Scripps College

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Scripps College is a liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges.

[edit] History

Scripps was founded in 1926 by Ellen Browning Scripps, who believed that "the primary obligation of a college is to educate students to be clear and independent thinkers and to live their lives with confidence, courage and hope." The motto of the college is "Incipit Vita Nova" ("Here begins new life") from Dante's New Life.

[edit] Academics

[edit] The Claremont Colleges

Scripps is a member of the Claremont Colleges, and much of student life revolves around the five colleges, or "5C's." Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College, Pomona College, Pitzer College and Harvey Mudd College all interact socially, but also share dining halls, libraries, and other facilities spread throughout the bordering campuses. All five colleges are part of the Claremont University Consortium.

Any student attending Scripps can enroll in up to 2/3 of their classes at the other four colleges, and can also major at any of the other four, so long as the student's requested major is not offered at Scripps. This is the general academic policy at all five schools, and is meant to give students the resources of a larger university while still maintaining the qualities of a small, liberal-arts college.

Over the years, a rivalry has formed between the opposing sports teams CMS (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) and PP (Pomona-Pitzer).

[edit] Rank & Curriculum

Scripps was ranked 28th nationally among liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report as of 2008 and 4th in terms of women's colleges, above Mount Holyoke and Barnard College, both of which have been considered top women's colleges in the United States.

Academics are focused on interdisciplinary humanistic studies, combined with rigorous training in the disciplines. General requirements include classes in fine arts, letters, natural sciences, social sciences, women's/gender studies and race/ethnic studies. Scripps also requires first-year students to take a writing course. Each graduating student must complete a senior thesis or project. It shares several academic programs with other members of the Claremont Consortium, including the Joint Science Department and the Joint Music Department.

A key part of the Scripps experience is the Core curriculum, a sequence of three classes that encourage students to think critically and challenge ideas. Every first-year student takes Core I in the fall, which introduces students to major ideas that shape the modern world. Core II seminars focus on specific ideas introduced in Core I and are team-taught by two professors in different fields, such as physics and art. The concluding Core III classes encourage discussion and critical thinking for first-semester sophomores, culminating in individual projects.

Newsweek-Kaplan picked 25 colleges as “the places that everyone’s talking about for 2006.” Naming Scripps as the “Hottest Women’s College,” Newsweek heralded Scripps’ academic strengths as well as its physical location and campus amenities.

[edit] Campus

The 30-acre campus, designed by the pioneering architect Gordon Kaufmann in the Mediterranean Revival Style architecture he was known for, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Scripps College is also known for its handsome landscaping designed by Edward Huntsman-Trout. Sumner Hunt designed Janet Jacks Balch Hall.

Scripps has a lush, well-manicured campus. A rose garden between Toll and Browning Halls is designated for student cutting, and many women keep fresh-cut roses in their rooms. Fruit trees abound on the campus, and include orange (lining most paths near the residence halls), grapefruit (especially near the Claremont McKenna College campus), pomegranate (in the courtyards of Grace Hall and outside Dorsey Hall), kumquat (in Olive Court and outside the administration offices of Balch Hall), and loquat (in front of Toll Hall). Olive trees are found throughout the entire campus, particularly in Humanities courtyard. Some strawberries can also be found in the Rose Garden. Scents of orange blossoms and wisteria perfume the campus in the early spring. Elm Tree Lawn, located near Revelle House (formerly the President's House, but presently houses the Alumnae Association), has long been the site of Commencement ceremonies.

Several facilities are shared by the members of the Claremont Consortium including Honnold/Mudd Library and the Keck Science Center.

Central to the Scripps campus is the student-run coffeeshop, the Motley Coffeehouse (commonly called the Motley). Located in Seal Court near the mailroom and Malott Commons dining hall, the Motley is a socially- and environmentally-conscious business that provides students with a venue for events and concerts as well providing space to study, hang out, and drink fair trade espresso. The Motley prides itself on being the only all-women, undergraduate, student-run coffeehouse "west of the Mississippi."[1]

Scripps College is also the home of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, which maintains Scripps College's permanent art collection of some 7500 objects spanning 3000 years of art history. [2] Objects are available for use in classes, displayed in campus exhibitions, and loaned to other exhibiting institutions. Among the holdings in the collection are works by American artists Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, and John James Audubon, and an extensive collection of paintings by the California artist Millard Sheets.

[edit] Residential life

Most Scripps students live in one of the nine residence halls or apartments:

• Eleanor Joy Toll Hall ("Toll"), 1927 - Toll Hall was the first building on campus and served not only as the student residence in the first few years of the College, but also housed the administration, faculty offices and classrooms.
• Grace Scripps Clark Hall (officially known as "Clark", but more popularly known as "Grace"), 1928
• Ellen Browning Hall ("Browning"), 1929 - Named after the Founder of the College
• Susan Miller Dorsey Hall ("Dorsey"), 1930
• Mary Kimberly Hall ("Kimberly" or "Kimbo"), 1960, was built originally for female Harvey Mudd students and is thus architecturally different from all other halls.
• Cecil & Bessie Bartlett Frankel Hall ("Frankel"), 1966
• Mary Routt Hall ("Routt"), 1966
• Senior Routt Apartments
• Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Hall ("GJW" or "GJ-Dub"), 2000
• Wilbur Hall, 2001 - Built in a former dining hall attached to Kimberly Hall

Year levels are mixed in each dorm, with first-year through senior students living side-by-side. However, the present-day hall draw system (which is based on the year a student entered college) has contributed to older students congregating in what are widely considered more desirable locations (usually based on aesthetics and room sizes, among other factors), such as Dorsey, Browning and Jungels-Winkler Halls. All of the residence halls have courtyards and fountains, as well as reading rooms, television rooms, kitchens, and living rooms. Many of the rooms have balconies.

In 2006, The Princeton Review included Scripps in several of their rankings, such as "Dorms Like Palaces" (#4), "Most Beautiful Campus" (#17), and "Best Campus Food" (#19). [3]

[edit] Traditions and lore

• Scripps has its own font ("Goudy Scripps") and a printing press, as well as its own color ("Scripps Green"), a sage green that is used liberally across the campus, from doors in the residence halls, to the velvet seats in Boone Recital Hall, to the caps and gowns worn at Commencement. The color was chosen to be reminiscent of the sagebrush originally covering the ground upon which the campus was built. Goudy Scripps font is often seen in Denison Library, though is seldom used in college publications.
• There are only two times a Scripps student may pass through the wooden front doors of Denison Library: during Matriculation, in which first-year students enter the doors and sign a handmade book, symbolically entering the college; and during Commencement, as graduating seniors exit the doors before the start of the Commencement ceremony.
• In the late fifties and early sixties, following the founding of nearby Harvey Mudd College, first-year students were taken to the Mudd campus during orientation to sing to the incoming Mudders. This song was sung to the tune of "You Are My Sunshine":

Girls can never change their natures, that is far beyond their reach

Once a girl is born a lemon, she can never be a peach.

But the law of compensation is the one we always preach:

You can always squeeze a lemon, but just try and squeeze a peach.

• This tradition continues in a somewhat altered and updated form. The Mudd Run is a freshmen initiation for Harvey Mudd College students in which they are awakened late at night to run through the Harvey Mudd and Scripps campuses where they are doused with water by Scripps first-year students. In return, Scripps first-years are awakened and instructed to sing as an apology one or two nights later in the Scripps Run (also known as Scripps Sing), whereby they march through the Harvey Mudd campus with arms linked together, this time becoming the targets of water dousing. The lyrics comparing women to lemons and peaches were discontinued, and the original lyrics to "You Are My Sunshine" are used. These traditions have become a point of contention in recent years as Harvey Mudd students have been accused breaking the rules by using materials and substances other than water, prompting Scripps to disallow the Mudd Run in 2006.
• Each residence hall houses a study, known as a "Browsing Room". Small libraries are maintained in each Browsing Room through generous alumnae donations to a specific Browsing Room fund, in addition to donations of used books from hall residents. A longstanding tradition "prohibits" men from entering Browsing Rooms as they are designated for study, not socializing.
• Since the early days of the College, students have referred to one another as "Scrippsies." In recent years, however, this term has become one of derision for some, and many students prefer to be called "Scripps Women," or the gender-neutral "Scripps students." Nonetheless, "Scrippsies" remains in use by many.
• The Senior Brunch (commonly referred to as the Champagne Brunch or the Naked Brunch) dates back to the 1970s and currently takes place in Margaret Fowler Garden one week before commencement. Traditionally, senior students drink champagne to the point of intoxication (or come to the event already intoxicated) and disrobe in the garden. Many women later spend the afternoon streaking through campus, taking a dip in the pool (including the years that Harvey Mudd's pool was the closest to Scripps) and often running to the third floor "Bell Tower" of Browning Hall to celebrate. In recent years, attempts have been made to control the event. The brunch is supervised by Scripps staff and students are asked to put on clothing or a towel before leaving the garden on their way to the pool, although this request is often disregarded. Students may not bring cameras into the event, and the date and time of the event is not publicized to limit onlookers attempting to gawk at or photograph students. The post-brunch pool party is also supervised by staff and campus security.
• Each graduating class may paint a section of Graffiti Wall, located in the Rose Garden. Most classes vote on a design and each graduating student has the opportunity to sign her name to the wall. In recent years, older designs have undergone restoration after decades of exposure to the elements.

[edit] Athletics

Scripps joined with Claremont Men's College and Harvey Mudd College in 1976 to form the CMS (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) Athletics programs. Women's teams compete as the Athenas (men's teams are known as the Stags).

[edit] Presidents

• Ernest Jaqua (1926-1942)
• Mary Kimberly Shirk (1942-1943) -- acting president
• Frederick Hard (1944-1964)
• Mark Curtis (1965-1976)
• John H. Chandler (1976-1989)
• E. Howard Brooks (1989-1990)
• Nancy Y. Bekavac (1990-2007) -- first female president
• Fritz Weis (Interim 2007-2008)

[edit] Notable faculty

• Hartley Burr Alexander - iconographer, educator, and philosopher
• Jun Kaneko - artist
• Gail Kubik - musician
• Nathan M. Pusey - historian and 24th president of Harvard University
• Millard Sheets - artist
• Paul Soldner - artist
• Albert Stewart - sculptor

[edit] Notable alumnae

• Anne Hopkins Aitken - one of the modern mothers of Zen Buddhism in the western world
• Serena Altschul - journalist
• China Chow - actor and model
• Harriet Doerr - author
• Molly Ivins - columnist; attended Scripps for 1962-1963, then transferred to Smith College
• Mary Parker Lewis - politician
• Melanie Rawn - author
• Gabrielle Giffords - United States Representative of Congressional District number 8 of Arizona
• Edith Pattou - author

[edit] External links

• Scripps College official website