Vol. CXXXIV Issue 14

CMC Social Life Committee terminated

BRINGING LIGHT TO BLACK RESISTANCE

ANNABELLE INK & FIONA HERBOLD

On Feb. 12, Claremont McKenna College’s Committee to Consider the Resolution on the Protection of CMC Social Life officially dissolved. The committee was established in late January at an ASCMC Senate meeting to address CMC party culture through the passing of a controversial resolution proposed by Austin Andersen CM ’25 to reduce restrictions on social life.

At a Feb. 5 senate meeting, which around 20 percent of CMC’s student body attended, students intensely debated the resolution. Supporters stood alongside members of the committee and responded to criticisms regarding the resolution and its lack of inclusivity.

When the meeting adjourned after nearly two hours, no conclusion had been reached — one noticeable change for some students, however, was the tension felt throughout the room.

“I feel like the atmosphere in the senate is one that lacks decorum,” said Senator Thomas Walker CMC ’26. “If they want change to happen I think that the number one thing they have to be is respectful and do it in a way that’s conducive to change and not something that creates tension.”

In a statement released on Feb. 17, the Social Life Committee cited this tension as one of their reasons for dissolving the committee, claiming that it was “indicative of a cultural divide on our campus.”

After the Feb. 5 senate meeting,

leaders from the Social Life Committee asked to meet with Camille Forte CM ’23 privately.

Forte had been instrumental in the large turnout on Feb. 5, having emailed over 500 CMC students asking them to come to the senate meeting and share their concerns about the resolution and its lack of inclusivity.

ASCMC officers, including Diversity & Inclusion Chair

Nisha Singh CMC ’23 and President Josh Nagra CMC ’25, asked to join the meeting with Forte. Singh joined Forte in sharing her concerns.

“During that meeting, Camille and I voiced a lot of the concerns of the opposition and basically articulated that this is an issue that is going to require a lot more gradual change,” Singh said. “It requires you to bridge gaps and that doesn’t necessarily happen in a body like [the] senate.”

A working group of about 18-20 members will replace the committee to address social life at CMC. The ASCMC president, executive vice president, D&I chair and vice president of social affairs will serve as ex-officio members alongside the four leaders of the now-dissolved special committee.

All other seats will be filled by CMC students who apply to serve on the working group. The ex-officio members will

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Pomona gifted historical collection from Civil Rights legend Myrlie Evers-Williams PO ’68

JULIA PARSA & MARIANA DURAN

On Feb. 9, Pomona College announced that prominent civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams PO ’68 donated an archival collection of her life and work during the civil rights era to the school.

The collection, which will eventually be housed in Honnold Mudd Library, includes thousands of artifacts that “offer tangible touchpoints of Evers-Williams’ — and the nation’s — turbulent journey toward justice through the Civil Rights Era,” according to Pomona’s website.

Sorted to be a 250-feet-long line of thousands of writings, photographs and objects narrating Evers-Williams’ story, the collection will focus on Evers-Williams’ life after moving to California following her husband’s murder.

Evers-Williams was married to Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist

who organized for equal rights for Black communities in Mississippi, until Evers was murdered in 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

De La Beckwith was tried twice by an all-white jury in Mississippi, but wasn’t convicted. After the trials, Evers-Williams moved with her three children to Claremont, California and she enrolled at Pomona in 1964. While at the college, Evers co-authored the book “For Us, the Living,” which narrated her life at Pomona.

“[Pomona is] where I began to grow again,” Evers-Williams said, according to Pomona’s website. “To live again. Here on this campus, [I found] people who understood and who supported me and told me, ‘Yes you can.’”

Evers-Williams sought justice for her husband’s murder for three decades before De La Beckwith was

at the 5Cs

On a roll and reaching their goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal. Kicking classic coaching to the curb, Claremont Colleges men’s club soccer is challenging all comers and creating a cohesive community. Read more on page 11.

Actor Bryan Terrell Clark was a guest speaker at a forum hosted by Scripps College in the Garrison Theater this past weekend. Best known on the stage for playing George Washington in the hit

WeNDY ZHANG • THe STuDeNT LIFe

CMC established a new working group to address student concerns regarding social life.

‘No more police’: leading prison abolitionist Andrea Ritchie speaks at Rose Hills Theater

JACOB RAGAZA

On Feb. 19, 5C students, parents and professors gathered at Pomona College’s Rose Hills Theatre for a talk by prison abolitionist Andrea Ritchie.

The talk, hosted by 5C Prison Abolition Collective, was based on the book “No More Police: A Case for Abolition,” which Ritchie recently co-authored with fellow abolitionist Mariame Kaba. Ritchie weaved through topics such as the shortcomings of carceral reform, myths surrounding police and safety and solutions beyond the nation-state.

In 2022, Ritchie was named Scripps College’s Distinguished O’Brien Scholar. That spring, she led a conference with Kaba titled “Abolition is Feminism, Feminism is Abolition,” which was centered around uplifting Black feminist voices in the struggle for abolition.

Throughout the talk, Ritchie emphasized the importance of healing and community care, calling them the “moral center” of abolitionist efforts.

Nam Do PO ’23 praised Ritchie’s focus on these core ideas.

“Her emphasis on community was really valuable — always centering community and interpersonal relationships in talking about abolition work, [placing it] as the centerpiece of the mission of abolition and also liberatory politics in general,” Do said.

Ritchie dedicated a significant portion of the talk to debunking the efficacy of reformative solutions to policing. Drawing from her experience as a lawyer, Ritchie explained that ending qualified immunity does not end police violence, elaborating that police officers she successfully prosecuted have continued their misconduct despite being

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found guilty and given a lifelong sentence — a journey chronicled in many of the archives in her donation.

“The sheer volume of the material she gathered related to the trials of her husband Medgar’s assassin show her persistence in her quest for justice,” President Gabi Starr told TSL via email. “She was meticulous. She would not give up.”

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in sociology at Pomona, Evers-Williams ran for Congress, co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus and chaired the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Board of Directors from 1995 to 1998.

Starr highlighted photos of Evers-Williams on the campaign trail running for Congress in 1970, only two years after graduating from Pomona, as one of her favorite parts of the collection.

“Though she lost at that time, she helped blaze the trail for Black women in politics today,” Starr said.

Nick Payton PO ’25 said he is excited about parsing through Evers-Williams’s donation and comparing her social justice work at Pomona to contemporary movements taking place at the school. He added that his feelings on the collection itself would depend on whether the school actively uses the archives for outreach and education or keeps the donation as an academic resource.

“I don’t want [the celebration of this donation] to be a practice to make up for the historical lack of initiative in these areas,” Payton said. “I don’t want [Pomona] to try to make up for it by just parading the fact that we have access to these archives of this person that happened to go here.”

Starr said there is still much work to do in organizing and sorting the material, but that the archives will soon be available for students and eventually “a resource of intellectual depth and inspiration for the wider public.”

“[Myrlie Evers-Williams] has seen the worst of humanity and still she pushes ahead with the expectation that change for the better is coming,” Starr said. “We all stand to learn from the difficult path she has taken over so many decades.”

Speaking about her donation to the school, Evers-Williams told Pomona that she hopes people will come to learn about this particular part of the past.

“Hopefully someone who views this will grow to be another strong leader in our country,” Evers-Williams told Pomona. “ ... a leader for justice and equality.”

A public celebration of Myrlie Evers-Williams 90th birthday and her donation to the school will be held in Pomona’s Bridges Auditorium on March 22.

effectively relieved of qualified immunity.

Ritchie also discredited the notion that increasing police spending leads to a reduction in violence or an improvement in safety.

“[Police] say they’ll produce more safety or stop being so violent if you give [them] more money,” she said. “If it was really about funding the police, the U.S. would be the safest country in the world because we spend $130 billion on police every year, and we instead continue to face high rates of violence, including police violence.”

Ritchie promoted a revolutionary imagination, which pushes beyond the carceral state to find new definitions of safety.

Abby Smith PO ’23 applauded Ritchie’s incorporation of abolitionist history with novel ways of approaching the nation-state.

“I was appreciative of the way that she balanced thinking about abolition as coming out of the tradition of Black radical thought, while at the same time experimenting [with] different ways to counter the carceral state,” Smith said.

Tess Gibbs SC ’23, a member of the Prison Abolition Collective, found the presentation to be enlightening for both newcomers and those familiar with abolition.

“I feel like her presentation was such that if you are relatively new to understanding abolition, there was a lot you could get out of it.” Gibbs said. “At the same time, as somebody who has been in conversations about [abolition] for a while ... I still feel like I got so much out of it in terms of the specificities about abolition, immigrant justice abolition and reproductive rights.”

SOCIAL: CMC Committee Crumbles

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Ritchie praised students for their calls to remove cops from the Claremont campuses. She also applauded them for resisting the Claremont Colleges’ attempts to exploit their employees and using their privilege as students at well-resourced institutions to promote transformative justice.

“I’ve definitely seen students standing in solidarity with hotel workers, with cafeteria workers, [and] with the people who these colleges are in relationships of exploitation with,” Ritchie said. “That’s what we do in the most resourced spaces. We stand with the people who are being exploited by them and we use the resources to practice the world we want.”

The Prison Abolition Collective meets on Mondays from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Scripps student union.

select applicants, with the goal of forming a group that represents CMC’s student body.

The group will meet with Dean of Students (DOS) staff and use student feedback to make positive changes to CMC’s social life, according to an email Dean of Students Dianna Graves sent to CMC students.

In her email, Graves said that the purpose of the group is to “collaboratively analyze” the school’s current social life and “identify ways to make improvements.”

Starting March 1, the group will meet once a week to discuss issues involving alcohol accessibility, event registration, student fees and inclusivity.

Graves highlighted the working group’s holistic approach to social life in her email.

“At its core, this is a conversation with the student body about the community you want to have. The people you want to meet and get to know, the experiences you want to have together, the friendships you want to build,” Graves said.

In an email sent to CMC students, Singh said she hopes that new approaches to CMC’s social life — such as the new working group — will help foster inclusivity on campus.

“[ASCMC officers] want to ensure that this process will continue and be inherently inclusive of the many voices and experiences that make up our campus, including but not limited to affinity groups, CMC Advocates, student-athletes, club and organization participants, DOS, and many more.” she wrote.

the climate crisis’: Steven Koonin delivers Ath Talk challenging common climate change concerns

JUNE HSU

Steven Koonin, professor at New York University and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, spoke at the Claremont McKenna Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Thursday, Feb. 23, about his research and misconceptions of the climate crisis.

Koonin argued that climate group movements to halt fossil fuel extraction aren’t as urgent as the public may think. Instead, he had suggested a different approach to combat climate change.

“What do I think we should do? First thing is we have to cancel the climate crisis. This is not a crisis,” Koonin said.

“I think we need better representations of the situation to non-experts and we need to improve climate and energy literacy.”

In his latest book, “Un -

settled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters,” Koonin argues that current warnings about the magnitude of climate change are misleading and not backed by science.

His presentation illustrated that sustainable energy, such as wind and solar power lacked reliability. Koonin also argued “fancy” sources of renewable energy such as graphite and cobalt were not only expensive but unhumanitarian for many “undeveloped” countries.

“I think we must not constrain the developing world’s energy supply,” he said. “Right now, they need the energy and fossil fuels are the best way to get them.”

Koonin argued that climate movements in “developed” countries like the United States disregard the need for energy in developing countries. Rath -

er, for some other countries, renewable energy can mean undependability, inaccessibility and infeasibility.

For some students like Anna Short PO ‘24, Koonin’s presentation brought new considerations for their outlook on renewable energy.

“It was cool to learn from a different perspective. I think that there were a lot of good points made, especially about the developing world and how they need access to energy,” Short said.

However, she was not entirely convinced that Koonin’s presentation addressed the major concerns of most climate change activists.

“I feel like he was too often going after an angle that was not the best representation of the ‘care about climate change’ movement.”

In April 2022, a Pomona College referendum revealed that

almost 90 percent of students who responded to the survey are in support of divestment from fossil fuels. The vote followed a Dec. 2021 rally led by 5C clubs, including Divest 5C, Sunrise Claremont, KKR Kills and Students for Justice in Palestine. However, Koonin pushed back on advocating for divestment.

“If the Claremont colleges were to sell their fossil fuel stocks, someone else would just buy them,” Koonin said.

Along with his support of fossil fuel energy, Koonin highlighted climate and science education as a crucial aspect of today’s climate discussion.

“When you misrepresent things in order to persuade people rather than to inform them, you take away the right of the public to make fully informed decisions,” Koonin said. “You distract from more urgent needs, and boy do we have many of them.”

‘Cancel

beLLA PeTTeNGILL • THe STuDeNT LIFe

Scripps College’s Distinguished O’ b rien Scholar Andrea Ritchie returns to Claremont for a talk at the Rose Hills Theatre.

‘From Baltimore to Broadway’: How Bryan Terrell Clark persevered to stage and film stardom

Attending Temple University for his undergraduate education, he described how an advisor discouraged him from applying to top graduate programs because “those programs just don’t accept a lot of people of color.” Clark ignored this advice and was accepted into renowned drama programs at Yale University and New York University. But he says he couldn’t have made that leap of faith without his parents.

“I realized in my adulthood that the endurance, resilience and all those foundational things my parents taught me were about survival,” he said. “My dad was integral to that story because part of this profession that I did not understand yet is resilience, after being told no after no you cannot because of your race or your economic status or whatever it is.”

Clark also developed personal ways for combatting the mental toll of such discouragement — for example, everyday he writes three affirmations, three declarations, three people he needs to forgive, ten things he’s grateful for and meditates.

The audience appeared to be deeply moved by Clark’s inspirational talk.

“I just want you to know that you will definitely make it into my gratitude journal this week,” one audience member commented during the event’s Q&A.

Students agreed.

JO KEYSER

Bryan Terrell Clark — actor, artist and storyteller — recently asked his mom when she knew he was going to be a performer. “Before you could talk,” she responded.

The young Clark, not even a year old, would hear his favorite song on the TV, walk up to the screen and start to bounce, he recalled at a forum hosted by Scripps College in Garrison Theater this past weekend. While Clark’s performances nowadays require more skill than just jumping to music, he attributed his career to those first moments of childish joy.

“It’s our job as parents and teachers and mentors to observe the natural proclivities of our children and guide them, as opposed to imposing what we want them to be and do,” he said.

A seasoned actor, Clark is best known on the stage for playing George Washington in the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton,” as

well as Marvin Gaye in “Motown: The Musical” and Cory in “Fences” opposite Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett at the Pasadena Playhouse. He has also appeared in award winning shows on television such as Ava DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries “When They See Us,” which tells the story of the Central Park Five, the five Black and Latino teens wrongly accused for the rape of a white Central Park jogger in 1989.

“I am probably more excited to be here than you,” Clark joked. “I have a lot of life to share and I’m standing in the middle of a dream.”

It seems that dreams are daily becoming reality for Clark, who in 2017 landed the role of a lifetime in “Hamilton,” working with Lin Manuel Miranda, whom he described as a “very inspiring, strange, weird little guy.” Clark, who believes in the power of artistic authenticity, used Washington’s identity as a farmer to develop his portrayal

of the role.

“Washington had this idea that he shouldn’t rule and reign like a king in Europe, but that we should give the power back to the people. He’s actually aggressively trying to run back to be a farmer,” Clark said. “It’s an authentic idea, a new idea and stepping into your authenticity will always produce why you are here. Your passions will lead you to your purpose.”

Clark loves the premise behind “Hamilton” — viewing the United States through the lens of what its people look like today — and he’s seen its impact first hand. He described an angry letter he received from a parent whose kid got in trouble at school for shouting that “George Washington is Black!” after having seen the show. “The conversation that mother got a chance to have with her child about what the show was and why it was presented that way is so important,” Clark said. Actors in “Hamilton”

constantly felt the relevance of their work, Clark explained, as the show continues to speak to today’s political climates and debates. He took over the role of Washington just weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“I’m singing ‘One Last Time’ and all of a sudden I realize this is George Washington’s goodbye letter to the nation and I’m singing this song at the exact same moment that Barack Obama is giving his one-last-time speech and quoting the show in Chicago right now,” Clark said. “As I got to the end of the song and I got to the end of the stage, I burst out in tears.”

Clark regularly speaks to young artists on college campuses and describes his life story as “from Baltimore to Broadway.” He sees his past, including his mother’s perfectionism, his father’s struggle with addiction and his parents’ eventual divorce, as life lessons: tools that have helped him achieve his current success.

“His idea of putting yourself first and your authentic self first while also living in community and supporting communities … it’s your personal joy, but also the joy of the world,” Emma Rosenberg SC ’25 said.

After the official talk at Garrison Theater, Clark met a small group of students to extend the dialogue in a classroom nearby. Here students had the chance to ask more focused questions about the industry, such as “How do you handle constant rejection?” and even philosophical questions like “How do you find time to really get to know yourself?”

In his responses, Clark emphasized the importance of not being hung up on specific opportunities, as even dream jobs aren’t always what they seem, and to remain open to possibilities not yet imagined. He also stressed the importance of doing one thing to make yourself happy everyday to help find what motivates you and what is meaningful to you.

Marissa Chung SC ’25 appreciated this additional opportunity to learn from Clark.

“I think the whole concept of choosing to be happy just really spoke to me,” she said.

Baby Cronenberg makes his wet debut with “Infinity Pool”

GERRIT PUNT

After almost a year in exile, (just managing TSL. No big deal) I’m back to my movie reviewing roots — and this one’s an extra damp one.

At the tail end of 2022, Brandon Cronenberg, son of cult horror director David Cronenberg, dropped his first film, “Infinity Pool.” I can’t stress this enough: This is the single wettest film I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen Finding Nemo). The film stars the third scariest Skarsgård (Alexander), indiehorror darling Mia Goth and nine — count ’em — nine bodily fluids. I kept very careful count. Blood, sweat, tears, pus, vomit, urine, semen, breast milk and what can only be described as dubious cranial goo all make an appearance.

“Infinity Pool” follows James Foster — played by Skarsgård — an unsuccessful novelist financially held aloft by his wealthy wife, Em — played by Cleopatra Coleman. While vacationing at a ritzy beachfront (more liquid!) resort in the fictional nation of Li Tolqa, James accidentally hits a local man with his car, and, in accordance with the country’s Hammurabian judicial system, is sentenced to death.

The twist? The nation’s government offers a way to circumvent the death penalty: By coughing up a large sum of money, wealthy tourists can clone themselves, sending their genetically identical scapegoats to be ritually executed in their place.

With this newfound knowledge, James falls in with a group of fellow onepercenters who, no longer afraid of legal consequences, terrorize the beachfront country in an escalating and inescapable spree of orgies, drugs and horrific crimes.

There’s a lot that “Infinity Pool” does right. For a film commenting on the depraved, carnal, consequence-free

indulgence of the uber-rich, the visuals deliver. This is a violent, sensory kaleidoscope of a film.

The editing is sharp, the shots are vibrant and, in the footsteps of Cronenberg’s father, the practical effects are gorgeously grotesque. The film is as disgusting as it is gorgeous. As much as I’ve joked about it, the goopiness of “Infinity Pool’’ is one of its biggest strengths. Watching James sink into the titular pool of thick red genetic sludge (yet another liquid!) is nothing less than a visual treat.

It’s a dirty, hideous, beautiful movie, and one that I desperately want to love. Unfortunately, the younger Cronenberg’s debut is messy, and not just because of

the fluids.

The premise of “Infinity Pool” is an interesting one, but for a film that overtly paints itself as class commentary, it isn’t nearly as conscious as it wants to be.

The big wet elephant in the room is the film’s fictional third-world nation, Li Tolqa, a bizarre cultural blend of the Mediterranean, Eastern Bloc Europe and some vague tropical island locale. It seems clear that Cronenberg wanted to escape the baggage of setting the film in an real-world country, but with its scary, exotic, legally “backwards” chimera nation, “Infinity Pool” is soaked with an uncomfortable amount of vague, indiscriminate xenophobia. The film’s depictions of

women aren’t much better. James’s wife Em doesn’t do much other than provide a plausible reason why an unsuccessful novelist could find himself surrounded by wealth above his caliber, and Goth’s character, Gabi, isn’t much better. She inducts James into the destructive spiral of violent hedonism, but lacks any real character or motivation outside of being a cruel, femme-fatale succubus. The movie isn’t all that tight either. The setup is more plodding and convoluted than it needs to be. Though the momentum eventually picks up, the plot isn’t half as slick as the visuals. Cronenberg’s father’s films aren’t for everyone, but I

appreciate his ability to take a farout concept and execute it in as cleanly as possible. It seems like that trait might not be genetic. For each step it wants to take forward, it takes another step backwards. It’s a shame “Infinity Pool” is bogged down by its sloppy commentary. It’s a gruesome, stimulating, psychedelic rollercoaster, and a fun one at that. I just wish its social and narrative screws were a bit tighter.

Gerrit Punt PO ’23 has recently acquired a bunch of liquid latex and a styrofoam mannequin, and is eager to make some Cronenbergian special effects of his own. This isn’t a bit or anything, he just wants you to wish him luck.

eMMa JeNSeN • THe STuDeNT LIFe

actor bryan Terrell Clark was a guest speaker at a forum hosted by Scripps College in the Garrison Theater this past weekend.

FraMe raTING

TaNIa aZHaNG• THe STuDeNT LIFe

‘Reimagining Safety’ documentary screening presents dialectical approach to prison abolition

A portrait of humanity in ‘All t hat Breathes’

“Delhi is a gaping wound. And we’re a tiny Band-Aid on it.”

PETER DIEN caused is a fundamental failure in understanding humans, but to only view us as our destruction is another more cynical shortcoming.

This line is uttered by Nadeem Shehzad, one of the main subjects in “All That Breathes,” a 2023 documentary about bird conservationists working through pollution in New Delhi, India. Nadeem and his brother, Saud, both struggle throughout the film, dealing with a cramped working space, failing infrastructure and a government that refuses to support or fund their cause.

By its nature, prison abolition demands that we dissolve existing frameworks that unduly uphold power structures. The documentary “Reimagining Safety” by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Matthew Solomon examines from micro and macro lenses the economic, sociocultural, political and ideological forces that maintain the carceral system and outlines the steps needed to dismantle them.

On Feb. 16 in the Scripps Humanities Auditorium, 5C Prison Abolition Collective hosted a screening of the film followed by a Q&A with Solomon and Jose Gutierrez, a clinical social worker and one of the 10 experts featured as interview subjects in the film. This event marked the advent of the Spring 2023 Speaker Series & Workshops presented by 5C Prison Abolition Collective.

This film was Solomon’s capstone project for his master’s in Public Administration at Claremont Lincoln University, a culmination of his studies on prison abolition. The featured experts were advocates of prison abolition, whose occupations included former police officers, academics, sociologists, civil rights activists and social workers.

Solomon emphasized the importance of viewing the issue from the lenses of individuals of different races, walks of life and upbringings. In the post-film Q&A, he said that he started off with five experts but decided he wanted a more diverse array of perspectives.

Driven by the experts’ interview responses, the film diagnosed misconceptions around prison abolition while simultaneously using them as devices to propose solutions and plant the seeds for new ideas.

By structuring the film around this critical dialogue, Solomon was

able to carefully interweave dissections of common criticisms of prison abolition into his primary argument: police reforms are mere band-aids slapped on the fundamentally flawed basis of the carceral system, which is to micromanage and intimidate the underprivileged. The dialectical narrative structure mirrored the complex untangling needed in real life.

Attendee Leila Riker PZ ’25, a member of the 5C Prison Abolition Collective, praised Solomon’s directing.

“The film made abolition seem not only digestible but the only possible answer, which I appreciated,” Riker said. “Prison abolition can be a hard pill for many people to swallow. Reimagining the world is very difficult when all you’ve known is that a certain amount of change is possible.”

Solomon interspersed intense, upsetting and often graphic clips of police violence towards Black individuals throughout the film. Many attendees took issue with this element, and several stepped out of the event due to the trauma and distress the imagery induced.

Solomon addressed this concern in the Q&A.

“Imagery drives the point home. There are people in my life in law enforcement and putting imagery to the things people are saying makes [the ideas presented] not conceptual anymore.”

Riker believed the imagery actively detracted from the film’s message.

“The sheer amount of extraordinary Black violence that was shown in the film was to a fault,” Riker said. “The ongoing debate of who should and shouldn’t be spared from seeing violence is complex, and I understand that

Solomon probably grappled with it, but as a filmmaker he could have evoked the same emotion without the oftentimes retraumatizing graphic imagery. I felt like he indulged in his ability to spam us with that violence.”

Lila Murphy PO ’25, one of the two event organizers, stated during the event that, based on conversations about the film beforehand, board members of the collective were led to believe that there would be no graphic imagery of violence.

In a follow-up email to all members of the collective, they stated that they would thoroughly assess material for future screenings.

“This was a big learning experience for our Collective’s organizers and we will never screen something again without first vigorously vetting it ourselves,” the email stated. “We did not mean to be cavalier with displaying excessive violence, and do not take lightly the traumatic potential of such imagery.”

The experts emphasized that abolitionists don’t advocate for immediate abolishment of prisons and police — at present this is neither possible nor desired. They want to see community-based action that allows for decreased reliance on the police, which encompasses transferring funds from police departments to community-based organizations. In order for this shift to occur, they argue there must be a behavioral and ideological shift away from our rampant individualism, unfounded distrust of others and cerebral thinking.

More information about the film can be found at https://www.reimaginingsafetymovie.com/.

Through all of this, “All That Breathes” unravels Nadeem and Saud’s humanity, highlighting how life can adapt and grow from dire situations. One shot in particular encompasses this theme: the wrinkles of a fallen tarp are covered in water from the previous night’s monsoon, and the camera’s zoom reveals a microbiome within the puddles. Through this shot, we see the similarities between the microorganisms in the puddle, the birds that Nadeem and Saud heal and Nadeem and Saud themselves. All three of these species –– humans, animals and insects –– have evolved in a world of industrialization, climate change and global violence. The birds in Delhi should not have to live in landfills as a result of pollution, nor should the organisms find a home in unclean rainwater. Nadeem and Saud live a similar existence, expressing their love for bird-healing, but with a somber understanding that their work wouldn’t exist in an ideal world where birds would not have to be rehabilitated at all.

The reason why “All That Breathes’’ works is not because it offers audiences a glimpse into the turmoil of Delhi, but because it paints a well-rounded image — or series of images — of how species exist, adapt and perceive their surroundings today. The film portrays humanity as a spectrum, centering the ebb and flow of emotions we experience in every moment of our lives. To ignore the destruction we have

Understanding humanity’s complexity, as shaped by contexts and conditions, is the only way to fix the issues it has caused, not only for humans but for all organisms on Earth. We are not meant to purely view Nadeem and Saud’s work with pity, nor should we blindly commend their work to be an act of resilience. These two truths exist at the same time, and their interplay is at the core of every minute in the film. Viewers must resist the binary of optimism and pessimism, lenses that restrict this film’s viewing to be an example of humanity’s restoration or a symptom of humanity’s failure.

“All That Breathes’’ spoke to me on a personal level. As an Asian-American, I used to yearn for positive depictions of my culture because many people perceived us through narratives of conflict and war. In turn, I internalized all the trauma that made me human, using a reductive lens to view myself and others that shared the same identity. As I am evolving and gaining a deeper grasp on what it means to be human, I understand that truths don’t compete but co-exist. I am right to be angry at the stereotypical perceptions of my culture, but that does not mean I should erase the pain and oppression of my ancestors with the hopes of reclamation.

Nadeem and Saud are living in a country that constantly reminds them of their subjective human condition — mounting nationalism from the Indian government, poor air quality, failing infrastructure and bird-healing that proves both noble and hopeless in the context of global exploitation. However, the depth of Delhi’s wound should not minimize the importance of them as a Band-Aid, and more importantly, as individuals who experience the universal tendencies of love, care, joy and justifiable anger against the systems they live in.

Peter Dien CM ’25 is from West Covina, California. He enjoys listening to midwest emo, watching stand-up and playing Go with his roommate.

Why I struggled with Nghi Vo’s reimagining of The Great Gatsby

REIA LI

When I first read Nghi Vo’s novel, “The Chosen and the Beautiful” (2021), I had mixed feelings. It wasn’t until I read her next book, “Siren Queen” (2022), that I understood why.

“The Chosen and the Beautiful” is a re-imagining of “The Great Gatsby” from the perspective of Jordan Baker. However, Jordan is a queer Vietnamese adoptee who was “rescued” as a baby from Vietnam by a wealthy missionary. She is taken to Louisville, Kentucky, where she grows up with Daisy, her best friend whom she is quietly and desperately in love with.

At face value, this is a book I should love. It features a queer Asian woman. It has delightful doses of fantasy and received rave reviews from critics.

And yet, reading it was a painful experience.

I think part of my discomfort was orchestrated purposefully by Vo. Jordan grows up in an all-white environment where people both continually point out her racial difference and also pretend like it doesn’t exist.

For example, after Tom makes a racist remark against interracial marriage, Jordan snaps at him. He responds, saying, “There’s nothing for you to get so hot over, Jordan. You know I wasn’t speaking about you.”

Jordan’s background means that people like Tom treat her as if she was white and then respond with irritation when she does not play their game.

However, over the course of the book it becomes harder for Jordan to ignore her own racial difference because of a proposed law which would try to deport all Asians and other “unwanted unworthies” in the United States.

Although this act is fictional, Vo

clearly modeled it off of the 1924 Immigration Act that made it illegal to come to the United States from any county in Asia.

By combining scenes taken straight out of “The Great Gatsby” with dialogue of white characters discussing the merits of the act, it seems Vo is trying to re-situate “The Great Gatsby” in history by illuminating the ugly racism underneath its luxurious world. Vo asks: For whom was the 1920’s truly a “Golden Age”?

I think that exploring this topic is a worthy goal. But while reading it, I sometimes felt like it was Jordan’s most important purpose as a character –– to force the white people around her to confront their own racism.

It’s a shame because Jordan herself is so cool. She is cynical and a bit sarcastic and reads people

very well. She also has the ability to cut paper into intricate shapes that live and breathe; for instance, she creates a paper-Daisy to attend her own bridal shower when Daisy gets drunk in a fit of regret about agreeing to marry Tom.

Vo describes this magic in an essay as a “magic that is inherent to her lost homeland” that “serves as both a link to [Jordan’s] past and a path to her future.”

Jordan starts to reckon with her relationship to this lost homeland when she meets Khai, a Vietnamese immigrant, at one of Gatsby’s parties. Khai is part of a paper-cutting troupe who cut dragons and other miracles out of paper to entertain the party guests. When Khai invites her to eat with his troupe, Jordan finds herself surrounded by other Vietnamese people for the first time

in her life. As Jordan notices their physical similarities while also grappling with a language and history completely unknown to her, she feels a combination of attraction and repulsion.

“When you’re alone so much, realizing that you’re not is terribly upsetting,” she thinks to herself.

I found the scene fascinating, as it reminded me of some of my own experiences coming to Pomona College and finding a Chinese American community that I never had growing up.

However, no matter how interesting these scenes with Khai and his friends are, the story always returns to Daisy, Nick, Tom and Gatsby.

The weight of “The Great Gatsby” is so heavy that it becomes a vacuum, forcing “The Chosen and the Beautiful” to revolve around

that story, rather than the story I personally would much rather read, which is the one composed of moments where Jordan grapples with her relationship to Vietnam, the people who took her from it and how she will find her way back, metaphorically or literally.

This impression solidified when I read “Siren Queen,” which follows Luli Wei, a Cantonese girl who dreams of becoming a movie star in 1920s Hollywood.

Luli Wei, like Jordan Baker in “The Chosen and the Beautiful,” spends much of the book as an outsider in a racist, majority white world — in this case, the film industry. But unlike Jordan, Luli’s story is entirely her own.

Luli makes many bold decisions that she must reckon with later. For example, she literally trades away years of her life for the chance to meet the head of a movie studio, and when she does meet him, she gives up her name and steals that of her sister.

“Siren Queen,” because it is not trying to re-create a story that has already been told, has the freedom to center Luli, her dreams and her relationships. The scenes where Luli finally reconciles with her sister are some of the most tender and emotionally impactful of the whole book.

I would absolutely read both of these books again, simply because I am thirsty for the stories of queer Asian femmes and Vo’s writing is vivid and arresting. But “The Chosen and the Beautiful” reads like a historical reimagining that still centers whiteness, while “Siren Queen” creates an alternative history that challenges the way we remember Hollywood’s past.

Reia Li PO ’24 would love to wear a silk dress and go to a 1920s gay bar, but settles for reading about that experience in Vo’s books instead.

MAYA ZHAN

Queer aSIaN reaDS

aNDrea ZHeNG • THe STuDeNT LIFe

beLLa PeTTeNGILL • THe STuDeNT LIFe

SaSHa MaTTHeWS • THe STuDeNT LIFe

Black Culture at the 5Cs: From the ‘70s into the new millennium

Oct. 1970

NAACP Chairwoman Myrlie Evers ‘68 campaigned for California’s 24th District Representative

1970s Oct. 1970 5C students protested the creation of BSC, alleging 5C admin succumbed to “political pressure”

Nov. 1970 CMC Trustees get federal funding to aid Black enrollment and admission

Nov. 1970 5C Student rallied to free activist Angela Davis

Feb. 1971 BSU condemned CMC admissions policy as “blatantly racist

May 1971 Class of ‘71 graduated with 20 black students across the 5Cs – the largest in history

Feb. 1971 CMC Admissions rescinded 1968 quota agreement for increasing Black student enrollment

March 1971 CMC approved Admissions policy without Quotas

Editor’s Note

Nov. 1972 ASPC cut BSU funding nearly 40% from 1971, despite requests for thousands more Dec. 1972 TSL published rebuttals.

Sept. 1972 Council of Claremont Colleges fired first BSC Director Donald Cheek

Nov. 1972 CMC professor publishes inflammatory op-ed against affirmative action

Today marks the second year since TSL’s inaugural special issue to commemorate Black History Month by diving into Black culture and legacies at the 5Cs. Last year, the TSL staff explored the historical journey of the Black experience at the 5Cs from Pomona’s first Black student to the construction of the intercollegiate Black Studies Center in 1969.

In Feb. 2023, TSL picked up right from where we left off, following Black history at the 5Cs from the 1970s into the new millennium. We hope to continue our perpetual learning and appreciation of the contributions made by Black students, faculty, staff and alums to the Claremont community and the world at large.

In the spirit of that growth, we want to acknowledge that some of the historical stories of this year’s spread may take on a different tone than last year. From the destruction of the Black Studies Center to contention over equal opportunity hiring and affirmative action, we recognize that the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s represent a time where the pendulum of social progress seems to have swung backward at the 5Cs. Throughout our time spent tirelessly combing through the archives at Honnold Mudd and Denison Libraries, we came to more deeply understand that the road toward representation and equity is long, and it is not always linear.

Despite the exciting activism and victories of the ’60s, we recognize that it is our job to bring even the setbacks into light, too. In this annual exercise of learning about our history and heritage, we have continued to reflect and make new discoveries.

This year, we found out that last year’s seven-decade Black History Month tribute was not the first for our organization. In 1988, TSL published its first Black History Month spread. To pay respect to the journalism that continues to teach us how to engage, learn and understand our community, we’ve republished our favorite pieces of the 1988 spread in this week’s issue.

In our historical and contemporary coverage of Black History Month this year, it is once again, “our hope that, as with everything we do, elevating this knowledge makes us all more informed, more thoughtful and better equipped to use the facts to make our community more just for everyone,” as we pledged last February.

In the ’70s, 5Cs dismissed student requests for increased Black enrollment

AVERI SULLIVAN

Later this spring, the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to release a decision on whether to uphold race as a consideration in the college admissions process. The looming opinion comes just over 50 years since the policy’s introduction in Claremont and could potentially overturn affirmative action, a practice that faced several setbacks when initially established in 1965.

Following the Black Student Union’s (BSU) initial calls for greater diversity efforts at the 5Cs, the colleges’ presidents agreed in May 1968 to raise Black student admission to ten percent or higher at each college within the next five years. By 1971, however, admissions departments across the 5Cs were already shirking their responsibility.

In Feb. 1971, the Claremont McKenna College Admissions and Financial Aid Department released a statement that rejected the original enrollment agreement of 1968.

According to the Claremont Collegian, the CMC report stated, “[We] admit that the college agreed to offer admission to 10 percent of black students. [But] the College does not wish to commit itself to any set quotas of minority enrollments.”

By the time early BSU students activists had established the Black Studies Center and inclusive housing policies for students of color in 1969, Black enrollment across the 5Cs experienced a staggering decline.

The Pomona College Admissions Office reported less diversity on campus. In a 1972 TSL article, admissions counselor Cynthia Stork said, “Fewer minority students [are] accepting offers of admission to Pomona.”

The number of Black students at CMC began to dwindle even earlier,

making up just six percent of the college’s student body by 1971.

5C administrators appeared reluctant to put any fault on their admissions policies. Instead, faculty committees such as CMC’s Admission and Financial Aid Committee blamed financial burden and academic unfitness.

“The report says that the College believes that attempts to reach quotas could lead to a reduced academic quality,” Rob Langworthy wrote for the Claremont Collegian.

“[The committee] adds that such students ‘must meet the usual standards of quality’ [and] ‘made it clear that money could be a critical limiting factor.’”

The faculty committee found no value in retaining the quota agreement for its admissions, a practice that California banned in 1978.

But students on the Committee on Alternative Education released a statement in support of quotas in admission policies.

“We urge all students to support the BSU in their struggle to attain the educational equality that has been promised them,” the joint statement on behalf of the committee read in a 1971 TSL guest-opinion . The BSU’s admissions policies in favor of quotas also garnered support from faculty. Black Studies Center Director Donald Cheek spoke at a CMC faculty meeting in Mar. 1971, on behalf of the BSU, to advocate for the BSU’s original enrollment demands.

“The colleges have been looking for loopholes in the 1968 agreement, particularly in denial of scholarships for financial reasons,” Cheek said. “Because of the racist society we function in, Black and Chicano families will need more aid.”

TSL reported on CMC Assistant Professor Barbee-Sue Rodman’s eight page rebuttal addressed to CMC’s committee’s claims that affirmative action lowered the academic standard of applicants.

“[Regarding] reduced academic quality, Rodman observes that neither CMC nor other colleges admit students ‘simply on the basis of academic or intellectual merit,’” TSL reported. “Instead, Rodman says other considerations ... are also used to determine an entrant’s potential contribution.”

According to the BSU, CMC’s report attempted to justify racial discrimination in admissions and avoid retention of Black students throughout the school year.

In a letter sent to then-CMC President Jack Stark, the BSU questioned whether the college lacked the funds to support a scholarship for students of color or had chosen not to. However, CMC’s Dean of Students Clifton Macleod and President Jack Stark rejected the BSU’s claims of any racial discrimination.

“President Jack Stark called the accusations ‘not true,’ [charging] that [the BSU] intended to ‘build tension and distrust,’” Bill Weirick of the Collegian wrote at the time. “According to MacLeod and Stark, the most frequent reason given for black students leaving was ... ‘flunking out.’ However [MacLeod] said that he felt that anyone admitted to CMC should be able to make it academically [and] he ‘accepts the challenge.’”

CMC faculty opted to settle the quota contention with a mailin vote, ultimately approving the CMC’s Admission and Financial Aid Committee’s admission and financial aid policy without any set quotas.

Administrators weren’t the

only ones to oppose affirmative action policies. Professors did too.

In the fall of 1972, Pomona professor Charles King published an opinion against the practice to which student Jeanne Rosenmeir PO ’74 refuted.

“Mr. King spends 3 1/2 columns out of four discussing the case in which, of two people vying for the same position, the white male is clearly better qualified,”Rosenmeier wrote in TSL. “Mr. King is advocating a maintenance of the status quo until someone can come up with a scheme for helping women and blacks get a toehold without inconveniencing the white males.”

The faculty and student responses to affirmative action eventually caught the attention of 5C administrators. Just a month after the published opinions, the 5Cs held an “Affirmative Action Workshop” at Harvey Mudd College with a representative from the federal Office of Civil Rights and Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The full-day workshop discussed “new guidelines for higher education [and] explore problems in the application of the guidelines.”

Soon after, the Claremont University Center Affirmative Action Committee released an “Affirmative Action Plan” stating their support for equality in education.

“Claremont University Center recognizes ... that affirmative action requires additional efforts to recruit, employ, and promote

qualified members of groups which may have been formerly excluded,” CUC’s joint statement said. “In the case of both minorities and women, the figures have been reviewed and there does not seem to be evidence of clustering.”

The action committee found that only five Black professors of 63 total faculty members held “higher level administrative positions” across the 5C. Only one Black faculty member did not work as an administrator connected to the Black Studies Center or Chicano Studies Center.

Despite any student and faculty fervor regarding affirmative action, the 5C Committee was adamant that it was not necessary to use affirmative action to change enrollment and hiring policies. So, any effect on Black enrollment and employment was dismal after the enactment of the 5C Affirmative Action Plan. Rosenmeier, who covered the 5Cs’ responses to affirmative action and graduated from Pomona in 1974, recently sat down for an interview with TSL. She recalled no interactions with faculty and students of color at all, following the 5C pushback in affirmative action and diversity recruiting.

“There weren’t very many Black students. I didn’t know anyone that was Black at Pomona. I don’t remember having an interaction of any kind, actually,” Rosenmeier said. “But I can say that as an outsider, the discrimination was not subtle. Oh God, it was everywhere.”

‘Sworn to secrecy’: Professor Angela Davis’ teaching at the 5Cs

Some faculty, students and staff might recall Angela Davis’ recent visit in 2021 for a talk at Pomona College or her 2016 visit to Scripps College as a guest speaker for the interview series “Conversations.” What may be lesser known, however, is that Angela Davis was once a lecturer at the Claremont Colleges. Davis is a Black political activist, prison abolitionist, Marxist, feminist and academic. Just four years before she joined the staff at the now defunct intercollegiate Black Studies Center (BSC) in 1975, she was at the center of a highly publicized trial that propelled her to national fame.

In Nov. 1971, the Claremont Collegian reported that 5C students organized a protest against Davis’ trial. “Rally Speakers Decry Apathy, Support Davis,” the headline read.

While acquitted of all charges, the California case established Davis as one of the faces of the Black Power Movement, intersectionality and prison abolition. Her open opposition to white supremacy and Black radicalism caught the attention of students and faculty at the 5Cs.

In Oct. 1973, Dr. James Garrett assumed the role of Director at the BSC with plans to hire and recruit full-time professors. One of those professors was Angela Davis, who would join the faculty in Sept. 1975 to teach the history of Black women at the center. However, her arrival caused

controversy. According to the New York Times, a concerted effort was made by the CMC and Scripps administration to resist her hiring at the Black Studies Center.

“Angered alumni and wealthy benefactors who had talked of canceling their bequest to the richly endowed schools have received letters explaining that [all thought] Miss Davis’s $3,000 contract with the Claremont Black Studies Center was ‘unauthorized and regrettable,’” the New York Times reported.

In May 1975, shortly before Davis’s arrival, the MC Board of Trustees Chairman Jon B. Lovelace Jr. threatened to revoke CMC’s support of the Black and Chicano Studies Center in a letter to Dr. Garrett, if they did not reconsider their hiring choices.

However, Dr. Garrett did not rescind his offer to Davis. Instead, he opted to extend the contract offer to Davis. According to TSL, on the same day Angela Davis later signed the contract, Dr. Garrett was fired from the BSC.

“The thought crossed my mind that the intention may have been to embarrass us, [the Black Studies Center,” Garrett said in a Nov. 1975 interview with The Observer. “The [administration] said it would be all right. We’ve had Marxists here before.”

According to college administrators at the time, Dr. Garrett acted on his own to hire Davis, although he later alleged that he followed normal hiring protocol.

By the time the BSC brought

COurTeSy: TSL DeC. 1975

renowned activist and academic angela Davis’s time in Claremont was shrouded in secrecy despite student efforts to call out admin’s treatement toward Davis.

Davis on, the center was still in its infancy after years of studentdriven activism. Years of activist efforts from the Black Student Union eventually culminated in the construction of the center focused on Black studies but the pathway was marred by tumultuous setbacks, including the silencing of professors like Davis. Davis ultimately taught for one semester because her

contract was not renewed. While she was in Claremont, however, administrators took efforts to conceal her presence on campus by limiting her course size to 25 students all of whom were “sworn to secrecy,” according to New York Times reporting.

Additionally, the location of the class was kept secret and changed each week.

However, the student body was far from quiet about Davis’

time in Claremont. “I can’t see how Angela Davis will hurt the colleges,” Joel Kuperberg, ASPC President said in an article with TSL. “It’s stupid to avoid controversy in an educational institution.”

Other opinions published in TSL touched on academic freedom amid calls for transparency while messages on Walker Wall acknowledged her presence, despite having been shrouded in secrecy.

SARU POTTURI & ROWAN GRAY

COurTeSy: HONNOLD MuDD arCHIVeS Claremont Collegian published a series of student opinions opposed to racial quotas in admissions in Mar. 1971.

Averi Sullivan, Managng Editor of News and Opinions Hannah Weaver, Editor-in-Chief Gerrit Punt, Managing Editor of Arts & Culture and Sports

Jenna McMurtry, Special Projects Editor Special Projects Editor

Anu Krishnan

May 1973 BSC goes independent, cutting ties with the Human Resources Institute

May 1973

March 1974 5C Presidents announced $30,000 cut to the 1974-1975 BSC budget

Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran PO ‘69 appointed as BSC Director of Admissions

Oct. 1973

Dr. James Garrett appointed director of BSC

Sept. 1974 Enrolled Black students at Pomona dropped to 98

March 1974 Claremont Courier exposes significant discrepancies between Black enrollment numbers reported by 5Cs and Black admissions offices

May 1975 Coalition of Students of Color (CSC) condemn BSC and CSC budget cuts

May 1975 Dr. James Garrett hired Angela Davis; Garrett fired soon after

May 1975 5C Presidents removed full-time faculty budgets at BSC and Chicano Studies Centers and cut summer programs

May 1975 BSC and CSC demand reinstatement of summer programs and faculty tenure

Oct. 1975

Oct. 1975 Lebaron M. Woodyard appointed Director of Black Admissions

Death of Bsc births oBsa and 5c Black studies Department

In April 1979, the Black Student Union’s (BSU) brainchild, the Black Studies Center (BSC), celebrated its tenth anniversary. By May, the Black Studies Center ceased to exist.

Over the course of the 1970s, many Black intercollegiate organizations and departments saw significant funding cuts from the 5C administration. In Mar. 1971,The BSC Bulletin reported the 20 Black students in the graduating class of 1971 was the largest in the history of the 5Cs. The Center attributed the enrollment growth in large part to the BSU’s active recruitment and advocacy just a few years earlier.

However, despite any hopes of bolstering their respective organizations, in 1972, the ASPC slashed BSU funding nearly 40 percent from just the year prior. By the spring of 1974, there were multiple proposals submitted to the Provost’s office asking to cut the Black Studies Center annual budget by $30,000, leaving their funding for the academic year 42 percent lower than their original budget when the center had opened.

In April 1974, the faculty published an open letter addressed to the 5C community, asking the Council of Claremont Colleges to reconsider their allocations. With this budget decrease, BSC Director Dr. James Garrett explained the organization would be forced to terminate their tutor counseling program, one secretarial position, one full-time faculty position and one dean of counseling position.

“The Black Students Center Family believes that what it asks is just,” the letter on behalf of the BSC stated. “We are not asking for more funds for our center. We only ask that it remain at its present level.”

But for the BSC, their funding was not the only aspect of the program in jeopardy. The 5C administration had plans to absorb full-time BSC faculty into the 5Cs and remove the summer pre-freshman program, designed to help incoming Black students navigate any academic or social adjustments, to be more cost effective.

“A move which Black Admissions

Officer Eileen Wilson predicts will cause 30 percent of next fall’s entering class to fail,” the Black Studies Center bulletin reported.

On May 7, 1975, Kit Morgan PO ‘25 wrote an article for TSL entitled “Pendleton Take-over Forces The Issue.” He described that 5C students occupied the Pendleton Business Building in support of the BSC and their faculty to retain their independence from the 5Cs in the next academic year.

“The faculty at the BSC and

CSC object strongly to having center faculty incorporated into the colleges,” Morgan wrote.

“They argue that if professors are taken away from the Centers they will lose their allegiance and dependence upon the ethnic center and consequently unity will deteriorate.”

By May, the Council of the Claremont Colleges announced their 1974-1975 budget. The Council had voted in favor of the 13 percent budget cut for the BSC, removal of the prefreshman program and no longer allowing “center-only” professors. Instead, all professors

would be reassigned to a college department in addition to their duties at the BSC. In response, many 5C students of color and faculty were outraged.

“On May 1st (May Day) the Council of Presidents murdered the Black and Chicano Studies center by removing budgets for full time faculty from the Centers and returning it to various colleges, thereby eradicating the directors’ control over both faculty and the curriculum,” one student group said in an open letter to the 5Cs. “We can not accept the Presidents’ response. Nor can we allow the Presidents

GuS

to believe that we will consider a return to the status quo.”

Not long after, Garrett had been replaced by another Director of the BSC, Kuregiy Hekymara, appointed by the 5C Presidents. With Black student enrollment continuing to decline and the Black Studies Center at more limited capacity, the 5C administration enlisted a Special Committee on Black Studies to investigate the “effectiveness” of BSC, and potentially, consider its dismantling.

In April 1979, the Council of Claremont Colleges voted unanimously to disband the BSC.

“After ten years, the Black Studies Center will be no more,” the final BSC Bulletin read. “Effective July 1, 1979, Black Studies in Claremont will be two separate services: the Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies and The Office of Black Student Affairs. That the new era will bring revitalization and success are the hope [...] of all who are genuinely interested in Black Studies impacting the academic community.”

The Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies, now known as the Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies, and The Office of Black Student Affairs (OBSA) still exist on campus today in two former BSC locations, the BSC faculty office and clubhouse. OBSA was envisioned to maintain the primarily social and affinity based community building of the now defunct BSC. For many Black students, OBSA became their solace at the 5Cs.

“OBSA has done a wonderful job of making students feel welcome. It’s not that the administrators don’t sympathize ... but they can’t understand,” Kimberly Hill PO ’83 said. “If it weren’t for the [BSU and OBSA] and the fellowship existing between black students, the attrition rate would be higher than it is already ... I don’t think Pomona [College] makes a big effort to keep minority students here.”

Meanwhile, the Intercollegiate Department assumed the Center’s academic capacities, offering over 25 courses to all students across the 5Cs.

“The mission of the Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies (IDBS) is to examine through various academic disciplines the experiences of people of African heritage worldwide,” The Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies Interdisciplinary Curriculum and Programs 1979 brochure read. “Moreover, its faculty endeavors to create an intellectual climate which fosters cross-cultural dialogue.”

Yet, many Black students at the 5Cs felt the two services were not enough to replace the power of the incapacitated Black Studies Center. According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, enrollment only continued to nosedive in the 1980s with most Black students either transferring upon arrival or not accepting their offers of admission.

“One might be surprised at how ‘unenlightened’ and ‘narrowminded’ the Claremont Colleges are,” Melina Vourlekis wrote for TSL in 1981. “It is interesting to note how few minorities, particularly [B]lacks, there are at Pomona: for example, there is only one [B]lack woman in the graduating class of 1981. Surprising?”

This month in history, 1988: A candlelight procession and the struggle for Black Studies at Pomona

The following articles were originally published in TSL’s first Black History Month spread in 1988.

A Candle Light Procession

by Antoine Moore

February 1st marked the commencement of Black History Month, a celebration of the past and present contributions of Blacks in America.

The Candlelight Procession, the first of a series of events scheduled to take place this month, heralded in this celebration on Monday night. Over 50 people assembled in front of Carnegie Hall at Pomona where the Procession began. Students, faculty, and administration took part in the march that extended over the 5 college campuses. At each campus, the procession stopped as students from several of the campuses shared their talents to captive audiences.

Misha Faustino, senior at Pitzer College and president of the Black Student Union, began the Procession by introducing Professor Agnes Jackson, who read an excerpt from James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son. Leaving Carnegie hall, the Procession made its way to Big Bridges where Sharianna Rice (Pomona, ‘90) read the poem “A Black Woman Speaks,” by B. Richards. From there, the Procession proceeded to Flamson at CMC, where Shawn Barton (Pitzer, ‘91) and Derrick Mitchell (Pomona, ‘88) presented “Ballot of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall. Then everyone make [sic] a beeline to Pitzer, where Angie Campbell and Peter MacDonald sang “Everything Must Change” and Monica Betts sang “And This Day”. Claudette Hatcher (Pitzer ‘91) performed next at HMC, singing: Close to Thee,” and finally, the Procession ended with a group

song.

“Kumbaya,” at Scripps. The evening was completed with a reception at the Office of Black Student Affairs.

“If I had started out with a blank slate,” explains Consuella Lewis, head of the Office of Black Student Affairs, “I’d be in deep yogurt! It’s important for us to know our history.” She adds, “I look back and see all the people who have persevere before me, and I get strength from knowing that they could achieve. If they could do it, so can I.” This is, I think the embodiment of the purpose of Black History Month.

It is a period of time set aside specifically to recognize the various achievements of Blacks, achievements that otherwise would probably go unnoticed by Mainstream America. It may be shameful, but it is true. Despite the many contributions Blacks have made, they are rarely observed. Black History Month serves to inform as well as to inspire.

Consuella Lewis believes that the Candlelight Procession was a very positive act. She observed that Black History Month is not the celebration of a month but is the celebration of a lifetime. “It is really something that should be observed year-round,” she said.

“The Candlelight Procession is something that former students of the Claremont Colleges started years ago,” explains Lewis. “It’s a legacy that has been past down over the years.” That the Candlelight Procession continues today is a telling example of students’ continued commitment to the ideals of Black History Month, the recognition of the contributions of Blacks in the United States. “Black achievement

can be found in all areas. Our contributions to this country have been wide and diverse. We have changed our destinies more than once. We have been faced with challenges, and we have met them. No other groups’ strength has been tested as much as ours has,” avers Lewis. “None else can make that claim.”

The Struggle for Black Studies at Pomona by Haley J. Sloan

“Winston M.C. Dickinson was in Pomona’s graduating class of 1904. He was the president of four honorable on-campus clubs, in Cajole club fraternity, and won second place in the Oratorical Contest. Upon graduating from Pomona, he entered Harvard Law School. Winston M.C. Dickinson was also Pomona College’s first black graduate. Dickinson is assumed to be the first black graduate due to the fact that Pomona kept no records of the race of enrolled students. Over the years, black students who attended Pomona College were primarily Africans studying abroad or from the exchange program with Fisk University, a predominantly black schools in Nashville, Tennessee.

The struggle for black rights at the Claremont Colleges reflected the intensity of the struggle at the national level, including bomb explosions, boycotts, rioting, and the takeover of the Pendleton Business office. It wasn’t until the late 60’s that the College made a strenuous effort to recruit minorities. The admissions office, along with the faculty set out to find qualified minority professors and students to join Pomona College.

The College established the

Black Student Union in the Fall of 1967, in the hopes of building a student body that reflected the ethnic distribution of the nation. The BSU proposed the idea, which became an academic reality, of the Black Studies Program integrated throughout the five colleges. The program’s main functions were designed to give a broader dimension, an increased awareness of heritage, a development of ethnic pride, and a special sense of purpose for the black community of Claremont. The BSU organized a rally in order to make their proposed Black Studies Center a reality. On March 5, 1969, they issued a bulletin announcing the beginning of a rally at 8:30 am. All students and faculty were asked to refrain from attending and conducting classes. The rally was a success and set the wheels in motion for a Black Studies program.

In 1969, the BSU participated in the great movement of the Black Student Unions across the nation. After weeks of demonstrations, a new committee was formed to work towards the establishment of a Black Studies Center. In September 1969, the 5-college Black Studies program had officially begun. The program started with ten courses offered first to black students and seniors; one of the new courses was entitled “Reconstruction and Its Aftermath: 1867-1900,”

The system was not without some bugs. Donald Cheek, the first Director of the Black [Studies] Center was dismissed in 1972 because of his dishonesty with students and administrators. He had allegedly been hired to keep black students in line and to smother any political activity which might interfere with the colleges’ operation. Dr. Egambi

Dalizu became acting director of BSC for one year until James Garrett was hiring as the new director in 1973.

Rioting and organized demonstrations began during the spring of 1974 due to an attempt to cut the BSC budget, in particular, the funds provided for the summer pre-freshman program, an important facility of the BSC. The student and faculty activists hoped to change the budget priorities of the college admissions through action. Although two bombs exploded, one at Scripps and the other at Pomona, and Pitzer’s dining hall was seized, such measures failed to prevent the budget cut.

The funding issue resurfaced in 1975, during the last two months of the school year, along with a demand for the recognition of the BSC staff by the colleges, and the development of a tenure tract [sic] and promotion within the center. BSU organized speeches, rallies, marches, and even the takeover of Pendleton Business Office. The efforts of the BSU and the Chicano Studies Center (CSC) administrators and counselors were [not] successful. The College [did not meet] their demands. Unfortunately, James Garrett and Mimi Brown, director of the Office of Black Admissions were dismissed from their offices for their participation in the Pendleton affair. Presently, Consuela Lewis is the acting [Dean] of the [Office of Black Student Affairs]. A few of the services of the Office of Black Student Affairs are as follows: the Black Student Union, Career Resource Center, Freshman Retreat, Social Activities, Tutoring, and academic advising. For more information on these programs call extension 3369. Pomona College, as part of the Claremont Colleges, has progressed remarkably since 1904.”

aSPC’s annual budget was originally printed alongside a Nov. 7 1972 TSL article to highlight the recent budget cuts to BSU. The original numbers have been adjusted for inflation to be in 2023 dollars.

South Africa

May 1979 Pomona faculty demand

divestment in open letter

May 1981

Pomona class of ‘81 graduated with only one Black female student

June 1978

Supreme Court ruled racial quotas in admissions unconstitutional in Regents of University of California v. Bakke (1978)

May 1979 BSC reached its tenth anniversary; published its last bulletin

May 1984 Civil Rights Activist Coretta Scott King spoke at Pomona College commencement

July 1979 BSC dissolved to Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies (IDBS) and The Office of Black Student Affairs (OBSA)

Oct./Nov. 1986

Coretta Scott King returned to Scripps’ and declared support for student antiapartheid demonstrations

Feb. 1983 Robert Cooper ‘83 won ASPC elections, making him the first Black senior class president

Nov. 1988 BSU conducted 12-hour sit-in to protest racist fliers targeting Black women dispersed on campus

Feb. 1988

Sept. 1984

5C Black students rose to 200 out 5,000 students

The Student Life published first Black History Month spread under the “Insight” section

5Cs invest in apartheid despite student opposition

AVERI SULLIVAN & SARU POTTURI

By October 1985, Pomona College had reportedly invested $13,459,810 in companies with ties to South Africa during the apartheid, according to Pomona’s then-President John Alexander’s memo to TSL.

“It would be deeply offensive to me if I were accused of being for apartheid,” Alexander said in the memo. “But I don’t think selling these stocks is going to make me a better person.”

In 1985, the country was still embroiled in a nearly 40 year struggle with apartheid –institutionalized racial segregation of Black South Africans — a government enforced system rooted in white supremacy. The South African government poured money into American businesses, and the institutions that invested in them, which included the 5Cs.

Students first discovered Pomona’s involvement with apartheid stock holdings, after the faculty Commission on South African Issues released Pomona Vice President Fred Moon’s financial report in April 1979.

“Investments are like guns; they put distance between us and our actions,” Faith Richie wrote

in an opinion for TSL. “White South Africans enjoy the highest standard of living in the world, while 80% of black families in the country live below subsistence level. Pomona College has over $5 million invested in corporations with subsidiaries in South Africa

... Is that responsible?”

But Pomona College was not the only administration entangled in apartheid investments at the time.

According to the Los Angeles Times, all of the Claremont Colleges had invested millions of dollars of their respective stock portfolios into “firms with South African ties.”

“Spokesmen for Pomona, Harvey Mudd and Scripps colleges said those schools have no plans to divest,” Jesse Katz of the Los Angeles Times wrote in 1986.

But the resistance to the apartheid was brewing at the 5Cs. Students Against Apartheid

(SAA) organized a “South Africa Awareness” week to demand that Pitzer College, Pomona and Claremont Graduate University divest their funds. Many students felt that the 5Cs’ refusal to divert funds suggested complicity in the oppression at the root of Black issues.

“The issue of divestment forces us to question our own priorities regarding human dignity, our fear of communism, and our love of profits,” Lara Broadfield wrote in an opinion for TSL.

Outspoken Pomona professor S.J. Lamelle expressed disapproval for the colleges’ persistent investment in South Africa. Additionally, the BSU hosted a Candlelight March to protest the 5C administration’s failure to explicitly condemn segregation and support Black rights.

“[An] often heard [...] argument is that [Black people] in South Africa will be the ones who will suffer the most,” Lamelle said. “The majority of [Black people] in South Africa [...] say that any such suffering is preferable to the suffering caused by the continuation of the apartheid.”

But other faculty were more reluctant to divest funds from South Africa, regardless of its apparent impact on Black rights.

“There is no disagreement that apartheid is a bad system,” CMC

President Jack Stark said. “How we can be the most effective in changing it is a subject where there is a lot of room for disagreement.”

Despite any existing policies on socially responsible investment, Alexander continued to defend the near ten year investment into apartheid affiliated companies.

“We are frustrated — we want to do something to help [Black people] in South Africa,” Alexander said. “I don’t think divestment or disinvestment is going to help.

Instead, Alexander and thenPitzer President Frank Ellsworth called for “understanding” and “cooperation” between people of different races but did not recommend any direct action.

After numerous student and faculty anti-apartheid demonstrations, the Pitzer College Board of Trustees and the Claremont University Consortium Board of Trustees agreed to withdraw a portion of stocks by the end of the decade. On June 17, 1991, the South African government repealed its apartheid legislation. According to a Feb. 1991 issue of TSL, the other colleges allegedly did not relinquish investments until mandated by California’s Assembly Bill 134, which required all California institutions to sever ties with South Africa.

Donny Hathaway’s ‘Extension of a Man’

Growing up in Miami, Dr. Eric A. Hurley recalls driving through the affluent neighborhoods as a typical Saturday activity for his family.

“I remember my mom and stepdad used to drive us around the city to look at the big beautiful houses,” he said. “She didn’t say it at the time but I suppose my mom’s idea was, ‘You need to see that the world is bigger than what we can manage.’”

Hurley is a professor of Africana Studies and Psychological Science at Pomona College who researches implications for the social and educational outlook of African American and other minority children. His research integrates culture and education in order to understand the relationship between African American children and schooling, an idea prompted by his upbringing.

Hurley was raised by a family of educators in a low-income neighborhood. Determined to alleviate his economic status, he initially pursued a bachelor’s degree in Advertising at the University of Florida.

Hurley settled on advertising as he believed the marketing field would guarantee him secure employment while allowing for him to be creative and work with people. Most importantly, he wanted a career that gave him the ability to influence others.

However, any prospects of advancing his advertising career came to an abrupt halt during an internship with Reebok in his senior year of college. In the midst of a hot Boston summer day, a moment of clarity struck him — “At some point I looked up and was like ‘wait a minute, I think I just sell shoes!’”

As luck would have it, a window suggesting a pathway into academia opened for Hurley at the same time as he was closing the door leading him into advertising.

After Hurley enrolled in a research methods class, his professor noticed his natural inclination towards the subject and encouraged him to pursue psychology. But it wasn’t until after seeing his friend’s senior thesis on bystander criticism and racism did Hurley pick up a minor in psychology.

“I didn’t actually know about the academic pathway – I just didn’t have the cultural capital for that,” Hurley said.

While at the University of Florida, Hurley also witnessed the Black Student Union protest the university’s homecoming activities’ lack of inclusion towards their Black student population. This led Hurley to seek a deeper connection towards Black issues and consequently, Black scholars. Equipped with a newfound desire to study the mind, Hurley enrolled in Howard University’s graduate school, the only historically Black college/university (HBCU) with a graduate program in psychology.

After completing his doctorate at Howard, Hurley spent three years working at a research nonprofit before ultimately deciding to return to higher education as he was dissatisfied with the direction of his research.

From 2002 to 2005, Hurley taught

at Smith College as an Assistant Professor of Psychology and found that liberal arts colleges like Smith strongly appealed to him for its small size and abundant resources.

Once his visiting position at Smith concluded, Hurley picked up another job nearby at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst where his determination to publish research was sparked.

The two years spent researching and publishing at UMass Amherst allowed Hurley to compile a more competitive resumé, and by 2007, Hurley began to work at Pomona College.

The resources and attractive physical space at Pomona has kept Hurley in Claremont for over 15 years, where he continues to pursue research on the intersection of structured cultural values and education.

Under the mentorship of his advisor A. Wade Boykin, a cultural psychologist at Howard University, Hurley has spent the last two decades chipping away at his “intellectual crisis”, which he says is “the one thing in the world you cannot let exist as it is.”

For him, that “intellectual crisis” is the inequalities facing African American schoolchildren.

Understandably, Hurley’s passion for “intellectual crisis” stems from his own environmental and social observations he made growing up in South Miami. While Hurley credits “cultural capital” to his going to college, he noticed that there are other smart kids in Miami who don’t go to college. Through his research, Hurley attempts to find alternative reasons for why there is a gap in schooling amongst African American children in order to depict more “authentic pictures of Black people.”

Outside of the classroom, Hurley dedicates most of his time to being a father and husband. Whether it’s coaching his two daughters in soccer or baking a cake for his wife’s birthday, Hurley maintains a close relationship with his family at home and enjoys participating in the occasional marathon.

CW: This article contains mentions of suicide

Good day, my beautiful reader! Today, I’m talking about a Donny Hathaway album, and I have three reasons for doing so. Firstly, I want to highlight a lesser-known Black artist. Secondly, without Donny Hathaway, many uber-famous Black musicians couldn’t have done what they’ve done. And thirdly, the tragic and beautiful story and music of Donny Hathaway are, in many ways, emblematic of the larger story of Black music.

To get into this article and Hathaway in general, I strongly recommend that you listen to his 1990 song “Someday We’ll All Be Free.” Seriously, do it right now! Have you done it? I can’t talk about it until you listen to it … OK, here goes.

“Someday We’ll All Be Free” is perhaps Hathaway’s most famous track, and it isn’t hard to see why. The lyrics were written as an homage to Hathaway’s personal struggle with mental illness, and he reportedly broke down in tears upon hearing it for the first time in the studio.

The song has become a Black anthem, representing the struggles both Hathaway and his community faced — addressing them all with a high-flying faith: “It won’t be long, take it from me, someday we’ll all be free.”

Hathaway’s vocals soar over a shimmering background of arpeggios from his keyboard, a free-floating guitar line and a firm bassline. The instrumentals give Hathaway all the emotional weight he needs to deliver his sermon. Hathaway doesn’t negate the struggles of the world; rather he provides a forceful and poetic statement for resilience and adaptation to a world that “spins around,” always trying to throw him off. Let’s talk about the album

around it. In 1973, Donny Hathaway released “Extension of a Man,” his final studio album. The album wasn’t certified, and the biggest hit, “Love, Love, Love,” peaked at No. 44 on the U.S. charts. And yet, it was a central part of Hathaway’s discography and went on to be incredibly influential, inspiring generations of artists and changing the direction of American music.

While working on the album, Hathaway was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He underwent severe mood swings that he could only ease with a cocktail of 14 different medications he had to take twice a day. In the six years after the release of the album, he was hospitalized several times, and on Jan. 13, 1979 he jumped from his fifteenth floor balcony. He was 33 years old. The album is a product of a man desperately struggling with his demons, showing the world the beauty only he could make for the last time.

“Extension of a Man,” and Hathaway’s discography in general, was extremely influential. He was a central figure in the foundation of soul music and one of the most important singers in the history of gospel music. His unique blends of jazz, gospel, soul, R&B, rock and Motown have been a significant contributor to the sounds of Black music since his death.

Ultimately, Hathaway’s influence extended much further than his limited discography. He can be heard in artists such as Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, George Benson, John Legend, Alicia Keys, Aaliyah and, of course, his daughter Lalah Hathaway. His music has been covered by literally hundreds of artists from as diverse paths as Micheal McDonald, Chris Brown, Pentatonix, The Backstreet Boys, Destiny’s Child and Sergio Mendes.

All of this influence is for good reason. The album comes with incredible range, featuring glorious symphonic harmonies, achingly beautiful R&B standards at their best, several unbelievably gor

geous instrumental tracks, slow ballads that let Hathaway pour his entire soul out to the listener — and some fantastic gospel tracks to boot.

The album thematically centers around love, unity and the beauty of God and the universe He created, enabling Hathaway to create a wealth of powerful moments. The instrumentation is flawless and stands as a testament to Hathaway’s incredible talent as an arranger and composer as well as a musician — every song has just enough going on to keep you constantly engaged without being overwhelmed.

On this album, Hathaway is at his absolute best. His unique voice is incredibly powerful, and his unbelievable talent on the keyboard provides the listener with no end of moments where you have to sit back and ask yourself, “damn, how on earth is he this good?” Hathaway’s voice is spectacularly expressive, constantly shifting from the bottom to the top of his range and always providing a distinctive tone and immaculate vibrato to each note in line with the lyrics and vibe of the song. Hathaway is always emotional, reaching out to the listener, pulling them into the song and ending every phrase distinctively and impactfully.

Throughout the story of Donny Hathaway, we can see themes that come up over and over again in the broader stories of Black music: his lack of commercial success despite his influence, his ability to blend so many different aspects of Black culture, his constant work to create life and beauty from a place of struggle and despair, his devotion to making music for his community and his tragic death. So this Black History Month,

celebrate

ROWAN GRAY

COurTeSy: HONNOLD MuDD arCHIVeS

Pomona professor eric hurley’s lifelong dedication to improving Black education

DAISY ALVAREZ

CaSSIDy JONeS • THe STuDeNT LIfe

let’s

Donny Hathaway, one of the most important artists of the last century.

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

reVIeW ZONe

COurTeSy: POMONa COLLeGe africana Studies and Psychological Science Professor eric Hurley’s research looks into academic outcomes for youth students of color.

Despite stiff opposition to investments in South africa, the 5Cs largely kept assets during apartheid until state law prohibited it.

April 1990 5Cs launched “African American Families Weekend”

Jan. 1990 OBSA and IDBS celebrated 20 years

Sept. 1993 7Cs surpassed 350 Black students

May 1995 OBSA and IDBS cosponsored first annual ceremony for Black graduates at CMC’s Mary Pickford Auditorium in Bauer Center

Feb. 1991 5Cs celebrated 10th Annual Sojourner Truth Lecture featuring speakers such as Maya Angelou

Feb. 1994 OBSA partnered with the Mzee Coalition to host ceremony to honor Black elders for their contribution to the Claremont community

Nov. 1996 California banned affirmative action at public universities, 5Cs not affected

Aug. 1995

Current C MC Government Professor Fred Lynch called 5Cs to pushback on affirmative action and “rotten social science”

Nov. 1997

Scripps College welcomed awardwinning actress Nancy Wilson to deliver Sojourner Truth Lecture to 5C students and faculty

May 1997 Pomona hosted Tanzania’s first president, Julius K. Nyerere at Seaver House and Garrison Theater

Feb. 1999 5Cs host author Nikki Giovanni to celebrate Black History Month at the Claremont Colleges

5C Black student organizations plan social and educational events for Black History Month

CARTER SOE

Each of the 5Cs has their own collective for Black students — Pomona College’s Black Student Union, Claremont Mckenna College’s Black Student Association, Scripps College’s Watu Weusi, Pitzer College’s Black Student Union and Black Lives at Mudd (BLAM) — all work to empower Black student voices across the campuses. Many of them address important issues such as student inclusivity and education of the Black experience in the United States.

As president of CMC’s Black Student Association, Aishat Jimoh CM ’23 wants to leave a legacy of inclusivity and understanding of Black students and their backgrounds.

“I think as a first-year, I had a really tough time navigating through CMC because it felt very exclusionary and people didn’t recognize me for who I was,” Jimoh said.

Aside from highlighting and celebrating the achievements of Black students, BLAM really pushes students to take action and stand up alongside the Black community.

“We need action, like actual change. And one way we can start that is by making sure Black students here can feel safe and seen on the campuses,” Co-president of BLAM Fred Bolarinwa HM ’25 said. “We need people to be allies and show support, like being on the

front lines with us.”

Moyo Oyedeji-Olaniyan HM ’25, who serves as co-president alongside Bolarinwa, echoed a similar sentiment.

“Awareness is good, but we can do more,” Oyedeji-Olaniyan said.

BLAM led a protest earlier this month, rallying against police brutality for the death of Tyre Nichols. The club created posters to be held during the march. On Feb. 6, BLAM led 5C students from Walker Beach through CMC and Scripps, stopping at the Shanahan Learning Center.

“We had amazing support from everyone being there,” Bolarinwa said. “However, there were also a good number of students just standing there and just stopping and staring without joining.”

BLAM also hosted fun activities such as a Sugba, a Black music celebration on Feb. 17 and a Black Flea Market Trip to Los Angeles planned for later this month.

Despite the small numbers of Black students at Scripps, Watu Weusi co-presidents Niva Laurent SC ’24 and Blessing Roland-Magaji SC ’24 seek to incorporate Black culture, diversity and fun through their events.

On Thursday, Feb. 23, Watu

Weusi and Pitzer’s BSU held a conjoint Open Mic night at the Motley, where students performed poems, songs and improv. Students at Watu have also joined other events happening across the

other Black student organizations such as the Flea Market run in Los Angeles and crafting care packages for students at Watu Weusi. One of Watu Weusi’s main goals this month is to promote Black visibility within Scripps. Both Laurent and Roland-Magaji hope to increase Black visibility and recognize the Black spaces that are here on the campuses.

“We want to show people the Black culture that is thriving within it. To recognize that we are here,” Laruent said. “I want to have fun, but also let Black students know that they have a space here,” Roland-Magaji said. “Every Friday when I come to Watu meetings, I feel good, happy and in a community with people who care about me.”

Celebrating Black excellence and planning events catering to the diverse Black student population have been one of Pomona BSU’s biggest goals this Black History Month. Presidents Oreoluwa Precious Omomofe PO ‘24 and Jonathan Williams PO ‘24 have outdone themselves this year, hosting numerous informative events, workshops and social parties for the 5C Black community.

Starting off the month with their annual Blackout event, Pomona’s BSU and other 5C Black student organizations wore all black for a party at Smith’s Campus Center Courtyard on Feb. 3.

“All of our events embody the effort where we cultivate Black spaces. Where people feel safe, where people feel flourished and feel free to be themselves,” Omomofe said.

The fluidity of the events enabled different parts of the community to come together. For example, those who attended a Haircut Shop event participated in discussions of Black masculinity and femininity while others who

attended the Club D&N party enjoyed a night of fun and good music. “[Black History Month is] a very special time of the year to commemorate the culture, to fight the anti-Blackness that’s been built into society and call them out for what they are, combat them,” Williams said.

Pitzer BSU declined TSL’s request for interview.

Spotlight on sports, highlighting Black excellence at the 5Cs

Jessica SloanCooper CM ’26

Jessica Sloan-Cooper is entering her first year on the ClaremontMudd-Scripps lacrosse team. The Athenas midfielder hails from Oak Park, Illinois, where she earned all-conference honors at Oak Park and River Forest High School. “The Wednesday Journal” quoted SloanCooper’s high school coach in 2022 referring to her as a “dominating midfielder that can score and play great defense.” Sloan-Cooper hopes to bring this energy as she looks to improve and rise to the next level of play beginning her first season on the team.

As the only Black athlete on her team, Sloan-Cooper detailed the complexity of her experience in a white-dominated sport and how the community built by her teammates has helped her find pride in playing lacrosse for CMS.

“I’m not sure how other Black athletes’ experiences or feelings about their CMS sports team [have been]; however, my transition has been pretty good. When I chose to play for CMS, I knew that it would be a white majority that I was going to surround myself with, which kind of worried me at times, but [it] was never something I feared deeply, and [the] angst I had before has since subsided. It has been much easier for me to get acclimated to the lifestyle in season because it’s [the] second semester … I see my teammates everyday and am able to build connections with them more often. I know people were and still are surprised when they find out that I am on the lacrosse team because it is a white-dominated sport and our team follows the same make up; however, I don’t think that my race has had any effect on my connection with my teammates, the sport and becoming a college athlete. I think being the minority in any situation is nerve-racking so there were times where I felt intimidated because I know I look different. I even presently find myself feeling nervous because I am usually the only Black girl out on the field … but none of my sentiments are brought on by my amazing teammates; they make me feel like I belong [in] every second of every game, play, practice and lift. I feel confident walking around with my CMS [Lacrosse] gear everywhere I go and I feel that I have created my own space as a Black athlete at CMS. Although my experience is positive, I do think there is always more that CMS can do to be more inclusive to their athletes that make up a minority of their team because there is always more to do and better ways to improve. I also say this because I don’t know or hear much about Black athletes’ experiences at CMS and they more than likely differ from mine in some way.”

With the spring season just underway, Sloan-Cooper spoke on her approach to this season.

“My experience generally has been great,” Sloan-Cooper said. “That was the first word that popped into my head when I read the question … It’s not easy and there are low moments that sometimes stick out, but it’s very rewarding … I also haven’t fully realized it, but I have grown extremely fond of seeing my teammates everyday … My teammates are amazing competition and our coaches push us to rise to the next level, so I’m also excited to get better at [lacrosse] for the rest of my time at CMS. Lastly, I am excited to build stronger bonds with my slay teammates.”

Lucas Grandison HM ’24

After his first-year season was canceled due to COVID-19 and his sophomore year derailed by injury, Lucas Grandison is concluding his first true season as a member of the CMS men’s basketball team. One of two Harvey Mudd College students on the roster, the physics and math major dropped a season-high 10 points to go along with three steals off the bench during the Stags’ 87-54 rout of Chapman on Feb. 9. The wing is a native of Berkeley, California and is looking forward to CMS’s playoff game against Redlands at 7:00 p.m. tonight.

On his experience as a Black athlete at CMS, Grandison highlighted his relationship with his teammate Jordan Hunt HM ’23.

“[It] has been an interesting one. I don’t quite prefer to speak too much on it to be honest … But I will say that I have greatly appreciated my fellow teammate Jordan Hunt, who is also the only other Mudd student on my team. He was a perfect person to pair with coming into both Mudd and the CMS basketball team since he and I share so many similarities.”

In the past week, an Instagram page under the handle @5cbet, working alongside a number of Black affinity spaces at the Claremont Colleges, has announced its nominations for the first 5C BET Awards. Receiving a nomination for “Masc Athlete of the Year,” Grandinson spoke of his appreciation for his friends and community.

“First off, I wanna say that I think it’s amazing that we have a 5C BET,” Grandinson said. “I think it’s amazing that my fellow Black students are organizing simply for the sake of showing recognition and appreciation for other Black students in the 5Cs … When it comes to being nominated, I am definitely thankful … a good amount of my homies came to my games to support me even before I started playing, so shouts really go out to them … Even though I’m a newly-playing athlete, there are still a lot of opportunities left to prove why I’m the Masc Athlete of the Year.

Wendy Wambo Wendja SC

Wendy Wambo Wendja is an international student from Italy studying abroad this year at Scripps College. While in Milan, she attended the Università degli Studi di Milano, where she earned a degree in international and intercultural communications. Last year, through her university, Wambo Wendja was accepted to study and work as a teaching assistant at Scripps. Since coming to Claremont, she has walked onto the Athenas track and field team.

Wambo Wendja has competed in track and field both in Italy and now in the United States. She runs the 100 and 200 meter sprints and competes in the long jump. While still in Italy, she had taken a break from running and focused instead on her field event. However, since walking onto the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) team this winter, Wambo Wendja began running again and said she had a career highlight last week.

“I got my 100m times down, it had been a long time since I’d done the 100s and 200s. I got [my 100 meter time] down by almost a second … I was super happy because it felt like all the hard work I had been putting toward that moment had been repaid. I knew it was all worth it,” Wambo Wendja said.

Wambo Wendja said that she has felt welcomed by teammates and coaches as both an international and Black student athlete.

“I’ve been loving it. My teammates are super supportive and also super open. Culturally, of course, everything is new … I’m really glad that I was not the only new one on the team. There were many other new students and that facilitated my integration in the group,” Wambo Wendja said.

Olivia Richards PZ ’25

Olivia Richards PZ ’25 is a member of the Pomona-Pitzer track and field team. Unfortunately, due to injury, she has been unable to compete for the past two years. Despite this setback, Richards said she still loves being an athlete because of the environment of like-minded people it invites her into.

“In general, I really like the community that being an athlete builds. I like people with a similar mindset of getting better at what we’re doing. It’s always nice to have people who have the same passion as you,” Richards said.

However, according to Richards, her welcoming teammates and their supportive community does not make up for the lack of representation on her team and at Pitzer College in general. Richards is one of only a few Black women on the Sagehens track and field team, a fact that she says has to do with the school’s shortcoming in admission.

“At Pitzer where there aren’t a lot of Black athletes, I believe there’s only a handful of us … The school hasn’t really admitted [the amount of] Black students that I feel like should’ve been. Especially at Pitzer, as they have advertised diversity and that this was not exactly what I thought [I would get] when I got here,” Richards said. She spoke on what next steps could be.

“We can always use more Black athletes,” Richards said. “That’s all.”

Mohammed Ahmed PO ’23

Mohammed Ahmed is a Sudanese-American javelin thrower for P-P track and field. A molecular biology major on the pre-med track, Ahmed placed first in the javelin throw at multiple meets last year and claimed seventh in the event at P-P’s all-comers meet this February. Now entering his final season as a Sagehen, Ahmed is looking forward to spending time with his team and picking up some new skills. Reflecting on his time at P-P as a Black athlete, Ahmed praised his teammates for creating a welcoming environment.

“My experiences have been great and I’ve felt very welcome on the team,” Ahmed said. “Even though I am a minority, being a part of the team has been family-like, and I’ve experienced nothing but growth alongside my teammates. The team itself is diverse, and this has definitely contributed to my comfort on the team and to the depth of community we have built.”

In reviewing his career as a whole, Ahmed is thankful for maintaining track and field throughout his collegiate experience and has high expectations for the spring.

“Even [though] I lost two seasons due to COVID, my time as an athlete has been great,” Ahmed said. “I didn’t think I’d be able to continue my time in track and field after high school, so having any time within this sport is a blessing. I’ve been able to progress so much within javelin and have picked up high jumping, so I’m still learning even with my time ending. This season will be big for me and the team and I have big hopes for us this year. Competition will be good, but we’re working hard to win it.”

• THe STuDeNT LIfe

black student organizations across the 5Cs sought to celebrate and empower black achievements across the student body.

pomona’s quarantine policies leave room for error

quarantine, it’s completely contradictory to require somebody to enter quarantine based on the results of a rapid test.

Pomona’s COVID-19 policy team is picking and choosing when rapid tests matter — and when they don’t. The rapid tests that my friend took while she was in quarantine did not sway Pomona’s decision to keep her in quarantine. If the results of a rapid test required her to enter quarantine, why did the results of a rapid test not allow her to exit quarantine?

Either by reworking the policies themselves or by ensuring that those who make decisions about quarantine are adequately informed, Pomona must improve its quarantine policies. This is evident given the ways in which students’ mental and physical health are threatened under the current policy.

erless. Moving forward, Pomona must ensure better monitoring and communication between people in quarantine and the individuals managing their cases.

Current quarantine policies can also threaten physical health. Being in quarantine meant that my friend had to share a bathroom and shower with people who were COVID-19-positive, despite the fact that she didn’t have COVID-19. By doing this, Pomona recklessly put her and potentially other students like her in danger of actually contracting COVID-19. Considering the potential short and long-term impacts of COVID-19, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, include but are not limited to neurological symptoms, loss of smell or taste, heart symptoms or conditions and blood clots, how much is student health actually a priority in Pomona’s COVID-19 policies?

As we approach the COVID-19 pandemic’s three-year anniversary next week, my message to Pomona College is clear: it’s about time we do better. Three weeks ago, a friend of mine, and fellow Pomona student, found out she had been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. She took a PCR test and a rapid test. After 15 minutes, she checked the rapid test. It looked ambiguous. But she thought she could make out the faint red line, indicating that she had tested positive for COVID-19.

Conscientious, she emailed Student Health Services, who told her to pack her bags and move into quarantine at the Oldenborg Center. Later that day, her PCR test came back negative.

But it was too late. Despite multiple negative rapid tests over the course of the following week, she was forced to stay in Oldenborg to quarantine for six days.

In theory, it could seem as though Pomona was just being cautious in the interest of safeguarding student health. But in practice, my friend’s experience reveals Pomona’s quarantine policies to be contradictory, inconsistent and put students’ health at

risk. How so?

First, the decision to quarantine a student in Oldenborg based on the results of a rapid test should have never happened. An order to quarantine should be contingent on the results of a PCR test to ensure accuracy and follow campus standards. While navigating the pandemic during the last two years on campus, it has been made beyond clear that a rapid test has never been sufficient to satisfy the previous weekly testing policy or post-break testing requirements. If rapid test results have never been sufficient to demonstrate one’s ability to safely stay out of

Quarantine is necessary to protect the community. But it has a history of being a stressful circumstance with negative mental health impacts. Ideally, efforts should be made to alleviate this stress as much as possible. As stated in a 2020 article in “Affective Science,” one way to do so is to “ensure that individuals are monitored by competent professionals, thus reducing the psychological damage that can be motivated by the social isolation period during the quarantine.” That couldn’t be further from what my friend experienced. When she asked for her isolation to be reconsidered given her negative PCR test, vague and non-specific email responses from Student Health Services made her feel trapped and pow-

On Jan. 28, 2022, TSL reported that “Pomona students in isolation [say] experience has often left them feeling isolated in more ways than one.” Today — 13 months later — I can’t say that’s changed. Pomona must create an environment in which people feel encouraged to test when they feel sick, rather than one where students avoid testing because they are scared of being placed into an unhealthy and unresponsive isolation environment. Improving students’ quarantine experiences isn’t just crucial to the health of those in isolation — it’s important for the entire community.

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

Dear Pomona Housing & Res. Life: clean up after yourself

The hair scattered all over my bathroom sink wasn’t mine. Someone else’s sheets were on my bed. A mountain of trash bags rested on top of two trash cans pushed together. A used towel was hung up nearby. Someone else’s razor was on the counter.

At the start of this spring semester, I found my room completely trashed.

Dear Pomona College Housing and Residential Life: the blatant disrespect from your office isn’t exclusive to Housekeeping — it’s directed at students, too.

I live in Oasis KGI Commons, a student apartment complex about a mile from Pomona’s campus. Despite the trek, when my roommates and I were faced with a triple in Clark III, the basement of Wig or Oasis during housing selection last spring, we opted for the lesser of three evils. However, I was not prepared for the obstacles we’d face as a consequence.

For those who may not know, Pomona College allows students that live on campus over winter break to live in Oasis instead of their own dorms. As with most decisions made by the housing office, as an Oasis resident, I felt I had no choice but to comply.

On Dec. 23, students received an email from Dean Steven Jubert, the associate dean of campus life and director of residential life, stating, “We will have bathrooms and apartments cleaned between Jan. 7 and the return of students to Oasis the following week.”

Oasis students like me were courteous enough to allow a stranger to stay in our personal space under the impression that we’d come back to a room cleaned by both the student and Housekeeping. Clearly, we were wrong. The student who stayed in my room did not merely leave

their belongings behind — they fully did not bother to clean up after themselves.

Immediately after seeing the mystery sheets, I assumed the student who stayed in my room must not have moved out yet. In a state of panic, I emailed the student who stayed in my room. No response. I went to the Housing Office. To no avail.

I had explained my situation to one of their staff members, who called the student and demanded they accompany me back to Oasis to clean my room. As if the situation couldn’t get worse, I heard the staff member say to the student, “You took a leave of absence and can’t come clean the room?”

The staff member informed me that he would be fined accordingly, but where did that leave me? Sure, Pomona profits off their students, an all too repetitive trend for the administration, but hat about the violation of my space? Housing’s answer: Housekeeping wouldn’t be able to clean the room for another two days.

The negative interaction I had with Housing is part of a pattern of complacency among Pomona’s administrative ranks. During the heat wave last fall, students were expected to sleep in academic halls just to access air conditioning. When asked to accommodate for their discomfort from the extreme temperatures, the school only gave students measly fans and set up a couple of cots in dorm lounges. During the flooding of the laundry room in the basement of Mudd Hall last spring, students were left to fend for themselves.

While I acknowledge that the Housing Office is extremely busy, I still felt ignored, unprioritized and disregarded given the urgency of this issue.

I don’t think it’s an overstep to say that you would have felt this way, too, had you been in my shoes — in fact, I’m sure some of you have been in my shoes. That’s a problem. There are two clear issues with Housing’s response to this crisis. One: Housekeeping was supposed to come before I got back to campus. Not after. Two: Housekeeping should never be expected to clean up a mess as extreme as the one that was left in my room. The fact that Pomona expected this of Housekeeping makes me angry and confused and grants me a transparent understanding

of the level of disrespect with which the Housing Office treats Housekeeping staff.

Even when I finally did get a meeting with Dean Jubert, who was out of the office at the time and was not available until two weeks after arriving back on campus, I suggested canceling the fine sent to the student so they could compensate me, as opposed to paying the College for the time I spent cleaning the room. However, Dean Jubert claimed that this was not possible due to the Housing Office’s policy. He failed to send me said policy to review, even upon asking. The implication? This poli-

cy does not exist. Time and time again, Housing fails to provide students with the help and support that we deserve. What’s more, they treat Housekeeping with blatant disrespect. There is neither initiative to prevent problems from happening, nor proper infrastructure to address problems when they arise. Will Housing do better? Probably not. But their wrongdoings won’t go unnoticed — I’ll make sure of it.

Linda Phan PO ’24 is from Seattle, Washington. She loves frisbee and music.

LINDA PHAN

auSTIN ZaNG • THe STuDeNT LIFe

TuNNeLS uNDer CLareMONT: A COMIC BY BELLA PETTENGILL

MAGGIE MCBRIDE

Pomona’s isolation policies are contradictory, inconsistent, and put students’ health at risk.

After winter break, Linda Phan PO ’24 returned to her room in Oasis, Pomona’s off-campus housing, to find it trashed. Housing and res. Life offered her a solution -- clean it up herself.

CruD WOrLD: A COMIC BY GERRIT PUNT

Frary’s Meatless Mondays enforce restrictive eating habits

MADISON LEWIS

CW: Eating Disorders

“MEATLESS MONDAY. DO NOT GO TO FRARY!” flashes on the women’s water polo team group text. After a four-hour double-practice plus a lift, the low-protein, hot, vegetarian options just won’t cut it. Let’s face it: no one wants a bowl of salad bar tofu.

This story might sound extreme, but I’m not being dramatic. I tell this story to demonstrate that these forced, dining hall choices don’t work for everyone.

Sure, reducing some meat consumption due to environmental concerns is a laudable goal. But completely eliminating meat for a meal encourages — and even enforces — restrictive eating habits. There has to be better ways to reduce meat consumption, while encouraging healthy relationships with food.

Yes, it’s certainly possible to find nutritional sustenance and joy while eating within the confines of vegetarian or vegan diets. Many students voluntarily choose vegetarian or vegan lifestyles, whether for environmental concerns or moral reasons completely unrelated to dietary restriction, and can pursue that choice in a healthy way.

But we can’t ignore that veg -

an or vegetarian diets can and have been used to disguise, incentivize and perpetuate restrictive eating.

Any form of restriction can lend itself to disordered eating. No matter how you spin it, Frary’s elimination of the largest source of protein, one of the 5 major food groups, is forced restriction.

These dining hall endorsed food restrictions are especially concerning for college students, a group that is highly susceptible to developing eating disorders. College is a pivotal developmental period in many students’ lives during which dieting can transition to more serious disordered eating.

The Collegiate Survey Project reported that serious eating disorders typically develop between 18 and 21 years of age. Even more devastating 10 to 20 percent of women and four to 10 percent of men suffer from an eating disorder while in college. For many students, they are learning to navigate eating independently for the first time in their adult lives.

Dining halls should provide choice rather than incentivizing restriction.

But if you still aren’t convinced by the self-reporting surveys, medical research from

the National Library of Medicine found that eating disorders and vegetarianism can have a correlational relationship. While there is still room for more research into that causal chain, the study noted that healthcare professionals should view vegetarian diets as serious “red flags” for patients with preexisting or suspected eating disorders.

Why? Because people may justify restrictive eating habits under the guise of vegetarianism, using it as a socially acceptable way to frame their disordered eating. The 5C administration needs to consider how encouraging vegetarianism through diet elimination can have these negative consequences, unintended or not. Facilitating choice and reducing overall meat consumption are not mutually exclusive goals, and should never be framed as such.

Instead of meatless days, the dining halls should take a more holistic and flexible approach to reducing overall meat consumption and more effectively tending to the environment. Schools can think critically about reducing red meat consumption or sourcing ingredients more sustainably. They can provide more vegetarian protein alternatives

and decrease some quantity of meat in menu options while still giving students a choice at every meal.

If the goal is to reduce overall environmental impact, more choice, rather than none, will yield better outcomes. Fundamentally, colleges should trust students to make the choices that are best for them.

Just as they choose what classes to take and which extracurriculars to join, students should choose to eat how they

want. Similarly, if the 5Cs have little control over our courses and after school activities, how is eliminating food and pushing certain diets over others not an institutional overstep? Colleges should not be assigning moral value to foods and need to recognize potential consequences when they do. Madison Lewis PO ’24 is from Palo Alto, California. She is a junior on the Pomona-Pitzer Women’s Water Polo team.

Sort of fail in a viral video

48. Less vibrant

50. They’ve been written to a nightingale and a Grecian urn

51. ___ a ___ (intense confrontation)

52. Synchronize 54. Enjoying, as a TV show

55. What you might tell a smart speaker — or a kind of motion that happens four times in this puzzle?

60. More obsessed with Roblox, maybe

62. Un-Cold-War-ification

16.

63. Run through some water again

64. Doc. who helps with head and neck conditions

65. La Brea substance

66. Che Guevara’s first name

67. Absolute mess

68. Powered down DOWN

1. World Cup org.

2. With Spring, series of pro-democracy protests

3. ___ Wearhouse (suit chain)

4. Efficacious

5. Band generating feedback?

6. Kind of cracker or shooter

7. Like some class presentations

8. “Holy ___!”

9. Class that helps build fluency, briefly

10. 2001 film that takes place at Harvard

11. Search engine that plants

trees

12. Pre-concert string activity

13. Strip and skirt, for two

18. Dessert with lucky numbers

21. Google Maps stats

25. Onesies, e.g.

26. Source of syrup

27. Before now

29. ___ mosso (more quickly, in music)

30. One simulated a prison at Stanford

33. Make a move

35. ___ tai (cocktail)

37. “I won’t talk” agreement, briefly

39. Its longest entry, “set,” has a 60,000-word def.

40. Peace sign’s shape

41. Nation’s borders?

43. Airline with flights to Tel Aviv

45. Political refugee, for one

46. Cheese eaten with palak or mattar

47. Summer title at a company

49. Gets away from

53. L.A. museum you can enter via hovertrain (with The)

55. Uniform for some cookie vendors

56. Sandwich cookie that may or may not be vegan

57. “___ The Next One” (Jay-Z single)

58. “Uhhh!?!?!?!” over text

59. Its blasters can fire as fast as 68 mph, for some reason

61. Connections

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

bestie!”

It has 4.7 billion people (chirp chirp lmao)

Student coach Max Pollak PZ ’23 guides Claremont men’s club soccer to a 6-2 record, inviting team culture

ANSLEY WASHBURN

With the sun beating down on Claremont McKenna College’s Parents Field, the cheers of players were matched by the crowd of students gathered on Green Beach, all going wild for the men’s club soccer team as they celebrated the gamewinning goal. According to coach Max Pollak PZ ’23, that is what the Claremont Colleges soccer club is all about: having fun doing something you love with the people you love doing it with.

The Claremont Colleges men’s club soccer team is an organization open to any maleidentifying students at the 7Cs. The team holds “open training sessions” at the beginning of each semester to determine who will make the cut. Once the rostered team is determined, they practice bi-weekly and compete with local universities on weekends. This year, they are 6-2 overall and 2-1 this semester.

However, unlike many other teams in their division, the men’s club soccer team is unique in its leadership. Their coach is a student at Pitzer.

“Pretty much all the other coaches are actual adults,” Pollak said. “But I think it’s something special we have here at the 5Cs to have a student coach the team. The connection between all the

players and the comradery that we feel I think is a lot greater because of it.”

When Pollak first came to Claremont in 2018, he was competing on the PomonaPitzer varsity team, but he decided to leave after his freshman year.

“I loved playing soccer but the time commitment for that team was so huge,” Pollak said.

Despite leaving the Saghens men’s team, Pollak didn’t want to stop playing the sport he loved. The following year, he began attending occasional practices for the club team, but didn’t throw himself into it until the spring of 2022. This fall, Pollak was asked to step into the role of coach and obliged. Since taking the job, he said he has been taken aback by the positive treatment he received from his players.

“When I first became the coach, I was really surprised by the amount of respect that I got from the guys on the team who I totally just saw as my peers,” Pollak said.

Jan Charatan PO ’23 has been competing for the club team since his first year.

For all four of those years, the team has had a 5C or Claremont Graduate University student as their head coach.

Charatan said that having a student as a coach can be uncomfortable at first, but over time both the coach and players get used to it.

“I think at the beginning since a lot of [past coaches] didn’t have coaching experience it was sort of an unnatural position to take,” Charatan said. “But they definitely grow more comfortable into that role and as the season progresses everyone then learns to respect them more.”

Charatan originally joined the team with the same intention as most of its players: to find a community to continue to play soccer in college that would offer an in-between level of commitment and play of

intramural and a varsity team. Charatan said that having a fellow student in the role of coach is helpful in creating the atmosphere that he and many other players are looking for in the club.

“We all sought out the same thing and want to keep the club fun while keeping it competitive,” Charatan said. “Having the coach be a peer, he shares that same goal with us and understands the kind of environment we want to create.”

According to Pollak, creating a competitive yet welcoming environment is a top priority for the team. He said club soccer is a great place to meet people from other colleges and it attracts a diverse group of students from around the 5Cs and the world.

One of those players is Marco Sievers, a language

resident from Germany who is studying at Pomona College for this academic year. Sievers joined the club team last fall after hearing about it from a professor. He said it was love at first practice.

“The players were really nice to me and really appreciated that I was there,” Sievers said.

“It was a nice training session, so I joined the club team. It was the best decision I could have made.”

Before ultimately committing to focusing on his education, Sievers spent ages 14 through 16 playing soccer at the semipro level in Germany where he competed for Freiburg soccer club. However, he often had to choose between school or soccer. Now studying at Pomona while still able to play the sport he loves, Sievers said he is very happy with the culture and,

because the team makes cuts, the high playing level of the team.

“It’s competitive because not everyone who wants to play for the club can play for the club, but it’s also a very friendly environment,” Sievers said. According to Pollak, the team is hoping to continue their sofar successful season in pursuit of winning the league, but he ultimately understands the final scoreboard is not what it’s all about.

“My favorite part of the team is the friendships that I’ve developed on and off the field,” Pollak said. “In this environment where we’re all out there, doing something that we love, having fun together, I think it’s very easy to make those connections. I now have friends from [first-years] to seniors at all of the schools. That has been something truly special about it.”

Q&A: P-P’s Director of Recreation Dominiqic Williams on his first year on the job, vision for the program moving forward

A few weeks ago, TSL spoke with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) Assistant Director of Recreation Matt Ryan, who is in his eighth year with the program. Meanwhile, on the other side of Sixth Street, Dominiqic Williams is in his first year overseeing Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) recreation. The Sagehens’ director of campus recreation is already making waves in the program and believes there is much more to come.

This conversation has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity.

TSL: Could you talk about your role at P-P Athletics and what kind of events and projects you oversee?

Dominiqic Williams: I am the director of campus recreation, so I oversee our intramural program. I also oversee club sports with Matt Ryan over at CMS, as well as all of our recreation, group fitness classes, open gym and things like that.

TSL: What has been the most memorable or rewarding event or part of your time here so far?

DW: I’ve only been here for a year now. I started last January, so I would say just opening this new building, [the Center for Athletics, Recreation and Wellness (CARW)]. Also being able to program inside of here and see students’ faces when they first walk in, seeing them be like, “oh, I actually get to use this?” or, “we have table tennis and foosball out here for us to participate in?” and I’m like, “yeah!”

We’re trying to make it accessible for everyone. We have something for everyone to partake in. It doesn’t just always have to be sports-related or physical wellness. For example, all of the seating we have — students are able to sit in here and do homework. Classrooms are always open if there are no reservations, so they can always go in there and do study groups too.

TSL: What made you want to work in this position/field postgrad?

DW: When I was in undergrad, I wanted to do occupational

therapy. I had started as a student official for intramurals when I was a freshman. When it came time for me to graduate, I still had some prerequisites left in order for me to then apply for OT schools, so I just figured, ‘let me go get a free master’s by [being] a graduate assistant,’ and I continued with recreation administration. It’s been very rewarding to offer people the opportunity to partake in recreational sports without having the commitment and pressure of varsity. Not everyone can play varsity so it’s great to be able to offer them some type of opportunity and

still let them play the sports they love.

TSL: What makes P-P Recreation different from other institutions or programs you’ve worked at?

DW: It’s smaller, but also, everyone knows everyone. There are five institutions within walking distance. Everyone takes classes with one another and everyone parties with one another, so there’s that social aspect that’s completely different from when you’re at a larger institution. The weather is great here as well, but it’s also just the opportunity to advance

COurTeSy: DOMINIQIC WILLIaMS

the program — making the changes you think are needed.

Having our athletic director, Dr. Miriam Merrill, who is super supportive, allows me to try new things and change. For a lot of people, when they get stuck, change is difficult, but being new in this role has allowed me to try different things and see if maybe something works. Maybe it didn’t work in the past or maybe it was something that we never tried, but why not try it and see what we can get out of it?

TSL: Can you speak a little

more on your relationship with Dr. Merrill?

DW: She’s very supportive. Anything I need, any guidance that we need for our program, she’s going to go to bat for us no matter what. Our club sports program is a 5C program — and we’re sitting at … I believe 28 clubs now. We just had pickleball club get started yesterday … so we’re constantly growing.

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

DW: It comes down to physical wellness, social wellness, mental wellness and even occupational wellness, because we offer students the opportunity to work for us. The social component is definitely key though — everyone goes out and makes friends. Even if you’re a first-year student and you’re not too sure how to go about making friends, if you sign up for an intramural team, some of those friendships last years and decades. Just being able to offer students the opportunity to partake in intramurals or club sports or recreation as a whole, just to have that mental break from the rigorous courses, that’s what it’s all about.

TSL: Is there anything else you want our readers to know about you, club/intramural sports or CARW?

DW: I would say come out and participate! We offer a lot of things in the evenings for students to partake in. This semester, we have dodgeball, indoor pickleball, flag football and then right after spring break, we’re going to start with outdoor soccer, five-on-five basketball and beach volleyball. For our recreational classes, we offer a cardio-dance which is taught by a student instructor — one in the morning and one in the evening. We have yoga classes in the evening now and we also have a Saturday morning yoga class, so anyone who wants to come and join that attends Pomona or Pitzer, they’re able to. And for our 5C club sports program, we just got our website and logo up and running, so we’re definitely trying to continue to push that forward and highlight that program.

The 5C Men’s club soccer team in their last game of the fall 2022 season at an away game at CSu San bernardino. They won

COurTeSy: MaX POLLaK

AMALIA KOCH

Dominiqic Williams serves at the P-P recreation Director.

beLLaPeTTeNGILL • THe STuDeNT LIFe

Sagehens take home seven event titles, finish second to CMS in SCIAC Swim and Dive Championships

A SCIAC title was up for grabs last week for Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) Swim and Dive. With the women’s team looking to defend their title and the men’s team hoping to shock cross-street rivals Claremont-MuddScripps (CMS), the Sagehens fought hard in one of their final meets of the season.

After an intense weekend, P-P ultimately fell to Sixth Street Rivals CMS, with both men’s and women’s teams claiming second place to the Stags and Athenas at the SCIAC Championships. Despite not getting the result they hoped for, the Sagehens had many successes ahead of the upcoming NCAA Regional and Championship meets.

Larry Yu PO ’24 and Alexandra Turvey PO ’24 took home SCIAC Swimmer of the Year honors, and Benji Willett PZ ’23 won SCIAC Diver of the Year. According to Yu, the team has nothing to be ashamed of. “A loss is tough, but at the end of the day, I’m proud of this team,” Yu said.

The Sagehens set an intense tone early on the first day of the meet, with multiple relay teams breaking program and conference records. On the men’s side, the 800 freestyle relay team of Tag Curwen PO ’24, Anzo Degiulio PO ’25, Adrian Clement PO ’26 and Yu took first place in the event with a SCIAC meet record of 6:37.13. The women’s 800 freestyle team of Emmie Appl PO ’25, Naomi Locala PO ’25, Sabrina Wang PO ’26 and Turvey took second place with a

time of 7:29.40 but broke a SCIAC record in the process.

According to Willet and Alex Gill PO ’23, the Hens worked hard this season to create a teamfirst culture, breaking down the stigma of swim and dive being an individualistic sport.

“We pride ourselves in our deck presence and how we get behind each other for every event … Even though you might be the only one swimming or diving in an event, [you] are constantly seeing your teammates and reminded that you’re a part of a team,” Willet said.

Gill added that P-P has a reputation for team spirit and said that their encouraging, fun-loving culture helps their team’s energy.

“The Sagehens are definitely known for having some of the best team presence on the pool deck and are constantly cheering each other on, getting behind the lanes and alongside the diving boards,” Gill said.

Records continued to be broken on days two and three of swimming, with Turvey taking first in the 50 freestyle with a SCIAC record time of 22.93 seconds. The following day, Turvey broke her own SCIAC record in the 100 butterfly. She swam a time of 53.96 seconds, once again winning the event. More relay records were broken in the 400 medley, with the team of Emily Brooks PO ’23, Katie Gould PO ’24, Gill and Turvey taking first with a time of 3:34.07. Though impressive, Turvey’s

success last weekend was a continuation of her season thus far, for which she credits her teammates tremendously.

“It really is just the team that has got me through the season,” Turvey said. “I think that I pretty much look forward to going into practice every day because I’m going to be training alongside all my friends … I think that does lead to these positive results.”

Yu also continued a historic season with dominance in his races in the SCIAC Championships.

In addition to his SCIAC recordbreaking 800 freestyle relay time, Yu took home gold in the 500 freestyle, 400 individual medley

After a rough 2022, Athenas golf have putt in the work to see green in 2023

and the 200 breaststroke.

Yu said his success this season was no accident, and he has worked hard for this.

“It’s really hard to have that motivation to keep going to do that training because you’re not going to see that payoff really until the end of the year…[but] sticking through with the program is probably one of the keys to success there,” Yu said.

In his final SCIAC Championships meet, Willett did not hold back, making podium appearances in both the one meter and three meter dive. Willett said his teammates were a key contributor to his

accomplishments this year.

“Something that really got me through this season… was being very candid about my mental health,” Willett said. “It makes it so much easier to get through it knowing that you have your teammates who are supporting you and understand all of that.”

Despite a frustrating second place finish for the Sagehens, both teams remain focused ahead on the NCAA Regional and National Championships in the coming weeks, using their disappointment as motivation for the meets ahead.

For Yu, the next few weeks are devoted to honing in on his best race and focusing entirely on the NCAA meets.

“These next few weeks [are] an opportunity to really … specialize in [your events] … I’m probably going to focus a lot more on 400 IM race strategy,” Yu said.

The Hens have turned their attention entirely to the NCAA championships, and although disappointed with their overall placement, they are using their frustrations to propel them forward as they close this season and beyond.

“[The SCIAC Championships are] going to really serve as motivation for the rest of this season. We can use this meet as a stepping stone leading into nationals and hopefully have even better performances there,” Turvey said.

P-P will continue their playoff push with the NCAA Swimming and Diving Regionals on Feb. 24 and 25.

How 5C Sailing Club fought to stay afloat amidst the pandemic

Winds and a pandemic may be out of our control, but you can command your ship with the 5C Sailing Club as they find their way back to sea after taking a hit from their time away from campus.

The once well established 5C Sailing Club lost its way during the pandemic, and a temporary dissolution almost led to permanent disbandment. Luckily for them, with the help of a few local yacht clubs, the 5C Sailing Club was thrown a lifeline. Today, the executive board and members of the 5C Sailing Club look to regrow the club and restore it to its prepandemic days while bringing the love of sailing back to the Claremont Colleges.

with two yacht clubs: Los Angeles Yacht Club (LAYC) and Laserfiche. Both LAYC and Laserfiche provide access to boats, life jackets and safety equipment at no cost.

Despite the success, Graham acknowledges that the club is still in its infancy as it continues to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. As vice president of the club, Graham stated that she hopes the club will continue to grow as they look to establish more partnerships with other local yacht clubs and add more events on their calendar.

Four years after being crowned 2018 National Champions, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s golf team found themselves in dire straits at the conclusion of last spring. Now at the start of their 2023 season, the team is desperately trying to create a comeback story, and if their fall performance was any indication, the story is well underway.

The Athenas struggled through the 2022 spring season, finishing last in the SCIAC but ultimately placing ninth in DIII after earning a surprise bid to Nationals. However, due to significant improvements this off-season, SCIAC preseason polls have CMS ranked as the second-best team in the conference.

This jump is in part due to a team victory at the Claremont Challenge tournament in September. Stella Cheng CM ’25 finished at -7, and Esther Lee CM ’26 finished at -2; having two players finish under par for the tournament was a new record for the CMS program.

The Athenas were ranked No. 11 in the country at the end of the fall according to CMS Athletics, with Cheng, Esther Lee and Irene Jun CM ’24 ranked top-10 in the country.

CMS competed at its first SCIAC tournament earlier this February, placing fourth. Jun says that while the team did not play their best, they have a lot to look forward to this season.

“Our results were good in the sense of providing motivation,” Jun said. “It’s been a while since we’ve played a tournament, so I guess it wasn’t too unexpected. I think we ran into a couple of hiccups, but we pulled through in the end, so it was a good start. But there is definitely a lot to work on.”

Jeissy Lee CM ’25 had a top-10 finish at the tournament, shooting a 77 on the second day with a score of 159 in total. She agreed that this last weekend’s tournament was a step in the right direction for CMS.

“It definitely is really nice to have scores up on the board because now we know what we need to improve on and what we are doing well already,”

Jeissy Lee said. “We can know as a team that we need to do a little bit better so that we can get to first [in SCIACs]. But also, as an individual, it’s nice to have an actual score to look at and practice off of.”

Though each teammate plays on their own, Jeissy Lee was particularly excited about the amount of support she received from her teammates.

“The energy that my teammates brought on the course and the messages I received from [everyone] back on campus really helped me feel less alone during the tournament.” Jeissy Lee said.

The Athenas will compete in three cumulative rounds of SCIAC tournaments over the course of the season. Last year, right before they were set to compete in the second tournament, most of the players on the team tested positive for COVID-19.

Lucy Bloomstran SC ’23 said that with the team having so much momentum going into the tournament weekend, she feels that the missed opportunity threw the Athenas out of their routine leading into NCAAs.

“Not having enough players to compete in SCIACs was definitely hard,” Bloomstran said. “We only found out that we were going … a few days before the tournament, so we didn’t have a ton of time to prepare. We definitely want to come back stronger this year and maybe have a more orthodox route to nationals.”

The Athenas’ rigorous weekly practice is playing a hand in their comeback season. While their team weightlifting sessions are in the evenings, the team practices at 6 a.m. at an off-campus range. On Fridays and Saturdays, the team goes to Mountain Meadows Golf Course in Pomona to play a

full round of golf. Bloomstran believes that the success of the team this year will be determined by the players’ commitment to practice as well as perfecting their short game.

“Everybody has their own weaknesses and strengths,” Bloomstran said. “When we practice, it’s mostly a time for individuals to work on what they want to … But I definitely think that trying to get our short game to be really good is important. We don’t always like practicing putting and chipping, so we have to try to lock that down.”

With a long season ahead of them, Jeissy Lee thinks that it is important to keep the greater goal of winning another national championship in mind.

“We just have to be dedicated to the cause,” she said. “I think a lot of us truly believe that we’re going to go to NCAAs and that our team can win. It’s easy to lose sight of that because of everything else that’s going on in our lives … But just understanding that that’s what we’re here for is important.”

Echoing Jeissy Lee, Jun feels that the members of the team must pace themselves in order to be able to play their best at the end of the season.

“I think having stamina is key,” Jun said. “We need to make sure that no one burns out early on in the season and communicate if anyone feels overwhelmed or needs an extra day off.”

The Athenas are looking forward to putting up a good showing in March at the Jekyll Island Invitational in Georgia. Top teams from the country, including Emory, who won the national championship last year, will be there to put CMS to the test. The team’s next match is their only dual match of the season, a faceoff against Calvin University at Via Verde Country Club in San Dimas, California on March 3 at 11:45 a.m.

Reese Ger SC ’24 did not get the opportunity to pick up sailing until high school. With various barriers to entry, Ger said that her high school program offered an amazing opportunity to participate in what is considered a traditionally exclusive sport. Having discovered a newfound love for sailing, Ger said she was excited to find that there was a 5C Sailing Club that could provide her with the opportunity to continue exploring her passion.

Ger came to find, however, that the club had no real leadership or existing members. In hopes of bringing the club back to life, she decided to take over as president.

“During COVID, the club had unfortunately died out, and we lost contact with former contacts which meant that we had to completely start from scratch,” Ger said.

Fellow Sailing Club member, Dominic Dulac PO ’24 emphasized that getting the club up and running after time off proved to be a challenge.

“In the fall of 2021 we were just trying to get our feet on the ground after the pandemic. The club had been sort of defunct at the time, and we were trying to figure out how to get people back on boats,” Dulac said. “This was really hard considering that we hadn’t built relationships with anyone in the area.”

With the help of current vice president, Kate Graham SC ’24, Ger began the rebuilding process, reaching out to former contacts, forming new relationships, participating in club fairs and spreading awareness of the club through word of mouth.

Thanks to these efforts, the club has since amassed roughly 250 students on its email list and is currently in partnership

“I became a vice president because I wanted to be able to take other students on more fun adventures and make [Sailing Club] a more prominent club on campus,” Graham said. Grateful for the club’s partnerships with LAYC and Laserfiche, Ger said that her goal is to set up the framework for people to participate in the sport without having any barriers impede their access.

“A lot of people haven’t had access to the sport, so I want to be able to set up that infrastructure to let anybody try it who wants to,” Ger said.

Dulac stated that he believes the main mission of the club is to provide opportunities for both new and experienced sailors.

“Sailing is a really cool topic, and it’s the sort of thing that catches people’s eyes. Our job as the sailing club is to organize opportunities for people to get on boats and get on the water and have fun,” Dulac said.

In addition to wanting to provide opportunities and make sailing more accessible among the 5Cs, Graham said that she hopes to continue to grow the club while creating fun and memorable experiences for members.

“It’s really leisurely, and it’s supposed to be a fun environment for people to just get out on the water … right now we’re just a leisurely fun club” Graham said.

The club aims to host three trips to Puddingstone Reservoir and Long Beach throughout each semester. During these day trips, first-time sailors get the opportunity to work with experienced sailors and gain exposure to the art of sailing.

Both Ger and Graham said that they are hoping to recruit new members and encourage anyone who is interested in sailing to reach out either through email or Engage.

In addition to the three trips during the fall semester, the club has three planned events for this semester, one of which includes a spring break trip to Catalina Island.

“Whether you’re a new sailor or someone who’s grown up with it, we want to provide an opportunity for people to get out on the water,” Ger said.

HAROLD FUSON

Sagehen fans and teammates support their Swim and Dive team at the 2023 SCIaC championships hosted by east La College.

COurTeSy: aNNIKa SOLOMaNSSON

Stella Cheng CM ’25 tees off at the Claremont Challenge in the fall of 2021, en route to CMS taking first at the tournament.

COurTeSy: CMS aTHLeTICS

SENA SELBY

AUDREY SAWYER Members