On Feb. 15, Pitzer College hosted a community mixer in the Founders Room, featuring alumni and current students from the New Resources Program (NRP). The community celebrated the program’s 50th anniversary and honored Al Schwartz, the first sociology professor at Pitzer College and the founder of the NRP.
The NRP allows non-traditional applicants to get an undergraduate education and a bachelor’s degree. Non-traditional applicants are usually of unconventional college age, typically 23 or older, and have had different life experiences before attending college. According to Ronnie Whisenant ’26, a current New Resources Student (NRS) and New Resources student senate representative, the program has supported over 400 non-traditional students.
Al Schwartz founded the NRP in 1975, giving non-traditional students the opportunity to attend a prestigious undergraduate college while diversifying the school with the students’ unique backgrounds, perspectives and interests.
Schwartz, who passed away on Dec. 9, 2023, was the first sociologist hired at Pitzer and served as the dean of faculty, dean of students and special assistant to the president for 30 years at the college.
“He’s changed my life,” Whisenant said. “It’s very rare that you find people that truly want to help other people, just for the sake of them being [benefitted], and we can learn something from them. We want to pay a little bit of honor to him and express how thankful we are for the opportunity that he’s given us.”
In recent years, the NRP’s enrollment has been dwindling due to a lack of advertisement and attention it has received from both students and the administration. According to Whisenant, the program hasn’t always been this way. In 2016, for example, the Pitzer Student Senate started an initiative to allocate $3000 for New Resources Student Lounge renovations.
“We had a lot of professors back then that were part of this program, that were promoting it, and we lost that,” Whisenant said. “If we don’t pick up the torch, nobody else is going to.”
The program currently supports less than 10 New Resources students, and with decreasing engagement, it’s at risk of being shut down after 50 years.
“This year, the institution is in an interesting place about whether or not they’re going to continue this program,” Tim Lewis, the Community Engagement Center (CEC) program coordinator, said. “So the stakes are real.”
Organizers said that they hoped the community mixer would reinvigorate the program and return it to its former glory through increased publicity, especially because the NRP aligns closely with Pitzer’s values of social responsibility, intercultural understanding, interdisciplinary learning, student engagement and environmental sustainability.
During the mixer, approximately 35 people –- current traditional and NRS Pitzer students, NRS alumni, faculty members and potential NRS applicants –– came to discuss the history and future of the NRP. For potential applicants, the mixer also served as an information session about the program.
“I think having this program does contribute to social responsibility,” Tricia Morgan, NRP alumni and current director of the CEC, said. “It’s providing an opportunity for people to broaden their horizons that might not have otherwise had such an opportunity.”
Garett Staley PZ ’06, an NRS alumnus, is a current associate professor and program director of the drug counseling program at Mt. San Antonio College. Staley transferred to Pitzer College after attending community college for a year and attributed much of her success to the NRP.
“At first it was really scary, and I felt really out of my element,” Staley said. “I was in my early 30s when I was a student here, so I was quite a bit older than most of the student population. I am a first-generation college student, so this was very foreign for me, and really overwhelming.”
Despite her struggles with imposter syndrome, Staley appreciated the program for pulling her and her family out of poverty and creating a better life for her kids.
“I did the work, but if [Pitzer] hadn’t opened that door, and given the little extra support I needed to find that confidence and the understanding that I could be successful, I don’t see [how] I would have achieved as much as I have,” she said.
In the closing remarks of the event, Lewis acknowledged all the faculty in the CEC who helped keep the program alive for the past 50 years and called for more people to support by donating and raising awareness.
“You look around and you see the impact this program has made,” Lewis said. “They’re not frequent, they’re not common. They’re very, very, very special.”
Whisenant shared the same sentiment and said that he hopes the program can continue to make an impact on non-traditional students seeking a liberal arts education.
“We’re trying to keep this going and hopefully spark a little fire,” Whisenant said. “[The New Resources Program] is something I don’t think should be allowed to die because it’s too good for everybody involved. Now, I feel like we have some kind of direction, so we’ve got work to do.”
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