PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Alive with Possibilities
FALL BRINGS TALENTED NEW STUDENTS, A NEW DEAN OF STUDENTS, DESIGNS

FOR A NEW BUILDING AND A SUCCESSFUL ACCREDITATION VISIT.

T

he beginning of the fall semester is one of my favorite times at needs for the next 75 years, as well as provide much-needed
HMC. It is so exciting to meet the incoming class of first-year office space for faculty and admission and financial aid. I’m
students and their parents, and to see the campus come alive delighted that our board of trustees overwhelmingly approved the
with faculty and students returning from research experiences, program and schematic designs for the building at the Septem-
internships and other adventures. Toward the end of our five-day ber meeting, and we are now beginning the next phase, design
orientation program, the first-year students put on a talent show; development (see page 3). Fund raising for this important building
it’s always a great opportunity to get a feel for the spirit of the has begun, and we will not make the final decision to begin con-
new class. I have loved each one of the four talent shows that I’ve struction until we have received the necessary level of gifts. We
attended so far, but this one was just incredible. In addition to are very grateful to trustee Wayne Drinkward ’73 whose gift is
the usual great musical and martial arts performances, there was funding the planning of the building.
a recitation of Hamlet’s best-known speech in stereo by a pair of The fall is continuing to be a very successful one for the college.
identical twins and an extraordinary contortionist act. This year’s This year’s Dr. Bruce Nelson ’74 Distinguished Speakers Series
first-year students seem to be even more energetic and enthusi- on the Power and Beauty of Mathematics is off to a tremen-
astic than usual. From everything I see and hear, they are off to dous start with wonderful lectures by Brian Greene and Danica
a fantastic start. McKellar (see p. 4). We also have just completed very impor-
This summer was a very special one for two reasons. First, tant visits by two accreditation teams. The first was our Western

our new Dean of Students Maggie Browning, joined us from Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Capacity and Pre-
Princeton on June 15, and second, many of us spent much of the paredness Review. After visiting with members of the campus
summer working with Boora Architects on the schematic designs community, the team praised HMC for its commitment to a
for our new teaching and learning building and on planning for premier education, the new curriculum and the hard work that
the space that will be vacated when that building is completed. brought it to fruition, the work we have done to improve diver-
Dean Maggie, as she is called by everyone at HMC, is off to sity, and the new teaching and learning building. They shared
a tremendous start. As our current president of ASHMC, with us areas for improvement as well, including further devel-
Maureen Ruiz ’10, phrased it in her report to the board of trust- opment of assessment work, community diversity, and faculty
ees in September, “the students just love working with Dean and student workload. The third stage of our WASC accredita-
Maggie.” And it’s not just the students who love working with tion, the Educational Effectiveness Review, will occur in about
her. Many faculty and staff have said the same thing to me. When 18 months. The second accreditation visit, by ABET, was for our
we first heard that our beloved former Dean of Students Jeanne engineering program and also went extremely well. I am grateful
Noda was moving to Washington, D.C., we wondered if it was to the many faculty and staff who did a wonderful job preparing
possible to find a replacement who could live up to the incredible for these visits.
standard set by Dean Jeanne. I think it’s safe to say that Dean
Maggie is doing just that.
The new teaching and learning building is very exciting. Perhaps
the most tangible embodiment of the HMC Strategic Vision, this Maria Klawe
new building will replace the 9,000-square-foot Thomas-Garrett President, Harvey Mudd College
building. It will contain space enough to meet our classroom

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