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Pomona College News Highlights 2008-2009
 


 
6/16/09 Drew Hedman '09 Drafted by the Boston Red Sox
Drew Hedman ’09 was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 50th round of Major League Baseball's 2009 First-Year Player Draft last Thursday. He is the third Sagehen since 2003 to be selected in the draft. This honor caps the best offensive season in Pomona-Pitzer baseball history where Hedman hit .489 with 24 home runs and 87 RBIs, says Men’s Baseball Coach Frank Pericolosi.

Hedman was named National Hitter of the Year by D3Baseball.com, s, and the National College Baseball Writers Association. He was also featured in the June 15 issue of Sports Illustrated in their “Faces in the Crowd” section.

Hedman, who plays first base and sometimes outfield, began playing for the single-A short season minor league team the Lowell Spinners in Lowell, Massachusetts, last Sunday.
 
6/15/09 In Memorium: Professor Fred Sontag, 1924-2009
Frederick E. Sontag, the Robert C. Denison Professor of Philosophy at Pomona College, died Sunday, June 14, at the age of 84, after several months of declining health. Professor Sontag had recently retired from the Pomona faculty, bringing a close to a remarkable 57-year tenure as a member of Pomona’s Philosophy Department. The author of 28 books—the most recent published in 2005—he was a mentor and lifelong friend to generations of Pomona College students.

Please visit Professor Sontag's memorial section to view and contribute your memories of him, as well as find memorial service information.
 
6/15/09 Terril Jones ’80 Offers New Photographic Perspective on Tiananmen Square Tank Protestor 20 Years Later
Upon the 20-year anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protest on June 5, Terril Jones ’80 finally found the perfect opportunity to release an almost-forgotten photograph that reveals a new perspective of the famous man who faced down the tanks that day. Read more...
 
6/11/09 "Top Chef Masters" Finds Cooking in Pomona College's Harwood Court a Challenge in the Premiere Episode
Last February, reality TV producers took over Harwood Court for a day to film the premiere episode of the new cooking show “Top Chef Masters.” Anne Calef ‘12, Chelsea Muir ‘11, Paloma Garcia ‘12 and Adam Buchholz ‘12 graciously gave up their dorm rooms so that renowned chefs could tackle the challenge of cooking a three-course meal in a dorm room with little more than a microwave, hot plate and toaster oven. Along with seven other students, the group also helped judge the dishes.

The "Masters Get Schooled" episode finally aired last night on Bravo at 10 p.m. Read more...

6/4/09 Seven Exceptional Pomona College Faculty Members Voted Wig Professors by Students
Seven Pomona College professors have received the 2009 Wig Distinguished Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching. The Award recognizes exceptional teaching, concern for students and service to the College and the community.

The recipients of the Wig Awards are elected by the junior and senior classes and then confirmed by a committee of trustees, faculty and students. The awards were announced at Pomona's 116th Commencement held on May 17, 2009. The awards were established by Mr. and Mrs. R.J. Wig in 1955.

This year's awardees are:
• Eleanor P. Brown, the James Irvine Professor of Economics and the coordinator of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program, joined the faculty in 1986. She teaches Economics of Gender and the Family; Economics of the Public Sector; Freedom, Markets & Well-Being; and Microeconomic Theory. This is her fifth Wig Award.

• Stephan R. Garcia, assistant professor of mathematics, joined Pomona in 2006. He teaches Calculus II, Linear Algebra, Advanced Linear Algebra, and Principles of Real Analysis.

• Susan J. McWilliams, assistant professor of politics, joined Pomona in 2006. She teaches American Political Thought, Classical Political Theory, Modern Political Theory, American Democracy in Theory and Practice, Politics and Literature, Justice and the Family, and Dangerous Books.

• Gilda L. Ochoa, associate professor of sociology and Chicano Studies, joined the faculty in 1997. She teaches Introduction to Sociology; History and Development of Sociological Theory II: Contemporary Theories; Qualitative Research Methods; Los Angeles Communities: Transformations, Inequality and Activism; Chicanas/os-Latinas/os in Contemporary Society; and Chicanos/Latinas and Education. This is her second Wig Award.

• Ghassan Y. Sarkis, assistant professor of mathematics, joined the faculty in 2002. He teaches Abstract Algebra, Calculus, Introduction to Statistics, and Linear Algebra.

• Tomás F. Summers Sandoval, Jr., assistant professor of history and Chicano Studies, joined the faculty in 2006. He teaches All Power to the People! Social Movements for Justice; American Inequality, Chicana/Latina Feminist Histories, Chincana/o and Latina/o Histories, and Latina/o Oral Histories.

• Jonathan C. Wright, an associate professor of biology, joined the faculty in 1998. He teaches Animal Physiology with Laboratory and Introduction to Ecological and Evolutionary Biology with Laboratory. This is his second Wig Award.

To read more about each professor, including student comments, please visit our full press release.

6/4/09 Pomona College Adopts New Environmental Policy
The Board of Trustees approved a new Environmental Policy last month, marking the first update to the policy since it was first developed in 2003.

"Much has changed in the six years since Pomona first adopted an environmental policy,” says President David W. Oxtoby. “Energy and resource conservation have been broadened to include the full environmental footprint of all of the activities of the College, and processes have been put in place to monitor our performance in a critical fashion and to begin to reach benchmark goals. This policy has emerged from discussions with the full community, and sets us on a path toward a leadership position nationally in issues of sustainability."

The new policy consists of two sections: Sustainability values and policy implementation. Eleven values are recognized as “central values of the College that pertain to sustainability and environmental impact,” including leadership, education, conservation, solutions-based progress, stewardship, community, economic responsibility, and social justice.

“This updated policy not only reiterates our commitment and why this issue is important to the College, but also puts in place some frameworks for decision-making in key areas of College operations: planning, maintenance and construction; financial and budgetary planning; and education and research,” says Bowen Patterson ’06, director of the newly named Sustainability Integration Office.

“This policy requires that sustainability be taken into consideration from day one of any construction project. It also formally states, for the first time ever, that cost-saving sustainability measures will be considered appropriate investments of College funds. While this may sound straightforward, it represents somewhat of a shift in thinking about upfront versus long-term costs and savings of projects such as retrofits and upgrades.”

Other highlights from the implementation section of the Environmental Policy include a commitment to sustainability-related education, and the development of a standing Sustainability Committee charged with charged with working with the Sustainability Integration Office to generate, administer and monitor an implementation framework for this policy.

As a next step, the Sustainability Integration Office and this committee will spend the next year continuing to work on the College’s Sustainability Action Plan, which will determine sustainability goals (e.g., a certain percentage reduction in waste by 2015) and identify priority strategies for moving forward. This long-term plan will address a wide variety of issues including water use, energy use, renewable energy sources, food and agriculture, waste generation and transportation.

To read the new Environmental Policy and learn more about sustainability efforts on campus, visit the Sustainability Integration Office’s Web site.
 
6/01/09 Pomona College Class of 2009 Awarded 22 Fulbright Fellowships
Twenty-two graduates of the Pomona College Class of 2009 have received prestigious Fulbright Fellowships to pursue research or teach around the globe. This marks the second highest amount ever received by a Pomona graduating class. In a highly unusual twist, six graduating seniors have turned down the award for other opportunities. The Pomona College record was set by the Class of 2007 with 27 awards.

In addition to the awards made to members of the Class of 2009, one Pomona alumnus has received a research Fulbright, bringing this year's full total of awards to 23. Read more...
 
5/27/09 Women's Water Polo Concludes Successful 2009 Season
Pomona-Pitzer finished the 2009 season by winning its fifth Collegiate III Championship at Cal Lutheran. The Sagehens finished the tournament going 5-0 with a final 10-5 defeat over the University of Redlands in the championship game.

The Sagehens ended the season 29-8. This is their fifth Collegiate III championship (1993, 1994, 2003, 2005, and 2009).

Junior Sarah Woods was named tournament Most Valuable Player and senior Nicole Ruesch was selected 1st Team All-Tournament. Senior Janelle Gyorffy and junior Naneh Apkarian were selected as honorable mentions.

For a full run-down of the championship games, visit our Athletics site.

5/27/09 Women's Tennis Team Ranked No. 7 in Nation, Doubles Partners Ranked No. 2
The Pomona-Pitzer Women’s Tennis team finished out an excellent year ranked in the Elite 8 and with doubles players Siobhan Finicane ’10 and Olivia Muesse ’10 ranked No. 2 in the nation. This is the third consecutive year the team has placed in the top 8 in the nation.

After winning the SCIAC title and being ranked as the No. 1 team in the West region, the team traveled to the NCAA Division III finals in Lawrenceville, Georgia, last week. There, the team lost to Emory in the first round. Singles player, and number one seed, Siobhan Finicane ’10 bested Janelle Arita from DePauw in the first round of 32 matches, but fell to Jackie Schtemberg from The College of New Jersey in the next round of 16 matches.

Finicane fared better in the doubles matches with partner Olivia Muesse ’10. The pair beat the number one team from Emory in the quarterfinals (a team whom beat them last year). They were victorious over Dennison’s number one team in the semifinals, but lost to the University of Chicago in the finals, taking home the ranking of No. 2 team in the United States.

Members of the team have also been the recipients of several awards: Siobhan was named SCIAC’S Most Valued Player for the third year in a row. Becca Lange ’09 completed her college tennis career with her fourth award in a row, winning West Regional Senior Player of the Year. Siobhan and Lange also won, respectively, the Pomona-Pitzer athletics awards of MVP and Scholar-Athlete.

At the nationals, Assistant Coach Brittany Biebl took home the prestigious award of NCAA Assistant Coach of the Year.

5/15/09 New York Times Publishes Pomona Senior’s Crossword Today
Today’s New York Times crossword puzzle was submitted by Pomona Senior Xan Vongsathorn and is his first published. Friday puzzles are known for being the second hardest of the week.

Jim Horne, author of The Crossword Blog of the New York Times calls it “a very fine Friday puzzle…. It feels like a typical Friday themeless but the only two long answers have an amusing connection. I usually am not fond of Roman numerals in the grid, but I love 40 Across, ‘The annus in Dryden’s Annus Mirabilis.’” The length of the Roman numeral was “so crazy that [Will Shortz] almost likes it,” according to an e-mail notifying Vongsathorn that the puzzle would be published.

To read a short interview with Vongsathorn, in which he notes that, until Sunday, he is a Pomona senior, visit the New York Times site.

Vongsathorn, an economics and mathematics double major from Bethesda, MD, was this year’s winner of the on-campus “Third Annual New York Times Crossword Puzzle Contest.” He has been accepted to the University of Chicago PhD program in economics.

5/11/09 Alumni Weekend Photo Gallery
Pomona was happy to welcome about 1,400 alumni and friends back to campus from April 30 to May 3 for our annual Alumni Weekend. This year we celebrated classes that end in 4 or 9, from 1929 to 2004. Read more and view gallery...
 
5/7/09 President Oxtoby Writes a College Admissions Essay for The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal offered 10 college presidents an unusual assignment: Write an admissions essay question from their own school’s application. Our own President David Oxtoby faced up to the challenge by answering this question:

Although it may appear to the contrary, we do know that people have a life beyond what they do to get into college. Tell us about an experience you've had outside your formal classroom and extracurricular activities that was just plain fun and why.

Choosing to write about the freedom he finds while bicycling, whether on an early weekend ride through Claremont with faculty and staff, a 150-mile charity ride, or a vacation in Brittany, President Oxtoby says “What I love about bicycling is how close I am to the countryside, moving slowly enough to see everything, and able to stop when a spot beckons.”

You can read President Oxtoby’s essay here, and access the main article and other presidents’ essays here.

5/7/09 Spring Sports Roundup: Baseball and Women’s Tennis Wins SCIAC, Two Athletes Named “Player of the Year”

5/19/09 update: The Pomona-Pitzer baseball team concluded their historic 2009 season at the NCAA Division III Baseball regional this past weekend, falling to tournament champion Chapman University, 5-2.

The team tied the record for most wins in a season with 37, while capturing their fourth SCIAC title in eight years. Senior Drew Hedman was named conference Player of the Year, and finished in the top 10 in the nation in batting average, home runs, slugging percentage, on base percentage, and runs batted in.

5/15/09 update: Pomona-Pitzer baseball lost today to George Fox with a final score of 12-6. Tomorrow, the Sagehens will play Cal Lutheran at noon. The winner of that game will then play Chapman University at 7 p.m. The final procedure for Sunday's Western Regional Championships will depend on the outcome of Saturday's games. Visit the Linfield College Website to follow the games live online.

5/14/09 update, 2:23 p.m.: The Sagehens have won their first baseball game in the Western Regional Tournament in Oregon, with a final score of 8-3 against Hendrix College. Tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., they'll play the loser of tonight's game between George Fox University and Cal Lutheran.

5/13/09 update, 11 a.m.: Pomona-Pitzer baseball is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division III West Regional Tournament taking place this week at Linfield College in McMinville, Oregon. Today at noon, the Sagehens play against Hendrix College. Click here and here to view the entire schedule and results.

Our Women’s Tennis team is also doing phenomenally well, a triple-threat with a No. 1 rank in the West for team, singles player (Siobhan Finicaine ’10) and doubles (Finicaine and Olivia Muesse ’10). The team won the West Regional Tournament last week with a final score of 5-1 over University of Redlands, and will join Finicaine, Muesse and first alternate Becca Lange ’09 at the Finals at the Collins Hill Athletic Club in Lawrenceville, Georgia, from May 19-21. The team will compete against Emory University in the quarterfinals. View the bracket heree. Information regarding the tournament can be found here.
 

Baseball
The Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens went out with a bang this year, taking the SCIAC championship and producing a Player of the Year.
With a 19-2 SCIAC record and 35-5 overall, the team was named No. 1 in its biweekly Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division III Poll in April. They clinched their place in the SCIAC championships by winning two of three games each against Cal Lutheran and Occidental in the final two weekends of the regular season.

In the finals, they faced off against the University of La Verne, and won their fourth SCIAC Championship in eight years with a 5-4 victory. Saghens led 3-2 in the top of the eighth inning, but La Verne scored two runs with a hit batsman, a double and run-scoring error.

Unable to answer in the eighth inning, the Sagehens were down to their final two outs Mike Silva from CGU singled and Teddy Bingham ‘10 followed with a two-run walk off home run that clinched an outright SCIAC Championship for Pomona-Pitzer. Right-hand pitcher David Colvin PI ’10 led the way for the Sagehens, tossing a complete game and striking out eight without yielding a walk.

Drew Hedman ’09 has been named Player of the Year by SCIAC. He was previously named to the All-SCIAC Baseball teams in 2007 and 2008. Several other players were named to the All-SCIAC team this year as well. Zachary Mandelblatt ’09 (outfielder), Nick Frederick ’11 (outfielder), David Colvin PI ’09 (pitcher), James Kang PI ’10 (infielder) and Brandon Huerta PI ’09 (infielder) were named to the first team, and Mike Silva (catcher) and Teddy Bingham ’10 (outfielder) were named to the second team.

Women’s Water Polo
After an unsuccessful try at the SCIAC crown, which the Pomona-Pitzer team won the past two years, the women’s water polo team rebounded with a win at the Collegiate III tournament.

The grueling championship consists of five games in four days, and the Sagehens were victorious against Cal State East Bay 11-4, Washington and Jefferson 15-12, University of Redlands 8-5 and Occidental in the semi-finals 9-6. For the finals, they were matched up against the University of Redlands and won a 10-5 victory. Naneh Apkarian ‘10 led the Sagehens with three goals.

In the SCIAC Championships, the Sagehens defeated La Verne and Occidental in the opener and semi-finals, but lost to Cal Lutheran (whom they beat last year for the title) by just one point with a score of 8-7.

The team had a successful season with a 7-2 SCIAC record and an overall 25-9 record. Four players were named to the 2009 Women's Water Polo All-Conference Teams: Nikki Ruesch ’09 and Janelle Gyorffy ’09 were named to the First All-SCIAC Team, and Tamara Perea ’11 and Sara Woods ’10 were named to the Second All-SCIAC Team.

Women’s Track and Field
On April 27 and Occidental’s Bill Henry Track, the women’s track and field team scored 69.5 points to finish behind Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (175), Cal Lutheran (103.5), and Whittier (81).

Numerous Sagehen all-time bests were set, and junior Claire McGroder earned an individual title in the 400 meters. She clocked 56.65 to win the 400m. Her time stands sixth-fastest nationally on the 2009 NCAA Division III qualifying lists. She later finished second in the 200m at 26.00, and ran legs on both the 4x100 and 4x400 relays.

Several other sprinters placed in the top five of their categories and earned All-SCIAC honors. For a complete list, please visit our Athletics sitee. 

Men’s Track and Field

Leading the way for the Sagehens was freshman John Lewis who amassed 24 team points. Lewis was the conference champion in the 110HH, finished second in the 100m, and third in the 200m dash. Only one other conference athlete scored more points, Jeff Clark, a senior from Claremont-Mudd.

Anders Crabo '12 also dominated the field in the 3000m steeplechase on the first day of competition and Pitzer freshman Colin Flynn was victorious in the 1500m run.

Women’s Tenniss
The seventh-ranked Pomona-Pitzer women's tennis team won the SCIAC title, and as No. 1 team in the West region, they earned top seed in this weekend’s regional championships taking place at Pomona. The team that wins this weekend’s tournament will compete in the NCAA quarterfinals beginning May 19 in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Siobhan Finicane '10, who was named Player of the Year, is already headed to the nationals as both an individual competitor and as a team with Olivia Muesse '10. They are ranked the No. 1 team in the west. Becca Lange '09 is also headed to Georgia as the first alternate, and was named on the First All-SCIAC Tennis Team. Muesse and Nicole Holstead '12 were named on the Second All-SCIAC team.
 
5/6/099 Artful and Sustainable Canopy to Provide Shade for Commencement
Art, science and mathematics all promise to meet function at Pomona College’s 116th Commencement ceremony, which will take place under the shade of Pomona College: String Theory
Last year’s ceremony was held on a scorching afternoon, with no relief for students and families “visibly wilting” in direct sunlight, as Kathleen Howe, director of the Pomona College Museum of Art, recalls. Read more and view a slideshow of the canopy construction process...

4/28/09 Esther Brimmer '83 Confirmed for White House Position as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs
Earlier this month, Esther Brimmer ’83 was confirmed for a top post in the Obama administration. Her new position, assistant secretary of state for International Organization Affairs, carries the responsibilities of developing and implementing U.S. policy in areas such as human rights, peacekeeping and climate change through the United Nations and other international intergovernmental organizations.

Brimmer earned a degree in international relations at Pomona and went on to complete her Master’s and Ph.D. in international relations from Oxford University. In Brimmer’s statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee upon her nomination in March, she referenced her education at Pomona:

“I became interested in the United Nations in 8th grade when I served as a page carrying messages in plenary sessions of a Model United Nations. Years later, I led Pomona College's delegation to the Model United Nations of the Far West. During my junior year in college, I participated in Pomona's highly competitive program to study international organizations in Geneva. I even wrote a paper on the International Civil Aviation Organization, ICAO.”

Most recently, Brimmer was the deputy director and director of research at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced Studies at John Hopkins University. Previously, she’s held several other positions in the federal government and at think tanks, including the Office of Policy Planning at the U.S. Department of State; the Democratic Study Group in the U.S. House of Representatives; the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict; and McKinsey & Co. She’s edited four books, including Transforming Homeland Security: U.S. and European Approaches, and has written numerous articles and book chapters on transatlantic security issues.

Her full statement is available to read here.
 
4/22/09 Pomona-Pitzer Baseball Leading SCIAC 15-0 and Voted #1 in Coaches Poll
The Pomona-Pitzer baseball team is having a stellar season, with a 15-0 SCIAC record and a 31-3 record overall. In addition, the American Baseball Coaches Association named the Sagehens No. 1 in its biweekly Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division III Poll.

The poll comes out every two weeks starting in late March. In this season's previous two polls, Pomona-Pitzer placed third and 11th.

“It’s a good honor to be recognized,” says Coach Frank Pericolosi. “A lot of different things [have made this season so strong.] Our offense is one of the top offenses in the country. Our starting pitching has been very good, and our bullpen has been very good as well. We’ve had a lot of come-from-behind wins, and the teams just been very competitive all year. It’s been a good run so far.”

Another recent honor was bestowed on first baseman Drew Hedman ’09, who was named SCIAC Male Athlete of the Week on March 5. The weekend previous to that, Hedman went 7-11 (.636) at the plate, with three homeruns, a double, a triple, and eight RBIs, during three successful games against Occidental.

With just two weekends to go in the regular season, the team is posed to be SCIAC champs, which last happened in 2007. The Sagehens are up against SCIAC second-placers Cal Lutheran this weekend with an at-home game at 3p.m. on Friday and a double-header starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Cal Lutheran. The following weekend, they play La Verne with the same schedule: At home on Friday, May 1, at 3 p.m., and a double-header Saturday, May 2, at La Verne at 11 a.m.

4/17/09 Harlem Ambassadors to Play at Pomona in Charity Game
Exhibition basketball team Harlem Ambassadors will be entertaining crowds and facing off against a who’s-who of local politicos, 5C staff members, and community leaders at Pomona’s Rains Center on Monday, April 27, to benefit the House of Ruth.

House of Ruth is a local organization devoted to assisting women and children victimized by domestic violence. They provide programs and assistance in 13 Inland Empire cities, including Pomona, Claremont, Montclair, Upland and Ontario.

“At a time when the economy has increased stress and people feel out of control in households throughout our region, the need for domestic violence education and shelter services is significant. At the same time, our public funding sources, donors and foundations are also feeling the financial pinch of the recession,” said Sue Aebischer, House of Ruth’s executive director, in a prepared statement. “So we’re working to identify more fundraising opportunities to continue to serve the women and children who so desperately need us.”

Ticket sales, as well as team sponsorships and corporate sponsorships, will benefit House of Ruth. Corporate-level sponsors of the event include Pomona College, Doubletree Claremont, Pomona Valley Hospital and Medical Center and the Hafif Family Foundation.

Players on the 20-person “House of Ruth Hoopsters” team include Pitzer Dean of Students Jim Marchant; CMC Basketball Coach Ken Scalamanini; and former professional basketball player and CMC coach and current coach of Australian team Perth Wildcats Connor Henry. Other local figures include Upland Mayor J.P. Pomierski, La Verne Mayor Don Kendrick, Claremont city council member Sam Pedroza, Montclair City Manager Lee McDougal and Ontario Fire Captain Michael Kerns.

The game starts at 7 p.m. on April 27. Tickets cost $15 for adults and $10 for students, and children under the age of five are free. Tickets are currently available at House of Ruth’s outreach office at (909) 868-8005 or through House of Ruth board members. Rains Center is located 220 E. 6th St. in Claremont. Parking is available on 4th Street or behind Bridges Auditorium.

4/16/09 College Group's Prison Garden Project Is a Finalist for Mountain Dew Community Grant Contest

Update 4/30/09: The Prison Garden Project was been selected a winner of the $10,000 Mountain Dew "Energize Your Community" grant. Congratulations to the 5C Criminal Justice Network!

Hoping to bring both fresh, organic food and a therapeutic, rehabilitative activity into the lives of incarcerated women, the 5C Criminal Justice Network is helping to create an organic garden at the California Institute for Women in Corona. The project was initially funded by a $10,000 Strauss Grant, but now the group is seeking additional funding in an unusual way: They’re finalists in the Mountain Dew “Energize Your Community” contest.

The garden project is one of 10 finalists selected from around 100 entries. Via online voting, five of the 10 will be selected to receive a $10,000 grant. You can view their video and vote through April 29 at energizeyourcommunity.com.

The Criminal Justice Network was founded five years ago by several Scripps students, meets weekly and has a membership of 12-20 students. The group is committed to raising awareness about prison-related issues through film screenings, information campaigns and collaborative efforts with community organizations.

“The 5C Criminal Justice Network is dedicated to maintaining a relationship with CIW, as well as promoting awareness of criminal justice on campus,” says Samantha Meyer ’10, an EA major who is in charge of construction on the garden project.

“I believe it’s really important for student to not just learn but to use what they learn to change the world for the better. We often get trapped in the Pomona bubble, and do not realize what is going on around us. This project has been a great opportunity to get off campus, realize what is going on around Pomona, and do something.”

The group has already built a relationship with the women at CIW and secured permission and space for the garden. They’ve sponsored events where students are able to go to the prison to spend an afternoon or evening with a group of women. However, these were brief visits, and the group hopes that the garden will provide a more sustainable opportunity to build relationships, in addition to its other benefits like healthy organic produce, an environmentally friendly and sustainable food source, and therapeutic activity for the women in the prison.

The project is in its second phase now. The first addressed securing initial funding, working with the administration at the CIW to select a garden site and ensure access to supplies on the grounds, and community outreach for donations and volunteers. The current second stage is planting and preparation. The third phase will involve scaling up the level of production to produce enough food to be used frequently in the kitchen.

Currently, Meyer is the only Pomona student involved with the project, but she’s hoping that will change next year. “It took a long time to get the project off the ground, but now that it is going, we are planning to get more Pomona students involved. It takes a while to get cleared to go into the prison, so we aren’t able to do that this year with so little time left.”

4/15/09 Three Pomona Students Place in Top 20 at National Debate Championships
The Claremont Colleges Debate Union, a 5C group, had an impressive run at the 2009 U.S. Universities National Debate Championships held earlier this month at the University of Vermont at Burlington. Five of the nine two-person teams from Claremont won awards, which was the most of any college or university at the event.

Three Pomona students placed in the top 20: Raymond Lu ‘11, along with his debating partner Charlie Sprague from CMC, placed ninth overall, while Nick Hubbard ‘11 and Joe Witte ‘11 tied for 17th place out of 124 teams.

“The competition is quite serious for undergrads,” says CMC Director of Forensics John Meany, who oversees the Debate Union and noted competitors included not just undergraduate students, but also graduate students, many from law schools. Harvard placed first this year.

The championships use the British Parliamentary debate format, with four teams of two speakers in each debate. A subject is announced 15 minutes prior to the debate, and two teams are asked to argue in favor and two teams argue in opposition. Debate partners can only confer with one another in the 15-minute planning period, and not research the topic in any other way. Two teams are eliminated, and then the other two teams move forward.

The Claremont Colleges Debate Union, which boasts more than 100 student participants and is the largest collegiate debate club in the nation, has an impressive record: For 17 consecutive years, Claremont debaters have placed in the top 10 in the nation.

Last year, Pomona student Kari Wohlschlegel ’08 and her debate partner Sprague finished second in the United States, second in the Asian debate championships, and fifth in the Canadian National Debate Championship. The team was also selected for an international round-robin competition with 16 of the best teams in the world; Wohlschlegel and Sprague placed second.

This year’s three award-winning debaters from Pomona credit Meany with their success.

“He’s an excellent coach and brings out the best in every debater,” says Hubbard, an international relations major who is new to debating; this was only his second official tournament.

“He does a tremendous job providing support for debaters of all different levels, from coordinating weekly practices to organizing a system whereby we all research one or two relevant topics (e.g., global water supplies, regional economic integration) and contribute to a pile of research to assist us before rounds,” says Lu, an international relations major who started debating his freshman year. “Apart from being an endless source of pithy wisdom, he is able to provide incisive analysis to flesh out the different perspectives on any given topic.”

That pithy wisdom also seems to have also influenced the debaters’ humor. “Probably the best story from our tournament was from the first elimination round. The topic was about a worldwide ban on exports of seal products, and we had the unfortunate position of having to argue for clubbing baby seals,” recalls Witte, a politics major. “So we kind of ran with it: Nick’s intro was ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the government’s arguments are cute, innocent and naďve, just like baby seals. In this speech, I will club each of those arguments.’”

4/8/09 Charity Navigator Gives Pomona College a 4-Star Rating
Pomona College has received a 4-Star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest evaluator of nonprofit organizations. Charity Navigator rates organizations on a zero to 4-star ranking, with 4 stars described as “Exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its cause.”  

According to the Charity navigator website: “Givers can be confident that in supporting those charities rated highly by Charity Navigator, they will be supporting organizations that are fiscally responsible and financially healthy.”
 
4/2/09 Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe Speaks at Pomona on Campaign and the Power of the People
On Wednesday, March 25, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe kicked off Pomona College’s new distinguished speaker series with a forthright and entertaining behind-the-scenes look at one of the most intriguing presidential campaigns ever won.

Plouffe opened his speech with a reference to our own campus: “I understand there was a pretty nice celebration here about 8 p.m. Pacific time on November 4th.” He then outlined in detail the reasons the Obama campaign was so successful, and how it relates to the presidency thus far. Three of the “underappreciated reasons” Plouffe cited were the well-defined message and electoral strategy the campaign stuck to from the beginning; defying conventional wisdom and taking risks, such as concentrating on Iowa during the primaries and the 30-minute TV special aired last October; and the campaign’s powerful grassroots support.

Plouffe particularly focused on this last item, saying “We have not seen anything like this in politics on this scale, where people in communities really determined the outcome of this election.” Volunteers were critical in providing early organization in states even before the primary, giving the campaign a base to work with, and in expanding the electorate by targeting disaffected voters, young voters, Republicans and independents.

Communication was also vital: By providing campaign messages and facts to volunteers, there could be grassroots movement of messages from volunteers to their communities, ensuring people would hear messages from those they related to and trusted. Finally, grassroots support helped to fund the campaign. Out of the four million donations the campaign received, Plouffe noted that students were the second highest donators (by employment category) behind retirees, and the average donation overall was $85.

He also discussed the high pressure put on volunteer coordinators who could be “fired” if they weren’t working up to standards; how data from volunteer efforts was more important than polls; and how the self-motivated gathering of supporters online was a crucial component in winning the primaries. Also vital was the movement of messages online, which President Obama still does, as a way of helping people get around the “conflict-driven media” by sharing direct messages with one another.

After speaking on why 2008 was such a crucially perfect time for a candidate offering people change, Plouffe took four questions from the audience on topics like current partisanship in Congress, finance reform, and Hillary Clinton as a formidable opponent. In his final question, Plouffe answered the question of what would have happened had President Obama lost, and Plouffe returned to the power of the people:

“One of the great things about our country and our politics is the unexpected can happen and the people have a role in shaping it. And I think that’s one of the big lessons of 2008-- we had a wonderful candidate and we had a good campaign and we had smart strategy, but if it weren’t for the people, we wouldn’t have won. The people fueled this campaign…. In the general election, we got a lot of wonderful help from Democratic elected officials and interest groups. But they were the caboose, not the engine. The people were our engine.”

The new Pomona College distinguished lecture series, inaugurated by Plouffe, will bring to campus exciting, high profile speakers from public life, who have unique, informative perspectives on important issues. According to Pomona College President David Oxtoby, “[They will be the] men and women who have changed policies and institutions through their actions.”

In addition to the public lectures, the speakers will engage small groups of the College community in more informal settings. The series was established with a generous three-year commitment from the Broe family of Denver.

4/2/09 New Book on Former Pomona President E. Wilson Lyon Now Available
E. Wilson Lyon led a storied life, making the journey from son of a cotton farmer to the president of Pomona College from 1941 to 1969. A new book, The Education of a Mississippian, compiled and edited by his daughter Elizabeth Lyon Webb, reveals a formative period of his life through letters he wrote to family, friends and newspapers while he attended Oxford University in the 1920s as a Rhodes Scholar.

During Lyon’s impressive 28-year tenure at Pomona College—the longest presidency in Pomona’s history—the reputation of Pomona was cemented as one of the best liberal arts colleges in the United States. Lyon grew up in Heidelberg, Mississippi, and attended the University of Mississippi for his undergraduate degree. He attended St. John’s College at Oxford University from 1925 to 1928 as a Rhodes Scholar, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He became president of Pomona College when he was just 37 years old. His book, The History of Pomona College: 1887 to 1969, published in 1977, remains the most reliable source of information about the early years of the College.

His experiences in England and his travels in Europe as a young man in the 1920s were transformative. Oxford’s plan of colleges joined into a university so profoundly effected Lyon he instilled the same ideals of cooperation and exchange of ideas in the Claremont Colleges.

It’s these early formative experiences that are chronicled in The Education of a Mississippian, a collection of letters compiled and edited by Lyon’s daughter Elizabeth Lyon Webb that also contains biographical information on Lyon’s life up unto his Pomona presidency. The book was just published by San Francisco’s Arion Press, run by Andrew Hoyem ’57, and is available for purchase in the Coop Store. Elizabeth Lyon Webb will be on campus during Alumni Weekend to speak about the book and sign copies.

3/23/09 James Hueter '48 Retrospective Showing at the Claremont Museum of Art
Claremont artist James Hueter ’48 has been quietly creating art for 60 years, and the Claremont Museum of Art is currently chronicling his prolific efforts with a career-spanning retrospective, guest curated by Steve Comba, assistant director of the Pomona College Museum of Art.

On display until May 3, the 100-plus painting, sculpture and drawing exhibit surveys Hueter’s early realist and surrealist paintings, and a long period when he investigated and refined hybrid forms of painting, sculpture, drawing, photography and architecture. The exhibition culminates with his recent works that meld these disciplines and his interest in representation and illusion. Hueter’s preeminent motif is the structure and symmetry of the human face, which he renders as recognizable while simultaneously creating an abstraction from that face.

Born in San Francisco in 1925, Hueter studied art at Pomona College in the 1940s, taking classes in sculpture, architecture, design and painting. He graduated from Pomona in 1948, received his MFA from Claremont Graduate School in 1951, and settled down in Claremont, building a home and studio. Hueter taught at Mt. San Antonio College from 1951 to 1980, and for brief times at Pomona, Claremont Graduate University and Pitzer College.

“This exhibition is a culmination of over four years of planning, visualizing, promising, and finally shepherding through the logistical and practical hurdles that a venture of this scale represents,” writes Comba in the forward to the exhibition guide. “James Hueter is known to his friends and peers as ‘an artists’ artist,’ yet remains frustratingly obscure to the rest of the world. Ascriptions for such obscurity have run the gamut from the hybrid nature of his work, to the timing and unfortunate twists and turns of the art market, to his own personality and expressly focused seriousness of his artistic pursuit. Whatever the reasons, my aim was to ‘right the wrong’ of this exile and bring to public view an artist more than worthy of notice and respect.”

Hueter will be on hand to discuss his art this Saturday, March 28, from 3 to 4 p.m. at the Claremont Museum of Art, which is located at 536 West First St. in the Packing House. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

3/19/09 Donation Paves Way for More Big-Name Speakers, Starting With Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe
The Broe family has made a three-year donation to Pomona College consisting of $50,000 per year to bring influential speakers to the school.

This year ’s $50,000 donation will bring David Plouffe to Bridges Auditorium on Mar. 25. Plouffe is a political strategist best known as the chief campaign manager for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, but has been a campaign consultant for the Democratic Party since 1990, when he worked for Senator Tom Harkin’s re-election campaign. Obama calls him “the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the...best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.”

This gift lays the groundwork for the speakers program outlined in the college’s strategic plan. Pomona Dean of Students Miriam Feldblum created a working group last year to plan this program, which she says hopes to bring “two exciting speakers a year to discuss national topics with great relevance to Pomona and the surrounding community.” The speakers will be “big names,” Feldblum said, and will be distinguished leaders in their fields.

“This program is in response to students asking for two things,” said Feldblum. “The first is for exciting, high-profile speakers. We got Clinton and Bono, but that was the Athenaeum, not Pomona College. Where are we? The second is for them to be substantive. We don’t just want a name for a name, but someone who engages the community in a meaningful way.”

Feldblum hopes the program will be permanently funded in the future so that one or two prominent speakers can be brought to campus each year. The overarching goal, Feldblum said, is to “go beyond what’s being brought here now.” Plouffe, for example, will be part of a dinner and a public reception that will bring Pomona and the surrounding community together for discussion. Students from selected relevant classes will spend time with Plouffe for additional discussion time.

Bonnie Snortum, director of the Athenaeum at Claremont McKenna College, says that “this very generous gift...is quite wonderful. The creative energy that this gift will inspire can only help to enhance the intellectual life of the entire Claremont community. It will also become increasingly important for program planners to communicate with one another to avoid scheduling major events on the same day.”

The coming years’ events will have greater involvement from the members of the Pomona community. A committee of students, faculty, and staff will be created to flesh out the details of the program. They will help to choose the speakers, and perhaps even a theme to unite them. Feldblum suggested visionary politics, creative geniuses, or living on the edge as possibilities. The decision will, she hopes, be made by those who are most invested in the speakers—the Pomona College community itself—and said that she looks forward to input from the college regarding future speakers and the program’s development over the coming years.--Emily Miner, TSL Staff Writer.

This article was originally published in the March 13, 2009, edition of The Student Life.

3/16/09 Students Reap Benefits of Pomona’s Telescope in New Mexico
At a time when most students are going to sleep, a telescope at the top of Mount Joy, a 7,200-foot peak in New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains, is whirring into action.

The “Seeing in the Dark Internet Telescope,” known as SIDINT, is controlled entirely by scripts, a series of automated commands, so that observers such as astronomy student Alex Hagen HM ’10 can rest while nighttime observations are made. Read more.....
 
3/16/09 CGU Opens New Community and Global Health School
Claremont Graduate University has opened their ninth school, the School of Community and Global Health, which will offer several new degrees: A Master of Public Health (MPH), a dual MBA/MPH, an MS in global health, a Ph.D. in Health Promotion Science, and an accelerated BA/Master’s program for 5C students. This is the first new venture created by the Claremont University Consortium since Keck Graduate Institute opened in 1997,

The school’s focus will be the next generation of public health challenges that generally result from lifestyle choices, like diabetes and diseases related to tobacco, alcohol, and drug abuse. The school has already raised $9.9 million in research grants for issues such as the obesity epidemic and the causes and mechanics of addiction.

“Heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other chronic diseases—diseases of lifestyle and circumstance—are now the leading causes of illness and death in all regions of the world other than sub-Saharan Africa, and the social and economic determinants in each region are interconnected through the global economy and communication channels,” said C. Anderson Johnson, the dean of SCGH.

Johnson and a team of seven professors currently lead the new school, which had its first classes last month. It plans to integrate 25 professors and 250 graduate students into its community within the next three years.

“This new school will help us fulfill our mission to prepare outstanding leaders for the worldwide community through innovation and excellence in teaching, research, and practice,” said Robert Klitgaard, former president of CGU. “It will help people and communities think of health in the same way we are coming to think of our environment—as something we protect and enhance through individual commitment, community action, and public policy.”

Students from the 5Cs will have the opportunity to take courses, do research, and attain internships through the new school. They will also be able to participate in a novel degree program that offers undergraduates the chance to obtain both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in five years--an opportunity usually granted only by larger universities. Students may apply for this five-year program immediately, and some Pitzer students have already matriculated into the program. Additionally, Johnson says the school plans to offer a certificate in global health for graduate and undergraduate students majoring in other fields.--Becky Scott, TSL Staff Writer.

This article was originally published in the Feb. 27, 2009, edition ofof The Student Life.
 
3/2/09 Family Weekend 2009 - Selected Photos
Family Weekend is an event designed to give parents and other family members a sense of academic and social life at Pomona. Visitors get the opportunity to check out their students’ residence halls, meet classmates, sit in on open classes and attend lectures and cultural events. This year, Family Weekend was held from Feb. 13 to 15. Please enjoy these selected photos from the weekend. Read more...
 
2/26/09 Torrey Olson ’09, Brendon Randall-Myers ’09 and Kiyomi Parish Griffey '97 Honored with Track and Field Awards
Three Sagehens have been honored for their athleticism in the track and field arena. Kiyomi Parish Griffey ’97 will be inducted into the Division III Track & Field Hall of Fame, and Torrey Olson ’09 and Brendon Randall-Myers ’09 have been named Men’s Cross Country Scholar Athletes of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Parish will be inducted on May 20, on the eve of the 2009 Division III National Track and Field Championships in Marietta, Ohio. Parish won three NCAA Division III national titles in the hammer throw, and set a national record in both her junior and senior years. Her best mark of 196'6" from 1997 was the NCAA Division III best mark for nine years, and still stands as the No. 3 all-time Division III mark. Parish qualified to Nationals and earned All America honors all four years, including a fourth-place finish as a freshman before her three national titles in a row.

Parish won four straight hammer titles in SCIAC Conference Championships for Pomona-Pitzer, and set four meet records, including the still-standing mark of 179'9". She also won two SCIAC titles in the shot put and was the conference track and field MVP in 1995.

Following the NCAA meets, Parish competed in the USA Track & Field Championships in 1995, 1996 and 1997. Parish finished eighth as a sophomore, fifth as a junior, and third as a senior. At the end of her senior year, Parish ranked fourth in the United States and 30th in the world. Continuing to compete beyond college, Parish earned a No. 9 U.S. ranking in 1999 with a best of 201'11", which was the eighth best U.S. all-time mark at the time.

A chemistry major and an NCAA postgraduate scholarship winner, Parish is now a special agent for the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Selection criteria for the Men’s Cross Country Scholar Athletes of the Year are based on the academic and athletic qualities of a student-athlete, who must have a minimum 3.50 cumulative grade point average and must finish within the top 25 percent of the field at the NCAA regional meet to be eligible.

During the 2008-09 season, Olson, an English major, has served as team captain and qualified for the NCAA Cross Country Championship. Randall-Myers steadily worked his way up from a middle-of-the-pack runner to become the No. 2 runner, while maintaining a near-perfect GPA as a music major.

Head Cross Country Tony Boston, who nominated Olson and Randall-Myers for the award, commented to the USTFCCCA that “Brendon and Torrey exemplify the duality of an NCAA Division III athlete—a model student in the classroom and a fierce competitor on the field”.

2/26/09 Women’s and Men’s Swim Teams Finish Second and Third at SCIAC Championships, and Set 8 New Sagehen Records
The SCIAC season dual and conference meets ended very successfully for the Pomona-Pitzer Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving teams. The women tied for second place with the University of Redlands, while the men held off challenges from Cal Lutheran and Occidental with a last day flourish to hold on to third place. Adding to the luster of the SCIAC meet were 24 top three finishes, which designate the finishers as members of the select All-SCIAC swim team.

Eight new Pomona-Pitzer records were set during the finals: Kristin Lindbergh ’12 in the 50 and 100 freestyles; Naomi Laporte ‘10, who bettered her own records in the 100 and 200 butterflies; Max Scholten ‘12 in the 200 backstroke; David Henderson ‘09, who erased two 22-year-old records in the 500 and 1000 freestyle; and the team of Kimi Ide-Foster PI‘10, Kathleen Hall ‘09, Michelle Prokocki ‘09, and Janelle Gyorffy ‘09 in the 200 medley relay.

Lindbergh, Laporte and Scholten all met NCAA consideration standards, and are training and waiting for the final determination on March 5 to see if they advance to the NCAA III championships in Minneapolis.

2/20/09 2009 Commencement Speakers Announced
Preparations are already underway for the 2009 Commencement on May 17, including the announcement of this year’s speakers. Bob Herbert, New York Times Op-Ed columnist, will deliver the keynote address, and playwright Luis Valdez and Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich ’75 will also speak.

Bob Herbert has been a journalist since 1970, working at the Star-Ledger in Newark, New Jersey, and rising to city editor and member of the editorial board of The Daily News. He later worked in broadcast journalism as the host of WNYC-TV’s Hotline, as a founding panelist of WCBS-TV’s Sunday Edition, and as a national correspondent for NBC, reporting regularly on The Today Show and NBC Nightly News.

Herbert joined The New York Times in 1993, where he continues to write a twice-weekly Op-Ed column. He’s the author of Promises Betrayed: Waking Up From the American Dream (Times Books, 2005), and has received numerous awards, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors award for distinguished newspaper writing.

After two successful runs of his play Zoot Suit at Pomona, playwright Luis Valdez is a well-known name on campus. He founded the Obie award-wining and longest-running U.S. Chicano theater company El Teatro Campesino in 1965 amidst the United Farm Workers struggle, and many of his works chronicle Chicano social struggles and culture. His plays include I Don’t Have to Show You No Stinkin’ Badges, Corridos and Mummified Deer.

Zoot Suit, a fictionalized account of the Los Angeles riots of 1943, was the first Chicano play on Broadway and the first Chicano major feature film. Valdez also wrote and directed the Golden Globe Best Picture nominee La Bamba, the story of the short but vibrant life of singer Ritchie Valens. Valdez has received countless awards, including the Presidential Medal of Arts, a Rockefeller fellowship, and induction into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC.

Journalist Mary Schmich ’75, who worked in Pomona’s admissions office after graduating, has been with the Chicago Tribune since 1985, producing a general interest column three times a week. In 1997, her column commonly known as “Wear sunscreen” became an internet hit, a widely disseminated e-mail forward that was originally misattributed to Kurt Vonnegut. Time straightened out the confusion, and later in 1999, the column later was used as the lyrics of a hit song by filmmaker Baz Luhrmann.

Schmich has also written the comic strip Brenda Starr since 1985, and regularly appears on WGN Radio in Chicago. She won the Studs Terkel Award in 2004 for coverage of Chicago communities, and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005. For more information on Schmich, read this Pomona College Magazine profile from 2004.

2/16/09 Comedian Lewis Black Returns to Bridges Auditorium
Comedian Lewis Black is bringing his acerbic wit to Bridges Auditorium on Friday, February 20, a return visit to Claremont after his sold-out show two years ago.

Black is perhaps most familiar as a regular guest on The Daily Show With John Stewart. He also hosts Comedy Central’s The Root of All Evil; appears regularly on late-night shows like The Late Show With David Letterman; and acts in both animated and feature films, including Unaccompanied Minors and Accepted.

He’s released four DVDs and seven comedy albums, including the Grammy-award-winning The Carnegie Hall Performance and the Grammy-nominated Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues. Black has also written two best-selling books: Nothing’s Sacred (Simon and Schuster, 2005) and Me of Little Faith (Riverhead Books, 2008).

Tickets are now on sale at the Bridges box office, and cost $15 for students and $40 for the general public. Bridges Auditorium is located at 450 N. College Way, Claremont. For information, call the box office at (909) 621-8032.

2/6/09 Chris Burden '69 Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
Renowned artist Chris Burden ’69 has received the prestigious 2009 Distinguished Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement from the College Art Association. Announced in January, the award will be presented on February 25 in Los Angeles at the 97th annual CAA conference.

Burden rose to fame as a controversial performance artist in the early 1970s with a series of dangerous pieces that tested the limits of his endurance. For Shoot (1971), an assistant shot Burden in the arm. In Trans-fixed (1974), Burden was nailed face-up to a Volkswagen Beetle in a crucifixion pose. Other performance pieces found him shooting at a jet passing overhead, crawling through glass, and laying down in heavy traffic on a crowded street.

He later began producing mechanical, engineered sculptures like B-Car (1975), a lightweight car he said could achieve 100 miles per hour at 100 miles per gallon, and Ghost Ship (2005), a self-navigating yacht that completed on a 330-mile cruise. Recent work includes What My Dad Gave Me (2008), a 65-foot-tall sculpture built from painstakingly recreated Erector Set components and installed in New York City’s Rockefeller Center, and Urban Light (2008), an installation of 202 vintage lampposts located at the new Broad Center Art Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Burden, who received his MFA from UC Irvine, taught art at UCLA from 1978 to 2005.

“The College Art Association's Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious recognition an artist who has pursued a career creating art and inspiring students can receive,” says Kathleen Howe, the Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel ‘23 Director of the Pomona College Museum of Art and professor of art history.

“Chris Burden's practice as artist and his example as teacher engaged some of the most volatile critical issues of the time. A Lifetime Achievement Award might imply completion, but Mr. Burden's achievements continue--in recent installations in Los Angeles and at Rockefeller Center in New York, he continues to present art that compels bodily experience.”

Burden’s award is one of several given every year by the CAA, but it is the only lifetime achievement award offered for an artist. The College Art Association represents practitioners and interpreters of visual arts and culture, and has 16,000 individual and institutional members. For more information on the CAA awards, please visit www.collegeart.org/awards.

2/5/09 Career Week and Fair Celebrating Its 10th Anniversary
Every winter, the Career & Development Office invites a bevy of companies, nonprofits, graduate schools and alumni to campus to help students of all class years find internship and job opportunities. The two-part event, now in its 10th year, includes a one-day Career & Internship Fair and a week-long series of career-oriented presentations and panels.

More than 40 companies, nonprofit organizations and graduate schools will be participating in the Fair, which takes place on Friday, February 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., in the Edmunds Ballroom in the Smith Campus Center.

“Every year, we host a wide array of organizations [at the Fair] to meet the broad interests of our students,” says CDO Director Carl Martellino. “The Fair has opportunities for students from all class years—internships, fellowships, full-time jobs, and graduate programs—all in one place. Interests for opportunities to serve are high on the list of our students, and we have a number of nonprofit organizations.”

Career Week, which occurs from February 9 to 13, offers students 29 workshops and presentations, many of which feature alumni discussing their careers and providing advice. “The Career Week program is a great way for students to connect with many alumni right on campus,” says Martellino. The programs feature specific careers (media, consulting, finance, education, marketing and entertainment, for example); post-graduate opportunities like fellowships, graduate school, law school and medical school; and tips on networking, job searching and interviewing.

Even in today’s tough economy, the number of organizations participating in the fair has remained high, says Martellino, because of the CDO’s extensive outreach efforts. In fact, the fair is so large, Pomona has invited students from all the Claremont Colleges and other local small private colleges like Occidental, Whittier and Azusa Pacific.

“The most important thing is we want parents and students to know that even amidst some of the most severe economic turmoil since the Great Depression, organizations are still hiring—and they’re especially interested in talented students like those at Pomona College. There are great internships and jobs out there. It certainly takes more effort, but the career fair is a great place to look.”

Martellino says that it’s important for students to broaden their options. For example, if a student is interested in finance, banks may not be hiring, but there are finance jobs in other settings. “If a student has a dream, it can still be realized, but there may be some detours and twists and turns that weren’t there a year ago”, says Martellino, “but over time, our students will achieve their goals and opportunities will be there for them.”

Note: Photos are from the 2007-08 Career & Internship Fair.

1/29/09 Zoot Suit Returns to Pomona College
Back by popular demand, Zoot Suit is returning to Pomona’s Seaver Theatre for a four-day run from February 5 to 8, including a special performance and mini-conference for local high school and middle school students.

The play, which is set during the 1942 “Sleepy Lagoon” murder trial and subsequent Zoot Suit riots, ran two weekends last April, but sold out before opening night. “A lot of people, especially people on our campus, didn’t get to see it,” explains Theatre Professor Alma Martinez.

   
From the 2008 performance of Zoot Suit
The lost chance to see the landmark play was felt even deeper because of the special nature of the production: It was the first time the play had been staged in the Los Angeles area in 30 years. Written by Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit premiered on stage in 1978 and went on to become the first Chicano play on Broadway and, in 1981, the first all-Chicano Hollywood feature film. Martinez played Lupe, the lead character’s sister, in the original production and film.

The play, which focuses on a group of Chicano youths who are accused of a crime they didn’t commit, is still relevant today, especially with younger audiences. “The themes in the play resonate because the characters are about the same age [as college and high school students today, who are] dealing with similar issues like racism, stereotyping, peer pressure, cliques, rivalry, war, relationships and the culture of music,” says cast member Lisette Mendez, a junior at Pitzer who is playing the romantic lead, Della, for the second time.

“It’s really a character-driven play where students can discuss identity and pride, and the role that defiance can play in both of those,” says Vicki Tessier ‘91, the visual and performing arts teaching specialist for Pomona Unified School District who worked with Martinez to create the conference for Fremont Middle School and Garey High School students. “Specifically for Pomona Unified, since we have a majority Latino population, it’s also a piece of their cultural heritage. This is a play where students can start discussing the power of theater for social change.”

More than 300 students are visiting Pomona for the Zoot Suit mini-conference on February 5. They’ll view the play and then take part in breakout sessions with theatre students, discussing speaking points focusing on the theme of “Identity, Pride and Defiance: Where Do You Stand?”

“The kids can talk one-on-one about the themes of the play, how it relates to their lives, their education, the ambiance they live in, questions about social equity, judicial parity and how it affects their lives,” says Martinez.

Attorney James Blancarte ‘75 will also deliver a keynote speech at the conference.

Staging the play eight months after its initial run has proven challenging for Martinez and her cast. With more than half the original cast graduating in 2008, Martinez had to replace 20 of 35 cast members. The original cast also had 12 weeks to rehearse; this time around, the new cast has only five weeks inconveniently interrupted by the holiday break.

But you’ll hear no complaints from cast members: “Doing the play again has been an amazing experience because I realized how rare it is to have the opportunity to perform the play,” says Mendez. “Working with a new cast is great because they bring something new and fresh to the play, especially their enthusiasm.”

Zoot Suit will be staged on Thursday, February 5 through Saturday, February 7, at 8 p.m. Matinee performances are on Saturday, February 7 and Sunday, February 8, at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $10 for general admission and $5 for faculty, staff, students and senior citizens, and are available through the Seaver Theatre box office (909-621-8525).  
 
1/28/09 PSU's "Great Debate" Tackles the Issue of Free Speech
This year’s Pomona Student Union “Great Debate” tackles another controversial issue by bringing together former ACLU President Nadine Strossen and prominent legal scholar and critical race theorist Mari Matsuda for a debate on free speech on February 12 at 7 p.m. in the Smith Campus Center's Edmunds Ballroom. Moderated by students, the debate will specifically focus on the tension between free speech and hate speech, addressing the issues presented by inflammatory statements and those who call for creating a safer environment for targets.

The PSU was founded in 2003 to inspire open dialog on campus through a series of challenging and intellectually diverse debates and events. “Each year, we hope that the Great Debate is an informative and compelling presentation of different opinions on a subject,” says PSU President Rhett Dornbach-Bender ’09. “The goal is always to stimulate thought and interest in a topic—without promoting or endorsing any particular point of view.”

The topic of free speech was chosen this year because it’s an important topic in current society and a natural source of debate, but also because of a 2007 PSU debate on immigration that inspired protests and much discussion on campus, chronicled in a Pomona College Magazine article. “[The] immigration debate certainly raised a lot of questions within the Pomona College community regarding the nature—and potential limits—of free speech,” says Dornbach-Bender.

Strossen served as the present of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1991 to 2008, and was the first woman and youngest person to do so. She’s a professor at New York Law School, and a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. She has twice been named one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” by the National Law Journal, and Vanity Fair Magazine named her one of “America’s 200 Most Influential Women” in 1998. Her books include Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights (NYU Press, 2000) and Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (NYU Press, 1995).

Matsuda, a professor at the William S. Richardson Law School in Hawaii, is a well-known voice on constitutional law and jurisprudential issues, including hate speech, affirmative action, feminist theory, and critical race theory. She has previously taught at Georgetown University, UCLA (where she was the first tenured female Asian American law professor in the U.S.), Stanford Law School, and the University of Hawaii School of Law.

Matsuda’s books include Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment (Westview Press, 1993), We Won't Go Back: Making the Case for Affirmative Action (Houghton Mifflin, 1997), and Where is Your Body?: And Other Essays on Race, Gender, and the Law (Beacon Press, 1997). She also serves on the advisory boards of Ms. Magazine, the ACLU and the National Asian Pacific Legal Consortium.

Future PSU events for the spring semester include a panel on "Human Rights in the 21st Century" on February 17; a debate on "Privacy, Wiretapping and the Patriot Act" on March 5; and a debate on microfinance on March 30.

1/21/09 Tommie Smith, Legendary Olympic Activist, to Speak at Pomona During Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Week
Olympic gold medalist Tommie Smith made history in 1968 at the Mexico City Olympic Games with a riveting gesture: After winning the 200-meter race, he and bronze-medal winner John Carlos lowered their heads and raised their fists in the air during “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a civil-rights protest.

Smith will be the keynote speaker of this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Week, a 7-C series of events from January 20 through February 3. Smith's keynote address will take place in the Smith Campus Center’s Edmunds Ballroom on January 29 at 7 p.m.

The Commemoration Week series of events is organized by a committee made up of deans, activity directors, program directors and students from the 5-Cs, as well as Claremont Graduate University. The Office of Black Student Affairs acts as the hub for the planning and activities, while each year, a different campus acts as the main host. Pomona is the host for the 2009 series. 

“We were talking about a lot of different things with the presidential election and international [events], and basically our discussions came back to: What’s our responsibility for change, and how do we help students, staff and faculty in these communities have agency?” says Sarah Visser, associate dean of campus life at Pomona. “That led us to think, 'Who is an iconic figure who really took a stand and said, 'I have some responsibility for change?'' And Tommie Smith is one of those people.”

After the protest, Smith and Carlos were suspended from the U.S. Olympic team and banned from the Olympic Village for performing a political protest at an apolitical event. In recent years, however, they have been honored with awards and a statue at their alma mater San Jose State University, and were featured in the documentary Fists of Freedom. After the Olympics, Smith distinguished himself as a coach, educator, and athletic director.

Other events occurring during the Commemoration Week include:

• Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard professor, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Studies, literary critic, author, and co-producer and host of African American Lives and African American Lives 2, will discuss “Genetics, Genealogy and African-American History” (Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, CMC, January 22);
• A candlelight vigil and march that starts in Pomona’s Stanley Quad and winds its way through all the colleges, ending at the Pitzer Mounds where a speech by Dr. King will be rebroadcast (January 26);
• “The State of the Hip Hop Union” round table discussion featuring authors Jeff Chang (Total Chaos: Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop) and Cheo Hodari (Unbelievable: The Life, Death and Afterlife of the Notorious B.I.G.) and others (Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, CMC, January 26);  
• A chat with Tommie Smith (Platt Living Room, Harvey Mudd, January 30);
• Student reading of “Hyde Park,” an up-and-coming play about a Black man in the queer community and the impact of his life on his family (Allen Studio Theater at Pomona's Seaver Theater, January 30)
• A student spoken word event, featuring students from the 5-Cs (Allen Studio Theater at Pomona's Seaver Theater, January 31); and
• The Sojourner Truth Lecture: Connie Rice, civil rights attorney and activist on “Presidential Politics: What Happened to ‘We the People’?” (Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, CMC, February 3)

Please view the complete schedule for more information.

1/20/09 Andrea Schweitzer '90 Organizing a Year of Astronomy
After earning her Ph.D. in astronomy, Andrea Schweitzer ’90 didn’t find a career in traditional astronomy; rather, she went into industry so she could return to her home state of Colorado, becoming an engineering project manager for Honeywell. She later started her own consulting firm, project managing for aerospace and astronomy. This year, her two worlds have melded perfectly in her role as project manager for the U.S. arm of the International Year of Astronomy.

The International Astronomic Union selected 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy as a commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s observations with his first telescope. Endorsed by UNESCO and the U.S. House of Representatives, the year will be full of both grassroots events and more organized celebrations of astronomy. And then ending event couldn’t be more perfect: A blue moon (the second full moon in a calendar month) on December 31.

“We have more than a dozen working groups and projects in the United States, and I help to oversee that,” explains Schweitzer, who was offered the only full-time position on the U.S. IYA team serendipitously as a previous contract with NASA ran out. “We have approximately 150 professionals who are active volunteers, whom I also help to coordinate and support.”

The IYA kicked off in early January with a ceremony in Long Beach, and it promises to be a year full of astronomical education events. One upcoming event demonstrates a scope that includes both large-scale displays and DIY opportunities for individuals and educators. “From Earth to the Universe” is an exhibition of dramatic astronomical photos that will take place in airports, parks, art centers and other pubic venues in 30 countries. At the same time, individuals may visit the site to print their own high-resolutions images for display in schools and libraries.

Other initiatives include the Globe at Night, a program that enlists people to count the stars at night to measure light pollution. On the final evening of the star count, people and cities are asked to turn off as many lights as possible at 8:30 p.m. in that time zone. “Then kids can do a final star count when it will hopefully be even darker, and [they can] see what a difference it makes when you reduce light pollution,” says Schweitzer.

The 100 Hours of Astronomy program in April is a worldwide endeavor to inform the public, for 100 hours straight, about what different observatories are doing via live webcast. One year-long initiative is star parties, where local amateur astronomers set up their telescopes to allow the public to observe. “We’re hoping to have a lot of final star parties [on December 31] to celebrate the end of the year, [so people] will get a chance to look through telescopes at the full moon.”

Managing such a large effort is a complicated task but one that Schweitzer credits her Pomona education with preparing her for. “One of the important things I got from my education at Pomona was a broad base of training because the job I do now didn’t exist when I was a student,” says Schweitzer. “Being able to work from home and coordinate a whole nation of effort through e-mail and teleconferences and the internet—those tools simply didn’t exist or they were in their infancy.

“It shows how important a liberal arts education is, even in the sciences, to prepare for whatever opportunities there might be in the future by giving you a broad base to work from.”

 
1/9/09 Catherine Porter ’62 Elected President of the Modern Language Association
After 18 years of working with the Modern Language Association (MLA), Catherine Porter ’62 has been elected president of the 126-year-old organization, which serves English and foreign language teachers and has 30,000 members in 100 countries.

Porter received a degree in French from Pomona, and then went on to Yale for her Master’s and Ph.D. She taught at Wilson College, University of Hartford and Cornell University before joining the State University of New York at Cortland in 1969. She stayed there until her retirement in 2001, and is now Professor Emerita of French for the university.

“After a long period of inactive membership in the MLA—I was the one who stayed home with the children while my husband gave papers at the convention!—I became involved by fits and starts,” recalls Porter, who resides in New York City. Her first post with the association came in 1990 when she was invited “out of the blue” to represent her region by running for the Delegate Assembly. She later served on the MLA’s Committee on Academic Freedom, the Organizing Committee for the Delegate Assembly and then on the Executive Council.

“When my term ended on the Council in 1999, I had some withdrawal pangs and thought wistfully that it would be nice to serve on another committee one day. [But one] day in 2006, I found out that, instead, I’d been nominated as a candidate for the presidency,” says Porter. She agreed to run and was elected. The post is a three-year term, where the elected official serves as second vice president for one year, vice president for one year, and finally as president for one year. Porter, after two years as second vice president and then vice president, just began her presidency on January 1.

The MLA is perhaps best known for its annual convention and style guide for students and scholars. It also publishes reports on matters of professional concern, a major peer-reviewed journal (PMLA), and a series focused on teaching individual works, as well as works to influence public policy and produces guidelines on related topics like recommended class sizes and pay scales.

“While the MLA has no power to enforce its recommendations,” says new president Porter, “it has a certain visibility as the largest professional organization of its kind. Its public statements often draw notice and carry a certain weight as the expression of a consensus as to the best practices in our profession.”

12/30/08 Through the Lens
Six Pomona College students traveled the world last summer, documenting the people they met, exploring their lives and the issues that matter to them, thanks to grants from the Pacific Basin Institute. The videos, shown at lunchtime events in early December, are now available for viewing online.

The PBI Summer Video Grant program, now in its second year, provides students with $1,000, a Canon Zr200 Mini DV camera on loan, editing software and technical assistance so that they may create a short documentary film during their summer vacation. Read more....
 
12/16/08 Patricia Yarrington '77 Named CFO of Chevron
Patricia Yarrington ’77 was recently named vice president and CFO of Chevron Corporation effective January 1, a promotion that places her in the top echelon of the major oil company. Yarrington is currently the vice president and treasurer, and will be taking over for current CFO Steve Crowe, who is retiring.

Yarrington earned a degree in political science from Pomona, and then went on to earn her MBA from Northwestern University. She joined Chevron in 1980, going through the comptroller’s department training program and later holding a number of financial and analytical positions. She has worked her way up through many supervisory positions, including comptroller for Chevron Products Co.; president of Chevron Canada Ltd.; vice president of strategic planning for Chevron; vice president of policy, government and public affairs; and then vice president and treasurer.

According to Chevron Chairman and CEO Dave O’Reilly, “Pat is uniquely qualified for this position, having already served in senior leadership roles in finance, operations, strategic planning and public affairs. Her financial background and strategic insights, along with her leadership and judgment, will be important contributors to the company’s future success.”

Yarrington, who resides in the Bay Area, is also a member of the board of directors for Chevron Philips Chemical Company LLC, and was just elected to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She previously served as a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Economic Advisory Council. The bank's region is the largest of any of the 12 district banks, covering nine nine states.  
 
12/5/088 Pomona Student Wins More Than $5,000 in Cash and Prizes on “The Price is Right”
For Nichole Runge ’09, it’s always been a dream to be on "The Price is Right." "I remember watching it in grade school,” she says, “and thinking, 'I want to do this…I could be so much better than these people!'"

At the beginning of the summer she was invited to help organize off-campus events for the Summer Activities Committee, and signed up almost exclusively for the opportunity to plan a Pomona-sponsored trip to the famed LA game show. Little did she know that just a few months later she would be gracing the stage with host Drew Carey, ultimately leaving with $3,000 in cash and over $2,000 in prizes. Her episode, No. 4451, airs on December 5. 

On July 23, Runge made the trek to Los Angeles with about 20 students to attend a taping of the program. Runge says that she was “so excited and insane” during the interviewing process that she figured she had pretty good odds to be called down to the stage.

Proudly displaying their Pomona roots on the program, Runge and several other students wore home-made shirts that said “PC (hearts)Š DC” (Pomona College loves Drew Carey) on the front and “Sagehens 47” on the back. Runge was called down during the second half of the show and eventually placed a $1,847 bid on a $2,000 marble-top cabinet that earned her an opportunity to take part in the ever-popular “Plinko” game.

One of the few chance games on “The Price is Right,” and the only one that shells out cold cash, “Plinko” involves contestants dropping coins down a pegboard with various denominations ranging from $0 to $10,000. “It didn’t used to be, but now it’s my favorite game on the show,” Runge says. She ended up winning $3,000, as well as a series of appliances that included an ice cream machine, a hot dog maker, a model car and what she describes, with puzzlement, as a “drum-machine mouse pad.”

A Latin-American Studies major, Runge plans to use the money to help fund post-college travels around the world, including an intercontinental adventure from Alaska to Chile via bus. More recently, she also celebrated the occasion by purchasing a white dwarf hamster that she named “Plinko.”

The price of the hamster? “It came free with the cage.”--Adam Conner-Simons '08

12/3/08 Six Pomona-Pitzer Athletes Named to the SCIAC All-Conference Football Team
Following a fall season that found both Kevin Kelly ’09 and Jake Caron PI ’10 being recognized as SCIAC Male Athletes of the Week, six Pomona-Pitzer football players have been named to the SCIAC All-Conference team.

Wide receiver Kelley and quarterback Caron have been named to the first team, while defensive back Tyler Barbour ’09, offensive lineman Augie Lagemann ’10, wide receiver RJ Maki ’11 and defensive lineman Steve Collisson PI ’12 have been named to the second team.

Kelley is ranked in the top 10 nationally and led SCIAC in receptions with 79 receptions for 1,192 yards, both of which are school records for a season. Caron also set a new school record and led SCIAC in total offense averaging 300 yards a game. Maki was second in SCIAC, behind Kelley, for receptions (68 receptions for 857 yards), and Barbour placed second in SCIAC for interceptions.

Additionally, three athletes from the Pomona-Pitzer Men’s Water Polo team were named to the SCIAC All-Conference water polo team. Ben Hadley ’11 and Ryan Balikian ’11 were named to the first team, and Grant Cooper ’09 was named to the second team. The Pomona-Pitzer team recently won the SCIAC championship for the second year in a row.

121/1/088 Living Green
Pomona usually quiets to a peaceful yet active hum right after Commencement, but in 2009, the ground will be breaking in more than one way when construction begins on two new residence halls and an underground parking garage.

The new buildings, which will add 150 new beds for juniors and seniors, will be located on the northeast edge of campus near Clark I, bordering Amherst Road between Sixth Street and Eighth Street, and the garage will be located below Athearn Field and one of the halls. Read more
 
11/21/08 Professor Richard Hazlett’s Book Selected a “Best Book of 2008” by Amazon.com
The American West at Risk: Science, Myths, and the Politics of Land Abuse and Recovery, written by Richard Hazlett, the Stephen M. Pauley M.D. ’62 Professor of Environmental Studies and Professor of Geology at Pomona College; Howard G. Wilshire; and Jane E. Nielson, was recently selected by Amazon.com as one of its “Best Books of 2008: Top 10 Books: Outdoors and Nature.” 

Published by Oxford University in June 2008, The American West at Risk is a science-based guide that summarizes the dominant human-caused environmental challenges in the western United States, the role of natural earth processes in spreading negative impacts, the risks to remaining resources, and potential strategies to “salvage what is left and rebuild western lifelines.”

"The authors, using their broad and unchallengeable expertise, have produced a book that actively seeks out crises and battlegrounds where good science exists and needs to be applied, and civic policy lessons drawn,” notes Zygmunt J. B. Plater, professor of law at Boston College Law School and lead author of Environmental Law & Policy - Nature, Law & Societyy. “It is one of those rare works written by people of science who--like Theo Colburn, Rachel Carson, and too few others--are impelled to be citizens as well as scientists."

According to reviewer Andrew Kishner, “What's truly valuable about this book is that the information that the authors distilled into it is so pertinent and relevant yet usually impossible to find in one place with such clarity and detail.”

Another faculty book also receiving attention as of late is Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution, written by Assistant Professor of Anthropology Pardis Mahdavi and published by Stanford University Press in October 2008. In the book, the author argues that the social and sexual practices of the urban young adults, who comprise two-thirds of Iran's population, constitute a form of political dissent and rebellion.

Mahdavi has been interviewed about the book and her research in Iran on “Good Morning America” and by both BBC World News and KPFA Public Radio in Berkeley, California. The book has been reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

11/20/08 Computer Science professor Tzu-Yi Chen receives $150,000 NSF grant for collaborative project
Associate Professor of Computer Science Tzu-Yi Chen is one of six professors who has been awarded a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant for a collaborative project titled “Commonsense Computing: What Students Know Before We Teach.”

The professors, who met at various workshops between 2002 and 2005, developed the project after a brainstorming session in 2005. Since then, the group has published three papers and a poster on the subject, and the new grant will aid in their future work on the project.

“We’re hoping to identify what students know about computing before starting formal instruction at the college/university level,” says Chen. “At the same time, we would like to [discover] ways of identifying what students know about these computing concepts, and we would like to provide suggestions to instructors about how they can use their students’ pre-existing knowledge to teach more effectively.”

The two-year grant will be used to fund travel so the group’s members can meet in person several times. Chen will also use funds to hire a student to help with the research, which includes collecting and analyzing student responses to a range of questions as well as doing some interviews.

The five other professors receiving the grant are Dennis Bouvier at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Gary Lewandowski at Xavier University, Robert McCartney at the University of Connecticut, Beth Simon at UC San Diego, and Tammy Van de Grift at the University of Portland. Kate Sanders at Rhode Island College is also involved in the research, though she is not named on the grant.

Chen, who earned her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, was previously awarded an NSF Career Grant of $400,000 in 2005. The five-year grant funds her project “Preconditioning Large, Sparse Linear Systems: Theory and Practice." The Career grant is the NSF’s most prestigious award; it supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

11/19/08 Torrey Olson ’09 and Women’s Cross-Country Team Headed to NCAA Nationals

Update 12/01/08: The Pomona-Pitzer women’s cross country team finished 22nd in the national meet after entering it ranked 26th in the nation. Alicia Freese ’10 earned All-American honors, finishing 22nd with a 21:32 time in the 6,000-meter women’s race. She is only the second Pomona-Pitzer All American in the sport’s history, the first being Kelly Redfield '90 in 1991.

A total of 32 teams competed in the women’s meet, which was won by Middlebury.

Torrey Olson ’09, a member of the Pomona-Pitzer men’s cross-country team, and the Pomona-Pitzer women’s cross-country team are all headed to the NCAA National meet this coming weekend in Hanover, Indiana.

The women’s team took second place at the NCAA Division III West Region Championship meet on November 14. The top two teams of each of the eight Division III regions earn a spot to compete at the national meet. This will be the first time the women’s team has competed at nationals since 1982.

The Sagehens scored 89 points at the regional meet, missing the crown by just one point and coming in second to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Alicia Freese ’10 led Pomona-Pitzer with her third-place finish in 21:54—a strong showing after taking a month off due to injury. Anna Scharfen ’09 took 10th place, Maddy Kieselhorst ’09 took 11th, Rose Haag ’10 took 25th and Zoe Meyers ’10 took 40th. Freese, Scharfen, Kieselhorst and Haag earned All-Region honors.

“The team ran spectacularly,” says Women's Cross-Country Head Coach Kirk Reynolds. “We had talked as a squad about the opportunity and the possibility of doing this at regionals, but it meant a lot of things had to go right on race day--which they did. This season has been a dream. Everyone, even those not running at nationals, worked so hard this season."

The Pomona-Pitzer men’s cross-country team finished in 5th place at the NCAA West Region meet last weekend, improving upon last year’s 12th-place standing. The top seven individual runners in each region who are not already going to the nationals with their team also earn the right to compete, and having placed fifth out of 107 runners with a personal best time of 25:11 for the-eight kilometer race, Torrey Olson will be going to the national competition.

“Torrey has been our number one runner all season,” says Men’s Cross-Country Head Coach Tony Boston. “I attribute this to his tremendous work ethic and a dogged determination to succeed in all that he does.

"Torrey also serves as a co-captain on the squad. From our very first practices, he has provided tremendous leadership and guidance to our young team. All of the guys on the team look up to him and for good reason; he truly exemplifies the meaning of the Division III student-athlete. The athletics/academic balance that he maintains, his character, his leadership and his great displays of sportsmanship are all hallmarks of the Division III athlete.”

Photos by Curt Hawkinson

11/18/08 Men's Water Polo Wins Back-to-Back SCIAC Championships
The Pomona-Pitzer men’s water polo team scored their second SCIAC championship in a row, beating California Lutheran University 12-9 in the tournament championship game on Sunday, November 16.

“I am really proud of my boys,” says Alex Rodriguez, head coach for men's and women's water polo. “We had a tough season, graduating six seniors [including three starters,] and we lost another starter as well. We were not expected to do well this year, and struggled through the conference round robin.”

In the round robin, Pomona-Pitzer won California Lutheran by one point, Occidental College by two, and lost to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and University of Redlands by one each. However, Pomona-Pitzer won both the first round and semi-finals games leading up to the final tournament championship game last weekend, beating University of La Verne 16-3 and Whittier College 7-5.

The final conference standings show the Pomona-Pitzer men's water polo team, who until 2007 hadn’t won a SCIAC championship since 1980, with a total of 14 points, with nine for coming in first in the tournament and five points earned for first round wins.

“Our motto for the tournament was to play without fear of losing. They really did that,” says Rodriguez. “We played our best water polo in the tournament, led by Ryan Balikian ’11 and Ben Hadley ‘11. They both played the majority of every game and are great offensive and defensive players.”

The Pomona-Pitzer team will compete this weekend against Chapman University in the initial seeding of the Western Water Polo Association conference, which is an NCAA Division I water polo conference. The conference will be hosted at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and the winner will automatically move on to the 40th annual NCAA men’s water polo championship at Stanford in December.

For more information on the SCIAC final championship game, visit our Athletics site.

10/31/08 Trolley Service Now Open in the Village
Crossing over to the west side of Indian Hill Boulevard to take advantage of the shops, restaurants and entertainment of the Village West is now a little bit easier with Claremont’s new trolley service, which offers free rides Thursdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The service, which had its grand opening yesterday, isn’t really a trolley, but rather small bus outfitted to look like a traditional trolley. The trolley makes a counterclockwise 1.5-mile loop through the Village, stopping at four locations approximately every 15 minutes.

The closest stops to Pomona College are the Metrolink parking lot at College Avenue and First Street, and the following stop at Bonita Avenue and Yale Ave., The other two stops are Oberlin Avenue at Second Street in the Village West, and the Claremont Depot. A map is available here. 

By making the currently out-of-the-way Metrolink parking lot a trolley stop, officials hope to encourage visitors and Village employees to park farther away, easing congestion in the Village, as well as making it easier for east-side parkers to visit the west side of the Village. The service is on a three-year trial basis and is funded by L.A. County transit funds.

10/29/08 Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham to Analyze Election Results at Pomona College on November 6
Just two days after the presidential election, Newsweek Editor and best-selling author Jon Meacham will be speaking on campus about the global and international implications of the election. His analysis, titled “The 2008 Presidential Election: A Post-Script,” will be held at 8 p.m. on November 6 in the Bridges Hall of Music. The talk is free and open to the public.

Meacham has been with Newsweek since 1995 and, as editor, supervises coverage of politics, international affairs and breaking news. Books he has written include American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Modern Nation (2006) and Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship (2003). He also edited Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement (2001). His next book, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, will be released by Random House on November 11.

“We had always been planning on having a large lead-up to the election and a great deal of coverage since we are a political organization,” explains Hal Jakle ‘09, vice president of the Pomona Student Union, which is sponsoring this event, “but getting the editor of Newsweek to come to campus was a wonderful surprise.”

Jakle discovered Meacham's availability while researching another potential speaker in early 2008. The talk is part of a special four-date tour in which Meacham is visiting nonprofits and campuses to discuss the implications of the results of the election.

“I think the event is a great opportunity to bring a large audience, not just those majoring in politics or econ, to listen and think about the choices our country is making,” says Makle. “We are getting an incredible combination of intellect, prestige and unbelievable timing in getting the editor of Newsweek here two days after one of the most important elections of our lifetime.”

10/28/08 Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author Junot Díaz to Give Reading on Campus
Junot Díaz, author of the widely acclaimed novel The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, will give a reading on November 5 at 5:30 p.m. in the Rose Hills Theater in the Smith Campus Center. Díaz received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his work, a lively novel that mixes English, Spanish and Spanglish to tell the story of Oscar, a 300-pound geek who wants to be the next Tolkien, and his Dominican-American family who suffer from a multi-generational curse.

Díaz has won several awards for his novel—his second book after a collection of short stories titled Drown (1996)—including the Pulitzer, the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was also declared the best novel of 2007 by Time and New York Magazine.

Entertainment Weekly called the book “"Terrific. . . . Narrated in high-energy Spanglish, the book is packed with wide-ranging cultural references--to Dune, Julia Alvarez, The Sound of Music--as well as erudite and hilarious footnotes on Caribbean history. It is a joy to read, and every bit as exhilarating to reread."

Díaz is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and Nancy Allen professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The reading will be preceded by the Latin American Studies Fall Reception at the Smith Campus Plaza at 4:15 p.m. Book purchases and book signings will be available after the reading as time permits.

10/24/08 Pomona Completes Extensive Sustainability Audit
An effort that had six students combing every square inch of the campus this summer has come to fruition with the publication of Pomona’s first comprehensive sustainability audit, a 750-plus page report that will guide the College’s sustainability efforts.

The audit is the first step in creating a broader Sustainability Action Plan for the College over the next year. “The information [gathered] allows us to better understand our strengths and weaknesses, and to target something as specific as a particular building, room or even piece of equipment for improvements or retrofits,” explains Sustainability Coordinator Bowen Patterson ’06. “This document allows us to much more easily see where we are now and what we need to do to move forward.” Read more

10/10/08 Charles Taylor Receives $90,000 NIST Research Grant
Professor of Chemistry Charles Taylor has received a $90,000 research grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency that develops and promotes measurement, standards and technology, for his work with preparing selective chemical sensors for electronic noses (ENoses).

ENoses have a sensor array with sensors that behave differently depending on the composition of air being passed over the sensor. They allow for real-time air quality monitoring, as opposed to more conventional methods where air samples are taken to a laboratory to be analyzed.

One such device Taylor worked on while on Steele leave at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory  in Pasadena will be launched into space Nov. 14 for an experiment to monitor air quality on the International Space Station in a six-month technology demonstration.

The continued research funded by the grant will allow Taylor to develop better sensor materials that are more robust than the current polymer-based materials. The vanadium oxide prepared in his research lab varies in its selectivity depending on the chemistry used for preparing it. In addition, because it is a metal oxide, it may be heated in air to regenerate its activity.

The final goal is to “make sensor arrays that are specific to different applications,” says Taylor. For example, sensors could be placed in a shipping container full of liquefied propane gas to notify the transporter if the gas began leaking during shipment. The devices that contain the sensor arrays would require very little power and could transmit data wirelessly. “But in order to do that, we need to get sensors that respond differently to a variety of compounds, and so that’s what we’re working on with the materials industry.”

As part of the grant, Taylor is developing a new chemistry class that will employ the materials characterization techniques available on campus, which, as Taylor explains, will also help to expose students to the changing roles of chemists in industry, in areas like microelectronics research and development.

9/30/08 Steven Hochman ’09 publishes research in The Journal of the American Medical Association
Steven Hochman '09 has a very impressive line to add to his post-collegiate resume, and he won't even graduate for several more months. 

He is one of four co-authors of “News Media Coverage of Medication Research,” a seven-page research article published in the October 1st edition of JAMA, 300 (13). The other authors are Steven’s brother Michael Hochman, MD (lead author); David Bor, MD; and Danny McCormick, MD, MPH. All are Harvard Medical School researchers at the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Mass. An abstract is available here.

Their research reveals that 42 percent of mainstream news articles on pharmaceutical studies didn’t disclose the funding sources of those studies, which are often the same companies marketing the drugs. They also found that two-thirds of the articles surveyed referred to medications by their brand names, rather than the less expensive generic versions, which can lead to consumer confusion.

Hochman was invited by his brother to participate in research in the data-intensive study.

“Many drug studies are funded by the pharmaceutical companies that market the drugs,” Hochman explains. While studies published in medical journals list the funding sources, there is no “set standard for noting funding sources when the popular media presents study results to the general public. In this light, as the general public considers medication choice, they may be misled by studies selected for their successful outcomes, and may not be aware when the research has been company funded.”

To uncover how prevalent this issue is, Hochman spent the summer of 2007 coding news articles from popular online and print media sources about drug studies, noting if the funding source was mentioned and if the generic name, brand name or both were used. The final data set was comprised of hundreds of articles.

As part of the study, the authors also surveyed health editors at major newspapers to learn about their medical research reporting practices. They found that just three percent of media surveyed had written policies governing disclosure, and just two percent had policies requiring medications to be referred to by their generic names.

“We hope that publishing this article helps alleviate these problems,” says Hochman. “It feels really good to have all this work published, especially in such a well known journal as JAMA, but I'm mostly just excited that I got the chance to experience the world of ‘real life’ medical research, especially in a public health related field, which is where I see myself in the future.”

Hochman, who is a Geology major, plans to continue his interest in medical research by applying for a Fulbright grant to study “the health disparity between the Maori and non-Maori population in New Zealand as a function of the two-part nationalized and private healthcare setting.” He’s particularly excited about the project because he hopes that it will not only be another step toward medical school, but that it will also help him play a role in promoting a nationalized healthcare system in the United States.

9/29/08 World-Renowned Choral Conductor Directing a Performance Featuring Professors Donna Di Grazia and Thomas Flaherty
The Millennium Consort Singers are returning to Pomona for a performance on Saturday, October 4, under the direction of Martin Neary. The choral group, which includes Professor of Music Donna M. Di Grazia, will be performing a work by Kurt Rohde and John P. and Magdalena R Dexter Professor of Music Thomas Flaherty.

The concert will juxtapose old and new, interweaving ancient themes with modern compositions, including two pieces each by William Byrd (Renaissance) and Benjamin Britten (20th Century), and one piece each by Prix de Rome prizewinner Kurt Rohde and Flaherty, both of whom represent the 21st century.

Flaherty’s composition, Shakespeare Sonatas, was originally written for the Pomona College Glee Club, debuting in 2004. The piece was chosen by Neary when, during discussions about the current performance, he asked Flaherty if he’d written any choral pieces. “I was of course delighted that he was interested in the piece, and look forward to the performance,” says Flaherty. “The group is terrific, and is presenting a challenging program.”

Martin Neary, former organist and master of choristers at Westminster Abbey, was appointed by the Queen of England as Lieutenant of the Royal Victoria Order in appreciation of Neary directing the music for Princess Diana’s funeral. He reprised that role in the critically acclaimed film The Queen. His CD, Music for Queen Mary—Henry Purcell was nominated for a Grammy, and he’s led the Winchester Cathedral and Westminster Abbey choirs on tours worldwide.

Founded in 2007, the 15-member Millennium Consort’s premiere performance was given at St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles in April of that same year. The Los Angeles Times praised one performance as “vividly conveyed…effortlessly spanned the centuries…and [Neary’s] gifted consort took the audience back to the future.”

The concert will be held at 8 p.m. in Pomona College’s Bridges Hall of Music (150 E. Fourth St., Claremont). Admission is free. For more information, call: (909)-607-2671, e-mail concerts@pomona.edu or visit www.music.pomona.edu.

9/26/08 Emeritus Professor Edward Copeland Awarded a Mellon Fellowship
Pomona College Professor Emeritus Edward Copeland (English) has been awarded the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Emeritus Fellowship for a project undertaking a literary investigation of the Silver Fork School, a type of novel prevalent in the period between Jane Austen’s death in 1817 and the rise of the Victorian novel in the early 1840s.

"I got into this project through Jane Austen," explains Copeland. "The Silver Fork novels come immediately after hers and some of their authors made pretty free use of Austen's works for their dialogue, plots and characters. Nobody has paid much attention to this, so I was naturally interested in following the trail.

"I found that Silver Fork novels were even more interesting to me for the use they were making of a vastly increased newspaper reading public in Great Britain. Suddenly there was a celebrity public available to novelists, one a bit like our own, as well as a consumer culture shared between the novels and the newspapers. Throw contemporary politics into the mix, all patched onto Jane Austen's novels, and you truly have something to think about."

Copeland joined Pomona in 1972, was named F. S. Jennings Professor of English in 1994, and taught at the College until 2002. He’s received several previous fellowships, including a Fulbright (1963), a Mellon (1979) and a National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) summer fellowship (1985). Copeland has published five books, including The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen; he's published two books just since his 2002 retirement. He’s also written 21 articles; his most recent piece on the Silver Fork Novel will be published by Oxford University Press this fall. Cambridge University Press will publish his forthcoming scholarly work.

Andrew W. Mellow Foundation Emeritus Fellowships (up to $35,000) support outstanding faculty members in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who are officially retired but continue to be active and productive in their fields. The program also provides institutions with resources to defray any associated costs (up to $20,000). A special College committee unanimously nominated Copeland for this honor.

9/15/08 In Memoriam: David Foster Wallace, 1962-2008
The world knew David Foster Wallace as the postmodern literary icon whose Infinite Jest recently landed on Time’s list of the 100 best English-language novels published since the magazine’s inception. Here on campus, though, the creative writing professor was a low-key presence except where it mattered: in the classroom or during his well-attended office hours.

Wallace’s suicide death on September 12 was followed by an international outpouring of tributes to his work and, at Pomona, intensely personal remembrances of a writing professor who balanced humble compassion with an insistence that students do their best work. Read more

9/9/08 New Foreign Language Resource Center Officially Open
Picture the language lab of yore: Students, hunkered down in headphones, staring at a computer monitor, cut off from their peers just sitting inches away. Now, visit the new Foreign Language Resource Center (FLRC), located in Mason Hall, Room 101. The room is full of curves, cozy chairs, computer stations that invite collaboration, moveable walls that can act as partitions, white boards, or even space for an exhibition. Everything is on casters, allowing the room to be continually modified based on the ever-changing needs of its users.

“This is a mixed-use social space,” explains Felix Kronenberg, assistant professor of German and manager of the FLRC. “The architects really made this a signature project. We wanted to make it not look like a computer lab, but a place you enjoy being in.”

The FLRC, which was funded with a $200,000 Arthur Vining Davis Foundations Grant, has been open since last spring in a sort of beta mode, but is having its official grand opening the afternoon of September 10... Read more

8/29/08 Two new fall exhibits set to open at the Pomona College Museum of Art
Fresh off the successful James Turrell at Pomona College and Project Series 35: Evan Holloway exhibits, the Pomona College Museum of Art is unveiling two new exhibits for the fall on Tuesday, September 2. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 6, from 5 to 7 p.m.

The main exhibition will feature new works by Pomona faculty members and studio artists Sheila Pinkel, Mercedes Teixido, Mark Allen (image at left), and Sandeep Mukherjee. The works were created in a variety of media and techniques, including drawing, painting, photography and installation. The four artists will lead a tour of their work on Wednesday, September 17, from 4:14 to 5:30 p.m.

“The faculty exhibition is a great opportunity for the College community and our broader audience to see the vitality of our art faculty’s practice,” says Kathleen Stewart Howe, director of the Pomona College Art Museum. “The research work of faculty members in the visual arts is encountered in the exhibition spaces of museums and galleries, in much the same way that the scholarly research of faculty in music and theatre manifests itself in public spaces.”

Also opening September 2 is Project Series 36: Predock_Frane Architects, an installation from the award-winning architecture firm. Their installation, Inland Empire, reflects the artists’ interpretation of components of the built environment—regional depot buildings, big-box retail stores, mini-malls, housing and the corresponding network of transportation corridors—common in the decentralized landscapes of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, i.e., the Inland Empire.

“Predock_Frane Architects are one of the most creative and thoughtful firms to emerge in recent years,” says Rebecca McGrew, the curator of the Museum and the creator and organizer of the Project Series. “Inland Empire reflects their philosophical investigations of several interconnected themes: the possibility of linking together oppositional strategies of fabrication, the contrasts between a high-tech/digital vs. low-tech/hand-crafted aesthetic, the site-specific nature and locational identity of each venue, and the blurring of traditional boundaries between art, design, sculpture and architecture.”

Hadrian Predock and John Frane, who established Predock_Frane Architects in 2000 as a collaborative research and development architecture studio, will present a public lecture about their work at the Museum on Tuesday, September 23, at 2 p.m.

The Pomona College Museum of Art is located at 330 N. College Avenue, Claremont. The Museum is open to the public free of charge Tuesday through Friday, from noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. For more information, call (909) 621-8283 or visit the Museum’s web site. For more information on Pomona College’s Art and Art History Department and its professors, please visit www.art.pomona.edu.
 
8/26/08 Dean of Admissions Bruce Poch pens article in Kaplan-Newsweek college guide
For the third year in a row, Dean of Admissions Bruce Poch has penned an article for the annual Kaplan-Newsweek How to Get Into College guide. His article this year, titled “The Process: Keep It Honest, Keep It Real,” examines the application process for students and their parents.

“Students and their families have a wealth of information available about colleges and the admission process, and should take advantage of the resources,” writes Poch. “Understanding your talents and interests while working to understand the academic structures and offerings of a college is a vital step.”

In the same 2009 college guide, Pomona is named as having one of the 12 top college rivalries—for applicants, that is. In the article, Pomona is paired off with Amherst, due to our similar tree-filled campuses, top-notch academics, and close relationships with nearby universities. 

Poch's latest article is now available to read onlinee, in addition to his previous articles on the Newsweek site: "Don’t Be Bland" (2007)  and "The Search for Authenticity" (2008). Poch was also quoted another recent Newsweek article, “Grading the Test,” which examined the SAT’s writing exam. 

To purchase a copy of the How to Get Into College Guide, visit Kaplan’s online store.
 
8/15/08 Poolside with Former Record-Holding Swimmer, Olympian and Biology Professor Marilyn Ramenofsky ’69
In many ways, Marilyn Ramenofsky ’69 has led two very different lives, though both reflect a deep love for movement and physicality. In her current career, she conducts academic research on the physiology and behavior of bird migration; in an earlier era, she was a freestyle swimmer setting world records and winning an Olympic medal by the age of 18.

A national champion by 17, she set the world record for the 400-meter freestyle three times in 1964, pushing the record down to 4:39.5. After being accepted into Pomona in the spring of that year, Ramenofsky had one more errand to run before beginning college: the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where she won silver in the event. “It was pretty scary,” she says of the feeling of swimming on the world stage. “The pressure was incredibly intense.”

Ramenofsky says her rapid rise to the international spotlight was largely due to her training at the Phoenix branch of the Amateur Athletic Union with legendary swim coach Walter Schlueter. “I had never been competing at that level before,” she says, “and then suddenly my times we’re dropping and I was shooting to beat the people on top.”

At Pomona, the lack of a women’s swim team--a common phenomenon in the pre-Title IX days--caused Ramenofsky to shift her focus to other activities “It was probably a good thing,” she says, looking back, “because there were a lot of opportunities at Pomona and I was keen to get involved.” A botany/biology major, Ramenofsky conducted thesis work with professor Dwight Ryerson on algae structures, solidifying her love for both zoology and academia in general.

After pursuing advanced studies in zoology, she taught for three years at Vassar before joining the faculty at the University of Washington, where she has been for the past 20 years. This summer she returns to the Golden State, having accepted a position as a biology professor at UC Davis. “It’s great to be back,” she says. “I’ve missed California weather!”

Throughout her career, Ramenofsky has remained engaged with the swim world. She still swims as much as she can, and has been involved in coaching for numerous teams at the high school and college level, even leading the University of Texas to the state championships in 1971. She also has been following the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with excitement and high hopes. “It’s great to see older women like [Dara] Torres still swimming,” she says with admiration.

While her career could hardly be described as conventional, Ramenofsky views her two distinct paths as swimmer and academic as stemming from similar interests: “With both, I was focused and driven by some bizarre attention to detail,” she says. “The academic side of life is not all that different. It’s just more terrestrial than aquatic.”--Adam Conner-Simons '08

8/11/08 New Bike-Sharing Program to Start Fall Semester
Taking sustainability to the streets, Pomona College is unveiling a new bike-sharing program that will build on our already strong on-campus bike culture. The new program will let students borrow state-of-the-art folding bicycles, creating endless travel possibilities for exploring Los Angeles via train and bike, or for just taking a ride around the Campus.

“One of the things that the college is trying to do is raise awareness about the impact of our actions,” said Sustainability Coordinator Bowen Patterson ’06. “Promoting bike use is important, and this is another good opportunity for the college to diversify options for students.”

The bikes fold in half in a matter of seconds and, while folded, weigh less than 25 pounds and measure in at just over two-feet-by-two-feet, making them perfect for commutes on busy city buses and Metrolink trains. Program organizers hope the bikes will help broaden transportation options for students participating in the popular Pomona College Internship Progam, which places students in offices across Southern California. Folding bikes in hand, students will now be able to take public transportation into Los Angeles and bike to work at offices previously too far to access on foot. And, with the recent opening of new grocery stores, shops and the movie theater in Claremont, the bikes can also help more students get off Campus and into the community.

“Biking seems like a natural choice,” Patterson said. “It’s low cost, and there are so many activities and resources that are within a reasonable biking distance.”

The brainchild of Spencer Honeyman ’08, the bike-sharing program got its start last spring when the then-senior brought folding bikes to the attention of the President’s Action Committee on Sustainability, an organization dedicated to promoting green issues on campus. The Committee, which manages an annual fund of $15,000 for infrastructure-based programs, helped Honeyman get the project off the ground.

“This was a good opportunity to let people know about folding bikes,” said committee member Chelsea Hodge ’09. “It gives students the opportunity to try them out. It’s the experience that will be important.”

Pomona forged a relationship with Dahon, a Duarte, CA-based folding-bike manufacturer. After sending a senior executive to meet with the Committee last spring, Dahon agreed to donate three bikes and six magnet-powered safety lights to the College.

“Dahon got really excited about it,” said Associate Dean of Student Neil Gerard, who is overseeing the project. “I think it’s a good idea for a whole lot of reasons. It’s healthier to ride a bike than a car for everybody.”

The details of the bike-sharing program—where the bikes will be stored and how students will check them out—are still in the works, but should be settled by the time students return to Campus for the fall semester.—Travis Kaya ‘10

8/4/08 Linda Alvarado ’73 Heads Renovation Efforts for Democratic National Convention
Millions of people all over the world will be watching the results of her work, but Linda Alvarado ’73 isn’t fazed. As president and CEO of Alvarado Construction Inc., a Denver-based construction management firm that has worked on such big-budget projects as the Broncos’ Invesco Field, Alvarado is used to the spotlight.

This past year, though, her company, along with Turner Construction and HOK Sport, was given the tall task of renovating the Pepsi Center in preparation for the Democratic National Convention on August 25. Working since July 7, Alvarado’s crew has 49 days to turn the basketball arena/hockey rink into a multi-purpose convention center equipped to accommodate 50,000 guests, 15,000 members of the media and 40 miles of cables. “There was a lot of pre-construction planning and a very short window of time,” Alvarado says. “But I’m confident.”

Alvarado’s confidence is no surprise. She’s run her own company, Alvarado Construction, since 1976. In 1991, she successfully bid for co-ownership of the Colorado Rockies, becoming the first woman and the first Latino to own part of a Major League Baseball franchise. She was also one of the founders of the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, served as Commissioner of the White House Initiative for Hispanic Excellence in Education, and has been recognized with several awards, including the United States Chamber of Commerce Business Woman of the Year, the Horatio Alger Award, and the Revlon Business Woman of the Year.

From as early as her days at Pomona, where she was an Economics major, Alvarado didn’t let her gender stop her from entering male-dominated fields. As a first-year looking for employment, Alvarado opted for landscaping instead of working at a more traditional desk job. When she applied for a position, the subcontractor said to her, “Boys do landscaping, girls do food services. Don’t you understand that you're going to be outside wearing Levis?" Alvarado was only further invigorated by that prospect--“Oh cool! I get to be out in the sun!” she thought--and says that those humble beginnings were essential to developing her career path.

Alvarado says the DNC project is “not about politics” for her, but she expressed pride about being part of such a historic moment in Denver: The last time the city hosted the DNC, exactly 100 years ago, marked the first time that women and people of color served as delegates. “We have an African American presidential candidate, and a woman leading the construction,” she says. “Who would have thought a girl like me would be doing this?”—By Adam Conner-Simons ‘08

8/1/08 Pomona College Hires its First-Ever Sustainability Coordinator
As part of continuing efforts to step up sustainability, Pomona has hired Bowen Patterson ’06 as Sustainability Coordinator, a new position designed to help improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and deal with other related issues at the College.

The position represents the school's recognition of the need for an individual who can deal exclusively with sustainability concerns... Read more
 
7/29/08 Former Geology Professor John Shelton ‘35’s Photographs Exhibited in San Diego
The San Diego Natural History Museum exhibit Aerial Portraits of the American West: Photographs by John Shelton is on view through November 2. Shelton '35, a La Jolla geologist, photographer and former Pomona College geology professor (1945-1960) passed away on July 24, 2008, at his home.

   
John Shelton's "San Andreas Fault, California"
The 33 aerial photographs in the exhibit offer Shelton’s unique perspective of geologic formations and processes from Alaska to Baja California. The photographs were taken by Shelton over the course of several decades—from the 1940s through the ‘70s. The collection was shot with a military aerial reconnaissance camera, showing immense detail that would be almost impossible to capture today due to pollution’s effects on air clarity.

“I didn't discover geology until my junior year," Shelton said in a recent interview with the La Jolla Light. That discovery came in Professor A. O. "Woody" Woodford's introductory geology course. As it was too late to change majors, he graduated with a dual degree in math and music. Upon Woodford's advice, he went on to Yale for graduate studies in geology and called himself a “student of the earth.” Shelton taught at Pomona, worked for the Strategic Minerals Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey, and later served as an advisor on geology films.

He began taking photos as a way to demonstrate geology to his students, and also as a way to combine his three passions: flying, photography and geology. From the 1930s through the 1990s, Shelton photographed evidence of continental drift, plate tectonics and other principles all over the globe. One famous photo shows an orange grove that straddled the San Andreas Fault; its perfectly aligned rows of trees were offset during an earthquake.

Shelton, considered a key figure in geology, authored the introductory textbook Geology Illustrated, which was later named one of the most important 100 books of the last century by Scientific American. In 1993, Shelton received the American Geological Institute Legendary Geologist Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Public Understanding of Geology.”

Shelton maintained close ties to Pomona College's Geology department, including returning to Campus as the annual Woodford-Eckis speaker in 1995, delivering lectures on "A Feel for How the Earth Works" and "The Aerial Perspective." In a letter sent out by the Geology department upon Shelton's passing, Professor Linda A. Reinen, chair of the department, said "John's myriad contributions to the teaching and learning of geology will continue to influence geology students for many years to come."

For further information regarding the exhibition, visit the San Diego Natural History Museum web site at www.sdnhm.org or call (619) 232-3821.

Article updated 07/31/08

7/23/08 Hillary Park ’92 in the Running for National Teaching Award
This month Hillary Park ’92, a Spanish teacher at Grossmont High School in El Cajon, California, won the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Teacher Award for the San Diego area, making her one of 12 finalists for the institute’s prestigious National Teacher Award that will be presented at a ceremony in Washington D.C. on October 9. Hers is among a series of awards given annually by the HHF, a national organization dedicated to identifying leaders in the Latino community. Past HHF honorees include baseball player Sammy Sosa and singer Gloria Estefan.

After graduating from Grossmont High in 1988, Park packed her bags for Pomona, where she was an English literature major and three-sport athlete. “I was definitely challenged in every aspect,” Park says, “with classes, discussions with peers, and expectations from professors and coaches,” Her coursework with Spanish Professor Maria Donapetry and her abroad experience in Sevilla, Spain, further solidified her desire to pursue a Spanish-related profession. After college, she returned to Grossmont, where she has taught Spanish for 14 years.

Park has been praised for her innovative teaching methods, including Spanish-immersion trips to Costa Rica and weekly “charlas” (based on the Oldenborg language tables at Pomona) in which students have lunch with native speakers. “My approach is to engage students in the learning process and require them to be active learners,” Park says. She was nominated for the HHF award by one of her students, Diana Crafts-Pelayo, who won a college scholarship through the Hispanic Heritage Foundation.

Former Grossmont student Tyler Barbour ’09 seconds the endorsement: “Because of Hillary and her A.P Spanish language course, I decided to be an international relations major at Pomona and study abroad,” he says. “She has a passion for Spanish that is contagious.”

For Park, the thrill in teaching stems from seeing progress in her students’ abilities and confidence levels. “I love when they finally begin to speak and construct conversations,” she says. “I try to lead them without showing them the exact path. I want them to make their own discoveries.”

For more information on the HHF and its awards, visit www.hispanicheritage.org.--Adam Conner-Simons ‘08

7/22/08 Local Youth to Put on Play at Pomona College This Weekend
Every summer, there’s a bit more drama on campus than usual. From the end of June through July, 50 local children ages 11 to 14 attend the Claremont School of Theatre Art (CSTA), a five-week program that provides classes on acting, movement and voice, and technical theater elements like props, sets and costumes.

Each year, the program culminates with a performance. This year, the students will be performing Tales of Canterbury Thursday, July 24, through Sunday, July 27, at the Virginia Princehouse Allen Theatre at Pomona’s Seaver Theatre Complex. The play is a modern adaptation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales by playwright Kristina Sexton.

The CSTA program is now in its 15th year and originally began when The Curtain Raisers of the Claremont Colleges, an organization devoted to encouraging volunteer activities to support the Claremont Colleges’ theatre programs, wanted to offer something for local young people. Pomona came on as a partner; each year, the CSTA program takes place in the Seaver Complex.

“This is my eighth year as the producer for this program, and it’s awesome to bring these young people in from the community, and to give them a creative outlet,” says Cathy Seaman, program director for the Department of Theatre and Dance. “So we’re building not only skills, but self-esteem and confidence in oneself and kind of centering them and grounding them in self image.”

Another aspect of the program that Seaman is proud of is its instructors, who are often recent graduates of the Theatre Department, which covers all five of the undergraduate Claremont Colleges. This year, Tim Gillette ’03 is teaching the technical theater class and his wife, Maggie Gillette, a Pitzer graduate, is the technical director. Andrew Doyle ’02 from Pitzer is also working with the program this year. “The biggest perk for me is to see these young people who have gained skills and knowledge in the theater and now they move to the practical realm,” says Seaman. “They come on board with an attitude [of wanting] to give back, and they’re just phenomenal instructors.”

Performances of Tales of Canterbury will take place on Thursday, July 24, at 7 p.m.; Friday, July 25, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, July 26, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and on Sunday, July 27, at 2 p.m. The box office will open 30 minutes prior to show time, but you can also reserve tickets by calling the reservation hotline at (909) 607-4396. Tickets are $9 for adults and $7 for children ages two to twelve.

7/22/08 Art Exhibition by Professor Emeritus Karl Benjamin Opens in Oceanside
This past Saturday, the Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) opened a new exhibition of the work of Pomona Professor Emeritus Karl Benjamin titled “The Vibrant Edge: Paintings of Karl Benjamin from the 1960s, ’70s and ‘80s.” On display until October 19, “The Vibrant Edge” features the “Hard-edge painting” style, of which Benjamin was one of the founding fathers. The style is characterized by geometrical shapes, sharp edges and rich, full colors.

   
Karl Benjamin's "Markers" (1955).
Benjamin, whose work has been showcased at the Whitney Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other places, was an art professor at Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University from 1979 until his retirement in 1994. His exhibition, “A Conversation with Color: Karl Benjamin, Paintings 1953-1995,” was the inaugural show at the Claremont Museum of Art in 2007.

The OMA is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., as well as Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. CGU Art Department Chair David Pagel will present a slide lecture on Benjamin’s paintings at the museum on August 21 from 7 TO 9 p.m. Admission to the slide lecture is $5. For more information, please contact the OMA at (760) 435-3720 or visit the museum’s web site. --Adam Conner-Simons ‘08

7/18/08 Philip Armour ’07 to Present “Sideways Effect” Paper at Wine Economics Conference
Philip Armour ’07 is no slouch. A triple-major in economics, mathematics and English literature while at Pomona, he spent the past year working for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and in the coming years will be keeping himself busy with a masters at the London School of Economics and then Harvard Law School. Such impressive accomplishments could make it easy to overlook his intriguing recent project: This August, he will be co-presenting a paper at the second annual American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE) conference in Portland, Oregon.

The event features economists from all over the country speaking on such enticing topics as eco-friendly “biodynamic wines” and the relationship between price and quality (“Do more expensive wines taste better?”). Armour and his Fed colleague Mark Doms will be presenting their paper examining the evidence behind the supposed “Sideways Effect,” which claims that since the release of the Pinot-glorifying, Merlot-trashing 2004 indie film (co-written by Jim Taylor ’84), Pinot has soared in popularity while Merlot has crashed and burned. Armour confirms the movie’s effect on Pinot Noir but casts doubt on its connection to Merlot. “That downward trend was actually a long time coming,” he says.

For Armour, his passions for wine and economics developed from a very early age. “My mother and father are both passionate about wine,” he says, “so my childhood was filled with tiny pours of great Bordeaux and Burgundies.” Although he had dabbled in studying wine economics at Pomona, he says he never anticipated being able to do such research while working for the Fed this year.

He soon found that fellow economist Doms shared with him a “curiosity about the driving forces in wine marketing and production,” and before long the two delved into some studies and uncovered publishable results. One abstract and introduction later, the pair’s submission was accepted by the AAWE and they were headed for P-town.

Armour is looking forward to the Portland conference both for getting feedback about his work and getting the opportunity to learn more about the field. “Research in wine economics is fascinating and in such a nascent stage that there's a lot of potential for change in the near future,” Armour says. “It's an exciting time to be entering the debate.”--Adam Conner-Simons '08

7/9/08 Two Alums, Two Brothers, Two Books
A novelist specializing in thrillers rents a Tuscan farmhouse unknowingly near the scene of grisly serial killings. A science writer, seeking to understand what it was like for someone to enter a Level 4 Ebola facility and have her spacesuit fail, entered the same facility…and had his spacesuit fail. (That wasn’t part of the plan.)

Truth can be stranger than fiction, and both Richard Preston ’76 and Douglas Preston ‘78 have documented those truths in their most recent nonfiction novels, which were recently released, just two weeks apart.... Read more
 
7/18/08 Darin Leong ’99 Builds His Slack-Key Musical Reputation in Hawaii
A Hawaii native raised on the slack-key strumming and falsetto hum of Hawaii’s music icons, Leong was nominated last month for two Na Hoku Hanohano Awards—Hawaii’s answer to the Grammy’s—placing him alongside some of that genre’s biggest names. “It’s really come full circle,” he says. “Just being in that company was incredible.”

Leong grabbed nominations for Best Instrumental Album and Most Promising Artist for his second studio album, Five Years and Many Miles,, which was released last September. The disc recounts Leong’s experiences in New York City where he relocated just one week before the September 11 attacks to pursue a law degree at New York University. The title cut, “Five Years,” looks back at the city’s recovery and his personal growth during his time there.

While on the East Coast, Leong joined a tight-knit musical community of Hawaii expatriates, even getting the opportunity to play at Carnegie Hall and Staten Island Stadium. “New York is a totally different place,” he says. “It really helped shape my perception of the world, my perception of music.”

Last year, Leong moved back home to the islands, his album serving as a “calling card and introduction for the people of Hawaii.” And although he did not take home any trophies this year, he has garnered the attention of the local media and the support of key local musicians like singer Robert Cazimero, guitarist Barry Flanagan and ukulele icon Jake Shimabukuro.

Leong specializes in slack-key, a 200-year-old technique invented by Hawaiian musicians “slacking” the strings of their guitars. Leong’s signature sound mixes traditional Hawaiian methods with New York panache and an extensive knowledge of the classical technique picked up while studying music at Pomona College. According to Leong, his time in Claremont was pivotal in shaping his sound and, of course, preparing him for law school. “The exposure was really useful,” he says. “It shaped me as a person and it shaped me musically.”

While at Pomona, Leong studied under Professor of Music and professional guitarist Jack Sanders. Leong quickly made his mark at that time with his willingness to mix slack key style with more classical musical training. “He had an excellent technique and beautiful musicianship,” Sanders says. “I was thrilled to see that he was nominated for the Na Hoku awards.”

As if managing his blossoming music career weren’t enough, Leong also works as an attorney in Honolulu, specializing in employment and labor law. It’s a bit different from the high-powered law firm he became accustomed to in New York, he says, but it’s an adjustment he’s happy to make. br>
“I always wanted to move home,” he says, watching the surf from his office window. “It’s the community that I grew up in and it’s the musical community that I wanted to be a part of.”

FFor more information on Darin Leong's music, visit his Web site at Hawaiiguitar.com.--Travis Kaya '10
 
7/1/08 Will Leer ’07 in the Running for Summer Olympics
Will Leer ’07 is heading to the upcoming U.S. Olympic track and field trials to attempt to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The trials are taking place July 3 to 7 in Eugene, Oregon, where Leer has been training for the past 10 months. If he finishes among the top three runners, he will qualify for the U.S. team.

Originally from Minnesota, Leer majored in mathematics and earned a minor in philosophy at Pomona. Predominantly a soccer player in high school, Leer got much more intensely involved in track and field at Pomona, competing all four years and earning repeated All-American honors. He won the 2006 Division-III indoor national title for the mile, and at the 2007 Division III outdoors nationals, he became the first male runner to win the 1500-meter and the 5000-meter event on the same day. Last year, he also finished 10th nationally at the USA Track & Field Championships.

FFormer Pomona-Pitzer track coach Pat Mulcahy praised Leer for his positive attitude and unwavering commitment to the sport. “He’s trying to keep it going and explore what he can do,” Mulcahy says. “He’s probably gone further than he thought he could, but he’s taking it all in stride.”

The first of the trials’ three rounds start July 3, with the second round on July 4 and the final round taking place on July 6.i>--Adam Conner-Simons '077

Update: Will Leer '07 placed fourth in the men's 1,500-meter final on July 6 with a time of 3:41:54. "I'm disappointed I didn't get third, but we're sending a great team....This meet was very successful for me. It has catapulted me to a new level as far as my career goes," he said in an interview with RunnersWorld.com.

Visit RunnersWorld.com for more quotes and a video interview with Leer.
 
 
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Official news releases are issued by the Pomona College Office of Public Affairs. Members of the news media requiring further assistance with these stories should contact Cynthia Peters, Associate Director of Public Affairs, at (909) 621-8515 for immediate assistance, or by e-mail at cynthia.peters@pomona.edu.
 
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