December 2014

e d i s t r o p NT O EM R A L the C

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e f e h O T s nc c e i t er i l f o P Dif international

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COUNTING CLIMATE CHANGE

QRC CONSIDERS NAME CHANGE

TAKING STOCK: POSTMIDTERM REVIEWS

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6

4, 15

staff + editor’s note

BEN STEPHANIE STEINBRECHER HACKENBERGER

editor-in-chief

publisher

KRISTI SUN

campus editor

GISELLE GARCIA

national editor

COPY EDITORS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITUS DESIGN & ART STAFF

KEVIN WU

international editor

ANDY WRIGHT FRANCES WANG web editor web editor

APRIL XIAOYI XU, LAUREN BOLLINGER, LAUREN D’SOUZA, NIMRAH IMAM + NINA POSNER TIM REYNOLDS NIKOLE MCDUFFIE, ISAAC TUCKER-RASBURY, NOAH LEVINE JEWEL MENSAH (photographer)

Editorial: Vocal Contention and Navigating Political Difference “Ideological thinking is now much more closely aligned with partisanship than in the past,” reads a June 2014 Pew Research Center study on national political polarization (page 10). “Today, 92 percent of Republicans are to the right of the median Democrat, and 94 percent of Democrats are to the left of the median Republican.”

The study looks at ideological stratification, “mutual antipathy,” and uniformity among the politically engaged. It corroborates what Americans already know: that our country’s politics are as divided as our government (4). Polarization, so the popular refrain goes, is responsible for gridlock in Washington and the sense that reaching across the aisle is a practice of the past (16). One-fifth of Americans are at the far right or left on the political spectrum—but this 20 percent affects the political process more than the more moderate plurality in between.

Pew also concludes that, in general, the polarized public is more likely to engage primarily with those with whom they agree. In an October study, only 25 percent of respondents with mixed ideological views said “most of their close friends share their own political views;” this statistic grows to 52 percent for consistent liberals and 66 percent for consistent conservatives. An incredible 47 percent

of conservatives use Fox News as their main source of news; liberals cite a variety of go-to sources. Such segregation does little to combat the growing divide between—and uniformity on—opposite ends of the political spectrum.

The 5C community, as Claremont McKenna Professor of Government Ward Elliott’s 2014 study “Political Attitudes at The Claremont Colleges” concludes, is far more liberal than conservative. The report indicates that 90-98 percent of Pomona, Pitzer, and Scripps identified as Democratic in the last two elections; in 2008, 80-81 percent of Claremont McKenna and Harvey Mudd was Democratic.

In Claremont we often say we live in a “bubble” insulated from the realities existing beyond our single square mile (20). But in some sense, the Colleges are a microcosm demonstrating the shortcomings of today’s political discourse. Recent discussions have revealed how we present and respond to different ideologies on campus.

Similar to national discourse, 5C liberal dialogue tends not to engage thoroughly with conservative viewpoints, and vice versa (8). The question then becomes how to foster productive, mindful, reasoned political conversations so that all voices—including minorities—feel they can be heard.

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Professor Elliott contemplated one recorded response on political debate in his study: “Several [Democratic] Pomona students…complained of Pomona’s perceived ‘we’re tolerant of everyone, as long as they are liberal’ attitude. Is it so? Is it a plus for diversity? Is it a double standard? Is it consistent with the belief that freedom of speech should be defended at all costs, no matter who is offended?”

These are questions we all might ask ourselves. But ultimately, we can opine freely. We can disagree.

We can spew wildly unsupported logic or offensive rhetoric, as we have seen. We can employ sensationalist, inflammatory tactics to ignite conversation. But unless we want to face crippling, deflective derision in every conversation, campus policy debate, or goal-setting endeavor, we need to listen to everyone who has a voice to share. There is no way that we can challenge, inform, learn from, and effectively engage with each other’s politics—and thereby define our own—without this respect.

This is true of any diverse body, but that the ideal of an open, productive, collective campus culture is something that most of us seem to want further proves the exceptionalism of this educational space. I hope we can rise to create it.

editor@claremontportside.com

table of contents

the

compass campus

national

6 | DEFINING INCLUSIVITY AT THE QRC

elisabeth mayer 8 | POLITICAL DIVERSITY AT THE 5CS

william schumacher 14 | PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

alex baude 20 | ENGAGING COMMUNITIES

emily long

4 | GOP TAKES A STRONGER GRIP IN THE SENATE

nick browne 10 | DEEPENING IDEOLOGICAL DIVISIONS

ben hackenberger + andy wright 15 | POST ELECTION ROUND-UP: CALIFORNIA

jordan greene 16 | AFFORDABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

elisabeth mayer 17 | VALUING ELITE HIGHER EDUCATION

tessa finley 19 | THE PITFALLS OF SOCIAL FRATERNITIES international

nimrah imam + giselle garcia 7 | A FLURRY OF CHANGES IN BURKINA FASO

rebecca marx 12 | COUNTING CLIMATE CHANGE

lauren d’souza

ABOUT US: The Claremont Port Side is dedicated to providing the Cla-

remont Colleges with contextualized, intelligent reports to advance debate among students and citizens. We are 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.

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

[SINGLE COPIES ARE FREE. TO PURCHASE ADDITIONAL COPIES, PLEASE CONTACT PUBLISHER@CLAREMONTPORTSIDE.COM]

claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 2 | december 2014 | page 3

national

GOP Takes a Stronger Grip in the Senate Looking back, looking ahead to 2016

By Nick Browne Staff Writer, PO ‘15 The midterm elections have come and gone, and with their passage all eyes are turned towards the 2016 Presidential Election. The Democratic Party has aching losses across state and Congressional elections to mull over, most notably its turnover of the US Senate majority to the GOP. The effects of a deeply divided government—with a Democratic president serving his remaining two years in office with a fully Republican Congress—remains to be seen. Whether or not the GOP can translate its midterm victories into success in 2016 is another question facing the coming years in the national political arena.

One prominent trend in the midterms was the defeat of Democrats running in states that, while heavily Republican at the presidential level, had continued to support Democrats in local races.

Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), for example, failed to win over the same white, rural, working-class voters that had once formed Bill Clinton’s base of support, while Republicans easily dispatched highly touted challengers such as Georgia’s Michelle Nunn, daughter of a popular former senator. The results suggest that it will be difficult for Democrats to win these voters back, even though many Democrats had hoped that a candidate like Hillary Clinton might succeed at courting her husband’s former base. “I don’t think she ever had a great chance in those states,” countered Claremont McKenna College Professor of Government John Pitney.

“She was the first lady of Arkansas, but even when she was first lady, she wasn’t nearly as popular as her husband.”

“The working-class white vote in the South is now pretty much Republican,” added Professor Pitney.

If the Democrats hope to compete in states like Georgia and Texas, Professor Pitney contends, they will need a different coalition of voters. “If you put together the African American vote, in

many places the very substantial Hispanic vote and in some areas the Asian vote, plus white professionals, that can make Democrats very competitive in some places in the South.”

Sarah Gissinger CM ’17, the current head of the Democrats of the Claremont Colleges, said that low turnout among such groups, which carried the party to victory in 2012, contributed to these losses.

“The Democrats probably assumed that they’d be able to get out the youth and minority vote, like they did in 2012, and that wasn’t as successful as the Dems hoped it’d be. I think that’s one of the primary reasons, and I think the party’s hoping to mobilize that more for 2016,” she said.

Republican Senate candidates tapped into brewing discontent with Obama’s presidency, pointing particularly to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and capitalizing on his sinking approval ratings. Indeed, when the Port Side asked Professor Pitney how Republicans had recovered from the negative publicity surrounding the Government Shutdown of 2013, he simply replied, “Obamacare. It took it off the front page.”

Many Democrat candidates attempted to dissociate themselves from the president at every opportunity, usually to little avail. In response to Alison Lundergan Grimes’ failed efforts to unseat incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Gissinger noted that her muddled party loyalties might have left voters with uncertainty. “[Grimes] said something in an interview, somebody asked her if she voted for President Obama. She wouldn’t say who she voted for or who she supported in 2008 or 2012.”

Gissinger added, “A lot of the Democratic candidates ran away from Obama and decided, ‘we’re going to distance ourselves as much as possible,’ and considering the results, that wasn’t the best course of action.”

Another common criticism was that Democrats were unable to formulate a compelling message to lure their base out to vote. Defeated Sena-

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tor Mark Udall (D-CO), for example, focused his campaign primarily on abortion rights and his opponent Cory Gardner’s previous support for a personhood measure, while doing little to actively court Latino voters or highlight his own achievements in Congress. Pitney, however, did not think this made much of a difference.

“I don’t know that messaging would have saved the day for the Democrats. The fundamentals worked against them. A lot of times, the messaging just isn’t going to overcome a bad environment.”

Gissinger noted that many predicted 2014 to be a bad year for Democrats, due in part to the older, whiter, and more conservative midterm electorate. Voter turnout is also consistently lower in the midterm elections than in presidential elections. However, few pundits had predicted the magnitude of defeat. “Many analysts were expecting [a takeover]. I don’t think anybody was expecting it to be as big a win as it was,” she said.

Indeed, polling consistently underestimated the Republican margin of victory. In the race to replace retiring Senator Tom Harkin (DIA), Democrat Bruce Braley, whose candidacy was widely criticized as being incompetent and gaffe-prone, trailed Republican Joni Ernst by low single-digit margins in the polls leading up to election day, but lost by almost nine points.

Similarly, polls consistently showed Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) leading her opponent Thom Tillis by single digit margins in the days up to the election, but he ultimately unseated her by a slim margin. Pitney argued that such polls might have oversampled Democrats.

“A lot of Republicans are suspicious of the mass media,” he said. “With modeling the likely electorate, another possible reason that [Republicans] surged at the end was that they had a better turnout operation. They were just better at identifying and mobilizing those voters. Still not as good as the Democrats, but the gap isn’t quite as yawning as it was in 2012.”

Ambika Bist SC ’15, the current head of the Claremont College Republicans, believes that

national

the Senate elections were a positive sign for the future of the Republican Party. She does not think that the results of the elections reflect mere demographics, nor does she take to the argument that many elections were in states that President Obama had lost.

“Although pundits say there were mostly red states up for reelection, there were red and blue states up, and certain counties voted red for the first time in a long time. I think this shows that people are not as close to party lines as people claim,” she said. “Someone who may have voted for Obama in the last election may have voted for a Republican senator because they felt that they could better represent the nation at this time.”

The 2014 elections will doubtlessly shape the next presidential election in many ways. If the GOP continues to hone its turnout operation, for example, Democrats may no longer have the advantage of the “get-out-the-vote” efforts that helped propel them to significant victories

in states such as Nevada and Ohio in 2012.

Speculation abounds regarding potential candidates, with all eyes on the Democratic side turning to Hillary Clinton. Some of Clinton’s potential primary opponents had their images damaged during this cycle, among them Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), who very narrowly won re-election when he had been expected to cruise to victory. Many see this as a result of Hillary improving her position.

gested that the better quality of Republican candidates this cycle, as well as the success of candidates such as congresswoman-elect Mia Love (R-UT), who is Haitian-American, might give the GOP optimism. “People are realizing that the grand old party is no longer the ‘Grand Old Party,’ and the GOP is changing. It can be young, diverse, and very representative of the American people. And the party has been much better at showing its goals.”

“I think she’s in a great position for 2016, but not only within the Dems, but within the media, she almost seems inevitable,” said Gissinger. “It can be a good thing, and it can work against her.

Especially because she was viewed as inevitable in 2008; she needs to keep the momentum going and make people excited about her.”

Pitney, cautioning against excessive speculation at this stage, suggested that this wave election did not guarantee Republican success in 2016 nor that Hillary Clinton’s candidacy would be decisive either.

However, on a more optimistic note, the GOP begins the cycle with a large slate of potential candidates, including several governors in key swing states such as Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, who easily won re-election this year. Bist sug-

“The outcome of the 2016 election depends on the state of the economy. If the economy is doing okay, then if Hillary Clinton is the nominee, she’ll have a really good chance of winning. If the economy sucks, then the Republicans will win. But we just don’t know.”

2014 Senate Results

D Held R Gain R Held No Race Runoff senate.gov

claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 2 | december 2014 | page 5

campus

Defining Inclusivity

The Dialogue Around Renaming the QRC

By Elizabeth Mayer Staff Writer, SC ’17 The gigantic rainbow wall of the Queer Resource Center of the Claremont Colleges (QRC) immediately greets everyone who walks through the center’s doors. Frequently taken as a modern sign of welcomeness and diversity, the rainbow is also politically charged due to its connection to the LGBT pride movement. But recently the symbol has become a source of ideological contention -who really is represented by its spectrum colors?

The QRC’s wall is just one aspect of the center that Program Director Al Forbes thinks might impede the space’s efforts at inclusivity.

“When you walk into the space there’s a huge rainbow on the wall, which is great, but if people who are questioning… or see their gender in different way, it becomes difficult to come into the space,” said Forbes.

A growing challenge for the QRC involves its intention to support at once a large range of identities. The center offers a safe space, specific programming, and other resources to the LGBTQQIAA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual and ally) community which, according to the QRC’s website, “includes, but is not limited to, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, ethnicity, sex, class, religion and ability.” Exactly what the future of the center will look like as it seeks to be as inclusive as possible is up for debate.

“There are so many students who have come to me and said they don’t feel like this is a space for them or they don’t feel queer enough to be in this space… that begins with our naming,” said QRC Director Dr. Adriana di Bartolo. The label “queer,” di Bartolo believes, may prevent the kind of inclusivity that she hopes the QRC can offer to the 7C community.

Forbes and di Bartolo are currently seeking input to redefine the space at the QRC in order to determine the kind of resource it can be, and for what kind of specific campus community. They recently sent out a survey about renaming the center. Sharing the history of the name “Queer Resource Center” with the Port Side, Di Bartolo

The Queer Resource Center, across from Lawry Court at Pomona noted that “this center was named when it was a student group.” Now that it has evolved into an institution funded and supported by the 7Cs, she hopes to see the name evolve as well.

“Some people have taken to using the word [queer] as an umbrella term, but not necessarily everyone does,” she said. She also noted that “queer” is not indicative of the work the QRC does and that students tell her “if its name was ‘Gender and Sexuality Center,’ [those students] would have come in much sooner.” She sees the designation “queer” as somewhat exclusive, citing its negative connotation for many students—that it is a sexuality based term, and that many students do not identify as queer.

Di Bartolo and Forbes hope to see the QRC follow a national trend of resource centers changing their names to be more inclusive. The QRC has sent out a survey to students so that they can get feedback on the idea of changing the QRC’s name as well as potential names for the center.

They hope that the dialogues around the naming allow the community to define themselves as something more inclusive than queer, such as the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center.

“I brought up to QRC staff and they all seemed on board,” said di Bartolo about the name change. She claimed that the staff was excited about the prospect of a more inclusive name for the center. Di Bartolo emphasized the role of the community and staff in this dialogue—although a name change is something di Bartolo herself has been considering for some time.

“I’ve always felt pretty comfortable with the name of the Queer Resource Center as it is,”

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said Julia Austenfield PO ‘15, who has been a QQAMP mentor for the past year and a half. “I think [queer] is a very inclusive term.” Austenfield proposed that “queer” can motivate people who have faced gender or sexuality based marginalization. She also shared concerns that removing “queer” from the center’s name might be an attempt to depoliticize it.

However, Austenfield said, “Probably the most valid criticism that I would consider of it is that fact that ‘queer’ is a term that’s still used as a slur… there might be some people who have trouble being asked to reclaim it so easily when they come to college.” She shared di Bartolo’s and Forbes’ concern that the term “queer” could keep marginalized people from coming to the center due to the use of “queer” against them. As a space for students, both di Bartolo and Forbes as well as Austenfield are concerned with inclusivity and how welcoming the center is to students.

Both di Bartolo and Forbes emphasized that this is a dialogue that they are just beginning within the 7C community and that they have already gotten significant feedback. Forbes said that the center has collected about 400 responses to the survey, many of which started coming in almost immediately after they sent out the survey to the 7C community. The survey continues to get responses from the 7C community and two are in no way trying to rush this process.

On the topic of the name change itself and the survey, Forbes said, “The survey is only the first step of this, but this isn’t the end of the conversation. We’ll have a forum or focus groups coming up to really talk about where this is coming from, why the idea of a name change.”

The President gets the boot

The small West African Nation of Burkina Faso has seen more than a little action in recent days—though mainstream media has focused little on its major sociopolitical upheaval. The Burkinabe experienced a popular revolution, which consisted of a chain of events: a might-be-coup; the loss of their 27year President, Blaise Compaoré; and finally, a power struggle within a military regime. This all began at the end of October, as then President Compaoré sought to extend his tenure.

“There was a significant current of mobilization from people who are not associated with political parties,” said Pomona College Professor of Politics Pierre Englebert. “Mostly young people who have very little hope of jobs, and things like that, and who have [felt] very alienated from the regime. They have essentially grown up with only Compaoré as a President.” These people were in the streets.

Like many recent popular mobilizations that we have seen recently, such as the Arab Spring or the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong, youth played a central role in revolutionary movement. Technology has also been key for the Burkinabe revolution (also known as “Revolution 2.0” and the “Lwili Revolution”), with constant livesteams and tweets of #BurkinaFaso and #lwili.

“The Arab Spring uprisings in places such as Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya were led by youth demanding things like dignity, better job prospects, more voice in politics, and an end to corruption,” says Pomona College Professor of Politics Mieczyslaw Boduszynski. Observers have linked Burkina Faso’s revolt to a broader recent history of revolutions and unrest. The opposition activist Emile Pargui Pare called the event Burkina Faso’s “Black Spring.” People in Burkina Faso revolted against the level of corruption, in an extremely poor nation; people in surrounding nations could act similarly. Various rulers in Africa have recently sought to change their term limits, including the leaders of Chad, Gabon, Guinea, Namibia, Togo and Uganda.

“[Compaoré] had one year to serve out his term in office and then leave. What happened is that…this past October he tried to change the constitution to allow himself to stay,” said Professor Englebert. Blaise Compaoré had already been in power for 27 years, following a violent takeover from Marxist Thomas Sankara.

According to the Burkinabe constitution, Compaoré’s term was up in November 2015. The (now ex-) President, unsatisfied, sought to have term timeline changed initially through a referendum and later through Parliament. This decision caused rioting in the streets, as people protested the 27-year president creating further elasticity in term limits. In a continent with a history of leaders extending constitutional term limits, this was a notable instance of the people saying enough was enough.

“Critical segments of the military defected from the president and joined the demonstrators… this is the best way for them to stay in power, which to some extent has elements of a coup. The President resigned, it’s not like a pure coup,” said Professor Englebert. This has left the military in charge, with Colonel Zida quickly emerging as the nation’s temporary Prime Minister. A group of political, military, religious, and other authorities chose to appoint Michel Kafando, former Ambassador to the United Nations, as interim President.

The African Union threatened to levy sanctions on the country before the appointment of Kafando as president and serious concerns remain as several key cabinet posts have been given to military officers in the transitional government.

There are clear rules as to what should happen in the case of a power vacuum. Power should, according to the Burkinabe constitution, go to Parliament. However, these procedures have not been implemented and instead a military government was put in place. The military government initially said that the constitution was suspended without the authority to take such an action. However, as Pierre Englebert stated, “those rules are very tenuous.” There

was a general loss of faith in the president and Parliament (the former head of the national Assembly actually fled to Cote d’Ivoire). The military was left standing. It still commands a degree of respect, and legitimacy.

According to The New York Times, “Burkina Faso has traditionally played an important strategic role in Western efforts to counter Islamic militants in the region.” This may have been due to Compaoré’s politicking, so Burkina Faso’s future role will be interesting

“

Compaoré had one year to serve out his term in office and then leave...this past October he tried to change the constiution to allow himself to stay.

Pierre Englebert

Professor of Politics & International Relations, Pomona

“

By Rebecca Marx Copy Editor/Staff Writer, SC ‘16

to see. Burkina Faso, while small, was able to play a sizable diplomatic role in the region under Compaoré and was also host to French special forces. The people taking over in Burkina Faso come from similar backgrounds and positions of power as the former President did. Therefore, they may choose to pursue similar policies.

In a recent speech at a summit of Francophone nations, President Francois Hollande told African leaders to look to the transitional governments in Burkina Faso and Tunisia as models for political change and warned them against taking measures to lengthen their rule over their countries. Hollande also admitted that France helped with the exile of Compaoré to ensure that the transition would be peaceful. One hopes that other countries mired in conflict and despotism in the region can follow Burkina Faso’s example to usher in true prosperity and security for their citizens.

claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 2 | december 2014 | page 7

international

A Flurry of Changes in Burkina Faso

campus

the Political Diversity at the 5Cs

On political difference, expression, and diversity on campus

By William Schumacher Staff Writer, PO ‘18 It is a common refrain that the political atmosphere at the Claremont Colleges is extremely liberal—so liberal, some have argued, that conservative opinions are not given fair attention. The validity of this perspective ought to be examined in light of recent dialogues on campus that have reignited the age-old question of political bias on campus. Are conservative views not given a fair hearing at the 5Cs, or are they heard and assessed fairly but disagreed with by the majority of the community? And if the latter, how do we deal with political difference in order to adequately acknowledge diversity on our campuses?

In an email to the Port Side, Claremont McKenna College Professor of Government Ward Elliott reflected on evolving political attitudes at the 5Cs since he first began teaching in 1968. He and several students have collected such information for years. “The kids [in the 1980s] liked to know what each other thought in election years, and we learned a lot about shifts in student attitudes from one election to the next that you could learn nowhere else because Claremont had such a wide variety of different political perspectives. It still does, more than others, but not as much as a generation ago,” he said.

Many of the 5C conversations around campus political expression today have related to—and been reflected upon in—pieces of student journalism.

George Will, a Pulitzer prize winning conservative writer, was disinvited from speaking as part of the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Center for Public Affairs Program at Scripps (a program devoted to inviting speakers with politi-

cal views contrary to those commonly held on campus) in response to a column he wrote about sexual assault on college campuses. In the controversial piece, Will said (among other things) that “victimhood is a coveted status that confers privileges,” connecting this idea to what he calls “supposed campus epidemic of rape.” Immediately following the piece’s publication by The Washington Post, it and its author received flack from politicians, advocacy groups, media outlets, and progressives.

A Claremont Independent article on this topic summarized the situation as follows: “A prominent conservative political pundit was uninvited from speaking at Scripps College, in a program designed to promote conservative views on campus, because of his conservative views.”

Scripps President Lori Bettison-Varga disagreed that Scripps disinvited Will because of his conservative views in an open letter to the Scripps community. According to her, “sexual assault is not a conservative or a liberal issue…

After Mr. Will authored a column questioning the validity of a specific sexual assault case that reflects similar experiences reported by Scripps students, we decided not to finalize the speaker agreement.”

On October 30, 2014, the Independent published an article written by Harry Arnold CM ‘17 online entitled “You Want Some Plan B With Those Skittles?” The article criticized the establishment of a vending machine containing Plan B (among other sexual health products) in Pomona College’s Walker Lounge, claiming that the existence of the vending machine would make people more likely to use Plan B, which “may potentially subject them to emotional distress in the future.” According to Arnold, this was symptomatic of a larger trend in which “the voice of prudence

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and reason is…compromised at the expense of the latest liberal social experiment.”

Needless to say, the article met with great disapprobation. Responses ranged in tone from a Golden Antlers piece entitled “You Want Some Uninformed Ranting With That Contraception?” to a Claremont McKenna Forum article entitled “Want Some Education With That Plan B Debate?” by Golden Antlers editor-inchief Clancy Tripp CM ‘15. The Forum piece has the stated purpose of “engaging with [Arnold’s] argument in a thoughtful and respectful way, because he—like anyone else—absolutely has the right to make his opinion known.”

The Independent seems to have taken this principle—that everyone has the right to make his or her opinion known—to heart. According to the publication’s editor Chris Gaarder CM ‘15, “there should be some allowance for people to be offensive in society.” The 5C student body’s reception of some of the points published in the magazine, which emphasizes conservative and libertarian points of view, affirms this opinion.

In addition to the aforementioned article on Plan B, the Independent has also published a strident critique of Scripps’ disinvitation of George Will in their online edition on October 28, 2014. This article said, among other things, that George Will’s views on what does and does not deserve to be called sexual assault are legitimate political views, and so Scripps disinviting him is political censorship. This piece was framed as an op-ed rebutting an editorial by another publication, The Scripps Voice.

At issue in both of these cases is the distinction between a legitimate political opinion and an illegitimate one, and how much protection should be afforded each. In a recent opinion

campus

piece for The Student Life entitled “Skittles and Elephants: Why We Can’t Conflate Censorship and Criticism,” Samuel Pitcavage CM ‘15 wrote that while he thinks “the campus right may have a point: sometimes we don’t even consider legitimate conservative opinions,” he also believes “what the Independent published was absurd. It was offensive, aggressive and overly intimate life advice for college women, coming from a 19-year-old dude.”

Something similar could be said about George Will’s article in The Washington Post. It was certainly offensive, as evidenced by the fact that Scripps administration disinvited him over it. Its rhetoric alone derailed any cogency. And while it did not contain life advice per se, it did contain a critique of the “prolonged adolescence of especially privileged young adults,” which also sounds a bit like an “aggressive and overly intimate” critique.

Pitcavage argues that complaints that the campus left dismisses more conservative views would hold more water if defenses of freedom of political opinion were not attached to the most extreme and uninformed views associated with the right. So why are the most extreme and uninformed views associated with the right also associated with the Independent? And why is the Independent so heavily associated with the campus right to begin with?

On a campus with so little political variance outside the liberal spectrum to begin with, making a distinction between the extreme views held by people on the right and the more moderate ones is difficult.

“When people think of people on the right here on campus, they make the libertarianconservative distinction, and that’s where the distinctions end,” Derek Ko, a writer for the Independent, told the Port Side.

The comparatively small number of conservatives on campus also means that there is a

small outlet for these opinions. As a result, publications like the Independent end up playing host to every view not associated with the prevalent campus liberalism, whether it is a legitimate critique of a commonly held view on campus or baseless editorializing.

Revealingly, the Independent published a response to Arnold’s Plan B article featuring an economic point of view on the medication “partly in order to shift the campus discussion from a CI hate fest to a meaningful debate, and partly to illustrate the ideological diversity within the American Right,” according to the publication’s Facebook page.

“The Independent necessarily becomes kind of a catch-all for people who don’t necessarily identify as liberal,” said Ko. “I keep thinking about what other place would have accepted [Arnold’s] opinion, and I can’t really think of one.”

Shoshanna Arunasalam SC ‘16 wrote an article for TSL entitled “Ostracized Others: A Red Voice from the Blue Bubble” about feeling unable to express conservative opinions on Scripps’ campus.

“A liberal person [at Scripps] can easily say ‘I hate conservatives,’” she told the Port Side, but she finds it difficult to even express her own opinion without inciting the ire of her peers.

“Many students are idealistic here, and they honestly think that anyone who doesn’t agree with them is by default against women, against the LGTBQ community, against the environment...” Arunasalam said. She does not consider herself to be opposed to any of those things, but she has found that that is the connotation that conservative views have on campus.

Because of this, Arunasalam feels she must be very careful about when, where, and how she expresses her conservative views. “I can’t call professors out, because I know that I will be shut down,” she said.

Arunasalam said that she is seen as “tolerable if I am moderate.” Unfortunately, diversity in conservative views is overlooked in favor of lambasting extreme and loud ones. Public perception of 5C conservativism is far more associated with tirades against Plan B vending machines and “especially privileged young adults” than anything else that conservatives here might actually believe.

Because conservatives are a minority at the Colleges, what conservative movement does exist ends up becoming associated with the loudest, most shocking of conservative opinions, rather than the measured moderation that is supposedly the strength of conservative political philosophy. And because what passes for a conservative movement here is so small and disconnected, students may be unable to distinguish between the mainstream and the radical fringe of conservativism.

In short, it seems that conservatives, as a campus minority, can be heard only by being very loud and risking offensive rhetoric, or, if they feel forced into silence, by cutting against the grain and expressing their opinions as defensive counters to dominant political viewpoints.

Neither of these options is particularly ideal for fostering efficacious political conversations on campus—the kind that the Independent evidently finds lacking, as evidenced by its November 2014 print issue cover titled “Censorship: How the Campus Left Stifles Free Expression,” and the kind that the likes of Scripps’ Public Affairs Program aims to promote. Fostering a campus environment where a true diversity of opinions can be seen as valid and can be fairly discussed is something we could all better aim to achieve.

Conservatives’ assertion of their right to political expression is much more a burden than it is for those who hold a majority view.

Unfortunately, as recent events have shown, they are finding that burden overwhelming.

claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 2 | december 2014 | page 9

Americans are trending toward ideological segregation...

Liberals and Conservatives value communities differently:

20% 32% 39%

58% 76%

57% 45% 37%

Has a mix of racial and ethnic backgrounds

31%

A Nat DIvid

Ideological consi ing within

Democrats a liberal, and con

17%

Many share your faith 1994

23% 31%

41%

32% 73%

Close to Museums & Arts

75%

65% 51%

40% 21%

Houses larger, farther apart

Friends also tend to share political views:

47%

23%

32%

% of posts in Facebook Newsfeed that I agree with

66%

25%

2004

L

Ideological identificati

(via survey of 10 ide

Urban areas a liberal—

52%

“My friends mostly share my political views”

page 10 | december2014 | volume XII issue 2 | claremontportside.com

2012 E 30 Largest

ation ided

and it carries over to Congress: Ideological Consistency: most liberal (-1) to most conservative (1)*

istency is grown parties:

Representatives

Senators 20

68

are becoming more Republicans more nservative -1

4

1

-1

1

1973-74

2014 20

68

C

ion of Party Members

-1

eological questions)

are overwhelmingly —and growing

Election: Urban Areas

1

-1

1993-94

1

20 68

-1

1

-1

2011-12

1

*Based on DW-NOMINATE scores. For more information, see voteview.com voteview.com + Pew Research Center

claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 2 | december 2014 | page 11

international

Counting Climate Change Overpopulation could be the cause of a slew of environmental issues

By Lauren D’Souza

Copy Editor/Staff Writer, CM ‘18 “I still remember the day in school when our teacher told us that the world population had become three billion people, and that was in 1960.” So began a TED talk by Hans Rosling, a doctor, statistician, and professor of global health.

According to GapMinder World, a population pattern graphing utility, the world population in 1970 was 3.7 billion people and fossil fuel emissions were at 14 billion tons—a safe, sustainable capacity. Today, the population is at 7.2 billion people and greenhouse gas emissions are at 39.7 billion tons.

In 44 years, population has increased by 95 percent and greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 183 percent.

“Overpopulation isn’t just about the number of people, but also [about] lifestyles,” Amanda Chang PZ ’16 noted. “Third world countries with high birth rates have less of an impact on climate change than people in first world countries even though our birth rate is significantly lower…First-world countries need to change their lifestyles and move toward [sustainability]. The status quo cannot be maintained with our current growing population.”

The U.N. predicts that global population will soar to 10.9 billion people by the end of the 21st century, if current demographic trends persist. Decreasing global population is an almost guaranteed method of lessening the severity of climate change. So why are we not addressing it properly?

Overpopulation: not a myth In ecology, overpopulation occurs when a species population exceeds the carrying capacity of its habitat. Carrying capacity is determined by various factors that the species needs to survive. An increase in births, a decrease in deaths, an increase in immigration, and a premature depletion of resources all contribute to overpopulation.

The earth is home to 7.2 billion people. Factors like sanitation, living space, water supply, and food availability determine global carrying capacity. Technology, disease, and other demographic elements all affect this threshold.

The planet cannot support an infinitely growing population. But the global population is still growing—the most recent billion people were added in just 12 years.

Although new technologies have increased the earth’s carrying capacity, widespread unsustainable resource usage has decreased it. Even if we do sustainably use resources, rapid population growth will continue to push the boundaries of what the earth can hold.

Effects on the environment Let’s take one facet of overpopulation as an example. Larger populations lead to a greater need for food production. Greater demand for agricultural output encourages farmers to utilize unsustainable methods—such as clearing more fertile cropland, growing monocultures, and using pesticides and chemical fertilizers that runoff into groundwater—in order to gain the greatest yield from their field.

These actions place a strain on the biosystem that supports the crops, alter habitats of plants and animals that also subsist off the land, overuse and wear out the soil, decrease biodiversity, limit ecosystem services, and endanger human health.

All of those problems can arise from just one aspect of overpopulation—the importance of food for survival. The effects of denser populations, inflation, greater extraction and consumption of natural resources, and habitat destruction are numerous.

“Rising sea levels are threatening places like the Maldives, Venice, and the Pacific Islands,” said Chang. “Natural disasters like

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Typhoon Haiyan and Hurricane Sandy will continue to destroy communities... and create a huge influx of ‘climate refugees,’ who will have no place to go once their homes are destroyed. If we are losing land to climate change then population becomes an even bigger issue.”

Methods of population reduction There are several factors that contribute to a lower total fertility rate (TFR), measured in the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime.

Some mothers in countries with high infant mortality rates have more children because they assume some of their children will not live past infancy; in some societies, more children may also help contribute to household needs by working. Better sanitation and basic health care, however, reduce infant mortality rates and encourage mothers to have less children. For this reason, many developing nations have booming populations and high TFRs. Dire health and economic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, dictate that survival—which often means utilizing the cheapest, most widely available, usually unsustainable, resources— is of singular importance. Mali, among the 25 poorest countries in the world, has the second highest TFR. “Several ‘external’ factors contribute to population control without being ‘population control measures,’ including urbanization,” said Claremont McKenna College Professor of Government Bill Ascher. Urbanization usually comes with increased costs for child rearing, so income factors more strongly into a mother’s decision to have children. Urbanized countries also often have mandatory elementary education programs, so children go to school instead of work. Economically, it is advantageous for women in developed countries to have fewer children; the opposite tends to be true for women in many impoverished countries.

“Government intervention is important for stabilizing population more quickly than it would stabilize without the intervention,” said Professor Ascher. The best solution is for governments to offer population control methods without mandating them. India has attempted to address its huge population with controversial voluntary sterilization programs, but other nations that have seen increases in female education and reproductive choice opportunities have experienced declines in population.

Efficacy in action: two examples In the 1990s and early 2000s, Bangladesh was facing an immense population problem.

The country, the size of Wisconsin, is home to 45 million overcrowded people.

However, over the past 40 years, Bangladesh has made astounding progress in lowering its rate of population growth, despite economic stagnation, low literacy rates, limited rights for women, and inadequate health care. In 1970, the TFR for a Bangladeshi woman was about seven; now, the TFR is three.

Researchers have attributed this drastic shift to more openly available contraception and family planning programs. Health care workers visited rural cities in Bangladesh, taught family planning, and offered free birth control and counseling. According

Bangladesh may provide a model for other impoverished nations that still face the many challenges of industrialization, showing that population control can be achieved without significant societal restructuring.

Iran tells a story similar to Bangladesh. When Ayatollah Khomeini took power in 1979, he abolished all previously instituted family planning programs and vigorously promoted large families to fill the ranks of the Islamic army. Iran responded with rapidly growing fertility levels, at an all-time high in the early 1980s.

However, the country began to feel the pressure of the growing population on its economy and environment. Leaders realized that Iran’s future depended on controlling population growth; this would stop unemployment, environmental degradation, and overcrowding.

In the early 1990s, Iran began to reinstate family planning programs. The government passed family planning laws; Iran Broadcasting disseminated population awareness information; family planning organizations set up approximately 15,000 clinics, especially in rural areas; religious leaders became crusaders for smaller families.

Iran offered and promoted contraceptives for men and women. People advocated for female literacy and education throughout the country. In 1970, the female literacy rate was 25 percent; in 2000, it rose to more than 70 percent. From 1987 to 1994, Iran’s population growth rate decreased by half. Like Bangladesh, families went from having seven children to three or fewer.

families, population control can quickly become a reality.

Something needs to be done Observation of statistics and correlation shows that rapid population growth is an underlying cause for many current environmental issues. Overpopulation means more

“

When media, religious leaders, government officials, and medical centers educate and advocate for smaller families, population control can quickly become a reality.

“

Birth control is key to controlling population growth. Access to contraception and family planning programs reduces population growth at its source. Although these methods of population reduction can be restricted by religious and cultural influences, they are the best hope for reducing a country’s TFR.

to analysts, their efforts helped realize an already-existing desire for a smaller family by simply providing the methods.

resources usage, which aggravates climate change. This in turn leads to severe natural disasters, rising sea levels, and extreme temperature fluctuations—all of which affect both developed and developing nations.

Solving overpopulation is not the only solution to mitigating climate change, but it will address a major root problem. Developing countries can take measures to enact population control methods, like improving female employment opportunities, increasing female education, and making contraception and birth control widely available. Empowering women across the globe is key to combating environmental precariousness.

Iran’s example shows the powerful influence of information and media in rapidly changing a country’s paradigm. When media, religious leaders, government officials, and medical centers educate and advocate for smaller

claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 2 | december 2014 | page 13

international

Professor Ascher also affirmed that basic rights, education, and employment factor into a woman’s decision to have fewer children. The Economix blog at The New York Times states that educated women are less likely to have children than their uneducated peers. Employed women have less time and incentive to raise children.

The perils of prescription drug abuse on campus

By Alex Baude Staff Writer, PZ ‘18 How often do we hear about someone looking for Adderall, or any number of prescription drugs, so they can stay focused on their schoolwork all night? Is this practice habitual? The truth is that most people, especially college-age users, are not aware of the full scope of the issues surrounding prescription drugs. Drug abuse is a rampant yet little-discussed practice on college campuses—including our own.

“ a

posely taking a prescription drug in order to achieve a “high” or focus in school is one example of abuse. In a November 2014 survey, the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids found that of 1,600 surveyed young adults, 20 percent admitted to abusing prescription stimulants at least once.

“The reasons that current college students and other young adults give for abusing these Rx medications are focused on achieving functional goals such as studying, working or staying awake,” said the report.

Risky Business

I noticed as time went on, one pill wouldn’t work anymore. It went to two, then three. I developed a tolerance and needed more to get the same effect.

While it can be quite easy for students to obtain prescription drugs, there are major risks involved with taking them. Misusing or abusing prescription drugs can induce long term side effects including depression, strokes, addiction, organ damage, and death. Many if not most students are not aware of these dangers.

Anonymous 5C Student

A 5C student who wished to remain anonymous talked with the Port Side about his experience abusing prescription drugs, though not those used for academic-related reasons. Due to a high school injury, the student was prescribed a pain-reliever with heavy amounts of the chemical Hydrocodon. A side-effect of taking pain-relievers with this chemical is a “high” feeling.

Common Issues

“

campus

An Obscured Operation

Firstly, the sharing, distribution, or monopolization of prescription drugs is illegal.

“Not only can these drugs be harmful to the body if not used properly… but also some students fail to understand that they are illegal and students who buy or sell them could face prosecution,” wrote Laura Neiser in a December 2014 article for MLive about prescription ADD and ADHD drugs, such as Adderall, Ritalin, and Vyvanse.

Secondly, it is important to clarify “misuse” and “abuse.” Misuse is taking a drug in a manner that is not medically recommended, like in wrong dosages. Prescription drug abuse is also misuse, but it involves taking a drug for an intended nonmedical purpose and may be associated with addiction. Pur-

He described his experience in three stages. The first was the slow fall into his addiction: “I noticed that as time went on, one pill wouldn’t work anymore. It went to two, then three. I developed a tolerance and needed more to get the same effect. I knew I was forming an addiction.”

The second was the consequence of the addiction: “Eventually I developed an infection in my liver, and was prescribed many antibiotics to deal with it. I was told ‘take less pills,’ but I couldn’t.”

And the third was the dealing with the aftermath: “There was a point I knew I had to

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stop, after the liver infection. So I stopped but I felt like I needed them—I felt like I couldn’t function without them. My pain was worse than the pain I started with. With the withdrawal, I wanted more pills.”

While drug use or misuse always runs the risk of unintended consequences and is different from person to person, users frequently realize they are physically or psychologically addicted only in retrospect.

Crime and Punishment 5C students may not always be aware of the resources available to them. In anonymous interviews, students repeated a common belief in a “three strikes and you’re out” rule for students caught on prescription drugs.

“We don’t have a three-strikes rule. We evaluate each case on a case by case basis specific to that student,” said Pitzer College Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Moya Carter.

“At the end of the day, we want to help our students to get the help they need if it’s needed for them to be a successful student here. Everyone is quick to assume there’s punitive consequences, and that’s not usually our lens at all.”

From a student’s perspective, misguided perceptions often lead to misguided decisions. In other words, a student who may need help but does not fully understand how to get that help—or is afraid of the consequences—may fall further into a selfharming routine.

Campus Security’s Interim Director Stan Skipworth affirmed Carter’s words. “We try to work hand in hand with our closest partners among all the colleges, first and foremost with our healthcare providers, to make sure we do what we can so that we can facilitate giving that person immediate medical care,” he said. “That’s what matters most at that moment, that they get taken care of.”

Conservative values prevailed nationally, but California leaned left

By Jordan Greene Staff Writer, PO ‘15 On Nov. 4, the United States “saw red” as Republican candidates won elections all over the country, taking back the Senate, expanding their majority in the House, and triumphing in many hotly contested gubernatorial races in states that have typically been Democratic strongholds, like Massachusetts and Maryland.

But here in California, voters bucked nationwide trends and mainly supported liberal, progressive candidates and propositions.

“In the rest of the country, they’re going in a slightly different direction. In California, we are going to go in, I think, a very progressive but fiscally responsible direction,” said Governor Jerry Brown on Election Night.

Forty years after he was first elected governor of California, Jerry Brown cruised towards his fourth term with 59.7 percent of the vote, handily beating his Republican opponent, Neel Kashkari, who struggled with name recognition up until Election Day. Brown’s reelection victory makes him the state’s longest-serving governor ever, and with a 58 percent approval rating, it is clear Californians have not yet tired of him. Given his considerable electoral success and popularity, Brown’s new gubernatorial goals of high-speed rail construction, water system improvements, and environmental initiatives look well within reach, despite the Election Day erosion of the Democratic supermajority in the state legislature.

Propositions 1 and 2, which were heavily endorsed by Governor Brown, also passed by a significant margin, with 67.1 and 69.2 percent of the vote, respectively. Proposition 1 will authorize $7.5 billion in bonds to secure an adequate water supply during the current crippling drought, while Proposition 2 will establish a rainy day fund in times of fiscal health, with the goal of accelerating California’s debt repayments, and avoiding education cuts. With its intentions for fiscal responsibility, Proposition 2 had broad bipartisan support. A robust advertising campaign featuring Governor Brown bundled the two ballot propositions together and helped

ensure the passage of both initiatives.

In another progressive result on a ballot measure, voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 46, which would have increased the state’s cap on damages obtained in medical negligence lawsuits to over $1 million from the current level, $250,000. While the cap would not have substantially increased the cost of medical malpractice insurance for most healthcare providers, some argued that this increase was designed to bring business to litigious malpractice attorneys.

Proposition 46 also would have required that health care practitioners consult a state prescription drug history database before prescribing certain medications, in efforts to curb prescription drug abuse. But the most controversial part of Proposition 46 was a mandate by the state Medical Board that would have instituted compulsory drug and alcohol testing for hospital doctors and nurses. The drug testing was purportedly included to combat drug abuse among healthcare providers, but opponents of the bill—and there were many, including virtually every specialty provider group in the state—argued that it was a waste of resources, and a major, unwarranted invasion of privacy that would drive healthcare providers out of the state. Ultimately, voters rejected Prop 46 with 67.1 percent of the vote.

But perhaps the most progressive election night result was the overwhelming approval of Proposition 47, the most progressive form of criminal justice reform on any ballot in the country. Proposition 47 changes the sentencing guidelines for certain drug and property offenses from felonies to misdemeanors, saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Instead of funding incarceration, that money will now fund mental health and substance abuse treatment centers, victims’ services, and school dropout and truancy prevention programs, all of which are designed to keep offenders out of prison.

“Some of the exciting things about Proposition 47 are the very real impact it will have in releasing thousands of currently incarcerated

people...and the fact that it’s passing also conveys the important message that Californians are done investing in mass incarceration,” said Claire Hirschberg SC ‘15, a member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the No More Jails Coalition.

Ultimately, Proposition 47 will redirect convicts towards treatment and rehabilitation, saving the state a considerable amount of money. In L.A. County, the City Attorney has requested $510,000 from the city council to hire more lawyers and staff to handle the anticipated increase in misdemeanor prosecutions, which previously would have been prosecuted by the D.A.’s office. It’s difficult for this writer to remain dispassionate about such sweeping, progressive reform. Proposition 47 symbolizes a major turning point in this country’s broken criminal justice system.

However, one of the state’s most notable and hotly contested races did not turn out in favor of the more progressive candidate. Oddly, the highest profile statewide in California this year was not for governor, attorney general, or even controller, but for the non-partisan position of superintendent for public instruction.

The race—which took in $20 million total in donations—became something of a symbol of the current national debate over the direction of American public education, emblematic of the struggle between traditional educational institutions like teachers’ unions and the use of standardized testing to guide instruction, and more innovative, but less established, reforms such as the implementation of charter schools.

Ultimately, incumbent Tom Torlakson, the union-backed candidate, narrowly prevailed over challenger Marshall Tuck, despite the former’s $7.6 million war chest, the endorsement of every major newspaper in the state, and celebrity endorsements (including a humorous campaign ad featuring actors Kristen Bell, Adam Scott, and Joel McHale). Voters were skeptical of Tuck’s affiliation with wealthy donors (the list includes Laurene Jobs, Sam Walton, and Michael Bloomberg) and his less traditional approaches to educational reform.

claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 2 | december 2014 | page 15

national

US Sees Red, California Stays Blue

national

Affordability in Higher Education

Crippling debt: why it is not working

By Elisabeth Mayer Staff Writer, SC ‘17 “With this vote, we show the American people who we work for in the United States Senate: billionaires or students,” Elizabeth Warren said minutes before the Senate voted on her student debt bill in June 2014.

The Warren Bill would have allowed about 25 million people to refinance older student loans at today’s (lower) interest rates, had it been approved. The proposal would have been funded by taxing affluent households, had the Senate not picked billionaires. The Warren Bill was halted by Republican opposition, which saw Warren’s bill as a political move in an election year.

But politics aside, student debt is not going away. Last year, 7 in 10 graduates had an average of $29,400 in loans, according to The Project on Student Debt, a nonprofit independent research organization.

Many critics today—not just Warren—believe that the US is not doing enough to address college affordability… but are the 5Cs? Last year, Harvey Mudd graduates had an average debt of $24,503, according to Matthew Biergans, Associate Director of Financial Aid at Harvey Mudd. Biergans said that 76 percent of HMC students receive financial aid, and 49 percent of those students receive need-based aid.

Harvey Mudd is also a “need-blind” school, which means that the college does not consider the financial situation of applicants.

Though only Pomona College includes international students in this policy, Claremont McKenna College and Pomona are also need-blind schools. Both Pitzer College and Scripps College are not need-blind colleges, in that they do consider financial situations in the application process but meet 100 percent of admitted students’ demonstrated need.

Whether or not each of the 5Cs is needblind depends in large part on each college’s

endowment and annual funds. “The total endowment net assets at June 30, 2013 was $287,855,306, and Scripps aspires to grow this amount substantially through the ‘We Want More’ Campaign,” said Michael P. Archibald, Scripps’ Vice President for Institutional Advancement. “Within the $175 million overall Campaign goal—the largest amount of all of the Campaign’s priorities— the endowment goal is $100 million.”

Reaching such campaign goals requires active campaigning and fundraising. Many students at the 5Cs work to fundraise for scholarships as Phonathon callers.

“I wish we could get even more support, because I know that what we get currently helps a lot of people, but I want to be able to say that I’ve helped contribute towards someone else’s education by being willing to put myself out there and calling parents and alums to ask for their support,” Marisol Beck HM ‘17, a Phonathon Caller at Harvey Mudd, said. Callers like Beck across the 5Cs help the colleges raise significant amounts of money, a proportion of which has been allocated to financial aid funds.

However, financial aid does not always adequately cover the cost of a 5C education; this pressures students to look into federal loan options, which, as the shocking $1.2 trillion national student loan debt indicates, is an epidemic in the US. “As college costs rise, so does the average amount students borrow,” the youth-oriented organization Generation Progress explained on a Warren Bill fact sheet. “These high levels of student loan debt are impacting major economic decisions for young Americans.” “[Scripps] raised tuition for everyone, but they didn’t raise my financial aid [package’s funds],” said a student SC ‘17 who wishes to remain anonymous. “Scripps has no section on their forms for first and second years to explain special circumstances or why it would

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look like we have more money when we don’t.

[My father] has no $401K, no IRA, and no savings. They’re gone because it all went to education, but it looked, since he cashed out his IRA, like he had more [than he did].” The student’s family appealed for more financial aid funds, but did not receive as much aid as they had the previous year.

When the financial aid system works to truly meet student needs, it is integral for the great majority of students who cannot keep pace with the soaring cost of higher education. But, as some advocates point out, recognizing that even the term “financial aid” can imply classist inequality is important. Inevitably, the national issue of debt is tied to the way in which the US’s economic structure functions.

“Class is something that’s largely unspoken because capitalism is isolating. It stresses individualism. That means that people are expected to bear their financial burdens themselves,” said Felicia Agrelius SC ‘17, founder of Scripps’ Coalition Against Classism. The pressure to bear the financial burden of a college education may impact the student experience of those who rely on financial aid; this might unduly disadvantage or negatively affect those students.

Student loan debt—which exists despite college financial aid—impacts students in the short- and long-term. The kind of reform that the Warren Bill’s refinancing strategy hoped to achieve would most clearly benefit middle- and low-income borrowers. Measures that minimize student loan borrowers’ enduring financial predicaments can only serve to make conditions better for the American economy, and for students in the years following college; why should students be punished financially for pursuing higher education? The system of affordability needs revamping, as does the government’s efforts in enabling people to expand their opportunities.

Jumping out of the academic rat race

By Tessa Finley Staff Writer, PO ‘18 The debate as we know it: learning for the sake of learning, or learning for the sake of doing?

The impulse towards professional preparation—already emblazoned in the minds of students yet to arrive on a college campus— vies with old ideals of education as curious dreaming for the title of True Meaning Of Education. The new narrative is that half of college students are soulless, grade-grubbing overachievers, and the other half will soon be sleeping on couches with only precious books to eat for dinner.

“

In his July 2014 New Republic article entitled “Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League,” writer William Deresiewicz comments that

As educational institutions, “toptier” and otherwise, are themselves grappling with changing values and expectations in higher education, they may often resemble the students laboring to be accepted by them: uncertain and questioning, but still under immense pressure to demonstrate that they have figured it all out.

“

students today are “anxious, timid, and lost, with little intellectual curiosity and a stunted sense of purpose.” In the article, a reflection on points from his book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and The Way to a Meaningful Life, Deresiewicz argues that the formulaic methodologies and value systems of elite colleges establish “success” such that it debases the true importance of a college education. This trains young people to pursue specific definitions success and excellence like sheep. “So extreme are the admission standards now that kids who manage to get into elite colleges have, by definition, never experienced anything but success,” he

writes. “The prospect of not being successful terrifies them, disorients them…The result is a violent aversion to risk.”

Deresiewicz calls second-tier liberal arts colleges the bastions of quality higher education, as they have “retained their allegiance to real educational values.”

“No kids aged 18 to 22, in their heart of hearts, dreamed of becoming econ majors,” said Pomona College Professor of Politics John Seery about higher ed reality. “Concern for the job market has influenced kids going to elite universities and premier liberal arts colleges. There’s an atmosphere that if you are liberal arts, you’ll be unemployed and end up living in your parents’ basement. Data shows otherwise.”

Besides fearful awareness of unemployment statistics, there are deeper anxieties in academia: that Aristotle is becoming obsolete and that dust is collecting on library bookshelves while students consume knowledge without passion. We are presented with conflicting ideas about what the higher education apocalypse will look like—whether the horsemen will be wielding MCAT booklets or cryptic literary analysis as scythes—but the commonality in our approach to scholarship is fear.

There are still brief moments when we forget that we are expected to know our education’s purpose: “I love how pretty much anything in the human body can be explained by neuroscience…what got me into it was, in high school, reading a book about how certain events in our lives can turn genes on or off. I just think that’s really interesting,” said Dena Arizanovska PO ‘18 about what led her to choose her pre-med academic track. If your desire to learn and explore is your immediate goal, a seemingly valiant objective to Deresiewicz, then education has a value apart from simply having a job and career lined upon graduation.

In 2012, NPR reported on a cultural approach to education unique to the global West: that struggling suggests inadequacy,

and intelligence is marked by a natural ease in learning. The American standard for smarts is innate greatness, “born to be best.” Oddly enough, though, our students are not the best: increasingly—according to data from the Programme for International Student Assessment, the “smartest” kids are coming from schools in eastern Asia that emphasize courage in confronting academic difficulties.

The impression that struggling equates to intellectual weakness is so pervasive in the US that it has acquired a nickname: Duck Syndrome. This describes the process of maintaining the appearance that learning is easy while actually working furiously and perhaps suffering emotionally or psychologically. As educational institutions, “top-tier” and otherwise, are themselves are grappling with changing values and expectations in higher education, they may often resemble the students laboring to be accepted by them: uncertain and questioning, but still under immense pressure to demonstrate that they have figured it all out.

“An institution should have the courage of its convictions,” Professor Seery said. In 2014, Harvey Mudd College graduated more female than male engineering majors—historically unprecedented evidence of the school’s struggle to resolve an inequity and redefine itself as a place for the advancement of women. Likewise, confronting questions regarding the place of pre-professional tracks or the fate of the humanities should be about finding opportunities for growth. To make a college education truly meaningful, universities across the country need to prioritize creating—and making clear—their goals, visions, and values, and to ensure that their students have adequate means of attaining their specific educational goals within this design.

On the part of students, seeking such educational opportunities means fearlessly accepting the possibility of uncertainty and difficulty, who may find academic bravery by living for moments of curiosity in other acts of individualistic pursuit.

claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 2 | december 2014 | page 17

national

Valuing Elite Higher Education

national

The Pitfalls of Social Fraternities The prominence and dwindling relevance of modern Greek life

By Nimrah Imam, Copy Editor/Staff Writer, SC ‘17 & Giselle Garcia, National Editor, SC ‘17 In 2011, a college student attending a party on the deck of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house at Marshall University drunkenly turned himself into a do-it-yourself bomb receptacle. In an incident involving a bottle rocket and a subsequently blown up rectum, Travis Hughes put himself into the exact kind of senselessly dangerous situation that has leveraged critiques of fraternity culture. According to the May 2014 article “The Dark Power of Fraternities” from Caitlin Flanagan of The Atlantic, this action prompted Louis Helmberg III, another student, to begin recording a video of the scene. Helmberg ultimately stumbled and fell over the edge of a deck, receiving injuries that cut short his baseball career and, moreover, would ultimately lead him to try suing the fraternity for not having a railing.

Ever-increasing numbers of incidents such as this one fuel criticism about what takes place in college fraternity houses. Modern critiques of the contemporary social fraternity, however, also extend beyond incidental issues.

Collegiate social fraternities, many of which claim to prioritize values such as leadership and civic-mindedness, sometimes seem to face difficulty reconciling these goals with party atmospheres. Substance availability, violent and dangerous behavior, rampant chauvinism, and perpetuation of discriminatory and exclusionary attitudes pervade the dominant narrative around frats across the country. But this stereotype is not new—it is part of the convention that has developed from a long history of collegiate fraternities over time.

But what does this context mean for modern members of fraternities? What is the actual function and relevance of fraternities as collegiate—and, indeed, national—cultural touchstones? Millions of American men are fraternity members, including many na-

tional leaders. The Greek system (which also includes sororities, a whole other sphere) is diverse across US colleges. But if time has revealed anything, it is that the appalling behavior emanating from frat houses is not going away. In 2013, a widely-circulated email encouraged “rapebait” and sexual violence at Georgia Tech frat Phi Kappa Tau; this November, Rolling Stone published a piece accounting a gang rape of a first-year woman by members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at the University of Virginia. How can we reconcile these cases with the enduring popularity and prominence of this system? Are frats—which seem to be breeding grounds for future national and community leaders— simultaneously breeding grounds for social problems on college campuses?

While the relevance of fraternities is always up for debate, the definition of “fraternity” is less formal today. Religious, ethnic, and academic fraternities, for example, serve a different purpose on college campuses and foster an environment that supports academic growth and achievement.

“I’m not part of the fraternity system, but I can see how you can build friendships that you otherwise normally would not have. I think it’s nothing but a positive benefit and a good way to build relationships,” opined Matthew Wong CM ‘17, a track and field athlete.

The Claremont Colleges do not have official residential fraternities, though academic, religious, and social organizations identifying as fraternities do exist at the 5Cs. Greek life is much more prominent at larger universities, where tradition often reigns supreme. Lawsuits have been pressed against fraternities over the last several years, revealing the violence that can occur in fraternity houses.

“Lawsuits against fraternities are becoming a growing matter of public interest, in part because they record such lurid events, some of them ludicrous, many more of them horrendous. For every butt bomb, there’s a com-

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plaint of manslaughter, rape, sexual torture, psychological trauma,” wrote Flanagan in her article for The Atlantic.

Hazing is an example of illicit behavior steeped in tradition that particularly grabs national attention. Degrading rituals and other initiation activities, sometimes involving harassment, sexual assault, and emotional abuse, have qualified as hazing. This practice comprises 7 percent of the legal problems that occur at fraternity houses according to a 2010 analysis by Willis, a fraternity insurer basing its data on liability claims.

This study revealed that 23 percent of problems arise from assault and battery; another 15 percent of cases involve sexual assault.

Many fraternities that focus heavily on socializing and building reputations have been criticized for perpetuating rape culture.

The number of lawsuits filed against fraternities due to alcohol overdoses is also alarming.

Binge drinking is common, and peer pressure almost inevitably plays a role. As in any setting with an abundance of alcohol, widespread binge drinking can lead to unpredictable or unsafe behavior such as, say, tumbling off a deck. This may add to the growing number of lawsuits that involve head injuries and other serious accidents at frat houses.

Pitzer College Professor of Psychology Thomas Borowski does not believe that social fraternities should continue to exist in an academic setting. “I don’t think it sends a good message to college students. [Social fraternities] foster rivalries that lead to a whole mess of other problems. It boils down to an elitist type of attitude,” said Professor Borowski, who also serves as Coordinator of the 5C Neuroscience Department.

Social fraternities are selective about membership. Membership, in turn, can be expensive. This all feeds the idea that fraternities are elitist in nature. Various leaked emails and exposés also reveal conscious bias in some frats’ recruitment processes. Racism exists

national

in admittance and in practice, as an Arizona State University case revealed this year. In January, evidence of white students from Arizona State University’s Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity “celebrating” Martin Luther King’s birthday surfaced; social media posts using #hood and #MLKblackout documented photos of loose jerseys, hollowed out watermelon drinks, and gang symbols at the party.

Statistically, members of fraternities include a large percentage of students from upper middle class families. LGBTQ+ students have historically been underrepresented or barred from joining fraternities; the rhetoric around “brotherhood” itself condones such exclusivity. These conditions dictate that fraternity life is frequently constructed around a certain demographic—that of upper middle class, white, cisgender men; this defines and maintains specific kind of masculinity that emerges from this system.

Exclusivity has always been the name of the game, but could the originators of the fraternity system have bargained for what the social fraternity has come to stand for? “I think that [socialization] was the original intention [of fraternities]. They just wanted students to socialize or become part of a certain group with similar like-minded students… but I think it is to the point now where there is more cost than benefit,” said Professor Borowski.

The transition from college to high school is not always easy. Fraternities have a certain appeal, in that they provide an immediate environment fostering small communities and a certain degree of stability. This rings especially true at large universities.

But, as Wong noted, “colleges can provide that resource for students to get involved in and help their transition.”

Many of these kinds of concerns differ, at least nominally, from the small communities within the 5Cs—of course, the context of Claremont’s frat culture is vastly different

from large schools dominated by Greek life.

Sports teams, with their defined rosters, are an important presence in the 5C community.

But the parallel to Greek fraternities at other institutions may stop there: “I don’t really see the negative things in sports that people tend to associate with fraternities, at least not in the same proportion,” said Theresa Wechsler SC ‘17, a member of the Claremont-MuddScripps lacrosse team.

In addition to academic honorary fraternities, Kappa Delta, Nu Alpha Phi and Sigma Tau are recognized social fraternities that have developed their own unique places within the 5C community. Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity, also has an established base at CMC. “I think a big thing that distinguishes our chapter from other fraternities is that we focus more on camaraderie and less on social status. People join AEPi because they like the group and want to be a part of it for that reason, not because they think joining will make them look cool,” said Steven Glick PO ‘17, a member of AEPi and the PomonaPitzer baseball and swim teams.

AEPi has a dry pledging option and enforces a zero-tolerance policy around hazing. “Everyone always has each other’s back, making sure we all have fun but stay safe,” said Glick.

“Being a member of AEPi doesn’t dominate my life, and the brothers are very supportive of me in my other obligations. I’m certainly proud to be an AEPi brother.”

So, what is the modern day frat’s relevance?

Despite the range of aforementioned issues with residential Greek life, fraternities have been a cornerstone of the American collegiate social tradition for generations—and hordes of students pledge annually. Perhaps some falsely consider “brotherhood” as a rite of passage, thereby internalizing the values and attitudes within fraternity culture as a part of growing up. But does socializing with the same group of people translate into lifelong friendships and leadership, as frat logic purports?

Whatever the answer to these questions, the common narrative around frat culture does little to combat the aforementioned dominant discourse, despite the diverse forms of today’s fraternities.

“Alumni are really involved in the Greek system and it’s a great part of frats,” said Wong of the longer-term incentives of fraternity life. “Social frats also get you professional benefits. It continues beyond college. You make connections and get to know people in various fields who may help you in the future with your professional life.” Greek alumni also donate about four times as much to their alma maters as non-Greek alums, accounting for 75 percent of all college donations.

Tradition inherited from the long-established fraternity system plays an eminent a role on modern college campuses. But are the social conditions that led to the creation of fraternities still alive? Perhaps the present-day motivations—social prowess, fiduciary gain, etc.—and misplaced values have eclipsed their consequence, giving way to alternative organizations like those at the 5Cs. Some schools seem to think so; Clemson, Dartmouth, and now UVA, among others, have considered banishing fraternities.

The dangerous, misogynistic, classist, racist, and otherwise harmful attitudes that Greek life has been criticized for harboring also exist elsewhere on college campuses, but what would happen to the national social paradigm if frats were eliminated? How might we define leadership without these traditional institutions? Abolition would end a tradition that funnels a specific demographic of society. However, the existence of social frats on college campuses, while evoking tradition, may today present more harms than benefits.

claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 2 | december 2014 | page 19

the Engaging Communities

Who really benefits from service learning classes?

By Emily Long Senior Staff Writer, SC ‘16 Community engagement, or service-learning, classes at the 5Cs provide unique scholastic opportunities for students, since these classes require student participation in internship or volunteer positions outside of the classroom in addition to their usual coursework.

Through the course Political Economy of Food, for example, Skyler Lewis PO ‘16 interned with Fallen Fruit From Rising Women. Lewis and his classmates made jams, lemonade, and kombucha with women from Crossroads, a transitional home for formerly incarcerated women.

“The class was one of the most rewarding things I have done in college,” he said. “I came out of it with a hugely broadened outlook on global politics and food systems.”

When asked about his impact on the Crossroads community, Lewis viewed the process as mutually beneficial. “We brought in around $1000 for Crossroads each morning at the Claremont Farmers’ Market,” he said, “so it was great to know we were making a difference.”

Applying theory in practice allows students to internalize what they have been learning in the classroom.

“It’s always good to have theory meet practice and have a practical angle,” said Jennifer Rennick PZ ‘15, who has taken various community engagement classes at the 5Cs. However, some students like Rennick question the impact of students on the community they claim to serve.

“Of course there are negative effects of having such short-term commitments,” Rennick said. “If you want to have a sustainable and community-minded approach, it can’t just be done over a semester. You have to wonder who is it really benefitting.”

To mitigate these negative effects of short-term involvement, Rennick suggested evaluating students’ roles in community projects more carefully. “[Stu-

dents] should really just be helping with a short-term project,” she said.

“Good community engagement projects enable students to enhance or change their understandings of the issues and strategies for change in a way that reading alone can’t,” said Scripps College Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Sue Castagnetto. Professor Castagnetto is currently teaching Feminisms in Community, and part of the class entails hosting a writing workshop at the California Institution for Women, a women’s prison in Corona, California.

However, Professor Castagnetto has also encountered difficulties in organizing community engagement work. “Developing community engagement opportunities poses various challenges, including finding projects that students can do in a semester that will be of genuine benefit to everyone involved,” she said.

Both Rennick and Castagnetto bring up a critical question: who is truly benefiting from these servicelearning classes? Ideally, both the students and the community being engaged benefit mutually. However, sometimes the service component can become voyeuristic and allows students to feel good about themselves without actually helping the target community.

Aida Villarreal-Licona SC ‘16 has also questioned who is benefiting in her current community engagement class, Media Arts for Social Justice. Villarreal-Licona is currently cultivating a website and volunteering at Huerta del Valle, the community garden in Ontario, as part of her class. While the community members at Huerta del Valle speak Spanish, Villarreal-Licona’s class is comprised primarily of English speakers. Even though she herself speaks Spanish, Villarreal-Licona has found some of her community engagement work to be problematic because of insensitivity regarding language accessibility.

“Language access is historically a way to marginalize

and exclude people,” she said. “To not be conscious of that and to send English speakers into a Spanishspeaking community is irresponsible and inconsiderate. A lot of my media studies classes claim to center on ethical representation, but how can we ethically represent people that we can’t communicate with?” she questioned.

Despite her problems with the class, it has still shaped her goals in more concrete ways than traditional academia might have. “I wanted to use media as tool for social justice and I thought this class would be exactly that,” she said, “but I’ve been realizing that media is a very privileged form of activism.”

However, Villarreal-Licona recognized that her experience is unique and subjective, and that some of her classmates are involved in more reciprocal community engagement projects. Naomi Bosch PO ‘15, who has taken two community engagement courses, Environmental Education and Feminisms in Community, reaffirms the potential positive aspects of community engagement coursework.

“It’s a good way for us to give back, practice handson applications, and really see the broader relevance,” they said. “And it really puts us in a good place to be useful in the work that we go on to do.”

Bosch, like Rennick and others, wishes community engagement work were more common for students in various fields. “It can be dangerous to have too much of a distance from the subjects you’re studying, especially with environmental justice and broader social justice issues,” they pointed out. At Pomona, Environmental Analysis majors write their theses in the fall and then apply their knowledge through volunteerism and community partnerships during the spring semester. Thus, Bosch will further engage with local communities next semester, along with other EA majors.

As various students and even professors observed, failure to be self-critical and self-aware could result in blindly doing more harm than good for the community. However, if both students and professors are cognizant of their roles and the impacts of their actions, both positive and negative, community engagement classes can revolutionize academic learning and benefit both students and their communities.