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
Motto Incipit Vita Nova
Established 1926
Type Private
President Nancy Y. Bekavac
Faculty 95
Undergraduates 878
Postgraduates 21
Location Claremont, CA, USA
Campus Suburban, 30 acres (0.12 km²)
Endowment US$199.9 million
Mascot Athenas
Website www.scrippscollege.edu

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

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] Academics

Scripps was ranked 26th nationally among liberal arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report in 2007.

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.

[edit] Campus

A view of the tree-filled campus of Scripps College
A view of the tree-filled campus of Scripps College

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. 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 jasmine 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 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]

Scripps College is also the home of the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, which maintains Scrips 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.

[edit] 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
  • Film Studies (off-campus through CMC)
  • 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 though Scripps does have limited religious studies faculty)
  • Russian
  • Science & Management
  • Science, Technology, and Society
  • Sociology (off-campus through Pomona or Pitzer)
  • Spanish
  • Theatre (off-campus through Pomona)

[edit] Examples of self-designed majors

  • Bioethics
  • Asian-American Studies
  • Jewish Studies
  • Queer Studies
  • Sociobiology
  • Social Justice
  • Music Business

[edit] Residential life

Most 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 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]

[edit] 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.
  • This tradition continues in a somewhat altered and updated form. The Mudd Run is a freshmen initiation for Harvey Mudd College students in which they are awakened late at night to run through the Harvey Mudd and Scripps campuses where they are doused with water by Scripps first-year students. In return, Scripps first-years are awakened and instructed to sing the song as an apology one or two nights later in the Scripps Run (also known as Scripps Sing), whereby they march through the Harvey Mudd campus with arms linked together, this time becoming the targets of water dousing. These traditions have become a point of contention in recent years as Harvey Mudd students have been accused breaking the rules by using materials and substances other than water, prompting Scripps to disallow the Mudd Run in 2006.
  • 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.
  • 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." "Scrippsies" is nonetheless still in use.
  • The Senior Brunch (commonly referred to as the Champagne Brunch or the Naked Brunch) dates back to the 1970s and currently takes place in Margaret Fowler Garden one week before commencement. Traditionally, senior students drink champagne to the point of intoxication (or come to the event already intoxicated) and disrobe in the garden. Many women later spend the afternoon streaking through campus, taking a dip in the pool (including the years that Harvey Mudd's pool was the closest to Scripps) and often running to the third floor "Bell Tower" of Browning Hall to celebrate.
  • 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.

[edit] 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).

[edit] 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
  • Fritz Weis (Interim 2007-2008)

[edit] Notable faculty

[edit] Notable alumnae

[edit] External links


The Claremont Colleges
Claremont McKenna College • Harvey Mudd College • Pitzer College • Pomona College • Scripps College • Claremont Graduate University • Keck Graduate Institute • Claremont University Consortium
Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
Caltech • California Lutheran • Claremont-Mudd-Scripps • La Verne • Occidental • Pomona-Pitzer • Redlands • Whittier
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