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The events of Sept. 11 were still in the future when CMC rolled
back into the crisp pace of a new school year with a new class of
262 freshmen and an orientation week packed with activities and
events to welcome the Class of 2005.
For those enrolled in this year’s Wilderness Orientation Adventure
(WOA!), a program designed to help ease the transition to college
life through shared experiences in the best of California’s wilderness,
the excitement of beginning college got underway even before Orientation
Week. The late-August program typically attracts between 70 and
80 freshmen and transfer students, but this year set records with
131 participants enjoying itineraries throughout the Golden State.
Adventures included beach camping at Catalina Island and Montana
de Oro State Park; canoeing down the Colorado River; camping, backpacking,
and rock climbing in Yosemite and Sequoia national parks; and, for
those whose idea of adventure has a more urban setting, a four-day
tour of Los Angeles that included baseball games, TV show tapings,
and roughing it on Rodeo Drive.
For full story, see: www.claremontmckenna.edu/news/insidecmc/2001october/woa/
Back on campus, the Class of 2005 began a busy Orientation Week
to the cheering of family, friends, and faculty, when pronounced
by Richard Vos, dean of admission and financial aid, as the “best
and brightest students ever to enroll at CMC.” With an eye toward
the history of CMC, it is well-noted that this is also the first
class in which women outnumber men, 53 percent to 47 percent appropriately
enough as the College celebrates the silver anniversary of coeducation.
Days later, at the fall Convocation ceremonies, there were more
causes for celebration as faculty in their robed attire lined up
on Garrison’s stage for a program highlighting student, faculty,
and staff achievements. Following welcoming remarks from President
Pamela Gann, awards went to Truman Scholarship
winner Megan Nelson ‘02; Professor
Audrey Bilger (Roy P. Crocker Award for Merit); Professor
Stephen Davis (Presidential Award for Merit); Professor
David Sadava (The G. David Huntoon Senior Teaching Award);
and Professor Marc Massoud P’89 (The Glenn
R. Huntoon Award for Superior Teaching), who has won the award nine
times.
This prompted William Ascher, dean of the faculty,
to remark that Massoud has won the Huntoon so often that “only
his accounting students can count that high.” Several faculty
and staff also were applauded for their years of service to CMC,
highlighted by President Gann’s presentation of a commemorative
chair to Collins Dining Hall employee Cheva Garica, who weighed
in with 50 years of service at CMC – completed without a single
sick day.
In other back-to-school news, the College’s Reserve Officer
Training Corps unit observed a changing of the guard of its own
as Lt. Col. Kevin Arnold, retiring from the military,
handed over command of cadets to Lt. Col. Michael Murphy.
With 20 years invested in his Army career, Murphy’s first connection
to CMC came when he briefed four-star Gen. William Crouch
’63, who was then vice chief of staff, on security
at Tuzla Airbase in Bosnia. And despite the new designation of “retired”
following Kevin Arnold’s military title, he’s still active
at CMC, having recently joined the Kravis Leadership Institute as
leadership educator.
The CMC life was summed up by President Gann during her convocation
remarks to the Class of 2005, when she encouraged freshmen to “be
joiners and participate. Be self-aware, but see the differences
between yourself and others,” she said. “Get to know members
of the community. You’re joining a broader community and I
want you to feel at home in it.”
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President Pamela Gann, moments before Concovation 2001-2002
New ROTC commander, Lt. Col. Mike Murphy, and cadets.
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