Earlier today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) published an article alongside an open letter to Pomona College asking that the administration rescind a required amendment that allows administrators to remove club officers at their discretion. Pomona has not yet responded to FIRE’s request. The amendment was part of a series of requirements for student organizations reported on by the Independent last Monday. The amendment states that club leaders can

Last Friday, in response to the widespread furloughs of Pomona College staff caused by a $37 million budget shortfall resulting from the COVID-19 crisis that came into effect on Oct. 1, the student group Occupy Pomona released a survey “to provide more information to Pomona College about the importance of financially supporting staff through this difficult period.” In the accompanying Instagram slideshow, “Debunking Pomona College’s Excuses For Furloughs,” Occupy Pomona charg

A group of protesters began barking at Trump supporters at a Trump rally in Claremont on October 3. The protesters continued barking when one of the Trump supporters asked if they “kn[e]w how f**king stupid [they] are,” and waved signs bearing slogans such as “Grab Him By The Ballot,” a reference to the president’s 2005 comments about women during an appearance on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. https://twitter.com/TomasMorales_iv/status/1312452128166699009?s=20 Earlier tha

I’ve never seen “The Purge,” but it seems like an unpleasant movie. Although it’s fiction, I believe it holds some truth: it would be bad if we had no law enforcement. This metaphor is fairly involved, but bear with me; I imagine American society as a beautiful vegetable garden. We spend billions each year keeping the weeds away because they inhibit the production of vegetables by stealing nutrients and otherwise hurting the other plants. I think it’s great that we keep the w

The Claremont Colleges are a place where events you couldn’t make up take place. For example, the recent “BlaQ Mixer” event at Pomona College, which initially banned people who weren’t a certain race from attending, was only desegregated after a publication by the Claremont Independent highlighting the event. A similar policy occurred at a Scripps College pool party a few semesters ago. Other events that are exclusionary based on gender or race are becoming increasingly more

This year, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is inviting American Enterprise Institute (AEI) President Arthur Brooks to give its commencement address. CMC’s commencement will take place on Saturday, May 18. “Dr. Brooks continues our tradition of diverse speakers, following Christine Lagarde, Wes Moore, and David Remnick,” CMC spokesman Peter Hong wrote to the Independent. Brooks, who announced that he was stepping down as AEI’s president last year, has been a pivotal proponent

Dear Class of 2019, Congratulations! This week you have officially entered “The Bubble.” You now belong to one of the most intellectual, elite liberal arts institutions in the country—where reasoned discourse and thoughtful debate are not just encouraged, but actively kept alive by your many bright and vocal peers. The Claremont Independent is the catalyst that drives our most lively, heated student discussions. We are the leading outlet for students whose views differ from—a

Between the George Will disinvitation at Scripps, the Allan Cunningham controversy at Harvey Mudd, and the one-sidedness of political discussions at the Claremont Colleges as a whole, it was a rough year for those who made controversial statements at the 5Cs. It is no surprise, then, that the Claremont Independent has experienced unprecedented growth this year, doubling the size of its staff to 40 writers. While CI writers used to be almost exclusively CMC students, all five

Bill Kristol has made quite the career for himself. Twenty years ago, after stints in government, the academy, and non-profits, he co-founded the Weekly Standard, the nationally influential conservative magazine where he is editor today. Kristol is also the Chairman of the Board of Governors at Claremont McKenna’s Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom in the Modern World, which hosted his talk at the Athenaeum last Thursday. At the Ath, Kristol predicted that,

As it turns out, Republicans have obtained an historic majority in the House of Representatives, will likely pick up nine seats in the Senate, and have even managed to achieve a net gain in governorships by winning in the solidly blue states of Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland. It would be tempting to sit back, write an article telling the 5Cs “we told you so,” and bask in the glory of these midterm results; however, it is perhaps more constructive to reflect on how the

By Chris Gaarder and Hannah Oh Here at the Claremont Independent, we aim to kindle meaningful discussion by introducing less commonly held views on a variety of campus issues. In his latest opinion piece, Harry Arnold ‘17 expresses his views on the promotion of Pomona’s Plan B vending machine and its negative moral and social implications. However, we argue that, from an economic standpoint, there is a strong free market case to be made in defense of vending machines that sel

As many of you now know, George Will was recently disinvited from speaking this coming February at Scripps College’s Elizabeth Hubert Malott Public Affairs Program, a series that is designed to bring one distinguished conservative figure per year to a campus that is, otherwise, ideologically homogenous. Will assumed it was because of what he wrote in a controversial column on sexual assault. As he told the Claremont Independent in an interview, “they didn’t say that the colum

As a conservative in an overwhelmingly liberal college environment, it can often be difficult to engage in intellectual discourse with like-minded individuals. Two CMC students, Cameron Ridley ’15 and Kelsey Heflin ’16, recognized this problem, as well as the conservative movement’s inability to “provide an easily graspable alternative to the strong rhetoric of the Left.” Together they established the CMC chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, a non-profit group devoted to a

In a 1996 interview, Robin Williams described Claremont McKenna College, where he spent his freshman year, as “very conservative, with a lot of economists, a lot of think tank guys.” The school has changed a good deal since Williams was on campus; but there is still a sizable subset of students who dream to work at the American Enterprise Institute or National Review. Such think tank-types are engaging in a debate that is reshaping and revitalizing the conservative intellectu

The Claremont Independent has come under fire recently. Not only were several copies of our most recent issue physically torn apart on the Scripps campus for brandishing the sign of the devil (the drawing on the cover was of the GOP elephant), but the magazine also found itself being torn apart within the opinion pages of The Student Life, where one columnist opined on what he found most “incredulous” about the Independent. It is worth pointing out that we believe it a comple