This fall, the Robert Day Sciences Center (RDSC) at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) officially opened after beginning construction nearly four years ago. The RDSC is home to CMC’s Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences (KDIS) and the new DayBreak Café.
RDSC’s opening follows the creation of the integrated sciences major at CMC within KDIS, which the college began offering last fall to the class of 2028 onwards. The major is a consolidation of multiple disciplines, with the option to specialize in three thematic areas: health, brain and planet. Students then “take a combination of courses suited to their interests,” according to CMC’s academic catalog.
CMC announced their decision to withdraw from the joint science program, the W. M. Keck Science Department, in October 2018. This left Scripps College and Pitzer College as the remaining joint owners of Keck, while CMC created KDIS. Now, CMC students who wish to pursue a specific science-related field rather than the interdisciplinary major must go off-campus, including through Keck, to do so.
According to a press release issued by CMC on Sept. 22, KDIS’s faculty is made up of professors from multiple fields, including engineering, physics and data science, who “transcend disciplinary boundaries.” The department currently has 18 faculty members, with seven more to come.
Lielle Goland SC ’28 is pursuing an off-campus major in integrated sciences and learned about RDCS prior to attending the Claremont Colleges.
“Everyone knew [RDCS] was coming,” Goland said. “I was more focused on the [integrated sciences] program.”
Although she said she enjoys spending time at RDSC, she didn’t cite it as her reason for pursuing a major off campus.
”I just knew I wanted to do computational biology, and I liked that within integrated sciences, those two were already integrated, no pun intended,” Goland said.
Danah Plair CM ’28, who plans to major in integrated sciences either as a dual or stand-alone major, first heard about RDSC in her senior year of high school.
“It was always just kind of this looming thing where, ‘oh, we don’t know when it’s ever gonna be done,’ but I was definitely very excited to have a new space to explore and study,” Plair said.
Plair feels that the KDIS and RDCS are helping students like her who are interested in STEM-related fields. She also said that she thinks the program and center will encourage interdisciplinary growth.
“I’ll be able to have a broader understanding of science and computer science as a whole,” Plair said.
Taking just one class at RDSC this semester and expecting to take more in the future, Plair said she appreciates spending time in the new building.
“The location is very fresh and new, so it definitely makes me more excited to come to class when I know I’m doing it here,” she said.
Architects at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) designed RDSC, which, according to the Sept. 22 press release, was BIG’s “first built project in the Los Angeles area.”
Goland, who has classes in the building five days a week, said she also visits on the weekends because of the “really awesome study spaces.” Plair echoed this sentiment, highlighting the Quantum Library and outdoor seating with views of the mountains as some of her favorite study spots.
The opening of the DayBreak Café, which operates under the same ownership of The Hub and Collins Dining Hall, also coincides with RDSC’s opening. Located on the ground floor of the building, the café runs on virtual kiosks and mobile ordering, intended to speed up the ordering process for students.
Phil Herrera, an assistant general manager for Bon Appétit at CMC, described the menu as “a little more fresh” than The Hub, or “brain food,” as he calls it. This includes acai bowls, boba, salads and fresh sandwiches. DayBreak also differs from The Hub through electric cooking and warming availability, healthier foods like additive-free breads and a more geographically diverse menu.
“We were very conscious about creating a menu that was going to be very sleek and clean and modern,” Herrera said, in addition to mentioning the larger kitchen and facilities that allow them to branch out in what they offer.
Herrera and his colleagues faced the challenge of planning for DayBreak while RDSC was still under construction, meaning they didn’t know exactly what their space would look like.
“I’m really proud of our management team as a whole,” he said. “I think that the only way we were able to pull this off was because we put our heads together and worked as a team.”
Goland and Plair have both visited DayBreak and liked the food they tried so far. Although they said RDSC can be far away from other academic buildings, they appreciate DayBreak since there aren’t many other food options nearby.
CMC declined to participate in interviews and did not release a specific statement to TSL.
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