Claremont McKenna College and Scripps College passed resolutions this month to support phasing out large industrial gas boilers in Southern California. The schools join Pomona College and Pitzer College in showing their support for the cause, whose student governments passed similar resolutions in February and March, respectively.
Jaden Yang PO ’28 and Clarissa Aquino PZ ’26 led the movement for the 5Cs to pass student resolutions on gas boilers. They are 5C Environmental Justice (5CEJ) members and fellows with the Climate Action Campaign, an organization pushing for clean air across California.
The initiative centers around how current gas boilers, most often used for heating, emit nitrous oxides that worsen air quality and contribute to health risks such as asthma and other respiratory problems — issues that Southern California is known for.
Yang said 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, just like they did with small boilers in June 2024. Viable replacements for gas boilers include heat pumps or electrifying gas boilers — replacing them with systems that use electricity rather than burning fossil fuels.
Although CMC and Scripps showed support for stricter regulations on industrial gas boilers, neither college actually has one on its campus — at the 5Cs, Harvey Mudd has one boiler, and Pomona has three.
Still, a show of support from all 5Cs — whether they have boilers or not — is crucial to show SCAQMD that even institutions without boilers are “ready to be regulated” in the future, Yang said.
“There [are] a lot of oil and gas lobbyists who are at public comment and telling the board members that colleges and other institutions don’t want to be regulated,” they said. “Actively showing that the people who will be affected by these rules are fine with it, and willing to be regulated … is pretty powerful.”
On Sunday, April 12, the boiler resolution was presented to Scripps Associated Students (SAS) and passed. Sustainability Chair Oli Yoo SC ’26 played a key role in collaborating with 5CEJ members to develop and propose the resolution.
“It was pretty intuitive and logical for everyone to pass this,” Yoo said.
Maddie Huq PZ ’28, a member of 5CEJ’s Outreach Working Group, said having four of the five Claremont Colleges rally behind the resolution was heartening to see.
“It’s become more evident that the schools are on the same page with all of these issues,” Huq said. “It’s showing a lot of 5C unity.”
On Monday, the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College (ASCMC) voted to send a resolution on gas boilers to the student body for a vote. The results were released Thursday: 9% of the student body participated in the vote, with 87.6% voting in favor of the resolution, according to an email sent to students that morning.
At the ASCMC Senate meeting, the resolution was presented, debated and passed in under five minutes. Senator Ian Akers CM ’26 said that while he appreciated student advocates’ drive to pass resolutions, they should have spent more time raising awareness about the resolution’s aims prior to the vote.
“If this is something that all of the 5Cs should be caring about, then it’s something that we should be a lot better about educating on or making a push for,” Akers said. “That’s just not something that I felt happened [with this resolution].”
The advocates’ next hurdle is securing the support of the Associated Students of Harvey Mudd College (ASHMC) to pass the resolution. Yang said it has been difficult thus far, particularly because Harvey Mudd’s student government “isn’t that familiar with resolutions” compared to senates at the other 5Cs.
But both Yang and Aquino remain hopeful that ASHMC will also support the initiative.
“If all the other schools have also passed [the resolution], I see no reason why Mudd shouldn’t also want to pass [it],” Aquino said. “It’s a good cause to rally behind, and I totally think they are going to support it.”
The duo hopes to get a resolution passed by ASHMC by the end of April, so all 5C student governments can send their resolutions to SCAQMD’s board members by the board’s next meeting on May 1.
“I’m hoping these resolutions show the board that all of these students from these institutions care about the health of people and the quality of their air,” Aquino said. “The students care, and that’s why they should care.”
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