June 2009 - Building Community

Now its your turn. Support the Annual Fund today!

Since it’s founding in 1963, Pitzer has provided grounding and guidance to students and alumni. Members of the Pitzer community have gone to work throughout the world, making positive changes.

And that is what the Pitzer College mission is all about.

Pitzer College produces engaged, socially responsible citizens of the world through an academically rigorous, interdisciplinary liberal arts education emphasizing social justice, intercultural understanding and environmental sensitivity. The meaningful participation of students, faculty and staff in college governance and academic program design is a Pitzer core value.

Pitzer College grew out of the Group Plan developed in 1925 by James Blaisdell (Pomona College President) and his assistant Robert Bernard. The College is an active member of a unique educational environment known collectively as The Claremont Colleges. Guided by an “Oxford Model” of higher education, The Claremont Colleges are seven different institutions, each with unique independent identities.

Named for founder Russell K. Pitzer (1878-1978), the College began as a women's institution with a curricular emphasis in the social and behavioral sciences. From its first entering class in 1964, Pitzer offered an alternative liberal arts education focused on a deeper understanding of humankind within a structure that allowed every voice to be heard equally and fully.

Pitzer became a co-educational college in 1970 with an initial enrollment of 80 men and 618 women. Today Pitzer College has approximately 1,000 students and is a fully coeducational liberal arts college with a strong commitment to the values of a residential educational community.

Continue their legacy—invest in Pitzer's future. You make this possible. Now more than ever the world needs what Pitzer offers.