The Student Life

Pomona College to host California gubernatorial debate: Here’s what to know

April 24, 2026 2:25 am Chloe Kiparsky 0

On Tuesday, April 28, Pomona College will host the first of four California gubernatorial debates in Bridges Auditorium. 5C students, faculty and administration eagerly anticipate the event, and student political organizations will put on related events such as watch parties and post-debate panels.

Only Pomona students were allowed to enter the selective ticket application to attend the debate in person, but student groups such as the Claremont College’s League of Women Voters (LWV) and 5C Democrats will host watch parties for others to engage in dialogue surrounding the debate.

CMC and Scripps join SoCal campaign for stricter gas boiler regulations

April 24, 2026 1:25 am Kahani Malhotra 0

Claremont McKenna College and Scripps College passed resolutions this month to support phasing out large industrial gas boilers in Southern California.

Jaden Yang PO ’28 and Clarissa Aquino PZ ’26 have led the charge at the 5Cs to pass student resolutions on gas boilers. The end goal of the campaign is to convince the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), a government agency that oversees air quality standards, to phase out the use of medium to large-sized boilers across Southern California.

They hope to get all 5Cs to support the resolution by the end of April, so they can show full support for shifting away from gas boilers at the SCAQMD’s next board meeting on May 1.

Student organizations collaborate to push Metro U-Pass initiative

April 24, 2026 12:20 am Carys Hardy 0

The 7C Transportation Working Group is developing a plan to bring Los Angeles Metro’s U-Pass, a reduced-fare transit pass, to the 5Cs. The group said the program would expand student opportunities and reduce car dependency.
The group — composed of students from the Claremont Urbanists, a club for urban planning, and the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) Sustainability Committee — is advocating for the colleges to enroll in a pilot plan in which The Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS) would purchase U-Pass from LA Metro to give students who pay a one-time $2 fee unlimited rides across a network of 10 transit agencies.

Inside-Out program plans restructuring following Norco prison closure

April 17, 2026 2:35 am Macy Puckett 0

Following a year of uncertainty regarding the program’s future, the 5Cs’ Justice Education Center (JEC) appointed a new interim director, Tessa Hicks Peterson, last month. Peterson has since initiated plans to pilot multiple new partnership models next fall for Inside-Out, as the program navigates reconstruction following its partner institution’s, the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) — also known as Norco prison — closure in the fall.
Inside students currently participating in Pitzer’s Pathway-to-BA program are set to graduate on May 19 after fulfilling the 32-credit course requirement. They will then be relocated to other prisons in California, but they haven’t been told which facilities they’ll be transferred to, according to Peterson.

Looking for New York: Inside Canal Street’s illicit counterfeit market

July 11, 2026 5:44 pm Arianna Kaplan 0

On Canal Street in Lower Manhattan, one can find a Gucci bag for $60, a Knicks jersey for $30 and a Valentino fragrance for $15. Or at least, that’s what the vendors say. We know that the items are fake. But does it matter? Columnist Arianna Kaplan SC ’27 investigates the illegal counterfeit market in New York and examines the role of our purchasing power in the illicit counterfeit market.

The Writing Process: Narrative Space and the New York Knicks

July 10, 2026 5:22 pm Otto Fritton 0

What happens when a writer has too much good material? Otto Fritton PZ ‘27 returns with his not-so-weekly column, The Writing Process. In this edition, he covers Elmore Leonard, widely regarded as the master of crime pacing and dialogue. In “Get Shorty,” that tension manifests in Bo Catlett, whose unrealized potential becomes the novel’s most revealing loose end.

Looking for New York: A love letter to the rats of NYC

June 25, 2026 9:31 pm Arianna Kaplan 0

In New York, rats are everywhere. In Malibu, not so much. Why is it that we are so viscerally disgusted by rats, so instinctively opposed to their presence?

A Girl’s Guide to Terrible Men: Tony Soprano was never just for the boys

June 25, 2026 9:17 pm Bianca Mirica 0

In her first column, “A Girl’s Guide to Terrible Men,” Bianca Mirica PO ’29 examines why women who love mafia stories are so often regarded as performative.

OPINION: AI won’t automate work away, it will expose it

July 11, 2026 3:33 pm Ali Alattar 0

If artificial intelligence replaces every job, humans will face a mass disillusionment. It won’t be the humanist disillusionment we expect — the mythologized anticlimax of humankind, a world where machines outperform us at jobs we thought were uniquely ours. Rather, we will realize that those jobs never needed to exist,

OPINION: You should get to know the local candidates on your ballot

June 25, 2026 9:58 pm Akshay Seetharam 0

The gubernatorial debate hosted at Pomona College earlier this spring made it impossible to ignore the contest to become the governor of California. However, candidates for many other positions, including Claremont’s city council and the State Board of Equalization, deserve equal attention.

OPINION: Pomona needs more rigor. The liberal arts are at stake.

June 25, 2026 9:36 pm Ali Alattar 0

Grade inflation discourse often engages with letter grades as instrumental means to an end: workforce employability, grad-school competitiveness, post-college salaries, and social mobility. At Pomona College, though, debates over grade inflation are also debates about what a liberal arts education should demand of its students.

OPINIONS: Weigh your options — psychiatric drugs are overprescribed

April 24, 2026 4:59 am William Riley 0

Liam Riley PO ‘26 discusses the prescription of psychiatric drugs in the U.S. He discusses the neurochemical model and how it can be a damaging way of looking at the world.

Athenas end Saghens’ 20 year run as SCIAC water polo champs

April 24, 2026 2:36 am Anne Reardon 0

On Saturday, April 18, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) women’s water polo dethroned Pomona-Pitzer’s 20-year reign as SCIAC Champions. Despite P-P’s wins on Feb 25 and April 8, CMS cements its historic season in triumph after beating P-P for the first time in 20 years in January and holding strong for a 14-10 win in this SCIAC Championship game.

The WNBA is in full bloom and roots run closer than you may think

April 24, 2026 2:31 am Ava Fleisher 0

WNBA players’ recent advocacy and negotiations have made headlines, with some critics calling the progress and popularity a modern anomaly. Far from that, Ava Fleisher SC ’28 explores the rich history of women’s basketball at the 5Cs, dating back to Pomona’s groundbreaking 1903 team.

Growing out of the dynasty; saying goodbye to my Warriors-filled childhood

April 24, 2026 2:28 am Charlotte Hahm 0

After a full decade of record-setting dominance in the NBA, the Golden State Warriors dynasty is nearing its end. Charlotte Hahm SC ’28 reflects on her memories growing up alongside the team’s break-out years and how her hometown team’s dependable success fueled childlike hope and naivety.

Seminars and scoreboards: David Goldblatt

April 24, 2026 2:12 am Jake Creelan 0

Pitzer professor David Goldblatt is obsessed with football (soccer). After finishing his undergraduate years at Cambridge University, a young Goldblatt visited a place he hadn’t been since his childhood — a football stadium. This was the spark that ignited his multi-decade tango with the sport, not as a professional athlete but as an author and journalist examining its hidden political and sociological impact.