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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.

He started by mentioning that his primary role is to elevate the quality of faculty and academic programs at CMC. He then stated that over the last six or seven years, in his role as the Dean of Faculty, he has hired roughly 40% of the current faculty members as the college has experienced high faculty turnover. For the upcoming academic year, Hess mentioned that the college engaged in a strong amount of hiring. (See below for a list of the departments with new hires.) He stressed that he is looking to hire faculty to encourage margins of development in areas where the college is not particularly strong, such as languages and sciences.

Hess then discussed the external review process for the academic departments and the various programs the college is looking to expand. The external review process occurs for each department every six or seven years and highlights specific improvements which should be made to advance that particular department.

According to Hess, the external review process of the Philosophy department determined that CMC currently has the best Philosophy department in comparison to any liberal arts institution.

Furthermore, CMC is extending the Yonsei-CMC summer program for another six years, with the hope to place students in internships in Korea in another two years. This summer, the college is also hosting a travel trip to Rome. Hess also noted that CMC wants to ensure the Silicon Valley Program is a 5C program. Four Pomona Students participating in addition to the 14 CMCers for next year; Pomona and other 5C alumni are helping out with the program.

He also mentioned that CMC is looking to add another ITAB networking trip, in addition to the current trip, to provide more students with opportunities in Silicon Valley.

In the near future, the college plans to establish a South Asia presence, particularly in India. CMC has been recruiting Indian students heavily, and President Gann visited India over winter break with the hope of establishing internships and course offerings for CMCers.

For the summer, the college has paired up with several NGO’s in India to offer social entrepreneurship internships. In the future, Cynthia Humes, a Religious Studies professor who has lived in India, may possibly teach a half-credit course. This opportunity will be subsidized heavily; the college is raising funds in South Asia to make the price modest for CMCers.

Dean Hess ended his talk focusing on entrepreneurship and the manner in which the college is trying to increase the academic presence in this field. CMC wants students of all majors to have some experience in entrepreneurial programming in the future. The college is trying to compliment the work done by the KLI and the RDS to extend entrepreneurship education to all students.

New hires:

Robert Day School: Hired two now professors. One of the professors will teach a course on economic development, and the other professor will offer a course on finance.

Literature Department: Hired a professor from Harvard to teach a course on British Literature.

History Department: Hired two new faculty members to teach courses on 19th century western history and environmental history, respectively.

Keck Science Center: Hired three faculty members to teach courses on Environmental Science, Chemistry and Biology respectively.

Furthermore, a professor from the University of Munich has been hired to teach Holocaust Studies in the John Roth Chair, which alumni of the college provided funding for. The college has also established the Cook Chair in honor of Scott Cook, the co-founder of Intuit, which will be filled by a new faculty member from Cal Tech to teach behavioral psychology and economic decision-making. Next year, the college is looking to hire faculty to teach Korean Politics, Brazilian History and Portuguese at the 5C’s, which will allow students to learn Portuguese after Spanish, if they so desire.

What brought about the decision to open-up TNC to the other colleges, as TNC has traditionally always been a CMC-only event?

Cooke: Over the past year, there has been a decrease in attendance at TNC’s, as Campus Security would not allow non-CMC students to attend the parties without a guest pass. The process was such that CMC students would have to register their friends in time for the party. TNC has always been a CMC only event; however, this rule was never strictly enforced until about the past year. Clare Riva ’13, the last DAC, had been working with the Dean of Students to make it easier for other 5C students to attend TNC’s and they were in the process of formulating a new system which allowed for greater attendance at TNC’s. In the past, such decisions have been mainly under the jurisdiction of the social chairs and have been supported by the rest of the ASCMC Executive Board. While we want to preserve the tradition of TNC being a mostly CMC party, we recognize that CMC students all have friends at other colleges that we want to be able to come and enjoy the party with us.

What is the new system of the guest list policy?

Cooke: One TNC a month will be opened up to the 5C’s, where any Claremont College student will get in with their school ID. At the CMC only TNC’s, a guest list policy will be implemented.  A Google form will open up every Monday to Thursday (noon) where CMC students can register guests from another 5C by submitting their name and student ID number. This will add the Claremont student to the guest list and the student will be able to check in with Campus Security at TNC to gain admittance.

What are the main concerns of the administration regarding this change?

Cooke: The Dean of Students Office is unwilling to make TNC a 5C event every week. The main reason is that we do not have large enough spaces to hold 500+ events every Thursday night. Dean Spellman is allowing one 5C TNC per month with 2 kegs, which is an increase from the single keg allowed at CMC only TNC’s.

In your new role as the DAC Chair, what other changes would you like to see for the forthcoming year?

Cooke: This year one of my main goals in terms of party planning will be to revive TNC. Alumni and upperclassmen always talk about how TNC was well attended, had great music or bands, was held at diverse locations, and rivaled the Saturday night party. I will be talking to past social chairs and looking into how they structured their events to figure out how to make TNC more epic, so to speak. I want to make sure that the CMC party and social culture from the past is preserved and not lost.

A giant sports banner in Ducey gym reads, “3 schools, 2 mascots, 1 spirit.” But do we really have one spirit? The Stag and Athena mascots divide us, splitting our spirit in two. The jumbled, half combination “Stagthena” reminds me of stagflation, and I’d rather not think of economics when cheering for sports.

Before Claremont had a women’s sports program, Claremont-Mudd shared a sports team, the Stags. Once the women’s program was added in the late 1970s, there was some talk over what the mascot for CMS should be.

According to Michael Sutton, the current director of athletics for CMS and a CMC alum, there was a lot of push to go with one mascot and logo. However, a lot of CMC alumni weren’t willing to change the mascot from the Stags, and the women’s athletics weren’t willing to accept that mascot.

While the widely known and accepted current definition of stag is a male deer, the word carried several negative connotations for quite some time. The third definition of stag, according to dictionary.com, is “a person who attends a social gathering unaccompanied by a partner, especially a man who is unaccompanied by a woman.” The fourth definition is “a social gathering for men only.” And one of the adjective uses: “pornographic” (i.e. stag films).

Sutton also said that in the 60s and 70s  ”Stag” often referred to activities objectifying or demeaning women. While he admitted that he’s unsure how much weight this definition still holds, he added: “I guarantee you that if you surveyed some women (about the term) they’d be offended.”

Hence, the CMS committee was reluctant to band behind the Stags to encompass both the women’s sports as well. Out of this controversy, the Athenas were born.

Since the definition of Stag has changed substantially over time and I doubt anyone even knows of the old definitions, I don’t think people find it offensive.

On a quick tangential point, it probably disturbs a lot of you, as it does me, that if ‘stag’ truly was an offensive term, it was still allowed to be our school’s mascot, even if it was once a men’s college. If it really is chauvinistic, it remains that way with or without the presence of women at our schools. But that’s a topic for another article.

Sutton noted that while our current two-mascot predicament is odd, it works. “The conversation (to consolidate to one mascot) has come up over time, and we haven’t come up with a better plan that we’ve felt strong enough about,” Sutton said.

“At the end of the day, since we haven’t come up with a more popular idea, we are fine with what we have” he noted.

Some student athletes feel differently.

Carmen Lundell, CMC ’13, feels the differing mascots divide the rift between male and female sports even further. “The problem is that when you go to a sporting event that’s a coed sport there are Stags and Athenas there, so people have to choose between the two. So people say, ‘Go Stags,’ typically,” Lundell, a varsity diver and former track runner commented.

Both track and field and swimming and diving are coed, and it’s tough for fans – and for students – to feel like they’re cheering for one team when the mascots are divided.

“I see it as further perpetuating the stigma against women’s sports. People do choose to cheer for Stags. I would say there’s no guy here – maybe a couple – that would say ‘Go Athenas,’” Lundell added.

We can change the rift that having two mascots creates. If we all became Stags, at least women’s sports – and women at the school for that matter – wouldn’t feel left out during the cheers.

Having two mascots also further divides our fan apparel. The CMS athletics website has separate merchandise for Athenas and Stags apparel. Students are explicitly choosing whether they are supporting male or female sports based on what apparel they buy. This clearly divides us.

So why should we consolidate to just Stags? Why not change our mascot entirely?

There are some solid arguments against changing our current mascot. Although the word stag has some remnants of its past offensive definitions, the word merely means “male deer” for most people. Most students probably don’t even know the other definitions exist, or even care.

Additionally, the Stag mascot already has name recognition in Claremont. Since the term probably doesn’t offend anyone anymore, there’s no reason to completely take away from a dominant, well-liked symbol. And the fact that a stag refers to a male deer specifically does not exclude female members of the student body. A stag is an animal, and I would no more feel a kinship to a female animal than a male one.

And most importantly, Harry Potter’s Patronus is a Stag, which should be reason enough.

Ultimately, it’s more worth it to have one united fan base – one mascot and one spirit – than to continue the divisions the dual mascots bring because of an antiquated definition.

But hey, at least we’re not the Sagehens.

Editor’s Note: This article was written independently of the Idea Night talk by Jen Rignoen ’12 on March 6.

In April of last year, members of “responsibly” took a tour across America to learn how the budget crisis is affecting teachers and students in the classroom. They spoke with over fifty educators, and they soon realized that many of those teachers ended up spending $2000-$4000 of their annual income on classroom materials. Despite these teachers’ selfless efforts to increase their classroom budget, many creative activities fail to leave the drawing board simply due to a lack of funding.

This is where responsibly comes in. Felkner and Grant established a non-profit specifically designed to help connect patrons with dedicated teachers in need of resources for interactive educational activities. While reflecting on his own education, Felkner noted it was these experience-oriented projects that “made knowledge come alive and gave [him] the opportunity to apply what [he] learned in the classroom,” thus they are crucial to the educational process.

CMC alum Sandy Russell with her students

Responsibly uses a crowdfunding platform to fulfill its client’s goals. Teachers upload an idea to the platform by creating a movie pitch outlining the project as well as how much money will be needed to fund it. Responsibly serves as a controlled way to tap into both the teacher’s network, the non-profit’s network, as well as government grants for non-profits. After the donation goal is met, patrons are able to view the finished project through a video so they can see where their dollars end up. It also gives teachers and students a chance to thank those who contributed to the entire learning process.

With the help of funding from CMC alumni and other donors, responsibly was able to charter three buses from Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter School to bring some of its students to CMC’s campus. OSCDLHA is a member of Los Angeles’ Green Dot Public School system, an organization that transforms schools into “high-achieving public charter schools that are focused on graduating students and fully preparing them for college.” On Wednesday, January 25, more than 150 high school students from OSCDLHA were given the opportunity to experience CMC’s campus and talk with our students about applying to college. The overall goal was to get these students excited about higher education and to show them what hard work and dedication in the classroom can help them attain.

Responsibly has already completed several projects, including ones involving CMC alumni and TFA teachers, Sandy Russell and Hunter Jackson. The responsibly platform helped Russell to raise the $623 necessary to take her first grade class on a field trip to the Los Angeles Zoo, and she is currently less than $100 shy of her $663 goal to take her students to the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom and Sooky Goldman Nature Center (WODOC). Jackson has been fortunate enough to raise the $1325 needed for a recreation of the BP Oil Spill, an explosive demonstration of how shifting tectonic plates cause volcanoes, as well as a hedgehog as a class pet.

Grant appreciates CMC’s generosity and hopes that it might lend its resources to continue enriching the classroom experience, which could include a “student tour of the Botanical Gardens, a science experiment in Keck, or flag football on Parents Field.” Both Grant and Felkner hope to expand nation-wide in order to increase utility for what Felkner hopes will become “ultimate tools for teachers.”

For those of you still hunting for summer internships, why not get a head start? Responsibly is starting an intern program to connect “responsibly teacher liaisons” with teachers seeking project funding. These account managers will work with a specific teacher throughout the process, from creating the right video pitch, to networking (what CMCers do best), to participating in the finished project. Some current CMC students are already working with responsibly to help strengthen the educational experience for disadvantaged students.

If you are interested in learning more, check out their company website, follow them on Facebook or Twitter, and even donate to a project to help support these dedicated teachers.

Blitzen Trapper- American Goldwing (9/13)                                               

On Tour: 10/7 (Petaluma, CA), 10/8 (Santa Barbara), 10/9 (San Diego)

Judging from the title track and the critical buzz surrounding their new album, this Portland-grown folk-rock group will continue to serve up classic Americana with a 21^st century twist. From Neil Young to Pavement, this band’s unique medley of sounds consistently surprises and amazes fans.  Their sixth and newest album, American Goldwing,  promises to be one of this fall’s most impressive indie releases.

Toro Y Moi- Freaking Out  (9/13)

On Tour: 10/3 (El Rey Theatre, L.A.)

USC alum Chazwick Bundick, AKA Toro Y Moi, mixes funk and electronic music in his cover of 1985 hit “Saturday Love” on his upcoming EP. Pumping out two albums in the last two years and on the road this fall with a slew of new tour dates, Bundick is one of the most prolific artists around. His music is pretty laid back. So, relax and get your chill-wave on at the El Rey Theatre in October.

GROUPLOVE – Never Trust a Happy Song (9/13)                                                                                                      

On Tour: 9/22 (The Wiltern, L.A.), 10/26 (El Rey Theatre, L.A.)

After meeting in Crete at an artists’ convention, the members of the energetic rock band GROUPLOVE reunited in LA to start making music. They first caught the indie crowd’s attention with the catchy hit “Colours” from their 2010 self-titled EP. They release their debut album, Never Trust a Happy Song, on 9/13 (what is with that day?) and play in Los Angeles soon after.

Das Racist—Relax  (9/13)                                                                     

On Tour: 11/3 (The Roxy, L.A.)

Brooklyn-bred rapscallions Das Racist release their first full-length album this September, under the Greedhead Music label belonging to the group’s own Himanshu K. Suri, AKA Heems.  Following two hit mixtapes—Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man—the aptly titled Relax (there’s a flaming couch on the cover) features the trio’s collaborative efforts with everyone from Blood Diamonds to El-P to Punjabi-American bhangra artist Bikram Singh.  Check out “Michael Jackson,” the first single off the LP.

Girls—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (9/13)

On Tour: 9/3 (FYF Fest, L.A.)

With track titles like “Vomit” and “Honey Bunny,” we don’t know quite what to make of San Francisco-based crooners Girls’ upcoming release.  But we think we like the excited confusion Christopher Owens and his fuzz-rock outfit are creating in anticipation of their forthcoming Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which they supposedly recorded “in the bowels of an S.F. office building.”

The Dum Dum Girls—Only In Dreams  (9/27)

On Tour: 8/27-8/28 (Sunset Junction Festival, L.A.), 10/1 (San Diego), 10/2 (Costa Mesa), 10/3 (The Troubadour, West Hollywood)

If you haven’t yet fallen for the Dum Dum Girls’ (named for Iggy Pop’s “Dum Dum Boys”) swoon-worthy, jangling garage-pop, it’s time you gave this group a listen.  They’ve been dubbed “unfailingly hip and wonderfully associative” for 2010’s debut album, I Will Be, and cite The Smiths, Nico, Bille Holiday, and The Jesus and Mary Chain among their chief influences.  Catch this group of uber-cool chicks in L.A. this fall as they promote their sophomore album from Subpop, Only In Dreams.

Twin Sister—In Heaven  (9/27)  

On Tour: 9/2 (San Diego), 9/3 (FYF Fest, L.A.)

This “dreamy, spare, and languorous” 5-some hailing from Brooklyn-by-way-of-Long-Island releases In Heaven, their debut LP—a follow-up to their hit EP Color Your Life—this September.  With funkadelic keyboarding from Dev Gupta and lead singer Andrea Estella’s sexy Portishead-like vocals, In Heaven is not to be missed.  Catch them in San Diego with Explosions in the Sky, or at L.A.’s FYF Fest this fall.

Wilco- The Whole Love  (9/27)                                                                              

On Tour: Your dorm room.

Indie rock superstars Wilco continue to create great rock and roll with their 8^th studio album. As the first album on their brand new label dBpm records, expect Jeff Tweedy and the gang to take full control of their sound on The Whole Love. Their first single, “I Might,” celebrates everything Wilco has done in the past while asserting their place in the present.  Wilco will not be touring near L.A. this fall, but humor us and our soft spot for the group Rolling Stone once called “America’s foremost rock impressionists.” Enough said.

Bullish Markets for CMC SIF

The fund is currently led by Chief Executive Officer(s) (always a senior) and a Chief Investment Officer (non-senior).  The officers provide leadership and direction for the fund, but are from the only figures behind the groups work. “The structure of the fund has always remained the same but the fundamental flaw was in the lack of motivation it provided to its members and thus it failed in terms of coordination. Motivation has come about as we put the right people in the spots where they can exhibit their talents and work…[we] let them operate however they see fit in a set of bounds which we have created” says Ben Kraus ’11, who shares the co-CEO position with Justin Eskind ’11.

While still a club, the fund is technically managing a segment of the school’s endowment, a considerable responsibility for a group of students. Through an increase in the delegation of responsibility, the fund seeks to maximize the talent amongst its members. Co-CEO Eskind states that maximization of talent will additionally occur due to the increase in the amount of responsibility as “we give 20% of the portfolio, i.e. $35,000,  to a certain group which invests it in whichever way they want to.”

This year the fund has been broken down into various asset classes (like a hedge fund) with the addition of a fixed income, currency and commodity components.  The traditional long-only equity portfolio has been reorganized as well, and close to 70% of the fund was liquidated in mid-April. CMC SIF uniquely includes a risk management arm, largely a result of the recent financial crisis. “As risk management is becoming more of a focus on Wall Street, it is important for us to give our students an opportunity to grow in that area,” said Co-CEO Kraus, “Students not only learn how to value a stock but they learn how to trade a commodity.”

The SIF meets weekly to discuss global market and financial updates as well as analyzing investment pitches made by its members to the fund. Members vote within 24 hours of the investment pitch via an online system.

The group seeks to meet its seven-figure goal by raising capital from parents, alumni, and other donors.  Members reach out to alumni using video conferencing during meetings in order to gain advice on certain markets and investment pitches. The fund also plans to participate in investment competitions at the college level and aims to help its members with internships through alumni networking.  “Our aim is to make the most of the resources and knowledge seniors have and to pass it on to the younger students as real world application,” says Eskind.

The management feels that through these changes and plans for this year the fund is moving in the right direction, but is still seeking to recruit the best and the brightest CMCers. “The success of the fund is due to hard work the members are putting in. The number of pitches in the last month and a half in conjunction with the indexing we have started doing is a huge step in right direction,” says Kraus. “At the same time, I am not convinced that we have interest from all of the best talent at this school.”

The SIF seeks to push Economics and Finance majors away from the banking industry and into the roles of asset managers, risk managers and stock pickers. According to the CEOs, the developed fund will also feature a more significant advisory role filled by CMC faculty and administration.  Within the past year, SIF has grown from an antiquated fund to a diverse group, with structure typical of big time funds – the first significant step towards becoming one of the premier student run funds in the country.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wait, let’s rewind a bit.

Pitzer President Laura Trombley and Robert Day '65.

In case you need to brush up on your Claremont Colleges history, here’s a little lesson: George Benson was the founding president of CMC.  Though he later helped out in the founding of both Harvey Mudd and Pitzer,  Benson seemed to be the embodiment of the ultimate CMCer.  Throughout his life, he was involved Los Angeles Republican party politics; he was even one of the original supporters of President Richard Nixon.  So why have our not-so-conservative neighbors chosen to honor Benson?

It turns out that Robert Day, CMC class of ’65 and former chair of CMC’s Board of Trustees, recently donated the $3 million for the renovation of Pitzer’s primary auditorium.   When given the choice, Day was the one that asked that the auditorium be named for Benson.  However, it does not seem that Day has abandoned his love for his alma mater and changed his allegiance to our northeastern brethren.   On the contrary, it seems that the move may have been entirely for the benefit of CMCers.  Rumors have begun to circulate that Day donated the Auditorium as a trade with Pitzer.   In exchange for the major gift, Pitzer would allegedly agree to allow the new Joint Science Building to be built in the lot across from the current building, right on the edge of CMC’s campus, on the plot of land that is currently the parking lot at 9th and Mills.  This would make the new structure just a stone’s throw from North Quad, and therefore very accessible to Claremont McKenna students. Though Pitzer had originally wanted the new project to be located further north, on a plot of land up towards Mudd, it seems more likely that the new building will be built much closer to CMC’s campus.

Interior of the new Benson Auditorium. Photo credit: Amy Jasper PZ '10

CMC’s VP of Alumni Relations, John Faranda, could not confirm the rumors that the donation was a buyoff. However, he did mention, “Robert [Day] is a very smart man, and we know he is very interested in helping science.”  In fact, it is part of Day’s family legacy.  Day is actually a relative of W.M. Keck, after whom the current Joint Science Center is named.   The W.M. Keck Foundation has provided funding for all sorts of science related projects, from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii to USC’s Keck School of Medicine. In other words, Day is merely continuing his family tradition, albeit in a very hands-on manner.

In some ways, it appears that Day is the epitome of a CMC graduate.  He is an extremely savvy businessman who is using his expertise in the world and his monetary power to forward a cause he feels passionately about: the well-being of CMC students.  As for naming the auditorium after Benson, this is not uncalled for.  Much of the nomenclature around all five colleges is already intertwined.  In fact, Pitzer itself was named after Russell K. Pitzer, who provided one of the crucial initial donations to get Claremont McKenna off the ground.

Fundraising is not currently underway on the project, and it will probably be years before construction on the Joint Science Center Expansion officially begins.  Perhaps years down the road, CMC students can show gratitude to Day for his contributions to science at the Claremont Colleges and a shorter walk to class.

CMC has consistently ranked between 9-14 over the past decade in U.S. News & World Report's college rankings.

For those of you who have not read the piece, the argument is as follows: Claremont McKenna’s focus on government and economics is a detriment to other departments, and it prevents our beloved school from rising into the top ten liberal arts colleges as ranked by U.S. News and World Report.  Nico goes on to equate our focus on government and economics with the lack of general name recognition.  He offers three main arguments for his position.  First, the best applicants interested in government and economics go to more big-name schools.  Second, name recognition is a factor for attracting prospective freshmen and transfer students.  Third, CMC loses strong faculty in other departments because of our focus.

Let us begin with the supposed link between our name recognition and our focus on government and economics.  I believe that other factors better explain CMC’s lack of name recognition.  We are the only top twenty liberal arts college that is under 100 years old –rather considerably under, given that our 63^rd graduating class will receive its diplomas in a few weeks.  This relative youth, coupled with the small size of our graduating classes, means that CMC has relatively few alumni. Indeed, all CMC alumni would not fill the Rose Bowl —we wouldn’t even fill one-fifth of the seats! Youth and the size of our alumni network are far more likely explanations of the lack of name recognition than diversity of academic offerings. Compare our alumni base —likely less than 15,000 —to Harvard, Amherst, or Williams.

Now let us consider Nico’s three points.  Applicants that are the best candidates for government and economics majors will go elsewhere.  Fine.  There really is no way to either prove or disprove this point. So, for the sake of argument, let us assume it is true. Dean Vos has stated that CMC’s goal is to enroll 300 freshmen (110 early decision admits + 190 through regular decision).  Relative to the pool of applicants applying to top schools in the United States, this is a tiny number.  We could not hope to attract the top students in any field, even if we put every resource the college had behind that effort.  Students pick schools based on a whole host of factors: size, weather, proximity to home, social atmosphere, city size, and family ties, among others. CMC cannot be all things to all prospective students.  The campus we offer is, I believe, different from a vast variety of other schools.  As such, it will tend to attract particular students.

Is CMC trapped in a cycle of government and economics majors, as Nico alleges?  Well, the majority of CMCers graduate with a dual or double major.  Often, those second majors are something other than government or economics.  Furthermore, those other departments are not as small as Nico portrays them. CMC actually offers more math courses than government courses (55 math compared to 50 government), and has about as many psychology classes (48) as government. The relative parity of those departments is never mentioned in his article.

As an anonymous do-gooder mentions in the comments section of Nico’s post, graduate schools and employers often know exactly what CMC is and why it is such a fantastic institution.   This comment, though I agree with it, misses Nico’s point.  His friends in Indiana had not heard of CMC, although they have heard of George Washington and USC. Nico was talking about the name identification among peers.  I agree with his analysis of the symptoms, but I disagree with his diagnosis. Age and alumni network are likely to”‘blame.”  Indeed, the school most often garners attention when our professors are quoted in newspapers (see Professor Jack Pitney), donors give major gifts to the school (Robert A. Day and Henry Kravis), or when other elements of those two departments which are “holding us back” shine in the public sphere.

In 1969, Claremont Men's stayed true to its mission, bringing in Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut for commencement to discuss the importance of service. It was the College's twenty-third graduation ceremony.

Finally, let us address this issue of talent recruitment and retention.  I am not going to speculate as to why Professor Khazeni was denied tenure.  Nico is obviously upset by this fact, and I cannot imagine that the decision thrilled the professor either.  Tenure decisions are made by the Advancement, Promotions, and Tenure committee (APT).  This committee is made up of all tenured professors of the college.  There are a variety of reasons why a professor might be denied tenure, and Nico’s assertion without basis that the professor in question was snubbed is both premature and uninformed. Since he admittedly does not know the standards by which tenure is granted, creating his own standards which show that the professor deserved tenure is not sufficient grounds upon which to claim that the APT committee failed in its duty.

Nico’s vision of a brighter CMC future calls for expanded academic offerings by hiring the best talent to other departments. This plan sounds remarkably like what CMC is already doing. Professor Bassam Frangieh did not appear out of midair. He was recruited by CMC from Yale to create an Arabic program. Associate Professor of Philosophy Suzanne Obdrzalek also was previously featured at Yale. Professor Minxin Pei, one of the world’s leading experts in Asian affairs, is now the head of the Keck Center and an instructor in international relations. One can also look to the two new professors being hired by the history department. These are just a few of many examples of how CMC invests in other departments and why Nico is simply misinformed.

Claremont McKenna cannot be all things to all students; we follow the consortium model. Nowhere does Nico mention that some students come here for that very reason. The schools divvy up responsibility to cover more ground in depth, instead of wasting resources duplicating efforts. That such a young school can excel in two major areas of study— economics and government— should be celebrated, not chastised. Anyone who does the latter did not do their research as a prospective student, and has ignored the most important characteristic of the college process: fit.