Frary Provides Free Meals To Students On Financial Aid During Spring Break
Pomona College kept Frary Dining Hall open for the first time over spring break to provide an on-campus dining option for students remaining on campus.
Pomona students on financial aid were provided a subsidized two-swipe-per-day plan that allowed them to access Frary. In total, Pomona students swiped into Frary 2,659 times, according to Associate Dean Frank Bedoya.
The program was launched in response to past requests from students on financial aid “that there be some provision for meals over spring break for those students who stay on campus,” according to an email from the financial aid office to students on financial aid.
Harvey Mudd College also provided meal swipes for Frary to some of its students, who swiped in 587 times, Bedoya added. Students not on financial aid were also able to access Frary using flex, Claremont Cash, or cash. These students are not included in the statistics provided by Bedoya.
— Marc Rod
Myrlie Evers-Williams PO ’68 To Retire
Civil rights advocate Myrlie Evers-Williams PO ’68 announced Tuesday that she will be retiring. Her participation in the Payton Lectureship at Pomona College March 2 — where she spoke alongside fellow civil rights leader Rev. James M. Lawson — marked the last public speaking event of her career.
“As emotional as I was about my decision, I knew this is it. I’m not doing any more. It was just a wonderful, uplifting way to end a career in social justice,” Evers-Williams told the Clarion Ledger of her speech at Pomona.
She now plans to catalogue the “numerous documents, recordings, and artifacts” she has collected to preserve them for future generations, according to the Clarion Ledger.
— Marc Rod
New ASCMC Executive Board Takes Office
ASCMC swore in a group of senators for a new term, including a new executive board, at a March 19 meeting. The new board is made up of Executive Vice President Maya Love CM ’20, Chief Operating Officer Caitlyn Louzado CM ’21, Diversity and Inclusion Chair Salomé Lefort CM ’21, and Vice President of Student Affairs Grace Wang CM ’21.
During the same meeting, Andrew Friedlander CM ’21 was elected to the ASCMC elections committee.
— Marc Rod
PZ Senate Elections Choose Next Executive Board
Shivani Kavuluru PZ ’19 was elected Pitzer College Student Senate president for the 2018-2019 academic year by 83.9 percent of voters, communications secretary Anna Freitas PZ ’20 announced in an email March 9.
Election turnout was low, with only 21.5 percent of the student body, or 236 voters, participating.
Kamyab Mashian PZ ’19, Clint Isom PZ ’20, Jack Kessel PZ ’19, and Brennan MacKay PZ ’19 were elected as vice presidents of internal affairs, external affairs, finance, and student engagement, respectively.
Each of the newly elected vice presidents ran unopposed. Kavuluru defeated Brendan Schultz PZ ’20 in his bid for president.
— Marc Rod
Pomona, CMC Urge Congress To Repeal Endowment Tax
Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr and Claremont McKenna College President Hiram Chodosh were among 48 signatories of a letter to top Congressional leaders urging them to repeal the new federal tax on college endowment earnings.
The tax, part of the Republican tax bill signed into law by President Donald Trump last December, targets roughly 35 of the nation’s wealthiest private colleges, including Pomona and CMC, siphoning 1.4 percent of annual earnings from invested endowment funds.
The signatories wrote that the tax will impede their institutions’ ability to conduct the “critical work” of educating students and conducting research, and “constrain the resources available to the very institutions that lead the nation in reducing, if not eliminating, the costs for low- and middle-income students.”
Pomona’s treasurer, Karen Sisson, told TSL in January that the tax could cost the college between $1 million and $3 million per year. CMC will likely have to pay roughly half that.
Endowment earnings fund 45 to 50 percent of Pomona’s annual operating budget and roughly 30 percent of CMC’s.
— Samuel Breslow
Marc Rod PO ’20 is from Rye Brook, New York. He previously served as TSL’s managing editor, news editor, news associate and news writer.