More than 300 Harvey Mudd College parents and family members immersed themselves in life at the college during two days of Family Weekend activities on Friday, Feb. 13, and Saturday, Feb. 14.

Families reconnected with their Mudd students by attending classes, tours and panel discussions, and enjoying meals together. The participants braved rainy weather on Friday that gave way to blue skies on Saturday.

Cindy Simoni P09, who served as a volunteer for the event, participated in her fourth Family Weekend and enjoyed seeing the transition that parents make during the course of the academic year, much like their students.

“The turnout has been great,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed reconnecting with parents of first-year students I met at orientation at the beginning of the year. I met one of the mothers who laughed when I first told her this, but said she appreciated my advice: ‘You must learn how to text.’ It’s good to see the parents’ comfort level increase during the course of the year.”

Photos from Family Weekend have been posted in a Picasa web album.
Picasa (from Google) allows you to order prints, if you desire,
from one of four vendors: Walgreens, Shutterfly, Snapfish or Photoworks.
Note: Harvey Mudd College has no role in the transactions.

Weekend activities included tours of the academic departments of biology, chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics and physics.

Friday morning offered tours and demonstrations of activities of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, including a photo exhibit in the gallery of the Parsons Building, a tour of the printing presses used by Professor of Literature Jeff Groves in his teaching and research, and a demonstration of the Gamalan used by Professor of Music Bill Alves in his teaching and composition.

A panel led by the chairs and faculty members for each of the academic departments took questions from parents, many of them focusing on the career outlook for their students and choosing the right major.

Computer Science Department Chair Mike Ehrlinger told parents, “Be patient. The choices they make may not be the same as when they arrived.”

Biology Department Chair Stephen Adolph echoed this: “Give them a chance to explore. Don’t worry about going straight into grad school. It’s OK not to know your career path in your senior year.”

The panel members told parents to encourage their students to take advantage of the faculty’s willingness to work with them. “One of our faculty’s distinguishing characteristics is a desire to help students succeed,” said John Townsend, chair of the Physics Department. “Encourage your students to ‘use’ the faculty.”

A panel of alumni, including Jason Frederickson ‘99, Jordan Kwan ‘03, Lai Lao ‘04, Zack Rubin ‘08 and Badier Velji ‘07, had similar advice later in the day.

“Confidence can be a problem the first couple of years here,” said Velji. “I struggled with peaks and valleys, but knew I could always get help. When I finished, I knew I was the kind of person you could put on a project and succeed. The Harvey Mudd College degree carries a lot of weight.”

Frederickson recommended that parents share his advice with their students: “Eat breakfast.”

A proctor’s panel later in the day discussed issues of residence life and took questions from parents. The panel included Director of Residence Life Jason Santiago ‘07, Nadia Abuelezam ‘09 (Atwood), Hayden Gomes ‘09 (Case), Jonathan Litz ‘09 (Case), Kelley Hodges ‘09 (Linde) and Andrew LaMotte-Mitchell ‘09 (Sontag).

During the afternoon tea on Saturday, President Maria Klawe mingled with students and their families. The day’s events also included performances by Andy Wong ‘09 (classical guitar) and The Claremont Colleges’ a cappella singing group Midnight Echo and the Ballroom Dance Company. The day concluded with Parents College, a presentation of summer research projects by students led by Professor of Chemistry Jerry Van Hecke ‘61.

President Maria Klawe delivered her state of the college address and gave a frank appraisal of the financial condition of the institution. “Mudd is affected like many others,” she said. “The value of our endowment is down 25 percent and payout from the endowment represents 25 percent of our budget. We’re looking at ways to raise more money and make strategic budget cuts.” She noted that some building renovations will be postponed until the economy recovers.

Klawe also pointed out that the college is anticipating a record-breaking fund-raising year that is lessening the impact of the economic downturn. “In addition to [trustee] Mike Shanahan’s $25 million gift, we’ve seen increases in giving from all groups, including an 88 percent increase in participation by parents. In these extraordinary times, people are being very generous. We say Harvey Mudd College is ‘the little college that could.’ It’s a good time to be small and excellent.”