CMC In The News

Claremont McKenna College was featured in a story about how campuses are preparing for a number of scenarios due to the lack of clear and timely state guidance for campus re-openings. The uncertainty has resulted in a “wild array of different configurations of approaches and solutions” among campuses, said Hiram Chodosh, president of CMC. According to the story, CMC had begun planning a fall return months ago, envisioning classes in larger spaces or outdoors, students in single rooms or small-group dorms, takeout food eaten outside with safe distances among friends. His campus plans far exceed Los Angeles County’s draft reopening protocols for colleges and universities, which Chodosh helped create as a member of the higher education task force. He said failing to take “measured risks” to reopen and simply waiting for a vaccine was not a “sensible way to confront the challenge.”

In a front-page story, “Covid Tests and Quarantines: Colleges Brace for an Uncertain Fall,” President Hiram Chodosh was quoted on the challenges facing U.S. colleges: “We have learned how to close safely. But the big question now is, can we open safely?”

President Hiram Chodosh was interviewed by the Associated Press about challenges colleges and universities are facing in the uncertain times of COVID-19.

Sharon Basso, vice president of student affairs, was interviewed in Fox 11’s series “New California,” which highlights a different industry and how it's changing in the midst of COVID-19. Basso spoke about how college campuses are planning alterations.

CMC President Hiram Chodosh was interviewed by Fortune magazine for an article featuring CMC’s “heroic” effort to meet the needs of their 2020 graduates, who were facing the “worst career environment” that college students “have faced since the Great Depression.”

CMC expanded its robust internship program, accomplishing something “unprecedented.”

“We’re expanding our internship program into the immediate postgraduate environment,” Chodosh said. Thanks to “a very generous anonymous donor,” Chodosh explained that 2020 grads would be eligible for a summer of training in high-value skills and potentially for financial support in low-paid or unpaid work—à la internships—until next June, up to $10,000 per quarter. As Chodosh told the class of 2020, “This funding will enable you to work for an employer who may not be able initially to hire you.”

CMC was featured in a Los Angeles Times story about how colleges may look when they reopen to students — from teaching classes outdoors to offering food to go. “These strategies may not work. They may not be feasible,” President Hiram Chodosh cautioned. “But we need to exhaust the path before we get to that particular dead end.”

Claremont McKenna College was mentioned in a Los Angeles Times story about financial aid needs in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. CMC is hearing from more families apprehensive about college costs and remains committed to fully covering a student’s demonstrated financial need.

President Hiram Chodosh was featured in an in-depth Chronicle of Higher Education article that illustrated how four college presidents made decisions to close their campuses — and helped pave the way for the rest of the country to follow suit.

Claremont McKenna College was highlighted in a Los Angeles Times story about college students who petitioned to stay in campus housing during the pandemic. About 85 CMC students received approval to stay, including all international student applicants, who face potential health risks and visa problems if they leave the country, said Dianna Graves, assistant vice president and dean of students. “Our goal throughout this response has been to acknowledge the significant personal losses while offering support to get through this,” she said.

Claremont McKenna College was featured in a Los Angeles Times story on campus closures across the country. The story mentioned that all students would be required to return home or find another off-campus location by March 23 — with some exceptions. “We recognize that not everyone has a good or safe place to go,” President Hiram Chodosh said.

The Washington Post interviewed CMC President Hiram Chodosh about the role sports play in admissions to the nation’s most prestigious private colleges and universities.

Chodosh said that CMC, a Division III college, aspires to be “the go-to college for the scholar-leader-athlete.”

He acknowledged a concern, however, about all the money that affluent parents pour into athletic trainers, traveling clubs, sports camps and other activities—separate from high school sports teams—that give their children an edge in the recruiting chase.

Too often, he said, wealth and privilege determine “who becomes a competitive athlete in a world where we have structured sport and play to an extreme.” Those disparities, he continued, pose a challenge for the country and for colleges that want to level the playing field. “We have a lot more work to do there.”

The Los Angeles Times interviewed CMC President Hiram Chodosh in an article about the stereotypes of elite colleges being exclusively for wealthy families.

Access and affordability, Chodosh said, are rooted in the founding vision of the College, whose first students in 1946 were World War II veterans. He further detailed how the College “has stepped up its commitment” to low-income students, as well as students who are the first in their families to attend college.

“I’m concerned about a growing frustration with elite institutions generally, including higher education institutions, that becomes very corrosive and can serve to undermine the tremendous investment and success of our leading colleges and universities,” he said.

In a video interview with the Los Angeles Times, CMC President Hiram Chodosh discussed how higher education can help students “develop a full sense of home and belonging” while simultaneously committing “to notions of free and critical inquiry and speech.”

“These are not … mutually exclusive goals,” Chodosh said. “We need to do—and can do —both at the same time. And part of our process, part of our commitment here at Claremont McKenna College, is to commit to that process of building security and self-confidence and a sense of belonging in each and every one of our students. And to engage the whole community to think deeply about the problems of our country, the challenges of a pluralistic society, and to join together to build community and build that capacity.”