Piggybacking on Success: Seniors Keep the Swine

CMC's graduating seniors have one more reason to pat themselves on the back before Commencement: For the third consecutive year, CMC has won the right to keep the Senior Class Pig, the coveted trophy awarded annually to the senior class with the highest participation in its college's Senior Gift.
The smiling swine symbolizes an 11-year rivalry between the campuses, in which seniors solicit contributions during a five-week campaign. This year's total gift of $7,199 is the College's biggest-ever senior jackpot. (A record-breaking $7,000 was raised in 2002, and last year's efforts took in just over $3,000.) Proving how serious students are about bringing home the bacon, victory was won by a slender margin: CMC's participation rate of 95.8 percent was followed by Pitzer College at 95.7; Scripps placed third, followed by Pomona.
Seniors Jeff Battles, Sarah Cavanagh, and Laura Cunningham worked alongside senior class president Dustin Beckett on the campaign. At one point, Beckett went door-to-door on campus, soliciting pledges from his peers. "It was a lot of work, but it's paid off," Beckett said. "And I think it's amazing that we won by such a small margin. It means that every person's contribution mattered, and I think we should all be proud of ourselves."
Rebecca Hermanowicz, CMC assistant director of annual giving, said she was impressed by the generosity of the class of 2004 and the dedication of the many volunteers on the Senior Class Gift Committee. "It's always gratifying to see a senior class make such a cohesive, strong statement regarding their support of CMC," she said.
Echoes Beckett, "It's always been clear to me that the CMC Class of 2004 has been the best around," he said. "I love that this is another way we can show it."