SoCal Minds

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 

Bah, which schools are happy, stressful, got buzz?

From Claremont McKenna, Pomona & UCLA

What's with the zeitgeist in Claremont? Or maybe the question should be, What's with the American fascination about ratings, rankings and lists -- aside from the media manufactured attention grabbing that these gigs generate? Just in time for the academics to boast about or belittle the various annual ratings and rankings by certain publications, there are a couple of cyber lists that are worth a mention for Friday water-cooler fodder. Says the Daily Beast, based on criteria that barely eke beyond the risible, Southern California campuses, especially those out in Claremont, are among the Happiest, while others are the most Stressed Out. Let's cut to the chase: Claremont McKenna tops the bliss list, followed by Harvard, Pomona, Harvey Mudd and Scripps, with Caltech (8), Oxy (12), UCLA (13), UCI (16), Pitzer (22), UCSB (28) and USC (31) following. On the other hand, the high anxiety crowd is said to be topped by Stanford, Columbia and MIT, with Caltech (9), USC (18), UCLA (30) and UCSB (41) following. Not quite sure of what to make of another set of measures that are said to tap the 'buzz' detectable online, in social media and other ways about schools, though Pomona shows up No. 6 on this list, which also mentions Oxy (45), Claremont McKenna (66), Harvey Mudd (80), Pitzer (92) and Scripps (93), allegedly following the tops of Wellsely, Williams, Colorado College and Oberlin; among the universities, UCLA hits this list at No. 14. And while deciding what to make about the U.S. News & World Report and other such list-mania that's popping up, well, a good dose of perspective from the Bruins on the topic, put together by the always readable Claudia Luther. By the way, we're not linking here to every school's post on this topic, just a sample few.

In Claremont, just one of the kvelling reports on the Happiness list 

From Pomona, a favorable nod from monitor of the 'net 'buzz' about schools

Click here to see the 'Beast' list of Happy schools

Click here for the 'Beast' list of Stressful campuses

Bruins put magazine, publications' school ratings in perspective

For Pitzer, even more bounty on Fulbright front

From Pitzer

That international scholarship magic keeps holding sway for the impressive young scholars in Claremont, where the powers of a private, liberal arts education prove persuasive in yet another bumper crop year of Fulbright awards. The prestigious fellowships, awarded to top-ranked students across the country for, among other things, extensive research and living abroad, have gone to almost 100 Pitzer undergrads; the school, with its small enrollment, has been one of the highest ranking recipients (per thousands in a student body) of Fulbrights since 2002 and boasts how almost all its award winners (93%) study overseas, not to mention that three-quarters of the young people who attend the college find a way for foreign study. The eight announced 2010-11 Fulbrights, alums and current undergrads, will spend time in serious study in spots such as Uruguay, Malta and Slovakia.

Prestigious national fellowships awarded to eight for study abroad

Click here to see a list of Pitzer winners of Fulbrights

Vaccines get shot of aid; a focus on 'orphan' drugs

From Pitzer & the Keck Graduate Institute

Some noteworthy developments out in Claremont on the health and medical fronts, as Pitzer scores a sizable donation to support its work on developing vaccines and KGI concludes a productive program to advance potential therapies for those suffering from rare diseases. Two docs who head up a pharmaceutical related enterprise and who have a son in school at Pitzer have ponied up a $200,000 donation to support the school's two-year-old partnership with the University of Botswana to improve health care in the developing world and provide cutting-edge bio-research, specifically, on possible vaccines against lumpy skin disease, rotavirus and other insidious ailments. Meantime, more than a dozen applications were completed and submitted to the feds as part of a rare, two-day workshop at KGI on the FDA's complex 'orphan drug' designation. That's a special status that allows researchers to 1study whether specific, promising therapies might help patients with ailments so rare they afflict fewer than 1 out of 200,000 people; 1 in 10 American suffer from one of the 7,000 identified kinds of these diseases, for which there are only 300 or so known, effective treatments. The FDA set up the special designation to encourage research on orphan drugs, which, because they benefit so few patients generate low profits and interest from pharmaceutical companies. 

Docs' gift bolsters partnership with Botswana U. for health care, research on inoculations

Unusual workshop bolsters those with drug therapies for rare afflictions

Local colleges get low marks on sustainability

From Claremont McKenna College

Here's a way to either demonstrate research independence or maybe how to tee-off the homeys: The folks at the Roberts Environmental Center have turned their scrutiny from corporations, industries and even nations and focused now on the sustainability practices of top liberal arts colleges nationwide. They gave top marks for green thinking and doing and social consciousness and vision to Williams (A+), Bucknell (A-), Amherst (B+), Colorado (B+) and Gettysburg (B+) colleges. But the researchers zinged local institutions, giving mediocre marks, at best, to: Pitzer (C), Harvey Mudd (C-), Scripps (D) and Occidental (D-). Ouch. To be clear, in methodology terms, the study relies on publicly available information on sustainability issues, particularly as places post it on web sites. Nations, industries and corporations have gotten clued in to internet reporting of this information because of an international, industry-supported initiatives. Colleges have their own similar programs but the researchers criticized schools for their haphazard, fuzzy efforts on sustainability and transparency. By the way, U.S. News and World Report rankings were used to determine which were the top 50 liberal arts colleges. And the researchers left their own institution out of the study and they clearly say why.

Criticism for haphazard, fuzzy public reporting of work on green, social consciousness issues 

The Chronicle of Higher Education take on sustainability study

$6 million in gifts to joint science department

From Claremont McKenna College, Pitzer & Scripps

The largest academic enterprise of the Claremont Colleges, a joint effort that combines biology, chemistry and physics in a single department, has just gotten a total $6 million funding boost from donors, $5 million from the Sidney J. Weinberg, Jr., Foundation and a $1 million matching gift from the Roberts Challenge. The donations will support student and faculty research and engagement, as well as providing support for a new dean for the joint science department, which advocates say offers small class sizes, rigorous teaching and research and the opportunity for students to work across disciplines.  

Boost for Claremont Colleges' combined biology, chemistry, physics enterprise

Pomona, Pitzer, Scripps haul in the Fulbrights

From Pomona

For the elite liberal arts colleges, the tally means a lot; it can offer another indication of academic preparation, ivy-tower prestige, just how adventuresome students on a given campus can be. Anyhow, the folks in Claremont take note that their students graduating in 2009 have won the most Fulbright Fellowships -- 15 of them -- among those attending liberal arts colleges; evidently six students received but turned down the awards for merit, scholarship and leadership, allowing young people to pursue international study. Besides Pomona's haul, students at nearby Pitzer nabbed a dozen of the Fulbrights and there were nine for scholars at Scripps. The published records-keeper of the Fulbright Awards is the Chronicle of Higher Education, which also requires a subscription to see its full lists. The big-research universities, of course, pull in their share of Fulbrights, too, with Northwestern students winning 32 and the guys and gals in Hyde Park at the University of Chicago garnering 31, as did scholars at Brown; Stanford and Michigan each had 28 Fulbrights. The folks at Scripps note in passing that they did on par with UCLA and ahead of USC, where the campus paper says there were eight Fulbrights.

Among liberal arts schools, Pomona tops Fulbright awards with 15

Scripps ranks No. 8 among liberal arts colleges for Fulbrights 

Pitzer lauds its 12 Fulbrights for '09, two from class of '08

For lunch, chats with day laborers in Spanish

From Pitzer

Here's a different twist on polishing up those abilities to speak another language and to see life from another perspective: On Fridays, in a private room off the main cafeteria, students studying Spanish can work on their language skills, as well as on discussing contemporary issues like immigration, worker rights, activism and organizing. They pay for their own lunch but their dining companions are brought in to the elite campus especially for this conversation. They're jornaleros or day laborers from Pomona and the surrounding area.

In Pomona, viernes encuentros tables with jornaleros