CAMPUS

Pauley Tennis Renovation

The Pauley Tennis Complex underwent the most extensive renovation in its 20-year history in the summer of 2010. The eight courts of the complex, built in 1990, received new nets, posts and fencing; the courts were resurfaced; and new state-of-the-art lighting was installed, allowing night-time practices and matches on all courts. (Previously, students would have to request absences from class to compete in weekday matches.) In addition, new viewing benches were added, as well as upgraded lighting on the pathway between the lower courts and the running track, and a new smart training classroom was added, giving tennis, soccer and track and field teams the ability to meet, as well as record and view their practices, games, meets and matches. The renovations were proposed to the College community via a fundraising challenge offered by Ned '82 and Christine Shadek. The Shadeks offered a $200,000 challenge, promising to match gift dollar for dollar up to that amount. Sixty donors from the Pomona-Pitzer tennis community rose to meet the challenge. The College also set aside an additional $250,000 to complete the upgrades.

Tolling 47

Thanks to a unanimous vote of the Associate Students of Pomona College, the Smith Memorial Tower began tolling the hour for the first time in a decade, but with a unique touch—the chimes tolled Monday through Friday on the 47th minute of each hour between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. For many years after the tower was built in 1961, the 2,350-pound replica of the Liberty Bell that it held tolled hourly from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. In 1999, an electronic carillon added, but when the hourly chimes resumed in 2000, students complained and the chimes were disconnected. In November, the ASPC voted to restart the bells with their eccentric timing to celebrate Pomona’s love of the number 47.

ACADEMICS

"Circulus"

Art major Sam Starr '10 built a 50-foot-wide mini-velodrome inside the decommissioned Mudd Science Library as his senior art project (titled "Circulus").

Art After Hours

The Pomona College Museum of Art introduced a new program called Art After Hours, with the museum opening on Thursday nights from 5 to 11 p.m. to feature lectures, panels, workshops, concerts, film screenings and other opportunities for students to get involved, in conjunction with museum exhibitions. 

FINANCES

Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds

The College, led by President David Oxtoby, publicly launched Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds to raise a minimum of $250 million. At its October launch, the effort had already raised total of $120.8 million in gifts and pledges. The five-year campaign, with the theme of “Daring Minds,” was to focus on raising funds for four main areas: endowed scholarship aid, enhancing teaching and learning, improving critical facilities, and expanding the Annual Fund.

STUDENT LIFE

Sustainable Dining

Led by 2010 Pomona graduate Samantha Meyer, who was hired as the College’s first sustainable food coordinator, Pomona College’s dining halls implemented a number of changes to their food purchasing and trash disposal systems in an effort to make the College's food services more sustainable. The purpose was to purchase more ethical and healthier food, reduce usage of disposables and increase recycling and composting. Among other things, the dining service increased vegetarian, gluten-free and organic options, switched to fair-trade organic coffee, and revamped the system for composting scraps.

Energy Month

In November, Pomona College students joined in the 2010 Claremont Colleges Power Down Challenge, pledging to reduce their personal energy usage during Energy Month. Dorms competed against dorms to save the most energy, and Pomona competed against Harvey Mudd and Claremont McKenna. All told, almost 40% of students took part. The results, released the following January, were that Pomona won the challenge with an average 10.5% energy reduction in the dorms, edging out HMC, which had a 10.2% decrease. In the competition of individual dorms, HMC's West Dorm took top honors with a 24.6% reduction. Oldenborg Center topped all Pomona residence halls with savings of 23.4%, for which the Oldenborg residents won a Donut Man party and the opportunity to choose which sustainability project would receive $6,000 in special funding from the College. As part of Energy Month, 177 Pomona students also signed a "no-impact pledge," requiring them to completely unplug their room from the grid for one week.

ATHLETICS

Lacrosse Stand-out

Martha Marich ’12 led the nation in scoring with a total of 113 goals for the women’s lacrosse team.

EVENTS

"Says You!"

A live taping of the syndicated radio quiz show "Says You!" drew more than 1,000 people to Claremont's Bridges Auditorium on a Saturday afternoon in February.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor

Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor spoke at Bridges Auditorium Tuesday as part of the Pomona College Distinguished Speaker Series.

ELSEWHERE

• The Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund agreed to a bailout package for Greece totaling 110 billion euros.
• Wikileaks released over 90,000 internal reports about the War in Afghanistan and more than 250,000 American diplomatic cables.
• Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute reportedly created a functional synthetic genome.