Monday, September 22, 2008

Notable Alumni of Claremont McKenna College

By Charles Johnson at 6:11 PM

And while I'm at it, why not give the list of all the notable alumni through the ages? (Please let me know if I have missed one or two...)

Notable alumni

Politics

Business

Academia

Assistant Professor of Chicano/Latino Studies and History at Pomona College

Think tanks

Media

Other

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Noteworthy Claremont McKenna Professors Down Through the Ages

By Charles Johnson at 6:07 PM

Someone keeps deleting my edits to the Claremont McKenna wikipedia page for no apparent reason. I figured now that some of my readership includes the Freshmen class that I would be remiss if I didn't give a rundown of some of the more famous professors. Here they are, with relevant links.

  • Fred Balitzer - professor of government. He was director of the Republican National Committee under Reagan, chairman of Scholars for Reagan-Bush in 1984, and special emissary to the Sultan of Brunei. He helped bring about diplomatic relations with China and Israel and played the leading role in preventing efforts to make the District of Columbia a state.
  • Mark Blitz - professor of political philosophy. Blitz served as Associate Director of the U.S. Information Agency during the Reagan-Bush years. He is a Straussian scholar.
  • Roderic Ai Camp - professor of government at Claremont McKenna College who specializes in Mexican politics.
  • Martin Diamond - renowned scholar of the Federalist Papers and American government. He died of a heart attack while defending the Electoral College on Capitol Hill (deceased)
  • Ward Elliott - researched market solutions to Los Angeles smog problem. Elliott drafted the economic-incentives of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Thanks to his efforts, the number of first-stage smog-alerts days declined from one day in three in the 1960's to only one day in 1997.
  • Ross Eckert - professor of economics, who dedicated his life to cleaning up the blood supply. The matter affected him personally as he was a hemophilliac who contracted HIV/AIDS from a bad transfusion. Eckert worked with Elliott on market-incentives to reduce congestion. He also worked to rescue the U.S. Laws of the Sea from degradation. (deceased)
  • P. Edward Haley -- Professor of international relations
  • Eric Helland -- Professor of Economics, Senior Staff Economist, President's Council of Economic Advisers (2003-2004)
  • Diane Halpern - former president of the American Psychological Association
  • Harry V. Jaffa - professor of political philosophy, scholar of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Aristotelean virtue, and the American founding. The National Review once had a cover story that described Jaffa as "the foremost contemporary interpreter of the American political tradition." Listen to Jaffa's famous lecture on the Declaration of Independence, natural law, and the Declaration's effect on world history. Part 1 and Part 2.
  • Charles Kesler - editor of the Claremont Review of Books and noted conservative scholar
  • Charles A. Lofgren - professor of government, history, author of the influential books War-Making Under the Constitution: The Original Understanding (1972) and Compulsory Military Service Under the Constitution: The Original Understanding In The Imperial President, Arthur Schlesinger described "War-Making Under the Constitution" as "the indispensable commentary."
  • Fredrick Lynch - scholar of affirmative action/reverse racism, author of The Diversity Machine. Lynch is currently working on a book about Social Security, tentatively titled One Nation Under A.A.R.P
  • Janet Myhre - professor of mathematics, did consulting work for the Navy to improve the quality control of its nuclear-tipped Poseidon missiles.
  • Orme Phelps - (taught from 1947 to 1974), former dean of the faculty and professor of economics. His "Introduction to Labor Economics" has been required reading at over 80 colleges. (deceased)
  • John J. Pitney - frequently quoted in the media, former congressional staffer, and opposition researcher. He was the campaign strategist for the Republican National Committee.
  • Ron Riggio - president elect of the Western Psychological Association, director Kravis Leadership Institute
  • Harold W. Rood - scholar of the Soviet Union, author of the influential book, Kingdom of the Blind (1980), which profoundly influenced thinking on the Soviet Union during the Reagan years.
  • Ralph Rossum - renowned scholar of Originalism, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, author of Antonin Scalia’s Jurisprudence: Text and Tradition. He is also a specialist in Indian tribal laws, affirmative action/reverse racism, and juvenile detention. He also favors repealing the 17th Amendment. Listen to Rossum's famous Scalia lecture here. Also, hear Rossum's Ashland University Library lecture on contemporary Supreme Court approaches to constitutional interpretation. Part 1 and Part 2.
  • John Rutledge - former professor, chairman of Rutledge Capital. He "was one of the principal architects of the Reagan economic plan in 1980-81 and has been an advisor to the Bush White House on tax policy." See his biography at Rutledge Capital.
  • Mort Sahl - Speech writer for President John F. Kennedy and famed comedian.
  • Elizabeth Edwards Spalding - Professor of government in the Washington Semesters program, renown Harry S. Truman scholar. Listen to Dr. Spalding's podcast lecture on Harry Truman. Part 1 and Part 2.
  • Procter Thomson - professor of free-market economics. (deceased)
  • Michael Uhlmann - former Assistant Attorney General to President Gerald Ford and special assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He reportedly convinced Justice Clarence Thomas to join the federal judiciary.

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NRO's Jonah Goldberg on Claremont McKenna Students and Professors from Jonah Goldberg on Down

By Charles Johnson at 5:56 PM

Funny quotations about Claremont McKenna students and professors from Jonah Goldberg of National Review

From his visit to Claremont McKenna's Athenaeum in February of 2006,

I checked out the campus a bit yesterday and talked with various and sundry students. Very nice bunch, quite sharp. I never really realized how good a school Claremont is and didn't know that it ranks so highly in the various lists. Seems like a good place to send your kids. And, since the West Coast Straussians are so prevelant here, if you get straight As they will teach the esoteric knowledge which gave Abe Lincoln and Winston Churchill laser vision and the ability to fly.
From his visit to Birmingham with his significant other in 1999 and on her love of Harry V. Jaffa. Goldberg describes some of the people who hate Lincoln.

It was particularly difficult for me because my significant other is not simply a student of the Jaffa School, but she is also prone to wolverine-like rages. If you don’t know who Harry Jaffa is, it’s probably because you have your priorities straight. Jaffa is a fairly obscure but brilliant scholar who currently teaches at Claremont-McKenna. His biggest brush with fame was his reputed authorship of Barry Goldwater’s “extremism in the defense of liberty” line. Jaffa is the leader of what are known as the West Coast Straussians. (Named after Leo Strauss — another obscure and even more brilliant scholar who inspired a generation of conservatives to see the world in a very complicated way). And a core tenet of the West Coast Straussians is that Abraham Lincoln wasn’t simply a great president in the tradition of Washington and Jefferson, but a great figure along the lines of Moses or Aristotle.

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Group Sues to Halt Claremont McKenna Construction Project

By Charles Johnson at 1:42 AM


From the Contra Costa Times

Group sues to halt Claremont McKenna construction project

Will Bigham, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 09/21/2008 10:17:36 PM PDT

CLAREMONT - A neighborhood group that opposes plans by Claremont McKenna College to construct a new campus center has filed a lawsuit against the college and the city and is seeking a court order halting the project.

The group, called Protect Our Neighborhoods, filed the complaint July 28 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The group contends that the city, in approving plans for the college's Kravis Center, failed to properly address the project's impact on air quality, noise and parking in surrounding neighborhoods.

"The residents are just trying to make sure the problems the project is going to create are adequately mitigated, so it doesn't create problems outside the university," said Ray Johnson, a Temecula attorney who represents the group.

Plans for the four-story Kravis Center include construction of classrooms, space for five of the college's 10 research institutes, and offices for faculty, admissions and financial-aid staff members.

In a July statement, college President Pamela Gann said the Kravis Center, scheduled to be completed in 2010, would become "both the literal and symbolic heart of our institution."

A spokeswoman for the college declined to comment on the lawsuit. An attorney for the city did not return calls seeking comment.

Members of the group opposed to the project consist largely of residents of the city's Arbol Verde neighborhood, a residential area directly east of Pomona College and south of Claremont McKenna College.

Residents of the area, once a Mexican enclave known as the "barrio," have long complained of encroachment by the colleges.

On July 22, the City Council rejected an appeal of the Kravis Center project by residents of the neighborhood. The group raised many of the same issues in its appeal that the lawsuit has raised.

The City Council rejected the appeal by a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Sam Pedroza dissenting from the majority view.

"My feeling was that the interface between the colleges and the neighborhoods has not been as smooth as it could be," Pedroza said.

He said he did not know the particular issues raised in the lawsuit, but speculated that Arbol Verde residents may "have gotten to a point where they're fed up."

Johnson, the group's attorney, said he has been negotiating with the college over a possible settlement of the lawsuit.

"I think the college is trying to do the right thing," he said.

The next hearing for the case is scheduled for Oct. 27 in Norwalk Superior Court. A trial date will likely be set at the hearing, Johnson said.

In a nutshell

A neighborhood group called Protect Our Neighborhoods filed a complaint against Claremont McKenna College and the city on July 28 in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The group contends that the city, in approving plans for the college's Kravis Center, failed to properly address the project's impact on air quality, noise and parking in surrounding neighborhoods.

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