In an email to students sent today, Pomona College Dean of Students Avis Hinkson announced the details of Pomona’s three step sanctioning process for students who miss their weekly Covid-19 tests. Later on the same day, Scripps College’s Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Adriana di Bartolo-Beckman announced Scripps’ disciplinary policies surrounding testing. Both institutions agreed that students who miss a certain number of tests will be suspend

A policy update from Dean Marco Valenzuela sent to Harvey Mudd students yesterday announced that Harvey Mudd will be moving into Tier 2 of the college’s three-tier social protocol system. This entails an easing of restrictions on social gatherings put in place to combat COVID-19. Most significantly, the college will now allow social gatherings of up to 20 people, as opposed to 10 people, which was the gathering limit up until today. Private parties with 20-60 people are now a

As apprehension mounted amidst impending Claremont McKenna College (CMC) class presidential elections, aspiring student leaders scrambled to win over their peers. Some candidates promised to “have your back,” while others pledged to direct funds to cafeteria waffle makers. Although ten of the eleven candidates ran on relatively similar campaign platforms, one candidate took an unconventional approach to gain support from his compatriots; he vowed to take a stance against a pr

Earlier today, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) Vice President of Student Affairs Sharon Basso informed the student body “that weekly covid19 surveillance testing is mandatory.” The email also explained that “[f]or those few who failed to get a weekly test – that is a conduct violation. Starting this coming week we will be receiving weekly data reports of any students who have not tested.” Under Claremont McKenna’s student conduct process, a conduct violation constitutes a “mi

Last month, Pomona College, a member of the Claremont Consortium, suspended a transfer student for the fall 2021 semester for failing to comply with COVID-19 regulations by moving into on-campus housing before his appointed date. According to a suspension letter posted by the student on social media, Pomona College wrote that “after a thorough discussion of the circumstances of the incidental and your written statement [the College] found that [the student was] responsible fo

Two days after half of its freshmen and sophomores moved in, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) announced that its Convocation Ceremony will move from an in-person event near Kravis Center to an online event. Earlier in the day, students also learned that the College Programming Board (CPB) is canceling its annual barn party after the Dean of Students approached them. These two announcements reached students three days before the rest of the student body plans to move to campus,

In an email sent yesterday evening, Pomona College Dean of Students Avis Hinkson explained to students that Title IX coordinator Sue McCarthy will be leaving the college for the California State University system on September 1. McCarthy has had a prominent role in several Title IX-related incidents at Pomona, including a discussion involving student blacklists and the suspension of the Pomona College Advocates for Survivors of Sexual Assault program. According to Hinkson’s e

In an ​​email to the student body sent earlier today, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) admitted to having had a total of seven positive cases of COVID-19 on-campus during August, some of which occurred in fully vaccinated individuals. The college has urged students not to linger inside dining spaces to socialize or “connect with multiple groups of people.” In its email, CMC informed students that “[t]he College has had a total of seven positive cases on campus in the month of

Today, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) sent an email to the Class of ‘24 following up on an announcement from CMC’s President Hiram Chodosh on new policies based on new guidance from LA county. The new guidelines include provisions for contact tracing and anonymously reporting policy violators of health regulations. CMC explained that “[s]tudents who test positive for COVID-19 will immediately enter the contact tracing process to identify and notify close contacts. The Colleg

Earlier today, the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC), Pomona College’s student governing body, passed a modified version of its previous resolution to boycott companies listed by the United Nations as active in Israeli West Bank settlements. The version of the resolution passed by ASPC today removed the hotly contested final clause that was the subject of serious debate at ASPC’s meeting last week. The current resolution governs only internal ASPC spending, not clu

In recent years, cancel culture has gained notoriety for high-profile “cancellations” of prominent figures for harmful actions. The #MeToo movement saw people like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby rightly exposed and brought down for instances of sexual assault. In these and other cases, cancel culture has effectively held people accountable for evil actions by giving average people the power to bring wrongdoings to light and deter future transgressions. However, the vagueness

Last week, the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) passed a resolution divesting from companies operating in Israel as listed by the United Nations. The decision prompted outrage among many prominent Jewish groups and on social media nationwide. A petition circulated by Pomona students that called for Pomona President G. Gabrielle Starr to “condemn this resolution and protect the Jewish student body” received around 500 signatures in five days. The resolution has als

China is destroying promised liberties in Hong Kong, committing genocide in Xinjiang, and oppressing more people than any other authoritarian regime in the world. Apparently, these horrors do not matter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as Beijing is set to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The IOC has a weak record regarding cracking down on human rights abuses; in 1936, the games were held in Berlin under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime. Neither the US nor the rest