Vol. CXXXIV No. 16

Scripps students call for admin to remove statue with Nazi affiliations

5C Science Bus hosts first inperson Science Day since 2019

ANNABELLE INK

On Feb. 26, 60 elementary school students packed Harvey Mudd College’s campus in eager anticipation of the annual Science Day. The event was hosted by 5C Science Bus, a volunteer organization that aims to teach local students about science through various community events.

Science Day is a long-held tradition at the Claremont Colleges, though this is the first time since 2019 that it has taken place in-person because of the pandemic.

“It was really exciting getting to bring the kids to campus again for the first time in three years,” Tanvi Krishnan HM ’24, co-vice president of Science Day, said. Krishnan explained that the main purpose of Science Day is to get local students excited about science through hands-on experiments and demonstrations. This year, participants were randomly divided into four groups and led through two main experiments

JUNE HSU

On Tuesday, March 1, Scripps Associated Students (SAS) joined Statue Action Group in calling for the removal of a sculpture by Georg Kolbe in Sallie (TFH), Scripps College’s health and wellness center, because of the artist’s Nazi ties.

Georg Kolbe (1877-1947) was a German artist whose work was admired by the likes of Adolf Hitler and other Nazis. Nazi appreciation of Kolbe’s work landed him on the Gottbegnadeten list, which named Germany’s “top artists” representing Aryan ideals during WWII.

Due to the artist’s Nazi affiliations, student and faculty organizers wrote a letter to Scripps president Suzanne Keen that formally requested for the Scripps administration to remove this statue from public view. The letter has

garnered 215 signatures from students, alumni, faculty and parents, including signatures from Scripps affinity groups and student leaders.

Aviva Maxon SC ’24, president of Kehillah, Scripps’ Jewish affinity group, hopes that the letter may inspire a larger conversation between students and administration about more effectively caring for the Scripps community.

“I think that this is an opportunity for [administration] to listen to students and do something good. That being said, the struggle we are in mirrors those of the last 90 years of Scripps,” Maxon said to TSL via email.

“I am hopeful that admin will listen to us and see the value of student-led change in making

— an egg drop experiment and a marble roller coaster experiment.

“These are really simple experiments, but working with children is really interesting because they’ll always surprise you with some new idea that you wouldn’t have thought of in a thousand years,” Jayati Priyanshu SC ’24, the other co-vice president of Science Day, said.

There were also demonstrations by several Harvey Mudd faculty members, including chemistry professor Colm Healy, physics professor Nicholas Breznay and Physics Department lab manager BJ Haddad.

Both Priyanshu and Krishnan felt that Science Day was a rewarding experience for the 30 or so volunteers as well as for the elementary school participants.

“The part that gave me the most peace, that made me fulfilled and made my soul happy, was when I walked through the classrooms and helped kids with the actual experiments,” Priyanshu said.

Krishnan added that “the volunteers had a lot of fun getting to work with the students.”

Priyanshu agreed, also explaining that the event reminded volunteers why they were passionate about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

“I think for volunteers, it’s just really fulfilling to work with students and to remind yourself, why do you like STEM?” Priyanshu said. “Where did your inspiration come from, in pushing towards the sciences?”

Aside from this emphasis on STEM exposure and education, Science Day provides participants with an opportunity to connect with students from other schools and build important life skills.

“Students themselves learn to work with others, and they learn that there is a lot of science that just involves creativity,” Priyanshu said.

Overall, Priyanshu and Krishnan felt that the event was a success.

“If you asked anyone how it was going, they were all unanimously having a great time,” Krishnan said.

Gabby Giffords returns to Scripps for documentary screening

around the film, gun violence and Giffords’ journey.

Palestinian American comedian Mo Amer’s recent appearance in Scripps Presents’ “Laughing Matters!” event prompted much outrage and debate, including a TSL opinion piece. On March 7 in Avery Hall at Pitzer College, Kouross Esmaeli, professor of media studies at Pitzer, hosted a public dialogue titled “Does Context Matter?” in light of these concerns.

In his show, Amer talked about the bigotry directed towards him as a Middle Eastern person in America. He asked his audience “is this a safe space?” and proceeded to remark that he has been called a “sand N–word,” a phrase used to demean individuals of Middle Eastern descent. Attendees of Amer’s show noted that this context was missing from Shavers’ op-ed.

Esmaeli organized the event with input from the students in his media studies course MS 124:

See DIALOGUE on page 5

See page 10

Scripps alum and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords SC ’93 had a plan for what her life was going to look like before Jan. 8, 2011. She was going to run to be the next senator of Arizona and have children with her husband, current Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. Instead, on that day 12 years ago, a gunman shot her in the head, causing her to develop a speech disorder called aphasia and other long-lasting physical challenges. Rather than giving up, Giffords used this opportunity to help put an end to gun violence. Giffords returned to Scripps on March 7 to showcase a documentary centered around her story, titled “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down.” After the 6 p.m. screening, Giffords, along with the film’s producer Lisa Erspamer and co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Giffords Peter Ambler, answered questions centered

During the panel, Giffords explained that both her own experience with gun violence and her reaction to Sandy Hook inspired her to form the nonprofit Giffords, which fights to end gun violence through legislative and judicial means.

“I was shot in my head while meeting with my constituents,” Giffords said. “I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk. I watched gun violence score too many lives. After the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I said, ‘Enough is enough.’ We’re on a mission to end gun violence now.”

The film emphasized the meaningful nature of the work that the Giffords nonprofit, which has over 3 million supporters, has done. Specifically, the film talked about the support the nonprofit has provided in the fight for background checks for all gun purchases to become a national law and its work in fighting for the Bipartisan Safer

See GIFFORDS on page 4

TSL COVID-19 Tracker covid.tsl.news from Feb. 27 - Mar. 5

+12 cases

the 5Cs

** HMC told TSL Oct. 10 that the school will no longer post case counts on a dashboard and instead will alert students via email when there is a surge in cases.

Data from each of the 5Cs school’s testing dashboards at press time. Visit covid.tsl.news for historical data.

March 7,

In 1911, the Boston Red Sox took a trip to Claremont and faced the Pomona Baseball team at Alumni field. Though the Sox went back east after demolishing Pomona’s team, the legacy of this first meeting lives on today.

On

Scripps showcased a screening of “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down,” which told the story of Scripps alum and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords’ experience recovering from being shot in the head and advocating for gun control.

Linda Phan PO ‘24 argues that mutual aid prioritizes the marginalized as organizers, creating a solution to the white savior complex posed by philanthropy.

MAYA ZHAN

Students discuss comedian’s impact

EMMA NEWMAN

cOURTESY; 5c ScIENcE BUS

During Science Day, local students participated in hands-on scientific experiments and demonstrations.

STATUE: Scripps letter condemns art installation, calls for action

our campus better.”

Although Kolbe’s sculpture at Scripps of a slender nude woman is named “Young Woman” and is said to have been created in 1925, SAS discovered an identical sculpture by Kolbe named “Lauschende.” This sculpture was included in the Third Reich’s 1942 Great German Art Exhibition, where art symbolizing Nazi culture was sold.

“I would like the college to be more aware and thoughtful in the art that is bought and displayed around campus,” Maxon said. “In an even bigger sense, I would like the college to take substantial steps towards making campus a safe and welcoming environment for Jewish students.”

Students like Lily Dunkin SC ’24 and Arianne Ohara PZ ’25 have called attention to Kolbe’s controversial history and demanded that the statue be taken down.

“So much harm has been caused by this sculpture and it’s so representative of anti-semitism throughout history,” Dunkin said. “It’s also I think really emblematic of the toxic white femininity that we have on Scripps campus.”

Pomona to increase wages for visiting professors

Many students’ hopes for action extend beyond removing the statue. Dunkin explained that Scripps administration must acknowledge the harm it has caused and commit to not making any money off of the sculpture following its removal.

She added that the Scripps community must take generative action and replace the statue with a piece of art that directly addresses the harm caused by “Young Woman.”

“I really hope that the students that have been affected by this, the Jewish students on campus, the Black students on campus, the queer students on campus [and] anyone who’s had any sort of negative visceral reaction to the sculpture, I hope that they’re able to find closure,” Dunkin said. “I hope that we, as a school, represent them in a way that we’re proud of.”

Wolfgang Brauneis, a German art historian, will share more information on Kolbe’s and other similar artists’ work in a presentation on April 5 in the Hampton Room at Scripps.

Scripps’ Office of the President did not respond to an immediate request for comment.

Pomona College has announced its plans to increase the base salaries of visiting professors in the upcoming 2023-2024 fiscal year.

The decision comes after new research findings from Pomona’s Vice President for Academic Affairs, Yuqing Melanie Wu and Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer Jeff Roth, that indicate a disparity in salary increases among visiting and tenure-track professors.

“We conducted research and found that the vast majority of visiting faculty salaries did not increase at rates comparable to those of tenure-track faculty in the last eight years,” Wu said to TSL via email.

To address this inconsistency, Pomona will begin by increasing the base salaries of visiting professors.

“[In the future,] full-time visitor and one-course visitor starting salaries will increase at a rate that is similar to tenure-track faculty,” Wu said.

To Wu, this change is a necessary part of supporting Pomona’s “academic mission.”

Wu briefed faculty about this decision at a faculty meet-

University of La Verne dining hall workers vote to authorize a strike, 5C students organize support

ing at the end of the Fall 2022 semester. However, official approval of the proposed salary increases will not come until the spring.

In order to increase staff salaries, the proposed increases must be worked into the annual budget. The budget process begins in November and is eventually sent to the Board of Trustees (BOT) in May for approval.

Wu stated that “building

the budget involves all campus units,” but that ultimately Roth is responsible for recommending a proposed budget to the BOT.

Although this conversation follows Pomona’s recent decision to increase wages for dining hall staff, Wu contended that there was no relation.

“There is no connection between the union agreement and faculty salary scales or increases,” Wu said.

KGI accelerates Master’s in medical device engineering to one-year program

SIENA SWIFT

Following approval from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) announced on Feb. 22 that its Master of Science in Medical Device Engineering (MSMDE) will shift from a two-year to one-year degree program, effective immediately.

MSMDE program director and associate professor Anna Hickerson has been at KGI for nearly 18 years. She helped KGI launch the MSMDE program in fall 2019 to provide graduate students with critical skills in everything MedTech — from product management to data analysis to prototyping.

Six students are graduating with an MSMDE this year, five of which are second-year students.

“We have one first-year student who gets to graduate in one year when he thought he would have to do two,” Hickerson said. “[So the change was] good luck for him and he gets to graduate with [the] other students.”

different schools.”

The MSMDE is administered through KGI’s Henry E. Riggs School of Applied Life Sciences, which also offers a doctorate degree and six other masters programs. The MSMDE is KGI’s first ever offered one-year master’s degree.

The degree culminates in a unique capstone experience — the Team Master’s Project (TMP) — which provides companies with a team of three to five students supervised by one faculty member who execute the development of a medical device product. Hickerson said the program is modeled after Harvey Mudd College’s capstone clinics.

University of La Verne dining hall workers voted on Feb. 28 to authorize a strike for the first time in the university’s history.

ULV’s workers are organized under UNITE HERE Local 11, the same labor union that has represented the dining hall workers at Pomona College since 2010. ULV has been unionized since 2013.

100 percent of the unionized ULV workers present voted in favor of the strike authorization, with 17 out of the 18 ULV workers part of the bargaining unit voting yes and one abstaining.

Over the last year, ULV workers have organized multiple delegations in attempts to communicate their demands to the management team and negotiate a new contract for fairer wages. However, they have largely been dismissed and allegedly ignored by management, according to labor organizer and ULV student worker Stephen Gilson ULV ‘25.

The Claremont Student Workers Alliance (CSWA) has been actively supporting ULV workers and students throughout the process.

At the beginning of last semester, CSWA reached out to student organizers at ULV such as Gilson to encourage student workers to start their own alliance group, according to Luna Romero PZ ‘26. However, ULV’s group did not gain much traction after their first meeting in fall of last year.

Last semester, the ULV union workers won $40,000 worth of back pay for employees who never got their raises during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gilson stated that the union has had about five negotiations in total. Their original demands in September were for $22 an hour, but they raised it to $25 to maintain a living wage in Los Angeles County.

ULV students who work at the dining halls are also going on strike for union recognition.

“They think because we get paid minimum wage that they can treat us like that, but we’re not siding

for that anymore,” Gilson said. “So we’re actually getting ready to strike ourselves as students.”

According to Gardner, there has been no response from dining hall management nor the university’s administration despite workers’ delegations talking with them.

“They’re definitely well aware of what’s going on with the workers,” Gardner said. “And there hasn’t been an acceptable response or change in behavior.”

This semester, CSWA has contributed to the ULV workers organizing through flyering and canvassing. They also attended delegations and the strike certification vote.

“Because both of these schools are under the UNITE HERE Local 11, although CSWA emphasizes external organizing, building off each other’s fights and building coalition support is really important,” Romero said.

Simone Gardner PZ ’25 said that CSWA has been visiting ULV’s campus to spread information about the workers’ situation.

CSWA has also been circulating a petition that calls on the university to meet workers’ demands and show solidarity with workers by agreeing to not cross the picket line at an upcoming strike.

According to Romero, CSWA currently has over 160 contacts and has been sending out weekly newsletters containing the labor fight updates and action items for the ULV student body since last week.

“Our main focus right now is empowering [ULV] students to take a step up,” Romero said. “We’ve been doing that by doing surveying trips just to have those conversations that would hopefully sustain and build trust.”

There are some difficulties in laying that groundwork, according to Gardner.

“I don’t think there’s quite as much of a focus on students being involved in student organizations at La Verne in quite the way it is here,” Gardner said. “But from

all the conversations that we’ve had, we can tell students really care about the workers and they want it to be better.”

Gardner describes CSWA’s efforts in helping ULV establish a student workers alliance as similar to that of the 5Cs.

“There’s also the fact that there are students who are working and being mistreated,” Gardner said. “Some of the people who we’ve been working with are students who are workers, and they have been interested in starting a La Verne Student Workers Alliance.”

However, Romero says that right now, a student workers alliance at ULV is going to take the form of a temporary mobilization outreach group to spread information about upcoming strikes and spaces to support the workers.

On March 7, ULV’s dining hall workers organized a picket line in front of The Spot Dining Hall with the support of CSWA members, Pitzer College, Pomona College and Whittier College workers.

Gilson stated that ULV security showed up at the picket line, but did not attempt to stop the protest.

“I was so happy to see all the 5C students who came out there and it looked like the workers were grateful for that too,” Romero said. “We are all part of a greater worker labor movement in the area and that everyone has each other’s back.” Romero said that a strike at ULV is expected to take place in the next few weeks. Until then, CSWA hopes to establish a clear line of communication between the two schools.

“We’ll be bringing out students to La Verne’s campus to support them, and we’d expect a reciprocal relationship where La Verne students could come out here at the 5Cs if needed,” Romero said. “So the main goals will be just direct communication of support and aid.”

Hickerson added that most other MSMDE programs, of which there are only a handful in the U.S., are one-year long.

“It’s better for the students, [and] it’s better for KGI in terms of being competitive,” Hickerson said. “It’s such a large investment, so cutting it in half is a big deal, but I think we can offer the same level of skills.”

She explained that while the program is small right now, she hopes to eventually have around 20 or 25 students in the cohort.

“Maybe this new setup will be more enticing,” she said. “It’s [been] well received [by current students], so I’m really happy about that and I’ve certainly gotten a lot more interest from potential students I’ve talked to at

“Companies will actually come to KGI and pay KGI to have our students solve a specific problem. The students work together in a team to address the issue,” Angelika Nimez, the Dean of Faculty for Riggs School and a MSMDE professor at KGI, said in an interview with Actalent on Feb. 6. “So effectively they gain industry experience. Which is then great because they can put that on their resume and then that opens up doors later on when they’re trying to land a job.”

This year, the MSMDE cohort is working with Medtronic, one of the biggest medical device companies in the world, Hickerson said.

Hickerson gave a shout-out to KGI’s matching summer program, the Medical Device Development Bootcamp, which offers participants certificates in either medical device design or medical device prototype development depending on the session they choose.

The summer course itself is free, although students must cover their room and board costs if they choose the in-person program.

KGI’s MSMDE graduates have had a 100 percent success rate in securing a job in the field or attending medical school, Hickerson said.

JAKE CHANG

hANNAh WEAVER • ThE STUDENT LIFE

KGI announces President of the National Academy of Sciences as commencement speaker

JULIA PARSA & SAJAH ALI

On Feb. 23, Dr. Marcia McNutt was announced as Keck Graduate Institute (KGI)’s 2023 commencement speaker. McNutt is the President of the National Academy of Sciences, a non-profit organization dedicated to “providing independent, objective advice to the nation” via science and technology, according to their mission statement. She also received the prestigious Maurice Ewing Medal in 2007 for her contributions to deepsea exploration. McNutt previously served as director of the U.S. Geological Survey and as editor-in-chief of the Science journals, a news page dedicated to writing about important scientific discoveries. She currently serves as a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement

of Science and the International Association of Geodesy. KGI President Sheldon Schuster remarked on the importance of having McNutt speak to the graduating class of 2023 on the institution’s 25th anniversary.

“Having Dr. McNutt as our featured commencement speaker is a symbol of the importance of science, and the values of science, to not only KGI and our graduates, but to all of society,” he said. When KGI was founded in 1997, McNutt initially served as an advisor for the institution.

“Being an advisor when Keck first launched makes me excited to speak,” she said. “It is a chance to come full circle to see what the institution has accomplished.”

According to Schuster, KGI’s mission is to translate “extraordinary advances” in life and health science to benefit society. The National Academy of Science, for which McNutt is president,

Oldenborg launches Haitian-Creole Language Table

NHI NGUYEN

shares this mission.

“Never before has science had the potential to solve so many of our planet’s problems, yet there is a growing and troubling distrust and lack of understanding of what science is,” Schuster said. “Dr. McNutt, as President of the National Academy of Sciences, is the most influential and prominent scientific voice in the world, so the message will be clear and authoritative.” Schuster hopes graduates will leave KGI understanding their potential to use science to transform the world around them.

“It is my hope that the graduates understand the centrality of science to their future, and that they take the responsibility of not only being scientists, but also [of] being the voice of science in their communities and families,” Schuster said.

Pomona College’s Oldenborg Center has added Haitian-Creole to the list of language table offerings. The table started on March 3 and now takes place every Friday.

Oldenborg offers language tables to provide 5C students a chance to communicate in the available languages with other students, student mentors, language partners and professors. Students attend these language tables to fulfill their foreign language course requirements or to speak in their native language with other native speakers.

Paul Cahill, director of Oldenborg, and Tamara Olivos, assistant director of Oldenborg, explained in an email to TSL that a new language table can be added when students reach out to them to volunteer to mentor a language. The directors also make sure to find at least two student mentors — students who have advanced proficiency in the language to guide conversations among language table attendees.

Werlie Cius PO ’26 and Amid Louis PO ’26 were selected as student mentors for the Haitian-Creole table. Cius, who proposed the initial idea, feels that starting the language table will increase representation of African languages at Pomona.

“There are a few African language tables at Oldenborg, but I feel like outside of [Oldenborg] ... it’s really hard to get exposure to it because they don’t teach [African languages at Pomona],” she said. “You rarely ever hear anything about African languages.” Louis explained that African languages are underrepresented, both within Oldenborg and in Pomona’s language department, but also in the student community itself.

Pitzer selects Nobel Peace Prize recipient

Nadia Murad as 2023 Commencement Speaker

JACOB RAGAZA

Pitzer College has named 2018 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nadia Murad as the 2023 commencement speaker. Murad is an Iraqi human rights activist committed to raising awareness around sexual violence and the Islamic State’s genocide against the Yazidi people, an indigenous Kurdish minority.

In 2014, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attacked Murad’s hometown of Sinjar, Iraq, where she — along with thousands of other Yazidi women — were kidnapped, tortured and subjected to sexual violence. In 2015, she testified about her experiences to the U.N. Security Council, delivering the committee’s first brief on human trafficking. In 2016, The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime named Murad as the first goodwill ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking.

In 2018, Murad founded Nadia’s Initiative, an organization “dedicated to rebuilding communities in crisis and advocating globally for survivors of sexual violence.” The organization is currently focused on the redevelopment of Sinjar, which ISIS ravaged in their destruction of the Yazidi homeland.

According to Wendy Shattuck, Pitzer’s assistant vice president

of communications, Student Senate senior class representative Annemarie Gerlach PZ ’23 worked with peers to create a list of potential speakers. The Commencement Committee then selected Murad from this list.

“[Nadia] is truly inspirational, and is a globally honored catalyst

for life-long radical advocacy, resilience, healing, social justice in action,” Shattuck said to TSL via email. In a statement to Pitzer’s Office of Communications, Murad expressed excitement at the opportunity to speak to the graduates.

“It is important for me that younger generations understand the crimes and brutality being done to the vulnerable in other parts of the world,” Murad said.

Pitzer’s Commencement ceremony will take place on May 13, 2023.

“I feel like there [are] not as many African languages represented as there could be, mainly because there [are] not enough people who speak the language to [initiate African language tables], or they just don’t go to Oldenborg,” they said.

Cius and Louis are doubtful there would be a lot of interest in beginning the Haitian-Creole language among most students at the 5Cs. However, the pair are optimistic that the Haitian-Creole language table can be a space to share Haitian culture with the few other Haitian people on campus, rather than a place to teach the language.

“I don’t think [the new language table] will have too much of an impact [on the 5C community], mainly because I don’t think there are too many Haitian people here or people who want to learn the language in general,” Louis said. “But I do feel that for the few Haitian people who are here, there will be an impact among us, because we will have a little space [of] our own where we build our little community.”

Cius shared that she would like to see increased interest in promoting African languages at the 5Cs.

“I hope more people can … start [language tables] for languages that [are] not offered or taught at the 5Cs,” she said. “Having more African languages and Caribbean languages taught at the 5Cs by actual professors … would be really cool.”

Corrections

In Issue 15, a news article about Oldenborg applicants misattributed a quote to Anisa Ketlekha PO ’26 that was actually said by Aiko Kato PO ’26. A separate news article about the Pitzer Black Student Union misstated that the Pitzer BSU published their demands on Tuesday, Feb. 28, and Wednesday, Feb. 29. The correct dates are Tuesday, Feb. 28 and Wednesday, March 1. In a sports article about Linda Cohn, Cohn was misquoted about her marriage. All articles have been updated with the correct spellings and facts.

TSL regrets the errors.

SAShA MATThEWS • ThE STUDENT LIFE

LEhAVI • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Why 5C students are obsessed with Iron and Kin Coffee

In the Claremont Packing House, located on the southwest corner of the village of West First street, lies one of the city’s hidden gems. Right as you enter the building’s front doors, the aroma of fresh coffee beans immediately fills the air, displaying the rustic yet inviting coffee shop, Iron and Kin.

Noted for its specifically curated “affirmation lattes” and healthy bites, Iron and Kin also fosters an open space for its customers.

Branding a sense of community across the city of Claremont, this coffee shop brings together families, friends, pets and students at the 5Cs through cups of coffee.

A 5C favorite, many students line up in the afternoons or on weekends to get a perfect cup of coffee. As a first-year here at the Claremont Colleges, Iron and Kin is personally one of my go-to spots to do work. I can’t tell if it’s the welcoming atmosphere or the bucolic environment of the shop that keeps me coming back, but I always walk out feeling refreshed and new.

Iced or hot, oat or whole, however you like it, Iron and Kin does it all, catering each drink to our specific taste. And yes, it is worth it.

Working as a barista for almost a year, Isabel Navarrete PZ ’23 crafts each drink with care for her customers.

“I’ve been a barista now for about seven years, and working here at Iron and Kin brings this really strong sense of community which I really appreciate. I guess that’s why I was immediately drawn to this place,” Navarrete said.

As she was grinding up coffee beans for my “Courageous” latte,

Navarrete told me about her favorite parts about being a barista at Iron and Kin.

“Once you’ve been doing it for a while, it becomes a habit, so I can turn my brain off and let my body take over,” Navarrete said.

“In addition, connections are always made here. Whether it’s through community or friendship, you can always get a warm smile and crack a joke here. It’s a good place to come and feel like you are part of the community.”

The diverse range of customers who come to support this local coffee shop is another part of what makes Iron and Kin so distinct.

Kristin LeBlanc CM ‘23, a frequent customer, often takes breaks here to grab a cup of coffee.

“I like that this place is privately owned, unlike the other places in the village. I also like that they specialize in coffee. They do a great job steaming the milk and [I] love the taste of their espresso,” LeBlanc said.

As an avid coffee drinker, LeBlanc enjoys coming to Iron and Kin during a break in her day to grab a latte, walk around the Village and explore its shops. Her favorite drink on the menu is the “Worthy” latte (a blend of brown sugar, vanilla, figs and black pepper), and recommends it to any newcomers.

“Don’t skip out on the black pepper, it’s the best part,” LeBlanc explained. “It’s like having salted caramel. It’s vanilla and pepper, it goes so well together,”

As for other drink recommendations on the menu, Matthew Leung PZ ’26 enjoys the “Peaceful” latte (turmeric, ginger, cardamom, raw honey and black pepper).

“It has a nice kick to it and makes my brain happy in a way,” Leung said. LeBlanc also enjoys the friendliness of the baristas.

“Every time I come in, I always have a conversation with them, and they are always down to chat about anything. It brings together a very nice community,” LeBlanc said. “As I come here more often, it feels like I’ve got to know them better, and they get to know me.”

Leung’s first time coming to Iron and Kin was with his friend last semester.

“I loved the vibe of the shop as well as the open space it brings to

Paramore goes ethereal with new album ‘This is Why’

its customers,” Leung said. He admires the glass ceiling that brings copious amounts of natural light into the room, creating a perfect ambiance when doing work. In addition, the green plants mixed with the rustic interior make the shop’s environment even more comforting.

”Iron and Kin is the perfect place to chill. I would come back here as a quick pit stop during my day and just chill here,” Leung said. Iron and Kin is more than just a coffee shop. It’s a community of people that values diversity, kinship and coffee. As students

at the 5Cs, we, too, are part of the Claremont community. Despite our extra-curricular activities or strenuous course load that makes it difficult to get off campus, the college experience also includes exploring the surrounding neighborhood and its offerings.

Let Iron and Kin be the excuse to get an extra dose of caffeine before the day ends or give your brain a break from work. Whether it’s venturing off campus to seek a new study spot, meeting with friends, or just taking a mindfulness stroll, there’s no place better to do that than at Iron and Kin. 5/5 stars.

GIFFORDS: ‘On a mission’

continued from page 1

Communities Act to become law. The film also centered around Giffords’ uplifting, strong spirit despite the challenges she faced in the aftermath of the shooting. Erspamer decided to produce the film, which has greatly impacted her personal life, because of the type of person that Giffords is.

“We learn from telling other people’s stories and we learn from watching other people’s stories,” Erspamer said at the panel. “Gabby is an incredibly courageous, resilient and powerful, powerful woman, and I think having the opportunity to tell her story has been, in so many ways, life-changing for me. It really has helped me. I get up every morning and I think about Gabby and I think, ‘just keep moving forward,’ and I complain a lot less now than I did.”

Giffords’ perseverance while dealing with such an injury was also inspiring to Ambler, a feat that he believes extends beyond her public service.

that I take for granted, and I think that sort of constant, consistent commitment to incremental progress is the reason why we’re going to advocate for the country, ultimately,” Ambler said.

Giffords said that to get through the struggle, she had to keep fighting, which she recommends that other people try to do as well.

“For me, it has been really important to move ahead [and] to not look back. I hope others are inspired to keep moving forward no matter what,” Giffords said.

Amanda Macias Schreiber PO ’26, who attended both the screening and the panel, found this attitude and Giffords’ passion for ending gun violence to be motivating.

“I thought the film did a great job of humanizing the issue by sharing the story of one person and really getting into her heart and strength overcoming this enormous obstacle,” Schreiber said. “This screening did reinvigorate me to continue advocating, fighting and moving forward.”

“We finished the first day in the studio and listened back to the music and … it simultaneously sounds like everything we’ve ever loved and nothing we’ve ever done before ourselves,” Paramore’s lead singer, Hayley Williams, said of their new album “This is Why.”

In case you’re one of the five people at the Claremont Colleges who haven’t heard of Paramore, here’s your primer. Paramore is an American rock band founded in 2005. Since then, they have released six studio albums to massive commercial success, fluctuating in genres, styles and band members. Their latest project has three of Paramore’s eight total historical members. As you can imagine, there is no end to the drama the band has gone through, and it isn’t hard to find people who you can talk about that sort of stuff with for hours on end. But that’s not what I’m here to do. I’m here to talk about why Paramore’s new aesthetic blend may be their best yet and how it cements them in rock canon as one of the best and most resilient groups, who inexorably moves further toward musical surprises.

And where else to start that conversation but the title track?

“This is Why” opens with a very Radio Head-esque sound, with cool baselines and casual drums paired with toned down guitar and some light maracas. Williams opens with “if you have an opinion / maybe you should shove it,” perhaps one of the more badass starts to an album I’ve heard in a while. The sound is robust, bright and tightly controlled –– echoing back to much of Paramore’s discography. It’s classic and beautiful, a reminder of why we were looking forward to this album so much.

“Big Man Little Dignity” opens in ethereal fashion — a

soothing bass clarinet and soaring wooden flute complement the traditional Paramore sounds of tight drums and catchy guitar riffs. This is the first song on the album that starts the aesthetic shift that “This is Why” represents more broadly — a turn to the ethereal and vague. Williams’ lyrics provide a mocking and yet despairing critique of men in power: “you’re so smooth, it’s pitiful / know you can get away with anything / so that’s exactly what you do.” The ever-changing tone of the song enables Williams to be so dynamic with her theming, altering the way her words can be interpreted with each new chord.

“You First” starts with a rolling uncomfortable guitar line and a punky feeling that pushes you forward into the song. The pre-chorus transitions back to their ethereal aesthetic with smooth guitar arpeggios fluttering over the traveling bass. Paramore lyrically embraces a sort of punk skepticism, “everyone is a bad guy / and there’s no way to know who’s the worst.”

Any fans of The Police will note how familiar this song sounds — Paramore members are experts at drawing influence from so many parts of rock. This track shows off Paramore’s ability to match lyrics with the vibe of a song — the punk environment they foster on “You First” primes the listener to be ready to question everything around them and be fiercely angry at the same time. “Karma’s gonna come for all of us ... and I hope she comes for you first.”

“Crave” is possibly the most ethereal track on the album, opening with loose drumming and gorgeous sliding guitar chords. Williams flows through her lyrics, a sharp shift from the harsh hits she delivered

in tracks like “This is Why” and “The News.” Williams lyrically reflects on a perfect moment and a simple time, “just for a second it all felt simple / I’m already missing it.” Her voice is effortlessly expressive — you can hear the pained emotion in every chorus.

Thanks to tracks like these, “This is Why” is a great album. Each tune is controlled, specific and independent — starting and finishing a journey and giving the listener something new to pay attention to. The project moves Paramore in a new and exciting aesthetic direction towards a more vague, open and ethereal sound. This new sound enables them to question more complex themes, ones they don’t necessarily have easy answers to, and to add more and more layers to their already deep musical composition.

The album addresses a variety of themes from love to confidence to hatred to nostalgia, reflecting Paramore’s lyrical brilliance and flexibility. At every point, each song has at least three or four interesting layers going on, ensuring the album is easy to listen to over and over again – you’ll always find something new.

The album is both quintessentially Paramore and simultaneously brand new. It’s the perfect representation of how beautifully flexible the group can be and of the fantastic product that so often results from that power.

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

“I think something that amazes … me about was not necessarily when she’s up on a stage or when she’s in front of a large group of people or whether the Presidential Medal of Freedom is being hung around her neck,” Ambler said at the panel. “It’s all of the little things. It’s the thousands of hours that she puts into speech therapy just to be able to find the next word [and] the thousands of hours that she puts into physical therapy to be just a little bit stronger.”

According to Ambler, this strength didn’t just lead to a recovery that doctors called miraculous, it also is one of the primary reasons for the mission and success of the nonprofit Giffords.

“[I saw] somebody put so much effort into something

Throughout her recovery, Giffords has developed new passions and hobbies, which helped her get through the rough patches.

“It can be so difficult,” Giffords said. “Losses hurt. Setbacks are hard, but I tell myself, ‘move ahead.’ I’m finding joy in small things: rid[ing] my bike, playing the French horn, going to the gym, laughing with friends. The small things add up.”

Most of all, she has made sure to never give up hope and always fight for what’s right with the people around her.

“I chose to make a new start, to move ahead [and] to not look back,” Giffords said. “I’m relearning so many things — how to walk, how to talk — and I’m fighting to make the country safer. I learned that when people care for each other and work together, progress is possible [and] a better world is possible, but change doesn’t happen overnight, and we can’t do it alone. Join me. Let’s move ahead together.”

rEVIEW ZONE

ROWAN GRAY

LUcIA mArQUEZ-UPPmAN • ThE STUDENT LIFE

l ina Patel teaches playwriting and the art of creative pursuit

Acting has long had a reputation as an exceedingly difficult profession to enter. But to Lina Patel, a theater lecturer at Pomona College, acting felt downright easy compared to the writing career that she wanted but didn’t have the courage to pursue.

“I think I was scared to say I wanted to be a writer,” Patel said. “That just felt overwhelming to me. So I became an actor for a while.”

Professions like medicine or law offer defined pathways to becoming a doctor or lawyer. But writing required Patel to find her own way, as do many creative fields that students hope to enter. Partly for this reason, Pomona’s theater department invites working professionals as visiting professors to teach 5C students concrete skills about their craft.

“We want to build bridges into the professional world,” explained Carolyn Ratteray, associate professor of theatre at Pomona and co-chair of the theatre department. “There is a real-time understanding of what a career in the chosen field could look like from the direct experiences of our teachers.”

This semester, Patel is on campus teaching Playwriting I. She hopes students will leave with an understanding of their writing process and a love of theater, which can help them uncover their authentic voices.

“If anyone says they want to pursue being a writer or an actor, I’d say A, you’re enough, and B, just completely invest in who you are, get to know yourself,” Patel said.

However, knowing yourself is easier said than done, as Patel’s own biography illustrates, and often involves experimentation and detours along the way.

Patel, who was born in India and grew up in Texas and California, garnered a passion for theater in high school. She focused on acting as an undergraduate at New York University and got a master’s in theater at UC San Diego, in part because this seemed like the most viable career path given her interests. This led to her first role at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1999 in “The Importance of

Being Earnest” alongside Patrick Dempsey of “Grey’s Anatomy,” which put her on the map as a professional actor in Los Angeles.

“The roles I was getting as a woman, as a brown woman, were very unsatisfying,” Patel said. “I was always trying to keep my writing side alive.”

So, she dove into playwriting workshops but initially participated as an actor, reading for parts so that writers could hear their work out loud as a way to get her foot in the door of rooms where writers were working.

“People only knew me as an actor,” she said. Here, she met one of her earliest mentors, José Rivera, an acclaimed screenwriter and playwright who has received an Academy Award nomination for his work. Her first play, an adaptation of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” set before the 1947 partition of Bengal, changed everything, earning her a spot at the year-long Center Theater Group’s writer’s workshop. From there, she received a sizable grant from Yale University’s Binger Center for New Theatre, allowing her to fully focus on her writing.

“That was the first moment I was like, oh, I guess I’m transitioning into being a writer now.”

Since then, Patel has worked on numerous projects, participating in the highly esteemed Warner Brothers Writers Workshop which landed her a job writing for the science-fiction television series “The 100.” Other favorite projects range from the TV show “Krypton,” which explores the story of Superman’s origins, to Ava DuVernay’s “Cherish the Day,” a simple love story set in New Orleans.

Currently, Patel is working with BET+ on the pilot for an original series she created that explores the intersection of law enforcement and mental health. Patel explained that once you enter the writing world, your day-to-day job varies widely, and can even carry you away from writing, a sometimes bedeviling consequence of success.

“Ninety percent of your job as a television writer is to pitch

ideas. It’s actually not that much writing,” Patel explained. “If my show was picked up, everything would change. Suddenly I’d be the co-showrunner or executive producer hiring writers … like the CEO of a small company.” Patel still retains creative control over the storytelling, the most important part of writing in her view, which is why she focuses so much on this element in her playwriting class.

She explained that most western storytelling is based on the Aris-

totelian structure that includes six elements: plot, character, thought, diction, spectacle and song. But such structures no longer rule the day.

“There have been non-Aristotelian traditions where things don’t have to happen in a linear fashion,”

Patel said. “Tony Kushner’s play ‘Angels in America’ is a great example. Kushner was really playing with form and breaks Aristotelian notions of linear time, like an angel crashes through the ceiling.”

Patel explained that under -

standing these storytelling forms helps students develop “critical thinking skills” and enables them to “talk about what they’ve seen as opposed to just receiving it passively,” which is the first step of developing one’s own artistic vision.

“The specificity of voice is what I think creates success as a storyteller,” Patel said. “Don’t put yourself in a bubble of people that all think the same as you and talk the same as you. Get out there and love life and then tell your story from your point of view.”

DIALOGUE: ‘Does Context Matter?’ open dialogue broaches issues raised by Mo Amer’s show at Scripps

continued from page 1

Self Representation of Islam and the Middle East in US Media.

“A lot of people were upset that there wasn’t a lot of context given in the article itself. We wanted to establish and understand what really happened and what it means in a way that gives the full picture,” Jansikwe Medina-Tayac PZ ’25, who is one of Esmaeli’s students, said. “There’s so little conversation about these intersecting identities, and the phrase itself is never talked about outside of Middle Eastern communities.”

The dialogue stemmed from the question: To what extent does the context of Amer referencing his oppression as an Arab American justify his use of the N–word, if at all?

Esmaeli introduced the discussion by referencing the implications of college as a predominately white institution that largely fails to take students of color’s

interests to heart.

Lola Latan PZ ’25, a Pitzer Black Student Union (BSU) member, voiced her frustration.

“Despite all this work [BSU] is doing on campus, we’re still receiving pushback. We’re being told we’re complaining. We’re not being taken seriously,” she said. “It’s kind of ironic because [the comedy show] felt like a joke. Is this a joke? Why am I here? ... Am I a joke? It’s almost laughable, but in a sad way. Once again, we are proven that nobody sees us or hears us.”

Attendees of his show also criticized Amer’s offensive mocking of Asian accents. Pitzer professor and attendee Daniel Segal criticized the lack of transparency at Amer’s show.

“Scripps Presents is just wrong to have [the comedy show] without Q&A because any student that wanted to say, ‘you just hurt me,’ couldn’t,” Segal said. “The college campus is supposed to be a place

where you take risks, you express points of view, but you’re subject to a response. Scripps [College] didn’t do that.”

Esmaeli argued that these broader racial concerns coupled with the institutional powers inherent in college campuses demand we confront this issue through an intersectional framework.

As an example, Esmaeli cited that Melvin Oliver, then-president of Pitzer, controversially vetoed the college counsel’s 6720 vote to suspend the college’s study abroad program at the University of Haifa in Israel. The vote was a protest against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.

“An intersectional understanding will see us as holding different positions in different structures that we’re members of.” Esmaeli said. “A Middle Eastern person may be more white-presenting in America, so in the American hierarchy of values their presence is more

akin to whiteness than Blackness. At the same time, Melvin Oliver is an African American who has the institutional power to silence a movement to bring justice to Palestinian people.”

Some attendees argued that in the process of speaking on his lived experience, Amer perpetuated anti-Blackness. The additive of “sand” in front of the N-word doesn’t negate the harm towards Black people. One audience member argued that using the slur to demean a different ethnic group is ultimately using Blackness as an insult.

Many agreed that Amer can and should acknowledge the inherent anti-Blackness in slurs such as “sand N–word” without diminishing the pain of his lived experience as an Arab American.

Prior to the show, Esmaeli invited Amer to engage in a dialogue with MS 124. The final topic of discussion concerned whether he should disinvite Amer, considering the pain

brought on by his show.

Many BIPOC attendees said that much of the burden of explanation would rest on them, and they would have to bear the brunt of the emotional labor in speaking to Amer.

Others expressed that speaking to Amer could improve his content for future campus appearances. Since Amer has achieved adequate cultural capital in the white-dominated comedy industry, he could now tell stories he may have previously sidelined.

“Having Amer come here and talk about this issue will add a lot of value to our topics of discussion,” Zoya Nawaz CM ’23, one of Esmaeli’s students, said.

In closing, Esmaeli stressed the importance of mutual understanding.

“As Americans, our regime funds Amer’s oppression and the destruction of his culture,” he said. “This dialogue is not to dismiss him, but to understand the nuance of social processes.”

cOUrTESY: LINA PATEL

Pomona’s theater department invites working professionals like Lina Patel as visiting professors to teach 5c students concrete skills about their craft.

What TikTok’s self-diagnosis trend misses about mental health

HANNAH FRASURE

Self-diagnosis is trending, with social media deemed the “psychiatrist’s couch” of Gen Z. Countless posts suggest that almost any mental experience is a sign of a disorder. On Instagram, for example, 294,000 posts fall under #ADHDProblems as of March 5, 2023.

A popular video of Fiona Apple’s “awkward” acceptance speech at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards posted on Feb. 13, 2023 by an anonymous TikTok user who purports she has autism. But no public record exists anywhere regarding her having been diagnosed with it.

Better yet: If you’ve ever been so bored in class that your teacher’s voice blurs out — which is everyone — and you begin to picture things to distract yourself, another popular, anonymous TikTok armchair psychologist claims you have ADHD.

“Unfortunately, there is no cure … please get a psychologist; this isn’t normal,” they state, noting all of us also have “maladaptive daydreaming” which “is not considered a disorder (but it should be).”

And lastly, my personal favorite … This popular TikTok video from Feb. 2, 2023 features a Gen Z influencer lip-syncing to a spedup Paramore song. He switches in a matter of seconds from throwing his shirt on the ground, to flashing what’s supposed to be a flirtatious smile, to angrily pointing at his viewer, to giving the camera one last quick smile before transitioning to a pose that one is supposed to guess is … a howling werewolf.

But why is that relevant?

The caption reads, “Bipolar hits different,” though he never mentions on any of his platforms whether he’s been diagnosed.(And even if he has, his depiction has received criticism in the comments from people who allege that they have received the diagnosis.

Yet even as this trend may help

to destigmatize mental illness, we shouldn’t be led to believe that diagnoses are a key to solving the United States’ mental health crisis. This conclusion takes for granted the impact of social norms and systems on mental health — and how prevailing psychiatric explanations for mental illness have at times unscientifically incorporated prevailing cultural attitudes into a diagnostic framework.

Here are just a few historical examples that show sometimes the purpose of diagnoses, rather than to empower people, has been to control them. At one point, enslaved people in the United States. who rightfully desired their freedom were once considered to have a mental illness: “drapetomania.”

Psychiatrists around the world also influenced their countries’ 20th-century sterilization practices by identifying who was too mentally “unfit” to have children — around 60,000 people in the United States, for example, were victims of this law.

Meanwhile, one current prevailing paradigm for understanding all mental illnesses is through the biomedical model, premised upon the idea that an individual’s biology shares the biggest responsibility for mental illness.

But it’s not without its critics, as voiced by this neuroscientist in an article published online in December 2022 in an established neuropsychiatry journal.

“Even though such a reductionist model is still frequently encountered in the research and clinical literature, it does reflect an outdated view of biology. Contemporary biology … is also the analysis of the interactions between neurobiological systems and developmental experiences, interpersonal relationship and social context.”

Mental health interventions on an individual level — brought on

Printing exhibition connects local community and 5Cs

by a diagnosis — are necessary, but just as necessary are solutions at a societal level that address the problems creating the mental suffering in the first place. This can be said of any mental illness and does not require biological influences to be discredited. This is what Gen Z must understand whenever encountering the deluge of Fiona-Apple-and-maladaptivedaydream-type posts: while they may destigmatize experiences deemed to be a mental illness or disorder, they do not challenge the problematic history that diagnoses are rooted in.

Here’s one example in which diagnoses can be accompanied by a shift in thinking about the societal role of mental health.

Some psychiatrists are reconsidering whether to reclassify borderline personality disorder (BPD) as a type of posttraumatic stress disorder due to its correlation with severe abuse. If the reclassification happens, to end the suffering caused by BPD would entail addressing the disorder’s root cause — the social factors permitting environments where such abuse occurs — on top of individual treatment. Mental illness is more than just the sum of an individual’s unwell parts.

The mental health crisis requires collective solutions. While diagnoses may help us identify biological roots of suffering, they have historically neglected societal roots. Lasting change depends on the efforts of community members, policymakers, politicians and researchers from fields outside of medicine, too, to develop comprehensive approaches promoting mental wellness.

Hannah Frasure PO ’24 often sits around pretending to be The Thinker is a philosophy major who began as a neuroscience major.

5C students and Claremont community members recently joined forces to create a printmaking exhibition, titled RePrinting Claremont, which opened at the Garner House on Saturday, March 4. The exhibition weaved together Claremont past, present and future through Claremont Heritage’s Special Collections and student artwork to display the shared roots of the Claremont community.

Claremont Heritage is a non-profit organization focused on keeping community traditions alive through researching, recording and sharing. The Garner House, where the exhibition is located, functions as a community gathering space in the heart of old Claremont at Memorial Park.

“Claremont Heritage turned the former garage into an exhibition and conference space,” David Shearer, executive director at Claremont Heritage, said.

Marina Shishkina SC ’25, a student curator and employee at Claremont Heritage, began working at the organization this past year, when she discovered these special collections in their archives.

“This amazing art was all just tucked away,” Shishkina said.

The space displays prints of local legends within the art community, such as Millard Sheets and Phil Paradise, who inspired many of the art movements in the area.

“Sheets essentially founded the Scripps [College] art department in 1932 and brought in working artists to teach at Scripps,” Shearer said.

Sheets’ legacy continues today through the Scripps Fine Arts Foundation, which gives scholarships to Scripps art students each year.

“I was looking at the art in the archives,” said Shishkina, “and I was like, ‘what the heck, this needs to be shown.’”

RePrinting Claremont also highlights the prints of student artists. A mission of this exhibit is to shed light on the legacy of these local artists within the Claremont community and ultimately how these sources function as inspiration for present and future student artists.

“The student art strengthens the connection to the greater community and is a continuation of the art legacy that comes from the college,” Shearer said.

The exhibition displays several printmaking methods: serigraph, lithograph, etching, collagraph and monoprint, designed to “reflect the diversity of [Claremont’s] art community,” according to Shishkina.

Mel Gross SC ’24, an attendee of the showcase opening, partic-

ularly enjoyed Phil Paradise’s 1940 lithograph “Moon Mad,” which depicts a group of horses in a field at night. It’s one of the oldest pieces at the show.

“I love the style of it, it’s almost like a dreamscape.” Gross said. “It’s very fitting of the intergenerational theme of the event.”

The showcase also features works inspired by the natural spaces within the Claremont community.

“The exhibition provokes this homey atmosphere,” Shishkina said. “You can really feel Claremont as you work your way through the space.”

Interestingly, this showcase tells a story of artistic craft. For instance, the structure of the exhibition reflects the extensive nature of art cultivation. The showcase presents the first drafts, art tools, print blocks and the printmaking press.

Kesi Jackson SC ’23 conceived the set up as conducive to the narrative and linear flow of the exhibition.

“It’s amazing to see the same techniques being used throughout these times,” Jackson said.

The framework of this exhibition aims to reimagine gallery spaces through this event.

“We’ve formulated this exhibition to detach from the white-cube, typical setup,” Shishkina said.

Moreover, the central theme of this showcase is to foster dialogue and a sense of community in Claremont. The curators of this space aim to build bridges for this connection to be possible.

“We’ve placed sofas in the center of this space to signal conversation and comfort with one another,” Shishkina said.

Similarly, Shearer conceives this environment construction as valuable for building relationships.

“It creates the experience of a domestic environment,” Shearer said. “It also allows for people to comfortably interact with each other.”

In essence, the curators hope to see attendees of the event foster relationships and allow the transmission of knowledge across generational lines. They hope to unite the local public and the colleges through these art forms.

“The crowd and experience of the event felt so natural,” Gross said. “There was this sense of closeness present in the space.”

For Shishkina, working on this exhibition has fostered a sense of home in Claremont for her through building relationships and connections with the community.

“Recognizing the history of this new home of mine has been something really special,” Shishkina said. “I hope that people come into the space to begin a new conversation and form a new connection and understanding of Claremont.”

The exhibition continues for community visitation Monday through Friday 10 a.m.-3 p.m. or by appointment through March 24.

How Bong Joon-Ho transcended the subtitle barrier and put international films in the American mainstream

“Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

In 2020, Bong Joon-Ho said these words when accepting the Best International Film award at the Golden Globes. The movie that won this award, “Parasite,” would later go on to win three Academy Awards, making history as the first international film to earn the Best Picture honor. Naturally, audience members like me were confused. How could a Korean movie with social commentary beat out a war flick, an adaptation of “Little Women” and a race car movie, all while triumphing at the American box office?

To the average observer, “Parasite” was a risk for American production companies. Neon, the United States and Canadian distributor of “Parasite,” took a gamble on a foreign film, reaping the benefits of raving audiences and positive critical reception. However, viewing “Parasite” as an isolated film and not as a product of Bong’s extensive filmography discounts the work that he and many other international directors have done to reach these milestones.

“Parasite” is a culmination of Bong’s efforts in both Korean and American filmmaking. By comparing Bong’s dystopian science-fiction

thriller “Snowpiercer” (2013) — which stars a majority American cast and was distributed by the Weinstein Company — with one of his earliest Korean films “Memories of Murder” (2017), we can see how Bong used his understanding of both countries’ cultural themes to transcend the barriers of language and subtitles in films such as “Parasite.”

At their core, both films are commentaries about violence, class and authority. Bong directs “Memories of Murder” from a strictly historical lens, telling the story of a real-life Korean serial killer in the late 1980s. Through color grading techniques and a moody soundtrack, Bong creates an atmosphere which transports viewers to a historical period of paranoia and great fear. He portrays police officers that engage in both brutality and benevolence, having faith that his viewer can spot the nuances in each character’s psyche.

“Snowpiercer” is a much more direct story, depicting revolution in a post-apocalyptic cautionary tale.

As the entire film is set on a train divided by class, Bong restricts the movement of his characters to a forward or backward direction, creating a linear narrative with clear moral boundaries. The film is clearly a story about justice against unjust authority — which is ironic considering it was distributed by

the Weinstein Company.

“Memories of Murder” critiques authority in a less apparent way — the Korean viewer is implored to resist punitive answers and grapple with the unsolved case depicted (the murderer later confessed in 2019). Characters in “Snowpiercer” are eager for revenge and are consistently engaging in violent conflict with their oppressors and each other. In both films, Bong centers the people left behind, whether that be through history or the injustices of the present. While “Memories of Murder” depicts victims and detectives that are left in time, “Snowpiercer” follows the lower class that is left behind in the name of human growth and expansion.

Although these films both use character blocking and set design to articulate Bong’s vision of the past and future, his methods of storytelling differ in drastic ways. For instance, unlike “Snowpiercer,” we rarely see direct depictions of violence in “Memories of Murder.” Bong instead uses the killer’s place in Korean national consciousness to elongate feelings of disgust and dread.

On the other hand, “Snowpiercer” is enveloped in violence, as leaders in the higher and lower classes are killed almost every minute. In a way, Bong’s direction reflects the excess of the

ruling class in “Snowpiercer,” which had a budget 20 times the size of “Memories of Murder.”

By directing grandiose action sequences and CGI surroundings, Bong is completely aware of his story’s scale and the narrative beats that will resonate with American audiences.

Perhaps Bong is signaling to Korean audiences that violence must be justified while showing American audiences that violence may be the only means to overthrow oppressors in dire situations. Pair this commentary with the history of war in Korea and the tendency for Americans to discount radical movements in favor of political civility, and we can begin to see the distinct contexts in which these films were created.

When watching these films, I must say that my viewing experiences were biased. As an American film consumer, I have been jaded by the saturation of what Martin Scorcese calls “theme park” rides, otherwise known as superhero movies, throughout the film industry. It seems to me that American films have become less nuanced, perhaps indicating that American audiences have become less sophisticated and open-minded. So, naturally, when I saw that “Snowpiercer” starred Chris Evans who plays Captain America, I was already anticipating the film’s failure and cursing the

American studios that meddled in Bong’s creative vision.

My mind changed after watching “Snowpiercer.” The film snobbery I previously displayed was thrown out of my metaphorical window, and I realized that both films achieve different goals while contributing to Bong’s directorial growth. I had stopped trying to prove that American film goers were inferior and instead started to analyze Bong’s unique approach to each of his films. His ability to find success in both domestic and international markets is a feat of its own, but his work in “Snowpiercer” and “Memories of Murder” also opened up the opportunity for him to make “Parasite,” a film that is accessible to all audiences.

PETER DIEN

chANGING cINEmA

cOUrTESY: DIcK ThOmAS JOhNSON/ WIKImEDIA cOmmONS Bong Joon-ho won three Oscars for the Korean film “Parasite” in 2020, breaking international barriers that future films hope to replicate.

cOUrTESY: mArINA ShIShKINA

The Garner house, where the exhibition is located, functions as a community gathering space in the heart of old claremont at memorial Park.

LUcIA mArQUEZ-UPPmAN • ThE STUDENT LIFE

JULIA SKAGGS

no, Meatless Mondays will not cause eating disorders

The real problem with Mindful Mondays

CW: Eating disorders

“OPINION: The unintended consequences of Meatless Mondays” pops on my phone. A few seconds into my Instagram scroll, I’m appalled at the content and the ironic timing of this absurd article.

Happy Eating Disorders Awareness Week, everyone! Today, we will be equating a vegetarian diet to a complex mental illness.

The article centers around the idea that by encouraging a form of restriction, Meatless Mondays also encourage disordered eating. This argument completely trivializes the complexity of eating disorders. Restriction does not inherently equal disordered. In fact, restriction can be present in a healthy lifestyle. Many healthy individuals limit their consumption of sweets and drag themselves to the gym at 7 a.m., as may those with eating disorders. Forgive the oversimplification, but it boils down to this: If someone with an eating disorder accidentally overeats or unintentionally misses a workout, they will spiral. Others say “oops” and move on.

So, no, not all forms of restriction will “lend itself to disordered eating,” as Lewis claims. It is not about what a person eats but about why they do or do not eat those things. Choosing to be vegetarian for environmental purposes or skipping lunch because of a tight class schedule does not automatically imply that an individual is suffering from an eating disorder. Externally-forced restriction — as in dining halls not offering meat or your lunch period being too small

— is the opposite of disordered restriction. Eating disorders consist of self-imposed restrictions. There’s a difference between not finding chicken in a dining hall and not being allowed to eat chicken because of some illogical rules constructed by a mental illness. Sorry you went to Frary and had to eat tofu. I can promise that your pain does not come close to the hell on earth that is an eating disorder.

Impressively, the article acknowledges that the relationship between eating disorders and vegetarianism is correlational, not causal, and even provides the correct reason for this connection — yet it still misses the point. Yes, vegetarianism can be a “guise.” But no, vegetarianism does not cause eating disorders. Meatless Mondays will not cause eating disorders.

If someone really wants to claim that Frary is encouraging eating disorders, I would add that protein is the least dangerous food group to not serve. Those who have struggled with disordered eating may have different fear foods, but eliminating the food groups we demonize as “fattening” — i.e. carbohydrates and fats — would be more questionable. Having meatless meals for environmental purposes doesn’t ring any alarm bells.

P.S. On behalf of all Asians, tofu is good. Sorry your taste buds suck.

Daniela Sechen HM ‘23 is from Los Gatos, California. She likes field hockey, pretending to play the drums and Graham Central Station ice cream.

CW: Eating disorders

My name is Sara Anderson, and I am the creator of Mindful Monday. I have been a vegetarian for eight years and an athlete for 18. Hannah Hughes, my co-writer, is the founder and president of the club 5C PlantBased Mission.

Before I created Mindful Monday, I surveyed more than 200 Pomona College students, many of whom expressed a willingness to eliminate meat from at least one meal a week. However, Mindful Monday is not Meatless Monday. Contrary to popular commentary, meat was not completely eliminated from the options. Frary Dining Hall and Frank Dining Hall still offered grilled chicken at the Grill, tuna salad, meat proteins for omelets and many others. Mindful Monday was not designed to withhold meat, but rather to increase student awareness, i.e. mindfulness, around the sheer amount of meat that dining halls serve on a daily basis by decreasing the amount of meat served for one meal at both Frank and Frary on Mondays — a simple elimination of meat from the main line while maintaining access to meat in all other sections of Frary and Frank.

As a member of the varsity track and field team at Pomona, I am aware of the desire and even need for lean protein that many athletes have. As such, the head chefs of both Frary and Frank and I ensured that this type of protein was main-

tained for these individuals.

In her article, Lewis mentions how the dining halls’ “forced restriction” of meat has the potential to promote disordered eating among students. She cites a study from the National Library of Medicine that suggests vegetarianism and eating disorders can have a correlational relationship. But a correlational relationship only indicates that two things happen to occur simultaneously — we cannot infer from this study alone that the promotion of vegetarianism causes eating disorders or disordered eating practices.

Moreover, this study only recruited a small, limited group of female participants without the use of random sampling methods. This means that the findings aren’t generalizable to the entire population of college students at the 5Cs — to make that generalization is a blatant inaccuracy and an incorrect application of the study’s findings.

Eating disorders are something that we should be having open dialogue about at the 5Cs, but to do so exclusively in the context of vegetarianism is a mistake. In reality, many factors can contribute to eating disorders, and to say that vegetarianism is an indicator of illness is a gross oversimplification. Vegetarianism is so much more than a “restrictive” eating practice — it’s about time we stop treating it as such.

The real problem with Mindful Mondays lies not in its “restrictions,” but in its politics. Many Pomona students claim to care about the environment — until it affects them. Too much of the standard environmentalist mindset at Pomona is developed

Jasper’s Crossword: Lights Up

Trades [Central Europe]

33. Round places to live 34. 7-Eleven drink 35. Kind of meal you can make overnight? 36. Parisian pals 37. Assuage 39. Reason not to watch a Game of Thrones scene 40. “I just took a ___ test, turns out...”

41. Took a dip 42. Finely chop garlic 43. Rudolph and Lin, for two [South Asia]

46. “...in my opinion”

47. Danny’s wife in the “Ocean’s” films 48. Anti-Oxford comma regime

50. Musical about a certain neighborhood — or where this puzzle’s circled answers are found?

54. “Jeez, tell us how you really feel!”

55. ___ dancer 56. Code for the web 60. Crunchyroll genre 61. Late PBS anchor Ifill

Woodwind featured on Art Garfunkel’s “Bright Eyes”

More cogent

64. “Cherish the Day” singer

65. Profs’ achievements

DOWN

1. Reddit Q&A

2. Min.’s sixtieth

3. Slayed

4. Walls on a balcony

5. Non-consideration for Elon

Musk

6. Soccer shoes

7. Its powerhouse is the mitochondria

8. Source of back pain

9. Excite

10. The first bilingual Muppet

11. Kelly on “Live!”

12. Activist Brockovich

13. Foxes’ hangouts

21. Places to crash, in a couple ways

22. Affleck in “Manchester by the Sea”

23. Saudi capital

24. They come back for a weekend

25. Titular Mrs. Maisel in a Prime show 29. Mom

not with considerations of climate justice but with the preservation of the status quo steeped in neocolonialism.

Opposition to the Mindful Monday program lies in its perceived connection to morals. Lewis says that “colleges should not be assigning moral value to foods and need to recognize potential consequences when they do.”

But why do we need to think of sustainability as a moral concept? Sustainability is simply the culmination of actions that attempt to guarantee a future for every citizen of the planet. It should not be a moral but rather a standard of behavior.

In 2009, Former Pomona President Oxtoby adopted the Pomona College Climate Action Plan, which commits the school to being carbon neutral by 2030. To attend a school with this goal, with these values, students must understand that sustainability is intrinsic to so much of what they do on campus. From ensuring pools are covered at night to retain heat to composting food scraps from the dining hall at the Farm, student activity is constantly monitored for the potential to make it more sustainable.

The real problem with Mindful Monday is that it showed students how they can contribute to a more sustainable planet — and they weren’t ready to hear it.

Sara Anderson PO ’23 is an international relations major with a focus on environmental policy and security. She is a varsity track and field athlete who throws discus and hammer. Hannah Hughes PO ’25 is a public policy analysis major from Thousand Oaks, California. She loves cats and baking vegan desserts.

BELLa

37. Drowning (in), metaphorically

38. Participates in a coop?

39. Spot for overpriced t-shirts

41. More refined

42. Vapor

44. Where couch potatoes like to be

45. Drooped

49. It’s tapped for apps

50. “___ elected to lead, not to read” –President Schwarzenegger on “The Simpsons”

51. “Strega ___”

52. Gemini, say

53. State where hogs outnumber people seven to one

57. “In truth,” in a text

58. PC game hack

59. “___ Misérables”

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

DANIELA SECHEN

SARA ANDERSON & HANNAH HUGHES

PETTENGILL • ThE STUDENT

MarGINaLIa: A COMIC BY JASPER DAVIDOFF

crUD WOrLD: A COMIC BY GERRIT PUNT

BELLa PETTENGILL • ThE STUDENT LIFE

LEhaVI • ThE STUDENT LIFE

cErVaX, hEaDMaSTEr OF GYNEcOLOGY “LOOKS LIKE ThEY WErE OUT OF ThIN MINTS.”

The philanthropic white savior problem –and the mutual aid solution

Staggering wealth inequality is an issue across the globe — including within the 5Cs. To combat this inequality, some students from wealth-privileged backgrounds are redistributing their money to help other students who face poverty, housing insecurity and more in a process known as mutual aid. At the 5Cs, mutual aid has been used on countless occasions, from supporting low-income students in need of financial assistance to the mobilization of Occupy Pomona during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a concept, mutual aid defies our society’s tendency toward capitalist individualism by stressing the importance of community care and solidarity, instead of mere charity. Many philanthropist groups attempt to emulate this ideology of mutual aid under the guise of wealth redistribution.

But I believe there’s a stark difference between philanthropy and mutual aid. Philanthropy fails to renounce power and privilege from the donor.

The history of mutual aid has rich roots in American marginalized communities. From Indigenous populations to the Black Panther Party, mutual aid has served to satisfy the needs of community members when the system neglects them. While mutual aid often serves as a surface-level solution to systemic problems, it successfully provides food, housing, healthcare and other necessary means of survival for those in need. Oh, and one more thing: mutual aid can be a tool against white supremacy.

Mutual aid concentrates power and autonomy into the most oppressed members of society rather than forcing them to rely on people in power. When oppressed populations can fend for themselves, they can directly challenge the conditions that they are forced to endure. Thus,

mutual aid is a fundamental component of social justice movements.

On the other hand, the correlation between whiteness and philanthropy is stark. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, 90 percent of foundation CEOs are white and 85 percent of foundation boards are white. And when these white millionaires allocate a portion of their funds to a charity or nonprofit organization, they’re still millionaires. They still hold power over the marginalized group that they claim to be uplifting. So, not only does power remain concentrated in the upper echelon of wealth, but it also remains concentrated in white supremacy.

The white savior complex complicates any philanthropic attempts to redistribute wealth in hopes of alleviating suffering produced by the system. White people, then, assume the role of the savior when engaging in this kind of wannabe mutual aid — not because they feel that oppressed people deserve to thrive and prosper — but because they feel that said people are helpless victims. This is not mutual aid at all. Many of these philanthropists are incentivized to donate for tax write-offs or social gratification. This white savior kind of philanthropy does not require any intention of actually standing in solidarity with oppressed people or dedicating as many resources that can be

spared toward their liberation. Mutual aid has prioritized the marginalized as organizers, allowing communities to resolve the conditions that marginalized them in the first place. If the relationship between many communities of color and philanthropists is transactional and in favor of the oppressor, then mutual aid is philanthropy’s antethis. Mutual aid exemplifies the success that marginalized communities can achieve when they mobilize together in mass numbers. Think about it like this: if 100 people can redistribute $5, they can raise more funds than one person who redistributes $100. But there’s more: mutual aid does not only empower mar-

ginalized people — it’s actually more responsive in addressing community needs than government programs. According to HuffPost, “grassroots responses … referred to as ‘the people’s infrastructure,’ can react more quickly to specific local needs than a legislative body allocating and distributing funds from afar.” Times of crisis require immediate attention, which current tedious processes of obtaining government funding don’t provide. If time is of the essence, then a system by which funds can be raised overnight depending on the size of the existing network is a huge deal. Mutual aid is an efficient and effective answer during a state of emergency that rivals the delay in receiving government support, especially if support is not available or accessible for marginalized communities to begin with — but that’s another story.

In a political, economic and cultural system where white people have outsized control over material resources, white dominance and non-white subordination are reenacted across a broad array of institutions and social settings on a daily basis. Philanthropy allows white supremacy to manifest itself into a relationship of dependence between white people and people of color — and mutual aid is the perfect counter.

Through philanthropy, communities of color are provided resources on the terms of white philanthropists, who determine whether people of color are deserving or qualified to receive assistance at all. If we give white wealth the responsibility to provide access to life saving resources, we are effectively giving them the power to decide who lives and who dies. Reflect on those optics — and re-evaluate how you give.

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

The Claremont Colleges should make Election Day a holiday

MADISON LEWIS

College students are notoriously flakey when it comes to voting — although recent trends show that participation is indeed on the rise. If college should be a time for newly eligible voters to develop civic habits and explore what democratic participation looks like for them, then institutions must give them the tools to do so. Colleges can, and should, play an active role in boosting student turnout.

Yes, I know it’s March. We are still eight months away from the next election. I know it feels too early to be talking about this. But if I have learned anything from working two cycles of campaign organizing, it’s that when it comes to college students, it’s never too early to make a plan to vote.

The 5Cs currently treat Election Day like any other Tuesday. This is a missed opportunity. To emphasize the importance of voting and make it more accessible for students, the 5Cs should treat Election Day as a national holiday.

The four years students spend in college are pivotal for forming adult habits and self-definition. For many fresh 18-year-olds, voting for the first time feels like the official beginning of adulthood, but voting is easier said than done. Just like navigating any bureaucratic process, understanding voter registration, absentee requests and mail-in ballots can be intimidating and time-consuming. Without guidance and incentive, voting tends to fall off the priority list for many students.

Voting can become habitual in the first few years away from home — so as long as students receive institutional support. Colleges will not produce civically-engaged graduates until they

become active in facilitating student voter participation. Making Election Day a holiday at the Claremont Colleges is a critical first step.

Canceling classes on Election Day would allow students to access the two biggest resources that are often barriers to voting: time and information. Students could divert some energy usually directed towards classwork to research candidates and make informed decisions on their ballot. Similarly, they could devote an afternoon to visit the post office to submit an absentee ballot or wait in line to vote locally in person.

Voting in college is more complicated than many of us would like to admit — certainly, it entails much more than checking off a box. Students from every state in the country attend the 5Cs, and they have to navigate different voting laws and decide if they want to vote from their home or college address.

No, the 5Cs can’t make voting easy for every student — students are responsible for doing their own research, making a plan to vote and following through — but making Election Day a holiday gives students the agency to participate in the process. A core feature of liberal arts education is being able to understand the world around us. Locked away in our academic halls, we sometimes forget to engage with it. Voting is the most fundamental way we reflect on what we care about, make choices with real-world implications and exercise our power as individuals.

Without classes, the floodgates of civic participation opportunities open: students can

not only vote, but poll work, poll watch or volunteer for a campaign to gain a practical education of the civic process. Making Election Day a holiday forces students to take a pause and engage in their relationship with their communities. It would not be a day off for students but rather a much needed day on.

While it is true that voting as a working adult in the real world poses many if not more of the same time constraints college students face, for better

or worse, college is not the real world. Campus administrations have the unique power to dictate student life in a way that does not exist in almost any other setting — it’s time they leverage it for good.

Once students learn to navigate the voting process, it can become an ingrained habit. The 5Cs have a direct opportunity to help students develop strong voting habits before post-grad life gets in the way.

Colleges cannot expect their

students to prioritize civic engagement unless they do the same. More than anything, treating Election Day as a campus national holiday is an opportunity for the 5Cs to make the ultimate clear value statement: voting matters.

Madison Lewis PO ’24 is from Palo Alto, California. She has worked in two cycles of political organizing for Democratic candidates and designed multiple campus voting engagement programs.

LINDA PHAN

SaSha MaTThEWS • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Athenas lacrosse tames Oxy Tigers in impressive 20 point win

AUDREY SAWYER

After a devastating loss to Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) in the first round of the NCAA tournament last season, the ClaremontMudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s lacrosse team came into the 2023 season more motivated than ever.

CMS lacrosse claimed their first home victory of the season Saturday afternoon, destroying the Occidental Tigers in a 24-4 blowout. Their victory followed a Wednesday night win over Whittier on March 1.

Midfielder Emma Merk CM ’24 explained that the Athenas came into the game with a teamoriented mindset.

“After our Whittier game, we decided that we wanted to focus on working together as a team and making each other look good,” Merk said.

Abby Parrish CM ’23, a senior captain for the Athenas, reiterated Merk’s statement, emphasizing that the team’s main goal was to maintain their game plan.

“At the beginning of the game, our coach told us that we had to play our game and not focus too much on what the other team was doing,” Parrish said. “We’ve been practicing being very diligent and disciplined.”

The Athenas’ focused strategy was put into effect early as they started the game off strong, mounting an impressive 6-1 lead five minutes into the first quarter. Sticking to their gameplan, the

Athenas were able to secure such a strong lead by capitalizing on four straight draw control wins to cut through a weak Occidental defense. During the remainder of the first quarter, the Athenas added six additional goals to bring the score to 12-1.

The second quarter proceeded in similar fashion, with little action from the Occidental Tigers, who added three more shots but were unsuccessful in scoring. A strong CMS offense paired with a weak Occidental defense led the Athenas to add an additional five goals, marking 17 straight goals for the Athenas and bringing the score to 17-1.

Headed into the second half, Parrish spoke on the team’s strategy to staying locked in and maintaining the lead.

“These games are really hard because sometimes you can lose track of the discipline we talked about earlier, so we have to pretend like we are playing our toughest opponent and continue to play really disciplined,” she said.

Echoing Parrish’s sentiment, Cate Lewison HM ’26 added that the Athenas focused on maintaining the energy they exhibited in the first half.

“We wanted to focus on keeping the energy on and off the field … and continuing to cheer for our teammates while remaining really disciplined in our offensive sets and keeping

one hundred percent effort the whole time,” Lewison said.

Sticking to their game plan, the Athenas continued to put up a strong defense in the third quarter, only allowing Occidental to score once. The Athenas added three more goals to their tally, one of which was an impressive unassisted firstcareer goal for Kelsey Heffernan SC ’26. Following the three Athena goals, the score stood at 20-2 heading into the final quarter of the game.

The fourth quarter was full of action with goals from both sides. Early on, the Tigers scored twice to bring the score to 20-4. The Athenas quickly responded with four straight goals to bring the final score to 24-4. The final two goals for the Athenas came from Hannah Conte CM ’26, the first of which was her firstcareer goal. Reflecting on the win, Lewison mostly attributed the team’s success to its leadership.

“We have awesome leaders in every grade, especially our senior captains and they make sure that everyone on the team knows that they are valued on the field,” Lewison said.

Speaking as a senior captain, Parrish added that the discipline that the Athenas display on the field stems from the respect they have for each other off the field.

“As a captain, I think my teammates look up to me, but I look up to them a lot too,”

Parrish said. “Everyone on this team, no matter their grade, can bring something valuable to the team.”

With a positive mindset and team-focused attitude, Merk said that she is looking forward to strengthening her relationships with her teammates during the rest of the season.

“I’m just looking forward to getting to know my team better,”

Merk said. “I love getting to know every single girl and part of what makes it so much fun for me is that we’re all working together towards a similar goal which is really fun and uniting.”

Adding another win to their record, the Athenas now sit at 2-0 where they look forward to facing 4-0 P-P in the first Sixth Street Rivalry game of the season on March 9 at 7 p.m.

Driving through the blooming springtime groves of the Inland Empire in the year 1911, the Boston Red Sox baseball team departed Claremont, celebrating a victory over none other than Pomona College. Save for a singular photo of it from the 1912 edition of Pomona’s yearbook on Wikipedia, this game has remained relatively unknown to the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) athletic community.

However, in a series of articles uncovered from news publications including TSL, the Claremont Courier and the Boston Globe, as well as the book, “The Great Red Sox Spring Training Tour of 1911” by Bill Nowlin, the events of the game have been confirmed.

Incredibly, this is not where the story of these teams ends. While reporters from the Globe and the Boston Journal lambasted the collegiate shenanigans taking place during the game and Pomona’s distance from the Pacific Ocean, they did so while fully unaware that the two organizations would cross paths once again.

Now, over a century after Boston came to Claremont, the Red Sox have brought P-P – the schools came together athletically in 1970 – to Beantown, turning the Sagehen’s program into a major player in professional baseball. Three of Boston’s draft picks in the past 15 years have been Sagehen alumni and even more have made it to the team’s front office. Together, the teams have constructed a Sagehen network on and off of the field, working to shift the image of P-P and Division III athletes in the game.

The Red Sox head to the West Coast

In that fateful spring of 1911, the Red Sox embarked on their first ever venture to the West Coast, traveling to California to escape the Boston winter and train for the upcoming season. Although Major League Baseball (MLB) would not put a team in California for another 46 years, the Red Sox were not the first team to travel to the Golden State; in fact, they were not even the first Sox to do so.

From 1908-1910, the Chicago White Sox made three preseason trips to California, but when they announced they would be playing their 1911 spring training in Texas, Red Sox owner John I. Taylor, who according to Nowlin, was “infatuated” with California, decided that Boston was headed west.

While the White Sox stayed planted in one city for the entirety of their trips (Los Angeles in 1908 and San Francisco in 1909 and 1910), the Red Sox split their team in half to take the state north to south, deciding to play a massive 63-game schedule in just 76 days. For comparison, Boston is set to play 34 spring training games in 2023.

The Red Sox would face off against Califonia’s best, including a mix of teams from the Pacific Coast League, the state’s premiere professional league known for producing players like Red Sox legend Ted Williams, and a number

of college teams. One of these collegiate squads was Pomona, the only Claremont College established at the time.

Pomona faces off against the Red Sox

Roughly a month into their trip on March 20, just hours after being received as “honored guests” in the city of Pomona, Boston was escorted in a legion of automobiles into Claremont. They would defeat Pomona College’s baseball team 7-0 at Alumni Field.

TSL, having been founded in 1889, was already over 20 years in production. They covered the game and, despite the lopsided score, reported that the team now known as the Sagehens, but at the time known as the “Blue and White,” put up quite a fight.

“The [Red Sox] came out expecting to see a most terrible slaughter, likewise all were agreeably surprised,” TSL wrote. “The team had to play faster, better, harder ball in order to hold the big-leaders down to that number of tallies. It was an exhibition game but a practice game as well and the members of the squad certainly assimilated considerable experience.”

With Pomona’s having just 386 undergraduate students at the time, the game nearly doubled the oncampus population, bringing out a crowd of 760 fans. There was no doubt a jovial atmosphere present as, according to the Boston Globe, several students hurled oranges at players during play.

This was not taken as an offense, however, as future inner-circle Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, Tris Speaker proceeded to eat “several [of the oranges] as well as a bag of peanuts, while playing the outfield,” wrote Tim Murnane of the Globe.

Nevertheless, the amiability of this competition came under fire by the Boston media, namely Herman Nickerson of the Boston Journal.

“[It was] the most farcical of games,” Nickerson said. “We simply went into the backwoods of California to play a game of ball for the express benefit of a few students.”

Murnane was further displeased by the behavior of the students in attendance.

“[They were] about the windiest lot of kids ever discovered,” Murnane wrote. “However, the Red Sox soon took the conceit out of the youths.”

Pomona was not expected to win this game, but in writing them off completely, Nickerson diminished the ability of the team’s star twoway player, Harry Kingman PO 1913. Kingman, who was inducted into the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) Hall of Fame in 1968, not only smoked a double, but struck out Speaker, something the Boston center fielder only did 34 times in the 1911 regular season.

In 1914, Kingman would go on to reach the Major Leagues as a member of the New York Yankees, the legendary rivals of the Sox. Regardless of his short career in the Show, Kingman is the only Sagehen alum to make the bigs and was the

only one in any level of MLB pro ball for decades.

As Speaker and the boys from Beantown packed up their gift baskets of oranges, which according to the Boston Globe contained love letters from local residents, they left the “backwoods” of California, marking their history in Claremont as nothing more than an obscure trivia question.

The Sox and Sagehens reunite

However, 96 years later, the Red Sox returned to the City of Trees and PhDs looking to take home more than just oranges.

In 2009, Drew Hedman PO ’09 was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the fiftieth round of the MLB draft. The fifth Sagehen ever drafted, and the first Sagehen to ever join the Red Sox franchise system, Hedman was ecstatic to receive the call to Fenway.

“It was a no-brainer,” Hedman said. “I [had] accepted a consulting job and happily called them the day after I was drafted and told them I was gonna go play… [I’m] fortunate that that was a reality for me.”

Boston’s choice of Hedman was driven by Jim Woodward, a scout for the Sox living in Claremont. A year later, Woodward had his eye on another Sagehen, James Kang PZ ’10. According to Kang, a California native, Woodward influenced his decision to attend Pitzer.

“I’ve known Jim Woodward … for over 20 years now,” Kang said. “He always mentioned to me to always prioritize going to a good school and a good academic fit.”

Kang saw his selection as influenced by P-P’s growing reputation as a program with an emphasis on academics and character.

Natural roommates in the minors, Hedman and Kang progressed significantly, reaching the Double-A and Triple-A levels respectively. Regardless of not making the majors, as their playing careers came to a close, their time in baseball was just beginning. After retirement, Hedman began coaching, working his way up the minor league system and

cOUrTESY: POMONa’S 1912 EDITION YEarBOOK, ThE METaTE

is now the assistant hitting coach and head of minor league hitting for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In his position, Hedman is poised to recognize the talent of fellow former DIII players such as former D-Back and Ithaca College alum, Tim Locastro.

“[Locastro] performed and he’s been getting some opportunities in the big leagues,” Hedman said. “If you go out there and really do everything that you can and an organization wants you, [it] doesn’t matter where you’re from … If you can help them win, you’re gonna get opportunities.” Meanwhile, Kang returned to the Red Sox as an international scout and is now the international crosschecker for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kang believes that his second career in the game was planned from the start.

“In the long run, [Woodward] saw that I would be a good fit in terms of working in baseball after my playing career,” Kang said.

While still working for Boston, Kang played a pivotal role in continuing to build ties between the two programs.

During the 2017 draft, the Red Sox needed a sleeper pick with high upside. Recognizing their previous success with Sagehens, they tasked Kang with securing Tanner Nishioka PZ ’17, who was named First Team All-DIII that year. Acting as a middleman, Head Coach Frank Pericolosi gave play by play of the event.

“James Kang … calls me up and says, ‘hey, would Tanner sign with the Red Sox,’ and then a couple minutes later, they announced that Tanner was drafted in the ninth round,” Pericolosi said.

More recently, the P-P to Red Sox pipeline has extended beyond the draft, thanks to the support of players already in the organization.

Jake Bruml PO ’15, who joined the Red Sox in 2019 as an intern and now amateur scout, explained how Kang has become a mentor for former Sagehens.

“[Kang] came across my resume as I submitted it and helped push me through the hiring process for our interns,” Bruml said. “I spent a

lot of time with Kang my intern year just trying to pick his brain,” Bruml said. “[We] probably get together once a month or every six weeks to just chat and catch up.”

Hedman and Kang’s dedication to building a support system for DIII and P-P athletes has already played a role in giving new opportunities to players who may have otherwise been looked over by major league teams. With seven players drafted since 2003 and alumni like Bruml working behind the scenes, Kang described the Sagehen network currently operating within Major League Baseball.

“It’s gotten to the point where [Pericolosi is] able to recruit kids and say, ‘When you come to P-P, it’s not just any other [DIII] school. If you’re good enough you’ll be able to continue your career in professional baseball,’” Kang said. “[P-P] is almost like a miniature pipeline… whether you work in the front office or as a player.”

Ultimately, this golden age of P-P in professional baseball has been driven by the willingness of the Red Sox in taking a chance on California’s backwoods. Together, their symbiotic relationship has come to bring a wave of formerly underrecognized talent into the game.

In addition to creating business mentorships, the pipeline has also led to lifelong friendships with Kang even officiating Hedman’s wedding. Much of this is due to the work of Pericolosi, who saw the network in full effect during this year’s alumni weekend.

“We had our biggest weekend ever,” Pericolosi said. “They’re really invested in the program. It’s a good way for the older guys to get to know the younger guys … [and] connect everyone together.”

Although Pericolosi does not see a major league team returning to Alumni Field anytime soon, as a school now known for producing professional talent, perhaps they could put up a challenge in the modern day and no doubt TSL of 1911 would be in full support.

“We have the team worth backing up, and our loyalty to it ought only to be measured by the love we bear for Pomona,” TSL wrote.

112 years ago, the Boston Red Sox faced off against Pomona College. Today they are working together to change the perception of DIII baseball

BEN LAUREN

a Pomona college pitcher attempts a pick off on a Boston baserunner during the red Sox 7-0 victory over the “Blue and White” at alumni Field on March 20, 1911.

Stags baseball sweep Sagehens in historic Sixth Street series

With a Stags stampede leaving Sixth Street covered in Sagehen feathers, Claremont-MuddScripps (CMS) baseball grabbed a broom from the very back of their equipment closet and swept away Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) last Saturday.

CMS baseball capped off their three-game Sixth Street series sweep of P-P with a 16-4 victory on March 4 at Alumni Field. The Stags’ season sweep of the Sagehens is their first on record, dating back to 2007 at the start of the SCIAC archives.

In contrast to the snow capping the mountains behind Claremont, the Stags came into the series blazing hot, taking the March 3 opener 11-6 at Biola University thanks to two home runs from SCIAC slugging (SLG) and on-base plus slugging (OPS) leader, Julian Sanders CM ’24. CMS followed up this performance the next day against P-P, coming from behind and scoring two runs in the ninth inning to take the narrow 6-5 victory, pushing all of the momentum to their side of Sixth Street heading into the final game of the set.

The Stags flew out of the gate in the series finale. After Jack Potter CM ’25 was hit on the hands, Sanders took advantage with a runs batted in (RBI) double. This was just a taste of CMS’s conference-leading slugging as immediately after, Paul Roche CM ’23 crushed a bomb to dead center, putting the Stags up 3-0. After scoring once in the second, CMS put up another slugfest in the third. With a runner on first, Sanders took a pitch from Sagehens starter, Eddie Rosemont PZ ’24, deep for his SCAIC-topping ninth long-ball of the season.

“[I was] really just looking for offspeed,” Sanders said. “I knew that yesterday I hit it pretty well and I [thought] they were going to switch up their approach, so I was waiting for it. Saw the ball well and just cleared my mind.”

The Stags were not satisfied with

their six run lead, however. Roche refused to be outdone, sending a back-to-back solo jack into the street for his second dinger of the game.

“I was just trying to hit the ball hard, trying to stay relaxed up there and put a good swing on it,” Roche said.

Adding another two runs on a double by Roche in the fourth, the Sagehens offense looked all but toe-tagged. Nevertheless, P-P awakened in the bottom of the fourth with two men on and David Bedrosian PZ ’23 stepping to the plate.

The SCIAC’s OPS leader in 2022, Bedrosian’s declining slugging in 2023 has been symbolic of P-P’s offensive troubles thus far into the season. However, things appeared to be on the upswing as Bedrosian pulled a ball high over the right field fence to put the Sagehens on the board.

Cutting the lead to six, P-P followed up with two singles and a

walk to load the bases with one out. Nevertheless, Stags starter, Henry Connell HM ’25, recomposed himself, managing to squash the Sagehens’ golden opportunity by forcing P-P slugger Isaac Kim PO ’24 to settle for a sacrifice fly and keeping CMS on top 9-4.

This burst of offense proved to be all the Sagehens could muster as the Stags proceeded to dominate for the remainder of the afternoon. Although CMS didn’t score in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, it was the lights-out performance of reliever Dominic Rolla CM ’26, who held the Hens to just a single hit in four innings, that packed up the game for the Stags.

The quality of play on the mound paved the way for a final offensive onslaught from CMS. Including an RBI single by Sanders and a double for Roche, his fourth extra base hit of the game, the Stags dropped seven runs in the eighth inning, putting them ahead insurmountably at 16-4.

CMS, PP co-host 27 teams at annual Convergence water polo tournament

The near-constant sound of the buzzer echoed all across the 5Cs last weekend as Claremont-MuddScripps (CMS) and Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s water polo teams hosted their annual Convergence tournament.

The tournament drew 27 teams from around the country and across all NCAA divisions to Southern California to play in a total of 53 matches in two days. CMS and P-P faced a mix of top-ranked Division I and Division III teams. Both the Sagehens and the Athenas came away from the tournament with two wins and two losses against some common opponents.

They each lost to DI No. 2-ranked USC (P-P lost 21-6, CMS lost 17-8) and beat DI unranked Iona University (P-P won 12-9, CMS won 15-4). In CMS’ other two games, they lost to DI No. 15 University of the Pacific 15-9 and beat DIII No. 8 Augustana College

21-13. PP lost to DI No. 10 UC Santa Barbara 13-5 and beat DI No. 22 Long Island University 13-11.

The tournament came early in the water polo season, with most teams’ conference play beginning on March 6. According to Elise Whitworth ’26, a driver for Cal State East Bay, the tournament provided a good opportunity to strengthen their team chemistry as they head into the regular season.

“I think this is a great experience for us,” Whitworth said. “We’ve had some growing pains as a team this tournament, but it’s all just to get ready for conference which is coming up really soon. It helps to play new teams and also teams that we’re going to see again during conference, so it’s been a great way to prepare.”

The growing pains Whitworth was referencing came in the form of close losses Friday night to Concordia-Irvine (14-11) and

Saturday morning to Azusa Pacific (12-11). She said that the quick turnaround between games in a tournament like this allows the team to test out new strategies on the fly and refine their tactics quickly.

“We had a conversation last night coming off [the] loss against Concordia, and we just talked about not letting them come back after we score a goal and keeping our intensity high straight from the beginning of the game,” Whitworth said. “We still have to work on getting our goal and getting back and focusing on defense so that they can’t get the next one.”

East Bay was able to implement that strategy for their last game of the tournament, a 21-8 win against Chapman, who they will face again later this season during conference games.

Kasey Markell ’24, a 2-meter defender for Chapman, said that while the result against East Bay wasn’t what they had hoped for, the game was beneficial in other ways.

“We’re playing them again later this season,” Markell said. “We’re really excited to see how we’ve improved over time… it was really good to just get our team in those clinch moments and just see what we can do when we’re tired and pushing through.”

For many teams, the tournament was the last in a series of pre-season tournaments typically used by programs to get some experience under their belts.

According to Marija Mijuskovic ’25, a utility player for Biola, aside from conference preparation, the tournament provided a great opportunity for teams to get to know each other outside of the pool.

“[We’ve been] traveling almost every weekend,” Mijuskovic said. “[Our] first tournament was in Arizona, so it was a farther trip.

Then we’ve been to Fresno … [traveling is] always fun — it helps us build team chemistry. We always do some fun activities outside of the pool.”

“Traveling with your team is the absolute best,” Markell added. “There’s nothing that beats it. It’s so cool to be able to have time in the car with each other, listening to music we like or just talking about the game strategy as we’re walking up. It really helps with our chemistry in the pool in ways that you just can’t get otherwise.” A few schools, such as Biola and Chapman, only had a 30-minute drive to Claremont, while other teams had to travel much further. One such team was Cal State East Bay. However, Whitworth said she enjoys the travel time with her team.

“I feel like my favorite memories that I’ve made this season were from when we were traveling and having late nights together,” Whitworth said. “We can hang out in the hotel room, and it’s really fun.”

Whitworth and East Bay combined strategizing and team bonding in one of their final activities of the tournament: being match spectators together.

“We watched Biola play because they’re in our conference,” Whitworth said.

“We’ll be playing them in the next couple of weeks for conference, so that’ll be a big game that I’m looking forward to.”

Markell said the weekend of water polo provided a great opportunity for teams to get to know one another.

“I think it’s just super cool to see so many teams across so many divisions competing in the same places and getting to know each other in different ways,” Markell said. “It’s so cool.”

cOUrTESY: cMS aThLETIcS

Head Coach Bill Walkenbach explained how his team responded so strongly to the Sagehens’ attempted comeback.

“We always know that when we play a team like [P-P] that’s usually one of the top offensive clubs in the country, they’re gonna punch back,” Walkenback said. “But we have a lot of confidence in our offense. That we can punch back, as well, and answer a big inning from [them].”

After another shutdown inning in the bottom of the eighth by Rolla, the game was called and the Stags had claimed the sweep in exuberant fashion.

Having been swept six times by P-P since 2009, this series was no doubt cathartic for a CMS team attempting to break through as the conference’s best. Walkenbach saw the sweep as incredibly important.

“It means a lot to this team,” Walkenbach said. “[P-P is] an extremely solid ball club and we know they’re always gonna put up

a good fight … we are just trying to establish ourselves as a team in this league that has a chance to win, and this was another step towards that.”

The establishment Walkenbach described is no doubt already in effect as CMS has made incredible strides in their offensive game. Leading the SCIAC in the triple slash line, the Stags have asserted themselves as the conference’s undisputed powerhouses at the plate. Walkenbach explained their surge at the dish as having a domino effect.

“I think it’s collective confidence,” Walkenbach said. “Hitting is contagious. When you get a group of guys that feel good about themselves and the guy behind [them] in the lineup, it just takes some pressure off of you and you just end up maybe seeing the ball a little bit better.”

A player who no doubt adds to this collective confidence is Sanders, who hit for a .667 average and dropped 10 RBIs on the Sagehens. Sanders, who has increased his SLG by an impressive .512 points from last season, spoke on how he has taken such an enormous leap.

“It’s really been about clearing my mind at the plate,” Sanders said. “I used to overthink a lot and think about what the pitcher was doing. Now I ignore all of that and just try and hit.”

With the victories, CMS improved their overall record to 11-4 and conference record to 5-1, sitting at second behind Cal Lutheran. After a victory over Whitman on March 5, P-P now stands at 8-7 overall and 1-4 in the SCIAC putting them in eighth in the conference.

P-P will look to right their ship in a homestand against three nonconference opponents beginning with Endicott College at 1 p.m. on March 12.

Meanwhile, CMS will be riding a wave of momentum as they travel to Arizona to play in the Tucson Invitational with their first game scheduled against Allegheny College on March 10 at 10 a.m.

Greenshirts prioritize ‘Spirit of Game’ at annual Claremont Classic tournament

The skies were overcast and rainy on Sunday morning. But as students remained warm in their dorms, the roars of the Claremont Greenshirts, the Claremont Colleges’ women’s and gender expansive ultimate team, could still be heard echoing around campus. The Greenshirts, otherwise known as the Greens, hosted the Claremont Classic last Sunday, an invitational round-robin tournament featuring Occidental, UC San Diego, UC Irvine and UCLA. The Greenshirts went 3-1 at the Classic with dominant and crucial wins throughout the day, but according to Linda Phan PO ’24, win or lose, “Spirit of the Game” is what drives the Greens.

“Spirit of the Game is something that totally makes frisbee super unique from other sports,” Phan said. “[It’s] kind of our way of centering sportsmanship and making sure that everyone’s having fun before competition.”

Even though the Classic had major implications for national seedings, the tournament was hosted to so much more than just on-field play. Songs, dances and intense cheers are all a part of the Greens’ mission to create a community that celebrates teamwork, sportsmanship and equal opportunities while also providing a competitive environment for a team with National Championship aspirations.

Sylvie Kromer SC ’25 said the Greens’ dedication to Spirit of the Game is what drew her to the team.

“My high school team was very intense and very competitive, it wasn’t always the most fun,” Kromer said. “Coming to the Greens, it was so nice. It’s such a lovely community of people … and I feel [the] people on the team have become some of my best friends.”

Throughout all the games at the Claremont Classic, the Greenshirts could be heard screaming their hearts out, cheering on both their teammates and their opponents.

These cheers and dances are part of a rich history of the Greens, something Phan finds incredibly special about the team.

“Our cheers kind of go hand in hand with the Spirit of the Game element in frisbee,” Phan said.

“[They] are used to hype us up, but it’s also to foster a welcoming and fun environment for all the people who are here to watch and the teams [we] are playing against. Our cheers are passed down throughout the years of our team [and are a] testament to the different histories we have here at 5Cs,” Phan said.

The Classic closed with a rematch against the Greens’ heated rival, Occidental. In their third matchup of the season, the Greens won a thrilling game that came down to the final point.

As the only two DIII women’s frisbee teams in the Southwest region, matchups between Occidental and the Greens have major national tournament implications. Given their national ranking, the Greens (21) will have to go through Occidental (23) to receive a bid in the National Tournament. According to Phan, these frequent matchups have led to a friendly rivalry between the two squads.

“We love Oxy,” Phan said. “There’s a lot of camaraderie since we only play them for the bid to Nationals.”

Despite their rivalry, Spirit of the Game remains a priority for both teams, and the tensions never grow too high.

“The rivalry … has [the] opportunity to create tension with the Spirit of the Game aspect,” Phan said. “But I think one of the big things about frisbee is that competition never outweighs Spirit of the Game, and if it does, that’s something that is … held accountable.”

As the chase for a National Championship grows closer, their hearts are set on a title, but for Rachel Ressmeyer PZ ’26, National Championship or not, the Greenshirts will remain one of her favorite parts of Claremont.

“Every day I look forward to seeing the team, no matter what we’re doing,” Ressmeyer said. “They’re all super supportive and it’s definitely the best choice I’ve made in college so far.”

Paul Roche CM ’23, who had two home runs in the Sixth Street series finale, gears up to turn on a pitch in the Stags 16-4 victory over the Sagehens.

HAROLD FUSON