Vol. CXXXIII No. 16

VOL. CXXXIII NO. 16

FRIDAY, MARch 11, 2022

CLAREMONT, CA

Pitzer Student Senate scraps ongoing student body election JENNA MCMURTRY In an unprecedented decision, Pitzer College’s Student Senate announced Wednesday evening that it would scrap the votes already cast in its ongoing student body election, planning to start anew following spring break. The senate’s election committee made the choice in light of allegations surrounding two of the three candidates for senate president. Voting had begun Saturday for the roles of president, vice president of internal affairs and vice president of finance, scheduled to close Friday at 11:59 p.m. No candidates had yet been approved for the vice president of student engagement nor the vice president of external affairs positions, the elections committee said Saturday. In a statement Wednesday, the committee said concerns about candidates had been raised both privately and publicly, leading to its decision to restart the vote. Candidates for all positions will have to resubmit an application to get on the ballot. Emphasizing the senate’s lack of experience to address allegations to this extent, the elections committee added that it would pass concerns to administrators to direct how to proceed with the concerns raised by students. “We are taking the concerns very seriously and are disheartened by the alleged actions of our community leaders and some executive board candidates,” the committee said. “We do not condone their alleged behavior and are in contact with the Pitzer College administration to conduct further investigations.” On Pitzer’s student talk listserv Monday, one presidential candidate

acknowledged “discomfort and distrust in myself that it seems I have created amongst some of our BIPOC students,” both for what another student called microaggressions during a firstyear class and “claim[ing] credit for the work of my fellow BIPOC senators.” On Wednesday, a student sent an anonymous statement to the listserv detailing accusations that another presidential candidate had made an underclassman uncomfortable through repeated text messages. Although an election in progress has not been thrown out and restarted in recent memory, current Pitzer Senate President Kaila Teague PZ ’22 believed it was the best response to make. “This is not something that any of us have ever dealt with before, so we didn’t really know exactly how to proceed,” Teague told TSL. Seeking advice from the senate’s advisor, a position currently held by Pitzer’s Dean of Campus Life Alayna Session-Goins, the committee worked to consider how it could progress within the confines of the senate’s constitution. Current bylaws allow for the election committee to determine the timeline of elections, as long as they are held at least two weeks after the schedule is determined. Still, holding a new election entirely is not currently covered under the senate constitution. “As Student Senators, we have the ability to amend the Elections

See ELECTION on page 2

GABRIELA cAMAchO • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Sophomores who weren’t able to take E80 during the 2020-2021 academic year were required to take the class this year as juniors, increasing enrollment from 64 students in 2019 to 118 this year.

With enrollment up and staffing down, Mudd engineering students face a challenging year MARCELLA TODD & UMER LAKHANI While the pandemic has presented challenges for students across the board, engineering students at Harvey Mudd College are having a particularly difficult time this year. The inability to take in-person classes during the pandemic translated to a surge in enrollment this year for required classes like E80, Experimental Engineering. Coupled with a faculty shortage in the department caused by a hiring freeze amid the pandemic, students say the surge is making a notoriously demanding program even more difficult. The last four years have seen the engineering department at Mudd shrink considerably. Out of the previously 21-person faculty, four have

With 5C dining back, both excitement and concern on the menu

hUXLEYANN hUEFNER • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Students denounced the behavior of cross-campus diners on social media after a photo circulated showing large stacks of dishes piled outside the door of Scripps college’s dining hall.

retired, two are currently on a leave of absence and two are on sabbatical, Nancy Lape, the chair of the engineering department, told TSL via email. While four of the eight unfilled positions were long planned-for retirements, the COVID-19 pandemic prevented Mudd from conducting candidate searches and hiring replacements, according to David Harris, the department’s associate chair. Sophomores who weren’t able to take E80 during the 2020-2021 academic year were required to take the class this year as juniors, increasing enrollment from 64 students in 2019 to 118 this year, Lape said. And due to the staffing pres-

sures, some students reported receiving less support than they were expecting. E80 is “being run by professors who are doing their best,” Sean Wu HM ’23 said, but “they have to handle two years of students when normally there’s only one year of students.” Due to COVID-19 guidelines on classroom density, professors are working much more than usual. A new late evening lab section from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. has been opened, Wu said. “It’s been a real struggle trying to figure out the logistics with the staffing shortage. A lot of current engineering professors are stepping up,” he said. “These professors are working overtime and honestly, I

See MUDD on page 2

Ontario city council approves warehouses on farmland

AMARA MIR

MARIANA DURAN

Amid the excitement of a return to cross-campus dining, an influx of students across 5C dining halls has left already-understaffed dining hall workers to deal with mask discrepancies, larger messes and longer lines. Students denounced the behavior of cross-campus diners after a photo circulated on social media showing stacks of plates piled outside the door of Scripps College’s dining hall, Malott Commons. “Seeing new people was refreshing … until I stepped outside and saw piles of plates, bowls, cups and utensils stacked up on the floor only 10 feet away from where they should’ve been put,” Paola Ojeda SC ’25 told TSL.

On March 1, Ontario’s city council voted to allow the repurposing of some of the farmland in south Ontario to build some of the city’s largest warehouse complexes. The decision — which is not the first of its kind — was met with backlash by some Ontarians and environmental groups, including Pitzer College’s Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability. The vote approved the creation of the South Ontario Logistics Center, a 219-acre business park that would feature several large warehouses and manufacturing facilities. The center would be developed by REDA in Ontario

Ranch, an area that has been historically used for dairy or cattle farming and that was part of the former San Bernardino Agricultural preserve. The 8,200 acres that make up Ontario Ranch have been recently sought by other prominent developing groups. Last December, Dermody Properties purchased 54.4 acres of land, which previously served as dairy farms. It intends to build a 1 million square-foot logistics center, to be called Logisticenter. The council’s decision to approve the South Ontario Logistics Center was a divisive topic among Ontario’s community. According to the Daily Bulletin, its public hearing was one of the largest in the cham-

See ONTARIO on page 3

See DINING on page 3

Students push for Vietnamese table’s return JORLEN GARCIA & AVA FRANCIS-HALL After the Vietnamese language table left the Oldenborg Center for Modern Languages and International Relations last semester due to a dispute with administrators over English usage, former mentors and the Vietnamese Student Association are demanding that Oldenborg support it again without compromises on inclusivity. Language tables, located in the dining hall of Oldenborg Center at

Pomona College, provide 5C foreign language students with tables where they can converse with other students and student mentors in those languages. Since there are no Vietnamese language classes at the Claremont Colleges, the Vietnamese language table was the only organized opportunity to learn and practice Vietnamese at the 5Cs. On Oct. 1, Oldenborg Director Carolina De la Rosa Bustamante approached the Vietnamese table requesting the members in atten-

dance to speak only in Vietnamese, according to a Feb. 23 petition published by Kendra Nguyen PO ’24, a language table mentor and former Vietnamese Student Association public relations officer. The request was in line with Oldenborg’s traditional “no-English” policy, meant to provide an “immersive space” for students to practice a foreign language without the use of English, according to Oldenborg’s website.

See VSA on page 3

MARIANA DURAN • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Pitzer college’s Robert Redford conservancy has been actively opposing warehouse development in Ontario.

SAMSON ZhANG • ThE STUDENT LIFE

ARTS & CULTURE Pomona’s March 7 HenTalks explored the ideas behind and connections between dustprotecting particles, polygamy and the US’ poor track record as an ally. Read more on page 4.

The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889

OPINIONS

SPORTS

Online class, as a supplement to in-person learning, has more potential to enrich students’ education than we may realize, writes Alexander Chao PO ‘25. Read more on page 8.

As a career 11.2 points and 3.1 assists per game scorer while averaging 39 percent from the floor, Madison Quan PZ ‘22 reminisces on her journey through collegiate basketball. Read more on page 10.

INDEX: News 1 | Arts & Culture 4 | Opinions 7 | Sports 9

NeWs

PAGE 2

MARch 11, 2022

Honnold Mudd Library staff voting on whether to unionize JENNA MCMURTRY & SIENA SWIFT Staff at the 7Cs’ Honnold Mudd Library are deciding by secret ballot whether to form a union after at least 30 percent of approximately 40 eligible employees expressed interest. The California Federation of Teachers filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board filed a petition to represent the staff, according to a Feb. 9 statement from The Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS). Ballots were mailed to employees in the collective-bargaining unit on Monday. “You are part of a well-educated, highly skilled, engaged library staff that is deeply proud of its affiliation with TCCS,” an FAQ for library staff said. “We know you will think

carefully about the decision to unionize.” “Each vote counts. If you are eligible, please vote,” an updated FAQ from March 3 said. TCCS said it will support staff members’ decision either way and will not discriminate against employees based on whether they support or oppose a union, either before or after the vote. “It is [the staff’s] decision — not TCCS’ and not a union’s — and we will respect their decision,” the statement said. Two different ballots were sent — one for professional staff and one for nonprofessional staff. The difference between professional and nonprofessional jobs is decided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, with the key

difference being that professional jobs require a degree while nonprofessional positions do not, according to Indeed. This classification is important to determine taxes and salaries. The professional staff will have two questions on their ballot, one of which will determine if they are included with nonprofessional staff in collective bargaining. There is a possibility both groups will vote in favor of unionization but may end up with separate representation if the professional staff vote against inclusion with nonprofessional staff. Some employees of the library are not eligible for being in the bargaining unit, including supervisors with the authority to hire or fire employees, managers and

confidential employees who set labor policy for TCCS. “If the union is established, it will be your exclusive representative, even if you voted against the union or simply decided not to vote in the election,” the FAQ said. Employers may voluntarily recognize unions who have signed authorization cards from a majority of employees, but they are not required to. TCCS said it believes unionization should be decided through an election. “The union is your agent for better or worse and is beholden to the unit as a whole, not to any individual employee,” TCCS told employees in the FAQ, emphasizing that direct exchanges between employees and supervisors may be limited due to unionization.

If the union is approved, “new labor contracts often take months, and sometimes years, to negotiate,” TCCS said in the updated FAQ.

hUXLEYANN hUEFNER • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Ballots were mailed to honnold Mudd Library employees on Monday to vote on unionization.

With LA County update, 5Cs face a crossroads on masking

hUXLEYANN hUEFNER • ThE STUDENT LIFE

31 percent of surveyed Pitzer students said that the college should lift its indoor mask requirement.

JOHN PAUL FERRANTINO As Pomona College relaxed its mask mandate for indoor meetings and Pitzer College lifted its outdoor masking requirement last Friday, students and community members were divided on how much farther, if at all, the schools should continue to roll back their face covering guidelines. To inform its masking policy, Pitzer ’s administration distributed a survey regarding student views on the use of masks on campus. The results of the survey, released in a March 4 Pitzer-wide email by Dean of Students Vince Greer, showed 31 percent of 408 Pitzer students who responded believed that Pitzer should lift its indoor mask requirement when LA County lifted its mandate, which happened on Friday. Of the respondents, 26 percent thought the college should lift the mask requirement with the exception that faculty members could set their own rules for their classes,

while 43 percent said that Pizer should keep masks mandatory for the remainder of the semester. In total, 57 percent of students were in favor of some sort of loosening of the mask mandate, while 43 percent were against it. Among faculty, 17 percent favored getting rid of the mask mandate altogether, 26 percent stated that individual classrooms should be able to set their own rules, and 57 percent responded that the indoor mask mandate should remain for the rest of the spring semester. In a flip from student results, 43 percent of professors chose some degree of looser mask mandate, while 57 percent wanted to continue the mandate. Of staff who responded to the survey, 37 percent felt that Pitzer should lift the mask mandate, 20 percent selected that the mask mandate should be lifted but individual courses could set their own rules, and 43 percent wanted the mask mandate to remain. All together, staff responses mirror the students, with 57 percent in favor of loosening and 43 percent in favor of maintaining the mandate. Sophomore class president Kayla Mathurin PZ ’24 said that changes to the mask mandate represent a “slow scaling back” of the requirement and “do more good than harm to our community.” When asked if she foresaw the mask mandate lifting, Mathurin said, “if we’re gonna be continuing 5C dining or 5C social events, I think that it’s important that we take this very slow.” “More testing, instead of once a week, twice a week” could bring

about an end to mask mandates by next fall, she added. Casey Xu PZ ’25 said she was “glad” the indoor mask mandate has been retained so far. The requirements for outdoor mask wearing were “a little complicated,” she said, “because we are still having a lot of classes outdoors.” She said she doesn’t want mask mandates to be lifted by the end of the semester, “and not even for the next school year.” In response to Pomona’s easing of the indoor mask mandate, Johnny Ellsworth PO ’24, a leader for 5C DISCOVR, which advocates for students with disabilities, said that he doesn’t know whether the changes in masking policies will have any real effect. “It feels kind of ridiculous to take off your mask right when you get into the hallway,” he said. “I’m not sure how many people are actually going to.” As to when he thought the colleges should lift the mandate, Ellsworth said, “It should happen when we’re out of the pandemic and we’ve gone weeks and weeks without any cases on campus.” While cases have steadily declined since a peak that coincided with students’ return to campus in January, case counts could fluctuate as many students get ready to leave campus over spring break. “At the bare minimum,” Ellsworth added, he’d like to see the mask mandate stay put until at least until the end of the spring semester. As a member of Pomona’s COVID-19 Planning and Response Group, Nathan Tran PO ’23 was involved in the commit-

MUDD: ‘Everyone’s exhausted’ continued from page 1 applaud their effort, but at the same time, it’s like, yeah, having more professors would definitely be nice.” In some instances, students have waited up to an hour to get their question answered during office hours, which take place primarily via Zoom for some classes, he said. “Having available professors is something you sort of expect at a small school like this and the fewer staff there is, you don’t get as much engagement,” he added. Wu said that the engineering major at Mudd is hard but fun. But this semester in particular has been challenging and he said he’s often found himself at the Makerspace until 5 a.m. on Sundays and Mondays. As a junior, he’d had to take his courses out of order because he was unable to take E80 as a sophomore, resulting in some confusion with the material. Lape acknowledged that juniors in E80 are taking it at an “unusual place in the curriculum” as a result of COVID-19 disruptions. Emilynne Newsom HM ’24 told TSL that rigid deadlines and demanding assignments have been challenging for herself and other engineering students, especially with the staffing issues and over enrollment in classes. “The honest truth is so much of [my semester] is a blur because I’ve just been surviving. It’s like okay, I’m going to think one day ahead. And I can’t conceptualize anything further than that,” she said. Although Newsom was grateful for the support of her peers and individual professors who were accommodating, the department in general does not encourage flexibility, she said. The syllabus explicitly states that late work is not accepted unless you have accommodations, Newsom said, in which case there is some flexibility. “It’s hard to ask for help and it’s hard to get accommodations,” she said. “It’s hard to get a meeting with the dean because those departments are also so overstressed … I think that the faculty wants to support us, and I think in a lot of ways they do. I also think that the culture and the ways that the class is presented make it harder to ask for the kind of leeway that would be really useful in making sure that people get the help they need.” She said she understands the need for deadlines but felt that the depart-

ment could do more to show students that exceptions are allowed, because otherwise “people don’t ask for help until it gets untenable [and] really bad.” “Every day I talk to my friends, not all of them are engineers, but a number of them are and we’re all just so broken,” she said. “Everyone’s exhausted and everyone’s overstressed.” Lape said she was “incredibly sad” to hear that students did not feel like accommodations were accessible. “It is extremely important that we work on the culture to make sure to accommodate any students with any disabilities or mental or physical health challenges,” she said. Harris described the culture of the engineering department as positive and welcoming, noting that the department wants to accommodate students’ needs and has been doing so. He did, however, acknowledge that Mudd is “a very intense place” and said that the department is working to hire three new professors for the fall to address current understaffing issues. “We just haven’t had any sort of luxury for team teaching, or the kind of collaboration between faculty that we’d ideally have fully staffed here,” he added. Lape agreed that the understaffing has affected everyone. “On the student side, we are not able to offer the electives students would like to take and we are not able to staff all of the required courses with permanent faculty,” she said. “On the staff side, the faculty that are here have a high service load both because we are hiring for many positions (and therefore almost everyone is on a search committee) and because the regular service duties are spread amongst a much smaller number of people.” Harris said that he was not aware of the aforementioned student concerns until approached by TSL, but said that new hires should help to relieve the burden on the engineering department and alleviate the more challenging than normal conditions felt by students. “I certainly know in my classes that a substantial fraction of students do have accommodations on the college record,” Harris said. Harris emphasized that sleep management is a vital skill for students to learn. “That is very challenging, and

something everybody has to find the right path in college. And people who are not getting enough sleep, it’s very hard to learn, very hard to be fully productive. And it’s not a fun situation to be in,” he said. In 2020 there was a wave of core curriculum changes at Harvey Mudd College, mainly as a result of activism following the Wabash Report, which exposed the unhealthy severity of Mudd’s curriculum and workload. The report was leaked to TSL in 2017 and resulted in protests by the student body, two days of canceled classes and national news coverage. The report included student statements that they did not have enough time to shower and sleep due to the workload. Students also reported sacrificing their religious and cultural practices and hobbies to handle the amount of coursework. Faculty called the curriculum at Mudd “oppressive” in the report. Harris said that the department is very open to student feedback and encouraged students to voice their concerns as much as possible. “[We are] heavily focused on feedback from the students about the Harvey Mudd experience,” Harris said. “Engineering has been working since about 2017 [on curriculum revision options], examining our core and various options … there have been many student focus groups and feedback from students from faculty, alumni [and] other members of the community.” Ultimately, the engineering faculty “care very deeply about our students and work very hard to provide them with an excellent education; we don’t always get everything right, but we do always try our best and welcome feedback,” Lape said. Newsom said that she knows Mudd is supposed to be rigorous and exhausting and that students are told it’s not a reflection of themselves, but that the workload “just sucks.” “I just feel like it’s not supposed to hurt this much, you know? Like it shouldn’t be this painful to get through school, [one] that so clearly wants to teach us, that so clearly wants us to learn to succeed. Why does it hurt so much to try and do that? Why does it take so much out of us?”

tee’s discussion as to whether the college should ease the mask mandate or keep it in place. Tran said that the committee “wanted to acknowledge student, faculty and staff ’s reasonable desire for leniency” while at the same time being mindful of “the constant risk” of COVID-19 with special consideration for immunocompromised students. According to Tran, the changes to allow unmasked indoor gatherings at Pomona were made to find the middle ground between immunocompromised students and those who wish to remove masks in one-on-one situations, contingent on both parties consenting to do so. For this reason, Tran said the committee decided to maintain the in-class mask mandate so some students aren’t able to “opt out,” which could pose a risk to students with varying levels of comfort regarding unmasked interactions in larger group settings. When it comes to how the college’s new policy might impact the community, Tran said he “[doesn’t] see [the new policies] as a significant change.” Regarding the potential end of a mask mandate, he said the committee “doesn’t want to rock the boat too much.” “I personally would not expect any further revisions,” he said. Feng Xiao, associate professor of Asian languages and literature at Pomona, said that he didn’t think the alterations to the masking policy would have a “massive impact in terms of the risks [of COVID-19] on campus.” He said he “probably [would] not” remove his mask during

one-on-one office hours now that it is permissible. Peter Cembalest CM ’24, said he agrees with the 57 percent of Pitzer students in favor of ending the indoor mask mandate, and is ready for it to go. Cembalest added that given his understanding of mask wearing at CMC and the other colleges, the new guidelines “are not much different than what [students] already were [doing].” He said that, especially due to the lifting of the mask mandate in LA County K-12 public schools, the Claremont Colleges should follow the county’s lead. “I want the 5Cs to lift the mask mandate now,” Cembalest said. “We’ve been in this pandemic for two years now, everyone has had three vaccines, the death rate is extremely low. I don’t think the pandemic is ever fully going to go away.” Still, at the 5Cs, “we have a very low risk of getting COVID-19, but I want to take extra caution,” Xiao said, especially for community members with underlying conditions. In regards to the difference between student and faculty responses in the Pitzer survey, he said that it makes sense, because “professors are on average more than 20 years older than students” and COVID-19 is an age-selective illness. The future of mask mandates on campus lies in understanding that “wearing a mask and not wearing a mask is not a binary,” he said. Ideally, Xiao said, future mask policies will be based on “facts and science, not sentiment,” while balancing the stakes of those who comprise the campus community.

ELECTION: Senate struggled with lack of precedent continued from page 1 Committee Bylaws with the approval of the Pitzer College Student Senate,” the committee’s statement said. “The Elections Committee Bylaws will be reviewed after Spring Break to clarify the expectations of both candidates and members of the Pitzer community.” With no past precedents to refer to, Teague said the committee grappled with how best to move forward and ultimately settled on scrapping the election altogether in order to let the current candidates reflect on their “impact on the community and decide whether or not president or any other [senate] positions was going to be right for them.” “We made this extraordinary step because we didn’t want students to feel as though their vote was gonna have to go to one of those candidates or another, if they did not feel comfortable with that as events kind of developed

over time,” Teague said. Restarting the election will allow students to make better informed decisions when the election is re-held next week, she added. “I am very proud of the elections committee for being able to come up with this decision ... [given that] there were plenty of students who may have casted their ballots beforehand and they wanted to switch, and that’s not something that we were able to do,” Teague said. Teague added that the senate will look to improve the election committee bylaws over spring break to prepare if similar incidents arise in the future, adding that there’s currently “a lot of nuance” that doesn’t cover particular scenarios, making it difficult to “know how to really move forward.” The application window to enter the new race will open the week of spring break, closing March 20. A town hall debate between the new candidates will be hosted virtually March 21 while voting is set to close three days later.

ZOE cOWAN • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Public and private allegations about candidates for the Pitzer Student Senate’s presidency caused the elections committee to throw out votes already cast Wednesday.

NeWs

MARch 11, 2022

PAGE 3

ONTARIO: Pitzer prof warns council about community well-being continued from page 1 bers in recent years; more than 1,147 comments on the issue as well as a petition opposing the project with more than 1,000 signatures were submitted to the city council. A diverse group of Ontario residents, labor union members, farmers and environmental groups congregated at the March 1 meeting in Ontario’s City Hall and testified about their frustrations or hopes regarding the city’s plans. More than 20 Pitzer community members were in attendance. Supporters of the plan, which included local carpenter, welding and plumber’s union members, said they looked forward to the kind of job opportunities that the project would bring. Some expressed a desire to be able to work closer to their families, which would allow them to be more involved in their children’s lives. Jimmy Elrod, who represented the local carpenters’ union, stated that the project would support Ontario’s community by providing citizens with more local job opportunities. “The amount of good paying jobs that would be created as a result would benefit the local workforce [and] the community as a whole,” Elrod said at the hearing. “It helps build that much needed community wealth.” But there was strong opposition to the project from those concerned with the environmental ramifications that the project would bring in the future, such as worsening droughts, food insecurity and bad air quality. Presenting her message in Spanish, Tongan and English, one community member argued that the jobs brought by the project wouldn’t truly uplift people economically. “These warehouses could be an opportunity for jobs, but these jobs are not capable of providing healthy sustainable wages,” she said. “[They]

can’t provide a high quality of life.” Susan Phillips, a professor of environmental analysis at Pitzer and the director of the Redford Conservancy, which advocates for socio-ecological justice in surrounding communities, urged the council to consider the long term effects of building warehouses on the community’s well being, especially in regards to climate change. “We have to plan ahead, not just for the next five years, not just for the next eight years that you guys are going to spend constructing that [warehouse park],” Phillips told the council. “We have to plan for the far future.” A threatened species that is native to California, the Swainson Hawk, is in danger of losing critical habitat due to the development, the conservancy said on Facebook. Randy Bekendam, founder of local Ontario farm Amy’s Farm and a member of the Southern California Agricultural Land Foundation said that repurposing the land would eventually lead to food insecurity and that it was important to ensure food for Ontarians was grown locally and sustainably. Callie O’Neal PZ ’25 also spoke at the hearing, where she proposed implementing agrovoltaic farming technologies in the disputed farmland. These new technologies would create climate resilience while simultaneously promoting economic development, she explained. O’Neal later told TSL that her comments on the hearing were a result of knowledge gained from previous on-campus projects at Claremont McKenna College’s Roberts Environmental Center with Phillips, where she has analyzed the impact of warehouse air pollution on local communities. After hearing 27 testimonials, 12 in favor of and 15 against the project, Ontario Mayor Paul Leon

VSA: Mentors advocate for beginning language learners continued from page 1 One of the Vietnamese mentors told Bustamante that not all members at the table were fluent and that some English was being spoken to ensure that the table was inclusive and accessible, adding that Oldenborg encourages non-fluent speakers to attend language tables. Languages that are offered as classes at Pomona College have “beginner days” tables at Oldenborg every Thursday. After a month of continuing to operate the table as usual, the language mentors were contacted by Bustamante on Nov. 4, requesting a meeting to discuss the use of English at the table. VSA executive board member Brendan Ly PO ’22, who has also participated in Oldenborg’s French language table, described the director’s initial warning as “jarring,” as he had never been asked to change behavior at a language table before. “The fact that we were approached a month later [over] the exact same thing made it feel like we were being monitored in some way. Especially since what [the administrators] told us [was that] other staff members had heard us speaking a lot of English,” Ly said. The group met with Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Paul Cahill, who serves as the faculty director of Oldenborg, to discuss possible solutions. According to the petition, the students were “abruptly told to find an alternative space to host the Vietnamese Table.” Nguyen found herself in disbelief at the proposed change. “I was like ‘Do you hear yourself right now?’ Putting us in a separate room where no one else can hear or see us? Even in any context, [do you hear] how bad that sounds?” Nguyen said. Ly said he felt that the directors valued the existing Oldenborg policy more than the needs of the Vietnamese students. “Why do we have to justify ourselves to have this space that we’ve already had for eight years?” he said. “It was very frustrating and infuriating to feel like we had to do [the advocacy] again.” At a second meeting Nov. 11, Ly and his fellow mentors presented two options for compromise that they would agree to: either having both no-English and beginner-friendly iterations of the Vietnamese table, or change to a no-English table on the condition that Oldenborg provide a Vietnamese language tutor from outside of the Claremont Colleges. The petitions alleges Bustamante refused to be flexible with the no-English policy, stating that such flexibility would go against the “spirit of Oldenborg.” While Cahill and Bustamante supported the idea of an external Vietnamese language mentor, they placed the responsibility for finding a tutor on the students. Following this meeting, the language mentors decided that they would no longer hold the Vietnamese language table in Oldenborg. In the petition, which was published four months later, the mentors

demanded that Oldenborg “prioritize the inclusion of underrepresented languages such as Vietnamese Table and future inclusion of other language Tables … [and create] a safe and institutionally supported environment for language acquisition.” The mentors have called for one of three accommodations to be made for the group: amending the Oldenborg policy to allow code-switching and translating for people that may need to speak English, providing paid language mentors for languages not taught at the Claremont Colleges if there is demand or creating a program and space that allows for instruction of underrepresented languages with occasional use of English. The petition has gathered 275 signatures since being launched by @5c_VSA on Instagram. The account also posted two infographics regarding the issues, which many 5C students have reposted on social media. “The Oldenborg tables demonstrate the larger issue of the lack of Southeast Asian representation and resources on campus, from the lack of courses about Southeast Asia to the lack of funding,” VSA Secretary Quyen Ballagh PO ’24 told TSL via message. She said one example was Pomona sending out a “Happy Chinese New Year” message, despite the fact that Lunar New Year is celebrated by many other national and ethnic groups. In an email to TSL, Bustamante and Cahill said they offered three possible options in response to the petition. Two of the ideas were similar to those that had been proposed earlier and rejected by mentors. One idea asked the Vietnamese table to meet in the Glass Room in Oldenborg on days when the table’s sessions would rely heavily on English, allowing the main dining hall to be used only when students planned to practice what they had learned in Vietnamese-only. Bustamante and Cahill also offered to work with community members the students might know already who could potentially serve as mentors to the Vietnamese table, who would be provided a free lunch in exchange for their time. The third option Bustamante and Cahill proposed was to use Oldenborg funds to purchase educational materials that could support the learning of Vietnamese. Bustamante added that she would offer this to any of the languages that have tables. They concluded that they welcomed “the opportunity to continue the conversation with the Vietnamese language table mentors to explore alternate solutions that honor the needs of the Vietnamese speakers and learners, while being mindful of the guidelines of the language table program and the resources currently available.”

said that he would move on to vote in favor of the warehouses. The four other participating city council members voted the same way, stating that citizens had the right to sell and buy their land however they wanted to. When the council members announced their decision and submitted their votes, audience members opposing the project began to lift their signs and chant, urging council members to shut down the warehouse plan. Leon called a recess and council members left the dais as audience members continued to voice their displeasure. The council members eventually returned to adjourn the meeting and police officers escorted the remaining community members outside of the building. Some members of the different environmental groups and communities who opposed the project lingered outside after the meeting ended, exchanging ideas and talking about next steps they could take. Although many expected the city council to vote in favor of the warehouses, Adam Levine, a Robert Redford Conservancy research fellow, expressed frustration with the outcome. “It’s a terrible decision,” Levine said. “It’s going to harm residents, it’s going to harm the environment. It’s going to destroy irreplaceable habitats, eliminate all the capacity that still exists to grow food locally to improve food security, to sequester carbon and help address the climate change issue. But their choice is to continue down the road to climate catastrophe.” The Inland Empire has recently become a more sought out region for warehouses due to its proximity to freeways and Ontario International Airport. Neighboring cities such as San Bernardino and Rialto have seen similar surges in the amount of warehouses built. Some residents from these plac-

MARIANA DURAN • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Pitzer students joined local environmental groups and residents in protesting the decision to build a new warehouse complex on historic farmland.

es have found the warehouses to be detrimental to their communities’ wellbeing and want to ensure nearby communities don’t suffer the same fate. One study found that students who attended an elementary school 500 meters downwind of the San Bernardino Railyard, a major source of diesel emissions, had a 59 percent increase in reduced expiratory flow, an indication of poor lung health, in comparison with children from an elementary school seven miles west of the same railyard, according to a 2020 article in the Sierra Club’s magazine. The American Lung Association gave San Bernardino county an F rating for clean air. The metropolitan area of Los Angeles-Long Beach was the number one most

ozone-polluted city in the country in 2019. Elevated ozone exposure has been linked to premature death, with research suggesting this risk is present even when levels are below current national standards. Rialto community organizer Ana González urged Ontarians to use the upcoming election on Nov. 8 to vote for city council members who will oppose the development of more warehouses. “My son is developing asthma because of the environmental impacts in my community,” González told the other protestors. “The developers are not our friends. They’re here to exploit the people and make tons of profits … Not one of [the council members] stood up for the community and that should tell everyone something. They need to be voted out.”

DINING: Crowding, poor behavior pose issues for staff

hUXLEYANN hUEFNER • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Many students have seen cross-campus dining as a welcome addition to build community at the 5cs.

continued from page 1 Ojeda was one of the first members of the 5C community to post about the disarray at Malott on her Instagram story. Her story, which was reposted by several other 5C students, expressed disappointment about the situation. “I don’t think it’s impossible to respect your space and do the bare minimum of taking your plate to a conveyor belt for it to be washed for you. You should be respecting places like it’s your own home even if it’s not your home campus,” she said. The 5C student body presidents, Nirali Devgan PO ’22, Maya Lynch SC ’22, Katherine Almendarez CM ’22, Mariesa Teo HM ’22 and Kaila Teague PZ ’22, echoed these sentiments, asking all 5C students in a consortium-wide email to show respect to dining hall workers, whose workloads have increased with the reopening of 5C dining. “All students are expected to be polite and respectful in the dining halls to the staff, students and the space, regardless of which college you attend. Leaving a mess, ignoring lines, not returning dishes, and generally not cleaning up after yourself creates more work for our incredible dining hall staff,” the presidents said. “We understand that everyone is still learning the routines of different dining halls, but that does not mean we can forget our responsibility to be considerate of others.” The presidents also emphasized that mask-wearing is vital regardless of the varying etiquettes within dining halls at each college. “If we would like 5C dining to continue, it is imperative that we remain cognizant that our collective behaviors have an impact on our ability to experience other dining halls,” they said. Ojeda also spoke to dining hall workers at Scripps College, who felt that changes were sprung on staff at the last minute when cross-campus dining resumed. “I feel that students need to

keep in mind that workers are people too and doing simple things can go a long way for someone else,” she said. But not all dining halls are experiencing the same levels of stress and rush. For Carlos Guerrero, a chef manager at Pomona College’s Frank Dining Hall, the transition to 5C-wide dining has been smoother than what he expected. “This is my first year here, and considering everything that we’ve gone through with COVID-19, we weren’t really sure if it was gonna be okay,” he said. “Most of the students have been cordial, they follow the rules, [wash their] hands, none of them try to sneak in or pull more food out than they should.” Guerrero found that the opening has been a positive experience for Frank staff. He said that he felt prepared because of prior management training and the employees who had already experienced cross-campus dining. Students who were able to experience cross-campus dining before the pandemic are happy to have it back, but still expressed that staff need to be treated better, a sentiment shared by Kathy Shepherd PO ’23, María José Najas PO ’24 and Virna Seminario PO ’23. “People should know [or learn] what they have to do with their plates, their trash and their leftover food. Somehow the fact that they’re in another school maybe gives them less accountability, but [when] you see people disrespecting the staff like that, [it’s] just frustrating,” Najas said. For Shepherd, who is vegetarian, the increase in dining options has been particularly helpful. “It definitely makes me feel like I have a choice for what I eat,” Shepherd said. The trio have also seen changes from their previous experiences. “Scripps itself is kind of like a new environment in terms of the layout and in terms of some of their food options since they dropped Sodexo,” Seminario added. “On the one hand, it’s great. On the other hand, there’s some staff that I really miss from Scripps that I have

not seen, and the fact they’re severely understaffed is a big difference.” Seminario also said the intensity of excitement for visiting other dining halls has led to congestion. “Scripps, particularly, gets really crowded and people will have full on conversations in the middle of a crowded hallway with no masks on as people are trying to transit and put their dishes away,” she added. Leslie Ahuatzi SC ’25 expressed frustration in the changes that 5C dining has brought, specifically to Malott. “[Some students] can’t even pick up their plates and put it on the dispenser,” Ahuatzi said. “And [there are] little pieces of food on the trash can. The trashcan is right there, why throw it on the trash can? I don’t understand.” Echo Zhang PO ’25 echoed a similar sentiment. Zhang visited both Malott and Pitzer College’s McConnell dining hall and saw the effects of cross-campus dining first-hand. “When I went to Scripps, you [had] to reenter after eating outside and put the dishes on the rack. But a lot of people just left them outside in front of the door,” Zhang said. “It sucked because the dish racks were literally less than 10 feet behind the door.” But Zhang said that the opening of the dining halls has also provided more options for students on the go and greater variety of food. Likewise, several students have seen cross-campus dining as a welcome addition to build community at the 5Cs. “It’s been nice because now I’m able to see my friends from the other 5Cs,” Najas said. “Before [the pandemic] it was easier to have friendships and relationships at the other 5Cs … now that they’re open, I’ve already started seeing a lot of friends that I wasn’t able to see.” James Nielsen CM ’25, Sophia Marquez PZ ’25, Carlos Gomez PZ ’24 and Maymuunah Quasim PO ’24, who were sharing dinner together at Frank, expressed the same sentiment. “We can actually spend time together and not [have] to worry about classes and just get to know each other more,” Gomez said.

Arts & Culture

PAGE 4

MArch 11, 2022

Pomona College’s HenTalks: A game of liberal arts connect-the-thoughts

Professor of Physics and Astronomy Jorge Moreno gave a 15 minute lecture about astromimicry during the March 7 henTalk

INDIA CLAUDY What do astromimicry, mononormativity and alliances between nations have in common? For Pomona College faculty, they are all ideas worth chirping about. On the afternoon of Monday, March 7, “HenTalks: Ideas Worth Chirping” returned to Pomona after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Taking place in an Estella lecture hall in the late afternoon, the event offered attendees an opportunity to learn about disciplines and ideas they might not typically seek out. A crowd of about 75 pulled out their notebooks and listened in. Late Antique-Medieval Studies Professor Ken Wolf created HenTalks in October 2018 when an alumnus approached him about implementing a lecture series surrounding “big ideas.” Wanting to avoid figuring out the logistics of flying in lecturers as well as highlight the big ideas already on Pomona’s campus, Wolf decided on creating HenTalks. Each iteration of the series features a lecture spotlighting the ideas of three Pomona faculty members, who are asked to speak on any topic of interest for fifteen minutes, giving any necessary background or intro-

duction. This approach allows attendees — no matter their prior knowledge of a specific field — to follow along and consider something new with its low barrier to entry. Packing nuanced content into a brief time frame, HenTalks found its inspiration in the popular online lecture series TedTalks. “I thought that using TedTalks as a loose model would allow for the creation of something more appealing to a student audience steeped in social media and YouTube videos,” Wolf said via email. This iteration of HenTalks featured the big ideas of Professor of Physics and Astronomy Jorge Moreno, Professor of Philosophy Ellie Anderson and Professor of Politics Mietek Boduszynski. Avoiding the stiffness of a conference-style lecture, the HenTalk took on a more informal and comfortable atmosphere: The question and answer portion felt more like a classroom discussion than attendees addressing a presenter. The format of HenTalks allowed for fellow faculty to appreciate each other’s fields and research. “I love watching my colleagues in action,” Wolf said via email. “As faculty, we almost

never get a chance to see each other teach.” In his HenTalk, Moreno discussed astromimicry, an idea which looks at the universe and what it may be able to teach humans about themselves. Explaining the link between astrophysics and his inclusive pedagogy, which addresses oppression and power structures, Moreno used the example of dust-protecting molecules to illuminate how students with privilege might be able to assist their peers lacking those same affordances. He wants his students to be “their full human selves to really enrich the spaces which they occupy” on our campus. This talk was especially relevant to Moreno’s research because he is publishing a paper on astromimicry in two weeks. Anderson went next, beginning her talk by discussing a friendship of French philosopher Michel de Montaigne’s which resembled the kind of closeness usually found only in romantic relationships. She then moved on to discuss how monogamy has been largely pushed by settler colonialism, and how this societal norm is far from the sole example of a relationship. Explaining the po-

EMMA JENSEN • ThE STUDENT LIFE

tential for non-monogamy in our society, Anderson explored many factors which play into relationships, including paternity, sexism, free love, possession and jealousy. Anderson explained what drew her to select this topic for her HenTalk. “I was originally torn between a number of different philosophical concepts, and I thought about going in a more metaphysical direction like a talk on freedom or a talk on the self,” she said. “But I thought non-monogamy would be of particular interest to a wide variety of students, especially those not in the discipline, and I think… it’s a burgeoning area of philosophy [right now].” Finally, Boduszynski presented on America’s friends, allies and enemies at times of war. He made a timely reference to the UN Security Council resolution to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Evaluating the United States’ past alliances, Boduszynski also explained how vital these relationships are to nations, as well as how the United States has been a poor ally in the past. None of the presenters knew the others’ topics prior to the event, so any coordination of

topics was completely coincidental — and completely complementary to the liberal arts mantra. In his introductory remarks, Wolf asked attendees to think of questions that might apply to all three presenters as well as a linking theme between the talks. Boduszynski made connections between his talk and Anderson’s on the fly while he presented, explaining some of the United States’ relations as dysfunctional marriages and others as friends with benefits. During the question and answer portion, Moreno also remarked on a throughline. “Galaxies are complex systems,” he said. “So are countries, so are people.” Common humanity was also a tethering ideal alluded to, as well as the concept of partnership: bBetween the natural world and how humans anthropomorphize it; between people in intimate and friendly relations; between nations at war and at peace. Anderson made note of another connection. “I think what was most interesting to me was the way that each of the talks disrupted our [personal] security around stories that have been common in our respective disciplines for a long time — or in public discourse, in the case of the politics talk,” she said. Maddie Jones PO ’22 has attended every HenTalk to date, having entered as a first-year when they began in 2018. She shared her take on the lecture series as well as what she believed the connecting factor to be. “I spend every HenTalks trying to come up with a title for the event that captures all three presentations and their connections,” she said. “I think that these connections speak to a larger truth about liberal arts education: ideas overlap in surprising ways no matter what disciplines you study. [My] title for this week’s HenTalks was ‘The Power of Relationships.’” In a typical year, HenTalks runs three episodes per semester, and the next HenTalk will take place in early April. Certain to deliver three more engrossing talks, future HenTalks will also provide students with another opportunity to connect the conceptual dots and to expand their considerations of disciplines beyond their own. “I think [HenTalks] inspire students to see the diversity of human ways of knowing,” Anderson said, “because they expose students to disciplines that they might not initially be interested in exploring.”

FrAME rATING

‘the French Dispatch’ Oscars snub doesn’t detract from its artistry GERRIT PUNT I’m going to go ahead and say it: I love “The French Dispatch.” The movie was released in theaters last October, making this a pretty belated review, but it’s Oscars season. What better time than now to look back at the films of last year and talk about our favorite movies getting the nominations we hoped they would? Right? Wrong. My favorite film of 2021 didn’t get a single nomination, so I’ve taken it upon myself to personally dismantle the Academy Awards. That’s right, Academy. I’m coming for you. (In a journalistic way. This is not a threat.) But, before I do any dismantling, I suppose I should actually dive into “The French Dispatch.” Why do I love this movie so much, and why is it such a shame that it didn’t get a nomination? “The French Dispatch” is the 10th feature film from director Wes Anderson. It consists of an anthology of very loosely connected short stories, each one an article in the final issue of “The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun,” an American-based magazine headquartered in the charmingly seedy French city of Ennui-sur-Blasé. The film consists of three featured articles, along with a brief introduction to the film’s setting through a jaunty cycling column and an obituary for the magazine’s expatriated founder, Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray). Containing the stories of a (literally) tortured master painter in prison for double homicide, an odd romance between a meddling journalist and a young revolutionary and a writer who finds himself wrapped up in a caper involving a kidnapping and a master chef, “The French Dispatch” manages to fit a lot into its one hour and 48 minute runtime. Through its creative, journalistic framing, “The French Dispatch” focuses less of its energy on telling a large overarching story and more on exploring the set-

ting and denizens of its impossibly charming world. Only in Anderson’s France are city-wide revolutions decided by chess games and annual snowfalls measured in the total number of snowflakes. Each of these three stories are filled to the brim with whimsically intricate visuals and gorgeous set pieces. Sometimes the film is in journalistic, inky black and white. Sometimes it’s in rich, storybook color. Sometimes it’s a vibrant, cartoon chase sequence. In typical Anderson style, every single frame of this film is a meticulous work of art. Perhaps even more entrancing than the film’s visual panache is its large and eccentric cast of characters, from Owen Wilson’s sprightly cyclist, Herbsaint Sazerac, to Timothée Chalamet’s wild-haired, manifesto-writing teenage rebel. The film is absolutely packed with fantastic performances. The humor is delightfully deadpan. The pacing is quick and fluid. None of the vignettes overstay their welcome, and though they’re certainly distinct from one another, the film’s consistent tone and unique framework makes the film flow remarkably well, like reading a magazine cover to cover. I understand that this film isn’t everyone’s thing. It’s unorthodox. It’s dense. It does not concern itself with realism or strong overarching cohesion. As much as I adore it, I can somewhat understand why it wouldn’t be everyone’s number one choice for a best picture award. But to not get nominated in any category? That’s a crime. “Dune” got nominated 10 different times, and Timothée Chalamet has way cooler hair in this movie than he did in that one. I know that the members of the academy are only human, and some mistakes are bound to be made, but the fact that “Don’t Look Up” got nominated

cOUrTESY: SEArchLIGhT PIcTUrES

“The French Dispatch” follows three loosely connected stories about an American-based magazine located in France.

for best picture and “The French Dispatch” didn’t even get nominated for production design is, without any exaggeration, a travesty. Except, in all honesty, getting snubbed by the academy doesn’t mean that “The French Dispatch” wasn’t one of the best films of last year. Winning an Oscar is a big deal. I won’t pretend like it isn’t, but is the academy truly the authority on quality? Does an Oscar nomination really mean that a film is the best in its category? Not really. As much as the academy passes its members as the arbiters of cinematic quality, it doesn’t consist of infallible

film appreciators with tastes surpassing those of the ordinary filmgoing plebeian. Each year, the Oscars ceremony is filled with multimillion dollar influencing campaigns and people who voted for “12 Years a Slave” even though they didn’t actually watch it. These are the folks who gave “The Green Book” a best picture award. You can’t give them too much credit. The Oscars ceremony is an exciting annual event, but it’s not qualified to decide anything except which movies old people in the film industry like the most. Your favorite movie of the year isn’t bad because it didn’t

get an Oscar nod, and you are not a bad person for thinking “The Power of the Dog” (with its 12 nominations) was just okay. No matter what does or doesn’t get nominated by the academy, nobody is the authority on your taste except for you. You are not obligated to like or dislike any given film. Except “The French Dispatch.” You have to like that one. Gerrit Punt PO ’24 is actually the objective authority on good taste. He didn’t like “Dune” very much but was scared to say that in the body of this article, and he eagerly awaits the day Wes Anderson decides to make a movie about TSL.

MArch 11, 2022

Arts & Culture

rEADEr’S DIGEST

PAGE 5

LITErArY WANDErINGS

In college cooking, it’s waste not, want not

Are readers ready to re-live the pandemic? RYAN LILLESTRAND

LUcIA MArQUEZ-UPPMAN • ThE STUDENT LIFE

SADIE MATZ With cross-campus dining starting up again, it’s easy to overlook an eco-friendly and equally appealing culinary alternative: low-waste cooking. Cooking in dorms not only alleviates some of the pressure on dining hall workers, but also saves 5C students long waits in lines. Cooking can be daunting, though – especially for students who are living on their own for the first time. If you’re in a stew when it comes to dorm cooking, a low-waste approach is an easy, conscientious and affordable place to start. The United States faces a massive food waste problem: approximately 35 percent of the nation’s food supply goes to waste and 8.2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions are a product of food waste. In addition to these environmental issues, it is simply unjust for a portion of the population to waste food, while others face food insecurity. Questioning the ethics of one’s diet can stir up many worries — things such as food production and business practices are often beyond consumers’ control and even entirely concealed from the public. Beating yourself up over the sustainability of the ingredients you use can quickly become financially unsustainable. Environmentally-conscious college students should, instead, focus on minimizing the waste they make when cooking. Most of the time, low-waste cooking just makes sense. Take, for example, leaving the skins on your root vegetables rather than throwing them away. Why make the effort to peel your potatoes when unpeeled potatoes take less time to prepare, taste nearly identical and give your meal an extra boost of fiber?

The phrase “low-waste cooking” often whisks up visions of practices like using food scraps in recipes rather than throwing them away. But lowwaste practices include many more hacks: such as shopping for low-waste groceries, using foods that fail to meet aesthetic standards and preventing food from going bad. Low-waste cooking is not a set of rules. Rather, it’s a creative mindset that shapes the way you cook, challenging you to come up with fresh solutions to eliminate wasteful cooking practices. In other words, low-waste cooking breeds innovation. Before you cook The first step before embarking on any cooking journey, waste or low-waste, is to take stock of what you have. Dorm and demo kitchens around the 5Cs usually have some basic supplies and even pantry items, but these aren’t always reliable. An affordable and eco-friendly option is to find essentials you need at a thrift store – such as mixing bowls, cutting boards and even pots and pans. Planning out your grocery haul is one of the simplest ways to reduce food waste. When it comes to perishable goods, purchase less to prevent having excess that goes bad. When you buy produce, opt for unpackaged instead of heavily packaged items. When you buy things in jars, choose glass containers that you can reuse over plastic ones. Freezing food is a quick and easy way to increase the longevity of your ingredients and leftovers; freezing chopped aromatics and herbs and adding them to your dish when you’re ready to cook can also save you prep time.

While you cook This is where low-waste methods really allow you to cook up unconventional culinary practices. Think about the odds and ends of produce that would normally be discarded — skins, stems, leaves — and consider how you might put them to use. Now is the time to shed certain food anxieties: consuming “ugly” produce or wilted greens might seem scary, but doing so is often perfectly safe. A pack of dish cloths can go a long way. I’ve found that, personally, paper towels are my most prominent source of waste when I cook at college. They can be used for drying dishes, cleaning up messes, drying washed produce, pressing tofu and countless other things — they’re just so convenient. But reusable dish cloths get the job done just as effectively, and are much better for the planet. After you cook Compost! Take advantage of the food waste bins around campus. Freeze inedible scraps and take note of the bins closest to you. If you have to throw away food, try not to send it to a landfill. If you find yourself about to throw away food that’s safe to eat, offer it to your friends. If you don’t want to talk to anyone, you could even leave it in your dorm kitchen with a note. Always remember to take care to clean up after you’re done — and leave minimal waste.

Novels are, inevitably, a reflection of the time and place in which they are written. As such, it is no surprise that now, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new genre of literature is emerging. Last year, the list of novels written (explicitly or tangentially) about the pandemic grew immensely. Ali Smith’s “Summer” weaves the realities of the pandemic into the narrative of the final book in her seasonal quartet. “How High We Go in the Dark” by Sequoia Nagamatsu explores a world ravaged by a new “Arctic plague.” Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel, “To Paradise,” partially takes place in a futuristic world dominated by plagues. It’s a theme that’s certainly having its moment in the literary world. These titles are only a small selection of the many novels released in the past couple of years that revolve around this common theme. Every time I see one on the shelf in a bookstore or read a review of one, I am faced with the same question: are we ready for this yet? I can understand the innate desire of writers to process the challenging and traumatic events of the pandemic in the best way they know, but is their audience ready to read it? For myself, the answer is no. It already feels tired and unoriginal, an examination of a world that is too close for us to have any real perspective — and yet, the books keep on coming. Curiosity, eventually, got the better of me. And so, it was with some trepidation that I dove into my first of the new wave of socalled “pandemic novels.” I chose “Joan is Okay” by Weike Wang as my introduction to the genre. The book is Wang’s second novel following “Chemistry,” a book which won near-immediate critical acclaim, the 2018 PEN/Hemingway Award and Wang a place in the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” list. Before her decorated career as a novelist, Wang studied chemistry and earned her doctorate in public health. Her novels and short stories are often drawn from this world, exploring the demanding worlds of graduate school or medicine. “Joan is Okay” is no different.

Sadie Matz SC ’24 is a loyal Cook’s Illustrated fan from Brooklyn, New York. She cannot drive and will not take questions regarding the matter.

The book centers around Joan, a workaholic doctor in New York City navigating complicated relationships with her parents, her father’s death and recurring challenges with her brother and overbearing next-door neighbor. In the early pages of the book, the reader is brought into Joan’s world through her eyes — cool and humorously frank. We are introduced to the hospital she tries to spend as much time in as possible, the apartment so sparsely furnished that visitors think that she has either just moved in or is just moving out and the fraught relationship with a mother she both deeply loves and cannot understand. As the story unfolds, we learn that, unlike what the title suggests, Joan is not okay. This reality lies at the heart of Wang’s novel — a successful but overworking woman at a sort of crossroads. Then spring arrives. While not an explicitly pandemic novel at first, COVID-19 creeps in around the edges — much as it did in reality during the early months of 2020 — and eventually takes center stage. An already chaotic life is thrown into further uncertainty. That uncertainty is not resolved over the course of the novel. Honestly, I didn’t think that “Joan is Okay” worked. It was simple, straightforward and uneventful. Characters do not evolve or learn or grow in any meaningful way. While funny at times, it is ultimately static and effectively plotless. When the pandemic was eventually introduced into the story, it felt clunky and unnatural. Perhaps it is unfair to use one book as the representative of an entirely new wave of literature, especially one I probably wouldn’t have loved even without the pandemic element, but it only reinforced my hesitations surrounding this rising literary fad. It is too soon. It is not that it is impossible for a pandemic novel to be good, but rather that this may not be the time. As things only just begin to fall back into a rhythm that resembles normalcy, reflections on the pandemic feel underbaked — not afforded nearly enough time to form and reform in the gradual process of genuine reflection. It is from these limitations that “Joan is Okay” suffers. One day, I imagine I will be able to enjoy a pandemic-related novel, but far more time is needed. Ryan Lillestrand PZ ’23 is a book columnist for TSL. His favorite book so far this year is “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie.

LUcIA MArQUEZ-UPPMAN • ThE STUDENT LIFE

BEING rEEL

Language should not be a barrier to watching good movies ADAM OSMAN-KRINSKY When I was a little kid who loved playing baseball, my dad would always tell me that the sport was a “game of inches” — every little moment in the game could be a close call, and so it was worth it to put every ounce of effort into the play in order to get that extra inch. As I grew up and grew out of love with baseball, instead falling in love with movies, I began to learn a new game of inches — watching foreign films. This game of inches is a bit more literal. I had to learn to keep up with the on-screen action and keep myself attentive to the dialogue in

the subtitles that were going by rapidly underneath. Film became something I actually had to pay attention to. Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m not going to argue that films in the English language are all bells and whistles. Common Twitter discourse about the supposed “inferiority” of Marvel movies and the superiority of arthouse movies that are silent, black and white, avant garde, et cetera is not a serious argument in favor of watching foreign language films. The real reason one should watch films not in the English language is because they can be a point of unity, both

cOUrTESY: MK2 FILMS

Watching international films can help redefine the norms of filmmaking technique, says Adam Osman-Krinsky PO ‘25.

technically and for the audience. In an age when there is so much discourse about the politics of representation in the media and the formulaic nature of what Hollywood has become, looking to other countries and their media for inspiration can fill in gaps that the American cultural industry has been slow to catch up on. One of the strongest examples of this is the interesting approaches to thematic filmmaking that are present in countries like Norway, Poland, Denmark, South Korea and Iran, among other countries. Thematic filmmaking is different from genre filmmaking in that it loops together films that do not share characters, but rather share general themes and arguments. The most notable of these, in my experience, have been the “Dogme 95” films originating in Denmark, “The Vengeance Trilogy” from Park Chan-wook of Korea and both “Three Colors Trilogy” and “Dekalog” by Krystztof Kieslowski. These are all examples of thematic filmmaking, but all differ in their approaches to the technical aspect, the overall themes or the way of actually telling a story. “Dogme 95” films are limited technically, in that the camerawork must be handheld, filmed with natural light and must not credit the filmmaker, among other rules. This approach to filmmaking is an example of how experimentative democratized filmmaking became popular for public consumption (even in English-speaking plac-

es) like Thomas Vinterberg’s film “The Celebration.” Similarly, in South Korea, Park Chan-wook’s “Vengeance” trilogy follows a more straightforward thematic filmmaking pattern in terms of plot, but all three films are searing cultural commentaries on South Korea’s struggle with the fallout of a military dictatorship and the constraints of American presence in the region. These films do not shy away from criticizing capitalism, yet are not preachy. Finally, Kieslowski’s “Dekalog” and his “Three Colors” trilogy follow more philosophical themes. “Dekalog” follows the people inhabiting an apartment building in Warsaw, with each film following a commandment from the 10 Commandments over the course of 10 disconnected episodes. The “Three Colors Trilogy” follows three couples in France and Poland, where each film corresponds to the colors of blue, white and red, with the themes of the films matching with the French motto of Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité (Liberty, Equality Fraternity). The English-speaking world, on the other hand, seems to still value the potential of profit over experimentation with the medium at large. This is still a time where most films, both international and domestic, that experiment with technique or theme are relegated to the independent movie festival circuit, which more often than not requires them to be short due to festival guidelines. Both looking back on these foreign films and looking

at current foreign films allows us to experience experimentation with the pacing of films that otherwise is not happening anymore. This is not to say that we should yell from the rooftops “we should watch longer movies!” but we should, at least, re-examine the way we watch movies. We should sit with them and not be involved only with plot but also with when the director chooses to change perspective or what the music is making us feel. This is all heightened when we — as people who speak English as a first language — watch movies in languages other than English, because we are suddenly paying more attention to what is happening in the movie. It is not mindless. Instead, we also pay more attention to the silences, and let the action (or inaction) on screen envelop us. What we gain from seeing foreign filmmaking as separate from American and English language filmmaking is that it changes what we should expect from a film. It is a fair desire to want to see new and interesting practices in the medium from the United States, but this desire should not limit us geographically. As Bong Joon-ho said when he won his Golden Globe for “Parasite,” “Once you overcome the oneinch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” Adam Osman-Krinsky PO ’25 is from New York City. He loves movies and logs all his most recent watches on his letterboxd @Adam0k and talks about movies on his twitter @ahoyvey.

Arts & Culture

PAGE 6

MArch 11, 2022

FILM FILES

‘The Worst Person in the World’ captures aching crises of youth and identity HANNAH ELIOT Released at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 and nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay at the 2022 Oscars, “The Worst Person in the World” is a witty, empathetic Norwegian film centering on the life of Julie (Renate Reinsve), an aimless 30-year-old struggling to find her place in the world. Julie wrestles with restlessness, self-acceptance and not knowing what to do in life or who to be with. At one point, her boyfriend Aksel remarks, “You seem to be waiting for something. I don’t know what.” The film — co-written by Norwegian director Joachim Trier and his long-time collaborator Eskil Vogt — is the third entry in what has been loosely titled the “Oslo Trilogy,” following the films “Reprise” (2006) and “Oslo, August 31st” (2011). Told in 12 chapters, a prologue and an epilogue, it tackles intimate questions of what it means to be present in one’s own life and to make mistakes in the process of doing so. The film’s narrator is refreshing as they lightheartedly narrate the events of Julie’s life and track her relationships with two different men — Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), a middle-aged graphic novelist, and Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), a young, easygoing barista. However, despite the love interests, it is clear that this film is not a love story. If anything, it is the story of Julie’s shaky journey to self-awareness, one in which she learns both the right

cOUrTESY: MK2 FILMS

Renate Reinsve (left) stars in Joachim Trier’s latest feature film, “The Worst Person in the World.”

and wrong lessons from deeply flawed relationships. For example, when, after their initial hookup, Aksel tries to end his relationship with Julie due to their age gap, the narrator dryly comments, “That was the moment she fell in love with him.” Julie’s crisis of identity applies to her career prospects as well. Her initial plan to become a doctor shifts into studying

ThE cLArEMONT INDEcENT

Whenever friends come to me for advice about pursuing a romantic connection — or I’m figuring out one of my own — I always come to a crossroads: Is the best approach to attempt some subtle, harmless psychological manipulation, or are honesty and straightforwardness the keys to success? Forgive me, for a moment, because I’m about to get academic on you … let’s talk about psych, baby. Now, all of us who were paying attention in our intro to psychology courses will know this, but allow me to let the rest of you in on a little secret. There are five crucial factors when it comes to fostering attraction: proximity, similarity, physical attractiveness, reciprocity and selectivity. Allow me to take you through them. Number one is the proximity effect, and it’s the single best predictor of attraction. Basically, this means that physical nearness and amount of time spent with one’s romantic target are huuuge determining factors in romantic attraction. Takers of psych classes may also be familiar with “the mere exposure effect,” which dictates that people tend to become more appealing to us with increased contact. All pretty logical. Next, we have similarity and physical attractiveness, which are both pretty self-explanatory. We tend to crush on people who have similar demographics, subjective experiences, and attitudes to ourselves. And I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that we also tend to crush hard on people who are just goddamn good-lookin’. Here’s where things get interesting: reciprocity and selectivity. Many a psych study has shown that we like people who like us. The caveat of reciprocity, though, is that we especially like people who don’t like us that much at first, but then grow to like us. Selectivity is a similar case. We don’t tend to like just like anyone — psychology of attraction tells us that we like others who are in a sweet spot of selectivity. In other words, those that are “hard to get,” but not quite out of reach. This is where “the game” comes into the equation. Do we play by these not-so-hard-andfast psychological rules? Do we take the perhaps juvenile ap-

as right or wrong. Julie often chooses the direction that feels the most fulfilling in the moment, but not the most logical. Trier seems to imply that this is what life is about — not living for the future or for the past, but simply doing what you need to do in the present moment. This might make some viewers feel more disconnected from Julie, whose mind we can never

Hannah Eliot SC ’24 is from San Francisco, California. She likes to surf and can (badly) play the guitar.

SELEcTED AMBIENT WOrKS

To play the game or not to play the game? SLEEPLESS ON SIXTH STREET

psychology, which she then abandons for professional photography after scrolling through the camera roll of her phone. This film is unique in that none of the life-altering, awful decisions that Julie makes feel life-altering in the moment. Sometimes, they don’t even feel like the worst decisions she can make. That is because nothing in this film can be easily defined

fully access and whose decisions we can never fully explain for ourselves. However, the film’s wit and naturalistic style pushes us to let go of this need for control, truly live in the moment with her and follow her willingly down the paths she chooses for herself. Trier shoots the film so casually, so fluidly, that he is able to capture with deeper realism the feeling of living in the moment. In doing so, he brings out the beauty and vitality in making mistakes. The film’s answer to why we make such mistakes — why we do anything we do — is captured in one of its most simple lines: “I was just trying to process.” In a recent interview with film columnist Isaac Feldberg, Trier references this same idea: “One thing we read was a quote that I’ve known for years, and loved, from Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, who said that we can only understand our life backwards, but we’re forced to live it forwards. And I think that’s the confusion we all feel, is that we always learn too late.” If the characters of “The Worst Person in the World” were reliable and transparent in their thoughts and actions, the film would lose the sense of messiness that makes it so deeply relatable. The collection of moments that Trier gives us does not always tell the same story. However, the inconsistencies implied by them enrich his film and represent a truer idea of living, of being human.

proach of playing “hard to get,” counting the minutes it took for them to text back and doubling it before sending a response? It’s a bit reminiscent of my middle school tactics, but there’s a reason these sorts of rules exist … and I’m inclined to trust the psychology. Now let’s consider the alternative: being upfront and straightforward. The Nike-style, “just do it” option, if you will. In my experience, fear of rejection has a pretty strong hold on a lot of us. And while that’s perfectly valid, it’s also pretty hard to get what you want if you never ask for it. I think we could all throw caution to the wind a bit more often. Not engaging in “the game” also has its moral benefits. You may, for example, subscribe to the mantra that honestly is the best policy. Many folks would consider this strategy the mature thing to do. And I’ll admit, being straightforward is easily more ethically sound. If you genuinely like this person … maybe actively manipulating them isn’t the most thoughtful choice. The truth of the matter is that it’s always going to be a shot in the dark to some extent. In my life, both strategies have worked and both strategies have failed. We all have our different values and principles when it comes to these things, and perhaps even more importantly, everyone responds differently. You might love to hear “I have a crush on you!” from the get-go, while I personally favor a few mind games here and there. As is the case for a seesaw or a healthy diet, the key is definitely balance. Don’t lie so low you go unnoticed. Match their energy. And hey, maybe hint once or twice at your extensive line-up of romantic prospects if this one weren’t to work out. Be cool, be confident and be yourself. You got this. Much love, Sleepless on Sixth Street P.S. Have thoughts, questions, concerns of your own? This completely anonymous Google Form is just for you: go.tsl.news/indecent. Share away!

Corrections In Issue 15, a column on visiting downtown Los Angeles misspelled “Olvera Street” as “Olavera.” In Issue 14, an article on Pomona Ventures misattributed a quote beginning “Just because the path is unknown…” to Shreya Kamra PO ’23. In fact, the speaker was Nanea Haynes PO ’22.

TSL regrets these errors.

Mitski’s equally strange and elegant stage presence elevates her artistry NICHOLAS BLACK As I arrived at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles on March 3, I was greeted with a familiar indie show scene: masses of Doc Martenswielding teenagers waiting for their supreme indie sad girl to bless their ears. I felt comfortable, prepared for an intimate and somber Mitski performance like I had seen from so many other indie artists in her class. And yet, as in so many other ways, Mitski exceeded my expectations. Mitski is frequently dubbed as one of the quintessential indie “sad girls.” It’s true that in a similar fashion to indie contemporaries like Phoebe Bridgers and Clairo, Mitski’s tracks are often quite somber, exploring themes of depression, hopelessness and longing. Down-tempo tracks like “Last Words of a Shooting Star,” “I Bet on Losing Dogs” and “Two Slow Dancers” tug fiercely on the heartstrings. Even on upbeat and sonically addicting tracks like “Nobody” and “Washing Machine Heart,” Mitski writes about feelings of immense loneliness and inadequacy. Given the heavy subjects explored by Mitski’s art, I anticipated a subdued performance, relying on carefully crafted melodies and sophisticated lyrics to do the work. Instead, Mitski delivered a show that beautifully accentuated her dark lyrics while remaining exciting and eye-catching throughout. Throughout her set, Mitski’s onstage movements clearly reflected the mental images evoked by her music. She doesn’t aspire to put on a performance that simply duplicates the listening experience of her pre-recorded music; instead, she creates an entirely new experience that is sonically unique and visually enthralling. This is exemplified beautifully as Mitski sings along to “First Love / Last Spring,” a track that explores a love that is so intense that she begs for freedom from it — she would rather be alone than carry such a maddening attachment to one person. During the instrumental break, Mitski spins around the stage, stopping to shove away an invisible figure as to strike at the central ethos of the song: the need to escape. “Townie,” another track off of “Bury Me At Makeout Creek,” explores similar feelings of love and insanity and yields yet another pleasantly bizarre performance from Mitski. The song is sung from the perspective of a woman

BELLA PETTENGILL • ThE STUDENT LIFE

who has become fed-up with the expectations levied on her from male figures in her life, especially in the case of romantic partners. After gleefully singing “I am not gonna be what my daddy wants me to be,” Mitski falls to the ground and pounds the floor with her fists. In this moment, she perfectly personifies the rage that is felt through the frenzied lyrics and explosive instrumentals. Towards the end of her set comes “A Pearl,” a track sung by a narrator who has developed an addiction to the toxicity of past unhealthy relationships, thus lacking the skills to navigate a healthy relationship with a partner who seeks to do right by them. Mitski sings “Sorry, I don’t want your touch,” while shielding herself from an imagined partner and shivering in fear of accepting their wellintentioned love and affection. Her actions are not necessarily illustrated as righteous or moral, but they portray the true and honest essence of someone who is unable to function in relationships after being shattered by prior mistreatment. It’s always exciting to watch artists we love perform our favorite songs, but Mitski’s fascinating onstage presence truly elevates the experience. I would’ve been content just singing (or screaming) along with Mitski to bangers like “Nobody” and “Your Best American Girl,”

but instead, I got introduced to an entirely different version of Mitski’s music, one that I could see unfolding right before my eyes. With this, Mitski elevates what it means for artists to perform their music. She utilizes a new medium, this time with a capacity for visual expression, and creates new meanings from her already exceptionally rich discography. Mitski’s on-stage movements are at times strange, at times elegant, yet always mesmerizing and meaningful. I should’ve expected a commanding stage presence from Mitski; her artistry frequently surpasses those of her indie contemporaries. Mitski’s sometimes folksy, sometimes punk indie rock has lifted her to legendary status in the alternative music space. Dubbed by The Guardian as “the U.S.’s best young songwriter,” Mitski is no stranger to acclaim, and for good reason. Throughout her career, she has been praised for her immense songwriting talent and her ability to “make being bummed sound fun.” As I discovered that night at the Shrine, Mitski is perfectly capable of translating the concurrent agony and pleasure of her music into an outstanding live performance — one that I will never forget. Nicholas Black PO ’24 is from Rochester, New York. He is proud to have discovered Mitski in 2019, a year before TikTok.

OpiniOns

March 11, 2022

‘Sad girl music,’ and why fan culture is bad for art NIKKI SMITH If you’ve listened to indie music, spent time online or perused a Scripps College student’s Spotify Wrapped, you’re aware of the cultural impact of “sad girl music,” the soundtrack to the modern cool kid’s mental breakdown. But the recent treatment of singer-songwriter Mitski by her fans has illuminated the dark side of indie-pop stardom and the way we consume art in the digital age. Mitski joins Phoebe Bridgers, Clairo, Soccer Mommy, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, Snail Mail and Japanese Breakfast as just a few of the seemingly infinite singer-songwriters lumped into the category of “sad girl music.” The subgenre has become so popular online that it even has its own Spotify-made playlist. And it’s easy to see why. The creators of sad girl music sing about topics like mental illness, grappling with identity and living through what feels like the end of the world in an intoxicatingly honest way. This vulnerability has garnered the figureheads of sad girl music a large and incredibly passionate fanbase that trends young, queer and female. This trend has been positive in many ways, providing a community for fans and helping talented musicians rise to prominence. I personally connect a lot with the music and messages of sad girl music. Like picking at a scab, it can be satisfying to put on my headphones and feel like someone understands the pain I’m going through. That’s why Mitski was my top Spotify artist in 2021 (whether that’s a brag or a cry for help is unclear). Despite my love for her music, I’m tempted to distance myself from a vocal minority of Mitski’s fanbase. Since she returned from a two year hiatus and began touring her new album “Laurel Hell,” she has been met with frankly embarrassing behavior from fans. Imagine for a moment that you are Mitski, trying to perform emotionally resonant performance art while teenage fans scream sexualizing comments and stale TikTok memes at you. She also tweeted a request for fans not to spend her entire concert recording her, which some fans found so offensive that they took to Twitter in a display of frenzied entitlement until the man-

agers that run Mitski’s account deleted the statement. Fans feel comfortable mistreatings artists in this way because of the harmful way in which online fandom encourages fans to position themselves in relation to the art they consume. Social media has made people feel entitled to participate in the work and lives of artists directly. While at times this accessibility can be beneficial for establishing community, it has the tendency to become invasive and damaging. The term “parasocial relationship” gets thrown around a lot in reference to online celebrities, and while it does seem that a good number of Mitski’s fans forget that she is not their friend or therapist, there’s another layer to this that ties back to the “sad girl music” categorization. The mistreatment of Mitski and other artists stems in part from people viewing art as a part of their own personal identity. Social media’s maelstrom of performance, interactivity and consumption has prompted many young women online to start defining themselves based on the media and aesthetics they consume, as Rayne Fisher-Quann explores in her essay “standing on the shoulders of complex female characters.” If you listen to Phoebe Bridgers, read Joan Didion, wear Doc Martens and watch Fleabag, you are a certified “sad girl.” Once you have defined yourself as a “sad girl,” you begin the search for even more media to consume and glom onto your identity that fits into the narrow self-concept you have constructed. Mitski’s music is raw and relatable for a lot of young people who are still finding themselves, so it’s tempting to add it to the identity pile. However, this way of approaching art is ultimately harmful for both artist and audience. Since fans view Mitski’s music and even her public persona as an integral part of their personal identity, they feel justified in treating her however they want. They have such an emotional connection to her music that they react with hostility if anyone tries to tell them how they should interact with it, even if it is the artist setting necessary personal boundaries. In addition to the direct ha-

rassment, reducing the diverse range of subject matter, musical styles, and performance presentations found in Mitski’s discography into what is easily digestible as “sad girl music” does her work a grave disservice. For example, Mitski is notably one of the only prominent sad girls of color, and themes of struggle with racial identity in songs like “Your Best American Girl” are often overlooked, as they don’t pass cleanly through the relatability filter of the generically white “sad girl.” While it’s true that there’s no “right” way to interact with art, the obvious mental toll that modern fan culture has taken on Mitski and many other artists should make it clear that this is not respectful or constructive for the creative process. After the “Laurel Hell” tour is over, I wouldn’t be surprised if Mitski stopped releasing music again, driven away by the behavior of her fanbase. Exclusively consuming art and media through the lens of carefully cultivated relatability also inhibits the audience from fully experiencing it. Art doesn’t have to mold perfectly onto your personal experiences; appreciate art and music for their ability to challenge you and open your eyes to new points of view. It’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy of online fandom, but it’s worth taking some time to critically examine your relationship to the media and creators you enjoy. Mitski’s plea to not record her shows was an attempt to resist her artistic expression being reduced to mindlessly relatable content. She writes, “When I’m on stage and look to you but you are gazing into a screen, it makes me feel as though those of us on stage are being taken from and consumed as content, instead of getting to share a moment with you.” If you’re gazing through a phone camera, or the narrow view of played out “sad girl” stereotypes, you might miss the art happening right in front of you. Nikki Smith SC ’25 is from Boulder, Colorado. They enjoy hiking, poetry, and making oddly specific Spotify playlists.

PaGE 7

Jasper’s Crossword: shaping up nicely

JaSPEr DaVIDOFF • ThE STUDENT LIFE

ACROSS 1. Phoenix hitters 7. Stravinsky or Sikorsky 11. Lasso played by Sudeikis 14. Bowie tune that goes “We can beat them, just for one day” 15. CNN reporter Raju 16. ___ mode 17. Small role for Paul Rudd? 18. Roman commoner 19. Place to crash at camp 20. Young louse 21. Space between B and C, musically 23. Batteries for some flashlights 27. “I like ___” (campaign slogan) 28. Refreshing coastal breeze 29. Sch. in Fresno or Fullerton 34. Bank with its name on the Mets’ field 35. Frozen solid? 36. 2,000 pounds 37. Niels who studied the atom 39. Test more schools are doing without 40. Netflix show where influencers block players 41. Regret 42. The Jonas Brothers, e.g. 44. Missing, as a soldier 46. Chewy candy with a “White Mystery” flavor 48. Place to drop the ball 51. Director Lee 52. Stops by 53. Area of mysterious disappearances 58. Maple syrup origin 59. “Woohoo!” 60. Steals from 61. Chant that follows Nathan Chen at the Olympics 64. Actress Longoria 65. Second stepdaughter Emhoff 66. Medium for 65-across 67. Kylo destroying planets 68. Bevy 69. John in Monty Python

4. URL ending, often 5. Mauna ___ 6. Digits on a US gov. card 7. Demons 8. Heavy wind 9. Denver’s elevation above sea level 10. Toy you can take for a quick spin 11. Food with carnitas or pescado 12. Musk who just had another kid somehow 13. Occasion 22. Vietnamese new year 24. Place for a villain to lurk 25. Like candles before they’re blown out 26. ___ Lanka 29. Genoa goodbyes 30. Test more schools are doing without 31. Lululemon apparel, e.g. 32. Spot for some nail paint 33. Surround 37. Garment with cups 38. “Of course, mon ami!” 39. Ice Age sloth 40. Natural toothpaste brand 42. Terms in office 43. Child’s cloth toy 44. Off-road ride, for short 45. Console with “Sports” and “Sports Resort” 47. Western omelet protein 49. Inactivity 50. Site for a site 53. Nicole nailing it on Nailed It! 54. Overhang 55. Murphy who created Glee and The Politician 56. Proficient 57. Simple kind of carver 61. MMA org. 62. Pacino with a rhyming son 63. Prez on the five LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

DOWN 1. Trait for an investor committed to HODLing 2. “Respect your siblings!” 3. One for whom education is a craft

LILLIaN VISaYa • ThE STUDENT LIFE

The recent treatment of singer-songwriter Mitski by her fans has illuminated how the the dark side of indie-pop stardom, argues Nikki Smith Sc ‘25.

We must keep the classics alive ANNIKA REFF In early October, following a Board of Trustees meeting, members of the Associated Students of Pomona College discussed the possibility of Pomona moving towards a model focused more on STEM than the humanities. This conversation was prompted by higher demand for STEM courses, the need for more professors in these disciplines and the trend of first-generation students moving away from humanities majors. Although STEM majors are perceived as yielding more practical and secure careers after college, it is essential that Pomona retain its strong instruction in the humanities. Unfortunately, while getting rid of humanities disciplines would surely be an absurd move for a liberal arts college, where study of the arts and literature is integral, some universities are moving away from one humanities field in particular — classics. To fully embrace a liberal arts education, we must do all we can to keep classics alive. Classics is the study of classical Greco-Roman languages, literature, philosophy, religion, history, anthropology, art, mythology and society. Some classics departments also extend linguistic studies to include Arabic, Hebrew and Sanskrit, such as Pomona’s Late Antique-Medieval Studies major, which focuses on the post-classical period of the Mediterranean and Near East. In 2021, Howard University decided to dissolve its classics department. As the only historically Black college and university to have had such a department, this decision led to much outcry. Anthony K. Wutoh, provost and chief academic officer at Howard, explained the reason for the uni-

versity’s decision: “We obviously believe that the content that we offer in classics is important, but we also must contemporize that teaching with practical application.” This emphasis on practicality led prominent intellectuals, such as Harvard University professor and author Cornel West, to speak out against Howard’s decision, calling the move a “spiritual catastrophe.” Further arguments contended that Howard’s decision would make it difficult for Black students to delve deep into their study of classics, and even more difficult for them to enter the academic field. West also emphasized the importance classical texts had for figures like Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. Practicality is not the only problem facing the continued viability of classics studies. Some members of alt-right communi-

ties, especially those on internet chat groups, have harnessed the work of classical thinkers — like Aristotle, Plato and Ovid — as justification for their white supremacist beliefs. By conflating “Western civilization” with whiteness, these groups misappropriate the study of classics for their own racist and misogynistic pursuits. Donna Zuckerberg, a leading classicist and author of the book “Not All White Men,” acknowledges the basis for these ideologies in classical texts: “The fact is that many societies in classical antiquity were very patriarchal, and misogynistic ideas can be found in many canonical texts from ancient literature.” A few years ago, while I was touring Pomona, I attended a lecture by Zuckerberg. In her talk, she discussed the importance of fighting back against the altright’s appropriation of many

classical texts, and how the impetus fell on universities to take a multifaceted approach to the discipline, looking at classics through a lens of gender, ethnicity, immigration and the lower class. In my Latin class last semester, Professor Jody Valentine implemented this approach. In our reading of the Aeneid, we took a broad lens and asked many questions: Should Aeneas be seen as a refugee, fleeing the destruction of Troy? We discussed the role of Dido, painted as the exotic, hypersexualized queen, in contrast to Aeneas’ little-discussed first wife, Creusa. Plain and simple, Pomona must protect its classics department. To leave this discipline behind would suggest three things that I do not believe to be true. First, such a shift would suggest that we, as students, are not critical thinkers. A fundamental part of a liberal arts education is

GaBrIELa caMachO • ThE STUDENT LIFE

Liberal arts colleges must rediscover the value of the classics in the modern day, writes annika reff PO ‘25.

for students to question their curriculum and the past. We should learn to distinguish problematic histories from moral truths. Second, this move would suggest that we should not modernize. I think reshaping and evolving the curriculum to bring in more diverse voices and perspectives should be encouraged. Professor Valentine and many others are doing so already. Third, to do away with classics for its problematic roots is to toss out the beating heart of a liberal arts education. The point of studying classics is not to unquestioningly praise the authors of the past; it is to help us understand history, not because Ancient Greece and Rome were infallible societies, but because they weren’t. To subject an entire discipline to irrelevancy because of the whiteness of its authors is antithetical to the liberal arts spirit. To study classics is not to ignore other peoples or regions, but to better understand the past, how these societies were enjoined and intertwined and how we can avoid making the same mistakes. Classics is deeply interlaced with the fabric of American society. From the Constitution to our system of government, architecture and even our language, Greco-Roman ideas have inspired and shaped much of what we consider to be “American.” While Latin and Ancient Greek are considered “dead” languages, the classics are still very much alive and kicking. To consider removing the department would be a disgrace and a mistake. Annika Reff PO ’25 is from Los Angeles, California. She enjoys consuming an unhealthy amount of caffeine and listening to the soothing voice of Michael Barbaro.

OpiniOns

PaGE 8

Queer representation doesn’t always look the way you expect ELIZA POWERS While recognizing the harmful motives behind queerbaiting, it’s time we recognize the potential for queer-coded characters to be meaningful to the queer community. We can also seek to recognize the opportunities queer-coded characters have for our community when they are claimed by and for queer people. “Queer-coded” characters are never explicitly queer or gender-queer. Their production, a process called “queer-coding,” lies in the subtext: mannerisms, costumes, features, inflection. Queer-coding can often be incidental, as members of the queer community resonate with narratives and characters that may not have been written to read that way. Some critics argue that a queer-coded character garners support for the piece of media by the queer community yet escapes explicit endorsement of queer culture, a process called “queerbaiting.” Others argue that queer-coded characters reduce a widely diverse, expansive community to tired tropes and stereotypes. Critiques of corporations’ attempts to leverage “queer representation” for profit are sound. Large production studios like Disney and Netflix are often more concerned with potential for profit than doing justice to their queer characters. Disney was showered with praise for featuring their first openly gay character, Le Fou in Beauty and the Beast, despite no explicit acknowledgement of this in the film itself. It’s because of the corporatization of queer representation that queer-coded characters hold such potential for meaning. Identifying characters and stories that resonate with queer experiences, whether or not they were written as such, keeps people from relying on one-dimensional representation that’s been churned out for profit. Take “Frozen”, a multi-billion dollar international phenomenon. Elsa — beautiful, isolated, powerful — has been claimed by the queer community as a lesbian. So many young queer girls feel like an outsider like Elsa, and are inspired by her story of resistance, but don’t have the words to articulate it. Yet hanging a poster of Elsa in their room establishes a “safe”

form of self-expression free of public scrutiny. To claim such a widespread, iconic character gives queerness the anonymity to persevere inside those in our community that aren’t ready to fully claim their identity. Queer-coded subtext operates as an invitation to young people. As a young lesbian, Hayley Kiyoko’s peacock earring and QUESTION AUTHORITY T-shirt in Disney’s 2011 Lemonade Mouth might intrigue you. When you’re old enough to get on Youtube, you’ll discover Kiyoko’s “Girls Like Girls” music video, a lesbian classic. But as a young person swathed in a blanket on the couch with your cousins, the QUESTION AUTHORITY T-shirt is a warm welcome. To most young kids in America, subtle allusions to queer relationships are the only queer representation they can safely engage with at home or school. If you’re a lesbian who was born near the turn of the century, you’ll recognize “the bathtub scene” from “Stick It.” The anarchistic, queer-coded gymnastics protagonist in 2006’s “Stick It” doesn’t get a gay love interest, but her impact as a queer icon has been transformational for young queer girls across the nation. A fully-realized gay identity is a process years in the making; a hint of representation is an important start. And the ability of the queer community to go back and claim unintentional “queer icons” of our past is a powerful nod to our resiliency. We should look for queerness in secluded spaces with the intent to spotlight it, not contest it. We should celebrate “queer-coded” characters as a powerful signifier for the resilience of queer culture in confined spaces. If we don’t, we risk marginalizing our peers that are unable or are not ready to fully inhabit their own queerness, and we also risk minimalizing those who fully inhabit their own queerness as “not enough” for us. Eliza Powers PO ’25 is from New Orleans, Louisiana. She loves reality TV, Phoebe Bridgers and searching for the perfect avocado toast recipe.

cOUrTESY: LOrEN JaVIEr VIa FLIcKr

It’s time we recognize the potential for queer-coded characters to be meaningful to the queer community, writes Eliza Powers PO ‘25.

March 11, 2022

Online school can work, if done right

BELLa PETTENGILL• ThE STUDENT LIFE

ALEXANDER CHAO Never before have students from across the world turned to online classes to the extent observed during the pandemic. Isolated at home and away from friends, many people dreaded the experience of having class over Zoom. It didn’t help that schools struggled to set up an engaging and organized online learning experience. If online classes are executed properly, though, they can have many strengths that supplement and improve the quality of students’ traditional in-person education. With the pandemic hopefully winding down, primary and secondary schools should encourage and provide students the opportunity to take online courses in addition to their in-person classes in order to help students break geographical barriers by conveniently connecting them to people from different places across the world for a reasonable price. Most middle and high school students do not have the opportunity and resources to study abroad, sometimes making their learning environment feel like a bubble. However, through taking online courses with small class sizes, students can meet peers from different backgrounds and gain exposure to different cultures and perspectives. While meeting people through Zoom or a similar platform is arguably less engaging than meeting in-person, meaningful conversations and interactions can still be effectively carried out on many online platforms, helping students develop a global network and mindset. For students that are very busy with extracurricular commitments, taking online courses for a semester or a year can also help them better balance their commitments. Personally, I had many high school peers who were busy with long after school training sessions, part-time jobs or internships or frequent trav-

el for athletics, robotics or debate competitions. They were constantly lacking sleep and found it difficult to focus in class. If given the opportunity to take online classes for a semester or year when they would have been the most busy, they would have been able to save a lot of time and energy with transportation and work with a more flexible schedule. They could still take class asynchronously and access the recorded lessons when needed. Learning experiences that happen outside of the classroom are extremely valuable as well, so it is important for students to have the option to use online classes as a way to better balance their commitments. It should be clarified that online learning should not completely replace in-person classrooms, as in the model of Stanford Online Learning or Minerva University, because students and teachers alike are more likely to pay attention when physically present together, instead of calling in from one’s room filled with potential distractions. Teachers can also read the expressions of their students better, helping them clarify when students look confused or call them out when they become distracted. Staring at a screen does not seem to have the ability to recreate the authentic experience of an in-person classroom. That is why in-person classrooms cannot be replaced, but they can still be supplemented by online classes. That being said, the reason why many people experienced a rather distasteful online learning experience is because our teachers lacked experience teaching online. There are many instructors who have successfully gone through extensive training to teach online at educational institutions such as Minerva and Stanford Online High School. Instructors effectively use various digital platforms such as the Forum platform to engage a small class size of at most 18 students in seminars by moving fluidly between discussion, breakout groups, debates, simu-

lations, quizzes, polls and team presentations. During class, instead of giving long lectures, the instructor actively poses questions to students and asks them to respond to polls, to make sure everyone understands the concepts, is engaged and can share their perspectives. Furthermore, the instructor frequently uses the breakout room feature to have students collaborate in groups of two to five to discuss and collaborate on team presentations and documents, making sure that students actively participate through collaboration. Once the class is over, the instructor even takes the time to rewatch the lesson and give tailored, specific feedback based on the responses and work of each student. Thus, the instructor’s deft use of these features to engage students demonstrates that online learning can be effective when the instructors are trained properly to teach online. Another concern is that incorporating online learning into the curriculum may exacerbate educational inequities for K-12 students due to lack of access to fast internet and technological devices. However, it should be noted that the pandemic has spurred increased attention towards ensuring that more students from different socioeconomic backgrounds have fast internet. President Joe Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included a record $65 billion towards making high-speed internet more accessible and affordable. While increasing funds isn’t guaranteed to resolve all inequities, it is a historic step towards making online learning more accessible to all students. The strengths of online learning and its ability to engage students makes it a promising supplement to our traditional in-person learning experience. We should not let its poor execution during the pandemic overshadow the benefits that it provides students: breaking down geographic barriers and offering greater schedule flexibility. Alexander Chao PO ’25 is from Taipei, Taiwan. He enjoys reading about nutrition, watching anime and road cycling.

EDITOrIaL BOarD

Two years in, what does it mean to come back together?

Those who happened to be in Claremont on this day two years ago won’t soon forget the haze of shock and uncertainty when everything changed for good. March 11, 2020 brought the ending of many vestiges of pre-pandemic life. Though they didn’t know it then, students in the classes of 2020 and 2021 sat through their final teary-eyed classes on campus that week. Friends who had planned to ride out the last couple months of the semester together boarded flights, hopped into cars and abruptly went their separate ways. The pandemic has been the stress-test of a lifetime for every institution, and the Claremont Colleges were no exception. In the beginning of what would become known colloquially as quarantine, students, faculty and administrators clashed over the conditions of basic support, questioning what it meant to maintain community when things got difficult. This created, at first, a struggle for students who needed the support they traditionally had on campus to demand that same foundation from their schools both here and from afar, whether it was housing, adequate funding or simply empathy. Students across the consortium firmly stood on the side of equity in grading, pointing out the vast disparities in the possibility for academic achievement between those who had the privilege to devote time and energy to their studies in the new reality and those who didn’t. That alone was revealing: apart from the immense drama that having such a conversation across Zoom and social media caused, leaders revealed their true colors

Editorial Board

when faced with tangible opportunities to keep those who depended on them safe and taken care of. As spring turned into summer and fall, it began to become abundantly clear how some community members wanted to expend their time and energy. Some students raised thousands of dollars and drove in-kind support for their peers in need. Some administrators focused on money for a different reason, working to make up deficits caused by remote learning by cutting off hundreds of the colleges’ most loyal and most vulnerable community members from needed income in a crisis. (It wasn’t inevitable.) Through a year and change of classes online — accompanied by fits and starts of attempting to return each semester, stymied by the pandemic — students and faculty shouldered the burdens of burnout, screen fatigue, disparate time zones and more, still managing to come together and get through the experience. The 5Cs saluted another class of graduates, almost completely remotely. And then, at last, the return came, aided by vaccine mandates and tireless efforts to reestablish the campuses for class and life as we knew it — to an extent. Coming back together has meant obligations to each other that we haven’t known in the past, whether it’s consistent masking or going above and beyond to address the needs for physical distancing and whatever else we could do to keep each other healthy. It’s meant making sacrifices, postponing events and gatherings as needed when case counts reached dangerous levels.

It’s meant forgiving each other when our speech is muffled and some of our brains are foggier than usual. It’s meant patience when the information we needed wasn’t quite there yet. It’s meant having to relearn what it means to be part of something bigger than ourselves. So what do we know today, two years after everything changed? We know, in senses both figurative and literal, that being in community with each other is not an inevitability. It takes every last one of us doing our part day in and day out to ensure we have the continued ability to gather safely, with respect and courtesy, and to ensure that everyone has what they need, even if the things we need to do to make that happen aren’t convenient. As we start moving into what’s next, the “new normal” shouldn’t look like the pre-pandemic. It shouldn’t even look like a “post-pandemic,” because as eagerly as some of our leaders might suggest that’s a possibility, it ignores our obligations to protect each other from a virus that continues to grow stronger and more transmissible. It should look like a 7C community that is now fully aware of what happens when we take care of one another, and what happens when we don’t. We know quite well what both of those states look like. Let’s be mindful that we pick the right one. TSL’s editorial board is comprised of its editor-in-chief and two managing editors, and does not necessarily represent the views of other TSL staff members.

THE STUDENT LIFE

JASPER DAVIDOFF, Editor-in-Chief ANUSHE ENGINEER, Managing Editor CAELAN REEVES, Managing Editor

Senior Staff JAMES KARSTEN, Production Editor GRACE SAUERS, Production Editor MARCELLA CANNATTI, News Designer KLARA JACOBS, Arts and Culture Designer GIULIA BELLON, Opinions Designer JOSIE DE ANDA, Sports Designer LONDON LORDOS, Copy Chief ANNA PREWITT, Copy Chief

HUXLEYANN HUEFNER, Photo Editor NANAKO NODA, Photo Editor BELLA PETTENGILL, Graphics Editor JENNA MCMURTRY, News Editor SIENA SWIFT, News Editor SAMSON ZHANG, News Associate MENA BOVA, Arts & Culture Editor ZOEY LOFGREN, Arts & Culture Editor

LARKIN BARNARD-BAHN, Arts & Culture Associate SAE FURUKAWA, Opinions Editor BEN REICHER, Opinions Editor ALEX CHUN, Sports Editor HANNAH WEAVER, Sports Editor KENNY LE, Diversity & Inclusion Editor ANURADHA KRISHNAN, Diversity & Inclusion Editor GWYN WONG, Business Manager

TSL’s 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. Singles copies of TSL are free and may be obtained at news stands around campus. Multiple copies may be purchased for $0.47 per copy with prior approval by contacting editor@tsl.news. Newspaper theft is a crime; perpetrators may be subject to disciplinary action as well as civil and/or criminal prosecution.

SportS

March 11, 2022

PaGE 9

Undefeated thus far, Sagehens plow through Tigers in snowy Colorado conditions

ABBEY LIAO • THE STUDENT LIFE

Left: Veteran defensive midfielder Sarah Casey PO ‘22 gears up to attempt a shot during an earlier in the Sixth Street Rivalry versus Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Right: Claire LeBlanc PO ‘23 penetrates through the Stags defense.

ALEX CHUN With snow pouring down in Colorado Springs, Colorado last weekend, the Pomona-Pitzer women’s lacrosse team braved fierce conditions to face off against the Rochester Institute of Technology. Despite this change of climate and scenery, the Sagehens cruised to a blowout victory, beating RIT 19-1. The afternoon before, P-P completely dominated the Tigers of Colorado College on their home field, taming them 19-4. Throughout the two games, rookie attackers Fiona Lewis PO ’25 and Sydney Landauer PO ’25 ran roughshod over both Tiger defenses on the field, contributing by netting 10 and eight goals of the Sagehens’ 38, respectively. On the defensive end, goalkeeper Emily Vomvas PO ’22 locked up the Tigers’ offense, earning wins to improve her season record to 5-0.

In the first matchup against Colorado, the Sagehens traded turnovers with the Tigers to begin the game, featuring a competitive, defensive battle in the opening minutes. Soon after, Landauer swooped through the Tiger defense off a Colorado turnover and found the back of the net off an assist from Lewis to make it 1-0. Not even five minutes after the initial stalemate was broken, P-P’s offense began working the Tiger defense. Defensive midfielder Caroline Worthington PO ’23 got in on the action by scoring an unassisted goal, and the Sagehens earned a free position attempt in transition after a costly Colorado foul. Lewis converted the goal at the 8-yard hash mark to extend the P-P lead 3-0. The second quarter proved to effectively put the game out of reach. The Sagehens poured on

the offense within the first five minutes, scoring four goals featuring the efforts of veteran attacker Grace Warner PZ ’23, rookie attacking midfielder Shoshi Henderson PO ’25 and defender Hannah Gough PO ’25. Although Vomvas ceded her first goal of the match soon after, the P-P offense answered by doubling the number of goals scored in the quarter, extending their lead 11-1 by halftime. Henderson led the way with three goals and two assists to this point. This double digit lead continued to balloon in the second half. Lewis tacked on two more goals in the first couple minutes of the third quarter and later assisted midfielder Maggie Sweeny PO ’22 to make it 14-1. To finish out the game, Henderson found the back of the net twice more and assisted another to Landauer in the fourth quarter,

leading the Sagehens to a final score of 19-4. Against the snowy conditions, P-P remained on their hot streak by torching RIT on the field the following afternoon. The game began slower against the Rochester Tigers, as the stalemate remained unbroken until the halfway mark of the first quarter. However, after midfielder Claire LeBlanc PO ’23 caused a Tiger turnover, Lewis found the back of the net in transition. Following this initial goal, Lewis continued to put her offensive skills on full display, tacking on two more to the scores table as the sole scorer of the quarter. Courtesy of her efforts, P-P led 3-0 at the end of the first frame. Other Sagehens quickly joined the action in the second quarter, as Henderson, Warner, Worthington and Landauer completely blew open the game on the offen-

sive end. While Vomvas shut down the goal on the defensive side of things, Sweeney added on another goal towards the final minutes of the first half to make it 11-0, with P-P scoring eight in the quarter. The third quarter featured the same domination from the Sagehen side. Lewis knocked in her fifth and sixth goals in the afternoon towards the later half of the frame, earning her career-high while also assisting Landauer on her second goal. P-P proceeded to score six in the third and pushed on two more scores in the final quarter of action, while RIT earned a consolation goal to tally the final score at 19-1. Now with a 3-0 SCIAC record and on a five-game winning streak overall to begin the season, the Sagehens will next face Cal Lutheran on the road, looking to maintain their perfection in conference play on Saturday.

Claremont men’s rugby is tackling a return to former glory

COURTESY: CLAREMONT COLLEGES MEN’S RUGBY TEAM

The Claremont Colleges Men’s Rugby Team poses for a photo following a match.

ALEX NASONI On Oct. 20, 1906, the first rugby match in Southern California occurred between UC Berkeley and Pomona College — reportedly attended by over 4,000 fans. A century since then, the squad is now known as the Claremont Colleges men’s rugby team, flashing a noteworthy program with a lengthy list of accolades. An impressive achievement includes being the first team to participate in both the DII 15s Championship and the National Small College Rugby Organization Championships, earning multiple wins in both prestigious events within the past decade. For some experienced players, like Marcos Laravello PZ ’25, wins like these have been a norm throughout his international career.

“I know that [rugby] is not big here in the States, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” said Laravello, who hails from Argentina. “But I was surprised to know that the Claremont Colleges team has been winning championships for the past five years; it was great to see that the rugby culture is pretty similar to what was back home.” Despite the similarities with engaging in a winning culture, Laravello had difficulties while making changes to his game in America. He mentioned how transitioning to 15s turns rugby into “a completely different game,” where 15s requires more roles to fill on the field. With the growing numbers of experienced players and progress towards returning to the field, the team has once again resumed competing in 15s this semester.

Another hurdle for the squad was the pandemic. Coronavirus caused a huge loss in momentum built up from multiple consecutive championship years leading up to the 2019 season. The current team only includes four players from the 2019 NSCRO 15s National Championship winning team because of this setback. Even with the initial absence of play, the team has quickly gained new traction since coming back to campus, especially with younger players joining in large numbers. Laravello said the addition of these athletes could signal a return to winning patterns. While bringing in new players necessitates rebuilding chemistry, the team has worked together to incorporate new players into the fold, building up their confidence

and creating a strong base for years to come. This foundation could have been tested in a season opener against the University of San Diego, which was canceled due to a referee issue. Despite the slight setback, the team instead kicked off the season on Saturday The team took on Mira Costa College in an away game, unfortunately coming away from the challenge with a loss. Despite the defeat, Lavarello said the game was a “good test for the team, where they improved for the second half and were more defensive and assertive.” When reflecting on the commitments he has made while beginning the year, Lavarello explained the team’s mentality going into the season.

“We need to have your full commitment. We need you to be there for every training, to be there for every meal, every film session that we do and every match,” Lavarello said. While playing this season, Lavarello also hopes to debunk some of the misassumptions surrounding rugby as well. “There’s a lot more rules specifically designed to keep the player safe,” he said. “Many people think it’s dangerous but there’s a lot of techniques that if you do it right, it will not hurt and you will not get hurt.” Although no official schedule has been released, the team looks forward to many exciting games this season and especially a highly anticipated season-finale clash against rivals UC San Diego, which will be played at home in April.

CLASSES OFFERED ONLINE & IN-PERSON THREE- AND SIX-WEEK COURSES TAUGHT BY HMC FACULTY $3,500 (3-CREDIT COURSE)

View program details, courses and registration information at hmc.edu/summer-session22

GET AHEAD. IGNITE YOUR INTELLECTUAL CURIOSITY.

SportS

PaGE 10

March 11, 2022

Senior spotlight: Madison Quan’s PZ ’22 team mentality helps her shine on the court

ABBEY LIAO • THE STUDENT LIFE

Left: Madison Quan PZ ‘22 goes in for a layup as a Caltech defender watches. Right: Quan gestures for her teammates to get open.

JUSTIN GUO “My personal growth has forever been inspired by the teammates and coaches I have surrounded myself with for the last four years,” Madison Quan PZ ‘22 said of her time playing for Pomona-Pitzer. The team continues to teach me lifelong lessons that I will bring into my career and life beyond basketball.” Reflecting on her impressive tenure as the star guard for P-P women’s basketball, Quan will hang up her collegiate basketball shoes with a career 11.2 points and 3.1 assists per game scorer, averaging 39 percent from the floor. Quan recently received her second consecutive First Team All-SCIAC honors in recognition of her stellar season. She finished at the top of SCIAC leaderboard for steals, averaging 3.4 per game, and also put away an average of 17.8 points per game for her team, the fourth highest in the conference. But before she was leading the

P-P team to a third place finish in the SCIAC championships, Quan was just another kid lacing up kicks for her first practice. Hailing from Los Angeles, Quan started playing basketball when she was five years old. She originally wanted to pursue cheerleading but was inspired by her family to play basketball instead. “Growing up watching my cousins and my uncles play in high school and recreational leagues sparked my interest to play basketball — I wanted to just be like them,” she said. In her junior year of high school, Quan visited the Claremont Colleges and was immediately interested in the programs and campuses. The following weekend, she received an email from the head coach for Pomona-Pitzer women’s basketball, who said that she took interest in Quan’s playing. During her freshman year at Pitzer, Quan was a part of the

Sports Calendar P-P

CMS

Friday, March 11

Friday, March 11

Softball vs. University of Rochester

Men and Women’s Track and Field NCAA Division III Indoor Championships @ Winston Salem, N.C.

Baseball vs. Occidental Men’s Golf Legacy Invitational @ Henderson, NV Saturday, March 12 Men and Women’s Track & Field Oxy Spring Break Meet & Distance Carnival @ Eagle Rock Baseball @ Occidental Women’s Water Polo vs. Whittier Women’s Lacrosse @ Cal Lutheran

Women’s Tennis vs. Emory Saturday, March 12 Men and Women’s Track and Field Occidental Distance and Sprint Carnival @ Eagle Rock Men’s Track and Field NCAA Division III Indoor Championships @ Winston Salem, N.C. Women’s Golf Westbrook Invite at the Lakes @ Phoenix, AZ Baseball vs. Aurora vs. Hamline @ Tucson, Ariz.

Men’s Tennis vs. Swarthmore

Women’s Tennis vs. Bowling Green

Women’s Tennis vs. Emory

Women’s Water Polo @ Pomona-Pitzer @ Haldeman Pool

Baseball @ Occidental Women’s Water Polo vs. Claremont-MuddScripps Sunday March 13 Women’s Water Polo vs. Caltech vs. La Verne @ La Verne

2018-2019 team that, despite being ranked last going into the season, ended up winning the SCIAC championship and traveling to Wisconsin for the NCAA tournament. “No one believed we would go as far as we did — I’m not even sure we believed it ourselves when we made the tournament,” she said. “That moment will forever be cherished in my heart, and I frequently replay it in my head when going into every game.” In her following sophomore season, Quan saw an increase in playing time, going from an average of 16 minutes per game to a whopping 30 minutes per game. She was the only sophomore in the SCIAC conference to receive a First-Team All Conference bid that year, and she also tied the women’s basketball program’s record for most points scored in a single game — 38 points — in a win against Redlands. “I have never been someone

that prides themselves on how many points they score in a game, but more as someone who values assists and sharing the ball more than anything,” Quan said. “I am honored that my teammates trust me the way they do, and I wouldn’t have been able to achieve that monumental career standout achievement without them.” Quan’s basketball endeavors for the 2020-21 season were cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, which she described as the biggest roadblock in her basketball career. But she learned how to bounce back from a negative situation, adding endurance training to her workouts and even developed a new style of breathing in light of required mask mandates. These changes elevated her playing ability for her senior season, Quan explained. Due to the ongoing construction of Pomona’s new athletics center, many P-P teams have been left without a central place to prac-

tice. Quan said this impacted the team, but didn’t stop them from achieving their goals. “[We] made it to the [SCIAC] championships despite all the adversity we have faced this entire season, including the lack of a ‘home court’ and locker room due to the construction of our athletics facility,” she said. This year’s team went 11-5 in their conference, and beat Caltech and Chapman en route to a SCIAC championship game against Whittier, which they lost 79-63 in overtime. Despite the loss, Quan was proud of the team and their season accomplishments. “This year was hard on everyone, but our team’s character and resilience shone through by the way we finished out the season,” Quan said. “We are grateful to have gone to the SCIAC championships and play against strong competition; the potential this team has is remarkable, and I’m so excited to see how far they go in basketball and in life.”

Athletes of the Week Pomona-Pitzer Abigail Wisenthal PO ’24 Women’s Water Polo Los Angeles, CA Over the weekend in the Claremont Convergence Tournament, Wisenthal led the way for the Sagehens in the scoring column en route to a 3-1 weekend, causing problems for opposing defenses throughout the weekend. Seeing her first action in a collegiate pool, Wiesenthal netted goals in every single game, finding the back of the net twice against Concordia and Azusa Pacific. Her goals in the third and fourth quarters proved to be the difference makers for the Sagehens in a close game against Azusa Pacific, with the Sagehens surviving a late fourth quarter comeback and winning the game 7-6. Officially heading into conference play next weekend, the Sagehens will look forward to facing Whittier and CMS in a doubleheader Saturday afternoon.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Sarath Kakani CM ’24 Men’s Track and Field Sammamish, WA

Sunday, March 13 Women’s Golf Westbrook Invite at the Lakes @ Phoenix, AZ Women’s Tennis vs. Babson Baseball vs. Buena Vista @ Tucson, Ariz. Women’s Water Polo @ Redlands

This past Saturday, Kakani became the first CMS athlete to throw further than 50 feet in the shot put since 2011. At the SCIAC Multi-Dual meet hosted by La Verne, Kakani threw 50 feet, 5 ½ inches and for his decisive first place finish was named SCIAC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week. He beat his previous season best by over 6 inches, having previously thrown a 48 feet 0.8 at the Pomona-Pitzer All-Comers meet. The Multi-Dual was also Kakani’s first top finish, leading CMS to a 1-2-3 in the shot put. He will return to the ring during spring break at the Redlands Invitational next Friday.