“My college pays for my beer” and other Claremont McKenna almost-half-truths

By Josh S. | December 14, 2008 at 1:53 pm | Life | 17 comments | |

 

Tomorrow is December 15th, a very important day in the lives many future CMCers– Claremont Mckenna’s Early Decision Round I Notification Day(!!). The Class of 2013 will be here sooner than you think. Oh, the memories that will come, the WOA cliques that will form…

In the meantime, the college-bound teen demographic will swarm to websites like cmc.edu, princetonreview.com, unigo.com and cmcnation.com to live vicariously through the typed experiences of real live CMC students.

Eager little aspiring CEOs, politicians, and entrepreneurs will look at first-hand reviews of CMCers raving that “all of our alcohol is paid for by the school,” or “everyone parties on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays,” and even a bold “we’re conservative; we come from wealthy families.”  The impressionable 17 and 18-year-olds will picture themselves floating around North Quad on a mild Thursday night in February with Rainbow sandals on their feet, popped collars on their necks, and beer helmets on their heads– not for protection from beer– but because a beer helmet must be what every suave CMCer wears when he isn’t chanting “Puck Fomona,” studying for a “leadership” class, or fighting for the enactment of libertarian tax policies…

But let’s talk about the alcohol misconception for now:

Claremont McKenna College does not pay for students’ alcohol.  Never has, never will.  Not one penny of the money you or your parents pay to CMC goes toward the purchase of alcohol for students.

It’s a fun myth to perpetuate, and it’s easy to close our eyes, tap our feet, and hope it’s not too good to be true, but we should practice some restraint when boasting about how fly CMC is to our friends (and especially to Stags and Athenas-to-be).

1. As CMC gains a national and international reputation (thanks largely to the internets), we have a chance to shape our school’s image as never before.  It used to be that a college or university’s PR department took care of its public image, but now and in the future we will be increasingly defined more by our people than our marketing.  Student-created websites, blogs, and reviews are what people trust for unbiased information.  Over 50% of students who apply to CMC have never visited the campus.  Where do you think they get their information from? It probably starts with “The Google.”

2. When asked by the Admission Office why they didn’t attend CMC, around 1 of 10 high school students who were admitted to CMC but did not enroll listed excessive alcohol and partying at CMC as part of their reason for going elsewhere. While this is crazy (we probably don’t party harder than wherever those students ended up), this is a growing issue that is angering some of the “higher-ups” and the “really higher-ups” at CMC.

3. Our unfortunate(?) spot in the top ten “Lots of Beer” schools list by Princeton Review doesn’t help us in any way.  If anything, it gives us false confidence and makes us think we can out-drink a UCSB frat (don’t try it).  It also hurts the trustees, administration, faculty, and students’ reputations and puts us in jeopardy.  Sure, Princeton Review is wrong (compare us to any big state school, Ivy League school, or even the other Claremont Colleges), but perceptions do matter.

4. Our administration’s trust and leniency is a privilege, not a right. Let’s not abuse it too much.

The truth about alcohol at parties:

ASCMC, a non-affiliated, not-for-profit corporation (501c3) charged with improving student life at CMC, fundraises money to pay for refreshments at some parties.  Alcohol expense represents less than 3% of ASCMC’s operating budget.

ASCMC is entirely student-run. Most of ASCMC’s operating expenses are financed by student fees, but alcohol is paid for entirely by fundraising (t-shirt sales, amazon.com advertising revenue, yearbooks, etc). Student fees go toward things like clubs, madrigals, study breaks during finals week, IPTV, non-alcohol party expenses, etc. The full list is here if you’re interested.

Conclusion:

Have a good finals week and rage when you’re done.  What happens at CMC stays at CMC (unless it happens with a Scrippsie).  Be good.

More posts by Josh S. »
Josh S.

In late 2007, Josh started the website CMCForum.com. It has since grown into this fine publication today. He is a senior at CMC and is not looking forward to graduating, after which he will move back to NYC and take over.

 
 
 
 
  • give me a break

    Money is fungible.

  • give me a break

    Money is fungible.

  • Jonah

    I personally agree that most universities have more partying than us, just check out the row at USC. However, the problem is that although I have no objections to seeing ASCMC as a non-affiliated corporation, I highly doubt parents of students and prospective students realize the separation between CMC’s administration and the student-run entity.

    In addition, some people have actually told me of a pretty clever way to launder student fees so there are ways around the system.

  • Jonah

    I personally agree that most universities have more partying than us, just check out the row at USC. However, the problem is that although I have no objections to seeing ASCMC as a non-affiliated corporation, I highly doubt parents of students and prospective students realize the separation between CMC’s administration and the student-run entity.

    In addition, some people have actually told me of a pretty clever way to launder student fees so there are ways around the system.

  • Josh Siegel

    “Money is fungible” isn’t much of an argument, if you’re trying to make one, but I’d be interested to hear an elaboration. Now that I’ve suffered through two econ finals in the past 24 hours, I just can’t get enough…

    And sure, the money could be spent in any number of other allocations, but this allocation aims to reach the most efficient allocation– the one that makes the most people happy. Let’s call it a pareto efficient outcome based on weak preferences, if you will. CMCers vote for the people who spend the money, so it’s a somewhat democratic outcome, too.

  • Pshah

    I’d like to see stats on how many people choose here over other schools based on “excessive alcohol and drinking.” I think it helps more than it hurts.

  • Pshah

    I’d like to see stats on how many people choose here over other schools based on “excessive alcohol and drinking.” I think it helps more than it hurts.

  • lets settle it…

    I think this is pretty circular…I mean, you redistribute fees and fundraised money to use for a ‘variety’ of things, but from what I’ve heard, you spend the majority of it on alcohol, why don’t you release the stats on the ‘percentage’ of the ASCMC budget that goes to alcohol…then we could really see if you really fund alcohol on this campus. We all know kitchen table economics here, your budget allocations are a reflection of your real life priorities….

    -Sam

  • lets settle it…

    I think this is pretty circular…I mean, you redistribute fees and fundraised money to use for a ‘variety’ of things, but from what I’ve heard, you spend the majority of it on alcohol, why don’t you release the stats on the ‘percentage’ of the ASCMC budget that goes to alcohol…then we could really see if you really fund alcohol on this campus. We all know kitchen table economics here, your budget allocations are a reflection of your real life priorities….

    -Sam

  • Josh Siegel

    As I wrote in the post, alcohol expense represents less than 3 percent of ASCMC’s operating budget. Last I heard from Erik Hansell, ASCMC President, alcohol expense was around 2.6 percent of the total budget, but I don’t know the exact figure and it will deviate a bit as the year continues.

    I don’t know who the “you” you refer to is, Sam, but it’s not like one person or even a group of small people are throwing around ASCMC’s money. Around 100 students voted on this year’s budget– as required by ASCMC’s constitution, the final budget is voted on by the budgeting committee, board of directors, and student senate. The final budget has to pass through all three bodies (and it did, almost unanimously) before it is approved.

    The projected ASCMC budget for 2008-2009 is online at ascmc.org and you can see it here. ASCMC releases every financial statement required by IRS tax code and more.

  • Brian Fuerst

    To Sam, and any others who think that ASCMC just washes alcohol expenses through everything, (which couldn’t be farther from the truth)

    You may get that impression from the way in which the public reacts to ASCMC expenditures. People think get the impression that parties is all ASCMC does because 1) they are what is advertised the best and 2) they are what people pay attention to at all. Other events, subsidizations, club budgets, etc, do not get anywhere near as much public attention as parties. Even if they do get attention, many things in fact, are not associated with ASCMC as much as parties are. Examples: madrigals, shows (luda/tosh), trips and subsidizations (Knott’s/Bond), WOA, student trips, Dorm BBQs, and of course clubs ranging from a capella groups to the lacrosse team to the Christian Fellowship.

    Even when you single out the parties, alcohol isn’t a huge expenditure–when you think about it, how much alcohol do you usually actually get from a ASCMC-sponsored party? Maybe 3 or 4 beers at most? Most of the main expenditures go toward decorations, entertainment, security, DJing, and other things. On a big Saturday or Friday party, alcohol probably only represents 5-15% of the budget. For smaller parties, that percentage may be up to 30-40%, but the actual expenditure is still lower. For example, at the biggest party I threw this semester–E-40–alcohol wasn’t even an expense.

    Because ASCMC has the ability to spend money on alcohol, and we throw awesome parties, so people get excited about it and it gets a lot more attention and hype than all of the other things ASCMC does. In reality, alcohol is a very modest expenditure by ASCMC, as part of a $250,000+ budget; the statistic of 3% sounds pretty accurate.

    Brian

  • Brian Fuerst

    To Sam, and any others who think that ASCMC just washes alcohol expenses through everything, (which couldn’t be farther from the truth)

    You may get that impression from the way in which the public reacts to ASCMC expenditures. People think get the impression that parties is all ASCMC does because 1) they are what is advertised the best and 2) they are what people pay attention to at all. Other events, subsidizations, club budgets, etc, do not get anywhere near as much public attention as parties. Even if they do get attention, many things in fact, are not associated with ASCMC as much as parties are. Examples: madrigals, shows (luda/tosh), trips and subsidizations (Knott’s/Bond), WOA, student trips, Dorm BBQs, and of course clubs ranging from a capella groups to the lacrosse team to the Christian Fellowship.

    Even when you single out the parties, alcohol isn’t a huge expenditure–when you think about it, how much alcohol do you usually actually get from a ASCMC-sponsored party? Maybe 3 or 4 beers at most? Most of the main expenditures go toward decorations, entertainment, security, DJing, and other things. On a big Saturday or Friday party, alcohol probably only represents 5-15% of the budget. For smaller parties, that percentage may be up to 30-40%, but the actual expenditure is still lower. For example, at the biggest party I threw this semester–E-40–alcohol wasn’t even an expense.

    Because ASCMC has the ability to spend money on alcohol, and we throw awesome parties, so people get excited about it and it gets a lot more attention and hype than all of the other things ASCMC does. In reality, alcohol is a very modest expenditure by ASCMC, as part of a $250,000+ budget; the statistic of 3% sounds pretty accurate.

    Brian

  • Brian Fuerst

    I read that over, and it was horrendously written. Sorry, my brain is absolutely crashed from finals and I wrote it really fast without thinking much or rereading.

  • Brian Fuerst

    I read that over, and it was horrendously written. Sorry, my brain is absolutely crashed from finals and I wrote it really fast without thinking much or rereading.

  • Yohei

    CMC has changed and is changing. CMCers used to be able to outdrink UCSB frats, no question. The underclassmen now have changed the scene. But don’t forget us, it’s the booze that built this empire. Technicalities aside, CMC paid for my beer and more, and there’s no denying it. Don’t expect to see us on the top of the drinkers list though, the new generation doesn’t drink like the old. I apologize to those who come in looking for the once glorious raging scene. CMC is classier now, good job underclassmen, make my degree worth more. cheers.

  • Yohei

    CMC has changed and is changing. CMCers used to be able to outdrink UCSB frats, no question. The underclassmen now have changed the scene. But don’t forget us, it’s the booze that built this empire. Technicalities aside, CMC paid for my beer and more, and there’s no denying it. Don’t expect to see us on the top of the drinkers list though, the new generation doesn’t drink like the old. I apologize to those who come in looking for the once glorious raging scene. CMC is classier now, good job underclassmen, make my degree worth more. cheers.

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