In a break with longstanding policy, the Pomona Events Committee (PEC) announced that the upcoming Yule Ball event will be open to all colleges in the consortium except CMC. This decision came as a surprise to the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College (ASCMC), who are “acting quickly to investigate [the] intentional exclusion” of their community, according to an announcement sent out to the student body.
Yule Ball has traditionally been a holiday party for students from all five Claremont Colleges. PEC’s statement comes in the wake of ASCMC’s October 29 announcement that all ASCMC events “for the foreseeable future will be either CMC plus one guest or CMC only. This is not yet decided.” PEC’s stated reasoning for the exclusion of CMC students is that “Due to CMC’s recent policy change resulting in all of their parties being CMC-only for the foreseeable future, [Yule Ball] will be 4C because Pomona students cannot take advantage of events paid for by student fees at CMC …” While ASCMC highlighted that their policy change was in no way final or yet in effect, PEC has chosen to base their decision making on an erroneous interpretation of ASCMC’s announcement, according to ASCMC.
PEC offered numerous secondary reasons for their decision, all of which ASCMC responded to in their announcement. Nonetheless, ASCMC urged CMC students to express their frustration through productive channels and “remain civil towards [...] peer institutions.”