Student journalists play a vital role in the 7C community. We are documentarians who value truth, justice and integrity, driven by passion for our work and a sense of duty to our communities. As part of our duty to this community, we feel obligated, as editors of major news publications on campus, to speak out against patterns of repression of both journalistic and activist speech at the 7Cs.
At this time, all three publications represented in this op-ed — The Outback Newsprint Magazine, Claremont Undercurrents and The Scripps Voice — have experienced intimidation or retaliation from Pomona administrators for our reporting.
On Oct. 15, Pomona College imposed a full-year campus ban on The Outback’s co-Editor-in-Chief (EIC) Ben Lauren PZ ’25 for reporting on the takeover by over 100 students of Carnegie Hall on Oct. 7, 2024. This was despite him announcing himself as press to multiple Pomona deans and exiting the building before it was closed by Pomona administrators. Due to his adherence to Pomona policy as well as the freedoms guaranteed under the California Education Code, Pomona had no choice but to overturn his ban.
Over the past two weeks, Pomona’s President G. Gabrielle Starr suspended 10 students for the remainder of this academic year without due process, revoking their right to a judicial hearing. Pomona Dean of Students Avis Hinkson also sent campus ban letters to dozens of non-Pomona students, preventing them from accessing campus for a full academic year. While Lauren’s ban was overturned, Pomona denied nearly every other student’s appeal.
Pomona’s ban on Lauren — issued without evidence and with the vague allegation of him being “present” at the protest — has made clear that press, especially student press, is not valued on this campus. We stand in solidarity and community with students across the 7Cs who have not been given due process regarding their bans or suspensions. We work to tell the stories of students unjustly persecuted by the hands of the administration, especially the members of our community who have been failed by the institution they depend on for protection.
Over the past year, the Outback has created an inclusive environment for students to engage in diverse discourse, submit and publish work and ultimately foster community. We have interrogated the status quo and told stories that are often overlooked. We are the only student publication at Pitzer College, melding art, literature, news, politics, culture and so much more. We attempt to represent and care for Pitzer, and to tell our community’s unique stories through all forms of media. For Pomona College to ban our EIC for covering a protest performed by the members of our community is an outright attack on our very mission.
The Outback, Undercurrents and The Scripps Voice have all covered the “Palestine Exception” before. It is a term used to describe how reporting and activism regarding Palestine is usually punished and restricted far more intensely than coverage of other movements. What we see most glaringly is that this exception manifests in Pomona and other 7C administrations’ fear of having their names published in a title alongside Palestine, or being associated with it at all. No matter what we do regarding coverage of anything having to do with Palestine, it will always be treated differently. Repercussions have always been harsher. This is the manifestation of the Palestine Exception on our campuses. Pomona threatened to call the police on The Outback’s EIC if he stepped foot on Pomona campus while banned, regardless of whether it’s to go to TSL headquarters, go to class or report on Pomona’s activities.
Pomona has made students afraid to speak out, and by subjecting the free press to therein the wake of their mass and indiscriminate punishments, Pomona is seeking to silence the one of the few remaining channels students have to share their voices. Lauren’s ban worked to silence a major media outlet at the 7Cs during two weeks of uncertainty and chaos in Claremont. In addition to being unable to report on anything happening physically at Pomona, Lauren had to devote extensive time to writing his appeal letter and suddenly figure out how to not fall behind in his three Pomona classes.
Pomona administration is intimately familiar with Lauren as a leader of the press at the 5Cs. Aside from his role as EIC of The Outback for the past three semesters, Lauren was also EIC of TSL last semester. He ran the largest, oldest and most prolific paper at the Claremont Colleges, which, crucially, has been based at Pomona for over a century. In both Hinkson’s email informing him of the ban and in Starr’s letter officially banning him, Pomona administrators referred to him on a first-name basis as “Ben.” Never before in his entire collegiate career has an email from an administrator — including all communication from Pitzer about the ban — been initially addressed as anything other than “Benjamin.” He is referred to as Ben, however, on his LinkedIn, through the TSL website and through the Outback. They know who he is.
“At this time, all three publications represented in this op-ed — The Outback Newsprint Magazine, Claremont Undercurrents and The Scripps Voice — have experienced intimidation or retaliation from Pomona administrators for our reporting.”
For The Outback, Lauren’s ban was a slap in the face for all of the work we, and he, have hoped to do in service of our community. Over the past year we have reported objectively and fairly on Pomona and Starr’s administration, Lauren especially serving as a prominent voice for both The Outback and TSL. He has been willing to be critical of both the actions of the administration as well as of students. He has conducted thorough investigations, providing clear accusations and evidence. Critically, he has always allowed Pomona administrators the opportunity to respond. Pomona’s refusal to explain how Lauren posed such a grave threat to his own community that they needed to remove him from it, displays just the beginning of their lack of civility toward him or any other student they have chosen to discipline without due process. In tandem with the bans, Pomona has displayed a lack of human decency in suspending undocumented, BIPOC, and/or low-income students who rely on their institution not only academically, but for housing, food, basic needs and legal protection.
The Outback has and will continue to hold Pomona and all 7C administrations accountable, providing fair and just reporting as Pomona has increased its retaliation upon students. This commitment is not shaken by the intimidation tactics of the Claremont Colleges and we will continue to investigate the mistreatment of students. We all hope that anyone on campus who identifies as a journalist is willing to stand against the suppression of student voices.
On Oct. 16, the day after Lauren’s ban, Pomona brought disciplinary charges against Claremont Undercurrents for our reporting on Oct. 7, 2024.
These charges are an unprecedented act of retaliation against our reporting, and carry the threat of sanctions including club suspension or funding elimination.
In the two years since our founding, Claremont Undercurrents has been at the forefront of covering student organizing and corresponding repression at the Claremont Colleges, from uncovering Pitzer ’s illegal firing of workers who expressed union support in 2023 to consistent action coverage throughout the campaign for Pomona to divest from the genocide in Palestine.
Throughout those two years, Undercurrents has worked to build trust with the 7C community, holding ourselves to high standards for accuracy, verification and safety. We have held ourselves accountable to the community, as exemplified by our public statement and policy change in response to concerns about our coverage of an action on Dec. 8, 2023.
Our campus journalism has also made national-level impacts. In August, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into anti-Palestinian discrimination at Pomona College, sparked by a Palestine Legal lawsuit that cited our reporting. National and international news publications, including The Intercept and Mondoweiss, have also picked up our stories.
On Oct. 7, our reporters covered a divestment action at Pomona College, documenting the protest as well as administrators’ subsequent crackdown.
As a registered 5C club, our editors also have established communication channels with Pomona administration. If Pomona wanted to discuss Undercurrents’ reporting practices in good faith, they would have reached out to us for a direct conversation. Instead, they escalated directly to a disciplinary case, displaying punitive rather than constructive intent.
We will not be intimidated. We will defend our principles, and the necessity and righteousness of our work, as we engage with the disciplinary procedure.
At a time when our peers are being evicted from campus or fired from their jobs for solidarity with Palestine, our reporting of repression and organized resistance from students is crucial. We urge you to continue standing in solidarity with Undercurrents’ mission of documenting and amplifying anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist organizing at the Claremont Colleges.
On Oct. 7, Pomona Assistant Vice President of Facilities and Campus Services Bob Robinson physically intimidated a student reporter from The Scripps Voice (TSV) who was outside Carnegie Hall, loudly questioning if the student was a reporter and violating their personal space. Robinson has a documented history of physical aggression towards students who investigate Pomona administration’s injustices; in 2011, several students filed a police report after Robinson kicked a chair at them during a conversation about Pomona’s mistreatment of dining workers.
The harassment of a TSV reporter by a Pomona administrator exemplifies the college’s disregard for student safety and journalistic integrity. Despite the student identifying themself multiple times and backing up to maintain professional, respectful boundaries, Robinson made an egregious intrusion into the student’s physical space. This incident is only one example of Pomona’s continued effort to infringe upon student expression, which damages the capacity for just, truthful coverage of institutional harm to students’ well-being, education and bodies. While Pomona punishes students en masse for exercising their First Amendment rights, it is crucial to maintain protections for student journalists who are holding institutions accountable.
TSV is dedicated to upholding its ethos of amplifying marginalized voices and reporting truthful student experiences. We have published an editorial statement in solidarity with those mobilizing against the genocide in Palestine and those living under occupation. At TSV, we center student perspectives while examining our institutions to give agency in broader social change.
Pomona is setting an incredibly dangerous precedent surrounding freedom of speech on campus. The college’s willingness to suspend and ban students expressing solidarity with Palestine, without presenting any evidence or allowing due process, is perilous to the future of free speech and freedom of protest at these colleges. Pomona’s ban on The Outback’s co-Editor-in-Chief, threat of sanctions against Claremont Undercurrents, and intimidation of a The Scripps Voice reporter are active attempts by Pomona administration to quell student voices and ultimately suppress pro-Palestinian student activism on campus.
We are in solidarity and community with all students facing retaliation without due process. We will continue to tell your stories. Thank you for trusting us.
Ben Lauren
Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Outback Newsprint Magazine
Willa Umansky
Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Outback Newsprint Magazine
Maya Olson
Managing Editor of The Outback Newsprint Magazine
Samson Zhang
Editor-in-Chief of Claremont Undercurrents
Ellen Wang
Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Scripps Voice
Juliette Des Rosiers
Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Scripps Voice
Frances Walton
Co-Editor-in-Chief of The Scripps Voice
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