Pomona College Alumni Association Board Meeting Minutes
March 5, 2025 – 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Virtual Meeting
Committee Chair & Officers: Andrea Venezia '91, Monika Moore '03, Stuart Friedel '08, Robi Ganguly '00, Joshua Rodriguez '13, Emily Zheng ’19, Nina Zhou ’19 -Absent
Board Members: Soren Austenfeld ’15, Eliza Bennitt '98, Michael Bright '10, Lauren Clarke '83 P’18, Miguel Delgado ’20, Renee Dupont ’80 P’09, Anne Elsberry '91 P’14, Jackie Huffman '83, Anthony Tony King '97, Toran Langford '21, Te'auna Patterson '18, Jim Sutton '84 P'22, James Zhang ’95, Devlin Orlin ’25 -Absent
Staff and Faculty Representatives: Tray Hammond, Pritina Irvin, Mariam Khwajazada, Kerry Martin, Karla Reid, Victoria Sancho Lobis (Faculty)
Guests Attendees: Maria Watson, Professor Ken Wolf
Quorum: The quorum for a meeting of the Board shall be a majority of the voting members. Therefore, this meeting had the necessary number of voting members (17) in attendance for a quorum.
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 10:10am by President Andrea Venezia ’91 without dissent.
Prior Meeting Minutes: from 12.7.2024 were distributed to the Board for review.
Absent any other questions, comments or corrections, Anne Elsberry '91 motioned to approve the minutes. Lauren Clarke '83 seconded the motion. Minutes approved without dissent; motion passed.
President’s Remarks: In summary, Andrea Venezia ’91 shared that the PCAAB Executive Team is reassessing meeting structures by shifting updates to asynchronous formats and allocating more time for discussion. As the team experiments with the best ways for the board to use its time together, particularly on Zoom, feedback on these changes will be collected through a post-meeting survey to ensure the new approach to board meetings is effective.
Agenda Highlights:
- Board of Trustees Updates: A brief overview of key discussions.
- Alumni & Family Engagement: Updates provided by Monika, including staffing updates.
- Policy Developments & Board Vision: Maria discussed recent policy changes in Washington, D.C., followed by a conversation on developing a shared vision for the board.
- Faculty Reflections: Dr. Victoria Sancho Lobis shared insights from faculty, with supporting documents available for reference.
- Liberal Arts Education Discussion: A session led by Professor Ken Wolf.
- Alumni Weekend Planning: Reviewing upcoming events and identifying action items.
Board of Trustee Updates: Andrea Venezia ’91 shared updates from the College’s Board of Trustees meeting. The Board of Trustees discussed shared governance, institutional neutrality, and institutional restraint. A session on the College’s finances included an interactive quiz. The Board also reviewed the federal landscape and its potential implications. Additionally, they approved an update to the research misconduct policy and formally approved December graduates.
Alumni and Family Engagement Updates: Monika Moore ’03 shared staffing updates for the AFE Team, LDC status, and encouraged questions for Campus Partners.
- Staffing Updates:
- Jenny Kong was promoted to Assistant Director of Alumni and Family Engagement, focusing on family programming, summer welcome events, and Sagehen travel.
- Mariam Khwajazada rejoined Pomona College, bringing expertise in volunteer engagement. She will support regional chapters, the Alumni Board’s engagement efforts, and develop a parent volunteer program.
- Leadership Development Committee (LDC) Process:
- Interviews for new Alumni Board members are ongoing, with selections expected by the end of March.
- The committee balances candidate selection with representation needs. Those not selected may still be engaged for future opportunities.
- Alumni Engagement and Volunteer Support:
- Strengthening regional chapters and engagement efforts.
- Enhancing volunteer opportunities beyond fundraising for parents and alumni.
- Board Member Communication:
- A Google Doc was created for board members to submit questions for campus partners.
- Committee meetings will serve as a platform to address outstanding questions and discussions.
Action Items:
- Finalize Alumni Board selections by the end of March.
- Expand volunteer engagement efforts, particularly for parents and regional alumni chapters.
- Encourage board members to submit questions via the shared Google Doc.
- Integrate committee meetings as a space for follow-up discussions.
Updates on the Latest Developments from Washington DC:
Maria Watson, VP for Advancement provided updates on key challenges facing the College, including an ongoing federal investigation into claims of anti-Semitism, potential increases to the endowment tax, and federal policy shifts impacting immigration, DEI, research funding, and student aid. She emphasized the College’s commitment to supporting students, complying with legal requirements, and advocating for policies that protect its mission. Maria also discussed campus security concerns following a recent swatting incident and shared positive news about the upcoming commencement ceremony and honorary degree recipients.
- Claims of Anti-Semitism & Civil Rights Investigation: The College received an "F" grade on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) report card related to anti-Semitism. The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights included Pomona in its list of 60 institutions to investigate under Title IV. The College is cooperating fully with the investigation and taking steps to support Jewish students and prevent discrimination.
- Executive Orders & Policy Impacts:
- Immigration: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions have been reported at Columbia University. The College is working closely with vulnerable students and providing information on their rights and legal protections.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI): The College remains committed to DEI while monitoring federal policy changes. They are working with national higher education associations to align with legal compliance and institutional values.
- Endowment Tax Concerns: The federal endowment tax, initially introduced in 2017 at 1.4%, may increase significantly (possibly up to 35%). A higher tax would redirect millions of dollars from financial aid and core institutional functions. The College is engaging with legislators and national associations to advocate against steep increases.
- Federal Funding Risks: Some executive orders aim to freeze federal research funding. While litigation is ongoing, there have been no adverse effects on Pomona yet. The Department of Education states that federal student aid will not be impacted, but the College is monitoring potential risks to Pell Grants and work-study funding.
- Campus Safety & Security Updates:
- Commencement Announcement: Scheduled for May 18, 2025 on Marston Quad. Honorary degree recipients include Dr. Willie Boone ’62, Trustee Emerita Louise Bryson, Justice Halim Dhanidina ’94, and President Emeritus David Oxtoby.
- Swatting Incident: A false report of an active shooter at Claremont McKenna College led to a three-hour lockdown affecting all campuses. A misidentification at Frank Dining Hall caused additional panic. The College is providing support to affected students.
Questions Raised /Suggestions:
- Is there a plan for broader alumni engagement on funding and investigations?
- Could this tax make Pomona more competitive compared to Ivy League schools?
- What resources are available for students regarding judicial warrant requirements?
- Has an analysis been done on how a higher endowment tax could impact financial aid commitments?
Action Items / Suggestions:
- Explore Enhanced Alumni Communication:
- Consider a detailed budgetary impact update for alumni.
Improving alumni awareness of the Alumni Board’s role and increasing accessibility.
2. Reinforce Student Legal Awareness on Immigration: Ensure all students know their rights and legal steps to take if approached by ICE. Review Financial Aid Projections and assess how a higher endowment tax could impact Pomona’s financial aid commitments, particularly for middle-income students.
Establishing a Shared Vision for the Alumni Board: Maria Watson and Andrea Venezia ’91 emphasized the need for a clearer mission and structure for the Alumni Board to enhance its impact and alignment with the College’s goals. They proposed a strategic planning process to define the board’s role, improve engagement, and assess whether the current committee structure supports its mission. Suggestions included benchmarking peer institutions, reviewing the board’s historical evolution, and conducting a landscape analysis of existing alumni initiatives. They also discussed hiring a facilitator and potentially hosting an in-person retreat to guide the process. The goal is to ensure board service is rewarding, effective, and aligned with Pomona’s long-term priorities.
- Benchmarking and Historical Review: The board discussed studying peer institutions (such as Williams, Amherst, Claremont colleges, and Occidental) to compare structures and best practices.
- Visibility and Alumni Engagement: Members emphasized the need to increase awareness of the board’s work among alumni and strengthen its role as a liaison between the College and alumni community. The board explored ways to better connect with current students, reinforcing the idea that alumni involvement is a lifelong relationship.
- Potential Strategic Planning Process: There was strong support for launching a formal strategic planning process to define the board’s purpose and operational structure. A facilitated retreat was suggested as a key opportunity for focused discussions and decision-making.
- The possibility of forming an ad hoc committee or using the Executive Committee to lead this effort was discussed.
- Alignment with College Governance & Decision-Making: The board discussed the College’s broader shared governance initiative and how it could serve as a model for clarifying decision-making processes within the Alumni Board. There was interest in understanding how board input fits into the College’s overall structure and how decisions are communicated.
Questions Raised
- What are the key issues the board should address in strategic planning?
- How can the board increase its visibility and accessibility to alumni?
- What role should the board play in engaging current students and recent graduates?
- Should an ad hoc committee be formed, or should the Executive Committee lead the planning process?
- How can the board integrate learnings from peer institutions and its own history into future planning?
Action Items
- Conduct Benchmarking: Research peer institutions’ alumni board structures and engagement strategies.
- Review Alumni Association History: Analyze past governance models to understand how the board has evolved.
- Improve Communication & Engagement: Develop strategies to enhance alumni and student awareness of the board’s role.
Faculty Reflections
Victoria Sancho Lobis provided updates on campus climate and community resilience from the faculty view. Victoria acknowledged the recent campus disruptions, including a swatting incident, and reflected on the emotional toll while noting students’ relative resilience due to generational exposure to such events. Despite the stressors, she noted an encouraging sense of collegiality and unity among faculty, with efforts to maintain focus on Pomona’s pedagogical mission and support for students.
- Faculty Engagement and Informal Community Building: Victoria highlighted an upswing in faculty morale, partially due to a shift in student and faculty focus following recent events, disciplinary outcomes, and broader national issues such as the election. Informal gatherings, such as faculty lunches and happy hours, have strengthened social bonds and collaboration outside of formal faculty meetings. These gatherings were supported by leadership, including a recent trustee-hosted reception.
- Benton Museum Updates and Collaborative Exhibitions: The Benton Museum is showcasing two major faculty-driven exhibitions, emphasizing cross-departmental collaboration and student involvement in curatorial practices:
- Cellophane Bricks, based on Professor Jonathan Lethem’s art writing and collection.
- Black Ecologies in Contemporary American Art, developed from a lecture series and class led by Professor Shereen Sherard Johnson, with student-authored exhibition texts from related coursework.
- Alumni Weekend and Community Programs: Current museum exhibitions will remain on view through June, including during Alumni Weekend. While specific programming for the weekend is not finalized, Victoria expressed openness to facilitating structured walkthroughs or informal gatherings for alumni. The Museum also offers weekly student-led gallery talks on Fridays (excluding spring break and holidays).
- Opportunities for Alumni-Faculty Engagement: Alumni board members expressed interest in participating in informal campus gatherings or planning light engagement opportunities (e.g., casual meet-and-greets) with faculty. Victoria welcomed the idea, suggesting it would be meaningful for faculty to reconnect with alumni and learn about their lives post-Pomona.
Questions Raised
- Will be available during Alumni Weekend and if there were any special events planned?
- What is driving improved faculty and student engagement—whether it's a deliberate initiative or a response to external events?
- Could alumni actively participate in informal gatherings to foster connection with faculty, especially ahead of Alumni Weekend?
Action Items
- Confirm Alumni Weekend Programming: Finalize Benton Museum events and walk-throughs for the weekend and share with alumni groups.
- Explore Alumni-Faculty Engagement Opportunities: Consider creating low-lift events (e.g., coffee hours or informal meetups) for alumni to connect with faculty.
- Promote Existing Programs: Raise awareness of the Friday student-led gallery talks and other quarterly events.
- Strengthen Communication Around Campus Climate: Highlight positive developments in community cohesion through college channels when appropriate.
The Value of the Liberal Arts (cont.): In continuation from the December 2024 Alumni Board Meeting, Professor Ken Wolf discussed with the board campus happenings related to student majors and the tools used to track data trends.
- Structural Challenges and Cultural Factors: Pomona has seen a sharp shift in major selection over the past decade, with Econ and Computer Science (CS) dominating, while humanities and smaller departments decline. This has created imbalances in faculty workload, morale, and resource allocation. Pomona’s liberal arts model encourages exploration, but students often pursue perceived career-aligned paths early on.
- Hiring more faculty in popular departments is difficult, especially in CS, where industry pay outcompetes academia. The College resists becoming more vocational and is cautious about overinvesting in departments whose popularity may decline.
- Double majors and minors are common—sometimes essential for some smaller departments to have students at all. Some departments are exploring requiring students to take outside or complementary coursework to encourage interdisciplinary thinking.
- Many students, especially first-generation or low-income, face pressure to choose financially secure majors.
- Alumni Outcomes Tool: To better understand outcomes, the Alumni Outcomes tool was developed—now integrated with Sagehen Connect—to track what graduates do post-Pomona. While only advisors currently access it, it's a valuable tool for demonstrating that career success doesn’t hinge on major. There’s interest in expanding access and usage.
- Integrated with Sagehen Connect to help advisors show students real-world outcomes of various majors.
- Covers 41% of living alumni—sufficient for illustrative purposes but not for statistical generalizations.
- Internal Communications and Advising: Efforts are underway to use communications, advising, course design, and even admissions strategy to promote broader academic exploration and address systemic challenges. The Academic Affairs self-study and upcoming Communications leadership hire will influence these efforts.
- There's a focus on improved internal messaging so students continually see examples of liberal arts grads succeeding in varied fields.
- Suggestions included daily spotlights on alumni, revised scholarship criteria that reward course diversity, and second-year orientation programming.
Questions Raised:
- How are minors and double majors impacting departmental viability and student experience?
- Are departments encouraged to cross-list or design interdisciplinary courses to broaden appeal?
- Can student income background or first-gen status be linked to major selection trends?
- Are there plans to make the Alumni Outcomes tool available to students?
- How is the ID1 course program influencing students’ openness to diverse fields of study?
- What role can Admissions play in shaping a more academically exploratory student body?
- Could communications shift to better highlight alumni career pathways and demystify non-vocational majors?
Action Items:
- Expand alumni data collection to improve the scope and impact of the Alumni Outcomes tool.
- Develop communication strategies (internal and external) that reframe liberal arts majors as valid paths to diverse, successful careers.
- Encourage faculty and departments to build in outside-discipline course requirements.
- Evaluate workload distribution and morale impact within over- and under-enrolled departments.
- Involve alumni volunteers in advising, storytelling, and programming that promotes major exploration.
- Assess ID1 outcomes and their influence on long-term academic choices.
- Collect and analyze data on major selection correlated with socioeconomic background.
Alumni Weekend Overview/Roles and Responsibilities Monika Moore ’03 provided updates that focused on Alumni Board member roles, logistical updates and opportunities for improvement for the upcoming Alumni Weekend 2025.
- Overview of Alumni Board Roles: Monika outlined several key responsibilities for board members during Alumni Weekend:
- Wayfinding & Event Support: Be available around campus to answer questions and direct attendees.
- Departmental Representation: Serve as ambassadors at department and identity-based receptions (e.g. Cultural Affinity Community Mixer, CLSA Mixer, OBSA Brunch).
- Volunteer Identification: Help identify enthusiastic alumni who may be interested in future engagement.
- Real-time Feedback: Provide constructive, actionable feedback during the weekend.
2 . Major Changes to Weekend Logistics:
- No Quad Structure: Due to budget and commencement-related reasons, the large quad structure will not be installed. Smaller tents and shade solutions will be used.
- Location Shift from Merritt Field: Events will move to Stanley Quad to protect the new turf field.
- Potential for a More Open Quad: Without the structure, fencing may be reduced or removed (pending final meetings).
3. Event Structure & Programming:
- Pomona’s Alumni Office handles “core” events (e.g., Taste of Pomona, memorials, awards), while ~200 department- and program-led events are managed in collaboration with campus partners.
A new review system will flag important legacy or milestone events for added support and identify gaps where events might have been unintentionally dropped
New Business & Action Items
Alumni Weekend attendance: Monika Moore ’03 reminded the board to confirm their Alumni Weekend attendance as soon as possible. Whether a board member is attending or not, a response is required.
- Registration for Alumni Weekend will be handled by Lariza, who will process board members as volunteers and register their guests through the event system.
Adjournment: Having no further business being brought to the Board, the President Andrea Venezia ’91 adjourned the meeting at 1:00pm.
Next Alumni Board Meeting: Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 10:00am PT Richardson Garden, Pomona College
Key Dates: 2024 - 25
7/27/24 New Member Onboarding
8/10/24 Alumni Board Meeting #1
8/17/24 New Student / Family Orientation
10/18/24 Oct. Alumni Board Retreat: Senior Class/AB Mixer
10/19/24 Oct. Alumni Board Retreat: New Faculty Dinner (Faculty Award)
10/19/24 Alumni Board Meeting #2
11/1-2/24 Family Weekend 2024
12/7/24 Alumni Board Meeting #3
3/15/25 Alumni Board Meeting #4
5/1 – 5/4/25 Alumni Weekend 2025
5/4/25 Alumni Board Meeting #5
6/21/25 Alumni Board Meeting #6