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103 4CUBAN SPRING BREAK EDUCATION, GLOBAL FALL OF AN EMPIRE

The Great Recession hits the Inland Empire hard

US-Cuban relations take a turn for the

tourist friendly

Center for Global Education creates

opportunities abroad

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in(side) the port(side): campus, national, international newspages 8-9

“MURDRIGALS” Not A Theater Review

Accounts of the night that may just prove why we can’t have

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The positive effects of NATO Provisional Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan, whose mission is closely linked with Civil Affairs, are undeniable as well. In 1996 there were only about 650 functional schools in Afghanistan that only boys could attend; now there are over 9,500 schools that enroll almost 3 mil-lion young women. The infrastructure built to stabilize Afghanistan and help legitimize its government not only helps America win its war against Al-Qaeda, but provides tremen-dous benefit to the Afghan people. Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the Coalition of the Gulf War, once said, “Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar. And still there are things worth fighting for.” May-be if progressives had heeded these words and been more involved with our armed forces, America’s power wouldn’t have been abused as it has been for the last 10 years. So I ask, what isn’t liberal about using the resources of the U.S.’s military to promote humanitarian causes and provide the necessi-ties of life in the places that need them most? Perhaps editing the Port Side and serving in the United States Army aren’t such divergent pursuits after all.

Another Kind of Soldierof Yugoslavia to see the humanitarian and moral potential of the United States’ military. Who knows the countless number of people saved from ethnic cleansing by NATO forc-es, led by one time Democratic presidential hopeful and four-star general Wesley Clark? In the face of injustice and horrific violence, the U.S. and its allies decided action had to be taken not just to gain influence in a former bastion of despotism, but to prevent atroci-ties all too reminiscent of World War II from happening again. For this reason, The New York Times has called the conflict in Kosovo “the first humanitarian war.” Though the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ap-pear governed by ulterior motives, there is a clear humanitarian element present in these conflicts as well. There must be some cor-relation between the quadrupling of the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade from around 290 to 1,100 soldiers over the last six years and the turnaround in the Iraq War. The military mis-sions in both of these countries are no longer simply about destroying enemy insurgents; according to the U.S. Army Counterinsur-gency Field Manual, “The primary objective of any COIN [counterinsurgency] operation is to foster development of effective gover-nance by a legitimate government.”

Some of the Port Side’s readers may wonder what an ROTC cadet is doing running the 5C’s progressive periodical. Certainly some of my fellow officers in training were sur-prised to learn I had liberal leanings at all, let alone that I expressed them on a regular ba-sis. All this demonstrates to me, however, is that a false division drawn between military service and liberal viewpoints has become cemented in the American mind. The Vietnam War ended over 35 years ago, and the world has changed a lot since then. America is now the world’s sole mili-tary superpower, and the wars of the last two decades have had a significantly differ-ent character than the conflicts of the Cold War. The U.S. now battles shadowy terrorist groups and rebels who use asymmetric tac-tics to wreak havoc on civilians and our mili-tary alike. But perhaps it is also possible that America’s motivations and goals in engaging in armed conflict have changed as well. The United States may still wage war to increase its sphere of influence and boost its econo-my, but it is hard to ignore the transformation of our army from a traditional fighting force to one increasingly geared towards humani-tarian and nation-building efforts. One needs look no further than the collapse

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

Claremont Port Side, its editors, its staff, or the Claremont Colleges. Letters, Questions, Comments? editor@claremontportside.com

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEFAlex HeineyPUBLISHER

Chelsea Carlson

COPY EDITORSSam Kahr, Samantha Morse, Anna Pickrell, Andy Willis

ILLUSTRATORSLaura Bottorff, Jack Flannery

MANAGING EDITORSCAMPUS Sara BirkenthalNATIONAL Russell M. PageINTERNATIONAL Nick Rowe

EDITOR EMERITUS Michelle Kahn WEB EDITOR

Jeremy B. Merrill

Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists —

make their voices heard on issues that matter.

Learn more atCampusProgress.org.

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Communist Party for Spring Break?Thawing U.S-Cuba relations loosen travel restrictionsBy Sam KahrCopy Edi t o r , CMC ‘14

For the better part of 50 years, a jetliner’s cruising altitude of 36,000 feet has been the closest distance that many Americans have legally come to our tiny socialist is-land neighbor to the south, Cuba. A recent decision by the Obama administration will bring the country that is known for its rum, cigars, and rumba music that much closer to regaining contact with its giant neighbor to the North.

The new policy focuses on reforming pur-poseful travel, non-family remittances, and licensed charter flights flying between the US and Havana. The purpose of these new measures is to support “civil society” and increase the flow of people-to-people contact and information between Cuban and American citizens, according to the White House Blog.

“Any people-to-people contact will im-prove relations, better understandings and will take us away from the cold-war era par-adigm; the binary of good and evil,” said Miguel Tinker Salas, Professor of Latin American History and Chicano Studies at Pomona College. “It’s high time that we leave the Cold War aside and stop allow-ing a small group to high-jack US foreign policy.”

The new measure reinstates Clinton-era people-to-people exchange policies sus-pended by the Bush Administration. Un-der the Clinton-era policies, academic ex-change programs and travel were allowed. Roderic Camp, a Professor of Govern-ment at Claremont McKenna College who has traveled to Cuba as a scholar within the past ten years, is personally acquainted with the difficulties of obtaining Ameri-can permission to travel to Cuba. “Even though the law basically said they would make exceptions, for example for scholars, they made it so difficult and so unpredict-able, even waiting until the day before you were supposed to go to tell you if it was ap-

proved that…they were purposely discour-aging people from [traveling to Cuba].”

While American tourism is still illegal un-der the new policies, it has not stopped many from traveling to Cuba through sec-ond party countries. It is estimated that up-wards of 100,000 American citizens have purchased tickets to Cuba at least once in Canada or Mexico, where it is legal to do so under their respective laws. Illegal Ameri-

can travel to Cuba has become so exten-sive in recent years it has prompted the U.S. State Department to modify its immigra-tion form for Americans returning from foreign countries. The new form now asks travelers if they have traveled to countries other than the country from which they are returning, Camp said.

Many hope that these new measures are indicators of more normalized U.S.-Cuba relations in the future. Others, however, see the policy as simply bipartisan politics. “Obama’s decisions really did not have any political cost…and were even supported by the Cuban Americans living in Miami, who have historically been manipulated to block initiatives,” said Tinker Salas. “The Florida vote is always key and it is unfortunate to always see US foreign policy towards Cuba high-jacked [during elections]; it really puts the U.S. at odds with Latin America and with the rest of the world.”

Yet the questions of the effectiveness of the fifty-year old trade embargo and the U.S.’s closed-doors foreign policy still re-main. “The U.S. now has relations with Vietnam, countries with which it fought wars,” said Tinker Salas. “Yet a country 90 miles off of our coast, recognized by every

country except by the U.S., still does not have diplomatic relations with us.”

The advantages of lifting the trade embar-go for both countries are undeniable. An important trading partner with the United States before the embargo, Cuba contains abundant reserves of nickel, timber, and oil. Additionally, the Cuban market has the potential to become a very lucrative trading partner for certain U.S. agro-export sec-

tors. Instead, Cuba is forced to turn to Eu-rope and Latin America for trade. “Cuba’s beaches are being enjoyed by the French, Germans, Canadians, and Mexicans; not by Americans because of the embargo. It is counterproductive for both countries,” said Tinker Salas.

This outlook was echoed by Camp. “It seems to me that in the history of the United States, U.S. relations with countries in which we had cut off diplomatic rela-tions have produced far less positive re-sults in the long term than when we have opened them up.”

For the majority of Americans, the new policy may seem like a baby step towards normalized US-Cuba relations, but it could have a more immediate impact for stu-dents. The new changes have led Pomona College to rethink its study abroad pro-gram in Cuba organized under the Clinton administration but subsequently suspend-ed under the Bush administration.

“A country such as Cuba that has been cut off from the U.S. for so long has an adven-turous appeal to it,” says CMC freshman Lorien Giles. “I would definitely be down for going.”

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Education GlobalizationCMC’s Center for Global Education creates abroad opportunitiesBy Wendy QianSta f f Wr i t e r , CMC ‘13

Nationwide, approximately 8 percent of college and university students study abroad. At Claremont McKenna College, however, over half the Class of 2010 took advantage of study abroad opportunities, and participation is on the rise. The re-quirements, quality and objectives of dif-ferent study abroad programs vary greatly. In an effort to provide the highest quality study abroad experience for its students, CMC’s new Center for Global Education has been created to oversee various study abroad programs tailored to the interests of CMC students and the expertise of CMC faculty members.

Professor Jerry S. Carlson of UC Riverside suggests in his research that professors often discourage undergraduate students from studying abroad, especially if stu-dents must take courses to meet their ma-jor requirements. This is understandable; if more students chose to study abroad, then professors would have fewer students in

t h e i r own courses. Additionally,

many professors who teach at American universities believe that the U.S. provides the best quality of higher education.

However, faculty, staff, and administration of the Claremont Colleges have a long his-tory of helping students make the most of their study abroad experiences, and

the 5Cs have been on the cutting-edge of designing innovative programs. Pomona College was the first of the Claremont Colleges to assist students in applying to a wide variety of study abroad programs. During the 1970s, faculty members were dissatisfied with the low quality of study abroad programs in which the college had little input. The crucial issue of academic credit-worthiness was one of the reasons Pomona’s Office of International Educa-tion (OIE) was created in 1973. Ever since, Pomona has participated in designing its own programs with extensive involvement of faculty members and administration. In the 1980s, over 10% of faculty members participated in Pomona’s International Ed-ucation Committee to advise and evaluate study abroad programs.

Pitzer College’s former Vice President of External Relations, Thomas Manly, is rec-ognized for designing the Fieldbook Meth-od, aimed at facilitating cultural immersion for its students. According to this method, students participate in experientially-based field studies and cultural immersion pro-grams, such as cultural artifact scavenger

hunts, and record their thoughts in their Fieldbooks. According to CGU ‘02 grad-uate Thomas Manley’s Ph.D. thesis, Study Abroad Pedagogy, the model took shape in the late 1980s and “has since been de-veloped by faculty, students, community members and field staff, who have partici-pated in more than a decade of program-

ming in nearly a dozen countries.”

Manley also argues that the Pitzer Field-book method shatters the “false dichoto-my between the academic dimensions of a program and the experientially based learning that most effectively leads to the development of cross-cultural perspec-tives.” This element is especially impor-tant to prepare students to operate in an increasingly globalized world.

This year, rather than relying on other pro-viders, Claremont McKenna College has followed in the footsteps of Pitzer and Po-mona. CMC’s new Center for Global Edu-cation has designed three new and rigor-ous programs for Claremont students. The CMC Executive Director for International Programs, Aleta Wenger described the programs as “unique and creative.” After the Center finishes experimenting with vi-able summer options and participants as-sess these programs, the Center will con-sider providing the programs during the semester.

The Center’s new summer program des-tinations include Jordan, Israel and South Korea, each with its own thematic focus. Students will study business in South Ko-rea, Arabic culture and language in Jordan, and history and architecture in Israel. The programs are designed so students not only advance their intercultural understanding, but also to further their professional and academic goals.

Ms. Wenger said that the Center’s summer programs are based on student interest and involve a great deal of support and commitment from CMC faculty members. Each program involves a CMC professor forgoing his or her summer research op-portunities in favor of accompanying and teaching student participants. According to Ms. Wenger, “CMC students are interested in almost everything” and look forward to experiencing many different cultures. However, the process of designing the

The Center’s new summer program destinations include Jordan, Israel and South Korea, each with its own the-matic focus. Students will study business in South Ko-

rea, Arabic culture and linguistics in Jordan and history and ar-chitecture in Israel. The programs are designed so students not only advance their intercultural understanding, but also to further their professional and academic goals.”

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CMC’s Center for Global Education creates abroad opportunitiesprograms has been com-plicated by the availability of CMC senior faculty members.

Pomona’s OIE Re-port summarizes certain disadvantages of sending groups of students abroad a c -companied by faculty members. Prob-lems recruiting appropriate faculty members for the programs, the teach-ers’ subsequent absence from the class-room, and the expense needed to orga-nize the programs place an enormous strain on the college administration. Additionally, the sporadic availability of appropriate programs for different academic disciplines prohibits students from planning their four years at col-lege beginning freshman year. These disadvantages led to the discontinua-tion of faculty-led study abroad pro-grams at Pomona in the early 1980s.

CMC’s program appears to have overcome many of these difficul-ties. This summer’s eight-week pilot program in Jordan in-cludes an intensive seminar course on Arab society, tradition, and culture taught by CMC Professor of Arabic and Middle East Studies, Bas-sam Frangieh. Students will also spend six of the eight weeks participating in an internship at an NGO, business, school, or museum relating to their specific field of interest.

While students of liberal arts colleges are more likely to study abroad because they often study the social sciences and hu-manities, Pomona College’s OIE Report revealed that many liberal arts students do not choose to do so due to scheduling con-flicts. This is especially true for students trying to fulfill CMC’s many general educa-tion requirements.

Fortunately, the Center also advises stu-

dents on an individual basis, thus helping every CMC student plan their study abroad options. Ms. Wenger explained that the Center for Global Education staff refer to the student experiences at CMC in the context of the“circle of life.” Accord-ing to Wenger, “During the freshman and sophomore years, the Center’s Office of Off-Campus Study staff holds numerous informational sessions on campus about study abroad and Washington Program opportunities.” When students return to campus for junior and senior years, the Center’s Fellowship Coordinator will pro-

vide students with up-to-date informa-tion about prestigious national award and fellowships programs and deadlines. The Center also offers fellowship advising and Fulbright workshops to complete the “cir-cle of life.”

For now, CMC’s Center for Global Edu-cation offers Claremont students new the-matic summer study abroad programs and fellowship counseling. As time goes on, the role of the Center will surely expand to help Claremont students stay competi-tive in today’s increasingly interconnected world.

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California Feeling BlueThe Golden State moves from magenta to cobalt

then suddenly switch to Democrats in the 1990s? In four of the six elections before Clinton started the Democratic winning spree, the Republican candidate running for president was a California native. Nix-on and Reagan carried their home state in their four elections. Even Jimmy Carter carried his home state of Georgia in 1980, when he carried only 6 states (plus DC) in losing to Reagan. Similar home-state ad-vantages played a large role in California’s Republican presidential votes during the 1970s and 1980s. These presidential elections provide lit-tle insight into why California has gone from“purple to blue-ish” since the early 1990s. While there is no one overarch-ing explanation for transformation, many small factors combine to help explain the trend. After Reagan’s presidency, the po-litical parties began sorting themselves on ideological terms. Presently, we associate Democrats with liberalism and Republi-cans with conservatism, but it wasn’t al-ways this way. Senators like Zell Miller, a conservative Democrat from Georgia, and Lincoln Chaffe, a liberal Repub-lican from Rhode Island, exemplified this. As the number of these sorts of politicians has dwindled, the parties have become more diametrically opposed in nature; as the parties become more di-vided, California’s Democratic leanings are increasingly evident. The trend may be as simple as Californians identifying largely as liberals, and Democrats increasingly representing liberal-ism. Another explanation is that California has many large cit-ies and a constantly rising minority population, both of which tend to lean left.

Addit ional ly, WWII-created defense indus-tries have moved out of California

By Quinn ChasanSta f f Wr i t e r , CMC ‘13

Political talking heads have come to a con-sensus about at least one thing when it comes to elections — California and New York will vote Democratic and Texas will vote Republican. It would not be wise for the GOP, trying to regain the White House in 2012, to spend any time campaigning in California. In presidential elections, Cali-fornia has voted Democratic in the previ-ous five, whereas they voted Republican in the six before that. This has left many to wonder what turned California “blue?” Popular belief dictates that California’s “blueness” is a new trend. A deeper look at the state’s history, however, reveals the quite the opposite. John J. Pitney, Jr., professor of govern-ment at Claremont McKenna College, wrote “California: The Great Exception,” a chapter in Larry J. Sabato’s Pendulum Swing, an analysis of the 2010 midterms. The Port Side met with Pitney and dis-cussed California’s political history.

Pitney asserts California did not turn blue. California was “never really a red state, it was more of a purple state that turned more blue.”

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Cali-fornia voted for Republicans in presiden-tial elections. Pitney does not believe this means the state leaned Republican, how-ever. To get a better picture of California’s political landscape, Pitney points to the “state legislature, as it is more indicative of a state’s voting tendencies.” Over the last 40 years, Democrats have controlled both chambers of the Legislature (save once), and their hold is only increasing. This trend has been ignored nationally because statewide elections rarely impact national politics.

But why did Californians keep voting for Republican presidential candidates and

since the early 1990’s. During the war, the U.S. defense industry exploded in size, and a large part of it was centered in California. Predictably, the defense industry tends to vote conservatively. At the end of the Cold War, defense industries were either moved out of the state or simply cut altogether, being replaced by service industries. Service industries are not only notoriously liberal, but are usually the catalyst for much of the liberal legislation and lobbying in Washing-ton, D.C. As these service industries set up shop in the coastal areas where the defense industry once sat, the liberal shift was large enough to become visible, and as they grew so too did their voting transparency.

Now California is split ideologically along the East-West line, due in large part to this movement. Pitney says, “if you can smell salt water, you probably live in a blue dis-trict.”

As these coastal dis-tricts rapidly grow in population, and other trends continue to move in the Democratic di-rection, Califor-nia will continue to turn darker

blue on the elec-tion maps that domi-

nate the electoral scene every

two years.

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CaliforniaCalifornia

ROOT ROOT ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM! ...even if you don’t share a political party

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Perhaps most importantly, they will need to deal with some of the worst humanitarian conditions on the planet. Over 90% of the people in southern Sudan live on less than a dollar a day, and they suffer from the highest infant mortality rate in the world.”

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The World’s Newest Nation?Southern Sudan’s struggle for independence

for pipelines and refineries. Furthermore, the fates of southerners in the north and northerners in the south must be deter-mined. With so much still at stake, the possibility of violence erupting yet again cannot be eliminated. Professor Elizabeth Crighton of Pomona College’s Politics Department urges a strong international presence to prevent this from happening. “In most cases of secession, having

strong international pres-sure to enforce the safety of both sides helps,” says

Crighton.

The referendum leaves more unanswered ques-

tions within each of the two countries. Northern

dictator Omar al-Bashir, who has been accused of orches-

trating the genocide in Dar-fur, has spent his 21-year reign pledging to keep Su-

dan together. His failure to deliver, along with increasing eco-

nomic hardships and the confidence of imparted from popular demonstrations across the Arab world, has elicited calls for the end of his regime. Those living in Southern Sudan will en-counter even more troubles as they take

on the daunting job of building a new country. The most immediate threat is tension between ethnic groups, which may boil over as the post-independence euphoria fades away. Crighton, however, believes that the sense of solidarity from

By Derek HaSta f f Wr i t e r , Pomona ‘14

They called it their “Final Walk to Free-dom” – a light at the end of the tunnel, bringing years of war and instability to a close. From January 9 to 15 the people of southern Sudan flocked to polling stations by the millions, driven by the hope of be-ing able to shape their own destiny.

The “Final Walk” was a ref-erendum in which the pre-dominantly Christian south of Sudan decided wheth-er or not to secede from the predominantly Muslim north. The fi-nal result, announced on February 7, was a re-sounding cry for indepen-dence. Now the work of building a nation begins.

That the ‘Final Walk’ happened at all is a small miracle. Despotism, unrest, and violence have plagued Sudan ever since British colonial rule ended in 1956. The referendum is part of a 2005 peace agreement that ended a war that claimed 2 million lives. International pressure from the African Union, the United Nations, and the United States helped ensured a smooth, peaceful election.

“It’s a big step forward,” says David Arase, Professor of Politics at Pomona College. “The new state actually makes political sense. The typical African country’s bor-ders have nothing to do with the ethnic geography.”

If Southern Sudan does become the world’s newest country, the hard part will have only just begun. Difficult nego-tiations lie ahead as to where to draw the new border and how to manage Sudan’s most precious resource: oil. The north will seek continual access to the south’s oil re-serves, while the south will need the north

having been oppressed by northern Su-dan, where the capital of Kartomou lies, may be a stronger unifying force.

Moreover, leaders of the new nation will need to provide some semblance of the rule of law in an area of the world where lawlessness is the norm. They will need to lay the foundations of a functional educa-tion system in a region where the literacy rate languishes at 24%. They will need to build infrastructure in a 250,000 square-mile stretch of land that contains only 30 miles of paved roads. Perhaps most im-portantly, they will need to deal with some of the worst humanitarian conditions on the planet. Over 90% of the people in southern Sudan live on less than a dollar a day, and they suffer from the highest in-fant mortality rate in the world. “They don’t have an existing government infrastructure,” says Arase. “They’re start-ing from zero.” The odds seem stacked against Southern Sudan in every way. Given its unlikely path to independence, however, the people there have already overcome greater ob-stacles. Only months before the voting took place, many were predicting violence and the derailment of the referendum. And yet over the course of six wonder-

ful days, over three million jubilant voters showed up at the polls to have their voices heard – an incredible turnout of 83%. The referendum may not actually be southern Sudan’s Final Walk to Freedom, but it will do for a first step.

ROOT ROOT ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAM! ...even if you don’t share a political party

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“ M u r d r i g a l s ” — Not A Theater Review: Why We Can’t Have Nice ThingsBy Tyler LamonCont r ibu t ing Wri t e r , CMC ‘13

“Every actress and most of the waitress-es were sexually harassed in various ways throughout the night. This is not toler-able by any standards, especially not at a liberal arts college like Claremont McK-enna College. The drunk a-holes who verbally abused my peers should be as disgusted with themselves as we are of them.” Wade Vaughn CMC ‘13, a UTL cast member, said of the performance.

On Tuesday, December 7th and Wednes-day, December 8th, a performance offi-cially titled “Not-So-Silent Night” was presented at the Athenaeum. It was sponsored by ASCMC and CMC’s the-atrical organization, Under The Lights.

HOW DID THAT GO?

“It was important to each organization that the event be successful, but we de-fined success in different ways. Whatever our measurements were, it really seemed as if the students enjoyed themselves and considered it a success,” said Tammy Phan CMC ‘11, President of ASCMC, in an ASCMC Forum article titled “Murder + Madrigals = Murdrigals.”

Well, that’s one way of putting it. Here are what some of the people involved said about it:

“I was not aware of how dysfunctional ASCMC was until the show went up. From the various altercations that took place during the show’s run, all I can gather is that the student council should probably be working more as a team, and less as a vehicle for displays of pow-er from a few specific members. CMC

is great in that it attracts very outgoing, ambitious, goal-oriented students but there is something to be said for being cooperative and willing to compromise as well. I can only hope that Katherine Wernet, Bonnie Snortum and Dave Ed-wards receive the apologies they deserve, and that in the future ASCMC members will be decidedly more diplomatic in their partnerships with UTL,” explained a UTL cast member who wished to re-main anonymous.

According to Dave Edwards, the Ath manager, “This whole thing was Tammy Phan trying to fulfill one of her cam-paign promises. ASCMC talked a lot about ‘all the things they did to put this on’ but as far as I’m concerned, ASCMC had nothing to do with this... they didn’t do anything.”

Bonnie Snortum, the director of the Athenaeum explained that she is “disap-pointed by students who do not respect other peoples’ interests and efforts in favor of advancing their own agenda.”

The Forum article, however, did not in-clude any mention of these concerns. The article instead focused on the event’s “cheery and festive” mood. Unfortu-nately, there seems to be more to the story than the ASCMC Forum reported.

So, what actually happened?

IN THE BEGINNING....

Near the start of fall 2010, the presidents of UTL and ASCMC, Katherine Wernet CMC ‘11 and Tammy Phan, approached Ath Director Bonnie Snortum with the idea of performing a winter edition of dinner theater.

“When we first met to discuss the feasi-bility of using two open dates the week of December 6th for a ‘mystery din-ner theater,’” explained Snortum. “The premise was that UTL would shift their dinner theater production to the fall instead of the traditional spring event, which has been held in March or April since 1988. The fact that it was pre-sented to the Ath as a UTL production was what legitimized it. UTL has always been a good-faith effort to bring quality theater to Claremont McKenna.’

In the eyes of the Ath, this was UTL do-ing dinner theater. Nothing more, noth-ing less. So UTL got to work: choosing a script, holding auditions, and rehearsing week after week for several months.

As the play approached, however, AS-CMC began to exert more control. A number of petty squabbles erupted between ASCMC and UTL personnel. Nobody involved was willing to com-ment about it on-the-record. For in-stance, shouting matches between these two groups were reportedly provoked over whether a Christmas tree should be placed in the middle of the room or slightly to one side.

We here at CMC take our holiday deco-rations seriously.

Jessica Mao CMC ‘12, Student Manager of the Ath and an ASCMC Presidential Advisor, told the Port Side that “AS-CMC didn’t really think that far in ad-vance as to whether or not the play itself would be an issue, but as the date came closer and the play was rehearsed, some ASCMC officials saw the dress rehears-al and expressed dire concern over the event being disappointing and not con-

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“ M u r d r i g a l s ” — Not A Theater Review: Why We Can’t Have Nice Thingsducive to being deemed a social event. While UTL viewed the production as much more interactive, exciting and fes-tive than the usual spring dinner theatre, ASCMC began to cringe at the thought of the event carrying too much of the ‘dinner theater’ stigma.”

“Another thing that came up was the inherent problem with the event being compared to Madrigals,” Mao explained. “No matter how hard ASCMC tried to describe the event, it was undoubtedly described as a ‘Madrigals replacement’... However, I think regardless of that name, the event was doomed to be the ‘OMG, Madrigals is kind of back’ event. ASCMC made it clear in emails to stu-dents that ‘this is certainly not the return of Madrigals, it is a new idea’; however, a notion was already etched in some stu-dents’ minds (mostly seniors) that this was their chance to re-live Madrigals... We began to feel the pressure of en-suring the event’s success, even though the success should have already been secured by the hard work of UTL and the Ath... That was when the definition of ‘success’ became skewed along with what the event was supposed to be.”

Tuesday, December 7th was the first per-formance which, by all accounts, went off without a hitch.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8TH. THINGS HIT THE FAN.

Cam Conley CMC ‘12, who was the only security on duty at the Ath that night, had no idea that there would be trouble. He had to visit certain tables several times during the performance due to com-plaints he was receiving from Ath/UTL personnel. Once, after Conley asked a

table to calm down because they were being disrespectful, an ASCMC officer made a vulgar gesture and remarked, “Oh, thanks a lot for putting this on.”

“I signed up for the play and went on stage knowing that the majority of the audience was going to be some level of drunk.” Wade Vaughn CMC ‘13, a UTL cast member, told the Port Side. “I’m all for people having a good time. What I’m not for, whatsoever, is people having their good time at the expense of oth-ers... [Will Kahn CMC ‘12, a UTL cast member] and I had to break character on multiple occasions to get the guys at the front tables to shut up.” He added, “That’s not acting; that’s crowd control.”

The director of the Ath herself was confronted by several students who may or may not have been inebriated. Snor-tum refused to comment regarding this particular incident.

Ath waitstaff and the UTL cast report being verbally harassed. Every attendee this writer spoke to highlighted the boor-ish and drunken behavior of the senior class at this performance.

Eventually, UTL performers refused to re-enter the crowd and interact with the increasingly belligerent audience, even during the murder mystery’s “interactive sequences.”

HINDSIGHT BEING 20/20....

Andrea Wheatley CMC ‘13, a UTL cast member commented: “Honestly, it’s just a shame that the cast and crew put in months of work on the show without it being appreciated the second night. Tuesday night of the show was maybe

one of the most fun nights I’ve had on stage and Wednesday was probably the worst. I don’t think anyone in the cast was enjoying the time they were spend-ing in the dining room with the rowdier members of the audience. Not only was it difficult for the actors to stay in charac-ter, but it was also unfortunate the peo-

ple who came to watch Wednesday night could hardly enjoy the performance due to the raucous behavior of others.”

Mao’s analysis of the evening: “We[ASCMC] got hot-headed and defi-nitely regret some things that were said and done. It was all in a heat of passion to put on a great event, even if most of the execution was beyond our control.”

“There are so many other ways to spend time and energy than putting on a faux ‘Madrigal’,” Snortum said. “The authen-tic Madrigal productions of the past in-volving the Scripps College department of music were fun, but classy events.”

ASCMC President Tammy Phan refused to provide an on-the-record comment.

Read extended interviews online atwww.aremontportside.com.

What I’m not for, whatsoever, is people

having their good time at the expense of others... — Will Kahn CMC ‘12, UTL cast member

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By Brian SutterSta f f Wr i t e r , CMC ‘13

For students in Claremont, having lunch with professors, Athenaeum talks, after-noons on Green Beach, and late night TNCs seem like all there is to life in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains. With this carefree lifestyle, it may come as a surprise to most 5-C students to find out what life is like just across the street. Next to the “City of Trees and PhDs,” which has an unemployment rate of just 6.7%, lays a region devastated by the Great Recession so profoundly that few metropolitan areas compare. Just east of CMC’s Senior Apartments, the Inland Empire stretches from Claremont Bou-levard to the California-Nevada border and includes the entirety of Riverside and San Bernardino County. This met-ropolitan area is home to over 4 million people, making it the 14th largest in the United States. The region currently suf-fers from approximately 15% unemploy-ment; that’s 3 in every 20 people without jobs. The United States average unem-ployment rate is roughly 9%.

CMC’s Lowe Institute researches the economic conditions of the Inland Em-pire. Last fall, the Lowe conducted re-search on why the unemployment is so high and how to fight it. According to Claremont McKenna Economics Pro-fessor Marc Weidenmier, director of the Lowe Institute, the Inland Empire lost 195,000 jobs since December 2007. While the rest of the nation staves off climbing unemployment rates, the coun-

The Other Side of Claremont Blvd.The Great Recession hits the Inland Empire hard

ties of Riverside and San Bernardino continue to lose jobs with unemploy-ment rising 3% after the National Bu-reau of Economic Research declared the recession over.

Unemployment rates vary from city to city throughout the region, but few are in the single digits. Rancho Cucamonga is faring better than the rest of its Inland Empire compatriots with an unemploy-ment rate of 9.4 percent. This rate is especially low when compared to the city of San Bernardino, which has an extremely high unemployment rate of 18.9 %.

Why is the Inland Empire faring so poorly overall? The crash and spiraling descent of the region can be traced to intense economic growth starting at the beginning of the 1990s and ending in December 2007. The Lowe Institute’s findings show that during this period the Inland Empire grew by 84%, adding approximately 584,000 new jobs, when the rest of the country grew by only 26%. This rapid growth was connected to expansion in the Greater Los Ange-les area and the boom in the housing market. Places like Rancho Cucamonga developed into what is now the unmis-takable American, suburban sprawl of the late 1990s and early 2000s. People who worked in the Inland Empire and commuters to LA and Orange County moved in, spurring the growth in resi-dential investment.

The robust and sustained growth of the

Inland Empire created a boom in the lo-cal economy and housing market. This was then followed by a devastating bust. Fontana and Silverdale are now littered with abandoned housing tracts, and homes all over the Inland Empire are up for sale. The Inland Empire, heavily dependent on the housing market, expe-rienced some of the worst fallout from the recently burst real estate bubble. Weidenmier emphasized this reliance the region by saying, “The Inland Empire is the Detroit of housing. Detroit produc-es cars; the Inland Empire builds houses. The difference is Detroit got a capital in-jection from the government; the Inland Empire did not.”

Claremont McKenna Professor of Economics Manfred Keil studies why certain parts of the Inland Empire are experiencing lower unemployment than others. Keil is currently researching and developing gravity models for the Inland Empire Outlook that will use economic analysis to explain the varying economic conditions within the region. Gravity models are used to determine what ef-fects neighboring economic centers have on trade and the commuting labor force. Keil thinks that cities and communities geographically close to L.A., Orange, and San Diego Counties have lower unemployment rates because residents in these bordering areas commute into adjacent counties. If bordering counties improve economically they might help pull the Inland Empire toward recovery.

The Inland Empire is also heavily depen-

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dent on U.S. imports through the Port of Los Angeles. If you drive through Ontario, you can see the hundreds of warehouses storing inventory awaiting cross-country transport. Many of these warehouses are now empty. Professor Weidenmier remarks, “Imports got ham-mered by 50% during the recession. Lo-gistics are beginning to come back but I see no substantial improvements coming for the next 4 to 5 years.”

The Lowe Institute predicts that the Inland Empire will have a difficult time lowering its unemployment rate below double-digit figures. The Lowe’s research led Weidenmier to conclude that the un-employment rate will not return to pre-recession levels in the near future and definitely not in the next 5 years. The Lowe Institute diagnosed the problem with the Inland Empire’s economic re-covery, stating, “The three major catego-ries of investment (residential, plant and

equipment, and inventory) are all stag-nant.” It stated residential investment in the region is and will be severely limited by the collapse of the housing market.

Consumer spending is anemic and credit markets are still frosty. Businesses are lucky if banks lend anything to them. So for firms and small businesses, invest-ment in new equipment will not be in the budget for the next couple of years. With low levels of imports, the warehouse sector of the Inland Empire, Ontario in particular, is failing to support economic growth. The Lowe Institute believes that foreign investment and exports will help fight the severe unemployment in the region.

Foreign investors are already starting to move into the Inland Empire; a Brit-ish grocery and merchandising retailer Tesco opened ‘Fresh and Easy’ grocery stores in San Bernardino, LA, Riverside,

and Orange County. The Lowe Institute found in a report from UC Berkeley that Japanese companies are talking with Riverside and San Bernardino counties about investments in solar and wind en-ergy.

The Inland Empire has the 24th high-est amount of export-supported jobs in the country. Manufacturing of auto and plane parts constitutes a large portion of the exports. Higher Chinese demand for oranges, grapes, and other produce could increase exports within the agri-cultural sector as well. Exports will re-main a viable source of economic aid so long as the U.S. dollar remains weak, making domestic goods cheap relative to foreign goods, and demand for Cali-fornian goods stays strong in East Asia, Mexico, and Canada.

What does 15% unemployment look like? What does a foreclosed home look like? What does a region devastated by the Great Recession look like? Certainly not like Claremont. Businesses in On-tario have boarded up their windows, housing tracts in Rancho Cucamonga have halted construction, warehouses in Ontario are low on inventory, and auto shops in Montclair lay vacant, recogniz-able only by the faint remnants of the monikers that once proudly displayed their name. Vacant lots and broken ware-houses line Holt Boulevard, a street only 3 miles from campus.

While Athenaeum talks come to a close and TNC’s dwindle into the early hours of the morning, people only blocks away from us wonder how they’ll pay their next bills and put food on the table. We constantly hear about the depressed economy in the news. When you get a chance, take a drive to the other side of Claremont Boulevard, and witness its ef-fects on our own backyard..

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(Un)conditional Giving New social assistance programs fight hereditary povertyBy Nick RoweIn t e r na t i ona l Edi t o r , CMC ‘13

school ranges from $13 to $19 a month.

The sums seem small, but it substantially improves the living standards of its ben-

eficiaries. A family living in extreme poverty in Brazil doubles its income with the basic benefit. It allows them to buy basic necessities, such as food. This benefit is easy to mea-sure and observe. The success of longer-term goals such as helping the poor to escape self-perpetuat-ing poverty are harder to measure, though evidence suggests they are smart investments. Professor Nz-

inga Broussard, of the Robert Day School of Economics and Finance,

comments, “It is commonly accepted that investments in human capital are one of the most effective ways to prevent the in-tergenerational transmission of poverty. There is strong evidence that investments in education and health in adolescence improves labor market outcomes later in life.” Overall, such programs have largely been seen as successful. “I think these pro-grams are as close as you can come to a magic bullet in development,” said Nan-cy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, “They’re creating an incentive for families to invest in their own children’s futures. Every decade or so, we see something that can really make a difference, and this is one of those things.”

A range of evidence supports this belief. An International Food Policy Research Institute evaluation found that children who took part in Oportunidades were healthier, better nourished, and stayed in school longer than those in a control group. The number of children entering middle school in rural areas has increased 42 percent. High school enrollment has risen by 85 percent. The poverty rate fell between 2000 and 2002, despite a reces-sion in which real income per head de-clined by about 3 percent. Bolsa Familia helped to contribute to a decline in pov-

erty from 22 percent to 7 percent in Bra-zil’s population between 2003 and 2009. Despite initial fears, the sums are small enough that for the most part poor peo-ple have not responded to cash payments by cutting back on paid work. As an added bonus, the fiscal cost to gov-ernments is fairly modest. Bolsa Familia costs about a third of 1 percent of Bra-zil’s GDP. CCTs generally target the poor more effectively than public pensions, social insurance, or indiscriminate subsi-dies. Rigorous evaluations are built in, as administrators need to know if partici-pants comply with the conditions. This lends these programs more credibility and makes them more attractive to the middle and upper classes that finance them. Politicians like CCTs because the poor rep-resent an influential voting bloc, though almost any social assistance scheme is no different in this respect. CCTs are dif-ferent in that they have largely avoided a tendency of new governments to do away with predecessors’ social programs. With support and funding from the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, many such programs have success-fully become institutionalized. As long as they are successful, they are here to stay.

Of course, CCTs are no panacea for pov-erty. Governments do not always plan for the increased demand for schools and health services. Sometimes the only way to meet the demand is to drastically re-duce quality. CCTs may increase school attendance, but if educational standards fall it serves little use.

CCTs have improved the lives of millions. Over 40 countries now have a conditional cash transfer program, including nearly every country in Latin America. Howev-er, governments of developing countries must not be content with the progress already achieved; CCTs can be reformed and made better. And ultimately, they are no replacement for the best solution to poverty: rapid economic growth.

The idea is simple: give small cash payments to the poor in exchange for keeping their children in school and tak-ing them for regular medical checkups. What the idea represents, though, is in-credibly novel: by attaching conditionality to the money that poor families receive, they must invest in human capital. This means making exactly the kinds of invest-ments that target the intergenerational transmission of poverty.

These types of programs, called condi-tional cash transfers (CCTs), go by differ-ent names in different places. The con-ditions and program designs differ, but most invest in education and nutrition. The program in Mexico, Oportunidades, was begun in 1997. It offers a family with a child in primary school and a child in middle school $123 a month. Students also receive money for school supplies, and those who finish high school receive a grant of $330. Today, the program cov-ers 5.8 million families, about 30 percent of the population. Brazil’s Bolsa Familia covers 50 million Brazilians, about a quarter of the country. Families living in extreme poverty receive a base payment of $40 a month with no conditions. The additional payment for a child attending

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HezbollahstanFears rise over militants’ increasing power in LebanonBy Samantha MorseCopy Edi t o r , P i tz e r ‘14

Both the United States and Israel are ap-prehensive that Lebanon will fall under the control of Hezbollah, a militant Shiite group that is classified by the US as a terrorist or-ganization. Future Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, a billionaire backed by Hezbol-lah, is especially trying to quell fears in the United States. “We cannot afford to have an enemy,” he said. Not only did Mikati pledge to form good relations with the United States, but also stated that he would not hinder an anticipat-ed international tribunal to indict members of Hezbollah in the assassination of the former prime minister. Despite Hezbollah’s pressures to denounce the tribunal, Mikati refuses to falter. “I am the prime minister and I will decide,” said Mikati. “If [Hezbol-lah does] not accept, let them not accept.” This individualistic route seems to have pla-cated the US. “As we see what this new gov-ernment does, we will judge it accordingly,” said Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clin-ton. Others are more critical of Mikati’s loyalties. “In one way or another, this government is on the axis of the Syrian-Hezbollah inter-ests,” said member of the Lebanese Parlia-ment Nouhad Mashnouq. Israel is particularly wary of Mikati. Yisrael Hayom, Israel’s largest daily newspaper, de-nounced the country as turning into “Hez-bollahstan.” Israeli government officials are already preparing for hostile relations. “The concern that Lebanon is on the fast track to becoming an Iranian satellite under Hezbol-lah control has widespread strategic implica-tions,” said an anonymous Israeli official. Mayse J. is a Palestinian freshman at Pitzer College from Ramallah in the West Bank. Her home is in a city under Israeli occupa-tion, surrounded by various walls and check-points. “Although security in the West Bank has always been excessive, I expect Israel is

New social assistance programs fight hereditary povertygoing to be even more worried about secu-rity if Hezbollah is in power, because Hez-bollah will do something to threaten Israel,” said Mayse. There is some speculation that Hezbollah’s increasing influence in Lebanon could be beneficial for Israel and Sunni-Arab rela-tions. Although the Sunni-majority countries of the Middle East are not fond of Israel, a common enemy is a strong unifier. “With notoriously sectarian Hezbollah in power, Sunni Arab regimes will be tempted to join in Israel’s efforts to undermine Iran and Hezbollah,” said Iranian-Israeli Middle East analyst Meir Javedanfar. Mayse sees this as very unlikely and uses a similar political situation in Palestine for comparison. In the 2006 Palestinian Parlia-mentary election, she said, the recognized terrorist organization Hamas won decisively, but ultimately the US and United Nation-backed group Fatah gained power instead.

“In 2006 Fatah and Israel could agree on certain points because they did not want Hamas in power, and I expect to see some-thing similar with Sunni-Arabs and Israel working to undermine Hezbollah,” said Mayse. “Still, these two don’t like each oth-er. At best they will agree on certain points against Hezbollah, but they will never work towards conflict resolution.” In Mayse’s opinion, the events in Lebanon are not to be confused with other distinct events happening in the Middle East, such as the protests and overthrow of President Mubarak in Egypt. “I feel like Americans have a very implanted idea in their heads against Middle Eastern-ers,” said Mayse. “They grow up to believe that Arabs and Muslims are terrorists. It doesn’t matter whether or not Hezbollah gains con-trol in Lebanon. Ameri-cans will have a negative depiction of Middle East-erners regardless.”

These anti-Middle Eastern sentiments have been studied extensively by Yahya R. Kam-alipour, Director of the Center for Global Studies at Purdue University. “The Ameri-can public often has very little knowledge of the Middle East; hence, the constant barrage of disasters, coups, uprisings, conflicts, and terrorist activities, reported routinely by the U.S. media, fosters a gross mis-impression of the Middle Eastern peoples, ” Kamali-pour says in his book The U.S. Media and the Middle East: Image and Perception. These countries are “often lumped together as if they were a single entity.” This has certainly become the case with the current Lebanon issue since the start of the riots in Egypt. A recent article in the World Tribune highlights Florida House Republi-can Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who first censures the Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptian poli-tics and then leaps to attacking Washington for persisting “in continuing to provide as-sistance to a Lebanese government in which Hezbollah essentially had veto power.” Though Washington remains supportive of the new Lebanese government, only as time passes and the dust settles in the Middle East will we see more Lebanon-specific policies.

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Claremont Teaches AmericaCMCers in Teach for America attempt to close achievement gapBy Mark MunroOutr ea ch Coord ina to r , CMC ‘12

Gone are the days when Deloitte and Goldman lured the most Claremont McKenna seniors to start their careers on the corporate ladder. For the past two years, Teach for America (TFA) has dominated on-campus recruiting to con-vince graduating seniors to trade in their potential cubicle for a classroom. TFA’s commitment to closing the achievement gap has attracted 18 members of CMC’s Class of 2011 – out of 24 offers – to ac-cept two-year stints teaching in some of America’s poorest performing schools. Given Teach for America’s popular-ity, the Port Side evaluated its recruiting and organizational successes by asking recruiters, current corps members, and alumni about its impact on our campus and the education reform movement.

On September 20, 2010, the U.S. De-partment of Education awarded TFA a $50 million grant under the Invest-ing in Innovation (i3) competition. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funded the $650 million program to support evidence-based innovative pro-grams that aim to close the achievement gap. One of 49 grantees out of 1,700 applicants, TFA proposed to expand by more than 80% by September 2014 to grow annual placements to 13,500 first and second-year teachers.

Nine graduates from CMC’s Class of 2010 accepted offers from TFA, and the College ranks as 17th among small colleges with less than 2,999 under-graduates in contributing to the corps. Yet, CMC ranked fourth among these schools for the greatest percentage of corps members in its graduating class, trailing Kalamazoo (12), Grinnell (13), and Spelman (18) respectively. The corps’ expansion could explain the fact that CMC has doubled its lot of gradu-ating seniors entering the corps, with

another round of offers still coming in April. Comparisons across campuses will be difficult until TFA concludes this final round of offers.

CMC’s culture of leadership aligns with TFA’s value on highly effective teachers who are successful pedagogues in a chal-lenging context. Diana Seder, Director of CMC’s Career Services Center, as-serted, “TFA is all about leaders. What makes a good leader is doing what it takes to get the job done. That is a CMC kid period. It’s a natural thing - a perfect match.”

When asked about the type of student that TFA looks for, Seder said that ASC-MC representatives and Resident Assis-tants tend to stick out. Teaching as Lead-ership, Teach for America’s leadership rubric, mirrors the Resident Assistant job description. Both involve reinforcing rules and consequences, creating a wel-coming environment, and persisting in the face of challenges.

Teach for America’s plentiful recruiting

does have its costs. Seder warns students that applying to TFA early on may pre-clude them from other job choices, stat-ing, “I don’t necessarily approve of their early deadlines. I don’t want any student’s job search to be compromised because they have to commit so early.” TFA’s five deadlines span from August 27 to Febru-ary 15. With applicants finding out their acceptance status as early as November 9, Teach for America maintains their

admission criteria remains consistent across deadlines, but urges students to apply as early as possible.

Evaluating the impact of TFA’s corps on narrowing the achievement gap re-quires an understanding of its economic and developmental roots. America’s achievement gap often emerges by age two. African-American children enter-ing kindergarten trail Caucasian students by 0.64 standard deviations in math and 0.401 in reading. Toddlers of parents with professional careers hear an aver-age of 2,000 words per hour while those with parents on welfare hear an average of 600 words per hour.

One cannot expect corps members to solve economic disparities. It ap-pears that TFA’s effectiveness must be observed both in and outside of the classroom. Only one independent, randomized study examining TFA ex-ists. Published by Mathematica Policy Research in 2004, the study found that corps members’ students significantly outperformed those taught by more

experienced teachers in math, but per-formed at the same level in reading. Mathematica’s study formed TFA’s basis of evidence to win one of four of the i3 competition’s four scale-up grants.

While studies raised questions about the effectiveness of TFA’s corps during the nineties, it has proven that continuous-ly increasing its impact remains a core value. From tweaking trainings to alter-

I was offered a job with a salary below the poverty line in the area, and the training needed can cost

thousands of dollars. My fear is that TFA is becoming an opportunity for more wealthy students to postpone re-ality and bolster their resumes.” — Jake Wyrick

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CMCers in Teach for America attempt to close achievement gaping admission criteria, TFA has honed its organization to reflect the best practices of highly ef-fective teachers. In 2007, 24 percent of TFA teachers moved their students one and a half or more years ahead, according to the or-ganization’s internal reports. In 2009, that number was up to 44 percent. That data relies largely on school tests, which vary in quality from state to state.

Critics argue that TFA’s turnover harms communities by giving them a teacher with five weeks of training who plans to leave after two years. Morgaen Don-aldson and Susan Moore Johnson of the Harvard Graduate School of Education studied TFA’s retention rates among corps members and found that 35% of existing corps members left between the beginning of year 2 and year 3. Defy-ing the odds, 61% stayed in the teaching profession more than 2 years and 24% are predicted to stay beyond 6 years. Yet, turnover still exists in the nation’s lowest-achieving schools and TFA does little to reverse it.

Megan MacPherson, a second-year corps member in Oakland, shared with the Port Side how TFA shifted her ca-reer path towards teaching. She viewed her commitment as a job before gradu-ate school, but says, “I’m planning on teaching until I’m too tired to teach any-more. I’m disillusioned with the system and frustrated with the lack of progress in district, state, and federal policy, but despite all that, there’s enough redemp-tion in being a classroom teacher to keep me in this fight.”

MacPherson raised one area where TFA has consistently missed their goal: diver-sity. In 2009, the organization aimed to have 29% of its incoming corps mem-

bers come from a low-income back-ground, but only attracted 24.5%, de-creasing 1.6% from the previous year. TFA also missed its goal of having 7.5% and 10% of corps members as Latinos and African-Americans, but ended the year with 6.6% and 9.3% respectively. The corps’ lack of diversity reflects the demographics of the teaching profes-sion, but perpetuates a homogeneous alumni group as leaders of the education reform movement.

Jake Wyrick ’11 turned down an offer from TFA to teach Pre-K. He explained that it was a financially crippling option, stating, “I was offered a job with a salary below the poverty line in the area, and the training needed can cost thousands of dollars. My fear is that TFA is be-coming an opportunity for more wealthy students to postpone reality and bolster their resumes. TFA also creates a cult-like atmosphere, always referring to ‘The Movement.’ In addition to being odd, it furthers a type of group-think in which they try to make you feel bad for stand-ing up with individual problems.”

TFA has spurred a culture of education reform across geographic bounds, con-tributing to the successful models of urban education. Roughly 10% of corps members considered education as a ca-reer before TFA, but nearly two-thirds of alumni work in the education sector. TFA alumni have founded some of the most successful charter school organi-

zations in the coun-try: the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), Aspire Public Schools, and Rocketship Educa-

tion. It appears that alumni have the greatest impact once they leave the classroom for the policy or

social entrepreneurial sectors.

With a degree in Economics and Japa-nese in hand, Ted Morris ’93 graduated from CMC with plans to work in inter-national finance. His TFA experience led him to return to education and eventu-ally found Futuro College Preparatory Elementary School as its School Di-rector. He views an expanded teaching corps and more TFA alumni – including those who move on to other careers – as positive and a step toward addressing how the current educational system fails our children.

With 20,000 alumni, TFA has assem-bled a base of some of the nation’s most promising leaders. Still, one won-ders how their uniform training and shared experience in some of the na-tion’s poorest communities will impact the innovation both inside and outside the education reform movement. The corps’ group-think could stifle the cre-ativity that, for example, lead to Larry Rosenstock’s High Tech High, a success-ful project-based charter school in San Diego that takes an interdisciplinary ap-proach to learning.

The organization’s expansion has an ob-vious impact on CMC students’ future careers. Alumni achievements seem to outweigh TFA’s short-term impact in the classroom and high turnover. Nev-ertheless, it’s lack of diversity and homo-geneous experience could have unfore-seen consequences for education reform movement’s future leaders.

By Sara BirkenthalCampus Edi t o r , CMC ‘13

This is the second of a three-part series on Claremont student racial group activity.

In addition to clashes over the Vietnam War and CMC’s ROTC program, the Claremont Col-leges were not immune from the racial radical-ism that characterized the 1960s and ‘70s. In 1946, CMC’s Story House was built and named after the late President of the (three, at the time) Claremont Colleges, Russell Story. The build-ing, a three-story mansion, constituted CMC’s (then Claremont Men’s College) only permanent campus building for the first year and a half of the College’s existence. Story House served as a dormitory, commons, and dining facility until it was burnt down.

On Monday, February 17, 1969 the building was severely damaged by a fire. Although investiga-tors blamed the blaze on an uninsulated steam pipe, there were strong suspicions of arson. Ac-cording to Ward Elliott, Claremont McKenna Professor of Government and the school’s un-official historian, in his Notes on CMC’s History, “the fire itself took place six days after a black militant from Pomona, demanding the endorse-ment of ethnic quotas and black studies courses, had asked the CMC faculty, ‘Do you want this campus burned down this summer or next sum-mer?’”

This threat was just the tip of the iceberg of that year’s infamous radical student activism. Most of the stir was created by the “1969 Radicals,” as they have come to be called, a small group of black students who were pushing for radical change. They insisted that blacks account for 10 percent of students and faculty members and that 10 percent of the budget go toward fund-ing the creation of a black studies center. When their demands were ignored by CMC’s administration, two bombings

Everyday Extremism: Part IIA three-part history of radical clashes in Claremont’s past

the plank

and 10 arsons, including the Story House fire, occurred over a 10-week period. Eventually, in an extremely controversial decision, CMC’s Of-fice of Admissions admitted a freshman class of 1970 that was 10% black.

Claremont’s legacy of racial activism extends be-yond 1969. As recently as 2004 four students, two from Harvey Mudd, one from Scripps, and one from CMC, burnt an eleven-foot tall cross on CMC’s campus during winter break. Sev-eral days later the students turned themselves in to their respective deans claiming they had not meant to “harm or offend anyone.”

A group of Pomona students, outraged by the administration’s lack of response, formed the student group SLAM: Student Liberation Ac-tion Movement. In addition to calling for the creation of Queer Studies and Native American Studies departments, the radical group accused the Claremont community of “white privilege” and demanded that the offending students be expelled.

Later, on the evening of March 9th of the same year, Psychology Professor Kerri Dunn returned to her old Honda Civic after a free speech rally to find that it had been vandalized with a variety of racial slurs, including a swastika, according to a 2004 article in the St. Petersburg Times entitled “An Education in Hate.”

SLAM mobilized to alert the student body of the heinous offense and the student community was outraged. Over 2,000 students gathered to protest the hate crime. Dunn herself was present at the rally where she made a passionate speech addressing the “larger issues of civil rights and of men, women, people of color, and people of

sexual orientations.” A $10,000 reward was post-ed for the name of the person responsible for the crime, and the administration went so far as to cancel classes the following day, which didn’t even happen on September 11th.

One week later the police announced that af-ter intensive investigation they had concluded that Professor Dunn had vandalized her own car out of a desire to call attention to issues of hate speech. Then-director of the Claremont Institute, Ken Masugi, described Dunn’s decep-tive actions as a “Reichstag Fire” and compared the resulting student activism to that of 1969. Dunn, who later served prison time for the hoax, set the fire and Claremont’s students, faculty, and administration were blinded by the smoke.