When I was a high school student eagerly devouring Pomona’s glossy prospectus literature and traipsing through the green gardens listening intently to the chirping of my tour guide, I distinctly remember it being impressed upon me multiple times that Pomona was the oldest member of a college consortium founded on the model of Oxford University. On the model of Oxford University. Since then, I have been trying to figure out why no one in the inner circles of our college’s leadership seems to take this dictum seriously–why, in other words, are we a loosely knit consortium whose members scarcely cooperate instead of a red-blooded university like Oxford?

I attended the student-trustee retreat last semester, and was surprised to find that the trustees had no concept of the possibility of erecting a university on the rock of Blaisdell, or else did not care about it. One of our sessions was entitled "credentials vs. liberal arts." We tried to decide between the apparently mutually exclusive goals of preparing students for careers and solidly focusing on the liberal arts and sciences, as if there existed a conflict between these goals. Of course, in an integrated university, the dilemma doesn’t even exist: Pomona could retain its original liberal arts focus if classes, clinics, and career fairs are made available at the other organs of the university, which would also be tailored to the students’ particular career interests.

We already have an engineering and computer science school, the makings of a biotech school, a first-rate management institute (Drucker — which has no reason not to become a full-scale business school) and, in 50 years or so, there should be a law school and a medical school as well. There is no reason why Pomona should waste resources on services for its students that could more efficiently be provided elsewhere.

Another issue that was given a full hour-long session at the student-trustee retreat was the perennial problem of name recognition. I think the title of the session was "branding." Now branding is a very important concept for an organization, whether it is a college or a corporation, and maybe it even deserves to be talked about. However, none of the solutions we discussed will ever work, because Pomona, by itself, will always be a tiny liberal arts school and those who recognize the name will always consist largely of those who have direct dealings with the college, in one way or another, or know someone who has. Someone even proposed launching a PR campaign of magazine ads, or something like that, as a marketing strategy. What could be a better marketing strategy than making the name Claremont University known across the nation? It would quickly become so if we had Claremont-educated doctors and lawyers practicing from coast to coast. If each college took the simple step of referring primarily to the university and only secondarily to itself as a member college thereof, the name of Claremont would be spoken everywhere, from the streets of South Central to the upper chambers of Wall Street. For the first time, we could establish an international reputation. Moreover, the size and quality of the applicant pool would rise dramatically for all the colleges. The simple act of talking about a university will increase momentum toward actually becoming one.

Of course, Pomona will be the most reluctant to do this, because it appears to have the most status points to lose. That is why Pomona will never fully become itself unless it gets over the obsession with its own uniqueness. We must be willing to sacrifice some of our prestige and our capital to support the younger colleges. Pomona’s prestige will only increase when Pitzer and CGU become first-rate institutions. In fact, Pomona will never achieve its potential unless they do.

A single university admission standard will not be possible for many years to come but unrestricted cross registration is desirable and necessary now, as the first concrete step toward an "ever closer union." Cross-registration will allow a pooling of facilities and faculties, and it will encourage 5-C student organizations. Moreover, it will open the door to the sharing of capital resources and the movement toward more centralized budgeting. If our "consortium" moved in this direction, we could more easily adopt new majors and interdisciplinary programs. For example, we could have a real 5-C Films Studies department with its own building, instead of two poorly run Media Studies programs at Pomona and Scripps and one mediocre Film program at Pitzer that begrudges emigrants from elsewhere. There is no reason why we should not have a Film department as established and as well financed as the Music or the 5-C Theater departments.

In a complete university, Pomona and Harvey Mudd would discuss a long-term purchasing strategy for scientific equipment. Instead of having redundant science libraries, Sprague and Seeley G. Mudd, we would have one library and one particle accelerator.

If unrestricted cross registration becomes a reality, students will be using the resources of the other colleges to a greater extent, so each college will be more willing to help its neighbors financially. Before we make the huge expenditures on major science equipment that the board of trustees is currently planning, we should consider pooling cash with Harvey Mudd College and the Joint Science program. Rather than having high tech science facilities at a liberal arts college, doesn’t it simply make more sense to have truly first class equipment worthy of a major research institution, even if it means locating it where it logically belongs, on Mudd’s campus instead of just north of Sixth Street? I am inclined to think that the reason this isn’t being considered is simply a chauvinistic Pomona centrism, on which account we want everything on OUR campus. But with unrestricted cross-registration, our students and professors would benefit just as much, wouldn’t they? And, if doing this could nudge HMC’s reputation closer to or even beyond that of Caltech’s, wouldn’t ours begin to soar as well?

The seven concrete steps I propose are these.

First, unrestricted cross registration. There will be some awkwardness at first, as HMC’s humanities faculty is left high and dry, and Pomona’s student/professor ratio increases alarmingly. We might have to suffer 10 or more lean years as the "economies" of the newly created free trade areas adjust; but it simply makes more sense for each college to focus on the areas in which it enjoys a comparative advantage.

Second, the abolishment of OIT and the establishment of a 7-C Computing and Information Technologies department. The time is ripe, considering the multitudinous woes of OIT, which were caused by inadequate funding and the nonexistence of an administrative oversight committee. This latter problem is gross negligence, considering that we have administrative committees for such formalities or absurdities as "Human Subject" and "Animal Care and Use." Look on pages 21-22 of the student handbook.

Third, a restructuring of the "Claremont University Center" and an increased central budget to fund 7-C facilities such as the Seaver theater complex and Honnold Library. Perhaps we could fund some of these ventures by building natural gas generators at the physical plant to supply energy for the colleges, and selling the excess, as UCLA does very successfully.

Fourth, the dropping of the last word from the name "Claremont University Center" — in addition to giving it a wider jurisdiction — and making the adoption a common branding policy for all publications, stationery letterhead, and WebPages.

Fifth, a closer affiliation with the School of Theology.

Sixth, mandatory student fees for a 5-C parliament.

Seventh, and most importantly, we must plant the idea of a university in the hearts and minds of the trustees, alumni, faculty and administration. It was our second president, James Blaisdell, who first planted the seed of this greatness within the institution. It has slowly and silently grown into a fruitful orchard over the generations of leadership. Now is the time for Pomona, the Roman goddess of the orchard, to begin harvesting the crop she sowed many years ago. I call on the trustees to make an "ever closer union" an explicitly stated goal, and to place this item solidly on their future agenda. I look forward to the day when Pomona will become, not the "Harvard of the West," but the "Oxford University of America."