The Pied Piper leads children to their deaths with his beautiful song. (Credit: Carl Offterdinger ) Much   ink   has   been   spilled  over the so-called “alignment problem” of artificial intelligence. Will it behave as humans want it to behave? Will it provide what humans want it to provide? My critique is not downstream of the alignment problem. I am not qualified to predict whether AI will someday misalign with mankind’s wishes. It is, however, becoming increasingly eviden

In late November, the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna released their fall semester edition of Motif, a student-run creative arts magazine. The issue included a variety of art mediums, from poetry and creative essays to pencil sketches and nail art. In the editorial board’s introductory letter, they said they were “thrilled to support CMC artists and creatives.”

In 2025, Pomona and Claremont McKenna Colleges spent $190,000 and $100,000, respectively, to lobby the federal government. Pomona hired lobbying firm theGROUP DC while CMC hired law firm Holland & Knight. According to OpenSecrets, neither college, since 1998, has recorded lobbying activity until this past year. Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and Pitzer Colleges have yet to record any lobbying activity. 

Pomona College administrators are considering closing the Coop Fountain restaurant in order to relocate the college’s catering operations, which will be disrupted by the construction of Pomona’s new Center for Global Engagement. The closure was presented to the student government’s food committee as a done deal, but administrators have since back-tracked, claiming there had been a misunderstanding. 

A Santa Clarita man pleaded guilty on Wednesday to embezzling over $1 million from the Claremont Colleges, where he was employed as an electrical shop supervisor. 

Pomona College and Claremont Graduate University announced in parallel statements Thursday afternoon that they have entered exclusive negotiations on a “potential partnership,” described as a parent-subsidiary structure. Sources familiar with the matter told the Independent that the institutions’ respective boards signed only a non-binding letter of intent, meaning negotiations could be broken off at any point.

Protests held Oct. 7, 2024 at Pomona College. Pomona College resolved a Title VI complaint with the Brandeis Center, Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International on Wednesday, agreeing to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s Working Definition of Antisemitism, appoint a Title VI coordinator, and update speech and demonstration policies, among other provisions. “We are pleased to have resolved these important discussions through a thoughtful and comprehe

Pomona College is close to entering exclusive negotiations to acquire Claremont Graduate University, multiple sources familiar with the matter told the Independent. CGU, which announced in April that it was seeking “a strategic partner or partners,” was courted by a pool of suitors including Arizona State University, Loyola Marymount University, and Northeastern University. 

The majors listed on our diplomas and qualifications inventoried on our resumes say far less about us than the intangible things that actually give our lives meaning, though we seem to forget that. The university was not always seen as a stepping stone into the corporate world or the endless frontier of networking. In the American university system’s original conception, colleges were meant to help students in their pursuit of the good, true, and beautiful. The university was

Nearly three weeks after masked individuals disrupted a Claremont Hillel event marking the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, Pomona President Gabrielle Starr confirmed in an email last week that two of the four individuals have been identified and neither are affiliated with Pomona.

"The original plan was that it would be me by myself for at least a year, maybe two years... after October 7, everything changed," said Slater.

Last week, an Oct. 7 memorial hosted at Pomona College by Claremont Hillel featuring Yoni Viloga, a survivor of the attacks, was disrupted by protestors. Afterwards, an anonymous statement defending the disruption was sent to multiple campus newspapers, referring to Viloga as “Satan” and “the spawn of a genocidal lineage,” and to Zionism as a “death cult that must be dealt with accordingly.”

Masked protestors disrupted an event held Wednesday evening in commemoration of the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, shouting at attendees that they were “all complicit in genocide.” The memorial event, hosted at Pomona College by Claremont Hillel and the Claremont Colleges’ Jewish Chaplain, featured a talk by Oct. 7 survivor Yoni Viloga.

The U.S. News & World Report released their 2026 rankings for liberal arts colleges on Tuesday. Pomona College slipped down to seventh place, now tied with Claremont McKenna College and Wellesley.

The Equal Protection Project filed a Federal Civil Rights Complaint on Aug. 28 with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), alleging that a number of programs and scholarships at the Claremont Colleges violate Titles VI and IX of the Civil Rights Act.

Charlie Kirk, right-wing commentator and father of two, was shot and killed Wednesday while speaking to a crowd of college students. Only two days earlier, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression released its 2026 report about free speech on America’s college campuses. 

Claremont McKenna College claimed first place in the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s 2026 Free Speech Rankings on Tuesday, while Pomona College clocked in at 247th of 257 colleges. The other Claremont Colleges’ placements spanned between the two, with all but CMC earning an “F” grade.

When, after a one year search, Pomona College’s then acting president Bob Gaines announced Katharine Laidlaw as the College’s next Chief...

Alexander Hall (Pomona's administrative building), and former Dean Melanie Wu. Photo credit: Pomona College Media Team A week after...

Photo Credit: wiredforlego On paper, the Claremont Colleges present a unified commitment to inclusion, openness, and intellectual...