The air felt full of hope and promise for the coming academic year, as CMC students and their families descended on campus in weather as warm as the welcomes and welcome backs.
Claremont McKenna College’s Class of 2028—337 first-years from 36 states and 21 countries—began their CMC journeys, eager to learn more about their new campus home. The College also welcomed transfer students—and welcomed back returning students—who exchanged hugs and handshakes, excited to dig into the curricular and co-curricular activities that define the CMC experience, from exploring grand challenges in the new Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences, to sharing a meal and deep discussion at the Athenaeum, or cheering on CMS athletic teams.
As incoming families and friends of first-year CMCers helped to unload, unpack, and move in to the residence halls, CMC staff, Resident Assistants, and First-Year Guides were there to lend a hand, answer questions, and offer encouragement.
Before CMC students, families, and friends shared bittersweet “farewells,” they acknowledged that CMC was successful in smoothing the transition to college life, through Orientation programming and organizing a stress-free move-in. Arriving to campus, “we were met right away with big smiles,” said Drew Hilen P’28, who was moving CMCer Hudson Hilen ’28 into his residence hall. “Our move-in was easy and straightforward!”
Friendships forged during these first days can last a lifetime. Roommates Hayden Lin ’28 and Sunny Wen ’28 became “instant best friends” as they and their families “adopted each other” during move-in, said Lin, who is among CMC’s first class of Integrated Sciences majors. Wen, an international student majoring in Government and Economics who describes herself as a “global citizen,” said she was looking forward to “taking advantage of the CMC resources.”
CMC families and friends made quite the entrance as they ran the gauntlet of CMC pom-poms into the Orientation programming at Roberts Pavilion, as some took the opportunity to doff their caps and strut their new CMC swag!
Lining up for their Welcome Orientation Adventure (WOA) trips, the anticipation was palpable, as students loaded sleeping bags (and jigsaw puzzles) onto buses that took them to locations ranging from rustic campsites in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains, as well as beach locations along the Southern California coastline. Upon arrival, the fun began, with activities designed to help students make connections and learn life skills they’ll apply as they navigate their next four years at CMC.
Students, faculty, and staff came together for Convocation in Roberts Pavilion to mark the first day of classes with programming that featured the Muslim Chaplin for the Claremont Colleges, Imam Dr. Hadi Qazwini, who delivered the invocation; Ellen Ketels, Associate Dean of the Faculty and Associate Professor of Literature, who led the crowd in the College Song and introduced CMC’s new faculty members; Heather Antecol, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty and James G. Boswell Professor of Economics, who provided the official welcome; and Ava Kopp ’25, President, Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College, who reflected the student perspective.
Nicholas Buccola, Professor of Government, delivered the ceremony’s keynote address, “Impossibilities and the Demands of Love.” Andrew Schroeder, Professor of Philosophy and Associate Dean of the Faculty for Research, introduced Buccola, who is the author of the award-winning book, The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America.
With Baldwin’s life and words as his inspiration, Buccola described Baldwin, “as a writer, activist and public intellectual, … and a warrior” who viewed education as a means of liberation, providing lessons applicable to our current moment.
“We live in a culture in which there are forces that are indifferent, skeptical … to the purpose of such an education. We live in a culture in which there are forces calling us to choose control over freedom, conquest over understanding, misinformation over truth, and exclusion over empathy,” he said. “So, it's incumbent on each of us to cultivate spaces of resistance …. Now here's the good news: CMC’s mission invites each of us to cultivate such spaces here in our community. The principles of the Open Academy will empower each of us to create spaces where we can express ourselves freely across difference.”
President Hiram Chodosh concluded the program by requesting “one simple action” of the audience. He pointed to the power of posing good questions, a nod to this year’s Convocation theme, Ask—Curiosity Makes Community. The phrase was featured on t-shirts as a gift for students.
“The good question is one of our most powerful tools … So, this year, folks from the big steps to the small ones, from on campus to off, from within the classroom, to everything we do to apply our learning to the lives we lead, let’s reinforce our commitment to ask.”