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.

While many students who came into CMC with strong backgrounds in their high school bands, orchestras or art programs have adjusted to CMC’s lack of an art program, some still ask for CMC to change its ways.

Sophomore Chelsea Durgin says, “Students would really benefit from art as an outlet to the stress of school… I think that a lot of students at CMC are extremely talented in the arts, but they can’t express themselves because of the CMC reputation.”

Devashish Dey performs at the Athenaeum (Photo by Warren Bessant)

For students from neighboring schools and artistically-inclined CMCers, the school’s image as a leadership-driven institution for go-getters has left its commitment to the art world by the wayside. CMC has abandoned some traits of average liberal arts schools and become the economics-oriented school that it is, but as Durgin says, this doesn’t mean that CMC students are devoid of any artistic talent.

The idea of pursuing art on campus has inched into the spotlight with the appearance of Stark’s new piano and with growing involvement with arts organizations at the 5Cs. Yet, some students still argue that CMC is not currently an art-friendly school and believe that there is a stigma associated with pursuing a degree in the arts.

Freshman Becca Rosenthal says, “At the very least we can start putting student artwork in Kravis, but ideally there should be an arts GE.” Those who are proponents of larger changes to CMC’s image like Rosenthal argue that the school could start embracing its liberal arts label by requiring students to study art.

For other students, calling Claremont McKenna a liberal arts school is almost a misnomer. CMC has a unique approach to providing students with a well-rounded education: we receive the benefits of a liberal arts school, yet we’re unlike any other. One of the things that sets us apart is a focus on creating leaders in business and the professions. Advocates of CMC’s leadership-oriented mission point out that our access to the resources at the other 4Cs – including arts programs like theater, music, studio art, and art history – allow us to bypass the implementation of our own arts program.

Indeed, those who actively pursue the arts have many opportunities, even as a CMC student, to be involved in the arts. A CMC-specific theater club Under the Lights allows students an outlet for artistic expression. Other 5C opportunities include taking part in KSPC, Pomona’s student radio station; an acapella choir like Shades; or Without a Box, the Claremont Colleges’ improv group. For those students willing to integrate with the rest of the 5Cs, the abundance of artistic opportunities on our neighboring campuses offer CMCers a chance to pursue their artistic passions with ease. The beauty of the consortium is that each of the schools can specialize in a few fields, instead of attempting to do everything at once, which would be redundant and ineffective.

Local band Songword performs at the Motley on Scripps College campus (Photo by Yuqiao Guo)

The accessibility of the other Claremont Colleges and their strengths in the arts balance out the unique liberal arts appeal of CMC. The administration faces a choice between encouraging the appreciation of art at CMC and offering art programs on CMC’s campus. But one thing is sure: when it comes to whether art should be more encouraged on campus or remain an untouched issue, Freshman Erika Sa says, “I want more!” The best resolution is for CMC to encourage students to appreciate and participate in some form of art, but continue to utilize the other art programs in the Claremont Consortium instead of devoting resources and time to building a new one at CMC. In other words, take advantage of the resources that the consortium offers.

CMC students’ interest in pursuing art academically is less common perhaps than at other 5C institutions. Appeals for drastic changes to CMC’s academic focus seem to be coming from a unique group of students who would like CMC to acknowledge the importance of art by offering art programs on campus. However, this desire does not seem to apply to most students and thus no change will likely be made.

But CMC students as a whole do not disregard the arts entirely. The claim that students don’t care about art because CMC is a school focused on a couple of strong programs is simply not true. It is true, however, tacking on an art department to CMC’s academic offerings would not increase the benefit to CMC students enough to justify the cost. It would be both widely beneficial and much easier for the student body to simply ask CMC for more on-campus practice rooms or to see more student-made art in the hallways of our dorms. Adding small things like pianos or providing an area just to hang out and play music would give CMC some artistic flavor of its own. We don’t have to drop our reputation as a school of industrious students in order to appreciate the arts – we can embrace it without becoming a run-of-the-mill liberal arts school. With the new piano in Stark and the ever-growing involvement of students in artistic programs on and off campus, it seems like we’re on the right track.

Photo Credit: Jessica Dang

Each of our fourteen dorms has everything needed to build the strongest communities on campus.  Every dorm has great people, great ideas, and great space; all your friends are just a quick jaunt down the hall.  And every dorm could have a stronger sense of community than it does now.  Here are some of the ways that we are building better dorm life this year:

Intramurals.  Last year we didn’t even have dorm intramural teams, and in years past they had been getting progressively less attention.  But this year we have re-instated dorm intramural teams, and everyone can play!  If your thing is football, soccer, or anything in between (read: innertube water polo) your Dorm Championship Series for that league is going on now!  Every dorm has a team, so if you’re not already reading your RA’s e-mails about those games, grab a quick word with your dorm jock or bra about when the next one is or checkout the Facebook group, and come out to support your dorm!  And if playing isn’t your thing there can never be too many fans, especially with all those Mudders coming out in droves.

Dorm events.  Every dorm is having at least one dorm event every other week, so it should be easy to get out and mingle with your extended roomies at least a few times this semester!  These dorm events can be anything from pre-games to dorm snacks to TNCs.  You may make dorm shirts, have barbeques or dorm meals, get subsidized concert or event tickets, or play broomball with that dorm across the quad.  These events are the perfect chance to get to know your hallmates, the girls upstairs or guys downstairs, and that kid in the corner room who you can’t believe you haven’t met yet. So get out to all of the events that you can!

Photo Credit: Heidi Carlson

Keeping up traditions.  For instance, Thursday Night Club is one of our best traditions, but every year it is in danger of getting shut down.  I’m working closely with the Dean of Students Office to make sure that doesn’t happen this year.  Also, having TNCs all throughout the quads as well as in new spaces is another priority of mine this year.  So be on the lookout for TNCs in south, mid, and north quads, as well as other new places around campus!

These are just some of the things, that we are doing to further dorm life this year at CMC.  It all comes down to one main goal: I want dorms to be like families.  No matter where your best friends live, you should always feel comfortable as an integral part of your own dorm community.  So I ask two favors of you all:  first, get to know everyone in your dorm.  Don’t just stick to the friends you moved in with; make an effort to meet everyone else.  Your dorm events are for your whole dorm, so never feel shy about going to one, even if you go alone.  Once you get there, you won’t have any problem finding people to hang out with—everyone is nice!  And if you’re at a dorm event and you see someone you don’t know, introduce yourself!  The first step to a tight community is to know each other. And second—take pride in your dorm!  Every dorm has something awesome about it. Claremont Hall?  Yeah, you’re the nicest dorm on campus and everyone knows it. And it may be nicknamed “the Dirty Berg,” but Berger has one of the strongest and most welcoming communities on campus.  No matter if you live in the Apartments, Stark, Green, off-campus, or anywhere in between, you can be proud of where you live, and the strong community that you’re fostering there.  So own it!  And if you have any ideas or questions about anything, you can always talk to your Dorm Presidents, and you can always contact me (CRiva13@cmc.edu).

Rooms colored light blue are designated for males.

Rooms colored light pink are designated for females.

Rooms colored red are already chosen or retained.

Rooms colored light yellow are reserved for RAs.

Rooms colored orange are rooms where future RAs may live. Please note that these rooms are available but residents may be asked to move next spring.

Here is a complete list of the 2011 Room Draw numbers for your convenience.

Disclaimer: This is an informal map for informal planning purposes only. Visit Heggblade to view Housing’s official map. We do not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, scale, or orientation of the dorm representations below. Please be aware that the North/East/South/West orientations differ by dorm.

As I flipped through old editions of The Forum this week, I noticed some common themes: liberal bashing, conservative bashing, and our alcohol policy.  Some issues applauded crazy parties thrown by Berger or Green, while others lamented the loss of hard alcohol or other lenient policies.  The September 18, 1992 edition of The Forum proved no different, as two staff writers, Brian Schoolman and Holly Vicente, debated new alcohol policies at the Claremont Colleges.  Following a number of alcohol-related incidents, including, most shockingly, a stabbing at a Harvey Mudd party by someone unrelated to the 5Cs, Claremont McKenna had to take a harder stance on alcohol.  In light of the events, keg registration and carding became mandatory and 5-C parties were outlawed.

Brian Schoolman argues that these restrictions are necessary, highlighting  the negative consequences of drinking.  He compares a party scene to “that of a hurricane” with “debris scattered everywhere”—a metaphor that calls to mind Claremont Hall post-Disney Party, to be sure.  The writer complains that every weekend drunken students cause damages to the school. He did not want us to become like the University of Massachusetts, nicknamed “Hangover U” because of the number of drunken students sent to the emergency room. He also points to tragic incidents such as a student at Clemson who mistook her seventh-story window for an exit.  Brian also argues that drinking may lead to drops in grades and—this may come as a shock—alcoholism.  He closes his argument by claiming that “social events have and will continue to occur without the presence of alcohol.”

Holly Vicente, in true esprit de CMC, argues that we should party on and party harder.  She laments the loss of parties with hard liquor flowing freely and kegs galore.  During this period, parties were often ticketed events.  Vicente explains that just one 5-C party “could raise enough revenue to buy a big screen television or a stereo for the dorm.”  She complains about the “beer and wine only” rule and she worries that campus security will begin to actually enforce the rules.  Vincent also argues that it is unfair to classify all students who drink as alcoholics or belligerent, as the Deans began doing in their efforts to “educate” the student body on drinking.  As the former ASCMC President told her, CMC was and is not “a Republican golf course, made to be always kept neat and beautiful” but “college…[where] people want to get funky.”  After the awkward ‘90s slang, Holly insinuates further dangers of limiting our alcohol policy by instructing students to “PRAY HARD, that thou makest it home safely from the bar this weekend.”

This article shows that CMC of the 1990s resembled today’s CMC.  Vicente’s argument demonstrates that we’ve always loved our free-flowing kegs, whereas Schoolman proves that, even before Stark Hall was built, Starkies were a presence.  More importantly though, drinking and social culture at CMC are dynamic.   The deans are constantly updating our drinking policy -  5C parties eventually made a comeback.    Parties now rarely require payment unless they are for a musical artist like Glitch Mob.  Student fees, of course, are tacked onto tuition and serve as a payment not just for parties but general events and services.  How to judge changes to our social community is a difficult task, as Vicente and Schoolman prove.  CMC and its social rituals will continue to evolve while still holding on to some sense of tradition, as dynamic as it may be.

“The Analyst Papers,” named in honor of CMC’s first student newspaper, the Analyst, is a five-part series published by the Forum, the official student publication of Claremont McKenna College.

For the first time, the history of Claremont McKenna has been brought online. The Analyst Papers has been published in the form of five accessible articles, with the aim of navigating through years of characters, monuments, and obstacles. CMC’s history is a short one, but a good one, and few know much of it. To learn it is to better understand what CMC stands for, its challenges and its future.

In 1996, the Trustees of CMC commissioned California historian Kevin Starr to write a book commemorating the College’s first fifty years. His remarkable work, “Commerce and Civilization: Claremont McKenna College, 1946-1996”, has been a key source for this series.

Additionally, CMC’s Development Office has opened the College’s archives to Forum staff for this project. We thank them, as well as the CMC Alumni Association, for access to primary sources and first-hand interviews.

Part I: The Founding: An Idea, Long Before a College

Part II: CMC’s Conservative Heart

Highlights in Part III:

· CMC’s campus mirrors the school’s founding philosophy, as well as the conditions in California that existed as it was developed. North Quad in particular represents a unique space on its own terms, personifying the school’s founding struggles.

· Within its first four years, the school grew from six prefabricated units to an early draft of North Quad, with CMC’s four most iconic dorms standing erect.

· The Athenaeum, an idea first concocted in 1968 by Donald McKenna, was not completed as a space until 1983 – giving the campus an intellectual mantlepiece.

Part IV: Claremont Men’s College, with Women

Part V: Our Place in the Liberal Arts

____________

Part III

The Challenge of the Campus

While CMC's first students lived in the basement of Bridges Auditorium, dormitories that the College first called its own were vet units, pictured here in 1947.

In June of 1946, Robert Bernard made a judgment call.  Gordon Kaufmann, architect behind the primary Scripps College Quad and Harper Hall, had just completed his preliminary drawings for Honnold Library.  Bernard, a founding trustee, was planning on sharing these drawings with Marie Rankin Clarke – a wealthy and generous philanthropist who had expressed interest in the Group Plan.  George Martin, another trustee, had warned Bernard not to ask Clarke for money on behalf of the new men’s school, but rather to approach her as an emissary for the entire consortium. But Bernard, before bringing the drawings to Ms. Clarke’s room at the Biltmore, asked Kaufman to sketch in the hopeful foundations of CMC’s campus to the East of Honnold.

Up to that point, the only plans for a Claremont Men’s College campus were six prefabricated buildings, acquired as a result of a housing surplus at an Army Air Force Base in Santa Ana.  Called “hubs,” these units lived on as the original nickname for the Student Union and, now, The Hub. President Benson had purchased these units through the Federal Public Housing Authority – another New Deal program vital to the anti-New Deal boosters of the new college.

In its very first days, before these units arrived, CMC students lived in the basement of Bridges Auditorium, famously decorated with potted palm trees and referred to by its inhabitants as Coconut Grove. They took classes in makeshift rooms, surrounded by sheets draping from the ceiling in Bridges’ attic before the arrival of all the units.

Allison and Rible drew this blueprint for Claremont Men's College in 1947. It is likely the first of its kind.

While meeting with Ms. Clarke, Bernard explained what the area just East of the library contained – Claremont Men’s School.

Starr writes, “When Mrs. Clarke showed interest in the new school, Bernard followed up by sending her a copy of the program of the opening convocation, together with the photos of students living in the basement of Bridges Auditorium.”

Mrs. Clarke ended up giving $500,000 before the first semester of the school came to a close.  With such bold beginnings, the school incorporated, and began to plan out its physical environment.

Sixty years later, another trustee, Henry Kravis, would sit down with another architect, Raphael Vinoly, to dream up the next step for CMC’s academic village.  In between were six decades of transitional and incremental campus development.

Unlike Scripps, largely planned out and financed with Ellen Browning Scripps’ initial investment, CMC could only build a campus environment piece by piece. Each piece would provide CMC’s founders with serious fundraising challenges.  But each piece, at least through the 1970s, would reflect both the foundational ideas – California conservatism – as well as the norms of the typical American campus structure.

Somehow, these campus foundations had to be reconciled with a college that had visions way beyond the confines of acreage.

CMC’s campus is often discarded or discounted when compared to the gorgeous gardens of Scripps or the handsome and traditionally tailored campus of Pomona.  But while there is no aesthetic competition with the Scripps physique, CMC – North Quad in particular – has its own architectural legacy and stories.

This past reflects and twists the American notion of the campus space, symbiotic of both CMC’s daunting and unlikely struggle for national success, and its roots in California’s growth.  In short, the bleakness of CMC’s architecture, thanks to Benson, who had little concern with its form, is in itself something to celebrate.  CMC’s campus space is a story representative of conservative roots, social norms after World War Two, and California’s multi-partisan progressive tradition.  In this, North Quad provides its own brutal beauty.

CMC students made the most of limited resources, Analyst coverage shows.

The Group Plan became a vestigial of Los Angeles traditions of progressivism and boosterism. Bernard, in a Harper’s article, explained not just of CMC but the entire consortium: “No period of American history has a monopoly on founding…there is nothing to be undone here; we start from scratch.”

Only in California could such a statement be made. In 1923, a Los Angeles Times editorial read, “We are being hotly pursued by our future.” Los Angeles, never a static place, internalized these fears, explain historians, soldering themselves to doctrines of development. CMC’s founding is rooted in California’s fanatic 1920s growth.

Architecture, particularly in southern California, is an expression of history and social process. CMC is no exception, representing its own flavor of the “academic village,” derivative of a distinctly American feature of higher education – the idea of the university as a community in and of itself. For CMC, this community would mimic 1940s restraints: “values of thrift, efficiency, and functionalism,” explains Starr.

He continues, “Like the odds and ends of military attire favored by the undergraduates in the first two years, surplus housing units of either wood or steel vividly evoked the transitions of the postwar era.”

The first permanent structure was the original Story House.  The building, named after Russell M. Story, served as a dormitory, commons, and focal point for campus life. By 1947, however, work had already begun on dedicating the furnishings of a campus.

Out of a dire need for dormitories came the first pillar of North Quad.  Architecture firm Allison and Rible, an omnipresent character throughout the campuses accelerating first fifteen years of growth, presented Benson and his trustee building committee with their work: a dorm turned inside out.  Instead of a central corridor, rooms would be accessed from a first or second story gallery.  The endeavor, now Appleby Hall, turned out to be a cost-effective success in the short run. And the College’s first dorm came to personify CMC’s aspirations and inclinations – functional and pragmatic, yet democratic, and distinctly Californian.

By the 1950s, CMC's architects were asked to draw up plans for a student center that would be shared with Scripps College. It would eventually adopt its colloquial name, "The Hub."

Benson, aware of the need to define and begin projecting a campus for recruitment and fundraising needs, had Allison and Rible quickly turn the project into a master plan – the initial rendering of a four dormitory quadrangle with an adjunct cafeteria.  By 1950, the four-legged quad was enclosed by Appleby, Green, Boswell, and Wohlford.

The college rounded out the 1940s with Pitzer Hall at the Western end of the Quad.  Before construction, however, there was a need to acquire the land. After World War Two, California experienced a significant housing crisis. “Even the most embattled shelter represented an asset,” explained Starr.  In total, the trustees spent $100,000 to clear the land for Pitzer Hall.  With limited funds and Russell Pitzer’s gift already tied up in loans associated with the construction of the dormitories, trustees pored over Allison and Rible’s drawings looking to cut costs.  Hot water in the bathrooms was eliminated by Benson.  Fortunately, through small gifts and loans from local banks at the hands of respected trustees, construction started in 1949, mirroring the construction on the Eastern end of the quad of Boswell Hall.

In this 1952 rendering from a promotional pamphlet, the shape of the campus begins to crystalize.

Upon the conclusion of the Korean War in 1953, the American economy accelerated – particularly in Southern California, where a building boom commenced. CMC trustees, many personally reaping the rewards of the 1950s, were eager to fund CMC’s own building boom.  Pitzer Hall was expanded in 1955.  In 1957, construction on Collins Hall, giving North Quad a permanent dining location, was completed.  The dining hall sat just off the quad, overlooking the green with large glass windows that demanded a vibrant and public eating routine, a dramatic contrast with Mallott Commons’ intimate rooms or Frary’s monolithic dining room.

While amidst a boom, the overlapping projects pushed the College’s finances to its limits, mandating further austerity for the buildings.  But within fifteen years, CMC’s academic village had arrived, after donations and loans were precariously strung together, leaving behind evidence of the financial restrictions imposed on the campus’ architectural needs.  In 1959, the interest on the $750,000 in loans taken out from the bank and endowment was about the same as an associate professor’s salary.

Now with a campus, the trustees and administrators sought to further provide the furnishings the college’s environment. Sixteen projects, including Auen, Fawcett, Benson, Berger, and Marks Halls, were completed during the 1960s.  Pitzer Hall, by the 1960s, could no longer support the administrative needs of the school.  Bauer Hall, with its groundbreaking in 1967 after Modestus Bauer’s $2.2 million gift, provided the solution. Bauer Hall provided the eastern end of north quad, and, remarkably, was accepted as an impressive architectural terminus for the quad.  The building mimicked the themes of North Quad: exterior corridors, simple hints of Mediterranean style, and an emphasis function over form. Bauer Center, while certainly no rival to the Kravis Center across the quad, still provides CMC with its own academic rotunda, and has played a key role in defining North Quad as a dynamic and multipurpose place that contained residential, academic, administrative, and social spaces.

Claremont McKenna's current master plan calls for an extension of the College's original quad.

The following years, while not without construction, were years focused on academic and administrative planning and development. Little physical change occurred when the College went coed. It was not until the 1980s that North Quad received an intellectual mantlepiece with construction of the Atheneaum. Donald McKenna pushed the project to establish a permanent building for speakers and discourse.  As early as 1968, McKenna had formulated the concept of the Atheneaum, a space that could simultaneously serve as an intellectual hub to exchange and learn but also mesh with the school’s ambitions to maintain a residential college. A $2 million building, construction began in 1982 and was finished within a year.  Now the campus had an explicit space where intellectual pursuits flirted and mingled with the CMC community in a social setting.

With the completion of the Ath and now further aware of how its identity had adapted to changing times, CMC announced a Master Plan in the mid 1980s.  Of most importance, Starr notes, was the realization that the older buildings were “disconcertingly Spartan in appearance,” due to lack of funding, and the aesthetic minimalism of the founders. Still, the campus had overcome architectural austerity to develop a profound space that respected the academic ambitions of the College. And while the founders saw little intrinsic value in designing a campus beyond its basic needs, these very tenets had, in a twist of fate, created a unique California campus that would become cherished by its inhabitants.

Read Part IV: Claremont Men’s College, with Women.

Most CMCers don’t know how the Athenaeum program started, or that CMCers used to hire typists for their senior theses, but one alumnus-in-residence remembers.

It was a leisurely, rainy and blustery Friday afternoon when I stepped inside CMC’s Claremont Boulevard building. After insisting that I help myself to some flower-shaped pieces of fruit, John Faranda, perhaps one of the most known CMC personalities, ushered me into his office. It was then, in between some idle chatter, some laughs, and some sharing of pictures, that I was able to interview the “Vice President of Alumni Relations.”

First, where you were born? Where did you grow up?

Well, I’m an Orange County person; I was born in Anaheim. I also lived in Illinois outside of Chicago for a while growing up. When I was at CMC my family moved to Saudi Arabia, so for a couple of years I was sort of an international student. Then I went to Washington DC on the CMC’s Washington Program, but I’m relatively a local to Southern California.

What was your favorite subject in school?

In school? That seems like a long time ago… I don’t know. I mean, I had a lot of fun in high school. French, German, and Speech were probably some of my favorite classes.

What did you do for fun? Outside activities? Hobbies? Extracurriculars?

Well, I was involved in student government. I was student body president in high school and junior class president and did a bunch of things with the school board. I did a lot of that kind of thing, and what I do now at CMC is sort of like being the student body president again and working with the school board. But now, instead of having a dance or a bake sale to raise a couple thousand dollars, we’re trying to have dances and bake sales that raise millions of dollars!

What made you choose to attend CMC?

I didn’t want to go especially far from home, which is ironic since my parents had by then moved to Saudi Arabia. My father had gone to Occidental College and it was probably my first choice at the time. It is a nice liberal arts college, but one of my father’s friends convinced me that Oxy’s time was past and that there was this up and coming men’s college I should look at in Claremont. When I came out here to visit, it just felt like a really good place for me. I was interested in government and economics and relatively conservative, so CMC fit better than Occidental.

What other activities were you involved with on campus at CMC?

I found CMC challenging and I spent a lot of time studying, but I was involved in College Republicans – I was President – and some other things on campus.

The old Athenaeum, which is now the Admissions Office, started as a place where professors could schedule classes. I think I was a first semester sophomore when my first class met there, and I was like “Oh this is cool!” I had never been there before, so I went and talked to the director and said, “You know this is really cool place, but if a professor doesn’t schedule something, you don’t get to come here. You should have some dinners that are just open for anyone at the school who wants to come.”

The Athenaeum Director said that dinners sounded like a good idea and that I should organize it. I was like, “Wait, no! I just wanted some free dinners!” But some students and I got involved in what we called the Meeting of the Minds Society, and we would schedule maybe one dinner a week. We pretty much went around to students at the other colleges and asked them who their favorite professors were, their Jack Pitneys, and we would have them come and talk for free because there was no budget for any of this. That first meeting morphed into the whole Athenaeum program. So that kept me busy. We also had what was called The James Madison Society, which was a political philosophy group and we organized a big conference once. I worked on that before, you know, there were Xerox machines, where you had to do all the printing by hand. Yeah, it was fun.

Were there any particularly good Athenaeum dinners that you recall?

From my era? I guess I would say the first President Bush was probably one of the most memorable speakers because I sat with him before we went into dinner and he, let’s see, had just finished being the CIA director, so it was before he ran for the presidency, but he wore these little reading glasses, and when he would talk to you, he would look over his notes and take his glasses off, and you felt when he took these glasses off as if he was opening up his soul to you. Milton Friedman was there, too. That was a very good talk, but the first George Bush was a pretty special meeting.

Were you ever “ponded” when you were here?

No I don’t think I was because at that time the ponding took place at Scripps and I think any of my friends were energetic enough to carry me there.

So how did you end up back at CMC then?

After graduation, I worked for two ethics committees, but I was involved with the alumni association and doing a bunch of things. I was at the Athenaeum one night and I remember Jill Stark was there saying, “Oh John you’re here so much we really should put you on the payroll.”

To this day I don’t think I was ever really offered a job. I just got a letter from Jack Stark saying “Dear John, we want you to start on February 15^th, and your salary will be X… please be here.” And I thought, “Well, they want me!” So I quit my other job and came to Claremont. That was twenty-three years and a week ago.

How long does it take you to learn the names and the people in each incoming class?

It’s hard. I mean, I have two things going against me: one is that I’m getting older and my brain is turning into Jell-O, and the other is that there are just so many more CMCers. Now there are 10,000 alumni and you just can’t keep 10,000 people in your head. But I do think that your generation has an advantage with Facebook, which does let you connect names with faces. I do not know everyone and I do not remember everyone’s names, but I try, and if I fail, please forgive me. Send me a message on Facebook or even better, come up and shake my hand and say hello. And I appreciate that CMCers are so good about that – a firm handshake and a, “Hello my name is X” can take you far in life.

Out of all the CMC events, do you have a favorite?

Yes, my favorite is Orientation. I love getting to meet all the freshmen. I really enjoy getting to say hello to everyone and welcome them, and then as you can imagine, the corollary is that I hate graduation. For even the most organized classes, only 50% will come back for their reunion, so I know that at least half of the class I’ll never see again. I know a lot of people in the class will stay connected, take trips together… but for me, a lot of the time I don’t see them again. Oh, and I do love Reunion Weekend, too! Welcoming everyone back and such.

We sometimes see you around Snack.

So one of the things that happens with Snack… I used to go more often when my office was in Bauer because I would just walk home. Now it’s sort of a long walk… sometimes I’ll stop by when I’m driving home in my car, and since faculty and staff aren’t on a meal plan and we don’t get Snack, to sort of be ethical about it, I never eat or drink anything at Snack. I think I’d have to pay $2.50 or something. Also, for most adults, the kinds of things that are at Snack just aren’t on our diets. I don’t need a donut or churros. So I guess my favorite item at Snack is conversation!

How do you think students have changed since you’ve been a student here?

Well, the co-ed thing was big, but it wasn’t as big as it was for other schools because we had Scripps across the way. I think that the two things that attract CMCers are pretty constant: law, government kind of things and finance, economics. We still see a pretty high proportions of students getting law and masters degrees. Then there are always five or ten physicians and teachers, but many people are interested in the investment banking thing. I do think that CMC students now are better prepared and more directed than we were – they clearly have a huge advantage in having technology on their side. You can finish a paper at 10:50 and hand it in 11:00. When we finished a paper at 10:50, we then had to type it up, which would take hours of typing on a typewriter. Most people actually hired typists to type their senior theses.

Where do you see the future of CMC going?

Well, we definitely have a lot of strategic things on the horizon for the college. There are a lot of good things happening here and now. CMC just continues to get better in moving forward – it’s attractive for students, and it’s attractive for alumni.

No… umm… no. I don’t want to be working here when I’m 76, but I hope that I will… I don’t know. I hope that I’ll still have a relationship with the college and the students. Do you know Goodbye Mr. Chips? It’s a novel about a beloved professor at Oxford who, you know, goes through his life making a difference in people’s lives but it’s told from the point of his retirement. All of the freshman come and have tea with him, one by one, and he talks with them about their lives and what they hope to do, so maybe I’ll have a “Mr. Chips” role at some point in the future. But at 76 I don’t want to be here trying to keep up with you. You’re too energetic.