Both groups have eerily similar functions. The CPB is a board of elected officials that plans alcohol-free events and activities for students at Claremont McKenna College (CMC). Alexandra Cooke ’14, the current SLC chair, is required by the Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College (ASCMC) constitution to “coordinate non-alcoholic activities for the student body.” If you just did a double take, you’re not alone because CPB and SLC have essentially the exact same purpose. The only differences? CPB has deeper pockets, different funding sources and an unelected leader.

Jim Nauls helped bring Aziz Ansari to Claremont last spring

This article is not intended to disparage either Cooke or the current CPB chair Christina Khavarian ’12.  As dozens of airbrushed unicorn tattoos and decorated holiday cookies will attest, they have each done a fantastic job of keeping us entertained, happy, and well-fed inside and outside our Claremont bubble.

Still, from budget differences to election practices or lack thereof, it seems that the CPB chair and SLC chair are two positions that could easily be merged in order to truly benefit the students and be most effective. If combined, the new “dry chair” could pool monetary resources from two sources and avoid the inefficient overlap in positions that currently exists.  The position of SLC chair should be eliminated altogether and the CPB Chair should be elected by the students to allocate funds from both the DoS Office and ASCMC. This does raise a few problems: will ASCMC become nothing more than a glorified party-planning committee? Where will the money allocated to the SLC chair go? Because the CPB is not governed by a constitution, would the interests of students truly be spoken for?

Cooke sums up budgetary concerns perfectly, “The main differences between the two are simply where their funds come from and the sizes of the budgets. My budget comes from ASCMC and CPB’s budget comes from the Board of Trustees and is allocated by Jim Nauls in the Dean of Students Office.” Cooke notes that CPB’s budget is approximately 10 times larger than her SLC budget and reiterates, “I work for ASCMC and CPB works for Dean Nauls. While I have a constitution, an executive board and a budgeting committee to oversee how I spend my budget, CPB is guided by Dean Nauls.”

Don’t get me wrong, it is indeed admirable that CMC students (via CPB) are now in charge of allocating the funds the Dean of Students Office has appropriated for student activities, but it just seems convoluted to split funds (unevenly) between ASCMC representative Cooke and CPB’s 14-person board. CPB gets to sponsor the big names like Demetri Martin, take students to Dodgers  games, and bring Kogi trucks while Cooke only has the funds to sponsor No Shave November contests and cookie-decorating.

Then there’s the matter of the election process. As Cooke puts it, “ASCMC has a constitution that mandates the fair election of an SLC; CPB does not (yet).”

Indeed, this is how the election for CPB student representatives went in Appleby Dorm. Resident Assistant Jordan Santo ’12 asked his residents, “Who wants to be our CPB rep?”  Silence. “Seriously guys…someone…anyone?” Someone tentatively raised their hand, and thus, a new CPB representative was born!  It was hardly the best example of political activism at CMC, and while the process may not have been the same in other dorms, it’s hard to imagine that there was any hard-core campaigning going on.

Yes, Cooke ran unopposed, but she still had to make her future plans known and tell us what she intended to do as SLC chair.  Besides, a certain sneaky “Write-In” (John Faranda, perhaps?) gave her a run for her money by winning 27.37% of the vote. Students had to actively take thirty seconds out of their day to check boxes and that, my friends, is democracy.

While the individual members of the board were elected, Khavarian was chosen by Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Activities Jim Nauls and was not elected to her position.

In an earlier Forum article introducing CPB to the campus at large, Jim Nauls was quoted as saying “she will not have any more say in the events than other students on the board.”

CMC is all about choosing their leaders and controlling spending (trust me, I’ve seen Senate debate the merits of a various garden plants for over a half hour), and I find it hard to believe that this decision didn’t ruffle a few feathers. Yes, the idea of a CPB tyrant imposing miserable activities on sober students is preposterous, but shouldn’t the students have more of an active role in choosing who plans activities on their behalf?

When it comes to the CPB and SLC chair Cooke, the method of “divide and conquer” has become “divide and do the same thing with different funding and varying degrees of student input.”   Add to this the fact that there is very little if any communication between the two, and it’s clearly time to combine and conquer.

Though much of what we see from ASCMC as students are events like Monte Carlo or the “party inform,” ASCMC isn’t simply a governing body debating the merits of various themes (or so we hope).  As a group of leaders trying to create the best community for all of us, I believe ASCMC could get used to the idea of contributing what funding it previously used for SLC chair to CPB’s fund so we could benefit from both resources.

Cooke agrees that some cooperation could benefit both groups. “I think CPB and SLC have great potential to work together…the two groups should collaborate more, to maximize great events.”  If the SLC chair simply becomes CPB chair, eliminating redundancies and allowing for fair elections, CMC students can have the best of both worlds. Imagine a glorious campus where you can nosh on hand-decorated cookies while laughing uproariously at Demetri Martin. Dreams do come true.

Ultimately, both groups joining forces to accomplish the exact same thing can only create and fund even better activities for all of us. Personally, I’d like to see some collaboration or I’ll be forced to adopt the much less catchy slogan (my apologies to Patrick Henry), “Give me a fairly elected group of students with shared funding to provide booze-free entertainment, or give me death!”

That said, the thought of dating is also potentially stressful; figuring out what to wear, who’s to pay, how reserved to be, navigating awkward situations and trying to gauge the interest of the other person. Now the Forum can’t help you with any of that, but what we can help you with is potentially the hardest part of all; figuring out what to do. Obviously a good date-plan will come from knowing the interests of your date, but if you’re stumped for ideas give one of these a try!

Traditional Date

From Union on Yale Facebook page

This date is admittedly not creative: Dinner, Movie and the Bar. Cliche as it may be, even the oldest standbys are standbys for a reason. Try starting your night by taking a walk into the village and getting some pizza from the village’s newest restaurant and bar Union on Yale.  Get a table outside by the heaters (inside can be distractingly loud). The restaurant is trendy with a friendly and fun atmosphere, perfect for a first (or second) date. From there, head over to Laemmle to catch a movie. If you want to prolong the date a little longer, stop by Eureka Burger for a drink or two: they have great cocktails and an outstanding beer selection. Some nights they have live music, and if you go on a Wednesday night you get a glass you can keep with whatever the beer special is that night, a memento for you to remember the date forever.

If you’ve got a car, another spin on this traditional date would be to take your partner to the Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre in Montclair; comfortable, classy, and you have to ability to chat with your date during the movie if you so choose.

Dates don’t all have to be about eating or doing something stationary, there are plenty of options right around Claremont for more active dates. For example, beat the California heat by taking your date ice skating in Ontario-Mills. Admission and rental skates cost $9 per person, and you can find their public skate hours here. If that’s not enough activity for you, grab your date and head for the hills! There’s plenty of beautiful, good, mellow hikes for people of any fitness level. Claremont Wilderness Trail at the end of Mills Ave is a nice loop, and Barrett-Stoddard Truck Road (also known as Storybook Trail) a trail off of Baldy rd. has some great views.

Adventurous Date

Photo from skydiveelsinore.com

Sometimes the stress of school can make you want to jump out of a plane or off a bridge. Why not take those urges and make them into the best date ever? Skydiving and bungee jumping are activities sure to get your adrenaline pumping, and they will give you the opportunity to see your date in a completely new context outside of his or her comfort zone. If you want to quickly  bond with your date, high-intensity outings are a must. As we learned from Dr. Love last semester, high stress situations like skydiving, roller coasters, or bungee jumping produce a lot of oxytocin, a chemical hugely involved in building relationships. If these ideas are up your alley, check out Skydive Elsinore, and Bungee America. This is a pricey date idea, but also an experience of a lifetime and a date you and your partner will never forget.

Cheap Date

Admittedly, so far the dates I’ve recommended could do a number on your wallet and require a car. I don’t mean to suggest that all dates must cost a fortune: in fact you can have a perfectly romantic date without ever leaving the 5C’s. Start off by getting takeout from the dining hall of your choice. Grab a blanket, a bottle of wine, and head over to the Pomona Green across from Bridges and have a picnic. Once dinner is over, there are many options for what comes next. One of the greatest advantages of the consortium is the sheer number of opportunities of things to do. With minimal digging (Good Morning CMC, E-mail alerts, and Facebook events are great places to start) you can plan the date around an on campus event like a Without-A-Box performance, an a cappella  concert, a big sports game, or even ballroom dance lessons. To those who think an on campus date would be lame, you aren’t trying hard enough to find interesting opportunities.  It could definitely be one of the cheapest and most interesting dates you ever go on.

Beach Date  

Photo from Paradise Cove website

Whenever I go back home, one of the most frequent questions I’m asked is, “So do you go to the beach a lot?” to which I always respond, “Occasionally, but not as much as I’d like to.” I imagine this is the same for most people; you get wrapped up in things on campus and go to the Scripps pool when you get the urge to swim or lay in the sun. A date is a perfect opportunity to get out of the Claremont bubble and actually visit the great beaches our friends assume we go to on the reg. Beach options are truly endless around here (Santa Monica, Venice, Laguna, Huntington), but if you want a less well-known option try Paradise Cove in Malibu. It’s a reasonably priced and casual restaurant with outdoor seating (definitely sit outside) and its own section of private beach.  With the beautiful scenery, hot weather, and wide array of activity offered by the waterfront this is a date sure to be both memorable and fun. One word of advice though, this is a date that will require a lot of conversation due to the long car ride and downtime on the beach. Make sure you have some ideas of conversation topics and activities ideas that you can pull out if the conversation hits a lull. Try to think ahead of things you can do on the beach, like frisbee or building sandcastles.

Okay CMC, now go forth and woo! And commenters, we would love to hear from you too! Share your stories! What other date ideas do you have?

The third item that I want to say is this, and oh God what a pretentious jerk I am for saying it: the best band at Coachella this year is one you have never heard of, and, given my three-point-five years of experience with musical taste at the Claremont Colleges, it’s one that you’re not going to like.   In fact, you’re going to hate them.  But, nonetheless, this article continues.

This was also before glasses like that were "hip."

And the band, the one I am trying to talk about, they probably wouldn’t care if you kept reading, in spite of any disclaimers.  The band is called REFUSED.  They are from Scandinavia.  They play hardcore punk music.  They last played a live show together in 1998, when you were still learning how to write cursive.  They only had three records, all coming in the early-to-mid-90s.  Their last album was recorded mere months before the band, like, broke up.  What, exactly, one could reasonably ask, is hardcore punk?  Let me explain this way: the band’s last days were documented in a film named after a song on the final record, lovingly titled “Refused are F**kin’ Dead,” and that song, boisterous as it may be titled, was followed-up on.  The band, at the time of their disintegration, sent out press releases ordering newspapers to burn (like, actual fire, this was before the 21st century, remember) all existing albums, photos, and articles about them, and to pretend as though they never existed.  This was, it is absolutely vital to note, less than three months after recording their final album, entitled, “The Shape of Punk to Come.”

Okay, one second here for good measure.  Let’s talk about punk music for just a moment.  Sometime in the late 1990s, this “fantastic” thing happened wherein major record labels (the very same ones who are supporting SOPA, by the way) realized that punk music could make them money.  And so they signed “pop-punk” bands.  Here we go, you’ve heard of this, right?  Like Blink-182, like Green Day, like, um, I can’t think of another.  But this was going on in the mid-90s.  And believe it or not, this whole “making money” part of “pop-punk” was, well, not at all what punk music was about.

Sure, there were punk bands that had successful followings, maybe some you’ve even listened to, like Dropkick Murphys or NOFX or Flogging Molly.  But, well, punk music by its very nature is AGAINST that whole making-money thing.  Depending on who you ask, The Ramones may or may not be the first-ever punk band.  Regardless of “first-ness,” Johnny Ramone did something pretty ridiculous with his simple power-chords: he destroyed the era of guitar-solo-worshipping classic rock like AC/DC, Led Zepplin, Hendrix, and Van Halen.  Maybe he didn’t want to play that kind of music.  The more likely story is that he simply wasn’t good enough at guitar.

And that, essentially, is what Punk is about.  Destroying things, subverting conventional music, being, well, pissed-off about the status-quo.  And in 1998, when “The Shape of Punk to Come,” one of the greatest albums ever made, was released, that very status-quo was poppy, three-chord, sing-along punk.  And REFUSED demolished it.

This album has the name of the four guys ON THE COVER. Makes one skeptical they didn't think it was at least a little awesome.

Another moment, and a deep breath for good measure, along with a quick plea to bear with me.  And in addition to that plea, being the kind of pseudo-intellectual-quasi-fanboy I am with this band, I want to ask you a question: back before the TV series, did you ever watch the movie “Friday Night Lights?”  Well guess what: you’ve already heard REFUSED, then.  This scene, for just a moment, plays this song, entitled “New Noise.”  It is the centerpiece of the album.  If you are still with me on this whole thing, follow this link on these words right here, and watch this entire thing, listen to the song.  It will be okay, it’s not that long, but just, like, please do it.  I’ll wait, don’t worry.  I’ll be right here.

Let’s talk about that song for a second.  What on earth is going on?  In five minutes, we get a sports-anthem caliber introduction, an electronic dance interlude, screaming vocals, dramatic-ish spoken word, synthesized/sampled crowd cheering, and finally and outro of the phrase, “the new beat” screamed well after the rest of the band is done playing.  Is this even punk?  The answer, if the album’s title is any indication, is “probably not.”  Though in the realm of hardcore music, such a statement may as well be damning.  Few kinds of music devote themselves to consuming and all-important taxonomies as those with screamed vocals.

The outcome of Refused’s album, at least for the band, was catastrophic.  The quartet engaged in a brief tour that ripped them apart, disbanding via aforementioned militaristic press release, moving onto other projects, some abandoning music, yet all, in interviews given years after the dissolution, giving a pretty definitive statement: the record was bad.  Or at least not good.  But something strange happened: just about everyone else in punk music completely disagreed.  A few years after its release, a host of “hardcore” bands, many of them spawning the “emo hardcore” branch of things, invaded Myspace and cited Refused as a huge influence.  They were covered by everyone from Paramore to Anthrax to Crazytown to Between the Buried and Me.

Now, due to some perfect storm of events, Refused are playing Friday evening at this year’s Coachella, getting billing just under The Black Keys and before The Shins.  Is this real life?  And furthermore, why would a band that began their magnum opus with a hearty “I’ve got a bone to pick with capitalism, and a few to break” reunite for one of the highest-grossing music festivals in the world?  The answer came in a press release on the group’s now-reactivated website:  ”We never did ‘the shape of punk to come’ justice back when it came out,” the band says.  ”We wanna do it over, do it right, for the people who’ve kept the music alive through the years.”

If I can find a ticket, I’ll be front-center.  And just maybe, “The New Beat” will return for good.

While many students who came into CMC with strong backgrounds in their high school bands, orchestras or art programs have adjusted to CMC’s lack of an art program, some still ask for CMC to change its ways.

Sophomore Chelsea Durgin says, “Students would really benefit from art as an outlet to the stress of school… I think that a lot of students at CMC are extremely talented in the arts, but they can’t express themselves because of the CMC reputation.”

Devashish Dey performs at the Athenaeum (Photo by Warren Bessant)

For students from neighboring schools and artistically-inclined CMCers, the school’s image as a leadership-driven institution for go-getters has left its commitment to the art world by the wayside. CMC has abandoned some traits of average liberal arts schools and become the economics-oriented school that it is, but as Durgin says, this doesn’t mean that CMC students are devoid of any artistic talent.

The idea of pursuing art on campus has inched into the spotlight with the appearance of Stark’s new piano and with growing involvement with arts organizations at the 5Cs. Yet, some students still argue that CMC is not currently an art-friendly school and believe that there is a stigma associated with pursuing a degree in the arts.

Freshman Becca Rosenthal says, “At the very least we can start putting student artwork in Kravis, but ideally there should be an arts GE.” Those who are proponents of larger changes to CMC’s image like Rosenthal argue that the school could start embracing its liberal arts label by requiring students to study art.

For other students, calling Claremont McKenna a liberal arts school is almost a misnomer. CMC has a unique approach to providing students with a well-rounded education: we receive the benefits of a liberal arts school, yet we’re unlike any other. One of the things that sets us apart is a focus on creating leaders in business and the professions. Advocates of CMC’s leadership-oriented mission point out that our access to the resources at the other 4Cs – including arts programs like theater, music, studio art, and art history – allow us to bypass the implementation of our own arts program.

Indeed, those who actively pursue the arts have many opportunities, even as a CMC student, to be involved in the arts. A CMC-specific theater club Under the Lights allows students an outlet for artistic expression. Other 5C opportunities include taking part in KSPC, Pomona’s student radio station; an acapella choir like Shades; or Without a Box, the Claremont Colleges’ improv group. For those students willing to integrate with the rest of the 5Cs, the abundance of artistic opportunities on our neighboring campuses offer CMCers a chance to pursue their artistic passions with ease. The beauty of the consortium is that each of the schools can specialize in a few fields, instead of attempting to do everything at once, which would be redundant and ineffective.

Local band Songword performs at the Motley on Scripps College campus (Photo by Yuqiao Guo)

The accessibility of the other Claremont Colleges and their strengths in the arts balance out the unique liberal arts appeal of CMC. The administration faces a choice between encouraging the appreciation of art at CMC and offering art programs on CMC’s campus. But one thing is sure: when it comes to whether art should be more encouraged on campus or remain an untouched issue, Freshman Erika Sa says, “I want more!” The best resolution is for CMC to encourage students to appreciate and participate in some form of art, but continue to utilize the other art programs in the Claremont Consortium instead of devoting resources and time to building a new one at CMC. In other words, take advantage of the resources that the consortium offers.

CMC students’ interest in pursuing art academically is less common perhaps than at other 5C institutions. Appeals for drastic changes to CMC’s academic focus seem to be coming from a unique group of students who would like CMC to acknowledge the importance of art by offering art programs on campus. However, this desire does not seem to apply to most students and thus no change will likely be made.

But CMC students as a whole do not disregard the arts entirely. The claim that students don’t care about art because CMC is a school focused on a couple of strong programs is simply not true. It is true, however, tacking on an art department to CMC’s academic offerings would not increase the benefit to CMC students enough to justify the cost. It would be both widely beneficial and much easier for the student body to simply ask CMC for more on-campus practice rooms or to see more student-made art in the hallways of our dorms. Adding small things like pianos or providing an area just to hang out and play music would give CMC some artistic flavor of its own. We don’t have to drop our reputation as a school of industrious students in order to appreciate the arts – we can embrace it without becoming a run-of-the-mill liberal arts school. With the new piano in Stark and the ever-growing involvement of students in artistic programs on and off campus, it seems like we’re on the right track.

CMC plans on accepting fewer than 600 of these applicants in order to avoid housing shortages. According to their calculations, this would place CMC’s acceptance rate for next year at just 11.7%. The admission rate for the Class of 2015was 13.8%.  CMC could be the most, or one of the most, selective liberal arts colleges in the nation.

Photo by Karan Malik

Last year, Pomona College just barely beat out CMC’s 2015 acceptance rate with 13.6% admittance but, as early reports indicate, growth in Pomona’s number of applications has essentially remained flat. The Office of Admissions also pointed out that Amherst college, last year’s most selective liberal arts college in the nation, had an acceptance rate of 12.8%. Swarthmore College admitted just under 15% of its applicants to the Class of 2015.  Williams College, the top liberal arts college in the nation, announced a 17% admission rate in 2011.

Over the past few years, CMC’s acceptance rate has been plummeting, and this year is a good sign that we might see that trend continue. In 2010, the school accepted 17.2% of applicants, and last year, when 4,481 applied to be a part of the class of 2015, the acceptance rate fell to 13.8%.  If those were great years, the next one may be amazing.

CMC benefits from a dropping acceptance rate. Although the administration may have to say no to more potential Stags and Athenas, increased selectivity will hopefully produce a stronger freshman class, composed of great students and promising leaders. This is just one more sign pointing to a bright future for CMC.  As it continues to grow more selective and appears higher and higher in the rankings each year, it will draw more attention from all corners of the country.  That means more public interest, more renown, and, hopefully, the end of that “I swear it’s not a community college” conversation for non-Californians.

For students here at CMC, there isn’t any doubt that we are attending one of the best school’s in the country. With any luck, this unprecedented admittance rate will force others to take notice as well. For anybody interested in watching CMC take its proper place at the forefront of America’s elite colleges, the Office of Admissions’ announcement is great news.

It was a busy semester at CMC.

CMC moved up in the rankings to the 9^th best Liberal Arts College in the country.

The Kravis Center officially opened to students and faculty.  The Living Room (affectionately known as ‘the Kube’) attracted students’ attention  after some technical difficulties and the administration’s initial decision to limit access to students. This was all before the Kube became home to one Pomona student’s temporary interpretive dance studio.

The fall semester also celebrated and embodied student leadership at CMC.  Students started a movement to do a better job of cleaning up after parties and led an effort to change our campus conversation about sex and gender norms. Trying bridge the gap between our Building Attendants and their residents, the Forum got to know some of CMC’s friendliest staff members. CMCers led a campaign to be more environmentally friendly on campus and coordinated a day of reflection on 9/11. Others took the lead in social activity planning, expanding student involvement with Dean of Students and creating the College Programming Board (check out the big name they are bringing to campus). Student initiative also brought the popular TED talks to the Claremont Colleges, hosting a TEDx conference in September.

CMC also faced a number of challenges in the fall of 2011: an unexpected over-enrollment of students forced the conversion of two popular study spaces into four-person rooms and a large number of students returning to CMC in the spring from fall study abroad programs led to an on-campus housing crisis.  The story behind the “Marks Squatter” brought some humor to a rather-serious-but-now resolved issue of on-campus visitors.

The Associated Students of Claremont McKenna College was hard at work all semester, advocating for students on issues such as increased study spaces, building a better quality of life, and providing some much needed snack time.

The Occupy Movement swept the nation this semester and arrived at the doorstep of our Claremont Colleges. Students were active in the protests in Claremont, Los Angeles, and the rest of the nation. Indeed, two Pitzer students were arrested for their involvement in the Occupy LA protests.  Political dialogue was alive and well, especially towards the end of the semester, when CMC welcomed former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to our campus. Many 5C students, however, had a different plan in mind and formed an “unwelcoming” party for Rice’s visit. The planned protests forced a change in venue for Rice’s speech, which triggered an outcry from students. While the protests stirred up quite a controversy, the civility and political discourse throughout the evening exemplified students’ diversity of thought, without provoking violence or hostilities.

The Forum sat down with our very own college president Pamela Gann and discussed her current and future projects for the school, which included a revamp of the beloved North Quad and expanding the new Center for Civic Engagement.

But it wasn’t all business this semester at the Forum. Speaking with Paul Zak, a.k.a Dr. Love, the Forum got to hear the Doctor’s thoughts on love, life, and how giving 8 hugs a day will make the world a better place. Those student globe-trotters enjoying their study abroad experience took time to write home to CMC and share their experiences from far-off lands such as Washington D.C., South America, Italy and Oman. And for those bright-eyed freshmen, returning students and Dean Spellman gave them their two cents (sometimes musically) on how to navigate their first semester and discover how great this college really is.

We uncovered the top 5 companies that hire CMC students, brought Words with Friends lovers the 10 most useful Scrabble words, and suggested 8 classes to students that might have overlooked some academic treasures. Students contributed to the ongoing discussion on topics such as art, film, pop culture, public radio, music and concerts. And despite the delicious unveiling of a new Ath menu, the Forum offered some tips on how to stay healthy, even in the face of all those Rice Krispie treats.

A-Mitch even appeared for an encore.

ASCMC hosted a number of events this semester, improving on past traditions—Monte Carlo—and even starting some new ones—The Boardwalk Empire party and No Shave November. We know you can’t wait for the Wedding Party next spring—and neither can we. Expect even bigger surprises next semester.

Our tech guru offered some awesome tips on his #CMCTech blog, including advice on how to make your work faster and more effective, thoughts on the Semester in Silicon Valley Program and even a holiday gift guide (it’s never too late to get that perfect present).

The Forum also better incorporated sports into our publication. The Forum now offers live broadcasts of all home CMS athletic games, complete with video and audio from student broadcasters.  We celebrated triumph, defeat and the utter domination at SCIACs.  The publication also took and in-depth look at sports at CMC and uncovered how SCIAC rules hurt CMS recruiting high school athletes and what many are doing to save the Intramural program.

Outside of the CMC bubble, the Forum checked in with our beloved Claremont village, celebrating the once-in-a-century Zipcode Day (9/17/11=91711) and partaking in the delicious festivities at the California Beer Festival.

It was a busy semester and time for reflecting has just begun. First, we would like to thank you, our readers, for your support, comments, advice, kindness, crudeness, humor and thoughtful discussion. But, we have one more request. The Forum has grown considerably in the last semester but we want to know how we can continue to improve. Below is a short survey that we hope you will fill out so we can make this publication stronger. We look forward to hearing your constructive thoughts, suggestions and comments.

The Forum wishes you a wonderful break and a restful holiday. We promise to bring you the best in news, opinions, and insights from Claremont College students as we enter our spring semester. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading with us this fall, and we’ll see you in 2012!

There are three different kinds of reactions you experience when you tell someone you’re studying abroad in Oman. One, they immediately admit they have no idea where that is. Two, they pretend like they know where it is, all the while maintaining a slightly confused look. And three, my personal favorite, they tell you that you’re pronouncing it wrong; that it’s Amman, “AAA-mman.” Yes, you’re very smart. But that’s in Jordan. And this is a separate country.

The land of the unknown, that’s where I am. Even some Arabs can’t locate Oman on a map. One of my friends at CMC asked if I had blindfolded myself and thrown a dart at a map of the world to choose where I was studying abroad. It would seem so, perhaps. Yet one year later, I’m sitting here during Eid, covered head to toe, speaking broken Arabic to women clad in brightly colored, bejeweled jalabiyas.

Oman represents an interesting dichotomy. Modern, yet incredibly conservative and traditional. Authoritarian rule, but steadily increasing its democracy. Friend to every country, foe to no one (yes, even Israel). As a result, in a typical day I could be driving around the city with my host brother who’s wearing Puma sweats and blasting techno. Or instead I may be drinking Omani kahawa (coffee) and eating dates with my host family adorned in dishdasha, abayas, and hijabs.
In the south of Oman, I sat at Job’s Tomb, watching Pakistani immigrants clutching their Holy Qurans, tears streaming down their cheeks. In Dubai, I was culture shocked by finding my own culture in such an unexpected place. I’ve been places where I was asked to cover my hair. I’ve been asked by an Omani why I’m covering my hair if I’m not Muslim.

At one Omani birthday party, the family rolled their bodies and shook their hips like they were trying out for a Shakira music video. At a different gathering, the women and men sat in completely separate rooms and music wasn’t allowed because they believe it’s haram, forbidden according to the teachings of the Holy Quran.

Eid Al-Adha was no exception to this merging of tradition and modernism. Eid is like a three-day Islamic version of Christmas. You’re supposed to eat, sleep, pray, and pass around babies. (I swear this is the informal criteria. Emphasis on the eating.) The second morning of Eid, the ten cousins sleeping in one room woke me up and we all began changing into brand new clothes. I’m talking head to toe, undergarments to head scarf, it has to be new. Walking into the sitting room, you must pay your respects to the elders and begin the traditional process of drinking coffee, eating dates and cutting fruit. We spent the day watching hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, on TV.

In a strange conclusion to the day, at night my thirty female host cousins picked up Pizza Hut for a picnic which culminated in the classic game familiar to every U.S. youth, Truth or Dare. A scandalous dare consisted of one of my cousins running around a tree ten feet away while waving her hands in the air.

Sometimes when I come home, my host family is watching a traditional Turkish soap opera, set in a small village in rural Turkey. Other times they’re watching So You Think You Can Dance. For dinner, there may be the customary Omani chicken and rice dish or it could be hot dogs. My very first night in my host family, they fed me a creamy pasta dish. I asked them what it was called in Arabic. They looked at me and said very slowly ma-ca-roni. Well, then. How exotic.

Beyond the food, the dinner conversation may be in Arabic, Swahili or English. The only thing you can be sure of is that they will talk about football and they will make you eat more. That’s the true Arab way. After eating with our hands and washing it down with the mandatory tea, I just say shukran, asantay sana, and thank you to be sure I’ve covered all my bases.

Surprisingly, I’ve gotten quite used to this strange combination of activities, foods, languages, and cultures. I never know what will happen or what customs I’ll be adhering to for the day. Just to be safe, I keep a head scarf in my bag and LMFAO on my iPod; I could need either at a moment’s notice. Now, there’s something I didn’t expect.

The jokes, however, turned bitter when former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited CMC’s campus on November 30th.  Campus news articles and blog posts became online battlegrounds of political rhetoric, pitting “conservative” CMC students against “liberal” Pitzer students.  On the campuses themselves, there was a prescient sense of animosity; in class, I could truly sense a distance among Pitzer students during some of the more heated days of the online controversies.

Most people, Pitzer and CMC students alike, went to Ducey Gymnasium on Wednesday expecting to be involved in a tense shouting match.  In some small ways, the expected malice was there. When I introduced myself as a CMC student to Marcus, a demonstrating Pitzer student, his response was “you’re from CMC?  Baby-killer!” Marcus, however, certainly was not representative of the entire student population at the protests on Wednesday.  In general, the protests were incredibly constructive and peaceful, with little in the way of altercations beyond a few students who seemed intent on provoking a fight where there was none to be found.

Indeed, the aggressors in the crowd seemed to be more the exception than the rule.  Protestors and CMC students alike were generally incredibly respectful of one another.

Christian Neumeister, a CMC freshman who attended the talk, was understanding of the protests. “I certainly think [the protestors] have the right to voice their opinions.  I don’t necessarily agree with their opinions, but it’s their fundamental American right to voice them,” Neumeister said.

An unnamed Pitzer demonstrator agreed: “CMC brought Dr. Rice because it hopes to foster a discussion as part of its Athenaeum program.  That is all well and good – the reason we’re here is not to stop that discussion, but rather to promote our own outside.”

The protests themselves were very different from the disorganized mess that some predicted they would be. During the talk, professors and students lectured bystanders and demonstrators on different topics, which ranged from the use of torture to the impetus behind the Iraq War.  Near the Northeast corner of the parking lot, a group of students held a waterboarding demonstration in order to provoke student dialogue around the moral and ethical issues involved with the practice.  These lectures – while certainly biased to present an anti-Condoleezza Rice perspective – created an environment more conducive to learning than to accusation, and were a welcome presence on a college campus.

Feel free to chalk it up to my freshman naiveté and optimism, but this made me happy to be a student at the 5Cs.  To me, the 5Cs are built on a certain morale and community camaraderie that governs our campus-to-campus interactions, including a certain sports rivalry (in which CMS is most certainly superior).  It is certainly true that the anonymity and immediacy of the Internet allowed the controversy of Dr. Rice’s visit to become more malicious than intended.  Yet, once CMC and Pitzer students were face to face, the conversation took on a human face, one that represented our students in a much more flattering light.

Entering KSPC is like walking into a BBC documentary about pop culture through the ages. The walls of the basement-studio are completely covered with posters, stickers and pictures of bands, concerts and funny slogans. Photos of old student DJs and some famous personalities adorn the waiting room.  The hippie/indie paradise is completed with the presence of two turntables and shelves packed with endless rows of CDs and vinyls, showcasing the amazing collection of underground music that the station owns.  In the main room are the two sets of broadcasting/recording equipment where the DJs work.

KSPC (Or KSpaCe, as it is now known) is a 24 hour station that was founded at Pomona College in 1956. It is a designated educational radio station that is committed to promoting music that major commercial radios will not air. From classical music to electronic, KSPC has a huge variety of shows. There is a strong emphasis on “non-mainstream” music, and DJs try to promote great indie and underground bands.

KSPC is run by students of the Claremont Colleges on a volunteer basis and this non-commercial, interest based functionality only adds to its charm.   Along with music there are many quirky and engaging talk shows like the “Sunset Review,” which is an older show that includes “comedy cuts, novelty records, and its own brand of gentle silliness, biting satire, and sardonic absurdity.” Another show, the “NightCap,” is a popular sports radio talk show featuring eight members (4 CMCers) that airs on Monday nights from 8:00pm to 10:00pm. The station even devotes time to public announcements and news casting, making it truly a station of all trades. Some of the shows are even hosted by volunteers from the local community.

Drake Escrofani Broadcasting a Show

College radio allows student DJs to discover and share music and ideas that they have discovered, a unique opportunity in most college students’ experiences. There are some CMC DJs at KSPC as well. Drake Escrofani (or DJ Dashiel) has a show on Monday evenings that “ranges from Indie Pop to electronic.” Kevin Wallentine (an IR major) is the head of the World Music department and hosts the international music show. Students can come in for DJ training and even apply for their own show. All volunteers at the station have to put in volunteer hours every week where they listen and review new music for the station.

KSPC runs on a non-commercial basis and receives a lot of its music from underground record labels. I have discovered a lot of new music by listening to KSPC 88.7FM and hope that more students follow the channel and work at the station in the future.

KSPC can be streamed live online at this website.  Give it a listen!

See below for more photos. All photos were taken by the author.

The Sunset Review

Kevin Wallentine

KSPC Broadcasting Studio

KSPC CD Collection

KSPC LP Collection

In the Lobby at KSPC Headquarters