Search Results

Statements from the candidates for First-Year Class President. First-Year Class President posters hang along the balcony outside of Appleby Hall As the fall semester ramps us, familiar banners hang over the balcony outside Appleby Hall. First-Year Class President campaigns are in full force, and this year's cohort promises to bring you everything from North Quad air conditioning to new party music to chicken-fueled social events. The First-Year Class President (FYCP) sits on ASCMC’s Executive Board as a representative and liaison of the Class of 2027. The FYCP manages a budget of $3000, and is responsible for planning a plethora of events, activities, and initiatives geared towards the Class of 2027 or the broader CMC community. Candidates rush to collect 50 signatures by Thursday at 11:59pm to officially declare their candidacy and earn a spot on the ballot. Speeches will occur during snack (10:30pm) on Thursday, September 19th at Collins Dining Hall! Voting will open starting at Midnight and will be open until 8pm on Friday the 20th! FYCP Candidates (alphabetical order by last name) Clark Cheung Gabe Gardner Selah Han Ismail Iftikhar Ibukun Owolabi Caleb Rasor Gabe Gardner Hi everyone, my name is Gabe Gardner, and I'm running to be your first year class president! These past four weeks have been an amazing way for us to get to get to know one another, but I believe that we can make these bonds even stronger. If I were to be your class president, I intend to grow our already amazing community into an even better, more connected group. I want to plan events that you, the students, want. Whether it’s Raising Canes or Chick-Fil-A at socials or study groups, painting class coolers or di tables, communicating your wants and concerns with ASCMC directly, I will do my absolute best to make sure I am serving you all. On top of this, I would use my position and the resources it comes with for everyone’s best interests. We’ve only been here for a short time, and might not know what needs adjusting, but I can promise you that once we do, I will work my hardest to fix it. I want to be here for everyone and their problems, whether it's social, academic, or personal. College has, and will continue to be, a transition for all of us. Transitions are shaky, scary, and uncertain at times, and I want to be here for you all, so we can build a strong, tight-knit community. Just like RA’s, I want to have open-door hours and times for people to meet and talk with me, and also each other. Socials are going to be one of my biggest focuses if elected, but on top of that, I also want to make sure that I can create environments for people to study and hang out. I want to program for all of you, not just some of you. Selah Han INVEST IN SELAH shes YOUR greatest asset and she won’t SEL YOU OUT! super excited abt possibly representing our class and having a fun year! come up and say hi, I’d love to get to know everyone more! Ismail Iftikhar As freshmen class president, there are two main causes I, Ismail Iftikhar, will dedicate myself to. First, our upperclassmen have been striving, for some time, to include racial-studies as a G.E. This initiative succeeded in attaining approval from the faculty, but has, till now, been submissed by the board. This, to me, is utterly surprising. Racial-studies is a broad category, and almost 85% students fulfill the requirement without it even existing. Thus, it isn’t a matter of academic consideration, rather, a political statement. A statement that we as a community should be proud to make, as only by learning about each other can we truly learn to co-exist. Thus, as the only international student in the race, I pledge to dedicate myself to making sure that CMC stands for such statements. Second, as a leading institution of the world that will give birth to the leaders of tomorrow, we must remain inclusively engaged with relevant global issues. In particular, it is disappointing that CMC has played no role in educating its students on the Israel-Palestine conflict. This isn’t a matter of opinion or sides. It is a matter of principle. We cannot ignore the realities of such terrifying global issues. Thus, considering the uniqueness of the ath, I seek to elevate student involvement in deciding speakers for ath talks, so that we may host speakers that inform us about both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict. While I will work towards other causes, like North-quad air conditioning, increasing budgets for dorms, and evacuating the school whenever there is a fire again (just for free vacations), what I ultimately stand for is simple: to make CMC a place that we and the world can be proud of. A diverse, responsible, honest, and proactive institution. Ibukun Owolabi One of the best success stories in sports history is that of Serena and Venus Williams. Their whole life, they pushed each other as far as physically possible in the sport that they loved. Eventually, their hard work and dedication would lead to their cementation in the Sports’ Hall of Fame! Without one another, they would not have been able to become world champions. Without one another, they would not have been challenged and pushed hard enough to become better. When asked to write this statement, I was challenged. Not because the question was hard, but because there were so many ways to go about answering the question. As I pondered an answer, I thought about how Serena and Venus would tackle such a situation. And I realized that (if they were in such a position of running for Class President of CMC) no matter what their answer to this question would be, they would not go through it alone. That is where I took inspiration from as my answer. Regardless of who ends up as our class president, I encourage and implore you to put your voice and ideas out there. Solutions that seem minuscule to you can be life-changing for other people. Whether you go to senate meetings or reach out to your class representative, please use your voice to make CMC better. If I have the honor to serve you as president, I would love to hear all of the amazing ideas that all 338 of you have and I would love the opportunity to learn more about the beautiful person behind that idea. Caleb Rasor Hey everyone! My name is Caleb Rasor, and I’m running this year for First Year Class President. When your high school ran class president elections, who tended to be the winner? I can guess that they were charismatic, popular, and skilled at speaking. I can also guess that they had elaborate, lofty plans to “change things” – and that those plans never panned out. You may have found yourself disappointed at the end of the year, when all their promises came up empty, that no one had simply vowed to listen. Unlike your class presidents of old, I not only vow to listen – I vow to make it my top priority. I vow to make myself available to all first years so you can voice your concerns and desires. My first line of business will be to make a submission form where, at any time, you can share your thoughts anonymously or with your name attached. With every major decision by ASCMC involving the first-year class, I will specifically ask for your input, and vote according to the sentiments you express. Throughout this year, we will all face opportunities and challenges. There will be clubs to be funded, parties to be planned, physical spaces to be improved, and issues to be resolved. No matter what comes our way, you can rest easy knowing that you set my agenda. I don’t act like I know all the answers – and you shouldn’t settle for a class president who does. Oh, and when I’m elected, I think we can agree on agenda item number 1: improving the CMC party music! Candidates who did not provide a statement will still give speeches! Speeches will occur during Snack (10:30pm) on Thursday, September 19th at Collins Dining Hall! Voting is open starting at midnight and is open until 8pm on Friday the 20th!

Salvatori Center research assistants wrote profiles of overlooked American political thinkers in the areas of conservatism, federalism, gender, and journalism. Conservatism Thinker: William F. Buckley Jr. Author: Jaxson Sharpe Born: 1925 Died: 2008 Spouse: Patricia Buckley Occupation: Editor, author, pundit Education: Yale University (BA) Read about the life and thought of William F. Buckley Jr. here . Thinker:  Harry Jaffa Author:  Henry Fina Born:  1918 Died:  2015 Spouse: Marjorie Etta Butler Occupation:  Professor (Claremont McKenna College) Education:  Yale University (BA), The New School (PhD) Read about the life and thought of Harry Jaffa in forthcoming weeks. Federalism Thinker: Mercy Otis Warren Author: Maribella Munoz Jiminez Born:  1728 Died:  1814 Spouse:  James Warren Occupation:  Poet, political writer Education:  Self-educated Read about the life and thought of Mercy Otis Warren in forthcoming weeks. Thinker: Frances Perkins Author: Gabriel Goldstein Born: 1880 Died:  1965 Spouse:  Paul Wilson Occupation:  United States Secretary of Labor Education:  Mount Holyoke College (BS), Columbia University (MA), University of Pennsylvania Read about the life and thought of Frances Perkins in forthcoming weeks. Thinker: Lysander Spooner Author: Andrew Rizko Born: 1808 Died:  1887 Spouse:  None Occupation:  Lawyer, writer, entrepreneur Education:  Self-educated Read about the life and thought of Lysander Spooner in forthcoming weeks. Gender Thinker: Patsy Mink Author: Nicole Jonassen Born:  1927 Died:  2002 Spouse:  John Mink Occupation:  Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Hawaii Education:  Wilson College, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (BS), University of Chicago (JD) Read about the life and thought of Patsy Mink in forthcoming weeks. Thinker: Alice Paul Author: Caren Ensing Born:  1885 Died:  1997 Spouse:  None Occupation:  Suffragist Education:  Swarthmore College (BS), Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre, London School of Economics, University of Pennsylvania (MA, PhD), American University (LLB, LLM, DCL) Read about the life and thought of Alice Paul in forthcoming weeks. Journalism Thinker: Herbert Croly Author: Sophia Lakhani Born:  1869 Died:  1930 Spouse:  Louise Emory Occupation:  Journalist, editor, author Education:  City College of New York, Harvard University Read about the life and thought of Herbert Croly in forthcoming weeks. Thinker: Walter Lippmann Author: Henry Long Born:  1889 Died:  1974 Spouse:  Faye Albertson, Helen Byrne Occupation:  Journalist, author Education:  Harvard University (AB) Read about the life and thought of Walter Lippmann in forthcoming weeks.

ASPC states that the zine found its way onto their 5C club fair table by mistake.  Students accuse ASPC of spreading “anti-Jewish propaganda” on the Walker Beach art wall Last Wednesday, the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) club table distributed copies of a zine titled “Mask Up”  alongside masks and other materials regarding COVID. The zine’s initial pages provide information on the COVID virus and protective measures, such as testing and effective personal protective equipment.  Front cover of the “Mask Up” zine After the initial pages, the booklet forwards the arguement that the “amerikkkan-israeli empire” weaponizes the COVID virus as a tool of eugenics-based genocide in the first section, “Pandemics are a Tool of the Colonizer.” ASPC table with “Mask Up” zines (credit: Claremont Haverim) Claremont Haverim claimed that the zine’s content was expressly antisemitic and pro-Hamas. The organization pointed to statements such as, “BY BOMB OR BY PATHOGEN, THESE ATTACKS ON PALESTINIAN LIFE ARE MAN-MADE, INTENTIONAL POLICY CHOICES, ONES INTENDED TO CONSOLIDATE WEALTH FOR THE MIS-RULERS OF THE WORLD,” as examples of historic antisemitic beliefs that Jewish populations control disease and wealth.  Haverim also pointed to statements in the zine that “the ongoing Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is a direct attempt to release the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails” and that Hamas is a “national liberal group” as evidence of explicit support for a terrorist movement since Operation Al-Aqsa is Hamas’s codename for the October 7th attacks . The zine also cited a statement by statement by the Palestinian Youth Movement and Writers Against the War on Gaza categorizing The New York Times  as Israeli “state-run media” that spread “unevidenced claims of ‘mass rape’ by Palestinian resistance on October 7th.”  Illustration from “Mask Up” featuring an armed individual masking a child On Tuesday September 10 Avis Hinkson, the vice president of student affairs and dean of students, and Y. Melanie Wu, vice president of academic affairs and dean of the college, announced that the college officially launched an investigation into the incident. ASPC issued a community update on the matter in an email later the same day: “During the course of the club fair, 3-5 copies of a zine that we did not print, the “Mask Up” zine, were mixed up with our own materials. We did not realize and were not notified of this until after the club fair, and we did not produce the zine.” Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Pomona Divest from Apartheid (PDfA) responded to Pomona’s investigation in an Instagram post  on Thursday, September 12. SJP and PDfA called the investigation into the zine’s content and ASPC’s distribution of the material a conflation of antisemitism with anti-zionism. On Monday, September 10, students took to the Walker Beach art wall to levy accusations against SJP and ASPC of distributing “anti-Jewish Propaganda.” By Wednesday, another group of students painted a new message: “Anti-Zionism is not anti-Jewish propaganda. Free Palestine. Intifada. We are not afraid. Disclose. Divest.” Students respond to accusations of antisemitism on the Walker Beach art wall No organization or individuals have publicly affiliated themselves with the zine or claimed responsibility for its distribution. In a comment to The Student Life , Kenneth Wolf, chair of the faculty of Pomona, expressed concerns with a lack of intellectual accountability at the Claremont Colleges: “If you don’t stand up for what you believe in and let people know that you believe in it, everything is muddled from the very beginning, as far as I’m concerned. If something is done anonymously it’s always problematic.” The matter will continue to unfold over the next few weeks as the investigation develops alongside U.S. Department of Education investigations into alleged discrimination against Palestinian  and Jewish  Pomona students.

William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008) William F. Buckley Jr. with his magazine, National Review (credit: The Intercept) William Buckley’s rise to stardom in postwar conservatism demonstrates the continued relevance of the old adage “it’s not what you say but how you say it.”  In The Fire Is Upon Us , Claremont McKenna College (CMC) Professor Nicolas Buccola observes that Buckley achieved prominence as a “communicator and popularizer of conservative ideas. According to Buccola, Buckley wove together “a combination of devout religiosity, strident antiegalitarianism, and deep opposition to the welfare state” into a pithy argument that convinced many that the greatness of the United States required the recognition of “certain immutable truths.”  But as much as Buckley is lauded as a pioneer of contemporary American conservatism, his rise and fall as a conservative icon provides a cautionary tale for today’s political commentators. Although publicity made Buckley, it would ultimately burn him. Buckley’s Rise: Challenge with Charm In Buckley’s first issue  of National Review magazine, he positions his conservative project against a liberal intellectual class that “runs just about everything . There never was an age of conformity quite like this one, or a camaraderie quite like the Liberals’.” The consequences of this social-intellectual monopoly were significant: “Our political economy and our high-energy industry run on large, general principles, on ideas—not by day-to-day guess work, expedients and improvisations. Ideas have to go into exchange to become or remain operative; and the medium of such exchange is the printed word. A vigorous and incorruptible journal of conservative opinion is—dare we say it?—as necessary to better living as Chemistry.” National Review , November 19, 1955.  Core to William Buckley’s conservative ethos was an understanding that political ideology was driven by the press. In order to effectively challenge the dominant liberal order, Buckley’s National Review  needed to distinguish itself: “Especially during NR ’s early years,” observes historian David Farber , “Buckley crafted an ironic tone that made conservatives appear dashing and clever and calls for Christian virtue in the public square sound hip and rebellious.”  Equality: The Solution to Academic (Un)Freedom In 1951, four years prior to the first issue of the National Review , William Buckley published God and Man at Yale  as an undergraduate. The ideas in Buckley’s debut political salvo should sound familiar to the contemporary college student. Buckley alleged that the Yale faculty prompted students to abandon their religious and free market fidelities, rendering them nothing less than “atheistic socialists.” Buckley couched his argument in appeals to “academic freedom.” If it is unacceptable to pontificate on the “anthropological superiority of the Aryan,” Buckley reasoned, then it should also be unacceptable to preach communism and atheism: “My task becomes, then, not so much as to argue that the limits should be imposed  but that existing limits should be narrowed, ” wrote Buckley.  Ironically, since academic open-mindedness was hostile to traditionalism, Buckley charged the university with a sort of close-minded relativism. The problem was not that the collegiate mind needed to be freed, exactly, but rather that the limits imposed needed to be politically equal . Even today, conservative efforts toward rebalancing political perspectives on college campuses are shaped by the arguments pioneered by Buckley in God and Man at Yale . This is especially true in Claremont. In a piece  published by the Duke University Press, Ellen Messer-Davidow explained that Buckley’s National Review  “laid the foundations for everything that followed” by creating “a recognized forum for conservative ideas” and a model of conservative cultural production on college campuses.  In the 1980s , the Institute for Educational Affairs, a conservative tax-exempt group, began a program to fund conservative student newspapers across the country, dubbed the Collegiate Network, in an effort to bust the liberal trust on higher education that Buckley first described in 1951. In 1988, CMC’s own Claremont Independent  was listed  among the 53 original newspaper grant recipients. In 1995, the operation of the Collegiate Network was taken over by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI)—an organization where Buckley served as the inaugural president in 1953. Binder and Wood, in Becoming Right: How Campuses Shape Young Conservatives , saw the ISI’s mission as relatively straight-forward: to promote conservative values on college campuses and create opportunities for “the best and the brightest” conservative minds to “redress the widespread image of conservatives.” While it could seem ironic that the self-avowed Claremont Independent  is dependent, at least in part, on a conservative-aligned influence network, this relationship is well within the bounds of Buckley’s conception of academic freedom first articulated 75 years ago: Academic freedom is not a matter of eliminating all  ideological constraints, but rather a matter of making them equal .  Resolving the Tension: Capitalism and Conservatism Whereas Buckley began his career confronting “atheistic socialism,” it soon became necessary to establish an ordering of conservative values. Buckley appealed to a new conservative tent under a banner of moral authority. Only with the right moral virtues would capitalist economic freedom be worthwhile.  Not all on the Right responded positively to Ayn Rand’s 1957 bestseller defense of capitalism, Atlas Shrugged —among the detractors was William Buckley. “For William Buckely,” writes Professor Farber , “conservatism without the traditional religious faith that placed individual acts, even those of the finest capitalists, in God’s mighty hands, was an empty and even vile thing.” Rather than shrink from the tension between capitalism and conservatism—which would have been easy given that Rand’s primary target was the socialist Left and not the conservative Right—one of Buckley’s best National Review  writers, Whittaker Chambers, sought to confront it head-on . Rand’s sin was the prioritization of materialism, “productive achievement”, over all other values, which Chambers readily admitted “scarcely differs from the same world seen in materialist view from the Left.” Materialism on the Right would lead to the domination of America by the technocratic “industrial-financial-engineering caste.”  The picture of a laissez-faire capitalist system painted by the National Review  was surprisingly dystopian: A society built on “technological achievement, supervised by … a managerial political bureau,” argued Chambers, “can only head into a dictatorship.” While dictatorships fly different banners, Chambers observes “embarrassing similarities between Hitler’s National Socialism and Stalin’s brand of Communism”. By centering the “Randian man” in the same manner as Marx centered the “Marxist man”, the society endorsed by Rand’s rebuke of socialism would make the same moral mistake as the Communists: without the checks and balances of religion, man will build a self-centered dictatorship in a Godless world. The ordering of religious morality before economic freedom would ultimately pay off. Farber explains , that while not all  conservatives bought into Buckley’s “religiously transcendent, intellectually demanding ethos”, for “those who wanted a morally potent, spiritually engaging, intellectually rigorous conservatism, without any hint of backwater Bible-thumping, the National Review  provided the goods.” The Descent: Burned by the Spotlight While Buckley kept appealing to populist sentiments at an arm’s length, Buccola explains  that much of his success was “accelerated by the fact that he proved to be a compelling presence on television.” Often, these appearances would take the form of debates with liberal intellectuals and writers — “Conservatives loved seeing such an articulate defense of their views.” In this period, Buckley’s relentless advocacy paired with a restraint from personal attacks often led his ideological opponents to begrudgingly admire him. He was sharp but cool and collected. In 1962, Buckley began one of his most popular rivalries with the famous Left-leaning writer Gore Vidal by writing a column defending conservatism next to a column where Vidal was attacking it.  During the 1968 Republican and Democratic conventions, Buckley and Vidal were to spend ten nights debating each other on live television on the merits and demerits of liberal and conservative political tracks. This was a showdown of two, sharp-tongued political juggernauts which had been building in the public sphere of television and newspaper columns for years. But as Robert Gordon explained in Politico , “Within minutes of their first conversation, these high-minded individuals took the low road”— instead of a dialogue, they sought to make each other bleed.  William F. Buckley Jr. mid-debate with Gore Vidal (credit: Vox) It wasn’t until the penultimate debate that this feud had finally boiled over. After Vidal called Buckley a “crypto-Nazi”, Buckley — in a surprising moment of disinhibition — responded with venom: “Now listen, you queer , stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face”. Since this moment, Gordon argues , “it’s been downhill.” This highly televised event served as a model for the intellectual bloodsport we see across today’s media landscape. This was not lost on Buckley. In the 2015 documentary about the Buckley-Vidal debates,  Best of Enemies , one person close to Buckley remarked that this moment changed him — his outburst undermined his sense of uprightness and he felt ashamed by his actions. When asked about the debates with Vidal in an interview, Buckley simply responded, “Does TV run America? There is an implicit conflict of interest between that which is highly viewable and that which is highly illuminating….” In an age characterized by a dizzying fusion of information and entertainment, we would be wise to keep Buckley’s admonition in mind.

Riley teaches us that we must first recognize our flaws to experience the true joy of forgiveness. On Wednesday, Inside Out 2  became Pixar Studio’s highest grossing film , bringing in over $1 billion in revenue. Inside Out 2  is also the top grossing movie of the year and the fourth highest grossing animated film of all time. Since 2020, Pixar has struggled to produce box office hits (Credit: TheWrap) Since Pixar’s 2020 flop Onward , the studio has struggled  to please audiences, with no film earning over $200 million until Inside Out 2 . While some have declared Inside Out 2  to be a continuation  of Pixar’s slump, the film’s box office success, amazing animation, stellar score, and standout storytelling say otherwise. Director Kelsey Mann delivers a story that speaks powerfully to the human condition—spoilers ahead. The film introduces new features to the landscape of Riley’s (Kensington Tallman’s) mind. The five cardinal emotions—Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira)—discover a belief system (represented by an aquifer) at the core of Riley’s mind. Memories (represented by marbles) placed in the aquifer create beliefs (represented by strings). These beliefs cohere into Riley’s “sense of self,” depicted as a plant. Initially, Joy, the chief emotion and the protagonist of Riley’s psyche, curates the set of memories that enter the belief system. Joy keeps “good” memories—like Riley assisting the game-winning hockey goal—and relegates “bad” memories—like Riley earning a penalty that almost cost her team the game—to the “back of the mind.” In the words of Joy, “We keep the best and... toss the rest!” As a result, Riley develops a stunted sense of self. Riley expresses her sense of self in her own words—"I'm a good person.” This declaration reeks of a pelagian naiveté—Riley only thinks that she is a good person because Joy has suppressed the memories of her bad actions. When Riley hits puberty, several new emotions arrive, including Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser), and Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Anxiety, with her eerie planning capabilities, quickly establishes herself as the ringleader of the new emotions. Anxiety claims her job is to protect Riley from “the scary stuff she can’t see.” When Riley’s best friends and hockey teammates Grace (Grace Lu) and Bree (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green) tell her that they will be attending a different high school, Anxiety reveals an unseen danger—a friendless four years of high school. Anxiety plans for Riley to abandon Grace and Bree to make friends on the varsity hockey team. When Joy interferes, Anxiety banishes the cardinal emotions from headquarters and sends Riley’s original sense of self to the back of the mind. As the cardinal emotions embark on a journey to rescue Riley’s former sense of self, Anxiety, like Joy before her, begins curating beliefs for Riley. While Joy curates declarative beliefs (“I'm a really good friend”), Anxiety curates conditional beliefs (“If I'm good at hockey, I'll have friends”). To fulfill Anxiety’s conditions, Riley commits several transgressions—she lies, excludes her friends, and sneaks into the coach’s office. Anxiety eventually cultivates a new sense of self for Riley. With echoes of Riley’s former sense of self in the background (“I’m a good person”), Riley develops a new sense of self that makes your stomach drop—”I’m not good enough!” Taken one way, Anxiety’s sense of self is false—Riley’s worth does not hinge on her hockey successes. Taken another way, Anxiety’s sense of self is damningly true. After all, at the back of Riley’s mind is an Everest of failures and immoral actions that Joy has quarantined from Riley’s understanding of herself. While Anxiety reckons with Riley’s flaws, Joy has a similar reckoning as she excavates Riley’s former sense of self from the mountain of bad memories. Joy realizes that the only way back to headquarters is to create an explosion and ride an avalanche of bad memories to the belief system. Amid the avalanche, Joy experiences a quasi-baptismal moment of submersion, overwhelmed by the deluge of Riley’s flaws and need for redemption. Meanwhile, Anxiety attempts to redeem Riley through her own efforts. Anxiety desperately tries to score three goals in a scrimmage to impress the coach and earn a spot on the varsity roster. Anxiety, consumed by this monomaniacal endeavor, has Riley steal the puck from her teammate and collide with Grace, earning Riley a two minute trip to the penalty box. As Anxiety works herself into a frenzy and causes Riley to have a panic attack, Joy surfs to the belief system on a tidal wave of bad memories, which begin to sprout beliefs. Upon arrival at headquarters, Joy admonishes Anxiety, saying, “You don't get to choose who Riley is.” But this admonition also convicts Joy, who realizes that she, like Anxiety, had been trying to dictate who Riley was. Joy discovers that she cannot make Riley good by her will alone. Recognizing her mistake, Joy discards Riley’s former senses of self and allows a new one to grow with bad memories in tow. As the bad memories flood Riley’s sense of self, Riley for the first time gains a painful consciousness of her fallen nature. But this consciousness ultimately equips her to ask for—and receive—unmerited forgiveness from her friend Bree and her (aptly named) friend Grace. This beautiful act of forgiveness allows Riley to experience unalloyed joy, which Pixar represents as sparkles beckoning Joy to the control console. After Riley’s redemptive experience, her mind is once again governed by Joy, but a transformed Joy—a joy aware of Riley’s inadequacy and need for forgiveness. Inside Out 2  teaches an important lesson for children of all ages—we must first recognize our flaws to experience the true joy of forgiveness.

CMC ranked 1st among colleges in student comfort expressing ideas. Photo Credit: WordPress This morning, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) published their 2025 College Free Speech Rankings . After plummeting  to 73rd in the rankings in 2024, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) regained their 2023 ranking of 6th in the country for free speech. The rankings leverage FIRE’s college speech code ratings  as well as College Pulse survey data  from 57,609 students. For the past several years, FIRE has granted  CMC a “Green light” speech code rating, meaning that the college’s policies “nominally protect free speech.” The data include 103 respondents from CMC. Across colleges, CMC ranked 1st in student comfort expressing ideas, 100th in willingness to disrupt campus speaking events, 44th in openness to difficult conversations, 9th in perceived administrative support for free speech, 3rd in tolerance for controversial speakers, and 10th in willingness to self-censor. According to the data, CMC has about 5 students who identify as liberal for every student who identifies as conservative, which is in line with historical data . FIRE also notes that since 2019, CMC administrators have “sanctioned” 3 scholars for speech-related controversies. According to FIRE’s Scholars Under Fire Database , Professors Chris Nadon, Eva Revesz, and Robert Faggen all received administrative backlash for use of the n-word in their classrooms. Other Claremont Colleges fared much worse in the rankings, with Scripps ranked 123rd, Harvey Mudd ranked 153rd, Pitzer ranked 180th, and Pomona ranked 242nd.

BY HENRY LONG IMAGE COURTESY OF THE MIAMI HERALD Throughout his term as Florida governor, Ron DeSantis has signed several K-12 public education reforms into law. The Parental Rights in Education Act , known colloquially as the Don’t Say Gay Bill, grants parents more power to prevent their children from learning about certain topics in school. The Individual Freedom Act , also known as the Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (W.O.K.E) Act, prohibits the teaching of specific ideas related to race. Another law adjusts the requirements for the acceptance and retention of books in school libraries. Republican governors across the country are taking similar steps to adjust K-12 public school curricula. As such, it might be enlightening to examine Supreme Court precedent related to these kinds of K-12 public education cases. The Supreme Court has generally recognized that state and local authorities have broad discretion over educational curriculum—within certain constitutional limits. Some of the earliest Supreme Court education cases reveal these limits. In Meyer v. Nebraska (1923) and Bartels v. Iowa (1923) , the Supreme Court ruled that state laws proscribing the teaching of foreign languages were unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. According to the Court in Meyer, “the purpose of the legislation was to promote civic development by inhibiting training and education of the immature in foreign tongues and ideals before they could learn English and acquire American ideals.” In his majority opinion, while Justice McReynolds did not question “the State’s power to prescribe a curriculum,” he wrote that “no emergency has arisen which renders knowledge by a child of some language other than English so clearly harmful as to justify its inhibition.” The Court has also been clear that a state’s jurisdiction over the curriculum can be limited on Establishment Clause grounds. In Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) , the Court found an Arkansas statute prohibiting the teaching of evolution to be unconstitutional under the First Amendment since the law was found to be religiously motivated. On behalf of the majority, Justice Fortas wrote that “a State’s right to prescribe the public school curriculum does not include the right to prohibit teaching a scientific theory or doctrine for reasons that run counter to the principles of the First Amendment.” The Court also ruled in Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) that a Louisiana law prohibiting the teaching of evolution unless accompanied by the teaching of creationism was unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Justice Brennan, on behalf of the majority, wrote that “because the primary purpose of the Creationism Act is to endorse a particular religious doctrine, the Act furthers religion in violation of the Establishment Clause.” In a concurrence, Justice Powell clarified that “nothing in the Court's opinion diminishes the traditionally broad discretion accorded state and local school officials in the selection of the public school curriculum.” The Supreme Court has also identified limits to compulsory student speech under the First Amendment. While the Court found that a compulsory pledge of allegiance was constitutionally acceptable in Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940) , they reversed their decision just three years later in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) . In the latter case, Justice Jackson, on behalf of the majority, wrote that “Boards of Education . . . have, of course, important, delicate, and highly discretionary functions, but none that they may not perform within the limits of the Bill of Rights.” Thus, the Court has repeatedly affirmed the broad discretion of state and local authorities in matters of educational curricula—provided that their discretion remains within constitutional bounds. Supreme Court precedent on the removal of books from school libraries is more complicated. The Court has only faced one case on this issue— Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico (1982) . In the case, the school board removed books it characterized as “anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-Sem[i]tic, and just plain filthy.” The final ruling was messy—the Court only came to a plurality and not a majority decision. The plurality, led by Justice Brennan, acknowledged that while schools have broad discretion over the acquisition of new library books, “the First Amendment imposes limitations upon a local school board’s exercise of its discretion to remove books from high school and junior high school libraries.” While schools could remove books from libraries if they were “pervasively vulgar” or of questionable “educational suitability,” the plurality held that schools could not remove books in a “narrowly partisan or political manner.” The plurality based their conclusion on a “right to receive ideas.” Justice Blackmun, in his partial concurrence, denies that students have any such right. Justice White’s partial concurrence sided with the majority on the ruling but dismissed its constitutional pontification as unnecessary. Regardless of these disagreements, however, Pico demonstrates that schools’ power to remove books is not unlimited. Supreme Court precedent has repeatedly affirmed the discretionary authority of state and local officials to dictate K-12 public school curricula. These precedents mean that as governor, DeSantis has broad leeway to mandate the teaching of certain topics and bar the teaching of others in a K-12 public school classroom. That said, there are limits to this authority. Opponents of DeSantis’s laws have already filed and may continue to file lawsuits under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and others may file suits challenging DeSantis’s laws as unconstitutionally vague . The courts have already blocked the portions of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act that apply to public colleges and universities. Many of the legal decisions will hinge on how the laws are enforced—both by DeSantis’s Department of Education and by teachers in the classroom. If the application of the laws violates students’ due process rights, limits student expression of certain viewpoints, or is conducted in a narrowly partisan manner, courts might object on constitutional grounds. Ultimately, while DeSantis’s K-12 education laws are no doubt controversial, it remains to be seen whether they will be found unconstitutional.

In 2018, the CMC Board of Trustees published a memo detailing their Open Academy commitments to “freedom of expression, viewpoint diversity, and effective dialogue.” As part of this commitment, the Board vowed to strengthen “student recruiting, faculty and staff hiring, curricular offerings and syllabi choices, invited speakers and engaged formats at the Athenaeum that both bring and take full advantage of viewpoint diversity (whether it derives from experience or belief systems or any combination of the two).” Put simply, the Board committed to recruiting more ideologically diverse students and faculty. The question is: does the data reflect the Board’s commitment to viewpoint diversity? CMC’s oldest available viewpoint diversity data is from the Salvatori Center’s 2016 political attitudes survey, which was conducted 2 years before the 2018 Open Academy memo. According to the data, 53 percent of CMC students identified as liberal, 25 percent as moderate, and 21 percent as conservative, with a liberal-to-conservative ratio of 2.5 to 1. While not perfect, this breakdown reflects a fairly ideologically diverse student body for an elite liberal arts institution. Seven years later, despite the Board’s intervening commitment to viewpoint diversity, ideological diversity at CMC has declined sharply. According to 2024 survey data from CollegePulse and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), 58 percent of CMC students identify as liberal, 20 percent as moderate, and 12 percent as conservative, with a liberal-to-conservative ratio of almost 5 to 1. Over these seven years, the conservative population at CMC was cut in half . In the 2018 memo, the Board pronounced that “since its founding, CMC has been a leader in ideological diversity.” Now, if you compare CMC to its peer institutions, CMC is no longer a leader in this regard. In FIRE’s 2024 data, 6 out of the 21 predominantly liberal private colleges with enrollments under 2,000 students had a lower liberal-to-conservative ratio than CMC: Washington and Lee University, DePauw University, Amherst College, Davidson College, Connecticut College, and Berea College. While CMC is still more ideologically diverse than many of its peer institutions like Pomona and Pitzer, CMC is no longer a leader among liberal arts colleges in regard to its ideological diversity. This summer, I attended the Summer Honors Academy, an academic program at the American Enterprise Institute, which is nonpartisan but known as a center-right institution. According to the organization’s website , “the program gathers students from diverse ideological backgrounds for substantive dialogue and debate about the most pressing issues facing the country and world.” Every year, AEI publishes the political attitudes of its participants. In 2023, 48 percent of AEI students identified as conservative, 12 percent as moderate, and 30 percent as liberal, with a conservative-to-liberal ratio of just over 1.5. It’s disappointing that an ideologically oriented organization can attract a greater modicum of political diversity than CMC, a non-ideological liberal arts college purportedly committed to viewpoint diversity. As a disclaimer, given the small sample sizes, the possible response bias, and other difficulties, no political attitude survey of the CMC student body will be perfect. Some have critiqued FIRE’s methodology and rightly indicated the difficulty of drawing conclusions from the data. That said, the data seem to paint a bleak picture of the outlook for ideological diversity at CMC. Political ideology ratios are also a blunt metric for viewpoint diversity. Geographic, religious, socioeconomic, and ethnic diversity likewise enrich campus discourse. Regardless, political diversity is probably the best proxy we have for viewpoint diversity. If the Board truly values viewpoint diversity at CMC, they must renew their commitment and address the sharp decline in students who identify themselves as conservative. In the board’s own words, “freedom of expression without an equal commitment to viewpoint diversity is of little value.”

Claremont McKenna College, by virtue of its esteemed Robert Day School of Economics, renowned Soll Center for Student Opportunity, and prestigious Robert Day Scholars program, has garnered a reputation as perhaps the pre-professional liberal arts college. Is this a fundamental contradiction of terms? Could a CMC education be at odds with the liberal arts? First and foremost, what exactly are the liberal arts? The term “liberal” in “liberal arts” is derived from the Latin word libertas , which translates to “freedom.” But what kind of freedom? Historically, the “liberal arts” stood in contrast to the “servile arts,” which encompassed education in trades like masonry. Institutions focusing on vocational, trade, and technical education fall under the servile arts, as would pre-medicine and pre-law undergraduate programs. While the servile arts are important and often overlooked, their objectives and methodologies differ markedly from those of the liberal arts. In my Classical Philosophy course this semester, we read Plato’s Republic , a staple of most liberal arts curricula. In the book, Socrates describes three types of goods: those valuable for their own sake, those valuable for their consequences, and those valuable both for their own sake and for their consequences. Socrates places knowledge in the category of goods valuable for their own sake and for their consequences. While the servile arts are concerned with the aspects of knowledge that are useful for other purposes, the liberal arts are concerned with knowledge insofar as it is intrinsically valuable. This summer, I took a course about the liberal arts under (married) Baylor Professors David and Elizabeth Corey. In a 2013 article , David Corey explains that “only at a great liberal arts college do we find people engaged in history, science, physics, music, and art as ends in themselves , not as a prelude to a job or a stepping stone to ‘success.’” Elizabeth Corey likewise laments how modern colleges too often sideline liberal education to promote predetermined practical or political purposes. Under these premises, the CMC ethos seems somewhat anathema to the liberal arts. According to its mission, CMC seeks to “prepare its students for thoughtful and productive lives and responsible leadership,” suggesting that a CMC education is but a prelude for a future career rather than an end in itself. CMC’s unofficial motto is “learning for the sake of doing,” implying that the ultimate purpose of a CMC education is the future doing rather than the present learning. The unofficial motto also raises an important question: Learning for the sake of doing… what? A liberal arts education is meant to answer these questions—not assume them from the outset. Another professorial couple under whom I studied, Ben and Jenna Storey, argue that “many institutions today have forgotten that liberal education itself was meant to teach the art of choosing, to train the young to use reason to decide which endeavors merit the investment of their lives.” In other words, liberal arts education is not simply deliberation about means. If a student has a particular goal, call it X, a liberal arts education is not about showing the student the most effective way to accomplish X. Rather, a liberal arts education involves a deliberation about ends that will challenge the student to defend and possibly reevaluate her original goal X. This is why the growing lack of viewpoint diversity at CMC is so alarming. If most of a student’s peers have similar beliefs about value, purpose, and meaning, the student loses out on opportunities to learn about competing conceptions of the good life and might leave CMC with some of her most fundamental beliefs unchallenged. CMC’s official motto, “ crescit cum commercio civitas ,” translated as “civilization prospers with commerce,” runs counter to the liberal arts project in a more subtle way. Claremont Independent columnist Charlie Hatcher writes , “as a student seeking a liberal education, I oppose any effort for my college to take an institutional stance on political issues. To do so would be an offense to the university’s truth-seeking mission.” But that is exactly what CMC’s motto does: take an institutional stance on a political issue. The motto makes debatable claims about the nature of civilizational flourishing and the value of commerce. Regardless of whether you find this particular position objectionable, it seems an affront to the liberal arts for a college to assert it dogmatically. As someone who loves both the unique character of CMC and the special project of the liberal arts, the tension between the two is difficult for me to reconcile. And certainly, there are professors, students, and administrators at CMC who are genuinely interested in the liberal arts project. But I think that CMC education might be improved by an increased emphasis on the intrinsic rather than extrinsic value of knowledge and a greater willingness to ask and answer questions about fundamental values.

Meet the next slate of CMC Resident Assistants! NORTH QUAD Name:  Chloe Vijandre Dorm:  Appleby Hall (North Quad) Hometown:  Manila, Philippines Major:  Economics + International Relations Hello everyone! My name is Chloe Vijandre and words cannot describe how excited I am to be the RA for Appleby! A little bit about me: I am an international student from the Philippines and was also raised in Vietnam. I am a senior dual majoring in Economics and International Relations. My favorite thing about CMC is the tight-knit community and all the wonderful people I’ve gotten to know throughout the years. From being a FYG, an I-Connect mentor, or simply loitering on Bos patio, I’ve been so lucky to connect with others and I cannot wait to continue fostering such a great community as one of the North RAs. I am always down to chat, jam, play basketball, etc. So come hang out! Name:  Izzy Yau-Weeks Dorm:  Boswell Hall (North Quad) Hometown:  Oakland, CA Major:  Environmental Analysis Hi everyone!! My name is Izzy Yau-Weeks and I’m so excited to be the Boswell RA. I’m a senior from Oakland, CA studying Environmental Analysis on the Race, Class, Gender track. I love CMC’s tight-knit and supportive community and I can’t wait to cultivate a great Bos dorm culture as well. On campus, I’m a Success Coach, member of my 5C a cappella group the After School Specials, and dedicated IM basketball player for THE Jordan Poole’s Baddies. Other than that, I love crafting, jamming out, being outside, and making friends so feel free to stop by my room anytime!!!  Name:  Vito Molina Dorm:  Green Hall (North Quad) Hometown:  Santa Rosa, CA Major:  Economics + International Relations Hello everyone! My name is Vito Molina and I am so excited to be the RA to Green. I lived in Green during my first two years of college and I am so happy to be back! I am an Economics and International Relations dual major from Santa Rosa, California. I love to mountain bike, hike, watch/play soccer, and boulder. On campus, I am involved in SOURCE Nonprofit Consulting (but honestly I still do not know what consulting is). My favorite aspect of CMC is the culture of our close-knit community. There is nothing more inspiring and motivating than being surrounded by such bright, lively, and supportive individuals. I can not wait to meet and connect with all of the Green residents. Looking forward to a great and memorable year together!  Name:  Lucy Thompson Dorm:  Wohlford Hall (North Quad) Hometown:  Bangkok, Thailand Major:  Literature + Media Studies Hello! My name is Lucy, I’m from Bangkok, I’m a Literature and Media Studies major, and I’m going to be the RA for Wolf! I am SO SO SO excited to be part of the RA Cohort, as there is nothing here at CMC I love more than building and participating with our community here. My favourite hobby is HANGING OUT, so please drop my open door hours, Wolf resident or not, and we can chat, read, eat snacks or do whatever together! When I’m not in Wolhford, you can find me creating content for CMC Admissions, singing with the After School Specials, or letting it linger in Collins or the Hub with a cup of tea or a coffee. I can’t wait to foster some awesome dorm community in Wohlford, so shout out Wolf residents, can’t wait to meet you all! <3 MID QUAD Name:  Kobey Jorgensen Dorm:  Beckett Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Hermiston, OR Major:  Biochemistry Howdy! I'm Kobey Jorgensen and I have the privilege of being one of the Beckett RA's! I'm from a few different small towns in Oregon, and I'm majoring in Biochemistry with a sequence in Leadership Studies. I play football for CMS on the D-line and love being active! I pretty much have all of the hobbies: art, reading, exercise, music, etc... I'm not particularly good at any of them though, so come get better with me! I personally have a "work hard, play hard" mentality, and plan on bringing that energy with me to Beckett! Also, I'm actually a transfer student from Silly Goose University, so I'm always down to clown around! I've loved my time at CMC and I hope that you do too! Name:  Nikki Tran Dorm:  Beckett Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  San Diego, CA Major:  Economics Hello everyone! My name is Nikki, I am from San Diego, and I am one of this year’s Beckett RAs! I am an Economics major and on campus, I am involved in APASA, CWIB, RLCIE, and work at the Soll Center and Office of Financial Aid. In my free time, you’ll find me running, at a cafe (anything with oat milk tastes good to me), or talking about a new movie with my friends. Super excited to meet everyone and keep the Beckett vibe alive through on and off campus activities! Name:  Luis Mendoza  Dorm:  Benson Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Warsaw, NC Major:  Philosophy, Politics, & Economics (PPE) + Chicane-Latinx Studies HELLO EVERYONE! My name is Luis Angel Mendoza (he/him), and I'm from Warsaw, North Carolina. I am a QuestBridge Scholar on the pre-law track, studying in the PPE (I can't do Economics for the life of me) program at CMC. I also study Chicane-Latinx Studies, which is a 5C major. You can find me studying (yapping) at the CARE Center, the Motley at Scripps, or the Chicane-Latinx Studies lounge at Pomona. On campus, I have been involved with CARE as a Fellow, Research Assistant for Gould and Keck, Tour Guide, Affinity Group Leader, and MUN (let me know if you have any questions). I also love playing volleyball (who's down to form an intramural volleyball team?), going to the village for some açaí at Ubatuba (better than Pepo Melo), and looking mysterious around campus while listening to music. I can't wait to meet all of the Benson Baddies <3 Name:  Eva Pruitt Dorm:  Benson Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Phoenix, AZ Major:  Philosophy, Politics, & Economics (PPE) + Philosophy  Hi everyone! My name is Eva (she/her), and I’m super excited to be one of Benson’s RAs. I am from Phoenix, Arizona, and I am a dual major in philosophy and PPE with a sequence in legal studies. On campus, I’m one of our Mock Trial team directors, involved with the admissions office, and have loved working with our Philosophy department in research. One of my favorite parts about being a CMC student is going to the Ath! And my other favorite part of CMC is our friendliness, so please say hi if you see me around campus and stop by Benson anytime! I love hiking, reading, making art, listening to music, and being outside. I am also a huge fan of tea, so I'm looking forward to some tea nights in my open door hours :) I am super excited to meet all the Benson residents next year and build an awesome dorm community!! Name:  Meg Birenbaum Dorm:  Berger Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Charlotte, NC Major:  Science Management Hey y'all! My name is Meg, and I am a Science Management major from Charlotte, NC. I am passionate about building community at CMC, and have strived to achieve this as the Vice President of campus organizations in ASCMC and a First Year Guide. I am also involved in Claremont Women in Business, and conduct research at Keck Science. I am a huge animal lover and grew up riding horses and teaching riding lessons. In my free time, I enjoy volunteering at Priceless Pets, going for walks, going to Roberts, or playing pickleball. I look forward to cultivating a fun and welcoming environment in Berger next year and getting to know my residents! Name:  Eddie Wei Dorm:  Berger Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Ames, IA Major:  Economics + International Relations What’s up! I’m Eddie and I am excited to be one of the RAs of Berger Hall. I was born and raised in Ames, Iowa, and study economics and international relations here at CMC. When I’m not working in Poppa, you’ll probably catch me on the pickleball courts, speedrunning every NYTimes game (connections is my favorite!), or leading a campus tour. I also enjoy playing (winning) intramural grass volleyball, watching any law TV show, and cheering on the Iowa State Cyclones. Don’t be afraid to say hi if you see me skateboarding around campus — I’m super excited to get to know anyone I don’t already know and help make everyone’s time here at CMC extra special! Name:  Colin Scanlon Dorm:  Crown Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Sag Harbor, NY Major:  Government + Film Studies Yo! My name is Colin and I am from Sag Harbor, Newww Yoooork. I am a Government and Film Studies dual major, as well as a hurdler for the Track and Field Team. When I’m not at Malott eating breakfast, I love to loiter, scream at the tv cause the Knicks are playing, get funky, discuss leadership battles in the House of Representatives, make obscure references, and to live, laugh, love. Come stop by my room (or else…) for a music recommendation, to overshare, or discuss changes you’d love to see in your community. Now let’s get out there and make a difference! Name:  Kaavya Narayan Dorm:  Crown Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Sunnyvale, CA Major:  Economics Hey everyone! My name is Kaavya Narayan, and I am so hyped to be one of the RA’s for Crown Hall this year. I am from Sunnyvale, California and studying Economics on the Pre-Med Track. If I’m not hanging out in Crown, you can find me losing my voice cheering on the Warriors, giving tours, doing research at KLI, watching the Bachelor, teaching dance at the local senior center, standing in the caprese sandwich line at Collins, or playing on the 5C Club Volleyball team. Can’t wait to hang out with you all soon and build an awesome Crown Hall family this school year!! P.S.--Anytime you see my co-RA Colin, feel free to tell him the Warriors are better than the Knicks :) Name:  Mateo Colbert Dorm:  Marks Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Santa Monica, CA Major:  International Relations What's up! My name is Mateo and I'm from Santa Monica, CA. I'm super stoked to be the RA of Marks! I'm majoring in International Relations (and I studied abroad in Copenhagen). Some people peak in high school, others in college, I'm pretty sure I peaked in pre-school -- I miss nap time and juice boxes. On another note… I like watching TV shows, reading fantasy novels, and frolicking outside. Feel free to hit me up at any time and with any questions. I can’t wait to get to know y’all and plan some awesome events. For those returning to CMC: welcome back, and to y’all arriving for the first time, I’m excited to meet you! Name:  Andrea Posada Dorm:  Marks Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Dallas, TX Major:  Government + Economics Hi! My name is Andrea Posada (she/they) and I’m from Dallas, Texas! At CMC, I’m dual-majoring in Government and Economics (heavy on the Gov) and currently I’m a CARE Fellow, a Student Manager at the Gould Center, and a student assistant at the Faculty Support Office in Kravis. I am beyond excited to be one of the RAs for Marks, and I look forward to creating a safe and fun community for everyone! I love crafting – which includes making collages, painting, making bracelets and embroidery. My favorite snack ever is açaí, specifically from Ubatuba in the village. On campus you can always find me at the CARE Center, the Gould Center, or in my room playing Animal Crossing. Feel free to drop by and chat about whatever, whenever :) I can’t wait to meet y’all!!  Name:  Ilma Turcios Dorm:  Phillips Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Miami, FL Major:  Economics + Government Hi! My name is Ilma and I am SO excited to be Phillips’ RA. I’m Honduran but grew up in Miami, FL, and am an Economics and Government dual major. On campus, I’m a CARE Fellow and have also worked with the Keck and Salvatori Centers as a Research Assistant and at the Mgrublian Center as a Student Assistant. I’m a huge fan of cats, coffee, art, squishmallows, and music. In my free time, I love writing, reading, listening to music, and hanging out with friends–––which I hope to do with my residents. Around campus, you can find me at the CARE center or using up all my Flex at the Motley. I can't wait to meet and get to know all you beautiful people!!! Name:  Daphne Achilles Dorm:  Valach Hall (Mid Quad) Hometown:  Boise, ID Major:  Government + Chemistry Hey y’all! I’m Daphne, I’m a Government and Chemistry major on the Pre-Med track, and I currently call Boise (Boy-see iykyk), Idaho home. I’m so excited to be the Valach RA next year! I can’t wait to host movie and baking nights (Valach has the one kitchen on campus). I am an amateur baker, but would love to hone my skills this upcoming year (If anyone has a tried-and-true gluten-free sourdough recipe, I’m all ears). On campus, I am a peer health ambassador, co-president of CCEMS (I’m an EMT), and I do research in Keck about parasitic infections in local species. Outside of school and extracurriculars, I love spending my free time outside whether it’s hiking, skiing, or rock-climbing! Come stop by and say hi! SOUTH QUAD Name:  Perce Alvarez Dorm:  Auen Hall (South Quad) Hometown:  Riverside, CA Major:  Media Studies Hey Everybody! My name is Perce (they/he) and I'm excited to be one of the Auen RA's! I'm a Media Studies major with a passion for film and animation. On campus, I've worked with the Hive, QRC, and Gould Center on a variety of design projects for queer expression and affinity-focused work. If you've ever seen someone running around the 5C's like a headless chicken with a bell-boy job that was probably me trying to get to class on time. I've been told I'm a bit too passionate about Just Dance but if you're ever looking for a fun challenge feel free to pull up with Rasputin and a Wii controller. All that aside, I am really excited to form new connections with my residents and the CMC community. Name:  Eduardo Mellado Jacinto Dorm:  Auen Hall (South Quad) Hometown:  Los Angeles, CA Major:  Economics + Data Science Hi everyone! My name is Eduardo and I’m from Los Angeles, CA. I’m a senior dual majoring in Economics and Data Science (fun combo but at times too many numbers). On campus I’m involved in SOURCE Nonprofit Consulting (best org on campus!) and you’ll catch me attending 5C Latinx in Tech events. When I’m not busy I like to watch sports (tbh any sport), play video games, try new places at the village, or go out for a coffee. I’m excited to be one of the RA’s for Auen and am looking forward to getting to know all of you. Feel free to reach out if you need anything and say hi if you see me around! Name:  France Ferreira Dorm:  Fawcett Hall (South Quad) Hometown:  Bronx, NY Major:  History Hi everyone! My name is France Ferreira (she/her/ella) and I am from the Bronx, NY majoring in History. I spend most of my time on campus at the Chicano Latinx Student Association building, or in my room! I love anime, baseball and coffee, so if anyone ever comes over, I will offer a cup of coffee while watching a baseball game or an anime. I just spent my junior year studying abroad in Seoul, South Korea, so if anyone would love to chat about studying abroad, please feel free to contact me or find me in my room! I can't wait to get to meet you all and hopefully, we can have a great year! Name:  Stuart McCallum Dorm:  Fawcett Hall (South Quad) Hometown:  Lexington, MA Major:  Economics-Accounting with an MA in Finance Hello! My name is Stuart McCallum. I grew up in Massachusetts, but I’ve really enjoyed the weather in Southern California. I’m studying Econ-Accounting and Finance here at CMC. On campus, I’m part of the CMS Stags Basketball team and the Romero Success Coaches. Outside of my on campus-commitments, I am a board game enthusiast who loves playing Settlers of Catan and a food lover who enjoys both cooking and eating. I love watching all levels of Basketball, especially #d3hoops and the NBA (I am still very much pro-Celtics and anti-Lakers). I’m really excited to live in South Quad for the first time this year in the luxurious Fawcett Hall penthouse. I look forward to meeting and getting to know each of the Fawcett residents! Name:  Brenna Bell Dorm:  Stark Hall (South Quad) Hometown:  Murrieta, CA Major:  Environment, Economics, & Politics (EEP) Hi! I’m Brenna Bell. I’m a volleyball player, research assistant, Coastal Caretaker club president, CMS recreational worker, and now RA! If you want help getting involved on campus, I’m your gal. I’m majoring in Environment, Economics, and Politics, with a minor in Data Science. I love meeting people and helping out! You’ll probably be seeing a lot of boba, crafts, holiday events, and gaming tournaments in stark soon. I love to get outside and play sports of all kinds. If you’re ever feeling brave, challenge me to a ping pong match in Stark! I have two lovely cats at home named Gandalf and Strider. But I love all animals! Especially those underwater. Name:  Kenshin Ueoka Dorm:  Stark Hall (South Quad) Hometown:  Bangkok, Thailand + Kyoto, Japan Major:  Environment, Economics, & Politics (EEP) + Data Science Sequence Hi, I’m Kenshin Ueoka, an Environment, Economics, and Politics Major with a Data Science Sequence. I was born in Japan and grew up in Thailand — CMC is my third home. I’m a Graphite Group Consultant and Romero Success Coach on campus, so feel free to talk to me about anything academic, pre-professional, or personal! Around campus, you might hear me making noise on the Stark lounge piano or on Taiko drums with the 5C Shogo Taiko Club. Aside from that, I love racket sports, golf, boba, photography, and all things anime! I’ve lived in Stark since my sophomore year and loved every minute of it. Let’s go for a game of table tennis, pool, or badminton!  APARTMENTS Name:  Adamaris Sanchez Dorm:  Alexan Kendry Apartments Hometown:  Los Angeles, CA Major:  Economics-Accounting  Hello! Hola! My name is Adamaris Sanchez, an Econ-Accounting major originally from Los Angeles, CA. I am thrilled to be one of the Alexan Kendry RAs this year and look forward to fostering a supportive and inclusive community on and off campus. On campus I am President of the Ballet Folklorico Club de Claremont, a 5C cultural dance performance group! Besides dancing and performing, I enjoy exploring new places with my daughter Everly, studying at my favorite coffee shop Tierra Mia (highly recommend, especially their muffins), and volunteering at early education centers or organizations that serve low-income or first-generation students. I can’t wait to meet everyone and foster meaningful connections with my residents and fellow RAs! Name:  Nelly Haley Dorm:  Alexan Kendry Apartments Hometown:  Chicago Major:  Government + Psychology Hey y’all, I'm so honored to be one of your RAs at CMC! I love community building and interacting with new people. I'm a huge fan of movies/tv shows, books, and music. My idea of a good time is lots of laughs and just making new memories. I love to chat so be prepared for me to talk your ear off. I'm so excited to plan fun dorm events for you guys! Please know I'm here for you all and I hope I can help make campus feel a little more like home. Name:  Matt Meredith Dorm:  Student Apartments Hometown:  Orinda, CA Major:  Economics-Accounting Hey everyone! My name is Matt, I'm from Orinda, CA, and I will be one of the RAs at the Student Apartments this year! I'm an economics-accounting major, also pursuing a sequence in data science. In my free time, I love spending time outdoors, reading books, and playing or watching a variety of sports. I am also part of the CMS men's basketball team. My favorite part of CMC has been all of the amazing people I have been able to meet and spend time with. I'm excited to be able to help spread that positive community at the Student Apartments and throughout campus. I'm always down to chat and connect with new people, so please don't hesitate to reach out! I'm excited for a great year! Name:  Gio Pierre Dorm:  Student Apartments  Hometown:  Woburn, MA Major:  Philosophy, Politics, & Economics (PPE) Hi! My name is Gio Pierre, and I am a philosophy, politics, and economics major from Woburn, MA. I am beyond excited to be an RA at the student apartments this year. My favorite part of my time at CMC by far has been the community. I cannot wait to build a tight-knit community at the apartments and continue to contribute to the wider CMC community. You can catch me playing my guitar or watching the Celtics in my room. I'm looking forward to what the year has in store! Name:  Claire Vlases Dorm:  Student Apartments Hometown:  Bozeman, MT Major:  Computer Science + Ethics Hi! I'm so excited to be your RA this year. My door is always open. I love going to the botanical gardens, being outside in the sunshine, and eating cookies. Catch me at art club, ski club, and coding club! I do love to hit the clubs. I hope to plan a lot of fun events, so let me know if you have any suggestions. I’m so lucky to live in the best community with the best people. :) Let’s make senior year unforgettable! Name:  Xristina Zogopoulou Dorm:  Student Apartments  Hometown:  Preveza, Greece  Major:  International Relations + Psychology  Hey everyone! My name is Xristina and I come from a tiny town in Greece called Preveza. I am a dual International Relations and Psychology major and I will be one of the RAs at the student apartments. I am excited to meet everyone I haven't interacted with yet or reconnect with the ones I have! I love dancing, traveling, and hanging out with people!  Looking forward to an amazing year, my door is always open for you!

On April 5, 2024, about twenty students occupied  Pomona President Gabrielle Starr’s office in Alexander Hall. On April 6, 2017, exactly seven years before the final activists were released from the Claremont Jail, about 250 protestors obstructed  the entrance of Claremont McKenna College’s Athenaeum to prevent author Heather MacDonald from speaking. Campus protests like these are deeply American. Since the free speech movement  at Berkeley in the 1960s, students have leveraged free assembly to advocate for myriad causes, resorting to civil disobedience where protected expression has failed. But might protests distract from the university’s role as a truth-seeking institution and undermine liberal education? David Corey explains  that liberal education involves the study of subjects like “history, science, physics, music, and art as ends in themselves ” rather than as a means to some practical, professional , or political end. In other words, liberal education is liberal  because it is freed from practical concerns. Elizabeth Corey argues  that when universities prioritize activism, they regard education as “a vehicle for the intellectual and moral transformation of society” rather than as an end in itself. At such universities, she writes, “students arrive with views already formed, ready to get the diploma that will allow them to go out and act as agents of social change.” Two recent   op-eds  in The Student Life (TSL)  condemn Pomona for infringing activists’ “​​right to free speech.” Beyond conflating civil disobedience and protected speech, the authors misunderstand the purpose of campus free expression. Free expression commitments are meant to promote  the fearless pursuit of truth in the classroom—not to indulge megaphones and megalomania on the campus quad. For this reason, Claremont Colleges policies  include content-neutral restrictions on protests that are peaceful but disruptive to the academic mission of the colleges. Moreover, walk-outs and sit-ins are not particularly educational . Regardless of the activists’ cause, demonstrations that involve skipping class or occupying educational facilities distract from liberal education. Both TSL  writers object, instead claiming that activism is essential to liberal education. They insist that liberal education is vain if classroom learning is not applied into practical action through “praxis.” But the invocation of “praxis” betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the liberal arts project. “Praxis,” originally a Greek term used by Aristotle, was co-opted by Karl Marx and later by Paulo Freire. Those who invoke praxis in relation to education reveal themselves—whether knowingly or unknowingly—as disciples of Freire. In his seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed , Freire writes that “only men are  praxis, the praxis which, as the reflection and action which truly transform reality, is the source of knowledge and creation.” Since praxis continually shapes reality and is the source of knowledge, “education is thus constantly remade in the praxis.” Under this view, education is and only ought to be a medium for actively reshaping the world. Freire’s pedagogy aims at liberation—albeit a very different kind of liberation than the one offered by liberal education. Freire understands liberation as a continual struggle towards the removal of external limitations on human self-affirmation. According to Freire, nothing is constant except the eternal struggle for liberation. History has no final horizon, and there is no telos  or final end for the human person. David Corey writes  that Paulo Freire’s model of “liberation education is rapidly replacing the older educational tradition known as liberal education.” While liberal education focuses on knowledge insofar as it is intrinsically  valuable, liberation education focuses on knowledge insofar as it is instrumentally  valuable in the fight for liberation. But if, as Freire admits, the Sisyphean struggle for liberation is endless, the value of knowledge can never be realized. As such, while activism may indeed be a noble pursuit, it is a pursuit antithetical to liberal education. Liberal education and disinterested study  demand a modicum of separation  from the concerns of daily life. Activism renders education a mere means of prolonging the quotidian quest for political liberation. Back in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War, Claremont Colleges faculty voted to cancel classes amidst escalating student protests . Harry Neumann, a philosophy professor at Scripps, continued to hold class. When a faculty member asked whether Neumann would ever close the university, Neumann replied, “when all the answers to all the important questions have been found, then it would be appropriate to close the university, and for all the people who have all the answers to all the important questions, the university is already closed.” Let us not prematurely close the university, for there is still much learning to do.

From 8 a.m. Thursday morning until 8 a.m. Friday morning, CMC students had the opportunity to vote on a resolution   passed  by the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College (ASCMC). The header of the resolution describes its purpose: On April 5, 2024, Pomona College’s administration called for the arrest of Claremont Colleges students as they exercised their right to free speech and assembly in support of divestment from ‘Israeli apartheid and weapons manufacturing.’ We condemn the escalation of violence on campus by Pomona College and the administration’s subsequent institutional retaliation due to their chilling impact on discourse, free speech, and the principles of Open Academy. We also reject the use of police due to their presence causing particular risk for Black, Indigenous, brown, Undocumented, and other students. In light of these findings, we call for the 7C Demonstration Policy and CMC FAQs to be revised to protect students’ right to protest and speech. The resolution was approved by 22% percent of the student body and rejected by 9% of the student body. Out of a student body of 1362 students, 419 submitted ballots for a voter turnout of 31%. Of students who submitted a ballot, 70% voted to approve the resolution and 30% voted to reject.  According to ASCMC Chief Ethics and Procedural Officer Paloma Oliveri, “Approval of this resolution means that ASCMC will continue to collaborate with the authors and DOS to determine next steps. We will be in touch shortly with further updates.”