Vol. CXXXIV No. 11

‘This is everybody’s success’

Pomona dining staff settles contract agreement with historic raises

MARIANA DURAN

This Jan. 18, an overwhelming majority of Pomona College dining hall employees voted to approve a bargaining agreement with a 36 percent wage increase over four years. The vote ended almost six months of labor organizing and negotiations with the college’s administration.

The new four-year contract gives dining and catering employees their largest wage increase since Pomona’s kitchen unionized in 2013 with the labor union UNITE HERE! Local 11, said cooks Edward Mac and Rubén Rodríguez, who are members of the union’s negotiations committee.

“It’s not what we wanted in the beginning, but you know, that’s what they call a negotiation,” Rodríguez told TSL. “It’s so far, the best contract we [have] ever gotten.”

Along with a $7.50 wage increase allocated over four years, the contract establishes more benefits for the dining and catering staff, including increased protections for pregnant workers, according to UNITE HERE! representative Arun Ramakrishna PZ ’22.

Pomona will also begin contributing to union funds that offer workers access to hospitality training and legal aid, according to a joint statement put out by Pomona and UNITE HERE! Some workers plan to use that legal aid to correct their immigration papers, Mac said.

In alignment with the result of these negotiations, Pomona will soon roll out a new wage floor for all benefits-eligible staff positions at the college, Pomona Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer Jeff Roth announced in a Jan. 18 email to the community.

“Each year, choices are made to fund priorities and supporting our employees with strong wages and excellent benefits remains a budget priority,” Roth later told TSL via email.

Throughout the negotiations

period, Roth had said the raises then being requested by the dining union were “not a realistic demand” given the limits of the school’s yearly budget and questions of maintaining equity for all employees. However, he told TSL Jan. 22 this is no longer the case with the 36 percent raise settled in the current agreement.

“The new contract will not directly impact our future tuition rates or policies on drawing funds from the endowment to support the budget,” Roth said.

Mac, who has participated in three previous contract negotiations at Pomona, attributed the historically high wages and benefits settled in this agreement to the solidarity the dining union presented during negotiations.

“This contract negotiation was very different. There was more on the line,” Mac said. “Pomona had to pay more because we were demanding more. And we were demanding more because eggs are $8 a dozen at the grocery store right now. We went and we struck … That’s why they bought labor peace for four years.”

When negotiations for the dining hall union’s new contract began last August, workers asked for a $28 minimum wage with a $9.80 raise in the next year due to the inflationary pressures on the cost of housing, transportation and food. Pomona countered this initial ask with a $2.80 raise in four years. The wide difference between the two parties prompted a labor day rally and two more negotiation meetings in September, which remained inconclusive. Protesting these failed negotiations, the dining union held a two-day strike during family weekend. Dining and catering staff picketed in front of the dining halls throughout the two days, alongside hundreds of Claremont Colleges students,

On Oct. 28, 2022, students and staff went on strike to fight for higher wages for Pomona

professors and staff.

By Jan. 13, during the second negotiations meeting after the strike, union representatives agreed to a 36 percent wage increase proposed by Pomona, Mac said. The wage increase was more than twice the administration’s initial counterproposal and will give all dining workers a $25 minimum wage by next summer.

Although the raises settled on the contract are significantly higher than in the past, to Mac, the fact that prices have continued to soar in recent months means the new contract won’t completely alleviate financial pressures.

SHS introduces gender affirming care to support students

JAKE CHANG & ANNABELLE INK

The Claremont Colleges’ Student Health Services (SHS) now offers gender affirming care for all students under their health plan, an expansion to their service coverage as of January 2023.

“Student Health Services (SHS) at the Claremont Colleges is committed to providing culturally competent and inclusive services to all students under our care,” SHS said Dec. 14 via email. “As part of that commitment, our leadership team continually looks for opportunities to improve and expand our current suite of services.”

Also commonly referred to as transgender health care, gender affirming care includes an array of services that are meant to support a person’s gender identity, specifically when that person’s identity does not align with the gender they were assigned at birth.

Gender affirming care at SHS includes gender affirming hormonal therapy (GAHT) by trained healthcare providers who consult with students to prescribe hormonal regimens, according to the SHS website. SHS is also equipped to refer students to local resources in cases of complicated

or non-hormonal services. Assistant director of the Queer Resource Center Pharalyn Robinson said in an email to TSL that previously, students had to endure long commutes and wait times to be attended to, as well as receive bills for labs from out of network providers.

“Receiving these services at SHS comes with greater transparency of pricing, no commute and much shorter wait times for care,” Robinson said. “The addition of PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis] and PEP [post-exposure prophylaxis] at SHS,

along with the new gender affirming care means that our queer and trans students don’t have to go outside of the consortium for their basic health care needs.”

The mission to install gender affirming care at the 5Cs started with the inception of the Trans Health Task Force (THTF) eight years ago, Robinson stated. THTF is composed of SHS practitioners and Monsour Counseling and Psychological Services (MCAPS)

See SHS on page 2

“It’s gonna make an impact for sure,” he said. “But unfortunately, everything is so expensive, you know, going to the grocery store is like a warzone … So I mean, [the contract is] better, but still there’s more that can be done.”

Shireen Aslan, a Frary worker and member of the negotiations team, said the contract’s raises will help her better support her family and potentially give her time to pursue a Masters degree in the future. Now that negotiations are over, she has started taking online courses in UX Design, to further her understanding of the field.

Ramakrishna said the contract

After serving the Claremont Colleges’ COVID-19 testing needs for almost 18 months, Student Health Services’ (SHS) Tranquada Center discontinued in-person testing this Wednesday, officials across the consortium announced in emails to students and faculty this week.

At the Tranquada Testing Center, located on the first floor of the SHS building, students were able to take COVID tests on-site. SHS sent them their results via text and email within 48 hours of their test.

Students now have access to testing through the five COVID-19 vending machines located across campus.

Laura Muna-Landa, assistant vice president of communications and community relations for The Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS), told TSL that the decision to move testing exclusively to vending machines was made by “various consortial committees based on medical advice provided by Student Health Services medical providers.”

Muna-Landa also shared that TCCS does not expect the shift to exclusively vending machines to have any “significant impact” across the colleges.

with Pomona will set an example in the food and service industry in the Inland Empire.

“Other workers will be looking to this agreement kind of as a standard for what they will come to expect from their employers,” Ramakrishna told TSL. “So I think it’s a really good contract in terms of raising the bar for workers across the board.”

Aslan emphasized that the contract is a win not just for the workers but also for the students, faculty and staff who supported dining staff during negotiations.

“This success is not just our success,” Aslan told TSL. “This is everybody’s success.”

Since the vending machines were installed in August 2022, she expressed confidence in continued “consistent, reliable utilization” of them.

SHS has assigned temporary staff members to assist in the transition away from in-person testing for the remainder of the semester. These staff members have been directed to be nearby the vending machine locations for assistance.

Annika Lindberg SC ’26 feared that the change will cause more confusion than clarity for 5C students.

“For me, the [SHS] testing site is the most accessible place to get tested because it’s really fast and it’s right in the middle of campus,” Lindberg said.

When Lindberg tried to use the vending machine located in Scripps College’s 240 House to take a COVID-19 test last semester, she was unable to register her test with SHS due to technical difficulties.

“It’s a confusing interface on the website the [QR code] takes you to,” Lindberg said. “I just gave up and went to the Tranquada testing site.”

Lindberg believes SHS closing its only in-person testing location will cause a decrease in the number of students choosing to test.

“The SHS center was so well publicized, and it was located in the health center, which was very common sense,” Lindberg said.

SASHA MATTHeWS • THe STuDeNT LIFe

Antisemitic flyers alarm 5C community

SARA CAWLEY

On Saturday, Jan. 7, the Claremont Colleges Campus Safety Department was alerted that flyers containing antisemitic messages had been distributed both on campus and in surrounding residential areas.

Administrators from Scripps College, Pitzer College, Claremont McKenna College and Pomona College notified their respective students and faculty of the incident shortly after Campus Safety became aware of the situation.

The posters promote the Goyim Defense League (GDL), an antisemitic extremist group led by Jon Minadeo II. The GDL operates a streaming site with thousands

SHS: Gender affirming care

Continued from page 1

staff from the QRC and Health Education Outreach, students, and other faculty and staff.

The THTF assisted in several ways, including providing training and resources for development of the care. Robinson believes that having gender affirming services on-campus will benefit students greatly.

“As someone who has been a part of this work for the last five years, I want to acknowledge all the labor of my colleagues, past and present, that helped us to arrive at this goal,” Robinson said.

Nolwenn Sharp PO ’26 also recognizes the benefits of this work.

“It’s no secret that finding good providers for gender affirming care is difficult to say the least,” Sharp said in an email to TSL. “I think having a provider on campus will help a lot of people.”

While Sharp already has a provider, she said that she would happily switch to SHS if a situation arose with her provider or insurance.

She also stated her hopes for this care two allow transgender people at the 5Cs to lead happier lives, referring to being part of a community that claims to be dedicated to healthy diversity.

“Giving trans students access to necessary healthcare on campus is the bare minimum of creating a diverse, inclusive environment,” Sharp said to TSL. “I think that when schools are devoted to serving trans kids’ needs, the on-campus culture becomes healthier.”

At the same time, Sharp recognizes that not all healthcare is the same.

“There is such a thing as good and bad gender affirming care,” Sharp said. “I hope that SHS takes the time to listen and center trans people in the conversation about our healthcare needs.”

Students interested in receiving gender affirming care from SHS can learn more at the SHS Gender Affirming Care webpage.

of followers that regularly espouses antisemitic content.

The group has members nationwide and largely attracts those involved in various white supremacist and antisemitic movements. In November, the GDL organized a rally in LA to support Ye’s, formerly known as Kanye West, antisemitic outbursts on social media.

The inflammatory flyers posted in Claremont are just one incident of the GDL’s nationwide antagonism. The Anti-Defamation League reports that antisemitic incidents are on the rise nationwide. In the United States, Antisemitic events increased over a third in 2021 from 2020.

In an email to the Pomona

community, President Gabi Starr condemned the rise of antisemitic propaganda and affirmed the institution’s stance against hate speech.

“As an institution of higher learning, we are committed to the ongoing work of both opposing antisemitism and affirming a vital Jewish community life,” Starr said.

Pitzer Interim President Jill Klein echoed Starr and encouraged community members to “honor Pitzer’s core values of social responsibility and intercultural understanding” in an email on Jan. 9. Starr later confirmed via email that The Hive and Pomona’s ITS building were the only buildings on campus to

be defaced with the GDL promotional flyers. However, in the two days that followed the incident, two lime green posters that referred to Christian nationalist Julie Green as a “prophet” were taped to a light post outside of Estella Laboratory, near The Hive. Outside of the 5Cs, at least 11 houses near campus also received the GDL flyers. The flyers often included bible verses and targeted various public figures related to online dating and pornography companies. According to the Claremont Courier, similar flyers have been distributed throughout the Inland Empire recently, including in nearby Upland. Jewish Chaplain and 7C

Campus Rabbi Hannah Elkin, expressed grave disappointment and frustration with the GDL’s vandalism.

“[I was] unfortunately not surprised,” Elkin said to TSL via email when she recalled being made aware of the flyers. “Organizations like the [GDL] have been very active around the country, including posting similar flyers around neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles and Southern California.”

“[All of this] impacts every member of the Jewish community in Claremont,” Elkin said. “Even rhetoric and flyers are frightening because we have a lived and historical understanding of how speech can turn into violence,” Elkin said.

EN TRADUCCIÓN

El pasado 18 de enero, la mayoría de los empleados de cocina de Pomona College votaron para aprobar su nuevo contrato con un incremento de 36% en los próximos cuatro años, terminando casi seis meses de organización sindical y negociaciones con la administración de la escuela. Este contrato de cuatro años provee a los trabajadores de cocina con su incremento salarial más grande desde que la cocina de Pomona se sindicalizó en el 2013. “No es lo que pedimos en el principio, pero ya sabes, esto es lo que llaman una negociación”, dijo Rodríguez. “Es al momento, el mejor contrato que jamás hemos tenido”.

Junto con el incremento salarial de $7.50 en los próximos cuatro años, el contrato establece más beneficios para el personal de cocina, incluyendo mayor protección para las personas embarazadas, dijo UNITE HERE! representante Arun Ramakrishna PZ ‘22.

Pomona también empezará a contribuir a fondos sindicales que proveen a los trabajadores con acceso a asistencia legal y capacitación de la industria de hospitalidad.

Alineándose con el resultado de estas negociaciones, pronto Pomona va a sacar un nuevo piso salarial para todo personal que califica para beneficios en la universidad, dijo el Director de Operaciones y Tesorero Jeff Roth el 18 de enero en un correo dirigido a la comunidad.

“Cada año, decisiones son tomadas para financiar prioridades y apoyar a nuestros empleados con gran salarios y excelentes beneficios sigue siendo una prioridad del presupuesto” dijo Roth después en un correo para TSL. El año pasado, Roth había dicho que los incrementos solicitados por el sindicato de cocina no eran “peticiones realistas” dado a los límites del presupuesto anual de la escuela y cuestiones sobre mantener la equidad para todos los empleados. Sin embargo, el 22 de enero le contó a TSL que este no era el caso con el incremento salarial de 36% establecido en el acuerdo actual.

“El nuevo contrato no va a impactar directamente nuestras futuras colegiaturas o reglas sobre usar fondos de la dotación para sustentar nuestro presupuesto”, dijo Roth. Mac, quien ha participado en tres negociaciones de contrato en Pomona, atribuyó los incrementos de salario históricos y beneficios acordados en este contrato a la solidaridad que presentó el sindicato de cocina durante las negociaciones.

“Este contrato de negociación fue muy diferente…porque había más que arriesgar”, dijo Mac. “Pomona tuvo que pagar más porque estábamos pidiendo más en beneficios [y] más en salarios. Y digo, tenemos que pedir más, porque los huevos están a $8 la docena en el súper actualmente. Fuimos e impactamos. Y ahora ellos saben que el sindicato es muy poderoso…es por eso que compraron paz sindical por cuatro años”.

Shireen Aslan, quien trabaja en Frary, dijo que estaba muy agradecida con los estudiantes, trabajadores y profesores que apoyaron al sindicato durante las negociaciones contractuales. “Este no es solo nuestro logro,” Aslan told TSL. “Este logro le pertenece a todos.”

Cuando las negociaciones para el nuevo contrato del equipo de cafeterías empezó el pasado agosto, los trabajadores preguntaron por un salario mínimo de $28 con un incremento de $9.80

en el próximo año, resaltando las presiones de inflación en el costo de renta, transporte y comida.

Pomona respondió la primera petición del sindicato con una propuesta de incremento de $2.80 en los próximos cuatro años, alcanzando un salario mínimo de $21.40 para el 2026. La gran diferencia entre los dos grupos indujo la manifestación durante el día del trabajo en donde los trabajadores de cocina abogaron por sueldos más altos, donde también asistieron cientos de estudiantes dirigidos por miembros del Claremont Student Worker Alliance.

Dos más reuniones de negociación ocurrieron en septiembre, pero ambas fueron inconclusas. Protestando estas negociaciones fallidas, el sindicato de cocina organizó una huelga de dos días durante Family Weekend. Los trabajadores de los comedores se manifestaron en frente de las cafeterías a través de los dos días, junto con cientos de estudiantes de los Claremont Colleges, profesores y personal. Para el 13 de enero, durante la segunda junta de negociaciones después de la manifestación, los representantes sindicales acordaron un incremento salarial de 36% propuesto por Pomona, dijo Mac — más del doble de la contrapropuesta inicial de la administración. El aumento salarial, el cual dijo Mac que será dividido en incrementos de $2.50 este julio,

$1.76 en Julio 2024 y 2025, y $1.50 en el 2026, llevará a un salario mínimo de $25 para el próximo verano, de acuerdo a un informe conjunto publicado por la universidad y el representante del sindicato UNITE

HERE! Local 11. “El acuerdo ofrece la estabilidad de un contrato plurianual para apoyar los miembros de Local 11 y a sus familias en creando incrementos salariales sólidos ante el aumento de costo de vivienda en nuestra área”, decía el informe. Aunque el aumento salarial establecido en el contrato es significante, para Mac, esto no quita el hecho que los precios seguían elevándose en los meses recientes, haciendo que las presiones económicas sean más difíciles de mitigar.

“Por supuesto hará un impacto”, dijo. “Pero desgraciadamente, todo está muy caro, ya sabes, ir al súper es como ir a una zona de guerra…Digo [el contrato es] mejor, pero todavía hay mucho por hacer”.

Ramakrishna dijo que el contrato con Pomona establecerá un ejemplo en la industria de la comida y servicio en el Inland Empire. “Para otros trabajadores, este contrato quedará como un estándar para lo que van a esperar de sus empleadores”, Ramakrishna contó a TSL. “Entonces pienso que es un muy buen contrato en términos de elevar los estándares de trabajo en la zona.”

Antisemitic flyers were put up on the walls of the Hive over winter break.

MARIANA DURAN

Traducido por Sara Garza González

MARIANA DuRAN • THe STuDeNT LIFe Los trabajadores de cocina de Pomona han negociado con éxito un aumento salarial significativo después de más de seis meses de organización.

New leader of Pomona’s OEC embraces Claremont’s ‘outdoor love’

JULIA PARSA

On Jan. 9, 2023, Pomona College hired Outdoor Education Center (OEC) manager Connor Bigenho. In his new role, Bigenho will be in charge of overseeing future Orientation Adventure (OA) programs, managing the hiring of OA leaders and organizing OA leader training and logistics for Pomona College and the 5C community.

Bigenho, a Dallas native, previously worked at Stephen F. Austin State University as an outdoor pursuits graduate assistant for the University’s outdoor center. Bigenho has only worked in Texas and is excited about the change in location.

“There’s a lot of outdoor love in this area, and it’s also uniquely located in such a nice outdoor playground,” Bigenho said in an interview with TSL. “You have the mountains just north of us, you[‘ve] got the ocean to the west, and you got more mountains to the east…[it’s] a perfect location for being able to share outdoor activities. I didn’t have that living in Texas, so I really wanted to go to a place where I could experience that and be able to facilitate more of what I love.”

During his time at Austin State, Bigenho led a safe and positive environment in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, altering positions to keep staff working and focusing efforts on outdoor recreational resources.

He implemented trail cleaning and maintenance on the university’s five and a half miles of multi-use trails and worked with student volunteers to rebuild the trail systems by fixing drainage issues, clearing fallen trees from snowstorms and rebuilding bridges.

To facilitate community through outdoor activities during this time of isolation, Bigenho and his staff filmed videos introducing short virtual clinics, training and explorations of nearby resources such as trails and

lakes. Bigenho also hosted bike rides and trips twice a week in hopes of reintroducing students to outdoor spaces and skills.

At the OEC, Bigenho’s focus is mainly on his staff and providing a chain of communication for students to express their needs.

“I want to make sure we have the ability to offer something for everyone, and that really starts with my staff and how well I train my staff here,” he said.

By adhering to the staff and students’ needs, Bigenho hopes to create a new space where everyone is comfortable, even those who might not be a fan of

Claremont’s Laemmle Theater lives to see another year

FIONA HERBOLD & JACOB RAGAZA

To the relief of many 7C students and Claremont locals, the 16-year-old Laemmle’s Claremont 5 Theatre is not set to close any time soon. However, with sparse business since the beginning of the pandemic, the ultimate fate of the theater remains uncertain.

The Claremont Courier prompted the initial rumors of the theater’s closing in Dec. 2021, after naming Winfund Investment LLC as a potential buyer for the property. The Rancho Cucamonga based company planned to reconstruct the lot as a restaurant complex. With the recent closing of Laemmle’s NoHo 7, the company’s North Hollywood property, many in Claremont feared that their local theater would see a similar end.

But earlier this month, owner Greg Laemmle told a Daily Bulletin reporter that the Claremont property was no longer for sale.

According to Laemmle Claremont 5 Manager Carlos Castillas, Greg Laemmle appeared on site two weeks ago and notified the staff that the theater would stay open for the rest of the year.

However, Castillas admitted that business has been slow for the theater in recent years and explained that a timeline beyond 2023 may be more difficult to predict, depending on the theater’s earnings.

“[Greg Laemmle] will try to keep the theater open as long as people keep coming in,” Castillas told the Daily Bulletin.

Since Laemmle’s appearance, the theater’s earnings have doubled, according to Castillas. He is optimistic that with profit continuing to rise, the Claremont community has a chance to keep the independent “arthouse” film establishment in their own

neighborhood. Jeremy Martin PO ’25 and Adam Osman-Krinsky PO ’25 are grateful the uniqueness of the Laemmle experience will be preserved.

“I think it’s a great movie theater, I really do,” Martin said. “They have a very diverse set of movies.”

Osman-Krinsky marveled at the theater’s quaint charm that can’t be found at larger theater chains in the area.

“There’s a lot of personality there,” Osman-Krinsky said.“There was this guy who worked at the concessions stand [who collected] what must have been a hundred enamel pins of different movies and video games [to wear] on his uniform.”

Both Osman-Krinsky and Martin noted that the Laemmle is integral to entertainment in Claremont.

“It is one of the few things that you can really do to have a good time in Claremont without a car,” Martin said. “There are AMCs in the area, but all of them are an Uber away.”

Martin believes that the theater could attract more customers from the Claremont Colleges with a simple change.

“You can get seven dollar tickets from Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC),” Martin said. “I wish the ASPC deal was more widely publicized. I didn’t know about that for a long time.”

Given this budget-friendly ticket option and the Laemmle’s accessibility to campus, Martin urged students not to take the Laemmle for granted.

“Once it’s gone, only then will people realize how much of an impact it has here.”

the outdoors.

One of Bigenho’s first projects is to develop a clinic to teach staff and students mountaineering skills. He explained that tools such as crampons and ice axes are inherently dangerous and require training and practice.

“I don’t want to limit students from being able to do things just because I don’t want to spend the time trying to train them and how to teach them,” Bigenho said.

In addition to this ongoing effort, Bigenho has been in contact with various outdoor 5C clubs who have expressed interest in certification. In

response, Bigenho has been working with them, researching and contacting industry organizations that provide certification courses.

“The students would like me to share knowledge with them and experience, and have me share my skills,” Bigenho said. “Or, if I don’t personally have those skills, to see if I can outsource that to bring someone who’s a professional in those skills.”

Although Bigenho has only been here for a couple weeks, the conversations and connections he is making haven’t gone unnoticed by his staff.

“Connor gives us a lot of

agency over the types of events and the type of atmosphere that we want to be,” Katie Chao PO ’25 said. “He’s very focused on creating an OEC that fits in with what students actually want and need and not what he thinks it should be.”

In the future, Bigenho hopes the OEC can have a greater positive impact on the 5C community, giving students the opportunity to branch out of their campus bubbles.

“I’m hoping it’s a resource, and it’s a community building center,” Bigenho said. “The 5Cs can come in here, they can rent gear [and] they can get to know people all across campus.”

The add/drop period left many 5C students full of anxiety and frustration in the struggle to get permission to enroll requests (PERMS) accepted and find courses with open slots this semester.

Students across the 5Cs were able to register for spring classes during a designated time, set by class year, in mid-November. But many don’t finalize their schedule until several weeks into the Spring semester because of limited class availability. Ella de Castro SC ’23 expressed her frustration with the PERM system for students that may struggle with time management and the anxiety that registration may bring.

“I have always hated the registration process,” de Castro said. “It’s unnecessarily stressful. I had a 9:30am registration time on the first day of registration, and I didn’t get into half of the classes I needed.”

Alex Perez Pleitez CM ’26 claimed that classes were open to all of the 5Cs further contributed to the dysfunctional registration process.

“I feel like there should be some classes that should be considered just that school’s [students],” she said. “It’s harder for first-years, especially, to get the classes that they want or that they need.”

Perez-Pleitez explained that the current system can prioritize some students over others, based on seniority, major or college that put underclassmen and non-majors at a disadvantage to take the subject areas they truly are interested in.

For students like Henrik

Barck HM ’26, the disproportionate prioritization of students in the registration process can postpone necessary prerequisites and delay their path to their eventual major.

“Mudd freshmen were [...] fighting over discrete math and CS 60, because those are the only STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] courses that didn’t have more [prerequisites],” he said. “You need to take those classes before you can take the other STEM classes that everybody’s kind of looking for.”

Registrar at Scripps College Kelly Hogencamp responded to similar student complaints.

“The student information system and the registration process it supports was selected and implemented as a collaborative process across the colleges,” Hogencamp told TSL via email.

“[The registration process rep -

resents the] benefits and challenges of being part of a consortium.”

Hogencamp shared that Scripps will soon launch a calendar feature on the registration portal to serve as a visual tool for student schedule planning. She also shared that changes to the registration system will be made soon.

“[The Claremont Colleges have] spent several years researching different systems that can support the complex operational needs of Scripps and the 7Cs and deliver the user experience students and faculty deserve,” Hogencamp said.

But the administrations’ response felt lackluster and hopeless for the many students looking for a solution to the chaotic registration process.

“I feel like there has to be a better way to do it. I don’t know how, I just feel like there has to be,” de Castro said.

Registration frustration: stressed students report rough start to spring semester

New OEC Manager Connor Bigenho hopes to foster community and a love for the outdoors at the 5Cs.

LUCIA STEIN & NHI NGUYEN

LUCIA MARQUEZ • THE STUDENT LIFE

How M3gan reigns over true-crime villains

ELIZA POWERS

This column contains spoilers for “M3gan.”

There’s a scene in the newlyreleased movie “M3gan” when M3gan, the newest glossy, Audrey Hepburn-slash-Chucky killer doll, lures a neighbor’s dog to a ruthless slaughter. There’s perhaps nothing more cinematically American or easily readable than the tragedy of a dog’s death in a movie. Yet, as the score swells, and M3gan’s glossy Mary Janes tiptoe towards her prey, we can’t help but hold our breaths, excitedly anticipating the slaughter — after all, the dog did just bite the eight-year-old main character, Cady. In just one scene, Gerard Johnston’s “M3gan,” a gloriously campy, surprisingly queer ride, has subverted one of the most recognizable American cinematic tropes: that a dog’s death equals tragedy.

This is M3gan’s power: while we are ultimately satisfied at her demise, we cheer her on at pivotal moments. “You should probably run,” she eerily taunts the schoolyard bully with her girly, singsongy voice, before bear-crawling towards him at full speed like some kind of rabid spiderdog. M3gan wears a glossy

handkerchief, knows Tik Tok dances, sings “Titanium” to a grieving Cady, played by Violet McGraw of “The Haunting of Hill House.”

M3gan is easy to root for; the modern day girlboss has become an instant staple in the queer community. Erik Piepenburg writes for The New York Times on M3GAN’s subtle gayness, describing a scene when “M3gan enters a room and pointedly removes her sunglasses, as if she’s Miranda Priestly surveying her panicked minions.” M3gan has been claimed not because of

A tribute to Sal Piro and the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” community

Last semester, the 5Cs had two live performances of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” followed by an exclusive TSL interview with some of the most important names attached to making the original show into a reality.

The “Rocky Horror Picture Show” began as a film that evolved to be accompanied by a live performance. It is known for its chaotic and raunchy behavior as well as the interactive audience participation that it creates. The community is one of the most unique aspects of the show, and on Jan. 21, 2023 the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” Fan Club announced the loss of founder and president Sal Piro. Members of the “Rocky Horror” community have come together to honor his memory.

Piro’s energy was unique and necessary to bring “Rocky Horror” to audiences as it is seen today. Tim Deegan is a 20th Century Fox advertising manager and a good friend

of Piro’s.

“The movie would never have reached the status of the longest continuously running movie in history without Sal Piro and the ‘Rocky Horror’ Fan Club, and all of the loyal fans around the country,” Deegan said via email. His devotion to the show and the community that it created was never-ending. Piro explained in the interview with TSL last semester that his connection with the film “became a lifestyle.”

He worked with others in the Fan Club to spread handwritten letters sharing important “Rocky Horror” information, such as performances and updates, with people across the globe.

“What turns me on is the group, the family,” Piro said in his past interview. “Everybody’s sharing this movie with each other.”

His love for the show was seen in everything he did and will never be forgotten.

could never,” jokes SNL in a recent skit. Thanks to Gen Z humor, villains are becoming celebrities. As Lady Gaga said on the red carpet of the “House of Gucci” premiere, “I don’t believe in the glorification of murder. I do believe in the empowerment of women.” Horror is ushering a new era, and M3gan is a prime fulfillment of this subversive adoration. Look at how fan-culture has exploded for her: there’s think-pieces from Refinery 29 about how “M3gan’s polished look plays at our society’s respectability

politics, tricking us into thinking that she’s just another Barbie doll safe to take to class (spoiler: she’s not).” Tiktok has exploded trying to recreate her dance. M3gan lookalikes have flooded talk-shows and The Empire State Building. Actress Aubrey Plaza plays her in a recent SNL skit.

Yet what happens when other cinematic villains – actors playing real-life killers in biopics – are praised?

We are living in an age where cinematic villainy is

celebrated, an era of Golden Globe awards and Tiktok thirst-traps awarded to “Dahmer” actor Evan Peters despite the pain and pushback from victims’ families, Vogue articles like “What’s Anna Delvey reading right now?” and ship edits and Glamour interviews between Zac Efron and Lily Collins on Ted Bundy biopics. Yet all of these figures have real life victims, and fan-culture continues to perpetuate violence and pain against them.

What separates M3gan from other contemporary villains is her fictitiousness: M3gan has no realworld prey. While her crimes range from encouraging Cady not to eat her vegetables to murdering dogs, schoolyard bullies and heads of huge Seattle-based tech startups, M3gan’s crimes live inside the movie. There are no real parents still visiting graves or celebrating missed birthdays while America streams their childrens’ murders. Each of M3gan’s victims makes it to press junkets and red carpets and future movie roles.

Now, a new era of horror: where queer-coded villains are celebrated instead of mocked, where female villains are lauded as girlbosses, where murderers serve and slay. But let’s celebrate villainy in a fictitious, imaginative world. When fanculture excitedly latches onto the newest white male villain on screen, it becomes messy to untangle celebrity adoration from criminal glorification, despite insistent pleading from family members who continue to be retraumatized. So if you’re looking for a villain to celebrate, choose M3gan over true crime. Even if she did kill the dog.

Eliza Powers PO ’25 is from New Orleans, Louisiana. She loves Phoebe Bridgers, reality television and searching for the perfect avocado toast recipe.

Benton’s “Salon Series” offers a new perspective on art education

After riding his bicycle 30 miles to discover that Rhino Records had closed, a 21-yearold college student at UC Riverside made an unlikely detour, stopping for water at the Benton Museum of Art. He joined a lawyer, an MFA student, a professor, two Pomona College students and curatorial intern Skye Tausig PZ ’24, as they made their way to the basement of the museum for the unveiling of art previously unseen.

Solomon Salim Moore has been the Assistant Curator of Collections at the Benton Museum of Art since 2020. He has since become the host for Benton’s monthly “Salon Series.” Moore describes a salon as “a convening of scientists, philosophers, perhaps inventors, artists, people of letters as you might say, to share ideas.”

On Friday, Jan. 27, Moore hosted the fourth salon of the academic year, titled “Cut for Time: Curating and Other Editorial Processes.” Inspired by the Saturday Night Live segment of the same name, “Cut for Time” is a selection

of artwork that had previously never made it to an exhibition. The artwork had been housed in Pomona’s permanent art collection.

From light paintings to nautical sculptures, a wide assortment of artistic mediums were on display. Moore’s favorite piece in the collection is an image by photographer Richard Ross of a rave in an underground Russian bunker. Other standpoint pieces include a photograph of French factories that was cut from Benton’s “Parisian Ecologies” exhibit last fall.

After a thorough look around the room, Moore invited the guests to interpret the artwork. He rarely ventured into analysis, offering brief historical anecdotes before opening up the floor for discussion. The ensuing discussion lasted for an hour, with each person bringing their own interpretation of the importance of curation.

“It was really interesting to discuss the process of curation through various lenses of different people and how the concept of curating can go beyond art and become a more universal way of living,” Kimseng Suon PO ’26 said.

In describing his motivation for starting the “Salon Series” this fall, Moore said he was looking to highlight art that might otherwise never be put on display.

“It’s allowing art to be seen in a different context than the gallery context,” he said.

In a reversal of typical curatorial practices, Moore started by pulling the artwork, then applied a theme.

“We are finding artwork that can speak to this idea of selectivity, curating, editing — even if the artwork itself may be about something else or from different time periods.”

Moore also curates artwork for Benton’s rotating exhibitions. “Night Contains Multitudes,” one of Moore’s exhibits, will open on Feb. 8. When curating for a museum exhibit, Moore begins with the object and builds a theme around the collection he has amassed.

“I kind of assemble a group of objects, items, artifacts, whatever they are,” he said. “I kind of look at them and see how they relate to one another. And then I let the idea for the show come out of that.”

The final three salons of the academic year will occur on Feb. 24, March 24, and April 21.

KIRAN RAJAGOPAL

JADA SHAVERS

So you want to dress Y2K

Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé. When I think of 2000s fashion and the era of velour tracksuits, blinged-out jewelry, platform flip-flops and everything pink, I think of these women. 2000s fashion has made the comeback of the century with more and more Y2K trends being adopted into the current fashion sphere. However, some brands and influencers have seemed to miss the mark on what Y2K truly means. If you want to learn how to throw together an authentic 2000s inspired outfit with pieces that you probably already have in your closet, then you have come to the right place.

2000s fashion has also helped me bond with my mother, who lived through the Y2K era. Over the break, she brought out her jewelry box with vintage pieces that I have now inherited. We spent our time rummaging through the cluttered box, and she told me stories about how she acquired the pieces. Now, every time I wear her bangles or carry her purse, I am reminded of what a fabulous woman she was and still is. And I am reminded of the smile that slid across her face when she saw my excitement about being able to style the jewelry that she had once treasured.

To start with the base — perhaps pair a denim microskirt with an “I Love L.A.” crop top? Or if you’re going for a more laidback, relaxed day in the library, a matching velour tracksuit with flared bottoms? And maybe a cropped, faux-fur jacket on top when it’s cold out? Whatever you decide to build your outfit with, remember that the clothing is actually just a jumping off point –– the additions that you make

with your jewelry, hair, makeup and accessories are what ties everything in together. Rule number one of 2000s fashion: accessorize, accessorize, accessorize.

Accessories are your best friend, and in this case, less is not more. Accessories have the power to elevate a basic outfit to a show stopper. Be experimental with your accessories: that scarf can also serve as a headband, tie-around top, maximalist bracelet or an addition to the strap of your purse or jean belt loop. A pair of sparkly hoop earrings, pink heart or starshaped necklace, pink-tinted sunglasses, lots and lots of bangles, a dangly belly button piercing and a purse decorated with keychains and charms can easily complete a look.

Now that you’ve got your outfit and accessories figured out –– what about the shoes? I don’t think that you could ever miss the mark with a pair of cozy, hot pink faux fur boots, even better if they have sparkles or sequins. Or if it’s hot out ––some platform flip-flops. If you can commit to a high heel, my respect goes out to you, but if you’re more of a flats girl like me, what about some kneehigh, lace-up sneakers? They can add an Avril Lavigne edge to any outfit.

Now, let’s talk makeup. Lip gloss. What more could you need? Now, I know how frustrating it is when the wind blows in your face and your hair gets stuck to your lips, but we all have to make sacrifices in the name of fashion. But if you reach your breaking point and say “Enough.” then I’ve got other options for you. Imagine a dark purpley-brown lip liner paired with obnoxiously long

Peeling back the chocolate layer cake

false lashes. Alternatively, throw on some sparkly eyeshadow that matches the color scheme of your outfit, and you’re all set. Now, let’s add the final touches to your look: the hair. If you like to spend time getting ready in the morning, I would definitely recommend trying out extensions –– pink, blonde, black mixed with white –– the options never end. Or throw on a wig. Don’t worry if you only have 15 minutes before you have to rush to your morning class, popping in some colorful butterfly hair clips will only take a couple of minutes. Or perhaps a pair of messy space buns? Or even just a plaid or sparkly headband? Most importantly, the thing that can make or break any outfit is the confidence that you wear it with. Push yourself outside of your comfort zone and try a look that you may have been wanting to wear but have been hesitant to. And wear it proudly. Practice your runway walk for when you’re strutting through the dining hall and make those heads turn. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and dress differently ––who knows, maybe you will become someone else’s style inspiration. And when you see someone whose style inspires you –– let them know that you love their outfit. And remember, you don’t have to commit to one style; our personal styles are constantly evolving and changing, and we should embrace that process –– I don’t think that I will ever be able to settle for one style. Fashion is my creative outlet, the way that I express my identity and who I am. And these can change. Some days, I wake up feeling like I want to be bold and stand out ––that’s when I reach for my 2000s pieces. But sometimes, I feel less confident and want to go for something more toneddown –– and that’s totally fine. Fashion is an incredibly important outlet for gender and sexuality expression, and although I don’t think that what you wear defines who you are, it sure is a great way for you to tell the world about how you want to be perceived.

So what are you waiting for? Grab your friends and hit the thrift store before all the good pieces are gone.

Elizaveta (Lisa) Gorelik CM ’25 is from Moscow, Russia. She likes 2000s emo rock, alternative fashion and lemon iced-tea.

I’ve felt genuinely happy during these first few weeks of the semester. It’s been so nice getting to see my friends again; on the first day of classes, I ran into 12 familiar faces within the first hour of walking around — yes, I counted. Overall, I feel well-rested and ready to reconnect with people, energized by a sweet moment that happened at the end of break.

It was my aunt’s birthday on Jan. 11, and I, having been staying at her and my uncle’s place for a few days, got to celebrate with their family. We first piled into the car to get Korean barbecue and then made our way to a cozy Orange County bakery for some dessert.

Inside the bakery, the glass cases brimmed with dainty crème brûlées, colorful macaroons and plump slices of cake generously lathered with swirls of frosting. We each selected a dessert, and my younger cousin chose a slice of chocolate cake.

After finding a table and carefully bringing over our assortment of treats, my cousin curiously poked at the cake with her fork. “Try it!” my uncle prodded, to which she carefully sunk her fork in through each layer and took her first bite. Immediately her eyes lit up. “This is exquisite,” she declared, grinning widely.

My aunt and uncle laughed because they had no idea that that word was in her vocabulary, and they were glad to see her enjoying the cake so much. “Is it that good?” I asked, chuckling. “It’s exquisite,” she reaffirmed, goofily closing her eyes as she took another bite.

Though this interaction was small, it meant the world to me. I had spent a decent amount of time with my cousin growing up, but because she was shy, I had always struggled to connect with her. I would talk to her at church and

on random days when I would pop by my aunt and uncle’s house to say hello, but I longed for the day when she would feel comfortable enough around me to laugh and be silly. “Am I doing too much? Am I doing too little?” I would often think to myself. But this small moment, aided by some pretty phenomenal chocolate cake, gave me an answer. I was spending time with her, and that was enough. Maybe 9 out of 10 interactions were on the quieter, more awkward side, but the 10th one allowed me to witness her genuine excitement over this “exquisite” dessert. What mattered most was that I continued to be present with her, and finally, she let me see her unfiltered self on her own accord.

I’ve been reflecting on this moment ever since returning to school, especially as I think about those who I want to reconnect with and new friendships I hope to forge. That evening at the bakery, I offered my cousin nothing but my presence, and the chocolate cake — the sheer delight from tasting the rich, bittersweet ganache — helped her open up when I least expected it. I realized from that experience that time and presence build a relationship, and food can help foster those meaningful connections even in the most unexpected times.

I’m grateful to my middle school cousin for reminding me of an important truth as I navigate friendships in college. As spring semester starts gaining momentum, maybe you could use this reminder, too. As you reconnect with and build new relationships with the people around you, studying together and running from class to class, there will assuredly be some awkward moments. However, with patience and consistent presence, perhaps over a meal one evening, there will be a sweet, or rather, exquisite, one, too.

Emily Kim PO ’25 is from Irvine, CA. She has a newfound love for Frary waffles and currently has the Book of Mormon soundtrack on repeat.

The Resurgence of Miley Cyrus

ABBIE BOBECK

Miley Cyrus has always represented herself as a badass independent woman. Her latest single, “Flowers,” encapsulates all that Cyrus stands for and what her fans love so much about her: individuality. “Flowers” is the first peak into Cyrus’ newest body of work, “Endless Summer Vacation,” her eighth studio album. “Flowers” has captivated audiences and spread like wildfire through TikTok, breaking records and the internet.

“Flowers” is an empowering anthem about becoming even more powerful and self-assured after a rough breakup. Many fans have speculated about the single being in direct response to her divorce from actor Liam Hemsworth in 2019, with lyrics like, “Built a home and watched it burn” in the first verse, referencing the couple’s Malibu home that burnt down in the 2018 Woolsey fires. While the song continues to garner more press and critical acclaim, I urge Cyrus fans and listeners to appreciate this new era of her career while it’s happening –– because we’ve gotten it wrong before.

In March 2021, Cyrus departed from RCA Records and signed with Columbia Records. “Endless Summer Vacation” is her first album with a new label and team. Columbia’s reputation precedes itself with renowned artists like Harry Styles, Beyoncé and Adele. This switch marked a major shift in Cyrus’ music career and set her new era of success in motion.

“Flowers” gives us a glimpse into Cyrus’ new collaborators from Columbia’s family; this single was produced by Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson, two of Styles’ closest collaborators whom Jaxsta just named the top producers of 2022. “Flowers” is only Cyrus’ second No. 1 single in the United States and has broken streaming records within its first day and weeks of its release. This stunning return after her 2020

rock album “Plastic Hearts” has revealed that Cyrus is back in the pop-sphere to stay –– and that her new era will dominate the charts as well as the internet.

As a fan of Cyrus since her Hannah Montana days, I have witnessed her many eras and transformations. And her current one seems to be as fierce and dominant as ever. Over the years, Cyrus’ voice has changed drastically from when she was 13 singing Disney pop hits, to 20 with the south-coast hip-hop sound of her album “Bangerz,” to the raspy tone of a 30-year-old.

Cyrus’ rasp is rare among both female and male performers alike, and her unique sound sets her work apart from the crowd. Cyrus’ voice is not something you can replicate. As she sang in her 2007 song, it’s “One in a Million.”

In a time when Cyrus is being praised and celebrated for her creative genius, I find it necessary to reflect on the way the media and fans have treated her past music choices. On one fatal day in 2012, so many lives were forever changed when Cyrus cut her long locks off and got a platinum pixie cut. It sounds drastic for a haircut, but it was. This decision was plastered on the front of every media outlet, and many parents of Hannah Montana stans –mine included – were horrified. When her single “We Can’t Stop” came out in 2013 ahead of the release of “Bangerz,” Cyrus received an exceptional amount of backlash and hate for not being the teenager she was for Disney.

Looking back, fans can realize that they did not truly admire “We Can’t Stop” for its greatness at the time; it’s safe to say the song and its message has grown more popular among Gen Z fans as they’ve grown up with Cyrus, even becoming somewhat of a party anthem for a generation. Looking back, I experienced

my own conflicting emotions about Cyrus’ rebrand as I absorbed the opinions of my parents, other adults and the negative press. Other young fans cultivated warped perceptions of how Cyrus was supposed to grow up at the time, being that her transformation was such a drastic and mature turnaround from her Hannah Montana days. While most did not fully appreciate “Bangerz” during its release, many music listeners certainly know its cultural impact today. In retrospect, that’s who Cyrus always was, outspoken and advantageous, but the world had not met the authentic Cyrus yet. True fans have had the privilege of watching her grow into the confident woman she is

now. Sure, she’s made a few mistakes along the way, but she has established herself as a legendary live performer and an icon for a generation.

Suppose you’re anxiously awaiting the March 10th release of “Endless Summer Vacation,” as I am. In that case, I urge you to go back through Cyrus’ discography and discover a gem that hasn’t been appreciated as much as I’m sure her new work will be. For fans of Cyrus’ deep rasp and rock ‘n’ roll sound, 2020’s “Plastic Hearts” is an outstanding rock album which features notorious rock stars like Billy Idol and Joan Jett. If you love a good Cyrus breakup ballad, listen to 2019’s “Slide Away,” a stand-alone single which displays her gorgeous and somber vocals. If you want

a more fierce and pumped-up tune from Cyrus, I recommend “Mother’s Daughter” off her 2019 EP “SHE IS COMING,” my go-to workout song.

As the world ushers in the resurgence of Cyrus into the pop world and the charts, let’s not forget where she started and how much she has evolved as an artist. 2023 will be a year of prosperity for Cyrus, which she kicked off by hosting an epic New Year’s Eve special for NBC. With February fast approaching, we’re bound to get another single drop, and March is set to be the official month of Cyrus. Watch out world, Miley’s back!

Abbie Bobeck SC ’26 is from Washington, DC. She loves making playlists, pop culture and online shopping.

CASSIDy

LISA GORELIK

EMILY KIM

LuCIA MArQuEZ-uPPMAN • THE STuDENT LIfE

ELLA LEHAVI • THE STuDENT LIfE

Kicking off Black History Month with ‘The Black Experience in Design’

To mark the beginning of Black History Month, the Hive and Office of Black Student Affairs (OBSA) worked together to co-host and present a panel of several prominent figures to discuss what it means to be Black in the design world. Those on the panel included Kareem Collie, Lesley-Ann Noel, Jennifer WhiteJohnson, Quinlin Messenger and Christopher Rudd, who all work together in conversation to break down the complex discussions.

Based on the book “The Black Experience In Design,” which shares the experiences of Black identities in a multitude of practices, the panelists formed a space in which conversation could flow freely.

Collie, a co-editor of the book and former Hive faculty member, explained that he wanted to “help build the Hive,” by centering human experiences.

Using the Hive as the meeting space for these conversations created a unique opportunity as it enabled students and faculty to flow into the room and learn from the discussion being held.

Creating an environment of communal gathering, the Hive and the panelists opened the conversation to anyone willing to listen.

Although the panelists were focused on the book, they also took the time to touch on the significant moments for people of color today outside of the design world.

Before diving into the book, Collie took a moment to discuss the recent passing of Tyre Nichols due to police brutality. Nichols was a 29-year-old Black man, father, nature photographer and avid skateboarder that was stopped by police in Memphis, Tennessee and was beaten by police to the point of death. With the recent release of the footage, each of the panelists took a moment to hold space for Nichols’ story and say a few words on the recent spotlight on police brutality.

As the panelists discussed the loss of Nichols’ life, they reflected on a year ago when they released the book at the same time as the passing of George Floyd. Using the space they had together to review

the progression of the year, the panelists provided a sense of safety to share their personal stories that many of these violent police attacks continue to strip away from Black communities.

Collie explained that he hoped this event would be, “bringing human centered design lens and approach to a liberal arts institution.” With this initial conversation as the foundation for the rest of their discussion to evolve, the time of remembrance they highlighted was able to form a comforting space for all identities to listen with compassion and learn.

Turning the focus on the book, one panelist, LesleyAnn Noel, a co-editor of “The Black Experience In Design” and author of the soon-tobe-released book “Design Social Change,” directed the conversation towards using design as a response to violence. By evoking conversations of change, Noel allowed the audience to design their own future, or “utopia” as she described, that looked beyond the present issues towards solutions in the future.

The conversation that continued to flow between the panelists further enhanced this future as Black experiences came to the forefront of the conversation. Bringing their own advice and perspectives to serious conversations fostered an inviting scene that continued to draw the audience in.

One attendee of the event, Margaret Kraus SC ’22 described that she went to “hear perspectives from Black designers.”

Events such as these create unique platforms that allow underrepresented voices to share their stories. Another story that flourished in the space was about the ableist systems in society today. White-Johnson, an art activist and design educator, shared experiences of design that allowed neurodivergent people to create relationships with others. Specifically, she mentioned the intersection of neurodivergence and Blackness as a perspective that often gets overlooked.

By looking at a very specific situation, the panelists were able to further develop their

thoughts together and form a collective understanding of ways to function in the world as a Black individuals.

“[This event] helps students who are looking for ways to contribute positively to the world in creative fields,” Kraus added, “how [I can] still make creative work that feels like it’s going to help me support myself, help me speak to the world and make changes in a sustainable way.”

This concept of creative works and design that evokes change was a common theme throughout the discussion as acts of resistance were continuously discovered and defined. Black History Month is an act of resistance in itself, and the panelists found ways to continue to explore their communal experiences.

As an inspirational, powerful and thought-provoking beginning to Black History Month, this event started a conversation that created a path for the upcoming events throughout the month. Kraus describes the event best by saying “perspectives like this help be a guiding light for people who are trying to do the right thing.”

New multimedia exhibits at Pitzer Galleries see the past through today’s lens

JO KEYSER

Innovation was on thrilling display this past weekend as two exhibits opened at the Pitzer Art Galleries: Britt Ransom’s “Arise and Seek,” located in Nichols Gallery Hall, and Maya Gurantz’s “The Plague Archives” in the Lenzner Family Art Gallery. Both exhibits connect past to present, drawing on photographs, family mementos, videos and historical documents to explore urgent issues that range from systems of oppression and the ongoing fight for civil rights to changing ideas about medicine and disease.

Ransom, who is a professor of art in sculpture, installation and site work at Carnegie Mellon University, uses digital fabrication processes to tell the story of her great-grandparents, Reverdy C. Ransom and Emma Sarah Connor, who were early civil rights activists. Involved with organizations like the Niagara Movement, a precursor to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), these ancestors worked alongside activists including the journalist Ida B. Wells-Barnett and the renowned intellectual W.E.B. Dubois.

“Arise and Seek” was inspired by an unusual portrait of Connor called a multigraph, where mirrors are used to capture a subject’s likeness from multiple angles.

“We’re thinking about someone having a conversation with themselves,” Ransom said. “For me, this image was really symbolic in thinking about how we are all still having these conversations about race 100 years later.”

Mirrors, she explained, can be used “to explore sites then, now, and in the future.”

This technique is seen throughout her exhibit, where mirrored pictures and wallpapers from her family’s past create unique patterns on the wall. In one section,

Ransom uses such reflections to visually combine a 3D replica of her great-grandparents’ house and the fortress of John Brown, the 19th century abolitionist, located at Harper’s Ferry in what is present-day West Virginia. The interactive sculpture underscores her family’s connection to Brown through her great-grandfather’s speech “In The Spirit of John Brown,” another major inspiration for the exhibit.

Gurantz, a co-host of the podcast “The Sauce” and occasional writer for the Los Angeles Times and This American Life, grapples with the past in

her art, using her connection to the recent COVID-19 pandemic to spark an exploration of disease and epidemic.

“This started as an Instagram hashtag,” Gurantz said. “It was just something to get through every day of quarantine.”

But her work grew over time into a detailed record of plague stories, divided into six sections: narrative, maps, pustules, the breast, public service announcements, and charms or amulets.

Gurantz uses many mediums to tell her story, starting with a video of Julie Andrews serenading the listener with “Just a Spoonful of Sugar” at the en-

trance and ending with a room full of colorful posters, pictures and advertisements, such as one for “The Bleach Man” who protected people from AIDS infected needles.

Students and faculty who attended the event got a unique glimpse into the artists’ methods of creation. The afternoon began with a talk by Ransom, who personally took attendees through her exhibit, answering questions about scale, site and tactility as she went. Gurantz took a more unconventional approach, beginning with an explanation of her work that seeks to eradicate the notion of

COVID-19 as unprecedented and ending with an elaborate dance number where she embodied vaccinations, illnesses and at one point plucked lice out of her hair.

These presentations allowed students to engage with the artwork on a new level. Jonah Ifcher PZ ’24 described his favorite moment of Gurantz’s performance. “She got up and was blowing in someone’s face,” he said. “She talked about breath and how it can feel dangerous even though it shouldn’t feel dangerous. But to me, it felt a little dangerous. It’s this interesting thing where she’s asking you to put a lot of trust in her while she takes us on this journey.”

Mike Buchman PZ ’26 discussed how interesting it was seeing the Nichols Gallery Hall totally transform from the last show, catering to the new exhibit.

“Last semester there were two fish tanks in the middle of the gallery,” Buchman said. “[But now], this huge open space in the middle of the room draws audiences to the pieces on the perimeter,” he said.

These kinds of student reactions and interactions are exactly what Ciara Ennis, director and curator of Pitzer College Art Galleries, hopes for.

“I really wanted to build a program that looked outwards, looked out to the art world by creating really extraordinary shows that would bring in artists, curators and critics from Los Angeles, one of the top art centers in the world,” she said. “I’m hoping [students] will be able to use this as inspiration from a formal and conceptual point of view.”

Ransom is also excited about their exhibits being used as a teaching tool and a site of inspiration.

“If you follow your obsessions, that’s it, it will show you,” Gurantz said. “Don’t worry about what it’s going to be.”

JADA SHAVERS

Creating an environment of communal gathering, the Hive and the panelists opened the conversation to anyone willing to listen.

CHASE WADE • THE STuDENT LIfE

b ritt r ansom’s “Arise and Seek” and Maya Gurantz’s “The Plague Archives” put creative innovartion on thrilling display this pas weekend.

It’s not just you, syllabus week sucks

Did your first week feel chaotic? The role of routines in our lives might help to explain why.

Ever since returning from winter break, it’s felt as though there was a constant, resounding chorus of “that was easy” from hundreds of Staples Easy Buttons. The dominant assumption on campus is that the first couple weeks of the semester are easy, chill weeks. Perhaps the kind of week where you could lounge at Pomona’s Pendleton pool without a care in the world, while simultaneously using the oodles of extra time on your hands to brush off a new thesis chapter or maybe finish half a syllabus’ readings.

In many ways, this assumption is perfectly reasonable. The first few weeks aren’t known for grueling final papers. In fact, they are typically one of the only times during the semester when reading syllabi, a typically mundane task, is considered a hefty assignment.

But the first week isn’t a breeze at all. The main reason for this is, paradoxically, one of the main reasons we assume the first week should be easy: it’s a blank slate.

While the multitude of possibilities implied by a blank slate conjures refreshing notions of freedom and carefree antics, the practical implications aren’t as serene. A blank slate also entails feelings of free-floating in a nebulous, scattered void, which can be overwhelming and exhausting.

So, what’s behind this scattered feeling? Arguably, the biggest reason the first weeks feel like this is the lack of an established routine

or habits. I want you to imagine what your average, everyday tasks would be like without a learned, pre-established routine. Your alarm goes off and you don’t know where it’s coming from, or how to turn it off. You walk to the bathroom, and you’ve never brushed your teeth before, so you helplessly Google “how to use the little brush thing that goes in your mouth?” Making your morning coffee is befuddling and potentially downright dangerous.

To a lesser extent, this is how the first week goes. Nonexistent are the familiarities that we take for granted later in the semester: the understanding of whether you really have enough time or not to grab a coffee before that morning class, or whether Wednesdays are the day to start that particular weekly assignment, or where to meet your professor for office hours.

To put it simply, habits are what save our energy and sanity. And this isn’t just a thought experiment. There is research in several domains that suggests automaticity, arguably the defining factor of habits, is a major way that our brains conserve cognitive resources.

When you repeat an action enough, the architecture of your brain gets remodeled to accommodate new “habit circuits” connecting the neocortex and striatum, which increases the seamlessness of that action. This increase in automaticity with repeated practice has been demonstrated in rats who were trained with chocolate milk to run a maze, which they continued to excel at even without the presence of the chocolatey treat. You might discover that you relate to these findings as you scurry

around campus in the coming weeks without having to check 5C Friend numerous times a day to verify which dining halls are open.

Hopefully, it comes as a relief to know that your brain is working around the clock to build new circuitry that will make the coming weeks a bit smoother. Something that provides me further reassurance is the fact that the formation of routines is not only a passive process that happens as you become more acquainted with the semester; it is also something you can intentionally utilize to tamp down stress

throughout the semester. In “Mini Habits,” Stephen Guise discusses how we can use habits to our advantage in moments of stress. Guise references University of Southern California psychology professor Wendy Wood who states, “People can’t make decisions easily when stressed, low in willpower or feeling overwhelmed. When you are too tired to make a decision, you tend to just repeat what you usually do.” Because of this, Guise reasons that in times of stress, habits are especially powerful. If your habits increase your

stress, then you might find yourself snowballing. However, if the habits you have in place are stress-relieving, you can create a negative feedback cycle in which the behavior you engage in when you’re stressed actually reduces your stress levels.

Best of luck going forth into this semester — perhaps that one quote about doing this “not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard” applies here.

Maggie McBride PO ’23 is a senior majoring in psychological science. She would like to thank the creator of 5C Friend.

The limits of college activism

All political action is about power. When it succeeds, it does so because protesters have something to withdraw. In the case of labor strikes, that leverage translates to employees’ labor and the benefits it provides for those who extract it. For example, when sanitation workers strike, their employers listen because trash piles up and toilets begin to clog. It simply becomes too uncomfortable or costly to continue without acquiescing to the demands of organized labor.

Student strikes often fail for the same reason labor strikes succeed: students, as opposed to workers, have nothing substantial to withdraw. Similar problems inhibit student activism in the local community. The most effective point of contact for student activism is the institution itself, using subversive action to disrupt its present and future cash flow.

Although some students work as teaching assistants, tutors or have campus jobs, they’re ancillary to the academic institution’s central functioning. Refusing to attend classes en masse means little when you or your parents are still paying tuition; faculty, staff and administrators still receive paychecks and the institution continues to profit. Additionally, first-generation and low-income students often cannot easily participate due to financial precarity and reliance on GPA or athletics-based scholarships.

Outside the institution, the contemporary student’s structural position also makes for poor activism. When integrating oneself into community or regional organizing, it takes time to build trust and rapport. Four-year bachelor’s degree programs function like a revolving door. They make establishing these roots close to impossible, especially with the student experience also divided between studies and social life. Impactful

activism requires a level of longer-term material grounding — being a stakeholder — that most college students simply don’t possess.

To maximize impact, college activist efforts should be prioritized inwards, on issues where students do have tangible leverage: the institution itself. As such, the institution’s financial bottom line is the most effective point of leverage. Students’ best point of access to that bottom line is through disrupting its future cash flow. This could mean organized heckling of prospective families and disrupting tour groups. It would be a program of nonviolent agitation, accom-

panied by a predetermined list of concrete demands.

Parents won’t shell out $56,000 a year to a college whose students hurl insults at them from the quad. They won’t dare send their little treasure to a college whose agitating students are forcibly removed by campus security in front of their eyes. Similarly, no college could tolerate indefinitely suspending campus tours due to the threat of student sabotage.

Crucially, the linchpin of any such strategy is collective action. The institution can expel or place six students on probation, but doing so with 60 becomes harder and 600 nigh impossi-

ble. This can be coupled with culture-jamming online promotional material and institutional communiqués.

For those who would object to such methods under the aegis of propriety — decorum should be encouraged for its own sake only when the involved parties are on relatively equal footing. Otherwise, decorum is set and often flaunted by the powerful to moderate the actions of the disempowered.

Still, struggles to change the institution from the institution cannot be the end of the story.

To illustrate, I leave you with an excerpt from “On the Poverty of Student Life,” written in

1966 by French college students, led by Algerian situationist and social critic Mustapha Khayati. Determining that the pamphlet surpassed the bounds of tolerated dissent, university authorities violently attempted to censor the piece. However, once disseminated, the contents of the pamphlet and the institutional reactions to it directly contributed to the events of May 1968, a series of student and worker mobilizations that nearly toppled the French government and sparked similar mobilizations worldwide. The piece remains as vital today as it was then.

“The student, if he rebels at all, must first rebel against his studies, though the necessity of this initial move is felt less spontaneously by him than by the worker, who intuitively identifies his work with his total condition,” the pamphlet states. “The best criticism of student life is the behavior of the rest of youth, who have already started to revolt.”

The university is a deradicalizing institution, and the class position of the student distances them from the labor struggle. Universities are designed with the latent function of interpellating their students into docile members of the professional-managerial class. Universities cannot and will not be the site of revolutionary action; the most radical gesture a university student can make is to leave them. Maintain critical distance. Get what knowledge you can after separating what’s useful from the dominant ideology. Educate yourself counter to the curriculum when necessary. Get your rubber stamp diploma, and get out.

Marcello Ursic PO ‘24 is an environmental analysis and sociology double major from Portland, Oregon. In his free time, he enjoys getting upset about bad politics and even worse art.

MARCELLO URSIC

JONaTHaN KeI • THe STuDeNT LIFe

MAGGIE MCBRIDE

The first couple weeks of school are popularly assumed to be the easiest of the semester. That assumption, argues Maggie McBride PO ‘23, is entirely wrong.

ACADEMIA NUTS: A COMIC BY ELLA LEHAVI

CMC students can change party culture

ROWAN GRAY

Here’s a fact you might not know unless you’ve worked in journalism before: nearly every major journalistic body in the country prohibits the use of the Oxford comma. This is to follow the AP Stylebook, the New York Times Stylebook, the Economist Stylebook, the Canadian Press Style Guide and many more central grammatical authorities of English language journalism. Unless you’re an annoying nerd, you probably don’t know the ins and outs of the Oxford comma debate — but don’t worry. This TSL opinionator will come to the rescue and give you an extremely one-sided take on the controversial grammatical convention.

Oxford Comma — a poll from FiveThirtyEight found that 57 percent of Americans always use it, meaning more than half of Americans are grammatically alienated from their news by the absence of that all-important comma. A 7 percent majority might seem slim, but it’s impressive considering the years of effort that the authoritarian AP Stylebook has spent incorrectly insisting that the Oxford comma be kept out of English.

At Claremont McKenna College, we are lucky to have one of the most liberal alcohol policies in the U.S., but that doesn’t mean we can’t do better.

As I conclude my term as CMC student body president, I am dedicated to maintaining an unwavering commitment to improvement and progress for our community.

I believe that the events we attend, the conversations we have, and the relationships we build all contribute to our overall college experience. Our social scene makes CMC unique and special, but it can also be challenging.

To change that social culture, we as students need to change too.

The Dean of Students (DOS) can change its policies, but we as a student body must make several cultural changes to create a sustainable, long-lasting, improved culture. The administration can facilitate social life reform, but this is only sustainable with student buyin. So let’s start by exploring why we do the things we do and what values we hold as a community.

We’ll begin with wristbands.

Wristbands play a crucial role in CMC events by allowing all students to participate in social gatherings and ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience. With events often costing thousands of dollars for food, drinks, security, decorations, and activities, wristbands ensure that ASCMC can prepare and provide for the student body. The wristband system eliminates a first come, first serve approach, ensuring no one is left waiting in line and missing out on festivities.

It’s crucial to understand that wristbands are not the cause of dangerous behavior at events. Instead, it’s the actions of individuals that pose a danger.

Blaming the wristbands ignores the fundamental issue of student behavior and shifts the focus away from what truly needs to be addressed to a plastic inanimate object. Wristbands do not create exclusivity. Capacity is determined by available space and resources, regardless of whether a wristband system or a first-come, first-serve model is used. The use of wristbands does not alter the principle of capacity limitation.

All CMC students are guaran-

teed a wristband, as the system has been in place for years, even before the coronavirus pandemic, to create a positive student experience and foster a strong sense of community. While wristbands may inconvenience your fit, they are necessary to sustain a happy, healthy, and safe CMC community.

Another critical step to changing the social culture is to maintain ID checks. The college ID check at the door of events serves as a uniform, equitable and quick way of keeping events secure.

In the past, members of the surrounding community have threatened ASCMC events. Pre-pandemic, for example, nine phones were stolen at one Thursday Night Club (TNC) event. At last year’s Quantum event, an older couple entered the event and made multiple people uncomfortable.

Using college IDs ensures that everyone who enters the event is part of the 5C community. An exception to the ID rule, relying on alternative forms of proof for attending the 5Cs, would result in a backlog at the entrance, slowing down the process, making it easier to fake and creating too much complexity with a lot of gray areas.

The college ID card is something we all use daily to get into buildings, dining halls and our rooms, making it a uniform and equitable system that we are already familiar with. While it may be tough to remember to bring your ID, a gentle reminder from friends can’t hurt.

What goes on during an event has an impact on the social culture as well.

At CMC, we strive to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students. However, only some come to college with knowledge and experience with substances, partying and their limits.

That’s why, while ASCMC events will serve alcohol, we limit it to beer, seltzer, wine and champagne to provide a safe, on-campus and transparent way to participate.

Although 200 White Claws can disappear quickly, we are working to find ways to make sure there’s enough to go around. We always look to improve our policies and practices to serve our community

better. A critical way that we as a student body can further adjust our behavior to improve the social culture is through our relationship with the DOS.

Kindness goes both ways.

As has been the case at CMC, an open social culture between DOS and students promotes transparency when situations become dangerous. This shows a rare patience and understanding we are lucky to experience. We are all trying to make the best of our transient existence here.

Saturday nights are often given up by DOS staff from their families so that they can ensure that our events run smoothly. They are dedicated to providing that our campus is safe and inclusive for all students. They do not get paid for these extra hours.

We can all take accountability for our actions and strive towards open, honest and kind interactions with each other.

While the administration has shut down events, we recognize that not all events are the same.

A hard capacity limit of 100 people doesn’t make sense for smaller events.

These smaller events can create strong social bonds, a crucial value of our culture. It is okay to acknowledge that some of the rules we encounter from the administration are unjustified. Discussions and pushback like that of the Senate last Monday are critical to our shared investment in the CMC community. Personal circumstances come with responsibility.

It’s not just the students or the DOS that need to change. It’s both of us.

As the last class to experience pre-pandemic life at 5C departs in a few months, the cultural landscape may change. Still, our responsibility is to embrace these changes and strive toward a brighter future that transcends our differences.

Yes, collective action seems far from reach, but these challenging steps can lead to effective, enduring change.

Josh Nagra CMC ’24 is from Pleasanton, California. He likes biology, raccoons, and EDM.

The central goal of grammar is to ensure writing is always coherent — and it was for this reason the Oxford comma was created. There are many sentences in which the absence of an Oxford comma creates ambiguity and confusion. Take this example: “I, Rowan, leave my estate to Peter, Mary and Paul.” See how it’s ambiguous? Am I trying to say “I leave 50 percent of my estate to Peter and 50 percent to Mary and Paul” or “I am leaving 33 percent to each?”

Now let’s add an Oxford comma: “I, Rowan, leave my estate to Peter, Mary, and Paul.” Much better.

Man, that example was boring. Let’s take a spicier one: “I invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin.” Look at that, more ambiguity! Are the strippers named JFK and Stalin, or did I invite strippers and two longdead political leaders to whatever mysterious function I’m hosting?

The Oxford comma conundrum might seem like a niche issue, but it can have substantial real-world impacts.

Take the case of a Maine dairy company which, because of a single missing Oxford comma, was successfully sued by its truck drivers for $10,000,000 in back pay. I bet that lawyer wishes they had never heard of the AP Stylebook.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, there’s a good chance that you regularly use the

If the goal of our newspapers and our writing is to express our truths with maximum clarity, the absence of the Oxford comma is a senseless tragedy — a blight on the English language. It represents a desire by the elitist designers of the AP Stylebook to make “proper writing” hard to understand to the average American. But they don’t own the English language — we do.

If you’ve made it this far into a grammar article, then hopefully you’re convinced that the Oxford comma is at a minimum highly controversial. This is all you should need to oppose the AP Stylebook and all other grammar “authorities” that oppose the legendary comma. English is, at its core, a highly experimental language that often employs flexible grammar, spelling and pronunciations. This is part of why English is so beautiful: it enables people from all around the world to contribute to a common corpus of communication. Sure, it’s unnecessarily complicated, inconsistent and hard to learn — but those are the sacrifices we have to make to keep English as diverse as it is.

Stylebooks that work to cement certain controversial grammatical conventions strip our language of its diverse beauty and make our language and by extension our lives, less interesting, less fluid and less purposeful. This article might be easy to brush off as a niche piece for the grammar nerds, but this nerd asks you: what can have more of an impact on the way you live than the very method by which you express your thoughts to the world?

Rowan Gray CM ’26 is from Sharon, Massachusetts. He wants you to know that all Oxford commas in this piece were violently deleted by his copy editors.

Jasper’s Crossword: Don’t bark at me!

20. “This new poster will really ___!” said Picea sitchensis

22. Instrument with a killer break on “In the Air Tonight”

23. Big Vegas letters

24. Frank Sinatra’s had a few

27. Yoko of “Painting to be Stepped On”

29. End of a professor’s email

32. Other, to Ofelia

33. Jester’s headgear

35. “I’ve got them in ___,” said Washingtonia filifera

39. Pizzeria order 40. ___ buco

41. Swanson whose allergies are “cowardice and weak-willed men... and hazelnuts”

42. Passports, e.g.

43. Sex cells

46. “Playing a 72 Hr Game of ___ Across Europe” (season of the YouTube show Jet Lag) 48. What you might use to buy some pain au chocolat

49. “This week’s been great, but seeing you was ___,” said Prunus avium

55. D.C. has it without representation

56. Doted on

58. LAX alternative 59. They go with odds

units

DOWN

1. “Savage” rapper’s nickname

2. Both yours and mine

3. r/meal___sunday (subreddit for manic chefs)

4. What falls when you’re down?

5. “Yeah, definitely”

6. Result of a demotion, maybe

7. The White ___ (show in which Aubrey Plaza stares into my soul)

8. “Stat!”

9. Word before Jim or Shady

10. “Heavens to Betsy!”

11. Smart TV alternative

12. Sedan or minivan

13. Pronoun for an object

19. Last bit of NPR’s URL

21. 911 option

24. Motor part

25. Prefix for -graphy or -logy

26. Bad sign to an iMessage user

27. “Yikes”

28. Oscar nod, briefly

30. ___ macabre (Saint-Saëns piece)

31. Beehives, hair-wise

33. Nemesis

34. Where to get two pumps?

36. Got off the bus

37. Tupperware top

38. Escher and Hammer, for two

43. ‘make up a ___’ (Twitter meme)

44. Person with no romantic or sexual attraction, for short

45. The first item in an “I Gotta Feeling” list

47. Obamacare, briefly

48. ___ & Young

49. Pontiac Firebird, for one

50. Chill out

51. ___ kleine Nachtmusik (Mozart piece)

52. Took one’s horse to the old town road, say

53. “An ___ History Of The Time

Six Doctors Swallowed Lego Heads To See How Long They’d Take To Poo” (actual Defector article that you should Google and read)

54. Buttigieg running the DOT

57. Summer time, for short?

Oohoohoo! You found the Snozzler, TSL’s official source sniffer! Be on the lookout for it in future issues!

TSL won’t let me use the oxford comma. That’s a problem

JOSH NAGRA

CMC student body president Josh Nagra CM ‘23 addresses his peer s on the need to respect the college’s operations to maintain a positive cultural landscape.

Sagehens soar past Poets in emphatic 40 point victory

HAROLD FUSON a perfect 9-9 from the field, including four made 3-pointers.

With first place in the SCIAC up in the air following Redlands’ loss to Cal Lutheran, the PomonaPitzer men’s basketball team made easy work of the Poets, sending a resounding message throughout the conference: the Sagehens are the SCIAC’s top team.

The Sagehens hosted the Poets of Whittier College on Saturday night at 7 in the teams’ second meeting of the season. The Sagehens soared past the Poets en route to a 115-70 point win, P-P’s most significant win margin of the season.

In a game that saw 14 Sagehens get time on the court, P-P took control early and never looked back. Opening the game with a 7-0 run, including five points in the first 1:30 of play from Ty Bergman PO ’25, the Hens looked calm and collected, in complete control of the Whittier squad. P-P could not miss to open the game, shooting

Bergman, playing in his first game back after being sidelined with a suspected heart condition which put his basketball career in jeopardy, looked as if he had missed no time at all. The 6-foot7-inch guard had 13 points and seven rebounds, making an immediate impact in his return.

“I was really out of shape, but it was a blast to be back,” Bergman said.

Bergman’s teammates shared his enthusiasm for being back on the court. Owen Avdalovic PZ ’25 spoke of the Hens’ excitement at having Bergman back.

“Everyone is super excited to have Ty back. He’s a great player and a great dude. We’re just happy for our teammate to be back,” Avdalovic said.

Bergman had a strong presence on the court on Saturday, but that was expected of him.

He reached double-digit points and rebounds multiple times this season, including a doubledouble against Haverford College in December. Guards Brendan Mora PO ’23 and Joe Cookson PO ’25 continued to run the offense for the Sagehens in the first half, scoring 18 and 12 points respectively. With 13:39 left in the opening half, Cookson sank a two-point jump shot to put the Hens up by 13, one of their largest leads of the half. The two refused to let up on offense, with each scoring multiple more baskets before time expired in the first. Mora would finish with 22 points and five rebounds, his fifth time surpassing 20 points this season. Cookson would end with an equally impressive stat line, finishing with 20 points and a rebound shy of a double-double.

The Sagehens entered the locker room at the half with a 58-39 point lead, a season-best in

Bridging gaps and reinventing recreation, Matt Ryan and CMS are offering an alternative to varsity athletics

SENA SELBY

Matt Ryan, who is the assistant director of recreation at ClaremontMudd-Scripps (CMS) athletics, recently sat down with TSL and explained his reasons for working with intramural sports at CMS and club sports at the 5Cs, highlighting the benefits they bring to students here in Claremont. This will be his seventh calendar year at CMS. This conversation has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.

TSL: What is your role at CMS Athletics?

Matt Ryan: I oversee the intramural program, and I co-lead the 5C club sports program with the recreation professional over at Pomona-Pitzer. But I also have many different tasks within my job … I assist in group fitness [at Roberts Pavilion], and the front desk staff and I work with the recreation team at CMS in coming up with other programming like the 5C5K, for example. I also do work on the athletics side, too. I oversee the administrative portion for athletic camps, and I help out with special events — like most recently, the volleyball regionals and things of that nature.

TSL: What made you want to work at this position or in this field post-grad?

MR: When I was in college, I worked in the intramural department. I was a flag football, basketball and softball referee. I had a lot of fun with it, and I realized I really wanted to work in athletics. That year was one of my favorite years of my life. I got to connect with students and watch them have fun. I think varsity athletics is a great thing, but it’s more of the business model. It’s obviously there to put forth joy in a student athlete’s life and all those things, but winning is cared about. In intramural sports, people might care about winning, but at the end of the day, it’s mostly about socializing and taking that mental break from your studies … So that was what I think really sold me on

this job.

TSL: Why do you think club and intramural sports are really important for a college campus?

MR: Mostly, I think the most important part is what it does for your mental wellness. When you’re stressed and have a ton of homework, students think they can’t take an hour break or whatever. But honestly, [it] allows you to have that release for a little while to take your mind off things.

I also think intramurals bring people together that wouldn’t have already been associated with each other. For me personally, I have a friend that I invited to my intramural team in college. He was a free agent when he was a freshman, and 13 years later, we’re still friends. We would have never met if it wasn’t for him wanting to play intramural frisbee and not having a team to play on. As for my staff, a lot of them are Scripps [College] students [and] there are a couple Harvey Mudd [College] students, they say, “I wouldn’t have ever spent this much time with people at [Claremont McKenna College] if it wasn’t for me working this job.” Watching friendships being made through my staff is cool. I hope that rings true for participants who are

playing intramural sports.

TSL: What are you most excited about this semester?

MR: I’m always excited about intramural basketball season because it’s really a time where I get to watch my staff grow on a personal level. Reffing basketball is hard. Basketball, by nature, is a sport where at almost all levels, coaches, players and fans are arguing. It’s a hard game to officiate because my staff doesn’t want to be potentially yelled at by their peers. I like it because I get to watch them get outside their comfort zone and get better. I can see my staff becoming confident in themselves and knowing how to manage the game.

TSL: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know about you, intramurals, club sports or about Roberts Pavilion?

MR: That’s a great question.

I would say if you have not [before], come and check out our programming … We’ve got lots of different things. We have trivia night every Thursday. We have this “Fabulous February” bingo challenge coming up. We are also going to lead people on some hikes through the Claremont loop. We have yoga, spin and lots of dance classes. I truly do believe that there’s something for everyone.

The other thing I would say is that we don’t have everything figured out. If you have ideas or want to see programming that we don’t offer, we’re always open to suggestions. All club sports are formed through students initiating [them]. Students come to us and they’re like, “Hey, I’m interested in starting XYZ club. How do I do that?” And then we provide them with the resources they need, and they go forward and formulate the club. So, if you’re interested in anything, whether it’s [recreational] programming or club sports, and we don’t have it, come talk to us about it.

points scored in the first half.

Bergman started the scoring for P-P in the second, knocking down a 3-pointer in the first minute of play. Shots from beyond the arc would continue to be the Sagehens’ friend in the second half, shooting 8-16 from three.

The Hens nearly matched their first-half-point total in the second, scoring 57 points to put a cap on a 45-point blowout.

This game finished a month of January in which the Sagehens went 5-1, with decisive wins over multiple SCIAC opponents. Since their loss to University of Puget Sound in November, the Hens are 11-1 and 7-1 against SCIAC teams.

Avdalovic said their success in this stretch is no coincidence.

“We played in the beginning of the year like we deserved something because of our record last year,” Avalovic said. “But

that’s just not how it works. You have to earn everything each year.”

The team is looking to win the SCIAC for its fourth straight season, a feat only accomplished in the SCIAC by UCLA from 19201923 and P-P from 1997-2000. With this win, the Hens overtook Redlands and took sole control of first place in the SCIAC standings. However, according to Avdalovic, even with this success, the Sagehens refuse to remain complacent.

“[We] gotta focus on the task at hand,” Avdalovic said.

Jack Paradis PZ ’26 said he doesn’t want his teams’ success to give them a big head.

“It’s a long season…We gotta get back, stay humble, [and] get back to practice,” Paradis said.

The Hens will continue their final month of regular season play with a rematch against Redlands University this Saturday at 7 p.m. at home.

Athletes of the Week Tag Curwen PO ’24 Mercersburg, PA

Tag Curwen PO ’24 was named the SCIAC Men’s Swim and Dive Athlete of the Week on Jan. 30. Curwen earned this honor following his two victories in a meet against Caltech, winning both the 100 freestyle and placing first in the 400 Free Relay. Not only did Curwen take the gold for two races, his strong performance in the 200 and 500 Free earned him second place, only falling short to fellow Sagehen Larry Yu. The Sagehens are currently second in the SCIAC overall, with a record of 6-1, just below the undefeated Stags. The 6th Street rivalry will battle it out this Saturday at the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) Invitational.

Jacey Carter CMC ’23 Phoenix, AZ

Jacey Carter CMC ’23 earned the title of SCIAC Women’s Basketball Offensive Player of the Week on Saturday, Jan. 28. The senior guard had a stellar performance the previous Wednesday, shooting a total of six 3-pointers, two of which were in the last two minutes of regulation time, which helped tie the game and force it into overtime. Carter ended the game with a new personal high record of 20 points. However, this success is not new for Carter. In her junior season she started 26 out of 26 games and averaged 7.7 points per game, the third best of the Athenas. In her first year, she appeared in all 27 games and established herself as an essential player from then on. Carter and the Athenas will be on the road this weekend, facing the Whittier College Poets on Saturday at 2 p.m.

COurTeSy: CMS aTHLeTICS

Peyton Mullarkey PZ ‘25 dribbles past half-court during a game during the 2021-22 season.

abbey LIaO • THe STuDeNT LIFe

CMS assistant director of recreation Matt ryan is entering his seventh calendar year with CMS athletics.

CMS track and field starts the season strong with 1stplace finish at OIDFE Challenge Meet

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperature read a pleasant 65 degrees: a typical January day in Southern California. At Burns Stadium on Jan. 28, the crowd’s eyes might have been drawn to the unusually clear view of the San Gabriel Mountains if the loud crack of the starting gun hadn’t pulled their attention down to the track where, arms pumping and feet beating on the red compressed rubber, the Athenas sprinted towards the finish line.

Last Saturday, the ClaremontMudd-Scripps (CMS) Athenas women’s track and field team hosted its first meet of the season: the Outdoor Indoor Distances and Field Events (OIDFE). Competing against SCIAC rivals, out of conference opponents and even some CMS alumni, the defending conference champion Athenas took first place in the overall rankings. Despite their dominant

performance, many CMS runners described this meet as more of an introduction, especially for the team’s first-timers. Angie Gushue CM ’25, who finished first in the women’s 1-mile run with a time of 5:28, believed the team benefited most from the experience by getting a competition under their belt.

“The team was definitely just going in and having fun and figuring out where we’re at as far as fitness,” Gushue said. “[It was] recognizing that we’re not going to be at our best right now and just creating a baseline for the season.”

Shriya Velichala CM ’26 also came in first place in a tight 400-meter dash race with a time of 1:01, barely beating the next competitor by .11 seconds. She explained the pacing strategy she implemented.

“My main thing was that I wanted to try to get out hard and then also finish strong,” Velichala said. “I think the 400 takes a bit

of endurance and I was pretty nervous about whether I had it in me, so I just wanted to get to the finish line, honestly.”

It was also Velichala’s first collegiate meet, something she said made her nervous but was also a shared experience with many of her teammates.

“Everyone that ran the 400 with me [is] such a supportive group and it was a lot of people’s first time ever too,” Velichala said. “Seeing everyone break out of their shell … was so exciting.”

Another first-timer was Mia Voce SC ’25, who competed in the 4x400 meter relay with Velichala as well as the 200-meter dash. Voce recently walked onto the team, switching over from varsity soccer, which she played as a first-year.

“I haven’t run track since freshman year of high school,” Voce said. “I was just trying to have fun with it and test it out. I was pretty nervous though. I’m not super happy with how I ran

COLLEGE IS EASIER WITH CLASS PASS

but it was the first time, so I’m glad I ripped the band-aid off and did it.”

Voce said captain Caroline

DelVecchio SC ’23 has been a great supporter and role model for everyone, but even more so for the team’s newcomers.

DelVecchio, who holds the CMS program record in the 400-meter hurdles and has been decorated with various All-American and All-Academic honors throughout her collegiate career, competed in four events, coming in first in the 60-meter hurdles. She said she was impressed by the new athletes’ poise throughout the whole meet, especially during the 4x400-meter relay, where she was on a team with Voce and Velichala.

“I was pretty happy with my performance in the 4x4,” DelVecchio said. “Two of the runners are new to track and had never run a 4x4, so I was worried they’d go out too fast and burn out on the backstretch,

but I was really impressed with their performance.”

It was all in all a successful meet for CMS. Even though it was their first-ever collegiate track experience, the rookies were able to help the team walk away with a first-place finish. The team aims to build off of their strong start throughout the rest of the season, tapping into new athletes’ individual talents while remembering to have fun.

“[The goal is] to keep the momentum going,” Gushue said. “Because track season is long, it can be pretty mentally exhausting, but [it’s important] just remembering why I enjoy it and why I want to be racing.”

The CMS track and field team will next compete when they host their annual alumni meet on Saturday Feb. 4. They will additionally race at the national level on Feb. 10 and 11, with select athletes traveling to invitationals either at Whitworth or Boston University.

Sports Calendar

CMS

Friday, Feb. 3 baseball vs. George Fox @ La Verne

Saturday, Feb. 4 baseball vs. George Fox @ La Verne

Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving

Friday, Feb. 3 Softball vs. Westcliff baseball vs. Whitworth

Saturday, Feb. 4

Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving CMS Invitational

Men’s and Women’s Tennis @ Azusa Pacific

Women’s Tennis vs. Whittier

baseball vs. Whitworth

Women’s Water Polo @ Siena

Women’s Water Polo @ brown

Men’s Tennis vs. Hope International

Men’s and Women’s basketball @ redlands

Sunday, Feb. 5

Women’s Water Polo @ Harvard

Women’s Lacrosse @ uC Davis

AMALIA KOCH

Laura Zimmer CM ‘24, Megan Maley SC ‘23 and Camille Forte CM ‘23 compete in the 800-meter during a meet last year.

HaNNaH WeaVer • THe STuDeNT LIFe