Most of us have heard the adage, “your college years are the best years of your life.” For some, this statement is less true, especially for those who have to adjust to an entirely different culture and move over 8,000 miles away for college. This state of affairs is my situation. However, I commend Pomona College, and the rest of the Claremont Colleges Consortium, for doing a lot to make this statement true even for international students. They immensely support internationa

Earlier this year, Pomona College made the decision to eliminate the requirement that applicants disclose their criminal history during the admissions process. Instead, admitted students with a criminal history will be asked to disclose the nature of their crimes to an admissions committee prior to enrollment. However, Pomona would not automatically rescind admissions of admitted sutdents who have committed sexaul offenses or violent crime. Pomona did not clarify whether viol

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

In an email sent to the student body earlier this afternoon, Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr expressed concern about “the impact upon [Pomona] students of last week’s guidance from ICE about the status of international students on F-1 visas for the fall semester.” The president confirmed that Pomona has joined 20 other colleges in the western United States in “suing the federal government today to block the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from revoking visas

In a recent petition released by the 7Cs (Claremont Colleges) For Black Lives Matter Coalition, student activists made a series of demands directed at the administrations of the Claremont Colleges. Citing “recent acts of anti-Black violence and the national uprisings in support of the Black Lives Matter movement,” the students called on their respective colleges to “enact systemic change within [their] institution[s] and to use [their] platform[s] to advance racial justice.”

In an initial email to students regarding the political turmoil in the United States on June 1, Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe, contrary to the expectations of many, made no references to “Black Lives Matter.” Student activists protested because Black lives were not explicitly mentioned in the statement. President Klawe later held an online webinar on June 23 for students to voice their concerns, where she explained the reason she did not want to use the term “Blac

The Claremont College Consortium’s Queer Resource Center’s (QRC) “BlaQ Mixer,” which previously explicitly excluded non-black students, is now open to all students. The Independent previously reported that the event description was “a closed event for black queer, trans, & intersex students, staff and faculty at the 7Cs [the Claremont University Consortium].” However, within the last 24 hours the QRC altered the event description to read that the “event centers [around] black

While rhetoric on college campuses often falls along lines of radical inclusivity, more and more events at the Claremont Colleges appear to be segregated by race, sex, or orientation. Often these events are advertised in ways that try to frame such segregation as inclusive, such as when Pitzer College administrators defended segregated housing. Recently, such events include a pool party at Scripps several semesters ago— an event which was opened up to the general public after

At most other elite institutions of higher education around the country, students are agreeing with each other more and more, falling into a dangerous echo chamber. During the past few years, the Claremont Colleges—comprised of Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges—have been no exception; we have had regrettable instances where political uniformity hastened the ideological echo chamber, from protests barring Heather Mac Donald from her talk to S

By Shir Bar Nes Higher education offers higher opportunities than just academic studies. It offers the chance to grow past personal, political, and cultural boundaries. Most importantly, college and university give one the chance to meet new people, understand each other’s differences, and embrace diversity. My name is Shir Bar Nes, and I’m a student of political science at Haifa University. The chance I was given to grow was through a friendship, one that enriched my life. I

Pitzer College, ranked as the seventh most liberal college in the country and the most liberal of the Claremont Colleges, claims in its mission statement that it “celebrates cultural diversity and intercultural understanding,” stating that students come from “different socioeconomic, ethnic and geographic backgrounds.” A study released by the Equality for Opportunity Project and publicized by the New York Times, however, posits a different view. The study reveals Pitzer to ha

Recently, the Independent obtained screenshots from the “5C Women of Color” Facebook group. According to its description, the group—accessible only to its 1,100 approved members—is “for 5C students and alumnae who identify as women of color to reach out and serve as resources/support for one another.” Many of the page’s most popular posts mock those who do not identify as women of color. In response to her adoptive white father making jokes at her expense, Sarah Weiyun Otters

Under pressure from student leaders, the Pomona College faculty voted last week to include a consideration of a professor’s “attent[ion] to diversity in the student body” in the College’s criteria for promotion and tenure. The move follows the circulation of an open letter in support of the addition which received hundreds of signatures and the backing of several high-level officials in the College’s student government, including the current and former Student Body Presidents

When I decided to go to a liberal arts college in California, I did so knowing that my political views were not going to match those of the majority on campus. I didn’t mind this, because the benefits Claremont McKenna College had to offer appeared to outweigh this seemingly minor detail, and I had assumed that my views and I would be treated with at least some respect. When I arrived on campus in the fall, I decided to join the Claremont Independent. Unlike the other newspap

When I came to Claremont, I hoped to find a loving community and an extended family. Unfortunately, what I found instead is an environment in which professing a commitment to social activism is often more important to my fellow students than actually connecting with the people around them. Many of my progressive classmates concern themselves with berating their peers for their ostensible insensitivity or privilege, rather than with expressing sensitivity to each other. I have

One of the things I value most about America is our unique level of diversity. Our diversity entails more than just having a large portion of non-white US residents. Rather, it relies on both the breadth of different cultures as well as the depth of the personal connections in which we can experience these different cultures. On a practical level, this mean that races, ethnicities, and religions that differ from our own are more than just concepts that we read about in books.

The Claremont Colleges, like nearly every other liberal arts college in America, are a bastion of liberal and progressive thought. You don’t have to read our other articles to realize this; the Claremont College Democrats outnumber the Claremont College Republicans nearly five to one (according to their Facebook page subscribers), with the lion’s share of Republicans attending CMC. This political imbalance is understandable to an extent; young voters favored President Obama i

It’s likely that every single person at CMC would claim to be pro-diversity, yet it is remarkably difficult to find someone who means it. In fact, our greatest self-proclaimed advocates for diversity seem opposed to actual diversity in any form. At a basic level all diversity of human beings – be it on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, or something else entirely – is heterogeneity of thought. It’s generally accepted that race and ethnicity are social constructs. If we acc

In today’s knowledge-based economy, higher education has become increasingly important in influencing social and economic prosperity. Unfortunately, education is an opportunity that is still not afforded to many. In an effort to alleviate this problem, colleges have tried to implement policies such as affirmative action to increase racial diversity. To increase socio-economic diversity, they have used tools such as Pell Grants and need blind admissions. In the TSL’s “A Tale o