In 1973, businesswoman and lawyer, feminist and activist Edessa Rose founded the Rose Institute of State and Local Government as a part of Claremont McKenna College to address issues specific to California's state and local governments. From demographics to redistricting, from legal and regulatory analysis to budgets and public finance, the staff, faculty, and students of the Rose Institute have published studies that tracked, and in many cases shaped, policy in California for more than three decades.

In its early period (1973-1990), the Rose Institute developed the nation’s first comprehensive statewide demographic and political database. The California Database at the Rose Institute was at the cutting edge of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and the nation’s leader in census tracking. Faculty, staff, and students worked together to match California’s 50,000 precincts to its 5,000-plus census tracts, following the political and demographic trends in the State. The Institute maintained this database from 1974 through 1990 and provided not only a rich source of research and study, but also of revenues for the Institute.

Among the most notable of the research programs of this period were the REDIS system, one of the first fully computerized redistricting capabilities, which was used in several states, the Institute’s Latino studies program (directed by Professor Richard Santillan and involving Professor Armando Navarro), and various election studies. Later, the California Database was used to generate studies of demographic change in the State. The first such study focused on California’s Latino population: in addition to an atlas illustrating the rapid growth of Latino population in different parts of California, there were studies of Latino voting behavior, opinion, voluntary organizations, and Latino-owned businesses. A second atlas focused on Filipino population in California, a third on Chinese, and a final study on African Americans.

The Rose Institute played a significant part in the California redistrictings of 1970-73, 1980-83, and 1991, attracting controversy with its attempts to shed light on politically-motivated, incumbent-led district plans. Professors Leroy Hardy and Alan Heslop authored nationwide surveys of reapportionment politics for each decade.

By 1990, the California Database was no longer seen as critical to the Institute’s programs: a state-supported database came into being at about this time and much other data became publicly available (for example, CD-ROM versions of US Census); therefore, instead of building a general demographic political database for the State as a whole, the Institute took on the more complex and challenging task of creating “multi-layered” data for southern California’s communities.

Many faculty members, staff and research associates have contributed to Institute programs over the years. To mention only a few, Leroy Hardy and T. Anthony Quinn have contributed to redistricting work, Jerome Garris and James Pinter-Lucke to modeling, Ralph Rossum and Alfred Balitzer to political and environmental studies, Florence Adams and Robert Walters to GIS, Richard Santillan and Armando Navarro to Latino studies, Steve Frates and Eric Norby to fiscal analysis, David Huntoon and Marionette Sison Moore to surveys, Gary Kovall to legal and regulatory analysis, and William Brown to economic analysis and data book development.

From the start, the Institute committed itself to conducting research with faculty-student teams. Moreover, although Edessa Rose launched the Institute with a pledge of $1 million, the pledge was not satisfied until 1987, and the Rose Institute worked without endowment for more than a decade: at the beginning, therefore, it was a bootstrap operation in which students played crucial roles.

Over the years, more than 300 students of Claremont McKenna College, Claremont Graduate University and the other Claremont Colleges have worked in the Rose Institute. Students have contributed significantly to the Institute’s survey research programs, providing high-quality interviewing services, assisting in data presentation, and often playing key roles in analysis. Today, all Rose Institute students are trained in GIS, survey research, fiscal analysis, and legal and regulatory analysis.

Edessa Rose, Jon Lovelace, Billy Mills, and Mildred Younger were among the first members of the Board of Governors under the chairmanship of Robert Finch. Later chairs were Donald Henriksen, Robert Howard, Brandon Birtcher, and Allan Lunsford. Board members have included Jess Unruh, March Fong Eu, Richard Katz, Ernie Dronenburg, Pete Wilson and Darryl Wold.

Alan Heslop was the founding director of the Institute and served in that capacity for nearly three decades. Ralph Rossum, the current director of the Institute, started his term of service for the 2000-2001 academic year.