Numerous traditions have been established at Pomona College, a highly selective [3] liberal arts college in Claremont, California, since its founding in 1887. They have varying levels of popularity, longevity, and institutional recognition. Taken together, they are a significant component of the school's culture and identity, promoting social cohesion among students and other community members.
Early traditions at Pomona, such as Pole Rush and banner springs, often took the form of rivalries between different class years, [4] [5] and frequently involved hazing. After World War II, these were gradually replaced with college-wide traditions, including the college's most intensely carried tradition, a reverence for the number 47, which began in 1964. Overall, the Yale Daily News characterizes Pomona's traditions as "often more quirky and fun than steeped in history and legend." [6]
The number 47 has historical implications to the college and has been incorporated into various aspects of campus life. [7] [8] The tradition began in the summer of 1964, when two students, Laurie Mets and Bruce Elgin, conducted a research project seeking to find out whether the number occurs more often in nature than would be expected by chance. They documented various 47 sightings, and professor Donald Bentley produced a false mathematical proof that 47 was equal to all other integers. The number became a meme among the class, which spread once the academic year began and snowballed over time. [9]
Notable 47 sightings include the fact that Pomona is located off of exit 47 of Interstate 10, and the fact that the largest residential building on campus, Mudd-Blaisdell (formally Florence Carrier Blaisdell and Della Mullock Mudd Hall, a title with 47 characters), was completed in 1947 and contains a staircase with 47 balusters. [9]
Many Pomona alumni have deliberately inserted 47 references into their work. [7] Joe Menosky (class of 1979), a writer for Star Trek: The Next Generation , inserted 47 mentions into nearly every episode of the show, a practice that has been picked up by other Star Trek writers. [9] [10] [11] Pomona hosts a community service–oriented celebration every April 7 (abbreviated 4/7 in the U.S.). [1] In the early 2010s, the college's clock tower was set up to chime on the 47th minute of the hour. [2] [12]
Pomona's Frary Dining Hall has an open refectory with a vaulted ceiling and tiled floor. The acoustical properties of these attributes create a loud clattering sound when one of Frary's plastic cups is dropped. Whenever someone accidentally drops their cup, it is traditional for everyone else in the dining hall to finish their drink and do likewise. [13] [ failed verification ]
The official mascot of the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens is Cecil the Sagehen, a greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). [15] [16] The bird is a large ground-dweller native to the western United States (although not Southern California), and is distinguished by its long, pointed tail and complex lek mating system. It is named after the sagebrush on which it feeds. [17]
Pomona-Pitzer is the only team in the world to use the Sagehen as a mascot, [18] and it is often noted for its goofiness. [19] [20] Rather than in the grouse's natural brown and white colors, the mascot is rendered in the team's official colors, blue (for Pomona) and orange (for Pitzer). [21]
The precise origin of the nickname is unknown. Pomona competed under a variety of names in its early years, including "the Blue and White" and "the Huns". [22] The first known appearance of "Sagehens" was in a 1913 issue of The Student Life newspaper, and in 1918 it became the sole nickname. [15] Later Pomona-Claremont began using it, and it is now the nickname for the combined Pomona-Pitzer team. The first known reference to "Cecil" was made in the 1946 Metate (Pomona's yearbook). [15]Pomona's secret society is called Mufti, meaning "out of uniform". [23] It is known for gluing small sheets of paper around campus with cryptic puns offering social commentary on campus happenings. The society originated in 1958 and was initially the work of class of 1960 graduates Martha Tams Barthold, Jean Wentworth Bush Guerin, Alice Taylor Holmes and Thomasine Wilson. [24] The tradition was passed down to young women (and later men) from subsequent classes and has waxed and waned in activeness over the years. [24] [25] Its 3.5 in × 8.5 in (89 mm × 216 mm) postings, known as "burgers", typically contain three lines, with the center one being most prominent. They are glued to surfaces around campus using a figure eight shape. [25]
As part of Pomona's 10-day orientation, incoming students spend four days off campus completing an "Orientation Adventure" or "OA" trip. Options in recent years have ranged from backpacking in Sequoia National Forest to sea kayaking in Channel Islands National Park. Begun in 1995 and required for all students beginning in 2004, [26] the OA program is one of the oldest outdoor orientation programs in the nation. [27]
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The Bridges Auditorium frieze, altered to include Frank Zappa |
Pomona students have committed a number of pranks over the years that have entered into college lore. Notable pranks include:
Pomona students have also observed or participated in many notable pranks at nearby Harvey Mudd College. Harvey Mudd is well known for its active prank culture, [34] [35] [36] [37] including stunts such as the 1986 heist of Caltech's cannon. [38] [39] Some Pomona pranks have targeted neighboring Claremont McKenna College, [40] [41] the college's main athletic and ideological rival.
Pomona College takes advantage of its location near the San Gabriel Mountains and within driving distance of the Pacific Ocean to host an annual "Ski-Beach Day" each spring. The tradition dates back to November 1891, when the college established an annual picnic in the mountains. [42] The outings began to focus on winter activities in the 1920s, and switched to a beach trip during a period of low snowfall in the 1940s, before later combining the two. [42] [43] In its current form, students board a bus in the morning and are driven to a local ski resort where they ski or snowboard. After lunch, they are bused down to an Orange County or Los Angeles County beach for the rest of the day. [44]
All incoming students are placed into a sponsor group, with 10–20 peers and two or three upperclass "sponsors", [45] [46] who are tasked with easing the transition to college life but not enforcing rules (a duty given to resident advisors). [47] [48] [49] The program dates back to 1927 for women, and was expanded in 1950 to include men. [50] [51]
Sponsor groups vary in their level of social cohesion, with some becoming friend groups. [52] They often share activities such as fountaining, a tradition in which sponsor groups carry someone to a campus fountain on their birthday and throw them in. [53] Members of one's sponsor group are referred to as "spiblings". [54]
At the intersection of Sixth Street and College Avenue are the college gates, built in 1914, which mark the historical northern edge of the campus. They bear two quotes from Pomona's fourth president, James A. Blaisdell. On the north is "let only the eager, thoughtful and reverent enter here", and on the south is "They only are loyal to this college who departing bear their added riches in trust for mankind". Per campus tradition, enrolling students walk south through the gates during orientation and seniors walk north through them shortly before graduation. [55] [56]
In 1956, Pomona constructed a curved 200-foot-long (61 m), 5-foot-tall (1.5 m) cinder block wall along a portion of the northern edge of its campus as a flood barrier. [57] [58] In the early 1970s, students began painting messages on the wall, and Pomona recognized it as a free speech wall in 1975 after the message "Free Angela" was painted on it, referring to the imprisonment of Angela Davis. [59] Over the years, provocative postings on the wall have spawned a number of controversies. [58] [60] [61] [62] In recent years, sponsor groups have painted the wall during orientation, [63] [64] and since 2009 the Queer Resource Center has painted the entire wall annually for Gaypril. [65] [66]
A number of songs written by Pomona students and faculty have been associated with the college. [67]
The college's alma mater, "Hail, Pomona, Hail", was written by student Richard Loucks in 1910 or 1911. [68] [69] In 2008, it was discovered that it may have been originally written to be sung as the ensemble finale to a student-produced blackface minstrel show performed on campus. [70] A commission recommended that it be replaced, but many alumni argued against its retirement, noting that the lyrics themselves are not objectionable. [71] Additionally, research from Rosemary Choate (class of 1963) concluded from primary materials that Loucks likely did not actually write the song for the show and was misremembering when he recalled having done so half a century later. [69] [70] Ultimately, president David Oxtoby decided to retain the song but to stop singing it at convocation and commencement. [72] [73] [74] [75] Since then, it has largely disappeared from living memory among current students.[ citation needed ]
Another college song, "Torchbearers", was written in 1896 by Francis Fulkerson (class of 1896) and professor Arthur Bissell, inspired by a Cahuilla festival that professor Frank Brackett and David Barrows (class of 1894) had attended. [76] [77] Originally titled "Ghost Dance", its name was changed and lyrics re-written by professor Ramsay Harris in 1930. [78] [76] In 1932, the Pomona men's glee club won the first and only National Glee Club Championship with their performance of the song. [79] [76] In 2009, its lyrics were modified to remove culturally appropriative aspects, but lingering concerns led to its retirement from active repertoire in 2015, [76] and it is likewise unrecognized by most current students.[ citation needed ]
Several other less well-known Pomona songs continue to be sung by the college's choral program. [80]
Every class at Pomona creates its own class banner. In this longstanding tradition, the first-year class would present, or "spring", its banner in a public forum in which it could be seen by the majority of the student body, and then try to whisk it away to the Ghosts, a mentor group organization, before the second-years could capture it. [4] The Ghosts would then judge whether or not the banner spring was legitimate according to a complicated set of rules. [79] Notable banner springs occurred at the Fox Theater in Pomona (1932) [79] and in front of a train carrying fans returning from a football game (1949). [81] The 1949 spring was preceded by an attempt made from a helicopter, which was declared illegitimate because the banner could not be presented from a moving vehicle. [82]
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The 1939 Oxy bonfire, featuring "Beat Oxy!" signs |
During the era when Pomona's primary athletic rival was the Occidental Tigers, a bonfire and rally was held prior to the homecoming football game with the college, [83] [40] traditionally assembled by first-year men. [84] [85] A corresponding "Pomona bonfire" at Occidental remains extant. [86]
The annual Pole Rush, a competition between first-years and second-years, began shortly after Pomona was founded and was last held in 1926. [87] It was a brawl in which men from both classes attempted to be the first to get their class's colors to the top of a pole. [87]
The Clark III dormitory, completed in 1930, includes a short tunnel connecting Sixth St. to Bixby Plaza. For a number of years after its completion, the second-years forbade first-years to pass through it, and it has been known ever since as the Sophomore Arch. [78]
Sometime after World War II, Pomona's football team began an annual practice of forcibly weighing and measuring the proportions of the incoming first-year women during orientation, and then compiling and distributing booklets with the information. Sponsors objected to the tradition in 1972 and forced the team to end it. The team attempted to revive it a year later but were foiled by the sponsors and dean of students Jean Walton. [88] [89] [59] [4]
Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolled 902 undergraduate students as of 2021 and awards the Bachelor of Science degree. Admission to Harvey Mudd is highly competitive, and the college maintains an intense academic culture.
The Claremont Colleges are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges —Pomona College, Scripps College, Claremont McKenna College (CMC), Harvey Mudd College, and Pitzer College—and two graduate schools—Claremont Graduate University (CGU) and Keck Graduate Institute (KGI). All the members except KGI have adjoining campuses, together covering roughly 1 sq mi (2.6 km2).
Pomona College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became the founding member of the Claremont Colleges consortium of adjacent, affiliated institutions.
The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that operates in the NCAA's Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are located in southern California and organized into nine athletic programs. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer are combined teams for sports purposes.
47 (forty-seven) is the natural number following 46 and preceding 48. It is a prime number.
Scripps College is a private liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California. It was founded as a member of the Claremont Colleges in 1926, a year after the consortium's formation. Journalist and philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps provided its initial endowment.
Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was founded in 1963 and is part of the Claremont Colleges. The college has a curricular emphasis on the social sciences, behavioral sciences, international programs, and media studies. Pitzer is known for its social justice culture and experimental pedagogical approach.
Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and international relations. CMC is a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium.
The Student Life is a student newspaper covering the Claremont Colleges, a consortium of liberal arts colleges in Claremont, California. It is published weekly each Friday during the academic year, typically spans roughly ten pages per issue, and is primarily funded by the student governments of the colleges.
KSPC is a non-commercial college and community radio station based in Claremont, California, broadcasting at 88.7 MHz on the FM band and streaming online. It was founded in 1956 as a Pomona College student organization and later expanded to the other Claremont Colleges (7Cs). KSPC is funded by the Associated Students of Pomona College and other 7C student associations.
The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags (men) and Athenas (women) is the joint intercollegiate sports program of Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, and Scripps College, all located in Claremont, California. The teams participate in the NCAA's Division III as a member of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Charles Keyser Edmunds was an American engineer and physicist who served as president of Lingnan University in Canton, China, and Pomona College in Claremont, California.
The Mabel Shaw Bridges Music Auditorium, more commonly known as Bridges Auditorium or Big Bridges, is a 2500-seat auditorium at Pomona College in Claremont, California, United States. It was designed by William Templeton Johnson and opened in 1932. It hosts a variety of performances for the college and outside groups.
The Pomona–Pitzer Sagehens are the joint varsity intercollegiate athletic programs for Pomona College and Pitzer College, two of the Claremont Colleges. It competes with 11 women's and 10 men's teams in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) of the NCAA Division III.
Prometheus is a fresco by Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco depicting the Greek Titan Prometheus stealing fire from the heavens to give to humans. It was commissioned for Pomona College's Frary Dining Hall and completed in June 1930, becoming the first modern fresco in the United States. It has received widespread critical acclaim.
The Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music, more commonly known as Little Bridges, is a concert hall at Pomona College in Claremont, California, designed by Myron Hunt and opened in 1915. It was sponsored by a $100,000 gift from the parents of Mabel Shaw Bridges, a student in Pomona's class of 1908 who died of illness her junior year. It is used for a variety of musical and non-musical purposes, and is considered the "architectural gem" of Pomona's campus and one of Hunt's finest works.
On the Loose is an outing club for the undergraduate Claremont Colleges (5Cs), a consortium of five highly selective liberal arts colleges based in Claremont, California. It organizes trips to outdoor destinations around Southern California and the Western United States.
The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, known colloquially as the Benton, is an art museum at Pomona College in Claremont, California. It was completed in 2020, replacing the Montgomery Art Gallery, which had been home to the Pomona College Museum of Art (PCMA) since 1958. It houses a collection of approximately 19,000 items, including Italian Renaissance panel paintings, indigenous American art and artifacts, and American and European prints, drawings, and photographs. The museum is free to the public.
Earl Jay "Fuzz" Merritt was an American football, basketball, and baseball coach. He served as the head football coach at Pomona College in Claremont, California, from 1935 to 1958, compiling a record of 93–67–13. Merritt also coached basketball and baseball at Pomona.
Several studies rate Pomona as one of the country's best private liberal arts colleges
prestigious liberal arts school
the undisputed star of the Claremont Colleges and one of the top small liberal arts colleges anywhere. This small, elite institution is the top liberal arts college in the West.
an elite liberal arts school
the leading liberal arts college west of the Rocky Mountains
one of the most respected undergraduate colleges in America
Considered one of the finest liberal arts institutions in the nation
Our traditions remained [after WWII], juniors presented the flag, frosh built the Oxy bonfire, in winter the Christmas Supper, in spring the May Day.