In the fall of 2024, Pomona launched a minor in data science. To commemorate the new concentration, let’s look back at some of the College’s milestones in computer science and technology.

1958: Bendix G-15

1958: Five years after first offering “computer classes” for word processing, Pomona opens Millikan Laboratory, its first computer lab, which included a Heathkit analog computer and the Bendix G-15 digital computer. One of about 400 manufactured globally, the Bendix was the size of a refrigerator, required punched paper tape to load instructions and data, and had “memory” in the form of a rotating drum the size of a wastebasket.

1964: As part of the launch of the Seaver North science building, Pomona is one of the first U.S. schools to buy an IBM System/360 computer, which eager Assembly- and Fortran-learning undergrads used for work in chemistry, economics, geology and math. The Student Life newspaper marveled at how a unit the size of a cigar box could contain the computer’s entire memory of 16,000 bytes; today’s smartphones are roughly 16,000,000 times more robust.

1967: Programmer Bea Cooley in the Millikan Lab. Image courtesy Honnold Mudd Library

1971: The Mudd-Blaisdell residence hall is outfitted with a PDP-10 mainframe, immediately sparking the interest of first-year Don Daglow ’74, who used the computer to create several early video games, including what’s widely regarded as the world’s first “role-playing game,” which was a text-based game adapted from the then-new “Dungeons & Dragons” tabletop game.

1971 Daglow coding in his Mudd-Blaisdell dorm room

1980: Five years after purchasing IBM’s second-ever 5100 minicomputer, Pomona becomes the first educational institution to own and operate an IBM 4331, which opened students up to being able to use email.

1988: VAX 6310

1988: The Mudd Science Library installs a VAX 6310, which permits the linking of computers to the other 5Cs, thereby introducing students to resources such as the internet. That same year Pomona and several other schools launched the Science, Technology and Society program.

1991: The first two computer science majors graduate from Pomona. Computer science split off from math to become a separate department in 2006, and is now one of the College’s most popular majors.

2000: Pomona launches the Andrew Science Hall for Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science—the first time there was a dedicated space for computer science as an academic discipline. By 1997, Pomona also had become one of the first colleges to hook up every single bedroom in its dormitories to a 56K network connection for internet use.

2014: Pomona is named the country’s “most wired college” by the higher-education review platform Unigo, which previously cited Pomona’s innovation in being one of the country’s first colleges to provide Wi-Fi connectivity to all of its dorms.

Estella Laboratory Courtyard

1924: With the greater Claremont population close to doubling, Pomona’s board sets up a committee to consider expansion by way of other institutions

President James A. Blaisdell in 1925

Spring 1925: President Blaisdell gives the committee “A Preliminary Statement for Consideration by the Committee on Future Organization”

Fall 1925: Articles of incorporation are filed in Sacramento by Robert J. Bernard, on the 38th anniversary of the College’s founding. Claremont Graduate School (CGS) is incorporated on the same day.

1926: Scripps College is founded

1927: CGS opens

1931: Construction finishes on Bridges Auditorium

Bridges Auditorium
Construction, 1931

Honnold Library

1946: Claremont Men’s College founded (renamed Claremont McKenna in 1981)

1952: Honnold Library dedicated

1954: Claremont becomes the new home of what’s now the California Botanic Garden, the state’s largest garden of native plants (70,000+)

Featured in the May 1954 Pomona College Bulletin: “NEW SIGNS have been placed at the entrances to the city of Claremont…”

1957: Harvey Mudd College opens

1963: Pitzer College is founded

1997: Keck Graduate Institute established

2000: CGS becomes a separate entity within the consortium and is re-named Claremont Graduate University (CGU)

2025: 7C enrollment hits roughly 9,000 students, with combined alumni of around 100,000

This year marks the publication of the second edition of Pomona College: Reflections on a Campus, a campus history authored by professor emeritus Marjorie Harth, co-creator of Pomona’s archives program with former director of donor relations Don Pattison.

First published in 2007 in conjunction with the efforts of many colleagues, the book aims to chronicle Pomona’s campus not simply as a collection of buildings and open spaces but as a carefully designed learning and living environment for Pomona students. We spoke with Harth about the project.

How would you summarize this new second edition?

This version updates the history of Pomona’s campus, adding the many new and recently renovated buildings during the 17 years between editions. Physical changes reflect shifting pedagogies, societal priorities and a host of other cultural factors. I recommend Professor George Gorse’s essay on Myron Hunt, our founding architect; Scott Smith, long-time planning consultant, contributed a new chapter on landscape architect Ralph Cornell who worked hand in hand with Hunt. These give us insight into campus planning, how it has changed and how integrally related the two disciplines—architecture and landscape architecture—should be.

What would you like readers to take away from Reflections?

I hope they will take away an awareness of how rich the history of this College and its campus are and how much we can learn from and take pride in them. I hope readers will begin to register the way our environments—buildings, grounds, classrooms, public spaces—affect the quality of our lives.

We all know this on some level, I believe, but we don’t always focus on it when we’re creating or inhabiting spaces for various purposes, especially, in this case, a place for learning, intellectual growth and experimentation. So, this book offers what we hope is a fresh way of understanding the College and the lives lived within it.

Photo courtesy of Nava Mau ’14

This summer Nava Mau ’14 became the first-ever trans female to be nominated as best supporting actress in a limited or anthology series or movie. Mau played Teri in the hit Netflix series Baby Reindeer.

“For trans actors we just don’t get a lot of opportunities to develop our craft, grow as artists, and to be recognized for all that we are and all that we can be,” she told Deadline magazine this summer. “We can see that when trans people are given the opportunity, we will grow into it and so far beyond any expectation.”

A Historical Emmy Nod for Baby Reindeer and Nava Mau ’14

When the Studio Art Hall opened in October 2014, it brought together under one roof art making, art appreciation and art interaction at the College. Housed in the building is the 1,500-square-foot Chan Gallery, made possible by Trustee Emeritus and art major Bernard Charnwut Chan ’88. This fall the Art Department celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the Studio Art Hall with “Lush Matter,” a Chan Gallery exhibition that served as a spotlight of alumni artwork inspired by nature.

Drenk’s “Compression 13”

Jessica Drenk ’02 traces her “Compression 13” piece back to her time at Pomona. One of her first projects for Professor Michael O’Malley involved transforming books into rich, unusual tunnel-like structures by removing their covers and tearing holes through them. “Books have become part of my repertoire, so that class was the beginning of my art career,” she says.

Falby’s “Peregrine”

Dan Falby ’12 sent the show four abstract ceramic sculptures that involved dropping and tossing clay slabs, relying on gravity to do its work. He says he strives to make art that has “a similar elemental happenstance” as natural phenomena. Falby was a visiting artist at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, then served as a ceramics instructor in Los Angeles before relocating to the Northeast in 2021.

Gewirtzman’s
“Black Velvet Canyon, Red Rocks”

Aliyana Gewirtzman ’12 submitted four pieces, including “Indifferent Earth,” a 40-inch-by-30-inch oil painting, and two ink drawings of Red Rock Canyon and Joshua Tree. She worked in New York for 10 years before leaving to travel the country in a camper van. She currently works as a full-time artist in Colorado, including teaching drawing and color theory courses remotely at the New York School of Interior Design.

Becca Lofchie ’10 (left), returned to the College to give a gallery talk earlier this month. She and classmates view her collection of ceramic vases. Photo by: Daniel Klein ’26

Becca Lofchie ’10 had a collection of ceramic vases on display in the show. While working professionally as a book designer, Lofchie took up ceramics a few years ago “as a way to do something with my hands,” she says. A design teacher at California State University, Los Angeles, Lofchie returned to the College earlier this month to give a gallery talk. Lofchie’s graphic design work clearly influences her ceramics, with an affinity for ’80s Memphis design that shows up in her bright color palettes and bold patterns.

Marsh’s “Untitled Mirror“

Tristan Louis Marsh ’18, an L.A.-based visual artist and designer, contributed four pieces: a pendant, mirror, chair and pair of candleholders. Creating works from wood and resin using a CNC machine and 3D printer, Marsh focuses on sculptural furniture and lighting that derive their form from biological structures and natural occurring phenomena. This summer Dezeen Magazine named Marsh’s studio one of “10 scene-setting independent design studios in Los Angeles.”

Yonten’s “Untitled (still life)”

Ugen Yonten ’22 is a second-year graduate student at the Yale School of Architecture, and contributed a still-life painting that he created at Pomona. The piece was a way for him to reflect on the pandemic and “the stillness of being back at home.” Tricia Avant, who serves as academic coordinator and gallery manager of art at Pomona, credits Yonten for his strong sense of artistic direction. “For just about any subject that he would tackle, he has his own aesthetic sensibility about it,” she says.