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The Student Life The student newspaper of the Claremont Colleges since 1889. The Student Life is the oldest college newspaper in Southern California.

Established in 1889, TSL reports on all seven of the Claremont Colleges. TSL is a student-run organization. We hire each semester, and we welcome students from any of the 7Cs to join our editorial, visual and audience desks.

TSL captured photos from this year’s Sixth Street matchups in football, women’s soccer and men’s soccer.—Photos by Sarah...
20/10/2025

TSL captured photos from this year’s Sixth Street matchups in football, women’s soccer and men’s soccer.

Photos by Sarah Ziff
View the full series at the link in our bio.

Home pool advantage turned the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) men’s water polo into a whole other beast. As co-hosts of th...
20/10/2025

Home pool advantage turned the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) men’s water polo into a whole other beast. As co-hosts of the Gary Troyer Tournament, the Stags entered the tournament with a 6-4 season record and faced multiple Division I teams in their brackets, including #13 UC Irvine. To everyone’s surprise, however, CMS left the weekend with a dominant 4-0 record, defeating two nationally ranked teams.

“We had played a decent first three quarters of water polo against [UC Irvine],” Asher Engelberg CM ‘28 said. “Obviously, coming into the game, they were ranked higher than us. And I think it was a game that a lot of people expected us to lose, but morale was decently high because we were hanging in it with them, so we knew that we could beat them and that we were the better team that day.”

The victory over UCI seemed to feed the Stags’ hunger, as they went on to collect a gauntlet of wins against Mount. St. Mary’s, McKendree University and another DI powerhouse: the Air Force Academy.

“One thing that we did really well at was just keeping our composure,” Nick Kennedy CM ‘26 said. “It’s pretty easy for other teams to go on momentum runs or, when something’s not going your way, it’s easy to get frustrated. But this weekend, we really focused on keeping our composure for when those moments did inevitably happen. And you know, even if a goal or two got scored on us in a row, we did a good job keeping level heads and attacking the play after.”

Words by Jun Kwon| Photo courtesy of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athletics
Read the full story at the link in our bio

Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s basketball is headed to Spain for the program’s first-ever foreign tour, and senior Hens are...
20/10/2025

Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) women’s basketball is headed to Spain for the program’s first-ever foreign tour, and senior Hens are leading the effort. With the winter season taking up nearly six months of the school year, athletes who are usually unable to study abroad are using the summer as a special opportunity to play basketball overseas.

“Study away ends up being really challenging for basketball players, because our sport stretches two semesters, so it’s really hard to feel like you can fully participate in women’s basketball,” head coach Alaina Woo said.

Since the trip is only partially paid for, however, the team is seeking out ways to reduce out-of-pocket costs to make the plan a reality. Several Hens rose to the occasion, among which are a committee of three players, Shea Joko PZ ’28, Charlotte Patel PO ’28 and Abigail Homan PO ’27 who are spearheading fundraising efforts.

“I think some of my favorite [fundraisers] are reaching out to the community through just cold emailing, and then some Facebook mom sites to get people to come to our trainings that we’re hosting on Thursdays and weekends,” Patel said. “And it’s super fun to engage with youth in the community to do something we love — basketball — and also help fundraise for this greater trip.”

Words by Jun Kwon | Photo courtesy of Pomona-Pitzer Athletics
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

Charlie Kirk’s death was certainly an important moment in the history of the Trump administration, and perhaps even for ...
20/10/2025

Charlie Kirk’s death was certainly an important moment in the history of the Trump administration, and perhaps even for the world at large. However, it certainly was not as important as Jesus’s death. That hasn’t stopped comparisons between the two. The MAGA movement’s hijack of Christian imagery, says Ansley Kang SC ‘29, is fundamentally in conflict with their rejection of Christian morals. Christians and agnostics alike should fight for the separation of church and state now more than ever, as MAGA’s new church only worships Trump.

“The lines between church and state have become more blurred than ever, but the ‘church’ that is invading the state is one that Trump created in order to implement his hateful agenda,” says Kang. “Pushing towards the separation of church and state is crucial in a time where our nation is governed by an anti-Christian agenda masked behind false preaching.”

Words by Ansley Kang | Graphic by Sasha Matthews
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

The Democratic Party needs to regain rural support, and the Abundance movement may be the solution.Proponents of Abundan...
20/10/2025

The Democratic Party needs to regain rural support, and the Abundance movement may be the solution.

Proponents of Abundance hope to dismantle cost barriers to housing through “targeted deregulation, unleashing both private and public housing development processes in order to ease costs,” writes Caleb Rasor CMC ‘28. In the process, Abundance-aligned legislation has already brought thousands of new jobs to rural communities.

Considering that Democratic economic platforms have historically uplifted rural Republicans, the liberal Abundance movement is the perfect solution to rural disaffection.

Words by Caleb Rasor | Graphic by Shixiao Yu
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

It’s always embarrassing to see a bad photo of you on a friend’s social media. But could it be destroying our generation...
20/10/2025

It’s always embarrassing to see a bad photo of you on a friend’s social media. But could it be destroying our generation’s hopes of finding love? Kate Eisenreich SC’27 argues that the shaming forces of social media’s watchful eye, flushing your face when you look at posts you are tagged in, serve to dilute the authenticity of subcultures, social movements, and even relationships.

“Social media invites us to observe and ultimately traps us in its surveillance” Eisenreich writes. “The only difference between Foucault’s Panopticon and Instagram is that there isn’t just a single guard in the guard post. We are all simultaneously both the victim of observation, and the unseen observer.”

Words by Kate Eisenreich | Graphic by: Shixiao Yu
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

A Chilean, a Chicagoan and a dictator walk into a South American nation. Why, after 50 years does a N**i walk out, and w...
20/10/2025

A Chilean, a Chicagoan and a dictator walk into a South American nation. Why, after 50 years does a N**i walk out, and why is the answer neoliberalism?

The perfect storm of the Chilean coup d’état and the subsequent neoliberal regime is often credited with the nation’s economic rise. But Rafael Hernandez Guerrero PZ’29 argues that its policies, sowing the seeds of the disenfranchisement of the working and middle classes, have enabled the rise of far-right ideology there, and abroad.

“The Chilean example exposes a broader truth” notes Hernandez Guerrero. “A political system directed by and for the people is incompatible with market fundamentalism. The endurance of Pinochet’s political and economic institutions, even under leftist administrations, shows that political democracy without economic democracy, and political liberalism without economic liberalism, is inherently fragile.”

Words by Rafael Hernandez Guerrero | Graphic by: Shixiao Yu
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

In the past few years, some of pop cultures’ most popular plus-sized icons have undergone weight loss journeys, facing b...
20/10/2025

In the past few years, some of pop cultures’ most popular plus-sized icons have undergone weight loss journeys, facing backlash from fans who complain that doing so is conformative and hypocritical.

“For plus-size celebrities, meeting every societal standard proves impossible. Lose weight and you are a sellout to your self-love brand,” writes Joelle Rudolf SC ‘28. “Exist in your larger body and you are an industry anomaly whose entire image must be based on your appearance.”

The practice of body positivity has been massively misconstrued. True body positivity goes beyond acceptance of size, emphasizing peoples’ relationships with their bodies in terms of health, functionality and personal autonomy.

Words by Joelle Rudolf | Graphic by Nergis Alboshebah
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

During class registration, I thought, why would I sign up to do something I’m no good at? “We’re obsessed with filling o...
20/10/2025

During class registration, I thought, why would I sign up to do something I’m no good at? “We’re obsessed with filling our schedules with activities that present as productive and sound practical,” writes Leili Kamali PO29. “Lift to get stronger, run to get faster. For me, breakdancing has been the antidote to my efficiency complex.”

Kamali thinks that everyone should consider diving into something new and uncomfortable, for the sake of expanding horizons. “It’s about diving headfirst into something new, embracing the discomfort of it all and discovering that being terrible at something can be unexpectedly fun.”

Words by Leili Kamali | Graphic by Nergis Alboshebah
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

Zena Almerida-Warwin continues her poetry column with another original piece: “Baboon on East Bonita.” She recounts a fe...
20/10/2025

Zena Almerida-Warwin continues her poetry column with another original piece: “Baboon on East Bonita.” She recounts a few jarring interactions with a local Claremont resident, prompting her to reflect on the comfortability some feel to criticize strangers, especially young women.

“What I do hope to point out is that most women have an allotted amount of time before their joy, or sadness, or excitement, or nonchalance, or anger is critiqued or at least outwardly identified by a man. “You should smile more”, is the age-old classic, but there are also countless other renditions,” she writes.

“I can’t get used to male dominion over my regulatory sphere, the mental space that ensures that I can feel and survive through a healthy balance of emotions.”

Words by Zena Almeida-Warwin | Graphic by Amrithasai Gussenhoven
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

Liam Riley PO ‘26 returns with his weekly column. In this rendition, he explores Jack Kerouac’s slide into alcoholic psy...
20/10/2025

Liam Riley PO ‘26 returns with his weekly column. In this rendition, he explores Jack Kerouac’s slide into alcoholic psychosis. Riley explores Kerouac’s ideas in conjunction with his own, coming to the conclusion that discovering ultimate truth can spring from a deep dissatisfaction with everyday reality.

“I should have been perfectly content, but I wanted to see the sky turn green, or the sun peel itself away to reveal a fiery cross, or a pitch-black ceiling panel fall out of the sky to reveal an embarrassed alien onlooker,” Riley writes.
For Riley, while there is value in searching for the truth, often that practice distracts us from the beauty directly in front of us.

Words by William Riley | Graphic by Shixiao Yu
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

On Oct. 2, Aly Raisman, a six-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time gymnastics team captain, took the stage at Scripps...
20/10/2025

On Oct. 2, Aly Raisman, a six-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time gymnastics team captain, took the stage at Scripps Presents to share lessons from her athletic journey and trauma healing process. Raisman came forward as a survivor of sexual abuse in 2017 and is now an avid advocate for sexual assault survivors.

Winnie Macaulay SC ’28 attended the event along with the entire CMS women’s lacrosse team.

“Speaking for my team, we were all extremely impacted by her message,” Macaulay said. “I now understand more about how I’ve been feeling coming into college athletics, and the importance of prioritizing my own mental health and valuing what I put in every day at practice.”

In telling her story, Raisman noted how devastatingly common abuse is, and emphasized that speaking out can be extremely terrifying. “I wish that we lived in a world where more people felt safer speaking out,” Raisman said. “But I also wish we lived in a world where people didn’t have to.”

Words by Ananya Vinay | Photo Courtesy Scripps College
Read the full story at the link in our bio.

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