To kick it off, sophomore Libby Friede from Philadelphia hits on the sensitive topic of the infamous high school sweetheart.

Dear Freshman,

If you’ve ever seen the movie Annie Hall you are familiar with a basic premise: boy meets girl, they fall in love, girl moves across the country. There are two potential ends to the story:
Boy and Girl realize someone needs to move so they can be together
Boy and Girl go their separate ways. Both have a hard time, and then they move on.

When I was a freshman, I moved from Pennsylvania to California. My boyfriend moved to  New York City. (The exact locations NYC and LA parallel the movie to perfection.) We watched Annie Hall and realized the Woody Allen-Diane Keaton conundrum was only a few weeks away from reality. After endless nights of talking about it and not talking about it, we decided to make it work. After all, we had technology on our side. How hard could it be with Skype, e-mail, Facebook, and cell phones? I arrived in California nervous and lonely. I didn’t know a single person, and it was so much easier to log onto Skype than open my  door and meet new people.

For three weeks we attempted a game of long distance ping-pong. He called, but I couldn’t pick up because of orientation. I called, and he had just started dinner. It was frustrating and isolating. I skipped out on so many parties and invitations to fro-yo because we had a Skype date, or I was on the phone. I was technically in Claremont but I was in this strange limbo-land, equal parts Philadelphia, New York, and Claremont. Finally, there was the fateful call: “this isn’t working.” At first, I felt even more alone. Then someone invited me to a Friday night performance of Without a Box (so good!). I almost said no out of habit, but I realized I didn’t have a phone call coming, so I went out. And then I had fun. Little by little, I went to more parties and more club meetings. I met more people and got out of my room and out of my shell.

I don’t write this letter of advice saying don’t have a long distance significant other. There are some people who do it; there are some people who can make it work. There are also plenty of people (freshman mostly) with a significant other across the country or around the world. They will probably say things like “we’re practically married” or “the distance makes us closer.” Hate to break it to you, but for a lot of you in this boat, the break-up wave is coming and it’s okay. It’s really hard to give 100% to making new friends and living in a new place when you feel so connected to somewhere else.

Break-ups are always tough, but they are even harder when you’re a million miles from home. Instead of making a playlist of sad songs, find someone in your hall to talk about it with. Chances are you are not the only one in the same situation.  Talking about your break-up is not only free therapy, you’ll probably get a really good friend out of it.

For those of you who do stay with your far-off significant other, make sure you give Claremont a shot. Try to get out there and make new friends. Whether you’re an alternative Allie or a preppy Pam, you can find your people here; you just have to go out and look for them. From classes to clubs to TNC, get out and meet people! I know this is advice that you’ve probably heard a million times but it’s true. If your mind’s tied to a lover across the country, your eyes on computer screen, and your ear glued to a phone, there’s a lot less room and a lot less time to meet people here that will become your Claremont family.

Peace, Love,  and Cheesesteaks,

Libby Friede

Staff writers Kelsey Brown and Caroline Nyce contributed to this article.

Princeton Review

The Princeton Review released its college rankings list August 1 and CMC took top spots in flattering categories, including Happiest Students (#2), Best Quality of Life ( #4), Best Career Services (#7) and School Runs Like Butter (#7).  The full lists are available here.

The Princeton Review book, which profiles the best 300+ colleges in its yearly publication, is a trusted staple for helicopter parents, prospective students, and college administrators.   But the unscientific methods used to create the venerated lists suggest our adoration may be misplaced.

The rankings are calculated by current student surveys.  Here’s Princeton Review’s official word on methodology:

“Most questions offer an answer choice on a five-point scale: students fill in one of five boxes on a grid with headers varying by topic (e.g. a range from “Excellent” to “Awful”). All of our 62 ranking lists tallies are based on students’ answers to one or more of these questions with a five-point answer scale. Some questions on the survey are open-ended and offer students the opportunity to answer with narrative responses.

Once the surveys have been completed and the responses stored in our database, we tally the results. Our methodology and the math by which we calculate our ranking results are quite simple. Each college is given a score (similar to a GPA) for its students’ answers to each multiple-choice question. These scores enable us to compare student opinion from college to college. They are the sole factors that determine which schools make it onto our 62 ranking lists.”

Of course, a rank near the bottom or the top of the pack has some truth to it.  Yes, our professors are accessible, perhaps too accessible when they wander through North Quad on a Thursday night.  But we’re #5 in “Lots of Beer” and UC Santa Barbara is #20?  Is our standing meant to imply that there is more beer consumed per capita at CMC than Santa Barbara? Anyone who believes that, to speak proverbially, clearly has had too much to drink.  That’s up from #13 since last year, but our alcohol policy has only become more restrictive.

CMC, at #8, outranked Scripps in the “Dorms Like Palaces” category.  If the category was “A Dorm is Like a Palace,” then perhaps CMC’s Claremont Hall could give Scripps’ GJW a run for its money.  But no one would doubt CMC’s founding fathers had utility, not luxury, in mind when designing North and Mid Quads.  Save a few hinges, the dorms could have been tipped on their sides and hosed down after a keg tap gone wrong.  Compare this to Scripps, where the sheer number of clinging vines may be enough to qualify it for a feature piece in Martha Stewart Living. The dorms also boast stained glass windows, coincidentally the window material favored by those who live in… palaces.

Forbes

CMC ranks between Harvard and Yale in the Forbes ranking.

The new Forbes Magazine college rankings were released on August 11 and soon became linked and liked all over Facebook.   The Forbes rankings system is its infancy–it’s only three years old–and the magazine is admittedly still working out flaws in methodology, which may explain dramatic year-to-year changes.  CMC moved from #27 in the “Best Colleges” list to #9 in the span of one year, placing it between Harvard (#8) and Yale (#10).

The rankings here are compiled from a combination of student opinions, including 17.5% from RateMyProfessors.com, and objective data, including alumni salaries from Payscale.com.

But the factors included range in legitimacy. Under “Postgraduate Success” is the outright absurd measure of listing of alumni in Who’s Who in America, featured only ten years earlier in the same magazine as “The Hall of Lame” for containing “a lot of relatively unaccomplished people who simply nominated themselves.”  This makes up 10% of a college’s score.

Since last year, they’ve dropped faculty awards altogether from consideration.  Previously, faculty awards made up 8.33% of the rankings.  They’ve included new variables to measure alumni success and default rates on loans.

U.S. News & World Report

The only rankings to get a school-wide email shout-out from President Gann, the U.S. News Rankings released yesterday are the gold standard in college rankings.  They’re also the most methodologically rigorous, incorporating objective measurements as well as subjective evaluations by students, peer institutions, and high school counselors.

The much-anticipated rankings varied only slightly from last year, despite changes in methodology that diminished the influence of ratings by peer institutions’ college presidents that attempted to quantify the reputation of the school.  In 2010, Claremont McKenna was ranked #11 on the list of best liberal arts colleges, a position shared with Vassar College.  In 2011, CMC retained its spot at #11 but has edged ahead of Vassar.   Pomona College, #6 last year, also remains at #6, suggesting to consumers that the methodological changes were not as dramatic as expected.

In 2011 the magazine placed more weight on graduation rates, increasing the measure’s weight from 5 percent to 7.5 percent of the final score.  High school counselors are now given a say and college officials’ opinions will receive less weight to accommodate them.

High honors or cheap sales?

“Top” liberal arts colleges formalized their objections to college rankings by circulating a petition in September 2007 agreeing not to use rankings in promotional material. Notable signatories included the presidents of Amherst, Carleton, Haverford, Wellesley and Pomona Colleges.

In a wide-ranging interview conducted last year by Forum Editor-in-Chief Michael Wilner, Pomona President David Oxtoby discussed his position on college rankings. Although he does think rankings in general have helped all liberal colleges by placing them among larger, well known schools including Ivies and public universities, he wished colleges and prospective students would place less faith in them.

“They have absurd claims to being scientific, which is really frustrating,” Oxtoby said. “On the other hand, the idea of protesting is a waste of time.  So I did not agree to the boycott. I think the reputational rankings are probably more valid that the rest of the survey components.”

He added, “I think we’re under-ranked. We should be higher.  In different ways, the other [Claremont] colleges may be under-ranked as well.”

President Gann had a different approach to the boycott, which she articulated in an interview with Inside Higher Ed.  Gann claimed that CMC only makes “very limited use” of rankings in promotional material, and that her objection to the boycott was the fundamental fissure it would create with the college’s core philosophy.   “Claremont McKenna College is very committed to free markets and individual choice,” she was quoted, “For-profit publications and rankings are what they are in our free-market economy.”

Staff Writer Sara Birkenthal and Editor-in-Chief Michael Wilner contributed to this article.

I would wager that fewer CMCers know of that other 5C alumna serving in the lower chamber: Gabrielle Giffords (Scripps ’93).

It is worth considering where Gabrielle Giffords is and how she got there for a number of reasons, including the perk of being able to toot Claremont’s own horn.

Aerophonic blasts notwithstanding, let us examine Giffords’ situation, as it might provide some insight into the midterm elections which are but a few months away. Giffords, a Democrat, represents Arizona’s 8^th District–hardly a liberal stronghold. Located in southeast Arizona, along the border the district went for John McCain in 2008 by six points and for George W. Bush twice, albeit not by massive margins. Arizona’s 8^th, which includes part of Tucson, is a slightly Republican (for you political nerds, Charlie Cook’s PVI rates it R+4) and is likely to prove difficult for Democrats to defend this cycle. Democrats in the past two cycles have made gains in these types of more conservative districts and in order to retain control of the House these are the types of seats they will have to defend and hold.

(Is it just me, or does that last paragraph sound like a not funny Stephen Colbert’s Better Know A District?)

The district is competitive, so what? Other than giving 5C students the warm and fuzzies to see our own succeed, paying attention to this race may prove a useful proxy for the national field.

How do we know this race is so competitive, you may wonder? Giffords was amongst the first House Democrats to air general election ads this cycle. Though Arizona’s primary is not until August 24, Giffords felt the need to go on air almost two months earlier. Her choice of ad is also worth noting: heavily pro-military/veteran, anti-regulatory (“cutting through red tape”) libertarian message designed to appeal to a more conservative constituency.

Giffords’ voting record may also present an issue. She voted for Cap-and-Trade and ObamaCare, likely to be hard sells in a conservative-leaning western seat. The White House, Speaker Pelosi, and the DCCC have all made the case that those bills will be embraced by the American people, Arizona’s 8^th will test that argument.

Who is challenging the gentle lady from Scripps College, you might ask? Chris Cillizza of The Washington Post summarizes the opposition nicely. “Former State Sen. Jonathan Paton (R) made a statement with $500,000 raised in an abbreviated first quarter after getting in the race early this year, but he still faces a primary with Iraq veteran Jesse Kelly.”

So on the one hand, Paton’s fundraising is solid  (if not out-of-this-world-jump-for-joy-fantastic). On the other hand, Jesse Kelly is kind of badass.

Oh yeah, one final thing: the race is in ARIZONA. You know what that means: immigration. In the aftermath of Arizona’s new law, immigration is bound to play an outsized role (yes, outsized even for a western, border district race). Giffords’ position is nuanced. Giffords opposes both the law and the lawsuit. She is walking a fine line between being tough on illegal immigration, and angering either the sizeable Hispanic minority or more liberal supporters located primarily near Tucson. Dangerous stuff.

So, children, what have we learned? First, there is more than one 5C alum in Congress. Second, her district will be indicative of broader national trends. Third, if the number of Scrippsies in Congress is to remain steady and not drop, Gabrielle Giffords will have to run a very strong campaign against the odds.

We’re on the way to Accra, the capital of Ghana, from Tamale. It is hour five of our thirteen hour trip. Tamale is one of the most Northern cities in Ghana, a calm region that is a bit different than the rest of the nation. Our local guide, Razak, told us it is about 55 percent Muslims, a statement echoed by the call-to-prayer booming from the mosques five times a day. The market at the center of the city is similar to the ones we’ve seen thus far: full of second hand American apparel (not your $45 sparkly unitard – more like your 1998 Hall and Oates revival tank-top your dad gave away 7 years ago) and more fresh fruit than your salivary glands can handle. 

As white travelers (Obrunis as Ghanians say), we are perpetually being hustled. Which is fair enough, I could probably start a successful business here with the dollar amount equivalent to last year’s 16 meal plan. My Nikes shout, “I am obligated to pay twice as much for this taxi ride.” Luckily we’re traveling with Big Leks–the ultimate bargainer. Cold-hearted some would say, but he’s used to it. See the whole reason we are even in Ghana is because his family lives in Accra. They’ve graciously let us destroy the contents of their cupboards and spoil their toilets with ample amounts of traveler’s diarrhea – an unfortunate inevitability. I knew the fish looked funky.

But this bus… this is just one bus, the last bus. Our first bus took us comfortably to Cape Coast, home of a disturbing attraction: the Cape Coast Slave Castle. This place was built sometime in the 1600s, I think, there is surprisingly little access to Wikipedia in rural Africa. So I’m not really sure when it was built, suffice to sayit fits the bill for a “slave castle,” being sufficiently spooky. Walking into the slave dungeons and standing among the unforgiving stones it wasn’t hard to imagine the horror.  The Door of No Return affected me the most. There, the slaves were slung into American and European ships, never to see their home or families again. Goodbye Mama Africa and freedom, hello cotton plantation. Forget a textbook, send a sixth grader to a slave castle and they’ll never forget the feeling of heartbreak.

With the macabre of the castle still fresh in our mind, we headed to a slightly more uplifting location, the jungle. Yes, the jungle, like panthers and fat spiders, and so much humidity my glasses fogged up like a September TNC. Our purpose was to accomplish the canopy walk: A series of swaying bridges connected to the treetops. Yeah, “what the shit” is what I was thinking too. But once we got up there, along with an elementary school full of screaming children, it was amazing. (It’s hard to act like a wimp when an eight year old girl is right next to you, leaping from plank to plank, unfazed.) Caught in the fog, we swayed our way across rope bridges like Indiana Jones. Maybe less swiftly, especially Leks, dude is top heavy with a feet the width of the bridge itself.

In the three days following our deep jungle excursion, we hit up the Green Turtle, an environmentally-friendly beach resort that is just a Corona commercial away from paradise. Actually it was soap and mosquito repellent away from paradise. If malaria has ever entered my bloodstream it was at the Green Turtle. Thank the holy lord for Doxycycline, my Malaria / Chlamydia / Syphilis / any-infection-you-might-ever-get pill. Despite the itching bites, we found happiness in a five cedi ($3.50) liter of gin, and the unexpected entertainment of a Jenga set. Pull, assign drink, pull, assign drink, make it fall- take a shot. Egyptians had it down, architecture is fun.

The next morning we hopped aboard another bus, this one 7 hours to TamaleLeks’ pops is working on campaign to fight malaria in more rural areas of Ghana, and that’s where we were heading, toone of thoserural villages outside of Tamale. We had to change transportation to get to the village – you’ve never seen more people crammed in one rickety van (a tro-tro). I counted 24, including the nipple-latched infant feeding next to Kai. We were fine until the hood flew up and scarred spider-web cracks across the windshield. Despite the scare, we made it to the village wet from the shoulder sweat of our neighbors but unscathed.

The village was like every African charity commercial you see on TV, minus the cleft pallets and ballooned bellies. So it wasn’t really, I guess just the mud huts and nearly naked children, chilling out maxing, relaxing all cool. The kids were ecstatic to see a camera and posed for us while we got our fill of culture to show the rest of the world what awesome travelers we are. “I was there!” For the malaria spray, the huts were emptied and shot with a pesticide which supposedly lasts a year. When mosquitoes land on the walls they die immediately, like they deserve. Naughty disease spreaders. Upon our departure we were given a guinea fowl by the chief linguist, a lovely offering we kindly accepted, though we later gave it away to more adequately trained fowl chefs.

The trip north was incredible. Yet, now, I am cursing my life, minutes away from going mad. It is dark and the shine of my book light on the flow of my pen is the only thing keeping me sane. The potholes in the dirt road are not assisting my legibility and I may stab this lady in front of me. “I am six foot three, you are four-eleven, do you realize how little space I have!” I won’t though. I’ll sit here with my noise canceling headphones relaying silence from the dead iPod in my pocket, thinking of all the amazing aspects of this trip.  There’s more to come though, on South Africa, the cup and such. I mean, if you care, the eight dollars Carl pays me per article isn’t quite a driving force. Just saying.

Much love, enjoy the sun, and these pics.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

According to their mission statement, Uncommon Good seeks to break the cycle of poverty among young children through the aggressive pursuit of education. Along with the mentoring program Uncommon Good also has green and health care initiatives, which sponsors young health professionals who work with the poor.

Founded in 2000 and based in Claremont, CMC students and alumni are involved with the organization in a variety of capacities. At the end of the past academic year, there were 44 CMC student mentors (40% of the 5Cs total), and 63% of the organization’s total mentoring force were from the Claremont Colleges.

SOURCE, CMC’s student-managed non-profit consulting organization sponsored by the Kravis Institute, has a team of students working with Uncommon Good during the academic year. Roxanne Phen ’10, mentor and former SOURCE team leader, comments:

“The SOURCE Uncommon Good team works closely with the nonprofit on capacity building, aiding in the writing of grants and recruitment of mentors at the Claremont Colleges, among other things…this not only gave me a deeper understanding of how nonprofits work, but inspired me to explore alternative funding sources for traditionally nonprofit causes in my year-long thesis. My hope is that I can continue to work on these issues as I start my career.”

You may also remember that Roxanne presented the gist of her thesis at the Ath idea night –and won. She also helped her mentee pay her way to a leadership conference for which she had been nominated through fundraising efforts.

Requirements for mentees to be matched with a mentor (other than the availability of a mentor – there are currently over 60 kids on the waiting list!) are that they be in good academic standing, come from a lower income or troubled household, and that they want a mentor. The requirements insure that students work with mentees that are bright and motivated to learn from their older role models, and in many cases just need that support from someone older to become motivated to attend college.

To be a mentor, one must be a good role models, meet with one’s mentee for at least an hour every week, and be a steady source of support for one’s mentees with a full year commitment. When mentors graduate they are tasked with re-matching their mentee to another student who they believe would be a good match for their mentee.

Mike Peel, CMC ’07 and Uncommon Good’s Development Director, is a huge advocate of the organization as well as their mentoring program. “Uncommon Good has been an experience that has surpassed my expectations for a career choice. The organization’s unique and multi-faceted approach to poverty and environmental issues ensures that I am constantly being challenged and growing as a professional.” While a CMC student Mike also founded SOURCE, CMC’s student-managed non-profit consulting organization.

Uncommon Good is a great organization to get involved with when you get back on campus if you are looking to give back to the community in a fun and meaningful way. If you are interested in becoming a mentor, you can apply to be one here – if you apply now you will also skip the longer waiting process in September.

Some more comments by CMC students and alumni:

“This has been one of my most rewarding experiences at college! Vincent is like my little brother away from home. My influence academically speaking has taken hold as he keeps up with his grades, is reading on a daily basis, keeps a list of words he doesn’t understand and looks them up in the dictionary.” –Charlie Sarosy, CMC ‘10

Claudia Lopez, CMC ’10, has been matched with her mentee, Nina, since her freshman year. “I got involved because I was a tutor in high school. I found out that this is a lot more fun, plus I feel like I really make a difference in Nina’s life. She didn’t know anything about college when we met, but now she knows that going to college is attainable for her.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a mentor, and in retrospect it was one that defined my college career because it had such a big impact on me.” –Greg Hall, CMC ‘09

But one thing I can say with confidence is that I don’t regret refusing to play the game.[i] I have been rejected from more things than I can count, and I am painfully aware of each and every one. Princeton: thin envelope. Rhodes: no dice. These two things are probably related. Grades do matter. And you should write application essays keeping in mind what the judges want to hear. Yet there’s something more to life than success through these narrowly defined metrics.

That thing, of course, is called actually living. Life is a beautiful, magical, and–much as we young people hate to admit it–a transitory thing.  So when I hear a freshman stressing about his summer internship plans or some sophomores trading tips about the LSAT, I die a little inside. I desperately want to tell them, loudly and with my fist clenched around their shirt: “You’re freaking 18, 19 years old. Go bond with friends over a thirty rack of natty light. Go read a great book that will shatter your worldview. Go do something, anything, except wallow in such self-imposed misery.” The point is not so much that they need to get a life, but that they have already chosen not to live one.

I can’t say I blame them for their choice; it’s eminently understandable. The presence of the meritocracy is all around us. In many ways, it is the defining aspect of our generation and of Claremont McKenna. That’s not a bad thing, but it, like anything, does have consequences. The characteristics that define CMC affect who we are as CMCers. There are clear barriers to get in here, and there are objective ways to measure how far we’ve come when we get out. Grades. Test scores. Internships. These are the symbols through which we adjudicate success in our overachiever environment.

Those measurements, however, are just one set of lines that run through the totality of life. They do not reflect the quality of our friendships, the depth of our integrity, or the sincereness of our devotion to family, God, or country; they measure everything, in short, except that which makes life meaningful. And they tell us everything about ourselves except that which will make us fulfilled to be who we are.

Acknowledging the lack of perspective I have with my brief, fake-world life, I think I’ve found my passion. I love California more than any one person should, and man is it fulfilling. So with a heap of hesitation and a dash of self-awareness, I’d like to give you some advice:

Don’t be merely a function of social exigencies.

Don’t forget to ask the big questions.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

Never be entirely consumed by what people consider “practical.”[ii]

Never let people tell you to stop dreaming.

Those are the things that have helped me to start figuring myself out–to parse away the layers of norms, expectations, and lies we tell ourselves to figure what we really want. Finding that–the thing that keeps you awake night after night and for which you are willing, even happy, to work for hours on end, day after day–is a big part of what makes life worth living. Some of you may disagree,[iii] but I will say this: try asking yourself what you really, truly, deeply want out of life.  I’m certain you won’t regret it.

[ii] Please don’t take that as an invocation to become a dirty Pitzer hippie. (And for goodness sake don’t take that as anything but a playful poke at our beloved neighbor to the North.) 

[iii] Here I’m envisioning some disgusting happiness-monger saying something along the lines of “Ignorance is bliss” or invoking some sort of perpetual sensory pleasure machine. But I’m not willing to accept an existence analogous to highly evolved slime. Purpose, meaning, fulfillment, all flowing from the distinctively human capacity of cognition–those are things that are worth talking about.

Hurricane Stagthena

A freshman at Scripps in one of my classes recently told a harrowing story regarding CMCers’ poor attitude towards cleaning up. After attending an event on CMC’s campus, she tried to be courteous, straightening up the disaster left behind. To this, a CMC student responded arrogantly, “This is CMC; we don’t clean up.”

The general attitude on campus seems to be of ill responsibility when it comes to cleaning up.  I’ve heard students brag about their ability to simply drop their trash wherever they are standing. Though we have a phenomenal grounds crew, this does not give CMCers the license to completely disrespect our campus.  We parade around campus, smugly behaving like children fed by a silver spoon.   Instead of taking the initiative to keep our campus clean, we simply place the burden of our hard-partying lifestyles on the backs of the hard-working dorm maids.  In the midst of the Thursday Night Club fiasco, Dean of Students took note of our nonchalant attitude towards cleaning up. On March 24, students received an email from ASCMC stating that DOS would like to see students “taking the initiative to clean up after events.”  I believe the general consensus is that we should do everything we can to prevent TNC from being canceled.  So if DOS wants us to clean, I say we clean.

There may be some preconceived notion that because students are under the influence of alcohol, they do not have to take responsibility for their actions.  Next time you are in that situation, I must ask, are you so incapacitated that you cannot place your trash in a proper receptacle?  And if you are, why on earth are you out walking around on campus?

Have we already so long forgotten those values which were once taught to us by a giant singing purple dinosaur?  I think Barney really hit the nail on the head when he uttered those immortal words – “Clean up, Clean up. Everybody do your share.” (Even this girl knows what’s up.)

Supposedly, we are a bunch of kids that are really good at economics and accounting.  Dorm damages have already amounted to over $20,000 this year. Call me crazy, but this may not be the best allocation of our financial resources. Cleaning up better won’t make all of those penalties go away, but it will help cut down on those mysterious dorm damages for lounge cleanup that get passed along to the entire residence hall.

So, CMCers, take the two seconds to throw away your cup to preserve TNC – even in its now limited capacity. At the least, cleaning up is worth several more nights  of raging.

A view of Los Angeles' City Hall from the Walt Disney Concert Hall, where the LA Philharmonic plays.

Unfortunately, these trips are not open to CMC students.  This is where our student government needs to step in and put forth some funding and organizational effort to plan off-campus excursions for the student body.  There is no denying that CMC has plenty of social events and activities. However, campus life inevitably becomes dull from time to time.  If ASCMC wishes to truly represent the will of the student body, it should offer subsidized trips to desirable locations.  Such locations could easily be determined by a poll, distributed via email.  Once the desired locations were determined, the endeavor could start out small, one trip per month at the beginning and expand from there.

Student government-organized trips are especially vital considering the fact that freshmen are not permitted to have cars on campus.  If transportation is not provided and the fees associated with various trips are not subsidized, many students will miss out on some of the best destinations Southern California has to offer.  If students wish to truly make the most of CMC’s incredible location, a greater effort needs to be made to plan such trips. What it really comes down to is student happiness.  ASCMC-sponsored trips would be fun and accessible for everyone and would add a whole new dimension to CMC’s social climate.

As a first step in the planning and execution of subsidized trips, I have polled a selection of CMC students on where they want to see ASCMC organize trips.  The results are as follows.

Question: If ASCMC were to organize a trip at a subsidized cost, providing transportation, to the following place would you attend?

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.

Admittedly, I’ve screwed up. In my three years at CMC I have taken twenty-seven classes; not one of those has been a (hard) science . There science looms, taunting me from senior year. Fully one-fourth (and perhaps more) of my final year at this lovely education institution/resort will be devoted to the study of physics and biology—with lab!

I have not taken a science class since the tenth grade—when I took an exit examination a year early so that I could focus on those courses which I better enjoyed. I spent an entire month studying for that test with the promise that I would have the rest of my high school time sans-science. And, you know what, I’ve been enjoying those soft sciences (government and economics) as well as certain humanities (philosophy, religious studies, history, literature) ever since. I thought science and I had gone our separate ways—alas, no.

So what is the purpose of this piece, other than for me to kvetch to a wider than usual audience? My intentions are twofold: to urge others not to repeat my mistake, and to examine why it is we have two science requirements.

The Folly: I decided during freshman year, shortly after I found out that there were science requirements, to postpone taking those classes for as long as possible. I hoped that perhaps the Curriculum Committee might reduce the burden or alter the requirements in some way as to alleviate my impending doom. Needless to say, they did not. So why was this delay harmful? Because after being here for three years, having sampled a variety of professors and disciplines, I find myself in a good position to choose the courses I might most enjoy. Sadly, a substantial block of my schedule will be filled by these science classes instead.

So, if you like me suffer from labphobia and the thought of beakers makes you yearn for an intriguing novel, or a novel argument, here’s my advice: take your sciences early. Yes it is true that GE sciences fill quickly with seniors trying to complete half-forgotten requirements, but not every spot is taken. If science is not your thing, get it over with so that you can use your higher registration numbers later on to pick more enjoyable classes. I wish I had.

The Requirements: I understand, and mostly agree, with why we have a science requirement. A liberal education requires exposure to a broad range of disciplines and schools of thought. But it has always seemed to me (an admittedly uninformed observer of such things) that the scientific approach, which is to say the scientific method, is common to both the biological and physical sciences. The GE science classes require a time commitment well beyond a normal CMC class. When one considers the class time (2-3 hours/week) plus the lab time (1-3 hours/week) a science class seems to be closer to two regular CMC classes than one. The time commitment is significantly larger than those required by most other classes, but the class is not for 1.5 or 2 credits, and you have to take two of them.

So, in effect, CMC mandates four “units of academic time” be devoted to the sciences, more than the humanities (2 units) or the social sciences (3 units) or any other GE requirement. I wonder whether this use of time is most valuable. I suspect that requiring only one science plus lab would add just as much intellectual value to our liberal arts education as the two currently required. We do not require multiple introductions to any other discipline for non-majors, so why do we do so for the sciences?

I think it is fair to question this burden. It seems to me it would better to allows students to spend at least part of that time pursing a depth of knowledge in their chosen area of study. A strong standard of GE requirements, which CMC requires, is admirable. By and large, it forces students out of their shells and exposes them to multiple disciplines before we get sent out into the world. But burdens for burden’s sake seems to ignore this goal. The objective has been accomplished, and yet another test remains.

I invite you, if you have made it this far in my ramble, to proffer a reason why CMC should have this requirement. I do not know the answer, but I think asking the question is worthwhile.