Vol. CXXXV No. 13

Student Senate passes resolution to suspend Pitzer Haifa program

ANNIKA WHITe • THe STuDeNT LIFe

NITYA GUPTA

On Sunday, Feb. 11, the Pitzer College Student Senate passed a resolution to suspend Pitzer’s study abroad program with the University of Haifa in Israel. The legislation, Resolution 60-R-5, passed by a 34:1 majority vote with no abstentions. It now awaits approval from the Pitzer College Council, and if it passes, President Strom Thacker’s signature.

This resolution comes in the wake of Israel’s escalating assault on Gaza and Rafah following the Oct. 7 Hamas-led ambush on Israel. Since last October, Israel’s siege has caused 28,000 deaths in Gaza and resulted in continuous international calls for Israel to de-escalate their attacks in order to “prevent acts of genocide.”

Resolution 60-R-5 and the Suspend Pitzer Haifa campaign are part of a wider push for Palestinian liberation: the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS was adopted by the National Students for Justice in Palestine in 2005. According to the BDS website, the organization’s mission seeks to cut off international

support for “Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.” Calls for support of BDS were echoed at Sunday’s Senate Meeting, where 25 students, faculty, alumni and community organizers testified in favor of the suspension of the Haifa program at Pitzer, the only 5C to offer it. The speakers made statements on the University of Haifa’s discriminatory practices against Palestinian students and students who expressed support for Palestine, as well as addressing the university’s ties to the Israeli military. The resolution demands that Pitzer suspend the program on the grounds that it supports a university complicit in “Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing.” In a Feb. 12 joint press release from the Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace at the Claremont Colleges (Claremont JVP) — the two groups that introduced the resolution — the organizations

See HAIFA on page 3

Anonymous email calls for removal of ASPC officer regarding pro-Palestine Instagram story; Claremont Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapter announced

ANNABELLE INK & JUNE HSU

As the death toll in Gaza surpasses 28,000 as a result of Israel’s escalating attacks, tensions at the Claremont Colleges have heightened in response. Rafah, a city on the Southern Gaza strip, was once designated a “safe zone.” Now, although an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians have fled to the area, it is in danger of losing that status. On Thursday, Feb. 15, UN aid Chief Martin Griffiths warned that those seeking refuge in Rafah might be “forced into Egypt if Israel launches its

planned military operation against the border city.”

At the 7Cs, community members have been increasingly active in matters surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict.

On Monday, Feb. 12, students on Pomona College’s Class of 2024 Mailing List received an email from an anonymously run Gmail account demanding the immediate removal of the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) Vice President (VP) of Finance from office. The demand was in response to an Oct. 7 Instagram story that she posted after Hamas’ attack on Israel that same day. See ESCALATION on page 2

The email, titled “Why is Jew Hater — — Eligible to Serve on ASPC Senate?,” was addressed to ASPC President Timi Adelakun PO ’24. In it, the authors introduced themselves as a “coalition of Jewish Sagehens” with concerns about the actions of the ASPC VP of Finance.

Specifically, they condemned a TikTok video that the VP reposted on Instagram on Oct. 7. In the video, which was captioned “Free Palestine,” a man was shown carrying out celebratory actions with the text “POV: Me with 0 Palestinian blood rn” typed out over him.

‘At the mercy of the ocean’: Nine 5C Sailing students temporarily stranded in shipwreck off Long Beach coast

When Annie Voss PZ ’26 initially received the email that told her she had secured a spot to 5C Sailing Club’s first outing of the spring semester, she was more than a little hesitant about going. With Southern California in the midst of a winter storm, she said it was much colder and wetter than she would have liked. Still, although the weather was not ideal, Voss ultimately decided to go.

“I figured, what the hell,” she said. “I’m never gonna get to go sailing for free again in my life.”

Unfortunately, as Voss and her fellow attendees quickly learned, the best things in life are not always free.

On Sunday, Feb. 4, nine members of 5C Sailing Club were involved in a shipwreck on a 40-foot sailing boat off the coast of Long Beach, leaving them temporarily stranded. They were rescued soon afterwards with no reported injuries.

Like many of the members in 5C Sailing Club, Voss had no previous experience with sailing; Sunday’s outing was her first. According to Reese Elana Ger SC ’24, the club’s president, 5C Sailing welcomes members like these. She noted the historically exclusive nature of the sport and emphasized how the club tries to change that narrative.

“The goal of this is to give the opportunity of sailing to people who’ve never ever had the chance and to do that all for free,” Ger, who was not present at the wreck, said. “Every single trip we run is completely free, because sailing has so many barriers.”

The Feb. 4 outing was no different. At around 10 a.m., nine students from 5C Sailing arrived at the Long Beach Yacht Club, where they had been told by a student event organizer to meet. According to many of the students in attendance, little else was known about the outing

ahead of time.

“Even before the wreck happened, I was already thinking, ‘This is the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done,’” Voss said. “We show[ed] up at the Long Beach Yacht Club … Then, they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna be racing.’ I didn’t know we were gonna be racing.”

Michael Houk CM ’26, another student present at the wreck, expressed a similar feeling of surprise upon arrival.

“Not a lot of information was sent out,” he said. “No one knew it was a race … The only information we got was, ‘come here at this time and we’re not getting you lunch.’”

As Ger later clarified, Sunday’s outing was on a boat that was registered for one race in a series of races known as the 2024 Two

5C Sailing had been invited onto one of the competing boats, specifically one owned by the previous CEO of LaserFiche, a private technology company based in Long Beach that is now run by Harvey Mudd College alumnus Karl Chan HM ’89.

According to Ger, the club has a long history with this particular boat and its crew, which consists largely of LaserFiche employees. She estimated that 5C Sailing has been on over ten trips with them in the past, all of them free for the club.

In addition to the nine 5C Sailing members present at Sunday’s outing were ten other individuals, including the boat’s crew. Ger emphasized that, while only a third of

the 5C students in attendance had been sailing before, there were plenty of experienced people on the boat to safely operate it. “I think you can sail this boat with like, three people,” she said. “They had 19, which is a totally safe number to have on this boat — it’s just that 16 of them don’t really have to do very much. So our students were just there to enjoy the race.”

According to the students present at the wreck, the boat was entirely operated by the original crew during the race. Ger described the members of the crew as highly experienced sailors who she trusted in taking the students out on the water.

“Especially Bob, the captain of the boat,” she said. “He has over forty years of experience — he

practically lives on that boat. It’s his full-time job to maintain it.”

Brian McKeever, another member of the crew who has years of experience, explained that he’s been sailing on this particular boat for the past seven or eight years, ever since it was first purchased back in 2016.

With such a highly experienced crew on deck, the students were not expected to operate the boat during the race. However, as some of them later explained, they were asked to run back and forth across the boat several times in a maneuver that McKeever referred to as “tacking.”

“We were not really sailing at all,” Houk said. “We were just like counterweights.”

Zoe Feuer CM ’26, one of the three students present who had previous sailing experience, described the difficulty of the situation.

“There were a couple of times when we had to switch sides of the boat where I actually could have fallen off,” she said. “People had to grab my legs because I’m like, so physically inept.”

Voss explained that this was when she first started to get scared.

“I personally felt very uncomfortable doing it, having not had any training or experience or life jacket,” she said. “I was like, ‘this is unsafe.’”

As the race progressed, students described the weather conditions as quickly worsening. While these conditions were, to some degree, expected — around half of the boats initially enrolled in the race had dropped out, some students speculated because of the weather — students explained that they hadn’t expected to be caught in the rain, which was supposed to start after the race’s end.

To their surprise, they found themselves in the midst of record rainfall less than halfway through the race. Still, some of the more experienced sailors on board later

See SHIPWRECK on page 3

ANNABELLE INK

WeNDY ZHANG • THe STuDeNT LIFe

An anonymous email, a Faculty for Justice in Palestine chapter and a referendum remind the 5Cs of ongoing tensions regarding the ongoing violence in Gaza resulting from Israel’s continuous attacks. Nine

Gates Pursuit Series and hosted by the Long Beach Yacht Club.

Exploring gender justice, economic security and childcare through the WIGS program

COURTNEY CHEN

On Feb. 9, Pomona College’s Women in Global Security (WIGS) Fellowship speaker series invited Melissa Boteach — vice president for Income Security and Child Care/Early Learning at the National Women’s Law Center — to speak to 5C students and faculty. Centered on gender justice and the care economy, Boteach’s talk offered insights into economic security and her experiences advocating for improving income security and childcare.

During her talk, Boteach spoke about what economic security entails and the historical and social contexts for the systemic inequality issues related to the childcare industry. Specifically, she highlighted how these issues act as obstacles for women — especially women of color — who work in professional industries.

While emphasizing the disparities related to income security and childcare, Boteach highlighted how she works to confront these issues. Hanah Park PO ’25, one of this year’s WIGS fellows, expressed her appreciation for this portion of the talk.

“I particularly valued her insights into addressing the disparities in childcare quality between rural and urban areas, as well as her professional journey through the public policy and nonprofit sectors,” Park said in an email to TSL.

Boteach’s extensive experience in advocacy also allowed her to share advice for students interested in pursuing careers in policy.

“My main takeaways were that change is in no way immediate nor visible a lot of the time,” Madyson Chung-Lee SC ’27 said in a correspondence with TSL. “Justice and equity take time, stubbornness and a lot of persistence. Her talk opened my eyes and ways of thinking about women in the global and domestic economy, especially marginalized women and how they are expected to bear the weight of raising the future generation without proper compensation.”

The talk was organized as part of the WIGS program, which is currently run by Tom Le, associate professor of politics at Pomona. The program offers research and networking opportunities to two fellows each year.

“I wanted to create a program to support young scholars and would-be practitioners early in

their careers by helping them get published and connecting them with professionals who have learned to navigate life’s obstacles that are unique to women,” Le said in an email to TSL. “The Women in Global Security (WIGS) program is designed with this in mind and hopes to cultivate a new culture in security.” The fellowship serves as a key part of the WIGS program. Park and Ceci Wade PO ’25 — this year’s fellows — shared with TSL their thoughts on Boteach’s talk.

“The talk on Friday perfectly addressed my curiosities about what economic security entails, who needs it most and what working towards it looks like as a profession,” Wade said in an email to TSL. “Many people interpret [global security] as security through military force or diplomacy and while those aspects are certainly important, I wanted to look at worldwide economic security, mainly because it gives individuals the most choice in their daily lives.”

As part of the fellowship, Wade and Park work with Le to sharpen their writing and explore research topics in global security.

“I’ve learned quite a lot about writing for the public eye and I think my critical thinking skills have also been sharpened from doing this style of writing,” Wade said. “It helped me realize that none of us are very separated from those who write articles for the news and that we all have the power to speak up through writing and broadcast it to readers.”

Similarly, Park noted that the fellowship provided her with the opportunity to write op-eds and receive feedback from Le. She emphasized the program’s devotion to navigating barriers and connecting students to networks that promote representation and inclusivity.

“I’ve also spoken with female security professionals, who have engaged in candid discussions about their work and experiences navigating the industry,” Park said. “The opportunity to build

networks between students interested in global security and professionals passionate about promoting representation and inclusivity within the field is one of the qualities that I find the most meaningful about this program.”

Under the guidance of Le, Wade and Park believe that the fellowship has offered them better access to the fields of politics and international relations.

“As for opportunities, most of them have come up in the form of what Professor Le finds and sends to us, which is pretty important since he has decades of experience in the field and therefore a pretty good sense of which ones are legitimate and which ones would provide the most professional development for us,” Wade said. “The guest talks are influential in themselves and you hear a lot from perspectives not normally included in politics.” Boteach’s work at the National Women’s Law Center aligned

with the program’s mission. Her expertise brought insight into the policies that serve as barriers to women working in professional roles.

“We’re in a leadership program together and she’s one of the most impressive and passionate people I know,” Le said. “Her work at the National Women’s Law Center is exactly on the systemic inequality issues that are primary obstacles women face in the professional world.”

Wade said she believed that Boteach’s talk effectively addressed her interests in economic security and what a career would look like within the field.

“Women, especially women of color, are extremely underrepresented in the political world and yet many of the professions they work in (usually originating from sexist and racist norms) are historically undervalued,” Wade said. “However, a solution is possible, if only the people in power will listen. And until then, the fight has to continue.”

ESCALATION: Tensions heighten in response to continous violence

Continued from page 1

A screenshot of the Instagram story was provided in the email, along with a link to the original video.

The Feb. 12 email implied that, by reposting this video, the ASPC VP of Finance appeared to be celebrating Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. They further suggested that this violated the Code of Ethics in Article I of the ASPC bylaws.

“In violation of the Code of Ethics, Ms. — has demonstrated callous disregard towards human life and fails to regard the welfare of others, in particular students who are Jewish and/or Israeli (Jewish or otherwise) at Pomona College,” they wrote. They then argued that, had the video been in response to a different event, action would have been taken to remove the ASPC officer in question.

“If an ASPC Senator had celebrated (1) the death of George Floyd, (2) the murder of gay men at Pulse nightclub after that shooting, or (3) the Boko Haram attacks in Nigeria in 2023, it is beyond obvious that ASPC would take action and demand the resignation of that Senator,” the email read.

The email’s authors suggested that it was only fair for ASPC to respond to the ASPC VP of Finance’s actions in a similar way.

“It is now incumbent upon ASPC to apply the same standard with respect to hatred toward Jews and Israelis,” they wrote. “In accordance with ASPC’s bylaws and for her violations thereof, Ms. — should be held accountable to her peers and removed as an ASPC Senator immediately.”

The email was signed by “Jews and Israelis of Pomona College.”

Later that day, Dean of Campus Life Josh Eisenberg emailed the Class of 2024 apologizing to them and to the ASPC VP of Finance. According to Eisenberg, an unexplained error resulted in the approval and sending of the anonymous email. He stated that this type of content was not usually permitted to be sent out on the mailing list.

“The content is unacceptable on our listserv,” he wrote, referring to the software that enables the college to send out mass emails. “Anonymously sending this type of material over the

listserv does not reflect the expectations we have of our community as set out in the Student Code.”

Pomona President Gabrielle Starr expressed a similar disapproval in an email sent to the Pomona community the following day.

“The language in the subject line constituted a personal attack, and

“The language in the subject line constituted a personal attack, and the use of the personal listserv in this manner was unacceptable under our Student Code.”

President Gabi Starr

the use of the personal listserv in this manner was unacceptable under our Student Code,” she wrote. She then stated that the error with the listserv had been addressed and called on community members to remain respectful of each other.

“At this time of global conflict and mourning, we need to hold our values and commitments to one another as a community of learning,” she said. “I ask that every member of our community treat each other with care and respect in the days ahead.”

In a correspondence with TSL, Pomona Divest Apartheid — a student-run organization advocating for Pomona’s divestment from Israeli apartheid — condemned both the Feb. 12 email and Starr’s response.

“Pomona Divest from Apartheid condemns the listserv approval of the email that was sent to seniors on Monday which effectively doxxed a Black Latina Pomona student simply for being pro-Palestine,” they wrote. “The email is another example of Pomona’s administration holding a double standard to any pro-Palestinian speech.”

The organization also suggested that Pomona’s administration has been selective with which situations it deems worthy of “repression.”

“It should be noted that [Starr’s] response to the doxxing email and last semester’s arrest of a Brown professor were both virtually ignored/ slowly responded to by Pomona while student protests against an ongoing genocide were immediately met with harsh repression,” they wrote.

In referring to the “Brown professor,” the organization points to last semester’s Nov. 29 arrest of a Pomona faculty member who was demonstrating in solidarity with Palestinians on campus. Starr did not directly comment on the arrest, although she did send out an email about the threats of “antisemitism, Islamophobia and shared ancestry discrimination” several days after the incident.

Pomona Divest from Apartheid stands alongside many other campus organizations and coalitions urging for support of Palestinian liberation.

On Feb. 10, two days before Monday’s email, over 40 faculty members at the Claremont Colleges released a statement announcing their establishment of a Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) chapter. According to the statement, the formation of the chapter — which joins chapters at over 90 other institutions — followed the publication of a Claremont Consortium Faculty Statement on Gaza last October. The Oct. 31 statement was signed by 186 7C faculty members and endorsed by four departments.

Along with providing a detailed account of the events following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and highlighting the history of violence towards and oppression of Palestinian people in the region, the Feb. 10 FJP statement urged community members to educate themselves and support Palestinian movements for freedom.

“We urge all those concerned at the Claremont Colleges and beyond to further the emancipation of Palestinians from apartheid and colonial domination to redouble efforts to promote [the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement] on campus and in professional associations and civil society organizations everywhere,” the statement read.

In line with this, FJP chapters

across the country work to support pro-Palestinian organizing on college campuses, according to the Faculty for Justice in Palestine Network website.

“FJP is a national network of organized academic chapters, composed primarily of faculty and staff, that emerged during the genocidal war on Gaza’s population and its built environment,” the website states. “FJP supports campus groups of faculty and staff who are organizing for Palestinian liberation.”

In the Feb. 10 statement, Claremont FJP expressed its mission, stance and goals in regards to Palestinian liberation through the listing of its “Principles of Unity.”

“FJP calls for an end to Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestine,” one of the principles states. “We insist on the fundamental rights of Palestinians to self-determination and legal equality and we pledge to respect, protect and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to

“I think that Israel is now challenging its former supporters, including me. And I begin to wonder whether I can continue to say that I support Israel’s right to exist.

Professor James Morrison return to their homes and lands.”

They also clarified that their support for pro-Palestinian organizing is not tied to antisemitism or other forms of discrimination.

“FJP rejects the conflation of support for Palestinian liberation and criticism of Israel with antisemitism,” the statement reads. “We stand against racism and oppression in all its manifestations.”

James Morrison, a professor of literature and film at Claremont McKenna College and supporter of FJP, expressed his struggles with

understanding his own stance on the topic. He spoke about his previous reservations aboutof denouncing Israel’s actions, stating that hebut has since changed his mind.

“I think that Israel is now challenging its former supporters, including me,” Morrison said. “And I begin to wonder whether I can continue to say that I support Israel’s right to exist. I think it’s going to be harder for people like me to justify a both sides-ism now that the Israeli state has proven itself so willing to move in violently, without even any particular regard for casualties among civilians.”

The newly established Claremont FJP chapter has begun its support of Palestinian movements on campus. In its Feb. 10 statement, the group announced itself as a community co-sponsor of the #SuspendHaifa motion currently being voted on at Pitzer College. The motion, which was passed at the Student Senate level on Sunday, seeks to end the college’s study abroad program with the University of Haifa in Israel.

According to their statement, FJP also supports the BDS movement, insisting on college divestment from Israeli institutions. Their support of this movement is something that appears to be shared among many community members at the Claremont Colleges.

On Monday, Feb. 19, voting will open via email for a referendum at Pomona centered around disclosure, divestment and academic boycott.

The referendum, which was initially introduced by Divest Claremont College, follows the passing of over 100 BDS motions on college campuses across the globe and has been endorsed by 34 on-campus groups.

As stated in a Referendum Information Sheet provided to the ASPC Senate, the goal of the referendum is to give students a voice in Pomona’s relationship with the state of Israel.

“This referendum will provide a safe outlet for a formal student body vote on our campuses’ relationships (financial & academic) with the apartheid system in the state of Israel,” the sheet reads. “This is an accessible way to publicize & historicize student opinion on the College’s ties to apartheid.”

Voting will close on Feb. 21. Courtney Chen contributed reporting.

The Women in Global Security (WIGS) Fellowship speaker series invited Melissa boteach to speak about gender justice and income security at Pomona Feb. 9.

SARAH ZIFF • THe STuDeNT LIFe

HAIFA: Pitzer Student Senate votes to suspend Haifa program

Continued from page 1

further explained their reasoning. “In addition to consistently marginalizing and abusing Palestinian students since its founding, Haifa is also aiding the current genocide on Gaza by giving academic credit and scholarships to Israeli soldiers, fundraising for more equipment for the Israeli military, and severely surpressing and surveilling Palestinian organizations on campus,” the joint press release stated.

Robinson Lee PZ ’26, the political organizing chair of Pitzer’s Pasifika Asian Student Union (PASU) — a community sponsor of the resolution — explained how he believes the University of Haifa is complacent in the oppression of Palestinian people, noting their tactics they use to disguise their discrimination.

“We see at the University of Haifa how Palestinian students are praised as an example so that the university can say that they’re not racist,” Lee said. “They have Palestinian students, they have students of color, but at the same time, they don’t enfranchise those Palestinian students with the same rights that the Israeli students have in terms of protests, in terms of freedom of speech, in terms of educational opportunities [and] in terms of research.”

Resolution 60-R-5 seeks to address these issues in some capacity by altering how Pitzer establishes institutional relationships with Israeli universities. The resolution emphasized that the suspension would apply only to Israeli universities and that it would not affect any individual scholars or students. It also made clear that it would not impact the admission of Israeli students to Pitzer.

The suspension of Pitzer’s study abroad program with the University of Haifa has been in the works for several years now, with Resolution 60-R-5’s passing coming five years after the Pitzer College Council, a group consisting of students, faculty and staff, voted 67 to 28 in favor of conditionally suspending the pro-

gram. Less than three hours after this vote, former Pitzer President Melvin Oliver vetoed it, arguing that suspending the program was too political a move.

“The recommendation would effectively cause the College — not some of its constituent members, but the College itself — to take an unavoidably political position on one of the most controversial issues of our time,” Oliver wrote in a statement on March 14, 2019.

In the years since, various students and faculty members at the Claremont Colleges have spoken out and worked against Oliver’s stance of neutrality and have continued to support suspension of the program. Zurayna Fatima PZ ’27, a member of Pitzer’s Student Senate, is one of many students who recently pushed for the resolution’s passing.

“My main reason to support this resolution is because I’m a big believer that civilians have a right to live and that Palestinians have a right to live,” Fatima said. “It’s our responsibility to support their human rights and this [resolution] is only a step in the right direction.”

Sophie McClain PZ ’24, another community sponsor, also pushed for the passing of the resolution. A community sponsor looks over and helps to edit different versions of the resolution with the authors, but does not partake in writing the resolution. McClain described the potential dangers in speaking out as a student, specifically citing a fear of being doxxed.

“Being a community sponsor is a way for me to stand up for what I believe in and put my name and full support on this resolution,” McClain said in an email to TSL. “There is power in being able to put students’ names on resolutions like this one. It can be scary to stand up for what is right and so many students across the 5Cs and the country are getting doxxed for their support of Palestine. At the same time, it is incredibly important to visibly show our

SHIPWRECK: 5C sailing students temporarily stranded

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seemed to agree that the weather was not unusual for typical sailing conditions, nor was it especially dangerous.

“It was fairly normal,” Feuer said. “I found it to be quite unpleasant, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t an unsafe situation.”

Moreover, Ger suggested that the boat and its crew had been fully equipped to sail safely, even in unusually stormy weather.

“They’ve taken that boat to Hawai’i twice now on a race called the Trans Pac, which is a race all the way across the ocean in really crazy conditions,” she said, explaining that the boat had encountered twice as much wind then as it did on Sunday. “It was pretty much the same crew from the company that was going out [on Sunday], so if they felt comfortable, I was totally fine with that.”

Despite the qualifications of the boat and its crew, disaster struck about an hour into the race.

“At this point, we’re just sopping wet — like, completely drenched — and it is starting to pour down rain,” Voss said. “I’m like, ‘gee, I really hope that we’re done soon,’ when I just hear this huge crack.”

Students later explained that the ship’s mast had broken, leaving the crew with no control over the boat.

“The mast had completely snapped in half,” Voss said. “If that mast had fallen on someone, they probably would have died. If it had fallen in the other direction, it could have flipped our boat over. We got very lucky that it did not do either of those things.”

Lorance Wong CM ’26, another student in the wreck who had previous sailing experience, expressed his fear when he realized that the mast had broken.

“It was pretty terrifying,” he said. “I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t really know what was going on. You never expect the mast to snap.”

Still, despite the initial shock brought on by the breaking of the mast, McKeever suggested that everyone on board kept their cool.

“Everybody stayed calm,” he said. “I was really impressed by how everybody kept it together and helped each other out.”

The Long Beach Fire Department (LBFD), who Voss later estimated was approximately ten minutes away from the wreck site, was im-

college and our community where we stand.” After the Student Senate passed the resolution, the room erupted in cheers over the decision. Carter Soe PZ ’26, the social media chair of PASU, was present at the meeting and described the reactions as overwhelmingly positive and inspiring.

“It also made me realize how much I love Pitzer as a school, be-

“The suspension of Pitzer’s program with the university of Haifa will set a groundbreaking precedent as the first suspension of a united States university academic program with an Israeli university in accordance with the Palestinian call for academic boycott.”

Ezra Levinson PZ ’27

cause people here genuinely do care about social justice and change,” Soe said. “They’re not really doing it for publicity, but mainly because they want to see reform not just in the world, but in this institution.”

The Feb. 12 press release by Claremont SJP and Claremont JVP referred to Sunday’s outcome as a “BDS victory.”

“Today marks one step closer to a historic BDS victory, one that will set a monumental precedent for ending American universities’ complicity and investment in Israel,” the press release read. “The fight has only just begun; we will continue building momentum until the official suspension of Pitzer Haifa is passed

through the College Council.”

Ezra Levinson PZ ’27, an organizer with Claremont JVP, expanded on this idea of precedent, suggesting that this resolution has the potential to create change at other universities across the country.

“The suspension of Pitzer’s program with the University of Haifa will also set a groundbreaking precedent as the first suspension of a United States university academic program with an Israeli university in accordance with the Palestinian call for academic boycott,” Levinson said in an email to TSL. “It will be the first of many. We have a powerful opportunity to lead by example, living up to our core values and acting as an example for our peer institutions across and beyond the United States.”

In referring to Pitzer’s “core values,” Levinson highlighted another major component of Resolution 60-R-5, one that calls attention to Pitzer’s commitment to an education that centers around social justice and responsibility. According to Levinson, this commitment was one of the reasons that he was initially drawn to the college.

“I came to Pitzer to join a community of engaged, critical, socially responsible scholars,” Levinson said. “I have been consistently inspired by the student body’s level of awareness and engagement with global and local issues, including Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians and its current genocide in Gaza.”

In response to the passing of Resolution 60-R-5, Pitzer released a Feb. 12 statement reaffirming Thacker’s support of academic freedom and his commitment to establishing a safe environment on campus.

“President Thacker is committed to the educational mission of the College, to academic freedom, and to maintaining a safe and productive campus learning environment for all,” the statement read. “The president will not accept — if and when that time comes — any College resolution antithetical to these

principles.” It also noted the distinction between the views of the college and its Student Senate.

“It should be noted that the Student Senate does not speak for the College, nor does it represent the views of all Pitzer students,” the statement read.

Levinson appeared to disagree with the statement.

“This resolution passed the Student Senate because it is aligned with the mission of Pitzer College and the desires of the student body,” he said.

“It is a meaningful way for Pitzer to push for academic freedom for Palestinians and all who criticize the State of Israel and it is an example of the ongoing, powerful learning and action that has been happening on campus.”

McClain echoed a similar sentiment in commenting on the Feb. 12 statement.

“President Thacker implied that he will not accept our resolution when it gets to his desk after the College Council vote and implied that our resolution is antithetical to academic freedom,” she said. “However, we understand this resolution as critical to academic freedom and see it in line with Pitzer’s core values.”

She then called on the college to take action.

“We invite President Thacker and all Pitzer administrators to listen to the calls of students, faculty and alumni and stand in solidarity with us,” she said. Lee expressed a similar call for action. He suggested that, while the administration has taken steps to listen to the student body, there is more that can be done.

“It’s important to acknowledge that the Pitzer administration has taken a lot of different steps in order to try to build bridges with different groups,” Lee said. “But what we want to see is that the administration isn’t just engaging in dialogue with us, but engaging in dialogue meaningfully to the point where we believe that they can make certain changes on this campus.”

mediately notified of the incident. In the meantime, as McKeever attempted to drop the anchor and stabilize the boat, people ran to put on life jackets and grab their belongings from the hull.

As this was happening, what Voss described as a “tiny little dinghy,” a small rescue boat, came to help some of the boat’s passengers get out. The dinghy, operated by two men, had been present as a safety measure throughout the duration of the race. However, it was not able to hold everyone.

Houk was one of the few people on board who was able to get into the dinghy. He explained that, after he got in, it had to circle around the larger ship before anyone else could try to get in.

“I remember looking at Lo [Wong] because I thought he was left behind,” he said, recounting his fear at the prospect of losing Wong, his teammate on the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps football team. “That was pretty terrifying.”

Ultimately, the dinghy returned and several more people were able to get on, including Wong. Still, the majority of the people on board that day were not.

With no mast to control the boat and the anchor refusing to take, the crew could not prevent the boat from drifting towards a nearby rocky seawall, where it would inevitably crash.

Students explained that, as this became increasingly clear, people began jumping into the water and climbing onto the seawall. At some point, McKeever recalled the boat moving out from under him as it crashed into the rocks, knocking him over and leaving him hanging by his knees from the lifelines. A second crash into the rocks sent him tumbling backwards into the open water.

To Feuer, watching McKeever fall was the scariest part of the wreck. Corrections In

Former CEO of Patagonia, Michale Crooke, delivers keynote speech at CMC Green Careers Conference

On Feb. 9, Michael Crooke, former CEO of Patagonia, gave the keynote speech at Claremont McKenna College’s (CMC) 10th annual Green Careers Conference. The conference, which was sponsored by the Roberts Environmental Center, featured panels on postgraduate education, civic and community engagement, environmental protection, environmental policy and government.

Crooke’s talk at CMC’s Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum differed from the rest of the Green Careers Conference’s events, which consisted mainly of panels. His speech centered around his perspective on sustainable business and experience at Patagonia, concluding with a Q&A segment, while the panels had more fluid back and forth conversations between multiple speakers.

Hannah Vestring CM ’25 said she found Crooke’s talk to be a refreshing change of pace in the conference. She noted the importance of discussion in panels, but highlighted the benefits of having a solo speaker as well.

“In terms of that structure [panels], it’s really valuable to hear both sides and have that collaborative environment,” Vestring said. “But also to come here and sit down and focus and listen. I think it ties together really well.”

Crooke structured his talk around three behaviors that he claimed to be key to successful leadership and business.

“You must be a disruptor with a growth mindset,” he said. “You must be a strategist. You must develop exceptional emotional intelligence.”

Elaborating on the importance of emotional intelligence, Crooke emphasized its necessity in fostering strong team dynamics, another skill he underscored the importance of.

”Use the lenses of your values to create authenticity for the people around you,” he said. They will believe in you. It will be a culture of trust. Rarely anything exceptional happens without a good team.”

Vestring praised Crooke for his unique approach towards emotional intelligence and team-building in corporate leadership.

“That to me is something I haven’t really heard from speakers like this,” Vestring said. “Having really put a lot of

weight on the culture behind the company and really weaving in the purpose of essentially saving the planet between each team member. That really inspired me and that is something that I think is not really highlighted often in this industry.”

On the idea of developing sensitivity in order to strengthen teams, Crooke highlighted the importance of a collective aim in an organization’s decision-making process.

“Shared purpose is what galvanizes people together,” Crooke said. “It gives meaning to their work.”

Crooke explained how, when he joined Patagonia in 2000, the company was facing the threat of being sold. He noted that the lack of individuals who could manage both environmental and corporate values and finances caused the company to struggle.

“There just wasn’t a value for finance or innovating the product,” Crooke said. “I brought in people who were interested in these two parts.” Talia de Beer CM ’25 said she found his willingness to prioritize sustainability admirable.

“He said it himself, there is no company out there that exists that is 100 percent sustainable,” de Beer said. “I think that once we can accept that, it’s how to move forward in a way that is more sustainable. They said maybe this isn’t the best product at this moment but let’s keep researching, let’s keep looking for new ways and that’s just how we can do better and do our part.” Crooke then talked about the importance of being a strategist and his personal experience with the

intersection between business and environmentalism, describing the rise of environmentalism as a megatrend.

“Megatrends are by definition not a trend,” he said. “[They are] things that last, they are global, they are the macro.”

Despite the growing global popularity of sustainability, Crooke explained how Patagonia faced issues with the additional cost associated with selling environmentally friendly products. This is when Crooke’s emphasis on strategy came into play.

“Storytelling is everything,” Crooke said. “As soon as we started telling the story better, the customers’ willingness to pay was better. We can’t let one side tell the stories better than the authentic stories of the environment.”

On his last point of being a “disruptor,” Crooke emphasized the importance of thinking outside of industry norms.

“You have to outhink people, that’s how you get an advantage,” Crooke said. “The brilliance of Patagonia was not the fuzzy fleece jackets or the products. It was [that] … each one of us [had] the feeling of saving the planet.”

Crooke concluded with his thoughts on the prioritization of sustainability in the values of people today and the importance of being honest to customers and employees in creating a successful business.

“[Sustainability] is embedded in people’s value chains,” Crooke said. “As soon as you get off the track of being authentic, it’s game over.”

AMEYA TELI

Arts & Culture

Fresh fruit and friendly faces

MICHELLE ZHANG

If you’ve ever ventured down Bonita Avenue and into The Village on a Sunday, then you’ve surely found yourself swallowed by a bustling crowd of colorful clothing, flowers and fragrances.

The Claremont Forum Farmers & Artisans Market is a place for the local community to gather every Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Founded in 1996 in a small parking lot, the market has grown considerably in scale to the Harvard Avenue spectacle you find today.

One of my favorite Claremont weekend activities is drifting through the market without any particular goal in mind besides taking in the sights, sounds and scents of the block. Oftentimes, these excursions bring me to the produce vendors.

The organic produce sold at the market is on the pricier side, but it’s clear that every vendor and farmer here cares deeply about what they’re selling.

When my friends and I took a trip to peruse the market on our very first week at college, we shared a basket filled to the brim with fresh berries. Each juicy bite felt like a burst of summer, an encapsulation of the hot desert sun beating down upon our skin mixed with the giddy joy of new experiences.

Not only are there produce booths selling a variety of niche goods, such as microgreens (it doesn’t get more SoCal than that!), goat cheese, kefir yogurt and Mediterranean breads, but the market also features craft vendors.

I spoke with three local artists who sell their work at the market and asked them about their artistic inspirations.

Arlene A. Moreno is a native Californian painter with Yaqui heritage. She’s been practicing art all her life, but has been able to paint much more of what she wants since retiring seven years ago.

Moreno comes to the farmers market once a month to sell her prints. She’s also been a member of the Pomona Valley Art Association, a volunteer-supported organization in the Village, for about 18 years.

“I like organic things,” Moreno said of her inspiration. “Flowers, birds, landscapes.”

Moreno’s earthy watercolors cover a variety of animals and landscapes, but when asked about her favorite pieces, she pointed to a horse shaded in blue.

“I always think of what Picasso said: When I don’t have red, I use blue,” Moreno said. “What it means is you can use any color to paint a painting, you don’t have to be stuck with what you’re actually looking at. You can imagine whatever you want with whatever colors you have.”

Rebecca Rowe, founder of independent jewelry design studio Elk

Neck, moved to Southern California from the east coast 10 years ago. She found the opportunity to sell jewelry at the Claremont Forum Farmers and Artisans Market by googling vendor opportunities in the Inland Empire. A multidimensional artist, Rowe explained that she created her business because she’d spent too much money on earrings; she decided to make herself some earrings, which eventually expanded into a jewelry business.

“I like when my jewelry makes me want to eat it,” Rowe said. “When I start working with the metal — I make everything by hand — I can feel what the metal wants to do and what it doesn’t want to do. I listen to it and I make it. I don’t force my shape to happen. I have an idea and I listen to the metal and it becomes what it becomes.” Clothing designer Vecani Ramirez has been living in the Inland Empire for 35 years.

“This is my market,” she said when asked about her decade of experience as a vendor.

Vecani creates her clothing using the process of ice dyes. She covers the cloth with ice, sprinkles the color dyes in between and waits for the ice to melt. The resulting flowy dress is an ombre of brightness.

Since they’re handmade, each piece is one of a kind and Vecani makes new pieces every week to bring to the market.

“It’s good to know why we’re here and why we support our community,” Vecani said. “This is the best market in the whole area and Los Angeles because the people are wonderful. We have a lot of visitors from the colleges. Parents come and visit the kids and they visit us and shop from us.”

These three vendors, along with fresh produce and greens, are just a tiny look into all the market offers.

Beyond the price tags, I enjoy the mundanity of seeing families, retired couples and non-college students. The “Claremont bubble” can be suffocating — engaging with locals by buying fruit or talking with residents helps strengthen your relationship with the community. Everyone should spend at least one Sunday morning here, whether it be a quick trip in between loads of laundry or a leisurely stroll while waiting for Frank Dining Hall brunch.

Who knows? You might just leave with a newfound fondness for microgreens.

Michelle Zhang PO ’27 is from the Bay Area. She’s a proud lefty and considers people-watching a hobby.

A love letter to Xenia, Ohio

So there’s this movie called “Gummo” and a lot of people don’t think very highly of it.

Upon release, the Chicago Tribune called the film “an unwatchable, pretentious freak show.” The New York Times canonized it as “the worst film of the year.”

A lot of people like it too, for the record — I’m one of those people — but the movie has been critically contentious (if we’re being generous) since 1997 and figuring out why isn’t much of a challenge.

Harmony Korine’s directorial debut “Gummo’’ is 89 minutes of mostly plotless vignettes and greasy windows into the lives of the bored residents of a tornado-ravaged Xenia, Ohio — a boondock wasteland whose bored citizens pass the time by wrestling chairs, sniffing glue and hunting stray cats.

The world of Xenia is one of violence, drugs, racism, homophobia, disability, mental illness, suicide, satanism, sexual violence, domestic abuse and animal cruelty. This is a film where a man sells sex from a disabled relative and children shoot BBs at an old woman’s toes. It is difficult to watch and difficult to talk about.

A sludgy metal soundtrack and a predilection for erratic, lo-fi camerawork places “Gummo” in a category mostly to itself, somewhere between a drama, a documentary and a teenager’s home video skate reel.

Its brazen disregard for doctrinal metrics of good filmmaking has generated a cult following for “Gummo” — intensely resonant to a small but sizable few and utterly repellant to basically everyone else.

Excluding some reverent testimonials, I’ve mostly heard “Gummo” referred to as gutter trash, the pointless ravings of a proto-edgelord with a fixation on the morbid and a disdain for basic decency.

I’m adding my reverent testimonial to the pile. “Gummo” is incredible.

It begins with a montage of tornado wreckage: razed houses, dead dogs, confederate truck decals. The cryptic title scrawled in blackletter provides no explanation. There isn’t one. There is

just a wound, cut by bad luck and systemic apathy and left to fester out of sight. This place will probably die off some day, but in the meantime, there is glue to be huffed. It’s a loose web of small half-stories stuck together with electrical tape and home footage — a stylized but deeply anthropological examination of people whose lives exist outside the purview of fulfilling Hollywood narratives.

I grew up in a forgotten, hollowed-out part of this country too. I grew up with kids who killed small animals for fun and hurled slurs with uncomfortable ease. Outside of some stylistic flourishes, nothing in “Gummo” is especially far-fetched. I will testify to that.

Perhaps that’s why the reviews cited prior strike me as far more cruel and condescending than the film itself. They drip with pointed disdain towards the cluttered houses and “freakish individuals” that populate the film. Their words, not mine. The same Chicago Tribune writer who dubbed “Gummo” a freak show also described Xenia as being like “if the banjo-picking boy from ‘Deliverance’ somehow spawned an entire town.” The word of note here is “somehow.” It implies that a town like this can only exist as a hypothetical, an ugly fabrication from the troubled mind of a scandalous 23-year-old.

To say that “Gummo” is a pointless exercise in disturbance and sensationalism reads as a glaring admission of privilege. The subject matter is only unimaginable if one can’t imagine it as a reality. I’d hate to be the one to break the news.

Reductive, mean-spirited criticisms like these shine more light on their authors’ ignorance than they do the film and they fail to actually engage with potential critiques that hold real water.

“Gummo” is, to some extent, an exploitation film. There is an argument to be made that it is exploitative, or at least irresponsible. While I don’t agree, I think the concern is certainly well founded: The film employs real people with physical and mental disabilities. It is shot in people’s real dilapidated homes.

There’s an element of voyeurism to it that most filmmakers wouldn’t

dare get near, but there is also a level of sincerity that most filmmakers would kill for.

Because ultimately, Korine’s audacious little film excavates some hard truths buried deep in the podunk tomb of rural America. There are people that this country has completely and utterly failed and there is sincere value to be found in depicting that authentically, warts and all.

In the careful details, it is evident to me that Korine comes from the people he is depicting and wields a deep empathy for them. There is a commitment to capturing the truth, but there is also a commitment to capturing humanity, void of condescension. Just as there is ugliness in Xenia, there is also beauty — sisters with sparkly painted toes, glue-sniffers with pretty handwriting, young boys skateboarding triumphantly with their arms outstretched and lifting homemade weights to Madonna.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t wrong ways to depict hard topics — there unequivocally are and they can be extremely damaging. Sensitive topics demand responsible handling and the murky boundaries of acceptability are easy to push.

But there is also value in media that pushes those boundaries. If works of art are clues about culture, then there is much to be learned from looking to the gutter, provided we investigate with care. Not all challenging films are as sensitive (or as good) as “Gummo,” but that doesn’t mean they are entirely unworthy of responsible curiosity.

It is important that we venture with care. I recognize that being able to find “Gummo” more resonant than traumatic is a privilege that not everyone can claim. Confronting challenging media can be vulnerable and while it’s certainly valuable, it is not an inherent obligation.

Most importantly, we must come prepared with compassion. Most films about hard topics attempt to correct for viewers’ empathetic deficits, but as is evident from some earlier mentioned reviews, sometimes films demand we come to the table with empathy of our own.

Gerrit Punt PO ’24 is from the southeastern corner of Montana. He’s never sniffed glue or killed any cats, for the record.

‘4 Bisexuals’ slays the stage with queer Dracula retelling

And he’s trans — Transylvanian, that is.

5C student theater club The Green Room staged “4 Bisexuals and 2 Guys Named John Kill Dracula” by Zoë Rose Jennings on Feb. 10 and 11 at Benson Auditorium. The queer comedic retelling of Dracula was co-directed by Ash Ahrenhoerster PO ’25, Regan Rudman PZ ’24, Amelia Lewis SC ’25 and Carson Hambuchen PO ’24. The play follows a polycule — a group of queer people in a non-monogamous relationship — who set out to kill Dracula after the count turns their shared, sickly girlfriend Lucy into a vampire.

Absurd and hilarious at every turn, the play recontextualizes the characters of Bram Stoker’s classic novel in a queer and chaotic modern world of strange seduction and glow-in-thedark dildos.

The directing team fell in love with “4 Bisexuals” when they watched it at the Minnesota Fringe Festival and decided to adapt it for the 5Cs, swapping Midwestern in-jokes to ones that would resonate with Claremont audiences.

“It’s a comedy with a lot of queer people where queerness is not the punch line,” Rudman said.

Ahrenhoerster was motivated by the lack of comedic theater in the 5C thespian world, which is often overrun with dramas. “4 Bisexuals” wastes no time letting the audience know that if they came for the traditional, dramatic Dracula story, they came to

the wrong place. “4 Bisexuals” retains the basic skeleton of the novel: Lawyer Jonathan Harker’s visit to Count Dracula’s castle, Lucy Westenra’s courtship and subsequent vampire attack and Van Helsing’s vampire-hunting chronicles, but it injects the original story with tongue-in-cheek subversions, modern references, queer inside jokes and frantic action scenes.

“There were a lot of things that I think were really interesting conceptually [about the Dracula novel], but the language is very dense,” Hambuchen said. “I think this play was really good at taking the really interesting concepts and character relationships from the book and twisting them … in a really fun way.”

In the retelling, Dracula poses as Jonathan Harker’s Uber driver

and offers his passenger control of the aux. Harker, panicked, played an a cappella (Dracapella, if you will) parody of “Kyoto” by Phoebe Bridgers with lyrics like, “Now I’m in this Uber / Driving out to Fuck-all, Transylvania / They told me I’d be a lawyer / But I’m just a boywhore.”

The audience laughed the hardest at the campy physicality of the performers. Dr. Van Helsing, Dracula’s arch-nemesis who was reimagined as a beautiful vampire hunter with sleeves of tattoos, flipped her hair after every line and seductively pulled out a piece of garlic bread; a trio of boyfriends fed each other raspberries in increasingly bizarre ways; Dracula threw himself around the stage with manic intensity.

“The comedic timing was incredible,” audience member Jaden

Sides HM ’26, who attended in a group dressed in vampire-inspired outfits, said. “I’m really excited to read Dracula in my literature class later this month and understand a lot of the inside jokes better.”

Given the original script’s minimal stage directions, the cast was free to improvise new comedic moments during rehearsals. Andrew Gewecke PO ’24, who played Dracula, attributed the show’s success to the feeling of trust among the cast.

“A huge portion of the bits are totally unwritten,” Gewecke said. “If you just did the script, it would be a very different show. You can’t do the subtext stuff unless you really can rely on the people you’re on stage with.” That trust was built out of a communal, non-hierarchical approach to producing “4 Bisexuals,” in which cast members were granted a high degree of control over both their characters and the content of the show.

“We had a lot of trust going into the process,” Rudman said. “That just gave us a lot of opportunity to be able to be free and try out silly things. And especially with comedy, that’s something that’s really integral.”

In updating the classic novel for a modern audience, the cast and crew focused on what made vampire mythology an enduring queer phenomenon. Ahrenhoerster argued that the play, and the LGBTQ+ community’s love for monsters in general, is a reaction to the early 20th century Hollywood censorship which established the trope of the queer-coded

villain.

“People who are queer were able to take those characters and instead of seeing them as villains and seeing them as bad and evil forces, are able to celebrate them and resonate with them and lean into the fact that, yes, society is going to treat me like a horrible person. I’m going to embrace who I am and rejoice in that,” Ahrenhoerster said.

Audience member Lyra Cromwell HM ’26, also in vampiric garb, added to that theory.

“There’s so much history of the lesbian vampire genre asking, ‘What does it look like for a woman to own her sexuality’ and, ‘What does it look like to corrupt young girls,’” Cromwell said. “It feels kind of natural that that would go into a reclaiming of that genre and of exploring sexuality less as something to be taken, but more as something to embrace.”

In that vein (get it, vein?), “4 Bisexuals” revels in its gayness and monstrosity with infectious energy. What started as chuckles from the audience gradually grew to raucous, uncontrollable laughter. By the time the cast took their final bows to a standing ovation, the sound of queer joy reverberated through the auditorium.

“I’d really encourage anyone who’s interested in putting something on at the 5Cs: don’t be daunted by it,” Rudman said. “There is space for student theater and for your productions … I promise you, the joy of having put something on is so worth all of the logistics … because you get to bond with a really amazing group of people and put on something that you’re proud of.”

SANDEr PETErS • THE STuDENT LIFE

NIKKI SMITH

SArAH ZIFF • THE STuDENT LIFE

Michelle Zhang PO ’27 highlights local vendors at the Claremont Forum Farmers & Artisans Market, which takes place every Sunday.

The Green room staged “4 bisexuals and 2 Guys Named John Kill Dracula” by Zoë rose Jennings on Feb. 10 and 11.

The Year of the Dragon: Across Claremont, students

wrap dumplings, explore themed exhibits, and come together to celebrate the Lunar New Year

CLAIRE WELCH

On Lunar New Year’s Eve, the small, cozy Chinese Lounge at Oldenborg Center transformed into a colorful, bustling celebration. Lanterns, paper-cuttings and calligraphy pages in varying shades of red adorned the walls and entryways as people from all over the Claremont Colleges came together to share snacks, wrap dumplings and watch as the Spring Festival Gala rang in the new year.

The Lunar New Year — also known as Chinese New Year or Spring Festival – begins on the second new moon after the winter solstice, a date that lands sometime between Jan. 20 and Feb. 21 of the Gregorian calendar.

Based in Chinese mythology, each year has a corresponding animal from the zodiac and, as of Feb. 10, 2024, it’s officially the Year of the Dragon.

Although commonly considered a major Chinese holiday, many countries and diasporic groups across the world celebrate the Lunar New Year, including Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Vietnam.

To mark a new year of prosperity, billions of people in the Asian diaspora travel across the world to celebrate with their families by preparing special dishes, exchanging red envelopes (hong bao in Mandarin or lai xi in Cantonese) and wishing each other luck and prosperity in the new year.

Many Claremont clubs and organizations hosted a variety of events for students to celebrate the New Year of the Dragon.

The Claremont Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) held a Spring Festival extravaganza on Feb. 10, complete with a full Chinese buffet, student dance performances

and an after-hours Mahjong event held in conjunction with the Canto Club. Chinese Language Resident Manxi Wang centered the festivities of her monthly Study Break event around the communal activity of wrapping dumplings, an important Lunar New Year’s Eve tradition for many families in northern China, including Wang’s native city, Beijing. Stopping to reflect as she wrapped a carrot, mushroom and noodle dumpling, Chinese Conversation class student Malena Sparano SC ’26 was bursting with energy and excitement at the room’s festivities.

A rainy day quest for a cookie

On a particularly rainy day last week, I was eating lunch in Malott with some friends and talking about how we wished that we were feasting on steaming bowls of Korean tofu stew instead of sandwiches and fries.

We chatted at length about just how much hot soups and stews hit the spot whenever it rains — how they make us feel warm, cozy and altogether protected from the cold and wet outside.

My friends and I left the dining hall and went our separate ways, but our conversation lingered in my mind: “What makes a food a rainy day food?”

Funnily enough, it was only after I accidentally stepped into a massive puddle near my room that a particularly sweet memory came to mind. As I sheepishly looked down at my shoes and at the sensation of rainwater seeping into my socks, I was reminded of a moment during my gap year in Seoul when I was on a determined quest — a quest for a cookie.

While I was in Seoul, I lived in an area called Seongsu-dong (some call it the “Brooklyn of Seoul”) and near my apartment, hidden among the colorful array of convenience stores and trendy cafes lay a tiny, unassuming cookie shop. From the outside, you couldn’t even tell that it was a cookie shop.

It was my coworkers at the animation company where I was interning who first introduced me to this cookie shop. We went during our lunch break and quickly, thanks to a matcha chocolate chip confection, I fell in love. The cookie was divine. The chocolate chips perfectly complemented the matcha’s bitterness and my teeth sunk into the cookie with remarkable ease. If clouds were edible, they would taste like this.

Not only were the cookies delicious, but the owner was also incredibly friendly. If I bought two cookies, he would often secretly slip me a third. At times, he would even send me off with some complimentary tea to go with my sweet treat, too.

Regardless of the weather, the cookie shop became my go-to for sugary pick-me-ups — so much so that one day, I even made the trek in the pouring rain. I had just finished eating some ramen and suddenly I craved something sweet. Though I could have just grabbed something from my cupboard and saved myself from having to go out in the rain, I thought about

the cookies from this cookie man. I immediately knew — I wanted that matcha cookie and nothing else would do.

So, I bundled up in warm clothes, grabbed my umbrella and made my way to the cookie shop. Within five steps of leaving my apartment, I stepped into a giant puddle. My shoes were immediately soaked and the bottom of my pants too. I looked back at my apartment and chuckled to myself. There was no turning back now.

As I continued on my journey, firmly gripping my umbrella to prevent the fierce winds from taking it, I managed to step into six more puddles. Some I tried to avoid by taking long strides — but I failed. With others, I accepted my fate and stepped in anyway, laughing to myself for going to such great lengths for a cookie.

Sure enough, when I finally arrived, there was the owner — smiling, chuckling at the sight of me standing at the door with wet shoes, wet hair (so much for an umbrella!) and rosy cheeks from the cold.

“You want a matcha cookie, right?” he asked. He brought out a cookie still warm from the oven and some tea. As soon as the baked good hit my lips, followed by the comforting trickle of tea, I knew that the rainy trek had been worth every drop. The matcha chocolate chip combination perfectly satisfied my craving for something sweet and the tea made me feel cozy and warm.

When I set out to return to my apartment, I was more than willing to brave the pouring rain again.

Having reminisced about this story, should my conversation with friends about rainy day foods recommence, I would assuredly add “cookies” to the list. And should this take my friends by surprise, I would tell them this — there are a select few foods that I would brave the wind and the rain for. For me, it’s a humble matcha cookie hidden away in the “Brooklyn of Seoul.”

Now I ask: What are those foods for you?

Emily Kim PO ’25 is from Irvine, California. Last spring she forgot to bring her umbrella to campus and she is very happy that she remembered it this semester.

“The cultural immersion, the four hours of Chinese TV specials … where else could you get that than at Oldenborg with Xixi [Wang]?”

Sparano said.

To organize her event, Wang enlisted the help of her Chinese Conversation class students in creating traditional Chinese decorations to put up around the lounge, and stressed that any students from the 5Cs were invited, regardless of their mother tongue, ethnicity or culture.

“I would love to invite you all to make dumplings together and share the happiness during Chinese New Year,” Wang said.

In addition to this event, Wang

led a group of students on an Oldenborg off-campus trip on Feb. 11 to Huntington Library, a nearby museum and garden compound that hosts annual Lunar New Year festivities featuring lion dancers, martial arts demonstrations, music and art.

Wang’s Oldenborg events are not only a chance for the Chinese and wider Asian communities in the 5Cs to celebrate even while away from their homes and families, but also an opportunity for any and all students to learn about the joyful celebrations of Lunar New Year. The Oldenborg and CSSA events

are only one slice of the campus-wide celebrations that took place over Lunar New Year weekend.

On Feb. 9, the Clark Humanities Museum at Scripps College hosted a reception titled “Year of the Dragon.”

Featuring over thirty pieces from the gallery’s permanent collection and curated by a team of student interns, this exhibition displayed different images of the dragon in traditional East Asian art.

In the center of the warm, festive space, visitors milled about trying their hand at dumpling wrapping, chatting about the various works and laughing with one another over White Rabbit candy and Wang Wang crackers. Visitors were particularly drawn to a large, vibrant cloisonne vase standing on a platform towards the center of the room, covered in abstract, swirling images of dragons and other fantastic beasts.

The Year of the Dragon reception included presentations on different topics from students of Pomona College Professor Maddalena Poli’s Culinary History of China course.

A student in Professor Poli’s class, Isabelle Chang PO ’27 presented on the Chinese zodiac and its relationship to traditional food and art.

“I’m really interested in the course, and I thought coming to this exhibit was a great way to learn more about Asian history,” Chang said.

Lunar New Year celebrations in Claremont strive to incorporate the beauty of Asian diasporic cultural traditions in a variety of different forms. Whether centered around traditional foods, art forms or dancing, the 5C community joyously came together to celebrate the New Year of the Dragon.

恭喜發財！(Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin) / Gong Hei Fat Choi (Cantonese))

Coats & ties or pajamas & Crocs

During my first “Welcome to Claremont McKenna College (CMC)” video call almost three years ago, I remember asking one of the admission officers if I was allowed to dye my hair and paint my nails at CMC — a privilege never granted to me in high school. The response I received (along with a puzzled look): “Of course, it’s college.”

As someone who has spent most of their life in a uniform, I have quite a few things to say about dress codes.

A floor-length, woolen, pleated skirt, tweed blazer, a pastel shirt, dress shoes, no jewelry, “naturally-colored” hair and nails and only a school-issued coat … this is how I spent my high school years in England.

At the moment, the CMC “Guide to Student Life” does not mention any sort of dress code or dress guidelines for campus life or classes. But should it?

To answer this question, I went directly to the source — CMC students — and took a poll.

Although the pro and anti-dress code opinions were evenly split among interviewees, let us first examine the anti-dress code believers — those who think we should keep things the way they are, with no classroom attire regulations.

Some students, like Mateo Colbert CM ’25, simply don’t see the need for a dress code.

“I haven’t seen anything horrendously inappropriate worn in class,” Colbert said.

Olivia Licata CM ’25 took on a personal freedom approach in her argument against the institution of a dress code.

“I believe that we are all adults who can make decisions about how we wish to present ourselves in the world and how you dress is a reflection of you and no one should be able to limit that or dictate how to do that,” Licata said.

Jack Barrett CM ’25 highlighted the positive aspects of not having a dress code in CMC classes.

“Thinking about some of the good seminar style classes that I’ve had where it’s an open discussion, I think that it would be a weird vibe if

everybody was in suits,” Barrett said. “I think people might feel a little bit more repressed.”

Barrett also highlighted the importance of not having a dress code in the context of a classroom discussion.

“You can kind of pick up on what [your classmates] are feeling based on how they dress and getting rid of that might take away from one of the nicer aspects of going to a school that has small class sizes, which is that you can kind of get to know your peers and really pick up on their energy in the classroom setting,” Barrett said.

As for the “ban pajamas” argument, Sophie Wolters CM ’26 offered some food for thought.

“I think that dressing in pajamas isn’t inherently disrespectful,” Wolters said. “I think conduct shows more than how you dress. If your posture is bad, you’re not paying attention, you’re on your phone — that leaves an impression on your professor, not if you’re in a hoodie or pajama pants.” Let’s move onto the pro-dress coders.

Armine Kardashyan CM ’26 argued that a dress code should be instituted to preserve a professional environment within the classroom.

“This is our job,” Kardashyn said. “So we have to maintain a sense of professionalism and decorum. There’s a time and a place for everything and some clothing should be reserved for parties and gatherings with friends instead of talks with your professor.” When asked if current CMC students dress appropriately or inappropriately in class, Kardashyan’s response was a quick and definitive “yes.”

“[Pajamas] are home clothes,” Kardashyan said. “We’re in college, we’re going into classes, so wear clothes that you don’t go to sleep in because it’s unhygienic to a certain extent.” Cody Babcock CM ’24 shared similar feelings.

“I think it’s absolutely fair to request that students wear articles of clothing that provide sufficient coverage of their bodies and that goes for both men and women,” Babcock said. “I don’t think that one should have a dress code for the sake of minimizing distractions, but there is this semblance of respect and decorum that is shown by your dress.”

Scott Sloop CM ’26 concurred.

“I’m in support of a common sense dress code, as in, cover what needs to be covered,” Sloop said. “And wear shoes! For the love of God wear shoes. I think it shows respect, because we’re saying: We’re here to learn and we’re going to take it seriously.”

Babcock also brought attention to CMC’s Kravis Opportunity Fund which provides funding to students for expenses such as smart casual attire.

“The consideration with a dress code is the issue of access — not every person might find it easy to afford clothing,” Babcock said. “And at the same time, I am aware that students who are considered low income by CMC standards are eligible for grants from the financial aid office. Sometimes they exceed $1,000 for clothes, Athenaeum attire and computers. So from an issue of access standpoint, I don’t think that this argument against a dress code carries as much weight.”

Jameson Mitrovich CM ’24 had a drastically different take compared to the rest of the interviewees. In response to the question of whether we should have a class dress code, Mitrovich said, “Yes, a coat and tie.”

When asked if there are any alternatives to creating a serious classroom environment, Mitrovich replied, “Not really, a coat and tie is just the best way to do it.”

So, now that you’ve heard both sides of the argument, will you be investing in a coat and tie and throwing it back to 1950s academia style? Or will you stick with your pajamas and trusty Crocs?

Ultimately, that choice is yours and only yours to make.

Elizaveta (Lisa) Gorelik CM’25 is from Moscow, Russia. She will reserve her personal opinions on this topic for a future column…

JIAyING CAO • THE STuDENT LIFE

Students celebrated the Lunar New year season by making dumplings with language resident Manxi Wang.

EMILY KIM

FASHION bIbLE

LISA GORELIK

QuINN NACHTrIEb • THE STuDENT LIFE

MOMENTS TO SAVOr

Are we doing enough?: Student panel discusses annual Pomona sustainability report

DYLAN ZULUETA

Despite the chill of the postrain weather, around 20 Pomona College students, faculty and alumni filled Estella Laboratory’s Emmy Noether Room (1021) on Feb. 7 to discuss the results of Pomona’s annual Sustainable Action / Visible Effects (SAVE) over aguas frescas and tamales. The SAVE report assesses Pomona’s progress towards various sustainability goals for reaching carbon neutrality in 2030.

The panel featured Evelyn Mineo PO ’25 and Katie Chao PO ’26, two of the three summer interns who created the report.

Chao presented the energy and climate sections of the report. She emphasized transportation emissions as a clear opportunity for improvement, as there was a 148 percent increase in emissions between 2022 and 2023.

“Obviously some travel … is unavoidable,” Chao said. “But in the age of Zoom, I personally believe that so much can be done to make things like conferences, workshops, meetings, etc. remote … Three round trips to Vietnam — which was something I actually saw in the data — is not necessary. There are definitely big strides that we can make there.”

Mineo presented the report’s food section. According to the report, 32 percent of Pomona dining purchases met at least one sustainability certification recognized by the college. One graphic presented by Mineo depicted both the quantity of purchases in different categories and the percentage of the purchases which were sustainable. For example, 100 percent of purchases in the vegan category were sustainable, but vegan food purchases make up the smallest percentage of total food purchases compared to other categories.

She emphasized the importance of student choices in increasing the amount of sustainable food purchases for

the dining halls. “[People] ask … ‘what can you do to contribute to sustainability at Pomona?’ Mineo said. “In the food department, at least, creating demand for the categories that are more sustainable.”

A key example of the influence of student demands was last year’s Meatless Mondays, also known as Mindful Mondays. Meatless Mondays were established to reduce meat consumption. Currently, meat is Pomona’s least sustainable category of food purchases, with only 5 percent of purchases meeting sustainability certification.

Mineo said that strong student opposition undermined the sustainability effort.

“Last year, we had a lot of outcries around Meatless Mondays,” Mineo said. “There were articles written in TSL about how Meatless Monday was an abomination … Students are really good at boycotting the dining halls when they have sustainability-themed days … [which is] a little bit difficult when you’re also trying to promote sustainability.”

One student in the audience noted that people tend to avoid Pomona’s meatless options more often than similar options at the other 5C dining halls.

Mineo referenced a 2016 study that found that an increase in dining spending correlates with a decrease in financial aid spending. Bowdoin College, the subject of the study, has since challenged this claim.

In correspondence with TSL, Mineo clarified that there is no evidence that the alleged tradeoff between dining spending and financial aid spending applies to Pomona.

Still, she emphasized the importance of considering the implications of a potential correlation between dining spending and financial aid.

“What are we advocating for?” Mineo asked. “And then what are we complaining about?”

One student asked about the plans for the new Center for Global Engagement, which is slated to replace Oldenborg

Center. Alexis Reyes, director of Sustainability and Energy Management, explained that the Sustainability Office is looking into the feasibility of an all-electric or net zero building, but that ultimately, the decision lies with executive staff and the Board of Trustees.

Reyes believes unfamiliarity is a key obstacle holding Pomona’s administrators back from making more ambitious choices.

“It feels scary to build something with a technology that you’ve never worked with before,” Reyes said. “Can it be done? Absolutely. You just have to get over that … human feeling of the unknown. But if [we] make the new Oldenborg all-electric, that’s just the beginning for all of our new construction.”

Reyes emphasized the importance of student advocacy in college-wide sustainability efforts.

“As students, you can for sure advocate your voice,” Reyes said. “Maybe it doesn’t feel like your voice is always heard, but people are listening to the student voice.”

Although the panel focused on food, energy and climate, Mineo hopes that the panel increased awareness of the report so that people will read it in its entirety.

“There’s just so much to be said about that report,” Mineo said. “And we wanted to do this panel because I think a lot of times students don’t know it even exists, or how to access it.”

For Steven Kim PO ’26, the panel clarified Pomona’s sustainability initiatives and raised questions about how sustainability initiatives are developed.

“It opens a new door to other questions that I have about how energy works and how these things are even put in place … The sustainability initiatives make me feel pretty positive,” Kim said. “More so than not having known about this at all. So I would say I’m glad I came.”

TSL reported on the SAVE report when it was initially released in Oct. 2023.

Access the full 2023 SAVE report on Pomona’s website.

On

leaders broke down the results

ANURADHA KRISHNAN & LOUIS BURNS

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we are here to help you find your matcha.

We tried matcha from six different places around Claremont so you don’t have to and we are here to spill the tea on where to find the best one.

For those of you who don’t know, a matcha latte is made from finely ground green tea leaves that are whisked into water and poured over milk. Originating from East Asia, matcha has gained traction among college-aged students over the past decade given its slow caffeine release and health benefits — such as its high concentration of antioxidants — as compared to coffee.

Whether you need a quick drink right after class or want to make a whole afternoon for you and your matcha (highly recommend), we have all the information you’ll need.

We took great care in making sure our matcha tasting process was controlled for as many variables as possible.

At every cafe, we ordered a hot matcha latte with simple syrup and oat milk. We thought that this would allow us to gauge the true taste of the tea at every location.

We based our ratings on four criteria: price, distance, sweetness, greenness and grassiness. We then averaged our respective ratings out of five stars.

So, without further ado: it’s tea time.

Rev’d Up Coffee & Classics

Price: $4.65 (Original price of $4.25 plus tax)

Overall Averaged Rating: 3/5

A perfect match-a for: Someone walking to Trader Joe’s who needs a quick pick–me–up along the way for a low price. Breaking down the drink: This was our cheapest matcha and, for the price, it delivered. This tea was foamy, sweet and had a strong green tea flavor. The only downside to this drink was that as we got through more and more of the drink, it got grainier. However, given the price and the high-quality vibes at Rev’d Up, this wasn’t that big of a drawback.

Iron & Kin

Price: $6.25 (original price was $5.25, but the oat milk cost an extra dollar)

Overall Averaged Rating: 5/5

A perfect match-a for: A true matcha connoisseur. The strong, high-quality tea flavor, bright green color and smooth texture made for a truly brew-tiful matcha experience. It also earned an extra point in our book, as it was the only drink we had that was made with latte art. And, let’s be honest, the aesthetics and vibes at Iron & Kin are immaculate — a perfect place for a first date, in

Scripps Presents Jessica Bendinger: Lights, Camera, Action

ative messaging.

“Storytelling is a superpower

… [It] helps me try to understand and try to find acceptance and make peace, rather than fight with everything going on in the world,” Jessica Bendinger said to an enraptured audience.

On Feb. 8, Bendinger, screenwriter, director and producer of iconic movies like “Bring It On” and “Stick It,” headlined Balch Auditorium as part of the latest installment of the Scripps Presents: Lights, Camera, Action series. Bendinger explained how she finds inspiration for her stories and discussed navigating Hollywood. The event was a Q&A with Jacqueline Yedgar, assistant director of public events at Scripps Presents and Kaavya Narayan CM ’25. Bendinger’s first film, “Bring It On,” an iconic teen comedy centered around high school cheerleading teams preparing for a national competition, explores cultural appropriation and feminism. Bendinger’s inspiration for “Bring It On” came from her childhood with divorced parents and her feelings of isolation as an only child, which motivated Bendinger to seek connection by observing and interpreting the stories of others.

“When you are the only [child] you’re trying to figure out the context, so I was a kid trying to figure out context everywhere,” Bendinger said. “Writing to me felt like the opportunity to be a fly on the wall of anybody’s life … [it] let me get my place and figure this out. And that led to … wanting to be an entertainer and [entertaining] people with stories.”

Bendinger explained how a mononucleosis infection in college impacted her storytelling. Bendinger watched cheerleading competitions during her recovery and was inspired by the athletes’ ability to command attention. “You feel uninvited and excluded as a kid and then you go to a game as a little girl and you see these young women who are commanding the attention … that was oddly revolutionary for me,” she said.

Bendinger also emphasized the importance of vulnerability in storytelling.

“When you tell stories that are for kind of everyone, they end up [being] for no one,” Bendinger said. “It’s by focusing on the niche things that you really care about and that are precious to you and taking that risk of vulnerability that somebody else might find it interesting.” While living out of her car in Los Angeles trying to sell the screenplay to production companies, Bendinger faced 27 rejections. The experience, she says, taught her the value of persistence and emphasized the necessity of cre-

Bendinger vividly reenacted the manner in which she communicated her manifold ideas to Hollywood producers, recalling how she disguised themes like socioeconomic inequality in a propulsive, entertaining plot.

“I hid the medicine in the candy,” Bendinger said. “You want to lure people in and then they’re having a good time and then [they say] oh my god, I’ve never thought about that.”

Yedgar said that the energy Bendinger inspired was palpable.

“I [hope] that [the audience] feels happier and that it sparked creativity,” Yedgar said. “We all have creativity that sometimes we forget about because we get busy with life and it’s so nice to come together in person and inspire each other creatively.”

Bendinger also spent some time recounting the power imbalance she frequently encountered during the production process. She noted that many male producers do not value women’s stories.

Bendinger expressed the difficulty of having to pitch her passion projects to producers with feigned indifference, despite the pain that rejection often brings.

When success doesn’t materialize, she explained, an alternative path is the only feasible option — though those paths are still fraught with challenges.

“Sometimes Plan B is the best plan you can have,” Bendinger said. “You sell [a script] and then you’ve got to litigate with the studio. You’ve got to litigate with the producers. You’ve got to fight for the story.”

When asked what advice she has for people seeking to enter the movie industry, Bendinger recommended that they steer clear of Hollywood.

“If you want to be a storyteller, be a storyteller and figure it out,” Bendinger said. “Figure out a way to tell your stories. I would be encouraging people to practice with the free tools available and become undeniable. If you create something that’s viral, Hollywood will come knocking.”

Attendee Clara Desmond SC ’26 appreciated Bendinger’s advice to trust one’s intuition.

Desmond referenced Bendinger’s anecdote about fighting for the line ”people are dogs, too” to remain in “Bring It On,” against a producer’s wishes.

“Trusting when you know something in your story is good and to just keep going [is key],” Desmond said.

Attendee Anna Beattie PZ ’24 was both inspired by Bendinger’s persistence and surprised that she advised storytellers to stay away from her industry.

“It was interesting [that] she said, ‘if you could, don’t go into Hollywood,’” Beattie said. “It’s inspiring to see how she succeeded even though there’s so much against this change of perspective in storytelling. It really solidified this idea of having storytelling that [shares] the vulnerable part of yourself.”

Overall Averaged Rating: 2.5/5

our opinion. Breaking down the drink: The matcha didn’t coat the tongue as much as a few others we tried and we thought that made it seem more high-quali-tea as the powder aspect of the solution was not as noticeable. Iron & Kin was the busiest cafe we visited and the majority of customers in front of us also ordered matcha — it was truly matcha madness!

Nosy Neighbors Price: $6.50 (Base price since they did not upcharge us for milk or sweetener)

Overall Averaged Rating: 5/5

A perfect match-a for: An avid coffee drinker looking to switch to a healthier, greener alternative. We found that the creamier, sweeter matcha latte here was more palatable for someone who isn’t yet used to matcha’s strong green tea flavor. Breaking down the drink: Nosy Neighbor’s matcha latte was sweet, creamy and had a subtler tea flavor as compared to many of the other drinks we tried. We would also like to note that this is the base price for a matcha latte at Nosy Neighbors; they did not upcharge us for milk or sweetener like other cafes — meaning it’s in the higher price range if you are not ordering non-dairy milk.

Norema

Price: $5.75 (We paid $0.25 for almond milk)

A perfect match-a for: A tea drinker who’s not too keen on this latte business. Breaking down the drink: Norema offers a matcha that leans into deep tea flavors. We know that this may not be for everyone — even between just the two of us, we disagreed greatly. We doubted whether it constituted a matcha latte considering that there wasn’t much milk — the drink was more along the lines of a hot matcha americano with a splash of milk.

Last Drop Cafe Price: $6.25

Overall Averaged Rating: 2/5

A perfect match-a for: Someone looking to try a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ cafe with loads of food options to accompany their matcha.

Breaking down the drink: This matcha had a dark brown-green color and was slightly frothy. It didn’t have a smooth finish and we thought it was reminiscent of powdered hot chocolate. Overall, there wasn’t anything special about this matcha. For the price, we recommend you seek out another matcha on this list.

Lucky’s Coffee Roasters

Price: $7.25 (Base price of $5.75 since oat milk cost $1 and vanilla syrup cost $0.50)

Overall Averaged Rating: 4/5

A perfect match-a for: A Pitzer or Mudd student with a pret-tea penny to spare as this was the most expensive drink we tasted. For Pomona, CMC and Scripps students, take the walk into account before deciding — a trip to the village may be cheaper and faster for a matcha of the same quality.

Breaking down the drink: This was the priciest drink in the lineup, so we wondered whether it was worth it. As Pomona students, we are green with envy for those Pitzer and Mudd students who live closer to this cafe. This was our first time visiting Lucky’s and we plan on making the trek again to take advantage of their calm studying-friendly environment.

Anuradha Krishnan PO ’24 is TSL’s Arts & Culture Associate and, along with Louis Burns PO ’24, spends way too much time in Estella and way too much money at the Motley.

CELESTE GArTON • THE STuDENT LIFE

ANANYA VINAY

Jessica bendinger headlined Scripps Presents at balch Auditorium on Feb. 8.

TASTE buDS

To-do: Surviving the post-Valentine’s Day blues

Happy two days post-Valentine’s Day to all my fellow single, lonely-heart readers. You made it!

I mean this genuinely. This Wednesday, we survived all of the Instagram “I love you” stories, last-minute flower orders, happy couples, mail center packages and worst of all — public campus hand-holding. It seems Valentine’s Day is the one day when all public displays of affection become acceptable (even though they are not).

Despite these gruesome scenes, you survived. We survived. And now, it’s time to redirect our focus to the practices that we ignored during those 24 hours — and the 24 hours that followed until the Feb. 14 Instagram stories expired. Damage control, if you will.

So, here’s a five-part list of the to-do’s to get you through the weekend:

(1) Redownload social media.

For the few who gave up entirely on viewing friends’ stories, I understand you. It’s hard enough

knowing that your friends are in a relationship, but to publicly see it on their story — and then their partner’s story and then the repost of the partner’s story and then the following “I love you forever” — it’s a four-time stab to the heart that is easily avoidable through simply deleting all social media platforms.

Why all? Because if you are deleting Instagram, you might as well delete Snapchat, TikTok and dare I say Pinterest — Twitter/X is acceptable to keep because, let’s be honest, everyone on there is single.

But, it’s been two days. All of these temporary posts have disappeared into their “my love <3” Instagram Highlight, which can be easily avoided.

(2) Cancel all desperate Valentine hookups.

Now, for those of us who slid into the DMs of a Tinder match from December, it’s probably best to cancel the date before we go into the weekend.

I’m only saying this because we all know that you couldn’t

plan the “date” (code for hookup) on a Wednesday night, so you’ve pushed it back to the weekend. Do yourself a favor and drop the classic “Hate to do this!” before it’s too late.

If it makes you feel better, those who actually did have a date (like an actual date) on Valentine’s Day had to do it on a Wednesday night, after class. Embarrassing.

(3) Reblock your ex.

Some of you lonely-hearts made the mistake of reaching out to an ex. You took a few steps back on your breakup healing journey and you woke up the next morning with the harsh realization that your choice might end up doing you more harm than good. It’s been two days and they still haven’t responded, there’s no point in waiting for the potential — and always disappointing — “hey” reply. Brutal. Save your sanity and reblock.

(4) Start talking to your friends-in-a-relationship again.

We’ve all been there. Some internal wall mysteriously appears between the lonely-hearts and the friends-in-a-relationship. But we need to put our grievances aside and pretend to be happy for them. You don’t want to be the jealous single whose “misplaced” anger costs you your friendship — or until your friend inevitably breaks up with their partner and then comes crawling back looking for advice. Trust me, I’ve been on both sides of this.

Be the better person and reach out. You can invite them to a Malott brunch, a coffee in the Village, or a movie night (and let’s hope they don’t invite their partner … ).

(5) Check in on your fellow lonely-hearts.

If there is only one item that you actually check off from this to-do list, it should be this. Your fellow lonely-hearts have also been struggling through the past two days, just like you.

Many refer to the months leading up to February as

So tired of Taylor

It is rare to find someone who has not at least heard of Taylor Swift.

One of the most successful and influential musicians on Earth, Swift holds a special place in our hearts; many of us grew up with her music, dressing up with friends to act out scenes from her songs and screaming lyrics about breakups that we hadn’t experienced yet.

But the woman strutting up the 2024 Grammy Awards’s stairs last weekend has been tainted by overexposure.

Swift has risen to new heights in recent years and is recognized as one of the most successful women in the world, breaking records and paving the way for female artists. She now holds 14 Grammy Awards (featuring a record four Album of the Year wins), 40 American Music Awards, 40 Billboard Music Awards, 23 MTV Video Music Awards and was just recently named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.

As impressive as these awards are, enough is enough. Watching Swift walk past SZA, Janelle Monáe, Jon Batiste and Lana Del Rey to pick up her fourth Album of the Year was a breaking point. Especially when Swift’s winning album, “Midnights,” was mediocre at best — not just compared with those of her fellow nominees — but also to Swift’s own discography.

Swift’s song “Bejeweled,” for example — featuring lyrics, “Don’t put me in the basement / When I want the penthouse of your heart” — is not representative of the lyrical genius that many Swifties (Swift’s fans) attribute to her.

With so many accolades, you would expect Swift’s lyrics to be

more meaningful than a collection of lackluster lines — and with her rapid release of albums with the same static rhythms and uninteresting musical dynamics, she is starting to turn herself into little more than the fast fashion of the music industry. Although our loyalties lie with Lana Del Rey, SZA’s “SOS” should have won Best Album of the Year. This has been the year of SZA, with hit songs such as “Kill Bill” and “Shirt” influencing pop culture trends and garnering wide praise. SZA’s music is multidimensional. Her voice effortlessly moves between octaves to ex -

Swift’s consecutive wins reveal that our society praises whiteness, complacency and mediocrity for the sake of avoiding controversy.

press emotions that are widely relatable, more intimate and that make the listener feel something more real than any song on “Midnights.” To be clear, it isn’t Swift’s fault that she has become a safe choice for industry voters — and an easy paycheck for the press — to choose as the winner. Her music is very digestible, as are her politics. Swift has been praised for her activism, from sending Swifties en masse to the polls to vote for Joe Biden to her work to prevent sexual assault to being an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community. This lineup of stances is important but notably excludes controversial issues. These include speaking out against what South Africa urged the Inter -

national Court of Justice (ICJ) to consider as Israel’s “genocidal-in-character” assaults on Gaza, the United States’ exploitation of the DR Congo, or any social class or environmental emissions issues that may inconvenience her career or personal life. For example, Swift has recently been called out for being the world’s most carbon polluting celebrity. Instead of publicly commenting or changing her ways, Swift threatened the student who released her jet report with legal action.

This nearly nonexistent political activism, which caters to white America, easily deems her as un controversial and makes her an attractive choice for platforming.

While Swift picks and chooses her causes, other art ists — specifically, artists of color — are writing about personal hardships and advocating for political and societal changes within their music.

In Jon Batiste’s “MOVE MENT 18’ (Heroes)” from his nominated album “World Music Radio,” Ba tiste sings: “And heroes who are called to represent a bit of humanity, at large / Can also remind us that the great cultural heroes from New Orle ans / Belong in the same plat form with the great heroes of humanity.” Batiste is challenging us to think about the way

we celebrate and commemorate our “heroes.” He is using his music to make a statement — something Swift is unwilling to do. Swift’s consecutive wins reveal that our society praises whiteness, complacency and mediocrity for the sake of avoiding controversy. Frankly, the lifting of Swift onto this skyscraper of a pedestal has become embarrassing to watch. The obsession has gotten straight-up weird —

“breakup season,” so naturally, Valentine’s can bring up a lot of messy and complicated feelings. Personally, I sent surprise Target Valentine’s cards with googly-eyed bugs to lift the spirits of my friends and — more importantly — remind them that someone somewhere loves them.

Let’s treat this weekend as a welcome to the lonely-hearts club and reminisce about the fact that we are all so much more than having a partner to post on Instagram. Even though that would also be nice.

We all need to take care of each other and ourselves this weekend. It’s only been two days since the dreaded holiday and we only have 364 more days before the next.

Maybe that extra leap day will give you the time to find the love of your life and finally leave our lonely-hearts club. Probably not, though.

Jada Shavers SC ’26 is from Portland, Oregon and loves Trader Joe’s Takis, Malott coffee and puzzles. She survived Valentine’s Day with a package of jam from her mom.

successful woman without affecting our lives whatsoever, there wouldn’t be a problem. But every platform for pop culture is dominated by her face, name and music.

Even the Super Bowl couldn’t avoid plastering her face on viewers’ screens, with constant pans to her seat next to Ice Spice. This was amplified by numerous news sources, whose streams were dominated by coverage of Swift and tight end Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs victory celebration. I mean, even Hillary Clinton had something to say about “Taylor Swift’s boyfriend” after the Super

If this is not to your taste — and it sure isn’t to ours — there’s no avoiding the resentment.

Swift is a culture, media and industry phenomenon. She’s sold out stadiums and her current Eras Tour has boosted the economies of entire countries. With such immense fame, Swift doesn’t need another flashy award on her bookshelf; she doesn’t need the visibility. The media needs to broaden their horizons and take risks.

It is undeniable that Swift has done an incredible amount for women in the music industry — but it’s time for the industry (and for us) to platform different female artists.

Let more women break through and let Taylor fade into

Frances Smith PZ ’26 is a sophomore from Pitzer College. She enjoys playing the board game Dixit with her imaginary friends.

Aaron Matsuoka PZ ’26 is from small-town Connecticut but takes on big-world opinions. He enjoys hiking, running, and listening to Fred Again..

FRANCES SMITH & AARON MATSUOKA

JADA SHAVERS

Embracing Y/N: The merits of fanfiction and fan culture

GRACE KIM

From the margins of mainstream literature to the endless buttons on the Wattpad home page, fanfiction, known colloquially as fanfic, has likely wormed its way into your life.

Who hasn’t curiously stumbled upon a fanfic or two? Maybe you’ve even tried to write one yourself and it’s since become your guilty pleasure. It’s a little embarrassing … right?

Wrong! You might feel embarrassed now, but based on the millions of clicks across sites like Wattpad, Archive of Our Own (AO3) and Fanfiction.net, you have no reason to be.

Fanfictions are stories written by subscribers of various online fan communities (fandoms). They are based on pre-existing literature or media but reimagined with alternative plots and story elements.

Due to the online circulation of a great host of low-quality or cringy fanfics that have been written over the years, fanfiction has gained a bad rap. Many view the amateur plots, unexpected content or newbie qualities as indicative of fanfiction as a whole. This might include stories where the term

“Y/N” is used in place of “Your Name” or an unrealistic series of events leads you to being sold to One Direction and marrying Harry Styles. Based on my experience, this assumption hinders more than it helps — and it is entirely wrong. It’s like going to the library and reading one bad book, then deciding to never read anything ever again.

Yes, there are thousands of poorly-written stories out there — but are they not proof of the magnitude of fanfiction’s impact?

Fanfiction sites are an accessible opportunity for aspiring writers to practice their skills and self-publish work while also boosting community and literacy.

Fandoms are built off of the

fundamental relationships that telling stories creates between authors and their audiences. With fanfiction, there is a close author/ reader relationship because most sites provide chat spaces within each chapter to discuss its content. Similar to the process of peer review — which is highly encouraged in academic settings — this allows authors to receive positive validation and constructive criticism while remaining mindful of readers’ concerns. Fanfiction democratizes literature by engaging new audiences and setting them up with the tools to be successful in academic environments. If a favorite show ended on an upsetting cliffhanger, a fan could read up on others’

alternative endings or craft their own.

For readers, the fanfiction community also holds a sense of belonging. Many popular canonical works, such as “Harry Potter,” resonate with so many but lack diversity. Fanfics mend these gaps because they reimagine fictional canons and often contain original characters to address issues of reader representation. This explains their popularity in fandoms composed mostly of marginalized identities.

And yet: Despite the numerous benefits of fanfiction, many remain opposed. A primary concern of fanfic skeptics is copyright, or profiting off of intellectual property.

However, most sites like AO3 are non-profit and authors almost always include disclaimers to ensure the legality of their work. In this instance, the story is not eligible for profit but could still benefit the author in other ways such as exposure, feedback and practice by being available on publicly-accessible websites. This guarantees the equality of opportunity for writers to get their work out into the world minus the monetary barriers. It is when fanfics are largely canon-focused, including the same names and settings of the original work that I agree it poses a credibility and ethical issue. It is especially an issue when the work is written about a real

person or contains explicit content without their permission — even if it is based on their public persona.

Nevertheless, if the work falls within the acceptable conditions of copyright established by public figures or authors and their publishers, I don’t see the problem with these types of works getting published.

Literature is meant to provoke emotions and challenge perspectives. People shouldn’t be ashamed of their interests or feel like they have to hide their art just because others invalidate it.

There is a clear double standard in the shaming of such a popular online culture when other forms of socially acceptable fandoms exist. Take the Super Bowl, for example. The sports industry profits greatly off of fan culture where participants enjoy the same components of discussion, community and admiration as with online fandoms.

One key difference is that the majority of sports fans are males who also watch male athletes, playing a role in the social digestibility of sports over fanfictions — the users of which are mostly female and/or queer-identifying.

Fanfiction provides opportunities for both writers and readers to participate in communities centered around their interests.

Discussing fanfiction and analyzing its positive effects can open up new conversations about what constitutes literature.

If you are struggling to make up your mind regarding the merits (or demerits) of fanfiction, see for yourself and give it a try.

To all of my fanfiction supporters, never feel shame for the unique community that fandoms build.

And to everyone else, stop hating on something you don’t understand.

Grace Kim SC ’27 is from San Diego, California. She loves listening to movie soundtracks, eating sour candy and reading Letterboxd reviews.

Athenas water polo dive deep and shoot down the Concordia Eagles in a gritty home opener

JOSH GEHRING

The Athenas clipped the Eagle’s wings in a nail-biting home opener last Saturday in a tight 8-7 win. On Feb. 10, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s water polo team scrambled to victory against Concordia in their hirst home game of the season in Axelrood Pool. The game’s defining feature was defense and the Athenas worked until the end, demonstrating that every point counts.

CMS is looking for redemption this season following their overtime loss to Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) in the NCAA Division III championship last year and are already putting in the work this preseason.

CMS recently returned from competing across the country in the Bruno Classic at Brown and Harvard Universities, taking home a win of 15-13 against Saint Francis University, but falling to Brown and two other teams in high-scoring games. Grace Clark CM ’26 described the team’s goals heading into their first home game as a revised strategy that they adopted after the invitational on the East Coast.

“I think coming off of [the invite] we’re just really focusing on coming together as a team,” Clark said. “I feel like we’re getting in shape as individuals but we just need to work on passing and making good plays for each other. A lot of our games have been super high-scoring, but now we’re going for defense and [working on] not allowing a lot of points.”

Clark’s vision of team cohesion came to fruition in Saturday’s game in a dynamic play between the fresh-

man-senior duo of Valerie Wraith CM ’27 and Mia Adsen SC ’24. Wraith scored both the first goal of the day for the Athenas and went on to score the game-winning point in the fourth quarter.

“That was really big for us and for her,” Clark said. “She’s doing super well and they both really just connected.”

The Athenas were up 3-2 after goals from Wraith, Adsen and Cooper McKenna CM ’24 in the first half, but quickly lost their lead when Concordia scored first at the start

of the second half. After McKenna put away back-to-back goals in the third quarter, however, the Athenas began to pull ahead once again.

Angelina Tsai HM ’26 described how McKenna, who was in a different position than normal, was able to adapt quickly. She noted that McKenna’s ability ultimately helped them win the game.

“Even though Cooper usually doesn’t play center, she got down in there on some drives today and made three center shots,” Tsai said.

After a goal from Clark with 20

Paralympian, amputee Lacrosse trailblazer and ‘Survivor’ star Noelle Lambert motivates at Scripps Presents

ADAM AKINS

She can do it all. Noelle Lambert is a multi-sport Paralympian, star of season 43 of “Survivor,” CEO of the Born To Run Foundation and is the first above the knee amputee to compete in Division I collegiate lacrosse. Lambert was invited to Claremont on Feb. 12 as a part of the Scripps Presents speaker series to deliver a message of endurance and to show that “being different is something to be embraced.”

In the talk, Lambert’s infectious ambition and joy were evident. Each story and anecdote she told, from the deep depression she fell into as a result of her accident to lining up to race at her first Paralympic qualifying trials, was saturated with her zealous love of life.

Before losing her leg in the summer before her second year of college, Lambert enjoyed a successful first year at University of Massachusetts Lowell as a student-athlete. In her first year, Lambert was a lacrosse star, tying the most goals scored and most multi-point games on her team as well as earning a spot on the America East All Rookie Conference.

After that breakout year, Lambert and her friends took a summer trip to Martha’s Vineyard, where a car accident changed her life and sports career forever.

“I was on a moped, riding with my friend and the next thing I know I see a dump truck coming at me,” Lambert said. “I lost control and the next thing I remember [was] waking up and looking down, seeing my leg completely detached.”

An onlooker arrived on the scene and used his shirt to apply a tourniquet, saving her life. When interviewed by the Martha’s Vineyard

Times after the incident, Lambert said she was back to being active and thankful for this new lease on life.

“I wish I’d gotten their names,” she said. “Like the nurse that was driving by or the guy who put the shirt on my leg — they saved my life. I’m so thankful and grateful to them.”

During her long process of recovery and rehabilitation, Lambert returned home to Manchester, New Hampshire and said she immediately found support from a local coalition that has experience in supporting people through traumatic accidents, the Boston Strong movement.

Survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing showed support to Lambert during recovery, visiting her at the hospital. She said they served as examples to her that her career in athletics did not end with her accident.

“It definitely gives me confidence to see other amputees and people with disabilities doing extraordinary things and it gave me the idea that I could do that and [compete],”

Lambert said.

In 2018, during her third year of college and in the midst of her journey back onto the lacrosse field, Lambert started the Born to Run Foundation. According to its website, the organization has helped 27 amputees in athletics find specialized prosthesis to be able to access athletics and maintain an active lifestyle.

“[I want to] create a community where we can lean on each other because it was so crucial for me to have mentors and I think everybody deserves that opportunity,” Lambert said. After deciding to resume her

collegiate lacrosse career, Lambert said she attacked training with the mentality that she would need to work twice as hard as her able-bodied teammates. Her hard work paid off and she eventually earned playing time, scoring on the first shot she had when she returned.

According to Lexi Lee CM ’24, a swimmer for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Lambert’s determination sends a strong message to athletes struggling with motivation.

“It was very inspiring,” Lee said. “Through my time as an athlete, I’ve dealt with periods where I have lost motivation and have some type of burnout and just hearing her story and knowing that she was able to persevere was so impressive.”

After graduating, Lambert wanted to continue her life in athletics and days after graduation with little experience, she and her mother got on a flight to Tempe, Arizona to compete in the 2019 Desert Challenge, an event attended by more than 400 para-athletes.

Clad in a lacrosse practice jersey, unaccustomed to running without a stick in her hand, Lambert said she found herself on the starting blocks shaking with adrenaline.

“When I was in the lineup the American record holder was to my right,” Lambert said. “She saw how nervous I was and just said ‘You’ll do great girl, you got it.’ It started and I honestly blacked out during the race.”

When she crossed the finish line, she had not only run fast enough to qualify for Tokyo 2020, but had also beaten the reigning national champion. Lambert competed in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games and on another whim attempted to qualify for the Winter Paralympic Games in snowboarding.

In 2022, Lambert further expanded her sphere of influence, competing on the 34th season of “Survivor.” With the appearance, she garnered an immense following, where she competed as the first amputee to ever appear on the show.

After sharing her story about how her accident caused her to successfully redefine her life, Lambert sat down for a talk with CMS Athletic Director Erica Perkins Jasper. Perkins Jasper, a mother of a child with a disability, said she empathizes with Lambert on the importance of representation, highlighting the impact of Lambert’s activism showing that a disability can also be an ability. Lambert agreed, noting that her accident gave her the opportunity to rethink how she approached life. Lambert ended the talk with giving advice to the audience.

“Attack every single day and never go through the motions because believe me, it wasn’t fun,” Lambert said. “I know that days can be very tough and draining, but you can take that and enjoy life and attack things head on and realize that it’s those difficult moments that make you into the person that you will become.”

now only leading by one point.

However, one final goal from Wraith provided the insurance the Athenas needed as the Eagles could only add one more to their total, sealing the CMS Saturday night win.

For CMS, this win was just a small step in a much longer journey to redemption against P-P. While still in pre-season, the Athenas hope to continue sharpening their skills before upcoming SCIAC competitions begin. Clark described the struggles of balancing intensity and fun this season after suffering a loss to P-P at Nationals.

“This season [we’re] working on having a lot of fun and enjoying each other but also coming in with that intensity of wanting to win and do really well,” Clark said.

SaraH ZIFF • THe STuDeNT LIFe

seconds left in the third quarter, the Athenas’ three goal streak ended when Concordia brought the score up to 4-6 with CMS still in the lead.

To start the fourth quarter Adsen extended the Athenas’ lead by one goal, bumping the score up to 7-4. Tsai highlighted Adsen’s reliability in crucial moments like these.

“Mia is laser-accurate,” Tsai said. “So once she gets the ball, you know it’s going in the cage.” Following Adsen’s point, two back-to-back goals from the Eagles put the pressure back on for CMS,

However, goals go beyond hardware this season for some. As a senior, Adsen said she strives to foster a supportive environment. She added that she hopes to follow in the footsteps of those who helped lead her when she was an underclassman.

“There’s only four of us [seniors], so we’re all very involved in trying to make the team dynamic the best that it can be,” Adsen said. “The alumni really shaped our team and there’s still a culture that they left behind of being very supportive, not competitive in a negative way, but competitive like we’re all trying to get better.”

The Athenas will play again on Saturday, Feb. 17 at Redlands before hosting their annual Claremont Convergence Tournament against top-ranked DI schools including USC and Santa Clara University during the weekend of March 1.

Underclassmen sharp shooters come alive in second half as Sagehens take the Sixth Street crown

aDaM

CHARLOTTE RENNER

The fledgling Sagehens women’s basketball team took flight, pecking their way to victory and forcing the Athenas walk back trophyless with togas dragging.

In their final home game of the season, the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s basketball pushed their conference record to 2-12 with a second half comeback win against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS). What initially looked like a sure thing for the 2-13 Athenas quickly turned into a display of P-P dominance that resulted in a 67-54 win on Saturday, Feb. 10 at Voelkel Gymnasium.

The Sagehens got off to a slow start in the first quarter, appearing frazzled by the Athenas’ strong press and rapid ball movement. They quickly turned the ball over six times and ran up their foul count to five. The Hens only scored 12 points in the first quarter and 16 in the second, ending the half with a shot and a foul that resulted in a three point play for CMS. Capitalizing on P-P’s disorganization, the Athenas’ first half momentum allowed them to go into the break leading 34-28.

“We started off the first half kind of slow,” forward Katie Drais PO ’26 said.

However, as noted by Drais, the Hens looked like a different team after halftime; their play was faster, more controlled and the CMS defense immediately began to crack under the pressure.

“At halftime Coach Woo got on us and she was like ‘we don’t play this brand of basketball,” Drais said. “And then we came out and played a great second half.” Drais scored 10 points this game, nine of which were from three pointers, propelling the Sagehen’s momentum for the rest of the game. After the explosive charge spearheaded by Drais, Abby Homan PO ’27 and Emily Lee PZ ’26 caught fire, sinking a cumulative nine from behind the arc, compared to three total in the first two quarters. Homan

credited ball movement as key to their scoring run.

“Quick passes opened up threes for a lot of us,” Homan said, who scored nine of her 16 points from outside the line. “We hit at least nine or more threes second half, so it was great to get everyone involved.” Operating with efficiency from outside the arc turned the tides for the Saghens, as almost the whole team had a hot hand or three by game close. The first P-P lead came in the middle of the third quarter after two consecutive threes by Homan. Two missed free throws and a shot clock violation by CMS moved the momentum in favor of P-P as they finished the third quarter with a tight lead of 47-46.

The Hens’ dominance on the boards played a major factor in this run by P-P. In the second half, the team had 15 rebounds. Drais commented on this, noting their ability to capitalize in critical moments.

“I think rebounds were really important for us,” Drais said. “We just did a great job of sharing the ball.”

By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, P-P’s defense had adjusted to the Athena’s high press, and they only allowed 12 CMS points in the third quarter and 8 in the fourth. P-P reached their first double-digit lead with a little over five minutes to go after Emily Lee PZ ’26 made a layup — two of her 22 points of the night.

“I’m feeling really ecstatic, because we worked really hard to get to this point,” Lee said. “I felt that we played really good, unselfish basketball today.”

The P-P women’s basketball team is incredibly young, with only one upperclassmen of the 10 rostered players. With a less than ideal conference record, the players are hoping to use their final two games to learn and build a foundation for next year. Still, Saturday’s game was a bright spot for the Sagehens.

“It’s been a lot of improvement throughout the year,” Homan said. “We’re young, but we don’t use that as an excuse.”

The Sagehens will play Cal Lutheran in their last game of the season on Saturday, Feb. 17 on the road.

Grace Clark CM ’26 winds up during the athenas’ 8-7 win over Concordia on Saturday, Feb. 10.

Noel Lambert, multi-sport Paralympian, poses with students after her talk at Scripps Presents on

ali bennett PO ’27 dribbles by a CMS defender during the Sagehens’ 67-54 win on Saturday, Feb. 10.

Shiny things but no paper rings; Taylor Swift wins Super Bowl and devastates Bay Area students

ANSLEY WASHBURN & HAROLD FUSON

She certainly has had a fabulous time ruining everything.

On Sun, Feb. 11, the Kansas City Chiefs left hundreds of “I’m from the Bay … like 45 minutes out” 5Cers in shambles after they defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. Screams echoed across campus (actually just Claremont McKenna College and maybe the occasional Pomona-Pitzer football suite) as the Chiefs scored their championship-winning touchdown in overtime to end the game and secure their second consecutive title. So, how does Miss Americana herself come into play in the humiliation of our favorite SF-proper-wannabe classmates? Well, lucky for you, we’re back to tell you how everything went down.

It all started in the summer air at Arrowhead Stadium, a place that the recently named 14-time Grammy winner has come to know beyond its acoustic range.

On July 8, 2023 the kingdom lights shone brighter than ever as the stands were packed with sparkles, friendship bracelets and one hopeful lover during Taylor Swift’s economy-lifting Eras tour.

Since that enchanting July night, Travis Kelce has been all over Taylor like a wine-stained dress she has kept on wearing and the crowds in the stands have certainly gone wild about it. Ever since they just said yes, the prince and princesses’ love story has given them comparable status to American royalty in the months leading up to the big game. But, as any good pop-culture fanatics know, the spotlight starts to burn pretty quickly.

Ever since the two have gone public, Taylor’s regular drop-ins to box seats at Chiefs games have ruffled a few feathers. For some football fans, the queen herself encapsulated their sentiments on Oct. 27, 2023 in “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” when she once again admitted (but this time on her terms) to being a nightmare dressed like a daydream. These NFL fans have not been able to

Athletes of the Week

tolerate the painful 25 seconds of screen time that Ms. Swift has so cruelly taken away from their beloved game on their once-sacredly womanless football Sundays. It’s been so bad that many have admitted her presence has haunted them even when she’s not around. And not around she has been! Luckily for those pitiful viewers, her tour is long-living and she has been around the world and back again while her boo (who never told anyone “don’t call me kid, don’t call me baby”) drinks choco milky and nibbles on chicken fingers to get big and strong before the big scary game. “I don’t have to play big brother again, right Mama Kelce?”

On top of countless disgrun -

tled NFL fans, Swift found herself in the middle of a MAGA conspiracy leading up to the championship. Last year, Kelce became a face of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination, which sparked outrage amongst conservative America, even drawing criticism from known anti-vaxxer Aaron Rodgers via the “Pat McAfee Show.” This, coupled with rumors that Swift was gearing up for a Joe Biden endorsement after the Chief’s Super Bowl victory, landed the power couple right in the center of a right-wing meltdown. Good thing carbon emissions don’t exist if you publicly endorse Biden … right?

Public endorsements seem to be a shared interest for the lovebirds as Travis roared “Viva

Las Vegas” in an ick-inducing display of testosterone that almost overshadowed his eyebrow-crinkle-worthy scream into his senile coach’s face. But at least he wasn’t as dramatic as Taylor biting her tongue and sipping her drink while getting publicly humiliated at the Golden Globes. Oh my god she’s insane she’s going to write a song about it. Somehow Travis’s screaming stunts were not his most disappointing of the night, as his apparent failure to call her dad and tell her to pick out a white dress left fans with teardrops on their guitars.

In the end, the lesson we’ve learned is the skinny blonde does end up with the football star who will end up winning the game, so all those 2000s rom-

coms apparently had it right. So far, she has kept his shirt and he has kept his word and we can’t wait to see where the two go next (or don’t go, in which case another new breakup album would almost certainly secure her 15th Grammy). Either works for us!

Ansley Washburn is a sophomore at Scripps College from Boston, MA. She only cares about Kelce in relation to Taylor Swift and takes pleasure in knowing how much offense some will take at that.

Harold Fuson is a sophomore at Pitzer College from Washington, DC. Now that the NFL season is over, he predicts that the next pop star-athlete romance will feature Dolly Parton and Dodgers’ superstar Shohei Ohtani. It’s a lock.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Eisenman dominated DIII national tennis rankings, leading the CMS team to rank #1 in the nation and dominating DI adversary UC San Diego. Eisenman won over UCSD women’s seed one in dominant fashion, sweeping with two set victories, and taking six straight games unanswered in set two. Eisenman also fought hard in doubles, teaming with Ella Briset CM ‘25 to win the doubles point for the team with a 7-5 victory.

Lindsay Eisenman

CM ‘26

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Women’s Tennis

Friday, February 16

baseball vs. Chicago

Men’s and Women’s Tennis vs. Point Loma

Women’s basketball vs. uC

Men’s

Men’s

Pomona-Pitzer

Hayden Moser

PO ’24 Tucson, AZ Men’s Basketball

Moser led the way from three during Pomona-Pitzer’s valentines day assault on Occidental, putting up 15 points, 11 above his season average, all from outside the arc. Moser shot at a clip of 87%, going 5-7 and only taking one standard field goal shot. Moser was really feeling the love in this game, setting season highs in blocks, rebounds and field goals made. With his dangerously hot hand in the lead, Pomona-Pitzer set a program record for made threes, sinking 22 from distance and shooting as a team with a mean 56.4%.

HarOLD FuSON • THe STuDeNT LIFe