The Student Life

Coop Fountain operations at risk following destruction of Oldenborg Center next academic year

February 6, 2026 1:39 am Annabelle Ink 0

Plans to destroy Pomona College’s Oldenborg Center in the 2026-2027 academic school year could threaten operations at the Coop Fountain, according to student representatives familiar with the situation. As part of the college’s Global Pomona initiative, Oldenborg will be replaced with the Center for Global Engagement, a facility meant to encourage both global and local partnerships among students and faculty. But one detail in the building’s plans has alarmed students: unlike Oldenborg, the new center will not have an industrial kitchen.

Pitzer announces strategic vision to guide college through next decade

February 6, 2026 1:36 am Quinn Bolster 0

Pitzer College President Strom Thacker announced the college’s new strategic vision in an email to the student body on Jan. 20, outlining changes to Pitzer’s priorities and investments that will be implemented over the next five to ten years. The plan is driven by four central goals: “catalyzing bold, fearless learning, expanding student access, community-building and growing resources,” according to Pitzer’s website.

Students, faculty and alumni discuss ICE and civil unrest in Minneapolis

February 6, 2026 12:44 am Domino McMillan 0

Last Saturday, more than 20 students, faculty and 5C alumni gathered in Claremont McKenna College’s Kravis Center for an event hosted by The Open Academy to discuss the mobilization of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Participants also talked about the recent murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in Minneapolis.

Students question residential security after Scripps transitions to keycard-only door access

February 6, 2026 12:42 am Bianca Mirica 0

Over winter break, Scripps College updated on-campus door readers to enable swipe access, prompting student discussion about convenience and security. Under the former system, students accessed residence halls by scanning their student ID card and entering a personalized four-digit PIN. Isabelle Carlsen SC ’29 said that while she generally feels safe living on campus, the removal of PIN access has made her feel vulnerable.

When art inspires science: ‘The Gallery of Hope’ opens at the Clark Humanities Museum

February 6, 2026 4:12 am Shannon Bigelow 0

At the Clark Humanities Museum’s Gallery of Hope, artist Hadi Madjid’s paintings explore how imagination can precede calculation, and how art and physics can inform one another in unexpected ways. A part of Stories in Science, this exhibit invites students to think beyond disciplinary boundaries and zoom out on the way in which differing fields can complement one another.

‘Where my pitches at?’ A cappella: The new frats of the Claremont Colleges?

February 6, 2026 3:19 am Irikaa Mehrotra 0

A cappella groups are much more important to our college ecosystem than one might think. Some may even say they rival the social infrastructures of Greek life. Mood Swing, just one of many a cappella groups at the 5Cs, draws a parallel between their audition process, held on the morning of Jan. 31, and rushing.

‘Motwrecked:’ 5C students celebrate another semester of the Motley

February 6, 2026 3:08 am Sylvie Simmon 0

On Jan. 30, the Motley opened its doors for its semesterly opening party. Dubbed “Motwrecked,” the party took on a shipwrecked theme, encouraging guests to dress as sailors, fishermen and mermaids. The Motley’s opening party is a coveted 5C tradition, beloved and attended by students from all campuses. 5C students gathered to celebrate the opening and eagerly await another semester of studying and relaxing at the Motley.

The feminine mystique: No one has sex anymore

February 6, 2026 1:13 am Arianna Kaplan 0

Halfway through her third year at Scripps College and freshly back from a semester abroad, Arianna Kaplan SC ’27 has seen it all. In her first column, she reflects on casual hookup culture in the 5Cs and beyond, with a scope on how technology has vastly limited our ability to talk to each other. Even so, this doesn’t stop college kids from trying, and failing, to get down and dirty on the weekends.

OPINION: Our responsibility to Diego Rios

February 6, 2026 3:42 am Macy Puckett 0

Diego Rios died on Nov. 28 after Claremont Police officer Benjamin Alba put his knee on Rios’s neck, holding him in an illegal carotid chokehold for almost two minutes. “The violence demonstrated by Claremont Police and the resulting failure of the city to bring this incident to justice with transparency should be a wake-up call for everyone who calls this city home. State-sanctioned violence is not confined to the streets of Minneapolis; it’s happening in our backyard,” Macy Puckett SC ’28 wrote.

OPINION: Everyone is dialoguing, but who is actually listening?

February 5, 2026 11:19 pm Alex Benach 0

“While the administration and the board of trustees promote dialogue and free exchange of ideas as the best thing in the world, their actual actions are out of touch and completely unaligned with the needs and opinions expressed by the student body,” writes Alex Benach PO ‘28. “If we are to foster a relationship between student body and administration in which various input is actually welcome, said discourse must be followed by responsive, concrete action.”

OPINION: Progressives need to take advantage of white working class anti-elite sentiment

February 5, 2026 11:14 pm Rafael Hernandez Guerrero 0

“The white working-class, however, is not a monolith; they are a heterogeneous group with varying levels of class consciousness and prejudice,” writes Hernandez Guerrero PZ ‘29. “While progressive factions seek to mobilize the American working-class, they fail to meaningfully engage the bulk of the white working class, instead painting a harmful caricature of an imagined racist and uneducated underclass not even worth engaging with.”

OPINION: Pomona’s Café 47 is Ready to Brew Something Better than Starbucks & Nestlé

February 5, 2026 10:21 pm Lina McRoberts 0

“Since January of 2025, union baristas have filed more than 125 unfair labor practice charges, documenting retaliatory firings, bad-faith bargaining, and a pattern of intimidation,” wrote Lina McRoberts PO ‘27 on behalf of the Claremont Student Worker Alliance. “We refuse to subsidize a corporation built on union suppression, retaliatory discipline and a transnational labor regime that exploits workers from Buffalo to Chiapas to Yunnan… Until Pomona turns its course, we are calling on students to withhold purchases from Café 47 and redirect patronage elsewhere.”

Hot dam! Sagehens beat the Caltech Beavers 63-41

February 5, 2026 10:34 pm Jun Kwon 0

Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s basketball defeated the Caltech Beavers in dominant fashion, winning the game 63-41. The Beavers were coached by P-P’s former assistant head coach, Madison Quan, but fell short in a matchup where bench depth proved to be crucial. For Head Coach Alaina Woo, this result is simply a culmination of the work that all 15 players have put into preparing for the season.

Jack Gold and Alex Henderson slug their way to All-American status

February 5, 2026 10:33 pm Zachary LeBlanc 0

D3Baseball.com named both Jack Gold PO ’27 and Alex Henderson CM ’27 to its preseason All-American Team. The two stars helped lead their respective teams to their NCAA Regional tournaments last year, with Henderson and the Stags reaching the NCAA Super Regionals. For the junior duo, the inevitable failure of baseball brings the charm.

Running towards hope: Kirk Lord’s journey with PANDAS

February 5, 2026 10:12 pm Anne Reardon 0

Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) track and field runner Kirk Lord PZ ’28 was adorned with the CALHope Courage Award on Jan. 12, and received $1,000 to his nonprofit National PANDAS/PANS Youth Alliance. Lord, diagnosed with PANDAS in the second grade, will use the publicity and funding to continue his advocacy work surrounding the autoimmune disease.

Biggest Game of the Year, 5C style

February 5, 2026 9:47 pm Jake Creelan 0

On Sunday, Feb. 8, millions of Americans, including many in Claremont, will tune in to the most widely watched American sporting event of the year: Super Bowl LX. This year’s contest is a rematch of eleven years ago, when the New England Patriots dramatically defeated the Seattle Seahawks in the last drive of the game. This year, the Patriots can mark the beginning of a new era, or the Seahawks can look to reclaim the Lombardi Trophy for the first time in 12 years.