” said Faranda.

9:00 PM – 1:00 AM: 5C Monte Carlo Party

Although this event is technically for alumni, students who are dressed up are invited to attend.  Just make sure you bring your ID.

Sunday, April 29

9:30 AM – 12:30 PM: Concours de Claremont Car Show

Have a thing for classic cars?  This is your event.  Wade Vaughn ’13 will be there showing off his 1966 Plymouth Fury III.

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TIPS AND TRICKS

1. Go to class on Friday. It may be warm and sunny out, but many alumni will be coming back to visit their favorite professors and classes. With all the alumni, it is more likely that your history class will turn into a story-telling session about your professor’s quirks and habits.
2. Be aware: Collins is closed for Saturday dinner. Plan ahead. Frary has pasta bar scheduled; Pitzer’s McConnell dining hall menu says it’ll be serving BBQ chicken.  We just might make it through.
3. Be a good host.  Be polite, share your campus.  If you see any alumni looking lost, make sure to introduce yourself and offer assistance.  Hey, you never know what you might have in common.

The official Alumni Weekend schedule can be found here.

The debate remained pretty tame, with the only bustle coming from the audience: One audience member publicly berated another audience member for asking a question that he saw as inappropriate. A Canadian in the audience asked the debaters about their perception of Canadacare and why the U.S. hasn’t adopted it yet. Another audience member then stood up and berated the Canadian for asking such a question—one the debaters clearly couldn’t answer.

Aside from the excitement from the audience, the debaters remained calm tackling the three topics: energy, the federal deficit, and Obamacare.

Professor Busch, a faculty member of the Government department, moderated the debate. Each side began with a three-minute presentation followed by a rebuttal from the opposing side and then ten minutes of question and answer from the audience.

Each debater stuck pretty close to the talking points of his respective party. Carson Williams, Pomona ’13, began the debate for the Republicans talking about energy. Williams emphasized the billions of dollars the government has lost in spending on green initiatives. He also emphasized that the government shouldn’t spend money on companies or start-ups that are failing.

Speaking for the Democrats, Erin Franks, CMC ’12, highlighted that the government needs to stop subsidizing large oil and gas companies. With this saved money, Franks proposed funding more start-ups, like wind energy, and putting government resources toward research and development.

Sam Stone, CMC ’14, kicked off the debate on how to handle the country’s current deficit, representing the Democrats’ views. He emphasized that debt (the total amount the U.S. owes, while deficit is a yearly gauge) is a political issue rather than a policy one and said that, while this country clearly has a debt problem, we should focus on things like restoring the economy first.

Sean Houseworth, CMC ’13, responded for the Republicans, warning that we need to develop a long-term plan to handle the debt now, rather than continuing to “kick the can down the road.” He noted that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—all programs the Democrats don’t want to touch—are the biggest drivers behind our debt, while Stone pointed to the Bush tax cuts as the biggest legislative contributor to debt.

Lastly, Hannah Burak, CMC ’13, spoke about Obamacare from a Republican stance. She began by saying, “The U.S. deserves better than Obamacare,” and pointed to the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as unconstitutional. She also noted that the ACA would cause insurance rates to rise.

College Democrat Aseem Chipalkatti, CMC ’15, maintained that individual mandates are nothing new and that Obamacare straddles a nice line between a socialist program and capitalism (to which Burak responded, “The  middle of socialism and capitalism is socialism.”). Chipalkatti noted that, while Obamacare is not perfect, it “tries to fill in the pothole that is our healthcare system today.”

The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) sponsored the event, which lasted an hour and a half and had about 50 attendees.

The 25-page report, which the Board of Trustees commissioned in late January, is available publicly on the College’s website and outlines in detail the findings of law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

The independent report confirms speculations that it was Richard Vos, the former Vice President of Admissions and Financial Aid, who reported false SAT statistics to third party organizations. It also confirms the College’s earlier claims that the senior administrator acted alone and that no other College employees knew about the score modification.

In an interview with campus press on Tuesday afternoon, President Gann reiterated that she played only a minor role in the investigation process. “Because I was being investigated, I was definitely kept separate from this investigation except for the extent that I was interviewed or asked to provide documents,” she stated.

In total, the external investigation, which took just shy of three months, consisted of a review of over 14,990 documents and interviews with 24 different individuals. Former Vice President Richard Vos was interviewed five different times — for a total of over fifteen hours.

ACT SCORES AND OTHER STATISTICS ALSO MODIFIED

The report reveals that SAT scores were not the only modified metric.  Further investigation shows Vos also modified ACT, class rank, and application statistics as far back as 2004.

Vos told investigators “he believed reporting ACT statistics was unimportant and that he devoted little time and attention to this task.” Vos is also quoted in the report referring to the process of gathering class rank statistics as an ”art not a science.”

As for the infamous SAT score manipulation, the report describes how Vos worked backwards, setting a target median and then changing the data accordingly. The falsified statistics were created by hand — with nothing but “paper, a pencil, and a calculator.”

The report concludes that Vos began changing scores as early as 2004 and attributes his ability to do so undetected to two factors. First, Vos was highly respected within the College’s administration and, consequently, rarely questioned.  Second, the Claremont McKenna Admissions Office lacked an internal checks and balances process to confirm that the data was reported accurately.  It would have taken at least eight years before Vos’ falsified statistics would have been detected and officially reported.

Once concerns were raised in early 2012, however, the College moved quickly.  The report notes that an unidentified Admissions officer reported concerns to the College’s General Counsel on January 9, 2012.  An internal investigation immediately ensued.  Fifteen days later, Vice President Vos admitted to manipulating the scores and, on January 29, he resigned.  When asked whether or not the College requested his resignation, President Gann admitted, “It was discussed with him.””

““But he resigned,” she emphasized. ”I want to be clear that he resigned.””

ASPIRATIONAL GOALS AND THE MOTIVE

What could drive a senior administrator to unilaterally manipulate scores for the better part of a decade?

According to the report, Vos claimed CMC President Gann pressured him to “maintain or increase SAT scores for the College’s incoming classes.”

President Gann acknowledged that there were “aspirational goals” that had been set between her and Vice President Vos. However, she argued that these aspirational goals were agreed upon between the two of them. ”This was a conversation,” she told campus reporters. ”These [goals] were mutually set.””

The report concludes that the pressure Vos felt was not extraordinary. Investigators found no evidence of any verbal abuse “or any form of intimidation that might reasonably lead us to view the pressure exerted as coercive or improper.”

“While we believe the VP sincerely felt pressure to achieve particular SAT goals, we do not believe that the pressure he described exceeded the norm for an executive-level employee,” the report states.

Importantly, the report mentions a divergence in the admissions “priorities” of President Gann and those of former Vice President Vos.  According to the report, Vos ”felt [Gann] had too many goals and that some must give way.” Vos also told investigators he believed he knew what was best for the College.

Although CMC had an applicant pool talented enough to reach the specific aspirational goals set between Vice President Vos and President Gann, admissions decisions failed to meet the target scores. Claiming he was afraid to tell Gann otherwise, Vos said he chose instead to falsify admissions statistics.

The report emphasizes that Vos’ salary and compensation were unaffected by the yearly SAT score reports and does not point to any financial motive.

Despite national media coverage suggesting otherwise, it appears that college rankings were not a motivating factor behind Vos’ actions. Vos explicitly told investigators that his motive was not to increase CMC’s position in rankings. ”We believe the VP’s assertion to be true,” the report states.

“Gann acknowledges that this incident fundamentally alters the manner in which CMC will talk about admissions data in the future. “Assume you have totally accurate data, there’’s then the question of how we use it in communications and marketing,” she said. “We have to be sure that, for those of us that make speeches or refer to data in fundraising materials or in admissions materials, that we are talking about the data in a clear and verified way.””

Gann also noted that the there have been no changes to the College’s ten-year Strategic Plan in light of the scandal.

MOVING FORWARD: “WE CAN AND WILL DO BETTER.”

Tuesday’s report release was accompanied by two letters addressed to the CMC Community: one from President Pamela B. Gann and one from Chair of the Board of Trustees Henry T. McMahon.

McMahon noted that the Claremont community has “learned a great deal from this unfortunate matter and will become ever stronger as a result.”

President Gann’s letter announced that, going forward, admissions, financial aid, and student affairs have been consolidated into one Vice President position.  Dr. Jefferson Huang, currently the Vice President of Student Affairs, will be taking on this role.

Also in her letter, President Gann made a promise to the CMC community: ”We can and will do better.”

Claremont, Calif., April 17, 2012 –– Claremont McKenna College publicly released today an external investigative report related to its January 2012 disclosure that a former senior administrator had inaccurately reported the College’s SAT statistics.

The investigation, which the Board of Trustees authorized and the law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP conducted, confirmed that CMC’s former Vice President for Admission and Financial Aid was solely responsible for misreporting admission statistics, and that no one else participated in, encouraged, or had knowledge of the misconduct. The investigation also verified that no individual student’s scores or admission files were altered in the course of the misreporting.

Photo by Karan Malik

The report confirmed that the corrected SAT statistics the College first reported to outside organizations in late January were accurate. The investigation also found that the former Vice President was solely responsible for misreporting other admission statistics, including ACT, class rank (the percentage of entering students who were in the top 10% of their high school class), and application statistics. The degree of inaccuracy and the circumstances related to the misreporting varied. For example, the inaccurate ACT numbers were sometimes lower than the accurate numbers, but were usually higher. The widest differences in percentages between reported and accurate figures were in the class rank statistics.

The full report, which includes a complete summary of the inaccurate and corrected admission statistics, is available on the College’s website.

“We regret and are deeply disappointed by this episode,” said Harry McMahon, Chair of the Board of Trustees, in a message to members of the CMC community. “Throughout its history, the College has been defined by its core values of honesty and responsible leadership. While these events do not reflect our values, our response does. Our President and her staff have addressed this matter promptly, thoroughly and with complete integrity. We are confident that the process changes the President has proposed, and we have approved, will deter and prevent such actions from occurring again.”

“These events have been justifiably disappointing to members of our community and to the outside organizations to which we report our institutional statistics,” said President Pamela Gann. “I am very sorry and saddened that these events occurred, and I am committed to ensuring the College’s continuing response exemplifies our core values.”

Based on the report’s findings, the President announced a series of actions that the College is taking, including promptly providing corrected admission statistics to outside organizations who received inaccurate information. In addition, the College is developing documented institutional guidelines –including segregation of duties and independent review procedures — that will regulate the compiling and reporting of all material institutional statistics and will be made available to the public.

The report marks the completion of a process that began in January 2012, when President Gann received information from within the College about potential discrepancies in the SAT statistics for the fall 2011 entering class. Based on this initial information, the President initiated an internal investigation, during which the former Vice President admitted that he had been solely responsible for falsely reporting SAT statistics. The administrator subsequently resigned on January 29. The Board of Trustees engaged O’Melveny & Myers to conduct an external investigation of the College’s admission-related statistics reporting processes.

The scope of the investigation covered SAT and other key admission-related statistics reported to outside organizations, including ACT, class rank, application, acceptance, and enrollment statistics. The investigation looked back to 2004, the year prior to which the former Vice President admitted to falsifying SAT statistics. The external investigation team conducted over 20 interviews, including the President, the former Vice President and other key members of the College’s senior administration. The investigative team also reviewed approximately 100,000 pages of documents and the complete admission files of every student admitted in the fall 2011 class.

The investigative report describes how a lack of internal verification procedures, the Vice President’s “long time and trusted” role as a senior executive, and his own efforts at concealment allowed him to avoid detection for a number of years. The investigation found no information indicating that anyone in the College’s leadership directed or encouraged the misreporting, or that anyone was aware of this activity or knew that erroneous admission-related statistics had been reported by the College.

“Claremont McKenna College remains an outstanding institution that is distinguished by its unique mission and the excellence of its students, faculty, alumni, and staff,” said Board Chair McMahon. “We have learned a great deal from this unfortunate matter and will become ever stronger as a result.”

Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is an independent, coeducational liberal arts college with a curricular emphasis on economics, government, and public affairs.  Established in 1946, CMC is a member of The Claremont Colleges, a consortium of seven independent institutions in Claremont, California.

The Forum will continue coverage as new details become available.

This is the second Field of Flags event, organized by Anna Goldberg, PZ ’12. Goldberg started the event last year with fellow classmate Brianna Moffitt, PZ ’11, inspired by a similar display at Cornell University. Goldberg doubled the number of flags this year, from the 4,255 that were installed in 2011.

The event holds special meaning for Goldberg, who noted: “The Holocaust is an important part of my heritage, and I haven’t felt like there is a lot of Holocaust education on our campus. I wanted to bring something inspirational, powerful and meaningful to the 5-C’s that had to do with the Holocaust, not just something depressing.”

The thousands of brightly colored flags covered the field; but they were more than just a beautiful sight.  Each had a meaning of its own. Every single flag represented 1,000 deaths and each flag was color-coded to correspond with a race or group that was persecuted by the Holocaust.  One visitor to the exhibit remarked, “seeing it all laid out in front of me makes it so much more real than just seeing a figure on a page.”  Even though the number of flags doubled from last year, Goldberg remarked, “it only took us one hour to put up the flags this morning because so many wonderful people came to help.”

Goldberg noted that next year Pitzer freshman Adina Wells will take over the event, which will hopefully continue for many years to come.  She spoke of her hopes for the exhibit and its impact saying, “I hope that people will walk by and take a moment to think about what it represents. I also hope that people are reminded of what can occur when we don’t stand up for one another and that we need to be there for one another as a people, not just as separate groups.”

The Field of Flags will remain on display until Friday, April 20.

The messy paint job was a result of the previous night’s Thursday Night Club (TNC), a weekly party sponsored by CMC’s associated student government, ASCMC. The event, which boasted a DJ, beer, and of course, bottles and bottles of paint, was open to students from all five Claremont Colleges and took place at CMC’s eastern tennis courts.

Even without the addition of paint, TNCs have a reputation of leaving behind quite a wake of debris. Director of Facilities and Campus Services (Story House) Brian Worley explains, “Each party has its own gestalt in the aftermath.”

But the paint party had a gestalt all its own. Worley remarked that in all his time at CMC (5 years, to be exact), he had never seen a “Paint Party” TNC requiring a comparable clean up effort. The clean up, which began the next morning, has meant repeated power-washings of cement sidewalks and the repainting of benches near the tennis courts. Over a week later, the clean up is still incomplete.

Students Enjoying the 2010 Paint Party (Photo by Andrew Jordan)

PAINT IT RED

This is not great news for ASCMC—and its budget. So far, Facilities has billed ASCMC for $612 worth of damages from Thursday’s Paint Party, but the final tally could be upwards of that.

Alexandra Cooke, former ASCMC Student Life Chair and current Dorm Activities Chair, led the Paint Party planning efforts and said the event cost ASCMC about $500 to host. When combined with the damage costs, this means ASCMC is paying over $1,100 in student funds for one night of brightly colored debauchery.

The cost of the paint itself–about $300–is the average cost of throwing a regular TNC, estimates Cooke. “We were willing to spend more on a 5C TNC,” she explained, “because there will be more people in attendance, and therefore, more people enjoying the event.”

Cooke notes that the outcome of the Paint Party shouldn’t be a shock to anyone at Story House or in the Dean of Students office. She says ASCMC made clear the details of the event to both Facilities and Assistant Dean and Director of Student Activities Jim Nauls.

“They understood the nature of the event,” said Cooke, “and that there would be damages. If there had been adamant resistance, we would have taken that into account and restructured the party or reconsidered the theme.”

Indeed, the aftermath of the Paint Party is somewhat unsurprising. The combination of free booze, paint, and college kids does not bode well for cleanliness. However, in previous years, the party was more successful at managing to limit destruction to campus property.

Worley recalls a Paint Party held a few years ago in McKenna Auditorium, where the party sponsors laid out plastic sheeting throughout the enclosed space. This meant paint-splattered surfaces could be balled up and thrown away, without causing any damage to the wooden floors and walls.

According to Worley, Story House offered the party sponsors a water hose to facilitate clean-up during Thursday’s party, but no one from ASCMC ever retrieved it from the offices. Cooke noted that in the future, ASCMC will look into the possibility of a “clean up/wash station” for party guests to de-paint before leaving the venue and heading home.

BILLS, BILLS, BILLS

While the paint damages are certainly costly, some of the most expensive TNC-related charges ASCMC has paid have been the result of stolen campus property or the removal of furniture from a party space—both of which count as vandalism, according to Story House.

In January of last year, Story House charged ASCMC over $355 in damages for “several lights” missing from Fawcett Hall’s first floor lounge following a TNC event. For the same event, Story House billed ASCMC for $144 for 8 building attendants to return all lounge furniture from outside the building to its proper place.

The 2010 Paint Party Tarp (Photo by Andrew Jordan)

“If the damages are in a dorm where TNC takes place,” says Cooke, “then ASCMC will be charged. If the damage is in a dorm that wasn’t where TNC was located, then the dorm is charged.”

This school year, the most expensive single charge for a TNC event has been $428 worth of carpet damage in CMC’s newest dorm, Claremont Hall. The figure includes the cost of replacing the damaged carpet as well as the cost of hiring a professional carpet cleaning company to remove the stain.

In some instances, it is difficult to attribute costs directly to the party sponsors, and Story House’s billing policies have come under fire by students at ASCMC.

Jessica Mao, former ASCMC President, expressed frustration over the billing system, saying, “I think there needs to be a more structured system of payment and damage disputing between ASCMC and Story House. It seems ridiculous to have this accumulation of bills happen every few years when both sides could easily do a better job of sorting them out.”

With the ASCMC Financial Advisor now acting as a direct liaison between students and Story House, says Mao, “charges that don’t seem accurate can be caught right away as opposed to 2 years after a party happened.”

Worley understands the difficulty in ascribing damages to students. He offered the example of damage from a 5-College event held just after the Paint Party on Saturday, March 31. On Sunday morning, broken bottles littered the street between CMC and Scripps College, which co-sponsored and hosted the party.

“I don’t believe we will be billing anybody for the broken glass because it was just random acts that were done,” says Worley. “It wasn’t something that you can directly attribute to the party per se. In the case of the paint, it obviously is directly attributable to that.”

PAY DELAYS

While students may have their beef with Facilities over billing policies, ASCMC does not have a particularly stellar track record in paying up to Story House. Worley explains that, in past years, ASCMC has been tardy in paying for damages. and the costs lag over into the next fiscal year. In other words, students have been sacked with paying party damages for which they might not be responsible.

“The previous year’s billing wasn’t paid,” says Worley, “and that saddled the next year’s ASCMC budget with the major amount of money to come out of their funds that really had to do with the previous year.”

In May 2011, the total charges to ASCMC amounted to just over $9,864, which included charges for the entire school year as well as leftover charges from previous years. After ASCMC successfully disputed several charges, Facilities settled for $5,000 in February 2012.

This situation is not ideal for either party. The college loses thousands of dollars, and ASCMC is left to foot the bill racked up by graduated classes. Because neither Story House nor ASCMC sets a hard and fast deadline for repayment, the system leaves much room for error in attributing costs to students.

In the meantime, Story House and ASCMC are working to clarify the muddier parts of the process . “We’re trying to move forward to make sure that billings are done in a timely manner and payment from ASCMC is in a timely manner as well,” says Worley.

WORTH IT?

For students, the money going toward damages in the aftermath of a party depletes funds that might otherwise be used for putting on student events—not cleaning up after them. Students have responded by launching campaigns to encourage party clean-up, but none have seem to stuck.

The heaviest of costs, however, are not a result of a few red cups. To limit the cost of damages may be a matter of changing campus culture and perhaps making visible the monetary effects of stealing a chair from Claremont Hall or breaking windows in North Quad.

“Sometimes we become a little concerned that we’re facilitating inappropriate behavior,” says Worley. He elaborated, “We’re cleaning up messes that maybe ought to be seen for a little while rather than hastily cleaned up like it never happened. I become a little bit concerned about that, but again, our charge is just to make the campus functional and presentable.”

And the Facilities crew is working to do just that. Ironically or not, Story House is just a few coats of paint away from restoring campus back to normal.

Dr. Gates brought a particularly moderate approach to his political analysis, taking care not to explicitly deem any one political party or politician as “correct.” In his speech, he simultaneously derided the idea of military intervention in Syria, whilst bemoaning the slow and steady decline of NATO, an organization that he said, “was a huge factor in helping us stay safe in the Cold War.”

Photo Credit: William Vasta

Interestingly, Dr. Gates sees China as a potential ally, depending on how its decennial domestic leadership changeover pans out. As he puts it, “there is no fundamental geostrategic reason for China and the United States to become enemies, or for China to overtake the United States.” Dr. Gates did warn, however, that the United States’ actions in certain fields could be its own undoing. In a series of statements that excited each one of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government’s many employees that attended, Dr. Gates attacked the idea of partisan redistricting, praising California’s recent move to an independent and non-partisan redistricting process.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Dr. Gates’ speech was his elaboration on the leadership styles of the various Presidents that he has served under. When asked about whether it was tough to transition from President George W. Bush to President Barack Obama, Dr. Gates merely remarked, “Hey, I’ve dealt with both Carter and Reagan. The most recent Presidents were fine in comparison.” Dr. Gates went on to reveal some lesser known facts about these Presidents, blithely stating that Presidents Nixon and Carter had no sense of humor, and that the raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden was carried out without any hard evidence of his residence available.

Dr. Gates’ offered an extremely realist perspective of current events that could lead itself to a pessimistic view of the world around us. However, he took care to outline the fact that every issue has solutions. In the case of the United States, for instance, Dr. Gates felt that a move away from the partisanship and media bias that pervades our society could act as an instant cure for our domestic problems. Most inspiring, however, were his ending words; “we must learn to tell the difference between real and prescient information, and BS.”