Vol. CXXXIII No. 12

VOL. CXXXIII NO. 12

FRIDAY, FebRuARY 11, 2022

Students call for hybrid class option

5C dining to return ANUSHE ENGINEER After a nearly two-year hiatus, cross-campus dining will gradually return at the 5Cs beginning Feb. 26, according to emails from college administrators Thursday. A decline in COVID-19 cases across the consortium allowed for the reopening, which will take place in stages to accommodate for operational challenges and flexibility as case counts change.

Pomona College, Claremont McKenna College, Scripps College and Pitzer College will open to all 5C students for brunch and dinner on the weekends and dinner only during weekdays. Harvey Mudd College will only allow cross-campus dining for brunch on weekends.

Additionally, cafes at each of the campuses will also be open for cross-campus dining, and students will be expected to follow policies laid out by the host campus. Food trucks will be limited to students from the campus where they are provided.

“We understand that students across the 5Cs want cross-campus dining for breakfast and lunch during the week,” Pomona College Dean of Students Avis Hinkson and Treasurer Rob Goldberg said in an announcement. “Knowing that lunchtime places the greatest demands on our dining halls, we believe it is prudent to begin 5C dining with dinner mealtimes (and with brunch on the weekends) to ensure that our dining halls are able to continue to meet high standards of service.”

Cross-campus dining for breakfast and lunch may resume once the colleges reassess COVID-19 positivity rates over spring break in March. This will also give administrators the chance to address any operational issues that arise, the emails said.

For now, cross-campus dining will only be open to students.

Faculty and staff must follow the rules set by their respective home campuses.

“Now all my Pomona friends can’t bully me to eat at Frary anymore,” Mary-Iris Allison SC ’23 said. “As someone who lives off campus, I was feeling buyer’s remorse about holding on to my

See DINING on page 2

LUCIA STEIN & LELA MAZDYASNIAN

GAbRIeLA CAMACHO • THe STuDeNT LIFe

Pomona College hosted the cast and crew of Fox Network’s television series “9-1-1: Lone Star” this week as a set for filming.

High enthusiasm for Lowe show ELISA MEMBRENO Pomona College briefly filled in for Austin, Texas this week as filming commenced for part of season 3, episode 11 of Fox Network’s television series “9-1-1: Lone Star.”

On Feb. 1, Pomona students were notified of the upcoming production in an email from Pomona’s Director of Public Programming KJ Fagan. Although few details were disclosed within the email, students were told to expect emergency equipment including police cars, fire trucks and ambulances with flashing lights.

Set construction began a week before filming commenced and included the construction of a gateway at one of the entrances to Marston Quad, tall shrubs blocking the Smith Campus Center from view of the cameras and the placement of benches along Marston’s central walkway.

On Monday, filming commenced around emergency vehicles lining Stover Walk.

Students were permitted to walk amidst the props and observe the action but were instructed where to stand while filming was in progress and not invited to act as extras. Filming locations were limited to Marston Quad, Stover Walk, outside Little Bridges and inside Bridges Auditorium. By Tuesday night, all filming was completed and crews began packing up.

“9-1-1: Lone Star” is currently

5C Lunar New Year events impacted by pandemic for second consecutive year

COuRTeSY: JeReMY CHeN

Lunar New Year celebrations by Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese student associations were limited this year due to COVID-19.

ELINA LINGAPPA & SAMSON ZHANG Like many festivities whose in-person celebrations have been altered by COVID-19, Lunar New Year celebrations by Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese student associations

CLAREMONT, CA

were limited once again this year.

An important holiday in many East and Southeast Asian cultures, Lunar New Year is typically celebrated with family reunions and traditional food. In the past,

See LUNAR on page 3

in its third season and stars Rob Lowe as Captain Owen Strand, a firefighter who relocates to Texas from Manhattan to rebuild an Austin firefighting company.

Onlookers hoping for a celebrity sighting Monday afternoon were rewarded with a smile and wave as Lowe met with directors on Marston Quad.

Later on, a number of students were given the opportunity to take pictures and talk briefly with Lowe and other actors. And during a casual game of catch unrelated to filming, a poorly aimed toss on Lowe’s behalf hit Alexandra Szczerba PO ’25 while she was sitting on the steps of the SCC. “He threw a football to somebody who was behind me and ended up hitting me square on the head,” said Szczerba. “He felt so bad. He ended up running up the stairs to give me a hug. He even got someone to give me a shirt from the show. I was like, you know, if there’s anybody I could choose to get hit with a football by, it would be Rob Lowe.”

Szczerba, however, appreciated the gesture.

“Everyone says not to meet your heroes because they’ll let you down. But he was such a sweetheart,” she said.

Although the show is set several states away in Texas, the majority of the filming takes place in Los Angeles rather than

When in-person classes at the 5Cs resumed Jan. 31, not everyone celebrated the return to the classroom. Some students have been advocating for the colleges to offer a hybrid learning option, citing issues of educational inequity.

A petition created by DISCOVR, an advocacy group for students with disabilities, has garnered over 1,000 signatures since its publication Feb. 1. It seeks to ensure students may attend classes in person or remotely, especially if they test positive for COVID-19.

“During the midst of a pandemic, disabled students are being told to either risk their health or forfeit their education,” the petition reads.

Before creating the petition, Johnny Ellsworth PO ‘24 and 11 other immunocompromised students originally reached out to Pomona College Dean of Students Avis Hinkson Jan. 28 to request a hybrid learning option, voicing concerns with current safety policies amid the Omicron surge.

In an email reviewed by TSL, Vice President of Academic Affairs Robert Gaines told the students that Pomona is unable to ask faculty to begin teaching

See LOWE on page 3

in a hybrid format, adding he hoped “many of your professors and academic advisors would be willing to work with you towards reasonable solutions as Omicron is now waning on our campuses, in California and in most of the world.”

“The data are very clear: hybrid modalities have the poorest and most asymmetric learning outcomes,” Gaines wrote. “Not only do they disadvantage those students who are not in the classroom relative to those who are, but they have a multiplying effect that can enhance other inequalities.

Our faculty have been clear on this point.”

In a separate email to TSL, Gaines added that “thus far, contract tracing has revealed no evidence of COVID-19 spread in the classroom.”

“The College is committed to engaging in an individualized, interactive process to determine a student’s unique circumstances and any reasonable arrangements as appropriate,” he said.

But to Ellsworth, the dean’s response “misses key realities.”

“It is a widely studied subject that a physically safe environment is crucial for productive learning,” Ellsworth said.

For Ellsworth, eliminating the hybrid option is a matter of edu-

See HYBRID on page 2

LuCIA MARQueZ • THe STuDeNT LIFe

Huntley Bookstore relocates to Honnold Mudd Library AVERI SULLIVAN The Huntley Bookstore is turning a new page. After leaving its home of 51 years, the store settled into a temporary location on the first floor of Honnold Mudd Library, reopening to the public Feb. 7.

In 2020, Claremont Graduate University received a gift of $14 million to buy the bookstore’s space at the corner of East 8th Street and North Dartmouth Avenue, just west of the library.

CGU will use the building to establish the new Yuhaaviatam Center for Health Studies, a multi-disciplinary health research center serving vulnerable populations in the Inland Empire and Indian Country.

The Huntley will remain at its current location until it can be housed in the 7Cs’ new student center, which is yet to be constructed. The new student center will “serve as a new hub for student activity on campus and provide a centrally located home for the Huntley Bookstore and select student services”

according to The Claremont Colleges Services.

In the meantime, TCCS said, “students can expect the same services they have come to know from the Huntley Bookstore. The new location will continue to provide textbook services, school supplies, and house the campus Apple Store. Campus apparel will be available through an online

kiosk with in-store pick-up.”

The Huntley’s founder Earl W. Huntley opened the space as the first cross-campus bookstore for all students at the Claremont Colleges. Prior, there was only one bookstore, which was reserved for CMC students.

“It’s a sad move in some ways,

See HUNTLEY on page 3

GAbRIeLA CAMACHO • THe STuDeNT LIFe

The Huntley bookstore left its home of 51 years to a temporary location on the first floor of Honnold Mudd Library, reopening to the public Feb. 7.

SAMSON ZHANG • THe STuDeNT LIFe

ARTS & CULTURE The newest online craze is simple: guess a daily five letter word.

By uniting families and inciting passion, it’s clear the 5Cs are hooked on Wordle. Read more on page 5.

The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889

OPINIONS

SPORTS

The 5Cs should offer a hybrid option so that immunocompromised students can choose to continue attending classes online, out of concern for their health amid a pandemic that is still not over, writes guest columnist Luciénne Reyes PZ ‘24. Read more on page 8.

In two separate home series over this past weekend, both CMS and PP baseball teams earned wide margins of victories over their opponents featuring high-powered offenses, starting off the season with winning records.

Read more on page 10.

INDEX: News 1 | Arts & Culture 4 | Opinions 7 | Sports 9

News

PAGe 2

strong markets lead to endowment increases across 5Cs

FebRuARY 11, 2022

Scripps hires first international student advisor MAXINE DAVEY

SAMSON ZHANG • THe STuDeNT LIFe

AVA FRANCIS-HALL Despite a year of hardship and uncertainty in 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 5Cs experienced unprecedented financial gain as their endowment funds grew by up to 43 percent in the 2020-21 fiscal year, according to a TSL analysis of the colleges’ public financial statements.

Endowment funds are made up of donor and college contributions, as well as returns from the investment of these contributions in public and private markets. COVID-induced fluctuations in the stock market caused a decrease in all five 5C schools’ endowment funds in the 2019-20 fiscal year, a sharp contrast to the past year’s increases.

Pomona’s endowment fund, the largest of the 5Cs, grew 25 percent from $2.254 billion to $3.031 billion in the past year. CMC’s endowment fund, the second-largest of the 5Cs, grew 42 percent from $855 million to $1.22 billion.

Scripps College saw the highest percentage increase in their endowment fund, growing 43 percent from $375 million to $540 million.

In addition to investment returns, $15 million of the increase came from pledge payments and the maturity of a planned gift, according to Scripps spokesperson Rachael Warecki SC ’08.

Harvey Mudd College’s endowment increased 38 percent from $321 million to $444 million in the last fiscal year.

Pitzer College has the smallest endowment fund of the 5Cs and also saw the smallest endowment increase over the past year, growing 24 percent from $144 million to $179 million.

All five undergraduate Claremont Colleges spend a small percentage of their endowment funds each year on operational costs such as financial aid, faculty and staff salaries, and campus maintenance. Each year, each 5C spends between 4 to 5.5 percent of a 4-5 year average fund value, with the exact percentage and rolling average window varying by school. “[The spending policy] protects the College from needing to immediately reduce spending and negatively impact scholarships and programs when the stock market declines in a given year and also allows for prudent and measured growth when the endowment value increases,” said Andrew Dorantes, the chief financial officer at Harvey Mudd.

Though only a small percentage of the endowment fund is spent each year, spending policy income makes up a significant portion of the colleges’ annual operational

funding. 53 percent of Pomona’s fiscal year 2020-21 operating budget came from the spending of endowment funds, for example.

Despite this year’s increase, administrators have moderate expectations for the market moving forward.

“We anticipate that returns will be much more muted, compared to what they were the year before, or compared to last year,” Pomona’s Chief Investment Officer Dave Wallace said.

Scripps also expected a drop in returns for 2022.

“With inflation at a much higher rate than in recent years, this will be a challenging year,” Warecki said. “We cannot predict the future, but can protect our chances of preserving capital by diversifying our assets and using this smoothing rule in spending allocations.”

That doesn’t mean that this year’s increase won’t make a real difference for 5C communities.

“We’re going to see the impact of this past year of increasing returns and greater spending over the next couple of years, which will allow us to meet our growing costs and do the things that we want to do as a college,” said Robert Goldberg, Pomona’s chief financial officer. “That’s the beauty of our spending rule.”

HYBRID: Student petition calls for hybrid model, citing accessibility inequities Continued from page 1 cational freedom.

“The colleges may be widening existing inequalities by forcing disabled people who are disproportionately Black and low income from accessing a safe educational environment,” he said.

After their request was denied, and inspired by similar demands put forth by the Disabled Student Union at UCLA, Ellsworth and other students involved in DISCOVR decided to circulate their petition, entitled “Claremont Colleges: Our education matters; let disabled students learn remotely!”

“I think that disabled, immunocompromised and other concerned students deserve an education without fear for their physical safety. And I think that, regardless of the course, regardless of the professor, disabled students should be able to access the classroom,” Ellsworth said.

He added that a hybrid option won’t just benefit students but could also benefit their roommates and immunocompromised family members.

While outdoor classrooms were preferable to indoor settings in Ellsworth’s opinion, he said he didn’t think that was a substitute for a virtual option.

“This is about safety. I don’t think we should be taking any chances,” he said.

Kaia Smith SC ’23 agreed with the need for a hybrid option generally, concurring that offering some classes outdoors is not a viable replacement to the virtual option the petition seeks.

“There’s ultimately still going to be circumstances where people have COVID and really need to not come to class in any way, shape or form,” she said. “... Quite frankly,

I do think that just allowing the option to participate virtually for everybody is the best circumstance.”

Inq Soncharoen HM ’24 agreed with the need for educational equity and accessibility, but added that a hybrid option may not work well with classes at Harvey Mudd College.

“I know that at Mudd it may be a bit of an issue because a lot of the time they emphasize group work, and some of my classes are flipped,” Soncharoen said.

A flipped classroom is where students listen to lectures on their own time and spend time in the classroom doing more active work. Sonchareon said that lab work would also be nearly impossible to host on Zoom, making it more difficult to have a hybrid solution for courses requiring hands-on work.

Like many students, Smith is also concerned about the 5Cs’ current policy in which professors can decide whether to provide remote access to classes, which she believes might risk an inequitable prioritization of students who do not feel the need to seek a remote option.

“I think one of the issues with the way the policy is right now is it incentivizes people to come to class and potentially put other students at risk, when that could be dangerous for the community,” she said.

For Ellsworth, this policy creates issues in terms of fair access to classes.

“I think it’s an undue burden on students,” he said. “The main problem is that professors haven’t been given the infrastructure or training to provide a hybrid option. Both need to happen.”

Soncharoen said her profes-

sors have been very understanding about COVID and students’ concerns.

Smith, however, said that while some professors have been taking concerns seriously and adjusting class structures as a result, others have not done so.

She’s said she’s heard faculty make troubling statements about COVID-19, such as ‘You’re all young and vaccinated, you have nothing to worry about’ and ‘I’m not worried about myself, therefore it’s not important to me that we take these precautions.’

Ellsworth admitted that while the petition is an important first step, it probably won’t make change on its own.

“We need students who are willing to get involved with DISCOVR, and organize their own communities, and get their families to not only sign the petition, but talk to administrators,” he said. “We need to faculty members who are willing to stand up and say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to provide a hybrid option in my classroom.’”

Smith echoed this sentiment, citing advocacy experience at the 5Cs working with Nobody Fails At Scripps. The student group campaigned to have Scripps College change its grading policies when the 5Cs transitioned to remote learning at the onset of the pandemic.

“Even petitions with a lot of participation from the student body didn’t necessarily result in policy change,” she said. “I think, ultimately, one of the difficulties is going to be getting faculty and staff to feel like this is the best way to do things as well.”

In a first for Scripps College, an international student advisor will facilitate the academic and institutional needs of international students. Ge-Yao Liu arrived at Scripps this semester, coming from a post as associate director for the Center of Global Engagement at San Francisco State University.

Liu has worked in international education for over 20 years in areas including international outreach, partnerships and admissions, immigration advising and teaching English as a Second Language.

“For this semester, my goals include but are not limited to learning more about the College, and the specific needs of our international students, so I will be able to better serve them,” Liu said in an email to TSL. The Claremont Colleges’ previous centralized support system for international students, I-Place, shut down at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year. Many international students have since struggled with the closure, according to Rhea Malhotra SC ’23, a co-head of the Scripps International Community and an international intern with Scripps Communities of Resources and Empowerment (SCORE), which focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion and designs workshops and programs for community building.

Since most international students lack adult and familial support in the United States, the loss of administrative support was a tough blow, Malhotra said. She added that resources were spread out and confusing to access, resulting in high stress levels for international students.

Now, however, students hope that Liu’s appointment indicates efforts from Scripps to imple-

ment a more centralized and efficient resource pipeline.

“While [our community is] small, our needs are very specific, and I’m just happy that we’re getting the support that we need and that we deserve,” Malhotra said.

“So I am very excited about this international advisor position with Ge-Yao, because he’s going to be a point of contact for international students.”

Malhotra worked with SCORE and Liu to host a meet and greet event for international students over Zoom at the end of January. “[Liu] is very knowledgeable about a lot of the intricacies of what it means to be an F-1 [visa-holding] student,” Malhotra said. “He is very good-hearted; he wants to support international students, and honestly, you should see his Calendly!”

Liu emphasized that his goal for this semester is to learn more about the college and the needs of the international students to best support them.

“As a part-time staff at Scripps, I will try to be the best resource, be available and accessible to them when they need assistance,” Liu said.

While students are excited about increased administrative support, Malhotra expressed concern about the lack of a full-time staff member.

“For now, starting off as parttime is good, but I would hope for it to become a full-time position,” Malhotra said.

She said life as an international student at Scripps is a “little bit of a mixed bag” because of the community’s small population — five percent of 1,082 undergraduate students — and tight, familial bonds. The Scripps international community is very diverse, and different affinity groups have different needs, she said.

“I really appreciate the support that Scripps is now giving us and I can’t wait to see what Ge-Yao does,” she said.

COuRTeSY: Ge-YAO LIu

Scripps College hired Ge-Yao Liu this semester to be its first international student advisor.

DINING: 5C parties will also resume Continued from page 1 meal plan, but now that there are more options for me to get meals closer to my classes and friends, I’m glad I have it.”

Maddie Jones PO ’22 said she appreciates the accessibility cross-campus dining will provide.

“I am so excited. I feel like I’ve been waiting for healthy Scripps food and Pitzer desserts for weeks — or two years, more like it,” Jones said. “I’ve never pushed my chair to Harvey Mudd, but I’m looking forward to that option too. One of the upsides of moving to North Campus was actually the food options with it. So I’m hoping I’ll finally get to use it.”

Like Jones, Honor Stringer PO ’23 is excited for a greater variety of food, since she said she’s been getting “a little bored of Frank and Frary.”

First-years and sophomores will also be able to experience cross-campus dining for the first time.

“I’m very excited. I have Celiac. So, I can’t eat gluten and I’ve struggled a lot to eat at Frank and Frary,” Kai Carse PO ’24 said. “I’m a sophomore, so I’ve never been to the other dining halls. I cannot wait to have more options.”

For some students, however, pandemic concerns remain a pressing issue.

“We didn’t open up 5C dining last semester when COVID was pretty much under control. It doesn’t make any sense,” Andrea Zheng PO ’24 said. “I don’t think COVID is under control yet and they’re opening it up.”

Stringer echoed a similar sentiment.

“I’m a little surprised they mentioned it this early. I wasn’t

expecting to hear from them for a few weeks about it,” she said.

Additionally, 5C parties can also resume Feb. 26, with restrictions, the administrators said. Each campus can only host one consortium-wide party for the remainder of the semester, and students will be expected to adhere to event requests and registration processes of the home campus. Only 5C or 7C students will be allowed at parties and no outside visitors will be permitted to attend.

At Mudd, 5C parties will require at least three weeks of planning and scheduling with the Social Chairs and Campus Life, Treasurer Andrew Dorantes and Dean of Students Marco Valenzuela said in an email to Mudd students.

Further, no parties will be permitted between March 17 and March 27, “in recognition of student travel during spring break and the need to monitor positive cases upon return to campus.”

As cases surged across the consortium at the end of fall semester, officials had prohibited in-person 5C events till Feb. 7.

Also beginning Feb. 26, Scripps, Pomona, Pitzer and CMC will allow non-resident students into the residence halls, but not any non-7C guests.

For CMC, the exception to this policy will be during family weekend Feb. 19-20, where immediate family members will be allowed to briefly visit students’ residence halls. “ These updates are contingent on maintaining low cases of COVID-19,” Durantes and Valenzuela said. “Should we have a significant rise in cases, we will adjust these changes as necessary. We hope that this approach to 5C dining and events puts us on a path to resume the vibrant social life that is so key to the Claremont consortium experience.”

News

FebRuARY 11, 2022

Pomona politics professor Omar Wasow leaving for UC Berkeley

Pomona Writing Center prepares for a more holistic rebranding this April MARIANA DURAN & AMARA MIR

COuRTeSY: OMAR WASOW

Omar Wasow is leaving Pomona College’s politics department to teach at uC berkeley in the fall, a move coming just a year after he joined the college as an assistant professor in 2021

REIA LI Pomona College Assistant Professor of Politics Omar Wasow is leaving to teach at UC Berkeley in the fall, a move coming just a year after he joined the college as assistant professor in 2021.

“I have loved teaching students at Pomona and it has been a genuine honor to be among the faculty. For personal and familial reasons, I will be moving to UC Berkeley in the next academic year,” Wasow confirmed in an email to TSL. Wasow was hired in the summer of 2021 following a national search to replace the position vacated by recently retired professor Lorn Foster, according to Amanda Hollis-Brusky, chair of the politics department.

Wasow’s arrival at Pomona was highly celebrated, as he is wellknown both for his academic career and his career in technology. Much of Wasow’s research focuses on race, politics and statistical methods.

Wasow is the author of a widely-read academic paper that examines the effect of Black-led protests during the 1960s civil rights movement. In the summer of 2020, amid national Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd, he wrote an article in The Washington Post comparing the current movement to 1964’s nonviolent protests that resulted in the passage of major civil rights legislation.

Linda Phan PO ’24 felt the impact of Wasow’s personal experience in the classroom. She is an intended politics major currently taking his Politics of Race and Ethnicity class.

“Since he’s so accredited in his field, he’s able to utilize actual content that he’s made himself,” she said. “So

it’s been really awesome not just to be in an environment where it’s very discussion based, but also having his personal experience to contribute to the conversation [and] also the curriculum that we’re studying currently.”

Phan added that “one of the things that really stands out about him as a professor is his charisma.

He makes the class really funny.

Race is a difficult topic to have conversations about, but he does it in a way that is very digestible … I always leave the class with something new.”

Wasow’s career extends well beyond academia alone. In 1999, he co-founded the social networking site BlackPlanet.com, which became the most popular website for African Americans at the time, according to Complex, reaching over three million users a month.

During the early years of the Internet, Wasow appeared as a technology consultant on TV and radio programs on NBC, CNN and other major news outlets. According to his personal website, he even “tutored Oprah Winfrey in her first exploration of the internet in the 12-part series ‘Oprah Goes Online.’”

Hollis-Brusky said that the department hopes “to conduct another national search in the fall for the position, pending approval of the President and Dean of the College.”

Phan expressed mixed emotions at Wasow’s departure.

“It’s sad, but I know that he has a lot of other really amazing opportunities that he’s pursuing,” Phan said. So [I’m] sad, but also excited for what’s to come for him.”

PAGe 3

Just as the Pomona College Writing Center has expanded its support for students beyond the realm of writing, its name will now match the range of support offered. This April, the center will officially be renamed “The Pomona College Center for Speaking, Writing, and the Image.”

In August 2019, the center was awarded a $250,000 Arthur Vining Davis Foundations grant which allowed it to diversify and provide support in oral and visual communication. Previously, the center exclusively focused on helping students with their writing projects.

According to Kara Wittman, Pomona’s director of college writing, these changes will allow the center to continue growing as a more inclusive space of critical pedagogy.

“Separating literacies no longer makes sense, if it ever did,” Wittman said via email.

“There’s a long legacy of colonialism and aesthetic and

epistemological hierarchy underwriting the way we think about the relationship between written, oral and visual culture.”

As part of the center’s ongoing rebranding, it has been hiring and training speaking partners since 2019 and image partners since April 2021. According to head writing partner Ananya Saluja PO ‘22, the addition of these partners allows the center to help students develop other necessary skills.

“Limiting the college experience and learning to just writing is so narrow,” Saluja said. “We need to focus more on the other skills that we’re picking up that kind of go in tandem with writing.”

Speaking partners support students in both formal and informal oral communication, including preparing students for job interviews or presentations.

Partners can also help students prepare for class discussions and navigate through anxieties when participating in class or speaking different languages.

Meanwhile, image partners, the newest additions to the Writing Center, are being trained to

GAbRIeLA CAMACHO • THe STuDeNT LIFe

As part of the Writing Center’s ongoing rebranding, it has been hiring and training speaking partners since 2019 and image partners since April 2021.

LUNAR: Some funding snags

LOWE: ‘Journalism rocks’ Continued from page 1

COuRTeSY: JeReMY CHeN

The omicron variant pushed gatherings online until Feb.7, impacting how students could celebrate Lunar New Year.

Continued from page 1 various 5C student clubs have hosted Lunar New Year celebrations to replicate these traditions.

In March 2020, just before the pandemic forced students to learn remotely, the Chinese Student Association hosted a Chinese New Year gala in McKenna Auditorium, where attendees received traditional hongbao (red packets filled with money) and enjoyed student performances.

In previous years, the Korean Student Association has also hosted a LNY event with traditional Korean activities and food.

This year amid a surge in COVID-19 cases owing to the Omicron variant, college administrators canceled all in-person events till Feb. 7, impacting Lunar New Year, which fell on Feb. 1 this year.

Because of this policy, both the Chinese Student Association and Korean Student Association canceled their original in-person celebration plans.

KSA hopes to organize a belated in-person celebration, although COVID-19 restrictions may make it difficult for the club to offer meals as planned, according to club president Katheryn Yoo PZ ’24.

The Vietnamese Student Association hosted an online board games event and distributed red envelopes with Vietnamese-themed stickers, the club’s president Kendra Nguyen PO ‘24 said.

Aside from COVID-19 restrictions, funding complications threw a new twist into February’s celebration.

The CSA faced difficulties accessing funding, which in turn affected its Lunar New Year plans. The club received only $350 of the $1,000 in funding it requested at the beginning of the year, according to Adeena Liang PO ’23, ASPC’s vice president of finance. This is because the club had

$3,000 in leftover funds, they said.

Additionally, CSA club members had trouble obtaining reimbursements from ASPC for past purchases, according to CSA’s Chair of Finance Belinda Wang CM ’23.

The club hosted six events throughout the fall semester, including a new student welcome mixer and mid-autumn festival celebration, for which the club requested around $2,000 in reimbursement.

By the time LNY rolled around, CSA hadn’t received any of the six reimbursement checks requested.

Without reimbursements, CSA members felt wary about spending more of their own money for the Lunar New Year event, Wang said.

Hubery Hu PO ’25, a member of the club’s activities department, posted an Instagram story on Jan. 30 claiming that CSA only had $200 for LNY celebrations. Hu’s caption said “it seems that 5C is not supporting the most valuable festival for Chinese students.” The story was quickly reposted across 5C social media.

“We didn’t expect that to go viral,” Wang said. “Since we didn’t get the checks, [we were thinking] maybe we should shrink the fund … but I wasn’t planning to just spend $200. Maybe $200 just on snacks.”

After seeing the social media posts, ASPC first year class president Devlin Orlin PO ’25 connected CSA to ASPC’s accountant, Sergio Ortiz, who has since worked with Wang to try to get the club their missing reimbursement checks.

“He is super helpful. He was responding really fast, and then we finally got our first check,” Wang said.

Ultimately, CSA hosted a twopart celebration for LNY, the club’s president Carina Zhao CMC ’24

explained. On Feb. 4, the club offered milk tea and Chinese snacks and ran a raffle outside Claremont McKenna College’s Collins Dining Hall.

Then, to replace the live performances planned for an in-person gala, club members recorded the performances and released them on YouTube, Chinese streaming site BiliBili and Chinese social media app WeChat throughout the week of February 7. In total, CSA spent around $500 on this year’s LNY celebrations, according to Wang.

Outside of club events, many students celebrated LNY by having smaller dinners with friends in dorms and at restaurants in Los Angeles.

Hu went to a hot pot restaurant in LA Chinatown whose chain also had locations in China.

Yoo shared that many Korean students she knew went to Korean restaurants. Several Vietnamese students who lived near campus returned home to celebrate the holiday, Nguyen said.

Angel Yuan PO ’25 ordered takeout and celebrated with a few friends in the lounge of her dorm.

“Usually back home, we’d all wear red, we would make dumplings, go to family, friends houses, lots of red packets would go around,” she said. “The main difference is just [that] I didn’t get to spend it with my mom this year, which is bittersweet.”

Pomona’s Asian American Resource Center and Pitzer’s Asian Pacific American Coalition also provided LNY care packages to community members.

“For the spring festival we have a [family] reunion meeting, so [this year was] a bit lonely. I think spending time with my friends and celebrating together helped me a lot,” Zhao said.

support students’ writing about 2D and 3D visuals, as well as using visuals in their work.

Wittman said that the center’s support of visual communication will be in collaboration with other groups on campus.

“We need to be self-sustaining — and collaboration is an exciting way to expand and deepen what we do,” she said.

The center ’s shift to include visual and oral support has been positively received by students like Sara Garza PO ’25, who said she planned to seek support from speaking and image partners.

“I think it’s really great for the college to offer this,” Garza said.

“It’s a great resource.”

The center will soon see changes in its facilities as well. To further image-based support, the center plans to give students access to visual resources. Students training to be image partners are working with Wittman to build a small audio-visual library and a separate lab in the center’s back room.

The library will offer resources on art, visual rhetoric and culture, photography and film.

Meanwhile, the lab will feature small-scale facilities for editing and recording.

Currently, the center offers students a choice of in-person or virtual appointments, to increase accessibility, comfortability, and allow for more hours. Students can now schedule appointments with writing, speaking or image partners.

Still, because of their novelty, Saluja said that speaking and image components of the center might not be utilized to the extent that they could. She expressed hope that more students will frequent the center.

“We have tea, we have candy, we’re all really nice,” Saluja said.

“The plan for all of us [is] just having more people be able to come into the space, which is a super welcoming and nice environment.”

Wittman also added that the center is looking for more Pomona students to come work with them.

Applications for next semester will open this March.

“We don’t look for ‘expertise’ in any area,” Wittman said. “Just an ability to listen and hear, read and perceive, and think and talk with openness, attention and sensitivity.”

Austin due to budget restrictions, according to a production assistant named Jake who declined to give his last name. Pomona was chosen as a filming location due to its proximity to the Fox studio in LA and a resemblance to the Texas state capitol building. “[Pomona’s] campus was built in a kind of northeastern style.

The grounds are similar to the grounds in Austin, but it can be anywhere in America in a way,” he added.

The crew travels to various filming locations over the course of each season; however, this is the first time they’ve worked on a college campus, according to Jake.

“As long as the students aren’t disruptive, we don’t mind [having them around]. And I think it’s good you guys are interested,” he said.

Julian Works, who plays one of the show’s main characters, Austin firefighter Mateo Chavez,

echoed this sentiment.

“It’s actually been very cool,” Works said. “You’ve all been very welcoming.”

Filming for “9-1-1: Lone Star” marks Lowe’s return to Pomona’s campus. He previously starred in the show “The West Wing,” which shot scenes for two episodes in Bridges Auditorium back in 2000.

Pomona has been the site of television filming on a number of other occasions, including serving as Yale University for an episode of the popular television series “Gilmore Girls.”

Rob Lowe was on his way to film a scene when approached for an interview but exclaimed, “Journalism rocks!” as he walked away.

Although crew members were unable to disclose specific details regarding the storyline of the episode, many actors were dressed in hazmat suits and smoke was visible inside Big Bridges.

Scenes shot at Pomona for “9-1-1: Lone Star” will air in roughly five weeks on March 21.

HUNTLEY: Store will eventually reside in 7C student center Continued from page 1 because the Huntley Bookstore has been [at the old location] since November of 1969,” Chris Becker, the Huntley’s manager, told TSL via email. “But I’m happy we’re keeping Mr. Huntley’s name and that legacy that he started so so long ago.”

The bookstore’s new location will offer most of the services available at the previous location, according to Colin Tudor, interim vice president for administration of The Claremont

Colleges Services.

“The only modification in the way the services are provided is that, at this time, apparel will be available to be ordered online with pick up in-store and not on display on the sales floor,” Tudor told TSL. Becker said he hopes the bookstore’s eventual location in the new 7C student center will bring students and faculty together as the consortium’s “centerpoint.”

“Right now, Monsour, chaplains — they’re all scattered across campus,” he said. “There’s really no central location for the students.”

GAbRIeLA CAMACHO • THe STuDeNT LIFe

For now, students will have to cross North Dartmouth Avenue to Honnold Mudd Library to acquire books and supplies.

PAGE 4

heArts & Culture

FEbruAry 11, 2022

FrAME rATING

SCENE IT

Infiltrating the MCU as an outsider — first stop, ‘Spider-Man’

Missing the mark, it’s Saturday Night!

GERRIT PUNT

JADyN LEE • THE STuDENT LIFE

RORYE JONES If you’re like me, you’re one of the unfortunate few who has never watched a “Spider-Man” movie — no particular aversion, it just never happened.

The sheer number of movies produced and all the layers of history involved makes watching any of the newer Marvel franchise movies seem an impossible task. But fear not: The makers of the most recent “Spider-Man” movies have apparently developed the art of writing to please both the uninitiated and the diehard fans alike. I found the multilayered plot of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” to be creative and engaging, and I understood all that was required to enjoy the actors’ performances.

So, how do you find yourself in the daunting situation of entering a long-established movie franchise via sequel, of all ways?

Peer pressure, of course, with a healthy helping of FOMO: You keep hearing how dope the new installment is, how you have to watch it and how shocking it is that you’ve never seen a single “Spider-Man” movie, like, ever?

Then, when your friends want to travel en masse to the theater to view it again, you decide you have nothing to lose but seven dollars and a bit of dignity, so you go with them.

Inside the theater, you’re almost jealous of the equal mix of 6-year-olds and 35-year-olds, resplendent in their blue and red shirts, and secure in their earlier indoctrination into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). You try to assume some of their confidence. Then your friends tell you to clap when they clap, and you think, What, there’s further interactive components conspiring to expose my lack of knowledge?

But you smile and laugh anyway.

However, it turned out that my sense of trepidation was entirely unwarranted. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” impressed me with its ability to capture even the uninitiated audience members into its intricate plot. Somehow, the writers were able to guide me through a multidimensional reality, established romances, alliances and friendships, all while I was being simultaneously introduced to each character for the first time — and I managed to enjoy it. The allure of big names Tom Holland, Zendaya and Benedict Cumberbatch did not hurt, either (I will be going back to

watch the “Dr. Strange” movies; he owns that role… and that goatee).

This experience was in marked contrast to one I’d had watching a sequel a couple years earlier. When I was dragged along to “Transformers 5” having only seen the first film, I sat through the whole thing in the agonies of ignorance, poor acting performances and flimsy storylines, discreetly checking my phone at multiple points to see how much time had passed. Perhaps a bit dramatic, but when even Megan Fox can’t hold my attention, I know I’m wasting my time.

Now, whether this ability to reach a wider audience reduces the quality of the movie is a different question — for “No Way Home,” reviews suggest the contrary. But I hesitate to support this tactic for all kinds of sequels.

Even as intimidating as the MCU looks from the so-called “outside,” I know from different franchises how much fans and highbrow critics value inside jokes and highly complex plots that seem utterly baffling without prior knowledge. For example, while one can watch any “Harry Potter” film as a standalone work, arguably they’d be losing much of the appreciation demanded by the story’s rich level of details and continuity.

Which technique — reaching a wider audience or appealing to a select few — will spell the most “success”? In this economy, the answer will always be the former; any franchise that deviates from the set formula stands out, which is unfortunate in terms of variety.

Perhaps making sequels wholly accessible to outsiders should be limited to only those franchises with the longest of filmographies, or those with sequels most spread out chronologically, as time, of course, erases memory and relevance, even for fans.

In the meantime, I’ll watch all the “Spider-Man” movies and get back to you.

Rorye Jones PO ’23 finally got around to finishing “Titanic” and can now reasonably call herself TSL’s TV and film columnist. Yes, she did cry (mainly for the violinists).

in my mind that he was going to crush it.

But a stellar host is not enough to make for good television.

Dafoe’s episode is weighed down by a string of sketches stretching from underwhelming to just plain bad. From an exhaustingly unfunny dog show to a sketch that somehow manages to make Willem Dafoe miming autofellatio boring (I’m as surprised as you are), the most recent episode of SNL didn’t live up to the hype I’d optimistically thrust upon it.

Willem Dafoe isn’t really known for being a comedic actor, but the man oozes pizzaz.

His performances are animated, his face is expressive and his enthusiasm for oddball roles is electrifying. The man is hard to look away from, yet the show cast him as a straight-faced dog show announcer and a self help book author.

Dafoe never does a bad job.

He’s versatile, and frequently the highlight of the sketches he’s a part of, but he never really feels properly utilized.

The majority of sketches felt remarkably lackluster, and the few that really felt made for Dafoe kind of fell to the sidelines.

His appearances as the infomercial spokesperson in the insomnia song and the giddy Frenchman in the “Beauty and the Beast” sketch felt like Dafoe at his freest, but they too seemed bogged down by the framework of the sketches they’re trapped in.

The best sketch of the night was the charmingly unhinged “Office Song,” containing a spontaneous cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and Dafoe throwing a chair through a fifteenth story window. The sketch is unpolished and nonsensical, but it shows just how much a performance can be elevated when a guest host gets to do their thing. Dafoe wields the spotlight, but he doesn’t crowd it. The whole sketch works in his favor, and he works with it.

SNL thrives when sketches

Picture this: It’s Jan. 29, and (presumably your favorite actor) Willem Dafoe is hosting Saturday Night Live (presumably your favorite show). “This is it,” you think.

“The best night of my life is about to commence.”

It doesn’t. The night is average, and you go to bed disappointed. “At least the Weekend Update was kind of funny,” you say to yourself, succumbing to dreams of Katy Perry’s phallic mushroom backup dancers.

Brandishing some fantastic recent performances, extensive theater experience and a proclivity to fully commit to over the top roles, Dafoe’s showing should have been a slam dunk. And yet, even with all the pieces in place, the most recent episode of SNL fell flat.

I felt the same way during the prior week’s show, hosted

by SNL alumnus Will Forte.

Actually, I felt this way quite a few times throughout season 47. So what gives? Why are these great performers getting stuck with uninspired sketches and forgettable episodes? Is this the end? Is SNL spiraling into critical disrepair on its rickety last limbs?

It isn’t, but there is a problem. A lot of people would blame the cast, but while there aren’t any Murrays, Ferrells or Haders in the current lineup (the three best Williams in SNL history), I don’t think the issue stems from the cast.

The issue is, perhaps, a less obvious one: SNL isn’t always great at playing to its hosts’ strengths.

The most recent episode of SNL embodies this trend.

Coming off the hot streak of “The French Dispatch” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” it made sense that SNL would bring Dafoe on to host sooner rather than later. Dafoe is known for leaning into over-the-top roles and fully committing to outrageous performances; I had no doubt

Willem DaFoe hosted “Saturday Night Live” on January 29.

play to hosts’ strengths: take Billie Eilish’s episode in December. SNL can feel like it “writes around” their noncomedian hosts, putting them in the background as though they’re obstacles to comedy, but Eilish does a great job. She’s not known for being an actor, but the show gives her lots to do within her comfort zone, including a fun throwback musical sketch, a charmingly deadpan hotel ad and the delightfully dark and expressive “Lonely Christmas” sketch.

I went in hesitant, but the Eilish episode of SNL impressed me.

It’s proof that the current writers have the ability to properly utilize their guests’ talents when they think outside the box while still working within their host’s wheelhouse.

Folks have been lambasting SNL for decades. It only takes a quick look at Twitter or the YouTube comment section to find a slew of comments stating that SNL hasn’t been good in 10, 20, 30, 40 years, if it was ever good at all.

And yet, the show continues.

It’s an American ritual, like going to a baseball game or eating too much fast food. It’s not always enjoyable, but what would we as a nation be without it? SNL is a lot like a sports team. It has ups and downs, on seasons and off seasons, but you never know exactly how a show is going to go until 11:30 p.m. EST on Saturday night.

It’d take a lot to kill SNL, and a chain of disappointing performances is far from doing that. Despite this recent trend of squandered potential, I am hopeful. We’ve seen that SNL has the capacity to properly apply their hosts. It’s time they get to doing it.

Don’t make me rescind my hope, upcoming fifth John Mulaney episode. A lot is resting in your hands.

Gerrit Punt PO ’24 is a thingwatcher from Montana. His hobbies include pacing nervously, and he wishes more than anything that TSL would let him use an oxford comma, even just once.

COurTESy: JOSH JENSEN

rEADEr’S DIGEST

Pot and pans: Cannabis cooking trend shouldn’t ignore disparities SADIE MATZ Trying to get sconed?

I was first introduced to the intersection of weed and cooking through “Cooked with Cannabis,” a cooking show where chefs compete to win the judges over with cannabis-infused dishes. While I can’t say I would highly recommend watching the program (VICE TV’s “Bong Appetit” is the superior food/weed show, if you’re interested), it effectively illustrates how the weed-infused food industry is simultaneously a promising niche for unprecedented culinary innovation and an incubator for tremendous racial disparity.

With the market for infused foods gaining traction as more states legalize recreational marijuana, chefs and entrepreneurs alike are being challenged to rethink and rebrand the practice of eating as an experience. Now, food is not just something to be tasted or smelled, but something to be felt. At its simplest, this ethos means that food is supposed to evoke emotion: nostalgia, curiosity, comfort, the list goes on. Now, with the popularization of THC- and CBD-infused food, the idea of “feeling” food can be taken literally, arguably providing chefs with greater freedom to curate the experience they wish to deliver through their craft.

Cannabis-infused food offers cooks a novel category of ingredients to experiment with and manipulate. Think of each strain of marijuana as a separate ingredient

with unique flavors and aromas that shape the profile of a dish; paying attention to the categorization of a strain as sativa or indica helps a chef control the experience that a dish evokes. The use of marijuana in cooking inspires cooks to think outside of the box in terms of technique as well.

While the most common method of including weed is by infusing a fat with THC, cooking with cannabis doesn’t have to mean cooking with cannabutter! While it won’t necessarily get you high, another option is to treat the plant like an herb by using its leaves in a recipe (like a pesto made with hemp leaves and infused oil). Some chefs opt to simply grate weed on a mi-

croplane to achieve the same effect as one would zesting citrus: taking advantage of its fragrant rind.

A brief scroll through the first several episodes of “Cooked with Cannabis” exposes what appears to be a freakishly consistent formula for selecting contestants: Each episode features three chefs, two of which are white and one of which is a person of color. Does this pattern prove that “Cooked with Cannabis” is a racist program? Certainly not.

Does it support the notion that racial and ethnic representation is a prevailing issue in the food industry? Absolutely!

Interestingly, VICE reported in 2017 that cannabis cuisine is one of the few spaces in the culinary indus-

try with women at the forefront.

For some, this is the appeal of the ever-growing world of cannabis cuisine: Such a young industry offers ample opportunity to break tradition, including the gender norms that plague the food world. However, it’s hard to say the same about the United States’ patterns of racial profiling and exclusion.

Despite the societal advancements that the legalization of marijuana in select states has enabled, legalization also brings to light the vast racial disparities that the War on Drugs has historically perpetuated. On April 20, 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union released a report

LuCIA MArQuEZ-uPPMAN • THE STuDENT LIFE

that found that across the United States, even in states that legalized or decriminalized marijuana, Black people are arrested at much higher rates than white people for marijuana possession.

Some of America’s biggest cannabis food purveyors, such as Wake-n-Bakery in Chicago and Cannabis Cafe in Los Angeles, are white-owned, meaning that while white people can take advantage of evolving marijuana legislation for financial gain, Black people continue to face an abhorrent double-standard.

Rhetorically framing weed-infused food as a trend only contributes to the erasure of this double-standard. This sends the signal that marijuana is something that people are free to engage with temporarily and eventually move past, an idea that contradicts the lived experience of tens of thousands of people of color behind bars. Readers, eaters and stoners: Partake responsibly. Be mindful of your own wellbeing as well as how your habits can affect those around you. Support and advocate for Black-owned businesses, especially those affiliated with the marijuana industry.

As chef and cannabis educator Miguel Bautista puts it, we can all do our part to “destigmatize cannabis through the universal language of food.”

Sadie Matz SC ’24 is a tinned fish enthusiast from Brooklyn, New York. She cannot drive and will not take questions regarding the matter.

FEbruAry 11, 2022

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PAGE 5

Everybody wants to rule the Wordle: Behind 5C students’ passion for the daily word game MIRABELLA MILLER Ask any Wordle player at the 5Cs: your first move in the popular online game is the most crucial. It could make or break you, so choose wisely.

“First, you have to choose the starting word, which is a key component of the game,” Elsie Dank SC ’23 said. “I think that the most important thing is that it has at least two common vowels in it because you want to have as high a chance of getting something as you can.”

Some players use the same first word every day. Others cycle between a few trusty starting words. Ella Prigge PO ’25 has two favorites: “stake” and “audio.”

Colin Kirkpatrick PO ’24 opts for “amend.”

“One day ‘amend’ will be the word, and once amend is the word I’m going to get it in one guess because that’s my starting word,” Kirkpatrick said. “I’m holding out hope because there are only so many five-letter words. It will happen one of these days.”

Wordle is a daily online word game created by Brooklyn-based software engineer Josh Wardle.

Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, and tiles change color after each guess to guide players in future guesses. Black indicates that the respective letter is not in the word, yellow indicates right letter but wrong place and green indicates right letter, right place.

Wardle created the game for friends and family to play during the pandemic but opened it up to the public in October 2021. Four months later, millions of people

play the game every day, and it was recently acquired by the New York Times to add to its suite of games.

Oscar Moralde, professor of media studies at Pomona, thinks the accessibility of Wordle has been the key to its wide appeal and runaway success. One aspect of this ease of access is Wordle’s existence as a website and not an app; players do not have to download anything or create an account.

“I would say one of the main reasons that it has had a surge of popularity is because of the low barrier to entry,” Moralde said. “Even something like Words with Friends (an appbased word game like Scrabble) requires you to download an app. But even doing that level of getting an app is certainly something not everyone is willing to do.”

All players around the world are trying to guess the same word each day. That standardization has helped Wordle become a collective phenomenon and inspired players to share guesses with each other. Many players at the 5Cs share their guesses with everyone from their parents to classmates.

Prigge has a large group chat of friends in her dorm and surrounding dorms that discuss the Wordle every day.

“I love my group chat,” she said. “I’m really close with some of the people and others I’ve only talked to a few times. So it’s really funny because now it’s something that I am able to talk with them about that maybe I haven’t been able to before.”

Amanda Ward PZ ’25 was introduced to Wordle by her dad and shares her guesses with her family every day.

“I think one of the exciting parts about Wordle is that everyone has the same word,” she said. “So it’s a universal thing and then you can share it and have a competition with your friends and family, which makes it very appealing and keeps you in contact with people.”

Additionally, there is only one Wordle puzzle available per day, which allows it to be integrated into a player’s daily routine for only a very small time commitment. Some users compare it to a holiday — special precisely because of its scarcity.

For some players, this scarcity also prolongs Wordle’s popularity by preventing burnout and waning interest.

“It’s a good interval because, if I could do more than one a day, I might do a lot at once and kind of decide I’m sick of it,” Kirkpatrick said. “So it’s the right interval where I feel like I can keep coming back to it and I’m getting just like a steady little trickle of something that keeps my brain happy and I can never get too much of it at once.”

In an era where sensory overload is almost an accepted facet of most games, Wordle is refreshingly simple: no ads, no pop-ups, nothing flashing on the screen, no bright colors. This nostalgia for a return to a simpler Internet — a simpler gaming landscape — is a big part of the critical discourse surrounding Wordle and its popularity.

“In terms of a scholarly or

Food trucks on a roll at the 5Cs VALERIE BRAYLOVSKIY On a typical weekday at lunchtime, a crowd of lively students can be found in line for food trucks across the Claremont Colleges.

Others are sprawled out on the grass while they eat and socialize amongst background music playing from the speakers. These food trucks offer a plethora of cuisines; SUGO Italiano, Savage Tacos and StopBye Café are just three from the multitude of trucks students have been able to try this semester.

Food trucks are not a novelty this semester: The program has been operational since September 2021. Matt Geller, CEO of Best Food Trucks, has been collaborating with the colleges to connect them to some of the best food trucks in Los Angeles. The number of food trucks has expanded at all of the 5Cs, with three lunch and three dinner food trucks per weekday at Claremont McKenna College. Other schools, like Pomona College and Scripps College, have also been offering them throughout the week.

Many students appreciate that the food trucks provide more variety and vegetarian options, as compared to the dining hall meals.

Kara Mickas PO ’25 is a regular at the food trucks and tries to go as often as possible when the lines aren’t too long.

“I think they’re a really great addition because you never know who you are going to run into in line,” Mickas said. “It’s a great social environment.”

Isabel Fajardo PO ’23 has also enjoyed her experience at the trucks.

“I definitely prefer going to the food trucks instead of Frary, especially during lunchtime when Frary gets busy,” she said.

By connecting various food trucks to the 5Cs, Geller allows these businesses to gather predictable profit due to the consistently high demand of hungry students.

John Ou — the owner of Fix on Wheels, a gourmet burger truck — says that his truck can collect up to 90 tickets per hour during lunch, which is equivalent to one and a half tickets per minute.

“It’s great when you have a guaranteed crowd like Claremont, where we know we can reasonably make a certain amount of money,” Ou said. “It’s reliable and people are happy to see you.”

When Ou is not at the Clare-

CAELyN SMITH • THE STuDENT LIFE

The online word game Wordle has enjoyed immense popularity among 5C students.

critical perspective, one of the things that came up was that this seemed to be kind of harkening back to an older era of the Internet, where everything’s just living on web pages,” Moralde said. “People are free to kind of engage with it. It’s not behind paywalls. It’s not restricted to specific apps.”

Dank is also drawn to this simplicity.

“It really does feel like just doing the newspaper crossword or something,” she said. “Like the website is literally just, ‘you can play the game one time a day.’ That’s it.”

This nostalgia for a bygone

THE CLArEMONT INDECENT

the roommate, the Wordsworth routine and the one-night stand SLEEPLESS ON SIXTH STREET

EMMA JENSEN • THE STuDENT LIFE

Various 5Cs have been offering food trucks as an alternative to the dining halls for their students since September 2021.

mont Colleges, he works 12-18 hours daily at other venues, such as the Santa Monica Brew Works, private residences and other catering gigs.

After leaving his job as a Wall Street trader, Ou partnered with his friend to expand his burger franchise to a food truck five years ago in Los Angeles. He describes the food truck business as a “tough grind” where many things can go wrong, such as blown out tires, refrigeration problems, engine failures and broken windshields and gas lines.

“You name it and it’s happened, so you just have to be nimble and flexible and working when things go wrong,” Ou said.

“My Wall Street trading was good practice for this.”

Antonio Sugo, the owner of SUGO Italian Food Truck, has also faced setbacks when building his food truck franchise.

“At the beginning, it wasn’t easy because people are used to eating other types of cuisines for street food,” Sugo said. “In the U.S., the street food is almost all Mexican, Asian, American.”

Sugo moved from Milan to Los Angeles in 2017, with the intention of bringing his family’s

EMMA JENSEN • THE STuDENT LIFE

Food trucks enjoy a high volume of 5C student customers during their operational hours.

Italian cooking to street cuisine.

On his first day, he ended up parked on a random street in Hollywood, where he made 50 dollars in six hours. After lots of experimentation, he learned to combine his grandmother’s flavors with a menu based on what Italian food Americans would like.

Sugo loves the atmosphere of working in the Claremont Colleges.

“Everyone is always polite and we try to make them feel at home, by talking to them and playing some music so they can have a pleasant wait,” he said.

Among all the food trucks, a common dilemma is serving meals with efficiency while preserving the high quality of food.

Many food trucks have made changes to their usual setup by limiting their menu offerings.

StopBye Café, a family-owned food truck serving Asian fusion, changed their menu to offer combos that come with a drink and one side.

“A very positive difference from our regular setup is we can serve 250-300 meals to students at lunch, co-owner Tom Tee said. “Students, staff and faculty we serve are patient and cooperative, so it’s really fun to serve them.”

Five years ago, Tee and Chef Justin Tulus initially started their business as a restaurant in the South Bay of LA but moved to a food truck after their lease expired. Tulus is from Indonesia and has spent the last six years learning from various chefs, while Tee spent over 15 years in student residence life. Similar to other food trucks, StopBye is focused on maintaining the same quality as food found in restaurants by making sauces and marinades fresh.

Not only do students have the opportunity to try a handful of cuisines, but they’re also getting a crafted selection of some of the best food trucks in L.A. “L.A.’s the food truck capital of the country,” Ou said. “This is as good as it gets.”

era of minimalism, a cultural desire for a return to simplicity, demonstrates to Moralde the continued potential of games to inspire discourse and creativity.

“It speaks to the ways in which the popular imagination of what games are is always shifting,” he said. “In this era, games are often defined by being super expensive, highly technical, developed by enthusiasts to be played on the latest hardware. The fact that something that is very, very simple is the thing that has caught a lot of people’s eye speaks to the ways in which games continue to be this kind of wide open space for people to explore and create.”

Hey Claremont… you up? I heard you asking for it — nay, begging for it — so TSL’s sex column is back, and it’s going to be a spiiiiccccy semester. But why me, you may be asking? Well, let me tell you some tales of hookups past.

Freshman year was a whirlwind for me, as it was for so many of us. I never had a stable hookup in high school, let alone a steady relationship. College was like being a kid in a candy shop, and boy, was I in for a sugar high.

My first target was a boy who lived just three doors down. It’s week one, and let me just say: I’m not proud of this one. But convenient is convenient, and I was ready to dip my toes in the water of this new college-size dating pool. So how very fortunate it was that the boy — we’ll call him #1 — wanted to watch “Mamma Mia!” in my room with a few other hallmates. Even more fortuitous, the other hallmates left promptly after Donna said “I do.”

There was just one small inconvenience: my roommate, asleep on her side of the room.

The makeout session that ensued was simply not in good taste, I’ll admit it. But #1 and I were a dedicated bunch — until we were rudely interrupted by none other than my roommate. Some loud exclamations in sleeptalk were convincing enough to give me and my makeout buddy quite a fright.

Ashamedly, we resorted to the laundry room.

So maybe that choice was a little too close to home. Having learned that lesson, I decided to branch out a bit. And I got as far as… my first year writing seminar.

I was lured in by the dark, shaggy hair, what can I say? So when I came across boy #2 in my dorm hallway one Saturday night, of course I offered to braid it. Soon braiding turned into kissing, and kissing turned into a story I would recount to my friends in the morning as the most romantic evening of my entire life.

I’ll recount it to you, too: he did card tricks for me. He serenaded me with guitar. He whipped out a book of Wordsworth poetry to read to me, then recited from memory the last page of “The Great Gatsby.”

We cuddled in a hammock and talked sentimentally about our families, and then he bought me a grilled cheese. I was euphoric.

The next day at dinner, I was still talking about my night with #2. This time, though, a friend of a friend overheard my detailed sequence of events. “Oh, did you get with #2?” she inquired.

A bit surprised, I confirmed that he was the guy.

As it turns out, she had done the same. Moreover, he had done the same.

After some quality comparing and contrasting, we discovered he had used all the same moves on her: the guitar, the

Wordsworth, the hammock heartto-heart. Everything, every detail was the same — down to the grilled cheese. Even better, he watched these discoveries unfold from just a few tables away.

Last — but certainly not least — let me tell you about my “first time” (and preface it by saying: virginity is a social construct, designed to intimidate, proselytize and promote heteronormativity… But we knew that already). So on with how I “lost” mine.

The night began with a text from #2, in fact, asking me to come to his room for a chat. Teeming with curiosity, I made my way over, only to be met with the “I really don’t want anything serious” talk. I’m sure you’re as shocked as I was. Well, after the dinner debacle, I agreed to his terms and we hooked up for a bit, but nevermind that. The night still young, we then made our way to a glorious dorm basement party lit entirely by flashing LED disco balls. Not 30 seconds in, we ran into a boy from my hall — no, not #1… a different one. (Perhaps I hadn’t learned my lesson after all.)

With some sort of strobe-induced, spite-driven determination, I went ahead and upgraded from #2 for #3. We promptly left for his room in lieu of the party and started hooking up. Soon enough, we reached the inevitable, awkward point of the “Do you want to?” conversation. I said yes, but that I hadn’t before, and he said he hadn’t either, which made me feel better. It was a pretty unsuccessful attempt, and involved a lot of fumbling and readjusting. In one word, the sex was underwhelming. Unfortunately, it took a turn for the worse.

In our post-coital cuddles, the first thing he said was, “So… this was a one night stand.”

So maybe, after these three lessthan-ideal incidents, you’re thinking, “How is Sleepless qualified to give advice?” But to that I say: maybe the best advice is that sex is a tricky business, full of trial and error, missed marks and mishaps.

I’m here to be your reassurance that things go wrong and to be the confidence boost you need to make things go right. So let’s make this semester a steamy one, Claremont.

I know I’m just getting started.

Much love, Sleepless on Sixth Street P.S. Have questions, thoughts or concerns of your own? This completely anonymous Google Form is just for you: go.tsl.news/indecent. Share away!

COurTESy: PIXAbAy

Sleepless on Sixth Street remincises on the highs and lows of three hookups from their first year in college.

PAGE 6

heArts & Culture

FEbruAry 11, 2022

Student band Tea Rooom brings spontaneity and a good time to the 5C music scene INDIA CLAUDY Improvisation is at the heart of jazz, and the same can be said of Tea Rooom. The newly-formed 5C band originated from a Pomona College Jazz Ensemble practice when Dylan Yin PO ’23, Alex Arguelles PZ ’24, Jeremy Martin PO ’25 and Nico Santamaria PO ’25 began messing around together in the early weeks of the fall 2021 semester. Instinctively building off the others’ musical cues, the four musicians sensed an instant connection.

Noting the role of jazz in the group’s formation, Yin explained this bond.

“One of the nice things about jazz is that it’s so key on finding good chemistry with your band mates,” he said. “It’s really, really important to be able to respond to each other on a split second basis and kind of jump off of each other to form a cohesive piece … [we] immediately had this good chemistry and were able to build off each other really quickly.”

The group often jammed before and after jazz rehearsal, and as they continued to experiment with their collaboration, they realized that beneath this spontaneity laid a seriousness for playing together. With Martin on drums, Arguelles playing piano, Santamaria playing the trumpet and Yin on the saxophone and vocalizing, they formed a band, practicing throughout the first semester.

But Tea Rooom’s improvisations don’t stop with their music; their band name materialized in a similarly impromptu manner.

Martin got the idea to name the band “Tea Room” from one of Yin’s sweaters, and it was originally meant as a placeholder.

However, when the group landed their first gig, the name stuck.

After arriving back on campus in January 2022, Arguelles received a text from a member of Village Green, another 5C band.

Village Green’s upcoming gig at Last Name Brewing Company no longer had an opening act, and they wondered if Arguelles and

COurTESy: TEA rOOOM

From left, Tea rooom musicians Nico Santamaria PO ’25, Alex Arguelles PZ ’24, Dylan yin PO ’23, Cece Malone PZ ’24 and Jeremy Martin PO ’25.

the rest of the group would play it. Tea Rooom quickly replied yes — and just as quickly realized that they needed a lead vocalist in order to perform.

Luckily, in another spontaneous musical circumstance, Arguelles had already met Cece Malone PZ ’24 in September 2021 at a piano in one of Pitzer College’s common rooms. Refreshed by their common musical knowledge, the pair began playing together regularly.

So, four days before their first gig, Tea Rooom convened in its entirety with Malone as the lead vocalist.

“It was really easy the first time that I came and sang with you guys,” Malone said. “I was really impressed that you had already learned this shared language and were playing that really well, and so it was really fun to jump into.”

The band held two additional practice sessions before the Jan. 27 gig — by which point a post-

er had circulated, listing their band name with a mysterious third “O” in “Room.” None of the band members know how the misspelling occurred. But, like they do best, they just went with it. For every gig they play, they say half-jokingly, they will add an “O” to their name.

All five band members considered their first gig a success, remarking on their feelings of ease, excitement and pure joy while on stage, as well as a surprising lack of nerves.

They played Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning,” Childish Gambino’s “Redbone,” Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and the theme song to Club Penguin, the popular early 2000s online game. Of course, there were mishaps: mics cut out, amps were too loud, others too quiet. But the fun was what mattered most to Tea Rooom’s members.

“I think when you’re having fun up on stage, that’s really

FILM FILES

You don’t get to hate ‘The Last Black Man in San Francisco’ unless you love it HANNAH ELIOT

On a grimy Muni bus, two obvious transplants complain about San Francisco.

“This city blows,” one of the women huffs out. “Big time.”

“I mean, whatever, I’m not above living in a former crack house, you know?”

“Dude, I’ve been saying for months, let’s just move to East L.A. This city’s dead.”

A second later, a young Black man clad in red flannel and a beanie interrupts them, telling them, “You don’t get to hate San Francisco … You don’t get to hate it unless you love it.” They haven’t earned the right to hate this place — they just got here, he explains, summing up the message at the center of “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” This Muni dweller is Jimmie Fails, a local in a bustling and indifferent San Francisco that is quickly slipping from his grasp.

“The Last Black Man in San Francisco” centers on Fails’s desperate efforts to hold on to the Victorian house his grandfather built in the heart of the city, and to find belonging in a community that is rapidly changing in the face of an unclear future.

The film is Joe Talbot’s directorial debut, for which he picked up the Best Director prize at Sundance 2019. It is a thoughtful, tender glimpse into gentrification, the affordable housing crisis and toxic masculinity. Whether you are from the city like myself, or have experienced the effects of these issues in your own hometown, this film is universal in its

meditations on the human desire for belonging and what defines a home.

As a child, Jimmie lived in the house with his father, who inherited it from his own father, who supposedly built the house with his own two hands. After his father lost their home, it stood abandoned until a couple moved into it. Although he has not lived in the house for years, Jimmie, often with his best friend Mont (Jonathan Majors) at his side, trespasses on the property to make repairs and help with its upkeep. Even after the older couple living there mocks his devotion and throws them off the property, Jimmie refuses to let go of the house.

However, when a family dispute forces the couple to vacate the house, he enlists Mont to reclaim his old home, refilling it with his own furniture and memories.

The film is semi-autobiographical, loosely inspired by Fails’ own life and his friendship with Talbot, the film’s director. Both are lifelong San Franciscans, and clearly care about the story they’re telling, imbuing their characters with their own lived experiences, with their love, frustration and resentment of the city. The realism of this film is palpable. The two main actors were virtually unknown faces at the time of its release, allowing the audience to truly envision them as their characters.

Although “The Last Black Man in San Francisco’’ is, in essence, a love story between

COurTESy: LAILA bAHMAN/A24

“The Last black Man in San Francisco” explores Jimmie Fails’ relationship with his family home in a rapidly gentrifying city.

a man and a house, the relationship between Jimmie and Mont is indelible to the film.

The two are inseparable, their brotherly friendship loving and gentle. It’s not typical in film to see men cry so openly in front of each other, and yet these two do so without shame. Their touching brotherhood works with Emile Mosseri’s poetic, heart-aching score and Adam Newport-Berra’s cinematography to create an atmosphere that is warm and welcoming, like an old classic.

While it’s obvious that Fails’ real life story is special and worth telling, Talbot’s inclination toward sparse, sleek storytelling inhibits the film’s ability to tell that story in full depth. Jimmie or Mont will often hint at some idea to the viewer, giving them a vague glimpse into their perspectives or relationship. However, the film’s overly minimalist script will cut them off. This film lets us learn little about the characters beyond what is essential to moving the plot forward. Its long lapses of silence — which are stylistically moving, yet lack the dynamic quality of dialogue — cause it to drag.

The film tends to hide behind its ethereal cinematography and dreamy score, shying away from exposing the rough, gritty edges of its subject. In doing so, it engages quite passively with how Jimmie’s Blackness shapes his struggles for belonging and for ownership of his family home. I wish that it leaned harder into its depiction of gentrification, and did so on a wider scale (using the side characters, for example) rather than solely through personal storytelling centered around Jimmie and the house.

“The Last Black Man in San Francisco” is a love letter to San Francisco, a city “plagued with idealism,” as explained by former mayor Willie Brown in a recent interview with The New York Times. It’s heart-achingly clear that Jimmie is a victim of this same idealism. He has held onto this one hope for so long. Even though deep down he knows that it’s an illusion, that it’s unlikely he will ever be able to reclaim his grandfather’s home, his struggle forces us to ask whether believing in something that isn’t real is better than believing in nothing at all.

Hannah Eliot SC ’24 is from San Francisco, California. She likes to surf and is learning (trying) to play the guitar.

what matters for a crowd … we love doing sort of cool technical stuff and jazz stuff like that, but at the end of the day, we’re just having fun up there,” Martin said.

It’s a known rule of improvisation to go with what others do in order to keep any number of options open for the future. In this vein, the band is cautious of sticking to a sole genre, preferring to let their spontaneity continue to lead them and to push them.

“A lot of people were telling me … [to be] Tea Rooom, the indie pop band. Or Tea Rooom, the R&B cover band,” Arguelles said, “but [I like] having that variety, not being constrained to a specific genre and being told what to play for the sake of publicity or marketing, because once we get to that point, it’s like what are we really doing it for?”

Martin echoed a similar sentiment.

“One of the big things that

we really want to focus on as a band,” he said, “I think, part of it is having a lot of fun, but also we want to be able to really adventure.”

In the infancy of their trajectory, Tea Rooom hasn’t got it all figured out just yet — and that’s just another part of the fun.

“I would say this is very much the beginning,” Santamaria said.

“We’re defining ourselves as we go along, and I think that’s going to be the case for a while longer.”

They understand the territory of a college band, and in keeping it all light, they avoid putting too much pressure on Tea Rooom’s growth. The group hopes to play more gigs, perform original songs and create themed sets — all in the name of creating a fun time for themselves and for their audience.

Under this sentiment, Martin sums up Tea Rooom simply.

“I think we’re serious musicians who don’t take ourselves too seriously,” he said.

SELECTED AMbIENT WOrKS

Black indie artists deserve our attention

KIrby KIMbALL • THE STuDENT LIFE

As the streaming era of music emerges, Black indie artists are finally getting the recognition they deserve, argues music columnist Nicholas black PO ‘24.

NICHOLAS BLACK Growing up on 2014 Tumblr and obsessing over The 1975, I gained a fondness for indie music, but this blessing doubled as a curse — white people dominated my library. Luckily, the seemingly unbreakable bond between white people and indie music is finally dissipating.

Since its emergence as a musical label in the twentieth century, white artists and listeners have dominated indie music.

Of course, the contributions of Black musicians have always played a central role in influencing indie music, but with the emergence of the streaming era of music, Black indie artists are finally seeing successes of their own.

Let’s get the ambiguity of the term ‘indie’ out of the way first.

While indie music was meant to refer only to artists who aren’t signed to major music labels, it has since become more of a cultural marker that describes musicians who sound different from the output of these major labels, much like the label “alternative.”

Music critics have noted the dominance of white people in indie spaces, resulting in the production and consumption of indie music being seen as a “white people thing.” This isn’t because Black people don’t like indie, but rather because various barriers have made it more difficult for Black indie artists to break out into the industry. However, as music production programs have become more accessible and streaming platforms have come to dominate the music industry, many of these barriers have begun to break down.

PinkPanthress, a Black indie creator who’s seen huge success from the release of various singles and her mixtape “To Hell With It,” began by singing over GarageBand instrumentals and uploading the results to SoundCloud and TikTok. Her music and style are unapologetically indie: She cites 2000s-era pop pock artists as her inspiration

and features grim aesthetics in her artwork. This is a prime example of how artists today can break out without access to expensive computer equipment or support from a major record label.

As barriers to music production and distribution have waned, Black people have become more visible in indie spaces. With this, indie music’s status as a “white people thing” is finally deteriorating. Pre-streaming age Black creators recall feeling unsupported and marginalized for participating in an alternative culture meant only for white people.

Contrast this to the modern day, where social media platforms like TikTok have popularized alternative music and styles, increasing the visibility of Black alternative people and diversifying the image of indie.

Rico Nasty, another Black artist who rose to fame on the Internet, began releasing music independently in 2014. Nasty, now an extremely successful figure in the hip-hop scene, remembers when participating in indie culture made her an “outcast.” Today, she says, the internet has completely changed the game; indie spaces have become much more diversified and accepting of groups beyond hipster-esque white people.

Many of my Black indie heroes — Dev Hynes, FKA twigs, Solange, Azealia Banks and so many more — have been creating beautiful indie music long before society started to recognize the contributions that Black people are making to the genre. Just because many of these artists are seeing more mainstream success doesn’t mean that there were no Black people in the indie scene before, nor that indie audiences are absolved for their mistreatment of creators who aren’t white.

I’m elated that indie music is finally diversifying, but most importantly, this prospect should motivate listeners to explore beyond what’s propped up by white-dominated spaces. Black indie artists have and will continue to provide the world with beautiful music, and I simply ask that we pay attention to them.

Nicholas Black ’24 is from Rochester, New York. He only listens to recommendations from Pitchfork.

OpiniOns

February 11, 2022

PaGe 7

Nazi associations of Scripps statue call into question college’s commitments to inclusivity LILY DUNKIN Looming over the stairs to the locker rooms and pool, a zinc “Young Woman” watches the comings and goings of the Scripps College health and wellness center, Tiernan Field House. She is mounted on a platform, with a small sign erected on the wall behind her: “Young Woman, Georg Kolbe (1877-1947), c. 1925.” The figure is slender and athletic, with European features and an unassuming disposition.

“Young Woman” represents what might be called an Aryan ideal. And her creator was associated with the Nazis.

The Field House and Scripps pride themselves on being places of diverse intellectual, emotional, physical and social health. Yet, the immediate presence of “Young Woman” when walking into the Tiernan facility makes those values almost laughable.

While his history is largely unknown by current Scripps students, Kolbe’s life as a revered Nazi artist reifies his legacy of bigotry at the Claremont Colleges.

Kolbe was named by Hitler as one of his favorite German artists at the time, as his young, nude, athletic sculptures were seen to be emblematic of the romanticized Germanic ideal of the Nazi Party.

It was for this reason that he was asked to sculpt two statues for the Reich Sports Field at the 1936 Ber-

lin Olympics. Kolbe was commissioned for many other works by the Nazi Party, even sculpting a bust of the brutal Spanish dictator Francisco Franco as a personal gift for Hitler. He took on powerful roles in state commissions and contributed to official exhibitions of the Third Reich.

He later made the Third Reich’s Gottebegnadeten list, which was a celebrated collection of artists who were considered to best represent Aryan values at the time.

The sculpture in Tiernan Field House at Scripps, “Young Woman,” only provides the name of the sculptor and says nothing of his Nazi ties. We must ask why this piece was installed at Scripps in such a prominent place, and why is there no clarification or historical framework provided with the sculpture.

I wonder what the sculpture says about our community if we knowingly allow for the so-called “Aryan” definition of womanhood to stand and represent our student body. Her position is emblematic of the toxic white feminism Scripps students claim to fight against. We cannot claim to be an institution that champions intersectional feminism, while proudly displaying a sculpture of the female form that promotes an ideology so blatantly steeped in sexism and anti-blackness.

The worst possible result of

this article is that we allow for this racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic statue to continue to define our community. The second worst outcome would be for “Young Woman” to be taken down from her post at the wellness center and never talked about again.

To remove “Young Woman” while neglecting the larger trauma for people of color and other marginalized groups that her presence represents only feeds the same violent ignorance that has allowed such a statue to be displayed for so long. Whether this ignorance has taken the form of our Spanish colonial mission-style architecture on stolen land, our founder Ellen Browning Scripps’ history of providing loans rather than direct philanthropy to black organizations like the historic Colored Community Church as documented in the Scripps archives or the history of exclusion stemming back to Scripps’ first Black students (as explored by Scripps librarian Jennifer Wormser), this sculpture is another piece in the ongoing history of marginalization at Scripps.

However, “Young Woman” is unique in that her exhibition at the school could be so easily rectified, and yet nothing has been done to mitigate her impact on the student body. It is our responsibility as administration,

international students need more support as COViD-19 travel restrictions continue

HuXLeyaNN HueFNer • THe STuDeNT LIFe

Scripps College should re-evaluate the prominent position afforded to the statue “young Woman” by Georg Kolbe, argues guest columnist Lily Dunkin SC ‘24.

faculty, students and alums to challenge and critically evaluate our legacy. Not only does this mean that we must demand the immediate removal of “Young Woman” from Tiernan Field House, but we must also open ourselves up to a larger conversation about what inclusivity at Scripps really means.

We must remove “Young Woman” by Georg Kolbe, but

SCARLETT LIU While COVID-19 cases may now be plummeting in California and throughout the country, 5C students won’t soon forget the sudden outbreak that derailed the fall 2021 semester. As an international student from China, I would like to give special attention to the international student body here at the 5Cs, who continue to require additional support in this uncertain time.

On Christmas Eve last year, I received a phone call from one of my dearest friends at the 5Cs. I found out that he had just tested positive for COVID-19 after having dinner with an asymptomatic friend. I asked him if he needed anything and how I could help him through this unfortunate situation. He said that he was more saddened by the fact that while others could enjoy the privilege of quarantining at home, he could not even go home during the holidays and had to be stuck here with no family support around.

The Biden administration recently suspended 44 China-bound flights from the United States, which were all under the operation of Chinese carriers.

This decision came after China suspended 20 United Airlines flights, 10 American Airlines flights, and 14 Delta Airlines flights from Dec. 31 to Jan. 21.

Chinese authorities justified their decision by stating that there had been positive COVID-19 cases on many past international flights, but this decision inevitably locked Chinese citizens out of their home country for an uncer-

tain period of time.

Many international students at the 5Cs have experienced the plight of not being able to return home, and have not seen any signs of relief. It is imperative for the 5C administration to provide better accommodations for international students.

Domestic host families can be a critical part of a 5C-wide response. International students who have no relatives living in the U.S. often find it difficult to find off-campus housing during break; and even though the 5Cs provide limited housing during breaks, international students may find it distressing to stay on campus without any of their family and friends, especially during the holidays.

The 5C administration should consider recruiting host families from the domestic student body to accommodate international students’ housing needs, relieve the 5Cs of extra expenses to provide students with on-campus housing, and make students feel they have a home away from home. In fact, on a national level, there is a lot of enthusiasm for hosting international students. Host Family Survey results show that 87 percent of host families report positive experiences. Moreover, testimonies have found that hosting international students allows for meaningful cultural exchange and built deep relationships across borders.

Moreover, the 5C administration must dedicate further resources toward helping secure internship opportunities for international students. The

Editorial Board

pandemic has already severely impacted international students trying to land job and internship offers in the United States. For example, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has delayed the Optional Practical Training application, which in turn delayed the assignment of Employment Authorization Documents to international students. The OPT only allows international students to stay in the U.S. for up to a year without an F1 student visa and leaves them vulnerable to deportation if the students don’t land an OPT-supported job before the one-year deadline. Not to mention that many companies nationwide have paused international recruiting due to the pandemic, posing further job-hunting challenges for international students. The 5C administration can establish job hunting support groups that are specifically dedicated to international students.

These are just two ways that the 5Cs can provide better support to international students unable to return for winter break. I encourage the 5Cs to recognize and empathize with the plight of international students and continue to build better opportunities to support them.

Scarlett Liu CM ’24 is from Beijing, China. She binges classic black and white movies as well as the HBO series Euphoria. She loves going on adventures and random late-night walks.

Guest writer Lily Dunkin SC ’24 is studying politics and foreign languages. A proud Coloradan, she loves murder mysteries, skiing and Dolly Parton. She wishes to thank the SCORE team and Avalon Brice for their help finding sources.

Gamification can be a solution to improved health ALEXANDER CHAO

beLLa PeTTeNGILL • THe STuDeNT LIFe

also hold ourselves accountable for the lingering sexism and white supremacy in our community that she represents.

What have you been eating?

Are you exercising enough?

These questions were easily drowned out amid waves of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions. While maintaining healthy habits may seem unimportant compared to our other worries, it deserves more attention than you think — many of us are still battling unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyles we developed during lockdown. As the virus becomes less prevalent in our lives, it is time for us to focus again on leading healthier lives for greater happiness and productivity, and gamification can help with that.

Gamification is more than just the games that ordinary teenagers are addicted to these days. It is also not just the integration of game elements like points and scores into our everyday lives.

Rather, as the early gamification pioneer Yu-kai Chou puts it, gamification is a design that uses all the “fun and engaging elements found in games” that motivate players and “applies them to real-world or productive activities.” Essentially, gamification is a human-centered design that focuses on motivating our core drives. If effectively applied, gamification can make being healthy not something you have to do, but something you actually want to do.

Gamification has become increasingly prevalent in our smartwatches as well as fitness and nutrition apps: think Fitbit, MyFitnessPal, Apple Health App, to name a few. Since people naturally struggle with sticking to and completing longterm goals, gamification helps you create a plan and tackle the long-term goal of maintaining good health by rewarding you for your short-term accomplishments and motivating you to consistently reach milestones and earn progress badges. For instance, if you are trying to build a running habit, being able to see your run completion data, collection of streaks and receive badges serves as empowering short-term rewards that may motivate you to maintain the habit.

Instead of browsing through the internet for workout and nutrition videos, you can follow engaging guided programs offered by these apps. The Fitbit app offers one to three weeks of personalized programs to help you develop better sleep habits, mindful eating and weight

training. Depending on the types of goals you set, such as improving sleep quality or learning weight training, the app comes up with the best strategies to help you achieve your desired outcome, such as meditating before going to bed and suitable workout videos. It also engages you and keeps you on track by sending reminders throughout your day and shows your progress bar and streaks. The personalization aspect of gamification appeals to people’s desire of ownership over their health journey, and may drive more commitment to improvement.

Users can also connect and share their progress with friends, family or public groups with shared interests such as running or meditating to motivate each other. While people who are more driven by competition can join and create challenges with friends to engage in fun competition, others can join supportive online groups and collaborative challenges. These social features are just a few examples of how gamification can motivate us through social influence, by encouraging competition and collaboration.

A common concern may be that gamification encourages a toxic competitive culture where people are primarily driven by numbers and rankings, instead of truly appreciating the benefits they would gain from exercise. While there are people that are better motivated by competition—which is not necessarily toxic and can be friendly— other people can join supportive online communities and collaborate with friends and family to complete challenges. For example, Fitbit’s All for One and Custom Challenges allow up to 100 people to collaborate and reach a customized common goal, such as 100 combined hours of exercise over three weeks.

These teamwork challenges are intended to make people feel bigger than themselves, since they are part of a group effort to achieve better health.

The potential and positive influence of gamification in healthcare has plenty of room for growth.

While it may not be the only or the best way to motivate everyone to develop healthier habits, it is certainly one of the most promising and easily accessible.

In the coming years with technological advances, health apps may be groundbreaking tools that can transform our relationship with health and motivate people to engage in healthy behaviors. Take charge of your and your family’s health by giving gamification a shot.

Alexander Chao PO ’25 is from Taipei, Taiwan. He enjoys reading about nutrition, watching anime and road cycling.

THE STUDENT LIFE

JASPER DAVIDOFF, Editor-in-Chief ANUSHE ENGINEER, Managing Editor CAELAN REEVES, Managing Editor

Senior Staff JAMES KARSTEN, Production Editor GRACE SAUERS, Production Editor MARCELLA CANNATTI, News Designer KLARA JACOBS, Arts and Culture Designer GIULIA BELLON, Opinions Designer JOSIE DE ANDA, Sports Designer LONDON LORDOS, Copy Chief ANNA PREWITT, Copy Chief

HUXLEYANN HUEFNER, Photo Editor NANAKO NODA, Photo Editor BELLA PETTENGILL, Graphics Editor JENNA MCMURTRY, News Editor SIENA SWIFT, News Editor SAMSON ZHANG, News Associate MENA BOVA, Arts & Culture Editor ELIZA POWERS, Arts & Culture Editor

LARKIN BARNARD-BAHN, Arts & Culture Associate SAE FURUKAWA, Opinions Editor BEN REICHER, Opinions Editor ALEX CHUN, Sports Editor HANNAH WEAVER, Sports Editor KENNY LE, Diversity & Inclusion Editor ANURADHA KRISHNAN, Diversity & Inclusion Editor GWYN WONG, Business Manager

TSL’s Editorial Board consists of the editor-in-chief and two managing editors. Aside from the editorial, the views expressed in the opinions section do not necessarily reflect the views of The Student Life.

Singles copies of TSL are free and may be obtained at news stands around campus. Multiple copies may be purchased for $0.47 per copy with prior approval by contacting editor@tsl.news. Newspaper theft is a crime; perpetrators may be subject to disciplinary action as well as civil and/or criminal prosecution.

PaGe 8

Jasper’s Crossword: Degrees of separation

OpiniOns February 11, 2022 The 5Cs should make their courses hybrid-flexible this semester LUCIÉNNE REYES

ACROSS 1. Like holiday cards that arrive in January 5. Oscar-nominated director Chloé 9. The “Chinese Google” 14. Chromebook and PC manufacturer 15. Oscar-nominated actor Steven 16. Activity that stokes a burning passion?

17. Like Bangkok residents 18. Go steady 19. Smile with an edge 20. *Pick from a pound?

22. Used as a chair 23. “__ Were a Rich Man” 24. Some DJs 25. Org. for which F is for Foxtrot 26. “Please, don’t! I’m begging you!”

28. *Snoopy-vs-Red Baron altercation 32. Thus 33. Fork’s prongs 34. Yiddish exclamations 35. *Group whose first priority is not being discussed?

39. Egyptian snake 42. Shake (as a person, or the ground) 43. Smell 47. *Stain-removal aid 49. Spain, in Spain 51. Actress Blanchett 52. Singer-songwriter Lennox 53. Gas pump opt.

54. Bottled water with mountains on the label 56. *Yeastless loaf 59. Jordanian city with beautiful cut rock 60. Lincoln and Simpson 61. ____-European 62. Un plus deux 63. Double agent 64. Mare’s newborn 65. Inst. in the “Take On Me” lick 66. Regards 67. “G2G!”

3. Ribbing 4. LA mayor Garcetti 5. Louisiana music genre 6. Half of coin tosses 7. Kind of show at a convention center 8. Universal donor blood type, for short 9. Flea’s strings 10. Giorgio’s fashion line 11. “Are we proceeding?”

12. Toto’s slippered companion 13. Loosens, as tied ropes 21. Twin Cities sch.

27. “That’s pretty rough” 28. Legendary Bears coach Mike 29. Fairy tale’s beginning 30. Hairstyle product 31. Tallahassee sch.

33. Trumpeter and bandleader Jones 36. Supposed smarts scores, for short 37. Cellist Tina 38. Type of song to have on repeat 39. Admits 40. Subject of the 13th Amendment 41. “Try wearing this” 44. Be too scared to 45. Multivitamin dosage 46. Child’s cloth toy 48. Grin and ______ 49. Clears off the board 50. Bro/sis 52. “Hello” singer 55. Partner of Crosby & Stills 56. Singers Smith and Cooke 57. Orchestra-tuning instrument 58. Fissure LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

DOWN 1. Military disposal unit?

2. Crave longingly

Need-blind admission for international students is a necessity YIFEI CHENG The generosity of Pomona College’s financial aid program is indisputable. Committed to meeting 100 percent of its students’ demonstrated need, Pomona offered an average of $57,311 in need-based scholarships in 2019. This generosity is accompanied by Pomona’s need-blind admissions policy, whereby the admissions process does not take into account applicants’ need for financial assistance. This need-blind policy allows students from all financial backgrounds to apply without jeopardizing their chance of admission or reducing the affordability of their education.

Nevertheless, things are different for international students, who, unlike their domestic counterparts, must undergo a need-aware admissions process. While Pomona still covers their full demonstrated needs upon successful admission, the college considers their financial aid requests when evaluating their applications. A mandatory section on the application form compels international students to inform the college whether or not they wish to apply for financial aid.

Though Pomona has not disclosed how exactly the financial aid application affects internation-

HuXLeyaNN HueFNer • THe STuDeNT LIFe

The 5Cs must open need-blind admissions to international students, writes yifei Cheng PO ‘24.

al students’ chance of admission, one can reasonably expect that students requesting financial aid will have, to some extent, a lower chance of getting into the college.

In essence, one qualifies for financial aid not just by needs, but also by competitiveness — they must be extra competitive to compensate for the unfavorable implications of their aid request. This makes Pomona’s need-based scholarship de facto merit-based for international students.

This arrangement has obvious drawbacks. It subjects international students to an unresolvable dilemma, where they must choose between the massive financial burden of paying full tuition and the possible jeopardizing of their chance of admission. Essentially, the student must either bear the burden or risk rejection. Neither option is desirable.

In addition, an international student’s decision to apply for or relinquish financial aid is binding — if the applicant chooses “no,” they are effectively disqualified from receiving any need-based aid from Pomona in the future. This deters international students from low- and middle-income backgrounds from applying for financial aid at Pomona, or from applying to Pomona all together. Should international students choose “no financial aid” on the application form out of the fear of rejection and gain admission, they would forever lack the resources available to their domestic peers.

To reimburse the imminent financial burden brought about by Pomona’s $80,492 annual cost of attendance, many of them might have to discard their true academic passion and seek more lucrative and financially rewarding alternatives. For instance, one interested in art history or classics might encounter the pressure to choose majors conventionally associated with higher immediate post-graduate earnings, like economics or

computer science. One might also enter the workforce immediately after graduation rather than attending a graduate school that aligns better with their actual interest, so as to start earning back their hefty educational investment as soon as possible.

Therefore, Pomona’s need-aware admissions policy limits what international students can do with their liberal arts education. This contradicts Pomona’s mission to “enable [students] to identify and address their intellectual passions.”

Pomona should make its admissions process need-blind for everyone, not just for domestic students. Pomona is likely capable of overcoming the budgetary implications caused by this policy change with its substantial financial resources. Data from the National Association of College and University Business Officers indicates that in 2020, Pomona ranks 9th in endowment market value per full-time student among all U.S. colleges. Furthermore, the college will most likely maintain its robust financial profile and its exceptional balance sheet strength in the years to come. It is time for the college to devote some of its vast endowment into expanding need-based financial aid for international students.

Pomona’s Strategic Vision states that “access to a Pomona education regardless of family income remains a bedrock value of the college.” Despite Pomona’s alleged commitment to affordable education, the status quo for international students tells a different story. Unless Pomona extends its need-blind admissions policy to our fellow international students, this promise will always remain unfulfilled.

Yifei Cheng PO ’24 is from Nanjing, China. He enjoys hiking, reading (especially fantasy literature), and playing Starcraft 2.

SeOHyeON Lee • THe STuDeNT LIFe

potentially dangerously exacerbate my asthma.

That said, perspectives of COVID-19 should not solely derive from examining its commonalities with upper respiratory diseases. Equating COVID-19 to influenza and the common cold is deceptive. Compared to those two illnesses, COVID-19 has increased superspreader potential and higher death and hospitalization rates. Recent research even challenges COVID19’s initial classification as a respiratory disease, pointing towards labeling it as a vascular disease with greater health implications.

Amidst Omicron’s hyper-transmissibility, more people than ever before have contracted COVID-19 or know someone who has. Individuals without underlying conditions or severe COVID-19 symptoms can still get long COVID. Considering this, concerned individuals with preexisting conditions aren’t overreacting to cold-like symptoms. We fear chronic illness, as well as death.

To be clear, DISCOVR’s plea for a remote choice is not asking for everyone to learn remotely.

DISCOVR acknowledges the numerous people struggling with online schooling, especially neurodivergent students like my brother. However, designating in-person instruction as universally superior disregards pupils whose underlying conditions (or higher-risk household members) warrant online options. Many in this group do perform better in person, but don’t think the benefits of physical attendance outweigh the increased risks from a possible COVID-19 exposure.

Per a reply to Ellsworth’s email from Dean Robert Gaines, Pomona faculty rejected HyFlex instruction, citing its “poorest and most asymmetric learning outcomes [between remote students and in-person students]” —but that claim doesn’t track

with all of the sources cited in Gaines’s email to TSL. Mandating HyFlex instruction prevents professors from denying students’ requests to attend remotely (as some of Ellsworth’s professors did, according to an interview with TSL), but it’s only the first step. The mandate’s success requires the 5Cs to invest in robust support to help faculty navigate the pedagogical and technical challenges of HyFlex learning. This investment is worthwhile, as the pandemic’s current downward trajectory may change later. HyFlex learning lessens the impact of a future sudden transition to fully online education should the need for it arise.

To avoid forcing students with invisible disabilities to disclose that they are disabled to their classmates (just as LGBT+ individuals shouldn’t be pressured to out themselves), HyFlex instruction shouldn’t be limited to students with COVID-19 or documented underlying conditions.

Moreover, some lack the financial means to access a diagnosis.

HyFlex learning is less feasible in some courses, like music ensembles. Music departments could temporarily increase flexibility in completing ensemble requirements for music majors and minors. Other options include creating virtual chamber groups using the software Jamulus, wherein musicians synchronously play together online.

Characterizing COVID-19 as trivial because it only threatens individuals with underlying conditions devalues people with disabilities. Our right to education and life is as valuable as anyone else’s. If the 5Cs are to reflect that, they should adopt HyFlex learning.

Guest writer Luciénne Reyes PZ ’24 is a DISCOVR member and former contributing opinions writer at TSL from Los Angeles, California. Visit tinyurl.com/5chybridlearning to sign the petition.

THE

CLARGUMENT In our new feature, we ask TSL’s Instagram followers a question every Monday and share their responses here.

What’s the hottest take you’ve heard in class?

“I’m a scientific person so I don’t believe in moral rights and wrongs” @aimeeejohnston

“The only philosophical thing that I can say is correct is that I’m a vegetarian”

@rebekah_bodner “That capitalism and racism aren’t connected”

@zaidzoubii “The Lorax should have been armed”

@peter_hodge

To weigh in on next week’s question, follow us on Instagram @TSLnews and keep an eye on our story on Monday!

If you have a suggestion for a future question, send us an email: opinions@tsl.news.

OFF THE RECORD

JaSPer DaVIDOFF • THe STuDeNT LIFe

In August 2021, Keck Graduate Institute implemented hybrid-flexible (HyFlex) instruction for all classes, enabling students with COVID-19 or other illnesses to remotely attend livestreamed classes synchronously with their in-person classmates. This practice never proliferated at the 5Cs, where Spring 2022 courses were all in person by Jan. 31 after two weeks online.

The 5Cs also saw 158 COVID-19 cases in Jan. 17-23.

Despite dwindling to 84 in the next week, new cases still greatly exceeded last semester’s typical weekly numbers.

As TSL reports this week, that prompted a group of immunocompromised students led

by Johnny Ellsworth PO ’24 to to request HyFlex learning for students with underlying conditions until the pandemic’s stabilization.

Disability Community and Validating Relationships (DISCOVR), a 5C student-run disability club, later released a petition for HyFlex learning, which I urge everyone to sign.

This semester, the 5Cs must implement universal HyFlex education to protect their community members.

Precautions against COVID-19 might feel increasingly antiquated. I’ve seen people argue that the Omicron variant’s milder symptoms, the student body’s 99 percent vaccination rate and the 5C-wide vaccine booster requirement for eligible students put most students at miniscule risk of severe symptoms. More students seem resigned to believing that COVID-19 will inevitably infect everyone, so attempting to mitigate it is pointless.

Vaccines and milder symptoms are certainly good news.

Yet as California’s currently very high (albeit declining) level of cases illustrates, vaccines and Omicron’s mildness haven’t altogether ended the pandemic.

Ostensibly nonthreatening illnesses can still endanger people with preexisting conditions. In 2017, my brother’s seizure medication hindered his capacity to fight a cold.

That morphed into a formidable bout of pneumonia that necessitated hospitalization.

While no current evidence suggests higher COVID-19 infection rates or graver symptoms for those with asthma, my condition, I fear the asthma complications from illnesses with respiratory symptoms.

Postnasal drip from nasal congestion (a COVID-19 symptom) triggers an asthma flareup that frequently outlasts the initial illness. COVID-19 could

5C dining is almost back!

I can finally get my Scripps acai bowl

....in 15 days an editor can’t live on grain bowls alone

Let’s go, Lauren!

Who is the new College Jeopardy champ?

Tricked by John Milton in final Paradise Lost?

More like $0 lost due to shrewd betting

SportS

February 11, 2022

PaGe 9

Tiernan reopening alleviates initial gym problems for 5C students

HuXLeyaNN HueFNer • THe STuDeNT LIFe

Scripps College’s athletic facility Tiernan Field House recently opened its indoor facilities, available by reservation only.

ANNIKA JOHNSON The Sallie Tiernan Field House at Scripps College has finally resumed indoor activities after three weeks of offering limited, outdoor-only workouts amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the consortium.

Until Feb. 7, Scripps students could only access limited equipment available on Tiernan’s outdoor balconies, including dumbbells, stability balls, yoga mats, spin bikes and rowing machines.

The pool was also entirely unavailable for use.

The transition to full operations was first announced by Assistant Dean and Director of Tiernan Field House Deborah Gisvold in a Jan. 28 email to Scripps students.

Tiernan’s initial limitations led many students to Claremont McKenna College’s Roberts Pavilion since it was the only fitness center at the 5Cs that had not reduced operational hours. Pomona-Pitzer’s new gym is still under construction, which also caused P-P students to gravitate towards

working out at Roberts.

For Sophie Liles SC ’22, Tiernan’s restrictions were particularly frustrating. Swimming has been part of her recovery since she underwent a ligament reconstruction surgery in October.

But she hadn’t been able to swim this semester since Axelrood Pool at Claremont Mckenna College is only available for limited hours and Tiernan’s pool was closed until last week.

“I’ve just been biking a little bit at Roberts, but I would [have] much prefered to be swimming [because] it would be a lot better for my rehabilitation [process],” she said.

Although Liles was glad Tiernan was still open at some capacity, she was frustrated by Scripps’ initial decision to limit Tiernan.

“When they announced that we could go back to indoor dining at 40 percent capacity… I was thinking if it’s safe to eat inside — which [is] the judgment call they’ve made — why isn’t it safe for me to work out in a surgical KN-95 mask?” she said.

Lily Ryan SC ‘24 echoed a similar sentiment in regards to COVID-19 safety. She believed that Tiernan’s initial limitation caused more students to gravitate towards Roberts.

“It’s only indoors [at Roberts], and it’s very crowded,” she said.

Although students like Ryan felt that Roberts seemed overcrowded, Chris Spells, director of recreation and engagement at Roberts, stated otherwise.

“The increased numbers [30 percent from 2019 to fall 2021] did not correlate to additional requests or complaints regarding space and equipment availability within Roberts Pavilion,” he clarified.

Ryan thought having Tiernan closed or limited during the beginning of the semester was detrimental to students’ mental health because it could have been a resource and outlet to students, especially while they were having classes online.

Gisvold said that Scripps has made strategic decisions of what to close on campus, in or-

Sagehens dethrone the Regals in double-digit fashion during regular season finale

der to align with LA County Department of Public Health, CDC and OSHA guidelines.

“While we are all very anxious to ‘return to normal’ or pre-pandemic operations, it is important that we take every measure to protect the members of our community, taking their health and safety into consideration when doing so,” Gisvold said.

Tiernan staff have been hosting small-scale outdoor activities throughout the semester, such as soccer, bike rides and cornhole and volleyball tournaments this semester.

“We found that the students who participated in these programs found them enjoyable and would love for us to offer them with more regularity,” Gisvold said. “We will continue to explore this idea leading into the semester, as this may be a preferred option for some students to exercise, de-stress and socialize.”

Since its reopening on Monday, operations at Tiernan have resumed as they were last se-

Sports Calendar CMS

P-P

Saturday, Feb. 12

Friday, Feb. 11

Women’s and Men’s Swimming & Diving SCIaC Diving Championships @ Cal Lutheran

Men’s Tennis vs. Hope Int’l @ Azusa Pacific

Men’s Track and Field Whitworth Invitational Women’s Track and Field Whitworth Invitational Men’s Tennis 10:00 aM Westcliff Men’s basketball 2:00 PM Chapman abbey LIaO• THe STuDeNT LIFe

Maison yee PZ ‘25 approaches a Cal Lutheran defender as she drives to the basket.

JUSTIN GUO The Pomona-Pitzer women’s basketball team replicated its Jan. 10 blowout against the Cal Lutheran Regals in Saturday evening’s game.

P-P dominated 61-47, featuring a career-high from guard Charlize Andaya PZ ’23.

Veteran guard Kaitlyn Leung PO ’23 led the charge for the Hens with a team-high 15 points on an efficient 7-for-14 shooting from the field, notching four rebounds in the process. Another contributor included star guard Madison Quan PZ ’22, who notched a near triple-double with 12 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds off the bench.

“I think what worked for us against Cal Lu was the fact that we played team basketball,” Quan said.

“Everyone was sharing the ball equally, which helped us get movement throughout the paint and find open players in transition.”

Overall, the Regals were held to 30 percent shooting on 53 attempts, compared to the Sagehens’ 42 percent on 64 shots. P-P also forced 25 turnovers from Cal Lu, converting those opportunities into half of their total points.

The Sagehens got off to a hot of-

fensive start within the opening five minutes of the match. After Vanessa Hsia PO ’22 began the scoring followed by a 5-0 unassisted scoring run from Leung, P-P jumped out to a 7-2 lead in just two minutes of play.

Later in the quarter, Quan checked into the game from the bench and connected on two consecutive threes for the Sagehens, pushing P-P’s lead to double-digits. This momentum led Maison Yee PZ ’25 and Emily Church PO ’23 to contribute two-point buckets for the Hens, capping off a 21-10 opening quarter in favor of P-P. Throughout the rest of the first half, the Sagehens continued trading buckets with the Regals, ending the half at 38-23.

More of the same continued through the second half. Any signs of a Cal Lu run were instantly countered by consecutive baskets from center Amara Chidom PZ ’22, Allison Murphy PZ ’25 and Leung.

Both teams scored 12 points to end the third frame.

The fourth quarter followed a similar pattern; both teams scored approximately even totals throughout the final 10 minutes of the game, eventually resulting in a

61-47 victory for the Sagehens.

“Our team mentality this year is to play every game like it’s our last,” Quan said. “Our first playoff game is on the 22nd, and every day leading up to then is an opportunity to get better and push harder past teams.”

After P-P cruised to a comfortable victory against the Regals, the women were defeated in a double-digit loss against the Whittier Poets Feb. 9. Despite double digit point contributions from Church, Leung and Andaya, a 17-2 third quarter run from the Poets proved insurmountable, as the Hens fell short by 10 points.

Despite this tough loss against the Poets, the Sagehens are still 8-5 against SCIAC opponents and third in the standings, and have a 10-9 overall record. P-P will next face Caltech on the road on Saturday.

“We are currently a contender for the playoffs, but that means nothing to us,” Quan said. “Right now, our main focus is on ourselves and what we can control.

I’m looking forward to the postseason with a great group of girls to go into with.”

mester.

In compliance with COVID-19 safety measures, Tiernan has a touchless entryway system, plexiglass barriers at the service desk, capacity limits on each room to maintain eight feet of social distance and a reservation system to maintain those capacity limits.

“I’m really glad Tiernan is open now, I think it’s a bit of a shame it wasn’t open earlier just because the part of the Field House I really liked was the pool,” Liles said. “I think that, as an outdoor activity, that was probably pretty safe from the getgo, and it was a little confusing to me why they allowed indoor dining without masks before they allowed outdoor swimming.”

Ryan echoed this sentiment.

“It’s made my life significantly better because… the pool’s open, also I’m really looking forward to going there for working out just because I know it’ll be less crowded than Roberts was and also I just really enjoy working out at Tiernan because I just feel like it has a very relaxing vibe,” Ryan said.

Men’s Tennis 3:00 PM Hope International Hope International Women’s basketball 4:00 PM Chapman Sunday Feb. 13 Women’s and Men’s Swimming & Diving SCIaC Diving Championships @ Cal Lutheran

baseball vs. Lewis & Clark Saturday, Feb. 12 Women’s and Men’s Swimming & Diving SCIaC Diving Championships @ Cal Lutheran Men’s and Women’s Track & Field 12:00 PM Occidental Dual Meet @ eagle rock Women’s Water Polo 11:10 aM vs. Michigan @ La Jolla, Ca Triton Invitational Softball 12:00 PM PomonaPitzer vs. Pacific (Ore.) baseball 1:00 PM Linfield vs. Pomona-Pitzer Women’s and Men’s basketball 2:00 PM @ Caltech Sunday, Feb.13 Women’s and Men’s Swimming & Diving SCIaC Diving Championships @ Cal Lutheran Women’s and Men’s Golf Providence College event @ Sunland, Ca angeles National GC

SportS

PaGe 10

February 11, 2022

Crushing hits and opponents from the get-go: P-P & CMS baseball off to hot starts

abbey LIaO• THe STuDeNT LIFe

CaeLyN SMITH• THe STuDeNT LIFe

abbey LIaO• THe STuDeNT LIFe

Left: Kallen Mueller CM ‘22 eyes down a hittable pitch.

Top-right: Starting pitcher eamonn Woods PO ‘25 goes into the wind for a pitch bottom-right: JC Ng PO ‘25 readies his swing during one of his eight times at bat this past weekend.

ALEX CHUN The Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball teams each were victorious in their opening series to begin the season. Featuring high-octane offenses on both squads, each team won against their opponents by wide margins over this past weekend, getting the season started in the right direction.

Multiple Sagehens have multihit games to swing through competition in 3-1 start Following a mediocre 7-17 SCIAC record and 21-18 overall record capped by a failure to play postseason ball in 2019, the Sagehens are off to an excellent start this year, winning three of their first four games.

In his first collegiate action, clean-up hitting first baseman Isaac Kim PO ’24 started his career off in impressive fashion, leading the Sagehens with a .538 batting clip and racking up multiple hits in each game. Outfielder David Bedrosian PZ ’23 also shined over the weekend, hitting .500 while recording 5 runs batted in.

The opening day match against Lewis and Clark kicked off with a gem from star utility man Harry Deliyannis PO ’23, throwing a one-hit shutout through six innings. Deliyannis forced soft contact and foolish swings in the batter’s box from Pioneer batters, earning seven strikeouts during his time on the mound.

On the plate, Kim and Bedrosian combined for four hits in the second and third inning alone, driven in by left fielder JC Ng PO ’25 and veteran third baseman Jack Damelio PO ’22. Along with a solo bomb into the center field fences from second baseman Caleb Millikan PZ ’22, the Sagehens jumped out to an early 5-0 lead.

Throughout the rest of the game, the Sagehens tacked onto their lead by capitalizing on errors from the Pioneers, scoring two unearned runs following wild pitches and errant throws from Lewis

and Clark.

To finish out the opening match, side-arm throwing rookie pitcher Eric Prough PO ’25 earned the last four outs for the Sagehens via striking out three batters and getting one to hit a direct line drive shot right into Kim’s glove. The first game ended 7-1.

In the first game of the double-header the following afternoon, the second matchup between P-P and Lewis and Clark proved much more competitive.

After starting pitcher Jake Hilton PO ’25 surrendered three runs in four innings, Eddie Rosemont PZ ’23, Prough and Ethan Collins PO ’25 combined to finish out the game on the defensive end for the Hens. The trio gave up four runs over five innings, striking out four batters in the process.

Despite a lackluster game on the mound, P-P hitters picked up the slack at the plate. Straight out of the first inning, Bedrosian began the offense for the Sagehens by crushing a three-run home run in the bottom of the first.

Immediately after the Hens’ defense gave up their first run in the top of the second following a throwing error from Ng, Kevin Lo PZ ’22 brought the P-P lead back to three runs by reaching first base on a fielder’s choice, bringing home the runner from third base.

However, P-P faced adversity from Lewis and Clark in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring two runs in each frame to take a 5-4 lead. The Hens instantly responded via a two-run homer from Kim to center field and later tacked two more runs onto their lead featuring a Matthew Nishimura PZ ’25 RBI, leading 8-5 over the Pioneers.

The later innings also featured an impressive piece of hitting from Deliyannis, who went 1-for-2 with a double as the designated hitter. After both teams earned two runs each throughout the rest of the match, Collins

closed out the final two innings and picked up the save.

In the Hens’ final game of the season series sweep against the Pioneers, P-P instantly dominated the match on offense from the get-go.

Despite a solo homerun from the Pioneers in the second, rookie infielder Jackson Fleming PO ’24 responded for the Hens by rocking a 2 RBI double that split the right field gap, followed by an RBI single from Lo. In the following inning, the Hens split the game wide open by scoring eight runs on the Pioneer defense. Highlighted from a grand slam by Lo, Millikan and Fleming also joined in on the action by generating a solo shot and hitting a 2 RBI single, respectively.

After this onslaught in the third, the Sagehens never looked back from that point on. The game also featured a six-run fifth inning. A two-run homer from Ng and a 2 RBI triple from James Schmidt PO ’23 extended the Hens’ double digit lead.

Meanwhile on the mound, Brett Super PZ ’22 shut the Pioneers’ offense down through six innings of work, only allowing three earned runs. After a solid two inning performance from Enoch Kim PO ’23, Stephan Kwak PO ’25 closed out the game by striking out the side and ended the match 20-5 in a P-P victory.

After losing their following match to the George Fox Bruins, the Sagehens are still 3-1 overall to begin the season and look forward to their next series against Linfield this weekend.

Despite first day loss, Stags crush extra-base hits en route to opening series win Coming off a 2019 season in which CMS barely failed to make the postseason, finishing fifth in regular season standings, the Stags proved dominant in their opening series win against the George Fox Bruins last week-

end, taking two of three games by large margins of victory.

Designated hitter Brandon Rho CM ’22 proved excellent in the third spot of the batting order, averaging an efficient .500 hitting clip with a double in his first three games of the season.

Moreover, in his first collegiate at bats, utility third baseman Julian Sanders CM ’24 went 3-for-7 over the weekend and earned a double, triple and home run over the series, racking up 4 RBIs. Despite losing the first game over George Fox in a tight 4-3 game, the first matchup of the doubleheader the following afternoon proved to be a different story. Starting pitcher Jarret Korson CM ’23 threw a solid five and two-thirds innings while shutting out the Bruins’ offense, recording six strikeouts in the process.

The CMS offensive end got started with a Marco Castillo CM ’22 sacrifice fly into center field in the third inning, allowing the runner on third base to score. Immediately after CMS loaded the bases, infielder Evan Kelly CM ’22 rocked a clutch 2 RBI double to bring in two more runs, extending the Stags lead to 3-0.

After a wild pitch allowed CMS to score another run, William Deforest CM ’23 crushed a solo homer into straightaway left field. The Stags continued their hot offensive trend in the bottom of the seventh inning, tacking on five more runs to push themselves into a double-digit lead over the Bruins.

Despite George Fox’s futile attempt at a comeback by scoring four runs in the eighth and ninth, the Stags remained hot and featured a 2 RBI double from outfielder Carson Bridges CM ’22 late in the game to secure a 14-4 blowout win.

In the final game of the doubleheader against the Bruins, which was played as a shortened seven inning match, CMS hitters remained on fire in the bat-

ter’s box while their defense shut down those of George Fox. Graduate pitcher Ryan Warm CG ’22 threw an excellent game enroute to earning his first win of the season, only giving up one run in the opening frame and throwing nine strikeouts through five innings of play to win his first game of the season. Lalo Beron CM ’22 and Sanders combined to only give up one earned run against the Bruins in the final two innings, sealing the victory for Warm.

On the offensive end, the Stags continued their hot streak. After Castillo came into score following a costly wild pitch, Sanders crushed a 2 RBI double into right field and was followed up by an RBI triple from shortstop Nick Wilson CM ’23, jumping out to an early 4-1 lead.

After a sacrifice fly RBI from Jack Potter CM ’25 ended the first inning 5-1 in the Stags’ favor, CMS continued to put the pressure on George Fox. Although the Bruins attempted to comeback by scoring two runs in the top of the fifth, the Stags countered instantly.

In a two-out, two-men-on situation for CMS in the bottom of the fifth, second baseman Tyler Shaw CM ’24 flared a clutch RBI single into short right field. Sanders effectively ended any signs of a comeback from the Bruins in the final offensive inning for the Stags, crushing a two-run homer into the left field fence to extend the lead 9-2.

After sending a homer into the left field bleachers on the plate, Sanders returned in the top of the seventh to close out the game on the mound. Despite the George Fox offense earning two runs on the utility third baseman, Sanders got a Bruin hitter on a swinging strikeout and forced a soft pop up to close out the game 9-4.

Ending up with a 2-1 record by the end of this weekend, the Stags will look forward to a three game series against Emory University from Friday, Feb. 18 to Sunday, Feb. 20.

Athletes of the Week Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Pomona-Pitzer

Destiny Garcia

Namlhun Jachung

SC ’24 Whittier, CA Softball

PZ ’24 Los Angeles, CA Women’s Water Polo

Despite CMS softball going 0-3 over their opening weekend of play, shortstop Destiny Garcia SC ’24 had a standout weekend for the Athenas in their series against Vanguard. Garcia led the team with a .583 batting clip over three games, knocking in two extra base hits consisting of a double and a triple.

She also finished the weekend crushing every ball she put into the play of field, ending up with a teamhigh .917 slugging percentage. Looking to bounce back, CMS will next engage in a doubleheader against Pacific Lutheran at home.

In a Sagehen matchup versus Division I La Salle University, attacker Namlhun Jachung PZ ’24 netted a clutch game-winning goal to seal an upset victory against the Explorers. Over the weekend in the Bruno Tournament, Jachung notched an impressive four goals in four matches. Being one of the leading scorers for the Sagehens so far this year, Jachung is a major contributing factor for the No. 1 rated team amongst all DIII squads. Continuing their matches against DI teams, the Sagehens will next play in the Triton Tournament against Michigan.