Vol. CXXX, No. 3

Opinions

Life and Style

Amy Lowndes (PO ’21) decries Betsy DeVos’s revocations of Title IX.

Read about the man behind the wheel of Claremont’s most talked about car.

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Page 7

THE

STUDENT

LIFE

The Student Newspaper of the Claremont Colleges Since 1889

CLAREMONT, CA

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

VOL. CXXX NO. 3

Secret Meme Group Declared ‘Bias-Related Incident’ Marc Rod Pomona College’s Incident Response Team has declared that posts in a secret 5C Facebook group constitute a “biasrelated incident,” the college announced Monday. The group, called U PC BREAUX, was thrust into the spotlight after The Claremont Independent published an article revealing its existence on Sept. 20.

U PC BREAUX – read “You politically correct, bro?” – is primarily dedicated to sharing memes, many of which joke about and mock a wide range of people and topics, including the Holocaust, Muslims, numerous races, sexual assault, terrorism, mass shootings, suicide, women, disabled people, and transgender people, among other topics.

Adela Pfaff • The Student Life

A secret Claremont Facebook group filled with racist, transphobic, Islamophobic, and otherwise offensive memes is now being investigated by Pomona.

5Cs Look for New QRC Director After Summer Firing Jojo Sanders Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr and interim Queer Resource Center Director Manuel Diaz held a Q&A with students on Tuesday to solicit student feedback and opinions regarding the ongoing hiring process for a new QRC director.

Jonathan Higgins, a writer and speaker on LGBTQIA+ issues, was named the new director in June but was abruptly fired in July after the school decided its “vision to ensure the support of all LGBTQIA+ students at The Claremont Colleges did not match [his],” Pomona Dean of Students Miriam Feldblum wrote in an email to the Pomona student body.

The timing of his firing coincided with the publishing of an article on the right-wing publication The College Fix the day before, which discussed several of Higgins’ controversial tweets.

The story was later picked up by The Claremont Independent.

One of the tweets was a response to the question, “Who are you automatically wary of/keep at a distance because of your past experiences?”

“White gays and well-meaning white women,” Higgins wrote.

Higgins also tweeted, “I finally have nothing to say other than police are meant to service and protect white supremacy” and “So y’all been real quiet about #heterosexualprideday, I mean I thought I’d see parades celebrating rape culture, homophobia and transphobia.

“Oh wait: y’all do that everyday,” he added.

Starr claims the article was “not the cause of his being fired,” and Feldblum wrote in the allcampus email that Pomona “was

aware of Dr. Higgins’ tweets and social media presence prior to our offer to hire him in early June.”

Pomona Associate Dean M. Ricardo Townes added that “there were conversations with Dr. Higgins about a number of things, including the tweets.”

Approximately 25 students attended the meeting Tuesday.

Many expressed concerns about the hiring process and what they hoped to see in a new director. One Pomona student said that they wanted a director who will invest in students as individuals and give support on an individual basis.

“Clearly this person has to be able to help make sure queer and trans students of color feel that the space [of the QRC] is a space that they would want to go to and be a part of,” said Townes, who is chair of the search commitee.

Theluncheon was one part of the community outreach that the search committee is undertaking. Students from all 7Cs are encouraged to attend meetings like this one and tell the committee what they hope to see in a new director.The search committee is comprised of student, faculty, and staff representatives from the 7Cs, as well as a search firm specializing in finding leadership for LGBTQIA+ organizations.

Townes said he wants as much student engagement as possible. The committee hopes to hire a new director by Thanksgiving, though Townes concedes it might take longer than that to find the right person.

“The committee is really committed to this process,” said Townes. “We are going to do it right, not do it rushed.”

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Members and Content As of Sept. 28, U PC BREAUX had 205 members, mostly 5C students, and has been active since at least May 2016. While most group members are inactive or post infrequently, a small group of students post regularly and are responsible for the bulk of the offensive content.

The group’s former administrator, who spoke to TSL on condition of anonymity, insisted that they do not support the

intolerant and insensitive messages that the memes – many of which they posted – convey.

“There is a difference between finding things funny and actually supporting such things,” the student wrote in a message to TSL. “As suggested by the name of the group, many posts are anti-[politically correct] culture and aimed at people who want to have a laugh rather than take offense from everything.”

This student removed themselves as the administrator after the Independent published its article.

One of the group’s new administrators, a Claremont McKenna College sophomore who spoke to TSL on condition of anonymity, said the memes are reposted from elsewhere on the internet and argued that they do not target specific individuals at the 5Cs. The memes are “not actually trying to hurt anyone or harass anyone, which is plain silly,” the student wrote in a message to TSL. However, in addition to memes, group members have shared screenshots of Facebook posts and private Facebook Messenger conversations involving other 5C students,

See MEMES page 2

What Happens to Claremont if LA is Nuked?

Angela Tran In addition to the fall semester kicking into gear, September has been an almost apocalpytic month.

Tensions between North Korea and the United States have continued to escalate, the former having tested what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb on Sept. 3. Experts say San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco could be prime targets if North Korea gains the capability to strike the U.S. mainland.

In the face of this uncertainty, Pomona College has been generating plans to prepare for the worst and alleviate student, faculty, and staff concerns.

Robert Robinson, Pomona’s assistant vice president of the Office of Facilities and Campus Services, said that Campus Safety is focused on preparing for the consequences of a potential nuclear attack in areas such as Guam, Hawaii, or the Bay Area.

“We will have community

See NUKE page 3 Megan Robalewski• The Student Life

City May Require CUC to Pay Up for New Police Station Leah Kelly The Claremont University Consortium may have to contribute more than $4 million to finance the the City of Claremont’s new police station.

The city plans to construct a new police station on the site of the current one, which was built in 1972, at 570 West Bonita Ave. According to a visual presentation on the city’s website, the current building “does not meet current seismic and structural building codes.”

The current plan is to accumulate $25 million, financed for no more than 25 years, to build a 25,000-square foot building that should fit the needs of the Clare-

http://tsl.news

mont Police Department for the next 40 years, Police Chief Shelly Vander Veen told The Claremont Courier.

A 15-member police facility committee was established in January 2016 to make recommendations to the city council about “cost, size, location, and financing mechanism,” according to the City of Claremont website.

Five months later, the committee presented its recommendations but was unable to decide on the financing mechanism for building the police station.

In July, the city council decided to host a series of public meetings throughout early fall to

See CPD page 3

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No Changes to 5C Sexual Assault Policy, Despite DOE Action Adrián Suárez del Busto 5C policies against sexual assault will not change despite the Department of Education’s recent decision to scrap Obamaera Title IX policies, campus Title IX coordinators promised.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced Sept. 22 that the DOE was rescinding the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter and 2014 Q&As that demanded colleges use a “preponderance of evidence” burden of proof for sexual misconduct cases. Colleges may now use the “clear and convincing” standard – a higher burden of proof.

“Preponderance of evidence” is the lowest burden of proof,

@TSLnews

meaning a perpetrator is found guilty if it is more likely than not that they performed a sexual act without the other’s consent. The “clear and convincing” burden of proof requires the case of sexual misconduct to be highly probable in order to convict a perpetrator.

“The withdrawn documents ignored notice and comment requirements, created a system that lacked basic elements of due process, and failed to ensure fundamental fairness,” the DOE’s statement read, citing DeVos. “Schools must continue to confront these horrific crimes and behaviors head-on. There will be no more sweeping them under the

See TITLE IX page 3

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Former Pitzer RA Files Suit Over Working Conditions Kristine Chang A former Pitzer College resident assistant has filed a lawsuit against the college’s housing office.

Stephanie Cekov, a Pitzer RA for the last two academic years, submitted a notice in May to the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, run by the State of California, to investigate the working conditions of Pitzer RAs. The notice stated that the LWDA would be given 65 calendar days to determine if the organization would investigate the allegations listed

by Cekov. Because the LWDA did not open an investigation, Cekov is moving forward with civil action against the college.

Cekov declined to comment on the lawsuit. Pitzer housing representatives were unable to be reached by press time.

Allegations listed against Pitzer in the notice include misclassifying the employment status of RAs and underpaying them. According to the notice, Pitzer reclassified RAs as independent contractors instead of employees in August 2016, even though the duties and responsibilities of RAs remained the same.

Independent contractors do not receive employment or compensation benefits, cannot form unions, and do not receive additional compensation for overtime hours worked. By changing the status of RAs, Pitzer was not required to abide by the legal working conditions of California employees and “continued its practice of failing to provide its RA employees with the minimum benefits and protections afforded employees in California,” the notice claimed.

Other allegations include Pitzer’s failure to provide accurate time records as well as the meal and rest periods required by California law. According to the notice, Cekov was not compensated fairly for working overtime, as she was credited and compensated at a flat rate regardless of the hours that she actually worked.

Specifically, the notice detailed that Pitzer RAs are not paid for all the hours they work, not paid the

In the September 22 issue:

minimum wage per hours worked, and not paid overtime compensation for hours that they worked beyond eight hours per day or 40 hours per week.

In fact, according to the notice, Cekov “regularly worked hours or otherwise accrued compensable time in excess of 10 hours in a workday during a semester of work.”

However, Pitzer RAs are paid at a flat rate of $1,548 per semester, regardless of how many hours of work they actually do.

This new dispute between Cekov and the Pitzer comes on the heels of several demonstrations of discontent from RAs across the 5Cs last year.

Last spring, an anonymous Pomona College resident adviser published a resignation letter detailing how the administration knowingly underpaid RAs. According to the letter, the administration changed the employment status of RAs without informing them, nullifying a recent pay raise given to the RAs because some of them ended up owing more in taxes.

“This is institutional violence,” the anonymous RA wrote. “This is disregarding the people who are most negatively affected by these situations, namely people of color, low-income folks, undocu/ DACAmented folks, and other marginalized identities.”

In April, Scripps RAs went on strike, citing a list of demands that included increased transparency in the financial aid system, better mental health support, and the resignation of Scripps Dean of Students Charlotte Johnson. The strike was spurred by the death of Tatissa Zunguze SC ’18, a Scripps RA during the 2016-2017 academic year.

Other students in residential life positions expressed a need for change in the 5C administration as well.

One Pomona sponsor from the Lyon Residence Hall, who requested to remain anonymous out of fear of losing his position, wants greater transparency in the administration and better communication between sponsors and their superiors. Pomona sponsors

are second-year students who live in first-year residence halls and act as the most immediate source of support for first-year students.

According to the sponsor, the administration does not inform sponsors of new changes quickly enough, which increases the stress of the position. The sponsor cited the international students’ orientation and the painting of Walker Wall as examples.

“Usually international students stay with host families first and then stay with sponsor groups,” the sponsor said. “This year, they put international students in orientation early. The residence life coordinator didn’t know beforehand and only told us right before they came.”

According to the sponsor, they were informed of the painting of Walker Wall, a yearly Pomona tradition, with very little time in advance, the sponsor said. Some sponsor groups did not show up to paint the wall because they were not informed in time.

“Overall, residence life programs need work,” the sponsor said. “The administration needs to be more open on what they’re thinking, and they need all of our input.”

In response to student feedback, the administration has been making changes to the RA and sponsor programs.

Pomona raised RA compensation from $5,500 to $7,800, in addition to room credit, Dean of Campus Life Christopher Waugh wrote in an email to TSL. Pomona also added a fourth, full-time residence life coordinator to provide extra support for RAs, meeting weekly with RAs in groups and for individual meetings.

More changes are in the works for the Pomona RA program, including giving RAs and head sponsors a say in the final decision on RA and head sponsor hires and incorporating student feedback “as the rule” rather than the exception on all procedures and application processes, Waugh said.

Corrections

- The Ethicist article was not posted in its entirety in print; please check online for the full version.

- Leah Kelly was given attribution for the Gabi Starr article, when it was Angela Tran who wrote it.

TSL regrets these errors.

Why Did Renwick House Cross the Road? It’s Complicated Marc Rod After months of preparation and under cover of darkness, workers successfully moved Pomona College’s Renwick house across College Avenue this summer to Wig Beach.

The house, a historic building dating back to 1900, was moved to make way for Pomona’s new art museum.

Pomona’s cottages, which were adjacent to Renwick House’s former location, were demolished in January. The now-empty combined plot will become the art museum site.

Pomona proposed the art museum in its 2015 Master Plan, but has been considering it since 2008 to address the lack of space, humidity controls, and fire suppression system in the current building.

In March of 2015, the college hired architectural firm Machado and Silvetti to design the new building, which will include a courtyard, a glass wing, and additional classroom space, clad in a modernist design.

Pomona considered other sites on campus, but ultimately decided that they would disrupt Pomona’s campus aesthetic and accessibility and make it more difficult for nonstudents to access the museum.

Pomona initially faced zoning issues – the plot where it plans to build the new museum was zoned as a residential area under the city’s Village Design Plan – but the city approved a zoning change.

Pomona also faced strong pushback from members of the Claremont community. Some raised concerns about parking and the removal of historic trees surrounding Renwick House and the cottages.

Many Claremont residents further opposed Pomona’s plans to move Renwick House, which they believed would destroy its historical significance.

Some Pomona alumni, including Ron Fleming PO ‘63, also pushed

back against the Pomona’s plans.

Fleming believes that the college should build a larger arts center, for which he has offered financial support.

Furthermore, a group called Citizens to Save College Avenue filed a lawsuit against the city of Claremont last year – alleging that the city did not properly analyze the environmental impacts of moving Renwick House, violating the California Environmental Quality Act – in an attempt to stop the plans and force Pomona to build elsewhere. The lawsuit was dismissed in February.

Ultimately, the city council approved Pomona’s construction plans by a 3-2 vote on Feb. 14, but opposition has continued.

On May 15, Martin McLeod, a representative of Claremonters for Honest Governance, filed a complaint against the city of Claremont and the Claremont City Council, alleging that Pomona and its contractors violated twelve construction regulations, that the city did not appropriately consider objections by opponents of the plan, and that city officials colluded with Pomona and its legal team, according to the Claremont Courier.

While Pomona was not named as a defendant in this complaint, it was identified as a ‘real party of interest.’

Pomona College News Director Mark Kendall disputed McLeod’s claims in a statement to the Claremont Courier.

“Pomona College strongly disagrees with the allegations in Mr. McLeod’s petition,” Kendall wrote. “They are simply inaccurate, and do not fairly reflect the years of meaningful discussion and dialogue between the college and the wider community over plans for the new Pomona College Museum of Art.”

Demonstration Policy Review Committee Met Once, Incompletely Leah Kelly The Claremont University Consortium established a second Demonstration Policy Review Committee in the spring of 2017 with the hopes of re-addressing the flaws in its 2001 policy.

The primary goal of the meeting was to look at similar institutions nationwide as models for CUC, were it to potentially change its demonstration policy, according to Jacquelyn Aguilera PZ ‘19, the only student representative on the committee. In the end, she doesn’t think any action was actually taken and that the committee lacked student input.

The committee met only once – last spring – and consisted of Pomona College Vice President and Dean of the College Audrey Bilger, Scripps College Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students Charlotte Johnson, CUC Campus Safety Director Stan Skipworth, CUC CEO Stig Lanesskog, and Aguilera. It was chaired by President of Claremont McKenna College Hiram Chodosh, who was unable to attend the meeting. There was no representative from Harvey Mudd College.

The committee was founded after CUC made revisions to existing policy regarding oncampus student demonstrations in 2015 – adding more specific examples of what is considered “disruptive or non-peaceable” actions – and students immediately protested.

The Associated Students of Pomona College passed a resolution on Nov. 2, 2015, criticizing the policy revision because it “gives officials the ability to shut down almost any demonstration.” In addition, ASPC wrote “participation in ‘disruptive’ demonstrations is prohibited,

despite the fact that effective demonstrations are, by definition, disruptive.” CUC quickly withdrew the changes following numerous student complaints.

CUC explored possibilities for revisions by creating a 7C Demonstration Policy Review Committee (DPRC) in March 2016 that would collaborate with the Student Deans Council (SDC) in an effort to include more student voices.

The committee, which included student representation from each college, was supposed to collect and synthesize student feedback, but students on the committee were disappointed that the SDC was “unreceptive” and did not take the committee’s suggestions seriously enough.

After the committee stopped meeting, the 2001 policy remained in place.

“The demonstration policy, approved in 2001, remains in effect,” CUC spokeswoman Kim Lane wrote in an email to TSL. “There was an effort … to revise the policy, but based on feedback, a decision was made to retain the 2001 version and to further consider how best to incorporate the input received on the suggested revisions.”

When Aguilera arrived at this new committee meeting this spring, she was surprised to find she was the only student representative there, finding it “intimidating” to be alone among administrators. Aguilera was concerned because she said the committee lacked transparency. She doesn’t think anyone took notes and said students were not notified that the committee was meeting.

Concern over the policy resurfaced this past semester after several students at Claremont McKenna were suspended for protesting and blockading the visit of anti-Black Lives Matter speaker Heather Mac Donald on April 6.

“I think a lot of students looked into what was actually being done and were concerned that there was only one student on the committee,” Aguilera said.

“I’m concerned about the dangerous precedent that is set by having these types of meetings behind closed doors.”

Looking back, she said that while the committee was a good idea in theory, it failed to integrate student voices and has yet to take any definitive action.

“I think that it almost seemed like they were just trying to say that the committee had been formed, not as much creating change,” Aguilera said. “I’m hoping that the project will be continued but I’m a little worried…. It does seem like they’re waiting for students to fizzle out and not really know about the demonstration policy.”

The faculty and staff on the committee declined to answer any questions about the committee, including whether they feel it has lived up to student expectations, and whether CUC intends to revise the policy in the future.

Aguilera wants to keep fighting to improve transparency, increase student representation, and make the demonstration policy more geared toward respecting students’ right to protest. Overall, she said, students should have more say in the policies implemented on the Claremont Colleges campuses.

“I think the colleges and the CUC as a whole could make a big step by holding a town hall among all campuses to discuss this policy,” she said. “I would encourage students to challenge their administration, or ask more questions about why the policy that is currently implemented and that is actively affecting students do not have their input.”

NUKE: Planning for Fallout Continued from Page 1

- In “Harvey Mudd Tackles Workload After Spring Protests,” Ronak Bhatia was misgendered as he instead of they.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

care groups and teams that communicate information and emergency plans to affected families of Pomona students,” Robinson said. “In the event of an actual nuclear attack, we also have the ability to ask people to lock down, but we would just have to react to what the circumstances are at the time.” he said.

Robinson admitted that it is challenging to construct a concrete plan because it is difficult to predict potential circum-

stances, but his office is working on establishing a solid framework for nuclear preparedness.

Tiffany Chen PO ‘21 would consider leaving and telling her friends to evacuate if she felt she was in danger.

“If there is a high possibility of a potential nuclear attack near Pomona College, I would buy iodine pills because they are supposed to counteract the harmful effects of nuclear fallouts,” she said.

At the United Nations meeting on Sept. 19, President Donald

Trump delivered an unpredicidented but not uncharacteristic threat to “totally destroy” North Korea if Pyongyang makes any militaristic move against the United States or its allies.

In response, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivered an unprecedented televised statement, accusing Trump of being “mentally deranged” and considering “with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest-level of hard-line countermeasure in history.”

MEMES: Pomona Considering Investigation Continued from Page 1 along with disparaging captions.

The former administrator said the offensive memes could prompt productive discussion of political and social issues.

“Political correctness can actually cause prejudice and racism through refusing to have honest, open conversations,” the student wrote. “The group has led to many productive discussions that in many places in Claremont would simply be met with cries about hate speech and privilege.”

However, such discussion seems rare in U PC BREAUX, based on transcripts of several months of posts and comments obtained by TSL. In some cases, when students attempted to discuss a meme’s objectionable content, other group members would dismiss their concerns as invalid because the posts were intended to be humorous, preventing discussion.

In this vein, the new administrator encouraged those who find the group’s content objectionable to ignore it.

“If you can’t take a joke, then just look away,” they wrote.

“Things are meant to be made fun of and parodied – that’s a function of language.”

U PC BREAUX Exposed The Independent article that first exposed the group, written by the Independent’s thenmanaging editor Ross Steinberg PO ‘18, described posts and comments in the group “so vile that they would be right at home in the comments section of The Daily Stormer,” a notorious neo-

Nazi website.

On Sept. 22, the Independent’s editorial board fired Steinberg.

Steinberg claimed that they objected to the content of his article.

“A lot of them didn’t actually read the article itself before [it was published], and they wished it would have portrayed both sides of the story,” Steinberg said.

The Independent’s editorial board responded Monday with a statement accusing Steinberg of making “unprofessional and extortionate” threats to force publication of his article.

Pomona Declares Bias-Related Incident On Sept. 21, after Pomona administrators saw Steinberg’s article and Steinberg reported the group to administrators, Dean of Students Miriam Feldblum convened Pomona’s Bias Incident Response Team, which reviews cases Pomona believes to be hate crimes or bias incidents.

“The memes were deeply offensive and an affront to our standards and values as a community,” Feldblum wrote in an email to TSL. The IRT promptly decided that U PC BREAUX’s posts constituted a bias-related incident, and announced its decision in an email to the Pomona community on Monday.

“We reviewed what we had, and it was a quick and easy call for a consensus of the [IRT] that [the memes] were of a biased nature,” said Associate Dean M. Ricardo Townes, who leads the IRT. The former U PC BREAUX administrator thinks the IRT review is a waste of college resources.

“I’m not sure what they mean by bias,” they wrote. “Most peo-

ple have bias about most things, which is why it’s important that people can discuss things openly and become aware of them. A joke or opinion that someone doesn’t like does not make it hate speech.”

The IRT review process is not an investigation of potential policy violations, and cannot directly result in punishments for students, Feldblum said.

However, a formal investigation may follow.

Next Steps IRT is still reviewing U PC BREAUX and preparing to make recommendations for further actions to Feldblum, including a potential investigation, which could take two forms – an investigation of breaches of the student code or of harassment and discrimination.

If Pomona treats this case as a violation of the student code, it would be investigated by a staff investigator and adjudicated by the student judicial council.

Speech that, “considered objectively, is abusive and insulting rather than a communication of ideas” violates Pomona’s student code, according to the Student Handbook.

The student code also bans students from using campus computing and network services to “display or transmit abusive images … or messages to an identifiable individual or group of individuals.”

If Pomona decides this is a discrimination and harassment incident, Director of Human Resources Brenda Rushforth would appoint a staff investigator, and a college vice president would determine sanctions.

“Prohibited harassment includes ... derogatory comments

or jokes, intimidation, [and] negative stereotyping,” Pomona’s non-discrimination policy reads.

“Whether or not the person means to give offense … is not significant.”

Ultimately, punishments for students could range from warnings to expulsions, Feldblum wrote.

For the former U PC BREAUX administrator, the stakes are higher than potential punishments.

“Freedom of expression is essential to any successful society,” they wrote. “If even humor, regardless of nature, is being investigated, what’s next? Investigating opinions? Thoughts?

Are thought crimes going to be a thing? I really hope not.”

Pitzer College, Scripps College, and CMC are not investigating the group, but have been in contact with the IRT. Harvey Mudd College has not been contacted by the IRT and is not aware of any Harvey Mudd students involved in the group, Dean of Students Jon Jacobsen wrote in an email to TSL. Representatives of Pitzer, Scripps, and CMC told TSL that the schools may investigate the group if Pomona provides information that their students may have violated college policies.

Similar Cases Based on TSL archives, there is no precedent for an investigation of a private online group or chat at the 5Cs, but such an investigation is not unique outside of Claremont.

Last summer, Harvard University rescinded admission offers from at least 10 accepted students who shared offensive memes in a private group chat, following a similar incident the prior year.

NEWS SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

In Memoriam: Leah Bell PO ’18

PAGE 3

TITLE IX: Women’s Union Says New Standard ‘Ridiculous’ Continued from Page 1

Courtesy of the family of Leah Bell

Leah Bell PO ‘18 died in May while studying abroad in Denmark. A memorial for her will be held on Sunday, Sept. 30, at 2:00 p.m. in Little Bridges Hall of Music.

Meghan Bobrowsky Leah Bell PO ‘18, a psychology major from Louisiana who hoped to become a nurse practitioner to help babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, died on May 6 in a boating accident while studying abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark.

“Leah was a brilliant light in our lives – smart and wise, with a unique sense of humor and joy,” her mother Elizabeth Bell wrote in an email to TSL. “She could find hilarity in the mundane, and when she found it her laugh sang loud enough for all to hear.”

Some of Bell’s close friends, including Ben Gregory PO ‘18, Kelly Ragsdale PO ‘18, and Kelly Scharlach PO ‘18, all of whom she met through her first-year sponsor group, remember her as bright, quirky, and always wanting to help others.

“She was very unique in the fact that her purpose in life was to do good for others as opposed to the average person who might first think [of] personal happiness, and she was very appalled that people questioned that about her because it was just so intuitive to her to be doing good for others,” Scharlach said.

Gregory agreed.

“She didn’t have the same ambition here that other people have.

She didn’t want to be CEO or win prizes,” he said. “She just cared about having a small happy life with the people she cared about.”

Bell “was really committed to constantly being the best version of herself and was very aware of her own faults and wanting to correct them,” said Maggie Lemons PO ‘17, Bell’s first-year sponsor.

Pomona College psychology professor Patricia Smiley, who taught Bell in one of her child development classes, said she “had strong bonds with her friends and really clear ideas about wanting to help people.”

“It’s a very painful loss because she was so focused and so alive,” Smiley said. “I looked forward to what she was going to be.”

After Bell’s success in her child development course, Smiley recommended she work in the campus laboratory of Stacey Doan, a Claremont McKenna College assistant professor of health psychology. At the Applied Life and Mind Laboratory, Bell worked on a book Doan was writing, analyzed data, and wrote abstracts for conferences.

Bell had plans when she returned from Denmark to do a Summer Undergraduate Research Program with Doan to “determine whether children with certain dispositions are more sensitive than others to experiencing increased cortisol levels in response to stressful events,” Smiley wrote in an email to TSL. Doan characterized Bell as “one of the brightest students that I ever met.”

“I mean it in lots of different ways,” she said. “She’s very intelligent. But I also thought that there was a luminosity [about her].

When she talked about things she wanted to do, it’s never like ‘I want to go to medical school’ or like ‘I want to get excellent grades,’ which is very common for college students. She was very much like ‘I want to do this in order to help these kids.’ In that way, I also thought she was bright.”

Bell was also an active member of the 5C Mental Health Alliance, a club that works to create a safe space for the discussion of mental health issues.

Sherwin Shabdar PO ‘18, copresident of the alliance, knew Bell for about a year and said she was a warm, caring person. Shabdar

Paw and Order: Campus Safety Hires New Dog Officer Henry Easton-Koehler Campus Safety has hired a four-legged staff member: an officer named Red Dogg.

Dogg, a 10-year-old Beagle mix rescued from Kentucky, lives at the Campus Safety office and keeps a casual schedule, according to Campus Safety Director Stan Skipworth.

“As the newest member of our staff, Red has a range of job duties,” Skipworth wrote in an email to TSL. “These include serving as an ambassador to promote our goal of connecting with the campus community on a more personal level. He has also been tasked with providing pet therapy services and stress relief to anyone in need.”

Dogg also serves as a comforting friend to students who are homesick and miss their loved ones. He typically has several visitors a day and also takes friendly patrols around the 5Cs. “Red serves as a surrogate to those students who have a beloved family member (human or pet) back home that they might miss,” Skipworth wrote. “Red offers the opportunity for some special time and attention.”

That time and attention extends to his fellow employees, too.

“He’s a fun co-worker to have around,” said Leila Bartholet PZ ’18, who works at Campus Safety.

“I think he will be effective in providing emotional support for the 5C community.”

Dogg is an Americans with Disabilties Act Title ll and lll Emotional Support Animal.

These animals are often used as part of a medical treatment plan, providing companionship and helping those with mental health issues.

Emotional support animals do not require any specialized training and are protected under the Fair Housing Act and the Air Carriers Access Act. People with emotional support dogs can live with them even when landlords have rules against having pets, and can bring them on flights without paying any additional fees.

Emotional support certification does not require animals to be able to perform specific tasks, which means all domesticated animals can qualify to be emotional support animals, including miniature horses. One student at Washington State University brought a 95-pound pig into the residence hall, which stayed in the student’s dorm room in a litter box.

The idea for a Campus Safety

dog was introduced by Skipworth, whose children discovered Dogg at a local shelter.

“I had the idea that, because of Red’s endearing personality and easygoing manner, working at Campus Safety would be a great opportunity for both him and the campus community,” Skipworth wrote. “We are absolutely thrilled with how well Red has already connected with the campus, and we look forward to him making many, many more friends in the future.”

Most students have been overwhelmingly supportive of the new hire, and even those who aren’t can find some good in it.

Ben Miller PZ ’19 thinks Officer Dogg’s presence is “unnecessary.”

“Aren’t pets inherently for emotional support in the first place?” Miller said. “But I think dogs are just good for everyone, so I don’t have a problem with it.”

Staff at Campus Safety keep a Twitter account for Dogg at the handle @WonderDoggRed, where students and other interested parties can stay up to date on his whereabouts and inform themselves about safety issues on campus.

Adela Pfaff • The Student Life

Officer Red Dogg poses for the camera during his daily rounds across campus.

worked with Bell to put on Student Speak, an event in which students talked about their experiences with mental health, and 1,100 Candles for Suicide Awareness, in which the group lit 1,100 candles on the steps of Frary Dining Hall.

“She had a lot of curiosity about the world and a desire to make the world a better place,” Shabdar said. Bell was inquisitive and had a wonderful sense of humor, he added.

While Bell’s friends enjoyed her company for years, Smiley said she was just getting to know the ambitious student and looked forward to working with her when she returned from studying abroad.

“We miss her (and) the senior class is mourning her,” she said.

Bell is survived by her parents, Elizabeth and Jeff, and her sister, Rebecca. A memorial service for Bell will be held on Sunday, Sept. 30, at 2:00 p.m. in Little Bridges Hall of Music.

Gregory and Scharlach will be giving speeches and Ragsdale will be singing a favorite song of Bell’s, “Rainbow Connection”

by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher.

rug. But the process also must be fair and impartial, giving everyone more confidence in its outcomes.”

The 5Cs must comply with California state legislation requiring all institutions of higher education to use the “preponderance of evidence” burden of proof for cases of sexual misconduct, Pomona College Dean of Students Miriam Feldblum and Scripps Title IX coordinator Sally Steffen wrote in an email to TSL. Title IX coordinators said current Title IX policies are fair to both survivors and perpetrators.

“The College will continue to provide a fair and impartial process for investigating and resolving reports of sexual assault and other forms of sexual misconduct in line with Title IX,” Pitzer College Title IX coordinator Corinne Vorenkamp wrote in an email to TSL. Harvey Mudd College Title IX Coordinator Deborah Kahn added in an email that “during the past six years, there has been significant work on campuses across the country in developing fair and equitable process to resolve Title IX cases.”

Claremont McKenna College’s Title IX coordinator could not be reached by press time.

Steffen said rape remains a vastly underreported crime.

“We also know that there are many barriers to coming forward to disclose this form of violence in the first place and, even when a disclosure has been made, to moving forward with a college disciplinary process or a report to police,” Steffen wrote.

She said survivors don’t report violations because there are often no eyewitnesses and they fear not being belived.

“My experience as Scripps Title IX Coordinator tells me that if colleges and universities switch to a clear and convincing standard, this will further deter survivors from coming forward to college officials or law enforcement,” Steffen wrote.

Vorenkamp said the DOE’s changes would not influence the 5Cs’ work to support survivors.

“The DOE’s issuance of new

interim guidance does not alter the important work taking place at Pitzer, at the Claremont Colleges’ EmPOWER Center, and across the Claremont Consortium, to create a safe and equitable environment where survivors of sexual assault and other forms of sexual misconduct can come forward to report and receive support and assistance,” she wrote.

Feldblum concurred.

“The [Department of Education’s] action today will in no way interfere with the important work taking place on campus, including with the Pomona Advocates, and at the Claremont Colleges’ EmPOWER Center, to encourage survivors of sexual assault to come forward and report,” Feldblum wrote.

Kay Calloway PO ‘18, head coordinator of the Women’s Union at Pomona and a member of Pomona’s Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault, said raising the burden of proof in sexual misconduct cases is “ridiculous.” “[The burden of proof] has to be so low because it is hard to gather proof of consent or lack thereof,” she said. “You cannot demand the same sort of evidence as for other criminal cases.”

Calloway said the DOE’s changes prove the government cares more about perpetrators than survivors.

“Rape culture already means that perpetrators and accused perpetrators get a certain amount of care,” she said. “They are already considered innocent until proven guilty and it is dishonest for DeVos to deny that.”

Calloway also criticized Pomona’s policies against sexual violence.

The “focus has been on supporting survivors who have already been assaulted and are forced to live with their perpetrators on campus,” she said. “That is a hostile learning environment to walk around campus and have to see the person who assaulted you.”

She criticized Feldblum’s email to the Pomona community for not explicitly mentioning sexual assault or sexual violence.

“The school doesn’t like to talk about sexual violence, as if it doesn’t happen,” Calloway said.

CPD: City Deciding Between Parcel Tax, General Obligation Bond Continued from Page 1 solicit feedback from residents.

Its goal is to place a measure on the June 5, 2018 ballot that will determine the most popular financing mechanism.

“Many of those within the committee expressed a strong opinion that the colleges should contribute to the new facility based on the belief that the community and the colleges have shared values in terms of wanting (and benefiting) from a safe city,” Vander Veen wrote in an email to TSL, adding that community members believe the colleges should contribute between $3.5 and $5 million.

The two main options for financing the police station are parcel taxes and general obligation bonds.

If a parcel tax is approved on the 2018 ballot, it would tax residents based on the square footage of their buildings, at 5.03 cents per square foot, or per property, at $146.02 per property, according to the presentation on the city’s website.

The other option, general obligation bonds, would tax $31.08 per $100,000 in “assessed value.”

Educational institutions such as the CUC are not required to pay general obligation bonds.

Under a parcel tax, however, the CUC, along with churches and nonprofits, would be forced to pay, and at a much higher rate.

A general obligation bond would yield a higher amount of money from residents per year – $1.246 million compared to $1.045 million under a parcel tax. But the consortium would pay much less under a bond than a parcel tax.

If voters approved a square footage parcel tax, the CUC would pay $185,704 per year ($4,642,600 total over the 25year span) or $32,270 per year ($806,750 total) under a flat rate parcel tax, Vander Veen wrote.

Because it owns residential property, the CUC would pay $16,003 per year ($400,075 total) under a general obligation bond, the Courier article found.

While the colleges have yet to

agree on a contribution amount, the CUC agreed in November 2015 to contribute $1 million if a previous measure to implement a parcel tax passed – it didn’t.

Vander Veen believes the CUC might agree to the same measure now.

The colleges are cooperating with the police department, CUC Director of Communications Kim Lane wrote in an email to TSL. “The colleges have been in ongoing communications with the city about the potential police station,” she wrote. “The colleges will contribute in the same way as other non-profits in Claremont, based on the funding mechanism selected.”

If the city decides to finance the police station with bonds, the CUC pledged to pay 3 percent of the bond cost at a meeting in June, the Courier article said. This would amount to a maximum $750,000 contribution.

The number comes from the CUC’s claim that about 3 percent of calls made to Campus Safety are sent to the Claremont Police Department.

“In 2015, Campus Safety received 27,597 calls for service,” Lane wrote. “Of those, less than 3 percent (more serious violations, including arrests) were forwarded

to the Claremont Police Department.”

This statistic is similar to results from a recent study that was conducted to evaluate the CUC’s use of CPD resources. Vander Veen said the study, which pulled data from the police department’s records management system, showed that 3.56 percent of calls to which the police department responded from 2011 to 2015 were from the consortium.

However, the numbers spike when comparing other resources.

Vander Veen said that during that same period “the colleges represented 28.62 percent of part one crimes,” which include homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft, and arson. While about 90 percent of those crimes were handled by Campus Safety, she said, “every report produced

by Campus Safety is forwarded to the police department for potential follow-up and processed to provide city-wide crime statistics to the Department of Justice.”

Vander Veen said there are also less obvious services CPD provides the CUC. For example, it’s “not uncommon” for students who are victims of crimes to consult with officers or detectives before pursuing criminal charges.

Courtesy of the City of Claremont

The Claremont Colleges may have to pay millions to help finance the construction of a new police station for the City of Claremont.

LIFE & STYLE PAGE 4

THE STUDENT LIFE

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

“Cheerful and Collaborative Art:” Remixes and Reclamation at Pomona Shringi Diva Vikram The glass and concrete walls of the two-roomed Pomona art gallery displayed the work of several artists in a collaborative installation titled “Friendly Layers: Mixed Advice on Graphic.”

The exhibition opened on Tuesday, Sept. 26th and will remain on view until the October 20th.

Mark Allen, an associate professor of art at Pomona, worked to create the exhibition with Gail Swanlund, Paul Morgan, Tiffanie Tran, and Rosten Woo, all of whom are local artists or educators.

“The premise of the project was to think about how designs that are typically on display separately can be shown in different ways. We met and talked about how to make everything flow together, and give it its space,” Allen said.

Swalund wrote in an email to TSL that “it’s become a cheerful assortment of work that shows that the boundaries between what we call ‘graphic design’ or ‘art’ are alive, adjustable, permeable and absorbent.”

The floor-to-ceiling windows displayed a line of tote bags emblazoned with fluorescent orange abstract faces or watery blues seeping into yellow bands. Graphic prints lined the adjacent wall, and a multi-colored mannequin was seated at the corner. Bright solid shapes that signified city or government symbols were on another wall.

“Once we had arranged our pieces, we did this thing where everyone has someone else’s last name,” said Allen, “to emphasise that in our art, authorship is pliant.”

The books on display declared that the show had been authored

by Tiffanie Allen, Mark Woo, Rosten Morgan, Paul Swanlund, Gail Tran, a caption which mixed the first and last names of the collaborators.

“For me, it really became a project about friendship, about getting to know each other through this collaborative process,” wrote Swanlund.

At noon, Allen began guiding the flow of students and off-campus guests through the gallery.

He gestured towards the tote bags: “One of my students made these with old paintings I’d given him, designs that didn’t work quite as well as paintings. They’re the same canvas the paint was originally put on.”

Allen moved toward the wall with the city shapes, the pictures of the newspapers, where headlines spoke about judges declaring that workers would be jailed for not coming to work and of arrested children being prevented from speaking to their families.

“Rosten Woo, one of my collaborators, does a lot of information design ... He presents activist work that conveys information,” said Allen. “We wanted to shift the scale of these graphics, typically conveyed in a document, and place them in shared gallery space.”

He pointed to some prints with vibrant orange and pink diamonds overlapping each other with duller grey and gold diamonds in a different square of design. He gestured at posters with writings that they bore clean lines and intricate shapes, rough brush-strokes and black and white contours that resembled textbook diagrams.

“When I teach design, I focus on art as communicative, and on finding the right way to convey the idea. But in this show, the focus is definitely more on the process.

We’re experimenting with form and structure,” said Allen. “Typically, in design we think of the experimental state as something we go through to reach the end, but this may be a display of just process, of your process and someone else’s.”

Lia Francis-Bongue • The Student Life

A sculpture rests in the Chan Gallery as a part of “Friendly Layers: Mixed Advice on Graphic Design,” a mixed-media installation by Pomona College faculty Mark Allen and collaborators Paul Morgan, Gail Swanlund, Tiffanie Tran, and Rosten Woo.

MOVIE COLUMN

“Kingsman: The Golden Circle” Reaches Across the Pond For Serviceable Sequel Victoria Anders I went into a showing on Kingsman: The Golden Circle looking to unwind on a Sunday night, and left feeling satisfied albeit a little disappointed in the Colin Firth-led sequel.

“Kingsman: the Secret Service,” the first film in the series, was a fun and punchy take on the Bond Film genre. Less potty-humor-driven than 2008’s Get Smart, it was a great satire that played off the old-school machista, violent strongholds of the genre.

The son of a fallen secret service agent, Eggsy (Taron Egerton), leads a criminal life before remembering the one good thing that came out of his father’s death: a lifeline to his father’s secret service agency: Kingsmen. After rigorous training and a brutal selection process, Eggsy beats out all of the other recruits and saves the world from an philanthropist-gone-evil (Samuel L. Jackson) who plans to extinguish the human race. In the process, however, Jackson shoots Eggsy’s father’s old partner Harry Hart (Colin Firth), opening the possibility for a revenge sequel.

Alas, that’s what Kingsman: The Golden Circle is -- a revenge-fueled sequel. Golden Circle is not as innovative or dynamic as Secret Service, erring on the side of bigger-is-better while lacking in freshness.

Eggsy is now comfortable in his high-class secret agent life.

But not even two minutes into the film comes the source of the plot: a former Kingsmen recruit, Charlie (Edward Holcroft), is seemingly out for revenge for the loss of the job to Eggsy. All of this is a front for his real target: destroying all of Kingsmen so that his new drug lord boss, the hilariously terrifying, human flesh-eating Poppy Adams (Julianne Moore), can go through with a plan to end the War on Drugs and legalize all illicit drug sales around the world.

The rest is predictable: Kingsmen Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) set out to stop the evil plan, stories intertwine, big action battles ensue, and they eventually save the world. In the process they find and recover Hart (Firth), who was blinded in the first film but is still alive. They do all of this with the help of their American agency equivalent, Statesmen.

This is where a lot of the film’s running humor lies. Kingsmen is as unequivocally British as Statesmen is American. Statesmen’s agent’s are named Tequila (Channing Tatum), Champagne – aka Champ (Jeff Bridges) – Whiskey (Pedro Pascal), and Ginger Ale (Halle Berry); they all sport American flag-coated gear and thick southern

accents; and the organization is just as sexist and overtly masculine as Kingsmen. But while Kingsmen can make fun of an entire Bond film series, there’s no such equivalent for American cowboy spies to parody. And yet the interplay between the Bond satire and the American culture satire is very effective humor.

The film is full of beautiful, if CGI- and slow-motion-heavy, action sequences. Mind-bending spy gadgets come to play, The comedic prowess of Julianne Moore and Mark Strong shine bright, while Firth and Egerton fall into the background without any new and gripping character develop-

ments since the first film. Bridges is the overly forgettable American grandpa-in-charge. And Tatum honestly doesn’t get enough screen time, though the time he gets is full of well-executed zingers.

The film in many ways actually veers closer to Get Smart rather than the clean, shaken-notstirred elegance of Bond. It’s full of blue humor, a wide range of imperfectly executed accents, and violence so overtly gruesome it’ll make you cringe-laugh (perhaps there can be too many exploding heads). There’s even a prolonged bit involving a real-life pop star Moore’s character kidnaps for her own entertainment (you’ll have to

watch to find out who!).

All of the film’s pieces work together well, albeit very expectedly. It’s in many ways a cheesy sequel trying too hard to top its predecessor (including in running time). Bigger isn’t, in fact, always better. “The Secret Service” is an acceptable and enjoyable sequel to those who saw the first, and does not require having seen the first installment for those who didn’t. And in the end, the machista M.O. of both secret organizations breaks down slightly when Halle Berry is promoted to full agent status. I’ll be gunning to see a future sequel if she takes the lead.

Elisabeth Lawton • The Student Life

Scripps First-Year President Turns Worldliness to Optimism Becky Hoving Last fall, you would find Julia Kelly SC ’21 practicing Wolof, a Senegambian dialect, with her homestay family in Senegal. In the winter, you would find her volunteering with Muslim women in Morocco. This summer, she summited Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak. And this Tuesday, Oct. 3, between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., she will be holding her first ‘popin’ session as Scripps College’s newly elected first-year class president in the Clark Residence Hall common room.

Kelly, who hails from Denver, Colorado, arrived on Scripps campus eager to participate and take advantage of the resources available at Scripps and the Claremont consortium after returning from her gap year. She credits her optimism to the attitude she acquired through the struggles and successes she had abroad in Senegal, Morocco, Canada, and Tanzania.

“I really believe that anyone can do anything; it’s just the attitude you have,” Kelly said. “I really wanted to develop the attitude during my gap year because I feel like there’s so much you can accomplish and do in college. I really want to take advantage of it all.”

Kelly recognized that her gap year was what ultimately led her to run for first-year president and what inspired part of her campaign’s foundation. One of the three major pillars from her campaign was to hold office hours in order to encourage an open dialogue between Scripps students, representatives, and the administration.

“I just want to get to know the students I will be representing and make new connections,” Kelly said. “I want to have an opportunity to listen to their issues, so I can understand the needs of the freshman class to the best of my ability.”

Kelly plans to hold her ‘pop-in’ sessions on a weekly basis, adding that popcorn will be supplied as a snack.

When commenting on Kelly, Annabel Walsh SC ’21 identified that Kelly’s office hours were a major motivator in earning her support for Kelly in the election.

“I thought it was a really original idea,” Walsh said. “It seemed like she was really friendly and that through these office hours, she would be really receptive to students and our ideas.”

Along with ‘binge-watching’ her favorite movies – “Casablanca,” “The Parent Trap,” “Legally Blonde” – and playing the card game “Bridge” in Harvey Mudd

College’s Bridge club, Kelly noted that she enjoys making friends and meeting new people. She emphasized the power of relationships and noted that her gap year emphasized how important a simple greeting may be to someone.

“There’s just so much you can learn from other people,” Kelly said.

Her eyes lit up as she shared her memory of a woman she used to greet every day on her walk home from school in Senegal. She shared a similar interaction she had with a man in Morocco from which she learned how meaningful greetings can be.

“There was this man that I bought fabric from once, but he was on my walk home to my apartment there, so I would greet him every single day,” Kelly said. “He was this 70-year-old man, and we would just be so happy to see each other. It was actually insane how excited we would be to see each other each day.”

Kelly, who plans on doublemajoring in Computer Science and Middle East North Africa Studies, hopes to return to Morocco one day in order to teach coding to women there.

“I fell in love with Morocco, and I just wanted to be there forever,” said Kelly, looking off into the distance as if combing through the memories.

She added that she had become fascinated by the ‘adhesive force’ within Arab communities and found Arabic to be an enchanting language to read, write, and speak.

“A lot of really sacred languages have started to die out, but Arabic is still very much a prominent language,” said Kelly, explaining that due to its religious nature, it meant a great deal to Moroccan natives whenever they saw her expressing an interest in their culture and language. “If you knew one word of Arabic, that meant so much to them. In an age when we have Google Translate and all of these tools and technologies to help us avoid learning a language, I think it’s especially important to do just that: learn languages.”

While Kelly’s love of language and meeting new people will certainly be woven into her platform as first-year class president, she emphasized that her main goal is to remain approachable and make everyone in the Scripps community feel supported.

“College is not easy,” Kelly said.

“It’s hard, and there’s so much going on. There’s a lot of pressure and a lot of stress, but if we help students, and make sure they know that they have a place here and that they are loved and supported, there’s nothing that they can’t do.”

LIFE & STYLE SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

PAGE 5

THE STUDENT LIFE

Meet Claremont’s Self-Proclaimed “Hentai King” Will Gottsegen It was a cloudy Wednesday morning when I set out to meet the “Hentai King.” Walking from Pomona College to the parking lot near the intersection of Ninth and Amherst, I realized I knew almost nothing about the man I was about to meet.

What I did know was that this was the owner of a certain infamous Scion TC, perhaps best identified by the giant banner on its windshield reading “Hentai King.”

“Hentai” is a Japanese word that refers to the pornographic sub-genres of manga and anime. I had heard stories about the hentai car from students who claimed to have followed it around campus or who had tried to snap blurry pictures as it sped past them on

their way to class. From these anecdotal reports, I had gathered that the car was sporty, black, and plastered with lewd stickers of Japanese anime women.

Scripps College Malott Commons employee Daniel Mendoza was as easy to spot as his car.

With dyed blond hair and thick frameless glasses with a bubbly “K-Pop” inscription on the temple, he looked not unlike an anime character himself. For Mendoza, “otaku culture” is an all-encompassing practice. “Otaku” is the Japanese word for people who occupy a kind of obsessive fandom, particularly in relation to anime and manga.

Mendoza’s particular vein of otaku subculture is called “itasha,” or “painful car” in English.

The itasha trend involves covering a car with stickers and other

decals centered around a single character from Japanese anime or manga. Typically, this character is a hyper-sexualized female protagonist known as a “waifu,” a rough translation of the word “wife” reappropriated with a Japanese accent, intact into English-speaking fan communities.

Despite his “Hentai King” banner, Mendoza draws a line between the lewd and the explicit, putting only semi-risqué images on his car and saving the most erotic pieces for his photo frames at home.

But before he became the “Hentai King,” Mendoza was simply the owner of a black Scion TC. It was during a habitual scroll through social media that inspiration struck. “It started when I was on Instagram,” said Mendoza, explaining the first time he saw a picture of a car covered in an-

ime stickers. “From there, I was inspired – I followed every single page that had itasha.”

But once he decided to delve into the world of itasha and to physically manifest his fandom on his car, he struggled to find that single anime character he wanted to represent. Ultimately, Mendoza decided on Haruna, an anthropomorphized version of the Japanese battleship bearing the same name from the 2015 anime series Kantai Collection. According to the Kantai Collection subthread of the “Heroes Wiki,” Haruna is polite, humble, and always speaks in the third person. Her personal quote from the wiki page reads: “Fast battleship, Haruna, was appointed. You’re the admiral, correct? Please take care of me.”

And take care of her Mendoza has, by both showing her

off around campus and keeping her free of vandals whom would besmirch the car. In an Instagram post depicting a subtle scratch through one of the Haruna stickers, Mendoza wrote: “Although she is smiling, deep down she is hurt, and so am I.” For Mendoza, the itasha connection with Haruna is personal.

Mendoza is certainly not alone in his experiencing that connection. He first got involved with the Southern California itasha community through community meetups in Orange County, where he and fellow itasha enthusiasts would talk about anime and cars, as well as buy and sell decals. This is where Mendoza found many of his more meme-centric, popculture themed stickers, including ones with references to “Cash Me Outside” and “Damn Daniel.”

When I asked him specifically about “Damn Daniel,” he told me “I had to get it, since it had my name.”

My final questions for Mr. Mendoza were about potential campus reactions to the kind of content he has been proudly displaying on his windshields for the past year and a half. We spoke about whether or not he felt, as a Scripps employee with a presumptive responsibility to uphold its institutional values, that his itasha participates in any overarching structures of objectification, and whether or not he cares what people think about Haruna.

“It did cross my mind,” Mendoza said. “But you just do whatever you feel like, if that makes sense.

Anyone can do whatever they want to, and I did this. But I don’t mean to offend anyone, straight up. This is what I like.”

NAME • The Student Life

The side of Mendoza’s car displays his “waifu,” Haruna, a character based on Mount Haruna, a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II.

Adela Pfaff • The Student Life

Mendoza scours a Scripps parking lot for a spot before work.

Daniel Mendoza poses beside his car, nicknamed “Haruna,” a Scion TC.

Cheers to the Newest Brewing Club on Campus Whitney Wachtel Leila Bartholet PZ ’17 may be graduating in December, but that doesn’t mean she can’t continue to contribute to Pitzer’s community.

Last week, Bartholet received approval from Pitzer College Student Senate to officially launch the Women’s Brewing Club, an organization designed as a safe space for female-identifying and nonbinary people ages 21 and over who wish to learn about and participate in the beer-making process.

Though Bartholet participated in other brewing organizations at Pitzer, such as the Pitzer Brewing Club, Bartholet said that the meetings were “intimidating” due to the male-dominated nature of the events. These experiences inspired Bartholet to start the Women’s Brewing Club to facilitate a nonjudgemental learning environment.

Bartholet started brewing last summer in her basement, which was a way for her to “learn about beer and feel empowered.” By acquiring information from various brewing Internet sources, Bartholet found a multitude of ways to personalize her batches.

“Before I started brewing, beer was very intimidating to me,” said Bartholet. “I would go into a brewery and be like, ‘I don’t know which beer I should order’ because each beer says something about your identity... I hope that while [Women’s Brewing Club members] brew, I can teach women about beer and the brewing process which will help lower their anxieties,” Bartholet said.

Even though the organization is focused on the production of beer, Women’s Brewing Club

may branch out and try brewing kombucha and cider. Bartholet admitted that she does not know how to make these fermented drinks, but she is encouraged that club members will want to share their expertise.

Even though the organization was not present at Pitzer Student Involvement Fair, there are about 40 members in the Women’s Brewing Club Facebook group.

“I think it’s awesome that we found a group of ladies who are genuinely interested in brewing process,” club member Shelby Beauchamp PZ ’18 wrote in a text (to TSL). “Basically, I love beer and I love being able to share that with some pretty awesome female identifying and non binary folk.”

The first Women’s Brewing Club meeting is this Sunday, Oct. 1 at Bartholet’s house. Because the events revolve around the consumption of alcohol, Pitzer College Student Senate requires that the meetings transpire off campus. The first batch will be a pale ale and will produce about fifty bottles of beer. Bartholet expects that this batch will be ready on Sunday, Oct. 28.

Though the schedule of the meetings will be irregular due to the brewing process, Bartholet plans to regularly update the Women’s Brewing Club Facebook page with the current brew’s status. Though people under 21 cannot participate in the club directly, they are allowed to join the Facebook group to see photos and updates of the brewing process.

For more information about this organization, please contact Bartholet at: lbarthol@students. pitzer.edu.

Motley Bakers Rise to the Occasion Jaimie Ding A long line stretched outside of the doors of the Scripps College’s Motley Coffeehouse on Friday, Sept. 22, as students waited patiently to try the delicious baked goods their classmates had prepared for the biannual bake-off.

Their task? To determine what tasty treats the Motley would be selling this semester.

“It’s a cool way to have students be a part of the Motley,” said Motley Product Manager Emma Snyder SC ’18, who organized the event and is in charge of working with vendors. “It’s fun to see this side of people’s talents … [and] a more creative facet of our student body.”

Although only Scripps students can work at the Motley, students from all 5Cs were able to enter the competition. Students were instructed to vote for their top three favorite goods and indicate their dietary restrictions on a slip of paper after trying the snacks.

Olivia Gleason SC ’21 and Priya Thomas SC ’21 teamed up to bake four diverse items: raspberry blueberry muffins, cookies and cream peanut butter bars, orange cookies with citrus glaze, and vegan sweet potato brownies.

“We just wanted to bake things that were easy to grab in the morning with coffee,” Gleason explained. “It was kind of hard since we didn’t have any storage, [and] we made it all this morning.

It was kind of crazy, but fun too!”

Gleason runs a food Instagram account and bakes frequently whenever she has the time, while Thomas especially enjoys baking breakfast pastries, such as scones.

The two met through running cross-country for CMS and de-

cided to enter the bake-off together.

Although many were there just for the food, some were there to support friends as well.

“I really liked the pumpkin bars [that] a girl in my hall had been practicing making the whole week and letting us sample, so I felt the need to come and support her,” Kate DeMarsh SC ’21 said.

Kerry Taylor SC ’21 explained why she chose to bake pumpkin bars for the competition. “Fall is my favorite season, and [pumpkin bars are] very fall-like,” Taylor said.

“It’s my mom’s recipe, but I’ve never made it until now. I’ve always loved it.”

It was undoubtedly a lot of baking, but with the help of her roommate, Taylor was able to bring a large number of her delicious pumpkin bars to share with

everyone.

When asked about the time commitment of baking for the Motley, Taylor remarked, “I think it’s really cool that I have the excuse to bake once a week because I really enjoy it.”

Although a total of 12 bakers participated in the bake-off, there were over 15 different desserts to try from. Some of the other baked goods included chocolate chip zucchini cake, vegan chocolate cupcakes, chocolate chip banana bread, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Based on votes, unit price of products, availability, variety of flavors, and dietary accommodations, a winner was picked to bake for each coming day of the week except Saturday, and two were picked for Sunday. Bakers were then compen-

sated for the cost of the ingredients.

Finally, below is the long-awaited list of the winners that will be selling their baked goods this semester. Look out for their delicious treats at the Motley!

Monday: Citrus cookies (Olivia Gleason SC ‘21 & Priya Thomas SC ‘21) Tuesday: Pumpkin bars (Kerry Taylor SC ‘21) Wednesday: Quinoa-pumpkin seed granola (Sydney Sibelius SC ‘18) Thursday: Gluten & dairy-free chocolate pumpkin bread (Olivia Butze SC ‘18) Friday: Oatmeal scotchie bars (Maddy Blumer SC ‘19) Sunday: Cookies and cream cookies (Akshaya Amarnath SC ‘21) and vegan cupcakes (Laura Kent SC ‘18)

Photo Courtesy of Emma Snyder

OPINIONS PAGE 6

THE STUDENT LIFE LIAM BROOKS Editor-in-Chief KATIE BAUGHMAN Managing Editor CHRISTOPHER ESKILSON Managing Editor GRACE OZONOFF-RICHEY Production Editor

ELINOR ASPEGREN, News Editor KELLEN BROWNING, News Editor MARK ROD, News Associate SEAN OGAMI, Life & Style Editor ARIEL SO, Life & Style Editor JOLO LABIO, Opinions Editor TIARA SHARMA, Opinions Editor HANK SNOWDON, Sports Editor SABRINA WILK, Sports Editor DONNIE DENOME, Copy Chief OLIVIA TRUESDALE, Copy Editor PRIYA KARETI, Copy Editor SAMHITA KADIYALA, Copy Editor PEICHI CHOU, Copy Editor

DOMINIC FREMPONG, Graphics Editor MEGHAN JOYCE, Photo Manager ADELA PFAFF, Photo Editor DAPHNE YANG, Senior Design Editor MADELINE MCCLUSKEY, News Designer SARAH WONG, Life & Style Designer NOOR DHINGRA, Opinions Designer CASSIE WANG, Sports Designer CAROLINE ALBRO, Design Associate IRIS SHI, Distribution Manager ANNIE WAN, Business Manager LAUREN ISON, Editor-at-large

The Student Life, the oldest college newspaper in Southern California, is produced and managed by students of the Claremont Colleges and published weekly.

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EDITORIAL BOARD

A Safe Space You Didn’t Know You Wanted We are disappointed, but not surprised, by the contents of the U PC BREAUX meme group, which is thoroughly examined in Marc Rod’s article this week.

It is not entirely startling that such a meme group exists in Claremont. Similar pages exist and have been exposed at other prestigious schools in the country, from misogynist emails among student-athletes at Amherst, to offensive Facebook memes at Harvard.

The students who started, regularly contributed to, and/or regularly enjoyed the contents of U PC BREAUX did so out of a perceived need to form an alternative space at Claremont.

Despite the fact that the group did not identify itself as a safe space, it was founded and continues to be maintained for the same reasons as spaces that do identify as such, despite the obvious difference in content – not a support group, not an outlet for microaggressions or experiences of expression, but instead a chan-

TSL SAYS

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

nel for vitriol.

That is the difficulty of dealing with the group – and the image of our campus it reflects – in an effective and productive manner. If you put aside the rightful disgust at the contents of the group, how can you consider the implications of a path forward away from it?

What we’re wondering is what happens next. As of now, Pomona’s Bias Incident Response Team is preparing its recommendations, which may include a potential investigation of the involved students for violations of the student code of conduct.

But, beyond possibly sanctioning or maybe expelling the more active users, what would this disciplinary action do? Punishing the students involved will not change their views or those of others, or make the school look any stronger.

If anything, it will galvanize the reactionary elements of the 5Cs and, based on the national coverage of this already, once again restrict these students’ efforts to establish their own “safe

space.”

Transcripts of posts in the Facebook group obtained by TSL show the group administrator directly push back from defining it as a safe space. But the reasoning behind the formation of the group is still there. It lies in an understanding of the college conservative as a victim which, like all victimhood, is matched with an oppressive or oppositional force – a force which, whether or not you consider it legitimate or real in the case of anti-conservatism, is actively generated by the so-called victims themselves.

That’s what makes sanctions and punishments risky.

Opposition is the fundamental foundation driving these posts and groups. While PC culture isn’t a real oppressor, it’s the mainstream footing they have to push back against.

Pomona may claim to be the “Harvard of the west coast,” but its administrators should not follow the actions of their eastern peer-rival this time around.

Oregon Zoo Tweets Otter otter otter otter otter otter otter otter...

More Dogs on Campus His name is Officer Dog, seriously

Twitter What happened to less is more?

You thought I was popo But I am doggo

Chacos Official shoe of Pitzer College

Ordering Dominos at 1 AM God bless...

Adidas You suck just as much as Nike

Kneeling Down to Take A Stand Daniel Park Guest Columnist Colin Kaepernick is not playing football anymore, but he’s still winning.

After leading the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in 2013 and the NFC Championship in 2014, Colin Kaepernick has been exiled from the NFL for using the football field as a political platform.

By refusing to stand during the national anthem in August 2016, Kaepernick drew attention to the United States’ hegemonic narrative that oppresses, murders, and silences Black people.

Last March, Kaepernick officially opted out of a renewal contract with the 49ers with the expectation of being signed by another NFL team, but all 32 NFL teams have refused to sign him since.

Arguments that detach Kaepernick’s activism from his unemployment are illegitimate.

Kaepernick was ranked the 23nd best quarterback in 2016 by ESPN, recorded a quarterback rating of 90.7, and was ranked the 17th best in passer ratings. His former coach Chip Kelly stated, “Do I think he is one of the top 64 quarterbacks in the world? … Does he have the ability to play quarterback on a winning team in the NFL? There is no question.”

So why have 38 other quarterbacks – most of whom with inferior passing records, some who have not started or won a game in years, and Jay Cutler, a retired 34-year-old – been signed over

Kaepernick?

The answer bears no mystery.

The NFL has exiled Kaepernick because he is a Black man who challenged the deeply embedded institutional, educational, and political systems of domination that continue to dehumanize, oppress, and murder Black people.

Historically, through the interplay of pseudoscience and literature, the construction of race and white supremacy has justified and normalized the domination of Black people.

For example, white scientists used craniometry, the measurement of human skulls, to conclude that Black people were biologically and intellectually inferior. Such results were perpetuated through scholarship, such as “The Indigenous Races of the Earth,” the 1857 book that further dehumanized Black people by claiming that “negroes” occupied the evolutionary gap between chimpanzees and Greeks.

Although contemporary manifestations of racism are now subtle, and overt forms of racism are no longer acceptable – although even this is questionable after Charlottesville – the legitimation of racism and white superiority through academia has continuously enabled the silencing and subjugation of people of color. The insidious nature of systems of oppression, of course, is that they tend to stay in place.

In August 2016, Kaepernick’s first two protests against the national anthem went unacknowledged.

However, after Kaepernick’s third demonstration and explanation that he was “not going to stand to show pride in a flag for a country

that oppresses Black people,” he faced incessant criticism and even death threats.

This past weekend, a number of other NFL players knelt in solidarity with Kaepernick. Trump referred to them as “sons of bitches” that should be fired. Sponsors are also dropping players who knelt in protest. Why? Trump’s reaction to the players’ resistance reveals it all. He condemned the form of protest, claiming it was a “total disrespect of our heritage, a total disrespect of everything that we stand for.” He’s not wrong: Kaepernick and the players who followed his lead indeed disrespected the United States’ heritage – specifically, its heritage of white supremacy.

Trump’s previous and current attacks on Kaepernick are exemplary of system justification - a psychological term that describes a rather intuitive concept: people who benefit from unjust systems will rush to the defense of the ideologies that uphold them.

Kaepernick may never play in another NFL match, but by refusing to stand for the national anthem and the U.S. flag, he effectively achieved his goal, drawing mass attention to current manifestations of anti-blackness and the system that perpetuates it.

He’s winning off the field, not by scoring touchdowns or competing for the Super Bowl, but by establishing a legacy of resistance against white supremacy on the biggest stage in the United States.

Daniel Park is a first-year at Pomona College

Still Working on This Week’s Paper at 1 AM :(

Noor Dhingra • The Student Life

Weekly Comic

Sophie Reingold • The Student Life

OPINIONS SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

PAGE 7

THE STUDENT LIFE

Why the Claremont Independent Fired Me Ross Steinberg Guest Columnist On Monday, Sept. 18, I was invited into a secret Facebook group called “U PC BREAUX” that peddled memes making light of rape, genocide, and acts of terror.

On Tuesday, I archived six months’ worth of posts on the site and sought comment from the group administrator. On Wednesday, I broke the story of the group in an forceful exposé written for the Claremont Independent, of which I was the managing editor.

The next day, Pomona College informed me that its Incident Response Team was gathering information related to the group.

And by Friday morning, I was fired from the Independent.

Currently, the Claremont Independent’s Facebook page has 46,188 likes; the Independent is mainly conservative, as is most of their readership. I believed, and still do believe, that as a liberal, the best way to affect change is to present ideas to and open dialogues with conservatives.

Frankly, I didn’t have much

success in influencing the Independent’s readership. However, I did enjoy getting to know its members. As a liberal, I was initially wary of the staff’s reaction towards me. But my preconceptions were wrong: the students who were a part of the Independent welcomed me with open arms.

As we became friends, I gained insight into life as a conservative at the Claremont Colleges. Obviously, their beliefs weren’t very popular on campus; however, less talked about are the daily affronts, and at times, overt prejudice these students face. It was and is an insular group of people with whom I often disagreed, but one whose members are extremely loyal to one another and who are capable of incredible warmth and intellectual argument.

This past May 19, I was officially made Managing Editor of the Independent. Although the publication was known for heavily editorializing its news pieces, I was confident in the new editorIn-chief, Matthew Reade.

While I’m proud of many

pieces published during my tenure, the piece I’m proudest of is the one that led to my firing; “The Dark Underbelly of Claremont’s Meme Culture.”

My editors wanted me to condemn both the meme group and the campus censorship that led to the creation of “U PC BREAUX.” I refused, saying that was exactly what Trump did when he equated Antifa and white supremacy.

I told my editors they could focus on this in future think pieces of their own. If they felt uncomfortable publishing it I offered to go to TSL, but that I would rather publish with the Independent.

The only concession I made was to release the name of the group administrator personally.

Apparently, following a scandal in which the Independent leaked the names of students posting innocuous content in a secret group, the editorial board changed their policy on releasing names. Although I welcomed the change, which I first heard about last week, I believe that releasing the administrator’s name was newsworthy and in the community’s

interest.

The Independent published my piece.

The response to the piece has been incredible: Pomona‘s Incident Response Team is looking into the group, I’m going to talk to Pomona’s Student Senate, and Milo Yiannopoulos condemned my article. It seems that the only negative response came from the Independent itself.

Before being fired Matthew sent this text to me: “There are a lot of folks on the staff who are feeling betrayed by this story reasonable or not - so I think it might be best if you parted ways with us for a couple weeks while I try to sort things out. No hard feelings; I just need time to manage all this chaos.”

Shortly thereafter he told me that I was fired. Matthew said there were no dissenters among the editorial board. Apparently, many members threatened to quit if I didn’t leave.

According to Reade, the board dismissed me because of my alleged coercive tactics (my offer to go to TSL), my failure to take

Where is the Justice for Survivors?

Amy Lowndes Columnist Last Friday, my phone was blowing up.

That is to say, the New York Times and CNN news alerts were furiously competing for attention on my lockscreen. Another Obamacare repeal bill was on the Congress floor. The nuclear standoff between the US and North Korea had devolved into name-calling.

A discriminatory travel ban (part three?) was set to be announced.

Amid the dizzying, dystopic shuffle that has come to define our news cycle, I almost missed the news that Betsy DeVos, a desiccated squirrel that has assumed the post of Secretary of Education, was busy stripping sexual assault survivors of their legal rights.

The rescinded guidelines were part of key campus sexual assault policy enacted by the Obama Administration, in an attempt to push schools to take a harder stance against sexual assault on campuses.

These guidelines demanded that schools use ‘preponderance of evidence’ as the standard for determining guilt in cases of sexual assault, meaning colleges determine that it is more likely than not that the assault occurred. This is legally

the lowest standard of admissible proof, one that is used in civil court rulings, as well as routinely other campus disciplinary procedures.

The Obama-era guidelines, laid down in the 2011 Dear Colleague letter, were widely lauded by activists. After all, why should the standard of proof for sexual assault be any higher than any that of other violations that require disciplinary action from schools?

DeVos’s changes mean that public high schools and colleges can choose to adhere to a higher standard of proof in sexual assault cases – ‘clear and convincing evidence’ – meaning that the school must determine that it was ‘more likely than not’ that the crime occurred.

More quietly, she removed the mandate for schools to complete their investigations into sexual assault cases, substituting it for the more vague “reasonably prompt” response. Additionally, she reinstated mediation sessions as a means of conflict resolution. The Obama administration had previously removed this as an option under the pretense that survivors would feel pressure to confront their attackers.

The reality of campus sexual assault is that college campuses can’t afford to wait protracted lengths of time for broken justice systems to convict criminals. DeVos is eager to jump to the aid of the falsely maligned, but what about the one in five women and one in twenty men who will be sexually assaulted during their college years?

The absurdist ‘witch-hunt’ narrative concocted and propagated by the G.O.P. would be laughable if it weren’t half as horrific. The idea that innocent, usually cis male, students are routinely accused by vengeful caricatures of women wronged couldn’t be farther from the truth. Even so, it is one that DeVos and her cronies are eager to spread – one that results in legisla-

Zachary Freiman Columnist More often than not, I find myself turning down invitations to on-campus events on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I decline to attend not because I’m uninterested or reclusive, but because doing so would mean violating an irrevocable oath: thou shalt not miss Choir rehearsal.

From 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, I sing alongside 80 or so other members of the Pomona College Choir in the Thatcher Music Building’s Lyman Hall. As we near a performance, our rehearsal time extends

cize editorial policy changes: their erroneous statement on my dismissal contradicted documented texts and Facebook chats.

And, although my article currently remains on their site, they have taken down the Facebook post promoting it. The Independent gave in to their worst instincts at the expense of their journalistic integrity.

But I have hope.

I hope that I can remain friends with the people I’ve become close to through the Independent. I hope that the students affiliated with the Independent will overcome their worst impulses and find the strength to hold themselves accountable for their actions, both towards me and the larger Claremont community.

And I hope that when members of the Claremont community encounter someone with whom they disagree, they will open dialogue with them, consider their unique circumstances, and be willing to forgive them if ever they do wrong.

Ross Steinberg is a senior at Pomona College.

Weekly Crossword

Simone Bishara PZ ’18

Shirley Zhong • The Student Life

tion that harms students and creates dangerous ambiguity among school administrators as to how they should handle sexual assault cases.

Even though Obama-era Title IX changes have already been codified into California state law, the impacts of DeVos’s prioritization are far-reaching.

DeVos wields enormous power to interpret and remove our constitutional protections. The fact that one of her first major acts as

Secretary of Education is to strip sexual assault survivors of rights doesn’t bode well for survivors.

She has made it very clear who she stands with; if her malicious and intentional battle against civil rights is lost amid the chaos of the Trumpian news cycle, it is the most vulnerable among us who stand to lose the most.

Amy Lowndes PO ‘21 is from Orlando, Florida. She likes Dolly Parton, iced coffee, and ‘90s crime shows.

Pitch Please: Legitimizing Music as An Academic Pursuit to 8:30 p.m. and then 9:00 p.m. We never start early and we never go over time.

Directed by Professor Donna Di Grazia, who is currently on her decennial sabbatical, the Choir has been a staple of Pomona College since the College’s inception. Unlike most courses offered at Pomona, though, MUS31 is offered only as a half-credit course.

It is quite baffling that Pomona College determines MUS31 to be half as rigorous as any other academic course. In reality, participation in the Pomona College Choir is not simply an artistic exercise. It is a class that is as challenging and requires just as much energy and time as a typical college course.

For starters, members of the Choir spend three to four hours a week in class. And, unlike a history or Calculus course (no offense to either), one cannot fall asleep in Choir. The class involves hours of grueling, intensive work and, as Professor Di Grazia often reminds us, every member’s participation is critical to the choir’s ability to function smoothly. While staying fully present for hours on end may seem daunting, it is further compounded by the taxing task of deciphering complex melodic and rhythmic phrases without any significant period of rest.

Moreover, it is not simply

a more nuanced stance with the article, and my failure to take a more nuanced stance with the article.

This reasoning is ridiculous.

Essentially, the board fired me for expressing my opinion instead of modulating my views to more closely match their own. Publishing my piece in TSL is only logical – if they really thought my piece was poorly written or had conflicts of interest, they should have been happy to allow a rival publication to print it.

Sadly, the Independent’s editorial board gave in to their worst insular impulses. After the story broke, many of the meme group’s members were angry and afraid.

In the end, they fired me not for a violation of journalistic principles, but because my article had portrayed the conservative community – of which they were a part – in a negative light.

There is a deep sense of victimhood at the Claremont Independent. It is evident in their visceral reaction to my article and their lack of accountability. Not only did the Independent fail to publi-

enough to copy someone’s notes or cram the night before an exam.

Musicians learn through laborious practice and repetition, the kind only hours of rehearsal and sitting at the piano plunking notes in solitude will achieve.

Choir also facilitates the learning of new languages. In the past year alone, the Choir has sung in a dialect of Creole, Czech, English, German, Hebrew, Latin, and Russian. Of course, it is not merely enough to learn the text; learning a piece requires translating the text, researching its author, and understanding its historical context.

And yet, the language of music itself is just that – a language. Like any other language, musical symbols indicate the pitch of a note, its volume, and how long each note, word, and phrase should be sung.

Yet music adds a crucial component not found in conventional forms of communication: beauty.

This aspect of music makes learning, understanding, and performing it all the more difficult.

Choir is not only a language class, but also a P.E. class. Due to the physicality of singing, participating in a Choir has enormously beneficial effects on the heart, lowers stress levels, mitigates anxiety, and improves a person’s quality of life. Choir is therapy, meditation, and aerobics all in one – the trifecta

of physical activity.

Skeptics might question why MUS31 should be considered a full-credit class even though there are no regular exams, midterms, or finals. What they fail to realize, though, is that the most intensive, nerve-wracking final exam possible is a public performance. Performing while anxious and jittery in front of hundreds of people is not only cathartic, but a demonstration of an entire semester’s work, just like any final.

Pomona’s decision to treat MUS31 as a class undeserving of a full-credit is not particularly surprising. All across the country, in academia and elsewhere, music and the arts as a whole are treated as expendable; nice to have, but the first thing to go when the purse strings tighten.

As an institution that prides itself on being unafraid to defy convention, Pomona College must rethink its policies towards music classes, and MUS31 in particular. The academic rigor required by Choir warrants fullcredit status and we, its students, deserve as much.

Zachary Freiman PO ‘20 is a prospective Music and Public Policy Analysis double major from Sleepy Hollow, NY. He dreams of one day meeting Oprah Winfrey.

Across 1. TV provider or bowl relative 2. “Excuse me” 3. File format for pictures 12. Assign an amount of stars to 13. Dunham 14. 6-sided game board piece 15. CalPoly major 16. “Don’t ___ on me” 17. Hammock brand 18. Gold star worthy perfo mance 20. “It’s Morning ____ in Ame ica” Reagan’s ’84 slogan 22. Small bite 23. Shruggy phone abbr.

24. Cat counterpart 26. “No Child ____ Behind” G.W.’s 2000 slogan 29. Another name for an island 33. 2nd person present in 30down 34. Salmon eggs 35. Charged atom 36. “Feel the ____” Bernie’s 2016 slogan 38. Upper body extremities 40. Affirmative head action 41. Public transportation option 43. Small, flat faced 24-Across 45. “Yes ____” Obama’s 2008 slogan 48. “Not Just ____” Carter’s ’76 slogan 52. Kayak instrument 53. People who do taxes 55. Tomat- ending 56. Doctor ordered pictures 57. Settlers of Catan or Runescape 58. Poof! And it’s gone!

59. Inn or hotel alternative 60. Holy garden 61. Makes a mistake Down 1. Colloquially, make fun of 2. Bad guy from Othello 3. “_____ Together” Clinton’s

’16 slogan 4. Klum, Seal’s wife and fashion designer 5. Low female singing register 6. Basil, thyme, sage 7. Benz- ending 8. Sir counterpart 9. Metaphoric light bulb 10. Small 11. Simple forms in psychology 19. Pasadena space people 21. Alphabetic trio 23. Hard science fields 24. Pun equivalent of a dance move 25. Unrefined rocks 27. Chunks of time 28. By the people, ___ the people 30. Not dual 31. Military potty 32. Finish 37. Basketball league 39. Facials and massages 42. Aunt’s partner 44. Come together 45. When you’re in your mom’s belly 46. Get a paycheck 47. Baby’s first bed 48. Trim or peel 49. Sports channel 50. When the Facebook post is preempted by a short sum mary and this abbr.

51. In order (to) 54. Menstruation solution

Answers to Previous Puzzle D I S C

O R E O

S K I M M A T I T L B R A T T I P S E W S I H T T P A I R E T O Y S

E S T A T E

L E O N E

S E E D N S D S H U P E N R A M O N M T R E W E N E A S S P A

A L I P C H E E L P A O M S P T E R

P A S S E D U P

E D R D N T T I K E

P E R

E D I T

C E N A

T A K I

Got Opinions?

Write for TSL’s Opinions Section!

Email jolo.labio@tsl.pomona.edu & tiara.sharma@tsl.pomona.edu for more information

SPORTS PAGE 8

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

Sports Calendar

September 29 - October 5

Pomona-Pitzer Friday, September 29th

Sunday, October 1st

Men’s and Women’s Cross Country SCIAC Dual Meet At La Mirada 4:45 p.m.

Men’s Golf Occidental At Via Verde 8:00 a.m.

Women’s Volleyball La Verne At P-P 7:00 p.m.

Monday,October 2nd Women’s Soccer CalTech At P-P 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, September 30th

Wednesday, October 4th

Women’s Volleyball At Chapman 6:00 p.m.

Men’s Soccer Whittier At P-P 4:00 p.m.

EDIT Football O Chapman PICKR’S At P-P 7:00 p.m.

Men’s Soccer At CMS 7:00 p.m.

Men’s Water Polo At Occidental 4:00 p.m.

Women’s Soccer At Occidental 7:00 p.m.

Women’s Soccer At Cal Lutheran 7:30 p.m.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Friday, September 29th

Sunday, October 1st

Men’s Golf La Verne At Los Serranos Time TBA

Men’s and Women’s Tennis ITA/USTA West Regionals At CMS Time TBA

Men’s and Women’s Cross Country SCIAC Dual Meet At La Mirada 4:45 p.m.

Men’s and Women’s Tennis ITA/USTA West Regionals At CMS Time TBA Men’s Water Polo Lancer Invite At Cal Baptist 4:00 p.m., 6:40 p.m.

Women’s Volleyball At Occidental 7:00 p.m.

Saturday, September 30th

Men’s Golf Western New Mexico Invitational At Goodyear, AZ Time TBA Monday, October 2nd Men’s Golf Western New Mexico Invitational At Goodyear, AZ Time TBA Tuesday, October 3rd Men’s Golf Western New Mexico Invitational At Goodyear, AZ Time TBA

Men’s and Women’s Tennis ITA/USTA West Regionals At CMS Time TBA

Women’s Volleyball At Cal Lutheran 7:00 p.m.

Men’s Water Polo Occidental At CMS 11:00 a.m.

Men’s Water Polo La Verne At CMS 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday, October 4th

Women’s Soccer At Redlands 7:00 p.m.

Women’s Soccer At Whittier 11:00 a.m.

Women’s Volleyball Whittier At CMS 4:00 p.m.

Men’s Soccer E DIT P-P PICOKR’S At CMS 7:00 p.m.

Football At Whittier 7:00 p.m.

Men’s Soccer Cal Lutheran At CMS 7:00 p.m.

Thursday October 5th Women’s Volleyball Redlands At CMS 7:00 p.m.

Scores Pomona-Pitzer

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Women’s Volleyball Redlands 3 P-P 1 P-P 3 CalTech 0

Women’s Volleyball CMS 3 La Verne 0 Chapman 3 CMS 2

Men’s Water Polo Stanford 20 P-P 7 Princeton 12 P-P 11 San Jose State 13 P-P 8 P-P 9 Loyola Marymount 8 P-P 11 CMS 5

Men’s and Women’s Cross Country CSU San Bernadino Invitational

Women’s Soccer P-P 1 Redlands 0 P-P 2 Whittier 0 Women’s Golf CMS Invitational Men’s Soccer P-P 2 Cal Lutheran 1 P-P 1 La Verne 1

COMMENTARY

From West Point to CMS: Running Back Sheff Adjusting to Claremont Life Torrey Hart

“I really love this place and I’m really thankful to be here.

I appreciate it so much more because I had a completely different life before.”

Just how different was Spencer Sheff’s life before transferring to Claremont McKenna College?

While other 18-year-old college first-years were out absorbing the social scene and testing the waters of their newfound freedom, Sheff was waking up at 4:30 a.m. to go on brutal runs, mop floors, and learn by trial-and-error how to use a gas mask.

He did so at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School, more commonly known as West Point.

It was not for lack of success that the now 20-year-old Sheff decided to leave – while taking seven classes, he made the Dean’s List and played in every football game, which is no small feat for a first-year.

“I learned a lot about myself and grew a lot as a person,” Sheff said. “I really went from being a procrastinator to handling my work ... The workload is absolutely ridiculous. It really just changed me as a person, I’d say.”

But when he tore his ACL during football practice before his sophomore year, Sheff found himself in a difficult position: he could rehab his knee while continuing with his brutal Army schedule, or leave the school.

To the future benefit of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps football team, he took an honorary discharge from the Army and headed home to Elk Grove, California.

“I liked it [at West Point]

and I loved the people there, but I wasn’t very good at taking orders,” Sheff acknowledged. “The military life just wasn’t for me.”

Needing time to heal his knee and “decompress” from a year of studying and sleep deprivation, Sheff took a gap year.

From there, his next move was just a Google search away.

“I literally just Googled ‘best academic schools with a football team,’” Sheff said. “This place popped up, as well as Pomona and the Ivys.” A few email messages later, and he had a visit set up at CMC. “We were lucky; Spencer actually contacted us,” CMS Football Head Coach Kyle Sweeney told TSL. “The nice thing for us was that it was a position of need, and he’s a great talent.” Sheff’s talent was recognized from the start as a high school senior at the Division I level, when he drew offers from the Air Force, Ivy Leagues, and, of course, West Point.

Although Sheff says his biggest sports moment came playing in front of a full-capacity crowd of 106,000+ people at Penn State while with the Army, he is embracing the nuance of Division III. “The team is the best guys I’ve ever met, honestly,” he said. “The game is still the same. Everyone up there [in DI] is a little bigger and a little faster, but the talent is still the same. They’re still ballers and they’re still great at football.”

Even with his background, Sheff will have to fight for a starting spot this year.

He shares the running back position with the Stags’ 2015 Offensive MVP Shane Pico CM ‘18, who is back on the field after missing the entire 2016 season due to injury. Additionally, Garrett Cheadle HM ‘20 and Christian Curcio CM ‘20 were successful in Pico’s absence last year, and will certainly be in the

Serene Harb • The Student Life

Spencer Sheff CM ’20, who formerly attended the United States Military Academy Preparatory School, now plays as a running back for the CMS football team.

running for playing time as well.

“A new guy’s really got to earn it like anybody does,” Coach Sweeney said.

Keeping this all in mind, Sheff is excited about the simple joys of being a Claremont student,

particularly riding a scooter to morning practice.

When asked if he’d like TSL to include anything else in this article, Sheff simply suggested: “Say how much I love it here. This is the place for me.”

COMMENTARY

Trump’s NFL Rant Becomes Latest Example of Unnecessary Divisiveness Hank Snowdon When Donald Trump took the stage in Huntsville, Alabama last Friday in a rally for special election candidate Luther Strange, few anticipated that the 45th President of the United States would use the opportunity to attack the activism of professional athletes.

Yet that’s exactly the topic Trump chose to rant about in front of the raucous Alabama crowd, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these National Football League owners when someone disrespects our flag to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired!’”

Trump is referring to NFL players who have recently knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racism. The symbolic action began with Colin Kaepernick last year, and this season many players have followed in his footsteps.

Taking a knee was controversial from start. Many people argue that players who kneel for the “Star Spangled Banner” disrespect members of the military who have fought and continue to fight for the country.

But Trump’s comments took

the debate to a whole new level.

By attacking these players with such vitriolic, explicit language, Trump took what was once a somewhat significant schism and created a deep national divide that quickly incited anger and hatred.

These comments set the stage for this past NFL weekend, in which viewers around the world witnessed some one of the most politically charged sporting events in recent years. More than half of NFL players either kneeled, locked arms or raised fists during the anthem to protest Trump’s speech, and support those attacked by his comments.

In one of the more striking examples, almost the entire Pittsburgh Steelers team remained in their locker room for the national anthem before their game at the Chicago Bears.

Perhaps nothing was more impactful than the Dallas Cowboys’ response before their Monday Night Football matchup against the Arizona Cardinals. The entire team and the owner, Jerry Jones – one of the most influential, prominent members of the professional sports community – linked arms and knelt in the middle of the field in solidarity.

The image of the players,

coaches and owner all kneeling together, regardless of background or race, served as a powerful response to Trump’s malicious comments.

Overall, players in the NFL stood together and took a firm stance against the comments Trump made, and supported those who have been protesting problems of racism and police brutality.

While military servicemembers deserve the utmost respect for the sacrifices they make for the people of this country, the truth of the matter is that they fight for the freedoms that make the United States so unique. Those freedoms include freedom of expression and the right to peacefully protest, which are exactly the rights that NFL players, coaches, and owners are exercising.

In the United States, sports have always been a common denominator. They provide the ability for people to forget about their differences and just enjoy the competition.

Former presidents have used professional sports to help bring the country together. From filling out March Madness brackets to welcoming champion teams to the White House, presidents have long been involved in sports

Men’s Water Polo P-P 11 CMS 5 Women’s Soccer CMS 1 Chapman 0 Occidental 2 CMS 0 Women’s Golf CMS Invitational Men’s Soccer CMS 2 CalTech 1 Occidental 5 CMS 3 Adela Pfaff • The Student Life

in America. By associating with popular teams and athletes, presidents create a stronger bond with the American people.

This act of unity was best seen

by President George W. Bush’s response to the 9/11 attacks. Just over a month after the national tragedy, President Bush took the mound at Yankee Stadium during the 2001 World Series to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

In a city still grieving from the tragic attacks and with immense terrorist threat still looming, Bush bravely emerged from the Yankees dugout, wearing a New York Fire Department jacket to cover his bullet-proof vest, as the whole country watched. He walked up to the mound calmly and confidently, offering a muchneeded symbol of stability to the country during a trying time.

Then he wound up and delivered a perfect strike, and the crowd erupted into frenzied cheer. The morale boost Bush provided helped get the American people back on track.

Instead of following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Trump has done the opposite this week. Instead of letting sports be a place for Americans to come together, he cultured a toxic environment of disagreement and hatred.

In a time which appears to be a turning point in U.S. history, our country needs a leader who will unify, rather than divide the population. Trump’s comments further a discouraging trend of condemning anything he doesn’t believe, rather than facilitating a conversation which could actually work to try to solve the problems we face as a nation.

By kneeling and protesting the anthem, these NFL players were simply trying create a conversation in order to change the horrible realities of racism and police brutality. Playing in the NFL gives them a platform to protest, and they took the opportunity to act.

The message that members of the NFL sent this weekend was incredibly powerful, and their response should be praised. They took a stand against a powerful bully and showed this country what can and must be done in the face of adversity.

SPORTS SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

PAGE 9

THE STUDENT LIFE

CMS V. P-P WATERPOLO

Sagehens Take Down Stags in Lopsided Water Polo Win

Akshaya Amarnath • The Student Life

Adam Gross PZ ’21 passes the ball to a teammate during the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps vs. Pomona-Pitzer men’s water polo game at Haldeman Pool on Wednesday, September 27th.

Bryan Williams Wednesday night’s men’s water polo match at Haldeman Pool quickly turned into a blowout as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps fell to Pomona-Pitzer in a 11-5 loss.

Though the final score was lopsided, the Stags felt confident about their chances coming into the the Sixth Street Rivalry. CJ Box CM ’21 told TSL pre-game, “I think our team is really close this year.

We’ve been working really hard, and I look forward to seeing what we can do tonight.”

For the better part of the first quarter, Box’s confidence seemed to

be well-placed as the Stags (3-6, 1-1 SCIAC) immediately won the drop ball and incessantly pressed the Sagehens’ (4-8, 2-1 SCIAC) defense.

This pressure eventually led to two goals for CMS, one of which was off an ordinary foul from Graham Fullerton CM ’18 at 7:31 and a rocket of a top right corner shot from Zack Rossman CM ’20 at 6:54 of the first.

CMS continued to bring the heat, forcing goalkeeper Daniel Diemer PZ ’18 to make two great saves, a performance that would continue throughout the course of the game. “Diemer was phenomenal in the cage,” P-P coach Alex Rodriguez said after the match.

“We made a lot of mistakes that he made up for.”

Before CMS could run away with the game, Adam Ward PZ ’21 found the back of the net at 5:06.

Nick Britt CM ’21 did retaliate with a shot from five meters out, but the final part of the quarter saw P-P scoring on three consecutive occasions, and the Stags and Sagehens headed into the second quarter deadlocked 3-3.

P-P continued their streak of goals at 5:58 when Joseph Schafer PO ’20 hurled the ball right through the hands of goalkeeper Evan Pauletich CM ’19, and Keegan Coleman PZ ’21 quickly added another goal

right after. At this point, it became clear that the Stags were struggling to get into a scoring opportunity by giving up possession through fouls and running out the shot clock.

The rest of the quarter remained scoreless, but only due to impressive performances from CMS keeper Evan Pauletich CM ’19, who made four consecutive saves. By the time halftime hit, the Sagehens led 6-3.

P-P’s lead only continued to grow in the second half. After Diemer made four great saves, Schafer scored a very similar goal to his first at 5:03 by sending it through the hands of Pauletich yet again. At

COMMENTARY

In the last two years, both the Rams and Chargers have moved to Los Angeles – from St. Louis and San Diego, respectively. The two teams will move into the newly constructed LA Stadium upon its completion in 2020. For now, the Rams are playing in the LA Coliseum and the Chargers are calling the StubHub Center home.

The newly christened Los Angeles Chargers thought that playing in a small stadium would allow for an intimate introduction to fans before the move to Inglewood in three years. They play in a stadium slightly over half as big as the next smallest NFL stadium. In the four home preseason and regular season games since moving to LA, the Chargers have had exactly zero sellouts and zero wins.

The Rams returned to LA last season after a 20-year stay in St. Louis. While their return was initially met with enthusiasm from old fans excited to have their team back, interest has dwindled. This season, the Rams are playing in the LA Coliseum, which houses over 93,000 fans, making it the largest stadium in the NFL. Rams games are typically half empty.

In week two of the NFL season, the Rams and Chargers sold a combined 81,000 tickets. By comparison, USC’s college football team, which shares the LA Coliseum with the Rams, sold 84,000 tickets.

All this information goes to show one thing. LA sports fans aren’t into football – they’re into winning.

In an article in the LA Times, journalist Bill Plaschke makes the

team was to beat their rival.

“Since we lost our second SCIAC game to Whittier, it was good to win, especially against CMS,” Senator said.

For CMS, it was a disappointing night all-around, CMS coach Greg Lonzo said. “[P-P] obviously did a very good job on defense of creating the shots that they wanted and putting us in situations where it’s tough to finish against their defensive sets,” he added. “I think the loss was a combination of them playing solid defense and us missing opportunities.”

CMS VOLLEYBALL

Rams, Chargers Must Win if They Want Full Stadiums Noah Shapiro

2:55, Dylan Elliot PO ‘21 ricocheted the ball off the right goal post into a CMS defender and finally, across the line of the goal.

Noah Deer CM ’18 did manage to finish the third quarter with a goal, yet the Sagehens immediately responded with three more goals to start the final quarter and pushed the score to 11-4.

CMS did have the last say in the game when Barron Banta CM ‘21 lobbed a shot over the keeper into the top right corner of the frame at 0:25, but by then it was far too late.

After the game, Zach Senator PO ‘20 was excited about the win and commented on how pleased the

argument that the teams’ attendance issues aren’t the fault of the fans, but of the owners. LA didn’t ask the NFL to bring a team – let alone two – back to town. Instead, the NFL has spent years searching for a way to get back into the LA market. Unfortunately, the two teams combined for abismal 9-23 record last season.

LA fans have never been afraid to abandon losing teams, even storied programs like the Dodgers and Lakers.

There are some positives that derive from this fact: the NFL’s

attendance struggles in LA are caused by an aversion to losing, rather than an aversion to football itself. The Rams are off to a 2-1 start this season behind a promising young core and a new coach.

The Chargers’ struggles last year were largely due to injuries and close losses – they lost 8 games by 8 points or fewer. If the teams can find a way to win, their stadiums may start to fill up.

Financially, it makes sense for the league to have a presence in LA, even if ticket sales are low. It is still one of the largest markets in

the country. Additionally, building the new stadium certainly played a role in securing the city’s bid for the 2028 Olympics.

But the bottom line is that moving two teams to LA in two years was a mistake on the NFL’s part. Fans in Los Angeles aren’t desperate for football and will only buy tickets if the teams are good. The Rams and Chargers better hope they can piece together a couple winning seasons or one of them may be leaving LA sooner than expected.

Dominic Frempong • The Student Life

Athenas Crush La Verne in Three-Set Win Blaise Malley The Claremont-MuddScripps (CMS) women’s volleyball team (9-5, 2-1 SCIAC) played their first SCIAC home game of the season on Friday, Sept. 22. Resounding cheers from CMS supporters echoed in the Roberts Pavilion gym as the Athenas defeated the La Verne Leopards (9-2, 3-1 SCIAC) in a three-set sweep.

“That might have been the happiest I’ve been so far this season,” said CMS head coach Kurt Vlasich when asked to rate the team’s performance. “It was a really clean match on our end.

We did a lot of work to prepare for La Verne, who’s always a tough opponent.”

From an early 3-2 deficit in the first set, the Athenas went on a five-point run to claim a lead that would not be relinquished as they dominated all three sets (25-16, 25-12, and 25-12).

“We knew they were going to come out hot, and I thought we weathered that pretty well and took advantage of them and executed a fabulous game plan,” Vlasich added.

Although every facet of the team’s game seemed to be clicking throughout the match, Vlasich pointed to two specific areas where he thought the Athenas were particularly strong. “You can look at the stat sheet and there’s a bunch of areas that stand out, and really I think our blocking is what came into play,” he said. “We ended up with more than 20 team blocks on the evening ... If there’s another category that I was really happy with, it was probably the serving. Our serving really kept them off balance and they

couldn’t get into a rhythm.”

Overall, CMS put together an extremely impressive and clean statistical game. The team finished with 40 kills, a .368 hitting percentage and a season-best 24 blocks, all in a relatively quick three-set match. Margot Mafra Spencer SC ’21 led the way with nine kills, while Mariah Rigg CM ’18, Margaux Arntson CM ’18, and Melanie Moore CM ’21 chipped in with six blocks apiece.

The first two sets followed a similar pattern in which the opening stages were tightly contested before a crucial mid set run gave the Athenas an insurmountable lead. They were able to hold these leads to clinch the sets, eventually cruising to a 25-12 win in the third and final set.

Vlasich explained how a strong team effort was key in clinching the victory. “There are probably some players that did outstanding, but I think that what stands out to me was how good everybody was on the stat sheet,” he said. “In our locker room, I was making the comment that there was no standout performance because everybody performed at such a high level.”

The Athenas followed up their dismantling of La Verne with a a heartbreaking five-set loss to loss to Chapman, the only undefeated team left in the SCIAC (10-3, 5-0 SCIAC) the next day, in which CMS blew a two set and 21-14 lead in the third.

The Athenas will hit the road for three competitive SCIAC teams this week, starting with the Occidental Tigers (6-6, 1-2 SCIAC) Friday, Sept. 29, and the Whittier Poets (9-4, 3-2 SCIAC) Saturday.

CMS will then head to Thousand Oaks to take on the Cal Lutheran Regals (6-8, 2-3 SCIAC) Tuesday.

SPORTS PAGE 10

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

P-P MEN’S SOCCER

Sagehens Soccer Rises in Conference Standings With Much-Needed 2-1 Win Over Cal Lutheran Gianluca Minardi With sharp counter attacks and stable defense, Pomona-Pitzer’s men’s soccer team (3-3-2, 2-2-2 SCIAC) managed to neutralize Cal Lutheran (6-3, 4-2 SCIAC) and secure a 2-1 win Saturday, Sept.

23, giving the team a new face in the SCIAC conference. “This is a very tough league and we needed a win today,” P-P head coach Bill Schwartz said after the match.

In a quick start to the game, P-P seized an opportunity to score an early goal. After a scramble from a P-P corner kick, Aidan Ferrer PO ’19 took a shot off Jacob Merkel’s PO ’18 pass and opened the scoreboard at the fifth minute.

However, throughout the rest of the first half, the Sagehens struggled to escape the Kingsmen’s high pressure, giving most of the possession to the visiting team, which also had a hard time finding openings in the Sagehen’s defense.

Cal Lutheran scored an equalizer when it was able to convert a set piece: Stevie Trujillo crossed the ball from the intermediate zone to Diego Ortega who headed the ball into the net, past P-P goalkeeper Ben Mitchell PZ ’18, who had little chance to make the save.

The second half started slowly, with both teams studying each other. Nevertheless, in a quick breakthrough on the right side of the field, Ferrer crossed the ball to Taylor Reifert PZ ’19 who kicked it into the goal, putting the Sagehens in front.

Ahead on the scoreboard, P-P pulled back, trying to take advantage of counterattacks. In the last 10 minutes of the game, Cal Lutheran launched itself into attack and almost tied the game in the 87th

Bukuru Anaclet • The Student Life

The Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens huddle up during the second half of the game, eager to score another goal and break the tie in their game against Cal Lutheran in their game on Sept. 23.

minute, when Luis Cabrera missed a goal on a shot inside the 18-yard box. While P-P’s defense bent, it did not break, and was able to hold off strong pressure from the Kingsmen.

As Eamon Stein PO ’21 analyzed after the match, “We started out fast and were able to keep going strong for the whole 90 minutes.”

Facing a modest 1-2-1 start to

the season, the Sagehens have now won two of their last three matches to climb to fifth place in the SCIAC and have put themselves into a fighting position for a postseason

P-P WOMEN’S GOLF

Young P-P Golfers Swing to the Top in Fall Season Jacinta Chen

At the first competition of Pomona-Pitzer women’s golf this season, Priscilla Ki PO ’21 and Gabrielle Herzig PO ’21 proved they were no strangers to the golf course. Ki and Herzig came in as the highest ranking Sagehens at the California State Championship on Sept. 18-19, boosting the team to a fifth-place finish out of 11 teams.

The following weekend of Sept.

23-24, the team continued their strong showing by taking fourth at the CMS Invite at Los Serranos, a mere four strokes behind Occidental.

Ki and Herzig finished in 11th and 16th overall at the State Championship with scores of 152 and 156, respectively – marks that, for some of the team’s newest Sagehens, promise a successful P-P golf career.

Following behind them was Andi Chaloult PO ’20, who ended in 28th overall with a slightly higher score of 161.

Coming from high school golf, Ki was encouraged by the high level of support coming from her team and coaches. “I was not as nervous at my first college tournament as my first individual tournament four years

ago because I knew that I was not alone,” she said. She also appreciated the support radiating from other teams’ players at the competition compared to “the reserved, super serious players” she has competed with in the past.

At the CMS Invite, Herzig ended as the runner-up with a score of 153. She was especially happy with her performance of shooting a 75 on Saturday and hopes to continue working on “pitching and chipping” on her short game.

Joining Herzig in the top ten was teammate Chaloult in sixth with a score of 159. Victoria Vardenega PO ’18 and Kaitlin Robertson PO ‘21 also ended up in the top 20, placing 14th and 16th with scores of 170 and 172, respectively. While shooting a solid score of 79 in round one on Saturday, an injury forced Ki to withdraw from competing on Sunday.

According to Chaloult, the team’s scores in the first tournament improved overall from last year. “Our freshmen set the bar, and it is really encouraging that an 82 was the highest score that counted towards our team total,” she said.

As a returning golfer, Chaloult was extremely proud of her new

teammates’ results in these first two competitions and values the “hard work, enthusiasm, and power” that they have brought to the team.

Since golf is a two season sport, Vardenega noted that these events were essentially pre-season competitions. Therefore, she was hesitant “to put any value judgement on them.” Seeing the success of some of the younger members of the team, she said, “I do feel that some good scores were shot and that we can only shoot lower from here!”

With two players abroad, the women’s team is currently comprised of five players, including three freshmen. Despite the low headcount, Ki and Herzig agreed that traveling and competing as a team have made their first experiences as Sagehens enjoyable and are excited for what the spring season will hold.

As a senior, Vardenega looks back at her years as a Sagehen golfer fondly, recalling the bonds formed with her teammates when staying at hotels, during “late night boba runs,” and at Disneyland. “I remember those moments even more so than any score,” she said.

After studying abroad in South Korea and not playing for over half

a year, Vardenega has found it “hard to get back into the swing of things.” Vardenega finished third in last season’s spring 2017 SCIAC championships and now hopes that the team can win the SCIAC Championships in April and qualify for nationals. Thus, she aims to “shoot some scores that [the team] can use for [their] tournaments” once the spring season comes around.

With this goal in mind, she emphasized the importance of her team being able to “shoot consistent averages and keep [their] cool regardless of the difficulty of the course.” She is confident in the level of “talent and determination” of her teammates, citing that the team’s scores and ranking have gotten “lower and lower” every year.

Chaloult hopes that the team will maintain “clear communication” and boost “accountability among each other” as they move toward the spring season.

The P-P women’s golf team will return to competitions in midFebruary with a season-opener at the Maurice Walker Championship.

CMS Athlete of the Week P-P Athlete of the Week Men’s Soccer Nate Huntington

CM ‘21 San Francisco, California

For Nate Huntington CM ‘21, his first career collegiate goal came at an opportune time. Tied 1-1 with Cal Tech eight minutes into golden goal overtime, Huntington took a pass from Daniel Rhode HM ‘21 and buried the ball into the back of the net, winning the game 2-1 for the Stags. The Stags currently sit at 2-6-0 (2-4-0 SCIAC).

Women’s Soccer Lily Gane

PZ ‘20 San Leandro, California

Currently tied in the lead for goals scored on the Pomona-Pitzer women’s soccer team (5-3-1, 3-1-1 SCIAC) is Lily Gane PZ ‘20. With four goals and eight points thus far in the season, Gane has already passed her 2016 tallies of three goals and six points, and most recently hit the back of the net in P-P’s 2-0 victory over the Whittier Poets (5-3, 2-3 SCIAC), scoring both goals in the match. Her other goals have proved key to the team’s success as well, helping to boost the Hens to a win over rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (2-5-1, 1-3-1 SCIAC) and Fontbonne (3-7, 0-0 Conf.).

spot.

“Coming out of a 3-0 loss to Occidental was very frustrating, especially since we thought it was a beatable opponent. We knew we

had to gain momentum against Cal Lutheran for our next 3 games and this match definitely got us back on track and back in the right place,” said Jack Arnold PO ’21.

COMMENTARY

Kendrick’s Korner: “It’s Gotta Be the Shoes” Kendrick Morris Corruption in college basketball practically has its own film genre. Movies like “He Got Game” and “Blue Chips” have long captured the essence of the dark side of college athletics. For example, in “He Got Game,” Ray Allen’s notable Jesus Shuttlesworth character is recruited to colleges by boosters, coaches and agents, who offer him everything from cash to his father’s release from prison.

Similarly, in “Blue Chips,” Coach Pete Bell, while under pressure to win, illegally offers top recruits (who happen to be played by NBA legends Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal) lavish items, including cars, houses and even a tractor.

Although entertaining, both of these 20-year-old movies seemed like outdated exaggerations of the behind-the-scenes illegal recruiting of student athletes by future stakeholders in their collegiate and professional careers. That is, until this week.

T h e a l l e g e d e ve n t s s u r rounding the FBI’s recent fraud and corruption charges against ten major Division I basketball coaches, financial advisors, and shoe company executives are playing out like a movie in their own right. If true, the allegations will confirm that Hollywood’s portrayal of the broken college athletics system is in no way a misrepresentation, and has been representing a hidden reality for decades.

The reasons for Louisville head coach Rick Pitino’s administrative leave and claims against many other coaches across the country exemplify the dangerous overlap between the entertainment value and the “win at all costs” mentality pervasive in college athletics.

It is also Pitino’s now-ironic cameo role in the film “Blue Chips,” which best indicates the longtime blur between entertainment, college sports, and greed.

The underlying issue is that the financial incentives of major Division I basketball coaches and shoe companies are not

necessarily aligned with the best interests of the players: teenage high school basketball stars who hope to achieve their dreams of obtaining a college scholarship and pursuing a professional basketball career.

While college coaches face significant pressure from their home institutions to win games, shoe company agents are also under pressure to find and associate their brand with the next LeBron James. As a result, the recruiting draw of Ameteur Athletic Union (AAU) sponsorships from shoe companies foster a culture in which concealed relationships with coaches can develop. They share a gross view of high school student athletes as nothing more than potential assets.

There is no easy solution to this problem. As with any business, stakeholders – ranging from alumni, coaches and players to the agents and sports apparel companies themselves – reap the benefits of a great product, but also fall into the trap of greed. What the NCAA, and now the U.S. legal system, should do is figure out a more effective method of separating shoe companies from college coaches and players.

While the NBA’s reallowance of high school players to enter the draft would reduce the liability of college programs, it does not solve the overarching problem that many people within the industry are looking to take advantage of young, talented and often naïve athletes without actually caring for their futures.

A better alternative is a reform of the AAU system through the use of NCAA regulated funds to support tournaments and related recruiting events. While the change would neither eliminate the pressure to win nor stop all avenues of illegal recruiting, it would at least reduce the influence of shoe companies in the recruitment of top players to a “Big State” or “Western U.” In the famous words of Spike Lee, director of “He Got Game,” “it’s gotta be the shoes” that go first from college basketball recruiting.