Scripps College

This article is about the undergraduate college. For the graduate and research institution, see The Scripps Research Institute.

Scripps College

Scripps College Logo
Motto	Incipit Vita Nova ("Here Begins New Life")
Type	Private
Established	1926
President	Fritz Weis (Interim)
Academic staff	95
Students	899
Undergraduates	878
Postgraduates	21
Location	Claremont , CA , USA
Campus	Suburban, 30 acres (0.12 km²)
Endowment	$274.4 million
Colors	Scripps Green (sage green) and White
Mascot	La Semeuse ("she who sows")
Website	www.scrippscollege.edu

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

History

Scripps was founded in 1926 by Ellen Browning Scripps, who believed that "The paramount obligation of a college is to develop in its students the ability to think clearly and independently, and the ability to live confidently, courageously, and hopefully." The motto of the college is "Incipit Vita Nova" ("Here Begins New Life") from Dante's New Life.

Academics

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 not only 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).

Rank & Curriculum

Scripps ranks 4th in terms of the nation's top women's colleges, tying with Mount Holyoke and Barnard College at 27th on the list for top liberal arts colleges in the United States by U.S. News & World Report in 2008.

Academic rankings
Liberal arts
U.S. News & World Report	27
Washington Monthly	146
National
Forbes	139

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, foreign language, 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.” Among them, Scripps was named the “Hottest Women’s College”. Newsweek heralded Scripps’ academic strengths as well as its physical location and campus amenities.

Environmental Sustainability

For it's practices regarding sustainability, Scripps earned a D+ on the College Sustainability Report Card 2009, published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. The college received recognition for exploring of the possibility of investing in renewable energy, but fared particularly badly on evaluation categories of shareholder engagement and endowment transparency.

Campus

A view of the tree-filled Balch Hall courtyard at Scripps College

The 30-acre (120,000 m²) campus, designed by the pioneering architect Gordon Kaufmann in the Spanish Colonial 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]

Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery

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.

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 ("Clark"), 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]

Environmental Sustainability

Scripps College has several sustainability initiatives underway, from energy conservation to green building practices. On the conservation front, the college has seen monetary and energy savings through use of a new energy management system, and has designed water systems to cut down on waste. Turning "Alumnae Field" into a natural surface also helped in efforts to conserve water. Scripps has also downsized trash bins and made "to-go" containers recyclable, in order to divert more waste from landfills. On the emmissions reductions front, maintenance staff use electric blowers and carts (as opposed to gas powered equipment), while a ride-sharing program is available for students, faculty and staff.

For it's practices regarding sustainability, Scripps earned a D+ on the College Sustainability Report Card 2009, published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute. This grade reflects the institute's quantitative analysis of how effective the initiatives have been. The college received positive recognition for their exploration of the possibility of investing in renewable energy, but fared particularly badly on evaluation categories of shareholder engagement and endowment transparency.

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.

• 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.
• 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.
• Every Wednesday afternoon Scripps hosts Afternoon Tea in Seal Court. The Scripps tradition of Afternoon Tea began in 1931 and offers Claremont students beverages, pastries, vegetables, and other snacks and finger foods.
• At the beginning of each year the Dean of Students holds the Dean's Desserts, where she welcomes all the incoming students to Scripps through a semi-formal dessert party. Traditionally the Dean's Dessert has been held in the Dean's backyard, but in recent years, due to the increase in size of the freshman class, the dessert has been moved to the backyard of the Revelle House.

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).

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
• Frederick "Fritz" Weis (2007-2009)
• Lori Bettison-Varga (2009- present) -- president elect

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

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
• Molly Ivins - columnist; attended Scripps for 1962-1963, then transferred to Smith College
• Hon. Judith N. Keep - first female Chief Judge of the southern district of California (as well as the first female judge on that court)
• Mary Parker Lewis - politician
• Melanie Rawn - author
• Gabrielle Giffords - United States Representative of Congressional District number 8 of Arizona
• Edith Pattou - author
• Elizabeth Goodman Logelin - the inspiration for The Liz Logelin Foundation

External links

• Scripps College official website
• Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery