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6/30/06 |
Pomona's Summer Scholars program
helps high school students from underrepresented
groups get on track for college.
Pomona's Summer Scholars
Enrichment Program program is underway
for its fourth year with the goal of helping promising students get on track for college.
Participants come from socioeconomic and ethnic
groups traditionally underrepresented at schools
such as Pomona. Typically, they will be the first in
their family to attend college.
 Some 89 high school students are enrolled in the
month-long program that began in late June.
Many participants attend for three consecutive summers,
commuting to campus each weekday during their first
year, then living on campus in the residence halls
during their second and third summers.
In small classes and discussion groups, students
delve into everything from solving logic problems to SAT
preparation to mock interviews with college
admissions officers. The primary focus is on math
and writing, but students also can explore electives
in subjects such as music, theatre and photography.
Pomona professors and Pomona students, serving as
teaching assistants, work with the scholars in daily
tutorial sessions.
Last year, the first group of students completed the
three-year program, and many are heading off this
fall to colleges such as UCLA, UC Berkeley and
Loyola Marymount University. Several will be
attending Pomona College.
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6/26/06 |
Professor's documentary,
Screaming Queens, to air June 27 on Southern
California PBS station KOCE.
Pomona College professor Victor Silverman's
award-winning documentary, Screaming Queens: The
Riot at Compton's Cafeteria, will air at 10 p.m.,
June 27 on Orange County-based PBS TV station KOCE.
The documentary tells the story of the first known
act of militant transsexual resistance to social
oppression. In 1966, transgender street prostitutes
in San Francisco’s impoverished Tenderloin district
fought back against a police raid at Compton’s
Cafeteria, a popular all-night neighborhood
hang-out.
Screaming Queens is written and directed by
Silverman, an associate professor of history at
Pomona College, and Susan Stryker, a renowned
scholar of transgender history. It recently received
a Northern California Emmy Award for "Outstanding
Achievement, Historical/Cultural Program Special."
KOCE is one of the most-watched PBS stations in the
nation, reaching more than 5 million households in
Orange County, Los Angeles County, and beyond.
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6/19/06 |
Pomona students pursue serious science in the surf,
studying whether people playing at the beach harm
the eggs of grunion.
Grunion are part of California beach lore, carrying
on their famously floppy spawning ritual on summer
nights when the tide is right. But trouble may
arrive with daylight, as countless humans play and
sunbathe on the same shores where these mysterious
fish leave their eggs.
 This
summer, Pomona College students guided by Biology
Professor Nina Karnovsky are studying just how much
impact all that human activity has on the grunion
eggs that hatch under the sand at Laguna Beach. This
is the first research of its kind involving grunion,
and the results may shed light on the future of
these unique fish found only along the coasts of
California and Mexico.
Using GPS, students have mapped out five sizeable
sections of Laguna Beach that attract differing
levels of human activity. They collect eggs from the
designated areas and raises them in the lab,
searching for a correlation – or lack thereof –
between the number of eggs hatched and the level of
human activity in the area the eggs came from.
Grunion season is from March to August, and during
that time the “runs” – when the fish spawn on the
beach – go on for several nights after each high
tide that comes with the full or new moon. Though
the fish’s precise arrival times can be
unpredictable, the patient grunion watcher is
rewarded with the strange silvery scene of thousands
of fish covering the beach.
More ...
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5/12/06 |
He's done with Da Vinci: Art History
Professor George Gorse has had enough of The Code,
the hype, the endless questions -- not the artist.
You won’t bump into Art History Professor George
Gorse at the box office when The Da Vinci Code
movie opens May 19. He only reluctantly read the
book, and he has no plans to plunk down nine bucks
to see the film. After three years of fielding
questions from readers of the conspiracy-filled
tome, he’s pretty much done with Da Vinci.
“I’m waiting for it to go away,” says Gorse, an
expert in Italian Renaissance art.
 He
may be in for a long wait. Some 46 million copies
are in print and the movie starring Tom Hanks is
expected to be a big hit. Dan Brown’s novel revolves
around a secret kept hidden for centuries: that
Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, they had
a child and their blood line survived into modern
Europe. Leonardo da Vinci was in on the secret and
clues to the truth lie hidden in his masterpieces
such as The Last Supper.
The book is a fictional thriller that begins with a
murder at the Louvre in Paris. But the story's
prologue also asserts that “all descriptions of
artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals
in this novel are accurate.’’ ”The play on the line
between fiction and nonfiction is very insidious,”
says Gorse. “It’s a bad example for all of us.”
More ...
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4/26/06 |
New PBI President Dru Gladney brings deep knowledge
of China, ethnic nationalism.
Dru C. Gladney has been selected as president of the
Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College, a
research foundation widely recognized for its work
enhancing understanding among the nations of the
Pacific Rim.
 Gladney,
an internationally respected Asia specialist, is the
author of four books and more than 50 academic
articles and book chapters on topics spanning the
Asian continent. He is currently a professor of
Asian Studies and Anthropology at the University of
Hawai'i at Manoa and will become president of the
Institute on July 1, 2006.
In announcing the appointment, Pomona College
President David Oxtoby noted that, “Gladney is an
incredibly versatile scholar. We look forward to his
arrival at Pomona to carry on the wonderful
tradition of PBI begun by his predecessor, the late
Frank Gibney.”
Gladney has focused his research on ethnic and
cultural nationalism in Asia, specializing in the
people, politics, and cultures of the Silk Road. A
two-time Fulbright Research Scholar to China and
Turkey, he has conducted long-term field research in
Western China, Central Asia, and Turkey, for more
than 20 years.
More ...
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3/28/06 |
Pomona students earn prestigious Truman and
Goldwater scholarships; recent graduate
lands prized Carnegie fellowship.
 Jesse Last '07, an environmental analysis major
at Pomona College, today was named
one of 75 Truman Scholars nationwide, chosen from
among nearly 600 nominees. The
scholarship provides $30,000 to attend graduate
school in preparation for a
career in government or elsewhere in public service.
Before attending Pomona, Last (pictured at right)
served with AmeriCorp’s CityYear Boston where he
co-taught a social justice curriculum at the Umana
Barnes Middle School. After Pomona, he intends to go
on to earn his master's in public administration.
Fluent in Spanish, Jesse plans to couple his care
for the environment with support of economic
development in Latin America.
Meanwhile, three Pomona College students have
received Barry M. Goldwater
Scholarships, designed to encourage top students to
pursue careers in
mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering.
The one and two year
scholarships for undergraduates provide up to $7,500 per year to help
pay tuition and other
expenses. Daniel D. Hickstein '07, a chemistry major from
Bethesda, MD., plans to go on to
earn his doctoral degree in physical organic
chemistry. Laura E. Rosen '08, a
molecular biology major from Kirkland, Wash.,
intends to earn her doctorate in
molecular biology. Carroll L. "Max" Wainwright '07,
a physics major from Los
Gatos, Calif., plans a doctorate in theoretical
physics. This year, three of the four students
Pomona nominated received the scholarships, and they
are among 323 recipients nationwide.
On the alumni front, Will Talbott '05 has been named
one of six 2006-2007
Junior
Fellows for the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace. Talbott, who has
been working at a public policy think tank in
Argentina since graduating, will
work in the Endowment's Trade, Equity and
Development Program. Junior Fellows
conduct research for books, co-author journal
articles and policy papers and
participate in meetings with high-level officials.
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3/20/06 |
Symposium on April 3-4 will focus on Mexico's
upcoming presidential election, featuring leading
scholars and activists.
Pomona College presents a two-day symposium
on “The Mexican Presidency 2006-2012: Neoliberalism,
Social Movements and Electoral Politics,” April 3-4,
2006, offering an opportunity to engage the most
pressing issues confronting Mexico on the eve of
presidential elections in July.
 In
a rare opportunity north of the border, attendees
will hear from leading Mexican scholars,
intellectuals, novelists and activists, who will
analyze the country’s political landscape and social
movements. Presentations and speakers will include:
• Mexican historian and writer Adolfo Gilly will
speak on “One Triangle, Two Campaigns.”
• Activist and researcher Mercedes Olivera will
focus on “Violence against Women and Mexico’s
Structural Crisis.”
• Historian Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo will
examine “The Indigenous Movement in Mexico: Between
Electoral Politics and Local Resistance.”
More ...
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3/15/06 |
From the Arctic to the Tropics,
a pair of Pomona students will explore overseas
cultures with prestigious Watson
Fellowships.
Pomona seniors Megan Groth and Laurel McFadden have
been awarded prestigious
Thomas J. Watson Fellowships, providing each
with $25,000 to pursue independent study overseas
after graduating.
 A
biology major,
Groth plans to visit China, Japan, Costa Rica and
Ecuador to study the art, culture and practice of
bamboo construction and design. With home stays, she
plans to immerse herself in cultures that use
bamboo in their daily lives. She also intends to work
side by side with growers, harvesters and builders.
McFadden will travel to Canada, Greenland, Norway
and Russia to pursue a photographic examination of
"social and personal strength in a variety of
cultures coping with the extremes of the Arctic."
Through photography she plans to document patterns
of communication, tradition, emotion and social
interaction as she lives in different communities at
different stages of the Arctic seasons. At Pomona,
McFadden is majoring in Science, Technology and
Society.
The Watson Foundation, which provides 50 of these
fellowships each year, stipulates that the fellows
may not return to the United States during the 12
months of the fellowship, and the projects are
designed to be a truly independent experience where
the fellow’s agenda and research is self-motivated
and pursued individually.
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3/15/06 |
Hispanic
Magazine names Pomona one of 10 best colleges
for Latinos.
Pomona College is named one of the nation's
10 best colleges
for Latinos in the March issue of
Hispanic Magazine, a 280,000-circulation
monthly based in Miami.
 The magazine took into account measures of academic
excellence such as student-to-faculty ratio and
graduation rates, and also considered Hispanic
enrollment, cultural programs and support for
Hispanic students and the percentage of Hispanic
faculty.
For Pomona, the magazine reports that " this little
school of just over 1,500 has as strong a Hispanic
presence as it does an academic reputation." In a
voluntary self-report, 11 percent of Pomona's
current students identified themselves as Latino
American. Other colleges and universities listed in
the magazine's top 10 included Harvard, Stanford,
Dartmouth and MIT.
Read the full article.
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2/28/06 |
Los Angeles Times
profiles award-winning fashion brand, Trovata,
started by Josia Lamberto-Egan '00 and friends.
 Pomona alumnus Josia Lamberto-Egan '00 and
three other twenty-somethings have made a big splash
with their Newport Beach-based fashion label,
Trovata. In an in-depth Sunday profile, the Los
Angeles Times chronicles
"The
Boys in the Brand," highlighting their entrepreneurial
adventures since winning the Council of
Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund
prize for promising upstarts, landing $200,000 and
12 months of business mentorship.
Production Director Lamberto-Egan describes
Trovata's clothes as classic preppy "with a little bit of a beachy, artistic twist on them."
Each fashion season, the Trovata team comes up with
an elaborate "back story" to build their clothing
line around. For Fall '06, they hired a writer to
pen a 45-page noir detective-themed novella,
"A Mountain Spelled Murder."
The fashion venture
has roots at the Claremont Colleges, where Pomona
College's Lamberto-Egan, who had a side business
selling T-shirts, met John Whitledge, a Claremont
Kenna student "and before long the two had decided
the polo shirt was in need of a remodel," according
to the Times.
 An International Relations major who had transferred
to Pomona from Stanford, Lamberto-Egan says the
fashion business isn't all glamour as he gets into the
nitty-gritty details of stitches and zippers while
traveling to overseas producers in Asia and South
America. But sometimes it is glamorous -- like when
he met Jennifer Lopez.
Lamberto-Egan says Pomona's Career Development
Office helped steer him in the right direction. He
had planned to follow fellow International Relations
majors into consulting work after graduating, but
tests he took at the career center showed he was
better suited to art or design. "They were
right," he says.
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2/7/06 |
Paul Robustelli '06 wins
prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship.
Paul Robustelli '06 is Pomona's first winner
of the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship,
providing full financial support for the chemistry
major to study at the world famous British
university.
 Likened
to the Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, the Gates
Cambridge Scholarship was initiated five years ago
with a $210 million donation from the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation. It is geared toward "students of exceptional academic achievement and
scholarly promise" who have "strong aptitude for
research, analysis and a creative approach to
defining and solving problems."
Robustelli, a 21-year-old from Cross River, N.Y.,
says his work at Pomona in the research laboratories
of Chemistry Professor Wayne Steinmetz and Biology
Associate Professor Clarissa Cheney were key to his selection.
At Cambridge, Robustelli plans to pursue his Ph.D in
chemistry, studying protein folding, the process by
which chains of amino acids form into their
fully-structured, functional protein form.
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1/31/06 |
KSPC celebrates 50 years of community service and
eclectic music.
It’s a sleep-in Saturday morning, and Pomona
College’s cutting-edge radio station KSPC (88.7 FM)
is rousing students from their slumber with … polka
music? That’s right. We’re talking accordions and
oompah-pah from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
 The station has built its reputation on spinning
underground, ultra-alternative music. But KSPC also
plays a role in the wider community, providing a
home for programming niches ranging from
old-fashioned comedy to classic rock to hip hop. As
ready-bake radio formats reach even the smallest
markets, college stations such as KSPC are some of
the few places left on the dial where quirky
eclecticism still reigns, where polka can peacefully
co-exist with Goth. Public service announcements
about community events are another important part of
the mix.
KSPC celebrates its 50th birthday on February 12,
but its mission hasn’t strayed from that laid out by
co-founder Terry Drinkwater '58 in the station’s
inaugural broadcast: “We don’t feel that it is the
purpose of KSPC merely to duplicate programming
already available on other radio stations, but
rather to provide our listeners with a desirable
type of programming not readily available in the
area.”
More
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12/12/05 |
Sagehen successes: Women's
soccer coach and men's cross country star earn
regional awards.
Pomona-Pitzer
women’s soccer coach Jen Scanlon has been named
West Region Coach of the Year by the National Soccer
Coaches Association of America. Scanlon led the Sagehens to the championship in the Southern
California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, a
remarkable turnaround from a losing season just two
years ago.
Three Sagehen women’s soccer players also were
recognized, as seniors Anna Renery and Ashley Hovey
were named to the First Team All-Region, junior Kim
Ye was named to the second team and freshman Lily
Hitchner was named to the third team.
Meanwhile,
men's cross country star Crosby Freeman has been
named the 2005 NCAA Division III Men's West Region
Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and
Cross Country Coaches Association. Freeman led the
team to its third straight SCIAC championship. At
the regionals, Freeman took first place in the race
as his team landed in second place overall. Freeman,
a Pomona senior, is the first SCIAC male to
win three straight SCAIC Runner of the Year awards,
and is Pomona-Pitzer's first regional cross country
champion since 1983.
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12/2/05 |
Professor receives American
Academy of Religion’s Excellence in Teaching Award.
Zayn Kassam, associate professor of Religious
Studies at Pomona College, is the 2005 recipient of
the
American Academy of Religion’s Excellence in
Teaching Award.
 Kassam is “an impressive example of dedication to
the craft of teaching, especially for her careful
and unflinching consideration of issues that often
carry a heavy emotional charge for the students she
is teaching,” according to the academy's Religion
Award Committee. The award was presented in late
November at the academy's annual meeting.
Kassam, who began teaching at Pomona College in
1995, chairs the Religious Studies department and
teaches a variety of courses, including,
“Engendering and Experience: Women in the Islamic
Tradition,” “Islamic Thought,” and “Muslim Literary
Landscapes.” She has also written several essays on
teaching and a variety of articles for a lay
audience. Currently she is working on A Student’s
Guide to the World Religions: Islam for
Greenwood Press.
Students and colleagues alike praise Kassam’s
teaching and scholarship. She was awarded Pomona
College’s “Wig Distinguished Teaching Award”
twice—in 1998 and 2005. Students say: “Class
discussions [spill] out of the classroom, into the
dining and residence halls, and even onto forums in
cyberspace.” One colleague notes Kassam’s ability to
address volatile subjects with students in “an
environment of candor and honesty.”
More ...
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11/2/05 |
Women's soccer lands
championship with 2-0 win over Cal Lutheran.
The Pomona-Pitzer
women's soccer team took
the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference championship for the first time in 15
years with a 2-0
win over Cal Lutheran.
 The
Sagehens pulled ahead in the first half, with
freshman Kaitlin Swarts scoring her first collegiate
goal with a header that popped over the goalkeeper
and into the net. It wasn’t until the 89th minute
that Pomona-Pitzer was able to gain a little
breathing room when Swarts made a perfectly redirected shot off a pass
from Sonya Cifuentes-Hiss. Goalkeeper Kelsyn Bevins
made six saves and led the Sagehens to their 8th
shutout of the season.
Led by Coach Jennifer Scanlon, the
team finished 8-2-2 for the SCIAC season, a remarkable
turnaround from a losing season just two years ago.
The comeback
started last year when the Sagehens finished second
in their conference.
With the women's soccer program celebrating its 20th
anniversary, the Sagehens will be heading to the NCAA
Division III Playoffs for the first time.
The team also has cracked the Top 25 in the nation
Div. III national rankings.
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10/31/05 |
Men's
cross country tops conference for third consecutive
year.
The Pomona-Pitzer
men's cross country team won its third
consecutive Southern California Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference championship at Prado Park in
Chino Saturday, powered by the record-breaking
performance of Crosby Freeman '06.
 Freeman
(seen at right) smashed the men's 8K record with a
time of 25:04.5. Teammate Will Leer '07 finished in
second place at 25:16.20. Three other Sagehens --
Nik Hlady, Rich Cannon and David Maas -- placed in
the top 10. Freeman becomes the first SCIAC man
to win three straight SCAIC Runner of the Year
awards.
The team will go on to the highly-competitive NCAA
Regionals next month, and coach Pat Mulcahy wasn't
taking any time to savor Saturday's victory. "We
still have our work cut out for us," he said.
Meanwhile, the Pomona-Pitzer's
women's cross country team finished third at the
event, with Amy Rapp '06 placing in the top 10 in
the 6K.
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10/26/05 |
Author, political strategist and
Fox News commentator Susan Estrich to speak on
campus Nov. 1.
Susan Estrich, former Democratic strategist and
current Fox News TV commentator, will speak at
Pomona College on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. in
Bridges Hall of Music (Little Bridges). Her
topic is
“Perspective and Bias: The Political Scene and How
the Media Covers It.”
 Estrich, who managed Michael Dukakis' presidential
campaign, is author of the new book The Case for
Hillary Clinton. Her previous books include
Sex and Power, How to Get Into Law School and
Getting Away with Murder: How Politics is Destroying
the Criminal Justice System.
Estrich's talk, sponsored by ASPC and the Public
Events Committee, will be followed by a question and
answer session and book signing. It
will be the first in a series of speeches on Women
in the Media.
On Wednesday, Nov. 9, New York Times correspondent
Amy Waldman will discuss “The Democratization of
Information,'' in a talk set for 7 p.m. in the Smith
Campus Center's Rose Hills Theatre. Former co-bureau
chief for the Times in New Delhi, Waldman will
explain how broadened access to information - from
blogs to wireless networks to camera phones -- is
reshaping social values and power dynamics. The
talk is sponsored by ASPC, ASHMC
and the New York Times Education Program.
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10/19/05 |
Author and Pomona Professor
David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest is named one
of the 100 best novels by Time magazine.
Time magazine has named author and Pomona
Professor David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest
to its list of the 100 best English-language novels
published since 1923, when the venerable news
magazine was born.
The 1,079-page novel, which unfolds at a top tennis
academy and a drug rehab center, earns acclaim from
Time for its "painfully funny dialogue and
Wallace's endlessly rich ruminations and
speculations on addiction, entertainment, art, life
and, of course, tennis." It was published in
1996.
Wallace joined Pomona's faculty in 2002 as the first
Roy Edward Disney Professor in Creative Writing,
filling a new professorship endowed by a gift from
alumnus Roy Disney. His books include Girl With
Curious Hair, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll
Never Do Again, Brief Interviews with Hideous
Men, Oblivion and A Compact History of
Infinity. He also is a recipient of a MacArthur
Foundation "genius grant."
Other novels named to
Time's list include To Kill A Mockingbird,
The Grapes of Wrath, Beloved, The
Lord of the Rings, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest and The Corrections.
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10/17/05 |
Economics professor helps spearhead international
relief efforts for Pakistan earthquake.
Professor Tahir Andrabi’s family has lived in
Muzaffarad, Pakistan for four generations. He spent
many holidays there, swimming in the Jhelum,
climbing the formidable mountain Pir Chinassi and
roaming around in Jalalabad gardens.
 On Saturday, October 8, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake
devastated communities throughout northern Pakistan
and India, including Muzaffarabad. Since then,
Andrabi has been working intensely on both local and
international relief efforts.
“I hate to call Pakistan because every phone call
results in the news of a loss of another person,”
says Andrabi. “With the death toll crossing the
30,000 mark, and with over 50,000 people left
injured, hungry and homeless, we need all the help
we can get.”
Because of his connections to the World Bank and
with Pakistan government officials, developed
through years of research and work to improve
Pakistani education, Andrabi has been appointed to
the World Bank/Government of Pakistan coordinating
team for relief work and needs assessment for the
damage. The group includes representatives from the
United Nations and other disaster experts who are
developing a GIS mapping tool to allow them to
assess the damage in far-flung villages. Landslides
have blocked access to many of the Himalayan towns
and villages.
More ...
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10/16/05 |
Pomona senior lands interviews with big-name
politicos for his blog.
Puttering around his dorm room on a pleasant spring
morning, Friday the 13th of May, 2005, to be exact,
Pomona senior Jonathan Singer received a call on his
cell phone. “Jonathan Singer?” the voice inquired.
“I have Senator Bob Dole on the line.”
 After
little more than a year managing his blog, Jonathan
Singer ’06 recently notched his 100,000th unique
visitor, or ‘hit,’ in Web-speak. Named in honor of
jazz great Count Basie, his blog not only chronicles
the daily twists and turns of partisan politics but
features interviews with big-name political figures
such as former Senate Majority Leader Dole and
former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Singer typically arranges the interview for a
particular time, so he can use the recording
facilities at campus radio station KSPC. But a set
appointment isn’t always possible, as was the case
when Dole's secretary called while Singer was
relaxing in his dorm room. "I asked her to give me
five minutes, and I dropped everything I was doing
and sprinted to the radio station,” Singer says. “I
got there, made the call, and greeted Senator Dole
while trying to conceal how entirely out of breath I
was."
Singer's rise in the world of bloggers has been
equally breathless.
More ...
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10/15/05 |
Pomona-Pitzer football
defeats cross-campus rivals CMS 37-10.
 Pomona-Pitzer
football beat hometown rivals
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 37-10 today at Claremont McKenna's Zinda
Field. That means the Sagehens maintain
possession of the Peace Pipe after defeating CMS
24-10 in last year's game.
Pomona, Pitzer,
Claremont McKenna, Scripps and Harvey Mudd colleges
are all part of the Claremont Colleges, a unique
consortium of five undergraduate and two graduate
institutions.
Pomona and Claremont Men’s College (which
later became Claremont McKenna) competed as a single
Claremont Colleges team from 1947 to 1958. The
cross-campus rivalry began in 1959 after separate
athletic departments and intercollegiate programs
were started. Pitzer College opened in 1964 and
eventually joined Pomona students to form Pomona-Pitzer
teams.
Read local newspaper coverage
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10/7/05 |
Pomona College pitching in on
Habitat for Humanity "Building Blitz."
Pomona College volunteers are pitching in on
a Habitat for Humanity "Building Blitz" that will
provide local families with six new homes near
campus in six weeks of construction.
 The
project is the largest ever undertaken by the local
Habitat chapter, with the homes going up on an acre
of land at the southeast corner of First Street and
Claremont Boulevard. "It's an amazing thing if
you haven't been on a Habitat build," says Cyndi
Torres, executive director of the Pomona Valley
Habitat for Humanity chapter. "It's really
energized. You're working with other volunteers and
you're working with the families" who will live in
the homes.
A Claremont Colleges build weekend is set for 7:30
a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday Oct. 22 and 8:30
a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23. Construction volunteers must be 19
years or older (others can still help at
registration and hospitality tables), and for their
first visit must attend an orientation session at the start of the
work day. For more information, contact
Jamie
Johnson at the Volunteer Center or go to the
Pomona Valley Habitat chapter's
Website.
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9/28/05 |
Pulitzer
Prize-winning novelist Edward Jones to give reading
Oct. 5
Edward P. Jones, a 2004 Pulitzer Prize award
winner for his debut novel The Known World,
will read from his work at Pomona College on
Wednesday, October 5 as part of the College’s
2005-2006 Literary Series.
 Jones
received the Pen/Hemingway Award for his first book,
Lost in the City, a collection of short
stories published in 1992. Lost in the City
is set in the nation’s capital, Jones’ birthplace,
and takes the reader into the lives of
African-American men and women who work against the
constant threat of loss to maintain a sense of hope.
In The Known World, Henry Townsend is a
former slave who becomes a slave owner. Jones moves
seamlessly between the past, the future and back
again to the present, weaving together the lives of
freed and enslaved blacks, whites, and Indians –
allowing for a deeper understanding of the world
created by the institution of slavery. Critical
praise was lavish for The Known World.
Time magazine called it “magisterial.”
The New Yorker described it as “a book of
tremendous moral intricacy.”
Jones’ reading, which begins at 7:30 p.m., is free
and open to the public and will be held in the Ena
Thompson Reading Room in Crookshank Hall (Room 108,
140 W. 6th Street, Claremont). Contact the Pomona
College Department of English at (909) 607-2212 for
more information.
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9/20/05 |
China's growing
clout will be focus of campus events on Sept. 28 &
29.
 Joshua
Kurlantzick, foreign editor of the influential
magazine The New Republic, will speak on
China’s growing diplomatic power and the
consequences for international foreign policy, on
Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 5:30 pm. The talk is open to
the public and will be held in the Frank Dining
Hall's Blue Room.
There is no charge to attend the lecture.
Kurlantzick joined The New Republic as
foreign editor in October 2002. Prior to working for the
New Republic, Kurlantzick covered international economics and
trade for U.S. News and World Report and
Southeast Asia for The Economist as a
correspondent based in Bangkok, Thailand.
The event is sponsored by the Pomona Student Union,
a non-partisan student organization dedicated to
"raising the level of honest and open dialogue on
campus."
Meanwhile, on Sept. 29, the Pacific Basin Institute
at Pomona College will host a talk by Akio Kawato, a
veteran Japanese diplomat who has served in Russia,
the United States, Germany and, most recently, as
envoy to Uzbekistan. Kawato will present a careful
review of China’s evolution —from a Japanese
perspective. He advocates retaining the U.S.-Japan
alliance, but feels that it should be connected with
a multilateral Asian security network, with China
also playing a significant role. The event is set
for 4:15 p.m. in the Hahn Building, Room 101, and is
open to the public.
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9/16/05 |
Quiz-show success made freshman Yavor Kostov -- and
Pomona College -- well-known in Bulgaria.
Freshman Yavor Kostov '09 is just beginning at
Pomona, but he is already a big name back home in
Bulgaria. ”I get recognized in the street, whenever
I ride in public transportation,” he says. “I have
given autographs on several occasions.”
 And
it’s all because of a quiz show. In June, Kostov
made it to the very final question on the Bulgarian
version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” (There
the show is called “Become Rich” and the top prize
is $60,000.) He was only the third Bulgarian to make
it that far, and the youngest at age 18.
This episode was devoted to graduating high-school
seniors, and Kostov had gone through a competitive
screening process, passing a series of quizzes
before producers picked him. Once on the show, he
quickly excelled. Kostov’s fame has helped make
Pomona College known in the Eastern European nation
of about 8 million people. ”I popularized Pomona,’’
he said. “Wherever I went I told people about
Pomona.”
More ...
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9/14/05 |
Law experts
to visit campus Sept. 16 to discuss the Supreme
Court's future amid debate over chief justice
nominee.
Three legal experts will visit campus Friday
to discuss U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Robert's
qualifications, legal philosophy and his potential
impact on the court for decades. The panel talk
is set for noon in the Frank
Dining Hall's Blue Room and is open to the public.
Panel members are:
 --
David B. Cruz is a professor at USC's Gould School
of Law, with expertise in the area of sex,
gender and the law. He also has worked as
managing editor of the New York University Law
Review and as a law clerk to Judge Edward R.
Becker, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
-- John C. Eastman is a professor at Chapman
University School of Law, specializing in
constitutional law and legal history. He is also the
director of the Center for Constitutional
Jurisprudence, a public interest law firm.
Eastman has served as a law clerk to Supreme Court
Justice Clarence Thomas.
-- Neil Richards, an associate professor at
Washington University School of Law in St. Louis,
writes in the areas of privacy law, First Amendment
and legal history. Richards has clerked for the late
Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
The panel discussion is the first event of the year
for the Pomona Student Union, a non-partisan student
organization dedicated to "raising the level of
honest and open dialogue on campus."
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8/29/05 |
Noted author Jamaica Kincaid to
speak on campus Sept. 1.
Jamaica Kincaid, author of Annie John
and The Autobiography of My Mother , will
speak on campus Thursday night in an event sponsored
by The Claremont Colleges. "An Evening With
Jamaica Kincaid: A Reading" is set for 7 p.m. on
Sept. 1 in Bridges Auditorium. A question and answer
session and book signing will follow Kincaid's
presentation.
 Kincaid is widely praised for her works
exploring
the tenuous relationship between mother and daughter
as well as themes of anti-colonialism. Born in
Antigua, Kincaid was sent by her mother to the
United States at the age of 17 to work as an au pair
for a wealthy family in New York. Her first writing
experience involved a series of articles for
Ingénue magazine. Through her writing, she
befriended George W.S. Trow, a writer for the New
Yorker, who began writing "Talk of the Town"
pieces about her. Kincaid herself later became a
writer for the magazine.
Kincaid has received numerous awards and honors,
including a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
writer's award. My Brother, a memoir
of her relationship with her brother who died of
AIDS, was nominated for the National Book Award.
Tickets for free admission are available for Pomona
College students, faculty and staff from through
Aug. 31 (Present college ID at Pomona’s ASPC Office,
located in Suite 244 of Smith Campus Center). Though
the event is general admission, first-year students
will be given preferred seating to welcome them to
the colleges. Remaining tickets will go on sale to
the public at Bridges Auditorium box office on Sept.
1. Ticket price: $5.
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8/29/05 |
Groundbreaking ceremony for new
academic buildings set for Aug. 30.
The groundbreaking ceremony for a pair a new
academic buildings is set for Tuesday, Aug. 30 at
9:30 a.m. Located at 6th Street and College Way, The
Lincoln and Edmunds buildings will provide
state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities.
 Connected with a second-story walkway, the buildings
together will encompass 92,000 square feet when
completed in fall 2006. Edmunds will house the
departments of Computer Science, Environmental
Analysis, Geology and most of Linguistics and
Cognitive Science. Lincoln will be home to three
intercollegiate departments—Asian American Studies,
Black Studies and Chicano/a Studies—plus
the Neuroscience Program and most of the Psychology Department.
The buildings’ courtyard will create an attractive
new northern entry point for the campus.
Environmentally-friendly features will include solar
panels and heavy use of natural light. The buildings
will be designed to earn the U.S. Green Building
Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) silver certification.
Lillian Lincoln Howell, Pomona College Class of
1943, has made a gift of $10 million for the
construction of the new buildings. The Lincoln
Building honors Lillian Howell's family, including
her father John C. Lincoln and her son Lincoln C.
Howell. The Edmunds Building honors Charles K.
Edmunds, the fifth president of Pomona College.
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8/22/05 |
New students
arrive for week of outdoor and academic adventures.
 Pomona's
class of 2009 arrived on campus Sunday for a week of
recreational, cultural and academic adventures
before classes begin on Aug. 30.
The centerpiece of
the week is Orientation Adventure, where students
choose from among four-day trips that involve
backpacking, surfing, kayaking, participating in
community service projects or visiting cultural
landmarks such as the Getty Museum.
The class is just shy of 385 students, split nearly
equally between men and women. They come from more
than 40 different states and 15 nations, and 88
percent of these students were in the top 10 percent
of their high school class. About a third of the
students come from California, followed by New York
and Washington state.
Returning students will be moving back onto
campus this weekend.
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8/19/05 |
U.S. News
ranks Pomona #6 among more than 200 liberal
arts colleges nationwide.
 Pomona
College is ranked sixth among all liberal arts
colleges nationwide by
U.S. News & World Report in
the magazine's 2006 guide to “America's Best
Colleges.” Pomona also ranked second in selectivity;
and fourth in the categories “great schools, great
prices” and financial resources.
In the most recent survey of the nation’s 215
liberal arts colleges, released today, Pomona tied
for the sixth place spot with Bowdoin College in
Maine. Williams College (MA) was ranked first,
followed by Amherst College (MA), Swarthmore College
(PA), Wellesley College (MA) and Carleton (MN).
In the previous 10 years of the U.S. News survey,
the college has finished fifth seven times, along
with one fourth-place and one seventh-place ranking.
Pomona College administrators were pleased to be
again named among the nation’s leading small liberal
arts colleges. “I’m happy that Pomona’s high-quality
education continues to be recognized,” said David
Oxtoby, Pomona's president. “At the heart of the
Pomona educational experience are small classes,
close student-faculty relationships and
opportunities for student research and
collaboration. We’re fortunate to have the financial
resources to make a Pomona education available to
every accepted student by meeting full financial
need.”
Read more about Pomona
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8/15/05 |
USA Today, NPR feature Pomona
professor's new book on Japanese World War II
diaries.
 Professor
Samuel Yamashita's work translating diaries written
by ordinary Japanese citizens during World War II
was
featured this month in
USA Today and
on
National Public Radio's Weekend Edition.
He also appeared on the KPPC (89.3 FM)
"Talk of the City" program in the Los Angeles
area.
More than a decade in the making, Yamashita's new
book, Leaves from an Autumn of Emergencies:
Selections from the Wartime Diaries of Ordinary
Japanese (University of Hawaii Press, September
2005), is the first English-language collection of
its kind.
The diaries offer a vivid picture of life on the
home front and on the battlefield. The authors
include: a kamikaze pilot, a Tokyo housewife who
watches the bombs striking closer each day, a
9-year-old girl evacuated from Tokyo and an elderly
Kyoto businessman convinced he is starving to death.
"The diaries shatter popular notions of a unified Japanese citizenry and
illuminate the lives of ordinary Japanese," says
Yamashita.
Aug. 6 marked the 60th anniversary of the atomic
bomb drop on Hiroshima.
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7/19/05 |
Incoming Pomona student wins top
prize on TV's "The Scholar"
Melissa Hanna '09 won the top prize last night on
ABC's "The Scholar," a reality show in which 10
exceptional high school students competed for money
to pay for college.
 The
teen from the Los Angeles suburb of Tarzana took
home a full scholarship -- worth up to $240,000 --
after six episodes of competitions testing academic
knowledge, problem-solving and leadership skills
before a panel of admissions officers.
On Monday night, 140 friends and family members
gathered at the Hanna family home to watch the
finale. After a drum roll, the show's host revealed
that Hanna was the winner. "Everyone who has
invested in me their time and their faith, I hope
I've made everyone proud," she said on TV.
In real life, Hanna and her family had been keeping
the secret about her win for months. The show was
filmed over a two-week period at USC in the winter.
She enjoyed her two weeks living with the talented
group of teens. "I think you're finally in
your element, Melissa," her mother told her as she
dropped Hanna off for the two weeks.
Hanna first visited Pomona as part of the Minority
Student Action Program. Since Hanna attended a
private high school, she liked the idea of attending
a small college with caring faculty and
administrators.
Visiting the Pomona campus, "it felt so right," she
said. "And I knew this was going to be a place where
I fit in."
More ...
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