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Claremont McKenna College
Motto:	Crescit cum commercio civitas (Civilization prospers with commerce)
Established	1946
Type:	Private
Endowment:	US $373 million
President:	Pamela Gann
Staff:	128
Undergraduates:	1,059
Postgraduates:	0
Location	Claremont, CA, USA
Campus:	Suburban, 50 acres (4 km²)
Nickname:	CMC
Website:	www.cmc.edu

A member of the Claremont Colleges, Claremont McKenna College is a small, highly selective, private coeducational, liberal arts college enrolling about 1100 students with a curricular emphasis on government and economics. CMC is located in Claremont, California, 35 miles east of Downtown Los Angeles.

Contents 1 History and reputation 2 Campus life 2.1 Dorms 2.2 Senior Apartments 2.3 Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum 2.4 The Claremont Colleges 3 Traditions 4 Academic programs 4.1 General education requirements 4.2 First year requirements 4.3 Majors 4.4 Sequences 5 Research institutes 6 Athletics 7 Controversies 8 Presidents 9 Notable faculty 10 Notable alumni 10.1 Politics 10.2 Business 10.3 Academia 10.4 Other 11 Dropouts and transfers 12 External links 13 References

Claremont McKenna College was founded in 1946 soon after World War II ended as Claremont Men's College. CMC was founded with the mission to foster leadership in its students in the fields of government, business, and international affairs. The school became coeducational in 1976 and was renamed after Donald McKenna, a founding trustee, in 1981. Its mission has stayed the same, as reflected in the College's motto, "Crescit cum commercio civitas," or "civilization prospers with commerce."

Despite its youth, the College is often ranked among the top colleges in the country under numerous categories:

• U.S. News and World Report has ranked Claremont McKenna as the 11th best liberal arts college in the nation in 2008, tied with Vassar College, Grinnell College, and Wesleyan University.^[1] The Washington Monthly has ranked CMC the sixth best liberal arts college in the nation in 2007, measuring the school's service to the community, research, and the social mobility of its students.

• In 2003, The Atlantic Monthly ranked Claremont McKenna as the 22nd best undergraduate college in the nation based on admission rate, SAT scores and rank in high-school class.

• In 2007, 16% of applicants were admitted to Claremont McKenna - the lowest acceptance rate in the college's history, and one of the lowest college acceptance rates in the country. Claremont McKenna is one of 46 undergraduate institutions that practices need-blind admissions.

• In August 2007, Newsweek ranked CMC as one of the "25 Hottest Colleges" in the nation, naming it "Hottest for Election Year." ^[2]

• According to quality-adjusted publications, CMC has the top-ranked economics department among liberal arts colleges.^[3]

• The Wall Street Journal has listed it as the eighth best liberal arts feeder school into elite graduate universities for law, business and medicine.^[4]

• The Princeton Review lists Claremont McKenna among the nation's top twenty schools for the "Best Quality of Life," "Happiest Students," and "Most Politically Active Students." In addition, the Princeton Review ranks Claremont McKenna in the top twenty for having a "School that runs like butter," "Professors who make themselves accessible," "Best Campus Food," "Dorms like Palaces" and "Students Happy with Financial Aid."

• CMC is a nominator (one of 67 US colleges and universities) for the Luce Scholars Program.^[5]

Claremont's dorms are divided into 3 regions: North Quad, Mid Quad, and South Quad. In addition, the student apartments sit on the East edge of campus, and are occupied primarily by seniors. All dorm rooms are attended to by housekeeping staff every other week.

North Quad is comprised of Appleby, Boswell, Green, and Wohlford dormitories, which were the campus's first dorms. In north quad, every room opens to the outdoors instead of opening to an interior hallway. North quad rooms are all doubles grouped into suites of four rooms that share a bathroom. North Quad is the center of the social scene at CMC and at the greater 5C community.

CMC's Mid Quad is home to Beckett, Benson, Berger, Marks, and Phillips Halls, which feature long interior corridors, double and single rooms, large shared-bathroom facilities, and all-dorm lounge areas. Adjacent to Mid Quad is Badgley Gardens a green space just south of Beckett Hall, where commencement was previously held. Due to the construction of a new dorm on Badgley Gardens, commencement has been moved to Pritzlaff field, behind Bauer Center, on the east end of campus. Construction on the new dorm in Badgley Gardens has begun, and is scheduled to be completed in fall 2008.

The tallest buildings in Claremont are "The Towers," Auen, Fawcett, and Stark Halls, which make up South Quad. Each tower has seven floors with approximately twelve students per floor. Each floor has a common area and a large shared bathroom, and there is an all-dorm lounge area on the ground floor. Stark Hall, the newest of the South Quad dorms, is substance-free.

The Senior Apartments lie to the east of the college's athletic facilities and to the west of Claremont Boulevard, and are divided into four buildings numbered 651, 661, 671 and 681. Each apartment is divided into four bedrooms and two bathrooms, and an apartment application must have four names on it. Until recently, half the apartments were reserved for men and half for women, and apartments were allotted based on credits. However, in 2005 the college abolished the 50/50 male/female ratio and began to assign apartments strictly on credits, which has had the effect of skewing the ratio slightly toward the female side. In any given year, most of CMC's 260 - 300 seniors can live in the apartments, though due to limited space some must live in the dorms.

Living in the apartments is considered highly desirable amongst CMC's senior class. Seniors get the chance to live with three friends of their choice, and do not have to worry about potentially obnoxious underclassmen. They also have the option to stay on a meal plan and eat at one of the 5-C dining halls, or cook for themselves. Apartment dwellers do not get the maid service of the dorms, but they do get a cable hookup, which the dorms don't have. Noise levels are more manageable, and tend to be quiet during much of the week and in the days leading up to thesis, and loud from Thursday to Saturday. Most parties and social events at the apartments take place between buildings 661 and 671 or on the "dunk hoops" (a small basketball court with 7 foot hoops).

The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum hosts more than one hundred dinner and lecture events with distinguished speakers each year, serving as the College's central intellectual and social hub. Students enjoy getting to know their professors at wine and cheese receptions and formal dinners preceding lectures by such eminent visitors as former President Bill Clinton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, authors Gore Vidal and Salman Rushdie, former Attorney General Janet Reno, filmmaker Spike Lee, environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. This fall the Athenaeum is prominently hosting Bono and Anderson Cooper. The Athenaeum hosts speakers four nights a week, and also serves daily afternoon tea in its library, featuring chocolate-covered strawberries and pastries. Afternoon tea, like all Athenaeum meals and events, is free to students, faculty, and staff.

Claremont McKenna is a member of the Claremont Colleges, and much of student life revolves around the five colleges, or "The 5C's." Claremont McKenna College, Pomona College, Scripps College, Pitzer College and Harvey Mudd College all interact socially, but also share dining halls, libraries, and other facilities spread throughout the bordering campuses. All five colleges are part of the Claremont University Consortium.

Students attending Claremont McKenna can enroll in up to 2/3 of their classes at the other four colleges, and can also major at any of the other colleges if the major is not offered at CMC. This is the general academic policy at all five schools, and is meant to give students the resources of a larger university while still maintaining the qualities of a small, liberal-arts college.

• Many incoming freshmen participate in W.O.A.!, or "Wilderness Orientation Adventure." W.O.A.! is a student-run preorientation program. Options include backpacking, camping, and rock-climbing at Yosemite, canoeing down the Colorado River, and beach camping at Catalina Island. Each trip is led by current students and a member of the faculty or alumni. W.O.A.! allows incoming students to develop friendships and get a sense for the college community before the formal beginning of their college careers.

• The "Madrigal Feast" is an annual dinner held in the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. Both current students as well as alumni typically attend. Guests are treated to a medieval-themed feast, complete with wassail, and a spirited musical performance put on by other students in medieval dress.

Several of Claremont McKenna College's traditions are water-related:

• Unlucky students get ponded (thrown in to one of the two fountains located on campus) by their peers on their birthday.

• At noon on the due dates of senior theses, the students turn in their theses to the registrar, after which they are given a bottle of Champagne by the class president. The students spend the remainder of the afternoon in the fountains at the school, drinking, singing, celebrating and enjoying the warm California sun.

Although its specialty is public policy and economics, Claremont McKenna College does hold to the idea of a liberal education by requiring students to add breadth to their knowledge through the completion of course in natural and social sciences, humanities, and foreign language. Generally, most CMC students take introductory government and economics courses, calculus or discrete math, a course in both physical and biological science, physical education or participation on a team sport, a third or fourth semester equivalent of a foreign language, and at least several other humanities couses including literature, philosophy and religious studies, as well as other social science classes in psychology and history.

Literature 10 - Composition and Literary Analysis

Unless waived for a transfer student, every student must take in their first year at the college. This introductory literature class covers all the major literary genres and is designed to improve each students critical thinking and writing skills. The specific works studied and course format varies depending on professor. There are plans in the Literature department to eventually phase out this class as a requirement and for the first year in 2006, students with an appropriate AP score in English may substitute any literature course for their Literature 10 requirement.

Civilization 10 - Questions of Civilization

Question of Civilization was designed to provide a unifying experience of Claremont McKenna students while fostering the exploration of universal thoughts and ideas. Directed by Prof. Robert J. Valenza, each year a core set of text is chosen for all section of Civilization 10, with each professor free and challenged to add his/her own insights or works to the course. Although not common in all sections, Prof. Valenza encourages the Civ faculty to provide interaction through discussion. Many students, though far from most, find this one of their most cherished CMC experiences.

Claremont McKenna's curricular emphasis is on its social sciences, particularly economics, government, international relations, and organizational psychology. Two in every five CMC students majors in either government or international relations. Also well known is its version of the Oxford-style Philosophy, Politics, and Economics major. Other multi-disciplinary majors include management engineering, philosophy and public affairs, science and management, econ-accounting, biology-chemistry, and environment, economics, and politics (EEP). CMC also offers the Robert A. Day 4+1 BA/MBA, in which students receive both their BA from Claremont McKenna and their MBA from the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University in 5 years. Claremont McKenna announced in September 2007 the biggest gift ever to a liberal arts college: $200 million donated personally by alum Robert A. Day, to found a program on campus known as the Robert Day scholars. The program would consist of undergraduate courses as well as a fifth year MA in finance, though the undergraduate program would consist of economics, finance, accounting and psychology courses.

CMC's science program is offered through the Joint Science Department of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges. The Joint Science Department has been offering a new double year-long introductory science class [1] to allow more flexibility than the former 3 year-long introductory biology, chemistry, and physics courses that most science majors must complete.

For a complete list of CMC's majors, visit the CMC catalog at the Office of Registrar's Website.

Claremont McKenna College does not offer traditional minors. Instead, CMC offers a group of sequences, which are minor-like groups of courses on a particular interdisciplinary theme.

CMC's sequences include:

• Asian-American Studies
• Computer Science
• Ethics
• Financial Economics
• Gender and Women's Studies
• Human Rights, Genocide, and Holocaust Studies
• Leadership
• Scientific Modeling

CMC sponsors 11 different on-campus research institutes and centers. They seek to produce new research and publications while involving undergraduate students in rigorous academic work. Many are named in honor of the college's donors.

• The Berger Institute for Work, Family and Children
• The Financial Economics Institute
• The Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights
• The Family of Benjamin Z. Gould Center for Humanistic Studies
• The Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies
• The Kravis Leadership Institute
• The Lowe Institute of Political Economy
• The Reed Institute for Applied Statistics
• The Roberts Environmental Center
• The Rose Institute of State and Local Government
• The Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World

Athletes from CMC, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College compete under one program - CMS Athletics. The men are the Stags, and the women are the Athenas. The teams participate in the NCAA's Division III and in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Over the years, a rivalry has formed between the opposing sports teams CMS (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) and PP (Pomona-Pitzer). These teams, however, mostly consist of students enrolled at Claremont McKenna and Pomona, which has intensified the rivalry between these particular neighbors. Recently, the rivalry has spread off the field and into classrooms and parties, making the rivalry not just athletic, but social and academic as well.

• On the evening of March 9, 2004, after attending and speaking at a campus forum concerning a recent spate of racist and racially-insensitive incidents, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology Kerri F. Dunn reported that her car had been vandalized and painted with racist, sexist and anti-semitic slurs. In response the Claremont Colleges cancelled classes the next day (after 9/11, classes were not cancelled, critics point out), and a series of demonstrations, candle-light vigils and community meetings were called to address the threat posed by an alleged and previously unknown group of violently intolerant students. Subsequent investigaton by the City of Claremont's police department and the FBI revealed that Dunn had, in fact, slashed her own tires and applied the insulting phrases to her own vehicle. She was subsequently found guilty of filing a false police report and attempted insurance fraud. She was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay a fine of approximately $19,000 in restitution.

• On September 27, 2007, the College announced a $200 million gift from alumnus and trustee Robert A. Day '65 to create a masters program in finance.^[6] CMC literature professor Robert Faggen sent a letter signed by several other literature professors to President Gann, saying they are concerned that the gift will "distort the college into a single focus trade school."^[7]

• George C.S. Benson, founding president (1946-1969)
• Howard R. Neville (1969-1970)
• Jack L. Stark (1970-1999)
• Pamela Gann (1999-present)

• Charles Kesler - editor of the Claremont Review of Books and noted conservative scholar
• Michael Uhlmann - former Assistant Attorney General to President Gerald Ford and special assistant to President Ronald Reagan

• Ken Cheuvront '83 - Member, Arizona State Senate
• Chuck DeVore '85 - Member, California State Assembly
• David Dreier '75 - California Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives and former Chairman of the House Rules Committee
• Sean Elsbernd '97 - Member, San Francisco Board of Supervisors
• Rob Hurtt '66 - California State Senate Republican Leader, 1995-1996
• Tom Leppert '77 - Mayor of Dallas, Texas
• Simon Salinas '78 - Former member, California State Assembly

• Michael Arrington '92 - Internet entrepreneur and founder of Techcrunch
• Michael S. Jeffries '66 - Chairman & CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
• Henry Kravis '67 - Founding partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR)
• Patrick Lencioni '87 - Bestselling management book author, corporate speaker
• Ashwin Navin '99 - President and co-founder of BitTorrent, Inc.
• George R. Roberts '66 - Founding partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR)

• Orley Ashenfelter '64 - Joseph Douglas Green 1895 Professor of Economics at Princeton University and former editor of the American Economic Review
• Francisco Vazquez '72 - Professor and director of the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University.
• Jack L. Stark '57 - Former CMC president

• John King '86 - half of the music producing duo The Dust Brothers
• Adam Kokesh '06 - decorated Iraq War veteran and anti-U.S. occupation of Iraq activist
• Randy Steven Kraft '67 - Convicted murderer
• Andrew Lee '07 - Creator of Fantasy Congress
• Ron Ridenhour '72 - My Lai massacre whistleblower

• Blake Gottesman - personal aide to President George W. Bush
• Wes Parker - baseball player, Los Angeles Dodgers
• Robin Williams - actor and comedian

• Claremont McKenna College - Official College Website
• ASCMC - CMC's student government
• The Forum - Official student newspaper
• The Claremont Port Side - Liberal/investigative student magazine.
• Claremont Independent Online - Conservative/investigative student magazine
• CMCStudents.com - Unofficial CMC website created by CMC students
• Princeton Review's Claremont McKenna College Profile

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