Writing about TSL in TSL — meta, I know. But I have a good reason for it.
Of 115 students who are working for TSL this semester, only 17 are Claremont McKenna (CMC) students. Although CMC makes up around 22 percent of the five undergraduate Claremont Colleges’ student population, only 14 percent of TSL staff are CMC students.
I am a CMC student who has written for TSL for almost two years now, and my experience has been nothing but positive. But I can’t help feeling out of place during TSL meetings, as almost everyone around me are Pomona, Scripps or Pitzer College students. I have nothing against those students, but it feels like these three colleges have their own student journalism clique that is separate from CMC. Every time I walked into the newsroom, I wondered why this is the way it is.
So, I decided to do some research and I have identified four main reasons why more CMC students don’t write for TSL — a phenomenon that must be addressed.
Currently, there are two other news outlets that are associated with CMC’s students and campus: The Forum and Claremont Independent. Although both online publications accept submissions and staff writers from the other 5Cs, The Forum is housed in and funded by The Salvatori Center, a research institute at CMC. Meanwhile, the Claremont Independent (CI) is officially a 5C club, but it was founded by CMC alumni and most of its staff writers are current CMC students.
Josh Morganstein CM ’25, one of The Forum’s editors, explained why he thinks CMCers are particularly attracted to their mission.
“Every student wants to work at the places that best represent their values,” Morganstein said. “And I think, as CMC students, we have a storied tradition of intellectual diversity.”
On a similar note, Charlie Hatcher CM ’25, the current editor-in-chief of CI, explained how TSL and CI differ and why the latter may be more attractive to CMC students.
“The types of things that CI is most interested in covering are not the types of things that TSL mostly covers,” Hatcher said. “So people who are interested in free speech, academic freedom, viewpoint diversity and administrative overreach are more drawn to CI.”
It seems to me that CMC students stereotype the political leanings and inclinations of TSL. CMC students are mostly liberal, but they are more conservative than the Pitzer, Pomona and Scripps populations. So, when CMC students read articles by writers almost exclusively from these three colleges, which can be very left-leaning, they get the impression that TSL censors or suppresses more conservative opinions.
This is not true. The political representation of TSL stems from the ongoing cycle of our staff makeup: CMC students only see liberal views represented at TSL; CMC students don’t want to write for TSL. More liberal-leaning articles are published by Pomona, Scripps and Pitzer students. CMCers only see liberal views represented, so again, they decide that they don’t want to write for TSL.
There also seems to be an underlying, incorrect view that TSL is associated with Pomona which may arouse a sense of competition, suspicion and dislike from CMC students. It might also imply that TSL’s main audiences are Pomona students, faculty and alumni.
Terril Jones PO ’80, a journalism professor at CMC, commented about this false view that TSL is Pomona-centric.
“There still seems to be some hesitation to go to TSL, because it’s based at Pomona,” Jones said. “There is just a sort of a mental barrier to doing something, maybe cooperative, or something that is perceived as a largely Pomona operation, even though it’s not.”
This is also a mistaken belief, as TSL is not specifically affiliated with any single Claremont College, and it aims to be representative of the views and news on all of our campuses. Of course, this is difficult when writers who have an insider perspective and interest in reporting on CMC are not part of TSL.
That is why a lot of CMC’s campus news goes under-reported at TSL. Morganstein noted this noticeable lapse in TSL coverage.
“If CMC gets lost in TSL, The Forum is here to pick it up,” he said.
The Forum and Claremont Independent are filling a need that TSL is not addressing, and if TSL truly wants to brand itself as the Claremont Colleges’ newspaper, it must place an emphasis on recruiting CMC writers, reporting on CMC and attracting CMC readers.
Yet, there might be other reasons for the disparity. For example, in the past year CMC’s campus has not been as active compared to the other 5Cs, which accounts for part of its absence in TSL.
“If there were more protests on CMC’s campus, would we be seeing more CMC news in TSL?” Jones asked. “Maybe. Perhaps CMC is seen as a quieter, less newsworthy campus, because it’s not creating the headlines that Pomona and Pitzer are. At the same time, [TSL should] go find those headlines. Maybe they’re there.”
Another reason for the differing student demographics at TSL, The Forum and Claremont Independent is that they have different journalistic missions. As the only weekly print publication at the 5Cs, TSL has quicker turnover and does not emphasize investigative journalism, which is a large focus of The Claremont Independent. Additionally, the Forum’s main focus is open-submission op-ed pieces. TSL on the other hand also has sections that publish more creative pieces, such as the Arts & Culture and Sports sections.
CMC students do not seem to value creative journalism, which they frequently associate with TSL, as much as political journalism. Because of CMC’s academic interests as an institution, and the rigorous pre-professional culture, CMC students do not write more creative pieces that they believe may not help them in advancing their professional endeavors. TSL is the newspaper for on-the-ground breaking news, sports and creative journalism, which has value that CMC students may not see.
Having multiple papers at our colleges is a great asset, different news outlets can present different perspectives on the same issue and also specialize in different areas of journalism.
“There’s no reason that The Forum and TSL can’t complement each other,” Morganstein stated. “The more eyes we have on articles across the 5Cs, and the more open discourse we have about issues close to home and those far from home, the better.”
Being one of the few CMC writers at TSL is great because I feel like I am taking on the role of the CMC representative for the other 5Cs. But the other colleges, which make up a lot of TSL’s audience, should, and deserve, to know about the activities, events and movements happening at CMC. But that is only possible if more CMC students join TSL. So come, we need you!
Lisa Gorelik CM ’25 is from Moscow, Russia. She hopes that the TSL newspaper clippings outside her dorm room will inspire more CMCers to join TSL.
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