Pomoniana

Object Lesson: Gentle Giant

October 9, 2026 by Judy Hill Comments Off

This many-legged friend, happily residing in Seaver South since 2024, is the creation of American sculptor and prolific public artist Tom Otterness.

Aptly titled “Millipede,” the 25-foot-long bronze sculpture was given to the college by Janet Benton ’79, Pomona College alumna and chair of the Board of Trustees.
For many years, the shiny arthropod had lived in an outdoor location, requiring regular surface treatment. Benton’s gift was contingent upon the museum finding a suitable, sheltered space on campus.
A full-scale cardboard mock-up was created by two interns to determine optimal placement before the final move.
Otterness is known for playful, cartoonish sculptures that often blend humor with social commentary. Our millipede may be an anomaly.
Public art pieces by Otterness can be found in the New York Subway, the zoo at San Jose, Manhattan’s Battery Park City and cities including Seoul, Toronto and Scheveningen, the Netherlands.

Student Spotlight: Elle Hawthorne ’29

October 9, 2026 by Judy Hill Comments Off

Hometown: Wilton, Connecticut
Intended Major: Double major in geology and environmental analysis
Peak Pomona Experience: Participating in a one-month oceanographic research cruise from San Diego to Hawaii to study the role of nutrients in the ocean.

How it happened: I took an Intro to Geology class taught by Professor Maria Prokopenko, with a focus on oceanography. One day she mentioned she would be at sea for a month doing research this summer in the North Pacific. I went up to her after class and asked if she was looking to take any students. She was!

Onboard: There were scientists and grad students from the University of New Hampshire, University of Minnesota, Texas A&M, USC and Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC Diego. Charlotte Renner PZ ’27 and I were the only undergrads.

A typical day: We would start sampling water around 7 a.m. and wrap up close to 8 p.m. When we were traveling to another station, it was more relaxed, and our only responsibility was to collect samples of surface water every four hours. On those days, we got to do recreational activities like fishing. One of the crew members was from Hawaii and she gave us lessons in hula and Hawaiian culture.

Takeaway #1: There were a couple of times where people would notice something interesting in the water and say, ‘OK, let’s go run an experiment.’ I thought that excitement and willingness to explore things they didn’t understand was really cool.

Takeaway #2: At the beginning I felt nervous and didn’t ask too many questions. As I became more comfortable, when something confused me, I would talk to people, and sometimes it turned out they didn’t understand it either. Asking questions benefited everyone because then we had more things to explore and discuss.

Takeaway #3: I learned just how much we don’t know about the ocean. I was reminded how vast and important it is.

By the numbers: Charlotte and I did a tally of how many liters of water we filtered to see how much we had accomplished. We estimated around 2,600 liters.

Post-Pomona: This experience has solidified my interest in geology and made me consider going to grad school for oceanography. A lot of the time I was there, I was thinking I could totally see myself doing this as a career, so that’s a great insight to have.

A Break From Screen Time

October 9, 2026 by Marilyn Thomsen Comments Off

On a late Friday afternoon on Marston Quad, a group of students are seated on blankets munching on snacks, shuffling cards for a game of Egyptian Rat Slap and sharing insights from a class discussion.

A second group starts a game of spikeball as other students stretch out to work on The Student Life newspaper’s crossword puzzle. No one is scrolling. There’s not a smartphone in sight.

Welcome to the weekly meeting of The Luddite Club, which for the past year has promoted a healthy approach to technology for Pomona College students and others at The Claremont Colleges.

The idea for the club “actually came from a New York Times article that I read my sophomore year,” says co-founder Kaitlyn Ulalisa ’27, a politics and French major. “I was very, very, very heavily addicted to social media and my phone at one point in high school and a little bit into college. Then I got rid of everything.”

Ulalisa joined forces with Abhi Namala PZ ’27, a computer science major, to start the club. He too wanted what he calls a screen “detox” and a place to unwind with fellow students who also were holding themselves accountable in the “attention economy.”

The meetings have no concrete structure. Each week, the leaders bring a red wagon filled with snacks, cards, arts and crafts supplies and balls of various types. “Then we lay out blankets, and people come,” says Ulalisa. “Every week—same time, same place—so people know where to find us.”

Through Their Eyes

October 9, 2026 by jhhd2026@pomona.edu Comments Off

We gave out 20 disposable cameras to first year students to document their first weeks on campus—from move-in to orientation adventure to random moments on campus. When we got the film developed (yes, actual film; yes, we had to wait) we loved what we saw. Grainy film + light leaks + blurry photos = instant nostalgia vibes.

Check out more images in the full story and watch the video below:

Quoted

October 9, 2026 by jhhd2026@pomona.edu Comments Off

“When young people disengage from politics, it is seldom about apathy. It is more often driven by the quiet conviction that their concerns are being swept aside. Offering students roles in these conversations, as questioners and organizers and citizens, is one of the most direct ways to counter that drift.”

Gabrielle Starr, Pomona College president, on why colleges must bring political debates back to campuses. Southern California News Group (Press Enterprise)

“Unfortunately, the costs of this fleeting spectral wonder are high, borne by negative consequences for our environment and our health.”

Char Miller, W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History, arguing the case against fireworks, in Time magazine.

“It’s not only that Gen Z has lost faith in Big Tech. In the face of galloping economic inequality and democratic backsliding, many now view tech titans as greed-fueled latter-day barons of capitalism.”

Mark Andrejevic, professor of media studies, on why college students are right to turn against the tech elites, in The Hechinger Report.

Quoted

June 22, 2026 by Staff Comments Off

Social media has changed the game. People have always looked for candidates they could have a beer with but now it’s about the ways in which they’re able to connect with voters online.”

—Sara Sadhwani, assistant professor of politics, in the
Los Angeles Times on the new era of campaigning.

Oftentimes people with BPD will over-rely on relationships to understand who they are, and that can make the relationship instability even more tenuous.”

—Sara Masland, associate professor of psychological science, in The New York Times on Borderline Personality Disorder.

The decentralization process in this guise is an attempt to destroy the capacity and effectiveness of agencies like the Forest Service.”

—Char Miller, W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History, in The Washington Post on moving the U.S. Forest Service HQ out of Washington and into Salt Lake City.

It’s easy to label someone as ‘too emotional,’ but in reality, emotion is a social event. Our nervous systems constantly respond to one another—which means our ability to stay regulated affects not only how we feel, but how others react to us.”

—Jessica Stern, assistant professor of psychological science, in The Conversation on shifting the dynamic in a difficult relationship.

Family Ties

June 22, 2026 by Staff Comments Off

On National Siblings Day (April 10), we went looking for some Sagehen siblings on campus. We love these two pairs:

Chidimma Chukwuocha ’29,
Molecular Biology; Chimuanya Chukwuocha ’28, Neuroscience

Both are QuestBridge Scholars from East Hartford, Connecticut. When Chim was matched with Pomona, Chidimma says her “heart dropped” because of how far away her sister would be. A year later, Chidimma also matched with Pomona, and Chim “was the happiest for me. She started tearing up.”

Isadora Raines-Hepple ’28, Neuroscience
Jackson Raines-Hepple ’28, Geology

The twins left Fresno, California, to become roommates here and sing in the Pomona College Choir and Glee Club together. “A lot of our mutual friends are in Glee Club,” says Jackson. “We have a lot of the same friends and a lot of different ones.”

Where Quirks Collide

June 18, 2026 by Staff Comments Off

We challenged Sagehens to create a Venn diagram (or two) that explains something fundamental (or simply esoteric) about the Pomona experience. Here are some of our favorites.

: Three-circle Venn diagram: “Sagehens (birds)” (top left); “Sagehens (students)” (top right); “Sagehens (alumni)” (bottom-center); “No diploma yet” (top overlap); “Mostly not in CA” (left overlap); “Human” (right overlap); and “Pomona” (central overlap). Credit: Samuel Breslow ’18.

: Three-circle Venn diagram: “Cheer for flightless birds” (top left); “Prefer to hang at the library vs. watch DC movies” (top right); “Spend months doing deep dives” (bottom-center); “Batman haters” (top overlap); “Seals” (left overlap); “Some apolitical bookworms” (right overlap); and “Pomona Students” (central overlap). Credit: Adam Conner-Simons ’08.

: Two-circle Venn diagram: “Gen Alpha” (left); “Sagehens” (right); and “Deriving amusement from numbers ending in 7” (central overlap). Credit: Brittany Chen ’20.

: Two-circle Venn diagram: “Marston” (left); “Biking from South Campus to North Campus” (right); and “Involving Quads” (central overlap). Credit: Brittany Chen ’20.

Two-circle Venn diagram: “Alcatraz” (left); “The dorm at Lyon” (right); and “Looks a lot like a prison” (central overlap). Credit: Adam Conner-Simons ’08.

100 years of the Claremont Colleges: an athletic timeline

February 13, 2026 by Staff Comments Off

A century ago a team of administrators at Pomona launched a second school next door and named it the Graduate School of Claremont Colleges. Now known as Claremont Graduate University, it kickstarted the birth of the consortium and a completely new era for Pomona—and sports were no exception. Here’s a brief timeline of athletics at the Claremont Colleges.

Pomona’s track team, 1911

1895: Pomona forms teams in football, baseball and track to compete against other West Coast institutions. For more than 50 years Pomona uses multiple nicknames interchangeably, including the Sage Hens, the Huns, and the “Blue and White.”

One of Pomona’s first women’s basketball teams

1903: Pomona introduces the sport of women’s basketball to Southern California colleges with the region’s first team, three full years before the formation of the men’s team

1914: Pomona becomes a founding member of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC).

1946: Pomona starts competing with the new “Claremont Men’s College” (now CMC) as the Pomona-Claremont Sagehens.

1958: Claremont Men’s College separates from Pomona athletically, combining with Harvey Mudd College to become the “Claremont-Mudd Stags.”

Pomona-Pitzer and CMS face off on the basketball court

1970: Pomona joins with Pitzer to become the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens.

1976: SCIAC starts sponsoring women’s sports, leading Scripps to join Claremont-Mudd to become Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, with the nickname of the Athenas for women’s teams.

New Federal Grants for Faculty Research

February 13, 2026 by Brian Whitehead Comments Off

A grant enabling a three-year extension in a project from Associate Chemistry Professor Nicholas Ball to develop new methods to introduce key structural motifs into bioactive molecules relevant to public health. Ball is leading research collaborators Maduka Ogba at Harvey Mudd College and Christopher am Ende at Pfizer Inc. and Connecticut College.

“The discovery of new and better drugs to treat disease is incredibly important,” Ball says. “Our contribution is to find more efficient ways to build molecules that could have the potential to heal through synthetic chemistry.” ($428,024 from the National Institutes of Health)

Physics Professor Richard Mawhorter’s project employs experimental approaches to move beyond the standard model of physics through the precision measurement of molecules cooled to ultracold temperatures. He will conduct the project in conjunction with Emory University Professor Michael Heaven, who is also receiving NSF funding.

“We are looking forward to working side-by-side with Emory graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to study the hyperfine energy level structure and bonding patterns of simple molecules containing the rare earth element ytterbium (Yb),” Mawhorter
says. ($150,978 from the National Science Foundation)

Geology Professor Jade Star Lackey’s project—a collaboration with researchers at Florida State University—focuses on high-pressure and high-temperature decarbonation of marble and calc-silicate rocks that have been exposed by erosion into the deep lower crust of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

“The work [gets] at the core question of how much carbon dioxide is naturally driven from Earth’s crust when Earth’s magmatic activity flares up,” Lackey says. “The Cretaceous magmas ‘baked’ carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere and caused natural global warming. We’re studying what that ‘baking’ process looked like in the deepest levels of the Sierra Nevada.” ($86,902 from the National
Science Foundation)

Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Konrad Aguilar’s grant supported the 2025 edition of the West Coast Operator Algebras Symposium (WCOAS), which was held in December at Pomona. The conference showcased current trends in operator algebra theory and applications to other fields, including ergodic theory, number theory, representation theory and mathematical physics.

The WCOAS had been on hiatus since 2019, and Aguilar says that it is “meant to present the state-of-the-art of Operator Algebras and bring in researchers from many career levels to foster collaboration and new connections with other fields.” ($16,000 from the National Science Foundation)

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