On November 3^rd, 2010, Barack H. Obama will still reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but offices at the other end of that particular street might begin to move. Recently White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs let forth the earth shattering notion that Democrats might not control both chambers of Congress after the election. Not particularly surprising to anyone who has been paying attention…but rather poorly received by House Democrats. Indeed Speaker Pelosi (yikes!) lambasted Gibbs in a meeting with her Democratic colleagues.

No matter your current level of interest, I am here to tell you that the midterm elections should be of interest to you. What follows (hopefully) will be a persuasive argument as to why you should turn on (TV, internets, radio, twitters), how you should tune into House races, and why this all matters.

What about the Senate? For a variety of reasons (which I am happy, even eager, to discuss elsewhere) the Senate Majority Leader has no where near the control over his fellow members, legislative calendar, or policy, as the Speaker of the House does. Individual Senators and Committees, by practice and procedure, have much greater power in the upper chamber than in the lower. As a result, I would submit it is the Speaker of the House that is the second most powerful office in the land.

And it’s up for grabs. As Gibbs noted (despite his rather unsurprising ‘walking back’) the House is up for grabs. “Speaker Boehner” is a phrase which sends chills up the spines of Democrats everywhere, much as the mere utterance of the words “Speaker Pelosi” cause the average Republican to fret and avoid eating for some time.

So what should you pay attention to? There are, broadly speaking, two schools of thought. The first, and easier to track, is national indicators. The state of the economy, the unemployment rate, the ‘national mood,’ and other metrics are all fair rough metrics of what is likely to happen. The alternative is to predict on a race by race basis how elections are likely to turn out and tally those predictions. (For those of you reading this to waste time and are really looking for an excuse not to get stuff done, you can read this piece or this one on forecasting).

So where to tune? The Cook Political Report is an invaluable source as a guide to which races are competitive and how they compare. His House Race charts can be found here. For those of you looking for a bit more content, and World Cup references, The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza is a must read. For those of your truly addicted, there are many more resources but a new one that I am quite fond of is a twitter feed @FECTweets run by Reid Wilson at National Journal’s Hotline. The feed just broadcasts the quarterly fundraising results (2Q were due July 15) so less useful now, but good to have in the future.

There’s also the option to drop out. I’m not necessarily advocating you leave CMC for a semester to work on a campaign, though you could do worse things. You can phone bank from anywhere with Skype or a cell phone, and you can always write a check. If you do plan to go the cash route, I will not use this space to tell you who to send money to, but I will say this: go small or go home. Money you send to a House race in Idaho (Democrat/Republican) will go a lot further than dollars you spend to Illinois (Democrat/Republican).

Why does it matter that Nancy and Robert couldn’t play nice? It matters a great deal because the Speaker of the House is the second most powerful person in the nation and the White House Press Secretary is the public voice of the President.

Now you might retort ‘No, Jesse. I learned in Govt. 20 that it goes President, Vice President, Speaker of the House….’ Well, simply put, that’s just not true. The Vice Presidency of the United States of America, august title and all, is just not that important. Vice President Garner once said the Vice Presidency was “not worth a bucket of warm piss,” hardly the description of an all powerful office.

There are two principle reasons why this is true: a) the Vice President has no natural area of responsibility, except for those given to him by the President, and b) the Vice President has no vote (except in rare Senate ties) and has no natural power base or constituency to call upon.

Given our age, I am sure the comments section would fill with comments about Dick Cheney, was he not powerful? First it is worth noting that Cheney is the exception far more than the rule. Second, and more substantively, Cheney’s power within the Bush administration derived from his close, almost Chief of Staff-like relationship with the President. All politicians have close aids and allies who have their ear, and whose judgment the principal trusts. Vice President Cheney filled that role for President Bush, but unlike most advisors, his name was also on the ballot.

What is the point of this tangent? If we accept that the Vice President is not all that important, there is a vacancy in the number two slot…meet the Speaker of the House. The Speaker consolidates the powers of the House of Representatives in large measure in the Speaker’s office, has direct (if not de facto) control over what bills come to the floor, and just as importantly which bills do not. The Speaker can exercise an effective veto over legislation, and has a greater power, more than any other single member of Congress, to effect policy and political changes. This power is amplified when the Speaker is of a different party than the President as the Speaker also becomes in effect the voice of the ‘out’ party (see Gingrich, Newt).

Bottom line: November’s election matters a great deal. Control of a very powerful position is up for grabs, and this will have significant implications for the rest of President Obama’s term, for the course of the nation, and for national politics for the next few years. If that is something that interests you, there are a number of ways to get information. If you want to do more than read passively, you can get involved in a meaningful way.

Decisions are made by those who show up, will you?

OBVIOUS BIAS ALERT: The author of this post worked in the Fall of 20o9 and this summer for House Republican Leader John Boehner. Notwithstanding this fact, this article contains useful advice ensconced in a whimsical and yet powerful writing style.

When I was in India, it was amusing to see volunteers put up with 100+ degree heat, squat toilets, no toilet paper, hard-as-rock beds, scrubbing laundry, food poisoning, and power/water outages without much complaint, and then go apeshit because the wireless was down, as it often was in our corner of the subcontinent. It gives you an idea for how important the Internet has become to those of us from the West, but it also makes us look particularly shallow to the NGO staff, who provide the wireless as a favor, and were generally bemused at our behavior.

When the Internet was working it was prone to abuse, selfishness and bickering that you didn’t see from the same people in other circumstances. A month before I left we found out someone was sneaking into the lab at night, downloading porn and movies on BitTorrent, slowing the connection to a crawl. When volunteers have to share the one or two terminals in the office, time is precious but people still use it for chat and Facebook, despite the signs and people waiting. And the people waiting like to check the screen and privately pass judgment on the user’s surfing habits. You mean you’re keeping me waiting just to chat?

From your brain’s point of view, checking the Internet is like playing the slots; most of the information we get is bland but sometimes, the thrill of getting exciting news or hearing from a sexy lady makes our heart race. So each time we go online we’re essentially gambling on what sort of info we are going to receive, akin to pulling the handle on a slot machine. Second, there’s something about clicking the mouse, consuming information and opening new pages that gives us the illusion that we’re putting in a lot of work. Third, once you’re on the Internet it’s really easy to continue to lazily consume information, allowing more bits to flicker across the screen, instead of doing actual work.

Productivity on the Internet is an illusion. Researchers have found out that once you get distracted it takes an average of 11 minutes to get back to your original level of focus. An Internet connection is a gateway to infinite distraction; there will always be more items in your RSS feed or Facebook feed or NY Times stories to click on. When you don’t have the Internet, you might not be able to look up facts or dictionary words but you also won’t spend two hours looking at spring break photos on Facebook or down Wikipedia’s rabbit hole.

In India, I was really productive in the 18 hours every day that I didn’t have Internet, and I’m making plans to maintain that productivity when I get home. I’ve been training myself to focus – starting with 5 minutes at a time and slowly working up. I canceled my smartphone contract and traded it for a $10 phone (and $15/month contract). I use Freedom, the mac app that disables the Internet more often. I process email while offline; Thunderbird lets messages sit in my outbox and sends them all at once. And maybe when I’m back at CMC I’ll work in the middle of the football field, supposedly the only place at CMC without wireless.

I like referring to people who are on surfing binges as vampires – there’s something about the way they look up from the screen, startled and slightly guilty, after having lazily sucked information from the terminal for three hours. It’s not attractive, and I’m as guilty of it as anyone. The Internet is a productivity killer, and it brings out really ugly behavior in people. Don’t let it happen to you.

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

I hope these were not the “best” four years of our lives, but they may have been the most fun. You have to believe life gets better, but nothing will beat free Snack at 10:30 PM every school night. I’ll never forget the first time I went to snack. Prospie Josh thought he had floated himself into heaven. And it wasn’t even mozzarella sticks night. This was back when the fro-yo machine was always on and Gavin ruled the World Wok. I’ll miss Collins.

It’s one thing to say you will “miss” college and another to wake up Sunday morning after graduation, have to move out of your apartment, and start picking health insurance. I don’t remember high school graduation being this bittersweet, but that’s probably because I knew life would get much, much better in college. For many of us, the future is completely unpredictable.

I had a lot of ideas about what to write for a “Goodbye from the Class of 2010″ post. It’s my last written assignment for college, so there is a lot of pressure to not disgrace myself or give the anonymous commenters any reason to go on some crazy tangent. Speaking of which, someone should write a thesis about CMCForum.com’s anonymous-optional comment section. “Thesis ideas are everywhere.” Tangential advice: Don’t let anyone tell you your thesis is “more than just a paper.” It is just another paper.

I was going to work with friends to release a music video, That’s So North Quad, to chronicle the end of the college era. At least that’s what I tell people it would have been about. But our expectations were too high. We had a great script, but we didn’t write it down. No evidence. It would have been to the tune of a Broken Bells song remix. Or this song.

I was going to plan a senior prank, but the prospect of going to white collar prison scared me. I don’t believe they actually let you wear (and they definitely don’t let you pop) white collars in those places.

I was going to write a number of Forum posts (see list below) and I was going to compile “The Class of 2010′s Guide to CMC.” It would have come with a free CD-ROM version of That’s So North Quad.

I really wanted to make sure I passed down all the knowledge and information I had for the Class of 2014, but there’s only so much you can put into words. Too bad I gave up on CMCPedia.com. Maybe someone can get that going again?

I was going to write something like David Nahmias’ (CMC ’10) goodbye letter but took issue with the suggestion that I should pick up my own toys. Why don’t we just attach a claw to the gigantic Kravis Center crane and use that to solve the problem? Yeah, that would probably solve the toy litter problem, David.

On a more serious note, I’m a little concerned about how things at CMC are going to change in the future. For one thing, CMC is going to get a lot, lot richer. With money comes responsibility. Responsibility is a downer. As I wrote that sentence, a man walking with a baby in a stroller passed by our senior week beach house in Mission Beach. As he glanced at us, he noticed girls in bikinis, a keg, loud music, and people having a great time on our front porch. He did not look happy to have “responsibilities.”

Not sure what the future will bring, but John Faranda will keep us updated. And the Siegel Swimming Pool (where Phillips Hall currently sits) will come with a large trampoline.

I was going to write a goodbye article about graduating, life, etc. I had some thoughts about Claremont Confessions, CMC’s Dean of Students’ office, the RA system, and a multi-paragraph rant about the Admissions Office. But it doesn’t matter anymore. We’re finished with college. Time to move on.

We’ll miss you, CMC.

At the risk of breaking up the rhythm of this shoddily-written, nonsensical, unstructured goodbye post, I’ll divide the rest of this post into “Top Five Regrets” and “What I’ve Learned.”

Top Five Regrets

1. Not Coming to CMC Until Sophomore Year

Although my situation was unique, I feel bad for anyone who misses freshman year at CMC. Transferring to CMC as a sophomore (or worse, junior) puts you at an immeasurable disadvantage to the rest of the school.

2. Not Partying More

I went to Slippery When Wet at Mudd for the first time this semester. I went to my first Pitzer party a few weeks ago. I have never played Tuesday Night Beirut. I guess I fooled myself into thinking partying more would hurt my academic career at CMC. It’s just not true — nobody looks back at CMC and regrets not studying more.

3. Not Creating More Stuff

I started a website called Claremont Confessions last year. The name wasn’t my idea, but I take responsibility for the damage that ensued. I won’t go into details here, but you can see the Facebook group someone started in protest here and read a bit more about it here and here. What I regret is shutting down the site instead of using it as a springboard to launch a site that actually did something to bring the 5Cs together for more than gossip.

Another example is this website (cmcforum.com). I revived the site from its print deathbed my sophomore year, but didn’t act on or complete a lot of ideas for additional features for various reasons (couldn’t figure out how to implement it, would have taken up too much time, etc.). It was also impossible finding anyone willing to help. Thankfully, The Forum has gotten to the point where finding competent people to help, write, and run the site isn’t a major problem. I hope the site gets stronger, but as we’ve seen in the past and with any organization, one year of bad leadership could ruin it all. It might be a good idea to put some institutional controls in place for the future.

4. Drafts

Over the past couple years I’ve started drafts of articles I never published on this site. I regret not finishing more. Some were just a few sentences, most were longer. Here are some of my favorite unfinished drafts:

• “Top 10 CMC Moments in the Past Four Years”
• “What I’ve Learned About CMC’s “Problems”
• “Things I Thought I Was Promised When I Came to CMC”
• “Honnold Mudd in 2020″
• “Things I Didn’t Know About CMC”
• “Rants from a Nostalgic Senior, Part I”
• “How to Be a Good Professor at CMC”
• “Stop Whining, CMC”
• “Student Health Services Is Unhealthy”
• “The Case for the Block Plan at CMC”
• “You know it was a long night when…”
• “Computer Science Should Be Mandatory”
• “RDS Advertises on Facebook? Seriously?”
• “Ferris Wheel in North Quad”

5. Not Figuring Out What I’m Interested In

I am an economics major. I’m not interested in academia. I have a job next year in which the major appeal is having no specific focus or industry. I have interests, but I don’t have a calling yet.

What I’ve Learned

A few random thoughts:

• I agree with Patrick — leisure time in college is too valuable to spend too much of it studying. If you are at the very top of your class, I think you are doing something wrong. Or a Lit major. (That was a joke, Lit majors.)
• It’s strange that only a small number of students are allowed to e-mail the entire student body and are given no guidelines about what is or is not acceptable use.
• John Faranda and much of the Development Office are very good at their job; the Public Affairs office is not. Why don’t we have any CMC alumni working in the Public Affairs office? I bet their incentive would far exceed their salary.
• If you stop worrying about putting any information about yourself, your thoughts, etc. on the internet and start making sure that what you’re putting on the internet isn’t really stupid, you’ll be fine.
• As we’ve seen in the past few years, the print media is an industry prone to consolidation. As a microcosm, the Port Side, The Forum, and Claremont Independent struggle because our campus is too small to support three major newspapers.
• An unintentional offspring of CMC moving to Google for e-mail has been the widespread popularity of communicating through GChat. It could be improved.
• Our education system is incredibly inefficient. We spent 22 years learning what we could learn in far fewer.

Wrong. These myths have probably deterred you from grabbing a mat and heading to one of Claremont’s many yoga classes. Plenty of CMC’s fine young men, however, can attest to yoga’s overwhelmingly positive effects. “The complete feeling of relaxation and calm after I finish a class is pretty awesome,” says Solon Christensen-Szalanski CM ’10. “Yoga also really helps with coordination and fine muscle control.” Professional athletes– LeBron James, Andy Murray, Shaq– swear by the addition of yoga into their workout routines.

Mentally, this activity will soothe your stressin’ psyche and help you focus for finals.  Physically, you will not only become more flexible, but also will get toned, improve overall strength, and increase your stamina. “I like the feeling of balance,” Brian Hoffstein CM ’12 explains. “In combining strength and flexibility with meditation, yoga synthesizes exercise with relaxation.”

Finally, the social benefits of yoga are superb…especially if you’re looking for a lady. Solon was led to yoga by an ex-crush who dragged him to classes.  ”Things didn’t work out with the girl, but I’ve done yoga consistently ever since,” the senior yogi claims. Plus, the famed yoga butt is one of this activity’s true stereotypes…need I say more? Gentlemen, take a deep, cleansing breath (in for a count of 8, hold, out for a count of 8…) and resolve to get your Om on sometime in the near future. You’ll never regret your decision.

The 5Cs offer a multitude of yoga classes that students can take for Physical Education credit next semester. Any of these classes can meet your GE requirement, or just join in for kicks. If terms like “downward dog” or “breath of fire” just sound like crazy talk, the Portal’s listings may baffle you. For easy enrollment, here are next fall’s offerings.

Hatha Yoga, the most popular method in the US, is the granddaddy of most yoga styles. Perfect for a beginner seeking a taste of what the activity has to offer, a Hatha class typically incorporates Asanas (postures), Pranayama (conscious breathing), and meditation– great for stress management and physical exercise. Pomona and Scripps will hold Hatha classes regularly next fall, some even taught by 5C students and professors like CMC’s own Lit lady Audrey Bilger.

Anusara Yoga is another style taught at the 5Cs. From this Pomona class, you should expect a heightened Hatha experience: Anusara uses principles of alignment to open the body and the mind to discover one’s true self by being more accepting of new ideas. For budding yogis seeking the most positive, joyful yoga practice, Anusara is the style to choose. Practitioners are encouraged to embrace ideals of creativity and freedom, making an Anusara class an ever-changing, light-hearted experience. You’ll leave this class beaming.

For a more invigorating type of yoga, CMCers should try one of Scripps’s Power Yoga classes. Power yoga emphasizes the development of physical flexibility and personal discipline–this isn’t your mama’s yoga class. Poses are held for extended periods of time while the breath is synchronized with the body, creating a trance-like movement.  Mental and physical stamina will improve dramatically through Power Yoga, and you’ll definitely break a serious sweat. You’ve been warned: Power Yoga is going to kick your booty the first couple classes.

Kundalini Yoga focuses on awakening the storehouse of energy that yogis believe exists at the base of the spine. Skeptical? Drop in on a class at Pomona’s Rains Center to give this style a test run. Kundalini requires yogis to chant mantras, meditate, and engage in visualizations during class. For some, this type of yoga is incredibly cleansing and psychologically beneficial; powerful endorphins are released through breath control and basic poses.  For others, however, Kundalini Yoga is borderline awkward: try the Breath of Fire yourself to see if Kundalini is the practice for you.

If it’s the most endurance-testing yoga experience you seek, Bikram (or “Hot Yoga”) may be the practice for you. Bikram Yoga classes are offered daily in the Village for a discounted price if you enroll for Phys. Ed. on the Portal. The rigorous classes take place in a room heated to anywhere between 95 and 100 degrees with 40 percent humidity. High temperatures allow for maximum muscle loosening and intense sweating, a process thought to purify the body of toxins and improve circulation.  Feeling beat after a weekend of partying? A single Bikram class will cleanse and revive your system. A series of 26 poses, each held for a long duration, will increase strength and stamina. Despite the buckets of sweat you’ll be drenched in, Bikram is notoriously addictive. Just remember: hydrate.

CMC’s administration seems to have realized the benefits of yoga. A recent email from Jim Nauls regarding the Yogathon on May 7 at the Tranquada Health Center is tagged as a way to relieve stress before finals. RSVP for the event to heo@cuc.claremont.edu.

A yoga revolution is definitely sweeping campus…and not just among the female student body. “The biggest myth about yoga is that it’s for pansies,” Hoffstein claims. “Real men are the true yogis.” Whoever says the Stags can’t dominate on the yoga mat has clearly not been enlightened. See you in the studio, CMC!

Everyday we make choices. 

As I have argued, choices are not conducive to happiness. But it is ridiculous to say that we shouldn’t make them, because, well, we have to. Each day we make many choices, but seldom realize how much our personal choices shape the world around us.

With so many options in media, interaction and venues, you now get to choose what you expose yourself to.

Expose yourself to art, and you’ll come to appreciate it and aspire to make it.

Expose yourself to anonymous scathing critics and you will begin to believe them (or flinch in anticipation of their next appearance.)

Expose yourself to get-rich-quick stories and you’ll want to become one.

Expose yourself to fast food ads and you’ll crave french fries.

Expose yourself to angry mobs of uninformed, easily manipulated protesters and you’ll want to join a mob.

Expose yourself to metrics about your brand or business or performance and you’ll work to improve them.

Expose yourself to anger and you might get angry too.

Expose yourself to people making smart decisions and you’ll probably learn how to do it as well.

Expose yourself to eager long-term investors (of every kind) and you’ll likely to start making what they want to support.

It’s a choice if you want it to be.

Is it really that simple? We become the people that we choose to be. A Mitch’s recent article called for us to re-evaluate the positive in our lives. I know I am not alone when I say that his article left me wondering how I can become a more gracious person. Many commented that his article inspired them to more actively express their gratitude– one reader posted that they had sent a letter home that very day. A Mitch’s article prompts us to embrace the choices that life offers us every day. Drawing from Godin, I realized that the way for me to become a more gracious person is simple: I should do more gracious acts and to surround  myself with more gracious people.

Philosophers have been conflicted about man’s powers over self-determination since ancient times. I have considered the determinist point of view, that we have absolutely no control over the choices we make. I have also considered the tabula rasa point of view, that we are born as clean slates and are free to decide where to go from there. This is the classic nature vs. nurture debate. That we have not come up with a solution to this age-old issue points us to believe that a combination of both influences that determines human cognition.

I believe that at our birth, we are given an ambiguous life path determined by our genetics and our circumstances. From this point forward, our lives are up to us. When we are young, we have little control over our characters because most of our life decisions are made by others.

Now, at this point in our lives, we have a great freedom (not complete freedom) to decide who we are. There are certain factors that prevent us from doing certain things (a paraplegic can’t go ride a bike), but much of the world is ours to explore. This is why our choices are so crucial. You may not yearn to go see an optional lecture at Pomona; if you choose to go, however, you’re becoming that person who is open to learning new things. You may completely disagree with an opposing argument, but if you choose to acknowledge their point of view, then you’re becoming a person who is tolerant. You may be exhausted and too lazy to brush your teeth before bed, but if you choose to brush, then you’re becoming a person who is disciplined. A single decision may not fundamentally change who you are, but  the accumulation of many positive choices can incite this change.

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?

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.

It might seem obvious the lack of academic diversity among the student body is holding our school back.  We are a specialized school masquerading as a liberal arts college, but too many people are not being fooled.  I don’t blame the students for this; it’s just a vicious cycle.  Our school emphasizes the government and economics programs when recruiting students.  The technique seems to be working as we get many students from across the county and around the world who are interested in these areas.  Where we are less successful is appealing to students with other interests.

I actually think that this government and economics emphasis is part of the reason we suffer a lack of name recognition.  There are plenty of smart kids across the country whose interests lie in the humanities  –history, literature, film and all sorts of other great majors precede grad school.  Those students are not looking at CMC.  Maybe they stumble across it when they visit Pomona, but unless there is some family connection or other extenuating circumstance, CMC is unlikely to appeal to them over our sister to the south if their academic interests do not conform to our reputation.

College rankings are released just three months after new students matriculate.

Another sad truth is we do not even have a monopoly on people who are interested in government and economics.  We are competing with Ivy League schools for those students; I think you would be hard-pressed to find a student interested in government who would select CMC over Harvard University if admitted to both.  I say this not because I think Harvard has a better government program; in fact I suspect the opposite, given students there have poor access to professors and classes taught by teaching assistants.  But name recognition does count for something, particularly in government.

I transferred here from George Washington University in Washington D.C. for my sophomore year.  My friends back home in Indiana had all heard of GW and were impressed by it, but when I informed them I planned to transfer to CMC, they were shocked.  None of them were familiar with the school.  I also considered transferring to USC, and all my friends back home were partial to me becoming a Trojan simply because they had more familiarity with the school. I think objective analysis would show CMC to be more academically rigorous than either GW or USC, but that is not the perception.  GW, USC and Harvard are large research institutions.  They are inevitably going to be better known, but even within liberal arts colleges we are not especially well known.

Ultimately, I think we as a school need to consider expanding and committing resources to our other programs if we want to further increase our name recognition and rankings.  We need to make a concerted effort to better support departments like history and psychology that have broader appeal, but our recent track record is poor.

Professor Arash Khazeni in the Middle Eastern studies department was recently denied tenure without explanation.  The Iranian born Khazeni, who has taught at CMC since 2003, has a masters and doctorate from Yale.  His book was published early this year by the University of Washington Press, and he is well-liked by students.  Still, he was snubbed.  His background brought a wonderfully unique perspective to students and I, for one, would like to know exactly why the tenure review panel denied us such a great asset at our school.  With this in mind, why would any student looking to study Middle Eastern studies choose our newly minted program when its star faculty member was not even given tenure?

The best way to increase our ranking and our school’s prestige is to diversify.  Isn’t that what our stock-broker friends would recommend?  If we truly want our school’s rankings to go up, the student body should encourage more resource allocation to programs that will bring in more diverse students.  The only other option is to settle with our good– not phenomenal– ranking within the world of liberal arts colleges.

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.