The awards are presented annually to a CMC student or team who proposes a business venture with the intention of putting it into operation. For the first time this year, winners were drawn from two tracks of competitors— commercial and social ventures. The commercial track award went to Second Nature Aquaponics.

“I can hardly express how excited and honored we are to have received the Innovative Start-up Award. We both believe wholeheartedly in our designs and in the necessity of aquaponics as a field moving into the future,” says Fankuchen.

Aquaponics is a variant of hydroponics where plants grow directly in aquarium water leveraging the symbiotic relationship between fish and plants such that the fish provide nutrients for the plants and the plants filter the water for the fish, offering an efficient way of growing plants.

With their “beta bottle,” Fankuchen and Oliphant hope to miniaturize this process and allow people to grow plants in places they have never been able to grow them before.

Says Fankuchen: “(We want plants to be grown everywhere) from a tiny apartment’s window sill to a bookshelf in your office to a mountainous region in Tibet. We really think that they are all equally viable locations to grow produce, you just have to think about a new way to do it.”

Serengetee, which won the social track is a clothing venture that incorporates global fabric into clothing products, including pocket t-shirts, tanks and v-necks. Each Serengetee fabric is partnered with a corresponding cause, allowing the venture to make a difference in the communities that inspire their designs.

Serengetee was founded by a group of college friends, including Steitz, while they were traveling the world on Semester at Sea. They toured marketplaces in over 30 countries and were captivated by the fabric patterns they found along the way. Each vibrant pattern, when incorporated into clothing, reflects the unique colors and symbol of a country.

Both winners receive a $25,000 prize to help their start-up. To apply, students submit a one-page summary of their idea citing competitors, market size, basic costs, projected profits, progress to date and their qualifications. Each applicant then presents a two-minute “fast pitch” to the selection committee. Awardees are expected to check in weekly on their progress and must engage two advisors with relevant expertise. Payments of the $25,000 prize are milestone based.

The Innovative Start-Up Award was founded in 2008 by three young CMC entrepreneurs with the hope of inspiring innovation and risk-taking among their fellow students. The first award offered a prize of $10,000 and was operated as a beta test for Professor Jay Conger’s class. The success of this primary program drew the support of Mr. Henry Kravis ’67, who invested an additional $15,000, bringing the award to a sum of $25,000.

The Kravis Leadership Institute took on the operation of the competition and expanded the application pool to the entire college in order to allow more students to participate.

For more information on the Innovative Start-Up Awards, visit: http://kravisleadershipinstitute.org/leadership/innovative-start-up-award/

For more information on Serengetee, visit: serengetee.com

Shigezawa trailed after the first two rounds but captured the lead on the third day with a 2-under score of 69 which was his low score during the week. He then shot a 1-over, 72 on the final day to secure the win. Buddy Hallman of team champion Texas-Tyler finished four strokes behind Shigezawa for second place. Over the four days, Shigezawa had a total of 13 birdies and one eagle as he put together rounds of 72, 70, 69 and 72.

The second highest score for CMS came from freshman Kethan Reddy who remained in the top-10 for the first two rounds and ended in a tie for 32^nd overall with a score of 300. Reddy’s best round of the week came in the second round as he shot a 3-under 68, a low for all CMS golfers.

Sophomore Ben Ho (311) and junior Jordan Stein (311) tied for 59^th while Patrick Fujieki (314) finished in 68^th to round out the field of CMS golfers.

For his efforts, Shigezawa has been selected as a first team All-American.

NCAA Championships Final Results
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Founding Claremont-Mudd-Scripps athletics director and Stags head baseball coach William “Bill” Arce P’80 dedicated 25 years of his career toward building the athletics department at CMS. In an event at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Tuesday, May 14, Arce was honored for his dedication to Claremont McKenna College and the CMS Community and for his efforts as a mentor, physical educator, coach, and athletics director. Also during the event, current CMS Director of Athletics Mike Sutton ’76 was installed as the Inaugural William B. Arce Professor and George R. Roberts Fellow.

The evening included remarks by current CMS student-athletes Aria Krumwiede ’12 M’13 and William Knowles ’13 M’13, along with Claremont McKenna College’s Dean of the Faculty Gregory Hess, former CMS head soccer coach Steve Davis, and Sutton. A presentation which highlighted Arce’s contributions to CMS Athletics also was a part of the evening. During Arce’s tenure, he molded the department into his vision, which was to provide students – both men and women – the opportunity to participate in physical education classes, intramural sports, and intercollegiate athletics. Sutton, along with the other speakers, spoke of how Arce’s founding principles and vision of an athletic department are evident today and thanked him for his many contributions.

“The model that I was raised under as a student-athlete, young coach and faculty member and now promote as the department chair was developed under the leadership of Dr. Arce,” Sutton said.

During his 25-year tenure at CMS, Arce started and developed the program, facilities, and staff into one of the top NCAA Division III private college programs in the country, which it remains today. For his years of dedication to baseball and to the campus community, Arce is an inductee into the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and American Baseball Coaches Association Halls of Fame. Internationally recognized for his contributions to baseball, Arce also is an inductee into the Dutch and Italian Baseball Halls of Fame.

As athletic director from 1958-1983, Arce’s leadership of the department grew the program from nine men’s sports in 1958 to 19 by the time he retired in 1983, which included the addition of several women’s sports in what became Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athletics as it is today.

Mike Sutton and Bill Arce

On the diamond, he served as head coach from 1959-1979 and totaled 443 career wins and three Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles. In 2001, the American Baseball Coaches Association honored Arce by selecting him as the recipient of the prestigious Lefty Gomez Award, which is presented annually to an individual who has distinguished himself amongst his peers and has contributed significantly to the game of baseball locally, nationally, and internationally. He received his undergraduate and doctorate degrees from Stanford University.

Sutton is in his 12th year as director of athletics at CMS after a 21-year coaching career in the department. During his tenure as director, Sutton has overseen a department that has grown to 21 sports—10 men’s and 11 women’s—at the NCAA Division III level in addition to 13 club sports and an active intramurals program. Sutton has overseen the addition of women’s lacrosse and women’s golf to the varsity level. He is a former chair of the NCAA Water Polo and Swimming & Diving Championships Committees and was the team leader of the 1992 United States Olympic Water Polo Team. Prior to being named as athletics director, Sutton spent 21 seasons as the Stags’ swimming coach and 19 seasons as the men’s water polo coach, winning a combined 33 SCIAC titles during that time. He is a 1976 graduate of Claremont McKenna College.

This professorship and 25 other newly-endowed chairs for existing and new positions have been funded by generous donors through the Roberts Faculty Challenge, a $20 million challenge commitment by CMC Alumnus and Trustee George Roberts ’66 P’93.

Professor Gaston Espinosa

Gastón Espinosa, the Arthur V. Stoughton Associate Professor of Religious Studies, will teach a three-week intensive American Religious History course slated for the 2013 Summer Session.

RLST 138: American Religious History starts 
Wednesday, May 22 and will introduce students to key movements, debates, and controversies from the Founding Fathers to Barack Obama’s use of religion in the 2008 Election. It will also bring in guest speakers and offer optional field trips to Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist houses of worship.

“It will be structured as a discussion-seminar based on a close reading of short primary source texts,” Professor Espinosa says. “We will also watch documentary film clips, bring in Catholic, Jewish, Pentecostal, and Hindu guest speakers, and offer optional field trips to museums and a Muslim Mosque, a Protestant Church, and Hsi Lai Buddhist Temple, one of the largest Buddhist Temples in the U.S. Our class will be very interactive, lively, and I hope a lot of fun!”

CMC: Your course covers so many different faiths; is there one unifying principle that is shared by all of them? And if so, what is it?

Espinosa: Yes, social change.

CMC: Why?

Espinosa: Because religious founders, ideas, and movements have brought about significant social change in religion, politics, gender, and race relations from the colonial era to the present. Religious arguments, for example, were not only used to justify slavery, but also to vigorously oppose it through the abolitionist movement. Religion was a key resource in Martin Luther King’s struggle for Civil Rights and Social Justice and C?sar Ch?vez’s United Farm Worker’s struggle. President Obama recognized this when he wrote in The Audacity of Hope, “Frederick Douglass, Abraham, Lincoln, William Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history not only were motivated by faith but repeatedly used religious language to argue their causes.” This class will explore how they used their religious traditions, symbols, and rhetoric to argue for social change.

CMC: What aspect of your class do you like teaching the most and why? (e.g. Deism, Scopes Monkey Trial, founders, a particular idea, etc.)

Espinosa: I love it all. I especially enjoy analyzing the Founding Fathers, new religious movements, religion and politics, and the Abolitionist, Social Gospel, Civil Rights, and Liberation movements.

CMC: Organized religion is often demonized as the root historical cause of much misery and divisiveness in the world. Can you cite examples where adherence to religious practice has yielded beneficial results?

Espinosa: Religiously motivated people have caused violence. There’s no denying this. We explore this full throttle in my seminar on Religion, Politics, and Global Violence. However, we’ve found that most religious extremists from Iain Paisley to Baruch Goldstein to Timothy McVeigh to Osama bin Laden represent what I call the 0.01 percent of people in their traditions and all have been roundly repudiated by virtually all of their major mainstream leaders. Ironically, the working presupposition that religion is the root cause of all or most of the world’s violence is problematic because over 80 million people were killed in communist countries like the USSR and China where religion was either banned or strictly controlled by the state.

CMC: What then are the benefits of religion?

Espinosa: Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Muhammad Yunus, the Dalai Lama and countless other progressive Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist reformers here in the U.S. and around the world have actively drawn on religion to bring about positive social change in their struggles against racism, colonialism, exploitation of labor, micro-financing, and peace initiatives.

For these reasons and many others, the vast majority of Americans are religious, spiritual, or believe in a universal spirit. A recent article on the economics of U.S. religion found that religious giving accounts for about 50% of all charitable giving in the U.S. ($68 billion). Religious volunteer work is more common than any other form of volunteer work in the U.S, and the majority of nonprofit institutions in the U.S., are or were, religiously based. Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services, for example, provide direct relief to millions of Americans every year suffering from poverty, homelessness, and social marginalization.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,000 Americans found that 92 percent of Americans believe in God or a universal spirit. Another study found that 40 percent attend religious services like church, synagogue, temple, mosque, Hillel, youth groups, etc., on a weekly basis, and church membership has increased from 17 percent at the time of the American Revolution to nearly 60 percent today. For all of these reasons George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama have tried to harness the power of religion to help them win elections. For the Pew study, see: http://religions.pewforum.org/reports/#

CMC: You are an expert on the religious practices (or lack thereof) of American presidents like George Washington.  Can you tell us a little about the book you recently edited: Righteousness and Justice: Religion, Barack Obama, and the 2008 Election. 

Espinosa: This is the third book in a series on religion and the American presidency. It analyzes how Barack Obama and John McCain drew on and crafted religious rhetoric and public policy positions to promote their domestic and foreign policies to the nation. The 17 authors draw on the latest national social science research to analyze ten key voting constituencies: African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Jews, Muslims, Mainline Protestants, Evangelicals, Catholics, Seculars, and Women. This is consistent with my other work as co-editor of The Columbia University Press Series in Religion and Politics.

CMC: It was thought by many that with all the technological marvels and advancements of the modern age, religious practice would be supplanted by a stronger faith in science, but it seems that just the opposite is happening. Can you explain the reason for it?

Espinosa: In the 1960s a new Death of God theology emerged and predicted the end of religion. One of my own mentors at Harvard University, Harvey Cox, wrote a book called The Secular City, wherein he predicted the eclipse of traditional religiosity in the face of secular modernity. That prediction has not come to pass and after reading the headlines of our daily newspapers it seems inaccurate to argue that religion has nothing to say for better or worse in today’s world.

The most interesting development taking place today is the decision by highly modern and educated people to affirm both belief in science and God. The best example of this is geneticist Francis Collins, the Director of the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) and leadership of the Human Genome Project (HGP). Rather than have to choose one, many Americans are choosing however paradoxically to embrace both to varying degrees.

CMC: Why is religious practice still strong in the U.S. despite its apparent decline in Europe?

Espinosa: In large part because the Founding Fathers promoted the principle of separation of church and state, which in effect created a religious marketplace that forced religions to adapt to the ordinary needs of people or die out. American religion is one of the most adaptive cultural institutions in the U.S. today.

Finally, it’s hard to kill an idea so grand, terrifying, and comforting as “God.” For this reason, religion will remain one of this nation’s most profound influences on American society, and even more so with the growth of the nation’s 30 million immigrants from Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, who are almost all disproportionately religious. Like it or not, religion is here to stay. This course will try to make sense out the origins and bewildering variety of religions and how they have influenced American culture and society.

American religion has a disproportionate influence around the world because a number of religions that were born in the U.S. are now growing in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Pentecostalism, Evangelicalism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, and 7th-Day Adventism were all founded on American soil and are now growing around the world. The political implications of this development for American foreign policy is analyzed in a study by Princeton University sociologist Robert Wuthnow in Boundless Faith: The Global Outreach of American Churches (2009). Similarly, American-born or heavily influenced traditions like Reconstructionist Judaism, the Nation of Islam, Scientology, and the Hindu Vedanta Society of America have also influenced Diasporic Jews, Muslims, Scientologists, and Hindus around the world. Thus, in a small way, the study of American religion is the study of world religions.

***

CMC’s 2013 Summer Session begins May 22 and offers both three- and six-week courses, all taught by CMC faculty. A full listing of course offerings is available on the Summer Session website.

Senior Kelsey Brown in her CMC dorm room

Approximately $25 million will be spent on a two-phase renovation of the Mid-Quad residence halls, here at Claremont McKenna College, over the next two years.

Phillips, Beckett and Berger Halls will be renovated this summer in the first phase, with Benson and Marks Halls to follow next summer in the second phase. The renovation includes the addition of air conditioning and a complete overhaul of the interiors, with a redesign of the bathrooms, and new flooring, window coverings, wall coverings, doors and lighting. In addition, building exteriors will be “freshened up” with new windows, paint, lighting and signage.

Pfeiffer Partners is the architect for the Mid-Quad renovation project and is responsible for the design of all renovations. The final step will be the redesign of the Mid-Quad landscape and hardscape, with the architectural and planning firm Moore Ruble Yudell hired for this work after successfully completing the North Mall and Flamson Plaza renovation this past summer and creating the CMC Master Plan in 2011.

According to Stephanie Kingsnorth, architect at Pfeiffer Partners, all of the buildings are being updated to meet ADA requirements. This includes new doors and hardware, new restrooms and the installation of elevators.

“The goal for all of the Mid-Quad buildings is attaining LEED Silver designation,” Kingsnorth says. “In order to achieve this, there are multiple sustainable features that are being installed, including all new mechanical systems, plumbing fixtures, interior finishes that are low VOC, and LED light fixtures. In addition, new insulation is being installed that will help the overall building envelope to maintain cooler temperatures.”

Trustee Ken Valach ’82, CEO of Trammell Crow Residential, says he is most proud of the involvement of CMC students in the renovation design.

“Our students worked closely with our architect, Pfeiffer, to come up with plans that would appeal to their peers,” he says. “I understand that at the most recent room draw, Phillips, Beckett and Berger were very popular. It has been decades since that was the case, and I think it was the student input in the design that helped make that happen.”

That student input came as a result of a focus group called “The Mid-Quad Renovation Committee,” comprising CMC students (including RAs) who have lived in the residence halls, and ASCMC representatives. The group convened several meetings to gather input and then met with the architects, as well as with some Deans and other facilities managers. Topics that the students discussed included the need for increased study and social spaces, and interior design schemes.

Karina Hwang ’15 served on the committee.

“I’m really excited for the renovations in Mid-Quad,” she says. “I’ve lived in Beckett during my two years at CMC, and I love the dorm. Mid-Quad has a unique culture that is not recognized as much as the South- or North-Quad’s, and I think this renovation will really bring attention to its unique culture. The color schemes, materials and everything that the architects have come up with are great and will really complement the Mid-Quad culture.”

Another committee member, Alexandra Cooke ’14, believes the Mid-Quad renovations will make the residence halls much more welcoming and diversified.

“Berger, Phillips and Beckett each will have a different theme color in the form of accents throughout the dorm,” she adds. “For example, Beckett is green, Phillips is purple, and Berger is yellow. These accents will be seen in the lounge furniture, new carpet in the hallways, hallway walls, and tiling in the bathroom. This will make each dorm more distinctive and contribute to individual dorm character.”

The Athenas who are a program-best 30-0 this season, take on the University of Chicago in the quarterfinals matchup, May 20 at 11 a.m. EST. The University of Chicago is 18-5 this season and won the University Athletic Association Championships. The Maroons finished runner-up as a team at last year’s NCAA Division III Tournament and captured a fourth place the previous three years.

The Stags are 28-3 this season and ranked No. 1 in Division III for the first time in program history. In the quarterfinals on May 20, the Stags take on Middlebury at 1:30 p.m. EST. At the end of March, the Stags faced Middlebury at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center, winning 8-1. Middlebury is 20-4 this season.

You can watch both tennis teams at the NCAA Championships on the NCAA’s website here.

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Andrew (left) and Ben. Yep. Their jobs as Ath Fellows are pretty sweet.

Benjamin Tillotson ’15 and Andrew Willis ’14, new Ath Fellows for the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, hope to book a diverse and interesting group of speakers when they begin their stint for 2013-2014.

“We hope to stay true to spirit of Athenaeum by seeking and promoting unique and engaging events for the student body,” says Willis.

Sophomore Tillotson is a Boston native and majoring in philosophy and public affairs. He spent the previous semester working on the Massachusetts senate race, is actively involved in ASCMC on campus, and looks forward to the rest of his term as Dorm Affairs Chair.

“I love spending time on campus, but also like to get out and explore California,” Tillotson says. “As an Ath Fellow I’d like to engage speakers with an emphasis on topics relevant to the CMC community. We are so fortunate to have this extraordinary venue for intellectual discourse on campus, and I’m excited to be there every night of the upcoming academic year.”

Willis is a religious studies and government major with general interests in philosophy, literature, technology, and George RR Martin. He grew up as an American expatriate living in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. As a result, he is an avid fan of both the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Boston Red Sox.

“I’d like to bring in speakers to Athenaeum who will complicate simple narratives, he says. “Speakers like Nate Silver who challenge the orthodoxy of pundit predictions with statistical analysis, or Susan Cain, who argues against the extrovert ideal.”

We caught up with Tillotson and Willis recently and asked them a few Ath-centric questions.

CMC: Who would you like to book as your dream guest speaker at the Ath?

Ben: Hilary Clinton

Andrew: My dream guest speaker would be Gregory David Roberts, the author of Shantaram, which follows the semi-autobiographical story of an escaped Australian convict in India who starts a clinic in the slums, joins the mafia, establishes a Bollywood casting agency, and fights with the Mujihadeen in Afghanistan. He is also a noted poet, philosopher, and activist. Hopefully, he may be touring with his new book, Mountain Shadow, in the spring of next year so I am cautiously optimistic about bringing him to the Athenaeum.

CMC: Realistically speaking, who do you think you can get?

Ben: President Chodosh

Andrew: I would love to bring Chris Abani, a professor of literature at the University of California, Riverside. Chris Abani was first arrested at the age of 18 when he published his first book Masters of the Board. This book, depicting a coup in Nigeria, not only attracted the attention of the authoritarian regime but also the praise of the international community. As a result of these experiences, Abani could offer a unique and engaging perspective to the Claremont community. Other speakers I am aiming for include, Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and co-founder of Alltop.com, an aggregate website of popular topics on the web; Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy; and Susan Cain, the author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts In a World That Can’t Stop Talking.

CMC: What does the Ath mean to you, personally?

Ben: The Ath is like a fifth class to me. It’s an incredible resource to have on campus and it’s one of the things I love most about CMC.

Andrew: The Athenaeum is my favorite part of CMC. In its bottomless list of speakers, I found a home for my curiosity and desire to learn outside of the classroom. The Athenaeum not only contributes to the cultural and intellectual conversation on campus but also provides a comfortable community space. As I said in my application, I get this “warm and fuzzy” sense now whenever I walk into the Athenaeum to see my classmates and professors gathered there joined by common interest. At its best, the Athenaeum also fortifies my liberal arts education by challenging my core principles and emphasizing critical thinking.

CMC: What led you to enroll at CMC?

Ben: I thought I wanted to apply early to Pomona, so I came out to Claremont for an overnight. I spent two nights at Pomona, and two hours at CMC. I was hooked, and applied early to CMC instead.

Andrew: After an impressive whiteboard of pros and cons, I decided to enroll at CMC because of its inclusive social scene and focus on a pragmatic liberal arts education.

CMC: What was the process like in applying to be an Ath Fellow?

Ben: There was a lengthy written application and then an interview where you had to do a mock introduction.

Andrew: The call goes out for applications in early May and the applications were due on April 1. The applications consist of a personal statement and sample Fortnightly, featuring your dream list of speakers. After an initial selection, the final four applicants are invited to an interview with members of the Athenaeum Advisory Council. From there, the Advisory Council selects the two fellows. The other thing worth mentioning is that it’s competitive process. There were many excellent candidates for the Ath Fellow position this year.

CMC: What is your favorite piece of technology?

Ben: Snapchat.

Andrew: My iPad.

CMC: What’s your favorite book/movie/tune that you’ve read, seen or heard?

Ben: Harry Potter, Kill Bill, and for now “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk.

Andrew: The Princess Bride is the greatest movie ever made. Any other choice is simply inconceivable. There are plenty of reasons to love this movie: R.O.U.S., battles of wit, mock left-handedness, Inigo Montoya, Miracle Max, and Mawage. But at the end of the day, the reason I love this movie is the simplicity of the story’s message. Stripped of the fantasy, the movie is about a sick young boy who is visited by his grandfather, who reads him a story that says the most important thing in life is true love.

CMC: What is your favorite catchphrase and why?

Ben: “What you talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?” (Gary Coleman’s signature phrase on the TV series Diff’rent Strokes).

Andrew: From Buckaroo Banzai, “Wherever you go, there you are.” It is a perfect traveler’s mantra.

CMC: Do you have a personal hero? If so, who and why?

Ben: There are plenty of people I admire and look up to, but no one person in particular stands out.

Andrew: I do not have any one personal hero. Instead, I am a fan of several heroes for their unique characteristics. I admire the humor of my father, the wit of my sister, and my mother’s perseverance. In history, I admire the creative and political achievements of Pierre Beaumarchais.

Ralph Rossum

In the intensive three-week course “Legal Studies: Intro to Law,” (May 22-June 12), CMC Salvatori Professor of American Constitutionalism Ralph Rossum will illuminate law by studying it with ideas and methods gleaned from several of the other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.

We talked with Professor Rossum about what Tocqueville had to say about politics in the United States, how students should continually expose themselves to good writing, and the best advice he ever received from a teacher.

CMC: In what way, exactly, is law a “central social phenomenon?”

Rossum: Tocqueville once remarked that “[s]carcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.” His words may have seemed to many an overstatement one hundred seventy five years ago, but they were utterly prophetic. Courts, judges, and legal processes dominate our political life today. The course I’m teaching this summer, Government 95, will introduce students to the structure and operation of the federal and state courts in the United States. It will then narrow its focus and address the question of the institutional capacity of these courts to act not only as specific, retrospective decision-makers but also as society-wide, prospective policy-makers. It will then further narrow its focus and explore the debate over how the Supreme Court should interpret the Constitution and its various provisions. It will then focus like a laser beam and takes up a detailed consideration of two of the most important cases to come before the Supreme Court in a generation: the first is now before the Court and likely to be decided just weeks after the conclusion of the course, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (addressing that University’s diversity-based affirmative action program); the other was decided last summer, National Federation of Independent Business v. Sibelius, addressing the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare. The course will examine in detail the relevant prior case law and assess the quality of appellate advocacy in these cases by carefully reading the party and amici briefs filed in these cases, and listening to their oral arguments. Finally, it will conclude by examining how the debates over these critical constitutional questions play into the politics of the appointment and confirmation of Supreme Court justices.

CMC: Can you describe the moment when you knew you wanted to be a teacher?

Rossum: I knew I wanted to be a college professor the moment I walked into my first constitutional law course as an undergraduate at Concordia College. C. Harding Noblitt received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, was a gifted teacher, and convinced me by his example that I wanted to teach constitutional law as well. I followed in his footsteps doing my graduate work at Chicago, where I also studied under his onetime professor, the legendary C. Herman Pritchett.

CMC: What is the best advice you ever received from a professor when you were a student?

Rossum: Read more as a producer than as a consumer; that is to say, read a book or article not simply to understand what someone has to say but also to identify how you can build on that argument, make it your own, and incorporate it in your thinking, teaching, and writing.

CMC: Given the challenges that graduating seniors face entering a tough, global job market, what advice would you give to those students? How can they be more competitive? And, is there an advantage that a CMC education affords them?

Rossum: The job market is very difficult for recent college graduates. However, what employers want in those they hire is what CMC offers: very bright young men and women who can write well and think analytically. The better students can express themselves in writing and orally, the better will be their prospects. Students should take courses that continuously expose them to good writing and that relentlessly require them to write and speak with command, confidence, and competence.

CMC: What is the single favorite thing you like to do during summer?

Rossum: The summer allows me to spend full time on writing. I have just finished reading the copyedited manuscript and page proofs for the 9th edition of my two-volume casebook, American Constitutional Law. I have also just finished writing my next book, Understanding Clarence Thomas: The Jurisprudence of Constitutional Restoration. I’ll be reading the copyedited manuscript and then the page proofs this summer, and I’ll be beginning the research on my next book on the jurisprudence of Justice Samuel Alito. I have previously written a book on Antonin Scalia, who along with Thomas is the other originalist on the Court.

Alito will be a very interesting project, as his jurisprudential approach is more libertarian and minimalist than Thomas and Scalia; it is less obvious on its face and must therefore be carefully teased out of his opinions first on the 3^rd Circuit Court of Appeals, where he served for 16 years, and then on Supreme Court since his elevation in January of 2006.

Note: Professor Rossum’s most recent book is: The Supreme Court and Tribal Gaming: California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians.

Nicholas Warner

Taught by a regular CMC faculty member, Summer Session courses allow you to advance in your major, complete some GE requirements, and explore important topics. Whether you opt for a three- or six-week course, Summer Session offers a wide range of courses to choose from.

Leadership in Literature and Film, a six-week summer session class beginning May 22, might be one of those options. In this course, students are going to examine different aspects of the leadership theme in literature––with special attention to topics such as ethical dilemmas in leadership, different styles and models of leadership, and the competing loyalties and pressures felt by leaders.

Taught by associate dean of the faculty and professor of literature Nicholas Warner, the class will also address questions that literature raises about the very nature and validity of leadership’s various forms.

Authors to be studied include Shakespeare, Friedrich Schiller, Tolstoy, Willa Cather, and Michael Shaara, with additional readings in leadership theory. Also on tap will be several films dealing with the leadership theme.

The course will be taught on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays though July 3.

We asked Warner, whose expertise includes the subjects of Russian, American, and English literature, more about the course, the best advice he ever received from a teacher, and how (besides teaching, of course) he likes to spend his summer hiatus.

CMC: What can literary and film figures teach us about leadership?

Warner: Leadership is above all a process of human interaction, and literature and film are unsurpassed in exploring human interactions in an enormous variety of settings. One of the foundational texts of western culture, The Iliad, begins with a debate between two leaders, Achilles and Agamemnon. The plays of Shakespeare abound with leaders and followers interacting with one another. For example, Henry V is among many other things a probing study of charismatic leadership, and of the ethical as well as pragmatic aspects of the mutual relationship between leaders and followers. The works of such great 19^th-century novelists as Melville, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy pose profound questions about the nature of leadership; films from Executive Suite, to Lawrence of Arabia to Norma Rae to The Godfather are but a few examples of the ways that film can explore leadership in relation to business, war, gender, and even crime. Literature and film encompass all aspects of human behavior, and since almost all of those same aspects enter into leadership, the study of leadership as a literary or cinematic theme makes perfect sense.

CMC: Which author that you’ll cover in your class do you believe has the best lesson to teach about the potential pitfalls of leadership, and why?

Warner: I don’t really approach works of art as necessarily having discrete lessons to teach, and I can’t identify any one “best” work or author for leadership. Great works of art resonate differently with individual students; one of the great rewards of teaching a powerful novel or film or poem or play is its ability to provide new angles of insight into topics that touch our lives, including leadership. More specifically, the leadership issues that the course will examine include ethical dilemmas confronting leaders, different styles and models of leadership, the intersection of private and public in a leader’s life, and the competing loyalties and pressures felt both by leaders and their followers. We will also explore the ways that literature often raises provocative questions about the nature and even the desirability of leadership.

CMC: Can you describe the moment when you knew you wanted to be a teacher?

Warner: Yes, when I was in eighth grade and was responsible for supervising classmates’ homework and tests for a French teacher who was on leave. Eventually, I considered other professions, but in college I thought I would love to do for a living what I saw my professors doing.

CMC: What is the best advice you ever received from a professor (or teacher) when you were a student?

Warner: Take yourself seriously, but not too seriously.

CMC: What aspect of your summer material do you most look forward to sharing with students?

Warner: There’s such an abundance of great material to work with that I think each book or movie I work on will be my favorite one of the moment!

CMC: What is the single favorite thing you like to do during summer?

Warner: Travel, especially with my family.

Softball
On Monday, with the NCAA’s official announcement, the team learned that it had earned the No. 2 seed in the Texas-Tyler Regional of the 2013 NCAA Division III Softball Championship, which takes place May 10-13. The Athenas are scheduled to take on fifth-seeded East Texas Baptist University at 1:30 p.m. (CST) Friday. CMS is 32-11 overall and finished in second during the regular season at 21-7 in SCIAC play. The Athenas then won the SCIAC Postseason Tournament to earn the automatic bid to the Division III Softball Championship. You can watch the Athenas in Texas and follow live stats here.

Men’s Golf
On Monday the NCAA announced that for the second-consecutive season and seventh time overall, the No. 10 men’s golf team is heading to the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships. CMS earned a ‘Pool C’ selection or at-large berth to the NCAA Championships after finishing second at the SCIAC Championships, April 27-29. The 2013 NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships are scheduled to be played May 14-17, at the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort, in Destin, Fla. For more information on the Championships, you can visit the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships page here.

Women’s Golf
After winning the SCIAC Women’s Golf Championships, held April 27-29, by nearly 50 strokes, the CMS women’s golf team has earned a spot in the 21-team NCAA Division III Women’s Golf Championships, May 14-17 at the Baytowne Golf Club at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Destin, Fla. the NCAA announced Monday. For more information on the Championships, you can visit the NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships page here.

Men’s Tennis
Over the weekend the Stags won the SCIAC Men’s Tennis Championships for the eighth-straight season. CMS defeated Caltech (5-0), Pomona-Pitzer (8-1) and Cal Lutheran (6-3) en route to the conference championship. The NCAA announced Monday that with the No. 1 ranking in Division III and a 26-3 record, CMS has been selected as a regional host for the first three rounds of the 2013 NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championships, May 10-12. To find out more about the NCAA Regionals including links to watch live and follow live scoring, click here.

Women’s Tennis
Over the weekend, the Athenas won the SCIAC Women’s Tennis Championships for the second year in a row. CMS defeated Caltech (5-0), La Verne (7-2) and Pomona-Pitzer (7-2) en route to the conference championship. The NCAA announced Monday, May 6, that with the No. 2 ranking in Division III and a 28-0 record, CMS has been selected as a regional host for the first three rounds of the 2013 NCAA Division III Women’s Tennis Championships, May 10-12. To find out more about the NCAA Regionals including links to watch live and follow live scoring, click here.

Track & Field
The NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships are scheduled for May 23-25 in LaCrosse, Wis. Stay tuned to find out which CMS athletes qualify. NCAA qualifiers are announced and finalized on May 18. For more information visit the CMS Athletics website.