Pitzer received two major grants totaling $1 million from the W.M. Keck and
The James Irvine foundations to fund the creation of an innovative Center
for California Cultural and Social Issues.
The W.M. Keck Foundation will provide $500,000 over four years and The
James Irvine Foundation will provide $500,000 over three years to launch
the new Center. The Center--an outgrowth of the College's ongoing
comprehensive planning process--has as its core mission to promote faculty
and student research on pressing community issues to assist policy making,
problem-solving and community action.
"We are extremely grateful that the Keck and Irvine foundations are
endorsing Pitzer College's new California Center that will link teaching
along with student and faculty research to community outreach. Our
objective is both to study cultural and social issues critical to the state
into the next century and to contribute to their constructive solution,"
said President Marilyn Chapin Massey. "The Center will focus and intensify
Pitzer's mission to educate our students to make a difference in society."
The Center expresses Pitzer College's intent to serve the good of its
students and its own geographical community in the 21st century by
addressing regional, social and cultural issues in its innovative,
interdisciplinary curriculum. In partnership with elementary and secondary
schools, local community groups and other organizations, the Center will
engage Pitzer's professors and students in the hands-on study of the
region's challenges, with the goal of providing research, as well as
innovative visions of constructive change, to its community partners.
Pitzer students would make a real contribution to social change, and that
contribution would become a key component of their Pitzer education.
The grants will support key faculty and student longitudinal research
projects, curriculum development, community-based partnerships and
fellowships, and a post-baccalaureate program for Pitzer graduates. Funds
from the James Irvine Foundation will also support the Center's faculty
director. The W.M. Keck Foundation grant will provide key funds for
project dissemination, including publications.
Plans are for the Center to be up and running by Fall 1999. Staffing and
faculty decisions are still to come. For more on the grants and the
comprehensive planning process, see Pitzer's Web site.
Dana Levin '87 and Maurya Simon '80 were two of 40 writers who won coveted
1999 Creative Writing Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts
in December, chosen from a field of nearly 1,000 applicants nationwide.
Each received $20,000.
Levin, 33, won for her first book of poetry, "In the Surgical Theatre,"
which has also won the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize.
The book will be published by Copper Canyon Press in fall 1999. Levin said
her poetry depicts "the nature of suffering, whether it be political,
personal or physical," and how suffering can be "transformed into
enlightenment" and even joy. What she looks for from poetry, she said, is a
"transformation of consciousness--political, spiritual--some kind of waking
up."
After Pitzer, Levin earned a master's in creative writing from New York
University, then taught at Burlington College in Burlington, Vt. for
several years. In 1998, she returned to Pitzer as a visiting professor. She
is now a visiting professor at The College of Santa Fe in New Mexico.
Simon won for her work, "A Brief History of Punctuation," an inquiry into
the philosophy of language and being. It is her fourth volume of poetry.
For Simon, poetry is a way of making sense of the world through language.
Simon, 48, has been at the University of California, Riverside, for the
past 15 years, and was recently made full professor of creative writing.
(For more on the NEA grants, see the NEA Website
.)
Frankie Mohlengraft leaves her position as assistant to the vice president
for admissions and financial aid to take a new job as assistant director of
admissions at the University of La Verne.
ANNOUNCEMENTS & O P P O R T U N I T I E S
An all-campus Community Service Day will be held Saturday for Claremont
College students, faculty and staff. Various volunteer opportunities are
available throughout the Inland Empire. For more information, call x18248.
The office of financial aid will hold a workshop from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Saturday at the Broad Center. For more information, call x73822.
The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute sponsors a symposium, "Social Capital and
Community Building Among Latinos: Academic and Community Perspectives,"
from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 12 in Albrecht Auditorium at Claremont Graduate
University. It is free and open to students, staff and faculty. The event
is designed to foster a dialogue on building a sense of community among
Latinos that can lead to increased political participation.
F E A T U R E:
Keck, Irvine Foundations Award Pitzer $1 Million in Grants
P R O F I L E:
Alumni Poets Dana Levin '87 and Maurya Simon '80 Honored by NEA
COMINGS & G O I N G S Karen Saurez has been named the new director of career services. She comes
to Pitzer after serving as associate director of career services at Pomona
and Occidental colleges. Saurez's extensive professional experience,
student-centered approach, creativity and friendliness most impressed the
selection committee, said David Clark, dean of students. Clark said he is
grateful to all the students, faculty and staff who participated in the
selection process. A welcome celebration will be held for her during the
first week of classes.