‘This is not a choice:’ Scripps administration demands Motley Coffeehouse remove Palestinian flag
Scripps College’s Motley Coffeehouse has received backlash from administration for displaying a Palestinian flag on its wall. Despite repeated calls from administration to remove the flag, the Motley’s management team has refused to take it down in a show of solidarity with Palestine.
On Wednesday, Sept. 18, the Motley’s management team received an email from the administration asking them to “promptly remove any unauthorized signage, decorations, flags, posters, or other materials.”
“The College has not authorized Motley employees to display symbols or signage endorsing a political position or perspective that could be erroneously attributed to Scripps College,” the email read.
ANSLEY WASHBURN forwarded to the student listserv by Sha Bradley, Scripps’ vice president for student affairs and dean of students. The subject line read, “Commitment to Freedom of Expression and Inclusion-Motley Coffeehouse.” According to Bradley, the purpose of forwarding the message was to clarify the Motley’s responsibility to adhere to the college’s Advertising, Publicity, and Solicitation Policy and Principles of Community. “As we start a new academic year, we want to reinforce our commitment to freedom of expression and inclusion,” she wrote in a preface to the forwarded message. “I look forward to engaging in conversations about creating an environment that fosters belonging, inclusion, and values community.”
Later that day, the email was
Although administration only
Students demonstrate outside Starr’s house amidst calls for divestment
ANNABELLE INK
On Sunday, Sept. 15, approxi-
mately 60 students gathered in front of Pomona College President Gina Gabrielle Starr’s house on N. College Avenue for a demonstration led by Pomona Divest from Apartheid (PDfA).
The demonstration, which began at 11:50 p.m., went on for about 20 minutes and included a series of screams and chants calling on the college to divest from what students have previously described as “companies aiding the ongoing apartheid system within the State of Israel.”
According to the college, Sunday’s protest violated demonstration policies and student conduct investigations are underway.
Hours before the demonstration,
PDfA posted on Instagram asking students to meet at Pomona’s Marston Quad at 11:30 p.m. that night. The post included a video of Starr speaking to protestors in Alexander Hall during the Apr. 5 arrests last semester, with the words “GENOCIDE GINA” and “we remember our enemies” displayed over it.
“WE ARE STILL HERE,” the caption reads. “360,000 PLUS. NO PEACE FOR THE PERPETRATORS OF GENOCIDE.”
Students, many donning allblack outfits, keffiyehs and face masks, began making their way over to Marston Quad at about 11:30 p.m. At 11:46 p.m., they began the short walk to Starr’s
ARTS & CULTURE
At
Athenaeum on
16,
informed the student body of the dispute on Wednesday, the Motley took to social media almost a week earlier to speak on the issue and to call students to action against the administration’s demands.
On Thursday, Sept. 12, the Motley shared a joint Instagram post with Pomona Divest from Apartheid announcing that the Scripps administration had threatened to prevent them from opening “unless they take down their Palestinian flag.”
The post called for students and community members to gather for a protest that afternoon to “demand that Scripps stop vilifying pro-palestinian speech.” It also included a screenshot of an email that the management team had received from Deborrah Herbert, Scripps’ interim special assistant to the vice president for
student affairs, earlier that week.
The “leaked” email from Herbert disclosed that an unnamed Scripps faculty member had shown a photo of the Palestinian flag displayed in the Motley to Bradley and Scripps President Amy Marcus-Newhall.
“I need you to understand, this is not a choice,” Herbert wrote. “The Motley is college owned and the flag must come down ASAP.”
The email referenced the college’s posting policy and reminded the Motley’s management team that any public displays on college-owned property require approval. It also went into detail about what being “college-owned and student-run” means.
“As a business open to all of the Scripps and 7C community [the Motley] needs to be a welcoming environment for all of the community, not just part of the community.”
Herbert acknowledged the student employees’ rights to their personal political opinions but also stressed that the Motley is not an appropriate space to express them.
“While student employees of the Motley have every right to hold their own personal political positions, being employed at the Motley does not turn the Motley
into your personal political platform,” she wrote. “It remains a College-owned business establishment irrespective of the political viewpoints held by the student employees in any given year.”
The Motley post’s call to action, which was included alongside the screenshot of Herbert’s email, was heard by students, and at 4:15 p.m. that day, over 150 students gathered in the coffeehouse, many in keffiyehs and masks, in solidarity and in anticipation of an administrator’s arrival to take down the flag.
“Banning the Palestinian flag on the grounds that it is unwelcoming is itself a discriminatory act,” one speaker said.
The speaker also explained the addition of several flags now displayed within the Motley, which they said followed Herbert’s claim that the Palestinian flag was not part of a broader display recognizing international students at Scripps.
“Well, now it is part of a broader display that recognizes international students at Scripps, queer students, black students, immigrant students and trans students,” the speaker said. “So what we want to find out is, will Scripps adminis-
Wildfires run rampant through Southern California, causing concern for 5C community
KAHANI MALHOTRA & ELLIE LAKATOS in San Bernardino and Los Angeles Counties.
California is no stranger to wildfires, with more than 7,500 wildfires tearing through the state in 2023, and 2024 being no different.
The Bridge Fire has been the most significant threat to the Claremont Colleges located just northwest of the campuses and is currently the largest active fire in Southern California.
Since the fire started in Glendora on Monday, Sept. 9, it has burned over 54 thousand acres
Around the 5Cs, this year’s fire season has led to worsened air quality, discussions around canceling in-person activities and speculations about a possible campus evacuation order.
On Tuesday, Sept. 10, the rapid spread of the Bridge fire prompted local officials to issue an evacuation warning for northern Claremont. At the same time, students received warning notifications concerning the possibility of being evacuated.
SARAH ZIFF • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
the bridge Fire burns behind 5C campuses, causing concern for members of the community.
KAYA SAVeLSON • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
KAYA SAVeLSON • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
Amidst pressures from administration, Scripps’ Motley Coffeehouse has refused to take down its Palestinian flag.
Palestine flag displayed on the wall of the Motley.
tALIA beRNSteIN • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
On Sept. 15, pomona Divest from Apartheid held a demonstration outside of president Starr’s house, leading students in a series of chants and screams centered around divestment.
STARR:
Students call for divestment outside Pomona president’s house
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residence, reaching the house in a matter of minutes where they stood scattered across the nearby sidewalk.
Several campus safety vehicles were parked nearby, their engines running. One speaker, whose face and body were covered and unidentifiable, broke — what had been up until that point — near silence.
“If you don’t already know, we’re going to be channeling some rage,” they said. “If you’re not feeling angry already, get fucking angry. This school is funding genocide, and this person is the head of this school, so let’s give her a piece of our minds.”
The speaker counted down from three, and the protesters broke out in a collective scream directed at Starr’s house. The scream lasted four minutes. When it was over, the speaker urged those who still had energy to participate in a series of chants.
“While bombs are dropping in Gaza, paid by this institution, [Starr] should not be able to get any sleep at night,” they said. “No one on this fucking campus should be able to get any sleep at night.”
The chants included phrases like “There is only one solution — Intifada revolution,” “While you’re sleeping, Gaza’s bleeding” and “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.”
After about 10 minutes, protesters wrapped up their chanting and participated in one final scream. Like the previous one, this scream went on for several minutes before protestors concluded the demonstration.
According to Patricia Vest, Pomona’s interim chief communications officer, Sunday’s protest did not adhere to the college’s community gatherings and peaceful demonstration procedures, which is why the college has pursued conduct investigations.
“The College firmly supports the rights of free expression in ways that uphold our academic mission,” Vest wrote in an email to TSL. “The College’s invitation to engage in constructive dialogue continues to be on the table. We believe that collaboration and dialogue are essential for our community in this challenging moment.”
5C community tunes into HarrisTrump debate
Wide-eyed debate watchers filed into rooms across the 5Cs, excitement and anxiety buzzing in the air. Sitting upright with bingo cards and pens in hand, students at Pomona began placing bets on whether or not Donald Trump and Kamala Harris would shake hands.
On the evening of Tuesday, Sept. 10, Pitzer College, Pomona College and Claremont McKenna College organized various gatherings for students to come together to watch the second 2024 presidential debate, the first between Harris and Trump.
Each setup was unique in its format, audience and formality, with CMC’s watch party being the most exclusive of the three. Held in the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, only CMC students could attend, and even then, space was limited and spots filled up quickly.
Students and faculty were split into two separate rooms due to concerns about any possible influence one group might have on the other.
“I think it was a more productive conversation without worrying about what the pro -
fessor thinks about you,” watch party attendee Ella Reyl CM ’25 said. “The students are pretty capable, [so] I thought it was good that we had something to ourselves.”
Pomona’s watch party, held at the Rose Hills Theatre and open to all 5C students, also required an RSVP; however, when the designated seating filled up, eager participants found make-shift seats in the aisles and front row of the theater. However, once the venue exceeded its maximum capacity of around 200 students, the fire department had to intervene, asking anyone without a formal seat to leave.
The League of Women Voters, who co-organized the Pomona debate-watching party with the help of the Pomona Politics Department, also distributed bingo cards with possible debate topics on them.
Millie Nathanson SC ’28 attended the viewing party and described the room as being filled with excitement and enthusiasm.
“People were gasping and clapping and making comments,” she said. “It felt like watching a sporting event.”
Pitzer’s watch party — organized by the Justice Education
Center — was open to all 5C students where, throughout the event, debate watchers engaged in political discourse. There were refreshments available, and students said that the venue provided an environment inviting for anyone to voice their opinions, questions and emotions. Many watchers ended up staying after the debate ended to watch MSNBC commentators and participate in a post-debate breakdown.
Romarilyn Ralston, the senior director of the Justice Education Center, noted the importance of community settings such as this one for those watching the debate.
“I think that it’s a disservice to go off and watch the debate on your own and not have that extra insight and discourse such as talking with your peers, talking with people you don’t know and talking with people that may not share the same political beliefs as you,” she said. Nathanson described the added insights gained from the discussion with a panel of professors following the debate.
“Professor Menefee-Libey made a very interesting comment about how the language that former President Trump used to describe Haitian immi -
Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd Colleges soar in Wall Street Journal’s rankings of best colleges in the United States
The Wall Street Journal named Claremont McKenna (CMC) and Harvey Mudd College (HMC) in their 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. ranking, released on Sept. 5. CMC ranked fifth – up four spots from last year – while HMC secured the 20th spot after not being ranked in the previous year.
On Tuesday, Sept. 17, the Wall Street Journal also named Scripps College as the No. 1 U.S. college for student experience, giving it a Student Experience Score of 75.5.
Each year, the Wall Street Journal partners with College Pulse, a digital survey and research company, and Statista, an online data gathering and visualizing company, to produce these college rankings.
The 2025 rankings are largely based on surveys from college students and recent college graduates. Colleges are assessed based on three categories: student outcomes (success after graduation), learning environment and diversity.
Student outcomes – which include salary impact, graduation rate impact and the number of years to pay off net price of attendance— make up the largest portion of the ranking at 70 percent, with learning environment and diversity making up the final 20 percent and 10 percent respectively.
Zach Roerden CM ’27 suggested that CMC’s high rate of students pursuing economics – many of whom go into the notoriously high-paying field of finance – puts CMC at an advantage compared to other liberal arts schools.
“It’s not so surprising when you consider the fact that probably a higher [percentage] of the student body is going to be earning more money [right] out of college,” he said. Economics was the most popular major of CMC’s 2023 graduating class, vastly outnumbering other majors with 124 students compared to the next highest, psychology, with
35 students. CMC released a list of firms where their students have received internships or full-time offers. The list included companies such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs and Bain & Company, known to offer high-paying positions.
HMC’s top major for 2022 graduates was engineering; Forbes recently ranked engineering as the bachelor’s degree with the highest 2024 average salary.
Besides the popularity of high-paying majors, Roerden also suggested that these colleges have more to offer than schools with more name recognition, pointing to their close-knit environment.
“I’ve had friends who got into Dartmouth, they got into Ivies, and ones that other news outlets might rank as the best colleges, but [the Wall Street Journal] picked CMC knowing the smaller school [size] and sense of community,” Roerden said.
Lou Delano HM ’26 shared this sentiment, noting that the rankings match the student experience at HMC regarding the quality of education and learning environment.
“I think you learn a lot at Mudd about yourself as you do in college, but a lot about the value of hard work, and obviously all the technical things you would need to know in the industry,” Delano said. “I feel pretty well prepared.”
Roerden also acknowledged the positive impact of CMC’s diversity, reflecting on the diverse and unexpected friendships that he has made during his time at the college.
“There [is] a girl from Singapore, a girl from Mexico, a guy from Chicago, a guy on the football team [and] a girl who paints … these were never people I expected to be friends with,” he said. ”CMC somehow brought us all together.”
In 2023, Pomona College also ranked 40th on the Wall Street Journal’s list, but it did not make
the Wall Street Journal ranked Claremont mcKenna College No. 5 and Harvey mudd College No. 20 in their best Colleges in the U.S. rankings, bringing school pride but also skepticism about the ranking methodology.
the cut this year.
However, for Sydney Tai PO ’26, her college experience is not defined by a ranking.
“I’m here, I’m happy here and I’m satisfied with the quality of my education, so I don’t need that to be determined by a ranking list,” she said.
Tai did suggest that Pomona could use some growth in the area of student success after graduation.
“I think there is a lot of pre-professionalism, but at the same time, it feels like Pomona doesn’t always have the resources for that,” Tai said. “It feels like there’s less builtin infrastructure for [success after graduation].”
While Roerden says he feels CMC does provide a good quality education and diverse environment, he also noted debate surrounding the validity of the ranking.
“There is a lot of sentiment that it’s not a legitimate ranking,” Roerden said. “When a news outlet is deciding to make a list of ‘best’ anything, ‘best’ is subjective.” Despite this sentiment, according to Roerden, many CMC students were posting the rankings on their Instagram stories. However, this reaction does not seem to be as popular among HMC students.
“I haven’t really heard anybody talk about it honestly,” Delano said. “I feel like Mudd kids don’t get too tied up in the rankings.”
All rankings considered, Delano expressed content with his choice of college.
“It’s the best school I could have picked,” Delano said. “For me, it’s number one but that doesn’t mean it’s the number one school for everyone.”
grants in Ohio was very similar to the rhetoric that was used in Nazi Germany,” Nathanson said, reflecting on the Pomona watch party.
Beyond the 5C watch party format, Reyl expressed how the presidential debate itself brings the candidates to life, more so than an article summary would.
“I think it definitely humanizes the candidates,” Reyl said.
“You can see both their strengths and faults more visibly than you would otherwise.”
Open dialogue amongst peers revealed different ways people interpreted the debate. At one discussion table at CMC’s event, for instance, Reyl noticed that her peers had contrasting perspectives on Harris’ performance — something that helped her better form her own point of view.
“One guy at the table thought that Kamala’s performance wasn’t that strong,” she said. “Whereas, the girls at the table thought she did a great job.”
To some students, the watch parties highlighted the strength of the 5C community around a shared interest in politics and civic responsibility.
“It really made me feel like I chose the right college because of how many people wanted to show up,” Nathanson said.
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tration force us to take down the Palestinian flag, among others? Does Scripps College deny Palestine’s right to exist?” Ultimately, however, the administrator did not show up to the protest, informing members of the management team that they were stuck in traffic. With this message, organizers sent protestors home.
Still, despite threats from administration, the Motley held its inaugural “opening night” party the next night on Friday, Sept. 13 with the Palestinian flag hanging on its wall. The event was well attended and was followed by the coffeehouse’s official opening on Monday, Sept. 16. Since then, the Motley has been operating as usual. When asked for a statement, Scripps’ Senior Communications Manager Emily Peters responded that the college has no further comment after Sha’s email and is in communication with managers at the coffeehouse.
“There are no additional details to share at this time,” Peters wrote. “But we can confirm that College staff is continuing to engage in conversation with the Motley managers to ensure the Motley remains an inclusive and welcoming space for all members of the Scripps and 7C communities.”
The Motley, Herbert, Reeder and Sha did not respond for comment.
June Hsu contributed reporting.
JOELLE RUDOLF & REILLY COSTELLO
COURteSY: SeCRetNAme101 (LeFt), RANDOmUSeRGUY1738 (RIGHt) pomona, Claremont mcKenna and pitzer Colleges hosted watch parties for students and faculty members to discuss the presidential debate.
CHLOE ESHAGH
eVeLYN HARRINGtON • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
WILDFIRES: Local
fires threaten 5C security
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Campus Safety responded to student concerns of potential evacuations that same day.
“Campus Safety is aware that many individuals on campus are receiving push notifications advising them to be prepared for possible evacuation,” they said in a safety notification. “At this time, there is no immediate evacuation order in effect for our campus.”
In addition to the Bridge fire, there are two other major fires in the vicinity: the Line Fire in San Bernardino County — which started on Sept. 5 and has burned 39 thousand acres — and the Airport Fire in Orange County, which started on Sept. 9, and has burned 23 thousand acres.
On Wednesday, Sept. 11, a Campus Safety notification acknowledged the presence of the two fires but emphasized that they posed little threat to the 5Cs.
“The Line Fire in San Bernardino County and the Airport Fire in Orange County continued to burn and are a considerable distance from our campus but may impact our faculty and staff who live throughout the region,” they said in a 5C-wide email. “Whether or not you are directly affected, staying informed is crucial for our collective well-being.”
CMC’s Vice President for Student Affairs Diana “DT” Graves CM ‘98, a longtime resident of Southern California, commented on her fears of potential evacuation.
“I’ve seen several serious local wildfires in the 30 years I have been living in Claremont,” she said. “While it’s encouraging that the colleges have never been evacuated in that time, we always presume that could be a possibility and plan accordingly.”
In a press release, the Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS) disclosed the procedure for if the 5Cs were placed under an evacuation order.
They said that upon notification from Incident or Unified Command, who would identify evacuation locations based on the issues and circumstances, Campus Safety would transmit an Emergency Notification for evacuation. Then, the campus Emergency Managers, Campus Safety and Claremont College leadership would provide additional guidance to safely evacuate community members.
TCCS said that they worked closely with Campus Safety to determine what information to share with the community regarding the wildfires and when
to share it. “It was determined that information about the fires and air quality and how to access specific details would be useful for our community — especially students new to the Claremont community and parents hearing the news but uncertain of the proximity or impact on the [Claremont Colleges] community,” TCCS said in the release.
There were concerns that the smoke from the Bridge Fire would affect the surrounding area’s air quality.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) indicates how clean or polluted the air is in a given area. The values of the index run from 0 to 500, and are divided into six categories, ranging from ‘good’ to ‘hazardous.’
The highest 10-minute average AQI reported was near Harvey Mudd College at 251, with an average of 246.5 on September 9th at 7:20pm.
Due to the poor air quality, Professor Russel Knight, lecturer of music at Scripps College, moved his class to zoom.
“If it was as bad where they lived as it was for me, where I lived, then I wouldn’t want them going outside either,” Knight said.
Commuting to the Claremont Colleges involved crossing areas close to the wildfires for some students, staff and faculty who live in the nearby regions.
“I actually saw the flames from the Line Fire on my commute,” Knight said. “We have wildfires all the time, but I’d never actually seen the flames.”
For some students, especially freshmen and transfers who are from out-of-state, this season’s wildfires were a shock.
“I knew there were wildfires in California, but it’s always been something you heard about on the news, it’s never something that’s impacted me directly,” Sloan Newlin SC ‘28, a freshman from Illinois, said. “And then to go from that to seeing the smoke in the air — oh my gosh.”
Newlin said she felt that the intensity of September’s wildfires will stick with her for the rest of her time at the 5Cs.
“Even though this has happened in the first three weeks of me being here, I know fires like this aren’t normal or to be expected,” Newlin said. “I’m gonna look back and be like, ‘wow, that was crazy.’”
Lissa Wadewitz talks race, labor and sociocultural dynamics in the 19th century U.S. whaling industry
YUHANG XIE & TRINITY
TAI
On Sept. 12, Pomona College’s Asian Studies Department hosted a lecture titled “Animals, Race, and the ‘Gospel of Kindness’: The American Whaling Fleet of the Pacific World.” The lecture, the first in a series led by the department’s alumni, shed light on how race relations aboard mixed-race whaling ships impacted sailors’ treatment of whales during the 19th century.
Lissa Wadewitz PO ’95, a history professor at the University of Oregon, led the talk. According to Samuel Yamashita, the event organizer and a history professor at Pomona, Wadewitz’s current research centers around the intersections of race, sexuality, labor and the environment in the 19th-century U.S. Pacific whaling fleet.
Yamashita said that he invited Wadewitz to speak in the hopes of inspiring current students with the work that Pomona alumni have produced. He also highlighted her transnational approach to history, which he said is important to have in any discipline.
Wadewitz opened her lecture by describing the vast dominance and profitability of the American whaling industry in the 19th century. She said that the industry, which employed over 70,000 people, carried out the indiscriminate slaughter of thousands of whales, fur seals, walruses and other marine life.
The whaling process involved spiking a harpoon into the back of a whale and letting it drag the hunter’s boat until it tired out. However, whalers’ attitudes towards their prey revealed a conflicting nuance, Wadewitz ex-
plained.
“Many seafarers of this era express a level of wonder and sentimentality towards whales at odds with the violence and horror that’s usually associated with this industry,” she said.
Wadewitz remarked that the intelligence, sociability and maternal behaviors of whales were often discerned and recounted by sailors with amazement. This awareness of the familial relations among animals, Wadewitz said, might be a repercussion of the nascent American animal welfare movement in the mid-19th century.
“Children’s literature and Sunday school curricula were already presenting glorified stories of animals with humanized feelings and animal families that showcase maternal love,” she said.
Nevertheless, the rising culture of empathy towards animals didn’t stop hunting activities. Wadewitz explained the financial, practical and social motivations that forced seafarers to suppress their sentimentalities.
“[A] less obvious motivation likely emanated from the class tensions that pervaded most whaling ships in this period,” she said. “Whalers, like most marine vessels, were organized according to a strict hierarchy based on status and skill.”
In addition to the often oppressive relationships between officers and underclass sailors, racial differences heightened conflicts on many ships, Wadewitz said. Many whaling crews had large numbers of African American and Native American men on board.
Despite records of abuse and racial segregation, Wadewitz said that the extreme conditions at sea established a level of equality among crew members and created
opportunities for men of color to advance.
Native Americans, Wadewitz added, ironically benefited from stereotypes about their skills as “hunters.” Oftentimes, this stereotype helped them become officers of ships.
“‘Rank trumps race,’” Wadewitz quoted Nancy Shoemaker, a history professor at the University of Connecticut, as saying about the ramifications of this reality. “‘That a man of color as an officer had special privileges could have fueled white, poor, masculine resentment.’”
This reversal of everyday hierarchy, Wadewitz said, might have pushed lower-class Euro-American whalers to channel their frustration at the whales — although they were not alone in their actions. Under severe interracial conflicts, whalers of color also sought to prove themselves through expressions of masculinity against their common prey.
Wadewitz wrapped up the lecture by explaining that these intersecting tensions contributed to whalers’ seemingly paradoxical attitudes until the advent of petroleum and the drop of whale populations in the late 19th century led to the industry’s own demise.
“Human differences have profound meaning in this watery world,” Wadewitz said. “How people understood these differences was affected by both their multifaceted identities and their grasp of the shifting location of the line between human and animal.”
In an interview with TSL, audience member Alex Scott PO ‘25 commented on the urgency of the event’s subject matter.
“We’ve lost so many really important species,” she said. “We have already lost a lot of the whales, and [the lecture is] trying to remind us that this can happen with any sort of animal population too.”
‘Food & Mood’: Pomona Dining Services hosts nutrition talk for 5C community
CELESTE CARIKER
On Wednesday, Sept. 9, di -
etician-nutritionist Lisa Gibson
held a mental health-focused talk
titled “Food & Mood” in Frank Dining Hall’s Blue Room at Po -
mona College. Pomona Dining Services organized the talk to promote in-depth knowledge about good eating habits to the 5C community. “I felt like this topic of food
and mood was really relevant to students, faculty and staff,” Liz Ryan, the Nutrition Systems Manager for Pomona Dining Services, said. “This is something that I wanted to organize for the Wellness Task Force.”
At the talk, Gibson explained how to boost “feel-good” neurotransmitter production and navigate healthy eating in a world where, she said, food production often caters to overconsumption.
“We’ve always known how what we eat affects our cardiovascular system [and] our metabolic system and just recently we’ve learned how some of those same foods or eating patterns can really affect our mental health too,” she said.
According to Gibson, 95 percent of serotonin and dopamine – which are neurotransmitters that can affect mood – are made in the gut. Amino acids like tryptophan, tyrosine and folic acid help the production of these neurotransmitters, while vitamins such as magnesium and B6 also aid with dopamine production.
“I always recommend getting food in its most natural form,” Gibson said. “Start looking at labels and see what is in the foods that you buy. Vitamins are a supplement in addition to the healthy food you eat.”
However, she added that it is important to use only what you need, stating that vitamin supplement-producing companies in the U.S. are participants in a for-profit industry. On a similar note, Gibson spoke about the dangers of the American diet being highly influenced by multibillion dollar industries.
“Hyperpalatable foods are foods that have been manufactured. You wouldn’t be cooking them at home: They are ultra-processed and delicious,” Gibson said. “They have fat,
sugar and salt in a perfect combination that makes it hard to stop eating. Stress, lack of sleep, food advertisement and availability of food causes overconsumption of hyperpalatable food.”
One audience member, Scarlett Lang PO ’27, appreciated having access to reliable information from a professional.
“It’s nice to hear from one source that you can trust,” Lang said.
For suggestions, Gibson claimed that the best way to reform eating habits is by taking baby steps to build a new relationship with nutrition. One step she recommended is to planout and assess your meals.
“Look at the timing of the meals, if you have a lot of food cravings and … at how much ultra-processed foods you’re eating,” Gibson said. “Planning is the key to preventing overeating and to control cravings.” She suggested that even in a rush, it is possible to maintain a healthy diet.
“You can get a healthy meal at a fast food place,” Gibson said. “There are healthy choices almost anywhere you go. [For example], Subway is really good. You can get all those vegetables on your sandwich.”
Leaving the talk with new knowledge, audience member Joella Linder PO ’27 said that she wished that more students would attend talks such as this one.
“I feel like everyone is so busy with schoolwork and everything. It’s hard to focus on the opportunities that the 5Cs give you,” she said. “I think that this talk was definitely worth our time to learn.”
ANDReW YUAN • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
pomona’s Asian Studies Department spoke about the sociocultural dynamics in the 19th century U.S. whaling industry at a lecture on Sept. 12.
CeLeSte CARIKeR • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
On Sept. 9, Registered Dietician Nutritionist Lisa Gibson addressed the link between nutrition and mental health in Frank Dining Hall’s blue Room at pomona College, offering practical tips on healthy eating, managing cravings and the impact of food on mental well-being for the 5C community.
Starr to take spring sabbatical, Gaines to serve as interim president
In a letter to Pomona College on Aug. 20, Pomona President Gabi Starr announced that she would be taking a sabbatical during the spring semester of this academic year.
“Claremont Colleges presidents have long joined our faculty colleagues in taking one-semester sabbaticals to foster intellectual renewal, scholarly research, and professional development,” Starr wrote. “Following this tradition, during this Board of Trustees-approved sabbatical, I will focus on my next book manuscript dealing with the importance of the arts in human life and learning.”
According to a statement the Office of the President gave to TSL, Starr began discussing her sabbatical with the Board of Trustees about 18 months ago.
Edwin F. and Martha Hahn Professor of Geology Robert “Bob” Gaines will be serving as Pomona’s acting president during Starr’s absence in the spring.
“Bob has demonstrated exemplary service and leadership within Pomona College and is uniquely qualified to lead the College during this period,” Starr said in her Aug. 20 email.
Gaines has been with Pomona since 2003 and served as the vice president for academic affairs and the dean of the college from 2019 to 2022. In an interview with TSL, Gaines said that he was most nervous about missing daily student interaction, as students are the best part of his job.
“[Students] are the part of the institution that makes it run in terms of the energy, the questions that they bring, their curiosity,
and the way that they challenge each other and members of the community,” Gaines said. “I hope they know that my intent in stepping into this role is to really be able to support them in the pursuit of their education here for all the students on campus.”
Gaines acknowledged that Starr’s decision to take a sabbatical might seem unconventional to students.
“It does feel unusual from the student perspective, I’m sure, to have a president taking a sabbatical,” Gaines said. “But she’s really treating it in the way that faculty members would rather than just rest up. She’s really pursuing her scholarship.”
Students seem to have mixed reactions towards Starr’s decision, with Gerard Lapuente PO ‘27 noting that he would like Starr to work more closely with students when she returns next term.
“A lot of conflicts deal with the divide between admin and the students,” Lapuente said. “I would love to see the administration learn how to be closer to students and be willing to cooperate.”
Nolwenn Sharp PO ‘26 said that she hopes reactions to student protests from the administration will be more healthy during Starr’s absence in the spring.
“I think they’re just going to replace her with somebody else who has the same values,” Sharp said. “Honestly, I think the issue is more the Board of Trustees than any president”
Gaines said that campus policies decided by the community do not leave a lot of room for him to handle campus protests
with a completely different approach from Starr, but that he recognizes the sense of frustration in the community at large.
“I think a lot of the things that [protesters] are interested in accomplishing are goals that all of us in the institution would share,” he said. “I think dialogue is essential in making those things happen, and sometimes just a fresh face can help restart that conversation.”
Gaines also added that his
Amidst national blood shortage, Red Cross Club seeks to increase donations on 5C campus
With the United States in the midst of an emergency blood shortage, the American Red Cross Club of the Claremont Colleges is ramping up its efforts to increase donations on campus. While the club had over 60 people sign up to donate blood at its Sept. 12 drive, it is still actively recruiting new donors for the future.
In January, the American Red Cross declared an emergency blood shortage, reportedly seeing the lowest number of people giving blood in the past twenty years. Then, six months later, their inventory plummeted by 25%, warranting another emergency declaration. According to the Red Cross, the drop in donations is due in part to climate change, citing heat waves and hurricanes that make it more difficult for donors to get
to donation sites.
“Effects of the ongoing climate crisis continue to threaten the blood supply in the days and weeks ahead,” their site reads.
The Red Cross Club at the 5Cs is not lying idle during this shortage. Ava Santos-Volpe PO ’26, who organizes blood drives through the club, said that the Sept. 12 drive had one of the highest numbers of sign-ups that she’s ever seen.
Santos-Volpe noted that the club even had to request extra lighting and chairs for the drive, which was held in Pomona College’s Dom’s Lounge.
The club is also planning three more drives on Nov. 16, Feb. 6 and April 3. There are currently only two people organizing the blood drives, so Santos-Volpe said that they are actively looking for people who are able and willing to help out.
They are also looking for more donors.
Santos-Volpe herself donated blood for the first time when she came to Pomona.
“I really enjoyed it, and I thought it was a great way to help other people,” she said.
Stephanie Granobles PO ’27 had a similarly positive experience
She admitted that she was initially reluctant to donate blood because of the needles, but said that ultimately, her experience was overall pos
itive.
“Having people working here that are very kind is very helpful, I think, especially at the beginning,” she said.
“They want to talk to you about your personal life and ask you questions about yourself, [which] eased my nerves a lot.”
will be overseeing the continued implementation of Starr’s “strategic vision, which centers on three areas; campus climate, equity, access, as well as transformative knowledge and creation.”
As a faculty member in 2018, Gaines was elected to help with this strategic vision and began to implement it when he served as dean in 2019. Now, Gaines will be specifically dealing with the production of the Center for Global Engagement, and implementing Starr’s Middle Income Initiative.
“We’re really making strong progress demographically, but economically, we feel like [the strategic vision] would help,” Gaines said. “And specifically put some programs into place that would aid middle-class families to send kids here.”
Starr’s absence won’t be the only administrative position Pomona has to fill this year.
Chief Communications Officer
Mark Kendall is leaving Pomona after 20 years with the college. According to the Office of the President, a national search for the college’s next chief communications officer will be conducted soon.
time at the college has allowed him to develop an understanding of Pomona and its community, which will enable him to come to the table with students.
“I’m coming to the role from bringing more than 20 years of being a professor here, and working with the students is kind of what got me excited about the place,” Gaines said.
“I’m hoping that we can come to the table.” As acting president, Gaines
Furthermore, Samuel Glick is stepping down from his position as chair of the Pomona board of trustees, after serving three consecutive three-year terms.
Glick first accepted the role of chair in 2015. According to Secretary to the Board of Trustees Geoff Pearson, Glick indicated that this would be his last term when he took the role for the third time in 2021.
Janet Benton served as the chair-elect during the last academic year and will take Glick’s place as the chair of the board for the 2024-2025 school year.
Staffing shortages delay opening of Pomona’s Green Bike Program
With Pomona College’s Green Bike Program (GBP) still not open nearly four weeks into the semester, students are left to grapple with the lack of transportation options on campus.
Pomona’s GBP is a student-run program that aims to ramp up bike usage on campus as part of the college’s sustainability efforts. Through the program, students are able to rent bikes, receive free bike maintenance and participate in an annual bike giveaway.
While the program is usually up and running by mid-September, staff members are anticipating a later start this fall due largely to a shortage of mechanics.
“This year is a little different because both me and the other co-manager were abroad last semester, so it kind of all came apart,” Santiago Serrano PO ’25, co-manager of the GBP, said.
Serrano added that the program has seen a decrease in the number of bikes available for students to rent. Bikes are sometimes stolen or unreturned, he said, and the program often has to endure a lengthy process of locating these bikes, cutting their locks and returning them.
“My freshman year, we originally had 300 bikes when we started,” Serrano said. “Now, we’re down to 120 to 150.”
Without sufficient staff or bikes, Pomona’s GBP has not
been able to host its bike giveaway, which usually takes place at the start of the fall semester. Staff members hope to have a sign-up form for this year’s giveaway up by the end of the month, according to their webpage.
Some students have expressed disappointment in the GBP’s failure to open. Benjamin Sauer PO ’28 said that he ended up buying a skateboard instead of waiting to get a bike from the program.
“I was kind of upset, honestly, because I really wanted a bike to visit family around the area,” he said.
Other students, like Lee Ramsey PO ’27, noted the program’s past issues with inaccessibility and unreliability, which forced students to turn to other resources.
“To be honest, I just always used the Pitzer Green Bike program last year, just because Pomona’s was never open,” he said.
Serrano said that staff members are hoping to improve the program this year beginning by actively hiring mechanics so that they can open their rental fleet and move forward with this year’s giveaway.
Staff members are also working to foster community through the program, according to Serrano. While the GBP used to host social events for students on campus, he said that many of these events stopped after the pandemic — something that he hopes to see changed this year.
“We welcome anyone in the biking community,” he said.
MACY PUCKETT
FLOReNCe pUN • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
pomona president Gabi Starr will be going on sabbatical next semester.
SID GOLDFADeR-DUFtY • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
KEEANA VILLAMAR
JASON MURILLO
ALeXANDRA GRUNbAUm • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
Pomona College’s Green Bike Program remains closed amidst staffing shortages, leaving students to find alternative ways to get around campus.
In Issue 1, Devlin Orlin, Ava Kopp, Serena Mao and Shivani Manivasagan were misidentified as being part of the Class of 2024; they belong to the Class of 2025. Similarly, Emilio Bankier was misidentified as being part of the Class of 2025; he belongs to the Class of 2027.
Arts & Culture
Sprinkles, stripes and stars at Insomnia Cookies
ALFORD & AMELIA BERTSCH
On the evening of Sept. 17, pajama-clad students and families made a pilgrimage to Insomnia Cookies, which opened on June 9 in the Claremont Village. This marked Claremont’s first celebration of the popular cookie-chain’s sixth annual National Pajama Party Night, an event held annually on the third Tuesday of September.
Insomnia Cookies is the only store in the Village open until 1 a.m.. The chain’s other locations – many of which are in college towns – attract students with late-night cravings. The Claremont Colleges might be Insomnia Cookies’ next victim.
Free cookies were only available to those who created a rewards account and wore pajamas, allowing rewards members to enjoy exclusive deals.
Upon arrival at the much-anticipated event, hopes were high for free cookies. The glow of blue lights from Insomnia Cookies illuminated the modest line which consisted primarily of families and several costume-clad chihuahuas.
Despite the manageable queue, the wait lasted 45 minutes due to dedicated early arrivers. The full moon provided a distinct atmosphere that enhanced the smell of freshly baked cookies.
One 5C attendee, Enya Kamadolli CM ’26, a self-proclaimed cookie connoisseur, commented on the treats.
“The flavor is excellent. Like this is a really good, chocolatey chocolate cookie. Not too sweet, not too rich,” Kamadolli said. “The texture is also fantastic. This cookie is crispy around the edges but chewy in the middle. [I] would eat these cold or hot which is not
something I would do with most cookies.”
However, not everyone was as impressed as Kamadolli.
“I had a cookie. I don’t know what else to say?” Daniel Ballout CM ’27 said after trying the chocolate chunk cookie. “Six and a half out of 10.”
Seasonal offerings included pumpkin spice latte and cereal milk flavors.
Vivienne Arndt CM ’28 said she enjoyed the cereal milkstuffed Fruity Pebbles cookie.
“I just took a delicious bite of a Fruity Pebbles cookie. There’s something on the inside. It’s so good,”Arndt said.
Flavors among the classic selection were chocolate chunk, double chocolate chunk, double chocolate mint, peanut butter, white chocolate macadamia nut, snickerdoodle, M&M’s, sugar and oatmeal raisin.
Keck Graduate University student Michelle Pham ’24 spoke about the Village’s importance in student life.
“Everything’s so close because we literally live right here. We just cross the street. There’s a movie theater, … restaurants [and] shopping,” Pham said.
Reflecting on the recent opening of Insomnia Cookies, Kathryn Dunn, the director of Claremont Village Marketing Group, said she is excited about student activity in the village.
“We’re very excited about strengthening our ties with the Claremont Colleges to entice students to come to the village and enjoy all the shops and entertainment that we have,” Dunn said.
The next time you are in the Village, look out for the Cookie Monster – it bites!
Why learn a new language at all?
Every time I tell someone that I’m a Chinese and Italian Foreign Languages major, I watch them do a slight double take. It bothers me, I’ll admit, but not for the reasons you’d expect. I’m frustrated that I can’t seem to conjure a response to their unspoken questions.
“Why learn languages you have no personal connection to? Ones spoken by so few people so far away? Why spend hours memorizing conjugation tables when you’ve already met the language requirements?” In short: “Why learn a new language at all?”
I’ve been studying Chinese for practically my whole life, Italian for a little over a year and French and Nepali during high school and my gap year. And still, I find that the more I throw myself into learning languages, the further I am from conjuring any answer to that simple question: Why?
If you have ever sat through lunch with native speakers at Oldenborg, agonized over verb agreements in office hours or even tried to converse with locals or extended family members in a foreign country, then you already know how it feels to exist in a sort of linguistic exile.
On good days, I feel a mix of pride and exhaustion. On bad days, I feel like setting myself to this impossible task is almost comically akin to Sisyphus’ struggle, except that, unlike him, I have a choice.
I’ve learned that however fluent you may think you are, there is no finish line in learning a language: The mountain remains perpetually stretched
out before you, and you must continue to push that boulder further and further up.
Freshman year, I decided to take Italian on a whim and joined the class on the last day of the add/drop period. As I write this now over a year later, my desk is piled with visa forms and course registration paperwork for the University of Bologna, the fully immersive Italian university where I will study at in the spring. I’ve fallen into a habit recently: Every time I feel myself about to freak out about being unprepared to live and study in a language I’ve only just become acquainted with, I turn on an old Italian movie.
Towards the end of Vittorio De Sica’s 1952 masterpiece of Italian neorealist cinema “Umberto D.,” the main character, a lonely and destitute old man, seems to almost break the fourth wall in his grief. “Tutti ne approfittano degli ignoranti,” he says, which translates to “everyone takes advantage of the ignorant.”
Like “Umberto D.,” the films that I watch are usually in black and white and filled with rapid, colloquial Italian. I understand very little of the dialogue. As a result, the little snippets that I do catch — like Umberto’s solemn condemnation of society — hit me that much harder.
Growing up as the child of Filipino and American expatriates at a Mandarin-speaking school in Hong Kong, I am no stranger to the curiosities and frustrations of linguistic exile. The language of my home, Cantonese, has always eluded me. Because of that, little interactions — moments of connection through or across linguistic barriers, whether it’s over Oldenborg lunch or through the
silk screen — feel magical, and sometimes I wonder if that isn’t the “why” in itself.
There’s a Nelson Mandela quote that I often return to in thinking about these questions: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his mother tongue, that goes to his heart.”
At its most basic level, language is connection, and growing up in linguistic exile, there’s a fundamental part of me that longs for it.
The longer I sit with the question of “why,” the more I realize that the crux of language is not in the “why,” but the “how.”
Throughout the semester, I want to dedicate this space to exploring what it means to throw yourself into learning a language, drawing on ideas ranging from the lives of exophonic writers to the joys of watching old Italian movies, translating poetry and stumbling through Oldenborg lunches.
Whether it’s in Nepali, Italian or Chinese, I know that by virtue of opening my mouth I’m vulnerable to making mistakes that range from poor grammar to complete nonsense and the subsequent embarrassment. Sometimes, just the idea of it sends me running home to English.
That’s when I put on a trusty old film by Fellini. Suddenly, I hear a new phrase or recall an interaction that wouldn’t have been possible without my efforts; I remember that I never would’ve felt that connection without falling on my face many times before.
To quote the Italian-speaking Bengali-American author Jhumpa Lahiri, “The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive.”
Claire SC ‘27 wants you to know that she has a pug, is addicted to Malott cold brew, and has a deep attachment to the Italian Department at Scripps.
The realities of adjusting as transfer students
PATRICK MCDOWELL
Each fall, a couple dozen new faces make their way up three flights of stairs. Faces glistening with sweat, the students struggle to haul their heavy suitcases up to their new home on the third floor of Pomona College’s oldest dorm, Smiley Hall. As more trickle in, bonds are quickly forged in the shared misery of their A/C-less rooms. Group chats are made, origin stories are shared, and it nearly feels like freshman year again. But for this particular genre of new students, it’s far from it.
Transfer students are a tricky bunch. They miss out on first-year bonding, yet they are just as unfamiliar with the environment as first-years are. Finding solace in one another seems commonplace, but attempts at branching out can be a tough task.
The intimate vibe of the 5Cs is widely celebrated and attracts many students — including transfers — to the schools. Yet that same close-knit feel can be a challenge for incoming transfers. Even though returning students warmly welcome those new to the colleges, it’s more difficult for them to develop lasting friendships.
“A lot of current sophomores and juniors who are around the same age as me have made most of their permanent friends here, so it’s hard to find an opening,” Aaron Rogers PO ‘27, a transfer from Santa Monica College, said.
That feeling isn’t exclusive to
Pomona. Karina Klein SC ‘25, a transfer from Colorado State, said she also found it hard to create closer relationships with returning Scripps students during her first year.
“It was a lot harder to make friends than I thought with people in my grade because I didn’t realize how closed off a lot of people are when they have already formed their friend groups,” Klein said.
In addition to finding previously-made friend groups intimidating, Scripps creates another barrier for transfer students to feel welcome by placing them in off-campus housing at the Claremont Collegiate Apartments (CCA).
However, despite being isolated from most Scripps students, Klein said that many of the transfers said they found themselves bonding with one another.
Further south, according to Ever Cook PO ‘27, a transfer from nearby Chaffey College, Pomona transfers also deeply valued the kinship found in their cohort.
“We’ve built a community [where] we can rely on everyone … we can trust them,” Cook said.
At Pomona, 41 percent of transfers are first-generation college students, and two are non-U.S. citizens. A majority — 64 percent — transferred from community colleges. The diversity of experience found in the cohort only strengthens their collective resolve. “It’s a big messy family,” Sean
Diament, politics professor and Transfer Student Association advisor said.
Diament, a former community college transfer to UC Berkeley, said he understands the difficulties in finding your footing in a new place.
“I felt really alone and experienced a lot of culture shock … and yet there [were] thousands of transfer students,” Diament said.
Although Diament reflects fondly on his time as an undergraduate, he was no stranger to the feelings of isolation that often come to a transfer student.
“My experience at Berkeley was really anonymous and inconsequential as a transfer … it didn’t open doors, it didn’t give me any real connections,” Diament said, “But here I think you’re clearly supported more.”
This sentiment was shared by many within the transfer cohort. The same smaller atmosphere that can initially be hostile for transfer students often helps them adjust, particularly in the classroom. Cailey Brousseau PO ‘27, a transfer from Bryn Mawr College, noted the positive difference that small class sizes make for transfer students.
“I cannot imagine taking the same language class that currently has 18 people in it with 30, 40, even 50 people in it,” Brousseau said. “There’s just no way I would be learning that much.” As someone who works to foster that intimate learning en-
vironment in his own classrooms, Diament said he agrees that the 5Cs’ ability to provide such a setting is a unique selling point that most other institutions can’t offer.
“Your experience can become currency,” Diament said. “The classroom is the venue of support.”
It’s these smaller communities in the classroom or on the dorm floor within the broader 5C social landscape that make this place so special for its student body.
“It’s probably the first time I ever felt that I can actually go up
to anyone and ask for any type of assistance … it’s just helped me overall come out of my shell a bit,” Amirah Lockett PO ‘27, a transfer from Victor Valley College, said. Finding an enclave to express yourself and learn from others, regardless of your background, is vital to the liberal arts mission. Transfer students and their unique paths to the 5Cs are a key part to that mission.
“If you believe in liberal arts education building model citizens, you should believe in transfer students,” Diament said.
GEORGIA
COUrteSY: SCOtt mCLeOD
CLAIRE WELCH
SHIXIAO YU • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
tHe trANSFer trANSItION
Insomnia Cookies held a pajama night with sweet deals.
The reality of college friendships
I had hoped that the beginning of my sophomore year would feel more stable than it currently does.
After a summer living on my own in Santa Clara, surrounded by interns from various schools across the country, I missed the niche personalities typical of the 5Cs. The lively and spontaneous political debates between stoners and future politicians alike was missing from my bubble in Silicon Valley. Even pregaming to go to overhyped and empty Thursday Night Clubs (TNCs) was reminisced upon fondly over group FaceTime calls. I ended my freshman year on a
social high point. While I hadn’t yet found a tight-knit circle of friends, I had multiple active group chats buzzing with constant streams of dinner plans and library meet-ups. I was hopeful that sophomore year would be my chance to deepen these already blooming friendships while also forging new bonds. What I didn’t predict was how some of my closest friendships from freshman year would be reduced to awkward superficial conversations, ending in the shaky promises to “grab dinner this week!” TV shows and movies were my standard for college life. I pictured myself lounging on the
beach or gossiping over steaming cups of coffee in the local cafe with my group of eclectic best friends. After college we would be each other’s bridesmaids, posting pictures on Facebook captioned “#sistersforever.” Instagram would showcase all of the friendship highs: ski trips to Big Bear, spring break parties in Cabo, summer vacation in Nantucket. There is so much societal pressure to find your lifelong friends in college, ideally in a way that is picturesque enough to post.
Realistically, your most valuable friendships will be made all throughout your life and in ways you would never expect. Maybe
your coworker at your new job fresh from undergrad becomes your closest confidant, or it might be the barista who makes your coffee every morning and actually spells your name right.
While I am disappointed by the loss of a few of my freshman year friends, I continue to push forward and immerse myself in new relationships. College is a time of change, and it’s only natural for your friends to evolve along with you. People so often grow apart, and you will be left with more time spent in the company of your own thoughts than with other people’s. Remember that being alone is an opportunity
to mature and find yourself.
As I continue to grow into the person that I want to be, I find that I prefer time alone more and more. At the start of college, alone time scared me. I thought that if I wasn’t surrounded by the revolving chatter of my friends, I was somehow approaching college wrong. I couldn’t even do laundry for the first month of school without begging my roommates to come down to the laundry room with me. In reality, all I was doing was pushing myself further away from personal improvement. To combat this, I began forcing myself to do things alone. I put my AirPods in and walked into the village everyday to grab a coffee. These coffee runs are now a favorite part of my daily routine — an empowering way to spend time with my thoughts and become more comfortable with myself.
As my relationship with myself evolves, I am certain that my friendships will inevitably shift as well. Many will stay with me throughout college, maybe a couple for the rest of my life, but most will come and go.
Knowing when to let people into your life and let them go is one of the biggest lessons of freshman year. Whether you find your best friends in college or not, don’t ever let yourself believe that you are unworthy of finding genuine connections.
My point is that college is tumultuous. You will experience some of the biggest highs of your life, but also many of the worst lows. Whether you already have a circle of close friends or are just starting to come out of your shell, there is no “right picture” for what a social life in college should look like.
College is four years out of a lifetime that you spend with yourself. Get to know others and forge unforgettable bonds, but make sure that the friend you prioritize the most is you.
Norah Mannle CM ’27 hails from the suburbs of Washington DC. In her free time she enjoys long walks, trying exciting new coffee shops and skiing.
‘The politics of food and climate change’:
Bringing agriculture into
the climate conversation
“Agriculture is … [one of] the first frontlines of climate change, so farmers are going to be the first to deal with more extreme weather,” Helena Bottemiller Evich CM ’09 said at Claremont McKenna College’s (CMC) Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. “They have to deal with flooding and the like. [They’re] very vulnerable to the effect of climate change.”
On Sept. 16, Evich gave a talk at the Ath entitled “The Politics of Food and Climate Change: A Reporter’s Notebook.” Evich, the editor-in-chief of “Food Fix,” a publication about U.S. food policy, previously covered food policy at Politico. Her work there includes an investigative piece on the infant formula crisis that drove major reforms in the FDA.
In the talk, Evich outlined the ways in which food and agriculture fit into the climate landscape and emphasized the urgent need to expand U.S. food policy to include sustainability.
The lecture was part of the Sustainable Food Initiative at CMC, sponsored by the Roberts Environmental Center (REC). Environmental Science professor Branwen Williams, head of the REC, said she chose Evich as the speaker due to her unique expertise in the intersection of food and politics.
“She brings an informed perspective on why adapting climate-friendly policies is difficult, but also ideas on where progress to reduce carbon emissions associated with food and agriculture is possible,” Williams said.
During her talk, Evich emphasized the significant role of food and agriculture – which comprise around a third of global emissions – on the environment. She argued that this heavily contrasts with the extent to which it is valued in climate policy.
“Food and [agriculture are] the biggest way humans interact with the environment. 70 percent of freshwater is used for agriculture. 78 percent of water pollution is tied to agriculture,” Evich said. “94 percent of global animal biomass is livestock. And yet, in the U.S. in particular, we do not tend to ever talk about food and ag as a major part of the climate response [and] climate policy.”
Evich argues that one reason for the lack of progress on food policy is strong opposition from farmers and the meat industry lobby. She pointed to a 2016 push to integrate environmental sustainability in
the federal nutrition guidelines that was ultimately removed after facing heavy backlash from the livestock industry for suggesting a reduction in meat consumption.
“Why is it so hard? ... It is so politically risky to go after farmers or to try to change how farmers are,” she said. Despite this opposition, Evich believes that agricultural lobbying groups have been moving towards adopting more sustainable practices. In the process of reporting on this shift, she discovered that only one percent of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) budget is given to climate mitigation adaptation.
“These agriculture groups started to realize that in this
transition towards a more climate friendly agriculture, the pressure that will eventually be on agriculture is unavoidable, and they wanted to be a part of what is coming. Farmers were asking, ‘Where is the government response?’” Evich said.
“At the USDA, we have evidence that officials were afraid to use the word ‘climate change.’ That complicates your response [because you] can’t really talk in a forthcoming way about it.”
One recent movement in the agriculture industry is regenerative agriculture, which focuses on climate friendly practices. These practices include cover crops, or plants grown to improve soil health instead of for harvest. Common cover crops are barley and clover. In 2022, a
USDA survey found that only 4.7 percent of agricultural land currently utilizes cover crops due to the increased cost of planting crops without harvesting for sale.
Attendee Carolina Auerbach CM ’25 said she was surprised by the lack of adoption for regenerative agricultural practices.
“I think it’s really important to be adding food and [agriculture] into the nationwide and global conversation. To see the percentage of farmers [engaging] with cover crops, I didn’t realize the number was that low,” she said.
Attendee Arianna Kapin SC ’27 said she thought the lecture was a fantastic introduction to the Athenaeum.
“I thought it was wonderful and insightful … She was very
well spoken and knowledgeable about [these] issues,” Kapin said. In the Question and Answer section following Evich’s presentation, attendee Annie Voss PZ ’26 stated that her family came from a long line of farmers and asked what the most effective way of communicating science to farmers would be.
“Science communication doesn’t matter as much as we think it does for someone who lives farming,” Evich responded. “They’re taking on all that risk, and most of them have been doing it for a very long time. What I see more is that their individual experience of extreme weather can change minds about the climate changing. Farms do pay attention to a lot of science. It just has to align with making a living.”
ANDreW YUAN • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
ANANYA VINAY
NORAH MANNLE
LIA FOX • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
Helena bottemiller evich Cm ’09 spoke at the marian miner Athenaeum on September 16.
Scrippsies have entered the villa
CHARLOTTE HAHM
From viral TikTok trends to growing fanbases, reality TV took summer 2024 by storm. It has become a popular nationwide phenomenon that continues to influence young lives — including those at Scripps College.
“Love Island,” a show about bringing singles to an isolated villa in hopes of sparking new love, premiered its sixth American season on June 11. The show topped streaming charts, with over 1.1 billion minutes watched throughout the summer.
Additionally, both “Too Hot Too Handle” and “The Bachelorette” released their sixth and 21st seasons, respectively. Though reality TV has been beloved for decades, the impact of these shows have recently skyrocketed.
Beyond the dramatic plottwists, Scrippsies have found another reason to love reality TV: its bonding potential.
“I probably have had over ten conversations with other firstyears about ‘Love Island,’ and I’ve made a lot of my friends this way too,” Katie Thacher SC ’28 said.
While many Scripps first-years turned to comforting shows as solace, some found that a shared love of reality TV initiated friendships and created a sense of belonging in their new home.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people about ‘The Bachelorette’ because so many people are watching it here,” Amalia Sherrill SC ’28 said. “It’s a really good way for you to connect with people here and ask them, ‘hey, do you want to watch ‘The Bachelorette’ together later?’” Sherrill hosts frequent “Bachelorette” watch parties with a friend from Pomona College. She explained how discussing
episodes connects her to her friends from her hometown.
Anna Greene SC ’28 also participates in weekly “The Bachelorette” watch parties. Greene’s resident coordinators (RC) in Schow Hall host “Baking with Baddies,” a weekly event where residents and friends indulge in freshly-baked cookies and a new episode of “The Bachelorette.”
“I’ve only gone for one week so far, but I definitely want to go more. It’s really de-stressing and [it’s] just fun to bond with the whole dorm,” Greene said.
She added that “The Bachelorette” and similar reality TV shows are simple conversation starters at Scripps.
“I feel like, historically, women have connected with each other through, not exactly gossip, but a similar sense of lighthearted, personal sharing,” Greene said. “There are a lot of these conversations happening in and sparked by ‘The Bachelorette,’ and going to an all-women’s college now has made me think about how we connect.”
There is often stigma surrounding reality TV, and many are ashamed of watching it. In a community of women at Scripps, however, according to Greene, this “guilty pleasure” has erupted into a proud badge of honor.
Thacher shared Greene’s sentiments, saying that she and many other students have realized that there is no need to feel guilty about something you enjoy.
“There really should be no ‘guilty’ in a ‘guilty pleasure.’ If you enjoy it then it’s just pleasure,” Thacher said.
GIrL pOWer
Cult Classics in the Post roe v. Wade era
In June 2022, in the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, taking away the constitutional right to an abortion. This ruling shifted the responsibility of determining laws on reproductive rights to individual state legislatures. Since then, politically conservative states like Idaho and Texas have adopted strict bans, many of which do not include exceptions for specific circumstances such as rape or incest.
In the two years since this ruling, millions of Americans have been left without access to proper health care. Many have taken to the street to protest for reproductive justice, though these demonstrations have not garnered overwhelming federal support.
In the wake of this dystopian reality, Greta Gerwig emerges. The summer after the overturn of Roe, she released the box-office hit “Barbie” (2023), starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. Despite its universal wash of hot pink and overt silliness, the film explored challenging issues surrounding womanhood, femininity and the patriarchy.
Now, I’m not saying that “Barbie” saved women or somehow empowered enough of us enough to fight back against systemic injustice. But it did prompt an important cultural phenomenon: it put feminism on a national stage.
Everyone, even your Republican uncle, was talking about this movie. I feel like that has to count for something even if that “something” is just basic empathy for experiences of misogyny
and gender discrimination. Maybe it is this exact “something” that could spark political change. As I entered Summer 2024, I wondered how TikTok would define my next three months. What trendy words would be buzzing in my head? I got my answer to those questions on June 7, when Charli XCX released her critically acclaimed hyper-pop album “brat.” With curated promotion, talented featured artists and catchy beats, the album exploded on social media. Influencers danced to “Apple” and raved about having their own “brat summer” in city nightclubs.
Critics herald the album as a staple in the emerging renaissance of club music, but many failed to notice its implicit feminist themes. In the wake of last summer’s “Barbie” phenomenon, “brat” continues a discussion about womanhood while tackling some of its less glamorous aspects.
Most notably, “I think about it all the time” describes the tension Charli XCX feels between the possibility of motherhood and forging her personal freedom. The song seems apt to describe the panic of a post-Roe era.
Likewise, “Girl, so confusing” addresses the strained relationship between Charli XCX and fellow musician Lorde. The song encompasses the feelings of selfdoubt and jealousy that sometimes arise in female friendships, while its remix discusses Lorde’s struggles with vulnerability and body image. Ultimately, the two artists “work it out on the remix” with a new sense of support for one another.
“Sympathy is a knife” touches on similar themes about industry pressure and envy for another
female pop idol. “I don’t wanna share this space / I don’t wanna force a smile / This one girl taps my insecurities,” Charli XCX sings. “Cause I couldn’t even be her if I tried / I’m opposite, I’m on the other side.”
Her indignation for this “one girl” highlights the complex challenges that come with being a woman in pop and the relentless pursuit of commercial success in an ever-competitive industry. It is her exact position as a woman in music that produces this contentious environment and fuels her internal conflict, as the industry profits from the rivalry among female artists. Her radically vulnerable lyrics reflect the way that many women feel in competition with their peers in their careers and elsewhere. I do not mean to suggest that Charli XCX represents all women. Rather, by sharing her personal experience, she sparks a powerful discussion about the various ways that women navigate life. Her vulnerability allows women to find connections to her own personal and professional challenges. In a time of uncertainty for women’s rights, these conversations are essential for fostering solidarity and discovering shared experience. Charli XCX’s music serves as a reminder that art has the ability to challenge norms, provoke thought and guide us through an increasingly hostile political landscape. Maybe that’s where progress begins: in the shared stories, beats and experiences that make us reflect and, ultimately, act.
Anna Peterson SC ‘25 is from Scottsdale, AZ. She studies politics, but spends her free time making spotify playlists, writing Letterboxd reviews and drinking too much coffee.
The adjustment period
I’m writing to you from Seville, Spain. Like many students studying abroad, my experience still feels very fresh. I stumble when talking to native speakers in Spanish, I’m barely starting to understand the city’s geography and I constantly feel like a tourist.
Studying abroad is often described as transformative. Only time will tell if this experience truly changes me, and I’ve yet to leave the adjustment period. The period looks different for everyone: How proficient someone is in their location’s language, the subject they’re studying and whether or not they already know people in their program are all factors that can shape the first few weeks.
The pace of life in Spain is something that I had to get used to early on. On my first day here, I was exploring the city’s cobblestone streets with some students from my residence when we became hungry. We started looking for somewhere to eat, but every restaurant seemed to be closed. Was leaving for dinner at 7:30 p.m. too late? It was the opposite, in fact. Once we found one of the few open restaurants, we noticed that it only got busy around 9:00 p.m.
The Spanish schedule tends to be more relaxed and delayed than the American one. A typical day might involve eating lunch at 3:00 p.m., taking a siesta nap until 5:00 p.m. and having dinner around 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. It’s also common for people to come home from a night out around 6:00 a.m., with many clubs closing after 5:00 a.m.
As someone who enjoys sleeping in and taking my time with things, I’ve come to appreciate the slower pace of life in Seville. I’ve gotten used to waking up past noon on days that I don’t have class, something I’d only do a couple times a
year back home. After eating a big brunch, exercising and getting ready for the day, my friends and I often head to the city center around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. If we go shopping, we stay out until the stores close around 10:00 p.m., which is when we go to dinner. However, elements of this relaxed pace can pose an inconvenience. Marina Saad (Villanova ’26) prefers a more traditional routine. While Seville’s public
transportation network is quite well connected, bus times can be unpredictable.
“Sometimes it comes early, sometimes it comes late, sometimes it just doesn’t come,” Saad said. “It also impacts my timeliness in arriving to things, which is irritating.”
While the inconsistent bus schedule clashes with her punctual nature, Saad reminds herself that everyone in Seville experiences
the same delays, and that running late is a shared experience. Spanish culture is often characterized by a relaxed approach to punctuality.
Students studying in other European cities have different experiences with public transportation systems. Ryan Gaghen CM ’26 said he hasn’t had any issues with transportation in Stockholm, Sweden. He was pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of its transit system; The city seems to
operate at a quicker pace compared to laid-back Seville.
In Prague, Claire Moore CM ’26 had to adjust to the rarity of smiles. While unusual in the Czech city, in the United States, it’s practically habitual for strangers to smile at one another in passing.
“Everyone looks very somber and that can be an adjustment,” Moore said. “But here, a smile is the sign of pure happiness, not just something that you throw on.”
I’ve noticed that polite smiles aren’t a big part of Seville’s culture either. There have been times where I instinctively smile at a stranger and am met with a look of confusion. I’ve had to get used to different kinds of warmth in Seville: People often insist that strangers board the bus before them, and when I speak with locals, they typically show genuine interest in what I have to say.
For students attending programs where they don’t know anyone yet, the adjustment period can feel like college orientation week all over again. Harper Denniston SC ’26 feels like she’s met some great people in her first few weeks in Seville, but the constant introductions can take a toll on her social battery.
“It’s been a little bit draining just constantly being on and meeting so many new people everyday,” Denniston said.
Feeling like you have to build an entirely new social network is just another example of the constant novelty in studying abroad. In this adjustment period, everything is new: food, culture, schedules, people, language and so much more. But this unfamiliarity forces us to adapt and change our habitual ways of interacting with the environment around us. I’d call that transformative.
Columnist Parishi Kanuga CM ’26 is studying abroad in Seville, Spain this semester.
LIA FOX • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
ISA D’AmArIO • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
ANNA PETERSON
PARISHI KANUGA
LIA FOX • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
NOteS FrOm SpAIN
Just before students returned to campus this fall, Pomona College announced their new “enhanced safety program” requiring ID cards to access buildings, outright banning encampments, continuing their crusade against masked protestors and most significantly, adding five new Campus Safety officers to be on constant patrol throughout the college.
For Pomona, these changes are all about “safety” and according to them, these officers will “help promote a safer environment for students.” But in all this talk about safety, I realized that I’ve never actually heard a student call the officers you see zooming around in their golf carts “Campus Safety.” For students at the 7Cs, they are known as “Camp Sec,” short for Campus Security.
That’s because for students, Camp Sec is not an organization dedicated to the safety of our community. Rather, we know them as the organization which directly aided the Claremont Police Department (CPD) in arresting 20 of our peers in April and performed a racially-motivated, private persons arrest of a Latinx professor last November. For us, Camp Sec is the surrogate police force of the Claremont Colleges and as the past year has shown, we are often at their mercy.
This is why I was nervous to ask them for help when I joined the long list of bike theft victims in Claremont.
When someone steals something you care about, it’s pretty violating. The worst part was the inherent selfblame. I felt ashamed for not locking my bike well enough to the rack outside Mead Hall. I had tried my best to keep it safe, and I had failed. As a result, I was in a pretty vulnerable state when the Camp Sec officer came to my door. It was a prompt arrival, just a few minutes after I called. The officer stoically took my report and then had me come down to the station — for whatever reason not offering me a ride, despite the mile long trek from Pitzer — to meet with a CPD officer. They said that forwarding my case to CPD would help expedite the process.
A little after 7 p.m. on a Friday night, the CPD officer finally arrived just to tell me that the only way they would open an investigation was if I
wanted to press charges. They also said that there was no chance I was getting my bike back — basically, “We can’t help you with your bike, but we can throw someone in prison if you’d like.”
Alongside the Camp Sec officer, they reminded me that I should’ve locked my bike better and I shouldn’t have left it at the bike rack for more than a day. Oh wow, why hadn’t I thought of that?
As with many college towns, bike theft has been a prominent issue for students in Claremont for years, yet the solution that both our Campus Safety and CPD have decided to implement is purely reactionary, punitive and based solely in a culture of revenge.
The thing about threatening bike thieves with prison time is that it’s not deterring them. It’s not addressing why they might have to be taking the bikes in the first place and, for the victim, it doesn’t fix the problem that I still don’t have a bike.
How can Camp Sec so boldly claim they care about “campus safety” when there is clearly no desire to put any preventative measures in place, or even more importantly, create any restorative policies to help victims.
For years, Brown University has utilized restorative justice practices for minor incidents including theft. Even if my bike was taken by someone unaffiliated with the colleges as the CPD officer suggested, I still believe we need to expand non-punitive options on our campuses — moving away from a culture of the forced isolation from your community that comes with suspensions — that will both help victims and address the causes that led to someone stealing, or even committing a violent crime, in the first place.
Get canceled
“Get your f***in’ ass up and work,” goes the proverb of the wisewoman Kim Kardashian. “It seems like no one wants to work these days.” Kim’s interview led to quite a lot of backlash. Some might even say she got canceled for it. But guess what? She’s still a billionaire and we’re the losers scrolling on Twitter.
Our generation, unlike Ms. Kardashian’s, fears that posting an opinion as curt as hers would spell social demise. We’re petrified of being “canceled.” This unsavory label — which has the power to take away friends, estrange family and change your whole life — has infiltrated our way of life. The phenomenon of cancel culture is a term that as much as 64 percent of the American Gen Z population is familiar with, according to PEW research studies. Since the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have turned inward, joining communities online and taking solace in the digital world. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, since the pandemic, there has been a 26 percent global increase in anxiety disorders. Despite quarantine orders being lifted, young people still aren’t in any shape for business as usual.
There are many think-pieces
on how social media has affected Gen Z. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt even wrote a book, “The Anxious Generation,” about how social media and protective parenting have made Gen Z more, well, anxious. We don’t take risks, we don’t venture out into the real world, and we don’t smoke, have sex or do drugs like we should. What we love to do is worry about what other people will think if we say something inflammatory. We’re so overwhelmed with being dictators to ourselves, that we’re missing out on taking risks. Being wrong, confused or challenged is the only way to grow. Sharing a frankly batshit opinion is one of the joys of being young and ignorant. For instance, I, Adam Akins, hold that the vitamin biotin is a government created chemical to sedate the masses (I, Tania Azhang, do not share this view). Yet we can engage in discourse! Your incessant worrying has marooned you. Like Pinocchio in the stomach of the whale. Let’s go to the Isle of Toys! Let’s catch Donkey Fever! That is to say, playing the game long term is bad for the soul. We can’t afford to be the anxious generation. If we let the fear of making mistakes paralyze us, we fail our duty to contribute to society in any meaningful way.
Being conscious of the world is fine and good. But when it disrupts the ability to engage in conversations or discourse of any
moves culture forward.
This social paralysis and practice of governance has started to take concrete effect on the 5C community, emblemized by Claremont McKenna dropping from first to sixth in the Foundation for Rights and Expressions collegiate free speech rankings. The way cancel culture has gained so much traction in the social media decade is thanks to algorithms. Social media robs the canceled person of any humanity, and algorithms encourage essentially anonymous TikTok users to dogpile. According to a NPR article, social media algorithms specifically target viewers, showing them content that will spur outrage. This is how they optimize engagement. As a result, our ability to communicate with one another on critical social issues is impaired.
Cancel culture, and anxiety surrounding it, impedes our ability to advance social change. If we’re too scared to express any opinion at all, how will we ever make an impact?
So go forth. Do drugs, have sex, smoke cigarettes. Have a fucking opinion, and get canceled for it.
Tania Azhang PZ ’25 and Adam Akins PZ ’27 are both liberal and members of the woke mob. We’re both diagnosed with donkey fever.
TANIA AZHANG & ADAM AKINS
Sagehen women’s tennis dusts off feathers in preseason tournament
JOSH GEHRING
Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s tennis caused a racket during the annual PP-CMS invitational on Friday, Sept. 13 and Saturday, Sept. 14, defending a heroic 2024 SCIAC tournament victory against the previously No. 1 ranked Athenas, who won the Division III NCAA championship in 2023.
The tournament was a chance for the Hens to shed some rust against teams of all divisions, including Division I California State University Northridge and Division II teams Azusa Pacific University, Biola University and Westmont College.
After the first day of the competition, Marissa Markey PZ ‘25 expressed her excitement to get an early start on preparing for their spring season.
“Today was really fun, it was our first match back since last spring so everyone was looking forward to being back together,” Markey said. “This is more of a friendly tournament, so there weren’t too many result expectations, but we were all just working on a lot of different things and looking to have fun and get back into it.” For these athletes, “getting back into it” means many things. Nyakiriri Kanefu PZ ‘27 explained how for her, the first tournament is all about individual growth and working through what she calls “the uglies.”
“The uglies are when you’re first
getting back into stuff and just hitting random shots, you’re shanking it,” Kanefu said. “You’re just getting it all out, getting through those kinks.”
Upperclassmen Markey and Angie Zhou PO ‘25 saw the preseason competition as a chance to relearn some fundamental team chemistry.
“Angie and I have been playing together for a while so it was fun to finally play together after such a long break over summer,” Markey said.
Markey, who is doubles partners with Zhou, explained their playing chemistry and how it looks on the court.
“It’s not something where I’m robotic and I have to think about it,” Markey said. “It’s more just like she’s gonna do what she’s gonna do and we’ll be able to read each other and kind of flow with each other.”
Markey and Zhou fell to California State University Northridge in a close match of 4-6 but went on to dominate Westmont in a 6-0 victory on Friday.
Reflecting on P-P’s successful 2024 spring season – where they made their way to the semifinals of the NCAA championship – Amelia Poor PO ‘25 described how the team is hoping to capitalize on the momentum from the spring.
“I’m really proud of how we did last year,” she said. “So we’re hoping to do it all again this year.
Do better, even.”
Preseason marks the start of many athletes’ final year with P-P, including Zhou, who explained why this last season feels extra meaningful.
“I think it’s fun with everything being our last thing,” Zhou said. “But that also makes it more special and makes me cherish every match we have.”
While also taking the time to appreciate her last season, Markey
explained how being a captain means taking on a leadership role for the rest of the team.
“It’s definitely bittersweet. I’ve really enjoyed my time being on the team,” Markey said. “But it’s fun to continually watch people come into the program and now, as captains, be a part of their experience.”
The P-P women’s tennis team has a long time to wait before they begin regular competition in the spring. However, they aren’t wasting any
time when it comes to building good habits, something reflected in their team mantra.
“We always say, inspire the person across the net,” Poor said. “Tennis can have a lot of pressure sometimes and you can feel pretty alone. It’s important to find the joy in it.”
Looking ahead, P-P and CMS women’s tennis will host the ITA Division III West Regional Championships from Friday, Sept. 27 to Sunday, Sept. 29.
The underdog takes a bite: Stags soccer stun
defending national champions in 3-2 thriller
On Monday, Sept. 9, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) men’s soccer team proved they can hang with the best, taking down the St. Olaf College Lions, the reigning NCAA national Division III champions, in a 3-2 win.
Top-notch performances from 2023 first-team All-SCIAC players Rafael Otero CM ‘25 — who netted two goals — and Shaan Malik CM ‘26 — who also put one in the back of the net — allowed the team to claim victory in the Lion’s home territory of Northfield, Minnesota.
Displaying great composure on the ball, Otero broke the game’s deadlock in the 23rd minute with his first goal, finding space between four defenders. Five minutes later, the Stags doubled their lead, as Malik faked out a player before firing into the top left corner.
According to central defensive midfielder Lukas Huntington CM ‘25, the team’s preparation began long before the game itself.
“The reality is that our preparation started last November,” Huntington said. “We had a disappointing end of the year last year, and we grinded this offseason. We had six days a week of training.”
Last season, the Stags lost only three games but fell to Redlands in a heartbreaking SCIAC semi-final match that ended in penalty kicks after the Bulldogs tied the game with three minutes of regular time remaining.
Otero, a central attacking midfielder, highlighted the significance of his teammates’ individual contributions in the build up to his goals.
“Zeno made a great play, won the ball, and passed it to me,” Otero said. “A lot of my teammates made good runs to keep it open and no one stepped out to me, so I carried it and got a free shot.”
Huntington was also quick to acknowledge the contributions made by the team’s defense.
“Guys like Tommy Brown and Eric-Grossman-Glover had huge games,” Huntington said. “Eric stepped up when he was called upon, shutting down their regional player of the year.”
However, the Stags’ lead was short lived, as St. Olaf quickly erased the 2-0 deficit with two set-piece goals from the Oles before halftime.
According to Huntington, the team emerged onto the field after halftime with renewed energy.
“We asked ourselves who we wanted to be,” he said. “Do we let the game slip out of our hands, or do we seize it?”
A mere 13 minutes into the second half, the Stags recaptured the lead, courtesy of Otero’s second goal. The final 30 minutes of the game proved a tense test for the Stags, with the Oles set upon retribution. However, a last minute save from goalie Miles Demarest CM ‘26 proved to be all CMS needed to secure a historic win.
Malik also spoke about the team’s emphasis on a consis
tent strong mentality, regardless of the significance of the game.
“Whether it’s a SCIAC final, an NCAA final, a game against Whittier or La Verne, you have to play the team ahead of you,” Malik said. “What our coach likes to tell us is that in those games, you don’t rise to the occasion, you fall to the level of your preparation.”
While locker-room celebrations were lively following the big win, Otero stressed the importance of not seeing the victory as the peak of the season, but rather using it as a tool of momentum into the next game, which took place on Thursday, Sept. 12 versus Wheaton.
The Stags proved that the St. Olaf win was just the beginning of a successful streak, defeating Wheaton 2-0 with two more goals from Otero. This time, the Stags improved their defensive efforts, keeping a clean sheet.
Following their wins versus St. Olaf and Wheaton, CMS was ranked No. 14 in the NCAA DIII men’s soccer ranking, and were back in action Wednesday, Sept. 18 versus Cal Lutheran for the SCIAC opener, in which they fell 4-2.
Looking ahead, the Stags will face Chapman University on Saturday, Sept. 21 at home, for their second SCIAC-season game.
Nocturnal Sagehens take to the pool at midnight for seasonopening swim
At 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 8, the men and women’s Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) swim and dive teams stood on the edge of Haldeman Pool’s deck ready to dive into their new season — literally. Each year, the P-P swim and dive athletes take part in an inaugural 50-yard swim at midnight on the first day of NCAA-approved practices.
The tradition begins at 11:30 p.m. when the teams arrive on the pool deck. In anticipation of their kickoff event, the group takes a moment to consider the season ahead of them.
“To start the night, we gather as a whole team in a circle,” captain Olivia Klipfel PZ ‘25 said. “Our coach says ‘Look to your left, look to your right. This is the team, enjoy this year.’”
This moment is followed by a series of speeches from the teams’ senior athletes. According to Klipfel, these speeches consist of advice from the upperclassmen about what they wish they had known in previous years on the team.
As a senior and a captain, Klipfel said she hoped to instill excitement for the year in her teammates at this event.
“The number one thing is [the athletes] have to go into it and just commit to the silliness and the goofiness of the whole year,” Klipfel said.
“We are very close-knit and like a family, and I think that a part of that is that we buy into traditions like these and open ourselves up.”
Kai Parker PO ‘27 and Charlotte Dixon PO ‘28, two underclassmen on the team, took this advice to heart, both noting
how impactful this experience has been for them. For Dixon, a first-year, part of this impact was finding common ground with the senior athletes.
“I was kind of scared of [the seniors] at first because they’re so much older than me, and they’re so much faster and so much wiser,” Dixon said. “But pretty much everyone started their speech with ‘I remember sitting in this circle four years ago and I was so nervous.’ As a first year, understanding that everyone has been in my place was pretty special.” As a sophomore, Parker got to experience this tradition for the second time. This year, however, the swim was special in a new way.
“It was cool to experience it from a position of already having been through the experience and already having one season,” Parker said. “It gives you a new perspective, and I was able to understand and relate to what the seniors were saying more than I was able to last year.” After the seniors finish their speeches, the Sagehens don their caps and goggles and line up at the edge of the pool to begin the countdown.
“We count down from 10 to the very start of the season, then we’ll dive in as a group,” Dixon said. “The swimmers will swim [50 meters], and then the divers will just do a dive off the boards.”
Following their inaugural swim or dive, the Hens pull themselves out of the water, brush off their feathers, and head back to their nests to get some sleep in preparation for the season ahead.
After beginning practice this week, the Sagehens will begin competition on Friday, Oct. 25 at Cal Baptist and host their first meet on Saturday, Oct. 26 against Concordia.
pomona-pitzer Women’s tennis team posing for a photo after winning the 2024 SCIAC tournament
COUrteSY: pOmONA-pItZer
GEORGIA MCGOVERN
rafael Otero Cm ’25 gets ready to deliver a pass during the Stags’ Sept 9. face-off against St. Olaf.
COUrteSY:
SYDNEY KROONEN
Sagehens give Slugs a salt bath, securing a 3-0 preseason victory
The Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s soccer team left the UC Santa Cruz Slugs in the dust on Thursday, Sept. 12 in a 3-0 preseason shutout at the South Athletics Complex.
Coming off of last season’s 16-1-3 finish, the Sagehens are holding onto the coveted top position in SCIAC with a 4-0-1 preseason record.
Ella Endo PO ‘25 discussed how the team responds to the pressures of being ranked at the top of their conference and their goals for the season.
“I want to have fun and continue the success of this team to leave a memorable legacy along with winning a national championship, which can only be possible if we continue to put in the work and focus on togetherness rather than ranking,” Endo said.
Miranda Armstrong, assistant coach of the Sagehens, echoed this.
“I think every game is a new opportunity to step out on the field and prove yourself,” Armstrong said. “I think that goes for each individual on the team
as well as the team as a whole.”
With that sentiment at the back of their minds, P-P set the tone right from kickoff with Endo netting the game’s first goal three minutes into the match from an assist by Hannah Hong PO ‘26.
After taking the lead early, the Sagehens and Slugs found themselves in a tense deadlock for the remainder of the first half. The Hens held the advantage thanks to two strong saves from P-P goalkeeper and SCIAC athlete of the week Patricia DePalma PO ‘27.
Cheered on loudly by the P-P men’s soccer team, the Hens continued their quest for goals in the second half, with Hong scoring the second goal of the night in the 76th minute.
The game accelerated, in the 79th minute, Isla Burch PZ ‘25 notched P-P’s third goal off an assist from Taylor Marshall PZ ‘26 to cap off a shutout performance.
According to Endo, who transferred to P-P, the victory was a result of the team’s chemistry and work off the field.
“The culture of the team as
a transfer student was really special coming into it,” Endo said. “We do a lot to bond and uplift each other, which of course translates to how we
work together on the field and our numerous successes.”
Their preseason efforts followed them into the regular season, as P-P opened SCIAC play
against Whittier College with a 1-1 draw at home on Wednesday, Sept. 18. Looking forward, the Hens will face Caltech Saturday, Sept. 21.
Athenas thrash Wildcats in a 5-0 shutout
On Friday, Sept. 13, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s soccer team opened up their weekend with a 5-0 shutout at home against St. Catherine University. Returning from a trip to Wash -
ington that yielded a win and a draw against the University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran respectively, the Athenas were on the attack.
Anchored by their back four, they were able to continue their unbeaten streak as the SCIAC season opener approaches. CMS
marked the scoreboard just five minutes into the first half as midfielder Cate Lewison HM ’26 weaved through a crowd of defenders and tapped in a cross from Kaitlyn Helfrich CM ’25. The Athenas tacked on another goal about ten minutes later. Forward Ava Schmitt CM
Friday, September 20
men’s Golf vs. University of La Verne
Saturday, September 21
Women’s XC @ UC riverside Invitational
Saturday, September 21
Women’s Golf @ Chapman
Women’s XC @ UC riverside Invite
men’s XC @ UC riverside Invite
men’s XC @ UC riverside Invitational Football @ George Fox
men’s Soccer vs. Chapman University
Women’s Soccer @ Chapman University
men’s Water polo vs. Alumni Game
men’s Soccer vs. Caltech
Women’s Soccer @ Caltech Football @ Pacific University
’25 decisively buried a backside cross from fullback Ava Allen CM ’27, who fought through defenders to play the ball to Schmitt.
With the early goals helping to put CMS ahead, center-back Annie McKinley CM ’25 credited the defense for ensuring that the Wildcats couldn’t catch up.
“The back four has been really solid,” she said. “We’ve been able to get a shutout the last two games.”
While Allen’s effort proved to be the final score of the half, the Athenas came close on multiple occasions; a shot from Jordan Yates CM ’27 ricocheted off the left post and multiple crosses were intercepted in the box by St. Catherine’s defenders.
Still fiery despite their dominant 2-0 lead, the Athenas entered the second half in top form. Immediately after halftime, Riley Zitar CM ’26 delivered a free-kick into the six-yard box, finding Tori Holden CM ’25 who slotted it into the back of the net.
Working as a cohesive unit, CMS was able to quickly seal up passing lanes and win challenges as St. Catherine attempted to respond. When chances did arrive for the Wildcats, Athena’s goalkeeper Andra Marinescu CM ’27 was there, scooping up multiple balls en route to posting her first clean-sheet of the season.
The action continued for the Athenas when Yates, determined after her near-miss from the first half, dribbled her
way into a one-on-one against the keeper, finishing with a chip placed below the crossbar. For Yates, this goal was extra meaningful.
“This is my first college goal after being injured for the past year and a half, so I think the time was coming for something to happen,” she said. “I wasn’t going to be happy with myself if I didn’t score, so getting that goal really made my day.”
However, the Athenas still weren’t done. The last score of the day came on a resounding 40-yard free-kick from midfielder Frankie Fragola CM ’27 a mere three minutes later. Like Yates, this goal was also the first of her college career. With the 5-0 win under the Athena’s belt, McKinley spoke on the team’s mentality moving forward.
“I think the goal is always a SCIAC championship,” she said. “I would say we’re taking it game by game right now. The next game is always the most important game.”
CMS head coach David Nolan was extremely pleased with the team’s performance, expressing confidence in their upcoming season.
“It’s all coming together,” he said. “[This team] hasn’t even hit the ceiling yet.”
Since then, the Athena’s good form has faltered, drawing 1-1 to the UCUniversity of California Santa Cruz on Sept. 14, and falling 1-1 to California Lutheran University on Sept. 18 to bring their overall record to 2-1-3.
ALENA SHARP
SArAH ZIFF • tHe StUDeNt LIFe
Zakiah Sesay pZ ’28 getting dribbles down the pomona-pitzer soccer stadium.
