Kelly Hewitt interview

              MK: How long have you been a member of the Scripps faculty?

KH: Well, I’m not a member of the Scripps faculty. I am a member of the Scripps staff. So
I’ve worked for Scripps as the director of the Scripps College Academy since 2008, since
August.

MK: So, what year did you graduate?

KH: 2008. So I attended Scripps from 2004 to 2008, and then 2008 to the present I’ve been
the director of the Scripps College Academy.

MK: Where are you from originally?

KH: Ventura, California.

MK: Why did you choose Scripps as the college to attend?

KH: Well, for me it was kind of a rebellious choice. A lot of my friends were going off to UCs
or really big schools, and, in my school community, most people have not heard of
Scripps or the Claremont Colleges. That made it a little of a challenging choice to make,
but it also made me feel like I was kind of like doing something a little different. And so,
in addition to the academics and the feel on campus, that was part of my motivation.

MK: Did anyone from your family attend the 5-Cs?

KH: No.

MK: How did Scripps as a women’s college play into your decision?

KH: Well, I wasn’t actively seeking a women’s college, so I joked that I used to throw away
any brochure of any college smaller than my high school (my high school was about two
to three thousand students), as well as any women’s college. I just had no idea why I
would go there. But, as I looked more into the process, I found that, you know, being a
leader in high school and a female leader was kind of unusual and at Scripps it was the
norm. Scripps was having a lot of opportunities for leadership and growth that I wasn’t
seeing at other campuses.

MK: How does it feel to look at Scripps from the perspective of a staff rather than a student?

KH: It’s different. I mean, it definitely was a transition because I went from; I went right from
graduation to a director-level role at Scripps College. The first few years, the students and
the faculty still know you kind of as the student who transitioned. It only takes a few
years, then no one knows you and to now students will show me around the dorm and
say, “Oh, this is Dorsey Hall!” and give me the history as if I don’t know the place. But I
think I definitely can look more at the whole institution now and think not only what’s
good for an individual student but what’s going to make the college the strongest place
possible so it can continue to be a high quality educational institution.

MK: How did Scripps change from the time you were a student?

KH: Well, I’ve actually been here under three different presidents, and I’ve worked for two of
them. So I’ve seen a lot of transition as far as the leadership of the college. It’s, it’s…I
don’t think that it necessarily changes the experience of individual students, but
definitely, I guess, how the college runs. There’s a different feel with each different
administration. There’s been some physical differences. When I was here, the Tiernan
Field House was being built and it seemed like it took forever to build. The extension of
The Village only opened my senior year. Then, I was the last class to graduate under the
Old Elm Trees. So, they took them out right out of my graduation. You know, Elm Tree
Lawn—those little trees? Yeah, they look little. So there had been the big ones. We, some
of my class members, petitioned so we would be the last class to graduate. So there have
been some physical differences as well as the leadership of the school.

MK: Can you talk more about the leadership differences?

KH: Yeah, well…I mean I can’t because I wasn’t a staff member under the first president, but
I think that every President is different. And, you know, when they welcome the
community at convocation when they set visions for the college, it feels a little different.
So, the first president I was here under, President Bekavac, she had been at Scripps for
many years—over 15 years. There was this real idea of continued history and someone
who knew the institution really well and was kind of continuing progress, but almost a
little static, you know, when you’ve been there for a while. Under Fritz Weis, who was an
interim and then appointed to full presidency, and then, now, Lori Bettison-Varga, both
were very new. So there’s one person who’s like ‘let’s continue the growth that we
started’ and knows everyone by name. And then, I’m seeing two different people who
come in with the task of changing things up and bringing fresh ideas. So I think whether
the actions and the day-to-day experience is different—I’m not quite sure. But as far as
looking forward, I think it’s going at an accelerated pace right now, so looking to change
the future and progression.

MK: What did you study while you were at Scripps?

KH: I did a dual major. So, at Scripps, I studied Politics—technically, Politics and
International Relations. At Pomona College, I did Public Policy Analysis with a focus in
Politics, but I really just focused on education policy. And then I did a minor at Scripps in
Dance.

00:05:00

MK: Did you study abroad?

KH: I did. In the spring of my junior year, I studied abroad in Seville, in Spain. And it was the
CIEE Program. Yeah, it was a great experience.

MK: Is there a particular reason why you chose Spain?

KH: I chose Spain because it was important to me that I improve my Spanish. So, I had grown
up in a community with many native speakers, but in my elementary, middle, and high
school, I was never encouraged to speak Spanish by the school. So I felt this real
disconnect, and I studied Spanish at Scripps and I did independently a month in Mexico,
one summer. I knew that I wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country, and, at Scripps,
any program you go to essentially cost the same price. So I have a choice to either go to
South America, where I can live cheaply, or Europe, where it can be much more
expensive. So I decided while it was going to cost the same price and I wouldn’t, in the
future, have the opportunity to live for 5 months in Spain. So I chose that over, say,
Argentina or another Spanish-speaking country.

MK: What were some popular majors while you were a student?

KH: Psychology…Politics. My Politics senior class was very, very big. I feel like, maybe it
was because I was in Politics, but I hung out a lot with students who were doing
economics—both at Scripps and overlapping a little bit with CMC. A lot of Pre-Med and
Science students, and within that, a lot of neuroscience students, I feel like. And of
course, that was just who I probably was affiliated with. There was, of course, plenty of
music and art and other fields.

MK: Was it common to cross-register?

KH: Yes. I mean, my first class I ever had was at Pomona—the first day of school. I cross
registered
a lot just because I wanted to take advantage of many different opportunities,
not that I felt there was resources lacking at Scripps. I also loved that Scripps was a
women’s college, but I definitely wanted some co-ed experiences. So, I did cross-register
at Pitzer one time, several at Pomona, and, interestingly enough, none at CMC or Harvey
Mudd. I actually did take one class at CGU as well.

MK: Do you remember what the Core/ Humanities requirement was at the time?

KH: So, we had the Core curriculum—the 3 class series. I think we were the first…we were
maybe the first class, but maybe the second or third, to actually have Core I in Garrison.
So previous, I think, to about 2004 (maybe 2002 to 2003) they were still holding it in the
Humanities auditorium—so that was the size of freshmen class. So we had the Core
requirements and we had the same breadth of study, which would include letters,
language, gender and women studies, and all the same things. It hasn’t changed as far as
today.

MK: So what was your experience like with the Core program?

KH: I think the Core programs, maybe, was one of the reasons why I came to Scripps. I liked
there was a focus and there was a clear idea of a common experience. My Core I
experience, I think, was very positive—challenging but positive. Core II, my two faculty
members—to be honest—I don’t know if the team teaching was as successful with my
section as it was with others. And then Core III, I thought was wonderful. But what was
really influential for me was not the experience while doing it, but after completing it,
how it influenced the rest of my academics at Scripps and, actually, beyond. For example,
I was in a Public Policy class at Pomona one time, and the faculty member was talking
about, I think it was, paradigm shifts, and he looked to see if there was any Scripps
students in the class cause they would know what he was talking about. So I felt like it
was really a good foundation, and I didn’t really begin to appreciate it until after.

MK: Did the Core program influence you choice in major at all?

KH: I think my Core III, which was taught by Rita Alcala. It was “The Virgin/Whore
Dichotomy”, and we looked a lot about representations of women in literature and media.
I don’t think that necessarily it influenced my major, but it gave me a particular interest
in that area, which would influence how I looked at my major.
MK: What was the most memorable thing that you read during Core, or maybe just in your
whole college career?

KH: There’s a lot of text that I really liked from that Core III class. So we read a lot about La
Malinche and different figures.

00:10:00

And then authors that would take those historical figures, mostly Mexican-American
figures, and reinterpret them. I thought that was very interesting. I really enjoyed a lot of
that reading. I mean, I actually really liked On Liberty. So there was some text from Core
I that I really liked more than others. I think a lot of authors have cycled back since then,
so it’s hard for me to separate if I liked them at first or if I have grown to like them over
the years.

MK: So changing it up a bit—what was your normal day like at Scripps?

KH: I danced with the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company. On a very full day, I
would start practice at 7am to 9am. Then, I would probably go back to my room and
shower and prepare for class. I probably have some sort class between 10 to 12 or
something like that. Then, lunch in the afternoon—probably a seminar. I also was a
manager at the Scripps Store. So, probably between all those different things, I would
either be on call or checking in at the store to see how things were going. And in the
evenings, I might have a meeting for the store or a different organization, maybe another
practice with the Ballroom team—something like that.

MK: So what did you do for fun?

KH: Well, I really enjoyed dancing with the Ballroom team. And I would say, well, it was
serious at times cause we were preparing for the National Championships and things like
that. It was really a great social outlet to interact with other people from the 5 Claremont
Colleges. I was close to someone, while here, who was really into rock climbing. So, we
used to go out to Joshua Tree National Park and rock climb. I never thought I would end
up rock climbing in college, but I ended up doing that monthly. I think those were some
of the things. I mean, and definitely just hanging out because of the residential campus,
you can just hang out in your dorm with friends so you don’t really need to go out and
find something. Organically, you’re doing stuff for fun by interacting with others.

MK: Did you happen to go off campus a lot?

KH: I did an internship off campus one semester. I don’t think I got off campus very much and
part of it is because my family is from Ventura, which is only two hours away. I had
family in San Dimas, in Pasadena. It wasn’t a new area for me. I could imagine if I were
from further away, I would have been more inclined to explore the beaches and
snowboarding and things like that. But I felt like my opportunity was really about the oncampus
resources and I did have access to all that other stuff before and after Scripps.

MK: So what dorm did you live in?

KH: My freshmen year, I lived in GJW and it was so new at that point that they called it New
Hall, so we didn’t know where we were cause New Hall and GJW—they used two
separate names. My sophomore year, I lived first semester in Dorsey and my second
semester in a Routt/Frankel suite. I think it was Routt or Frankel…I don’t remember.
Then, my junior year, I, again, lived first semester in a Routt/Frankel suite—whichever
ones more south. Is it Routt or Frankel that’s more south, away from the mountains?
Routt? Ok. Then, I went abroad. And then senior year, I lived in the Senior Routt
Apartments.

MK: What is the most distinct Scripps tradition that you remember?

KH: I really liked matriculation—that you walked in the library and walked out. And then, I
think the whole graduation ceremony—the green robes, the red rose, and the fact it was
on Elm Tree Lawn (and we were the last class on Elm Tree Lawn)—I really liked all
those traditions around entering and exiting the college.
MK: What were the social forums on campus? For example, on campus, right now, we use
Facebook as a big part.

KH: So actually, Facebook started in 2002. I started Scripps in 2004. In my first year at
Scripps, Facebook was just rolled out and my roommate set up a profile and, at that point,
it was only selective colleges like Scripps. So, Harvard had it, Princeton had it, and then
they rolled it out to the Claremont Colleges. You could just keep it open because the only
people on it were other Claremont College people and you would say ‘Facebook me’
because you could easily write on someone else’s wall. It was a little reluctant at first.
And actually, Mark Zuckerberg actually came to campus in my freshmen year and we
were like,’ Oh yeah, this Facebook thing, whatever’. But at the time I left Scripps,
Facebook—my mom had joined, my little sister had joined, and so it was very different.

00:15:00

We used to say, and you needed a university email to join Facebook, so it was actually a
network for college students. When students were admitted to Scripps, for one year,
wrote into the Admissions office asking for their emails early because they wanted to join
Facebook, and they couldn’t unless the Admissions office gave them their new Scripps
email. It wasn’t all universities. So, it was this idea of, like, prestigious ones. I think
Facebook was pretty big. I don’t think it was bigger than it was, definitely, private and it
felt like an internal, kind of special community. Where today it is more of a global thing
that Scripps students tend to interact on it. Before it was more like a Claremont Colleges
thing. The other thing is, they did not distinguish between the Claremont Colleges
(originally Facebook). So, there was no Scripps College network, so your network was
the Claremont Colleges. You could interact 7-C, 5-C, whatever you call it, really easily.

MK: What were your interactions with other colleges like?

KH: I had a lot because, like I said, I danced on the Claremont Colleges’ Ballroom Dance
Company, which had representatives from all the colleges, and I took a lot of classes at
many colleges. I started identifying with different types of resources other than schools,
or programs had that I wanted to access. For example, one of the reasons I did the Public
Policy Analysis major was because I had a senior internship where they help you get the
internship, they pay for the cost of you going out to do it, and I knew that was a resource
that I wanted to access. I did feel like Scripps was my home base and, in general, I think
they were my favorite classes were here and the activities that I identified the most with,
but, I think, when I was able to identify which resources elsewhere that made sense for
me, I was happy to take advantage of that.

MK: What was the dating scene like?

KH: I actually dated someone from Pomona my whole time. I think that when I first came in,
Harvey Mudd hadn’t changed their party policies. So, you know the wristbands and the
fences and all that stuff? That didn’t exist really. So, this was really only like 7 years ago.
It was really easy, I think, to have this social things in the Friday and Saturday nights be
much more 5-C. So now I hear “Oh, this is a Harvey Mudd and Scripps party”—that
wasn’t as strong. The colleges were not being as ‘watching who’s coming in’ as far as
who’s sponsoring the party and then who came. So I think there was much more of a 5-C
thing. I was drawn to Pomona. I had a major at Pomona, I had a lot of friends at Pomona,
I was dating someone at Pomona, but I think, you know, I had friends that were scattered
all around campus. I think the campus that Scripps students might have had the least
interaction with was actually Pitzer that kind of seemed like an isolated thing. And I used
hear that because Pitzer had so many more women than men, they were less likely to
come over to Scripps, if that makes sense.

MK: So, did Pitzer interact with like the other colleges?

KH: I think so. I mean, I think, Pomona’s like the big one that can be autonomist, so they’re
kind of an outlier, but they choose to be part. Pitzer, I think, was a relatively new college
still going through identity shifts and stuff like that. So, I didn’t see as much interaction
in the activites I was doing. You know, if I was at a Pomona class and there might be
people from many different colleges, but less rarely would there be a Pitzer person in it.
So I felt like, of the 5 colleges, that was the one least integrated into the consortium.

MK: Was sex openly talked about?

KH: I mean, I think it was similar. You know, HEO continues to be a voice. Everyone’s
surprised on like the first day of orientation when you were doing HEO, Health
Education Office, outreach as well as self-defense. So I think it was open. I mean it
wasn’t that long ago, so I don’t think things have changed very much. I mean, we would
continue on things like Board of Trustees, Student Affairs committees to look at alcohol
policies and other policies at the Claremont Colleges that keeps them safe. But, I don’t
think it was different than it is now.

MK: What were the attitudes toward the queer community at the colleges?

KH: I don’t think, I mean, I don’t feel like it’s much different than it is now. I think there’s
been some strides in recent years to open up, for example, the Queer Resource Center to
being more of a 5-C resource. But, as far as you know, representation, FAMILY has been
around longer than Café Con Leche at Scripps. So, actually, there’s been more of an
institutional representation of queer students than other identity groups on campus.

00:20:00

So, I mean, there’s always different. In my last year, gender-neutral restrooms were a big
issue. I think it continues to be. So, I think that was the biggest manifestation of that—the
gender-neutral restrooms issue.

MK: Were there many people of color?

KH: So, actually, yes. I mean there’s been some, a lot of strides. From 2004 to 2008, there’s
been a large increase, especially for African-American students and some other student
groups. I mean, I think everyone knows that Scripps College is constantly working
towards increasing representation of women of color. I think one thing that happens now
that happened less then were discussions like class. So I think, while representations of
students of color was real central and continues to be, class is definitely come to the
forefront as far as issues that students and the administration are focused on.

MK: What did you learn about feminism during your time at Scripps?

KH: Well, it’s hard to say cause I mean I had subscribed feminism as being a very big term
and can encompass lots of peoples. I think of, one thing, would be that its not as your
some gain, but if we want to expand opportunities for women and women in leadership
roles, that is not the expense of men. So, being able to articulate that. That it’s not about,
you know, one group of people or many one sector dominating politics or business, but
it’s about allowing opportunities for all. Not seeing feminism not necessarily only the
mission of getting women introduced to leadership roles or having access to your
traditional opportunities, such as voting rights, but actually expanding opportunities for
all. So, for example, there could be feminist view of education that could talk about
education for low-income students because, out of feminist thought, that should expand
access for all those that taken opportunity of that. So I think a much more expansive
definition or way of thinking about things.

MK: What were, like, the hot-button issues on campus?

KH: I think one interesting thing, if we’re going to record—my senior year, there was actually
a bomb scare and it wasn’t anything to be too concerned about. But they actually, it made
us, how students were interacting on security audit on campus, became an issue. We
talked about forming a union of student workers because we felt that through that
process, other things of financial aid, not a financial aids doing, but how student workers
were being thought about on campus, knowing we did so much work. That was a hotbutton
issue in my circle—that was very interesting. Well, like I said, we went through 3
different… I had a new president my senior year. So, transitions within the
administration, it wasn’t something that the students were feeling were impacting their
daily lives, but I think that was, you know, something people were talking about. It
sounds so silly, but removing the Elm Trees. You know, at Scripps, everyone’s about
trees and everyone wanted to be the last class to graduate under them because that was
tradition and as soon as you remove them, you lost that and you can’t say, you know, no
one wanted to be the class that had tiny trees’. And they grown now. That was an issue of
when you were going to remove them. I think 5-C student interaction resources. So, for
example, I remember having ASPC, a student group at Pomona that helps distribute
funds to all the Claremont Colleges groups. So, being involved in the 5-C student
organization like the Claremont Colleges Ballroom Dance Company and for it to be an
issue who funds those programs, who funds different clubs and activities that serve 5-C
students. Should it funded equally among the 5-C Colleges? Should some pay more? Pay
less? That was an issue.

MK: Do you believe Scripps did a good job in preparing you for the real world?

KH: Yeah. And I would like to think that Scripps, in some way, is some type of real world. I
don’t want to think that Scripps is a pure, you know, isolated fantasy place. I think
Scripps students do work hard and do interact with a lot of real issues. And I think that
the resources that I had access to, the relationships that I had formed did prepare me and I
had a more expansive resume and interesting academic experience than a lot of friends
who went to big universities who focused very narrowly on one subject area and didn’t
have the opportunity to do many summer internships or things like that.

00:25:00

MK: And finally, do you remember what your rose garden mural was?

KH: Yes and I hate it. So, when we, you know how during orientations there’s always some
phrase that’s written on t-shirts and things? So, our’s was ‘the moment of change is the
only poem’, which is a quote on the quotation walk when you’re walking from Vita
Nova, it wasn’t Vita Nova at that point, to the Science Center. And when we came in, it
was the biggest joke because no one understood what it meant and the Dean of Students
at that time, Dean Wood, had opened orientation saying,” The moment of change is the
only poem. The moment of change…” I mean, she said it in five different ways and it
still didn’t make sense. So, that was kind of a running joke our four years. So the art I
wanted, because there’s a lot of, you know, there’s a lot of protests going on campus,
there’s a lot of (our classes was very involved with social justice issues). So one artist,
one student artist, had a picture of students with picket signs and one said ‘the moment of
change’ and the other said ‘is the only poem’. And, of course, in 2008 it was the election
of Barack Obama. And so that was the ‘change’ being an important word, and that was,
to me, a very nice mirroring of our introduction to Scripps and how we had developed as
a class and what happening in our graduation year. Unfortunately, for some reason, at the
last minute, everyone, a bunch of people, voted for this thing they can’t even describe
what it means. Just, essentially in my mind, La Semeuse pushing students off a cliff and
they’re drowning in water. And, that’s what it is and I don’t understand it. When they
asked the student artist, she said it’s ironic and I still don’t understand. So, I was upset
and many of us were. I think there was just a group of students that was their friend who
drew it and they thought it was cool for some reason, but I really liked the alternate image
so I’ll always be bitter.

MK: Is there anything that you would like to add? Anything else?

KH: No.

00:27:28