Claremont McKenna College

This year's commencement ceremonies held a particularly special meaning for me. Along with the Class of 2003, I also joined Claremont McKenna College four years ago, a freshman president and a new Californian. It is a unique privilege to usher exceptional students into their college years and then launch them four years later into the company of educated men and women. We have now welcomed the Class of 2007, another outstanding cadre of leaders-in-the-making. Before we embark on another four-year journey toward another commencement day, I wish to briefly welcome and introduce the newest additions to the CMC community, and to reflect on the College's remarkable achievements of the past year.

WELCOMING OUR NEWEST ALUMNI

We are proud to welcome the 284 ambitious, smart, energetic, and competitive members of the Class of 2007, already making themselves known in Claremont. The 134 women and 150 men in the freshman class scored a median 1390 on their SATs, and nearly 83 percent were in the top 10 percent of their high school class. They are leaders in the true CMC tradition, active in student government, athletics, debate, music, drama, travel, and community service. CMC's excellent financial aid program, which enables CMC to admit all students on a need-blind basis and to meet all financial need, is critical to the College's ability to attract these outstanding students. Significantly, over 70% of the Class of 2007 received financial aid.

Additionally, joining us this year are two double-legacy students: Erin Hurley '07 and Christopher Davis '07. Erin's parents are Kathleen (Evans) '80 and Kelly Hurley '79. Coincidently, her mother, Kathleen (Evans) was the first woman to enroll at CMC when the College began admitting women in 1976. Chris' parents are Nancy (Nelson) '80 and George Davis '79. The Davis family has a special connection to Claremont; a cousin was a CMC student last year, and Chris' grandparents went to Pomona and Scripps colleges.

WELCOMING OUR NEWEST TEACHER-SCHOLARS

From its beginning, Claremont McKenna College's faculty has espoused the highest standards of the teacher-scholar ideal. Consistent with the goals articulated in the Strategic Plan, the College undertook 13 faculty searches to replace retiring faculty, begin converting visiting faculty to tenure-track appointments, and achieve modest faculty growth. These new members of the faculty are accomplished and distinguished individuals in the areas of economics, government, history, psychology, modern languages, and the sciences:

• Jay Conger, a renowned expert on leadership and organizational behavior, will hold the inaugural Kravis Research Chair in Leadership Studies. Joining CMC from the London Business School, where he was a professor of organizational behavior, Conger is a senior research scientist at USC's Center for Effective Organization. He is past chairman and executive director of the Leadership Institute at USC's Marshall School of Business, and earned a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Harvard University. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 scholarly articles and ten books, including Shared Leadership; Reframing the How's and Why's of Leading Others; and the Leader's Change Handbook.



• Brock Blomberg, associate professor of economics, will lead the economics curriculum of the Politics, Philosophy and Economics program. He was a senior economist on The Council of Economic Advisers and joins CMC from Wellesley College, where he taught macroeconomic theory, advanced econometrics, and economics and politics. He earned his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University and has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Tufts University, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Blomberg has published extensively and is currently researching the economic model of global terrorism, and the relationship between political variables and exchange rate movement.



• Lisa Meulbroek, the Fritz B. Burns Chair in Financial Economics, received a Ph.D. in applied economics, with concentrations in finance and industrial organization, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Additionally, she was a member of the Harvard Business School faculty for 11 years, with concentration in advanced corporate finance. She has published and presented extensively, and was a senior research scholar at the Securities and Exchange Commission and an associate at Goldman Sachs, as well as The Boston Consulting Group.



• Joshua Rosett, an associate professor of economics and who will teach in our accounting program, has been on the faculty of Tulane University since 1998 and also taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, the U.S. Business School in Prague, and Southern Methodist University. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University, with expertise in the areas of financial reporting, measurement of intangible assets, and corporate governance and control. He has published extensively and is currently researching advertising, market share and investment for Internet firms. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.



• Kenneth Miller, a 1985 cum laude graduate of Pomona College, returns to Claremont as assistant professor of government. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He joins CMC from the University of San Francisco, where he taught public policy. As a lawyer, he is co-founder of the Sacramento office of Morrison & Foerster, LLP. Dr. Miller served two years as administrator of the John Gardner Public Service Fellowship Program jointly operated by Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also moot court and judicial council advisor, and was an intern in the office of Congressman David Dreier '75, Trustee.



• Arash Khazeni, assistant professor of history, is a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, with his dissertation on the economy of oil in southwestern Iran. Prior to joining the CMC faculty, he was a teaching fellow at Yale in the modern Middle East and Central Asia, the anthropology of Iran, and modern South Asia. He has served as a translator at Yale and for the Refugee Ministry of New Haven, and he speaks five languages, including Arabic, Persian, and Spanish. He has presented papers at the Middle East Studies Association and was awarded a research grant from the Council on Middle East Studies.



• Kristina Sessa, assistant professor of history, received her Ph.D. in ancient and medieval history from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was an instructor in the department of history. A magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University, her focus of study includes Roman and Medieval history, and her dissertation examines Anecdote and Authority: Roman Episcopal Biography in its Late Antique Context. She also taught the history of Western philosophy at San Quentin State Penitentiary. She speaks six languages, and served as editor of Critical Sense: A Journal of Critical and Political Theory, University of California, Berkeley.



• Alison Paris, assistant professor of psychology, is a graduate of Dartmouth College and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan with dissertation research on the benefit of early intervention in children's reading and comprehension skills. Her interests include cognitive development, learning and motivation, developmental psychology, child development, and educational psychology.



• Tobias Gregory, assistant professor of literature, is an expert in 16th and 17th century literature and the history of English literature. He was on the faculty of California State University, Northridge, for four years, and earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Dr. Gregory has presented papers and lectures at the University of Texas, the Huntington Library, the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival, and the Renaissance Conference of Southern California, of which he is president. Additionally, he has received numerous awards, including a Mellon/ACLS Junior Faculty Fellowship, Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship, and the Isabel MacCaffrey Prize awarded by the Spenser Society.



• Delia Greth, assistant professor of Spanish, earned her Ph.D. in second language acquisition and teaching from the University of Arizona, where she also earned bachelors and masters degrees in psychology and Hispanic linguistics. While in Arizona, she coordinated the Heritage Speaker Program and received numerous awards, including the Alma de la Gente academic scholarship for Mexican-American women.



• Minju Kim, assistant professor of Korean, received a Ph.D. in Korean linguistics and East Asian languages and cultures at UCLA, with her dissertation on the Grammaticalization of the Korean Existential Verb Issta. She is also a graduate of Yonsei University, Seoul, where she earned a bachelor's degree in German language and literature, and a master's degree in Korean studies.

Science and technology have proven essential disciplines in economic progress, as well as advancements in many areas, such as healthcare, environmental management, and national security. To support these increasingly vital and vigorous fields of study, we have added two new faculty members in the Joint Science department:

• Jennifer Armstrong, assistant professor of biology, earned a Ph.D. in biology from the University of California, San Diego, and is a graduate of New Mexico State University. She joins us from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she has taught for the past four years. A molecular cell biologist, she is conducting fruit fly research on cell differentiation, described by Professor David Sadava as the "frontier of modern biology." Her publications include Molecular Cell, Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, Journal of Experimental Botany, and Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology.



• Scott Williams, a 1995 Harvey Mudd alumnus, returns to Claremont as assistant professor of chemistry. He earned a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Washington, and is completing his postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, researching the thermodynamics and mechanisms of polar substituted alkenes. He has published in numerous journals, including the Journal of the American Chemical Society, and has presented papers in China, The Netherlands, and at three annual meetings of the American Chemical Society.

We are also involved in the five-college search to fill a new shared chair, the William R. Kenan Chair in Computational Neuroscience. This intensely interdisciplinary field examines the relationship between the activity of individual neurons and the brain itself, with implications in departments such as psychology, philosophy, and biology. Studies encompass brain trauma recovery, learning and memory, manic depression, and Alzheimer's.

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

Pursuant to the Strategic Plan, last year the faculty initiated a targeted curriculum review that is focused on developing recommendations to strengthen CMC's distinctive academic program. The curriculum review has so far addressed the following issues:

• Strengthening science and math requirements as soon as the Joint Science Department has adequate staffing to support an expanded curriculum;
• Developing recommendations to improve the effectiveness of CMC's general education requirements and majors system;
• Developing recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the senior thesis; and
• Implementing standards for information technology "fluency" to ensure that every CMC graduate has broad computer competence.

Beyond these planning efforts, our faculty continually strives to develop their course offerings and advance the mission of the College. Two of many examples include:

• Professor Robert Faggen's Gould Center seminar course on the role of public intellectuals in American society. Guest speakers included Paul Krassner, firebrand counter cultural satirist; Herbert F. York, nuclear physicist and founder of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory; and Louis Menand, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Metaphysical Club.



• An excellent speaker series from P. Edward Haley, the W.M. Keck Foundation Chair of International Strategic Studies, complementing his seminar course on The United States, Israel, and the Arabs. Speakers included Kanan Makiya, Iraqi opposition leader; Meron Benvenisti, former mayor of Jerusalem; William Quandt, vice provost, the University of Virginia; and Lee Hamilton, a 34-year leader in Congress and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

A HEIGHTENED GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Today's sweeping global changes have created an even more interdependent world. Everything from communications, financial investments and commerce, to politics, science, and technology, must now be viewed not only in an American, but also a global, context.

In response to these challenges and as discussed in the Strategic Plan, the College has strengthened its globalization focus. In 2002-2003, CMC and Pitzer College completed the first of a four-year Freeman Foundation grant to develop a program in Asian political economy. As part of this program, two distinguished visiting scholars were on our campus: David Lambertson, former U.S. ambassador to Thailand, and Chong-Wook Chung, former senior secretary for foreign policy and national security in the office of the president of the Republic of Korea, and his nation's first ambassador to the People's Republic of China.

Last spring we were also pleased to host the 2003 Podlich Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Michael Berenbaum. A renowned and eloquent scholar and leader, Dr. Berenbaum is the former director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and former director of Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation.

As the world around us continues to change, the College evolves to meet the needs of educating tomorrow's global leaders. Examples of new classes developed last spring for the 2003-04 academic year reflect this commitment:

• Economics of Population examines demographic changes in both industrialized and developing nations through an economic perspective.



• International Security in South Asia, introduces students to the security environment of South Asia and the impact of nuclear proliferation.



• God and Money, Religion and Violence, and Religious Autobiography and the Quest for Self-Knowledge, three new courses in Philosophy and Religious Studies, focus on the role of affluence in shaping moral and religious values, as well as the personal quest for meaning and its relationship to images, ideas, and institutions.

PIONEERING TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES

Without a doubt, information technology impacts the ways in which students will learn, as well as their performance beyond CMC. Over the last several years, the College has made substantial investments in infrastructure and associated information technology personnel, and this remains a key initiative. Led by Professor Cynthia Humes, Associate Dean for Academic Computing, CMC is pursuing two major grant-based initiatives: one from the Mellon Foundation, and one from the Atlantic Philanthropies. Under the Mellon program, CMC heads a very well received program to coordinate technology training and support across The Claremont Colleges. Demand for the workshops and services offered through this program have been strong, and participants report great satisfaction with the offerings. Through the Atlantic Philanthropies grant, CMC has begun implementing a technology fluency initiative, which will teach technology skills across the curriculum.

The teaching facilities of the college have also been augmented by these technology initiatives. This year, the Fletcher Jones classroom was rebuilt with new workstations; additionally, the audio-visual systems in all Roberts North classrooms were updated. Each classroom in the Roberts North building now hosts a dedicated computer in the lectern, eliminating the need for faculty to reserve laptops in advance.

RESEARCH INSTITUTES:
PROMOTING VIBRANT PROGRAMS AND CURRICULUM ENRICHMENT

A hallmark of the Claremont McKenna College experience is the important role of our research institutes, which allow our students to work closely with faculty scholars across a broad range of interests. As approved last spring by the Board of Trustees, the College has launched its tenth institute, The Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights. Founded and led by Professors John Roth, the Edward J. Sexton Professor of Philosophy, and Jonathan Petropoulos, the John V. Croul Professor of European History, the Center will provide an important leadership voice in this rapidly evolving field of scholarship.

The study of the Holocaust has been part of the CMC curriculum for nearly 30 years, placing the College among the forerunners in these rapidly emerging fields of study. Central to the mission of educating future leaders is instilling our students with the knowledge and compassion necessary to interpret and succeed within a world rife with cultural and spiritual conflict, terrorism, and human rights violations. Although focusing primarily on study of the Holocaust and genocide, the Center's intellectual range will also include recent discussion and human rights legislation developed in response to the Holocaust. In the CMC institute tradition, the Center will engage students by supporting undergraduate research and internships, and involving students in graduate-level scholarship.

Since the founding of its first institute nearly 35 years ago, the extent of the programming offered by CMC's institutes remains virtually unparalleled among liberal arts colleges. Highlights include:

• The Kravis Leadership Institute, together with the Berger Institute for Work, Family and Children, hosted the 13th annual Kravis-de Roulet Conference, examining the efficacy of work/life corporate policies, and perspectives on work and family life.



• The Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies and the European Union Center of California sponsored a two-day conference on Evaluating Success and Failure in Postcommunist Reform.



• The Gould Center's spring seminar, Democracy and Art, featured a wide range of speakers, field trips and other special events.



• The Lowe Institute of Political Economy hosted an international panel examining The Macroeconomics of Low Inflation and the Prospects for Global Deflation. The Institute also hosted Paul Volcker, who delivered the annual McKenna Lecture on International Trade and Economics.



• The Reed Institute of Decision Science co-sponsored two conferences with the Southern California Chapter of the American Statistical Association last October and November. The Institute also originated a student-faculty colloquium, Probability and Statistics, with Pomona College. In other welcoming news, Director Janet Myhre, the Dengler-Dykema Professor of Mathematics and Mathematical Economics, was elected president of the Southern California Chapter of the American Statistical Association, effective fall 2003.



• The Roberts Environmental Center recently involved 12 students in EEP clinics, analyzing corporate environmental and sustainability reports; employed four students--three during the academic year, and one in the summer; and supported seven students with summer internships. The Center also gained visibility in the corporate world, analyzing 170 corporate environmental and sustainability reports from the Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500, and posting the results to a new REC Web site, a major work product of the Center's research. On campus, the Center sponsored five speakers at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, and last year negotiated a $60,000, five-year grant from the U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, to study the efficacy of reseeding following forest fires.



• The College's first institute, founded in 1969, the Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World, examined American Citizenship in the Age of Multicultural Immigration in a three-day conference co-sponsored with the Claremont Institute.



• The Rose Institute for State and Local Government hosted its annual conference on California's water challenges, and also made news by teaming with the prestigious Kosmont group for the new Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business survey.

THE IRAQ WAR: PROVIDING A FORUM FOR SHARING VIEWS

This year saw world events pushing into the classroom experience, with students and faculty delving into vigorous examination of global issues and domestic policy. In addition to classroom discussion, the war in Iraq was the focus of several campus events, including:

• Symposium on the War in Iraq, a faculty panel discussion and forum led by William Ascher, vice president and dean of the faculty and the Donald C. McKenna Professor of Government and Economics;
• The Consequences of War in Iraq, a faculty-student panel sponsored by the Claremont Independent and the CMC Peace Coalition;
• US Foreign Policy: Iraq and Beyond, an open forum moderated by Professor Edward Haley;
• The UN's Relevance in a Post-9/11 World, a lecture by Robert Orr, senior fellow, Center for Strategic and International Studies; and
• Dissenting Views on the War in Iraq, a panel discussion with Donal O'Sullivan, visiting lecturer in history, and faculty from the Claremont Graduate University and Pomona College.

In addition, throughout the Mid-East turmoil, International Place continued its important work in providing a gathering place for all students to discuss world issues. A highlight of I-Place programming, the popular International Festival celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, with record numbers of volunteers and visitors from throughout the community. I-Place also plans special events, field trips, and programming with local sponsor families, as well as the popular Thursday Lunch and Conversation series, with topics including U.S. policy toward Korea, Japan's financial crisis, and the war in Iraq.

OFF-CAMPUS STUDY PROGRAM ENRICHES OPPORTUNITIES

The opportunity to study off-campus continues to be a vibrant hallmark of a CMC education. Over the past five years, participation by our students in the international educational experience is stronger than ever, with opportunities to study in 43 nations - from Botswana to the United Kingdom. Consistent with our mission to prepare future leaders, CMC's Washington Program remains a key element of the total educational experience for many of our students. Now in its 33rd year and considered an "elder statesman" among educational opportunities in our nation's capital, the Washington Program combines full-time internships with classes designed to complement serious discussion of contemporary political issues. The Program places our students squarely in the center of the political and government experience, with internships in the U.S. Department of State, the White House, legislature and congressional offices, advocacy groups, foreign policy institutes and think-tanks, ranging from the United Nations Development Program, to the Kennedy Center.

AT THE ATH

A distinguishing characteristic of CMC is the vibrant extracurricular programming that strengthens the classroom experience. The Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum continues to engage CMCers just as it did when its doors first opened two decades ago, providing a facility to enhance the College's already successful guest speaker programming. Alumni around the world invariably recall with fondness the many events at the Ath. Later this year, we look forward with special pleasure to commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum.

Last year's Athenaeum speakers included:

• Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours
• Il SaKong, former finance minister of the Republic of Korea
• Dr. Nafis Sadik, UN special envoy and former director, UN Population Fund
• David Brooks, Weekly Standard senior editor, on The Suburbs and American Politics
• Gary Comstock, renowned ethicist, on the case against agricultural biotechnology
• Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell — just days after winning the 2003 Pulitzer Prize.

Other special campus guests included award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee, whose CMC-sponsored lecture at Bridges Auditorium drew a crowd of more than 2,200; and two outstanding Res Publica Speaker Series guests, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, visiting on election day 2002, and Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, who discussed ethical globalization.

BRINGING LEADERS BACK TO THE CAMPUS

The UNOVA President's Leaders Forum is a student-centered program that brings distinguished alumni and friends of the College back to campus. In 2002-03, Leaders Forum participants included Trustees Thomas Leppert '77, Turner Corporation chairman and CEO; Robert Lowe '62, Lowe Enterprises chairman and CEO, with his spouse, Beth Lowe, a noted community volunteer; and Gary Biszantz '56, president and owner of Cobra Farm and chairman of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association, with his daughter, Suzanne Biszantz, president of Reebok's Greg Norman Collection; past Trustee Alison Winter P'02, division president of the Northern Trust Corporation; Stephen McGruder '65, partner, Lord, Abbett & Company, with his spouse, literary critic Angeline Goreau; and Vincent Cheng, chairman and CEO of Hang Seng Bank, and his spouse, Mariana, who is active in major nonprofit organizations, including the Medical Council of Hong Kong, and parents of Simone Cheng, Class of '06.

This vibrant and important program provides informal interaction both in and out of the classroom setting, and is a highlight of our academic year. We look forward to welcoming another diverse cadre of outstanding leaders to campus with this year's program.

OUTSTANDING STUDENTS EXCEL

Given the many opportunities for intellectual exploration and discussion, it is not surprising that, year after year, our students excel, explore, and lead. We bid farewell to the Class of 2003, whose achievements in the last academic year included:

• National awards for three members of the Class of 2003, with Elise Kim and Joy Nakama named Fulbright Scholars, and Alexis Orton a Junior Fellow of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
• A strong third place national finish for the Debate Union, in competition against 287 teams in the National Parliamentary Debate Association national championship tournament. This continues the team's strong record of excellence following the previous year's first-place finish.
• Raza Ahmad '04, from Islamabad, Pakistan, starred in his own play, and plans to return to his country with a theater and literature degree with leadership sequence, using the stage as a medium for social change.
• Several CMCers, lead by Graham Tharp '05 and Jeff Simonetti '05 created the new Claremont Colleges Auto Enthusiasts Club. This fast-paced program combines an entrepreneurial spirit with a love of automobiles and projects bringing students and alumni together through mutual interests. The group organized a successful inaugural Claremont Concours on campus this spring.
• Holding true to interest in the world around them, CMC students rolled up their sleeves and participated in a wide range of community service internships, with programs including Habitat for Humanity, Little League, Mt. Baldy trail conservation, and assistance to senior citizens.

On the playing field, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletes again distinguished themselves in a range of sports, bringing home the SCIAC All-Sports Trophy for the 11th consecutive year. Highlights include:

• The debut of women's lacrosse as a CMS varsity team after two decades as a club sport. The Athenas took the field with an impressive attitude and a 10-3 inaugural season.
• Stags track and field won their 12th straight SCIAC conference title, with the Athenas finishing a strong second.
• Bearing out the season-long motto of "champions in training," Athenas swimmers won the SCIAC championship, their first since 1999 and their fifth in CMS history.
• The Athenas soccer team had an excellent season, finishing as SCIAC champions.
• Men's football opened the season with a stirring 7-0 record, the best start in Stags history, finishing with an excellent 7-2 overall record and second place in SCIAC.

FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS

In addition to their teaching excellence, the scholarship and professional achievements of our faculty reflect the intellectual vitality of CMC, and the College's continued impact on public policy issues. This year, a number of our faculty were recognized for their outstanding contributions to their respective fields, including:

• Edward Haley, the W.M. Keck Foundation Professor of International Strategic Studies, was appointed a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He will be in residence there for the spring semester, where he will also complete his new book on post-Cold War American diplomatic strategy.



• Diane Halpern, professor of psychology and director of the Berger Institute for Work, Family and Children, was elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA). With more than 155,000 members, the APA is one of the largest and oldest professional organizations in the world, and election of its president from within a liberal arts college is virtually unprecedented. Her term begins in January.



• Eric Helland, associate professor of economics, will serve this year as a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers.



• Lisa Cody, assistant professor of history, received a contract from Oxford University Press for her first book, The Birth of Nation: The Conception of Britain in the 18th Century.



• Jay Martin, the Edward S. Gould Professor of Humanities, completed his 21st book, The Education of John Dewey, published by Columbia University Press.



• Emil Morhardt, the Roberts Professor of Environmental Biology and director of the Roberts Environmental Center, edited Clean, Green & Read All Over: Ten Rules for Corporate Environmental and Sustainability Reporting.



• Ralph Rossum, the Salvatori Professor of Political Philosophy and American Constitutionalism and director of the Rose Institute for State and Local Government, was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige to the board of directors of the Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education.



• John Roth, the Edward J. Sexton Professor of Philosophy, was appointed to the board of directors of the California Council for the Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

In the College's Strategic Plan, we identified the need to upgrade some facilities, as well as identify plans for new construction. The dedication in October 2003 of our new North Quad renovation and expansion will cap a busy summer of construction. The North Quad project provides much-needed additional living quarters, as well an overall improved residential experience. We continue to move toward Phase I of a new Athletic and Recreation Center, with an anticipated start in May 2004, pending final approval by the Board of Trustees. The new facility will provide gymnasium and fitness space, and is possible through a lead donation from Trustee Gary Biszantz '56. Construction begins this fall on a new building on Claremont Boulevard for advancement staff offices, and Collins Dining Hall dining areas will undergo renovation in the summer. We are also beginning discussion on a proposed new campus center. Torrey Sun, vice president for student affairs, leads the committee, which includes students, staff, faculty, and trustees.

ALUMNI AND FRIENDS: ENHANCING THE CMC COMMUNITY

From the Pacesetters of our first graduating classes, to newly minted alumni making their presence known around the world, our alumni play a huge role in the life and vibrancy of the College. The CMC Alumni Association (CMCAA) completed another outstanding year, with programming ranging from chapter events to a Galapagos adventure. The excellent leadership of last year's CMCAA President Lorraine Bains '88 was reflected in the many successes of the association's 19 chapters. Major CMCAA events were held in New York, Sacramento, San Francisco, Denver, and Warsaw, Poland, with Euromeet XV organized by Heather Callender-Potters '87 and Kunal Khemka '99. And under Leonard Co '03, a new chapter took root in Japan. In 2003, Bains, the first woman to lead CMCAA, passed the gavel to another outstanding alumna, Gigi Birchfield '82, whose term promises to be equally productive and successful.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

We are delighted to welcome to the Board of Trustees five new members:

• Julie Spellman '89, has become the first alumna elected as a regular member of the Board. She is a graduate of Columbia Law School and a partner in the New York law firm Cravath Swaine & Moore;



• James McElwee '74, joins the Board of Trustees as a regular trustee. A graduate of the Wharton School, he is general partner of Weston Presidio Capital, and currently serves as national chair of the CMC Alumni Fund;



• Robert Poy '90, CMCAA president in 1998-99, for a three-year term as alumnus trustee;



• CMCAA president Gigi Birchfield '82 for a one-year term as an ex-officio member; and



• Parents Club president Hilda Kassardjian P'04 for a one-year term as an ex-officio member.

We also wish to recognize and thank our departing Trustees for meritorious service to the College:

• Lorraine Bains '88, completed a one-year term as CMCAA president and ex-officio member of the Board, serving on three committees, including the Executive Committee;



• Bruce Bean '67, joined the Board in 1987, serving on three committees, Academic Affairs, Building and Grounds, and Research Institutes. He is president of Tartan Transportation/Delta Waseca, Inc.;



• Don Henriksen, who joined the Board of Trustees in 1981, has a long history at the College. As vice president for research from 1987-1992, he guided the establishment of three institutes, the Lowe Institute of Political Economy, the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies and the Roberts Environmental Center. He has also served on several key committees as well as the boards of four CMC research institutes and the CMC magazine Editorial Board.



• Robert Long '60, P'94, '02, who joined the Board in 1997, served on four committees and provided additional guidance on the Strategic Planning Committee on Information Technology;



• David Mgrublian '82, past president of CMCAA, completed his three-year term as an alumnus Trustee, serving on four committees as well as the Land Planning Committee of the Claremont University Consortium;



• Patti Meyers P'03, completed her one-year term as Parents Club president 2002-03 and ex-officio member, serving on two committees;



• Alison Winter P'02, a division president of Northern Trust Corporation, departs the Board after a three-year term serving on the Budget and Audit, College Advancement and Student Affairs committees.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Despite a challenging environment, we again finished the year with an excess of revenues over expenses, reflecting the dedication of all departments to careful and thoughtful financial management. These results include, of course, our continued commitment to key principles of the College, including fulfilling need-blind admission and meeting all need.

Last year's decline in the equities markets and the resulting impact on endowments have been issues of great concern to colleges and universities of every size and stature, across the nation. As the market began to decline in 2001, the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees began a review of its guidelines for the College investment portfolio. Their actions also included a number of steps, including revising the equities orientation of the portfolio to over-weight value over growth; replacing the three growth equity managers; significantly reducing asset allocation ranges; and adding a new yield-oriented investment portfolio to reduce volatility.

For the first time in three years, CMC's endowment ended the year in positive territory of 1.36%, or 111 basis points above the S&P 500 index for the year ending June 30, 2003. This is 193 basis points ahead of the Dow Jones index of negative 0.57 for the same period.

In addition, the College's fund-raising efforts exceeded slightly the $17 million goal. This is particularly impressive given the profound impact of recent economic challenges on charitable giving overall. We have also filled several important development staff positions approved last year by the Board of Trustees, and look forward to another strong year from the advancement team.

The College also received several key gifts in 2002-2003 that support a number of priorities identified in the Strategic Plan, including:

• Two new endowed chairs in the Department of History, gifts of John V. Croul'49, and Linda and Abbott Brown P'00;



• Operating funds to support the launch of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, from AnneMerie Donoghue and Leigh Crawford '94;



• $1.2 million in trustee pledges toward the College's most important current capital projects, Phase I of the Athletic and Recreation Center, and the North Quad expansion;



• An endowment to fund fellowship awards and related grants in the form of financial aid, merit awards, or preferential packaging for upper-level students interested in careers involving asset management and investment management, a gift of Michael Larson '80; and



• A $700,000 grant from the Irvine Foundation to primarily support the College's efforts to recruit a more diverse faculty.

HONORING OUR PAST

As we pause to note the many achievements of our students, faculty, and staff, we also remember the many contributions of past generations to the CMC community. This year, two of our esteemed professors, Gordon Bjork and Steve Smith, retired after a combined seven decades at CMC. Professor Bjork is a Rhodes Scholar and former college president whose zest for teaching resulted in co-founding CMC's Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Program with Ward Elliott, the Burnet C. Wohlford Professor of American Political Instutions. He also developed the legendary course, Theory and Practice of Commercial Banking, better known as Bank Sim. Based on a seminar Professor Bjork originally created for the California Banker's Association, the course simulates realistic banking operations. Professor Smith's course, Theories of the Good Life, is equally regarded among CMCers. Known as a capstone educational experience, it was described by one colleague as the most pragmatic and goal-oriented class in the CMC curriculum. We are grateful for Professor Bjork and Professor Smith for many years of passionate commitment to their colleagues, our students, and the greater community.

In 2003, we sadly lost two remarkable and unforgettable members of the CMC family with the deaths of Orme Phelps and Harold McClelland, both distinguished professors emeriti of economics and former deans of the faculty. Orme Phelps, a guiding intellectual leader, touched the lives of CMC students during seven decades as a revered member of our community. The son of a Civil War veteran, he was a rising star at the University of Chicago when he joined Claremont Men's College in 1947, one of the original faculty members hired by President George C.S. Benson. Harold McClelland, who earned his doctorate from Harvard University, joined the College in 1958. During a 1995 student interview, Professor McClelland described CMC as "one of the major success stories, if not the preeminent success story, in higher education during the past half-century." This splendid and apt description owes so much to those early faculty members, and colleagues who later joined them. Their contributions to the College were many, and Professors Phelps and McClelland will be missed.

In a time of a recall election, volatile economies, and unpredictable events in the world, the coming months will undoubtedly bring both challenge and opportunity to all of us at CMC. I look forward to working with our splendid faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends toward another memorable and rewarding year.