Vol. CXXXI, No. 13

Page 1

THE

STUDENT

LIFE

The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889

CLAREMONT, CA

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2019

VOL. CXXI NO. 13

CMC to update Title IX policy JENSEN STEADY Claremont McKenna College’s process of investigating sexual assault accusations made against its students will likely include a live hearing with cross-examination between the accuser and the accused after the policy is updated later this month. The changes are expected to align CMC with other Cal-

ifornia colleges, which are in the process of altering their Title IX policies in response to a January court ruling that found the University of Southern California at fault for not providing a student accused of sexual assault with the opportunity to cross-examine their accuser. The list of colleges implementing changes include Claremont McKenna College,

Occidental College, the University of California system and the California State University system, The Los Angeles Times reported. CMC spokesperson Peter Hong confirmed the policy will be updated later this month, but declined to specify what the new policy will be. If the new language complies with the recent ruling, though, it would mark a significant

shift from CMC’s current Title IX policy, which does not require a live hearing with the accused student and accuser both present. The California appellate court that issued the ruling against USC cited “fundamental fairness” for both parties involved as the reasoning for its decision. Universities must “provide a mechanism by which the

accused may cross-examine those witnesses, directly or indirectly, at a hearing in which the witnesses appear in person or by other means … before a neutral adjudicator with the power independently to find facts and make credibility assessments,” the court ruled. The ruling appears to al-

See TITLE IX on Page 2

5C HOUSING EXCHANGE PROGRAM ENDS

NINA POTISCHMAN • THE STUDENT LIFE

Students will no longer be able to live at other campuses ELINOR ASPERGREN Worried they were “losing the spirit” of the 5C Housing Exchange, 5C residential life deans had been thinking about nixing the little-used dorm swap option for four years. They finally announcement the program’s cancellation Feb. 15, leaving students living at other campuses in the consortium alarmed and

dismayed. Kirsten Carrier, the residence life director at Pitzer College, said administrators “really gave it our all and tried to make it work both for students and us” over the past few years after proposing the cancellation of the program in the 2015-2016 academic year, “but we were still running into the same situations over and over.” The exchange program,

HMC, Pomona, Scripps announce commencement speakers JASPER DAVIDOFF & EMILY KUHN Harvey Mudd College, Pomona College and Scripps College have announced the keynote speakers for their May 2019 commencement ceremonies. Pitzer College spokesperson Anna Chang said the college will announce its speaker Tuesday. Claire Wengrod PZ ’19, a member of Pitzer’s Student Senate, said “she is an exciting public figure [who] reflects our core values well.” Claremont McKenna College will likely announce its speaker in March, spokes-

person Peter Hong said.

Harvey Mudd College Stanford University professor Sebastian Thrun, a renowned entrepreneur and expert in robotics and artificial intelligence, is Mudd’s keynote commencement speaker. Thrun helped run X,

See SPEAKER on Page 3

also known as the 5C Living Exchange, allowed undergraduate students to trade housing arrangements with each other and live at a different college in the consortium. The group of 5C deans said the program would not be returning starting fall 2019. The exchange required a student at one college to find another student at a different 5C to switch with them, according to an executive

to a leave of absence, withdrawal, conduct issue, etc.), both students were required to return back to their home campus.” Carrier said via email that when exchanges don’t work out ― about half the time ― “it has a disparate impact on the students,” because the

See HOUSING on Page 3

JULIA FRANKEL Many students believe Pomona College’s Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault program was suspended Feb. 13 due to confidentiality concerns and a lack of adequate training. But Title IX coordinator Sue McCarthy told TSL Thursday that students reporting negative experiences with the advocates was the main reason for the suspension. The decision, which was ultimately made by Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr and announced via email, cited “mostly confidential concerns” as the reasoning behind the change, prompting student confusion over whether the concerns were private and could not be shared with students, or if the concerns involved the advocate’s confidentiality status. McCarthy explained that the concerns were mostly about confidential student reports of individual harm, and not with the advocates’ confidentiality status itself. “People reported experiencing harm in connection to advocates as an individual or as a group,” McCarthy said, but didn’t specify further due to confidentiality. In a statement to TSL, advocates spokesperson Molly Keller PO ’19 said, “We are aware of Dean McCarthy’s comments but we have not received any information about the nature of the reports and we were never contacted to discuss any concerns before the decision was sent to the entire Pomona College community.” McCarthy said that only “one to five percent” of the decision was related to the Clery Act, which requires advocate groups without proper training to report sexual assaults of which they are informed. Pomona’s advocates lacked that training, due to McCarthy’s error in scheduling it last

See POMONA on Page 2

P-P women’s basketball makes first SCIAC tournament appearance in program history UMA NAGARAJANSWENSON Since the SCIAC women’s basketball tournament’s inception in 2007, only two teams have never made it to the postseason: Caltech and Pomona-Pitzer. Until now. The Sagehens (20-5, 14-2 SCIAC) took down defending champion Chapman (169, 11-5 SCIAC) 75-62 in the conference semifinal Thursday. With a win against Sixth Street rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (23-2, 15-1 SCIAC) in the SCIAC Championship Saturday at Roberts Pavilion, P-P would secure its first conference tournament title and a berth to the NCAA tournament.

LIFE AND STYLE

It hasn’t been an easy path to the top, though. The Sagehens finished the 2016-17 season with a dismal 1-23 record (1-15 SCIAC), the last seed in the conference. The next season saw a marked improvement, as they finished 8-17 (5-11 SCIAC). The disastrous 2016-17 season was the first for coach Jill Pace. Pace said that season was difficult, but crucial in getting the team to where it is today. “I think it’s hard on the court going through a 1-23 season, because you want results, you want to see wins,” Pace said, “But I think that season has influenced last

See SCIAC on Page 10

AMY BEST • THE STUDENT LIFE

Zoe Hunt PZ ’19 screams in celebration during P-P’s victory over Chapman in the SCIAC semifinals Thursday.

OPINIONS

“[A] lot of people in this room would be very comfortable saying the 2nd Amendment ... now needs to be reinterpreted in the light of new technology. We don’t say that about the First Amendment,” New Yorker staff writer Andrew Marantz said in a talk at Scripps College’s Balch Auditorium. Read more on page 4.

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summary provided by Pomona College housing director Frank Bedoya. The deans wrote in the email to students that the program had “low student participation and posed more complications and less benefits to all involved.” “Each student was contractually obligated to fulfill living in their exchange’s campus space,” the summary reads. “If either student was unable to fulfill this requirement (due

PO’s McCarthy: Student complaints caused Advocates suspension

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SPORTS

“[Vanessa] Tyson has illuminated a new framework for understanding sexual assault by asserting that it is both an epidemic and a public health issue.” Read more on page 8.

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A choreographed team dance to “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!” by Vengaboys has become an unconventional warm-up routine for the CMS Athletics dive team this season. Read more on page 9.

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NEWS.............................1 LIFE & STYLE..................4 OPINIONS.....................6 SPORTS..........................9


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