Juliette Des Rosiers ’26 and Belén Yudess ’25
Editor-In-Chief and Copy Editor
Scripps and Pitzer promised their students a sparkling new science building and Claremont McKenna promised students a trailblazing new pedagogy in response to the dissolution of the W. M. Keck Science Department this fall. While Scripps and Pitzer coasted into their new building, CMC stuttered slightly with the delay in the construction of their new Robert Day Sciences Center.
The Department of Natural Sciences (DNS) is the reimagined joint science program for Pitzer and Scripps following CMC’s departure from Keck. CMC has moved its sciences into the Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences (KDIS). CMC students who majored at Keck before the 2024-2025 academic school year will remain at Keck and continue to receive priority to Keck classes, while incoming STEM students in the CMC Class of 2028 are the first to major in Integrated Sciences.
KDIS will not offer traditional introductory science classes; instead, it will require first-years to take their general education “Codes of Life” course and integrated science courses, the latter of which will not be available until next fall. Alternatively, CMC students would have to enroll in traditional introductory courses at Pomona, Harvey Mudd, or the Department of Natural Sciences, most opting for the latter. This reality has been especially concerning for pre-med students who require these courses for their post-graduate studies.
“They don’t have Intro Chem, they don’t have Intro Bio, all of that has to be taken through the Department of Natural Sciences, so the students who are pre-med, or have more of a hard sciences focus, have to PERM into these classes that they don’t have priority in,” a CMC junior, who chose to remain anonymous to protect their academic relationships, said. “As a pre-med person, those are my people, and I want them to have all the opportunities in the world. And I also don’t want CMC to be a place where it’s like, ‘Oh if you’re pre-med, don’t go there.’”
The student explained that even though the CMC faculty advertises the program to pre-health students, they don’t feel the program goals reflected their needs.
“They keep saying, ‘med schools are super, super excited about this program, and they can’t wait for the graduating class,’” an anonymous CMC first-year said. “Okay, but I don’t know how valid that is.”
“I feel like even if it’s going be great in two years, and it very much could be, right now, I’m worried about the freshmen that came in thinking that it was going to be this awesome program that was ready for them, and then it’s not,” the anonymous junior said. “I think there’s a lot of undertones of promoting prestige over students’ futures.”
The KDIS website states that the new curriculum “is especially appropriate for students interested in careers in the health professions, scientific research, entrepreneurship and innovation, consulting, and policy.” However, students hesitated to agree when asked.
“I think it’s definitely setting up students for success in industry and business and even biotech,” the anonymous junior said. “The computational stuff is going to be really helpful in terms of statistical analysis and data sets. But at the end of the day you need hard sciences. They are trailblazing, truly, because it’s not as much about the science, but it’s about the fact that they have science in the context of other things. So I think that’s helpful in that realm, but it’s not conducive to science-based graduate schools.”
CMC first-years weren’t aware that the college required them to major in Integrated Sciences until after they had committed to CMC. Multiple students explained that they applied under a traditional science major, and CMC forced them to change it.
“I applied under a biochemistry major, and they just threw me under Integrated Sciences,” the anonymous CMC first-year said. “I didn’t even click Integrated Sciences [on my application], I put biochemistry, and … over the summer, when I was going through my orientation checklist … it said that my current major was Integrated Sciences.”
In response to the surprise change in their major plan, some CMC first-years have looked into majoring off-campus in the sciences or dual majoring in social science. Despite the KDIS website advertising these options, the CMC Registrar and KDIS faculty have pushed back on the requests, much to the dismay of their students.
“I’m a bit disappointed that they closed off the opportunity of getting a specialized [traditional] major,” a second anonymous first-year said. “I know some [students] that really do appreciate that coding aspect, so they will be remaining within Integrated Science, which is great for them. But for me, I would like to major off-campus with a concentration in neuroscience and science management, which is not yet [a possibility for CMC students], and which is not offered here anymore.”
When asked if they felt KDIS was open to feedback during this transitional year, students expressed that faculty were open, but there were still barriers to students asking for help.
“Professor Ron [is] actually really sweet; I love him, and he encourages any questions, but I feel like people don’t even know what to ask,” a third CMC first-year said.
When asked for an interview, CMC faculty referred The Scripps Voice to the CMC Office of Strategic Communications. The Office then directed TSV to the KDIS website, which a CMC first-year called “vague.”
It is not to say, however, that science academics are suffering at KDIS. Students expressed their appreciation for their faculty and interest in the general education Codes of Life class, as well as new upper-division courses.
“I will say the faculty are great,” an anonymous first-year said. “They’re very supportive, they’re experts in their field, and I trust them as professors.”
The student also complimented how the Codes of Life class is structured. “They really do give you that hands-on experience,” they said. “They walk you through it in a simple way you can understand. A lot of the people within these classes have not had prior coding experiences, so when they’re exposed to them, it’s actually really nice.”
Across 9th Street at DNS, there have been fewer changes to the academics, but Ulysses Sofia, Dean of Science at DNS, explained how Scripps and Pitzer are taking advantage of the department’s name and building change to welcome a new era of sciences.
“This is the perfect time for us to look at ourselves and say, ‘Okay, are we doing what we want to do?’” Sofia said. “If the answer is yes, that’s fantastic. If the answer is no, this is the perfect time to say, ‘hey, we’d rather teach a little more in this direction. We’d rather do our intro courses this way. Or we’d rather have more labs at the upper level,’ or whatever it is, now is just a really right time to do that, because of these material changes in our department.”
A DNS staff member echoed this sentiment when talking about the departure of CMC. “We have our reinvigorated program and faculty, and so I don’t feel a sense of loss at this moment,” he said. “I’m very optimistic and hopeful and excited more so than I have been at any other point.”
Additionally, students have much to look forward to from DNS, with CMC’s exit opening space for smaller, more personal classes, expansive lab space in The Nucleus, and new faculty hires.
The new Nucleus building almost doubles the physical space for the sciences at Scripps and Pitzer. The expansion allows more full-time faculty to fill research labs. Sofia reflected on what that promises for student experiences.
“When we lose approximately a third of our enrollments from CMC and we gain more tenure-line faculty, that right away means more course options for students and more research opportunities for students,” he said.
Ultimately, Sofia explained that DNS is only looking to expand its interdisciplinary lens through CMC’s departure and that students will continue to reap benefits from the department’s mission.
“Pitzer and Scripps have missions that are similar to each other, and those two missions are different from what CMC’s mission is, so it actually makes it easier for us to connect with our home colleges,” he said.
Speaking specifically to Scripps students, Sofia was excited by the opportunity for increased Scripps enrollment and engagement at DNS.
“63 percent of our tenure line faculty are female, so we live and demonstrate something I think is fundamentally obviously important to Scripps, which is that women can and should be leaders in male dominated fields, and we are a great example of a place where that’s happening,” he said.
Members of DNS shared how they feel confident that their academics have been and will continue to be integrated and interdisciplinary, building programs that students can apply to many fields.
“A lot of science works at the boundaries between disciplines and that’s where our faculty and our students have been working,” the DNS staff member said.
“Students go on to graduate school in the sciences,” Sofia said. “Students go into industry. Students go into med school, vet school, nursing school, any of the health sciences. People go into education and want to teach K through 12 in the sciences. We prepare our students, I feel, for any of those opportunities. We consider ourselves a very traditional, sort of broad department, and you have many avenues to pursue once you come out with a degree from our department.”
