VOL. CXXXVI NO. 6

Starr suspends Pomona College students for remainder

of academic year without judicial hearings

JUNE HSU can request to have this decision reviewed. This review process is conducted by the college’s president, vice president and dean of the college and the vice president and dean of students, according to the student code.

Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr has suspended 10 students for the remainder of the 2024-2025 academic year without complete judicial hearings. The suspensions follow the student takeover of Carnegie Hall on Oct. 7 in which protesters called for the college to divest from companies tied to the Israeli government.

On Wednesday morning, Starr sent an email to the Pomona community announcing the academic year-long suspensions of several Pomona students.

12 Pomona students originally received notice of interim suspensions on Oct. 11, including steps for a judicial process. Upon receiving this notification, multiple students submitted appeals to overturn the suspension. Only two of the students were successful and their suspensions were nullified.

These suspensions enacted immediate campus bans, with one Pomona senior, who requested anonymity due to fears of further repercussions, recounting what this experience was like for them.

“When I returned from fall break on Tuesday evening, they had changed the lock on the door of my dorm, and I had to call [Campus Safety] when I got there to have them let me in,” they said. “I was only given 45 minutes to leave.”

On Wednesday morning, the 10 interim-suspended students learned of their finalized full-academic year suspensions and the cancellation of their judicial processes.

In order to independently impose suspensions without outside approval, Starr invoked the Extraordinary Authority of the President as outlined in the student code. In her email, Starr explained that the decision did not require consultation with the Judicial Council (JBoard), a student-run conduct board that normally helps oversee cases of suspensions. In an email to TSL, JBoard stated that Starr did not notify them of her decision prior to sending out the announcement. Starr also stated that students who received the year-long suspensions

Referring to the code, she included three conditions of cases that allow this extraordinary authority to be applied: “they threaten safety of individuals on campus, involve the destruction of College property, and the disruption of Pomona’s educational process.”

The suspended Pomona senior said that the email notifying them of their suspension claimed they were in violation of Article III sections 2, 5, 6 and 10 of the student code.

In her email, Starr also reiterated that the college has been administering and will continue to administer campus bans to non-Pomona students who have been identified as participating in the events of Oct. 7. Starr noted that non-Pomona students made up “most of the participants.”

These suspensions and bans bar affected students from Pomona’s campus and any events held by the college or The Claremont College Services (TCCS). One of the suspended students, a Pomona freshman who will remain anonymous due to concerns of further punishment, spoke on how the suspension will derail their pursuit of a college education if upheld.

“The lack of connections that I have is just so widely deepened by the idea that everyone’s going to forget about me, and that I’m no longer going to be part of the community,” they said. “I’m going to be stripped of this really foundational year of making friends and networking and joining clubs and learning about the college process.”

Several hours after Starr’s email, the president of the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC), Devlin Orlin, released a statement via email in which he denounced her decision, pointing specifically to the lack of a hearing process.

Following a pro-Palestinian demonstration

ademic year suspensions.

“This decision comes at a time when many students have expressed that the actions of administrators do not prioritize the well-being of the community, and to utilize the extraordinary authority of the president today, which has not been used for at least President Starr’s entire tenure, causes greater harm to the community by denying students a process in which their peers adjudicate questions of accountability,” the email reads.

According to Orlin, ASPC’s executive staff met with the college’s executive staff — which includes Starr — the morning of her announcement and voiced their concerns about the choice to suspend students and about the college’s “lack of action around divestment.”

In the meeting, the college allegedly denied ASPC’s requests to provide the suspended students with a judicial process. Orlin echoed this request in his statement.

“The Judicial Council exists especially for these circumstances where cases are complicated, and peer voice is essential to adjudicating an

Starr issues campus bans to non-Pomona 5C students involved in Oct. 7 demonstration

ANSLEY WASHBURN & ANNABELLE INK

College has issued dozens of bans to non-Pomona 5C students for allegedly participating in the occupa-

tion and vandalism of Carnegie Hall during a pro-Palestinian demonstration on Oct. 7. Four days after the demonstration, on Oct. 11, President G. Gabrielle Starr condemned the protest as “unfathomable” in an email to the

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Pomona community. She added that the college would be moving forward with disciplinary action and warned the community about the range of possible punishments for identified individuals.

“I anticipate that, within the scope of the student code, and commensurate with individual circumstances, sanctions will range widely, including campus bans, suspension and expulsion,” she wrote.

She cited the Claremont Colleges’ Banning Disruptive Persons From Campus policy, which states that each college maintains the right to “prohibit disruptive or potentially dangerous persons” from their campuses in situations where the safety of an individual, group or member institution is threatened.

“The designated official who is assigned to review any potentially disruptive or dangerous situation may exercise emergency power, including issuing an immediate ban, to respond to a threat,” the policy reads. “These actions shall be reasonable and narrowly tai-

See BANS on page 2

the news analysis podcast of the claremont colleges. Hosted by ben Lauren PZ ’25 and Dania Anabtawi PO ’26.

outcome that best reflects the values of our community,” he stated.

As outlined by Orlin, JBoard was created following on-campus demonstrations during the Vietnam War which were met with harsh administration response. Last semester, Pomona’s JBoard participated in the process of student hearings regarding suspensions after police arrested 20 5C students during a pro-Palestinian occupation and protest. Orlin noted this in his statement, emphasizing Starr’s contrasting “unilateral action” with the recent suspensions.

In her email, Starr explained the specific grounds on which the recent disciplinary actions were made.

“The damage to Carnegie, including to teaching infrastructure, was egregious and is being separately adjudicated; however, the most far-reaching violation of the individuals thus sanctioned by the college was their involvement in the takeover of a building, the forced end of classes and the disruption of our academic mission,” she wrote in her email.

Starr’s community-wide an-

nouncement comes after the college began enacting disciplinary action last week against those students allegedly involved in the demonstration. According to a Pomona professor who attended a faculty meeting last week and is familiar with the administration’s investigation, camera footage and faculty knowledge of students have been used in the process of identifying students who were present in Carnegie on Oct. 7.

In her email, Starr clarified that the investigation into the events of Oct. 7 is ongoing and the college will continue to issue conduct notifications in the coming weeks.

Another suspended senior at Pomona — who has also been granted anonymity due to concerns about further punitive action — spoke on the uncertainty brought on by the full-academic year suspension.

“I’m a senior, so I was planning on graduating in May along with all my peers, all the people I’ve known and been in classes with,” they said. “What am I going to do for the next year if I can’t come back to campus until fall of 2025?”

Scripps heightens security after SJP organizes ‘studyin’ at Denison Library

KEEANA VILLAMAR

Scripps College has ramped up its security protocols at Denison Library, according to an Oct. 16 email to the Scripps community. Mary Hatcher-Skeers, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, sent the email just one day

Jeremy Martin PO ’25 and Adam OsmanKrinsky PO ’25 check out local restaurants, share their thoughts and recommendations, and get real silly along the way.

before a “study-in” event hosted by Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was set to take place in the library. Due to the increased security, the study-in has been indefinitely postponed. Visitors of the library are now required to swipe a Claremont

See DENISON on page 2

JIAYING cAO • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

at carnegie Hall Oct. 7, 10 Pomona college students have received full-ac-

YUHANG XIe • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

A day before the planned Denison Library “study-in” on Oct. 17, organized by claremont Students for Justice in Palestine in solidarity with the 50 Motley workers affected by the recent closure of the popular coffeehouse, campus Security and Mary Hatcher-Skeers, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty introduced new security measures for the library that prevented the study-in from occurring.

JIAYING cAO • tHe StUDeNt LIFe Pomona college President G. Gabrielle Starr has issued campus bans to dozens of non-Pomona 5c students for their alleged presence inside carnegie Hall during a protest on Oct. 7, when over 400 students called for the college to divest from Israeli companies.

In memoriam: Arjun Vattipali

SID GOLDFADeR-DUFtY • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

ANSLEY WASHBURN

CW: Student death

A Harvey Mudd College student died off campus this week, according to an email from HMC President Harriet B. Nembhard. The student identified in the email, Arjun Vattipali HM ’27, was described as an “outstanding member of the community [who will be] missed tremendously.”

At the time of the email, the cause of death is unknown.

“We have been in contact with Arjun’s family, roommates and close friends and have expressed our sincere condolences and offered our support,” Nem-

De NIsON: scripps College increases security at Denison Library preventing study-in

continued from page 1

College identification card and to allow the inspection of any bags before entry. According to Hatcher-Skeers, the only materials allowed into Denison are computers, electronic devices, books, paper, notebooks and writing utensils. No water bottles are allowed inside the building and those who wish to enter must leave them with a security officer outside.

The new protocols will be implemented until further notice, Hatcher-Skeers said.

According to an Oct. 8 Instagram post by SJP, the studyin was meant to shed light on Scripps’ “recent repression of student displays of support for Palestine” in the college’s Motley Coffeehouse. Several days earlier, Scripps administration had suspended the business after weeks of conflict over some students’ pro-Palestinian political organizing within the space and the coffeehouse’s hanging of a Palestian flag.

sensitivity to and awareness of the rights of others,” she wrote.

“The escalation observed during recent campus protests violates these principles and has provoked fear and concerns about protestors assuming control of College spaces.”

In the wake of the Motley shut-down at the hands of administration on Oct. 5, this reaffirms ongoing campus-wide sentiments that student spaces at Scripps are under attack.

Denison Library student staff

Various student organizations publicized the study-in event, according to Hatcher-Skeers’ Oct. 16 email. The increase in security at Denison, she explained, was a preemptive measure of protection in case of escalation.

“Scripps College’s Principles of Community encourage and embrace freedom of expression while also calling on our community to balance individual freedom with

In an Oct. 17 statement published on Instagram by several 5C student groups — including Claremont SJP, 5C Student and Worker Alliance, 5C Prison Abolition, Nobody Fails at Scripps and Pomona Divest from Apartheid — student staff at Denison Library responded to the security changes. According to the statement, Campus Security began monitoring student access to the space on the morning of Oct. 16, searching backpacks, confiscating water bottles and prohibiting the use of the outdoor courtyard. In addition, they said that students were unable to access over half of the library, including the bathroom.

Student staff added that these protocols have had a detrimental effect on the functions of the library and that Denison’s 5C student and staff patron numbers have plummeted.

“In the wake of the Motley shut-down at the hands of administration on Oct. 5, this reaffirms ongoing campus-wide sentiments that student spaces at Scripps are under attack,” they wrote. They went on to express their

strong opposition to the increased surveillance at Denison, arguing that it contributes to an unsafe environment for employees and patrons — specifically undocumented and Black, Indigenous and people of color students — and severs the community’s trust in the library.

“This prevents us from working towards Denison’s intention of engaging with individuals in a positive educational space,” the statement reads. “As student library employees, we want to highlight the idea that libraries are meant to be accessible and welcoming to all.”

Student staff also echoed the demands made five days earlier by Motley workers, calling for the immediate rehiring of over 50 student workers affected by the coffeehouse’s closing. They then demanded that Scripps remove campus police and security officers from Denison and surrounding areas, give employees full access to the library and include full mobility for 7C students.

Following the security changes at Denison, also on Oct. 17, Claremont SJP released an Instagram post commenting on the situation.

“[I]n our privilege of being here, it is imperative that we do not let admin silence us,” they wrote. “Our community is strong, and we are grounded enough in our principled direction and purpose to know the significance of our fight for divestment here and fight against anti-Palestinian discrimination on these campuses.”

Yuhang Xie contributed reporting.

bhard wrote. “I know that each of you joins me in mourning Arjun’s loss.” Vattipalli was originally from Aurora, Colorado. He spent this past summer working as an intern at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Hansen Lab. At HMC, Vattipali was pursuing a degree in biochemistry and he also held two EMT certifications.

Nembhard wrote that, as appropriate, there will be additional information released regarding a memorial while the college is in contact with Vattipali’s family. “In the meantime, I ask that you respect his family’s privacy during this incredibly difficult time and that you join me in

keeping his family and friends in your thoughts,” she wrote. Nembhard encouraged students struggling to reach out to available resources on campus.

“We know this loss will be felt throughout our campus, and we want to remind you that support is available for anyone who may be struggling,” the email read. For students across the Claremont Colleges, Monsour Counseling and Psychological Services is located in the Tranquada Student Services Center, while an on-call therapist is reachable 24/7 for after-hours support at 909-621-8202. Other resources are available through The Chaplain’s Office, along with staff and faculty on campus.

BANS: Pomona College bans dozens of 5C students following Oct. 7 protest

continued from page 1

lored to fit the event.”

During the Oct. 7 demonstration, many protestors concealed their identities with masks, sunglasses, keffiyehs and other head coverings. However, according to Pomona faculty, students have been identified through video surveillance and faculty recognition.

In the days since, over 70 students have been notified that they were among those identified in Carnegie Hall. For non-Pomona students, these notifications have been rolling out since Oct. 11 in the form of a letter from Starr.

“This is to notify you that effective immediately, as a result of your presence during the events inside Carnegie Hall on October 7, 2024, you are banned and designated persona non grata from Pomona College,” Starr wrote in the letter.

Banned students are prohibited from entering any property belonging to Pomona, including academic buildings, administrative buildings, support services, athletic facilities, performance or practice facilities, dining halls, residence halls and campus grounds for the remainder of the 2024-2025 academic year.

Those who are taking classes at Pomona can no longer attend them in person, and instead must make arrangements with faculty to continue their coursework “in other modalities.” Faculty have not received a comprehensive list of students banned from Pomona and are currently relying on students to inform them of any disciplinary action that they are facing.

Students have five business days after their receipt of Starr’s letter to request reconsideration of the ban by contacting Pomona Vice President for Student Affairs

and Dean of Students Avis Hinkson.

Those who don’t appeal, or whose appeals are denied, are not exempt from any criminal, civil or restraining action that Pomona chooses to take against them.

A Pitzer sophomore who was banned from Pomona’s campus after the Oct. 7 demonstration — and who requested anonymity for fear of further disciplinary or legal action — said that Pomona has not provided any evidence used to identify and punish non-5C students, despite requests from Pitzer administrators.

Pitzer students who have been issued bans are awaiting potential hearings and additional disciplinary action from their college. Upon Pomona filing an “incident report” against these students, the Pitzer Dean of Students office will have discretion over whether they want to pursue it further. When asked for comment on their policies, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Office Sha Bradley responded in an email to TSL that “In any instance where a member of Scripps’ community is being evaluated for disciplinary action, the College follows the guidelines found in the Scripps Code of Conduct.” Pomona is continuing to review the cases of students who were issued bans, and the college will issue more conduct notifications in the coming weeks, according to an Oct. 24 email from Starr.

“We come to teach, study and work at Pomona as members of a passionate intellectual community,” Starr wrote. “However, we cannot move forward, let alone aim to strengthen our community, when safety is at risk and actions lead us away from the foundational value of respect and threaten our ability to be together.”

Hinkson and Josh Eisenberg, Pomona’s associate dean of students and dean of campus life, did not respond for comment.

Pitzer College hosts event launching SoCal Earth

SCARLETT ANDERSON & AAMI SEJPAL

On Oct. 17, Pitzer College and the Robert Redford Conservancy hosted an event launching SoCal Earth, an online interactive hub for environmental information on Southern California. The event consisted of a community dinner in the Founders Room at McConnell Center, followed by a tour of the website and speeches from the project’s contributors.

“This is one of our most important projects that we’ve put out. We really want to spread awareness of it,” Luca Davis PZ ’27, a project contributor and fellow at the Robert Redford Conservancy said. “It has so much potential to be a transformative thing.” The Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability was founded in 2012 as a learning laboratory for instruction, research, policy work and advocacy for socio-ecological justice and sustainability.

SoCal Earth, the conservancy’s latest project, is a digital tool that provides users with mapping and spatial data to combat climate change and conserve Southern California’s communities and habitats. The resource is designed to be accessible to a wide array of demographics ranging from primary school students to policymakers.

“We want data in its raw form to be a call to action for community members, for students, for faculty, for anyone who has interest in taking environmental action in their community,” Nathan Lu PZ ’25, one of the project’s main contributors and a fellow at the conservancy, said. According to Lu, Susan Phillips, a director at the conservancy,

was initially the one to develop the concept for SoCal Earth. Over 100 students from Pitzer have been involved in the creation of SoCal Earth over the past three years, from writing op-eds to working with Geographic Information System technology, which Pitzer offers classes on.

When envisioning the future of SoCal Earth, conservancy fellow Diego Tamayo PZ ’25 said that he hopes the project will expand to areas outside of the immediate Southern California region.

“The plan for the SoCal Earth is for these models to potentially be replicated in other places,” Tamayo said. “Hopefully students in the future will be able to take advantage of this [platform] in communities in the Bay Area and on the East Coast, wherever it may be.”

Lu expressed similar sentiments.

“San Diego needs to be included,” he said.“We want to do all of California and make an all-encompassing tool. I think the reach that we have will be very important going forward.”

Davis added that he hopes the 5C community will engage with SoCal Earth in their academic studies and personal projects.

“It’s going to be great for projects and research. I think it could become a mainstay at the 5Cs for research,” Davis said. “It will continue to be a great place to find data, make maps and find educational resources.”

Lu emphasized many ways the resource can be used.

“We envision this being used in a really interdisciplinary way,” Lu said. “Whether you want to incorporate a justice

component in your work, or you’re looking for hard data and numbers, I think [SoCal Earth] can be used for any research curiosity that the Pitzer community might have.”

Tamayo built upon this sentiment, highlighting SoCal Earth’s potential for becoming a useful tool in Pitzer’s environmental analysis field group. “I really could see this as

something that environmental analysis classes could use down the line,” he said. “I see this as something that could be potentially integrated into research projects and internships.”

Pitzer college in collaboration with the Robert Redford conservancy hosted a launch for Socal earth on Oct. 17, an online interactive hub created by members of the Pizter community aimed at organizing environmental information about Southern california.

On the morning of Oct. 23, Mudd President Harriet b. Nembhard announced via email the passing of Arjun Vattipali HM ’27. At the time of the email, the cause of death is still unknown.

5C Students weigh in as California ends legacy admissions

BRECKEN ENRIGHT & RHEA SETHI

California Governor Gavin Newsom banned legacy and donor preferences in private California university admissions by signing Assembly Bill 1780 into law on Sept. 30. At the 5Cs, this change primarily affects Harvey Mudd College and Claremont McKenna College . The law, which goes into effect starting with the 2025-2026 admissions cycle, intends to “stop the practice of legacy and donor admissions and protect students as they pursue their higher education.”

CMC and Mudd were two of the five California colleges that gave preferential treatment to an applicant based on their relationship to donors or alumni in the 2023-2024 academic year, according to a 2024 report by the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) on admissions preferences.

CMC and HMC each admitted 15 applicants with these affiliations. Out of those 15 students, 11 enrolled at each college, meaning that 3.4 percent and 4.9 percent of students in the classes of 2028 at CMC and HMC respectively had a legacy or donor connection.

One of these students, Aidan Deshong HM ’28 has a father and brother who are Mudd alumni.

“I presume Mudd felt I was qualified beyond my legacy status because I got some merit aid,” Deshong said. “But I suspect that the bar was lower for me because that’s the idea in general. If you have legacy, the bar’s a little bit lower and admission rates start to be a little higher.”

Pomona College, Pitzer College

and Scripps College were listed in the AICCU 2024 report as colleges that did not give preferential treatment to applicants with legacy or donor affiliations.

In an email to TSL, Pitzer Vice President of Admission and Financial AAid Yvonne Berumen said that Pitzer officially ended legacy admissions in August 2023 and donor preferences in August 2024, adding that they were never a significant factor in admissions.

“We typically received fewer than 100 legacy applications each year and admitted only a small portion as these applicants had to be just as competitive as other admitted students,” Berumen said.

According to Berumen, after reviewing three years of data, the Pitzer admissions office found legacy applicants to be equally as qualified as the overall applicant pool and attendance yielding at much higher rates due to their connection to the college.

“Although some of this advantage may be lost with the change, we are confident that legacy applicants will continue to be strong candidates and will be admitted at similar rates,” Berunem said in her email.

CMC is the only Claremont College that has considered legacy status or donor relation in admission practices since 2019, enrolling classes with 4 to 7 percent of students meeting

this criterion over the past five years. The 2023-2024 academic year was the first time HMC reported the admission of donor or alumni-related students.

Though Scripps does not account for these affiliations in its acceptance process, Evelyn Cantwell SC ’28, whose mother and grandmother are both Scripps alumni, said that being a legacy student influenced her decision to apply to Scripps from childhood.

“The values that I grew up with that [my family] learned from the Claremont Colleges were woven into my life,” Cantwell said. “When it came time for me to apply to schools, these were the schools that had the

mottos and the beliefs and the communities that I had learned to love growing up with.”

On the other hand, Alex Maelor-Jones PO ’28, whose mother and brother are Pomona alumni, shared that being a legacy student almost dissuaded him from applying to Pomona.

“I did not want to benefit from the legacy admissions system as a whole,” Maelor-Jones said. “So knowing that Pomona doesn’t consider legacy actually made me more inclined to come here because I didn’t have that factor weighing upon my decision.”

When asked about legacy preferences in admissions, Deshong said that he was in favor of ending the practice.

“Just because your parents went to a college doesn’t mean you deserve a lower bar to get into that college,” Deshong said. “Particularly because if your parents went to that college, you’re probably a little more privileged than the average applicant. It’s the reverse of the equity that the colleges might be actively trying to promote.”

Cantwell said that despite the percentage of legacy admissions decreasing, she felt the new decision would open up more space for everyone.

“I think it’s an important step in leveling the playing field for underprivileged students applying to college,” Cantwell said. “And if the experience of being a legacy influences anyone as much as it did me, given the ideals and the education that were passed down, it shouldn’t impact students too negatively.”

CMC’s office of admissions declined to comment, while Scripps and Harvey Mudd’s offices of admissions did not respond to an inquiry from TSL.

‘Pornography: Sexual Exploitation in the Digital World’: Helen Taylor of Exodus Cry discusses the dark side of the pornography industry

AUDREY PARK

On Tuesday, Oct. 8, the 5C chapter of the World Without Exploitation Youth Coalition (WWE Youth) hosted a talk at Pomona College’s Hive titled “Pornography: Sexual Exploitation in the Digital World.” The event featured Helen Taylor, vice president of Exodus Cry, who discussed the impact of the porn industry and shared insights from her work with both survivors and industry executives.

Exodus Cry is a nonprofit organization that aims to end sex trafficking and provide support and empowerment to survivors. Taylor, who is from England but currently resides in Los Angeles, became involved with combating sex trafficking in 2007 and later joined Exodus Cry in 2013.

Taylor began the talk by recounting how she first grasped the international scope of sex trafficking when she was 16 and still living in London, after witnessing a young woman being exploited in prostitution. This experience drove her to get involved with anti-sexual exploitation movements.

“I realized this issue is the thing I’m most passionate about,” Taylor said. “I want to dedicate the rest of my life as long as trafficking and exploitation exist on the planet. If there’s a place for me in this movement, I want to be serving and helping combat this issue.”

After university, Taylor earned a diploma in art therapy and took up work with an organization in Cambodia supporting trafficking survivors, particularly women who were being exploited in brothels. Taylor would talk to the women workers at a brothel around the corner from where she was living and connect them with resources.

After returning to London, Taylor met a representative from Exodus Cry who invited her to join their outreach team. Inspired by their mission, she accepted the offer and became part of the organization’s efforts to combat human trafficking. Taylor said her experiences in Cambodia inspired her to help establish Exodus Cry’s Outreach Program, which aims to connect women in the sex industry with the organization’s resources.

“If there was a situation where they were forced into the industry or didn’t want to be there, we wanted to make sure they had sure they had an ally, someone who they could really trust to help them escape their trafficker or their pimp or just help get them connected to a healthy support system,” Taylor said.

Taylor then discussed Exodus Cry’s ongoing and previous efforts, referencing the case of a 15-year-old Florida girl who went

Oct.

missing in December 2018 and was sexually exploited by her kidnappers, who later uploaded videos of her sexual abuse to porn websites such as Pornhub. She emphasized that this incident and others motivated Exodus Cry to examine the regulatory processes behind who is permitted to upload videos on pornography websites.

“Things have changed now, but only four years ago, pornography websites’ process for moderating uploaded videos for illegal content was extremely flawed, and it’s no surprise that a human trafficker was able to upload videos of an underage girl who had not given her consent onto this website,” Taylor said.

Taylor and Exodus Cry’s campaigns call for more regulation surrounding age verification, specifically for the entry to pornography to be raised from 18 to 21. She said the case involving the underage girl is what motivated Exodus Cry to take action,

president of

including protesting outside Pornhub’s headquarters and working with New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof to publish an exposé on the controversial adult video website. According to Taylor, the article’s release is what eventually led Pornhub to delete the majority of its content.

Taylor proceeded to talk about Exodus Cry’s 10-year project, a documentary called “Beyond Fantasy,” for which Exodus Cry members went undercover to expose the darker side of the pornography industry. Taylor said the practices that they discovered after talking extensively to pornography film directors were beyond disturbing.

“We were shocked by the extremely unethical practices of the way that girls were coerced into doing certain things,” Taylor said. She explained, for example, how some of the girls were demanded to perform sex acts that they had not originally agreed to do.

Taylor transitioned into detailing her encounter with a wellknown pornography director and how she helped convince them to quit the industry. Her relationship with the former director has persisted to this day, and they even recently traveled together to Washington D.C., meeting with politicians to create policies that would increase age restrictions on pornographic content to 21 years old.

Taylor concluded with some insight into the problems in “legal” pornography, which she said exploits vulnerable people who would probably choose to work elsewhere if they had the choice.

“Even if it’s technically legal, there are lots of issues that happen behind the scenes, agreements that are manipulated by the people in power directing the scenes and manipulation of emotions, too,” Taylor said. Around 10 minutes were left at the end of the talk for questions. Students asked a range

of questions about topics ranging from the romanticization of sex work on social media to Taylor’s experience meeting with pornography industry executives. Event attendee Kiegan Ralls SC ’28 commented on the empowering nature of Taylor’s talk.

“It was inspiring to hear how much positive change she has brought to not only the pornography industry but to the individual lives of people who have been affected,” Ralls said.

Dahlia Locke PO ’25, one of the WWE Youth Club leaders and an organizer of the event, said she hoped people left the talk being more critical of the sex work industry as a whole.

“I think we don’t realize the impact that the sex trade has on our individual relationships whether that be sexual, romantic or just friendships,” Locke said. “It seeps into everything. It affects how we see ourselves, the way we view our own sexualities, and the way we treat or, for the worst, objectify or exploit other people.”

cHARt: bRecKeN eNRIGHt • tHe StUDeNt LIFe / SOURce: AIccU RePORt cOMMON DAtA SetS

claremont McKenna college and Harvey Mudd college are among the schools most affected by the banning of legacy and donor preferences in admissions at private california colleges.

AUDReY PARK • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

On tuesday,

8, the club and 5c chapter of the World Without exploitation Youth coalition hosted a talk at the Hive titled “Pornography: Sexual exploitation in the Digital World,” featuring the vice

exodus cry, Helen taylor.

Motley closure sparks outcry: Students gather to call for transparency

NITYA GUPTA

The closure of Scripps College’s Motley Coffeehouse earlier this month, prompted by administrative concern about pro-Palestinian political organizing within the space, continues to stir debate on campus. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, over 40 students joined the 5C Student and Worker Alliance in expressing their frustrations with administration and demanding transparency about the reopening process.

At 12:15 pm, participants gathered at Scripps’ Bowling Green Lawn and at 12:30 pm, students relocated to an admin office. The first speaker read a student statement in solidarity with the Motley workers, which has received over 200 signatures. The statement emphasized the importance of the Motley as a student-run space and criticized the administration’s handling of the closure.

“With no timeline for reopening, this is an attempt to suppress student voices and maintain a campus environment where students feel powerless in the hands of administration,” the speaker said. “[With] the intersection of student repression and unfair labor practices which remain increasingly rampant under liberal institutions, Scripps is following the dangerous behaviors currently displayed across the 5Cs.”

The speaker, still reading from the statement, also condemned what was described as aggressive tactics by the administration to undermine workers’ rights.

“Scripps is using typical anti-worker tactics to dissuade Motley workers from fighting back. This is unacceptable [and] we will not stand for this blatant worker injustice,” the speaker said, citing claims of administration allegedly “paying off” employees and contacting their families.

The speaker then stressed the importance of preserving the Motley’s mission to serve as an “inclusive and political space.”

“Maintaining awareness of an ongoing genocide is consistent with the Motley’s mission and values and is not discriminatory against any students,” the speaker said. “Attempts to undermine or dilute the Motley mission will be met with strong student support and solidarity.”

The next speaker presented the

Oct. 9 Motley Barista Statement, which criticizes administration’s decision to shut down the coffeehouse, claims that their narrative about the closure is inconsistent with that of the coffeehouse’s employees and talks about the impact of the closure on the employees.

“Being blindsided by the administration has caused irreversible emotional distress, panic and fear in the Motley staff,” the speaker, reading from the statement, said. “The public notice of the Motley staff’s sudden unemployment is deeply insensitive.”

Following this, a former Motley manager gave a speech urging the administration to prioritize the well-being of its workers and to

provide clear answers about the future of the space. According to the former manager, the administration has proposed a series of restorative conversations with all of the Motley managers to address the closure and identify solutions for reopening.

“We generally want to have and engage and participate in meaningful, constructive dialogue with the shared goal of reopening the Motley as an integral community space on campus,” the former manager said. “But in the spirit of this restorative justice process, which prioritizes some feelings of safety and respect, [Motley managers] had a few questions and concerns that they wanted to have

addressed about community and confidentiality.”

The former manager said that the baristas’ biggest concern was job security, and that the baristas wanted reassurance that all 50 of them would still be employed upon reopening. While the Scripps administration expressed a desire to keep the current team, they stopped short at providing an explicit guarantee.

“It’s quite disrespectful and hurtful that the administration continues to place such little value on the student employees that [admin] cannot even guarantee an important confirmation that we will be the ones to operate [upon reopening],” they said. “I want to

give answers to my barista team, but I’m not able to, because we’re all looking at the administration.”

The former manager ended by emphasizing that the Motley is an important part of Scripps’ community.

“We want to make sure that the Motley is actually a space that is representative of what the community wants, not what the college wants,” the former manager said. “It was started by BIPOC students, it is 100% a student common space and I speak for myself when I say that I will fight to make sure that it remains a part of the community.” Following this, the students exited the building chanting “We’ll be back.”

Professor Lily Geismer explores ‘Politics of the Family’ in Gender and the Elections Series at CMC

REILLY COSTELLO

On Oct. 22, the two week mark until the 2024 presidential elec -

tion, Lily Geismer, professor of history at Claremont McKenna College, gave a talk titled “Politics of the Family.” The talk,

hosted at CMC’s Civility, Access, Resources, and Expression (CARE) center, was the second talk organized by CMC’s Gender

THE STUDENT LIFE

and Sexuality Studies department in their lunch series titled “Gender and The Elections.”

One of the organizers, CMC Associate Professor of History Diana Selig, commented on the motivations behind creating the series.

“We organized the lunch series on gender and the elections in order to spark discussion on important and timely topics,” Selig said in an email to TSL. “We aim to provide opportunities to think about how dynamics of gender and race can help us understand the current election.”

The talk began with an introduction of Geismer, a specialist on 20th-century political and urban history in the United States, especially on liberalism and the Democratic Party. Geismer centered her talk around two central questions: “What is the American family today?” and “How is it being reflected in our politics?”

“Gender has been a really critical component of the election,” Geismer said. “Not only because there is a chance of the first woman ever being elected president, but because both the Republican and Democratic Parties have posited family as a central part of their campaign.”

Geismer added that just among the two presidential candidates and their vice presidents, four distinct visions of family are represented. When she asked the audience if they felt their family composition was reflected in any of the four politicians, over half raised their hands.

According to Geismer, in the

United States, more than one-third of children don’t live with two married parents, nearly one in six children live in a blended household and in 29 percent of families, both spouses earn the same salary.

“What’s odd given these kinds of statistics is that a lot of the debate in the election right now about families is actually about trying to preserve the traditional nuclear family,” Geismer said.

For the past couple of decades, according to Geismer, public policies have generally been modeled around the “white, middle-class, nuclear family.” One example she gave is that welfare and tax codes were based on a husband taking care of his family.

“This is really at the core of a lot of the public policy in the United States,” Geismer said. “This ideal of the post-war nuclear family [is at] the epitome of the American dream.”

She then went on to note a tension at the heart of American politics — since the 1960s there has been a rise of non-nuclear families at the same time as a political movement advocating for a return to them.

Audience member Maile Stoutemyer CM ’27 said that she attended the talk due to her interest in learning more about how the different family dynamics could impact voters’ choices in the future.

“I thought it was interesting to learn about the history of family dynamics, as well as how historical ideals of the nuclear family are perpetuated in our modern society,” Stoutemyer said. Nitya Gupta contributed reporting.

cOURteSY: ScRIPPS cOLLeGe

Over 40 5c students and Motley workers delegated their demands for the reopening of the Motley to the Scripps administration on tuesday, Oct. 22.

JIAYING cAO • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

In the second part of the “Gender & election” talk series at claremont McKenna college, professor Lily Geismer explored the evolving role of family dynamics in American politics and their impact on public policy.

Searching for meaning in dead languages

When Malin Moeller SC ’27 steps into the church, she’s hit with a profound wave of sadness. Tracing the Medieval Latin symbols engraved into arches and pillars, Malin feels a unique sort of linguistic exile: she longs to understand these ancient words with her own eyes. Months later, Malin sits in Pearsons Hall twice a week, trudging through Medieval Latin declensions and verb forms.

Continents away, and years ago, 17-year-old Lola Jakob SC ’27 sits in

a dusty, closet-sized office, looking up at her philosophy teacher as he methodically draws each Greek letter on the window pane. For months, Lola has been meeting with Mr. Johnson twice a week to learn Ancient Greek. Surrounded by piles of ancient texts, she watches carefully as he spells out the alphabet on the sunlit glass. There is nothing tangible that Lola will gain from hours spent looking up at that window. There is nothing concrete that Malin will earn from tracing those letters over and over again, searching for

t he power of siestas

In the United States, everyone naps differently. I’ll often go for a 20 minute power nap if I’m feeling tired and have a lot of work ahead of me. I have some friends who sleep for three hours in the afternoon. Some never nap at all.

In Seville, Spain — where I’m currently studying abroad — napping is a bit more standardized; it takes shape as a cultural tradition known as the siesta.

We often use “siesta” informally to refer to any nap, regardless of when it happens. However, the term originated in Spain, where the siesta is a traditional, longer midday rest that helps people recharge.

Siestas are taken around 3 p.m. and typically last until 5 p.m, during which time shops and restaurants will close and the city will look a little more empty. These naps are especially practical during the hotter summer months, when the afternoon heat can make continuing to work unbearable. By slowing down during these hours, Spaniards can be more productive in the evening when the temperature cools down.

Yet productivity isn’t the goal of a siesta, it’s simply the byproduct. In the United States, we frame napping as a tool to maximize productivity — a quick power nap to recharge and get back to work. The siesta, however, is less about productivity and more about embracing the natural rhythm of the day.

Rest here isn’t something to feel guilty about or optimize for efficiency — it’s an intentional pause, a time to slow down and recharge without the pressure to be immediately productive afterward.

Since coming to Spain, my naps have gotten longer and more frequent. Around four days a week, I’ll nap anywhere between 20 minutes to 1.5 hours, whereas back in Claremont, napping more than 20 minutes was quite rare for me.

Beyond napping, siesta culture has changed my habits and pace of life in other ways, too.

Siestas are associated with Spain as a whole, but they are more customary in some parts than others. Seville is located in Andalucia, where siestas are particularly common due to the region’s hot climate. Andalusian culture is also known to be more laid back than other regions of Spain. Eduardo Pastor, a second-year student at Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO) in Seville, sees this culture as unique.

“The culture is very different from the north of Spain,” Pastor said. “Here in Andalucia, we do things at our own rhythm, slowly, without having to take any rush.”

Like many universities in Seville, UPO has classes in session from the early morning to the late night, with

classes even running during the typical lunch hour. This means that students who have later schedules often miss out on the luxury of a siesta.

Alba Libraro, another UPO student loves siestas and has taken them regularly since she was a child. Not being able to take siestas due to her schedule was a major adjustment.

“When I stopped doing siestas because of university, I felt it in my body,” Libraro said.

She went on to explain how stopping and resuming a siesta routine both pose challenges of their own. Stopping siestas makes Libraro feel mentally fatigued, but getting back into siestas after a prolonged pause is also difficult, as it gets harder to fall asleep in the midday.

For many Sevillanos, giving up siestas is akin to Americans giving up breakfast. Without our most important meal of the day, many of us feel empty in the hours that follow. Likewise, after a hearty rest in the middle of the day, people in Andalucia feel far more productive in the hours before their late dinner.

Here in Seville, I’ve enjoyed allowing myself time to pause and take a rest. When I’m not flooded with commitments, I find myself appreciating the little things more. I feel more present when I’m working out, and more appreciative of my food when it comes time for dinner.

But when my Google Calendar is full, taking a nap makes me feel guilty.

Even in Seville, siesta time can be seen as a hindrance to productivity. UPO student Blanca Alcaide noted that working adults often skip out on these naps.

“In our parents’ generation, [taking siestas] is less common because they don’t have time to do it,” Alcaide said. “But on the weekends and in the summertime, my parents will take a siesta.”

In an increasingly globalized world where Western productivity standards have become more omnipresent, it makes sense that office breaks are under prioritized, even in Seville. And there is something to be said for the rewards of a busy schedule — when done right, it can make us feel fulfilled.

But a healthy level of busyness can very quickly turn into overload. All too often, what we really want to do is take a nap.

Parishi Kanuga CM ’26 is spending her semester abroad in Seville, Spain and would like to shine a light on the study abroad experience for herself and others.

meaning. So why do they do it?

I have never studied a dead language, but I’ve always been fascinated by the idea. So, I turned to students of Ancient Greek and Latin to simply ask: “Why?”

In these conversations, I found that the crux of the matter often lies not in the “why,” but the “who.” Malin first began taking Classical Latin in fifth grade. Her teacher was an eccentric, motherly woman with a penchant for dry humor. She laughed easily, and would often recount her adventures from weekends spent at Latin conferences and retreats.

Sitting in Seal Court, Malin smiled as she jokingly referred to her teacher’s influence as a pyramid scheme: her passion was infectious, seeping into Malin’s skin as if by osmosis.

“It’s like a chain,” she explained to me excitedly. She caught the Latin bug from her teacher, who had once fallen in love with the language herself, and on and on it goes — centuries of keeping this dead language alive through a chain of teachers and students that stretches back to Ancient Rome.

Smiling at the memory, she spoke of how words and phrases from the Latin classroom are constantly sneaking into her thoughts.

“You know how people like that Roman Empire joke?” She laughed, “My Roman Empire is the Roman

Empire.” I ask about rules of grammar, and in answering, Malin hands me a slice of history. The Ancient Romans were often at war, she explains, filling the lexicon of classical Latin with words like “obviam” (“to block”). When the Catholic Church revived Latin 500 years later, what was once a language of war evolved to reflect an ecclesiastical setting, and the word “obviam” became “to meet.”

Fast forward to the present day, and we now know “obviam” as “obvious” — an idea that is “met” so often that it is immediately evident.

One day in class Lola came across the word “hippopotamus.”

Years later, just the thought of this moment is enough to have her jumping out of her seat with excitement. “Hippos is Ancient Greek for horse,” she explains, “and potamos is river. So, when the Greeks arrived on Egypt’s Nile River for the first time, they saw hippos and declared them water-horses!”

In general, when people talk about why one learns a dead language, they don’t talk about river horses, or the etymology of “obvious.” They speak in tangible terms: the SATS, developing logical skills, general nerdiness, etc. Sitting in Seal Court listening to Lola and Malin explain their “why,” I didn’t hear any of that.

Instead, I felt a deep sense of wonder. That feeling when you walk into a storied place — a temple, ruins, an old library — and your skin crawls with awe, struck by the weight of how small you are in the face of all the history, language and people that have stood there before you. You feel an urge to reach out into that void, but you’re confined by its distance from the present — from your language. If there is a word in any language that encapsulates this feeling, I have yet to find it. The closest I have come is “reverence,” traced back to Classical Latin “revereri” — to stand in awe of.

Ironically, talking to Lola and Malin showed me that we simply don’t have the words to explain why anyone would be so passionate about diving into a dead language. To pin down the “why” would be as imperfect as wholly describing the feeling of standing in the Acropolis or the ruins of Angkor Wat, looking out at the hallowed halls of our history.

After a year of sitting in her Medieval Latin classroom, perhaps Malin will return to that same church. This time, however, she’ll trace over the letters with familiarity, and the wrenching sadness that pushed her to learn a dead language will evolve into the wonder of discovery.

Claire Welch SC ’27 has thoughts.

Is science just a requirement?

My freshman year, I sat in a linguistics class filled with enthusiastic Harvey Mudd College students, deeply engaged in a discussion about the nature of language. 10 minutes later I found myself in an oceanography class, having a starkly different experience. When I asked my friend, a non-science major, about her thoughts on the oceanography class, she described it as just another class to get over with.

To my friend, science classes were merely chores to fulfill a requirement — a sentiment that I believe resonates with many students. Having served as a teaching assistant for Introductory Geology and Astronomy and taken introductory courses in physics, chemistry, biology and geology, I’ve witnessed this attitude firsthand. I’ve also observed that non-science majors often choose “easier” science classes — like oceanography, geology and astronomy — to satisfy their requirements.

That’s not to say non-science majors lack interest in science. One cognitive science student enrolled in Oceanography this semester told me that they chose the class partly out of a genuine desire to learn the subject, not only to fulfill their Area 4 (science) requirement. This curiosity reflects a genuine desire to engage with science.

However, it also raises an important question: Is the sole science class that all students are required to take — which is often their first and last science course — doing enough to teach non-science-major students scientific literacy, especially when this skill is becoming increasingly critical?

Developing a robust understanding of scientific principles is essential for addressing global challenges, as illustrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, where confidence in scientific expertise was vital for effective public health responses and vaccine uptake.

But scientific literacy is often lacking in the general public, according to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Study. A Pew Research Center study shows a decline in the percentage of U.S. adults who view science positively since 2020, highlighting challenges in tackling pressing societal issues

like climate change, energy use and water scarcity — issues that require a fundamental understanding of scientific processes.

As we consider the goals of the Area 4 requirement (Pomona’s science requirement), it becomes clear that fostering true scientific literacy must be our primary objective, bridging the gap between curiosity and the comprehensive understanding necessary for informed citizenship.

For scientists, introductory science classes — the ones often taken to fulfill a science requirement — are an important opportunity to foster a positive attitude toward science. However, many courses focus more on delivering content than on instilling the critical thinking skills necessary for students to navigate scientific discussions.

I spoke with a student in an oceanography course this semester who expressed how they wished the class would focus more on the scientific processes and practices that characterize geology, rather than centering around the history of the discipline. Teaching Introductory Paleontology, geology professor Robert Gaines acknowledged that many students may not pursue further studies in science after his class, and emphasized the importance of scientific literacy as a critical thinking tool.

“I want non-science majors to understand that they shouldn’t trust everything they read, and to feel confident assessing what constitutes quality information,” Gaines said. He begins Introductory Paleontology’s curriculum with the scientific method and fundamentals of data interpretation.

However, Gaines also acknowledged another challenge: unlike classes such as Introductory Astronomy, which are tailored specifically for non-science majors, introductory geology classes like his also serve as foundational courses for geology majors.

He expressed a dual goal: “I hope that science students develop confidence in digesting and synthesizing technical literature and are capable of constructing novel approaches to solving problems via the scientific method.”

A study titled “Finding Out What They Really Think: Assessing Non-Science Majors Views of the Nature of Science” suggested that

LIA FOX

• tHe StUDeNt LIFe

“teaching science content and engaging students in inquiry alone does not result in a deep understanding of the nature of science.” This problem underscores the complexity of achieving scientific literacy through a single class.

In higher education, the gap in scientific literacy is evident in the differing approaches to science requirements across institutions. At Columbia University, for example, students are required to take three science courses. Conversations I had with professors and administrators at Pomona revealed that Columbia is frequently seen as a benchmark for science education among non-science majors.

While Columbia’s rigorous curriculum is commendable, it prompts questions about whether sheer quantity of required courses alone is sufficient for developing scientific proficiency.

Columbia’s requirements have not eliminated the challenge of teaching non-science majors scientific literacy. In 2012, a student wrote in the Columbia Daily Spectator that “while math and science students are challenged by the humanities core, reading and writing students don’t get a comparable challenge with the science requirement … Since Columbia College’s entire philosophy is that there are certain things any student should study, serious science should be one of those.”

A more recent article in the Columbia Daily Spectator, titled “Best Classes to Fulfill Columbia College and General Studies Science Requirements,” reflected a similar trend also observed at the Claremont Colleges, where non-science students often opt for easier science classes.

This reality became clear to me in my role as an oceanography teaching assistant this semester — the same class my friend and I took two years ago. One student in the course told me that they were no more interested in science than they had been before the class, echoing my friend’s earlier attitude towards Oceanography as simply a requirement to fulfill. This isn’t just a missed opportunity — it’s a wake-up call. We must elevate scientific literacy beyond mere requirements. If we don’t, we risk leaving students ill-equipped for the challenges ahead.

Gabriel Brenner PO ’26 loves exploring the human aspects of science.

CLAIRE WELCH

PARISHI KANUGA

ALeXANDrA GrUNbAUM • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

GABRIEL BRENNER

NOteS FrOM SPAIN

ScIeNce AS A HUMAN eNDeAVOr

The allure of ‘Bonjour Tristesse’

A round table covered by a brown floral tablecloth. The bitter aroma of freshly brewed coffee. The voice of a news anchor softly humming from a television in the background. Noises from the street coming in through the open window.

Back home in Brazil, my family spent many Sunday afternoons at my grandparents’ place, watching TV and catching up over coffee. While my grandma usually led the conversation, eager to hear about our lives and recount her little adventures of the week, my grandpa only listened quietly, staring distantly at the TV and nodding every now and then.

He didn’t talk much when we were all gathered around the table and we mostly didn’t notice – my grandma talked enough for both of them. Now that I think about it, though, I’ve always seen my grandpa as an observer.

So it came as a surprise when one day he interrupted a conversation to recommend a novel: “Bonjour Tristesse” by François Sagan. When asked why he liked that book, he just repeated, “You need to read it.”

Back in 1954, an 18-year-old Sagan captivated her home country of France by publishing “Bonjour Tristesse.” Set in the French Riviera, the novel follows 17-year-old Cécile and her widowed father through one summer in a rented villa. The novel was an overnight sensation, becoming popular amongst young readers around the world.

My then-17-year-old grandpa was one of them.

What was it about 17-year-old Cécile, written by 18-year-old Sagan, that attracted the 17-year-old version of my grandpa … and could it possibly attract me, modern-day 17-year-old Anna, too? I checked out the book from Honnold Mudd Library hoping to answer that question, but I only got the chance to actually read it last week during fall break.

Stuck on a long bus ride to Pasadena, I opened the title hoping to kill some time. I was immediately gripped by the story. The window showed me California landscapes passing me by, but my mind could only picture the sea and houses of the French Riviera.

When my friend poked my shoulder to tell me we’d reached our stop, I was already halfway into the novel. By the time we came back from Pasadena, I’d already finished it.

Clearly, “Bonjour Tristesse” is a page-turner, but it might not seem like one at first. The story tackles common themes: passion, lust, desire, jealousy, and above all, love. The plot is almost expected: a young Cécile makes twisted ploys to separate her father, Raymond, and his new wife Anne.

It’s that old Cinderella story of the rich, handsome, kind and gentle father who is corrupted by the self-centered, loathing, evil stepmother. However, the characters of “Bonjour Tristesse” are more

complex than that. Raymond is indeed rich and handsome, and Cécile loves him: “I cannot imagine a better or a more amusing companion,” she tells us. But her father is also a womanizer and a playboy, frivolous and immature. Anne is nothing like the arche

typical evil stepmother. An old friend of Cécile’s late mother, she is mature, caring and refined. While Raymond is boyish and hedonistic, Anne is the one who pushes Cécile to study, to grow and to become a woman. “I remember thinking her the most wonderful person and being quite embarrassingly fond of her,” Cécile says of Anne. “Bonjour Tristesse” feels like it was written by a teenager, which it was. That is precisely what makes the novel so special. If the writing style had been more mature or refined (like Anne), Cécile might have come off as egocentric, narcissistic and morally questionable. Instead, the novel’s teenage voice constantly reminded me that Cécile was just a young girl who had lost a mother and harbored confusing feelings towards the closest thing she had to a mother figure.

No matter how twisted Cécile’s plots to break up Raymond and Anna were, I found myself wanting them to work out. Not out of pity, but out of friendship. It’s a crazy thing: Cécile wasn’t really a likable character; she could be quite pretentious and insufferable at times.

Still, somehow, I just wanted to see her happy.

At first, I was sure that my fondness for Cécile was personal: I empathized with and cheered for her because I am a 17-year-old who recently lost her mother. Yet I can’t help but think that the charm of her story goes beyond my personal experience.

There is a far-reaching allure to “Bonjour Tristesse,”one that captured France, that captured Europe, that captured my grandpa and that captured me.

It is Cécile’s endearing depiction of teenagehood that draws you in. She makes plots and questionable decisions, but all in hopes of doing

right. She’s narcissistic and self-centered, but can we blame her? What is growth if not being able to look with fondness at a past version of yourself and say, “Yes, that was me”? I am a teenager just as my grandpa once was, as Sagan and her readers once were.

Did my grandpa feel what I feel, I wonder? I’m not sure. So I’ll stop writing and call him — though there’ll be no round table or noise from the TV.

Anna Ripper Naigeborin PO ‘28 is from São Paulo, Brazil. She has recently been into watching Éric Rohmer movies — and she turned 18 right after writing this article!

Looking cool, feeling warm: Heatwave fashion

Weather in Claremont, much like the ever-shifting fashion trend cycle, is marked by extremes. The city cooled down after a week-long heat wave, which peaked at 114 degrees Fahrenheit, before returning to yet another scorching week. Claiming that winter is imminent feels like saying skinny jeans are coming back. With November showing no signs of cooling down, Claremont dwellers don’t need much of a winter wardrobe. Many students from colder regions revel in the sunny weather, eager to leave behind cloudy skies and iced windshields.

But not everyone adopts the bacchic heliolatry that defines Cla-

remont style. Instead, some opt for fashion choices that ignore the weather altogether —— they want their leather boots, their 22oz denim, scarves, earmuffs, bell bottoms, sweaters and most of all, their layering.

As we witness this apparent self-flagellation, the hoods of their coats looking more and more monastic with each rising degree, I couldn’t help but wonder: why do they subject themselves to discomfort? Why are they so steadfast in their fashion choices, even when it’s clearly too hot?

Jack Sheehan PZ ’27 and Cid Maciel PO ’27 are two notably well-dressed friends hailing from Brooklyn. Their style of dress is

inextricably linked with home. However, their version of NY style doesn’t have much to do with the city’s venerable style icons. Instead of Bella Hadid in a Burberry trench coat, think David Beckham in the 2000s: big and bold.

“When I was starting to put stuff on, [it was] definitely that whole world I was introduced to. Like, baggy pants, like weed, like Bladee, Drain Gang kind of shit,” Sheehan said.

Sheehan was wearing a pink hoodie, Rick Owens tight waxed denim and black Air Force 1s with multicolored laces. A lover of jeans of all shapes, lengths and sizes, they counted more than 40 pairs in their closet.

“When I get to wear my jeans, I’m like, ‘this is exactly what I want,’” Sheehan said. “I’m back to how I could dress in high school. And I mean, sometimes I want to be able to put on jeans every single day, no matter the weather.”

Maciel, somewhat infamous on campus for his stolid commitment to baggy jeans, wore a massive pair by Ed Hardy and a hoodie on one of the first afternoons below 80 degrees in weeks.

“[In New York] this time of year it would be mad cold, probably 50s or 60s daily, so I would be wearing the same exact thing, like jeans and a sweater,” Maciel said. “If it’s above 90 degrees I probably won’t wear jeans or long pants, but below that, honestly, those temperatures sort of feel fine wearing jeans ... the sort of style that I was around, I sort of mesh into that style.”

For California native Ivan Ew-

ers PO ’27, a designer for the 5C fashion club THREAD5, fashion that reflects his hometown culture also takes precedence over weather.

“It’s more so just what goes with the fit for that day, or just what I want for the day. Growing up … in Oakland specifically, that’s kind of where I got that because it’s hoodie season all year long and even if it’s a hot ass day, everybody’s still still rocking hoodies,” Ewers said.

On a sunny day, Ewers wore gray vintage orange tab Levis, a Burberry cashmere scarf, a black hoodie that he distressed and modified, Alyx jewelry and large raw goatskin boots of his own design.

“People ask me, ‘Yo, are you not hot in these, it’s like 100 degrees,’” Ewers said. “If I have a fit in mind, as long as it’s not unbearably hot, I’m gonna rock it. I’m not gonna be like … in a pool of sweat in class, but if it’s anywhere near the threshold of tolerable, then like yeah, I’m rocking it for sure.”

Although many chose to dress how they see fit above all else, not all of them resent the heat. Some even embrace it. Sheehan reflected on how even casual outfits like athletic shorts and tank tops can offer them a break from routine.

“It proves to [me] that I have confidence in more than just what I have conditioned myself to feel comfortable in, because I’ve been wearing that kind of clothing for six years now,” Sheehan said.

Everyone agreed that dressing fashionably doesn’t necessarily equate to dressing inconveniently. Instead, it meant being true to yourself, and at the same time not being

afraid to push your comfort level.

“If you got it, pull it out. You can’t pay too much mind to the weather. [You] can’t let comfort get the best of you. Be comfortable, but you don’t have to be too comfortable,” Ewers said.

Everyone agreed that dressing well pays dividends in their lives and their confidence, both on and off campus. There aren’t many moments in our lives with less risk and more reward than in college, especially in environments like THREAD5. Sheehan felt emboldened by the 5C’s normalization of nonstandard style.

“Exploring my sexuality with [clothing] is like, a whole ‘nother level, because it’s got me cropping my [shirts] up to like here,” Sheehan said, gesturing to their torso. “In the city … sometimes I don’t want to bring that side of me out there, because it feels restrictive. But here, I feel like since it’s such a common [thing and] it makes me feel good.”

For students like students like Ewers, dressing like yourself no matter the weather can help more than just your confidence: it can help you network.

“I’ve met people I never would have met just because of the fit I had on. Like, definitely at [Paris] Fashion Week. I got into a whole bunch of stuff I was not invited to just because of what I was rocking,” Ewers said.

Sheehan met many of their closest friends through style.

“That was how I met Cid.” Sheehan said. “That’s how I met most of my first [friends]. I would be like, ‘Yo, I like your [fit]. I like what you’re wearing’ ... The reason we connected is over his jeans and his shoes.”

Michelle Dowd PZ ’90 discusses foraging, growing up in a cult at CMC Ath

With cloudy gray skies and autumn neigh, students flocked to Claremont McKenna College’s Athenaeum on Oct. 16 for Michelle Dowd PZ ’90’s talk “What I Learned from Foraging (And Surviving a Family Cult).” A Pitzer College alumna, Dowd is a writer and professor of journalism, with contributions in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and TIME Magazine. Her talk coincided with the publication of her memoir “Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult.”

Dressed humbly in an olive green sweatshirt and knitted skirt, Dowd ascended the stage. She refused to stand behind the podium — it reminded her too much of church, she explained.

Dowd spent her childhood in an apocalyptic cult founded by her grandfather. With no formal education, Dowd applied to Pomona College on a whim, but her application was forwarded to the Pitzer Admissions Office. She had written a poem for her personal statement, and was granted a full ride by the committee.

“For a decade of my childhood, the mountain was the closest thing I had to a home, and I learned to forage for what I needed to survive on it, my real home wasn’t a place,” Dowd said. “It was an idea, an idea my maternal grandfather turned into an organization. He called ‘The Field’ a closed community.”

Dowd pivoted to foraging as the core of her discussion. Foraging was a means of survival, and translated to how she approached life outside of

The Field.

“8000 years ago, foraging was universal,” she said. “All of you have foraging in your DNA. Your ancestors didn’t survive without it, and you have it inside of you.”

Dowd brought out a box filled with leaves, branches and twigs of various sizes and shapes, placing them onto a table on the stage. She asked for a volunteer, and chose Tutu Jereissati CM ’25 from among the few hands raised.

“So everything I picked here, I picked just on my way in, within 20 yards of where we are at the avenue right now,” Dowd said. With Jereissati as her volunteer, Dowd asked her to identify various twigs and berries. Among the items she foraged were wild strawberries, elderberries, sage, and nettles.

“[Nettles are] really good for the tea,” Dowd said. “But the thing about nettles, it’s interesting ... they have these stinging properties to keep animals from destroying them.”

Dowd proffered Jereissati a nettle twig to smell, warning her not to let her nose touch the stem.

“When you think something’s dangerous, you could also ask yourself, what is it hiding? What is it that it’s holding on to so much to give us?”

Dowd asked.

Dowd then transitioned to the latter half of her talk. She used foraging as a metaphor for her approach to life: using the resources that are tangible to you, in your immediate surroundings, to survive.

Dowd discussed some of the

conversations she had with students during the dinner portion of the evening, where she asked seniors about their futures and their life goals.

“Many of you have already set up a career path. You set up a guided pathway to get where you want to go. Some of you have been laser focused on it,” Dowd said. “But how many things are you missing because you’re not looking around you and not noticing what doesn’t serve your long term interests?”

She went on to describe her own journey to Pitzer, and how her upbringing in a cult and in the mountains ultimately shaped her approach to college and her career. She wasn’t not going through the system so much as moving around it.

Dowd also talked about the dangers of foraging, and common questions she gets when discussing it.

“People say foraging is dangerous. What happens if I die or I get sick? Don’t you feel irresponsible talking about something so dangerous?” Dowd said. “There’s that feeling too of you are not owned by a system, like you’re like moving around the system again.”

Dowd described the circumstances that led to writing her memoir. After submitting to The New York Times’ “Modern Love,” a publisher approached her with the idea of writing an autobiography.

Similar to how foraging can lead you to dangerous plants, Dowd’s path in the literary world led her to being invited to Joe Rogan’s podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

talk

“You don’t really think that when you write a book about foraging, you’re going to end up being interviewed by Joe Rogan.” Dowd said. “But there were just so many things that came to me because I just keep thinking to myself, there’s so much I don’t know, and unless I have direct experience that it is harmful to me, why not put myself in the way of learning?”

Attendee Luca Rudenstein PZ ’26 said that she found the talk unique from previous ones she’d attended.

“I thought she was an incredibly engaging storyteller. And it’s not every day you go to an Ath talk and someone pulls out a bunch of gloves and plants and makes someone from the audience come up and feel and eat things,” Rudenstein said. She also said she resonated with Dowd’s approach to life through foraging.

“I honestly related to her a lot, I think, not just as a Pitzer student, but how curiosity manifests, especially in sort of the metaphor of foraging, as kind of slowing down, looking at everything around you and really following what you’ve delved into or observed, rather than what makes most sense, or what you’ve been told to follow,” she said.

Aina Yukawa CM ’25 saw parallels between Dowd’s ideas of foraging and Hawaiian culture.

“I think it really resonated with native culture and Hawaiian culture as I know it, because my father’s side of the family is heavily influenced by Hawaiian culture … and a lot of

native Hawaiians emphasize giving back to the land, and the land giving back to you,” Yukawa said. “It’s a whole cycle, what you get to the land, the land will get back to you … If you treat the land poorly, then they’ll do the same to you.”

In a community like Claremont, where students of the Internet generation are thinking about their futures, a more tangible approach to careers and lives is refreshing.

“And I think what foraging really is it’s gathering, it’s using or recognizing what’s around you and finding what’s valuable that’s already there,” Dowd said. “So from all the plants that are here within walking distance of this afternoon … there is a lifetime of learning without going any further than a mile.”

ANNA RIPPER NAIGEBORIN

TANIA AZHANG

cOUrteSY: MIcHeLLe DOWD

SASHA MAttHeWS • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

PARKER DEVORE

Arts & Culture

How “Normal People” redefines sex and connection

ANNA PETERSON

In March 2020, COVID-19 forced people indoors, online and away from human connection.

During the pandemic, dating apps surged in popularity and consumption of pornography increased, with traffic on sites like OnlyFans and PornHub spiking.

Amid this shift to virtual intimacy, “Normal People” (2020), a television show based on the novel of the same title by Sally Rooney, was released. The series quickly garnered attention for its sensitive portrayal of love, sex and connection.

“Normal People” follows Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), two young people growing up in the small Irish town of Sligo. As the story unfolds, the audience watches how Marianne and Connell’s relationship evolves throughout highschool and university.

While many viewers praised the series’ sex scenes for their refreshing realism, some critics have written that the scenes were overly graphic, “something you’d expect to see in a porno movie.”

Their critique begs the question: is “Normal People’s” focus on sex romantic or pornographic?

Maybe it’s neither. To me, the show reflects the complexities of first love and the emotional nuance of sexuality. In mainstream productions, sex scenes are usually meant to titillate the audience or push the narrative forward. However, “Normal People” departs from this formula by treating sex as a form of emotional connection between its characters.

The first sex scene lasts ten and a half minutes ─ one third of the 30-minute episode. The sequence unfolds slowly, allowing Marianne and Connell time to establish their on-screen chemistry. As the two become intimate, the audience gets a glimpse of the characters’ anxieties and excitement through bits of awkward dialogue, shared giggles and flushed faces.

While in many shows sex is accompanied by heavy dialogue or dramatic music, sex scenes in “Normal People” are often partly or totally silent. These quiet, still moments between Marianne and Connell allow the audience to feel the emotional weight of their connection without the distraction of external sound or plot-driven conversation. It’s within these silences that their vulnerability

ISA D’AMArIO

is most palpable.

Compared to the glossy depictions of sex that proliferate in much of our media, the sex in “Normal People” is often messy and imperfect. The couple’s uncoordinated movements and moments of hesitation mirror real life, where sex is not always a seamless experience but rather a shared process of learning and discovery.

By portraying sex realistically, the show lets viewers connect more readily to its characters, to see themselves reflected in the sex lives of Marianne and Connell.

Breaking away from attempts at perfect sex allows the series to focus on the vulnerability and authenticity of the emotions behind it rather than orchestrating visually appealing encounters.

“Normal People” examines power imbalances — differences in class, gender and social relationships — through Marianne and Connell’s sexual relationship. Marianne, who faces isolation and rejection at home, seeks control through her relationships with others, sometimes in unhealthy ways. Connell, battling his own insecurities, feels out of place in Marianne’s affluent world and at college.

Sex, in this context, becomes a site of both empowerment and vulnerability. Marianne’s relationship with sex is shaped by her trauma and her desire for approval, while for Connell, sex is often a way to connect when words fail him.

Ultimately, “Normal People” redefines the portrayal of sex in television by treating it with the complexity it deserves. It’s an honest exploration of how physical intimacy is inextricably tied to emotional vulnerability, making the relationship between Marianne and Connell feel more authentic than typical on-screen romances. By challenging the idealized, often unrealistic depictions of sex in media, “Normal People” opens up a conversation about the true nature of intimacy—how it’s built on trust, emotional transparency and mutual care.

Anna Peterson SC ’25 is from Scottsdale, AZ. She studies politics, but spends her free time making Spotify playlists, writing Letterboxd reviews and drinking too much coffee.

From waste to wonder: Nancy Macko’s ‘Decompositions’

IZZY YOUNG

One doesn’t often mull over the slight curve of a garlic shell or the blush of an apple peel. “Decompositions,” an exhibit at Scripps College’s Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery featuring Nancy Macko, invites viewers to do just that. Through 35 photographs of her kitchen compost bin, Macko transforms mundane vegetable waste into abstract, striking scenes, amplifying the beauty of overlooked forms and textures.

Hailing from New York, Macko has been a Scripps faculty member for nearly 38 years. She is a former chair of both Art History and Gender and Women’s Studies, as well as the Director of the Scripps Digital Art Program.

Early in her career at Scripps, she began developing her art practice, culminating in her first collection “Hive Universe.” Feminism and spirituality converged in a queer, feminine, grandiose world based on bees. Macko created a matriarchal society that transcended the prejudice faced by queer women.

“The hive is the utopian lesbian society, where [there] is a queen bee and all the worker bees are her daughters,” Macko said.

As she learned more about the climate crisis and plight of bees, she realized their struggle mirrors the way the world treats women. This revelation pushed her towards more confrontational and realistic works, including “Decompositions,” which embodies ecofeminism. The movement links the exploitation of women and nature, arguing that

both are oppressed by the same patriarchal system.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nancy’s world “physically shrunk,” leaving her with few subjects to photograph. Macko turned to an unlikely subject: the organic scraps in her kitchen compost bin.

Accompanied by her wife Jan Blair, whom she affectionately calls “the curator of the bin,” Macko photographed cooking scraps in a small plastic box on their kitchen countertop, giving life to “Decompositions.” Macko displays the small and unassuming to create worlds saturated with meaning and power.

“I was interested in using a macro lens to climb into plants and see it more abstractly,” Macko said.

A macro lens allowed her to work with very small focusing distances, taking sharp, comprehensive images of small subjects. Her approach is reminiscent of the work of Edward Weston, with whom she is compared in the exhibition book.

Dr. Erin M. Curtis, the exhibit’s curator, compares Macko’s work to Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopias: spaces described as “other.”

“[Foucault ultimately] revealed the infinite possibilities of the everyday, the discoveries that await those who seek,” Curtis said.

Corn husks, garlic shells, apple peels, carrot tops, parsley stems — in Macko’s lens, her compost bin becomes extraordinary. Bathed in rich amounts of sunlight and colored with inky shadows, the waste — suggestive of fabric — flutters and bends with a refined beauty and grace. Through the bubbles, slight scratches on the side of the

bin and layered darkness from constant use and abuse, Macko compels viewers to confront the reality of imperfection, and find its innate beauty. The uncleaned bin becomes a cycle: waste breaks apart before it renews.

The close-up of decaying fruits and vegetables throughout invited viewers to project their own images and emotions.

“Tidepool with Sea Lions” is a muted, hazy scene comprised of creatures and old plants.

“My father used to build fish tank landscapes … it reminds me of that,” Beatrice Woodward PZ ’28 said. “[It looks like] an oil spill, a jellyfish, [I see] tentacles and water.”

Macko references the artists, patterns, movements and inspirations in her titles. A lettuce leaf that ripples as if it were a blanket, for example, becomes “Odalisque,” a nod to the recurring nineteenth-century Orientalist painting figure: a naked woman erotically laying on a bed for a male viewer.

On a wittier note, “Garlic Wings Nebula” resembles clouds and storm systems captured in satellite images. “Still Life (After Caravaggio)” and “Push Pull (For de Kooning)” pay homage to their namesake artists. The former captures the gradient transition from white to black in rotting corn, while the latter’s use of color— saturated, violent reds and oranges — creates a gripping tension in its depiction of decaying fruits. Macko is continuing to shoot “Decompositions,” saying she would always be “discovering new things” from her compost bin. Her upcoming body of work titled “War” will focus on mostly coffee grounds, which she says are “broken down and decomposing… horrible [and] great stuff.”

‘Corner Stories’: Liberation movements in South Central LA

On Oct. 24, Danny Widener gave the second lecture in Pomona College’s Connections series titled “Corner Stories: Place and Time in South Central LA,” where he spoke about the history of social movements in Los Angeles and their links to wider global struggles.

Widener is a professor of history at UC San Diego where he researches social movements, expressive culture and the global history of the anti-imperialist left. He is also the author of “Third Worlds Within: Multiethnic Movements and Transnational Solidarity.”

“Too often we think about history as things that happened in the past,” Widener said. “We think about the cops, or [other] horrible structures, but actually, the measure of how liberated a society is is how much free time people have … Students and young people are the only people for whom a certain amount of dead time is legitimated, and that’s connected to why students are activists, radicals.”

Director of the Humanities Studio, which hosts the Connections series, and English professor Kevin Dettmar explained that Widener’s lecture was a counterpoint to the previous lecture by Arthur Jones on conspiracy theories.

“[Jones’ talk] was about a destructive kind of connection, conspiracism, and I’m hoping Widener’s talk will begin to move us into conversations about the connections that build community,” Dettmar said.

Widener’s research draws from his family history of racial conflict in 1940s LA, where his family members were victims of racist attacks on Black activists and homeowners.

“The story I want to tell today starts in 1946 in the spring, May,

early one morning when my family, the Aubrys, awoke to the site of the cross burning in their front lawn,” Widener said. “That was only the first racist attack on our family that happened that month.”

The homeowners Paul and Loretta Aubry were migrants from Louisiana. A couple weeks later, Paul Aubry’s brother Richard was stabbed by two white men in a staged home invasion.

In South LA, both Paul and Richard were known activists and targets of the Ku Klux Klan.

“[The police] said, ‘I can’t go after [the Klan] just because they’re prejudiced. You’re prejudiced against the Klan.’ This kind of farcical official response was a kind of counterpoint to this terroristic violence,” Widener said.

His family’s ties extended to African American liberation movements in the 1960s and 1970s. As Widener described the stories and plight of Black people, from families to activists to musicians, he explained the conditions that led to tension as well as joy.

“Under these conditions of segregation across class communities … you have to imagine today like this, where Beyoncé would have to stay in the hood. It’s a totally different America, and you bump shoulders with these kinds of folks,” Widener said.

His aunt and stepmother were acquainted with Babatunde Olatunji, a Nigerian drummer, and Duke Ellington, as well as political figures like Nikita Khrushchev and Gamal Abdel Nasser. In fact, he learned that his stepmother met Fidel Castro very recently, which surprised him, as a scholar of Cuba.

Widener explained an early attempt to unify Black gangs, like

the two main gangs in Venice Beach, Shoreline Crips and V13, in a neighborhood called Slauson, where the gang was well known for their own dance “the Slauson Shuffle.”

“A …[Slauson] guy named Ron Wilkins formed something called the community alert patrol, which was the first police monitoring organization in the U.S. …They would protect and observe,” Widener said. “This is really, in many ways, one of the hearts of Black insurgency in LA. This South Park, Fremont area is really where you find a lot of revolutionary nationals … because people had been fighting by 1965 for 20 years, just for dignity, for space, for their survival, their safety.”

Widener explained the racial shift in South LA through the conflict at the Marvista Gardens Housing Project with a population of mostly Black and brown people. He noted the ethnic shift over time in the area from white to Black and brown.

“It historically had two en -

trances, and one of those entrances was controlled by African Americans, and one of them was controlled by Chicanos,” he said. “That allowed each group to have a half monopoly on selling drugs to the white people who would come through … when they changed the entrance and when the housing authority closed one of them.”

White working class people in Widener’s town who couldn’t afford to live in the industrial working class suburbs fought to keep Black people out.

“These are people who have a kind of class precarity, and when Black folks start to show up, they’re terrified of losing whatever economic mobility they expected or had,” Widener said. Widener reflected on the importance of building a unified framework for liberation, using the development of Indigenous representation at the U.N. as a model. During a debate over whether to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival,

the African Delegation walked out, leading to the International Decade of Indigenous People from 1995 to 2004. In this way, the liberation struggles of Indigenous people for many nations were interconnected.

“My whole framework is that the challenges between our communities are contradictions among the people. These are popular contradictions, instead of antagonistic contradictions.”

He said America has given up trying to put Black demands and Indigenous insistence upon the return of stolen land into a common framework. However, he believes it is still possible.

“That gets into the whole question of talking to your elders, going to the archive and believing right, believing that mobilized communities, given political education, given experience, given an opportunity to dialogue, will come around to the correct answers.”

Attendee Linden Beckford Jr. said it was essential to record and preserve the history of our communities because his family has roots in the neighborhoods Widener was speaking about.

“I’m very familiar with a lot of that history … But this part of the history is very important to be preserved … If it’s not recorded, it goes away like the dinosaur, and we just can’t afford that,” Beckford Jr. said.

Attendee Rosemarie Johnson found the way Widener integrated several perspectives into his narrative particularly refreshing.

“I’m quite impressed by the way he connected the dots …We have this big knowledge pie divided up just for convenience, [such as] sociology, history, etc. I liked his open-mindedness,” Johnson said. “I don’t have all the answers, but I have some …We’re not just in this ivory tower. We’re all connected.”

cOUrteSY: ScrIPPS cOLLeGe

ANDreW YUAN • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

• tHe StUDeNt LIFe

ANANYA VINAY

Decompositions, an exhibit featuring Scripps art professor Nancy Macko, will run until Jan. 12.

Danny Widener spoke at Pomona college’s connections speaker series on Oct. 24, sharing stories of resistance in 1940s Los Angeles and exploring the interconnectedness of local and global liberation movements.

We will not tolerate collective punishment: Suspended students speak out

SUSPENDED STUDENTS

Addendum: This piece was drafted before we were notified that 10 of us Pomona College students facing disciplinary actions were unilaterally suspended for the rest of the academic year by President G. Gabrielle Starr. Starr applied her executive authority as president to execute these suspensions and remove us from campus, denying us our right to go through Judicial Council (JBoard) proceedings. After multiple requests for evidence, we have been met with silence and dismissal by Pomona’s administration. We have not been presented with any evidence identifying us at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 7. Our only way to influence this decision is to write an appeal, for which we have been provided little to no guidelines for how we can argue that we should not be suspended. The suspension letters we received appear identical, proving that we are not treated as individuals but as victims of collective punishment. We have chosen to publish this piece, as it reflects the unfairness of the process and its negative impact on us and the community at large.

On the morning of Friday, Oct. 11, 18 Pomona College students received letters from Starr. 12 of us were interim-suspended and banned from the Claremont Colleges due to our alleged involvement with the student protest on Oct. 7, while the other six of us received notice that we were under investigation. As of Oct. 22, two more students were issued interim suspensions and are scrambling for housing and clarity.

Over 480 Claremont students decided to walk out of classes and rally on Oct. 7, yet Pomona College is indiscriminately punishing individuals without providing evidence or maintaining fair procedures. The administration is arbitrarily holding us responsible for property destruction — destruction we did not perpetrate — to deter student organizing for Palestine and divestment. Of the students targeted, most are first-generation, low-income (FLI), and/or students of color who rely on financial aid and on-campus employment.

The administration’s penalization of students who are primarily of marginalized identities without providing any evidence or explanation for their decision raises the specter of racial profiling. If the administration denies us any reasoning for their decisions, how can we know that we were not targeted because of our ethnic and racial backgrounds, gender identities or visibility in marginalized spaces?

The untimely notice of our interim suspensions, a brief Friday morning email from Starr, left us with just eight hours to pack our essential belongings and leave campus for the foreseeable future. For those of us who had the “privilege” of being on campus when we received the suspension notice, clothing, medicine, and personal belongings were considered, packed, or sacrificed before leaving. However,

many of us were already away from campus for fall break and unable to access our belongings. Many of us still cannot access essential items two weeks after the fact.

As one suspended student stated, “My flight was waiting to take off for fall break when I received notice from President Gabi Starr that I was interim-suspended immediately and would be banned from campus without a trial or due process. That flight was one of the most isolating and crushing experiences I have ever had.”

Those of us who had planned to stay on campus were left scrambling to figure out what to do next — where we might sleep that night, where our next meals would come from. In the blink of an eye, Starr indefinitely stripped us of housing, access to food, on-campus jobs, education and our community.

Starr’s decision to notify us on the Friday before fall break, our first moment in weeks to unwind from the stressful and rigorous academic schedule at the 5Cs and a time when many students would be off campus, was a calculated action to minimize student response to our removal. This decision compounded our turmoil and anxiety and provided cover for her outrageous abuse of power.

In our suspension letters, Pomona’s administration gave us a 36-hour window to appeal these sanctions to the Preliminary Sanction Review Board. After being disoriented by our displacement from campus and the stress of finding somewhere to stay, we worked tirelessly to compose appeal letters explaining why our sudden removal from campus was unfair and disproportionate to our situations. We delved into our struggles to convince Pomona that we deserved to be allowed back onto campus, detailing our immense physical and mental discomfort, financial instability, and vital participation on campus. Instead of providing evidence of wrongdoing, Pomona’s administration demanded that we, as predominantly marginalized students, beg them not to strip away our access to fundamental human rights like food and shelter. Only two of the 12 students had our interim suspensions overturned. The rest were denied with no explanation.

Now, 10 of us are indefinitely cut off from access to housing, dining halls, classes, on-campus jobs, extracurriculars, student health services, libraries, and more, all for charges for which we have not been found guilty. 40 percent of suspended students are FLI, and 70 percent are students of color and/or SWANA. We depend on our campus jobs, housing, and food for safety. Due to this indefinite suspension, we have become seniors without necessary post-grad support and freshmen who have been ripped from our foundational first year, not

two months into our first semester.

Many of us are thousands of miles away from home and now isolated from our support systems and our community, unable to continue our lives as college students.

Pomona administration has not presented us with any evidence of our involvement. We cannot return to campus and continue our lives as students, all while Pomona administration remains silent about our cases. As of Oct. 20, over a week after we were interim-suspended, Pomona’s administration had not communicated dates for the first steps of the disciplinary process to all of the suspended students. Instead of adjudicating fairly and transparently, Pomona’s administration has left us in bureaucratic limbo.

Pomona is still trying to “identify” students involved in the Oct. 7 protest. The same process that Pomona has used to allege that we were at Carnegie Hall can be weaponized against any other student. This process can easily be used to arbitrarily target and endanger the health and safety of marginalized students without presenting evidence of wrongdoing.

No suspended student participated in property damage nor knows who vandalized Carnegie Hall, yet we are being punished as external threats and scapegoats that cannot be reasoned with. We are your classmates, your friends, your coworkers and your students. Now, we are victims of collective punishment inflicted by Pomona’s administration, and this unjust punishment could be dealt out against anyone the administration chooses with no evidence. Starr is forgoing any semblance of fair process by refusing us the space to defend ourselves or the evidence that Pomona’s administration claims to have against us. As suspended students, we are physically and emotionally isolated from our campus community.

Instead of focusing on classes and making the most of Pomona’s plentiful resources, we are dealing with the constant pressure of awaiting further news from Pomona in impermanent housing arrangements. Instead of embodying the restorative practices and academic continuity that Pomona claims to prioritize via the JBoard, Starr has decided to unilaterally deprive us of our right to our intellectual community. She is resorting to intimidation and fear tactics. But we are not afraid. We are outraged at Pomona’s use of collective punishment to suppress protests in support of Palestine. Instead of embodying her purported values of sustained dialogue and community building, Starr has opted for extreme punishment and abuse of power. We are also very aware that the punishment we are facing is a violation of First Amendment rights aimed at stifling any protests for solidarity with Palestine.

Starr is actively repressing students in response to the community’s Pro-Palestinian activism, clear evidence of the Palestine Exception. The Palestine Exception is the uniquely severe suppression of Palestine advocacy in higher education, omitting Palestine from definitions of freedom of speech and legitimate activism. Students at the Claremont Colleges have historically held mass protests, occupied buildings and disrupted college operations to push their administrations towards justice, for causes such as divestment from South African apartheid, establishing ethnic studies departments and providing resources for students of color. In all of these cases, the administration has pushed back. Now, we are being targeted in the midst of the ongoing fight for Palestinian Liberation.

As we face our unjust suspensions, we ask for the community’s solidarity. We demand an end to the tyrannical abuse of power executed

by the administration. We demand that Starr overturn the unilateral suspensions of the 10 Pomona students and allow their disciplinary cases to be heard by the JBoard, as consistent with fair procedures and Pomona’s principles.

The Pomona administration is establishing a dangerous precedent. They are creating a Pomona where protests on campus are grounds for indiscriminately policing students of color with no evidence; a Pomona where attacking individuals and destroying our community at large is normalized. We urge you to center our struggle and recognize the administration’s logic of collective punishment to evict students without fair process. The Pomona administration is actively working to create a culture of intimidation where no one in our community is safe.

Pomona’s repression, driven by its to-the-last-breath defense of profiting from a settler-colonial genocide, cannot continue. In whatever space you are — Associated Students of Pomona College, an affinity group, a conversation with your professors — do not let the administration intimidate and silence you. Do not let the administration stifle us into being complicit in genocide. Continue resisting Pomona’s draconian repression. Advocate for your fellow students. Keep fighting to be on the right side of history.

Editor’s Note: After the initial suspensions issued on Oct. 11, two more students were sent interim suspensions on Oct. 22. There are now 12 suspended students. The 10 students who had their initial appeals denied have been unilaterally upgraded to suspension without hearing for the rest of the academic year by Starr on Oct. 23.

This piece was collaboratively written by some of the Pomona College students facing suspensions, bans and disciplinary action. 10 of us are currently suspended for the rest of the academic year, two are left facing interim suspensions and seven await further disciplinary actions.

I write in hopes of demonstrating that you — Pomona’s administration and relevant faculty — haven’t been as committed to dialogue as you claim. I hope for genuine understanding.

I also implicitly write to my peers in hopes of a more strategic call for divestment. I encourage those who have been particularly wronged by Pomona to speak up about their experiences; they contain the more disturbing actions of the College that I lack the authority to address.

To begin — you condemn the escalating protests on campus. You assert that dialogue cannot happen amidst these protests, that dialogue is preferable. I agree! Shall we examine the conditions that brought these protests into being?

Before the escalation of protests, there was, in fact, buzzingly imperfect conversation about divestment on campus. It looked like talks, teach-ins, and delegations to admin. In return, you offered strange, neutral smiles and a piece of paper that read “FAQs on Divestment and Disclosure.”

On Oct. 25, 2023, you implemented a new rule: “There will be no more than 20 posters or physical flyers for any event, announcement, advertisement or communication on Pomona College’s campus.”

Around this time, the Pomona Student Union began promoting their upcoming Palestinian speaker, Linda Sarsour. As a member, I promoted this mostly verbally due to the flyer restriction. Though the most remarkable obstacle was the scrutiny and discouragement from admin — “How many will attend? What’s your next event? How much are you paying her?” — unlike anything we’d ever experienced.

You won’t admit your new policies and “safety enhancements” are for suppressing pro-Palestinian activism. I won’t make you say it. Everyone knows.

In February 2023, students expressed their thoughts on divestment, with words, in the ASPC referendum. You discouraged students from expressing themselves this way: “There are many ways to help heal a broken world. This is not one of them.”

Touching, but also irrelevant.

The student vote didn’t correspond to the politics in Israel and Palestine. It corresponded to Pomona’s decision to continue investing in companies that aid Israel’s military regime.

The difference is the political statement that Pomona would make in divesting — not to condemn Israel as a state, but to criticize its military actions. Between these is a world of difference.

However, you conflate them, most explicitly in a statement on Jun.

6: “I do not envision circumstances in which the College chooses to make a statement of repudiation of any country.” To repudiate an entire country and to divest from its military actions are quite different. You

conflated them in order to polarize dialogue about divestment. You conflated them so people would talk about Israel and Palestine instead of about Pomona.

What I intend to illustrate is that student escalation didn’t begin in order to obstruct dialogue, but because you’d already obstructed it. What could’ve been dialogue was deliberately made into monologue.

Condemning the protests instead of their causes is only your latest act of misdirection. You also accuse protests of breaching Pomona’s neutrality. You say neutrality justifies your investments: “At no point have we taken sides.” You imply divestment is taking a “side.”

What you don’t say is that continuing to invest is equally as political, equally as much of a “side” as divestment — especially because students persistently demand justification for Pomona’s investments.

Pomona will divest or it won’t. Pomona will arrest its own students or it won’t. Pomona considers op-

tions, prioritizes some values over others, and acts. Neutrality is the wrong word.

You mistake neutrality for the refusal to justify your active commitments. Why? Because these commitments aren’t justifiable by your purported moral values. You’re dishonest about your reasons against divestment because your reasons are that divestment doesn’t maximize Pomona’s returns, and maximizing returns is more important than the morality of what you do.

Alas, you are committed to two conflicting things: your moral image and your elite status. Maybe you’re too shy to grapple with this tension openly. Maybe there’s too much at stake. So you obscure it. You undermine divestment efforts by entangling them in paralyzing politics. You suppress protests like a frightened child, resorting to a thinly veiled intransigence to avoid collapsing altogether.

Except Pomona College isn’t a child. It’s an institution with stunningly carceral surveillance and suppression, that deprives its students of housing and food, that cannot bear the students who voice their values because it finds itself unable to voice its own.

Neutrality isn’t where your values lie. It’s where they’re buried.

The true, unneutral reasons for your actions carry your values. Acknowledge those values for what they are, because they’re where Pomona is at and where dialogue begins. It’s okay to have pragmatic values that sometimes overstep moral ones. It’s not okay to be dishonest about it, or to refuse to do better.

If we cannot be honest with each other, with our contradictions, if we cannot say what we mean and be more vulnerable because of it — then this place is no better than “any of the other places” we could be. Then we’re not intellectuals, or teaching, or learning. Then we’re

just people fighting.

What Pomona’s student protesters have is immensely rich passion, both political and intellectual. What courses through them are the values you abandon. You want Pomona to persist; they want it to be better. As leaders of this institution, it’s your job to engage with that demanding and astonishing threshold. It’s your job to be constructively charitable, to listen closely, to be honest, to reflect, to get uncomfortable, to not know. It’s not your job to remain complacent or to suppress the passion that pulses before you.

Your student protesters are not naughty kids causing trouble for giggles. They are not dangerous and “unfathomable” individuals who should be jailed or banned. They are intelligent, kind people with whom I cherish critical, sensitive dialogue. They are annoyingly stubborn nerds, with very bad sleep schedules, who act on examined beliefs. And they are, despite being at times careless with rhetoric, the ones who want to make Pomona College a better place. They certainly don’t agree on everything, but they do on this: Pomona can and must do better. If you cannot see the kernel of immense good in that — if you cannot hold it with awe, respect, and recognition — if all you insist on is weaponizing neutrality and rhetoric — then you don’t believe in Pomona College, too. If you continue to stifle the very essence of what makes Pomona good, the institution will certainly go on, yes — but not as itself. It will go on as the hollow, unpulsing shell of what Pomona College once was.

There cannot be more at stake than Pomona College itself. I don’t know how to make that something you care about. But I do know this. You picked the right people. It’s time to believe in them.

Maggie Zhang PO ’26 is from Cincinnati, OH. She studies philosophy and English

at Pomona College.

MAGGIE ZHANG

On Oct. 11, 18 Pomona college students were suspended or banned from the claremont colleges for their alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 2024 student protest. In the days following, many more have faced similar punishments.

On balance, it’s

to reduce housing costs for the poor. If you support that, vote yes. If not, reconsider.

wherein voters can participate in direct democracy by voting initiatives into law every election. This November, there are 10 propositions upon whose fates we will decide. But on the ballot, they don’t always have the most helpful names,

and they can be heavy on legalese and/or propagandistic framing. Fear not! Here’s your guide to each proposition, along with an unofficial recommendation on which way to vote.

This one makes permanent a now-temporary tax on MCOs, which would end up providing steadier funding for Medi-Cal. In general, Medi-Cal is funded by discretionary funding on an as-needed basis. This proposition would guarantee part of its funding. This proposition is amazingly supported by both the California Republican and Democratic parties, but has been criticized by the League of Women Voters for locking funding to Medi-Cal instead of being more flexible. If you’re a fan of Al Gore’s lockbox idea (in the 2000 election, he made a big deal of protecting Medicare funding), and don’t want to risk defunding Medi-Cal, vote yes. If you’re worried about budget flexibility, vote no.

This one might be the most dense piece of legalese on the ballot, but it’s actually really important! One of the most crucial aspects of Obamacare was its requirement that health insurance companies spend at least 80 percent of their government funding on patient care, or else lose their license. This is a similar initiative: it would require participants in California’s public insurance system (Medi-Cal) that spend >$100M to devote 98 percent of their revenues to direct patient care. You might expect this is some standard policy requiring that healthcare companies actually invest in, you know, healthcare. But there’s a catch: this is actually a Republican-backed campaign whose provisions specifically target the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, whom they oppose because of AHF’s support of rent control — this proposition would force AHF to redirect what are now renter advocacy funds. The only organization that is categorized as eligible Medi-Cal Rx Participants here is the AHF, because the crafters of this proposition are entirely motivated out of resentment. I don’t actually know which way to go on this proposition: I think it’s a good policy idea, as companies receiving MediCal funding should be subject to some spending scrutiny, but I’m not sure I want to end up on the same side as some of the people pushing this.

This proposition is an attempt to crack down on drug use by increasing mandatory sentence lengths and mandating treatment for some offenses. It’s supported by law enforcement organizations, and opposed by drug policy experts. If you think the War on Drugs was a good idea and we should continue it, vote yes. If you have a functioning brain, vote no.

I hope this was helpful in navigating your ballot! For more information, Ballotpedia has great summaries of the ballot measures along with arguments for and against them.

Akshay Seetharam (HM ’27) is better-known for making the weekly crosswords, which you can find below this opinion. He will gladly offer you several rants against the horrific faux-intellectualism of the Second Viennese School and how they perverted Western art music. He is usually a shill for the Democratic Party, and finds disagreeing with them on housing policy very difficult.

SASHA MA tt HEWS

You can’t silence us: A united front against Pomona’s repression

EDITORS

Student journalists play a vital role in the 7C community. We are documentarians who value truth, justice and integrity, driven by passion for our work and a sense of duty to our communities. As part of our duty to this community, we feel obligated, as editors of major news publications on campus, to speak out against patterns of repression of both journalistic and activist speech at the 7Cs.

At this time, all three publications represented in this op-ed — The Outback Newsprint Magazine, Claremont Undercurrents and The Scripps Voice — have experienced intimidation or retaliation from Pomona administrators for our reporting.

On Oct. 15, Pomona College imposed a full-year campus ban on The Outback’s co-Editor-inChief (EIC) Ben Lauren PZ ’25 for reporting on the takeover by over 100 students of Carnegie Hall on Oct. 7, 2024. This was despite him announcing himself as press to multiple Pomona deans and exiting the building before it was closed by Pomona administrators. Due to his adherence to Pomona policy as well as the freedoms guaranteed under the California Education Code, Pomona had no choice but to overturn his ban.

Over the past two weeks, Pomona’s President G. Gabrielle Starr suspended 10 students for the remainder of this academic year without due process, revoking their right to a judicial hearing.

Pomona Dean of Students Avis Hinkson also sent campus ban letters to dozens of non-Pomona students, preventing them from accessing campus for a full academic year. While Lauren’s ban was overturned, Pomona denied nearly every other student’s appeal.

Pomona’s ban on Lauren — issued without evidence and with the vague allegation of him being “present” at the protest — has made clear that press, especially student press, is not valued on this campus. We stand in solidarity and community with students across the 7Cs who have not been given due process regarding their bans or suspensions. We work to tell the stories of students unjustly persecuted by the hands of the administration, especially the members of our community who have been failed by the institution they depend on for protection.

Over the past year, the Outback has created an inclusive environment for students to engage in diverse discourse, submit and publish work and ultimately foster community. We have interrogated the status quo and told stories that are often overlooked. We are the only student publication at Pitzer College, melding art, literature, news, politics, culture and so much more. We attempt to represent and care for Pitzer, and to tell our community’s unique stories through all forms of media. For Pomona College to ban our EIC for covering a protest performed by the members of our community is an outright attack on our very mission.

The Outback, Undercurrents and The Scripps Voice have all covered the “Palestine Exception” before. It is a term used to describe how reporting and activism regarding Palestine is usually punished and restricted far more intensely than coverage of other movements. What we see most glaringly is that this exception manifests in Pomona and other 7C administrations’ fear of having their names published in a title alongside Palestine, or being associated with it at all. No matter what we do regarding coverage of anything having to do with Palestine, it will always be treated differently. Repercussions have always been harsher. This is the manifestation of the Palestine Exception on our campuses. Pomona threatened to call the police on The Outback’s EIC if he stepped foot on Pomona campus while banned, regardless of whether it’s to go to TSL headquarters, go to class or report on Pomona’s activities.

Pomona has made students afraid to speak out, and by subjecting the free press to therein the wake of their mass and indis-

criminate punishments, Pomona is seeking to silence the one of the few remaining channels students have to share their voices. Lauren’s ban worked to silence a major media outlet at the 7Cs during two weeks of uncertainty and chaos in Claremont. In addition to being unable to report on anything happening physically at Pomona, Lauren had to devote extensive time to writing his appeal letter and suddenly figure out how to not fall behind in his three Pomona classes.

Pomona administration is intimately familiar with Lauren as a leader of the press at the 5Cs. Aside from his role as EIC of The Outback for the past three semesters, Lauren was also EIC of TSL last semester. He ran the largest, oldest and most prolific paper at the Claremont Colleges, which, crucially, has been based at Pomona for over a century. In both Hinkson’s email informing him of the ban and in Starr’s letter officially banning him, Pomona administrators referred to him on a first-name basis as “Ben.” Never before in his entire collegiate career has an email from an administrator — including all communication from Pitzer about the ban — been initially addressed as anything other than “Benjamin.”

He is referred to as Ben, however, on his LinkedIn, through the TSL website and through the Outback. They know who he is.

For The Outback, Lauren’s ban was a slap in the face for all of the work we, and he, have hoped to do in service of our community. Over the past year we have reported objectively and fairly on Pomona and Starr’s administration, Lauren especially serving as a prominent voice for both The Outback and TSL. He has been willing to be critical of both the actions of the administration as well as of students. He has conducted thorough investigations, providing clear accusations and evidence. Critically, he has always allowed Pomona administrators the opportunity to respond. Pomona’s refusal to explain how Lauren posed such a grave threat to his own community that they needed to remove him from it, displays just the beginning of their lack of civility toward him or any other student they have chosen to discipline without due process. In tandem with the bans, Pomona has displayed a lack of human decency in suspending undocumented, BIPOC, and/or low-income students who rely on their institution not only academically, but for housing, food, basic needs and legal protection.

The Outback has and will continue to hold Pomona and all 7C administrations accountable, providing fair and just reporting as Pomona has increased its retaliation upon students. This commitment is not shaken by the intimidation tactics of the Claremont Colleges and we will continue to investigate the mistreatment of students. We all hope that anyone on campus who identifies as a journalist is willing to stand against the suppression of student voices.

On Oct. 16, the day after Lauren’s ban, Pomona brought disciplinary charges against Claremont Undercurrents for our reporting on Oct. 7, 2024. These charges are an unprecedented act of retaliation against our reporting, and carry the threat of sanctions including club suspension or funding elimination.

In the two years since our founding, Claremont Undercurrents has been at the forefront of covering student organizing and corresponding repression at the Claremont Colleges, from uncovering Pitzer ’s illegal firing of workers who expressed union support in 2023 to consistent action coverage throughout the campaign for Pomona to divest from the genocide in Palestine.

Throughout those two years, Undercurrents has worked to build trust with the 7C community, holding ourselves to high standards for accuracy, verification and safety. We have held ourselves accountable to the community, as exemplified by our public statement and policy change in response to concerns about our coverage of an action on Dec. 8, 2023.

mona College, documenting the protest as well as administrators’ subsequent crackdown.

As a registered 5C club, our editors also have established communication channels with Pomona administration. If Pomona wanted to discuss Undercurrents’ reporting practices in good faith, they would have reached out to us for a direct conversation. Instead, they escalated directly to a disciplinary case, displaying punitive rather than constructive intent.

We will not be intimidated. We will defend our principles, and the necessity and righteousness of our work, as we engage with the disciplinary procedure.

At a time when our peers are being evicted from campus or fired from their jobs for solidarity with Palestine, our reporting of repression and organized resistance from students is crucial. We urge you to continue standing in solidarity with Undercurrents’ mission of documenting and amplifying anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist organizing at the Claremont Colleges.

At this time, all three publications represented in this op-ed — the Outback Newsprint Magazine, claremont Undercurrents and the Scripps Voice — have experienced intimidation or retaliation from Pomona administrators for our reporting.

Our campus journalism has also made national-level impacts. In August, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into anti-Palestinian discrimination at Pomona College, sparked by a Palestine Legal lawsuit that cited our reporting. National and international news publications, including The Intercept and Mondoweiss, have also picked up our stories.

On Oct. 7, our reporters covered a divestment action at Po-

Editor’s Note

On Oct. 7, Pomona Assistant Vice President of Facilities and Campus Services Bob Robinson physically intimidated a student reporter from The Scripps Voice (TSV) who was outside Carnegie Hall, loudly questioning if the student was a reporter and violating their personal space. Robinson has a documented history of physical aggression towards students who investigate Pomona administration’s injustices; in 2011, several students filed a police report after Robinson kicked a chair at them during a conversation about Pomona’s mistreatment of dining workers. The harassment of a TSV reporter by a Pomona administrator exemplifies the college’s disregard for student safety and journalistic integrity. Despite the student identifying themself multiple times and backing up to maintain professional, respectful boundaries, Robinson made an egregious intrusion into the student’s physical space. This incident is only one example of Pomona’s continued effort to

infringe upon student expression, which damages the capacity for just, truthful coverage of institutional harm to students’ well-being, education and bodies. While Pomona punishes students en masse for exercising their First Amendment rights, it is crucial to maintain protections for student journalists who are holding institutions accountable.

TSV is dedicated to upholding its ethos of amplifying marginalized voices and reporting truthful student experiences. We have published an editorial statement in solidarity with those mobilizing against the genocide in Palestine and those living under occupation. At TSV, we center student perspectives while examining our institutions to give agency in broader social change.

Pomona is setting an incredibly dangerous precedent surrounding freedom of speech on campus. The college’s willingness to suspend and ban students expressing solidarity with Palestine, without presenting any evidence or allowing due process, is perilous to the future of free speech and freedom of protest at these colleges. Pomona’s ban on The Outback’s co-Editor-in-Chief, threat of sanctions against Claremont Undercurrents, and intimidation of a The Scripps Voice reporter are active attempts by Pomona administration to quell student voices and ultimately suppress pro-Palestinian student activism on campus.

We are in solidarity and community with all students facing retaliation without due process. We will continue to tell your stories. Thank you for trusting us.

Ben Lauren Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Outback Newsprint Magazine

Willa Umansky Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Outback Newsprint Magazine

Maya Olson Managing Editor of The Outback Newsprint Magazine

Samson Zhang Editor-in-Chief of Claremont Undercurrents

Ellen Wang Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Scripps Voice

Juliette Des Rosiers Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Scripps Voice

Frances Walton Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Scripps Voice

This issue contains two op-ed pieces that do not follow TSL’s regular guidelines. Against our normal policies, we have decided to publish an op-ed with unnamed authors under the byline “Suspended Students,” as well as one with more than the established limit of three authors. We as the Editorial Board have determined that the conditions under which these pieces are published warrant the exceptions. In recent weeks, our colleges have utilized extrajudicial power to ban, suspend and intimidate students across the consortium and we take these actions seriously in the consideration of our reporting and policies. Our aim in these decisions is to continue our mission of amplifying student voices, especially in a time when those voices are in danger. We have been in direct contact with the anonymous authors and can testify that there are real voices behind the piece and that they have valid concerns about publishing their names due to the possibility of further disciplinary action or legal prosecution. Meanwhile, a high number of authors on an op-ed often serves promotional purposes, however, we chose to allow this many authors on the piece because we believe it is written as a show of solidarity between student media outlets and that its content necessitates the exception.

Washburn, Editor-in-Chief

Pomona college has issued bans, restrictions and suspensions in the wake of the Oct. 7 2024 occupation of carnegie Hall.

Ansley

June Hsu, Managing Editor of News and Sports

Tania Azhang, Managing Editor of Arts & Culture and Opinions

one team, one dream: Let’s bring the Claremont Colleges together

Imagine this: one unified sports team representing the Claremont Colleges, made up of athletes from all five campuses — Claremont McKenna College (CMC), Harvey Mudd College (HMC), Scripps College, Pomona College and Pitzer College. This combined force could be a Division III powerhouse. It would be capable of sweeping through NCAA tournaments while representing the Claremont Colleges not just as an academic elite, but as an athletic one too.

Why do this, you ask? Aren’t our current athletic rivalries between Claremont Mudd-Scripps (CMS) and Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) part of the charm of the 5Cs? Sure, but who doesn’t like winning on the bigger stage? Combining forces would create an opportunity to build a stronger, more competitive athletic program that could go head-tohead with the very best in Division III, all while preserving the unique identities of our individual schools.

We already see strong performances from both CMS and P-P athletics, with the Stags and Athenas having won a combined 336 SCIAC championships and the Sagehens earning 268 titles of their own. These are impressive stats individually, but there is potential in merging these programs. Both CMS and P-P teams consistently make NCAA tournament appearances — the CMS’s men’s soccer team, for instance, has had stellar recent seasons, while P-P’s cross-country teams frequently rank among the top in the nation. A unified team would not only build on these successes but also create more opportunities for recruitment and athletic growth.

One of the Claremont Colleges’ greatest selling points is its academic rigor. Students at the 5Cs have top-notch faculty and resources. All five schools rank highly among national liberal arts colleges, with U.S. News & World Report ranking CMC, Pomona and HMC in the top 12 best liberal arts colleges in 2025.

Balancing academic and athletic excellence isn’t easy, but it’s exactly what the Claremont Colleges are built for. A combined athletic program would reflect the same commitment to excellence as our academics, showing the world that we can dominate both in the classroom and on the field. There’s no need to settle for being great in just one area when we can excel in both.

A concern with merging athletic programs is that each of the 5Cs has its own distinct identity. However, it’s this diversity of cultures that could make a combined team even more interesting. The Claremont College consortium is already known for its unique ability to balance five different schools while fostering a shared sense of community. Bringing that into the athletic realm would only strengthen the relationships between the 5Cs. Maybe this powerhouse Division III team would inspire even more collaboration between the 5Cs in other areas of student life, allowing for a more cohesive Claremont Colleges community.

This doesn’t mean losing the unique identities of CMS and P-P, but rather building something bigger that includes all of us. Each college would still bring its own flavor to the unified team, celebrating the diversity that defines the 5Cs. The traditions and school spirit would continue to thrive, but now under one banner that reflects the shared strength of all five schools coming together as the Claremont Colleges.

Uniting the varsity sports teams across the Claremont Colleges would benefit everyone. We could build a stronger, more competitive athletic program while still celebrating the unique cultures of our five schools.

It’s time for the Claremont Colleges to think bigger. We’re already some of the brightest minds in the country, so let’s make sure we’re also some of the strongest.

Sagehens men’s water polo continues strong SCIAC season with win over La Verne

Feathers and fur were flying on Wednesday, Oct. 23 at Haldeman Pool as the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) men’s water polo team toughed out a 17-12 win against the La Verne Leopards in a tense back-and-forth contest. Their conference record is now 5-1 and 11-9 overall, placing them at No. 2 in this week’s Division III men’s water polo rankings.

P-P came into the game riding a two-game winning streak, having won five out of six SCIAC matchups thus far. The Leopards had also faced six SCIAC opponents, winning two games and losing the other four.

According to Logan Colman PZ ’28, the Sagehens entered the matchup with a few specific goals in mind.

“[We wanted to] play good defense, limit the counter goals that La Verne would score on us, and just push the counter and try to get their best players ejected out of the game,” Colman said.

Though the Sagehens drew two ejections across the first two quarters, they managed to keep the game close with no team taking more than a one-point lead at a time.

Colman, Conrad Hugar PO ’26 and Darragh Flanders PO

’28 each contributed one goal to maintain a 3–3 tie at the end of the first quarter. The second matched the intensity of the first as both teams hunted for the lead. Goals by Zach Whitfield PO ’27, Max Distaso PO ’27 and Miles Chiang PO ’27 kept the Sagehens neck-andneck with the Leopards, and P-P ended the half with six goals to the Leopards’ seven.

Strong defensive efforts in the first half kept the Sagehens in the game, as the Leopards converted six powerplay opportunities into just two goals. On the other side of the pool, P-P was able to convert one of two six-on-five opportunities, keeping them on the scoreboard and within range of a lead.

The Sagehens came out strong in the third quarter, as Hugar scored back-to-back goals in the first two possessions. The Leopards responded with four more goals but efforts from Hugar, Colman, Flanders and Jack Ryan PZ ’25 put the Sagehens up 12–11 with eight minutes left to play. Three goals in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter bumped the Sagehens’ lead to 15–11, the first time either team had more than a one-goal advantage the whole game. From there, the Sagehens ran away with the lead, only allowing one more goal

from the Leopards and scoring two more for a 17–12 victory.

According to Hugar, the Sagehens’ fourth-quarter performance was crucial to winning the game.

“Once we started to rely on our own counterattack, it was a lot better,” Hugar said. “I think we just started counterattacking a little bit more, tried to lock in a little more on defense and stop them from getting too many easy shots from the post and up top.”

Indigo Lee PO ’27 spoke on how close games like this one prepare the Sagehens for their approaching rivalry match against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS).

“You know, [CMS] has some talent … But I think overall, our team has been working really well together,” Lee said. “We have this nice little adhesive going. We should be able to take them down.”

The Sagehens will be back in action Oct. 25 through 27 in Santa Clara for the Julian Frasier Tournament, where they will compete against teams from across the state. Their next game in Claremont will be their first Sixth Street game of the season, taking place Wednesday, Oct. 30 at Axelrood Aquatics Center. P-P is seeking revenge for this game as they lost their last matchup against CMS in 2023, which broke their seven-game win streak against the Stags that began in 2021.

Recovering from a loss, CMS football posts dominant win against La Verne

On Saturday, October 19, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) football team grasped a dominant 57-14 victory over La Verne at home on Zinda Field.

Coming off a 13-41 loss to Chapman the previous week, the Stags were in pursuit of their fifth win of the season.

After their defeat, CMS tight end Roman Ramirez CM ’26 explained his mindset going into the game.

“We always treat every game like it’s a championship game,” Ramirez said. “We were pissed off that we lost last week. It was a bunch of mistakes that we didn’t want to make, so we just want to fix those and come out and set the tone.”

While La Verne looked to pick up their first season win, the Stags quickly stomped this hope with Mason Cotton CM ’25 starting the scoring for CMS early in the first quarter.

Cotton made a 67-yard punt return touchdown propelling CMS out to an early 7-0 lead. One drive later, the Stags defense forced a fumble at the La Verne 14-yard line, setting up a short touchdown drive for the offense and a commanding 14-0 Stags lead.

La Verne responded with a 71-yard methodical drive for a touchdown late in the first quarter, putting seven points on the scoreboard.

CMS answered at the beginning of the second quarter, as

Daniel Rosenberg CM ’25 caught a 39-yard touchdown to put the Stags even further up at 20-7. Coming back from halftime with a 27-point lead, the Stags

took full control of the game, shutting out La Verne in the third quarter and only giving up one touchdown in the fourth, with a final score of 57-14.

Kobey Jorgensen CM ’25, tight end and fullback for the Stags, detailed his own process for effectively blocking and setting up his teammates for success.

“Just mental reps,” Jorgensen said. “[I] think about my assignment, my role, my responsibility relative to my teammates, and how I can work within something bigger than me to make ourselves successful.”

CMS quarterback Walter Kuhlenkamp CM ’25 posted 101 passing yards and two touchdowns while also rushing 49 yards for the day. Stags running back Justin Edwards CM ’25 rushed for 122 yards and added two touchdowns to his tally toward reaching the 50-touchdown milestone.

CMS wide receiver Anderson Cynkar CM ’25 tallied two receptions for a total of 23 yards during the game, crediting much of his preparation to wide receiver coach, Luke Blochowski.

“He’s sort of preparing us for what kind of coverages we’ll see [and] how good their players are,” Cynkar said. “He’s reminding us of our favorite plays, reminding us of that whole scouting report throughout the week… keeping us honest, keeping us accountable.”

After the win, the Stags move to an overall record of 5-1 and 3-1 in conference with three games remaining in the regular season. CMS will play the University of Redlands in an away game on Saturday, Oct. 26. Following this, the Stags will travel to Chapman on Saturday, Nov. 2nd where they will look to avenge their recent loss.

GRANT BUTTON

SYDNEY KROONEN

cOUrteSY: POMONA-PItZer AtHLetIcS

cOUrteSY: cLAreMONt-MUDD-ScrIPPS AtHLetIcS

ANNIKA SHARMA

SASHA MAttHeWS • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

Logan colman PZ ’28 celebrates during the Hens’ 17-12 win over La Verne on Wednesday, Oct. 23, which brought them to second in ScIAc

Justin edwards cM ’25 breaks off a run against La Verne. the Stags routed the Leopards 57-14.

As NCAA Nationals loom, P-P secures first and second places at invitational

off

The Sagehens put on their racing shoes to compete against fellow Division III foes at the annual Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) Cross Country Invite, their last home race of the season, on Saturday, Oct. 20. In the 8,000-meter-race race, the P-P men’s team finished first overall with a score of 31 points and an average time of 25:19, beating out runners-up Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS). In the 6,000-meter-race, the women’s team placed second,

behind CMS, with a score of 29 and an average time of 22:33.

This race came just two weeks after the Hens flapped their feathers at the NCAA DIII Pre-Nationals in Indiana on Friday, Oct. 4, where the P-P men’s team took first place in the 8K out of 46 teams from across the country and the women’s team placed sixth out of 44 teams in the 6K. As of this week, the P-P men’s team is now ranked No. 3 in DIII and the women are ranked No. 24.

Chloe Connolly PO ’25 placed 71st in pre-nationals out of 389

competitors and was the highest finisher for the P-P women on Saturday, placing sixth overall with a time of 22:24.50. Connolly spoke about how recent strong finishes from across the team will help the team push forward into the rest of the season.

“I think we have a lot of good momentum going,” Connolly said. “After [pre-nationals], we weren’t ranked nationally at all, and then we hopped up onto the national rankings. So I think we have a lot more to give. I think we’re on kind of an upswing

right now.”

The Hens are well-practiced on their home course, The Farm, which — according to several members of the team — is tougher than most. For Joya Terdiman PO ’26, who finished seventh in the invite with a time of 22:27.7, coming in with a strategy is key.

“It’s a lot about breaking it up into sections because it’s kind of on a slant so you’ve got to power the uphills,” Terdiman said. “And I kind of focus on running up The Farm and then using the down as like a mental break.”

Despite the taxing terrain, Jack Stein PO ’26 emphasized the difference in mentality for a race like the invite compared to the upcoming postseason meets. Stein ran a 24:50.1 8K in pre-nationals, placing 13th out of 405, and finished sixth in the invite with a time of 25:13.3.

“Pre-nationals is kind of like a halfway point and then after that, you can kind of ease off a little bit,” Stein said. “Then [it’s just about] setting your sights for the National meet in late November and these meets, like today.”

Owen Kobett PO ’25 placed 18th in pre-nationals and fifth in the invite. He agreed that even when facing off against rivals CMS in the invite, the stress differed from other races.

“I was a lot more relaxed coming into the race,” Kobett said. “I was just kind of thinking, this is my home race, and this is also my last home race. I’m a senior, so I just was gonna go out here and have fun.”

According to Kendall Madine PO ’28, who placed 11th at the invite, part of the Hens’ success was thanks to the team mentality that has helped runners race together and place higher.

“It’s a super tight pack this year, which is super fun because you can always rely on running with teammates, and it’s never too competitive between anyone,” Madine said. “Everyone always wants the best for each other, which I think is just super healthy and definitely pushes you.”

Despite their overall success at the invite, P-P did not place first in the women’s 6K. The CMS Athenas outscored P-P by 21 points, placing four runners in the top five.

The Stags couldn’t trample the men’s Hens team, finishing in second place in the men’s 8K with their 34 points second to P-P’s 31; however, the Stags placed four runners in the top 10. As the P-P men’s team vies for the top spot in the region, the coming weeks will be crucial for the title race.

“We haven’t won a SCIAC title since I think the 80s, so that would be pretty crazy for us,” Terdiman said “But we have a really strong, deep team this year. So I think mainly my focus is going to be on our team goal and seeing if we can fill out the win.”

P-P and CMS teams will be back in action on Saturday, Nov. 2 for the SCIAC Championships in Brea, CA.

CMS women’s soccer take down Tigers in pursuit of SCIAC title

On Wednesday, Oct. 23, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s soccer came ready for battle against Occidental to secure a 1-0 win and collect their second consecutive win against the Tigers after defeating them 3-1 on Oct. 16. Despite a tight battle in the first half leaving the teams in a deadlock, Tori Holden CM ’25 scored the game-winner with 20 minutes remaining. Following the two wins against the Tigers, CMS now sits in third place in SCIAC with a conference record of 7-2.

However, according to defender Annie McKinley CM ’25, the Athena’s sights are set beyond the SCIAC this year as they aim to get redemption against Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) and compete in the national tournament.

“Pomona-Pitzer has always been a big adversary for us,” McKinley said. “We consistently find ourselves matched up against them in the tournament and the last two years they’ve been the ones who knocked us out. We ended last season on a pretty bitter note and it’s kind of fueling this season.”

Even if the Athenas don’t come out on top in the SCIAC tournament, there is still a chance for them to compete in the postseason championship if they are ranked highly on the national stage.

“We want to play in November, that’s the big goal, getting out of our league and doing something beyond,” Kaitlyn Helfrich CM ’25 said. “I’ve wanted to make NCAAs since freshman year, and I think everyone on the team has that mindset.” In order to build a national ranking, the Athenas must remain consistent in the regular season which is why, according to Helfrich, games like these are crucial to the team’s success.

“This was an important night to get a win and keep the momentum going,” Helfrich said. “We just want to have momentum going

into playoffs and postseason.”

CMS has won their last four games, only falling to Cal Lutheran and P-P this season. Helfrich described how maintaining a calm mindset has been a deciding factor in the recent close wins.

“We’ve been in a lot of zero-zero games at halftime against teams we are controlling possession against, so we try not to be frantic,” she said. “I think we felt really in control and it was just about getting the ball in the net.”

Even though neither CMS nor Occidental scored in the first half,

the Athenas maintained control, only allowing Occidental one shot on goal while boasting 11 themselves.

Helfrich described how the Athenas’ dominant possession in the first half paved the way for Holden’s 69th-minute goal.

“We were able to just finish the game and be more composed on the ball knowing that we’re in the driver’s seat and we’re in position to win the game,” she said.

Helfrich and Frankie Fragola CM ’27 both saw contributions to Holden’s game-winner; starting

from far back in the left wing, Fragola sent a cross to the top of the 6-yard box where Helfrich found the ball and centered it to Holden.

“We’d been waiting for a good whipped-in ball like that all game,” Helfrich said. “Good build-up from the entire team, it started from the back line and a good finish by [Holden].”

Along with their second-half grit, the Athena’s strength this year is also in their numbers.

“We have a big team this year which brings the intensity in

training and that translates a lot into our games too,” Fragola said. CMS continues to stack the odds in their favor moving into the postseason which for seniors like McKinley, is what it’s all about.

“We have a chance to really make a run into the postseason, which is what me and all my other seniors have been looking for in the past four years,” she said.

The Athenas will look to snatch up another win when they travel to Caltech on Saturday, Oct. 26, where they will face off against Whitter and P-P the following week.

SArAH ZIFF • tHe StUDeNt LIFe

Coming

top finishes at the NCAA Division III Pre-Nationals, the Hens hosted their annual Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) Invite on Saturday, Oct. 19. The men’s team placed first and the women’s team placed second, close behind rivals Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS).

JOSH GEHRING