Vol. CXXX No. 15

FRIDAY, MARch 6, 2020 | CLAREMONT, CA | VOL. CXXX NO. 15

5Cs ramp up coronavirus prep Colleges eye potential class cancellations, quarantines MARIA hEETER & JASPER DAVIDOFF Lily Lucas SC ’22 had her spring break all planned — the sophomore was set to travel to Washington, D.C. for the Laspa Center’s Leadership Immersion Trek.

But now, Lucas has been left

scrambling. Scripps College canceled the program Thursday, along with all other school-sponsored break trips, for fear of issues related to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“I think I might end up staying on campus for break, which is just kinda disappointing and frustrating since I was so looking forward to the D.C. trip,” Lucas said via message.

The trip cancellations are just the start of preparations 5C administrators are making as they brace for the impacts of the international

outbreak. The institutions have begun crafting significant contingency plans in case the disease affects classes, residential life, dining and other campus functions.

Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, Pomona College and Scripps are preparing for a scenario in which in-person classes are canceled and need to be taught remotely instead, the schools’ presidents said in emails this week. Pitzer College did not confirm its on-campus coronavirus plans before press time.

CMC President Hiram Cho-

dosh recommended that students download the video conferencing software Zoom to “familiarize themselves with its features.”

The schools are also making plans to support residential life in the event that individual students or entire campuses are forced into quarantine or isolation.

CMC has identified “suitable housing” to quarantine or isolate individual students currently living in on-campus housing, according to Chodosh. Pomona has also developed a plan to isolate “ill individuals” and is preparing for

the possibility that “social distancing” will become necessary,” administrators said in an email Thursday.

Pomona’s Dean of Students Avis Hinkson said at an ASPC meeting Thursday that senior college leadership is meeting regularly about the situation. The college is monitoring the evolving situation, she said, and will make further announcements as appropriate and necessary.

Pomona also has plans in case students need to be quarantined, and is discussing contingencies

See cORONA on page 3

Pomona shortens OA, overhauls orientation ERIKA SchWERDFEGER

macbeth

HUXLEYANN HUEFNER • THE STUDENT LIFE

READ MORE ON PAGE 7

Is this start-up the P-P wins SCIAC, advances to NCAAs again ‘perfect university?’

Partnered with KGI, Minerva Schools features solely online classes SIENA SWIFT

AMY BEST • THE STUDENT LIFE

Alex Preston PO ‘21 celebrates as the buzzer sounds in the Sagehen’s resounding 87-66 win over Redlands in the SCIAC men’s basketball championships Feb. 29.

CMS falls in semis, sees season end MATThEW KIM With the memory of Feb. 8’s 94-77 defeat against Redlands — in which Pomona-Pitzer was outscored 63-45 in the second half — fresh in their minds, the P-P men’s basketball (22-5, 13-3 SCIAC) team showed up to the SCIAC championship game ready to go.

The preparation showed — the back-to-back SCIAC champions took down the No. 2 Bulldogs in convincing fashion, prevailing 87-66.

“We actually lost to them the last time that we played them, and they just outhustled us, they outrebounded us, they shot better than us,” James Kelbert PO ’20 said. “So our mindset going into this was essentially ‘don’t let that happen again.’ Even though we had some guys injured last time, the biggest thing for us was to get going right

from the tip.”

The Sagehens’ high-powered offense came running out of the gates, establishing a 19-point margin within the first 10 minutes and leading by as much as 27 throughout the game.

Tournament MVP and SCIAC Player of the Year Micah Elan PZ ’20 — who also became P-P’s all-time leading scorer in the semifinal game against Occidental — led the charge for the Hens, putting up 22 points, five rebounds and six assists.

Adam Rees PO ’20 also stuffed the statsheet for the Hens. The senior forward recorded 18 points, seven boards and six assists on 11-of-12 from the foul stripe, including several important free throws down the stretch.

Though Redlands was able to cut the deficit to 14 and full-court pressed P-P in the second half, the Hens maintained their composure, and only turned the ball over six times the entire game.

See NcAA on page 11

Bianca Banks’ college application didn’t prompt her to submit test scores or list her extracurricular activities. Instead, it asked a more peculiar question.

In eight minutes, how many possible uses of ice could she list?

Banks is now a junior at Minerva Schools, a non-traditional school currently operating under the auspices of the 7Cs’ Keck Graduate Institute.

Minerva boasts a strippeddown college experience — no sports teams, gym, library, dining hall or even classrooms — just residence halls in seven locations throughout the world, according to the Minerva website.

Students spend their first year living in San Francisco and the next three at six different locations throughout the world, all in Minerva-run housing: Seoul, South Korea; Hyderabad, India; Berlin, Germany; Buenos Aires, Argentina; London, U.K.; and Taipei, Taiwan.

But even after relocating to campuses across the globe, students take all of their classes in the same place: in front of a computer.

All students at Minerva, whose first class graduated just last year, according to Minerva’s website, complete all of their classes online using a proprietary video teaching software — which the for-profit startup, the Min-

LIFE & STYLE

LINES, the 5C’s ski and snowboard club, brings snow to students’ sunny semesters by providing trips to Mount Baldy and Mammoth Mountain. Read more on page 6.

The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889

erva Project, is monetizing and selling to other institutions.

“You either love it or you don’t like it at all,” one first-year student, Sherry Lim, said.

The ‘perfect university’ “We are effectively building a perfect university,” Minerva’s founder and CEO Ben Nelson said in a 2014 VentureBeat article.

Nelson, a former executive at photo service Snapfish with no prior professional education experience, according to The Atlantic, has not held back his disdain for the existing institutional educational system, citing high prices and the availability of free, easy online learning.

“You are out $20,000 to study Spanish at one of these universities,” Nelson told VentureBeat.

“For that price, you could live in the Ritz Carlton in Madrid and hire a private tutor for a month.”

After selling Snapfish for $300 million to Hewlett-Packard in 2005, Nelson used some of the money to fund the Minerva Project, according to The Atlantic.

“We just feel we don’t have any moral standing to charge you thousands of dollars for learning what you can learn for free,” Nelson said in the Wall Street Journal in 2013.

Minerva’s few facilities keep tuition relatively affordable: just $26,950 for the 2020-2021 academic year, according to the website.

The school also gets funding from the Minerva Project, which raised $120 million in venture capital money as of April 2019, according to Forbes.

Nelson said in a 2019 EdSurge article that the school would soon be operating independently.

See MINERVA on page 3

OPINIONS

Pomona College is planning a slew of changes to its first-year orientation programming, designed to increase awareness of campus resources and maximize students’ time to “breathe and acclimate.”

In one significant alteration, Orientation Adventure will be shortened by a day and a half, according to an email from Director of Outdoor Education Martin Crawford to returning OA leaders.

The school is also adding two Los Angeles-based trips — one to museums and cultural attractions and another to major LA sights including the Hollywood Walk of Fame. These trips, as well as the pre-existing “Community Engagement” trip, will be housed on campus, a change from usual OA practice, Crawford said.

Crawford added that Josh Eisenberg, dean of campus life and orientation planning group chair, requested this change.

For Eisenberg, these citybased trips fit his goals for OA just as well as outdoors trips do.

“I think if we’re going to offer a diversity of experiences, we need to offer a true diversity of experiences,” Eisenberg said.

“My goal for OA is to have people find friends, connect to the campus and have an ease of a transition. If they’re challenged, that’s great, that’s amazing, but that’s not my goal for OA.” “It’s your first thing on campus. … If you just want to go visit LA, because you would enjoy that, I think it’s okay to enjoy the first part of your college experience,” Eisenberg added. “If there are people who choose that because it’d be a challenge, to me

See OA on page 2

COURTESY: OUTDOOR EDUCATION CENTER

Sam Meyer PO ‘22 and Renae Tamura PO ‘21 do an ‘OA’ pose.

Orientation Adventures will be shortened by a day and a half under the new changes.

SPORTS

Dream interpretation is a fun pastime, but we really only pay attention to it when our interpretations align with what we want or need, says Cameron Tipton PO ‘20. Read more on page 8.

Male coaches dominate the head coaching positions for female athletic teams at the 5Cs; female athletes have split opinions about it.

Read more on page 10.

INDEX: News 1 | Life & Style 5 | Opinions 8 | Sports 10

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MARCH 6, 2020

PO prof will co-chair Pomona students say yes to amendments, shadow grading state economic council JASPER DAVIDOFF Pomona College students approved a set of amendments to the ASPC constitution and bylaws this week, as well as a proposal to conditionally grade students on a pass/no credit basis during their first semester.

The constitutional amendments passed with 91 percent support, ASPC President Miguel Delgado-Garcia PO ’20 said, while 73 percent of voters supported the “shadow grading” referendum.

Approximately 590 students voted, Delgado-Garcia added — a turnout rate of about 35 percent.

“We’re really happy with the turnout and the results,” he said.

The amendments revise descriptions of the ASPC Senate and individual positions, as well as create new positions and committees: the Vice President of Student Affairs and a Committee and Commissioner of Wellness, while eliminating two committees and their commissioners: those of Clubs and Organizations and External Affairs.

Delgado-Garcia said the changes were meant to address structural limitations to various positions and enable senators to more effectively advocate for change.

For instance, he said, creating a Senate position for wellness will allow that commissioner more time to organize around issues of disability accommodations, Title IX and mental health by removing the work hour limitation that non-elected ASPC staff workers face.

“If it’s consistently been an important issue, and we recognize the structural weakness in time and money and energy, then how are we going to address that?”

Delgado-Garcia said. “Making it a commissioner position. Elevating the issue areas to warrant an elected position.”

The new Vice President of Student Affairs, he said, will allow ASPC to better address issues for which the ASPC president and executive vice president were previously responsible.

“Every year I see the president struggle, because there’s all these things that they want to do through [the Student Affairs Committee],” Delgado-Garcia said. “This is giving one person the leniency, agency, time, capacity to really make things happen in those areas, because they’re essential.”

The shadow grading question asked: “Should Pomona students’ first semester be ‘shadow graded,’ meaning: (1) students are graded normally, but their transcript reflects only whether they passed or received no credit in their classes; and (2) students may petition to selectively reveal their shadow grades for specific purposes (e.g., internship or graduate school applications)?”

The vote was non-binding, since the college’s faculty has authority over academic policies, according to ASPC vice president of academic affairs Isaac Cui PO ’20.

In a TSL op-ed last month, members of the ASPC Academic Affairs Committee argued the proposal could smooth firstyears’ transitions into college.

“Shadow grading would create a more equitable and less stressful first semester,” the members wrote. “It would provide space for students to find their academic passion and would strengthen relationships between first-years and faculty.”

Cui said the referendum asked students to weigh in on a proposal that faculty and administrators have already begun considering.

“Most students here have a general intuition of the institu-

tion’s missions and values, but it’s only when we have to think through particular political questions that we’re forced to seriously reflect on and crystallize those values,” he said in an email.

The proposal is not without precedent at the 5Cs: During their first semester, Harvey Mudd College grades first-year students on a high pass/pass/ no credit scale for a certain set of courses.

An ASPC publication acknowledged some of the proposal’s potential downsides, including the possibility that students might spend less time on academic work, which could hurt them in later courses that build on that material.

Cui said his next step will be to present a proposal to the faculty Curriculum Committee.

“I will also ask the Faculty Executive Committee for a full-faculty forum to widen the conversation and bring in other perspectives on the issue,” he said. “In an ideal world, we would have a full-faculty vote by the end of the semester on a specific shadow grading policy, but I have a feeling that would be very, very difficult to achieve given how big of a policy change this would be.”

Curriculum Committee chair Virginie Duzer said the committee met last week to discuss the proposal, and will continue to solicit faculty discussions and data on the subject.

Seniors also had the opportunity to vote for a new class president after Love Chery PO ’20 resigned from the position last month. They chose Khadijah Thibodeaux PO ’20, a member of the Senior Class Committee and the ASPC Board of Trustees representative for student affairs.

HELENA ONG • THE STUDENT LIFE

NATALIE chARTOVE Pomona College economics professor Fernando Lozano will serve as co-chair of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new Council of Economic Advisors, Newsom announced Feb. 21.

The council will advise Newsom and California Department of Finance Director Keely Martin Bosler on economic issues and connect Newsom’s administration with academic research, according to a statement from Newsom’s office.

“We need to invest for the future, adapt to a changing climate and keep our budget balanced,” Newsom said in his announcement. “This council will keep its pulse on what’s happening in our economy while making policy recommendations to prepare us for what’s to come.”

Lozano has taught at Pomona since 2005. He is also a research fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics in Bonn, Germany, where his recent work has explored topics such as workers’ schedule flexibility and the effects of border control policies, according to his IZA webpage.

“California is my home, and has been home to my family for more than 30 years. I really feel invested in its success for the future,” Lozano told TSL via email.

“But equally important, as an economist who has worked in academic institutions throughout my life, this opportunity gives me a chance to expand beyond my comfort zone and think of the ways that economics, evidence based knowledge, is applied in the real world,” Lozano added.

Lozano will continue to teach at Pomona while participating in the council.

“I think it will give me a different perspective that I will be able to pass to my students,” he said. “A more applied one, one that has relevance to our lives outside of the classroom.”

The Council of Economic Advisors is made up of 13 people, including professors, researchers and current advisors to Newsom. Laura Tyson, a professor from University of California, Berkeley, will be the other co-chair.

Lozano said the greatest value added from the council will be “an independent voice.”

“The group is also diverse in terms of disciplinary back-

COURTESY: POMONA COLLEGE

Fernando Lozano, an economics professor at Pomona, will serve as the co-chair for California Governor Gavin Newsom’s new council of economic advisors.

ground, in terms of geographic location, in terms of personal histories, in terms of research interests: We bring an intellectual diversity that will definitely inform our discussions,” Lozano said.

As co-chairs, Lozano and Tyson will act as a link between other members of the council and Newsom’s office. The council is currently determining what economic issues they will be focusing on, according to Lozano.

“We all agree that the strength of California is our human capital: a diverse workforce, people from all over the world that bring many assets to our economy, a truly entrepreneurial environment, the largest public higher education system in America, together with excellent private colleges and universities,” Lozano said. “I guess that has been most revealing to me since we started our conversations, is the emphasis on leveraging the assets in the state.”

Lozano was first contacted

by Dr. Irena Asmundson, chief economist of the California Department of Finance, to be part of the council.

Lozano said he hopes the council will promote a more inclusive and progressive economy that emphasizes the well-being of less fortunate people. In addition, he hopes to create an infrastructure that allows for the council to contribute to California’s economic decision making, even after this first group of council members has left.

He is on leave this semester, but has previously taught the courses “Principles of Macroeconomics”, “Race in the US Economy” and “Urban & Regional Economics” at the college.

OA: Change is for ‘safety, liability, comfort, inclusivity’ Continued from page 1 that’s an extra layer.”

John West PO ’23, first-year class president and orientation planning group member, mentioned that the added trips also accommodate students who may feel out of their element on an extended wilderness excursion.

“Before we started the planning discussions, I sat in a meeting with Josh Eisenberg myself so he could talk to me,” West said.

“We’ve talked about … how some students come from urban backgrounds, and aren’t actually comfortable going into the wilderness and shouldn’t be forced into the wilderness.”

A previous plan to move OA to students’ sophomore year was met with fierce resistance from the student body and was ultimately reversed. Eisenberg said that he knew shortening OA might prove

controversial.

“We knew that was probably the most challenging change we were making. We know how passionate people are about OA,” Eisenberg said. “Part of the problem is … people want contradicting things. We really had to look at what the schedule would look like, and what we decided was, as great as OA is, that it had to be the thing that was shortened.”

A variety of factors, including liability issues, went into the OA-related decisions, according to Eisenberg.

“One, transporting people far distances … there’s liability aspects, with people being far away, God forbid a tragedy happens. We just felt like it would be important to keep people closer,” he said. “The experience everyone tells me about OA is the closeness and the connection,

ASCMC announces election results; Lin new president Claremont McKenna College students voted for their new ASCMC executive board Tuesday.

Students elected Johnson Lin CM ’21 as president, Cindy Lay CM ’22 as executive vice president, Amadeo CantuTrevino CM ’22 as vice president of student activities, Raina Kim CM ’22 as dormitory affairs chair, Grace Wang CM ’21 as senior class president, Sam Harrison CM ’22 as junior class president and Colin Sam CM ’23 as sophomore class president.

Races for president, senior class president and junior class president were uncontested, according to an ASCMC announcement.

Turnout was up from last year, with 54 percent of the student body participating in the vote, the announcement said.

Lin said his identity as a first-generation student of color will inform his presidency.

“There are still many systemic barriers that undermine the success of students of marginalized identities. As ASCMC President, I will be your advocate and elevate your voices,” he said in his candidate statement.

Lin said other priorities include making CMC’s endowment investments more transparent and strengthening collaboration with administrators and other student governments.

— Maria Heeter & Jasper Davidoff

and that stuff we didn’t want to lose, and we think you can do that two hours away or four hours away.”

Eisenberg emphasized that the choice to shorten OA was unrelated to financing.

“We did nothing [based] on budgeting. This is not about money at all. This is about safety, liability, comfort and inclusivity,” Eisenberg said.

The modified OA is just one of the planned changes to Pomona’s overall orientation. The changes are coming primarily in response to feedback from a post-orientation survey of first-years.

Pomona has readjusted its learning outcomes for orientation, Eisenberg said, to focus on simple goals like making sure students make friends to have meals with, are able to describe the liberal arts and know faculty members they can approach with

questions.

“Keeping the programming focused around those outcomes, rather than trying to fit absolutely everything in … in order to build some cohesiveness while making these changes, we needed to focus on whether each activity, and each program, really supported the kind of outcome we were looking for,” said Director of Academic Administration Katrina Sitar, who also co-chairs the orientation planning group.

This fall’s orientation programming will include new sessions on topics such as mindfulness and wellness, technologies like Handshake, ethical reasoning and compassion, affinity groups and their resources and students’ non-college-specific questions like how health insurance works, Eisenberg and West said.

Orientation will also focus on

familiarizing students with the campus, including a campus tour.

According to Eisenberg, 53 percent of the class of 2023 had never visited Pomona before orientation.

First-years also complained about a lack of free time and information overload, according to West.

“I personally didn’t believe, for me, that time was being utilized in the best way, and there was probably a better and more intentional way,” West said.

The new schedule will more clearly indicate what time is unscheduled and provide suggestions for how students can utilize it if they’d like to, Eisenberg said.

West said he has high hopes for orientation in August and is optimistic that the changes will adequately address students’ concerns.

“I’m liking the direction that we’re going,” he said.

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MARCH 6, 2020

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CORONA: 5Cs discourage spring break travel Continued from page 1 for the fall in case study abroad programs are canceled, Dean of Campus Life Josh Eisenberg said.

Eisenberg added that Student Health Services is not currently equipped to conduct coronavirus tests, but pinned the blame on federal officials responsible for sending out the tests.

Because staff may be asked not to work on campus, CMC is working with Bon Appétit to “ensure uninterrupted meal preparation and delivery services should the dining hall be temporarily inoperable,” Chodosh said.

The school also has an “inventory of emergency supplies,” he added.

Harvey Mudd has also begun planning to procure “additional food and other resources,” President Maria Klawe said.

She added that the college is “exploring how to ensure adequate staff is available to support our students.”

Pomona’s administrators also mentioned the possibility of “delivery of food outside of dining halls to avoid large assemblies.” The college always has three weeks’ of food on hand, according to Eisenberg.

Administrators said individual health and sanitization are top priorities — facilities crews have increased their regular cleaning procedures to better sanitize campus buildings.

CMC is installing sinks at Collins Dining Hall entrances, Chodosh said, so visitors can wash their hands before and after meals.

The schools are also reevaluating plans for large events throughout the remainder of the semester, though Klawe said Harvey Mudd does not anticipate changes at this time.

Students and staff should stay home and avoid contact with others if they feel sick, the presidents said. They emphasized that there are currently no known cases of coronavirus within Claremont or the 7Cs. The measures come as Los Angeles County declared a local health emergency Wednesday morning. Eleven cases of coronavirus have been reported within the county, the public health department said Thursday.

With spring break coming up soon, the colleges are also beginning to limit institution-sponsored travel and are discouraging stu-

dents from leaving the country.

Pomona announced Tuesday it will not sponsor or reimburse travel to countries at a level two or higher federal travel advisory for coronavirus, according to a community update from administrators. That includes summer internships, research projects or academic programs that students may be planning abroad.

The CDC has designated Japan under a level two advisory. China, Iran, Italy and South Korea are under level three advisories.

Pomona will only sponsor or reimburse air travel fees for faculty and staff if the travel is “deemed essential.” The college’s current aim is to “curtail travel while allowing core activities of the College to continue,” the update said.

Victoria Thai PO ’22 was planning to travel to Seoul, South Korea over the break to visit her cousin.

“We were cautious about going but still deciding to until mid-February, when the outbreaks in South Korea got worse,” she said via message.

By the time the CDC put South Korea on a level three advisory Feb. 24, Thai knew the trip was off.

“It’s wild and kind of scary,” she said.

Scripps College President Lara Tiedens urged students, faculty and staff to “exercise caution about their travel choices during spring break and beyond” in an email sent to the student body Monday.

Klawe asked students to re-examine spring break travel plans, and to “keep in mind that any international travel carries a risk that you might be quarantined or prevented from returning to the U.S.” Mike Segawa, Pitzer College’s vice president for student affairs, strongly discouraged students from traveling internationally during spring break in a Monday letter, citing “uncertainty about your ability to return to the US at the conclusion of your trip.”

Pomona is anticipating more students than usual will stay on campus for spring break and is increasing resources for dining and residence halls. A residence life survey distributed on Tuesday asked students to share their plans for the break.

In the latest in a cascade of study abroad cancellations, Pitzer President Melvin Oliver

announced in an email Wednesday that Pitzer has suspended its spring study abroad program in Nepal, after shutting down its Parma, Italy program last week.

Justin Sleppy PZ ’21, who was part of the Nepal program, said he and six other students are flying to their homes Friday, where they will be self-quarantined for two weeks.

Sleppy noted that while he was leaving Nepal, which had one confirmed coronavirus case as of Thursday, he would be flying into the state of Washington, which had 70, before continuing to his home in Alaska.

“There’s some irony that we’re being flown back to places that already have it,” he said.

Pitzer has not made decisions about its summer and fall study abroad programs, but is “closely monitoring’’ programs’ viability. Oliver asked students to “understand that we may need to alter plans depending on the circumstances.”

Several Claremont-MuddScripps games have also been canceled, CMS announced on its website Thursday, as some visiting schools are canceling their travel plans. Multiple P-P games have also been canceled.

HUXLEYANN HUEFNER • THE STUDENT LIFE

Photo illustration: Administrators from all colleges said individual health and sanitization are top priorities in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. The Hoch at Harvey Mudd put up signs recently urging students to wash and sanitize their hands.

MINeRVA: ‘You can barely blink without everybody knowing’ Continued from page 1 Minerva offers only five majors: arts and humanities, computational sciences, natural sciences, social sciences and business, according to its website. All students take the same four, year-long classes their first year. And the school also doesn’t offer any language classes before sending its students abroad.

“There are no superfluous electives or ‘hobby’ classes,” its website says.

Lim, who is originally from South Korea, said the curriculum came as a shock at first, coming from a traditional educational background.

“It was super hard for me to adjust,” she said. “I felt lost in the beginning.”

An alternative admissions approach Minerva’s 1.2 percent acceptance rate makes it more selective than Harvard University, Nelson told EdSurge.

Last year, Minerva received over 23,000 applications, and 67 percent of admitted students ended up enrolling, according to spokesperson Junko Green. Nelson personally makes all final admissions decisions, Banks said.

There are 631 total students at Minerva this year, according to its website, over 78 percent of whom come from outside of the United States.

“Minerva does not have any admission quota or limits for each class. We admit every student that we believe is prepared to succeed in our program,” Green told TSL via email.

Banks, who is originally from Hong Kong, chose Minerva because she saw flaws in traditional higher education — particularly the price.

In the application process, Banks completed aptitude tests — which included the ice question — that gauged reading, writing and mathematical skills. Then she was given an online, timed interview where she was asked four questions. Minerva doesn’t require standardized tests.

Questions included “What would you tell your family and friends if you got into Minerva?” and “What was the worst thing someone has ever done to you and how did you handle it?” according to Banks.

Lim said she was asked to complete spatial reasoning tests with puzzles and rotating figures, as well as answer what she would do if she was stuck on a mountain with arguing friends.

Minerva’s online class software Minerva students may not ever meet their professors in real life.

They take all of their classes online with professors and students around the world, video-calling into small sections using the Forum, the

college’s proprietary curricular software, according to Minerva’s website.

Classes are recorded and students’ faces are constantly visible for all their peers and professors, who rewatch classes to grade performance. The platform allows for polls, quizzes and other features that require constant, active engagement, according to an interview Nelson did with Xconomy.

“You can barely blink without everybody knowing it. You can’t get up to get a glass of water without everybody knowing it,” Robin Goldberg, Minerva’s chief marketing officer, said in an Inside HigherEd article.

The Forum is not only an educational tool, but also a business.

The Minerva Project began selling the software to other educational institutions, including UC Berkeley’s law school, in summer 2019, Green told TSL. “Our intention has been to enable other institutions to join the revolution,” Nelson told Forbes.

“For the first time you can deliver better-than-Ivy-League education at absurdly low cost.”

Some say the remote teaching model has its downsides.

“I think because everything is done online … regardless of the class size, you kind of do feel detached from the professors,” Lim said.

However, Banks said she finds the platform “dynamic” and feels “close and comfortable” with her professors.

The international model can also create scheduling difficulties.

Only 8 of the 48 spring courses offered for seniors studying in Taipei were between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., according to the Quest, which Banks said is “unacceptable.”

Social and residential life Minerva’s lack of a campus can be both a positive and a negative, according to Lim. “They tell us to use the city as your own campus. … You feel like you’re almost forced to go out in the city and engage with the city and with locals [to] make more meaningful connections,” she said.

However, finding study spaces can be difficult, she added.

And Lim said she felt “jammed” in the San Francisco residence hall sometimes. “There really isn’t much personal space here,” she said.

The different grades enrolled at Minerva, which are spread across the globe, also don’t interact much outside of some classes and crossclass clubs, Banks added.

“I feel more like a part-time student, traveling all these places but also getting my education,” Lim said.

To try to bring its students together, Minerva has developed some unique traditions, like its annual feast in March in honor of Quinquatria, a Roman holiday dedicated to the goddess Minerva, according to Banks.

“The community is incredible … Being able to travel the world

essentially with your friends is a lot of fun,” Banks said.

KGI’s involvement Minerva is officially the fourth school at KGI, along with its life sciences, pharmaceutical and nascent medical schools, according to KGI’s website.

Minerva relies on KGI for its accreditation, so all major decisions at Minerva have to be approved by the KGI administration, including faculty hires and substantial policy changes, according to the Quest.

Nelson, using the language of the tech startup world, said the school is in an “incubation” stage under KGI in an interview with Xconomy. “There is zero financial exchange with our academic partners for incubation,” he said.

KGI ad m i n i st rators h ave praised the partnership.

“KGI is committed to educational innovation. From this perspective, we were drawn to the Minerva Schools at KGI’s distinctive approach to liberal arts education,” Steve Casper, dean of KGI’s Henry E. Riggs School of Applied Life Sciences said. “We also were drawn to the Minerva Schools’ world-class software.”

Minerva also currently lets KGI use the Forum software at cost, Casper said, for classes for PhD students and postdoctoral students around the United States. KGI is also “developing online programs with corporate partners that will use the software.”

But Minerva is looking to sever

its official relationship with KGI. It’s working towards independent accreditation, according to the Quest.

KGI and Minerva’s arrangement for the Forum software will continue for a few years after the schools split, according to Casper.

Lim said Minerva is already mostly disconnected from the Claremont Colleges, but Lim and Banks are concerned about losing resources, such as online access to the Claremont Colleges Library, if and when the school and KGI officially part ways.

“A fair amount of our readings [come] from there,” Banks said.

Casper said the schools have not yet reached a decision on library access after Minerva becomes independently accredited.

Before KGI, Pomona College was originally considering partnering with Minerva in spring 2013, but, according to politics professor Susan McWilliams, Pomona faculty “overwhelmingly rejected the possibility.”

Minerva was “not representative of what we value at Pomona,” McWilliams said.

“Much of what Minerva did in the name of liberal arts education was actually antithetical to liberal arts education in the true sense,” McWilliams added.

McWilliams said the faculty was mainly concerned by the lack of arts education and hands-on science classes, as well as the for-profit nature of the software platform.

Minerva did not respond to a request for comment on McWilliams’ statements before press time.

COURTESY: ANASTASIIA SAPON

Minerva Schools students Kayla Cohen ‘19 and Yoel Ferdman ‘19 spent their first year living in San Francisco and the next three at 6 different locations throughout the world.

NewS

PAGE 4

MARCH 6, 2020

Students call for Pitzer to divest from BlackRock BEN JONES Protests over Pitzer College’s involvement with investment manager BlackRock have continued recently, with a resolution drafted by student protesters set to be submitted to Pitzer Student Senate Sunday.

The proposal calls for the college to divest from BlackRock, accusing the firm of using “unethical practices” and participating in the “climate crisis, migrant detention, mass incarceration, imperialism and weapons manufacturing.”

BlackRock is the world’s largest global investment management firm with over $7 trillion in assets, and currently manages a fund containing the college’s stock portfolio investments.

Among the student activists’ objections to BlackRock are its investments in fossil fuel companies and the GEO Group — one of the largest operators of private prisons in the U.S., which also operates a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center.

The college invested the entirety of its stock portfolio in a BlackRock fund in 2017, achieving 100 percent fossil fuel divestment and applying an environmental, social and governance screen to its equity selection process in the process, according to a press release.

The creation of the fund, which is a “major component of Pitzer’s $135 million endowment,” followed a 2014 announcement by the college that it would divest “virtually all” investments in fossil fuel stocks in 2014, making it the first private college or university in California to divest from fossil fuels, according to the release.

Representatives of the Students Demand Change Coalition sent the drafted resolution, which asks the college to reinvest with a different asset management firm that aligns “better with both institutional and student values,” to Pitzer’s student talk list Feb. 18 with a request for co-sponsors.

SDC has also objected to BlackRock’s 11.24% stake in GEO Group.

It holds these GEO Group shares broadly via passive mutual funds and indexes, in which, according to CNN, stocks are not actively chosen by the asset manager.

In protest, SDC posted flyers with names of those who have died in detention in GEO Group facilities.

“Corporate greed has long sank its parasitic teeth into ‘higher education,’” the flyers read. “It’s time to remove money from death and detention and serve our communities instead.”

But college trustee Donald Gould told TSL via email that the resolution displayed “a basic misunderstanding of the nature of BlackRock’s business.”

“BlackRock does not own the companies in the industries cited; its clients do. BlackRock does not create the indexes its index funds

follow; that is done by firms like S&P and MSCI. And it is BlackRock’s clients who decide which index funds to invest in, not BlackRock,” Gould said, citing Pitzer’s choosing the index fund in which to invest as an example.

“Had we instead chosen a fund focused on oil producers, it would likewise be Pitzer’s responsibility and not BlackRock’s,” Gould added.

SDC spokesperson Ngaya Swai PZ ’23 disagreed, calling Gould’s statement “very, very misleading” and “not really true.” Swai argued that BlackRock is a company that sells a product: in this case, index funds.

“It’s not fair to say that a company that makes a product is not responsible for how that product affects the environment, people of color and indigenous people just because they’re not the ones buying the product,” Swai said.

Gould acknowledged that according to some, BlackRock’s holdings may, “in some way,” contribute to the business that students expressed concerns about.

But Gould argues that there is “no such thing as a purely good company or a purely good portfolio.”

“Every company is, directly or indirectly and to a greater or lesser degree, involved in one or more activities that some will find objectionable on environmental, social or other grounds,” Gould said.

SDC spokesperson Amanda Gómez PZ ’23 said it was “difficult to hear that coming from some-

body who has so much power within the administration and within the board of trustees.”

While Gómez agrees with Gould that “there is no ethical corporation,” they argued that the college can “still attempt to adhere to Pitzer’s core values.” “[BlackRock] goes against our core values of environment, sustainability and social responsibility,” Swai added.

The SDC argued in the proposal that BlackRock can shift “investments out of companies wrecking the planet,” and apply “maximum pressure to change company behavior.”

The company’s CEO, Larry Fink, recently announced that the company would, in fact, end some of its investments that “present a high sustainability-related risk,” like investments in some coal companies. It’s launching new initiatives “to place sustainability at the center of our investment approach.”

Gould argued that because BlackRock is the largest asset management company in the world, it should not come as a surprise that it owns stakes in companies that some might consider objectionable.

“It should not be surprising that BlackRock’s clients, in aggregate, are among the world’s largest holders of both the most and least virtuous (by whatever measure) companies out there,” Gould said.

Swai argued that because BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world, the firm

has an “added responsibility” to not support companies who they find unethical.

Swai is confident the proposal will pass the Senate.

Every single time like I dig deeper, I find it more and more possible that this is a reality that we can actually fix.

Ngaya Swai PZ ‘23

“I’ve talked to many senators and almost all of them have given me a yes,” he said. “There’s a possibility of it being vetoed, and if that was to occur, that’s when protests would happen. We won’t just roll over because you vetoed.”

“If I thought this was not possible, I wouldn’t have continued working so hard on it,” Swai added. “But every single time like I dig deeper, I find it more and more possible that this is a reality that we can actually fix.”

Gould said the board of trustees is not considering replacing BlackRock as its investment manager, adding that BlackRock has helped Pitzer meet many financial obligations, including student financial aid, faculty and staff

salaries and facilities.

“We view BlackRock as among the most progressive investment management firms in the Responsible/Sustainable Investment space today,” he said.

SDC plans to show up in force at the Senate meeting on March 8, according to Swai.

In addition to the Senate proposal, SDC has promoted a Change. org petition with more than 200 signatures as of Wednesday calling for Pitzer to divest from BlackRock, with a specific list of demands.

While the Senate proposal broadly focuses only on divestment from BlackRock, the petition takes up a list of demands drafted by the Latinx Student Union, including calls for measures to help the undocumented community on campus.

The group also organized protests over Parents’ Weekend on Feb. 14, including a painting on the Free Wall at Mead Hall depicting the Pitzer tree logo in red, signifying its roots being “soaked in blood” with text criticizing Pitzer for its connections to BlackRock.

“Pitzer respects our community’s first amendment right to free speech, and strongly disputes the content depicted on the free wall regarding BlackRock,” college spokesperson Anna Chang told TSL via email.

The Free Wall was also painted with criticism of Pitzer trustee and BlackRock vice chairman Robert Fairbairn in September 2019, again criticizing the company for its GEO Group ties.

COURTESY: SDC COALITION

A major component of Pitzer’s endowment is managed by BlackRock, an investment management firm with ties to fossil fuel producers and private prisons.

Students take lead on mental health feedback chLOE MANDEL Many students across the 5Cs have stories about long wait times and inaccessible service at Monsour Counseling and Psychological Services, or know people who do. Now, a group of student researchers is trying to turn all those complaints into workable data.

The Claremont Mental Health Initiative, a student-led initiative aiming to improve 7C mental health resources, released a survey Feb. 23 to assess students’ experiences with access to mental health resources at the 7Cs. The online anonymous survey, which takes about five to ten minutes, will allow for a better understanding of both “the positive and negatives of what our current resources are,” according to Rachel Caisi Miller PZ ’20, who worked

on the project with Micah Sallus PZ ’20, so that administrators can work to make improvements.

This is just the beginning of something kind of big, we hope.

Rachel caisi Miller PZ ’20

The survey first asks students whether they’ve used Monsour’s services before; if respondents answer “no,” subsequent questions center around what resources students are aware of and what factors would make

them more or less likely to use Monsour. If they answer “yes,” subsequent questions address aspects of their experience such as wait times and satisfaction with staff interactions. Free response fields also allow students to provide additional comments and suggestions regarding Monsour.

Miller and Sallus plan to publicize the summarized survey results so students and the administration will have access to them. As of Thursday, they’ve received 224 responses.

Sallus said he realized during his first year that Monsour “didn’t have the funding to be able to branch off and create new projects and programs.”

The Claremont Colleges Services spokesperson Laura Muna-Landa said Monsour staffing

HUXLEYANN HUEFNER • THE STUDENT LIFE

Micah Sallus PZ ‘20 and Rachel Caisi Miller PZ ‘20 hope to improve 7C mental health resources by developing a mental health survey

has recently increased, but that she couldn’t comment on budgeting specifics.

Miller, who transferred to Pitzer after her first year, said when she asked other students about the mental health resources available, she would receive answers along the lines of “‘oh, there’s Monsour, but I don’t know if you would want to use it.’”

After “hearing that narrative over and over again,” Miller got in contact with Sallus and the two decided to meet with administration to ask if there were any plans to improve mental health resources.

Though administrators said they recognized the issues associated with Monsour, they did not specify any concrete plans for improvement, Miller said.

The consortium brought in a group of external reviewers to evaluate Monsour last semester. One of them said Monsour ’s “reputational issues,” as expressed by students in a feedback session, were unprecedented in her 27-year career.

The review’s results will not be made public, according to Muna-Landa, but it “suggests the need for a proactive cultural shift in access and approaches.”

Muna-Landa added that several short-term and long-term recommendations included in the report are currently being reviewed by TCCS Vice President for Student Affairs Janet Smith Dickerson, Monsour director Gary DeGroot and a group of other administrators.

According to Sallus, his and Miller’s survey is different from previous ones because it has received “unconditional 7C Dean of Student approval,” and since it is student-led, all students will be able to see the resulting data set.

Miller and Sallus’ survey, according to Muna-Landa, was developed “with the knowledge and consent of Monsour and several faculty members.” Muna-Landa said the survey has

“no direct link to the external review,” but that Monsour supports Miller and Sallus’ efforts.

“We are working from within administration and have everyone’s ear. We have a letter of support from Monsour. We have the questions that they want answered and need answered,” Sallus said.

“It’s really a joint project that I think has a really good chance of actually creating change if that’s what the data suggests is needed.”

Miller and Sallus spent a year and a half drafting and revising their survey, taking feedback from then-5C Mental Health Alliance President Sherwin Shabdar PO ’18 and at least two students from each of the seven colleges, Sallus said.

In order to ensure that the survey accurately measured students’ experiences, Miller and Sallus also worked with a professor of survey design and data collection at CGU, a Pomona graduate and a current CGU student who collects data for the Health Education Office, as well as Monsour itself in order to make sure “all of our questions follow good survey design for psychological surveys,” Sallus said.

Miller said she and Sallus worked to keep the survey short to cater to busy students. The 20 participants who have tested the survey took an average of eight minutes to complete it, Sallus said.

Sallus and Miller said participants are guaranteed anonymity and that all survey questions are optional. Though participants have the option to enter their emails for a chance to win one of four $50 Amazon gift cards, AirPods or a JBL speaker, email addresses will not be attached to any answer sets, Sallus said.

Miller also said she and Sallus are trying to make sure that others will continue their work after they graduate. They hope to create an advisory board that will work with administrators and analyze survey results or possibly create new surveys.

“This is just the beginning of something kind of big, we hope,” Miller said.

Life & StyLe

March 6, 2020

PaGE 5

5C student group Shine wins $50,000 Back on the BLOC: in US Dept. of Energy contest Mentorship program revived ALLISON FITZ Building Leaders on Campus, a student organization dedicated to enhancing the campus experience of male students of color, is returning in force this semester, after a few semesters of lessened activity.

The group of about 30 members meets biweekly for discussion, planning and mentoring. They also have weekly mentoring sessions with local high school students at Pomona High School in a program called Young Men’s Circle and will occasionally host 5C social events, according to Ric Townes, one of its faculty advisers and a Pomona associate dean of students.

Its membership is open to men of color across the 5Cs but is mostly Pomona College students, according to Townes.

BLOC collaborates with, but is not officially affiliated with the Office of Black Student Affairs. It is also not a registered club with ASPC, instead receiving its funding from an active alumni network of over 100 people, according to BLOC member Anaa Jibicho PO ’23.

Townes, who has been involved with BLOC since its inception in 2010, said it originally served as a space for men of color to find community and solidarity in their identity.

“If you go back 12 to 14 years ago at Pomona, the number of black and Latino men on campus was really small. There was a desire to create a space where people could be comfortable just being who they were,” he said.

“When you’re the only black male in your major … it felt to them like they always had to represent black students and black people, and that’s just completely unfair,” Townes said.

Townes said that while levels of men of color at Pomona have certainly increased since, it is still relatively small, and the need for BLOC remains. According to statistics from the Pomona registrar’s office, there are currently 69 black men and 138 Hispanic men enrolled.

BLOC was less active in the 201819 academic year and spent the majority of the fall 2019 semester “reevaluating its purpose,” according to Townes.

Townes attributed this slowdown of activity to BLOC’s president, Niles Brooks PO ’20, studying abroad.

Townes still met with the executive board throughout the spring 2019 semester and the group held meetings and continued its mentorship program, but attendance was low.

Students such as Jibicho and Troy Bailey PO ’23 helped bring it back this semester.

Bailey found out about BLOC

when he visited as a prospective student from Cris Monroy PO ’14, a BLOC alumnus and current Pomona admissions officer.

“When I was looking for a college, I wanted diversity, but I also wanted a cohort of people who were like-minded and who especially looked like me,” Bailey said. “This was a luxury I didn’t encounter as much back home.”

As he adjusted to his first semester at Pomona, Bailey realized BLOC did not have as big of a role on campus as he had expected. He and Jibicho decided to revamp the organization — “because we knew we could handle it,” he said.

Their refocused goal for BLOC is clear.

“We essentially wanted it to be a space for males of color to come and decompress and talk about their experiences at the 5Cs, but also just a space where they can go with other people that look like them and have their backs,” Jibicho said.

For Bailey, the experience has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I personally have seen the benefits of hanging out and debriefing with people who have had similar experiences and it is drastic and so beneficial,” he said.

Jibicho cited data from a 2018 Gallup survey of Pomona’s campus climate as inspiration for reviving the group.

Thirty percent of black students responded that Pomona was not a good place for students of racial or ethnic minorities, compared to four percent of white students, according to the survey.

“I think a lot of that source for unhappiness is not feeling like they belong at Pomona,” Jibicho said. “Not enough is being done. … We are bringing students to the school, but what are we doing while they are here?”

The “new BLOC,” as Jibicho called it, is enhancing its alumni board to encourage engagement.

Townes said the group reached out to various male faculty of color across the 5Cs for support, such as Travis Brown, John Lopes and Michael Walden at Pomona and Vince Greer at Claremont McKenna College, throughout the fall 2019 semester in order to reevaluate the organization’s mission and purpose.

“Dean Townes and [Lopes] have been here the longest out of all of us, since before BLOC was even a thing. … They know what the zenith of BLOC looked like before, and they are just helping guide us back there,” Bailey said.

ZOE cOWaN • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Building Leaders on campus, a student-led organization, aims to enhance the campus experience of male students of color.

cOUrTESY: SOLOMON OLShIN

Shine, a 5c student group, creates renewable energy technologies to help people recovering from natural disasters.

JULIANA MESSINA In a world that runs on electricity, what happens if you don’t have access to it? How do natural disaster survivors or homeless populations rebuild their lives without lighting or heat?

These are problems that Shine, a 5C student group, is ambitious enough to tackle.

Shine, which is currently in the process of becoming a 5C club, is a group of 5Cers “working to address the basic needs of people transitioning out of homelessness and recovering from natural disasters using renewable energy technologies,” director Solomon Olshin PO ’23 said.

Olshin and his team just won the first round of the U.S. Department of Energy’s American-Made Solar Prize, a competition which seeks to financially support and encourage innovations that will change the way that the U.S. solar manufacturing market works.

He said Shine applied to the U.S. Department of Energy’s American-Made Solar Prize in December, a contest typically won by businesses and professionals to obtain seed funding for startup projects.

Out of 120 applicants, 20 winning teams were chosen.

Each were given a prize of $50,000 and the opportunity to polish their projects for round two. The Shine team is diligently working on their round two submission, in hopes of being one of five to 10 teams out of 20 to be awarded a $175,000 grant to further their development.

“We are continuing to refine our ideas [for round two]. We are doing more market validation and research,” Olshin said. “We are developing the actual design and creating a prototype of our product as part of the basic requirements for this opportunity.”

Shine, which consists of students from across the 5Cs, started in Portland, Oregon.

The idea for their first project arose when Olshin visited a tiny house community helping

people transition out of homelessness.

“The biggest challenge that they faced, during winter especially when the sun sets at [5 p.m., is that] their day is over, and there was no electricity,” he said.

Shine’s goal is to help those communities optimize the advantages of the tiny house community model, while staying cost-effective and appealing for everyday life.

“The little electricity that some residents had was powered exclusively by gasoline generators, which were expensive to maintain, expensive to refuel, noisy, pollutive and disruptive to their neighbors, which made the villages even less popular,” Olshin said.

The solution he devised was JuiceBox, a solar powered micro-grid that provides light, electricity and heat. It provides a cost-effective, environmentally sustainable alternative to gasoline generators for communities in need.

The product came out of a club called Invent Team at Olshin’s high school, where he served as co-creator and project leader. He pitched an idea for the project, and the club served as the initial incubator for JuiceBox. “As it became clear that it would be impossible to manufacture many of these things within the context of a school club, we transitioned to being a more independent organization,” said Olshin. “We now have fiscal sponsorship which means that we have bank accounts [as] a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.”

Since then, Shine has sought to embody the positivity rooted in their name, focusing on uplifting communities by providing accessible resources.

“Our primary values are first and foremost helping people shine, helping people gain access to resources that they wouldn’t have access to otherwise,” Olshin said. “Our second objective is to do that in an environmentally sustainable way.

The name is really dual purpose.

It encapsulates our objective to be a humanitarian organization that is environmentally responsible.”

In the past three years, Shine has built 100 JuiceBoxes that serve about 250 people in the Portland area, with support from corporate sponsorships.

“We’ve worked with Autodesk, eBay and other companies who have offices in areas ... to bring their employees and engage them in educational workshops where they do community service and learn about creating something cool: the JuiceBox,” Olshin said. “They are able to actually manufacture the JuiceBoxes for us, so we have very limited labor costs in terms of creating many replications of our product.”

Since graduating high school, Olshin and some of the team have moved Shine here to the 5Cs. New members were found through in-person contact and reaching out on platforms like Chirps.

Sam Frantz PO ’22 joined the team as a videographer this year.

He created a video about JuiceBox for the first round of the Solar Prize competition.

“Shine seemed like it had a great mission and a great goal. It’s something that I personally have a lot of conviction for,” Frantz said. “I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to use [creative] interests of mine.”

Shine is currently accepting applications for new members, both in preparation for round two of the Solar Prize, and to help strategize the most effective use of the $50,000 initial prize money. They are looking for students with interests in a variety of fields including market research, engineering and social media.

“We as a team will be making decisions within the next month or two to allocate funds towards projects that we feel are most important to our team members and to our community,” Olshin said.

“If you would like to be a part of that decision-making, please consider joining us and being part of the team.”

All 5C students are welcome to apply and read more about Shine at https:// shinewithus.org.

ScENE ONE, hOT TaKE ONE

The decade’s top films and the scenes that made them BEN HAFETZ

their meaning of life in both its smallest and biggest moments.

This article contains spoilers.

As February comes to a close and January is far in the rearview mirror, now is as good a time as any to look back on the films of the previous decade and celebrate three of the era’s best films, as well as one scene from each film that captures why that film is the best of the best.

“The Tree of Life” (2011) Terrence Malick’s masterwork on the human experience stands out as the best film of the decade. The semi-autobiographical film follows an aged Jack (Sean Penn) looking back at his upbringing in Waco, Texas, as well as the birth of the universe itself. The genius of the film lies in its ability to find the greatest meaning in the smallest of moments.

Take for example its opening scene, wherein Jack’s mother (Jessica Chastain) delivers a monologue over sweeping shots of miscellaneous moments in Jack’s childhood. She explains that nature is a domineering force that only works to please itself, represented in the film by Jack’s father (Brad Pitt), while grace is a force that bends to the forces around it and embraces all with love, represented by Jack’s mother.

This metaphorical war between nature and grace is the central conflict of the film. Malick’s choice to treat the seemingly meaningless shots of Jack’s childhood with the same grandiosity as the birth of the universe allows the audience to find

“The Master” (2012) Ever since his entrance into the mainstream with “Boogie Nights,” Paul Thomas Anderson has dominated the cinematic discourse with every new film he makes. In the 2010s, Anderson’s cinematic dominance was best represented by “The Master.”

The film follows Navy veteran Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) as he searches for purpose by seeking the help of a cult leader, Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman).

The film is Anderson’s most mature effort to date and follows themes of anger, power and love present in the friendship between these two men, which is best represented by the film’s pivotal processing scene.

At its surface, the scene is quite simple. The scene depicts Dodd

making Quell take an oral exam where Quell is asked questions about his life in order to become a member of Dodd’s church. Quell begins the processing by making a mockery of the questions as Dodd plays along.

However, once Dodd instructs Quell to not blink during a round of questioning, Quell’s defense mechanisms seem to shut off. In this round, Quell reveals his darkest secrets to a monotone Dodd.

While Quell is seemingly breaking down, Dodd remains completely still and calm in asking the questions.

This scene is shot in a simple series of shot-reverse shots, overthe-shoulder shots and close-up shots of Quell and Dodd. The only movement in these shots is Quell’s fidgeting as the processing gets more intense; meanwhile, Dodd remains unemotional. By having Dodd remain as still as the camera,

Anderson makes it clear to the audience that Dodd is completely in control of the scene and even the camera itself.

The camera’s stillness contrasts with Quell’s nervous movements, reinforcing the clinical aspect of the processing while highlighting the juxtaposition of anger and control that lingers over the entire film.

The power struggle between these two men is what makes the film so captivating, and is represented best by this signature processing scene.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” (2013) It wouldn’t be a white guy’s list of the best films of the decade without at least some mention of the Coen brothers, who delivered one of their best films in 2013 with “Inside Llewyn Davis.” The film follows the titular Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), a struggling folk musician mourning the death of his collaborator and giving it one last

WaVErLY WaNG • ThE STUDENT LIFE

shot at making it in the music industry.

The genius of this typical struggling artist story lies in the film’s absolute refusal to find nobility in the typical struggling artist. Sure, Davis is a good musician, but he’s just not good enough to really break through — setting this film firmly in the genre of tragicomedy.

Take for example the film’s climactic “Queen Jane” scene. After some darkly comic misadventures, Davis finally makes it to an audition for a record deal, where he is asked to perform for top executive Bud Grossman (F. Murray Abraham).

All of the scene is set to finally be Davis’ big moment as he sings his heart out while the camera lovingly pushes closer and closer on his face. For a moment, the audience even believes that this moment Davis gets his big break — that is, until the camera cuts to the plain-faced executive, who deals the final blowturned-punchline: “I don’t see a lot of money here.”

In that final line, we learn everything we need to know about Davis’ life as musician: He will never make it. This one scene is the most pure representation of this darkly comic masterpiece, communicating the message that some people are just doomed to be the lovable loser.

Ben Hafetz PZ ’20 is one of TSL’s film columnists. He is a media studies and politics double major who likes to not only see movies, but also tell his friends why they should or should not like certain ones.

PaGE 6

Life & StyLe

March 6, 2020

Ski you on the mountain: LINES promotes winter sports RINA NAGASHIMA When one pictures sunny Southern California, snow sports are typically the last thing on their mind.

But LINES, the 5Cs’ ski and snowboard club, wants to help students to start thinking bigger and colder. Club members have the the opportunity to go on skiing trips to Big Bear and Mammoth Mountain, participate in the club’s competition team, enjoy on-campus movie showings, join workshops at the club lounge and participate in trips geared toward beginners.

LINES leadership, as a whole, wants to provide students with the opportunity to do what they love in the outdoors and spread their love for winter sports to other students.

“There’s nothing better than being on a mountain on a blue, good day … and zooming down,” said Millie Hillman SC ’21, the club’s “shred staff” coordinator. “It really just gives me an appreciation of where I am in life, where I go to college and [how] I value my time.

It really just makes me live in the moment.”

Alex Paff SC ’21, vice president of operations and logistics, noted that a major goal for the club this year is to include more people in their ski and snowboard community.

“The hope is to do [more open events] going forward, where we can get as much of the student body involved as possible,” Paff said. “I think there are a lot of barriers to entry with a lot of outdoor activities,” she added, noting that the 5Cs don’t have any skiing classes available. “[We hope to] fill that gap for people who are interested in it and want to pursue it and don’t know how to.”

The club has historically been known for hosting its annual Reading Daze trip, which takes place during the end of the fall semester, coinciding with Pomona College’s reading days. This past year, club President Kirill Myagkov PO ’22 said that over 200 people from the 5Cs took the trip up to Mammoth

Mountain to ski and snowboard.

For many, this was members’ first real interaction with the club.

“I think Reading Daze is really our highlight, not just as an event, but because I really see that as [most’s] first exposure to the club,” said Santi Saravia PO ’21, LINES’ vice president of student support and outreach.

The LINES club, however, has recently been undergoing a transformative period, said Jacob Al-Husseini PO ’22, vice president of club development. As snow sports are often expensive and historically lacked an on-campus presence, the club’s leadership is working to make skiing and snowboarding participation more inclusive and welcoming to the entire 5C community.

One of the initiatives that LINES is working on is creating a physical lounge space for the club, which will be housed in Pomona’s Clark III basement. “We’ve done a lot of work — we put carpets

down … we’re painting the walls and we’re totally renovating that whole thing. It’s going to be a really nice spot that will hopefully help our club continue its legacy,” Saravia said.

The club leaders hope the lounge can serve as a space to host ski gear workshops and hold office hours to answer questions about skiing and snowboarding, which will help make the club more approachable. “[The lounge is a] really cool way to make the club a lot more accessible and provide … support,” Hillman said. “[People] are nervous about going [to the mountains] for the first time — [maybe] not knowing anyone or not having anything to ski with. They can come to an event hosted by LINES, kick back, have some snacks, choose their skis and meet some cool people.”

Now buoyed by having their own space, LINES is also looking into creating an equipment rental

system, making the steep costs of snow sports even more accessible.

“Hopefully, over the years, we’ll be able to amass our own equipment that we’ll be able to rent out … to people that need [equipment],” Myagkov said.

LINES is also focusing on increasing trips geared towards people who are new to winter sports, having hosted their first beginners trip March 1 at Big Bear.

“We fully [funded] 21 cohort students from Pomona … that have never been up to the mountains before, getting them a lesson from the [professional] instructors up there and having members of LINES … ski team members … riding around with them and [having] a good time,” Myagkov said.

Myagkov said they geared their pilot program toward demographics who may not have gone skiing or snowboarding before, acknowledging the difficulty of accessing ski and snowboarding equipment as well as transportation.

cOUrTESY: LINES

LINES, the 5c’s ski and snowboard club, encourages members to go on skiing trips, join the club’s competition team and join workshops at their club lounge.

“We wanted to put all those resources [from the ASPC and cohort groups] toward demographics that [may] have never really had the opportunity to be in the mountains,” Myagkov said. “So FLI, Posse groups, members of those demographics — we specifically advertised [the trip] to them [with help from] Travis Brown, director of the [Quantitative Skills Center].”

Al-Husseini emphasized that LINES’ main goal has been to make a sport that is typically inaccessible to large portions of the population into a real option for recreational activity.

“Skiing and snowboarding are some of the most homogenous activities people can do,” Al-Husseini said. “It’s incredibly socioeconomically gate-kept.”

When Al-Husseini and his co-leaders assumed leadership positions for the club this year, they had a vision in mind to transform the nature of the club and its relationship to the 5Cs. Their goal for this year is to demonstrate that they have the initiative and capability to make snow sports accessible to a larger portion of the Claremont community.

“We can bring a lot of [people] along who have never had the opportunity to explore the mountains … and show them what we love, and hopefully they’ll pick it up along the way and make the community bigger,” Al-Husseini said.

For Myagkov, witnessing people enjoy the mountains so much is the most worthwhile part of being in the club.

“I was very lucky that ... I just grew up within the circumstances that I was close enough to the mountains and that my parents really valued the outdoors,” Myagkov said.

“Really experiencing the fact that people are having so much joy in the mountains based off of the work that we do at the club … that’s definitely the favorite part of the club for me, just being able to give those experiences to other people.”

Chinese community finds Students strut stuff, build confidence at Scripps heels dance classes unity at Spring Festival Gala ANNA SOLOMON Walking in high heels and learning choreographed dance routines are two separately challenging tasks. Now imagine combining them by dancing full, fastpaced routines in high heels.

On Tuesdays at 8 p.m. in the Sallie Tiernan Field House at Scripps College, students in heels dance classes perform this exact difficult task, with high energy and enthusiasm.

Not quite hip hop and not quite jazz, heels dancing is more of a mindset than a style of dance, according to Kara Dunne-Dombrink SC ’20, captain of the Reverb Dance Crew, a heels and hip hop collective on campus.

“The main thing is about confidence and body positivity and using dancing in heels — of any length … stilettos [or] block heels — to reinforce that confidence,” she said.

Most commonly associated with the power anthems and iconic performances of Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez, for example, heels dancing is often set to hip hop or R&B music. Participation in the Scripps classes require no heels (or leotards) to participate, though, and students shouldn’t feel discouraged if their dance skills are not at Queen Bey’s level — the classes are open to all 5C students, no experience necessary.

In the spring of 2018, Claire Joseph SC ’21 hosted the first heels dance class at Scripps after attending classes in Los Angeles for a few months. The first class was a small group, but nevertheless, the spirit of heels dancing immediately created a positive environment.

“It was such a positive, comfortable space with people who had danced before and people who didn’t, and people who wore

heels and people who didn’t,” she described. “It was really anything and everyone. It was great.”

After the first class, Dunne-Dombrink approached Joseph and proposed a collaboration between the Reverb Dance Crew and Joseph to keep hosting heels classes. The pair coordinated a second class, and they have been collaborating ever since.

The classes have taken off since 2018, drawing consistent participation from students at the 5Cs. Dunne-Dombrink emphasized the classes’ inclusivity to all students, regardless of gender or dance experience.

Heels dance classes are unique from perhaps other dance groups in their emphasis on body positivity and support, Joseph said. These are more than just dance classes; rather, they are a space for students to explore and empower themselves.

“There’s something really amazing about owning my own sexuality and my own power,” Joseph said. “In college, for me, a lot of [my evolution] has been becoming more comfortable with myself and working on … self-love practices. That component [of heels classes] — feeling really comfortable in my body and feeling really sexual — has been really great.”

Students are not only able to empower themselves through dance at heels classes, but they can also build skills as choreographers and leaders. Hannah Schneider SC ’23 started participating in heels classes this year, and she has already choreographed and led five classes, along with helping with class administration and community building.

Schneider emphasized the

creative liberty allowed by heels dancing, noting how each choreographer brings their own style to their dances.

“Every time someone choreographs, they have their own style, flavor or appeal. I feel like it is different than other genres of dance because heels [dancing] just describes the shoes that you’re wearing,” she said.

While students lead and choreograph most classes, the group has also been able to bring in industry choreographers to teach, including choreographer and performer Jeffrey Liang. Opportunities for students to learn from professional choreographers are exciting, and Schneider emphasized the group’s insistence on inclusivity, even when hosting events with such dancers.

“One of my friends came to class [with a professional], and she had never been in a dance class. She just likes wearing heels around campus,” Schneider said. “I asked, ‘What are you doing tonight? Come to the class.’ She jumped into the deep end and killed it.”

This sort of openness, inclusivity and positivity defines the heels dance class community, while the dancing itself allows students to empower themselves and foster confidence. Every week, students of all abilities come together and cheer for one another, enjoying the benefits of movement, support and strength.

“It’s just a place to play and feel great, and everyone looks amazing,” Joseph said. “People always come to the classes and say, ‘I don’t dance,’ and then by the end of the class, everyone’s just standing up [and] clapping for each other.”

aLYSSa LEONG • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Kayla Krilove PZ ’22 teachs choreography at a heels class in Scripps college’s Sallie Tiernan Field house.

MELINa KOFOKOTSIOU • ThE STUDENT LIFE

The chinese Student association hosts their Spring Festival Gala in celebration of the Year of the rat.

JESSICA SHEN-WACHTER A red and gold color scheme adorned McKenna Auditorium at Claremont McKenna College for the Chinese Student Association’s Spring Festival Gala, from intricate paper lanterns strung across the ceiling, to the traditional qipao and changshan that attendees wore.

In celebration of the Year of the Rat, the gala provided a lively and entertainment-filled space where attendees could mingle and pose for photos in front of themed backdrops.

According to CSA event planner Emma Tao SC ’23, the gala was targeted toward Chinese international students. As guests arrived, each received a hongbao, a red envelope traditionally filled with money that younger or unmarried relatives receive in the new year.

“Since Chinese New Year happens after winter break [and] because it’s such a huge holiday, another way to do it is to celebrate here with friends who share the same culture,” she said.

The program included a diverse group of performers who lifted the spirits of the event. Musical acts dominated, as several acts of Chinese singing, dance and even rap performances captivated the audience.

For performer Edward Shi CM ’20, the event was an opportunity to conquer his nerves and rap publicly for the first time. The song he chose, “Voice Memo” by PG One, reflected this perfectly.

“The song is about giving people courage,” Shi said.

“Sometimes events happen in life where people judge you or have an attitude toward you, and you have to just be chill about it, be cool about it.”

Tom Chenlian Fu HM ’22 closed out the night with a medley of popular American songs from 2019, including Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings,” Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over,” Lana Del Rey’s “Cinnamon Girl” and Taylor Swift’s “Lover”, as well as the popular Chinese songs, “起風 了” (“The Song of the Wind”) and “海洋之心” (the Chinese version

of “How Far I’ll Go” from “Moana”).

For Fu, the event was more than just an opportunity to showcase his musical ability, but an opportunity for the Chinese community to find unity in culture.

“This event gathers people together once a year and is important because … China is such a huge country, and its culture should be represented here,” he said. “It’s important for us to have this show to present our culture to both ourselves and other people so we can be proud of our culture.”

Belinda Wang CM ’23, a volunteer for the event, explained that being so far away from her home and family in Guangzhou, China during a holiday this culturally significant can be difficult, but that it’s been made easier through events like the Spring Festival Gala.

“It makes me feel like there’s someone from where I’m from that cares about me and cares about the festival, and everyone can get together,” she said. “When there’s an event like this, it just reminds me of my home.”

Chris Chung PO ’23, a Chinese-American from Las Vegas, said the event reminded him of happy memories of going to his local Chinatown and watching the parade as a child. It also provided him with a way to connect with his cultural background while being away at college.

“I think [the gala] is important because it provides a way for members of the community to find a connection to [their] culture from home or [their] cultural background,” he said.

For many attendees, the 5C Spring Festival Gala was more than just a celebratory break from the monotony of work and classes. It was instead a time to ease back into speaking their native language, to celebrate the biggest holiday of the year and most importantly, a time to be surrounded by a community that feels like home.

Happy Year of the Rat, and in the words shared by a CSA presenter, I wish you peace, happiness and a good GPA. Disclaimer: Tao is employed by TSL as a graphic artist.

March 6, 2020

Life & StyLe

PaGE 7

Fair is foul and foul is fair: ‘Macbeth’ tells a story of power, deception, betrayal MABEL LUI Amid the sound of thunder, three witches sweep the stage in their red and golden floor-length dresses. Under the illuminating, shadowy light, a witch opens the play with the infamous line: “When shall we three meet again / In lightning, thunder or in rain?”

As the trio foreshadows the bloodshed and battle that is yet to come, another witch delivers the lyrical death blow to the protagonist, mere seconds into the play: “There to meet with Macbeth.”

Helmed by guest director Diana Wyenn, “Macbeth” is being shown at Pomona College’s Seaver Theatre from March 5-8. The classic Shakespearean tragedy follows titular character Macbeth (Madeleine Kerr HM ’20) and his wife Lady Macbeth (Shringi Diva Vikram SC ’20) as they embark on a relentless and vicious quest to seize the Scottish throne.

“Macbeth” may be a 17th century classic play, but Wyenn affirmed that the Pomona production wouldn’t be antiquated.

“I wasn’t interested in [directing] Shakespeare as a relic of the past,” she said. “I was interested in what would happen if we, today, tackled this in the here and now.”

The play begins with the return of Macbeth and his fellow general Banquo (Berto Gonzalez PO ’20) to Scotland, after winning their most recent battle. Soon, the two generals are bequeathed by the three cunning, plotting witches’ prophecy that Macbeth is to become king in the future.

Thus begins Macbeth’s ambitious, bloodstained pursuit of the crown.

The conniving Lady Macbeth, with an even stronger desire for the throne, quickly convinces her husband to murder King Duncan (Maya Barbon PZ ’21), expediting the duo’s path to power. Vikram’s portrayal is forceful and biting; Lady Macbeth is unforgiving in her determina-

tion, until her accumulated guilt — embodied in her subconscious through sleepwalking — betrays her initial intentions.

Macbeth may succeed in ascending the throne, but it isn’t quite that simple. Hallucinations and ghosts incite fear in the nowcrowned king, and the corresponding monologues are deftly delivered by Kerr with simultaneous anger, horror and guilt. It seems, hearing the passion in Kerr’s voice, that nothing can wash away the blood after all.

“Macbeth” thrives in a multitude of aspects, and highlights include the impressive monologues, unexpected musical transitions, the ensemble’s sword fights and dancing frenzies, as well as the witches’ eery and high-pitched tones.

Despite being a 400-year-old play, the overarching themes of “Macbeth” remain as modern as ever, especially considering the U.S.’ current political climate.

Scotland, as it exists in the play, is a country in the midst of a civil war, one that is tearing itself apart from within, as Wyenn described.

But this inner turmoil isn’t so unfamiliar here in the U.S. — after all, the same fraught political dynamic is reflected in today’s society. “[It] sounds a lot like our country right now, where … things are incredibly fractured,” Wyenn said.

“And we know that the Russians are attacking our voting system.

So [the political nature of this play] isn’t something that is so foreign or old or any of those kinds of things.”

This production of “Macbeth” didn’t hesitate to push traditional boundaries. With a cast of 70 percent women and non-binary students, the cast and crew reflected on how gender affects the characters and discussed updating pronouns.

Kerr, who uses the pronouns she/her/hers, opted to keep the

original he/him/his pronouns for Macbeth.

“It was hard for me at first, [because] I was like, ‘Oh gosh, I have to make a big decision about what this character’s gender will be,’” she said. “The more I kept thinking about gender, it was just getting convoluted. And I felt like I was losing what is the text and what is the character.”

As a result, Kerr felt that keeping he/him/his pronouns for Macbeth was the best choice for her as an actor. Other pronouns, however, were changed — Barbon’s King Duncan used she/her/hers, for example. Macduff (Rieanna Duncan PO ’21), originally a male character with a wife and son, instead had a husband and daughter in this production.

Aside from its relevance to today’s society, “Macbeth” deserves praise for its creative elements.

According to Wyenn, the set and sound were both influenced by Daoism, with the octagon stage taking inspiration from the bagua, which represents the eight Daoist fundamental principles of reality.

Furthermore, the earth, metal, fire, water and air elements all were part of the sound design, which afforded the play a sense of groundedness in reality.

Given that “Macbeth” is about sacrificing everything in the fight for power, the elements serve as a juxtaposition that reminds the audience of the need for dynamic balance in society. If there’s one message that Wyenn hopes to convey with the production, it’s “the danger of someone seeking power … and [how] the ripple effects of that can destroy the lives of thousands, if not more.”

Macbeth is currently being showcased at Pomona College’s Seaver Theatre from March 5-8. General admission tickets ($11) and student, staff, faculty and senior tickets ($6) can be purchased online.

hUXLEYaNN hUEFNEr • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Top: Shringi Diva Vikram Sc ’20 performs as Lady Macbeth in Pomona college’s production of Macbeth for her senior project in performance. Middle: Madeleine Kerr hM ’20 and Shringi Diva Vikram Sc ’20 portray Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, respectively. Bottom: Pomona college’s production of Macbeth runs from March 5-8 at Seaver Theatre.

SUITcaSES

The post-abroad ennui: On coming back to Claremont LILLIAN PERLMUTTER Guest Writer On a chilly Thursday evening this January, a few dozen Scripps College juniors gathered in the Hampton Room, a carpeted event space perched above Malott Dining Commons. Each received an enve-

lope upon entry with a canary yellow door tag inside. The tags were inscribed with the words, “I studied in (insert country here)!” and a stereotyped graphic to match — a flamenco dancer, a rippling flag.

The mood in the line for assorted cheeses and bite-sized cakes was glum and tiresome, a futile

GaBI SEIFErT • ThE STUDENT LIFE

struggle to find excitement. This mood lingered despite the warmhearted efforts of the study abroad office staff to create a bright event for juniors returning to campus from their decidedly more stimulating jaunts abroad.

The unfortunate fact is that returning from a semester abroad is often akin to slipping into the life of a familiar stranger. Nothing seems to entirely fit together, but it fits well enough to shrug and move on.

Sifting through the contents of my storage unit, unopened since I left campus last May, was similar to unearthing a time capsule from many years ago. I recognized the girl smiling in the carefully stacked polaroids as myself, red cup in hand, palpable excitement in her eyebrows about who she might see at the party later — yet I felt I had lived many years since that hasty vodka lemonade.

In conversations with other juniors in Claremont, back from Amsterdam, Galway or Beirut, there is a clear duality to the postabroad sentiment, a bittersweet sense of both loss and gain. There is the loss of place — that rare bagel shop in Barcelona, that underground nightclub in Havana — and the loss of friends made while abroad, sandwiched together with the reward of cherished memories, fresh confidence and awareness.

Unfortunately, the knowledge gained in London is not a mirror image of the knowledge gained in Buenos Aires. This can lead to a new distance between close friends who spent months having entirely disparate experiences, as well as mental loneliness, derived from the inability to secure comfort and solidarity from friends who have never visited the city you came to love.

Friends here in Claremont who once anticipated and appreciated every comment and reference, now comprehend a visibly uncomfortable, smaller percentage. A new language of phrases, histories and places now peppers my thoughts, none of which my Claremont friends are able to understand — and each of them with their own new vocabulary as well.

As I write this, several hundred juniors mill about the 5Cs, attempting to make something worn and mundane into something new and exciting again. It is clear from my conversations with juniors and seniors that for some 5C students, going abroad leads to discontentment with life at the colleges, specifically the smalltown atmosphere. During a conversation about post-abroad sentiments, a senior commented, “I’ve thought about moving to Granada so many times in the past year.”

Side effects of the post-abroad ennui include dining hall displeasure (where’s the kimchi?), boredom at parties and other social functions (where’s the reggaetón?), premature senior angst upon discovering that unlike in other parts of the world, at 20 years old, you cannot go into a bar and order a drink to take the edge off the aforementioned loneliness (bad habits, kids!).

To a student still jet-lagged from four months in Prague or St. Petersburg, waiting in line at a dining hall, living in a dorm and attending college parties may have the same slightly comical effect as a 12-year-old riding a tricycle.

One junior claimed that after coming back from Europe, she feels less pressure to go out on the weekends and instead is perfectly content staying in with friends.

She knows that Long Tall Glasses or Groove at the Grove will not be

as rousing as the tequila-filled clubs she frequented a few short months ago, so she stays home.

However, another junior divulged a heightened desire to go out this semester — a desperate search for a lost feeling that ends in grumbling disappointment in line at The Hub at 1 a.m.

It is fitting that the Scripps study abroad office advertised postabroad support groups. This discontentment with life at the 5Cs is often whispered, rather than shouted, perhaps due to guilt. Not everyone has the opportunity to study in Claremont, and not everyone in Claremont has the opportunity to go abroad, so why whine about the fruits of our luck?

Without going abroad, would college continue to feel thrilling and entirely appropriate until graduation, or would the junior and senior years still be very different from the first two years? The answer to this, of course, is individual and personal, but maybe this disjointed gloom is merely a product of growing up.

As college becomes a familiar state, rather than a new one, its charms inevitably fade, and members of the junior and senior classes toil to find something novel and a valid sense of identity in a decaying situation.

While this is not perhaps the easiest time for some of our juniors, it is somewhat comforting to remember that life is cyclical, and just a year from now, we will likely be experiencing the same warm, sorrowful feelings about leaving college, our graduation goggles working their magic, overlooking these moments of jaded disappointment.

Lillian Perlmutter SC ’21 is a politics and foreign languages dual major. In addition to writing social commentary, she makes disappointing latte art at The Motley Coffeehouse.

OpiniOns

PAGE 8

MArch 6, 2020

We only interpret dreams when it’s opportune CAMERON TIPTON Earlier this month, I was in a supermarket in Turkey. My (now estranged) mother, stepfather, sister and I were there on vacation, and within a few moments of perambulating the aisles I developed an insatiable craving for a bagel.

I quickly located the bagels and a toaster, which I spared no time pulling out of its box and plugging into the nearest outlet. After locating some cream cheese (they only had cherry, those whores), I returned to the makeshift toasting station and checked my phone.

I found three new texts from my stepfather, in this order: “Where are you,” “Why are you like this?” and “We’re leaving, find your own way back to the hotel.” It hadn’t even been 10 minutes.

I emerged from the smoke of burning bagels. No longer dreaming, my mind grasped desperately for answers.

While seemingly nonsensical, this dream was meaningful to me, as it touched on many familiar themes: unknown environments, compromise (the cherry cream cheese) and familial insecurities. This whole scene was a thinly-veiled metaphor for my abandonment trauma.

But, then again, there is the time I went to an obscure sandwich shop in Los Angeles, only to find that Paula Abdul was the cashier. Or the time Lana Del Rey tried to kill my friends with a poisoned marijuana vape. Or (this one is from fourth grade) the time I was Nemo and got arrested by the fish police for not knowing the “Flippy the Whale Dance,” only to learn the dance, break out of jail and go on to win the nationally-televised Flippy the Whale Dance Com-

petition.

The fact of the matter is, we interpret dreams when they’re convenient. When we can point to a sequence of events and say, “Yes, that makes sense,” even when it decidedly does not make sense and we’re basing that judgment on a gut feeling, we are far more likely to put stock into it.

There is also the matter of ego.

So long as the events that unfold do not reflect unfavorably on us, we spare no time delving into deeper meanings. But god forbid we do a shitty thing in a dream.

“That was so random,” we tell ourselves, “there was no meaning to it.” We seldom accept the role of villain.

If I dream that all my teeth fall out, regenerate and fall out four times in a row, I read myself as the victim. Easy. The world is cruel and I am the victim of its cruelty.

But if I dream of myself breaking into someone’s home, or robbing a $20,000 watch from a jeweler, or even killing somebody and going to great lengths to cover up the murder, I am far less likely to think myself a criminal, a thief, a murderer.

Of course, this is not to say that one should throw out the baby with the proverbial bathwater.

Sometimes there is value in interpreting dreams. They can bolster our creativity, as we struggle to make a cohesive and logical narrative from seemingly incongruous scenes. At best, directly engaging themes that occupy our minds in our waking hours through a “dream lens” can make us more cognizant of our problems or concerns.

Sometimes we even make a

Jasper’s crossword: surprise!

JASPEr DAVIDOFF • ThE STUDENT LIFE

ACROSS 1. Early tech testing type 5. Place to get pampered 8. You can get a bead on it 14. Black cat, e.g.

15. Sajak of “Wheel of Fortune” 16. Lock up 17. Where to find your moment of Zen * 19. Rushed 20. Attila the ___ 21. ‘Seasons of Love’ show 22. Part of the Creative Cloud * 29. Newton had a couple 30. One non-meat meat 31. Kind of shot 32. Like some graffiti 36. It’s responsible for Accords * 39. “Cause we never go out of _____” -TSwift * 40. What to pay, in class 45. Envy, e.g.

46. Greek capital 47. Pick up (the bill) 49. It’s U N Re Al, among others * 52. Scripps course sequence 53. They’re made up of mins 54. There, Nome place’s like home 57. What 17, 22, 36, 39, and 49-across have * 62. Hung in there 63. Officiate, for short 64. Step after hide 65. San Joaquin Valley city 66. Become a bad apple 67. Dog command

OFF THE RECORD

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

DOWN 1. Ross of “The Joy of Painting” 2. Australia’s Great ___ War 3. Danson of “The Good Place” 4. “You said it!” (old-timey) 5. Backbone 6. Pitzer’s first-year res halls 7. Withdrawal device 8. Fire leftover 9. Spelling contest 10. Certify, as a college 11. Like Nick Jonas in relation to Kevin Jonas, some say 12. No. 1, say 13. Sunni or Shia 18. Major airports 22. Divvy up 23. Intimidate 24. Sesame Street airer 25. Ending of former military names 26. Ophthalmology focus 27. Back-to-class day, for short 28. Some businesses (abbr.)

31. US mortgage agcy.

33. Product to help clean for coronavirus 34. Cream of the crop 35. Lair 37. Sweethearts 38. Not pro 41. However, in a text 42. Roadside bomb 43. “The way you turn me ___ can’t sleep” –Katy Perry 44. White House advisory grp.

47. Raise crops 48. Fixate (on) 49. Arctic 50. Get rid of 51. “Five-finger discount” 52. Newborn cow 55. Clinton-era special prosecutor Starr 56. Fuss 57. Make a mistake 58. July-August sign 59. Pull in 60. Moroccan Mint, e.g.

61. Where clouds are

game out of it. I vividly recall my friend Archibald telling me all about a dream he had involving (coincidentally enough) going to the supermarket with his mother.

I remember semi-facetiously offering him the following dream interpretation: The different kinds of oat milk he encountered represented different kinds of people, and his ultimate dissatisfaction with each brand reflected a deeper-seated frustration with forging meaningful romantic or sexual relationships.

Sure, reaching for borderline-absurd interpretations of dreams can be fun, maybe even productive, but these interpretations might have the inadvertent effect of creating a problem where none exists.

Assume Archibald did not actually have relationship frustrations; assume he just really liked oat milk. (Knowing Archibald, this was more likely the case.)

My interpretation, if taken too seriously, might then have prompted a negative feedback loop. Perhaps he would become hyperconscious of his relationships, which might then induce anxiety, which might then actually influence his relationships.

These insecurities might also linger in his thoughts, making them far more likely to emerge in his dreams. And so the cycle continues.

I remember a talk I attended in high school. The speaker, a nutritionist with dubious psychological credentials, presented us with his understanding of dreams.

According to him, we accumulate thoughts throughout the day in much the same way we eat food.

MEGhAN JOYcE • ThE STUDENT LIFE

We go to bed with stray thoughts still floating around, or “digesting.” Dreams, he suggested, are the body’s way of stringing together these stray thoughts, which are ultimately meant to be discarded and forgotten.

In a sense, dreams are the mind’s equivalent of pooping. I may not be a doctor, but this much I know: When you consume poop, bad things happen. Very bad things.

It’s surely not a coincidence that dreams at times contain themes from everyday life. After all, the mind your wicked relative knows as [insert your name] is the same mind that fabricated last night’s elaborate kill-the-wicked-relativeand-devise-an-alibi plotline. We have but one mind, and overlap is inevitable.

Perhaps the true takeaway here

is that dreams are meaningless. Even with this in mind, I’ll admit I’m unlikely to stop interpreting them.

But the ways in which we interpret dreams are oftentimes opportunistic, discriminant and potentially harmful.

So the next time you find yourself contacting a wizard on Craigslist to remove your stepfather’s spirit from an enchanted automaton, take a moment to ask yourself: Are you on the verge of an emotional breakthrough, or is your brain just taking a massive shit?

Cameron Tipton PO ’20 is an avid dream (mis)interpreter. They are still working out the significance of a dream last semester, in which they were tossing a balloon with Kylie Jenner while Jonathan Lethem rhythmically spanked a dead fish. It was a tuna.

EDITORIAL BOARD: Above all, restrictive communications policies harm colleges’ students In the last few years, Claremont McKenna College, Scripps College and The Claremont Colleges Services have implemented strict communications policies, in order to more carefully craft the public image they wish to display to the world.

We’ve written about our concerns with these policies before, explaining how our working relationship with the colleges suffers as a result. As time goes on, however, it becomes increasingly evident that student journalists aren’t the ones most hurt by these restrictions — it’s the student bodies as a whole that are most affected.

The policies at CMC, Scripps and TCCS are relatively similar — when contacting those employed by any of the three institutions, all media requests must go through their respective communications staffs. On top of this, TCCS denies all in-person interviews, while Scripps and CMC also typically only give written statements.

Unlike at the other 7Cs, which have less restrictive policies, if TSL wants to interview an administrator at one of these schools, we can’t email them with questions, can’t call them on the phone and certainly can’t go to their office. Instead, we have to email a college spokesperson, who then typically works with the professor to create a response to our questions.

As a result, our writers rarely, if ever, have all their questions answered. The delay caused by using a middleman causes setbacks, and statements hardly ever fully respond to the necessary questions.

Take last week’s article about the EmPOWER Center as an example. The center is losing a federal grant at the end of the year, and rumors had been swirling about EmPOWER’s future.

After being assigned to the story, TSL news editor Maria Heeter SC ’22 immediately sent out an email to Rima Shah, the center’s director, cc-ing Scripps spokesperson Rachael Warecki (EmPOWER is run through Scripps).

Heeter’s email had numerous questions relevant to the issue at hand — whether the 7C presidents had decided not to fund the shortfall from the disappearing grant, whether project coordinator Lauren Lockwood would be let go as a result and whether the center’s programming and services would ultimately change.

In response, Warecki sent back a crafted statement from Shah.

Nine times out of 10, the responses we get in these situations either 1) don’t fully answer the question(s) asked, or 2) create the need for additional clarifying questions. This was the case with this story — while the statement confirmed Lockwood’s position was being eliminated, it didn’t even address whether or not the presidents had voted to not pick up the funding.

After Heeter got this statement she quickly responded, asking for clarifications, and also requested comment from Scripps President Lara Tiedens and Lockwood.

Unsurprisingly, our questions weren’t sufficiently answered before press time. We only received this response back from Warecki, just a few hours before we went to print: “The EmPOWER Center’s previous statement reflects the information currently available about the funding decision and the future operations of the Center. The Claremont Colleges do not comment on personnel matters.”

Yes, situations like these are annoying for us.

We are a staff of underpaid, overworked student journalists, who deeply value our work — doing an insufficient job does not sit well with our team.

When we sit on pins and needles for days waiting

for a response, trying to meet our deadlines, only to receive an entirely unhelpful statement, it doesn’t feel good.

The key thing, though, is that we’re not the ones who are most affected by restrictive communications policies. It’s the entire 5C community that bears the burden.

When these schools restrict information and the media’s access to their employees, it creates confusion and frustration for everyone who relies on our reporting to know what’s happening around them.

When we can’t access the information we need to write a complete story, our coverage lacks information critical to our readers.

In this case, while we were able to confirm from other sources that the presidents did meet and decided not to pick up the funding for Lockwood’s position, students that use the center as a resource were effectively left in the dark by the schools’ administrators.

We also know there are other rumors swirling about EmPOWER and other 7C resources, rumors we were unable to definitively confirm or deny because our follow up questions weren’t answered, and we couldn’t engage in productive dialogue with EmPOWER or Scripps officials.

By appearing inaccessible and disinterested in the student body’s concerns, the named colleges are directly and overtly making a statement — they don’t care if their students are confused or frustrated.

When we emailed Warecki last semester about Scripps’ communications policies, she said: “The Scripps College Office of Marketing and Communications follows standard media relations practices to ensure that the College provides accurate and timely information to the media.”

But by causing unnecessary roadblocks to the flow of information, Scripps is doing exactly the opposite. When they limit the available information — meanwhile failing to provide sufficient answers — rumors and misinformation abound.

In many situations, we are unable to confirm information from outside sources. Typically, when the schools refuse to address our questions, all they do is leave their own students to guess about what’s going on and create rumors.

This hurts students, leaving them no choice but to speculate — sometimes inaccurately — about what’s going on with no hard information. Ultimately, this generates further distrust of the institutions and the administrators in charge of them.

Imagine a different world, where we’re able to write the article about the EmPOWER Center funding without any restrictions on who we contact or how we do so.

Our reporter schedules a meeting with Shah, and they have a productive, professional, in-person conversation, where all the relevant questions are answered. If Shah says anything confusing, they’re able to ask clarifying questions in real-time. And if our editors have questions later, the reporter is able to directly and efficiently reach back out to Shah to clear things up.

This is how the real world works, and it’s how things should work in all of Claremont. When the schools hold all their employees’ hands, making sure every little thing they say publicly fits the desired public image of the institution — it not only says that they don’t trust those they’ve employed — it says they don’t value their students.

TSL’s editorial board is comprised of its editor-in-chief and two managing editors, and does not necessarily represent the views of other TSL staff members.

Katy Perry revealed that she’s pregnant in her new music video!

Good for her.

A beautiful bird flew into the office of TSL. Good thing I bring my almanac with me everywhere.

My parents sent me brownies in the mail.

They go really well with late-night TSL business.

The Dixie Chicks released a new song!

It’s been a long 14 years.

But when I make my roommate record me cradling my stomach, I’m “crazy.”

I just want to be like Katy.

It turned out to be a really big moth.

Slightly less aweinspiring.

My suitemate’s parents got us donuts.

Why is God making me choose?

My Dixie Chicks cover band continues to flop.

Maybe I need to do better advertising.

OpiniOns

MArch 6, 2020

PAGE 9

We need the Schools and Communities First initiative BEN REICHER It was the best of times, it was the worst of times — except in California, it seems to have been that way for quite a while. And for countless Californians who are unable to share in the state’s economic growth due to ludicrously high housing costs and a badly underfunded education system, that’s a problem.

A significant (if not the most important) cause of California’s contemporary socioeconomic woes is just one ballot initiative — Proposition 13, adopted in 1978. Right now, there is another initiative gathering signatures to qualify for the Nov. 2020 ballot, one that would be a crucial first step to undoing the dangerous underinvestment in our state that Prop. 13 fostered.

Known as Schools and Communities First, while its changes are relatively minor, passing it would reflect a tremendous shift in the way California politics operate, with a renewed focus on making the investments in the future that Californians of all backgrounds need to thrive.

First, a bit of background: Reborn from the ashes of the 2008 recession, in recent years California has outpaced the U.S. on practically every macroeconomic indicator — GDP growth rate, return on investment, job growth, personal income, median household income, you name it.

But, if you look closer, it’s a starkly different story. California may be the richest state by GDP, but it’s also the poorest, with 18.2 percent of Californians living in poverty in 2018.

The state’s astronomically high cost of living is the main reason why so many Californians have not shared in the post-recession expansion. According to CNBC’s 2019 ranking, California is the second most expensive state in the nation, after Hawaii.

This unaffordability is rooted in the state’s underfunded education system and the high cost of housing.

California ranks 41st in the nation in per pupil funding, factoring in cost of living. My readers probably won’t need data to appreciate this, but California has some of the highest home prices and rents in the nation, according to Business Insider.

Prop. 13, as we will see, has played a key role in both these issues. Passed in 1978, winning 65 percent of the vote amid the taxpayer revolt of the late ’70s, the initiative capped property taxes for residential and commercial property, by mandating that taxes be assessed based on price at purchase, not present value. Under Prop. 13, initial property tax is set at one percent of value at purchase, and annual increases are limited to two percent or inflation (whichever is lower) until sale.

It was passed amid rhetoric of upstanding citizens being priced out of their suburban dream homes, purchased in the postwar construction boom and subsequently having appreciated in value; a full-throated defense of the California Dream.

Except, far from protecting the California Dream, Prop. 13 has made that dream unreachable for countless Californians; benefitting a relatively small (and increasingly smaller) group of homeowners, predominantly white and upper-middle class, at the expense of everyone else.

Since a new home would be taxed according to purchase price, Prop. 13 encourages homeowners to stay in their homes; as a result, California’s home turnover rate has

declined from 16 percent in 1977 to under 6 percent today. Furthermore, decreased property tax revenue has discouraged municipalities from zoning land for housing.

Consequently, California faces a severe shortage of affordable housing. A 2016 McKinsey & Company report found that California has the second-lowest housing units per capita of any state, and that California needs to build 3.5 million new units by 2025 to adequately meet demand.

According to McKinsey, 70 percent of low-income California households would have to spend more than half their income on the local cost of housing, and the housing shortage costs California six percent of its GDP each year.

Instead of making it easier to buy a home, Prop. 13 has done the opposite: California has the nation’s second-lowest homeownership rate at 55 percent.

A 2016 report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that “two-thirds of [Prop. 13’s] tax benefits go to those with incomes above $80,000, and most of that to homeowners earning more than $120,000.” (In 2016, median household income in California was $67,739.)

Prop. 13’s distortion of the housing market had devastating effects on renters, as well as on people trying to enter the housing market — especially young and low-income people. But there is yet another group that has been seriously harmed by reduced property taxes: public school students.

Prior to Prop. 13, public schools in California, as in other states, were funded primarily by taxes on local property. However, with property tax revenue slashed by 60 percent the year after Prop. 13 was passed, public schools have since become more and more reliant on Sacramento for their funding; and thus it has become increasingly difficult for school districts to keep up with rising cost of living.

Fortunately, the severity of these problems isn’t stopping people from trying to solve them; and, though they may be intractable, they are far from insurmountable.

If enacted, Schools and Communities First would remove Prop. 13 tax protections from commercial property valued above $3 million, while keeping protections for residential property in place, thus protecting homeowners and small businesses from tax increases. The additional $12 billion annually would be invested into public schools and into local communities, including the building of affordable housing.

If it gathers enough signatures, any California resident will be able to vote for Schools and Communities First in November.

I know I will.

Let’s do this for the homes that many of us will hope to buy or rent in the future. For the schools where someday, we might send our children. For the real California Dream.

Ben Reicher PO ’22 is from Agoura Hills, California. He joined his high school newspaper in ninth grade because he loved to argue, and hasn’t stopped since.

THE STUDENT LIFE Editorial Board HANK SNOWDON, Editor-in-Chief MABEL LUI, Managing Editor MARC ROD, Managing Editor

Senior Staff JAMES KARSTEN, Production Editor HELENA ONG, Production Editor SAM BOVARD, News Designer ANNIKA RAGNARTZ, Life & Style Designer GRACE SAUERS, Opinions Designer MARCELLA CANNATTI, Sports Designer AMY BEST, Photo Editor HUXLEYANN HUEFNER, Photo Editor ANNIE WU, Graphics Editor KELLEN BROWNING, Editor-at-Large

JASPER DAVIDOFF, News Editor MARIA HEETER, News Editor ERIKA SCHWERDFEGER, News Associate AMBER CHONG, Life & Style Editor YASMIN ELQUTAMI, Life & Style Editor DONNIE DENOME, Opinions Editor EAMON MORRIS, Opinions Editor MARISA MESTICHELLA, Sports Editor MATTHEW KIM, Sports Associate MADY COLANTES, Copy Chief

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

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

The pill needs to be free, now GEORGIA SCOTT Gender, equality, health care. I know you faithful readers of The Student Life see these topics in our opinions headlines nearly every issue, which is why I’ve been trying to write about refreshing news such as children’s books and music platforms. Alas, I can no longer suppress my political commentary for the sake of a break in your news feed.

Not to mention, my last article didn’t make it to TSL’s print newspaper, so in an effort to get back at the editors, I’m writing to you this week about something they will not be able to deny printing: the cost of

birth control, the sexism behind that cost and how President Donald Trump is making everything so much worse.

When I was in high school, my sister, an intelligent, feisty liberal with superior knowledge of right and wrong, was constantly mad at the high prices of tampons. Her argument was fueled by two causes.

One was my mom’s refusal to buy tampons for her, which made my sister constantly upset by the loss of $7 for cotton. Second was tampons’ absurdly high cost, especially when you consider the fact that our good-for-nothing counterparts, men, don’t have to factor at least $14 into their monthly bud-

GrETA LONG • ThE STUDENT LIFE

gets for cotton bullets.

My sister’s anger at this situation has stayed with me for four years. Maybe because she took me to the pharmacy with her every month to buy tampons, and every single month, I had to listen to her rant about our mother and the patriarchy, two very heated topics.

But what kept me thinking about it, beyond my sister’s angst, was the application of her frustration to birth control in America.

For the sake of my argument, let’s all pretend we’re heterosexual women having intercourse with gentlemen. Let’s now assume these gentlemen I mention are smart enough to supply a condom every time. A real stretch here — I know, guys — but stick with me.

Even if that is happening, most women are still expected to be, and many want to be, on some form of birth control. The cheapest and most accessible birth control is currently the pill. And still, it’s not really that cheap.

According to the National Women’s Health Network, most birth control pills cost anywhere from $20 to $50 per month. Tack on the minimum of $14 for tampons each month and you’re looking at a hefty portion of women’s monthly salary devoted to vagina maintenance, something we did not ask for in the first place.

These costs are especially sexist because we’re not being paid the same as men to begin with. Not to mention the pink tax, a little known devil that charges women more than men for the same prod-

ucts. These products range from razors to calculators and usually the only difference between the items is that one is pink and the other isn’t.

There’s even an online calculator that lets you enter your birthday and then tells you how much the pink tax has cost you so far.

The patriarchy owes me $26,027.

Not-so-coincidentally, my birth control pills are pink …

Condoms, the birth control men are supposed to provide, cost less than a dollar each and can be found all over college campuses, and many other public places, for FREE. Value boxes for condoms — at least 36 individual condoms — cost $15.

The birth control industry is patriarchal enough as is. The assumption that women should be the ones to alter their hormones in an attempt to avoid unwanted pregnancy — which takes a much bigger toll on women than men, I might add — while men merely have to carry around a $1 piece of latex or what have you, if that, is so messed up.

When we’re thinking about all that sexism, the cost difference between birth control methods and the gender pay gap, it becomes disturbingly clear that women are really being screwed over in this country.

If there was one good nugget of news to glom onto during this horrible time of women’s rights, it’s the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to Big Man #44 (Barack Obama), health care providers are required

to provide birth control for free to all patients.

Unfortunately, some health care providers are only willing to provide a select couple of brands that don’t always work for every woman.

In addition, according to America’s Health Rankings, over 12 percent of American women remain uninsured. It’s all too obvious that this 12 percent likely consists of women who need free, accessible birth control the most.

So forget that I even brought the ACA up as a nugget of positivity because Big Idiot #45 (Donald Trump) is doing everything he can to get rid of it. As recently as Feb. 10, Trump announced plans to cut one trillion dollars worth of funding to Medicaid and the ACA. In addition, the Supreme Court announced Monday that it would be reviewing Obamacare for the third time under Trump, and possibly ending it, later this year in the case California v. Texas. With a case name like that and the Supreme Court we have, it’s hard to see California winning this one.

Even though the World Health Organization recognizes the international right to health care in their constitutions, we are being inhumanely denied our rights as humans and women. If the patriarchal system of making women solely responsible for birth control is going to be upheld, it at least needs to be free and accessible to everyone.

Georgia Scott PZ ’23 is an idiot because ripping on her editors in the second paragraph will certainly not propel her career.

SportS

PAGE 10

MArch 6, 2020

Athenas, Hens defeated by Bulldogs in tourney Coming off a 71-66 victory against No. 2 Whittier in the conference semifinals, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women’s basketball team (19-8, 11-5 SCIAC) fell short against No. 1 Redlands 62-55 in Saturday’s SCIAC championship game.

The first half was a back-andforth affair that saw nine lead changes. Going into halftime, the Athenas led 30-28.

The second half was as tightly contested as the first, with the biggest margin being only four points.

While Redlands had a chance to close out the game in the final minute, some late-game heroics kept the Athenas in the contest.

With the Bulldogs up 50-49 and 15 seconds remaining, Redlands’ Alyssa Downs split a pair of free throws, increasing their lead to two.

CMS called a timeout, advanced the ball and tied the game when Lindsey Cleary CM ’20 made a tough layup to send it to overtime.

In the extra period, though, Redlands outscored CMS 11-4 en route to a seven-point victory.

“We did let the emotions get to us in the last game because it was stressful. We were all tense, and at some points, we kind of played like we were losing,” Flora Durgerian CM ’22 said.

Cleary had a monster game for the Athenas, ending with 21 points and 17 rebounds on nine of 10 from the foul stripe.

The Athenas’ semifinal game against Whittier saw their late-game fortune go in their favor, as they were able to maintain their lead and hold off the Poets’ comeback effort.

cOUrTESY: cMS AThLETIcS

Lindsey cleary cM ’20 drives for a layup in the Athenas’ 55-62 overtime loss to redlands in the ScIAc women’s basketball championship Feb. 29.

CMS also enjoyed a balanced scoring attack in that contest, with nine different players putting up points on the board, including 13 from Cleary, 13 from Lauren Longo SC ’20 and 18 from Maezelle Millan CM ’21.

Despite the loss, the returning players are excited for next season, and believe that this season was an important transition year.

“It’s been my favorite season of basketball I’ve ever played. … I think that it’s been a really big learning year as well, as we

were obviously really successful,” Durgerian added.

On the other side of the bracket, Pomona-Pitzer (15-11, 10-6 SCIAC) and Redlands also went down to the wire in the semifinals, with the Bulldogs coming out victorious 5351.

The Bulldogs came out to a fivepoint lead after one period of play.

The Hens kept the game close, though, and going into the fourth, the Bulldogs’ lead was only two.

In the final minute with P-P down two, Renae Tamura PO ’21

split a pair of free throws to bring the game within one. The next possession, Downs also split a pair of free throws, keeping the Sagehens in the game, but P-P failed to convert on the last shot of the game.

Madison Quan PZ ’22 and Tamura led the Sagehens in scoring, finishing with 13 and 14, respectively. Quan also added four steals and six rebounds in the nail-biter.

The Hens suffered from a significant lack of rebounding, as the Bulldogs grabbed 46 rebounds to

P-P’s 34.

“They definitely outrebounded us, which hurt us a lot. … That was the biggest part, getting outrebounded hurt us with second chance points. It was close, and we were staying in it the whole time, and it kind of just came down to the end when we didn’t score on our last possession,” Emily Church PO ’23 said.

Nonetheless, Tamura was proud of the way the Sagehens fought.

“Honestly, I think that was probably the best team basketball we’ve played all season,” she said. “Obviously, it wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but the first thing I said was that I was just so proud of everyone because we were the fourth seed, they were the number one seed.

Even if we thought we could win, we weren’t expected to win.”

Neither CMS nor P-P received an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, so the SCIAC Tournament marks the end of their seasons.

However, the Sagehens expressed excitement for next year, as they won’t be losing any seniors to graduation.

“I don’t think we ever had a game this season where we reached our full, full potential, which is good because next season, we’re not losing any seniors,” Church said.

“We’re going to be hopefully better than where we left off.”

“I’m really, really excited, because after the Redlands game, yes, we were sad, but more so we were just ready to go for the next year,” Tamura added. “It really made us want to put in the work over the summer and in the off-season, and then come back really ready to win next year.”

5C athletes and coaches speak out about gender in coaching MARISA MESTICHELLA & ARIEL KIVELA While there are near equal numbers of male and female athletes at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer, the coaching staffs at both athletic departments skew heavily male, even among women’s sports.

More than half of women’s teams are coached by male head coaches, and 40 of the 74 coaches for women’s or coed sports are male.

Athletes report differing experiences with this dynamic. Some female athletes at CMS and P-P say they have struggled to communicate with and be understood by male coaches. Others say they’re comfortable with the dynamic and haven’t encountered problems.

And while some coaches say gender can impact their relationships with their athletes, others say they’ve been able to cultivate relationships with players regardless of gender.

Before Title IX, which said women’s teams should receive the same opportunities and funding as men’s teams, women held more than 90 percent of head coaching positions on women’s college teams, according to The New York Times.

After Title IX was enacted in 1972, however, money flew into women’s sports and created many more jobs — many of which went to men.

Today, only about 60 percent of women’s college teams are coached by men, while 97 percent of men’s college teams are coached by men, the Times reported.

According to the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, women face numerous barriers to pursuing college coaching careers, and are offered limited incentives and low pay.

Women’s health and body image Some female athletes told TSL that women’s health and body image issues can be especially difficult to address with male coaches.

“There’s something about body image that males cannot understand about females and the way that they might view themselves after being in the sport for a while,” said Helen Guo PO ’20, who runs cross-country and track and field for Pomona-Pitzer.

Guo, a three-time All-American, said that male coaches can struggle to address some aspects of being a female athlete.

“That [includes] losing your period, tracking your period, being aware of how you’re feeling and things like that that I don’t think a male coach would understand very much,” she said. “Or even if they understood, [they] wouldn’t fully know how to implement it because they haven’t been a female athlete.”

“In high school, I had a female coach, and she always seemed to understand me in a way that I never really appreciated until I went to college,” Guo added.

Kirk Reynolds, Guo’s head coach, recognized that some female athletes can feel uncomfortable talking to him about some topics.

“I have never found it uncomfortable,” he said, “but I’ve noticed that often some of the students have found it uncomfortable.”

“We want everybody to feel like they are able to connect with somebody on the coaching staff,” he added.

For some athletes, though, this

MArc rOD • ThE STUDENT LIFE

isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Addi Duvall CM ’22, who plays for CMS women’s water polo, said her coach Greg Lonzo “leaves [women’s health] up to the girls to take charge of their needs and isn’t interested in the details,” which she sees as a positive.

There’s something about body image that males cannot understand about females.

Helen Guo PO ’20

Advantages of female coaches Some female athletes also say female coaches have advantages when it comes to connecting with and supporting them on a variety of levels.

“I’ve noticed that with my prior and current female coaches, they pay more attention to the little things and know more about the female game,” said Madison Quan PZ ’22, who plays for the P-P women’s basketball team — one of only two Sagehen women’s teams with only female coaches.

“There is heightened respect for female athletes.”

P-P swimmer Katherine Lauerman PO ’20 said her female assistant coaches are able to better connect with athletes in some ways.

“The female assistant coaches … are often more in-tune with the emotional needs of [all] athletes than the male coaches,” she said.

A female athlete on the CMS track and field team, who requested to remain anonymous because she wanted to preserve a positive relationship with the coaching staff, said she feels like she can be the most open with the female coach with whom she works closely, rather than the male head coach.

“I find it easier to connect with her, partially because she is a woman, but also because she is more open to talk about injuries, life and often politics than our head coach,” she said.

Female coaches can also serve as important role models for their players.

“Having a female coaching staff gives me hope for the future of female sports in general,” Quan added. “They all inspire me to be the best version of myself on and off the court.”

CMS Athletic Director Erica Perkins Jasper, a longtime tennis player and former coach, said her female coaches also helped inspire her to pursue a career as a coach.

“It was powerful to have two strong women as mentors and role models in my sport, something I hadn’t experienced until college,” she said. “This played a big part in my desire to become a college coach after I finished my career as a student-athlete.”

When she was a coach herself, Jasper said she tried to continue this tradition.

“I took my job very seriously particularly when it came to serving as a role model for my student-athletes.” She wanted to show her athletes that she could “coach a successful [Division I] team and be a mom.”

“This was probably one of the great advantages being a female coach provided: I was able to have lots of meaningful conversations and create educational opportunities with our student-athletes on [gender in athletics, the workplace and life]” Jasper added.

Tucker Center research supports the idea that female coaches can serve as important mentors.

“Young women want and need strong, confident same-sex role models, who positively affect their self-perceptions ... and make it more likely they will go into coaching ... and stay in coaching,” according to the Center.

we need.”

CMS sprinter and jumper Grace Pratt CM ’21 said she “doesn’t notice it that much” that her head coach is a man.

And Lauerman said her head coach, Jean-Paul Gowdy, has been able to forge relationships with male and female athletes.

Gowdy “establishes a relationship of trust with most swimmers,” she said. “I believe that, in general, he balances his involvement well, which I believe is what allows us to have such a good team atmosphere.”

Makensey Druckman PZ ’21, who plays for P-P softball, which has a female head coach, said other factors in coaching can trump gender.

“I realized that it’s more than just the gender differences,” she said. “It’s more about their personality type and their coaching style that stands out to me more.”

Druckman said she usually doesn’t see significant differences between male and female coaches.

“I have seen female coaches just as strict and competitive as male coaches,” Druckman said.

“The thought of my head coach being female doesn’t faze me because the way she coaches is what I pay attention to.”

Having a female coaching staff gives me hope for the future of female sports in general.

Madison Quan PZ ’22

Not an issue for some Some female athletes said they haven’t had any issues communicating with or being understood by their male coaches.

“Having a male coach is more normal to me than having a female coach,” Duvall said. “[Lonzo] reminds us constantly that if we don’t feel comfortable talking with him about any academic, social or mental health problems, that he is a resource and can connect us with whatever

Coaches prioritize connections, performance Several coaches who spoke to TSL said they focus more on connecting with their athletes as individuals than on their gender.

“There are always some people that I don’t connect with quite as strongly,” Reynolds said. “And if there’s a way to have a coaching staff that includes a wide range of personalities, a wide range of

variables that can cover the needs of each individual, then that is really important to me. It’s not necessarily just gender-based” Emma DeLira, an assistant coach for the Sagehen women’s cross-country and track programs, agreed.

“For me, personally, it doesn’t matter about the gender that I’m coaching,” she said. “It’s about making those connections and treating each athlete as a person and individual … regardless of gender.”

Gowdy said he treats the men’s and women’s swim and dive teams as one.

“We train together. We compete together. We call each other PPSD, not PPWSD or PPMSD,” he said.

“I try not to start my day or to start practice thinking of two genders. I know that’s easy to say but the way we approach a team is there is no one size that fits all.”

John Goldhammer, the head CMS cross-country coach and an assistant track coach said that “a good coach is a good coach regardless of the gender.”

His men’s and women’s teams also practice together.

“We have a really good program with men and women combined,” he said. “We have a tendency to bring them together so they can work together and even have some fun with it.”

But some coaches also recognized that gender can sometimes play a role in players’ relationships with their coaches.

“I feel that they are more open to come up to me about [female-related issues],” DeLira said. “I think that I helped open the door for our female athletes to either approach me or whoever they feel comfortable with.”

Goldhammer also said “it can sometimes be difficult to have a feeling of where [female athletes] are coming from and what their expectations are.”

Gowdy added that he’s found having a female coach on staff can be helpful for connecting with both women and men.

“I am very intentional about having a female coach on staff,” Gowdy said. “There are even plenty of men that connect a little better with her, and also there are also plenty of women that connect a little bit better with me.”

SportS

MArch 6, 2020

PAGE 11

NCAA: Sagehens to travel to Atlanta for first round continued from page 1 “What we need to do is ... make sure we take care of the ball night in and night out,” Kelbert said.

“And we knew — we scouted them — we knew that they were gonna pressure us — they have a specific defense for that — so the biggest thing that we wanted to do was make sure that we were controlled in every single pass that we made, and we wanted to essentially make sure that we were taking care of the ball.”

The night before, P-P took down No. 4 Oxy 60-50 in a defensive battle that saw each team shooting only 32.1 percent from the field.

“We got a little stagnant moving on offense,” Jack Boyle PZ ’20 said. “A lot of times we just kind of waited for Micah, our point guard, to just do something. A lot of guys were just standing around. A little bit better ball movement would have been nice, especially at the end when it was getting close.”

Elan and Alex Preston PO ’21 led the Hens in scoring, putting up 17 points apiece. Preston also added 13 rebounds and provided a strong inside presence on the defensive end.

Coming off the bench, Brendan Mora PO ’23 grabbed 10 big rebounds, three offensive, in only 12

minutes of play.

Though P-P led by as much as 13 in the second half, a short run by the Tigers brought the game to within four points with six minutes remaining in regulation.

However, coming out of a timeout, the Sagehens halted Oxy’s run, and shot a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line in the final minute of the game to seal the deal.

The Hens also benefited from their huge size advantage, as they outrebounded Oxy 48-30 and converted off of several second-chance opportunities.

“Whenever they got to the rim, there were a lot of contested layups, which was huge. Offensively, too, whenever we got it in the post, good things happened, whether we were kicking it out or we were getting layups,” Boyle added.

In the other semifinal game, Redlands and No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (19-7, 11-5 SCIAC) went down to the wire, but the Bulldogs ultimately came out on top in nail-biting fashion 68-66.

The matchup between the Bulldogs and the Stags saw 11 lead changes, and neither team ever led by more than six.

“It was a very tough, very hardfought game,” Jeremy Horn CM ’20, who finished the game with 10 points and eight boards, said.

“Every time we play Redlands, they play super, super hard. …

It was close all the way through the game. … Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the stops we needed at the end of the game.”

With CMS trailing 63-68 with a minute left in the game, Miles President HM ’20 converted a three-point play to cut the deficit to two. On the next possession Redlands missed a three late in the shot clock, but came away with the offensive rebound, leaving the Stags with no choice but to foul.

However, the Bulldogs failed to close out the game, as they missed two free throws with 22 seconds remaining and gave CMS an opportunity to come back.

At the end of regulation, President was able to get off a clean shot, but narrowly missed the game-winning three-point attempt, finding back iron instead.

“We couldn’t get timely stops when we needed to,” Horn added. “When we did stop them, they also got offensive rebounds at very inopportune times.”

Despite the loss, Horn is proud

AMY BEST • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Adam rees PO ’20 gets dapped up after a free throw in the Sagehen’s 87-66 win over redlands in the ScIAc men’s basketball championships Feb. 29.

of the effort the Stags put into each game, especially on the defensive end.

“We weren’t always the most offensively talented team, but we always controlled what we can control,” he said. “So we always showed up and played incredibly hard. We always d’ed up. Obviously I’m not thrilled with how our season ended, but I’m proud of my team.”

P-P will next head to Atlanta to take on Centre College March 6 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, where they hope to “make a deep run,” Kelbert said.

The Sagehens will keep in

mind what they learned from last year’s second-round exit against Whitman as they enter the tournament for the second year in a row.

“Whenever you play a team at their home, especially in the NCAA Tournament, like we did with Whitman last year, it’s a whole different game,” Kelbert said. “You have a lot of people come to these games — you are definitely the outsider here. Everything that you’re doing really matters, so you have to be even more focused, you have to be even more detail-oriented, and really focusing on everything like that is gonna make it hopefully worthwhile for all of us.”

cOMMENTArY

So, what exactly is the purpose of Division III sports?

HARPER RUBIN

It’s pretty easy to guess why Alabama has a football team. Every Saturday that the Tide rolls onto SportsCenter, a treasure trove of money in the form of merchandise, sponsorships and much-coveted TV deals rolls in right along with it.

But we have a couple of football teams here at the 5Cs too, and there isn’t much money made from the free live streams of their games. So what exactly is the role of sports in Claremont?

As a member of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s soccer team, it’s a question I’ve asked myself frequently.

A page on the NCAA’s website helps answer that question. It outlines the Division III philosophy, which includes the principles of academic excellence, the ability to pursue non-athletic activities and an emphasis on the positive impact of athletics on the athletes.

Erica Jasper, CMS’ new athletic director, echoed these points.

“I think most of your [DIII] institutions have kind of come and openly said that we believe that athletics and competitive athletics are an integral part of the student experience,” Jasper said.

Athletics, despite their popularity, are often considered to be the antithesis of academics. But athletes say they also offer important life lessons.

“I think there’s tons of lessons you can tease out of sports,” said Ethan Kable CM ’20, a student-coach on the CMS men’s soccer team. “I don’t think that many parents sign their kids up for sports from a young age doing it saying, ‘Okay, I’m just going to breed my kid to go play professional sports.’ It’s because they realize that there’s a lot that can be

hUXLEYANN hUEFNEr • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Many 5c athletes credit their teammates and competition as their favorite part of the DIII sports experience. The cMS men’s waterpolo team proves this to be true.

learned out of it.”

But frankly, I may have gleaned all there is to learn about interpersonal relationships playing club soccer in elementary school.

That is not to say I don’t continue to grow through athletics at the college level, but somehow, these lessons don’t seem like the same ones my parents were thinking of when they signed me up to play rec league soccer.

Playing sports in college is important to both Kable and me for reasons that extend well beyond what we learn.

In fact, Kable’s mere presence highlights the importance of the social dimension of DIII sports.

After his sophomore year he was forced to medically retire, but returned as a coach, despite his many other academic and extra-

curricular commitments.

“Being involved with the soccer team and being involved with my friends and having that social aspect was kind of more important, and I also felt like it was something that you can’t really get at any other time in your life,” Kable said.

Chloe Hamer PZ ’21, a winger on the Pomona-Pitzer women’s soccer team, agreed that this is what she enjoys most about her team. But she’s also connected to her sport and driven by a desire to win.

“I’m also extremely competitive — I think most athletes are — you have to be competitive, so it’s just wanting to win, wanting to prove yourself,” she explained.

But for some 5C athletes, competition isn’t as readily available.

Kiubon Kokko CM ’21, a junior

Athletes of the Week Pomona-Pitzer Kevin Lo PZ ’22 San Francisco, CA Baseball Lo has been instrumental in P-P’s explosive offense, which has been scoring nearly seven runs per game to start the season. The infielder currently boasts an impressive .513 batting average and a .558 on-base percentage in nine games of play. In the Sagehens’ 13-2 trampling of Caltech, Lo batted in six runs, while also smacking a double, triple and scoring a run himself. In P-P’s most recent game against La Verne, which the Hens won 8-2, Lo went 3-5, batting in a runner as well. The Hens (6-4, 4-2 SCIAC) sit at second in the SCIAC, and will next host Rochester in a four-game series this weekend.

walk-on diver on the CMS swim and dive team, likes his sport. But in a field where only the top 18 members of the team are actually allowed to score in the conference championship meet, it’s been difficult for him to work his way into the lineup. He said diving is a way to stay fit while doing something he’s passionate about.

“I enjoy seeing myself get better,” Kokko said. “And it’s good to feel part of a group of people. But I wouldn’t say that it’s central to my identity or anything like that.

I definitely think it’s a large chunk [of who I am] but not a very important chunk of my time here.”

There are also many students on campus who don’t play sports at all, and only interact with the athletics program as spectators at games, if ever.

Weekend Calendar P-P

CMS

Friday, March 6 Men’s Golf MJGA Las Vegas Invitational

Friday, March 6 Men’s Tennis Pacific Coast Doubles championship

Women’s Water Polo vs. St. Francis & caltech & UcSB

Lindsey Cleary CM ’20 Kirkland, WA Women’s Basketball Cleary has been a powerful force on offense all four years for the Athenas and finished out her senior season with a bang.

She carried the team in their semi-final game of the SCIAC Tournament for the Athenas, finishing with 21 points and 17 rebounds while going 9-10 from the free throw line. Throughout her run with the Athenas, Cleary made an appearance in an astounding 99 games, of which she started 72. Additionally, in her senior season, she scored an average of 11.1 points per game. Cleary has made her mark on CMS women’s basketball and will be greatly missed next season.

Women’s Water Polo vs. USB & Sonoma St.

Softball vs. redlands

Women’s Tennis vs. cal Lutheran

Men’s Basketball NcAA DIII Tournament

Softball NFcA Leadoff classic @ Tucson, AZ

Saturday, March 7 Men’s & Women’s Track & Field Men’s Golf MJGA Las Vegas Invitational Women’s Lacrosse @ Occidental

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Ellie Reingold PZ ’21, a social neuroscience major at Pitzer College, said she enjoys having sports on campus, but is unsure whether their impacts are universally positive.

“Sometimes it’s a little bit elitist and exclusive because sports do mixers or throw specific parties or pre-games that are exclusive to the sports involved,” she said.

Annabel Walsh SC ’21 also expressed skepticism about some aspects of sports culture.

“People love to complain about their sports, but it’s like, ‘you’re signing up for it,’” she said. “You literally have the choice to do it or not.”

That could easily have been leveled at me by any number of friends or acquaintances. I’ve complained many times this year about 7 a.m.

Wednesday lifts.

“It brings me happiness, and the sad parts or the upsetting parts make the good parts even better,” Hamer said, about the difficulties that come with being a student-athlete.

She said her connection to her sport might be difficult to understand for non-athletes.

“It’s such a huge part of your identity that you just get lost in it kind of, and sometimes, it sucks if you have a bad game, taking that so harshly,” Hamer said. “It might seem trivial to some people, but for some reason … it’s just this weird connection to your sport.”

I love the sport that I play, and I wouldn’t want to be at school without it. But there are undeniable parts of it that may limit my experience as well. I can only conclude that things that keep me waking up for 7 a.m. lifts must outweigh the tiredness they cause me or the pain of losing or not playing well. They always have up until now.

Baseball vs. rochester Women’s Water Polo vs. Penn State Behrend & cal Baptist

Saturday, March 7 Men’s & Women’s Track & Field ScIAc Multi-Dual #1 @ Whittier Men’s Tennis Pacific Coast Doubles championship Women’s Water Polo vs. cal Baptist Baseball @ redlands

Softball @ redlands

Women’s Water Polo vs. Villanova

Sunday, March 8 Women’s Tennis vs. colorado State

Women’s Lacrosse @ redlands

Baseball vs. rochester

Sunday, March 8 Women’s Tennis vs. Army West Point Baseball vs. Whitman Women’s Tennis vs. Swarthmore

SportS

PAGE 12

MArch 6, 2020

president, Stags’ cyber-security expert, crosses 1,000-pt mark

AMY BEST • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Left: Miles President HM ’20 is the first Harvey Mudd student-athlete since 1967 to score 1,000 points during their college basketball career. Right: Miles President HM ’20 passes to a teammate in overtime of the 2019 SCIAC Semifinals, which they lost to Occidental by only two points.

GABBY HERZIG Just like his NBA role model, Kawhi Leonard, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps guard Miles President HM ’20 is a man of few words but many points.

Just over two weeks ago, President stepped onto the court for the Stags’ Feb. 19 battle against Redlands with 988 personal career points. In just the first half, the senior forward reached the coveted 1,000-point mark. CMS went on to defeat Redlands 82-80, with President scoring 23 points.

“During the moment, it doesn’t really mean anything, because, you know, you’re trying to win a basketball game,” President said.

“But after, it was pretty cool.”

The Chino Hills native is the

first Harvey Mudd student-athlete to achieve the 1,000-point milestone since Dick Barton HM ’67 passed it in 1967. Michael Scarlett CM ’18, who accompanied President in the backcourt for two seasons, was the most recent Stag to accomplish this feat, in 2018.

“We always have a great group of guys,” President said of his experience playing four years with the Stags. “We’re really close. I’ve definitely been on teams where that’s not the case, so it’s cool to have people that you’re actually friends with on the team.”

CMS head coach Ken Scalmanini praised President’s contributions to the team during his four seasons.

“Miles has been a tremendous two-way player for the Stags,” he said. “He has been a four-year starter for us and helped the Stags win two SCIAC championships and two NCAA Tournament wins in his career.”

President, whose other hobbies include Scrabble and Texas Hold ’Em, has been playing basketball for as long as he can remember. His father, who played in college at UC Riverside, introduced him to the game at a very young age.

“I have had numerous coaches help me improve my skills throughout my career, first and foremost being my dad,” President said. “The love and support I have gotten from him and

my mom has been invaluable.”

As a Harvey Mudd computer science major, President’s academic and athletic experience has been different than most collegiate student-athletes.

“It’s pretty tough, especially during the first three semesters of [Harvey Mudd’s core curriculum], it gets really busy,” he said. “But being able to manage time is a valuable skill.”

Although it has not always been easy for him to balance basketball and such a rigorous academic load, President has excelled in both areas.

Just after reaching 1,000 points, the senior earned a spot on the Academic All-District 8 team from the College Sports Information Directors of Amer-

ica for his impressive 3.94 GPA. President is now up for CoSIDA Academic All-American honors, and would be the third player in CMS history to receive the award.

President’s basketball career may be coming to an end, but he has much to look forward to post-graduation. Next year, he’ll be working for Google in its cybersecurity division.

“Recently, about a year ago, I got into security,” said President.

“So I did a security internship [at Google] this past summer, and I really enjoyed it, so I’m going to go back to security and privacy this summer.”

Whether it is cyber defense or man-to-man defense, you can always count on President to get the job done.

Former Stag Fahey takes helm of soccer team HUGO WARD Following head coach Matt Edwards’ abrupt departure from the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s soccer team, the Stags have turned to a familiar face to man the program — former CMS goalkeeper and assistant coach Ryan Fahey CM ’10.

While playing for the Stags, Fahey earned First-Team All-SCIAC and Third-Team National Soccer Coaches Association of America All-Far West selection. Following graduation, he joined the CMS staff as its assistant coach for three years.

Fahey then left CMS, spending the last seven years coaching under Chad Riley at both Dartmouth and Notre Dame. The duo spent their first five years together at Dartmouth, before Riley brought Fahey with him when he was named the head coach of the Fighting Irish.

Fahey will be taking over a strong CMS team which Edwards led to a series of successes — including back-to-back SCIAC regular season titles.

Over the past two years, CMS won 31, drew six and lost only three games. This past season, the Stags advanced to the NCAA Round of 16 for the first time since 1985, winning a regional title in a pair of 2-0 wins over Texas Lutheran and Trinity University.

Edwards’ departure came as a shock to the team, according to Will Birchard CM ’21.

“No one was anticipating him stepping down and it did shock us but with his track record, we know he will move on to great success because he is a fantastic coach,” Birchard said.

However, Birchard said the team is very excited for Fahey becoming head coach.

“I think what excites us most about Fahey is the ability to make the program what we think it can be, and that is a national contender every single year.”

Fahey said his time playing and coaching at CMS was instrumental in his decision to return.

“Returning to CMS was almost a no-brainer for my family and I,” Fahey said. “I always felt very supported as a student, but also as a young coach. I feel

extremely fortunate to be able to return to the Claremont community.”

He added that CMS’ unique blend of strong academics and athletics enticed him to make his way back to Claremont.

“I want to be in an environment where I feel I can make the most educational impact. CMS is a place where student-athletes can and are encouraged to strive for excellence both academically and athletically,” he said. “I believe striving for excellence in both areas is where a lot of the educational experience is created, so as someone who sees themselves as an educator, returning to CMS was a great opportunity. ” Leaving CMS originally wasn’t easy, but Fahey said it gave him a chance “to grow and learn ... and at that time in my career, that was the most important thing for my personal development.”

Fahey helped Dartmouth to four straight Ivy League Championships and NCAA Tournament bids from 2014-17. The run included a program record for most conference wins over a four-year period.

Success followed Fahey at Notre Dame. He helped lead them to two NCAA bids in two years and the program’s fourth NCAA Quarterfinals appearance in 2018.

“Leaving Notre Dame was bittersweet because I am leaving some really good friends and colleagues, but the opportunity to return to CMS was too great,” Fahey said.

Fahey said he looks forward to bringing his Division I success and experience to CMS, but stressed that Dartmouth and Notre Dame are not that different from CMS. “All three are great schools, where the soccer teams have had a history of success,” he said. “So for me, I’m hoping to be able to continue creating an environment where student-athletes learn from the experience of challenging themselves to be the best student they can be and the best soccer player they can be.”

The CMS job will also be Fahey’s first head coaching position.

“I think more than anything, I am excited,” he said. “I believe as a head coach, you have the greatest impact on your students.”

As for the team’s message to Fahey?

“I would tell him that we are hungry and want to do everything we can to win,” Birchard said.