2006 Annual Report of Excellence - Pitzer College

Pitzer College offers an innovative
liberal arts education focused on a deeper
understanding of humankind within a
governance structure that allows every
voice to be heard equally and fully.
Pitzer College creates a purposeful and
meaningful environment in which students
learn to lead proactive and exemplary lives
within the global community. Pitzer’s
interdisciplinary approach to the applied
liberal arts serves as an exemplar of
educational ingenuity. Pitzer’s excellence
is recognized, praised and supported by
educational leaders, college guides and
philanthropic foundations nationwide.
Featured on the Cover
The stained glass window, located at the entrance to a garden
patio dedicated to former Board of Trustees Chair Susan Pritzker,
was created by Pitzer College President Laura Skandera Trombley
and her husband artist Nelson Trombley. The orange tree is an
iconic symbol of Pitzer College, which was founded by citrus
grower and philanthropist Russell K. Pitzer.
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pitzer college
Core Values
Academic Excellence
Social Responsibility
Diverse Community
Intercultural Understanding
our
Mission
Pitzer College produces engaged, socially responsible citizens of
the world through an academically rigorous, interdisciplinary
liberal arts education emphasizing social justice, intercultural
understanding and environmental sensitivity. The meaningful
participation of students, faculty and staff in college governance
and academic program design is a Pitzer core value. Our
community thrives within the mutually supportive framework
of The Claremont Colleges, which provides an unsurpassed
breadth of academic, athletic and social opportunities.
one of america’s
Best Colleges
Pitzer College is ranked 36th of 215 liberal arts
colleges in academic reputation and as having
the 38th lowest acceptance rate among the toptier
liberal arts colleges, according to U.S.News
& World Report.
Pitzer College has begun the largest construction project since its
founding with new residence halls that are socially and environmentally
responsible and that are being built to the strict standards
of the U.S. Green Building Council. The College stands
positioned to become one of the first colleges in the nation to
replace all of its residence halls with LEED (Leadership in
Energy & Environmental Design) gold-certified residence halls.
Laura Skandera Trombley
President of Pitzer College
Eighteen Pitzer College students received prestigious Fulbright
Program Fellowships in 2006, a national record for colleges its
size, totaling thirty-four awards for the past three years. Other
student awards for 2006 included a Harry S. Truman scholar, a
Thomas J. Watson fellow, a McNair scholar, a Coro fellow, a
Kemper Foundation scholar, a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
graduate scholar, and a Rotary International Ambassadorial
scholar. >>>
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more on one of america’s
Best Colleges
Pitzer ranks as the fifth most diverse private coeducational toptier
liberal arts college in America by U.S. News, with
students of color representing 32 percent of the student body.
According to U.S. News, Pitzer ranks 21st in the top tier of 110
liberal arts schools for the percentage of students studying
abroad. Pitzer College’s thirty-five international and domestic
exchange programs make it possible for students to study
abroad for more than one semester.
Pitzer College is one of seventy-six colleges or universities that
has been selected by The Carnegie Foundation for their new
elective Community Engagement Classification.
Pitzer is included in The Princeton Review’s The Best 361
Colleges, which named the College as one of the “Best in the
West.” Pitzer was one of 129 schools profiled in the first edition
of The Best Western Colleges, and one of five profiled in the
regional guidebook series.
Pitzer College is one of the nation’s most effective schools fostering
social responsibility and public service, according to The
Princeton Review and Campus Compact. Pitzer College is one
of eighty-one institutions in thirty-three states that The
Princeton Review commends and features in its book, Colleges
with a Conscience: 81 Great Schools with Outstanding Community
Involvement.
In Kaplan Publishing’s The Unofficial, Unbiased Insider’s Guide
to the 328 Most Interesting Colleges, Pitzer is cited as offering
“the most creative curriculum of all The Claremont Colleges.”
The College is a member of the Consortium for Innovative
Environments in Learning (CIEL), a group of the most progressive
colleges working to reinvigorate American higher education.
Pitzer is cited by the National Wildlife Foundation as one of
the foremost schools in the country for Environmental Studies.
The Fiske Guide to Colleges lauds Pitzer’s strong Media Studies
program.
The Claremont Colleges Debate Union, in which Pitzer students
participate, ranked eighth out of four hundred teams at
the national debate championship.
Pitzer offers ten men’s and ten women’s intercollegiate athletic
teams. Pitzer students also participate in The Claremont
Colleges Club sports programs, which compete nationally.
Pitzer has the nation’s third best faculty, eighth most politically
active students, and was ranked eighth for lots of race/class
interaction in The Princeton Review’s The Best 361 Colleges.
4 | Report of Excellence
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outstanding
Joint Science Program
Pitzer, Claremont McKenna and Scripps Colleges share an interdisciplinary
Joint Science Department housed in the state-of-theart
W. M. Keck Science Center. From 2002 to 2006, nearly 78
percent of Joint Science students who applied were admitted to
medical school. By contrast, the national average acceptance rate
is 43 percent.
exceptional
Media Studies Program
Pitzer College is the lead Claremont College for Media Studies.
Pitzer’s own Media Studies program appeals to socially committed
artists and showcases grass-roots filmmaking at its best.
Professor Jesse Lerner was awarded a Fulbright-Garcia Robles
Fellowship for 2006–07. Films by three Pitzer Media Studies
professors have been featured at the Sundance Film Festival.
Other works by Pitzer professors: Alexandra Juhasz and Jesse
Lerner co-edited F is for Phony, a study on fake documentary
practice and theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press); Alexandra Juhasz made “Video Remains,” an experimental
video in the film festival circuit; and Ming-Yuen Ma was a
Surdna Foundation Distinguished Visiting Artist in Film and
Visual Arts, California State Summer School for The Arts
(CSSSA).
TOP: A student conducts research in a laboratory in the W. M. Keck Science Center.
BOTTOM: Media Studies student Zachary Miller ’09 won a 2007 Jeep Compass in a video commercial
competition as well as second prize from Paramount Studios for his screenplay about HIV and AIDs and
the teen community.
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major
Student Awards
Pitzer student awards earned from 2001 to 2006:
Forty-four Fulbright Program Fellowships
Four Thomas J. Watson Fellowships
Two Freeman Foundation Asia Fellowships
Four Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships
One Woodrow Wilson Foundation Fellowship
One Morris K. Udall Foundation Native American
Congressional Internship
Four Coro Fellowships
Three Kemper Foundation Scholarships
One Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship
Two American Sociological Association Minority Fellowships
One Teaching Assistantship Fellow from the French government
(selected by the Institute of International Education)
One Rudolph Polk Memorial Award in Music
Pitzer students enjoy a strong tradition of receiving major
fellowships and scholarships. One Pitzer student has received
the Rhodes scholarship and six additional students have been
finalists. In 2006, eighteen Pitzer College students were awarded
Fulbright grants to continue in their fields of study—a
record for colleges of fewer than one thousand students for the
fourth consecutive year. Since 1997, Pitzer students have won
five Thomas J. Watson Fellowships, seven Rotary
Ambassadorial Scholarships, six Freeman Foundation Asia
Fellowships, five American Sociological Association Minority
Fellowships (the highest number among colleges and universities
in the U.S.), one Morris K. Udall Foundation Native
American Congressional Internship, and one Woodrow Wilson
Foundation Fellowship.
The Grove House, a California Arts and Crafts bungalow, was saved from potential demolition when it was
moved to Pitzer College in 1977 as a class project. Now the Grove House serves as a popular gathering
place.
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highly
Selective
Pitzer College had the 38th lowest acceptance rate among the
top-tier liberal arts colleges for its Fall 2005 entering class,
according to U.S. News rankings. Fewer than thirty national
liberal arts colleges have acceptance rates less than 40 percent
as Pitzer did in Fall 2005. The 2005–06 academic year set an
all-time record for number of applications to Pitzer, and
showed an increase for the eighth consecutive year.
year in review
Sports
Women’s soccer won the Southern California Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championship and advanced to
the NCAA Championships for the first time in program
history. Men’s Cross Country won their third consecutive
Conference Championship. The football team ranked first in
the Conference in pass defense and second in total defense.
Women’s softball recorded the most wins ever this year in
school history. Women’s tennis finished second in the
Conference and qualified for the NCAA Regionals. A men’s
tennis doubles team recorded wins over the first and third
ranked doubles teams in the country. The golf team was
undefeated in dual matches in the Conference. The women’s
water polo team finished second in the Conference.
TOP: Students enjoy studying outdoors in the beautiful Southern California weather.
BOTTOM LEFT: The Sagehen football team ranked first in the Conference in pass defense and second in
total defense.
BOTTOM RIGHT: The Sagehen women’s soccer team won the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference (SCIAC) Championship and advanced to the NCAA Championships for the first time in program
history.
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innovative
Community Service & Outreach
Pitzer College’s focus on social responsibility and community
service provides students with a plethora of volunteer opportunities
on and off campus. Among the many programs offered
through the Center for California Cultural and Social Issues
(CCCSI), Pitzer students have the opportunity to conduct
reading groups with women in recovery, tutor homeless and
at-risk young children, or help juvenile offenders improve their
literacy skills at area probation camps. CCCSI is also home to
the Pitzer in Ontario (California) program, which offers a
fifteen-hour per week internship, rigorous training in applied
research methods, and a theoretical and topical framework
through which to understand pressing social and urban issues
in the Southern California region.
Pitzer College faculty offer course-related projects in communitybased
Spanish; early academic outreach; and the Leadership in
Environmental Education Partnership (LEEP). Another
community service program is Jumpstart, a national nonprofit
outreach program that pairs college students with preschool-age
children struggling in the areas of communication, literacy and
social skills. The highly successful Jumpstart pilot program
begun at Pitzer in 1999 has become the model for other
programs at universities throughout the United States.
Pitzer is also one of fifteen California International Studies
Project (CISP) locations, funded by the State of California to
support the development of public school teachers through
collaboration with faculty in social sciences and world history.
There are thirty-six current and former Peace Corps volunteers
who are alumni of Pitzer College. Pitzer College was invited to
become one of ten colleges forming the founding core of the
national Project Pericles, which encourages liberal arts colleges to
turn rhetoric into action by training students to be responsible
citizens.
Leadership in Environmental Education Partnership (LEEP) trains Pitzer students in principles of environmental
education so they can serve as instructors to children from elementary schools. At left, an elementary school
student participates in an activity at the Bernard Field Station.
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Class of 2006 Attending Graduate
and Professional School by Fields of Study
Humanities
and Social Services
15%
Communications
9%
Sciences/Math/Engineering
3% Health Care
9%
Education
18%
Business
7%
Law
9%
Class of 2006 Who are Employed
by Field of Employment
Retail
15%
Education
26%
Government
4%
Nonprofits and
Social Services
15%
Recreation 3%
Business
23%
Science 5%
Arts
9%
14 | Report of Excellence
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alumni
Doctorates
In the most recent data reported by the National Science
Foundation, Pitzer College ranked 8th in the number of alumni
who pursued a PhD in psychology, 29th in the number of
alumni who pursued a PhD in anthropology, and 38th in the
number of alumni who pursued a PhD in sociology out of 154
private colleges and universities.
alumni attend prestigious
Graduate Universities
Pitzer College graduates have been accepted at the following
prestigious institutions: Cambridge University; Columbia
Medical School; Cornell University; Duke University;
Georgetown University; Harvard University; Massachusetts
Institute of Technology; Northwestern University; New York
University; Princeton University; Rice University; Rutgers
University; Smith College; Stanford University; Tufts
University; University of California, Berkeley; University of
Chicago; University of California, Davis; University of
California, Los Angeles; University of Michigan; University of
Southern California; Vanderbilt University; Washington
University; and Yale University.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was
the keynote speaker for the 2006 Fabian
Núñez ’97 Scholarship Benefit held at
Univision corporate
headquarters in L.A.
notable
Alumni
Pitzer College graduates are prepared to take on life’s challenges
while making a difference in their communities. Pitzer’s
many impressive alumni include diverse individuals with varied
careers such as:
Arts
Susan Patron ’69, Winner of the American Library
Association’s John Newbery Medal for her children’s book The
Higher Power of Lucky;
Matt Baer ’86, Producer of films such as City by the Sea, Jack
Frost and The Replacement Killers;
Matthew Cooke ’96, Editor and Producer of the Academy
Award nominated documentary film Deliver Us from Evil;
Jessica Hurley ’92, Emmy Award winner of Best
Documentary for A Dose of Reality and Gold Mike Award
winner for Best Documentary as producer, writer and host of
Life Lessons, Truths and Consequences;
Deborah Shelton ’78, Co-producer for CNN and 2006
recipient of the National Headliner Award for her article
“Lives on the Line.”
Science and Research
Stuart Goldstein ’86, Medical Director of the Renal Dialysis
Unit at Texas Children’s Hospital and Associate Professor of
Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine;
Sue Celniker ’75, Research Scientist and Co-director of the
Drosophila Genome Center at Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratories;
Thomas Perls ’82 MD, MPH, Associate Professor of
Medicine and Geriatrics at Boston University’s Alzheimer’s
Disease Center. >>>
16
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Nonprofit
Hunter Lovins ’72, President and Founder of Natural
Capitalism, Inc. and named “Hero of the Planet” by Time
Magazine in 2000;
Kirsten Grønbjerg ’68, Recipient of the 2005 Award for
Distinguished Achievement and Leadership in Nonprofit and
Voluntary Action Research from the Association for Research
on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA);
Thomas Brock ’83, Director of Young Adults and
Postsecondary Education Policy Area for Manpower
Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC);
Judith Treas ’69, President-elect of the Pacific Sociological
Association (PSA).
Public Service
Fabian Núñez ’97, Speaker of the California State Assembly;
Emily Stevens ’71 and Yvonne Sanchez ’78, L.A. Superior
Court judges;
Debra Yang ’81, the first Asian American to be named U.S.
Attorney for the Central District of California (the largest
federal prosecutor’s office outside Washington DC);
Kevin de León ’03, California State Assemblyman representing
the 45th Assembly District.
Business
Lance Auder ’87, Vice President of the Bank Supervision
Group for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York;
Bridget Baker ’82; President, Television Networks
Distribution, NBC Universal;
Nancy Goldfarb Pope ’78, Vice President of Human
Resources for EMI Music Marketing;
John Landgraf ’84, President and General Manager of FX
Networks;
JoAnn Copperud ’73, CEO of RGA Environmental, provider
of environmental and health and safety services.
national
Grants
Pitzer College has received grants and contributions from
foundations, corporations, and government agencies, among
which are the Ahmanson Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies
(USA) Inc., the Avery Arts Foundation, the R. Stanton Avery
Foundation, the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation,
the Booth Ferris Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis
Foundations, the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation,
the Freeman Foundation, the John Randolph Haynes and
Dora Haynes Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst
Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD), the James Irvine Foundation, the Fletcher Jones
Foundation, the James S. Kemper Foundation, the Kresge
Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the 3M Foundation,
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Science
Foundation, the Bernard Osher Foundation, the Ralph M.
Parsons Foundation, the Ann Peppers Foundation, the Mabel
Wilson Richards Scholarship Fund, the John Stauffer
Charitable Trust, and the Weingart Foundation.
In 2006, Pitzer’s Residential Life Project was significantly
advanced through a $750,000 challenge grant from the Kresge
Foundation.
18 | Report of Excellence
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selected faculty
Publications
Bill Anthes, Assistant Professor of Art
History, Native Moderns: American Indian
Painting, 1940–1960. Durham: Duke
University Press, 2006.
Dipa Basu, Professor of Sociology, The
Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the
Globalization of Black Popular Culture.
(London: Pluto Press, 2006), co-edited with
Sid Lemelle, was published in the U.S. by
the University of Michigan Press, 2006.
Nigel Boyle, Professor of Political Studies,
Crafting Change: Labor Market Policy under
Mrs Thatcher. New Orleans: University
Press of the South, 2005.
Carmen Fought, Associate Professor of
Linguistics, Language and Ethnicity.
London: Cambridge University Press,
2006.
Tom Ilgen, The Jones Foundation
Professor of Political Studies, Hard Power,
Soft Power and the Future of Transatlantic
Relations. Editor. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate
Press, 2006.
Brian Keeley, Professor of Philosophy,
Paul Churchland. Series: Contemporary
Philosophy in Focus. Editor. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Ronald Macaulay, Professor of Linguistics
Emeritus, The Social Art: Language and its
Uses. Second edition. Oxford University
Press, 2006.
Ntongela Masilela, Professor of English
and World Literature, The Cultural
Modernity of H.I.E. Dhlomo. Trenton, NJ:
Africa World Press, 2006.
Peter Nardi, Professor of Sociology, Doing
Survey Research (Boston: Allyn & Bacon
2006) and Interpreting Data: A Guide to
Understanding Research (Boston: Allyn &
Bacon, 2004).
Thomas Poon, Professor of Chemistry,
Introduction to Organic Chemistry. Spanish
translation. With W. Brown. Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2006.
20 | Report of Excellence
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faculty
Recognition
Kersey Black (Chemistry), Newton H. Copp (Biology),
Gretchen Edwalds-Gilbert (Biology), Scot A. Gould
(Physics), K. Purvis-Roberts (Chemistry) were co-PIs on the
National Science Foundation Grant for “Increasing Science
Graduates Through Interdisciplinary Teaching and Research.”
2005–09 ($498,700).
G. Edwalds-Gilbert (Biology), J. Higdon (Physics),
K. Purvis-Roberts (Chemistry) received an Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation Grant for “Enhancement of Environmental Science
at the Joint Science Department.” 2005–08 ($285,000).
David Furman (Art) was featured in Who’s Who in American
Art, 2006.
Judith V. Grabiner (Mathematics) received the prestigious
Lester R. Ford Award from the Mathematical Association of
America, for best article(s) in the American Mathematical
Monthly, 2005.
Mary Hatcher-Skeers (Chemistry) received an NIH Academic
Research Enhancement Award for $170,000. The title of the
grant is “Dynamic 31P NMR of Backbone Dynamics in
DNA.”
Jim Hoste (Mathematics) was appointed Chair of the
Committee on the Profession, American Mathematical Society,
2006–07.
Jesse Lerner (Media Studies) received a Director’s Choice
award at the Black Maria Film Festival for his work, “T.S.H.,”
2006.
John Norvell (Anthropology-Visiting) received a Fulbright
Faculty Grant for teaching and research in Boa Vista, Brazil,
Fall 2006. The title of his project was “Urban Indians and
Caboclo Whites: Social Identity in the Brazilian Amazon.”
Dan Segal (Anthropology and History) was the honored
lecturer at The Page-Barbour Lectures at the University of
Virginia. His series of three lectures was titled, “Modernity and
the History Monopoly, or Why We Need Other Histories.”
Peter Nardi (Sociology) was elected president of the Pacific
Sociological Association (PSA) for the term beginning April
2005. >>>
Martha Barcenas-Mooradian, visiting instructor of Spanish, takes the classroom outdoors.
Pitzer College | 23

more faculty
Recognition
Maria Soldatenko (Gender and Feminist Studies and
Chicano/a Studies) was elected National Association for
Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Chicana Caucus Chair
for 2003–05.
John D. (Jack) Sullivan (Political and Environmental Studies)
was elected Legislation Director for the League of Women
Voters of California.
Zhaohua Irene Tang (Biology) received two significant
grants: an NSF-RUI grant for “Cell-cycle Regulation of LAM-
MER-related Kinases” from the NSF Program of Signal
Transduction/Cell Regulation (2005–08; $340,000) and a
NIH AREA grant (2005–07; $197,154).
Andre Wakefield (History) received the Arnold L. and Lois S.
Graves Award in the Humanities (ACLS) for “The Edinburgh
Synergy.” Edinburgh, Scotland (2006) and the Herzog Ernst
Fellowship, Thyssen Foundation, for “Leibniz in the Mines.”
Gotha, Germany (2006).
Emily Wiley (Biology) received a National Science
Foundation CAREER grant, “Investigating Heterochromatin
Assembly through Histone Deactylases.” ($652,630).
Phil Zuckerman (Sociology) was appointed associate editor
for the journal Sociology of Religion.
TOP: Halford Fairchild, Professor Psychology and Black Studies, engages in a
discussion with a student.
BOTTOM: Susan Phillips, director of Pitzer’s Center for California Cultural and Social Issues, teaches a
class.
24 | Report of Excellence

nationally recognized
Intercultural & Language
Education Programs
Through the study of language, culture and firsthand experience
in communities worldwide, Pitzer’s Study Abroad programs
integrate constructive learning with social responsibility.
Beginning with the Pitzer in Nepal program in 1974, Pitzer
offers programs in Botswana, China, Ecuador, India, Italy,
Japan and Costa Rica. Pitzer College offers thirty-five exchange
programs in Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark,
England, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Ireland,
Japan, Korea, Latvia, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, Spain,
Thailand, Turkey and the United States.
The majority of graduating seniors in 2006 participated in
Study Abroad programs.
In 2005–06, Pitzer students studied in twenty-seven countries
and studied twenty-one languages.
In 2000, Pitzer initiated the first community-based Spanish
program in the country. The program integrates intensive
classroom instruction with practical learning experiences in the
local Spanish-speaking community.
Pitzer offers individualized instruction in Less Commonly
Taught Languages (LCTL’s) before going abroad (Turkish,
Finnish, Zulu, and Thai).
Pitzer’s Program in American College English (PACE) trains
international students in intensive academic English and
American studies, and is recognized by the American
Association of Intensive English Programs (AAIEP), the Japan
Foundation for International Education (JFIE), the Latin
American Scholarship Program for American Universities
(LASPAU at Harvard), and the Embassy of the United Arab
Emirates as one of the most effective language programs in the
United States.
A Pitzer College student chats with the grandmother of her host family during her Pitzer in Darjeeling study
abroad program.
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a strong
Financial Future
Pitzer College’s fundraising efforts continued to set records in
2005–06. Led by generous members of the Board of Trustees,
more than 3,100 alumni, parents, faculty and staff, friends, and
organizations contributed to the College for a wide range of
vital projects. The number of donors at the President’s Circle
level ($1,000 and above) has increased by 59 percent during
the past five years, while total contributions to the Annual
Fund have increased by 32 percent, reaching an all-time high
in 2005–06 of $1,436,000 raised in a single year.
Pitzer is currently raising funds for the Residential Life Project,
which includes nearing the completion of three residence halls
and programming to improve the on-campus experience for
students. In 2005–06, the College raised $3,700,000 in new
pledges for the project, bringing the total funds raised to date
to more than $15 million of the anticipated $18 million goal.
Mirroring the financial security realized through a maturing
fundraising program, the College’s endowment has also experienced
significant growth during the past five years, increasing
by 83 percent to its current market value of $86.3 million in
spite of significant market volatility. This growth is attributed
to a combination of new gifts to support the endowment as
well as careful attention to prudent, long-term investment
strategies. Pitzer also realized substantial growth in 2006 when
it received its largest gift to date—$15 million from the estate
of Roger C. Holden, one of the College’s early trustees.
Collective gifts received throughout the year help the College
achieve key initiatives such as strengthening its academic
programs and funding student scholarships.
28 | Report of Excellence