In May 2020, the tiny forms of social contact I retained during schooling in the coronavirus pandemic slowly disappeared, as classes, clubs and jobs ended. Like most, I turned to social media to cope. Contrary to the common belief that social media use inevitably harms mental well-being, my increase in
Opinions
OPINION: Twenty years after 9/11, foreign terrorism isn’t America’s biggest threat
During the 20-year anniversary commemoration of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, former president George W. Bush made a stunning comparison between al-Qaeda and domestic terrorism in his speech — which was widely interpreted as a reference to the insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Bush
OPINION: The humanities are just as important as STEM
When I was in high school, I tried forcing myself to love biology and chemistry. I knew that if I pursued a major in those kinds of subjects in the future, my peers would deem me more intelligent. It was only when I got older that I stopped feeling the
OPINION: Biden must keep his healthcare promise
Seventy-six years after an American president first proposed guaranteeing health insurance to all, the United States still has not achieved that vision — and President Joe Biden is extending the wait. While running for president, Biden maintained that he believed healthcare to be a human right and strongly endorsed a
OPINION: Flipped classrooms should have no place at the 5Cs
Students often diss teachers who don’t teach in class. Yet, in several courses at the 5Cs, this concept is standard practice. To learn new material, students must first struggle by themselves, parsing dense textbooks and scouring the internet for hours just to get a basic understanding of the next lesson’s
OPINION: Pomona must address stresses faced by international students during distance learning
For international students returning to Claremont, exchanging horror stories from the COVID-19 semesters has become a new bonding activity. One and a half years of remote learning did not normalize taking midnight classes and calculating time differences for exams and assignments. Besides the struggles with time zones, international students constantly
OPINION: Socializing can wait, your mental health can’t
The idiom “one step forward, two steps back” never felt so real as when I first stepped on campus. I took mental snapshots of the hundreds of students milling about in established clusters. My anxiety-ridden thoughts raced ahead of all reasoning as I observed my peers who seemed familiar with
EDITORIAL BOARD: Pomona’s disciplinary system is ‘educational.’ Until it isn’t
Pomona College’s recent student affairs decisions show a serious difference between how it talks about discipline and how it really acts.
EDITORIAL BOARD: Reopening is hard, but students deserve better
As the 5Cs prepare to return to campus, the Editorial Board writes, chaos and confusion will be the default unless administrators work to prioritize clarity.
OPINION: Swan song for the class of 2021
With virtual commencement approaching, guest writer Gabe Abdellatif PO ’21 writes on the collective loss experienced by the class of 2021.