Vol. CXXXIV No. 7

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VOL. CXXXIV NO. 7

FRIDAY, NovembeR 4, 2022

Students, faculty call for Pomona data science minor HANNAH FRASURE With the ever-growing demand for data science and computer science, Pomona College professors have been working for over four years to create a data science minor. While there is no timeline for the proposal’s completion, students and alumni have again expressed support to add the minor. About half a dozen professors — including math and statistics professor Jo Hardin and assistant professor of psychological science and neuroscience Shannon Burns — belong to an ad hoc committee at Pomona designing the minor proposal. The committee, which is over four years old, has members across different departments, according to Hardin. At Pomona, a data science minor would consist of a course sequence from classes that already exist, according to Burns. Referencing the Office of Consortial Academic Colloboration’s Data Science Initiative, a hypothetical course sequence would include introductory computer science (CS), statistics, data science ethics and linear algebra courses, Hardin said. The minor would also require students to complete an interdisciplinary project involving data science, such as determining how ethical decisions are made with quantitative data or examining the ethics of AI-generated art. The proposal comes from the Office of Consortial Academic Collaboration (OCAC), whose mission is “to develop and maintain effective and enduring cross-campus academic collaborations among the Claremont Colleges” as well as at Keck Graduate Institute and Claremont Graduate University. Since its inception, OCAC has begun a Justice Education Initiative, a Faculty Mentoring and Collaborative Research Initiative and the Data Science Initiative. The Curriculum Committee, the voting body that decides whether to accept the proposal, consists of Pomona’s dean, associate dean, the Registrar, six faculty members and three students chosen by Pomona’s student governing body. The professors working on the proposal have been in conversation

Halloween cut short LARKIN BARNARD-BAHN & HANNAH FRASURE Over the past two weekends, parties held at Scripps College and Claremont McKenna College were shut down sooner than intended, owing to a series of incidents that put student and staff safety at risk. Due to attendees creating “extremely unsafe conditions for students and staff,” Scripps College administrators ended the Oct. 29 Scripps Associated Students’ (SAS) Claremont After Dark party just 45 minutes after it began, Adriana di Bartolo-Beckman, assistant vice president for student affairs, told TSL via email. Posters advertised Claremont After Dark as lasting from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Scripps’ Bowling Green Lawn. “These actions included students climbing over fencing, trying to tear down fencing, and eventually a massive mob forced their way through the entrance knocking down entrance gates, knocking down a security guard and endangering the lives [of] all partygoers and staff,” di Bartolo-Beckman said. Other than a skinned knee, for which EMS administered first aid, students did not report injuries, according to Carolyn Robles, executive

See PARTY on page 2

CLAREMONT, CA

Pomona dining workers strike through Family Weekend

with a variety of contributors, including faculty, the Curriculum Committee and deans. The movement to grow data science resources at the 5Cs mirrors nationwide trends in increasing the number of undergraduate data science programs and a booming demand for data science skills across multiple sectors, including education. 5C computer science and data science programs began expanding around 2018. In 2020, Scripps College introduced a data science minor, with a computer science minor debuting this fall. Hardin said that some conceptualize data science as an interdisciplinary field that is a Venn diagram of computer science, math and statistics — all of which are essential to navigating what comes after college courses. “So much, in the 21st century, of the way you interact with society — the way systems and society have impacts on you — involves data in some way,” Burns said. “Data is like a way of inquiry, of communication. It feels very natural to fit it into our liberal arts mission. We know how to read really well, write really well and talk to each other, so we should know how to use and think about data really well also.” Hardin added that the minor would speak to how a data science program can give students more than simply a technical skill set. “It’s not just, ‘Does a class teach me the skill that I need to get a job doing X, Y, Z, in data?’,” Hardin said. “In data science, we’re helping students understand that it is a whole broad way of thinking, and we should be educated in how to use data to answer questions and think about the world around us.” Economics and CS major Rishnav Thadani PO ’25 said if he could, he would minor in data science instead of majoring in computer science, as the major is difficult to complete and a “huge time commitment.”

emmA JeNSeN • THe STUDeNT LIFe Represented by Unite Here! Local 11, Pomona dining hall workers’ union picketed outside dining halls oct. 28 and 29.

SARA CAWLEY & MARIANA DURAN During Pomona’s annual family weekend, Pomona College dining staff picketed in protest for higher wages, following two months of unsuccessful contract negotiations between the college and the dining hall staff’s union representative, Unite Here! Local 11. Hundreds of Claremont College students, faculty, staff, families and other community members joined Pomona dining workers in pickets around campus that lasted from 6 a.m. to after 6:30 p.m. Oct. 28 and 29. “I’m humbled,” Vincent Gamalinda, a dining hall cook, said of the picket’s turnout. “Every student that I talk to [and] even faculty are supporting us. I’m very humbled by what the response is, by the fact that they showed up and supported us because they know how much we work. They know how much we struggle.” Over two-thirds of Pomona’s dining staff participated in the pickets, Arun Ramakrishna PZ ’22, an organizer with the union,

See DATA on page 2

told TSL. With Pomona’s counter offer falling short of workers’ ask by $3.40, dining hall union members authorized a strike on Oct. 20 which materialized last weekend. Dining services at Pomona operated at limited capacity during the strike, according to an Oct. 28 email from dining services manager Jose M. Martinez. With Frary Dining Hall closed, Pomona offered food trucks for lunch and dinner to supplement meals at Frank Dining Hall. However, few students made use of Pomona’s available dining facilities during the strike, with members of the Claremont Student Worker Alliance (CSWA) calling for a boycott in solidarity with dining hall workers. Most opted to visit other 4C dining halls or utilize meals provided by ASPC. Dining hall workers and CSWA also called on families to boycott meals offered through family weekend programming. Dining tables set up on Marston Quad remained mostly empty through the weekend, with few parents crossing the picket line. Pomona provided meal refunds to families who requested them,

Pomona spokesperson Mark Kendall told TSL via email. Kendall said the college was “grateful to all the family members who attended” and those “who worked for months to plan the event and then worked over the weekend to host the activities and information sessions.” Workers, students and faculty members marched in front of Frank, Pomona’s food trucks and the family dining setup in Marston Quad. Carrying signs of support, they chanted phrases such as “‘¡Sí se puede!’ or “Yes, we can!” and “El pueblo, unido, ¡Jamás será vencido!” or “The people united will never be divided!” Several Pomona professors spoke to those present at the picket on Friday morning, expressing solidarity with dining hall workers’ fight for higher wages. “We talk about the narrative that Pomona likes to put out as a community,” Gilda Ochoa, professor of Chicano Latino studies said. “They say one thing but where are their actions? Where are their priorities? Buildings do not make up a community. A community focuses on the essentials of people and food… We

See STRIKE on page 2

‘American Dreams/Asian Harvey Mudd announces spring booster requirement Nightmares’ combats anti-Asian hate JAKE CHANG & MARIANA DURAN

TANIA AZHANG At the Garrison Theater on Saturday Oct. 29, father-son duo Hao Huang and Micah Huang PZ ’13 performed “A m e r i c a n D r e a m s / A s i a n Nightmares.” The performance was a combined musical and spoken word piece addressing the uptick in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The performance included Micah Huang’s creative partner

Emma Gies PZ ’14, who also collaborated with him on “Blood on Gold Mountain,” and a musical guest on the Chinese flute. Split into three parts — “Other Bodies,” “Other Minds” and “Other Futures” — the performance combined sonic art, traditional Chinese musical instruments and technology to paint an audiovisual portrait of the violence Asian

See AAPI on page 5

CoURTeSY: KAIDeN bRUCe

The performance was split into three parts: “other bodies,” “other minds” and “other Futures.”

Harvey Mudd College will require all students to receive the latest COVID-19 bivalent booster dose prior to returning to campus for the spring 2023 semester, Dean of Students Marco Antonio Valenzuela told students in an email sent Thursday. Valenzuela initially announced the booster requirement via email last Saturday, also noting that the number of students in isolation at Harvey Mudd rose to eight last week. Harvey Mudd saw a previous surge at the beginning of this semester, when cases surged to 24, but numbers remained low up until last week. In his Nov. 3 follow-up email, Valenzuela said Mudders will be required to upload their COVID-19 vaccination record to Student Health Services no later than Jan. 9 or prior to returning to campus from Winter Break, whichever date is first. “We hope this flexible timeline will allow you to receive the booster while still on campus this semester, or at home during the break,” Valenzuela told students.

To receive boosters, Valenzuela referred students to SHS, which offers Pfizer and Moderna Booster shots by appointment. Harvey Mudd will also host a SHS-dedicated Bivalent Booster Clinic where students can get vaccinated, with more details to come soon, Valenzuela said. No other 5C has announced plans to require a COVID-19 bivalent booster yet. SHS did not respond to TSL’s inquiry on other colleges’ status on booster requirements, instead referring TSL to each institution’s policy page for COVID-19 updates. Last winter, all the 5Cs required students to receive a COVID-19 booster shot for the spring 2022 semester due to nationwide case increases. Pomona was the first college to announce this requirement Dec. 13, and the other colleges followed with similar announcements soon after. The new bivalent booster targets the original strain along with the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. At a state and national level, the number of people who have received this round of the booster is low. About 11.4 percent of eligible Californians have received the updated bivalent booster. Nationwide, that

See BOOSTER on page 2

TSL COVID-19 Tracker covid.tsl.news

+13 cases at the 5Cs from October 24 - 30

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Scripps is no longer reporting COVID-19 data

+1

PO

+3

PZ +1

CMC HMC SC

Student Staff

+8

Undifferentiated

** 0

5

10

15

20

25

Data from each of the 5Cs school’s testing dashboards at press time. Visit covid.tsl.news for the most up-to-date testing infomation and historical data UNITY TAmbeLLINI-SmITH • THe STUDeNT LIFe

ARTS & CULTURE What’s scarier than a swamp in Texas? Probably the murderous making of an adult film on a swamp in Texas. That is exactly the plot of “X,” which TV & film columnist Rory Jones PO ‘22 argues is a fresh take on the classic slasher format. Read more on page 5.

The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889

OPINIONS

SPORTS

Until dining halls can up their accessibility game, medical exemptions to the ultimate meal plan must become available, argues Seohyeon Lee PO ‘25. Read more on page 7.

It was totally tubular. The CMS intramural innertube water polo championship game was held in Axelrood pool on Oct. 25, with the first-year dominated “Cahal’s Kid’s” beating “Team Gasoline.” Read more on page 10.

INDEX: News 1 | Arts & Culture 4 | Opinions 7 | Sports 10


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