March 2013

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international

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national

CHINA’S CARBON PROBLEM

DIVEST THE WEST

THE MOST POWERFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD

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port side staff

the editorial board

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF TIM REYNOLDS

PUBLISHER

JAYA WILLIAMS

MANAGING EDITORS EMILY HAYNES campus

JON RICE international

LOGAN GALANSKY national

WEB EDITORS

ALEX MA COPY EDITORS EDITORS-IN-CHIEF EMERITI ILLUSTRATORS PHOTOGRAPHERS

KARUN KIANI

MARYL EVANS, BEN HACKENBERGER ALY MINAMIDE + JENNA HUSSEIN SAM KAHR + ALYSSA ROBERTS CHELSEA CARLSON, TESSA BARTON + ANGELA ZHOU JEWEL MENSAH, PHOEBE DUVALL, WILL CAFRITZ + JONAH RADUNS-SILVERSTEIN

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WOMEN’S ATHLETICS ATTENDANCE

6

STUDENT GOVERNMENT COMPENSATION

8

HOW GREEN IS YOUR SCHOOL?

10

SMART POWER: US FOREIGN POLICY

11

REVISITING THE ARAB SPRING

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DIVEST THE WEST

14

5C FACULTY: AN OLD BOYS’ CLUB?

the compass

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5C MALE BODY IMAGE

CRIME + PUNISHMENT AT THE 5Cs

DID PRESIDENT OBAMA PASS?

HILLARY CLINTON’S DIPLOMATIC LEGACY

IS CALIFORNIA FINALLY FIXED?

THE MISGUIDED MEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT

16 CHINA’S CARBON PROBLEM claremontportside.com | volume X issue 3 | march 2013 | page 3

table of contents

5

editor’s note

What the 5Cs Mean to Me I used to think the five-college consortium was just a selling point for the Claremont Colleges. When I visited Pomona in my senior year, I thought it would be hard to get into classes at the other 5Cs and that, if I did, it would be even harder to get along with people from such different schools.

Thankfully, I was wrong. I’ve found friends on the Mounds and at the Motley, near Kravis and at the Coop. Claremont wouldn’t be the same without each of the 5Cs, and a big reason I’m glad I attend Pomona is that it’s part of the Claremont Colleges. Each of the 5Cs brings something unique to the table, and the whole community is better because of it.

That’s a sentiment I’m sure you’ve heard before, at least from a tour guide or an admissions officer. Of course, they’re not going to tell you what’s wrong with the 5Cs. That’s what journalists are for.

November 30, 2011 was the day I decided to devote most of my time here to journalism. Not only was that the day before Pomona fired 17 dining hall workers for insufficient documentation, but it was also the day of Condoleezza Rice’s controversial visit to CMC. As a writer for the Port Side, I spent lunchtime covering the dining hall boycott at Pomona, and dinnertime reporting on the protest outside Rice’s talk at Ducey Gym. After Rice snuck out the back of the building, I returned to Pomona and sat in on a three-hour meeting of the Concerned Students of Pomona College. They’d set up tents outside Alexander Hall and were keeping a vigil in support of the soon-tobe-fired workers.

That day, I met students, professors, and staff who cared deeply about issues ranging from unionization to war crimes to first amendment rights on college campuses. I didn’t always agree with them, but I listened to what they had to say. And their frustration, hope, and commitment to their cause convinced me that others

should hear them out as well. I wanted to perform the most basic journalistic action there is. I wanted to report, to communicate what I had seen and heard to those who hadn’t.

November 30 was by no means the last time my peers impressed me. Since then, I’ve been struck time and again by the dedication Claremont students have for the causes they care about. Though they started just a few months ago, the 5C Divestment Team has persistently pushed the Claremont Colleges to withdraw their investments in fossil fuels (see page 12).

They’ve made the most progress at Pitzer and Pomona, schools that stand out from the other 5Cs for their sustainability programs (see page 8). Meanwhile, Pitzer’s and Harvey Mudd’s student government leaders serve their schools without any compensation, a stark contrast with the ASCMC president’s $14,000 stipend (see page 6).

It is precisely the efforts of my peers that inform my work with the Port Side. While some students use meetings and marches to bring about positive change, the Port Side and its staff will produce reporting and analysis meant to serve the interests of 5C students. As a progressive publication, part of our role is to push the 5C administrations to solve the problems that exist at the Claremont Colleges. CMC’s faculty sorely lacks female professors (see page 14), for example, while Pomona needs to reform its system for punishing students (see page 23).

The Port Side is not alone in its push for progress. Claremont students, faculty, and staff actively work to improve the institutions of which they are a part.

But oftentimes, the best way to hold one of the 5Cs accountable is to look at the examples set by institutions just across the street.

The progress that some 5Cs have already made shows we should expect more from the others. The 5Cs’ differ-

page 4 | march 2013 | volume X issue 3 | claremontportside.com

ences strengthen the Claremont community as a whole. But when it comes to issues like sustainability, faculty gender equality, and fair student punishments, they should be more alike. The Claremont Colleges, as a community of likeminded institutions, should strive to meet a higher standard.

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

Single copies are free. To purchase additional copies please contact us publisher@claremontportside.com

The attendance gap between 5C men’s and women’s athletics

By Stephanie Steinbrecher Senior Staff Writer, SC ‘16

MEN’S BASKETBALL CROWD

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL CROWD

The Pomona-Pitzer v. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s basketball game at Voelkel Gymnasium on February 13 was fiercely competitive. CMS took the lead in the second half for the first time, causing half the students present to go ballistic. CMS won 65-54, and Stag supporters rushed the court at the final buzzer.

The following day, the same gymnasium hosted another rivalry game. The women’s PP v. CMS basketball game attracted a smaller and significantly less raucous crowd than the men’s, though Sagehen and Athena fans still enthusiastically cheered on their teams. No shirts were flung off, however, as the Sagehens pulled a narrow victory, 69-65, over the Athenas.

opportunity for everything.” Equal opportunity for female and male athletes has been mandated since Title IX was passed in 1972.

However, there are some things that the administration cannot control, including the level of interest students demonstrate by attending athletic events. So what is it about certain men’s athletics that makes their events draw more spectators?

“It is often more exciting to watch,” said ASPC Commissioner of Clubs and Sports Emma Wolfarth PO ’14. “I have been a competitive athlete all my life and recognize that the pace of the game is different in sports like basketball when played by both men and women.”

“The men’s basketball games have been by far the most popular of all the [athletic] events I’ve gone to,” said Madison Welsh SC ’16.

Basketball, arguably the most popular spectator sport at the 5Cs, exhibits the largest discrepancy in attendance for men’s and women’s games.

While men’s and women’s athletics attract different degrees of attention, the athletic administrators seek to make opportunities for athletes across the board as fair as possible.

“I feel this [discrepancy] is really unfair...since our women’s basketball team is really fantastic and deserves as much attention as the men get,” said Wolfarth. “In other sports, fans do not seem to prefer male over female teams. Fans go to volleyball and women’s soccer just as much as football and men’s soccer.”

“We treat all sports comparably, that doesn’t mean equal,” said CMS Athletic Director Michael Sutton.

“Different sports have different costs due to roster size, number of contests, officials fees, and equipment, but we make sure each has what they need to compete and represent our colleges properly.”

In regard to facility and equipment usage, CMS Women’s Basketball’s Head Coach Kristen Dowling remarked, “We have equal access and equal

Dowling also recognized this difference. “I think the men’s basketball program does have more student support,” she agreed. “That being said, they’ve won four straight conference championships and the women haven’t. I also think that across the board, not just at CMS, men’s programs do have more support in general.”

Sutton suggested that perhaps some of this difference has to do with the number of athletes. “If the men have an advantage, part of it is cultural. Our world and nation want to see the ‘best’...In our case our female participants are a lesser number and divided on three campuses,” he said. “We have busy people on campus and there are more good activities to take in than anyone can manage. Fans are the friends of people on the team.”

There are many reasons to support both CMS’ Athenas and Stags and Pomona-Pitzer’s Sagehens.

Wolfarth and ASPC encourage students to support varsity athletics by providing spirit gear and free food at both men’s and women’s rivalry games, more so at men’s football and basketball games since they accrue the greatest crowds.

“I receive feedback from most athletes about how few fans they get. That is worse for women’s teams, but not a male versus female issue,” said Wolfarth.

Given the 5Cs’ small student body, students are practically bound to know or recognize at least a few athletes. Claremont’s Division III games are often competitive, and the atmosphere is social and friendly. (Sometimes there’s also free food.)

While the Claremont Colleges are not best known for their athletics, Pomona-Pitzer and CMS events offer students and athletes a way to get away from the intensity of academics.

The bottom line? Support all Claremont athletes.

The administration does what it can, and now it is up to the students and Claremont community to fill the bleachers.

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campus

Athletics For All?

By Zoë Jameson Staff Writer, PO ’15 Across the Claremont Colleges, there are very different systems of compensation for student government members. At Claremont McKenna College, student government officers enjoy large stipends, with the president of the Associated Students of CMC receiving around $14,000 yearly. At Harvey Mudd College and Pitzer College, however, student government officers do not receive any compensation.

These discrepancies raise issues of the ethics of accessibility and financial incentive for presidential positions, as well as the question of how much, if any, compensation is necessary or ideal for student government officers at the Claremont Colleges.

$15,000

$12,000

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The stipend for the ASCMC president is funded in equal parts by ASCMC and by the Dean of Students. It is meant to match the stipend given to Resident Advisors (RAs), which amounts to full room and board.

Considering the vast differences in duties for RAs and student government presidents, this significant compensation seems unnecessary and, perhaps, unjust.

Even more interesting is the fact that among the three colleges who compensate their student government members, CMC’s president receives nearly eight times the amount of the next-highest-paid member, the president of Scripps Associated Students (SAS).

Emily Jovais SC ’13, president of SAS, earns $1800 per year. She said this amount

represented the maximum allotment for student employment when the stipend was established. “It didn’t seem fair for [the position] to be limited only to privileged people,” she said, citing instances of students who may want to run for positions on SAS but are unable to because they need to hold a work-study position.

In previous years, Jovais was involved with SAS while also holding a job. Yet with the duties that accompany the position of President, Jovais doesn’t think she could keep that up this year. Although Scripps’ work-study allotment has increased since the stipends were created, the stipends themselves have not increased, yielding numbers that now seem rather arbitrary.

Pomona also offers stipends to some Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) elected officials, with the president receiving $1500 per year and the two vice presidents each receiving $1000 per year.

ASPC President Sarah Applebaum PO ’13 said stipends were given to those positions because they demand an “exceptional level of work,” though possible stipends for other members are currently on the table.

Applebaum is in favor of more stipends, arguing that they help “offset the number of hours someone would have to work at another job.”

Like Jovais, she suggested accessibility is the most compelling reason to compensate student government members. Yet Appelbaum indicated that she is not in favor of high compensation, stating that lower compensation means a lower possibility that members are taking the job for “corrupt reasons.”

At Pitzer, where student senate members are uncompensated, there is a degree of uncertainty about the effects of compensation. Sebastian Aguiar PZ ’14, the vice chair of student senate, said he would expect nastier competition for paid positions than unpaid.

Aguiar chose to become involved in student senate because he supports “the notion that individuals should be self-determined.”

“Freedom is always preferable to slavery,” he quipped, highlighting the importance of student government in the face of college administrations.

Rather than a paycheck, it seems Pitzer Student Senate members are compensated with a sense of pride that their voice is being heard.

vice president, chief financial officer, social affairs chair, dorm affairs council chair, student life council chair, campus organizations chair, class presidents, director of student security, president pro-tempore, executive secretary, property manager, Forum editor, Ayer editor, and webmaster

Council members at Harvey Mudd are also satisfied without monetary compensation.

Associated Students of Harvey Mudd College (ASHMC) President Josiah Gaskin HM ’13 wrote in an email to the Port Side that ASHMC members are usually motivated by a desire to serve the student body.

“It also makes a decent addition to one's resume,” he said, acknowledging that though there are no monetary benefits, ASHMC members do reap rewards for their work.

Despite the monetary benefits they receive, both Jovais and Applebaum were quick to defend the purity of their motives for taking office,

stating that their compensation isn’t high enough to merit corruption. In conversations with both of them, accessibility was the major reason for supporting stipends. Because student government members (especially the highest-ranking ones) commit so much time and effort to their positions, it can be hard to hold an outside job.

For Jovais, having a stipend equal to work-study allotment seems a logical choice.

ASCMC did not respond for comment, but in an article in The Student Life last year, former president Jessica Mao CMC ‘12 was quoted as saying, “The equity issue of the president’s

stipend being so much higher than everyone else’s is not, I think, something that we can look past any longer.”

A $14,000 stipend goes beyond issues of accessibility. It is an unnecessarily large amount of money that has the potential to act as an incentive for students applying to the position. The Claremont Colleges pitch themselves as institutions where students can pursue opportunities without concern for their socioeconomic background. As such, some stipend certainly seems necessary. But how much is too much?

campus

How Green Is Your School?

The 5Cs focus on LEED buildings and student sustainability

By Maryl Evans Copy Editor, SC ‘16

strengths and weaknesses of sustainability efforts at the Claremont Colleges.

The recent Divestment campaigns, upcoming 5C Energy Challenge, and countless other student events and administrative policies are proof that sustainability is a major issue at all five Claremont Colleges. Yet how do the colleges stack up to each other when it comes to sustainability?

The Sustainable Endowments Institute hosts GreenReportCard.org, which evaluates institutions on their commitment to creating a greener campus. On the 2011 Green Report Card, Pomona received an A, followed by Harvey Mudd with a B+, CMC with a B, and Scripps with a B-. Pitzer’s score was not listed.

Taking the LEED Buzz about LEED certification is everywhere.

The Green Building Certification Institute grants LEED certification to a given building, and determines its certification status (Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum) by allocating points for sustainable design, construction, and operation.

California law now dictates that all newly constructed buildings must meet LEED Silver standards (though they need not be officially certified). However, the general opinion of Claremont students seems to be that new campus buildings should exceed Silver standards and reach instead for Gold and Platinum certifications.

Of the five Claremont Colleges, Pitzer has the most LEED certified buildings with four Gold buildings and four Platinum buildings. Only Mead Hall, Pitzer’s oldest residence hall, remains uncertified, and 75% of Pitzer students live in LEED Gold or Platinum certified buildings.

Pomona has the second-most LEED certified buildings, with a total of three certified buildings including one Silver and two Gold. An additional six buildings meet LEED criteria, but are not officially certified.

Harvey Mudd has two LEED certified buildings, one of which is Silver, while Claremont McKenna has one certified Silver building.

Scripps has no certified buildings, though two of its buildings meet the criteria for certification.

Last semester, Scripps decided not to pursue LEED certification for its new residence hall

(which is still in the development stage). This move elicited a strong reaction from the student body, who, through a petition and survey, demonstrated their support for LEED certification.

Former Scripps Associated Students (SAS) Sustainability Chair Sara Estevez Cores SC ’13 spearheaded the effort to obtain LEED certification for the new dorm. “It is a part of my position to advocate for sustainability initiatives on campus,” she said. “We took a survey and students wanted a LEED certified building and I thought, ‘If someone has to advocate for this, it has to be me.’”

Estevez Cores attempted to arrange meetings with administrators involved in the construction of the new dorm building, but it was not until she started a petition for LEED certification that administrators started to take the issue seriously. The petition gave the administration an ultimatum: either build a LEED certified Gold or Platinum building or the signatories would not donate money to Scripps College.

Limited administrative support for LEED certification discouraged Estevez Cores, who stepped down as SAS sustainability chair last semester. “I was a bit tired of having to lobby for something that I thought didn’t need lobbying,” Estevez Cores said. “If you ask any students on campus they will say that that new dorm should be LEED certified.”

National Grading Systems National eco-evaluations can help identify the

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The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) developed the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) for evaluating colleges’ sustainability efforts. Only Pomona and Scripps participated in the evaluation, with Pomona receiving a Gold rating (STARS’ second-highest rating) while Scripps received a Bronze rating.

CMC, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Pomona have all been commended for their respective presidents’ signing of the American College & University President’s Climate Commitment.

This commitment details the requirement of the schools to submit and adhere to shortterm and long-term sustainability action plans.

A Career in Campus Sustainability A very important aspect of Pomona’s lauded sustainability efforts is its Sustainability Office, which is headed by Sustainability Coordinator Ginny Routhe. Routhe’s office plays a major role in campus sustainability initiatives by engaging residents, collecting and reporting data, and coordinating sustainability programs.

“We work with the Sustainability Committee on campus to coordinate policies and goals when it comes to sustainability, which would encompass transportation, waste, and energy,” Routhe said.

The role of sustainability coordinator is not exclusive to Pomona. Pitzer recently hired Jesse Meisler-Abramson PZ ‘11 as their sustainability coordinator, a position that’s part of the new Robert Redford Conservatory for South-

campus

ern California Sustainability. Like Routhe, Meisler-Abramson plays a supporting role in student-led sustainability initiatives.

“The other prong of my duties is to be an advocate and guide for students on campus, and to help push student projects forward and help with event planning and programming,” Meisler-Abramson said.

In terms of Pitzer’s sustainable building plans, Meisler-Abramson sees a need for accountability to sustainable standards beyond LEED certification. “What we’re hoping for with the Conservancy is to work towards the Living Building Challenge, which is much more of a full-scope building analysis of the building process, including analysis of how well the building functions once it is built and lived in,” he said.

Students Work for Sustainability However, where the administration is unable to combat these environmental inefficiencies, the 5Cs’ different environmental organizations take a stand.

Routhe’s Sustainability Office also provides a bridge between the administration and student organizations, like Pomona for Environmental Activism and Responsibility (PEAR). “[The administration] is very persistent in its sustainability and very supportive, but of course there are things that can be improved,” said Rose Egelhoff PO ‘14, PEAR co-president.

“They fall short when it comes to informing the student body about what they’re doing, so that’s where PEAR comes in,” PEAR copresident Cici Cyr PO ‘13 added.

PEAR is one of the most active environmental organizations of all the 5Cs, hosting countless events and activities aimed at raising awareness about environmental issues. PEAR is currently focused on the upcoming 5C Power Down Challenge, which puts the 5Cs and individual dorms against one another to see which school or dorm can reduce the most energy.

However, despite all of this sustainability

activism, PEAR members still see a long road to a more sustainable campus. “Sometimes people see that Pomona has these great ratings and consider it to be a checkmark, but it’s always a process and there are always things that we can improve,” PEAR co-president Julia Pitkin PO ‘13 said.

Leung SC ’15 has taken the lead as the organization’s president and is working on raising awareness about sustainability efforts at Scripps.

Further north, Pitzer’s Ecocenter boasts numerous activities and ways to involve students in sustainability initiatives on campus. This semester, Ecocenter has organized clothing swaps, increased Pitzer involvement in the divestment campaign, and encouraged participation in a Keystone XL protest in Los Angeles. The organization looks forward to participating in the 5C Power Down Challenge, hosting an eco-architect and permaculture workshops, continuing to collaborate with the Pomona Farm and Pitzer Garden, and developing a more effective system to cut down on waste at the end of the academic year.

“We were behind the scenes [in the LEED project], in terms of trying to ask the right people, talked to professors of Environmental Analysis and we also talked to the administration in terms of cost for LEED certification,” Leung said.

Even with all these programs, Ecocenter president Kristin Dobbin PZ ’13 wants to see sustainability pushed harder by the administration.

“Even though we do pretty well, there is still a lot more that can be done,” Dobbin said. “[The administration] has started generating and implementing different solutions for emission neutrality, but I think there is a lot of talk about these things and sometimes they get pushed to the side for other issues.”

The club was also enormously involved in last semester’s LEED debacle.

However, once efforts to get a LEED certification fell flat, the club downgraded their interests from promoting a certified building to simply a sustainability-oriented building.

Despite these past hiccups, the club and many other members of the Scripps community remain dedicated to campus sustainability efforts.

“Scripps is well known for its beautiful campus,” Estevez Cores said. “If we don’t take care of our planet, Scripps is not going to be beautiful in 50 years.”

It is with this understanding and resolve that all five of the Claremont College campuses continue to push forward their sustainability initiatives in order to create a more environmentally sensitive community.

Pitzer has an overwhelming amount of smaller sustainability-related clubs, but these clubs tend to take on much more specific areas of sustainability. Ecocenter’s advantage is that it encompasses the very broad scope of sustainability.

“We can bring all these people together... and we get to sponsor and be involved in a variety of events.” Dobbin said. “We get to have some diversity and be creative with what we do.”

Scripps Environmental Club has faced numerous obstacles to advancing their sustainability goals for the campus. Yvonna

claremontportside.com | volume X issue 3 | march 2013 | page 9

international

Smart Power: New US Foreign Policy The US shifts from unilateral action to international cooperation

By Aly Minamide, Copy Editor, CMC ‘15 & Tim Reynolds, Editor-in-Chief, PO ‘15 After lengthy engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq, Americans have grown tired of wars that never end. Led by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (see page 20) and President Barack Obama (see page 22), United States foreign policy has shifted from military engagement and intervention to a more multifaceted approach. This doctrine, known as “smart power,” could create one of the more productive foreign policy regimes in recent American history.

Smart power combines the tactics of soft power, like aid, diplomacy, and sanctions, with hard power, namely military force, to address threats to national security and international stability. This shift to smart power demonstrates the Obama administration’s awareness of the United States’ place as a cooperative member of the international community (and not just its policeman).

“The world is a very multilateral arena, and the U.S. can’t lead by bullying and acting unilaterally anymore. It has to gather some degree of consensus around its actions,” Po-

mona Professor of Politics and International Relations Philip Streich wrote in an email to the Port Side.

towards a vision of America more in keeping with our view of ourselves and of how foreign policy and balance of power politics work.”

In Mali, for example, the Obama administration has let France take the lead in fighting jihadists, with the U.S. playing only a supportive role. In some ways, Mali epitomizes the Obama administration’s shift from acting unilaterally to cooperating more with their allies.

Though the growing importance of Asia and the Pacific region has certainly influenced the United States’ shift to smart power, it is by no means the biggest factor. For one, the lengthy, unsuccessful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have dissuaded the American public from supporting increased intervention abroad.

“Our reduced actions in Libya, Syria, and Mali, restraint towards Iran, and the administration’s selection of Hagel and Kerry as foreign policy leaders all seem to point to a more measured U.S. approach internationally,” CMC Professor of International Relations Jennifer Taw said.

Obama’s critics on the right deride such tactics as “leading from behind” (a term first used positively by a White House adviser to describe Obama’s approach in Libya), yet there may be legitimate concerns about Obama and Clinton’s new foreign policy.

“Such limited involvement may work sometimes, but that does not necessarily mean that it can provide a good ‘blueprint’ for policy making in other areas,” Nadeem Farooqi CMC ’15 wrote in an email to the Port Side.

In particular, Farooqi worries that a “leading from behind” strategy would be interpreted as a sign of weakness in Asia.

The Obama administration has been pivoting the United States’ foreign policy focus to Asia, reflecting the region’s growing importance in the 21st century. This pivot to Asia partially accounts for the increased use of smart power in the Middle East.

“On the larger global scale, having the U.S. reduce its focus on the ubiquitous problem of instability and refocus on a more conventional stance in the Pacific region is a deliberate shift towards what is expected to be a more promising policy with more likelihood of success,” Taw said. “It represents a shift back

page 10 | march 2013 | volume X issue 3 | claremontportside.com

Taw highlighted “the costs and effects of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq [and] the more general failures of aggressive U.S. interventionism since the end of the Cold War” as major factors influencing the shift to smart power. American interventionism in recent years has had major human and fiscal costs, with little to show for it.

“They [the public] see casualties rising, success as impossible, and no longer understand what the international role of the U.S. should be,” Farooqi wrote.

Yet perhaps the biggest factor influencing the shift to smart power has been the United States’ economic problems at home.

There was “real public pressure to refocus on domestic issues during the economic downturn,” Taw said.

Farooqi agreed, writing, “Whatever foreign policy the US pursues, it must coincide with the domestic policies the US seeks to pursue.”

Yet even as the U.S. draws down its presence in the Middle East to focus on the Pacific and domestic issues, it can still play a role in promoting its values abroad.

“I think that the U.S. should always serve as an example for countries who are seeking to implement democratic reforms,” Lauren Kenney CMC ’15 said. “However, being a beacon for democracy does not need to mean invading countries and imposing democracy on them.”

Why the optimistic narrative you know isn’t the whole truth

By David Leathers Staff Writer, CMC ‘15 On December 17, 2010, Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouaziz self-immolated in the middle of a busy street after protesting with local authorities about his vendor’s license. He doused himself in gas, cried out, “How do you expect me to make a living?” then lit a match. He died of his injuries a few weeks later.

Thus began the “Arab Spring.” Follwing Bouaziz’s death, protests erupted in Tunisia. By January 14, Tunisia’s Prime Minister Ghannouchi resigned. Algeria, Jordan, and Oman flirted with larger rebellion in the coming weeks. Yemen, Libya, Egypt, and Syria soon became stages for enormous protests.

It is easy to understand why the term “Arab Spring” stuck. “Spring” insinuates an escape from the doldrums of winter, an entrance of optimism. A self-immolation that led to intense revolutionary spirit fits this trajectory.

cal hiccups as power shifts from one set of lousy, post-colonial regimes to another set of lousy, post-authoritarian regimes.”

Whether or not her contextual outlook proves to be correct, the facts of the “Arab Spring” tell an unpromising and unpeaceful narrative. Well over 100,000 people have lost their lives since Boulaziz took his own.

“President Obama always says ‘we will see how things go before we make a decision [on Syria],” said Ayman Ramadan, a professor of Arabic at CMC who is from Syria.

“But don’t the deaths of over 70,000 in Syria tell you how it is going?”

There is a harsh debate over whether the United States should aid the rebels or intervene in Syria. Taw claims intervention will not happen as it would be too expensive and too messy. However, many invoke US involvement in bringing down Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya—through bombings and enforcement of a no-fly zone—as good precedent.

“[This is] a choice between hate and hope; between the shackles of the past, and the promise of the future,” President Obama announced in a May 2011 speech. “In Egypt, we see it in the efforts of young people who led protests. In Syria, we see it in the courage of those who brave bullets while chanting, ‘peaceful, peaceful.’”

“[Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton went on TV to tell Mubarak to step down, and the US helped bring down Qaddafi,” Ramadan remarked. “This is definitely a double standard. For some reason, the US is not concerned about Syria.”

Obama was not alone in his optimistic tone. Most other world powers provided verbal support for the revolutionaries of the Middle East. But, as the saying goes, there are two sides to every story.

These events in the Middle East also have affected study abroad opportunities for students in Claremont. With the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria, students from across the 5Cs are turning to Jordan as their only Middle East study abroad option.

Jordan is the only country in the region that is safe enough and speaks the kind of Arabic taught at CMC.

The Arab Spring’s Darker Side “The ‘Arab Spring’ was a hopeful construction of a single-minded West,” CMC International Relations Professor Jenny Taw argued in an interview with the Port Side.

“The uprisings in Libya, Syria, Egypt and Tunisia will [eventually] be seen as histori-

The Effects of the Arab Spring

“I personally have concerns about this,” said Kristen Mallory, CMC’s director of off-campus study. “How many U.S. students do we want to be sending to one

city?” In the entire 2010-2011 school year, only one CMC student studied abroad in Jordan. That number - for just this coming fall - will be six.

The euphoric narrative of the “Arab Spring” began legitimately. The awe-inspiring footage of Egyptian students in Tahrir Square— appropriately “Liberation Square”, when translated—seemed more like a modernday reenactment of Les Miserables than a reaction against a repressive regime. But optimism is only good for as long as it does not encourage inaction.

The “Arab Spring” has become the comforting narrative—in some respects, a validation—for an unconscionably deadly and stagnant series of events. The implicit optimism in the phrase has allowed much of the world to brush off current suffering in the area as a means to an eventual end, the process to an eventual peace. Hopefully in the coming months, the Arab world will truly experience “spring”—not simply a spring that leads into another summer.

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international

Revisiting the Arab Spring

the anchor

the Divest the West

Divestment is the tactic & the goal is justice.

By Kevin O’Neill Staff Writer, HMC ‘13 After a year of record temperatures, wildfires in Colorado, and $50 billion in damages from superstorm Sandy, anthropogenic climate change has become an even graver threat than ever before. Yet what could college students possibly do to save our planet?

Enter the 5C divestment campaign, part of a nationwide movement started by Bill McKibben, a leading environmentalist and the founder of climate change activism site 350.org. The divestment movement aims to get colleges and universities to cut financial ties to the fossil fuel industry. Co-leader Megan Tokunaga PO ’15 explained that the Claremont Colleges Divestment Team asks the schools “to freeze all new investments in the fossil fuel industry” and “to remove all holdings within 5 years.”

Three American colleges, Hampshire, Unity, and Sterling, have already decided to divest. Meanwhile, Harvard students voted 72% in favor of the action, though they have not received full support from the administration.

The Claremont campaign began just last November, but it has already made significant progress, with over a thousand signatures on their official petition, multiple marches and discussion panels, and meetings with college leadership.

“We are moving really fast. The folks at 350.org say that we’re one of the leaders on the West Coast,” said Tokunaga. “It would be great to be the first schools to divest on the West Coast,” especially because Pomona “has the opportunity to be the first school to divest with an endowment of over $1 billion.”

On February 10, Pitzer Student Senate passed a referendum in favor of divestment, and on Feb-

ruary 15, members of the campaign brought the issue to the college’s Investment Committee.

If approved by the Investment Committee, the Board of Trustees will convene and ultimately determine whether or not a divestment policy will be implemented at Pitzer.

“We need to make the case to the trustees that investing in the fossil fuel industry is inconsistent with Pitzer’s core values, environmental and social sustainability explicitly among them,” said Sebastian Aguiar PZ ’14, vice chair of Pitzer’s Student Senate.

California notably removed $3 billion of its endowment from companies connected to South Africa. Pitzer was also involved in the movement, transferring 10% of its funds.

According to Paul Steinberg, professor of political science and environmental policy at Harvey Mudd, divestment campaigns “have snowball effects.”

“Looking at the anti-apartheid movement, it started with students at Columbia and Berkeley, it spread to other colleges. From there it spread to public employee retirement systems, it spread to the California state legislature, and then it spread to the U.S. Congress,” Steinberg said. After South Africa ended apartheid, newly elected President Nelson Mandela personally thanked the University of California for their support.

More recently, on February 28, Pomona students from the 5C Divestment Team met with college leaders, including President Oxtoby, Treasurer Karen Sisson, and the chairs of the Board of Trustees Investment Committee. “The meeting started a productive dialogue on a topic that everyone agrees is very important to the college and must be addressed,” wrote Patrick Pelegri O’Day PO ‘15 in an email to the Port Side.

Other issues have also prompted divestment.

In 2006, the University of California and other institutions divested from companies linked to the Sudanese government. Some schools have divested from industries like tobacco, defense, and even pornography based on moral grounds.

Before the issue is raised with the Board as a whole, the school’s Committee on Social Responsibility, members of which attended the meeting, must recommend divestment from fossil fuels. The Divestment Team also hopes to put a divestment referendum on the April 9th ASPC elections ballot. “We will use the next month to reconnect with and expand our base of support,” Pelegri O’Day concluded.

Though used primarily as a political strategy, divestment is an economic action, and so it is necessary to consider the financial impact it will have on the 5Cs. According to the National Association of Colleges and University Business Officers, collegiate investments in the fossil fuel industry averaged a 24% return in the 2011 fiscal year versus 19% for other investments.

Historical Divestment While current attention is focused on fossil fuels, divestment movements have historically been formed as a means for justice. The most notable divestment campaign successfully sanctioned South Africa during Apartheid. The University of

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Financial Impacts on the Colleges

“The colleges might suffer a little bit in terms of their endowment value because if they have to sell it at some particular point in time driven by this project, that might not be the optimal time to sell the stock, but that’s going to be a pretty minor thing,” said CMC Professor of Government and Economics William Ascher in an interview with the Port Side.

Some argue that stocks in the fossil fuel industry are overvalued. McKibben estimates that burning only 20% of known fossil fuel reserves would be enough for the world to hit the feared 2°C increase. Such an increase would likely trigger expansive action needed to avoid a global emergency state, leaving 80% of reserves in the ground.

On the other hand, Ascher argued, “[Energy companies] know how to hedge against risks of restrictions on their production. The risk those companies face really have much more to do with things like what happens to demand, disruptions in production and the like.”

In a letter published in The Student Life on February 15, Hazlett noted, “I’ll never be able to tease out the fiscal linkages with Big Oil inherent within the remainder of my investments, or in what I must buy and consume ordinarily to stay alive in 2013. But simply washing my hands of the institutions fueling our hydrocarbon hyper-dependency is a morally appropriate start for me.”

In an interview with the Port Side, Hazlett reflected on the fossil fuel industry’s resources and potential to invest in green energy. “Chevron, for a long time, put money into looking into geothermal. And BP called itself beyond petroleum. The CEO Brown went up to Stanford, surrounded by solar panels and said, ‘this is the way the futures going to go and BP’s going to lead the charge.’ Did

financial impact on the fossil fuel industry.

“There’s a whole range of things that could be done about greenhouse gas emissions and changing public policies...that would make a much bigger dent,” said Ascher in his interview with the Port Side. Ascher pointed to carbon taxes and cap-and-trade programs as possible avenues to pursue. College students in particular could “lobby against the subsidies that are going to energy companies,” said Ascher. “Selling stock in the companies does have a symbolic impact, but there are a lot of things that have a bigger symbolic impact.”

This has failed to deter many divestment supporters, though. Steinberg argued that divestment can have a large impact on the political environment in which energy policy is made. “Oil companies are deeply and directly affected by public sentiment. That’s why they spend so much money trying to shape public sentiment,” he said.

5C FOSSIL

free!

Are Oil Companies Really That Evil?

that ever amount to anything? Not at all,” he said.

Through donations and other means, fossil fuel companies actually help support education. In an interview with the Port Side, Pomona Professor of Environmental Studies Richard Hazlett was quick to point out that not only was his doctorate partially funded by oil revenues, but also that “oil revenues ultimately enabled the establishment of the Environmental Analysis Program at Pomona.”

Other Options?

Yet as was stressed during the divestment panel, divestment is only supposed to be a first step towards change.

While it’s clear that some action must be taken to combat climate change, not all at the Claremont Colleges have supported divestment as this action. At the February 11th divestment panel, Ascher and Pomona Professor of Economics John Jurowitz argued against divestment, claiming that it would have no tangible

“Ultimately, divesting is powerful because people in the public can see that students are passionate about something,” said Tokunaga. “Hopefully, our representatives in Congress will have to change how they’re considering these issues because there’s such a huge outcry from the public.”

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the anchor

But divestment could actually help fundraising prospects. “I would expect that the creation of a socially responsible investing fund might be an attraction for donors,” said Steinberg.

However, this observation has not stopped Hazlett from supporting the 5C divestment campaign or from divesting his own funds from fossil fuels “to no apparent ill effect.”

For over a decade, more women than men have pursued degrees in higher education. However, with women representing 45.5 percent of undergraduate faculty and only 24 percent of full professor positions nationwide, the gender gap between men and women in faculty positions has been only slowly improving.

Some of the Claremont Colleges fare little better than the national average.

Granted, in 2011-2012, Scripps’ full-time instructional staff was 54.5 percent female and Pitzer’s was just under 50 percent, with 38 male and 37 female full-time instructional staff members. Yet for that same time period, Pomona stood at 42 percent, Harvey Mudd at 40 percent, and CMC at only 32 percent.

To many, the divide appears as only a temporary step on the path to true gender equity. But some question whether the gender gap has any end in sight.

Ariel Katz CMC ’13 spoke out about the divide at CMC in her 2011 Forum piece, “Where Are The Female Professors?”

As Katz noted, it is in CMC’s most treasured departments that the gender imbalance is most striking. The govern-

By Rae Brookshire Senior Staff Writer, CMC ’16 Reflecting two years later, Katz wasn’t certain whether simply raising questions of the divide can lead to change.

“There are probably some steps the administration could take to hire more female faculty members ... I'm just not sure it is a priority. This might not be a bad thing--prioritizing hiring capable teachers might be more important than having diversity--but I think it's worth noting,” she said.

Some point to CMC’s desire for faculty with a history of practical experience as a possible factor contributing to

diversity of gender, race, ethnicity, and age.”

As CMC Associate Professor of History Diana Selig explained in an interview with the Port Side, a shifting balance would be beneficial to everyone at the college.

“Providing opportunities for both women and men in faculty positions benefits the college as a whole. It allows us to take advantage of the broadest pool of talent and to provide a rich and diverse learning environment. Women faculty model female leadership for our students,” she commented.

Unfortunately, such praise for female faculty does not help more get hired.

CMC has not enacted any policies to encourage the hiring of female applicants, and the College does not seem particularly intent on closing the faculty gender gap. Since 2001, the percentage of female faculty has been around 30 percent, with highs of 36 percent in the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years. (Schools did not report staff data for the 2002-2003 school year.)

Across the street at Pitzer, however, the faculty gender divide has hovered around 50/50 since fall 2009. This apparent gender balance can largely be attributed to Pitzer policy. “Up until last year, Pitzer had an affirmative action policy for faculty hiring that included

95,460

113,931

102,048

112,333

0

C MC

PROFESSOR AVERAGE SALARY

MALE // FEMALE

$120,000

Pomona

page 15

80

all data from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics

60

100

101,859

113,206

85,803

89,957

89,844

118,761

94,716

95,686

88,524

96,552

Occidental

40

[special consideration for] female candidates,” wrote Pitzer Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Professor of Chemistry Thomas Poon in an email interview with the Port Side.

According to Poon, the Pitzer faculty is currently working on crafting a new diversity policy for hiring practices.

Pitzer has come a long way since the 2003-2004 school year, when it had only 39 percent female faculty. When assessing the results of the shift towards gender balance, Poon highlighted many examples of female student empowerment in science and mathematics, which are typically male-dominated fields.

“The positive result that I have seen is that more and more female students are participating in research with science faculty, applying to and getting into top graduate programs in science, and assuming leadership roles related to science both in the department and on their respective campuses,” he said.

To suggest, however, that perfect parity would be the end all to gender considerations would be to greatly overvalue the recorded data, which itself is limiting to the binary classifications of male and female. In the longer term, administrative efforts must be mindful of the impact for positive precedent that gender policies will set for even bigger disparities, like race and ethnicity.

Societal pressures could have a significant impact on encouraging these efforts. In the year we asked if women really could have it all or if birth control could be excluded from health insurance coverage, we were also reminded that progress is a product of continuous effort.

While it’s clear that gender parity among faculty is beneficial to the academic environment as a whole, CMC and other colleges still have a long way to go before reaching this goal.

Mudd

20

the faculty gender gap. “A significant proportion of CMC government professors are of much older generations. And while they were getting hands-on experience in the 1970s and 1980s, I wonder how many women were able to do the same or how many women were even involved in politics at that time,” said Aubrey Zimmerling CMC ’13.

In 2007, CMC faculty and the Board of Trustees approved a Diversity Statement, stating a commitment “to enroll a diverse student body, [and] to recruit a diverse faculty and staff.” That statement quoted the College’s 2002 Strategic Plan, which stated, “the College should recruit a faculty of increased balance and

Scripps

0

ment department of 40 professors has only six women. Economics stands no better with only five women out of a faculty of 38.

When Professor Cecilia Conrad, former vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College, departed Pomona earlier this year to direct the MacArthur Fellows program, Pomona’s economics department was left with only three women out of a faculty of 13.

Pomona’s politics department has six female professors of a 16 person faculty, coming in at 37.5 percent of faculty -more than double Pomona’s economics department and CMC’s government and economics departments.

Pitzer Wellesley

By Richard Ahne Staff Writer, CMC ‘15 It’s no secret that China has skyrocketed to prominence on the world stage. China’s economic exploits have been well-documented since the beginning of the country’s meteoric rise. Yet as the seemingly permanent layer of smog over Beijing demonstrates, China’s economic accomplishments have a darker side.

The world’s most populous country continues to struggle with appalling levels of environmental pollution that threaten the very safety of the planet.

China now accounts for 29 percent of the world’s total CO2 emissions (33,376,327 kilotons as of 2011), up from 14 percent in 2000 and 11 percent in 1990. Kalika Tullock CMC ‘13 studied abroad in China this past fall and knows first-hand how terrible the pollution is in the region.

“I’m still hearing from the [program] director [that] it’s been getting worse and worse,” Tullock said. “It’s always hazy; from the building where I was staying, you couldn’t see the nearby mountains or buildings.”

While students in Claremont might be used to the San Gabriel Mountains being semi-visible even on a smoggy day, not seeing the building across the street is the norm in China.

Surface air pollution is the most prevalent of

According to the latest estimates from the European Commission, China emitted 9,700,000 kilotons of CO2 in 2011. This places the nation as the world’s largest polluter.

In comparison, the United States, the world’s second-largest polluter, emitted 5,400,000 kilotons, a little more than half China’s emissions.

China’s environmental problems, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Chinese industrial pollution contaminates resources in both the country’s farmlands and bodies of water.

This has toxic ramifications for the country’s supplies of food and water.

Chinese environmental degradation has reached the critical point where the health of Chinese citizens are directly and adversely affected on a near-daily basis. It’s not an exaggeration to say that China is quite close to experiencing a pollution-induced public health crisis.

“You get sick more; your immune system isn’t used to it,” Tullock said about exposure to the pollution.

Professor Minxin Pei, a professor of Chinese politics and government at Claremont McKenna and noted China scholar, can quantify just how bad the pollution in the country has become.

“The situation has become dire,” said Professor Pei. “You just cannot live in a country where pollution is off the charts. There have been times when up to 1/7 of the country was blanketed by toxic air.”

A Toxic Bureaucracy The severity of China’s environmental situation raises the question, how did so much destructive environmental pollution and degradation come about in China? *All figures in kilotons of CO2. Data from the European Commission’s Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research

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CHINA’S CARBON PROBLEM

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Political dimensions definitely play a key role in answering the question. Internal bureaucratic politics exacerbate the problem, making it extremely difficult for China to enforce an effective environmental policy.

In China, environmental protection policy is directed by the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA). While the NEPA has set environmental regulations and emission targets, enforcement by local authorities is less coherent. Local enforcement of environmental regulations falls to Environmental

The problem is that these local EPBs are under dual jurisdictions of both the particular local government they are affiliated with and their next upper level EPBs. The existing structure is very hierarchical, with the national NEPA at the top and the provincial, prefecture, county, and individual town EPBs falling below in that order. This places lower level local EPBs in a difficult position. They are forced to manage the different interests of their supervisor EPBs, their particular local environmental needs, local governments, and individual polluting enterprises. If a vested economic interest is in play, blind eyes or blatant disregard for laws result.

Bureaucracy’s role is “ineffective implementation of existing rules and regulations that can be fixed with stronger enforcement,” Pei said.

“For example, local officials do not use money they have to retrofit power plants to make them cleaner or they don’t prevent dumping waste into waters.”

Pollution from Politics The problems with China’s bureaucracies do not stop at the local level, but are instead embedded even deeper in the internal struggle of competing national priorities. The ruling Chinese Communist Party regime, a strange hybrid of autocracy and free-market capitalism, has long tied its legitimacy and survival to the country’s economic growth. This need for economic growth often supersedes the need to actively promote environmental protection and curb industrial pollutants.

“There has been this balance between development and environment,” said Zheyuan Li CMC ‘15, an international student from China. “Over the last few years, the focus has definitely been more on the development,” she said.

international

Protection Bureaus (EPBs). These multiple EPBs are affiliated with specific provincial and municipal governments across the country. They are also ultimately responsible for enacting environmental regulations.

Concerned with economic development, the autocratic Chinese regime is hesitant to make a substantial commitment to addressing pollution and environmental degradation. Often times, the government actively tries to push environmental concerns out of the spotlight.

“There is a challenge given China’s political system...free flow of information and transparency is needed,” Pei said. “For a long time, [government officials] did not release data on air pollution...because they view the data as sensitive, they try to conceal it.”

The ruling party’s politics are tied to China’s economic strength. Yet China’s economic growth comes at the cost of its (and the whole planet’s) environment. Is there any way to stop China from irrevocably damaging our planet?

Hope for a Greener China?

Many Chinese people refuse to sit idly by with choking lungs and poisoned bodies. Local protests, such as those in Ningbo and Shifeng, have increased in prevalence and visibility, and have been remarkably successful in preventing the construction of polluting chemical plants.

Chinese civic engagement against pollution and greater environmental awareness is on the rise, thanks largely to enhanced organization via social media and other Internet tools.

“Environmental issues and problems have been more noticeable recently, especially due to social networks and websites,” Li said.

The increased frequency of protests and public involvement is a significant development, especially in an atmosphere where state suppression of public dissent is commonplace.

“Without those strong local protests, the consequences would’ve been catastrophic,” Pei said.

An even more explosive development is the central regime’s responsiveness and awareness to these environmental issues, particularly when it comes to state-controlled Chinese media.

“I was surprised [by] how much coverage the Chinese media has given to the issue recently,” Li said. “It was the leading story covered on Xinwenlianbo, which is usually reserved for the most important news reports from the party.”

China’s will continue to grapple with environmental problems as the nation undergoes a transition under the enigmatic new leader, Xi Jinping. Although uncertainty remains, there is hope for Chinese advancement in tackling the country’s environmental problems.

“I think [environmental issues] will become more important,” Li said. “There seems to be a move towards the direction of focusing more on the environment. But it’s very difficult to say how it will turn out.”

China’s future regarding environmental issues is uncertain, much like the nation’s place on the global stage. Perhaps these recent instances of civic engagement and the small yet tangible progress they have produced suggest a future Chinese state more responsive to its citizens.

Yet China must act for more than just its own citizens. The United States and European Union’s economic woes have caused them to delay meaningful action to address climate change. Action must be taken—by both China and the West—before it is too late.

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Misleading Men’s Rights Movement

A controversial turn in the path toward gender equality

By Julian Rippy, Staff Writer, PO ‘15 & Arielle Zionts, Staff Writer, PZ ‘14 Students at the Claremont Colleges are used to seeing feminist events and organizations well represented on campus. What they may not have seen, particularly if they do not frequent social news websites like Reddit, is that there is now an emerging philosophy calling itself the Men’s Rights Movement. This movement charges that Western societies and governments have created social and legal systems that discriminate against men.

extreme positions. Some MRAs claim that women are “violent liars and manipulators of men” and that half of the reported rapes in the United States are fabricated in an effort to defame men. Yet according to the SPLC, multiple comprehensive studies in the United Kingdom and the United States put the actual rate of false accusations in rape cases at below 10 percent.

Frias faults feminism for its general failure to be inclusive of women of color, as well as its ableist tendencies.

Frias said that “in terms of the mainstream feminism that wields the biggest clout, it’s mainly white privileged women, except for when they reach out a “generous” hand to help women in third world countries.” These faults, however, are not ones that the Men’s Rights Movement emphasizes in its critique of feminism.

For instance, many activists point to differences in parental rights for males and a perceived media bias against men.

Braden Bernards PZ ’15 identifies as a supporter of the Men’s Rights Movement and says that his biggest concern is the American educational system.

“Boys have lower self-esteem, are far less likely to graduate from college, and are unable to read or write near the level of girls,” he explained in an interview with the Port Side. He also said that there are inequities in areas of child support and custody decisions and that there is a lopsided allocation of funding towards women’s health, even though men are typically less healthy and have lower life expectancies than women.

Though many MRAs have no problem with feminism, controversy surrounding the movement stems from the rhetoric that some self-identified MRAs use when referring to feminism and women in general.

According to Bernards, some MRAs believe that feminism liberated women while leaving men stuck in strict gender roles. He said that these MRAs claim that “feminism is destructive as it is largely the reason for a feminized education system and the ignoring of men’s problems on the national level.”

Bernards said he personally does not have a problem with feminism.

A 2012 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center detailed some of MRAs’ more

“I keep reading broad and inaccurate claims about feminism,” complained Frias, “and every time someone tried to engage them [MRAs] in meaningful discussion, the MRA would just say something along the lines of, ‘You’ve been brainwashed, feminists hate men so you hate men too.’ I found very few real intellectual discussions of the faults of feminism—which exist.”

The popular social news site Reddit has an extremely active, high-profile, and vocal men’s rights community (reddit.com/r/mensrights) that is often problematic in its characterization of feminism and women. It was this community that inspired Andrea Frias PZ ’14 to start their blog “notascaryfeminist” (notascaryfeminist.tumblr.com). “I don’t think many of these activists know any real feminist theory, and if they do they only know the extreme end of things which is obviously not representative of all feminists,” said Frias.

Frias addresses common claims made by members of the Reddit community, including that feminists believe all men are rapists, and that feminists demand total female domination. Obviously, many males who identify as feminists disagree with these assertions.

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The conflict between MRAs and feminists is not one-sided: prominent feminist websites like Jezebel and Feministing often publish articles addressing the Men’s Rights Movement and expressing frustration about the way that movement distorts feminism.

These articles often stress points of intersection between feminism and the Men’s Rights Movement, arguing that feminism and other movements that resist traditional gender roles can address many issues that concern MRAs. Some of MRAs’ concerns are valid. Men are more likely to struggle with alcohol addiction, there is a stark need for funding in prostate cancer research (especially compared to breast cancer research), and boys are often socialized to associate masculinity with hiding one’s emotions.

Yet it would be wrong to assume that feminists do not care about these issues affecting men.

Feminism calls for equal rights for women and attention to women’s issues, but this does not mean that it does so at the expense of men’s rights.

A look at California’s first balanced budget in years

By Rae Brookshire Senior Staff Writer, CMC ‘16 When Governor Jerry Brown released his budget summary at the beginning of this year, he spoke with a gentle confidence, “California today is poised to achieve something that has eluded us for more than a decade — a budget that lives within its means, now and for many years to come.”

The Golden State’s balanced budget marks a strong contrast from its past fiscal ruin. Yet the Great Recession has also transformed Californians into hardened skeptics of anything likened to recovery.

UC levels, and those systems’ access had been drastically cut from the budget.”

Drawn by the general election, new voters, including over a million who registered for the first time online, helped to propel Prop 30 to a considerable victory of 55-45.

“Prop 30 had concrete recognition by voters that’s not true about all measures. By help-

The Taxing Triumph Looking back to his first day in office two years ago, Brown faced a $25 billion deficit coupled with underfunded education, health, public safety, and community development programs.

The state needed to find a way to raise revenue, or children would lose three weeks of classes, public safety would be compromised, and the courts would back up with unheard cases.

Questionable Potential Unfortunately, policy changes and fiscal theory seem irrelevant as large portions of the state remain economically stagnant.

To address these issues, Brown put Proposition 30 on the 2012 ballot. The measure planned to raise revenue by increasing the sales tax and income tax on those with an income over $250,000.

ing to make California functional once more, [voters] could see that government could do something with a directly positive impact,” Menefee-Libey emphasized.

But asking Californians to voluntarily tax themselves went against a long history of voting tendencies. In the past decade, voters passed a single one percent surtax on incomes above $1 million aid mental health programs, defeating 10 other propositions.

Restraint and Recovery

As David J. Menefee-Libey, Pomona professor of politics, explained, “Young people were hurt very hard by this economy especially on the employment side. They wanted to be able to get education at the community, state, and

California’s credit rating and $28 billion “wall of debt” have also been points of concern.

As Patrick Atwater CMC ‘10 explained, “The state’s credit rating translates into about half a percent extra we pay on California government bonds versus a well managed state like Utah. Meaning if we want to build a major infrastructure project—like say the needed [Sacramento-San Joaquin River] Delta fix— we pay that much more in debt service.”

After years of budget shortfalls, could 2013 really be a year of economic improvement?

What was critically different about Proposition 30, however, was its education angle that appealed to not only Democrats but also a coalition of low-income voters, students and minorities.

Pitney, Jr., Brown’s promise of fiscal restraint has conflicted with much desired infrastructural plans, particularly his high-speed rail project. “Critics across the political spectrum have pointed out that it is ridiculously unnecessary, exorbitantly expensive, and environmentally harmful,” wrote Pitney in a recent Christian Science Monitor article.

In 2012, California Democrats gained a historic two-thirds majority in both the state senate and state Assembly. Since voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978, any state tax increases must be passed by a two-thirds majority in both houses, making the Democrats’ victory especially significant.

Still, in his January State of the State address, Brown echoed many conservatives’ call for cautious spending. “We have promises to keep and the most important one is the one we made to the people if Proposition 30 passed—that we would guard jealously the money temporarily made available,” he said.

To CMC Professor of Government John J.

Claremont’s surrounding Inland Empire served as ground zero for the Southern California housing bubble and continues to suffer, with the highest metro area unemployment rate of 10.9% in January.

Ultimately, the overwhelming feeling seems to be that the future of California is still highly uncertain.

But the sheer vastness of the state, which by itself would be considered the 8th largest economy in the world, dictates that the successes and failures will be carried by major developments, including Silicon Valley technology and Port of Los Angeles import/ export waves.

“I find it incredibly reassuring that states like Texas and Wisconsin try to come to California and lure business away. It means that California still serves as a center for innovation and job creation,” Menefee-Libey said.

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Is California Finally Fixed?

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The Most Powerful Woman in the World Hillary Clinton’s diplomatic legacy

By Sara Birkenthal Campus Editor Emeritus, CMC ‘13 It’s safe to say that Hillary Clinton was not a typical secretary of state. During her four year tenure, Clinton visited 112 countries, more than any other secretary of state in U.S. history. She held 1,700 meetings with global leaders and logged almost one million miles of travel.

Throughout her term, which encompassed her 10th year running as Gallup poll’s most admired woman in the world, Clinton enjoyed bipartisan support and a celebrity-like aura. Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former Clinton adviser said that “the first trip took [she] took with [Clinton] was like traveling with Madonna.”

A Long List of Accomplishments

vice, working for the USAID Center of Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance. As such, Gutowski is highly supportive of Clinton’s “Diplomacy 2.0 initiative.” However, she would caution any future secretary of state who attempts to replicate its success, as Clinton “paired technology with a huge number of country visits and face-to-face diplomacy.”

Perhaps the most significant element of Clinton’s legacy is her tireless commitment to upholding women’s rights as a component of human rights. She continuously stressed the importance of women’s rights as a catalyst for development and political change, and as a critical foreign policy and national security priority.

She backed up this commitment by establishing

Clinton used her popularity both at home and abroad to bolster the U.S. image, furthering U.S. interests in the process. Zan Gutowski, a senior at Pomona College studying International Relations, remarked that Clinton successfully restored American legitimacy in many critical places. Gutowski spoke of her personal admiration for Clinton.

“As a senior hoping to pursue public service next year, I couldn’t have a stronger role model than Hillary Clinton,” said Gutowski. “She always seems full of energy—eager to travel and engage the communities she visits.”

The list of Clinton’s accomplishments is extensive. Aleta Wenger, Claremont McKenna’s executive director for international programs, who retired from the U.S. State Department with 25 years of service, cited Clinton’s “proactive and conscious use of ‘smart power,’ which is the use of diplomacy, persuasion, and development alongside of defense” as characteristic of her diplomatic legacy.

Another of Clinton’s notable accomplishments was her use of social media to get the U.S. message out to the world. Gutowski cited Clinton’s emphasis on social media as one of her greatest strengths as secretary of state. Gutowksi was as an intern with the Virtual Student Foreign Ser-

change from failure, eventually leading to an agreement among developing countries to help reduce carbon emissions.

Through her vast network of relationships with leaders around the world, Clinton was able to achieve a number of diplomatic victories, from forming a coalition to stop Qaddafi’s massacres in Libya to convincing UN Security Council members Russia and China to help impose sanctions on Iran and North Korea, to establishing diplomatic ties with Burma.

Wenger believes that Clinton’s “network of personal relationships and the key insights that she developed during her time as first lady and senator of New York” were instrumental in helping her to “mastermind significant diplomatic successes as Secretary—such as in Burma.”

Overall, Clinton’s commitment to handling all her efforts at the Department of State in a pragmatic and diplomatic manner was instrumental in her achievements. Gutowski cited Clinton’s perceptiveness as one of her greatest strengths, praising her ability to “carefully synthesize competing views in a way that [drew] others to the negotiating table.”

the position of Ambassador for Women and the Office of Global Women’s Issues as permanent fixtures at Foggy Bottom.

As head of the State Department, Clinton stressed the importance of engagement with civil society. She placed a greater importance on economic health by insisting that embassies go to bat for U.S. businesses abroad, and started a global counterterrorism forum to boost international cooperation in fighting terrorist networks.

Clinton also spearheaded the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia,” a strategy for strengthening military power in the Asia Pacific region.

Working with President Obama, she helped rescue a Copenhagen summit on climate

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Similarly, as a retired foreign service officer, Wenger “deeply appreciated [Clinton’s] pragmatic handling of many of our thorniest and longstanding diplomatic issues in the Middle East and Asia.”

Mixed Reviews Some critics dismiss Clinton’s emphasis on “smart power” as a “vanity project.” However, longtime Clinton aide Philippe Reines, who was aboard Clinton’s plane for nearly every one of the one million miles that she flew as secretary of state, disagrees with critiques that challenge Clinton’s commitment to effective work. He told CBS News that “for the last four years [Clinton] has been working, literally killing herself for her country.” Reines claims that Clinton’s outreach made it possible for the U.S. to levy sanctions on Iran and North Korea, and to broker the November ceasefire in Gaza.

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Clinton has also received criticism for her failure to advance peace between Israel and Palestine and her supposedly inconsistent responses to various autocratic regimes in the Arab world.

While she played a leading role in Libya, for example, lining up partners to oust Moammar Qaddafi, she supported the Mubarak regime in Egypt until right before its collapse.

If Clinton’s time as secretary of state is tainted by any one event, it is the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. When asked at a farewell event to name her most lasting regret from her time as secretary of state, Clinton herself referred to the attack, which led to the death of former U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. “Well, certainly the loss of American lives in Benghazi was something that I deeply regret and am working hard to make sure we do everything we can to prevent,” Clinton responded. “When you do these jobs, you have to understand at the very beginning that you can’t control everything.”

Other critiques of Clinton’s four years as the nation’s top diplomat center around her supposed reorientation of State Department priorities toward business. In her time leading the agency, she created a chief economist’s office and made dozens of sales pitches on behalf of U.S. companies. Most significantly, she helped cinch several large contracts for Boeing and Lockheed Martin, among others. Because of her work as a spokeswoman for U.S. business interests, Businessweek accused Clinton of “encroach[ing] on the Commerce Department’s turf to install herself as the government’s highest-ranking business lobbyist.”

Regardless, Jennifer Taw, assistant professor of International Relations at Claremont McKenna

College, expressed support for Clinton in the face of harsh criticisms of her time in office. “It’s easy to ‘armchair quarterback,’” noted Taw, “and Clinton was doing a tough job at a tough time and worked remarkably hard.”

A Post-Hillary Era In following in Clinton’s footsteps, John Kerry has some big shoes to fill. When asked about her predictions for how Kerry will compare to Clinton as secretary of state, Taw remarked, “Kerry doesn’t have the personality or the charisma that Hillary does, but he does come to the job with tremendous expertise.”

She predicted that compared to Clinton, “Kerry will be less aggressive about American involvement abroad.”

Gutowski echoed this sentiment, noting, “diplomacy is ultimately about building trust, which Kerry does extremely well.” Wenger is also supportive of the Obama administration’s selection of Kerry as Clinton’s successor. “Everyone in the Department witnessed, or heard, the story about Secretary Kerry arriving on his first day of the job waving a tattered diplomatic passport that was issued to him when he was eleven-years old. Given his background and experiences, I expect him to

be a superb secretary of state—and I do expect that he will continue using ‘smart power.’”

Hillary’s Next Move In many ways, the viral “Texts from Hillary” meme, which shows Clinton sitting calmly in the middle of what looks like a frantic day, in transit to some foreign land, yet confident, independent, and ultimately focused on the task at hand, is symbolic of Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state and of her work ethic in general.

In the aftermath of that meme, Clinton even responded with one of her own, based on a pun on her infamous hair scrunchies.

Hillary Clinton is enjoying a moment as the coolest woman in American politics. A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll put her outgoing approval rate at 69%, with just 25% of Americans disapproving of her performance as secretary of state. If Clinton does decide to pursue presidential ambitions in 2016, after taking some time to recover from what was surely a whirlwind four years, she will likely retain this popularity. Early polls put her ratings above President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and a handful of top Republicans. The world waits eagerly to know what Clinton’s next move will be.

textsfromhillaryclinton.tumblr.com

The cornerstone of Clinton’s legacy is her reaction to the Arab uprisings. Assessments of her handling of the immense challenges associated with the revolutions across the Arab world have been mixed. Critics point particularly to Clinton’s failure to stop the ongoing conflict in Syria, which has left more than 70,000 dead, with the U.S. and other outside actors yet to intervene.

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Students at the 5Cs evaluate President Obama’s first term in office

By Lauren Sampson Staff Writer, PZ ‘14 In light of the recent State of the Union Address, we asked 5C students to comment on President Obama’s performance during his first term, and what issues they hope to see him tackle going forward into his second.

Like the rest of the country, 5C students raised concerns over big issues such as health care reform, gun control, immigration reform, and the War on Terror.

Across party lines, students were less focused on their own opinions regarding these issues, and more focused on the manner in which the issues have been addressed.

The Big Issues After more than a decade of fighting, students are still unclear as to America’s role overseas. Like the broader nation, 5C students had contrasting perspectives on contentious issues, like the War on Terror. “I think that what is going on in Iraq should be addressed more... I would like to see that be more definitively answered, whether that be putting it to a complete end or really saying what’s going to happen next,” said Caleb Samson PZ ’16.

Even if a plan is put into place, students question whether or not that plan will be followed.

Kathy Chau, a Pitzer student here on exchange from Hong Kong, said, “He [Obama] promised he would retrieve all the armies, but I don’t think it is the case, or it is too slow. Retrieve the armies quicker. I think this is the most important thing.”

Conversely, Sam Perrella CMC’15 expressed, “I’m happy about the fact that we are using more drones now… However, there are some issues about how effective they are, and about collateral damage. But

I’m happy that American soldiers are finally coming home.”

Several students brought up the issue of gun control, but most expressed the opinion that it should take a backseat to more important issues. Sean McKaveney CMC ’15 saw it as an issue of common sense reform, and called measures like the increased use of background checks.

“It’s a big issue, but I don’t think it’s like healthcare, which will affect many more people. I would much rather that be a priority,” said Samson.

Regardless of the issue, not one student interviewed came down absolutely in favor of, or adamantly opposed to, Obama’s actions.

The Big Picture Rather than focusing on particular issues, most students voiced a general frustration with what they saw as Obama’s inability to follow through on campaign promises.

“I don’t think there has ever been a President who has done everything they promised, that’s just something that doesn’t happen. But I feel like he particularly promised a lot more than other presidents have in the past that didn’t happen,” said Samson.

“

Going forward, students hope that this

I want to see him keep trying to take his message to the American people and say ‘This is what I believe and this is what I’m trying to do.

Sam Perrella CMC ‘15

“

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Did President Obama Pass?

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will change, “I want to see him keep trying to take his message to the American people and say ‘This is what I believe and this is what I’m trying to do.’ At the end of the day, the president is supposed to represent who we are and I want to see him keep trying to force that connection,” said Perrella.

Regardless of political affiliations, the overarching sentiment is that students want an effective president that gets things done.

“After he got elected, I genuinely wanted him to do well, because it affects all of us. I think a lot of times some Republicans want him to do badly because he’s not their guy,” said McKaveney, a self-identified conservative.

McKaveney sees Obama’s inability to reach across party lines and come up with compromising solutions as one of his biggest shortcomings. “As president you can’t give up on one side, you really have to play for both,” said McKaveney, pointing to Reagan and Clinton as models for such behavior.

Despite criticisms, students understand that all presidents are faced with many obstacles, and ultimately have much less power than is attributed to them.

“It’s tough because most people think that a President can use a magic wand and then everything gets fixed and that’s obviously not how it works… At a certain point you need to figure out what’s worth trying to fight the small battles on and what stuff you’re just like, alright, we can live with that,” said Perrella.

Looking forward, students believe Obama is moving in the right direction in terms of transparency and action. “It’s kind of the exact opposite of what we’re seeing today in Washington. There’s nothing getting done, and he’s like, ‘Alright, I’m going to do something’ and that’s been cool to see,” said Perrella.

Should the 5Cs punish students with monetary fines or community service?

By Andy Wright Senior Staff Writer, PZ ‘16 When 5C students use drugs or alcohol, they typically run the risk of being caught and punished for violating their college’s student life policy. Yet how they are punished largely depends on what school they attend, as sanctions for drug and alcohol policy violations vary across the Claremont Colleges.

Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Scripps mostly use community service to punish offenders, typically reserving monetary fines for cases in which college property is damaged. Claremont McKenna students are usually fined for policy violations, though they may also have to do community service.

Pomona’s student handbook is unique in that it explicitly prohibits converting fines to community service for drug and alcohol policy violations. The handbook also specifically establishes how much such violations would cost students, with fines starting at $100 for firsttime offenders.

“At Pomona, fines are generally the sanctions that are assigned to students through the Office of Campus Life for a violation of the student code,” wrote Campus Life Coordinator Brigitte Washington in an email interview with the Port Side. “Community service is required of individuals who violate sub-free opening in addition to fines.”

Yet Washington realizes that fines affect students in different ways. “Personally, I see a huge discrepancy in the impact of fines on students from different socioeconomic backgrounds,” she wrote. “Students who have more disposable income are much less affected by a fine for a violation of policy, and thus a fine is much less of a deterrent from violating for these students than for students who have less disposable income.”

Such concerns seem to have motivated other 5C administrations to develop disciplinary procedures that affect students equally.

“Our position has been that penalties should, as much as possible, have the same impact on individuals, and fines disproportionately affect low-income students,” wrote Harvey Mudd Dean of Students Maggie Browning in a joint statement with Chris Sundberg, Associate Dean for Campus Life, and Guy Gerbick, Senior Associate Dean of Students.

Not only do fines have varying effects on students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, but they may also be ineffective as a punishment and deterrent. “I believe that service hours might be a more effective solution [than fines] because in general I believe people value their time more than their money,” said RA JamesPaul Cumming PO ‘13.

Washington agreed with this statement, writing that “some type of community service or special education class on substance use/residential living etiquette would be much more useful to our students who do violate policy.”

According to Washington, Pomona’s Student Affairs Committee (SAC) often considers the question of fines versus community service.

“From my understanding, alternative punitive measures have been considered for students who violate the student code. There is hope for change,” she wrote.

Joseph Reynolds, the ASPC Vice President for Campus Events and a student representative on SAC, agrees with Washington. “With every violation, there are so many things to account for. Right now, there’s a similar fine for having a whole handle [of hard alcohol] in your room and just randomly having a beer at a party,” he said.

Reynolds believes each violation should be judged on a case-by-case basis, and some members of SAC have been working since Fall

2011 to develop a new system for punishing those who violate Pomona policy. Under the current system, RAs give reports on policy violations to their supervisors, who then dole out punishment based on guidelines established in the Student Handbook.

In the new system, punishment would be determined on a case-by-case basis by the allstudent Judicial Board (J-Board), which typically only handles serious violations that might merit suspension or expulsion. Under the new system, J-Board would convene over each offense that made its way to them and decide on punishments by taking in all the relevant factors, including a student’s socioeconomic background.

There is some worry about whether J-Board is equipped to handle this new workload. But, with some expansion, Reynolds believes that reform is not only possible, but in accordance with Pomona’s values. He hopes to present a plan for a new disciplinary system to SAC in April.

“We don’t just want to say, ‘shame on you’ and be done with it,” said Reynolds. “Yes, we want you to know you did something wrong, but we also want you to realize you can make it better.”

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campus

Crime and Punishment

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Sun’s Out, Guns Out

Male body image at the 5Cs

By Ben Hackenberger Copy Editor, PO ‘15 Ever since the nation swooned over Marky Mark in Calvin Klein briefs, popular culture has become obsessed with the muscular male body. Now, 20 years later, Marky Mark has been replaced by David Beckham, whose H&M ads—which featured Beckham sprinting in his underwear through Beverly Hills backyards—were the subject of a recent scandal over the use of a Beckham body double.

While a number of Photoshop scandals involving female models have created media scandals, popular culture continues to overlook the fact that male models are also frequently the targets of excessive retouching. It can be difficult to discern an especially muscular model from an averagebodied guy who has been retouched.

More concerning is the trend of turning even those male celebrities not traditionally known for their looks into tanned, rippling masses.

Take, for example, Dane Cook. Even comedians whose image has been traditionally quirky, are encouraged (and photoshopped) to be tall, tan, and muscular.

tors when we see a fitness ad. What’s presented implies an obligation to maintain a muscular physique, because “it’s as easy as 20 minutes a day!”

That is not to say that weightlifting can’t be an entertaining, healthy, and potentially physiquebuilding activity. The problem is a growing expectation that lifting weights is synonymous with a desire to emulate the men on The Jersey Shore.

This cultural phenomenon, in its extreme, is exemplified by the now ironic meme that demands, “Do you even lift, bro?” It wasn’t always a meme– first it was a phrase employed to exclude certain lifters as weak and naïve in the gym. This gym culture influences the way men view and take care of their bodies.

“I feel that, if not by being muscular, I need to externally prove my masculinity in some capacity,” Cole Clark PO ’16 said of his own experience with popular concepts of masculinity. “It’s just that, especially as a gay man, I’m already a few rungs down on the general hierarchy of masculinity. I have to ra-

tionalize my own worth sometimes, which is dumb.”

The masculinity of gym culture designates certain types of exercising as “masculine” and others as feminine, a distinction that Claremont does not fail to exemplify. More and more, the messages men are receiving from popular culture assert that muscle is attractive, but also that exercising to take care of your body is a waste of time unless it yields a “totally jacked” body.

The pressure to maintain a muscular physique applies to all male students, regardless of sexuality. According to Pomona-Pitzer P.E. Professor Lisa Beckett, male students enrolled in weight training classes at a rate roughly double that of female students.

But, luckily, the men of the Claremont Colleges haven’t abandoned an emphasis on exercising for health, and the pressure they feel is mostly to stay fit.

Jonathan Wong PO ’15 said, “I feel like being muscular would make me more attractive, but I don’t feel a pressure to be muscular. I feel a pressure to not be out of shape.”

This pressure to maintain the perfect body comes with the added expectation of a perfect college experience in Claremont.

The goal of maintaining fitness should not be equated with the media’s ultra-muscular standard for male bodies.

A recent transfer to CMC from a school on the East Coast, who wished to remain anonymous, commented, “I think most guys here feel pressured to be buff not necessarily because of the nice weather but because it’s a type here. It’s imperative to the culture.”

Despite the vast over-representation of ripped bodies in the media, people find all types of bodies attractive.

The most damaging misrepresentation of this “type” in the media comes, not surprisingly, from the fitness industry. However, working out is often part of a male model’s job, and the photos he takes are airbrushed at the end of a shoot. Unfortunately, we’re not trained to consider these fac-

Yael Horwitz PZ ’15 described an attraction to “a wide range of body types” and commented, “I pay the most attention to face and hair, I think.”

As the weather in Claremont heats up, let’s not forget that a six pack, huge arms, and glistening pecs isn’t the only type of body that looks good in the SoCal sun.