STRATEGIC VISION FUNDING ANNOUNCED

As recently announced by President Maria Klawe, $100,000 was set aside to be distributed during the 2007-2008 academic year to groups or individuals who had ideas that would advance one or more of HMC's six Strategic Vision goals.
 
Following the initial call for proposals, the President's Cabinet received 53 submissions from HMC students, faculty and staff, and identified and funded 29 of the ones that best exhibited definite impact on one or more of the strategic goals. While the majority of proposals were funded through HMC 2020 Funds—made possible by the generosity of the HMC trustees—11 proposals were funded by a variety of other sources, as noted below.

The following is a list and short summary of each of the proposals that received funding, the maximum award being $5,000. Another opportunity to apply for Strategic Vision funding was announced in December 2007.

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Awardees: Annika Eberle '09, Autumn Petros-Good '09 and Matt Hoss '08

Awarded $5,000 to help fund a service project in Ngomano, Kenya, in which HMC’s chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) will implement an effective water treatment system and provide basic hygiene and disease prevention education to address the needs of Clay International Secondary School. Currently, the water in this area is believed to be contaminated with bacteria and contain unhealthy mineral concentrations. Mudd students will collaborate with the Kenyan community to measure the mineral concentrations and determine the extent of intervention necessary. They will then research, test and, if necessary, modify existing purification systems to meet the needs of the village.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Angie Covarrubias, HMC Upward Bound program director

Awarded $2,500 to increase the number of tutors hired for the HMC Upward Bound program, which helps low-income, potential first-generation college students from four high schools in the East San Gabriel Valley community prepare for college. Upward Bound’s Saturday Program, held at HMC, allows for highly individualized tutorial support geared to help students improve basic skills as measured by standardized tests and GPAs in college preparatory courses. Weekly contact through the Saturday Program is supplemented by two hours of study halls at each target high school per week.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Autumn Petros-Good '09

Awarded $3,000 to increase student participation in Leadership Bootcamp, a seminar developed by HMC alumna Michele McCarthy '89/90 and her husband that teaches effective teamwork and leadership skills. The course offers a full-immersion simulation where students work in teams to deliver a product to a "boss." During the exercise, students learn the best practices of the hundreds of teams that have taken the course before them. The funds awarded for this proposal will be put into financial aid awards for students to attend the training program.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardees: Bob Schaffer, visiting professor in the Department of Engineering, and students Catherine Bradshaw '09, Ginna Kim '09, Jeffrey Rubinstein '08 and Lea Zernow '10

Awarded $5,000 to continue the Science Bus program, which aims to help teach science to local elementary and middle school students in lower income and under-privileged areas. Teams of two to four volunteers from the Claremont Consortium visit local elementary schools once a week and share science lessons through concepts, demonstrations and interactive experiments. The lessons cover a broad range of topics and are designed by Science Bus volunteers, who develop lesson plans, procure supplies, teach the lessons and manage contacts with the schools and teachers.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Chris Sundberg, associate dean of students/director of student activities

Awarded $5,000 to create an outdoor space at HMC, where movies can be shown on an inflatable outdoor movie screen. The screen, intended for student usage, will be used in dorm courtyards and green spaces on campus.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardees:  David Vosburg, assistant professor of chemistry, and David Asai, Stuart Mudd Professor of Biology and chair of the Department of Biology

Awarded $3,500 to fund departmental seminar/colloquium speakers from underrepresented ethnic groups, specifically African Americans, Native Americans and Latinos.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Darryl Yong, assistant professor of mathematics

Awarded $5,000 to continue the HMC Professional Development and Outreach Group’s support of secondary mathematics teachers in the Greater Los Angeles area through workshops, travel grants and outreach events.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Debra Heavenston, assistant vice president, Human Resources Office

Awarded $5,000 to begin a formalized program of learning and training for HMC staff members. Learning sessions will provide improved/additional skills and knowledge that benefit the college, as well as improved self-esteem and self-confidence that benefit the individual.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Erik Spjut, professor of engineering, and Mary Cardenas, associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of engineering

Awarded $2,000 to help provide those participating in the E80 Experimental Engineering course—where students build, instrument and fly rockets, and then analyze and report on their flight data—with real engineering instrumentation, such as a centrifuge and pressure chamber, or the means to make actual aerodynamic measurements through the use of a wind tunnel.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Gena Urowsky '08

Awarded $1,750 to aid in HMC’s Society of Women Engineers annual Women Engineers and Scientists of Tomorrow conference—designed for female high school students who are interested in engineering, the sciences and mathematics. Funds will help pay for a keynote speaker and for those students who are interested but cannot afford to attend.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Gregory A. Lyzenga, associate professor of physics

Awarded $1,325 to establish the Multicultural Ally Program to train members of the HMC community to act as allies to persons from diverse backgrounds. Specifically, the program will offer training sessions for participants to develop empathy-based listening; familiarity with diversity-related resources on campus, at the 5Cs and the broader community; strategies for referring students to these resources; and an understanding of confidentiality and appreciation for the limits of confidentiality.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee:  Holly Hauck, assistant to the dean of faculty (on behalf of the Staff Outreach Committee)

Awarded $2,000 to support the Staff Outreach Committee’s efforts in reaching out to new staff through activities, including monthly welcome breakfasts and lunches, tours of The Claremont Colleges campuses, drop-in visits and welcome packets.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Iris C. Critchell, instructor of aeronautics emerita

Awarded $5,000 to help cover the costs of meetings with key alumni experts in aviation and aeronautics, faculty and students who could generate suggestions and guidance for establishing an interdisciplinary Aeronautics Center at HMC. The center would be designed to provide K-12 teachers with guidance to cultivate students’ interest in science, math and aeronautics; spearhead donor support to enable the archiving and preservation or HMC’s extensive aerospace heritage and history resources; support atmospheric studies as they apply to environmental science; and support aeronautics-related clinics, research and projects.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Karl Haushalter, assistant professor of chemistry and biology

Awarded $5,000 to create a pilot integrative experience course on HIV-AIDS, which would involve significant service learning in Claremont as well as in the developing world. Funds will help send one student to Kampala, Uganda, where he or she will work for 10 weeks during the summer as an intern for the AIDS Support Organization, one of the most successful indigenous non-government organizations operating in Africa today. Another $5,000 will be raised to send a companion student during the course’s first year.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Patrick Foley '09, ASHMC vice president 

Awarded $2,000 to help fund a HMC conference on energy efficiency as the “soft path” to sustainability. The weekend conference, proposed for March 2008, will feature representatives from relevant sectors of industry and academia giving presentations and recruiting and networking with Mudd students.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardees: Stephanie Graham, senior editor/associate director of publications, and Gary Kelly, associate dean of institutional diversity

Awarded $3,750 to bring to campus “THEM: Images of Separation,” a traveling exhibition showcasing items—postcards, license plates, games, souvenirs and costumes—from popular culture that promoted stereotyping against such groups as Asian-Americans, Hispanics, Jews and poor whites, as well as “others,” in terms of body type and sexual orientation. The exhibition demonstrates that discrimination is not just a black/white issue.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Susan Martonosi, assistant professor of mathematics

Awarded $2,500 to help develop and implement a training program for faculty search committees focusing specifically on attracting and retaining faculty from underrepresented groups. Funds will go toward the costs of identifying a consultant to conduct a training workshop and provide travel and accommodations for this person.
 
Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Christine Alvarado, assistant professor of computer science

Awarded $3,000 to enable students to attend the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, which is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront.

Funding source: HMC 2020 Funds

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Awardee: Adam Johnson, associate professor of chemistry

Awarded $5,000 to bring a widely respected and nationally known speaker to campus to promote dialogue about race and educate the HMC community about diversity issues and how they can impact the experiences of students, faculty and staff. The impact of the speaker will be extended through a series of directed discussions in small groups of faculty and students (staff and trustees will be invited to participate as well).

Funding source: Dr. Bruce J. Nelson ’74 Distinguished Speaker Series

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Awardee: Andrew Danowitz '08

Awarded $5,000 to purchase a pinball machine for Jay’s Place. Pinball has been found to be a perennial favorite of many HMC students who wish to explore earlier forms of non-computer-based arcade games, and of adults, including alumni, who are nostalgic for the pinball experience.

Funding source: Trustee Andrea Leebron-Clay and James Clay, parents of the late Jay Wolkin ’99

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Awardee: Autumn Petros Good '09

Awarded $1,000 to develop and implement a recycling program that would recycle 50 percent of the waste HMC produces. Funds will go toward the purchase of recycling bins, signage and an awareness campaign.

Funding source: HMC Facilities and Maintenance Office

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Awardee: Autumn Petros Good '09

Awarded $4,800 to have six feminine product dispensers installed throughout campus restrooms in Galileo Hall, Beckman Hall, Parsons Engineering Building, Jacobs Science Center, Hoch-Shanahan Dining Commons and the Ronald and Maxine Linde Activity Center. The machines will help in the effort to fully support HMC’s female students, as the ratio of men to women on campus continues to increase.

Funding source: HMC Facilities and Maintenance Office

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Awardee: Chris Sundberg, associate dean of students/director of student activities

Awarded $800 to create an outdoor “Christmas Lights” study area in the Platt courtyard for students’ use at night. The area would resemble the Dabney Gardens on the Caltech campus.

Funding source: HMC Facilities and Maintenance Office

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Awardee: Gary Evans, Ruth and Harvey Berry Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership and professor of economics

Awarded $5,000 to initiate a pilot “Leader in Residence” program, whereby one to three experienced, non-academic leaders with diverse backgrounds would spend a week at HMC to promote leadership and leadership studies to the community, especially students.

Funding source: Walter and Lenore Annenberg Visiting Professor in Leadership and Management

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Awardee: Gena Urowsky '08

Awarded $500 for a central bulletin board that will provide students with information, such as housing and ride share announcements, club minutes, pool hours and LAC activities.

Funding source: HMC Dean of Students Office

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Awardees: Kenji Kozai '08, Cassandra Cortez '08, Diana Hawkins '08, Anna Lei '09 and Megan Pham '10

Awarded $1,500 to organize a film and discussion series on issues related to diversity, including particular aspects of gender, race, sexuality and the intersection of those dimensions of identity. The series will focus on bettering the HMC campus climate by increasing awareness of the experiences of minorities.

Funding source: HMC Office of Institutional Diversity

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Awardee: Lisa Sullivan, associate professor of economics

Awarded $5,000 to create a loaner program that will enable financially disadvantaged students at HMC to have access to a cache of video, film, camcorders, and digital and film cameras needed for their coursework.

Funding source: HMC Business Affairs Office

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Awardees: Matthew Phillips '11 and Daniel Ihlenfeldt '11

Awarded $3,000 to have timer lights placed on the corners of North, South, West and East dorms to create a common area in which students can relax, play Frisbee and participate in other recreational activities during the evening hours.

Funding source: HMC Facilities and Maintenance Office

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Awardee: Zachary Dodds, associate professor of computer science

Awarded $1,025 to help a team of HMC students participate in the 2007 Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, to be held in Orlando, Fla., in October. The conference brings together students, professors and researchers in an effort to provide a supportive networking environment for underrepresented groups across the broad range of computing and information technology.

Funding source: Shanahan Student Projects Fund