It's Official: Claremont McKenna Goes For the Gold

Here's the link for the press release and an accounting for how the money is going to be spent. (I won't link to the creepy photo of President Gann.)

The Campaign for Claremont McKenna calls for commitments in five priorities:
-- $110 million for students: need-based financial aid and merit scholarships, internships, research, speaker series, and other experiences
-- $110 million for faculty: chairs, research, and new curricula
-- $100 million for facilities: new buildings, renovations, and master planning projects
-- $200 million for the Robert Day Scholars Program
-- $80 million for The Fund for CMC: operating costs

Professor Rossum on American-Indian Sovereignty

This past Wednesday Professor Ralph Rossum canceled classes to attend the nonprofit Foundation for California's one-day conference on the question of American-Indian sovereignty.

The conference, according to The Washington Times, discussed several issues -- Native American history, relations with the federal government, and current sovereignty status in American jurisprudence.

The author of the piece even cites Rossum's view of tribal sovereignty.

...Ralph Rossum, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College in
California, argued that the Constitution protects tribal sovereignty. He said in
the Sacramento Bee that the Supreme Court should intervene and "repudiate [lower
courts'] departures from clear and controlling precedents, and perform its
historic role of protecting tribal interests and sovereignty."

If you want to know which speakers were in attendance, check out this list. Look who is number one.

Esteemed conference participants will include among others Ralph Rossum,
Salvatori Professor of American Constitutionalism at Claremont McKenna College,
The Honorable Susan A. Ehrlich from the Arizona Court of Appeals, The Honorable
Rebecca Irving, Chief Judge of the Passamaquoddy Tribal Court, Kathryn R.L.
Rand, Co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law and
Policy, and Reid Peyton Chambers, a Partner with the law firm of Sonosky,
Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry, LLP.

CI: Claremont McKenna Becomes Loan-Free

UPDATE: 3/16/2008 9:53 PST

Ilan Wurman of The Claremont Independent called me to say that the second sentence has been changed.

Current students returning to CMC in the Fall will have grants in place of
loans, and all packages will henceforth be strictly scholarship and grant money.

So basically all the loans you racked up in past years, you still need to pay, but you just won't have future loans. Well, hurray for that, at least!

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Michael Wilner wrote the piece.

Here's the beautiful bit for yours truly:

Current students with loans in their financial aid packages will no longer need
to pay them back, and all packages will henceforth be strictly scholarship and
grant money.

Apparently, the announcement is scheduled to coincide with the launch of the landmark $600 million campaign. I sure hope this decision helps them raise millions more than their target.

For a school facing PR "storm clouds" over Petropoulous, this decision was purely masterful and may brighten the PR horizons.

I'm sure ConfusedMinority will weigh in on this topic and tell us how loans might be a bad thing.