Graphic Credit: Ben McCoy/Department of Space

Alongside the parade of young oaks planted beside Stover Walk to replace some of the trees lost in the 2022 windstorm, a new sustainable garden is taking root in the beds next to Marston Quad’s grassy expanse.

Once it is established in two to three years, the Marston Quad Sustainable Garden will require minimal to no irrigation. It includes plants such as California sagebrush¹, white sage² and chamise³ that have many uses among the Tongva people, the traditional caretakers of the land Pomona College now occupies. Other plantings with importance to Indigenous peoples include chaparral yucca⁴, mulefat⁵, toyon⁶, manzanita⁷  and single-leaf pinyon pines⁸.

While many of the established plants such as camellias and azaleas whose blooms have signaled the arrival of spring for generations remain, the new plantings include 30 species native to California, among them desert mallow⁹, hummingbird sage¹⁰ and California fuchsia¹¹. Designed by Claremont landscape architect Ben McCoy, the garden will have signs that identify the plant species in the Tongva language as well as by their English and Latin names, thanks to input from Tina Calderon, a culture bearer of Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme descent, and Char Miller, W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History.

The decision to create a more drought-tolerant landscape featuring native plants was guided in part by the research of environmental analysis students Lucy Whitman Sandmeyer ’21, Madi Brothers ’22, Owen Hoffsten ’22 and Maya Edstrom SC ’22, who completed their 2022 senior capstone project report, “Roots & Resilience: Reimagining Marston Quad after the Windstorm,” under the guidance of Professor Guillermo Douglass-Jaimes. The group surveyed alumni, students, staff and faculty, receiving the majority of input from alumni, with more than 300 responses. Alumni also had an opportunity to voice their opinions during the 2022 Alumni Weekend in one of two charrettes held by the student researchers.

The survey indicated that most of the Pomona community sees Marston Quad as the heart of campus, the students reported, and supports a landscape plan that “maintains the same open and green design as before the windstorm, features shade trees—especially native oaks—and [is] prepared to withstand the changing climate.”

The season of searching for colored eggs is past, but Brian Faber, director of project management in the Office of Facilities and Campus Services, invites people to search for eight hidden examples of the number 47 on campus. Seven of them are identical, and two different types can be found at the new Center for Athletics, Recreation and Wellness. All of them can be seen from the exterior and are permanent, Faber says. Happy hunting. We haven’t found any yet.

The oldest college newspaper in Southern California is still thriving—and still in print every Friday when class is in session.

The Student Life, founded in 1889, brought home 20 awards at the recent California College Media Association conference in San Francisco, including first-place awards for best newspaper, newspaper website, overall newspaper design, interactive graphic, editorial, social media reporting, feature story, news photograph, social justice coverage and news series in its category of publications on four-year campuses with 15,000 or fewer students.

Popovich at Pomona

TSL also claimed third nationally for newspaper and fourth nationally for website in its category in the Associated Collegiate Press awards. Recent editors-in-chief of TSL, the newspaper of The Claremont Colleges, include Jasper Davidoff ’23 and Jenna McMurtry ’24. If you’d like to stay in touch with what’s happening on campus and the work of TSL journalists, visit tsl.news or subscribe to the weekly newsletter or print edition at tsl.news/subscribe/.

‘Coach Pop’ to Hall of Fame

There was little suspense over whether Gregg Popovich would be elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. After all, the San Antonio Spurs coach has won five NBA titles and more games than any coach in the history of the league. One bit of suspense remains, though: Will he mention his early coaching days at Pomona-Pitzer in his induction speech? Tune in to the August 12 ceremony in Springfield, Massachusetts, to see.

Make that ducks in the bioswale—an unusual sight adjacent to Little Bridges after one of this year’s torrential rainstorms. The small, landscaped basins on campus are designed to slow down rainwater and filter pollutants, but this one filled with enough water to attract a pair of courting mallards looking for a home. Alas, it was only temporary.

From such destinations as Copenhagen, Paris and Seoul in the fall to those and others including Amman, Jordan, and Yaoundé, Cameroon, in the spring, Pomona students dotted the globe as study abroad continued to rebound this academic year.

About 150 students studied in more than two dozen countries in what is now known as study away, which includes U.S. opportunities now managed by the Office of International and Domestic Programs. This spring also marked the relaunch of Pomona College’s international programs in Cambridge, England; Cape Town, South Africa; and the one led by Anthropology Professor Arlen Chase in Caracol, Belize.

One twist: A large number of seniors studied abroad after earlier plans were disrupted by the pandemic shutdown of programs in fall 2020 and spring 2021, followed by their gradual resumption.

“I know that in our fall 2022 class, I think around 35% of them were seniors and normally we would have maybe one senior,” says Nicole Desjardins Gowdy, senior director of international and domestic programs, noting some students also took gap semesters or years to preserve their chance to study internationally.

About half of Pomona students study abroad by the time they graduate, typically in their junior year. To ensure equal access, the College charges the same fees for a semester or year away as for studying on campus and extends financial aid allowances for that time.

International study also can offer expanded opportunities for academic achievement. Kiya Henderson ’23 recently received the Forum on Education Abroad’s prestigious Award for Academic Achievement Abroad for her paper, “A Retrospective Analysis of Maternal Mortality in Kisumu, Kenya from March 2021 to March 2022,” based on research while studying in the School for International Training’s program in global health and human rights in Kenya. It was the second time in three years that a Pomona student has won the honor from the international organization.

“One thing that can be surprising is how much you grow as a person in study away,” Gowdy says of international experiences. When students return, she says she sometimes notices a difference even in their physical appearance. “They’re carrying themselves in a new way. They’re more confident. They’ve had experience navigating different environments and worldviews,” she says.

Pomona’s study abroad program is marking its 50th anniversary at the College, which established an office and named the first director of international programs in 1973.

In the interest of Pomona history, a few women from the Class of 1960 have revealed the origins of Mufti, the secret society responsible for anonymous and often pun-filled campus postings over the years. See Letter Box.

Exactly how it came to be known as Mufti may be lost to history, as Alice Taylor Holmes ’60 and Jean Wentworth Bush Guerin ’60 believe it might have been their late classmate Thomasine Wilson ’60, known as a wordsmith, who named the group. Their best guess is it had to do with a secondary definition of the word that refers to civilian clothes or being out of uniform. (Anonymity was required as the women were not in compliance with residence hall rules of the era when they exited over the back wall at night.)

By the way, just because they’ve come clean doesn’t mean they think others should. Secrecy “absolutely” remains an important aspect of Mufti, they agree. It seems from our mailbox that an anonymous former member agrees. (See image.)

Trucks along Stover Walk became a familiar sight during the past year. The College occasionally invited food vendors that included the usual burger and taco trucks along with offerings from vendors such as West Side Banh Mi, Bollywood Bites and Sugo Italiano.

Students visiting the trucks could use their meal plans. The popular food option was a creative response to temporary staffing shortages in the dining halls caused by widespread labor shortages that accompanied the pandemic.