<rant>

But. CMC. Makes. It. So. Damn. Hard.

I remember when I first received my CMC email address, the summer before freshman year. It was so cool: a real .edu email address! Google Apps! But during those moments of bliss, nobody tells you about a little thing called DL-Students (or its equally evil cousins DL-Students-Including-Abroad, DL-Students-SoCal, “undisclosed recipients”, etc.).

The problem: A wide variety of entities on campus–research institutes, administration, professors, “centers”–frequently abuse their ability to email the student body. As more campus organizations crop up and our student body grows, the problem increases in magnitude. The inherent value of most emails sent to the entire student body is so low that it effectively amounts to spam. Spam we can’t filter out. I would argue that this problem is not only annoying, but harmful. Simply understood, there has to be a better way of disseminating information widely to students.

Since late February, I have marked every email that went to the student body that I felt was irrelevant, unnecessary, or simply…stupid. In less than two months, I’ve accumulated 152 emails–a very conservative number that varied depending on my patience each day. Some sample subject lines: “KLI Workshop: Dealing with Networking and Small Talk in a Research Context”, “Career Services Center E-Calendar”, “EM: REMINDER Salavator Summer 2012 Internship”. The most common senders? Pretty much a who’s who of CMC. The Writing Center, Career Services, CCE (still not sure what that is), “Inform”, JIM NAULS, professors, deans, Public Affairs office, most anything related to the Kravis Prize…you get the idea. I started tracking these emails on February 21, so these 152 emails average out to almost three emails per day. This includes weekends and spring break, which tended to be blissfully email-free.

Certainly messages like “EM: Internship Opportunity with eHarmony!” are not the intent of the student body mailing lists. There are without a doubt important messages that every student needs to hear, but most messages sent via the DL lists do not qualify. Instead, the DL lists have become a virtual bulletin board for campus events, but one that is crammed into every student’s inbox with little to no control over its content. Assessing each message for its importance or relevance essentially becomes a Sisyphean task.

In addition to simply being annoying, the email overload has serious consequences. Every “stupid” email that goes out proportionally decreases the likelihood that a given student will notice the important ones. Slipped in between the “Informs” and the phishing attack notifications and the research institute newsletters, there might be a “hey, there’s no hot water in your dorm this week”. That’s the kind of email every student needs to read, but can easily get lost in the shuffle when nine out of ten emails are worthless.

Changing our policy towards email will produce better campus dialogue for everyone. I have two proposals, which I believe could work in tandem to solve the problem. First, revoke access to DL-students for nearly everyone. Only the President, Deans, ASCMC, Facilities, and ITS should have access. Every other organization that would like to use mailing lists to contact students will receive its own mailing list, which students OPT-IN to. There will be one website where each student can select the mailing lists to which they want to subscribe–much like how every other company or organization in the world works. This will allow organizations to specifically target students who are already interested in their messaging, and spare the rest of us.

The inherent problem with such a system is that it means that most of the student body won’t hear about most announcements most of the time. Notwithstanding other mediums for spreading a message (CMC survived for most of its history without email, didn’t it?) here is a suggestion for an online solution. One central bulletin board where any campus organization can post a message, event invitation, lecture announcement, request for applications, or whatever else. Each post can then be upvoted or downvoted, Digg or Reddit style, for importance or relevance. This crowdsources the job of discerning what is important and what isn’t to the audience of students themselves. If a message is important, it will end up at the top. If it’s really important, students might tell their friends to check it out. I imagine that each campus organization will learn pretty quickly what the general student body finds important and what it does not. The audience becomes more engaged because the content is curated by the audience itself.

Regardless of the solutions implemented, the problem remains. We, the CMC student body, get far too many pointless, unnecessary, irrelevant emails. This is a plea, to everyone who has access to the DL mailing lists, to make it stop. Please ask yourself what percentage of the student body really needs to receive your next message. If it’s less than 90%, find another way.

Thanks in advance.

</rant>

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.

The program is funded through a series of alumni grants covering travel and living expenses for which students compete. In an interview with the Forum, Pomona Internship Coordinator Iris Gardner (PO ’09) describes the work that students do as, “important, but [something which] the fate of the company does not rest on”, such as creating grant proposals and presentations. This way, she says students gain “transferable skills” while being allowed to “dig deeper” within themselves.

A total of eight positions were offered in the most recent round of the summer internship program and included opportunities with organizations like Upward Bound, the East Asia Office of the U.S. Treasury and Green Corps.

Though the recipients so far were all either upcoming seniors or juniors, the program is open to all years.

At an institutional level, the summer internship program is designed to address what Gardner describes as the “extreme importance” of providing students with, “real-world experiences.” She adds that she aims for the program to present “pivotal” experiences for Pomona students to determine their future paths.

While Pomona’s summer internship program is flexible, it includes a comprehensive review process that as Gardner says, is intended to “facilitate the internship process” by clarifying expectations about what both student and employer are meant to deliver. This system extends over the duration of the internship and comprises an initial agreement form, three journals, a mid-internship evaluation and a final evaluation. Far from straitjacketing the internship, Gardner opines that employers find it beneficial that “[students] are held accountable by someone else too.”

As for finding the right internship, Gardner adds that students conduct up to three informational interviews with alumni in order to find one that is a good “personality fit.” However, she notes that while Pomona alumni “are a really huge support”, many would like to see students reach out more.

Internships play a vital role in helping students find jobs after graduation. According to the 2011 Student Survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, “[…] graduates who took part in a paid internship were more likely to get a job offer, have a job in hand by the time they graduated, and receive a higher starting salary offer than their peers who undertook an unpaid internship or no internship at all.” Even though Pomona’s latest internship initiative is in its infancy, it will hopefully continue to grow and provide valuable opportunities for Pomona students. Already, it has received four additional internship-funding commitments for the coming summer.

Emily Miner '12 and Iris Gardner '09, internship coordinator (Photo Courtesy of Pomona College)

Pomona isn’t alone in recognizing the importance of internships to students. As Richard M. Freeland writes in the Winter 2009 Liberal Education released by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, “In recent years, undergraduates have sensed that a traditional liberal education may not, by itself, be a sufficient preparation for the adult world.”

Liberal arts colleges, including Pomona, are increasingly using internships as an important way of delivering the proverbial bang for the buck: justifying the value of their education by providing students a platform to access, understand and be evaluated by potential employers. Further, Freeland notes, “Administrators also know that offering off-campus experiences or adding practice-oriented coursework to a liberal arts curriculum can help maintain strong enrollments.” This is an especially crucial differentiation in the current recessionary environment, when a liberal arts education is often expensive and time-consuming.

An interesting point though: Freeland argues that “although many high-status institutions have made room for internships and service-learning courses—[…] leading liberal arts colleges, for example, Amherst, Bowdoin, Clark, Smith and Williams have all done so—none, as yet, has made these types of experiences a central part of the learning experience or explicitly embraced the linking of liberal education with practice.”

Sherylle Tan, Associate Director of Research and Internships at the Kravis Leadership Institute (KLI) notes, internships and experiential learning are also a “huge part of CMC education.” CMC students have access to an established and rapidly expanding array of opportunities for the same through the various on-campus research institutes. According to Dr. Tan, KLI alone offers around twenty of nearly one hundred internship positions available through the college.

On balance, Pomona’s new summer internships program is a positive development that opens up a new range of learning opportunities for students there. Especially in coming years, it should form a new and exciting dimension to education at the 5Cs.

Though the official opening is Friday, several departments began moving in during the summer.  Sarah Orr, the Executive Director of the Kravis Leadership Institute identifies moving into the Kravis Center as “the first time we as a faculty and staff have been in one place, which is wonderful.”  She added, “Being able to bring us all together has been really extraordinary. It’s just that it’s enabled us to do so much more – plus the view is extraordinary.“ Alex Heiney, CMC senior and Research Assistant at the Salvatori Center gives a humorous take on move-in mishaps, “I’m just thankful that Kravis always has an air of excitement because a water pipe may burst in the Salvatori Center at any minute.”  Despite a few last-minute final touches and corrections, The Kravis Center is now completely ready to officially open its doors this Friday.

Friday will be jam-packed with events from noon onward.  From tours and open houses to a convocation to a ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebratory reception, visitors to the Dedication will be sure to have a good time  The Kravis Leadership Institute is hosting informal discussions on diverse topics, consulting workshops and dialogues, a dinner for Kravis Fellows and students, and even a workshop entitled  “The Lessons I wish I’d Learned While at CMC.”  The Salvatori Center will be hosting a seminar entitled “Are Corporations Persons Under the Constitution?” on Friday from 1:00-2:15 in Kravis 327 that will address “the issues surrounding corporate speech in our constitutional democracy.”  For a more specific list of events refer to each department’s website. Arguably the most anticipated event is the “Lunch with Henry Kravis” taking place at the Marian Minor Cook Athenaeum at 11:30am. Forum Editor-in-Chief Heath Hyatt will moderate the lunch alongside Tova Markowitz, the Student Manager at KLI.

And now to address the question on everyone’s mind, what exactly is the purpose of the cube?  Despite speculation that it will be used to temporarily imprison students who repeatedly lose their ID cards, rest assured that there is indeed a reasonable purpose for the space. Dean Mary Spellman sets the record straight explaining, “The glass room is a “living room” – a place for students to relax, study, talk.  A common, shared space for the CMC community to come together.” Whether you enjoy being studied while studying or you’re searching for a location other than Scripps’ Pool to catch some rays while you soak up some knowledge, the living room is calling your name.   Of course, with all the invisible walls and reflecting pools of water, be sure to watch your step on Friday. Heiney explained “I wish they would have left the moat around it so I could continue to watch students with bad depth perception fall in.”

So how can we adequately thank Henry Kravis for the generous gift he has given our campus?  Orr succinctly replies that the answer is simple, “by saying thank you.”  Dean Spellman agrees that a proper tribute would be to “Enjoy the space and participate in Friday’s dedication events.” Orr adds  “The other thing that he really appreciates is the scholarship of students and knowing how students value CMC, because he truly loves CMC.  So it’s your appreciation for this opportunity that really matters.”

For a full list of events, click here.

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

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.”
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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.”