Claremont McKenna's Real Founding Document

Claremont McKenna's founding president, George C. S. Benson's speech to the campus in 1947.

President Gann's speech to the campus in 2009.

I listened to President Gann's speech today, hoping for some kind of analysis of Claremont McKenna's unique position in the world. The speech started off well, with her emphasizing that Claremont McKenna is one of the few colleges she knows of that constantly keeps coming back to its mission statement.

Unfortunately, this was the high point of the speech. President Gann assured the audience that were the founders of Claremont McKenna alive today, they would applaud the shifts in our emphasis. She even used the phrase a "living" document.

Having read nearly every book and article I can find on Claremont's history, I respectfully disagree but I figured it would be best if I let the reader draw his own conclusions. Have a look at founding president, George C. S. Benson's speech in 1947, which was given in December. [click on the images]

Muslims and the Meal Plan

Dean Huang just sent out the following email.

Dear CMC Students,

I hope this email finds you excited about your fall classes.

I’m writing to discuss Ramadan, and meal services for students who may be fasting during daylight hours. The start of Ramadan coincided with orientation this year.

For any students who are observing the fast, you may exchange your five weekly lunches during Ramadan for extra Board Plus credit. To activate this, please contact me no later than Friday, September 4th. A simple email (jhuang@cmc.edu) is fine.

In addition, the Muslim community of the Claremont Colleges offer Iftar dinners on Friday and Saturday nights, and there will be an Eid Celebration on September 20th. The information below, from the Chaplains Office, provides additional details.

Best wishes for a terrific semester,

Jeff Huang

This seems like an interesting economics questions because it gets to incentives to be observant or not an observant Muslim and how much Flex dollars you wind up getting.

Allow me to explain. Everybody knows that it is preferable to have Flex Dollars to meals, as you tend not to eat all of the meals every week (depending, of course, on what meal plan you are on) and that Flex bucks last for the entire semester. Flex bucks are more liquid than meals.

So a not so observant Muslim might have an incentive to overstate his religiousity, particularly if he is on the smallest meal plan and/or likes the Mudd Hole.

Of course, it seems doubtful that he will compensated the estimated $20 per meal, that he ends up spending on the 8 meal plan, but it also seems equally doubtful that he will face any kind of punishment if he decides to spend the flex dollars during the day. And I'd wager that most of the missed meals occur during the day, anyways.

But that's not what's troubling me: Given that it is a benefit given to only a certain religious/ethnic group and that all students who live on campus, except those who are off the meal for health reasons, doesn't this, in effect, subsidize Islam? Why can't atheist/Christian/Jewish/etc. students also get their meal dollars given back to them?