THE STUDENT
LIFE
The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889 CLAREMONT, CA
5C students, alumni participate in election
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2018
VOL. CXXXI NO. 8
SCAMFest dazzles in 23rd year
Campus sexual assault survey raises concerns HAIDEE CLAUER CW: Mentions of sexual assault
JENSEN STEADY During her leave of absence this semester, Kaila Finn SC ’20 wrote campaign publications and did communications work for 22-year-old Will Haskell’s campaign for Connecticut State Senate. Her hard work paid off Nov. 6. Haskell won his election with 53.3 percent of the vote against a Republican incumbent who has held the seat for 10 years. “I was really hooked on staying involved because it felt like a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” she wrote in a message to TSL. “This campaign literally started in a dorm room.” Finn is just one of the many students from the Claremont Colleges who worked on a campaign this midterm season. Several Claremont Colleges alumni also ran for public office. Nevada Lee SC ’22 drove home to Nevada every weekend in October to canvass eight hours a day for her mother, Susie Lee, who won a seat in the House in Nevada’s third congressional district. Lee also worked on her mother’s campaign all summer. “[W]hen I was doing it, it was 110 degrees and so that was always really difficult. … But, when you do knock on
CHLOE ORTIZ • THE STUDENT LIFE
The After School Specials show their talent at the 2018 SCAMfest a cappella show Nov. 10.
See page 6
See ELECTION page 3
5C students attend Los Angeles #MeToo March
Students counter Westboro Baptist Church picketers JAIMIE DING
TALIA BERNSTEIN • THE STUDENT LIFE
Scripps Student Organizers organized a trip to the #MeToo Survivors’ March Nov. 10.
MARIA HEETER Scripps Student Organizers, a group of approximately 20 Scripps College and 5C students interested in campus organizing, coordinated for 5C students to attend the #MeToo Survivors’ March in Los Angeles Nov. 10. #MeToo March International is an “organization and movement of intersectional feminism for the 99 percent … dedicated [to] amplifying voices of survivors from marginalized and underserved communities,” according to their Facebook event “#MeToo Survivors’ March 2018.” Scripps Student Organizers brought approximately eight 5C students to the rally, making up a sizable section of the 70 or so protesters at the event, organizer Antonia Capossela SC ’21 said. Capossela felt that Scripps
Student Organizers made a tangible impact by attending the rally. “ We w e re l a rg e l y w h i t e women who went, and I think in that way we were physically moving our bodies and our privilege to try to bring more attention to these issues that aren’t in the mainstream of the #MeToo movement,” she said. Capossela appreciated the intersectionality and effectiveness of the speakers who attended the rally. “There was a whole panel of speakers who were all really incredible and [the rally] did a really good job of being incredibly intersectional,” Capossela said. “They had a disabled woman of color, farm w o r k e r s f ro m M e x i c o w h o came, and there were a bunch
See MARCH page 2
About 100 students gathered at Pomona College’s Marston Quadrangle for a “Celebration of Diversity” event the morning of Nov. 12 in response to the Westboro Baptist Church’s planned picketing on Pomona’s campus, according to Marylou Ferry, Pomona’s spokesperson. One of the “Celebration of Diversity” organizers, Rowan Macy PO ’22, said she was shocked when she heard WBC was coming to campus. “Having the thought of them being present outside of Sumner [Hall] was really uncomfortable. … They were sort of directly attacking the diversity of Pomona and of the 5Cs, which was really upsetting,” Macy said. The WBC originally planned on picketing at 333 N College Way, in front of Sumner Hall, according to its press release sent out Nov. 6. Two days later, Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr emailed Pomona students, reminding them that the college is private property and the WBC would not be permitted on campus. Instead of the plan indicated on the press release, nine WBC members picketed at the corner of First Street and Columbia Avenue on Monday from 7-7:50 a.m., according to Mary Coffey, associate dean of the college. While there, the WBC remained on public property, and a few counter protesters separate from the diversity event stood on the other side of the street, Coffey said.
Administrators monitored the gathering, and President Starr made an appearance. Students were provided markers and poster-making supplies for posters that would later be put up around campus, Lau said. Ellie Ash-Bala, Pomona’s director of campus life, said the event was “perfect” to “celebrate our commitment to diversity … and not confronting the hate.” The 5C Christian Intervarsity Fellowship (5CIV) provided breakfast at the event. “We wanted to show people what God’s love actually looks like,” said Jakim Johnson HM ’19, a member of 5CIV. “We do not agree with or support the message of the Westboro Baptist Church.”
Members of the 5C ROTC battalion spoke to TSL about their reasons for joining, how they balance training with extracurriculars, and how different aspects of their identity influence their position in the group. Read more on page 4.
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See SURVEY page 3
TALIA BERNSTEIN • THE STUDENT LIFE
Students gather for a “Celebration of Diversity” event in response to the Westboro Baptist Church’s picketing.
OPINIONS
LIFE AND STYLE
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The WBC could not be reached for comment before press time. Non-5C community members were not allowed at “Celebration of Diversity.” A sign reading “PRIVATE PROPERTY Claremont Colleges faculty, students, and staff only” was placed at the Pomona’s First Street and Columbia Avenue entrance. Another “Celebration of Diversity” organizer, Rachel Lau PO ’22, emphasized the need to show support for the LGBTQIA+ community and diversity in general at the 5Cs. “We felt like we really needed to do something because we felt like we couldn’t stand by while this kind of hateful community comes onto our community,” Lau said. After the event was posted on Facebook, many people reached out to offer help.
Almost nine percent of undergraduate students reported experiencing incidents of sexual assault, according to a 7C survey released this fall. Nearly four percent of students suspected they had but were not sure, and half of undergraduate students reported experiencing brief nonverbal, verbal, or physical forms of unwanted sexual contact. The survey, administered in collaboration with the Title IX officers and presidents at each of the 7Cs, was adapted from the nationwide Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium. This team, along with student and faculty representation from each institution, continue working to evaluate the findings in presentations and discussions throughout the 5Cs. According to the survey, students identifying as either “female” or “non-heterosexual” were most likely to experience unwanted physical, verbal, and nonverbal sexual harassment “often” or “very often.” These self-identified categories of students, as well as students who didn’t identify as male or female, were also least likely to report that they “feel safe on this campus.” Students from Scripps College were most likely to report experiencing both incidents and attempts of sexual assault, according to Scripps College data. Only five percent of these were reportedly perpetrated by other Scripps students, compared to an average 50 percent of 5C incidents perpetrated by assailants from the survey respondent’s own school, according to the survey. Gabriella Del Greco SC ’21 is a member of Scripps Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault and helps with the group’s outreach and overnight hotline. “Generally, at least on Scripps campus, people are aware [of sexual misconduct], but generally Scripps students are not the ones perpetrating these crimes,” Del Greco said. Del Greco said that crosscampus Title IX reporting can be much more complicated. “Right now you have to go to the Title IX officer of the college of the person who’s being accused,” Del Greco said. “It’s very difficult because there’s so much coordination involved.” Victoria Ashong PO ’20, a member of the Pomona College President’s Advisory Committee on Sexual Violence Intervention & Prevention, said that betterlinked 5C Title IX policies are a
SPORTS
“Polite debate and well-edited news editorials are great but they only get us so far. It’s easy to turn off a debate on TV or fold up a newspaper. It’s harder to ignore a group that’s protesting every single day as you walk to class,” writes Donnie TC Denome PZ ’20, CGU ’21. Read more on page 8.
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“After the race, we weren’t really sure of the outcome; they had us winning, then losing, then tied, then [it] went to a tie breaker,” said Andy Reischling PO ’19. CMS and P-P men’s cross country teams tie at NCAA regionals. Read more on page 12.
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NEWS................................1 LIFE & STYLE.....................4 OPINIONS........................8 SPORTS...........................11
NEWS PAGE 2
NOVEMBER 16, 2018
THE STUDENT LIFE
In Memoriam: Scripps trustee, alumna Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler
COURTESY OF SCRIPPS COLLEGE
Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler SC ’72, namesake of the “GJW” dorm at Scripps College, died in her London home Oct. 31.
Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler SC ’72, a life-long supporter of arts and humanities education for the underprivileged, a voracious languagelearner and world traveler, and a Life Trustee of Scripps College, died in her London home Oct. 31. Throughout her life, JungelsWinkler remained dedicated to her alma mater. She became a member of the board of trustees in 2003, donated a landmark $3.1 million to support Scripps arts and humanities, founded the Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Scholarship, and funded a residence hall in her name, according to an article published on Scripps’ website. About her time at Scripps, Jungels-Winkler wrote, “Scripps was seminal in giving me the intellectual, ethical, and social responsibility and cultural curiosity that have served me in such good stead all my life.” The scholarship she created gives Scripps students the opportunity to earn their master’s degree at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Marielle Epstein SC ’18 is one of the students who has received the scholarship. “I’m so deeply grateful to her . . . for enabling me to be at the Courtauld now, and I think the recipients of the scholarship are just one small part of the enormous impact she’s had,” Epstein wrote in a message to TSL. Jungels-Winkler also endowed the contemporary European studies chair, the history of architecture and art chairs, and the director and curator positions in the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, according to the article from February. On campus, she is perhaps most well-known for funding the construction of the Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler residence hall. In a Scripps video tribute to Jungels-Winkler, Marc Herron, the chair of Scripps’ board of trustees, described her contributions to Scripps as “transformational.” Jungels-Winkler is remembered by her friend and classmate Carolyn
Ditte Wagner SC ’72 who wrote: “Gabrielle and I came from very different backgrounds — I was a scholarship student and the first in my family to go to college — but this difference was never a divider. … Rather, the difference promoted empathy and strengthened our friendship.”
“
Gabrielle and I came from very different backgrounds — I was a scholarship student and the first in my family to go to college — but this difference was never a divider. ... Rather, the difference promoted empathy and strengthened our friendship.
“
JULIA FRANKEL
- Carolyn Ditte Wagner SC ‘72
“We shared so much,” she wrote. “The excitement and perhaps trepidation of being away from home, the thrill of embarking on a new educational path, the pressure to do well in class, and the joy of having lots of adventures.” Jungels-Winkler was born in Hong Kong. At Scripps, she majored in art history, spending her junior year at L’ecole de Louvre in Paris, according to an article published by Mary Bartlett in Scripps magazine. After graduating, Jungels-Winkler moved to The Hague, Netherlands with her husband. Following her time in the Netherlands, Jungels-Winkler moved to the state of Sarawak in Malaysia, where she voraciously explored her surroundings, once traveling eight hours by canoe to learn about the indigenous peoples native to Borneo, as described by Bartlett. After Jungels-Winkler gave birth
to twins Christophe and Alexandra, she moved with her family to Angola where they lived for five years. As the first emigrant wife living in Angola after the 1975 war, JungelsWinkler founded an infirmary and a nursery school. She also learned to speak Portuguese, the country’s official language, according to Bartlett’s article. Jungels-Winkler eventually moved to London, purchasing an 18th-century house and working on a farm in the English countryside. She restored the property and helped the farm become “a model of enlightened organic farming and environmental sustainability,” Wagner wrote in an email to TSL. Jungels-Winkler became visually impaired at age 37, and as a result, she spearheaded the creation of “touch and feel” books for museums across the United Kingdom, using Braille to help those with sensory impairments experience the visual arts, Wagner wrote. Wagner described Jungels-Winkler’s continued involvement with the arts and education. She founded and managed Jungels-Winkler Charitable Foundation, which strengthened access to arts education in underprivileged regions of the world. Notably, the foundation provided art materials and other educative resources to an orphanage in Malawi. In an email sent to the Scripps student body, President Lara Tiedens wrote that Jungels-Winkler was the single largest donor to the Campaign for the Scripps Woman, and won the Ellen Browning Scripps Society Award Oct. 3, 2008. To commemorate Jungels-Winkler, Tiedens wrote that Scripps has commissioned the “Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler” rose. “This rose will fill the new Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Rose Garden adjacent to Balch Hall, and we anticipate that its abundant blooms and fragrance will soon make this garden a cherished spot for reflection and study,” Tiedens wrote. A memorial service for JungelsWinkler will be held in London Nov. 27 at Our Most Holy Redeemer and St. Thomas More church.
MARCH: 5C students break Claremont bubble Pomona College and Claremont McKenna College graduates named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Scott Tan PO ’16 was selected as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 innovators in science for 2019. Tan majored in physics and is now a doctorate candidate in mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At age 25, Tan “helped developed an artificial synapse made of single-crystalline materials as part of an effort to develop neuromorphic computers — computers with hardware that mimics the human brain,” according to Forbes. Looking ahead, Tan hopes to build a “brain-inspired computer system that could enable better language translators, rescue robots, and more.” Julian Buckner CM ’14 also earned a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30 Retail & Ecommerce. Buckner combines interior design, furniture leasing, and staging as the CEO of Vesta Home & Showroom. — Becky Hoving
Claremont Gold Line station requires more funding before construction Construction of a Gold Line station in Claremont is dependent on the allocation of additional funding to cover the cost of construction between La Verne and Montclair, according to a statement from the city of Claremont website Nov. 12. “The increase would bring the total project cost to $2.1 billion. Should additional funding be secured within two years, the line would be extended through Claremont and onto Montclair,” the statement said. A media statement from the Foothill Construction Authority announced that the project budget will need to increase by $570 million in order to build the full 12.3-mile Gold Line extension. Meanwhile, the eight-mile extension to Glendora, San Dimas, and La Verne will be constructed two years ahead of schedule. The expedited schedule is expected to potentially reduce the price of construction by tens of millions of dollars annually in cost escalation fees. — Olivia Truesdale
Corrections In Athletes of the Week, Paddy Baylis PO ’22 was incorrectly listed as PO ’20.
TSL regrets this error.
TALIA BERNSTIEN • THE STUDENT LIFE
Marchers support the #MeToo movement.
Continued from Page 1 of different trans organizers who talked about their experiences in organizing and [being] in the #MeToo movement, and [the speakers] sort of tried to bring a more holistic view to the #MeToo movement.” The march included speeches by TIME’s 2017 Person of the Year Sandra Pezqueda, AfghanAmerican social worker Madinah Wardak, and political strategist Jasmyne Cannick, along with several others, according to the Facebook event. Gabby Ollig SC ’21 believes organizing is particularly important in today’s political climate. “The moment that we’re at politically is a time where people’s voices really matter, in putting pressure, or showing that people have the ability to put pressure on the government and are watching what happens,” Ollig said. Capossela spoke about wanting to break out of the Claremont bubble and make a larger
impact by organizing in LA. “[We wanted] to get 5C people to go outside into the real world,” Capossela said. “I think that part of our idea with that is to try to do something that can be recognized in a bigger way. There’s going to be a lot of other people there, and there’s already going to be publicity there, so what we do, the more people that we bring, the bigger it will be.” Ollig said in the wake of Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court, it is important to support survivors following the hearings. “I think around those issues [like the Kavanaugh hearing] it’s always important to also show survivors that their voice also matters and that the nation actually does actually care about their issues — even if, for example, the senators that approved Kavanaugh don’t — and to also show those senators that we’re watching and this is actually an important issue that people vote on,” she said. Capossela believes the #MeToo movement is as relevant
to the Claremont Colleges as it is to national politics, as sexual misconduct is also common on campuses, as suggested by the recent Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium survey data released about the sexual assault campus climate at the 5Cs. “In a smaller context, the #MeToo movement is really important on the one level because people who are in power should not be perpetrators of sexual assault; that’s really easy to say,” Capossela said. “But also that it’s not just movie producers and politicians who do these things. These issues exist everywhere, and they exist on these campuses.” Scripps Student Organizers is working on future projects, including a trip to work with the Los Angeles Community Action Network on issues within the community of Skid Row. Scripps Student Organizers is attempting to organize around 50 students to help in whatever ways possible and will raise money for LACAN, Ollig said.
NEWS
ELECTION: Pitzer alum wins Claremont City Council seat Continued from Page 1 someone’s house and they are so enthusiastic and really excited, it helps bring up the energy and that’s always something that is really rewarding that I love,” she said. She also mentioned that many Scripps students were involved in phone banking operations she directed on campus and that she was enthusiastic about the results in Nevada overall. “[Nevada had] the only flipped Senate seat from red to blue [along] with Jacky Rosen and then our two contested, really in-the-middle seats, both went blue, and our governorship was the first time it went blue in about twenty years,” she said. “It was a good night for Democrats in Nevada.” Closer to home, the city of Claremont had three of its five city council positions up for grabs. Of the six candidates running, three are Claremont Colleges alumni — Michael Cerase PZ ’14, Jennifer Stark PZ ’98, and Zachary Courser CM ’99 who is currently a government professor at Claremont McKenna College. Although the results will not be finalized until Nov. 16, Stark is leading with Jed Leano close behind. The battle for the third seat will come down to Ed Reece and Courser. As of Nov. 12, Reece was leading Courser with 44 votes. While there were no 5C stu-
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THE STUDENT LIFE
NOVEMBER 16, 2018
dents in Courser’s campaign this year, several students took charge in his previous run for Claremont City Council. “Last time I had more student involvement,” Courser said. “In fact, my campaign manager was a CMC student.” Courser said his time at CMC significantly shaped his interests and inspired his current role. “In one way or another I’m devoted to public policy or service and encourage that in all of my students, and am always very proud and gratified to see students go on and work in all areas of public policy and service,” he said. Stark, whose father was the president of CMC for almost 30 years and whose mother was the director of the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum for five years, has deep ties to the 5Cs. She said she was inspired by her “bewilderment” over the 2016 election, and felt she had a real obligation to run for public office. “I want to be a part of making my immediate world and the world around me be a place I’m proud of,” she said. Stark also attributes a lot of her current motivation to her time at the 5Cs and the people here. “I feel like actually being around incredible young people who care about the world and who are going to go out into the world and make a difference is exceptionally inspiring,” she
said. “It is super motivating in that I want to be someone who they could look up to.” Other notable candidates and graduates were involved but couldn’t be reached for comment before press time.
Veterans Day Breakfast celebrates veteran students, staff, faculty
“
[W]hen I was doing it, it was 100 degrees and so that was always really difficult.... But, when you knock on someone’s door and they are so enthusiastic and really excited, it helps bring up negery and that’s always something that is really rewarding that I love.
”
- Nevada Lee SC ’22
Kevin De Leon PZ ’03 lost his California senate run against incumbent Dianne Feinstein. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell PZ ’92 ousted incumbent Carlos Curbelo in Florida’s 26th congressional district. Steven Charles Gonzalez PZ ’85 won his bid for re-election to the Washington state Supreme Court.
COURTESY OF KAILA FINN
Kaila Finn SC ’20 helped support Chris Murphy’s campaign for Senate.
TALIA BERNSTEIN • THE STUDENT LIFE
Local veterans gathered to have breakfast at the Smith Campus Center Nov. 12.
KIRA MATTHEWS Community members of the Claremont Colleges came together at the Pomona College Smith Campus Center for the Veterans Day Breakfast Nov. 12 from 8-9:30 a.m. to celebrate veteran students, staff, and faculty. The event, sponsored by the President’s Office, is in its second year, with plans to become an annual event. Christina Ciambriello, chief of staff and one of the event organizers, said the event’s purpose was to “bring people together.” Ciambriello said she feels that many people on campus are unaware that there are veterans in several departments at Pomona, though they may know of student veterans. “A lot of [staff members] are Vietnam war veterans, and people don’t like to talk about that war,” Ciambriello said. “They had to go, and then we don’t want to talk about it.” Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr described the event as a celebration of Pomona’s veterans to honor their service and express gratitude. She spoke of the “renewed concerted effort to ensure that
veterans have access to a Pomona education,” saying that “it is beneficial to all of us to bring that experience back to campus.” One of the breakfast speakers was Bill Ahmanson, founder of the Ahmanson Veterans Student Initiative. AVSI assists veterans in pursuing a college degree and receiving financial aid in California, according to the foundation’s website. Ahmanson said the scholarship initiative, now in its sixth year, evolved quickly, as Los Angeles County has more returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans than anywhere else in the country. The goal of AVSI is to “recruit, retain, and educate” veterans, covering any necessary costs to help remove obstacles that stand in the way of graduation, and helping veterans leave with as little debt as possible, Ahmanson said. “Everybody wants veterans in their schools because veterans bring something new to the classroom,” he said. Morgan Dyson PO ’19, a veteran majoring in public policy analysis with a concentration in politics, also spoke at the breakfast. Dyson founded the Veteran’s
Mentorship Program, which he said is a program that organizes events for student veterans to “get together and share [their] experiences and talk about the challenges [they] may be having.” Dyson said he felt the mentorship program was important because veterans can “easily get lost in the shuffle” of a demanding college environment. He wanted to create a space to foster a sense of community among the members, a space where veteran students could feel “supported, seen, and heard.” A handful of students attended the event. Lerrick Gordon PO ’22 said he decided to come because his father, grandparents, and great grandfather were all veterans. He was glad Pomona recognized veterans. Another attendee was veteran Ronald D. Nemo, Pomona’s grounds manager of landscaping, who has worked at Pomona for 21 years. He served in the military in Germany from 1981 to 1986. “I appreciate it, being a veteran, appreciate Pomona College, all the students that are here,” he said. “You guys motivate me every day ‘cause of your energy and willingness to hear our stories.”
SURVEY: EmPOWER Center Director says education will remain priority Continued from Page 1 work in progress. “All the 5Cs have their own policies for training, reporting, and Title IX offices and director,” Ashong said. “We’re trying to clear things up structurally, making sure that there are clear networks and communication, and getting more cohesiveness within all the groups already doing great things.” Sally Steffen, the Title IX coordi-
nator at Scripps College, wrote in an email to TSL that a major focus moving forward is continuing education to help students respond when friends disclose instances of sexual assault to them. “It is noteworthy that 95 percent of Scripps [survey] respondents told someone; they disclosed to a friend, roommate, or romantic partner — in other words — to a peer,” Steffen wrote. “Research and experience show that people
do heal from traumatic events but getting connected to the help they need is a very important step in this healing process.” Of all undergraduate students who experienced assaults, over 64 percent said the situation involved them drinking alcohol, and 74 percent reported others drinking alcohol. Over 52 percent of these incidents were reported to have happened during the student’s first year, more than twice as likely as
any subsequent year, according to the survey. Steffen wrote that the trends reflected in the HEDS survey data parallel that of the data of national studies. Hannah Slocumb HM ’19, copresident of the Harvey Mudd Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault, wrote in a message to TSL that the high rate of first-years experiencing sexual violence was alarming.
“It is clear to us that we need education for [first-years] past the initial orientation program,” Slocumb wrote. “We also feel that we need to address some of the power differential which is inherent in our dorm system. Freshmen often come into dorms which already have strong dorm cultures, and so the process of trying to fit in can create vulnerability.” Claremont McKenna College Advocates for Survivors of Sexual
MEGHAN JOYCE • THE STUDENT LIFE
Assault declined to give a comment for the story. Another finding of the survey was that 33 percent of students said that there was a bystander present during their experiences of sexual assault. EmPOWER Center Director Rima Shah wrote in an email to TSL: “[T]he survey results continue to underscore the key role that friends play in supporting survivors, as they are most often the resource survivors turn to. Working with our community and empowering friends and bystanders will remain a priority for us.” According to the HEDS survey data, 91 percent of students feel able to identify sexual assault and 89 percent feel able to take action to prevent it through education programs offered at the Claremont Colleges, which include Teal Dot and online trainings. Another HEDS survey conducted in 2015 at the 5Cs found lower percentages of students who responded that they received educational information from their institution about defining and recognizing sexual assault as well as personally preventing sexual assault. In November of that year, the EmPOWER Center was founded to provide year-round survivor support and violence-prevention programming. Since then, the EmPOWER Center has increased programming, in part through a three-year $75,000 grant awarded by the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, according to the survey’s introduction. Steffen wrote that following the 2015 study, the 7Cs now all have Title IX coordinators that meet weekly with a working group, and have implemented bystander intervention programs. “The data speaks to the need to continue to expand and improve that work too,” Steffen wrote. “I believe that the more information we have about the problem of interpersonal violence in our community, the better off we are as we move forward.”
LIFE & STYLE THE STUDENT LIFE
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NOVEMBER 16, 2018
SCIENCE COLUMN
High-speed imaging: Science that might just save the world D’MAIA CURRY Films like “Armageddon,” “Deep Impact,” and the aptly named mini-series, “Asteroid,” all tell the fictional story of a deadly asteroid impact. In reality, the chance of an asteroid impact is slim. However, Philip Choi, Pomona professor of physics and astronomy, has been paying more attention to that chance. “There’s actually a pretty growing group of people who are becoming more and more concerned about the possibility of an asteroid impacting the Earth,” Choi said. “It’s always been one of these things that, well, if it happens it happens.” A 2018 report titled the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan concluded that there is much to be understood about near-Earth objects, like asteroids. Choi and his team of undergraduate students are currently conducting blind asteroid research, in collaboration with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, that focuses on developing scientific techniques to better detect asteroids. The project is a near-earth search, so the asteroids the team is identifying have never been detected before. “A lot of the studies you’ll do for asteroids will go and observe and track known asteroids, study their composition, study their trajectory, all those kinds of things,” Choi said. “This project is very different in that the astrophysical is somewhat secondary to the discovery of new source sources.” To find objects in the night sky, Choi’s team utilizes a 1-meter telescope at Table Mountain, a JPL
research facility about 20 minutes north of campus. “We have been running up there for around 20 years now, and our project is in collaboration with JPL scientists who are providing instrumentation for our telescope,” Choi said. Normally, astronomers will capture an image of the sky and look for objects that streak across the picture. Choi’s team is taking a different approach. To observe and capture objects, Choi’s team uses a technique called high-speed imaging, where they capture short videos. “The field of astronomy is usually interested in observing deeper, fainter and more distant objects,” Choi said. “As you get fainter and fainter those streaks are impossible to see because they are so faint. What we’ll do is we will take a video of the sky and then we’ll process that video and look for moving objects.” The project is unlocking new information. As Choi described, in the past, astronomical research often did not take into account the time variability of distant objects. “Time variability often gets washed out when you just sit and stare at something. Generally, the time-scale of variation we’ve started studying has been hours to days to years,” Choi said. High-speed imaging of distant objects brings the timescale rate down, and Choi’s team is now able to measure objects on time-scales of seconds. “So that’s the thing that is most interesting about this project. Beyond just saving the planet, we’re exploring a part of this parameter space that has historically not been explored before,” Choi said.
Beyond asteroids, this highspeed imaging technique is currently being used in projects related to observing objects located at the edge of our solar system and understanding the environment around supermassive black holes. Student researchers are the backbone of this project, and Choi has had over a dozen students work on the project over the last 3 years.
“All the data is being acquired by our undergraduate students,” he said. “In any given semester I will have 4 or 5 students who will observe for a few hours every night to try and build up a data set that then gets passed along to JPL. They’ll go and look for detections. If they find something they’ll send it back to us and we’ll do follow up of that object.” Many of the students have been
working on the project since they stepped foot on campus. “These are first and second-year students who have been involved in this project from the very beginning. To me, that’s one of the biggest highlights,” Choi said. While we may not be fully capable of thwarting an “Armageddon” level asteroid impact, this research will prompt better tracking and understanding of asteroids.
Choi explained how the research is helping: “We have started monitoring the sky well enough that we are starting to see things maybe a day before they might impact us. It doesn’t give you much time, but we’re getting better.” D’Maia Curry is a geology major at Pomona College. She loves dancing, reading, and looking at really cool rocks.
CHRIS NARDI • THE STUDENT LIFE
Three student members of Dr. Philip Choi’s research team pose in front of the remote sensing equipment.
At 100 years old, ROTC at CMC continues to provide cadets with discipline, leadership ELINOR ASPEGREN F o r J o r d a n Ve n g l a s s C M ’21, giving back to his country through the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps is his “life’s calling.” “Ever since I was a little kid, growing up with my grandfather being an officer in the Army, it just kind of put it into my head as a possible opportunity,” he said. Venglass is one of the 16 5C members of the Golden Lions Army ROTC battalion, hosted at Claremont McKenna College. Students from other area colleges
also participate. In the program, the students work toward an officer position in the military. The biggest incentive for the cadets? A full ride scholarship for their tuition. According to CMC, military training began at Pomona College in 1916, the ROTC program was authorized by the U.S. government in 1918, and CMC joined Pomona in 1949 as a co-host. The program met intense protests during the Vietnam War, yet did not shut down as many other programs did across the country. In 1995, CMC took charge of the program, and they continue to
host it today. Cadets spend 12-15 hours a week with ROTC, including physical training that can sometimes begin before 5 a.m. For many of the cadets, military training and being students are not the least of their activities. Venglass runs for the track and field team and works at SOURCE nonprofit consulting, while cadet Hannah Alderete CM ’20 is on the advisory board at the CARE Center, does research for a professor, and volunteers for Uncommon Good. According to Alderete, “a lot of freshman and sophomores in
ROTC pull all-nighters,” but she has been able to strike a balance by working diligently during the day. “I mostly just find the balance … to complete everything by the end of the day, and I give myself time limits,” she said. “Even in between classes, I’m working on assignments.” ROTC cadets spend four years training to become officers. Venglass described that in the cadets’ first two years, they “learn how to be a soldier.” By their fourth, they are “practically [running] the training,” cadet Hunter LePla CM ’19 said. Much of the cadets’ training focuses on learning ethics, LePla added. “We spend a ton of our time in class talking about ethics and morals and what the right thing to do is, and I don’t think people understand that but that’s a huge focus — especially for officers,” he said. “You have to make tough decisions.” The program’s capstone takes place the summer before senior year, when ROTC students from across the country spend a month in Fort Knox, Kentucky, applying the skills they’ve learned through their first three years. LePla described it as a grueling experience, as the cadets spend 24 of the 31 days in the forest without returning to buildings. “It’s one of those things — and this is the case with a lot of things in the Army — where you hate it while you’re doing [it], but you
look back on it, you’re glad you did it, and you’ll never forget it,” LePla said. The ROTC program at CMC celebrated its centennial in October, and has a reputation of producing “some pretty highachieving cadets,” Venglass said. “The big significance behind that is [the Golden Lions] is one of the oldest ROTC programs in the country,” he said. “So being able to celebrate the centennial is pretty big because it shows that we have a deep rooted history in Southern California in producing some of the greatest leaders in the Army.” The centennial, which included a parade on Parents Field, served as a reminder for today’s cadets to remember that the program is bigger than them, LePla said. “It’s important to remember that you’re focusing on yourself and the current cadets, but there’s 100 years of cadets [who have] graduated and gone on to be officers, and have fought in everything from World War I to now,” he added. CMC observed Veterans Day on Monday with an Athenaeum talk given by Katherine Horton, ROTC captain and professor of military science, who discussed the importance of females in the military. Before coming to ROTC, Horton served as one of the first women involved in special forces. Venglass said she provided a
“unique perspective into what it is actually like upon graduation.” Alderete called Horton “a role model.” “She always tells me not to be afraid, to be loud, [and] not to be afraid to not be as good at first, but to pick it up later on,” Alderete said. “Basically you need to stand up for yourself — you can’t always give excuses for why you’re not a strong leader. You’re capable; you just need to do it.” Alderete said that Horton is an example that “anyone can do it and eventually reach the goal if [they] want to.” For many cadets, ROTC provides more than free tuition and a job out of college. Alderete said that being placed in an ROTC leadership role during her junior year has allowed her to mature. “It’s really put my life in order in a way,” she said. “To actually think about these things early on before it’s too late.” O ve r a l l , Ve n g l a s s a d d e d , ROTC has given him leadership skills beyond those of a typical college student. “[People are] able to see that I am trained to lead, and it is something that you can’t really debate,” he said. “We are trained to lead soldiers and upon graduation, whether we’re ready or not, once we’re commissioned, we’re going to be put in charge of people’s lives — so being able to be trained for that gives me a unique set of leadership capabilities that a typical college student doesn’t have.”
The 2018 Nelson Series highlights the omnipresence of data science and its accompanying challenges. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28
JENNY BRYAN
Software Engineer, RStudio, Associate Professor of Statistics University of British Columbia
“HOW I THRIVE DOING THE UNSEXY PARTS OF THE ‘SEXIEST JOB OF THE 21 CENTURY’”
In 2009, Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, famously declared statistician to be the “sexiest job of the 21st century.” This was exciting news to people like Jenny Bryan. At the time, she was a professor in a department of statistics and one who took a special delight in all aspects of data analysis. She gradually intensified her focus on the workflows and software tools that make modern data analysis feasible and, ideally, fun. This led to her joining RStudio, where staff create open-source software and pro products around the statistical language called R. Bryan specializes in reducing the small agonies of practicing data science, like extracting usable data out of horrifying spreadsheets. She’ll talk about her odd career path, the incredible power of taking charge of data and the importance of keeping humans in the loop. ELINOR ASPEGREN • THE STUDENT LIFE
(Top) The ROTC held an open house and a “Turkey Shoot” Nov. 14, in which they allowed students, faculty, and community members to take advantage of the underground shooting range in Bauer Hall. (Bottom) Military Science Instructor Marino Zarate fires at a target at the ROTC Open House Nov. 14.
Admission to this public lecture series is complimentary. Inquiries may be directed to stewardship@hmc.edu, or call the Office of Stewardship and Events at 909.607.1818. Harvey Mudd College is a member of The Claremont Colleges. | 301 Platt Boulevard | Claremont, CA 91711 | hmc.edu/nelson
LIFE & STYLE THE STUDENT LIFE
NOVEMBER 16, 2018 HUMANITIES COLUMN
Academy Award-winning director speaks at Pomona BLAKE PLANTE
“There are some exceptions –– but the general Hollywood process is to make scripts into mincemeat.” Kenneth Lonergan is a filmmaker with a distinct voice. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t; he knows what he’s capable of and what he isn’t; he tries to pursue and preserve what feels right. To meet him is to want to get to know him deeper, because what he has to offer can’t be said in a few words; like his films, it must be felt. His answers function on a case-by-case basis and don’t pretend to tell blanket truths. Lonergan, director and screenwriter of the Oscar-winning film “Manchester by the Sea” and several other films critically acclaimed as masterpieces, came to Pomona College for a public discussion with novelist and professor Jonathan Lethem and, later, with students. T h e e ve n t wa s p r e s e n t e d under the Humanities Studio’s theme this year, “fail better.” The theme wasn’t directly addressed beyond a brief mention, but it never seemed far from the discussion. My impression is that failure, like so many other experiences Lonergan’s films touch on, is so integrated into his intuition that it hardly seems necessary to clarify an explicit stance. Guilt and grief run as undercurrents through his films. In “Manchester by the Sea,” the protagonist forgets to put the screen up on the fireplace. The house burns down with his children, and he and his wife subsequently separate. The film takes place later, when his brother dies and leaves the protagonist guardianship of his nephew. The film ruminates on the management of practicalities during grief. It highlights the strange rituals we do, like smalltalk and condolence handshakes, by withdrawing the protagonist from those rituals. Though Lonergan’s films are sorrowful, they are, as Lethem articulated, yieldingly so. Committed to honesty, they leave the impression of something distinctly human. Rather than joyless, they are secretly joyful. Lonergan’s films, I feel, simultaneously tempted yet hesitant to say, fail better, because they deal so affectionately with failure. Lonergan said that he hopes his own psychology will lead him to things that are of general
interest. “If I satisfy my own standards, I assume an audience will come along,” he said. Occasionally during the discussion, Lonergan alluded to his frustrations as a screenwriter. “If you want to make films, be a producer or something else where you have creative control,” he said. Lonergan described the Hollywood scriptwriting process as a chimerical beast of barelypreserved voices in which writers are hired to “write dialogue,” “change stuff,” “write jokes,” “and then you’re fired.” “In Hollywood,” he said, “the ritual is the more people writing it the better –– in reality it’s the opposite.” Lonergan came into the director ’s seat, he explains, because he wanted real artistic control over the things he cared about. “The main thing I try to do
is not make it like a movie. … Follow your interests and write what’s right to you, because if you follow writerly exercises, it doesn’t mean anything,” he said. Hearing from Lonergan is like hearing from an alligator renowned for its ability to catch fowl –– its trick: listening and waiting for the fowl to come. What he means to tell you seems to be to stop asking him for advice and to go out and do your own thing. He seemed to usher us out of the room, to say that putting your voice out there is solely a matter of going ahead, writing, and making. Blake Plante PO ’19 is an English major. He is most commonly spotted scribbling into an all-weather notebook at all events.
COURTESY OF MANFRED WERNER
Award-winning screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan came to speak at the Pomona College Humanities Studio Nov. 1.
PAGE 5
BOOK COLUMN
Metaphors: Salvaging our relationships
TARINI SIPAHIMALANI I’m sitting at a mahogany table; it’s big and round and shrinks the classroom to half its real size. My classmates fill the spaces at the table’s circumference, listening, talking, pondering, ruminating. I have ideas brewing in my mind. But when I come to verbalize them, I fall short of communicating exactly what I intend to say. Inside my head is the entire alphabet. But what I communicate is A through J. You have feelings swelling in your heart. The other person also indubitably has their own. Each of you turns the words that would otherwise describe your inner thoughts into phrases that only scratch the surface. The alternative words skirt around honesty and tell a shadow story. You have misled your listener through the poor disguise of your intentions — a dress that hides the body instead of accentuating it. We often communicate with others in the same way that we have gotten used to tossing in bad and ineffective metaphors into our writing. For such a simple device, one that we learn to use in elementary school, metaphors can paint striking impressions of an experience, translating simple stories into a grandiose fantasy that led its viewers to the most honest comprehension of a reality. Good metaphors convey an experience with utmost precision. The right metaphor is one that overlays the right film over your idea to most accurately depict that experience: feelings that the idea would not be able to communicate itself. A good metaphor coats the mundane with insightful novelty; if plainly explained, the ordinary words might barely strike our interest. This layer of metaphor now effectively captures the affective and emotive experience. However, deceived by its simplicity, we have become careless with the device. Sometimes, metaphors bring to my mind amateurism. We often use them as a means of brief, blatant comparison, which conjures only that image, and not the experience trying to be relayed. Take this for example: She clawed at the door, hissing at him to release her from the prison of a
JORDAN WONG • THE STUDENT LIFE
room he’d confined her in. Rather than truly feeling the turmoil in this fictional relationship, I mostly just see the performed action overwhelmed with irreconcilable images: a beast, snake, and prisoner. Metaphors are used too often and too closely. Need to communicate a story? People often introduce it with a metaphor, then wait a line or two, and insert two more in the same sentence, confounding their intended meaning. Rather than communicating with others like bad metaphors do with their readers, we need to choose the right words and the right metaphors to express our true intentions. Failing to achieve this intentionality results in a half-hearted expression of the self, a masked version of what we mean to say. We tend to beat around the bush, hide our feelings, and play a game of “let’s guess what that person really means or feels.” We settle for weak communication and forced expressions. Hiding the truth of our emotions, we are choosing not to convey our internal experiences. And so
we mislead one another, cause confusion in the information we impart and consequently the standing of that relationship. But there is a reason that our English teachers taught us about metaphors in elementary school and that authors utilize them so frequently in their works. Metaphors bring our stories to life. The way we choose to communicate can influence the level of vibrancy we give our lives. So let’s salvage our means of communication. Let’s truly dig within ourselves to understand how to express our experiences more precisely: communicating exactly what we mean and feel. We need to express with intentionality and take the risk of divulging our true internal experiences, rather than masking them from the world. Metaphors, a tool that effectively relays this honest information, can help us achieve that clarity, if we do it the right way. Tarini Sipahimalani is an English major at Pomona College. She enjoys drawing, singing a cappella, and tennis, but mostly for social purposes.
MUSIC COLUMN
November: Power anthems and broken hearts ANNA KOPPELMAN A part of me believes I am in a perpetual state of heartbreak. If it isn’t actively being broken, I am waiting for someone to drop it. Or I am waiting for someone to come judge its worth before putting it back. This personification of my
heart isn’t meant to remove my responsibility from the cycle. I am the one who offers it up, bandages it when broken, and then waits for the stitches to heal — only to throw it back out there again. I have gotten so good at heartbreak that I have become the one all my friends call when it happens to them. I know the right
brand of waterproof mascara to buy (Maybelline, The Rocket), I know the right movies to recommend (“Legally Blonde” followed by “Everything is Copy,” the documentary on Nora Ephron’s life), and I am a professional at curating the perfect heartbreak playlist. Songs about heartbreak are
great, because unlike your friends, they don’t tell you to brush your teeth and get out of bed. They don’t call the heartbreaker an asshole, or say throwaway lines like, “you are so much better off without him.” They don’t judge you like you judge yourself; they never use the word “should” or yell at you for being stupid, for feeling love,
NATALIE BAUER • THE STUDENT LIFE
for giving someone the ability to hurt you. They don’t tell you your pain is your fault, or laugh at your tangled hair — no, songs about heartbreak are great because they simply sit with you as you cry, rub your head and whisper: “I’ve been there, too.” And luckily, if you are a fan of any music out there, this has been the month for songs about heartbreak. Three of the most influential women in alternative music — Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, and Phoebe Bridgers — released a group album Nov. 9, under the name “Boygenius.” The album sounds like the long walk home after someone breaks up with you. It sounds like sitting quietly as the relationship morphs into the saltwater on your cheeks, and your mind begins to race through the relationship, the vulnerability, the joy, the shift in tone, the sadness. It places you at the beginning of heartbreak, when you still have the aftertaste of love, and walks you into the middle of the pain, into the true moments of melancholy. If you are longing for a love that’s too far away or a few months past, and just wish you could be in a place where love still exists, I’d recommend giving the song “Ketchum, ID” a listen. But if alternative is a little too “the world is bleak and happiness is impossible to find,” for you, don’t worry: Country is spilling over with heartbreak and power ballads, too. Miranda Lambert, who might be the current queen of country, had a scandalous divorce from Blake Shelton — you know, the country guy from the show “The Voice.” She paired up with two other female country singers, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, to release their third album Nov.
2 as the band Pistol Annies. If you are looking for someone to bitterly rant with, as you make fun of whoever that new girl in their Instagram is, look no further than the song “When I Was His Wife,” which could basically be renamed “To Gwen Stefani.” The song starts off with the lyrics, “He’d never cheat, he’d never lie, he’ll love me forever till the day that we die. He’ll never take me for granted, I said that too when I was his wife,” and it only builds from there. As for pop, you’d have to have never left your dorm room, or checked any social media, to have missed Ariana Grande’s song, “thank u, next.” She dropped it Nov. 3, an hour before a Saturday Night Live episode aired starring her ex-fiance, Pete Davidson. In the song, she thanks every one of her famous exes for what they taught her before she found love within herself. If there’s any song that can get you to stand up, wash your face, and give you hope that you’ll be okay, it’s this one. It is November, and everyone in music I care about is heartbroken, or at least singing about it — and I am not. A part of me almost feels left out; the rest of me is petrified I am about to join all of them. But if the music of November has taught the world anything, it’s that if you are nursing a heartbreak, you are on the precipice of growth, of an epic movie montage of getting your life back together. You are about to be more than okay. And most of all, you aren’t alone in heartbreak; the entire music industry feels it, too. Anna Koppelman is a first-year at Pitzer. You can either find her reading poetry, hanging out with friends, or ranting about how long it’s taken for Vampire Weekend to release a new album.
LIFE & STYLE
SCAMFEST
PAGE 6
THE STUDENT LIFE
NOVEMBER 16, 2018
SCAMFEST RETURNS FOR ITS 23RD ANNUAL PERFORMANCE ITUNU ABOLARINWA
Sitting in the 2,500 seater Bridges Auditorium on Nov. 10, I braced myself for the a cappella music festival everyone had been talking about. The audience filled every seat, and the room buzzed with excitement. Being a British exchange student, the closest thing I know to a cappella is the TV show “Glee” and my own screeching — I mean singing — in the shower every morning. However, judging by the giddy whispers before the show, I knew I was in for a treat. The hosts of the Southern California A Cappella Music Festival, the 5Cs’ very own Claremont Shades, kicked off the show. They started off with the dream pop sounds of Lorde’s “Liability Reprise,” followed by a rendition of “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers, before ending with an audacious performance of “Curious” by Swayday. Having toured across the country, the Claremont Shades are the oldest co-ed a cappella group at the 5Cs. With the grace and candor of a well-oiled machine, they set the tone for a series of amazing performances. Following the Shades, The Spokes, University of California, Davis’ all-female a cappella group, gave a spine-tingling performance of “Hurt” by Christina Aguilera. The croons of “I hurt myself by hurting you” could make anyone in the audience regret a bad relationship they’d ever had. Midnight Echo, a 5C group, followed, and their delivery of “Disney Love Medley” by Voctave took the audience into a land of glitter and sunshine, in the way only Disney songs can. “My favorite part of the show was feeling the group’s adrenaline and excitement,” said Minica Casbara PZ ’21, a member of
Midnight Echo. “Everyone was hugging, and I loved experiencing this rush with our group. We’re just like a little family.” True to their name, Mood Swing, who performed next, changed the vibe with an outstanding performance of “Escape” by Kehlani, with the energetic soloist Esi Igyan doing the pop princess justice with her vocals. UCLA’s ScatterTones took the audience on yet another musical journey, bringing the unique sounds of Panic! At the Disco to the stage. Having opened for Obama; accompanied Taylor Swift; and performed at Spring Sing, the ICCAs, and the Hollywood Bowl, it was no surprise that the ScatterTones gave a rousing performance. Intermission gave me time to catch my breath, let the goosebumps simmer down and take in the magnitude of the audience. I could not help but be impressed by SCAMFest. In its 23rd year, it truly lived up to its aim of showcasing the best of collegiate a cappella music. The only all-male a cappella group of the night, UCLA’s Bruin Harmony, graced the stage next, with a memorable performance of Troye Sivan’s “My My My.” Soloist Justin Baker’s energy was infectious, and his dance moves were a highlight of the evening. Claremont’s own co-ed a cappella group, One Night Stanza, gave a fun performance of “Genius” by Labrinth, Sia, and Diplo with the soloists Jane Watts HM ’20 and Yasmine Razzak SC ’21 bringing sass and a dash of girl power to their duet. Formed in the early 1980s, Women’s Blue and White is Claremont’s only all-women a cappella group. Their emotive rendition of “First Burn” by Lin Manuel Miranda was storytelling at its best. Evoking gasps from the audience with a beautiful mix of voices
JEREMY SNYDER • THE STUDENT LIFE
The Claremont Shades, a 5C a cappella group, hosted the 2018 SCAMfest performance Nov. 10.
led by soloists Emma Elliott SC ’19, Mia Kania SC ’20, and Maya Lu SC ’22, the Women’s Blue and White gave one of this year’s most memorable performances. Soloist Min Andy then brought smooth R&B sounds and moves in the After School Specials’ rendition of “Karma” by Years and Years. The whole arrangement was reminiscent of a scene from Glee — minus all the drama — with wonderful choreography and teamwork from the whole group.
The audience was not prepared for what was to follow. Dressed in purple, The Ninth Street Hooligans jumped and skipped onto the stage. Their joyful performances of Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” and The Jonas Brothers’ “Year 3000” brightened the mood and showed that amidst powerful vocals, there was room for light-hearted fun. Ever the reserved Brit, each performance was met on my part with a smile and clap, albeit a loud one. However, the SoCal VoCals’
last performance had me hollering and snapchatting, as I was absolutely mesmerised. Soloist Conner Pearl gave an outstanding performance of Shawn Mendes’ “Lost in Japan,” and I won’t forget the high notes he hit any time soon. Also, Mr. Pearl, if you ever read this, I would love for you to sing at my wedding. The SoCal VoCals gave SCAMFest 2018 a befitting end, and left this little British girl with a big smile on her face.
Bruin Harmony of UCLA was invited to the 2018 SCAMfest, held at Big Bridges auditorium Nov. 10.
JEREMY SNYDER • THE STUDENT LIFE
JAMES KARSTEN & CASSIE WANG • THE STUDENT LIFE
The Ninth Street Hooligans strike a pose during their SCAMfest performance Nov. 10. CHLOE ORTIZ • THE STUDENT LIFE
A CAPELLA GROUP “MIDNIGHT ECHO” TALKS SCAMFEST AND GROUP TRADITIONS SEAN OGAMI
TSL: How did you personally start singing? Reed Stevens PZ ’19: I sang a lot as a little kid, but all little kids do that. I guess I started with real, trained singing in middle school choir, and I did high school choir, joined a couple of the audition groups. There was a jazz choir at my school that was essentially an a cappella group that did one or two jazz songs every semester. I thought it was really fun, so I joined a capella in college, and now I’m here! Zayn Singh SC ’20: I’d say pretty similar for me. I started singing really seriously in middle school choir. I had exposure to it in elementary school, but third or fourth grade choir, that’s just the whole class that’s performing in front of your parents. Not that big of a deal. Then I went into high school as I did also band, so a lot of jazz singing as well as big cool stuff. Then I started private lessons in high school, got really into writing and recording my own stuff. When I came to college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in, because music was such a huge part of my life, so I was like, “oh, I’ll just do some kind of music something at college” and a capella was the best outlet for me. TSL: So, do you know how your group formed? RS: I think it was a lot of people who like to have fun, because we have two mascots,
and they’re wolves and dragons. So somebody down the line was wild. But quite recently — it was year before last — the group almost completely fell apart. There were three remaining members: the president, the music director, and one member … And they hosted auditions and got some obscene number of first-years — I think there were 13 or 14 first-years who joined the group. And they also absorbed the remnants of another group, Men’s Blue and White, which was also in the process of falling apart. But Men’s had no real leadership, so they were sort of consumed by Midnight Echo. It turned into a really great group of people. ZS: This year, we kind of expanded even more beyond the reformation of Echo. We have a bunch of new first-years as well, this year. TSL: Can you tell me about those mascots? ZS: So at auditions … we split a whiteboard in half and each of us draws either a wolf or a dragon, depending on what team you wanna be on. And we make an auditionee who comes in, after they’re done singing, pick whether they’re team wolf or team dragon. And they have to pick the best drawing of either one and it’s this whole big competition thing for no fucking reason, but that’s what we do! RS: It’s a little bit like a personality test. We can sort of see into their heads by seeing how they react to being asked to join team wolves or team dragons.
ZS: At their first snack concert they have to howl like a wolf. But why don’t we do a dragon roar? RS: I don’t know! Hey, I’m team dragon. ZS: I’m team wolf, so …
TSL: What is the relationship between a cappella groups on campus like? RS: It’s pretty friendly! We get somewhat competitive with each other, especially around audition times when we’re all vying to get all the talented new people. There’s sort of an informal competition around the big concerts like SCAMFest. We all try our best to sound as good as we can and impress the other groups. But normally, groups don’t die and normally groups don’t absorb other groups. TSL: What is it like to perform at SCAMFest? RS: It’s really fun. ZS: This is your last one! RS: This is my last one. It’s kind of sad! It’s a really cool experience ‘cause you know there’s thousands of people out in the audience and you can’t see any of them because of the stage lights. You just have to hope that you’re sounding good. It’s a really good time. It’s a really stressful week beforehand because we — and I’m sure all of the other groups — have a lot of extra rehearsals. We had rehearsal every night for two hours for a week beforehand, trying to get our choreography together and trying to get our songs
to sound as good as they can. ZS: Overall, I think it pays off. Because the experience of being onstage, knowing you’re in front of that many people, is really cool. Also, being able to sit and watch the rest of your groups … perform as well is kinda fun. It’s kind of a crazy feeling. It’s a big stage, it’s a big audience. RS: It’s a good feeling, walking on and having everybody scream for you. ZS: And hear people screaming your name, and you’re like, “which one of you idiots is it screaming my name?”
TSL: How do you pick what to perform? RS: In our group, everybody at the beginning of the semester gets to suggest songs, and we vote on them. Whatever the most popular songs are, we either try to arrange — both Zayn and I have arranged things before in our lives, but we’re not dedicated arrangers. We’ll find a popular song that everyone in our group likes, and we’ll get an arrangement of it. Generally, whatever the most popular things are at the beginning of the year, we’ll perform at SCAMFest. Occasionally, if there’s two songs that are slow or boring that are popular, we’ll try to pick an exciting one for SCAMFest. ZS: Echo also tries to include one group song and one with a soloist. “Disney Love Medley” was kind of our group song because there were multiple soloists, and it was the whole group performing the song, versus “Lost in Japan” from this year, which
had one specific soloist. TSL: Do you have any favorite pieces or styles to sing? ZS: For me, I did a lot of jazz singing in high school, so I guess that’s my thing? I like to sing anything. I think it speaks to my want to learn and have a wide range of music that I can pull from and sing. Like a big repertoire of stuff I can pull from and expand my musical ability that way. RS: I just enjoy singing. I play guitar a little bit — I’m not good at it — but I enjoy the folk fingerpicking and singing style. I also have a soft spot in my heart for choral music with big pretty chords, ‘cause I loved that in high school. If you know Eric Whitacre or composers like that, there’s this genre of choral music that’s just these sweeping harmonies that are really beautiful to sing and you get the chills and the hair sticking up on the back of your neck when you really lock a chord in. It’s a good feeling. TSL: Did you have any favorite performances that you saw? RS: I thought the ScatterTones were fantastic. ZS: Yeah, I agree! I think they were my favorite. RS: [Bruin Harmony], their arrangement of Young Blood was very cool, and the lead singer was sexy. But among the Claremont groups, I thought we all did— ZS: Tremendously well. RS: —A great job this year.
CHLOE ORTIZ • THE STUDENT LIFE
The Midnight Echoes perform during the 2018 SCAMfest at Big Bridges Auditorium Nov. 10.
LIFE & STYLE NOVEMBER 16, 2018
PAGE 7
THE STUDENT LIFE
GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR
THE
JEREMY SNYDER • THE STUDENT LIFE
Roei Cohen PO ‘21, Jonathan Wilson ‘19, and Owen Halstad PO ‘21 act out a scene during a rehersal for Pomona College’s production “The Government Inspector” Nov. 13.
Review: Humorous play is a must-see MABEL LUI
Nikolai Gogol’s satirical play “The Government Inspector” is being showcased at Pomona College’s Seaver Theatre from Nov. 15-18. Directed by Giovanni Ortega, Pomona assistant professor of theater and dance, the play focuses on the corrupt government of a small Russian town. The characters quickly become rattled by news of an incognito government inspector’s arrival, and a hilarious show — full of shenanigans, deceptions, and briberies — begins. The play opens with a short mime sequence featuring the town’s elite, or “the crew,” as Ortega calls it. The actors’ deliberate physicality in the scene serves as an entertaining precursor of the humor to follow. The elite consists of a mayor (Jon Wilson PO ’19), judge (Claire Pukszta SC ’19), school principal (Shanawar Zahoor PZ ’21), and hospital director (Mark Diaz PO ’22). Along with the country squires (Roei Cohen PO ’21 and Owen Halstad PO ’21) and the outer circle of the crew, the characters brainstorm ideas on how to navigate the arrival of civil servant Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov (Ben Hogoboom PO ’19) after receiving a letter about the inspector’s arrival from the postmistress (Shringi Diva Vikram SC ’20). Due to a case of mistaken identity, the crew believes Khlestakov to be the government inspector, and they scurry off trying to bribe his good favor. In actuality, Khlestakov is merely a young civil servant, who has trouble paying his bills, and constantly needs his servant Osip (Tomás Negritto PZ ’19) to bring him back to reality. Khlestakov, for his part, quickly catches on to the crew’s mistake and continually asks for “loans” as he flirts with the mayor’s wife (Aliyah Muhammad PO ’19) and daughter (Maya Barbon ’21). With Osip at his side, Khlestakov embraces the unexpected hospitality. In one particular scene, he marvels at the offer of steak and potatoes. It is clear from the beginning of the production that no character is inherently good. “Even the characters that function as protagonists aren’t positive images of positive influences,” Wilson said. “But each character has redeemable qualities that are so identifiable to the audience, and that’s kind of where the magic lies.” Indeed, the complex nature of the characters is exactly what hooks the audience. When Khlestakov bursts into singing a love song (“Marya, have you met Marya?”) to win the daughter’s hand, viewers can only laugh and cheer at his rockstar moves. The show may depict a corrupt government, but that doesn’t stop anyone from thoroughly enjoying the maid’s (Katherine Silbereisen PZ ’20) entertaining pillow talk. The script is littered with sexual jokes and innuendos, and it only adds to its humor. If there is an award for scene stealers, it must go to the country squires. Cohen and Halstad act like a set of twins, and their characters’ love for each other is so endearing that it elicited a cry of “goals!” from a fellow audience member. Their speech was so well rehearsed that it was delivered perfectly in either canon or unison (“Please forgive us for our existence!”), and in moments of frustration and agony, the two cradled each other like they were each other’s true soulmates. The chemistry between the country squires, as well as between other characters of the play, was palpable. “It starts at the holistic level of everybody having this chemistry and everybody being in the room present and engaged, and trying and willing to make each other laugh,” Wilson said. The production’s attention to detail was clear. From stage design elements like a push-out bed to theatrical techniques like the actors’ deliberate fluctuations in tone, every single aspect only added to the audience’s enjoyment of the production. When the truth is finally revealed — watch it for yourself — the cast members’ and crews’ comical building of suspense proves successful and rewarding. On his goals for the show, Wilson said, “I want the audience to pretty much be laughing non-stop, which is a greedy goal.” While it is indeed a lofty one, he carried this mindset when acting because he believed that laughter creates a form of camaraderie within the audience. “We’re not just creating a community onstage to present to the audience,” Wilson said. “We’re bringing the audience into our community and creating bonds between them.” Ortega hopes the show will encourage self-reflection. “The whole job of theatre for me is putting a mirror to society and showing the reflection of who we are as human beings,” he said. Wilson added, “If a traditional way of presenting theatre is to ‘hold the mirror up’ to nature, then Gogol’s goal is to hold up a distorted mirror to the audience, so that they see that that’s much closer to reality than the perfect pictures that we paint for ourselves.” The characters certainly embody qualities that allow us to reflect on the nuances in personality and action. Though the jokes and comedy are delightful, the play also sheds light on politics and humanity. “The Government Inspector” is a must-see. Come for the laughter, the corruption, and the reflection on society, but stay for the mayor’s beard, the postmistress’ letters, and the bear rug that happens to hide all the mayor’s bribe money.
Q&A BREELYN MANGOLD
TSL sits down with members of the cast and director to discuss production On character development, code-switching, and power dynamics
In a conversation with TSL, the cast of Pomona College’s production “The Government Inspector” discussed the hidden truths that the play unveils. The recluse Russian town where the story takes place represents many challenges students face today, including misogyny, code-switching, and finding one’s voice. Hear what director Giovanni Ortega and the student cast shared behind the scenes about their production. TSL: What is your character or role in the production of the play? Giovanni Ortega: I am the director. Rieanna Duncan PO ’21: I play Svetsunov, who is the police chief. She has a roll-with-the-punches kind of personality. She is a strong character that voices her opinion when needed. This role was traditionally played by men, and we decided to take a spin on it and make her a female. Aliyah Muhammad PO ’19: I play Ann Andreyevna. She is a mother and the mayor’s wife. Shringi Diva Vikram SC ’20: I play the postmistress. Which was originally the postmaster. It was just made a female role for this script. Ben Hogoboom PO ’19: I play Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov. TSL: What kind of character development takes place for each of your characters? RD: Svetsunov goes through a journey of trying to figure out what to prioritize. Should I prioritize loyalty? Should I prioritize my own needs and to what standards do I hold the mayor? Am I willing to grab an opportunity when I see it despite the people that are around me? SDV: My character represents the flow of information and who has access to that information and how that affects the government. As well as how the distortion of media controls the channel of communication. AM: You see the mayor a lot, but Ann is the backbone and foundation. Truly, she is the boss behind closed doors. Throughout the whole play, she is in a position of power. Internally, she has her own powershift. She is very self-determined. She knows what she wants. Towards the end, she figures out what she is determined towards. She learns that you may not need someone else to create happiness, especially not men. She didn’t know that at first. Internally, mentally, spiritually, she figures out she knows who she is. SDV: The female characters are much more determined and aware of where they stand than the men. I think this is very consciously portrayed. BH: Khlestakov is someone who is really at the end of his rope at the beginning of his play. He has lost his job and spent all his money. He is a conman and a swindler, but he is not very good at it. He loses his money trying to be someone he is not. When he comes into this town, he is really ecstatic and gets to be truly his goofy self. As he becomes more successful in his con, he realizes there are bigger things at stake. He uses his con for personal gain and eventually the greater good. TSL: What is the cultural context of the play and how is it relevant?
RD: Because the play is written for mostly male characters, one thing we do see is how women in power are treated and then flipping that narrative. In today’s society you will see that women have to work twice as hard in powerful positions to just have the amount of respect. In this circumstance you can see Svetsunov put her foot down and she is not looked down upon for being a woman; she is just the police chief … You get to see how class affects people in their lives and limits the things they can do or say. BH: The context of this play is about two lenses for me. My character is not exactly a great guy, but he is not a bad guy either. From a personal standpoint, Khlestakov is someone searching for meaning, a purpose, a home, and passion. He has really fallen of the wagon and is trying to find his way. I think as a senior who is about to be dropped into a new landscape, it’s not a difficult situation to see yourself in. The second lens is about this town and the people in it. You see terrible implications of self-service and self-centeredness. This play shows bad people being put in high places so they can fall further, and when you look at our government, it’s fun to see them get knocked down a peg. SDV: The way we treat foreigners is shown here. There is one character that does not speak the same language and there is a kind of foolishness that everyone else on stage associates with her. I am an international student and it took me a long while, linguistically and otherwise, to be okay proclaiming myself in spaces here in the United States. I really like the way this play deals with that. RD: Throughout this play we also see something called codeswitching. Which is interesting, because a lot of us on stage are people of color and this is something we deal with on a daily basis. I think anyone who identifies as a person of color and is standing in predominantly white spaces can empathize with this. It is interesting to put that on stage and bring the audience into this narrative. AM: Everyone is surviving in this one space and it makes me think of Claremont. It is just so relevant to us. We are all in a certain geographical region. We all hear the same news. We live in a small town. It is interesting to see how far people will go for survival and to keep up a mask. TSL: How will the Claremont Colleges community be able to connect to the play? AM: College is a foolish place within itself. You live with a lot of people in close proximity. You get annoyed at little things but then you learn to exist. Gio, from the first rehearsal, has always said, “You all matter.” RD: The code-switching idea is prevalent. The dichotomy of male and female relationships and how men will treat women very much resembles how things work on campus. Especially because the fact that a lot of women in this play are women of color, and we just have to navigate things differently. This goes for international students as well. You have to constantly defend yourself, your identity, and the fact that you do matter on campus. SDV: This play is so powerful because I get on stage and I feel more powerful than the men around me. The women are able to bring the men down. Which is great. GO: Oh, they will relate.
Photos by Jeremy Snyder
(Top left) Jonathan Wilson PO ‘19 and Shanawar Zahoor PZ ‘21 gesture in character as Mayor Anton Antonovich and the School Principal in a rehersal of “The Government Inspector” Nov. 13.
(Top right) Vanessa Dalpiaz PO ‘21 and Mark Diaz PO ‘22 play the roles of a Doctor and a Hospital Director. (Bottom left) Vanessa Dalpiaz PO ‘21 and Mark Diaz PO ‘22 act out a scene during their preview night.
OPINIONS THE STUDENT LIFE ARIEL SO Editor-in-Chief MEGHAN BOBROWSKY Managing Editor HANK SNOWDON Managing Editor
NOVEMBER 16, 2018
THE STUDENT LIFE
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JAIMIE DING, News Editor OLIVIA TRUESDALE, News Editor SAMUEL BRESLOW, Senior News Adviser BECKY HOVING, News Associate NATALIE GOULD, Life & Style Editor MAYA KLEIMAN, Life & Style Editor MABEL LUI, Life & Style Associate DONNIE DENOME, Opinions Editor ANIKKA VILLEGAS, Opinions Editor KELLAN GRANT, Sports Editor NOAH SHAPIRO, Sports Editor BERGEN CARLOSS, Video Editor EMILY PUGH, Podcast Editor SAFIA HASSAN, Business Manager ANGELA TRAN, Business Manager OWEN WANG, Business Associate MAYA ZHOU, Communications Director WHITNEY WACHTEL, Web Developer AMBER CHONG, Copy Chief
The Student Life, the oldest college newspaper in Southern California, is produced and managed by students of the Claremont Colleges and published weekly. The Editorial Board consists of the editor-in-chief and two managing editors. Aside from the editorial, the views expressed in the Opinions section do not necessarily reflect the views of TSL. Email letters, questions, concerns, and tips to editor@tsl.news, advertising inquiries to ads@tsl.news, and print subscription inquiries to subscriptions@tsl.news.
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Let’s get this cornbread 5 Thanksgiving dinners in 3 days
Perfect Pitch irl Shoutout to Bruin Harmony at SCAMFest
Stuffed with stuffing Severe stomach aches :(
$10 tix I already pay $70k in tuition :O
Almost Thanksgiving Break! Only 2 more days
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is unstoppable Breaks 2 ribs but is out of the hospital within 24 hours!
Still work to do Midterm szn never ends
Carrying the country on her back Hang in there until 2020
Explaining our policies, and why they serve as a safeguard to a free press Throughout this semester, various groups and individuals have asked us to do things that don’t adhere to our policies and universal journalism ethics. This includes taking down photos, retracting names and statements, and reviewing our coverage before publication. Because we understand not everyone is familiar with our policies and how journalism works, we want to explain the reasoning behind our policies. At the beginning of the semester, we train our 100-plus person staff how to work for a student newspaper, which includes reporting, writing, editing, taking photos, making graphics, and copy editing. And most importantly, we teach everyone the journalism code of ethics as outlined by the Society of Professional Journalists. That code has four tenants: to seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent. Many of our staff members aren’t paid for their work, and many don’t have previous journalism experience, as we are extremely underfunded and only able to pay editors minimally. One of the first things we address at training is the difference between on-the-record and offthe-record interviews. All interviews, unless otherwise stated, are assumed to be on the record.
But as an extra precaution, we have trained all staffers to confirm when interviews are on the record. During an on-the-record interview, everything the source says may be published, both by paraphrasing and directly quoting them. On the record also means the source’s name will be published. When an interview is off the record, it’s as if the interview never happened, meaning the source’s name and information given cannot be used at all. Sources cannot go back and ask for information to be off the record after they’ve said it. They can only ask for information to be off the record prior to stating it. Similarly, we do not allow published on-therecord information to be retracted. If these policies did not exist, people could alter the public record by modifying or withdrawing what they have said, which would make our reporting unreliable. At training, we also differentiate between public and private events, along with how to cover them. Public events at the Claremont Colleges, as designated by Pomona College’s guidelines, are events on-campus that are open to either the public, the 7C community, or individual school communities. At these events, reporters can cover what happens, take photos of anyone, and use anything that
was said. By choosing to attend a public event, you are opening up yourself to the possibility of being reported on by the media. This policy is vital to our role as protectors of public knowledge. If TSL is barred from covering an event that is public, public information becomes hidden from the media and results in a direct conflict to the First Amendment. Finally, it’s our policy to never allow sources to read drafts of articles before they’re published. This compromises our coverage, as sources could potentially influence the story. If sources are concerned about how they’re being portrayed in the article, they may request their quotes be read to them over the phone to ensure accuracy. These rules ultimately exist to protect our ability to hold people accountable. We are certainly sympathetic to groups and individuals who make requests that violate our policies, and we understand there are circumstances that impact individuals in our community. Accordingly, we review incidents on a case-by-case basis, while continually factoring in readers’ concerns and seeking to minimize harm. But if we don’t follow these policies as closely as possible, we can’t do our job the right way. Every community needs a free press to ensure accountability, and TSL fulfills that role at the 5Cs.
Comic: Pikachu and Ditto
JORDAN WONG • THE STUDENT LIFE
Peaceful protests won’t save marginalized groups DONNIE TC DENOME I am tired of calls for peaceful protests. I want to make it clear: I am not advocating for violence. I don’t think violence is an answer, nor do I think peaceful protest is. When it comes to marginalized students being confronted with those who seek to harm or outright destroy us, such as trans students targeted by President Donald Trump’s recent memo or LGBTQIA+ students being the target of Westboro Baptist Church protests, we are so often told the answer lies in peaceful protests. We are asked to participate in focus groups, sign statements, or gather quietly at another location to celebrate the good in the world. Again, to be clear: These things are absolutely acceptable ways to engage with injustice. I welcome anyone who wants to be part of movements for a better world, no matter what that looks like. Too often, however, marginalized students are subtly reminded that it’s not acceptable to do anything besides peacefully protest. Not even disruptive nonviolence is permitted, even though every major civil rights movement in the United States was built on civil disobedience and making a scene. YouTube game critic and political analyst Ian Danskin, in his video “The Alt-Right Playbook: You Go High, We Go Low,” outlines the position right-wing politicians and reactionaries force progressives into. Essentially, by painting everything besides the most peaceful protests or outright capitulation as an unacceptable response to creeping fascism, the right forces progressives to either do nothing or make overtures so weak as to be useless. The worst part of this is that too often, we play right into their hands. Progressives, in our quest to be as nice as possible and to not be seen as creating trouble, capitulate to the unreasonable demands of regressive right-wing groups and end up making little change. The same strategies take place within leftist circles. In order to not be seen as troublemakers by more moderate or even conservative peers, we paint the same picture of peaceful
protest and prim-and-proper debate as the only acceptable response. It angers me so much that, when groups of reactionary, hate-fueled individuals who seek to create a country and a world without people like me come to campus and kick up a fuss, I can’t kick up a fuss back at them. I find it almost humorous that many of the same people that preach tolerance and freedom of speech when it comes to allowing bigots to speak on campus will then turn around and tell the very groups affected by those bigots to be peaceful and non-confrontational. Even the way the protests of marginalized students are covered by supposedly neutral papers tend to minimize our concerns. When Isabella Chow, an Associated Students of the University of California senator at UC Berkeley, announced her abstention from her vote on a resolution condemning Trump’s transphobic policies with a hateful, homophobic, and transphobic rant, the San Francisco Chronicle covered the issue with the headline “UC Berkeley campus senator abstains from a vote. Now students want her out.” Obviously, I don’t attend Berkeley. Yet, everyone from Berkeley with whom I have spoken about the incident has made it clear that had Chow only abstained, there wouldn’t have been a problem. It was her speech, not her (lack of a) vote that caused conflict. Still, the Chronicle’s headline portrays Chow’s actions as neutral and the students opposing her as not. Coverage like this only encourages defenders of Chow and groups like Westboro, who use it as evidence that they’re being attacked by “anti-Christian” groups with immense amounts of secret power and influence. Please, if there’s some Big Gay or Big Trans lobby out there, point me to them, because I want to be a part of that. Also, someone please tell me how I, a literal Quaker, am somehow “anti-Christian” for existing while trans. Go on, I’ll wait. In all seriousness, I would love to live in a world where the biggest injury anyone sustained in political and social discourse was a sore throat from too long-winded a speech. Un-
ANIKKA SOPHIA VILLEGAS • THE STUDENT LIFE
fortunately, we still live in a world where trans people (mostly trans women of color) are killed for being trans, Jewish people are shot to death in synagogues, and disabled people have our right to basic public accommodations constantly threatened. As long as our lives are threatened because someone out there disagrees with core, immutable aspects of our existence, I believe marginalized people damned well have the right to march, to shout, to occupy, and to make a scene. Polite debate and well-edited news editorials are great but they only get us so far. It’s easy to turn off a debate on TV or fold up a newspaper. It’s harder to ignore a group that’s protesting every single day as you walk to class. I’ve written for this paper before about feeling more like a talking point and less like a person when
it comes to politics. I’ve been made to feel like something or someone people can reference when they want to make an argument. I’ve become little more than the sum of my identities, dissected into little bits people can shape to their own needs. Marginalization removes your personhood. Protesting and making a scene helps to rebuild that personhood. Being seen in a way that you have complete control over — not being told to just be a little quieter, to just wait, that now just isn’t the time — is freeing. In the end, I know I’m not going to change the minds of people like Isabella Chow or the parishioners of Westboro. I’m not aiming at them; I’m aiming past them. If I lose allies because I’m not “polite” or “respectable,” good. I don’t want allies whose support hinges
on me being polite or respectable. I don’t want friends who are going to abandon me when (not if) I don’t pass as cis or straight, when I’m too crazy or disabled or burnt out to behave in a way that lives up to their standards. I’m not looking for allies who support me because I’m their charitable cause, another bullet point they can put on their resume. I believe in absolute autonomy and self-advocacy for all marginalized people, including and especially marginalized people who can’t or won’t live up to the standards those in power set for us. I don’t believe that any of us will ever find our liberation through assimilation. I’m fighting for myself but also for people who don’t have the opportunities I do. People listen to me because I’m white, look male, speak “proper” American English, and know how to navigate the unspoken curricula of
academia and politics. Lots of people don’t have those privileges, and it’s important to me that I listen to them and speak with them, but not speak for them or over them. As long as we live in a world where people like me are murdered just for existing and have our basic human dignity put to a vote, I also think we should be able to live in a world where people like me are permitted to be loud and obnoxious and impolite until we have full rights. I think that’s a fair trade-off. Donnie TC Denome PZ ’20, CGU ’21 is a 4+1 Bachelors/Masters public health major from Sunnyvale, CA, and one of TSL’s Opinions editors. They went to the same high school Steve Jobs did, and yes, it was 100 percent Tech Hell.
OPINIONS Jasper’s Crossword: It’s raining
Politics in a post-truth era CHRISTOPHER SALAZAR
JASPER DAVIDOFF • THE STUDENT LIFE
ACROSS 1. It precedes Diego and Francisco 4. Like moldy cheese 7. Architect I.M. 10. Curl-up muscles 11. Fairy-tale prince marriage impediment 12. Honorary doctorates in law 13. Disperse 15. Artistic 3D illusion: trompe _____ 16. Distress 17. Find 18. Pharmacist’s purview 22. Stunt performer Knievel 23. “Parks and Rec” BFF Perkins 24. Federal org. created by Nixon 27. Calc. button that brings up a saved number 28. Kurdish workers’ party opposed by Turkey 29. Type of campus that bans alcohol 30. Gold, in Barcelona 31. Study abroad org. 32. To test the water, dip ____ in 33. What it’s raining
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37. The largest lake in Europe 39. Yes, in Nice 40. Prefix for the lowest layer of the atmosphere 41. Martial arts uniforms 45. ____ ex machina 46. Any number to the zero power 47. Fuss 48. It’s out of 1600 49. Suffix with lion or baron 50. Hither and ___ DOWN 1. Scripps student gov’t 2. It’s easy as 1, 2, 3 3. Source of Snowden leaks 4. Vision-related 5. One-eyed space captain from Futurama 6. ___ es Salaam 7. “________ meet you!” 8. Revise 9. It precedes Royale and “of Dogs” 12. Place (abbr.) 14. Wagger
15. Bird with a signature call 17. Metro____ (way into LA) 18. Short note 19. Word TSwift repeats to describe how never we’re getting back together 20. Some music release announcements, in short 21. It precedes bath or hike 25. Third party nicknamed Bull Moose (abbr.) 26. Affirmative votes in Congress 28. Leaning tower city 31. Frozen hit: Let ____ 32. “Thank god!” in Italian: “Grazie ____!” 34. Forum for math nerds 35. People, places, and things 36. Bros 37. British form of LLCs 38. Length x width, for a rectangle 41. VP Biden 42. Like Anderson or Ellen 43. Wedding words 44. Saint, to Kanye
In an ironic turn, President Donald Trump barred CNN White House Correspondent Jim Acosta on account of supreme insolence. Silly though it may be, the danger of a disconnected post-truth politics, where emotional appeals supersede facts and reason, is that a free society cannot long survive untruth and rampant distrust. Here, the administration’s warring approach to the press is worrisome. And not just for the deadline artists who report current affairs. Truth, as a concept, has atrophied. “CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them,” the president said in a post-election press conference last Wednesday. “You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.” This, amusingly, uttered by the figure head whose jests include “Grab them by the pussy” shows the present’s absurdity. But the disconcerting spectacle is Acosta’s revoked press credential — for drawing Trump’s ire no less — and the White House’s unabashed deception. In a series of posts on Twitter, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders specified that Acosta’s “hard pass” was suspended until further notice. Afterward, she alarmingly released a doctored video of an interaction between Acosta and a young female intern prompted to wrest his microphone. The attempt was unsuccessful as Acosta continued to probe about the Mueller investigation. The CNN correspondent, however, did not inappropriately touch the young woman, despite Sanders’ claim to the contrary. In quintessential post-truth fashion, the footage was sped up to make Acosta’s gesticulations appear more violent. Not surprisingly, CNN filed a suit against Trump and leading White House aides for violating Acosta’s First Amendment right to report on the government without recourse and his Fifth Amendment right to due process. Though it’s not a criminal offense to be half as smart as appearance suggests, the ad-
ministration’s deceit should be considered criminal for anyone who values veracity. To observe the White House’s attempt to control the frame is a somber exercise in recognition: The Oval Office is where truth goes to die. However, demeaning Trump and his ilk for their “alternate fact” escapades are cheap, and this critic, despite his short constitution, prefers not to limit himself to the displeasures of low hanging fruit. Or, for that matter, of being ungenerous. In this regard, let it be said that President Obama’s transgressions on the fourth estate were far worse. Sure, Trump talks a mammoth game (though that’s changing) and he’s often horridly boastful. But Obama, for all his finesse and swagger, was insidious. Consider, for example, that Fox News reporter Chris Wallace was banned from a roundtable discussion of Obama’s healthcare reform in 2009. Or the bogus reinstatement of the Bush-era subpoena against New York Times’ journalist James Risen — who was later spied on by the Justice Department in 2011. Or then-Fox News reporter James Rosen, who was dubbed a “criminal co-conspirator” under the Espionage Act for using a State Department contractor as a source for a story. Then, in 2013, the Justice Department monitored Associated Press reporters’ and editors’ personal and professional phone calls for two months. So though the champion of “Hope” is frequently absolved of his misdeeds, Obama’s trespasses cannot be relieved of their “precedential” effects. In this way, Trump is merely following his lead. Still, Trump outplays the former president in at least one area: dishonesty. Here, post-truth, a moniker originally ascribed to Ronald Reagan’s Iran Contra Scandal, resurfaces. The post-truth politician repeatedly issues talking points that are disconnected from relevant policy details because sentiment trumps logic, evidence, and coherent argumentation. Unfortunately, the empirical successes of the past and present have, ironically, pushed statistics and expert testimony to their near breaking point — the infrastructure
of “facts” has grown beyond our capacity to create factual consensus. This gives credence to the person who scoffs at the notion of objectivity, of stable observations which serve to settle disputes between combative perspectives. Regardless, it cannot, in fact, be the case that truth does not exist, even if it is elusive. The matters of the case need to be publicly teased out by inquisitive watch dogs and intellectuals.
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Journalists, as the proverbial referees of statecraft, aren’t likely to receive adoration for their toils. They are, however, requisite. Here, Acosta’s tiff displays the hazards of an era characterized by doubt, executive overreach, and relativist proclivities that undermine sound discourse. This is perilous territory.
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NOVEMBER 16, 2018
Journalists, as the proverbial referees of statecraft, aren’t likely to receive adoration for their toils. They are, however, requisite. Here, Acosta’s tiff displays the hazards of an era characterized by doubt, executive overreach, and relativist proclivities that undermine sound discourse. This is perilous territory. Democracy, as the Washington Post proclaims in their daily periodical, dies in darkness. Its luminesce, however, survives by prudent and assertive enquiry. Christopher Salazar PZ ‘20 is a philosophy major from La Verne, CA. He’s not one to proselytize, but he believes whiskey on the rocks is sacrilege.
Thoughts and prayers are lovely, but if you’re Focus on the facts, not the fear truly devout, you need to take action EAMON MORRIS I spent 12 years in a Catholic education system. I’m no longer religious, but the close connections I maintain with people still in the church and the duration I spent as a devout member of it qualify me to make the following statement. If there is indeed a God, then God doesn’t give a damn about your thoughts and your prayers. I’m referring, of course, to the recent uptick in mass shootings. It’s ridiculous to use the word uptick here — as if there’s an acceptable baseline for the slaughter of hundreds of innocent people. Regardless of semantics, an uptick is exactly what’s happening right now. As of Nov. 15, 2018, there have been 12,788 deaths by gun in the United States. A substantial amount of these deaths were casualties as a result of 311 mass shootings that have occurred since the year began. To put these high numbers in perspective, I’ll cite the less than 5,000 soldiers who have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003. The difference is preposterous — that more Americans have been shot at home, in a country where safety is an ideal, than have been in an actual war. I could continue with more statistics. I could cite the shocking number of weapons used in mass shootings acquired legally, or the shocking ratio of guns to inhabitants of the United States, or the fact that our country is one of six in the world that comprise over half of all gun deaths. But I won’t do that. I won’t prove to you the necessity of gun control because I, among others, have argued this more times than I can count. Instead, I’m going to argue against the common fallacy that any power other than humanity will stop the massacres. This isn’t an argument against God. Although I personally don’t have faith, I have nothing but respect for people that do. However, I don’t have respect for people who believe their faith alone is what will solve the problem of rampant gun violence affecting the country. Following the recent Thou-
CHRISTOPHER MURDY sand Oaks shooting, my sister posted on Facebook beseeching for change. In the comments, two individuals felt compelled to reply. One said “This country has become demoralized, with so many turning away from God. Government can’t fix this. Only God.” The other said “Why not fight passionately for a return to our schools of prayer and the 10 commandments? If you look back and study that Supreme Court case, it was about that time that families became broken, crime escalated, poverty soared…” The religious theme of these two comments is unsurprising considering the Christian community my family is an active part of. What did surprise me is how these people failed to understand a common theme across many denominations of Christianity and other religions — that it is the combination of faith and good actions that lead to some sort of salvation rather than faith alone. The Facebook evangelists seem to believe that a more religious society will become more peaceful as a result. This is blatantly incorrect. There is no evidence whatsoever that any country that places a high value on religion is more peaceful. For example, a 2009 study on religion found that 88 percent of Guatemalan adults claim religion is an important part of their daily life. In 2016, Guatemala had the eighth most firearm deaths out of all countries. Conversely, the same 2009 study found that only 17 percent of Swedish adults claim religion is an important part of their daily life. A 2010 study showed the firearm death rate per 100,000 people for Sweden to be 1.5 to the United States’ 10.2. This shows that the argument that more God equals less gun violence is completely wrong. There is simply not enough consistent evidence to support the argument that more religion is equivalent to less violence. Granted, there isn’t enough consistent evidence to support the opposite, either. If you believe in a higher power, there are three options. Either God is showing us a solu-
KATIE ERICKSON • THE STUDENT LIFE
tion to the gun violence epidemic through legislative gun control, or God couldn’t care less and is doing nothing. The third option is that God isn’t real. If you’re a person of faith, the best option is pretty evident. Once again, I don’t take issue with religion, rather with people who believe that sitting around and praying will solve all problems. My frustration is with an apathy so strong that it enables mass shootings to become normalized. My argument is made against those who are complicit in the murder of thousands of people every year.
Feel free to pray. Feel free to think of the victims. It might help. But unless you want this disgusting trend to continue, get involved. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll tell you to do the following, because it’s the only thing that will help. Vote during the next election. Call your representatives. Protest, march, campaign, and donate. Do whatever you need to do to stop more people from being brutally slaughtered. Eamon Morris PZ ’22 is from Orange, CA. He puts coffee grounds on everything.
The U.S. military has 2,000 troops stationed in Syria and 5,200 stationed in Iraq, according to recent estimates. In Afghanistan, the United States has another 14,000 troops deployed. Just days before the midterm election, a deployment of an additional 5,200 troops arrived at the Mexico border to prepare for the arrival of a caravan travelling from Central America hoping to seek asylum. With 2,000 National Guard troops already stationed on the border, the total number of 7,200 military personnel equals the total stationed in Iraq and Syria combined. President Donald Trump, though, did not, in any of his tweets, indicate that 870 miles separated the caravan from the U.S. border. Covering about 20-30 miles a day, the caravan won’t reach the U.S.-Mexico border for at least another month by the most generous estimates. Many question, then, why the Trump administration expressed a dire sense of emergency in its reporting on the caravan. Leading up to the election, most pollsters gave the Democrats a solid chance at taking the House of Representatives. Confronted with the historically difficult task that presidents face in motivating their base for the midterms, Trump saw immigration as an issue that could do just that. Using a crisis as a rallying cry to drive voters to the ballot box on Election Day is nothing new, and Trump simply took a page out of the political playbook of the past in manufacturing a crisis to build support for vulnerable House and Senate candidates. What makes this case different, though, is how a costly and ineffective deployment of U.S. troops accompanied the tweets and rallying cries about the caravan. The deployment has an estimated cost of $200 million, and with threats to deploy an additional 10,000 troops, that figure could further skyrocket. Prepared for combat in war zones, these troops are “ill-trained, improperly equipped and badly organized for this mission,” according to the retired 4-star Admiral and Commander of U.S. Southern Command, James
Stavridis. The responsibility to handle any immigration crisis, he argues, lies with law enforcement and not the military. While sounding “tough” and “strong” in headlines and tweets, Trump’s decision will actually prove to do more harm than good, diverting resources away from other programs and preventing these combat troops from engaging in training for actual active-duty missions. Calling the impending arrival of this caravan a “National Emergency” and blaming Democrats, Trump exploited people’s fear of immigrants in an effort to save the Republican majorities in both the House and the Senate. Instead of focusing on actual policy proposals, such as a renegotiated Iran deal or his long-talked-about infrastructure investment, Trump chose to seize on fear as a campaigning tool. Fear has long been a driver in politics throughout the past century, regardless of party. Examples include how former President Lyndon Johnson told Americans that electing Barry Goldwater as president would bring about nuclear war or how terrorism has been used more recently to drive the need for stronger national security. Candidates often tell Americans that “the terrible thing that you fear may happen is, in fact, going to happen, [and] that, unfortunately, can be a pretty effective tactic.” In times such as these, as Americans, we must resist the urge to give in to the narrative being pushed by desperate political candidates. If this caravan did in fact pose a “National Emergency” and was not just a well-timed election crisis, we would expect there to be no change in narrative from the White House after Election Day. Instead, the very opposite has proven true with Trump ceasing nearly all mentions of the caravan. While Trump made unsubstantiated claims that terrorist groups and drug cartels have infiltrated the caravan, the truth is that there is little to fear. The people, mostly women and children, traveling in this caravan, are fleeing violence and persecution in Central America to seek asylum in the United States. Christopher Murdy PO ’22 is an intended International Relations major from Lido Beach, NY. He has yet to be convinced West Coast beaches are better.
OPINIONS PAGE 10
NOVEMBER 16, 2018
THE STUDENT LIFE
Every Titanic has its iceberg: Trump Promoting body positivity to will regret removing Sessions prevent drunkorexic behaviors BEN REICHER A gigantic ship, christened with so much promise, is on its maiden voyage. It’s billed as unsinkable, so much so that it’s almost blasphemous to even suggest this ship could sink, so much so that no one’s bothered to check if there are enough lifeboats. But every Titanic has its iceberg, and now that doomed ship’s sister has met hers. She won’t sink right away, but when she does, not everyone will make it out alive. So two rats have decided they’ll be the first ones out. But as they’re floating away on a piece of wreckage, the bigger rat realizes there isn’t enough room for both him and his smaller companion. What’s a rat to do? To end this metaphor, the big rat is Donald Trump. The smaller rat is ex-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Titanic 2.0 is Trumpism. And the iceberg is the recent midterm elections, which saw Democrats take back the House of Representatives. So, what’s a rat to do? Apparently, he would push his friend into the water and let him drown. But it’s only then that the big rat realizes, as he feels the ice-cold water lapping at his orange fur, that the smaller rat was balancing the piece of wood and keeping it afloat. With that balance gone, it’s tipping over. Trump fired Sessions (excuse me, “requested his resignation” — Orwell would be proud) on Nov. 7, after it was clear the Democrats had won the House majority, but with millions of votes left to count. This wasn’t ordinary staff turnover as a party takes stock of its losses and tries to plot a new strategy going forward. If it was, why didn’t Trump wait to see just how big those losses were? No, Trump got rid of Sessions because he no longer had any need for him; he took up too much room on the raft. Trump wanted to fire Sessions from the moment the latter recused himself from any investigations
into the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia. He only waited until after the midterms because he felt the political fallout could damage Republicans. But Sessions was doomed from that moment, because he demonstrated the one thing Trump can’t bear in his underlings: loyalty to something other than Trump himself. To be clear, the things Sessions is loyal to are abhorrent. He is loyal to a Christian fundamentalist world where men have absolute dominance over women’s bodies, where the existence of LGBTQIA+ individuals is denied, where the votes of minorities are suppressed and discrimination against them is tolerated by the government, and where his poisonous brand of Christianity is forced onto schools. For all his support of “family values,” he instituted a policy that ripped children from their mother’s arms and used the Bible to justify it. He belongs in Gilead of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” not the highest echelons of power in any democracy; and for that reason I am glad he is gone. Sessions’ ideals are appalling, but he had ideals. And apparently one of them is that an investigation should not be overseen by someone with a conflict of interest. I don’t know which Bible verse he found to justify that, but in that moment he chose his ideals over Trump. Trump has paid dearly for Sessions’ moment of humanity. Sessions’ recusal meant he could not stop the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which (at least, in Trump’s mind) poses an existential threat to his own presidency. On Nov. 7, Sessions paid dearly for it, too. Except, he won’t pay as dearly as Trump might, now that Democrats have won the House, with no one to balance Trump’s selfdestructive impulses and keep the wood afloat.
It was almost unbelievably stupid, for want of a better word, to remove Sessions after a Democratic takeover of the House. Democrats repeatedly promised to investigate Trump and his Russia ties if they won, and this is one more thing for them to probe. Moreover, they might have a new star witness. As economist Paul Krugman tweeted, “[Trump] can tell federal officials not to talk — but he can’t tell private citizens, including fired prosecutors, not to testify when called by Congress.” Sessions’ treatment by Trump is just one more incentive for him to spill everything he knows. Then there’s the political fallout if Mueller is removed by Sessions’ replacement. Trump will have made the same mistake as former President Richard Nixon in trying to obfuscate an investigation of a seemingly insignificant burglary attempt, and as former President Bill Clinton, who most definitely did not have sexual relations with that woman. We don’t know what will be in Mueller’s final report. It might not implicate Trump himself, but Trump certainly isn’t behaving like he’s innocent. The scandal isn’t in the crime, but the cover-up. It might be safer, politically speaking, to just let Mueller finish. So, what does this tell us about Trump and his ilk? That corrupt politicians are shockingly bad liars. Spend your life running from the people, and you don’t know what to do when they catch up to you. To paraphrase Nixon, people have got to know if their president’s a crook; and they will hold their leaders accountable. Even if you’re the president, the American people can smell a rat. Ben Reicher PO ‘22 is a contributing writer from Agoura Hills, CA. He joined his high school newspaper in ninth grade because he loved to argue, and hasn’t stopped since.
NINA POTISCHMAN • THE STUDENT LIFE
JULIA READ • THE STUDENT LIFE
SARAH ETUK, LAURA HAETZEL, & KAYLA LANKER Guest Columnists CW: Mentions of eating disorders In a limited online survey of 39 students conducted at the 5Cs, we posed the question “What makes you healthy?” The results showed that most students believe regular exercising, a normal sleep schedule, socializing, and eating nutritious foods — living a “balanced” lifestyle — make you healthy. However, when asked how often they ate before drinking, only 59 percent responded often or almost always, indicating that students are not always following behaviors they deem healthy. Indeed, of the 39 students who took our survey, 44 percent reported having intentionally restricted their calories prior to drinking in order to avoid gaining weight at least once. 36 percent reported restricting their calories prior to drinking in order to feel the effects of alcohol at least once. And 31 percent reported drinking in excess so as to throw-up at least once. These behaviors, when repeated and difficult to control, are indicative of drunkorexia. The phenomenon loosely termed “drunkorexia,” or more recently named “food and alcohol disturbance” by Emily Choquette, Diana Rancourt, and Kevin Thompson, is not officially considered a disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). But it is still a health issue. Drunkorexia, according to scientists at the University of Chieti, Italy, entails an “extreme form of weight control to compensate planned binge drinking.” It is a fairly recent phenom-
enon that has concerned researchers studying undergraduate populations in Italy, Australia, and the United States since at least 2014. Food and substance use disorders are classified as separate in diagnostic systems. The emergence of drunkorexia prompts us to reconsider this framework, especially since reduced caloric intake before drinking exacerbates the consequences of heavy substance use, such as blacking out, compromised immune function, aggressive behavior, and increased risk of sexual assault. A study conducted in an American undergraduate population found that one third of undergraduate students engaged in restrictive eating before alcohol consumption. However, several studies have observed that those who identify as women are more prone to drunkorexia than men. Additionally, sexual objectification has been linked to foodrestricted alcohol consumption in women but not in men. All in all, these findings suggest that drunkorexia is entangled in larger social and cultural issues around sexual objectification, body image, and drinking. Frankly, the prevalence of drunkorexia on college campuses, coupled with the lack of attention surrounding it, is concerning. Eating disorders are highly prevalent on college campuses, according to the National Eating Disorders Association, and students with eating disorders may be at increased risk for drunkorexia. Across the Claremont Colleges, one could find a number of resources geared toward reducing heavy substance use, but very little toward reducing drunkorexia. This may be because we don’t view engaging in behaviors aimed at controlling weight as problematic, as society still places a higher value on being thin than on being healthy.
There are a number of actions that individuals and organizations on campus can take to combat this phenomenon. Studies have shown that first-year college students are at an increased risk of developing drunkorexia. To decrease the prevalence of drunkorexia in college students, the education course required of incoming students at Pomona College, Teaching Alcohol Abuse Prevention Program, could incorporate a section on drunkorexia. The other Claremont Colleges could implement this in their own alcohol training programs as well. Additionally, studies have also shown that interventions aimed at improving body image are effective in reducing drunkorexic behaviors. Given this, it might be effective for groups such as the Peer Health Educators at different colleges and the Pomona College Women’s Union to host events and start campaigns aimed at celebrating the diversity of body types on our campuses. On an individual level, we could be more mindful of how our words and actions might promote unhealthy eating and substance use behaviors. For example, instead of encouraging our friends to “get blackout drunk,” we could instead suggest that they keep track of the number of drinks they consume in a night. Similarly, we could stop making comments about how much we’ll need to run in order to burn off a drink, and instead incorporate exercise into our weekly routines. These actions combined will ensure that we are doing our part to reduce drunkorexic behaviors. Sarah Etuk PO ’19, Laura Haetzel PO ’19, and Kayla Lanker PO ’19 are neuroscience majors. This article is based on a paper written for Professor Sara Masland’s “Psychological Disorders” class.
The multi-dimensional facade of the “pop-up experience” MILLY CHI You may have seen the photos. Positively blissful young people frolic through fields of giant daisies, pose next to enormous gummy bears, and fling handfuls of colorful sprinkles into the air against the backdrop of glossy pink tiles made to emulate the “sprinkle pool” of some childhood dream. These scenes from “pop-up experiences” like Museum of Ice Cream, 29Rooms, Color Factory, and Happy Place create the illusion of surrealism, as if people can be transported into strange, alternative realities. The photos come out perfectly picturesque. Yet, the glamour exists only within the confines of the photographs, almost tricking the viewer into thinking they have the ability to escape the mundane realities of everyday life. “Pop-up experiences” are no more an escape than a caving into our social media insecurities. They are a reflection of vanity, superficiality, and our increasing desperation for social validation. All of this is emblematic of a future fueled by social media. Social media offers digital incentives of social legitimacy, and thus, one’s actions are geared toward achieving the highest possible virtual returns (likes, comments, followers) on investment. People gravitate toward originality in visual aesthetic, or at least the illusion thereof. This pursuit
of artistic originality reaches extremes when ordinary people become so obsessed with the gratification from this illusion that they’re willing to pay to incorporate the semblance of man-made movie sets or “pop-up experiences” into their lives. Moreover, this phenomenon exists under the guise of art. The art industry has discovered profitability in the rise of social-mediafriendly art installation pop-ups. Exhibits like the viral Museum of Ice Cream, Refinery29’s 29Rooms, and Color Factory allow visitors to pose before picturesque backgrounds and create the illusion of one exploring a new world. Companies like Refinery29, a self-proclaimed “millenial news source,” have heavily capitalized on this experience through not just ticket sales, but sponsored installations that plant the Toyota logo in the background of one’s Instagram photo. While many of these installations are perfectly picturesque once snapped and added to one’s photo album, the experience itself can be a bizarre one. At 29Rooms, I waited in line to take a photo in front of cheap plastic daisies sponsored by Marc Jacobs, posed in front a mirror to get the perfect shot of the phrase “you are beautiful” before it blinked away at a moment’s notice, and snapped selfies before a backdrop of “activist slogans” while actively participating in the most vapid consumer culture possible.
The artistic merits of consumeroriented installations like these are questionable. These pop-ups are marketed as art installations, branding themselves as “museums,” but they represent a pandering to superficial society’s ideas of glamour. There’s something creative and artistic about the eye-catching graphics, interactive digital elements of light and neon and bubble machines and television screens, and there is no doubt that a great deal of engineering and design goes into making these “experiences” come alive. But what constitutes “art,” now that social media has given rise to a commercialized, glamorized, gaudy displays of “creativity”? Exhibits like the Rose Mansion’s “the patio” rip off the work of popular artists like Yayoi Kusama, simply gearing their visions toward what is profitable. Pop-ups can also afford to use cheap materials and still call the end result an “art installation.” Last weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Room” at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. The experience is unreal — it simulates what I’d imagine to be the feeling of standing in the middle of the universe or some sort of galaxy. Yet, my instinctual reaction was to pull out my phone and film it. I had seen the the photos online; I needed one of my own. Before I realized how much more beautiful the scene was through
my own eyes, rather than through the digital screen of my iPhone, my 45 seconds was up, and I was escorted out of the room. I’ve concluded that real art is an experience in real life that a photo cannot do justice. Perhaps, real art isn’t made for the sole purpose of being posed in front of and photographed incessantly. I compared The Broad to my time at 29Rooms. Every installation at 29Rooms came with blinding white artificial photo lights for the instagram “photo shoot” enthusiast, creating discomfort for my eyes when I entered each room. Many of the installations were much smaller and dinkier than they seemed in photos, and some of the “sponsored” art simply seemed like excuses for brands like Urban Decay and Toyota to deck out their logo in lights and glitter. No “pop-up experience” can truly emulate the work of artists like Kusama. The art of 29Rooms lacked depth — there was nothing to analyze and explore. The cardboard scenes, the glitter, the flashing words of affirmation are fascinating in photos, but cheap and gimmicky in real life. One simply has to shoot it from the correct angle and crop it to the right dimensions. Milly Chi PZ ’22 is an aspiring media studies major from Buena Park, CA. In her free time, she can be found marveling at the wonder that is Canva. EMMA LI • THE STUDENT LIFE
SPORTS NOVEMBER 16, 2018
Sports Calendar
Nov. 16 - Nov. 29
Pomona-Pitzer Friday, Nov. 16
Friday, Nov. 23
Men’s Water Polo Cal Lutheran At P-P S R’ O IT ED 7 p.m. K
Men’s Basketball Willamette At CMS 4:30 p.m.
PIC
Women’s Basketball College of New Jersey At P-P 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 17 Men’s Basketball Biola At P-P 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 24
Women’s Basketball Embry-Riddle At P-P 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17 Men’s and Women’s Swim and Dive Redlands At P-P 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 20
PAGE 11
THE STUDENT LIFE
Men’s Basketball Whitman At P-P 7 p.m. Women’s Basketball Dallas At CMS 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28 Women’s Basketball At Redlands 7 p.m.
Men’s Basketball At LIFE Pacific 7:30 p.m. Men’s and Women’s Cross Country NCAA Champtionships Women’s Basketball Willamette At P-P 5:30 p.m.
CMS SWIM AND DIVE
Stags, Athenas dominate Bulldogs in SCIAC opener SEAN LEE The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s and women’s swim and dive teams cruised to comfortable victories against Chapman in their first SCIAC meet of the season Nov. 10. The Athenas won 199-97, while the Stags took first place in all but one event, finishing the meet with a winning score of 235-56. CMS was coming off a challenging non-conference slate to begin the season, which included losses against Division II UCSD; No. 9 Chicago; and No. 10 Washington University in St. Louis. However, this early experience seemingly paid off, as CMS dominated Chapman. For the men’s team, Tyler Welty CM ’19 won both breaststroke events, with times of 58.07 in the 100-yard race and 2:10.30 in the 200yard race, while Marco Conati HM ’21 took the 100-yard backstroke at 53.95 and 100-yard fly at 51.92. “I think the team performed really well, especially coming off another meet last weekend and going straight to work this weekend,” said Michael Lee CM ’22, who won both the 1,650-yard and 200-yard freestyle. The women’s team had an equally impressive showing, earning a
handful of wins across multiple events. Highlights included Ava Sealander SC ’22 winning the 400yard individual medley at 4:46.25 and the 50-yard free at 24.55. In addition, Jocelyn Crawford CM ’20, Janet Tran CM ’21, Laurel Krovitz SC ’22, and Sealander took the 200-yard freestyle relay, clocking in at 1:40.22. They barely beat out teammates Augusta Lewis CM ’22, Emma Stacy SC ’19, Riley Hoffman CM ’19, and Allie Umemoto SC ’21, who finished with a time of 1:41.88. “I thought we had a very solid meet,” head coach Charlie Griffiths said. “The team brought energy, performed well … We definitely have a group that works hard, and they’re excited to race, excited to train, excited to be with each other.” Off to a strong start to the SCIAC season, CMS is looking to improve upon their win over Chapman and continue to succeed moving forward. “We’re headed in a really good direction” said Andrew Bradjan CM ’22, who won the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:09.82. “We’re going to need to keep that energy going throughout the season.” The next test for CMS will come Nov. 17 in a tri-meet against SCIAC foes Occidental and Caltech.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Friday, Nov. 16 Women’s Basketball Willamette At George Fox 5 p.m.
Women’s Basketball At Pacific 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 23
Men’s Water Polo At Whittier 7 p.m.
Men’s Basketball Whitman At CMS 7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 17
Women’s Basketball Dallas At P-P 4:30 p.m.
Men’s Basketball Midway Classic At University of Chicago Football At Whitworth 12 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 24
Men’s and Women’s EDITOR’S PICK Cross Country NCAA Championships Men’s and Women’s Swim and Dive Occidental and Caltech At CMS 10 a.m.
Men’s Basketball Willamette At P-P 4:30 p.m. Women’s Basketball College of New Jersey At CMS 7 p.m.
Women’s Basketball At George Fox 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18 Men’s Basketball Midway Classic At University of Chicago
Scores Pomona-Pitzer
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
Men’s Water Polo P-P 9 CMS 6
Women’s Volleyball CMS 3 Augsburg 0 Wisconsin-Eau Claire 3 CMS 1
Men’s Cross Country NCAA West Regionals 1st Place Women’s Cross Country NCAA West Regionals 2nd Place Football P-P 24 CMS 19 Women’s Swim and Dive P-P 172 Whittier 73 P-P 159 Occidental 95 Men’s Swim and Dive P-P 184 Whittier 48 P-P 182 Occidental 56 Women’s Basketball George Fox 81 P-P 67 P-P 76 Bethesda 36
COURTESY OF CMS ATHLETICS
Riley Hoffman CM ’19 swims freestyle in CMS’ meet against Chapman on Nov. 10.
CMS AND P-P FOOTBALL
P-P retains Sixth Street Rivalry trophy
ELINOR ASPEGREN • THE STUDENT LIFE
Runningback Levon Lester PZ ’21 runs the football away from Lukas Svitek CM ’20 in the CMS v. P-P game Nov. 10.
KELLAN GRANT The Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens (7-3, 5-2 SCIAC) won the Sixth Street Rivalry game for the second consecutive year, defeating Claremont-MuddScripps (7-3, 6-1 SCIAC) 24-19 last Saturday. The Sagehens entered the game with the chance to reach a seven-win season for the first time since 1999, while the Stags hoped to make history of their own by securing an undefeated SCIAC record. A CMS victory would have also given them the outright conference title, but with the loss, they settled for a tie with Redlands. The game was close throughout, with CMS hitting a field goal early in the fourth to take a 13-10 lead. However, each time it appeared that the Stags might capture the game, the Sagehens responded with
a score of their own to put the contest back in their favor. Following the CMS field goal, P-P found the endzone twice, taking a commanding 24-13 lead with little time remaining. CMS did not go down without a fight, putting together an impressive drive to close the deficit to 24-19. However, it was too little too late for the Stags. They had the ball with 47 seconds left and no timeouts remaining, but the game was sealed when Elan Harris PO ’19 came away with his league-leading sixth interception. With their retention of the Sixth Street trophy, the Sagehens finished the season 7-3 overall and 5-2 in the SCIAC. The Stags hope to bounce back quickly as they take on Whitworth this Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
COMMENTARY
Michigan’s ‘Revenge Tour,’ and one of my own HANK SNOWDON
It’s rare for someone to make a life-altering decision in first grade. It’s even rarer for that decision to be about sports. Yet, that’s exactly what happened to me. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, the home of the Ohio State Buckeyes. If you’ve ever been to Columbus, you don’t need me to explain the frenzy of Buckeye football. It is absolute madness. In Columbus, everyone is born a Buckeye. Literally, during OSUMichigan week, local hospitals outfit newborns in OSU gear, with beanies that look like helmets. It doesn’t matter if your parents didn’t go to OSU, or if you have no ties to the university. An absolute, unquestionable expectation exists that everyone in Columbus must be a Buckeye fan. However, as a young kid, I was oblivious to this idea. Unlike my friends, whose parents and grandparents mostly all grew up in our hometown, my mom and dad are transplants from Los Angeles. I was born in Columbus, but wasn’t raised in a Buckeye household. So, when the fourth weekend of November rolled around in 2005, I knew nothing about Ohio State football, not to mention the
OSU-Michigan rivalry. One day, my teacher gave my first grade class outlines of “Brutus Buckeye,” the OSU mascot, for us to color in. Immediately, everyone instinctively reached for the “scarlet and gray” crayons. Having no clue what was going on, I asked my friends, “Who are we coloring?” That quickly prompted a crash-course from my seven-yearold peers about Ohio State, Brutus, Scarlet and Gray, and most importantly, the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry — dubbed “The Game.” Thinking it would be funny, I grabbed the “maize and blue” crayons, and sacrilegiously colored Brutus in Michigan’s colors. Shocked, my friends huddled around, asking: “Are you a Michigan fan?” Still having no idea what that meant, I replied with a yes. My life was never the same. When I made that choice in 2005, Michigan had won 13 of the last 20 meetings. However, since that November, OSU is 12-1 against the Wolverines. The rivalry hasn’t been a rivalry; it’s been a one-sided, humiliating beatdown. An absolute nightmare for Michigan fans, and especially for me. Every single year brought a new level of pain. For the same November weekend each season, I huddled
around my TV wearing all my Michigan gear, clinging to some hope that maybe this year would be the year. I always enter The Game with that same hope, and for every season except 2011 (Michigan’s only win), I’ve always been let down. In Columbus, OSU’s culture is ingrained in each person’s identity. In football season, “Hello” is replaced with “Go Bucks.” On game days, the streets are deadly silent; everyone watches each game. And only one thing equals Columbus’ love of Ohio State: their hate for Michigan. As a result, I endured constant verbal abuse for my entire childhood, from my friends, classmates, teachers, peers, bosses, and even strangers, as Michigan’s football team’s failures made me the butt of every joke. The worst day each year was the Monday after The Game. Walking into school after each fresh loss was unbearable. In every class, down every hallway, people would laugh and yell at me, relishing in their victory and my pain. After two more horrific losses in my junior and senior years, both of which I had the unique pleasure of witnessing in person, I left Ohio and moved to Claremont, leaving my OSU-Michigan past behind. I still pay attention to Michigan
Women’s Swim and Dive CMS 199 Chapman 97 Men’s Swim and Dive CMS 235 Chapman 56 Men’s Cross Country NCAA West Regionals 2nd Place Women’s Cross Country NCAA West Regionals 1st Place Men’s Water Polo P-P 9 CMS 6 Football P-P 24 CMS 19 Women’s Basketball Westmont 65 CMS 43
COURTESY OF MAIZE & BLUE NATION
Michigan LB Jabrill Peppers stares down Ohio State QB J.T. Barrett after a tackle in the 2016 OSU-Michigan game. Michigan will attempt to win only their second game against their arch-rivals since 2004 on Nov. 24.
football, and watch nearly every game, but it’s not the same. Now that I’m in college, it’s strange rooting for a different one. In Claremont, when Michigan loses, I don’t walk out of my dorm room to jeers. Here, no one cares. This year, there’s been plenty to pay attention to in Ann Arbor. After dropping their opening game to Notre Dame, Michigan has rattled off nine straight wins, vaulting into fourth in the College Football Playoff rankings. Not only have they won nine straight, but they have absolutely dominated their opponents, especially in Big Ten play. Defensive coordinator Don Brown’s defense is the best in the country, and the offense, led by transfer QB Shea Patterson, has a swagger not seen in Ann Arbor in years. Over three straight games in the past month, they took down rivals Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Penn State by a combined score of 101-27. Each of those teams entered as ranked opponents, and each defeated Michigan last season. Fittingly, Chase Winovich, the high-energy All-American DE, dubbed Michigan’s Big Ten slate, the “Revenge Tour.” Winovich explained the slogan to reporters after taking down MSU: “Me personally, I wanted our lunch money back, and I wanted them to pay interest.” So far, Michigan has tore through the first three major stops, and only a single important one remains: Columbus. This Thanksgiving weekend, they will drive down to my hometown, to avenge not only last season’s loss, but the 16 losses to OSU since 2000. At the same time, I will also travel to Columbus for Thanksgiving break, on a ‘Revenge Tour’ of my own. I’ll tailgate with all my friends who go to OSU, and then I’ll proudly wear my Michigan jersey in the stands of The Game, hoping to avenge an entire childhood of loss and mockery. If they can pull off the victory, it would push aside a lifetime of pain, even if just for a day. For once, I might be the one celebrating, listening to “Hail to the Victors” ring throughout the Horseshoe. Just this time, I’d have the bragging rights. And even though it’d only be one win, it would feel incredible to put away my nightmares of years past. After all, revenge is sweet.
SPORTS THE STUDENT LIFE
PAGE 12
NOVEMBER 16, 2018
CMS BASKETBALL
Athenas, Stags shooting for SCIAC titles in new season GABBY HERZIG
As the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s and women’s basketball teams get ready to begin their seasons, the Stags hope some fresh faces will continue their recent SCIAC dominance, while the Athenas return a familiar squad, eager to avenge their loss in the conference title game last season. The Stags claimed the SCIAC title for the 20th time in the program’s history last year, setting a SCIAC alltime record with 15 conference wins. After defeating Chapman in the SCIAC postseason semifinal game and Pomona-Pitzer in the finals, CMS received an automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs for the second year in a row. However, in the second round of the NCAA tournament, the Stags fell to top-ranked Whitman, bringing a historic 17-game winning streak to an end. This season, the Stags are anticipating another competitive year. “Our team goals this year are no different then they were the previous year,” Mark Sui CM ’19 said. “We want to win the SCIAC and to compete for a national championship.” Although the Stags graduated four of their five starters last spring, including first-team All-American Michael Scarlett CM ’18, their hopes for this season remain high. However, if they want to succeed, they will need younger, inexperienced players to step up. “When you lose four starters, you have a situation where new players have to take on different roles,” CMS head coach Ken Scalmanini said. “I have a lot of guys who are excited about the opportunity to get playing time.”
The Stags’ freshman class, in particular, has a chance to make a huge impact on the program this year. CMS is debuting six first-years: Carter Ingersoll CM ’22, Charles Meng HM ’22, TJ Askew CM ’22, Alec Sinek CM ’22, Luke Webb CM ’22, and Sam Johnson CM ’22. “The freshman class has fit in wonderfully,” Sui said. “Coach Scalmanini does a great job of recruiting players who are not only athletically talented but also seamless personal fits. They are picking up the offense and defensive schemes particularly quickly.” Scalmanini noted that his 12 returners have done an excellent job embracing the freshman class and introducing them to the inner workings of the program. He explained that the upperclassmen have become mentors, “not only on the court, but academically and also with professional development.” The Stags will kick off their season Nov. 17 at the Midway Classic in Chicago, Illinois. The CMS women’s team is also coming off an incredibly solid 20172018 campaign, and they have plenty of reasons to be confident about this season. The Athenas received the number one seed in the SCIAC tournament after winning the regular season title, and defeated Redlands in the semifinals. However, the Athenas’ double-overtime loss to Chapman in the title game left them just short of the NCAA tournament. While the Stags will be playing with some new faces this year, the Athenas will look similar to last year’s team. They only lost one senior, Kailee Severt CM ’18, to gradu-
TALIA BERNSTEIN • THE STUDENT LIFE
(Left) Teeana Cotangco CM ’19 handles the ball during a practice. (Right) Elo Oti CM ’21 goes up for a layup in a Stags practice.
ation, as fifth-year senior Corinne Bogle CM ’19 elected to come back for her fifth year of eligibility. With so many returning players, the Athenas are hopeful for another dominant season and the potential to compete in the NCAA tournament. Head coach Kristen Dowling said that the team’s goals are to “have a great culture, compete for a SCIAC
championship, and a NCAA tournament berth.” In order to achieve these goals, the CMS women’s team has continued to work on defense and rebounding, what Dowling calls “the trademarks of their program.” Forward Maya Love CM ’20, the Athenas’ highest returning scorer, added: “We have a lot of energy
and quickness that we have been working on to implement more in our plays.” As for the Athenas’ first-year class, the program has gained five first-year student-athletes: Flora Durgerian CM ’22, Kellie Okamura SC ’22, Jocelyn Song CM ’22, Jane Baldwin CM ’22, and Elizabeth Howell-Egan SC ’22.
All five of these new players will supplement the solid group of returners, Dowling said. “They are working hard, learning the system, and are great additions to our colleges and program,” she said. The Athenas will begin play Nov. 16 against Willamette at George Fox in Newberg, Oregon.
CMS AND P-P CROSS COUNTRY
P-P, CMS heading to Nationals
P-P Athlete of the Week Men’s Swim and Dive Jason Lu PO ‘22 Camarillo, CA Lu came out of the gates flying in his first career SCIAC meet for the Sagehens, taking first place in three events. The first-year impressed in the sprints, winning the 200- and 100-yard freestyle with times of 1:44.49 and 47.85 respectively. He showed off his versatility by later winning the 500yard freestyle in 4:46.30. Lu’s performance earned him what could be the first of many SCIAC Athlete of the Week awards.
COURTESY OF P-P ATHLETICS
(Left) Ethan Widlansky PO ’22 races toward the finish line during the NCAA West Regional Championship Nov. 10. (Right) Natalie Marsh SC ’19 finished first for the Athenas at Regionals Nov. 10.
PRISCILLA JIN The Pomona-Pitzer and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps cross-country teams dominated in the NCAA West Regional Championship Nov. 10, with all four teams securing a bid to the National Championship. The men’s teams tied for first place with 54 points, and the CMS women edged out the Sagehens, who finished in second behind the Athenas. The men’s race came down to the wire, and ultimately ended in a 54-54 tie. There was confusion in the scoring at the end of the meet, but it eventually became clear that both teams qualified for Nationals. The P-P men’s team entered regionals having won their second consecutive SCIAC championship two weeks before. Andy Reischling PO ’19 led the team at Regionals, finishing in 24:49.2, with an average mile time of 4:59.6. Adin Becker PO ’20, the second fastest on the P-P team, clocked in at 25:23.6 at 10th place. Because of the success of last year’s season, the team is confident and ready to move forward next week. “We were a little less concerned
with winning [the SCIAC] this year,” head coach Jordan Carpenter said. “Last year was our first time winning a conference meet in 12 years and a first region win in five years. This year, we were more focused on the national meet because we knew we had the capacity to go further.” Reischling has been a key runner for the team, and has now won the individual SCIAC and West Regional Conference titles for the past two years. “[Reischling] has already competed at the highest level,” Carpenter said. “He’s the leader of the team and our success starts with him.” Reischling explained that even though the tie at Regionals was chaotic, it didn’t faze the Sagehens, who were only focused on qualifying for the NCAA Championship. “After the race, we weren’t really sure of the outcome; they had us winning, then losing, then tied, then [it] went to a tie breaker,” he said. “We weren’t too worried because Regionals is all about getting to the next level. This weekend at Nationals, we think we can get to the top four if we have a really great race, but at the minimum we want to match our best performance, which
was getting to the top six last year.” The Stags’ performance at Regionals was more surprising than P-P’s. Two weeks ago, CMS came in third in the SCIAC meet, finishing behind the Sagehens and Occidental. However, they rebounded well in Walla Walla, tying for first in the entire West Region. Miles Christensen HM ’22 led the team with a third place finish, crossing the finish line in 25:04.1. He was followed by teammate Stevie Steinberg HM ’21 at 25:20.0, good for ninth place. “Our conference meet didn’t go the way we had anticipated, so the weeks between that and regionals, we really had to re-focus,” Christensen said. “We were definitely more prepared for the level of competition because we knew that P-P, Occidental, and Santa Cruz were the teams to look out for.” On the women’s side, CMS won the title with 39 points, with P-P trailing in second with 93. The Athenas gained a comfortable lead by having five of their runners finish in the top 15. Natalie Marsh SC ’19 led the way for CMS, finishing in fifth place with a time of 22:26.9. Malea Martin CM
’19 and Abby Johnson SC ’21 followed, clocking in at 22:26.9 and 22:33.3, good enough for sixth and eighth place. “Going into the meet, our goal as a team was to place first,” Martin said. “But perhaps more important than that, our goal was to each individually run to the best of our abilities and to practice racing in colder conditions than we usually do in preparation for the nationals.” P-P’s Helen Guo PO ’20 won the race individually, finishing in 21:48.5, and was followed 30 seconds later by Lila Cardillo PO ’22, who placed third. The team hopes to learn from their race and carry their energy into nationals. “This week, we’re cutting back on mileage and doing workouts that are keeping us in shape but not pushing us, so we’re well rested going into Nationals,” Cardillo said. “Last week helped us recognize that we are a capable team and we deserve to be going to Nationals, which helped because we are a very young team.” All four P-P and CMS teams will travel to Nationals in Oshkosh, Wisconsin Nov. 17.
CMS Athlete of the Week Men’s Water Polo Zach Rossman CM ’20 San Clemente, CA Rossman was the Stags’ top performer in a 9-6 loss to the Sagehens last weekend, as he had a hand in four of CMS’ six goals with two scores and two assists. The junior attacker has played well all season, leading the Stags in goals with 42 and is second in assists with 21. Rossman earned a spot on the All-SCIAC First Team for the second straight year, and will look to lead the Stags through the conference tournament this weekend.