Academics and Curriculum

Despite directing a school that was underfunded, provisional, had only one permanent building, and with uncertain prospects–President Benson did a remarkable job recruiting many distinguished faculty candidates during the first four years of the College.

Early Faculty

While many individuals had come together to found Claremont Men’s College, faculty recruitment became the near-exclusive prerogative of President George Benson during the early years. He quickly drew upon his many contacts in academia and government in search of promising candidates. Some of Benson’s early faculty hires included Jacob Anton de Haas from the Harvard Graduate School of Business, Orme Phelps from the University of Chicago, Gottfried (“Golo”) Thomas Mann who had a Ph.D. in European history from Heidelberg University, Alice Vandermeulen from Scripps and Wellesley College (joining her husband Daniel Vandermeulen on the CMC faculty), and a young John Atherton, who would become Pitzer College’s founding president from 1963-1970. With a growing sophistication of the faculty also came the development of the curriculum with an integration of more humanities elective courses. The upper-division curriculum, however, retained an emphasis on political economy–applied economics, business economics, and public and business administration. While the early curriculum bore the designation of political economy, what President Benson really was building was an economics department, as many of his senior appointments were economists. In fact, economics would become the first and enduring academic strength of the College.

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Authored by Professor Jacob Anton de Haas for the Christian Science Monitor in 1948, “New Turn in Education” outlines Claremont Men’s College’s mission and role in training its students for careers in business and government.

With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, President Benson feared a precipitous drop in enrollment if students were to drop out to serve in the Armed Forces or National Guard. A September 1950 class scheduled for 330 to 350 students enrolled only 311, a figure that dropped to 295 by the second semester. President Benson feared that it would drop to 200 the following September. A mood of panic gripped Benson and the trustees, and he warned junior faculty members that their positions were not secure. Fortunately, the devastating draft that Benson predicted never materialized. In fact, the 1951-1952 academic year averaged 282 students and climbed back to 326 during 1952-1953, the last year of the Korean War. With disaster averted, CMC continued to grow following the war years, focusing on the development of academic departments with a rise of faculty-oriented and faculty-controlled academic culture. Throughout the 1950s, CMC kept a grasp on its founding purposes: teaching and research in public affairs and the preparation of young men for leadership in the public and private sectors. This focus represented the CMC advantage and would drive the College with a clear identity into the decades ahead.

Jacob Anton de Haas came to CMC as a professor of international economics. As a tenured Harvard professor, his arrival brought prestige, flair, and a growing commitment to the College. Professor de Haas quickly became second only to President Benson as a public representative of the CMC ideal.

The Analyst, November 23, 1949

Early on, CMC had a reputation for over-testing, which included ten hours of written comprehensives in the senior year, along with oral examinations and a senior thesis. Many students felt that President Benson and the faculty were pushing its students too hard. On November 23, 1949, twenty-four students signed a letter published in The Analyst protesting the system of senior comprehensive exams. They argued that time would be better spent making the transition into the real world, rather than reviewing four years of work. Examinations would continue to be revised over the coming decade. (Click on the above image and turn to pages 2-3 to see the letter)

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Registration Day, circa 1948-1949

From the initial 86 men that made up the student body in 1946-1947, CMC’s student enrollment grew steadily and was consistently over 300 throughout the 1950s. Tuition also steadily increased, doubling from $225 per semester in 1947-1948 to $550 per semester during the academic year 1959-1960.

The CMC faculty, numbering 20 in the fall of 1950, grew to 35 by the fall of 1959. This faculty growth drove CMC to a more articulated standardization of its academic offerings, en route to departmentalization. Despite the emergence of majors, CMC did not segment itself and senior professors taught both introductory and core courses. Even with the varied majors offered by the end of the decade, CMC students continued to concentrate in economics and political science–the core strengths of the College.

"Claremont Men’s College: A College with Ideas," circa 1949

“Claremont Men’s College: A College with Ideas” outlines CMC’s early mission and provides an overview of the standards of its courses and faculty, while emphasizing its academic programs, which aimed to provide its students with practical experience in business and economics. The brochure also provides a campus overview and discusses plans for future expansion.

“Claremont Men’s College: A Liberal Arts College Emphasizing Business and Public Administration”

Like the previous brochure, “Claremont Men’s College: A Liberal Arts College Emphasizing Business and Public Administration” provides a statement of purpose, objectives, and philosophy of the College.

Commencement

Claremont Men’s College’s inaugural commencement ceremony took place on Saturday, June 5, 1948 in Balch Auditorium on the Scripps College campus. The commencement ceremony was a joint program with Claremont Graduate School. Eight CMC students received their Bachelor of Arts degrees. (See the eight graduating students below)

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Peter Man Foo U was CMC’s first student to earn his degree in February 1948. A transfer student from the University of Hong Kong, Man Foo U completed two years of work in three semesters. Upon completion of his comprehensive examinations, Man Foo U returned to China to rejoin his wife and two children and enter his father’s merchant banking business.

A commencement program for the 1948 joint commencement ceremonies of Claremont Graduate School and Claremont Men’s College.

George C.S. Benson Commencement Address_1948 June 5.pdf

President George Benson’s address to the graduates of CMC. In addition to its student graduates, Managing Director of Claremont College Robert J. Bernard was conferred an honorary doctor of laws degree for his role in organizing Claremont Men’s College.