News releases:    Current | 2006-07 | 2005-06 | 2004-05 | 2003-04 News@Pomona highlights:    Current | 2006-07 | 2005-06 | 2004-05     Pomona College News Highlights   8/4/08 Linda Alvarado ’73 Heads Renovation Efforts for Democratic National Convention Millions of people all over the world will be watching the results of her work, but Linda Alvarado ’73 isn’t fazed. As president and CEO of Alvarado Construction Inc., a Denver-based construction management firm that has worked on such big-budget projects as the Broncos’ Invesco Field, Alvarado is used to the spotlight. This past year, though, her company, along with Turner Construction and HOK Sport, was given the tall task of renovating the Pepsi Center in preparation for the Democratic National Convention on August 25. Working since July 7, Alvarado’s crew has 49 days to turn the basketball arena/hockey rink into a multi-purpose convention center equipped to accommodate 50,000 guests, 15,000 members of the media and 40 miles of cables. “There was a lot of pre-construction planning and a very short window of time,” Alvarado says. “But I’m confident.” Alvarado’s confidence is no surprise. She’s run her own company, Alvarado Construction, since 1976. In 1991, she successfully bid for co-ownership of the Colorado Rockies, becoming the first woman and the first Latino to own part of a Major League Baseball franchise. She was also one of the founders of the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, served as Commissioner of the White House Initiative for Hispanic Excellence in Education, and has been recognized with several awards, including the United States Chamber of Commerce Business Woman of the Year, the Horatio Alger Award, and the Revlon Business Woman of the Year. From as early as her days at Pomona, where she was an Economics major, Alvarado didn’t let her gender stop her from entering male-dominated fields. As a first-year looking for employment, Alvarado opted for landscaping instead of working at a more traditional desk job. When she applied for a position, the subcontractor said to her, “Boys do landscaping, girls do food services. Don’t you understand that you're going to be outside wearing Levis?" Alvarado was only further invigorated by that prospect--“Oh cool! I get to be out in the sun!” she thought--and says that those humble beginnings were essential to developing her career path. Alvarado says the DNC project is “not about politics” for her, but she expressed pride about being part of such a historic moment in Denver: The last time the city hosted the DNC, exactly 100 years ago, marked the first time that women and people of color served as delegates. “We have an African American presidential candidate, and a woman leading the construction,” she says. “Who would have thought a girl like me would be doing this?”—By Adam Conner-Simons ‘08 8/1/08 Pomona College Hires its First-Ever Sustainability Coordinator As part of continuing efforts to step up sustainability, Pomona has hired Bowen Patterson ’06 as Sustainability Coordinator, a new position designed to help improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and deal with other related issues at the College. The position represents the school's recognition of the need for an individual who can deal exclusively with sustainability concerns... Read more   7/29/08 Former Geology Professor John Shelton ‘35’s Photographs Exhibited in San Diego The San Diego Natural History Museum exhibit Aerial Portraits of the American West: Photographs by John Shelton is on view through November 2. Shelton '35, a La Jolla geologist, photographer and former Pomona College geology professor (1945-1960) passed away on July 24, 2008, at his home.     John Shelton's "San Andreas Fault, California" The 33 aerial photographs in the exhibit offer Shelton’s unique perspective of geologic formations and processes from Alaska to Baja California. The photographs were taken by Shelton over the course of several decades—from the 1940s through the ‘70s. The collection was shot with a military aerial reconnaissance camera, showing immense detail that would be almost impossible to capture today due to pollution’s effects on air clarity. “I didn't discover geology until my junior year," Shelton said in a recent interview with the La Jolla Light. That discovery came in Professor A. O. "Woody" Woodford's introductory geology course. As it was too late to change majors, he graduated with a dual degree in math and music. Upon Woodford's advice, he went on to Yale for graduate studies in geology and called himself a “student of the earth.” Shelton taught at Pomona, worked for the Strategic Minerals Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey, and later served as an advisor on geology films. He began taking photos as a way to demonstrate geology to his students, and also as a way to combine his three passions: flying, photography and geology. From the 1930s through the 1990s, Shelton photographed evidence of continental drift, plate tectonics and other principles all over the globe. One famous photo shows an orange grove that straddled the San Andreas Fault; its perfectly aligned rows of trees were offset during an earthquake. Shelton, considered a key figure in geology, authored the introductory textbook Geology Illustrated, which was later named one of the most important 100 books of the last century by Scientific American. In 1993, Shelton received the American Geological Institute Legendary Geologist Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Public Understanding of Geology.” Shelton maintained close ties to Pomona College's Geology department, including returning to Campus as the annual Woodford-Eckis speaker in 1995, delivering lectures on "A Feel for How the Earth Works" and "The Aerial Perspective." In a letter sent out by the Geology department upon Shelton's passing, Professor Linda A. Reinen, chair of the department, said "John's myriad contributions to the teaching and learning of geology will continue to influence geology students for many years to come." For further information regarding the exhibition, visit the San Diego Natural History Museum web site at www.sdnhm.org or call (619) 232-3821. Article updated 07/31/08 7/23/08 Hillary Park ’92 in the Running for National Teaching Award This month Hillary Park ’92, a Spanish teacher at Grossmont High School in El Cajon, California, won the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s Teacher Award for the San Diego area, making her one of 12 finalists for the institute’s prestigious National Teacher Award that will be presented at a ceremony in Washington D.C. on October 9. Hers is among a series of awards given annually by the HHF, a national organization dedicated to identifying leaders in the Latino community. Past HHF honorees include baseball player Sammy Sosa and singer Gloria Estefan. After graduating from Grossmont High in 1988, Park packed her bags for Pomona, where she was an English literature major and three-sport athlete. “I was definitely challenged in every aspect,” Park says, “with classes, discussions with peers, and expectations from professors and coaches,” Her coursework with Spanish Professor Maria Donapetry and her abroad experience in Sevilla, Spain, further solidified her desire to pursue a Spanish-related profession. After college, she returned to Grossmont, where she has taught Spanish for 14 years. Park has been praised for her innovative teaching methods, including Spanish-immersion trips to Costa Rica and weekly “charlas” (based on the Oldenborg language tables at Pomona) in which students have lunch with native speakers. “My approach is to engage students in the learning process and require them to be active learners,” Park says. She was nominated for the HHF award by one of her students, Diana Crafts-Pelayo, who won a college scholarship through the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. Former Grossmont student Tyler Barbour ’09 seconds the endorsement: “Because of Hillary and her A.P Spanish language course, I decided to be an international relations major at Pomona and study abroad,” he says. “She has a passion for Spanish that is contagious.” For Park, the thrill in teaching stems from seeing progress in her students’ abilities and confidence levels. “I love when they finally begin to speak and construct conversations,” she says. “I try to lead them without showing them the exact path. I want them to make their own discoveries.” For more information on the HHF and its awards, visit www.hispanicheritage.org.--Adam Conner-Simons ‘08 7/22/08 Local Youth to Put on Play at Pomona College This Weekend Every summer, there’s a bit more drama on campus than usual. From the end of June through July, 50 local children ages 11 to 14 attend the Claremont School of Theatre Art (CSTA), a five-week program that provides classes on acting, movement and voice, and technical theater elements like props, sets and costumes. Each year, the program culminates with a performance. This year, the students will be performing Tales of Canterbury Thursday, July 24, through Sunday, July 27, at the Virginia Princehouse Allen Theatre at Pomona’s Seaver Theatre Complex. The play is a modern adaptation of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales by playwright Kristina Sexton. The CSTA program is now in its 15th year and originally began when The Curtain Raisers of the Claremont Colleges, an organization devoted to encouraging volunteer activities to support the Claremont Colleges’ theatre programs, wanted to offer something for local young people. Pomona came on as a partner; each year, the CSTA program takes place in the Seaver Complex. “This is my eighth year as the producer for this program, and it’s awesome to bring these young people in from the community, and to give them a creative outlet,” says Cathy Seaman, program director for the Department of Theatre and Dance. “So we’re building not only skills, but self-esteem and confidence in oneself and kind of centering them and grounding them in self image.” Another aspect of the program that Seaman is proud of is its instructors, who are often recent graduates of the Theatre Department, which covers all five of the undergraduate Claremont Colleges. This year, Tim Gillette ’03 is teaching the technical theater class and his wife, Maggie Gillette, a Pitzer graduate, is the technical director. Andrew Doyle ’02 from Pitzer is also working with the program this year. “The biggest perk for me is to see these young people who have gained skills and knowledge in the theater and now they move to the practical realm,” says Seaman. “They come on board with an attitude [of wanting] to give back, and they’re just phenomenal instructors.” Performances of Tales of Canterbury will take place on Thursday, July 24, at 7 p.m.; Friday, July 25, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, July 26, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and on Sunday, July 27, at 2 p.m. The box office will open 30 minutes prior to show time, but you can also reserve tickets by calling the reservation hotline at (909) 607-4396. Tickets are $9 for adults and $7 for children ages two to twelve. 7/22/08 Art Exhibition by Professor Emeritus Karl Benjamin Opens in Oceanside This past Saturday, the Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) opened a new exhibition of the work of Pomona Professor Emeritus Karl Benjamin titled “The Vibrant Edge: Paintings of Karl Benjamin from the 1960s, ’70s and ‘80s.” On display until October 19, “The Vibrant Edge” features the “Hard-edge painting” style, of which Benjamin was one of the founding fathers. The style is characterized by geometrical shapes, sharp edges and rich, full colors.     Karl Benjamin's "Markers" (1955). Benjamin, whose work has been showcased at the Whitney Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other places, was an art professor at Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University from 1979 until his retirement in 1994. His exhibition, “A Conversation with Color: Karl Benjamin, Paintings 1953-1995,” was the inaugural show at the Claremont Museum of Art in 2007. The OMA is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., as well as Sundays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. CGU Art Department Chair David Pagel will present a slide lecture on Benjamin’s paintings at the museum on August 21 from 7 TO 9 p.m. Admission to the slide lecture is $5. For more information, please contact the OMA at (760) 435-3720 or visit the museum’s web site. --Adam Conner-Simons ‘08 7/18/08 Philip Armour ’07 to Present “Sideways Effect” Paper at Wine Economics Conference Philip Armour ’07 is no slouch. A triple-major in economics, mathematics and English literature while at Pomona, he spent the past year working for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and in the coming years will be keeping himself busy with a masters at the London School of Economics and then Harvard Law School. Such impressive accomplishments could make it easy to overlook his intriguing recent project: This August, he will be co-presenting a paper at the second annual American Association of Wine Economists (AAWE) conference in Portland, Oregon. The event features economists from all over the country speaking on such enticing topics as eco-friendly “biodynamic wines” and the relationship between price and quality (“Do more expensive wines taste better?”). Armour and his Fed colleague Mark Doms will be presenting their paper examining the evidence behind the supposed “Sideways Effect,” which claims that since the release of the Pinot-glorifying, Merlot-trashing 2004 indie film (co-written by Jim Taylor ’84), Pinot has soared in popularity while Merlot has crashed and burned. Armour confirms the movie’s effect on Pinot Noir but casts doubt on its connection to Merlot. “That downward trend was actually a long time coming,” he says. For Armour, his passions for wine and economics developed from a very early age. “My mother and father are both passionate about wine,” he says, “so my childhood was filled with tiny pours of great Bordeaux and Burgundies.” Although he had dabbled in studying wine economics at Pomona, he says he never anticipated being able to do such research while working for the Fed this year. He soon found that fellow economist Doms shared with him a “curiosity about the driving forces in wine marketing and production,” and before long the two delved into some studies and uncovered publishable results. One abstract and introduction later, the pair’s submission was accepted by the AAWE and they were headed for P-town. Armour is looking forward to the Portland conference both for getting feedback about his work and getting the opportunity to learn more about the field. “Research in wine economics is fascinating and in such a nascent stage that there's a lot of potential for change in the near future,” Armour says. “It's an exciting time to be entering the debate.”--Adam Conner-Simons '08 7/18/08 Darin Leong ’99 Builds His Slack-Key Musical Reputation in Hawaii A Hawaii native raised on the slack-key strumming and falsetto hum of Hawaii’s music icons, Leong was nominated last month for two Na Hoku Hanohano Awards—Hawaii’s answer to the Grammy’s—placing him alongside some of that genre’s biggest names. “It’s really come full circle,” he says. “Just being in that company was incredible.” Leong grabbed nominations for Best Instrumental Album and Most Promising Artist for his second studio album, Five Years and Many Miles, which was released last September. The disc recounts Leong’s experiences in New York City where he relocated just one week before the September 11 attacks to pursue a law degree at New York University. The title cut, “Five Years,” looks back at the city’s recovery and his personal growth during his time there. While on the East Coast, Leong joined a tight-knit musical community of Hawaii expatriates, even getting the opportunity to play at Carnegie Hall and Staten Island Stadium. “New York is a totally different place,” he says. “It really helped shape my perception of the world, my perception of music.” Last year, Leong moved back home to the islands, his album serving as a “calling card and introduction for the people of Hawaii.” And although he did not take home any trophies this year, he has garnered the attention of the local media and the support of key local musicians like singer Robert Cazimero, guitarist Barry Flanagan and ukulele icon Jake Shimabukuro. Leong specializes in slack-key, a 200-year-old technique invented by Hawaiian musicians “slacking” the strings of their guitars. Leong’s signature sound mixes traditional Hawaiian methods with New York panache and an extensive knowledge of the classical technique picked up while studying music at Pomona College. According to Leong, his time in Claremont was pivotal in shaping his sound and, of course, preparing him for law school. “The exposure was really useful,” he says. “It shaped me as a person and it shaped me musically.” While at Pomona, Leong studied under Professor of Music and professional guitarist Jack Sanders. Leong quickly made his mark at that time with his willingness to mix slack key style with more classical musical training. “He had an excellent technique and beautiful musicianship,” Sanders says. “I was thrilled to see that he was nominated for the Na Hoku awards.” As if managing his blossoming music career weren’t enough, Leong also works as an attorney in Honolulu, specializing in employment and labor law. It’s a bit different from the high-powered law firm he became accustomed to in New York, he says, but it’s an adjustment he’s happy to make. “I always wanted to move home,” he says, watching the surf from his office window. “It’s the community that I grew up in and it’s the musical community that I wanted to be a part of.” For more information on Darin Leong's music, visit his Web site at Hawaiiguitar.com.--Travis Kaya '10   7/1/08 Will Leer ’07 in the Running for Summer Olympics Will Leer ’07 is heading to the upcoming U.S. Olympic track and field trials to attempt to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The trials are taking place July 3 to 7 in Eugene, Oregon, where Leer has been training for the past 10 months. If he finishes among the top three runners, he will qualify for the U.S. team. Originally from Minnesota, Leer majored in mathematics and earned a minor in philosophy at Pomona. Predominantly a soccer player in high school, Leer got much more intensely involved in track and field at Pomona, competing all four years and earning repeated All-American honors. He won the 2006 Division-III indoor national title for the mile, and at the 2007 Division III outdoors nationals, he became the first male runner to win the 1500-meter and the 5000-meter event on the same day. Last year, he also finished 10th nationally at the USA Track & Field Championships. Former Pomona-Pitzer track coach Pat Mulcahy praised Leer for his positive attitude and unwavering commitment to the sport. “He’s trying to keep it going and explore what he can do,” Mulcahy says. “He’s probably gone further than he thought he could, but he’s taking it all in stride.” The first of the trials’ three rounds start July 3, with the second round on July 4 and the final round taking place on July 6.--Adam Conner-Simons '07 Update: Will Leer '07 placed fourth in the men's 1,500-meter final on July 6 with a time of 3:41:54. "I'm disappointed I didn't get third, but we're sending a great team....This meet was very successful for me. It has catapulted me to a new level as far as my career goes," he said in an interview with RunnersWorld.com. Visit RunnersWorld.com for more quotes and a video interview with Leer. 6/30/08 Gay couples at Pomona applaud California marriage ruling “My first reaction was a mix of shock and amazement,” says Kenneth Pflueger, who has served as executive director of Pomona’s Information Technologies Services (ITS) for the past seven years. “My partner and I never thought it would be legalized.” “It,” in this context, is gay marriage. The California Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage has been a long-awaited blessing for members of Pomona’s gay community. Pflueger and his partner Sig Schwarz, an English professor at Cal-Lutheran, have been in a committed relationship for 25 years and received their official marriage license just last week. Their wedding ceremony will take place in August at the Cal Lutheran campus chapel where the pair first met and will be attended by close family and friends. “We’re playing it small,” Pflueger says. English Professor Arden Reed was particularly delighted by the ruling for the concreteness of the decision’s language. “It left no room for ambiguity,” he says. While he has no immediate future plans to get married to his partner, he said that he “certainly likes the idea of having the option of public and legal recognition of a relationship that we’ve had for 25 years.” For Pflueger, getting married was less about the legal differences—benefits for domestic partnerships in California are nearly equivalent to those for marriage—than the symbolism of the decision. For example, he still has to fill out the bubble marked “single” on official forms. “It sends a subtle message that [a domestic partnership] is different,” he says. Of course, the overturn on the ban hardly marks the end of the court battle. Reed cautions that the looming referendum to reinstate the marriage ban during the elections in November is an issue of concern, and is hopeful that citizens who support gay rights will actively campaign to reject the referendum. “I think the more people who know gay people who have gotten married,” he says, “the more comfortable they will become with it.”--Adam Conner-Simons ‘08 6/23/08 Film by Jennifer Phang ’96 to Show at L.A. Film Festival Jennifer Phang ’96 always knew she wanted to be behind the camera. “There’s an excitement to being in a creative headspace and feeling transported to another world,” she says. “There’s this inexplicable, magical quality to it.” As a media studies major at Pomona, she took numerous film classes with professors Brian Stonehill and Alex Juhasz at Pomona and Pitzer, honing her directing and editing skills through countless hours in the production lab. Now her work is paying off with Half-Life, which recently garnered Phang a $10,000 Gen Art award and has been screened at several prominent movie festivals, including Sundance. The film, which Phang wrote and directed, is having its Los Angeles premiere at the Crest Theatre in Westwood June 29 at 7 p.m. as part of the L.A. Film Fest, and is also playing at Outfest July 19 at the Director’s Guild in Hollywood. (Phang and several cast members will be attending the Westwood showing). In Phang’s own words, Half-Life is “a suburban family drama” that focuses on the day-to-day struggles of a single mom and her son and daughter, contrasting their lives against the backdrop of a planet increasingly affected by factors like global warming. “It’s about trying to hold on to a sense of innocence in a world that seems to be crumbling,” explains Phang. The film occasionally employs the unconventional “rotoscoping” technique popularized by director Richard Linklater in Waking Life, in which live-action scenes are painted over with hand-drawn animation. Phang has been pleasantly surprised by the largely positive responses that the movie has received. “Getting into Sundance was a dream come true,” she says. “And we’ve had amazing audiences in Seattle, New York, Austin--all over the country.” Half-Life will be screened at more events over the next few months. “We want to make sure we have festival momentum behind it,” Phang says. She’s hoping for the film to get national distribution by the start of next year. For more information on the film, visit www.halflifemovie.com.--Adam Conner-Simons '08 6/23/08 M. Frederick Hawthorne '49 Honored With Prestigious Chemistry Award M. Frederick Hawthorne ’49 was recently awarded the prestigious Priestly Medal, the highest honor awarded by the American Chemical Society. The annual award is recognition of distinguished service in the field of chemistry. Hawthorne majored in chemistry at Pomona College and went on to receive his Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from UCLA in 1953. He’s considered a pioneer in boron chemistry, having created, alongside colleagues, a collection of boranes, carboranes and metallacarboranes, which have been used in a variety of applications, including medical imaging, drug delivery and nanomachines. Hawthorne is currently the director of the International Institute of Nano and Molecular Medicine at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and he spent 32 years at the helm of the journal Inorganic Chemistry. He has authored or co-authored more than 500 research papers and 10 patents, and has received international recognition and numerous awards. According to an interview with Chemical & Engineering News, Hawthorne says his most important work may soon come to fruition. He couldn’t test his creation of “nontoxic carborane-containing liposomes that selectively target cancer cells for destruction by boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT)” at UCLA, where he had taught since 1969 and was appointed University Professor of Chemistry, the most distinguished faculty title in the UC system, because of the lack of the proper testing equipment. So he left for Missouri where a research neutron beam line was available to his team. He now expects to start BNCT animal trials this fall and human trials within five years and, according to the article, “believes carboranes will eventually be ubiquitous in pharmaceuticals.” 6/13/08 Skyspace Wins 2007 Excellence in Design Award The City of Claremont Architectural Commission recently named the Turrell Skyspace on the Pomona College campus a 2007 Excellence in Design Award winner. The luminous art installation, designed by celebrated artist James Turrell ’65 and completed last fall, is one of only a handful of Claremont architectural projects to be recognized on the annual list. Announced each spring by the Commission, the awards aim to “recognize and encourage high quality design projects” in each of 16 categories, ranging from outstanding design to sustainability. The Skyspace was one of just three projects honored in the Excellence in Design Category. The other two winners included a local mural and a Claremont resident’s luxurious pool house. The Skyspace—a precisely designed architectural installation that heightens the viewer’s awareness of light, sky and the activity of perception—has garnered much attention from the national media and local community since it was opened to the public last August. Working in a medium for which he has gained worldwide acclaim, Turrell created an open, transparent courtyard space in which a floating metal canopy provides a frame for the sky above. During the transition from twilight to full night, lighting elements, programmed to change in intensity and hue as they wash the underside of the canopy, create the changing perception of sky as space, form, object and void. A shallow pool centered beneath the opening to the sky mirrors the daytime sky and reflects a dark echo of the night sky. The first publicly accessible installation of its kind in Southern California, the nightly marvel of light and sky has drawn in hundreds of visitors from near and far, giving Claremont residents and non-residents alike reason to stare. --Travis Kaya '10 Pomona College Magazine article on Skyspace The Chronicle of Higher Education audio slide show on Skyspace Pomona College Museum of Art Skyspace page, which includes location and hours of operation   5/27/08 Brittney Andres ’08 Honored in the Inaugural UWire 100 Listing of Collegiate Journalists Former editor for The Student Life Brittney Andres ’08 is being honored as part of the inaugural UWire 100, a new annual list recognizing top collegiate journalists from around the nation. The 100 journalists were chosen from more than 500 nominations submitted by fellow student journalists and instructors at 132 schools. Andres, a Politics major, briefly worked for The Student Life during her freshman year, but really got involved when she became the Life & Style editor her senior year. “I loved being a managing editor,” says Andres, who developed, assigned and edited fashion, food, arts and lifestyle articles. “It’s really the kind of job for someone who’s detail-oriented, likes working with people and really cares about getting these great stories out there.” Her fellow editors had high praise for Andres’ work as a journalist. “While her outstanding journalistic ability is obviously immensely important, it is also necessary to mention that one of Brittney’s most integral qualities to The Student Life is her ability to lead by example,” Editor-in-Chief Rylan Stewart ’10 told UWire. “By engendering a spirit of innovation in the office, Brittney increases our general expectations for writing and creativity.” Andres plans to pursue a career as a managing editor at a newspaper or magazine focusing on hard news. She’s getting started on this track with a summer internship at Mother Jones magazine in San Francisco. The Student Life is the oldest college newspaper in Southern California, and is student-written, managed and published weekly by the Associated Students of Pomona College. UWire is a syndication service for collegiate content; it recently relaunched UWire.com as a career networking community for aspiring journalists. You can view the entire UWire 100 list here. 5/22/08 New Stanley Quad Dedicated on May 17 The new Peter W. Stanley Academic Quadrangle was dedicated on May 17. The quad marks the completion of a multi-year restoration project of Mason, Crookshank and Pearons halls. President David Oxtoby presided over the dedication and provided remarks, as did Stewart R. Smith, chairman of the Board of Trustees, and Peter W. Stanley, president emeritus. During the presidency of Peter W. Stanley (1991 to 2003), the College undertook extensive renovations of many of its historical buildings, including Sumner Hall, the Sontag Greek Theatre, Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music, Pearsons and Carnegie Halls. The dedication of the Stanley Academic Quadrangle acknowledges his commitment to respecting the historic significance of Pomona’s campus when renovating older structures and building new facilities for the College’s future academic needs. During his speech, Stanley recalled his days living with his family in the President’s house and how he would walk the campus daily at least once, if not twice. “I will tell you that the campus, and the people I knew here, became ineradicably a part of me--landscapes of my mind, landscapes of my heart--and that no matter where I am or what I am doing, the warmth of those memories fills my life, every day. It moves me deeply to think that through your generosity in naming the Academic Quadrangle for me.” The redesigned quad is nestled between the three buildings—Pearsons, Mason and Crookshank—and each has its own signature garden space that acts as a transition from the quad to building entrances. The redesign includes the reduction of turf by 5,000 square feet and incorporates drought-tolerant plantings. Outdoor teaching and social spaces are also an integral part of the renovated landscape, including a new pergola, barbecue and small formal lawn area for activities like croquet. A permanent table and seats encourage outdoor classes, while concrete and permeable pavement walkways link adjacent areas. Land Images completed the planning of the Quad, and the project was successfully completed with the assistance of former Pomona College Director of Campus Planning and Maintenance John Giboney and Braeger Construction. Originally built to house the sciences, today Pearsons (1898), Mason (1923) and Crookshank (1922) house several humanities departments. Pearsons houses Classics, Philosophy and Religious Studies; Crookshank houses English and Media Studies; and Mason houses Chinese, French, German, History, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. 5/20/08 Siobhan Finicane '10 Takes Division III Championship, Finishing Up a Stellar Year for Women’s Tennis Sophomore Siobhan Finicane of the Pomona-Pitzer Women's Tennis team won the NCAA Division III singles title at Gustavus Adolphus University in Minnesota, the first singles title for Pomona-Pitzer since 1994. Finicane, who was top-seeded, defeated the fifth-seeded Cary Gibson of Williams 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 to win the title. Rebecca Lange '09 and Women's Tennis Coach Ann Lebedeff were also honored by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association in their Division III national awards, which were announced at a banquet on May 12. Lebedeff, who just this April reached her 500th career win, was named Wilson/ITA Coach of the Year for the nation. Lange was honored with the ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership & Sportsmanship for the Western region, an achievement that recognizes the players who have exhibited outstanding sportsmanship and leadership, as well as scholastic, extracurricular and tennis achievements. This has been a stellar year for the Women's Tennis Team. Pomona-Pitzer ranked fourth in the NCAA Division III team championships; doubles ranking for the individual phase is still to be determined, but Coach Lebedeff predicts that Finicane and her partner Olivia Muesse '10 will land in the national top five. Three players also achieved All-American status for the 2007-08 season: Finicane (singles and doubles), Lange (singles) and Muesse (doubles). The team also beat the University of Redlands twice in both the SCIAC Conference title (which it received in April) and in the NCAA Regional team finals. Finicane was named the MVP for SCIAC Women’s Tennis. Lange and Muesse were first team SCIAC conference, and Kathryn Myers ‘09 was named on the second team conference. “I am so proud of this team's accomplishments. We played one of the toughest schedules in the country, and our improvement from January to May was extraordinary,” says Lebedeff. “For this team to finish in the top four teams (from around 370 NCAA Division III teams in the country) in the nation and to top it off with Siobhan's singles championship makes the 2007-08 season a very memorable one." 5/15/08 Pomona-Pitzer Women's Tennis Team 4th in Nation The Pomona-Pitzer Women’s Tennis team ranked No. 4 nationally after a post-semifinals match against Denison on May 15, which Denison took at 5-2. The Sagehens defeated Bowdoin 5-3 in the NCAA Division III quarterfinals on May 13 at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota, but was defeated 5-2 by Williams in the semifinals on May 14. They then faced Denison on May 15 to determine who would take the third and fourth places. The quarterfinals match was tight with the lead bouncing between Bowdoin and Pomona-Pitzer. According to The Times Record, Bowdoin had a 2-1 lead from doubles pairs, with Siobhan Finicane ‘10 and Olivia Muesse ’10 responsible for the Pomona-Pitzer doubles win. We took the lead with three straight singles wins from Finicane, Muesse and Kasyn Stevenson ‘09. Bowdoin took one more singles win, but Lindsay Clough ’09 led Pomona-Pitzer to victory with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over her Bowdoin opponent. In the semifinal match, Pomona-Pitzer initially led with a 2-1 victory in doubles secured by the teams of Finicane/Muesse and Rebecca Lange/Stevenson. However, Williams secured their overall 5-2 victory with a sweep of the six singles matches. The individual phase of the NCAA Division III championship is occurring May 16 to 18 with the top 32 singles and 16 doubles competing. Finicane was seeded number one for the singles, and is also competing in the doubles portion with her partner Muesse. Lange is also competing in singles. Visit the NCAA.com site for the singles and doubles brackets, and return here on Monday for the championship results.   5/14/08 Women’s Water Polo Wins SCIAC Championship   The Sagehens became back-to-back conference champs with their 8-7 defeat of Cal Lutheran on April 27. The game was tight, with Pomona-Pitzer trailing 7-5 in the fourth quarter. Laura Condon ‘08 and Karen Bonner ’10 each scored in back-to-back possession for a tie, and then Naneh Apkarian ’10 won the game with a final goal with 1:11 left in regulation. Elena Peifer ’09 had eight saves in the victory. Condon and Tamara Perea ’10 (Pitzer) each finished with two goals. This is the second year in a row that the water polo team took the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) title. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps took third place with a defeat over Occidental. 5/1/08 Pomona Goddess Statue to Reside in Organic Farm The goddess Pomona is taking up residence in the Pomona College Organic Farm. Ronald Lee Fleming ’63 commissioned the new marble statue, sculpted by noted artist Mark Mennin, as a reminder that Pomona isn’t just the neighboring city where the College was founded, but also the Roman goddess of orchards, gardens and fruit. “I think that when I was a freshman, almost nobody in my class knew that Pomona was the goddess of the orchard,” says Fleming. “So the intent was to help the [students] understand who Pomona is, so we’d be more grounded in the classical connection to the College.” Fleming had decided to commission a Pomona statue for an American Renaissance water garden he’s building adjacent to Bellevue House, a 1910 Colonial Revival mansion he restored in Newport, Rhode Island. Considering the goddess’s connection to the College, he doubled the order. “The one for Pomona is carved from Carrara marble, which we actually quarried in Carrara, Italy. [We also] had the rough carving done over there, and then it was shipped back to the artists’ studio in Bethlehem, Connecticut,” says Fleming. The 76-by-22-by-22-inch statue is anchored to a 28-by-28-inch green granite base, which is attached to a concrete foundation in the Organic Farm. Fleming suggested the location because of its obvious thematic relation to the goddess, but also because of the garden’s personal significance to his family. “My daughter, [Severine Fleming ‘04], worked very hard on that garden when she was an undergraduate. She tilled that land,” says Fleming. “It’s been a place of love and care by the student body.” President David Oxtoby finds the location appropriate, as well. “It is particularly fitting that this statue of Pomona, goddess of the orchard, will be placed at the Organic Farm, where our students are engaged in the hands-on process of growing food,” says Oxtoby. “I'm delighted by this thoughtful and generous gift from Ron Fleming, which represents his commitment to bringing art to public places where it will engage the College community.” Fleming, an urban planner, preservation and public art advocate, and author, heads the Townscape Institute, a nonprofit organization that’s worked with more than 100 communities to conserve and visually enhance towns through “townscape design.” He’s also kept strong ties to Pomona, which both his parents, plus a few cousins and uncles, attended. He commissioned and donated the Pomona goddess relief and the “Pomona” bronze bas-relief artworks in the Smith Campus Center atrium, and donated funds for James Turrell’s Skyspace. He also contributed the essay “Dusty Sage to Urban Oasis: Reflections on a Place” to the book Pomona College: Reflections on a Campus. 4/25/08 Spring 2008 Fellowship Round-Up The spring is rife with fellowships and grants for Pomona juniors and seniors. Not all fellowship and grant announcements have been made yet, but here's a rundown of what's been announced so far: Thomas J. Watson Fellowships Brendan J. McCollam and Michael Stout were awarded the prestigious Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which provides $25,000 to graduating seniors to follow their research bliss via world travel. Michael Stout ’08, a mathematical economics major, is following his interest in Ultimate Frisbee to South America and Australia to “observe the sport culture and masculinity that surrounds the self-officiated ‘spirit of the game’ ideal of Ultimate [Frisbee].” Stout, who plays on the Claremont College men’s Ultimate Frisbee team, the Braineaters, says he’s looking forward most to the open-endedness of the trip and “throwing myself into completely new and foreign surroundings and seeing what happens. I don’t know much of what I should expect or how I’ll be received or what I’ll find, but that’s the most exciting thing to me.” For McCollam, a neuroscience major, the Watson was a goal as soon as he learned of it; speaking to Watson winner Laurel McFadden ’06 after her trip to the Arctic Circle cinched his desire for the fellowship. McCollam plans to travel to The Netherlands, Germany, France, Croatia, Slovenia, Mexico, Argentina and Chile to study the free software movement for his project, “Coding the Revolution: Discovering a Radical Philosophy in Free Software.” McCollam has always been interested in computers—he’s worked in ITS—but a recent use of the Linux OS led to his interest in “free software and the philosophy behind it. The groups [I’m going to visit and work with] are involved in various ways with developing or promoting free software and, in some cases, general technology-focused activism.” McCollam plans to apply for grad school upon his return from his trip. Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color Ikeisha Daniels and Candice McCray received the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color. Awarded to only 25 juniors nationwide each year, the fellowship includes financial support for a master’s degree and teaching credential, funding for an independent summer project and conference between junior and senior year, and loan forgiveness for the first three years of teaching in public schools. Daniels is a double major in history and Black studies from Chicago. She is a member of Pomona’s first Posse group, and is currently studying abroad in Durban, South Africa. McCray, a Black studies major from Los Angeles, plans to teach junior high English or history. “Teaching has always been something I was passionate about. Also, I realize that there is a strong need for teachers of color in our schools,” says McCray. “Teaching is my way of giving back to the community and being an agent for change, and it’s a profession where my politics and personality can meet. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program Current students Ian Frank ’08, Bob Rawle 08 and Dan Hickstein ’07 have all been offered National Science Foundation awards for graduate study in their respective fields (physics for Frank, and chemistry for Rawle and Hickstein). Hickstein is currently completing his year as a Churchill Scholar at Cambridge University. Frank plans on doing his graduate studies at Harvard, Rawle at Standford, and Hickstein at University of Colorado at Boulder. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship provides three years of support for graduate study in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Eight Pomona alumni already enrolled in Ph.D. programs also received NSF awards. These alumni include: --Peter Cook '03, cognitive psychology, UC Santa Cruz --Peter Douglas '05, geological sciences, Yale --Jessica Hammock '04, science education, Emory --Diana Khuu '07, sociology, University of Pennsylvania --Erica Lanni '06, organic chemistry, University of Michigan --Tyler Moore '04, quantitative psychology, UCLA --Audra Nemir '05, environmental engineering, UC Berkeley --Kristen Skovbroten '06, psycholinguistics, University of Rochester Three current Pomona students received honorable mentions: Laura Rosen '08 (molecular biology), James Tener '08 (mathematics), and Laura Enriquez '08 (sociology and history). Seven Pomona alumni already enrolled in their Ph.D. programs also received honorable mentions: Emily Knouf '07 (molecular biology, University of Washington), Karen Ring '07 (biomedical sciences, UC San Francisco), Daniel Kleinman '06 (psycholinguistics, UC San Diego), Emily Barkley-Levenson '06 (cognitive neuroscience, UCLA), Lauren Shaw '06 (public policy, UC Davis),  James McFarland '06 (biophysics, Brown University), and Anna Motschenbacher '03 (biogeochemistry, UC Berkeley). 4/22/08 Academy-Award Winning Director Alex Gibney to Speak at Commencement on May 18th Film is on the program for the 115th Pomona College Commencement to be held on May 18. Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney will deliver the keynote address, and Peter Stanley, Pomona College’s eighth president; composer and conductor Esa Pekka-Salonen; and Professor Ingrid Rowland ’74 will also speak briefly. Alex Gibney won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary for his film Taxi to the Dark Side, which follows the story of a taxi driver picked up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Gibney wrote, directed and produced the film, a triple duty he also performed on the Oscar-nominated film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and the upcoming Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. He has also served as a producer on several films, including No End in Sight and Who Killed the Electric Car? Gibney is the son of the late Frank Gibney, who founded Pomona’s Pacific Basin Institute. Peter Stanley served as Pomona’s president from 1991 to 2003. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Harvard University and was a Frank Knox Memorial Fellow at Jesus College, Cambridge University. Prior to working at Pomona, Dr. Stanley taught American and American-East Asian History at Harvard and the University of Illinois, Chicago; served as dean of the college at Carleton College; and headed the The Ford Foundation’s Education and Culture Program. Currently, Dr. Stanley is the vice president of executive search firm Isaacson, where he helps to identify and recruit leaders for colleges and art institutions. Award-winning composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen has served as musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 1992 and, for the 2008-09 season, will be the principal conductor and artistic advisor for the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. During his tenure at the L.A. Phil, the orchestra has established itself at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and held residencies at the Salzburg Festival, the Köln Philharmonic, and the Théâtre du Châtlet in Paris. Salonen also has an extensive recorded discography of both his own works and pieces by other composers, including Schumann and Mahler. Ingrid D. Rowland ’74 is a professor at the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture in Rome. She received her undergraduate degree in classics from Pomona and went on to earn her M.A. and Ph.D. in Greek Literature and Classical Archeology from Bryn Mawr. Rowland has been a professor at several universities, including UCLA, UC Irvine, Columbia University and The University of Chicago. She has also written several books, including The Scarith of Scornello: A Tale of Renaissance Forgery, From Heaven to Arcadia: The Sacred and the Profane in the Renaissance and the upcoming Caravaggio in One Square Mile. Rowland is also a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Additionally, film director Sylvain White ’98 will be on campus to speak at Class Day, a day of celebration for all seniors, their families and friends, which occurs on May 17. White directed the 2007 film Stomp the Yard. While at Pomona, he founded Studio 47 to create news and programming to air on the cable access channel at The Claremont Colleges. Pomona College Magazine profile on Peter Stanley Pomona College Magazine profile on Sylvain White 4/18/08 Tennis Coach Ann Lebedeff Reaches 500th Victory Pomona-Pitzer head women’s tennis coach Ann Lebedeff reached a career milestone last Saturday with her 500th victorious career tennis match. The milestone was realized with a 7-0 win over conference foe Caltech. Lebedeff only recently realized she was coming up on this milestone when the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, of which she’s a board member, began asking long-time coaches about their records. She then started gathering her stats and crunching numbers, but didn't actually realize the 500th victory happened until after it passed. For Lebedeff, however, people are more important than numbers. ”The whole thing about coaching and milestones is really about the people you [coach], the people you affect and how they affect you,” says Lebedoff. In a career that spans more than 30 years and three divisions, Coach Lebedeff has established herself as one of the finest coaches in the country, succeeding at the University of Arizona (1977-1985), Cal Poly Pomona (1989-98), and Pomona-Pitzer (1998-present). At Division I University of Arizona, Lebedeff's overall record was 140-102, a 58-percent winning record. At Cal Poly Pomona, Coach Lebedeff went 160-72 with the women's team, capturing the 1991 and 1992 Division II NCAA Championships. From 1993-98, Lebedeff also coached the Cal Poly men's team, going 70-43 during that span. Most recently, at Pomona-Pitzer, Lebedeff has gone 130-88, capturing the SCIAC title four times, and advancing to the team portion of the Division III Women's Tennis National Championships seven times in 10 years. Lebedeff received her B.A. in Nutrition and M.A. in Exercise Science from San Diego State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Athletic Administration and Higher Education from the University of Southern California. A former nationally ranked junior and collegiate player, Lebedeff won numerous national doubles titles, including the 1974 USTA National Women's Intercollegiate Doubles title, the 1970 New Zealand Women's Doubles Championship, and the U.S. Amateur Clay and Grass Courts Doubles titles in 1972. As a coach and professor, Lebedeff has received many awards, including NCAA Coach of the Year Awards (1990, 1992, 2001), Coach of the Decade for Division II Women's Tennis, and a Tennis Educational Merit Award in 1999. 4/18/08 Pomona Sophomore Headed to the DNC as a Pledged Delegate This year’s presidential election is bringing out the political activism in younger voters and the Pomona campus is no different, as evidenced by the sidewalk chalk declarations of support for candidates found on campus during the primaries in February. One Pomona sophomore has taken her activism to the next level by becoming a pledged delegate for the Hillary Clinton campaign. “I was at one of the wonderful informal talks that the Political Department gives in the Doms Social Room and Professor [Susan] McWilliams said to us, ‘You know you guys can run for delegate, too,’” says Rachel Pelham ’10, a public policy analysis major. “That took me aback because we students are so used to observing the political process from a distances that it rarely occurs to us to think about taking a more active role.” Pelham starting becoming more active around the time of the primaries, attending meetings of the Democrats of the Claremont Colleges club and gathering a small group of Clinton supporters to raise Clinton's profile on campus. To become a pledged delegate, Pelham applied to the California Democratic Party to represent Congressional District 26. “Each district votes for a certain number of delegates to go and represent them at the [Democratic] National Convention, pledged to one candidate or the other,” says Pelham. The caucus to determine the district’s representatives was held last Saturday at Scripps. Pelham will attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, and also has to travel to Sacramento to be sworn in in person. She hopes to find funding through Pomona and may also fundraise from other sources to pay for the trips. There was some surprise from the local Democratic Party at Pelham’s youthful age of 20, as other candidates were significantly older, but Pelham says she likely won’t be the only young person at the DNC. “This year has seen a wave of young people running to go to the convention, from all across the nation, which I am really excited about," says Pelham. “As a student, it’s important to me that when party leaders look out at the convention floor, they see young faces out there who have made the effort to run and get elected, showing that students are finally ready to shed our apathy and become a dynamic voting bloc within their party.” 4/17/08 Clarence Lee '57 Designs 2008 Summer Olympics Postage Stamp Clarence Lee ’57 has put his own personal stamp on the 2008 summer Olympics with his design of the United States Postal Service’s commemorative stamp—his third such venture for the USPS. Lee, who was an art history major at Pomona, was first approached by the USPS in 1992 to design a Chinese Lunar New Year stamp for the Year of the Rooster. “It was to be just one stamp,” says Lee, “but the financial success of that stamp made the postal service develop all 12 Lunar New Year stamps.” Lee was called on again in 1994 to design a joint issue stamp from the United States and China; the stamp featured a crane, an endangered species in both countries. The Olympic stamp was a collaboration for Lee, his design company’s staff, illustrator Katie Doka and art director Carl Hermann. “I was directly involved with selection of colors; refinement of the artwork; and selection, size and position of type,” says Lee. “[I] was [also] in close contact with Carl Hermann and the USPS for their comments and final approval.” Many types of athletes were considered for the central image, but ultimately, “the leaping gymnast worked well in the horizontal shape of the stamp and was positive and uplifting.” The stamp has yet to be released but Lee is hazarding a guess that it will coincide with the opening of the Olympics on 08/08/08. Lee transferred to Yale after his first two years at Pomona, but Pomona remains close to his heart. Renowned local artist and Scripps professor Millard Sheets was an early influence during Lee’s time at Pomona. “I saw some of his calendar watercolors from Pan Am airways and thought I could follow in his success,” recalls Lee. “I tried to fit his art classes into my Pomona courses, but it was not meant to be.” After graduating Yale, Lee worked on the East Coast for a few years, but returned to his home state of Hawaii where he established his own design firm in 1966. Over the years, Lee has been a recipient of many prestigious awards, including the KOA Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts (2001) and a Living Treasure in Hawai’i award (2000). Lee recently retired after selling his firm to a Japanese corporation. Lee often returns to Pomona for reunions, including his 50th reunion last year, and he still counts his Pomona roommate Peter Newman ’57 and Peter’s wife Mary ’59 as close friends and traveling partners. 3/31/08 Drew Hedman ’09 Named NCAA Division III Hitter of the Week First baseman Drew Hedman ’09 received props for his hits from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association who named Hedman the third NCAA Division III National Hitter of the Week for March 17 to 23. According to Pomona’s Athletics website, Hedman, a lefty-swinging junior from Redding, Calif., went 10-17 with five home runs, 13 RBIs, 10 runs scored and 26 total bases in the Sagehens’ 4-0 week. He had a .588 batting average, a 1.529 slugging percentage, and a .619 on base percentage. In a 7-6 win against Menlo College, he went 2-4 with a home run and three RBIs. In the team’s 14-12 win over Wesleyan University, he went 3-5 with a double, home run, and two RBIs. Against Rutgers-Newark, while going 0-2, he managed to tally an RBI, helping his team to an 8-7 win. Against Massachusetts-Dartmouth, in a 14-5 win, Hedman went 5-6 with three home runs and seven RBIs. The Pomona-Pitzer baseball team is having an excellent season with a 21-4 overall record and an 8-1 SCIAC record thus far.   3/18/08 KSPC Plans for Reception Improvement With New Antenna Location The KSPC antenna is heading for the hills in an effort to improve the station’s broadcast signal. Last month, the FCC approved the move of the antenna from its current location near Seaver Theatre to a tower located in the Claremont hills near Padua. Plans for this improvement date back to the 1980s, says Erica Tyron, director of college radio and television. Her predecessor, Julie Frick, had researched and tested the idea of moving the antenna, but “apparently it wasn’t feasible at the time for a number of reasons," says Tyron. Last summer, it was learned that the FCC was opening up the opportunity for new FM station applications in California. “If we didn’t apply to change KSPC’s existing transmission location prior to October," says Tyron, "we might have lost the opportunity to ever move—new stations would have boxed KSPC’s signal in to limited locations.” The move, which involves the $40,000 replacement of the antenna, transformer and transmission system, will clear up reception for listeners in the current 35-mile transmission radius, but won’t extend the radius. “It will improve KSPC’s overall broadcast penetration, rather than expanding it very much,” says Tyron. “Also, just the replacement of the transmitting equipment and antenna will improve reception, as the new equipment will work far more efficiently and effectively.” Other costs associated with the move include a monthly rental fee for tower space from American Tower Corporation and electricity expenses. “These items were requested as part of the equipment and alternations budgeting process last December for FY 2008-09,” says Tyron. “We have received unofficial confirmation that the E&A requests were approved.” A specific date for the move hasn’t been set yet. The FCC did grant a construction permit in early March, but the station is still in the process of filing for a new broadcast license from the new location and negotiating terms for the tower rental. KSPC broadcasts 24/7 at 88.7 FM and online at www.kspc.org. In 2006, the station celebrated its 50th anniversary. Articles on KSPC’s 50th anniversary and history: "Radio Days," "Radio on the Left of the Dial" and "Radio Archeology"   3/3/08 Sagehens Claim SCIAC Championship, Headed to NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament On Saturday night, Jabarri Reynolds ’08 and David Brown ’08 led their teammates to a rousing overtime victory of 55-53 against CMS, paving the way for participation in the NCAA Division III tournament. Brown, a guard, led Pomona-Pitzer with 17 points, including five three-pointers, while wing Reynolds scored 12 points and secured the victory with a free throw in overtime. According to head men’s basketball coach and athletic director Charlie “Coach Kat” Katsiaficas, until last year, the team with the best Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) regular season record received the automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament. But last year, SCIAC determined that the top four teams would qualify for a post-season tournament to decide who would receive the automatic qualifying bid. Pomona-Pitzer, which finished third this year, defeated second-place Cal Lutheran last Friday. CMS, which finished fourth, beat top team Occidental also on Friday. This led to Saturday’s showdown in front of a capacity crowd at Voelkel Gymnasium. “The guys competed extremely hard,” says Coach Katsiaficas. “It was a great atmosphere, the crowd was alive, and it was a really fun game to be in.” This is the team’s 13th appearance at nationals, and the ninth appearance in the past 15 years, according to sports information director Ben Belletto. Coach Katsiaficas has led the team 12 times to nationals. Pomona-Pitzer will play the first NCAA tournament game this coming Thursday at Occidental, which received a wildcard into the tournament. Six games must be won to receive the entire Division III championship. The game bracket has been posted on the Pomona-Pitzer athletics web site (PDF). Update 3/7/08: Pomona-Pitzer lost to Occidental on March 6 by just one point, and are out of the NCAA tournament.   2/29/08 Pomona College responds to U.S. Senate Committee on Finance request for information In response to a request from the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, Pomona President David Oxtoby has submitted information to Senators Max Baucus and Charles Grassley on Pomona College's endowments, financial aid and college costs. "All of our financial planning and decision making is designed to assure that the intentions of our founders and benefactors are protected in perpetuity, at the same time that we challenge ourselves to do everything we can to provide a superior education for the students who are here today," says President Oxtoby in the letter. "This balance between serving today’s students and guaranteeing the same for tomorrow’s students is our legacy, and our financial management policies are designed to protect that legacy." The entire response, which includes data on tuition costs, scholarships awarded and endowment management, is available online (PDF).   2/26/08 Artist Milford Zornes ’34 passed away February 24 Respected watercolor painter Milford Zornes ’34 passed away on February 24 in his Claremont home, almost one month after his 100th birthday. Highlights of the prolific landscape artist’s 80-year career include serving as president of the California Water Color Society and having his painting, Old Adobe, selected by President Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to hang in the White House. Arizona Evening is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other examples of his work can be found in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the Butler Institute of American Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He also taught for a time at Pomona College. While Zornes’ vision had been crippled by 20 years of macular degeneration, he still painted nearly every day, relying on his memories and sketchbooks. As he shared with Pomona College Magazine in a recent profile, ““[Blindness means] allowing myself the freedom of not necessarily being accurate to the subject, but being accurate to my feeling about the subject.” Zornes’ family told the Daily Bulletin that no services will be held, as they considered his 100th birthday party “the perfect ending to a life well-lived.” Pomona College Magazine profile of Milford Zornes Daily Bulletin obituary  L.A. Times obituary Claremont Courier obituary   1/30/08 Pomona Math Professor Earns Spot on Scientific American’s Annual SciAm 50 The real-world application of Assistant Professor of Mathematics Vin de Silva’s latest theorem has garnered him and his research partner a place on Scientific American’s 2007 SciAm 50 awards list, an annual recognition of 50 science, research and industry individuals who led important advances that year. Working within the mathematical field of algebraic topology, de Silva assigns a shape to a series of points and can then determine where those shapes overlap and where there are gaps. This knowledge can be applied to wireless sensors that, as Scientific American explains, do anything from detect chemical weapons to monitor moisture in soil. In the future, de Silva says, it could also affect to robotic sensors on unknown terrain. Mathematics professor Robert Ghrist of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign worked with de Silva on the project. The collaboration began when Ghrist and de Silva met at a 2004 conference in Canada; de Silva’s topology knowledge was the type of mathematics Ghrist needed for work he was doing with the robotics community. The relationship between de Silva’s math and Ghrist’s robotics-field contacts is ideal, says de Silva: “It could be that we proved our theorem and it got buried and nobody used it. We wanted the robotics people to be aware that these kinds of [mathematical] techniques exist, and we want the mathematicians to be aware that their work can apply [to fields like robotics.]” Professor de Silva is continuing to hone the project: “The initial theorems will give you a sense of whether a broadcast signal covers a whole region. The next refinement might be if you have a huge surplus of sensors, the same methods will tell you [that] you can switch off some—the ones you keep on are enough.” After that, de Silva and Ghrist want to develop a protocol that allows sensors to repair small gaps in coverage if one sensor shuts off accidentally. SciAm 50 in Scientific American   12/12/07 Pomona College Replaces Loans with Scholarships, Eliminates Student Debt Pomona's Board of Trustees approved the elimination of loans in financial aid packages on Wednesday, Dec. 12. Those amounts will be replaced by scholarships, effective 2008-09, and this financial aid change will apply to both current and future students. “Pomona College has a long-standing tradition of accessibility,” noted a pleased Pomona College President David W. Oxtoby. “We already admit students without regard to financial need and meet the full need of every accepted applicant. This change will allow us to more directly address misperceptions about the affordability of a Pomona education and to remove any impact of student debt on students’ career choices.” Currently, 53 percent of Pomona’s students receive some financial aid, with 10 percent of the current freshman class already receiving financial aid packages with no loan component. In 2007-08, Pomona will spend approximately $21.6 million of college funds on scholarships. The College estimates that the new policy will cost an additional $2.3 million per year. “The elimination of loans from financial aid packages is another step in Pomona’s concerted efforts to ensure that a Pomona College education remains accessible to and supportive of all qualified students,” notes Patricia Coye, director of financial aid. In each of the last 20 years, more than 50 percent of Pomona students have received financial aid. Since 1988, financial aid packages for students with the most financial need have not included loans during the students’ first two years of study. For the last five years, Pomona College has increased financial aid spending by $1 million or more each year. In recent years, Pomona College has also increased its recruiting efforts among high-achieving, lower-income students. Additional admissions officers were hired to focus on under-represented students and partnerships with the Questbridge Program and the Posse Foundation were added to longstanding relationships with A Better Chance, the Center for Student Opportunity, College Match (Los Angeles), the Fulfillment Fund (Los Angeles), Prep for Prep (NYC), Young Black Scholars of Los Angeles, the Teak Scholars Foundation (NY), and the local Bright Prospects Program, among others. To reach out to the surrounding community, Pomona began its own college prep program in 2003 for local, low-income high school students, the Summer Scholars Enrichment Program. The no-cost, four-year program provides a core curriculum focused on math, critical thinking and writing skills, taught by Pomona faculty, and workshops on admissions and financial aid. Two classes of students have graduated through the program, and all are now attending college.   12/7/07 College wins Claremont's first gold award for green-friendly buildings Pomona College has won gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Program for the design and construction of its Lincoln and Edmunds Buildings. Pomona College earned its first LEED certification, a silver, for the Richard C. Seaver Biology Building which opened in 2005. For Pomona College President David Oxtoby, “The gold award is fantastic. It’s wonderful recognition of Pomona’s commitment to be better citizens and to do what we can to reduce Pomona’s environmental footprint.” The adjacent Lincoln and Edmunds buildings span a combined 92,000 square feet at the northern end of campus and opened in January 2007. Their green-friendly features include: a photovoltaic system, which can provide up to 22.4 percent of the building’s power; operable windows; waterless urinals; and high efficiency lighting. Construction involved the elimination of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) and halon refrigerants as well as the use of recycled materials and rapidly renewable materials, such as bamboo flooring used in parts of the buildings. The buildings, which cost $40 million, were designed by the firm DMJM Design in Los Angeles and built by Hathaway Dinwiddie. They provide research space and teaching facilities for Computer Science, Environmental Analysis, Linguistics and Cognitive Science, Geology, Neuroscience, Psychology, and three intercollegiate departments—Asian American Studies, Black Studies and Chicano/a Studies. More about the gold award 10 things to do in Lincoln and Edmunds   11/20/07 Magic moment: Ballroom dance company's Harry Potter-themed performance wins national competition -- for sixth year The Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company this weekend took first place in the formation event at the National Collegiate Dancesport Championships in Columbus, Ohio, performing a Harry Potter-themed standard medley to a standing ovation. It was the team's sixth victory in the formation event, which mixes tango, waltz, foxtrot and other dances. “They kept complimenting us out the door – judges, contestants,’’ says Paul Roach ’07, who is in his first year as director of the company. “We had people from other colleges asking us how we run our program.” The decade-old dance company has 80 members and draws hundreds more participants to its campus events. Countless hours went into rehearsals for the national competition. "It's pretty exciting when you get into a tailsuit and you dance and people applaud," says Joshua Leavitt '10. "Everyone is cheering and it feels so good and you realize 'yes, I can dance." More ...   11/14/07 Sagehen celebration: Men's water polo lands championship The men's water polo team on Sunday captured its first SCIAC Championship since 1980  with a 13-10 win over the University of Redlands. This is the third SCIAC Championship in the Pomona-Pitzer program's history (1967, 1980) and the first for Head Coach Alex Rodriguez. The victories began on Friday, when the Sagehens defeated La Verne 10-6 in the first round of competition. Ryan Balikan, Mark D'Avino, and David Mock each scored two goals, while Keeper Grant Cooper recorded seven saves. In the second round, Pomona-Pitzer escaped with a 12-11 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. After trailing 7-5 at the half, the Sagehen's pulled ahead in the fourth period, sparked by three goals each from Balikan and Field Garthwaite. Cooper held down the net with six saves. Against Redlands in the finals, the Sagehens were facing a team that they had lost to earlier in the season, and the host institution. These factors didn't faze Pomona-Pitzer as the team clung to a 5-4 halftime lead. The final score was 13-10. Ben Hadley led the Sagehens in scoring with 3 goals, and seven others contributed in the scoring; Grant Cooper tallied 8 saves.   10/1/07 New book covers a lot of ground, chronicling the history and architecture of Pomona's arches-and-ivy campus. Three years in the making, Pomona College: Reflections on a Campus offers readers a mix of thoughtful essays, artful photography and fascinating historical background. This new, 192-page book by Marjorie Harth, director emerita of the Pomona College Museum of Art,  covers the campus as place, from the 1887 founding to today. With 169 color and 59 black and white images -- including archival photos and new images by photographer Henry Cabala -- and essays by noted authors Ron Fleming ¹63 and Verlyn Klinkenborg ¹74 and Professor of Art George Gorse, the book chronicles the campus' transformation from a patch of desert scrub to a ³college in a garden.² Sure to stir memories, the book tells the story of Pomona's elegant buildings and idyllic green spaces, from Marston Quadrangle to Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music. Pomona College: Reflections on a Campus is available for purchase online from the Pomona College Coop Store.   9/28/07 First-ever Claremont Colleges Wall Street Weekend will bring top finance experts to campus Expected to attract hundreds of students, faculty and alumni from a cross-section of the business sector, the first-ever Claremont Colleges Wall Street Weekend, set for Oct. 12-13, is intended to help the Claremont finance community build bonds instead of simply selling them. The student-run event was dreamed up more than a year ago by a small group of Claremont Colleges students interested in finance who wanted to draw from the extensive network of business professionals with links to the colleges. Organizers have worked to create an opportunity for everyone interested in finance to come together and explore new possibilities. “We’re getting a lot of support,” said Geoffrey Lewis ’08, one of the organizers For returning alumni, the event will begin with a welcome dinner and reception on the evening of Friday, Oct. 12. Students and faculty will join in the morning of Saturday, Oct. 13 with a breakfast, panel sessions and networking period in Pomona’s Edmunds Ballroom. The Hedge Fund Panel will be comprised of Scott Barker (Pomona ’87), a portfolio manager with Analytic Investors, Inc. , Dana Hobson (Harvey Mudd ’85), senior vice president of Bailard  and Peter G. Sasaki (Pomona ’91), the founder and managing member of Logo Capital Management, LLC. The Private Equity Panel will include Paul S. Efron (Pomona ’77), advisory director at Goldman Sachs, Kristin Horne (Pomona ’93), managing director at Morgan Stanley  and James A. Quella, senior managing director and senior operating partner of Blackstone’s Private Equity Group. Harry McMahon, vice chairman of Merrill Lynch and Claremont McKenna alumnus, will deliver the keynote speech to participants at the Claremont Athenaeum during lunch. Organizers hope the events will provide students with good insight into career possibilities in the finance industry. “It’ll give students a sense of what 5-C alums go off and do,” Lewis said. -- Travis Kaya '10 Wall Street Weekend event details   9/20/07 Film buff Alex Glassmann '10 reviews Claremont's new movie theatre With many businesses already open, workers are close to completing the long-awaited expansion of the Claremont Village west of Indian Hill Boulevard, bringing new restaurants, shops, a boutique hotel and the town's first movie house in nearly 30 years. The Laemmle Theatres opened this summer, bringing a mix of indie and foreign films to town, along with a few mainstream Hollywood hits. We sent film buff Alex Glassmann '10 to review everything but the movie: "Although the five-screen Laemmle isn't huge by L.A. standards, it offers everything that bigger complexes do. The lobby has a large concession stand, with what looks like the usual movie fare (I didn’t have time to buy anything since I was rushing from class to get to the last matinee showing of 3:10 to Yuma). The seats are up to industry standards – plush and comfortable, with arm rests that flip up should you wish to sprawl out. The screen was impressive considering the size of the building, and, thankfully, the projector was not the low-resolution LCD that many newer theatres have. The sound was the most impressive part. Rarely does a moviegoer encounter well-tuned speakers – they're either too loud or too soft. Laemmle didn't go cheap – whispers were clean and crisp and gunshots (and there were a lot of them) came through powerfully without killing your ears." More about the Village expansion   9/20/07 Douglas Preston '78's latest thriller hits New York Times bestseller list The Wheel of Darkness, the latest in the series of thrillers written by Douglas Preston '78 and Lincoln Child, has landed on the New York Times and other bestseller lists. In the tale, FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast visits a Tibetan monastery from which a mysterious relic has been stolen. The quest to get it back leads him on a cruise ship voyage wrought with danger and death. Eighth in a series, The Wheel of Darkness recently reached No. 2 on the New York Times hardcover fiction list and now is at No. 4. The book made it to No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's list.  Preston's brother, Richard Preston '76, also is a well-known writer (The Hot Zone, The Cobra Event) and Pomona College alumnus. His most recent non-fiction book, The Wild Trees, was a New York Times bestseller, too. From the archives: More about the Prestons   9/7/07 Summer projects allow students to delve deeper into research interests. Through the Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) and various other grants, Pomona students have the opportunity to spend summer studying a topic of personal interest or working closely with a professor. After spending much time in the library, lab and the field, more than 100 student researchers presented their findings at the College’s 20th Annual Summer Research Poster Conference Sept. 6. Here’s a sampling: • Michael Carlson ’08 read pirates’ trial records and personal narratives from the 16th to 18th centuries in order to learn about how these swashbucklers constructed their social relationships, divided labor and functioned as instruments of imperialism. His conclusions: At the base of piracy was the unique system of labor oriented around intense cooperative physical labor that forced unity and egalitarianism despite differing functions and hierarchy on board vessels. • Kayleigh Kaneshiro ’10 researched the effects of the sodium benzoate on schizophrenics and learned that it increases certain levels of amino acids and enhances NMDA neurotransmissions, ultimately benefiting schizophrenic patients. Her research is intended to direct pharmaceutical companies toward improving the treatments available for these patients. • Nathan Gardner ’10 traveled to China, where he conducted interviews and examined the effect of institutional discrimination on the availability of education for migrant children in the big cities. He found that while a general xenophobic attitude is present in places like Beijing and Shanghai, the situation is complicated by poor information dissemination, a national government out of touch with its people and corruption in unexpected places. -- Julie Trescott '08   8/15/07 Pomona's admissions dean appears in Newsweek, fields questions in live online chat. Vice President and Dean of Admissions Bruce Poch wrote an essay titled "The Search for Authenticity: A Leading Admissions Dean Explains What Colleges Really Want"  that appears in the Aug. 20 issue of Newsweek. "Our job is to make sure the students who attend our institutions are really who they appear to be, and that they will give and take something of value in the college's educational environment,'' writes Poch. " What we ask for in an application may seem like a lot, but students should know that we're acting in their best interests." Poch, who frequently is quoted in the media, also fielded questions on topics ranging from financial aid to SATs to "gap" years  in a live online chat for the magazine.  More admissions tips from Poch   7/24/07 Arctic adventure: Pomona researchers spend summer hard at work on windswept Norwegian fjord. Pomona Biology Professor Nina Karnovsky, accompanied by a trio of student researchers, is back at work in the Arctic Circle this summer and blogging about it. Assisted by Nell Balwin '09, Derek Buchner '09 and Zachary Brown '07, Karnosky is continuing her research into how climate change may affect the feeding ecology of an obscure arctic bird known as the little auk. The Pomona researchers are staying on a windswept Norwegian island -- far north of the mainland -- at a Polish research station that hosts a variety of international scientists. The research involves long days measuring and observing the birds, but the students have found time for a midnight swim in the icy waters. This is the third summer Karnosky has brought students to this same arctic base for research, and they have a habit of falling in love with the arctic's barren beauty. Laurel McFadden '06 went on the land a Watson Fellowship to travel the arctic for a year, a journey she is near completing, according to her blog. Meanwhile, Allison Bailey '07 received a Fulbright research grant to study at the university in Longyearbyen -- the same island where the Polish research station is located -- where she’ll look at the relationship between migrating geese and plants of the tundra and how they are affected by climate change. Research team blog   7/16/07 Claremont hits No. 5 on Money magazine's list of "America's Best Places to Live." Touting Claremont as a "tight-knit community with topnotch schools," Money magazine has named this suburban town to No. 5 on its annual list of "America's best places to live." No California city ranked higher. The magazine says: "Thirty miles east of Los Angeles, Claremont came into its own in the early 20th century after the founding of Pomona College. Streets were named after prestigious East Coast schools, and residents were encouraged to plant trees. Today, Claremont is called the City of Trees and Ph.D.s. The city has won the National Arbor Day Foundation's Tree City USA award for 19 straight years, and Pomona is part of a prestigious consortium known as the Claremont Colleges. The downtown is a mix of hip boutiques and old-school businesses. And the historic College Heights Lemon Packing House is now home to the Claremont Art Museum, restaurants, a jazz bar and artists' lofts ... " See Money magazine's list