Since 2000, Walker Beach has been the site of The Claremont Colleges’ increasingly popular celebration of Holi, the springtime festival of colors and love that originated in India. Organized by the Claremont Hindu Society, with the support of the Office of Chaplains, the festival is celebrated as a carnival of bright colors, with participants throwing dry colored powder or colored water at each other until both crowd and surroundings appear to have been tie-dyed. Last March, more than 400 students from across the campuses took part in the 2015 festivities.
Articles Written By: emae2021@pomona.edu
Have a Jolly Holi
Under Prometheus
President David Oxtoby welcomes the members of the Class of 2015 to a Senior Dinner on April 7 beneath José Clemente Orozco’s fresco of Prometheus in Frary Hall.
Stories Matter
STORIES MAKE us better.
That’s not just my opinion as a writer and editor who’s made a living telling stories for many years. It’s my opinion as a human being who, like all human beings, depends on stories to keep his heart fresh and alive.
Stories can be magical things. They have the power to break down walls, blunt prejudices, calm fears, alter points of view. As I write this, the news just came in that the Supreme Court has come down on the side of gay marriage, following a veritable tidal shift in American public opinion on the subject, following lots and lots of stories—individual stories—that slowly filtered into people’s hearts.
As human beings, we’re simply not geared to sympathize with groups of people, especially groups that are, in some seemingly significant way, different from ourselves. In fact, the opposite may well be true. We fear the collective other. We eye them with suspicion and jealousy. We create stereotypes to rationalize our fears. Some of this may even be written into the darkest corners of our genes.
Statistics—the ultimate in thinking about human beings as collectives—can bring an informative bit of reality into play, and they may nudge us intellectually in a new direction, but they don’t touch our emotions. As someone once said, a million deaths is a statistic, but one death is a tragedy.
That’s because we are also wired to feel empathy—not for groups, but for individuals. We do this largely through the stories we’re told and the stories we tell ourselves about our own experiences.
Literature, I remember reading long ago, is about the creation of complex sympathies. I’ve always liked that definition. Not simple sympathies—those are too easy. It’s easy to empathize with people very much like ourselves, especially if they’ve been victimized or unjustly accused or if they’ve been thwarted by no clear fault of their own.
It gets harder, however, when it’s someone we don’t quite understand, someone whose actions or motivations or origins go against the grain of our opinions or prejudices. It gets harder still when it’s someone from a group we actively disapprove of, someone we automatically stereotype, someone we view with suspicion or fear.
That’s why stories are so important. Good stories are subversive—they intrude upon our neatly built theories with humane sympathies. They put human faces on our straw men. They’re the bulldozers in our heads that make room for growth.
The theme of this issue, “Untold Stories” might be said to be an oxymoron. After all, isn’t a story by definition something that’s told? But there are so many stories—potential stories anyway—that for one reason or another we never hear. Sometimes they’re untold because of fear or embarrassment. Sometimes because of the walls we build to keep them in. Getting them out into the open is sometimes essential therapy for those who have been keeping them inside, but it’s also good therapy for those of us who need to hear them in order to expand our own capacity for complex and humane sympathies.
—MW
88 Years Ago
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ITEM: The Marjorie Maude Bell ’28 Scrapbook
DATE: 1924–1928
COLLECTION: One of 37 scrapbooks currently in the Pomona College Archives collection, ranging from the Class of 1901 to the Class of 1972.
DESCRIPTION: 240-page scrapbook (12” X 9” X 6”), jammed with pasted-in invitations, dance cards with attached pencils, tickets, programs, clippings and other memorabilia from Southern California college life in the 1920s.
ORIGIN: The scrapbook was donated by Karen McDaniel, Ms.Bell’s niece, who explained: “She graduated in 1928, and her brother Gilbert Clyde Bell, (my grandfather) graduatedin 1927. She was a very involved student: secretary of her senior class, president of Phi Kappa Sigma literary society,sorority sister of Alpha Chi Omega, among other positions.”
If you have an item from Pomona’s history that you’d like tosee preserved in the Archives, please call 909-621-8138.
Inspired
ANDREA DIAZ ’15 HAS found inspiring role models throughout her life, starting with her parents and continuing with the professors at Pomona College. The daughter of two pediatricians, she came to Pomona with an interest in the sciences and began doing research in Professor Mal Johal’s lab as a first-year student. She also became a mentor herself, working with international students, Pomona Science Scholars, Students of Color Alliance and as a pre-health liaison. Last spring, Andrea received two extraordinary awards—a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research in Paris and the David Geffen Medical Scholarship to attend the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
“Looking back, I see that Pomona has molded me, but that I’ve helped to mold it as well. That’s one of the great things about the College. You can’t be a passive bystander.” -Andrea Diaz ’15
Parents, Role Models and Inspiration
“My parents are the superstars. They were both first-generation students, first-generation Americans and the first physicians in our family. By witnessing their work serving as two of the only three pediatricians in our county, a small, under-served rural area, I’ve been able to see the influence they’ve had on the health of our community. Whenever they go out, people approach them, giving them updates about their children and thanking them; they taught me that being a physician in that kind of area is not a 9-to-5 job, but a social responsibility. It’s what has inspired me to go to medical school.”
The Fight Against Drug-Resistant Bacteria
“As more and more bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, scientists and doctors are concerned that we’re headed toward a post-antibiotic era, where simple infections can once again become deadly. The research I’ve worked on at Pomona involves antimicrobial peptides, which latch onto the inner membranes of bacteria and essentially tear them apart. It’s a molecule that works to fight bacteria and is a promising alternative to traditional antibiotics.”
Three Professors Who Made a Difference
“Professor Johal has been my strongest supporter and was very influential during my time at Pomona. He sparks something that makes you take responsibility and ownership over your research and work as a collaborator with him in the lab. That is very empowering. Professor Selassie is a wonderful, strong role model of what a woman of color in science should be like. I hope one day I can be that for someone who wants to enter the medical field. And Professor Sandoval, who taught my Intro to Chicano/Latino history class, is inspirational and challenges students to re-think traditional narratives. After his last class, I honestly just wanted to stand up and applaud because he’s an incredible lecturer and really calls you to action.”
Recognition for Pomona as a Fair Trade College
“In high school, I became interested in fair trade as a practical way to fight modern-day slavery, to provide just wages to producers and growers. At Pomona, I became part of a three-person committee to gain recognition for the great strides the College was making to bring fair trade products to campus and to create some form of accountability. Pomona was recognized as the 11th Fair Trade College nationally and the second in California, which speaks to our commitment to sustainability and fair wages. Whenever I went to campus events and saw fair trade coffee or tea, it made me happy to think that I played a small role in that.”
Language, Humanities and a Year in Paris
“I’m spending a year at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris on a Fulbright Fellowship, working under Dr. Sylvie Rebuffat, who is one of the world’s leading researchers in antimicrobial peptides, specifically lasso peptides. It’s a dream come true. I know my experience doing research in an international setting is going to be different than my experience at Pomona.
“What the humanities taught me is that I can’t go into a different environment blindfolded. I’m grateful that my classes at Pomona, especially my French classes, have given me a wider cultural awareness and appreciation. They have strengthened my ability to communicate and work with others and have helped me understand the impact that science has on society, as well as the impact that society has on science.”
UCLA and Beyond
“I’m very honored and humbled by the David Geffen Medical Scholarship and by the freedom it will give me to shape my future. Many people coming out of medical school have the burden of debt, but this opportunity will give me the liberty to use my medical degree where I see the greatest need, to go to underserved communities and specialize in primary care, or to become more involved with research or with academic medicine.”
The Greater Good
“Most students at Pomona are really passionate about something and can find the support they need here to act on those ideas and that passion. We’re incredibly fortunate to have all these resources and opportunities, amazing professors and outlets for expression. Looking back, I see that Pomona has molded me, but that I’ve helped to mold it as well. That’s one of the great things about the College. You can’t be a passive bystander. The question for me now is: ‘How am I going take all these things that I’ve acquired here and use them for the greater good?’”
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The Tetrasept Reunion
THE CLASS OF 1968, which launched the College’s ongoing fascination with the number 47 years ago, has now given birth to a new tradition—the 47-year reunion. During Alumni Weekend, members of the class flocked back to Pomona for the first such gathering, and in honor of the occasion, they even created a new genre of poetry, which they dubbed the “tetrasept.”
At the center of it all was Bruce Elgin ’68, who—as a student in class with Professor Donald Bentley back in 1964—was one of originators of Pomona’s ongoing 47 search (along with Laurie Mets ’68). Elgin defines a tetrasept as a poetic form with “either four lines of seven syllables or seven lines of four syllables,” adding: “There are no rhyme or meter restrictions.”
During the build-up to the reunion, members of the class submitted tetrasepts about the reunion itself, the Class of ’68 or the cult of 47, for publication in a 32-page booklet. The submissions ranged from nostalgic to acerbic to esoteric, but they had one thing (in addition to their unique form) in common—they’re characteristic of the extraordinary inventiveness of one of Pomona’s most innovative classes.
Below are a few examples lifted from the booklet titled “Tetrasepts.”
From “Tetrasepts”
We call four score and seven
Oratory from heaven.
But other way ’round … not close:
Seven score and four—just gross!
—Bruce Elgin ’68
Greetings dear friends,
the deadline nears.
Words elude me.
What did I learn
at Pomona?
Procrastinate,
and words will come.
—Karen Porter MacQueen ’68
Why wait ‘til number fifty?
Let’s meet now, and let’s meet then.
Twice the fun! (Like letters here
Are two times forty-seven).
—Ruth Massaro (Henry) ’68
Forty-seven
Since sixty-four
Has proved to be
Unlikely lore;
So now ’hens fete
What shall endure
Forever more.
—Mary Jane Gibson ’68
Forty-seven
Have come and gone
My liberal
Education
Still a solid
Deep foundation
For a good life.
—Jill Kelly ¸’68
Where art thou forty-seven
Our class seeks you everywhere
In proofs, in ads, or even
A silly verse—on a dare.
—Diane Erwin ’68
They only are loyal to
this college who, departing,
bear their added riches in
trust for mankind. James Blaisdell
—Kathleen Wilson Selvidge ’68
Bentley proved all
Numbers equal
Forty-seven;
Hence Pomona
Class reunions
Always are the
Forty-seventh.
—Brian Holmes ’68
Celebrate!
SAGEHENS ARE COMING together in record numbers—both in person and online—to learn, mingle and make a difference.
Alumni Weekend 2015
This year’s Alumni Weekend brought together more than 1,600 alumni and guests for a weekend of for a weekend of fun, celebration and hundreds of campus activities, including performances, open houses and lectures. Highlights included the Daring Minds Speakers Series, featuring Blaisdell Award winners James Turrell ’65, Bill Keller ’70 and Mary Schmich ’75, the first-ever 47th Reunion, held by the Class of 1968 (see story on page 47), and a Claremont in Entertainment and Media panel featuring Richard Chamberlain ’56. At the gathering in Little Bridges preceding the Parade of Classes, Alumni Distinguished Service Award winners Jeanne Buckley ’65 P’92 and Stan Hales ’64 were recognized, class volunteers were celebrated and over $3 million in reunion class gifts were announced. (For more photos, see Last Word, page 64.)
Winter Break Parties
In January, Sagehens around the world flocked together in growing numbers to take part in a favorite community tradition. Winter Break Parties brought nearly 1,000 Pomona alumni, parents, students and friends together in 15 cities from Kansas City to Shanghai for laughter and libations, stories and Sagehen spirit. Interested in hosting a Winter Break Party in your city this season? Contact Kara Everin in the Office of Alumni & Parent Engagement at kara.everin@pomona.edu for more information.
Daring Minds Events
Pomona’s yearlong celebration to wrap up Campaign Pomona: Daring Minds kicked off last spring with a series of events designed to help Sagehens learn, mingle and make a difference. Highlights this spring included:
- Daring Minds Lectures: On campus (including nationally noted poet Professor Claudia Rankine in April) and across the nation (including the East Coast lecture series in March, featuring Professors Amanda Hollis-Brusky and Char Miller).
- 4/7: A Celebration of Sagehen Impact: This social media-driven effort celebrated the good work and good will of a community full of “everyday Daring Minds.” More than 150 civic-minded Sagehens and friends posted about their good deeds, and the good deeds of Pomona friends, while hundreds more chirped their encouragement through “likes” and comments. Community members also pledged and performed service as part of the celebration, including 16 Seattle Sagehens who came together on a rainy Saturday to plant 447 trees at a local nature preserve. It’s not too early to start planning: What will you do to make a difference by next 4/7?
- Senior Send-Off: For 47 hours leading up to Class Day and Commencement, hundreds of alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students and friends rallied for the College’s first Senior Send-Off, a mini-campaign to honor the graduating Class of 2015 and support Pomona education for all current students. Nearly 500 donors gave more than $80,000, and dozens more alumni, students, faculty and friends took to social media and the campaign web site to offer their “sage advice” to graduates as they make their life-changing transition.
- Daring Minds Videos: Watch for your invitation to tune in for a series of Daring Minds videos to be made available starting in September. On the playlist are Professor Claudia Rankine and alumni James Turrell ’65, Bill Keller ’70 and Mary Schmich ’75.
Career Networking Events
Alumni volunteers across the country organized and hosted a series of career networking events this spring and summer. From Los Angeles to Chicago and New York, more than 100 members of the Pomona community came together to connect with fellow Sagehens and share industry-specific and general career stories and advice, and the program continues to grow! Interested in hosting a career networking event in your region? Contact the Alumni and Parent Engagement team at alumni@pomona.edu.
To make sure you hear about exciting events and opportunities yet to come, update your contact information by emailing alumni@pomona.edu or calling 1-888-SAGEHEN.
Travel/Study
Hawaiian Seascapes
(Big Island to Molokai)
With Professor Emeritus Rick Hazlett
Dec. 5–12, 2015
Board the Safari Explorer for a seven-day cruise from the Big Island of Hawaii to Molokai, with stops on West Maui and the “private island” of Lanai. Enjoy dramatic volcanic backdrops and marine life sightings. (NOTE: At publication, there was only one cabin left on this cruise.)
From Angles to Angels:
The Christianization of Barbarian England
With History Professor Ken Wolf
May 18–29, 2016
The eighth in a series of alumni walking trips with a medieval theme, this is the first involving the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to appreciate the fascinating history (captured by the Venerable Bede) of the conversion of the barbarian conquerors of England, starring the Irish and Roman missionaries. In Scotland, you will visit Kilmartin, Dumbarton and Loch Lomond; in England, Lindisfarne, Hadrian’s Wall and Durham Cathedral.
Inner Reaches of Alaska
June 4–11, 2016
Join Pitzer Professor of Environmental Analysis Paul Faulstich on an “un-cruise” through the stunning Inner Reaches Coves of Alaska. Aboard a small vessel serving 74 passengers, adventurers will travel from Juneau to Ketchikan, encountering stunning glacial landscapes, old-growth forests and incredible wildlife.
For more information, contact the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement at
1-888-SAGEHEN or alumni@pomona.edu.
Buckley completes term as Chair of Pomona College Board
Outgoing Board Chair Jeanne Buckley ’65 with President David Oxtoby
OUTGOING CHAIR OF the Pomona College Board of Trustees Jeanne Martin Buckley ’65 received the Pomona College’s Alumni Distinguished Service Award at an Alumni Weekend program in Little Bridges on May 2, in honor of her many years of service to the College. Buckley, who completed her three-year term as board chair in June, has been a member of the board since 1999 and is the first woman and the first person of color to lead the board since the College’s founding in 1887.
“I have really appreciated the opportunity to work closely with Jeanne Buckley during her term as board chair over the last three years,” President David Oxtoby said. “She has provided steady and thoughtful leadership during a period of considerable change for Pomona College. I have been able to turn to her for helpful advice on many occasions.”
As an undergrad at Pomona in the early 1960s, Buckley took a range of leadership roles, participating in student government, choir and glee club, and helping to put on a jazz festival. For much of the time, she was the only Black woman attending Pomona, but she had been in the same situation in high school in Pelham, N.Y. “It was not a shock in a cultural sense,” she said in an interview a few years ago. “I could navigate it.”
After Pomona, she found her way into social work and was involved in the early days of Head Start. She also trained as an actress, landing a seven-episode stint on the popular primetime soap opera Peyton Place. In the end, a decade after graduating from Pomona, she decided to continue her education in law school, earning her J.D. from Empire College School of Law in 1979.
During a distinguished legal career, Buckley has specialized mainly in juvenile and family law and then served as a Sonoma County Superior Court Commissioner for more than a decade. In 1995, she was honored as Juvenile Court Judge of the Year by the California Judges Association and Woman of the Year by the Sonoma County Bar Association’s Women in Law group. Since 2003, she has been a professional panel member for Resolution Remedies, a firm specializing in mediation, arbitration and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. In 2004, she was recognized with the Bar Association’s Career of Distinction Award.
Prior to assuming the role of board chair, Buckley chaired both the Student Affairs Committee and the Academic Affairs Committee for four years and served on a number of other committees including the Executive Committee, Facilities and Environment Committee, Strategic Planning and Trusteeship.
Vertigo@Midnight Art Exhibit Explores Afrofuturism
THE ART EXHIBIT “Vertigo@Midnight: New Visual AfroFuturisms & Speculative Migrations,” on view Feb. 23 – 
March 6, at Pomona College and Scripps College, invites viewers to contemplate the visceral, spiritual, emotional and political dimensions of diaspora.
The artists from around the world include Chakaia Booker, Michele Bringier, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Krista Franklin, Renee Stout, Lee Blalock, Chris Christion, Oluwatobi Clement, Sydney Dyson, Sharon Grier, Karen Hampton, Zeal Harris, David Huffman, Lek Jeyifous, Ademola Olugebefola, Glynnis Reed, Cauleen Smith, Jaye Thomas, Sheila Walker, Jessica Wimbley and Saya Woolfalk.
The artists are linked through their interest in and reimaginings of race, gender, the body, space and time. The artwork collected here considers the tensions and joys of identity through multiplicity, remixed histories, storytelling, memories, fragmentations and reinventions, disorientation and vertiginous boundary crossings.
The Vertigo@Midnight exhibition is hosted by two campus galleries – the Pomona College Studio Art Hall Chan Gallery, (370 N. Columbia Ave., Claremont) and the Scripps College Clark Humanities Museum (981 N. Amherst Ave., Claremont). The opening reception, with readings by Kima Jones, Peter Harris, and 5Cs students, will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 4:15 p.m., at the Clark Museum. Both museums are open Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, 12 – 5 pm.
Curated by Pomona College Prof. Valorie Thomas, “Vertigo@Midnight” opens dialogue about disorientation and equilibrium through her theorizing of African Diasporic Vertigo as a cultural idiom that crosses borders, cultures and languages.
Related Events:
- Feb 21, Film/Performance, 8 p.m., King Britt presents “Brother From Another Planet (Recontextualized),” Smith Campus Center (Edmunds Ballroom, 170 E. Sixth St., Claremont)
- February 27-28 & March 6-7, Film Screenings, AfroFuturisms and the Speculative Arts, 12-6 p.m., Crookshank Hall (140 W. Sixth St., Claremont)
- March 4, Artist Talk, Jessica Wimbley, 1:15 p.m. with reception at 4 p.m., featuring a dance performance by Sesa Bakenra (Claremont McKenna College ’15), Pomona College Studio Art Hall, Room 122.
- March 5, Artist Talk, Claude Fiddler, 4:15 p.m., Pomona College Studio Art Hall, Room 122.
- March 6-7, Film Screenings, AfroFuturisms and the Speculative Arts, 12-6 p.m., Pomona College Studio Art Hall, Room 122.
For more information on AfroFuturisms and the Speculative Arts, contact valorie.thomas@pomona.edu.
—Cynthia Peters
Story Quilt Exhibit Reveals Reactions to Trayvon Martin Shooting
“AMERICAN SPRING, A CAUSE FOR JUSTICE,” 23 story quilts that narrate the Trayvon Martin shooting in 
Florida, will be on display at Pomona College, beginning Feb. 23. The quilts come from the Fiber Artists of Hope Network and reveal reactions to Martin’s death in 2012 and hopes for a better America.
The exhibition will be open Feb. 23 to March 8, 2015, at the Pomona College Bridges Auditorium (450 N. College Way, Claremont) and is free to the public. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, Feb. 26, with lectures at 6 p.m. and the reception at 7 p.m.
The exhibition is open on Monday–Wednesday and Friday-Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Thursdays, the exhibition will be open 1-7 p.m. in connection with the Pomona College Museum of Art’s Art After Hours program. On Sundays, the exhibit will be open 12-3 p.m.
Story quilting expands on traditional textile-arts techniques to record, in fabric, events of personal or historical significance. Through the accessibility of their colors, patterns and symbols, the quilts of ”American Spring: A Cause for Justice” relate narratives that enable conversations about sensitive topics from our national history, furthering the discussion of racial reconciliation in America. This exhibition is curated by Theresa Shellcroft and is organized by the Fiber Artists of Hope in Victorville, Calif.
The quilts have been exhibited to the Congressional Black Caucus, in Atlanta, Baltimore, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Marion (IN), Philadelphia, Victorville and Washington, DC, among other locations.
Associate Dean Jan Collins-Eaglin saw the quilts at the African American Quilting Guild meeting in Los Angeles last year. “Each quilt tells a story,” she says. “They’re very evocative and interpretations of what happened. I really wanted our students to be able to see them. Then there were the shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York.
“Through art, we can heal, and this has that power. We can begin to talk about what these artists hope for, and what we hope for. There are so many little details in the quilts, and as you look at them more closely, you begin to talk about them.”
—Cynthia Peters