Vol. CXXIX, No. 8

Presenting the 2017 joke issue insert.

Pages 7-10

Four pages of comedy in a dark, humorless world. Only in print.

THE

STUDENT

LIFE

The Student Newspaper of the Claremont Colleges Since 1889

CLAREMONT, CA

FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2017

VOL. CXXIX NO. 8

In Wake of Wabash Report, Mudd Students Demand Immediate Action Kellen Browning

Liam Brooks • The Student Life

A demonstration led by Black Lives and Allies at Harvey Mudd College takes place outside Shanahan Center on Thursday, March 30.

Q&A: NPR’s Guy Raz to Speak at PZ Commencement Amanda Larson Pitzer College announced Thursday that acclaimed National Public Radio journalist Guy Raz will be the commencement speaker for the class of 2017. Raz is currently the host and editorial director for TED Radio Hour, a co-production of TED and NPR, and has worked at NPR for 20 years. Pitzer Senior Class President Chance Kawar PZ ’17 said of Raz, “he has embraced values such as intercultural understanding and interdisciplinary learning throughout his career by creating the kind of thought-provoking content for which [NPR] is well-known and beloved.” Raz will donate the financial compensation recieved from Pitzer to TheDream.US Foundation, which helps undocumented students obtain scholarships to college. Raz talked about his life and why TheDream.US is significant to him in a Q&A with TSL. TSL: How has your journalistic experience informed your perspective of the world that Pitzer students are graduating into, and how do you see that impacting the advice that you have for them? Guy Raz: As a war reporter and a foreign and domestic correspondent for NPR and CNN, I have been fortunate enough to see the worst of humanity and the best. I have seen genuine kindness and generosity in hostile war zones and cruelty and selfishness in the most comfortable and prosperous places... Humans have behaved — more or less — in the same way since we began to spread out across the globe 50,000 years ago. The only difference today is we have created laws and norms that are designed to moderate our behavior. The path we choose as a species always depends on the stakeholders in charge... The question for Pitzer graduates is what kind of

stakeholders do they want to be? TSL: Why have you chosen to donate your keynote speaker award to the Dream.US foundation? What significance does this foundation hold for you? GR: I’m the child of immigrants. Though my parents’ arrival here as students was not fraught nor did it involve fleeing from war or violence, it wasn’t easy. Still, I’m inspired by their story. Immigrants are good for America. Diversity is good for America... TheDream.US provides crucial resources for firstgeneration Americans to attend college. It allows Dreamers and others who do not have the same privileges and opportunities as native-born Americans to attend college and make an impact on their community and country. TSL: What, in your eyes, is the purpose of a commencement address? GR: I’m not here to lay out a template on what a meaningful and fulfilled life is all about. I’m not here to say, ‘hey, follow what I do and you’ll be great!’ but rather to say, ‘you are the source of your own happiness, wisdom and values. You will not find the answers in a guru or wise man/ woman or a public radio host! You will find those answers inside of you as you start to embark on your journey.’ TSL: Why did you want to speak at Pitzer? Why are you excited about it? GR: I’m super excited about coming to Pitzer because Pitzer is a community that values social justice, diversity, an exchange of ideas, and kindness. To me, the most powerful form of resistance and disruption an individual can assert is by being kind. Kindness is resistance in an unkind world.

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More than 300 Harvey Mudd College students, faculty, and staff convened in the Platt Center Wednesday evening for a twohour meeting about an external report — recently obtained and released by TSL — that advocates changes to HMC’s demanding curriculum and includes critical comments from anonymous students and faculty members. In a conversation that ranged from serious to emotional to combative, students, mostly speaking anonymously, aired their grievances and called on the administration to address perceived problems at HMC: a crushing workload, faculty members’ inappropriate comments, a lack of support for women and minorities, and a lack of funding for mental health programs. Many students shared personal anecdotes about times they had been forced to give up hobbies, extracurriculars, and even essential activities like eating and sleeping to concentrate on a mounting pile of work. “I think our objective in the long term really needs to be the balance of being able to do a problem set and also have time to play an instrument or (read) a

book,” one student said. Students condemned sexist, racist, and otherwise inappropriate comments made by faculty; many students demanded that problematic faculty members be dealt with more strictly by the administration, and even called for public denunciation of those professors. One student summed it up: Inappropriate faculty members should “get with it or get lost.” President Maria Klawe, while being peppered with questions from the audience, defended HMC’s track record of dealing with misconduct reports. Klawe said that although students are not privy to private conversations regarding these types of incidents, they do occur. “Humiliating someone (publicly) … is not a positive move forward,” she said, citing research studies. “It might make you feel better, but it’s not actually the best way to change (behavior). “Particularly in personnel issues, there are privacy issues,” Klawe elaborated to TSL after the meeting. “And so there are genuine limitations on how much transparency there can be, and for good reasons. But insofar as transparency as something we

See MUDD page 2

PZ’s Oliver Inaugurated First Black President at 5Cs Julie Tran Pitzer College President Melvin Oliver was officially inaugurated on March 25, making him Pitzer College’s sixth president and the first African American president of the Claremont Colleges. The inauguration began with Interim Dean of Faculty Nigel Boyle welcoming 5C staff, faculty, and students, along with guests such as university professors and presidents from across the country and across the globe, and Oliver’s former students and colleagues. Shahan Soghikian, chair of the Pitzer Board of Trustees and presidential transition committee, was the first to speak about Oliver. He had worked with the president to develop and organize meetings and events, familiarized him with Pitzer College’s mission, priorities, and community, and helped organize the inauguration. “As [the Board of Trustees]

See OLIVER page 3

Pitzer College President Melvin Oliver speaks at his inauguration on March 24, 2017.

MSNBC’S Chris Hayes Tackles Criminal Justice in Scripps Talk Marc Rod Chris Hayes, host of MSNBC’s “All in with Chris Hayes” primetime political talk show, spoke with Scripps College politics professor Vanessa Tyson about his newlypublished book, “A Colony in a Nation,” on Monday at an event at Garrison Theatre. “A Colony in a Nation” details the ways in which policing differs across the United States. Hayes characterizes poorer neighborhoods, frequently occupied by people of color who experience particularly harsh policing, as colonies within the country, with the police acting as an occupying army. “[In] part of this country, law

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enforcement and the law and criminal justice function the way an operating system does on your laptop. It hums in the background,” Hayes said during the event. “In the colony, which [consists of] precincts, largely people of color, but not exclusively, law enforcement functions like a computer virus. ... It intrudes constantly, it disrupts constantly.” Scripps brought Hayes to campus to share his unique perspective on race relations in the United States. “As a long-time journalist, who spent time on the ground reporting from Ferguson, [Hayes’] per-

See HAYES page 3

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Mentorship Program Connects Indigenous PZ, VIU Students Bethany Humphrey In a recent trip to Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Pitzer college students and staff participated in a mentorship program that emphasizes cultural exchange between Indigenous and First Nations students. The mentorship exchange program, which is part of a budding relationship between Pitzer and Vancouver Island University, aims to share cultural knowledge and foster community connection between native students at both institutions. Participants from Pitzer came from a variety of backgrounds, but several had previous experience connecting

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with native cultures in Vancouver Island and Southern California. The program was made possible by collaboration between Vancouver Island University’s Office of Aboriginal Education and Engagement, staff of Pitzer’s Native Youth to College program, and students from both schools. Pitzer’s group, which consisted of seven students and four staff, had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the inner workings of Vancouver Island University’s Elders-in-Residence program, as well as the ‘Su’luqw’a’ Community Cousins program. Both programs aim to connect First Nations youth to their heritage

See EXCHANGE page 2 NEWS................................1 LIFE & STYLE.....................4 OPINIONS......................11 SPORTS...........................12

NEWS PAGE 2

MARCH 31, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

Former State Superintendent Discusses Bid for California Governor

Tom Torlakson • The Student Life

Gubernatorial Candidate Delaine Eastin, who visited Pomona College on March 27, is endorsing Tom Torlakson for State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Natalie MacDonald Delaine Eastin, former California State Superintendent and a candidate for California Governor, delivered a talk at Pomona College on March 27. Her campaign slogan well represents the thrust of her speech: “Budgets are statements of values. We can do better.” Eastin specifically focused on the importance of reinvesting in public education. “We became who we are as a nation, as a state, because of education,” Eastin said during her talk. “[As governor,] I’m going to fight for children and their education, from preschool to grad school.” Nine percent of California’s budget is devoted to corrections and rehabilitation, and only three percent more is allocated to higher education. Eastin called this “disgraceful.” Eastin, who served as State Superintendent from 1995 to 2003, was invited to campus by Young Progressives Demanding Action, a 5C group that is “fighting for justice at the local, state, and congressional level,” according

EXCHANGE: Students Hope to Increase Respect for First Nations on Campus Continued from Page 1 and strengthen native communities at VIU. Group members participated in local cultural events and activities with their hosts, including the Blanket Exercise, which leads participants through 500 years of Indigenous history. According to a press release by VIU, the guests also visited a traditional Snuneymuxw First Nation territory, and attended a presentation about how First Nations protocol is observed at VIU. The visit was a transformative and eye-opening experience for participants from both schools. Pitzer students said they were particularly inspired by VIU’s seamless incorporation of respect for First Nations cultures into their academic environment. “Native people of the land were able to be a part of those institutions and benefit from those institutions,” Phil Brayley PZ ‘19 said. Brayley was impressed by how well Canada respects and recognizes First Nations communities, and hopes to integrate those attitudes of respect into life at Pitzer. The Pitzer students are hoping to increase awareness of Indigenous presence and culture on campus through a variety of tactics, including incorporating native art into campus murals and establishing a Talking Circle on campus. Overall, students are “trying to create ways to make Pitzer more accessible for native students, especially in Southern California,” Dana Nothnagel PZ ’19 said. “There are a lot of opportunities here at Pitzer that are new, only just starting, and hopefully learning from the people that we met in Canada, we will be able to use that potential to the best of our ability.” The students’ initiatives will be supported by continued collaboration between the schools. Pitzer is hoping to implement parts of VIU’s Elders-in-Residence program, and VIU is hoping to establish their version of the Native Youth to College program. Enthusiasm for the visit was reciprocated by students at VIU. “The relationship happened so

organically,” said Troy Barnes, a fourth-year student at VIU. “We are all student leaders and mentors on campus, so that made it easy.” The Pitzer group is “another new family that’s been added to our family,” Sylvia Scow, VIU’s aboriginal projects coordinator, said. Scow added that the exchange program was “a great opportunity” for VIU students to step up as mentors. Scott Scoggins PZ ’09, director of Pitzer’s Native Youth to College program, believes that engaging Indigenous students with their native culture is crucial to their success. The Native Youth to College program, whose motto is “tradition for life, education for the future,” works to ground high school students in their cultural backgrounds while giving them the tools to succeed in higher education. Scoggins himself said that he was “inspired, rejuvenated, and motivated” by the trip to VIU, and plans to implement elements of VIU’s Elders-in-Residence program and the Indigenous Portfolio. He believes that cultural exchange and mentorship programs like these are crucial first steps for “creating spaces [on campus] for people of color, particularly Indigenous people, whose needs are tied to land.” Scoggins is observing a greater campus-wide interest in native and Indigenous cultures, and is excited to see more people engaging with the issues of recognition and inclusion for Indigenous students and elders at the Claremont Colleges. He believes that this increase in dialogue will stand as the foundation for change and pave the way for future improvements and an increased Indigenous presence on campus. Pitzer students and staff will also be paddling as part of VIU’s canoe in this summer ’s Tribal Journeys, a canoe journey that visits First Nations communities each year. There are plans for future collaboration between the two institutions, including the possibility of a semester-long exchange program.

to their Facebook page. Although YPDA has not endorsed Eastin, the group thinks her platform reflects their values, according to member Ian Schiffer PO ‘17. “Education should be at the forefront of politicians’ verbiage and actions,” Schiffer said. Yolanda Varela Gonzalez, a Pomona Unified School District teacher, introduced Eastin, whom she called an “education warrior” in the face of an “overwhelming attack on public education.” Varela Gonzalez alluded to other gubernatorial candidates as having “cozied up” to privatized education. Eastin is committed to universal preschool, class-size reduction, career and technical education, and affordable college tuition. As Superintendent, she reduced K-3 class size and formed the first State Department of Education LGBT Task Force “to foster safer and more welcoming school environments for LGBT students at all grade levels.” In addition to education reform, Eastin shared her dedication to creating affordable housing, investing in public transportation, and protecting the environment. She

alluded to the “thuggery” of President Trump’s administration, and called for the state to “lock arms to protect all of California’s people.” Eastin’s talk was well received by the audience. “A lot of points resonated with me, and were reassuring,” Natalie Casey PO ’17 said. “I was glad to hear a politician talking about education and the school-to-prison pipeline, versus just hearing about them in class.” YPDA member Kamil Lungu PO ’20, who helped organize the event, hoped students walked away from Eastin’s talk trusting that “we can fix the systems we have in place. With hope, hard work and education,” he said, “we can make change.” Seven candidates have announced that they will run for Governor in the November 2018 election. At this point, Eastin is the only woman in the race. She hopes that students will form the “backbone of her campaign.” “I’m fighting to bring this state alive again,” Eastin said, “for the future, for our children, for our grandchildren.”

MUDD: Administrators Respond to Student Outrage Continued from Page 1

can do and make it effective, yes, I think we’re all committed to that.” Students continually shouted out their desires for immediate change and an action plan, but Dean of the Faculty Jeff Groves stressed that curricular changes have to be voted on by all faculty members and can take time. “I don’t think we want an institute where there is top-down government where … somebody says ‘this is the way it’s going to be,’” Groves said. Individually, however, he pledged to entreat HMC committees to think about what can be done in the short term regarding workload concerns and crosscourse management. “I will work over the next week to start discussions about how we do curricular management better,” he said. Students also pressed Klawe to provide more funding for mental health, and Dean of Health and Wellness Qutayba Abdullatif lamented a lack of staff and money in his department. “I see students in my office that are broken,” he said. Abdullatif acknowledged that

the Office of Health and Wellness has been growing and receiving more funding, but “still we to date suffer every year to make things happen.” Klawe emphasized her support for mental health, and told TSL after the meeting that she would prefer to see additional funding go toward 5C programs like Monsour Counseling and Psychological Services. “I think it’s more cost-effective to share services with the other colleges,” she said. “We actually spend, I think, more on student health in terms of what we have on campus than any of the other colleges, and we did that … because we weren’t getting the students to go to MCAPS. But now we have more students going (there).” Forest Kobayashi HM ’20 thought the forum, while disruptive at times, was a productive start to addressing workload concerns. He thinks the combative student behavior at the meeting wasn’t necessarily “the nice thing to do or the most reasonable, calm, kind of detached thing to do,” but believes “it does give the best option of effecting substantive change.” Radon Rosborough HM ’20 thought the meeting was co-opted by a few students with similar per-

Meghan Joyce • The Student Life

Harvey Mudd College students and faculty gathered in the Platt living room to discuss their thoughts about recently leaked documents on March 29.

spectives, but understands the need for wholesale curricular change. “I really don’t think it’s acceptable for the curriculum to be inflexible to the point where if you don’t have all the right tools then you can’t manage it,” Rosborough said. “If some people can’t handle it and there’s no other option for them, that’s not acceptable.” The community forum comes on the heels of growing student uproar over the results of the leaked report. On Monday, a group of HMC students calling themselves mad scientists left hundreds of papers with quotes from the report around campus, including outside the physics department and in front of Klawe’s house. “The attitudes students expressed in (the report) legitimized feelings that we (the mad scientists) have all felt during our time at this school,” the students explained in an email to other HMC students. “The mad scientists wanted to target the faculty with a demonstration, because all faculty are implicated in not sharing the document sooner.” On Tuesday, HMC’s student diversity groups responded to the report in an email and issued their demands to faculty: student

involvement in the process of revising HMC’s curriculum, increased transparency, a method for “addressing prejudice by the faculty against marginalized students,” and involving the Office of Institutional Diversity in the hiring of new faculty members. On Thursday, African American students led a walk-out and rally of nearly 100 through the Shanahan Center, chanting “Harvey M-Udouble-D. Fire racist faculty!” Afterwards, during a series of speeches decrying “marginalized students’ negative experiences” at HMC, according to the event’s Facebook page, Jordan HowardJennings HM ’19 fired up the crowd. “I’m tired of having to spend days and weeks and months putting in more time and effort into providing my free labor towards making this toxic campus a better place and not seeing any results,” Howard-Jennings said through a megaphone. “Instead of receiving the institutional support and restructuring of the institution they need in order to succeed, marginalized students struggle with self-doubt, mental health issues and declined academic performance,” he added.

Alexander Landau • The Student Life

Student quotes from the Wabash Report, published in full by TSL last week, cover Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe’s driveway as part of an art installation created by Mad Scientists (@angeryscientists) on March 27.

NEWS MARCH 31, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

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5Cs Present Accomplished, Diverse Lineup of 2017 Commencement Speakers

Pomona College has announced Sen. Brian Schatz (DHawaii) as the keynote speaker for 2017 commencement this past week in a press release on the college’s website. Schatz PO ‘94 is the first Pomona alumnus to become a member of the United States Senate. “Senator Schatz has dedi-

cated his career to public service, non-profit leadership, climate change action, and environmental legislation,” executive assistant to the president of Pomona Stephanie Navarro wrote to in an email to TSL. “He is also recognized as a rising progressive leader in the United States Senate.” Navarro spoke to Schatz’s history advocating for the prevention of climate change, a topic raised in the senator ’s visit to Pomona last year. “Pomona College wrestles with environmental problems as a community, and is dedicated to living and teaching sustainable philosophies and practices,” she said. “When Senator Schatz visited campus in April 2016, he told his audience that climate change is the issue of this generation, and urged them to take action, in whatever form that is, to fix our

planet.” Schatz’s selection has been received positively by the Pomona community, who are familiar with Schatz and his work. Tommy Erb PO ’18 said Schatz’s work sets an example for Pomona graduates. “Senator Schatz is an outspoken and progressive leader in the United States Senate,” Erb. “He represents the best of Pomona College and will be a perfect farewell to the impressive class of 2017.”

Claremont McKenna College announced last week that Wes Moore will deliver the school’s 2017 commencement keynote address. The school’s 70th commencement is scheduled for Saturday, May 13. Wes Moore is the CEO of BridgeEdU, a national initiative focused on closing gaps in college completion and career opportunities. He is also a decorated Army combat veteran,

Rhodes Scholar, best-selling author, and holds a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. Moore has directed a PBS documentary and is a host of “Beyond Belief,” a show on the Oprah network. Student representatives from CMC were pleased with the announcement. “Beyond his exceptional accomplishments, Mr. Moore connects purpose and meaning with how we face and overcome our challenges,” CMC Senior Class President Cole Mora ’17 wrote in an email to TSL. “I cannot thank my classmates enough for their help with this process, and we cannot wait to have him join us for commencement.” CMC President Hiram Chodosh is also enthused by Moore’s selection. “Wes Moore’s story moves us to serve others,” Chodosh wrote in an email to TSL. “His journey — from Baltimore to Oxford, from Afghanistan to advocacy for vets,

from his own academic achievements to building bridges of opportunity for others — cuts an exemplary, inspiring path for our outstanding graduates and our entire CMC community.” Chodosh also thinks Moore’s ideals are a good fit for CMC. “We sought a commencement speaker who would inspire our graduates and community,” he wrote. “Wes Moore struck powerful themes through his own inspiring story and the stories he tells: the power of education, the courage of his combat experience, his creativity as an innovator, and his achievements as an author. These are themes that speak to our CMC history and mission and the values of the class of 2017.”

- Amanda Larson

- Jack Carroll

HAYES: Anchor Reflects on Experience Covering Protests, Trump Administration Continued from Page 1 spective on how race is impacting communities is unique,” director of public events and community programs Corrina Lesser wrote in an email to TSL. “It’s also part of a larger conversation that we’ve been having at Scripps and the Claremont consortium about one of the most important issues in our country today.” Hayes’ book was inspired partly by interviews with citizens and police officers he conducted while reporting on the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting of Michael Brown, and in Baltimore, Maryland, over Freddie Gray’s death in police custody. “I was amazed by the level of rage and humiliation that black residents of Ferguson felt,” Hayes said. “Every single black resident of Ferguson I spoke to had a story, multiple stories about being harassed, humiliated” by police. According to Hayes, the colony developed because, at every level, the criminal justice system has shifted from upholding the law to maintaining order. “What we want, all of us, is safety and security,” Hayes said. “That’s a distinct thing from order. Order is a certain kind of way in which things are in their place ... What we get is

this machinery of enforcement … in which the job of the police officer isn’t so much enforcing the law, but enforcing order.” Hayes said police officers are illequipped and ill-trained to handle many of the disturbances to which they regularly respond. “The same people that we put guns in the holsters of, who are there to get the bad guys, are doing things that, in another context, we can essentially imagine as care work, particularly in the context of mental illness and addiction,” Hayes said. “That’s not what they are professionally trained for.” Tyson wrote in an email to TSL that some of Hayes’ most important insights in “A Colony in a Nation” relate to the impact of white fear on society. “He ties in empirical evidence and in-depth interviews to make a case that white fear — which manifests in various forms — truly drives racial inequality in contemporary U.S. society,” Tyson wrote. Hayes also covered topics at the core of the colony, including white fear and white threat, and their role in modern American politics. “A Trump rally is a quite sophisticated, finely-honed machine of invoking [white fear],” Hayes said. “He is a demagogue, particularly in those environments, but they have

something in them that’s already potent,” which Trump capitalized upon through collaborative “call and response” tactics. According to Hayes, while the Trump administration will bring additional challenges to the colony, it has limited power to change the enforcement of law. “Everything about [Trump’s] rhetoric and politics points towards a more punishing, occupying force. That said, the administration of the colony … is not really done by the president. It’s done by thousands of different municipalities,” Hayes said in an interview with TSL. The Trump administration has also brought new challenges for Hayes as a journalist. “I’ve never worked harder than I have in the last 60 days. It requires a huge amount of attention. The sheer amount to consume and synthesize has grown,” Hayes said. “The Trump administration eats up the news cycle every day.” Hayes has attempted to address these challenges by focusing primarily on the most important stories from the Trump administration. “There are more and less substantive stories about him, and I think one of the things we’ve been trying to focus on is which of these stories are more substantive,” Hayes said.

Pitzer College announced Thursday that acclaimed National Public Radio journalist Guy Raz will be the commencement speaker for the class of 2017. Raz is currently the host and editorial director for TED Radio Hour, a coproduction of TED and NPR, and has worked at NPR for 20 years. “Guy Raz is an incredible journalist and radio host who has spent his career keeping the public informed and engaged by covering critical issues across the world,” Pitzer Senior Class President Chance Kawar PZ ’17 said. “He has embraced values such as intercultural understanding

and interdisciplinary learning throughout his career by creating the kind of thought-provoking content for which National Public Radio is well-known and beloved.” Pitzer keynote speakers are usually given some kind of financial reward, which Raz has decided to donate to TheDream. US Foundation, which helps undocumented students obtain scholarships to college. “The fact that Mr. Raz has pledged to donate his honorarium money to support undocumented students demonstrates his commitment to an issue

Richard Tapia, an acclaimed mathematician and advocate for marginalized students in the sciences, will give the keynote address at Harvey Mudd College’s 59th commencement ceremony on May 14, according to a press release from the college. Tapia teaches at Rice University, where he is the director of the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education, which aims “to empower motivated, academically successful, underrepresented students, who are passionate about their education” by “open[ing] Rice University and higher educational experiences to emerging scholars

deserving of academic opportunity,” according to a statement on its website. A son of Mexican immigrants, Tapia attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and was the first person in his family to go to college. He has directed or co-directed more underrepresented minority and women Ph.D. students in STEM fields than any other advisor in the United States. His work on diversity has garnered him numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science. Tapia is also known for his groundbreaking research on

Reshma Saujani, the CEO of non-profit organization Girls Who Code, will be the 2017 Scripps College commencement speaker. “Historically, Scripps has not had many women of color give the commencement address, and our class voiced their desire to hear from someone coming from a marginalized background,” Senior Class Representative Meghan McIntyre SC ’17 wrote. McIntyre emphasized how Reshma Saujani embodies Scripps’s values through her lifelong commitment to activism.

“Reshma has a tremendous track record with promoting gender equity,” she wrote. “The first Indian American woman to run for Congress, Reshma has repeatedly demonstrated her courage to take risks and challenge the world that she lives in.” TSL previously wrote about Saujani and how she was selected by Scripps: http://tsl. news/news/6512/

which Pitzer students care deeply about,” Kawar said. -Amanda Larson

mathematical optimization techniques. -Samuel Breslow

-Kellen Browning

OLIVER: New Pitzer President Has Helped Students Confront ‘Systematic Inequalities’ Continued from Page 1 worked with Dr. Oliver, we have come to know him as a man of patience, empathy, courage, discipline, thoughtfulness, vision, and understanding,” Soghikian said. “Dr. Oliver comes to Pitzer College armed with a full quiver and arsenal of professional experiences tailor-made for the challenges and opportunities we face on campus and on the national stage.” Oliver ’s former colleague, University of California, Santa Barbara Chancellor Henry Yang, spoke about Oliver ’s unrelenting academic leadership as UCSB dean of social sciences and the executive dean of UCSB’s College of Letters and Science. “He reshaped and enhanced the academic profile of social sciences on campus during his 12 years,” Yang said. Yang also talked about Oliver ’s commitment to social justice, specifically regarding racial and economic inequality. “Pitzer College was born from a commitment to improve the world, to put liberal arts to the grand purpose of address-

ing challenges in the human condition,” Claremont McKenna College President Hiram Chodosh said. “And today, Pitzer College inaugurates a great president, an inspiring leader who personifies the college’s institutional commitments as well as those of the Claremont Colleges as a group.” Janelle Wong, director of Asian American Studies at the University of Maryland, was mentored by Oliver when he was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “President Oliver has dedicated himself to equipping undergraduates with the research skills and critical intellectual approach necessary to devote their own lives to confronting systematic inequalities in their own ways,” Wong said. Erica Robinson PZ ’18, student representative for the presidential transition committee, told TSL that she hopes Oliver listens to marginalized students. “We need better institutional support, whether it is financial aid, diversity of faculty and staff, or accessible and culturally competent mental health services,” she said. Pitzer College vice president of communications, marketing,

and public relations Mark Bailey wrote in an email to TSL that Oliver’s past scholarship and leadership in areas of social inequality and diversity of ideas contribute to his ability to bring the community together in critical dialogues. “President Oliver has led efforts to update and educate the community about possible impacts of federal support of higher education, including likely impacts on financial aid, study abroad, support for qualified international students, and undocumented and DACA-mented students,” Bailey wrote. In an email to TSL, Oliver wrote: “Pitzer ’s strength lies in its commitment to multiple perspectives in the search for elusive truths, in its commitment to the sanctity of the individual and its belief in the interdependence of humanity. The college has been a trailblazer in developing academic programs — one of the first in the nation to offer environmental studies, and the first in the U.S. to provide secular studies. Pitzer has been proud to lead in areas of social and environmental change, even when it may not feel comfortable. But the world does eventually catch up.”

Correction The March 24 article, “PZ Students Receive Death Threats For Controversial Mural,” misspelled the name of Daily Caller editor Eric Owens.

TSL regrets this error. Alyssa Alfonso • The Student Life

MSNBC news commentator Chris Hayes discusses his book, “A Colony in a Nation,” and the role of police with Scripps College Professor Vanessa Tyson in Garrison Theater at Scripps on March 23.

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TV COLUMN

Rebooting Reboots: Reflections on my Failed Cinematic Prophecies Lauren Churchwell

Three years ago in high school, while hanging out in a cozy basement with two of my best friends, I decided to try to be a cinematic Nostradamus. Preaching the coming death and doom that was to befall us, I told my friends to look out at the far distant year of 2014, our first year of college — it was that year that I predicted would lead to a complete overhaul in the film industry. I looked out at all of the sequels, reboots, and everything that was going to be based on a popular young adult novel and decided that it all had to go to bust. All the years leading up to my prediction had become more and more blockbuster-heavy, and with the introduction of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into our lives, the epidemic was getting worse. However, I was wrong. 2014 came and went without the great cinematic ruination and the loss of billons upon billions of dollars. Instead, the world of cinema went chugging along even better than before. I was so wrong, in fact, that Hollywood Blockbusters proved to the public that they could be even more. And by that, I mean more everything. “Captain America: Winter Soldier” taught us that superhero movies could act as self-aware political commentary, “Guardians of the Galaxy” taught us that superhero movies could be hilarious, and a second “Amazing Spider-Man” movie taught us that the world wouldn’t need another Spider-Man reboot for the next twenty years. I guess what really upset me was that I had gotten it so wrong. Not only was the blockbuster phenomenon not over, but the blockbusters were becoming better (at least for that year ). The cycle now seems never-ending, one summer after another there is an onslaught of sequels, reboots, and remakes that are crammed into every weekend of the summer. Unless they really mess up, unless they are truly terrible, they never lose money. This summer alone, look at the lineup: “Guardians of the Galaxy 2,” ANOTHER SPIDER-MAN

REBOOT, “Wonder Woman,” the never-ending reign of the “Transformers” franchise that keeps sucking in more good actors until it takes over the world — and I cut five movies out of that list. Don’t you stop and wonder if we will run out of space? Won’t the blockbusters start to compete with each other to the point of billions, billions, and billions of dollars lost? Back when I made this prediction I couldn’t have even fathomed the other side of the coin, as I was optimistic about the future of Netflix and Amazon. “House of Cards” had literally just come out, no one knew that that or any show made by a streaming service could make a movie or — even more outlandish — produce its own films. With more people going TV-free, I’m now worried that the future of popular cinema is all blockbusters. Now, it would be ridiculous to say that the big movie studios and the theaters that service them will literally only show blockbusters. Hollywood is still going to keep making rom-coms and kids movies because those always make money, despite the fact that they aren’t given such loving attention. No, I am merely saying the thing we already see happening will get worse: more blockbusters and less of everything else, every summer until the end of the world, because markets like Netflix and Amazon are starting to pick up the slack. The indie markets and other genres are not dead. In fact, one could make the point that they are thriving more than ever, but for Hollywood cinema, the vast desert between the summer blockbuster season and the late fall/winter Oscar season is going to become more desiccated than ever. Studios will continue to duke it out between one superhero franchise and another, and there will be a great gnashing of teeth as darkness will cover the land. But don’t take my word for it; I’m already a once-wrong Nostradamus — I hope I’m even more wrong this time.

MARCH 31, 2017

Bottom Line Theatre’s “Sweet Things” Portrays Relationships Gone Sour

Courtesy of Rachel Tils

The cast and director of “Sweet Things.” Clockwise, from top left: John Flanagan PO ’19 (Thomas), Christine Covode PZ ’19 (Kitty), Jonathan Wilson PO ’19 (Logan), Suki White SC ’18 (Robin), Emma Silverman PO ’19 (Author/Dana), Rachel Tils PO ’19 (Director).

Samuel Breslow The student theatre group Bottom Line Theatre performed their latest work, “Swe e t Things,” to thre e overflowing crowds at Pomona College’s Seaver Theatre March 23-25. The play’s plot centers around the relationships among a group of friends who “tell lies that spiral out of control to preserve their social standing, hurting everyone around them in the process,” according to a program note by director Rachel Tils PO ’19.

Drama ensues as the characters struggle to stay afloat in an increasingly tumultuous sea of mistaken judgements, betrayed trust, and crumbling friendships. “I wanted to hint towards the way that gossip controls the narrative of our scattered reality,” wrote author Emma Silverman PO ’19 in a different program note. Audience reviews were overwhelmingly positive. “I was impressed by how Emma brought up multiple serious topics in a way that made me both think and laugh,” wrote Maddie Zug PO ’19 in a message

to TSL. “I thought the actors did an incredible job of bringing humor into small moments.” April Xiaoyi Xu PO ’18 concurred. “I am grateful that the College is offering the space, resources, and support for student work in theatre,” she wrote in a message to TSL. Silverman, along with cast members Christine Covode PZ ’19 and Suki White SC ’18, described the production process — which started after winter break — as an intense bonding experience. “The whole thing was so collaborative,” Covode said. “It felt

like we were all creating it together and I loved it.” Although Silverman and Tils told the audience before the play that it was meant to be taken lightheartedly, this did not stop them from exploring profound truths about the social world. “Comedy is the best way to hint at the nature of life,” Silverman said. “If you can learn to laugh at yourself and to laugh at your problems, then you’re going to have a better time coming to terms with them than if everything needs to be so dark and deep.”

MUSIC COLUMN

Femme & Queer Artists You Don’t Want to Miss

Schuyler Mitchell

Although great strides have been made in recent history, the music industry — both in mainstream and alternative circles — still struggles with a disappointing lack of diversity. Indie rock especially tends to be dominated by white male bands. I recently attended a La Luz show at The Glass House, and I left thinking about toxic masculinity in indie circles. While La Luz is an awesome all-female surf rock group, the opening band was a thoroughly mediocre group of middle-aged white men who very clearly never got over their dreams of being rockstars. They kept making jokes about drugs (We get it! You smoke weed!) and also created a handful of vaguely sexist and uncomfortable comments. I also noticed that once La Luz took the stage, they had to smile through an excess of objectifying remarks throughout their set that the opening band didn’t have to endure. I left the event feeling frustrated and very, very tired of white male indie rockers — both those on stage and those in the crowd. Just in time, however, KSPC kicked off its Femme & Queer Week. In the past, this week was called Week of Womyn, but it was rebranded this year to be more inclusive and to acknowledge the frequent intersections between gender and sexuality. From March 27 to March 31, KSPC DJs played music by femme and queer artists. The week will be coming to a close by the time this article is published, but if you missed out on tuning into KSPC, here’s my list of just a small handful of great femme and queer artists for you to check out: Mykki Blanco Mykki Blanco is a queer, gender-fluid hip hop artist whose experimental rap has been praised by critics. Although she’s been recording and performing for a while, her latest album, “Mykki,” has rocketed her into fame. While most songs on the album share the

Audrey Jang • The Student Life

same sparse instrumentation, they range from slow and moody to bass-heavy and grooving. Ibeyi Ibeyi is a duo of French-Cuban twin sisters. They sing in English, French, and Yoruba and their songs feature a mixture of Cuban beats and jazz. I’ve been following Ibeyi since their self-titled album was released in 2015 and I highly recommend giving them a listen. Shamir Shamir is a 22 year old genderqueer artist whose songs will make

you want to get up and dance. His music blends and bends the genres of pop, R&B, hip-hop, electronic, and ‘90s house. Le1f Le1f is a gay rapper whose songs feature not only banging beats but also politically charged lyrics. It’s hard to not dance and sing along with Le1f’s songs. He also spoke out against Macklemore’s 2013 song, “Same Love,” for ripping off the beat from his song, “Wut.” Le1f also pointed out via tweet:

“do proceeds go to any gay people? The HRSC? Aids foundation? Or does this straight white man keep the money?” in reference to Macklemore. If you care about LGBTQ rights, support queer artists, not straight artists who profit off of the struggles of the queer community. Mitski Mitski is a Japanese-American indie darling. Her songs are often dark and brooding, and when I listen to Mitski I often feel like I’m experiencing a personal exchange with an old friend. She’s perform-

ing at The Glass House on April 20, so if you give her a listen and like what you hear, join me at her show! THEESatisfaction THEESatisfaction is one of my new favorite groups, though unfortunately, they split up in 2016. Composed of two queer black women, Stas Irons and Cat Harris, THEESatisfaction is an R&B and hip-hop duo. They often sing and rap about issues regarding race, gender, and queerness, and their 2015 album, “EarthEE,” blends jazz with soul, R&B, and hip-hop

to take the listener on a beautiful cosmic journey. Although Femme & Queer Week is a time dedicated to highlighting femme and queer artists, KSPC always strives to play music by underrepresented artists and features different programming initiatives throughout the year, like Centering Black Voices in Media Week. You can listen on 88.7 FM or online at kspc.org, and if you like reading my music column, make sure to tune in to The Orbit with Skye every Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.

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Student Group Performs, Directs Oscar Wilde Play Shringi Diva Vikram Elegant cucumber finger-sandwiches, tall jugs of cold water, cutlery for a fancy meal, and butter in a tiny glass jars were presented to students, parents, and faculty scattered around white tables as carts of more food wove through them. As the last of the cucumbers and bread finished, the overhead lights dimmed and Claremont McKenna College’s Under the Lights theatre group took the stage for their opening performance of “The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People” at the Marion Miner Cook Athenaeum on Monday, March 27. Under the Lights is a studentrun acting group, with co-presidents Anoush Baghdassarian CM ’17 and Cassie Lewis CM ’17. Actors handled the light and sound, designed their costumes, and sourced set pieces such as the shiny sophisticated grey sofa which depicted the furniture of a fashionable London apartment, and the little tables that symbolized the gardens in the English countryside of the Victorian Era. “Sometimes I wish we had more people to help out,” Lewis said. “But you learn a lot more than just acting, and we manage with what we have and hopefully it comes together.” The audience in fact appreciated that the show was so heavily dependent on just the acting troupe. “I thought it was a pretty good production, overall, especially because it was student run,” said Brian Lina CM ’20. “It was uncomplicated on props and set up. But it made sense.” The play began with Jack Worthing, played by Evan Boyer CM ’19, telling Algernon, played by Victor Parnyarskiy CM ’20, that he is able to come up to London for fun from his home in the country because he needs to rescue his made-up and wicked brother Earnest from unfortunate scandals. Jack changes his name to Earnest

in the city. Algernon is a charming and unserious man who teases Jack by stealing his cigarette case and declares he is the only person in the room who can eat cucumber sandwiches made for his Aunt Lady Bracknell. Parnyarski’s Cheshire Cat grin and confidence on stage suit the character. Boyer’s character contrasts Algernon nicely. He’s serious, he dresses somberly, and even his face is utterly earnest. Many of the characters took themselves with seriously despite their comic qualities. Miss Prism, the governess that Jack employs to care for his young ward, presents herself as someone with prim morals. She is mortified when Jack later suggests that he may be the illegitimate child of Miss Prism. But her quavering voice, and fluttering steps became uncertainly flirtatious when Dr. Chausible, the rector of Jack’s country, played by Julien Chien CM ’17, arrives on stage. Chien’s bellowing rough voice, the over-eagerness in his body language and his tendency to draw out words when he declares that if he were Miss Prism’s student he would “hang upon her lips” and then clarifies that his words were “a metaphor … drawn from bees” command the stage. “Comedy doesn’t work unless the actor really, really, believes in the realness of it,” Lewis said. “There are times that something really dramatic or sad happens, but actually the scenario of it is very funny, and when the actor believes it’s sad, the audience finds it funnier.” Isabelle Rogers PO ‘20 appreciated the use of physical comedy. “Some of the speeches were a little jarring, but I thought that worked well,” Rogers said. The play quickly proceeds to Gwendolyn, played by Baghdassarian, pushing Jack on his knees, and showing him how to propose to her. Gwendolyn’s mother, Lady Bracknell, played by Anthony Sidhom CM ’17 dressed in a white

Romario Quijano• The Student Life

Namrata Dev CM ‘19, Micaela Ferguson CM ‘17, Julien Chien CM ‘17 perform “The Importance of Being Earnest” on March 27. wig, long dress and ludicrous little tasseled hat, waltzes up the stage, proceeds to interview Jack, and then tells him that she refuses to allow him to marry her daughter. Algernon then adopts the name Earnest and pretends to be the wicked younger brother. Jack’s ward Cecily, played by Micaela

Ferguson, informs him very seriously that in her imagination, she has been engaged with Earnest for months. The play then follows flustered Algernon and flustered Jack trying to officially change their name to Earnest, as both their new fiancés declare that they fell in love because of the name. The women

dump the men and the men eat muffins in repentance. Lady Bracknell descends on the scene, in her imposing high heels, finds out that Cecily has a rather large fortune, and makes her voice tender and appreciative. The play ends with Boyer, of the earnest face and earnest voice, declaring that

for the first time he has “realized the importance of being earnest.” The actors did mention that it wasn’t an easy process. “We’ve only had a week of practice, all being memorized,” Baghdassarian said. “We were very crunched for time. But it came together. We’re happy with it.”

Scripps Professor The Secret Sexism and Racism of Food TV Remaps Notions of Race in LA Suburbs

COOKING COLUMN

Jason Kim

The ironic part about writing this article is that I’m currently watching an episode of “Chopped,” with all its testosterone-fueled competition and dramatic commentary. The sole woman in this episode is portrayed as an underdog, while the men around her are frequently interviewed during the round for their plans, and the judges chime in on their chances. A half hour later, and “Pioneer Woman” comes on. Forget excitement and tension, now I’m watching a very tame cooking show hosted by an older white woman, on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. The dichotomy is striking and rather telling. While many people might be hooked on shows on Food Network and the Cooking channel, the reality is that very few of them realize that these channels and their programs help perpetuate a subtle form of sexism. Take, for example, the numerous competition shows such as “Chopped,” “Iron Chef,” and “Cutthroat Kitchen.” The hosts are almost always men, and a significant number of the judges are men as well. There’s an intensity to them that mirrors a sport game or a fight, an appeal to a largely masculine target audience. “Iron Chef,” for example, emulates a somewhat gladiatorial feel. Flashing lights, special effects, even fog and the occasional jets of flame, topped off with dramatic music and a theatrical entrance for the defending Iron Chef are indicative of this attempt to appeal. In addition, their time slots are usually during evening hours, when their intended audiences would typically be home from work. Meanwhile, domestic cooking shows such as “Barefoot Contessa,” “Martha,” and “Everyday Italian” are the complete opposite. Female hosts with soothing background music, very practiced smiles, and homes with décor that emulates the showroom of an Ikea are typical. Not to mention their time slots are during slow daytime hours, when their intended audiences of homemakers are busy tidying up the house and preparing dinner. Another worrying facet is that the vast majority of domestic cooking shows perpetuate a climate of heteronormativity. This is most blatantly evident in commentary by female hosts who say that they hope their husbands enjoy what they’re whipping up for dinner, shown step by step in

Riley Mang

Alexa Strabuk • The Student Life

rather sterile language and on a set with a serious lack of color. While networks such as the aforementioned Food Network and Cooking Channel are not blatantly racist or discriminatory, the unfortunate fact is that they still perpetuate a great deal of gender roles, the ideal of a heteronormative household and the woman as the homemaker, and the concrete divide between the target audiences of competition and domestic shows. I personally enjoy cooking and baking, and have been doing both since I was barely walking. There is a distinct lack of male hosts for domestic cooking shows. While I appreciate the presence of any domestic cooking shows to begin with, it does get dry and even a little irritating when the only interesting recipes I see on television on a given day are relayed to me by a very plastic-looking white woman with an unnaturally huge smile gushing about advice that is guaranteed to “please your man.” This divide between ‘normal’ cooking shows for men and women is noticeable enough that there are YouTube-based web shows that both blow up and mock the

differences. Case in point, “Epic Meal Time.” Hosted by Harley Morenstein and his friends, the drama and featured dishes have been cranked up to ridiculous levels; one famous episode is The Fast Food Lasagna, where, as the title suggests, the crew makes a lasagna comprised of fast food items, capping out at 71,488 calories and 5,463 grams of fat. Even the host has commented that part of the premise for “Epic Meal Time” was inspired by the “food porn” culture of the 2000s, and the rather mundane shows that air on television. Seriously, if I ever host a cooking show, it’s going to be half wisecracks and stand-up comedy, and half international cooking. Maybe I’ll call it “Subversive Eats with J-Kim.” (Brought to you in part by Pepto-Bismol and Mott’s® Natural Applesauce.) I’d also like to see ethnic cooking shows as well, while we’re on the topic of a lack of diversity. There is a noticeable lack of shows focused entirely on non-Western dishes, not to mention a lack of non-white hosts. In fact, if you go to the TV schedule for Food Network, almost every show, if not all of

them, for the next week are hosted by white hosts or only have casts of white individuals. While I’d always felt somewhat mystified while watching Food Network and the Cooking Channel as to why shows seemed to share too many characteristics, the racial homogeneity of hosts was actually surprising and a little shocking to me as I did some research. Unfortunately, much in the way that a large number of Hollywood stars are white and movies feature main stars who are mainly white, Food Network and the Cooking Channel are unlikely to change soon. Their target audiences are more often than not mainly white, heterosexual households. As pessimistic as it sounds, most likely things will remain this way unless these and other cooking networks are persuaded to look past mere profits, so as to be more inclusive. I only hope that one day, I can watch an Asian cooking show that never makes any mention of General Tso’s Chicken. Seriously, c’mon people.

One of the largest cities in the world, Los Angeles is seeped in a rich linguistic, economic, cultural, and ethnic diversity which sprawls throughout the city into L.A. county’s lesserknown suburbs. On Tuesday, March 28, at Scripps College’s Hampton Room, author, photographer, and assistant professor Wendy Cheng shared her research on historical and current experiences of residents in the whiteminority suburban communities of the San Gabriel Valley. Using maps, photos, and written testimonies, Cheng presented her understanding of a place often overshadowed or ignored. Cheng’s recent book “The Changs Next Door to the Diazes: Remapping Race in Suburban California” challenges the popular notion that American suburbs are predominantly populated by white, middle class families. The stories that Cheng shared from her book on Tuesday described the historical relationship between Asian American and Latinx communities that comprise the ethnic majority in the San Gabriel Valley (SGV) region, a cluster of cosmopolitan suburbs east of Los Angeles. “What we can learn about residents of the SGV,” Cheng said in her lecture, “is that some suburbs and peripheries are exactly where we should be looking for a new and vital expressions of culture and belonging.” Cheng provided several examples of SGV cultural expression in art, literature, music, and design that is rooted in local concerns and inspiration. South El Monte Arts Posse (SEMAP), for example, is an artist collective “dedicated to engaging with the South El Monte and El Monte community through the arts,” according to their mission statement. Their work includes site-specific public art and literature, both fiction and nonfiction, about lived experiences in the area. The collective aims to decentralize the resources and attention paid to cultural producers in L.A. by establishing networks of similar work being done outside the city.

“Through this work they [SEMAP] are populating what are treated as blank or in between spaces on the map with a multifaceted polycultural history and present that is attendant to power dynamics, race, and class,” Cheng said. Another local artist inspired by his upbringing in the SGV, Michael Jaime-Becerra, depicts resonant landscapes and narratives of the mundane characters and recognizable places of his community in his novels. “The work of literary and cultural producers and action are important because they reflect the cosmopolitanism of everyday experiences in suburban working class and predominantly people of color spaces,” said Cheng. “They’re not creating something that didn’t exist. They’re amplifying the interests and worldviews of people in places that are typically erased or ignored.” Yasmin Roberts SC ‘19 introduced Cheng on Tuesday as part of the Scripps Humanities Institute Junior Fellowship. After reading “The Changs Next Door to the Díazes,” Roberts was interested in learning more about the SGV community and the idea of multiracial, multicultural identities. In an interview, she reflected on the relationship between her experiences as a student in Claremont and the communities Cheng discussed. “The residents of the SGV challenge the suburban idea of majority white middle-class families and this is hard to find in other small suburbs such as Claremont, excluding the inland empire, Chino, etc,” Roberts said. “Overall, it is hard to compare the multiracial/multiethnic area of the SGV to Claremont and the 5Cs. Although I am a student in Claremont, I don’t really identify with the San Gabriel Valley Cheng was discussing based on the fact that I am originally from the diverse city of San Francisco rather than a suburb.” Being a student of the Claremont Colleges, it is easy to remain within a bubble that often separates academic spaces from the broader local contexts in which they function. Cheng’s presented research reminded the audience of some of the dynamic histories existing just beyond these ivory towers.

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MARCH 31, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

Student Designer Spotlight: Ellie Abrams PO’17 1271 photo Charlie Kolbrener This week, I sat down with Ellie Abrams PO ‘17, designer of bean.works. Ellie has been embroidering hats, jeans, and tees featuring her artwork. We discussed her fashion evolution with regard to femininity, sexuality, and self-expression. Check out @bean.works on instagram if you are interested in seeing more of her work! TSL: How did you become interested in fashion? Ellie Abrams: I think that up until college, the environment that I was in was very homogenous and all of the girls that I was around were — well, there was a predetermined way that I was supposed to dress as like a “straight hot girl.” First it was, “oh, we wear leggings as pants now.” And then the transition into wearing crop tops all the time — there was a lot of body showing off as we were going through puberty. I don’t know if I actively thought that there was a pressure to dress this way, but I know that American Apparel was like, the thing to strive for in terms of style. So I worked there summer after my senior year. And I thought that was really sick. Probably most of my wardrobe when I entered college was American Apparel. I think a big change happened freshman year when I realized I was queer. That was the time I started making different decisions in terms of fashion. I think that I was becoming more intrigued with the dyke aesthetic, and I started to pay attention to how typically feminine I wanted to look on a day to day basis. I’ve always felt feminine, so it’s never been a question of whether I feel like a woman. I guess it is just the way that I was feminine was starting to change. That was the end of freshman year. By sophomore and junior year I was trying to figure out what my expression of queerness would be, and navigating that was weird. I think sophomore year I ended up wearing the same outfit every day, which was a big sweater and jeans, and not really looking in the mirror that often because I was confused. Now I have aesthetics that I like to gravitate towards. But I think I still, to some extent, wake up and think, “How gay do I wanna look today?” or “how femme” or “how dykey” and that varies and I don’t think I’ll really settle on one specific thing. The clothing that I have can accommodate however feminine I’m feeling day to day.

TSL: What are your favorite brands? Who inspires you? EA: In college, I became friends with people who know more about fashion and know the types of brands that are obscenely expensive for a plain tee shirt. And I sort of have gotten a little swept up in that. So I definitely enjoy like bougie brands that sell really nice quality basics, like Steven Alan. But I’ve always tried to keep my eye out for brands like Everlane which are just selling really basic stuff at a nice normal price. I think that I really love people, whether they’re models or people who are famous on Instagram, that can just be wearing literally a tee shirt and jeans and sneakers and look so sick. And I’m so obsessed with it even though it’s the most simple outfit ever. I think that is when I am most happy and feel most “fashionable,” when I’m just wearing the simplest outfit but feeling good about each piece. For myself, whether I am feeling dykey or femme, I like to still

embrace my femininity while wearing something that doesn’t necessarily show off my boobs. So like ... Princess Nokia is like the epitome. And a lot of that is just the decisions she makes in terms of — she wears like boys clothing. But she still rocks her femininity and talks about it. Of course part of that is culturally not mine, and I recognize that, but she is definitely someone who I look towards. It is pure admiration and nothing that I am trying to dress as, but the aesthetic of embracing your inner little boy and having that still be sexy and not always made up or in a “high end” piece of women’s clothing. TSL: What is your creative process like for design/putting together outfits? EA: I think about how I wanna express myself in terms of femininity, or just what type of feminine am I feeling today. And my wardrobe I guess reflects that. In terms of bean.works, I think

Sociologist Discusses Ripple Effects of Social Gatherings On Monday, March 27, writer, sociologist, and ethnographer Alice Goffman, best known for her controversial book “On the Run,” delivered a lecture at Pomona College’s Hahn Hall about her current project, ‘Mapping the Fatefulness of Everyday Life’. Goffman opened the lecture with an anecdote about her own personal experience in her best friend’s wedding, aiming to validate her theory of fate and the impact of small events in daily life. It was at this event that she encountered an old acquaintance, whom she ended up dating a few weeks later. “The wedding became a pivotal event, an event that changed two acquaintances into a couple,” Goffman said. If her friend had chosen to have a private wedding, or she had not attended the event, her life would have remained the same. Goffman then moved on to talk about her sister’s wedding in Detroit. “My sister is from Philadelphia, so for her wedding, a lot of people came and stayed in Detroit for a few days.” Among those people was a childhood friend of her sister’s, who ultimately fell in love with the city and decided to move there within a year. “My sister’s wedding prompted her friend to relocate to Detroit. A social gathering had a big change in her everyday life,” Goffman said. It is these kinds of social gatherings that Goffman is interested in. “Weddings are stereotypical locations for fateful encounters, fights, etc,” she added. “If Hollywood has paid a lot of attention to the magic of weddings, sociology has not. In fact, for a long time,

we paid relatively little attention to social gatherings. There’s a sociology of marriage but not of weddings. A sociology of death, but not of funerals. Yet these occasions are important. They break the continuity of our mundane lives and offer people a chance for transformation.”

“

Throughout our lives, we experience historical events which are studied and analyzed, but we also experience smaller experiences which can have similar effects in changing the course of our lives.

“

Andrew Hernandez

Meghan Joyce • The Student Life

Student designer Ellie Abrams PO ‘17 models a denim hat featuring her own embroidered designs.

For the past few years, Goffman has been trying to systematically study the experiences that change the character and trajectory of people’s everyday lives. Her new project focuses specifically on three communities in Philadelphia: Italian, Jewish and African American communities of mixed income, trying to understand the importance of social gatherings and their rippling effects across different backgrounds. “Throughout our lives, we experience historical events which

are studied and analyzed, but we also experience smaller experiences which can have similar effects in changing the course of our lives. These are the events I am most interested in,” she said. Evie Bleach-Lawrence, a British exchange student at Pitzer College, was very excited to hear Goffman speak at Pomona. “To me, she is part of the royalty of the sociology field. Her work is very interesting, and her lecture made me reflect about a lot of aspects of my life,” she said. However, according to Goffman, social occasions can not only form bonds but break them. They can elicit moments of disrespect, strain, or stress. This usually affects minorities even more, as they are constantly exposed to micro-aggressions. “Sadly, these moments can stay with us for the rest of our lives,” she said. “Ultimately, social occasions are times that hold potential for consequentiality far more than others times in our daily lives.” Goffman finished her lecture with another anecdote, this time about a friend of hers who went on a road trip and met somebody training to become a teacher. A little while later, this friend decided to do the same. “Had it not been for the road trip, perhaps my friend would not be going into teaching at all,” Goffman said. In an interview with TSL, Goffman spoke about her drive to deliver the talk at Pomona, as she was hoping to encounter ideas that would help her with her next book. “The questions people asked were amazing, and I am very glad I was able to come here,” she said.

there are a lot of trends right now, like the “Future is Female” trend that is very pussy-centric — I think the stuff that gets the most publicity is “Feminist as Fuck” type of things. I’m still fiddling with my designs and finding out what I want bean.works to be, but I think most of it was inspired by the creative response to the feminist-centric-slogany fashion that’s on Instagram right now, like Frances Cannon and Sophia Salazar, and also just by getting custom orders from people who want hats or shirts. Most of the community I’ve been inspired by is through Instagram I think. They’re making a lot of body positivity stuff, but also queer-centric stuff that shows all types of female bodies. For me, the thing that I embroider the most is the naked female body, but I’ve been thinking more about what it means to only embroider a cis female body and a uterus. I think I am trying to do my research and learn from other people how to be a queer-

friendly, femme-appreciative type of brand. TSL: How would you describe your personal style? EA: I know that fashion is cyclical, so I definitely would think of photos of my mom from when she was younger. I love going into thrift stores and finding old stuff. Generally, it would be as basic as possible while making me still feel like I’m me. Tee shirts that are very plain but have some sort of meaning for me. And I think the embroidery helps to personalize things. My favorite pairs of jeans all have embroidery on them. Even if it’s tiny, it’s a fun little — I don’t know why it took me so long to discover embroidery. It’s a fun little process. TSL: What are your favorite pieces? EA: Every single one of my friends makes fun of me for this and I am currently mourning because it is lost, but my black zip up hoodie is truly my favorite

article of clothing. And no one understands it, and I don’t even understand it. But I think maybe it’s because if I’m wearing a tight little shirt and pants that my belly is showing and I’m feeling really hot or whatever, then I put on this hoodie and I feel more comfortable. It’s a loose thing that makes me feel more secure. I don’t know, I just love it so much and need to buy a new one because mine is gone. Other than that, I found this really sick white and gray and yellow tee shirt that I wear pretty often. And then my white jeans that say “change your narrative” on the back are probably one of my favorite things to wear. And just plain Everlane tee shirts with a pocket on them. And my favorite hat is probably the denim hand one. I got inspiration from Babeland, which is a really sick sex shop in New York. It’s the “G-spot hand” is what they call it. I just like that sex shop. Pretty good stuff.

PO Professor Explains Futuristic Model of Moscow Tarini Sipahimalani

Claremont professors and students gathered in Pomona College’s Lebus Court to hear Juliet Koss speak on her current research project “Model Moskvarium” on Monday, March 27. Vivien Shi PO ’19 welcomed Koss, an Art History professor at Scripps College specializing in 1890s European art, with a warm introduction. Koss’s first book, “Modernism After Wagner,” was published in 2010. “One senior who I know [is] using this book for her senior thesis [in art history and] says ‘this book is remarkable and extremely helpful,’” Shi said, earning a few giggles from her audience. She then welcomed Koss and her lecture, “Model Moskvarium.” “I agreed to present my work given I wasn’t the only faculty member present,” Koss said. “I’m looking forward to hearing others in this series.” Introducing an article in the Soviet newspaper “Pravda” in 1932, one of the only sources that gave a glimpse into the Moskvarium, she described the article writer Sergei Tret’iakov’s proposal for the construction of a building in Moscow that would contain a model depicting the past, present and future of the city, “something imagined of a planetarium but in reverse.” Tret’iakov named his design the ‘Moskvarium.’ She explicated Tret’iakov’s article, remarking on the “time travel the buildings and objects [within the Moskvarium] would allow one to take ... Unlike the space of a usual planetarium, you [would] look down from a balcony to a suspended Mos-

cow,” demonstrating “the ongoing development of Moscow and the Soviet Union.” “This is a Moskvarium, where you look down at an artificial Moscow. The new Moscow planetarium was an artistic, futuristic vision,” Koss said. The balcony would not only give individuals a bird’s eye view but also it would act as a time machine, transporting people across Moscow’s history and destiny, such as “the first line of the metro eating its way through the city,” a futuristic image that wouldn’t become a reality for another three years. She explained how models aren’t limited to architectural forms, but can also convey their emblematic purposes through other forms such as photography,

painting, sculpture and even writing. Just like Tret’iakov’s article wrote a proposal for the Moskvarium, that in itself could be considered a model. “The factographers wished to use photography and media to transform the world [to] present new perspectives,” she said. “To take a photograph, to write, to propose a building … they all invoke change.” Tret’iakov’s piece ended with an image of a church, which the Moskvarium could be repurposed into, suggesting, “the past could be repurposed into Moscow’s future.” Koss said. “In 1931, Tret’iakov wrote that the Moskvarium does not yet exist, but that his article acts as a proposal, a sketch” of what is to come, according to Koss.

Alexander Landau • The Student Life

Associate Professor of Art History Juliet Koss compares architectural models by Vladimir Tatlin and Boris Iofan at the “Model Moskvarium” talk on March 27.

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Village Restaurant Owners Torch Coop Fountain to Protest Spring Break Meals Hamm N. Cheez The remains of the Coop Fountain lie in a smoldering heap of rubble after an irate mob of Village restaurant owners set it on fire Tuesday to protest the Pomona College administration’s decision to offer free meals there to students on financial aid over the break. “We depend on the influx of student cash over spring break for our livelihoods; free meals at the Coop would’ve totally undermined that,” said Nancy Gottfried, president of the Claremont Restaurants Associated Proprietors (CRAP). “This was one step too far. We just had to act.” No one was injured, but preliminary reports estimated the property damage at $4.7 million, including $470,000 worth of boba stockpiles. Pomona released a statement calling the incident “regrettable” and urging CRAP to apologize. “While we understand their frustrations, we are firmly opposed to reckless acts of violence that endanger our students,” it read. When asked to comment on the statement, a representative of Eureka! Burger chased away our reporter with a pitchfork. Reaction on campus was varied. “If they think this is all it’ll take to get us to go to Yogurtland, they have fundamentally underestimated our resilience as a community,”

Claremont Independent Shuts the Fuck Up For Once Golden Rod

In a shocking development, the editors of the Claremont Independent on Sunday decided to keep their fucking mouths shut in response to a comment posted on Facebook. This unprecedented decision sent shockwaves through the Claremont community. “ U s u a l l y, w h e n e v e r someone posts something on social media that seems suspiciously leftist, my friends and I are mocking it within fifteen minutes,” said Chad Miller CM ‘20, an economics major who wears boat shoes and has his mother edit his papers before he hands them in. “But what am I supposed to do for entertainment when the Claremont Independent doesn’t post screenshots? Read?”

The provocative publication’s fans outside o f C l a re m o n t w e re , i f anything, even more distraught. “I was really looking forward to sending anonymous threats to Claremont snowflakes over the internet,” bemoaned Chet Brown, a self-identified “alt-right meninist” who has also been described as a neo-Nazi. “But since the CI decided to shut the fuck up for once, my toxic masculinity and racism have had no outlet.” Sources said writers of the Claremont Independent just hadn’t seen the provocative comment and would resume their harassment of Claremont students as soon as they logged onto Facebook.

said Sarah Applebaum PO ’17. Jamie Brookfield PO ’18 had a different take. “Serves them right for burning my grilled cheese sandwich last week,” he said. “Now that’s what I call karma.” Associate Professor of Economics Mark Aruffo was similarly unsympathetic. “There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and the Coop Fountain’s attempts to offer one fundamentally violated free market principles,” he said. “They should have seen this coming.” The protest was preceded by a failed $1.47 million lobbying campaign to persuade Pomona to abandon the meal plan. “The folks at zpizza tried to bribe me with a free Lamborghini, but I refused to surrender my integrity,” said Pomona College President David Oxtoby. “And I could really use a Lamborghini.” The Binational Association for Boba Enthusiasts (BABE) released a statement calling the incident “a tragic day for our community.” “We mourn the loss of every single boba ball that succumbed to the blaze, and our hearts go out to the students who have been deprived of the opportunity to enjoy them,” the statement read.

Melvin Oliver Invokes Arcane Powers, Becomes Lich Avery Staussen & Sean Ogami of obsidian and bone have erupted Pitzer College President and Storied Warlock Melvin “Lazarus” Oliver performed an arcane ritual, wreathed in eerie green fire and a-crackle with black lightning, in order to ascend to lichdom, as announced in a student-talk email sent out on March 29. In the email, Oliver described his transition into undead wizardom, which sees the exchange of his mortal soul for pure, mindrending magical potency, as “an exciting opportunity for the college and the Claremont community.” A prominent speaker at the ritual was Gnarled Vizier and partial dryad Nigel Boyle, whose right side is encompassed by swirling oaken bark that bleeds green light through ancient cracks. Boyle proffered his confidence in Oliver as President and Master of Hexes and Charmes. “Melvin is a kind, wise and dedicated man, and an unparalleled practitioner of the arcane arts. I look forward to seeing how Pitzer is transformed under him,” said Boyle. Such transformation is already underway: Oliver has implemented an alcohol task force in his short time here, and spires

from the ground as the sky above roils angry with thunderheads. An accomplished spellcaster in life, Oliver hopes to use his newfound power inherent in his undead lich form to foster student engagement and intercultural understanding. Elven seer Chance Alexander Kawar PZ ’17 called the ceremony a “mesmerizing display of the eldritch and the mystical, a controlled breach of powers unknown into our fragile realm,” and put forth his eagerness to continue working with the now spectral, skeletal Oliver who hovers a foot above the ground and wears a cloak of ragged pitch-dark shadow that paradoxically radiates a terrifying light. “I believe that, having exchanged his soul for uninhibited access to the magical conduit, Melvin will be more dedicated than ever to supporting Pitzer’s mission statement,” said Kawar. Kawar expressed particular excitement about the incoming class of risen, undead and necromantically conjured first year students, burst from the ground by the powerful sorcery of Oliver’s hand. Student Senate has already begun drafting a resolution expressing

support for the incoming class of animated husks, who will by nature make all Pitzer (un)living spaces LEED Platinum. Sustained by the puppetry of Oliver’s spells, the incoming class needs no food, drink, or even sensory input like electric lights because the surviving scraps of their minds are consumed day and night by memories of torments endured in life. In an interview with TSL, Oliver said he is “deeply honored” as well as “overflowing with unimaginable power.” “Pitzer is an institution full of optimism for the future, and I love that about it,” said Oliver. “The students here are passionate and and dedicated to fighting for what they care about, and the fabric of reality on campus is heavy with magicks that allow me to channel my inscrutable energies to their fullest.” Oliver concluded the interview by forming his hand into an upturned claw, with which he extracted the life energy of TSL reporter Avery Staussen PO ’20

through deep purple tendrils of light that lurched from their eyes and sternum, feeding into Oliver’s fleshless fingertips. Staussen is survived by their family and editor Sean Ogami PZ ’19, who contributed and concluded reporting, but is haunted by Staussen’s spectre nightly.

Scripps Offers Free Contraceptives to Campus Squirrels deez nutts fan #001 Amidst outcry from the student body, Scripps College President Lara Tiedens formally announced that she would begin negotiations with the Dean of Students Office to subsidize birth control and contraception for the campus squirrel population. “These squirrels are truly part of the Scripps community,” said SAS president Hazel Nutton SC ‘24. “The Trump administration’s massive cuts to reproductive healthcare is impacting us all, but we are committed to standing by the most vulnerable members of our society.” The petition students submitted to Tiedens calls for the administration to purchase contraceptives and provide then in the Student Union vending machine at subsidized prices. Nuts and seeds will be accepted payment. Tiedens’ email to the student body states that her office is committed to providing all campus inhabitants with affordable health services. “Frankly we were facing a full revolt,” Teidens said. “And

it wasn’t just the white feminists that don’t know of any way to be socially active other than to ‘Stand with Planned Parenthood.’ The squirrel population has gotten out of hand — they’ve built nests in the Toll Browsing Room and run amuck at Wednesday Tea. We had

no choice but to side with their demands.” Nutton agreed. “Although I am committed to supporting all fellow Scrippsies, the squirrel faction has grown too radical for my white sensibility,” she said. Lead organizer Trashy Squir-

rel, who is known to frequent the dumpster behind the Frankel/Routt complex told TSL in an interview: “Krffff cckkrrrhhff kkkkffhffffff.” FUCC YOU UC DAVIS

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FEBRUARY 31, 2017

Not Terrible: “The Terrible Incident” Does Justice to Obscure Fantasy Saga Dale Cooper

Like many hardcore fans, I was skeptical about “The Terrible Incident” being adapted for the screen. Having grown up reading about Mieczkowski’s trials through the Netherzone, I was more than doubtful that any movie would do it justice. How could the 30-part epic, featuring complex plot diagrams and sandwich recipes, ever translate into a digestible, even cohesive experience for moviegoers? Leaving the theatre three hours later, though, I was satisfied. Not entirely impressed, but not disappointed. All in all, the movie did it justice. “The Terrible Incident”, draws from the “X-Tower Prime” series, written by Serbo-Croatian novelist Aleksandar Bratislav, also known for his collection of curated tweets, “Jeff the Mastodon and other Tales.” “The Terrible Incident” pulled out all the stops with a star-studded cast, featuring Chet Rodriguez (“The Belgian Deception”) and Larn Michel (“Bag of Chips”), playing Overlord Mathias XL-9 and protagonist Mieczkowski, respectively. Director Relph Nordgren (“The Rose”) begins the epic on post-apocalyptic Omicron, a planet ravaged by cyborg superhuman invaders. The planet’s original inhabitants live in indentured servitude, harvesting cantaloupe and other melon products for their uncompromising masters, who require the fruit’s electrolytes for power. Mieczkowski, played by Michel, is a young, inquisitive serf girl dreaming of a better life outside the

fruit harvest. In between her family’s grueling melon collecting, she voraciously reads poorly-written erotic fan fiction in defiance of the Regime’s sex-negative decrees. It is through these forbidden texts Mieczkowski uncovers her dormant powers to emit fiery inferno from her hot and bothered fingertips. The work suddenly shifts its focus from Mieczkowski to Overlord Mathias XL-9, a member of the Omicronian Cyborg gentry. Surrounded in the gross opulence of his melon estate -- overflowing with rich, fruity juice and exotic, Cronenberg-like pets -- Mathias XL-9 finds himself dissatisfied with his middle-of-the-road luxury. He broods by the lakeside deep into the night, writing moving if not graphic poems about his longing for something more, and shirking his imperial duties as master of the Frigid Northern Realm. Such restlessness comes to a head the night of the Governor’s Ball — an “Eyes Wide Shut”-like panoply of frugivorous ecstasy meant for only the most elite Omicronians. It is here the storylines intersect. Mieczkowski, imbued with flaming touch, storms the ball with an even more fiery vengance against the oppressive technocrats in the titular incidient. She does battle with the cyborg elite, dowsing them in burning fury, melting their ornate metal plating into soupy remnants of their glory. None are spared from Mieczkowski’s wrath, melons strewn in artsy shots of fleshy orange. Mathias XL-9, caught up in

the panic of Mieczkowski’s vendetta, runs for cover in a shameful act of cowardice, especially given his extensive résumé fighting in the tropical southern Jungle of Azibar. Amidst the chaos, the cyborg aristocrat — incidentally a latent animorph-like shapeshifter — takes the form of a land-gasping tilapia, engorged with aquatic energy and mana. Mieczkowski, having fought her way through hoardes of now liquified elites, comes before the fishformed Mathias XL-9, left with little options but to duke it out. I won’t spoil the fight for you, but belive me when I say it’s jaw-dropping. With the updates in motion capture technology, it does justice to the earth-shattering description painted in the books. While not 100 percent accurate with the canon (fan favorite robotic jester Baal the Teary-Eyed was sadly omitted), “The Terrible Incident” captures the fantastical, if not primordial, essence of the epic. For “X-Tower Prime” fans, the movie is a touching love letter to the more detailed aspects of the lore, as well. The songs and bawdy poems of the melon-grabbers extensively chronicled in the 900-page appendix are artfully integrated into the film through elborate song-and-dance numbers (I was particulary happy to see my beloved “Honeydew You Mind My Smelly Feet?” performed before my very eyes.) While not entirely accesible to series newcomers, the film is still not off-limits and likely enjoyable to those at least moderately familiar with the series.

5C Missed Connections

LoNeLy L<3vErS

To the long-haired boy with the Chacos, Patagonia trucker hat, and gap year that was most likely paid for by your parents, you left your heavily stickered Nalgene at Frary. Meet you at the OEC to return it tonight at 7? You: A beautiful, barefoot, fasttalking vegan feminist “educating” what looks like the entire CMC basketball team outside of The Hub. Me: A thoughtful and blooming activist who would love to collaborate with you in both a spiritual and physical way. Shoutout to the girl who wears bralettes as shirts and references weed in every conversation. I think it’s super cool how your life is so carefree! Wish I could pull off the “I haven’t showered in a week” look as well as you.

To the senior boy at CMC who throws parties every weekend, I think it’s super admirable how just because you will be working (in the financial sector) and living in the real world (Santa Monica) in two months, you have still managed to keep your youthfulness. Teach me how to stay young please! HMU at brunch where we can nurse our hangovers together. I see you at the Scripps swimming pool every day with your Scripps baseball hat, Motley Matcha Cha Cha, and your endless array of American Apparel bathing suits. When you read your tattered copy of “The Feminine Mystique” I get really turned on. Find me in the red one piece reading “Men Explain Things to Me.” To the Mudder with the Mudd shirt and the sandals with socks. I appreciate how seriously you take

Wine Wednesday when we have calculus on Thursday mornings at 8 a.m. You must have excellent stamina. Care to show off your stamina one-on-one? Writing my philosophy thesis right now and looking for a sweet girl to listen to me talk about it over Frank dinner. I’ll be the one with the hardbound edition of Kant and corduroy button-up. I look forward to your critique and perhaps a glass of chardonnay? Saw you in the TSL newsroom. I like the way you hold the AP Style Guide as if it is your child. I know I’m a lover of old journalism and you are a fan of new media, but I still think we could make a damn good newspaper together. Hit me up in the anonymous tips section of TSL if you want to watch All the President’s Men together.

Frank is Dank ~An Ode to Frank Brunch~

Ye Olde Student Life From crucifixion to medieval torture chambers, history is full of cruel and unusual punishments. That said, I’m pretty sure this article from Nov. 22, 2002 is not a historically accurate account, but rather a contribution to TSL’s annual joke issue, a tradition dating back to 1981. -- Compiled by Samuel Breslow Castration Now to Prevent Golf Cart Theft By Clarke Bastard Illegitimate News Child Last week, in accordance with a new college policy, two Pomona students were castrated as punishment for stealing a Pomona College golf cart. Campus Safety apprehended the students, who were turning donuts in the baseball field, and summarily castrated them under martial law. “We’ve been waiting to do this for quite some time now,” said Campus Safety Officer John Leslie. “Now, you could say that we’ve finally got these kids by the balls.” The new pro-castration policy was not previously announced to the five-college community. It was, however, long in the works. “This wasn’t the first time we’ve had vehicle theft problems on campus,” said officer Leslie. “We’ve tried to have the Claremont PD scare these kids straight by pistol whipping them before, but they just don’t learn. We figured permanently confiscating their little ding-a-linga-lings just might teach them a lesson.” In an exclusive interview with The Student Life, the administration lauded the policy change and insinuated that with President Stanley’s impending retirement, corporal punishment would become par for the course. “I hate to say this,” commented Dean Quinley, “but President Stanley was kind of a girly man when it came to discipline. It’s the beginning of a new draconian era.” The affected students said they were “surprised” by the new campus policy. “I thought they were just going to write me up,” said one of the students. “But when two officers pinned my arms down and another pulled out a bowie knife, I knew I’d been fucking with tbe [sic] wrong guys.” The “surgical procedure” resulted in only moderate bleeding, which the students say was only partly anesthetized by alcohol. An acetylene torch helped ensure sterility and cauterized the wound. While some called the measure excessive, Quinley and administration officials claimed that castration was the only way to get the message across that stealing golf carts isn’t always shits and giggles. “At some point in your life, you’ve got to learn there are consequences to your actions,” Quinley said. “You wanna keep your dilznik? Well, we wanna keep our golf carts. It’s that simple.” As word spread of their eunuch brethren, Pomona students fell into line with the new across the board disciplinary measures. “I used to steal cigarettes from the coop store without batting an eye,” said Pomona freshman Michael Clarke-Pearson. “Smoking’s just not worth four-maybe even five-pleasure-packed years of pleasing the ladies, though.” While the extent of the castration policy is yet to be determined, the administration declares it is quite content with the results of its first experiments in genital amputation. “Not a single student has stolen a golf cart all week,” Quinley said. Noting that castrations were also under consideration by the faculty of Harvard and Brown. Quinley added, “Pomona’s always been a visionary school in the liberal arts tradition. And when all is said and done, I think [the two students] have really learned something important, something they’re not going to forget.” Now, a full week after the incident, only one question remains unresolved: the fate of the missing members. “I’ve got no idea,” Quinley said, stroking the head of a sated Jack Russell Terrier and chuckling. Regarding the previous golf cart theft incident in which two students were incarcerated for several days by the Claremont Police Department, Quinley declared that they’d gotten off easily. “For Christ’s sake, they were just in a holding cell!” she said. “Just wait until we get those two chumps in front of J-Board. They’ll be crying for their mamas then, let me tell you.”

There once was a lad who loved Frank brunch, He could get there from North Quad even in a crunch. Past Malott, Collins, and Frary he ran, After all he was Frank’s number one fan. He filled his plate with lox, capers, and grapes, The cinnamon rolls were as sweet as cakes. Avocados, bagels, and berries, No other 5C student could be as merry. The lines were so long, But the pot he smoked was so strong. He needed his fix, And Frank brunch was just the right mix!

BAD OPINIONS FeBUTTary 2001

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THE STUDENT LIFE

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THE STUDENT LIFE LORNE ‘LOREM IPSUM’ MICHAELS Editor-in-Chief LYING CROOKS Production Editor CHRIST-FOR-HER ES-KILL-SON Content Editor

SEAN ‘BREG’ EGG-AMI, News Editor MATTHEW WEEEEEE, Senior Copy Editor KELLEN BROWNING SCRIPPS, News Assignment DONNIE THE GNOME, Copy Editor Editor ANN DREW ME, Copy Editor ELEANORE ASPERGREEN, News Associate SA-FA AR SO GOOD, Life & Style Editor DOMINANT PINGPONG, Graphics Editor SOFA HEATERS, Life & Style Editor A LIST OF ALFALFA, Photo Editor A NIKE VILLAGER, Life & Style Associate MAKING A CHOICE, Photo Manager KATHY BULGE, Opinions Editor DON’T EVEN KNOW, Video Director JO IS ON-GOATEE, Sports Editor CLONED WEEVIL, Sports Editor MONK IN A COSTUME, Distribution Manager GRAZING ON AN OSTRICH, Senior Design Editor WESLEY COLLEGE, Business Manager LOZENGE-EATER, Senior Design Editor ALEXA “SUCK A DOG” BUTTS, Senior Advisor LAUGHY TAFFY DAFFY, News Designer M(EGG)AN BRAWCOLI , Life & Style Designer NEITHER NOOR, Opinions Designer CHRIST IN KECK, Sports Designer

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Because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible. According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that

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According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that Because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.

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EDITORIAL BOARD

WE DESCENT A few days ago, we were perusing our page views while sipping on cappucino and came across a surprising fact — our overwhelming liberal bias was dragging our the U.S. unemployment rate under Supreme Leader Barack Obama. What ever did we do? We were faced with a few op-

tions. One, ask Senator Bernie Sanders to personally fund a left-wing response to Campus Reform that we would dub “Campus Conform” and use as our source of funding even as we plummeted to obscurity. Two, switch all of our articles to listicle format, thereby generating enough page clicks to pow-

er a small, compostfriendly communist farm. For now, we’re sticking with number two. Effective next week, we’re forgoing prose for the modern poetry that is captioned GIFs and sentence fragments. Get ready for a new chapter of TSL!

~Correction~ In the March 14, 1947 issue, multiple articles failed to use Oxford commas. TSL profoundly regrets this most egregious of errors. It prostrates itself before the AP Style gods to beg for their forgiveness and humbly implores you to overlook this massive failure of journalistic responsibility and give it an unearned second chance to regain your respect.

Institute Releases Report About College Reporter and Reporter The Institute for Learning Studies and Education has released a report about a Claremont College indicating significant results. Released during a month of a year, the report indicated that one of the 5Cs has done important things regarding learning studies. “We have a strong reaction to this report, and have plans to address it,” a College

Administrator said. “This report indicates important facts about the college, that we plan to learn from at a time.” Students also responded to this report with a range of reactions. “We are interested by this report, and plan to take action to address its results. The college has a responsibility to act based on this report,” a president of an advocacy organization said. Other students believe that this report did not reveal new information.

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” a student wrote in an email. “This report just exposes what everyone knows already.” According to the Institute, a percentage of students feel emotions at the college. Additionally, a percentage of the students are impacted by these emotions. Storied Warlock Melvin Oliver could not be reached for comment on this report. The report highlights the sig-

Matcha Isn’t that Great, C’mon Folks Thing 1 Columnist I’ll be honest: I’ve never had matcha before. I get the gist of it though. It’s green. Green is one of those ‘cool’ colors that hipsters and ‘trend-setters’ like to tout as a necessary portion of the color spectrum. Grass is green, weed is green, certain types of mint gum are green--green is supposedly some ‘hot shit’ color for pretentious nerds. I’m sick of green. Matcha annoys me. It’s not that great. Stop drinking stupid matcha. I hate pretentiously-decorated foods, and boy do we have a problem with them. Carrots are pretentiously orange. Cau-

I Looked at Some Memes and Now I’m a Communist press elitist disdain for achievable goals and start a Marxist revolution from my dorm room? Why apply of study when I could become the leader of a Maoist uprising in suburban southern California? The revolution, whatever form it ultimately takes, is, obviously, a long-term goal. First, I have to suf-

A First Year Columnist EXTRAORDINARRE Greetings, mainstream liberals. I write to you from the higher plane of existence to which I have recently ascended after a long night of looking at communist memes online and smoking some dank weed. Before that fateful night, I was a “Democrat” like you, sheeple reader. I believed that “voting” for “candidates” could “make a a “majority” in the “Senate” and the “House” was the best way to achieve left-wing “goals.” But after just two hits, I had an epiphany. Then I realized -- why elect a bunch of mainstream liberal idiots when I could instead ex-

Leftbook memes, tasteless jokes about gulags, and harassing openly Zionist college students until they cry. This is known as “praxis,” and I am proud to say that I have already begun lecturing people about it on Tumblr. My transformation into a woke person started that very night. First, I joined this group called “Sounds Liberal But OK” that does nothing but roast disgusting liberals like yourselves, who do not understand true leftism. I chuckled to myself as I screenshotted my ignorant classmates’ pro-Hillary posts and posted them there, secure in my knowledge of my own moral superiority. An hour later, I had changed my cover photo to a picture of Che Guevara, a revolutionary much like myself except slightly further along in his revolutionary journey, which

I thought about starting my revolution after I had achieved the 47th like, but it was already four in the morning, and even radical revolutionaries need sleep. Instead of fomenting a popular revolution, I masturbated to the thought of cover photo and passed out in bed without brushing my teeth. That’s because I have now devoted myself full-time to the upcoming class war and I no longer care about other people’s expectabadass. Also, fuck Israel. Oh shit, gotta go. My roommate’s coming, and he’s a brainwashed sheeple like you, pathetic reader. Need to hide my dank memes. And weed. Yours sincerely, A First-Year

Claremont Independent: Death Threats Are an Extension of Free Speech A reporterw The Claremont Independent announced today in an editorial statement that it would “protect and promote” the right of embittered Americans to verbally abuse and threaten 5C students. In an interview, Editor-inChief Rick Steves PO ’19 explained, “Our primary concern is capital-T Truth. When students engage in racist rhetoric, they should expect to be publicly ridiculed for it. Our job here at the CI is to expose these students for what they are — leftist demagogues in an institutional echo chamber.” Steves is responding to a March 7 article in which the Claremont Independent published the names of two Pitzer students who had spraypainted the message “White Girl, take off your hoops!!!” on the Pitzer free wall. After the article received widespread attention via National Review Online, the two students received abuse and death threats from non-student Facebook accounts that promised up call.” Rather than condemn these threats, The Claremont Independent excused the behavior as part of the journalistic process. Their statement read,

“We protect and promote the first-amendment right to free speech by fostering discussion of campus events. Unruly discussion is not an excuse to censor either the journalistic source or the conversational participants.” Maxwell LaMont CM ’18, a staff writer at The Claremont Independent who compulsively shadows Steves, added, “The sheer amount of online harassment aimed at 5C students proves how ‘right’ we are [LaMont smirks]. Honest Americans are tired of the left dominating national discourse. People are angry. And they have a right to direct that anger at students. The First Amendment makes no exception for so-called hate speech.” After an extended, guttural throat-clearing, LaMont said that even though the First Amendment concerns Congress, he and his colleagues were adamant on holding “the institution” to the same standard. “[The First Amendment] clearly bears on a private institution,” he said, “and I’m prepared to trot out that line repeatedly.” Note that the writer of the original article, Roderick Magee PZ ‘20, quoted the two Pitzer students from a schoolwide email. The email was not released to the public, but when Magee’s article went viral, private information (attached to names,

more importantly) fell into a national spotlight. This raises the perennial question of whether campus publications like the Claremont Independent should quote from emails and Facebook posts, which it insists on doing without censoring names. LaMont ignored questions regarding his journalistic ethics, instead aggressively gulping from a glass of water. Each time the topic of ethics was broached, he snorted and mumbled the Pressed for a resolution between free speech and the safety of students, LaMont said, “Free speech wins every time. Students who think they can get away with racism because they’re ‘oppressed’ need to wake up.” Steves offered a more nuanced explanation, saying, “Look. We’re not interested in people getting hurt. But those students who sent that campuswide email surrendered their anonymity. It’s not our fault that they received those death threats. And it’s not our responsibility to curb our journalistic practice because of their hurt feelings. Death threats are part of the real world, and the sooner they learn that, the better.” The Pitzer students have started a petition to disband the Claremont Independent. In response, Steves winked and said, “We’re not going anywhere.”

XXXXX WORD Across

1. An honest articulation of the insect experience. This piece of art demonstrates the nuances and complexities of the entimylogical lifestyle. The answer to this clue asks us the resembles so many of us, lost, disillusioned and looking to use the long arm of the law to pursue justice. The background subject, a simple one, forces us to reimagine our beliefs been summed up as “an oddball career move” (Peter Rainer), “disappointing” (James Berardinelli) and “creepy” (Christopher Eskilson).

12 Things You Can’t Do If You’ve Never Tried Matcha Before

and thus probably the worst vegetable ever. Have you seen a beet before? That’s why it tastes like dirt -- because it’s vapid and Fuck beets. I like water. Water is simple. It’s colorless, it’s clear. Water is a simple person’s food, for people not wanting to be involved in the trivialities of coloring one’s eats. Not only is it plain, but it’s less expensive than matcha will ever be. You can walk into any restaurant on the face of the planet and almost probably get water. Can you do that with matcha? Yeah. that’s what I though. I think I’ve laid out a pretty good argument here: water is the best, matcha is terrible. Let’s all drink less matcha and drink more water instead. Water is delicious.

got 47 likes (My mom and dad angry reacted, but that is because my parents are fucking sheeple. I told them to self crit or I would block them on my social media accounts, and now I don’t have any parents. Take that, capitalism!)

Thing 2 Columnist Call yourself a Scripps student. Have an existential crisis when the Motley runs out of matcha. Say you like your coffee black (because you don’t: you like it green with steamed coconut milk and lavender). Achieve your ultimate art hoe self. Be considered cultured in the art of Japanese tea. Bask in your new Hulk-like complexion after deciding to switch out your face powder with matcha powder. Swim Experience the all consuming

your matcha fund) Feel like your matcha-induced glow is an important part of your identity Tell your bae how matcha you love them Fight cancer (the stuff’s loaded with EGCGs – no, not E-G-GS, you whiny vegans) Fully comprehend and appreciate the phrase, “A matcha a day keeps the CMC boys at bay.” Don’t worry – even if you’ve never had this miracle drink before, the baristas at the Motley have assured me you can still

$$$$$PORT$$$$$$ PAGE 10

#FREESHAI

THE $TUDENT LIFE

P-P BASKETBALL MAYBE??

CMS and P-P Basketball Play E a c h O t h e r , Wear Cool Shoes TSL’s RESIDENT SPORTSSSSSS EXPERT It was a beautiful day, and the Pomona-Pitzer men’s basketball team was off to a great start. So was the ClaremontMudd-Scripps men’s basketball team. They were both doing a great job dribbling, making attempts at getting the ball in the net (making shots), and running up and down the court. One of the taller players was especially fast, some of the other players were moderately slow runners, but they all had great dribbling skills. To start things off, two of the tallest players met in the center of the court to fight over who gets to start off with the ball. Pomona-Pitzer came out on top, and started moving down the court toward CMS’ goal. One student in the stands, James Blake PO ‘17, was cheering especially loudly. “GO HENS!” Blake said. “Yeah!” his friend said. In a text message to TSL, Blake wrote, “I really like watching the games, it’s super chill to get fucked up with my friends and watch, it’s lit.” Cecil the Sagehen, the Pomona-Pitzer mascot, could not be reached by press time. Out on the court, a variety

of multicolored basketball shoes could be spotted; they averaged about a 6 on a scale of 1-10 for stylishness. However, more creative hairstyles and accessorizing would definitely have added some visual appeal to the game. When asked why his team didn’t step up their aesthetics, CMS head coach Tom Jones said, “Um, that’s not really our focus right now.” He declined to comment on the suggestion that sequined sweatbands be included as part of the official team uniform. But now, back to the game itself — the ball kept going back and forth, and players kept stealing it from each other. At one point, the ball bounced off the foot of a player, and the crowd yelled at the referees. At 6:52 the scoreboard read 25-30 Pomona-Pitzer-CMS, and the Sagehens were feeling discouraged (although their facial expressions revealed little). When asked how he remained so stoic in a competitive, highpressure game, Marty Martins CM ‘18 did not respond but did slightly narrow his eyes. The game ended in a flash of blue, white, red and orange. The score was 35-60 PP-CMS, or possibly vice versa.

Courtesy of CoolShoes.net

A photo of cool shoes. Yes please please!

Liftbrary Serves Mental Athletes in Need of MOTIVATION REID BUUX

If you’ve settled down for a study session on the second floor of Honnold/Mudd Library recently, you may have heard a subtle whirring and panting cutting through your Electronic For Studying or Teen Party playlist. That’s right — no joke — the library recently added a “walking” (sprinting) desk to their repertoire of boundary-pushing information-consumption technologies. While this addition was a relative success, nobody was expecting the unveiling of a new, secretly constructed wing of the library, funded by a conference-roomtable-shattering partnership of an undisclosed amount between Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athletics, Pomona-Pitzer Athletics, Under Armour, and the family of British speed-stacking champion William Orrell. It’s called the Liftbrary, and here’s what’s inside: PDF-reader treadmill desks that sync scrolling speed with walking speed (pace your stride, pace your reading) Kettle bell hooks A motivational poster reading “It’s panopticon, not panoptican’t!” A power tower and accompa-

nying empowerment tower, next to the intersectional tower, which requires a zero-g environment in order to climb (and descend) in all dimensions simultaneously

PDF-reader treadmill desks that sync scrolling speed to the inverse of walking speed (if you want time to highlight, you better run a 4-minute mile) Another motivational poster reading “No pain, no gain; delayed pain, a disciplined society; neverending pain, a docile but unmotivated labor force” PDF-reader treadmill desks that run in reverse, just like the logic of many neoliberal economic theorists Cardio machines that artificially induce higher heart rates by immersing you in a full sensorial virtual reality experience of accidentally super-liking a classmate on Tinder while trying to swipe left A machine, co-sponsored by college duplicating services, that inscribes readings onto bookbound metal slabs weighing up to 100 pounds per page PDF-reader treadmill desks that move so slowly they seem like normal desks (careful!) The Liftbrary is set to open in September 2017.

P-P CONdiment of the Week SUNDRIED TOMATO HUMMUS

CMS CONdiment of the Week CHIPOTLE MAYONAISSE

AWARDED SAUCIEST CONDIMENT TEAM 2017

OPINIONS MARCH 31, 2017

PAGE 11

THE STUDENT LIFE

Fairly Unfair: Colorism and Tanning

THE STUDENT LIFE SEAN OGAMI, News Editor KELLEN BROWNING, News Assignment Editor ELINOR ASPEGREN, News Associate LIAM BROOKS SAFA ARSHADULLAH, Life & Style Editor Production Editor SOPHIE PETERS, Life & Style Editor ANIKKA VILLEGAS, Life & Style Associate CHRISTOPHER ESKILSON KATE DOLGENOS, Opinions Editor Content Editor JO NORDHOFF-BEARD, Sports Editor CLAIRE WENDLE, Sports Editor LAUREN ISON Editor-in-Chief

GRACE OZONOFF-RICHEY, Senior Design Editor ELIZABETH LEADER, Senior Design Editor DAPHNE YANG, News Designer MEGAN ROBALEWSKI, Life & Style Designer NOOR DHINGRA, Opinions Designer CHRISTINA BECK, Sports Designer

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 The Student Life. Email letters, questions and concerns to editor@tsl.pomona. edu. Email tips to liaison@tsl.pomona.edu; email advertising inquiries to business@tsl.pomona.edu.

MATTHEW LEE, Senior Copy Editor DONNIE DENOME, Copy Editor ANDREW MEDINA, Copy Editor DOMINIC FREMPONG, Graphics Editor ALYSSA ALFONSO, Photo Editor MEGHAN JOYCE, Photo Manager DONOVAN NEW, Video Director MONICA ACOSTA, Distribution Manager WESLEY LIANG, Business Manager ALEXA STRABUK, Senior Advisor

TSL welcomes Letters to the Editor, which can be submitted by mail, by email, or in person at the Fishbowl in Walker Hall. Letters must be under 400 words (although when an issue is particularly salient, we reserve the right to allow letters to run at a longer length) and submitted by 4 p.m. Wednesday of the week of publication. We reserve the right to decline publication of submitted letters and will not accept anonymous letters, letters containing profanity, factually inaccurate letters or letters making personal attacks. TSL also reserves the right to edit for spelling, punctuation and grammar. Letters may be signed by a maximum of three persons. All letters become the property of TSL and may not be reprinted without prior permission from the Editorial Board.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Fueling Conversations at Mudd Last week, we published the Wabash report, an external report on campus climate at Harvey Mudd College in its entirety. This was no light decision — we discussed the merits of releasing only certain quotes or certain sections, or providing an accurate summary. In the end, the fact that the administration shared the full report with all HMC faculty while only sharing a generously glossed-over summary to students helped us decide to release the document in full. Prompted by the Wabash report and the issues it raised about mental health and worklife balance at Mudd, students organized a walkout and rally on Thursday, as Kellen Browning PO ‘20 reported in this week’s issue of TSL. These responses, as well as the thoughts

expressed at Wednesday’s community forum, are not responding to new issues. As we saw in 2015 during protests at Claremont McKenna College, public, documentable moments like emails and reports can serve as a visible anchor for movements built on years of unheard discontent. We readily admit that Harvey Mudd can sometimes be a blind spot for our news coverage. We typically have few staff members from Harvey Mudd, especially when it comes to writers, meaning we don’t have access to email listservs or non-5C events. Perhaps part of this is because of Mudd students’ heavy workload and general lack of free time. But we can do better, and we welcome Mudd students to engage with TSL as staff members or readers.

With that in mind, we’ve been covering the recent events at Mudd from a mostly outsider perspective. This hasn’t changed our ability to report the news, cover events, and amplify student voices by interviewing members of the Mudd community and conducting our own investigations. But it leaves us knowing that there are some stories that remain untold. As a reminder, we welcome op-ed submissions and letters to the editor from Mudd community members who want to join the conversation beyond contributing thoughts to our own writers. We hope that our reporting has prompted discussion among Mudd students, faculty, and others about how they hope their college can change for the better.

Adela Pfaff Guest Columnist As temperatures rise and the sun returns to the sky, Instagrammers everywhere are letting us know that #tanningseason has begun once again. A flood of bikini pics and before-and-after photos will encroach on our newsfeeds in the weeks to come. Most of these photos belong to affluent white women trying to advertise some product or service. White social media influencers, fitness gurus, and makeup artists all frequently share their tips for the “perfect tan” during the summer months, tips that include daily tan routines and sometimes literal body paint. Our society is obsessed with obtaining the “perfect skin color,” some mysterious shade that tanners are trying to reach but never go beyond. People will go to extraordinary lengths and risk permanent bodily damage to achieve their ideal “summer glow.” The beauty industry has promoted this ideal for decades with the help of fashion magazines and TV shows targeted primarily to younger white girls. But glowing skin as a facet of beauty is no recent invention. Evolutionary psychologists, like Bernhard Fink at the University of Göttingen, believe that facial skin tone has a large effect on perceptions of female beauty, since even skin and rosy cheeks may indicate health and fertility. Psychologists have tested this theory by creating 3D models of women’s faces that varied only in the homogeneity of their skin tones. Participants were asked to rate the models on attractiveness, healthiness, and youthfulness. Researchers found that as facial homogeneity went up, so did ratings on these three attributes: the models that had clear skin with no wrinkles or dark spots were perceived as more attractive. Of course, since the participants were mostly white and the models were mapped of off white women, the study is only fully generalizable to white features. Still, when we’re so absorbed in a world of Eurocentric

beauty ideals, how can we trust ourselves to make judgments of beauty that aren’t biased by prejudices against dark skin? Beside the obvious danger of skin cancer, it is often hard for white people to understand why the idea of purposeful tanning makes people of color uncomfortable. It’s frustrating to hear white people complain about the paleness of their skin if you’ve been told by parents and relatives to stay light. Colorism is pervasive and insidious; it often makes its way into the minds of POC at an early age. Feelings of shame surrounding dark skin are conditioned without you even realizing it. As you begin to emulate the actions of your parents, you may unknowingly absorb actions that are a direct result of colorism, like instinctively retreating to the shade on a sunny day, or using cleansers that advertise their effects on brightness. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when colorism began, but there is evidence of it going back to the Greek empire, with Aristotle suggesting that women with fair skin produce more vaginal discharge due to higher rates of fertility. During that time, fair skin was considered a feminine trait, and dark skin a masculine one, causing dark-skinned women to be viewed as undesirable or infertile. Throughout history, dark skin continued to be demonized, and not just by whites. Asian cultures very explicitly praised fair skin, since it was a signifier of socioeconomic class: a tan marked you as a member of the working class who labored outside in the sun. These ideals carried through into the modern day, evidenced by the prevalence of skin bleaching and other cosmetic procedures POC are pressured to endure. In the world of makeup tutorials, it’s just as common to see a white makeup artist applying foundation five shades too dark as it is to see a black makeup artist applying foundation five shades too light. While companies like Emmaatan and Loving Tan profit off of what is essentially blackface labeled as self tanner; “fairness creams,” a.k.a. skin lighteners, advertise apps that edit your photos to make you look

more pale. This astounding pressure to look fair doesn’t just exist in India or China, however. Even some of Snapchat’s most-used filters, notably the flower crown and other beautifying filters, lighten users’ skin. Seeing photos of harsh tan lines makes me cringe: once again, white people are benefitting from something that POC aren’t allowed to have. As a child, the white side of my heritage drew me to images of celebrities like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, who bragged about their use of tanning beds. The Chinese side of me knew this was bad, but why? My family had convinced me that tanning was dangerous because of the health risks — melanoma, wrinkles, dark spots — but was this why my mom complained that the lightest shade of her foundation was always too dark? Is this why my grandmother gave me a visor and sunglasses for my birthday? Is this why I use SPF 100 when I’ve only sunburned twice? The purpose of this article isn’t to tell white people to stop tanning. It’s relatively impossible to prevent tanning if you’re out in the sun — as anyone who’s been shamed for the darkness of their skin can tell you. But white celebrities and businessmen profiting off of an ideal of beauty that POC are shamed for accessing is unethical and disgusting. Our skin is an organ we cannot control. Our sensitivity as allies, however, is different. You can choose whether to educate yourself on issues that affect marginalized communities. You can choose whether to brag about your privileged ability to get darker. You can choose to speak out against media that perpetuates prejudice against those with dark skin. This #tanningseason, choose nuance over ignorance. None of us can choose the amount of melanin we produce, but we can choose to acknowledge the problematic aspects of tanning in a world so defined by race. Adela Pfaff PZ ‘19 is a psychology major from San Diego. Their future aspirations include running a lab, giving a TEDtalk, and hand-feeding sharks.

Weekly Comic:

Studio Time Would Benefit Overstressed Students

April Xiaoyi Xu Guest Columnist

Are you compulsive about planning? Congrats, here’s another item for your list: Studio Time 1) A cozy café. A notepad. A pen. Plain A4 papers. Watercolor paints. Fresh cooking ingredients. A half-empty sheet music to be completed by no one other than yourself… 2) Problem sets. Research papers. Midterm exam. Presentations. Grad school applications. The MCAT. Job interviews… As students, we constantly find ourselves caught in between the two sometimes conflicting sets of things that we would like to do. We are young, creative, full of energy and passion. We want to explore the world in our own ways, dream wildly, and leave a unique mark everywhere we go. Yet is this dreaming realistic? Aren’t our real lives filled with long, apparently never-ending list of to-do items for the week to come? Why spend your time working on a creative writing piece that you don’t even know will get published somewhere and dreaming about life as a bestselling author in the Faraway Future Land, when you know that a certain standardized test may get you an extremely high-paying job and a great sense of stability and security in 3-5 years? As primatologist and conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall suggests, every individual makes a difference. But how? Would the latter method — pursuing a stable career — be a more direct approach than the former, where the level of risk may be higher? Like many Claremont students, I am a a perfectionist who is quite compulsive about planning, from daily homework, meetings, extracurriculars, and events schedule to longer-term research projects. Even the process of planning itself can take up a great deal of time. We may constantly ask our-

selves, “To what end?” On the one hand, the sheer business of our daily schedules can seem frightening, and deviating from our routines and plans can cause frustration and uneasiness. On the other hand, it feels rewarding to check off our to-do lists. Surely, we like to measure success by “products,” somewhat inevitably so: who wouldn’t like to see a nice stack of high-quality, double-spaced papers for all which you proudly claim authorship? To achieve these goals, forward planning is often necessary. Despite all the potential tradeoffs involved, it may be mentally difficult to reduce the level of planning for those of us who are addicted to this idea, perhaps for a similar reason why some people just can’t help but to overstudy, flipping through study materials over and over although you may be sure that you already know them by heart. Instead of arguing us to change our habits radically, I advocate for what is upon first glance quite the opposite: inserting another to-do item. It was on another one of those busy days packed with iCal items that writer, artist, and teacher Amy Whitaker spoke at the Athenaeum about “art thinking, or inventing Point B in any area of life,” an idea that she discusses in length in her book “Art Thinking: How to Carve Out Creative Space in a World of Schedules, Budgets, and Bosses.” While her book partly focuses on how creative individuals bring their ideas into the business world, I have found some of Whitaker (a Williams College graduate)’s suggestions extremely relevant to us as liberal arts college students. In particular, the idea of a one-hour “studio time” every day is particularly appealing to me. There is not a precise definition of “studio time” — it can be anything from creative writing to composing a song, to simply

doing some sports. Maybe one way to see it is considering it ‘me time’ when we can let everything else go, and simply think about what we’d like to think about, and pursue whatever we want to pursue. An hour a day may sound like an awful lot of time when your schedule is packed all day, but the benefits may outweigh the costs. For one, this may allow you to work incrementally on a large-scale, ambitious project. It can be intimidating to think about publishing a book while being a full-time student or working a day job, but having time set aside daily will allow us to accomplish our goals. Further, although we cannot always gauge the outcomes of our “studio time” precisely, we may likely feel more positive about everything else in life. We say that the week back from spring break brings us back to reality. Fair enough. After all, finals are coming up in just over a month, and it’s also the time of the year to finalize summer/post-graduation plans and think ahead about the types of opportunities we may be applying for in the fall. Indeed, this not-so-healthy stressful mentality has started way back, and arguably, it never really ends. Inserting “studio time” for ourselves will be beneficial for us to reflect about the larger picture, and to allow our creative side to preside over our more rule-dictated, scheduleobsessed selves. So, if you are a control-freak about planning, I invite you to join me in exploring this daring item and the brave new world it may well open up to us. Bon voyage, and good luck. April Xiaoyi Xu PO ‘18 is majoring in politics and minoring in Spanish. She loves U.S. national parks, international cuisine, musicals, Zumba, and random library sprees. Sophie Reingold • The Student Life

OPINIONS PAGE 12

MARCH 31, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

The Avatar Cycle and Institutional Knowledge at Pomona Bryan Gee Guest Columnist Over a decade ago, the animated show “Avatar: the Last Airbender” (and its sequel, “The Legend of Korra”) captured the imagination of audiences of all ages and backgrounds. This was partially for the rare inclusion of social commentary in a children’s show, but also for the show’s depiction of the coming of age journey of the Avatar, which provides a powerful metaphor for the concept of institutional knowledge. Like Aang, college students embark on their own journeys of personal discovery, self-growth, and a realization of their potential. It takes time, personal struggle, and perhaps most importantly, the right guides. This is why we have mentor programs, designed to help firstyear students through a support network made of older students who have valuable experiences that both frame and shape the first year. However, students benefit not only from the experiences of those currently at Pomona but also from the knowledge, experiences, and work of people long since graduated. In the context of student activism, institutional knowledge has become much more than simply a means of supporting new students. The value of experience that is passed down by departing seniors is invaluable for driving institutional change that is both wide-reaching and long-lasting. To administrators truly invested in supporting not only students, but also student-driven processes and student-driven change, institutional knowledge

should be of the utmost importance and value. But if that were the way that things actually worked, I wouldn’t be writing this piece. I spent three years as a part of Pomona College’s Residence Hall Staff, as a sponsor, as an RA, and finally as a head sponsor. I value my time there for the connections I made with students, but the experiences I had dealing with administrators negatively colored my broader Pomona experience. The Office of Housing and Residence Life, the administrative side of RHS, publicly promotes notions of impactful student involvement, but all I saw was institutional apathy. Administrators smile, nod, jot down some notes, and steer the ship on the same course it has always sailed. It is not static; it is stagnant. I left Pomona jaded like many of my peers over the disparity between the Pomona of admissions tours and the one I lived. But I find myself drawn back into the fold because OHRL is no longer content to simply wait for activist students to graduate; it is now trending toward an active marginalization and elimination of institutional knowledge. To cite one example, it is typical for some of the current head sponsors to be part of the head sponsor selection committee. Who better to help with selection of their successors than the students who have first-hand experience in supervision of sponsors and overseeing of entire buildings? However, this year, the committee was made entirely of administrators, who are under no obligation to incorporate feedback provided by the current head sponsors. Furthermore, the head spon-

sors were limited in the feedback they could provide; as all three were applying to be RAs, it was declared to be a conflict of interest to be involved with the selection of anyone they could potentially work with. This is coming from the same administration that only last year chose a current RA who was applying to be an RA for this year to be on the RA selection committee. This marginalization of student voices has serious implications that extend to sponsor selection and how RHS is run because of the leadership roles that head sponsors play within the program. If students are not constantly pressing administrators for changes that are reflective of the needs of students through open and critical inquiry of the existing system, how can the institution move forward while actively serving students? And why are students who are openly critical of the system not being actively engaged with? OHRL has shown a marked reticence to engage with those who are most critical of the program, even when that criticism is grounded in the student experience that administrators are supposed to be serving. When institutional knowledge is marginalized or lost, apathy can survive. Political agendas can survive. Administrators can just wait for the most critical students to graduate. RHS remains ill equipped to address the needs of students and better their experience. Students should be thoughtfully engaged with, not offered token lip service. Processes that are intentionally designed to give off a veneer of student involve-

Elodie Arbogast and Sean Ogami • The Student Life

ment while actually intending to exclude or to minimize student involvement in shaping student communities are not only pointless; they are a farce and a mockery of Pomona’s claim to involve students at all levels of decision-making. The administration needs to

commit itself to also valuing and preserving the institutional knowledge of students. If Pomona truly cares about actively working with and supporting students who are trying to effect change, then it will have to make real, concerted efforts to engage with students in meaningful ways,

rather than waiting for them to graduate, and to help students to promote long-term change, rather than trying to hinder it. Bryan Gee graduated from Pomona College in 2016.

Apartheid Exists — But Not in Israel Resisting the Burden of Zachary Freiman Guest Columnist This upcoming week, the Students for ‘Justice’ in Palestine will, once again, spew falsehoods as they accuse the freest and most democratic country in the entire Middle East — a region strewn with authoritarian governments and repressive theocracies — of being an apartheid state. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Israel is ranked the 29th most democratic state in the world by The Economist’s democracy index. Christians, Jews, and Muslims live in harmony throughout cities all across Israel. Over 20 percent of the Israeli population is Arab Muslim — a fact that is overlooked by those trying to delegitimize the state. Arab Israelis enjoy full equality under the law and more freedom than their brothers and sisters living in any other territory in the Middle East, including Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and, yes, under the Palestinian Authority, just to name a few. Whereas a gay Iranian would be hanged in the streets of Tehran and an Arab Christian beheaded by the Islamic State, both are free to openly be themselves in the State of Israel. Unlike anywhere else in the Middle East, LGBT individuals have protected rights in Israel.

Gays flee the Palestinians Territories in order to seek asylum in Israel. Israel hosts transgender beauty pageants (won this year by an Arab Christian) and celebrates the gay members of its military. More astonishingly to most, Arabs make up 17 of the 120 members of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset (a parliament, by the way, that conducts its business in the official languages of Israel: Hebrew and Arabic). They attend universities with Israeli Jews. They practice their religion freely. They enlist in the Israeli Defense Forces. And they love their country, Israel. Yet, the Students for Justice in Palestine charge Israel with apartheid, a term used to describe the segregation and subjugation of blacks in South Africa during the rule of the South African National Party. During this dark chapter in the country’s history, the ruling class of whites marginalized its black inhabitants, treating them as second-class citizens or even subhuman. Anti-Israel propagandists point to Israel of having erected a barrier separating the West Bank and Israel proper as an example of what they dishonestly designate apartheid. But, once more, they skew the facts of the matter and distort the truth. The barrier and accompanying checkpoints were constructed in the wake of deadly attacks on

Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada orchestrated by Palestinian terrorists pouring into Israel. The barrier dramatically reduced the number of suicide bombings in Israel. No country on earth would allow agents of terrorism to stream into their country and murder its civilians without applying measures to prevent it. Yet Israel is subjected to a different standard than any other nation. And, just like all other democracies, Israel does have flaws: the failure of Palestinian leadership to negotiate a lasting peace with Israel has resulted in the continued Israeli occupation of the West Bank; the ultra-Orthodox Israeli Rabbinate refuses to recognize other denominations of Judaism as legitimate; Jewish Israeli and Arab Israeli children rarely attend the same schools -— due to the homogeneous makeup of school districts throughout the country — leading to a lack of interaction between them. But such is the test of a true democracy: to experience obstacles to liberty and overcome them. Nelson Mandela, the antiapartheid colossus, praised Zionists in their fight for the right of Jews to self-determination in our historic homeland as “encourag[ing]” in his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”. He would be revolted to learn of the twisted appropriation of

the term “apartheid” to refer to anything less than such. Not only is it a shamefully inaccurate to claim Israel is an apartheid state in any way, shape, or form, but it is an insult to the blacks in South Africa that experienced actual apartheid and fought against it with their lives. Furthermore, SJP’s actions are not only detrimental to a campus climate of respect, but the tactics it champions actually hurt those they purport to support: Palestinians. Israeli Apartheid Week is a sham, and its only result will be to engender increased anti-Semitic activity on the 5Cs. From the very first day Israel declared its independence from British rule, Israel has proven itself to be a country with strong democratic principles and values. These principles are enshrined in the Israeli Declaration of Independence which states, “The State of Israel will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.” It is because of this guiding principle that Israeli democracy thrives, despite what misinformation SJP may spread during their week of hate. Zachary Freiman PO ’20 is a prospective Music and Public Policy Analysis double major from Sleepy Hollow, NY. He dreams of one day meeting Oprah Winfrey.

KenKen Complete the KenKen puzzle so that: (1) every row and column contains the numbers 1 through 6 exactly once and (2) the numbers in each bolded “cage” equal the target number in the top left of the cage when the math function next to the target number is applied to them.

Morgan Yucel PO ‘16

Pre-Professionalism

Tiara Sharma Columnist “So what does everyone have lined up for the summer?” someone asked at the end of a club meeting last weekend. The room went silent. I locked eyes with someone across from me and we both immediately looked away. I realized in that moment that to ask a college student about her summer plans is to shut down a conversation entirely. The very notion of having anything ‘lined up’ for the summer was bizarre to me in high school. My independent New England boarding school provided a pressure- cooker environment that almost required an entire summer off to recuperate and recharge. My summers often consisted of babysitting, reading, seeing friends, and binge-watching “Scandal.” Although I was acutely aware of the anomalies in my class who were interning for Congressmembers or coding at MIT, I never felt pressured to pursue internships or other professional endeavors to fill my résumé — I didn’t even have a résumé to begin with. College could not be more different. While the liberal arts setting of the consortium does encourage a multidisciplinary, holistic approach to undergraduate education, it can be difficult to escape the pressures of pre-professionalism. Of course, professional careers in finance, medicine, and law have different implications. For some students, a highpaying career means being able to support their families or paying off college debt. It can also mean succeeding in a field where one does not see herself already represented. I also have friends who want to be trauma surgeons and civil rights lawyers because they genuinely want to affect change in their fields of interest. For these reasons and more, I do not think pre-professionalism is, in itself, a negative force.

Certain pre-professional ambitions, however, can lead us to focus too much on arbitrary measures of future success. Cocurricular activities become résumé-building opportunities and classes simply conduits towards a stellar GPA. There is an extent to which goals of becoming a doctor or hedge-fund analyst limit us from accessing the myriad of opportunities that lie outside of these fields of interest. For example, I regret not taking a notoriously difficult English professor’s class because I was simply too afraid of doing poorly. In addition, the few pre-professional tracks that the consortium offers are often so intense and time-consuming that they prevent students from pursuing other interests, such as literature, art, and music. As I grew older, my dream occupations have become increasingly more ordinary; I progressed from inventor, to painter, to writer, and finally landed upon lawyer, my current ambition. To be quite honest, I have no idea if law would actually be a fulfilling field. The closest I have ever gotten to the inside of an attorney’s office is watching hours of “Suits”. But the familial and personal pressures of pursuing a highpaying field with my English degree have been building. In addition, the process of looking for internships has caused me to be less present in the classroom; sometimes it feels akin to the college process, which made me miss out on some of the best parts of senior fall. To try to counter this preprofessional mindset and the pressures that accompany finding summer plans, I have actively tried to think about college not as a stepping stone to a career but rather a destination in itself. Of course, this is easier explained than adopted, and I still struggle with thoughts of prestige and asking, “Am I doing something important in my life? Will I be successful?” Ultimately, I think these considerations are vital, just as preprofessional goals are helpful to thinking about what we can, and want to, contribute to society. But integrity and fulfillment are the most important factors that should shape our futures. We should not place our self-worth and happiness on our number of LinkedIn connections or the bullet points under the Experience section of our resumes, but rather on staying present during our four years in Claremont. Tiara Sharma SC ‘20 is from Boston, Massachusetts. She plans on majoring in English and maybe Philosophy.

SPORTS MARCH 31, 2017

PAGE 13

THE STUDENT LIFE

Sports Calendar

March 31 - April 6

Pomona-Pitzer Friday, March 31st Men’s Tennis V. Westmont 10:00 a.m.

CMS WOMEN’S TENNIS

CMS Women’s Tennis Maintains Early Lead over Rival Williams

Softball V. Cal Lutheran 12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m. Women’s Water Polo V. Hartwick 7:00 p.m.

Women’s Tennis V. Williams 2:00 p.m.

EDIT OR’S

Sunday, April 2nd

PICK Women’s Lacrosse V. Colorado College 11:00 a.m.

Baseball At Caltech 3:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 5th

Men’s Tennis At Chapman 3:00 p.m. Saturday, April 1st

Women’s Water Polo At Cal Lutheran 4:00 p.m.

Track & Field SCIAC Multi-Dual Meet Eagle Rock 10:00 a.m. Women’s Water Polo At Redlands 11:00 a.m. Nicole Tan CM ‘20 serves in a doubles match against Williams College on March 25.

Baseball V. Caltech 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m.

Jo Nordhoff-Beard

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Friday, March 31st Women’s Tennis V. Middlebury PICK 11:30 a.m. EDIT OR’S

Women’s Water Polo At Occidental 11:00 a.m. V. Hartwick 5:00 p.m.

Men’s Tennis At Trinity 1:00 p.m.

Softball V. Chapman 12:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m.

Baseball At Redlands 3:00 p.m.

Lacrosse V. Colorado College 1:00 p.m.

Saturday, April 1st

Sunday, April 2nd

Track & Field V. Caltech, La Verne, Redlands 10:00 a.m.

Men’s Tennis V. Emory At Trinity 8:00 a.m.

Women’s Tennis V. Whitman 10:00 a.m.

Wednesday, April 5th

Once a team gets momentum, it i’s difficult to stop them. On Saturday, March 25, the No. 5 nationally ranked Claremont-MuddScripps Athenas tennis team (13-0, 3-0 SCIAC) won 6-3 against the No. 2 ranked Williams College Ephs (6-3, 1-0 NESCAC), a crucial win against one of their perennial rivals in the national tennis scene. The Athenas last beat the Ephs as a team on March 23, 2013. Since then, Williams won two national championships in 2013 and 2015, and matches have been intense throughout the years. “In my last two years as an Athena, our team had never beaten Williams and I remember when they won the national championship my freshman year,” Lindsay Brown CM ’18 wrote in an email to TSL. “I’ve always had a lot of respect for the way they compete and their level of talent, so it felt easy to be intimidated by them. However, our team knew that if we fought really hard and maintained a good level, we could win the match.”

CMS won two out of three doubles matches, which was a key for them to win the whole match. All three doubles teams came out strong and took early leads in their respective matches. “Having that lead so decisively in 1 and 2 doubles was huge for us and really made us believe we could win [the whole match] so I think the momentum stayed at a high level,” Catherine Allen SC ’20 wrote in an email to TSL. Allen and her partner Katie Kuosman CM ‘17 won their No. 2 doubles match 8-1, and Brown and Nicole Tan CM ’20 won their No. 1 doubles match 8-2. “While I knew it would be a tough match, Nicole and I have had a lot of successful matches this year and felt like if we fought hard and brought a lot of positive energy, it didn’t matter who was across the net,” Brown said regarding her match. Madison Shea CM ’20 and Kyla Scott HM ’18 had the most even doubles match at No. 3. They were tied 5-5 with Emily Zheng and Julia Cancio, who then pulled away to win 8-5. All the points consisted of long rallies, deep cross-court shots,

and strong net play from both sides. Cancio made some clutch volley shots late in the set to seal the deal for the Ephs. CMS also had strong singles play, winning four out of six matches. Allen, Tan, and Brown easily won their No. 3, No. 2, and No. 6 singles matches after taking early leads in the first set. Jessie Cruz CM ’19 had a tougher match at No. 4 but won 7-6 (10-8) 6-4 after the team win had already been clinched. Kuosman lost her match at No. 5 and Scott lost at No. 1. Scott’s match was the only match to go into three sets. She split the first two sets with Leah Bush 6-4 4-6 with each player giving up a break, and then in the match tiebreak set, Scott lost 15-13. Scott’s mental toughness showed as she kept pace with Bush after losing the first set, winning the second, and almost winning the tiebreak. Scott played well at the net and exhibited a lot of shot variety in an attempt to stump Bush. The Athenas proved they were national championship contenders in their performance against Williams. “The team this year has a lot

Austin Huang • The Student Life

of depth in terms of skill level,” Allen said in regards to the team’s strengths. “Our lineup is extremely strong 1-6 as well as throughout the whole team. Every match we start to play better than the previous one.” Different players have played No. 1 singles and doubles in multiple matches, demonstrating that the Athenas have the flexibility and depth to outlast their opponents. Before beating Williams, CMS also beat No. 3 ranked Bowdoin earlier this season. The Athenas’ road to the national team championship must go through their Sixth Street rivals, the No. 4 ranked Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens. In the ITA Regional Tournament in the fall, Allen bested Caroline Casper PO ’19, the Sagehens’ No. 1 singles player and 2016 NCAA Championship singles semifinalist. Both teams are playing well and anticipating their match on April 20. The Athenas next matched up against the Massachusetts Institue of Technology Engineers on Wednesday, March 29 where they won 6-3, and then face the Middlebury College Panthers on Friday, March 31.

CMS BASEBALL

CMS Returns From No-Hitter, Splits with Occidental

Women’s Water Polo V. Chapman 7:00 p.m.

Men’s Tennis V. Middlebury At Trinity 11:00 a.m. Baseball At Redlands 11:00 a.m., 2:30 p.m.

Scores Pomona-Pitzer

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps

Softball P-P 4 Williams 2 Williams 2 P-P 1 Occidental 5 P-P 0 Occidental 7 P-P 3 P-P 2 Willamette 0 Willamette 6 P-P 3

Softball CMS 5 Redlands 0 Redlands 6 CMS 1 CMS 6 Cal Lutheran 0 CMS 6 Cal Lutheran 1

Men’s Tennis P-P 5 Tufts 4 P-P 5 UC Santa Cruz 4 Baseball Cal Lutheran 9 P-P 8 Cal Lutheran 3 P-P 2 Cal Lutheran 8 P-P 5 Women’s Tennis P-P 7 Tufts 2 P-P 9 MIT 0 Middlebury 7 P-P 2 Women’s Track & Field 7th place at Pt. Loma Invitational Women’s Water Polo Whittier 9 P-P 8 P-P 6 Brown 4 P-P 5 La Verne 4 Women’s Lacrosse George Fox 13 P-P 12

Baseball Occidental 16 CMS 0 CMS 5 Occidental 3 Occidental 6 CMS 1 Williams 5 CMS 2 Women’s Tennis CMS 6 Williams 3 CMS 6 MIT 3 Men’s Tennis CMS 9 UCSC 0 CMS 6 Williams 3 Women’s Water Polo Cal Lutheran 8 CMS 6 Brown 9 CMS 2 Lacrosse CMS 20 Linfield 1 Men’s Golf 2nd, 899 Women’s Golf 2nd, 635

Deji Andrew HM ‘19 at bat against Occidental College this Saturday in the second game of their double header.

Blaise Malley The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps baseball team (10-9, 4-3 SCIAC) had a busy weekend. On Friday, the team travelled to nearby Eagle Rock to play the Occidental College Tigers (16-8, 9-3 SCIAC). The Stags had a rough away game. They were no-hit in a 16-0 drubbing at the hands of the Tigers and pitcher Nolan Watson, who struck out six in a complete game shutout. On Saturday, both CMS and Occidental moved their series to Claremont to play a doubleheader and complete the three-game series. After falling into a 4-0 hole two innings into Friday’s game, the Stags once again found themselves trailing early on in Saturday’s opener. Runs in the first two innings gave Occidental a 3-0 lead going into the bottom half of the third. Ryan Motter CM ’19 pointed out that the Stags could

have lost hope at this juncture. “After losing on Friday to them coming back and scoring early runs on Saturday could have kept our team energy down,” Motter said. A ground ball single from Evan Opperman CM ’17 cut the deficit to two. Konnor Kwok CM ’17, who had struggled in the first two innings, settled down to throw three consecutive innings. Combined with two and two-third perfect innings from Cameron Cash CM ’20, the Stags were able to keep a potent Tigers offense at bay. Despite the strong pitching, Kwok gives credit to the offense. “We also had some timely hitting to take over the lead,” Kwok said. Motter helped CMS chip away at the deficit by driving in one run in the bottom of the fifth inning with a groundout. The next inning, CMS tied the game via an RBI single to left field from CJ Novogradac CM ’19. The Stags

continued to add multiple single run innings. Like previous games, the Stags scored by putting pressure on the opposition’s pitching and defense. “By the time the seventh inning came around, we felt like we had the momentum to win the game,” Motter said. In the seventh, the Stags loaded the bases with only one out. Henri Levenson CM’ 20 drove in one run with a fielder’s choice. The scoring was completed by a solo home run in the eighth inning off of Motter’s bat. “It felt great to help contribute to a fantastic team victory,” Motter said. “We were winning by one in the final inning versus a very good hitting team, so to increase our lead really changed the game psychologically for us.” After their 5-3 win, the Stags fell behind early in game three of the series. A five-run second inning from the Tigers gave Occidental a

Tim Hernandez • The Student Life

comfortable cushion and that was all the scoring their pitchers needed. Three scoreless innings from Brandon Louie HM ’20 kept the score relatively close. Chase Eller CM ’17 provided the only scoring for the Stags with a fifth inning sacrifice fly, scoring Novogradac. From there, the Tigers’ pitching tightened up and the Stags rarely threatened. Occidental won the game, 6-1, and clinched the series, two games to one. This series’ results, along with a loss to the Williams Ephs in their final nonconference game of the season, leave CMS in fifth place in the SCIAC, which does represent some progress for the program. “We are working to improve the culture of the team into a winning culture,” Kwok said. The Stags take on the Redlands Bulldogs on Friday, March 31, at home, before travelling to University of Redlands for a doubleheader the following day.

SPORTS PAGE 14

MARCH 31, 2017

THE STUDENT LIFE

P-P WOMEN’S WATER POLO

P-P Triumphs, CMS Falls to Brown Water Polo

Ella Harris • The Student Life

Goalie Ahsha Earwood PZ ’17 makes a save against Brown University in Haldeman Pool on March 26, 2017.

Kellen Browning The Brown University women’s water polo team experienced mixed results during their foray to Claremont, trampling the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team (6-16, 0-3 SCIAC) 9-2 but falling 6-4 to Pomona-Pitzer (9-16, 2-1 SCIAC) on Sunday, March 26. Four different Sagehens — Nohea Kahaulelio PZ ‘19, Jocelyn Castro PZ ‘18, Samantha Martinez PZ ‘19, and Morgan McCracken PO ‘18 — found the net for P-P. The Sagehens jumped out to a hot start and ended the first quarter up 3-0. After a furious rally by the Bears in the second quarter, the hosts led just 4-3 at the half. Strong defense from goalie Ahsha Earwood PZ ‘17, who tallied seven saves for the Sagehens, shut out Brown in the final period and ensured P-P the victory. Head coach Alex Rodriguez thought his team played well in what he called a “high stress” game, but wrote in an email to TSL that “we need to improve our

composure under pressure.” Rodriguez engineered an exceptionally difficult early-season schedule for his team, who has endured crushing defeats to Division I powerhouses like University of Southern California and California State University, Northridge. His goal is to toughen them up for conference play; so far, his strategy is paying dividends — the Sagehens are 9-16 against all competition but 2-1 against SCIAC foes. “I am very happy with our growth and development this year,” Rodriguez wrote. Several hours later, Brown visited Claremont McKenna’s Axelrood Pool and experienced better results against the Athenas. The Bears’ stifling defense, combined with a variety of poorlyaimed and poorly-timed shots from the Athenas, limited CMS to just one goal per half — one by Jess Gaffney CM ’18 and the other by Claire Baxter CM ’18. That wasn’t enough to outpace Brown; the team was able to score from practically any distance and angle. Goalie Mariah Mastrodimos

SC ’18 recorded just one save. The Athenas were far more unlucky on offense, bouncing their shots against every part of the post in their futile effort to even the score. “They put us in hard situations to finish the shots, but I think one of the challenges for us was just hitting the net,” Athenas head coach Greg Lonzo said. “It just wasn’t falling our way.” Lonzo thinks the game can serve as a learning opportunity for his squad. “I think we’ve got to work on our shooting, obviously, get that a little bit better, but to me the biggest thing is our cohesion,” he said. “We gotta definitely get our chemistry a little bit better and finding the open spots and putting the ball away and helping out teammates by putting them in good positions to score, too.” The Athenas next face Occidental College and Hartwick College on Saturday, April 1, while the Sagehens play University of La Verne Wednesday, March 29.

CMS WOMEN’S SOCCER

Beloved Athenas Soccer Coach to Leave Claremont Torrey Hart

It’s hard to know where to begin when measuring the impact of a soccer coach like Keri Sanchez. One can begin with her ClaremontMudd-Scripps numbers: 13 seasons, 131 wins, six SCIAC championships, and 58 players coached onto the All-SCIAC team. One can then examine her personal accomplishments: she was a U.S. National Team member, a four-time NCAA champion with the University of North Carolina, where she played alongside Mia Hamm, as well as Mercury News’ High School Player of the Decade for the 1980s, and a Hall of Fame inductee in her hometown of San Jose. However, these stats paint an incomplete picture of Sanchez’s contributions. Sanchez came to CMS after serving as an assistant coach at the University of Oregon for seven years, where she was assigned by the National Team in an effort to improve a lower-level program. In hiring Sanchez, CMS administrators knew that they were not only getting an acclaimed soccer player, but also someone who understood the Division III approach

to athletics. “We knew about the four NCAA titles in North Carolina and Mia [Hamm] being her roommate, but Keri was also a four-time Academic All-American,” said former CMS Athletic Director Mike Sutton. “It was that appreciation of the balance of school. We just knew that she would be a great role model for our women. We have watched the steady growth of our women’s program in terms of numbers and all the benchmarks we have here — competition and academic achievements.” From her first visit to the Claremont Colleges, Sanchez was as hooked on CMS as it was on her. “I still remember my visit here and what probably sells students, and sold me, on the school is just how friendly and outgoing people were,” she said. “Whenever I’m talking to parents of prospective students, that’s what I always tell them.” Sanchez’s colleagues and players stressed that her “let’s go!” attitude was unparalleled in their lives. Katelyn Faust CM ’17 said that Coach Sanchez always pushed the importance of physical fitness. However, unlike many coaches, she works as hard physically as her

MJ Coppock • The Student Life

players do. She’s famous for making her players run “the cooper” every preseason, which entails running seven laps in twelve minutes. “We all hate it,” Faust said. “But one thing that she’ll do is run the Cooper with us — she’ll pace it. Keri really practices what she preaches. I never had a coach before her who was willing to put in as much work as the players. It makes you want to deliver.” Current CMS Athetic Director Terrance Tumey has worked with a lot of great coaches throughout his career, but considers Sanchez one of the best. “The really good coaches, no matter what’s going on around them or what ‘the game gives you,’ they figure out how to relate to their players and are consistent thematically on what they are doing,” he said. “That’s what Keri does amazingly well.” Sanchez’s devotion to her team is reflected in her players’ devotion to the sport. Herein lies the beauty of Division III athletics, according to Sanchez. “There’s no money riding on it; it gets a little tainted sometimes at the [Division I] level,” Sanchez said. “In [Division III] you’re choosing to play. This is one of the best places to be because the hard work and commitment that show up in the classroom is what shows up on the field.” In her time at CMS, Sanchez was known to support her players in their off-field endeavors. She and her son Bryce, the team manager, are regarded as an important presence in players’ lives, and Sanchez was no stranger to players’ violin concerts and rugby matches — in the offseason, of course. Coach Sanchez will continue her coaching career as an assistant to former college teammate Angela Kelly at the University of Texas. She stressed that the decision was difficult, and that she is grateful that CMS gave her the chance to become a head coach. She certainly ended her CMS career on a high note, leading the Athenas to a 17-6-1 record — their best effort in program history — and the second round of the NCAA tournament. “I’m at a time of my life when I can make the move a little easier, so I’m going to gamble,” Sanchez said.

P-P Athlete of the Week Women’s Tennis NOITTA

OK OK

UNI QLO

QLO UNI

Arianna Chen PO ’19 San Jose, CA

It was a busy week for Sagehen women’s tennis, and Arianna Chen PO ‘19 played some outstanding matches. P-P faced up against nationally ranked No. 12 Tufts University on March 24, defeating them 7-2. Chen’s singles performance in the No. 4 match with scores of 6-2 and 6-3 secured the win for the team. Later in the week, Chen competed in both singles and doubles play against Massachusetts Institute of Technology, winning her No. 2 doubles match alongside partner Caroline Chen PO ‘19 and smashing her singles match for a sweeping 9-0 win. Chen’s consistently strong performances have been crucial for the Sagehens’ success.

CMS Athlete of the Week

More info at iplace.claremont.edu/festival

Women’s Track & Field INU OLQ

NOITTA

food, performances, & cultural activities from around the world

KO

Vaiva Palunas

UNI QLO

SC ’17 Seattle, Washington

OK

12-4 PM, SATURDAY APRIL 8th, 2017 @ CMC North Mall (909) 607-4571 iplace.claremont.edu ipoffice@cmc.edu International Place of The Claremont Colleges 390 E. 9th Street, Claremont CA, 91711

In the Aztec Invitational on March 25, Vaiva Palunas SC ‘17 posted the top distance in the discus of Division III competitors this year with a distance of 46.57 meters and placed ninth overall. In the same meet, Palunas was third place overall and second place amongst college students in the hammer throw, recording a distance of 55.19 meters, nearly besting her personal record of 55.87 meters she recorded a week prior. Palunas is ranked no. 1 nationally in shot put, discus, and hammer throw this season. Last year, Palunas was 11th in both the shot put and discus in the 2016 NCAA National Championships.