The Scripps Voice

By Ashli Duncan ’11
Op-Ed Editor

It’s a sad fact that money drives the modern world. Little can be done without financial backing. And that financial backing is not always readily available. But the greater the task, the greater the need for the money to back it. In a time of economic uncertainty, it is important to be able to ask for money in a clear and persuasive voice. And that’s where grants come in: convincing strangers to donate their money to a worthy cause.

Asking for money on behalf of a non-profit organization is particularly difficult. Luckily, Scripps offers the class “Writing for Non-Profit Institutions.” Taught by Professor Roseann Simeroth, the class provides students with the valuable interpersonal and negotiating skills necessary to deal with these delicate interactions.

Writing for Non-Profit Institutions is an advanced writing course which focuses on how to write grants, proposals, fellowships applications and other documents for non-profits. Each student spends the semester working on a grant proposal. The proposals are reviewed by their classmates at the end of the semester.

Professor Simeroth uses a step by step approach to teach students how to write grants.

“It’s a workshop based class,” said current student Vritti Goel (‘12). “For example, one of our major projects is to write a grant for a non-profit. Each student chooses an organization to approach and see if its members are interested in working with us. We work very closely with our non-profits. In the past, some students have written successful grants that actually helped the non-profit get money.”

Organizations students are working with this semester include the dA center, KIPP, the HMC Science Bus and Crossroads. Funding makes the difference between a successful non-profit program and an unsuccessful one. “Grant writing is more than just presenting information. It’s about telling a story of the non profit,” said current student Suzanne Calkins (’11). “Often the  [money-lending] foundations get hundreds, maybe thousand of grants and proposals. You need to write something that will catch their attention, [something that] has heart to it. You want to show you’re writing about something you’re passionate about and have the facts to back it up.”

The class isn’t just about writing grants, though. Students also learn about the structure of non-profits. Knowing the structures of non- profit organizations is useful for anyone interested in working in the non-profit sector, particularly if she is interested in starting her own non-profit.

“This class has been one of the most practical classes that I’ve taken at Scripps. I can see how the skills I learn in this class apply directly to life outside of college,” said Calkins.

Learning to write grants is a skill that makes any resume stand out. Learning how to write passionately and clearly is a valuable skill that any potential employer—in the non-profit field or not—will find impressive. “The skills I learn in this class apply directly to life outside of college.” - Suzanne Calkins ’11

By Nikki Broderick ‘14
Staff Writer

On March 17, the United Nations Security Council authorized a resolution to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. The resolution also allows for military action to protect Libyan citizens.

The no-fly zone over Libya has been one of the latest developments following the country’s Feb. 15 revolt. Rebels have been fighting to displace the 42-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi with democracy. The anti-Gadhafi rebels currently control parts of Western Libya, and are fighting violent retribution from pro-Gadhafi forces throughout the region.

Libya banned international journalists except by invitation from the Libyan government. The United Nations decided to take action in Libya in the wake of over a month’s worth of unofficial reports that Gadhafi had hired mercenaries to eliminate rebel forces.

The March 17 resolution received a unanimous 10-0 vote from the United Nations Security Council, with five abstentions from Brazil, Russia, India, China and Germany. The Arab League of Nations and European allies—including the United States, France and Great Britain—are to enforce the no-fly zone.

Gadhafi has dismissed the resolution as arbitrary, and has said that he will meet force with force. He has ignored the international community’s calls for a cease-fire. As of March 20, after cruise missiles partially destroyed one building within the Gadhafi compound, the whereabouts of the longtime leader are unknown.

Since the implementation of the no-fly zone, the most active contributors to military force have been France, Great Britain and the United States.

Though leaders in Great Britain and France have also committed to take charge of military action, it is the military involvement of the United States—with its history of involvement in the Middle East—that is getting the most international attention.

A contrast with the previous administration’s handling of the Iraq invasion in 2003, President Obama has taken a quiet approach to his administration’s involvement in Libya.

As of March 20, President Obama had only publicly addressed the military actions in Libya in the context of a speech on human rights in the region. President Obama has made several phone calls to important leaders in the Middle East, including the King Abdullah of Jordan, to lobby for support of the UN no-fly zone.

A further contrast with President Bush’s emphatic statements of confidence preceding and during the invasion of Iraq, President Obama has not voiced any strong opinions regarding full-fledged war in Libya. His reticence seems to be a tactic adopted to avoid the unpopularity garnered by Bush for his outspokenness. It is likely also influenced by the opinion held by many Americans that the United States should not be involved in Middle Eastern conflicts.

Although President Obama seems to be taking lessons from President Bush’s handling of his administration’s involvement in the Middle East, current circumstances differ greatly from those confronted by the Bush administration in 2003.

This time, the United States has stronger support from the international community, with European allies joining the United States in taking military action, and public opinion more readily supporting the perspective that there is reason to bring military action to the region.

By Eliza Silverman ‘14
Copy Editor

On March 8, scholar and senior fellow of the Century Foundation Richard Kahlenberg presented a unique take on affirmative action as part of the Scripps Humanities Institute’s Spring lecture series “The Future of Higher Education: Gender, Geography and The Humanities.”

In his speech, Kahlenberg said that it is more constitutional to have affirmative action based on class rather than race, because race is a “suspect classification according to the supreme court” Kahlenberg said that a very valid reason would be needed to categorize based on race, and class-based categories make more sense. Kahlenberg cited income tax returns as an example of a legitimized constitutional means for “treating people differently based on income.”

Kahlenberg also referenced the re-segregation that has occurred in recent decades: the Supreme Court has allowed most districts to go back to neighborhood schools, which concentrates low-income students in one district and has detrimental effects on the quality of education standard in those districts. Low-income students comprise the majority of the demographic in low-income school districts. The non-minority students in these low-income brackets, argued Kahlenberg, should not be overlooked in affirmative action efforts. Superintendents and government officials alike should consider these non-minority students as just as underprivileged as their minority peers.

“We do not want to create low expectations for kids of low socioeconomic status, and we must consider as a nation where they will be given the best chance to succeed,” he said.

Kahlenberg did not, however, propose a complete integration of low and high socioeconomic districts. He cited Chicago as an example of the folly of combining all districts into one umbrella organization. In Chicago, 85 percent of families are living below the poverty line. If districts in Chicago were to be completely integrated, every child would go to a low income school. The ratio of low- to high-income institutions would be stark.

Kahlenberg offered a knowledgeable and progressive perspective on affirmative action, a controversial and pertinent issue in America today.

Richard Kahlenberg is a Senior Fellow at the Century Foundation and author of four books: “Tough Liberal: Albert Shanker and the Battles Over Schools;” “Unions, Race and Democracy; All Together Now: Creating Middle Class Schools through Public School Choice;” “The Remedy: Class, Race, and Affirmative Action” and “Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School.” Kahlenberg was previously a Fellow at the Center for National Policy and a legislative assistant to Senator Charles S. Robb. He is a  graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and Rotary Scholar of the University of Nairobi School of Journalism.

By Stacy Wheeler ‘13
Guest Writer

Designing a perfect Core curriculum would be impossible. But the most recent changes to Core I are not the sorts of changes that will get us any closer to perfection. The administrators certainly could have done a better job.

Students increasingly miss Biblical allusions, aren’t familiar with basic facts of American history and don’t know who Adam Smith is or what Marx actually wrote. Today’s students need a Core program that helps us understand the foundations of our culture.

Yet, this year, the Core program abandoned the theme of “Culture, Knowledge, and Representation” for “Histories of the Present.”

The Scripps website describes the changes, saying that the new Core “more explicitly focuses on the relationship of critical thinking to contemporary problems and debates. [The curriculum] involves grappling with how our own views have emerged, and seeing how they might well be different.” A worthy aim. But does Core really end up doing this? I assume that “our own views” include liberalism, individualism and a belief in individual rights, democratic rule and the market economy. These topics should be a central focus of a liberal arts freshman seminar.

But when you look at the reading list for the new Core, you will see that these views are not explored in depth. “Our own views” only get addressed through contrast with other views. Only two of the eight required books—The Leviathan and First and Second Discourses—clearly relate to a history of our views at all. No Aristotle, no Plato, no Federalist Papers and no Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Our new Core I focuses on multiculturalism and perspectives from outsiders. There are texts from Canada and Mexico, from African American and female authors. Valuable perspectives maybe, but these texts are not the ones which have been fundamental to our culture. Of course, the counterargument here will be that our culture is already dominated and influenced by old, dead, white guys and that it’s time to recognize minorities and oppressed perspectives. But how can we analyze and investigate alternatives to our own views if we don’t first understand where these views come from and the works that influenced them?

Of course, we Scripps students are intellectually mature. We have the ability to grapple with Core’s questions about contemporary issues without a thorough understanding of our culture’s history. But in order to make any meaningful progress in considering the challenge to “our own views,” we need that foundation in the works that have shaped them.

Our Core program should use the first semester to develop a strong understanding of our Western civilization and the views it engenders. Contemporary questions and minority perspectives should arise in Core II, only after Core I has provided adequate foundation to intelligently consider their implications.

By Susan Goldblatt ‘14
Guest Writer

On March 6, the Board of Trustees approved the commencement of plans to design a new dorm located in the north east corner of campus. The site is across from Routt Hall, where the maintenance service buildings are currently located. A design committee made up of students, faculty, board members and staff will work with architect Elizabeth Moule to create the schematic design for the new dorm.

Students can expect a building “harmonious with the traditional Mediterranean style of Scripps College…look at [for example] Balch Hall or Toll,” said Scripps College Treasurer James Manifold.

According to Manifold, the dorm will most likely consist of singles, doubles and suite style housing, similar to the set up of GJW. The cost of the project cannot be accurately determined at this time, but it will be funded by “gifts, borrowed (tax-exempt) money, and savings,” said Manifold.

“The dorm will probably take a year to design, and a year to a year and a half to build; The [first year class of 2014] will probably have graduated by the time the new dorm is completed,” said Manifold.  In an e-mail, President Bettison-Varga said that “any plans for construction on this site require approval by the City of Claremont and the Los Angeles County Fire Department.”

Scripps enrollment has been steadily increasing over the years, culminating with the class of 2014 which has more than 250 students. If this trend continues, the total enrollment could easily reach 1,000 students in the next 5 to 6 years. The influx of students has resulted in a housing crunch. According to the e-mail from President Bettison-Varga, the Board of Trustees has also voted to set a “target of 930 [students]…for the next several years until we can accommodate a larger student population in Scripps’ on-campus housing.”

The amount of students who stay in on-campus housing varies from year to year depending on the amount of students studying abroad and the amount that choose to live off-campus. Upon the completion of the new housing, the Board of Trustees would like to stabilize the enrollment at around 950 students.  According to Manifold, the ultimate goal is to guarantee “housing for any Scripps student who wants to live on-campus [at Scripps].”

PHOTO COURTESY OF VDAY.ORG

By Claire Wilson ‘13
Staff Writer

One in every three women will be physically or sexually abused her lifetime (Feb. 28 2000 UN Commission on the Status of Women). Violence against women transcends borders and is a desecration of human dignity and violation of human rights.

As serious as this issue is, it is incredibly under-acknowledged by the general public and deserves attention. V-Day is a global activist movement that takes a firm stance to end all forms of violence—such as rape, battery, incest, sex slavery and genital mutilation—toward women and girls. The international campaign was inspired by Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” a series of monologues written in 1994.

Eve Ensler interviewed hundreds of women of all ages, backgrounds, orientations and cultures to obtain a first-person narrative of contemporary women’s issues. The resulting compilation was “The Vagina Monologues.”  It is a piece of art that heightens the dialogue of female sexuality by addressing social stigmas surrounding the emotional and physical abuse of women. The monologues became the catalyst for the V-Day organization, founded in New York City in 1998.

The V-Day movement was contagious and spread internationally. Today “The Vagina Monologues” has been translated into over 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. Female activists across international borders perform the monologues between February and April to raise money for local organizations that protect women from abuse. Organizations supported include rape crisis centers and safe houses. Annually, college and community activists raise an average of $4 million for local programs.

Beyond fiscal support, the purpose of the performances is to promote awareness. The Claremont Colleges are a strong and supportive partner in this global force and works to create a conscious Claremont community by changing social attitudes about gender and sexuality through many forms of activism.

“Claremont V-Day is not another radical feminist movement,” said Sara Berge (‘13), this year’s co-producer, “but rather a community collaborative of men and women alike working to end sexism.”

Claremont V-Day’s activism events include a spunky vagina parade, informative film screenings and discussions, a benefit concert and sales of V-Day tanks and vagina lollipops. On the weekend of April 7-9, a new Claremont cast will take the stage and perform “The Vagina Monologues” at the Pitzer Benson Auditorium at 7 p.m.

Do not allow silence to perpetuate the oppression of women. Come listen to your peers  give voice to sexual empowerment and help end violence against women.

For more information, contact vdayclaremont@gmail.com

By Lauren Prince ‘14
News Editor

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCRIPPSCOLLEGE.EDU

Kimberly Drake, new Writing Program Director, has numerous goals that will positively impact the future of the writing program. Specifically, she is focusing on making changes to the structure of Writing 50.

Drake, who has been interim Director of the Writing Program since 2007, applied this past fall for around 30 jobs, including the tenure-track Director position at Scripps College. She had campus interviews with five, was offered two positions, and chose Scripps. “I would estimate that fewer than a third of Writing Director positions nationwide are tenure track faculty positions, and the Scripps position has numerous benefits, in part because it is a tenure track position. Scripps’s program has more potential for growth than others,” Drake said. Drake took over the position, on a one-year contract basis, after the previous Writing Director, Frank Cioffi, left in 2007.

The writing program went under external review in 2008-2009. One of the reviewers’ conclusion was that Scripps is lacking in opportunities for students to improve their writing, only requiring Writing 50 and then expecting all students to complete a significant Senior thesis. In May 2010, the faculty voted on conceptual changes to its writing program. These were offering Writing 50 in both fall and spring semesters, developing writing-intensive courses across the curriculum and using a placement mechanism to determine whether students would take Writing 50 or another writing-intensive course, and developing a program for writing mentors (students who have taken the class in previous years) to help students in writing-intensive courses.

Drake met with the Dean of Faculty on March 24 to discuss how to implement these changes. These proposed changes may or may not become a reality; some of them, for example, will probably be tested first.

Drake believes in teaching entering students the essential tools of writing and then working on showing them how to transfer these tools to writing assignments across academic disciplines. She believes there are fundamental aspects of writing that are present in all forms and genres, but the form they take can be different. Writing is a skill that most people will use throughout the rest of their lives, and the need to create written arguments will be present in whatever job a person may find herself in; Drake’s goal is to make sure the necessary skills are learned to be able for a writer to transfer the essential aspects of writing to these future situations. As a result, Drake wants to make sure the writing program is accessible and helpful to all students.

“I want to target the writers who believed they are skilled and don’t need to take the class as well as those who want to work on their writing, because I believe everyone can improve their writing, myself included,” Drake said.

Drake plans to offer Writing 50 both fall and spring semesters, which will be beneficial to both the students and faculty. Most of the Scripps writing professors’ positions are part time, contingent on the number of incoming students each fall, making it difficult to have full time professors in the writing program. Thus, providing courses in both semesters would eventually allow the creation of some full-time positions, increasing the professors’ job security and the students’ options.

Drake hopes eventually to provide more course offerings. An increasing number of Scripps students are designing writing majors, and they would appreciate more opportunities to take writing courses on the Scripps campus.

Drake’s plans will become more firm as she begins to work with faculty and students. She plans to speak with both of these groups about the changes they would like to see.

By Lauren Prince ‘14
News Editor

On March 7, Dartmouth College’s Ombudsperson could be found at Scripps College, sitting in a classroom full of Core II students who had just finished reading her memoir. Dartmouth College Ombudperson Mary Childers, author of the memoir “Welfare Brat,” attended the class as part of a visit which also included a lecture on higher education.

The Core II class Childers attended was “Incentives Matter.” The class is team-taught by Nancy Macko, Professor of Art and Director of the Scripps Digital Art Program, and Sean Flynn, Assistand Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies.

Childers’s memoir is about growing up as a child on welfare in New York. One of seven children, Childers tells the story of how her mother had more children than she was able to support. Childers attended college and sought out opportunities in spite of her mother’s restrictive parenting.

After interacting with students in the Core II class, Childers gave a lecture in the Hampton Room. The lecture was about how to help families and children on welfare acheive higher education.

Childers said that many children have developed “defensive ambivalence.” She uses book in workshops with welfare students to help combat this inhibiting defense mechanism. Along with telling them about the importance of education, Childers addresses the handling of specific situations. She addresses the cyclical nature of routine and urges students to become aware of the potential for stagnation within that mindset. She urges students to think about the ramifications of settling for that which is habitual or easy, and instills hope for a future without welfare through higher education.

Childers said that the cycle of defensive ambivalence can be changed through two courses of action: changing mentalities and civic engagement. Many families celebrate unplanned pregnancies more than they celebrate the receipt of a degree. Shifting these priorities requires an awareness of the burden of having children who cannot be supported financially. Education should be rewarded over propagation.

Difficulties of classism and racism were also part of Childers’ discussion. She said that she realized that, as a white family, hers could find housing and receive decent treatment where welfare families of minority races would not be so lucky.

Childers has had an degree of success which is exceptional given her welfare origins. She left her family, received an education, got a prestigious position, published a book and generally acheived financial success. But she still faces job market discrimination. She is frequently dismissed, she said, when employers find out from which institution she got her PhD. Her personal experiences support the need for her efforts.

“Childers gave the class great insight into the emotional struggles that accompany poverty. Her discussion painted a poignant picture of how her entire life and family were shaped by the burden of financial struggle.” – Hannah Bebbington ’14

—Hannah Bebbington ‘14

By Summer Dowd-Lukesh ’14
Staff Writer

Barbara Ehrenreich’s book “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America” is an exercise in investigative journalism examining the lives of low-wage workers, especially women, in the United States.  Ehrenreich worked low wage jobs for a year and lived entirely off of the money earned in those positions.  Her work makes excellent points about the life of a low-wage worker in the United States.  It is true that working hard every day for little pay takes an extreme toll on one’s body and mind, but most fascinating was her discussion of the tolls that low-wage work take on the soul.  In her section about low-wage maid work in Maine, Ehrenreich quotes a coworker as saying, “We’re nothing to these people. We’re just maids.”  The book is littered with words like “helpless” and “pain.” Then there’s the question: “If you hump away at menial jobs 360-plus days a year, does some kind of repetitive injury of the spirit set in?”

In President Franklin Roosevelt’s State of the Union speech in 1944 he laid out “The Economic Bill of Rights,” a list of things he dreamed would be guaranteed to every American worker.  These included “The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation… the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health” and “the right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident and unemployment.”  Our president saw these conditions not just as privileges, but also as basic rights necessary to living a good human life.  It could be said that the women Ehrenreich worked with in Maine did not have a remunerative job, good health or adequate protection from the fears of sickness or accident.  Not having these basic tenements of security made their lives terribly unstable and restricted their ability to live a good life.  Such working conditions have a harmful effect not only on their bodies and minds, but on their very souls.  “Maybe it’s low-wage work in general that has the effect of making you feel like a pariah,” Ehrenreich writes.  Our nation lives off of the backs of individuals who live and work in ways that the middle and upper classes would never consider decent, let alone humane.

Ehrenreich’s tale about the suffering of women in Maine working low-wage jobs in order to feed their families reinforces the belief that allowing the stratification of classes, so that the world’s poor live on nothing and the world’s rich live on almost everything, is inhumane and morally wrong.  We as a species have a moral obligation to level the playing field for women like Ehrenreich’s coworkers and make our new globalized world a place where no one has to keep working despite broken bones; eat little to no food in a high-stress and high-activity environment; or have her soul crushed by a society that says low-wage work and the people who do it are worthless and unimportant.

By Tiffany Yau ‘12
Arts & Entertainment Editor

PHOTO BY MARGOT BUERMANN ‘11 . Black Elephant performs at the Feb. 23 dA Concert Series.

Walk into dA Center for the Arts on any regular afternoon and the atmosphere is typical of most galleries: quiet and contemplative. But on the last Saturday of each month, the dA transforms into a raucous live music venue with attendees of the Pomona Arts Colony Art Walk streaming in. On March 26, the dA Center for the Arts will present three local bands, Telle Eyed Specs, FIM and The Natives, as part of their ongoing fundraiser concert series.

The dA Concert Series reflects and furthers the dA mission of sharing and celebrating the arts. The concerts aim to raise funds for the organization. These funds go toward continuing the dA’s events and working in the community. The concerts are held on every last Saturday of the month, coinciding with the Last Saturday Art Walk in the Pomona Arts Colony. Every show features three local bands and is all-ages, with a $5 suggested donation. The series has met considerable success. Its great turnouts have created quite a bit of buzz in the arts community.

As an intern at dA Center for the Arts, Margot Buermann (‘11) is responsible for organizing each concert. Buermann’s involvement with the dA and concert series began with her “compulsion to share music.” Said Buermann, “I wanted some experience working with a non-profit, and I had been to the dA’s art and music shows in the past. I loved the atmosphere there because it’s such a welcoming place, you really feel that as a community member you can get involved in what’s going on there, so that really spoke to me.”

Buermann’s role in organizing the concert series ranges from finding the bands to remedying last-minute line-up changes and all the intermediate steps in between. She oversees the search for bands, the booking of the shows and the promotion work. The bands also often do an in-studio performance on Buermann’s radio show (“I Dig Underground,” on KSPC 88.7FM Saturdays 9-11 p.m.) to promote their music and the upcoming concert.

Buermann faces many challenges in her work for planning a successful show. One of the biggest challenges, she said, has been working without a budget. Since the dA has very limited funding, the organization generally cannot afford to pay bands to play in its show. But the challenges Buermann faces have only revealed the strength of the community. KSPC has sponsored several bands to play in the series, and there have been artists eager to play for free.

“Overall, I’ve been absolutely blown away by the eagerness of these bands to play,” said Buermann. “That should be a compliment to the dA, that people who have never heard of it before I talk to them immediately identify with its mission and want to be a part of it, even for a night and even if they don’t get paid. I’ve been so lucky to work with such down to earth and talented people.”

The next dA show, on March 26, begins at 8 p.m. Be sure to check out the surrounding galleries on your way to dA Center for the Arts this weekend!

FMI on upcoming shows and events, visit the Facebook page for “dA Concert Series.” For volunteer opportunities, show booking or general inquiries, contact dAConcertSeries@gmail.com.