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THE
STUDENT
LIFE
The Student Newspaper of the Claremont Colleges Since 1889
CLAREMONT, CA
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2017
VOL. CXXIX NO. 2
Pitzer Hosts Claremont Mayor in Ceremony to Affirm Diversity Natalie McDonald
Courtesy of Liam Brooks / Pitzer College
Claremont Mayor Samuel Pedroza signs a resolution affirming the city’s commitment to diversity at Pitzer College’s Benson Auditorium on Friday, Feb. 3.
Students Scrutinize HMC Program’s Defense Industry Partnerships Alex Kleinman In the basement of the Parsons Engineering Building, glass conference rooms line the hall, their walls covered in mathematical formulas and scientific scrawl. Inside these rooms, clusters of Harvey Mudd College students tinker with 3D printers and tool kits. Welcome to Harvey Mudd Clinic, a program in which small teams of student engineers, scientists, and mathematicians work with corporate, national laboratory, and non-profit sponsors to develop solutions to real-world problems. The first of its kind, the Clinic program has enabled students for more than 50 years to make breakthroughs in biotechnology, energy, computer science, aerospace, and defense. In recent years, the Clinic program’s relationship with the defense industry has been a contested issue on HMC’s campus. Defense contractors Northrop Grumman, which manufactures U.S. military drones and missiles, and Raytheon, the world’s largest producer of guided missiles, are regular participants in the Clinic Program. Connor Stashko HM ’17, whose Clinic project works with the cancer center City of Hope on cancer research, believes that the Clinic Program’s cooperation with the defense industry conflicts with HMC’s mission. “I think it’s a betrayal of the mission statement [because] the mission statement [seeks] to produce engineers who are cognizant of the societal impact of their work. Meanwhile they’re recruiting students to defense contractors,” Stashko said. Professor Kash Gokli, director of the engineering Clinic, disagrees. The mission statement
“doesn’t say you shouldn’t do that work, it’s just that you better understand it before you do it,” Gokli said. Coco Coyle HM ’17, an engineering major working on a biomedical Clinic project, feels that Gokli’s interpretation of the mission statement is problematic. “They expect us to consider the impact of our work on society but also do nothing about it,” Coyle said. “So in the midyear report that you write at the end of the fall semester, there’s a section where you’re supposed to talk about the impact of this project on society, but it kind of feels like lip service, like ‘we know this is in our mission statement so we want you to think about it but then never return to it again and don’t do anything about it.’” None of the Clinic projects are termed classified, meaning that they do not involve extreme weapons. According to Barry Olsan, director of corporate relations and Clinic coordinator, most Clinic projects are benign. “Someone could say, ‘boy, the national laboratories, they make nuclear weapons,’” Olsan said. “Well, for eight years we’ve worked on projects in nonproliferation; tons of students wanted to be on those … nothing to do with weaponmaking but to do with weapon protection so we’re more secure.” A c c o rd ing to Coyle, the Clinic Program charges industry sponsors approximately $50,000 to participate. Coyle thinks that accepting money from Northrup Grumman and Raytheon does not represent the values of Harvey Mudd or that
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A mural stands on the western wall of Pitzer College’s Stein Atrium, located in Benson Auditorium. Painted by Los Angeles artist Paul Botello in 1996, it depicts Pitzer students, faculty and staff protesting California Proposition 187, which disqualified undocumented immigrants from receiving public benefits, including public healthcare and public education. A figure at the center of the image holds a sign that reads, “Unity. Tolerance. Love.” Last Friday, Feb. 3, members of the Pitzer community gathered beside Botello’s mural to witness Claremont Mayor Samuel Pedroza sign a resolution affirming the city’s “long-standing commitment to diversity and safeguarding the civil rights, safety and dignity of all people.” The Claremont City Council passed the resolution on Jan. 24 in a 3-1 vote with one abstention. “Without student activism, we wouldn’t be here,” Pitzer Student Senate President Josue Pasillas PZ ’17 said at the beginning of the event, “and that is why this week we celebrate the student voice at Pitzer College. Here, the student voice is a catalyst for change.” The resolution was initially proposed on Dec. 4 by Pitzer Sen-
ate Secretary Shivani Kavuluru PZ ’19, after Pitzer College declared itself a sanctuary college on Nov. 30. “I thought we needed to write a resolution supporting undocumented students as well as the undocumented community in Claremont,” Kavuluru said in an interview with TSL. “It’s necessary for student organizations to let the community to know that we are here for them.” While the original resolution calls for Claremont to be declared a sanctuary city, the resolution signed on Friday does not. “We have a very active public,” Pedroza said. “We knew there would be some pushback, so we worked with staff and students to come up with language that was absolutely 100 percent defendable.” Furthermore, according to Anne Turner, director of human services in Claremont, the legal definition of “sanctuary city” remains unclear. Turner worked with the city attorney to draft the resolution. “Why would you ever commit, as a government institution, to a policy that has no definition?” Turner said. “By labeling yourself a sanctuary
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Despite Top Ranking, PO Financial Aid Draws Criticism Marc Rod Pomona College was ranked first for “Best Financial Aid” by the Princeton Review in its book Colleges that Pay You Back: 2017 Edition. The Princeton Review ranking “confirms Pomona College’s strong commitment to making a college education accessible and affordable,” wrote Pomona Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Seth Allen in an email to TSL. Fifty-seven percent of Pomona students receive financial aid. The average financial aid award is currently $48,034, according to the 2016-2017 Common Data Set posted on Pomona’s website. Pomona practices need-blind admissions for domestic students and provides need-based financial aid in the form of grants, scholarships, and work stipends. International student admissions are need-aware.
“A financial aid program that meets 100 percent of the demonstrated need of our students is the single most important financial priority for Pomona College,” Allen wrote. According to its website, the Princeton Review ranks colleges based on 80-question surveys of about 375 students from each of the 381 schools ranked. Despite this ranking, some Pomona students are dissatisfied and frustrated with their experiences with the Office of Financial Aid (OFA). Some students feel that the office could give larger financial aid awards, particularly to students whose families have annual incomes of $20,000 or less. “I have had Quest students tell me that, compared to other colleges of similar caliber, Pomona doesn’t do the best for its lowest income students. It might do well overall, but … for its lowest income students, it doesn’t do that well overall,” said Teofanny Saragi
In Memoriam: Willie Zuniga HM ’17 Elinor Aspegren Willie Zuniga HM ‘17, a mathematical physics major with a concentration in philosophy, is remembered by friends and faculty as kind, friendly, and supportive. Zuniga died Thursday, Feb. 2 in his suite at HMC; his cause of death is unknown. “Willie was the kind of guy that made it clear that he wanted to interact with you and that he wanted you in his universe,” Sam Martin HM ’17, one of Zuniga’s close friends, said. “He always had a big old smile on his face. Whenever he’d see you, he’d just give you this big old greeting. Even a short just ‘yo, what’s up’ interaction was enough to make your whole day better.” Zuniga was known to both friends and the community as
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either “Willie the Wiler” or “Prof. Willie” because of his ability to make friends and his readiness to help anyone on campus. “He was this guy who … loved what he was studying all the time, even when it was hard for him, but also a good friend who you really wanted to hang around forever,” said HMC physics professor Greg Lyzenga, who taught Zuniga in several classes. Zuniga was an active member of Chicano Latino Student Affairs (CLSA) and the HMC Society of Professional Latinxs in STEM. Viviana Bermudez HM ’18 first got to know him as a CLSA mentor. “I remember how he always expressed his willingness to help with any and every situation,”
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PO ‘18, co-president of Quest, a mentorship and support program for low-income students. According to Saragi, students struggle to find jobs to meet workstudy requirements and must work two or even three jobs, some off-campus. “We are full-time students, so it’s hard to worry about meeting our full work allotment,” Saragi said. Other students, like Laura Gonzales PO ‘19, find OFA to be difficult to work with and not accommodating. “There’s kind of a ‘we don’t care’ vibe” in the office, Gonzales said. Gonzales also often finds excess charges, sometimes up to $500, on her bills and struggles to have them removed. “When I went to talk to them, they didn’t know what the [$500 charge] was from and said, ‘just pay it,’” Gonzales said. “If I hadn’t pushed for it and been really ag-
gressive, I would have been stuck with the bill ... It’s always just such an annoyance to deal with that office.” Saragi echoed Gonzales’ frustrations. Like Gonzales, she and other Quest members often find it difficult to connect with financial aid officers able to answer specific questions about their financial aid packages. OFA needs to be “more attuned to the needs of the students, especially those who have difficulty reaching out on their own, since this is such a difficult process,” said Saragi. Bethel Geletu PO ‘17, one of two student representatives to the Admissions and Financial Aid Committee, said she frequently hears that students have issues with communicating with OFA. “There’s a lot of problems with lack of communication or being responsive or being accessible to
See FINANCIAL AID page 2
Waves of Phishing Emails Target Claremont Colleges Julie Tran An unusually large number of phishing emails have been targeting 5C addresses, according to an email sent by Claremont McKenna College Assistant Director of Information Services Bruce Frost to students, faculty, and staff on the morning of Jan. 23. According to Frost, phishing emails within the 5Cs have targeted the email accounts of staff, faculty, and students since the beginning of January. According to Resident Technology Assistant Christian Rafla CM ’18, “A phishing email is
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basically any email that may look harmless, but in reality, asks you to enter your credentials—eBay, Paypal, Student Accounts, etc— onto their fake website, which then submits your personal information to their servers.” “Hackers send out phishing emails because they assume most people don’t know how to differentiate between fake and real emails,” Hafla said. The recent uptick has raised concerns among the 5C community about the consortium’s cybersecurity and its ability to collectively protect the private
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