Sports
Life & Style
Guest Writers Sam Beck CM ‘10 and Chris Wright PO ‘19 shine a light on the obstacles to solar energy at the Claremont Consortium.
Read about the Claremont colleges women’s rugby team’s recent victory against Occidental in Sports. Page 9
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THE
STUDENT
LIFE
The Student Newspaper of the Claremont Colleges Since 1889
CLAREMONT, CA
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2017
Ten-Minute Plays Respond to ‘Power and Privilege’
VOL. CXXIX NO. 4
Claremont City Council Hopefuls Propose Policies at Pitzer-Hosted Forum Marc Rod
Meghan Joyce • The Student Life
During the 9th Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival Feb. 17 in Pomona College’s Seaver Theater, Kyle Lee PO ‘20, Sam Betanzos PO ‘20, Juan Zamudio PO ‘18, Alex Collado PO ‘20, and Jonathan Wilson PO ‘19 perform in “Angels in the Sky,” written and directed by Zed Hopkins PO ‘20. See page 5
Pitzer Student Senate, in cooperation with the League of Women Voters, organized a forum for the candidates for the Claremont City Council at Pitzer College on Thursday, Feb 23 at which candidates discussed their policy positions. Eight candidates will vie for two open seats on the City Council in the March 7 election. The candidates are incumbent council members Corey Calaycay and Larry Schroeder, Claremont McKenna College professor and Claremont Traffic and Transportation commissioner Zachary Courser, real estate broker Anthony Grynchal, window cleaner Michael Keenan, investment advisor Murray G. Monroe, and real estate broker and pastor Abraham Prattella. The eighth candidate, businessman Korey Johnson, did not participate in the forum. Pitzer Student Senate President Josue Pasillas PZ ’17 reached out to the League of Women Voters, which organizes candidate forums for local elections nationwide, to organize the forum at Pitzer to enhance Pitzer’s partnership with the local community. “One of the goals of the Student Senate is to build partner-
ships with our community,” said Pasillas. Pitzer Student Senate aims to “engage students of the Claremont Colleges with the Claremont community and its leaders,” he added. Approximately 100 people attended the forum, but the majority of attendees were Claremont community members, not students. The forum consisted of a two minute opening statement by each candidate, followed by one minute responses to a series of audiencesubmitted questions, followed by a one minute closing statement by each candidate. Claremont Area League of Women Voters Vice President for Voter Services Cindy Reul and Chance Kawar PZ ’17 moderated the forum. The first question focused on the relationship between the Claremont Colleges and the City of Claremont. All candidates recognized that there is a divide between the city and the 5Cs agreed that the City Council must work to strengthen the relationship between the Claremont Colleges and the City Council to unite as one community. “We need to… recognize that we have our respective interests and we need to also recognize that there may be times when we have
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CMC, PO, HMC Fall Short in Faculty Gender Balance Girls Who Code CEO to be Scripps Commencement Speaker Natalie McDonald
Amanda Larson Reshma Saujani will deliver the commencement address for Scripps College’s graduating class of 2017, Scripps announced this week. Saujani is the CEO and founder of Girls Who Code, a non-profit dedicated to closing the gender gap in technology jobs. The decision marked the end of a search that began in the fall of 2015. The commencement speaker decision was made by a committee of Scripps students who had expressed interest in the selection process. Senior class representative Meghan McIntyre SC ’17 wrote in an email to TSL that Saujani represents the collective values expressed by the class of 2017. “Historically, Scripps has not had many women of color give the commencement address, and our class voiced their desire to hear from someone coming from a marginalized background,” McIntyre wrote. “When reviewing suggestions and formulating a list, we strove to find a person that is a compassionate activist who challenges the world they live in.” Past speakers of color have included Sarah Kay, the commencement speaker in 2015, and Zainab Salbi in 2012. Over the past 50 years, only six commencement speakers have been women of color. McIntyre emphasized how Reshma Saujani embodies Scripps’s values through her lifelong commitment to activism. “Reshma has a tremendous track record with promoting gender equity,” she wrote. “She has been a community activist throughout her life. For example, as an attorney she handled probono social justice cases in order
to service under-represented communities. The first Indian American woman to run for Congress, Reshma has repeatedly demonstrated her courage to take risks and challenge the world that she lives in.” Computer science major Alley Bellack SC ’17 expressed enthusiasm with the committee’s choice. “As a (computer science) student and aspiring entrepreneur, I’m deeply inspired by her work and career both in tech and politics,” Bellack wrote in an email to TSL. “Not to mention, Girls Who Code is a fabulous organization with a great mission—I considered working there, and I’m trying to get my little sister to join!” Students were actively involved in the selection process of the commencement speaker. Scripps Associated Students President Sneha Deo SC ’17 said the decision is the end result of a year-long process. “The junior class president convenes a committee of students for their class year in the spring before senior year; this group of students identifies candidates for the commencement speaker,” Deo wrote in an email to TSL. “The class president then communicates with potential candidates and secures a confirmation in collaboration with senior staff at Scripps.” The committee mentioned by Deo was comprised of students who had expressed interest in getting involved with the selection process, such as McIntyre and Isabella Levin SC ’17. In the fall of 2015, a survey was sent out to students asking for opinions regarding their choice See COMMENCEMENT page 2
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When G. Gabrielle Starr takes office as Pomona College’s 10th president on July 1, the majority of the Claremont Colleges will have female presidents. Three of the five colleges will have majority-male faculties this academic year, however. Claremont McKenna College has the lowest proportion of female professors, with only 36 percent of full-time faculty identifying as women. Together with Pomona and Harvey Mudd College, CMC is among the majority of colleges and universities nationwide that have women underrepresented in faculty. Pitzer College has the highest proportion of full-time female professors at the 5Cs, at 61 percent. Scripps College also has a majority-female faculty. Data released by the colleges does not include gendernonconforming or non-binary faculty. CMC Dean of Faculty Peter Uvin said that the number of female professors at CMC reflects the proportion of women “on the market” in each academic discipline. “In some departments, there are simply fewer women getting Ph.D.s,” Uvin said. He
cited CMC’s large economics department and the fact that only about 35 percent of economics doctoral degrees conferred in 2015 went to women. But Uvin acknowledged that “there are departments where we are clearly behind, and sometimes, quite significantly behind.” For example, women earned 40 percent of the government Ph.D.s awarded by U.S. universi-
ties in 2015, but only 30 percent of tenured or tenure-track professors are women in CMC’s government department. Uvin attributed this imbalance to slow faculty turnover. Some professors in the government department have been at CMC for over 30 years, he said, when most faculty on the market were men. Therefore, the department has not been able to catch up with the discipline’s shifting
demographics. The gender gap does not go unnoticed by students. “You definitely notice that you’re taking classes with mostly male professors,” said Sydney Joseph CM ’18, a government and psychology major as well as copresident of the CMC Women’s Forum. “I think [the gender gap] is
See GENDER page 2
Audrey Hector • The Student Life
Nader Calls for Student-Driven Change During Scripps Speech Julie Tran Activist, politician, and fourtime presidential candidate Ralph Nader drew more than 500 people to Scripps College’s Garrison Theater on Tuesday, Feb. 21, to listen to his thoughts on progressive activism under President Donald Trump’s administration. In a conversation moderated by journalist Giselle Fernandez, Nader shared his views on the
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Trump presidency, spoke of what he called a “strategically divisive and controlling” bipartisan system, and urged the American people to be proactive in using and protecting their rights. Ali Kapadia PO ’20 attended the talk and wrote in an email to TSL that “prior to the talk, Ralph Nader was one of my heroes. After the talk, not much has changed.” “The talk helped me further understand Nader’s accomplish-
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ments and shortcomings as well as understand truly how ahead of his times Nader was,” Kapadia wrote. At the event, Nader shared his disappointment with the level of participation in government. “We have allowed (politicians) to run away with our democracy because we have low expectation levels,” Nader said. Nader ’s pursuit of social change over the past 50 years has resulted in major federal con-
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sumer protection laws, including the National Auto and Highway Traffic Safety Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act. After his victory against the automobile industry to pass laws requiring safety precautions in automobiles, Nader said that he felt a “huge burden of trust,” as he felt that he was now expected to solve all of the injustice that he witnessed. This realization
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