LEADERSHIP

Dean Gary Kates

Gary Kates, professor of history and interim dean of arts and humanities at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, became the new vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college, succeeding Dean Hans Palmer, who returned to the economics department after his three-year tenure as dean.

CAMPUS

Brackett Observatory Renovated

In 2001, Brackett Observatory was completely renovated in a $300,000 project that included a new wing, doubling the size of the classroom and adding an office for an astronomy technician. The campaign also included the installation of one of the College’s two robotic 14-inch computer-controlled telescopes, which joined a Coronado Instruments Helios solar telescope and a historic (1908) horizontal solar telescope still in working condition. Between 2001 and 2003, a grant known as the “Astronomical Computing Initiative” supported the upgrade of computers and multimedia equipment with the result that Pomona now enjoys a modern facility on campus that is used by students as well as by visiting school and community groups as part of the College’s outreach effort.

Seaver Laboratory for Chemistry

In 2000 and 2001, the 60,000-square foot building fondly known as Seaver North (officially Seaver Laboratory for Chemistry) was gutted, seismically strengthened and rebuilt from the inside out as a state-of-the-art facility for the teaching of chemistry.

The Hill Memorial Organ

More than a decade in the making, the Hill Memorial Organ—known to its designers as C.B. Fisk Opus 117—was installed and dedicated with its first public concert. The custom-built organ, situated high in the newly renovated Bridges Hall of Music behind a massive façade of mahogany, included three keyboards and 3,519 pipes in 66 ranks and was funded by gifts from the late John Hill ’22 and Eugene Hill ’26.

Museum of Art

Effective July 1, Pomona’s Montgomery Gallery changed its name to the Pomona College Museum of Art.

More Power Outages

In January 2001, overloads to the power grid in Southern California continued to cause the electricity to be cut off to The Claremont Colleges, sometimes for a full day at a time. Within a few weeks, however, Pomona was able to purchase and bring online two large, environmentally clean generators capable of supplying power to Pomona’s entire campus during outages. The cost to the College of utility fines and generators during 2000-2001 totaled about $1 million.

ACADEMICS

Linguistics and Cognitive Science

Pomona reconstituted its Department of Linguistics as a new Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science.

Professor of the Year 2

Psychology Professor Nicole Weekes was named the 2001 California Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the second of three such honors to be earned by Pomona faculty in consecutive years.

STUDENT LIFE

Student Band Wins National Competition

A Pomona College band, The Wash, won the "New Voice of 2001" award in the national Pantene Pro-Voice music competition. The band, comprised of Libbie Schrader '01, Jason Mandell '01, Nick May '01, Dean of Campus Life Matt Taylor, and Katie McIntosh SC '01, performed in New York's Central Park at a concert that also included a performance by Jewel. The band bested more than 1,200 other contestants to win a "demo" recording contract, a $10,000 endowment to the high-school music department of their choice, a new car, and the spot as an opening act on a national concert tour. The band rechristened itself Think of England and toured 22 cities with POE.

CONSORTIUM

The BFS Battle

In the face of a campaign to preserve the Bernard Field Station, about 86 acres of native habitat belonging to the Claremont University Consortium and Harvey Mudd College, just north of Foothill Boulevard, that had been used as a biological field station by the Colleges for many years, Keck Graduate Institute deferred its plans to build its new campus on 11.4 acres of the property that had been assigned to it by CUC. The debate over the future of the BFS, however, would continue indefinitely, with consortium officials maintaining that the field station usage was always intended to be temporary and BFS advocates arguing that the facility was irreplaceable and should be made permanent.

ELSEWHERE

• Wikipedia was launched as a free, crowd-sourced encyclopedia on the Internet.
• Both World Trade Center buildings were destroyed and nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
• Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.