Vol. CXXXIV No. 9

Pomona-Pitzer football punts CMS for its first SCIAC championship

BEN LAUREN

Pomona-Pitzer football took down Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday at Merritt Field 2814 to claim co-ownership of the SCIAC championship and earn the program’s first ever trip to the NCAA Division III tournament. With their victory, the Sagehens evened their record with the Stags for first place in the SCIAC.

But while both teams will be named champion, the head-tohead tiebreaker means only P-P will head to the NCAA Dlll foot ball tournament.

The conference title is the Sage hens’ first since 1955, but with Pitzer College’s founding in 1963, it is the first ever for the combined forces of P-P. The victory also comes as an in-season shock, as the SCIAC’s preseason poll ranked the Sagehens just fifth.

The SCIAC’s two top defenses by points and yards lived up to their reputations early on in the match, with the Stags putting the brakes on the Sagehens’ passing game to force two quick punts. Still, P-P put up a fight of its own, and despite bending, they would not break, as a missed CMS field goal kept the game knotted at 0-0

as time expired in the first quar ter.

When the Stags returned to the field, it became clear their strategy was to put the ball in their best player’s hands and let him work. The conference’s leader in rushing yards and touchdowns, Justin Edwards CM ’25, put on a clinic with a hard-nosed ground game which saw him take a 14-yard rush into the end zone to give CMS a 7-0 lead.

Well aware of the Stags’ de fensive dominance this season, the Sagehens knew they needed to respond sooner rather than later. P-P quarterback Skylar Noble PZ ’23 put together a perfect 6-6 drive to bring the Sagehens to just outside the red zone. Then, Quinten Wim mer PZ ’24 took the reins of the Sagehens’ offense, completing a 22-yard pass to Will Radice PO ’23 for a touchdown to even the game at 7-7.

“That was a drive I got hit in the knee, I thought I was done for the game,” Wimmer said. “I think it was maybe two or three plays later, and I’m throwing the ball. There [were] no nerves.”

Despite this offensive burst, defense once again became the

Now in its third year, the “Art After Hours: 5C Student Art Market” was held from 7 to 10 p.m at the Leah Family Art Pavilion and gave artists from across the Claremont Colleges an outlet to sell their art. With their proceeds, the students could either invest it back into their art endeavors or donate to organizations that were mean ingful to them.

A Benton post-baccalaureate fellow in student-centered pro gramming and events, Hannah Avalos was responsible for coordinating the event with Tin dell-Griffin and Ge. Besides host ing the event and coordinating with 5C Art For Liberation, the Benton was also responsible for a large portion of the advertising for the event, with its employees using emails, press releases and flyers to spread the word.

Avalos views the event as positive for the Benton, students on campus and 5C Art for Lib eration.

JoNATHAN Ke THe STUDeNT LIFe

Plan B may soon be accessible on Scripps College’s campus af ter Scripps Associated Students approved funding for a low-cost wellness vending machine in the Scripps Student Union last Sunday. SAS has yet to finalize the budget for the machine, SAS President Megan Chow SC ’23 told TSL in an email.

The wellness vending ma chine will sell Plan B, menstrual cups, pregnancy tests, lubrica tion and other wellness products, according to a flier included in SAS’s Monday newsletter to Scripps students.

To help make the project a reality, the Monday newsletter also announced a search for vol unteers who could work “a few

hours per week for the next few weeks.”

Julienne Ho SC ’23 and McK enna Blinman SC ’24 began the initiative to install such a ma chine during the 2021-2022 ac ademic year, continuing their efforts this fall, according to Chow.

“The plan is to sell the prod ucts at a low cost and store the vending machine inside the Student Union because it’s an accessible, private, 24/7 space,” Chow said. “Especially after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, it’s become even more necessary and important to increase sexu al and reproductive services on campus.”

In 2014, a wellness vend ing machine opened in Walker Lounge’s second floor Wellness

Room at Pomona College. The Wellness Room’s vending ma chine carries Plan B One-Step, condoms and vibrators, as well as items related to general health.

A major benefit of Pomona’s vending machine is that it of fers Plan B for $20, rather than the nearly $50 price tag at stores like Target. Student Health Ser vices also offers Plan B at this discounted rate.

Chow said that the products from Scripps’ wellness machine would also be sold at a low cost.

To ensure the vending ma chine best serves students at the college, Ho and Blinman sur veyed students to gauge which products they want most in the

“The art market is a wonder ful opportunity for the Benton to support various mutual aid

FLoReNCe PUN

organizations around the 5Cs through 5C Art for Liberation and then also a wonderful way for the Benton to give a platform to community artists [and] campus community artists,” Avalos said.

Ge and Tindell-Griffin made an effort to get a variety of artists to sell their work at the event through Instagram outreach and posters. As a result, artists, who were predominantly Pomona Col lege and Scripps College art ma jors, sold paintings, photographs, clothing with screen prints, stick ers and more at the market.

To accompany the art sales, the art market featured music, which was intended to liven up the mood of the event, according to Ge. While this year’s art market featured a playlist, 5C Art For Liberation has had live musicians perform in the past.

“We usually try to have some live music so that there’s a casual atmosphere that people can enjoy

See

BENTON on page 6

funding

emmA JeNSeN • THe STUDeNT LIFe

At

art market, student

THe

Student art on full display at the Benton, spotlights mutual aid efforts

Sagehens linebacker Thomas mcConnell Po ’25 tackles Stags running back

Justin Edwards CM ’25 en route to P-P’s 28-14 victory over CMS for their first SCIAC championship in joint-program history.

See SCIAC on page 9

“Art After Hours: 5C Stu dent Art Market” returned to the Benton Museum of Art on Thursday and was jam-packed with student artists selling colorful prints, art-covered clothing, detailed portraits and more.

SAS: After years of discussion, wellness becomes more accessible at Scripps

Continued from page 1

vending machine, she said.

“I feel super proud and appre ciative of [Ho] and [Blinman] for all the love, care, time and effort they’ve poured into this project to support the student body and remove many of the barriers that students often face when trying to access sexual health services,” Chow said.

For now, the wellness ma chine will only be accessible to Scripps students, since the Stu dent Union requires Scripps ID swipe access.

At Scripps, students can utilize the “Condom Canary,” which distributes up to one Con dom Canary Kit per month to each student who requests one. Orchestrated by the Tiernan Field House’s Peer Health Educa tors, the service “sends safe sex supplies and health information right to Scripps’ students mail boxes,” according to the Field House’s website.

The service’s form notes that students can access sexual health and wellness items from the Field House’s Wellness Room, along with Health Education Outreach (HEO) and Student Health Ser

vices (SHS), both located at the Tranquada Center.

Scripps students can also find free menstrual products in the Wellness Room, Seal Court bathroom and Scripps dorms, thanks to a SAS initia tive from last year.

However, the Wellness Room requires a reservation to access. Additionally, students may prefer to access sexual health items on Scripps’ cam pus, or, in the case of preg nancy testing, to obtain sup plies without engaging with an HEO or SHS staff member.

In the 2017-2018 aca demic year, student govern ments at Scripps and Harvey Mudd College suggested and planned wellness machines for their student bodies. The Associated Students of Clare mont McKenna College also discussed a wellness vending machine in 2018.

Despite these discussions, however, Pomona’s vending machine remains the only option to access birth control options within or near the Claremont Colleges today, according to a rundown from the Inside Scripps website.

Design class advises blueprint for all-in-one 7C student center, to be finished in August 2025

In 2025, the 7Cs will wel come a new student center meant to foster connection be tween students at the differ ent colleges, thanks in part to its collaboration with the Hu man Centered Design class. Set to be constructed to the north of the Honnold-Mudd Library, the center will aims to help students “gather and connect in a post-pandem ic world where engagement, space and communal relation ships may be reimagined and redefined,” The Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS) spokesperson Laura Mu na-Landa told TSL via email.

To provide input to HMC Architects, the firm selected to design the center, student teams from this semester’s Human Centered Design class at The Hive worked on a de sign challenge, according to The Hive’s founding director and professor Fred Leichter.

“As a committee member helping to select the design firm for the student center project, I realized that this project would be perfect for our class and that our stu dents would likely offer great

insights to the TCCS and de sign team,” Leichter told TSL via email.

As part of the challenge, each of the eight teams conducted interviews with students and 7C community members, which they used to generate ideas to build into prototypes. Later, final presentations brought the ideas to life in an interactive showcase, Leichter said.

Thalia Fourli PO ’24 said her team focused on ways to make cross-college socialization eas ier by creating a space that could facilitate spontaneous in teractions between students.

However, Fourli noted the center is considering moving Student Health Services and the Tranquada Center to the new building, which could cre ate feelings of dissonance in students who access the build ing for recreational purposes.

“You don’t really want to go to the same place to hang out with your friends as you do to get a physical,” Fourli said. “That seems a little bit unneces sary.”

During classes, architects and students exchanged ideas, Fourli said, adding that archi tects will solicit feedback on their final presentation.

“Overall, their ideas are

very good,” she said. “They’’re along the lines of what my team thought about having a third space. Your first space is like your home. Your second space is your work or school. So you need a third space where you can not be in either state. And they’’re trying to build that, which is good.”

Leichter said that student in put is being taken seriously by the project’s architects.

“Many of the ideas could po tentially be implemented even before the new building is built,” Leichter said. “I think that our students very much enjoyed the project and are eager to continue to help with the project.”

Muna-Landa confirmed that the design team will implement class feedback in the new facility.

“Students designed an ele ment of a service that the new fa cility will offer for a specific type of user,” Muna-Landa said.

The impetus for the construc tion came from a TCCS-conduct ed charrette process, in which students identified relationships between the Claremont Colleges as “need[ing] improvement.”

After TCCS and HMC Archi tects finalize the design and ap ply for permits, construction will begin in March 2024 and finish in August 2025, according to Mu na-Landa.

Red house, blue senate: 5C students, professors react to ‘abnormal’ midterm elections

JOHN PAUL FERRANTINO

Members of the Claremont Colleges joined the rest of the country in casting their votes for the highly anticipated 2022 mid term election. To understand the significance of this quadrennial tradition in the Claremont com munity, TSL spoke with 5C stu dents and faculty to hear their takes on last week’s election.

In the time leading up to the election, most pundits had been expecting a “red wave” of Repub lican victories, but Republicans made small gains to take the U.S. House of Representatives Repub lican while Democrats held onto the Senate.

John Pitney, a professor of Pol itics at Claremont McKenna Col lege, said the midterms confirmed that the quality of candidates mat tered greatly to Americans casting their votes.

An expert on political parties, Pitney referred to the Pennsylva nia U.S. Senate race as an example of this phenomenon.

“I used to say sarcastically that one kind of candidate you didn’t want to run was a puppy stran gler, and [Republican candidate Mehmet Oz] literally was,” Pitney said.

For the Georgia U.S. Senate race, he said the same applied, noting how Republican primaries produced what he said were less electable candidates.

“If the Republicans would have run just about anybody else [for the U.S. Senate race], that person would have won,” Pitney said.

However, he said Republicans were not the only ones to “fum ble” — Democrats did, too, in the failed redistricting of New York state Congressional districts.

“They wrote an egregious ger rymander that was so bad it got dinged, and there had to be a new set of lines that were much more

favorable to the Republicans,” he said. “If the Republicans have a margin of only two or three seats, it’ll be because of New York.”

The election also demonstrat ed that Americans that voted are largely split in partisan af filiation, said Andrew Busch, Crown Professor of Govern ment, George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College and a scholar of elections.

Comparing this election to midterm elections in 1978, 1986 and 1990, he said this year was abnormal in its results.

“What makes it somewhat unusual is the degree of dissat isfaction in the country in com parison to relatively small gains [in the opposition],” Busch said.

He chalked this up to en trenchment with established po litical parties.

“It’s a little hard to imagine what it would take to actually move people off of their party,” Busch said.

In light of the relative lack of Republican success, though, the distance between Florida Gov ernor Ron Desantis and Florida Senator Marco Rubio and their respective Democratic challeng ers surprised Busch.

“[They] won by a much big ger margin than I had been an ticipating,” he said.

For the 118th Congress, Bus ch said that the near-even Re publican/Democrat split of the two houses meant it was un likely there would be a large legislative agenda in line with the Build Back Better Act of the previous Congress.

“Things are gonna slow down,” he said.

But in terms of legislative policy, not all is lost, Busch said.

“People sometimes ignore that when there’s gridlock at the national level, it just leaves open a lot of space for states to

do things,” Busch said.

Every Vote Counts Clare mont, a non-partisan voter regis tration organization, was instru mental in helping students vote, with over 190 students helped by the group’s events, according to club president Olivia Wee CM ’25. Wee began encouraging stu dents to vote after a Veterans of Foreign Wars essay contest.

“One topic one year was why my vote matters,” she said. “I think it helped me realize that voting is an institution in itself.”

Inspired by the recent state of the country and reading books such as “How Democracies Die,” Wee said the future of the country was at the forefront of her mind.

To energize people to vote,

Wee and Every Vote Counts Claremont made a video with prominent student leaders pledging that they will vote in the election.

Wee said Every Vote Counts tried to increase awareness about voting through fun events, like “Voterween” for Halloween, that also assisted students in meeting all of the requirements for submitting ab sentee ballots in different states.

“For some states, they re quire witnesses, so one of our staff could be a witness and ob serve,” Wee said.

Hailing from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Dede Chapline PO ‘’23 has always found voting important — but her convictions solidified through her Wom

en and Politics in America class this semester, which spent a lot of time discussing the suffrage movement.

“I want to make Alice Paul proud,” Chapline said via email, referencing the famous suffragist.

Not all was rosy with Chap line’s voting experience, in part because some of her chosen candi dates lost, she said. Furthermore, Chapline spoke about difficulties with casting an absentee ballot in Oklahoma.

“You have to get your ballot notarized, and you have to pay for postage,” she said.

Chapline said that this can pre clude voting by the elderly and disabled.

“It really discourages voting,” Chapline said.

emmA JeNSeN • THe STUDeNT LIFe

Contributions from the Human Centered Design course will be featured in a new 7C student center, set to debut in 2025.

FLoReNCe PUN THe STUDeNT LIFe

The implementation of a wellness vending machine at Scripps plans to increase access to wellness products for students.

RYA JETHA & MARIANA DURAN

ASPC endowment presentation adjourned early amid student demonstration for workers’ pay

JAKE CHANG & JOHN PAUL FERRANTINO

Following last spring’s student body vote to disclose Pomona’s fossil fuel investments, Associat ed Students of Pomona College (ASPC) hosted a Nov. 10 meeting open to the student body, at which Pomona’s financial officers pre sented information on the college’s endowment and budget support.

ASPC organized the presenta tion to allow students to ask ques tions about the endowment, Po mona Student Body President Vera Berger PO ’23 told TSL in an email.

“The majority of the meet ing was meant to be a discussion among students about how the college views the endowment and how we can best advocate for bud get changes,” Berger said.

However, Berger adjourned the meeting following an interruption toward the end of the presentation from students regarding Pomona dining hall workers’ ongoing ne gotiations for higher wages.

During the presentation, Chief Investment Officer Dave Wallace and Chief Operating Treasurer Jeff Roth described how the $2.8 billion endowment is derived and incor porated into the college’s yearly operating budget, which is $256 million for this fiscal year.

Roth explained that two major streams of funding for the college are student revenue and the en dowment payout, which is a little over $150 million. Pomona uses these funds for faculty and staff salaries and benefits, along with the financial aid program.

According to Roth, 40 percent of the overall budget comes from the endowment. The endowment consists of an investment pool of over 1700 individual endowments in restricted portions dictated by donors and unrestricted portions, which support the overall budget and general operations of the col lege.

Most of the investments are al located to alternative asset classes, such as private equity and venture capital, to allow the endowment to exist in perpetuity while main

taining its purchasing power.

Through diversifying investment strategies, the college outper formed its benchmark, enabling the endowment’s contribution to comprise 40 percent of the over all budget, compared to about 20 percent 15 years ago.

“This is a combination of the college making good steward ship decisions in prior years by adding some money to the en dowment and … donors who are very generous,” Wallace said.

Roth said a unique aspect of Pomona’s endowment is how much of the operating budget it funds compared to peer insti tutions. The Board of Trustees approves a spending rule, or payout, that governs the yearly amount of the endowment used to support the budget.

“Its design is to provide sta bility and stable increases to support the budget,” Roth said. “The sources all grow in terms of their expenditure levels each year when we’re talking about person nel and financial aid costs.”

Toward the end of the pre sentation — before the admin istrators invited students to ask questions — Claremont Student Workers’ Alliance (CSWA) mem ber Ben Brady PO ’25 interrupted the meeting. More than 20 others in the audience stood up to show their support.

“You have 14 percent [of the endowment] that is liquid that you could be putting towards salaries right now on your own admission,” Brady said. “We need to stand up for the progres sive values that Pomona claims to stand for.”

Brady said in an email to TSL that the interruption aimed to deliver a message from CSWA to administration in support of the workers’ demands for a raise.

According to Brady and CSWA’s calculations, it would only take 0.6 percent from the endowment to grant these raises.

“Pomona can afford it, work ers deserve it, and we ought to do it,” Brady said. “... It’s confusing to see Pomona pushing simulta

neous narratives of ‘Look how much money we have available’ and ‘We don’t have enough mon ey to pay a living wage.’ It’s re vealing of where their priorities lie.”

In response to the interrup tion, Berger adjourned the meet ing early.

“I structured the meeting such that the presentation would be followed by questions from sen ators, questions from guests and then a student-only discussion,” Berger said. “Despite my an nouncements that there would be time for Q&A at the end, the interruptions during the presen tation rendered the meeting diffi cult to proceed as planned.”

Members of Divest Claremont Colleges met up with the Clare mont Student Workers’ Alliance prior to the meeting and agreed to join their action, Divest Clare mont Colleges President Nich olas Black PO ’24 said. After the adjournment, members of Divest Claremont Colleges and CSWA marched outside and began chanting.

“We sat through the presenta tion from the administrators and stood up when CSWA held their demonstration, interrupting the meeting to share concerns about the mistreatment of Pomona’s dining hall workers,” Black said.

“We expected the senators to al low the demonstration to run its course — CSWA planned to exit the meeting immediately after anyway.”

However, Black said student senators spoke over CSWA and demanded that they stop. When CSWA refused, Berger adjourned the meeting.

“I was definitely disappoint ed at the lack of solidarity that was shown to student activism groups from ASPC,” Black said.

“We expect ASPC to represent our concerns to the administra tion, and it seemed like they were siding with them over us. In my view, ASPC shouldn’t be hostile to student organizing if they’re going to accurately represent our interests.”

Berger told TSL that CSWA’s action caught her by surprise in

the meeting, so she operated with the limited information she had.

“Of course I wish I had known what the groups were planning, so we could work alongside them, but I understand that was not the case,” Berger said. “I think student organizing can be more effective when we organize together.”

In an email to TSL, Roth said while the presenters made it through most of the prepared ma terial on Pomona’s endowment and budget support, they were not able to field questions. Roth and Wallace offered to join a future ASPC meeting.

“The endowment is an ongo ing topic of discussion among students; we will be thinking about how to best go about learn ing about its workings, giving students a platform to inquire … about the endowment and advo cating for change,” Berger said. “... The ASPC Senate will continue to explore how we can best promote transparency and flow of informa tion between students and admin and work alongside our constitu ents.”

Scientist Katie Pollard PO ’95 nationally recognized for groundbreaking biology research

Katie Pollard PO ’95 was elect

ed Oct. 17 to the National Acad emy of Medicine (NAM) — one of the highest honors in health and medicine — for her ground breaking work in biology.

Pollard, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, directs the Gladstone Institute of Data Science and Bio technology and heads the bioin formatics division in the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

With 90 regular members and 10 international members elected into this year’s NAM class, the organization chose Pollard for “discovering Human Accelerat ed Regions [HARs] and demon strating that these fast-evolving developmental enhancers reg ulate psychiatric disease genes uniquely in humans. Her opensource software for gene expres sion, comparative genomics and microbiomes are used world wide.”

NAM is part of a federally chartered academic organization “charged with providing inde pendent, objective advice to the

nation on matters related to sci ence and technology” and rec ognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

Pollard credited her dou ble major in anthropology and mathematics with her interest in human genetics. She studied math because she enjoyed how it came naturally to her and an thropology because culture’s influence on biology interested her.

In anthropology, for in stance, she studied the behav ioral differences between peo ple from various cultures and those between humans and their closest relatives, chim panzees. This laid the ground for her research of the human genome.

After graduating, Pollard earned a Watson Fellowship and traveled internationally. During that time, she worked in public health at a sleep lab.

Pollard attributed her affini ty to an interest in “how human behaviors, societies, cultural issues and political issues all come together to determine

whether someone is healthy or not.”

During her time as a biosta tistics graduate student at UC Berkeley, the Human Genome Project — an international sci entific effort from 1990 to 2003 to sequence the human genome — achieved its initial goal, se quencing 92 percent of the ge nome. Completed in entirety this year, the project drove Pol lard to use math as applicable to her interest in public health.

After receiving her PhD, she received another fellowship and started working in a Santa Cruz lab that began to sequence the chimp genome. This is what led to her discovery of HARs.

“And at the time, we expect ed them to be mostly proteins. It turns out they were mostly not proteins,” Pollard said.

This took the team by sur prise — they did not realize how protein regulation was im portant to why some people get sick and others do not, she said.

In 2006, Pollard discovered that regions of the genome that scientists thought were just “junk DNA” were critical to the brain’s development. The name

“human accelerated regions” refers to the fact that these re gions were some of the fastest to evolutionarily develop in hu mans.

Importantly, in these regions are genes that affect, or regu late, the proteins necessary for cortical development — mean ing these genes correlate with a person’s psychological traits. Cortical development refers to the development of the cortex, the brain structure commonly accepted by many neuroscien tists and psychologists to be the one associated with some of the most complex cognitive pro cesses, such as self-awareness.

“[HARs are] also tied up in our having psychiatric diseases that non-human primates don’t have,” Pollard said. “[Psychiat ric diseases are] sort of like an Achilles heel. We got all these amazing cognitive abilities, but along with it, we claim some risks as well.”

Pollard brought up that the study of HARs has moved to ward a “psychiatric disease angle.” For example, she and others have looked at which mutations were present in the

genome of children who were di agnosed with certain mental dis orders, while their parents did not share that diagnosis.

At each point in her career, Pollard said she did “a lot of different things” that look “a bit disconnected” to everyone.

As a graduate student, she helped develop tools that allow researchers to adjust the range of the statistical measures they are using to analyze a set of genes.

In her lab now, they contin ue developing tools for genomic analysis. The code for almost all of it is open access, so anyone can use it for their own research.

She said rather than compar ing the genome of humans to chimpanzees, some scientists compare it to that of mice and rats.

Pollard said students should know they do not need to have it all figured out yet. In fact, she was only drawn to studying gene regulation, as “that is where the science led her.”

“I became a successful scien tist not by some linear, well-de scribed path, but instead by fol lowing what was exciting to me,” she said.

HANNAH FRASURE

CoURTeSY: mICHAeL SHoRT/GLADSToNe INSTITUTeS

Pomona alum Katie Pollard PO ‘95 has been honored for furthering the field of biology with election into the National Academy of Medicine.

CoURTeSY: ReGAN RUDmAN

A presentation on Pomona College’s endowment was cut short after a student demonstration regarding dining hall workers’ ongoing wage negotiations interrupted the scheduled programming.

Wake me up when a good rom-com is released

RORYE JONES

The trailer of “Ticket to Par adise” (2022) promised a mov ie about a 23-year-old making a drastic life change; in my final se mester of college, this resonated with me, so I went to a drive-in theater looking for inspiration. But this hope for anything resem bling added insight never made it out of the parking lot.

“Ticket to Paradise” was quite possibly the worst movie I’ve seen this calendar year. Howev er, I cannot decide if its rom-com genre as a whole is to blame for most of its unwatchable-ness or if the movie’s screenplay writers deserve more censure.

Lead actors Julia Roberts and George Clooney are undoubtedly the big draw for “Ticket to Para dise,” and the older demographic that these stars target is reflected in the boomer humor of the film itself. The entire movie is angled towards an older audience in all the worst ways.

The plot is ostensibly con cerned with Lily (Kaitlyn Dever), the daughter of Georgia and Da vid (played by Roberts and Cloo ney, respectively). Having just graduated from law school, Lily travels to Bali, Indonesia, and de cides to marry a man she met a mere 37 days ago. Divorced par ents Georgia and David fly to Bali to intervene.

However, despite the movie supposedly revolving around her, Lily is so utterly insignifi cant that I just had to look up her name — the film’s gaze is wholly engrossed in the bicker ing between David and Georgia.

The endless stream of perfect ly timed and witty one-liners proved to be grating rather than endearing: I did not pay for the escapism of a movie ticket for yet more squabbling in my life. I vividly recall thinking of Rob erts and Clooney’s characters when they start wrestling in a seaweed farm: “if they just had sex right now, like they want ed to, the movie would end so much faster.”

My issues with the flimsy plot have not even touched on the “West vs. the Rest” dynamic throughout. Lily’s parents are upset at her decision to marry Gede, an Indonesian seaweed farmer — honestly under standable, considering that Lily knows nothing about him and is fresh out of paying for three years of law school. David in particular comes off as a conde scending, well-to-do man who thinks he knows best when it comes to his daughter, his exwife and his future son-in-law.

However, Gede’s family and community are portrayed as wholeheartedly welcoming these bothersome, resistant white tourists without a hint of a questioning. Gede’s commu nity members are essentialized into the role of receptive hosts eager to accept this white fami ly into their culture — the kind of colonialist fantasy that one would expect two white men to write.

Sure, I’m not too thrilled at the thought of Lily marrying a man she doesn’t know, but it works both ways — Gede’s

parents should be warning him about marrying the most non descript woman ever with no career plan and disapproving parents.

Frankly, I cannot remember watching a good romantic com edy that was released within the last couple of years. Although it is more than possible that I have missed some, I trust that I am not alone in seeking the comfort of older, cult-classic rom-coms

Severed hands, hanging threads and unresolved endings

to fill the void that recent titles have been unable to touch.

In fact, the second result on Google for “recent romantic comedies” calls the title “Stars Fell on Alabama” as first of “The 21 Best Romantic Com edies of 2021 (So Far).” I had the misfortune of accidentally wasting thirty minutes of my life on this absolute disaster of a film. The excruciating “South ern” portrayal of Alabama is

just one part of it — “where line dancing and ‘breaking into the old school’ and racial harmony are plot points,” as one review criticized. Combined with the ju venile plot of a grown man feel ing so much social shame when returning home for the holidays single that he asks an actress to be his fake girlfriend, and acting jobs with less passion for the plot than your average porn star, I walked out of the room after only half an hour.

The anonymous cast of bland, yet conventionally attractive, ex clusively white characters only serves to sink the movie further into the oblivion of leaving vir tually no impression, save for a vague, cringey distaste. At least “Ticket to Paradise” has Julia Roberts and George Clooney going for it -- or else that movie would have no redeeming qual ities.

Basically, “Ticket to Paradise” is one long, expensive build-up to a three-second shot of George Clooney taking his shirt off to jump into the ocean, with little regard for anything else, plot or otherwise. At this point, I’ll settle for a new rom-com that is either romantic or funny — it just can’t be missing both.

Rorye Jones PO ’22 gaslit herself into thinking she was part of the Roy fam ily after she was spiritually wrecked from watching “Succession” in two weeks while in New York, and spent the rest of her time there aggressive ly staring down every suited pedes trian (there were a lot) in search of Matthew Macfadyen. She writes for TSL’s TV and film columns.

rEGULArLY SCHEDULED ProGrAmmING

t he enduring comfort of ‘Gilmore Girls’

CLAIRE DUMONT

“Gilmore Girls” is one of my all-time favorite TV shows. Anyone who has ever had an ex tended interaction with me has probably heard me bring up an incredibly specific scene or ep isode that even only slightly re lates to the conversation. It is my ultimate comfort show — I al ways have it on in times of stress, sickness and sadness, as well as every fall when it comes time for a rewatch.

specifically, analysis of it.

In the years since I first watched it, “Gilmore Girls” has spent a lot of time in my thoughts. As a show made in the early 2000s, there are a lot of ways in which it hasn’t aged well. The main cast is predominate ly white. It can be fatphobic and oth erwise problematic in its dialogue. These aspects raise valid criticisms and make parts of the show hard to watch now.

RYAN LILLESTRAND

“I know, I understand, I shouldn’t have done it. I, Alfa Ndiaye, son of the old, old man, I understand, I shouldn’t have.”

So begins David Diop’s incanta tory, recursive novel, “At Night All Blood is Black,” a story mired in the wasteland of World War I trench warfare and the unexpect ed horrors such a landscape is ca pable of producing.

Alfa, our narrator, and his “more-than-brother” Mademba, are young Senegalese men enlist ed by the French to fight in the war — a conflict that, until they were forced into the trenches, had nothing to do with them.

What begins as a war story, however, gradually morphs into horror as Alfa describes the trag ic and gruesome circumstances of Mademba’s death. The victim of a surprise attack, he now lays dying an agonizing death on the muddy battlefield, Alfa by his side. Mademba begs Alfa to kill him, to release him from his pain and suffering, but Alfa cannot bring himself to do this horrify ing act — to kill his most beloved friend. And so all he can do is watch Mademba slowly die.

In the days after, the haunting images of that night still echo ing in every corner of his mind, something breaks within Alfa — a part of his rationality and hu manity shatters, giving way to a morbid kind of madness.

This is where Diop’s slender novel -- a novella, really, it could quite easily be read in a sitting -- truly takes a turn into the bi zarre. Each night, Alfa creeps out into the yawning blackness of no man’s land and returns with a severed hand from an enemy sol dier whom he has killed. At first the other French soldiers praise his heroics, but as the ritual con tinues the novelty wears, chang ing his reputation in the camp from super-soldier to sorcerer and devourer of souls.

It is at this point in the book, with the reader’s expectations having thoroughly been subvert ed at every turn, that Diop has a truly captive audience. He has

taken the story into unexpected and outlandish territory, weav ing in powerful meditations on race and masculinity, and the reader is now waiting, with no remaining preconceptions, to see what happens next.

Amid the dizzying escala tion of violence and madness — reflected in the increasingly frantic and repetitive language of the story — the reader ex pects this all to come to some sort of shocking crescendo.

It doesn’t. What starts out so promisingly unfortunately fizzles before finally falling flat in one of the more ambiguous — frankly unintelligible — end ings I have read in recent years. In other words, a complete and utter letdown. Diop takes us to the heights of suspense and the depths of madness and then drops us off at some unspeci fied point in the middle: unre markable, forgettable and unre solved.

For lovers of an unresolved ending, it is important to point out that I am, in a vast majority of cases, among your ranks. The author granting the reader the freedom to imagine the vast ar ray of different possibilities and come to their own conclusions is not only oftentimes a tactful aesthetic choice, but also a gift to the reader.

It is perhaps, for these rea sons among many others, that the unresolved ending is such a relatively common stylistic choice. As Tim Parks points out in his piece for The New York Review of Books, this is espe cially true in the pages of “se rious literary fiction” where the happy ending is often eschewed as trite and blasé.

However, the ubiquity of unresolved endings in litera ture should not by any means suggest that they are easily achieved; a book that manages such an ending successfully is worthy of praise. In “Life of Pi,” was Pi really stuck on a lifeboat with a tiger, or was his entire oceanic adventure made up? In “Great Expectations,” what will happen to Pip as he returns

home?

“At Night All Blood is Black” was, for me, a prime example of an unfortunate failed attempt. Rather than the traditional unresolved ending or even the cryptic or obscure ending, the reader is left with something more like a “whatthe-hell-has-he-been-mum bling-about-for-the-last-tenpages” ending. Diop yanks Alfa from the rich setting of the battlefield and drops him in a military hospital, the book’s rising tension thor oughly crushed in one fell swoop. In the end we are left simply with the ramblings of Alfa, now completely mad, as he lives out his days, pining after a nurse.

Shortly after finishing the novel I took to the internet, searching for some clarity. Had I misread something or overlooked some key detail? I only found similarly confused readers, sharing increasingly weird and zany possibilities for what Diop was trying to do in those final pages. I, for one, was not inspired enough by the book to stick around and try to figure it out.

Unresolved endings, while relatively common in the world of literary fiction, can either be employed to incred ible effect — engaging the reader’s imagination to specu late on the multiplicity of pos sible outcomes and consider what this says about the book as an artistic or philosophical piece — or they can feel like an uncertain author throwing up their hands, not entirely sure how to land the plane.

In the case of “At Night All Blood is Black”, an arresting start to the novel gives way to an unfortunately unsatisfying ending, not for its lack of clo sure, but for its lack of vision and execution.

Ryan Lillestrand PZ ’23 is a book columnist for TSL. He has been writing about books for the paper for two years — this is his last article.

For those unaware, “Gilmore Girls” is a comedy/drama series that aired seven seasons from 2000 to 2007 with a four episode revival in 2016. It follows Lorelai Gilmore, played by Lauren Gra ham, and her teenage daughter Rory, played by Alexis Bledel, in their eclectic and wholesome small town in Connecticut. Rory grows up from her sophomore year of high school to her senior year of college, experiencing a variety of setbacks and triumphs along the way.

When I first watched “Gilm ore Girls,” I saw a lot of myself in Rory. She loves to read, is se rious about school and going to college and spends her extra time working on her school’s newspa per — all things that could have been said about my high school self. I often would — and some times still do — watch her in or der to find inspiration to do my own studying, a process that, while well-intentioned, was of ten counterintuitive.

In the fall of my sophomore year, “Gilmore Girls” took on a whole new meaning as a comfort show. After the results of the 2016 election, the constant news cycle became overwhelming, and I de leted all social media off of my phone. “Gilmore Girls” was the only media I consumed in addi tion to the fanmade companion podcast “Gilmore Guys.” Hosted by comedians Demi Adejuyigbe and Kevin Porter, the podcast has an episode for every episode of the show, doing deep dive analysis of the plot and charac ters. Listening to it every day be tween classes or while doing my homework, it was such a comfort to me and it made me fall more in love with the show and, more

As I’ve grown up, what “Gilmore Girls” has meant to me has changed. I took almost everything at surface level when I watched it for the first time, as it was becoming one of my favorite shows. After listening to the analysis of the show by “Gilm ore Guys,” I started to notice more about it, and I started to fall in love with analyzing this TV show, look ing for themes and small details that point to overarching arcs.

Rory’s questionable and unpre dictable choices when she goes to college at first made me angry and disappointed, but now as a college student, I can understand more of her feelings of ennui and confu sion as she starts her adult life. The show is still one of my go to com fort shows — now, I can pick out a different episode for any mood I might be in. There are some scenes I can quote word for word, and I find ways to relate the plot lines to many different aspects of my life.

I have often joked that it’s my favorite show even though I hate all of the characters. This is par tially true — I could talk about the show’s flaws for hours — but I think in many ways it’s an exaggeration. I could talk at length about its very valid issues, but I could also talk about why I love it. In a strange way, it’s one of my favorite shows because there is so much I could talk about. Even though it seems simple, I could go in-depth on just one episode.

It’s my favorite show for the comfort it brings me, the nostalgia of when I first watched it and the references I remember from “Gilm ore Guys.” Like any of the shows I watched in high school, it has a lot of sentimental value to me, even as its meaning to me changes over the years.

Claire DuMont SC ’23 is one of TSL’s TV columnists. She would answer that she’s Team Jess if asked, but really thinks Dave Rygalski is the best boyfriend in the entire show.

LUCIA mArQUEZ-UPPmAN • THE STUDENT LIFE

ELLA LEHAv • THE STUDENT LIFE

LITErArY

Photographer John Choi PO ’24 on resisting the ‘certainty trap’

LILA GAMBLE

John Choi PO ’24 initially never saw himself as a photographer. Devoted to a cookie-cutter path of finance when entering Pomona College, he told himself that photography was nothing more than a hobby. However, he spent his first year of college online, which allowed him to meditate on how unpredictable life can be. Paired with a class on death and dying rituals, Choi further considered mortality and the importance of pursuing something truly meaningful to him.

So, Choi made a promise to himself — for a year, he would pursue photography to the best of his abilities and see where that took him. Flash forward to his junior year: Interscope Records has contracted him to photograph various musical artists, and he has been an official tour photographer for the alternative indie artist Hayd.

He began his experimentation with photography by coupling his visual work with personal writing. He believes in putting it all out there.

“I don’t have to hide anything,” Choi said. “And the things I do want to hide, I’ve always found that it’s better to just share it because finding other people that relate to those experiences has been cathartic for me.”

Sharing his writing has been a part of his process, because to him, the self and its creations are inherently intertwined. As such, Choi tries not to have a separation between himself and his creative side.

“It’s good to make stuff in a vacuum sometimes, but there’s a lot of stuff I make that I don’t really make for anyone else other than me,” Choi said. He believes some failures can be almost productive because growth is not something that happens when everything goes right.

In general, his area of interest lies in photographing musical concerts and portraiture. To Choi, photography empowers both the subject and the photographer.

“I feel like oftentimes, we just look in mirrors, like our phone cameras or physical mirrors, to get a perspective of what we are,” he said. “But [with] someone that is shooting you, and you have a photo of them, you kind of get to see, at least, the way that they view you and in a more favorable way to them.”

This symbiosis between photographer and subject has allowed him to build strong relationships with musicians he admires, which he sees as one of the most rewarding aspects of photography.

Around a year ago, he snuck his camera into a concert by the musical artist ericdoa and had his photos reposted by the artist. After a flurry of cold emails and connections within both the music and photography industry, he accompanied Hayd on a North American tour, where most of the crew members were new to touring as a whole. Choi credited this experience as uniquely empowering because everyone around him was also very new to their craft.

“We’re all in this kind of early development stage in our respective careers,” Choi said.

One thing that Choi loves about photography is the ability to become a witness to so many walks of life. He said one of his favorite moments of portraiture was shooting Iann Dior’s album release party.

“Having a camera just allows you to enter so many types of situations, and it was almost unfathomable to me that I was just working with these people who I look up to so much,” Choi said.

He credited his artistic inspiration as photographic series such as “The Kids Were Alright” by Ryan McGinley, which depicts scenes of young debauchery around New York City and beyond. His influences are broad and inspired by his

peers who also photograph concerts around Los Angeles.

These influences have led Choi to focus on a certain theme of authenticity, which he attempts to capture in his photography, paired with the desire to allow musical artists to see themselves through the eyes of another.

Choi is an advocate for embracing the uncertainty of creative careers. He called certain phenomena at highpowered institutions the “certainty trap,” where everything feels easier when there is a concrete plan to follow.

He argues that some may see failure as a sign to turn back, but instead, he steadfastly believes that failure is productive. He hopes that more students will embrace this philosophy of resisting the comfortable path in order to make room for fulfillment.

“I found that by choosing uncertainty, the walls of a room have dropped,” he said, “and now you’re sitting in the middle of an ocean instead of a small confined space, which is scary, but now the potential has become unlimited.”

You can find some of John’s photography on his instagram, @ JohnnChoi.

Searching for superior sweets at the 5Cs

ISAAC WARSHAW

When I got to Pomona Col lege last year, I dove deep into the desserts … so deep that I had to cut myself off and avoid them completely. I begin to feel bad when I consistently con sume a lot of sugar, so if a des sert is not really good, I’d rather not eat it. In this article I’ll let you know about my favorite 5C dining hall desserts so that you can make a more satisfy ing choice when faced by the plethora of sweets available at the 5Cs.

able, they do always have the Icee machine. When I tried Icees from similarly sized machines in the past, they sometimes wouldn’t be well-frozen and would melt quick ly. However, the Icees at Harvey Mudd College always come out perfectly frozen.

Frary Caramel and Pecan Cookie — Pomona College

1Collins Chocolate Chip Cookies — Claremont McKenna College

Every dining hall at the 5Cs has their own chocolate chip cookie, but in my opinion, Col lins’ are by far the best. These chocolate chip cookies are al most bite-sized, and I never feel complete with just one. They have a lot of chocolate in them and usually are still warm, making the chocolate melted and smooth inside them. The batter has a much richer and more buttery flavor than that of its 5C counterparts.

2

Malott Watermelon — Scripps College

I love good fruit. If I had the choice between extremely fresh, ripe fruit and baked desserts, I would almost always choose to eat the fruit. Yet finding ripe fruit at the 5C dining halls can be tough. The dining hall where I most consistently find good ripe fruit is at Scripps’ dining hall, Malott. Their watermel on in particular is my favorite. The watermelon located in the salad bar is very sweet and well chopped, making it easy to eat. In Malott they also have Tajín — a Mexican chili and lime sea soning for fruit — and cham oy — a Mexican sauce for ice cream and fruit made of dried fruits, chili and lime. These condiments can take the fruit to the next level. I also cannot overlook the pineapple, which is also consistently ripe and sweet.

4 3

Due to having three dining halls, Pomona probably has the largest selection of desserts of all the 5Cs. While I normally think that Frank and Frary are compa rable, I think that there are more and better desserts at Frary than at Frank. There is one dessert at Frary that stands out amongst the rest: the caramel and pecan cook ie. This cookie is not there very of ten, so when I see it on the menu, I rush to get it. This cookie has a lot of caramel in it, which makes it chewy and sticky on the inside, yet it’s slightly crunchy on the outside where the caramel leaks out of the batter. The pecans are a nice com plement to the caramel, giving the cookies a very buttery taste and an overall great texture.

5

Berry Crumble at Frank and Frary — Pomona College

I have seen the berry crumble at both Frank and Frary. By the time I get to it, it is usually almost completely eaten, and I must rush to get the little bit of it that is left. Unlike many of the other fruit des serts at the 5Cs, this dessert has more fruit than other ingredients, which is why I love it so much. The berry filling is not overwhelming ly sweet and slightly tangy, which brings it to the next level.

The Frozen Treats of the Hoch — Harvey Mudd College

Even though the Hoch is a bit of a hike for me, I try to go at least once a week to enjoy their scrumptious frozen treats. I especially like their mat cha ice cream. It is not overly sweet, and it has a strong mat cha taste. While the matcha ice cream sadly isn’t always avail

scripps Mock trial preps for competitive season

Few students find a break amidst the demands of college life. However, one 5C club uses its free time to dive into courtroom scenarios, case theories, lines of questioning, cross examination and responses to objections. The Scripps College Mock Trial team puts itself to work.

Twice a week, for two hours each meeting, the Scripps mock trial team can be found in a small classroom at Scripps’ Edwards Humanities Building preparing for an upcoming season.

Every year, the American Mock Trial Association creates a case for the season’s competitions. This year, the case is about a plane crash in which an individual sues a corporation for negligence. To prepare for this case, Scripps College Mock Trial split into two teams, each with around seven Scripps students. The groups sort ed through the hundreds of pag es of case information, including witness testimonies, evidence and more so that they could form an A and B team to compete in this season of trials.

The competitions themselves are somewhat theatrical in their performance. Much research and effort goes into the preparation phase of the season so that when it is time to perform, participants can effectively deliver their ar guments. And in the roles where improvising is required, the team has enough knowledge to come up with something on their feet.

Scripps Mock Trial member Emily Pollins SC ’26 explains this dynamic.

“It’s kind of fun to get into it. I played a witness where my spouse had died … so you can’t go up there and be …smiling, so I had to shed some tears … and being an attorney you have to embody this really formal … role, you kind of get consumed by it,” Pollins said.

This year, Scripps has a young er team, mostly composed of first-year students. Because of

this team make-up, many of the team’s goals revolve around community bonding and gain ing skills rather than only focus ing on winning, as Scripps Col lege Mock Trial Vice President Amie Lee SC ’23 explained.

“The team is relatively new because the last two years we’ve had to do mock trials over Zoom, [so] our retention rate has been low because it is just not as fun to compete on Zoom as it is in person,” Lee said. “… And so we really want to emphasize bonding, building a community of people who enjoy this activity and are feeling empowered by it … Our goal is to make sure that everyone is engaged and having fun and feeling empowered and lifted up by this activity.”

This is the first year since the start of the pandemic that com petitions will be in person, cre ating much excitement amongst the mock trial community. So far, the Scripps College Mock Trial team has competed in two scrimmages. In November, they traveled to both UC Santa Bar bara and UC Irvine to compete against other teams in Southern California.

Like any other competitive activity, competition days are filled with great anticipation. For many, this feeling is a mix of excitement, fear and anxiety. De spite these nerves, having hard work pay off proves a great re ward.

“There’s always a huge amount of anxiety that comes with competitions, regardless of your experience,” Lee said. “It is a really high pressure intense situation and with that comes a lot of stress. That’s the hardest part. But I think that is also my favorite part. It’s like twofold. While it is super high intensity and stressful, the feeling that you get when you succeed … is one of my favorite feelings in the world. … [And] seeing your teammates thrive and succeed in that same way and find fulfill

ment in this activity is like my favorite part.”

As a team representing a his torically women’s college which has both female and gender non-conforming members, the Scripps team often faces treat ment based on stereotypes about women. According to Lee, the team often receives comments about coming off as too aggres sive or being inappropriately dressed, and they oftentimes wins awards for being the most friendly. Yet, these obstacles can be reinvented as a tool of em powerment.

“I think that there are a lot of inherent assumptions and biases that are held by the legal system, and the people who are judging us are typically either

law students or lawyers that are volunteering for a mock trial and oftentimes they’re perpetuat ing or recreating the biases they have about non-men in the legal world,” Lee said.

In an arena in which be ing assertive, bold and tough can equate to success — many characteristics that are typically not seen as desirable in wom en — the Scripps College Mock Trial team reclaims these skills through their performance and hardwork in order to achieve success as a team and find per sonal fulfillment.

“We’re basically taught in every aspect especially as … younger women, to just not trust ourselves in our abilities,” soph omore member Hadley Iselin

SC ’25 said. “And this activity, as silly as it sounds, has given me so much more confidence in myself and what I’m saying.”

Reflecting on the start of their season and all the hard work the team has put in so far, Lee makes it known that no matter the num ber of wins or losses, or where this season goes for the team, they have their own definition of suc cess.

“I’m really happy … to talk about mock because I love it and I feel like it’s such a niche activity … I’m so happy with how we did last weekend,” Lee said. “I’m so happy with the kind of relation ships and friendships that we’ve formed as a team. And so I’m re ally excited to see what this year holds for us.”

ELLA ALPERT

Isaac Warshaw PO ’25 is a student with a passion for flavor and a hunger to satisfy. He writes about food and cooking in Claremont to help fellow students make more informed culinary decisions so that they can improve their dining experience in college.

CoUrTESY: JoHN CHoI

CoUrTESY: AmELIE CHEING LEE

Scripps mock Trial competes yearly in cases created by the American mock Trial Association.

EmILY J brIoNES • THE STUDENT LIFE

In general, Choi’s area of interest lies in photographing musical con certs and portraiture.

Marionette theater puppets pull on heartstrings with concert series

HANNAH WEAVER

The historic Bob Baker Marionette Theatre (BBMT) has been around for almost 60 years, and in 2009 it was designated a Los Angeles HistoricCultural Monument. Bob Baker himself grew up in Los Angeles, with a passion for puppets from the age of seven until his passing in 2014.

Throughout the years, BBMT has expanded their programming beyond their traditional puppet shows to include a podcast, collaboration with other local nonprofits, a museum exhibition and a live music series.

The show on Nov. 12 was the latest iteration of the latter program, featuring artists Steady Holiday and Bonehenge. “School House Rocks,” as BBMT calls it, has combined their signature puppeteering with live music artists, for the past few years. It began around the same time BBMT moved from its original downtown LA location and transitioned to a non-profit.

All of these ventures couldn’t have happened without the help of a 5C alum.

An alum’s journey from Scripps to the puppet theater Winona Bechtle SC ’14 has a January birthday, and even in LA where she grew up, that meant it was the rainy season. So, Bechtle had to have her birthday parties indoors, which drew her to having them at BBMT. After high school, she attended Scripps College, where she took media studies courses and worked for KSPC, leading her to realize her passion for artwork, cultural preservation and LA history.

This love led her to a master’s program in Arts Management at Claremont Graduate University, where she started working with BBMT as a consulting project for her degree.

Bechtle has been with BBMT for the six years since then and now serves as director of partnerships. In her new role, she looks for collaborations that “feel right for the space.” When it came to looking for musicians to work with for Saturday’s School House Rocks show, she and her colleagues found a good fit in Steady Holiday and Bonehenge.

The two artists are remarkably different. Steady Holiday is the dreampop solo act of LA-based musician Dre Babinski. Bonehenge is a newly formed traditional Irish music group, led by the number one Irish bones player in the world, James Yoshizawa. What both artists did share, however, was their willingness to embrace the playful atmosphere of BBMT.

“We really liked that they were both very unique artists with their own style,” Bechtle said of the two groups. “When they toured the theater, and we thought about how to use the puppets, they were just incredibly excited.”

Act I: Transported to Ireland

Before the live music even started, the audience got a taste of what BBMT is all about with a few short numbers accompanied by classic circus-y tunes.

Then Bonehenge began with Yoshizawa demonstrating his prowess as a percussionist. After

a couple solo songs, a puppet emerged from the sidestage. The crowd reacted with trepidation that quickly turned into excitement. This is always Bechtle’s favorite part of every School House Rocks show.

“It just works so shockingly well together, I can always tell from how people react and clap or just look really surprised that they’ve never seen anything like it,” she said after the show. “It always just makes me feel really good that we can provide an experience that I know is really, really new and fresh for people … in a city where there’s so many options.”

Throughout the rest of Bonehenge’s set, they weaved through Irish jigs, ballads, drinking songs and a cover of U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

Act II: Puppet-pocalypse with a side of indie pop Right from the beginning, she made the audience feel as though we were her close friends.

“Are you ready to get a little bit weirder tonight?” she asked us, laughing. “It’s possible.”

Babinski played the first few songs solo, with just the help of a guitar — and quite a few thematic puppets. In a program passed out before the show, a blurb explained that she wanted a more “intimate” performance to share songs from her forthcoming album, “Newfound Oxygen.”

With each song, a new layer was added to the beautiful chaos of a show. First, a disco ball and melodramatic blue lighting made an appearance; a black light, dancers and accompanying guitarist followed.

The puppets were also coordinated with the lyrics or tone of the song. When she sang about rain, duck puppets came out with umbrellas, traipsing solemnly across the stage. For a more upbeat song, a bunch of dog puppets shook their yarn fur with glee, climbing up on the speakers.

During her song “Living Life,”

HANNAH WEAvEr • THE STUDENT LIFE

a bunch of little ant puppets marched in a line across the stage. I paused for a moment, looking around at the rest of the audience. Not a soul was frowning, or even straightfaced. Everyone was laughing and smiling, soaking in this rare experience.

For the last song, Babinski asked the audience to refer to the lyrics she had printed in the program for her upcoming song “The Balance.” Then, to test our reading and singing skills, she ran around the audience with a mic in hand.

“I really appreciate her printing out the lyrics and running through the crowd and doing all that,” Webber said afterwards. “I think that, like she said, it’s not easy to play in front of people. But when you involve everyone, it’s quite nice.”

After the show, mingling Bechtle explained that it isn’t unusual to see all different types of people at the theater.

“We get folks coming here on dates, coming with their friends, having their bachelorette party here … it really is for all ages.”

She also emphasized the opportunity for 5C students to get involved, just as she did many years ago.

“I just so value the people that I met out in Claremont and so many of them are involved here today; so many of our puppeteers and our staff are my friends that I made while I was out in school there.”

Her goal is to create an “open connection” for students to get involved.

“The Claremont Colleges [have] proximity to resources like this where people like you can attend as an audience member, you can volunteer and work in our archives, you can propose a film program idea that you have [or] you can propose a show idea — we just want to be open to anyone’s ideas here.”

BENTON: Artists meet activists at art fair

Continued from page 1

and it’s not stale,” Ge said. “We’re just trying to create a space where people can browse art, talk to the artists, see what their peers are creat ing and just share the space.”

Ge thinks the best part of the market is getting to see what everyone makes every year.

“It’s honestly just a great way to meet student creators, meet new people, share your own stuff, share interests [and see] the kind of excite ment that is shared by every one there,” Ge said.

Tindell-Griffin also sees the art fair as a way for stu dents across campus to learn more about the Benton.

“During Art After Hours and every Thursday night, the Benton Museum itself is open a little bit later, so stu dents that come to the art market can also enjoy the art

However, she believes that the best part about the art fair is that it provides artists with an opportunity to share their work and connect with people who share their interests.

“It’s nice to create a commu nity of art that exists outside of the department,” Tindell-Griffin said. “… A lot of students that go to Pomona and the other schools are very creative and artistic but don’t have a lot of outlets for creating their art. They can’t get into classes or for whatever rea son, [so] they just don’t have the time to make art in an academic setting. This is a great way for them to be able to raise money to support causes that are really important to them and to do that by doing something that they re ally enjoy, so it’s a win-win.”

TANIA AZHANG

As Iran protests over the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, a Kurdish-Ira nian women killed by Islamic Re public police over alleged improper hijab conduct, continue into their tenth week, CMC’s Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies invited guest speaker and profes sor Shervin Malekzadeh to provide some context on the escalating situ ation in Iran.

The Keck Center worked in col laboration with student-run orga nization Center for International Relations Society (CIRS). CIRS ap proached Keck Center organizer Dr. Evin Menzini about hosting a talk with an expert on Iran, and af ter an extensive search, they invited Malekzadeh.

Malekzadeh has taught on Mid dle Eastern and Islamic Studies across various universities, includ ing Williams College and Swarth more College. His talk on Monday, Nov. 14, spanned various topics such as Iran’s hundred-year democ racy movement, the culture of rev olution that is inherent to Iranian society today and how women and Gen Z are at the forefront of those fighting for change.

“One thing I want you to take from this lecture is that continu ity is inimical to change in Iran,” Malekzadeh said. “Put more blunt ly, the language and demands of protests are inextricable from offi cials from the past. Revolution, if it comes, it will not be a rupture. Again, it will be a remix. Demon

strations of close revolutionary Iran have been powerful because they’re familiar. They’re legible to the state and society of life.”

Malekzadeh also emphasized the culture of revolution that the Islamic Republic actively culti vates, with annual celebrations of the end of the Shah’s rule and how ingrained the right to a democra cy is in the education system. This culture of revolution naturally fosters revolt against the Islamic Republic.

“So these tools and mecha nisms for resistance come from elements of domination or from officials where there is injustice, [and] Iranians are told to protest, revolt,” he said. “So it should

come as no surprise that today, and then the holidays, practices, slogans and spaces that consti tute the Islamic Republic of Iran, provides its citizens with a ready arsenal to use against a state that continues to repeat the mistakes of the very regime they overthrew over four decades ago.”

Malekzadeh also touched on how what Iranian people are fighting for looks different than what Americans might think lib eration looks like. He emphasized that what Iranians are demanding is the freedom to choose whether to wear a headscarf or not and to choose whether to espouse Islam or not. Iranian people are fight ing for the freedom that men and

women can eat in public side-byside or to play music on speakers in the street.

“The aim might be not for rev olution, but rather what we might call extraordinary ordinariness,” he said. “Just a kind of ordinary life on a Tehran Metro. Nobody’s bothering you. If you want to wear the chador … you can, [and], if you want to dye your hair [you can].”

Malekzadeh concluded the talk by expressing how these pro tests are somewhat different from protests in the Islamic Republic’s past, like the Green Movement in 2009. The media has paid at tention to how women are the front-liners in the protests, but what’s especially remarkable is the mobility of Gen Z in the fight against the Islamic Republic. As the first generation who has only ever known the Islamic Republic, their zeal is part of what is propel ling the protests forward.

Students found that Malekza deh’s talk illuminated the unfold ing situation in Iran in ways they didn’t expect. Adam Terenyi CM ’25 expressed how vital it is for 5C students to be informed about what’s happening in Iran.

“Collective action is important to me as a Hungarian who sees Hungarians continually turn out to protest against the regime, but no change is made,” Terenyi said. “As we can see, there’s some of that in Iran.”

when approaching an event that is unfolding in the present moment.

“It’s important that whenever a protest arises, or whenever a cur rent event arises, and we’re sort of in the moment trying to explain it that we’re sort of tentative and cautious with our predictions, and he was, and I feel like he gave the proper respect to the topic that it needed,” Morgenstein said.

Margo Cohen CM ’25, CIRS board member, explained why the CIRS board found it vital that they spotlight the escalating protests in Iran.

“Teaching about the history of Iranian revolution and Iranian polit ical participation is so important for students, no matter where they live or what they study,” Cohen said via email. “At the 5Cs, many students learn how to work on the cutting edge of an array of fields, and a key aspect of this leadership is under standing global conflict and con flict-resolution strategies … Teach ing about Iranian politics helps 5C students mature and explore, mean ing that this supplementation of IR and GE curriculum is not only ideal, but vital for student advancement.”

Menzini, who helped organize the event, stressed the importance of educating oneself on current events.

CM ’25 ad mired Malekzadeh’s cautiousness

Josh Morgenstein

“[Bringing awareness to global issues] fosters responsible and ac tive citizenship,” Menzini said. “Cu riosity about the world outside [one self and] ann educated viewpoint … in my opinion [are] the strongest tool[s] that lead to change — knowl edge leads to change, right?”

ANNA

CMC Keck Center talk ‘t he revolution Will Be a remix’ shines a light on Iran protests

FLorENCE PUN • THE STUDENT LIFE

At the art market, student artists sold a variety of artwork, ranging from clothing to prints.

The bob baker marionette Theater has been entertaining crowds since 1960.

that is there, learn more about the resources that are here at the colleges and just get a feel for what it’s like to be here and re ally immerse themselves,” Tin dell-Griffin said.

Have empathy for students who are transported

“I totally blacked out last night!” and “Did you hear X got transported?” are typical conversation starters at dining hall brunch on Friday morning. Getting transported — which means that Emergency Services comes and takes you to Pomona Valley Hospital due to alcohol or drug poisoning — isn’t anyone’s ideal ending to a night out.

With recent parties shut down because of student transports, it is understandable that many people are frustrated. We only have a few years of college, and it’s disappointing when events we look forward to aren’t what we expect. People become upset about paying money and having events end early, and many ju niors and seniors feel frustrated about nights out being cut short, especially when it’s one of their last opportunities to attend par ties. These feelings are valid and understandable.

On Oct. 28, Claremont McK enna College students were sent an email from ASCMC President Josh Nagra CM ’23 addressing why the Monte Carlo party end ed early. The reason listed was a “significant number of medical incidents, including some para medic transports due to exces sive alcohol use and illicit drugs. At a certain point, emergency services were overwhelmed by activity at CMC and the oth er campuses and temporarily could not take on any more pa tients.”

I noticed many people saying that the transports ruined the party and that punishing every one for a relatively small group of individuals’ actions was un fair. While I do see how it’s frus trating for someone who spent money and looked forward to an event to have it cut short, I think this type of rhetoric is concerning. If students needed to be taken in large droves for emergency treatment for alcohol and drug poisoning, then mul tiple members of our student body were in danger. We need to respond with care and concern, not with anger and pointing fingers. Also, it is unfair to at tack ASCMC for shutting down an event for safety concerns. If emergency services were over whelmed, then for the safety of the community, shutting down the event was for the best.

When something goes wrong, the human impulse is to find someone to blame. But blaming those who get transported does more harm than good. It isn’t going to change the past. All it does is make them feel socially

isolated. The moment some one is profusely vomiting, being placed on a stretcher and having their stomach pumped, they know they made a mistake. We don’t need to remind them.

A lot of people first ex periment with partying and drinking in college. Part of that process is figuring out what a healthy amount of drinks is right for your body and learning how to navigate new social situations. The pressure of these social inter actions means many people lean on alcohol to curb social anxiety. Also, the peer pres sure to binge drink and keep up with others’ paces means someone could easily lose track of how much alcohol they’ve consumed.

I remember walking into Valach Courtyard for Thurs day TNC, and there was a crowd of people surround ing someone. The person was throwing up and receiving support from medical staff. People were crowding them, laughing and even filming the situation for Snapchat. They were standing around like they were watching a car crash. We need to do better.

It’s important to be kind to each other and treat peo ple with respect. Make sure your friends are drinking water and pacing themselves. Respect people’s decisions not to drink, and don’t judge people for making mistakes by drinking too much. We should show discretion, care and empathy to our peers who get transported.

If we don’t show care in these situations, it could re ally hurt someone’s confi dence in attending parties in the future. They’re probably already embarrassed or dis tressed from this experience. Think about if you were in their shoes. Let’s all take care of each other and remember that we are all human and make mistakes.

The important thing is that the person isn’t serious ly hurt. Let’s focus on the fact they got help in time and be conscious that our peer has gone through a stressful ex perience. Don’t antagonize them for getting alcohol poisoning. Make them feel supported and be grateful they’re okay.

Anna Tolkien CM ’24 is a liter ature and film dual major. She loves her pugs, creative writing and iced coffee.

Gangsta rap is not the problem

Cw: Mentions of police violence

On Tuesday, Nov. 1, many of us woke up to the sad news of Takeoff’s death. Takeoff, also known as Kirshnik Khari Ball, was a member of the trio Migos, along with Quavo and Offset, who made the hit song “Bad and Boujee.” Following his death, the internet was instantly flooded with tweets blaming rap music, described as “gangsta rap,” for his death, just like with the deaths of Pop Smoke, Nipsey Hus sle, PNB Rock, XXXTentacion and others. These arguments constantly come up whenever any rapper dies — and they are highly problematic, racist and illogical. They negate the artistry of rap music and they obscure the root cause of all these murders: structural vio lence, gun laws, over-policing and systemic poverty.

Many politicians and ce lebrities have blamed gangsta rap for causing the violence that rappers experience. Lit tle do they know, gangsta rap is, on the contrary, a response to the crisis and problems that rappers face, rather than the source of those atrocities. These problems include, to name a few, gun violence, po lice brutality, the over-policing of Black neighborhoods, pov erty through discrimination in housing, jobs, loans, gang violence and state policies that work to maintain broken fam ilies.

Rap is a form of music created to intervene in these complex systems of oppres sion. For example, in his song “Casper,” Takeoff critiques the over-policing of neighbor hoods. He says, “Police, they look at my license plate. They look at my jewelry, When I hop out, start singin’ “Amaz ing Grace,” and he continues, “F*ck 12, n*** fast on feet.”

Takeoff uses the story to de scribe the feeling of constantly having the cops on his back, despite never committing any

crimes. This shows listeners the fact of over-policing in Black neighborhoods as an exercise of white supremacy.

In Quavo and Takeoff’s col laboration, “Hotel Lobby,” both address their experiences with poverty and the realities of what they had to deal with as a result. Rap as storytelling be comes hopeful to listeners who may be in survival mode or who have to make difficult decisions and compromises to someday enter a safer and more stable workforce. This story of rising out of the cycle of poverty is what gives gangsta rap political presence.

Blaming gun violence prob lems on rap music distracts from the real issue that Amer icans have extremely easy ac cess to guns today. Statistics about gun violence show that more than 500 people die every day due to gun violence, most through suicide. Additionally, Black Americans are ten times more likely to be shot than their white counterparts, so it is log ical that music made by Black people talks about guns — be cause they have to encounter near-death gun-related experi ences every day. Rap music is not the cause of gun violence, but rather a response to such violence.

It’s a privilege to be able to sing or rap about flowers and butterflies, assuming music is typically an artistic expression of what’s happening in the mu sicians’ lives. If both sides are singing and rapping about the reality they are living in, it only makes sense that music made by white artists sounds a lot more positive than rap music.

The word “rap” has been given a negative connotation due to racism and prejudicial thoughts. Even the word “rap per” has a bad connotation be cause of the stereotypes associ ated with rappers’ lifestyles. For example, when Willie McCoy was shot 55 times within the span of 3.5 seconds by police officers in 2019 while being un armed, the media emphasized the fact that he was a rapper ex

ponentially more than they men tioned the 55 shots fired at him. His rapper status was centered as a way to discredit his character, reduce empathy for him and im plying just actions taken by the police.

Although blame is placed on gangsta rap, it’s evident that the real cause of the death of these rappers is structural violence; it’s simply the myth of biological de terminism, spread by the media, that implies that Black culture is conducive to death. XXXtenta cion was killed because he was in an impoverished neighbor hood where he was robbed for his money and his car. His death had clearly more to do with the fact that the people were impov erished than with the culture of rap music.

Nipsey was shot and killed while he was giving back to his community in an impoverished neighborhood, and someone came to kill him due to jealousy – once again, not related to rap music.

PNB Rock, like XXXtentacion, was murdered during an attempt ed robbery by a 17-year-old. Can you imagine how terrible things have to be for a 17-year-old to kill someone in cold blood? Takeoff was killed due to an argument that he was having that had noth ing to do with his rapper status.

These cases make one thing abundantly clear: there is no ev idence of rap music being these peoples’ cause of death. When they died, the media constantly brought up the content of their music and disregarded the fact that the actual common factor in the murders was the impact of poverty caused by rampant structural violence and systemic racism. Next time, analyze the different systemic issues that could have led to an artist’s death before simply categorizing it as gangsta rap-related violence.

Guest writer David De Souza PO ’24 is from Maryland, but was born and raised in a beautiful country in West Africa called “Benin.” He de scribes himself as a “musical poet” and he makes rap music under the alias “Deezy B” on all platforms.

DAVID DESOUZA

CrUD WorLD: A BIWEEKLY COMIC BY GERRIT PUNT

Editorial Board

Senior Staff

ANNA TOLKIEN

emILY J br oNeS • THe STUDeNT LIFe

CoUrTeSY: WIKImeDIA CommoNS

m any politicians and celebrities have blamed gangsta rap for causing the violence that rappers experience. Little do they know, gangsta rap is, on the contrary, a response to the crisis and problems that rappers face,” writes David DeSouza P o ’24

The holidays shouldn’t have to give you eco-anxiety and here’s why

I’m sitting in my food systems class at the Robert Redford Conser vancy. My teacher is discussing the effects of food waste — apparently the average American wastes 4.9 pounds of food per day. So, with a population around 330 million people, we produce 1,617,000,000 pounds of waste per day. As much as these numbers surprise me, all I can think about is how this waste culture will be intensified by the upcoming holiday season.

I envision myself positioned in my seat at Thanksgiving dinner, facing the star of the meal: the tur key. The Thanksgiving turkey has long been a symbol of abundance in the American tradition. Looking from the 35-pound turkey to the 16-ounce container of gravy, what comes to mind is my incapability of feeling moral fulfillment from this day dedicated to thankfulness. As family members eat their fill after saying their thanks, I still have lin gering guilt about the excess food going to waste — not just in my home but in homes across America.

This is what eco-anxiety feels like. Eco-anxiety is the extreme worry about current and future harm to the environment caused by human activity and climate change.

As an Environmental Analy sis major, these upcoming holiday celebrations do not align with my beliefs about sustainability and climate interventions. The consum erist culture during the holidays eagerly pushes businesses to capi talize on the season of joy, festivity and gathering. But this comes at a cost. Amongst all this goodness, climate issues are concurrent and detrimental to our near future. If we don’t act soon, we might have to say goodbye to this abundant approach to the holiday season — whether we want to or not.

I reflect on the peace I had as a child, allowing myself to be igno

rant of all that came with the con sumerist effects of the holidays: overconsumption of food, pres ents, aesthetic decorations, lights and travel. I wasn’t the kind of kid who wanted many presents but, culturally, that wasn’t really a choice I had. I remember want ing to ask my parents to use some of the money for my presents as donations but also feeling that if I had no new presents when I got back to school, it would be embar rassing.

Yet, as I got older and explored the environment, I learned about how detrimental our consumer ist behaviors are to the health of Mother Earth. Sometimes I feel that this sense of guilt for all the joy I experienced over the years isn’t what is most effective for the issue at hand. Beating yourself up for the choices you made in the past won’t change anything, but reflecting on the choices you and your family make as citizens in this climate crisis can be beneficial and transformative.

Many students are traveling back home to Los Angeles Coun ty or even across the world for a weeklong trip. You may be see ing your family for the first time since the beginning of school, or you might have seen them at fam ily weekend. No matter who you are, reflect on your time with your family and how there are ways you can actively break habits that aren’t serving you, whether that’s around the dinner table, a meno rah or a Christmas tree.

Here are my tips for this up coming holiday season and what you can do to ease eco-anxiety:

1. Plan your holiday menus: Advocate for locally grown pro duce and meats, and maybe even go to your local farmer’s market. Ask your relatives or friends to reduce meat consumption around the table by exploring more plantbased dishes.

2. Save cardboard boxes for returning presents: If you are planning to exchange gifts, ask your loved ones to save boxes and bags to help reduce packaging consumption.

3. Be conscious about your wish list: How many things do you really need? If you want to add an item you’ve been eyeing, look at Good On You’s sustain ability ratings. Alternatively, think about swapping that extra pair of sneakers for a donation to a cause of your choice.

4. Limit holiday light hours: Our holiday lights collectively consume enough energy to pow er 400,000 homes for a year. Be cautious about your light con sumption in your home. You can purchase lights with a timer sys tem or simply set a timer on your

phone to unplug your lights be fore bedtime.

5. Skip single-use decora tions: Tinsel is so 1980s! Be aware of your consumption of plastic products. Try to find paper-based products that can either be reused or recycled. Look for recyclable wrapping paper -- most of it isn’t.

6. Avoid supplying packaged items, drinks and food at family gatherings: Throwing away 50 single-use plastic bottles isn’t the best feeling, and isn’t good for the environment either. Make sure to get drinks in bulk and ask your guests what they like to drink ahead of time. If you need to sup ply packaged items, try to find products made from glass and cardboard.

7. Ground yourself in nature: The holidays can be stressful, as

many find it difficult to adjust to being back home. Being in nature can be very grounding. Grab your headphones, put on your favorite podcast and take that long stroll. You deserve it.

For all the individuals dealing with eco-anxiety, know you are not alone. We are all capable of helping the issues at hand. The first place to start is in our household — if we don’t act this holiday season, our traditions may not last for so long if our resources are depleted by 2030.

Guest writer Kana Jackson PZ ’25 Is an Environmental Analysis major from San Diego. She is a member of the TSL Business Team as Development Man ager. She has a passion for nutritional and environmental intervention, as she is hoping to become a dietician and an education advocate.

Don’t call me African American

ANNIKA WHITE

As the daughter of a Jamai can immigrant, I don’t iden tify as African American. I am Jamaican American: I cel ebrate Jamaican culture, I eat Jamaican food and listen to reggae music.

In addition to my family, there is a wealth of diversity of Black people in America. There is a growing number of Africans — people who practice African cultures — making homes in this coun try as well as descendants of enslaved people brought to America on a ship hundreds of years ago. Each commu nity has its own culture and unique history. Some peo ple identify as African, some identify as American, some feel somewhere in between and some don’t identify as either. Are we all to be called African American? African American is an inaccurate generalization, and it’s time to find a replacement.

As a younger child, I was confused about my racial sta tus in our society. Of course, the problem wasn’t framed in an academic framework in my elementary school mind, but the feeling of confusion, nonetheless, was inescapable. I trust every one of you has filled in a bubble or checked a mark at least once in your life indicating what race you identify with. Some of you never think twice about what you fill out. For others, like myself, the experience is con fusing and invalidating. What bubble do you fill in when nothing applies to you?

I don’t remember my par ents ever telling me their racial affinities or my own, and I’d bet you don’t either. Rather, we learn these things through socialization with in our families; our parents don’t have to break the news to us. As such, I grew up with the understanding that my mom is Jamaican and my dad is white, making me partially Jamaican and partially white. However, Jamaican was nev er listed in the racial identity options on personal forms. I grew up filling in one bubble

and checking one mark: White. It never occurred to me that I was supposed to also fill in Af rican American.

American society uses Af rican American as a synonym for Black. As I got older and was more and more exposed to topics of race, I relearned ra cial categories in the way that America commonly defines them. I realized that every Black person in this country was called “African American” — even those not from Africa. I even started referring to my Mom as being African Amer ican and myself as being par tially African American. I was socialized to think this term respectful.

In academic settings, po litical arenas and in everyday American vernacular, the term African American is largely accepted as the most politi cally correct way of referring to Black people in this coun try. Zeeshan Aleem’s article, “Something Disturbing Hap pens When People Say ‘Black’ Instead of ‘African American,’” responds to a study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, which found that white people perceive the labels “African American” and “Black” differently. The study found that the term “Black” elicits more negative associa tions and lower perception of ability across the board when compared with “African Amer ican.’” But white people feeling more comfortable with saying

In my third wave of racial self-actualization, I have devel oped a strong distaste for this term. Don’t call me African American. This term wrongful ly identifies me: I’m not Afri can. I do, however, see the val ue of a term that encapsulates the three separate groups that I mentioned earlier in this ar ticle — Black immigrants from countries other than Africa, Black African immigrants, and Black people who have roots in this country — while not eras ing their individuality.

In America, our race is a strong indicator of our social status. We all know enough about implicit bias and institu tions of racism for me to have to explain this. Therefore, if you look Black, you are treat ed the same way, no matter whether your mom immigrat ed here from Jamaica, you’re a first generation immigrant from Nigeria or your family has lived in America since the 1800s. Despite our differences we share something in com mon: the experience of being Black in America. So call me Black, because I am not African American.

Annika White PZ ’25 is from Southport, Connecticut. She en joys hiking, journaling and mak ing playlists on Spotify.

KANA JACKSON

beLLA PeTTeNGILL & GerrIT PUNT • THe STUDeNT LIFe

and hearing “African Ameri can” should not be a reason to sustain this term which inval idates the ethnically diverse Black population in America.

beLLA PeTTeNGILL • THe STUDeNT LIFe

Crossing the country on the way to nationals, the Sagehens seek their third NCAA title

For the Pomona-Pitzer men’s cross country team, the SCIAC and Regional Championships are crucial steps towards making a run at Nationals. After dominat ing both, they may be on their way to a triple crown and third national title in a row.

The Sagehens took home the SCIAC Championship on Oct. 29 and the NCAA West Region Championship last Saturday. A group of juniors — Derek Fearon PO ’24, Lucas Florsheim PO ’24 and Ian Horsburgh PO ’24 — swept the podium, leading to the conference title victory. Florsheim stayed hot at regionals by taking home first place, while seven oth er Sagehens landed in the top 13 of 160 runners.

Fearon, who won the SCIAC race, made sure to credit his team mates.

“It is cool because it is the first collegiate-level race that I won for cross country,” Fearon said. “I am more of a team guy myself. Some thing to note if you watched the race is that my teammate Lucas, who finished second, did all the work. I am excited that I got the SCIAC champion, but more im portantly, we worked together to achieve that.”

Expanding on how he worked with his teammates to capture victory, Fearon described their strategy to success.

“The source of our success is teamwork,” he said. “Our ability to do what we call ‘pack running’ is the strategy that we have. We won our last National Champi onship by having a tight pack like five or six runners all run ning together. That means that we all work together, distribute the workload evenly and … practice with our teammates every day.”

Interim

head coach Kyle

Flores, named NCAA West Re gion Coach of the Year, further explained pack running.

“Pack running is the way to win,” Flores said. “It’s the idea that the closer you are within the race, the lower the time spread is and the more likely you’re going to have your five run ners score the least amount of points. If you have five to seven guys with similar abilities and practice pack running, they are eventually going to carry each other during the race, and it will

SCIAC: Sagehens implement strategy in second half to make P-P football history

name of the game, keeping both of fenses at a standstill until halftime.

Coming out of halftime, the Stags once again returned to Ed wards to get the game moving; however, it looked like the Sage hens had found an answer. At this point, P-P fully committed its entire front seven — linebackers and linemen — to shutting down Edwards. Without its run game, CMS, the second-worst passing of fense in the conference, was forced to throw the ball almost every play.

“We knew coming into this week we’re just gonna stop the run,” Thali Cobb PZ ’23 said. “When they started to pass the ball, we knew it was going to be good. Great gameplan by the head coach [John] Walsh and great ro tation from my D-Line coach [Mi chale] Spicer.”

Forcing CMS to rely on its aeri al attack paid off when linebacker George Cutting PO ’25 intercepted a short pass from quarterback Wal ter Kuhlenkamp CM ’25 to set up a promising drive for the Sagehens.

Over the course of the season, the long ball has consistently been a source of struggle for Noble, but in the biggest game of the year it was of no concern to him. As Wim mer sped past the CMS corner, No ble threw a perfectly placed pass into his arms for a 40-yard touch down, bringing the game to 14-7.

“Honestly, we knew we had to take a shot,” said Noble. “I knew Q would come down with it, so I gave him a chance.”

While lockdown defense had been the name of the game until this point, it was the Sagehens’ spe cial teams that changed the course of the match. As the Stags lined up to punt, Nicholas Kaufman PO ’25 came around to get a hand on it. In a heads-up play, Michael Ryan PO ’25 scooped up the ball and took it to the house to put P-P ahead 21-7.

As CMS continued to shy away from its run game, the Saghens looked to take control. Efficiently marching the ball upfield, Noble concluded the drive by casually de

livering a 30-yard strike to Wim mer for another score.

“We had read that play so many times in practice,” Wim mer said. “There were no nerves at that point in my mind. Skylar, all the credit to him — so calm and collected under pressure. This is a game we prepped for like no other, and we came out on top.”

With the Sagehens now lead ing 28-7 with just over five min utes left in the game, everyone on and off the field knew they were just a few plays away from witnessing history.

The Stags managed to exe cute a late-game 90-yard passing touchdown to Anderson Cynkar CM ’25, but it was too late. On the following drive, the Sage hens ran out the clock. As cham pagne corks popped and Walsh held up the SCIAC trophy topped by a Sixth Street sign, the P-P faithful swarmed the field in celebration of this once-in-a-life time event.

With this the last conference game for the P-P this season, Cobb offered reflections on his career as a Sagehen.

“This is my senior year,” Cobb said. “A lot of the teams I’ve been on [were] one game away, one play away … This is the culmination of all those guys before me, the guys I’m playing with this year and the hard work we’ve put in for four years.”

Garrett Pittman PZ ’23, who had an interception during the game, named his goals for the tournament.

“I’m looking forward to an other week with my brothers,” Pittman said. “I’m just excited we get to be a team for one more week.”

Meanwhile, Noble kept his thoughts short and sweet.

“Time to make history again,” Noble said.

The team will travel to Mc Minnville, Oregon, for its first round matchup against unde feated Linfield University Satur day at 12 p.m.

get you to where you need to be by the end of the race.”

Flores said pack running builds community on and off the course.

“The big part of the pressure is that you are not alone,” Flores said. “Every guy in the race has some doubts or fears, but this team is supportive of one anoth er, and it [gives a] sense of con fidence that they can accomplish their goals individually and team-wise. Running for each other and their fellow Sagehens

is how they hold the pressure that they might feel.”

Zooming out, Fearon noted the importance of the team’s fo cus on broader campus issues. Earlier this season, the team waged an effort to support Po mona dining hall workers in their strike and effort to earn a raise in pay.

“It’s good that we did well, but both P-P and CMS knew that the focus was on our workers on Saturday,” Fearon said. “We did our best to wear T-shirts, write

posters and wear pins during the race that support the living wage of our workers. The focus should be on the workers, and hopefully that comes across.”

Jake Ballantine PO ’24, who finished 37th at the SCIAC Cham pionship, said all runners are pre paring for Nationals, even if they won’t be competing in the race.

“The guys that don’t race Na tionals — seven compete, nine keep trying because we have two alternates — do a couple of time trials after, so I’m personally try ing to run a 3K PR on Friday,” Ballantine said. “And we were just doing our part to support the workers, specifically because the strike was at the same time as the meeting and allowed them to voice their opinions.”

P-P will be traveling to Lan sing, Michigan, for the Division III National Championship at 12 p.m. on Saturday.

While the Sagehens are ranked first in the nation, Flores said there is more to take away from this experience than a trophy.

“It is easy to say, ‘Just win the national title,’ but at the same time, we’re on the same page that despite having the races of their lives, they are not necessar ily going to win,” Flores said. “A lot of things are out of control, so focus on what we can control, like workouts, mileage, nutrition, and sleep … Otherwise, when it comes to their mental state, just keep them focused on the dayto-day grind and make sure that they enjoy practice and have fun.”

For Flores, regardless as to how nationals goes, it is the team at the end of the day that means the most.

“We’re a family — so [we] also make sure that we enjoy each oth er’s company and prepare for the next few meets.”

5C women’s club soccer cultivates competitive environment without a coach

After the final whistle, the away team asks themselves, “How did we lose to a team without a coach?” All the vic torious Claremont Football Club needs is student leader ship, passion and community.

While many club sports have set rosters, the 5C wom en’s club soccer team opens its practices to everyone, only locking in a roster for games.

Open practices give the team a much broader reach across the 5Cs, according to Molly Engan PZ ’26.

“Before coming to Pitzer, I had hoped to play soccer either through intramural or a club team,” she said. “What I had not expected was to meet so many people from other 5Cs.”

This expansive communi ty especially helps first-years such as Engan.

“Almost every time I go to a dining hall, I run into friends from the team, [whether] Pitzer or not,” she said. “Soccer has been a great way to branch out into the larger college commu nity and even get advice on what cross-college classes to take or what events are hap pening at other schools.”

When players step onto the field, their friendly attitudes

quickly shift to a laser-focused competitive spirit to stay at the top of their game and achieve results. Sophia Drezner SC ’23 said that the intensity comes naturally to the team.

“We have a ton of interest from people in all years and from all five schools,” she said. “So that makes it a competitive environment where people are working hard to earn their spot on the roster.”

But it’s not a coach that forces this intensity into the team cul ture — the players themselves choose to cultivate this environ ment.

“We do not have coaches, so it is entirely captain-led,” said Drezner. “Everyone on the team can have an impact and a voice in our culture, and that is really special.”

Drezner, who began on the CMS varsity team, said that this aspect of club soccer is es pecially important to her given previous experiences with team cultures.

“Here, the players are the sole voices in creating our style of play and connecting with each other on and off the field,” she said. “[It] has been an amaz ing and refreshing experience compared to my past experience with overbearing coaches who mistreat their players and do not

value the personnel they have on the team.”

The 5C club team is one of the few teams in its league that does not have a coach. Captain Lilah King-Hails SC ’23 believes this has given them an advantage over other teams.

“I am very proud of this team for being so successful,” KingHails said. “We won our league last season while also being completely student-run with no coaching or outside assistance.”

The team’s schedule is also lighter than other club sports, al lowing players to pursue other campus activities.

“While I love soccer and am so happy to continue playing in college, I wanted space to explore other interests as well,” Engan said. “With practice two times a week, a weekend game, as well as some social gatherings, I am able to improve my skills and build friendships yet not feel burdened by the commitment.”

While Engan is just beginning her collegiate club soccer journey, King-Hails’ time with the team is coming to a close.

“As a senior captain, I am very sad about this being my last year to play soccer with this group,” King-Hails said. “I have had such amazing times and made lifelong friends — this team has made my college life infinitely better.”

AMALIA KOCH

Sydney Ghobadian SC ’24 shields ball from opponent during game against Chapman University during a game on Nov. 13.

emmA JeNSeN • THe STUDeNT LIFe

Lucas Florshem PO ’24, who finished second, leads a pack of runners, including the race’s winner, Derek Fearon Po ’24, at the men’s cross country SCIAC Championship oct. 29.

CoUrTeSY: PomoNA-PITZer ATHLeTICS

The Sagehens’ defense lines up against the Stags as Walter Kuhlen kamp CM ’25 calls for the snap during the SCIAC Championship game.

JoNATHAN Ke • THe STUDeNT LIFe

PP men’s water polo washes CMS to claim title of SCIAC regular season champions

TESS MCHUGH

The question of which team would claim victory hung in the air until 25 seconds remained, when Alexander Peterson PO ’24 found the back of the cage. With the lead extended to 12-10 for the Pomona-Pitzer men’s water polo team, Sagehen fans and players breathed a sigh of relief as the clock ticked down to zero.

The energy at Haldeman Pool was electric on Saturday night, with the Sagehens securing the position of the SCIAC regu lar-season champions.

With this win, the Sagehens finished their regular season with the best record in the conference and earned the top seed for the upcoming SCIAC tournament. However, this win was not an easy one for the Sagehens.

Throughout the beginning of the match, the Stags built a nice lead for themselves with a 3-0 scoring run. Andrew Plashche PZ ’25 put P-P on the board to end this run, but CMS notched two more goals before the first quar ter ended. With the score 5-1 at the end of the first quarter, Kyle

Green PO ’24 said the Sagehens reflected on what needed to change.

“We were going to have to come out with more aggression on offense and play better team defense,” Green said. “Commu nication defensively was key.”

Jack Ryan PZ ’25 believes this discussion was essential for reinforcing their initial game plan.

“We had to stick to our orig inal plan and not let the atmo sphere or scoreboard get to our heads,” Ryan said. “It was just a wake-up call that we came out with low intensity and needed to try a little bit harder.”

P-P came in hot in the second quarter with two quick goals from Peterson and Ben Sasaki PO ’22, finishing the quarter with a goal from Sam Sasaki PO ’22. With a score of 6-4 CMS at the end of the first half, the Sagehens’ adjustments proved worthwhile.

“I think [my goal] came at an important time to give us some confidence,” Peterson said. “When you are down several goals, it is easy to be afraid of

making mistakes.”

The Sagehens needed to strike early in the second half to assert themselves. With this in mind, Green scored at the be ginning of the second half.

“My defender left me, and my teammate, Matija Jancic PO ’23, made a great extra pass that perfectly set me up to score,” Green said. “There wasn’t any thing special about the play, but making the extra pass and trust ing your teammates is the water polo that we strive to play.”

Zachary Kaplan PO ’25 also found the back of the net ear ly in the third quarter, erasing CMS’ lead. The third quarter ended with a score of 8-8 after both teams notched two more goals.

The Sagehens and Stags fought tirelessly throughout the second half. The Sagehens’ re silience, cohesive team defense and relentless offense kept them competitive.

“We all understood that we were going to have to keep fighting and push ourselves in order to come out of the game with a win,” Green said.

Maintaining composure in every play was key for the Sage hens’ path to victory. Ryan said he knew that the Sagehens were capable of winning this game because of their caliber.

“The key factor was taking the game play by play and slow ly closing the gap,” Ryan said.

“By the second half, we realized that we were hyping up CMS too much.”

With two minutes left in the fourth quarter, Ryan scored a critical goal that extended the Sagehens’ lead to 10-8.

“I just tried my best to rip the ball as hard as I could,” Ryan said. “I was pretty stoked on scoring — it’s a good feeling to look up at the stands and see my Sagehen community cheering.”

CMS put another goal on the board to narrow the score to 10-9 Sagehens. With one tenu ous minute left, Ben Sasaki and Peterson took matters into their own hands, each scoring to seal the win with a 12-10 victory for the Sagehens.

Peterson was eager to com mend his teammate, Jancic, for his selflessness that led to his

Athletes of the

scoring opportunity.

“Matija could have taken the shot himself, but he made a heads-up play to ensure we got that important 12th goal,” Peter son said. “The goal felt good, as I was forced to sit out much of the second and third quarters due to foul trouble early on. It was nice to get back in the water and con tribute in the fourth quarter.”

While the Sagehens celebrate their regular season champions title, they are also looking for ward to how they will prepare for the SCIAC tournament.

“We will look to stay in great swimming shape and study the film of our last few games to iden tify areas for improvement as a group,” Peterson said. “When we know our opponent, we will come ready to fight on Friday night and defend our home pool.”

Ryan emphasized that this is just another step in the journey to the team’s overarching goal: another national championship title.

“If everyone stays healthy and focused, I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t finish this season with a ring,” Ryan said.

Evelyn Hasama PO ’24 was an essential player for the Sagehens in their final game of the season. Pomona-Pitzer women’s soccer headed to Texas Saturday to compete in the first round of the NCAA DIII tournament. There, they faced the Trinity Tigers, ulti mately falling to them in a 3-2 decision in penalty kicks. However, before the heartbreaking shootout that ended their playoff run, the Sagehens fought hard for all 110 minutes, and play ended with a 1-1 draw. The Sagehens were the first to score, with Hasa ma knocking in her first career goal in the 47th minute. Hasama ripped the ball from almost 25 yards out, soaring it into the back of the net just under the crossbar and giving the Sagehens a 1-0 lead early in the second half. But the Tigers responded quickly with an equalizing goal just 34 seconds after Hasama’s. Despite ultimately losing, the Saghens could not have gone out with the bang that they did had it not been for Hasama, who will be back next fall for her senior season.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

FLoreNCe PUN • THe STUDeNT LIFe

Ben Sasaki PO ’22 winds up for a shot in P-P’s senior day victory over CMS as the Sagehens earn SCIAC regular season title.

Guard Josh Angle CM ’23 earned the SCIAC Athlete of the Week title after his stellar performance in the Stags’ first three games. In the team’s season opener, Angle scored a whopping 37 points, helping CMS defeat the No. 2 ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor. After that, the Stags traveled to Oregon and faced Lewis & Clark College and George Fox University. CMS came back to campus undefeated after the weekend, improving its record to 3-0. Much of the victory was due to Angle, who, over the course of the Stag’s first three games, dropped 73 points. Not only is Angle a crucial scorer, but he netted eight assists, three steals and a block. Catch the Stags today when they face St. Thomas (TX) at 7 p.m. at Roberts Pavilion.

Pomona-Pitzer