Vol. CXXXIV No. 8

Pomona affinity groups fight for adequate space on campus

SARA CAWLEY, SAJAH ALI & MARIANA DURAN

Over the past month, several 5C affinity groups have been in an ongoing struggle with Pomona Col lege administration to preserve and provide permanent safe spaces for students of color.

Leaders of Pomona’s Latinx Alli ance (LXA) and Black Student Union (BSU) mobilized students to protest the college’s plans to accommodate more affinity groups, such as BSU, in the same space in the Clark V base ment by building a wall through the Students of Color Alliance (SoCA) lounge, which is already used by six affinity groups.

Dean of Students Avis Hinkson and Associate Dean of Students Brandon Jackson offered BSU half of the SoCA lounge during a meeting after BSU was displaced when their temporary meeting location in the Smith Campus Center was partially converted into office space.

CMC to float through Rose Parade

To celebrate 75 years since it took root, Claremont McKenna College rose to a sweet-smelling architectural challenge. CMC will participate in the 2023 Rose Parade, an annual New Years tradition in Pasadena, with a custom-made float celebrating the “stories and traditions” of CMC, the college announced Nov. 9.

The float, now under production at an Irwindale warehouse, will be 55 feet long and 25 feet tall. This will be the first time a member of the Claremont Colleges participates in the Rose Parade.

Featuring flower-covered floats, marching bands and equestrian units, the Rose Parade is held every year along Colorado Boulevard before the Rose Bowl, a major college football game.

In 1890, the parade began to celebrate the abundance of flowers in Southern California during the middle of the winter. Entrants to the parade would decorate their carriages with hundreds of flowers. The parade has blossomed since, now using state-of-the-art float technology.

The theme of the Jan. 2 parade

Tension over a potential wall being built in the SoCA Lounge cul minated in a sit-in on Wednesday, when a group of over 50 students walked into President G. Gabrielle Starr’s office hours at Pomona’s new Athletics Center chanting “Stop the wall.”

Starr told students present at her office hours that the administration no longer has a timeline to build a wall in the SoCA lounge. However, she said that she couldn’t promise that a wall would never be built in the lounge due to a “space con straint” on campus.

Starr said that Hinkson regret ted not consulting student leaders prior to Hinkson and Jackson’s pro posal to partition the SoCA lounge to add space for BSU.

“I think it was a good faith effort to try to accommodate one group,” Starr said.

Starr’s update on the status of the SoCA lounge wall came almost a week after BSU, LXA and

Caballeros & Señoritas Student Alliance (CSSA) hosted a town hall meeting to discuss adminis tration’s lack of transparency with affinity groups.

In the town hall, members of BSU and LXA talked about BSU’s struggles to secure a permanent space to meet on campus, the up coming construction of a wall in the SoCA lounge and the contin ued expansion of administrative office space at the cost of safe spaces for students of color.

BSU co-president Jonathan Williams PO ’24 told students at the town hall that after BSU met with Hinkson this March to discuss finding a consistent space for Black students on Po mona’s campus, they were told they would have access to Smith Campus Center’s Room 212 as a temporary space during business hours when not in use by faculty,

Scripps professor Martha Gonzalez awarded ‘Genius Grant’

QUINTEN CARNEY

On Oct. 12, the MacArthur Foundation awarded Martha Gonzalez, assistant professor of Chicano/a-Latino/a studies at Scripps College, a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship for her work as a musician, cultural theorist and activist.

The MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “Genius Grant,” awards $800,000 to “individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked

capacity for self-direction,” per the fellowship’s website. Gonzalez is one of just 25 recipients to receive this year’s award.

The fellowship is recognized for its unrestricted nature, allowing recipients total independence in their creative endeavors.

At the moment, though, Gonzalez said she doesn’t know exactly what she’ll do with the funds.

“This money is very welcomed, of course, but I don’t necessarily

See GRANT on page 2

Athenas volleyball cements undefeated season in Sixth Street SCIAC face off

AMALIA KOCH

The entire crowd at Claremont McKenna College’s Roberts Pa vilion was on its feet. One more point, and the Athenas would secure their fifth conference title in a row, a first in the SCIAC tournament’s 14-year history. A hum of excitement reverberated across the bleachers. A final kill from Jenna Holmes CM ’24, and the crowd erupted in cheers as the players rushed the court.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps vol leyball shut down Pomona-Pitzer 3-0 Saturday night to claim its sixth SCIAC Championship in the past seven years, cementing the program’s legacy as a conference dynasty.

Nevertheless, the Sagehens made the Athenas work for the title. Holding its ground for much of the first set, P-P managed to stay neck-and-neck with CMS until reaching even at 18-18 until a timeout stopped play.

The Athenas came out of the break with great defensive work by Dede Carranza CM ’25, Geor gia McGovern CM ’24 and Jackie Jones CM ’23, propelling them to

a three-point lead. P-P called another timeout to try to find a way to keep up with the Athenas, but it was futile, as the Athenas went on to claim the opening set 25-20.

While the Athenas did not trail through most of the second set, the Sagehens held close until the scoreboard read 20-19. Errors from both teams made the score 24-21 in favor of CMS, but P-P received an opportunity to even the game at a set apiece when an unforced error and a kill by Kellan Hayes PO ’25 brought it within one point.

The atmosphere in Roberts was tense as the score read 24-23 Athenas, but a missed P-P spike handed CMS the second set.

At this point, the Athenas had lost one set in conference play all season. The Sagehens needed to win three in a row — P-P was in dire straits.

Although the Sagehens put to gether an early lead at the start of the third set, CMS caught up and did not look back. After establishing a dominant six-point lead (19-13), it was smooth sailing until the final spike from Holmes, which crowned the Athenas as the 2022 SCIAC

Heavy rains sweep through Claremont, damages follow

JAKE CHANG

Heavy rain showered the Cla remont Colleges this Tuesday, causing student displacement and damage to facilities, including residence halls.

Los Angeles County had al ready experienced significant rainfall the previous day, and it continued through Election Day.

“Southern California weather trends over various years have had major storms come through the area, including those experi enced this week,” Larry J. Burik, Claremont McKenna College as sociate vice president of facilities management & capital projects, said in an email to TSL.

In preparation for storm weather, Pomona College inspects and clears all interior and exteri or drainage systems, including leaves and other debris from inlet areas throughout campus, Robert Robinson, assistant vice president of facilities and campus services, told TSL.

“All of our housing facilities are on a regular maintenance schedule,” Robinson said. “But with heavy rain, drains can still get overwhelmed.”

The rain affected multiple Pomona residence halls: rooms in Walker Hall, a ceiling in Gib

son Hall and a room in Harwood experienced water leakage due to a clogged spout.

Of those, only the Harwood dorm has been repaired, while drywall repair and painting is scheduled for next week in the Gibson dorm. In Walker Hall, a roofing contractor came up with a timeline for repairs on Wednesday.

CMC also ensures all rooftop and ground drains are clear of debris and puts out sandbags in various cam pus locations to divert rainwater in anticipation of storms. Nevertheless, CMC experienced damages caused by the rainfall.

“Due to the severity of the recent storm, we did experience roof leaks and one landscape flood that came under the door of an apartment,” Burik said.

CMC provided impacted students with temporary housing accom modations and is working with the students to inventory any property damage, according to Burik.

“Our roofing contractor did their best to resolve the matter during the rain event,” Burik said. “We are following up with the various leak lo cations for a more permanent repair.”

Walker Hall resident Ethan Diaz PO ’24 lives in one of the dorms im pacted by the flooding at Pomona. See RAIN on page 3

Don’t be n(arrow)-minded, try out a new sport at the 5C Ar chery Club. They promise you won’t make arch-enemies, but if you do, that’s just more target practice. Read more on page 9.

Pitzer linguistics professor

The Scripps Halloween fiasco wasn’t just annoying and alarm ing, argues Zeean Firmeza PO ‘26. It was also a wake-up call, a warning for administration and students to prioritize safety.

LIFe

RYA JETHA

Pomona’s LXA, bSU and CSSA mobilize students in a town hall to protest the plan to build a wall in the lounge.

CoURTeSY: JoHN D. AND CATHeRINe T. mACARTHUR FoUNDATIoN

martha Gonzalez is a musician, scholar, artist, activist and now 2022 macArthur Fellow.

See ROSE on page 3

CoURTeSY: JoSH YUm

JoNATHAN Ke THe STUDeNT LIFe

Athena Jenna Holmes Cm ’24 goes for the kill as a group of Sagehens look to defend en route to Claremont-mudd-Scripps’s three set sweep of Pomo na-Pitzer to win the SCIAC Championship.

See ATHENAS on page 9

SOCA: Students feel unheard by Pomona administration

Continued from page 1

staff or student groups.

Hinkson told TSL that “SCC 212 has been made available to students in the evenings and on weekends.”

Williams said BSU was told they would have access to the space until 2023 when a hired contractor was expected to have found a permanent space for BSU.

However, during an Oct. 10 meet ing with Hinkson and Jackson, the BSU executive board was informed that part of their temporary meeting space was being converted into an administrative office and that they would not be able to access SCC 212 during the construction peri od – which is set to end this week, according to Hinkson and Jackson’s statement to TSL.

During the renovation, the ad ministrators told BSU it could use another temporary meeting space in the SCC during the construction. Williams said the executive board was not told that three other groups also used this new temporary space.

Williams told TSL that this vio lates their temporary contract with Pomona, which states that their meet ing place needs to be a safe space for students of the African diaspora.

During the same meeting, Hink son proposed that half of the SoCA lounge could be a permanent space for the BSU moving forward by building a wall through it, Williams said. The SoCA lounge is also used by LXA, CSSA, Eritrean and Ethiopian Student Association (EESA), African Student Association (ASA), Women of Pre-Health and Asian American Resource Center (AARC).

LXA Co-president Elisa Velasco PO ’23 told TSL that neither she nor her Co-president Kenia Garcia-Ra mos PO ’23 were told about the po tential construction of a wall through their meeting space.

“We were just going to come home after winter break and there

GRANT: Gonzalez embodies creativity

Continued from page 1

have plans for it just yet,” she said. “It might facilitate some things, it might make some things a bit easier — but generally speaking it’s a little overwhelming because I’m used to working with zero budget.”

However, she noted that the grant would allow her more time to devote to her current projects.

“This will free me up,” she said. “I have recording projects lined up… [in] collaboration with some artists that I’ve been wanting to work with for a while, and I want to also really take time to write,” Gonzalez said. Her second book focuses on women and transnational music practice.

“Professor Gonzalez’s research and accomplishments exemplify the importance and power of interdisciplinarity, creativity, critical thinking and community engagement — all of which are pillars of Scripps’ educational mission,” Vice President of Academic Affairs Amy Marcus-Newhall said in an email to TSL. “We are honored by what she has accomplished and are excited for her future academic and artistic achievements!”

Gonzalez’s work concentrates on music theory and social activism, complemented by her role in the East Los Angeles rock group Quetzal. The band tells stories of society, culture, politics and music of people in struggle from a perspective rooted in feminism and social activism.

Additionally, she is the director of the Scripps Humanities Institute, where her work centers on how various cultural practices are used around the world as tools of dialogue, healing and self- and community empowerment.

These themes of empowerment and activism are prominent in Gonzalez’s life and work.

“I am proud of the fact that, regardless of what spaces I am in, what is most present in my mind is social justice,” Gonzalez said. “Social justice for underserved communities, women, people of color … The abuse of power on these communities, and how I’ve utilized the tools of music in so many different ways in order to push back on some of these ideologies and ways of being in the world.”

Her vital work has not gone unrecognized. In addition to the MacArthur Fellowship, Gonzalez has previously received the Ford and Woodrow Wilson Fellowships and is a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Scholar.

“Professor Gonzalez has expanded our course offerings by designing and teaching classes on popular culture, music and performance, such as Fandango as a De-Colonial Tool and Artvisitas in the Americas,” Gilda Ochoa, chair of the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies, said via email. “She has brought so much to our department with her creative productions, transnational approaches, transdisciplinary training and the overall communitycentered ethos she embodies.”

was going to be a giant wall divid ing our space,” Velasco said.

Williams added that both deans said they were unaware of the fact that the SoCA lounge was already being occupied by numerous other groups.

“We told [Avis] that we did not feel comfortable taking space from other students of color just because space was taken from us,” Williams said.

Despite BSU’s refusal to make the SoCA lounge their permanent space, Hinkson told several affinity group leaders that construction of a wall through the space would hap pen during winter break regardless of whether or not BSU moved into the lounge.

Following meetings with Hink son, students mobilized in protest over the past two weeks. Besides attending Starr’s meeting and hosting a town hall open to the stu

dent body, BSU, LXA and Occupy Pomona shared social media posts and hung flyers across campus, prompting a shift in the timeline to build the wall.

In a joint statement to TSL, Hinkson and Jackson confirmed that despite their offer to partition the SoCA lounge to give space to BSU, all plans for construction are on hold “while [they] continue to explore alternatives with student input.”

“BSU, like many other clubs on campus, doesn’t have a permanent place of their own to meet but instead can make use of a number of shared spaces,” Hinkson and Jackson said in a statement to TSL. “Creating a space for students from the African Diaspora is distinct from the needs of one club and will provide access to several student groups and individuals.”

After an Oct. 10 meeting with

Hinkson and Jackson, BSU worked with Kristin Walters, ASPC vice president of student affairs, to find an adequate permanent meeting space. They proposed the Heritage Lounge, a space under Norton Clark that accommodates 50 peo ple, to Jackson during an Oct. 31 meeting.

According to Williams, Jackson said he would put the Heritage Lounge on a list of “open space,” but could not guarantee access, de spite BSU having received approval from Housing and Residential Life to do so.

“These affinity groups are doing the work that student affairs should be doing, and we’re doing it for free,” Williams said. “These affinity groups are creating safe spaces on campus, not student affairs.”

Garcia-Ramos said she feels betrayed by the Pomona admin istration.

“It’s important to think about how little space there already is for students of color on campus and the fact that we’re literally fighting over space that five groups share in a basement,” they said.

Velasco added that affinity groups and students of color at Pomona feel unheard.

“The administration seems to be going towards a more multicultural colorblind approach to student spaces, and so they said, ‘Why is it an issue that you guys have to share the space?’ but we all have our different issues,” she said. “We all want to have our own individual spaces where we can feel safe and have events.”

Velasco says that her experience at Pomona has not reflected one of a supportive community for people of color.

“It’s disappointing to see that Po mona, with the biggest endowment of three-point-something-billion, can’t provide spaces beyond a base ment for students of color, when at the same time, they’re constantly advertising the same students on their website with all these statistics,” she said.

Emily Pereznegron PO ’24, who was present at the meeting, also said the administration’s actions seemed to contradict the way Pomona mar kets itself.

“I can’t shake it off that all people of color are seen as one homogenous group,” Emily Pereznegron PO ’24 said. “Because Pomona advertises the school to be full of diversity, that should be their priority.”

Williams noted that as adminis tration works to increase the number of students of color at Pomona, there aren’t systems in place to support them.

“People of color are now more than 50 percent of the population at Pomona,” Williams said. “And the fact that they don’t have a safe space is a serious issue.”

Pomona alum named California Teacher of the Year

MAXINE DAVEY

On Oct. 13, California Su perintendent of Public Instruc tion Tony Thurmond named Jason Torres-Rangel PO ’03, an Advanced Placement (AP) English teacher at Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of five 2023 Cal ifornia Teachers of the Year. Additionally, Thurmond nom inated Torres-Rangel for the 2023 National Teacher of the Year competition.

TSL reached out to Tor res-Rangel to learn what the nomination means to him, his passion for teaching and how his experiences at Pomona Col lege shaped his career.

The interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

TSL: How does it feel being selected California Teacher of the Year and nominated for 2023 National Teacher of the Year?

Torres-Rangel: To be recog nized in this way has been at once humbling, but also incred ibly moving to get a chance to uplift the voices of my students and the work of my peers. I’m also the son of two retired Los Angeles teachers, and my brother is a teacher, so it’s also been really special to share this with my family. Teaching is a collective effort, it really takes a village and so this award is the celebration of everyone in my teaching family — students, co workers, counselors, custodial staff, psychologists, librarians, bus drivers, everyone.

TSL: What do you find most fulfilling about being a teach er?

Torres-Rangel: While teach ing can be incredibly chal lenging, it also fuels the soul like few other professions can.

High schoolers are hilarious, thoughtful and brilliant, and I feel so lucky that I get to spend all of my days with them — coaching them, challenging them, and learning from them — every period, every day. We laugh together, cry together, wonder together, learn along side together. It’s really spe cial to accompany teenagers through life as your day job. You help guide them, nurture them and help them reflect as they move through such a piv otal time in their lives.

But you also get to work with other educators and unpack the critical education problems of our time. How do you best teach writing to students of minoritized identities? How can schools become community hubs that provide wraparound services for families? How can we better embed social-emo tional learning into the school day? … How can schools uplift and celebrate student voices in a national policy context that still uses biased standardized exams as yardsticks to say this

student has what it takes, and that student does not? How can schools strengthen the very fab ric of our democracy? These are the complex, so-called “wicked” problems of education that re quire smart, innovative, compas sionate thinking, collaborative teams across disciplines and backgrounds. This is the charge of the current and next gener ation of educators and I’m so proud to be a part of this work.

TSL: What experiences at Pomo na shaped your career?

Torres-Rangel: I had so many formative classes, professors, friends and administrators at Pomona that continually inspire my teaching, even now. My freshman seminar class was called “Maps in Fiction, Fiction in Maps’’ and taught by the re nowned Edward Copeland. The class made my mind burst with wonder about what education could look like.

[One]Another formative Po mona person in my life was professor Raymond Buriel, re nowned Chicano Studies pro fessor, who helped me not only explore my own cultural and ethnic identity, but he was also the one who set me on my cur rent career path. Often it’s that mentor in our lives who sees something in us that we don’t see yet, and professor Buriel saw something in me.

‘03

One day, he told me that he thought I’d make a great teacher, and I remember being kind of surprised. Though my parents were teachers, I hadn’t consid ered the profession for myself. He said he would write a letter of recommendation for me for a special Rockefeller fellowship that would pay for a masters in eEducation. I followed his advice, got the fellowship and I think that’s one reason I got into Harvard [University’s] Teacher Education program.

Black Studies professor Phyl lis Jackson was also a formative force in my own self-actualiza tion as an activist — I am forever indebted to her for raising my consciousness, introducing me to bell hooks and Stuart Hall and always holding the highest standard for our studies.

TSL: How did your major at Pomona prepare you to become a teacher?

Torres-Rangel: I majored in English but dabbled in a bunch of other majors first — Media Studies, Chicano Studies, Black Studies, Psychology — I think I was even an Anthropology/ Archaeology major for a split second.

My Pomona coursework truly embodied the soul of what a lib eral arts education is supposed to be about — pushing beyond the boundaries of a discipline

to engage in the study of life, the study of those big existential ques tions, the study of injustice and about dreaming big for changing our world for the better. I bake all of that into my teaching.

I love to help students have those same consciousness-raising moments I experienced in my Black Studies, Chicano Stud ies, Gender Studies and English classes. I definitely teach through a social justice lens and believe that high school should inspire joy, self-discovery, activism, hope, community and ultimately love.

TSL: Do you have any advice for Pomona students looking to go into teaching?

Torres-Rangel: Teaching is one of the best jobs in the world. If you love learning, love helping others explore life and the world and you lead with joy, humor and love, I’d consider teaching! We always need good teachers! And programs like Teach for America aren’t the only way to get into teaching — in fact, I’d encourage folks to consider a masters-plus-credential program — those programs really prepare you well and attract some of the best people on this eEarth. And if folks are curious, feel free to reach out to me — I always love connect ing with fellow Sagehens. As you can tell, I had a really great time at Pomona, and think it’s a pretty special place.

WeNDY ZHANG • THe STUDeNT LIFe

The SoCA Lounge provides a safe space for Pomona affinity groups to gather.

CoURTeSY: JASoN ToRReS-RANGeL

Recognized for his work in education, Jason Torres-Rangel Po

is now a California Teacher of the Year.

ROSe: ‘Stories and traditions,’ celebrates CMC’s diamond anniversary

Continued from page 1

is “Turning the Corner,” and CMC’s float will contain symbols of the college and Claremont.

“We decided to highlight the iconic Kravis Center, Roberts Pavilion and transformative Robert Day Sciences Center, our Public Art Program, flora rooted in Southern California and, of course, Mt. Baldy,” Evan Rutter CM ’06, assistant vice president for alumni and parent engagement, told TSL.

The idea for the float stems from the 75th anniversary planning committee, formed during the 20212022 academic year, Rutter said. While the committee planned to apply for the Rose Parade in 2021, the parade was postponed due to the pandemic.

“The Board of Trustees and

CMC’s President, Hiram Chodosh, and the Committee, however, were steadfast that the float and related activities would be 100 percent funded from philanthropic dollars and support student scholarships at CMC,” Rutter said.

In alignment with this goal, CMC launched an “Adopt a Rose” program for contributions toward student scholarships.

After its application was accepted, CMC began working with Fiesta Parade Floats — the most awarded float builder in Rose Parade history — to design and build the float.

“Through this initiative, we hope to engage thousands of alumni, parents, students, faculty and staff in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in the myriad activities throughout

December and early January, and join us as we look to the College’s next 25 years and beyond,” Rutter said.

The 2023 parade will feature an additional Claremont connection. Gabby Giffords SC ’93, a former Democratic Congresswoman from Arizona, will be the grand marshall for the 2023 parade. Giffords gave the commencement address at Scripps College in 2009, and former president Barack Obama called her “a hero” while meeting with Scripps alumni in 2015.

Giffords was shot in the head while meeting with constituents in 2011, causing her to suffer a major brain injury. She is now a gun safety advocate and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this year.

5Cs announce testing, booster requirements ahead of break

HANNAH FRASURE

With COVID-19 cases rising and a busy travel season looming, several 5Cs announced updates to testing and booster requirements.

On Tuesday, Shawnice Ross, Scripps College’s student affairs service coordinator, emailed stu dents that everyone outside a 90-day-infection period must test this week since the college did not meet its 15 percent voluntary testing threshold last week.

Pomona College announced in an email sent to the class of 2025 that it also did not reach its 15 percent testing quota. Conse quently, the class was required to test once from Nov. 8 to 11 ahead of the upcoming Thanksgiving break requirement.

“As mentioned in yesterday’s email from Dean Hickson, a co hort of students will be required to test each week that we don’t achieve 15 percent of the total student population optionally testing,” Sophomore Class Dean Cassandra Godinez said in the Nov. 9 email.

Pomona announced plans to require students to test weekly for the two weeks following Thanksgiving break, President G. Gabrielle Starr said in a Monday email to the community.

These upcoming testing re quirements follow Pomona’s COVID-19 policy for this semes ter, which states that all students must test once weekly for two weeks after every break.

While Pitzer College hasn’t announced any changes to its current testing requirements, Sandra Vasquez, vice president for student affairs, emailed students Oct. 28 that they must receive their

RAIN: Pomona residents displaced, dorms damaged

Continued from page 1

Maintenance was sent to his room the same day to evaluate Diaz and his neighbor’s damages, along with those of two dorms on the floor above him.

Maintenance staff told him to go to the Housing and Residence Life (HRL) office to collect his keys to a temporary room in Oldenborg. Diaz said many of his personal belongings on the floor were damaged, but when he asked HRL staff about compen sation for the damaged belongings, they reportedly told him that there was nothing they could do due to his lack of renter’s insurance.

“A lot of personal belongings that had meaning were damaged, and these are sensitive,” Diaz said. “Even their solutions were very businesslike, rather than a student relationship with [HRL]. We’re liv ing in dorms, not renting from some landlord. We have to live here.”

Throughout the rest of the day, Diaz tried to contact the HRL office about the situation in his flooded room. He says he did not receive an answer until after several attempts, despite calling during business hours.

“It was very hard to reach anyone. I tried calling [HRL] a bunch of times during this whole thing, and they never answer their phones during business hours,” Diaz said. “It just seems like there’s no communication between administration and students in situations like these where it would be critical.”

Lyon Court resident Simon Shelley PO ’26 also experienced damages to his dorm after cracks in his ceiling appeared and water leaked into his room.

Shelley said that maintenance responded within minutes of him submitting a work order. They believed that the damage was being caused by a clogged drain on the roof that contained water, according to Shelley.

The cracks are still present in his dorm’s ceiling, and Shelley hopes that student dorms are improved upon in the near future.

“It seems like the administra tion should invest a bit more into the dorms,” Shelley said. “I think they should be renovated. I mean, I’ve got cracks in the ceiling that should probably be repaired.”

Diaz emphasized the need for college administration to take the quality of student life on campus more seriously.

“I really wish that [HRL] could have some empathy to under stand what we’re going through as students,” Diaz said. “Hope fully, faculty or administration can reach out, and we can come to some sort of better solution and conclusion than what we have.”

As of Nov. 10, Pitzer and Scripps College administrations said they needed more time to respond to TSL’s request for com ment. Harvey Mudd did not respond to TSL’s request for com ment.

REIA LI

Last month, Claremont city officials responded to an Aug. 12 violation notice from the state of California, claiming that the city did not violate state housing law — the latest development in a legal back-and-forth battle over Larkin Place, a proposed afford able housing complex.

If Larkin Place materializes, the would-be 33-unit complex will house people with special needs who have been houseless or at a higher risk of experiencing houselessness. Its proposed site plan has been a source of debate among residents and City Council members, who have expressed concerns with the height and location of the building, which is near a local park and elementary school.

California’s Housing Account ability Act (HAA) restricts Cla remont’s ability to deny or limit the density of affordable housing projects. Despite this, Claremont’s City Council voted June 28 to deny an easement that would have allowed vehicular access to the proposed building through the adjacent Larkin Park. In doing so, Claremont rejected the pre ferred building plan devised by Jamboree Housing Corporation, the nonprofit developer set to build Larkin Place.

In response, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) wrote an Aug. 12 letter to Clare mont alleging that the city broke the Housing Accountability Act, which states that local govern ments can only deny housing for low, very low and moderate income people if it adversely impacts public health and safety.

“Because the easement was imposed as a condition of approv al for [Larkin Place], the denial of the easement equates to the disapproval of the Project,” the HCD letter said. “In denying the easement, the City of Claremont has violated the [HAA].”

On Oct. 12, Claremont City Manager Adam Pirrie said that the easement rejected one of several possible proposed site plans for Larkin Place, not the project itself.

“HCD fails to recognize that while the Site Plan as proposed has no vehicular access other than access through Larkin Park, other feasible Site Plans are available not requiring vehicular access through Larkin Park,” Pirrie wrote in his letter to the HCD.

Pirrie wrote that Claremont has been in “ongoing discussions with [Jamboree] regarding alter nate site plans for [Larkin Place] that do not require vehicular ac cess through Larkin Park.”

Pirrie did not respond to TSL’s request for comment.

Corrections

Jamboree was unable to provide an update about the status of Larkin Place while there is an ongoing investigation, Marissa Feliciano, Jamboree’s director of marketing and communications, told TSL via email.

Some members of Housing Claremont, a nonprofit that advo cates for affordable housing, said the City’s response to HAA could bring fiscal and legal consequences to Claremont.

Housing Claremont President Ilsa Lund told TSL that the nonprof it disagreed with Claremont’s legal argument and added that although the HAA is up for interpretation, Claremont’s decision could cost the city more money if the HCD pursues litigation.

“This fight has already cost Cla remont thousands in legal fees, on top of the loss of more than $700,000 in [Larkin] park improvements that Jamboree had agreed to pay for as part of [the] design that [the] Coun cil rejected,” Lund said.

Claremont McKenna College professor Zachary Courser, who is also a Board Member of Housing Claremont, said the state could apply enforcement mechanisms if Claremont is found in violation of housing law.

Courser pointed to Santa Moni ca, a city that did not build enough affordable housing as mandated by the HAA and was put under the “builder’s remedy” this February. This means that any housing project with a certain percentage of low or moderate-income units will be au tomatically approved, even if it does not meet local zoning standards.

“I think [Claremont] residents are going to discover, maybe pain fully, that — either through en forcement actions that come with penalties or projects that are built without local approval — things have changed,” Courser said. “And if you don’t choose to cooperate, things get worse, not better.”

Despite the likelihood that Lar kin Place will be built, the project continues to be a point of tension

boosters prior to returning to campus from winter break or before Jan. 9, whichever date comes first.

Pitzer’s Office of Student Affairs told TSL via phone that Pitzer would likely implement mandatory testing upon students’ return following Thanksgiving break. The college’s current COVID-19 policy states that students will test after returning from winter break, spring break “and other breaks as determined necessary by the College.”

Harvey Mudd College announced its booster requirement two weeks ago after a spike in cases, but along with Claremont McKenna College, it has not announced any testing re quirements following Thanksgiving break.

Harvey Mudd’s Division of Stu dent Affairs was unaware whether Harvey Mudd would implement mandatory testing following Thanks giving.

Claremont McKenna’s Dean of Students Office said via phone that Claremont McKenna is waiting to hear back from the COVID-19 Com pliance Committee to decide whether to implement mandatory testing after break.

among residents and City Council members, who have different per spectives on the effects of the project.

Some residents, such as Linda Mawby, supported Claremont’s response to the HAA. Mawby is the group administrator of Safe and Transparent Claremont, an advocacy group formed “in response to the lack of transparency” regarding Larkin Place, according to its website.

In an email to TSL, Mawby cited economic concerns for the city if Larkin Place is constructed.

“Seniors and their support fam ilies will think twice about signing up to pay expensive fees to live at the nearby retirement villages,” she said.

Mawby also expressed worry that residents will be placed in Larkin Place from all over the San Gabriel Valley, not just Claremont, which she thought would make the city unsafe.

“Safe and Transparent Claremont will continue efforts to share concerns with project proponents that this is not the right population for this loca tion,” Mawby said. “This population will create unsafe conditions for the elderly and our children.”

Other residents, such as Elizabeth Moore, a resident and Board Member of Pilgrim Place, pushed back against the idea that the future residents of Larkin Place will pose a threat to the community’s safety.

“I’m very upset at how often I hear people say, ‘If they’re homeless, then they must be criminals,’” Moore said. “I know too many people who have struggled with addiction to say that they shouldn’t be helped first.”

Members of Inclusive Claremont, a group made up of Claremont Colleges students and Claremont community members that advocates for affordable housing in Claremont, canvassed in support of Larkin Place last spring and have continued to voice support for the project.

Emily Dietrick SC ’25 told TSL that the housing project is necessary to alleviate pressing issues related to a lack of housing in the region.

“This is how we help fix homeless ness. We build affordable housing,” Dietrick said.

Facing potential litigation, Claremont denies state’s claim that it broke housing laws over Larkin Place

In Issue 7, an article on the 5C production of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” incorrectly spelled Aidan Trulove SC ’24 as “Aiden.” The article also incorrectly described Trulove’s graduation year as 2023. Additionally, the article misidentified the graduation year of Ava Tiller PO ’23 as 2022. In Issue 7, an article on the Grove House kitchen reopening misidentified the graduation year of Max Sweeney PZ ’23 as 2025. TSL regrets these errors.

NANCY CHeN • THe STUDeNT LIFe Students will have to follow updated testing and booster requirements for the spring semester.

CoURTeSY: WIKImeDIA CommoNS

CMC’s float in the Rose Parade will celebrate its history and looks towards the future.

FLoReNCe PUN • THe STUDeNT LIFe

Heavy rain throughout Tuesday led to flooding in Pomona and CMC buildings and dorms.

ASAKA moRI • THe STUDeNT LIFe

Sabina Eastman PZ ’23 reflects on artistic transformation

‘El Apagón - Aquí Vive Gente’ sheds light on the gentrification of Puerto Rico

GIANA GERARDINO

Puerto Rico is a second home to me. Growing up, I used to spend two weeks of my summer in Puerto Rico and three weeks in the Dominican Republic vis iting my family and learning the culture of both Islands. My child hood was filled with cafe con leche y pan for breakfast, trips to the rio to swim and play with the fishes in the afternoon and dancing the night away to Daddy Yankee, Ivy Queen and Eddie Santiago.

and vivacious Island.

Hurricane Maria highlighted an underlying issue on the is land that Bad Bunny and Bianca Graulau were able to bring to the forefront in Bad Bunny’s new “El Apagón - Aquí Vive Gente” docu mentary/music video: the modern day colonization and displace ment of Puerto Rico and Boricuas.

new housing project for the rich. I was born there, and I can’t go in there … and it is not fair to be dis placed by economic interests. They want us to leave. No, we were born here. They are the ones that should leave.”

Long before her time at the Clare mont Colleges, Sabina Eastman PZ ’23 knew she wanted to be an artist; before she was even born, a psychic told her grandmother — an artist herself — that her granddaugh ter would be an artist. Her grand mother nurtured Sabina’s passion and taught Eastman the technical styles of drawing around the age of nine.

A double major in Art History and Studio Art, Eastman’s philos ophy is all about combining vari ous art movements and integrating them into her own personal style. Her main media of choice is print making, something she experiment ed with for a while in various 5C art classes. Part of her process includes analyzing exhibition styles and art movements and integrating them into her own artistic practices.

She has found that the Studio Art departments across the 5Cs al low her to explore more chemical processes of printmaking. She often etches her designs into copper and likes to use any sort of artistic alche my to create her art. Her art uses a variety of printmaking techniques to create portraiture of various women, often inspired by prominent figures in her life. She also uses charcoal and acrylic paint to portray feminine ex perience.

“There’s a lot of studio classes that have ‘experimental’ in the title or in the syllabus, and that’s some thing I’ve always found super help ful, because you’re just given a wide range of media to work with, and there aren’t strict parameters,” East man said.

She became well-acquainted with the process of printmaking through these classes and her pro fessors, who were able to dedicate their time to teaching more unfamil iar techniques.

“You really need to know the process in order for your ideas to come through in the media,” East man said.

Her art style is largely inspired by the strong feminine presences in her life, and her art aims to capture these positive influences that have encouraged her creative spirit.

“I try to portray different emo tions or different experiences through a portrait of somebody else that maybe I can see myself in,” she said.

THE bIbLIo-FILES

Eastman is inspired by the idea of other people acting as mirrors into each other, which shines through in her artistic ethos. She is also very deliberate in the way that she relates the concepts of her art to the medi um with which she is working.

“I think my art is very specif ic to the material that I’m using, and the historical background of that material, which is always really interesting to see how oth er people interpret it,” Eastman said.

She allows the parameters of the medium she works within to shape what concepts she brings to life. By exploring the depth of the medium she uses, she is able to gain a fuller understanding of this history behind the process itself.

Her focal point within the in tersection of Art History and Stu dio Art is the way of arranging her art in the context of an exhi bition. She sees the subtle power of having creative freedom in the curatorial process as a way to communicate subconscious meaning.

“Getting to choose the con texts that these works exist in is a really great opportunity that not many artists get outside of their thesis,” Eastman said. “And it’s something that really interests me, just how presenting certain artworks and those presentation methods communicate different meanings or can just help to con textualize those works.”

Another aspect of her artistic expression is being a part of cre ating a creative community with in the 5Cs called Catalyst Col lective. She asserts that there is immense importance in finding a space away from the intensity of academia to create and collab orate.

“Having a club like that is just such a great outlet because you’re not confined to any cer tain artistic experience or meth od,” Eastman said.

Her outlook on creating art always starts with an eye — re flecting her larger focus on detail and attention paid to seeing the bigger picture.

“Most of my portraits aren’t based off of anyone real,” East man said. “But they all end up looking like me.”

Bad Bunny, one of the hottest reggaeton artists to come out of Puerto Rico right now, recent ly released a music video to his song “El Apagón” in collabo ration with grassroots Puerto Rican journalist Bianca Graulau and her documentary “Aqui Vive Gente” to showcase the impact of new investors in Puerto Rico on Puerto Ricans. The part-doc umentary and part-music video is hard-hitting and important be cause it showcases the perspec tive of low-income Puerto Rican residences after the passage of a 2012 act about investors in Puer to Rico.

The documentary itself has an explosive start, pun intended, highlighting the amazing culture of Puerto Rico; the initial scenes play footage of the explosion at the LUMA electrical substation last June, knocking out power for schools, hospitals and homes on the island for months. This is nothing new for Puerto Rico; the last time I was able to visit the is land was in 2018, after Hurricane Maria ravished the island and displaced some of my family to Florida. That trip to Puerto Rico was different from past visits. There were houses all along the beach aligned with the same “For Sale” signs, “Se fue la luz!” every few hours or so and a bleak over all feeling from a once vibrant

On Jan. 17, 2012, Puerto Rico passed Act 22, dubbed the “Indi vidual Investors Act,” which ex empts new residents of the island from certain taxes. This act was meant to “fix” Puerto Rico’s econ omy by incentivizing investors to invest in Puerto Rico, and it is working — but not in the way Bo ricuas would enjoy.

The documentary highlighted the story of Maricusa Hernádez, an elder Dominican who moved to Puerto Rico in the 90s and lived in an apartment in Santurce, Puerto Rico. Santurce is one of the most densely populated and diverse ar eas of Puerto Rico, and after almost 26 years, Hernàdez and the rest of her apartment complex neigh bors were given 30 days to evac uate when a new Act 22 investor bought her building.

With the property having been bought by Act 22 investors, the is land is being transformed from the loving and welcoming community it once was to a segregated tourist attraction. Jorge Luis González’s story was also highlighted in the documentary as, for the last four generations, his family had been living in Puerta de Tierra, a mid dle-class to lower-class residential neighborhood outside of old San Juan. González wanted to live and die in Puerta de Tierra, but was forced to leave after new building owners destroyed public housing and replaced it with private hous ing.

“I have lived here. For 54 years, I lived on that corner,” González tells Graulau. “Look at it now: a

Puerto Rico is unique in that all beaches must have public access. This is because the beaches are owned by the people of Puerto Rico. However, the documentary calls at tention to the way that, in Dorado, one of the more luxurious areas in Puerto Rico, entrances to “West Beach” have been closed due to pri vate beachside housing built on the island. Access to the beach comes with a $18 million dollar price tag on housing or walking 1.3 miles across dangerous rocks.

Puerto Rico is the birthplace of reggaeton, home of the native tainos and origin of famous celebrities like mi amor Bad Bunny. The forced re location of Boricuas on the Island highlighted in Bad Bunny and Bian ca Graulau’s documentary showcas es the unjust mistreatment of native Puerto Ricans on the island.

As a descendant of Puerto Rico, it hurts to see the island I once viewed as a home being transformed by out siders. Logan Paul, one of the most well-known celebrities that moved to Puerto Rico, continuously preach es how much he and his brother love Puerto Rico, while showing no respect for Puerto Rico’s culture, val ues or way of life.

As the documentary highlights, Puerto Ricans are fine with gringos on the island, but not fine with grin gos controlling and changing the is land. Boricuas will continue to fight for our island because just as Bad Bunny said, “This is my beach, this is my sun / This is my land, this is me.”

Giana Gerardino CM ’24 is from Brook lyn, NY. She likes Bad Bunny, skincare and binge-watching bad reality TV shows.

How ‘The School for Good and Evil’ takes us down memory lane

Many of us have pieces of our childhood that we cling to because they make us feel safe and warm. Whether it’s a book, a stuffed animal or a visit to the zoo, nostalgia can be a powerful emotion, allowing us an avenue to remember a time when things were perhaps a little easier to deal with.

It is this emotion that we see today’s media industry capitalize on with book-to-movie adapta tions and television show reviv als. And as more of these proj ects get announced, it becomes increasingly clear that this is an era that favors nostalgia. One compelling example is the “The School for Good and Evil” series, where author Soman Chainani works to leverage these feelings, both through the original book and the more recent movie adap tation.

“The School for Good and Evil” follows two girls: Sophie — conventionally beautiful and blonde — and her dryer, dark er best friend, Agatha. The book picks up on a very intense day when the villagers are prepar ing for an annual event. Every year, two children, the best and worst in the village, are stolen from their beds in the middle of the night and separated, one into the School for Good and the oth er into the School for Evil. This is exactly what happens to our two protagonists, but to their chagrin, Sophie finds herself in the School for Evil while a much dismayed Agatha finds herself in the School for Good.

The book and the remaining

series follow their adventures, learning to embrace one’s inner nature, while also touching on the importance of friendship alongside other more traditional fairytale elements like romance and magic.

This subversive take on fairy tales is one that Chainani was very intentional about inte grating into worldbuilding. “I wanted a magical school that felt like a Madonna concert,” Chainani said in an interview with Netflix. And this is some thing he achieves by infusing the book with witty banter be tween characters, many a good and evil makeover and an end ing that leaves you reflecting on our interpretation of love stories through the lens of both roman tic and platonic relationships.

While this novel might have you laughing most of the way through, it also touches on heavier topics. We read along as Sophie spirals watching her best friend live out her dreams and see Agatha feel like an impostor as she struggles to keep her head above water in the School for Good. Chainani’s ability to en case these emotional moments in an overall fun and whimsical atmosphere is what makes this novel so deeply ingrained in the minds of those who read it.

Speaking of such, it’s import ant to consider who those were. “The School for Good and Evil” came out in 2013 and was mar keted to a younger teenage au dience. Many readers were well acquainted with the classic fairy tales and surprised to see them spun with a distinctly 2000s per spective. I remember reading the book at the age of 12, holed

up in bed and feeling a degree of kinship with both of the main characters. Their situations were completely unreal and fantasti cal, but seeing them approach their issues with levity felt like a safe place to explore very real feelings of insecurity and dis placement, feelings of which many young teenagers are well acquainted.

Thus it comes as no surprise that a book so in touch with its readers’ feelings would become tenderly engraved in our nostal gic hearts. After almost 10 years, “The School for Good and Evil” movie was released in October

2022, accruing over 78 million hours of watch time, and debut ing as the number-one watched film on Netflix for a week after its release.

Such success, while in con cert with an established cast, glamorous costume design and aggressive marketing, relied heavily on the readership sup port for the movie. And readers have been incredibly important in pushing for the support of this movie, many of whom are now in their twenties to thir ties and excited to see such an impactful piece of media re turn to the mainstream conver

sation. After the last couple of years of worldwide difficulty and hardship, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it makes sense that audiences long to expe rience media that is familiar and dear to their hearts, heralding a period of book-to-screen adapta tions.

“Heartstopper,” a 2016 web comic that chronicles the love story of two teenage boys, was released earlier in the year as a television series and was widely well-received. Another great ex ample is the popular young adult “Shadow and Bone” book series, which was also turned into a tele vision series that is now prepar ing for the release of its second season.

While there is a huge emotion al attachment to these franchises, these adaptations are also reliable in that they already have builtin audiences that are invested in these productions. Drawing in readers and non-readers alike, the book-to-movie adaptations provide all the emotional and economic benefits of helping its audience enjoy the messaging of beloved media through a new medium through the screen. Of course, there will always be argu ments over whether the book is better than the movie, but I think that that isn’t the main focus. Be cause in the end, we’re breathing new life into a previously aged piece of media, further immortal izing the art that’s brought us joy.

Oyedeji-Olaniyan CM ’23 is a dual neuroscience and literature major. If you need her, say her name in the mirror three times, and legend says she will appear to give you the perfect book recommendation.

CoUrTESY: WIKImEDIA CommoNS

LILA GAMBLE

Sabina Eastman PZ ’23 is inspired by the idea of other people acting as mirrors into each other, which shines through in her artistic ethos.

TOMI OYEDEJIOLANIYAN

Tomi

CoUrTESTY: SAbINA EASTmAN

The music video for Bad Bunny’s song “El Apagón” also serves as a documentary on gentrification in Puerto rico.

Carly Rae Jepsen and King Princess on loving and letting go

I am not good at letting go. Like so many of us, I listen to mu sic for clues on how to deal with the pain. When I first streamed Carly Rae Jepsen’s latest album, “The Loneliest Time,” I was thus misled; what I supposed would be a record of emotional turmoil and perturbation was in fact one of energy and optimism: of faith in love, resilience in heartbreak and the jubilation of romantic reconciliation. Its last two songs, “Go Find Yourself Or Whatever” and the album’s title track, end the record on a somber-sweet note. Maddeningly, they suggest that the best — and perhaps only — way to get anywhere is to return to where you came from.

To love or to let go? Mikae la Straus, otherwise known as King Princess, faces the same evergreen question on “Hold On Baby,” which came out this past summer. She performed three of its songs on a stirring NPR Tiny Desk Concert released last week.

In “Cursed,” she is bracingly hon est, spurning a lover for the curse both their company and their absence have held over her. On “Let Us Die,” the closer for both the album and the Tiny Desk, she proceeds further down this path, accepting, and even fueling, a re lationship’s demise in what she asserts is a necessary act of love.

Jepsen’s and Straus’ records thus offer two different approach es: to reconcile with a past lover, or to “Let Us Die.” Jepsen oscil lates between stripped down, airy acoustic beats and her more fa miliar rapturous, candied pop as she evokes both the sentimental powers of the past and her own ever-flowing fount of affections. Straus sounds resigned, resolute and rousing as she, in cathartic

alt-rock anthems reminiscent of the early-aughts, avows that what once affected her must not any longer.

On “Go Find Yourself or Whatever,” Jepsen holds on to a hope she knows is tenuous, ending each aching chorus with a quiet “And I will wait for you.”

The song hinges upon a “some day”; Jepsen yearns for the pas sage of time to heal her broken heart even if she does not be lieve in it. More importantly, she wants to reach a point of for giveness: to be able to hold on yet again through the act of first letting go.

“The Loneliest Time,” a duet with Rufus Wainwright, exhibits an exceptional musical chemis try and accordingly opens paths toward new emotional possibili ties. In it, Jepsen and Wainwright have a conversation that is un cannily symmetrical: two past lovers finding their way, with each step increasingly certain, back to one another and into a golden sunset. Their honeyed harmonies fill you up, leaving you not quite sure of what’s real and what’s not, always question ing but always holding on. It’s a gorgeous feat, brutally idealistic and yet suspiciously true — a triumph of a contemporary love song.

Other songs on “The Lone liest Time” bear echoes of this relentless hope. In the album’s opening track, “Surrender My Heart,” Jepsen bursts forth with a promise to place her faith in love, which for her means to be vulnerable to love’s mystifying powers. On “Joshua Tree,” she is actively in search of amazement, whether by the stars and the cos mos or by someone else’s being. On “Far Away,” she feels, in fact,

Pomona e coreps host Walker Flea Market

On Sunday Nov. 13, from 2 to 5 p.m., the Pomona College EcoReps will host another of its beloved Walker Flea Markets. This month’s theme is No Waste November, and the Pomona EcoReps have planned to make it an unforgettable event.

The Walker Flea Market was first organized in 2019 to pro mote sustainability and commu nity across the 5Cs. After a hiatus due to COVID-19, the Pomona EcoReps decided to revamp the event last year. The goal, however, remains the same: to promote sus tainability.

The Walker Flea Market is stu dent-run and held monthly on Walker Beach. A range of 5C stu dent vendors bring their talents to Walker to sell their handmade products.

“It’s anything from vintage clothing, to handmade jewelry, to crocheted little cute items, to prints and photographs,” Head EcoRep Diana Castellanos PO ’24 said.

However, the Walker Flea Mar ket has been slightly transformed this year. On top of student ven dors, there will also be live music. The Pomona EcoReps have joined forces with MuCo, the 5C Mu sic Coalition, to organize student bands to play at the market.

“It’s … just cute to see people come shop and then just sit down on Walker Beach and enjoy the tunes for a little while,” Castella nos said.

The flea markets aren’t just a student affair; according to Castel lanos, people from around the Cla remont area also will bring their families and relax on the grass, listening to music and enjoying the afternoon.

The event will include a stand where EcoReps will give out free sustainable items related to the theme of No Waste November.

During previous markets, they’ve given out free succulents and pots, mesh market bags and seedling

pots. This month, they will be giving out resealable bags, beeswax wraps and tupperware to replace wasteful plastic zip loc bags.

The market offers attendees a chance to browse a myriad of student-created products with out even needing to leave cam pus.

“When you buy from a stu dent who spent time and care making these prints, it’s made more sustainably, and it’s not mass produced,” Castellanos said.

Affiliated with the college’s Sustainability Office, the Po mona EcoReps aim to increase awareness about the ways stu dents can bolster their sustain ability efforts on campus.

“Our main job is to kind of be a bridge between admin, the [Sustainability Office] and the students,” Castellanos said.

The Sustainability Office provides sustainable products and resources in order to create a more environmentally aware campus. Resources vary from drying racks and lightbulbs to menstrual cups and more.

The Sustainability Office and EcoReps are also responsible for the Walker Free Room and Book Room. The Free Room takes clothing donations from stu dents and is open Sundays from 6 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 5 to 8 p.m. with free clothes for students. The Book Room, open at the same time, sells softcover books for $1, hardcovers for $2 and textbooks for $10.

The Walker Flea Market is just one way to embrace sus tainability at the 5Cs, and as Castellanos puts it, you get to participate in the “great, great, great vibe,” while you’re at it.

Events and sustainability ac tions can be found on the Pomona EcoReps instagram page, @po monaecoreps.

not so far away from a past lover, always within a leap’s distance from “that conversation” or re introduction with somebody she retains affection for.

“It’s a curse to be your friend” may sound harsh, but embed ded in the ambivalence of a cho rus that also sings “it’s a curse to be alone,” the line becomes a bit more understandable. King Princess’s “Cursed” explores this emotional trap, ultimately opting for severance so that she and her lover each can just “be.” While she knows this isn’t easy — “I miss you more the more

I grow” — she also knows she must bite the bullet. It’s best, she finds, to rid oneself of the meta phorical bricks inside their coat.

In “Let Us Die,” Straus advo cates for death and love at the same time. The song is heavy with noisy, messy timbres, not unlike the discomfort and de struction Straus sings of. For her, the death of a relationship is not an end but a means toward lov ing that person. Death generates something beautiful and absent in its wake, and death is only in evitable.

To pick either of these paths

is, of course, only so easy. Jepsen and Wainwright propose a spar kling, enveloping fantasy, and Straus a painful resolution to the pain. Is loving the same as letting go? Whom do we love when we let go? Neither offer a sufficient answer, but perhaps listening to both in tandem might offer some sense of completion. Perhaps each is a way of loving, an attempt at love, and therefore neither way is so different at all.

Becky Zhang PO ’22.5 likes listening to music, especially while in a mov ing vehicle.

Classical guitarist Aaron LargetCaplan puts a new spin on an old instrument

JADA SHAVERS

Rockstars are typically depicted as energetic performers with long dark hair, screaming into a microphone and backlit by intense lights swirling the enormous crowd into focus. “Looking Bach, Moving Forward,” a classical guitar performance that took place Nov. 5 at Pomona College’s Bridges Hall of Music, was nothing like this description — other than the long hair part. Nonetheless, it delivered an intensity, passion and emotion just as strong as any rockstar image.

Aaron Larget-Caplan, an international guitarist and arranger who composes and shares music, provided a show that had viewers leaning over the balcony of Little Bridges to catch a glimpse of his skills.

Larget-Caplan was assisted by Tom Flaherty, a theory and composition, electronic music and chamber music professor at Pomona College, and other community members from the 5Cs. This made for an impressive show, according to audience member McKenna Blinman SC ’24.

“[The show] was different than anything I’ve ever seen on guitar,” she said.

The classical guitar is an acoustic instrument that uses nylon strings — as compared to the steel strings of an electrical guitar — that are plucked with one’s fingers. Larget-Caplan started playing electric guitar when he was around the age of ten, finding the classical guitar around sixteen.

Since then, he never stopped. Larget-Caplan spent the rest of his school years studying how to hone his skills.

“I really just wanted to

devote my life to music,” he said.

And indeed he did. Today, Larget-Caplan is praised for his technique and is recognized internationally for his technique and skill through a variety of performance styles.

Pomona welcomed LargetCaplan to its stage with the assistance of Flaherty, who frequently writes music and plays the cello. The pair first met when Larget-Caplan reached out to Flaherty to compose a piece called “Steps and Leaps” for the classical guitar.

Flaherty had already finished the piece, but it was not originally written for guitar. After two years of exchanging ideas via email, Flaherty and Larget-Caplan had plans to meet and discuss how to adapt the piece in March 2020 at Pomona. Then, COVID-19 canceled the anticipated meeting and postponed the concert for two years.

“We haven’t met in person until two weeks ago,” LargetCaplan said. “I feel like I’ve known him for years, but I didn’t meet him in person until he came to Boston for a concert two [or] three weeks ago.”

This postponement didn’t destroy their connection, however. Rather, it allowed them to meet over Zoom and work together to perfect their piece.

Finding the right notation when converting the original composition into a piece playable for guitar is a difficult task. To take on this challenge, the pair had to communicate concerning the complex sections.

“It’s a pleasure to work with an honest performer who will admit that [the notation] is not practical,” Flaherty said.

Their honesty and trust continued to build over time. Larget-Caplan compared their

time together working on the piece as a first date. By testing the waters, and discovering how the other person works, they were able to work together on a mindblowing piece while forging a great friendship in the process.

“I got to get an idea of [Flaherty’s] musical language and what his flavor is,” Larget-Caplan said.

Saturday was the first debut of their work. Flaherty used an electronic computer system to interact with the notes LargetCaplan played. This collective sound created an effect which audience member Louise Schiele SC ’24 had never seen before.

“[The performance] was eyeopening in what you can do with music and new ways of seeing a very old instrument like the guitar,” she said.

The creativity and uniqueness of the performance allowed for a new environment at the 5Cs.

“Music is such an intrinsic part of the human experience,” Blinman said. “We get to see all different kinds of music [at the Claremont Colleges] and create a new relationship with it.”

Career paths in the music industry are often difficult, but for many musicians, this constantly adapting relationship to music allows a love to flourish.

“It’s a balancing act, and it’s a lifetime,” Larget-Caplan said. “I hope to play until the day I die.”

This advice was expanded upon by Flaherty.

“You have to work the rest of your life [but] then the angst diminishes and the pleasure increases,” he said.

The joy Flaherty described was apparent for Larget-Caplan while performing on stage.

“As a person who wanted to be a rockstar, this is about as close to being a rockstar as I get,” LargetCaplan said.

EmmA JENSEN • THE STUDENT LIFE

LUCIA mArQUEZ-UPPmAN • THE STUDENT LIFE

BELA DE JESÚS

The Walker Flea market is student-run and held monthly on Walker beach.

SIENA SWIFT • THE STUDENT LIFE

Aaron Larget-Caplan has been playing the classical guitar since age 16.

Disney meets linguistics in Pitzer professor Carmen Fought’s new book

You might not expect a college linguistics professor to serious ly dissect the children’s mov ies “Beauty and the Beast” and “Cars” in her writing, but that’s exactly what Pitzer College pro fessor Carmen Fought does in her latest book.

Published in September, “Lan guage and Gender in Children’s Animated Films” was co-written by Pitzer alumna Karen Eisen hauer PZ ’13. The book discusses Disney’s and Pixar’s representa tion of gender through language and the messages that these gen der roles send to viewers. Pitzer funded the research for the book, and Cambridge University Press published it.

Fought wanted to write the book because while other scholars have studied Disney’s gender dy namics, she didn’t feel like these studies used enough quantitative data.

“I would read things that people had written about Disney that were very qualitative, and they would be like, ‘Oh, Pocahontas is so wonderful. …. She does things and she has skills and she doesn’t even go with the guy in the end,’ and then another reading would be like, ‘No, Pocahontas is the same really tired stereotypes of native women,’ and I would agree with one of them more than the other, but sometimes even they would be using the same scenes to argue to different things, and it didn’t feel convincing to me,” Fought said.

She thought that linguistics would be a good way to measure how these movies portray male characters, female characters and queerness in their films. So, Fought began writing the book

with Eisenhauer, who had been her student, research assistant and project manager in the past. They started writing the book together in 2020, with each au thor taking the lead on half of the chapters. Hoping to appeal to peers in the field as well as to the general public, they decid ed to write their book in a style that was both academic and ac cessible.

“We both felt strongly commit ted to the idea that we didn’t want a book that just threw around words like ‘hegemonic’ and ‘patriarchal’ and ‘ideolo gies’ and didn’t really connect with people and wasn’t accessi ble to anybody who didn’t have any sort of education,” Fought said. “We wanted it to be an academic book, but we wanted it to be an academic book that people enjoyed.”

The writers also wanted to in clude their own voices in the book, which took the form of jokes, footnotes and political opinions.

“We didn’t try to be some sort of scientific neutral,” Fought said. “We said when we thought something sucked. We said when we thought something was dangerous. We said when we found something upsetting, and we said what we hoped would happen, what we hoped would change and how we thought things were getting bet ter or not getting better.”

Fought enjoyed writing the book, both because she was able to write it in a personal style and because of the fun nature of the subject matter.

“It was a very joyful process, and a funny one, just because working with Disney and Pix ar as your source materials is

a little different from other so cial science data sets,” Fought said. “I remember one time I asked Karen, ‘What would you say is the illocutionary force of “gobble, gobble, gobble, gob ble, gobble”?’ We sat there and talked seriously about that for a while.”

Fought also loved getting to col laborate when writing the book, both with Eisenhauer and her research assistants, whom she found to be very helpful.

“With these research assistants, and also with Karen, it’s not just how much work they did on the project, but also, they had such a great attitude and they were like, ‘Oh, we can’t wait for the book to come out,’ and having that community support and feeling like it’s a community project just makes such a dif ference versus doing it in your room at your desk by yourself,” Fought said.

Despite having written two oth er books before, Fought believes that “Language and Gender in Children’s Animated Films” is her best work because she didn’t try as much to conform to standards for academic writing. “I didn’t try to fit into some aca demic box of how the language had to sound,” Fought said. “I just let myself be myself … and I liked the idea that someone’s going to pick it up and they’re not going to have to force them selves to read through the first 10 pages to ‘get to the good part’ …. I want people to be interest ed and drawn in right away and ask themselves questions and be curious.”

Overall, Fought is proud of the book and hopes it encourages adults to be more aware of the negative aspects of the films

The unexpected appeal of applesauce

EMILY KIM

My favorite memories of fall involve coming home from school to the smell of freshlybaked goodies. “Mommy, I’m home!” my second-grade self would say gleefully, and my mother would rush over to hug me before ushering me into the fragrant kitchen.

There was one day when my mother made pumpkin bread, and she couldn’t hide a mischievous grin from her face as she watched me eat. “How is it?” she asked. “I made it with applesauce.”

I gaped at her with my mouth wide open, pumpkin bread crumbs grossly falling out of my mouth and onto the plate. “Applesauce? But this tastes nothing like apples!”

My mother proceeded to tell me how she used applesauce as a substitute for butter and oil in the baking process. “Not only does it make the pumpkin bread healthier, but fluffier, too,” she noted excitedly.

This news was absolutely mind-blowing for little elementary-school me, who was not a big applesauce fan. I chewed the rest of the pumpkin bread silently, still in disbelief that there were apples in a dessert that tasted solely of pumpkin and nutmeg. Moreover, I was hyperaware of the fluffy, airy texture in every bite. “How can applesauce do this?” I thought. “I don’t even

miss the butter.”

From that moment forward, every time my mother baked something, I would ask her if she used applesauce. “These muffins seem extra fluffy! Was it applesauce? Eating this banana bread feels like I’m eating clouds! You definitely used applesauce, didn’t you?”

Applesauce — a food that I, in the past, would have never given a second thought — gradually developed a special place in my heart. I used to always politely pass on it at grocery stores whenever my mother and I would shop for school snacks, but after that pivotal autumn day, I started racing to the applesauce aisle and placing a hefty jar into my mother’s shopping cart myself. Something that I rarely even thought of became something that I actively sought after.

Funnily enough, I also slowly became an applesauce advocate to my friends. Whenever my mother would pack pumpkin chocolate chip cookies or spiced sweet potato bread in my lunchbox, I would share them at the lunch table and proudly say that applesauce was the secret ingredient. Just like I did to my mother, my friends would stare at me in disbelief.

“I don’t even like applesauce…” they’d begin, to which I’d nod understandingly and wait for the rest of the response. Some seconds would pass, and then

like clockwork, the words — with surprise and slight confusion — I’d been waiting for: “But I like this?”

My experience with applesauce taught me to give the food items I wasn’t particularly fond of a second chance. I learned the value of varied preparation styles: While eating applesauce straight out of the cup wasn’t my cup of tea, incorporating it into autumnal baked goods made me squeal at its glorious, pillowy texture.

With so many foods out there, there’s bound to be some that we overlook. For you, it may be applesauce (like me!), or perhaps it’s something else. This applesauce story, however, is a reminder that perhaps there’s something you’re missing by withholding that food item from your diet. Maybe it can add a unique texture, maybe it can bring out a certain flavor or maybe it can bring a group of flavors into harmony with one another.

Whatever it is, I’m sure that it will surprise you. So just trust me — an applesauce apathetic turned applesauce advocate — and give those foods the second chance I know they’ve been waiting for.

Emily Kim PO ’25 is from Irvine, California. You will always find her with a scrunchie on her wrist and napping in Lincoln Hall.

they show their children. “I think Disney works very, very hard to present itself as wholesome, sweet, innocent family entertainment, [but] there are some really danger ous messages in here,” Fought said. “My perspective on it is just know what you’re watching

and be critical and cognizant of it. If you’re gonna let your child watch something, whatever it is –– Disney, ‘SpongeBob’ –– what ever it may be, watch it yourself too and think about the message that it’s sending, and if you see something that’s unhealthy, think about talking to them about it.”

On forgiveness, maintaining friendships and sexiling

Q: “How do I forgive someone who doesn’t deserve to be forgiv en?”

A: Ugh, the age old question! When we are put into positions where someone has wronged us, I think it is a natural inclination to want to forgive in order to move on with our lives. However, I would caution against this. No one is entitled to forgiveness. If you are in a position where you find that the person who has wronged you does not deserve your compassion, don’t just forgive them be cause you feel like you are supposed to. Although it may feel like forgiveness is needed to move on with your life, time really does heal most wounds.

A common sentiment is to “forgive but not forget,” but I find this statement to be an oxymoron. When someone has wronged you, it is both only natural and super important to remember to use caution in the future in order to not get hurt again. Sometimes in order to be cautious, we never really fully forgive someone, even if we do accept an apology. If you don’t feel that someone deserves your forgiveness, it is totally acceptable to hold off until you feel ready, if you ever do.

Q: “Hi!! I’ve been having this problem recently where I say hi to people I know and they just straight up ignore me?? Twice today, I saw people that live on my floor and said hi to them, and both times, each of them ignored me! I would consider these people acquaintances — I’ve had multiple conversations with both of them before — and I just don’t get why people are acting like this. I don’t really think there’s anything I can do here, but do you have any suggestions? Thanks! GV”

A: Hi GV! Well, first of all, I’m sorry that is happening to you; it never feels nice to be ignored. I think in situations like this it is best to keep your head high and try not to take it too personally. There is a chance that these people didn’t see you or are just a bit so cially anxious. No matter what the case, though, I would keep do ing what you are doing and reaching out to others with kindness. There are plenty of wonderful people at the Claremont Colleges who will definitely reciprocate your energy. Try not to focus too much on those who are unfriendly and instead focus your energy on meeting new people or making new friends.

Q: “We live in a flat with 4 ppl (1 in each single) and one of my flatmates just sexiled all of us. Do you think he’s having sex in the living room?”

A: I would hope they are trying out each of your beds like Gold ilocks.

OK, but in all seriousness, hopefully not! Your flatmate probably just wants a little privacy. Loud sex? Performance anxiety? Who knows! In these situations I think sometimes it is best not to know what exactly is going on. Ignorance is bliss!

Ask Annie is an anonymous advice column regarding relationships, col lege life and everything in-between. Submit questions at tsl.news/advice.

Fought’s book discusses Disney’s and Pixar’s representation of gender through language and the messages that these gender roles send to viewers.

CoUrTESY: CArmEN FoUGHT

momENTS To SAvor

SASHA mATTHEWS • THE STUDENT LIFE

ASK ANNIE

bELLA

Your childhood isn’t over at 20

One of my favorite short stories is “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros. I love the way it starts: “What they don’t understand about birthdays and what they never tell you is that when you’re eleven, you’re also ten, and nine, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one.” The speaker, Rachel, is the age that her birthday decrees, but she is also the summa tion of all the years before it. Rachel is made whole not only by the year ahead of her but the years totaling her current age; she is the totality of her odysseys of wisdom.

College you is not an isolated version of yourself, but rather a marker of growth in your quest for maturity. In the same way as Cisner os’ Rachel is 11, I am 20. I am 20 and reading a plethora of books at home over quarantine, I am 19 and grad uating high school with my best friends and I am 18 and unearthing my sense of self.

However, being 20 and a junior in college feels farther away from my youth as compared to being 19 or 18. I am in my twenties and thus expected to be relentlessly looking forward. Twenty feels like a signal to shed the years behind you in pursuit of the years ahead. At 20, you should be occupied with finishing the se mester strong; at 20, you should be looking for an internship for the fol lowing summer. And at 20, you are

encouraged to know exactly what you want to do with the rest of your life.

Perhaps because it marks the official end of teenagehood and the beginning of adulthood, there’s tension between 20 and the years preceding it that didn’t exist with previous birthdays. How do I bal ance my younger self, who is so in tegral to the person I am now, with the professional, career-oriented person I will be? Quite frequently, I am hit with the unwelcome aware ness of the phenomenon of matu rity. In many ways, college ages a person faster than they’re pre pared for. You are asked to prepare for a future that might make you unrecognizable to your younger self: a possibly more serious, ca reer-oriented, competitive you.

However, despite the expec tations associated with the begin ning of a new decade, 20 is not the end of your previous years. Rath er, the task at hand for 20-year-olds is just figuring out how to be an amalgamation of all of their selves — their young self, their current self and their future self.

Despite its perplexities, find ing that medium will allow you to grow into yourself with the stabili ty and the confidence necessary to to feel like the most authentic you. Although I have not mastered this feat myself, I have a couple assur ances that keep me on track. For one, the happiest version of my

self is the one that is most proud of what I represent. An overcom pensating version of myself is the warning bell. It is a reminder that I am pushing myself to give more than I can or to act older than I am when neither of those things serve me. But the reading and writing for pleasure, engaging in art, mak ing free time a priority and bound ary-setting version of myself is the green light.

As college students, we should connect with our younger selves so we can continue to draw from those pockets of joy in the years ahead of us. Watch that movie that made you laugh uncontrol lably when you were younger; venture into that mystical hidden spot where you were a character in a fantastical play. Let your cre ative juices flow into that journal or scrapbook that houses your in nermost feelings; listen to that nos talgic song that used to call forth movement from your body.

Hold tight onto the parts of yourself that you think you have to sacrifice for your looming future. You are the summation of your years, and every single moment — no matter how trivial — is a part of who you will be. I am the evolution of my music taste, just as I am the conglomeration of my academic interests. Though vastly different, both are integral to my sense of identity.

To all 20-year-olds and other

The left must let go of ideological purity

in-betweeners: Your younger self is not as far away as you think they are. Immerse yourself in what makes your heart happy. Yes, your future self is a welcome addition, but your childish, less mature self deserves to be indulged as well.

As Cisnero’s story suggests, age is

PLAYLIST

Rainy day recess

an invisible string we carry into our adult years. We must nurture that thread enough for it to last.

Shay Suresh CM ’24 is from San Jose, California. She loves literary fiction, indie music and watching “Game of Thrones.”

It was only once I was away from the rain that I truly came to appreciate it.

hannah.weaver • 12 songs, 46 min 30 sec

“Begging for Rain” — Maggie Rogers Like the obnoxious signs at Scripps say, the drought struggle is real. You can find me, like Rogers, beg ging for rain any given day of the week — for the environment’s sake as well as mine.

“Have You Ever Seen The Rain” Creedence Clearwater Revival The day before the rain hit Cla remont, it was a clear sunny day. Or the “calm before the storm,” as CCR would say.

“It Never Rains in Southern Cali fornia” — Albert Hammond This song has quickly become a regular in my rotation, due to its versatility on both sunny and rainy days. It all depends on whether you play it literally or ironically.

“Rainy Days and Mondays” — Carpenters I didn’t know this song existed until recently, but I sure do love the way Karen Carpenter’s voice floats alongside the harmonica. Consider this song a chance to let out all your melancholy feelings.

“Green Rain” — Mvzonik

This song samples the mysterious 1977 funk song “If I Lost Your Love” by Johnny Andrews and The Enjoy ments. Not much is known about either the original song or artist, and it wasn’t even on Spotify until after Mvzonik’s rework. The rework chops up the original’s lyrics in an incredibly catchy way. It sounds how skipping through dewy grass on a misty morning feels.

“Shelter from the Storm” — Bob Dylan I would probably be accosted by my mom or uncle if I didn’t include this song. That being said, I do have to admit it is genuinely a great song, especially lyrically — “beauty walks a razor’s edge, someday I’ll make it mine” is a standout. It’s also great for hiding indoors as the raindrops slide down the window, after your outside escapade.

“The Rain” — Rejjie Snow, Cam O’bi, Krondon

Another great song to listen to as you dry off. Cam O’bi shines with his warm, steady flow that feels like changing into a pair of pajamas and sitting on a heater.

In my feminism and gender studies class we often discuss the need to “tear it all down.” We dis cuss how capitalism, the prison system, policing, nation states, the patriarchy, colonial structures and so many more evil systems cannot be reformed. We must overthrow these systems before any meaningful changes can hap pen. It seems so final, so faithless, so jaded — and so naive.

As stated in The Economist, “[The left is] sure real progress is possible only after they have first seen to it that racial, sexual and other hierarchies are disman tled.”

Superficially, that sentiment has a lot of merit. But, as a prag matist, I don’t feel like it quite translates to the reality of activ ism. We can’t wait for systems of oppression to fall before we start the hard work of helping people. People are suffering now, and the left is hindered — or even para lyzed — by the notion of ideolog ical purity.

These large, fantastical goals are often phrased in ways famil iar to people who’ve taken college courses dedicated to these sub jects — but often not-so-digest ible to people without the time or money to take such highly spe cialized, time-intensive courses (think “abolition feminism” or “transformative justice”). The larger left is losing millions of potential voters by focusing on identity politics instead of practi cal issues like inflation and crime, as the right is doing. Refusing to engage with practical problems until all the oppressive systems are dismantled is delusional and can be quite harmful.

Setting a doable goal within an oppressive system does not mean giving up your larger goal. The focus on ideological purity is self ish. Part of the humility and sac rifice needed to make real change is putting the needs of suffering people before the ideological wants of activists. Picky activists waste valuable time and ener gy floundering around trying to solve insurmountable problems instead of focusing on issues they have the power to affect.

If leftists want to get anywhere, they need to make compromises. “Overthrowing capitalism” isn’t going to work (and is a relative ly meaningless premise anyway).

What might work? Getting peo ple more access to healthcare. Abolishing the police all at once won’t work. But reforming them — like scaling up non-police organizations responding to emergency calls — could. Try ing to shut down all the prisons at once won’t work. As you work to slowly dismantle the prison industrial system, start by mak ing prisons more like schools to reduce recidivism. Maybe one day activists might be able to reform those prison-schools so incarcerated people can go in and out, just like with a regular school. Incremental steps are the best way to lasting change, and those steps require working through oppressive systems like the U.S. government and capi talism.

“Abolition. Feminism. Now.” by Angela Davis, Gina Dent, Er ica Meiners and Beth Richie dis cusses how abolitionists don’t like many of these ideas because they give legitimacy to oppres sive systems like policing and prisons. They like reducing the number of jails and prisons, the number of incarcerated people and police presence. These are admirable and necessary goals.

It’s just that we shouldn’t refuse efforts like making prisons more rehabilitative simply because it doesn’t exactly line up with the massive goal of abolition.

The fact is that activists can and should do both: help people and think about the repercus sions and implications of the help with a larger goal in mind. We just can’t ignore reality in fa vor of philosophy.

A lot of leftist activism en tails criticism from behind uni versity walls, stuck in a bubble of academics reaffirming each other’s inflexibility. It’s easy to lose sight of the real world. For example, leftists have told me that efficiency isn’t the only way to judge a movement — that some forms of progress just ar en’t quantifiable.

But the reality is that peo ple are starving, locked up in inhumane prisons and being murdered by police right now.

Efficiency does matter. It matters more than anything. To say that efficiency doesn’t matter is to show great privilege and a lack of understanding of the urgen cy of real issues. Sadly, efficien cy usually comes at the cost of

ideological purity because of the necessity of compromises. Sometimes, I’ve seen the left take a certain strange pride in how radical their goals are. “Yes, we want to overthrow capitalism.” “Yes, we want to eliminate incarceration,” etc. There are many people out there who would help with more conceivable goals, but they aren’t ready for such rad ical solutions. The only pur pose of attempting to translate that kind of extremism into real-world activism is solidar ity with people who already agree. It accomplishes nothing but tying activists to massive, insurmountable goals and making attainable goals fade into ideological impurity. History proves that great change can come from activ ists working within oppres sive systems without waiting for them to fall first. Abe Lin coln used the constitutional amendment process to pass the 13th Amendment. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon Johnson had to make deals with unsavory charac ters who did not agree with them. Even now, a monumen tal climate bill passed because the Democrats were willing to give Sen. Joe Manchin some drilling rights.

Organizing and leftist ideas spread through capitalist so cial media apps and publica tions. Decarceration involves working within the prison industrial system. Abolition might even mean increasing funding for the police so that they can hire non-violent so cial services experts to join the force. The path to freedom is winding, not straight; we must take it step by step, and we can’t afford to freeze up.

To spur the change we all want to see, leftists need to let go of the idea that real change can only come when the op pressive structures disappear. People need help right now, and we have the power and privilege to help them. So, let’s stop moralizing, and get to work.

Margot Rosenblatt SC ’24 is from New York, NY. She spent the past year doing volunteer work through AmeriCorps (the U.S. government) in Florida.

“Dancing in the Rain” — Taylor Bennett, Donnie Trumpet, Brandon Fox, Shay Lewis Once you’re finished dreading the rain, I recommend forcing yourself to go out and dance in it. This jazzy collaboration provides the perfect soundtrack. As Bennett says, “in the rain, ain’t no pain.”

“Raingurl” — Yaeji The best song for walking to class. Strut to the electronic beat and try not to think about your laptop get ting more and more waterlogged with every step.

“Rain On Me (with Ariana Grande) - Arca Remix” — Lady Gaga The original song is amazing as-is, but this Arca remix really takes it to the next level. Often I find it takes a little experimental elec tro-pop to fully unleash my primal self in the rain.

“I Think I Like When It Rains” — WILLIS

I hope that at this point in the playlist, I have convinced even the most stub born Californians to see the bright side of dark, rainy days. For WILLIS, it’s the nostalgia and comfort rain brings.

“After The Storm (feat. Tyler, The Creator & Bootsy Collins)” — Kali Uchis

A reminder to stay hopeful for the future, it’s only fitting that this was one of my top songs of 2020. As Uchis points out, after the storm — whether you see that as being positive or nega tive — is “when the flowers bloom” and “the sun’ll come out.”

Hannah Weaver SC ’24 is a music columnist for TSL. She is excited to return home to the rain over Thanks giving break.

MARGOT ROSENBLATT

SHAY SURESH

beLLA PeTTeNGILL• THe STUDeNT LIFe

beLLA PeTTeNGILL• THe STUDeNT LIFe

President Chodosh’s first NCAA meeting agenda

contributing to the NCAA’s core mission to ensure that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount,’” Chodosh said in a SCIAC news release.

Although the NCAA hasn’t announced when Chodosh’s first Presidents Council meet

NCAA DIII PRESIDENTS COUNCIL AGENDA

ing will take place, I want him to be fully prepared to rep resent the Stags, the Athenas and Claremont on the nation al stage. That’s why I’ve taken the liberty of mocking up an agenda with some of the many topics he’s qualified to speak on.

MEETING TOPIC: Ensuring the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount

ZOOM PASSWORD: puckfomona

Item 1: Keeping student-athletes safe. It’s right there on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: You can’t learn if you don’t feel safe and secure in your educational environment. There’s no question that as college presidents, our number one priority should be ensuring an atmosphere of basic well-being for our students.

• Hazing is not a big safety issue at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps these days, so we can proba bly skip talking about that.

• If hazing DOES occur, make sure that you train athletes on the bystander effect, so you don’t get situations where “nearly all members of the team, acting as a team, violat[e] mul tiple conduct standards.”

• Recruited athletes at our institutions meet rigorous admissions standards (all of them!), so probably no need to ensure they have the common sense not to subject their first-year peers to practices that are “demeaning and potentially dangerous.”

Item 2: Basic human dignity. College athletics is all about building character, and part of that is making sure all of our students treat each other with even the slightest shred of respect!

• Obviously, none of our students have sexist, homophobic and transphobic thoughts about their teammates. Why would they? We can probably just skip this part.

• Just another aspect of common sense here — students know that if they think abhorrent things about a peer, they shouldn’t write them down, identify them by name and then distribute the document to their entire team. Again, I think we can skip this section.

• Mansplaining: CMC clearly doesn’t have a mansplaining problem. Anyway, make sure athletes know that when the women on your team express disgust over your behavior, they should not repeatedly talk over them and force them to quit.

• Coaches can also build a positive team culture by taking action when team members re peatedly come to them with complaints, instead of doing nothing!

Snack break: Goldfish crackers. Who doesn’t love Goldfish?

Item 3: Learning from our mistakes. Anytime hazing rituals do pop up at our schools, it’s im portant that we nip them in the bud quickly and effectively so it never happens again.

• When hazing occurred at CMS in 2018, for example, staff quickly stepped in to ensure everyone understood the “collective commitment to CMS Athletics’ core values.”

• When hazing occurred at CMS in 2019, staff quickly stepped in to make sure the team in question “reaffirmed its commitment to exemplifying the guiding values and core beliefs that provide the foundation for the CMS … code of conduct.”

• When hazing occurred again at CMS in 2019, staff quickly stepped in to ensure all athletes “are committed to maintaining an environment in which every community member feels welcomed and valued.”

• After those decisive and actual interventions, no one ever did any more hazing (don’t Goo gle this — just trust me)! Everyone was finally committed to CMS Athletics’ core values — which definitely exist, given that we apparently have to continually remind our own athletes what they are!

This is critical: Ensure that your communication on remediating instances of hazing is as opaque as possible. This way, community members will know that the administration sees addressing this abhorrent trend as a priority, rather than an unfortunate aberration that can just be swept under the rug until it happens again next year.

All jokes aside, it’s clear that President Chodosh doesn’t need our help. After all, everything is one hundred percent under control at CMS. It’s no wonder

he would be tapped to help en sure other NCAA DIII schools have athletics programs that are just as safe, welcoming and honest.

Guest writer Jasper Davidoff PO ’23, TSL’s crossword construc tor, does not receive $825,757 in total compensation.

5C parties need to be safer

“Okay, we’re leaving now,” my friend said on his phone. Seconds later, his eyes widened as he laughed incredulously: “What do you mean the party was shut down?”

It was 10:45 p.m. — just 45 minutes after the Scripps Col lege “Halloween: Claremont After Dark” party was sup posed to start. We were already in our costumes. We had taken pictures. We were ready to rage all night at one of the most an ticipated 5C parties. It was go ing to be my first big college Halloweekend party, and I was genuinely excited.

But, before we had even walked to Scripps, the party had disappointingly ended. Right after the phone call, we were told it was shut down because people began skipping the line and saw this as an opportunity to knock down the fences. More accounts of what happened that night surfaced when the week end was over.

The 5C Halloweekend need ed a jumpscare warning. It was a wake-up call. We need to re-evaluate and debrief about what transpired over that week end. The parties here are inac cessible and dangerous.

So far this year, two Clare mont parties have ended earlier than expected — Monte Carlo and Claremont After Dark. Af ter the latter, which was the 5Cs’ Halloween party, clips of the crowd getting sprayed by fire extinguishers started circulat ing the internet. Absolute chaos ensued.

Beyond Monte Carlo and Claremont After Dark, however, there must be a shift in the wid er party culture at the Clare mont Colleges. The statements released by Claremont McKen na College and Scripps admin istration addressing these party shutdowns reveal a much deep er issue: the disconnect between administration and students.

Let’s rewind a little bit. At the beginning of the fall se mester, after Orientation Week, campus security would check for school IDs. For example, the Y2K first-year party at Pomo na College did not allow other 5C students to attend, so they checked IDs. As a first-year, I never expected college parties to be this regulated. I under stand if there are COVID-19 safety concerns. However, Cla remont After Dark had an offi cial capacity of 1,200 students — letting 1,200 people cram together at a Scripps lawn is not the most COVID-19 friend ly thing. And the two parties that got shut down ended for reasons other than COVID-19 protocols.

When I initially heard that you needed a wristband to en ter Claremont After Dark, I thought it was ridiculous. I be came even more puzzled that you had to wake up before 8:00 a.m. and wait in a line of more than 200 people at Pomona Col

lege for a shot to get one of only 200 available wristbands. There was no way in hell I was camping outside for a college party on a Friday.

I question how much the ad ministration knows about their student body. Of course 5C stu dents will create counterfeit wrist bands when there is nothing to do in Claremont. You cannot advertise a 5C-wide party with only 1,200 spots for the 6,000-plus students at the 5Cs, then be surprised at people storming in. You are creat ing unsafe conditions for students and being unreasonably difficult. It makes people desperate to do any thing, from jumping over fences to making counterfeit wristbands.

If you expect students to Uber to clubs or attend other universi ties’ parties, that is impractical. With club fees and Uber prices, it is bound to rack up high costs. Even going to cross-campus parties can be dangerous, as possibly intox icated students have to traverse across different campuses on their own. This is a health and safety hazard: What if a drunk student trips, passes out or gets lost?

Halloweekend this year could have been a blast — especially since we are moving back to nor mal. There should have been more than one big 5C party to distribute the capacity. Instead of hosting and promoting one party, it would have been better to have three or more of the Claremont Colleges hosting their own so that people could have actually had the chance to attend a 5C Halloween party. Yes, it would be costly, but this would prevent people from feeling the need to sneak inside parties.

As a student body, we must begin practicing community and holding each other accountable. From spraying the crowd with fire extinguishers to throwing items at security, we are also partially at fault for this situation that fostered an unsafe, hostile party environ ment. I understand that everyone wanted to have fun, especially af ter midterm season. Yet, I cannot defend that aspect of the situation.

In terms of community care, watch everyone’s substance con sumption, do not be afraid to call for help and ensure you leave with the same group of people that you came with. Make sure people are not making unwise decisions because of the influence of alco hol. Many of us now know well the drama that can ensue due to drunken choices.

After a long week of endless work and waking up for morning classes, for many, nothing is more rewarding than partying. We are, unfortunately, not in Downtown Los Angeles where the night is al ways buzzing with nightlife and excitement. We are not a large state school with tremendous parties left and right. Hence, I sincerely ask us to change the party culture with common sense protocols and community reflections — so we can go to parties safely assured that we still have an exciting night ahead of us.

Grow up.”

Zeean Firmeza PO ’26 is from Miami, Florida. She enjoys drinking boba, playing video games and reading.

ZEEAN FIRMEZA

TUNNeLS UNDer CLAremoNT: A BIWEEKLY COMIC BY BELLA PETTENGILL

According to Zeean Firmeza P o ‘26, the shutting down of Scripps and C m C’s 5C-wide parties highlights the safety concerns of recent parties.

JoeLLe WILLIAmS • THe STUDeNT LIFe

Claremont McKenna College President Hiram Chodosh was named this week to the NCAA Division III Presidents Council, representing the Southern Cal ifornia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. “I look forward to

Stags and Athenas dive headfirst into swim season, look to build off last season’s success

As if majoring in philosophy, politics and economics with a sequence in data science wasn’t enough, Frank Applebaum CM ’24 is also a national champion.

His NCAA record — the fourth in Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s swim and dive history — in the 200-meter-race butterfly was essential to the team’s eighth place finish at nationals last sea son.

But Applebaum said he can’t take all the credit. His teammates are what make the team such a success.

The Stags and Athenas are eager to build upon last season’s successes, two senior leaders, Thayer Breazeale CM ’23 and Jameson Mitchum CM ’23 said. However, they said it won’t be easy, as some key team members have graduated. These key team members that have left include first-team All-American breast stroker Walter Limm CM ’22, who swam in both of the CMS relays that finished second at nationals, and Augusta Lewis CM ’22, also named to the first-team All-Amer ican who holds the SCIAC records in the 200m (2:01.21) and 400m (4:18.06) individual medleys.

Even with the loss of top swim mers, the team retained its tightknit culture and hard working mentality in and out of the pool.

“Team culture is important,” Applebaum said. “It’s uncommon in college swimming to combine the men and women’s teams, but here it has helped us support one another and work toward our goals, whether individually or as a team.”

The Stags and Athenas collec tively hold 67 swimmers, more than most other teams. Thayer Breazeale CM ’23, who organized the unofficial practices during the

ATHENAS: NCAA regional final within reach

Continued from page 1

Champions.

After the match, a presentation on the court honored the victors. The CMS captains accepted the SCIAC champions plaque and a large poster symbolizing them “punching a ticket” to the NCAA Division III Tournament.

Carranza earned the SCIAC tournament MVP title.

“I honestly want to shout out all of my team,” Carranza said. “It’s teamwork. I get the ball up, Georgia’s able to assist, Jackie gets the kill … And I feel like tonight, we really connected.”

Head Coach Kurt Vlasich agreed.

“Even though Dede [Carran za] got the tournament MVP, and she’s the heart and soul of the team defensively, it takes six play ers constantly working together,” he said.

off season, sees this as a plus with the current team culture initiatives in place.

Following the leak of the 2019 “Stag Survival Guide,” which prompted accusations of “toxic masculinity,” sexism and racism on the team, CMS has worked to create a more inclu sive and equitable environment. Breazeale said that the coaching staff helps add to the welcoming and supportive community.

“We normally eat meals to gether after practices, and we hold team culture meetings throughout the week,” he said.

“[Coach] Charlie has made it his priority to have a one-on-one conversation with all of us at least once a week. He also has us fill out a Google form to gauge how we are doing mentally and physically.”

Similar to Applebuam, Breazeale manages several re sponsibilities outside the pool as a residential assistant and member of the mock trial team. Still, he said he’s ready to give it all to the team in his last com petitive season.

“In my last season, I want to leave a strong legacy as lead er of the team and soak in the last moments I’ll have with my teammates,” Breazeale said. “There should be no ‘what-ifs.’

I want to put every ounce of ef fort into the pool this year and see what my potential is.”

While the Stags defeated ri val Pomona-Pitzer handedly in their midseason dual meet and at the SCIAC meet last year, the Athenas fell to the Sagehens in the SCIAC final.

Jamee Mitchum CM ’23 said her biggest goal for the season is winning SCIAC. She said that last year P-P was a difficult op ponent, partially due to a swim mer who has now transferred.

In the SCIAC tournament last year, Avery Turney SDSU ’25 — now swimming at the Division I level at San Diego State Univer sity — broke the SCIAC record in four races for Pomona.

“The most important thing is that we win SCIACs this year,” Mitchum said. “Pomona-Pitzer was virtually unbeatable last season, though we did give them a bit of a scare at the con ference meet. We are ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll, but with the hardworking freshman class that we have, I think anything is possible.”

Breazeale said it is important that the team builds off of last years’ success and continues to improve.

“The one thing we can’t do is be complacent with last season’s success. We just need to keep working, and everything will fall into place.” Breazeale said.

Mitchum appeared confident that the Athenas could make up ground on the Sagehens in sprint freestyle. According to Mitchum, adding Annika Shar ma CM ’26, who specializes in the 50m freestyle, will help them this year.

“Pomona-Pitzer dominated us in sprint freestyle at SCI ACs. I’m really excited about our freshman class because I think they can help us compete in those events,” Mitchum said. “Annika Sharma has looked re ally strong in practice. She’ll definitely contribute to the team’s successes in events like the 50m freestyle and butterfly.”

The Stags and Athenas have had a strong start to the year. In the SCIAC opener on Saturday Nov. 5, against Occidental, the Stags and Athenas both won.

CMS will face their rivals, the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens, in a dual meet Dec. 2.

Don’t quiver, let Archery Club’s arrow point you in the right direction

Vlasich also acknowledged the strong effort from P-P, which forced the six Athenas on the court to constantly be on their toes.

“[This was] a really good Po mona-Pitzer team that came out to play tonight and clearly came to try to get their ticket to the NCAAs,” he said. “[I’m] really happy to have a group like ours that can respond and take con trol.”

McGovern said that the reason the team was able to respond so well that night was the mentality they brought to Roberts.

“Today we brought a different kind of energy to the gym,” she said.

Vlasich said the fans in atten dance at the match helped set a celebratory tone.

“It was a great atmosphere in Roberts tonight, and both crowds were awesome,” he said. “It’s al ways fun to have an environment like that to celebrate a champion ship.”

The Athenas faced Fontbonne University Thursday at Roberts, winning 3-0. Thanks to CMC’s Dean of Students Office, all CMS students were admitted to the game free of charge. They will next face University of Texas-Dal las tonight at 7 at Roberts. If the Athenas win tonight, they will advance to the NCAA Regional Finals on Saturday.

If the first thing that comes to mind when you think of ar chery is Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games,” you’re not alone. Most people know little about the sport besides the way that it’s portrayed in the media. However, the 5C club archery team, officially estab lished last semester, gives stu dents a chance to try the sport in a competitive environment.

Club President Gillian Tay lor Lambert Bell SC ’23 wants people to acknowledge the va lidity and intensity of archery as a sport.

“Most people just are not aware that archery is a sport, and because of that, it is some times difficult to gain support and be treated as a serious sport,” he said. “I think a lot of people might also underesti mate how difficult of a sport it is and how much of a time ded ication competing requires.”

Charis Kee-seon Kim PO ’24 said she is frustrated with peo ple’s inclination to diminish ar chery as a sport.

“I know a lot of people don’t think that archery is a sport,” Kim said. “Archery re quires great physical precision, strength and a whole lot of mental fortitude.”

Archery’s expensive nature also prevents it from being widely played, according to Kim.

“I wish archery was a more popular sport, but it can be prohibitively expensive to get into,” she said. “A full competi tion-level setup usually costs at least $1,500 and goes upwards of $2,000.”

Bell said he is passionate about introducing people to the world of archery. He fondly re members last year’s club fair.

“Many people were excited by the prospect of being able to do archery and shocked that we had a club,” Bell said. “Talking to people about their experienc es with archery and telling them that they can join the club even if they have had no former experi ence was really rewarding.”

Archery resources vary great ly depending on the region one is in. Bell said the club he practiced with in the Bay Area shows how competitive the sport can be, giv en the resources.

“I competed and practiced with a local club that shot both in Golden Gate Park and an indoor location north of San Francisco,” Bell said. “They allowed me to pursue competitive Olympic ar chery after a year of practice due to the resources my club had, both in terms of training capaci ty and equipment. My form and perception of archery was real ly shaped by my team and my coaches.”

Kim was a member of the same club team, and the two of them have been able to maintain

their connection through archery.

“I actually met Gillian through archery in my first year of high school — we were on the same club team,” said Kim. “Because of that, I didn’t devel op any bad habits that I needed to be trained out of, and I didn’t have any misconceptions of how good I was before getting proper ly trained.”

But others haven’t had access to the same resources.

Marina Rosen-Cappellazzo’s SC ’23 did not start practicing ar chery until college. Growing up in New York City, she had little exposure to the sport.

“In Manhattan, there isn’t a lot of available space for sports that require open space and large fields,” Rosen-Cappellazzo said. “I wasn’t aware that I could do archery as a sport.”

Bell said archery is common ly depicted as an individual ac tivity, but he disagrees with this assumption, noting the environ ment of his teams.

“It is so easy to build relation ships in such a small sport, even when you are competing on the individual level,” Bell said. “It is so nice to be able to practice at a range and focus on that internal competition while being sur rounded by community mem bers who I’ve built relationships with.”

Appreciative of the close-knit environment of the 5C Archery Club, Rosen-Cappellazzo said

she thinks archery is less of an in dividual sport because of the com munity.

“A major draw to the club was the people and community, and I really enjoy the community we’ve developed,” she said.

The club aims to build a solid foundation this year, according to Bell.

“We have not participated in tournaments yet, although we will hopefully be able to send some athletes to local competi tions in the near future,” Bell said. “We have been focusing on out reach and securing a budget for team-building activities and to re place old equipment.”

Rosen-Cappellazzo said the club’s biggest change from the previous year is the leadership transition, with Bell as the new president.

“We have a lot of beginners, a few people with prior experi ence and some returnees from last year,” Rosen-Cappellazo said. “With Gillian becoming president, I have seen a lot of improvement in our members.”

For newcomers, Kim stressed the importance of coachability and a desire to learn.

“I would recommend that peo ple listen closely to our form tips, ask lots of questions and pay at tention to each and every one of their shots,” said Kim. “The skill that helped me the most with ar chery was learning how to coach myself.”

CoUrTeSY: CmS ATHLeTICS

CmS diver Alexis romero SC ’25 performs a front 1.5 somersault pike (103b) during a meet at roberts Pavilion.

TESS MCHUGH

Members of the 5C Archery Club practice aiming at Pritzlaff field during a Sunday meeting.

CoUrTeSY: GILLIAN beLL

Today we brought a different kind of energy to the gym.

Georgia McGovern

First ever Sixth Street women’s soccer SCIAC final sees Sagehens win third consecutive championship

gave us the start we needed.”

Sixth Street was paved blue and orange Saturday afternoon as Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s soccer wrote another chapter in the longstanding history of 5C athletics.

P-P blanked Clare mont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) 3-0 to claim their third consecutive SCIAC tournament champion ship and earn an automatic draw in the NCAA Division III Tour nament. The matchup was the first time the conference playoffs have seen a Sixth Street final in its 17-year history.

Right out of the gate, the Sagehens launched an offen sive onslaught that immediately proved effective. Before the clock hit even four minutes, Hannah Hong PO ’26 delivered a pass in front of the goal, which Amanda Khu PO ’25 headed into the goal to give P-P an early 1-0 lead.

Khu stressed the necessity of applying pressure early.

“Last time we played CMS we drew 0-0, so breaking the wall to score was really important, especially for this game,” Khu said.”[It] felt really great and

Though the Athenas looked determined to limit P-P — the conference’s most prolific of fense — repeated turnovers in their defensive zone gave the Sagehens more opportunities than they needed.

After forcing CMS to give up the ball near the Athenas’ net, P-P set up a corner kick. The Sagehens did not let it go to waste, as Hong once again sent a beautiful pass that de fender Genevieve Gray PO ’23 headed into the goal, extending the Sagehens’ lead to 2-0.

According to Hong, the play was perfected before the Sage hens even hit the field.

“It was a set play,” Hong said. “I’ve been working on my corner kicks, getting that ball near the back post of the goal. It got us riled up and gave us the energy to score another one.”

Gray’s goal was not only her first of the season, but of her entire four-year career as a Sagehen.

“I think it’s like a buildup of my whole career here, but I think the best part is getting

to share it with my teammates who’ve been here with me all along the way,” Gray said. “It was a great feeling.”

The two-goal lead seemed to take the wind out of the Athenas’ sails, and with the 5C crowd coming together to perform a wave, the whistle sounded.

The second half began with two excellent opportunities for the Athenas as referees called the Sagehens offside twice. Jumping on these errors, CMS avoided turning it over in their zone but could not get a solid shot.

Feeding off of their defen sive performance, P-P pushed deep into Athenas’ territory, setting up an elaborate offen sive possession. Hannah Man dell PO ’23 headed the ball to Hong, who then headed it di rectly to Ella Endo PO ’25, who kicked it in for the easy goal, giving the Sagehens a com manding 3-0 lead.

With nothing to lose, CMS put together a final push, but even with the game virtually in their hands, P-P refused to relent.

Athletes of the Week

Head coach Jennifer Scanlon said she prepared her team to fight until the final whistle.

“We’ve worked on our tac tics a lot the last week or two on how to close out games even with a lead,” Scanlon said.

“The understanding of both the mindset and the tactics that go into that and executing it … I thought we did a really good job of that today.”

As the clock counted down, the roar of the P-P crowd and the sighs of the CMS faithful became the backdrop of the Sagehens’ celebratory huddle.

With her goal in this game and one in the semifinals, Khu earned the tournament’s most valuable player award.

“Honestly, I had a kind of a tough season,” Khu said. “I didn’t score for a bunch of games, and the last three I’ve been able to get back into it.”

For Scanlon, the victory was not just momentous for her team, but for her own career, marking her 200th win as head coach of P-P women’s soccer.

“It never gets old, and I don’t take it for granted,” said Scalon. “I can think back on

all the years and all the players and coaches who’ve helped con tribute to that … But each one is different, each one is special and I’m pretty happy for this group for sure.”

For the Athenas, this game was no doubt a heartbreaker.

CMS forward Cate Lewison HM ’26, who for her regular season performance took home the SCIAC’s Newcomer of the Year award, looks forward to the team’s future.

“The seniors this year have built a great foundation for this program,” Lewison said. “They’ve put so much effort into creating a great culture within our team, and that’s one reason we were so successful this sea son.”

In the NCAA tournament, Khu said she is most looking for ward to playing another game with this roster.

“It’s a really special group of people,” she said. “All of us want to keep it going as long as we can.”

The Sagehens are traveling to San Antonio, Texas to play Trinity Uni versity on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 12th

Skylar Noble PZ ’23 helped lead the Sagehens to beat the Whittier University Poets and secure a Sixth Street SCIAC championship. Noble completed 85 percent (17/20) of his throws last Saturday, for a total of 281 yards and four touchdowns. Noble’s role in this high-stakes game was especially important for the Sagehens who, had they not won this game, would have lost the chance to fight for a SCIAC championship. This much anticipated game will take place Nov. 12 at 1 p.m. Currently, CMS football is ranked number one in the SCIAC, with the Sagehens sitting just below them at number two. The game on Saturday will determine the Sixth Street and the SCIAC champion, and that winner will get an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

Natalie Bitetti

Natalie Bitetti CMC ’24 was named the SCIAC athlete of the year Nov. 2 after winning the SCIAC individual title, helping the Athenas win their 12th consecutive champion ship Saturday Nov. 5. Bitetti won her race by 37 seconds, a decisive lead. This impressive performance is not new to Bitetti, who finished in the top 20 of every race she ran in her debut season. This year, she has been named SCIAC Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week four times, after each of her four regular season races, and now clenched the athlete of the year title after her fifth race. Bitetti was also named Dlll athlete of the week by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Oct. 10. CMS will be back in action Nov. 12 when the Stags and Athenas travel to the NCAA West Regionals in Spokane, Washington, where they will try to secure their 14th straight team invitation to nationals, which will be held Nov. 19 in Lansing, Michigan.

Women’s Soccer

Trinity (Texas) Women’s basketball

Sunday, Nov. 13th Women’s basketball

WeNDY ZHANG • THe STUDeNT LIFe

BEN LAUREN

Hanna Kim Po ’23 winds up for a deep pass as Kaitlyn Helfrich Cm ’25 trails on Pomona-Pitzer’s way to a 3-0 victory in the historic Sixth Street SCIAC Championship game Saturday.

Pomona-Pitzer

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps