VOL. CXXXVI NO. 1

VOL. CXXXVI NO. 1

FRIDAY, September 13, 2024

CLAREMONT, CA

“Mask Up” zine at ASPC club fair table causes concerns of antisemitism ANNABELLE INK & JUNE HSU A zine distributed at last week’s 5C club fair is raising concerns among students for what some describe as antisemitic ideas and propaganda.

Several copies of the zine, titled “Palestinian Solidarity, COVID-19, and the Struggle for Palestinian Liberation,” were laid out on an informational table run by the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC).

ASPC later stated that they did not produce the zine and that they were not aware of its presence on the table until after the fair. At the time of publication, it is unknown who printed it.

Spanning 40 pages, the zine was created by Sheyam Ghieth and Rimona Eskayo, two artists unaffiliated with the Claremont Colleges.

Plastered across the cover is an illustration of a woman wearing a keffiyeh and a mask, with the words “Mask Up We Need You” filling the space above her.

A table of contents prepares readers for 12 subsections with titles such as “Pandemics Are A Tool Of The Colonizer,” “Covid-19 Never Ended” and “A Mask Is A Beacon Of Global Solidarity.”

Almost immediately after the club fair, the zine was met with backlash.

Haverim at the Claremont Colleges — a social organization whose mission claims to “defend Jews on campus” — published a Sept. 5 statement criticizing the zine for “antisemitic and anti-American conspiracy theories and propaganda.”

The statement specifically criticized the zine for the connections it drew between Israel, the United States and disease as a weapon, arguing that it promotes antisemitic conspiracy theories.

“Such conspiracy theories are part of a historical trope that Jews are responsible for disease,” the statement reads. “During the Middle Ages, Jews were regularly blamed and persecuted for having caused plagues.”

Other 5C community members outside of Haverim were similarly

EVELYN HARRINGTON • THE STUDENT LIFE Some students criticized a zine at ASPC’s club fair table, saying that it promoted what they felt were antisemitic conspiracy theories and ideas.

critical of the zine, according to Emilio Bankier PO ’25, the club’s vice president. He said that he has been in contact with various students, administrators and professors who agreed that the zine had antisemitic messages.

“We’ve always had to fight very hard for people to understand,” Bankier said of some Jewish students’ experiences discussing antisemitism on campus. “What in one sense was reassuring here with this is that we didn’t have to fight very hard at all.”

Oona Eisenstadt, professor of Jewish studies and religious studies at Pomona, called for ASPC to issue a formal apology.

“The booklet is deeply anti-intellectual,” she wrote in a Sept. 11 email to Pomona’s faculty members. “It’s a fever dream. In every line complicated forces are reduced to a single intentional conspiracy.”

Bethany Slater, the executive

director of Claremont Hillel — a religious organization centered around celebrating Jewish culture — similarly called for an apology.

“Whether or not ASPC intended to distribute it, it seems reasonable to expect ASPC to be eager to issue an apology, condemn the content, and explore restorative practices that involve the entire campus community,” she said in an email to TSL. “After all, it’s not just Jews who are harmed by the circulation of conspiracy theories.”

Kenneth Wolf, chair of the faculty at Pomona, also commented on the damage of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

“When someone throws a little conspiracy theory bomb in the middle of things and people don’t immediately disavow it, it just leads to more problems,” Wolf said.

The extent of these criticisms on campus was reflected Monday when a new message appeared on

Nucleus Science Center opens to students and faculty

Pomona’s Walker Wall: “Why do [Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)] and ASPC spread anti-Jewish propaganda? We are not afraid.”

In a matter of days, the message was painted over to read: “Anti-Zionism is not anti-Jewish propaganda.”

Both SJP and ASPC denied any affiliation with the zine.

In a Sept. 11 email to the Pomona community, ASPC’s Executive Board claimed that the zines had been mistakenly mixed up with their own materials.

“We did not realize and were not notified of this until after the club fair, and we did not produce the zine,” they wrote.

In an ASPC Senate meeting the following day, ASPC President Devlin Orlin PO ’25 expanded on the email.

“I don’t think that the role of ASPC is to issue an apology that says that Zionism is an integral

Pomona College implements new security policies, moves convocation amid student protests MACY PUCKETT & KAHANI MALHOTRA

ANJALI RAO • THE STUDENT LIFE With the fall semester in full swing, students and faculty are excited to utilize the new opportunities and facilities of the recently opened Nucleus Science Center.

MYLES KIM & KEEANA VILLAMAR After two years, 65,000 square feet and an estimated $70 million dollars later, the Nucleus Science Center — an expansion to the Nucleus West, previously named the W.M. Keck Science Center — has opened.

The new building, named Nucleus East, boasts 14 new teaching laboratories in addition to classrooms, collaborative spaces, a computer lab, faculty offices and a greenhouse.

“The opening of the Nucleus to date has been smooth and there has been much excitement from both faculty and students,” Ul-

ysses J. Sofia, dean of the natural sciences department and physics professor, said in an email to TSL. This joint project between Scripps College and Pitzer College follows 58 years of sharing the Keck Science Center with Claremont McKenna College in a collaboration between the three institutions.

The former center offered 13 majors, but with the addition of the Nucleus East and CMC’s exit from Keck, department heads hope to hire new tenured faculty and expand on learning opportunities. This initiative features enhanced interdisciplinary offerings such as the new art conser-

vation major.

“There are ongoing conversations among faculty about further integrating the sciences with non-science disciplines,” Janet Sheung, assistant professor of physics, said.

According to Sheung, most discussions around new learning opportunities will remain in the air until CMC’s Robert Day’s Science Center is completed in the fall of 2025.

Sheung added that due to the massive shift in demographics that will occur when CMC students move to their new building, faculty will want

See NUCLEUS on page 3

ARTS & CULTURE “Brat” culture has hit the Claremont colleges. Scripps kicked off the semester with the first-ever 5C Brat Rave, celebrating Charli XCX’s album “brat” with neon lights, bubbles, and beats.

The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889

part of Judaism,” Orlin said. “But I still think that pamphlet is not necessarily something on campus that I would be proud was on that table, and it was a mistake, and so here is my apology.”

For some students, though, an apology didn’t seem necessary.

“I don’t recall receiving an apology or really pressuring the ASPC to give us an apology when I wasn’t seeing direct involvement in boycotts,” Zyad Sibai PO ’25 said during the meeting.

Without an apology and a lack of claimed ownership for the zine, Wolf suggested that the incident highlighted a greater issue of anonymity at the colleges.

“If you don’t stand up for what you believe in and let people know that you believe in it, everything is muddied from the very beginning, as far as I’m concerned,” Wolf said.

“If something is done anonymously, it’s always problematic.”

Following a year characterized by student protests and tension with administration, Pomona College has implemented numerous changes to its safety and security policies, including revisions to student swipe card access, masking regulations and increased security presence.

The changes follow a tense spring semester on Pomona’s campus after criticism from students and faculty alike on administrators’ responses to student demonstrations, prompting some to protest the college’s convocation ceremony on Aug. 27.

The morning of the ceremony, approximately 70 students sat in and picketed Little Bridges Auditorium, the venue of the event, demanding that Pomona divest from all companies with economic ties to the state of Israel.

“I know we all just got back on campus, and I know we all just wanna go back to classes and enjoy being students,” a student speaker at the protest said. “But it’s important to remind ourselves that in Gaza, there is no return back to school for these students.”

In response to the student protests, the convocation ceremony was moved online. Pomona President Gabrielle Starr expressed her dismay at the series of events.

“I am disappointed that the event could not take place as planned due to protesters’ blocking the entrances to Bridges Hall of Music,” Starr wrote in an email to the Pomona College

Community. “For the safety of all attendees, the College continued the event online only.”

On Aug. 26, one day prior to convocation, Starr announced that a mask ban – a tactic many student protestors adopted last spring to conceal their identities – would be enforced at the event with exceptions only for necessary medical reasons. Updated policies on protesting and masking seem to have been in the works since June when Starr hinted at upcoming changes.

“Our community is a fragile one, and it depends on face-to-face engagement, honesty and acknowledgment of one another’s full humanity,” Starr wrote in a June 6 email to the student body. “We have

See POLICIES on page 3

COURTESY: POMONA COLLEGE Little Bridges standing tall in the sunlight.

OPINIONS

SPORTS

In an era of growing distrust in the two party system and voter nihilism, Tess McHugh PO ‘25 highlights the importance of using your voice and voting towards the country you want to see.

On Sept. 7 and 8, the Stags and Sagehens men’s water polo teams faced Division I foes at UC San Diego’s Triton Invitational. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ (CMS) 12-11 win against UC Merced allowed the newest players to showcase their abilities before the start of the regular season.

INDEX: News 1 | Arts & Culture 4 | Opinions 7 | Sports 9

News

PAGE 2

September 13, 2024

Meet your 2024-2025 student body presidents YUHANG XIE & SCARLETT ANDERSON Entering office following a semester of campus protests and unrest, this year’s student body presidents are committed to bridging the communication gap between students and administrators and improving the well-being of their constituents across the 5Cs. Devlin Orlin PO ‘24 Devlin Orlin PO ‘24, the student body president at the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC), is no stranger to leadership roles.

He has served as class president in both his first and second years, panelist for Pomona’s Judicial Council panelist and office staff for Campus Advocacy, Resources, Education and Support (CARES).

He is now approaching his new position with a broader vision.

“I think one of the big roles as a student body president is to provide organizational leadership to ASPC,” said Orlin. “It’s really the opportunity to guide the student government to interact with students in a meaningful way.”

Recognizing the importance of enhancing student representation in administrative committees, Orlin endeavors to foster a deeper connection between ASPC and Pomona’s Board of Trustees. Now, the student representatives in the Board of Trustees are looped into the weekly ASPC Senate meetings.

“I’m trying to ensure that at the Board of Trustees meetings, we are considered as full-voting members, as the Board of Trustees bylaws state,” Orlin said. “It’s important that when we have those seats, we’re leveraging those as best we can.”

Since the April 5 arrest of 20 5C students, and calls for divestment escalating the prolonged tension on campus, student protests have occupied a large presence on campus.

Orlin is working to strike a balance between advocating for the student body and working closely with administrators.

“I’m elected by the student body, so I really work hard to represent it,” Orlin said. “It’s really difficult when [the administration has] arrested students, yet never made real steps

towards the divestment that 85 percent of the students that voted in our referendum last year wanted.”

In terms of campus life, he is collaborating closely with ASPC’s Vice President of Finance, Liz Giwa, to ensure the college budget is allocated in a way that centers students needs. He listed several possibilities, including free laundry and air-conditioners in dorms.

“We try to think of what the students’ priorities are,” Orlin said.

Melina Durre SC ‘25 After serving for a year and a half as Vice President of Student Activities for Scripps Associated Students (SAS), Melina Durre SC ‘25 is excited to empower student voices within the Scripps community as she steps into her role as SAS president.

One of Durre’s main priorities is to continue the work of her predecessor, Lily Dunkin SC ‘24, and increase collaboration with the other 5C student presidents.

“I’m really excited to create a more cohesive student government approach, collaborate more [and] hopefully do events that are joined [with the other 5Cs],” Durre said.

She also plans to encourage student feedback by regularly hosting “Be Heard” forums. “[Be Heard] forums are essentially places for students to come, like a town hall meeting, and express their concerns and see if we can do anything about it,” she explained. “So that will be a place for us to have effective dialogue with the student body.”

Durre finds one of the challenges of her tenure to be the imbalance in the influence of SAS compared to the other 5C student governments.

“We don’t have that kind of power here, so it’s really a big struggle between contacting a bunch of people, continuously showing up at meetings and really pushing and pressing,” Durre said.

However, she said she plans to address this discrepancy by increasing transparency and cohesion among the different levels of student administration and ensuring that information shared at committee meetings is made public.

constitutional documents, replacing outdated language and specifying job descriptions.

“From executive board positions to dorm presidents, [we want to] make sure [that] these roles are very defined,” Manavisagan said. “[We aim] to identify gaps where things went wrong in our experience and to make sure we can prevent them for the future.”

SID GOLDFADER-DUFTY • THE STUDENT LIFE Following a semester of campus protests and calls for divestment, this year’s Student Body presidents are committed to bridging the gap between students and administrators and improving student wellbeing.

Ava Kopp CM ‘24 Involved in ASCMC since her first year on campus, Ava Kopp CM ‘24 characterized her commitment to her role as one rooted in addressing student needs.

To that end, one of her main goals is to reform the residential budget and create a structural change that directs funding toward the needs of current students.

“I want the money that students are paying to go back to them,” Kopp said. “Our ASCMC Executive Board has worked on legislation that would allow dorm presidents to be senators. They will come to a senate meeting and be able to present what they’re working on.”

Another goal of Kopp’s campaign is to build effective dialogue between the students and administration, working with the Dean of Students Office and the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum to do so.

“I want CMC students to be able to look at CMC’s interpretation of the demonstration policy and know exactly what will or won’t happen based on the actions they take,” Kopp said. “We will be having conversations about whether or not the current demonstration policy restricts or compromises freedom.”

Through other initiatives such as

supporting peer mentorship groups and prioritizing student feedback regarding Collins Dining Hall, Kopp is hoping to put students first in her presidency.

Serena Mao HM ‘24; Shivani Manivasagan HM ‘24 At Harvey Mudd College, Serena Mao HM ‘24 and Shivani Manivasagan HM ‘24 share their leadership responsibilities as co-presidents.

“I think it’s important for you to be a good role model and be someone who’s approachable and actually cares and makes an effort to interact with people,” Mao said.

Similar to the other 5C student body presidents, Mao stressed improved communication between the student body and the administration as one of their main goals.

“I can notice that there’s still a big disconnect between what the students want and what the administration thinks the students want,” she said. “I’m interested in doing work there to help bridge that gap.”

The co-presidents are also focusing on a panel of structural reform, with Manavisagan aiming to make the club budgeting process more organized and transparent. She is also spearheading the rewriting of the

Paa Thompson PZ ‘25 Paa Thompson PZ ‘25 has been involved with student government since his freshman year at Pitzer College, previously holding positions in both the Senate’s Judicial Council and Student Alumni Committee.

Now serving as President of the Student Senate, Thompson has plans to expand campus resources and make student voices heard. “[Pitzer has] been around for over 60 years, and we don’t have a solid quantitative skill center,” Thompson said. “It’s part of our education for liberal arts. Every field group [and] subject area should be adequately represented and students should have support.”

Being an international student himself, Thompson also has plans to improve the experience for future international students. Having experienced communication gaps when he first arrived on campus, he said he hopes to provide guidance to students, noting that he wants to direct them to campus resources available to them.

“I feel compelled to create positive change and ensure that future students have a more enriching and supportive experience,” he explained.

Thompson is also looking to his colleagues such as Andrés Fernández, Pitzer’s new Vice President for Student Affairs, to help uplift student voices and navigate Pitzer’s political climate.

“I feel like [Fernández] would be someone that’s valuable to the student groups on campus and highlight their needs,” Thompson said. “He has a closer tie to the administration and can advocate for students.”

Altogether, Thompson believes that his job is to promote the will of the student body.

“It’s not about what I want,” he said. “I’m here to serve the students.”

Meet TSL’s fall 2024 editorial board Walter’s Restaurant & Bar suffers fire damage, canceling debut of weekly 5C student events BEN LAUREN

Following one of the most intense years of student activism in the history of the Claremont Colleges and college campuses nationwide, Ansley Washburn SC ’26, June Hsu PO ’25 and Tania Azhang PZ ’25 will be taking charge as The Student Life’s (TSL) Editorial Board for the fall 2024 semester.

Enthused about their staff and dreaming up innovative ideas, they are working together to cultivate a positive community both inside and outside of the newsroom.

Washburn, this semester ’s editor-in-chief, is a politics major from Boston, Massachusetts. Her journey in journalism began in high school, where she was Managing Editor of Sports. Washburn quickly put these skills to use, becoming a Sports Editor at TSL in her first semester in college.

After leading the sports section for three semesters, Washburn was named Managing Editor of News and Sports last spring.

For Washburn, her experience reporting on and running coverage for the protests and student arrests last semester motivated her application to become Editor-in-Chief.

“People will look back on TSL to remember what’s happened [at the 5Cs] and put that in a greater political context, ” Washburn said.

“We are currently in the middle of one of the biggest campus protest eras of our generation, and I think we occupy such a distinct position as a campus publication. My first goal is to continue to build on the work that we’ve done the past year by mediating interactions between protesters and administration, and really continuing to document that accurately.”

Hsu, who will be succeeding Washburn as Managing Editor of News and Sports, also spent much of last semester reporting on campus protests as news editor. A public policy analysis major from Princeville, Hawaiʻi, Hsu’s first experience in journalism came during her sophomore spring as a news writer. After going abroad in the fall of her junior year, her time as news editor last semester cemented her love for reporting.

“I feel like I realized that journalism was the career I wanted to do for the rest of my life when I preferred doing it to all of my other schoolwork,” Hsu said. “So I’ve really found passion, not just in writing, but also in being immersed in current events on and off campus.”

Meanwhile, Azhang, Managing Editor of Arts & Culture and Opinions, will be entering her fifth semester at TSL. Azhang, an american studies major from Irvine, California, wrote film criticism and opinion pieces for her high school paper, and after

CELESTE CARIKER

SARAH ZIFF • THE STUDENT LIFE This year’s TSL Editorial Board is seeking to build community and to expand educational opportunities for aspiring journalists on campus.

joining TSL her sophomore year, she’s done just about everything there is to do in Arts & Culture.

Starting as a features writer, she went on to be TSL’s Features Editor, Columns Editor and a study abroad columnist last semester with her series “American in Paris.”

“When I first found out about TSL, I was excited about finding a community of like-minded people who are similarly passionate about the things that I am,” Azhang said. “When I decided to apply for Ed Board, it was so that I could continue to foster that community which has provided me with such a wonderful platform and has introduced me to so many wonderful people.”

Keeping with this idea of community, all three expressed excitement for this fall’s staff with Hsu explaining the unique potential that comes with the start of the school year.

“You have [first-years] coming onto campus for the first time, and it’s really inspiring to see so many people passionate about journalism and talking about the campus they’re entering despite not knowing that much about it,” Hsu said.

Describing TSL’s ability to amplify voices within the 5C community, Azhang added that social media will be critical to this effort.

“Social media has changed the nature of journalism in that [now] everyone has a platform [to express their opinions],” Azhang said. “I think there’s just been a lot less confidence and trust in newspapers. I’m hoping that we can create a legacy of trust within the 5Cs.” Washburn agreed with this point, making it clear that social media will be a top priority for the paper this semester.

“We are all living in a world

where social media is where everybody finds their news, and I think everyone at TSL knows that the most traction that TSL ever gets is from our social media,” Washburn said.

“So even if it’s not my forte, I think recognizing that and kind of embracing it is where our publication needs to and will go this semester.”

According to Hsu, they’re also hoping to expand the way in which multimedia journalism can play an important role in their news coverage this semester.

“Looking to the future of news, I do think most of it, or a great deal of it, is centered around video, whether that be on Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, different platforms,” Hsu said. “People want to consume news in a quicker manner …

So we want to shift to that as a college newspaper trying to keep up with the demographic we’re reaching.”

Returning to the role of TSL within the 5C community, Washburn described the educational role TSL plays for people hoping to learn about reporting.

“These are liberal arts schools,” Washburn said. “We don’t have pre-professional paths. TSL is one of the only places at the 5Cs to use to really immerse yourself in the field of journalism.”

Washburn, Hsu and Azhang are all anticipating a busy semester of political action; nevertheless, Washburn made clear the energy she’s hoping to bring to the newsroom.

“The TSL office is really a place like no other, and it is so much fun,” Washburn said.

“And I think adding on to that, being able to help foster that environment is the most rewarding thing to me.”

Walter’s Restaurant & Bar, a beloved restaurant among the 5C community, was forced to close temporarily after catching fire in the early morning of August 22.

By the time fire personnel arrived, the flames had burned through the roof, causing significant damage. The area connecting the kitchen with the rest of the restaurant was the most affected, while the dining area remained relatively untouched.

“The firemen had to break through the roof, so that whole area was messed up,” Dawoud Ghafarshad, Walter’s general manager, said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Claremont Fire Marshall and insurance investigators. According to Ghafarshad, it likely started near the restaurant’s roof before spreading to several connected buildings.

Despite most of the restaurant being unaffected by the fire, the repairs needed to operate the kitchen are being delayed, which Ghafarshad said is making it harder to reopen.

“All the insurance companies, none of them want to pay or they all want to blame the other buildings, and that’s what’s making the whole process to start rebuilding and fixing the damaged part take so long,” he said. “Until [insurance] gets resolved, that part won’t start to get rebuilt … That could be six months, that could be one year.”

Walter’s was getting ready to

host events for 5C students in the upcoming year when the fire caused the restaurant to shut down.

“I was going to do a whole college night where it was just students, where students felt safe, and people could come in with their student IDs every Thursday night and we’d have a D.J. for them and their own private area,” Ghafarshad said.

The restaurant’s closure has not gone unnoticed.

“I was really bummed when I heard that student night was canceled,” Cole Kendrick PO ’25 said. “I was really excited to see everybody coming back from summer and to get to interact with them and meet new people.”

Ghafarshad said that Walter’s has seen widespread support from the City of Claremont and from longtime customers spanning across three generations following the fire.

The restaurant has been around since 1957, and is known to be a popular venue for birthday parties, graduation parties and other celebrations.

“I was really sad when I heard about what happened,” Jane Shvartsman PO ’26 said. “I like that it has such a history in the village. It was nice to know that it was an old family establishment.”

This is not the first time Walter’s has seen fire, having burned to the ground 38 years ago. The local restaurant was able to re-establish itself as a hub for the community, just as it is working to do again now.

“We’ll be back soon,” Ghafarshad said. “We still plan on being a safe and fun venue for the students to escape to.”

COURTESY: DAWOUD GHAFARSHAD Walter’s Restaurant & Bar faces a temporary closure after fire damages made the kitchen inaccessible, delaying the implementation of student-only nights.

News

September 13, 2024

NUCLEUS: Scripps and Pitzer Colleges debut new academic building Continued from page 1 to see how student enrollment will stabilize before determining how to proceed.

To help acclimate community members to the Nucleus’ layout, open house tours were conducted Friday, Sept. 6. The building has also been equipped with digital maps that allow students to quickly locate their destination.

However, some students have expressed initial confusion and difficulty locating classes due to the name changes of the buildings.

“I did not know Keck was renamed to ‘Natural Sciences’ and the new building was named Nucleus West,” Jessica Gonzales Rodriguez SC ‘25 said. “For one of my classes, my professor calls the building ‘Old Keck’ to refer to the other side of the building.”

Despite some confusion, students like Alondra Cobian SC ‘25 have enjoyed the new addition to the Scripps College campus.

“Honestly, I prefer classes at the Nucleus versus at Keck,” Cobian said. “It’s more convenient to where I dorm and it has more study spaces. It also feels more welcoming and open.”

However, despite opening at the start of the semester, the east wing of the building is still not fully operational. Some spaces such as the second floor, which will house new faculty and research laboratories, only started construction over summer break.

As for future improvements, department heads are looking to renovate the Nucleus East’s existing classrooms and laboratories, as well as construct a maker space.

“Faculty and the department as a whole have been really excited to talk about re-envisioning programs and course offerings now that the building is complete,” Sheung said.

PAGE 3

A hot topic: Students at the 5Cs deal with intense heatwave JOELLE RUDOLPH & TRINITY TAI From Sept. 4 to Sept. 10, Southern California experienced scorching temperatures, with multiple days with high temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, marking the tail-end of one of the area’s hottest summers ever recorded. Throughout the heat wave, students, faculty and staff members across the 5Cs sought various strategies to make the heat more bearable.

One of the biggest challenges students faced was the lack of air conditioning in certain dorms. At Claremont McKenna College, where the North Quad Dorms are not equipped with AC units, some students were forced to seek alternative sleeping arrangements. For many, this meant retreating to the Mid Quad and South Quad lobbies.

“My buddy Jesus slept in the Crown lobby,” Caden Lewis CM ’28 said, referring to his friend who lives in North Quad. “People were offering him spots in their rooms.”

This situation is not unique to CMC. Since experiencing technical problems with their AC, some residents of the Mary Routt Residence Hall at Scripps College have been forced to get similarly creative.

“Two nights ago, my roommates and I actually had to sleep in the kitchen of our hall because our room was so unbearably hot,” Mariana Barr SC ‘28 said.

At Pomona College, where only five of the 16 residence halls are fully equipped with air-conditioning, students were encouraged to sleep in air-conditioned common areas. These included the lounges in Harwood, Smiley, Clark I, Clark III and Wig, where facilities and campus services placed mattresses for students to use.

According to a TSL article from 2014, the college has been dealing with extreme heat in the same way for years, despite calls from students for the administration to do more.

While some Pomona students expressed disap-

SARAH ZIFF • THE STUDENT LIFE A near week-long heatwave rocked Southern California and left 5C students sweltering and searching for ways to cool down.

pointment with the college’s handling of the heat wave, Alexandra Emerson PZ ‘25 expressed disappointment with Pitzer College’s lack of any heat mitigation resources.

“I actually don’t think I’ve seen any heat mitigation resources around at Pitzer,” Emerson said. “CMC was handing out ice cream one day, and I’ve seen a lot of water at Pomona, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything up at Pitzer.”

Other students, including athletes whose sports practice outdoors, commented on how the heat wave impacted their daily activities. Many 5C sports teams reported a signif-

Drinking at the Claremont Colleges: A growing concern?

icant drop in practice attendance.

Sydney Tai PO ‘26, captain of the 5C club tennis team, Claremont Coyotes, said that only 50 of the anticipated 100 participants showed up to practice.

Other athletes have adapted to the heat by scheduling practices and games early in the morning or late in the day, moving practices indoors, lowering the intensity of activities, increasing the amount of water breaks and installing mist machines to help each other stay cool.

Some have also found alternatives to conventional prac-

POLICIES: Pomona College increases security through campus regulations Continued from page 1

JASON MURILLO • THE STUDENT LIFE As the school year kicks off, some students and administration members are expressing concern about the number of drinking-related incidents on campus.

JASON MURILLO With classes starting and students settling into the rhythm of college life, the party scene at the Claremont Colleges is in full swing – but a high amount of drinking-related incidents and hospital transports has prompted concern among students and administration.

Over the weekend of Sept. 3, during which the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College (ASCMC) hosted “6:01”, the annual celebration of the end of the campus’s “substance-free period,” the college saw some of its highest numbers of drinking-related incidents, according to an email sent to students by Residential Assistant Kaavya Narayan CM ’25.

The email accompanied an infographic that encouraged students to drink responsibly and reminded them of CMC’s Good Samaritan Policy, which allows them to seek help after excessive drinking or drug use without risking punitive action by the college.

According to the CMC Dean of Students Office (DOS), students who are transported also receive support

to prevent future incidents.

“When students drink irresponsibly, we want students to call for help,” they wrote in an email to TSL. “Transports can save lives.”

On Sept. 5, several days after the 6:01 party, CMC Dean of Students Jimmy Doan emailed the student body to address the “immoderate use of alcohol” on campus in the preceding weeks.

“We are an extremely close-knit community,” Doan wrote. “Your choices and behavior impact everyone, including building attendants, Public Safety, fellow students, and so many others in our community.”

The email was followed by an announcement from DOS on Sept.

10 stating that campus policies regarding alcohol at ASCMC parties would be changing. Beginning on Sept. 21 at the Oktoberfest party, students will be asked to show identification to prove that they are of legal drinking age.

While CMC was the only 5C college to address a growing problem with drinking-related incidents, some students at the other campuses agree that the level of alcohol use over the past few weeks has been

concerning.

For Gerard Lapuente PO ’27, the amount of drinking-related incidents and transports on campus appear to be on the rise.

“In my [freshmen] year, I did not see a lot of these transports,” he said. “I think it’s really concerning because we just started school.”

But according to Dean of Students Josh Eisenberg, Pomona College has seen a consistent number of transports since the college created its amnesty policy — which states that students cooperating in an alcohol or drug-related investigation will not be sanctioned — in 2019. Now, he said, Pomona sees an average of one to three transported students during the first weekend of the school year.

Ultimately, Eisenberg encouraged students to reach out for help when needed.

“People may be drinking underage — that happens at colleges,” he said. “We’re not going around knocking on doors. We are trying to help the people who come to our attention.”

tices.

“We ended up hosting a watch party for the US Open,” Tai said.

Similarly, the 5C women’s frisbee team hosted an indoor social where players watched and discussed a game instead of participating in a typical practice.

Notwithstanding the extreme temperatures and broken or limited ACs, Lewis found a silver lining in the recent heatwave.

“I think the heat almost brought us together,” he said.

“We’re gonna look back on this.

‘Remember when we had that big ass heat wave?’ And I think it’s cool. It’s a part of the SoCal experience.”

seen that masked protests on our campus undermines those principles. This will be an active subject of discussion next year as we reconsider our policies around protests on our campus.”

At 10:21 a.m. on the day of the protest, Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) President Devlin Orlin PO ’25 sent an email to the student body saying that he would be boycotting convocation in light of student responses.

“I had no interest or need to go speak at an event where students that elected me are boycotting,” Orlin said in an interview with TSL. “If my goal is to get the speech out to the community, I can do that through email.”

In his email, Orlin criticized what he described as the college’s use of “violent language of carcerality” when talking about students advocating against “genocide and human rights violations.” He also referred to the increase in campus security staff as a “new battalion of campus pseudo-police” on Pomona’s campus.

Since the beginning of the term, Pomona has added four officers and one sergeant to its campus safety staff, according to a campus-wide email from Vice President Jeff Roth on Aug. 21.

Roth said that the new security hires will be trained in areas including de-escalation, mental health crisis intervention and cultural competency.

Orlin, who said that he was under the impression that Pomona’s administration wanted to decrease spending, said it was jarring to see them increase spending on campus safety.

“There’s a bunch of other ways where that money could be better spent to support the community,” he said. “I will say that forever because even if you wanted to better address the issue of mistrust on campus, students feel

like they can’t trust administrators.”

Roth’s email to students also included reminders about access to Alexander Hall, where 20 5C students were arrested on April 5 after occupying the building in protest.

The building features one entrance monitored by safety officers where anyone who is not a Alexander Hall staff member is only allowed to enter and exit with an approved appointment.

Roth also outlined the consequences for students involved in encampments, something that occurred on multiple occasions across the 5Cs last spring.

“Those who fail to [identify themselves] may be subject to sanctions, which may include internal disciplinary process, and citation, detention, and arrest by law enforcement agents,” Roth wrote in the email.

He also went on to describe the necessity of law enforcement officers, explaining that because the Claremont Colleges don’t have sworn police officers as part of campus staff, administration relies on local law enforcement “when the safety of our community and the exercise of our academic mission require it.”

The email also clarified that only Pomona students would be able to access academic buildings with their key card or school-issued ID, which caused issues for 5C students taking classes at Pomona.

Having been unable to get into a Pomona academic building on the first day of classes, Lily Frasier SC ’28 said she received no communication from the Pomona administration.

“The only communication I received was from my professor directly,” Frasier said. “I wish that Pomona had emailed us to let us know what was going on.”

The safety policies have since been revised, outlined in a Sept. 5 email from Roth. In it, he explained that Pomona students, along with 5C students cross-registered in classes at Pomona, can now access academic buildings between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

PAGE 4

Arts & Culture

UNDER THE CANOPY

Confessions of a last chance tourist ANNIKA WHITE

On the night of Oct. 21, 2023, I laid on the top bunk in a hostel full of strangers, waiting to turn 21. In my silent boredom, I ran through all of the places I had been to that year and understood why my family thought I would never go back home to Connecticut. I had camped in Joshua Tree National Park; skied in Aspen; soaked in a geothermal river in Iceland. And here I was again, about to embark on my next adventure: scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

Earlier that day, upon arriving at our hostel in Cairns, Australia, my friends Olivia and Cami claimed the bunk adjacent to mine while I threw myself at the mercy of the mysterious resident who occupied the bottom of my bunk. We met later that night: her name was Constance, she was 28 years old and from France. Before turning the lights out, the two of us sat on the floor, sharing stories of our travels. I tried to conjure up some of my high school French to keep the conversation going.

“I booked this trip pour mon anniversaire. C’est demain.”

“Ah, bien sur. And how old?”

“Vingt-et-un.”

“That is a big birthday in America,” the corners of her eyes crinkled, hoping I would affirm her statement of my home country.

“Yes! I wanted to do something special.”

“And this is a good trip to do before the reef dies.”

It would be untruthful to say that the film “Chasing Coral,” a showcase of coral bleaching, did not influence my desire to see the world’s largest reef. I’m not the only one: in 2016, Sierra Club Magazine reported that 70 percent of tourists who went to visit the Great Barrier Reef claimed that they were “strongly motivated to see the reef ‘before it’s gone.’”

As climate change threatens to dissipate so many of the world’s most beloved natural destinations, a mass motivation to travel has turned into a popularly recognized phenomenon. Last chance tourism, or LCT, describes the sector of the tourism industry that is driven by people’s fear that these are the last years to see natural beauties like the Amazon Rainforest, the Galapagos Islands or the Great Barrier Reef before they are utterly destroyed.

The paradox of the “nature-loving” traveler is that the presence of people in these natural spaces will always contribute to environmen-

tal degradation. So, why do we still travel? Can we travel and honestly call ourselves environmentalists?

On the morning of my 21st birthday, I left the coast of Cairns and boated out to the reef alongside 23 other scuba divers, five instructors and three crew members. After a few hours the boat stopped, and one by one we jumped into the open ocean from the back deck. As instructed, I kept my eyes on the horizon as I deflated my buoyancy control device and began my dive.

What I learned is that the underwater world is determined by very different natural laws than on land. Light waves get shorter; sound inflates; time slows down.

I remember floating with my back to the ocean floor, watching the dance of fractured sunbeams through the ocean’s surface above.

Floating with my world suddenly upside down, I wondered what the life of a coral is like. After all, they are animals like us. They need oxygen for respiration — oxygen which depletes as ocean temperatures rise. Ocean temperatures which rise when carbon is emitted into the atmosphere.

Carbon which is emitted into the atmosphere when oil is burned.

At night on the boat, people scattered over the indoor furniture and talked about what we saw on our dives, about our home countries, about travel. Alfanso, my instructor, interrupted the chatter to stand on a chair and conduct the room, “One, two, three … Happy birthday to you …” I turned to see Olivia and Cami holding a birthday cake for me that they had smuggled on board.

It was a celebration of life, with new and old friends from all over the world, above the dying reef.

I breathed in “one, two, three” and blew out “three, two, one.”

The irony of last chance tourism is that you see the beauty alongside the ruin. You see the world rushing away, yet stay to honor life lost and life still to come.

These are the confessions of a last chance tourist.

Annika White PZ ’24 is an environmental columnist from Southport, Connecticut. She enjoys hammocking, journaling and making playlists on Spotify.

LIA FOX • THE STUDENT LIFE

September 13, 2024

MOMENTS TO SAVOR

Soupy feelings at the start of senior year

SHIXIAO YU • THE STUDENT LIFE

EMILY KIM In years past, I assured myself that my senior year self would have it all together. Having made it through freshman, sophomore and junior year of undergrad, the last year would certainly be a breeze, right?

Wouldn’t I be excited to start my final year in Claremont with the friends, professors and people I hold dear?

In reality, “excited” is the last word I would use to describe my initial feelings towards starting senior year.

As I was packing my things the night before driving back to school, I felt a complicated mix of emotions. School hadn’t even started yet, and I was already stressed about my cognitive science thesis and the three English classes I had enrolled in to catch up on my English major. I dreaded the graduate school applications that I knew I’d have to juggle along with my schoolwork, I missed my friends who had graduated in the spring and I suddenly longed for my mom, who passed away from cancer when I was 13. I suddenly felt the pain of her not being able to witness the milestone of me starting my final year of college.

I packed up my car the next morning and drove to school in silence while my dad drove separately behind me. After arriving at my dorm and setting up my room, we decided to grab an early lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Montclair before my dad headed back home.

We sat down and ordered

two bowls of ramen, the restaurant’s specialty. I was still feeling “off” at this point — sad, stressed and altogether not wanting to be back in Claremont — but once the food arrived, all of these emotions suddenly came to a head.

To the bewilderment of my dad, I began sobbing into my ramen bowl and I couldn’t stop.

I felt grateful that, rather than trying to talk me out of my tears, he just let me cry. Sometimes there are moments like that — when simply holding space for tears is more valuable than trying to figure out the reason behind them. It was just the two of us sitting in this little Japanese restaurant at 11:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning, listening to the sounds of my sobbing, my salty tears falling into my salty (miso) ramen broth.

I’m sure that the image of me crying into my ramen probably isn’t the most pleasant thing to visualize (in fact, as a reader you may find it slightly gross), but this tearful moment was honestly exactly what I needed. It reminded me that, even as a senior, it’s okay to not have everything together — that it’s okay to feel anxiety, sadness and even dread for what lies ahead. Senior year may indeed be sweet, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be free of hard moments, too.

There was also something remarkably comforting about this salty bowl of ramen holding my salty tears and all of my mixedup, messy, soupy feelings. In its presence I felt safe to let my emotions spill over. I could freely express my sadness; I could freely cry; the ramen broth was

already salty, so my tears wouldn’t make much of a difference, right?

I left the restaurant with swollen eyes, and the stress and sadness lingered for the rest of the day. In fact, I cried even more in the quiet of my dorm room until I had to leave for a club meeting that evening. But as I reflect on this emotional final move-in day now, I oddly consider it to be a moment in my life to truly savor.

I’ve been writing my “Moments to Savor” column ever since my freshman year, and a lot of the moments that I’ve written about have been lighthearted, humorous and sweet. This one has a different flavor — it is undoubtedly heavier, more painful and very vulnerable.

But I so savor this moment of me sobbing into my ramen at the start of senior year because it reminds me of my authentic, wholly imperfect humanity. There will be times when the demands of school push me onto auto-pilot mode, I know. But I’m reminded now to have grace for myself, and whether you are a freshman, sophomore, junior or senior like me, you should too.

Maybe amidst the chaos of the semester, we can go to that Japanese restaurant in Montclair, sit together over bowls of ramen, and simply let our emotions guide us.

There may be times when we feel soupy and sad, and that is very much okay — we need not hold those emotions in.

Emily Kim PO ’25 is from Irvine, California. She is trying to make the most of her senior year and is actually enjoying her three-hour Friday afternoon thesis class more than she thought she would.

A NIGHTMARE ON 6TH ST

A sincere defense of ‘Dream Warriors’ and 80s cheese

NIKO KAY SMITH When writing their first piece, a new critic must establish credibility by proving they have discerning taste and a finger on the pulse of current pop culture. That’s why I’m immediately staking my reputation on defending 1987’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors,” a film as magnificent and chaotic as its overstuffed title.

It feels right to dedicate the inaugural issue of this horror column to the franchise that inspired its name.

“But why start with number three?” you are surely asking. Please hold your questions at this time and let the genius work.

The original “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984) is a horror classic with much to offer fans of men in crop tops. The second installment is, simply put, one of the most homosexual movies ever made. But it was in “Dream Warriors” (1987), another film in the franchise, that Freddy Krueger, in his final, wisecracking form, truly slashed his way into pop culture icon status — and my heart.

Luckily, you can skip to the third film without feeling too behind on the plot. And whether or not you consider yourself a horror fan, I recommend you give it a chance.

The film combines over-the-top 80s camp with a surprisingly earnest compassion for its troubled teen characters, resulting in a movie that, while charmingly dated in its aesthetics, is more relevant than ever to the daily horrors faced by Gen Z. While “Dream Warriors” has much to love for horror fans (including one particularly gnarly vein puppeteering sequence), it shares a lot of DNA with a superhero film.

The titular dream warriors, a group

of mentally ill teens in a psychiatric facility, are plagued by shared nightmares of a man with a burned face and razors on his fingers. Even after kids start dying, the teens are dismissed by most of the adult staff who would rather sedate them, unknowingly trapping them in Freddy’s nightmare world. To defeat him, the teens must team up, using their newfound dream powers to protect each other and realize their best selves.

A boy in a wheelchair dons a cape and becomes a Wizard Master. One girl suddenly develops acrobatic abilities. Another equips herself with switchblades and

a mohawk to live her dream of being “beautiful … and bad!” The wholehearted commitment to the corniness of it all is refreshing compared to the self-conscious irony poisoning of modern Marvel flicks.

To paraphrase one of the great thinkers of our time, Stefon: This movie has everything. Spooky nuns. Killer wheelchairs. Dream wizards. Stop-motion skeleton fights. A hot, young Laurence Fishburne. Possibly the best line ever put to film, “Freddy Krueger, the bastard son of a hundred maniacs!”

If you tell me you don’t want to see Freddy Krueger as a giant worm slurping up teens, you’re

lying.

Despite its dated special effects and aggressively 80s synth score, “Dream Warriors” feels made for Gen Z. In the film, the teens learn that Freddy is targeting them because their parents burned him alive years earlier in an act of vigilante justice. Their anger at the unfairness is one that I understand intimately.

As a young person today, it often feels like we are living in a world that was already destroyed before we got here. As I write this, ash is falling from the sky over Claremont, the result of increasingly common wildfires. From

STELLA ROBINSON • THE STUDENT LIFE

climate change to gun violence to a crumbling economy (all issues you’re surely stoked to be reminded of in an entertainment review), we are paying for the actions of previous generations.

Like the dream warriors, we are not taken seriously. According to many from older generations, Gen Z’s outrage is childish, our fears are whiny and our mental health crisis is a sign of weakness.

Parents, psychiatrists and authorities all say the same thing: “There is no Freddy Krueger.” If there is no threat, the adults bear no responsibility for it. The teens of Elm Street have been betrayed, and so have we.

Ultimately, “Dream Warriors” represents why the horror genre has become a refuge for me. So many of us feel afraid so much of the time, and there aren’t many socially accepted venues in which to express that.

“Dream Warriors” is a validation: You’re right to feel that something is deeply wrong. The threats you face, the ones that adults created and now purposefully ignore, are real. Your fear deserves to be taken seriously.

There, there, it’s not OK. If a “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie can embrace cheesy sincerity, so can I. When those in power won’t protect us, we must protect each other. So strap on your cape, grab your switchblades and help someone else get through this nightmare. Together, we can dream a better world into reality.

In her dreams, Niko Kay Smith (SC ‘25) has incredible breakdancing abilities and the power to peel an orange in one piece.

‘A Nightmare on 6th St’ is TSL’s new horror column, where Niko covers their journey from scaredy cat to rabid horror fan, one movie at a time.

Arts & Culture

September 13, 2024

PAGE 5

Finding love at lunch: student perspectives on dating at dining halls PARKER DEVORE Dating at the Claremont Colleges can bring some of the sweetest highs and most bitter lows.

Maybe you remember an awkward run-in with your RA as you were making out with someone on a bench, or the time you aced a midterm while your significant other bombed it, or even the first, second or millionth time you shared a lunch with someone special on a quiet afternoon.

There’s a lot that’s unique about Claremont dating, whether it be the infamous “team-cest,” or god forbid, the “suite-cest,” constantly running into your ex, getting involved in everyone else’s business or everyone else getting involved in yours.

The one thing that unites Claremont lovers is the backdrop behind these connections. Among the most beloved dating spots at the 5Cs are the places we eat, whether it be the Claremont Village, or controversially, the dining halls.

In any discussion about the Claremont dating scene, opinions on dates in dining halls are quick to surface. Seeing two students in the dining hall together, sitting at a table meant for five with their food ignored in favor of each other’s company, elicits a variety of

reactions — but most commonly, scorn.

Will Hammond PZ ‘28 and and Skye Fernsler PZ ‘28 agreed that a date in a dining hall is too public and shows “a lack of effort.”

“I would never call going to the dining hall a ‘date,’” Hammond said. “I don’t think I associate with that at all.”

Why not go for a date in town, then? Hammond felt that dates at restaurants, though still public, were far superior to dining halls.

“Just going into the Village is sufficient,” Fernsler said.

The allure of dates in the Village is obvious. You’re not going to see the professor whose class you skipped, and your choice of location speaks for itself. Some view it as the only viable location for dates. A look at the back patio of Kazama Sushi will show you as much.

However, not everyone sees the Village this way. The most common complaint leveled at 5C dating is the familiarity of the tight-knit student body.

For Arlen Alexander PZ ’25, this familiarity lessens the Village’s appeal.

“You walk into a dining hall, you see two people, you think they are probably on a date or whatever; I feel like that’s the

same,” Alexander said. “If I see in a restaurant that two people are sitting across from each other and they look like they are on a date, I feel like I’m giving them the same amount of scrutiny.”

Instead, Alexander chooses to look at what you gain from going on a date in a dining hall rather than what you lose.

“I think it’s cute if they go to a dining hall on a first date. I mean, I’ve done that,” Alexander said.

“It’s a nice safe way to do it. It seems less nerve wracking than sitting down in a restaurant in the village. More casual. We’re seeing if we like each other.”

For Alexander, dates should distill connection. He sees traditional dates in the Village, which are addled by expectations around chivalry, convention and dress, as a convolution of the purity of the dining hall date.

“It’s like, ‘who pays for the meal’... I don’t like that there are rigid rules around it. It feels performative to me to take someone to a fancy dinner,” Alexander said.

Although not everyone agrees about what constitutes a good date, Hammond, Fernsler and Alexander agreed it was about effort.

“A good way to get a pulse

SASHA MATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

on any sort of relationship is … how prioritized it is in your time, in your schedule,” commented Hammond.

For Hammond and Fernsler, any date can count, even if it’s in a dining hall — it’s all about intentionality.

Like most college students, those at the 5Cs are by and large busy, strapped for cash and overstressed. It’s not always feasible to splash out, take a risk and go into town. At the same time, the

effort it takes to do so may make the occasion more significant. The next time your pockets are hurting, and finals are closing in, don’t be ashamed of spending time together at Frary. At the same time, Bardot doesn’t have to be relegated to Parents’ Weekend. So long as your heart is in the right place, your connection will drown out the noise, whether that is coming from peers complaining about their next exam or the server musing about wine pairings.

Open Sky: Dipping your toes into the stream of Clarice Lispector The existential in science

WORD FOR WORD

AUDREY GREEN

SASHA MATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

ANNA RIPPER NAIGEBORIN You’ve seen her before. She’s in Mary Janes, a long skirt and a coquette top, or perhaps jeans and a band tee. The outfit may vary. But one thing doesn’t: No matter what she’s wearing, she’ll always have a book in hand.

Growing up, the media I was exposed to only ever depicted girls who liked reading as nerdy. So, when I noticed a trend of cool, stylish and bookish it-girls, I instantly became obsessed. As I was scrolling through the Instagram accounts of some of these it-girls, I encountered a familiar name: “Água Viva” (The Stream of Life) by Clarice Lispector.

In my home country of Brazil, Ukrainian-born Brazilian Jewish writer Clarice Lispector is a household name. Her novel “A Hora da Estrela” (The Hour of the Star) is mandatory reading in most high schools, and its 1985 movie adaptation by Suzana Amaral might have become as much of a cult classic as “Amélie” (2002) if it had been an European production.

But what’s the allure of Lispector’s literature?

Some say it’s the clash between her soft literary self, who contemplated feelings like pity, shame and guilt, and her severe interview side, who always had a cigarette between her fingers. Or it might be the ironic contrast between her writing self, who wrote eloquently in a free stream of consciousness, and her speaking self, who talked slowly with a lisp. Sharing his speech impediment, Clarice bears a mystical resemblance to Moses; an improbable interlocutor with a powerful prophetic message.

Many, though, say that the beauty of her writing lies primarily in her distinctive use of the Portuguese language. Do words have fixed meaning, or could we bend them to create new meanings? Lispector combines words in a way that empties them of their original connotations and attaches new meaning. She challenges us: If humans were the ones who originated language, couldn’t we be the ones to modify it on command?

Lispector proved that we could rework language by inventing terms such as instante-já . A combination of the words instante (instant, moment) and já (now, already), she never explicitly explains what an instante-já is — the interpretation is up to the reader.

To me, an instante-já is a fleeting moment that seems eternal, a split second in which you see clearly and feel with every nerve in your body.

To my other Brazilian friend, however, an instante-já is “the most present moment,” a now that’s so now, so

immediate, that you only start thinking about it after it’s already gone.

Even though it’s our own language, we still have many debates about the meaning of Lispector’s words. That’s why, when I saw her name on that Instagram page, I thought, “if she still mystifies Brazilians decades after publication, how could a foreigner possibly understand her in translation?”

And so I reread “Água Viva,” one of my favorite works by Lispector, for the third time. But this time, I read it in English.

My first vexation was with the translation of the title. Água viva means “lively water,” or “water that’s alive.” That would make “The Stream of Life” a plausible yet distant translation. Why “stream” and not “water”? The choice could’ve been a reference to Clarice’s trademark stream of consciousness. However, the original Portuguese title has another meaning to it: While água viva literally translates to “lively water,” água-viva means “jellyfish,” which gets completely lost in translation.

As I was reading, specific words caught my attention: the haphazard translation of “alimentar”(feed) into “eat” (comer), for instance. These mistranslations also brutally changed the rhythm of the original version, disrupting Lispector’s fluid poetic prose. “Escrevo-te toda inteira” sounds totally different from “I write you completely whole,” yet the translation is technically accurate.

Having said all of this, I still want you to read Clarice Lispector’s translated works. Even with all of those annoyances, the more I read The Stream of Life, the more enveloped I felt by it. It’s a strange feeling, but while I was reading in English, this language that’s still foreign to me, my mother-tongue, Portuguese, felt extremely present and close. The novel seemed inherently Brazilian, somehow.

That’s Clarice’s doing.

I finally understood why all the bookish it-girls suddenly love her: Lispector’s voice is so powerful that not even a translation can bring it to a halt. So I say, dip your toes into the stream that is Clarice Lispector, and let her take you away.

Did I translate that right?

Anna Ripper Naigeborin PO ‘28 is from São Paulo, Brazil. She’s recently been into watching Éric Rohmer movies.

With yellow hues, mystic aluminum fragments and specular shapes, the otherworldly exhibition “Open Sky” at the Benton Museum of Art compelled students and residents in Claremont into an existential reckoning within our rapidly advancing scientific world.

Illuminated by glowing letters that read “Seeing through the eyes of gods, you have mistaken yourself for him,” the cosmic installations of featured artists stand in conversation with each other, acting as the gateway to the immersive experience of “Open Sky.” As put by curator Kris Kuramitsu PO ’93, the works beg the question: what happens when we look up?

“Open Sky” debuted on Aug. 15 and will last through Jan. 15. Kuramitsu’s curation centers around the intersection of art and science. “[It is an] alignment between human and celestial,” Kuramitsu said during the exhibit’s opening reception panel on Sept. 7.

The exhibit displays a series of installations, video art and sculptural pieces by Xin Liu, Agnieszka Polska, Marcus Zúñiga, Alexandro Segade and Malik Gaines. Each artist has unique relationships to aspects of our world like nature, light and the universe, which are highlighted in their individual pieces. Some offer nods to the climate crisis and others display spiritual devotion.

Liu said her background as an engineer heavily influences her art. She explained in the opening reception panel that her initial interest with the celestial came partially from tracking satellite images and orbital photography, which require both equipment and expertise.

“I started as an engineer basically because I was a student who was good at math and physics. Art later came into my life because the pure pleasure of creating got me quite addicted,” Liu explained in an interview with Art21.

Zúñiga, also an engineer and artist, used astronomical theories as the foundations of his sculptures. He took inspiration from the structure of an optical telescope for his piece “Seeing Environment.”

Simultaneously, he embedded his own spirituality and sense of place.

“My focus … has been mirrors and the primary mirrors of [the] major [observer] and telescopes … which has produced a lot of … work that’s using sunlight as an important material in the work to create alignments in the earth and the sky,” Zúñiga said in an interview with 516 Arts.

He structured this observatory-like installation so that the piece changes depending on where the viewer is positioned. One questions not only how their environment impacts them, but how they impact their environment. He described the objects he chose as the focal point of his telescopic or mirrored installations as

“sacred objects.”

Especially within the realm of academia, art and science can often be thought of as polar opposites, and at the 5Cs it can be difficult to look past this dichotomy. The exhibit shows that an artistic approach to a scientific experiment can help strengthen findings; similarly, applying scientific theories such as climate change to artwork may help viewers resonate more closely.

Liu explained how her artistic vision for her recent pieces emerged after she developed an intimacy with her scientific pursuits during COVID-19. Liu found beauty in her fascination with rocket debris in China. After the rocket fragments disperse in open land, they are quickly cleaned up within 24 hours, which makes it very difficult to locate them quickly enough.

However, the process was rewarding. After being acid-washed and reconfigured, the sculptural rocket debris are now displayed atop a mirrored surface, reflecting new dimensions back to the viewer. This exemplifies a larger

theme in Liu’s work: a yet-to-berevealed story that requires the viewer to alter their perspective, just as Liu did when, instead of looking to the rockets in the sky, she looked down at its disemboweled remnants.

Everything can be found, produced and rendered within minutes thanks to today’s advanced technology. The artists’ works encourage audiences to embrace the unknown and extract meaning from things that may initially be confusing and disorienting.

This message is reminiscent of Liu’s journey finding these scattered rocket debris. By slowing down, amidst classes, clubs and obligations, one can derive a more meaningful explanation for where they belong in the world around them and how one can make conscious choices to uncover non-dominant narratives.

One of the first installations questions individuals by presenting a person who mistakenly believes they are a god – convinced that they are responsible for the creation of everything around them. The person reorients themselves, recognizing their place as a being in harmony with all that is and all that will be.

SANDER PETERS • THE STUDENT LIFE “Open Sky” Benton exhibit runs through Jan. 15.

Arts & Culture

PAGE 6

Claremont is brat GEORGIA ALFORD & MILLY BERTSCH Brat. Julia Fox. Hyperpop.

Neon green. Von Dutch. The Claremont Colleges? The sixth studio album “brat” by British singer Charli XCX has taken over Gen Z and made its way to Claremont.

To honor this new phenomenon and kick off the semester of 5C parties, Scripps College hosted the first ever 5C Brat Rave on Saturday, Sept. 7.

Since its release on Jun. 7, the album has charted in multiple countries and broken the record for the highest rated album of 2024. “brat” is a blend of hyperpop, 2000s English rave music and electropop, punctuated by infectious hooks made for club nights. The album’s three singles — “Apple,” “Von Dutch” and “360” — have dominated social media for months and become the soundtrack to countless TikTok videos and dances. Yet the album’s most enduring feature has been its cover, which bears a slab of neon green with the word “brat” written in a black, stretched Arial font. “brat” has seemed to ascend from an album to a lifestyle and even a cultural movement. Vice President Kamala Harris has embraced the album in her 2024 presidential campaign, targeting Gen Z on social media platforms such as TikTok. “kamala IS brat,” proclaimed Charli XCX herself in an X post on July 21.

“One late night with our friends we stumbled into the world of Charli XCX’s music and her new album ‘brat,’ inspiring our generation’s ‘brat summer,’” Scripps Associated Students (SAS) board members, Alex Hamilton SC ‘25 and Sarah Paper SC ‘25 said in a

joint statement over email, explaining how the Brat Rave came together. “According to Miss Charli herself, ‘‘Brat’ is a record that brings to life the pleasure of colorful sticky dance floors.’”

The Brat Rave was characterized by bubbles, neon green and a bass-pumping DJ. As the brats walked up to the Scripps campus, the line snaked at least 10 yards from the point of entry on Columbia Avenue and 11th Street.

“It was a great party to open the year, bringing a summer trend that empowers freedom of expression with groovy beats and makes you want to dance your heart out,” Hamilton and Paper said.

Students from across all five campuses waited eagerly for the chance to get in. Despite the organized registration, the ticket line temporarily closed shortly before 11:30 p.m., leaving a long train of disappointed brats.

“We came through Scripps and it was very, very crowded. Once we got in line, people were pushing and it kinda felt claustrophobic and uncomfy.

But the party … looked a lot more spaced out. And then there were lots of lights and bubbles and people having, like, a really good time,” Bea Dramm CM ’28 said.

Scripps embraced another element of the brat lifestyle… exclusivity. On Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 5:00 p.m. sharp, the registration form for Scripps College’s Brat Rave went live. Hamilton and Paper said that for safety purposes, SAS had to regulate the amount of brats. They also required signed waivers from all guests for permission to enjoy the foam pits. According to them, the spots filled up within

25 minutes.

“We hadn’t anticipated such a high turnout given that SAS 5C events typically don’t have more than about 300 guests at one time,” Hamilton and Paper said.

A small note: for those truly dedicated to the brat lifestyle, the form secretly opened back up on Thursday, Sept. 5 at 7:00 p.m., but you didn’t hear that from us.

Beyond the rave, brat has become a mainstay of campus culture. Brat is a ubiquitous theme for residence hall dorm decorations.

“That’s the first thing that came to mind because my friends and I had been making drafts of the sounds on TikTok all summer,” Dramm said.

“I think of brat as being cool, unfiltered, honest and definitely kind of against the grain,” Abby Niquette CM ’28 said. “College campuses like to adopt pop culture statements, but particularly, I think brat appeals to youth because a lot of the elements that it embodies are things that youth kind of attach themselves to when they’re experimenting with who they are and trying to be.

More vocal and expressive.”

“I think it’s very, like, urban, almost progressive in a way, and I think that kind of matches the vibe of kids who come here,” Dramm added.

To Niquette and Dramm, brat is about embracing the ugly and the selfish.

“It’s like a derogatory word that people use to describe somebody who’s misbehaving,” Yahya Yousef CM ’25 said. “To be brat is to be messy, sloppy, unabashed in the pursuit of fame and fun and fire.”

KAYA SAVELSON • THE STUDENT LIFE The first 5C Brat Rave drew massive crowds.

September 13, 2024

DEAR ROOMMATE

Why is everyone around me falling in love?

LISA FOX • THE STUDENT LIFE

ELLIE CHI Love. Holding hands. Butterflies in your stomach. It all sounds perfectly wonderful, right?

Well, I wouldn’t know, and I’m sure many other college students wouldn’t either! As a first-year, I’ve already observed lots of hand-holding and double-scooter riding, and heard stories so intimate they must not be shared.

Coming from an all-girls high school, I never really thought about my love life, and honestly, I’m kind of terrifyingly amazed by how many of my classmates now so readily embrace romance.

Relationships can quickly become messy, and despite gaining more experience as we grow older, we’re often left more hurt and confused.

Romance is everywhere — it occupies many of our minds; it is the focus of the movies we watch; it fills our TikTok feeds. It’s comforting to think that there’s someone destined for us; it’s even more exciting to believe that that special someone is waiting a couple of doors down the hall.

But how do we reach that lovey-dovey state of bliss?

We can daydream about that stranger we made eye contact with once in the dining hall, but it’s all the more difficult to open ourselves up and trade in bits and pieces of who we are.

Anjie, a three-year employee at Malott, says she noticed that many students enjoy “playing the field” and encourages them to “be willing to open themselves up to vulnerability.”

But what does being vulnerable entail? How do we gain the confidence to place ourselves in vulnerable positions without expecting validation from someone else? We daydream about those Disney movies where the love interest pursues us first, not the other way around.

In my first-year seminar at Pomona College, “In Dependence,” we learned about the three modes of being in a relationship: separation, fusion and differentiation. Separation occurs when people separate from others to preserve their individuality. Fusion is the other extreme, people trading

their individuality for connection and fusing their identity to another as the “self-in-relationship.”

Differentiation means preserving your sense of self while maintaining close connection: the key to healthy relationships.

When I first learned about this, I thought, “How are we supposed to have differentiation when others have previously defined our identity?” Conversely, if we start separated, it can feel scary to give some of ourselves up to another — to be vulnerable. Are we supposed to share all of ourselves with this one person in order to deem them our soulmate?

In a world that screams at us, “Just be yourself, and you’ll find the people that like you!” it’s challenging to figure out who we want to, should and can be, and what parts of ourselves to change just because we like someone.

I’m reminded of something one of my roommates mentioned the other day. We were sitting at our desks late at night, trying to finish up some homework, when she suddenly announced that she was going to start opening herself up to making genuine connections with others rather than continuing to engage in a series of meaningless hookups.

“I don’t know if I should,” she admitted. “It’s hard to explain…I feel like I’m trying to be okay with turning on the ‘emotional switch.’”

I still don’t know very much about love or human connection in general. At some point, I think we’ve got to feel okay knowing that no one has any idea about what to do or how to feel. We have to trust that no one has the exact formula for how to fall in love, and nobody can even be certain that we should.

I only know that everyone I spoke with suggested that you’ve got to try. Even if you’re not actively seeking intimacy, you sometimes need to place yourself in vulnerable positions, turn on that emotional switch and allow yourself to feel lonely and disappointed to have the opportunity for any connection. As my hometown friend texted me right as I was boarding the plane headed to Claremont, “Really, actually try the hardest you ever have.”

Ellie Chi PO ’28 is from Columbia, Maryland. Her New Year’s resolution is always to be more honest, and she honestly really enjoys reading “The Catcher in the Rye.”

Can AI save education? Sal Khan asks and answers ANANYA VINAY According to Sal Khan, whether AI leads to a dystopian or utopian future is up to us.

“Technology in all of human history [has] always amplified human intent. AI is no different. Are we going to say, ‘let’s also use it to amplify positive intent?’” Khan said to a packed Shanahan auditorium. “In many ways, the education lane in AI is the most poetic one, because we have a shot of using artificial intelligence to improve human purpose and human intelligence.”

On Sept. 10, Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, presented the first lecture in the annual Nelson Distinguished Speaker Series at Harvey Mudd College: “AI Won’t Destroy Education, It’ll Save It.” He discussed Khan Academy’s expansion to the realm of AI through a personalized tutoring tool known as Khanmigo. Earlier this year, Khan published the book “Brave New Worlds: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing).”

This year’s speaker series focuses on AI and learning. Kyle Thompson, the director of learning programs at Harvey Mudd College, chose this subject as a continuation of last year’s Nelson Series theme, which focused on humanity in the age of AI. “[The previous theme] dealt more with existential questions of what is a human person as different from an artificial intelligence entity … that’s a grand philosophical topic,” Thompson said. “So we found, what if we focused on the specific

question of AI and learning?

Because that conversation shows up a lot on faculty and student minds.”

Khan shared insights about how AI can most support the education system without detracting from the vital role that teachers play. By assisting with lesson planning, grading and similar tasks, teachers can more effectively use their time to connect with students.

Khan used his founding story to demonstrate that the dichotomy of technology and human elements is a false choice. Khan Academy began in 2008 when he started making educational videos for his cousins.

“My cousins infamously told me they liked me better on YouTube than in person… The human element only grew when I was able to leverage technology,” Khan said. “If I had to pick [between] ‘amazing teacher, no technology’ or ‘amazing technology, no teacher,’ I would pick ‘amazing teacher, no technology’ every time. But I think we’re in a world where we can have the best of both worlds.”

He then described Khan Academy’s new AI-powered teaching assistant, Khanmigo, which launched in May. He explained that the learning tool is programmed to respond to questions in the style of a thoughtful tutor. If a student asks for the answer, it will refuse and redirect the students toward the correct approach. Remarkably, it allows users to converse with simulations of historical and literary figures and revise essays. For

professors, Khan noted the value of AI in crafting lesson plans and prompts.

“I think it’s going to be a massive connectivity tool. AI will be able to provide more transparent and consistent grading, or even hold us humans accountable as we grade things on our own biases,” Khan said.

The interface is anthropomorphized, responding with appropriate emojis and having an avatar with eyes. In fact, Khan prioritized building a personality into the tool, allowing it to engage with students’ interests in the same manner

of a tutor. He acknowledged the risks of forming a connection with something that mimics humans, but argued that we can maintain a balance of AI interaction and genuine human interaction.

“Learning is hard…. if it can make that person more excited about learning, if they can feel connected to the learning, I’m all for it,” Khan said. “A lot of the billion dollar companies that are putting out AIs, I don’t feel like they’re putting that energy to give any personality…If you’re careful, it has so much opportunity.”

Attendee Sarah Nathani HM

ANDREW YUAN • THE STUDENT LIFE Sal Khan spoke at Harvey Mudd’s Shanahan auditorium.

’28 said she appreciated the overall positive outlook towards AI presented in the lecture.

“It was interesting to get a view that was not as cynical as I expected it to be. Now we have the inevitability [of] AI, and what are we going to do with that?” Nathani said. “I think it provokes as many questions as it answers. It was also one of my heroes, so it was really amazing to see.”

During the “Q&A” session held after the talk, a student asked how Khan would address growing concerns about the efficiency of AI educational tools.

“70 percent of [college students] don’t place into algebra. There’s a teacher shortage right now. So I’m always on the side of ‘[what] if we could put more resources into education that are used?’” Khan said.

The final question in the “Q&A” was not a question, but an expression of admiration.

“Did you know that you’re my hero?” two students enthused. The audience cheered and applauded, acknowledging their deep respect for Khan’s work.

Harriet Nembhard, the president of Harvey Mudd College, observed that having the chance to engage in conversation about the role of technology is essential for higher education.

“I think some very powerful models [were] presented,” Nembhard said. “This forum gives us an opportunity to explore a range of ideas [and] projects into what the technologies are. It’s just the sort of thing we should be doing at Harvey Mudd.”

Opinions

September 13, 2024

PAGE 7

Disillusionment isn’t resistance— Gen Z needs to vote blue to make change TESS MCHUGH These four texts have clung to my memory ever since I received them in July, after the Supreme Court granted Donald Trump immunity for official acts: “Tess, I legitimately do not care about politics.” “Politics is out of my control.“ “It divides more than brings together.” “Still not going to vote anyways.”

These reactions underscore how the majority of states are struggling to get youth to register to vote in the 2024 Presidential Election. Data from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) proves that there are fewer 18- and 19-year-olds registered to vote now than in November 2020 in the 36 states they surveyed. Furthermore, only 53 percent of 18-29 year olds “definitely” plan on voting this November.

Many young voters — including those at the 5Cs — exhibit the phenomena of voter nihilism or disdain for both candidates. Young people disconnected from the real impact of policy and disillusioned with both Harris and Trump view not voting as an act of defiance and heroism.

Many youth are failing to recognize that they are abdicating their largest civic power by not voting.

The magnitude of this election surpasses both the reasoning behind voter nihilism and the dislike towards both current candidates.

We as 5C students must put up a united front against Trump’s repugnant fascism and vote for the candidacy that will preserve our civil liberties and democracy: Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

Even after a Gen-Z oriented revamp of the Harris campaign, complete with references to Charli XCX’s album “Brat” and fun Tik Tok videos flooding from the KamalaHQ social media platforms, young people continue to express hesitancy towards Harris. Gen Z strongly disapproves

SHIXIAO YU • THE STUDENT LIFE

of the Biden administration’s policy toward Israel and Palestine, criticizing Harris for not condemning Israel as “bad actors” during her recent meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC. Gen Z must understand that this Presidential election is unlike anything American history has ever seen. Harris seeks to protect our personal freedoms and uphold the Constitution, while Trump aims to instill an authoritarian system where he maintains control over the complete federal bureaucracy. This is just one part of the Republican Party’s ultra-conservative plan—Project 2025 — if Trump is elected.

42 percent of US adults are

unaware of Project 2025 and its potential harmful impact. It seeks to cut key government services, eliminate the Department of Education, roll back environmental protections, restrict personal freedoms and jeopardize reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ protections. A Trump presidency promises stricter immigration policies, harms workers, weakens public health and undermines climate action, fostering inequality and insecurity. In contrast, Gen Z envisions a future where student debt isn’t crushing, reproductive choices are ours, basic living costs are affordable, the planet is healthy, schools are safe from gun violence and everyone has equal rights and legal

protection.

Project 2025 and all that Trump stands for would demolish this future. Harris and Tim Walz have vowed to fight their hardest to make Gen Z’s desired future a reality.

Even if the Harris-Walz ticket does not match your vision of a perfect candidacy, it will get us closer to our ideal future. We should think of voting like public transportation: hop on, even if it doesn’t take you exactly where you want to go.

Waiting for the perfect candidate is counterproductive; we must use our voices to push our parties in the direction we want to see.

We must acknowledge that Harris is a serious upgrade from

Joe Biden, and we as Gen Z should be excited about this. She is eager to shape the future of the Democratic Party by charting a progressive course that distinguishes her from Biden’s stance on key issues – such as the economy – while appealing to a new generation of voters. Furthermore, Harris is building upon the work Biden has already achieved in youth organizing. This will entail doubling the youth organizing team nationwide, investing in fresh online advertising on campuses and social media and initiating a college tour in pivotal battleground states.

In regards to each candidate’s position on relations with Israel and Palestine, young people need to recognize the stark contrast between the two platforms. Harris was the first member of the executive office to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and is advocating for a two-state solution.

As Vice President, she urged the Biden administration to be more considerate of Palestinian suffering . Conversely, Trump has callously demanded Israel to “finish the problem”. Since one candidate will win and assume the overarching power the President has over foreign policy, we should back Harris-Walz.

Voting as a college student can be challenging, but many online and in-person resources offer guidance based on state. Vote.gov provides clear steps for registered and unregistered college students, along with voter rights info. Student-led groups like Every Vote Counts also help new voters on most campuses.

At the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama urged action, asking the American people to do “something.” The best way to “do something” about the issues young people care about is to make a voting plan and rally behind Harris.

Tess McHugh PO ’25 is from Denver, CO. She loves watching Christopher Nolan movies, eating Thai food, and walking on the Kiawah Island Beach.

Stop choking people without asking MIRIAM AKHMETSHIN CW: The following article makes frequent references to choking, strangulation and sexual violence We have an epidemic on our campuses: non-consensual strangulation. Many of us know that this occurs across the 5Cs but think of it as a commonplace occurrence rather than a dangerous activity that poses both physical and mental health risks.

As a Scripps Advocate, Peer Health Educator and Teal Dot Bystander Intervention Trainer deeply invested in our community’s public health, I hope that we can increase discussion around the topic and promote a stronger culture of consent on our campuses.

Why did I start off using the term strangulation rather than the more colloquial “choking”? Technically, choking refers to the act of internal asphyxiation, like when food gets stuck in your throat. However, the act we commonly refer to as choking, external pressure applied to the neck with a limb or object, is really strangulation. I will use the term choking throughout the article as that’s the terminology we usually use, but I wanted to offer a reminder about the severity of the act. Being strangled without your consent sounds a lot scarier than being choked without consent and we need to forefront those feelings of fear.

What complicates the issue is that many instances of non-consensual strangulation occur within an otherwise consensual encounter, so many feel like they can’t make a big deal about it. In an age where many get their sex education from increasingly violent porn, such incidents can feel expected. It’s not surprising that one would just go with the flow because refusing can come with awkwardness.

In addition, the body’s natural fight/ flight/freeze/fawn responses make it hard to act in an unexpected and frightening situation. And sometimes, partners just don’t listen to verbal or non-verbal cues.

Choking during sexual activity has become normalized by social media, TV and porn, and its appeal lies in the euphoria created by minor oxygen deprivation. Yet, research shows choking decreases blood and oxygen flow to the brain, and even minimal force can cause brain damage. You do not need to lose consciousness to experience a brain injury. The return of oxygen and blood can also damage tissues due to inflammation and oxidative stress .

The topic has not been sufficiently studied, but experts agree that it is a high-risk activity. Prominent researcher Debby Hebernick notes that choking did not become common until recently and was even controversial in the BDSM community as it’s the leading cause of death in BDSM encounters.

I’m not here to argue against choking during consensual sex — you can do your own research and decide how you feel about its inherent risks. The issue is that many

SASHA MATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

are not given the chance to say no. While I have outlined a few negative health effects of choking in general, non-consensual choking comes with an even greater litany of scary outcomes because force and duration are not pre-negotiated.

Such a traumatic event can also cause mental problems like PTSD and depression. Individuals who are choked, consensually or not, report worse mental health than their peers.

I want to underscore how scary unexpected strangulation is, whether experiencing loss of oxygen or not. A vulnerable part of your body is restricted. You know that with a little force, you could be seriously injured, or killed. How will you say no or fight back if you can’t breathe?

It’s also crucial to note the gendered aspect of the issue as women comprise more than 49 percent, if not more, of the population at each of the five colleges. Among a study of undergraduate college women at Indiana University, 58 percent of sexually active undergraduate women report having been choked at least once, with almost one-third reporting being choked the last time they had oral, anal, or vaginal sex.

Only 8 percent of undergraduate men were choked during their last sexual experience.

In another study, women, nonbinary and transgender individuals reported being choked with more force than men who reported being choked. About a

quarter of the women in the study reported that they had been choked non-consensually in their lifetimes.

Based on stories I have heard around the Claremont Colleges, I think that number could be significantly higher.

As author Peggy Orenstein notes in her great New York Time op-ed, the dynamics of casual sex favor men’s pleasure in heterosexual hookups. Why do women only find themselves in submissive and painful situations? Choking is inherently a gendered, violent act of power. It’s an act that shouldn’t be done without trust and without consent.

As we all hopefully know, “nonconsensual” doesn’t just mean an activity that proceeds even after someone has said “no.” The absence of a yes is a no. Just because your partner didn’t say no doesn’t mean you have their consent. Silence is not consent. There are many ways to give and obtain consent in a natural way, whether with words or clear signals. I personally find it hard to imagine the appeal of sexual activity with a silent or unreactive partner. A “how does this feel?” can go a long way for everyone’s pleasure.

We t e n d t o t h i n k a b o u t sexual misconduct as limited to non-consensual penetrative sex, which is absolutely not the case.

The Claremont Colleges have comprehensive policies that prohibit all interpersonal violence.

Depending on the circumstances, unwanted strangulation could

be considered assault, domestic violence or sexual misconduct if it’s performed during a sexual act.

It can also be seen as use of force if done while engaging in other non-consensual sexual conduct.f it’s done during a sexual assault/ rape, that would be considered a form of aggravated force that the individual used engage in the sexual assault. While all acts need to be consensual, the bar for choking must be higher. Rather than relying on bodily signals, an audible “yes” really needs to be obtained for an act that carries this many risks.

Whether or not you get into trouble because you choked someone who didn’t want to be choked is besides the point. It’s immoral and probably didn’t lead to the best sexual experience. If this isn’t resonating with you, consider that, whether consensual or not, if something bad accidentally happens due to choking, you will likely be considered liable in court. In the environment of college hookup culture, you may not know medical information about your partner that could make unintended consequences more likely.

So here is my plea to the Claremont community: please start asking people if they want to be choked! Communicate with your partner! It will be better for everyone, I promise.

Miriam Akhmetshin SC ’26 is a junior at Scripps College studying Economics and Art History.

RESOURCES AT THE 5Cs: The EmPOWER Center • (909) 607-2689 • rshahempower@claremont. edu Monsour Counseling and Psychological Services • (909) 621-8202 • For the crisis line, dial above number and add “1″ Scripps Advocates • https://scrippsadvocates. wordpress.com/resources/ Claremont McKenna Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence • 909) 616-5556 • advocates@students.claremont mckenna.edu • 24/7 hotline, can text or call • Schedule office hours Pitzer Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault • Located on the second floor of the Grove House Pomona Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault • (909) 503-7972 • 24/7 hotline

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Opinions

PAGE 8

September 13, 2024

Hating country music is un-American LISA GORELIK “I like every genre of music … apart from country.”

“All country music sounds the same.”

“Country music is for cringey white guys who wear excessively revealing bro tanks and their hats backwards.”

Does this sound like you? You’re not alone. But I’m here to tell you why you’re wrong. As much as I know you want to cling onto these untrue, and honestly disrespectful stereotypes about country music to preserve a feeling of moral superiority, I urge you to hear me out.

Let me preface this by saying I am as un-American as you can get.

I am from Moscow, Russia and before this summer I had never been out further east in the United States than Arizona. But over the break, I had the opportunity to spend six weeks traveling across Texas for a cultural research project focused on

the origins, cultural significance and importance of honky tonks.

It was during this couple of weeks that I fell head over heels for country life, culture and music.

I believe that my foreign identity actually provides an advantage when thinking about a genre of music that is so uniquely American and totally engrained in this country’s history, politics and communities. I can offer you an outsider’s perspective on something you may be taking for granted.

The most unique aspect of this country is that there really is no one official and defined culture, which is reflected by the American music scene. Pop, rock, classical, rap, hip-hop, R&B, jazz — these are all global music genres. But who makes, or even really listens to country music, outside of America? Barely anyone.

Country music is just one part of America’s diverse cultural

landscape, and deserves to be respected and celebrated too. Or at the very least, country deserves enough of your attention to figure out why, or if, you really hate it.

I believe that there are three main reasons why you are inclined to say that you hate country music — let me debunk them for you.

Country music is just bad.

I’ll be honest: there is a lot of country music that sucks …

Like really sucks. Perhaps you’re thinking of those cliché songs about driving trucks and eating catfish for dinner. Yeah, I’m not a fan of these either. But each musical genre has terrible music and musicians — a lot of them are the ones that you heard on the radio that instantly made you declare country music as just plain crap.

Country music encompasses a plethora of subgenres that are all inspired by different regions and communities in the United States.

I’m thinking ballads, blue grass,

SASHA MATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

honky-tonk, Tejano, alternative, progressive. If I had the space to go into the deep histories, cultural and political ties of each of these subgenres, I would.

But for now, explore some of my favorites: Tyler Childers, Midland, Sturgill Simpson, Lainey Wilson, Marty Robbins (I would like to believe that my fantastic taste in music might change your mind about country).

Country music is just for straight, white, American men.

Yes, this was the case 20 years ago, but in recent years the country scene has transformed beyond recognition. We are seeing more and more Black country musicians who are celebrating their Southern roots, like Beyoncé and Shaboozey, who’s track “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has cemented the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 longer than any other song this year.

Perhaps the country music that you hear playing around Claremont McKenna College’s campus is by straight, white men, for straight, white men. But this statement totally disregards the abundance of Mexican-American country music, which is extremely popular in states like Texas and New Mexico.

Another aspect of country that often gets overlooked is its roots in some of the poorest areas of the United States, such as the Appalachian region where country music originated, heavily inspired by jazz and blues. Historically, country music has been associated with the working class, “disreputable” drinking joints and addiction — stereotypes deeply rooted in classism.

Country music has had a difficult history, excluding and harming people both inside and outside of its community. I am not advocating for the erasure or denial of country’s problematic past, but I am optimistic in the direction where the world of country is headed today.

The culture around country music is unrelatable.

If you’re not from the rural South, I do sympathize with this point, but living in California does not mean that you cannot engage with country culture and communities. There are so many aspects of country to explore that there is something for everyone.

Whether you’ve always been interested in watching a bull riding contest, or attending a rowdy rodeo, or picking up a line dance in a honky-tonk, or even just rocking a pair of bootcut jeans with a pair of shiny cowboy boots — you can do it all within 20 minutes of Claremont.

The nearby town of Norco, also known as Horsetown, boasts a variety of Western wear stores, country bars and rodeos. Diving deep into the unknown is scary, especially when everyone around you seems to already be ingrained in country culture, but I am almost certain that your courage will pay off.

Now, if you have truly given country music a fair shot and listened to the wide array of country subgenres out there and you still want to be a hater — so be it. Everybody has different musical tastes, and my goal is not to change that.

However, country music deserves a chance; by hating an entire genre that is bursting with talented, good-hearted musicians that want to make country more accessible to everyone, you are closing yourself off to something that you could fall in love with, like I did.

You do not need to check off any specific boxes to be a country music fan — country is for everyone.

Because really, who can’t relate to drowning your sorrows over your sweetheart not loving you back in an ice cold beer, sitting on a ragged, wooden stool of a honky tonk, as neon lights of cheap beer logos cloud your vision?

Lisa Gorelik CM ’25 is from Moscow, Russia. She is eagerly waiting for the weekend to show off her newly learned moves at the line dancing bars in Norco.

No-taxes-on-tips, a solution or a distraction?

ERIC LU Moments of bipartisan agreement can be hard to come by in contemporary American politics.

Yet, surprisingly, on one issue, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agree: no taxes on tips. This may come as a relief for workers desperate for a helping hand, as more than 60 percent of middle-class Americans say they’re struggling financially. But as appealing as this policy may be on the surface, it is nonetheless a bad idea. It neglects the overwhelming majority of workers, and it’s incredibly prone to abuse.

At first glance, the idea of giving a break to tipped workers is attractive — service workers are disproportionately women and people of color, and reducing their financial burdens would be a step toward economic equality.

But upon deeper inspection, this policy is both ineffective and problematic. It’s true that tipped workers often earn very low incomes, but that also means that they pay little to no income tax.

In 2022, Yale Budget Lab found that roughly 37 percent of tipped workers made so little money they paid no federal income tax at all. Furthermore, by distinguishing tips from income, the policy could cause tax-paying workers to lose out on vital programs, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides substan-

tial financial support for low-income workers and families.

A no tax on tips policy could also end up helping employers and harming consumers instead. The federal subminimum wage stipulates that employers must pay tipped workers at least $2.13 per hour, but if workers don’t earn enough in tips to reach the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, the employer must pay the difference.

A tax break would reduce the pressure on employers to raise wages, and transfer the burden of paying employees onto consumers’ shoulders. Such a bill could incentivize other industries to adopt a tipping model as well; this, in turn, would lead to increased pressure on workers to solicit tips, potentially leading to unstable income streams. Such a shift would be unwelcome in a culture where tipping is already unpopular: nearly 60 percent of Americans view tipping culture negatively, according to a recent BankRate survey.

Finally, the no-taxes-on-tips principle unfairly and arbitrarily distinguishes tipped and nontipped workers. Why should a cashier or janitor be taxed differently from a server or barista? And if tips are considered voluntary gifts rather than income, how can we justify paying a wage of just $2.13 an hour?

Akshay’s Crossword: It’s Their Fault!

Akshay Seetharam

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Less than 3 percent of American workers are tipped anyways — including just 5 percent of low-income workers — and such a policy would keep many tipped workers from accessing important social services while simultaneously initiating a twotiered tipping system that leaves out the overwhelming majority of workers.

It is fundamentally misguided to address income inequality through tax cuts. Though

tax cuts may seem enticing to a struggling working class, in reality the benefits they provide are often short-lived and disproportionately favor the wealthy. True solutions to wealth inequality come from raising the minimum wage and offering support services to help low-income families stay afloat — not frivolous tax breaks.

Kamala Harris’ groundbreaking economic agenda already features several of these pol-

ACROSS 1. “Same here!”

6. German filmmaker Riefenstahl 10. ____ ghanouj 14. Ginsberg or Iverson 15. Graceful ending?

16. Authorial list ender 17. *Squandering the surplus 19. Singer Diamond 20. In the distant past 21. Deep-fried tortilla dish 23. Praise 25. Snappy descriptor for 60A 26. *Solar panel removal 32. Hoard 33. Right hand, in a way: Abbr.

34. Progressive figurehead?

37. One of eight in a cloverleaf interchange 38. Political coalition sharing a name with its country 40. Raindrop sound 41. NYC, from LA 42. Some peas 43. Scorsese subjects in 2023 movie 44. *War on drugs 47. Words of clarification 50. Cairo’s river 51. Shakespeare play and Beethoven sonata 54. Falls on the edge?

59. Sludge 60. The scapegoats of 17A, 26A, and 44A 62. Appropriate anagram of “tone” 63.Scam, idiomatically 64. Year in Ypres 65. Many a history major next year 66. Second-person possessive pronoun 67. Species you won’t find at Seder

DOWN 1. A long tall tale 2. First prince of the Kievan Rus’ 3. Source of the acemannan gel 4. SARS’ Saudi sister 5. “Little House on the Prairie” middle name 6. British job?

7. Victor against Australia in a namesake war 8. ___ egg 9. Surname suffix in São Paulo 10. Determined to 11. Greatly peeved 12. Chinese tech giant from the Cayman Islands 13. 4.0 makeup 18. “Golly gee!”

22. Tiff 24. Straight, as humor 26. Less than medium 27. Sultanate governed from Muscat 28. Mine is Akshay 29. Slithering scourge of 50A

icies. Many of her provisions, including a federal minimum wage increase and a tax credit for parents of newborns, could actually benefit a broad section of American workers. She shouldn’t pander to hollow policy solutions that do little to help the American public.

At the Coop Fountain last year, we saw what happens to workers when they’re left unprotected.

Labor groups like UNITE HERE! Local 11 h ave alr eady made important strides in promoting better working conditions and securing livable wages for Pomona’s workers. Government policies should support these efforts to enhance protections for workers, rather than leaving them more vulnerable.

Adopting a no-tax-on-tips policy may be politically savvy, especially in key battleground states like Nevada, where tipped service workers make up a significant portion of the population. But as we enter into the final weeks of the election, it’s critical that voters discern between rhetoric and substance, and hold politicians accountable for crafting approaches that deliver real results.

Eric Lu PO ‘28 is a Politics major from Salt Lake City, Utah. As a prospective Politics Major and former part-time service worker, he is passionate about implementing policies that protect workers’ rights.

30. “___ was saying...”

31. Scholastic safe space org.

34. Linen source 35. Two chevrons, for Chevron 36. Welcoming 38. Business abbreviation 39. Informal negative 40. Trident-shaped Greek letter 42. It’s 1 at 90 43. Like some vitamin schedules 44. Climber’s descent 45. Dishwasher, at times 46. Battle of Taginae’s year, contemporaneously 47. “___ big deal” 48. Head, slangily 49. Be theatrical 52. Nimble and vivacious 53. Minuet’s partner 55. It’s selfish, according to Richard Dawkins 56. Tolstoy’s Karenina 57. GPS’ prescriptions 58. Play ___ (unit of tennis) 61. Our emails’ endings

From the Puzzlemaster To all 5C puzzle fans: I am happy to announce that, alongside my usual finely crafted crossword puzzles, I will be now publishing a leaderboard every week showing off the fastest crossword solvers in the 5Cs! To be considered for this very prestigious honor, scan the QR code to the right, and submit a photo of your completed puzzle. Placement will be judged based on how quickly you submit your solution!

Sports

September 13, 2024

PAGE 9

The more you know: An inside look into the 5C sports clubs CHARLOTTE RENNER Those who were able to brave the sweltering temperatures and hordes of freshmen at Walker Beach Wednesday, Sept. 4 for the 5C Club Fair were likely intrigued by signs advertising clubs —such as Circus Club, Surf Club and Ascent Club — little-known at the Claremont Colleges.

Hoops and silks spun behind the booth of the 5C Circus Club, though that display was only a small peek into what they have to offer. The club provides a chance to juggle, unicycle, practice handstands on balancing canes and even participate in acrobatic dance and contortion workshops.

“Anyone [who] has a special interest or something they want to do or [are] good at, we welcome that,” Clara Meyers PO ’25, Circus Club Co-President, said.

While the club offers activities of a wide range of difficulty, it welcomes new members of all levels who want to join and learn new skills.

“The way the club works is that we just teach each other our skills, so it’s kind of like a skill share,” Meyers said. “A lot of the presidents have had a lot of knowledge, and are just really willing to teach people stuff, and then we just kind of passed down that element.”

The Ascent Club, a climbing club open to the 5Cs, also encourages those who have never climbed before to sign up. However, Nichola Monroe SC ’27, one of the club’s leaders,

emphasizes the importance of safety on the ropes.

“You don’t have to have expertise to join the club at all,” Monroe said. “We do our best to facilitate learning environments, but it is a steep learning curve, particularly since you are dealing with real risk.”

The club helps people build the necessary skills at Hangar 18, a climbing gym in Upland, so they can join on Ascent Club-hosted trips. Last year, the group went to Joshua Tree and Monroe expressed her excitement about similar adventures coming up this year.

“I’m just excited to get people on ropes that have never even done that before,” she said. “It’s really, really amazing to share and to see.”

With a line stretching from its table down Walker Beach, the Surf Club was also signing up pros and newbies alike, providing those who want to get on a board the chance to do so. The club usually takes members to Trails, a beach south of San Onofre that can accommodate all levels.

“Just everyone in the water together, it helps everyone see like, anyone can do this,” Taylor Finn PO ’25 said. “You’re all here together just to have a good time.”

From experienced climbers looking for a way to get on the ropes to water lovers who’ve always wanted to try surfing, the 5Cs have no shortage of opportunities.

And wouldn’t it be cool to say you’re in the circus?

SASHA MATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

No Sunday scaries here: Sagehens coast to a home opener victory against Puget Sound

OTTO FRITTON • THE STUDENT LIFE Sagehens men’s soccer celebrates Kyle Lau’s PO ‘24 opening goal.

OTTO FRITTON Opening their season in front of the Claremont faithful in sweltering 100-plus degree temperatures, Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) men’s soccer matched the heat with a 2-0 shutout against Puget Sound

University on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 8.

The win came thanks to two goals from Kyle Lau PO ‘24 and a defensive performance that kept the Loggers scoreless, notching the Sagehens their first win of the season after last weekend’s 3-3

draw to Pacific Lutheran.

While the Sagehens ultimately came out on top, chances were few and far between in the first 30 minutes of play. However, with ten minutes left in the first half, a one-touch shot from Lau wrong-footed the Puget Sound goalkeeper and capped off a sharp Sagehen passing play, giving them the lead shortly before halftime.

According to Lau, getting on the scoresheet first proved to be a massive confidence booster for the Hens that allowed them to continue to play with a high level of intensity.

“It was good to get a goal,” Lau said. “Once the first one came, everyone was like, OK, the goals are going to come now.”

The Sagehens capitalized on their momentum and dominated possession throughout the second half, with a close chance shortly after the half. After another fluid passing play, Adam Leikin PZ ‘27 delivered a perfect ball into the box, which Keyon Namdar PO ‘27 centered for Aidan MacLennan PO ‘27.

The Puget Sound keeper ultimately denied MacLennan with

a bottom-corner save and a stuckout foot to stop the follow-up by Kieran Veloria PO ‘27.

Namdar, named 2023 SCIAC Newcomer of the Year and First Team ALL-SCIAC, consistently caused problems for Puget Sound before notching an assist late in the game.

In the 89th minute, after receiving a through ball from Alex Greenstein PZ ’26, Namdar skillfully passed two defenders before squaring the ball to Lau, who converted his second of the day into an empty net.

“The coach told me, ‘Take them, be confident, go down the line,’” Namdar said. “So when I saw the chance, I saw the opening of the lane, I took it, dribbled through, and then we know the rest.”

Though a standout in the game, Namdar attributed much of his success to his coaching staff and fellow teammates.

“It’s a new team, a new staff, and everyone is more as a team, more organized,” Namdar said.

“When you trust your coach, it’s a whole different game because you can rely on them on the field and off the field.”

While the Sagehens thrived offensively, Goalkeeper Jasper Broad PZ ‘25 commended the team’s defensive success in keeping the Loggers at bay, especially having conceded multiple goals the previous weekend.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Broad said. “A little bit of a rough weekend down in Santa Cruz, a loss and a draw, but the team has really kept it together. This team really showed today.”

Moving forward, for Head Coach Bill Swartz, who returned this year after a 1.5-year absence, the Sagehens’ goal is to keep building their team and perfecting their possession-based playstyle, while also finishing more of their chances.

“It’s just trying to make a team together,” Swartz said. “I think I know how we are going to play the ball. We had some good chances.

Some days they go in, but we got the two we wanted.”

P-P looks to continue its good form during SCIAC play, where, after beating La Verne on the road to improve their record to 2-1-1, they will face Whittier College Sept. 18 away before returning home to face CalTech on Sept. 21.

CMS, P-P men’s water polo kick off the season at UCSD’s Triton Invitational SYDNEY KROONEN The water in Axelrood Aquatic Center and Haldeman Pool stood still this weekend as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) and Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) men’s water polo teams traveled down the coast to compete at UC San Diego’s Triton Invitational.

On Sept. 7 and 8, the Tritons hosted 18 teams—the most competitors in the event’s history — including 10 of the teams in the Collegiate Water Polo Association’s top 20 overall men’s varsity preseason polls.

During their stay in San Diego, Claremont’s very own NCAA Division III’s No. 1-ranked Stags prepared to face several of their highly-ranked opponents across divisions: Division I’s No. 6 UC Irvine, No. 2 UC Berkeley and No. 11 UC Santa Barbara.

On the first day, the Stags fell to both Irvine and Berkeley, with respective scores of 8-18 and 8-19.

Despite the final scores, CMS had several stand-out performances throughout the day, including a six-goal performance from Nick Kennedy CM ‘27 and a hat trick by Luke “Bear” Weigle CM ‘26.

Facing off against UC Merced the next day, the Stags turned their luck around. With the help of Luke Leonard CM ’28 – who scored the first goal from the class of 2028 of the season – CMS walked away with a

12-11 victory, their first win of the tournament.

In their final game, the Stags kept UC Santa Barbara tied 3-3 until the second quarter where they put away five more goals on the Gauchos, but ultimately fell to them 8-16.

The Stags, who are now beginning their regular season, said they viewed the tournament as a test run for their upcoming games.

“It was the first weekend, so it’s really sort of a temperature test,” Ashwin Rhodes CM ’24 said.

“There’s five people who have never played college water polo before. How are they going to be?

You never know before you get behind the wheel.”

According to Rhodes, the CMS first-years surpassed expectations, noting Leonard’s first collegiate goal. Both Rhodes and Kennedy emphasized the importance of the Stags’ upperclassmen in incorporating the new players into the team.

“A big focus for the upperclassmen is to transfer confidence to the freshmen,” Kennedy said. “They install the mindset: make the right decision, but at the same time, don’t be scared or too intimidated, and know when it’s your turn to do something in the game. Do it right and do it confidently.”

Traveling from the other side of Sixth Street, DIII’s No. 3-ranked

COURTESY: CLAREMONT-MUDD-SCRIPPS ATHLETICS Luke “Bear” Weigle CM ’26 winds up during UCSD’s Triton Invitational.

Sagehens faced three top-20ranked teams, including DI No. 1 UCLA. On their first day, the Hens faced off against DI’s No. 13 Pepperdine and unranked Cal State Fullerton. In game one, P-P had two-goal performances from Chase Barman PZ ‘27, Indigo Lee PO ‘27 and Zach Whitfield PO ‘27, but ultimately lost 9-21.

Later in the day, P-P held the lead over Fullerton for the first three quarters but ended up falling 12-13. Despite the loss, the Hens walked away with beaks held high due to Connor Sullivan PO ‘28, Max Disasto PO ‘28 and Micah Webber PZ ‘28 netting the first goals of their college careers.

Day two for the Hens featured stiff competition from the host

team, No. 12 UC San Diego, and No. 1 UCLA, both DI teams. P-P put up valiant efforts in both games, netting 12 goals on the day, including a hat trick by Whitfield, but left the tournament with two more losses.

According to Sullivan, the Hens saw this weekend as an opportunity to test the team against strong competitors before the beginning of SCIAC play.

“I think the biggest skill that we were trying to work on was swinging the ball,” Sullivan said. “We worked on staying in the moment and trying to stay focused knowing that there was a lot of noise in the stadium.”

Sullivan expressed satisfaction with P-P’s ability to capitalize on this opportunity and left the weekend feeling hopeful about the future of Sagehen men’s water polo.

“I’m proud of the boys, especially our freshmen, that stepped up over this last weekend,” Sullivan said.

“Our team’s going to be good for years to come.”

Both the Stags and Sagehens will have another opportunity to face DI competitors at the Inland Empire tournament, which will take place in Claremont on Saturday, Sept. 14 and Sunday, Sept. 15. Both CMS and P-P will begin SCIAC play in the upcoming weeks with CMS facing off against Chapman University on Sept. 28 and P-P taking on Caltech on Sept. 19.

Sports

PAGE 10

September 13, 2024

Sagehen Football flips the script, stomping the Carleton College Knights in season opener OLIVER SHOENING As the saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. But for the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) football team, their revenge against the Carleton Knights was red hot.

On Saturday, Sept. 7, at the newly renovated and turfed Merritt Field, the Sagehens orchestrated a brilliant 28-12 victory against Carleton College in their season opener, avenging last season’s 45-24 loss to the Knights.

Electing to receive the opening kickoff, P-P immediately sprung into action with a handoff and short pass to running back Brennan Dragomer PZ ‘27 on back-to-back plays.

However, their opening drive was derailed by a pass breakup from the Knights, forcing the Sagehens to punt the ball.

The Sagehens defense immediately answered the call, led by a strong showing from the defensive line, stuffing Carleton’s first rush attempt and forcing a throw short of the sticks on third down.

After receiving the ball back on a short field following an errant punt

by Carleton, quarterback Grady Russo PZ ‘27 immediately led the offense on an efficient scoring drive, capped by a short touchdown to receiver Quinten Wimmer PZ ‘25 to put the Hens up 7-0 in the first quarter.

The touchdown was just the beginning of a strong showing from Russo, who credited his fellow Hens for the team’s success through the air.

“I have the best receivers in the league, and our O-line improved so much,” Russo said. “I’m not making those throws if the whole line doesn’t protect me the way

they did.”

Carleton’s attempts to get their offense going were met by stiff resistance from P-P’s defense. A high-effort performance from the Hens’ linebacker corps helped put the Knights into multiple second and third down situations where they were met by tight coverage from the Sagehen secondary.

After receiving the ball back in the second quarter, Russo and Wimmer connected again on a long throw to the right pylon.

Wimmer hauled in the passthrough heavy contact from a Carleton defensive back. The second score to Wimmer was a testament to the connection between the two.

“I just chuck the ball up and [the receivers] are open,” Russo said.

Wimmer had a big day as a receiver, tallying nine receptions for 92 yards and a pair of touchdowns. However, much of his work was also done as a blocker helping open up lanes for Russo and Dragomer, who finished with 129 and 67 yards on the ground, respectively.

Sagehen Offensive Coordinator Brian Carroll spoke about the strength of the Hens’ multifaceted running game thanks to both the running backs and the offensive line.

“Those guys run hard, but they’re also really elusive, so they’re getting extra yards,” Carroll said. “It all starts with those big guys up front.”

The Sagehens entered halftime with a 14-0 lead following a missed field goal from Carleton, entering the second half looking to extend their lead.

After a slow start to the second

half, the Sagehen defense picked up the slack, forcing a turnover on downs in their own red zone to give the ball back to the offense.

Russo and the offense immediately started off the fourth quarter with a bang, putting together an efficient red-zone series capped off by a spectacular connection between Russo and receiver Matthias Olson PO ‘26, who went on to secure a touchdown.

After cruising ahead to a 21-0 lead, a Sagehen field goal attempt was blocked by Carleton and re-

turned for a touchdown, and their offense was subsequently stopped on a fourth-down conversion attempt in the red zone.

With just minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Sagehens defense immediately answered the turnover with a takeaway of their own: a 17-yard pick-six from linebacker Eamon Glascott PO ‘25. This would turn out to be the Sagehens’ last score of the game, giving the team a commanding 28-6 lead.

A late score from the Knights

COURTESY: POMONA-PITZER ATHLETICS Quinten Wimmer PZ ’25 reaches over a defender for a touchdown.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Athletes of the Week Luke (Bear) Weigle CMC ’26 Woodside, CA Men’s Water Polo

Although their efforts weren’t reflected on the scoreboard, ending the weekend with one win and three losses, the Claremont-MuddScripps (CMS) men’s water polo had a successful weekend against top talent at UC San Diego’s Triton Invitational where Luke “Bear ” Weigle CM ’26 shone. Weigle scored 11 goals across four games, including a career-high five goals against UC Merced. Weigle’s scoring helped the Division III No. 1 Stags topple UC Merced 12-11. Weigle also added three goals against Division I’s No. 6. UC Irvine, who have recently dropped to No. 9 in the CWPA rankings. Continuing their pursuit of a national title, the Stags look forward to Sept. 25 when they will face California State University at Fullerton.

Friday, September 13 Women’s Soccer vs. St. Catherine University

CMS

Women’s Tennis vs. APU/Biola/CSUN/PP/ Westmont @ PP-CMS Invitational Volleyball vs. University of Puget Sound @ Cal Lutheran Invitational Saturday, September 14 Men’s Water Polo vs. University of California Santa Barbara @ Inland Empire Classic

P-P

Hannah Hong PO ’26 Irvine, CA Women’s Soccer

Women’s Soccer vs. University of California Santa Cruz

Men’s Water Polo vs. California Baptist University @ Inland Empire Classic

Volleyball vs. East Texas Baptist University @ Cal Lutheran Invitational Men’s Water Polo vs. Fresno Pacific University @ Inland Empire Classic Volleyball vs. Whitworth University @ Cal Lutheran Invitational

Saturday, September 14 Women’s Tennis vs. APU/Biola/CSUN/PP/ Westmont @ PP-CMS Invitational

Volleyball vs. East Texas Baptist University @ Cal Lutheran Invitational

Men’s Water Polo vs. Massachusetts Institute of Technology @ Inland Empire Classic

Volleyball vs. University of California Santa Cruz @ Cal Lutheran Invitational

Men’s Water Polo vs. Ottawa University Arizona @ Inland Empire Classic

Sunday, September 15 Men’s Water Polo vs. Fresno Pacific University @ Inland Empire Classic

Sports Calendar

Women’s Soccer vs. St Catherine University Men’s Water Polo vs. University of California Santa Barbara @ Inland Empire Classic

Volleyball vs. Whitworth University @ Cal Lutheran Invitational

Senior Staff ANNABELLE INK, Senior News Editor NITYA GUPTA, Junior News Editor MYLES KIM, News Associate MAYA ZHANG, Arts & Culture Editor

Hannah Hong PO ’26 guided the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s soccer team to a 3-1 victory over Macalester College on Friday, Sept. 6. In Friday’s game, the Sagehens forward netted two goals on five shots, setting a new single-game career high. After taking home the 2023 SCIAC Championship and advancing to the NCAA Division III tournament — where they fell to 2023 champions Cal Lutheran — Hong and DIII’s No. 11 ranked Sagehens are looking to capture the national title this fall.

Sunday, September 15 Men’s Water Polo vs. Ottawa University Arizona @ Inland Empire Classic

Friday, September 13 Women’s Tennis vs. APU/Biola/CSUN/PP/ Westmont @ PP-CMS Invitational

NICOLE CEPEDA, Copy Chief ANDREW YUAN, Photo Editor ESHA CHAMPSI, Photo Editor SASHA MATTHEWS, Graphics Editor

Pomona-Pitzer

Women’s Tennis vs. APU/Biola/CSUN/PP/ Westmont @ PP-CMS Invitational

THE STUDENT LIFE EMMA CONSTABLE, Creative Director JAKE CHANG, Production Editor NIA CARROLL, Production Editor MADELEINE FARR, Copy Chief

against a rotated P-P defense made the final score of the game 28-12, but did not dampen the mood of the team, who were ecstatic to avenge last season’s loss.

“That’s sweet, sweet revenge,” Wimmer said. “In the film room we watched [last season’s] game, there were so many things we could have done, and we did those tonight.”

This victory brings the Sagehens’ record to 1-0 on the season, and the team will enjoy a bye week to recuperate before facing Pacific University on the road on Sept. 21.

NADIA HSU, Arts & Culture Editor AARON MATSUOKA, Opinions Editor ADAM AKINS, Opinions Editor CHARLOTTE RENNER, Sports Editor

Editorial Board ANSLEY WASHBURN, Editor-in-Chief JUNE HSU, Managing Editor TANIA AZHANG, Managing Editor OTTO FRITTON, Sports Editor MAC KELLEY, Sports Editorial Assistant BEN LAUREN, Special Projects Editor DANIA ANABTAWI, Special Projects Editor

MARIKA AOKI, DEI Editor ROYSTONE VARUMA, DEI Editor ANDREW PALMER, Business Manager DHRITI SONTHALIA, Business Manager

FEVEN SHONGA, Social Media Manager

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

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