SoCal Minds

A novel dorm-cleaning idea boosts Haiti temblor relief

From Claremont McKenna

For anyone who has witnessed the ghastly piles in which teenagers and collegians, especially, can so happily dwell in absolute porcine pleasure, here's a nothing less than miraculous tale of resource resurrection in which dross magically turns into disaster relief. How? In Claremont, the Good Samaritans turned to a burgeoning business bunch known as the Institution Recycling Network, deciding to turn a sort of good thing into an even better one to benefit especially the quake-ravaged residents in Haiti. IRN already had worked with schools in the consortium to ensure that an array of students' sudden, end-of-year offal -- everything from furniture, toiletries, rugs, small appliances, clothing and books -- didn't just hit the dorm dumpsters but got sorted, cleaned up, recycled and reused to benefit the planet's poor. To make an even greater impact, however, the school set up a giant trailer as a central campus dump, er, drop off point for students (as seen in school photo at right). And it worked. Big time. With eight tons of now surplus, recycled, reusable materials heading to a target of especially needy Haiti, and not, as is often the case with IRN aid, to the poor across Africa, and in Nicaragua, Guyana and Jamaica.

In Claremont, students' end-of-year cast-offs convert into needed, disaster relief

L.A. chats on green investing, monopolies, hospital design

 From Claremont McKenna, ALOUD & Zocalo

Let it never be said that Southern California's not a prime spot for appearances by the chattering classes, many of whom are zooming in and out of the area as the fall speaker season ramps up. In Claremont, a top GOP operative will make a Monday stop to talk about how some of the world's big money movers -- the investment firm of Kolberg, Kravis, in this case -- can help make the planet a better place by putting up green, environmentally conscious portfolios. Sounds interesting on its face as a topic. But wonder, too, if KKR global affairs chief Ken Mehlman (shown at right) will veer from what could be a carefully scripted presentation to deal also with timely events that have thrust this onetime top Bush adviser into a different spotlight -- his recent public disclosure that he is gay and his reported internal, political opposition to an especially divisive, corrosive and successful conservative strategy of attacking LGBT people and causes, especially 'gay marriage.' And while Wall Street ostensibly concerns itself solely with matters green, no less than a Gray Lady scribe recently took off from Mehlman's joining of KKR to tackle 'pink' problems -- of the past? -- evidenced on the Street.

In Claremont, former top Bush aide takes on how Wall Street can make the world greener

An NYT blog post on Ken Mehlman, coming out on Wall Street

In the early part of the week, experts also will consider on Tuesday how design can affect health, particularly in the planning and execution of medical facilities, especially hospitals. Novelist Mona Simpson (shown in photo at right) will chat about the curios of Hollywood life, as captured in her fine tomes and otherwise, with writer Michelle Huneven. And on Wednesday, Barry C. Lynn, an economist and journalist, advances his theories about the destructive consequences of the increasing force of monopolies in 21st century business. All these sessions are free, open to the public, have limited seating space and require RSVPs.

Can design contribute to health, well-being?

In downtown, novelists to offer their take on their Hollywood

Click here for Zocalo page, with 'monopolies' session on right rail (links broken)

Why, look: Who isn't rating or ranking schools just now?

From UCLA, UCR, Claremont McKenna & Harvey Mudd

Well, alrighty, then. Be careful. An innocent's eye could be lost to a stray brass button flying off the praise-swollen bosoms of the administrators and alums of various area schools as the (silly) season of published ratings drags on. We pledged at this site to ignore these rankings, even when Trojans inched ahead of Bruins in a certain newsweekly's tally. Is there any point, besides arguments in a bar, about these scorings, which, in their usual more sensible moments, those in the Ivy Towers work so hard to bad mouth and downgrade. So we're not going to reach and report how the folks in Riverside have gotten a Top 20 ranking from the Goldwater Institute for their administrative-financial rectitude. And when cats in Claremont cite their standing in surveys on workplace pay or in grad school placement, we're just going to turn away. Or when the kind folks in Westwood compile a whole lot of their bragging rights, not the least of which is a rating of institutions around the globe by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, we'll zip past it, too? Lastly, when some other folks on the eastern edge of the metropolis tout their focus on community service and the role it plays to win their school national attention, well, we'll just skip over a certain iconoclastic DC outfit's views on how schools stack up for their contribution to the public good. How 'bout it?

How schools rank in 'Teach for America' placement

From UCSB

Boy, the world turns around and surprising stuff pops to the top for interest and prestige for today's collegians, as the current popularity of the Teach for America program attests. Do schools  boast about how many of their students go off to the Peace Corps? Do they tout their roles in AmeriCorps VISTA? Yes, sure, there are praises to be sung for the volunteer program that aims to take accomplished, promising young scholars from top institutions and to train and place them as teachers for a fixed term in poor, tough schools in hopes of improving the nation's educational efforts. A super tight economy has combined with the idealism and altruism of the young, however, to make this national public service program highly competitive, with 46,000 applicants from 630 colleges and universities chasing after 4,500 slots. Among the big institutions whose grads are showing particular success in nailing down these much coveted slots: UCLA (49), USC (44) and UCSB (31). Among small schools, Claremont McKenna (9) pops up on the list.

In Santa Barbara, a sense of pride about Teach for American participation

Here's the official word on which schools contribute most students to program

Click here to see the program's official ranking for number of chosen teachers by school size

Indomitable author taps out his latest -- with his toes

From Claremont McKenna

Just stuff a sock in it. Yes, the traffic on a Monday, even in the summer, can be horrid; yes, the weather's cooler and grayer than it should be; yes, it's back to work and possibly some drudgery. And yes, there are other better things to do than sit in a Dilbert cubicle farm and ... Well, there's one way to get over those doldrums: Think of Augie Nieto, the 52-year-old founder of the Life Cycle fitness empire who has a gorgeous family and had a picture perfect life. He was water skiing when the line slipped through his hands. And that's how he learned he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. The progressively paralyzing disorder may have stripped him of many physical attributes already, including the capacity to speak, move and to care for himself. But the wonders of a loving group of friends and family, modern technology, all combined with a formidable will and spirit, have allowed Nieto to keep using his sharp mind and keen insights, raising tens of millions of dollars to combat ALS. And, after arduous effort to get around the country to interview business executives (using special eye-registered voice technology), the CMC alum has written a new book -- with his toes -- on 'Reciprocity,' how by helping others, entrepreneurs can themselves profit, too.

Photo: Augie Nieto, center, with wife, Lynne, son Austin 

'Lou Gehrig's disease' can't stop alum from raising tens of millions, writing a second book

OC Register updates feats of inspiring Augie Nieto

A higher-ed peoloton offers a look-see at SoCal minds

From Oxy

Phew, it's summer and an ostensible pause in the seasons of anxiety for collegiate aspirants. But some work never ends, and, for some fun-seeking college counselors, a work-vacation offers an opportunity to see up-close what's on SoCal Minds via a rolling, 400-mile tour of regional campuses. The folks over in Eagle Rock are hosting a stop on the bicyclist look-see, a grownups' peloton aimed at getting a personal-professional view of what's new at spots like the Claremont collective, the universities of Redlands and LaVerne, Oxy, Caltech. LMU and USC. So what, in hyper-conscious fashion, should the schools know about what the 19 visiting pros from 13 states have to say about them as they undergo their seventh annual cycling whistle-stop tour of schools? Because this is the age of blogging, the East Coast Gray Lady offers a big forum for the observations of group members...

College counselors cycling 400 miles in tour of area campuses 

Click here for NYT 'Choice' blog, with dispatches from biking counselors

Claremont campuses ranked in top 10 for political activism

From Claremont McKenna

Put the words campus, politics, collegiate and activism together in the same sentence and what thoughts get conjured? Recollections of Trojans, perhaps, for their Nixon-era notoriety for campus-inspired dirty campaigning? Or maybe memories of Westwood, known far and wide for its student protests from the Sixties onward? Or perhaps the mind wanders to Irvine, where a lot of unwanted, negative publicity has focused on the ferocity of students’ views and actions on Arab-Israeli relations? Well, Unigo, one of the proliferating web sites devoted to all matters collegiate, calls the Claremont area one of the political hot beds of the moment, ranking two of the interrelated schools in Los Angeles’ far eastern suburbs in a list of the '10 most politically active campuses in the country.' Guess which of the Claremont Colleges, by the way, gets a nod as more conservative (No. 4 Claremont McKenna) versus which is more liberal (No. 3 Pitzer)? The 'politically active' description, by the way, is defined widely and, um, liberally, and this list is topped by American U, followed by GWU.

Web site sees Claremont McKenna as conservative haven, Pitzer as liberal hotbed 

What's fate of redistricting reform across nation?

From Claremont McKenna College

For analysts, politicians and voters alike, it's become a crucial focus as a way to either entrench or alleviate the gaping partisan divide that too often reduces public policy-making to infuriating gridlock. But what exactly is the state of play for redistricting efforts across the country at the legislative and congressional levels and how does the Golden State stack up in the push to eliminate gerrymandered voting areas that so lock in one party or the other that even the uber Terminator, aka Gubernator Schwarzenneger, has prodded voters for ballot box changes? The folks at the Rose Institute have a state-by-state interactive analysis worth a look from politics aficionados and junkies alike.

Institute offers interactive, state-by-state analysis of political redistricting 

Click here for full report, to access maps

Time for thinking and talking about Obama, God

From Oxy & Pepperdine

If the environmental fervor associated with Earth Day just doesn't grip and grab so tightly that all other intellectual endeavors for the day get squeezed out, well, there are other passtimes of the mind planned for this evening. In Eagle Rock, the folks at his alma mater will discuss and dissect one of the school's best-known and notable alums, a onetime multiracial student then-named Barry. The always smart, lively and entertaining Patt Morrison (shown at right) of the LA Times and KPCC will be part of a panel with faculty and pundits from the NY Times and Huffington Post in a free, first-come program at 7 tonight on 'Deconstructing Obama.' In Malibu, the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights at Claremont McKenna College at 4 this afternoon will take off on a thought-provoking topic titled, 'Is God Dead?' That session is free and open to the public but space is limited.

In Eagle Rock, alma mater examines a top alum's leadership, reaction to it

In Malibu, a provocative topic for Claremont McKenna scholar

From Claremont, an analytical 'Outlook' on IE

From Claremont McKenna

It's home to more than 4 milllion people, making it the third largest metropolitan region in California and the 14th largest in the United States. With the recent econmic collapse thrusting it into the news mostly for its soaring unemployment, huge problems with subprime-financed and now foreclosed housing, and, of course, with its undercurrent of crime, pollution and other environmental challenges, the Inland Empire --that combo of San Bernardino and Riverside counties -- often doesn't get the thoughtful research and analysis that an area with the population larger than 24 states might merit. So some credit's due to the scholars from the Lowe Institute of Political Economy and the Rose Institute of State and Local Government for going deep on their local community to launch a newsletter and website devoted to concerns about the IE, producing materials on politics and economics at least biannually and perhaps quarterly for posting/publication. What's the plan for this trend-mapping initiative in the '909?' Its founders talked about their aspirations in a recent roundtable.

Founders lay out vision for new, analytical view of Riverside, San Bernardino counties 

Click here to see the 'Inland Empire Outlook'