Vol. CXXXV No. 16

Community members release statements about Haifa study abroad program

ANNABELLE INK & ANSLEY WASHBURN

On Thursday, March 7, the Pitzer College Council discussed a resolution to suspend the college’s direct enrollment study abroad program with the University of Haifa in Israel. At the meeting, the council announced that they would follow procedure and take their official vote on the issue in their next meeting on April 11.

This discussion follows a 34:1 vote by the Pitzer Senate to suspend the program last month, although community members have been calling to suspend the Haifa study abroad program for years.

In 2019, the students and faculty members that made up the College Council voted 67:28 in favor of suspending the program, becoming the first higher education institution to pass such a motion. However, hours

after it passed, former Pitzer President Melvin Oliver vetoed the motion.

Thursday’s meeting furthered the dialogue on this potential suspension. The meeting was open to all members of the Pitzer community; approximately 100 voting members and a few dozen other individuals attended.

The day before the meeting, Richard Ampah PZ ’25, Pitzer Senate vice president of external affairs, sent out an email warning of a potential overflow and predicting that the meeting would be “particularly well-attended.” Despite all attendees fitting comfortably on Thursday, this warning did not come unprompted, as campus buzz around the issue has generated a recent upswing in attention in anticipation of the vote.

On Wednesday, March 6, Cla-

remont Students for Justice in Palestine hosted a vigil in recognition of what their Instagram called the “150[th day] of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.” At 4 p.m., approximately 30 students gathered in front of Pitzer’s Clock Tower to listen to organizers lead them in Muslim, Jewish and Christian prayers and to help build what one organizer called a “permanent vigil.”

The organizer noted that they expect attempts by administration to take down the vigil, which consists of flowers, teddy bears and notes dedicated to children who had died in Palestine since Oct. 7.

They then added that they would continue to fight the administration by keeping the vigil and pressuring them to both suspend the Haifa program and divest from compa-

Students participate in a die-in, delay inauguration of Harvey Mudd President

NITYA GUPTA

On Friday, March 1, dozens of students gathered in front of Pomona College’s Big Bridges Auditorium to delay the inauguration ceremony of Harvey Mudd College President Harriet B. Nembhard with a die-in demonstration, demanding that Pomona divest from the “apartheid system within the state of Israel.” This is the second die-in at Pomona this academic year, being spurred by the results of last month’s Associated Students of Pomona College‘s (ASPC) referendum. The referendum, which asked students whether Pomona should disclose their investments and cut ties with companies and universities connected to the “apartheid system within

the state of Israel,” demonstrated significant student support for both disclosure and divestment.

At the die-in, which started around 9 a.m., students covered in white sheets laid on the ground while organizers outlined them in red paint to symbolize the number of people killed by Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza since Oct. 7, which has surpassed 30,000.

Through a speaker, organizers of the event played a recording of the names of Palestinian children under the age of two who had been killed by Israeli forces in the months since the Hamas-led ambush. Two organizers addressed the crowd that had gathered for the inauguration.

“This is a funeral,” they said. “Please be quiet and respect the martyred. They are all children under the See DIE-IN on page 2

Harvey Mudd College inaugurates Dr. Harriet B. Nembhard as its sixth president

Harvey Mudd College President Dr. Harriet B. Nembhard CM ’87 was officially inaugurated on Friday, March 1, making her the sixth president of the college and the first president in Mudd’s history to have graduated from a member institution of the 5Cs.

The ceremony was initially set to be held at Pomona College’s Big Bridges Auditorium, but moved online due to a student-led die-in demonstration held outside. Organizers of the die-in event explained it was to both mourn the Palestinian lives lost from Israel’s ongoing attack on Gaza and to ask for Pomona to divest from companies and cut ties with universities in or associated with Israel. As a result, the ceremony was live-streamed on YouTube and screened at Harvey Mudd’s Galileo Hall.

Nembhard began her tenure as president on July 1, 2023, succeeding previous President Maria Klawe, who stepped down on June 30, 2023, after 17 years of leading the college.

Nembhard is an alum of Claremont McKenna College, where

she studied management-engineering before graduating in 1990 and going on to earn a masters in industrial engineering at Arizona State University. Then, in 1994, she obtained her PhD in industrial and operations engineering at the University of Michigan.

In addition to being an accomplished academic, Nembhard has administrative university experience as well. Before accepting the role as Mudd’s president, Nembhard was Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa. In this role, she was in charge of the academic programs and institutes that supported 283 graduate students and 1,802 undergraduate students while managing a $100 million budget.

Friday’s inauguration began with Mudd’s Chair of the Board of Trustees James C. Bean HM ’77 welcoming 5C staff, faculty and students, along with several Claremont city representatives and university delegates from across the country. Following this, several people extended their greetings to Nembhard, including Susan Martonosi, the chair of the faculty and pro-

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fessor of mathematics at Mudd.

“As we stand on the precipice of our future, we are fortunate to have in President Harriet B. Nembhard a leader who is prepared to leverage Harvey Mudd College’s fine tradition of innovation to propel us forward,” Mar-

tonosi said. “To help us achieve our mission and our potential, we, the faculty, stand with you to shape the next chapter of Harvey Mudd.”

After this, Kayleah Tsai HM

’24, the president of the Associated Students of Harvey Mudd Col-

Hosts:

lege (ASHMC) and Henry Hammer HM ’24, the senate chair of ASHMC, made a speech reflecting on their experiences with President Nembhard.

“She is a kind leader who really takes the time to stop and acknowledge everyone on campus, making them feel valued,“ Tsai said. “From the meetings where she commented on our matching Converse shoes, to the club fair where she stopped at various student booths, President Harriet’s warm smile and laughter brought light to others’ lives.”

Hammer recounted some personal anecdotes, mentioning how Nembhard’s guidance and advice have made her a role model at Mudd.

“She has taught us the difference between choosing the correct option and the right option and how to always lead with kindness and empathy,” Hammer said. “We have taken many of her words to heart and continue to look to her as a role model for excellent leadership.”

Laura Larson, the vice chair of the Board of Trustees and a mem-

See NEMBHARD on page 3

cOURTESY: hARVEY MUDD cOLLEGE

NITYA GUPTA

STELLA FAVARO • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Following heightened community tensions, the Pitzer college council met Thursday to discuss suspending their study abroad program with the University of haifa. The vote will take place April 11.

See HAIFA on page 2

NITYA GUPTA • ThE STUDENT LIFE

On Mar. 1, a die-in demonstration demands divestment from “the apartheid system within the state of Israel” delayed the inauguration ceremony of harvey Mudd college President harriet B. Nembhard.

On March 1, harvey Mudd college President harriet B. Nembhard cM ’87 was officially inaugurated in a ceremony at Pomona’s Big Bridges Auditorium.

Nova Fest survivor and member of IDF speak at Pomona College about personal accounts of Oct. 7 attack

JUNE HSU

On Thursday, Feb. 29, Haverim

Claremont and Claremont Hillel hosted Avigail Olman, a member of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Sagi Gabay, a survivor of the Oct. 7 attack on Nova Fest, to speak on their experiences of and since the Hamas-led ambush.

The talk, open to all 7C students and faculty, was titled “Stories of Survival and Resilience” and took place in the Argue Auditorium at Pomona College.

According to Ayelet Kleinerman PO ’24, founder and president of Haverim, the event aligned with Hillel and Haverim’s broader goal to create inclusive spaces for Jewish voices on campus.

“Both Hillel and Haverim provide a space, a community, and a sense for students that they are not alone by providing education [and] leadership skills, catering for students’ interests, celebrating life and Jewish culture, history, and practice, building solidarity, and simply [allowing students to] have fun together,” Kleinerman said in an email to TSL.

In order to put on the event, Claremont Haverim and Claremont Hillel partnered with Stand With Us, a nonprofit organization that, according to their website, is focused on “support[ing] Israel and fight[ing] antisemitism.”

At Thursday’s talk, Rotem Bankel, director of Israeli student programs at Stand With Us, welcomed the audience and introduced the speakers.

Olman began her talk by talking about her experience growing up in Israel in a military family. Following in the footsteps of her father, who served in the IDF, Olman joined and became the first girl in her community to become a combat soldier.

After completing her compulsory service, she was originally put on a reserve unit and commissioned to restart duty Oct. 8. However, after learning about the attacks, Olman decided to join the Search and Rescue Unit a day early on Oct. 7. Olman reported to duty in northern Israel and provided rescue services and evacuations to those in need. She recalled the general confusion and fear she witnessed around Israel as the attacks happened.

“I remember just pure panic, I didn’t know what was going on,” Olman said. “No one knew what was going to happen.”

Olman explained the role the IDF played in helping victims in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.

“One of the main goals of the IDF … was to come and give them faith and security that we were there to protect them no matter what cost,” she said.

She concluded by discussing the war in northern Israel and the IDF’s commitment to sending troops and protecting citizens on all fronts. Olman then gave the floor to Gabay, who introduced himself before recounting the normalcy of his day celebrating at Nova Fest, an open-air music festival in southern Israel, moments before the attack.

He recalled briefly exiting the festival around 6:30 a.m. out to the parking lot with some friends before noticing something in the sky.

“I was looking to the sky and seeing one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen and then I saw splashes in the sky and didn’t understand what I was seeing until I understood,” Gabay said. “It was rockets.”

Though Gabay explained that this was not necessarily an unusual sight in Israel, he decided

to leave with his ex-girlfriend. As they drove away, Gabay remembered noticing a car full of bullet holes pass them, prompting them to seek safety in a nearby bomb shelter.

They left the shelter soon after, although Gabay noted that many people did not. He played a video clip taken from a car’s dash cam outside the same shelter showing Hamas gunmen firing shots at Israeli citizens and throwing grenades into the shelter, explaining that the majority of people who stayed inside were killed or kidnapped.

Emilio Bankier PO ’27, a student leader at Claremont Hillel and director of public relations at Haverim, noted this video as being the moment that stood out to him the most from the talk.

“That’s something very powerful and especially when you realize that the person standing there in front of you would not be there had he not driven off like five minutes earlier,” Bankier said.

After driving away, Gabay and his ex-girlfriend abandoned their vehicle and began their journey on foot, running through open fields.

Later finding his car destroyed, he attributed his earlier decision to a gut instinct he had to flee.

“Everyone was confused, everyone was shocked, everyone was scared,” he said. “I think it was my luck that my body understood what was happening.”

Though Gabay noted that all of his closest friends survived, the Oct. 7 attack killed 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250 people, the majority of them citizens. Reflecting on this violence, he emphasized his desire for safety and normalcy for the people in Israel.

“My message is that no moms need to cry when their sons or

girls go to a party,” he said. “We all just want to live peacefully and enjoy life without being in the massacre.”

Bankier expressed the importance of having Olman and Gabay tell their stories at the 5Cs.

“I think it’s very important that Israelis speak on campus so that they’re humanized,” Bankier said. “I think a lot of what goes on on campus dehumanizes Israelis and it’s nice to put a face to the idea and to hear from them and their experiences of Oct. 7.” Kleinerman echoed Bankier’s sentiment about the importance of hearing personal stories from Israelis.

“In a reality where Jews, Zionists and Israelis are dehumanized to alarmingly violent levels, it is important to remind the community that those people are first and foremost humans, which was the goal of this event,” Kleinerman said in an email to TSL. “There is no better way to learn about the Oct. 7th impact on Israelis [than] through their lived experiences.”

Bankier also expressed the importance of garnering inclusive discussion and listening to others regarding topics such as this one.

“We’re all human and trying to deny that isn’t going to get anyone anywhere and solutions don’t come from thin air and they don’t come from violence and they don’t come from shutting anybody down,” Bankier said. “They come from sitting down at a table and talking to someone and you can’t do that if you refuse to give a face to that person sitting down at the other end of the table.”

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age of two.”

Meanwhile, those who had gathered for Nembhard’s inauguration ceremony were informed that the event would still proceed in the auditorium, but that no audience would be allowed. Instead, the event would be live-streamed on YouTube, with a screening arranged at Harvey Mudd’s Galileo Hall.

At the protest, several staff members and event attendees could be observed stepping around the students and filming them with their phones while entering the auditorium.

Solomon Cooke HM ’25, a bystander at the die-in who had originally come for the inauguration, expressed his appreciation for the symbolism of the protest.

“I thought that the symbolism of the academics walking by in their gigantic and absurd dresses and gowns while people were lying, protesting for dead children in front of them, was very powerful,“ he said. “That was something I will probably never forget seeing.”

James Nicholson HM ’24, another bystander, expressed his disapproval of this protest.

“I would not have blocked the inauguration of [Mudd’s] President,“ Nicholson said. “I understand they want to make things about the war, they want to draw attention to it. I just think there are better ways to do that.” Nicholson further argued that many of the people involved in recent protests did not appear to be thoroughly informed about the relevant historical context.

“I think a lot of these people who are protesting are maybe uninformed about the issues,” he said. “There are plenty of other wars going on right now. And there have always been, and it is interesting to me that this is the one war that people choose to protest so vehemently, it’s the war going on with the only Jewish state in the world.”

Despite the conflicting views of students and community members, organizing in support of Palestinian solidarity has continued on campus, including a vigil that was held on Wednesday, March 6 by Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine.

The continuing action on campus was punctuated by a recording played by organizers at the die-in.

“There will be no business as usual until senseless [Pomona President Gabrielle] Starr and her administrative accomplices listen to their students, who overwhelmingly support Pomona’s divestment, disclosure and an academic boycott,” the recording said.

HAIFA: 5Cs prepare for vote on study abroad program

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nies tied to Israel.

“We will keep building this vigil on the clocktower until they understand, firstly, that we should not have an institutional tie with Israel, which is the Haifa program, and secondly, [they] divest completely from an apartheid state,” the organizer said.

A week prior, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, TSL received a statement from Claremont McKenna College (CMC) Professor of Mathematics Lenny Fukshansky that expressed his and dozens of other faculty members’ opposition to the proposed suspension of the Haifa study abroad program and condemned the recent results of the Associated Students of Pomona College’s (ASPC) referendum.

The statement, titled “Promoting Learning, Rejecting Division: Claremont Faculty Against Academic Boycott,” had a total of 38 faculty member signatures. A majority of support came from CMC professors, representing 26 of the signatures. Following behind CMC, Scripps College had six signatures, Pitzer and Pomona College each contributed two and Keck Graduate Institute and Claremont Graduate University had one signature each. No one from Harvey Mudd College signed the statement.

Originally, the letter was drafted in collaboration between a small group of faculty members before being sent to colleagues whom Fukshansky said he knew personally and thought would be interested in signing it. In an interview with TSL, Fukshansky also noted that several individuals expressed support for the letter but ultimately refused to sign it for fear of backlash.

“There were a certain number of

people who said that, while they do agree with the statement of the letter, they did not feel comfortable signing it because of, I guess, potential consequences,” Fukshansky said. “To me, it sounded like people are afraid of possible intimidation.”

The statement began by expressing some professors’ opposition to the suspension of the Haifa program, stating that the institution has a diverse array of students and viewpoints.

“The University of Haifa is among the most multicultural campuses in the world,” the statement read. “Its professors express a wide spectrum of opinion on Israel and Zionism. No college committed to promoting inquiry, dialogue and debate should refuse to send their students to the University of Haifa.”

The statement stood in support of President Gabrielle Starr’s Feb. 16 email to the Pomona community in which she opposed ASPC’s hosting of the referendum and suggested that targeting Israel could have antisemitic implications. Similarly, the Feb. 28 statement criticized the referendum’s focus on Israel, noting the historic vilification of Jewish people.

“As Pomona President Starr’s letter notes, branding Israel as the world’s only pariah state is troubling because of a long history of treating Jews as a singular threat to human progress and flourishing,” the statement read.

The statement also argued that, while “there is a spectrum of reasonable disagreement on the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” recent calls to suspend the study abroad program at the University of Haifa and to cease academic and economic relations with Israeli

institutions did not recognize this spectrum.

“[These initiatives] are part of the broader Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is opposed to any relations with Israel, its people, its institutions, and its supporters,” the statement read. “We fear that the intellectual retreat and calcification BDS encourages would make it harder for all of us to engage and understand both Israel and its Palestinian neighbors.”

In the interview, Fukshansky elaborated his aversion to boycotts specifically.

“I am fairly pro-Israel in this situation and I know a number of people who also are,” he said. “For us, seeing boycott measures or calls for boycott measures feels very divisive. I can think of few things that are more illiberal than a boycott, because a boycott shuts down a conservation before it gets started.”

Several days after the faculty statement was received by TSL, California Scholars for Academic Freedom released a letter to the Pitzer community on March 1 endorsing the suspension of the study abroad program.

In the letter, authors highlighted what they referred to as the “denial of Palestinian freedom,” pointing towards the Israeli universities awarding academic credits for military service in Gaza and the destruction of every educational institution in Gaza.

“Even with this, some tell us that suspending institutional relations with Israeli universities crosses a ‘red line,’” the letter read. “This is a baleful case of being more concerned to oppose non-violent forms of resistance to oppression than to

oppose the most violent forms of oppression.”

The letter also disputed the argument that a suspension of the study abroad program with the University of Haifa would restrict academic freedom, pointing out that it would not prevent scholarly communication between faculty at Pitzer and faculty at Israeli universities. It also explained that a suspension would not restrict Israeli students from enrolling at Pitzer, nor would it restrict Pitzer students as individuals from studying at Israeli universities.

“Put simply, it interferes with no one’s academic freedom,” the letter read. “Very differently, it ends a privileged status Pitzer has afforded the University of Haifa. The scandal of the motion passed by the Student Senate is not that it limits academic freedom but, very differently, that it would put Pitzer as an institution on public records supporting Palestinian freedom and equality.”

The Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Rabbinical Council expressed similar sentiments of support for the suspension in a March 7 letter to the Pitzer community. The letter began by detailing the role Israeli universities have played in “the ongoing, unspeakable violence unfolding in Israel-Palestine.”

“It is important to note that every major Israeli university is a government institution that is intimately tied to the Israeli military, furnishing it with scientific, geographic, demographic and other forms of research that directly supports Israel’s human rights abuse of Palestinians,” it read.

“It is also worth noting that the Israeli military has destroyed every university in Gaza in its current assault.”

The Rabbinical Council’s letter

then expressed support for the suspension of the study abroad program with the University of Haifa.

“Suspending institutional ties with Israeli universities is a powerful and meaningful action that Palestinians have long been asking of their allies,” it read. “The suspension of institutional ties with Israeli universities is an example of a non-violent act of resistance to Israeli oppression that all people of conscience should appreciate and support.”

The authors then argued against the idea that supporting the suspension is antisemitic.

“We know there will inevitably be those who accuse those who advocate these such acts of ‘antisemitism,’” the letter read. “We reject this slanderous and dangerous canard. There is nothing antisemitic about standing up for the liberation of the oppressed — in fact, it is a sacred core value of Jewish tradition. Indeed, in a time of rising antisemitism, racism and systemic bigotry, such accusations do no favors to the Jewish people — or any other group of people who have historically been targeted for persecution.”

Fukshansky disagreed with this idea.

“In holding up one country — which happens to be defined as being the only Jewish state in the world — to different standards, I’m sorry to say, that’s antisemitism,” he said.

He expressed his hopes for more open conversations in the future.

“I’m hoping for an environment where, instead of screaming past each other, we can engage in actual peaceful and meaningful dialogue,” he said. “Perhaps it can lead to something, but at the very least it will lead to all of us feeling more comfortable and less intimidated.”

Overcoming the stigma: Claremont Colleges host events for National Eating Disorder Awareness Week

AMEYA TELI & YAHJAIRI CASTILLON

CW: Disordered eating and mental health

From Feb. 26 to Feb. 29, the Claremont Colleges Eating Disorder Task Force hosted a series of 5C events for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (EDAW), a nationally recognized event aiming to educate about disordered eating.

Whitney Tawney, a registered dietician nutritionist who specializes in eating disorders and intuitive eating at the Claremont Colleges, was the main organizer of the events. She explained that their purpose was to destigmatize and raise awareness about eating disorders on campus.

“Typically, people feel a lot of guilt and shame when it comes to eating disorders and [they don’t] talk about it and feel like they can’t necessarily go get help,” Tawney said. “The more we talk about it, hopefully, [the] more people [will] feel comfortable enough to get help and to get support for what they’re struggling with.”

The events began on Monday, Feb. 26 with an “Eating Disorder Recovery Era” bracelet making booth stationed outside of the Hub at Claremont McKenna College. Students were given materials to make bracelets with inspirational messages intended to help them through recovery.

Events continued on Tuesday, Feb. 27 with an “Eating Disorder Lunch and Learn” at Harvey Mudd College’s Shanahan Center. There, students could enjoy a free lunch while listening to a talk on eating disorders by Mejken Hernandez,

director of regional outreach at Alsana and Robyn Caruso, founder and clinical director of AlignEd. Both Alsana and AlignEd are organizations which assist individuals through their recovery from eating disorders.

During the talk, Hernandez and Carusoe explained that eating disorders can impact anyone, regardless of their physical appearance. They emphasized that all individuals struggling with these disorders deserve help and noted that many times people in larger bodies are neglected the support they need.

“Eating disorders come in all different shapes and sizes and we really can’t tell [from the outside] someone who’s struggling from an eating disorder,” Tawney said, reflecting on Tuesday’s talk.

Wednesday, Feb. 28 kicked off with an athlete-focused event called “Performance Plate Workshop” in which Tawney taught students about nutrition. The event was organized in cooperation with The Hidden Opponent, a national nonprofit group that advocates and raises awareness for student-athletes’ mental health.

Tessa Stewart PO ’24 and Kat Lin PZ ’24, two student athletes on the Pomona-Pitzer lacrosse team, are involved in The Hidden Opponent and helped organize the Performance Plate Workshop. Initially, the two had planned on leading the workshop exclusively for student-athletes to talk about nutrition. However, Tawney helped the two incorporate it into the EDAW events and opened it up for all students.

“When we were first planning this, it wasn’t really going to be

that eating disorder focused, but I actually am glad that [Tawney] made that connection,” Stewart said. “I think it was helpful for me to see that because you sometimes forget that [athletics and eating disorders] are pretty connected.”

Stewart noted that many female athletes struggle with their body image. She said that Wednesday’s workshop, as well as the rest of the week’s events, sought to encourage a dialogue about these struggles.

“Diet culture is always sending us a very strong message that, especially as female athletes, we can’t get too big … [or] we can’t be too strong,” Stewart said. “We have to fit this ideal body type body image. The only way … to combat those feelings is sometimes to say them out loud and admit that you’re struggling with them.”

Later in the day, there was a therapist-led body grief group, which Tawney explained was meant to help students connect over difficulties they have faced in accepting their bodies.

“[The event was] to help students find community in the struggles that they may face from grieving over their bodies, over a lifetime of maybe wishing [they] were in a smaller body,” Tawney said. “Specifically, when we’re in an eating disorder and we’re having our bodies change, that can be really sad and uncomfortable.”

As a conclusion to the week’s events, a “Southern Smash” was held on Feb. 29 on the Bowling Green Lawn at Scripps College. At the event, students were invited to destroy weight scales.

“We [smashed] scales to signify

that we are more than a number,” Tawney said. “And we’re kind of smashing eating disorders, diet culture, weight stigma and fat phobia.”

Reflecting on the week’s events, Lin suggested that they encouraged students to talk about eating disorders and to work together towards change. “[Eating disorders] are largely a mental health issue as well as a physical one,” Lin said. “It’s very stigmatized and people don’t want to talk about it openly. I think spotlighting it through events is helpful because it’ll really get people talking about it. But

Is love blind? 5C sophomores search for love at the 2026 Dating Game

KAHANI MALHOTRA & JULIA PARSA

Sophomores from across the 5Cs found love — or tried to — in front of an audience of over 250 people in the class of 2026’s Dating Game on Friday, March 1. Pioneered by the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College (ASCMC) Sophomore Class Cabinet last semester, this semester’s game was hosted in collaboration with all of the 5C sophomore cabinets.

At 8:15 p.m., after hundreds of students found their seats in a crowded Pickford Auditorium at CMC, ASCMC Vice President Chloe Ray CM ’26 welcomed everyone to the event and explained the game’s rules.

Prior to Friday’s event, students were able to sign up as either question-askers or contestants in the game. During the game, the question-asker, a student searching for love, would be called up and blindfolded when it was their turn.

They would then sit on one side of a whiteboard and ask several questions of their own design to four or five students sitting on the other side, attempting to determine which they were most compatible with without physically seeing them. Each student held a sign declaring the name of their college.

Deniz Bajin PO ’26, a contestant in one of the five rounds of the game, said she was initially nervous about the prospect of a blind matching game. “When it comes to dating, I trust my looks more than my personality,” Bajin said. “I wasn’t sure if I could get someone’s attention without them seeing me. I had never participated in a game onstage, [so] seeing people rooting for me was the best feeling ever.”

At the end of the round, the question-asker would declare their chosen contestant and the matched couple would finally meet face-to-face.

Ray emphasized that one of the key ground rules for the audience was to maintain contestants’ anonymity.

“Don’t yell your friend’s name because that ruins it,” Ray said. “[The question-asker is] not supposed to

know who it is, so don’t cheer for your friends’ names ahead of time.”

After the announcement, the game’s host Hannah Conte CM ’26 was welcomed on stage to wild cheering.

“I was really excited about seeing all the different people from all the different schools,” Conte said. “I thought our class cabinet did a really good job organizing. And I was really excited about the turnout, I thought it was great.”

Conte also hosted last semester’s Dating Game, in which only CMC sophomores were allowed to participate. This semester, however, ASCMC wanted to include more students. According to CMC’s Sophomore Class President Ryu Nakase CM ’26, this semester’s game also sought to include a wider variety of relationships.

“We want to be inclusive,” Nakase said. “So it’s not just heterosexual relationships and people

that are interested in that kind of relationship [in the game]. We’re also trying to be a lot more inclusive and diverse.”

The sign-up form asked participants for their name, school, gender and sexual preferences — if they were comfortable providing that information — to build the different rotations of question-askers and contestants. CMC took the lead in creating the form and setting up the event while asking the other 5C class presidents to encourage their sophomores to sign up.

“We did a lot of the logistics, whether it was creating the posters, the sign-up sheets and making sure the match-ups flowed very well,” Nakase said. “CMC specifically took on a heavier role in organizing this 5C event.”

Questions ranged from inquiries about favorite fictional characters to queries about preferences in the bedroom. Contestants had equally

creative answers: One sophomore did the splits on stage while another sported a fake Russian accent for the entirety of their round.

“The game wasn’t real, people were performing,” Bajin said. “That made it more fun.”

While the game brought a pair together at the end of each round, contestants too, had an opportunity to bond with each other while on stage, getting to know other sophomores from across the 5Cs.

“My good friend contestant number three, Owen Keiser, was not only beautiful and sexy and funny, but he was also very charming,” Rohit Iyer CM ’26 said, reflecting on his and Keiser’s time together as contestants.

According to Ray, this opportunity for sophomores to make connections across the 5Cs, while also making the game itself less predictable, is a major reason why ASCMC decided to host the dating game again.

“The biggest issue [last semester was] people being able to identify each other super easily,” Ray said. “We were like, we should just make this 5C, mix it up a bit.”

The audience also participated heavily, shouting advice to question-askers about which contestant to pick, giving example questions and contributing to a vibrant, sober atmosphere.

“Having this perfect medium [where] people can watch and be entertained, yet there’s no alcohol involved, that aspect is something that we really really liked,” Nakasse said. “That’s why we [continued] this event on a bigger scale.”

At 9:50 p.m., five new couples had been formed — including one pair matched in a surprise round with the question-asker and contestants being volunteers from the audience. Whether or not the hundreds of 5C students who left Pickford Auditorium that night found love, each left with their hearts full.

“At the end of the day, I love God. God bless God,” Iyer said. “I think that at the end of all this, we should all look up and thank the Lord above for a fantastic event.”

[it] also shows we can combat this on an institutional level and also combat it openly and publicly.”

Tawney echoed a similar idea, explaining that hosting events such as these could help educate people and allow them to support others in their recoveries.

“I think having events and … talking about these things [will let] people know that you really can’t tell if someone is struggling,” Tawney said. “If we’re all a bit more mindful and [try] to create spaces that are more body affirming, then the more likely people are to … experience more success in recovery and also prevent eating disorders.”

NEMBHARD: Mudd inaugurates sixth president

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ber of the presidential search committee, gave a speech shedding light on Nembhard’s selection as president in 2022.

“There was no group she met with, no person she spoke with left untouched by her preparedness, her thoughtful answers and her clear desire to authentically connect to every person she met [on campus],” Larson said. “We were all deeply impressed that such accomplishment might also come with so much kindness. With our hearts and our heads, [Nembhard] was the clear choice for us.”

Nembhard’s former advisor at the University of Michigan, University of Chicago’s Hobart W. Williams Distinguished Service Professor of Operations Management John R. Birge, then spoke about Nembhard’s academic accomplishments while completing her PhD.

Birge gave an example of how Nembhard optimized the manufacturing process of cereals that led to a reduction in waste produced and time lost, crafting a precise engineering solution.

“I use this example in my classes to this day to describe the impact of setup times and the value of strong systems analysis,” he said. “I know that Harriet will similarly be applying all her skills in looking forward for Harvey Mudd now as its president in defining its best possible future.”

Following this, Nembhard’s former student, Dr. Hyojung Kang, who has collaborated with her on publishing a book and several journal articles on healthcare systems engineering, spoke about Nembhard’s leadership abilities.

“In addition to professional excellence, the key qualities of a leader are empathy, compassion and kindness, which fosters a culture of care across academic communities and beyond,” Kang said. “Dr. Nembhard demonstrates all of these qualities, especially showing genuine concern for the welfare of her students and extending her support beyond the academic needs of students to other personal challenges.”

Newly inaugurated President Nembhard took the stage and spoke about her vision for the college.

“My vision is that, together, we produce students who are both good at STEM and good at life,” Nembhard said. “By strengthening and demonstrating our commitment to each other’s well-being, by providing the space and the grace to breathe and to regroup, we strengthen our shared capacity to carry out our mission.”

ELIZA SMITh • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Sophomore

searched for love on March 1 through the 2026 Dating Game hosted at claremont McKenna college.

ELIZA SMITh • ThE STUDENT

The claremont colleges Eating Disorder Task Force hosted a series of events highlighting National Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

The indescribably magical worlds of New York City’s best bookstores

CAROLINE KELLY

My time working in bookstores has taught me that literature people have two main hobbies: The first one is reading books and the second is buying them. Now, some people manage to balance these two activities while others have an infinitely growing stack of books (novels are my Achilles’ heel). There’s an indescribable allure to every bookshop. From the smell of crisp pages to enticing covers, every story offers an opportunity to escape to a foreign place; literature promises us the world. How could you possibly resist?

In eight hours, I visited four of the most iconic bookstores in New York City. Many miles and many books later, I finished my tour exhausted and ecstatic. This week’s column is dedicated to those who love reading, buying, or just perusing books. Please enjoy my unofficial Claremont Colleges guide to New York City’s bookstores — with some translated book recommendations along the way!

The first bookstore I visited was The Drama Book Shop, known for its extensive collection of theatrical works. The business was established in 1923 and quickly gained a reputation for having the largest selection of plays in New York City. In 2011, the shop received a Tony Award for Excellence in the Theatre. Notably, in 2020, the store was bought by the creators of “Hamilton”, Lin Manuel Miranda, Thomas Kail, Jeffery Seller, and James L. Nederlander.

The famous quartet reimagined the store into a bibliophile fantasy. From a chain of books flying overhead to stacks defying gravity, there are numerous bookish art installations to enjoy. Additionally, the interior is composed of dark wood and marble tiles that transport customers

into a European-inspired library wonderland. I particularly loved seeing the number of people congregating over numerous plays or sitting on plush chairs with a script in hand. The store truly is a celebration of New York’s theatrical achievements.

My translated book recommendation for this stop is a play called “La Casa de Bernarda Alba” by Federico García Lorca. The show follows a mother and her many daughters; the drama that surrounds them is utterly captivating.

The second destination along my tour was The Rizzoli Bookstore, which felt like a palace as soon as I set foot in the door. The shop boasts black and white checkered flooring, dark wood shelves, murals and gorgeous marble columns. The bookshop consid-

ers itself a “literary landmark” — and while boastful, I certainly don’t deny the truth of this statement. Entering the store felt like being transported into a Disney movie, with an interior similar to a grandiose princess castle.

The store is known for its expansive collection of illustrated portfolios alongside numerous fiction novels. I explored the entire space but spent extra time in the staff recommendation section. Employees at this store have excellent taste and I left with a new book on my reading list. This Japanese novella is called “Devils in Daylight” by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki and was translated into English by J. Keith Vincent. At once a murder mystery and an exploration of the human condition, I departed eager to dive in.

The third — and arguably most iconic — destination on this list is the Strand Book Store. The shop opened

in 1927 and was named after a London street where famous authors such as William Thackeray and Charles Dickens spent their time writing. This was my first time visiting The Strand and I was not disappointed. Containing over two and a half million books, I was in literary heaven; if anything embodies the thrilling rush of New York City, it’s this store. I spent my time browsing the famous Strand canvas bags and the used book basement.

Naturally, I bought one of the totes and also a copy of “The Possessed” by Elif Batuman. Now, this is not a book in translation but rather a collection of essays written about the author’s studies in Russian literature. The theatrical memoir unapologetically dramatizes academia stereotypes. I also highly

cOUrTESY: cVB

WAYS OF SEEING

ADRIANA MACIEL

things we are looking for.”

recommend any of Batuman’s other wonderful works, which display her brilliantly delightful yet cynical voice.

While I could have spent hours at The Strand, I had to cut myself off in order to reach the final stop of the tour: Albertine Books. This is the only bookstore in New York dedicated solely to books in French or ones that have been translated into English (very fitting for “Library of Translations!”). Containing over 14,000 titles and representing 30 French-speaking countries, the store is an international landmark. The shop is funded by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and is dedicated to fostering French-American intellectual exchange.

My favorite part of Albertine Books is the ceiling which hosts a gorgeous astronomy-themed mural. The space is warmly lit with dark wooden bookshelves, making the bookshop the perfect embodiment of dark academia.

My recommendation from this location is “The Woman Destroyed” by Simone De Beauvoir which was published in 1967 and translated to English by Patrick O’Brian. This classic has made a resurgence in past years and is a collection of three stories following women in crises.

The magic of these bookstores is that, like books, they transport you into another world. Most importantly, the book tour reminded me of the importance of reading as a way of fostering global connection.

I think I can say that I had the time of my life. After all, what better place is there to dedicate an entire day to bookstores and translated books than New York City?

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

5C Latinx in Tech champions community and representation Gala Porras-Kim’s drawings and preserving the ritual

As the demand for diversity in the tech industry (rightfully) intensifies, Latinx students are finding empowerment and support in dedicated affinity spaces tailored to their aspirations.

In Claremont, that space is the 5C Latinx in Tech (5C LIT) club.

Luis Mendoza Ramirez CM ’25 founded 5C LIT during his sophomore year in hopes of creating a community where Latinx students could surround themselves with peers planning to matriculate into the tech industry.

Ramirez was inspired to spearhead 5C LIT after interning with Meta in high school, where he coded apps through Xcode and shadowed cybersecurity engineers, solidifying his passion for technology — and making him keenly aware of the lack of Latinx representation in the field.

“I’m a Latino computer science major at Harvey Mudd [College],” Ramirez said. “Which means that most of my classes are pretty much not dominated by people that look like me.”

During his high school internship at Meta, Ramirez met a Latinx college student who was also pursuing a technological career. Their kinship drove him to create a space in Claremont.

“I was excited to meet another Latino with the same aspirations as myself,” Ramirez said. “He made me really passionate about wanting to continue to pursue it, which is another reason for why I created this club, hoping to be able to do that for other students on campus.”

He found his light when Harvey Mudd notified students about available grants for those interested in establishing clubs to promote diversity within computer science fields, providing him the perfect opportunity to get his club off the ground.

Primarily, 5C LIT gives members holistic tools to succeed in the tech field, such as resume editing, internship search guidance, interview skills and networking help. The club also features a Tech Talks series, where professionals in the tech industry speak about their experience and offer advice to students.

“[If] there’s one thing I’ve learned from talking to various professionals in the field, it is that there are no linear pathways to working in technology,” Ramirez said. “You can be any major, you can be interested in anything. As long as you are interested in working for a tech company, those are the

Among students, 5C LIT is a great success. The club motivated Leonardo Torres PO ’26, for one, to explore different avenues in the tech industry.

“I feel like 5C LIT has really pushed me to maybe do software engineering or AI or research — there are just so many options,” Torres said. “When I took my first class at Pomona [College], I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to do computer science, but that motivated me to join a club like this.”

Existing tech clubs at the 5Cs focus primarily on engineering — and none of them are specifically for Latino students, making Ramirez’s venture especially important. Kassandra Soriano PZ ’25 emphasized the importance of clubs like 5C LIT as a support system for first-generation Latino college students.

“A space like this is important to help create a safe environment for all Latino people,” Kassanda Soriano, who hopes to go into biotech, said. “It can be very scary trying to navigate the tech industry on your own, so having people who also want to go into the same thing as you can be a support system.”

Angeles Soriano SC ’24, who manages the club’s outreach and social media, reiterated 5C LIT’s commitment to increasing representation in the field.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a lot of tech clubs focusing specifically on Latinos,” Angeles Soriano said. “I think the community aspect of this club is important in an institution like ours. We created a community where we can feel safe and get help with our career goals.”

Next up on 5C LIT’s docket is the Bloomberg Tech Talk. The company will be flying tech employees into Claremont so that students can network and ask questions in person. Ramirez looks forward to the opportunity as well as the club’s future.

“I hope we can inspire students to continue to pursue a career in technology and be able to maintain the community we built,” Ramirez said.

5C LIT meets on Mondays at 8 p.m. To keep up with their events, follow them on Instagram: @5Clatinxintech

NADIA HSU

At first glance, Gala Porras-Kim’s large-scale colored pencil drawings look like candy-colored Kunstkammer (cabinets of curiosities).

Porras-Kim’s cabinet-like drawings are meticulous recreations of artifacts originally found in the Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá and are now housed in museums.

Renaissance-era predecessors to modern museums, the cabinets are encyclopedic collections of rare and often “exotic” objects.

Porras-Kim’s solo exhibition, “Between Lapses of Histories,” is on display at the Pitzer College Art Galleries through March 22.

Porras-Kim’s work provokes questions about how context determines sanctity. At their original home in Chichén Itzá, the objects were thrown into the cenote as votive offerings to the Mayan rain god, Chaac. They were probably meant to stay in the Cenote forever. For centuries, the offerings lay submerged in water among thousands of other objects and several bodies.

So what happened to the sanctity of these objects when they were excavated, taken not only out of the Sacred Cenote but out of Chichén Itzá and Mexico, scattered away from each other and into museums, estranged from their ritual function? As we see them now — centuries later, much drier and in display cases and catalogs — the objects have been recontextualized into historical artifacts.

When does an object become an artifact? The word “artifact” implies a token from some ruined, bygone world, an object whose meaning has been annihilated into the purely historical. But the sacred cenote objects were meant to stay buried — lost forever. This condition was part of their sanctity as offerings. So what now, now that they have been found? Dredged out of their resting place?

The transition from offering to artifact is echoed in Porras-Kim’s work through the transition she creates from artifact to drawing. If the museum context often flattens objects, taking them out of the spiritual and cultural context they were born into, then Porras-Kim’s drawings literally flattens objects, turning three dimensions into two.

The colored pencil drawings of offerings for the rain depict artifacts on display case shelves, manipulating their objects into angular patterns. In “27 Offerings for the Rain at the Field Museum,” for example, the gold and brown objects are held by white shelves that curl across the blue background like a maze.

Porras-Kim’s black and white graphite drawings, which depict beads, fragments and pieces of fabric, include the notation and numeric scale that you would find

SANDEr PETErS • ThE STUDENT LIFE

in a catalog or book. Their titles are replications of the catalog titles of each plate. “Plate 25. A. Beads with decorated shafts; b, c. beads made from older carvings, and fragments (see pp.24, 27). (Lothrop, p.64),” for example, is the title of one of Porras-Kim’s drawings.

The drawings are as much about how we see artifacts — the space they exist in, how they were made accessible to us, the vehicles through which art and history are transmitted — as they are about the artifacts themselves. By deciding to include the minutiae of museum display, Porras-Kim makes us aware of how space is imposed on the objects. It’s a display within a display.

The artifacts Porras-Kim draws have been taken out of their original waterlogged home and, with often damaging methods, into dehydrating storage spaces. Many are actively disintegrating, holding their form only through conservation methods.

In an interview with the Getty Museum, Porras-Kim asked: “What makes an object when it’s object-shaped but is not the object anymore?”

Her work approaches an answer to this question. In recreating the objects as drawings, she is creating a version of them that is durable.

As the objects fall apart into dust

particles, she reconstructs them with pencil and paper. So, maybe it’s not an answer that she’s drawing but an imagined, alternative reality — one where the objects are back in the depths of the Sacred Cenote. Within her drawings and cohabitating within the gallery space, the artifacts are reunited as if they never left. Through this imagined space, which sits somewhere between the Sacred Cenote and the museum machine, Porras-Kim successfully explores the complicated past and futures of these objects while acknowledging the observer’s place in this machine — and, by extension, her place.

“The visual arts have always existed within a certain preserve; originally this preserve was magical or sacred,” John Berger writes in his 1972 book “Ways of Seeing.” “But it was also physical. It was the place, the cave, the building, in which, or for which, the work was made.”

Porras-Kim’s drawings feel like a return to the preserve: both the literal preserve — the Sacred Cenote — and the preserve of an object’s ritual purpose. In Porras-Kim’s work, the objects are again living things, again eternal and again embedded in a process.

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

columnist caroline Kelly PO ’27 takes readers on a bookstore tour of New York city.

columnist Nadia hsu PO ’27 explores artist Gala Porras-Kim’s exhibition “Between Lapses of histories” at the Pitzer college Art Galleries.

Frary Snack makes one-time comeback

Over 1,000 Pomona College students swarmed Frary dining hall on the evening of Friday, March 1, to celebrate the one-time return of Frary Snack, a decades-long pre-pandemic Pomona tradition that is now defunct.

Frary Snack was historically held every Sunday through Wednesday from 10-11 p.m. Friday’s Snack marked the first recurrence of the beloved tradition since it was discontinued in March 2020. The event was held from 9:30-11 p.m. and was restricted to only Pomona students.

A breakfast menu was specially curated for the evening featuring Belgian waffles, cinnamon roll pancakes, fresh fruit, bacon and overnight chia oats. The themed menu was a new spin for the Snack’s revival.

All four Pomona class presidents and Pomona’s dining hall staff were credited with organizing the event. Frary dining hall was at full capacity by 10 p.m., leaving many students standing by for a seat or even waiting in the back lobby.

Junior class president Vidusshi Hingad PO ’25 was shocked by the turnout.

“Normally Snack served about 150 people, so the dining hall staff prepared enough food for 200 people,” Hingad said. “Little did we know, 30 minutes in, more than 500 people showed up. Overall, we had more than 1000 people come to the event. The turnout far exceeded expectations.”

Sierra Tai-Brownlee PO ’24 was especially impressed with the food options, noting that she came in expecting Frary’s traditional breakfast menu.

“The food choices were unique with options never before seen at the dining hall,” Tai-Brownlee said. “I was a big fan of that. The fruit platter with grapes was also amazing.”

The event began with students serving themselves buffet-style and was followed by a few short remarks by the class presidents thanking the dining hall staff.

At 10:15 p.m., 5C a cappella groups Midnight Echo and Mood Swing performed onstage underneath José Clemente Orozco’s iconic Prometheus painting. Mood Swing began the short concert with “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap and “We Find Love” by Daniel Caesar, followed by Midnight Echo’s renditions of “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone and “Never Be Like You” by Flume.

In planning the event, Hingad said the class presidents wanted to remain

as true to Snack’s original memory as possible. “Frary Snack was more than just a meal — it was an inclusive social habitat. Imagine a bustling hub where students of all years mingled, a cappella groups serenaded and laughter filled the air,” Hingad said. “It was a place for both study sessions and spontaneous gatherings, a true melting pot of Pomona’s vibrant community. Pomona, from what I can tell, can get quite lonely. This was a perfect break from that loneliness.”

Despite the discontinuation of Frary Snack, the tradition has been somewhat maintained by the Coop Fountain following the pandemic, which typically serves snacks on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10 p.m. However, according to Louis Burns PO ’24, it doesn’t come close to attaining the communal feeling that Frary Snack had.

“I enjoy a good Coop Snack, but I usually just walk in, grab the snack, then leave,” Burns said. “I think that Frary Snack really brought the community together, which was cool to see.”

Students used to post daily Snack offerings on dedicated Twitter and Facebook pages titled ‘What’s at Snack?’ but such activity has dwindled in recent years.

For graduating seniors like Tai-Brownlee and Sabrina Gleitz PO ’24, the event was rather melancholy.

“I’m happy it was held, but it’s a little bittersweet that it took so long for someone to take the initiative to bring back such a popular and well-loved tradition,” Gleitz said. “This was my first, and likely last, Frary Snack.”

Tai-Brownlee shared similar feelings, hinting at the possibility of the iconic snack making a second return before the 2023-2024 school year wraps up.

“I wish the event was revived earlier and I hope they hold it once again before graduation,” Tai-Brownlee said.

Hingad is hopeful that Frary Snack can become a regular occurrence and may eventually include unique themes like ‘street food from around the world.

“The future is an open book,” Hingad said. “While specifics are yet to be decided, I’m eager to continue collaborating with the dining staff and exploring new ways to strengthen our bond. Food is a universal language, and I believe it could add an exciting twist to our Sagehens’ palates.”

end given their more trendy target demographic.

Both the Rose Bowl and Silverlake Flea are accessible via Metrolink or bus from the 5Cs, but, as with most things outside of Claremont, it’s a lot easier to take a car for an hour-long drive.

As

looking for;

many reasons, some platforms are better suited to certain aesthetics or areas of fashion than others. Regardless, finding exactly what you’re looking for usually takes a good amount of time and a willingness to sort through a plethora of listings before finding the right one.

My goal here is not to eliminate the search, but to ensure that it produces a worthwhile result.

So, without any further delay, let’s get into it: Here is my comprehensive where-to-buy guide for all types of fashion enthusiasts. I’ll start with the most widely accessible area of fashion: vintage clothing. Vintage clothes are the easiest to find, cheapest and most diverse, so there is no shortage of places to source them. There are vintage stores in Claremont, but I find that their selections are often picked over and not super varied. Square one for vintage clothing is undoubtedly some kind of thrift store, be it Goodwill, Savers, the Salvation Army, or another local store or chain.

However, because everyone comes to these thrift shops looking for vintage clothing to wear or sell, expectations for the quality of these stores’ inventories can often be unreasonably high; in reality, the likelihood of finding a quality vintage piece is pretty low and it can require a lot of effort.

Still, for the 10-minute drive in each direction to the nearest Goodwill, it’s definitely worth a shot. I think that flea markets are a better option for vintage clothing than thrift shops. Even extremely popular ones like the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (the second Sunday of every month) have such a large selection that you’re bound to find something, regardless of your taste; smaller flea markets like the Silverlake Flea in Los Angeles (every Sunday) are worth checking out too, but can sometimes be on the pricier

Vintage clothes are pretty much the one type of clothing where I would argue that your options in-person are just as good as your options online, especially since pieces that you find in person can carry a special kind of sentimental value. That said, the amount of vintage clothing on sites like eBay is absurd — and for those willing to put the time in, the hidden gems are quite rewarding. For large platforms like eBay and Etsy, my suggestion when looking for vintage clothing would be to search for a certain clothing item and time period; the more specific you are, the more your results will be narrowed down and the less time you’ll have to spend sorting through items that you don’t want. I also like to take the manufacturer of some of my favorite items and

search their name along with a time period to find similar pieces that I know will fit me well.

For those who just don’t have the time to invest in these long expeditions, however, there are tons of vintage dealers that release drops of well-curated vintage clothing on a weekly basis.

Beware, there’s a trade-off here: You don’t have to do the dirty work of sourcing the clothing, but the available pieces are significantly marked up compared to what you might find elsewhere. I usually only pull the trigger at places like Unsound Rags, Two Fold and Ametora when I know I won’t see the piece they’re selling again, so I can be sure I’m getting my money’s worth.

Luckily, shopping for designer clothing often takes much less effort, mostly because there’s less of it out there. Because the retail prices of designer clothing are so ridiculously high, the only accessible ways to buy them are on sale and secondhand.

As far as sales, there’s the notorious Ssense sale that features

markdowns of up to 70 percent on hundreds of designers. Variety-wise, this is the best retail sale you’ll find, but sometimes other retailers can have bigger discounts, especially with special promotions that don’t exist on Ssense. I’d recommend checking out Dover Street Market, Slam Jam, SVRN and Net-a-Porter/Mr. Porter for some serious markdowns at the end of the summer and winter.

Secondhand platforms broaden the scope of the search significantly, unlocking decades of archives at affordable price points. For menswear, I still believe that Grailed is the best place to look for clothing in terms of selection, though it often necessitates a search strategy similar to eBay due to the quantity of available items. Filtering results by brand can often help to narrow down the selection.

Grailed’s womenswear section is growing too, but I would still side with Depop as the best secondhand dealer of women’s clothing.

Another platform worth mentioning is TheRealReal, which has an online presence as well as sev-

eral brick-and-mortar consignment stores in major cities in the United States (including three in the LA area), though you’ll most likely have more luck on the app than in a store. TheRealReal is the best place to look for used legacy designer pieces and formalwear since it’s honestly just wealthy old people getting rid of clothes they no longer wear. There might not be as much diversity as on Grailed or Depop, but TheRealReal shouldn’t be underestimated, especially since practically everything is discounted from list price.

Finally, I’ll turn to my favorite and most recently-discovered secondhand platform: buyee.jp. Buyee is a proxy service that allows international customers to peruse secondhand platforms otherwise exclusive to residents of Japan, such as Mercari, Yahoo Auctions and Shopping and Rakuten.

Buyee is a great place to look for secondhand designer and vintage clothing (among other things), but it does require a high level of dedication. Not only do you have to create an account and link a payment method so that the service can purchase items for you within Japan, shipping costs can also be very high ($25-75) given that all shipments are international.

That said, I think it’s completely worth the effort; on platforms like Yahoo Auctions, older pieces from legendary Japanese designers will sell for miniscule amounts compared to their retail prices and relative prices on other platforms like Grailed — and for or better or for worse, the more pieces you buy, the cheaper the shipping cost becomes for each item. Given the current weakness of the Japanese yen compared to the dollar, the bargains on Buyee are unmatched.

There is one problem that stems from all of these different places to look for clothing: extreme pickiness. Every time I find something I like on a certain platform, I’ll force myself to check all of the other platforms to ensure that I’m getting the best deal possible. Going on sale soon? I’ll happily wait it out.

Unfortunately, sometimes this can lead to me missing out on stuff I really wanted. I’ve learned from this to just follow my impulses and not overthink it when I find a cool piece at an affordable price. After all, it’s just clothes in the end.

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

The defunct Pomona college tradition Frary Snack made a one-time return on March 1.

Between life and death:

The transcendent theater of ‘Everybody’

DYLAN ZULUETA

“Everybody” began like any other play.

A painted galaxy adorned the floor of Pomona College’s Seaver Theater and red and blue lights reflected off hanging swathes of fabric and the stage’s multicolored platforms. An unassuming usher proceeded to the center of the theater and reminded the audience to fully turn off any cell phones.

“Also, fun fact … if someone were to call you twice … your phone would … override the ‘Do Not Disturb’ function and actually, well, disturb,” the usher said. “This is one of many features that make our ‘smartphones’ so smart.”

Although this may have seemed to be an introduction by a particularly funny usher, this monologue meant that “Everybody” had already discreetly started; the dramatic illusion had already been cast.

“Everybody” ran for six shows from Feb. 29 to March 3.

Zalia Maya SC ’24 played the roles of Usher, God and Understanding. Using strategic ad-libs and an impressive range of accents, Maya’s monologue captivated the audience.

The premise of the play is that

God, angry that humanity had forsaken them, commanded Death to collect everybody and report back to God with a presentation of their evil choices.

The term “everybody” serves a dual purpose, referring both to the common “everybody,” all of humanity, and to the single character “Everybody,” who symbolizes the concept of common “everybody.”

Death, portrayed by Jeffrey Pendo PO ’24, functions as God’s put-upon yet glamorous assistant. Death’s all-white celestial gown belied his approachable attitude as he searched the audience for a representative Everybody to fulfill God’s assignment.

Several fourth wall break-downs, utilized throughout the show, created a sense that any audience member could be dragged into the production at any moment.

“I think college theater is so fun because you’re so connected to the community here,” cast member Addy Ball PO ’24 said. “I like anything that makes people feel nervous that they might get pulled up on stage with me.”

Although the students that Death pulled to the stage were pre-planned and scripted, “Everybody’s” cast

and roles were not fixed. The play is founded on a lottery system: In every performance, five of the actors draw their roles live on stage.

This was an impressive feat.

Addy Ball PO ’24, Harold Fuson PZ ’26, Petey Graham CM ’25, Matilda Kirk PO ’25 and Fai Tangkaravakoon CM ’25, collectively called “Somebodies,” were required to memorize five different parts — Everybody, Friendship, Kinship, Cousin and Stuff — and be ready to play any of them for each show.

Though challenging, the show’s unpredictable framework enhanced the experience for the actors.

“There are certain monologues where we have to lip-sync each other’s voices,” Kirk said. “I’ve never before had to relinquish such control … I think it made me a better performer … Probably a better person.”

Everybody — the character — remained on stage following the lottery. Under the dim flickering light of assorted hanging lamps, Everybody spoke to disembodied voices about the scene that had just unfolded.

Director Fran de Leon interpreted the events of the play as occurring in the last moments before death.

“[The] whole play really happens

within a character’s mind and the synapses and the firings that go on in the last moments of death,” de Leon said. “I wanted to see what could I do to draw out more fantastical, more of a vibrant imagery.”

The play had two modes. Under dim lighting, Everybody was an individual on their deathbed, trying to process their fate with the voices; within Everybody’s subconscious, scenes adhered to the original, fantastical premise and Everybody met symbols of universal concepts played by the five Somebodies in whimsical costumes.

First up, Everybody encountered Friendship, who was swathed in colorful attire. Friendship attempted to cheer Everybody up through rapid-fire questions comically familiar to any college student.

However, when Everybody explained their upcoming journey, Friendship became obnoxiously self-centered and refused to accompany them.

Attendee Caleb Brunman PO ’23 was surprised by the depiction of such a foundational relationship.

“It does add an extra layer of existential dread,” Brunman said. “It forces you as the audience to look into yourself and ask what you can bring [to death], without anybody else.”

Following their unsuccessful exchange with Kinship and Cousin, Everybody begged to bring Stuff, the personification of material belongings. Stuff rebuffed them, smugly apologizing for accidentally enchanting and exploiting them. Stuff explained that once Everybody died, Stuff would move on to someone else.

Stuff’s characterization, inspired by the Barbie movie’s Ken after he discovers patriarchy, playfully highlighted how materialistic attachments can border on unreciprocated infatuation. Following Stuff’s rejection, it seemed that Everybody would ultimately have to face death alone. Until the play was interrupted.

Upset from being misrepresented and ignored, Love, played by Olivia Deligan PO ’24, tried to leave the theater. When Everybody begged Love to stay and accompany them on their journey, the price Love demanded was humiliation: that Everybody strip naked.

After spending the duration of the play alternating between Everybody’s existential confusion and comedic interactions with vibrant representational characters, Love’s invasive demand was jarring.

Everybody reluctantly complied. In one of Kirk’s performances, Everybody defiantly hurried out of her clothes while Fuson’s Everybody threw his shirt at Love as if to provoke her. As tension increased,

unease filled the theater.

The preceding scenes had an underlying mounting fear that was expressed as existential confusion and slight desperation. The audience was shocked to see Love force this fear to the surface and render Everybody so vulnerable.

Once Everybody was naked (the actors wore tan spandex that said “NAKED”), Love told them to run around the stage reciting confessions: “I have no control!” “This body is just meat!” and “I surrender!”

As Everybody ran, yelling louder and louder, they finally grasped that they were going to die. Surrendering their illusion of control, they collapsed on the stage.

“That scene is, at least one of, if not the, tipping point,” Deligan said. “It has to be a slight breakdown, to be able to come to … acceptance and realization. Experiencing love … can be really difficult at times … It almost makes it even more worth it when you come out on the other end.”

In the end, Everybody, with Love by their side, entered a trap door representing a grave.

The usher returned to summarize the moral of the story: Death will come for everybody and you can’t take people or possessions with you when it does.

“I loved the fluidity of it and how the actors were really able to integrate themselves into the audience,” Kirby Kimball CM ’25 said. “I think that’s the intention, to make everyone feel like they can be the subject in the play.”

The show featured absurd humor, with quips about global warming, an accusation of cryptoracism and a skeleton dance number, but “Everybody” was ultimately a play about death.

“I don’t know if [death] is something we could ask people to come to terms with right now at this point in their life,” Fuson said. “That’s something I hope to come to terms with over the course of my life … By the end of it, Everybody has come to terms with it.”

The show’s lottery and audience engagement underscore the uncertainty of death. While everybody dies, there’s an unknown regarding when or how.

For Deligan, a graduating senior, “Everybody” was her last show at the 5Cs. She said that the show’s message hit close to home.

“It’s easy for people to forget the fact that college is such a wonderful time when you’re in the midst of midterms,” Deligan said. “‘Everybody’ is a lot about not taking for granted the time that you have … There’s a lot … to take away … I haven’t even fully internalized them all yet. But to quote Stuff, ‘[Life] is a process of self-discovery for everyone.’”

Harold Fuson PZ ’26 is a multimedia contributor at TSL

Panel discusses abortion, religion, activism at Kathleen Wicker Endowed Lecture

Since the Supreme Court effectively overruled Roe v. Wade, the fight to preserve abortion and reproductive rights across the country has been in full swing.

On Feb. 29, the Kathleen Wicker Endowed Lecture at Scripps College featured a panel discussion of reproductive justice, religion and abortion rights following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision, which nullified Roe v. Wade and marked the end of a 50 year precedent of the constitutional right to abortion. The featured panelists were Dr. Jennifer Koosed, Dr. Susana Gallardo and Dr. Gillian Frank.

All three panelists emphasized growing threats to reproductive rights, citing the common misapplication of the Bible in anti-abortion arguments, the structural limitations of former activist efforts and the blind spots in current pro-abortion rhetoric as necessitating a reworking of abortion rights discourse.

Luis Salés, professor of religious studies at Scripps, organized the event. In an introduction, he reflected on the urgency of ensuring the protection of civil freedoms.

“There are far more civil liberties on the chopping block now,” Salés said. “This is not a glitch that’s going to be rectified in a few years … [People] need to love their civil freedoms with greater zeal and with greater intensity than traditional and conservative Christians in the [United States] love God.”

Panelist Dr. Jennifer Koosed, professor of religious studies at Albright College, discussed how the legal material in the Bible weighs on the present-day discourse regarding abortion.

According to Koosed, the Book of Exodus addresses the situation of an accidental abortion when a fight between two men results in one of them striking a pregnant woman, causing a miscarriage. In this case, the offender must financially compensate the husband of the woman, meaning the fetus has the legal status of property. Koosed said that when quoting

biblical verses, many anti-abortion Christian activist organizations fail to consider that the fetus is not a person under the law.

“Biblical verses, sheared from their larger literary and historical context, carry enormous effective power,” Koosed said. “The abortion debate is really not one of logic and reason. Instead, it really is a mix of feeling and emotion, intimate, affecting our innermost organ, tangled up in our deepest health feelings about life and touching our most important relationships.”

Attendee Alyssa Pedicino PO ’25 was surprised to learn that there were no explicit biblical references to abortion.

“I think I always assumed there was some sort of biblical quotation that could be pretty easily interpreted in that direction,” Pedicino said. “Yet the talk explained that that wasn’t necessarily the case.”

Dr. Gillian Frank, historian of reproductive politics and visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, discussed the history of the bipartisan activism behind the phrase “abortion-on-demand,” a term for elective abortions and voluntary abortions for non-medical reasons. Originally coined by advocates for

women’s labor rights, the phrase was subsequently co-opted by conservative groups to further their anti-abortion cause.

Japan and the Soviet Union allowed elective abortion in the 1960s. According to Frank, the U.S. government associated abortion-on-demand with foreign countries to frame the policy as extreme and unacceptable. The stigma surrounding the term led reformers to seek a moderate stance, advocating for abortions to be determined by male medical and legal authorities, Frank said.

“The denigration of the concept of abortion on demand … remains rooted in a broader history of sexism that has spanned religious denominations, spanned the political spectrum and has bridged anti-abortion and abortion rights movements,” Frank said. “[Reformers] made abortion reform palatable by maintaining male authority.”

According to Frank, Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign appealed to the newly politically influential evangelical and suburban Sun Belt. Evangelicals who opposed cultural liberalism and secularism were heartened by Nixon’s culturally conservative rhetoric and they gave him stronger support than they

had given to any previous Republican presidential candidate.

“For politicians like Richard Nixon seeking to attract socially-conservative Catholic voters … into the Republican Party, the repudiation of abortion on demand would be instrumental in building a new right-wing interfaith coalition within the shell of a desiccated Republican party that had — until that time — primarily supported abortion rights,” Frank said. Panelist Dr. Susana Gallardo, assistant professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at San Jose State University, referenced a seminal UCSF turnaway study that details the adverse impacts of unwanted pregnancy on people’s lives. Inherited challenges range from living below the poverty line to chronic health issues to worsened childhood development.

Gallardo advocated for an expanded definition of reproductive justice, a critical feminist framework that arose as a response to reproductive politics in the United States.

“Reproductive justice is more than just the right to abortion, as important as that is,” Gallardo said. “Abortion access is not the only issue affecting women’s reproductive lives. [Reproductive justice] also

means access to prenatal care and basic health care, housing and education, a living wage that is not lower or a percentage of what white people make [for] a healthy environment.”

Gallardo criticized pro-abortion advocacy based on choice feminism — which posits that any choice made by women is feminist if they deem it so — by arguing that it neglects the societal context that influences the choice.

“A mainstream, predominantly white feminist choice discourse was and is rooted in a neoliberal tradition that [treats] an individual’s control over her body as central to liberty and freedom,” Gallardo said. “Doing so, however, effectively obscures the structural context in which individuals make choices and it discounts the ways in which the state regulates populations, disciplines individual bodies and exercises control over sexuality, gender and reproduction.”

Attendee Haley Kirtland PO ’24 reflected on the extent to which the anti-abortion perspective is disconnected from religion.

“When we have these conversations about religion and abortion [what is striking is] how much that is galvanizing the anti-abortion perspective that is arguably not religious at all,” Kirtland said.

ANANYA VINAY • ThE STUDENT LIFE

ANANYA VINAY

SArAh ZIFF • ThE STUDENT LIFE

The play “Everybody” ran for six shows at Pomona college’s Seaver Theater from Feb. 29 to March 3

Panelists Dr. Jennifer Koosed, Dr. Susana Gallardo and Dr. Gillian Frank convened on Feb. 29 to reflect on the impact of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, which effectively overturned roe v. Wade.

The problem with ‘girly girlism’

If you hopped onto any Gen Z-dominated social media app right now, you would run into an edit with the song “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish with images of bows, the entirety of the “coquette aesthetic,” elaborate skincare routines, $8 matcha lattes and various pink paraphernalia — topped off with a caption that says “girlhood <3.”

This phenomenon, dubbed “girly girlism” in a Tweet by user @misanderist, gained traction online due to the explosive popularity of the “Barbie” movie. Coupled with the existing coquette aesthetic — which popularized lace bows and dainty, ruffled, feminine clothes — the internet decided that celebrating girlhood was the next big thing.

Trends like “girl dinner” and “girl math” added to the fervor surrounding girlhood and initially, such trends felt invigorating. Anything associated with femininity was romanticized through social media edits, moodboards, fashion trends and poetry — then dubbed “girlhood.”

When I first saw the trend pop up on my Instagram feed, I joined in enthusiastically. My general feelings towards girly girlism could be summed up with: “Hell yeah! I love being a girl! Men could never know the epic highs and lows of girlhood!” I liked how the trend made me feel special for growing up as a woman. It felt like a reclamation of femininity that had been demonized in the past by mainstream culture.

For those like me who struggled often with internalized misogyny and had the cringeworthy “not like the other girls” phase, it was exciting to enjoy femininity without shame.

As I dwelled on it, however, it dawned on me that these celebrations of girlhood never felt truly genuine — largely because girlhood and the experience of growing up as a woman can’t be defined by a set of images or behaviors.

Then, I decided that girlhood should not be celebrated at all. Or, at least, not in this way.

This may seem rash, but let me clarify. To celebrate in the way online communities currently do is to define girlhood by a set of stereotypical representations of

femininity. It creates an ingenuine caricature of girlhood and boils down a unique, diverse aspect of one’s life into a limited set of experiences. A much stronger bond could be built by reflecting on the shared struggles that girls experience, instead of popularizing watered-down bows, ruffles and matcha lattes as feminism — things that disguise consumerism as a positive, self-affirming trend. The girly girlism phenomenon speaks to a wider trend of essentializing one’s identity online.

On social media, the self is a collection of identities meshed together to create the semblance of a multifaceted person. You do not introduce yourself by your

name, but rather by your gender, sexuality, neuroses, fixations, political affiliations, etc.

These identities are no longer mere aspects of a person, like in real life. Online, they become who you are — you are defined by your labels. In order for people to gain an understanding of what these labels mean (and determine what sort of person you are online), they have to essentialize them. This is done by reducing complex identities into a set of characteristics and stereotypes that are arbitrarily assigned value. With girly girlism, I’m not simply existing as a girl online. Instead, I am a Girl™, who is special by virtue of being a girl and having experienced “girlhood.”

This online version of girlhood is only a collection of ideas and feminine traits — something entirely separate from my lived experience.

To be honest, it’s time to let the trend die.

Something as subjective as girlhood should not be given meaning simply by romanticizing certain feminine stereotypes — stereotypes that are loosely associated with a certain gender. Girlhood is not just a loose collection of makeup, skincare, fashion products, questionable spending habits and pink toys.

Aside from the fact that such an impression of girlhood falsely equates girlhood to consumerism and the faux feminist beauty industry, girlhood is a multifaceted experience that should be

reflected on through a critical lens.

Such aspects of girlhood that deserve to be discussed are the sexualization and exploitation of younger girls, how the beauty industry preys on preteen insecurities, the construction of gender in one’s youth and the roles that girls of different cultures are expected to assume while growing up.

I don’t think that my lived experience as a girl is special and worth the fanfare just by virtue of being a girl. But the universal struggles I’ve overcome growing up as a girl? That’s something worth celebrating.

Anjali Suva PO ’27 is from Orange County, California. She loves watching horror films, reading fantasy books and abusing em dashes in her articles.

Bringing back community gardens with Huerta del Valle: s etting an example for community gardens everywhere

FIA POWERS, CAMERON MACDONALD & WYNNE CHASE

Close your eyes and imagine a world where you could walk down the block to pick up produce from a nearby garden. Is this something you can do? Probably not. Is it possible, though? Yes.

Community gardens are the key to making this dream a reality.

The pandemic has created an aftermath of trauma, health risk, food insecurity and a general lack of care. Community gardens offer practical, hands-on solutions for communities to take care of each other in hard times; all things that can be alleviated with a communal agricultural space.

During both World Wars, community gardens experienced a moment of heightened popularity in

North America and Europe. They provided a space for communities to gather and watch their produce flourish, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption without increasing spending on store-bought produce. Thus, community gardens bolstered overall health by supporting people through economic deficits.

Unfortunately, the popularity of community gardens has since taken a plunge. Lack of access to food was no longer a widespread problem following the wars, so the prevalence of community gardens began to dissipate.

Today, demand is back — or at least, it should be. We need a defense against the countless warehouses as national resources and infrastructure (expectedly) abandon civilians in favor of corporate industrial interests.

Specifically, this affects com -

munities within the Inland Empire (IE) who have few defenses against pollution and development.

The IE was once known for its lucrative citrus production, but has since transformed from sprawling agri - culture into more than a billion square feet of warehouses. This caused a severe increase in carbon emissions, as well as a rapid destruction of natural landscape and communal green spaces. Residential communities are isolated from sources of healthy food and choked in diesel truck fumes.

Inaccessible healthy foods and fractured community connections are what sparked the founding of the Huerta del Valle project. Huerta del Valle is a community-run farm project with several locations through the inland valley. Their goal is to

create “one garden every mile.”

But while Huerta del Valle has grown and flourished, so has the steady march of industrial warehouses. The South Coast air basin (which includes Los Angeles, Orange County and Riverside) has some of the worst recorded levels of carbon emissions in the country. As one of many responses to this crisis, Huerta del Valle offers The Community Composting Program (TCCP), which builds relationships with their neighbors. TCCP focuses on engagement with households within a onemile radius of Huerta del Valle through education and participation in communal composting of local food waste. The compost is brought back into the community for people who want to develop and nourish their own

gardens — creating a cycle that emphasizes mutually beneficial interdependence and empowers individual households to grow their own food using locally-nurtured soil.

Huerta del Valle is developing programs that engage the community by relying on close, local community networks to move away from participating in national, corporate systems. National resources and infrastructure during wartime were dedicated primarily to supporting the military, which abandoned the food and health needs of civilians. Now, resources go toward corporate and industrial interests. In both instances, communities of civilians — whose labor oftentimes supports the industry — suffer from national negligence.

For this reason, Huerta’s values of community health and well-being as well as their practice of radical community care are absolutely critical.

The call for community action has become increasingly important this past season, when Huerta was broken into and over $10,000 to $15,000 of tools, including generators, were stolen.

So, find the time to visit a Huerta del Valle community garden to witness a real-life organization providing community support and health resources — whether you want to rent a plot to grow your own food, buy fresh veggies, enjoy nature or just meet and chat with members, there is a place for you.

Now more than ever, the project relies on people of the community — people like you — to get involved.

To find more information on their hours, workshops, donations and more, visit https://www. huertadelvalle.org/ Here is the link to their gofundme to donate or read more about the robberies: https://www.gofundme.com/f/ huerta039s-campaign-for-huertadel-valle.

ANJALI SUVA

Cameron Macdonald PZ ’25, Fia Powers PZ ’25 and Wynne Chase PZ ’26 are all enrolled in Pitzer College’s CASA program. Through CASA, they have the pleasure of interning for Huerta del Valle, which they are all incredibly excited about as people who make gardening/farming a huge part of their lives.

On the 5Cs’ incentive culture

THOMAS MERRILEES

“PZ Senate Elections Committee presents… PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

– This Friday, March 1st – 4:30-5:30 PM in Benson Auditorium – FEATURING ELECTIONS & EMPANADAS – Join us after for empanadas in the Benson Reception area. Vegan and meat options provided from Boca Burger.”

That’s the entire flier. No candidates. No relevant issues. Just empanadas.

There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with incentivizing turnout, but advertisements like these displace relevant, important information about the event for the sake of food.

The creators of the flier, Pitzer College’s Elections Committee, knows their audience — most Pitzer events without boba, Raising Cane’s, acai bowls or some other culinary incentive tend to draw limited attendees. They could’ve at least listed the names of the four candidates, but the food was seen as a better way to bring people in.

The underlying issue? There shouldn’t have to be a bonus for going somewhere like Career Services or the Writing Center or an affinity group. The events themselves should (ideally) have intrinsic value — instead, they are becoming commodified.

Organizations that use incentives like these commodify student attention by spending their extra funds on free food to buy attendance. This resulting increase in attendance can then be shown to funding committees as a reason to give that organization even more funding. It’s a vicious cycle that is becoming increasingly hard to break.

KSPC — the 5C radio station where I volunteer as a DJ — rarely gives out incentives for events and, in return, often receives low turnout from students not affiliated with the station. As a result, KSPC’s funding has been significantly cut by Pomona College.

Providing commercial goods at an event allows its organizers to clearly demonstrate their group’s value to the college, regardless of how related those goods are to the event.

If larger organizations are handing out free food at every event, how is a

smaller organization meant to compete for students’ attention? They have to follow suit. Pitzer Sophomore Class President Isa Iqbal PZ ’26 broke it down well.

“They incentivize people to attend events, but it creates a precedent: You only have to go to places and events when there’s incentive to go,” Iqbal said. “At some point, the bar gets really high. There’s boba, then boba plus something else.”

Because of the presence of incentivized events, any event that doesn’t offer free food is not evaluated on its intrinsic value, but also by what

it fails to provide beyond it. Events are seen as lacking something — as though they are just vessels for free food. This is most notable in many holiday celebrations, which are often reduced to whatever commodity most closely resembles them by the associated affinity or event-planning group.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t blame these smaller groups. Providing incentives has become the expectation.

The very strategy meant to increase interest is becoming a strategy that stifles that interest for others. Students gradually get accustomed

to the high standard that larger organizations set while every other event gets stifled by comparison, unable to compete without incentives of their own.

The boost in engagement that these organizations receive from their incentives isn’t necessarily authentic, either. If you advertise your student election debates with how good the post-event empanadas are, you shouldn’t be surprised when your audience full of empanada lovers looks like they can’t wait for the debate to be over. Imagine what some of these organizations, particularly smaller

ones, could do with the funds that they are compelled to spend on begging for attention. Simply showing up — regardless of incentives — can make an event worth attending.

Show your face at your organization’s events so that they can save that would-be incentive money on actually investing in their goals. They’re already putting on an entire event for you — the least you can do is show up when you’re interested.

Thomas Merrilees PZ ’26 is a writer and local radio co-host at KSPC with heavy motivational and executive function issues. Article related.

CMS women’s water polo can’t drown out USC but come away with 3-1 record at Claremont Convergence

JOSH GEHRING

In 1200 BCE the Greeks defeated the Trojans in an epic battle; however on March 1, 2024 in Axelrod pool, the Goddesses of War were not so lucky, bringing the tally for Greek-Trojan combat to a grand total of 1-1.

The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s water polo team lost to Division I powerhouse USC to kick off the annual Claremont Convergence Tournament. Their attempts to shift the tides in “Trojan Horse” fashion with a surprise goal in the final minutes of battle were of no avail, as the Trojans ultimately came away with a 18-4 win.

The Convergence Tournament is co-hosted each year by CMS and Pomona-Pitzer (P-P). The tournament provides many opportunities for teams to challenge themselves early on in the season and hosts strong programs such as Santa Clara University, UC Irvine and San Diego State University. With P-P and CMS in first and second respectively in the Division III rankings, the tournament allows them to match them up against schools two divisions above them.

Ranked fifth in the nation this year, USC has played in six of the last seven NCAA DI championship games, winning three national titles in that span. According to Caitlin Muñoz SC ’26, despite falling to the Trojans, the Athenas understand how crucial this annual competition is

in making them a better team. “[USC] was definitely gonna be our most physical and most high-ranking team we’re gonna play all year,” Muñoz said. “We get to cycle a lot of people in and it’s just a great opportunity to play very competitively at

a super high level. That’s kind of why I love this tournament because you can see a lot of DI competition. And it’s always a good way to preface our SCIAC season.”

After a goal from USC in the first quarter, the Athenas took

P-P lacrosse brings the ‘Henergy’ in rainy rivalry rout of CMS

CHARLOTTE RENNER

Sagehens lacrosse battled both the Athenas and the torrential downpour on a wet and wild Sixth Street afternoon, slipping and sliding to secure a 15-10 victory at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’s (CMS) muddy Zinda Field on Saturday, March 2. The rivalry win brought the Pomona-Pitzer’s (P-P) conference record to 4-0 and extended their unbeaten streak against the Athenas to nine games over the last four years.

Clouds loomed over the stadium as the horn sounded for the first quarter, and within the first 30 seconds, Fiona Lewis PO ’25 gave the Hens’ their first goal. This opening score flustered the Athenas who then turned the ball over eight times in the first quarter. The Hens’ did not let this go unpunished as Hannah Gough PO ’25, Sydney Landauer PZ ’25, Grace Warner PO ’24 and Lewis put four more on the board for P-P.

Sagehen coach Sarah Queener expressed pride in the team’s offensive performance.

“I think everyone shared the ball well,” Queener said. “We tried to take the best possible shot once we got on offense.”

The Hens’ dynamic offense scored eight goals in the first half against an aggressive CMS defense that earned three yellow cards and four green cards — penalties which force a team to play a man down for a minute — in the half. Queener noted the level of competition in the Sixth Street rivalry, highlighting the battle that she said inevitably goes down each time the two teams face off.

“We’re definitely two very good teams,” Queener said. “And we get excited to play against a team like CMS because they’re so well coached and they play super hard.” Warner started P-P’s third

quarter scoring run with a goal in the fifth minute, scoring her fourth point of the game and twelfth of the season. Landauer and Lewis added on, each converting on man-up opportunities to bring the score to 11-5 at the end of the quarter. Lewis attributed the Hens’ scoring success to a skill they’ve been working on in practices.

“I think the biggest thing was our transition,” Lewis said. “We’ve been trying to piece together our defense to middies to offense, and I think today we were really able to capitalize that, and I think that showed with the score. We had almost half our goals off of transition play.”

The rain and wind picked up throughout the second half, but the Hens did not let it ruin their parade, continuing to shut down any Athenian offensives. According to Landauer, who had two goals and three assists on Saturday, the weather did not dampen the Sagehens’ spirit.

“It’s pretty funny that we’re playing on a grass field and it’s so muddy,” Landauer said. “We were the team that’s gonna have the most fun and be the team that laughs and enjoys it.”

It wasn’t until the end of the game that the sun started to come out, but despite the glimpses of light, it was still rainy days for CMS. Though the Athenas scored the first two goals of the fourth quarter, P-P solidified their lead with three goals from River Buechner PO ’26, Gough and Lewis to secure the win.

Landauer credited not just P-P’s stellar offensive performance, but their solid defensive line for the win. They had 26 clears and 21 forced turnovers, while goalie Ruby Loesch PZ ’26 had nine saves in the cage off 19

CMS shots on goal.

“Our defense was really good,” Landauer said. “We had a lot of check downs, we played clean and I think that was really great.” Lewis attributed the Hens’ on-field successes to the more holistic work they’ve put into their season so far. She specifically cited “Hen families” — Pairings of two upperclassmen and two lowerclassmen who get each other snacks, write notes and support each other on game days — as crucial to their team bonding.

“It’s a lot off the field, building that chemistry,” Lewis said. “We have Hen families, where we do a lot of that bonding.

And I think that’s what makes us so strong is that we’re more so all together, we call it ‘Henergy.’ So we play for each other and then that’s what helps us in games actually come around cause it’s never about the individual, or one specific stat, it’s putting it all together.”

According to Lewis, the Hens are looking to use the momentum from this rivalry win as an early confidence booster while also seeing each game as a new opportunity and challenge.

“We have this quote [that goes] ‘WIN,’ What’s Important Now,” Lewis said. “Just focusing on ourselves and our own play. We’re not the same team we were last year and we’re not the same team we’re gonna be in ten years, so it’s just working on what we are now and seeing us succeed.”

And succeed they did. P-P lacrosse defeated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 11-7 on March 6 and dominated Redlands 20-1 on March 7. Looking forward, the Hens will host Whittier on Saturday, March 9.

an early lead with back-to-back goals from Cooper McKenna CM ’24 and Valerie Wraith CM ’27. However, the Trojans quickly bounced back with another goal just seconds after falling behind, going on to score four more goals in the first quarter.

Despite trailing for the rest of the game, Elise Power CM ’25 said that small victories are what the team was looking for. She said she was proud of her team’s performance.

“It’s really fun to see our teammates succeeding against such a good program like USC,” Power said. “Mia Adsen [SC ’24] had a really awesome shot block and four of our girls had really great goals. Some great steals on defense too.”

In the second quarter, USC charged ahead with four more goals. Shots from Adsen and McKenna were not enough and the Athenas left the pool at the end of the first half behind 10-2.

Muñoz scored one goal in the third quarter, followed by a buzzer-beater with five seconds remaining in the final quarter by Fiona Murphy SC ’26. Angelina Tsai HM ’26 recalled the heroic final point, describing the skill required to pull off a goal like that.

“Shout out to Fiona Murphy,” Tsai said. “She had the last shot in the game and scored a really beautiful shot. That was a bar down, which is really hard to do against USC’s goalie.”

After the loss, the Athenas

still look towards the rest of their season with heads held high. McKenna and Power both described how the team atmosphere has benefited from the CMS men’s team winning the DIII national championship in the fall.

“Our coach is kind of coming in with a lot more of a ‘we’re gonna win this whole thing’ [mentality],” Power said. “Like, let’s practice as hard as we possibly can after the men’s team had such good successes. So I think that definitely is setting the tone for the season.”

Following their loss to USC, the Athenas went on to win the rest of their games in the Convergence Tournament, taking out DI and DII competitors Cal State Fullerton, Santa Clara and Cal State Monterey Bay. Heading into upcoming SCIAC games, Power emphasized the importance of both wins and losses against schools like these.

“We have been playing a lot more DI teams in the preseason than normal,” Power said. “So I think it’s fun seeing us having successes in those games. I think we are looking really good and we have improved a lot. So we’re excited to go in next week and play P-P.”

The Athenas faced off against the Sagehens for the first Sixth Street matchup of the season on Wednesday, March 6, falling 12-9 in an overtime loss at home. CMS will look for their first conference win as they take on Chapman away on Saturday, March 9.

Sly Foxes outmaneuver Occidental women’s rugby, earning a 30 - 10 victory and sweet revenge

The Claremont Foxes Division II women’s rugby team shined through the deluge that trapped most of the 5Cs in their dorms on Saturday, March 2, battling Occidental through the pouring rain. The Foxes avenged their November loss versus the Tigers with a score of 30-10. Strong defensive rucks from Talia Holzman SC ’27 and effective coordination from flyhalf Hobie Wolff PZ ’27 moved the ball up the field in early aggressive pushes, quickly encroaching on the Tigers’ goal line. Early into the first half, fullback and inside center Avery Roof SC ’27 started off the scoring after feinting around Oxy’s backline.

“As inside center I faked a switch with Bella [Milano CM ’26], our outside center and I made a try off that,” Roof said. “That’s something I’ve never done before.”

Oxy looked sapped after this attack, clearly feeling the fatigue of the driving rain, chilling temperature and slippery rubber of the Pomona turf. The Tigers then punted the ball directly to Ashley Viveros — a first year at La Verne who competes with the Foxes — who returned the ball for a try after weaving through the Tigers’ defense. With this, Claremont went into the half with the score on their side.

To open up the second half, Viveros took on the fly half position, taking responsibility for driving the team forward while Naomi Fireman SC ’27 took the helm of the defense as the new fullback.

The Foxes stood stalwart, defending their position and continuing to lead successful drives downfield. Claremont delivered another blow to the Tigers when Wolff, now playing outside center, received another punt and looped through the Oxy’s back line, easily finding a try.

Holzman explained she was pleased with the Foxes’ performance and noted their ability to adapt to mid-game strategy

shifts.

“There’s definitely been a lot of change around with people switching positions in the middle of the game,” Holzman said. “But we’ve just managed to keep that discipline up and show that we show up to practice for a reason and you can see that in our play now.”

The second half also saw deep runs from rookie Lily Nelson SC ’26, who was seeing the field for the first time in her rugby career. Nelson, with continued support from Fireman and Viveros, helped to contest the Tigers deep into the second half as persistent rain continued pounding down on the pitch.

“It was Lily’s first match today and she killed it,” Holzman said. “I think it’s a lot more discipline and it’s been great to see the commitment everyone has made to the team.”

In the twilight moments of the game, Occidental was able to push into Claremont’s half and contend with offensive pushes, earning a try off a tenuous slug down the pitch. The Tigers also locked in defensively, forcing a goal line drop that prevented a fourth Fox try. However, Oxy’s late surge was ultimately in vain as the Foxes walked away with the dominant victory.

Claremont’s victory over Occidental evens the score on the season between the two teams after the Tigers toppled the Foxes in their previous matchup. In November, 2023, the Foxes traveled to San Diego to compete in the annual Scrum by the Sea tournament where they fell to Occidental in their first game.

According to Ainsley Murphy SC ’26, the tight-knit community the team has developed in the months since has allowed them to glue on and off the field. She elaborated that this win tasted like revenge.

“Oxy was the first game of our tournament [Scrum by the Sea] and [at that time] we kind of weren’t ready to play and I feel like our team is now so connected,” Murphy said. “Everyone is much closer [and] has so much more experience, so it was really nice to see the improvement that we’ve made.” The Foxes will continue their mission at home against the CSU Long Beach Sharks on March 23.

cOUrTESY : cLarEMONT-MUDD-ScrIPPS aThLETIcS

Dara Schoolcraft cM ’25 winds up against USc during the claremont convergence Tournament on Friday, March 1.

chloe Denhart PO ’27 races past cMS defender during Sagehens’ rivalry

ADAM AKINS

aDaM aKINS • ThE STUDENT LIFE avery roof Sc ’27 charges past Oxy defender during the Foxes’ 30-10 defeat of the Tigers on Saturday, March 2.

as the 5C Billiard Club hosted its “Heartbreak Tournament” in Pomona College’s Walker Lounge on Sunday, March 3, just a short 18 days after Valentine’s Day.

The 8-ball tournament’s round of 16 kicked off with four 1v1 matches while four competitors — three of the club’s presidents and one long-time member — received automatic byes to the second round, meaning that they played the winners of the first round. Each matchup was played best out of three, starting with a rapid-fire round of rock paper scissors to determine who breaks.

The nerves and intensity of the room were cut by Whitney Houston’s “How Will I Know” blasting on a speaker and the dance moves of Aaron Wu PO ’25, one of the club’s four presidents, quickly stole the show.

Hunter Thu PO ’25, another one of the club’s presidents, explained that these happenings positively added to the tournament’s environment.

“It was a little chaotic, in a good way,” Thu said. “I think people made friends and the vibes were good, the music was good and I think it was a good time.”

The 5C Billiard Club meets every Sunday from 1-3 p.m. in Walker Lounge, where the competition took place. Thu explained that the formation of the club in 2022 started from friendly competition and has since blossomed into a multi-campus wide organization. He said that for the club’s presidents — Thu, Wu, Abimbola Adekoya PO ’25 and Daniel Velazquez PO ’25 — their love for the game came first and the club second.

“We were just kind of playing off and on throughout freshman year and then over that summer we decided that we should put together a pool club,” Thu said. “There wasn’t [already one] so we decided us four would be co-presidents.”

Sunday’s tournament prizes were a cue for first place, a pool glove for second and a “Valentine’s Day surprise” — revealed early on in the tournament to be chocolate-covered strawberries — for third, all working along with glory and bragging rights to create a fierce competition.

Wu emphasized that the benefits of playing pool extended beyond just the prizes and community. “It’s a really good way to … just relax from school,” Wu said. “You

have to focus on it and it makes you not focus on school.”

The matchups spanned across the lounge’s three pool tables, all with their own charm. One table featured a particularly uncooperative pocket that fell out multiple times before the players defeatedly left it on the ground. Another table’s long rail was warped, the presumed cause of one particularly wild shot resulting in the 8-ball flying up off the table.

Bailey Williams PO ’26, an active member of the club, spoke on the club’s hope for improved facilities.

“I think Pomona should put more money into our pool facilities because it’s a thing that not only us but also the students that aren’t in pool [club] spend a lot of their past time socializing and playing at

the same time,” Williams said. “It would be really cool if we can make that a stronger thing on campus.”

Following games filled with bank shots, behind-the-back shots and only one joking accusation of “unsportsmanlike conduct,” the bracket of players dwindled from 16 to eight. The four finalists were Thu, Wu, Adekoya and Williams. However, Thu said he found this unfair and the three club presidents decided to withdraw themselves from the competition and play a separate presidents’ tournament at a later date. This meant that the players whom Thu, Wu and Adekoya beat would instead be playing in the semifinals.

The semifinal matchups were as follows: Emmanuel Negash PO ’26

versus Williams and Devran Orens PZ ’26 versus Max Feng PO ’26.

After a blur of solids and stripes, the semifinals concluded with Williams and Feng coming out victorious.

In the first game of the final match, Feng started strong, winning the first round, pocketing the 8-ball while Williams could only pocket three. Unfortunately for Feng, this lead didn’t last long as Williams soon evened out the score to 1-1.

Before the tie-breaking game, Wu departed with both his dance moves and speaker, leaving only the buzzing of fluorescent lights and tapping of pool balls to soundtrack the match. Williams and Feng moved in sync around the table and the spectators’ eyes stayed glued to the slate as balls slowly disappeared into pockets.

With one ball left each, Williams was up. Knocking his in, only the 8-ball stood between him and a brand new cue. After taking a moment to relieve his nerves, he lined up and took his shot — the glory was his.

Williams’ victory is a special one considering he just missed out on first place in the club’s previous tournament in October. He spoke of the relief and surprise that came with winning.

“In the final game, [Feng] hit some crazy shots,” Williams said. “I’m glad I won because second place again would have been heartbreaking. It’s definitely unexpected. I played people who probably should’ve won.” With another tournament in the works before the semester ends, the club hopes to continue growing its community.

“We try to make it very casual, very accepting of all skill levels is a big thing too,” Thu said. “Whether you are pro or have never picked up a cue, we just try to make it fun for everyone.”

Sagehens sink Stags in Sixth Street series and cement strong start to season

OTTO FRITON

On the afternoon of Friday, March 1, Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) baseball fired on all cylinders, securing a 14-1 win against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS), setting the tone for the remainder of the highly anticipated Sixth Street Series.

With both teams coming into the weekend with strong records and high expectations, the Sagehens, who previously held a 8-3 record, eventually prevailed in a one-sided slugfest. After CMS swept P-P last season, the Sagehens were looking for revenge. Facing the previously undefeated Stags, who went in with a 7-0 record, Jake Hilton PO ’25 dominated a high-flying CMS offense, conceding only three hits over six innings.

While the Sagehens came out on top with a dominant win, it was the Stags who started out strong in the top of the first. CMS shortstop Tyler Shaw CM ’24 jumped on the first pitch of the game, reaching base on an error. However, Hilton was ready to respond, striking out two and forcing 2023 SCIAC Athlete Of the Year and Third Team All-American Julian Sanders CM ’24 to pop out, ending the inning.

Despite the error, Hilton remained confident in the Sagehens’ defense.

“I just had to let it go,” Hilton said. “It was an unfortunate error on a tough play, but I just tried to focus on what I could control and kept trusting my guys. We have a great group out there and I know they have my back.”

In the bottom of the first, the Sagehens wasted no time opening the scoring, with Greg Pierantoni’s PO ’27 one-out double scoring JC Ng PO ’25, who had earned a walk. Before the CMS escaped the inning, the Sagehens had increased their lead to 3-0, courtesy of a Jack Gold PO ’27 two-run double.

After holding the Stags scoreless in the top of the second, P-P struck again, putting two runners on base before Isaac Kim PO ’24 blasted a pitch well over the left centerfield wall, increasing their lead to 6-0.

The bomb was Kim’s third long ball in three games, but he claimed going yard wasn’t his intent.

“I wasn’t even thinking about hitting a home run,” Kim said. “I

was just trying to be selfless and keep the line moving. We’ve got some great hitters down the order and I know that if we can get on base, they will drive us in.”

After jumping out to an early lead, Hilton and the Sagehens were in complete control. Working around two singles –– from Andrew Mazzone CG ’25 and Kieran Sidebotham CM ’24 –– Hilton shut out the Stags in the third and fourth.

He explained how P-P’s early offensive surge helped motivate him throughout his start.

“I love first-inning runs,” Hilton said. “When we score in those early innings, it’s great offensively. It allows me to push my confidence and go out there and throw hard.”

Unfortunately for the Stags, the Sagehens kept on pecking and trouble struck again for CMS in the third inning. P-P continued to produce quality at-bats and get runners on base. Continuing his hot streak –– during which he hit a walkoff against Pacific University –– William Kinney PZ ’26 contributed an RBI single, increasing the score to 7-0; a subsequent Jimmy Legg PO ’26 double grew the lead to 8-0. Although the Stags struggled to get much going offensively, they showed no signs of giving up. A fantastic defensive effort on a 4-6-3 double play stunned the Sagehens and allowed CMS to escape the inning. After holding the Sagehens to their first scoreless inning of the day in the fourth, the Stags looked to capitalize on offense. An error by P-P and a single by Adam Dapkewicz CG ’25 put two runners on for CMS in the top of the fifth. A wild pitch later in the inning would send them to second and third with one out. With two runners in scoring position the Stags finally found themselves in a position to threaten Hilton. However, with the help of a tremendous defensive effort from Kinney, Hilton composed himself, inducing a sacrifice fly and a major strikeout, halting the Stags in their tracks.

The Sagehens would re-establish their rhythm in the bottom of the fifth with a single and two walks to load the bases. After an

intense at-bat, Kinney picked up his second RBI of the game by drawing a bases-loaded walk.

However, CMS continued to display their fighting spirit with a gritty effort from relief pitcher Berkeley Harsch HM ’27. After inheriting a tough spot in the fifth inning, Harsch was able to work out of the jam, leaving three runners on base. Facing a similar position in the sixth, Harsch escaped with no further damage after a walk, getting through crucial innings that later helped the Stags’ pitching staff in their doubleheader rematches the next day.

After six innings of one-run ball from Hilton, Eamonn Woods PO ’25 took over in the seventh and cruised the rest of the way. With a comfortable 9-1 lead going into the eighth inning, the Sagehens lit up the Stags one final time. Kinney started the scoring, adding his third RBI of the night on a single to right field and bringing Ng to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. Building on his already hefty list of impressive plays from the evening, Ng took a pitch over the right field wall, immediately ending the game via mercy rule, 14-1.

With this win, the Sagehens improved their record to 9-3. Kim attributed the team’s success to their dedicated training regimine.

“We’ve put in a lot of effort and work this offseason,” Kim said. “We just have to keep working hard and trust that it will help us.” Hilton, who came into the game with a 3-0 record and a 2.65 ERA, solidified himself as one of the premier pitchers in the SCIAC, ending the game with eight strikeouts. He leads the SCIAC in wins among starting pitchers, with a 4-0 record and a 1.96 ERA. Reflecting after the game, he said he was very happy with both his and the team’s performance in Friday’s game. “I thought we were able to change the levels really well today,” Hilton said. “We noticed early that they were swinging a lot and we were able to take advantage of throwing the high fastball.”

Head Coach Frank Pericolosi was delighted with the Sagehens’ effort on the afternoon and said he is hoping to continue the trend as the team goes deeper into SCIAC play. “We just have to keep com -

peting,” Pericolosi said. “We are a very solid ball club; we play good baseball. We have to keep coming out every day, keep fighting and keep playing hard. As a coach, that is all I can ask for.”

On Sunday, March 3, the Stags and Sagehens concluded the Sixth Street Rivalry series with a doubleheader. Powered by another dominant pitching performance from Hannoh Seo PO ’25, the Sagehens prevailed 5-0 in the first game, solidifying their overall series victory for the first time in two years.

However, in the final game of the series, the Stags battled back. Trailing 3-0 in the fifth, CMS put up a four-spot to take a 4-3 lead. With superb relief pitching from Hamilton Finefrock CM ’25 and Lucas Welch CM ’25, the Stags managed to steal the final game of the series.

Looking forward, both the Stags and Sagehens will look to continue their hot starts, with the former traveling to Arizona to compete in the Tucson Invitational before returning to SCIAC play against Cal Lutheran on March 15. As for the Sagehens, after picking up a win against Adrian College on March 4, they will resume SCIAC play against Redlands on Friday, March 8.

KaYa SaVELSON• ThE STUDENT LIFE

Students line up their shots at the 5c Billiard club’s “heartbreak Tournament” on Sunday, March 3.

LESLIE ahUaTZI • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Jake Hilton PO ’25 fires a pitch from the mound during the Sagehens’ 14-1 victory over the Stags on Friday, March 1.