The debate remained pretty tame, with the only bustle coming from the audience: One audience member publicly berated another audience member for asking a question that he saw as inappropriate. A Canadian in the audience asked the debaters about their perception of Canadacare and why the U.S. hasn’t adopted it yet. Another audience member then stood up and berated the Canadian for asking such a question—one the debaters clearly couldn’t answer.

Aside from the excitement from the audience, the debaters remained calm tackling the three topics: energy, the federal deficit, and Obamacare.

Professor Busch, a faculty member of the Government department, moderated the debate. Each side began with a three-minute presentation followed by a rebuttal from the opposing side and then ten minutes of question and answer from the audience.

Each debater stuck pretty close to the talking points of his respective party. Carson Williams, Pomona ’13, began the debate for the Republicans talking about energy. Williams emphasized the billions of dollars the government has lost in spending on green initiatives. He also emphasized that the government shouldn’t spend money on companies or start-ups that are failing.

Speaking for the Democrats, Erin Franks, CMC ’12, highlighted that the government needs to stop subsidizing large oil and gas companies. With this saved money, Franks proposed funding more start-ups, like wind energy, and putting government resources toward research and development.

Sam Stone, CMC ’14, kicked off the debate on how to handle the country’s current deficit, representing the Democrats’ views. He emphasized that debt (the total amount the U.S. owes, while deficit is a yearly gauge) is a political issue rather than a policy one and said that, while this country clearly has a debt problem, we should focus on things like restoring the economy first.

Sean Houseworth, CMC ’13, responded for the Republicans, warning that we need to develop a long-term plan to handle the debt now, rather than continuing to “kick the can down the road.” He noted that Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—all programs the Democrats don’t want to touch—are the biggest drivers behind our debt, while Stone pointed to the Bush tax cuts as the biggest legislative contributor to debt.

Lastly, Hannah Burak, CMC ’13, spoke about Obamacare from a Republican stance. She began by saying, “The U.S. deserves better than Obamacare,” and pointed to the individual mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as unconstitutional. She also noted that the ACA would cause insurance rates to rise.

College Democrat Aseem Chipalkatti, CMC ’15, maintained that individual mandates are nothing new and that Obamacare straddles a nice line between a socialist program and capitalism (to which Burak responded, “The  middle of socialism and capitalism is socialism.”). Chipalkatti noted that, while Obamacare is not perfect, it “tries to fill in the pothole that is our healthcare system today.”

The Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) sponsored the event, which lasted an hour and a half and had about 50 attendees.

ARTstART Training at RSABG

Art in Claremont? Is that a joke?

In fact, it’s not. Art is here, has been here, and is here to stay.

To those skeptical of an artistic presence in our little city: did you know that Claremont has been known as a breeder of fine arts since World War II? Did you know that Scripps’ Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery is currently displaying an exhibit of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene from the 1950s-60s? Or have you ever heard of the Petterson Museum of Intercultural Art located in town?

“Claremont is actually known for its artistic creativity. There are lots of galleries and things to see just in our own town. It is unfortunate that people come and say there is no art,” said Rich Deely, founder of ARTstART.

This is where the Claremont Museum of Art’s Project ARTstART comes into play. Deely created a program specifically for art appreciation in Claremont.  High school students and college students work together to teach elementary school kids the importance of art culture. The program consists of 6 Claremont College students, 27 Claremont High School students, and over 175 4th, 5th, and 6th graders from Sycamore Elementary School in Claremont.

“The goal is to increase cultural consumerism and to get more people to look at shows, recognize the art around them, and recognize Claremont’s unique arts heritage,” says Deely.

Sophie Gallant, CMC '15 Facilitating Small Group

ARTsTART started in early 2010 under the direction of Deely. Although the Claremont Museum of Art closed doors physically in late 2009, it still hosts several programs and activities to keep the arts & culture alive in Claremont.  The board of directors wanted to create a program to engage college, high school, and elementary school students, in order to connect the community to art.

High school students participating in ARTstART need to be trained to teach the elementary school kids about the different themes of art. They visit art venues such as the Williamson Gallery or Pomona College Museum of Art at the Montgomery Center, get advice from their college mentors on lesson plans for the elementary school kids, and even get to visit art studios to meet working artists in the Claremont Area. This year they were able to meet local artists Aldo Casanova, Anne Seltzer, and Jeanne Steffan.

ARTstARTer Bethany Crim Teaching

The college mentors and high school students meet three times a month at different locations such as: the City of Claremont Youth Activity Center (YAC), Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Scripps College’s Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, and the Claremont University Consortium. During meetings, students write and reflect on past lesson plans, field trips, and give feedback to improve lessons for the elementary school students. Mentor Kimberley Africa PO ’15  notes, “I am very impressed with how high school students know a lot about art. It’s been a really positive experience and I’ve learned so much by meeting artists.”

“I had no idea all this art was here,” said Zoe Jameson PO ’15.

Sophie Galant CMC ’15 specifically has been a big help since the beginning of ARTstART. “This year was great because it was a learning year, since it was the first one. I really liked getting out of the Claremont bubble and seeing what else is going on around Claremont. I never thought what is around here. Through ARTstART I get to learn what it’s like to live here,” Galant said.

Mentors who have worked with ARTstART include Sophie Galant CMC ’15,  Zoe Jameson PO’15, Kimberly Africa PO’15, Maddi Knaub CMC ’15, Sung Mo CMC ’15, Karen Herrera PO ’15, Heather Byrne PO’15, and Sarah Merianos (CGU). Mentors are recruited in the fall and can get applications from Amy Bibbens at CMC’s Center for Civic Engagement for next year.

There were around thirty students total, three of whom went to CMC.

Claremont McKenna isn’t exactly known for art, unless you count some particularly creative beer pong tables. It doesn’t have an art major, any art classes, or any artistic facilities outside of a few auditoriums and the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. Sometimes, it’s easy to assume that CMC just doesn’t do art.

But that’s not exactly true. Every year, CMC’s Under the Lights presents their one-acts performance and the Athenaeum puts on a Dinner Theatre production. CMC students participate in Acapella groups, the 5C orchestra, and a number of other consortium-wide arts groups. Plus, it’s important not to forget the countless musicians, photographers, and craftsmen that decorate their dorm walls with their work, or play a little ukulele during a homework break.

With those individuals in mind, one student asked CMC President Pamela Gann about the lack of arts facilities on campus when she came to visit ASCMC Senate on March 27th. In response, Gann emphasized the availability of such spaces at other schools, explaining, “The arts are definitely in the Claremont Colleges, so we in the consortium subspecialize.” Seems fair. As long as other campuses meet the students’ need for studios and easels, CMC is free to subspecializes in gigantic, cubical study spaces.

Perhaps that’s not exactly fair to CMC, which, cube aside, has clearly focused its energy on developing world-class programs in economics, finance, and government, among other things. But Gann’s comment isn’t exactly fair either.

Mercedes Teixido, representing the Pomona College Art Department, explained that Pomona College does indeed provide access to its arts facilities, but only to those students currently enrolled in art classes. She added, “We do not have open access even for Pomona students. Because we provide all of the materials for our classes, it would be impossible to just have materials for anyone available.”  She noted this policy was ”a matter of safety and space.”

Teixido went on to point out that Pomona does offer opportunities for students outside of classes, though they are limited.  For example, Pomona has “a Friday afternoon figure drawing session which anyone can come do.”

In short, opportunities do exist, but are significantly restricted. Teixido emphasizes that, “I do have to say that we allow very few allotments from CMC as we have extensive waiting lists for all our intro classes, therefore, CMC students barely benefit from our facilities.”

Christian Neumeister CMC ’15 is well aware of the difficulties of being an artist at CMC. As a member of a band composed of CMC students, he complains that, “there are practice facilities around the 5C’s, but they’ve been extremely difficult to access. Scripps has practice rooms, but they’re tiny. We’ve been told we need to be taking lessons at Pomona to access theirs. At Harvey Mudd, you must be a student to access them.” He explains, “No one is asking for an art department or a music department, just a room or two where we can do what we love without bothering anyone.” Neumeister is working on starting a Jam Society to help give CMC students the opportunity to practice their art, but still needs to secure some facilities to make it happen.

As CMC’s campus continues to grow, limited arts facilities ought to be on the wish list. Gann did point out at the senate session on March 26th that, “We do have a campus center in the Master Plan where we will have gallery space and performance space, but that is not a formal department. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

This hardly seems to cover the current gap, especially compared to facilities offered to students of other schools. Compare these meager features to Pitzer college’s Media Studies Production Center which, according to their website, offers Pitzer students “24–hour access” to “professional-quality video and film cameras,” “a full complement of lighting and sound equipment,” “student-run and student requested workshops,” and even a dark room.

It can sometimes be hard to see at first glance, but CMC has a wealth of artistic talent, more than can be fairly represented by a few pictures on the wall of Ryal Lab and a handful of performances in Pickford and McKenna Auditorium. In my wildest dreams, I see a full featured dark room with enough chemicals to repeat the Cuyahoga River fire, but that’s certainly not fair to ask the school to support financially. But, as the campus expands and more buildings are added, a one-room studio with some lights, a few easels and music stands, and a couple sound proofed music studios doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

He started by mentioning that his primary role is to elevate the quality of faculty and academic programs at CMC. He then stated that over the last six or seven years, in his role as the Dean of Faculty, he has hired roughly 40% of the current faculty members as the college has experienced high faculty turnover. For the upcoming academic year, Hess mentioned that the college engaged in a strong amount of hiring. (See below for a list of the departments with new hires.) He stressed that he is looking to hire faculty to encourage margins of development in areas where the college is not particularly strong, such as languages and sciences.

Hess then discussed the external review process for the academic departments and the various programs the college is looking to expand. The external review process occurs for each department every six or seven years and highlights specific improvements which should be made to advance that particular department.

According to Hess, the external review process of the Philosophy department determined that CMC currently has the best Philosophy department in comparison to any liberal arts institution.

Furthermore, CMC is extending the Yonsei-CMC summer program for another six years, with the hope to place students in internships in Korea in another two years. This summer, the college is also hosting a travel trip to Rome. Hess also noted that CMC wants to ensure the Silicon Valley Program is a 5C program. Four Pomona Students participating in addition to the 14 CMCers for next year; Pomona and other 5C alumni are helping out with the program.

He also mentioned that CMC is looking to add another ITAB networking trip, in addition to the current trip, to provide more students with opportunities in Silicon Valley.

In the near future, the college plans to establish a South Asia presence, particularly in India. CMC has been recruiting Indian students heavily, and President Gann visited India over winter break with the hope of establishing internships and course offerings for CMCers.

For the summer, the college has paired up with several NGO’s in India to offer social entrepreneurship internships. In the future, Cynthia Humes, a Religious Studies professor who has lived in India, may possibly teach a half-credit course. This opportunity will be subsidized heavily; the college is raising funds in South Asia to make the price modest for CMCers.

Dean Hess ended his talk focusing on entrepreneurship and the manner in which the college is trying to increase the academic presence in this field. CMC wants students of all majors to have some experience in entrepreneurial programming in the future. The college is trying to compliment the work done by the KLI and the RDS to extend entrepreneurship education to all students.

New hires:

Robert Day School: Hired two now professors. One of the professors will teach a course on economic development, and the other professor will offer a course on finance.

Literature Department: Hired a professor from Harvard to teach a course on British Literature.

History Department: Hired two new faculty members to teach courses on 19th century western history and environmental history, respectively.

Keck Science Center: Hired three faculty members to teach courses on Environmental Science, Chemistry and Biology respectively.

Furthermore, a professor from the University of Munich has been hired to teach Holocaust Studies in the John Roth Chair, which alumni of the college provided funding for. The college has also established the Cook Chair in honor of Scott Cook, the co-founder of Intuit, which will be filled by a new faculty member from Cal Tech to teach behavioral psychology and economic decision-making. Next year, the college is looking to hire faculty to teach Korean Politics, Brazilian History and Portuguese at the 5C’s, which will allow students to learn Portuguese after Spanish, if they so desire.

What brought about the decision to open-up TNC to the other colleges, as TNC has traditionally always been a CMC-only event?

Cooke: Over the past year, there has been a decrease in attendance at TNC’s, as Campus Security would not allow non-CMC students to attend the parties without a guest pass. The process was such that CMC students would have to register their friends in time for the party. TNC has always been a CMC only event; however, this rule was never strictly enforced until about the past year. Clare Riva ’13, the last DAC, had been working with the Dean of Students to make it easier for other 5C students to attend TNC’s and they were in the process of formulating a new system which allowed for greater attendance at TNC’s. In the past, such decisions have been mainly under the jurisdiction of the social chairs and have been supported by the rest of the ASCMC Executive Board. While we want to preserve the tradition of TNC being a mostly CMC party, we recognize that CMC students all have friends at other colleges that we want to be able to come and enjoy the party with us.

What is the new system of the guest list policy?

Cooke: One TNC a month will be opened up to the 5C’s, where any Claremont College student will get in with their school ID. At the CMC only TNC’s, a guest list policy will be implemented.  A Google form will open up every Monday to Thursday (noon) where CMC students can register guests from another 5C by submitting their name and student ID number. This will add the Claremont student to the guest list and the student will be able to check in with Campus Security at TNC to gain admittance.

What are the main concerns of the administration regarding this change?

Cooke: The Dean of Students Office is unwilling to make TNC a 5C event every week. The main reason is that we do not have large enough spaces to hold 500+ events every Thursday night. Dean Spellman is allowing one 5C TNC per month with 2 kegs, which is an increase from the single keg allowed at CMC only TNC’s.

In your new role as the DAC Chair, what other changes would you like to see for the forthcoming year?

Cooke: This year one of my main goals in terms of party planning will be to revive TNC. Alumni and upperclassmen always talk about how TNC was well attended, had great music or bands, was held at diverse locations, and rivaled the Saturday night party. I will be talking to past social chairs and looking into how they structured their events to figure out how to make TNC more epic, so to speak. I want to make sure that the CMC party and social culture from the past is preserved and not lost.

I am like a student of any other major: I cannot expect to love every class that I take.  I know plenty of pre-med students that hate organic chemistry but have to take it anyway.  I don’t know why literature majors would expect to be any different. Sometimes, education can be tough and not particularly fun. I’m not a huge fan of T.S. Eliot or Edmund Spenser, but I realize that they are both people I need to read, especially as someone interested in modern poetry and Paradise Lost. Literature builds on itself. The works of an author like J.M. Coetzee may be much more accessible to a modern reader in terms of style than the work of Daniel Defoe, but I think it would be very hard for a reader to have a full understanding of Coetzee’s novel Foe without being familiar with Defoe’s work. Foe, after all, is based on Robinson Crusoe and even has Daniel Defoe as a major character.

Reading through the literary canon may be a slog at times, but I know there’s a pay off. Even a rebellious and revolutionary poet like Allen Ginsberg can point back to someone who might considered old, like Walt Whitman, as an important influence. The course requirements at CMC may tend towards older work, but  that work makes up the very foundation of our literary tradition. This is a great thing for discussion based literature classes. Reading requirements pull students together and give them common ground. A student that has read The Odyssey has a base of knowledge that can be used in classes stretching from the classical world to our contemporary one and spanning authors from Homer, to Dante, to Tennyson, and Joyce. It is for this reason, I think, that the discussions in my CMC literature classes have been, on the whole, better than the discussions in my Pomona English classes.

Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey

While I’m glad that we offer courses tailored to suit student tastes, there are other factors to consider when structuring a major. While 20th century authors are generally much easier to read than older works, 70 to 80 percent of the material on the literature subject GRE was written before 1925. A student can focus on post-modernism or post-colonialism all he or she wants, but that could leave a huge, crippling gap in a student’s knowledge. Is it really acceptable for CMC to structure a major in a way that could leave students entirely unready to continue their studies on the graduate level, without significant additional study before applying?

While I realize that a lot of institutions have decided to forgo certain course requirements, CMC offers something special. We have a major that forces the school to preserve the specialties of each department and forces students to take certain foundational courses. At the same time, we also have a major that allows students and faculty to branch outward to other subjects. We are a college that offers courses on both Milton and post-war Polish poetry. We offer a traditional liberal arts foundation without placing  onerous requirements on our students. Lovers of contemporary literature, if they structure their classes correctly, could take a total of four classes (about half of the major) on contemporary work while still getting the fundamentals the college deems important. In the CMC major, there is plenty of room for a student to study what they love.

All this is not say that there are not some changes that could be made to the literature major. I think the addition of a creative writing sequence would make a lot of students happy. It could be a less structured way of studying literature and focusing on creative work. I also think that because we are a Literature rather than an English department, literature classes in foreign languages should count  towards a literature elective. Both of these options have huge possibilities for growth. There are, perhaps, other changes to make. But taking all the structure out of the major isn’t one of them. Loosening the requirements of the literature major would take away its most unique and essential element: creating a foundation for critiquing and understanding the contemporary literature that so many of us love.

Last year, I took a British Fiction of the 1980s class, where I had the privilege of reading relevant, interesting fiction by authors like J.M. Coetzee and Salman Rushdie. I became acquainted with British politics, history, and culture in the 1980s and learned much more from that class than I thought I would.

It wasn’t until this class, until I was weeping over The Remains of the Day, that I realized I could really intensely enjoy my Literature classes, that I would want to do the homework and reading for these classes.

Unfortunately, the CMC Literature major consists of several required courses whose subjects often tend toward older British writers. As is, the CMC Literature major is too confining and should either be completely restructured – similar to the construct of Pomona or Scripps’s major – or should favor more general electives in its requirements.

The Literature Department offers an array of interesting courses and is composed of talented faculty. However, a lot of these courses–the more modern Literature courses that appeal to students–cannot count toward the Literature major. By adding new contemporary literature electives and offering students more choice, the department could make room for more types of Literature electives.

Photo Credit: morhymesdapoet.wordpress.com

The CMC Literature major consists of seven required courses: two required survey courses, British Writers I and British Writers II and a few elective courses that fulfill the pre-1700 Lit course requirement or single author course. The major has two electives as well. Two.

Conversely, Pomona College’s English department requires 11 courses for the major, which consists of three required courses and “eight additional courses,” which each major selects after consulting with his or her advisor. Scripps College also requires a minimum of 11 courses for the major, constituting five survey courses in British or American Literature and four electives, with the last two reserved for thesis.

CMC’s Literature Department used to be structured similarly, with five survey courses and the rest electives. According to Professor John Farrell, the current chair of the Literature Department and a Literature professor at CMC for 22 years, this policy changed in the mid-1990s because the department felt like they were teaching too many survey courses and wanted to go more in depth in other subject areas.

“Surveys have their purpose, which is to orient you in a grand way with the subject,” Professor Farrell explained. He also noted that the classes were getting too big, and the department thought it was better to switch to a two-semester survey course.

Survey courses, generally, are more limiting than the elective style courses CMC currently offers. For example, students have to take British Writers I and British Writers II, but then can choose which elective they take that falls under the category of a pre-1700 Lit course. In a way, survey courses can be more restrictive, but the existence of survey courses allows more electives and less restrictive elective courses (like a 1700-1900 elective, which the Lit department currently requires).

Farrell also emphasized the importance of reading authors like Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare. “All the modern writers read Chaucer, and all the great writers before them,” he explained. “You can’t read modern authors without reading these.”

While I agree with the basic premise, I think that message can, and has, been taken too far. There is a reason authors no longer write in the style of Daniel Defoe or Henry James. Literature has developed, I would argue, for the better, and it is a shame that more of our classes shy away from these incredible new novelists. Studying the “grand” writers of the past seems to overemphasize their historical importance, which in turn underemphasizes the literary merit of newer writers.

Farrell noted that there is generally high demand for Literature courses, and that most classes don’t have a problem reaching capacity. While this may be the case, the narrowness of the CMC major might still deter students from majoring in Literature.

While it is important to read original, classic authors, it is equally important to read authors who currently demonstrate a mastery of the English language. I will always love Jane Austen and appreciate her development of complex, interesting characters, but she can’t make me cry like Jonathan Safran Foer does.

The Hub seems designed specifically to satisfy the ‘bro culture’ at the college. Over the past six months I’ve spent at CMC, my time at the Hub has rapidly diminished as I feel more and more out of place going there. CMC is known to embrace bro-esque behavior, and the Hub is the ultimate example of why this culture exists.

I am not saying that we need to work to make the Hub more female-friendly, but instead work towards “un-bro-ing” our convenient hangout spot. It’s not just CMC girls who tend to stay away, but also guys who aren’t loving the ever-present bro culture. As much as I wish I could quantify bro presence, I can’t. What I can and will do is look at the ratio of guys and girls at the Hub and other 5C cafes to provide evidence that the Hub appeals largely to a male-oriented bro culture. The Hub doesn’t exclude girls, but it isn’t exactly the most welcoming place to females and non-’bro’ males. Here’s why. Let’s break it down piece by piece:

A view of the Hub and it's hearty meal offering

Atmosphere

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think ‘Hub’ is an outdated man-cave. For goodness sake, there are framed portraits of CMC athletic teams hanging on the walls. I totally agree that the furniture was awesome in 1992, but it is 2011 and the tacky retro look has got to go. Those gritty couches don’t exactly make for a fun hangout spot. I am not saying I want the Hub to turn into a girly hangout place. I went to the Motley and left within a minute after looking at the jar of tampons for sale and Diva Cups by the register. That might be overcompensating. But it’s true that the Hub atmosphere could be improved with some small changes. The Coop, for example, is a perfect example of chic, clean design that everyone can enjoy. It’s tidy and not so blatantly sports-themed. That is what the Hub needs: a change in ambiance and décor to allow for everyone’s comfort.

The Ratio

In case you don’t believe that the Hub is disproportionately “bro,” I decided to do some research:

For one week I spent my afternoons at the Hub from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 pm. On weekends and weeknights, I popped in from time to time as well. I also compared the guy to girl ratios in the other 4 college’s cafes, including Pomona’s Coop, Scripps’s Motley Coffeehouse, Pitzer’s Pit-Stop Café, and Harvey Mudd’s Jay’s Place (The Muddhole).

I started on a Monday and walked in at 2:30 pm to take a headcount: 10 girls, 35 boys. I hoped Tuesday would be better. Nope. 13 girls. 32 boys. Wednesday 14 girls, 38 boys.

I know my data collection isn’t the most perfect, nor by any means thesis-worthy, but those numbers should make you stop and think. On four random days, the ratio was always more than twice the amount of boys to girls. On weeknights it was even worse. I walked in on a Wednesday night to find 9 boys watching Sports Center and two girls sitting at a back table. That same Wednesday night, I walked into the Coop and saw 18 boys and 16 girls. Much better. The Friday before my investigation ended, I went to all five cafés to compare girls to guys. The Muddhole 3:5, Pit-Stop  8:11, The Coop 18:30, The Motley (I stopped counting after the zero-eth boy), and The Hub 5: 13.

Every time I went to the Hub in the past week, there were at least twice as many guys as girls. Sure I could just walk to the Coop or the Pit-Stop, but it’s a hassle, and I am a CMCer. Why should I go to another campus’s student center to feel comfortable?

Cleanliness

Cleanliness is definitely not the Hub’s forte. Walking in and seeing tables dripped with leftover grease from fried foods, chicken tenders in the couches, and the remnants of last week’s curly fries all over the floor doesn’t inspire much confidence in the Hub’s upkeep. I don’t think the problem is the staff.  People just don’t always seem to pick up after themselves. Maybe most Hub regulars do not care, but after speaking to all my girl friends, we all agree that such an environment is gross. Of all my girl friends surveyed, none eat in the Hub at all and noted the leftover trash as reason enough to avoid spending time there.

Sportscasters are a regular feature at the Hub

Menu

Admit it: every time you walk into the Hub or anywhere near it the smell smell of fried food lingerings. It is no secret that the Hub’s menu is not the most health conscious. Sure there are wraps and paninis, but everything else on the menu is either a sandwich, burger, or fried-something. Granted, that fried-something has a place in everyone’s heart on a Thursday night, but it would be nice to have more variety on the menu like salads, fruit, bagels, or muffins. One time, I asked for a fruit salad and, in return, I got a big slice of cantaloupe. Even the way the food is presented–big portions slapped onto paper plates–could also be more appealing.

Television

The lack of variety on the two television screens in the Hub is another gripe. The TV is always–let me repeat–ALWAYS playing ESPN. Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes, I want to watch ESPN. Since the NBA season is finally back on, I’ll be perched on those grimy Hub couches and armchairs for the game. But having sports channels on from the minute the Hub opens until closing hours is excessive. The addition of another TV would allow for more viewing options, perhaps to watch non-sports shows. With more options, the Hub is far more conducive to everyone’s entertainment tastes. More important than adding viewing variety, however, is the need to get rid of the “channel-changing” stigma. Doesn’t it say something about Hub culture when changing the channel from Sports Center is considered near sinful, even when it’s playing on both TV screens?

This “Hub-Makeover” is in everyone’s interest. I think most guys like it when there are girls around, and most girls like it when they can get a bite to eat without their conversations being drowned out by sports news broadcasters. It’s important to remember that the Hub is CMC’s student center and should feel that way for every student, not just for CMC ‘bros.’ The Hub has the potential to be a hotspot where everyone could be equally happy with just these few minor adjustments. Until then, looks like I’m hanging out elsewhere.

No one special in your life at the moment? Enter Like Secret. Co-founded by Pomona freshman Jesse Pollak, Like Secret is an easy (and anonymous!) matchmaking app that may just score you a date this Tuesday night.

Launched just over a week ago, Like Secret has already gained over 400 users and is growing fast. Here’s how it works: Log into the site using Facebook and click on the friends you are romantically interested in. They then receive an anonymous notification that someone is interested in them. If they log in and happen to pick you too then you are matched up! If not, your secret is safe with them (read: it’s a really simple way to avoid rejection).

Yes, you heard right—gone are the days when sending red roses from “your secret admirer” was the best way to inform your crush of your interest. Welcome to the 21st century, where having zero game or being sick of hoping your crush can read your mind at TNC are officially non-issues.

Sure, online matchmaking sites are nothing new. Match.com is a wonderful way to meet people if you’re willing to create a public profile. Not only does this kind of site cost money, any member of the site can contact you (Like Secret is only between Facebook friends). Like a Little is also fantastic if what you are trying to do is write a post about how it was love at first sight in Collins last Thursday and wait for Guava to reciprocate that sentiment. It may never happen.

Pollak says he got his inspiration for starting the site when he realized that neither Match.com nor Like a Little really served the role of providing an online connection between young people. “I was lying in my bed on a Saturday night and the idea just kind of hit me: most dating sites are all about setting you up with people you don’t know, why not flip that idea on its head and focus on setting you up with people you do know?”  Unlike Like a Little, Like Secret allows more than just anonymous online flirting: it allows people to form real connections.  Pollak’s site is especially useful for college students, who nearly never use online dating sites, but are almost universally addicted to Facebook.  ”I think [college kids] see friends hooking up with people and think that something is wrong with them if they need help meeting people. In reality though, everyone struggles with dating and relationships and the success of dating sites has shown that people really do need help,” the co-founder explains.  Like Secret, he hopes, can serve this valuable function for people of all ages, but especially for students looking for romance on a campus far removed from the passion-filled world of “The Notebook.”

Now I don’t want you to think I’m some pessimist who cries herself to sleep at night wishing Noah Calhoun went to the Claremont Colleges. What I’m saying is that Like Secret is a means to an end. It is completely anonymous and it really works (trust me, my friend and I just tested it out). So give it a shot and if all else fails, well…like I said, I’m single.

There are some upcoming improvements for Like Secret as well.  Some ideas in the pipeline are a messaging platform to contact your matches, and the ability to set up friends you think would hit it off. So if Screw Your Roommate ended up going a little more like screw-over your roommate, it may be time to give Like Secret a try.

The program is funded through a series of alumni grants covering travel and living expenses for which students compete. In an interview with the Forum, Pomona Internship Coordinator Iris Gardner (PO ’09) describes the work that students do as, “important, but [something which] the fate of the company does not rest on”, such as creating grant proposals and presentations. This way, she says students gain “transferable skills” while being allowed to “dig deeper” within themselves.

A total of eight positions were offered in the most recent round of the summer internship program and included opportunities with organizations like Upward Bound, the East Asia Office of the U.S. Treasury and Green Corps.

Though the recipients so far were all either upcoming seniors or juniors, the program is open to all years.

At an institutional level, the summer internship program is designed to address what Gardner describes as the “extreme importance” of providing students with, “real-world experiences.” She adds that she aims for the program to present “pivotal” experiences for Pomona students to determine their future paths.

While Pomona’s summer internship program is flexible, it includes a comprehensive review process that as Gardner says, is intended to “facilitate the internship process” by clarifying expectations about what both student and employer are meant to deliver. This system extends over the duration of the internship and comprises an initial agreement form, three journals, a mid-internship evaluation and a final evaluation. Far from straitjacketing the internship, Gardner opines that employers find it beneficial that “[students] are held accountable by someone else too.”

As for finding the right internship, Gardner adds that students conduct up to three informational interviews with alumni in order to find one that is a good “personality fit.” However, she notes that while Pomona alumni “are a really huge support”, many would like to see students reach out more.

Internships play a vital role in helping students find jobs after graduation. According to the 2011 Student Survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, “[…] graduates who took part in a paid internship were more likely to get a job offer, have a job in hand by the time they graduated, and receive a higher starting salary offer than their peers who undertook an unpaid internship or no internship at all.” Even though Pomona’s latest internship initiative is in its infancy, it will hopefully continue to grow and provide valuable opportunities for Pomona students. Already, it has received four additional internship-funding commitments for the coming summer.

Emily Miner '12 and Iris Gardner '09, internship coordinator (Photo Courtesy of Pomona College)

Pomona isn’t alone in recognizing the importance of internships to students. As Richard M. Freeland writes in the Winter 2009 Liberal Education released by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, “In recent years, undergraduates have sensed that a traditional liberal education may not, by itself, be a sufficient preparation for the adult world.”

Liberal arts colleges, including Pomona, are increasingly using internships as an important way of delivering the proverbial bang for the buck: justifying the value of their education by providing students a platform to access, understand and be evaluated by potential employers. Further, Freeland notes, “Administrators also know that offering off-campus experiences or adding practice-oriented coursework to a liberal arts curriculum can help maintain strong enrollments.” This is an especially crucial differentiation in the current recessionary environment, when a liberal arts education is often expensive and time-consuming.

An interesting point though: Freeland argues that “although many high-status institutions have made room for internships and service-learning courses—[…] leading liberal arts colleges, for example, Amherst, Bowdoin, Clark, Smith and Williams have all done so—none, as yet, has made these types of experiences a central part of the learning experience or explicitly embraced the linking of liberal education with practice.”

Sherylle Tan, Associate Director of Research and Internships at the Kravis Leadership Institute (KLI) notes, internships and experiential learning are also a “huge part of CMC education.” CMC students have access to an established and rapidly expanding array of opportunities for the same through the various on-campus research institutes. According to Dr. Tan, KLI alone offers around twenty of nearly one hundred internship positions available through the college.

On balance, Pomona’s new summer internships program is a positive development that opens up a new range of learning opportunities for students there. Especially in coming years, it should form a new and exciting dimension to education at the 5Cs.