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.
Author: Macy Puckett
5C Critical Mass’s surveillance teach-in raises concerns about Claremont Police Department camera use
More than 70 people gathered in The Motley Coffeehouse on Feb. 27 to attend 5C Critical Mass’s Teach-In “Watching the Watchers,” which discussed the use of Claremont’s License Plate Reading Cameras in the wake of increased surveillance and immigration crackdowns.
5C Critical Mass, a leftist organization focusing on the intersection of science and social justice on campus, hosted the event to inform students on the impact of local surveillance efforts.
Pomona College to drop Starbucks pending faculty approval
Pomona College may drop Starbucks as a provider for Cafe 47 following a Feb. 25 meeting between members of Associated Students of Pomona College’s (ASPC) Food Committee and Assistant Vice President of Facilities & Campus Services Bob Robinson, according to multiple sources.
Council on American-Islamic Relations designates Pomona ‘hostile campus’
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) designated Pomona College as a “hostile campus” in their December 2025 report that evaluates Islamophobia and free speech on college campuses. From 2024 to 2025, CAIR, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, ranked 51 universities as “unhostile,” “under
Diego Rios’ death ruled homicide by LA County Medical Examiner’s Office
Diego Rios’ death has been ruled a homicide by the LA County Medical Examiner’s office, according to their report released on Thursday, Feb. 12. The ruling comes months after Rios died in police custody after being stopped by Corporal Benjamin Alba and Joshua Orona on Nov. 28. Since Rios’s death, 5C students have rallied with the Rios family to ask for transparency and the release of missing body camera footage. Diego’s official cause of death was ruled as cardiopulmonary arrest, attributed in the report to the “effects of cocaine and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in the setting of prone physical restraint.” According to the medical report obtained by the Claremont Courier, “[t]he manner of death is homicide due to volitional human involvement regardless of the intent of any individuals’ actions.”
Sanctuary Coffee faces potential closure; owner amplifies mission
Sanctuary Coffee will close its locations in Honnold Mudd Library and on Foothill Boulevard at the end of the semester if they do not raise enough money by April, according to owner and Executive Director Dr. Steve Gerali. Gerali, a clinical counselor, youth minister and former university professor and dean,
Dr. Ken Walden assumes role as interim Athenaeum director
On Jan. 5, Dr. Ken Walden assumed his position as the interim director of the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at Claremont McKenna College, following the resignation of former director Priya Junnar. Walden has served as a seminary president, dean, associate professor, university chaplain and enrollment executive, which he said prepared him well for his new role. Violet Ramanathan CM ’27, an Athenaeum fellow, said she got a positive impression of Walden when she and other fellows met with him for lunch in early February, and that he would be “well-equipped” to connect with the many different speakers.
OPINION: Our responsibility to Diego Rios
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.
Pomona enters exclusive negotiations with CGU exploring possible partnership
After months of confidential conversations, Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University (CGU) enter exclusive negotiations and began discussing a potential partnership with community members.
New decorations policy for The Motley awaits administrative finalization
After a year of discussions regarding the future of decorations at Scripps College’s Motley Coffeehouse, a new policy is currently being finalized by the Scripps administration.