THE STUDENT LIFE FRIDAY, SeptembeR 20, 2019 | CLAREMONT, CA | VOL. CXXX NO. 1

FLI-ing solo

JUSTIN SLEPPY • THE STUDENT LIFE

Claremont’s only movie theater may go up for sale See tHeAteR on page 5

Starr doesn’t deliver on alleged Bridge promise

Pomona students struggle to navigate textbook aid

HAIDee CLAUeR

JASpeR DAVIDOFF

First-generation, low-income (FLI) Pomona College first-years arrived on campus this fall without a summer orientation “bridge” program, despite Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr’s commitment last year to implement such a program in the near future. The situation angered FLI students on campus, who felt Pomona wasn’t delivering adequate resources to support them. “There have been multiple times that the administration says, specifically to FLI students, that they’re here for us,” Te’auna Patterson PO ’18 said. “But when push comes to shove, they don’t follow through for us.” Bridge programs aim to ease FLI students’ transitions to college by inviting them to campus ahead of the academic school year to introduce campus resources and build community, according to Patterson. She worked alongside students and faculty in several 2018 committees to research and plan the bridge program based off similar models from other competitive colleges, such as Yale University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Washington University in St. Louis, Tufts University and Amherst College. Patterson said Starr gave student and faculty committees a go-ahead in spring 2018 to complete plans for the program. Daniel Garcia PO ‘21 also said Starr committed resources to it then. Starr said she was “very supportive of the idea” at the time, and told students she would do her best and thought it was “a good idea,” but stopped short of giving a go-ahead. The summer bridge program never occurred because

The myriad overlapping programs Pomona College’s Financial Aid and Dean of Students offices have implemented to help students afford textbooks — including emergency grants, bookstore vouchers, financial aid refunds and loans — have left many students unclear if and how they can receive financial support for academic materials. The Pomona 2018-2019 financial aid handbook advises students to “arrive on campus with $500 for books, even if you have requested a loan or have outside scholarship assistance.” But that can pose a heavy burden for some students. This semester, the Office of Financial Aid offered a group of students the option to charge the cost of books and supplies from Huntley Bookstore to their student accounts, according to Dean of Students Avis Hinkson. The pilot program — which includes about 450 students, according to Pomona Director of Financial Aid Robin Thompson — is intended to allow students to secure textbooks and other materials at the beginning of the semester without immediately having to pay out-of-pocket or receive an emergency grant from the Dean of Students Office, officials said. The college makes emergency grants, usually up to $500, available to students on financial aid to cover certain academic and non-academic expenses “when other funding is unavailable.” The new program is intended to make it easier to for students to buy books “without having to wait for refunds or seek emergency grants,” Dean of Students Avis Hinkson said in an email. Any student on financial aid may ask their counselor to join the program. If students’ financial aid packages, outside scholarships and student loans exceed their cost of attendance, they can apply

See bRIDGe on page 2

See bOOKS on page 2

Trouble on the turf: Long lines at annual dinner frustrate students JULIA FRANKeL When JJ Shankar PO ’22 arrived at Scripps College on Tuesday for the Claremont Colleges’ annual “Turf Dinner” club fair, he was forced to join a 45-minute line that zig-zagged several times across the grassy Jaqua Quadrangle. With all dining halls closed for non-athletes, Shankar was one of thousands of hungry students who descended on Scripps for dinner, creating a chaotic atmosphere. While in past years, each dining

hall has received its own area to set up and students have lined up separately for each, Scripps’ layout Tuesday grouped the seven dining halls under one tent, making students wait in one line for food. “I appreciate the work the dining staff put in and the festive atmosphere,” Shankar said via message. “But waiting in line was tedious and inefficient, especially as someone who just wanted sustenance.” Scripps’ chosen layout strayed

from the setup it used when it last hosted the event in 2016. Then, Scripps set up tables for clubs and organizations on its Bowling Green and placed the dining halls at different stations around Jaqua Quadrangle, according to John Lopes, assistant director of the Smith Campus Center and manager of student clubs and organizations. This year, the entire event crowded both the dining tent and club tables on Jaqua Quadrangle. But administrators couldn’t agree

on where the idea originated. Brenda Ice, Scripps Director of Campus Life, said via email the layout of Turf Dinner was determined by student activities administrators across the Colleges. “The placement of dining was in consult with the activities group and event services to ensure all campuses were in close proximity to one another and their electrical needs,” Ice said. Others said the idea came from Scripps’ administrators. Lopes attributed the layout to new ideas

coming from the Scripps student affairs staff. “Sometimes with new folks come new ideas, and folks want to try new things,” Lopes said. Other administrators and staff agreed that the host campus plays a critical role in organizing Turf Dinner each year. Tonian Morbitt, Miguel Ruvalcaba and Jose Martinez, the general managers of Pitzer College, Harvey Mudd College and Pomona Col-

See tURF on page 2

COURTESY OF LINDSEY LARSON

(left) Students line up by a table, waiting to be served food. A server offered students watermelon slices and sandwiches. (right) Students flocked to Scripps College for the annual Turf Dinner where they had the opportunity to learn about 5C clubs.

LIFE & STYLE

Erin Slichter PO ’21 uncovers the secrets of off-campus cuisine with Kyla Smith SC ’19 and finds out what’s in 5C fridges. Read more on page 4.

The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889

OPINIONS

SPORTS

Duo, the two-factor authentication program some of the Claremont Colleges use, is annoying. But Michelle Lum HM ‘23 argues that it’s also completely necessary for good security. Read more on page 8.

Christina Williamson PO ‘17, a former Sagehen swimmer and water polo player, has made waves on the analytic side of sports tracking performance data for the Yankees. Read more on page 10.

INDEX: News 1 | Life & Style 4 | Opinions 7 | Sports 10

News

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BRIDGE: Definitive plan to be implemented by 2020 Continued from page 1 it wasn’t ready, Starr said, citing understaffing and an inconsistent budget. Starr also mentioned she wasn’t yet ready to decide a best course of action for supporting FLI students on Pomona’s campus. “My commitment to ... Pomona is to do what’s right for the college,” Starr said. “I’m not yet ready to say that will be the most beneficial way to benefit our students.” Starr said a definitive plan to further support FLI students “should be in place by the end of the spring” of 2020, but may not include a bridge program. Starr said she has been in recent discussions with associate dean Ric Townes and Travis Brown, the director of Pomona’s Quantitative Skills Center and Academic Cohorts. Brown said an outline exists for the program, and a pilot program in the summer of 2020 would be “very possible to do,” he said. But, Brown said his work was “put on hold” when the committees were disbanded in 2018, and Starr said no tangible steps have been taken yet for the bridge program specifically since then. “If everyone was onboard, and we were able to secure the funding, we could run it,” Brown said. Still, Pomona’s lack of progress on the bridge program since last fall was concerning to some students and alumni, especially after several student-led rallies last semester called for increased mental health support.

Karla Ortiz PO ’20, a FLI c o - p r e s i d e n t , said similar programs were crucial to her friends’ transitions to life at other colleges, and was “taken aback” to return to campus last fall to learn it hadn’t happened. “Not following through with the summer bridge program indicates to me that Pomona doesn’t want to put the resources into actually supporting the diverse student body it prides itself on having,” Devon Baker PO ’22, a member of the FLI community, said. Garcia agreed, calling it “an equity issue that the college refuses to address.” “[The issue is] fresh every admissions cycle,” he said. “We’re losing students of great talent because of it.” Starr said Pomona’s cohort programs, academic mentorship communities, serve a similar purpose to a potential bridge program. But Brown said he doesn’t see the relationship between cohorts and a bridge program “as an either/or; I see it as a both/and, ideally.” Starr said the implementation of complicated programs like a bridge is often a slow process, and will ultimately be “the job of the deans to figure out in conjunction with the staff.” “I know it might feel like ‘we did this work and nobody listened,’ but listening also implies processing. Sometimes listening is quiet,” she said.

COURTESY OF POMONA COLLEGE

Pomona College’s President G. Gabrielle Starr promised incoming FLI students an orientation program but said she couldn’t follow through due to staffing concerns and inconsistent budgeting.

TURF: Changes to likely be made in the future, admin says Continued from page 1 lege’s dining services, respectively, said it is the host campus’ role to communicate the layout of Turf Dinner to each dining hall. “We come in, set up and we notice the space we were given … and that’s it,” Martinez said, attributing layout choices to Garrick Hisamoto, Scripps General Manager of Dining Services. But Hisamoto maintained that his role merely involved facilitating setup with dining staff, rather than dictating the layout of dining areas. “I think it was a success,” Hisamoto said. “We got everyone through and it was really smooth.” Lopes also said dining service managers deal with layout. Student activities coordinators, according to Lopes, focus solely on organizing the club-related portion of Turf Dinner. “Once I get the layout, I deal with the clubs and organizations,” Lopes said. Many students, like Sean Lee PO ’22, recounted spending 30 minutes in the line. Lee arrived at Turf Dinner at 6 p.m., an hour after the event began. Despite waiting in line for food for 30 minutes, Lee was unable to eat dinner, leaving the line to make his shift at work. Other attendees, like Clara Chilton SC ’20, were able to get food but lamented the long lines and crowded atmosphere. “In previous years I was able to just find the shortest food line,” Chilton said via message. “This year, though, they had a main line to get into the tent where all the food was, and once you were in the tent it was really loud and claustrophobic. There was no way for me to get food their without being overwhelmed, and after I got food I didn’t have energy to look at any of the clubs.” Lopes said changes will likely be made in the future. “We don’t want any students waiting 45 minutes for food,” Lopes said. “I think we learned something from this turf dinner. . . . I’m confident that next time at Scripps we’ll avoid the long lines.” Next year, Turf Dinner will be held at Claremont McKenna College. The following year, the event will be held at the Pitzer Mounds, according to Lopes.

SEPTEMbER 20, 2019

BOOKS: New program with Huntley bookstore faces student criticism, confusion Continued from page 1 the excess funds to pay for their textbooks, Thompson said. But for those who don’t have a financial aid surplus, the program will essentially function as a loan, allowing them to defer payment of the full cost of textbooks until they earn enough money to pay for them. “Students on financial aid can earn up to $2,800 working on campus,” Thompson said. ”These student employment funds are another resource for students to earn pocket money to assist with those other educational costs, such as books.” Costs incurred at Huntley in September will be due for payment Nov. 1, Thompson said. The Pomona tuition agreement stipulates a $25 per month late payment fee for any outstanding student account balances. “Doing the math, the late fee is actually a greater interest rate than a credit card,” said Karla Ortiz PO ’20, the co-president of Pomona College FLI Scholars, a community for first-generation and/or low-income students. Students said postponing their book costs without any additional aid to subsidize them would just extend a significant stressor further into the semester. “I guess it’s better than paying up front, but it’s still going to present a financial burden,” Virgil Munyemana PO ’22, a FLI mentor, said. “You’re already worrying about money while you’re here, and now you have to worry about paying more bills on top of already having to work to pay for whatever costs you have during the year.” Some students, though, have received additional aid. A program in place since fall 2016 offers some first-years “who meet certain financial criteria” in the FLI Scholars program one-time $500 startup grants during first semester aiding their transition to Pomona, according to Hinkson. The grants can be used for

textbooks or personal expenses as the student sees fit. In spring 2019, for the first time, the Dean of Students office issued first-year students who had received start-up grants in the fall additional $500 vouchers for use at the Huntley Bookstore, according to an email from Hinkson. FLI Scholars student leaders had presented the idea of providing book vouchers several semesters earlier, according to Ortiz. Students in the Questbridge Match program — another program for first generation, low-income students — receive recurring $500 book grants as part of a separate program, but other Questbridge students do not, according to Ortiz. Student leaders are unsure if the second-semester book vouchers will continue for future first-year classes, including the class of 2023, Ortiz said. Students said seeing some vouchers offered in the absence of more consistent aid shows a lack of administrative commitment to accommodating all students. “[The vouchers set] a precedent that the college is going to support you,” Munyemana said. “To not follow up on that sends mixed messages to people that are low-income in a space that wasn’t meant for them.” This semester, many FLI students, wary of the new program that would potentially involve late fees, attempted to secure emergency grants from the Dean of Students Office to fund their textbook purchases. But students said their requests have been continuously denied, according to Ortiz. Other students claimed obtaining emergency grants for academic materials has become more difficult in recent years. Daniel Garcia PO ’21 said he easily received emergency grant funding for textbooks during his first year. But last year, when he attempted to request one, Dean of Students Office staff told him the program was being phased out.

“‘This isn’t a thing anymore,’ is what I was told,” he said. Hinkson denied her office has eliminated grants. “Students are still able to apply for emergency grant funds for books and supplies,” Hinkson said. “We have approved a number of these grant requests based on the individual circumstances these students were facing and their lack of access to other resources.” A 2016 Bureau of Labor Statistics report found college textbook prices have increased by 88 percent since 2006. Because of these rising costs, students have sometimes been forced to choose courses based on the cost of materials required to take them. But in some cases, they can be left with few options. “My most expensive textbook was a required class for my major, and the department didn’t offer any real assistance,” Garcia said. “There was no way around it, and I had to pick up extra shifts and do what I had to do to pay for the textbook. But in other cases, if the textbook was over $100 and I didn’t have access in the library, I would pick a different class.” Other 5Cs are working to help students afford academic materials in various ways. Pitzer College and Claremont McKenna College offer free textbook rental services through the Dean of Students Office and CARE Center, respectively. CMC also established the Kravis Opportunity Fund last year, which dispenses $2,000 transition grants to incoming students with substantial financial need. Scripps offered up to $200 in textbook grants through the Scripps Associated Students Book Fund as recently as fall 2017, according to a form on the Scripps website. But it’s unclear if the Book Fund is still active. Links to the Book Fund’s webpage are broken, and its former coordinator, Daniela Canas Baena, left Scripps last June, according to her LinkedIn profile. A spokesperson for Scripps did not provide comment before press time.

Southern California is overdue for ‘the Big One.’ Should you be concerned? mAGGIe LIND & ANUSHe eNGINeeR This past July, two strong earthquakes centered in Ridgecrest, California shook the ground in Claremont. With a 46 percent chance of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake hitting California in the next 19 years, TSL news writers Anushe Engineer SC ’22 and Maggie Lind SC ’22 sat down with Pomona College Geology Professor Nicole Moore to discuss the likelihood of an earthquake in the Claremont area and what students should know to prepare themselves. Moore said it’s impossible to predict an earthquake, but the 5Cs would likely be hit hard if the infamous “Big One” strikes. She said students should be prepared — but not worried. TSL: After the latest earthquakes this summer, the Big One has become a common topic of conversation. Can you give us some background on this concern? NM: The idea of the Big One is centered around the fact that we have the San Andreas Fault to the North, just on the other side of the San Gabriel Mountains. This ... segment [of the fault] hasn’t ruptured in a long time, and it tends to rupture on that large scale of a 7.8- or 7.9-magnitude about every 150 years. Earthquakes cannot be predicted — it depends on how much pressure and stress has built up over time. But since it tends to rupture, we expect that we’re due, or overdue, at this point, for a very large earthquake of that segment. TSL: What kind of damage would we expect to see in Claremont? NM: It would be pretty devastating. The relative magnitude is less important than how close you are to that earthquake. So, if we’re really close to a big magnitude earthquake, we’re going to experience very strong and very sustained shaking here. That kind of shaking can definitely damage buildings. It could completely disrupt

the roads and cellphone service. Power lines would come down. Secondary effects of that would be starting fires, especially in this area where we have really dry conditions. Water mains and gas lines could break. All of that leads to the fact that if our roads are impassable, we’re not going to be able to get food and supplies in. If our water mains break, then we can’t put out the fires because of that. As far as buildings are concerned, most in this area have been built under earthquake codes that would make them withstand shaking to the point where they’re not going to collapse on us. But we certainly might see the ceiling panels fall or maybe even the lights. TSL: You talked a little bit about how the Big One would affect our access to resources. Can you talk specifically about how our access to water could be affected? NM: Most of the water in the LA basin in our region gets pumped in from the Sierra Nevada through the Owens Valley. So, yeah, that could certainly be cut off. That’s why it’s recommended that when you live in ‘earthquake country,’ as part of your ‘Earthquake Kit’ to have at least 72 hours of water supply — that’s the minimum suggestion. Water is one thing you can’t live without. You can go several days without food and be fine, but you can’t go several days without water and be fine. The importance of keeping water backup supply is heightened here since the opportunity for cutting off that supply is so great. TSL: Are the 5Cs affected by any fault lines other than the San Andreas Fault? NM: Absolutely, there are quite a few in fact. The San Andreas curves, just north of the San Gabriel Mountains, and then bends back up towards San Francisco. The bend causes compression in either direction, and so to shorten that space, you create faults in the rocks. That’s what’s happening in the front part of [the San Gabriel Mountains], where we have a whole series of faults where rocks are getting shoved on top of one another to make the mountains move up and shorten that space.

But, most of those faults are shorter, and the length of the fault dictates how much energy could be released. Those faults don’t have the probability of making as big of earthquakes. There’s one called the Indian Hill Fault just north of Foothill [Boulevard]. You can stand on Foothill [Boulevard] and see the expression of the fault — it’s a little hill. And then there’s one just to our south here that runs through town called the San Jose Fault. TSL: Is the San Jose Fault on the Metrolink? NM: Well, right where the train tracks are there’s a hump, and it looks like the expression of a fault there. That fault doesn’t continue directly East-West all along the Metrolink. It’s just expressing itself right there by that part of the train tracks, and then continues off sort of in a southeast direction off of the train tracks. It’s not like the whole time you’re riding the Metrolink you’re riding along a fault. TSL: Do you think that the earthquake safety measures that the colleges are putting in place are sufficient? What should students do to prepare individually? NM: Education, to me, is the key thing here. The colleges do what they need to in terms of

having the backup supplies ready in case of an emergency, so having your own emergency kit is not something you really need to worry about, although that wouldn’t be a bad idea. As soon as you feel an earthquake, know that you need to drop, cover and hold. The dropping is essential, because if it’s a strong enough earthquake and you try to walk somewhere, you’re going to get knocked off your feet. Get down on your hands and knees, and crawl to something that can cover your head like a desk or a table. The thing that I don’t feel like the Great ShakeOut is great at practicing, and I’m not sure how well this is communicated to you guys, is that there are things called muster stations where you go once an earthquake has happened. Each building has a set location that you’re supposed to congregate and be accounted for so that we can know if there are people trapped in the buildings somewhere. There’ll be further instructions from there in the event of a major earthquake. TSL: Do you think students should be worried, and, if so, about what? NM: No, don’t be worried, just prepare yourself and know what to do if the situation arises. Worry is the result of the unknown and if you know what you’re going to do in that scenario, then that’s going to alleviate the concern.

ANAGA SRINIVAS • THE STUDENT LIFE

News

SEPTEMbER 20, 2019

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Scripps to let students reserve ‘vibrancy courtyards’ for events, parties with alcohol SteFFI LARSON Scripps College will start allowing students to reserve courtyards for events, including parties with alcohol, later this month as part of its new vibrancy courtyards initiative, officials said. “The idea was created based on ... feedback shared with my office over the years about limited social spaces and not feeling a sense of belonging and community at Scripps,” Director of Campus Life Brenda Ice said in an email to TSL. “Students reported wanting a space to gather, socialize and connect with others at Scripps, much like other campuses within the consortium do.” Students will be able to reserve the ‘oasis’ parking area between Grace Scripps Clark and Eleanor Joy Toll Halls, the Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Hall courtyard and the courtyard between Cecil and Bessie Frankel Hall and Nan Elizabeth Walsh Schow Hall, community coordinator Tova Levine SC ’21 said. The policy aims to promote community at Scripps by offering these spaces for gatherings, loud music and many attendees, with the option to hire bartenders from a catering company, according to community coordinator Abby Power SC ’21. “Vibrancy courtyards are meant to provide a space for Scripps students to gather on our campus and not feel like we can only do so on other schools’ campuses,”

she said. “They’re meant to help create more community and make the campus more lively.” But Scripps Associated Students president Niyati Narang SC ’20 said the catering service may be too expensive for many students. “From what I’ve gathered from a lot of the students that I’ve spoken with, the cost of having to rent out a catering service in order to provide alcohol is just assumed to be so high that I don’t anticipate a lot of students taking advantage of that,” she said. The vibrancy courtyards are the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at increasing “inclusive student success” and improving “residential vibrancy,” Ice said. Previous initiatives created the community coordinator student position and enacted less strict policies regarding noise complaints in fall 2018. The efforts seem successful so far, Narang said. “I remember this year, and last year as well, I was noticing more events that were put on by students … and walking around campus, coming back from something and hearing music playing, or seeing students out and about,” she said. Others think more can be done, though. Laila Kent SC ’22 said she wants more community within residence halls, noting that she didn’t know either of her neighbors’ names last year. Instead,

In Memoriam: Pomona College music professor Gwendolyn Lytle

COURTESY OF POMONA COLLEGE

Gwendolyn Lytle, a Pomona music professor, passed away Aug. 22. She was a soloist, opera performer and expert in African-American musical traditions.

SIeNA SWIFt Pomona College professor Gwendolyn Lytle, a 35-year veteran of the school’s music department, accomplished soloist and opera performer and expert in African-American musical traditions, died in her home Aug. 22 after a battle with liver cancer, according to a Pomona news release and the Claremont Courier obituary. She was 74. She taught more than 650 students in both private voice lessons and courses on music history and literature, according to the release, and was the chair of Pomona’s music department for three years. Zachary Freiman PO ’20, a music major concentrating in vocal performance, said Lytle was the head of the voice program for his first two years at Pomona. “Her death was very unexpected and shocking. Professor Lytle was a giant in the department and the music community,” Freiman said via email. “We miss her dearly, and the Thatcher Music Building feels a little less complete without her.” He praised Lytle’s teaching style. “One time, after a student recital, Professor Lytle literally backed me into a corner outside Lyman Hall to admonish me in her loving, tough, sincere and somewhat humorous way for my lack of explosively enunciated consonants in an otherwise satisfactory performance,” Freiman said. “I promised that, from then on, she’d be able to hear my D’s and T’s in the very last row of the hall.” Michael Alvis PO ’20, a voice student in Lytle’s studio for three years, echoed Freiman’s comments. “Professor Lytle’s teaching allowed me to refine my vocal technique and become a more sensitive and dedicated musician who paid as much attention to the meaning and text of the works I sang as to the literal notes, rhythms and dynamics that lay on the score,” Alvis said via email. He described Lytle as a constant

friend and mentor to him who possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of the lives and music of many composers in both the Western classical tradition and in African-American music. “Professor Lytle’s voice was invariably warm, welcoming and understanding, and she was always willing to talk during our lessons together, regardless of the subject,” Alvis said. “I will always remember her openness and dedication to being a superlative teacher and mentor and an exceptional human being.” Another student also remembered her fondly. “Her impact will reach way beyond just her students. She was such a large support system for me,” Cherise Higgins PO ’21, who took voice lessons with Lytle for two years, said via message. “I am still in denial, but I will always love her.” Music department chair Eric Lindholm said his favorite memory of Lytle was from when he first started at Pomona in Nov. 1995, when she was the soloist in his first program as orchestra conductor. Lytle sang “Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson” by Aaron Copland. “It was delightful to begin my career here with such a major collaboration, and she sang the songs so beautifully that we decided to revisit the piece in 2013,” Lindholm said via email. Lytle began performing at age 9 as the daughter of a church organist, and went on to receive a master’s degree in music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, according to the news release. She was a lecturer in music at UC Riverside for 10 years before coming to Pomona in 1985. Lytle also chaired the Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies and was an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, according to the Courier. She was a resident of Claremont and a longtime member of Pilgrim Congregational Church in Pomona, the Courier said. Pomona’s Celliola concert Sept. 15 was dedicated to Lytle, and performers paused to recognize her death, according to Freiman. Lytle’s successor, professor Melissa Givens, sang a piece written by professor Thomas Flaherty for Lytle to start the concert. The Pomona College Music Department is establishing the Gwendolyn Lytle Scholarship Fund for talented, in-need students studying music and is accepting donations in her honor, according to the news release. Lytle is survived by her brothers, Henry Lytle and Cecil Lytle and his wife Betty, her sister Florence Lassiter and her nieces and nephews, according to the Courier. A memorial will be held Dec. 14 at 11 a.m. in Bridges Hall of Music, Lindholm said.

she described campus culture as “pockets of community.” “I don’t think there’s one big community,” she said. Ice said she hopes allowing students to gather and host events in vibrancy courtyards will create a more cohesive community at Scripps. “It is my hope that this initiative will meet the needs of our students, creating a space that builds community and strengthens our connection to Scripps,” she said. But many students are still unaware of the new initiative and how to use it, according to Power. “They need to make [vibrancy courtyards] more advertised as to what their goal is,” Kent said. “Start by educating people.” Other students, like Lily Silver SC ’22, said they hadn’t heard about the courtyards at all. Nevertheless, Kent, Power and Narang are all excited for the opportunities the courtyards will afford to students. Narang has received mostly positive feedback on the new policy, calling it a “step in the right direction.” She added that most people she’s talked to aren’t worried about increased noise from events in the courtyards. “I personally have not heard too much of a concern that Scripps is going to lose its quietness ... I think that Scripps will definitely maintain its qualities of being a nice place to come home to,” she said.

HUXLEYANN HUEFNER • THE STUDENT LIFE

One of the new vibrancy courtyards at Scripps College, located between Clark and Toll Hall, offers Scripps students and clubs the opportunity to host events.

In Memoriam: CMC trustee Thomas B. Neff CM ’76

COURTESY OF CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Thomas b. Neff CM ’76, a member of the CMC board of Trustees, passed away Aug. 25.

JAImIe DING Thomas B. Neff CM ’76, a member of the Claremont McKenna College Board of Trustees, died unexpectedly in his home Aug. 25, according to a CMC news release and the Wall Street Journal. He was 65. Neff was chairman and chief executive officer of FibroGen, a pharmaceutical company he founded in 1993, according to the company’s website. While at CMC, Neff majored in

biology and political science, taking “twice as many courses in five years as the average student does in four,” according to professor emeritus Ward Elliott, one of Neff’s thesis advisers, who keeps a webpage on memorable students. Under Elliot, Neff wrote a thesis on strict scrutiny and constitutional law and a second thesis on protein modeling — demonstrating the breadth of his interests and talents, according to the news release. He “likes the steepest part of the learning curve [and] never does anything the conventional way,” Elliot said. CMC President Hiram Chodosh delivered a eulogy for Neff on Sept. 8. “He was a renaissance student, a renaissance man, a renaissance CEO, never followed a straight line,” Chodosh said, according to the transcript of the eulogy. “Beyond the details, it’s the sheer breadth and depth and intensity of his many parallel pursuits. And beyond the many accomplishments and the DNA we can trace back to CMC, it is the qualities and values that I take with me in sustaining Tom’s legacy.” Neff was named a CMC trustee in 2002 and served on the Advance-

ment, Academic Affairs, Budget and Audit, Finance and Executive committees; he had been chair of the Audit and Compliance committees since 2005, the news release said. His efforts to focus board attention on issues such as sexual assault and mental health led to the expansion of the Dean of Students office’s resources to address those concerns, according to the news release. Neff’s San Francisco-based company recently received the green light for its anemia drug, roxadustat, in China and is close to applying for approval in the United States and in Europe, according to the company’s website. Another drug, pamrevlumab, is in development for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis, pancreatic cancer and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the company said. Neff was born June 18, 1954, in Spokane, Washington, and grew up in Anaheim, California, according to the Wall Street Journal. He’s survived by his wife, Donna Wengert-Neff, who is a Scripps College trustee; his children, Maddy Neff SC ’21, Elena Neff CM ’21, Dylan Wengert and Ally Wengert-Pierce and his sister, Laura Alison Neff, according to the news release.

In Memoriam: Keck professor & Pitzer founding faculty member Daniel Guthrie

COURTESY OF CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Professor Daniel Guthrie, a founding Pitzer College faculty member, passed away July 1 at age 80.

SIeNA SWIFt Daniel Guthrie, a founding Pitzer College faculty member and founding member of what’s now the W. M. Keck Science Department, died July 1, according to the Claremont Courier and a Claremont McKenna College news release. He was 80. Guthrie earned a master ’s degree in biology from Harvard

University and a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts, according to the CMC news release. He moved to Claremont in 1964 when he was hired as a founding member of Pitzer faculty and worked for the science department for 48 years. During his time at the 5Cs, Guthrie was “instrumental” to science department’s founding, helped plan the current Keck building and also coached women’s lacrosse, according to Pitzer President Melvin Oliver. Guthrie specialized in comparative anatomy, animal behavior, introductory biology and environmental science, according to the news release. He was an active member of the Pomona Valley Audubon Society for 40 years, where he served in many capacities, including president, fundraiser, program developer and newsletter producer. Guthrie was a devoted bird watcher and environmentalist, according to the news release. He collected an extensive comparative collection of U.S. bird

skeletons for use by museums and teachers. “Some people are born with a passion, and they know what they are going to do. He was that guy. It was birds the whole time,” his daughter Ruth Guthrie CM ’83 told the Courier. “He always needed to be outside.” Guthrie authored more than 70 papers and studies in biology, according to the news release. He was also a fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was active in the Southern California Academy of Sciences. Oliver expressed “sadness … yet also joy for this naturalist-birder-scholar who lived his passion for nature and shared it with generations of Pitzer students,” in an email to students July 23. No memorial service will be held, though Guthrie’s family urged students to honor his memory by spending time in nature, Oliver said. Guthrie is survived by his three daughters, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, according to the news release.

Ask tSL Have a burning question about the Claremont Colleges you want answered? Got something you want us to investigate? Help us help you better understand the 5Cs and send us any and all queries at editor@tsl.news.

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Life & StyLe

SEPtEmbEr 20, 2019 FOOD FILES

Pulitzer Prize-winning author tofu, mushrooms and Colson Whitehead visits Scripps green things: A peek into a student’s refrigerator ERIN SLICHTER

COUrtESY OF VCU LIbrArIES

Acclaimed author Colson Whitehead visited Scripps College on Sep. 17 to discuss his new novel “the Nickel boys.”

SOFIA SZYFER & YASMIN ELQUTAMI “I usually spend Tuesday nights alone in my apartment weeping over my regrets, so this is a nice change of pace,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead said to a full house in Scripps College’s Balch Auditorium on Tuesday night. Whitehead, author of the acclaimed novel “The Underground Railroad,” visited Scripps to discuss his latest novel, “The Nickel Boys,” about two boys in the Jim Crow-era South and their experiences at the Dozier School for Boys, a Floridian reform school. The novel is based on the 111-year history of Dozier, longknown for its mistreatment of schoolchildren and more recently recognized as the site where 55 unmarked graves of past students were discovered in 2014. “[2014] was a very rough year,” Whitehead recalled. “I came across [the Dozier School] report, and Michael Brown … and Eric Garner had been killed by white policemen.” Untold stories of racial injustice acted as a conduit for Whitehead’s early conception of “The Nickel Boys.” “If two cell phones captured [Brown’s and Garner’s] deaths, how many more are we not seeing?” he said. “If there’s one Dozier School, how many other schools do we not hear about?”

And, despite the fictional bent of “The Nickel Boys,” Whitehead noted the relevance of the novel in its potential to echo other histories of racial injustice, such as mass incarceration and voter suppression. He made clear, though, that he is foremost a storyteller, not a historian. “I have no obligation as a fiction writer to stay close to [facts]; I can deform them as much as I want … I’m not beholden to them, unlike journalists and nonfiction writers,” Whitehead said. Ultimately, he acknowledged that he did not want to speak on behalf of Dozier’s past students by trying to write with complete accuracy, citing his relative age and inability to ever perfectly understand the experiences of past Dozier students. “I encountered the story in the present, so my introductions to the story were from people in their 60s and 70s,” Whitehead said. “So, even if it touches 10 percent of what happened and what happened to them, I’m glad I didn’t let them down.” Though Whitehead said he was not beholden to factual history in his novels, he eventually returned to the significance of truth and history in fiction. “Not shrinking from the truth [is important],” he said.

“People are beautiful, but we’re also often quite ugly. That’s human history. That’s the human character. You can’t tell a story if you’re avoiding that.” Several 5C student attendees mentioned the importance of Whitehead’s loyalty to uncovering hidden narratives. “Colson Whitehead spoke about the justice the world owes to those it has buried,” Sophia Haber PO ’23 said via message. “We need that right now.” Audience members were also surprised to learn of organizations like the Dozier School. “I was never made aware of specific institutions like [the Dozier School],” Terry Reed PZ ’23 said. “Going into the event, I didn’t really know [much], but walking out of it, I just went, ‘Wow.’” Selena Lopez PO ’22 agreed, citing a general need for wider literary representation. “The importance of representation in literature cannot be emphasized enough,” Lopez said via message. “Being able to connect through words because you … see parts of yourself in the story is such a meaningful part of [reading] literature, and [Whitehead] definitely made that possible.”

Napa cabbage, silken tofu, two varieties of mushrooms and a 1-pound bag of chili powder — these are some of the tried and true staples lining the refrigerator and cabinet shelves of an off-campus kitchen. Kyla Smith SC ’19, who will graduate this fall, has lived off-campus since her sophomore year and is currently on the five meals per week plan. Last fall, she studied abroad in Osaka, Japan, where she cooked for herself with ingredients bought from a nearby store, packed into a backpack and lugged home on a bike. “I got to experiment with a lot of Japanese recipes, Korean recipes and Chinese recipes mostly, but also some South Asian recipes,” Smith said. “I really got into making fresh noodles.” Although she still keeps the fridge stocked with the usual suspects — “tofu, mushrooms and green things” — grocery shopping in Claremont is a different story than in Osaka. A 15-minute round-trip bike ride in Osaka opened the doors to more variety than Smith knew what to do with at first. In Claremont, access to a comparable selection requires two more wheels and a driver’s license. Smith, who doesn’t have a car, relies on friends to either pick up groceries for her or bring her along, meaning she doesn’t always have the chance to visit her favorite Asian groceries: 99 Ranch, H Mart and Hoa Binh. Instead, she takes opportunities to restock her fridge when they come up. “If someone were to tell me

they were going to Super King, I’d be like, ‘Oh, can I come along?’” Smith said. “Or even Trader Joe’s, I’d be like, ‘Oh, can I come along?’ Usually my fridge isn’t wellstocked … so if I hear someone’s going grocery shopping, I’ll just ask to go along.” Despite this inconvenience, Smith’s cooking is certainly not lacking flavor. All manners of bottles and jars lurk in every corner of her kitchen: sesame oil, soy sauce, black and white vinegar, assorted herbs, the Korean hot pepper paste gochujang and the famous Chinese chili sauce Lao Gan Ma. These ingredients, along with onion and garlic, become sauces that form the basis of many of Smith’s dishes. She especially likes using hot pepper and vinegar to add more flavor dimension to otherwise mild ingredients. Some favorite meals for Smith are hotpot and tteokbokki, a Korean rice cake stir-fry to which she adds a personal twist of mushrooms and vegetables. Sometimes, breakfast is a steaming bowl of noodles, tofu and eggs, but for fear of them breaking or spoiling on the bike ride home, eggs have yet to grace the shelves of Smith’s refrigerator this semester. Kimchi and homemade noodles are also on Smith’s to-do list, but she hasn’t found the time to undertake these more intensive projects. “It’s kind of relaxing to just knead dough for a while,” she said. “Here in Claremont, though, I just makes things that are really quick because I don’t feel like I have the luxury of time.” As for the kimchi, the two heads of napa cabbage lying in wait for their five-hour transformation process will have to wait a bit longer — at least until Smith finishes her Fulbright application.

ErIN SLICHtEr • tHE StUDENt LIFE

Kyla Smith SC ’19 enjoys experimenting with Japanese, Chinese, Korean and South Asian recipes in her off-campus kitchen.

COUCH POtAtO

On the perils of watching TV with your parents GABRIELLA DEL GRECO It’s a Saturday night, and me, my brother, dad and mom are perched on the couch watching TV. Finally, we’ve found something we can all watch together: “Succession,” a TV show about a filthy rich family with Machiavellian instincts. Though we may look like the picture of a happy home, danger lurks within our choice of entertainment. “How do I look?” a fictional news anchor asks in the show. “F.I.E. Mark” responds a woman in grey, “fuckable in an emergency.” My mom bursts into laughter. Sexual references in TV shows can be overly enlightening. Someone laughs just a little too loud and suddenly you have unwanted insight into their private lives. It can become apparent that parents are people with lives outside of their children, which can be a traumatic revelation in itself. At this point I’ve sat through more sex scenes with my parents than I care to remember. In “The Good Fight,” judges have sex with lawyers. In “The Good Place,” dead people have sex with dead people. In “Big Little Lies,” a sex scene is baked into the opening credits. The opening credits! While I have nothing against sex scenes as a concept, watching them with my parents has produced some of the most excruciating moments of my life. There’s nothing quite like the uncomfortable silence that descends. I become overly aware of my breathing and bodily movements — the only thing worse than watching a sex scene with your parents is pretending like

ANAGA SrINIVAS • tHE StUDENt LIFE

you enjoy it. As a result, I often find myself holding my breath, completely unintentionally. I suspect my parents have a similar response. The scene might be funny, but no one laughs, or says a word. We’re all too caught up in our own private hells. My experience is not uncommon. Some people though, presumably those raised in nudist collectivist communes, don’t have a problem with watching

sex scenes with their parents. I know someone who watched all of “Game of Thrones” with her mother without so much as an “eh.” However, I believe most people share my neuroses. One friend says she started pre-screening everything she’d watch with her parents in advance, then make up an excuse to use the bathroom at the exact moment a sex scene begins. A fine idea, except they started

pausing the show and waiting for her. Personally, I’ve tried cognitive behavioral exercises to no avail. “Imagine your thoughts filling up a balloon and then floating awaaay,” I tell myself, echoing the docile voice one would hear on some mindfulness tape. Closing my eyes works, but only for images. The latest “Succession” episode involved Kieran Culkin’s character having phone sex with a woman twice his age.

“You’re a slime puppy,” she says. “A dirty...” No amount of temporary blindness could mute the rustling noise. I’ve been watching TV shows with my parents for a long time, and each phase of my life has come with its own challenges. In fifth grade while watching “Glee,” the awkwardness was dimmed by the fact that I didn’t know exactly what was going on. I then went through a phase where two characters waking up in the same bed together was enough to give me the heebie-jeebies. In a way, watching HBO with my parents was freeing. I realized I could handle anything — not just implied sex, but actual nudity, Nicole Kidman nudity. I wouldn’t be happy, but it would be fine. One day I even suggested watching “Peep Show” to my mom, a British cult comedy about two 20-something male roommates. The first few episodes combined the obscene language of “Succession” with the frequent sex of “Big Little Lies.” In other words, it was worse than anything we’d watched so far. But I liked the show and felt excited to share it with my mom. I felt like I had become a new person, one more mature and less guarded, who could handle uncomfortable moments without letting them consume me. A few days later, my mom told me that she didn’t want to continue. I was honestly disappointed. But soon after, I felt relief. Some things, I realized, are best to be watched alone. Gabriella Del Greco SC ’21 is TSL’s TV columnist. She is majoring in economics and probably watches more TV than is medically recommended.

SEPtEmbEr 20, 2019

Life & StyLe

PAGE 5

SCENE ONE, HOt tAKE ONE

Three diamonds in the rough of a barren cinematic summer BEN HAFETZ If you’ve paid any attention to this summer’s film cycle, you’ve seen an industry in crisis. The total box office gross of summer 2019 posted a massive loss from last summer, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and if it weren’t for a movie made by Disney, the industry would’ve definitely bombed. It seems we’re entering an era in which only Disney reigns supreme. This potential mouse monopoly on theatrical films would mean that we’ll lose the chance to see new stories — the kinds that made many, including me, fall in love with film. In other words, we could very soon live in a world where the only films that make a profit in theaters are Marvel or Star Wars, and original films would be subjected to streaming networks such as Netflix. I know I sound like a cranky crackpot but hey, I’m a senior now. Anyway, before I go full oldman-yelling-at-the-sky, I must say I watched some really good films this summer. In fact, I made a list of three of the very best that came out between March and July. “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood,” written and directed by Quentin Tarantino “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood” follows has-been movie star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his never-been stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). The two grapple with falling behind the times in late 1960s Hollywood, with the rise of the Manson family serving as a backdrop. I often find that the majority of Tarantino’s work lacks real substance, serving only as aesthetically pleasing empty calories. “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood,” however, is anything but empty calories — it is Tarantino’s most mature and self-aware film to date.

It reckons with aging in a world where brand-new means best, providing a commentary on ageism and fading stardom in Hollywood that gives the film a certain level of profundity and elevates it from Tarantino’s usual style-over-substance approach. But if you find Tarantino’s commentary on aging in stardom a bit too niche to the film industry, don’t worry — “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood” still has something for everyone. In the film, coolness radiates in Pitt and DiCaprio’s career-defining performances, the flashy set design of late 1960s Hollywood, the soundtrack that manages to find the songs that you know would be playing in the cars of Hollywood’s biggest stars and the incredibly confident camera of Tarantino that somehow always knows where to be placed to seduce the viewer into the film’s world. This “coolness” is perhaps the film’s greatest strength, because it makes you crave the world that Tarantino has created. “The Beach Bum,” written and directed by Harmony Korine “The Beach Bum” follows Moondog (Matthew McConaughey), a once great poet who’s now content with living a life of drinking and smoking on the beaches of the Florida Keys, until an unexpected change in his life causes him to go on an odyssey around Florida to recapture his talent. The greatness of the film does not come from its plot, which is made up of a string of seemingly unconnected vignettes, but from its ability to express the joy of being truly carefree — a joy conveyed perfectly by McConaughey. The actor gives a career performance in a role that could not exist without his particular mag-

GrEtA LONG • tHE StUDENt LIFE

netic stoner charm. The combination of McConaughey’s skill, a hilarious script and Korine’s heavily stylized camera give the film a dream-like quality from which you never want to wake up. “Under The Silver Lake,” written and directed by David Robert Mitchell Mitchell’s follow-up to “It Follows” was delayed from premiering in cinema theaters due to the controversy surrounding the film’s plot, but its placement

on Amazon Prime has gifted it something of a cult following. The film follows Sam (Andrew Garfield), a Los Angeles man in his 20s, as he searches the city for clues regarding the disappearance of a young woman he met in a motel. The film itself is messy and 30 minutes too long, but there are moments of brilliance within its two hour and 20-minute runtime that make the film worth watching. In a year where bizarre Jeffrey Epstein stories have dominated headlines and made

conspiracy theories seem like a reality, I found Sam’s sense of paranoia to be extremely timely for our current moment. Honorable mentions of the summer include “Midsommar,” “John Wick 3,” “The Farewell” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” Ben Hafetz PZ ’20 is TSL’s film columnist. He is a media studies and politics double major who likes to not only see movies, but also tell his friends why they should or should not like certain ones.

THEATER: Claremont Todd Gray’s layered artistry on display community, 5C students fret at Pomona College Museum of Art over fate of Village theater YASMIN ELQUTAMI

tALIA bErNStEIN • tHE StUDENt LIFE

todd Gray stands in front of his piece “Euclidean Gris Gris (Paris/Cape town)” at Pomona College’s museum of Art.

MOLLY WU Juxtaposition is king at Todd Gray’s new “Euclidean Gris Gris” exhibition, which opened Sept. 3 at the Pomona College Museum of Art. The exhibition will be the last housed at the current art museum building on College Avenue, as the newly-constructed Benton Museum of Art across the street is eyeing a fall 2020 opening. The PCMA describes “Euclidean Gris Gris” as being part of “Gray’s ongoing artistic examination of the legacies of colonialism in Africa and Europe.” The exhibition’s title sets up a contrast between Western Euclidean geometry and African gris gris. In a Sept. 14 conversation with scholar Nana Adusei-Poku and moderator professor Phyllis Jackson, Gray said, “the gris gris is the spirit. The gris gris is that which cannot be said but is.” The pieces in the show are not fixed, meaning Gray will continuously add new works to the gallery, according to PCMA senior curator Rebecca McGrew. “I’ve never before made an academic year-long show with works rotating out,” she said. “There are three other of Gray’s artworks in our storage vault that will rotate in, and he will make more works.”

The gallery features a wall drawing, which frames the entrance to the exhibition and a set of 10 photographic pieces. In Gray’s work, photographs are placed together in a collage-like manner and surrounded by ornate frames. His images are pulled largely from his personal collection, ranging from galaxies to angular gardens and figures with concealed heads. “Every photograph poses a question and not one photograph offers an answer,” Gray said on his relationship to photography. “Photography enslaves us, it enslaves our thinking. It creates false narratives that we think are true … We think, ‘I see it, therefore it is real.’” In his piece “Parisian Hoods in Bamboo Village,” a photo of a bound and hooded figure is contrasted against a larger photo of a bamboo garden. Another piece, “Francis,” is “layered with a signature image from Todd, the Ghanian man in the white clothing, which are colonial clothes,” McGrew said. “Longing on a Large Scale,” a monthly series of nine events planned by Adusei-Poku and inspired by the exhibition, will follow the opening. “I asked if [Adusei-Poku]

would please collaborate with me and make the program component as part of the work, to contextualize the work so we can speak in specific,” Gray said during the museum conversation. On the purpose of “Longing on a Large Scale,” Adusei-Poku said, “I try to find ways to convey knowledge and to learn … through curating and being in conversation with the artist.” The program includes artists and thinkers who “work to unpack colonial paradigms and explore strategies of resistance,” according to the PCMA. The events include a Sept. 19 tour and talk on black art in museums by Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor in the School of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine. Christina Sharpe, professor of humanities at York University, will connect the notions of wake, ship, hold and weather to “existence and non-existence as a Black person in the world” in a talk on Oct. 24. “Todd Gray: Euclidean Gris Gris” will be on view at the Pomona College Museum of Art through May 17, 2020.

For more than 12 years, Claremont’s only movie theater has been a staple of the community. Now, its fate is uncertain. Officially named Laemmle Claremont 5, the theater belongs to an 81-year-old chain of nine Laemmle theaters across Southern California. At least part of the chain is up for sale, according to a report published by Deadline in August. It’s unclear whether Claremont’s Laemmle is included in the potential sale. Guy Valdez, general manager of the Claremont 5 location, has 22 years of experience with the Laemmle company and confirmed none of the theaters have been sold yet, though he said the chain is still pursuing sales. “No sales have gone through, but nothing has changed since the [Deadline] article [was published],” he said. Valdez attributed the company’s sales decision to low business, particularly blaming the lack of a youth presence. “From what I can tell, [Claremont 5] has had its ups and downs, as far as business,” Valdez said. “I would think there would be a lot more young people coming to the theater, especially at night, but it’s just not really that way … There’s so many other things for [younger people] to do.” Eddie Gonzalez PZ ’04, assistant director of production for the 5Cs’ Intercollegiate Media Studies department, has had a longstanding relationship with the Claremont 5 Laemmle and picked up early on its struggling business. “I’ve always wondered about the Laemmle: ‘Are they making their numbers, in terms of business?’” Gonzalez said. “Over the years, 5C students doing media studies were very connected to going to the theater. But between 2007 and now, streaming has obviously become a thing. It’s devices over cinema. Kids just don’t go.” Gonzalez, however, acknowledged a fault in the Laemmle for not tapping into relevant audiences at the Claremont Colleges, recommending a need for the theater to advertise itself as an educational resource. “They need to do a better job of outreach with regards to being a source of film education, because I don’t think they’ve ever even approached the Col-

leges,” Gonzalez said. “This isn’t just about watching movies, it’s about supporting and learning about the arts.” When asked how the Claremont 5 theater would revamp, Valdez didn’t mention the 5C student community and instead said the theater was looking to correct what he called “the streaming problem.” “We’re getting our alcohol license and bringing in new food items, and I believe the seats are going to change as well, and we’ll have recliner seats,” Valdez said. “Hopefully that will bring in more people, since the trend right now is trying to make everyone feel like they’re at home streaming the movie.” 5C students, though, expressed less of a discomfort with the logistics of the theater-going experience and instead found the theater to be untailored to their desires. Alan Ke PO ’22 said he felt the student discounts at the Laemmle were unclear and that even with a student discount, the experience was never special enough to warrant visiting the theater often. “It does what it does. If you want to watch a movie, you go there,” Ke said. “Maybe that’s why it’s such a hit with seniors, but I find that the Laemmle lacks its own experience and its own cohesive [style of] cinema, and it’s even a bit pricey.” Fernando Bolio PO ’22 and Selena Lopez PO ’22 also acknowledged that the Laemmle never advertised particularly well to a younger demographic. “I would be sad to see the Laemmle go, because I know it has a long history,” Lopez said. “But at the same time, I realize me and my friends never went very often.” Bolio felt the theater failed to adapt to a millennial and Generation Z demographic. “It’s nice to have an accessible theater in the Claremont Village, but, at the end of the day, students go for the movies, not the accessibility,” he said. “After all, the fullest I’ve seen the Laemmle was for a Marvel movie.” Valdez, the manager, found the charm of the theater to be in its old-school hospitality and said the strength of the Laemmle was rooted in its small-town charm. “We’re not the type of theater where [everyone is] just robots — in and out, in and out,” Valdez said. “We talk to our customers, ask them what they’ve seen … That’s what brings people here: You can’t see these movies or this customer service anywhere else.” As the chain remains on the market, the local theater will continue screening movies, and its customer service will keep welcoming moviegoers.

Life & StyLe

PAGE 6 tHE DOWNbEAt

Six new noteworthy songs to add to your end-of-summer playlist

ANAGA SrINIVAS • tHE StUDENt LIFE

ELLA BOYD Summer 2019 may be known as “Hot Girl Summer” because of Megan Thee Stallion’s hit song, but there were tons of other new music releases this summer. As summer winds down, here’s a list of songs from other artists worth adding to your playlist. “Cinnamon Girl” by Lana Del Rey “Cinnamon Girl” is a triumphant, lush song that stands as well on its own as it fits into Del Rey’s “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” album. In “Cinnamon Girl,” Del Rey is more direct and assertive than ever before. The pre-chorus rings: “If you hold me without hurting me / You’ll be the first who ever did.” Del Rey later invites this affection directly, crooning, “Be the first who ever did,” showing a vulnerable desire for affection rarely exposed in her earlier work. This self-awareness combined with impeccable production and Del Rey’s signature dreamy style transforms itself into a catchy, moody and certifiable summer hit. “Softly” by Clairo Clairo’s signature lo-fi style soars with her latest album, “Immunity,” released in August. “Softly” plays to Clairo’s strengths: It is just the right combination of cheesy and lovelorn without being cliché. Above Clairo’s soft background vocals, the chorus asks, “Do you think that we can move closer, baby? I want you / Yeah, yeah / And all my life, been wanting this forever.” Clairo is only 21, but her youth only adds to her undeniable charm. “Softly” is hopeful — a love song without the hardships that come with maturing. With this soft summer love anthem, Clairo hits all the right notes and pulls all the right heartstrings. “Surf” by Young Thug Released Aug. 16 as part of Young Thug’s “So Much Fun” album, “Surf” is about as summery as a song can get — it’s a bright, catchy, hip-hop song about riding the wave. In the chorus, Young Thug repeats the word “surf” over an instrumental reminiscent of Lil Yachty, evoking happy feelings and an urge to get up and move. Even if the song “Surf” isn’t literally about surfing, this song was practically designed to be played while driving to the beach or hanging out in the sun. “Love Got Us Beefin” by Nef the Pharaoh Nef the Pharaoh has enjoyed his share of hits, including “Big Tymin” and “Bling Blaow.” But his latest album, “Mushrooms and Coloring Books,” released Aug. 14, promises a different sound and focus. In “Love Got Us Beefin,” Nef the Pharaoh raps about one girl, speaking about the interaction of modern romance

and show business. The rapper includes more vocals than usual on this track, and the track has a (dare I say?) sweeter feel to it than much of his other music. With lines proclaiming his displays of affection like “I brought her flowers to the nail shop,” and other nostalgic lines like “We started out as high school sweethearts / Time got between and we fell apart,” “Love Got Us Beefin” is a summer love song for the long drives and warm nights. “Hey, Ma” by Bon Iver Bon Iver released its latest album “i, i” on Aug. 9, with its current sound remaining loyal to its older work — smooth, haunting and full of depth. “Hey, Ma” is full of slow builds, soothing drum beats and Justin Vernon’s signature voice. It’s the song you’ll want playing while sitting around a campfire or staring into the night sky. “Hot Shower” by Chance the Rapper (feat. DaBaby & MadeinTYO) “Hot Shower” may be the song of the summer, besides “Hot Girl Summer,” obviously. Chance the Rapper released his debut studio album, “The Big Day,” on July 26. “Hot Shower” is energetic, a steady flow of the rapper’s signature, intellectual and often humorous lyrics, but MadeinTYO and DaBaby’s features on the track are arguably what makes this song so great, as the three rappers’ different sounds blend surprisingly well together. The mood shifts between the artists but never changes completely within their different verses. DaBaby is the most compelling over the instrumental, as the chorus is simple, and his vocals are just so easy to follow. Notable lyrics of this track include: “Dude, that shit don’t even make no fucking sense / Like having fuckin’ arguments for payin’ 50 extra cents for barbecue / Saucing on the workers at McDonald’s / I don’t wanna sit and argue, Good Burger shoulda taught you / We all dudes.” Who doesn’t want to rap along to that? As the warm nights die down and this summer winds to a halt, classes have started up again at the Claremont Colleges. We’re blessed to enjoy the nice weather all year long, but whenever you need a little pick-me-up, these songs will transport your mind right back to the more freeing days filled with trips to the beach and campfires. Ella Boyd SC ’22 is TSL’s music columnist. Besides writing, she enjoys listening to music, discussing pop culture and making art.

SEPtEmbEr 20, 2019

Pitzer art exhibits emphasize prison reform KEATON SCHILLER Prison reform, abolition and justice have been popular topics of conversation across the Claremont Colleges, and on Sept. 14, Pitzer College transformed these abstract conversations into concrete pieces of art. Pitzer College opened its Lenzner and Nichols Galleries for the first time this academic year to present two complementary exhibitions: “Disruption! Art and the Prison Industrial Complex” and “Degrees of Visibility.” The exhibits considered the social effects of the U.S. penal system, the aesthetics of mass incarceration and how art can change the lives of those affected by the prison system. “Disruption!” showcased nine artists, four of which have been or are currently incarcerated. The exhibit was curated by Annie Buckley, founder of Prison Arts Collective, which currently facilitates programming in 10 prisons across California. Buckley expressed the significance of giving voices to incarcerated artists. “Many of the people I know who are incarcerated and artists ask me, ‘Can you show my work?’ because they want their voices heard,” Buckley said. “They want people to know that they’re human.” Stan Hunter, one of the featured artists in “Disruption!”, was incarcerated for more than 30 years. During his time in prison, he taught himself to paint and draw, using his art to communicate and connect with his loved ones. Hunter began to use a white colored pencil, drawing shadows to create 3D effects, before going on to teach others in the prison how to paint. Hunter explains how art helped him connect with his inner self. Like several pieces in the exhibit, Hunter’s work moves beyond aesthetic and centers around the healing and transformative effects of art.

ALYSSA LEONG • tHE StUDENt LIFE

Visitors admire the work of Stan Hunter, who taught himself to paint while incarcerated for 30 years, at the Nichols Gallery’s “Disruption!” exhibit.

“There’s just something magical about engaging in art that can take you from being lost and stuck,” Hunter said. “I still don’t think I’m an artist. But I certainly have something to care and talk about.” Now Hunter is a lead teaching artist at the Prison Arts Collective. Working with incarcerated individuals, Hunter helps them learn how to make art and use it as a medium to connect with family and friends. “I tell these guys to bring me a photo of your loved one and we’re going to paint and mail it to them and all of a sudden it’s a new lease on life for them,” Hunter said. Meanwhile, in Ashley Hunt’s “Degrees of Visibility,” Hunt explores the external aspects of the prison system. Hunt said he’s been examining the prison system through his work since the late 1990s, which affected how he photographed prisons during the late 2000s. Instead of trying to show what prisons look like, Hunt began to capture how prisons are concealed from the public. This new direction caused him to question if this recurring theme of camou-

flage is purposeful and speaks to mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex as a whole. “I think people start to realize that, in reality, the prison industrial complex is about erasing certain people,” Hunt said. In his work, Hunt hopes to not replicate the way prisons hide people, but to give incarcerated people visibility by educating audiences on the people in each complex. Jessica Sass PZ ’22, who worked as a curatorial intern for “Degrees of Visibility,” believes it’s important for students to come to the exhibit to engage in meaningful discussion about the U.S. penal system. “There’s a lot of rhetoric on campus around prison reform and prison abolition,” Sass said. “However, I feel this exhibit really gives students the opportunity to have these conversations beyond just a quick social media post. This event goes beyond performative activism to actual dialogue and conversation that can lead to more understanding.” “Degrees of Visibility” is located in the Lenzner Family Art Gallery and “Disruption!” in the Nichols Gallery. The exhibitions will be open until Dec. 6.

fashion spotlight: When college hallways become fashion runways

LUbA mASLIY • tHE StUDENt LIFE

Alejandro maldonado PO ’22 and brian bishop PO ’22 sit on the steps of Pomona College’s Studio Art Hall.

KYLA WALKER 5C students come from cities all over the world, bringing with them their favorite flag-patterned dresses, shoes worn-in from treks across burning concrete and outfits inherited from family or enigmatic strangers. For many of them, fashion is about more than just grabbing the cleanest shirt and running to class. Each clothing item is attached to a memory, like the chorus of a favorite song. Choosing the outfit of the day doesn’t become just another routine; it becomes a cherished tradition that they look forward to each morning. Brian Bishop PO ’22 has a specific piece he treasures. “So, I have this dope hoodie. It’s like a black pointed hood with two buttons, and it looks so majestic, with flowers on the front,” he said. “I look like a magician of sorts [when I wear it].” The jacket has held a special place in his heart, reminding him of the time he worked at a summer camp in the middle of Maine. “On our day off, we went to this thrift shop and found the jacket. Then I would wear it every single time while playing ‘Magic: The Gathering’ with

the kids. They loved it,” Bishop said. “And it’s cool that I have that memory attached to the jacket now.” Alejandro Maldonado PO ’22 uses fashion to represent his hometown: Brooklyn. “I feel like my barber from back home was a huge influence on my style … I still follow him on Instagram, and he tips me off on the best places to shop,” Maldonado said. “I feel like growing up in the city, you’re always sort of window-shopping. You can’t walk down the street without seeing mad stores and things to buy.” Outfits on campus emphasize comfort, affordability and style. Several students said they find examples of street style through Instagram influencers, but are able to tweak them to fit their own unique image. “I wear a bunch of different things. One day, I can wear all black and then the next day, I can be super colorful,” Taylor Lehner PZ ’22 said. “Outfit choices represent your mood and who you are as a person. My main thing is I want to be comfortable, but still have style.” Different trends have come and gone these past few years in Claremont, though some pieces like Birkenstocks, high-waisted shorts and distressed jeans have stood the test of time.

“I definitely like the ‘90s look. I’m a fan of denim-on-denim,” Lehner said. Strange or strategic choices can often be the most fascinating. “I try to design my outfits around a certain item, like a specific pair of pants or a pair of sneakers … Light-wash, tight, ripped jeans are a classic,” Maldonado said. “I used to wear button-downs all the time just because it was easy, but I try to not do stuff that’s that easy anymore.” When asked about how their style is influenced by past trends, students had mixed responses. “These sneakers are the same ones that Spike Lee wore in ‘Do the Right Thing.’” Maldonado said. “Of course I look to the past for inspiration. They were the first to do it.” Bishop proposed a different take. “I don’t look at anybody else. I just look at myself. I probably get influenced by some things, like I own a snapback,” he said. “But there’s no past, no present, no future; it’s just me and my clothes.” Fashion makes students feel good about themselves, even if they aren’t thoroughly knowledgeable about the industry. “To me, good fashion doesn’t mean knowing everything about cuts and fits. It just means you’re able to express yourself,” Bishop said.

OpiniOns

September 20, 2019

pAGe 7

Trump’s going to lead us to another 9/11 GEORGIA SCOTT It’s been nearly a week since the 18th anniversary of 9/11 and I can’t shake the eerie, doomed feeling that history might be repeating itself. The frequently forgotten lead-up to 9/11 was fraught with American exceptionalism, the same American exceptionalism we see our administration emitting today. American exceptionalism, a term coined by Joseph Stalin and the American Communist Party in the 1920s, is made up of three essential ideas, according to The Week. The first is that our nation’s history is inherently different, unique and therefore better than all other nations. The second is that the U.S. has an altruistic (in actuality, not altruistic at all) mission to improve the world. The third is that because of our county’s mission and history, we are superior to other nations. Here’s an example: In 1990, shortly after Saddam Hussein forcefully occupied Kuwait, President George H.W. Bush signed off on Operation Desert Storm, part of the Persian Gulf War. Desert Storm killed 10,000 Iraqi soldiers and 2,300 civilians, and also resulted in 219 U.S. army casualties, according to news reports. This is a sad example of America inserting itself, thinking we’re going to magically solve all international conflicts, and in reality, murdering thousands of innocent people. This isn’t to say America had no place in the Gulf War. Natural crude oil seems to be what makes the world go round, and as the largest consumer of that oil, we are in the middle of any conflict surrounding the collection of crude oil, according to the Department of Energy. The shocking and appalling part of America’s involvement in the Gulf War is that we killed thousands of Middle Easterners, as re-

ported by PBS/FRONTLINE, as if their lives were less important than ours. The anger and hate aimed at America after the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm was not random. I will never claim that what Osama bin Laden did is justifiable, or that the loss of 2,977 innocent lives, according to CNN, during the World Trade Center’s attack makes sense. I will, however, say that our current administration is putting our country in danger of another massive terrorist attack. President Donald Trump is practicing the same American exceptionalism that George H.W. Bush used to justify Operation Desert Storm in the ongoing Syrian conflict. As Trump continues to insert U.S. forces (and missiles) into the Middle East in ways that mirror Bush’s behavior during the Persian Gulf War, it is entirely possible that someone is going to get very angry and retaliate. In just one Trump U.S. military-led campaign against ISIS, we killed 2,600 civilians, according to NPR’s Ruth Sherlock and Lama Al-Arian. In addition, this president uses violent rhetoric and threatens Iraq almost weekly. While campaigning for office, he vowed to “bomb the shit out of” countries in the Middle East. You don’t have to be a genius to understand that having a president who so carelessly threatens people, and even worse, carelessly bombs people, is putting our entire nation in danger. If history repeats itself, innocent U.S. civilians are going to pay the price. The proposed national security budget for 2020, released by the Department of Defense in March of this year, is $750 billion. The largest portion of the

budget, $57.7 billion, has been dedicated to air domination. In other words, the bombs and missiles this president carelessly deploys. Of course, this does not lie solely in the hands of Republicans, a fact all too often overlooked. An article on Politico clearly outlines all of the 2020 presidential candidates standings on military spending. Of the 12 Democratic presidential candidates for 2020 still running as of Sept. 18 that have declared a position on military spending, half of them want to increase the budget. (All the female candidates want to slash it, but that’s for another article). This notion that all our presidents seem to praise, that physically destroying nations will somehow resolve their conflict, is the grimmest oxymoron I’ve ever heard. America is not the best and that’s clear now more than ever. We can’t continue to treat other countries like they are less than we are. It’s the classic middle school bully scenario. Someone bullies the wimp day after day for years. Then one day the so-called wimp comes back, bigger, stronger and with a hijacked plane full of terrorists. We owe it to the thousands of people whose lives were turned irreversibly upside down by 9/11 to demand more from our administration. Demand that we treat humans like humans and help instead of hurt. Demand that we feel safe in our own country. We must demand that history never repeats itself. We need to honor the lives of those lost in 9/11 through change and progress, because in all honesty, thoughts and prayers once

Through my high school’s library, I was fortunate to have free access to quality news publications. For four years, I had unlimited access to The New York Times, The Economist and more. So when I first arrived at college, I was surprised when a window asking me to “register to read this article” covered my computer screen. It quickly dawned on me that I had no way to circumvent it. Considering Claremont McKenna College’s 2019-2020 average cost of attendance is $76,475, subscriptions to news publications ought to be included in that price, and now they are. In high school, the cost of these subscriptions came with the cost of my education — because they were a vital part of it. I credit high-quality journalism for bursting my sheltered bubble. It made my world bigger, improved my writing and fueled my passion for social change. ASCMC recently partnered with CMC President Hiram Chodosh and Open Academy to provide all students with free Wall Street Journal and New York Times subscriptions, according to an email sent to students. CMC’s mission promises relationships that enhance “critical inquiry” and an “intellectual environment that promotes respon-

sible citizenship.” This change builds the integrity of CMC, bringing it closer to the type of institution it says it wants to be. Stephen Moore, who was an economic adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, spoke at the Athenaeum last school year. Moore recommended regularly reading the Wall Street Journal’s opinions and editorials. Politics aside, Moore’s advice coincides with a primary goal at CMC. Using the Athenaeum as its treasured tool, CMC encourages openness to differing, even opposing perspectives. This open-mindedness is why Heterodox Academy awarded CMC the Institutional Excellence Award for being “‘the college or university that has done the most to advance or sustain open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement either on its campus or nationally.’” Providing access to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal promotes diversity in perspectives while maintaining support for accurate and fair reporting. While this is a laudable collaboration between CMC’s administration and student government, the change exposes an entrenched stigma of unfairness and elitism in higher education. With the enormous

Georgia Scott PZ ’23 is from Marin County, California. She loves the color yellow, her dog Diego, classic rock, “This American Life” and movies.

ANAGA SrINIVAS • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

Quality journalism isn’t a luxury for students. It’s a right GEORGIA TUCKERMAN

a year just aren’t serving their memories justice.

endowment and tuition dollars that many institutions sit on, it’s a shame that access to quality journalism is not more readily accessible to students. That being said, CMC students are extremely fortunate to go to a school that has the means to support them. The ability to provide such an expense isn’t only a testament to a school’s core values, but to its capital. More disadvantaged institutions withhold such costly resources to no moral fault of their own. It is crucial that CMC students are mindful of their own privilege and help students at other schools, who may not be as fortunate, claim their right to read the news. Access to accurate and fair journalism shouldn’t be a luxury to a college student — it’s a right. Additionally, it’s a win-win-win for higher educational institutions. Students will be happier and more intellectually curious, colleges uphold their values and the world gains a more engaged and prepared professional and civic community. Georgia Tuckerman CM ’22 is from Columbus, Ohio. She is passionate about government and foreign affairs and enjoys playing tennis and eating ice cream.

Hey, pomona admin — FLi students deserve textbooks, too BROOKE SPARKS Course registration sucks. If your initial thoughts after reading that were “Oh, it wasn’t that bad,” you probably had a good registration time this semester. When you’re allowed to choose your classes anytime before noon, the process only seems slightly tedious. You might have to account for upcoming schedule conflicts, but for the most part, your classes are yours for the choosing. The worse your time gets, the worse your pickings are. The worse your pickings are, the more PERMs you have to write and the more classes you have to sit in. Now, apply this same logic to buying textbooks. We can all agree that textbooks are ridiculously expensive. But if shopping for textbooks only ranks as slightly tiresome instead of extremely stressful for you, I need you to realize that your socioeconomic background is the equivalent of having a “before noon” registration time. Low-income students at Pomona College are experiencing the equivalent of writing 50 PERMs and having all of them rejected. I hesitate to even compare this process to PERMs, because PERMing at least makes some semblance of sense. Relying on emergency grants to be able to afford textbooks, however, does not. The word “emergency” in the phrase “emergency grant” implies that the money given should be used to support students facing serious, unexpected circumstances. Low-income students not being able to afford textbooks is certainly serious, but the administration should have expected that the moment they sent out their acceptance letters. The phrasing “emergency grant” alone reinforces the separation of low-income students from the rest of the Pomona community. For everyone else, being unable to afford textbooks probably would be an unexpected circumstance. Low-income students expect this problem every semester, yet there is currently no system in place to consistently and reliably support them. Pomona supposedly offers $500 textbook vouchers to some FLI (first-generation and/or low-income) students, but only first-year students are eligible, according to Pomona Dean of Students Avis Hinkson. Under a new policy for this academic school year, students can also buy their books at the Huntley Bookstore and bill their student

account directly, according to Pomona Director of Financial Aid Robin Thompson. But, only students whose financial aid, outside scholarships and loans exceed the cost of tuition can be fully reimbursed through this process, Thompson said. For everyone else, it’s just another loan that will have to be repaid. Also, chances are if you couldn’t afford the textbooks before, you probably can’t afford to bill it to your student account, especially considering that those on work-study are not automatically guaranteed on-campus jobs. FLI students’ options are limited. They can apply for an “emergency” grant, but they run the risk of getting their request rejected, according to students who have applied for them. They can bill the costs to their student account, but in many cases they’ll need to apply for a lot of jobs on campus to eventually repay it. They can visit the book room in Walker Lounge, but it might not have the books they need. Or, if they’re like me, they can just drop the class and hope to find one with a cheaper reading list to fulfill their requirements next semester. And yeah, there are other (illegal) solutions to these problems. But those solutions are not given to you by the same members of the administration that sat you down during orientation week, looked you in the eye and vowed to help you thrive here. Those are the solutions that you find on your own. Every year, Pomona showboats its percentage of first-generation and low-income students that make up its first-year class. Every year, Pomona is ranked as one of the colleges with the highest endowment per student in the U.S. And yet, every year, as I’ve observed, Pomona fails to adequately support many of its low-income students who are just trying to do what they came here to do: learn. This isn’t just a problem at the 5Cs. Universities nationwide constantly brand themselves as places of opportunity for first-generation and low-income students and consistently fail to accommodate their needs, further perpetuating the cycle of poverty. Problems like this can only be solved through administrative action. An unconditional $500 textbook grant for all FLI students would be a great start. If Pomona wants to advertise that they support first-generation and low-income students, it needs to start actually playing the part. Brooke Sparks PO ’22 is from Las Vegas, Nevada. Although she is part of FLI, she wants to make it clear that these views are her own and do not reflect those of the entire FLI community.

OpiniOns

pAGe 8

September 20, 2019

Though inconvenient, Duo For minor inconveniences, forget provides necessary protection your therapist and turn to finsta MICHELLE LUM It was the second week of school, and I was trying to complete a math problem set with my friend. The only problem was that he couldn’t log into Sakai to see the problems. He had broken his phone, and because of Duo Security’s two-factor authentication process, he needed another device aside from his computer to complete the process of signing into his account. But, of course, he didn’t have one. By now, students at Harvey Mudd College, Claremont McKenna College and Pitzer College have become familiar with using a two-factor authentication process from Duo whenever they log into the colleges’ online systems through the Central Authentication Service. Pomona College and Scripps College have yet to implement Duo for students. Systems that use the CAS include student portals, Sakai, Handshake, Workday and library databases. To access their accounts, students and staff must first enter a username and password, then either respond to a Duo Push sent to the Duo mobile application on their phone, answer a phone call or use a passcode. Across the Claremont campuses, students seem to generally feel that Duo is inconvenient since it has created a longer process for signing in and difficult situations like the one that my friend found himself in. However, in today’s age of hacks and phishing, a username and password simply aren’t enough to keep data secure. Multi-factor authentication provides a much needed barrier between online data and those who might

collect that data without users’ permission, sometimes for nefarious purposes. Passwords account for 81 percent of data breaches, according to the 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report from Verizon. People often use the same or similar passwords for all of their accounts, and such information can be stolen or guessed relatively easily. If the only step involved in the login process is entering a username and password, a website cannot tell the difference between the real user and an impersonator. For example, earlier this year, hackers gained access to the data of applicants to three U.S. colleges through phishing. They sent emails that appeared to be authentic to staff at Oberlin College, Grinnell College and Hamilton College to trick employees into giving them passwords. At the time, these three colleges had been using a single sign-on security system that only required a username and password for login. That’s where multi-factor authentication comes in. Multi-factor authentication is a process of verifying a user’s identity by forcing the user to complete a multi-step login process, typically with another device that the real user should be able to access. It ensures that someone attempting to log in as a user is truly that user because only that user should be able to have access to the second device needed to complete the login process. Furthermore, all colleges receiving federal funds are required to be in compliance with

the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, which requires colleges and universities to protect students’ online data. Since the Claremont Colleges receive federal funds, the Department of Education requires them to protect students’ online data, and one way that they can do so is by using Duo’s multi-factor authentication process. For those who are still not convinced that we need Duo, it’s really not that inconvenient to use. Users can add multiple devices to their account in case one device is lost, stolen or broken. Additionally, CMC and HMC students who use the same device to log into the colleges’ online systems have the option of allowing Duo to remember their device for 30 days, so that they only have to complete the second step of the sign-in process every 30 days. Unfortunately, Pitzer students can only have their devices remembered for 24 hours, but this is a small price to pay for the advantages of Duo. To make security more convenient for Pitzer students and staff, Pitzer administration should look into lengthening the period for which devices are remembered. For the benefit of added security, we can put up with a little more inconvenience in our lives. I highly doubt Claremont students would prefer their data stolen and weaponized in exchange for a few extra seconds in their day. Michelle Lum HM ’23 is from San Jose, California. She enjoys traveling, exploring the outdoors and eating too many chocolate chip cookies.

ANAGA SrINIVAS • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

eLAINe YANG • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

CAMERON TIPTON It’s 3 a.m. on a Saturday, and there are feelings. Feelings about the cute boy in your environmental analysis class, about that awkward moment in Frary Dining Hall when you thought someone was waving at you and you waved back a little too enthusiastically and about the acrylic nail you broke on the treadmill but can’t go back to fix because the nail technician told you to be careful. These are small things you wouldn’t want to burden your therapist with, for fear they would dismiss you as a “dramatic college student” and begin doodling idly in their notepad while you explained, yes, you should have been more careful. But it wasn’t your fault that your nails turned out so long, especially since you explained that this was your first set… Sounds like something only a finsta can solve. While there is a general consensus that the term “finsta” is an amalgamation of “fake” and “insta” (as in, an Instagram account), its function is left to the discretion of the user. These accounts are generally followed by fewer people (usually close friends) and contain content not suitable for the main Instagram account. Some use it to post provocative content they don’t want co-workers or relatives to see, while others (myself included) use it to rant about the inconveniences of everyday life, the so-called “little things” users feel it would not be worth-

while to unpack in therapy. Even beyond the seemingly unimportant ranting opportunities a finsta provides, the flexibility of timing is equally alluring. Say you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night where you were stabbing your ex with a moldy fish. What the hell does it all mean? Take to finsta and you’ll soon find out! There’s a good chance at least a few of your followers will be awake, regurgitated psychoanalytic theories and personal anecdotes in hand. This leads me to my next point: audience. There are certain things we may only feel comfortable talking to professionals about, but, generally speaking, we tend to put our best face forward in therapy. I know I do. Therapists can only give back what you put in, and oftentimes it can be difficult to put in 100 percent authenticity. Finstas create a platform where you can air your grievances and receive input from people who probably know things about you that you don’t feel comfortable sharing with Dr. Johnston. Therapy is important. I’m not negating that by any means. But sometimes that’s not enough. One or two sessions a week cannot unpack all the shit life throws our way every second of every day. Nor should they. So next time there’s a minor inconvenience in your life and you feel compelled to suppress it — don’t. Take to finsta instead. Cameron Tipton PO ’20 is a psychology major and avid finsta user. You can follow them to find out their deepest darkest secrets and meretricious ramblings at @plasticpersianprincess.

Disability support goes beyond accommodations DONNIE TC DENOME I am transgender, queer and disabled. I am able to be as out and proud of my identities as I am today because of key social, cultural and legal events: the Stonewall riots, the 504 sit-ins, various pro-LGBTQIA+ marches in Washington, D.C., the Capitol Crawl, Lawrence v. Texas, Olmstead v. L.C., the striking of Proposition 8 in California and the Americans with Disabilities Act. All of those events contribute to rich communities with long histories and cultures within the United States. It would be foolish to argue that LGBTQIA+ people or disabled people do not have substantial cultural movements. Yet at the Claremont Colleges, celebration of queer cultures is ingrained in our community, while celebration of disabled cultures is less visible. This is in large part due to the lack of any sort of disability cultural center on the campuses. The 7C Student Disability Resource Center and disability services at all seven colleges do good work. Their work, however, is focused on academic and housing accommodations. Events focused on disability history and culture on campus are more often held by student groups or through academic programming, although the SDRC and campus-specific offices provide financial and social support for some events. The bigger issue is that neither these offices nor any other office provide continued cultural or social support for disabled students in the same way that, say, the Queer Resource Center does for LGBTQIA+ students. It’s easy to see why: fulfilling their legal mandate to provide accommodations to hundreds of disabled students is already enough of a task. Failing to see disability as a core identity (akin to gender, race or socioeconomic status) and instead viewing it as a pathology to be accommodated alienates disabled students from our community’s history and culture. The colleges may be doing what is required of them by law to the best of their ability, but it isn’t enough.

Disability accommodations do have roots in the social model of disability, which views disability as just as much the failure of an ableist society as a pathology or problem. But a true social model view of disability services would also acknowledge the history and culture of disability. Young people have always had a significant role in disability rights movements. It is imperative that young disabled people know this — know our community’s history — and that we know it as we transition into college, adulthood and lives of our own. For many marginalized students, college is the first time we can meet other young people like us. Disability is no exception. Disability history, like any history of a marginalized group, is full of struggle, violence and pain, but it is also full of pride and wonder. To ignore or deny the history and culture of the community that owns it is to pretend that disability is static, negative and isolating. It is to deny the existence of the power of disability rights movements, and it is to place shame on the shoulders of disabled people just for existing. I don’t want to imply that culturally competent and culture-specific services in Claremont completely remedy systemic injustices for marginalized students, faculty and staff of any group. Marginalized community members of all backgrounds are routinely screwed over, and it’s often marginalized community members who do the bulk of work to make sure our communities get what they need on campus. I also don’t want to imply that I expect the already overworked staff members of the SDRC and campus-specific disability services offices (many of whom are disabled themselves) to take on the burden of running a disability cultural center. The colleges, as a whole, should take on the task of creating and staffing such a center, just like they have done with cultural

programs and centers for many other marginalized groups. We also are not starting from nothing: the SDRC already provides a small lending library of books on disability history and culture, hosts sessions teaching students about assistive technology, is starting an Autism Support Program this year and provides spaces for student-run support and social groups to meet. It is possible to expand on these existing services and learn from the experiences of schools who already have disability cultural centers.

Lack of cultural and historic knowledge within any group breeds complacency — it is easy to scam someone who doesn’t know their rights. In conversations with other disabled students, I have had to explain basic historical, cultural and even legal concepts — advice that should not fall to a 21-year-old student with no formal training. Disability is natural. It has always existed and will always exist. To only provide accommodations as “disability services” is to deny disabled

students, staff and faculty of a history and culture so many of us are ignorant of. It imperils our future to not know our past. We deserve better. We and our communities have fought for too long to be denied pride, belonging and a space of our own on campus. Donnie TC Denome PZ ’20, CG ’21 is a 4+1 B.A./MPH public health major from Sunnyvale, California. They recommend everyone read “You Get Proud by Practicing” by Laura Hershey for another look at what disability culture is.

ANAGA SrINIVAS • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

OpiniOns

September 20, 2019

pAGe 9

Jasper’s Crossword: Check Yourself

JASper DAVIDOFF • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

ACROSS 1. Their levels are rising as the ice caps melt 5. Their glaciers are melting onto France and Germany 9. Foolish 13. “For here ___ go?” 14. Congressional candidates aim for one 15. Actress Fanning 16. Old McDonald’s spot 17. Dining hall “bar” with green offerings 19. Game with Colonel Mustard 20. Mongolia’s continent 21. John Nolan is the LAPD’s oldest new officer 23. Type of car that hitched a ride on a SpaceX rocket 25. Wile E. Coyote’s weapon of choice

26. Hank Hill is a propane salesman with a family in Texas 34. Panic 35. Lake between U.S. and Canada 36. Lawyers’ org. 39. Princess Fiona’s headwear 40. December 21, re. this semester 41. Saxophonist Coltrane (John’s son) 43. Female golf star Sörenstam 45. Batman has to defend Gotham from the Joker 49. “___ threw it on the ground!” 50. Rakes in 53. Members of the Harrison family figure out how much resold goods are worth

59. ____ gear (armor for cops) 60. Flighty dynamics 61. Stand for a canvas 62. Sweetie 63. The Batcave, e.g. 64. Forgone tiny iPod 65. Leer (at) 66. Strong ____ ox 67. Soft ____ (tender feeling) 68. Wood for a woodwind DOWN 1. “Yo mama is _____...” 2. Rub out 3. In danger 4. Type of pirates in “Captain Phillips” 5. Prof. below assoc. 6. Biblical wife of Jacob 7. Seem tiny (in comparison to) 8. One of 19 on Indiana’s flag

Claremont doesn’t have to look far for a Green New Deal BEN REICHER On Friday, hundreds of thousands of young people are striking worldwide, walking out of school to demand our governments act on global warming — the most serious threat our generation will ever face. As the policy coordinator of Sunrise Claremont Colleges, I will be among them, at the Youth Climate Strike in Downtown Los Angeles. Sunrise Claremont Colleges is a hub of the Sunrise Movement, a national youth-led climate justice movement that has been the leading proponent of the Green New Deal. Introduced in Congress in February, this resolution calls for a 10-year nationwide mobilization to fight climate change by decarbonizing the U.S. economy, and (in the style of the original New Deal) hopes to use this as an opportunity to counter wage stagnation and bring back middle-class blue collar jobs. But, as the Claremont Colleges turn their attention to our fellow students around the world, work is being done toward a Green New Deal right in our own community. And it reveals the keystone of successful climate action: the local community itself. Last summer, I volunteered with a Claremont environmental nonprofit called Claremont-Pomona Locally Grown Power, whom I learned about when I covered them for TSL. Founded by Devon Hartman PZ ’77, LGP hopes to build a solar panel assembly factory in nearby Pomona, the first in the world run by a nonprofit. The factory would create well-paying jobs (with employees starting at $15 an hour) in Pomona, where over 20 percent of residents live below the poverty line. Because LGP has exclusive access to a patented technology that makes panels more efficient, panels could be installed on local homes for free or at a greatly reduced cost, with a goal of installing panels on 6,000 homes in the first two years. Working with LGP convinced me that, if the Green New Deal is to win and retain public support, it has to highlight the benefits it can bring to local communities. Equally importantly, Green New Deal proponents must forge con-

nections with local communities, making the latter feel like they are part of the solution as much as possible. This may seem intuitive, but isn’t always done in practice. By framing the Green New Deal as a grand effort to right the country’s socioeconomic wrongs, Green New Deal proponents can overemphasize this macrocosmic vision, and inadequately explain how benefits will spread from the national level to the community level. What most Americans are really interested in, however, is how the Green New Deal can improve their daily lives. People are naturally risk-averse, and hesitant (as they should be!) to embrace change if they don’t see what’s in it for them.

Green New Deal proponents must forge connections with local communities, making the latter feel like they are part of the solution as much as possible. Ben Reicher

If Green New Deal proponents don’t make the benefits clear, we risk fostering an atmosphere of uncertainty and detachment, which opponents of climate action can exploit to spread misinformation — namely the suggestion that the Green New Deal is an elitist aspiration that would help the already wealthy and leave low-income communities behind. LGP shows how this can be averted. To the extent that LGP has an ideology, it’s the conviction that climate change will be mitigated through a “trickle-up” model of change in small communities coalescing into a nationwide transformation. Because of this, LGP has conducted extensive research into the effects the factory would have on Pomona (some of which was done by 5C student volunteers).

As stated on LGP’s website, the Pomona factory would create over 700 direct and indirect jobs in the first two and a half years. The first 6,000 low- and middle-income households that have solar panels installed would save a combined $6.5 million a year in lower energy costs. Due to higher personal spending from low- and middle-income households, the local economy would grow by over $29 million annually. In my entire time at LGP, these statistics were always what LGP emphasized as the core of its message. The mission wasn’t right because protecting the climate is the correct policy, or even because bringing back middle-class manufacturing jobs is the correct policy or for any other purpose that opponents might call political or ideological — the mission was right because helping people in your community is the right thing to do, in and of itself. LGP’s convictions translated to emphasis on engaging with the Claremont and Pomona communities. Naturally, if LGP’s solar panel installation goals are to be successful, they will need to earn the trust of 6,000 households, and LGP is convinced this will be done through the support of various actors in Pomona — as Hartman once described it to me, “making a thousand new friends.” The Green New Deal resolution points out that, while “the New Deal created the greatest middle class that the United States has ever seen,” many Americans “were excluded from many of the economic and societal benefits of those mobilizations.” Green New Deal supporters must commit to doing better this time, or risk ceding the debate to our opponents, thus losing our most likely last chance of protecting future generations from the worst of climate change. Ben Reicher PO ’22 is from Agoura Hills, California. He joined his high school newspaper in ninth grade because he loved to argue and hasn’t stopped since.

9. “_______ Halls” (carol) 10. “____ Want for Christmas...” 11. Chimney vent 12. Generic short-sleeve 18. Game of Thrones language often screamed on horseback 22. How many bisexual U.S. Senators there are 24. ___-Man (Paul Rudd hero) 27. Provoke a reaction (out of) 28. “Does your pen use lead _____?” 29. Forthright, or a Sunday sushi source 30. “Starslayer” comic protagonist 31. Outrage 32. Hamilton creator, casually 33. Vivid dorm room light type 36. Class that might require

throwing or molding 37. “___, humbug!” 38. College or Mills (abbr.) 42. “It seemed true at the time!” 44. 95, for Scripps 46. Big insurance company 47. Take in, as a fugitive 48. Emergency room procedure 51. Duke or earl 52. A 51-down’s ride 53. Fried rice ingredients 54. E.g. “La donna e mobile” 55. Gets some rays 56. With haste (abbr.) 57. Nevada city on Lake Tahoe 58. Coin entry location 60. Huevos ___ mexicana

THE STUDENT LIFE Editorial Board MEGHAN BOBROWSKY, Editor-in-Chief MABEL LUI, Managing Editor MARC ROD, Managing Editor

Senior Staff JAMES KARSTEN, Production Editor HELENA ONG, Senior Design Editor EMILY XU, News Designer GRACE SAUERS, Life & Style Designer AVA LIAO, Opinions Designer SAM BOVARD, Sports Designer TALIA BERNSTEIN, Photo Editor ALYSSA LEONG Photo Editor ANAGA SRINIVAS, Graphics Editor KELLEN BROWNING, Editor-at-Large

JAIMIE DING, News Editor JULIA FRANKEL, News Editor PATRICK LIU, News Associate AMBER CHONG, Life & Style Editor YASMIN ELQUTAMI, Life & Style Editor MOLLY WU, Life & Style Associate DONNIE DENOME, Opinions Editor EAMON MORRIS, Opinions Editor ERIKA SCHWERDFEGER, Sports Editor MADY COLANTES, Copy Chief

TSL’s Editorial Board consists of the editor-in-chief and two managing editors. Aside from the editorial, the views expressed in the opinions section do not necessarily reflect the views of The Student Life. Singles copies of TSL are free and may be obtained at news stands around campus. Multiple copies may be purchased for $0.47 per copy with prior approval by contacting editor@tsl.news. Newspaper theft is a crime; perpetrators may be subject to disciplinary action as well as civil and/ or criminal prosecution.

OFF THE RECORD Raiding Area 51 Let them out! And let Talia in

Rippling effects Will Paint Party be canceled?

TSL has a podcast :)

TSL has 2 podcasts :) :D

Milk + Honey grand opening TSL’s official caffeine

Boba isn’t cheap There goes my Flex

Next iPhone announced “My dad works for Apple”

$$$ Thrice the cameras, thrice the price

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SEPtEmbEr 20, 2019

CMS, P-P men on SCIAC cross-country collision course as Athenas look for 10th straight title ADITYA BHALLA This season, the Athenas are attempting a feat nearly unheard of in college sports: a 10th straight conference championship. As it aims to continue their dominance of the decade, CMS will be led by Abigail Johnson SC ’21, a star on the track who also placed fourth in last year’s SCIAC cross-country championship. The conference’s preseason poll picked Athenas to retain their status as conference champions once again. The team also hopes to improve on its 18th place finish nationally last year. On the whole, the Athenas are hopeful for the success of their team members, both returning and new. “More people on the team have definitely risen up to be leaders,” Olivia Gleason SC ’21 said. “I feel like the team is really cohesive this year. The freshmen are great, and each class is working well and merging well with each other.” So far, the Athenas finished third at the Biola Invitational and sixth at the UC Riverside Invitational. The women next race at the Coyote Challenge at CSU San Bernardino on Sept. 21. P-P women’s cross-country has eyes on the prize, wants to finally topple Athenas Though the Sagehen women’s cross-country team hasn’t won a conference title since 1991, this year’s squad thinks the top of the SCIAC podium is finally within reach. P-P finished second to perennial favorite CMS last season and return star runners Helen Guo PO ’20 and Lila Cardillo PO ’22 as they try to end the Athenas’ nineyear winning streak. The Sagehens also competed in the Division III National Championships last season and placed 32nd. In this year’s SCIAC preseason poll, coaches selected P-P to finish second, behind CMS. Guo, however, envisions a different outcome for the Hens. “It’s different from other years because it feels like our team really has a shot, and it’s been wonderful to see everyone focus their mindset and put a lot of commitment into this,” she said. The team is hoping the addition of nearly a dozen first-years will provide much-needed depth and bolster its chances come the

conference championship meet. “We have 10 or 11 new freshmen, so we’re very bottom-heavy, but they bring a type of excitement and youthful vibe,” Guo said. So far, the Sagehens have beaten Occidental at a dual meet and chose to race in the less competitive field at the UC Riverside Invitational. The women’s cross-country team will next compete at the Master’s Meet on Sept. 28 in Santa Clarita. Pomona-Pitzer men’s crosscountry ‘hungry’ for more than a SCIAC title Head coach Jordan Carpenter is two-for-two in capturing SCIAC titles since he took over as the Sagehen men’s cross-country coach in 2017, and his squad — which had gone winless for more than a decade beforehand

— will look to extend that unbeaten streak this season with a third straight win. Returning harriers like Hugo Ward PO ’21, Daniel Rosen PO ’20, Owen Woo PZ ’21 and Ethan Widlansky PO ’22 will be key to the hopes of the team, which was selected in a preseason poll of the conference’s head coaches to score a repeat title. But Carpenter said the team has loftier goals in mind. Last fall, the Sagehens finished seventh at the Division III national championship meet in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Two years ago, they placed sixth. “It’s the first time in program history that we’ve had back-toback top-10 finishes, so we’re obviously hungry for a little more,” he said. After an August tune-up race against Occidental, the team got its first real meet action Sept. 14

at the UC Riverside Invitational, where it finished sixth. The Sagehens will split their squad next race, sending some runners to the Capital Cross Challenge in Sacramento and others to The Master’s University Cross Country Invite in Santa Clarita, both on Sept. 28. CMS men’s cross-country hoping to end Sagehens’ streak After finishing third behind Occidental and P-P last year at the SCIAC championships, the Stags have plenty of motivation to win the 2019 SCIAC title and get back to the national championship meet, where they placed 27th last season. This year’s preseason poll has the Stags finishing in second place. Prior to P-P’s recent streak, CMS had won five straight championships and hopes for a return to glory this

year. “We’re a little bit older than we were last year, so we’re a little bit more mature, and we’re a little bit faster,” head coach John Goldhammer said. “We don’t have any freshmen in our top group, so that’s usually a pretty good sign, especially in the men’s competition.” What the Stags do have, though, are veterans like Stevie Steinberg HM ’21, Kyril Van Schendel CM ’22 and Thomas D’Anieri CM ’20, who placed third at the 2017 SCIAC championship meet before missing the 2018 season while abroad. To kick off the season, the Stags finished third at the Biola Invitational on Sept. 7 and placed fifth at the UC Riverside Invitational, ahead of P-P. The Stags will next compete Sept. 21 at the Coyote Challenge hosted by CSU San Bernardino.

COUrtESY OF KIrK rEYNOLDS

The Pomona-Pitzer men’s team took first place at the 2018 SCIAC cross-country championship meet in Nov. 2018.

From the pool to the baseball diamond: Former P-P athlete ‘essential’ to New York Yankees in analytics role KELLEN BROWNING Almost by accident, Christina Williamson PO ’17 had two key experiences during her first year at Pomona College that would end up shaping the next part of her life. One was playing innertube water polo, which put her in contact with women on the Pomona-Pitzer women’s water polo team. That encounter led to four years of competitive NCAA play — and the desire for a post-college career related to athletics. “It really was a fun team to be a part of, a great coaching staff,” Williamson reminisced. Years later, she still live streams P-P water polo games to check up on her old team. The other was hearing from a speaker during a math seminar about the power of analytics in sports. Tracking data, Williamson quickly learned, could help improve athletes’ performances. Williamson, now 24, took that lesson and ran with it, landing a job out of college working in a very different sport: baseball. For more than two years, she’s tracked analytics and delved into performance science for the New York Yankees, and is now based in Tampa. The former P-P water polo player — also a lifelong swimmer who competed for the Sagehen swim and dive team — was in August named by The Athletic one of its 35 under 35 up-andcoming talents in the baseball world and described as “essential to the Yankees.” But she felt a bit like a fish out of water when she first arrived on the job without a background on the diamond. “I knew it was going to challenge me; I knew it was going

to get me out of my comfort zone,” Williamson said. “I always liked to be competitive, to be active, to be part of a team. So obviously in my role now, it’s a different side of that, rather than being an athlete. But you still feel like you’re part of a team that is working toward a common goal.” She doesn’t need a baseball or softball pedigree for her job, which entails analyzing players’ workout and performance data and finding areas where changes to conditioning or routine could mitigate injury risk. Then, she helps communicate those results to coaches. In fact, she said her unique background could actually be a plus. “Having to have learned that from scratch and not coming in with preconceived notions, it might have played a role, certainly, in kind of the way that I approach my position,” she said. In a data-driven, analytics-heavy sport like baseball, clubs are always trying to gain a competitive edge over each other, so Williamson declined to share specific findings or improvements she’s analyzed. Essentially, though, she’s helping the Yankees get “the most out of each athlete’s bodies and abilities.” It’s a topic of particular interest to Williamson, given her own athletic background — which included her fair share of injuries, according to P-P water polo coach Alex Rodriguez. “We were in a tournament at [Loyola Marymount University] and she refused to sub out of the game because her shoulder was hurting,” Rodriguez recalled in an email. “She didn’t want to let

COUrtESY OF P-P AtHLEtICS

Christina Williamson PO ‘17 looks for a pass during a water polo game.

her teammates down and she wanted to win the game.” That memory embodies Williamson’s career at Pomona-Pitzer, where she was a gritty, clutch athlete and captain of the water polo team. Rodriguez remembered when she was just a first-year and new to the sport, she came off the bench during the SCIAC championship game with the team down 2-0 and gave the Hens a much-needed lift, scoring two goals that propelled them to victory.

As a senior, she led the team to another SCIAC title and an NCAA Tournament first-round berth. Williamson won SCIAC Athlete of the Year and was named 2017 Division III Player of the Year by the Association of Collegiate Water Polo Coaches. “I am not sure we have ever seen someone like her here at Pomona-Pitzer,” Rodriguez said. “She was so mature, enjoyed learning and pushing herself to train harder. She had all the respect in the world from her teammates and coaches.”

What Williamson most appreciated about Pomona, though, “was that education always came first, but not at the expense at being competitive in sports. That was still important, but being able to attend class — that was all first.” So what advice does Williamson have for current 5C students, whether in class or in the pool? Keep an open mind. “You never know what could end up panning out,” she said. “I never thought that I would be in the position that I’m in now.”

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PAGE 11

WEEKLY ROUNDUP

Pomona - Pitzer KELLEN BROWNING & ERIKA SCHWERDFEGER Football off to strong start with home-opener win The Sagehens (2-0, 0-0 SCIAC) shut out Lewis & Clark at their home opener Sept. 14, beating the Pioneers 20-0. Quarterback Karter Odermann PO ’20 threw for 291 yards and a touchdown, and ran in for another score. His main target was wide receiver Win Hunter PZ ’21, who hauled in eight catches for 119 yards and a touchdown. Male harriers open season with sixth place finish at UC Riverside Invitational The men’s cross-country team competed at the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 14, coming in sixth place for the 8,000-meter invitational race and second in the open competition. Ethan Widlansky PO ’22 led the way for the Sagehen harriers with a 14th-place finish in the invite, clocking in at a personal best of 24:40.

Women’s cross-country finishes third in less competitive UCR field The women’s cross-country team snagged third place in the 5,000-meter open race at the UC Riverside Invitational on Sept. 14. Lila Cardillo PO ’22 led P-P in its season-opener, finishing eighth in 17:48. Men’s soccer struggling out of gate The Sagehens (1-4-1, 0-1 SCIAC) tied Whitworth 2-2 in a double-overtime home game Sept. 14 before falling to La Verne 1-0 Wednesday in its first conference game this season. Eamon Stein PO ’21 and Jorge Guillen-Lopez PO ’23 scored for P-P against Whitworth, and led the team with three and two total goals scored so far this season, respectively. Women’s soccer buries La Verne in conference opener The Sagehen women’s soccer team (5-0-1, 1-0 SCIAC) started conference play on a high note with a 4-0 beatdown of La Verne

at home Wednesday. Four Hens scored against the Leopards: Lily Gane PZ ’20, Bria VarnBuhler PO ’20, Anna Ponzio PZ ’22 and Hannah Mandell PO ’23. Volleyball maintains winning record with 2-1 record at Leopard Invitational P-P (6-4, 0-0 SCIAC) lost an unlucky Friday the 13th game against UC Santa Cruz 3-1, but came back later that day to beat Puget Sound 3-0. The Sagehens concluded play at the Leopard Invitational with a 3-2 win over Pacific Lutheran. Isabel Kelly PO ’20 had 28 kills and Adrienne Tong PO ’22 added 71 assists across the two wins. Men’s water polo extends win streak with victory in conference opener P-P men’s water polo (4-1, 1-0 SCIAC) triumphed over Caltech 15-9 on Wednesday, extending its win streak to four games. Dylan Elliott PO ’21 netted four goals against the Beavers and Jacob Niskey PO ’20 had a hat trick.

Athelete of the Week Bria VarnBuhler PO ’20 Women’s Soccer Santa Rosa, CA VarnBuhler led the Sagehen soccer team to two triumphant home wins this past week over La Sierra and La Verne. As a midfielder who never shies away from the net, VarnBuhler netted one goal each against both teams, in addition to making key passes that enabled other teammates to score on goal. VarnBuhler was named SCIAC’s Athlete of the Week earlier this month after leading P-P to shutout victories over Chicago and Illinois Tech.

Weekly Calendar Friday, Sept. 20

Wednesday, Sept. 25

Volleyball Cal Lutheran

Women’s Soccer Whittier

Saturday, Sept. 21

men’s Water Polo Whittier

Football at Geoge Fox

Men’s Soccer at Cal Lutheran

Men’s Soccer Chapman

Friday, Sept. 27

men’s Water Polo at Cal Lutheran

Volleyball at Caltech

Women’s Soccer at Chapman Volleyball at Whittier Tuesday, Sept. 24 Volleyball Chapman

COUrtESY OF P-P AtHLEtICS

The Pomona-Pitzer Women’s soccer team celebrates during a game.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athelete of the Week Kyril Van Schendel CM ’22 Men’s Cross Country Carpinteria, CA

Van Schendel’s performance at the UC Riverside Invitational Sept. 14 was integral to the Stags’ fifth-place finish, the best among Division III squads. Van Schendel himself came in 10th place out of 203 runners and eighth among fellow collegiate competitors. His total time for the 8,000-meter race was 24:36.82, helping the Stags secure a win over the sixth-place Sagehens.

Weekly Calendar Friday, Sept. 20

Wednesday, Sept. 25

Volleyball at redlands

Men’s Soccer Whittier

Saturday, Sept. 21

men’s Water Polo La Verne

Cross-Country Coyote Challenge at CSU San bernadino

Women’s Soccer Occidental

Football Pacific Lutheran

Friday, Sept. 27

Men’s Soccer at Occidental

KELLEN BROWNING & ERIKA SCHWERDFEGER Football gets first win in Minnesota The Stags (1-1, 0-0 SCIAC) left Minnesota victorious after scoring a 30-7 win over the University of Northwestern — no, not that Northwestern — on Sept 14. It was a run-heavy game for CMS, led by star running back Garrett Cheadle’s HM ’20 two rushing touchdowns. Quarterback Zach Fogel CM ’22 threw for 187 yards and another score. Men’s cross-country finishes fifth at UC Riverside Invite The Stags finished fifth in the 8,000-meter invitational race at UC Riverside on Sept. 14, the best performance for a Division III team. Led by Kyril Van Schendel’s CM ’22 10th place finish in 24:36, CMS topped Pomona-Pitzer 124-165. A second Stag team also placed fourth in the open race. Athena harriers take sixth at UC Riverside CMS snagged sixth place in the

6,000-meter invitational event and seventh in the 5,000-meter open race at the UC Riverside Invite on Sept 14. The Athenas, led by a 21:47 36th place finish from Riley Harmon SC ’22, were the only Division III team in the top 10 of the invite section. Men’s soccer wins home opener and first conference game The Stags (4-2, 1-0 SCIAC) emerged from a double-overtime home game against St. Thomas on Sept. 13 with a 2-1 win, then opened SCIAC play with a 2-0 victory at Cal Lutheran on Wednesday. Cole Smith CM ’20 was the hero at home, scoring with four minutes remaining in double overtime to give the Stags the win. William Barton CM ’22 chipped in the other goal, while Nate Huntington CM ’21 and Adam Singer CM ’20 scored the team’s goals Wednesday. Athena soccer secures undefeated record in non-conference games CMS women’s soccer (4-0-1, 0-0 SCIAC) beat Redlands 1-0 in

a non-conference home game Sept. 14, ending the team’s non-conference slate of games undefeated. Katrina Ostrom CM ’21 scored the Athenas’ lone goal. Volleyball goes 2-1 in final week of non-conference play At the East to West Challenge tournament in St. Louis, Mo. last weekend, the Athenas (9-2, 0-0 SCIAC) beat Emory 3-0 and host Washington University 3-1. CMS ended non-conference play with a 3-1 loss to Juniata the following day. Amanda Walker SC ’20 had 28 kills in the two wins and Lucila Grinspan HM ’21 added 24. Men’s water polo splits four games at Inland Empire Classic The Stags (3-5, 0-0 SCIAC) beat Concordia 12-9 on Sept. 14 at La Verne’s Inland Empire Classic, then fell 21-9 to No. 1 USC. The following day, CMS came out on top 10-7 against Fresno Pacific, followed by a 15-4 loss to UC Santa Barbara. Will Clark CM ’22 led the team with four goals against Concordia, while Nick Britt CM ’21 tallied four in Sunday’s win over Fresno Pacific.

Volleyball at Cal Lutheran

men’s Water Polo Caltech Women’s Soccer at La Verne Tuesday, Sept. 24 Volleyball La Verne DOmENICO OttOLIA • tHE StUDENt LIFE

Spencer Hagenbuch CM ‘23 practices her serve Sept. 17.

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SEPtEmbEr 20, 2019

CMS men’s water polo stays afloat in the big leagues, P-P maintains early-season winning record

JUStIN SLEPPY • tHE StUDENt LIFE

Nick Britt CM ‘21 of CMS propels himself from the water and prepares to shoot.

ERIKA SCHWERDFEGER After a rocky start this season, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s water polo team still has ambitious goals for the season — they’re confident they can turn their (3-5, 0-0 SCIAC) record around. A 7-4 win against Fresno Pacific on Sept. 8 capped off their performance at the UCSD Triton Invitational, ending the three-game losing streak that saw the Stags’ season get off to a less-than-auspicious start. The team has since gone 2-2, but it’s worth keeping in mind the Stags’ level of competition so far, players said. “Two of our losses were against [Division I] teams,” Will Clark CM ’22 said. “What’s important to me is that we’re improving every game, and I think we really did that during the UC San Diego tournament.”

Clark’s teammates are also committed to improvement. “Those were some good learning experiences,” Zack Rossman CM ’20 said of the first few losses of the season. The duo boast impressive records from the 2018 season, with Clark having led the team with 70 points and Rossman a close second at 66. Last Saturday, the Stags kicked off the Inland Empire Classic with another win, coming in 12-9 over Concordia in a 9 a.m., 99-degree contest featuring strong performances across the board, including a hat-trick from Clark in the first half. The competition — and the heat — intensified later that day, as temperatures climbed to 101 degrees and the No. 1 USC Trojans broke onto the scene. The Stags trailed close behind until the last minutes of the first quarter, after which the Trojans

CMS aims to solidify volleyball dynasty, P-P finds footing in pre-conference play LUCIA BRADDOCK Equipped with a roster that includes a handful of star players who helped secure the 2018 SCIAC championship title, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women’s volleyball team seems poised for another strong year. Despite injury and inexperience, the Athenas (9-2, 0-0 SCIAC) won the conference title for the second straight time in 2018, on the heels of a two-year tie for the crown with Cal Lutheran. Cal Lu finished as SCIAC champion for five straight years before that, but now it’s CMS that could solidify its status as the conference’s next dynasty. After demolishing conference competitors to the tune of a 15-1 record last season, the SCIAC’s head coaches in a preseason poll picked the Athenas to finish first this year as well. The team was also selected to finish No. 5 in the country for Division III, based on a national preseason poll from the American Volleyball Coaches Association. The Athenas lost 3-1 to Wisconsin-Eau Claire in the second round of the NCAA tournament last year but won the national title in 2017. “I think we just weren’t really ourselves, and we just didn’t really play our game,” setter Phoebe Madsen CM ’20 said, reflecting on the end of last season. “You could almost say we peaked a little too early.” This year, though, Madsen said the team is avoiding taking games or opponents for granted. “I think that this season will be one of learning and one of really fierce competition for everything,” she said. The Athenas return four decorated athletes from last year’s squad, including Madsen, who was named the SCIAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, SCIAC Athlete of the Year and AVCA West Regional Player of the Year, in addition to a First Team All-American AVCA nod. Outside hitter Amanda Walker SC ’20, middle blocker Melanie Moore CM ’21 and libero Sarah Tritschler CM ’20 also received conference recognition. Led by head coach Kurt Vlasich, CMS’ coaching staff in 2018 was named the SCIAC’s Coaching Staff of the Year for the second straight

season. The AVCA also recognized Vlasich as the West Region Coach of the Year. Last weekend, the team traveled to St. Louis for the East to West Battle hosted by Washington University. The No. 3 Athenas defeated No. 1 Emory 3-0 and host Washington University 3-1 before seeing their win streak cut short by No. 6 Juniata in a 3-1 loss. Madsen said team members in 2018 felt like they “kind of had a target on our back because we were the defending national champions, and so everyone played their absolute best against us.” Now, with a successful early season behind them, she said the team finds itself in a similar position. “Any game could be a crazy game and super exciting just because all of our competition is going to come out and play their best against us,” Madsen said, noting Cal Lu, La Verne and Whittier as particularly daunting foes. “And we know that, but it’s really fun for us to always have that competition.” And for the Athenas, nowhere is the competition more intense than right across Sixth Street. Pomona-Pitzer’s Sagehens enjoyed a similar streak of success at the end of August, coming out of the Pacific Coast Classic with four straight wins. The start of September showed them tougher opponents, and the Sagehens (6-4, 0-0 SCIAC) sustained four straight losses to bring their record to an even 4-4. They broke their unlucky streak Sept. 13 with a 3-0 win over Puget Sound. The next day as well, the Sagehens ended a close game with a 3-2 win over Pacific Lutheran. “We have lots of talent and potential as a team this year,” Adrienne Tong PO ’22 said. “As long as the team consistently shows up mentally and physically ready with focus and competitive energy, we’ll achieve the best results.” SCIAC play opens on Friday, with the Athenas traveling to Redlands and the Sagehens up against Cal Lu.

fired fast and consistently to leap ahead to a 21-9 end tally. Still, the team is looking ahead to future games with focus and optimism. Their opponent of choice? Pomona-Pitzer (3-1, 0-0 SCIAC), their close-at-hand rival, seems to be the object of the Stags’ anticipation. “It’s just fun to play them, because they always give us their best shot, and we always try to give them our best shot,” Clark said. Meanwhile, on the other side of Sixth Street, Samuel Sasaki PO ’22 is also eager for rivalry play to commence. “I’m really excited for it, to see the rivalry grow and grow as the season goes on,” Sasaki said. The Stags fell 8-5 to the Sagehens Sept. 8 during the Triton Invitational, but the two teams will face off again at Pomona on Oct. 9

and on CMS’ side of Sixth Street on Nov. 13. The Sagehens themselves are currently enjoying a three-game win streak on the heels of their first game, a loss to Pepperdine in the Triton Tournament. Consistency, it seems, is a Sagehen buzzword, as P-P has been SCIAC’s regular season and tournament champion for the past three years in a row. Despite these successes, team members say they won’t be resting on their laurels and instead remain energized and focused. “I think that’s the most important part, is just keeping our energy up and playing really hard and showing up and giving 100% in every practice,” Sasaki said. “Regardless of accolades, I just want to be a better player for the team, and do whatever I can to help us continue to win.” This sense of determination is

perhaps augmented by the fact that last year, the Sagehens graduated powerhouse athlete Adam Ward PO ’19. Ward was SCIAC’s Athlete of the Year in 2018 and Newcomer of the Year in 2015, and accumulated quite the list of titles throughout the years in between. “It is a challenge when you lose a player that dominant, but I don’t think it’s a challenge that we can’t overcome,” Sasaki said. One constant the team feels fortunate to have is head coach Alex Rodriguez, who in 2018 was awarded his third Division III Coach of the Year Award. “He shows up to practice with so much energy and so excited, so much intensity, and I think that really fuels the rest of us,” Sasaki said. This Saturday, the Sagehens will take on Cal Lutheran. Next up for the Stags is a home game against Caltech the same day.