In the News

'Students Protest for Louisiana's Jena Six'
September 21, 2007
About 300 students at The Claremont Colleges joined the Jena Six demonstrators in spirit Thursday afternoon in a silent protest march across the five undergraduate campuses.

Mary Beth Garber '68, a former Pitzer College trustee, was interviewed for a Radio Ink June cover story titled “Good Signals Make Good Neighbors.” As president of the Southern California Broadcasters Association, she explained the virtual neighborhood that unites radio and its listeners.

Bridget Baker '82, a Pitzer College trustee and NBC Universal Networks Distribution president, discussed USA, the country's top cable network, and Disney's deal with Cox Communications to prevent viewers from fast forwarding through commercials with CNBC's Erin Burnett on May 8.

Claremont: One of America's Best Places to Live
August 2007
Praising the city as a “tight-knit community with topnotch schools,” Money magazine ranked Claremont No. 5 on its annual list of “America's Best Places to Live.”

May 9, 2007
President Trombley, a Mark Twain scholar, was an NPR Boston guest for “On Point” and commented on the recent book Finn by Jon Clinch.

“La Muerte: Extensión de la Vida para Latinos”
July 25, 2007
The fact that death is seen as an extension of life has its roots in indigenous cultures, both the Mayan and Aztec, shared Martha Barcenas, professor of Spanish at Pitzer College. “Remnants of these beliefs have stayed with us,” added Barcenas. “With the imposition of Christianity, death is thought of as [a process of going] toward the other life while one awaits the resurrection. This is a historical matter, how we now feel about death—a returning to life, a rebirth.”

Pitzer College has been selected for the Beyond the Books' Guide to Service-Learning Colleges and Universities. Selected institutions have demonstrated a significant track record of integrating community service with academic study to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility and strengthen communities.

Learning from YouTube

The first college course entirely about, and primarily occurring on YouTube was taught by Professor of Media Studies Alex Juhasz this fall at Pitzer College. The ground rules were simple and few. All the classwork and assignments (reading, writing, viewing and video production) occurred on and about YouTube. Juhasz and her class caught the attention of the news media and were featured in numerous newspaper articles as well as television and radio broadcasts. Visit www.youtube.com/mediapraxisme to learn more.

September 20, 2007: CNN American Morning anchor Kiran Chetry interviewed Professor Alex Juhasz and Miranda Perry '08.

September 28, 2007: Professor Juhasz was interviewed on Fox and Friends weekend edition.

YouTube Studies

September 2, 2007; Inside Higher Ed

Faculty members have experimented with posting lectures and course material online before, and some have argued that YouTube is a helpful tool for academics, but the devotion of an entire course to the Web site and the all-access pass Pitzer is providing puts the liberal arts college on another plane.

“It's a class like I've never taught before and a class like I'm not certain has ever been taught before,” Juhasz says during her introductory video.

You'd expect that a professor teaching a class on and about YouTube would be a huge booster of the site. But not Juhasz. She says she is “underwhelmed” and “unsatisfied” by much of the content, which she describes as spoofs of pop culture references that she just doesn't understand.

Juhasz's main critique of the site is its architecture. Academics strive to make connections across disciplines, she says, but YouTube makes it difficult to provide context (often in the form of links), and to carry on complex conversations beyond the small space given for comments below the video.

Still, as a professor of Media Studies, she says ignoring the site is impossible. Instead, she wants students to draw their own conclusions after spending a semester working entirely within the framework and constraints of YouTube.

YouTube Goes Academic

September 14, 2007; Associated Press

Here's a dream-come-true for Web addicts: college credit for watching YouTube.

Pitzer College this fall began offering what may be the first course about the video-sharing site. About thirty-five students meet in a classroom but work mostly online, where they view YouTube content and post their comments. Class lessons also are posted and students are encouraged to post videos.

Alexandra Juhasz, a Media Studies professor at the liberal arts college, said she was “underwhelmed” by the content on YouTube but set up the course, “Learning from YouTube,” to explore the role of the popular site.

Class members control most of the class content and YouTube watchers from around the world are encouraged to comment, Juhasz said.

She hopes the course will raise serious issues about YouTube, such as the role of “corporate-sponsored democratic media expression.”

YouTube is “a phenomenon that should be studied,” student Darren Grose '08 said. “You can learn a lot about American culture and just Internet culture in general.”

This article also appeared in:

  • USA Today
  • The Boston Globe

Pitzer Named One of Best Colleges

Pitzer College was named as one of the best colleges in the United States by the 2008 edition of the Princeton Review's The Best 366 Colleges.

Princeton Review ranks Pitzer as follows in respective categories:
#8 lots of race/class interaction
#8 most politically active
#16 best classroom experience

Pitzer undergraduates tend to be “passionate, creative, dynamic and socially involved.” Pitzer students possess a love of learning and also enjoy a wealth of entertainment and enrichment options. A student is quoted as saying, “Pitzer is about constantly questioning the status quo and the mainstream, constantly thinking about better alternatives or creative solutions, and constantly reevaluating the way you see yourself, your community and the world around you.”

Pitzer in Top 50 of Nation's Liberal Arts Colleges

Pitzer College ranked forty-ninth overall in the nation among liberal arts colleges in U.S.News & World Report's 2008 edition of “America's Best Colleges.” Improving from fifty-first place from the previous year, Pitzer's rankings reflect continued strong placements in all categories, particularly among academic quality, reputation, selectivity and endowment.

“While we are pleased that our college continues to perform well in the annual U.S.News & World Report rankings, our Admission Office recommends that prospective students explore their options on numerous levels beyond the college ranking books,” President Trombley said. “The right fit for prospective students translates into matching the mission and core values of the college.”

Borrowed Voices Awarded Grant

The California Council for the Humanities awarded a California Story Fund grant to the Borrowed Voices: Sharing the Stories of Incarcerated Youth project sponsored by the Pitzer College Center for California Cultural and Social Issues. The California Story Fund is an ongoing program of California Stories, the Council’s multiyear initiative to connect Californians and foster understanding by uncovering personal and community stories that tell the true story of California.

Pitzer Students Contribute 100,000 Annual Service Learning Hours

Pitzer College, a member of Campus Compact, contributed to the clocking of 277 million hours in campus-organized service programs by 1,000+ institutions nationwide during the 2005-06 academic year.