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Report on Diversity and Admissions:
Prepared by the Admissions and Financial Aid (AFAC)
Subcommittee on Diversity and Financial Aid
April 2014
Executive Summary:
The aim of this report is to identify ways in which CMC can become more inclusive through
admissions, both by recruiting a more diverse student body and by providing a supportive
environment for such students once enrolled. The focus of this report is on promoting diversity
in terms of race/ethnicity, socio-economic status and first-generation status. Our
recommendations are ones that can be implemented whether or not CMC continues to engage in
affirmative action policies.
While CMC is slightly ahead of peer institutions in terms of the racial diversity of its student
body (primarily due to our recruiting of international students), it remains significantly out of
line with state and national demographic figures, particularly in the case of African American,
Latino and Native American students. CMC is slightly behind peer institutions in terms of socioeconomic diversity, and significantly behind in comparison to the nation as a whole. We believe
that achieving a diverse student body is essential to CMC’s mission to educate global leaders for
an increasingly diverse and multicultural workforce.
There are two primary obstacles to CMC’s ability to attract a diverse student body: CMC does
not self-present as a diverse institution and it does not offer a particularly supportive
environment to students of diverse backgrounds. In this regard, we compare poorly to our peer
institutions at the 5C’s and nationally.
Our subcommittee has two primary recommendations for how to address these concerns. First,
CMC must fundamentally shift its self-presentation, so as to celebrate its existing resources in
terms of diversity and to express its commitment to supporting and promoting diversity and
inclusion. Section III of our report gives specific suggestions for how CMC can accomplish this.
Second, CMC must hire a high-level staff person whose primary task is to coordinate efforts at
promoting diversity and inclusion. CMC currently has no such staff person or office; our
attempts to promote diversity and inclusion are currently scattershot, uncoordinated and
inefficient. The only way to ensure that our efforts at creating an inclusive environment are
sustained and effective is to create a high-level staff position to oversee and coordinate these
efforts. Section VI of this report gives further details regarding this recommendation.
In addition, Section IV of this report describes how we can improve our outreach efforts to
students of diverse backgrounds, by increasing our interaction with community-based
organizations, bringing more students from diverse backgrounds to campus, deploying our
student, faculty and alumni resources etc. Section V lists some opportunities that we should
explore to provide funding, especially for first-generation students and students of low socioeconomic backgrounds. Section VI provides an extensive list of steps we need to take to provide
a supportive and inclusive environment at CMC for students of diverse backgrounds.
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Contents:
I. Introduction
II. Primary recommendations
III. Self-presentation
IV. Outreach
V. Fundraising
VI. Campus climate
Appendix I: Screen shots of diversity and financial-aid related web pages
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I. Introduction:
Aim:
The aim of this report is to identify ways in which CMC can become more inclusive through
admissions, both by recruiting a more diverse student body and by providing a supportive
environment for such students once enrolled.
Targeted forms of diversity:
Our subcommittee believes that CMC should foster a range of forms of diversity in its student
body, including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, religion, gender, age,
sexual orientation, veteran status, disability and geographic origin. Our focus in this report is
specifically on promoting diversity in terms of race/ethnicity and socio-economic status; it
should be understood that one important measure of socio-economic status is that of being a
first-generation college student (a student neither of whose parents has a bachelor’s degree).
However, we believe that going forward, AFAC should investigate how to attract and support
diversity in the full range of categories mentioned above.
It is important to emphasize that, while there is a certain degree of convergence in the
goals of promoting diversity in terms of race/ethnicity and SES (socio-economic status), these
must be treated as distinct goals. Our committee believes that CMC should support both forms
of diversity. Research suggests that were CMC to focus solely on SES diversity, the racial
diversity of its student body would suffer. 1 Furthermore, we believe that CMC’s diversity goals
are best met by attracting students of color from a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds,
and not solely from the lowest socio-economic strata.
In what follows, our recommendations are intentionally neutral regarding affirmative
action; that is to say, our recommendations are ones that can be implemented whether or not
CMC continues to engage in affirmative action policies. We believe that these recommendations
will be especially important if, in the future, CMC ceases to pursue affirmative action policies,
since we will have to make extra efforts to encourage students of color to apply and enroll at
CMC, if we want CMC to remain a racially diverse institution.
How we are doing:
In terms of racial diversity, we are slightly ahead of peer institutions, primarily due to our
substantial enrollments of international students. However, our numbers remain low among
African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, particularly compared to state and national
demographic figures. For example, while African Americans made up 13% of the U.S.
population according to 2013 census figures, in the same time period, they only made up 4% of
CMC students; while Latinos made up 17% of the US population and 38% of the CA population,
they only made up 11% of CMC students; we have essentially no Native American student
population. The small number of African American students is an area of particular concern: at
between 38 and 52 undergraduate students total over the last four years, these students have few
peers, which can lead to feelings of isolation and negative perceptions about campus climate and
the availability of a supportive network.
1
According to a recent study, only 15.4% of low-income, high-achieving students are members of underrepresented minorities (C. Hoxby and C. Avery, “The Missing ‘One-Offs,’: The Hidden Supply of High-Achieving,
Low-Income Students”, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Spring 2013, p. 18).
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In terms of socio-economic diversity, we are slightly behind peer institutions. For
example, in 2013-2014, 50% of entering freshmen at peer institutions received need-based
financial aid, compared to only 44% of CMC students; in 2012-2013, 17% of undergraduates at
peer institutions received Pell Grant aid, compared to just 12% at CMC. The socio-economic
profile of our students is strikingly out of line with the nation as a whole. For example, in 2011,
just 4% of U.S. households reported incomes of $200,000 or higher. By contrast, 24% of parents
who submitted financial information for the CMC incoming class of 2011 reported incomes of
$200,000 or higher; another 48% did not submit any financial information, which is considered
by admissions staff as a clear indication of no financial need, indicating that they fall into the
highest income categories. In 2011, 50% of households in the United States reported incomes
below $50,000, compared to 18% of incoming CMC students whose families reported their
incomes. (The percentage of such students for the entire entering class is actually probably
around 8-9%, given that 48% of families did not submit any financial information.) 2
Why this matters:
There are two reasons why CMC should be concerned about promoting diversity in its student
body. First, the aim of our institution is to train students to be leaders. This requires that we
expose them to a variety of perspectives, so as to develop the intellectual and social skills to be
effective members of an increasingly diverse workforce. Second, a first-class education is the
best tool to ensure social mobility. We believe that CMC has a responsibility to ensure that its
educational resources are made available to students of great intellectual and personal promise
from a wide range of backgrounds.
II. Primary recommendations:
Our recommendations below have a twofold aim. On the one hand, we need to find ways to
encourage a diverse student population to apply to CMC and, if accepted, to enroll. On the other
hand, we need to ensure that we provide these students with the resources they need to succeed
once they enroll. These two goals are mutually supporting: one of the best ways to attract a
diverse student body is to assure them that they will find a supportive, inclusive environment,
should they choose to come to CMC; one of the key ways to provide such an environment is to
enroll an increasingly diverse student body, thereby reducing students’ sense of isolation.
In what follows, we highlight a number of ways in which CMC can pursue these goals.
However, there are two recommendations that we believe are so crucial that we wish to highlight
them here.
First, CMC needs to fundamentally shift its self-presentation. Though there is room
for improvement, we already have considerable resources in terms of diversity. For example, we
have student groups, such as Generation: University and the Multicultural Advisory Council, that
are doing excellent work in promoting diversity, and we recently initiated the Conte Scholars
Program, which offers scholarships to first-generation American students. Nonetheless, CMC
does not highlight its diversity in its self-presentation. This creates a substantial obstacle to our
ability to recruit top students from diverse backgrounds. It also creates an unsupportive
environment for such students once enrolled, producing a sense that they are not an integral part
of a campus that they perceive to be predominantly Caucasian and affluent. CMC must make a
concerted effort to celebrate its diversity in its web presence, promotional materials etc. It must
2
This paragraph copies material from our 2014 report, “Considerations from the Sub-Committee on Financial Aid.”
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also ensure that its admissions materials make the application process easy to navigate for
students from low-information backgrounds (students whose backgrounds make the college
application process unfamiliar and difficult to navigate). We provide more detailed
recommendations regarding self-presentation in Section III.
Second, CMC needs a designated, high-level staff person whose primary task is to
coordinate efforts at promoting diversity and inclusion. Whereas most of our peer
institutions have entire offices dedicated to promoting and supporting diversity, we have nothing
comparable. This creates a significant obstacle to our ability to encourage diversity at CMC.
Over the past decade, several excellent reports have been generated on how to promote
inclusivity at CMC, but with no one to oversee their implementation, most of their
recommendations have not been acted upon. When we have promising initiatives, they have
often not been sustained for more than a few years. At the same time, there are numerous
committees who deal with diversity-related issues in a tangential manner; with no one to
coordinate their efforts, these committees often operate in an uncoordinated and inefficient
manner. We believe that it is of the utmost importance that CMC create a high-level staff
position, to oversee our efforts towards inclusion; this is the only way to ensure that these efforts
are sustained and effective. Such a staff member could, for example, assist Admissions in
promoting diversity, work with the Dean of Students on programming and mentoring, encourage
diversity in our faculty and staff hiring etc. We provide more details on this recommendation in
Section VI.
III. Self-presentation:
The current situation:
Our web site and print materials are our first point of access for the millions of high-school
students researching their college options each year. At present, they do a very poor job of
highlighting CMC’s resources and commitment to diversity. There is no readily-available
section of the website devoted to diversity. When one enters “diversity” into the web-site’s
search engine, the only relevant web page that shows up is our institutional diversity statement.
In this regard, we compare very unfavorably with our peer institutions. All of the other 5C’s
have a web presence that clearly articulates their commitment to diversity in a compelling
manner. For example, Scripps has a web page devoted to their Inclusion, Diversity, Equity,
Access (IDEA) program; it clearly articulates why diversity matters to Scripps, outlines their
roadmap for promoting diversity as an institution, and gives information on diversity-related
student groups and events. Harvey Mudd also has a diversity web page that explains why
diversity matters to them, and offers information on diversity programming, events and groups.
Though CMC has room for improvement, we already have considerable resources in
terms of diversity. However, our self-presentation creates the misleading impression that we
have no institutional commitment to promoting and celebrating diversity. This is clearly
damaging for our attempts to recruit top students from diverse backgrounds; a look at CMC’s
web site and promotional materials would leave them with the impression that this is not an
institution that would welcome or support them. Furthermore, our Admissions and Financial Aid
web page offers no information on how to obtain application fee wavers and minimal
information on affordability; this creates a significant barrier to our ability to encourage students
of low SES to apply. However, our self-presentation does not solely affect admissions; it also
creates a sense among current students that students of diverse backgrounds are not a central part
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of CMC culture; this contributes to their sense of isolation and alienation. CMC must develop a
self-presentation that celebrates its current resources in terms of diversity and affirms its
commitment to supporting and expanding them.
Below, we offer some specific recommendations concerning our web presence and
promotional materials; in an appendix, we offer examples of web pages from peer institutions
that we should use as models for our self-presentation. 3
Recommendations—web presence:
In general, our web presence must make a point of articulating our commitment to diversity and
celebrating our current resources in terms of diversity. Below, we divide our recommendations
into three areas where we believe that CMC should add to its web page. It is important to
emphasize that if we add web resources about diversity, these must be maintained; a diversity
web site that is out of date would send a negative impression concerning our commitment to
diversity.
a. Diversity tab under student life:
There should be an easily-accessible part of the CMC web page devoted to diversity resources
and initiatives relevant to students currently enrolled at CMC. For example, the “Life” tab at
CMC is divided into “Athletics” and “Life@CMC;” there could be an additional header here for
diversity. This web page must be visible and easy to access. It should include at least the
following elements:
a.i. A clear statement of why diversity matters to CMC, as well as a link to our institutional
Diversity Statement. It should make the case in a sincere and emphatic manner that
promoting a diverse educational environment is crucial to our mission of educating students
to be global leaders in an increasingly diverse and multicultural workforce.
a.ii. A list of student groups and organizations devoted to diversity, with contact information
and/or links to their web sites where possible
a.iii. Information on current administrative initiatives seeking to promote diversity, such as the
AFAC Subcommittee on Financial Aid and Diversity and the Campus Climate Task Force,
as well as contact information for staff and offices dealing with diversity issues, such as
individuals in the Dean of Students’ Office and Admissions etc.
a.iv. Information on existing mentoring and support programs for students of diverse
backgrounds
a.v. An up-to-date list of diversity-related events, such as speaker series and workshops
a.vi. A section celebrating the achievements of our diverse student population, as well as the
achievements of our more general population in supporting diversity. For example, it could
include profiles of our Conte scholars, or cover summer projects by students, perhaps
3
One might reasonably be concerned that shifting our self-presentation to emphasize our diversity could be
problematic, because it risks over-representing our diversity, and such overrepresentation could both mislead
potential students and reduce our own sense of urgency concerning the need to increase diversity. A further concern
is that in highlighting our diversity, we might risk tokenizing underrepresented student groups. However, when we
raised this issue with various students and staff, we universally met with the response that students from
underrepresented groups now feel so marginalized by CMC’s self-presentation, that the aforementioned risks are
greatly outweighed by the need to reframe our self-presentation. Nonetheless, we must remain mindful of these
risks, and commit to not merely presenting ourselves as an inclusive institution but to also taking meaningful steps
to ensure that we are maximally inclusive.
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through the Kravis Leadership Institute, that provide resources to underrepresented
individuals.
b. Diversity tab on the admissions web site:
The Admissions web site should include a highly-visible tab called “Diversity.” The
corresponding web page should include at least the following:
b.i. A clear statement of why diversity matters to CMC, as well as a link to our institutional
Diversity Statement. It should make the case in a sincere and emphatic manner that
promoting a diverse educational environment is crucial to our mission of educating students
to be global leaders in an increasingly diverse and multicultural workforce.
b.ii. Information on our current campus demographics
b.iii. Information about our Preview Programs for students from underrepresented groups and
our
Multicultural Advisory Council
b.iv. A list of student groups and organizations devoted to diversity
b.v. Examples of recent courses by faculty and research by faculty and students on diversityrelated issues
b.vi. Stories of students from diverse backgrounds. For example, we might offer profiles of
Conte Scholars or other first-generation students. Pomona’s web site, “The Inspiring Stories
of Four Pomona First-Generation Students,” is an excellent example.
b.vii. A link to our more general diversity tab, mentioned above
c. Affordability tab on the Admissions web site:
The Admissions web site should include a tab called “Affordability,” which provides clear
information on the cost to attend, application process etc., in a manner that is accessible to
students from low-information backgrounds. It should include at least the following
information:
c.i. Clear information on how to apply for an application fee waver
c.ii. Clear information on how to apply for funding to visit for free during our Preview Progams
c.iii. A simplified cost estimator. An excellent example is Wellesley’s Quick College Cost
Estimator. Unlike the Net Price Calculator, which involves many questions and requires
access to previous tax returns, this tool provides an estimate of the cost to attend based off
of just six basic financial questions.
c.iv. Examples of the typical price to attend for students from different financial backgrounds.
Wellesley has an excellent example of this. This serves as an excellent way to advertise to
low SES students the actual affordability of a CMC education.
Recommendations—other venues:
d. Print materials:
We should develop print materials specifically targeting students from diverse backgrounds and
students of low SES. We should also revise our current print materials to include more
information on diversity at CMC. In particular, our print materials should include the following
information:
d.i. A clear statement of why diversity matters to CMC. They should emphasize that promoting
a diverse educational environment is crucial to our mission of educating students to be
global leaders in an increasingly diverse and multicultural workforce.
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d.ii. Information on our current campus demographics
d.iii. Information about our Preview Programs for students from underrepresented groups and
information on how to apply for funding to visit for free during our Preview Programs
d.iv. A list of student groups and organizations devoted to diversity
d.v. Examples of recent courses by faculty and research by faculty and students on diversityrelated issues
d.vi. Stories of students from diverse backgrounds. For example, we might offer profiles of
Conte Scholars or other first-generation students.
d.vii. Clear information on how to apply for an application fee waver
d.viii. Examples of the typical price to attend for students from different financial groups
e. Campus tours:
Our campus tour guides should include information about diversity and inclusion at CMC in
their tours. For example, they should highlight:
e.i. The existing diversity of CMC’s student body
e.ii. CMC’s existing diversity-related student groups
e.iii. CMC’s existing diversity-related resources in terms of course offerings, faculty and student
research, speaker series and events etc.
e.iv. CMC’s commitment to diversity as an essential part of its goal of training future leaders
IV. Outreach:
What we are currently doing:
Admissions is currently making significant efforts to promote diversity, particularly by
interfacing with Community-Based Organizations (CBO’s) and by encouraging students from
diverse backgrounds to visit campus. A few of its most successful initiatives are listed below:
 Summerfest and Winterfest: half-day programs designed for local college counseling
professionals; they are given the opportunity to interface with Admissions and Financial Aid
staff; 30 counselors participated in the past year
 CMC Preview Programs: students are brought to campus and given the opportunity to learn
more about CMC, including the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a Financial Aid
Officer; costs of visiting are fully paid for students of low-income backgrounds; in the past
year, we doubled the number of students visiting who represented diverse backgrounds
(students of color, low SES, first-gen.)
 Multicultural Advisory Council (MAC): this is a new program in which current students from
our first-generation and students of color communities serve as ambassadors and tour-guides
to encourage students of similar backgrounds to apply and enroll. There are currently 23
students involved in this program.
Recommendations:
a. CMC should support Admissions’ current outreach efforts and expand them where possible.
In particular, we should:
a.i. Reach out to more CBO’s where possible
a.ii. Bring more students from diverse backgrounds to campus Preview Programs. This would
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be best accomplished by adding an additional Preview Weekend in the fall semester. Our
Preview Weekends are viewed as our most successful method for attracting students from
diverse backgrounds.
a.iii. Add a drive-in Preview Weekend for local students from diverse backgrounds; cover all
transportation costs for low-income students who wish to attend
a.iv. Include panels on diversity and financial aid during our campus recruiting events
a.v. Provide MAC with the funding and administrative support to ensure that it remains a
permanent part of our admissions programming
b. In addition, CMC should further leverage its resources in terms of students, faculty and
alumni to recruit students from diverse backgrounds. We should consider the following steps:
b.i. Students from diverse backgrounds who visit campus should be given the opportunity to
meet with faculty of similar backgrounds. Where appropriate, such faculty should be given
the opportunity to indicate to the student that he/she would be willing to serve as the
student’s adviser should he/she choose to come to CMC.
b.ii. Students from diverse backgrounds who visit campus should be put in touch with students of
similar backgrounds, perhaps via MAC. Where appropriate, the host students should
indicate to the visiting students that they would be willing to serve as their student mentor,
should they choose to come to CMC.
b.iii. Members of the Parents Network from underrepresented groups could be put in touch with
parents of prospective students from similar groups to answer any questions they might
have.
b.iv. We could ask alumni from diverse backgrounds to reach out to high-performing students of
similar backgrounds in their region. We could generate lists of such students via the various
databases we currently have access to. Such alumni could be encouraged to serve as
mentors to these students should we be successful in recruiting them.
b.v. Students of diverse backgrounds could be given funding to return to their hometowns and
give recruiting presentations to potential applicants at local schools/CBO’s. For many such
students, the incentive of being able to visit their families would make this an attractive
opportunity.
c. Finally, CMC should strongly consider becoming involved with one or more programs that
offer us tools to recruit more students from diverse backgrounds. We list a few examples below:
c.i. Say Yes to Education:
 Say Yes combines a comprehensive K-12 support system with the incentive of college
scholarships to remove the barriers to post-secondary access for urban youth.
 Partner colleges include Pomona and Pitzer, as well as, e.g., Harvard, Yale, Williams,
Brown, Stanford etc.
 Partner colleges do not pay fees to Say Yes itself. Their only commitment is directly to Say
Yes students: If they gain admission through the regular process, the “college commits to
provide a grant that is equivalent, at minimum, to the cost of full tuition and mandatory fees
for Say Yes students from those families with household incomes at or below $75,000. (Pell
Grants, and other Federal and state aid, as well as other private scholarships, may be applied
to this commitment of grant aid used to cover tuition and fees.)”
c.ii. Venture Scholars Program:
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
The Venture Scholars Program provides member colleges with access to a database of over
30,000 high-school students from under-represented backgrounds interested in STEM fields.
Member colleges are then able to directly contact such students for recruiting purposes.
Member colleges include Harvey Mudd, Scripps and Pomona, as well as, for example,
Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Williams, Amherst etc.
There is an annual fee of $2,000 to be a member.
c.iii. College Greenlight:
 Greenlight enables partner colleges to directly contact high-achieving underrepresented
students with information about their college, as well as about upcoming events, such as
visits by admissions officers in their area.
 Greenlight partners with over 800 CBO’s to serve as a tool for their students’ college search
process; students use Greenlight’s web resources to search for colleges and CBO’s use
Greenlight to track students’ application progress. Greenlight has over 130,000 student
members.
 Greenlight partners include Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, Pomona, and Scripps, as well as Princeton,
Yale, Wesleyan, Amherst, Smith etc.
 There is an annual fee of $5,000-$8,000 to be a member.
Finally, Admissions should partner with the Office of Institutional research to track which
initiatives provide us the best value in terms of yielding high-performing students of diverse
backgrounds in a cost-effective manner.
Posse and Questbridge:
Posse and Questbridge are two of the most high-profile programs for enrolling high-performing
students from underrepresented backgrounds. Both programs select high-performing students
from underrepresented backgrounds and match them with member colleges, which are required
to provide the students with full scholarships. Posse has the unique feature of enrolling such
students in mutually-supportive cohorts of 10 students at the same college. Two substantial
benefits of joining these programs would be that they would automatically improve our
enrollments of underrepresented students, and that they would signal our commitment to
diversity in a public, high-profile manner. However, there are also two downsides. First, in the
case of Posse, we have limited control over which students we choose to enroll; in the past, when
CMC partnered with Posse, students’ test scores were below the average for incoming students,
and their GPA’s, once enrolled, were also lower. Second, the cost to participate in both
programs is quite high: we are required to pay program fees of approximately $25,000/year to
participate, and we are required to offer full scholarships to participating students, irrespective of
their actual financial need. Due to these factors, our subcommittee would recommend that CMC
not rejoin these programs for the time being, though it should revisit this decision in a few years,
depending on its level of success in increasing diversity through other avenues. Also, given that
these programs are so high-profile, CMC should investigate whether any donors would be
interested in specifically funding these programs; if we received funding to cover the costs of
participating, the benefits of these programs would outweigh the costs.
V. Fundraising opportunities:
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CMC should investigate fundraising opportunities to provide financial support, particularly for
students of low SES and first-generation students. In particular, it should pursue funding for
scholarship support, mentoring/retention support, internship support and summer enrichment
support.
a. External agencies:
Below we identify several external agencies that are potential sources of funding. CMC should
seek to partner with these agencies, as well as to identify other agencies that we might partner
with.
a.i. Educators for Fair Consideration (E4FC): In 2015, E4FC will provide 1:1 matching grants
of up to $50,000 each to scholarship providers that create or expand scholarship
opportunities for undocumented students.
a.ii. The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations: The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations offer grants of
$25,000 to $250,000 to private higher education institutions that seek to advance academic
quality, establish new, innovative practices, or to solve persistent issues. We should
consider framing a proposal aimed at improving educational access and support to students
of color, students of low SES and first-generation students.
a.iii. The Noble Network of Charter Schools: The Noble Network of Charter Schools, in
conjunction with the Pritzker Traubert Family Foundation, is offering scholarships to
undocumented students from its charter schools through the Prtizker Access Scholarship
Program. Students must be accepted to one of the four-year colleges who are partnered with
the program.
a.iv. Lilly Endowment: The Lilly Endowment is focused on improving educational opportunities
for Indiana residents. One of the programs it supports is the Center for Leadership
Development in Indianapolis, which seeks to foster the advancement of minority youth as
future professional, business and community leaders. There may be opportunities for CMC
to partner with the Lilly Endowment in providing scholarships for students in this program
or to develop a proposal to provide summer enrichment for their students.
a.v. The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation: The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is currently awarding a
$1 million dollar annual prize for the college that excels most in enrolling and graduating
low-income high-achieving students. The first winner of this prize was Vassar College.
b. Alumni and trustee resources:
In addition, CMC should continue to leverage its alumni and trustee resources. In particular, it
should make further efforts to investigate whether alumni and trustees from diverse backgrounds
would be interested in providing financial support for programs aimed at students from similar
backgrounds. Many faculty members would be interested in meeting with such donors to
explain the role such donations would play in furthering the college’s educational mission.
VI. Campus climate:
Current campus climate:
CMC currently does not offer a particularly supportive climate for students of color, 4 which
likely also includes students of low SES and first-generation students. The difficulties facing
such students are two-fold. First, students of low SES backgrounds/first-generation students are
4
See Report of the Campus Climate Task Force, Claremont McKenna College, 2011-2012, p. 3.
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often not fully prepared for the academic rigors of schools like CMC. 5 Furthermore, they often
do not anticipate their lack of preparation, and are unsure of how to catch up with their peers.
Finally, they often lack preparation in a broader set of academic skills—e.g. cultivating
relationships with professors, time management, seeking academic support etc. The second set
of difficulties faces students of low SES backgrounds/first-generation students as well as
students of color. Based on the subcommittee’s observations and research, it is our sense that
such students often feel isolated and alienated at CMC. CMC projects an overwhelmingly
affluent, Caucasian self-image; students from diverse backgrounds often do not feel like they
belong at CMC. This is compounded by the fact that we lack diversity in our staff and,
especially, our faculty. 6 We do not have much in the way of diversity programming and
initiatives to foster a sense of community, and we do not have extensive support systems for
students from diverse backgrounds.
Recommendations:
a. Need for a designated staff person to promote diversity and inclusion:
As we mentioned in the opening of this report, we believe that the only way for CMC to
efficiently promote diversity and inclusion is to create a high-level staff position exclusively
dedicated to promoting and supporting diversity. We currently have no one in such a position. 7
In the past, we had a Faculty Diversity Committee, but this was folded into the Personal and
Social Responsibility Committee; we also had a member of the Dean of Students’ Office,
Jennifer Jimenez Maraña, who was tasked with promoting diversity, but she is no longer in that
position and has not been replaced. We currently approach diversity-related concerns in a
scattershot manner; various individuals in the Dean of Students and Admissions offices take on
diversity-related concerns in addition to their regular duties. In this regard, we compare
unfavorably with our peer institutions: all of the other 5C’s have designated, high-profile
diversity programs and initiatives. Harvey Mudd offers us a particularly good role model of
what we can aspire to. It has an Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity, Dr. Sumun Pendakur,
who leads an office staff of three, as well as a team of student interns, in promoting diversity at
their college. CMC should strongly consider creating something similar to Harvey Mudd’s
Office of Institutional Diversity. This office should be provided with funding for promoting
diversity initiatives, such as speakers and workshops, and it should have access to a meeting
room that it can make available to diversity-related student groups.
b. Other recommendations:
There are a number of other steps that CMC should take to provide an inclusive environment for
students from diverse backgrounds:
5
See, e.g., E. C. Warburton et al., Bridging the Gap: Academic Preparation and Postsecondary Success of FirstGeneration Students, National Center for Education Statistics Statistical Analysis Report, May 2001.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001153.pdf
6
See Report of the Campus Climate Task Force, Claremont McKenna College, 2011-2012, pp. 7-8. According to
the findings of the report, in 2011, while only 45.3% of students identified as white, among faculty, the number was
79.7%.
7
Certain staff deal with diversity as part of their jobs, such as Nyree Gray, our Title IX and Civil Rights
Coordinator, and various members of the Dean of Students’ Office, who work on diversity programming. However,
none of these is in a position to focus on promoting diversity at CMC in a holistic and coordinated manner,
addressing diversity in students programming, admissions, hiring etc.
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b.i. In addition to their academic advisors, students from diverse backgrounds should be given
the opportunity to have an advisor of a similar background to themselves. 8
b.ii. CMC should consider giving students of diverse background the opportunity to request a
student mentor of a background similar to themselves. 9
b.iii. CMC should strongly consider creating an orientation program for first-generation students
and other students who may experience difficulty transitioning to CMC. Such a program
should focus on developing a broad set of academic skills—e.g. developing good study
habits, using office hours effectively, writing research papers etc., as well as other skills
needed to succeed at CMC—e.g. budgeting, working with the student accounts office,
applying for funding etc. It should also seek to develop a strong partnership between these
students and the Writing Center. 10
b.iv. CMC should expand diversity programming in its freshman orientation. For example, it
should include presentations by various diversity-related groups to the student body, and it
should facilitate discussions among students of how they can foster an inclusive
environment. 11
b.v. CMC should consider developing a centralized tutoring system that is easy to access and
use. Apart from the Writing Center, it is difficult for students to locate the tutoring help
they need, since it is not provided in a centralized manner.
b.vi. CMC should permanently endow and expand its Emergency Fund. In the last academic
year, faculty donated approximately $5,000 to create an emergency fund for students, but
this money has already run out. Our current financial aid model has not increased the
allowance for personal expenses in over ten years. Students from low-income backgrounds
are often unable to afford textbooks, LSAT preparation courses, graduate school application
fees etc.; emergencies such as the loss of a computer can be financially and academically
devastating for them.
b.vii. CMC should expand programming and networking opportunities for first-generation
students and students of color. For example, we could have speaker series for Black History
Month, a dinner to welcome first-generation students at the President’s house, networking
events for students of diverse backgrounds to meet with prospective employers etc.
8
Rod Camp has spoken to Lee Skinner, in the Dean of Faculty’s Office, on this matter, and she has expressed
willingness to ask faculty who are first generation or of color to volunteer to advise students from similar
backgrounds. If those individuals are collectively insufficient to advise their student counterparts, she would also be
willing to ask for volunteers among all other faculty. We should consider offering students such advisers in addition
to their academic advisers, since the individual who is best aligned with the student’s academic interests may not be
of the same background as that student. Such advisers could be referred to as the student’s faculty mentor, rather
than as his/her academic adviser.
9
Rod Camp has spoken to Kristin Weyman, in the Dean of Students’ Office, and she is open to this suggestion.
Note that all incoming students are currently assigned a student mentor; our recommendation would therefore not
significantly single out students of diverse backgrounds.
10
Though many colleges hold such programs before the fall semester begins, given that CMC has recently
emphasized having all freshmen come to campus at the same time, we might consider spacing such orientation
programming throughout the fall semester. It would also be important to present such programming in a positive
light—perhaps as, in part, a celebration of the achievements of this group of students—rather than as purely
remedial programming which might carry a stigma. Harvey Mudd’s Summer Institute offers us an excellent
example of how to position such a program in a positive light.
11
A recent study, cited in the New York Times, revealed that merely asking freshman orientation panelists to talk
about their life experiences—both privileged and disadvantaged—resulted in closing the GPA gap between firstgeneration freshmen and their peers (L. Pappano, First-Generation Students Unite, The New York Times, April 8,
2015).
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b.viii. CMC should take steps to ensure the continued existence of groups that offer support and
advocacy for students from diverse backgrounds, such as Generation: University, the
Multicultural Advisory Council, the Brothers and Sisters Alliance etc.
b.ix. CMC should provide a space for student groups that seek to promote and
support diversity to meet. This room could be designated, for example, as the Multicultural
Gathering Place.
b.x. CMC must improve its coordination with other 5C groups, such as the Office of Black
Student Affairs and the Chicano and Latino Student Affairs group. CMC currently does not
have close ties to these groups, though they provide much-needed support to students from
underrepresented groups.
b.xi. CMC should actively encourage diversity among its faculty, both by providing departments
with strategies for promoting diversity in hiring and by considering establishing an endowed
chair for a professor working on diversity-related issues.
b.xii. CMC should encourage faculty to teach courses on topics that reflect the interests of a
diverse student population.
b.xiii. CMC should provide sensitivity training for faculty and staff and encourage them to
participate in it.
b.xiv. CMC should regularly study its climate, to see whether it is succeeding in offering a
supportive environment for its diverse student population, and to identify areas in which it
can improve. 12
12
The Campus Climate Task Force has recently issued a set of recommendations to promote and support diversity at
CMC, some of which overlap with this committee’s recommendations. Below, we list some of the
recommendations of the Task Force which we believe would be the most important for promoting racial and socioeconomic diversity at CMC:
1.1: Establish an endowed professorship for a prominent scholar who incorporates race, ethnicity, sexual orientation,
or gender studies in research and teaching.
1.2: Identify best practices in recruiting and hiring that will allow CMC to increase the number of women and
persons of color, and other underrepresented minority populations in the faculty and administrative staff.
1.5: Critically review CMC’s admission and other marketing materials to evaluate how CMC is presenting itself to
potential students and their families.
1.7: Closely monitor the effectiveness of the Keck Science Department’s bridge-program (HHMI grant 2013) which
is designed to recruit and graduate students of color and women in STEM fields.
2.2: Systematically assess the availability of space on campus to facilitate regular meetings of people interested in a
range of diversity issues.
3.3: Establish institutional affiliations with organizations that are committed to diversity and inclusivity.
4.1: Encourage faculty, especially those affiliated with the CMC Research Institutes, to bring speakers to campus
who reflect racial and ethnic diversity.
4.2: Support course and curricular development efforts that integrate issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual
orientation.
4.3: Consider alternative advising models that may ease the burden of advising for faculty of color and women in
some disciplines.
5.1: Continue and improve cooperative institutional relationships with the 5-C resource organizations such as the
Office of Black Student Affairs, International Place, the Queer Resource Center, Chicano-Latino Student Affairs,
the Chaplains’ Office, and Health Education Outreach.
6.1: Celebrate diversity initiatives and the successes of faculty, students, and staff especially those of
underrepresented race, gender or sexual orientation in a very public fashion.
6.3: Reach out to alumni who are interested in acting as mentors to underrepresented students.
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Appendix I—Screen Shots of diversity and financial-aid related web pages:
Contents:
i. The only page we could find on CMC’s web page that dealt with diversity
https://www.claremontmckenna.edu/dof/diversity.php
ii. Scripps’ diversity web page—this is an excellent example of the sort of diversity page we
should have under Student Life
http://www.scrippscollege.edu/diversity/
iii. Harvey Mudd’s diversity web page—this is an excellent example of the sort of diversity
page we should have under Student Life
https://www.hmc.edu/diversity/
iv. Pomona’s diversity web page on their Admissions site—this is an excellent example of the
sort of diversity page we should offer under Admissions
http://www.pomona.edu/admissions/diversity/
v. Pitzer’s web page for their Spring Admissions Diversity Program
http://pitweb.pitzer.edu/admission/diversity-program/
vi. Amherst’s diversity web page on their Admissions site—this is an excellent example of the
sort of diversity web page we should offer under Admissions
https://www.amherst.edu/admission/diversity
vii Pomona’s web page with stories of first generation students—this is an excellent example of
the sort of student profiles that we might include on both our Student Life/Diversity and our
Admissions/Diversity web pages
http://www.pomona.edu/news/2014/05/12-first-gen-graduates.aspx#!/page/1
viii. Wellesley’s “Wellesley is Affordable” page—this is an excellent example of how we might
frame the affordability portion of our Admissions web page
http://www.wellesley.edu/admission/affordable
ix. Amherst’s fee waver guide—this is an excellent example of how we might give information
on our fee wavers
https://www.amherst.edu/admission/financial_aid/quickpass
x. Wellesley’s simple cost calculator—we should add something like this to our affordability
page
http://www.wellesley.edu/admission/affordable/myintuition
xi. Wellesley’s examples of financial aid awards—we should add something like this to our
affordability page
http://www.wellesley.edu/sfs/yourcost/sampleaidawards
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