It was a very busy and productive summer at Harvey Mudd College. We are truly delighted to welcome the class of 2013 who recently arrived on campus. I am also excited that once again we have done well in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, tying for 14th among liberal arts colleges, and tying for No. 1 in undergraduate engineering programs at non-doctoral institutions (up from second place last year).

The 2008-09 books are now closed and I'm happy to report that our endowment value at the end of July was estimated to be about $205 million, up from $194.5M million at the end of June.

Planning for the new Teaching and Learning Center and vacated space on campus continued throughout the summer in preparation for community forums in September. Trustees Wayne Drinkward '73 and Malcolm Lewis '67 have worked closely with the architects, faculty, staff and students on both projects. We are very grateful to both of them for sharing so much of their time and expertise. I personally am very excited about the plans and look forward to hearing the thoughts of faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Thirty-nine first-year students (up from 27 last year) participated in the two week Summer Institute Leadership Program led by the Office of Institutional Diversity. From everything I've heard from the participants it was a tremendous success. The goal of this program is to build the confidence of students by introducing them to HMC's faculty and support programs before the pressure of classes begin. The participants then help other members of the first year class integrate into campus.

This year's five-day orientation program for our 207 first year students began with a day-long parent orientation hosted by the Advancement Office. This year parents seemed particularly thrilled to have their sons and daughters starting at HMC, perhaps in part because of the wonderful video they were shown about trip to Kenya by our Engineers for a Sustainable World team!

I also want to report that the renovation of North dorm is complete. As with the renovations of West and East dorms, students are enjoying a new heating and cooling system, new lofted room furniture and other great improvements throughout the dorm.

This summer I spent a bit less time than usual on Pender Island in BC because of the planning activities for the Teaching and Learning Center, and visits to Microsoft. All the same, the full week I spent at the cottage in the first part of August set me up to return to campus full of energy and excitement about the coming year. It's going to be a great one!

Maria Klawe
President

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