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.

Various administration officials scrambled to respond to student outcry late into the evening. John Faranda used his Facebook profile to respond to the new group. Dean Huang sent an email out to the student body to calm things down, which was followed by another this morning. “We have agreed to let the Senior Thesis Fountain Party continue, in its old location,” he wrote, “but simply want those participating to be respectful of others and noise issues.” It was not made clear how student sentiment factored into the recent decision.

Is that Professor Ward Elliott we spy,snapping pictures on the left? Could that be a sign of senior faculty approval?

The timing of this incident could not have come at a worse time for the administration. Poor Andrew Brewer, Assistant Director of Annual Giving, has scheduled an event to collect senior gifts at the Senior Apartments tomorrow night. My guess is that seniors will be happy to take the free sandwiches and beer, but be far less generous with their wallets in light of recent news. Some seniors who have already donated have even been threatening to cancel their senior gift, but the viability of this option remains unclear. Furthermore, with many high school students expected on campus in the coming weeks, and many of them considering whether to accept CMC’s offer of admission, the Office of Admission must be concerned about an angry and unhappy student body expressing their feelings to prospective students.

The Fountain Party fiasco represents only the tip of the iceberg of student discontent.  This year the administration, led by the Dean of Students, has launched a concerted attack on CMC’s culture by canceling or amending many traditions. The Dean of Students indefinitely canceled TNC on the eve of Spring Break before announcing a reinstatement of the tradition starting this Thursday. In addition to beefed up security (reportedly staffed by the CMS Football Team) and fencing, TNCs will now be CMC-only with the exception of a guest list for friends of CMCers. The Dean of Students Office seems to be repeating the same strategy with the Fountain Party. After 26 years, the Madrigal Feast was canceled. Madrigal had been in danger for years and the Athenaeum had grown tired of holding the event, but it was a deeply unpopular move nonetheless.

Some of these have been attributed to Mary Spellman’s arrival at Dean of Students. Charles Johnson argues that killing traditions was her legacy at Sarah Lawrence College and he speculates that she was brought to CMC for that purpose. CMCers complained that with the Fountain Party and Madrigal Feast gone, two of the four traditions mentioned on Claremont McKenna College’s Wikipedia article have ended.[iv]

The CMC student body is deeply resentful of the administration’s assault on CMC traditions. A typical reaction was voiced by senior Max Mautner, “How can the administration be so stupid to remove a popular tradition just as an entire class is about to graduate?” In regards to the administration’s rationale for ending the Fountain Party, the reported complaints about students getting wet and professors disliking the noise don’t seem compelling to students. The fountain can be avoided with only a minute of extra walking time and the sound coming from the celebration can hardly be any louder than the construction of the “Taj MaKravis.” If some of these events are causing problems, the administration should proactively work with students and ASCMC to change them for the better rather than unilaterally canceling or modifying them.

More fundamentally, the administration’s approach seems guided by an overall strategy of trying to end CMC’s “party culture.” Way back in September, the administration met with RAs about semester-opening party events, stated that “things have to change,” and even threatened to turn CMC into a dry campus. If this is the administration’s strategy, they are highly unlikely to succeed. Fellow Forum writer Kevin Burke has made the poignant observation that partying is the dominant status game at CMC and the administration can’t change that reality. Moreover, the administration shouldn’t be in the business of trying to air-dry CMC. Students come to CMC knowing full well that we have an open drinking culture with parties available to all. Along with many other organizations, the Student Life Committee provides plenty of opportunities for socializing without alcohol. Students are capable of self-policing and feel comfortable criticizing their peers’ poor judgment. For most of its history, CMC has successfully discouraged drunk driving and alcohol poisonings by holding large, on-campus parties with a lax alcohol policy where students feel free to seek help if they need it. We absolutely should preserve this aspect of the CMC experience.

[ii] Despite Michael Wilner’s suggestion, I refuse to call this incident “Fountaingate”.

[iii] Yesterday, I emailed Dean Huang, Dean Nauls, and Dean Spellman to get information about this story. Only Spellman responded by telling me to speak with Dean Nauls.

[iv] Somebody evidently updated the article just hours after William’s announcement.

Alumni tell me CMC has prepared me well for the journey, but have I really learned much since the 5th grade?  I have some plans, but I’ve never been more unsure of where I’ll be in five years.

Despite my personal confusion, I think I have a pretty good idea of where Claremont McKenna will be in five years. There are a lot of good “Decade in Review” articles and posts around the web lately, but I say those are written by people like Kevin Burke who can’t see into the future. Here’s what’s going to happen at CMC in the next decade.

2010:

• CMC amends the science GE requirements to allow computer science courses as an alternative option.
• The music video “That’s So North Quad” drops and takes the school by storm (just wait).
• I graduate.

2011:

• The Kravis Center opens.
• In his final act of bravery before graduation, the ASCMC Social Activities Chair will throw the largest CMC party ever in the middle of North Quad. There will be strippers, midgets, fifths, handcuffs, clowns on stilts, clowns on goats, Kanye West, and a 40-foot crane hanging a roasting pig over a spit. Epic. The next morning, a townie tied to a chair, gagged and missing his two front teeth, will wake up in the Appleby laundry room. Nobody will know how he got there. A Claremont McKenna water polo player will find the missing teeth days later at the bottom of the CMS pool. The townie will sue CMC for a few milli. In response and retaliation, the administration will cancel all ASCMC parties for the following three weeks.

2012:

• CMC announces a plan to tear down Ducey Gym and build a new gym in the “pit” across Claremont Boulevard. They have been doing this annually for years, but this time they “mean it.”

2013:

• The company that owns the College Park Apartments tries to found the sixth “Claremont” college, Upland College. The Consortium decides not to admit the school, so the company founds their own consortium — The Upland Colleges.  Holla.  The Upland Colleges will become renowned for their strict alcohol policies, degree in ergonomics, and loose women.

2014:

• An ambitious CMCer will hear about this thing called Claremont Confessions. “Sounds cool,” he says, so he brings it back. This time the site implements an anonymous video and hidden camera feature. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.
• Chipotle adds a store to the Claremont village. In-N-Out Burger takes over for Bon Appetit at the Hub.

2015:

• A few weeks ago I said to President Gann, “Tear down whatever buildings you want and rebuild them, but don’t try to tear down North Quad.”  She laughed.  ”That’s what everyone tells me!” she said.  In 2015, she draws up plans to tear down North Quad as part of what she dubs “Ganny-Gann’s Masta Plan.”

2016:

• Facebook groups remain a vehicle to achieving powerful institutional change.  President Gann mysteriously retires following the creation of the Facebook group, “WE LOVE YOU NORTH QUAD – DON’T LEAVE CMC!” The Board of Trustees hires an Economics Professor (finally!), Brock Blomberg, to take her place.  The plans to tear down North Quad are dropped.
• ASCMC gets audited by the Internal Revenue Service. Uh oh. As the ASCMC CFO shreds files associated with line items for “Tropical Lei Expense,” “Cigars for Meetings,” and “Income from Extraordinary Sources,” a CMC alumnus who was appointed head of the IRS in 2015 calls off the audit.

2017:

• Newly appointed Athenaeum Director Ward Elliot reinstates the Madrigals tradition as his first order of business. The wassail will flow once again.

2018:

• Moose Halpern (CMC ’10), running on a campaign of “What up, chief?” is elected the youngest US Senator in California history.
• Scripps goes coed and quickly becomes the most competitive 5C school to get into. Mudders will cry. The Motley will stop serving “feminista” coffee.

2019:

• Henry Kravis bequeaths a large amount of cash money to CMC under the condition that we buy, restructure, and annex Pitzer with it, renaming the school “Claremont McKravis College” (see image).
• CMC will have the largest liberal arts college endowment in the world.

________________

I can’t predict what will happen beyond 2019 — CMC might open a water park in Montclair, the senior class might take over the Children’s School playground, the consortium might kick out Pomona College — only time will tell.  Who knows what’s coming?

Top 20 things I would buy if I were President Gann* and had a boatload of money (in order of importance):

1. A new athletics/recreation center to replace Ducey.  Easily the most important thing for CMC right now.
2. A computer science professor (or two).  We only have one now.
3. A new website
4. More “networking” trips during breaks like the ITAB (Silicon Valley) and FEI (NYC) trips.  Both were some of the best learning experiences I’ve had in the past four years.
5. Renovations and furniture for the Hub
6. Renovations and furniture for the computer labs (better furniture, more screens, etc… check out the Mudd/Pomona labs and you’ll see what we’re missing)
7. Renovations and furniture for the Reading Room
   (Onto the frivolous purchases…)
8. Giant plasma screens and speakers all over campus broadcasting the same thing at all times
9. An elaborate mini-golf course between Boswell and Green
10. An outdoor pool for non-athletic use (Scripps is too far and has inconvenient hours for men)
11. A large outdoor hot tub at the Senior Apartments.  (Important: cleaned and sanitized daily, at least.)
12. A bronze statue of Donald McKenna outside Collins Dining Hall.  Oxidized to look old and grand.
13. A gold statue of Henry Kravis outside the Kravis Center.  Polished daily to look new and expensive.
14. Scripps College (just the students, the Motley, and the dining hall.  They can keep the other stuff.)
15. A lazy river from Kravis Center to Bauer Center.  (Important: shut off and emptied on Thursday and Saturday nights.)
16. High speed train from Claremont Boulevard to the top of Mt. Baldy
17. Chairlift (gondola?) from South Quad to North Quad
18. Pitzer College (KKR leveraged buyout style)
19. The Mudd Hole
20. Loanable go-karts (with front-mounted video cameras)

Other changes would include abolishing senior thesis, most GEs, and demolishing McKenna Auditorium and Ducey Gym.

*Henry Kravis, Robert Day, or any other super rich donor would do

Disagree? Did I forget something? Leave it in the comments.

Such was the theme of this year’s Kravis De Roulet Conference, an annual gathering sponsored by our very own Kravis Leadership Institute.  Held last Friday in downtown LA, the conference was essentially a couple different moderated discussions about social entrepreneurship, focusing on topics like, “Social Challenges– Business Opportunities” and “Public Ventures– Government Fostered Social Entrepreneurship.”

Henry Kravis, the conference’s keynote speaker (CMC ’67, Kravis Leadership Institute’s namesake, and KKR founding partner), delivered a lunchtime address on “Investing in Social Enterprises.”  His biggest point was that social investing should be done in the same way as for profit investing– do your due diligence.

If you have any interest or experience in nonprofits or if you’re going after one of the much coveted sponsored internship grants from Career Services, you may have found the days discussions particularly worthwhile.  True CMCers were there trying to get an internship network with some of the biggest names in the game– Ashoka and Ethos Water were there in full force.  Also attending were Kravis Prize winners from the last two years, Roy Prosterman (Rural Development Institute) and Christiana Thorpe (FAWE).

Couldn’t give up a Friday at the pool to attend conference?  Here are some of the big ideas from the day:

-Lots of organizations find it hard to stay true to their original mission because funding opportunities become available (grants, foundations, private donors) that don’t quite fit their real mission, but are so tempting that organizations will make exceptions, plan projects just to get the funding.  Bottom line:  Your mission should be dynamic, but you should stick to your original goals.

-”What I lacked in skills I made up for in determination– because of the kids.”  Faye Washington, CEO of the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles said this about taking on a massive construction/land acquiring/government leasing project to build new facilities for the YWCA to provide safe, affordable housing.

-It’s risky to use public funding for social entrepreneurial ventures because if the idea doesn’t work out, you’ve wasted taxpayer money.  Bottom line:  Distinction between risk and innovation could be a good rubric for determining if government support is worthwhile.

-”Do what you love.” Paul Rice, President and CEO of TransFair USA gave us this gem– if only it were so simple.

-In almost all social entrepreneurial ventures, it’s not the product or what you’re selling that matters.  Bottom line: your social mission is your biggest asset.

-Joel Fleishman=awesome.  Besides being a great public speaker, he wrote a book that might come in handy for anyone studying/writing about nonprofits (sponsored internship papers anyone?)  He’s a Duke professor who came to speak at the Ath last year about his book The Foundation: a Great American Secret: How Private Wealth is Changing the World. If you’ve ever worked at a small nonprofit struggling for funding, done grant writing, etc or you’re interested the development (ie, fundraising) side of nonprofits,  you’ll really enjoy this book.

According to Mr. Arnold, the decision to keep the stipend at $3,000 (it was $3,000 last year as well) came when the Career Services Center reported receiving a record number of applications. KLI found itself trying to raise enough money for every applicant and has been mostly successful, but is unable to raise the stipend amount this year.

“KLI elected to retain the $3,000 stipend amount in order to maximize the number of internships we could support,” said Arnold in an interview today. “The challenge is a positive one in that [Career Services and the Kravis Institute] collectively got more applications this year than have ever been received– over 180, as compared to about 130 last year.”

Although Mr. Arnold reports that the KLI will be able to support “the great majority” of applicants, he says they will not know the final numbers for at least a month because many students have applications that are not complete. This includes applicants who are waiting to hear back from their organization or are still searching for an internship. “We won’t know what the final picture will look like for another month,” says Mr. Arnold.

Since the KLI program’s pilot year five years ago, many students have come to depend on CMC’s sponsored internship program, which provides students who choose certain non-profit, unpaid internships with a stipend for living expenses such as housing and food. In the past, KLI internships have involved domestic organizations from the Heritage Foundation to Habitat for Humanity (KLI’s 2007 international internships are listed here). When asked what he would do if CMC cannot fund his internship with the Sierra Club in San Francisco, Joe Swartley ’11 says, “I don’t know what I would do… I would probably wash cars or work at a retail store to make money.”

Other sponsored internships are available through CMC, including the McKenna International Program. The McKenna International Program is in the 9^th of a 10 year gift from Donald McKenna.

Even though the program has an application process, in past years almost all students were awarded a stipend for their internships. According to Mr. Arnold, this is not subject to change, but it is obviously more difficult to raise money for over 180 students than it is for 130 students or fewer. It is a task to raise money because funds may not come from tuition or fees paid for by students themselves. “The students contribute zero to a program that last year provided over $300,000 in stipends,” says Mr. Arnold.

“Henry Kravis has provided the institute with a lot of funding, some of which has been directed toward growing the internship program,” says Mr. Arnold. “There have been major gifts in the past couple years from [CMC Trustee] Shaw B. Wagener ’81, and members of the KLI Advisory Board, such as Duane Kurisu [Parent '08], as well as others. President Gann has also been directly involved in securing funding.” Mr. Arnold emphasizes that a lot of people have been instrumental in supporting the programs, even though it is more of a collaborative effort than a centralized one.

Despite some disappointment from students who were anticipating more in funding, CMC’s sponsored internships have come a long way in the past five years when they were started. Three years ago, stipends were increased from $2,500 to $3,000. This year, more than $500,000 will be awarded in stipends.

“We want to be as supportive as possible, keeping in mind the increased demand,” says Mr. Arnold. “I understand the concern about funding… but it is a program that has grown because of the great support by the administration and through faculty involvement in the academic portion of the internships.”
_____________________________

Example e-mail:

“Greetings, Your summer internship application has been received and reviewed for support by the Kravis Leadership Institute (KLI). Pending final confirmation from your organization of acceptance and responsibilities, I expect the KLI will be able to support your internship with a $3,000 stipend to cover expenses associated with your otherwise unpaid internship. Please continue to provide any additional relevant information to the Career Service Center. Additional information concerning academic requirements will be forthcoming. You will be required to attend an internship meeting in April to go over the requirements of the program. Details about this meeting will also be forthcoming.”