Jonathan Hirsch of The Port Side gives me a sense of what this whole Senate debacle looks like to an outside observer [blogger's emphasis supplied]:
Jasper [...] has spent a considerable amount of time recounting the shenanigans of Pitzer’s student government, led by the so-called “Vanguard.” According to Jasper, there is a proposal to essentially rewrite the Pitzer Student Government Constitution currently being debated. [...] If adopted, I would lose respect for Pitzer’s student body and I assume that any prospective student who was searching the Pitzer student government site would too. Below are some of the highlights. I’ll try to refrain from commentary. The ridiculousness speaks for itself.
To be honest, there are a lot of "shenanigans" that I haven't yet (un?)covered in this space. It became very difficult when I was often personally involved in dealing with Senate stuff while being a first-year mentor, studying for the LSAT, and trying not to fail out of school. Topics include:
The Judicial Council debacle, in which the Vanguard attempted to make secret appointments to the college's judicial committee.
The Vanguard's many secret, unconstitutional appointments to Student Senate.
Dean of Students Jim Marchant's email that called for Student Senate to start following its own Constitution.
Senate Chair Brian Orser's call for a College Council meeting, which was smacked down by President Laura Trombley.
An open discussion which explored implementing the ideas contained in the new Constitutional proposal through a series of less disruptive Constitutional amendments (led by your humble blogger)
Senate Chair Brian Orser's second call for a College Council meeting, which nobody ever canceled (or showed up to).
Senate Chair Brian Orser's dramatic monologue during the semester's final Student Senate meeting, saying that he wasn't sure if there was a legitimate Student Senate.
My thoughts on Arthur Levine's resignation.
I hope to have these episodes detailed before the start of the spring semester. Thanks for reading, Jonathan, but it's only going to get weirder. Stay tuned.
Overall, I'm a pretty big McConnell fan (except on those nights where you hover from salad bar to exhibition 1 to the grill to the desserts to the frozen yogurt over and over without satisfaction). But I understood that it's not a real restaurant.
Until now...
The David Allen blog on InsideSocal.com named McConnell "Restaurant of the Week" back in November:
The best dining bargain in the Inland Valley may be the Claremont Colleges dining halls. Sure, they're for students and faculty, but the general public is allowed in. They have breakfast, lunch and dinner on weekdays, brunch and dinner on weekends. It's buffet style, all you can eat, and the cost is a mere $7, beverage and tax included. (You might be able to bluff your way in for the $6 student-faculty fee.)
The New Diner followed up and revealed some of the lowest culinary standards I've ever seen:
The mac and cheese was so creamy and rich. This isn't from some damn box. The cheese sauce was perfectly mixed into the perfectly cooked macaroni. Topped with bread crumbs, this is a winning combo.
A treat for me was the gourmet ice machine!!! The had two flavors, lime and mango. The lime was just OK. Nothing special. But the mango flavor was great. A ton of mango flavor, nice and refreshing even when it is 55 degrees outside. I also love the fact that they server Coke, not third rate cola.
I loved the oatmeal raisin cookie. Lots of raisins, cinnamon, not too sweet.
...
Of course it maybe a bit uncomfortable eating dinner with a bunch of snotty rich kids but I have no reason to talk to them. And they are so into their own world, they won't even notice somebody who isn't part of their small world.
Crime in Los Angeles County dropped again in 2009 despite rising unemployment and the bad economy, continuing a slide that has pushed homicides to levels not seen since the 1960s.
Killings dropped about 17% in Los Angeles and by nearly a quarter in areas patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Together, the agencies investigated about 500 killings through Sunday -- a sharp drop in bloodshed compared with the more than 1,500 in 1992, the year of the Los Angeles riots.
"It is a different world," said Police Chief Charlie Beck, a 32-year veteran of the force. "There was a time when it was the opposite of today -- when it seemed there was no limit on the potential for things to get worse and worse. The whole outlook has shifted now."
According to the Daily Bulletin, Pitzer economics Professor Jim Lehman is the co-chairman of a Claremont Rotary Club project called "Bikes for Kids". This holiday season, the program delivered 35 bicycles to Claremont kids. I took a couple microeconomics courses from Jim a few semesters ago, but I didn't know how involved in the community he is:
This very successful project is one of dozens undertaken by the Rotary Club of Claremont. It sends students overseas - presently the club sponsors both a high school student on a Rotary Youth Exchange Program and recent college graduates on Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships. It welcomes students from overseas - there is a Claremont High School Youth Exchange Student from Argentina, and it has hosted a steady succession of international students at the Claremont Graduate University.
"We have taught emergency preparedness at the local junior high school for more than 30 years," Lehman, a professor of economics at Pitzer College, said. Keep reading Jim Lehman is a Stellar Human Being
Rachel Vandervorst is leaving the Grove House after 17 years at Pitzer. Truly, the end of an era. From Jim Marchant and Chris Freeberg:
Dear Members of the Pitzer Community:
It is with mixed emotions that we announce that Rachel Vandervorst will be leaving Pitzer at the end of January. After 17+ years of providing wonderful food and hospitality to our community, Rachel has decided to move on to another phase of her life.
After going back to cooking school and working briefly at Some Crust Bakery, Rachel began working at Pitzer in 1992. Once she set foot on the Pitzer campus she began the transformation of the Grove House and the kitchen into the warm and inviting place we all know and love today. The following year Rachel helped launch the snack bar in the newly built Gold Student Center, and over the past 15 years she has been instrumental in the transition of that space from the Goldmine to the Golden Lei, to the Mandarin Café, and finally into the Shakedown Café that exists today. .
Throughout her time at Pitzer, Rachel has poured her heart into the Grove House and the food that so many of us have enjoyed. In addition to the fantastic nourishment she has provided, Rachel has been a loving and thoughtful mentor to countless Pitzer students over the years, and took seriously her role to educate all those with whom she came into contact well beyond the basics of food preparation. From those that worked for her in the kitchen, to the Grove House caretakers, to students who simply liked to hang out in the Grove House, Rachel has been a constant source of wisdom and support – on everything from cooking to academic and personal matters. She has labored tirelessly behind the scenes and on the Grove House Committee to preserve the history and legacy of the Grove House. Because of Rachel the guest room is attractive, floors have been refinished, furniture has been restored, and the Grove House is cherished.
Rachel will be leaving an enduring legacy…. Grove House cookies will continue to be made …. And, thankfully, she recently released the second edition of The Grove House Cookbook, which includes her most popular Grove House dishes. You can purchase it at the Grove House or via the Pitzer store at: https://pitweb2.pitzer.edu/shopping/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=2&cat=Miscellaneous. All proceeds go to the Grove House Fund.
We will all miss her dearly, but she has promised to come back to visit regularly as she will still live in Claremont. In fact, she will be back on campus for Family Weekend in the middle of February. Per her request, we will not organize a farewell reception, but be alert for other ways we might acknowledge the indelible impact Rachel has made on our community. We are all better for having interacted with her while she was at Pitzer. Please join us in thanking Rachel for all of her years of service to our community and wishing her well as she explores new opportunities and experiences.
This morning First-Year Representative Arthur Levine '13 sent the following email to student-talk, announcing his resignation from his position. You may remember September's botched election and Arthur's victory in the re-do election. [Author's hyperlinks have been omitted; blogger's emphasis supplied]:
http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/thumb/1/11/Panopticon.jpg/250px-Panopticon.jpg
Dear First year students and Pitzer community. I would like to announce my resignation from the Pitzer student senate. I would also like you to read this as I have laid out some reasons, opinions, reflections, and other words. I have also included a link to a wonderful documentary called Beyond Elections. I also recommend Why We Fight to anyone interested in government or your own survival. Please watch these and maybe you will understand why I have left my position. I just could not devote any of myself to something that I do not believe in.
First I would like to thank you all who voted to elect me. For those of you who I spoke to while I was campaigning you may remember that I was running with the idea that representative democracy was ridiculous: that people should represent themselves and be welcomed by their government to do so. This alone is the reason why I have never voted in senate I am sorry that I did not better fulfill my duties as First-year Rep, but I guess that I was trying to make a point. SOmetimes your representatives do not represent you. Many times representatives are bought by corporate lobbyists to fulfill corporate agendas for world domination. Do not be fooled by rhetoric or promises, your voice is not the loudest or most important to the government in this country. We have to change that. In the same way as some reps in the U.S. government have ulterior motives for their votes I too had an agenda. I was asked to be a rep so that I could vote yes to the new Constitution. Although I completely support the new constitution, as it would create the type of government I would rather see, I have come to realize that my participation in senate is exactly what I do not want to see in politics: a person acting as a widget or a lever puller or a whole puncher. My sole purpose was to raise my hand one time and vote yes. I dehumanized myself. OOOPS, pretty easy these days. There should be an assembly like is proposed in the new constitution, but I do not want to continue to waste my time doing something that does not make me feel happy or healthy. I would rather be one of the people than one of them up there in the founder's room debating garbage.
Anyway, sorry is my main point. I should really apologize to myself for going against my gut. I have learned a lot about Pitzer from my experiences and anyone who would like to talk about it is welcome to speak to me, but as a person not your rep, which I unfortunately pretended to be. Sorry to anyone who was expecting more of me. I guess I made a lot of mistakes this semester. My bad.
Here is some good shit to read by the way. Perhaps a reflection on senate.
Wait-how could that be, that disaster are the apex of adventure, community, life itself? Does that mean that if we really want to live, we have to spend our lives as disastourists, quixotically chasing the few brief moments of upheaval destiny affords each of us, longing for the fleeting, borrowed wings of destruction and rebirth as we wade through the years of deadening routine in the mean time? Is that practical, praticable, worthwhile? Does the woman fed up with her car payments and marriage really crave tornadoes and typhoons, or is she just desperate for an honorable way out?
Perhaps we have everything backwards here-maybe disasters aren't so great after all, but the real Disaster, the worst one, is the Disaster we live everyday: the emptiness of our full schedules, the trivia that trivializes us, the machinery that runs on rivers of blood. That would explain why e feel so free whenever something, anything, however dangerous or difficult, interrupts all this. Perhaps the excitement and immediacy that break out in emergencies are simply indications of a return to our natural state, in the break they herald from the full scale slow motion train wreck that is our society. If that is the case, then it is not disaster per se that are liberating - it is rather, a question of perspective: a "disaster" that disrupts a life of constraint is experienced as a moment of liberation, when that "normal life" is actually Disaster in disguise.
Most of the disasters we really suffer from can be traced to this invisible Disaster, anyway. The destruction of rain forests and the ozone layer, holocausts perpetuated with biological weapons and smart bombs, even global pandemics like mad cow disease, anorexia, bulimia, depression - these would not be possible without centralized state and corporate power, and the meaningless busywork of billions that engenders it. To live with the unknown ahead of and around us, to struggle only with the "natural disasters" our ancestors faced, would almost be adyllic after all this.
Could we fight Disaster with disaster? If we stopped feeding its flames with our hard work and attention, if we ceased paying tribute, the Disaster would surely crash and burn once and for all. If this status quo is the ultimate Disaster if it really is disorder and tragedy normalized as a system, no lower-case disaster could be worse, Interrupt the the Disaster!
Some of us are already practicing this. We don't live in the Disaster, but in encampments at its edge-yes, in a state of ongoing disasters and difficulties, but nothing compared to the misery of life in the Disasters area proper. We don't fall for popular propaganda about disasters; we're conducting our own experiments with them. We don't have to wait for catastrophe to strike to enjoy its benefits-we can throw a disaster anytime we like. And we are.
--Disastrounaunts Dilemma Goldman and Calamity Jane of CrimetInc Collective
Anyway enjoy the time away from the prison(remind you of the first year dorms at all)/school
--
Arthur Levine
OPR just published its Winter slide show, starring Cecil the Sagehen in yet another revival of his importance to Pitzer College. Since we're either looking for something to distract us from studying, or already at home bored to death, take a minute to check it out. A preview:
Pitzer emphasizes study abroad for its own students; how do we treat the international students that we host? On a rainy Friday afternoon, worth your 5 minutes.
Featuring Elena from Spain, Ben from Australia, Nayelli from Mexico, Jenny and Anne from Germany.
A timeless battle captured by Chris Sibley '12 and Tim Hamlin '12:
Also featuring Eric Stahl-David '12, Matt Goldbach '11, Nick Cinelli '12, Alex Kolber '11, Charlie Carden '12, Sam Keene '12, Will Howard '12, Jason Blagman '12, Sylvie Froncek '11, Alexa Carraso '12, Marshall Anderson '12, Alex Dorros '12, Zach London '12, Bailey Hedequist '12, Asia Bennett '11, Avery Bargar, Alex Labby '10, Josh Miller '12, Jenny Shaughnessy '12, and Angelica Torres '??.
This blog is going on hiatus until the first day of the Spring 2010 semester. Other than crucial announcements, actual breaking news, and what happens during future Senate meetings, I'm taking a break. I am hoping to return from Winter Break with more news about what is happening on campus, the cool shit Pitzer students and alums are doing, and student issues for which I want to raise awareness.
To those of you closely embroiled in these discussions about the future of student governance, please conduct yourselves with civility and respect for others.
"We have taught emergency preparedness at the local junior high school for more than 30 years," Lehman, a professor of economics at Pitzer College, said. 
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