Claremont Colleges

The Claremont Colleges are a consortium of five undergraduate and two graduate schools of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. Unlike most other collegiate consortia, such as the Five Colleges Consortium in Massachusetts and the Tri-College Consortium in Pennsylvania, the Claremont College campuses are adjoining and within walking distance of one another. Put together, the campuses cover roughly one square mile.

The purpose of the consortium is to provide the specialization, flexibility and personal attention commonly found in a small college, with the resources of a large university.^[1] Their compartmentalized collegiate university design was inspired by the University of Oxford.

Claremont McKenna College

Harvey Mudd College

Pitzer College

Pomona College

Scripps College

Honnold/Mudd Library

Colleges

The five undergraduate colleges are:

• Pomona College, a small, coeducational, liberal arts college which offers majors in both the sciences and humanities. Pomona College is the founding member of the Claremont Colleges.
• Scripps College, a small, liberal arts, women's college, which offers majors in both the sciences and humanities.
• Claremont McKenna College, a small, coeducational, liberal arts college which specializes in economics, political science, international relations, and public policy. It also maintains a broad set of majors in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Claremont McKenna College is also home to the Robert Day Scholars Program, which offers both an undergraduate program and a Master's Program in Finance.
• Harvey Mudd College, a small, coeducational college specializing in engineering, mathematics, computer science, and the physical and biological sciences.
• Pitzer College, a small, coeducational, liberal arts college offering an alternative curriculum, noted for interdisciplinarity. It also has a particular emphasis upon social justice. Pitzer is part of the SAT optional movement among liberal arts colleges.

The five undergraduate Claremont Colleges are commonly referred to as the "5Cs." In mid 2008, the Consortium began talks with the National University of Singapore to build a sixth undergraduate Claremont College, off-site, in Singapore. The partnership, expected to be announced in November 2008, will be the first of its kind for a liberal arts college.^[2]

The two graduate universities are:

• Claremont Graduate University
• Keck Graduate Institute, a biomedical graduate school

The Claremont School of Theology is affiliated with the consortium, but is not a member.

Shared facilities, programs, and resources

Each college is independent in that, for example, students receive their degrees from the one college in which they are enrolled and administration and admissions departments are independent. However, large or expensive facilities and programs are shared.^{[citation needed]} All seven Claremont Colleges are served by the Claremont University Consortium.

Shared academic departments include the Intercollegiate Women's Studies Center, the Intercollegiate Department of Chicano Studies, the Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies, the Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies, the Intercollegiate Department of Religious Studies, the Intercollegiate Department of Media Studies, and the Five-College Theater Department.

Shared intercollegiate programs include the European Union Center of California, the Chicano/Latino Student Affairs Center, the Office of Black Student Affairs, the Office of the Chaplains, Hillel, the Asian American Resource Center, the Queer Resource Center, and the Women's Union. The Colleges also coordinate budgets and course schedules to allow for cross-registration.^{[citation needed]}

Shared facilities include the Libraries of the Claremont Colleges, Campus Safety, the Tranquada Student Services Center (which houses Baxter Medical Center, Monsour Counseling Center, and the Health Education Outreach,) McAlister Center (home of the Office of the Chaplains and the Claremont Card Center), Huntley Bookstore, all dining facilities and several sports facilities.

In addition, three of the Claremont Colleges, Claremont McKenna College, Pitzer College, and Scripps College, share a single, joint science program. These three colleges pool their resources to create the largest academic department in Claremont. There are no graduate studies that take place there. However, the Joint Science Department asserts that the intimacy of the department and amount of undergrads that perform research is outstanding. Research is conducted at and courses utilize the Robert J. Bernard Field Station, an 86-acre (350,000 m²) nature preserve of native Coastal Sage Scrub ecosystem. For more information regarding the field station click here: [1].

KSPC 88.7 FM is the non-profit community radio station associated with the Claremont Colleges. Students from the colleges host KSPC shows and help run the station.

Athletics

Athletics teams from Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College compete as one team. Male athletic teams are called the Stags, and women's teams are called the Athenas [2]. The teams participate in the NCAA's Division III and in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). Pomona College and Pitzer College compete together in the SCIAC. Their team is called the Sagehens [3].

In addition to the Stag/Athenas and the Sagehens, there are several prominent 5C club sports teams, including roller hockey (Claremont Centaurs), men's and women's rugby union, both of whom attended Division II Nationals in 2006, men's lacrosse, field hockey, crew, cycling, women's ultimate (The Greenshirts), who attended Nationals in 2004 , and men's ultimate frisbee, (The Braineaters), 2008 Southern California Sectional champions.

Additionally, the Claremont Men's Volleyball Club had its inaugural season in 2007. Despite its novelty, it proved to be one of the most successful clubs this season, finishing in 5th place out of 48 Division II teams at the National Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.

In popular culture

The Claremont Colleges are featured in the horror novel World War Z as the setting of a documentary featuring a battle between the students of the colleges and a horde of infected Californians. The documentary is used to combat deaths due to a previously unknown psychological disorder known as apocalyptic demise syndrome, or ADS.

External links

• Claremont Colleges website

References