Claremont McKenna College added new signage to its pickleball courts this week to affirm that they are exclusively meant for CMC, Harvey Mudd College and Scripps College students, faculty and staff. The signage was updated after the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College (ASCMC) asked staff at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) Athletics about community members’ access to the courts.
David Lyu CM ’27, ASCMC chief operating officer, initially brought up the pickleball court usage at an Oct. 5 ASCMC senate meeting. He said he was having difficulties figuring out if usage policies — some of which are pasted on signs around the courts — were actually being adhered to.
Prior to the new signage, the main usage sign at the CMC pickleball courts stated that access to the courts, in order of priority, are for physical education classes; CMC-approved events; recreational play by CMC students, faculty and staff; and recreational play by Scripps and HMC students, faculty and staff. The sign does not mention Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) students or Claremont community members.
“I found it difficult to tell how, or whether, the facility’s usage priorities were being enforced,” Lyu said. “I raised [the issue] to start a conversation. Several others in the room echoed the concern, and the discussion broadened into how we share community resources at CMC.”
ASCMC President Amrit Dhaliwal CM ’27 said after Lyu brought up the issue at a student senate meeting, she reached out to Trent Lindsey, CMS Athletics internal operations and facilities manager, to inquire about instating CMS-only hours at the courts. Dhaliwal said Lindsey replied by affirming that the courts are, in general, only open to the CMS community.
“CMC Pickleball Courts are private property,” Lindsey said in an email statement to TSL.
Dhaliwal said that learning community members were not permitted on CMS courts came as a surprise.
“I was under the impression they were, and a lot of people were as well,” Dhaliwal said.
Dhaliwal said in Lindsey’s email to her, he said CMS will be putting up more signage to make usage policies more clear, and that if students find the courts occupied, they can ask employees at Roberts Pavillion to check IDs and request that non-CMS individuals leave.
She also said she hopes students using the courts take Lindsey’s advice, and encouraged students to continue raising their concerns during senate meetings and to their student government representatives.
“I would like students to know that they can go to the front desk at Roberts because that is the best source of mediation,” Dhaliwal said. “If students are still having a hard time using the courts, personally, I would really like it if they reached out to me or ASCMC or CMS.”
Lyu said the next step is figuring out how to allow access to as many 5C community members as possible without disputing the posted rules, emphasizing that “signage alone will not be enough.”
“CMS already has clear priority rules for facility use,” Lyu said. “The open question is how to uphold them without placing an undue burden on everyone involved — 5C students, faculty and staff trying to use the courts; student workers at the Roberts front desk; Campus Safety; the community members we share the space with.”
The Claremont Colleges have two sets of pickleball courts, with one located near Roberts Pavilion at CMC that are open to students, faculty and staff from CMC, HMC and Scripps, and another on Pomona’s campus that is open to all 5C community members.
While the courts at CMC are built primarily for pickleball, the P-P courts double as tennis courts, meaning their nets are designed for tennis, not pickleball. Unlike the courts at Pomona, CMC’s courts have overhead lights that stay on until 1 a.m.
Nicholas Coughlin PZ ’29, who occasionally frequents the 5C pickleball scene and is a part-time professional pickleball coach, said the fact that the courts on CMC’s campus are not open to all 5C students is “weird.”
“I know it’s Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and they share an athletics department, but pickleball isn’t an official DIII sport,” Coughlin said. “[The 5Cs are] all integrated together.
Dhaliwal affirmed that while the rules stated that the courts were officially CMS-only, P-P community members were not, in her opinion, the main targets of the usage policy.
“If a Pomona or Pitzer student were to come to our courts, nobody would say anything,” Dhaliwal said. “But in the language they use, it’s very clearly CMS.”
Dhaliwal said ASCMC is looking into further measures, such as card readers, to ensure the courts are more open to community members at CMC, HMC and Scripps.
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