Last Friday, a group of about 80 students and 25 trustees of the college sequestered themselves in Hahn for the second annual Trustee-Student retreat. The four and a half hour retreat consisted of three hours of discussions followed by dinner; it was organized under the auspices of the trustees' Student Affairs Committee and was intended to help the trustees understand the concerns of the current students.

The trustees serve to ensure the financial integrity of the college and direct its long-range policy; they are not concerned with the minutiae of day-to-day operations, preferring to leave those matters to the faculty and administration. As such, the discussions were focused on three policy issues of concern to the trustees: Pomona's brand name, Pomona's residential program, and Pomona's educational philosophy.

The discussion regarding Pomona's brand name began by focusing on how the school is perceived in the real world. The trustees wanted to know if employers accord a Pomona diploma the same respect as one from Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. They also questioned how awareness of Pomona might be raised.

The student consensus was that Pomona's brand name, while excellent, was not as visible nationally as it could be, but there was disagreement as to whether or not awareness of the school ought to be raised.

Some students warned of the dangers of losing Pomona's unique character by portraying it as the "Swarthmore of the West," while others questioned the very desirability of an increased national profile.

"I thought that money which would be used for inflating the brand name would be better used for faculty salaries or renovations...by improving the college, our name would speak for itself," Andrew Osorio '03 commented.

The discussion of residential life was perhaps the most broad in scope of the three; the trustees sought to determine the strengths and weaknesses of Pomona's residential program. Not surprisingly, one of the first issues to come up was the current housing situation; some students were sharply critical of the triples, while others asserted that, triples notwithstanding, Pomona's housing was still quite significantly ahead of many of its competitors.

In addition, the construction of new housing and the renovation of Pomona's existing facilities was considered. Some students favored building a new dormitory, whereas others favored building additions to existing structures.

Finally, some students were concerned that new housing would result in increase the number of students admitted. Alternative forms of housing, such as senior apartments, were also mentioned.

Other issues considered in the residential life panels included the sponsor program, the food service, and residential computing.

The third panel was entitled "Credentialing vs Liberal Arts." It solicited student input on the continued viability of a liberal arts education in a job market where practical knowledge is valued. Students supported the liberal arts approach overall and the PAC system in particular.

"We're going to a liberal arts college, and the idea is to teach us how to think, rather than concrete information. We're not going to a trade school," Annie Shahinian '01 explained.

There were some concerns raised, however; the ability of science majors to both fulfill their major requirements and follow a broad course of study was questioned, and the ID1 freshman seminars also drew criticism.

The retreat was viewed in a positive light by most of the participants. "The trustees were very impressed with the level and intelligence of student input...it's a great opportunity for the trustees to gauge the pulse of campus life and to remember how remarkable Pomona students are," Ann Quinley said.

"I think it was successful in that the students and the trustees don't interact a lot, and they were really overjoyed to meet some representatives of the student body...I don't think there are many other schools where the students and trustees have an open forum," Lauren Shawn '01stated.

Not all reactions were quite so positive, however. "I felt that the mix of students was not necessarily a representation of Pomona...more of an effort ought to have been made to convince students who weren't RAs, sponsors, et cetera, to come," said Shahinian.

Students were individually selected and asked to attend by the Office of Campus Life, and many of those chosen were actively involved in some aspect of campus life. Of the 170 students invited to the retreat, 70 chose to attend.