2 • News The Scripps Voice Editors-in-Chief Vritti Goel Lauren Prince Adviser Sam Haynes Design Editors Nancy Herrera Liz Lyon Charlotte Rosenfield Senior Copy Editor Tori Mirsadjadi Copy Editors Megan Petersen Kate Pluth Section Heads Alissa Fang Taylor Healy Michelle Nagler Web Assistant Meredith Kertzman Business Manager Ina Herlihy
Ben Stein: Where Humor Meets Economics
By Lauren Prince ‘14 & Ellie Rudee ‘14 Editor-in-Chief & Staff Writer
When Ben Stein entered Denison Library on Thursday, he was greeted by an eager group of Scripps students. After walking around the room and personally shaking each student’s hand, he sat down, pulled out a phone and silenced it. Then, he reached into his pocket again and pulled out a second phone. He started sharing that he has more than one phone because he likes to take videos on his phone but they can’t be transferred from the phones, so he just keeps buying more. The students started laughing. He then reached into his jacket again (a different pocket) and took a third phone… and then a fourth. Stein, with a relentless sense of humor and the ability to talk for hours on end, came to Scripps College on Feb. 9 as part of the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Public Affairs Program speaker series. Although known famously as the boring economics teacher in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Stein was a speechwriter for Nixon and Ford, a lawyer, professor and a columnist. Stein mentioned his frustration that he spent 10 minutes shooting for Ferris Bueller and it changed his life. All his hard work researching financial fraud has become invisible because that movie role outshines his other achievements. Stein also took questions, and was asked about welfare, education and immigration. Stein argues welfare is good for health benefits, but not for unemployment. Stein created the first universal health care package with Nixon, and believes that all Americans should have access to health care, but he also believes that in the employment sector, the welfare system fosters idleness and is not an adequate use of government resources and funding. Stein’s views on education were
PHOTO COURTESY OF MATT HUTAFF
Ben Stein shakes Ambika Bist’s (‘15) hand inside Denison Library. particularly controversial, both in the discussion and again in the lecture, because he believes that the amount of money spent on a student doesn’t correlate with a student’s performance. He believes that students in underprivileged neighborhoods can go to college if they want to, but concedes that it might require more work for those students to suceed than it would for a wealthier student. Stein believes there is no one solution to the immigration problem. However, he does not think the proper thing to do is to send the immigrants back to their respective countries. Stein said that the country needs both the low and high skilled immigrant workers in the United States. “America can still absorb more people,” he said. Stein also commented that he’s frustrated that “law is being used to bring people down, not allow them the rights they deserve.” When asked about his thoughts on the current GOP candidates, Stein said he likes Santorum for President, but would be okay with Romney. He also noted that the Republican Party is ready for a female leader, and that he originally wanted Michele Bachmann
to be president. Students’ reactions to Stein’s visit were mixed. Overall, students liked him as a person and were grateful for his enthusiasm while meeting all the students at the dinner and discussion. Students disliked that his lecture was apolitical. Students who spoke with him one-on-one gleaned that he equates intelligence with knowledge about history, economics and law. “I found parts of his speech to be problematic, but as a person he was funny and endearing,” said Emily O’Brien (‘12). One of Stein’s takeaway points during the lecture was the importance of work. He said that we have a shortage of labor along with a labor force that doesn’t want to work. However, to Stein, work connects individuals to reality and provides meaning and experience in one’s life. Stein’s advice for students includes making connections and determining what one believes through experience rather than through the media. Stein is also big on humor: “If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re missing the funniest joke there is.”
Transfer Students Join Scripps Community
By Megan Petersen ‘15 Copy Editor
Printer Gardena Valley Press Comments and letters can be sent to Scripps College The Scripps Voice, 1030 Columbia Ave, Box 892, Claremont, CA, 91711. You can also email The Scripps Voice at scrippsvoice@gmail.com or visit our website at voice. scrippscollege.edu. If you want to contribute to The Scripps Voice send your articles or photos to editor.scrippsvoice@gmail. com. The Scripps Voice is a student forum and is not responsible for the opinions expressed in it.
Scripps College welcomed eight new transfer students this spring. The admissions office received 20 transfer applications this semester, of which 13 were admitted, and nine enrolled. According to Scripps Admissions Office Admission Counselor and Transfer Coordinator Kristina Brooks, one student deferred for personal reasons. Last fall, Scripps was unable to admit any transfer applicants due to a lack of space, Brooks said in her Feb. 9 e-mail on the matter. “In the fall [of 2011], we had 144 applications and could not admit any, so we were very happy to admit a number of highly qualified students this spring.” First-year transfer Kaitlin Morris is very happy to be here, too. “It’s been so much easier to make friends than I thought,” she said. “No one’s been sassy to me because I’m a transfer.” Morris’s older sister Emily is a junior at Scripps, which has also made Kaitlin’s transition easier, because Emily has helped introduce her to friends.
Kaitlin was wait-listed when she applied to Scripps her senior year of high school. She started last fall at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif., but wasn’t happy with social life there. Kaitlin said the transfer application to Scripps was easier, but asking Occidental professors to write recommendations for her made for some awkward conversations. Kaitlin, who is originally from Newport Beach, Calif., was waived out of Core I, is in Core II right now, and will take Core III next fall. She is also currently taking Writing 50. She’s considering a minor-major or dual major combination of economics and European studies. Transfer Team Leader Nadia Danilovich (’12) said that she feels that the transfer students are adjusting well. “Nobody’s come to me saying that they haven’t made friends yet,” said Danilovich. Two more peer mentors, both juniors and previous peer mentors, were added to accommodate the transfers, and Danilovich has added two transfers to
her existing peer mentor group. She said that one of her biggest jobs as a peer mentor to transfer students is to make sure they’re making friends and signing up for activities. This spring, the admissions office received fewer applications than normal, while more students were admitted than the average. Brooks said Scripps receives an average of 25 completed transfer applications in the spring, and about nine applicants are admitted, making for a 39 percent acceptance rate. The average yield of those admitted, said Brooks, is six. Brooks said transfer students’ college grades are weighed more heavily than their high school grades during consideration. “We also consider what they will contribute to the campus community.” All new transfers are first years or sophomores. Danilovich said that all but three of the eight transfers are living on campus. Two have an apartment at Brighton Park north of the colleges, but pay Scripps room and board, and one found her own housing.
February 16, 2012 •The Scripps Voice •Volume XV • Issue Seven