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Scripps College

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This article is about the undergraduate college. For the graduate and research institution, see The Scripps Research Institute.
Scripps College
Scripps College Logo
MottoIncipit Vita Nova
TypePrivate
Established1926
PresidentNancy Y. Bekavac
Academic staff
95
Undergraduates878
Postgraduates21
Location
Claremont
,
CA
,
USA
CampusSuburban, 30 acres (0.12 km²)
EndowmentUS$199.9 million
MascotAthenas
Websitewww.scrippscollege.edu

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

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.

Academics

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. Core is both loved and hated by students. Most first-years are overwhelmed by the intense reading load in the first semester of their first year, and Core II is due for a re-design. However, the training in cultural analysis proves to be a lasting benefit of the Core program, and most upperclasswomen acknowledge that Core has changed the ways they consider the world.

Majors as of 2005-2006

  • Accounting (off-campus through Claremont McKenna)
  • American Studies
  • Anthropology
  • Art History
  • Art (Studio)
  • Asian Languages (Chinese and Japanese through Pomona, Korean through Claremont McKenna)
  • Asian Studies
  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Biology-Chemistry
  • Black Studies
  • Chemistry
  • Chicano Studies
  • Classics
  • Computer Science (off-campus through Harvey Mudd)
  • Dance
  • Economics
  • Engineering (3-2 program, must be petitioned for)
  • English
  • Environment, Economics, and Politics
  • Environmental Science
  • Environmental Studies (off-campus through Pitzer)
  • European Studies
  • Foreign Language (classes taken in two or three languages, with emphasis in language or culture)
  • French Studies
  • Gender & Women's Studies
  • Geology (off-campus through Pomona)
  • German Studies
  • Hispanic Studies
  • History
  • Human Biology
  • Humanities
  • International Relations
  • Italian
  • Latin American Studies
  • Legal Studies
  • Linguistics
  • Mathematics
  • Media Studies
  • Molecular Biology
  • Music
  • Neuroscience
  • Organismal Biology
  • Organizational Studies (off-campus through Pitzer)
  • Philosophy
  • Physics
  • Politics & International Relations
  • Psychology
  • Religious Studies (technically off-campus due to lack of faculty)
  • Russian
  • Science & Management
  • Science, Technology, and Society
  • Sociology (off-campus through Pomona or Pitzer)
  • Spanish
  • Theatre (off-campus through Pomona)

Examples of Self-Designed Majors

  • Bioethics
  • Asian-American Studies
  • Jewish Studies
  • Queer Studies
  • Sociobiology

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.

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. In the early spring the scents of orange blossoms and jasmine perfume the campus.

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 referred to as "the Motley"). Located in Seal Court, near the mailroom and the Malott Commons dining hall, the Motley is a socially and environmentally-conscious business that provides Scripps students with a venue for events, concerts, and studying, in addition to serving fair trade espresso. The Motley often prides itself on being the only all-women, undergraduate, student-run coffeehouse "west of the Mississippi [River]."[1]

Residential life

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

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 the 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.

Traditions and lore

  • Scripps has its own font ("Goudy Scripps") and a printing press, as well as its own color ("Scripps Green"), a light olive shade 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. 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.
  • Grace Scripps Clark Hall is the only residence hall to still host its own holiday banquet in December. Called the Grace Medieval Banquet, first-year residents of Grace Hall traditionally dress in medieval costumes and entertain the guests of honor, senior students who were once first-year residents of Grace Hall. The entertainment varies from year to year and at one time included a staged play.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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-present) -- first female president

Notable alumnae


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