Vol. CXXXV No. 3

VOL. CXXXV NO. 3

FRIDAY, September 29, 2023

In memoriam: Philanthropist and business leader Robert Addison Day

COURTESY: CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Claremont McKenna College trustee and philanthropist Robert Addison Day CM ’65 died on Sept. 14 at the age of 79.

ASHLEY PARK Longtime Claremont McKenna College (CMC) trustee, philanthropist and champion of 5C finance students Robert Addison Day CM ’65 died at the age of 79 on Sept. 14. His passing was announced in an email sent to CMC’s student body on Sept. 18.

Day was born in 1943 in Los Angeles to Robert A. Day and Willametta Keck Day. In 1960, he enrolled at CMC, then known as Claremont Men’s College, where he majored in economics and served as a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

In a statement released on CMC’s website, former CMC president Jack Stark CM ’57 said he and his wife are deeply grieving Day’s passing. Day — who went by the nickname ‘Bo’ in college — had been a dear friend since his sophomore year at CMC. After graduating from CMC in 1965, Robert Day found swift success with his business-finance career in New York, where he worked with the investment

banking firm White, Weld and Company. In 1971, he returned to California to found the Trust Company of the West finance firm. Thirty years later, he sold the company for $2.5 billion.

Day often attributed his success to his alma mater and to the quality of the education he received there, displaying his commitment to the college by joining CMC’s Board of Trustees at age 29 — its youngest-elected member — in 1970.

“Each year, I recognize more and more the value of my CMC education,” Day said in 2007. “It is my sincere wish that by giving back to the College in this way, we will help shape the next generation of leaders.”

Throughout his years as a trustee, his gifts to CMC were used to found some of CMC’s most recognizable programs.

Perhaps most notably, Robert Day’s record-breaking $200 million gift in 2007 — the larg-

See DAY on page 3

CLAREMONT, CA

Pitzer’s First Gen club escalates actions after stipend removal ANNABELLE INK After months of tension between Pitzer College’s First Gen Club and the institution’s FirstGen program, the club is holding a demonstration today at 12 p.m. at the Pitzer Mounds, according to an email sent to Pitzer’s student body.

This action comes after Pitzer told two FirstGen program student interns that it could not continue paying them for their work last spring.

The removal of the stipends followed what some students said were years of struggle among the college’s first-generation students to receive adequate funding and support from the program.

Adaija Sheppard PZ ’25 and Diego Villegas PZ ’24 said they were hired as program interns for the 2022-2024 cycle. As part of their role, Villegas said they were supposed to receive a stipend every semester. However, this May, the program’s director told the two that Pitzer FirstGen could no longer provide the stipends due to the program’s limited funds.

TSL reached out to the program director and to multiple other administrators, but did not receive a response from any by the time of publication.

Wendy Shattuck, assistant vice president for college communications, did not directly respond to any of TSL’s individual questions on the issue, but told TSL via email that Pitzer was addressing FirstGen internally.

“Pitzer administrators have been working internally on the [FirstGen] program and club con-

cerns that [TSL is] interested in. We won’t have a collective response to your questions on it, however,” she said.

Sheppard and Villegas told TSL they received the director’s email at the start of finals week, just days after hosting an inaugural first-generation graduation ceremony at Pitzer on May 5, 2023.

“We met up immediately after that email and we just sat in silence for a little bit,” Sheppard, who is also president of Pitzer’s First Gen Club, said. “Did we do something wrong?”

Villegas said he had to pick up three jobs over the summer in order to compensate for the lost stipend.

“As a first-gen low-income student, it placed a lot of financial stress on me,” Villegas said in an email to TSL. “The stipend was a major source of contribution to my tuition, so losing this source of income did not come easy.”

Sheppard and Villegas said this email was the tipping point in their already tense relationship with the Pitzer FirstGen program, which falls under the Office of Academic Affairs.

“As first-gen students, we were really hesitant to speak up about wrongs — I feel like institutionally because we are vulnerable as a population,” Sheppard said. “But it got to the point where our executive board collectively agreed that we should make a statement and speak out against it.”

The week following the removal of the stipends, First Gen Club sent a statement to Pitzer condemning the act and demanding enhanced support and funding for the FirstGen

program, Sheppard said. The same statement is circling among students at Pitzer in anticipation of today’s demonstration.

Reinstating pay for the two interns was one of the central demands of the statement, which claimed that the timing and manner of the stipend removal “[sent] a message to the first-gen student community at Pitzer College that our needs are not prioritized and that we are deemed expendable in the face of performativity.”

The statement also highlighted First Gen Club’s issue with the program lacking student representation to accurately anticipate and meet the needs of first-gen students.

“It’s so important that student voices are heard for the current struggles that first-gen students at Pitzer are going through,” Daniel Bonilla PZ ’25, vice president of First Gen Club, said. “Assuming that [administration] could handle [the program] without consulting students is just very naive.”

Through the summer and start of the school year, Sheppard said she and other First Gen Club members have met with administrative members and corresponded with them through emails over concerns in the statement.

Still, Sheppard said she doesn’t feel as though any progress on the interns’ status has been made.

Lola Latan PZ ’25, an executive board member, also expressed frustration with the way FirstGen offers academic support for first-generation students.

Latan explained that she and numerous other first-generation students that she met through the First Gen Club found themselves struggling

See FIRST GEN on page 2

KIMBERLY MURILLO • THE STUDENT LIFE

After Pitzer laid off two interns in its FirstGen Program due to a lack of funding, students in the First Gen Club released a statement demanding that the program be restructured.

From plastic to pedagogy: Faculty and students analyze the ‘Barbie’ phenomenon at the Womxn’s Union MAYA ZHAN & ELLIE URFRIG On Thursday, Sept. 21, dozens of 5C students, faculty and staff gathered in Pomona College’s Womxn’s Union (WU) for a discussion on the cultural phenomenon “Barbie,” directed by Greta Gerwig. The film has been heralded as a catalyst for conversation about feminism, corporatism, patriarchy and other pertinent issues.

Three Pomona faculty members — Assistant Professor of Media Studies Ryan Engley, Professor of Politics Amanda Hollis-Brusky and Assistant Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies Esther Hernandez-Medina — led the panel. Before delving into all things Barbieland, attendees enjoyed the WU’s catered lunch and welcoming, conversational environment.

Engley opened the panel by analyzing the film in the context of the evolving entertainment industry.

“It is rare to get something progressive in Hollywood without there also being something retrograde about it,” Engley said. “I think ‘Barbie’ enters into that kind of history in Hollywood.”

Engley said the film “name-checks

MAX RANNEY • THE STUDENT LIFE

patriarchy as a problem.”

“I would invite anyone to think of a major film where patriarchy is named as the thing that is villain-

ous,” he said. I think you’d have a hard time coming up with one and especially one that’s reached as many people.”

ARTS & CULTURE

On Sept. 21, students flocked to the newly-renovated Motley Coffeehouse for “The Motrix,” a celebration of the café’s much-anticipated public reopening.

The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889

Hollis-Brusky grew up playing with Barbies. But with age came the realization that the toy upholds capitalist, patriarchal structures.

“When I had two daughters, I wouldn’t even dress them in pink, because I didn’t want to gender them,” she said. “And they were not allowed to play with Barbies. So it’s been a journey for me to come back to Barbie.”

Hollis-Brusky argued that the movie reclaims Barbie as an empowering feminist figure, without ignoring the doll’s controversies.

She highlighted a scene in which Sasha lists problematic elements of the doll, including her perpetuation of unrealistic body standards and sexist rhetoric.

“I love Sasha just going after Margot Robbie’s character, because that is exactly how I felt and I’m so glad they went there,” she said.

Hernandez-Medina authors a column in “Acento,” a prominent newspaper based in the Dominican Republic, her home country. She summarized an article she wrote about Barbie for the publication.

The film reminded her of two concepts she discusses in her classes, she said. The first, hegemony,

OPINIONS

is “when one of the most powerful groups is able to convince the rest of society that their interests are everybody’s interests.” Hernandez-Medina argued that the movie brilliantly displays patriarchy as hegemony.

The second concept is the “capacity to aspire.” The film, having grossed $1.3 billion in box office sales, has reached vast populations and, as a result, can spur oppressed populations to reimagine societal norms.

“For marginalized groups especially, it’s very important to develop the capacity to aspire because if you can’t imagine change, then you can’t actually build it,” Hernandez-Medina said.

Following the panelists’ opening remarks, student attendees drew upon their lived experiences as context for their criticisms of the “Barbie” movie.

To Diana Truong PO ’24, the film’s feminism was not intersectional.

They noted that Barbies of marginalized groups were tokenized and subsequently neglected. This reminded Truong of their experiences as a low-income student at a prestigious institution. They said that they and

See BARBIE on page 2 SPORTS

Guest writer Aaron Matsuoka PZ ‘26 challenges students to take classes centering on Latin American history and exposes the cultural ignorance of the American education system.

Pomona-Pitzer athletics partners with ACEing Autism, a national organization helping children on the autism spectrum foster relationships and gain skills via social fitness.

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

News

PAGE 2

September 29, 2023

FIRST GEN: The Cadigan building: Claremont Students demand Graduate University plans for new School of Arts and Humanities facility more support Continued from page 1

CRYSTAL WIDADO • THE STUDENT LIFE

CGU Alumnus Patrick F. Cadigan’s $42 million commitment will fund a new building for the School of Arts and Humanities.

KAITE BREEN In Feb. 2022, Claremont Graduate University (CGU) announced that it had received its largest philanthropic donation, a $42 million commitment from alumnus Patrick F. Cadigan CGU ’80. The donation will fund a new permanent home for the School of Arts and Humanities at CGU. TSL has been unable to obtain information regarding the progress of the building since the donation was announced, and CGU said they would not provide details on the status of the project until after Oct. 11.

Construction has not yet started, but the Cadigan building is scheduled for a tentative opening in fall of 2024 according to the Claremont Courier.

Josh Goode, a faculty member in the School of Arts and Humanities and a member of the planning committee for the Cadigan project, told TSL that the building will be con-

BARBIE: Students share perspectives

structed by the firm Whiting-Turner, which was also behind the Google Bay View building in Mountain View, California.

The new building will sit north of the Drucker Institute on North Dartmouth Avenue and Drucker Street in a currently vacant two-acre lot. This space was used for graduate student housing until 2008, when CGU demolished the apartment buildings upon completion of Claremont Collegiate Apartments.

Eric Thomas, a cultural studies doctorate student at CGU, shared his hopes for the new building to address the varied needs of the community.

“I hope the planning for the new Arts and Humanities building takes into account the needs of graduate scholars, including accessibility, a commitment to preserving the trees and natural environment [and] covered parking,” Thomas said. “I also

envision a space that is futuristic and capable of meeting the diverse needs of arts and humanities scholarship and research.”

Despite the relatively positive expectations for the new Cadigan building, Goode expressed apprehension over the outcome of the design and construction process.

“Is it going to turn out as great as we hope it’s going to turn out?

Is it going to fulfill the promises that we want it to?” Goode said.

“There’s such hope and promise for the building and so, you know, can we live up to it? But that’s a kind of standard fear that’s not rooted in anything that’s actually happened.”

In 2022, students and faculty at CGU and the Southern California Institute of Architecture worked together to co-author “Designing for Ingenuity and Innovation,” a case study of several buildings with environments that support collabora-

tive learning. The study is meant to provide inspiration for the design of the new building.

According to Katrina Denman, a history doctorate student at CGU who was involved in the project, the Hive has also served as a source of inspiration, as have other spaces for interdisciplinary humanities at the 5Cs, including the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College.

Goode stated that the new building will prioritize opportunities for transdisciplinary work among different schools at CGU. “We’re building new kinds of classroom spaces, [that are] flexible, meaning that walls will move, walls can be written on, spaces can be transformed…the building itself is going to be this kind of vibrant interdisciplinary space,” Goode said.

academically, especially in their first year.

While Latan hopes that the First Gen Club will be able to provide students with some of the academic support they are missing, she said that a student-run club should not have to take over the responsibilities of a program run by paid faculty members.

“I also think it’s important to highlight that a lot of these ideas come from students,” Latan said.

“I do think that it’s a good thing in terms of like, students know what students want, but at the same time, it’s a lot of mental, emotional and even physical labor.”

Sheppard felt similarly, claiming that the First Gen Club, as opposed to the FirstGen program, organized and funded several of the events put on for the first-generation community last year. Most recently, she said, the club took over the mentorship program formerly run by the FirstGen program.

“At this point, I’m doing the job of the program director,” Sheppard said. “It’s really a funny, surreal experience being a junior in college and giving resources to students because the [program] refuses to do that for them.”

Sheppard said she and the First Gen Club never anticipated this conflict and tension between first-generation students and the FirstGen program. However, she said that she was willing to escalate matters to ensure that the voices of first-generation students were heard.

“It gets so exhausting not being heard and not being seen,” Sheppard said. “I just want to be a student and worry about myself, but I feel like the weight of the success of this community is just on me and all other students and that’s not fair. We work hard to be here. We deserve a chance to just be students that want to be students and not full-on facilitators and leaders 24/7.”

Major denial: students struggle to enroll in courses required for major

Continued from page 1 other students of marginalized groups, were similarly lumped into one cohort and funneled into the same corporate pipelines.

“You can have an Asian Barbie, a disabled Barbie, a Black Barbie and you’re gonna work for Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Lockheed Martin,” Truong said. “It’s just including more people into oppression and allowing more people to hold the position where you oppress others.”

Truong stressed that gender was the primary concern of the film, while, they said, race and class considerations were weakly communicated through the overgeneralized message, “we’re all Barbies and we’re all different.”

One attendee noted that the tangible emotional labor of BIPOC women, the true force behind Barbieland, is erased by the fact of Barbie’s existence.

Another attendee, Federica Domecq Lacroze PO ’26, had similar criticisms.

“I was very disappointed by the lack of depth in the movie,” she said after the panel. “If you’re a woman or minority, you know these things. The repercussions [and reactions to the film] were different from country to country.

But … it’s made people talk ... so it can’t be something bad.”

The discussion then veered towards the tension between the film’s status as a movie of mass appeal versus its feminist messaging. Many thought that the film’s status as a corporate product undercut its feminist messaging and that the two could not be reconciled.

“The movie has to be perceived as what it is, which is basically an advertisement,” said Frida Navarro-Grau PO ’26. “It’s a movie aiming to sell a doll. But it still is such an artful movie. I think Greta Gerwig is an amazing artist, but there’s only so much she can do.”

Engley emphasized that, when criticizing mass-produced films like “Barbie,” one must take into account its inherent limitations.

“As an object, if there is a lack in it, which there is, I think that’s a reflection of the auspices under which it was made,” Engley said.

“I see where the film is lacking … but under this system, I don’t know that [Gerwig] could have done more.”

Navarro-Grau reflected on the compelling, lively and vulnerable discussion at large.

“The Womxn’s Union is a great space to have these discussions, and I hope this is the start of a series of conversations,” she said.

“The space is an equalizer where students, staff, and faculty can talk without a hierarchy.”

JONATHAN KE • THE STUDENT LIFE

A lack of faculty, resources and space makes it difficult for students at the 5Cs to take courses required for competitive majors.

NITYA GUPTA With acceptance rates as low as 7 percent, the Claremont Colleges are some of the most selective liberal arts schools in the nation. But in the wake of class registration, some students are discovering that being accepted to these schools is not always the hardest part — sometimes, it’s getting into a competitive major.

Across the 5Cs, students struggle to enroll in the courses that they need for their majors due to the lack of faculty, space and overall resources. This is especially true for majors such as Computer Science (CS) at Pomona College and Harvey Mudd College (HMC) and Environmental Analysis (EA) and Media Studies at Pitzer College.

At Pomona, the CS department has a fixed number of seats open to students in required courses. Professor David Kauchak, chair of the CS Department at Pomona, explained that this is largely due to the college’s limited faculty.

“Given the number of faculty in the department right now (six tenure-track faculty who are teaching and a seventh joining in January), we simply cannot support everyone,” he told TSL via email.

Aldo Ruiz Parra PO ’25, a CS major, expressed frustration with the competitiveness of

registering for CS classes in an email to TSL. “I came in [to Pomona] with the intention to explore classes and take advantage of the liberal arts curriculum,” Parra said. “I did not expect that it would be difficult getting into CS classes at the beginning.”

In an attempt to make it more accessible to students, the CS department decided to roll out a new program that would better support CS minors and students interested in taking upper-level CS courses.

“CS54 (the second course in the intro sequence) will have a fixed number of seats each semester for first- and second-year students. If there are more students interested in the course than the available seats, [the department] will randomly fill the seats,” Kauchak said.

Students selected for CS54 will have seats reserved in upper-level courses, but students who were not allocated a spot will not be able to reapply to take the course in future semesters, effectively blocking them from pursuing a CS major or minor.

“This allows students the flexibility to engage with CS as much as they want as well as explore other great courses and majors throughout the college,” Kauchak said.

Harvey Mudd’s CS Department also struggles to meet demand from off-campus students,

instead utilizing a lottery system for CS majors from other colleges.

“This ensures the provision of courses to students in the consortium while providing access to classes that all HMC CS majors need to graduate on time,” professor Jim Boerkoel, chair of the Computer Science Department at Harvey Mudd, said in an email to TSL. Moreover, for upper-level courses, priority is given to HMC CS majors to ensure that they can graduate on time.

CS students are not the only ones facing difficulties with their major.

Kimai McPhee SC ’25, a digital media studies major, said the limited supply of resources — such as fully equipped computer labs with programs like Adobe Suite, of which Scripps only has enough for a handful of students — contributes to a smaller number of available classes within the major. Her Introduction to Digital Arts course, for example, had over 80 PERMs. McPhee suggested that administrators commit to improving access to resources so that they can open more classes on their campuses.

“As a Scripps student, I’m very fortunate with the resources that I get access to, like Adobe Suite, which is really expensive, but my classmates from the other 5Cs don’t have access to it,” McPhee said.

Similarly, Ana Hernandez PZ ’25, an EA major on a science track, emphasized the selectivity of the EA program at Pitzer, something that she had not known about when she initially came to the college. She eventually found that it was easier to complete her major through the Keck Science Department than to do it at her own school.

“Since the science track is through Keck, my advisors were assigned through Keck, so I didn’t have to compete for advisors at Pitzer, making it a little easier for me,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez expressed frustration with her experience.

“With many professors leaving, it makes you wonder if you are really getting your education’s worth,” she said. “I came [to Pitzer] to have this experience with professors who were experts in their field and now they’re not here and I don’t have that experience anymore.”

She argued that Pitzer should be more flexible with degree requirements in order to compensate for the selectivity of the courses.

“Since there’s little faculty to support the students, students should be given a little flexibility with the requirements or be allowed to appeal certain ones,” Hernandez said. “My education shouldn’t be impacted when we can broker a solution from both sides.”

News

September 29, 2023

PAGE 3

Everything you need to know about your mandatory flu vaccine AMBIKA GUPTA Fall is falling, leaves are leaving, and it’s time for the annual flu shot.

The flu shot is mandatory for all 5C undergraduate students, who must be vaccinated by Oct. 31, 2023. Flu shot clinics will be available at all of the 5Cs beginning in October.

The flu shot clinics are scheduled for the following times and locations: Oct. 10, 12 to 4 p.m. at Pitzer College’s Gold Student Health & Wellness Center, Multi-Purpose Room; Oct. 11, 2 to 6 p.m. at Claremont McKenna’s McKenna Auditorium; Oct. 12, 12 to 4 p.m. at Scripps College’s Balch Auditorium; Oct. 18, 1 to 5 p.m. at Pomona College’s Edmunds Ballroom; Oct. 19, 2 to 6 p.m. at Tranquada 1st Floor MCAPS Annex (previously HEO); Oct. 20, 1 to 5 p.m. at Harvey Mudd College’s Green Room Platt Campus Center.

Students may attend any clinic, regardless of school affiliation.

Vaccines will also be available via appointment with Student Health Services (SHS) through online scheduling at “My Health Portal” or by calling 909-621-8222 (x18222).

At SHS, the flu shot is $35, though most insurance plans charge a $0 copay. SHS bills Student Health Insurance Plan

(SHIP) directly, and students with this plan are completely covered for flu shots received at SHS. F o r s t u d e n t s re c e iv ing a vaccine with private insurance (non-SHIP) or who are uninsured, flu shots received at SHS are eligible for a $10 subsidy.

Additionally, those enrolled in Kaiser may also receive the flu shot at no charge from a Kaiser clinic. Flu vaccines are billed directly to insurance at the flu clinics.

Nymisha Desai PZ ’25 recounted an incident from last year in which miscommunication with SHS left her to face unprecedented costs.

“Last year, before receiving four shots, including my flu vaccine, I confirmed with the SHS representative that the vaccines would be covered with my [nonSHIP, private] insurance. They ended up charging me $700,” she said. After months of going back and forth with them, they decreased the charge by around 50 percent.”

This year, Desai went to Hendricks, a local pharmacy compatible with her insurance, to receive her flu vaccine.

For students with private insurance, SHS recommends local pharmacies as the most cost-effective choice.

This year, SHS already hosted a flu shot clinic, administering over 300 vaccines, at the Sept. 19 Back to Your Future block party, an outdoor event hosted by The Claremont Colleges Services.

Charis Kim PO ’24 received her flu vaccine at the Back to Your Future block party. While Kim was able to pre-register

SASHA MATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

for the event, she said pre-registration was not highly advertised, and some students found themselves waiting in line for an extensive period of time.

“A lot of people felt pressured to get their shots done in this

“Educating and mobilizing”: Divest 5Cs takes a stand at NYC climate justice conference EMMY ANDERSON On Saturday, Sept. 16, co-leader of Claremont’s Divest 5Cs Gianna Hutton PO ’26 gathered alongside 70 other students in New York City for a youth climate justice conference and march to end fossil fuels.

The conference was hosted by Fossil Free Research, a pro-divestment organization of a national coalition of students. Both the conference and march took place during New York City’s Climate Week, a yearly summit that brings together students, educators, political leaders, business people and climate organizers to discuss the problems of and potential solutions to climate change.

“As students, we know the power our universities have to be leaders in social change,” Alicia Colomer, managing director for Fossil Free Research, told TSL via email. By hosting this event, she explained, Fossil Free Research was able to connect student activists from around the country and enable them to share their goals.

Hutton represented the organization at the Climate Week events.

Divest 5Cs is a student-run organization focused on encouraging the Claremont Colleges to divest their endowments from controversial investments in industries like fossil fuels or private prisons.

The divestment movement has been emboldened in recent years, with major universities such as Harvard and NYU announcing divestment from fossil fuels in 2021 and 2023 respectively, due in part to the success of student movements on their campuses.

In Claremont, 88 percent of Pomona students voted in favor of a resolution to divest from fossil fuels last spring, but the administration took no action.

Pitzer College divested in 2014, but none of the other 5Cs have announced similar plans.

“Our movement is rooted in the idea that our schools that claim to be socially responsible and sustainable should not be invested in climate destruction and other industries that actively contribute to the disproportionate oppression of BIPOC, Latinx and poor communities,” Hutton said in an email to TSL. She further emphasized that investment justice is particularly important on the collegiate front because “universities have consistently led the way in driving social transformation.”

The Fossil Free Research Conference included talks and panel discussions from student organizers at American universities, in addition to building community and exchanging

ideas between representatives from around the country and the world.

The morning after the conference, on Sunday, Sept. 17, conference attendees joined tens of thousands of people — including students from 37 colleges and universities — for a climate march in Manhattan.

Protestors marched in support of a list of demands aimed at reinvigorating President Biden’s response to climate change, including declaring a climate emergency and ending the practice of fracking on public land.

“Getting to collaborate and share ideas with international campus leaders brightened my spirits so much,” Hutton said.

“By being able to share our knowledge, together we will revoke the fossil fuel industry’s social license to continue operating in youth spaces.”

Fossil Free Research does not currently have plans to host a conference event again next year, but Divest 5Cs continues to push for endowment justice on campus.

“For now, we’re just looking to get new students involved in our movement and continue to educate and mobilize for climate justice,” co-leader Nicholas Black PO ’24 said in an email.

COURTESY: HEATHER CHEN

Gianna Hutton PO ‘26 represented Divest 5Cs at a climate conference and march in New York on Sept. 16 and 17.

one time [where] there were on-campus clinics because it’s so much more convenient,” Kim said. “They update your documentation right away, whereas if you get it done separately, I’ve heard it can be a pain to make

sure SHS knows you have[the flu shot].”

Students may request a religious or medical exemption through the “Affidavit for Exemption to Vaccination” on the SHS website.

DAY: CMC community reminisces legacy Continued from page 1 est donation to a liberal arts college at its time — funded the creation of the Robert Day Scholars (RDS) Program.

The program instructs and prepares selected students for leadership roles in a variety of industries, such as financial services, consulting, technology and not-for-profit organizations. Along with receiving extensive mentoring, Robert Day Scholars, who undergo an intensive application and interview process, are awarded up to $10,000 to fund their ambitions.

“Robert Day’s innovative vision is designed to educate some of the most talented young people in the world today with the best possible curriculum, internships and leadership development for preparation to lead in a fast-changing world,” former CMC President Pamela Gann said at the time of the donation.

At the time of the donation, Day said that the goal of the program was to “identify the leaders of tomorrow and provide an outstanding education that will prepare them for significant roles.”

CMC honored his contribution by renaming the economics department the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance.

Day donated two more gifts totaling $60 million to CMC in 2018 and 2021. These donations helped fund the groundbreaking Robert Day Sciences Center, set to open in 2025.

The center, which is estimated to be around 120,000 square feet, will act as a hub for collaboration, research and interdisciplinary studies.

His legacy is felt by the students whose lives he touched with his generosity.

“Robert Day’s generosity in making and funding this sort of program is kind of what drew me to this school over other liberal arts colleges,” Riley Lai CM ’25, a student in the RDS Program, said. “I didn’t get to meet him personally, but I know the kind of impact he’s made on the RDS program as well as the school, so I’m very grateful to him for what he’s done.”

To Caden Rogers CM ’25, another student in the program, Day’s impact on the college is immeasurable. Rogers said Day’s work created an abundance of opportunities for him, especially with regard to his career interests.

“I think if I just reflect on my personal CMC experience, at least a significant portion of it is directly attributable to things that he’s done,” Rogers said.

Michelle Chamberlain, the dean of the RDS program, reflected on Day’s impact as well, citing his leadership as one of his most memorable qualities.

“Mr. Day was a beloved classmate, generous mentor and visionary philanthropist whose legacy is woven into the very fabric of our College,” Chamberlain said in an email to CMC’s student body. “His extraordinary leadership for over a half century has created — and will continue to create into the future — countless opportunities for generations who call CMC home.”

Day’s commitment to giving back by donating his time and wealth wasn’t only limited to CMC. During his time as chairman of the Keck Foundation — which was established by his grandfather, William Myron Keck — he oversaw the distribution of more than $2 billion in grants.

He also shared his wealth of knowledge with the world; he served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under George W. Bush, and in 2006, was awarded the Decoration of Officier de la Legion D’Honneur from the Government of France.

“As a dear friend, loyal alumnus, global business leader, dedicated Board chair and visionary donor, Robert’s personal, professional and philanthropic commitment to Claremont McKenna is extraordinary. The legacy of his impact is incalculable,” CMC President Hiram Chodosh said.

“The entire CMC community and everyone we serve will benefit from the dividends of Robert’s investments for generations to come.”

Day is survived by his children Joseph, DiDi and Jon Day, his grandchildren Taj, Sosi, Avo and Ziggy, his wife Marlyn Day and his brother Matt Day and his family.

Corrections In Issue 2, Camila Amaya Navarrete’s name was misspelled in the byline of her article. Additionally, an article by Lisa Gorelik misattributed sentiments by Gorelik as quotes by Len Korol CM ’25 and Shiak Sarkowsly CM ’25.

TSL regrets the errors.

PAGE 4

Arts & Culture

September 29, 2023

Here’s how to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival this weekend

SASHA MATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

REIA LI & BECCA CHOE The Mid-Autumn festival is traditionally a time for family; however, the absence of familial ties in college has driven clubs and organizations to fill the gap by hosting events for students to gather together and celebrate the holiday.

The Mid-Autumn festival is celebrated throughout Asia, and different countries have their own unique traditions. This year, the holiday falls on Sept. 29, the fifteenth day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar, when Chinese custom dictates the moon is the fullest and brightest.

The festival dates back over 3,000 years in China and celebrates the moon, harvest season and family ties. It is associated with the legend of Chang E, a goddess who ascended to the moon with her pet rabbit after accidentally drinking (or stealing, depending on the version) an elixir of immortality meant for her husband, Hou Yi.

Around this time of year, South Korea celebrates a holiday called Chuseok where families dress in hanboks, play games and eat food. This is also a time for paying respect to ancestors and expressing gratitude.

In Vietnam, Tết Trung Thu is celebrated every year. Families feast, and communities oftentimes hold parades that include activities such as carrying lanterns, lion dancing and wearing áo dài.

I n J a p a n , t h e f e s t i va l i s called Tsukimi. A snack called tsukimi-dango is made during this holiday and eggs are a particularly important ingredient in Tsukimi cuisine, as they resemble a full moon.

For Wanxi Wang, the Chinese language resident at Oldenborg Center, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion.

“Last year, I had the festival with my family, but now I’m far, far away,” Wang said. “But one thing that makes me happy is

that I can spend this festival with students.”

Wang is hosting a mooncake-making event on Friday evening. Mooncakes, which can be both sweet and savory, are traditionally eaten in China to celebrate the festival.

“With the mid autumn festival it seems like everything is round,” Wang said. “The moon is round, mooncakes are round and we eat dinner at a round table because we want to [symbolize] reunion.”

At the event, students will fill dough premade by Wang with red bean and lotus seed paste and then stamp the top of the mooncake with different symbolic designs.

Serena Li PO ’26 grew up in a Chinese American household and remembers eating mooncakes every Mid-Autumn festival.

“To me, food was a really important part of my cultural identity growing up and mooncakes

are definitely an annual snack — so I always look forward to receiving them as gifts or eating them around this time of year,” Li said.

Li is the co-president of Tea Circle, a club that meets every Saturday to eat snacks and drink tea they brew themselves.

Although Tea Circle is a social activity of Claremont Buddhism Club, Li said it has no Buddhist element.

On Saturday, Sept. 30, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Walker Lounge, Tea Circle will collaborate with Cantonese club to host a mid-autumn themed tea circle, where they will be serving mooncakes and other traditional festival snacks, as well as brewing tea, Li said.

“We hope that people can come out, try some snacks and tea and celebrate mid-autumn with us or get a feeling of what the holiday is about,” Li said.

These two are just a few of the many events happening

across the Claremont Colleges this weekend. Below is a full list of the different ways students are celebrating: 1. Make mooncakes in the Chinese Lounge at Oldenborg Language Hall, Sept. 29, 7 p.m.

2. Mid-Autumn Festival Tea Circle, Walker Lounge, Sept. 30, 3-6 p.m.

3. Watch the movie Ne Zha (2019), hosted by the Chinese Liaisons, Estella 1021, Sept. 30, 6-8 p.m.

4. Lantern making and mooncake eating hosted by Chinese Students and Scholars Association and CMC’s College Programming Board, Kravis Lawn, Sept. 29, 7-8:30 p.m.

5. Harvey Mudd College Mid-Autumn Festival with food, hosted by the Exploring Pan-Asian Identity and Culture Club, on the lawn between Drinkward and Case, Sept.

30, 7-9 p.m.

The Golden Antlers open mic night: Just try it!

ANANYA VINAY The Golden Antlers’ first open mic event of the year kicked off with an enthusiastic lineup of performers, covering topics ranging from the trials and tribulations of dating to coming out of the closet.

O rg a n i z e d b y E ll a L e h a v i SC ’25, the performers included Charlotte Imbert PO ’25, Eli Edelman PZ ’24, Julius Skestos PZ ’25, Nathan Chabin PZ ’25, Jackie Owen SC ’27, Aidan Henrikson PZ ’25 and Lily Wellington PZ ’24.

Lehavi opened the show with a set highlighting their take on top surgery. ”So, the summer my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, it really had me thinking: It’s super messed up that she’s gonna get her top surgery before me,” Lehavi said.

Imbert shared her take on blood donations.

“When you donate blood … you get a sticker that says I’m giving the gift of life,” Imbert said.

“I just feel bad for whoever is getting the gift of my blood because this [is] the blood of someone who recently thought that the Bay Area was a dating app.”

Owen’s set struck a particular chord with the audience. She described a “canon event” many Scripps students go through in their first year at the 5Cs – meeting a Claremont McKenna man at a party. “ H e ’s b e e n t a l k i n g t o m y friends for about 20 minutes now,” Owen said. “He’s still there … I’m looking at Natalie [my roommate]. And she’s trying so hard not to punch this guy in the face because all he’s talking about is that he didn’t go to Northwestern and the British countryside.”

Owens also touched on the manhunt to get 5C party wrist-

Organizer Ella Lehavi SC ‘25 opens The Golden Antlers’ first open mic event of the semester on Sept. 22.

bands. She compared the chaos that ensued over Septemberfest to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

“This big massive group of Scrippsies charge forward, this is like the January Scrippsies,” Owen said. “People were shoving and pushing us, so we get the wristbands and then run out of Seal Court… like the champions we are.”

After the show, Skestos re-

flected on what he loves about performing stand-up. ”If you can make someone laugh and look at society more critically, that’s something I’m drawn to, especially as a poli-sci major,” Skestos said.

Chabin believes comedy is an avenue to connecting with people. ”I’ve always been a person that’s kind of struggled to find

a way to express myself, and finding a way to make people laugh is a good way of letting people in my life,” Chabin said.

Lehavi wants open mics to be a friendly environment where people feel comfortable trying new things. ”You already have something funny in that way that you communicate with people; you just need to learn how to hone

SARAH ZIFF • THE STUDENT LIFE

and sharpen it for specific environments,” Lehavi said. “Don’t be afraid to embarrass yourself because you can do that without being funny too.”

Lehavi believes comedy can be used to bring people together.

“I think that’s the type of thing that can break boundaries and bring people closer to each other,” Lehavi said. “And that’s empowering.”

September 29, 2023

Arts & Culture

PAGE 5

Scripps Presents Sambas, jorts, and soccer jerseys: welcomes comedian TikTok’s reach at the 5Cs Atsuko Okatsuka at Garrison Theater CLAREMONT CORE

PETER DIEN As ABBA blasted through the venue’s speakers, a diverse array of audience members from the 5Cs and the greater Claremont community were abuzz. Hundreds took their seats, ready to spend the evening watching the performance of esteemed Japanese American comedian Atsuko Okatsuka.

Okatsuka’s evening stand-up routine took place on Sept. 21 in the Garrison Theater at Scripps College. The event was hosted by Scripps Presents, a series of events dedicated to highlight thoughtful conversations, interactive performances and inspirational talks for 5C students and the greater Claremont community.

Fresh off her 2022 hit HBO special “The Intruder,” Okatsuka entered the stage to screeching applause from the audience.

Okatsuka started her set with a quip that broke down the barriers between herself and the audience.

“All the weirdos are here,” Okatsuka said. “I know my people. We are all the ones who had to have a personality. The black sheep in our families.”

Okatsuka’s self-deprecating humor was heavily present throughout the 45-minute set, specifically in her descriptions of her relationship with her husband and her yearning for a couple-friendly set of wheels.

“My dream is to get [my husband and I] a tandem bike,” Okat-

suka said. “That way everyone knows we’re together. From the front it looks like one single lonely man on the bicycle. Once he turns the corner, ‘Oh what’s that? Is that Dora the Explorer?’”

In the Q&A portion following her set, a student asked Okatsuka for advice on how to break into comedy.

“Finding your voice is a big thing,” Okatsuka said. “There’s this thing called essential comedy [which is] your perspective on things. When you write an essay, every sentence backs the thesis up. It’s kind of like that with comedy — every joke I have backs up [my perspective].”

Scripps College Director of Events and Conference Services Marcy Robinson agreed with this sentiment, citing the comedian’s voice — and her love for “The Intruder” — as reasons for inviting her to perform.

“I think the audience loved it,” Robinson said. “I think she’s so real. She’s so authentic — who she is on stage is her voice and her voice only.”

Evelyn Keisha SC ’27 appreciated Okatsuka’s candid standup, especially the self-deprecating aspects of her performance.

“If I’m ever being funny, it’s usually self-deprecating humor,” Keisha said. “I needed a laugh today and she certainly made me laugh.”

ESHA CHAMPSI • THE STUDENT LIFE

Atsuko Okatsuka’s performed a stand up routine at the Garrison Theater on Sept. 21 as part of the ongoing Scripps Presents series.

BELLA PETTENGILL • THE STUDENT LIFE

GUS GINGRICH If you’re like me, you find yourself falling down the TikTok rabbit hole relatively often.

After swearing off the app for years, I finally caved a little over six months ago and discovered just how much content I had been missing out on. As a self-proclaimed fashion enthusiast, TikTok has since catered to all of my niche interests and then some, even helping inspire some of my own style.

At the time, I was studying abroad in Paris — where fashion felt more timeless than what I would expect in the United States — but I still couldn’t help noticing a lot of the trends I had seen on my For You Page manifesting in street style there. The line outside of the Stüssy store in Le Marais spanned 20 people at any given time of day and all of the thrift stores were picked over as people rushed to grab every vintage gem they could.

When I returned to campus for the fall semester, I was curious to see how big of an effect TikTok would have on 5C style and if it would prove to be as trend-influenced as a typical metropolitan city. Was it influencing people to change their style in any way? Or did all of the popularity I had seen certain aesthetics receive on the app not translate to real life?

My observations around campus were a mixed bag, but I was able to make one conclusion right away — TikTok alone is not powerful enough to completely alter the style of an individual or a school. With its propagation of micro-trends, fashion extremism and overcon-

sumption, style that blows up on the app is often unreplicable, especially for college students with limited budgets.

That said, I did pick up on a number of pieces or styles mainly popularized by TikTok that were popping up on campus a lot more often than I remembered.

Generally, items like jorts, soccer jerseys, Adidas Sambas and Onitsuka Tigers are all over each school. These have generally been some of the most prominent items on TikTok over the past six months to a year and are too versatile to really go out of style.

The influence of TikTok I spotted at individual schools mostly built on that school’s stereotypical style. To me, this was most recognizable at Scripps College and Pitzer College— crop tops and big pants thrive at both schools. While Scripps embraces long, flowy dresses and low-rise jeans, Pitzer leans into Y2K and punk aesthetics with platform shoes, denim and mesh or sheer tops.

Pomona College was more difficult to characterize – the diversity of the student body is reflected in their varying outfits.

Harvey Mudd College and Claremont McKenna (CMC) have not changed much from their ordinary style, but with the ease of virality on TikTok, Mudd-core and CMC-core could probably become trends in and of themselves — does anyone have a pair of khakis I could borrow?

Speaking of trends, one of the main consequences of TikTok is its contribution to the shortening of trend cycles online. Trends become saturated so quickly on the app that the rush to find something new (or old) for people to

wear is practically never-ending.

And because there are so many different sections of fashion TikTok, these trends can coexist with each other seamlessly.

This usually means that in order to stand out, fashion influencers are forced to seriously commit to the aesthetic they’ve developed, which results in some incredibly over-the-top looks (check out Wisdom Kaye’s page for examples).

Typically, the 5Cs are not lacking in self-expression or self-confidence, but the influence of these ‘fashion extremists,’ despite its literal inimitability, further encourages style individuality, which I have seen a lot more of around campus. While fashion should ultimately be more fulfilling to the person wearing the clothes than anyone observing them, it helps to know that there are creators out there who are successfully taking risks to help develop their identity.

In a world where trends are cycling in and out faster than we can keep up, personal style is a long overdue focus. And there’s no better canvas for its influence than at the Claremont Colleges, where each school and each individual expresses themselves so differently. TikTok is a great place to catch up on what’s ‘in’ and gawk over unaffordable outfits, but its true value comes in the advancement of this personal style.

On TikTok, certain people and aesthetics may receive more praise than others, but in Claremont, you never know who might walk by and appreciate the effort you put into what you’re wearing. Regardless, after having obsessed over fashion and perception of clothing for years, I can confidently say that as long as it makes you happy, that’s all that really matters.

KIT’S CONTROLLER CORNER

Making peace with Part of You: Celeste and creating peace from disharmony within the trans identity KIT KUMAR

Video games are one of the few forms of media that allow direct interaction with the topics and themes explored within the games. With this level of involvement comes the consideration of how an individual’s identity may cause them to empathize with and seek out certain themes within video games. Transgender individuals, despite making up a small percentage of the population, have a huge footprint in creating and consuming media of all types; therefore, it is important to understand what motivates the creation and consumption of media involving trans people, particularly video games.

Released in 2018 for various consoles and PC platforms, “Celeste” is an action platformer developed by Maddy Makes Games and Extremely OK Games. It explores the journey of Madeline as she encounters external, internal, physical and psychological obstacles in climbing a mountain. Aside from proving a point to herself, her motivations for doing so are markedly unclear within the game.

The game was created by Maddy Thorson, a Canadian video game developer and creator. Thorson is a trans woman and has stated that Madeline is canonically also a trans woman.

She also stated that her identity factored into Madeline’s initially unclear gender identity and history, given that Thorson’s journey developing the game helped solidify and understand her gender identity.

“Celeste” is a game ostensibly about the creator ’s journey to realizing their gender identity, explored through the narrative of Madeline climbing the mountain. Thorson began developing the game while she believed

herself to be a cisgender man, but was grappling with gender ennui. That sense of confusion is demonstrated within Madeline’s journey. Madeline states clearly that climbing the mountain is a self-imposed challenge with no motivation behind it other than to gain confidence and affirm her actions. This sense of confusion feeds back into the player ’s experience — you’re not entirely sure why you feel this sense of unease, nor are you sure why you’re forcing yourself to bash your head against the obstacles in your way.

Throughout the game,

Madeline grapples with Part of You (referred to by the game’s community as Badeline), a part of Madeline that haunts, harasses and hinders her throughout the story. While a supernatural entity in the game, the concept of a part of oneself that exists purely to prey on your anxieties and insecurities resonated with many transgender people.

Gender identity is no sure journey; many people are made to feel unsure if they’re making the right choice and question themselves at every step. As the game progresses, you try to conquer Badeline before realizing that she, just like Madeline,

is also riddled with the fear of uncertainty. To reach the summit of the mountain, the two of you join forces and work together as a cohesive whole.

“Celeste” is a game that teaches that every part of oneself is valid and worthy of respect. While you shouldn’t discount personal growth and a change in identity, it is important to realize that even if you reject a part of yourself, it doesn’t cease to be a Part of You. Many trans people struggle with the process of realizing their gender identity and reject it

BELLA PETTENGILL • THE STUDENT LIFE

out of fear. This parallels Madeline’s battle with Part of You, as she rejects it at every turn, but it continues to shadow her. This sentiment resonates with many trans people, not just because a trans woman wrote it, but because it demonstrates how unsure trans people feel while exploring their gender identity. Furthermore, it shows how realizing and presenting yourself in a way that is congruent with how you feel as a person is a fundamentally difficult challenge — especially when you don’t have all the answers about who you are and, more importantly, who you want to be.

Being trans takes courage, not simply because of the societal perception of trans people and associated difficulties in realizing one’s gender identity, but because it is an unclear journey.

You’re not sure why you started the journey or where you’ll end up, nor are you aware of every step on the way. “Celeste” is a game about making meaning out of uncertainty and learning to become comfortable with yourself as a constantly changing and evolving person.

Many trans people reflect that although the beginning of their gender identity journey is often underpinned by fear, over time, they begin to realize who they are as a person. The victory of climbing the mountain in “Celeste” is analogous to the satisfaction trans people gain from an increased sense of comfort in their gender identity and presentation. It’s never an easy journey, and the setbacks along the way may frustrate and dishearten you, but you will ultimately overcome them. In time, you may even begin to relish the satisfaction of conquering what was once an insurmountable obstacle. Ultimately, it’s funny how we get attached to the struggle.

Arts & Culture

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September 29, 2023

A red-pilled and renovated Motley takes students down the rabbit hole at ‘The Motrix’ ANNA PETERSON 5C students with long leather jackets, sleek black sunglasses and slicked-back hairstyles gathered for an evening of ambient green lighting, live music and themed drink options at the Motley Coffeehouse’s annual opening party “The Motrix.” On Sept. 21, students flocked to the Motley to celebrate the café’s much-anticipated public reopening, following renovations.

Since 1974, the Motley Coffeehouse has served as a beloved Scripps College institution. From open to close, students can socialize, study and admire work from student artists in the lounge area and in the surrounding Seal Court.

Following summer renovations, students attending the Motrix were able to check out the Motley’s new space, connect with the community and enjoy the limited-time drink menu.

Motley frequenter Ashe West-Lewis PZ ’26 expressed his excitement for the reopening.

“I was looking forward to seeing how they transformed the space,” West-Lewis said. “As a matcha lover I was anticipating a real matcha latte, and the Mot is the only place you can get one.”

As with past themes “Mot Gala” and “Jopening,” this year’s “The Motrix,” a play on “The Matrix,” allowed students to embrace an accessible, yet creative dress code with all-black outfits inspired by the blockbuster film franchise.

“My roommate and I each wore all-black, leather jackets and black sunglasses to fit the theme as best we could,” West-Lewis said. “It was really fun to see everyone dressed for the theme and take it seriously.”

The enthusiasm for this year’s theme extended to the beverage choices. A line wrapped around the side of the coffeehouse as students ordered themed drinks such as the “Red-Pilled,” a mix of sparkling raspberry lemonade, “Blue-Pilled,” a mix of sparkling blue raspberry lemonade and “Main Frame,” the well-loved matcha cha cha – matcha with vanilla – with edible glitter.

ESHA CHAMPSI • THE STUDENT LIFE

At its opening celebration titled “The Motrix,” students welcomed the newly renovated Motley Coffeehouse.

Motley manager Briza Manrique SC ’25 emphasized the Motrix’s function as a celebration for Motley staff.

“We wanted to have a space where people could hang out and come together again after opening and see all the hard work we put into [all the renovations],” Manrique said.

Event coordinator and Motley manager Nayla Dayal SC ’25 spoke on the challenges the Motley staff has faced as a student-run business while preparing for this semester’s opening.

“What made the process different this year was having to account for the fact that we’re working in a completely new space with a new set of machines,” Dayal said. “It’s been

difficult, but also so rewarding.”

Upon entering the Motley, students encountered several new additions to the space. The coffeehouse was decorated with new furniture, lighting fixtures, carpeting and exposed wood beams. The updated atmosphere maintained many of the building’s historical quirks like the exposed brick wall and large open windows in the lounge.

Dayal described some of the other changes that were made this summer.

“The wall that’s next to the door has been brought forward and behind that wall now is the office,” Dayal said. “Our new tiles on the front of the Motley which you see as you enter are hand-painted by students.”

To match its renovated surroundings, the Motley also acquired a new espresso machine and two new grinders to keep up with their growing demand.

After sipping down their drinks, students headed to the coffeehouse’s interior lounge to enjoy live music from on-campus bands Fischli’s Animals and Tea Room. With performances of “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” by Cake and “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire, the space was packed with students dancing and cheering along to the music.

“The student bands make the community building aspect of these events,” Dayal said. “[They] are able to really engage an audience of people.”

As the night came to an end,

students exited the lounge with empty cups of cold brew and a newfound excitement for the freshly renovated setting that Motley provides on campus.

“For some people, [the Motley] is literally just a coffee shop,” Dayal said. “I think to many others, it’s a place where you can meet your friends, you can grab a coffee, but also a place where there’s so many events that we have going on throughout the year.”

Over the course of the semester, the Motley hopes to hold more events and host on-campus organizations for club meetings.

To stay updated with the Motley’s upcoming announcements, you can follow their Instagram and TikTok @motleycoffee.

ROM-COM IN REVIEW

‘Sex And The City’ is for the cynical romantics NADIA HSU

“Welcome to the age of uninnocence. No one has ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and no one has ‘Affairs to Remember,” voices Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw in the opening monologue of the “Sex And The City” (SATC) pilot. “Instead we have breakfast at 7 a.m., and affairs we try to forget as quickly as possible.

SATC is consistently skeptical of love, romance and the stories that sell them to us — including rom-coms. Despite this denunciation, “Sex And The City” is a rom-com — and as such, it ultimately shows a faith in love and human connection above all else.

Created in 1998 by Darren Starr and based on Candace Bushnell’s 1996 book of the same name, SATC follows four thirty-something white women’s exploits in dating and sex in Manhattan.

The show has increasingly and justifiably been criticized for its many faults. But, for all its flaws, SATC has undeniably had a tremendous cultural impact, both good and bad. Part of this relevance comes from how the series interrogates women’s attitudes toward relationships at a time when these attitudes were shifting. Its characters are disillusioned, cynical, and exhausted trying to reckon with ideas of what love looks like.

SATC asks: Can women have both love and independence?

And sex? And marriage? And a career? And designer shoes?

That’s too much!

At the beginning of the show, Miranda, a lawyer, can be seen as the quintessential rom-com career woman: she’s individualistic, cynical and dresses like a

LUCIA MARQUEZ-UPPMAN • THE STUDENT LIFE

90s Annie Hall. Miranda sees relationships as inherently self-sacrificial for women, hesitant to believe that functional love is even possible; “Soul mates only exist in the Hallmark aisle,” she says. “And if you don’t find him, what?

You’re incomplete?”

Samantha is the girlboss. She owns her own PR company, wears pink power suits and has blown-out blond hair. Unapologetically sexual and the only character who never marries or wants to marry, she best represents how SATC negotiates women’s sexual freedom. “This is the first time in the history of Manhattan that women have had as much money and power as men, plus the equal luxury of treating men like sex objects,” Samantha says in the pilot.

Miranda and Samantha are the polar opposites of Charlotte, a Chanel-wearing diehard romantic. Charlotte is

committed to the whole bigwhite-wedding thing.

She wants the Prince Charming, “The One,” the knight in shining armor, and thinks she’s found him when she marries Trey, a WASP-y cardiologist.

Carrie, the show’s main protagonist, has been lauded as its most unlikeable and problematic character. She’s witty and fashionable (I pine after her Dior newsprint dress daily); she’s also annoying, a bad friend and a cheater.

Even with all her flaws, Carrie remains relatable. She, even more than her friends, initially seems to trudge through her life in a haze of indifference.

She goes to expensive new restaurants; she buys pair after pair of Manolos (later in the show it’s revealed she’s spent over $40,000 on shoes alone); she dates and sleeps with men she barely likes; she wakes up

THE STUDENT LIFE Senior Staff EMMA CONSTABLE, Production Editor JAKE CHANG, News Designer ISHA RAHEJA, A&C Designer AIDAN MA, Opinions Designer

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and does it all again. Very rarely does Carrie voice a strong opinion about anything outside of her lifestyle. She wanders around kind of listlessly, unsure what she’s doing.

The landscape that the women of SATC inhabit appears cynical, consumerist and absentminded. They look for love unsuccessfully, they girlboss shallowly and they shop their feelings away. However, through all of this disillusionment, Carrie and her friends find direction by ultimately choosing to believe in and pursue human connection — even when imperfect.

As the series progresses, the cynicism each woman represents is challenged in unexpected ways.

In the last two seasons, Miranda is confronted with loneliness at the death of her mother and Samantha is diagnosed with breast cancer. Both events

help the two independence-driven women learn to depend on others and be vulnerable, finding relationships in which they don’t need to compromise a part of themselves.

Charlotte, now a housewife living the life she dreamed of with a perfect-on-paper but loveless and sexless marriage, realizes her unhappiness and leaves Trey for Harry, a man nothing like what she thought “The One” would be like but whom she genuinely loves.

Carrie’s ending is kind of maddening. In the last moment of the last episode, she leaves a lonely life wandering through Paris with the detached Aleksandr for Big, the man she’s been off-and-on pining for since the very first episode. It’s a controversial move that I’m still not sure I agree with — Big is bland and erratic at best and mean at worst, having mistreated Carrie many times over. I personally hate him and you should too.

But Carrie taking a chance on a passionate but unstable relationship completely fits with her character, and with what SATC has been telling us this whole time. Carrie wants connection — it’s what she’s been searching for while meandering through Manhattan’s department stores and bars. In the show’s finale, she stands in front of Alexsandr, who doesn’t understand her dissatisfaction: “I’m looking for love,” Carrie says. “Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-withouteach-other love.”

Carrie taking the chance on Big is “Sex And The City”’s lastact way of confirming a faith in human relationships: in fairytale love, sure, but also in inconvenient and imperfect love, in love as the antidote to indifference.

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Opinions

September 29, 2023

PAGE 7

Take a class! (on Latin American history) AARON MATSUOKA I felt the warm spring air on the back of my neck as my friend Chiara and I made the trek down the hill from Pitzer College to Pomona College. It was a Wednesday and we were on our way to our favorite class, Latin America Since Independence, a survey course that introduces histories of Latin America, from indigenous beginnings to Columbus and Iberian conquest and all the way until the late 20th century.

Through taking this class, I came to a realization: We call ourselves “Americans,” yet we often ignore the whole other half of Americans who live to our south.

Where I grew up was WHITE white, not even close to the “Pitzer is a PWI” complaints that I hear from my classmates.

I come from a semi-rural area in Connecticut, an 82.3 percent white high school and a town that was 86 percent white. I hadn’t had much exposure to Latin American culture, let alone learned about its history.

Latin America Since Independence filled that gap and completely changed my worldview.

Most of what I had learned in high school was the typical colonized history of conquistadors, with a big focus on the Aztecs.

I hadn’t questioned U.S. foreign policy or the neocolonial actions of U.S. multinational companies in Latin America. It was a complete erasure of a history so important, so relevant to a United States high school student – and my experience is not unique.

Studies find that Latin American history is left out of high school history books. For example, a study conducted by Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and UnidosUS found that history textbooks used in high schools only covered about 28 out of the 222 topics relating to Latino history that they deemed important — about 13 percent. Thirteen percent of Latino history isn’t just negligent, but a blatant act of laziness by textbook authors.

Of course, not all history can be encompassed in one book, but surely more than 13 percent of it isn’t too much to ask — especially when some 4,370,000 out of 15,436,000 United States high school students are Hispanic/ Latino.

In Latin America Since Independence, our professor particularly focused on the history of U.S. involvement in Latin America. Most notably, we spent significant time learning about the Boston-based United Fruit Company (UFCO), now known as Chiquita. Operating in Guatemala under the dictator Jorge Ubico, UFCO owned over 42 percent of the land in the country.

SASHA MATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

However, when democratically elected President Jacobo Árbenz stepped into office, things changed.

Passing Decree 900, Árbenz began redistributing large plots of undeveloped lands to landless farmers, threatening UFCO’s large landholdings.

Two years later — after a UFCO-sponsored propaganda campaign depicting Guatemala as a communist country in the United States media — the CIA led a coup against Árbenz in June 1954, replacing the democratic leader with the military dictator Carlos Castillo Armas.

To me, it is stories like this that show the importance of this history, not only to learn about other countries, but to take a critical look at the system that

we are living within. Here, the U.S. government, the supposed “defender of democracy,” takes hypocritical actions by replacing a democratically elected leader with a dictator after a U.S.-based corporation, fearing a lower bottom line, made a ruckus in American media.

There’s something to think about the next time you pick up a banana from a dining hall.

There are so many of these “hidden histories” like the Bracero Program, a Mexico-U.S. agreement that allowed Mexican workers to fill agricultural labor shortages during World War II. Scholar Teresa A. Meade points out in her book “History of Modern Latin America: 1800 to the Present” that “most residents of the United States are

unaware that without the work of Mexican migrants during World War II and the Korean War, the United States would not have been able to produce enough food to meet demand on the home front and for the military abroad.”

The Bracero Program is an important piece of history that shows directly just how important learning Latin American history is. The United States public directly benefited from Mexican labor — in fact, a lot of the population might have gone hungry without those Mexican workers — but still, many hold prejudices against immigrants from Latin America.

The United States can no longer maintain its ignorance of Latin American history, his-

tories that are intertwined with U.S. politics and our daily lives.

We shouldn’t be content waiting to learn this in college. We must advocate for increased visibility of these histories within high schools. We must take on this task to educate ourselves on these histories.

Next semester, think about registering for Latin America Since Independence or Colonial Latin America or History of Mexico or any other related course. You might be surprised by how much you learn. You might be surprised at how much more you see.

Semi-rural Connecticut native Aaron Matsuoka PZ ’26 returns from his writing hiatus to give you a history lesson. He enjoys coffee, hiking, running and learning new things.

5C students should ditch the 1-10 ‘hotness’ scale VAIDEHI SRINIVASAN Rating a woman’s appearance on a 1 to 10 scale isn’t solely a practice of the alpha male podcasters and street pick-up artists of the internet manosphere. Such shorthand is now shockingly common — even celebrated — among young adults around the world. As a teenager, you’re very likely to hear a crude “nah dude, she’s a 6 at best” in everyday

conversation, even at our very own 5Cs. That’s right — at the elite Claremont Colleges, you’ll uncover a host of important world truths, like whether that guy from your media studies class prefers tits or ass.

While seemingly trivial, the 1 to 10 scale’s popularity should be a cause for concern within o u r c o m m u n i t y. Tr y a s we might to dismiss it as meaning-

less gossip, it is impossible to ignore its insidious repercussions on the way we perceive the female body.

To begin with, the act of slapping arbitrary numbers onto human beings is undeniably degrading, encouraging us to base someone’s value on their ‘hotness’ to us when people clearly have more to offer to the world than their bodies. The scale is therefore another way in

which we tie a woman’s value to the male gaze, mandating that they climb the social ladder by tailoring their looks to the tastes of men.

These tastes reinforce the sky-high Eurocentric beauty standards that have crushed female self-esteem for decades.

To be the ever-desired 10 out of 10, it’s likely you’ll have to follow these antiquated conventions to a religious T. Fall out of

SASHA MATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

line and your value might plunge down to the unthinkable single digits. Either way, you remain an object to be dissected and judged and you lose ownership over your own beauty. By being visible, your body is no longer your body but rather a product that others will evaluate, probably using this trusty old scale.

The ranking’s revered conclusion becomes foundational to the way people treat you, legitimizing disrespect, misbehavior or worse. After all, your value to the world is nothing but how hot you look. Can you blame a guy for shit-talking a low 4 or stopping at nothing to bag that 9?

Tolerating this language sets the stage for a violently misogynistic way of thinking where women become vessels of either male desire or ridicule. The 1 to 10 scale leaves no room for women to exist outside of a hypersexual microscope, synonymizing the acts of being seen and being objectified. In 2023, this means performing for the male gaze with every outfit you wear, picture you post and conversation you join.

At the 5Cs, I’ve seen multiple “Batch of 2027” Instagram pages become breeding grounds for “hot or not” conversations, even when students shared these g e t - t o - k n o w - yo u p o s t s w i t h the intention of making new friends. Witnessing arguments over whether a random freshman from Shawnee, Oklahoma, was a 5 or a 9 instilled fear in me that still lingers today. Are they judging me like that, too?

Such anxieties should have no place within the Claremont Colleges, especially considering their emphasis on open-mindedness and community. People should be able to live life without their value being boiled down to a single number.

So, as the semester continues, I hope the 5C student body realizes it would be better off without assigning women random numbers to decide if they’re hot or not.

Vaidehi Srinivasan is a first year at Pomona.

Opinions

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September 29, 2023

Respect for dining hall workers starts with a smile LIZETTE GONZALEZ Napkins on the floor. Leftover crumbs around the table. This is what I saw when searching for a seat during lunch at Collins this week. Of course, this isn’t just a Claremont McKenna College phenomenon: It happens at Frary, Malott — you name it.

If we students don’t pick our messes up, who will? You guessed it: our dining hall workers. They shouldn’t have to. They already have so much work on their plates; it isn’t a lot to ask to be more mindful of the mess that we leave and make their jobs easier.

In all honesty, witnessing that at Collins brought up a lot of emotions. I’ve noticed how some students don’t acknowledge dining hall workers. A lot of times, there’s no reaction when the workers serve our food, when we enter and exit the halls or when we pass by them on our way to a table.

But you know what I do see? A smile from them. Whether I walk into Frank, Frary, McConnell or Malott, our workers are always ready to say good morning, good afternoon or just a simple hello.

Some of my favorite moments on campus so far have been my conversations with the dining hall workers. A pivotal memory for my roommate and me was during the chaos of Orientation Adventure: Both of us looked like zombies walking into Frank for breakfast when we heard Teo, a dining hall worker, tell us good morning.

Moreover, he said this to us in Spanish and it instantly brought a smile to our faces. All the workers I’ve talked to and interacted with genuinely care about us as students. It isn’t hard, whatsoever, to reciprocate that energy and more.

Don’t get me wrong — I know we’re all busy and sometimes just want to get our food. But let’s not forget the privilege we have of being students on this campus.

It should not be hard to be a nice human being.

NICOLE CEPEDA • THE STUDENT LIFE

Pick up after yourself. Take care of the spaces you walk into.

Be nice to the people who are making our life on campus better. Acknowledge their presence — some of this shouldn’t have to be said, but it speaks volumes that it does.

We, as a society, should never consider the idea of saying “hello” or offering a smile to our dining hall workers as something that we forget to do or don’t do because we are busy. If we do, then do we really deserve all that they do for us?

It’s incredibly important to practice these small bits of empathy. Take time to talk and learn more about their lives

during the long lines at the dining halls. Vocalize your gratitude — I assure you it means so much more than you know.

Now, I’m not saying every student doesn’t do this. I’ve seen a fair share of us having our conversations with them or asking how they are, and that is why I emphasize the need for us to do that more. I see the smiles that emerge on their faces — it’s the instant emotion of feeling seen.

However, it is important to mention that most of the students I see interact with dining hall workers are students who speak Spanish or people of color. I don’t think that is a coincidence. Oftentimes, students

connect the labor of dining hall workers with inferiority, subconsciously — or even consciously — placing themselves above their fellow human beings. This leads to the lack of acknowledgement I see far too often.

For my roommate and me, speaking Spanish and having these conversations with the dining hall workers not only reminds us of home, but makes these genuine interactions the highlights of our day. The sense of welcome that we feel from a lot of the workers is one that we hold close to our hearts. It’s interesting to see many students’ automatic reflex of entitlement

lead them to not acknowledging the workers’ presence. Don’t let that be yours.

Don’t be upset at them when Frank is closed on the weekends or when you arrive late to a meal and there’s no more food. Remember the simple fact that the workers are human beings, too and deserve the same amount of respect you are expecting in return.

It’s the simplest thing we can do. It’s the least we can do.

Lizette Gonzalez PO ’27 is a firstyear at Pomona. She grew up in Los Angeles. She is a huge Dodgers baseball fan and you can always find her listening to music.

MANHOLE SANDWICH: A COMIC BY SASHA MATTHEWS

Pomona mail

Dania’s Crossword: Have you read the news?

Have you read the news?

ACROSS

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1. New wrestling club at the 5Cs

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6. 5C president on a six-month sabbatical

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7. Pitzer’s cafe 11. Slogan used against the new art installation at CMC

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12. What is the recent, more inclusive version of Latinx?

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DOWN

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2. CMC’s place on the Wall Street Journal’s college rankings

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3. Emma Seigman’s new comedy film

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4. Recent “Inciting Joy” speaker 5. What is the name of CMC’s dining hall?

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8. New classroom approach at the 5Cs 9. Improv troupe that performed “First day of kindergarten”

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DANIA ANABTAWI & KAHANI MALHOTRA • THE STUDENT LIFE

Across 1. New wrestling club at the 5Cs

Down 2. CMC's place on the Wall Street Journal's college

Sports

September 29, 2023

PAGE 9

She made that b**** famous: Taylor Swift puts Travis Kelce on the map ANSLEY WASHBURN & HAROLD FUSON Fifteen years ago, Taylor Swift balladized “You’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team,” but apparently that very same superstar seems to have changed her tune.

If you’ve opened any form of social media over the past week, you’ve probably seen the news taking the world by storm: international pop icon Taylor Swift and NFL superstar Travis Kelce are dating.

What?

Well, they are (at least we think so) and we here at the Sports Desk are dedicated to bringing you everything you need to know regarding the new power couple.

For those of you thinking, “the last time I checked, neither of these people have anything to do with the 5Cs” — that’s where you’re wrong. We have not one, but TWO football teams, don’t we? And a major piece of Pomona’s institutional history is that Taylor Swift PERFORMED at Bridges Auditorium back in 2012!

If that doesn’t convince you, stop any proud Scripps student on their way to class and ask who’s blasting in their headphones … We’d bet it’s Ms. Americana herself. So yeah, we think this falls under our jurisdiction.

Before we get into the juicy happenings of last weekend, let’s take a look back to the cruel summer of 2023, where the “Eras Tour” took Taylor and her Swifties to Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, home of none other than star tight end Kelce and the Super Bowl Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Not only was Kelce in attendance that fateful night, the new romantic brought a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. Much to his dismay, the king of our heart was unsuccessful in his jewelry delivery, walked away thinking “would’ve, could’ve, should’ve” and the potential love story was put to rest.

Fast forward to Sept 12. (unrelated, but this also Sports Editor Adam Akins’s PZ ’27

birthday. Everyone say happy belated birthday Adam!), when a “Messenger” article headlined “Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce ‘Quietly Hanging Out’: Source (Exclusive)” broke the internet. We immediately asked ourselves “what does quietly hanging out even mean?” And as much as we wanted the news to be true, we couldn’t bring ourselves to buy in just yet. Fresh out of a rumored relationship with resident greaseball Matty Healy and now hanging out with an NFL star? Whose only move was a failed attempt at giving away a friendship bracelet?

It was too good to be true, so we let it be nothing more than what it actually was: a wildest dream.

But this past Sunday,

everything changed. T-motherf-ing-Swift in the Kelce box at Arrowhead. Seated next to none other than MAMA KELCE. Are. You. Kidding me? Usher was announced as the halftime show performer this season and the Dolphins put up a historic 70 points on Denver, yet Swift and Travis enchanted the media — and us— as the biggest story of the day.

All we’ve seen on TikTok the past week has been reports of the two of them, and we’re not complaining. This is the most invested we’ve been in football since our brilliant editorial assistant Harold won his fantasy league last year.

However, this top news item — like the pop princess herself — has deeper significance than mere gossip. Swift’s takeover

of the NFL this past week is a reflection of a phenomenon coined by several Tik Tok accounts as the “Year Of The Girl.” The Barbie movie, Olivia Rodrigo’s second album and the second season of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” have all contributed to the yassification of 2023. To put it simply: the girls are up. And as much as we’d like to give Greta Gerwig the utmost amount of credit possible for her contribution to the digital firecracker of the impressively viral hashtag of “#girlhood,” the impact of Swift is simply beyond compare.

The force that has been T-Swift this year has transcended across social, economic and political domains. Despite her being the only successful example of

trickle-down economics, actually boosting the United States economy, this is not even her most impressive feat. Her scope penetrated the impenetrable, charted the uncharted and defied the impossible. Last week, Swift did what no woman has ever done before: she infiltrated the NFL. The previously sacred mojodojo-casa-house-esqe football Sundays have been hijacked. No longer can the Kens of the world enjoy their sport in isolation of the impact of women. We know that feminism has taken major strides when reporters’ best question to two-time superbowl champion and double NFL MVP award recipient Patrick Mahomes is whether or not he has been graced with the presence of Swift. And we know that it has progressed even further when his response entails an awkward stumbling through of his admiration of her and admitting that “hopefully [he] get[s] to meet her one day.”

The Taylor Swift Effect was in full swing this weekend. Kelce gained 27,000 plus Instagram followers following Sunday’s game and the Chiefs gained 13,000 themselves. On top of that, the tight end saw a nearly 400 percent increase in jersey sales over the weekend, putting his jersey as one of the five most popular in the NFL. Travis’ celebrity status skyrocketed overnight, with paparazzi now camped out outside his home.

Overall, we are not only thrilled that Swift has found another way to never leave the headlines, but even more excited that she now has even more content to use the line “I made that b**** famous” in a song.

Harold Fuson is a sophomore at Pitzer College from Washington, DC. After his Fantasy Football team went down 130-50 last Sunday, he shifted all of his energy towards this story and hasn’t looked back.

HAROLD FUSON • THE STUDENT LIFE Taylor Swift brandishes her prize, America’s sweetheart, Travis Kelce.

Ansley Washburn is a sophomore at Scripps College from Boston, MA. She did not know who Kelce was until a few days ago, but was easily convinced to write after she heard Harold utter the syllable “Tay-.”

All they do is win: P-P women’s soccer continues perfect win streak with victory over Redlands ANSLEY WASHBURN Guarding their unblemished record like a — wait for it — Bulldog, the Sagehens muzzled Redlands on Wednesday with a 3-1 victory.

On Sept. 27, the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) Sagehens took down the Redlands Bulldogs at home. After conceding first, P-P retaliated with a second-half scoring frenzy, bringing their overall record on the year to an all-time program best of 9-0.

Though the Sagehens are the favorites to win SCIAC, Redlands kept up with P-P’s pace of play early on and their intensity and physicality caught the more technical and patient Sagehen side off guard.

The Bulldogs would not let P-P walk away unscathed from this lethargic start, punishing them in the 15th minute. Bulldogs sophomore Sabrina Semmere capitalized on a cross from the right, burying the ball just out of reach of the Sagehen keeper, Patricia DePalma PO ’27.

This was only the second goal conceded by the Sagehens all season, the first being in their second game against the Sagehens’ NCAA tournament kryptonite, Trinity College.

According to Kendrick Dahlin PO ’26, Redlands’s goal was a necessary reminder for the Sagehens to never let up on their opponents.

“I feel like it’s easy [for us] to come into it with a lot of confidence because we’re 8-0, but every team in the SCIAC is really competitive,” Dahlin said. “I think at the beginning of the game they wanted it more than we did. They were working at full effort and we were maybe at 50 percent.”

Anjali Nuggehalli PO ’26 agreed, explaining that the Redlands goal was a beneficial reality check for the Sagehens, who have not needed to come back from a deficit more than once this season.

“It was something we haven’t been used to this season, but I think those moments are important because every team needs a wakeup call,” Nuggehalli said.

And wake up they did. The Sagehens perked up immediately following the goal.

They controlled the entire rest of the

half, playing almost exclusively in the Bulldogs’ defensive third.

P-P was knocking on the door of Redlands’s net and had several tantalizingly close chances that lifted their fans to their feet throughout the half. To their frustration, they couldn’t convert and the Sagehens went into the half trailing 1-0.

Despite the Sagehens’s exasperation due to their inability to execute many of their shots, Dahlin said she believed that ending the first half down 1-0 was a good test for the Sagehens.

“I think it was honestly really valuable to be down at halftime, having to work on that comeback was definitely really beneficial for us,” Dahlin said.

The second half started at a comparable pace to the end of the first. P-P continued to tantalize

the Redlands keeper, putting the ball on frame numerous times, but they were unable to find their equalizer until the 65th minute.

Brooke Bailey PO ’27 delivered the ravenous Sagehens the appetizer to the scoring feast that followed. Her goal came from a series of clean passes from P-P in the Bulldog’s final third, where Bailey received the ball in the box and slotted it into the back of the net.

Having savored the glorious taste of a finish, the Sagehens couldn’t resist going back for more. Immediately following Redlands’s kickoff a mere 42 seconds later, Eliana Prosnitz PO ’25 served P-P their second course, shifting the lead in favor of the Sagehens. The home bench was electric, but the raucous energy of the reserves

was converted into strategically controlled play on the field.

After securing the lead, the Sagehens maintained command of the game, but were much more careful in their play. However, P-P had to indulge once more and Amanda Khu PO ’25 went back in for dessert in the 69th minute, padding the Sagehen lead to a comfortable 3-1.

Khu said solidifying their advantage was a validating reflection on the shift of energy she noticed after Redlands’s goal.

“We felt like the better team in the second half of the first half, but we were not capitalizing on our opportunities so it definitely felt good to seal the game with the goal,” Khu said.

The Sagehens commanded the remaining twenty minutes, passing around the Bulldogs and closing out the game with a few

more close chances.

Nuggehalli said that the resilience that the team demonstrated is a promising sign for P-P as they head into the rest of the season.

“We take a lot of pride in our ability to come out and work every single game and not take anything for granted,” Nuggehalli said. “I think that’s something that we proved today. Every game we can improve our streak and continue the progress that we’ve made so far.”

The Sagehens will compete in their first Sixth Street matchup of the 2023 season this weekend, taking on the Athenas at 7 p.m on Saturday, Sept. 29, where they hope to extend their perfect record to double digits.

Contributing reporting from Beatrix Karambis SC ‘26

ADAM AKINS • THE STUDENT LIFE Isla Burch PZ ‘24 cuts past a Redlands defender as Pomona-Pitzer extended its winning streak with a 3-1 victory against the Bulldogs on Sept. 27.

Sports

PAGE 10

September 29, 2023

Sagehens volleyball defeats Whittier Poets in regular season opener MAGDALENA PAPA Coming off of a preseason threegame losing streak, Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) volleyball opened their regular season by defeating the Whittier Poets at home on Friday, Sept. 22 in Voelkel Gymnasium. Both teams entered the night with a 4-7 record in preseason play, but the Sagehens dominated the matchup, winning all three sets.

Although Whittier led 6-5 early on, this would prove to be their only lead. A diving play to keep the ball up led to a kill by Samantha Grabb PO ’27, giving the Sagehens some momentum and a 10-7 lead. When Whittier came back to tie it at 12-12, a kill by Paige Wilson PO ’24 gave P-P the upper hand once again. A sitdown block by Grabb put them up 19-16 and P-P stuck it out, winning the set 25-22.

Grabb highlighted the Hens’ grit as the driving force during the comeback.

“I think we were really scrappy,”

Grabb said. “They are a really good defensive team and we kept in it and then finished.”

The Hens picked up right where they left off. Wasting no time, they got three kills in a row to put themselves ahead 4-2 in the second set. Riding the momentum, P-P extended their lead to 8-3 after a diving set off a block by Kellan Hayes PO ’25. The Hens sustained their advantage until a serving streak by Whittier knotted the score at 18 apiece. Nevertheless, P-P responded with a four-point streak, winning the second set 25-22.

The third and final set began neck-and-neck. A kick save from Eleanor Nicholson PO ’24 established a 5-3 lead early on, but the Sagehens and the Poets continued trading blows. Whittier’s libero and Benson traded digs late in the set, but the Hens persisted and won the point, extending their lead to 17-14. P-P maintained their lead and won the third set 25-19, sealing a 3-0 victory.

Despite the commanding win, Hays explained the Hens still have some work to do ahead of facing upcoming conference opponents.

“I think that we need to work covering our hitters and hitting to smart spots,” Hayes said. “Also keeping our energy up when we are down is key.”

According to Corrina Benson PO ’27, who had 12 assists against the Poets, the Sagehens went into the game organized and stayed consistent throughout.

“We executed our game plan amazingly,” Corrina Benson said.

Although the Sagehens had mixed results this preseason, the team is hopeful this game will be a sign for the rest of the regular season.

According to Benson, the team seems to have found its footing.

“I’m excited to see us start playing more as a team because we definitely did that this game,” Benson said. “We’ve struggled with that in the past, but now we are starting to connect.”

COURTESY: ABBEY LIAO Paige Wilson PO ‘25 goes for a kill during the Sagehens’ victory over Whittier on Sept. 22.

Following a loss to Caltech on Sept. 23, the Hens bounced back by sweeping Chapman on Sept.

26 to bring their record to 2-1 (6-8) on the season. P-P will play twice this weekend, taking on Occidental

on Friday at 7 p.m. and then facing off against cross-street rivals and defending SCIAC Champions Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) on Saturday at 4 p.m. at Voelkel Gymnasium.

ACEing Autism creates a safe space to learn and play for children on the autistic spectrum HAROLD FUSON

The tennis career of Rohun Krishnan PO ’24 at Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) extends far beyond the courts south of Sixth Street. ACEing Autism, a national organization, has planted roots in Claremont thanks to the work of Krishnan and his peers, serving children in the Inland Empire on the autism spectrum.

ACEing Autism provides a gateway into social fitness and helps children on the autism spectrum foster relationships in their own community while building lifelong skills. Krishnan and his team are facilitating a tennis program through the P-P athletic department through the first six weeks of the fall semester. Krishnan and ACEing Autism emphasize the love of the game over the intensity of competition.

“It’s more for fun than [about] learning how to play tennis … they can interact with their peers and interact with us,” Krishnan said.

Krishnan began working with the organization in high school and established a connection between ACEing Autism and the Colleges after arriving at the 5Cs. “[ACEing Autism has] branches at different high schools across the country, but they’ve just started expanding into colleges,” Krishnan said.

ACEing Autism got its start in Claremont with help from the P-P athletics department in

COURTESY: ROHUN KRISHNAN Neal Chulani PO ‘26 helps children on the autistic spectrum practice their volleys and get comfortable with the game of tennis.

collaboration with other autismfocused resources on and off campus. Krishnan’s co-director Matthew Feng PO ’24 explained the process in bringing the organization to the 5Cs. “We contacted the ACEing Autism heads … Justin Belisario and Rachel Miskei and got the clearance [to bring the organization to the colleges],” Feng said. “They were nice enough to provide us with rackets and balls and [the] different equipment that we might use.”

Krishnan and his teammates

quickly worked to recruit volunteers from the Sagehen tennis teams and beyond. Neal Chulani PO ’26, a player on the Sagehens men’s tennis team, described the volunteers’ approach to coaching.

“We have a lot of the guys in the [ACEing Autism] team who like to kind of just participate … and that also meshes well with people with more experience [working] with autism,” Chulani said.

According to Anna Prewitt PO ’24, who works as the head of operations for the Claremont branch of ACEing Autism,

volunteering is a straightforward process available to all 5C students.

The organization holds training sessions so that volunteers not only feel confident coaching tennis, but also working with kids on the autism spectrum.

“One of the things that stuck with me is you have to be really specific about your feedback.

Saying [just] ‘good job’ might be a little confusing for somebody” Prewitt said. “[Instead you should say,] ‘good job hitting that shot the court’ or ‘good job saying thank you to this other kid.’”

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Athletes of the Week

Women’s Golf vs. Vanguard

PZ ’25 Seattle, WA Football

Volleyball vs. Redlands

Men’s Water Polo vs. Pepperdine

Saturday, September 30

Volleyball @ Pomona-Pitzer

Men’s Golf vs. La Verne

Women’s Tennis ITA Fall Regionals

Women’s Tennis ITA Fall Regionals

Men’s Tennis ITA West Regionals

Men’s Tennis ITA West Regionals

Men’s Water Polo vs. Westcliff

Men’s Water Polo vs. Pacific

Football vs. PomonaPitzer

Women’s Tennis ITA Fall Regionals

Friday, September 29

Saturday, September 30

Men’s Tennis Stag-Hen

Men’s Tennis Stag-Hen

Men’s Soccer vs. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Women’s Tennis ITA Regionals

Women’s Tennis ITA Regionals

Men’s Water Polo vs. Whittier

Men’s Water Polo vs. Pepperdine

Men’s Tennis Stag-Hen

Men’s Water Polo vs.

University of the Pacific

Football @ Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Women’s Tennis ITA Regionals

Volleyball @ Occidental

Volleyball vs.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Women’s Golf Fall Preview

Men’s Water Polo vs. Wagner

P-P

Porter took home SCIAC Football Defensive Player of the Week honors this past week after leading the Sagehen’s defense to a 34-7 win over La Verne, a game in which the Hen’s defense did not allow a single offensive score. Porter made five tackles and recorded a sack as P-P opened up conference play with a win. The Sagehens continue play this Saturday against cross-street rivals Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) in a sixth-rivalry contest hosted by CMS at 1 p.m.

Ben Porter

Sadie Brown CMC ’26 Pleasanton, CA Women’s Soccer

CMS

Pomona-Pitzer

Brown helped snap a six game losing streak with a shutout against Whittier. Brown’s 11 saves were a career high as Claremont-MuddScripps snatched a 1-0 victory over the Poets. The Athenas take the field again this Saturday against the SCIAC’s best Pomona-Pitzer at 7 p.m. at home.

Friday, September 29

Although the organization’s time in Claremont has not been long, volunteers have already made lasting connections and memories with the kids they work with.

“My favorite thing is when kids come back and they reform [their] friendships [made in the program],” Prewitt said. “They look so excited to see other people, not only volunteers, but also the other kids that they saw last time.”

In addition to the strong memories volunteers have made from working with ACEing Autism, Krishnan and Feng maintained that the experience of spending their Sunday afternoon with the kids and fellow volunteers is priceless.

“I think everyone is just so incredibly happy when we get on court … getting to chat with these kids who have no cares in the world … [and] just want to come out and play has been the best part of this experience,” Krishnan said.

To learn more about the organization, you can visit ACEing Autism’s website through the accompanying QR code. To get into contact with the Claremont branch, you can also reach out to their email address: claremont@aceingautism.org.

Men’s Soccer @ Pomona-Pitzer Women’s Soccer vs. Pomona-Pitzer Sunday, October 1

Men’s Tennis ITA West Regionals

Women’s Soccer @ Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Sunday, October 1

Sports Calendar