Get ready for another protest!

Michael B. Chertoff, current United States Secretary of Homeland Security and co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act, will be visiting the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at Claremont McKenna College on November 12th, 2008. His visit is sponsored by the Res Publica Society of CMC.

Chertoff will be attending a Res Publica luncheon in Los Angeles before coming to the student dinner at the Athenaeum at night.

Chertoff’s visit will be following the visit of highly anticipated speaker Karl Rove.

As mentioned in an earlier post, five days after Chertoff’s visit, Maureen Dowd, columnist for the NYTimes, will be coming as well.

Source: CMC Alumni Update from President Gann

Anyone know if we can use this with CMC-branded Gmail?

We were recently tipped off about a new site, ClaremontConfessions.com, a 5C-only alternative to other message boards.  It looks pretty good so far.

A bit from the “About” section of the website:

“1) We keep it classy.
2) You can report anything by clicking “report” next to a post– personal attacks, libel, etc. If an administrator agrees that the post violates the terms of service, we will delete it.

If you do not send in your housing preferences including dorm and roommate information by November 1st of this year, you might not get a room next year. Despite that being absolutely not true, there have been recent worries about whether or not CMC will have enough available housing for not only next semester, but next year as well. Here is the official position of the Residential Life Administration: Don’t worry, be happy.

The 2007 Crime Report for the Claremont Colleges was released today. Beneath numerous pages of official policy came the actual crime statistics and without a doubt, the most interesting part of the report. It is pasted here for those too lazy to sift through the pdf document.

Things to note in the statistics:

• Despite popular myth, CMC actually had far less sex offenses than the other Claremont Colleges. CMC had only 1 reported sex offense last year, compared to 11 in the Claremont Colleges as a whole. Clearly CMC guys are not the date rapists that Pomona men would have their women believe them to be. Sorry Pomoners, your last-ditch effort to keep what good-looking women you have away from the devilish charm and good looks of CMC guys is done.

The ASCMC Budget Committee met last Friday afternoon to go over retained earnings from last year and make final allocations.  The budget for this year is summarized in this PDF file.

The fine print:

• The numbers listed are final allocations as of today, but the budget committee may meet to change allocations later this year.
• Income is not listed, but the primary source of income is student fees.  Peripheral sources of income include yearbook sales, ticket sales for events, t-shirt sales, Amazon.com textbook commissions, etc.
• Many of the allocations (such as Senate, dorm budgets per person, etc.) are constitutionally mandated.  For more information, see the ASCMC constitution.
• The “band fund” is reserved for a case in which ASCMC is able to bring a big performer to campus later this year.  If it isn’t used, the balance will be allocated to other ASCMC activities.
• ASCMC has never and will never use revenues from student fees to pay for alcohol.  It’s prohibited in our constitution and against the law.
• Club budget requests can be found here.  The budget committee allocated funds according to club budget requests, presentations, number of active members, past performance, and other related considerations.  If you have questions, please contact me.
• Last week College Republicans received a $500 donation from an alumnus in addition to the $90 listed.
• If something seems ridiculous, ask someone or post a comment here.  There’s probably a good explanation for it.

Come by The Hub tonight at 6 PM to watch the first Presidential Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.  The Debate Watching Party is organized by the Claremont Political Union (Claremont Democrats and Republicans) and open to all 5C students.  Over 100 students are expected to attend and rumor has it local news stations might show up as well…

P.S. Refreshments (pizza?) will be served.

(Photo Credit: LA Times)

For those of you who missed it, on Saturday night, luminaries were sold in memory of Atul Vyas, the CMC Senior who died the week before in the Metrolink train crash. The idea to raise money for Uncommon Good, originally conceived of by Alex Caldwell ‘09, turned out to be a great success.

Uncommon Good is a non-profit organization that mentors disadvantaged children on their path to college.