February 7, 2016
Read time : 8 min

Claremont Graduate University’s Up to Us team, Up to CGU, has been hard at work planning our February campaign. During core- and extended-member strategy sessions, we brainstormed, got creative, and wrestled with the challenge of how to best raise awareness among fellow students, community members, and friends and family living in cities across the nation. For the upcoming Up to Us Wild Card activity, our team moved forward with a determined approach to connect all sects of the campus and surrounding community, as well as ways to include and encourage those outside of the community to lend us an ear and join us through social media.

In order to make this happen, our team thought it necessary to step out of our classrooms to seek out local community leaders: those who are well connected and highly engaged and those who maintain a positive influence, remaining active. One such figure is Mayor Corey Calaycay of the city of Claremont. Mr. Calaycay grew up locally and has worked in the California State Legislature for over a decade. He is involved in several community groups and has worked to improve community well-being in reduction of drug and tobacco use, as well as through education advocacy and showing support for local libraries.

Claremont, California, a town nestled at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California’s Inland Empire, is a location that college students from several institutions call home. Claremont is where students from around the world attend schools within the Claremont Consortium; a group of several colleges, each just a stone’s throw away from one another. Claremont Graduate University is part of this consortium collectively known as the 7C’s, alongside Pomona College, Scripps College, Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Claremont McKenna College, and the Keck Graduate Institute. As part of a community with such a high concentration of career-driven young adults, the mayor shared his view of Up to Us and the campaign efforts Up to CGU facilitated on campus as part of My Two Cents Day in October. In his view, they were an exciting way to garner local resources on campus to support common goals.

As the meeting progressed, Up to Us team members shared with the mayor how each member identified personally with aspects of the campaign and the associated challenges. The mayor expressed the importance of local groups gaining a better understanding of local government spending and funding choices, which require prioritization and balance, as well as a well-rounded sensibility and awareness to have confidence in making choices that will best serve the economy and lifestyle of the residents of Claremont.

When asked how his local office has been affected by national debt, Mr. Calaycay shared his experience of witnessing the availability of federal funds to be constantly in flux. The mayor also described the challenges of managing the many requests and objectives brought to him by different community groups, ranging from residents who would like to replace the type of fertilizer used to grow foliage on arterial medians, to funding allocation for long-standing and newly-developed grassroots community organizations. Conceivably, many of the requests brought to the mayor come with a dollar sign.

Perhaps the most important question during our meeting was when we asked if and in what way federal debt influenced the mayor’s capacity to ultimately make such important spending choices. Mayor Calaycay described how federal funding that has been awarded to Claremont in the form of grant money has made substantial contributions to city infrastructure development. The mayor shared with the Up to CGU team how, throughout his tenure in office, he had seen availability of these funds affect the overall scale of infrastructure-related projects and how the amount of federally sponsored projects varied from year to year.

In order to succeed in his role as mayor, Calaycay keeps his finger on the pulse. He has strong working relationships with his council, which is made up of policy professionals from both sides of the aisle. The mayor spends a significant amount of time connecting with community members and professional bodies to bring back to the council.

Up to CGU team members appreciated the mayor’s candid moments in expressing to us toward the conclusion of our meeting his understanding of national debt to be not all bad. The silver lining from his experience has shone through in tougher economic times — situations during which businesses are strapped to tighten up operations and maximize efficiency. The result, he shared, can be positive and set businesses up for future growth with greater financial stability.

The Up to CGU team thoroughly enjoyed our meeting with the mayor. The team gained a great deal of insight as planning continued and further developed components of Claremont Graduate University’s Up to Us campaign. Meeting with the mayor helped the team more deeply connect our campus community and the city of Claremont to national debt issues and understand the challenges that start nationally and resonate locally. We look forward to seeing Mayor Calaycay at the Up to CGU Wild Card — National Debt Carnival to be held on the Claremont Graduate University campus in Claremont, CA on Friday February 19th. The event is open to all students and community members.