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!”

Henry Kravis ‘67 knows a thing or two about Claremont McKenna College’s oft-heard tagline “leaders in the making.” As co-founder of the international private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Mr. Kravis has built a multi-billion dollar empire and made serious waves in the business world.

Mr. Kravis is among CMC’s greatest benefactors and most recently, contributed the funds for the new Kravis Center facility located on the westernmost part of campus. The $80 million building is the largest on CMC’s campus and houses faculty offices, classrooms, and a much-needed underground parking structure. The Kravis Center also unites five of CMC’s touted research institutes under one roof.

Three years after breaking ground, CMC celebrated the opening of the Kravis Center on Friday, October 21, 2011. As part of the convocation ceremonies, Mr. Kravis spoke with Tova Markowitz ’12 and Heath Hyatt ’12 at an Athenaeum luncheon. Mr. Kravis discussed lessons learned as a major corporate figure at KKR and emphasized the importance of a liberal arts education in today’s globalized world. In his opinion, successful CEOs are those that can innovate to adapt to a changing world and shifting markets. “There are very few companies today that aren’t somehow affected by what’s going on in the rest of the world,” said Mr. Kravis.

Below is a video recording of Mr. Kravis’s visit to the Athenaeum. The video also appears on CMC’s website.

Conversation with Henry Kravis ’67 from Claremont McKenna College on Vimeo.

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.

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!

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.

The entrance to the talk was crowded with several dozen protesters from the 5C’s and the surrounding community. The gathering of dissenters held signs, which varied in messages from peaceful indignation to vulgar allegations. “War benefits the 1%,” read one sign and another displayed a photo of Rice’s face superimposed on a hyper-sexualized image of Wonder Woman.  The protest itself, dubbed “Unwelcoming Condoleezza Rice,” was organized by Pitzer students Emma French ’13, Vincent Giannotti ’12, and Liz Scherffius’13, who hoped to “open a discussion on how foreign policy is, and should be, made.”

When asked whether they believed that the protest — which drew its influence from the Karl Rove Athenaeum protests of 2008 – could possibly be construed as impolite, French responded that “CMC students need to straighten out their priorities; Condoleezza’s crimes are so much more severe than rudeness.” French further explained that the “demonstrators were upset with the protest zone” and felt that it was “not accommodating.” When pressed about the private property laws that would allow CMC administration to expel the protestors from even the zone appropriated to them, French continued to assert that the “restriction had no basis.”

While the event was held and sponsored by CMC, French stressed that the issue was “not about Pitzer or CMC ideology,” but rather about “the larger effect,” and that “making the argument otherwise is incredibly shallow.” Some students did take the time to talk to the protestors, attempting to decipher the argument which “got bogged down in ideological rhetoric,” explains Kyle Gosselin’14, who spoke with the protesters for the duration of the lecture. Gosselin continued that his “impression was that they were expressing their opinions, and even though [he] disagreed wholeheartedly, [he] respects them for getting out there and doing it.” Others, like Sae Bin Park ’12 were not quite so receptive, claiming, “no one cares about liberals at CMC and what they have to say.” Overall, however, French expressed her great satisfaction with the event, explaining that it had turned out “a hundred times better than [she] ever expected,” and that she was “proud that [the protesters] proved [they] could have really strong opinions without being disrespectful.”

The lecture itself began with a lighthearted jab at the evening’s venue change as Athenaeum Fellow Jake Petzold ’12 remarked, “Welcome to the…where are we?” After his introduction, Rice began her discussion on policy-making and her experience as Secretary of State in the President George W. Bush’s administration. Discussing her reaction in the wake of, the 9/11 attack, Rice described the aftermath of that unforgettable day as living every day “like it was September 12^th.” Rice also offered commentary on the state of certain countries throughout the world, noting Brazil and India as countries with great liability but expressing her appreciation for the value of their brand of “multiethnic democracy.” Rice went on to call China a miracle, contend that the upheavals and anger in the Middle East are “ultimately a better outcome than the silence of authoritarianism,” and describe the United States of America gone bad as the “biggest challenge to the United States of America.”

Aware of her college audience, Rice also stressed the importance of education and the pursuit of one’s passion as the key to happiness and success. Rice herself was a music major until the end of her sophomore year at University of Denver when she realized that she did not have the talent to play professionally. She then described her path to finding a major, eventually landing on becoming a Soviet specialist noting, “From that moment on, everything started to fall in place.” Rice then expressed her great belief in finding one’s passion, with great conviction in the idea that when you “find your passion, you will be a long way towards happiness and prosperity in life.” With this, she advised students to try something difficult, explaining, that “if you make yourself succeed in things that are hard for you, you will find that you are more fulfilled and that you find greater satisfaction in overcoming something that was hard for you than in doing something that was easy.”

Photo Credit: David Leathers

Her words were well-received by CMC students. Hillary Lundberg’14 describes the talk as “witty, honest, and inspiring – rare qualities in someone of her status and experience.”

Rice then took on a half hour of questions from the audience that ranged from her difficulties as a minority female, to foreign relations with Iran and Iraq, to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s “kind of creepy” affection for her. She addressed the administration’s use of water boarding as an “enhanced interrogation technique,” and defended it after the Justice Department deemed it legal  before it was used. In response to one question, Rice affirmed that “Iraq is still a lot better off without Saddam Hussein,” and she was “glad that we are not sitting here talking about an arms race, a nuclear arms race between Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Iraq’s Sadam Hussein, and that’s exactly where we would be.” She then went on to dub Iran the “most dangerous country in the world right now,” and suggest that tougher sanctions should be levied against the state. Rice cautioned, however, that for those students who hoped to influence policy, “take it one step at a time.”

Rice closed her talk stating, “I have no problem with protests, this country was born in protests,” in reference to the reactions of many to the decisions made in Iraq. But perhaps in her own nod to the protesters right outside Ducey Gymnasium, Rice noted that when people protest “they need to be sure they’re not getting in the way of others who might want to have a civil dialogue about differences.”

Editor’s Note: This article originally stated that the administration “defended it [an enhanced interrogation technique] as it passed through judicial review before it was used.” The Justice Department reviewed and deemed the action legal and it was not passed through judicial review. This article was updated at 11:30am on December 2, to reflect this change.

He began his story with his entrance into monastic school at the age of 10 in the early 1940s. Gyatso wanted to live as “a simple monk,” which he did for many years. On March 10th, 1959, at the age of 28 he met demonstrators on a road from the Tibetan capital. The protesters were holding a peaceful rally to protest the Communist Chinese regime’s occupation of Tibet, a rally that the monk gladly joined. Chinese soldiers soon broke up the protest, and Gyatso, along with many of his fellow demonstrators, was detained. He spent the next 33 years enduring torture in Chinese prisons.

CMC students with Palden Gyatso

Now in his late 70s, Palden Gyatso has traveled around the world speaking on behalf of the prisoners of Tibet. He has written a book, The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk, which includes jarring pictures of various devices of torture that he was able to smuggle out of prison. These pictures were passed around to the students gathered for tea in the Athenaeum.

Sitting next to his translator, Gyatso took a minute to pause from his retelling and contemplate his dentures. He took them out and showed the assembled students. His translator chimed in, explaining that while in prison, soldiers attached electrodes to the inside of the monk’s mouth, causing all of his teeth to break and his tongue to forever lose the sensation of taste.

Gyatso went on to detail a game that the soldiers played with the Tibetan prisoners. The soldiers would ask them: “Is Tibet its own country?” If the prisoners refused to admit China’s dominance, they were stripped, put on a sling, whipped, and made to drink and bathe in scalding water. For Gyatso, to deny his own country’s sovereignty and swear loyalty to the Chinese would also mean renouncing his belief in freedom, renouncing the Dalai Lama, and, worst of all, renouncing his Buddhist faith. He never relented in his support of Tibet’s independence, and so for 33 years, until his release, he suffered cruel and violent torture.

Gyatso was finally freed due to overwhelming pressure on the Chinese government coming from the international community. He explained that it is through such international attention that Tibet and other oppressed peoples will gain freedom. His advice to graduates seeking to help is to find an internship or a job working for an international amnesty-seeking organization or a news organization to spread awareness of injustice. Many Tibetans still live under the heel of an oppressive regime, but if the international community can be made to focus on their plight, they, like Monk Palden Gyatso, can be freed.

In welcoming monk Gyatso to the college, Professor Edward Haley described CMC’s students as setting out to become leaders in the battle for human rights, no matter what career each student followed. As with Monk Gyatso’s release, the first step towards holding a superpower accountable is by making its actions known to the world. If students leave the college with that mission in mind, with the resources provided them by their education, and with the blessing of whistle-blowers like Palden Gyatso, they too can become leaders at the forefront of the battle for international justice.

Occupy Claremont held an event to publicize their protest on Monday, November 21st, including a screening of the British comedy In the Loop, a dark parody of the political atmosphere surrounding the start of the Iraq War. It didn’t directly mention Iraq, President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, or any actual members of the American government, but it makes politicians look bad, so why not? For the record, I actually loved the movie and encourage readers to check it out.

I'd rather talk to Occupy Claremont

Following the screening, Pitzer professors Dan Segal and Geoffrey Herrera hosted a discussion about the film and its relation to the coming visit of Condoleezza Rice. During the course of their discussion, organizers of the Rice protest, with the help of Segal and Herrera, clarified their motivations for putting together the demonstration.

Namely: Condoleezza Rice, philanthropic pianist and advocate of increasing aid to Africa, is evil and CMC has nothing to learn from her. And that evil part? That’s no exaggeration, that’s straight out of the mouth of Professor Segal.

To begin, they pointed out repeatedly, we can’t actually learn anything from a decorated Stanford Professor and key figure in the American political scene, and if we can, we certainly can’t do it in person! As Herrera explained “We should all continue to learn from Condoleezza Rice, but you don’t have to listen to her in order to do that.” Segal added, “She’s much more polished and practiced at this than the people in the audience, so she’s ready for everything so it’s not actually going to be an open exchange.”

Our mistake, I guess we should be learning from Condoleezza Rice by ignoring her. What were we thinking? How could we ever hope to glean any insight from an individual with polish and an aptitude for public speaking. Perhaps we could invite Joe Biden instead?

Rather than listening to Rice, organizers of the protest hope that you will instead elect to learn from them at their “teach-ins” where they will provide lectures on her “crimes against humanity.”  That sure sounds like a non-biased, quality educational opportunity to me, especially when anyone is allowed to lead one.

But why protest the event? The professors and organizers attending the film screening provided a large variety of reasons for protesting the event, some of which make less sense than others and some of which make no sense at all. Here’s what the event organizers (who did not give their names) had to say. One hoped to “bring up the fact that [the Iraq War] is not over yet.” Maybe she hasn’t heard that it will be in less than two months. Another boldly and incoherently charged, “I feel that she should not be educating college students on policy because she did not follow policy while she was National Security Advisor,” while a third proclaimed, “It’s not just about her as an individual, it’s the fact that people use Condoleezza Rice to say that we live in a post-racialized, post-sexualized society because a women of color got into such a high position of power, which is not the case … and that’s also part of the reason why we’re bringing awareness to what’s going on.”

So there you have it. The student masterminds behind this particular endeavor want to remind everyone that a war that is just weeks away from ending is not, in fact, over yet, that policy is apparently synonymous with protocol, and that the success of one talented African American woman proves the horrible racism and sexism that is crippling this nation.

The professors justifications for the demonstration were a little easier to follow, but no less questionable. When asked directly about the purpose of the protest, for example, Professor Herrera explained, “The thing that’s most astonishing to me perhaps about those that were involved in foreign policy decision-making during the Bush administration is that none have really suffered for it.” He may be right. Perhaps Condoleezza Rice, a well respected public figure and successful professor, will experience such profound suffering at the sight of a few dozen college students calling her names while she talks about her very lucrative book, that she will change her direction in life entirely and sign up to work for Ralph Nader.

Professor Segal, on the other hand, criticized those who “put their careers first, as Condoleezza Rice I think has quite consistently for decades.” First, over what? Justice, he seems to think. He does make the ironclad point that “She was without question on duty when the United States went to the UN and lied to justify to going to the war. She was without question on duty when the United States made decisions to use torture against its prisoners.” Sounds fair. Rice is evil because she did not resign when the general political goings on were unsatisfactory for two Pitzer professors and Occupy Claremont, who, by the way, have actually set up a small Occupy encampment over on 2nd street. Feel free to visit and show your support for their efforts to block sidewalks and demonstrate that you can, in fact, Occupy Wall Street while still on main street.

It is the right of Claremont McKenna College as an independent institution to invite who we choose to our school, with or without the expressed written consent of Occupy Claremont and a select group of Pitzer students. They have a right to their opinions, but not the right to push them on us. In response, I hope that CMC’ers will pack the Athenaeum this Wednesday. Let’s show the demonstrators that we don’t need their approval to exercise our right to learn from whomever we choose to.

I caught up with the guys outside the apartments, where they were enjoying a mid-afternoon cold beverage and some characteristically intellectual conversation.  Cooper and Jeffrey each have a distinct sense of style that’s informed by their wide-ranging interests. They’re neither pretentious nor conformist, and always wear what they find most appealing, appropriate, and comfortable.  Next time you see Jeffrey and Cooper bicycling around Claremont, be sure to note their swag.

Cooper, you’re looking dapper today.  What are you wearing?

I’m wearing Levi’s 511 jeans—they fit well, so I just buy these in every color I need. I have on my Adidas Originals high-tops, a striped scarf from Fred Perry, and a button-up.  This is a J. Crew peacoat and sweater; I like J.Crew because you can dress nicely without paying a ridiculous amount. Their clothes are conservative, and hearken back to timeless styles that won’t look dated anytime soon.  This is one of my Nixon watches—I have two, because they’re simple, casual, and go with everything.

What inspires your personal style?

I think trying to stay on the cutting edge is kind of a losing battle.  You’re going to lose the battle if you wear a lot of the dumb sh*t GQ tells you to wear.  I read something about how we should all “wear yellow” right now.  I would strongly advise against wearing yellow.

For me, I’d say old films are most inspiring, in particular the French “New Wave.”  I like the looks from many Jean-Luc Godard films, like Jeanne-Pierre Léaud in “Masculin Féminin.” I think the Italians are a bit too flamboyant, but the French always look terrific.

What do you think someone’s style says about him or her?

It’s the first, immediate interaction—and that’s integral.  People always say style is a good way to show your personality; I guess that’s true, but then you run into trouble with the label obsession our culture has.  People might call you a “hipster” or “prep,” but I think it’s really about whether you’re well-dressed or not.  Jeffrey and I are completely different in our styles, but we both try to dress well.  That’s all that really matters.

What article of clothing could you not live without?

Well, there’s shoes.  You can’t get in too many bars without shoes.   I also love my peacoat—my sister hates it, but I love it.

Who on campus do you think has the most killer style?

I think Tyler McBrien (’13) really got it right with Professor Lobis.  Those spectacles—they’re awesome. Professor Petropolis, the chair of History department, is also very well put-together.

How has your sense of style evolved over the years?

I’ve gone through a lot of phases, you could say.  I’ve been through the punk phase, the I-don’t-give-a-shit phase…  I’ve built off each of those phases.  I still wear a lot of the things I’ve accumulated, but in a new way.

If CMC were any article of clothing, what would it be?

It’s got to be the tank top.

Jeffrey, you’re looking excellent yourself.  Tell me what you’re wearing.

I’m wearing some burgundy loafers, navy blue socks.  Burgundy cords, a button-down, and a cardigan sweater.  We don’t need to talk about labels—we really don’t.  This gold watch I’ve had for a while—it’s my fathers.

What inspires your style?

The weather.  I’m from Pasadena, just nearby.  I always check the forecast for the day to see what’s appropriate.  Also, comfort—comfort is key.

On a side note, I’m interested in what actually defines today’s style.  We look at britches or hoopskirts and think “costume”—what will people 100 years from now call our “costume?”

What do you think someone’s style says about him or her?

It’s the first thing you see.  In our culture, we’re all about the visual.  Often times that thing that’s inside the shell might not correspond with how someone sees you.  It’s always better to just be yourself.

Who on campus do you think has the most interesting style?

Professor Eric Haskell at Scripps.  Oh man, he monograms everything.  I’d never seen a monogrammed sweater, but he has one.  Wow.

How has your personal style evolved over the years?

In high school my uniform was khakis and a shirt and belt—all day, every day.  Then I started accumulating things, like Cooper, and incorporating them.  We’re young, so we’ll be acquiring things for some time.  If you’re able to buy nicer, well-made things, you can wear them the rest of your life.  This is just the beginning.

How would you describe CMC’s sense of style?

Ultimate comfort.  And I suppose it is just comfortable to wear sweats or a t-shirt…

What’s your biggest style DON’T?

Tight clothes.  Very tight clothes.  It just looks awkward.

What article of clothing could you not live without?

I’m in love with these shoes I’m wearing, and I think I’ll just buy them the rest of my life.  These tassels—they are little mink tails.  I was buffing them one day and the tassel came off, so I added these fur tassels myself.  Plus, they keep my shoes clean.

Want more style? Check out Falling for fall, Sweet and Petite and Wear it CMC.