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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PAINT IT RED

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BILLS, BILLS, BILLS

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

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

The 2010 Paint Party Tarp (Photo by Andrew Jordan)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PAY DELAYS

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

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

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

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

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

WORTH IT?

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

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

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

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

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.

We’re covering it live here:

http://cmcforum.com/roomdraw

From the entire Forum staff, best of luck with your plans for next year!

Unfortunately, the antipodal pressures of tradition and aspiration may force the administration to try to get the best of both worlds – an effort which will ultimately have devastating consequences to the unity of the student body.

By focusing too hard on the extremes, in a graceless counterbalancing maneuver, the administration risks running the “average CMCer” into extinction.

There are no distinct classes of students at CMC. In a way, everyone is average. This is one of the school’s greatest strengths: We can all relate to one another. Most everyone is similar in academic caliber, social engagement and disposition toward embracing life. Whether you started your day with a refreshing beer shower or awkward walk of shame after a one night stand with Poppa, you can have dinner with any other CMCer and have something to talk about.

CMC is a tight-knit family of peers who respect each other’s differences because we have so much in common. From the brawniest bros to the haughtiest hipsters, from the soberest Starkies to tipsiest TNCers, the term “typical CMCer” applies to all of us.

We cannot take this for granted. If the administration is not careful about how it tweaks its admissions policies, we are headed for cultural armageddon and the destruction of CMC’s middle, and only, class.

Rankings are based exclusively on hard factors, and the game is getting increasingly competitive: College selectivity is at an all-time high, and institutions are constantly modifying their admissions pools to gain an edge. Over the long term, CMC admissions will be forced to reconcile our soft-factor spirit with our hard-factor aspirations.When adding to the CMC family each year, the admissions office looks at a number of “hard factors” (test scores, GPA, etc.) as well as a number of unquantifiable “soft factors” (athletics, leadership, overall Stag Factor, etc.). Traditionally, admitted students have a good balance of both hard and soft factors, perhaps leaning slightly more on one or the other.

To accomplish these ends, the administration will initially simply reduce the weight it puts on soft factors; leadership experience will play a diminished role in admissions, coaches will be told they can lobby for fewer recruits and the minimum acceptable test score will be inched upward, disqualifying more soft-factor reliant applicants.

But there is only so far we can go down this road. Eventually, there will come a point where the administration realizes it is straying too far from its commitment to a well-rounded student body. Without a critical mass of soft-factor students, CMC will begin to lose its identity and the unique vibrancy of campus life will fade as more CMCers forgo ski-beach day and the Green Beach slip ‘n’ slide in favor of a Starbucks Doubleshot and a Honnold carrel.

Nobody wants this, and I don’t think it will be allowed to happen. Despite the recent characterization of the administration as a rankings-hungry zealot willing to sell our soul for a spot in the U.S. News and World Report Top 10, I do not think this will be our fate. I have faith that there is an understanding, even within the administration, that without a healthy level of exceptional athletes, brotastic campus organizers and TNC theme loyalists, CMC will lose that special something that distinguishes us from our East-coast wannabe neighbors to the South.

So what happens when we cannot cut the soft factors any further without risking significant losses in culture and identity?

The obvious mathematical solution (that still sates our rankings craving) is to balance the necessity of soft-factor admissions by overstocking on their hard-factor counterparts. Instead of well-rounded students, with decent hard AND soft factors, the administration will turn to a policy of admitting students with either exceptional hard OR soft factors. Since there will be an effective quota of reserved slots for soft-factor applicants (whatever the administration deems to be a “critical mass”), the only way to maintain a national ranking based on hard-factor averages will be to up the admissions standards for everyone else. Soft-factor applicants will still get in on athletics, leadership or other intangibles, and the burden of upholding test-score and GPA averages will fall on those whose applications who rely more heavily on academics.

Put simply, we will be forced to compensate for our commitment to leadership by cutting out the middle of the spectrum. It will take an impeccable GPA and test scores to get in on hard-factors alone.

The consequences of such a policy will be disastrous. The student body will become increasingly dichotomized. The sobriety of Stark will spread quickly to Auen and Fawcett as masses of SAT-perfect overachievers are let in to pay the rankings debt of CMC tradition. The fluid spectrum of interests and abilities that characterizes present-day CMC will fracture as it becomes easier to tell who is a rankings baby and who is on “leadership welfare.” With less in common, the two communities will become more insular; the bunker design of North Quad will finally be put to use as bros barricade themselves inside, fervently defending their right to blast music at 2:00am on a weeknight against an onslaught of RAs summoned by the enemy to enforce a more “study friendly” environment.  Mid Quad lounges will be set aflame as the two sides fight a turf war over space to party or study. John Faranda will weep on parents field.

Hyperbole aside, I have a legitimate fear that this fate, should it befall us, will go overlooked by the administration. So long as there are enough students in each group, activities and opportunities tailored to each will remain sufficiently popular to give the illusion of cohesion. TNC will go on, CMS will continue to dominate the SCIAC, and the number crunchers at Princeton Review and U.S. News and World will be none the wiser. CMC will have accomplished the impossible, preserving both our institutional identity and academic acclaim. On campus, however, it will be abundantly clear that the “typical CMCer” is gone and the achievement of a well-rounded student body has come at the cost of the well-rounded student.

Carmen Lundell (Boswell) If you couldn’t guess by her use of the phrase “uff da” or pronunciation of the word “bagel,” Carmen was born and raised in Wayzata, Minnesota. Because she can’t get enough of the Ducey weight room, Carmen fills her athletic appetite by diving for the CMS Swim and Dive team and teaching aerobics for the Claremont Colleges (P.E. 007 if you’re interested in enrolling).  Carmen studies Government with a Leadership Sequence in hopes of becoming the next Sophia Grace. When you see Carmen at a party, don’t be alarmed that you missed the “theme party” memo. Carmen just likes to showcase her extensive costume collection.

 Lannie Rosenfield (Green) As a native Chicago resident, Betty aka “Lannie” Rosenfield is an avid Bulls fan with both season tickets and a mild to moderate understanding of who is on the team. Contrary to popular belief, Ms. Rosenfield’s tan is not a result of her Indian heritage, but instead due to her dedication to the Wohlford bench. Hey! Let’s play two truths and a lie: Lannie has failed: a) jogging PE, b) spinning PE or C) inline skating PE. TRICK QUESTION! She’s failed all three. Despite all these failures, she’s remains optimistic that Taylor Swift will one day write a song about a love-affair they will inevitably have.

Connor O’ Boyle (Wohlford) I am from Seattle, Washington and I actually do like the rain. I fly fish like its my job; the waders are my favorite part, as I look like a 90 year old man. I’m a Biology/Pre-med major and on the football team. I am an avid outdoorsman, climbing trees and making fires all over the pacific northwest. If you catch me wearing flannel don’t worry, I’m not the brawny man.

Kelsey Brown (Beckett) Kelsey, also known as “KBrown” or “KBro,” comes from the capital of America’s Dairy State. Contrary to stereotypes about Wisconsin, she’s not nice. She is notoriously bad with numbers but can write a sentence more eloquently than any other RA. Thus, she is a lit major. Kelsey can be further characterized by her constant fidgeting, her love for writing and her obsession with pesto pasta. Although she is only two months older than some of her WOA babies, most of them still call her “Mama Kels.” She hopes her residents in Beckett will love her even half as much.

Katie Lorish (Berger) Katie Lorish is an Econ-Accounting and Government major from Portland, Oregon. Aside from long walks on the beach and colorful sunsets, she enjoys grubbing on pizookies, collecting cats for her dorm room collection, showing Connor O’Boyle how to build v-type and turboprop aircraft engines (he is such a rook), and posting inappropriate Craigslist ads. As a haiku-writing prodigy since age 2, she kindly provided one of her most heart-felt pieces with the Forum readers: Berger is the most glamorous dorm on campus, Boom boom pow Berger.

Ari Davis (Claremont) Ari is an International Relations major addicted to traveling and will often be found pacing back and forth in Claremont Hall planning future trips. Ari spent the summer walking across Spain and a semester studying abroad in Jordan. He is from Boulder, Colorado, one of the best places on earth, and could probably tell you all about staring at the sky, doing outdoorsy things and why the Pitzer kids are actually cool. Ari spend lots of his time working out for track but if he’s not working out, he’s probably on some crazy adventure, lost on Mt. Baldy, wearing plaid, or skiing. He also let Priscilla, his fellow C-hall RA, write his bio for him.

Priscilla Hsu (Claremont) Priscilla is a junior majoring in International Relations and an Asian American Studies Sequence. She returns to CMC this spring after spending a year off-campus, including a semester in D.C. and 8 months in Asia, mostly wandering around but also looking for lost relatives. She hails from East Los Angeles but spent her teeny bopper years at various malls all over the city, so feel free to ask for suggestions about the Greater Los Angeles area. When she’s not busy coordinating outfits with Ari, she enjoys lounging in her mega-bed, pretending she can play the ukelele, and luring residents into her room with candy.

Kelsey Gross (Phillips) Kelsey hails from the small town of Medford, Oregon, though she proudly reps her true state, the glorious State of Jefferson.  When not scrambling up mountains, star gazing, or flying to the moon, she can be found squawking along to country music in Poppa Lab or prancing around campus with the Ballroom Dance team.  She regularly utilizes her economics major to evaluate the utility of yet another Yogurtland visit (note: it’s always very high).

Hannah Whittemore (Auen) Hannah Whittemore ghost rides it to Claremont every semester from the beautiful, quaint town of Mill Valley (#90 billboard hit in 1970) in the northern Bay Area. Her favorite activities include testing hot sauces, scrambling eggs, and drinking oolong tea. She may or may not be easily seduced by food. Though settling on a Government major, you may find her doing research in a chemistry lab at Keck Science where Erlenmeyer flasks and TLC plates give her a sense of peace in this frenzied world.  She is well-renowned in the snowboard community for having recently received the award for “most graceful fall coming off a chair lift” at Mt. Baldy ski resort. Her life philosophy is to “keep it sexy.” Obviously.

Harmony Palmer (Benson) Harmony Palmer (gangster name Harm-$$) hails from Oceanside, CA. She recently downgraded to a bike after spending her first two years riding around campus on a scooter in Crocs. When she isn’t causing a scene with her Forrest Gump impersonations, you can find Harmony huffing and puffing on the softball field or with her boyfriends Honnold and Poppa studying accounting. She is proud to say she is one of the few warriors who has lived in Benson 3 out of her 4 college years.

Ethan Gilbert (Fawcett) Ethan Gilbert is a Claremont legend.  He began his time at CMC right – by chugging syrup on his freshman WOA trip.  An International Relations major, Ethan comes to Claremont from Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is a firm advocate of socks with ‘stocks (Burkenstock sandels and bright colored socks) and plays lacrosse with for the Cougs. UGHUGHUGH.

Will Knowles (Marks) William Edward Knowles II is a Los Angeles native hailing from the wonderfully average town of Chatsworth.  When he was not busy acting during his youth (you may know him as a child star), he played baseball and spent quality time with his imaginary friends since he did not have any real ones (he was homeschooled).  Now that he is in beautiful Claremont, he studies Economics and is getting a Masters in Finance.  Most of his free time is spent on the baseball field, in the weight room, or courageously trying – but usually failing – to fix the printers in Poppa Lab as an LTA.  He is also a huge Dodger fan and is anxiously awaiting MLB’s decision on his bid to purchase the bankrupt franchise.

Olivia Graham (Stark) Olivia Graham calls Mercer Island, WA home, and she relishes the opportunity to jump in rare SoCal rain puddles. Even though she loves the 350 days of sunshine, she gets horrendous cap and goggle tan lines from her many hours spent at the pool. When she isn’t practicing with the CMS swim and water polo teams, Olivia can be found feeding the birds, rodents, albino soft-shell turtle, and other animals at JSD, since she is a biology (with a leadership sequence) major, after all. Olivia also enjoys eating/making/thinking about food, especially Coopcakes (cupcakes from the Coop), and jamming out to Akon.

Elise Yoshida (Stark) Elise comes from Rolling Hills, CA, one of the few places where you can reasonably fear a swarm of peacocks attacking you. To escape said peacocks, she fled to CMC where she could continue to bask in her beloved SoCal sun. After over-analyzing many situations during her time at CMC, she realized that the logical solution to end her career as an Undecided major was to major in Psychology. Elise generally spends her time running way too much for way too long or maintaining a near-constant stream of TV and movies. If you want the route to her heart, she has never been known to deny something tasty or something delicious. Both items tasty and delicious will win you brownie points. (Brownies are encouraged.)

Skyler Grossman (Apartments) Skyler Grossman is a Northwest native from Lake Oswego, Oregon. A career procrastinator, he is just now discovering how much he enjoys the study of economics and hopes this will add an element of practicality to his government major (aside: he loves studying government, especially after it took him to DC these past six months). He enjoys working at his camp in the Rocky Mountains, listening to country music, and very, very short walks on the beach. He also tries to keep up with his ex-chef parents, and is convinced he will one day host Iron Chef.

Brooke Nayden (Apartments) Brooke A. Nayden hails from the great state of Idaho.  When not admiring the state bird and flower, she is recitingall 44 counties in reverse alphabetical order.  Here at CMC she can be found eating couscous while watching endless YouTube videos of baby hedgehogs and teacup pomeranians.  B-Nasty doesn’t always go to school, but when she does it’s as a History and Lit dual major.  (She’s been called a bit bookish).

India Wade (Apartments) India Wade is from Bainbridge Island, Washington. Her parents are wonderful. Their names are Yuko and John. She has three half brothers and two half sisters, all from John’s side. True playa for real. She has a cat name Simba with whom she has a volatile relationship. She loves Shakira more than most people she actually knows. Please refer all further questions about India to her sidekick/confidant/roommate Brooke Alexandra Nayden.

Savage, a nationally syndicated sex advice columnist and author, leads much of the public discourse surrounding LGBT civil rights and reproductive rights. He spoke at the Athenaeum on Wednesday as part of the Shifting Perceptions speaker series, which promotes inclusivity and dialogue on campus by bringing in prominent female, gay, and lesbian leaders.

Savage Love, the column that Savage is best known for in Seattle’s alternative newspaper The Stranger, began as a joke about 20 years ago.

“I was going to be a gay advice columnist that treated straight people and straight sex with the contempt that straight advice columnists had always treated gay people and gay sex,” said Savage, “I was abusive and nasty to straight people…and straight people loved it. They started sending me real questions…I started having to really answer them and look things up,” he said in an interview with the Forum.

Dan Savage (Photo Credit: advocate.com)

The focus of his speech at the Athenaeum last week was a more recent project called the It Gets Better Project. Eighteen months ago, Savage reacted to the reports of LGBT youth suicides by creating a YouTube video with his husband Terry Miller that addressed LGBT teens. The video aimed to tell those teens that while bullying from peers, parents and churches may seem bad now, it can and will get better once they get through high school.

In his lecture, Savage cited that ninety percent of LGBT kids face bullying for their sexual orientation and are four times more likely to attempt suicide than straight kids.

In the wake of their video, thousands of others added their own videos of encouragement to the It Gets Better YouTube channel. There are now 50,000 It Gets Better videos online, featuring testimonials from the “middle-aged gamer lesbian in the basement,” said Savage, to public figures like Tim Gunn and President Obama.

Savage described two main goals of the project. First, he wants to save lives. Savage said what saddened him most about these youth’s suicides was that they couldn’t “picture a future with enough joy in it to compensate for the pain they’re in now.” By projecting thousands of personal stories of triumph and joy in adulthood, the project tells LGBT kids that they can overcome the plight they may feel in school, at home or from religion.

In response, Savage has received hundreds of emails from LGBT youth expressing their gratitude. In his lecture, Savage told the story of a 15-year-old lesbian girl who tried to come out to her family but was met with threats from her parents to disown her and cut her off from their financial support. Forced back into the closet, the girl watched It Gets Better videos on her phone under her bed sheets in the middle of the night to find hope.

Second, the project aims to “force people to acknowledge LGBT kids and to reach out to them now when they’re living,” said Savage. He bemoaned the unsavory fact that the public generally takes notice of suffering LGBT kids only after one of them commits suicide.

Dan Savage With Some of the RAs. Photo Courtesy of Greg Zahner

It Gets Better helps to not only reveal supporters and role models for bullied kids but also send their messages to kids that have no support in sight. Acknowledging that he could never be allowed to visit high schools or middle schools to talk to kids about sexual orientation, this project allows him and others to speak to them “whether [parents and administrators] want [them] to or not,” he said.

The conversation also turned political on Wednesday night. When asked about the Republican primaries, Savage was uncompromising (lest we forget his neologism for Santorum; if you don’t know it, Google it).

“The Republicans have created a moronic base where only morons can now win elections…It’s a delight to watch as a Democrat, and I hope it continues,” he said in his interview, but later cautioned, “The American public re-elected George Bush—don’t put anything past us.”

Savage also discussed the recent debates over contraception and the transvaginal ultrasound bill. He told women in the crowd that ultra-conservatives “hate you and your NuvaRing as much as they hate me and my boyfriend, because we’re both having non-pope-approved sex.”

In a candid stroke of brilliance, he urged women to turn Virginia’s transvaginal ultrasound bill on its head by taking ownership and then photographs of their vaginas and projecting them on large congressional buildings in the state’s capitol, or even on Governor Bob McDonnell’s house itself. “They [supporters of the bill] want to have a good look at your vaginas,” he said, “but they’re also scared of them.”

Looking for more of Dan Savage’s work? Apart from his sex advice column and the Savage Love Podcast, Savage’s books include The Commitment and The Kid, among others. He will also have a television show on MTV this spring called Savage U. The show will follow him as he visits university campuses across the country to have open and honest discussion on sex, sexuality, and relationships. The premier airs on April 3.

While at the meeting, Huang wanted to get a basic understanding of student priorities for extra funding. Huang asked students if they were in favor of installing more Brita Hydration stations (Yes), changing the laundry system so students could see in real time which machines were in use for a small fee (No), adding Blue Light Emergency Phones (No), increasing the number of bulletin boards and kiosks (No), and creating more on-campus jobs (Mixed). He also asked about priorities for the post-renovation Hub, to which most students advocated increasing the emphasis on food and recreation. He concluded by asking about the elimination of the 8-meal dining hall plan (No), prohibiting indoor smoking in all dorms (No) and preferences for future big-name speakers at the college (political commentators such as Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart beat out presidential speakers). As Dean Huang noted, the results were in no way binding promises but merely intended as yardsticks to gauge student opinion for the Dean of Students Office.

Several Senators were excited by the potential support to freedom of expression that the clicker system might provide, especially when it comes to voting on contentious issues. Senate Campus Life Committee Chair Carly Lenderts ’14 expressed her support, saying, “I liked the clickers and am excited to try them for voting procedures in Senate. It’s sometimes awkward for a Senator who wants to vote against a popular budget proposal, for example, so it will be great to have a quick and anonymous way to vote.”

The clickers, said Dean Huang, not only ensure that every possible student voice be heard but also combine the benefits of a participatory process with the practicality of real-time results. Senate President pro tem Miles Lifson ’13 also reflected this view, saying he was “excited about the potential that they offer for ASCMC.” Lifson continued, “They seem to be a fast, accurate, and anonymous way for senate to vote.” Lifson also mentioned that he would be working with Aditya Pai ’13 and Adam Griffith ’14 to “look into the logistics concerning using [the clickers] for senate votes on a regular basis.”

Dean Huang had sourced the clickers free of cost that night from Honnold-Mudd Library. According to Sheree Fu, who works at the library, there are one hundred clickers in total, plus two base units and instructor units respectively. She indicated that they were purchased at the suggestion of Bob Walton, the CEO of the Claremont University Consortium, following his experience with them at a board meeting. She added that Harvey Mudd College and Pomona College had already been using their own clickers of the same make for instructional purposes.

However, there is a catch when it comes to students borrowing the clickers for organizations and clubs. As Fu revealed, the facility to borrow them is currently, “only open to faculty and staff.” She added that even at the library, the clickers are right now in “beta (testing) stage”, until they “figure out how [exactly] to use them.” Still, she added that in the future there is a possibility for students to rent the clickers if they are in high demand.

So what do you think CMC, time for a voting revolution?

The lively discussion began with a presentation by ASCMC’s Chief Financial Officer Lacey McLean ’12, which highlighted the proposed amendments to the current stipends. She explained, “The budget committee considered how much work each ASCMC member puts in… one of the things we wanted to do was make compensation clearer.” She then pointed out individual position salary changes as detailed in an earlier Forum article.

One senator asked where the funds to raise stipends would come from. McLean responded that the General Fund for ASCMC had grown larger in past years without any parallel increase in stipends. She stressed that the money would not be taken away from social activities or any other service that ASCMC provides, simply that it would come from a surplus of funds, resulting from last year’s increase in ASCMC student fees, already incorporated into CMC’s tuition.

ASCMC Vice President Aditya Pai ’13 further elaborated that voting to change stipends would not affect or benefit the current position-holders with the exception of the position of the Editor-in-Chief of the Forum. Pai noted that when an attempt to increase the Forum editor’s stipend was made last year, the editor at the time of the vote had not paid his staffers or writers. Senators voted against rewarding last year’s editor with a higher paycheck.

ASCMC Senate (Photo Credit: Kelsey Brown)

The discussion then turned to the most contentious topic of the night; the stipend of ASCMC’s President. No recommendation had been put forth by the Budget Committee to raise the President’s salary, but upon viewing the current salary of the President, several senators voiced concern at the $14,000 earned per year by this position.

Pai responded that the purpose of high payment for the position of President is “to put it on parity with the RAs. We called Dean Spellman, Dean Huang, and former ASCMC Presidents.  This has existed since the early 1990s so there wouldn’t be a talent-sink, or a lack of talented people running for ASCMC president.  We didn’t want to change that.”  Senate President Pro-Tempore junior Miles Lifson elaborated that some presidents donate part of their stipends back to ASCMC and further, some purchase things for ASCMC or the student body and never ask for reimbursement.

Senator Kayla Benker ’13 voiced her concern that paying ASCMC members based on the importance of their work is a “fundamentally flawed way to look at [the issue].”  She explained, “I don’t think we should try to quantify, in dollars, the amount that a specific position requires.”

Pai responded, saying, “These are very important jobs; they handle $300,000 of your money so you want to make sure it is used well. If you actually paid them on a merit basis then ASCMC would go bankrupt.”  He elaborated that because of precedence, the Senate would need a very good reason to make positions unpaid in the future.  One senator agreed that asking ASCMC members to work without pay was essentially, “making people decide between having a job and working with ASCMC.”

With the discussion almost over, current ASCMC President Jessica Mao ’12 added, “You guys have brought up great points, this needs continued discussion.  We spent a long time on this proposal and discussed it extensively. What would be good would be if senators worked with the executive board and revisited this issue.” Senator Miles Bird retorted that the Budget Committee had already investigated that very issue and that Pai had made senators very aware of proposed changes several weeks leading up to the deliberation.

Despite all the contention, the Senate voted to amend the constitution to accept all stipend changes with only one dorm–Claremont Hall–abstaining. When asked her response to the proceedings, the Chair of the Campus Life Committee, Carly Lenderts ’14, conceded that she was in the middle of the debate, explaining she was “happy with tonight’s decision. I do think the President’s stipend should be lowered but believe the [other] adjustments made were appropriate.”

Benker expressed her disappointment: “Senate has a problem in that we as a body seem to get frustrated if issues take more than 10-15 minutes to debate… It seems that the past few times a contentious issue has come up in Senate, after about 15 minutes, the goal of many senators turns from ‘what is the best solution?’ to ‘how can we get this resolved as quickly as possible so we can just stop talking about it?’’”

Senator Aseem Cipalkatti ’15 disagreed that some senators’ views were not heard, saying, “I feel that the stipend issue seems like it was controversial, but after the Board explained the reasoning behind the stipend changes, it seemed like all of the ‘controversy’ was driven by only a few students. ASCMC Officers decidedly put in the work that would merit these new stipend amounts, and considering that we have a budget surplus, there’s no reason that we shouldn’t have approved them.”

When the placards were put away and the senators filed out to snack, the vote had come down in favor of making the proposed changes to ASCMC stipends. However, several key opponents of the president’s high salary were not, in fact, voting members of the Senate and could not vote to express their views during proceedings.

Benker raises the point that “the average CMCers shouldn’t have to come to every Senate meeting to have their voice heard; Senate as a representative body should make an effort to understand the opinions of the CMC student body, not just the reasoning of the Executive Board or the narrow interests of a few.”

Editor’s Note:This article was updated at 10:45am to fix a typographical error.