The Wonders of the Claremont Colleges
Pomona College
Homepage: www.pomona.edu
Switchboard: (909) 621-8000
Enrollment: 1,520
Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1
Top three programs by enrollment:
– Economics
– Politics
– English
The Wonder of KSPC.FM
For more than 50 years, the left end of the FM radio dial has been represented locally by KSPC, Pomona College’s student-run radio station.
The station highlights eclectic, underground and local music, with original programming 24 hours a day, most of which is selected by students at the Claremont Colleges.
Notable programs include a polka show, a variety hour comedy program, and many others devoted to music not commonly heard on commercial radio.
“It provides a way for the students to communicate with their community,” said Erica Tyron, director of college radio and television. “Certainly, they’re getting real practical work experience if they’re volunteering or in a paid position here.”
Broadcasting with the help of an antenna atop a 125-foot radio tower on the Pomona College campus, the station – at 88.7 FM – claims a signal radius of 35 miles.
Early in the station’s history, when FM radio was seldom used by commercial radio, the station could reach all the way to Santa Barbara, Tyron said.
“We’re the 37th FM station in California, I believe,” Tyron said. “It’s pretty unusual for college stations to have that kind of history. I think we’re one of the older ones in the U.S., for that matter.”
FUTURE PLANS:
Over the next decade, Pomona College plans to create a new arts district on campus with studio space, performance space and classrooms, said Mark Wood, senior director of communications.
The district will include facilities “for the fine arts, music, dance and media studies, as well as a new home for an expanded Pomona College Museum of Art,” Wood said.
The college’s strategic plan also calls for new dormitories and a new International Center, Wood said.
Claremont McKenna College
Home page: www.claremontmckenna.edu
Switchboard: (909) 621-8000
Enrollment: 1,135
Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1
Top three programs by enrollment:
– Government
– Economics and Economics/Accounting
– Psychology
The Wonder of Marian Miner Cook Athemaeum
Though it may seem counterintuitive, director Spike Lee and politician Newt Gingrich do have something in common.
Both have appeared as guest speakers at Claremont McKenna’s Marian Miner Cook Athemaeum, which since opening in 1970 has hosted a broad array of the world’s luminaries.
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush appeared there before their elections, conservative pundit William F. Buckley spoke there more than once, and boxing entrepreneur Don King has also appeared.
Athletes, musicians, authors and even Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia have addressed crowds at the Athemaeum.
The list goes on.
In 1970, incoming Claremont McKenna president Jack Stark converted the president’s on-campus living quarters into a speaker’s venue because he already had a home in Claremont.
At first, guest speakers were hosted occasionally, but the events grew and a new building was needed, said Athemaeum director Bonnie Snortum. In 1983, the current Athemaeum building was completed.
The room has space for a crowd of 300, with overflow seating and remote video available in a nearby auditorium.
Students and the public are invited to attend the events free of charge, and a meal is served beforehand, giving students an exclusive opportunity to dine at the head table with the guest speaker.
“(The Athemaeum) is an intellectual center on campus, in which students and faculty mix socially, and at which we have very distinguished guests who come,” Snortum said.
FUTURE PLANS:
The fall 2008 semester will see the first incoming class of the Robert Day Scholars Program, a graduate program in finance established with a $200 million donation from Claremont McKenna graduate Robert Day.
A new dormitory, named Claremont Hall, will also be open in fall 2008, with space for about 100 students.
Scripps College
Homepage: www.scrippscollege.edu
Switchboard: (909) 621-8000
Enrollment: 888
Student-to-faculty ratio: 10.7 to 1
Top three programs by enrollment:
– Psychology
– Politics & International Relations
– English
The Wonder of the Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden
During daylight hours, college campuses are often bustling with activity.
Walkways can be filled with students biking or skateboarding to class. And in Claremont, parking is almost always scarce.
At Scripps College, the walled-in greenery of the Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden serves as a quiet sanctuary.
“It’s a place of great beauty and peace, and visually it is very pleasing, very beautiful,” said head librarian Judy Harvey Sahak.
The garden was established on the Scripps campus in 1934, named after a prominent trustee who died in 1931.
Its signature feature, a large mural covering a 100-foot wall in the garden, was painted in 1946 by muralist Alfredo Ramos Martinez, Sahak said.
The garden has two fountains, a sculpture and greenery including olive trees, orange trees, wisteria, camellias and other plants, Sahak said.
Students can often be found relaxing in the space. Wedding receptions, memorial services and other ceremonial events have been held there as well, Sahak said.
“It’s the closest thing that Scripps has, basically, to a chapel, to a spiritual place,” Sahak said.
“It is a place of quiet,” she added. “When you go in, you automatically lower your voice whether there is anyone in there or not. People go in there to meditate or to think.”
FUTURE PLANS:
A new recreational and athletic facility called the Sallie Tiernan Field House is expected to be open in Fall 2008.
The 24,000-square-foot facility will include an aerobics studio, weight room, cardio machine room, and other spaces for fitness and health education, according to the Scripps Web site.
Pitzer College
Homepage: www.pitzer.edu
Switchboard: (909) 621-8000
Enrollment: 977
Student-to-faculty ratio: 11 to 1
Top three programs by enrollment:
– Psychology
– English & World Literature
– Sociology
The Wonder of Pitzer’s murals
Compared to the other four undergraduate Claremont Colleges, Pitzer College has a loose, bohemian vibe.
One way that attitude is brought to life is through a college tradition of turning blank walls on campus into colorful murals.
Most of the murals are painted spontaneously by untrained students, and some have been created by prominent artists such as Yando Rios and Los Angeles muralist Paul Botello, said art professor Kathryn Miller.
Miller said the murals are a mix of sanctioned and unsanctioned work that began appearing in the mid-1990s when students started painting over walls.
“That’s how some students like to express themselves here,” Miller said. “… It makes for a colorful campus.”
The school later brought in muralists such as Botello to work with students, Miller said.
One mural depicts a giant tree with people of various ethnic backgrounds together. One is a view of the moon, and another pictures a group of X and Y chromosomes marching one by one. Other student murals range in style from “grafitti-style” to “semi- realist,” Miller said.
“It adds vibrancy and a connection to the space,” Miller said. “You know, (the students) make it their space while they’re here. And at the other colleges, it would never be allowed. There’s a kind of freedom of spirit here.”
FUTURE PLANS:
Pitzer College is in the midst of an ambitious expansion plan for its dorm facilities.
Three new residence halls were completed in fall 2007, and there are two additional phases of dorm construction to come, said college spokeswoman Susan Andrews.
The fall 2008 semester will see the start of a new institute at the college devoted to social studies, called the Center for Social Inquiry.
Each year, the institute selects a theme – in 2008-2009 it will address world health and food issues – and hosts a symposium on the subject with a high-profile speaker, Andrews said.
Harvey Mudd College
Homepage: www.hmc.edu
Switchboard: (909) 621-8000
Enrollment: 735
Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1
Top three programs by enrollment:
– Engineering
– Mathematics
– Computer Science and Physics
The wonder of Mudd’s Honor Code
Academic and social integrity is considered a core collegiate value. At Harvey Mudd College, that value is taken a great deal further.
During orientation, incoming “Mudders” are required to sign a symbolic Honor Code pledging academic and social integrity.
The code is taken very seriously by students and faculty. Professors allow students to take exams home, self-time the tests, and return them at their leisure.
“Students live the Honor Code at Harvey Mudd,” said Guy Gerbick, associate dean of students. “It’s very alive at the forefront of students’ minds.”
The code was established near the time of the college’s founding in the 1950s, and for about 50 years, all the student signatures were contained in the same book, Gerbick said.
In the past few years, the first book ran out of space and a second was started. During the signing ceremony, parents often attend.
To demonstrate the importance of the act, signatures are penned using an ostrich-feather pen, Gerbick said.
The principles of the Honor Code are manifested in many aspects of campus life. Skateboards, bicycles and laptops are left unattended.
Students have 24-hour access to campus classroom facilities, even labs and other facilities with expensive equipment.
Gerbick said shortly after he arrived at the college in fall 1999, a student who had committed a misdeed of some sort arrived at his office unsolicited to admit blame for the act.
“I was amazed,” Gerbick said. “That’s rare. That’s really rare.”
“In a lot of ways, it does make life easy for everybody,” he added. “We’re not watching over students’ behavior all that closely, because essentially we trust them to do the right thing. That’s the fundamental governing principal.”
FUTURE PLANS:
“Sustainability” has become all the rage at the Claremont Colleges in recent years, and Harvey Mudd is no exception.
The college’s Board of Trustees recently adopted a sustainability policy calling on the school to conduct an “energy audit” of its greenhouse gas emissions, with the goal of one day becoming “climate neutral,” said college spokesman Don Davidson.
Claremont Graduate University
Homepage: www.cgu.edu
Switchboard: (909) 621-8000
Enrollment: 2,033
Student-to-faculty ratio: 12 to 1
Top three programs by enrollment
– Management
– Education
– Psychology
The Wonder of the PC Museum
In a 50-year career working around computers, Paul Gray managed to pick up many machines dating back to the early years of personal computers.
When Gray retired from Claremont Graduate University in 2001, the professor took about 10 computers from his personal collection and used them as the basis for a PC Museum at the university.
“I’m the kind of person who doesn’t throw those things away,” said Gray, 77.
The museum now boasts a collection of more than 100 computers, about 25 printers and 40 monitors.
PC Magazine recently named the 50 greatest PC models of all time – Gray’s museum houses 40 of those computers.
“Personal computers are something that everyone has, but very few people are familiar with the history of the thing,” Gray said.
After Gray got the go-ahead from a dean at the university to start the museum, he solicited computers from friends, alumni and others. The museum received contributions from all over the country, Gray said.
“It’s amazing what people had in their attics,” Gray said.
The oldest model in the museum is an Altair model from 1975. Gray said he is in the process of acquiring a 1971 computer, which is the oldest known personal computer.
Other models are from long-defunct manufacturers that have been largely forgotten, Gray said.
“(Personal computers) have only been around really since 1980, 1978, which is really only about 30 years.” Gray said. “And yet these things disappear pretty quickly because everyone buys a new computer every two to three years.”
The museum’s collection is housed in display cases scattered throughout the university’s Academic and Computing Science Building, at 130 E. 9th St.
“For people who come to the university, it’s one of the first things they’re shown,” Gray said.
FUTURE PLANS:
Nearly 100 new living units will be available for students when the school’s Claremont Graduate Housing Complex is completed in summer 2008.
The with completion of the new dormitories, north of Foothill Boulevard near the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, a total of 158 units in the vicinity will be available for students.
– will.bigham@inlandnewspapers.com
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