Dear Friends:
What a moment for Claremont McKenna College!
Impossible to capture in these pages.
From the powerful programming at the Athenaeum to the ground-breaking accomplishments of our Open Academy. From the prowess of our scholar-leader-athletes in CMS Athletics to the leadership legacy of women—and our upcoming celebration of them—over five decades of co-education at CMC. From the construction of the Roberts Campus Sports Bowl, with fields and facilities expected to be ready for play in the next academic year, to our biggest milestone from this fall semester, the breathtaking dedication of the Robert Day Sciences Center on September 26.
To give you a glimpse of just one moment from the dedication, I looked up at our beautiful community, shoulder-to-shoulder on the Social Stairs and peering down from three floors up to thank everyone. While soaking in this entire journey, I tried to capture what it meant for all of us:
The Robert Day Sciences Center is a jaw-dislocating facility. A Claremont McKenna College jewel. A gem for the ages.
The home for our revolutionary Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences. The first of its kind in the world. Organized around grand challenges (health, brain, planet), not siloed departments; just-in-time, project-based learning (not just-in-case); literacy in coding and AI, in the context of science problems in society; independent research throughout; integrations of economics, policy, and ethics; collaborative problem-solving; externally facing leadership contributions to business, government, and the professions. A program for every student.
This is a new CMC home for all of you.
A place to learn at the intersection of powerful thinking and purposeful action. A place to solve problems and put the solutions to the test. A place to read, study, or build friendships over an espresso or acai bowl.
As Damián Ortega said, this is “not just a building.” It is a “magnetic field of knowledge, ideas, and people coming together.”
We dedicate this center, the Robert Day Sciences Center, a launching pad for the CMC rocket now piercing the sky in increasingly steep trajectory. To all those who came before us. To those we’ve lost. Especially Robert Day ’65 P’12 and Tom Neff ’76 P’21. To Presidents George C.S. Benson P'61 and Jack Stark '57 GP'11 and Pamela Gann. To every CMC faculty member of our championed past. To every alum and their parents and families.
Especially to our founding students, almost all of them vets, who stood in a long line to sign up for our College, nearly 80 years ago,
to redeem dreams nurtured in the Quonset huts in the South Pacific...
dreams of getting an education...
of becoming someone, something, somebody...
How stunned, how moved they would be today.
What a special moment for CMC. I will never forget it.
Very best,
Read President Chodosh’s full Robert Day Sciences Center dedication remarks.