April 2011

T N M O E A R L C

t h e

the ’ n i k c ro

1| apr 2

II vol VI

|iss 4

Broken

Budgets

and Busted

Unions

Progressives fight for labor rights in the Cheesehead State Page 10-11

Raining on the Neo-Nazi

Parade Claremont community rallies to counter “rebels without a clue” Page 16-17

Writing center

revamp Page 6-7

boat

I love the 5Cs, but I think there is a profound flaw in our studies. The purpose of a liberal arts education is to foster a deep understanding of the issues that govern our lives and the world around us, not just to teach us a vocation. I sense, however, that 5C students have a disturbing lack of understanding of the fundamental differences between conservatives and liberals and the philosophical problem both ideologies have failed to overcome.

april 20| vol VIII iss 4

When squabbling about socialized health care, taxes, or abortion, politicians are debating aspects of one basic question: What is the nature of human freedom?

Those on the left, influenced by the philosophies of Richard Rorty and John Rawls, hold the belief that the role of government is to create an egalitarian society in which all citizens have the ability to pursue their own ends free of suffering. Rorty writes in Contingency, irony, and solidarity that we must allow “citizens [to] be as privatistic, ‘irrationalist,’ and aestheticist as they please as long as they do it on their own time – causing no harm to others and using no resources needed by those less advantaged.” This goal manifests itself in progressive reforms like universal health care. Liberals argue that it is the government’s role to liber-

page 2

ate us from basic needs so that we may pursue our private passions.

The conservative take on human freedom focuses on economic liberty and moral grounding. Free-market economists like Milton Friedman grew wary of big government after observing the devastating famines and lack of creativity present in Communist centrally-planned economies. Friedman wrote in Free to Choose, “[we should build] a society that relies primarily on voluntary cooperation to organize both economic and other activity, a society that preserves and expands human freedom, that keeps government in its place, keeping it our servant and not letting it become our master.” Conservatives also believe that social liberalism, fueled by moral relativism, has decayed institutions like churches that teach and preserve society’s lawfulness and morality.

While critics on the right declare that the left’s views lead to tyranny and hedonism, and critics on the left assert that the right’s views are cruel and oppressive to those in need, neither actually get to the root of the problem with their opponent’s philosophy. The pursuit of human freedom seems to be a noble goal, but it only provides man with a means to

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alex Heiney PUBLISHER Chelsea Carlson EDITOR EMERITUS MANAGING EDITORS Michelle Kahn CAMPUS Sara Birkenthal WEB EDITOR NATIONAL Russell M. Page Jeremy B. Merrill INTERNATIONAL Nick Rowe COPY EDITORS Sam Kahr, Samantha Morse, Anna Pickrell, Andy Willis ILLUSTRATORS Laura Bottorff, Jack Flannery

the CLAREMONT

editor’s note

The Last Stagthena

The Claremont Port Side is dedicated to providing the Claremont Colleges with contextualized, intelligent reports to advance debate among students and citizens. This is a progressive newsmagazine that offers pertinent information and thoughtful analysis on the issues confronting and challenging our world, our country, and our community. Each article in the Claremont Port Side reflects the opinion of its author(s) and does not represent the Claremont Port Side, its editors, its staff, or the Claremont Colleges.

Letters, Questions, Comments? editor@claremontportside.com

an end and not an actual end to pursue.

For the last century, philosophers have worked to respond to Nietzsche’s attack on traditional values and purpose; presently, thinkers from both the left and the right have stared into the abyss, but none have found a new absolute set of ends for mankind to pursue.

Without the existence of objective meaning or intrinsic value to life, man becomes trapped in the perspectives of nihilism and relativism. Some philosophers find this more devastating than others. Existentialist Jean-Paul Satre thought that in the wake of relativism, “all human actions are equivalent and all are on principle doomed to failure.” Others accept relativism and pursue a life of what Nietzsche labeled the “last man:” a safe, complacent life fulfilling basic material desires.

Therein lies Allan Bloom’s criticism of America’s bourgeois culture in The Closing of the American Mind as “nihilism with a happy ending.” As a country, and as individuals, we have seemingly glossed over relativism’s destruction of any absolute value or purpose in life, replacing it with whatever we as individuals feel is right to pursue. The downside to accepting relativism is that it provides little reason to pursue knowledge, aesthetics, or any sort of common good beyond not physically hurting one another.

I fear that many 5C students accept this form of casual relativism because they are not properly educated to understand and critically evaluate their own political sentiments . If students do not attempt to grasp the basic philosophical issues behind their studies, and if the 5Cs do not do more to guide its students in this pursuit, I fear that the supposed leaders that we graduate will be rudderless in understanding and solving the most important problems facing our generation.

Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists — make their voices heard on issues that matter.

Learn more at CampusProgress.org

|

april 21

|

claremontportside.com

|

volumeVIII issue4

The Revolving Door

Washington officials depart from the Hill for lobbying jobs

The values that grease the brass on the revolving door are not those that our highest officials should hold. The backscratching value system in Washington trades favors like poker chips from long lost colleagues in a sea of public attrition.

This leads to a large disconnect between Washington and the American public.

While politicians and their former colleagues turned lobbyists debate issues such as budget cuts on national radio programs, the public waits for Washington to confront serious issues.

Although the rest of the country views Washington, D.C. as a place where important policy decisions should be carefully deliberated, the capital’s political players mingle with lobbyists like they are business partners. After all, politicians are human, and may easily fall for lobbyists’ bait. The largest piece of legislation blocking a politician from allying with a lobbying organization exempts many high-level positions, including that of the vice president, the Attorney General and senators. The incentive to work with interest groups is high, the risk low and the reward lucrative.

Lobbying is illegal in nearly every other country in the world. There is a “totally different private and public relationship in the US than in any other nation,” says Myung-koo Kang, Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna. “Usually, the public sector has had a much more prevalent role in shaping politics, but from the beginning in the US, the public sector had to be created over the private sector, not the other way around.”

volumeVIII issue4

|

international

Lobbying is a standard part of politics in the United States. The trend of politicians leaving government positions to take more profitable jobs in lobbying is equally commonplace. Of the 354 living former members of Congress, 320 have become lobbyists. This “Revolving Door” phenomenon affects those who work for members of Congress as much as the members of Congress themselves.

The Center for Responsive Politics found that of the roughly 990 current Chiefs-ofStaff and Legislative Directors on Capitol Hill, at least 130 held one, if not several, lobbying positions prior to their current positions. Clearly, lobbying is politics in the United States.

Americans prefer the private sector.

For example, US private universities are widely accepted as academically superior to public institutions. In all other parts of the world, public universities top the charts. Charitable institutions are also privatized to a hugely successful degree.

Private foundations are enormous in the United States, far greater than in Western Europe and Australia. In contrast,

most nations support the public through public charities or similar social welfare programs. These two examples show the same thing - the revolving door is not a Washington hiccup. It is an extension of an American tendency to hold the private over the public sector.

To truly have a discussion on how to fix the American revolving door phenomenon is to have a discussion about this paradigm of American politics. This problem is not currently as daunting nor as pressing as the current crisis in the Middle East or the budget crisis. Nonetheless, the presence of the revolving door may reveal a deeper problem with the private sector’s dominance of American politics and the threat such influence poses to effective government.

claremontportside.com

|

april 21

|

page 3

national

In early February, Representative Jane Harman of California’s 36th district in West L.A., announced her retirement from public service to pursue a career as the CEO of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. As the Blue Dog Democrat departed, grumblings about a “revolving door” began to circulate across the news networks. Congresswoman Harman is not the first to leave public office to work in the more lucrative private sector, nor will she be the last. In fact, she joins a long list of attrition common in our nation’s capital.

It is easy to understand why each year, hundreds of workers in political offices in Washington leave through the revolving door. Lobbying positions are often closely related to the policy these government employees specialize in, which nurtures close ties between these employees and the industry respective to their expertise. These connections lead to job offers for government officials before they even consider leaving the public sector. The promises of a solid wage, less hectic lifestyle and secure position all add to the enticing nature of the offers. On top of all of this, the revolving door process is paid for by taxpayers and consumers, compounded continuously each year.

campus

By Quinn Chasan Staf f Writer, CMC ‘ 1 3

international

national

campus

Cuts for California’s Colleges Budget crisis leaves students looking for alternatives

By Anna Pickrell Copy Editor, S C ‘ 1 4 K-12 educators across the state drew a sigh of relief when California Governor Jerry Brown revealed a plan to protect their funding in the Proposed Budget Summary for the coming fiscal year. Although the upcoming round of budget cuts won’t hurt our youngsters, members of the state’s higher education system face a darker fate. Budget cuts to higher education will undoubtedly hurt California’s public universities. In Claremont, these pains may bring more Californian students to the 5Cs. The deal to leave primary and secondary education funding untouched gave the K-12 sector of the Department of Education a much needed break from cuts to its budget over the past five years. In the past three years California’s K-12 public school system has seen more than $18 billion in cuts and lost over 30,000 educators to layoffs. These are losses that Governor Brown says cannot be continued without unmanageable sacrifices.

The drawback of this is that the state’s public higher education system will suffer the losses. Of the overall $12.5 billion Governor Brown plans to cut from the statewide budget, $2.2 billion will be cut from the University of California (UC), California State University (CSU), and California Community College (CCC) systems as well as from the California Student Aid and California Postsecondary Education Commissions.

According to the Proposed Budget Summary, these cuts will leave the state’s system of higher education with a total bud-

get of $22 billion, of which $11.7 billion will go into the General Fund and Proposition 98 sources for all major sectors.

That means a 1.9 percent overall decrease and a 12.8 percent decrease for General Fund and Proposition 98-related sources from the 2010-11 Budget Act. In addition to program downsizing and scheduling chaos, the cuts also mean a continuation of tuition hikes for student. CSU and UC students have seen triple-digit fee increases since Governor Schwarzenegger held office and are facing both mid-year and annual increases for the upcoming year. Additionally, if the current budget plan remains unchanged, CCC students will see a fee increase from $26 to $36 per credit hour. Although this total cost seems low when compared with other state public education fees, it becomes much more substantial when taken into context of the history of the system’s funding. In the 2003-04 academic year CCC fees were raised from $11 to $18, and from $18 to $26 in 2004-05.

These increases coincided with a cut of more than 12,000 academic courses.

The current 2011-12 state budget proposal assumes that California voters will approve tax increases later this year that will make minimal cuts a possibility. If tax increases do not pass, the budget will have to be altered to more closely fit the reality of the state’s financial standing, meaning further cuts to education.

Within the Department, money is most tight in undergraduate programs. Although no specific relationship exists between department size and available funding, the fact that cuts are not decreasing in frequency means continuously

BY THE NUMBERS:

2.2

page 4

|

BILLION DOLLARS in state budget cuts will come from higher ed

april 21

|

38%

claremontportside.com

|

offer of admission yield for ca residents in 2009 for cMC

volumeVIII issue4

greater losses for public higher education across the board.

The biggest problems include course elimination, increased class size, and faculty downsizing. According to Sam Nichols, a full-time lecturer in the UC Davis Department of Music, such changes do not go unnoticed. Nichols says, “Class sizes are expanding; we have 30-40 students squeezed into our second year music theory class, and it’s a tight fit. And we’re not really able to offer a second section [of introductory music theory, a core class of the music degree].”

Nichols and his fellow faculty members have also noticed a general increase in difficulty of class scheduling due in part to terminated courses in all departments.

Scheduling struggles have become especially problematic for students seeking multiple degrees. “[There is] a lack of flexibility in general with all of the departments on campus right now,” says Nichols. “If a student’s other major is cutting back on how many sections of a given class [the department] can offer, that impacts the student’s entire schedule. It makes it tougher on the students.”

Differentiating the causes of such issues is sometimes difficult given the multitude of factors that go into the success of any given academic program. “It’s unclear whether the growth is due to positive factors, such as more students being interested in the department, or not. And at least part of the reason [for program cutbacks] has to do with our space limitations,” says Nichols. “But these issues are linked to the budget crisis. Our new

48%

offer of admission yield for ca residents in 2010 for cmc

Fortunately, graduate programs seem to be avoiding a similar fate as they receive ample scholarship money to stay afloat.

“Funding for graduate students has not been cut back in the wake of the budget crisis. This is immensely important, because the health of graduate programs is in many respects a sign of the future state of scholarship, particularly in the humanities,” says Eric Naiman, head of graduate studies in the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley.

“This year we had our strongest pool of graduate applicants in at least a decade, and I’m glad we will be able to support the students we’ve admitted.”

With the protection that comes along with private funding, students at the Claremont Colleges may automatically assume that such cuts are of a whole separate world. While it is true that our financial safety avoids the highs and lows of the state economy, there is a great likelihood that the problems in California’s public higher education system will impact Claremont admissions. As each of the 5-Cs boasts a student body composed largely

The answer is not entirely clear-cut. Claremont admissions are becoming increasingly competitive, and it can be said that this may be partially attributed to state education budget cuts driving in-state students to private schools.

This is only a small fraction of a larger story. CMC has also seen an increase in the number of financial aid applicants.

In light of the recent economic downfall that put many college-bound students in a tight spot, this was to be expected.

While it is true that our financial safety avoids the highs and lows of the state economy, there is a great likelihood that the problems in California’s public higher education system will impact Claremont admissions.

—Richard Vos, Claremont McKenna Dean of Admission CMC Dean of Admission Richard Vos says the number of California students on campus has jumped in the past year.

Though the recent rate of increase of California and non-California applications has been roughly equal, the in-state yield rate has seen a noticeable increase.

“For California admits in 2009, the yield on offers of admission was 38 percent.

That year’s freshman class was 34 percent from California,” says Vos. This was a precise reflection of numbers from past years. “But for the Californian admits in 2010 the yield on offers of admission shot up to 48 percent. This past fall’s freshman class was 40 percent from CalivolumeVIII issue4

|

“Because of the downturn in the economy that began in October of 2008 we have seen a few more students in need of financial aid at CMC,” says Vos. This is not related to budget cuts and in no way poses a threat to the school’s availability of financial aid money. Aside from the money that the school provides, many California students also receive support from the State of California in the form of the $9,708 Cal Grant in order to attend CMC, says Vos. Vos believes that CMC is receiving more applications for many reasons unrelated to the public higher education budget crisis. “Acceptance rates will continue to shrink for all applicants regardless of home address,” says Vos. “This decrease has nothing to do with California’s budget or the cuts at the UC schools…CMC is continuing to see more applicants as a result of an improving reputation and many other factors.”

Admit rates aside, the greater relevance of California budget cuts is the aforementioned ways in which they are negatively impacting California-raised students. In combination with the economic recession from which the country is still recovering, these strikes at the state’s education budget simply cannot continue if there is any hope to continue offering the high quality public education California is famed for.

claremontportside.com

|

april 21

|

page 5

international

“Academic jobs in general are more scarce. If a faculty member retires, his or her position may very well also go away,” says Nichols. “I can think of a few recent examples of ‘retired’ faculty members agreeing to continue to carry a load that’s very nearly full-time.”

fornia. We can definitely attribute the big increase in the yield and number of enrolling California students…to the state’s budget woes and all the negative attention the media gave to the plight of the UC system during the 2009-2010 academic year,” says Vos.

national

Public schools are also having trouble with faculty retention. As courses become scarce and cramped, the visiting and parttime professors who teach them cannot always be paid enough to stick around.

Those who do remain long enough to see retirement from their respective institutions sometimes see a whole new definition of retirement.

of in-state residents – ranging from 32 percent at Pomona to 39 percent at Pitzer for the incoming freshman classes– it is reasonable to wonder if these numbers will increase as more and more Californians choose to go private while remaining local.

campus

building, which was supposed to go up in 2009-10, is on hold until the money situation is better.”

CMC’s Writing Center expands beyond its academic focus

By Sara Stern Contributing Wr i t er, C M C ‘ 1 2 For all that Claremont McKenna prides itself on preparing students for life after college, many students will find their entrance into the “real world” hindered by deficiencies in their writing. Students scoring that great summer internship at a newspaper or government agency find themselves having to quickly pick up a more practical style of writing. Similarly, students can graduate from CMC having only taken a few classes where writing was a requirement at all. Given the importance of effective communication to any career, the current support for student writing on campus is inadequate. Fortunately, upcoming changes to CMC’s Writing Center promise to add valuable new resources for student journalism, business writing and creative efforts. Even so, students will have to recognize the need to improve their writing if these measures are to be effective.

to be very different than the writing an internship supervisor wants in a health awareness pamphlet directed at employees with an eight-grade reading level. Laura Suscheski CMC ’11, a former Section Editor for the CMC Forum, says that she had to learn the style of writing needed for her summer internship at a newspaper “on the job.” The dense and often dry structure of academic papers can be poor preparation for jobs that require simple or engaging communication.

Students can often look in vain for opportunities to practice their writing, with many receiving their only direct writing instruction from their Lit 10 classes.

Chloe Cotton CMC ‘12 described her Lit 10 class as “a repeat of AP Lit from high school. There was a lot of analyzing literature and not a lot of work on improving your own writing.” The lack of writing opportunities, however, can also be ascribed to the student culture at CMC, which can be dismissive of attempts at

campus

national

international

Writing for the Real World

Even talented student writers can often find that skill in academic writing doesn’t translate to immediate success in the workplace. The writing that might please a history professor, for example, is going page 6

|

april 21

|

different types of writing and self-expression. Last year, for example, ASCMC proposed cutting The Vernacular’s budget, reducing the literary magazine’s funding from $1000 to $200 with the suggestion

claremontportside.com

|

volumeVIII issue4

that the magazine simply publish online rather than give student writers the satisfaction and pride of seeing their words in print. Apart from student publications, The Vernacular represented one of the few student forays into nonacademic writing.

In response to this student frustration and lack of opportunity, CMC’s faculty and administration has recognized the desire and need to improve student writing in many disciplines. Beginning next fall, CMC’s Writing Center will move into the new Kravis building and become The Center for Writing and Public Discourse (CWPD). Professor Audrey Bilger, who became the first-ever Faculty Director of the Writing Center in the fall, will oversee several changes to the Center’s organization and focus. In addition to continuing the one-on-one student writing consultations and workshops under the new management of Associate Director Christine Crockett (CMC ’01), the new CWPD will expand its support to include many nonacademic types of writing. Long-term plans include the possible creation of a new Journalism Sequence and bringing more writers to campus to share their insight with students.

According to the official press release that Professor Bilger shared with The Port Side, the addition of “Public Discourse” to the Center’s title and responsibilities “speaks to the need for students to be trained to write and communicate in a wide variety of contexts, using all available technologies.” Social media, business environments, the sciences and journalism all require some sort of discourse, whether through a written medium or a spoken one. Even the most technical of professions will require some type of communication. Given that CMCers are often cast as “Leaders in the Making,” how many of us are confident enough in our writing skills to construct an appropriate email to a potential client or an irresponsible em-

None of the Claremont Colleges currently offers a major or minor in Journalism.

Given the interests and career aspirations of CMC students, Bilger pointed out, it makes sense for the college to take the lead in incorporating Journalism classes into curriculum. The type of classes that such a program offered would be effective preparation for students hoping to enter related fields upon graduation. “Considering CMC’s ‘pragmatic’ focus, a journalism sequence would be a great addition to hone the practical writing skills of those who want to be journalists and even those who want to be involved in politics one

We want writing to be seen as an activity in many different areas, with many different audiences.

—Audrey Bilger, Faculty Director of the Writing Center medians to campus and many of the resources to be offered by the CWPD will address the need for effective communication to many different audiences in different careers. “The chance for students to have a public audience for their writing is unprecedented, particularly considering the number of possible venues available online,” Bilger said. “Students need to learn to write for a public audience as well as for audiences within the academy.”

Changes to the current Lit 10 program have also been proposed. Under discussion among the faculty is a potential “Freshman Writing Seminar,” modeled more closely after the current structure of Freshman Humanities Seminars, and involving a greater emphasis on writing skills. Unlike Lit 10, Freshman Writing Seminars would be mandatory for all incoming students. Final changes to the Lit volumeVIII issue4

|

The increased focus on resources for student writing and presentations reflects a desire to elevate the writing culture on campus. Bilger reports that “students have described the current writing culture at CMC as being fragmented. Many express a wish for opportunities outside of the classroom to hone their writing skills.

Through co-curricular programming-workshops and other events--the Center for Public Discourse will aim to meet that demand.” Broadening the conception of writing skill to include the arts, sciences, business environments and journalism will encourage students to take the craft of writing – and themselves as writers – more seriously. Although many of the forthcoming changes to the Writing Center do speak to the more pragmatic aspects of CMC’s culture, much of the change stems from a hope to empower student writers. Professor Crockett notes that students are often hesitant to participate in student journalism or other publications because of anxiety about “putting themselves out there” and receiving the scrutiny of their peers.

Nonetheless, the desire to improve and learn can be seen in the student response to the Writing Center’s early workshops and programs. All of “The Craft of Writing” series workshops have filled up within hours of the workshop being announced by school-wide email. The proposed programs of the CWPD will be a new and welcomed resource at CMC, and will better prepare us for writing in the world beyond essays. Additionally, it will help free the idea of “writer” from a skill in the academic realm.“Students want to be writers,” Bilger argues. “Who doesn’t want to be thought of as a writer? My hope is that, with some of our new programs, we can turn on the light for students who didn’t think they were worthy of that title.”

claremontportside.com

|

april 21

|

page 7

international

In addition to the increased support for journalistic writing, business and creative writing are also to receive more attention.

The “Craft of Writing” series has also brought local business writers and co-

10 program will be voted on by the faculty in late April.

national

One of the most exciting changes to the Center’s programming is the increased support of student journalists. Apart from Professor Pitney’s Politics of Journalism and Professor Bilger’s own Women’s Magazines and the Female Journalist courses, CMC journalists have little in the way of academic guidance. Bilger hopes to change that. The Writing Center has already brought local journalists to campus to hold workshops, such as the “Art of the Interview” presentation given by Lori Kozlowski of the LA Times in February as a part of the Center’s “The Craft of Writing” workshop series. Future plans include bringing a journalist to campus for the academic year to provide experienced advice for students hoping to enter the field. The eventual hope is that these journalists-in-residence will be able to contribute to classes to develop the proposed Journalism Sequence.

day,” observed Sucheski. “Journalism classes would be useful not only to those who want to write professionally, but to those in any career in which the media plays a major role.” Although she admitted that she might not have added the sequence to her major, Sucheski said that she would have taken many of the classes offered by such a program.

campus

ployee? Unlike previous manifestations of the Writing Center, the addition of “Public Discourse” to the Center’s title acknowledges that a student’s audience will not always be professors or other students in an academic environment. “We want writing to be seen as an activity that takes place in many different arenas, with many different audiences,” Bilger said.

“Discourse is always shaped by the particular audience to whom it is addressed.”

international

national

campus

Can Oil Save the Day?

The well dries up for Venezuela’s economy

By Samantha Morse C o p y E d i t o r, P Z ‘ 1 4 Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela could be in serious trouble. Its economy has been in a dire state of recession for the past two years. Heavy dependence on oil revenues to drive the economy is both a blessing and a curse. The fact that Venezuela showed a positive growth in GDP by .6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 is a possible sign of hope, but despite this positive indicator, the economy contracted by 1.4 percent in 2010 as a whole with an unsustainable high inflation rate of 27 percent. These figures are some of the worst in Latin America.

Still, the Chávez government sees the upturn in the fourth quarter as a definite sign of economic revival. The Finance Ministry is predicting economic growth of at least 2 percent this year and a reduction in inflation to 22 percent.

Many analysts doubt these optimistic figures. In a recent report the Deutsche Bank stated that it expects Venezuela’s 2011 inflation rate to be either 27 or 28 percent. The executive president of Venezuela’s largest industrial chamber, Ismael Perez Vigil, seems to support these speculations. He told the Associated Press, “There’s no reason to think there will be a recovery.”

Curacao reported that output at the facility has been averaging around 225,000 barrels a day, though maximum capacity is 325,000 barrels a day.

However, instability in Libya may affect the oil industry and some speculate that Venezuela will benefit. Chairman of Libya’s National Oil Corp, Shukri Ghanem, stated that since the country’s conflict started, oil production has fallen from 1.6 to 500,000 million barrels a day. The strain in the supply market has pushed oil prices up in recent weeks. In just the last week of February, the average price for Venezuela’s basket of crude oil and refined products rose by $6.09 to $91.11 per barrel.

Dr. Kent Moors, an internationally recognized expert on oil policy, surmises: “On balance, the longer MENA (Middle East North Africa) problems remain, the better ought to be the opportunities for sourcing crude from other regions. That would certainly seem to favor North and South American production. And… the PDVSA-led Petrocaribe initiative may benefit significantly.”

Pitzer Politics Professor Nigel Boyle agrees that Libya’s decreased oil produc-

Critics of the Chávez administration blame the country’s economic crisis on the nationalization of private industry, namely Petróleos de Venezuela or PDVSA. Venezuela is largely dependent on its oil industry, which accounts for 95 percent of export earnings.

|

april 21

|

claremontportside.com

Even if, as Dr. Moors suggests, other countries do turn to Venezuela for more oil, they might not be well received. Mr. Chávez has recently announced his aspiration to send one million barrels of oil per day to China within the next three years. “All the oil (supply) that you all need to increase in the coming years, is here in Venezuela,” he told a Chinese delegation in mid-March.

Last year China opened a crucial $20 billion credit line to Venezuela, which is being repaid in oil shipments. Venezuelan officials report sending 300,000 barrels a day to China specifically to repay the credit line.

After the visit from the Chinese delegation in mid-March, Venezuelan officials are evaluating another four billion dollars in Chinese loans in exchange for oil.

Although Libya’s drop in oil production has recently increased oil prices and PDVSA is reaping the benefits, it seems doubtful that the instability in North Africa will have a lasting effect. Yet as Venezuela struggles to rise above its economic crisis, it continues to rely heavily on its oil industry and Chinese loans. Is PDVSA enough to keep Venezuela afloat? The outlook is bleak with the company’s current inefficiencies. This will be a telling year to see if Venezuela’s slight economic growth at the end of 2010 was insignificant or if it will continue its upward trend.

PDVSA has been contending with many technical issues that have resulted in a steep drop in efficiency. In the last decade, production capacity fell from 3.3 million barrels to around 2.3 million barrels. A spokesman at the Isla refinery of page 8

tion will benefit PDVSA. Professor Boyle explains, “The crisis pushes up the price of oil and that benefits the oil producers.”

However, he added that “Libya is a large producer but in the larger picture it is not one of the top ranked producers.” In fact, Libya is only the eighteenth ranked producer of oil in the world. Therefore, the current crisis may be raising oil prices now but it probably will not have a long lasting impact on PDVSA or the Venezuelan economy.

|

volumeVIII issue4

Defining Consent

School-sanctioned Claremont parties provide plenty of opportunities for unwanted sexual contact. Students drink copious amounts of alcohol, dance provocatively, and perhaps go back to a dorm room. In these types of situations it is not uncommon for a student to be touched in a way that may make him or her feel uncomfortable. Students in this environment may feel obligated to engage in sexual activity.

Reporting of such acts is rare, however, most likely due to cultural expectations.

One student writes, “I wouldn’t want to be ‘that girl’ who reports someone –

Too many Claremont students have been taught to accept being touched inappropriately and to believe that if you’re at a party, what other people do to your body doesn’t matter. One anonymous survey respondent wrote “the idea of verbal consent is laughed at. Generally there is a serious misunderstanding of what constitutes rape or sexual assault. People don’t think an event qualifies as such unless it is forcible or violent.” But as Martino of SAFER put it, “just as kissing someone is not an invitation for them to have sex with you, dancing with someone is not an open invitation to have someone grope you.” Martino also explained that “many survivors feel the effects of the assault long after it’s happened... On a college campus, when you may have to see the person who assaulted you in class or around the dorm, students may be routinely triggered.” Sexual assault, even of the sort that is not generally recognized by the college community, can have a continuous detrimental impact on affected students.

Although each of the Claremont Colleges defends the administration’s adamant repudiation of sexual assault, the reality of students’ lives proves that it’s simply not a priority. Administrators may know what happens at parties, yet they provide little support to students who may feel that the environment encroaches on their sexual boundaries. It is imperative that administrators lay out a specific, universally accepted, and inclusive definition of sexual assault, and provide more resources for volumeVIII issue4

|

students who feel they have been violated. Freshman orientation is the perfect opportunity for administrators to explain the definition of sexual assault the consequences it can have. Students must feel more comfortable reporting assault and less comfortable encroaching on the bodies of others. Verbal consent must become a norm, even if it may seem awkward at first. Using phrases like “May I dance with you?” and “Is this okay?” can put students on the same page. By empowering students to report, administrators can help make Claremont a safer place. Sexual assault is serious, it is sensitive, and it is time for students and administrators alike to afford it the respect that it deserves.

Defining Sexual Assault:

A 5C policy comparison Harvey MudD Includes, but is not limited to, rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation, rape by foreign object, sexual battery, or threat of sexual assault CMC Includes rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation, rape by a foreign object, sexual battery, or threat of sexual assault

national

Many of us have witnessed Claremont’s hyper-sexualized party culture. What some students take for granted as a typical Saturday night may present for others uncomfortable sexual situations or worse.

Sexual assault is widely defined by Claremont administrations as “including rape, forced sodomy, forced oral copulation, rape by a foreign object, sexual battery, or threat of sexual assault,” all of which are violent acts by nature. But Sara Martino, a Chairwoman of the Board of Students Active For Ending Rape (SAFER), explains that “simply put, a sexual assault occurs when there has been a violation of consent…the key to defining sexual assault is understanding what consent is.”

When students of the Claremont Colleges were asked, they also defined sexual assault more widely than their schools did.

They used phrases like “sexual touching that is unwanted,” “unwanted sexual advances, sometimes verbal but more likely physical,” “being forced to do a sexual action that you don’t want to do...or maybe even being ‘talked into something that you hadn’t planned on doing.” Claremont students understand that sexual assault can be deceptively friendly or culturally acceptable.

there’s definitely a stigma surrounding sexual harassment/assault.” Another said she never told authorities “because I was at a party and I didn’t think I would be taken seriously.” Martino explained that “people who have been sexually assaulted often blame themselves, largely because as a society we place the blame on victims by focusing on their behavior, as opposed to the behavior of the perpetrator.”

Pitzer Sexual contact in the absence of mutual consent, taking non-consensual sexual advantage of another individual

pomona Sexual interaction accomplished by force, duress, threat of force, coercion or intimidation or during incapacitation by drugs or alcohol use

scripps Includes actual or threatened contact with a person’s genitals and/or breasts, and/or attempts to disrobe a person fully or partially

claremontportside.com

|

april 21

|

page 9

campus

By Summer Dowd-Lukesh Staf f Writer, SC ‘14

international

What constitutes sexual assault dangerously ambiguous at 5Cs

BROKEN BUDGETS AND BUSTED UNIONS: Progressives fight for annual pension contribution and to pay at least 12 percent of their health insurance premium costs.

“Let’s face it--Wisconsin is broke.”

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s justification for the sweeping, right–wing measures enacted against public unions is relevant for many states across the nation as their budget deficits continue to grow.

In the greatest recession since the Great Depression, 44 states and the District of Columbia are projecting budget shortfalls for fiscal year 2012, most on top of budget shortfalls in FY2009 and FY2010.

According to a report released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, total state budget shortfalls will equal nearly $112 billion for FY2012. Many of these discrepancies are due to a decrease of state tax collections since the recession, a high demand for state-funded services and the decline of state funding through the national government.

Wisconsin, which had a budget gap for FY2010 of $3.2 billion, is one of the few states that is taking radical measures to ensure that its future budget will be balanced. On February 11, Walker introduced his Budget Repair Bill to remedy the effects of the state’s budget deficit.

Passed by the Wisconsin Legislature on March 10, the bill aggressively seeks to diminish the power of public unions to demand higher wages and benefits from their employers. New measures in the bill would destroy the ability of public unions to collectively bargain and would set a cap on public employees’ total wage increases based on the consumer price index. Additionally, the bill requires that public employees contribute to 50 percent of their

p a g e 10

|

april 21

|

In an official statement, Walker said that the “reforms contained in this legislation, which require modest health care and pension contributions from all public employees, will help put Wisconsin on a path to fiscal sustainability.”

It is the system that is screwing them, not public unions.

—Frederick Lynch, Claremont McKenna Professor of Government Many, however, see the bill as a political agenda and an attack by the right on public unions. All fourteen of Wisconsin Democratic assemblymen fled to Illinois to prevent quorum in the Wisconsin Assembly. The largest protests in state history, with close to 100,000 people, have erupted in the capital.

“I feel like I have no say and no voice,” explains Lynn Hermann, a public school teacher from northeastern Wisconsin. “I don’t understand taking money from the middle class. I don’t understand these hits on Medicare and public education.”

One of the most noticeable effects of the bill is on public education in Wisconsin, which has long been the envy of other states. While Walker claims that the bill will give local school boards the tools

claremontportside.com

|

volumeVIII issue4

to manage spending reductions, schools across the state are experiencing state funding cuts and are forced to perform widespread teacher layoffs.

With one of the largest unions in the state, public school teachers’ salaries and benefits will be cut substantially. The bill also reduces the amount of equalized state aid that many public schools receive and reduced limits schools can tax local citizens to generate revenue. With many schools already facing budget cuts in recent years, most will be forced to cut academic programs in addition to teachers in order to make ends meet. “Public education is in the toilet. It’s done. We are going to have a bunch of dummies,” explains Hermann.

While school boards will be able to get rid of underperforming teachers and give bonuses to the exceptional ones, Wisconsin will undoubtedly face a large teacher exodus in coming years. With surrounding states offering teachers higher salaries and better benefits, few teachers will likely choose to remain. “If you are an ambitious young teacher starting out at $32,000 you will never get above $40,000.

It’s a dead end job; who would want into that?” said Martha Luber Pelrine, a public school board member in Northeastern Wisconsin.

While the benefits and detriments of the bill are controversial, the effect it has had on the state’s historically progres- HE sive tradition is not. In 1959, Wisconsin FT O became the first state in the union L to allow collective bargaining among public employees. 75 percent of all states soon followed in Wisconsin’s footsteps. “Wisconsin embodies a progressive position,” explains Claremont McKenna Professor

REAT EG SE A

By Sam Kahr Copy Editor, C M C ‘ 1 4

E

labor in the Cheesehead State of History Lily Geismer, who focuses on US political realignment and other political movements. “Many people have had issues with the bill because Walker and the legislature are working behind closed doors.”

The events in Wisconsin have ushered in a new era of government-labor relations.

While most assaults on workers unions gathered bipartisan support, conservative leaders have always warned of unions taking over and shutting down the government. No action was ever taken because their threats were never realized but with a severe recession and the state’s budget crisis, their argument stands that the government can no longer afford public unions.

“Even during the PATCO [Professional Aircraft Controller Organization] strike in 1981, Ronald Reagan still believed in collective bargaining,” explains Geismer. “I think the big question is what do Walker’s actions mean for the future of the GOP?”

F O

These attacks on public sector unions also come at a critical time in power reversal between public and private sector unions. Soon after Wisconsin became the first state to allow collective bargaining in its public sector unions, the membership of the workforce in private sector unions was 31.9 percent compared to only 10.8 percent of the public workforce. HowSTAever, as the US economy has transformed since T then, those numbers have been reE with 36.3 percent of public sector versed workers belonging to unions compared to 6.9 percent union membership of private workers in 2010.

SCONS WI I

The greater number of benefits given to

public sector workers was an attempt to balance the higher compensation of the private unions in the 1950s and 1960s.

As globalization has transformed the economy, many private sector jobs have been outsourced creating a resentment of private sector workers towards the public sector, who now face not only greater compensation and benefits, such as defined benefit retirement plans and healthcare, but greater job security as well. This “pension envy” has served as the perfect target for Walker’s attacks on public unions.

“If you look at blogs, listen to talk radio, all you hear today is that bureaucrats are getting fat pensions,” explains Claremont McKenna Professor of Government Frederick Lynch, who studies inequality and social movements as well as benefits such health care and pensions.

Was it the right target? Even in states that do not allow collective bargaining among its public unions, such as North Carolina, budget gaps are greater than Wisconsin’s.

Furthermore, the claim that public sector employees are compensated nearly twice as much as private sector compensation as monopolizing tax payer dollars is inaccurate. Most jobs in the public sector are white collar, while those in the private sector are blue collar with lower compensation. “You’re comparing apples and oranges,” explains Lynch. “I want to see a compensation comparison between a public and private sector accountant.”

extreme budget issues in the country. By comparison, Wisconsin’s budget shortfall of $1.8 billion is only 12.8 percent of the states projected FY2012 budget. “We do have a major budget crisis here in California,” says Lynch. “We are going to have a reform of Medicare, Social security and public employee benefits or else we will go broke. The question is how much reform?”

Various parties in California, trying to capitalize on Wisconsin’s bill, are trying to expose the same issues here. In February, the bipartisan Little Hoover Commission released a report suggesting cuts in public pensions and other public employee benefits. “Two different things are happening here in California,” explains Geismer .

“It’s almost less about the actual pension and budget cuts and more about undermining public unions.”

As two of the most progressive states in the nation with large public service sectors and a dire financial situation, both California and Wisconsin are the perfect vehicles for the conservative republicans to initiate their attacks against public unions. While tough decisions will need to be made in response to the budget crisis, many are critical of the influence that political agendas are playing in policy maker’s decisions. “There are two ways for public opinion to react to the situation,” explains Lynch. “Blame the public unions; or realize it is the system that is screwing them, not public unions.”

These issues are beginning to spill over the Wisconsin border into states across the nation, including California. With the a projected budget shortfall of $24.5 billion, nearly 30 percent of the state FY2012 budget, California exhibits one of most

volumeVIII issue4

|

claremontportside.com

|

april 21

|

p a g e 11

Famished and Foodless

Rising global food prices leave developing countries hungry

national

international

By Manassinee Moottatarn Staf f Writer, C M C ‘ 1 3 The era of a cheap and predictable food supply for the world’s seven billion people is over. In January, global food prices hit the highest value recorded by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization since 1990. Although the inflationary impact is likely to be a passing inconvenience for those in developed nations, without adequate safety nets the price hikes threaten to plunge 44 million people into extreme poverty across the globe.

High demand and low supply likely caused this dramatic spike. In addition, speculators prompted commodity prices and their transportation and production costs to rise by pushing oil prices to a peak of $150 in 2008.

Skyrocketing food prices are correlated with countless revolutions and strikes.

Coupled with the volatility of broader political events, ruling political regimes are finding themselves face to face with a hungry, angry populace ready to revolt in street protests in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt. These protests have resulted from political dissatisfaction, but also from anger over price increases for basic foodstuffs such as cooking oil, rice, cereals and sugar. Urban populations across the world are feeling the squeeze and are likely to revolt in the future as the foods they eat require more fuel to grow, produce, and transport.

Although there are growing movements to return to local production and increase food sovereignty, factors such as poverty, unstable governments and discriminatory business practices prevent local farmers in developing countries from accessing banks and loans to buy the appropriate seeds, credit and equipment necessary for profitable and sustainable food production.

$

$

$

$

$ $

p a g e 12

|

april 21

|

ers speed up purchases to preempt inflation.

The US needs to change its approach to its farming sector, which currently exacerbates the phenomenon of rising global food prices. The ethanol fuel program, which uses corn for biofuel rather than food, is a particularly wasteful and illconceived program. Studies by Cornell University show that it takes 1.3 gallons of fossil fuel to make one gallon of bio fuel. “Fermenting corn for bio fuel is a folly,” says Larry Grill, Visiting Professor of Biology in the Joint Science Department at Pitzer College. “Without government subsidies, this inefficient use of corn could not exist. Corn should remain a food grown on good farmland. Instead, grasses such as miscanthus or switchgrass should be grown on less fertile land and be used for the plant bio fuels.”

Given that the US produces 40 percent of the world’s corn supply, ethanol fuel from corn raises the price of corn and corn products in other countries. “Instead, subsidies which encourage the production of cellulosic ethanol from non food sources and ethanol from other sources such as algae should be encouraged,” says

In addition to shortcomings in food production, climate change is making farmland scarcer each year. In China, Australia and Africa, deserts are encroaching on arable lands. This year, a severe drought threatens to wipe out China’s wheat lands, and frantic hoarding is likely to occur as wheat prices continue to rise and import-

$ $

campus

Developing countries are the most vulnerable to food price increases. Americans spend an average of only 10 percent of their income on food; Indonesians spend 50 percent of theirs, Chinese 30 percent, and North Koreans 70 percent. Many developing countries have not meaningfully invested in efficient food production systems and are consequently stuck with poor storage facilities and a lack of pest control. Populations are booming in these countries, but local farmers are not producing enough food to give their people the required diet of 2,000 calories per day.

The growth of the middle class--India’s middle class is already larger than the entire US population--will increase demand for energy intensive foods such as milk and meat.

claremontportside.com

|

volumeVIII issue4

$

$

$ $

Furthermore, critics charge that U.S. food aid focuses too closely on emergency response to crises but not to chronic hunger and food shortages. Food aid should go hand in hand with agricultural investment to small scale farmers. The Obama administration has already begun to change the paradigm of food aid with the “Feed the Future” initiative designed to help countries develop local solutions to food insecurity. The initiative created the

$

$

Necessary changes need to be made.

Presently, there is no agreement within the international community regarding the balance between large scale industrial food production and small farms that cater to local consumption. While the world economy has grown sevenfold in the past 50 years, the Earth has remained the same. Three Earths would be required to support the current human population if everyone were to adopt the Western lifestyle.

The world has grown dangerously com-

$

$

$

international

Critics say U.S. food aid has little regard for structural problems in global food production and only benefits American farmers and multinational corporations.

Only an estimated 4 percent of development aid goes to the rural poor who live on less than $1 per day. The timing and extent of food aid largely fluctuates with market conditions rather than the needs of developing countries. In the 1970s, U.S. cereal prices reached a record high.

Because cereals were more commercially profitable to sell domestically, U.S. Food for Peace shipments dropped to less than one tenth of 1960s levels even while there were acute food shortages in developing countries.

Americans spend an average of only 10 percent of their income on food; Indonesians spend 50 percent of theirs, Chinese 30 percent, and North Koreans 70 percent.

placent with agricultural innovation in the past fifty years, causing investment in agricultural research, especially on genetically modified organism (GMO) foods, to be shelved in the past decade. “GMO foods can help to achieve higher yields, and are both nutritious and sustainable foods,” says Grill. “There are hundreds of GMO plants that have been created at universities that will never be released because of the regulatory costs and the disinterest of the larger seed companies.

For example, if ‘golden rice’ were available to the farmers around the world, pro-vitamin A (beta-carotene) would be more available and could substantially reduce the high numbers of deaths and blindness attributed to the lack of vitamin A…. keeping GMO foods ‘off the table’ is a short-sighted move.”

Commodity price speculation must be better regulated and wasteful food consumption must be reduced. Environmentalists must build local farmers’ existing knowledge and promote the use of new technology. Governments across the world must take agricultural innovation seriously and find new and reliable ways to meet their citizens nutritional needs.

To overcome rising global food prices, we urgently need to spark a second “Green Revolution.”

$

national

Thanks to government subsidies, American farmers are doing well in these hard times. According to the Department of Agriculture, Midwest farmers reported record high prices for their produce. This year, American farmers’ incomes are expected to increase by 20 percent.

Global Agricultural and Food Security Fund, which supports projects that favor innovative models of agricultural development most likely to have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable and poorest citizens.

$ $

$

$ $

$

volumeVIII issue4

|

claremontportside.com

|

april 21

|

p a g e 13

campus

Samuel Tanenbaum, Professor Emeritus of Engineering at Harvey Mudd College.

Plagiarism in Paradise Is cheating an epidemic at the 5Cs?

By Jonathan F. Rice Contributing Wr i t er, P Z ‘ 1 3

campus

national

international

As elite educational institutions, the Claremont Colleges attract students of a high caliber with a strong motivation for success. In an increasingly competitive postgraduate atmosphere, however, the need for a high grade point average may overshadow critical academic inquiry. This can lead such students to acts of drastic and dishonest cheating, many of which go unnoticed.

Imagine a test-taking scenario in which, instead of sitting in a small classroom, you are sitting in a high-tech testing lab. All of your belongings are checked at the door.

Cell phones, on or off, are not allowed, nor is any other electronic device. Cameras monitor the room to assure that you keep your gaze on the screen. These precautions may seem like overkill, but even this kind of security cannot prevent dishonesty.

Under these very conditions, over 1/3 of students in a Business Management course was caught cheating on a Senior Capstone midterm exam at the University of Central Florida last fall. Out of 600 students taking the exam, over 200 admitted to have gained access to test questions before the exam and subsequently used that information during the test.

Could such a situation happen in Claremont? Are there cheaters and plagiarists amongst us? Both data and public opinion say yes. On the macro level, a 2005 study

by Donald McCabe of Rutgers University showed that 68 percent of polled college students admitted to cheating, and many

p a g e 14

|

april 21

|

students believed that schools would not catch said cheaters. Undoubtedly, some administrators and faculty members do not realize the prevalence of academic dishonesty.

Individually, the Claremont Colleges, like many other institutions, take a strong stand against academic dishonesty in written policy. Each school has a section within its Student Handbook prohibiting academic misconduct. However, there are slight variations in each that make the actual handling of an incident differ on each campus.

At Scripps, academic dishonesty “is not tolerated,” and there is a very specific procedure for handling suspected cases of plagiarism. Steps include a call to the Dean of Students, a history check for prior academic dishonesty, and an extensive investigation, for which direct guidelines are given in the handbook. A major factor in deciding the consequences of plagiarism is the student’s willingness to admit the act. Whether or not it is the student’s first academic offense is also taken into consideration. For students committing a first offense who admit to their wrongdoing, the handbook recommends that the faculty give the student a failing grade both on the assignment in question and in the course, although the professor is allowed to ask the student to redo the assignment.

The Scripps handbook also discusses the available option to move the case to the “Augmented Committee on Academic Review,” but only at the discretion of the professor. In the case of a repeat offender, the faculty is required to give the failing

claremontportside.com

|

volumeVIII issue4

grade and refer to the committee, which can rule in favor of expulsion.

Pitzer makes similar condemnations of academic misconduct but, unlike Scripps, allows extensive leeway for faculty to decide the appropriate consequences. The handbook allows professors to “impose any academic penalty, including failure in the course,”, which stands unless the student appeals the decision in writing. At this stage, the matter moves to the Judicial Council, the same body that handles all other accusations of academic and nonacademic misconduct.

Pomona “expects students to understand and adhere to basic standards of honesty and academic integrity” and delegates a large amount of responsibility to the assignment instructor. If the professor suspects that standards have been breached, he or she must consult with the student in question, as well as with his or her department chair, and impose whatever penalty he or she sees fit. Like Pitzer, Pomona leaves the penalty to the discretion of the faculty and only removes the charge if the student appeals. The case then moves to the Board for Academic Discipline, whose procedures are outlined in utmost detail within the handbook. The tone and style that Pomona uses in its handbook is as much to notify students of the procedure as to give faculty step-by-step instructions on how to handle the situation.

Claremont McKenna requires its students to sign a Statement of Academic Integrity, entrusting that they agree to hold high academic standards and not commit any of-

It is clear that the Claremont Colleges take a firm stand against academic dishonesty and impose serious consequences for those who violate policies, but how much do we actually cheat? “I personally know of many cheaters,” says one anonymous Claremont senior. “[I] see it often, find it frustrating, but at this point have come to accept it.”

This viewpoint is not unique. When queried, students were often unwilling to speak about cheating at the Colleges on record. “[I have] never heard it discussed on campus,” said an anonymous Claremont junior. “I’m sure it’s happening. It’s...college.” That students in Claremont are so uncomfortable talking about cheating on campus sends a mixed message. Has Claremont fallen victim to an invisible cheating

[I] see it often, find it frustrating, but at this point have come to accept it.

— Claremont Senior When it comes to actual rates of plagiarism and academic dishonesty at the Colleges, a straight answer is hard to find.

When researching statistics on rates of cheating at the Claremonts, the Port Side did not receive warm responses. “I must decline to comment,” said Elizabeth Morgan, Registrar and Director of Institutional Research at CMC. The Registrars of Pitzer and Scripps forwarded requests to the Dean of Faculty, stating they did not have the relevant information. The lack of response here could be due to the possibility that such information does not exist, but the Colleges’ lack of transparency is troubling. One would hope that statistics are kept and that the Consortium is actively tracking such trends, though it seems that this may not be the case.

One question that inevitably arises is how the Claremonts can apply policy evenly if volumeVIII issue4

|

Nevertheless, why cheat? This becomes the most difficult question of all. The Claremont Colleges maintain extremely rigorous standards for admission. Students have proven capable of handling the workload and understanding proper citation format. Rather, “students may be overwhelmed and decide to take a shortcut,” said Thomas. The pressure is intense; for today’s competitive job market, it seems that students must have a high GPA and do more than ever outside the classroom.

Whether a culture that unintentionally exists enables plagiarism through strict policy uncoupled by thorough action is up for debate. What is clear is that Claremont is not a bubble from national academic trends, and additional steps must certainly be taken to protect the integrity of our fellow students, staff, and faculty at the Consortium. Until we, as a community, are able to hold an open dialogue about the nature of cheating at the Colleges, despite the painful results it may yield, these problems will stay hidden underground, damaging us all.

Students are not blind to alternative solutions. Earlier this semester, Braden Holstege, PZ ‘14, presented a discussion on creating an Honor Code at Pitzer through Student Senate. Caroline Mimbs Nyce, CMC ‘13, made a passionate argument for an Honor Code at CMC in a piece for the ASCMC Forum. Although questions of institutional culture arise with the successful implementation of an Honor Code, these discussions are a good place to start. A Mudd-style Honor Code may not be the right solution for the rest of the Claremonts, but it could lead to solutions that effectively prevent academic dishonesty in the future.

claremontportside.com

|

april 21

|

p a g e 15

international

“I believe that it works. The kind of people who come to Mudd buy into it, they take it seriously. It was one of the biggest reasons why I came [to Mudd],” said an anonymous Mudd sophomore. This student projected that cheating in the Mudd culture would be rare. Even so, the school has a highly regimented system for conducting hearings on dishonesty, but, keeping with the holistic view, there is no specific policy with respect to plagiarism.

One faculty member seems just as unsure.

“I don’t know how extensive the problem is, other than I suspect it’s a serious problem…clearly it goes on,” said George Thomas, Associate Professor of Government at CMC. The biggest issues with plagiarism are how difficult it is to detect and what kind of impact stricter regulations and enforcement against it would have on college culture.“ “I’m somewhat skeptical of running all papers through a program to try to catch plagiarism. It might be taken as accusatory and I suspect that most students don’t cheat. And yet we need to have something more robust in place to catch the cases that do occur,” said Thomas.

cheating is so difficult to catch. Although some universities use the controversial paper-reviewing website TurnItIn.com to catch plagiarism, copyright and ethical issues remain plausible. No one can keep watch on students 24/7.

national

Finally, Harvey Mudd is the only school in the Consortium that has an Honor Code.

A daring move, Mudd’s honor code combines expectations of both academic and social conduct. Instead of splitting these aspects, Mudd takes a holistic view that students should “act as responsible individuals.”

epidemic or, conversely, are the Colleges an exception to the national trend?

campus

fenses. CMC’s go-to consequence for cases of academic misconduct is some form of suspension, a point in the handbook that involves some of the harshest language out of all of the 5Cs. CMC makes no exception for first or second time offenders.

Consistent with the other colleges, grade punishments are at the faculty’s discretion.

Swastika Showdown

Claremont community rallies to counter “rebels without a clue”

By Russell M. Page National Ed i t o r, C M C ‘ 1 2

campus

national

international

“Nazis don’t belong in Claremont.” Many counter-demonstrators echoed this sentiment in response to a neo-Nazi demonstration held northwest of the Claremont Colleges while most students were off enjoying Spring Break.

Members of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) stood on the corner of Indian Hill and Foothill shouting racist and hateful messages. NSM, the largest neoNazi organization in the United States, came to Claremont to protest illegal immigration and provoked a strong response from our proudly intellectual and diverse community.

On its website, NSM outlines its platform that involves “defending the rights of white people everywhere, preservation of our European culture and heritage, strengthening family values, economic self-sufficiency, and reform of illegal immigration policies, immediate withdrawal of our national military from an illegal Middle Eastern occupation and promotion of white separation.”

Portrait of a Protest A timeline of the events as documented by Russell M. Page 10:30 a.m.

Counter-demonstrators in Memorial Park create signs to oppose NSM’s views

Claremont McKenna Professor of European History Jonathan Petropoulos, who has done extensive research on the Holocaust and National Socialism, characterizes modern neo-Nazis as “rebels without a clue.”

Given the terrible atrocities that National Socialism perpetrated in the past, it is shocking that right-wing extremist movements like NSM exist. Petropoulos believes the motivation to join these movements is “born out of ignorance, frustration, perceived lack of opportunity, and poor education in history.”

The number of neo-Nazis has remained constant and small in America and Europe since the end of World War II. Unlike in Europe, where most nations have strong anti-Nazi speech restrictions, in the United States, the First Amendment allows groups like NSM to hold and openly express their views.

According to Petropoulos, American free speech rights make it “easier to be an extremist in the United States.” Yet, they also create “opportunities for more moderate people to affirm the value of public discourse and American core values.”

Petropoulos points to the 1978 National Socialist Party of America

11:50 a.m.

While some counterdemonstrators march north to confront NSM, others stay behind at Memorial Park for a peaceful demonstration.

11:55 a.m.

Police prepare for the arrival of NSM and a large crowd of counterdemonstrators p a g e 16

|

april 21

|

claremontportside.com

|

volumeVIII issue4

(NSPA) march through the streets of Skokie, Illinois as an example. NSPA deliberately chose to demonstrate in Skokie, a heavily Jewish suburb of Chicago. Although the demonstration created tension and caused pain, Petropoulos says it also elicited a strong response and reminded all Americans that “Neo-Nazism is unacceptable and that we can’t remain complacent.”

In On Liberty, philosopher John Stuart Mill advocates a “marketplace of ideas,” in which all views, even bad ones, can be voiced. In this marketplace, people consider all points of view and decide which views are correct. Offensive and terrible views can be expressed but should be rejected and destroyed.

On the morning of NSM’s rally in Claremont, members of the community gathered at Memorial Park to prepare for a real-life “marketplace of ideas.” Brokendown cardboard boxes and wooden posts transformed into protest signs adorned with anti-Nazi and and anti-racist slogans.

Claremont for Peace held a peaceful demonstration in the park, while many of the counter-demonstrators marched north to confront NSM. Many of the counter-demonstrators wondered why NSM chose to come to Claremont. Claremont resident Joe Tonan said,

12:02 p.m.

NSM arrives at the intersection in S.S. colored paramilitary uniforms waving swastika flags

12:15 p.m.

Officers from many departments keep counterdemonstrators behind the police line and out of the intersection

Around two-dozen members of NSM, dressed in S.S. red and black paramilitary uniforms and carrying flags and shields adorned with swastikas, marched into the intersection. Jeff Hall, Southwest Regional Director of NSM, addressed the loud crowd of counter-demonstrators over a bullhorn calling for strict immigration enforcement and

12:20 p.m.

Counter-demonstrators express their disgust of NSM’s racist and hateful speech 12:35 p.m.

Members of the media cover the NSM rally, interviewing the Neo-Nazis

The neo-Nazis were drowned out by the noise of their boisterous opposition. Although members of the media who were allowed past the police barriers may have been able hear what NSM members were saying, the general public and onlookers were unable to hear them. In this raw and fierce mar-

12:45 p.m.

Police officers continue to stand guard as tensions flare and speech from both sides gets more heated

After NSM’s departure, counter-demonstrators poured into the street taking over the intersection. Anthony Eagle said he was “glad we, white, black, brown, red, and yellow, were able to unify and counter them [NSM].” Al Barrientos said that NSM’s demonstration “really wasn’t much of a protest. They barely even showed up.” The counter-demonstrators illustrated that in the face of a terrible ideology, if people choose to actively oppose it rather than be idle and complacent, they can defeat it.

Not every racist carries a swastika flag. NeoNazis may be the most visible and vile version of intolerance; as such, most people are inclined to merely ignore them. Yet, we cannot and should not be apathetic to the less extreme versions present in everyday life. Intolerance survives in the form of minutemen, strong anti-immigration laws and de-facto segregation of neighborhoods and schools.

We must be as active as the counter-demonstrators were in confronting NSM when we face down all forms of intolerance.

international

Hundreds of counter-demonstrators, armed with signs, bullhorns, and numbers, crowded into all available space in the intersection in anticipation of NSM’s arrival. Moments before NSM marched into the intersection, counter-demonstrators chanted loudly, “No Nazis, No KKK, No Fascists, USA!”

Tensions mounted as counter-demonstrators furiously denounced the neoNazis shouting, “Nazis go home!” One man yelled at the NSM members, “If the police weren’t here protecting you, none of you would be alive!” Middle fingers were extended in the direction of the neo-Nazis, and many profanities were heard. Police maintained order and kept any of the violent rhetoric from erupting into actual violence.

ketplace of ideas, it was clear which side won.

1:27 p.m.

Before departing, NSM members taunt the crowd from behind a thick wall of police protection

national

At the intersection, the counter-demonstrators encountered a heavy police presence composed of officers from the Claremont Police Department, the departments of many neighboring communities, and the Los Angeles County Sherriff ’s Department. Officers armed with weapons and wearing riot gear stood guard over the intersection at street-level and from the rooftop of the U.S. Bank. A police line was set up to barricade the intersection and keep counter-demonstrators separated from the northwest corner, where NSM stood.

for closing the border. Hall proclaimed, “This is not your country. We are not parasites. Ask yourselves if you are.”

1:02 p.m.

Police motorcycles arrive to help escort NSM out of the intersection

1:15 p.m.

Counter-demonstrators shout down NSM drowning out the racist and hateful rhetoric

volumeVIII issue4

|

1:35 p.m.

After NSM vacates the premises, the counter-demonstrators take over the intersection, crowding into the street to celebrate

claremontportside.com

|

april 21

|

p a g e 17

campus

“Claremont is known for its diversity and tolerance.” Claremont High School student Stacey Matzavinos said it was necessary for the community “to tell them [NSM] that we don’t support their ideas and that we are an accepting place.”

Another Decade, Another Billion Is a Malthusian catastrophe imminent?

By Shriya Manasvini Ravishankar Staf f Writer, C M C ‘ 1 4

campus

national

international

It took the world more than 200,500 years to reach its initial population of one billion; it is predicted to take only twelve years to go from six billion people to seven billion people. The United Nations forecasts that the seventh billion person will be born near the end of 2011, indicating that the world’s population has more than doubled since the 1960s.

But what exactly does it mean to have seven billion people on the face of the earth? The global population growth rate is as high as ever, and worries about climate change and resource depletion are increasingly commanding greater attention. Do we react to this monumental landmark with worry and caution or with celebration at the prospect of more life and a higher life expectancy? Do we condemn the unrestrained birth rate or celebrate the leaps in medical advances that have reduced child mortality rates?

According to the New York Times, in 2010, 267 humans were born and 108 died every minute. Theses numbers, along with concerns of climate change and resource depletion, seem to point directly to a Malthusian catastrophe.

Malthusianism is a political and economic school of thought first developed by Reverend Robert Thomas Malthus.

According to Professor Nzinga Broussard of Claremont McKenna’s Robert Day School of Economics and Finance, Malthusian Economics can be defined as an “ideology based on the fear of population growth in a world with a fixed amount of resources. This fear is based on resource depletion.” This concept, first developed during the time of the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, demonstrates that unrestrained population growth is exponential but growth of the food supply is linear. This problem can potentially lead to what is p a g e 18

|

april 21

|

known as a Malthusian catastrophe, which will force society to return to subsistence level conditions as a result of overtaxing available agricultural resources.

There are a few gaping holes in the Malthusian way of thought, however.

Professor Broussard believes that this ideology is incomplete, as it fails to incorporate many prominent contentions and solutions outside of its spectrum.

First of all, when push comes to shove, humans have historically found new ways to sustain the lifestyle they are used to.

From bronze to iron, from coal to oil,

It’s not all famine, global warming and an influx of bawling babies. humans have found new ways to sustain themselves when their existing lifestyles have been threatened. While this certainly doesn’t assure resource depletion or scarcity won’t be potentially devastating, it does leave room for optimistic solutions to the catastrophe. Secondly, Malthusian ideology does not take into account the rate at which technological advancements are produced. Food production, according to Malthus, grows linearly, yet food production in developing countries has tripled since the 1960s. This drastic increase in food production, sustainable or not, shows a growth rate higher than that of a linear one.

It’s not all famine, global warming and an influx of bawling babies. The fertility rate of many developed and developing nations has also been declining for a long period of time. A closer analysis of the problem indicates that the developing world is growing by eighty million people a year, while certain nations of the developed world are struggling to

claremontportside.com

|

volumeVIII issue4

maintain current populations. In order to maintain the current population, or a zero percent growth in population, each woman should give birth to 2.1 children.

According to Eurostat, the population of Europe peaked at 1.4 billion people in 2010. When accounting for the population increase, however, it was realized that 900,000 of the 1.4 million population influx in the past year was a result of rising immigration. Fear of the death rate overtaking the birth rate in Europe has already started to surfaced. If the world starts following Europe’s lead, then perhaps the threat of a Malthusian catastrophe isn’t as imminent.

For the first time in recent history, nations of the developed world are fearful of low birth rates and high life expectancy rates. The bridge between the number of people entering the working class and the aging population has widened, leaving citizens ready to challenge the health and social security systems in place. With a low birth rate, open immigration policies may be one way to make sure that the population of the nation remains steady and the elderly have a stable social security plan in place.

Birth and death rates aren’t the only gap that is widening. With the richest five percent of nations consuming 33 percent of the world’s resources, the gap between the availability and usage of resources is drastically widening. If every person in 2011 were to live by normal “American” standards of consumption, the world’s population would be using 660 percent of the world’s natural resources-obviously exceeding available resources. This value doesn’t even make any allowance for the next two billion people who will also soon populate the earth. According to the New York Times, if every individual in the world lived by American standards, the world could only support 1.4 billion people. The bottom three billion people of the world, those who don’t have

Professor Ward Elliott of Claremont McKenna’s Government Department pointed out how growing populations act as a double edged sword when it comes to food production. He commented optimistically that “The more people, the more economies of scale, and well, the more things you make more effectively.” The idea of economies of scale was yet another economic idea that Malthus failed to account for when he inaccurately predicted that food production would always be linear. Professor Elliott followed up that comment on a grimmer note by saying, “But on the other side are the diminishing marginal returns. The higher up the hill you have to start your agriculture production, the less fertile the land, the less you produce. Too bad there’s this burden on the youth to take care of my generation.”

He also pointed out that the more people who are born, the lower the portion of the individuals’ taxes that will go towards social security benefits for the elderly population.

If this rational were to be applied in the long term, however, we’d have an ever expanding population growing simply for the purpose of supporting the generation above them.

Such fantasies can only be tolerated in a world where resource depletion does not exist.

Mankind is at an interesting point in history.

There have never been more of us on the planet, or a generation that has lived as long as our own. The real problem with a growing global population comes from classism and racism, and essentially which groups of people should and can afford to have more children. The question is not if another billion people on this planet can be sustained, but how and where they are more likely to be sustained. A full-out Malthusian catastrophe doesn’t seem plausible in the near future, but the need for a new approach to immigration, resource distribution and medicinal advances does. Our earth is going to get a little more crowded, but perhaps also a little more cautious in the process.

volumeVIII issue4

|

claremontportside.com

|

april 21

|

p a g e 19

international

fertility is at or below the replacement rate.

national

On the flip side of the situation, forecasters from The Economist predict that it will take fourteen years for the population to increase from seven to eight billion and twenty five years for the jump from eight

to nine billion—much longer than it will take for us to go from six to seven billion. These statistics provide hope with their prediction that the current rise in population growth is a historical peak. This change isn’t only due to the dropping fertility rates in developed nations, but also due those in developing nations. The fertility rate among Iranian woman has dropped from seven children per family to two in past fifty years. Some have even predicted that by 2050 half of mankind will be living in a place where the

campus

access to the luxuries of the American lifestyle, consume only 3 percent of the world’s resources. This clearly indicates that one of the most jarring problem of population growth is inequality.

Everyday Extremism: Part III

A three-part history of radical clashes in Claremont’s past the plank

By Sara Birkenthal Campus Editor, CM C ‘ 1 3 This is the third of a three-part series on Claremont student racial group activity.

Unrest on Claremont’s campuses during the ‘90s took on a different form than that of the 1960s and ‘70s. Student demands were made by fax, and the antiwar slogans of the ‘60s and ‘70s were replaced by posters decrying racial inequality. However, student protesters of the ‘90s took a lesson from demonstrators of Claremont’s past, namely resorting to active measures, such as building takeovers and demonstrations, to accomplish their demands.

The two-day siege of Pomona’s Alexander Hall in February 1993, perhaps the most memorable incident of student radical activity in Claremont’s recent past, seemed “kind of like a time warp,” according to Armando Navarro (CMC ’70), a longtime Latino activist and professor of ethnic studies.

The Alexander Protests, as they are known, started with the formation of the student group Liberation Through Education (LTE), consisting of students from all five colleges. According to a February 5, 1993 article in The Claremont Colleges Collage, the group was formed to protest alleged discriminatory practices and institutional racism at the Claremont Colleges. In response to these practices, on Monday, February 1, 1993 at 6:45 am, 40 students affiliated with LTE locked themselves in Alexander Hall, an administrative building on Pomona’s campus, refusing to allow anyone else inside. Pomona President’s at the time, Peter Stanley and his staff stood outside the building, surrounded by students carrying signs with slogans such as “This building closed due to racism” and supporters passed out a list of demands.

Included in this list were demands including the

reopening of the search for a Black Studies/ Pomona English Department position and the inclusion of Sue Houchins, an AfricanAmerican candidate, on the list of three candidates to fill this position. Additionally, student activists demanded that money be allocated from the existing budget for the immediate search for a tenure-track Spanish/ Chicano Studies position at Scripps College, and that other issues of diversity be addressed by the administrations. Isaac Mitchell, who was a Pomona senior at the time and a member of LTE, explained that “this protest was sparked

by Sue Houchins, but it’s all about the general lack of commitment here towards minority students.”

At 10:00 am on that infamous morning, these demands were articulated in a “speak-out” on the front steps of Alexander Hall. By noon, the L.A. County Fire Department, Paramedics, and an ambulance arrived in response to the collapse of Scripps sophomore Megan Dotson, who fainted from fatigue. By 3:00 pm a crowd of hundreds of journalists, administrators, professors, and students had gathered and negotiations began between student leaders and college administrators. According to Mitchell, despite immense exhaustion, student protesters remained in Alexander Hall and refused to “leave until [they] could talk over the issues with the presidents and get negotiations with their demands.”

For obvious reasons, the presidents were compliant. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times entitled “Students End Demonstration; Colleges Vow Diverse Hiring,” over forty hours later, Yusef Omowele, a Pitzer sophomore, who was one of the student negotiators, announced the results of the negotiations to the crowd in a fiery speech.

“There is only one thing left to say,” he said.

“Victory is ours. Those of us on the inside have chosen to leave the building on our own

terms. We took this building from you. We have chosen to give it back. There is no reason to send your fascist pigs [the police].”

The agreement reached between the protesters and the administration included a declaration of commitment by all five colleges to aggressive affirmative action programs and a promise to work to increase enrollment for minority and low-income students. Other points in the agreement included a pledge by Pomona,

Pitzer, and Harvey Mudd to develop an AsianAmerican studies program, and a promise by Pomona to increase the number of tenure-track faculty of color by 50% by 2000.

In reflecting on the Alexander Protests, Kiana Burleson, who was a Pomona sophomore at the time, justified the takeover: “I don’t know how many petitions I [had] signed,” explained Burleson. “They [didn’t] respond to us if we’re quiet and polite. We [had] to get their attention,” and “get their attention” they did.

Just as the Alexander protesters looked to the tactics of student radicals in Claremont’s past, perhaps future Claremont student radicalism

will be modeled after the infamous events of February 1993.