Vol. CXXXV No. 14

ASPC and Divest

‘Come rain or shine’: 270 5C students walk out of classes to support ASPC referendum

KAHANI MALHOTRA

From

to

21,

mont Colleges and endorsed by 34 other on-campus student organizations. The referendum was meant to gather student opinions on divestment from companies associated with Israel, disclosure about their investments and academic boycotts from Israeli universities. 1,035 students participated in the vote.

Over 270 students donning masks, raincoats and umbrellas walked out of classes into the pouring rain Monday afternoon in support of the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) referendum on whether Pomona should divest from companies, including weapons manufacturers, that support the “apartheid system within the state of Israel.”

The demonstration was part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, a nationwide call to end Israel’s occupation of Gaza. The walkout was advertised

at a teach-in held on Thursday, Feb. 15 to discuss the referendum’s purpose as well as through social media. “This Presidents’ Day, we demand divestment, not dialogue,” Pomona Divest Apartheid stated in a Feb. 16 Instagram post. “This Presidents’ Day, we walk out.”

At 1:25 p.m., a group of 20 students began marching across Pomona’s campus, calling on their peers to join the walkout at Marston Quad. Their protest chants included, “Claremont students walk outside / the 5Cs fund genocide” and “Israel bombs, Pomona pays / how many kids did you kill today?”

rines and hit spoons against pots to create a beat for the chanting and to increase awareness of the group’s presence around Pomona’s classrooms. Protestors wore masks to protect their identities and provided spares to students who left their classes to join the march.

After marching throughout campus for around 25 minutes, the group returned to Marston Quad, where hundreds of 5C students, professors and organizers joined them. A handful of professors from the Claremont Faculty for Justice in Palestine, a new chapter established in support of

Some students shook tambou- See WALKOUT on page 2

A look into how dining halls across the 5Cs are celebrating Black History Month

COURTNEY CHEN &

YAHJAIRI CASTILLON

Adorned in black, red, yellow and green, several 5C dining halls are leading the way in celebrating Black History Month in Claremont. Through serving Black cultural cuisines, showcasing decorations and displaying educational materials, students and staff have worked to make places to eat, places to learn.

Pitzer College’s McConnell dining hall started the month with several initiatives. Ornamented with streamers featuring Black History Month’s official colors and educational posters commemorating influential historical figures, General Manager Miguel Menjivar explained that McConnell aims to honor and spread awareness of notable moments in Black history.

Menjivar said the preparation process involved collaboration with campus groups, including Pitzer’s Black Student Union (BSU).

“We got together with [Pitzer] BSU and started [preparing] last December,” Menjivar said. “We put together a program where we are going to be celebrating Black History Month [through] different articles of famous Black characters throughout history.”

Menjivar explained that several Pitzer BSU members selected

and researched these historical figures, creating educational infographics detailing their stories and placing them on all of the dining hall’s tables. Besides decorations and informative articles, McConnell is also offering a special menu featuring Black culinary cultural recipes every Wednesday of the month.

Pomona College’s BSU also worked alongside Pomona’s din-

ing halls to celebrate Black History Month. However, Jose Martinez, general manager of dining services at Pomona, said a lot of the initiative for celebrations at Frary and Frank dining halls also came from the staff.

“We work with [Pomona] BSU and the community to organize and celebrate Black History Month,” Martinez said to TSL via email. “Our staff are passionate

about celebrating Black history and heritage, within our team: Cathy Hicks, Aimee Lewis, Chef Marvin Love, Chef Kenneth LaCroix and Aaron Archer develop creative menus, ambiance and special events for our community.” Part of the Pomona initiative includes serving Southern Black cuisine such as muffuletta sandwiches, cajun sweet potato fries,

With so much of 7C life centered on campus, finding the time and money to venture away can be difficult. Whether you’re new to SoCal or looking for a spring break destination, hosts Hannah and Abbie share a plethora of places only a

shrimp and fries baskets, remoulade sauce, fried fish po’ boys and hushpuppies.

Pomona’s dining halls also worked with Pomona BSU to host this year’s blackout party.

“We are proud to partner with [Pomona] BSU to host the annual blackout party at [Smith Campus Center],” Martinez said. “We collaborate and define the menu items, decorations, music and facilitate special requests. Shout out to Precious Omomofe PO ’24, president of [Pomona] BSU, for a great blackout event this year!”

On another campus, Collins dining hall at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) also made an effort to celebrate Black culture. The staff noted that, although they have not put up decorations, they are including recipes such as Liberian jollof rice and a Mardi Gras-themed lunch to celebrate throughout the month. Staff said that they would welcome the idea of decorations to celebrate Black History Month and encouraged student initiative regarding these celebrations.

One example of student initiative regarding cultural celebrations was seen in October for a Day of the Dead altar. CMC’s Latine Club, Mi Gente, hosted the celebration

See BHM on page 3

uNITY TAMbeLLINI-SMITH • THe STuDeNT LIFe

KAHANI MALHOTRA • THe STuDeNT LIFe

On Monday, Feb. 19 more than 250 students gathered on Marston Quad in support of divestment from “the apartheid system in the state of Israel.”

Get your gavel out: 5C Mock Trial teams look forward

to championship tournament and reflect on successful Seasons

KAITLYN ULALISA & CAIDEN SEARCY

Mock trial teams from both Pomona College and Claremont McKenna College (CMC) have advanced to the Opening Round Championship Series Tournament (ORCS) in Los Angeles this March. Both teams received their bid following successes at the American Mock Trial Association’s Regional Tournament on Feb. 10 and 11.

For Pomona and CMC, this continues a trend of success. Both teams consistently rank in the top bracket at regionals and have entered the opening round of the championship series multiple times.

Each school’s team consists of multiple trial teams. For each school, around 25 students are split into three sections: the A, B and C team — which are decided based on skill.

This year, Pomona and CMC’s A-teams both advanced to the ORCS. However, CMC’s other two teams earned runner-up accolades, which put them on the waitlist.

Dylan Bousquette PO ’24, vice president of Pomona’s team, said their team’s sense of community and positive energy was key to the team’s success in their most recent competition.

“There were a lot of nerves, a lot of big feelings going into [the regional tournament],” he said. “As a program, we tend to do much better when we do have a good time and are focused on being optimistic … that really helped us perform better and took the pressure a little bit off of ourselves.”

Scripps College also sent a team to regionals but they did not receive a bid to advance. Despite their competitive season being over, Lillian Ellis SC ’24, president of Scripps’ team, expressed her pride over their performance at the regional competition.

“Our regional competition was the best performance we’ve had all year,” she said.

Each team at regionals consists of six to 10 students. At the tournament, teams competed a total of four times — twice on the prosecuting side and twice on the side of the defense.

Within each of these sides, three students will compete as attorneys and three as witnesses. In a six-person team, every member will compete on both the prosecuting and defense side of the case. Teams are then scored by judges in several functions at the conclusion of the trial.

According to Nicole Player PO ’24, captain of Pomona’s B team, the preparation that went into

getting the teams ready for the regional competition was extensive.

“We would practice once a week until about the week before a competition, where we were practicing every day,” she said. Player explained that practices typically consisted of members familiarizing themselves with the case law, studying the rules of evidence and preparing their speeches.

Hadley Iselin SC ’25, vice president of the Scripps mock trial team, described a similarly rigorous practice schedule.

“The Scripps team requires a lot of its members to meet two times a week,” Iselin said. “[This is in addition to] extensive individual reading and independent work.”

Ellis echoed this sentiment. She explained that mock trial is a major time commitment.

“We tell people at the beginning of the year it’s like adding another class,” she said. “Especially for the captains and members of the executive board, it’s an extremely big commitment.”

Ellis suggested that the student-run nature of their team added to this commitment. However, she said she enjoys the autonomy she feels it gives both herself and the team.

“We do all our own coordination and administration,” she said. “It’s been really empowering, not only to compete but to also organize it all ourselves.”

Brandolyn Thomas PO ’24, president of Pomona’s team, explained that they have a similar structure despite the fact that it’s relatively uncommon.

“A lot of schools that we go up against, the majority of them have a coach,” she said.

Beyond their student-run administrations, the mock trial teams at both Pomona and Scripps are similar in their relatively young demographics. For Iselin, the presence of so many new underclassmen members creates a lot of excitement.

“With such a young team, we’ve had a lot of growth,” Iselin said. “There’s a lot of potential I see for the future of Scripps’ mock trial.”

Lexi Duffy PO ’26, a member of Pomona’s team, had similarly positive things to say about Pomona’s young group of students. She tied the first-years directly to the success of the team at the regional competition, recalling how rewarding it was to see them work their way up and compete for the first time.

“We’ve got a really bright bunch and that really showed through,” she said.

Looking forward, Pomona and CMC’s teams are continuing their preparation for the ORCS tournament on March 8-10 in hopes of placing in the top sixth of teams, which would advance them to the national championship tournament.

Eva Pruitt CM ’25 said she is excited for what’s to come.

“We have such amazing team members who are all committed to the team’s success and collaborative culture,” she said. “It is so rewarding to compete together.”

Love, community and sweet treats: How the 5Cs celebrated Valentine’s Day

Love — and chocolate — were in the air on Feb. 14 as Valentine’s Day-themed events took place throughout the 5Cs, fostering community and giving students the opportunity to take a break from school and try a sweet treat instead.

The day began with “For the Love of Chocolate,” an event at Pomona College’s Smith Campus Center which featured a chocolate fountain, heart-shaped macarons, churros and individually potted succulents for students to take. Greeted by staff and employees outside the Coop Fountain, students gathered to take a break from their studies and enjoy the treats.

The event also featured Associated Students of Pomona College’s (ASPC) distribution of Candy Grams, small gifts including candy and a note which Pomona students

could send to another student via a Google Form. Alongside ASPC, the Pomona class deans handed out 21 Choices vouchers, candy bags and chips to the first 100 takers, which produced a long line of students hoping to make the cut.

Tamarah Al Mozani PO ’27 said she felt the event was a nice addition to her day.

“My friend Lindsay told me about it and I thought it was really cute so I thought I would stop by,” Al Mozani said. This Valentine’s event was more than just a chance for students to score some sweets; it also featured an opportunity for Pomona’s Facilities and Campus Services to showcase what their department has to offer.

Dennys Bustamante, manager for Pomona’s Facilities and Campus Services, noted that many students do not know what the

department entails.

“We wanted to promote our facilities,” Bustamante said. “We have a big umbrella and a lot of people don’t know. They just think facilities are maintenance but we have sustainability and we have our dining department. We wanted to showcase a little bit of what we do.”

Along with the chocolate fountain station provided by the dining department, representatives from other departments also used the event to showcase their work. The Sustainability Office talked to students about the Office’s services, letting students know that there is cookware available to be checked out.

Bustamante also noted that Valentine’s Day was a good day to host the event because it would help students build community. Al Mozani agreed that the 5Cs

were successful in making Valentine’s Day a little more special.

“I think they [did] a pretty good job,” Al Mozani said. “It’s pretty inclusive all around.”

Another Valentine’s Day event held by Pomona’s Womxn’s Union on the second floor of Walker Hall allowed students to grab some chicken wings, eat desserts and participate in various Valentine’s Day activities. Mia Sawicki PO ’24 made Valentine’s Day cards at the event. She emphasized the importance of relaxing activities that give students a break from their demanding academic workload.

“I love getting the time to do non-academic things during events like this,” Sawicki said. “We really wanted to make Valentine’s cards so we’ve been wanting to go to the Hive to do it. So I saw [the event announcement] and

was like, we have to go, this is our opportunity.”

Sawicki noted that students’ moods at the event appeared excited and less stressed, even in the midst of midterm season.

“I feel like it’s super easy to get bogged down and stressed with midterms and stuff, but these events kind of remind you to do something else,” Sawicki said.

Sawicki said that the Womxn’s Union event helped her feel more ingrained into the Pomona community.

“I love events like this,” Sawicki said. “I think it’s so fun and I think it really brings the community together and you get to meet new people. I love Valentine’s Day so it has made this day ten times better.”

To conclude the day of festivities, Scripps Associated Students (SAS) hosted a Valentine’s Fundraiser at Seal Court where they sold various baked goods. Seal Court had previously been adorned with paper hearts donning the name of every Scripps College student for their friends to write love messages on.

Sarah Paper SC ’25, one of the students running the baked goods booth, explained how the event not only helped celebrate Valentine’s Day, but also assisted SAS in funding for future celebrations.

“It presented a good opportunity to do this fundraiser,” Paper said. “We’re planning on doing a few throughout the semester to raise money for our events.”

The funds from this event will go towards the Scripps 5C party on April 19. Paper recognized the importance of these funds but also noted that an event on Valentine’s Day helps celebrate all types of love, not solely romantic ones.

“On our flyer it said this could be ‘For your Valentine, galentine, or yourself,’ so there is all different types of love and we want to celebrate that,” Paper said.

Another student, Jenna Thrasher SC ’25, agreed with the sentiment that Valentine’s Day is special and hosting these types of events is a nice way to celebrate each other.

“Valentine’s Day is fun because, especially [for] those who are single, I think it’s nice for us to do something for each other and celebrate friendship and love,” Thrasher said. “I think that’s what is really sweet.”

AMEYA TELI

COuRTeSY: bRANDOLYN THOMAS

Mock trial teams from across the 5Cs competed in the American Mock Trial Association’s Regional Tournament on Feb. 10 and 11.

WALKOUT: Students demand

Pomona

divests

Continued from page 1

pro-Palestinian organizing on campus, were also present.

Students were ushered into a circle around the walkout leaders where safety guidelines were then read. The guidelines reminded students to conceal their identities with masks to avoid engaging with Campus Security and to protect brown, Black, Palestinian, SWANA and Muslim students from being photographed or identified.

“It’s everyone and no one,” one of the organizers said. “We have safety in numbers and collective anonymity.”

Another organizer then transitioned into announcing news updates on the situation in Gaza. They cited the ground invasion of Rafah on Feb. 12 during which over 60 people were killed, the lack of food and aid reaching northern parts of the city and the “scholasticide” — systematic destruction of university and educational hubs — committed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

“Twenty-nine thousand martyred,” one of the organizers said to the crowd. “Fifteen every hour of every day for the past 135 days. One Gazan every four minutes. On this Presidents’ Day, intended to celebrate the ‘brilliance’ of our renowned leaders, we condemn all presidents, including our very own Gina Gabrielle Starr.”

The organizers also denounced some of Pomona President Gabrielle Starr’s previous decisions, citing her refusal to divest from fossil fuels in 2019, her barring of students from a faculty meeting in 2020 regarding COVID-19 grading policy and her condemnation of ASPC’s decision to pass a BDS resolution in 2021.

“I want to point out the irony that, in 2021, [Starr said ASPC] was ‘wrong’ for not asking students their opinions before having a resolution,” the organizer said. “Now that we’re having a referendum, [Starr is saying] we’re also wrong.”

Pomona Chief Communications Officer Mark Kendall commented on the walkout and the referendum on behalf of the college.

“The college is committed to thoughtful dialogue and mutual respect,” Kendall said in an email to TSL. “We will continue to engage with students and the wider campus community on key issues.”

He further commented on how Pomona’s administration would handle their endowments and investments in

light of this walkout and the referendum’s results.

“We will continue to provide information, context and education on college finances, including the endowment,” Kendall said in an email to TSL. “(The recent endowment webinar and Q&A for all students is one example). We will not practice investment exclusion singling out any nationality, nation or region.

An organizer of the walkout criticized Starr and the Pomona administration’s emphasis on dialogue over action, citing the historical impact of campus movements.

“There is no dialogue in a genocide, Gabrielle,” the organizer said. “Campus movements to divest, including Pomona’s, were instrumental in ending South African apartheid.”

The organizer emphasized Pomona Divest Apartheid’s demands to the college.

“We will show up, rain or shine, until Pomona discloses, divests, adheres to an academic boycott, publicly calls for a ceasefire, publicly condemns Israel’s apartheid and genocide and institutes anti-discrimination policies that actually work,” the same organizer said. “Until then, Pomona College, with Gina Gabrielle Starr at its helm, has blood on its hands.”

The organizers then moved into reading speeches written by three Pomona students who claimed to have been pulled into disciplinary hearings this semester.

“The school has cracked down on our efforts at mere non-violent demonstration by mobilizing its army of overpaid, untalented, predominantly cis straight white wealthy men, [the] middle-managing goons and ordering them to act as prosecutors in unfounded and unnecessary judicial board proceedings,” one of the organizers read from a student’s testimonial.

All three students emphasized how they perceived their hearings to be baseless and how their time — which they explained could have been spent studying, applying for internships, protesting, or spent doing other productive things — was used preparing for their disciplinary hearings.

“To Gabi Starr, Brandon Jackson and the grimacing Zionist bastards that circle these protests with their phones recording, I simply have a question,” another organizer read from a different speech. “How does

it feel? As the [Israel Defense Forces] drops bombs, turning universities like this to rubble, ripping bodies limb from limb, and making orphans out of children, how does it feel that all you can do is punish your community members for bringing it to your attention? I ask you, is that the proper way to criticize a genocide?”

The student whose testimonial was read by an organizer thanked their peers for helping them advocate for themselves during their disciplinary hearing while criticizing the “idiotic deans” who were unable to guide them through the process.

“My disciplinary sanctions do not scare me and they definitely should not scare any of us,” they said. “We are more powerful together and we keep each other safe.”

After the three speeches concluded, the rain picked up; however,

“We know how important this referendum is because we know that admin is scared.They do not want the referendum to happen because it threatens their fantasy of pro-Palestine organizing as being a small, unreasonable minority of predominantly nonPomona students.”

Anonymous organizer

the protestors remained, shielding each other with umbrellas as the organizers began discussing the referendum.

Earlier that day, at 12:09 p.m., Pomona students received a ballot from ASPC to vote on the referendum. However, technical errors caused the initial ballot to be rescinded. Those who had already voted were asked to vote again using the new ballot sent out at 2:03 p.m. that same day.

To increase the number of students who voted, the organizers allotted time during the walkout for Pomona students to submit their referendum ballots. A “yes” vote on all five questions would mean a student’s endorsement of full disclosure and divestment.

“We know how important this referendum is because we know

that admin is scared,” one organizer said. “They do not want the referendum to happen because it threatens their fantasy of pro-Palestine organizing as being a small, unreasonable minority of predominantly non-Pomona students. We, the hundreds of students gathered here today, know that this is not the case. Admin knows this too, which is why they are so clearly threatened.”

They went on to condemn Starr’s Feb. 16 email to the Pomona student body, in which she criticized the referendum for being “painful” and condemned ASPC’s decision to host it.

“My concerns about the referendum are deep, and come down to not only who I believe we are, but how I believe we should tackle difficult questions,” Starr wrote. “As a campus community devoted to openness, learning and mutual respect, we need to find our way to common ground in the face of sharply divergent commitments.”

One organizer expressed their frustration with Starr’s argument.

“In one breath, she speaks about the imperative for community dialogue, while simultaneously actively attempting to suppress a student-sanctioned form of opinion gathering,” they said.

Although protestors were enthusiastic about voting during the walkout, with many pulling out their devices, the process of casting their ballot was more complex than simply clicking on “yes” or “no”: The ballot was structured in rankchoice format, meaning students needed to vote “1” for yes and “2” or “--” for no, which caused some confusion at the walkout.

After those at the walkout finished voting, one of the organizers closed with a speech.

“Over her quote-unquote renowned tenure, Gabi has tried time and time and time again to arrest, to fire, to suspend and to suppress,” they said. “But it has not and will not claw our vibrant resistance against the Zionist regime. Gabi’s tyrannical reign will end.”

The organizer emphasized how the walkout had disrupted tours at Pomona, disillusioning “hundreds of potential Pomona customers.”

They concluded the walkout with an ardent message.

“President Gina Gabrielle Starr at Alexander Hall, we will come back, rain or shine.”

BHM: 5C dining halls celebrate Black culture

Continued from page 1

at the entrance of Collins. TSL reached out to Mi Gente’s President Javier Gonzalez CM ’24 to speak about the process of organizing a celebration such as this one and why Collins was chosen as the location.

“We wanted it to be somewhere on campus and we thought that Collins would be a very central place to have the altar so people can see it, people can celebrate [and] learn,” Gonzalez said.“We got to have a lot of faculty, a lot of staff involved in this. It means a lot to us and I know it means a lot to them.”

According to students, the platform that dining halls hold in the colleges, as buildings frequented daily by 5C students, gives them a unique responsibility during celebrations. Sydney Fouch SC ’27 spoke about the opportunity these spaces hold for teaching students about Black History Month.

“Since the dining halls are so connected with the school, I think it is really important for holidays like this to be celebrated [there],” Fouch said. “Having a bulletin board or maybe just a little section of the dining hall dedicated to that would be really cool.”

Alexia Ortiz CM ’25 expressed her appreciation for the dining hall’s efforts to put up decorations and include foods that celebrate different cultures.

“I feel like food is such a big aspect of different cultures,” she said. “They can take the opportunity to educate people on [Black History Month] and have some decorations and then be like, ‘Here’s why this is so important to the culture and [to] educate people on why.”

If you have not yet gotten the chance to try any special meals this month, Martinez said he recommends everyone head to Frary today to try Chef Marvin Love’s cooking,

“Chef Marvin Love is planning a variety of specials at Frary … [he] is doing a crab cake special this Friday, Feb. 23, don’t miss it!”

A look into CMC’s Black Men in Leadership club, one year after its inception

LUCY JAFFEE

Black Men in Leadership (BMIL), a student-led organization at Claremont McKenna College (CMC), celebrates their one-year anniversary this month. Since its creation in 2023, BMIL has cultivated a strong, diverse community with a shared goal: Cultivating an atmosphere where Black male leaders at CMC can form relationships and initiate change.

Elijah Touzoukou CM ’26 founded BMIL as a first-year student. In an email to TSL, he explained that he was inspired by his experiences growing up in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he said he was “immersed in the heart of HBCU culture at an early age.”

Prior to entering college, Touzoukou attended an academic program at nearby North Carolina A&T State University for Black youth. He highlighted the impact of the program and noted that it served as an inspiration for the creation of BMIL.

“Dreams just feel like fantasies when you’re by yourself, but they start to feel attainable when you have a team,” Touzoukou said about the program.

Touzoukou explained that BMIL was formed to reflect this mindset and to create a supportive community where Black, male-identifying leaders at CMC could prosper socially, intellectually and academically.

Last year, Touzoukou reached out to fellow students about starting BMIL. Giovanni Pierre CM ’25, current Senior Advisor of the club said he was immediately excited by the club’s mission to build community, mentorship and professional development.

“I was wanting to help in any way possible,” Pierre said.

As founder and president, Touzoukou describes his responsibilities as “twofold.” He is responsible for directing the organization’s mission, collaborating with the Executive Board to implement these ideas and for offering a platform where members can share their experiences and expertise.

BMIL members come together in bi-weekly dinners to organize sessions to provide academic support, as well as collaborative events such as the Black History Month

block party hosted on Feb. 17.

According to Timi Balogun CM ’24, a Senior Advisor for the club, the community within BMIL aims to promote diversity of perspectives and strength in members’ differences.

“We have very different experiences and those aren’t things that should drive us apart,” Balogun said. “They should bring us closer.” According to Pierre, BMIL members develop “big-brother” relationships where more senior members offer support and advice for navigating social and academic life at CMC to younger students.

The relationships formed across grade levels are honored in their annual Rose Ceremony. At this event, which will take place this spring, seniors and graduating members of the organization will be celebrated. Touzoukou talked about the importance of

their older members.

“Without [the seniors’] contributions, Black Men in Leadership would not be what it is today,” Touzoukou said. Recently, the club has gone beyond current students and expanded its outreach to admitted high schoolers. On Feb. 7, Jennifer Sandoval-Dancs, associate vice president for Admission and Financial Aid at CMC announced in an email to the CMC community that BMIL would be partnering with CMC’s Office of Admission and the Kravis Lab for Social Impact to help connect current students with admitted students.

Sandoval-Dancs explained in her email that this new opportunity would allow current CMC students to be involved in “outreach to admitted students, such as phone calls and emails, serving on panels, hosting students for shadow days and meeting with

admitted students and their families locally and in [their] hometown.” This program will be offered to admitted students beginning this spring. Last year, BMIL members proposed and launched this outreach initiative to CMC’s Office of Admission with support from Vernon Grigg, executive director of the Kravis Lab for Social Impact and Jerry Morrison, associate dean of Admission for Diversity and Strategic Initiatives. Events Coordinator and Senior Advisor Julian Rivera-Williams CM ’25 also suggested that the initiative was meant to contribute to general outreach efforts for minority students.

“We were thinking about ways we can create new student jobs on this campus too and also outreach to more minorities,” he said.

According to CMC’s fall 2023 census, only 5 percent of students at CMC identify as Black, while Black Americans make up 13.6 percent of the national population.

“It’s difficult to find people like you here when you are a Black person or a person of color, in general,” Pierre said. “There are certain struggles that you might have that are unique to your identity or might be augmented in certain ways because of your identity.”

BMIL guides new members through internship recruitment, taking advantage of on-campus opportunities and generally navigating the transition to college.

Balogun said that BMIL creates a tight-knit community on campus where members can turn to each other for support throughout their college journeys.

“BMIL is that team you can go further with, as opposed to going by yourself,” he said.

‘The Barber of Little Rock’: Reviving the lifeblood of communities

The consequences of a segregated economy remain ever present in the discriminatory financial institutions of today. This is the system Arlo Washington fights against in the Oscar-nominated documentary, “The Barber of Little Rock.”

The documentary, directed by John Hoffman and Christine Turner, features Washington, a barber in Little Rock, Arkansas who founded the nonprofit community bank People Trust and the Washington Barber College.

The film was screened at Pitzer College’s Benson Auditorium on Feb. 20, followed by a panel discussion with Hoffman, Washington, Pitzer philosophy professor Ahmed Alwishah and William Marshall PZ ’25. The discussion was moderated by Jan Barker Alexander, the vice president for Student Affairs at Pitzer.

People Trust, founded in Little Rock in 2008 and certified by the U.S. treasury as a community development financial institution (CDFI), is the sole bank within a 10-mile radius of the majority Black section of the city. The bank aims to reduce poverty by increasing access to financial services and improving credit availability.

“The Barber of Little Rock” highlights Washington’s work at the bank and his efforts to combat the effects of generations of segregation and systematic racism against the city’s African American community.

Specifically, Washington’s mission is to combat the racial wealth gap and help his community create generational wealth.

“The racial wealth gap is … a trillion dollar problem … it’s a never-ending story,” Washington said in the documentary. “I’m trying to … stop the bleeding effects of generational poverty [through] investment in resources. My purpose in life is to advance equity, create opportunities and build the community.”

The film depicted the effects of redlining and the deeply segregated structure of Little Rock where in 1985 the newly constructed highway I-630 cut into the Black business district, displacing thousands and creating a division between the rich and poor. South of I-630, a primarily Black area with 30,000 residents has no banks, while the predominantly white northern area with 8,000 people has 14 banks. The film explained that by denying people of color loans to live in particular neighborhoods, Black individuals lose trust in financial institutions.

The documentary utilized an immersive filmmaking approach.

As part of their filming process, Hoffman and Turner followed Washington’s day-to-day activities for an entire year. This was a divergence from the style of typical documentaries because it eschewed interviews with “talkinghead” experts, choosing instead to amplify community voices in a professional studio setting.

“We said … what if we treat those people stylistically from a filmic standpoint as the experts,” Hoffman said. “They are experts in the lived experience of all of the issues … that needed to be part of this film.” Black bank customers were also interviewed about their definitions of concepts such as justice and ownership in a series of emotional, deeply personal conversations with the filmmakers.

An audience member asked the panelists to define the American Dream, a question posed to community members in the film. Marshall remarked that the American Dream is a reality for only a small set of people.

“For a lot more people, it takes an extremely disproportionate amount of work to see any [or] minimal profits … I think that also just means that we can create any standard of success that we want,” Marshall said. “Who’s to say that the American Dream is the only dream worth striving for? Being beholden to standards that at least feel impossible to reach [is a] sign to maybe look at different things to achieve or at least different ways to go about it.”

Alwishah asked about Washington’s view of capital as the lifeblood of the community and how it informs his holistic approach to his current work at People Trust.

Washington responded that many members of the Black community

cannot access loans due to a lack of credit history. People Trust, he says, remedies this by offering small loans and grants to help local Black individuals find housing and become entrepreneurs. He also provides education about financial literacy. Through these channels, Black community members have the opportunity to build credit without facing punitive loans.

Washington also trains people at the Washington Barber College, creating over 1,500 jobs in his community over the last decade alone. “We want to provide an alternative way of banking for community members … the capillaries of the community helped to circulate the blood … if capital is not circulating in a community, the community declines and it creates concentrated poverty,” Washington said. “Think about [how]

financial institutions that are taking deposits from these communities … like sucking the blood out of them but not letting it go back.”

Attendee Evie Burrows White PZ ’26 found the effectiveness of the CDFI program to be a welcome surprise.

“It’s so rare to see something that the government is offering that actually has benefits to people who are marginalized and isn’t just a performative action,” Burrows White said.

Attendee Kebokile Dengu-Zvobgo, the interim vice president for Study Abroad and International Programs at Pitzer, was unsurprised by the mass scale of segregation featured on camera but surprised to learn about the different ways it manifested into economic discrimination.

“I wanted to hear a different story … It’s the story I’ve heard before, almost like a song you’ve heard before,” Dengu-Zvobgo said. “The lyrics are the same, but the melody is different.”

A Civil Rights Love Story: Medgar and Myrlie Evers

ADRIANA MACIEL

In 1979, when asked to name three influential civil rights leaders, writer and activist James Baldwin came up with three names: Malcolm, Martin and Medgar. While most Americans have likely learned about the legacy of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., the general public remains largely unaware of Medgar Evers’ work. Joy-Ann Reid, host of the primetime MSNBC show “The ReidOut” and New York Times best-selling author, is setting out to change that.

On Feb. 15, Reid spoke at Pomona College’s Bridges Auditorium as part of her book tour featuring “Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America.” The biography, which was published on Feb. 2, delves into the legacy of civil rights activists Medgar Evers and Myrlie Evers-Williams PO ’68.

In “Medgar and Myrlie,”

Reid details the beginning of Medgar’s involvement with the civil rights movement, his love story with his wife Myrlie, who is now 90 years old, his assassination and the impact of

his wife’s fight for justice on his own work. Medgar’s activism began during his military service in World War II, where he and many other Black servicemen were shocked at how differently they were treated compared to their white counterparts. Eventually, Medgar’s career took him back to his home state of Mississippi, where he led the secret search for witnesses willing to come forward in the Emmett Till lynching case as an NAACP field officer. Till’s case became instrumental in raising awareness of domestic terror -

ism committed against Black Americans.

Reid emphasized the impact of Medgar’s work in Mississippi and in the civil rights movement as a whole.

“[He is] the connective tissue between these stories,” Reid said.

Reid was also upfront about the fact that Medgar didn’t work alone.

When Myrlie Evers-Williams (née Beasley) went off to college, she was instructed to stay away from three types of people: upperclassmen, football players and veterans. She would end up falling for a handsome Medgar, who was all three.

When it came to activism, Myrlie had a different mindset than that of her husband, Medgar. According to Reid, whereas Medgar was taught to “fight inequality,” Myrlie was taught to “withstand” how things were.

While supportive of Medgar’s work, Myrlie was concerned for his safety because Mississippi was one of the most hostile states towards Black people. Still, Medgar insisted on staying in Mississippi. He loved his state, even if his state did not love him, Reid said. It wasn’t until the Evers’ home was firebombed on May 28, 1963 that Myrlie became emboldened to fight for justice alongside Medgar. As she argued with police to save her home from the fire amidst mounting death threats towards her husband, she came to a crucial realization.

“[Myrlie] understood that he was not going to make it out of this fight but she would have to make it for him,” Reid said. Medgar was assassinated on June 12, 1963 at his home in Jackson, Mississippi.

Myrlie is considered the first civil rights-era widow to be publicized. She worked for three decades to seek justice for her late husband, fighting to convict Medgar’s murderer, Klu Klux Klan member Byron De La Beck, after he was acquitted by an allwhite jury in 1964.

Myrlie, who graduated from Pomona College in 1968, has since authored numerous books on civil rights, served as chairwoman of the NAACP and was the first-ever woman to deliver an inaugural invocation at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.

In 1964, a year after his death,

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act on Medgar’s birthday.

Pomona Black Student Union president Precious Omomofe PO ’24, who gave the welcoming remarks at the event, expressed admiration for Myrlie’s activism as well as for Medgar and Myrlie’s love for eachother.

“I [am] genuinely in awe of her, the things she’s done and, even at 90, continues to do,” Omomofe said. “She changed so many people’s lives [and] risked her life to continue the work of her late husband. It was inspiring to see a pure Black love story. Myrlie truly supported Medgar and without her, he couldn’t have made a long-lasting impact and vice versa.”

Towards the end of the talk, Reid turned towards the audience and announced that Myrlie wanted to have a word. To the collective shock of the auditorium, Myrlie, who was not announced to have been in attendence, stood up from the audience and received a standing ovation.

Myrlie’s inspirational words geared up a new generation of activists.

“The game being played has not been completed,” Myrlie said. “[At least not until] America becomes whatever America says she is.”

When asked what she believed Medgar would think of our current political situation, Reid said that he would be “supportive” of organizations such as Black Lives Matter but “disappointed [that] we still have to” stand up to injustice.

“If America doesn’t get it together, the [United States] will go to hell,” Reid chimed in, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. She also shared later that she is in awe of the younger American generation’s bravery in showing solidarity with those who are oceans away.

Omomofe reflected on Myrlie and Reid’s words at Bridges Auditorium as well as Myrlie’s work in general.

“No one could relate to her experience initially, being the first widow of a prominent civil right activist, she just gets going,” Omomofe said. “She found her motivation and drive amidst her grief but never let the grief get to her. To me, this can be applied to many different aspects of a person’s life. Don’t give up until you see the change that you want to happen.”

ANNIKA WHITE • THE STuDENT LIFE

ADrIANA MACIEL • THE STuDENT LIFE

Oscar-nominated documentary barber of Little rock screened at Pitzer’s benson Auditorium on Feb. 20.

Joy-Ann reid spoke on the legacies of activists Medgar Evers and Myrlie Evers-Williams PO ‘68 at Pomona College’s big bridges Auditorium on Feb. 15.

Arts & Culture

From the Renaissance to Modern Art, new Benton exhibits celebrates the beauty of drawings through the centuries

On the evening of Feb. 17, visitors gathered at an “Adventures in Collecting Drawings” reception to celebrate the opening of two new exhibits at Pomona College’s Benton Museum of Art. Titled “500 Years of Italian Drawings” and “Infinity on Paper,” the two vastly different collections put drawing on the map in the world of art curation.

“In [a] museum context, drawings are at once acknowledged as the basis for all artistic expression, architecture, sculpture, painting, printmaking and yet they rarely get featured as the protagonists of art historical narratives,” Victoria Sancho Lobis, director of the Benton, said.

Curated in partnership with the Benton’s AllPaper Seminar fellows, “Infinity on Paper” aims to highlight the enduring relevance of line drawing as an accessible, universal art form.

“Drawings — any sort of drawings — are exciting to see featured so prominently in a museum,” Benton visitor Lela Tilney-Kaemmer SC ’27 said. “I think they can remind us of childhood, of crafting for your own pleasure. There’s a sense of childlike wonder and freedom in a drawing exhibit.”

Enclosed in two adjoining rooms, the exhibit displays works dating from the 16th century to the present day and highlights a wide variety of different styles, forms and approaches to the craft of drawing.

In curating the exhibit, collector Jack Shear intentionally omitted typical museum plaques — none of the artist’s names or curated explanations are attached to the walls of drawings, allowing the eye to wander freely and leaving no room for interpretive labels.

The frames are placed together in a tight but formless lattice, creating an eclectic collage against the backdrop of the gallery’s smooth white walls.

“It’s interesting to have it feel like a collage,” museum patron Anika Yoshida SC ’27 said. “Without the name plaques interrupting, the images flow more freely between each other.”

The juxtaposition of different styles, colors, lines, shades and shapes illustrates the versatility of drawing and encourages viewers to view each piece not as a solitary product, but rather as one brushstroke in a larger picture.

On the west wall of one of the gallery’s smaller enclosed rooms, a simple white canvas stands out in both size and subject.

GUS GINGRICH

There comes a time in every sneaker-turned-fashion-enthusiast’s life when the realization occurs that the rest of an outfit matters just as much, if not more, than the pair of shoes on your feet. It’s truly a sad moment — until you look around and realize how ridiculous people look wearing hoodies and sweatpants with sneakers worth $2,000 on the resale market.

Clearly, people seem to be coming to their senses, because nowadays fashion as a whole is much more popular than sneakers. Donald Trump’s recent appearance at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia will only accentuate this trend.

But where did it all go wrong?

How did we go from the glory days of Supreme campouts and Yeezy splash pages to a world where maybe one major sneaker release each month fully sells out?

For proper context, we need to travel back to 2020. The pandemic hits, but the sneaker market is absolutely booming.

Kanye West is still putting out new shoes, USPS/UPS/FedEx are all up and running and Nike, Adidas, New Balance and Reebok are thriving. People are spending their stimulus checks on Travis Scott Nike SB Dunks instead of food for the month. Life is bliss.

Now fast-forward to almost two years later, in late 2021. People are coming to accept their new normal and inflated prices from the pandemic are making their way back down to earth.

Nike’s premier silhouette for the last few years, the Air Jordan 1, has been vastly overproduced and is now selling for under retail in most colorways. People are also discovering new social media platforms like TikTok that promote different sneakers or ways to dress instead of the same styles that have saturated the sneaker market of recent memory. Kanye has swapped his Yeezy Boosts for Balenciaga Crocs. Even Balenciaga itself has stopped placing such a heavy emphasis on its sneakers, choosing to focus instead on different types of footwear.

If you’re a guy getting into fashion, you’re watching videos on what kind of loafers and Sam-

Andrea Bower’s “#justiceforjanedoe” traces three women standing in protest, together taking up only a small fraction of the large, blank page. Situated in the context of the 2012 Steubenville, Ohio rape case, this intimate hand-drawn portrait utilizes negative space to draw attention to the dark, solitary figures at the bottom.

Captivated by this moving piece, Tilney-Kaemmer expressed gratitude for the Benton as a space for students to find inspiration and connect with art.

“It’s nice to always have the option to do some critical thinking that’s self-motivated and doesn’t take place in a classroom,” Tilney-Kaemmer said.

Across the hallway, the lighting dims and the spaces between

the drawings grow as one enters the “500 Years of Italian Drawings” exhibit, also spread throughout multiple rooms. Spanning numerous centuries of Italian art history, the exhibition showcases over 90 rare works of notable artists, including Michelangelo, Parmigianino and Bernini. On loan from the Princeton University Art Museum, the exhibit is organized along thematic lines with each section showcasing artists’ individual techniques and creative processes. Visitors can browse the gallery’s catalog to find artist descriptions as well as colorful images of famous paintings adorning the walls of cathedrals and castles across Western Eu -

rope. In the context of the artists’ final products, the yellowed pages covered in sketches and grids take on a new life, each an integral piece of the creation process and a critical step in the making of a masterpiece. Tucked into a back corner of the viewing room, two intricate, pocket-sized sketches done in brown ink sit parallel to each other, framed in salmon washed paper. The striking nature of Parmigianino’s “Two Studies for Figure of Victory” is further illuminated by a glance in the gallery’s catalog, which displays images of the final product of his drawings: the “Saint Vitalis” Fresco. Located at the church of San Giovanni in Parma, Italy, Parmigianino’s fresco is only

one example of how this exhibition’s sketches can be viewed as valuable insight into the creation process of renowned works of art. The exhibitions “Infinity on Paper” and “500 Years of Italian Drawings” are open from the second week of February through June 23, 2024.

Additionally, the Benton is currently housing “Stitch Field: Alice-Marie Archer’s Agritextiles” and “Continuity: Cahuilla Basket Weavers and their Legacies,” which are also open to visitors throughout the spring semester. The Benton, located at 120 West Bonita Ave, is open for free admission from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, as well as Thursday night’s “Art After Hours,” which lasts until 10:00 pm.

The post-sneaker world

bas to style with your vintage Carhartt outfit — not what kind of Yeezys to wear with your Supreme hoodie.

“But where did it all go wrong? How did we go from the glory days of Supreme campouts and Yeezy splash pages to a world where maybe one major sneaker release each month fully sells out?”

Times have changed and multiple factors are at play. Mostly, though, it’s the long-winded entanglement between streetwear and high fashion that’s to blame.

I hate talking about Virgil Abloh because everyone talks about Virgil Abloh. But he

is a great example of said entanglement solely because when he went to Louis Vuitton, he didn’t make screen-printed hoodies and basketball sneakers like he did for Off-White and Nike. He made legitimate (albeit streetwear-inspired) high-fashion looks. And people bought them.

I’m not saying that he alone caused this cultural transition, but when a celebrated streetwear designer succeeds in marketing high-fashion looks to formerly streetwear clientele, the trickle-down effect via celebrities and social media is massive. At the very least, it opens the door for brands other than Louis Vuitton that make more affordable clothes that toe the

line between streetwear and more formal, thoughtful looks. Aimé Leon Dore (ALD) surged in popularity because of how gracefully it navigated these two stylistic camps and leaned heavily into the latter as the tastes of the general public began to evolve. Now, we’re in a world where the jacket or pants you wear matter just as much as the pair of shoes on your feet. And honestly, thank goodness for that. So — where do we go from here, with the playing field leveled? It turns out there’s a lot more variety to sneaker alternatives than there is to sneakers themselves.

Luckily enough, if you’ve adopted a certain aesthetic, there’s practically a predetermined option that works better with most of your outfits than anything else.

For those still on the ALD train, loafers and Timberlands are always a safe bet. Larger silhouettes tend to pair well with bulkier options like combat or engineer boots, but I am personally enamored with the big pant/small pointy shoe combo. For that, derbies, some loafers and even slippers like Bode’s house shoes are perfect.

Realistically, though, very few people dress the same every day and even those who do appreciate a little variety. I tend to prefer boots, but even within that category of shoe, there are many different constructions, materials and silhouettes to work with. Hiking boots go with streetwear outfits, backzips can be more formal and designers like Rick Owens who make absurd boots resembling any of the ballast designs can provide a chic, unique look to anyone willing to pay. While a lot of innovation in this category may come from designer brands, most sneaker alternatives have been around forever, so there exists a wide range of affordable second-hand options.

Not that anyone cares in 2024, but just for the sake of continuity, Kanye’s latest footwear of choice are old military bunny boots, conveniently available for less than $100 across all e-commerce platforms.

Seriously, though — you won’t know exactly what you’re looking for until you’re able to try stuff on with outfits you wear consistently. Comfort is an important element here, too; most sneakers can be daily drivers, but hard-soled shoes are notoriously rougher on the feet. So experiment and figure out what works best for you, even if that’s sneakers!

There’s certainly no shame in being different from Kanye anymore.

Gus Gingrich PO ’24 is from Walnut Creek, California. In his free time, he enjoys stressing over being outbid on Japanese auction websites and mocking up re-designs for his dorm room closet.

TALIA bErNSTEIN • THE STuDENT LIFE

CLAIRE WELCH

CLArEMONT COrE

Two new line drawing exhibits opened at the benton Museum of Art on Feb. 17.

An exploration of censorship and desensitization in ‘We Had To Remove This Post’

CAROLINE KELLY

Social media companies aim to promise greater safety and security through the function of flagging and reporting posts. But the question remains: Where does content go to be reviewed and who has the power to decide what is deemed harmful?

The novella “We Had to Remove This Post” by Hanna Bervoets investigates this by diving into the life of content moderators.

Totaling just over 100 pages, “We Had to Remove This Post” was originally published in Dutch by Bervoets in 2021 and translated to English by Emma Rault in 2022. It’s a petite but addictive read to be devoured in just a matter of hours.

The novella opens with a punch: “So what kind of things did you see?” This opening sentence projects a sense of urgency and opens up infinite possibilities for the dire subject matter that will be revealed. I found myself grasped right from the beginning and I buckled up for the impending world of disturbing chaos.

The protagonist of the story is Kayleigh, a content reviewer at an ambiguous social media company called Hexa. In her job, Kayleigh evaluates flagged posts and determines whether they should be reposted as before, remain on the site with warnings, or be completely removed. As expected by the mysterious and foreboding first sentence, the content is sickening and graphic.

The tension in “We Had to Remove This Post” is derived from an underlying but ever present lawsuit brewing against Hexa. It is revealed that past employees are suing the company for mental abuse. For me, this premise

Vija

made the entire book feel like the unveiling of a major secret.

Within the first few chapters, the mental deterioration of the workers resulting from the problematic content being reviewed becomes alarmingly present. One example of this is when one of Kayleigh’s co-workers struggles to determine whether a video of two dead kittens should be removed; the debate is whether the content could be counted as animal abuse as the cats are already dead. Such experiences occur repeatedly throughout a single day for each of the workers.

The employees’ mental deterioration becomes adamantly clear when Hexa employees automatically assume that the construction

workers fixing the roof of an adjacent building are planning to die by suicide. This assumption is not only horrific and devastating but also a demonstration of the catastrophic influence the content has on their minds.

The impact of Kayleigh’s job impacts her personal life, too. Throughout the book, she has three romantic relationships. The first one is with a woman named Barabra who devastates Kayleigh by wanting to bring in a third; the second is with Yena, who is manipulative and leeches off of her; the third is Sigrid, a coworker described as having an irresistible air of coolness.

Kayleigh’s encounters with Sigrid begin as hook-ups at the office

and soon morph into an emotional relationship. As the novel progresses and their work takes a deeper toll on their mental health, Sigrid loses the ability for emotional capacity and Kayleigh becomes overbearingly obsessive over their relationship. When Sigrid changes her shifts post-breakup, Kayleigh begins showing up to work at odd hours and stalking the building in hopes of reconnecting.

“Maybe falling in love isn’t filling up a loyalty card with feelings and actions so much as just adding two things together: desire plus fear, ” Bervoets writes, portraying the melding of work and personal life. “The desire had appeared fairly suddenly — ever since that first kiss, really. The fear, on the other hand,

grew gradually: fear that she wouldn’t be coming to the sports bar that night, fear that we wouldn’t end up kissing, fear that she’d change her mind. Those were pretty much the stages of falling in love for me.”

I found the constant turbulence and obsessiveness in Kayleigh’s relationships to be a brilliant mirror of romance in the modern day. Social media has perpetuated the idea that there is always someone better out there, yet simultaneously one is supposed to stay with their “soulmate” forever.

Unfortunately, the climax of the novella fell short and was immensely melodramatic.

At one point, a discussion between a group of workers Kayleigh is amidst consisting of a flat-earther, a Jewish person and antisemites grows into a blowout. In my opinion, the arguments felt trite and the problematic language that the characters used felt unjustified.

Nonetheless, in totality, this book was a unique read. My review airs on the more positive side of a vast debate over the quality of the novella.

Members of GoodReads, a book review platform, and others on TikTok share a common complaint that the book was not disturbing enough. However, I would argue that finding the story to be lacking in edge demonstrates how desensitized social media has made us. Maybe this was exactly the author’s intention. In a world dominated by social feeds and artificial intelligence, “We Had to Remove This Post” is increasingly becoming our reality.

Caroline Kelly PO ’27 is from Boston, Massachusetts. Her ideal afternoon involves reading and cold brew.

Celmins’ night sky at the Benton New Yorker tote bags at the 5Cs: Symbolic or functional?

NADIA HSU

On the North Wall of Gallery 118 at the Benton Museum, “Galaxy (Hydra)” hangs beside a tiny painted Christ, an even tinier inked drawing, a sketched oak tree and an Alice Neel watercolor. It is part of “Infinity on Paper: Drawings from the Collections of the Benton Museum of Art and Jack Shear,” now on view.

“Galaxy (Hydra)” (1974) is a graphite drawing of the Hydra constellation, one of Vija Celmins’ earlier drawings of the night sky. Like all of her work, “Galaxy (Hydra)” is drawn directly from a chosen area of a photograph. The picture is mostly black, with stars coming out of the dark in soft grays and looks kind of morbid surrounded by a dead Christ, shriveled tree and brown sky above skulls.

I first saw Celmins’ drawings in December of 2019, a few days before New Year’s, at the MET Breuer’s retrospective exhibit “To Fix the Image in Memory.” Three months later, the Breuer, at the onset of COVID-19, closed temporarily; three months after that the Breuer closed permanently.

I was bored by Celmins’ drawings when I visited them in 2019. Specifically, I was bored with what I thought was just shallow photorealism, which I saw as pointless, egotistical and a little bit masochistic in its painstaking precision. I was (and am) single-mindedly obsessed with faces, and thought all other subjects inferior. But I don’t think I bothered to read the gallery texts — I didn’t get it, or try to get it.

“Galaxy (Hydra)” stands out on the wall of the Benton like a black hole. It looks almost like a photo, but if you lean in very close you can see the artist’s hand in the image. The dark sky is made of hundreds of tiny dots of graphite, which give the effect of something glittering, oscillating in and out of light.

As a rule, Celmins never manipulates the graphite — never smudges. Stars are made by an absence of dots; fewer dots means more visible paper, which means a brighter or closer star. Where the sky meets each star, the black fades delicately into a circle of negative space, the outer edge of the star blurring under the soft pencil as if pixelated. The fuzzy border of the image reminds the viewer that the sky has been framed for us here, that this is a manipulation.

“Galaxy (Hydra)” (1974) is a graphite drawing of the Hydra constellation, one of Vija Celmins’ earlier drawings of the night sky.”

You can see Celmins here. In translating a photo into a drawing so precisely, she has to dissect and then reconstruct the image.

“Galaxy (Hydra)” is the moment of transition from photo to drawing, which happens in Celmins’ eye and hand — in looking at it, I am looking at the memory of her mark-making.

There are many interesting and theoretical things to say about “Galaxy (Hydra)” and about how Celmins interacts with process and looking and representation and memory. But all of that falls away as I write this and I can’t stop wanting to say that the drawing feels devotional.

It seems mysterious to me, almost magical: picturing Celmins at her desk or drawing board or easel (I’d like to imagine her at an easel, so that she stands in front of her drawings just like I stand in front of her drawings), feeling the hard edge of the pencil on her finger, the pattern of constellations embedding itself on her eyeballs, spending hours with each star until she is sucked into the galaxy that she depicts.

“I tend to drip into the work,” Celmins says in an interview with Brooklyn Rail. “I build my little relationship with the work and I give it my all and it hopefully gives me back other things. I hate to break this relationship.”

This is what I didn’t understand when I saw Celmins’ drawings for the first time. Of course, her hours of meticulous attention to the same square of sky feel like a form of love; if you look so long and so deeply at the same thing it turns into devotion. “Galaxy (Hydra)” is a portrait of Celmins’ relationship with this image, this sky. I hope that I can look at “Galaxy (Hydra)” for long enough to be let in on the relationship. To fall into devotion; with this piece of galaxy and with how it exists in Celmins’ eye.

Recently, I have been thinking about works of art that feel like relics. Like objects that we could show aliens as proof of humanity.

“Galaxy (Hydra)” is one of these relics. I imagine showing it to an alien: this is our sky, this is how devoted someone was to looking at the sky.

Art columnist Nadia Hsu PO ’27 is from Austin, Texas. She is chalant.

DYLAN ZULUETA & MAYA ZHAN

Tote bags are a ubiquitous accessory on college campuses worldwide and the 5Cs are no exception. Walking around campus, one is likely to see canvas straps thrown over — or slipping down — the shoulders of many 5C students. However, the black and white New Yorker tote, featuring the magazine’s classic 1925 logo amidst abstract, oversized Irvine typeface lettering, seems to pop up an inordinate amount. The New Yorker tote took off in 2014 as a promotion for a yearly subscription, coinciding with their website’s transition to a metered paywalled format, according to John Carter, the New Yorker’s global director of customer revenue. The bag remains exclusive to new subscribers and is not available for purchase on their online store.

Lexi Duffy PO ’26, often spotted carrying the tote bag on her way to classes around campus, said obtaining the tote bag was a significant factor in her decision to subscribe to the magazine.

“I do love the New Yorker, I [always] use up my free articles, I was happy to have access,” Duffy said. “But I will say my largest priority was that tote bag.”

Emma Neeb PO ’26 subscribed to the magazine after she ran out of free articles. Neeb recognized that the bag has become its own phenomenon, with its own value separate from the subscription.

“I was going to subscribe anyway because I always ran out of free articles, but the bag was definitely a bonus.” Neeb said.

The prominence of the New Yorker tote initially took Neeb by surprise.

“I got my bag when I was still in high school back in Europe, where I was pretty much the only one who had it,” Neeb said. “So I thought it was pretty funny coming here and seeing that so many others had the same bag. It feels kinda cool.”

The bag has long transcended

its initial function. In addition to the original design, the New Yorker periodically releases limited edition seasonal designs by artists such as Edward Steed and Tim Lahan. Upon seeing many students carry the bag on campus, Ariana Makar PO ’24 admired its design.

“I didn’t know where they got [the bag] from until my boyfriend told me it’s a gift that you get when you subscribe,” Makar said. “So he subscribed and gave the bag to me.”

Ana Yanez PO ’27 was first exposed to the tote when she came to Pomona College. Rather than getting it through the subscription, she requested it as a gift from her friend Desi Silverman-Joseph, a firstyear at Brown University. “[Desi] was like, ‘Why do you want a New Yorker tote? Do you even read the New Yorker?’ Yanez said. “And I was like, ‘I don’t think all these people read the New Yorker.’”

Upon hearing about the tote from Yanez, Silverman-Joseph started noticing its prevalence on his college campus, located across the country from Claremont.

“I always thought about the New Yorker as something that our generation didn’t really touch,” Silverman-Joseph said. “I was a little bit surprised at first that [Ana] wanted it, but then I began to notice after she asked, that everybody at Brown … had a New Yorker tote bag just like she wanted. I began to see the trend everywhere and it made more sense.”

Anna Priya Gupte SC ’27 has noticed the trend, too.

“I think my style’s very similar to a lot of people here,” Gupte said. “There’s been a couple of times where I’ve accidentally grabbed someone else’s tote bag right next to mine.”

SANDEr

Searches for the New Yorker tote produce an abundance of links to online resellers who sell varying iterations of the bag at marked-up prices, as well as websites that sell dupes of the original and limited edition designs, allowing anyone to carry the New Yorker logo on their shoulder.

Silverman-Joseph, who bought the tote for Yanez on a resale site, expressed that the tote has become a status symbol due to its signage value: Owning the bag suggests that its bearer is well-read.

“I don’t think it has come to mean very much at this point, because it’s so popular,” Silverman-Joseph said. “I know that [people with the tote bag] are trying to come off as cool and well-read and interested in news and culture. But I don’t know that they actually are.”

Duffy stated that while she understood that the bag was coveted as a signifier, there were other factors at play in her decision to carry it.

“It’s not for the goal of, ‘I’m putting this on to seem smart,’ but when I’m wearing it, sometimes I do wonder if that’s something that is perceived,” Duffy said. “I do sometimes feel cooler wearing it around. I feel well-read and educated and all the things that signifies, even though half the time I’m not reading the New Yorker.”

Many students feel an unspoken sense of camaraderie when they spot another New Yorker bag carrier on campus.

“I think it’s fun when you see someone else have it; it’s kind of like a bonding thing,” Makar said. “My friends have seen other people with the bag and they’re like, ‘Oh, we thought that was you,’ because I wear it almost every day. It’s not too deep.”

Aside from the resale hype and the cultural cachet the tote carries, there is a simple delight in having something in common with so many people at the 5Cs.

“At some point, I joked with friends that we should start a New Yorker bag club,” Neeb said. “But that would be a bit exclusionist.”

QuINN NACHTrIEb • THE STuDENT LIFE

WAyS OF SEEING

New yorker tote bags are ubiquitous at the 5Cs, but what is their social role on campus?February 23, 2024

Art columnist Nadia Hsu PO ‘27 visits Vija Celmins’ drawing “Galaxy (Hydra),”

Queer imposter syndrome as an Asian American

ANJALI SUVA

With our student body at the 5Cs, it was difficult for me to pinpoint why I felt disconnected.

The two aspects of my identity — Asian American and Queer — seem to fit perfectly into the 5C community. There are plenty of Asian Americans and even more Queer students. And yet, I feel as if I am existing outside of the 5C experience — in comparison to my peers at the 5Cs, I can never feel quite Queer enough.

This experience contrasted sharply with my life in Orange County before college. There, at a school that was 72 percent Asian and had 94 percent minority enrollment, my Queer experience was similar to those around me.

Many of the Queer individuals I knew in high school weren’t officially out to their parents, who were immigrants. We couldn’t be open about our relationships because of our implicit understanding that our parents wouldn’t understand or be supportive.

Aside from the homophobia that is prevalent nearly everywhere, there was also the added barrier of how relationships were perceived in many Asian cultures. Mine included.

Oftentimes, relationships are formed out of necessity or tradition and younger individuals are discouraged from entering them until they are of appropriate age (aka not a teenager). These additional cultural stigmas meant that our relationship with Queerness was distinct. Most of our engagement with our Queerness was subtle and much of it was through Asian media such as movies, dramas and anime.

We were bonded by the knowledge that we existed in contrast to the status quo — that no matter how we appeared to the public, we were undoubtedly Queer.

Then I came to the 5Cs.

I was caught off guard by the ample opportunities that students had to be unabashedly Queer. It was an environment where students expressed their Queerness through their appearance, the media they consumed and events on campus. The sheer amount of people jostling each other at the Motley to see a screening of “Bottoms” is a

testament to this. Coming from an immigrant family, there’s a persistent disconnect between my Queer identity and my identity as an Asian American. Having spent so much of my life being Queer in private, it’s difficult to feel Queer enough by 5C standards.

My experience is not isolated by any means. Many other students from immigrant communities experience the pressure to dress and act traditionally; on the other hand, “appearing Queer” in the United States implies doing the opposite — it means exploring

counterculture styles and ways of life.

Queer culture defies the norm, but I find myself bound to tradition.

In addition, the Queer experience at the 5Cs (and in the United States) is centered around the white Queer experience — something I’m unfamiliar with.

At the 5Cs, there are certain types of experiences — in contrast to my white peers — that I feel I lack: wearing clothes that allude to my sexual orientation, wearing any form of Pride Merch, attending Pride parades or attending drag

performances. These experiences presuppose that Queer students had the capacity to be openly Queer, something that many Asian American students simply don’t have.

Logically, I recognize that my Queerness is not erased by my Asian identity — but this “imposter syndrome” speaks to a bigger conversation about intersectionality within Queerness. Queer culture at the 5Cs needs to expand to encompass the many ways that Queer students attempt to explore and accept their sexuality beyond a specific set of

behaviors or experiences.

The first step? Being more conscientious about what it means to be Queer in different contexts. For all of the readers who can relate to my experience, know that you should never have to compromise your ethnic background for your Queerness. You are Queer enough by all standards.

Anjali Suva PO ’27 is from Orange County, California. She loves watching horror films, reading fantasy books and wondering what she’d do if the world were to end in 24 hours.

Yes, reverse culture shock is a real thing

TESS MCHUGH

Brace yourself for the sound of a broken record: Studying abroad is the best decision I have made in college. Something that is not as commonly said: Acclimating back to the United States can be just as uncomfortable.

But not for the reasons you might expect.

My acclimation process to Barcelona was achievable because of how heavily the Pomona International & Domestic Programs Office (IDPO) — the program that facilitates the application process for Pomona students — and my specific study abroad program, the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES), harped on the ramifications of uprooting my life and living in a new country.

Little did I know that the acclimation process was only half of the study abroad emotional roller coaster.

Naively, I believed that coming back to Claremont would be seamless; I believed that having a solid posse of people at Pomona would cancel out any discomfort that could arise from leaving my abroad experience.

So, when my IES Spanish professor in Barcelona gave a presentation on reverse culture shock, I was somewhat flabbergasted. She warned us that the return home from study abroad can be heart-wrenching because it entails a different adjustment period: Returning to life at our United States colleges.

My professor outlined specific reverse culture shock moments, such as instinctively

speaking Spanish to non-Spanish speakers, remembering to tip in the United States and reframing standards for personal space (considering personal space is basically non-existent in Barcelona). She also pointed out that clashing with differences in the United States of human interactions, work expectations and public transportation are all a normal part of reverse culture shock.

Particularly, my professor stressed that the grief of leaving Barcelona — and the fear of forgetting the magical feeling of the experience — is a part of the struggle that students grapple with the most.

Sure enough, my growing attachment to my experience in Barcelona was silently fueling the imminent pain that would

sucker-punch me when boarding the plane back to New York City. My IES professor’s presentation begs the question: Why is there such a strong contrast between the approaches towards reverse culture shock for IES and the IDPO? Both of these programs have the same mission of promoting study abroad and supporting study abroad students, so why did IES highlight reverse culture shock while Pomona’s program, IDPO, skipped over it?

IES’s normalization of reverse culture shock’s consequences allowed me to openly express the pain I immediately felt after my departure and consequently, I was able to bounce back sooner.

However, a friend of mine who studied abroad in Copen -

hagen with DIS (Danish Institute for Study-Abroad) was not as lucky. Because neither DIS nor the IDPO informed her about reverse culture shock, she was unaware of the organic reaction to returning home after a semester abroad. She did not conceptualize reverse culture shock as a real thing,

My professor stressed that the grief of leaving barcelona — and the fear of forgetting the magical feeling of the experience — is a part of the struggle that students grapple with the most.

so she was confused as to why she was still feeling emotionally drained despite being back in her hometown.

Study abroad programs have failed to provide a disclaimer regarding reverse culture shock in their extensive introductory programs. Explaining what it is, how it can impact a person and how to cope with it would help students mentally prepare for the possibility of negative emotions when they come home.

For example, my Pitzer College friends who studied abroad in Paris were tasked with writing extensive reflections following their introductory presentations. They said it was helpful to look back on these when preparing to come back to the United States.

The administrators of Pitzer’s study abroad programs openly discussed reverse culture shock. They also gave students a space to formulate their thoughts before departing so that they could recollect their thought process when returning to the United States.

The education of reverse culture shock prior to students’ study abroad journeys would help to put equal emphasis on the highs and lows of both acclimation processes of leaving the United States and returning to the United States.

Yes, the sentiment that studying abroad is an incredible experience may sound like a broken record — but the expectation that coming home will be tough should start to sound like one, too.

Tess McHugh PO ’25 is from Denver, CO. She loves Fenty lip gloss,

Being bored doesn’t have to be boring

PARISHI KANUGA

Boredom makes your life better.

In preparing to write this piece, I found my mind void of any ideas. How in the world do I convince my readers to give boredom a try?

So, I decided to embody this article’s ethos and take a short walk from Claremont McKenna College’s Reading Room to a nearby empty space.

And I just sat.

After spending some time thinking about my breakfast, counting all the rectangles in sight and wondering if I should even write an article in the first place, I decided that typing something was better than doing nothing.

In other words, it was boredom that got me to write this article about boredom.

In discussing boredom, I’m referring to the feeling we get when we are understimulated. This looks different for everyone — for some, it’s brought upon by reading a non-fiction book about insurance policy and for others, it’s the product of waiting in line. I’m telling you to actively seek this feeling out.

Boredom inspires creativity. In a 2014 study, researchers split participants into two groups: a treatment group that had to do the monotonous task of copying phone numbers from a phone book and a control group that didn’t. Both groups were then asked to brainstorm uses for plastic cups. The group assigned the boring task ultimately succeeded — at last, they had the space to daydream.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you are dealing with a serious writer’s block for an essay (like I initially was for this article), the answer could be to set a timer for 1530 minutes and sit in silence.

This even works for tasks that don’t require as much creativity. For example, if I dread studying for an exam, I give myself two choices: to do nothing or to study. A lot of times, I prefer to do nothing until I get so bored that studying becomes more

appealing.

I understand that my request is not an easy one — accessing boredom’s many benefits, including creativity, introspection and attention to detail takes intentional effort — but it’s important. Lucas Engheben HM ’27 appreciates boredom for the relaxation and introspection it can bring.

“If you’re constantly occupied, you’re not going to understand yourself as well,” Engheben says. It’s helpful to think of boredom in visual art terms. A fundamental concept in painting is the interplay of negative and positive space. To be visually appealing, a painting requires both positive space — the painting’s area of interest — and

negative space — the empty background.

Boredom is negative space. Letting “mental negative space” in enhances our positive space: the external world around us.

If you take 30 minutes to simply sit at your favorite grassy spot on campus, free from distractions, I can guarantee that you’ll find aspects of your environment that you never noticed before, from the different hues of the blades of grass or features of the architecture or nearby buildings.

As students at the Claremont Colleges, taking this time can feel like something we don’t “need” — especially when we’re stressed out. We’re all familiar with how intense

the workload can get during the semester. Naturally, empty time slots in our day often feel like moments to either get some extra work done or to take a much-needed phone break. This prominence of digital distraction has made it much easier to avoid boredom. The inconvenience of a long line can be easily offset by scrolling through TikTok; a walk to class is time for texting one’s friends; a boring lecture can become an online shopping spree.

Ultimately, spending more time on our phones — or less time being bored — shrinks our capacity for the creativity, introspection and attention to detail that boredom inspires. So, let’s take active steps to create

more pockets of boredom throughout our days.

This could look like scheduling 15 minutes into your calendar for boredom time or turning your phone on grayscale to make it less appealing. My personal favorite is meditation, which takes embracing boredom to the next level by focusing the attention on something mundane like the breath.

Try sitting through your next plane ride without any music, games, podcasts or even a book, for that matter. The boredom might surprise you.

Parishi Kanuga CM ’26 is from Los Angeles, California. She likes doing nothing, writing articles about why you should do nothing and sleeping.

We ask TSL’s

a question every Monday and share their responses here.

PITZer

Best

LAST

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Hens softball parlays with Pirates, split weekend double header versus Whitworth

ADAM AKINS & OWEN KOBETT

The Whitworth Pirates attempted to send Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) to Davy Jones’ locker but the Sagehens left with only a few feathers ruffled. On Feb. 16 at Wig Beach field, the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) softball team took the morning game against Whitworth in a 5-0 shutout but were unable to sweep them in the afternoon and went down in a 4-2 defeat.

In the second game of the Hens’ second series of the preseason, the

Pirates were up to bat first. Erica Rivera PZ ’24 entered the pitching circle for the Sagehens. Fired up and ready for revenge from the morning’s defeat, the Pirates stood on business and pulled the first pitch of the game for a double down the line. Although Rivera was able to find some footing in the next at bat, earning her first strikeout of the season, she was soon put on the backfoot by Whitworth’s number three hitter. Connecting on a ball right down the pipe, the batter took Rivera deep,

driving in two runs with a homer soaring over the fence in left-center. Rivera struggled to find control for the rest of the inning as she walked in a third run and gave up another hit, but was able to notch two more strikeouts and strand three ducks on the pond, getting herself out of the first inning jam. Coach JoAnne Ferguson said that she noticed the team’s waning motivation after the top of the first, but drove home the necessity of not letting a rough start keep them down.

COurTeSy: POMONa-PITZer aTHLeTICS

“When we’re in that zone, we need to feel the rhythm and keep the pulse with each at-bat,” Ferguson said. “We should always be playing defense like it’s a 0-0 game and we should always be hungry and aggressive with our offense.”

After a 40 minute top of the first, the Sagehens came into the batter’s box with fire. Leading off for the Hens was Kylie Liu PO ’26, who swung on the first pitch and brought life back to the bench. After this jumpstart, the Hens were able to load the bases, but a strikeout stranded three to end the inning.

The Sagehens called on their bullpen in the second inning, swapping out Rivera for Nyla Springer PO ’27, making her third appearance this preseason. Springer forced three outs from the Pirates and stranded a runner, bringing the Sagehens into the bottom of the inning with the momentum on their side.

Springer attributed her success partially to her catcher, Kylie Liu PO ’26.

“I haven’t pitched in games that much but me and Kylie, we talk at practice, within games I really feel her support,” Springer said. “I know that she is there for me.”

Energized from Springer’s dominance in the circle, Bella Carreon PO ’25 smoked a single down the left field line and Liu worked a walk before Natalie Murguia PO ’26 brought them both home with a double that kissed the warning

track.

“Natalie did a great job for us offensively and defensively,” Ferguson said. “ She really stepped up for us.”

Springer continued to have success, allowing only one run over the next five innings. Liu said she was impressed by Springer’s performance and confidence despite this being her first season with the team.

“I know being a freshman is something that rattles a lot of people,” Liu said. “But having her out there and pitching her game was really good for us.”

The bench exploded with cheers for the rest of the game as the Hens urged on their batters and found consistent contact, earning ten hits over the course of the game.

However, the Sagehens struggled to take advantage of their high leverage scenarios, grounding out and flying out 16 combined times and stranding nine batters on base over the course of the game.

The seven innings ended in a loss for the Sagehens with a final score of 4-2.

Springer commented on what she felt the Sagehens could build on in their next game.

“I think we need to focus on hitting hard liners instead of pop ups and just getting the ball down more,” Springer said.

The Hens are gearing up for the start of conference play and will wrap up their preseason in a double-header against Hope International University on Saturday, Feb. 24.

men’s tennis stampeded over the competition. In their second full day of matches this season, the Stags had success in both doubles and singles, proving

On Sunday, Feb. 18, at home in the Biszantz Tennis Center, CMS defeated both Lewis and Clark and Brandeis, 9-0 and 6-1 respectively. This victory run improved their overall record to 3-1.

Doubles competition against Lewis and Clark started off the day strong. On court one, Ian Freer CM ’24 and Matthew Robinson CM ’25 had a decisive 8-3 victory.

Simultaneously, the pairs of Advik Mareedu HM ’26 and Warren Pham HM ’26 and Josh Kim CM ’27 and Tarm Rojanasoonthon CM ’25 both won 8-4.

The Stags continued this winning streak with victories against the Pioneers in all six singles matches, only allowing only one set go to tiebreaker points and keeping their slate clean. Three of these wins came from fawns Kim, Anirudh Reddy CM ’27 and Amar Kumar CM ’27.

Kim expressed excitement for his performance in his collegiate debut. He emphasized the motivation he gets from his teammates.

“It was my first match as a Stag, so I was really excited and nervous

at the same time,” Kim said. “I think I dealt with it pretty well. The important piece is enjoying every moment that you are out on the court and cherishing it. You are out there wanting to win for your teammates so that is a big thing.”

Reigning ITA West Region Champion, Mareedu credited the team’s positive culture and strong work ethic to their coach.

“[Coach Settles] has been emphasizing discipline and keeping a solid check and making sure we are locked in for every match regardless of whether we think it is going to be easy or not,” Mareedu said. Their matchup against Brandeis proved the necessity of this mindset. Suffering an early rough patch, the Stags fell short in two of the three doubles matches. However, the team of Freer and Robinson came in clutch, narrowly winning the match 7-6 after edging out Brandeis in a 9-7 tiebreaker victory.

In singles, CMS looked to rebound from their shortcomings in doubles. CMS dominated the first four singles matches, not playing a single tie breaker. The remaining two games with Rojanasoothon and Robinson were harder won, but in the end the Stags pulled ahead.

CMS had their discipline on full display on court six. Early in the first set, Rojanasoothon found himself down two to five in the first set. However, he said a change in mentality was the cata-

COurTeSy: 5C SKI & SNOWbOarD

lyst that turned the game around.

“As things went on, I focused on my gameplan more than what was happening on the court,” Rojanasoothon said. “[I started] trying to concentrate on the little things, trying to keep the ball back and forth, trying to keep the rhythm going.”

With a newfound focus and strong and calculated forehand and backhand strokes, Rojanasoothon came back to win the first set seven to six, winning the tie breaker points seven to two. Rojanasoonthon finished the singles game taking the first set with seven to six in the and followed by a dominant six to two victory.

He said support from teammates was essential for his comeback victory.

“Our team has a lot of passion and we support each other a lot,” Rojanasoothon said. “It really showed in today’s match. It really changed the way some matches went because all the guys on the sideline really made a big impact on how the momentum was going in each game.”

Through teammates support and mental tenacity, CMS found their groove and displayed grit and discipline with Rojanasoonthon and Robinson making comebacks on courts six and three respectively.

Looking forward, CMS has bigger goals than this week’s win. According to Mareedu, the team is eyeing Division III’s biggest prize, the national championship.

“A goal for the entire team is

we do here, so it was definitely a shift,” Rechsteiner said. “I had been on a ski team before, but nothing like this. It has been so great, meeting people around the 5Cs, especially as someone who came in during Covid and only had three years on campus.”

Now as a leader on the team in her role as a captain, Rechsteiner said she aims to improve both the culture and the structure.

“I really wanted to get involved in actually organizing the Ski Team,” Rechsteiner said. “[I want to] make it more accessible and more organized. That’s why I became one of the captains.”

Unlike Rechsteiner, Donny Lu PO ’25 is one of the novice members of the team. Only having started snowboarding when he began attending college in the United States, as he grew up just outside of Hong Kong with little access to snow, Lu is now one of the team’s most committed members.

After attending a “Beginner Days” trip, introductory ski lessons hosted in Big Bear by 5C Ski, Lu found a spot on the team. He said that as a beginner, joining the ski team can be daunting, but that the people on the team are welcoming and encouraging of new members.

“When I first joined it was kind of intimidating because the people I was skiing with all grew up skiing so they were really

to hopefully win a national championship at the end of the year,” Mareedu said. The Stags came incredibly close to achieving that goal last season, but fell just short, losing in the Final Four of the DIII tournament to Tufts 5-4. Kim echoed Mareedu’s desire, highlighting the team’s faith in themselves to take home the trophy.

“We all know that we are

capable of it,”Kim said. “We are going to work as hard as humanly possible. As Matt Robinson says, ‘Get the job done.’”

The Stags will attempt to stake their claim atop the national rankings in another out of region matchup against Trinity Texas followed by a number of elite programs from the East Coast starting Friday, Feb. 23 at the ITA Division III National Team Indoors.

good at it and I was so bad,” Lu said. “But the environment was really, really nice, people don’t judge you for how bad you are. Even though I will fall on tricks and I’ll always injure myself, people always hype me up.” Lu also described the positive change that joining the Ski Team brought to his routine in college.

“[Being on the team] exemplifies what college experience should feel like for me,” Lu said. “Before I joined the team, my weekends were pretty boring, I just did homework. But the team has a really good atmosphere where you can actually meet people and get really close with them.”

Similar to Lu, Carolyn Coyne PO ’25 skied for the first time when she was a senior in high school. Along with the anxiety that she said many beginners experience, Coyne discussed some of the barriers the team aims to overcome, highlighting the sport’s exclusive history.

“Skiing and snowboarding in general are historically white male-dominated, it’s a very privileged sport,” Coyne said. “But I think the people in leadership and the new people are really committed towards making our environment different from that. You have to pay team dues, which is definitely a financial barrier. But our captains are really great about having open conversations

about what that means financially. I know that if people need aid there’s a system setup for that.”

In addition to helping members with finances, significant hard work from leaders and members put into encouraging more athletes to join has paid off. Rechsteiner described how the team has expanded dramatically in just the last year. She talked about the effect this could have on their performance in the upcoming nationals competition and in following seasons.

“This year we have a much fuller team,” Rechsteiner said. “Overall, we almost doubled in size since last year. This year we have just so many talented people. I’m so confident in our performance and nationals.”

After a strong performance at their Regional Championships last weekend where the team competed against schools from across the West Coast, 23 athletes, 18 skiers and five snowboarders, will be moving on to the National Championships. With team members competing in almost all events, Claremont will be well represented the weekend of March 4 in Lake Placid, New York.

“We’re definitely super hyped,” Rechsteiner said. “It’s happening in New York this year so it’s going to be a long journey to get there. We have both women’s and men’s Alpine and women’s and men’s free ski as well as our boarders competing. So we’re super excited.”

Natalie Murguia PO ’26 gets bat on ball during the Sagehens’ 4-2 loss to the Whitworth Pirates on Friday, Feb. 16.

5C Ski and board team gets in some bonding time before shredding the slopes at the Southwest regionals of the u.S.

Ski

association.

Tarm rojanasoonthon CM ’25 hits a serve during a CMS sweep of Lewis and Clark and brandeis on Sunday, Feb. 18.

First-year Black athletes share their experiences

Jordan Yates CM ’27

Jordan Yates CM ’27 is a forward on the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s soccer team. In addition to being a student-athlete, Yates is a member of the Midnight Echo Acapella group, where she led the group with a solo at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella quarterfinals on Feb. 10.

Before coming to Claremont, Yates attended The Thacher School in Ojai, California, where she led her team as a captain, averaging three goals per game and 48 goals in her junior season. In addition to her athletic success, Yates led her school’s Multi-Ethnic Student Association and participated in musical theater.

After tearing her ACL during her senior year of high school, Yates had to spend most of her fall season for CMS on the bench training and recovering.

Despite a lack of diversity in her sport at a club, collegiate and national level, Yates said she is grateful for the support of her teammates.

“I am very lucky to have a very inclusive team so there haven’t been barriers I have personally felt between me and my teammates,” Yates said.

Yates commended the efforts that CMS has made to help her feel supported as a Black athlete but added that she would appreciate more purposeful spaces for athletes of color.

“We had [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)] meetings at the beginning of the year which was great groundwork for our team,” Yates said. “However, I think there is room for improvement. I think it would be helpful for athletes of color to have an affinity space so we are able to grow closer through experiences. Additionally, I think more DEI work should be implemented throughout the year. Specifically meetings with coaches and captains would be helpful since they are usually the ones creating and fostering the environment for the rest of the team.”

Madison Hadley PZ ’27

Madison Hadley PZ ’27 is a pitcher and outfielder on the P-P softball team, where she competes alongside her twin sister, Victoria Hadley PZ ’27. Hadley attended Pace Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, where she ran track and field in addition to playing softball. She was a National Merit Scholar and was on her high school’s honor roll.

Hadley made her first collegiate appearance on Feb. 10, pitching for 4.2 innings against Vanguard at 1.82 runs per seven, ranking her second on the team in ERA.

“I’ve found people don’t really pay attention to skin color as much during the game,” Hadley said. “If I’m Black and I’m a pitcher and I’m striking people out, I feel like there’s not really more to it than that. Outside of the game that’s where it gets more serious.”

Having only attended PWIs, Hadley said her experience competing for P-P has introduced her to a new sense of community. She said playing with the Sagehens is the first time she has ever competed on a team where she and her twin sister are not the only people of color.

“I grew up and went to a PWI for lower school, middle school and high school,” Hadley said. “It’s been so different for me and I love having another person of color on the team to sort of joke around with, it’s a little bit more comfortable.”

However, she said there is always room for improvement and pushed for the team to focus its DEI initiatives on recruitment.

“It’s definitely weird because we’re only four Black people on a team of 20,” Hadley said. “[The team] definitely supports me when it comes down to playing softball. But if they did recruit more people of color I would definitely be excited.”

Nyla Springer PO ‘27

Nyla Springer PO ’27 is a pitcher on the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) softball team. She attended Long Beach Poly in Long Beach, California, where she was First Team All-League and an AP Scholar. So far this season, Springer has pitched nine innings with a 3.89 ERA. Springer helped steady the team in the second leg of a double header against Whitworth on Feb. 16 in her first long relief appearance, earning the first three strikeouts of her collegiate career and pitching 5.2 innings, surrendering only one run.

Springer said she didn’t experience many direct challenges coming up playing softball in the Southern California community because of her race.

“I haven’t really experienced anything overt and if I experienced something subtle that I didn’t really catch on, but I guess I kind of have noticed that,” Springer said. “I feel like I probably got less looks when I was playing travel ball, just because I was like a pitcher. Not a runner. But other than that, I wouldn’t say I’ve experienced anything of the sort.”

Springer spoke about how she feels Pomona College has effectively supported their minority student body through affinity groups such as the Black Student Union. However, she pointed out that despite efforts, there is still room for improvement at predominantly white institutions (PWI) like Pomona.

“I feel like probably some people of color, especially Black people, would be wary about going to schools like ours because it is a majority white population and it’s already so small,” Springer said. “Just going to a PWI in general is kind of a deterrent for some people. So I mean there’s not really any easy way to change that because it’s harder to increase the number of POC applicants.”

Warren Pham HM ’26 earned SCIAC Athlete of the Week honors for events through Sunday, Feb. 18. Pham helped boost the CMS men’s tennis record to 3-1 this weekend. On Sunday, Feb. 18, CMS opened Division III play and Pham had a singles-doubles sweep in a win over Lewis and Clark, taking a 6-3, 6-4 decision at no. 3 singles and an 8-4 win at no. 2 doubles. He ended his weekend with a win in singles over no. 20 Brandeis, taking his match 6-1, 6-0. With this win, the Stags bumped up to fifth in national rankings as they go into the ITA DIII National Team Indoors tournament this weekend.

Grace Warner PO ’24 led the P-P women’s lacrosse team to victory over Occidental on Wednesday, Feb. 21, scoring four of the Sagehens’ 17 goals. Aftering advancing to the elite eight of the NCAA Division III women’s lacrosse tournament during the 2023 season, the Sagehens are on the hunt for a national title. Wednesday was a good sign for the Hens as they had a blowout victory in the first regular season game of 2024. Warner made 80 percent of her shots on Wednesday night and matched her collegiate best goals scored in a single game.

CMS P-P

Friday,

Men

Men