Workers for Justice is a group of Claremont students standing in solidarity with dining hall workers. (http://www.workersforjustice.org)

Amidst Action and Coalition Building at Public Institutions Statewide, Workers, Students and Faculty are to organize around conflict at California’s wealthiest private college, Pomona. Anthony Chavez, grandson of Cesar Chavez, to speak.

Food service workers report chronic overwork, multiple injuries, unreliable work and benefits, and poverty pay.  Over 90% of Pomona College’s food service staff and a third students have signed a petition to Pomona College President David Oxtoby calling for “Fair Process”.

President Oxtoby issued a statement to workers and students rejecting the workers’ desired method of unionization, the card check, in favor of the NLRB sanctioned “secret-ballot” vote. Workers explicitly selected the card check method because it subverts the threat of intimidation, a threat with recent historical precedent at the College.

Dissatisfied with the President’s response, workers and students will rally outside of the semi-annual Board of Trustees meeting on Saturday. This sequence of events is the culmination of a long history of labor struggle and student-worker solidarity at the College. Last Spring, at the request of food service workers, students organized a boycott of dining halls to address non-guaranteed summer work hours and holiday pay. Although workers received a slight increase in guaranteed hours, they continue to report working unpaid hours as well as failing to disclose injuries due to fear of reprisal.

What: Pomona College food service workers and students rally

Where: Marston Quad, Pomona College, Claremont, CA

When: 2:30 PM, Saturday, March 6^th

*Photography and Video Available

For more information, including worker testimonials and additional coverage:

http://workersforjustice.org/

Avery Hall Fencing Removed

Fencing finally came down from around Avery Hall today, giving passersby their first glimpse of the outside of the newly renovated Hall.

According to Dean Jim Marchant, the Pitzer Board of Trustees will be on campus this upcoming weekend for a tour of the renovated Hall and the George C.S. Benson Auditorium inside.

Marchant said that access will be available to the student body and public around March 15. Work on the building is to continue until then.

Below are some excerpts on the construction sent by the Office of the President to the Pitzer community just previous to this past fall semester:

“Two years ago Pitzer received one of the largest private donations ever given to the College for the renovation of Avery Auditorium, originally built in 1969. At the request of the donor Robert Day (chairman, president and CEO of the Keck Foundation) and with the blessing of the Avery family, it was agreed that the auditorium (but not the building) would be renamed the George C.S. Benson Auditorium in honor of Dr. Benson, a founding trustee of Pitzer

Avery Hall, as it currently appears from the front of the Writing Center

College. Together with Pitzer’s namesake Russell K. Pitzer and its founding trustees, Dr. Benson helped define the key qualifications required for the first president of Pitzer College—character and determination, personality, executive ability and scholarship—and chaired the search committee that named John W. Atherton as Pitzer’s founding president.

The auditorium renovation, now fully underway with completion expected in the spring semester, is employing green building principles that include an HVAC system to reduce energy consumption as well as recycled carpeting and fiber seats. The entire interior of the auditorium is being replaced, new technology is being installed, and a large glass lobby is being added to the front of the building that will include pocket doors to facilitate performances in the lobby to be viewed from the lawn. Architect Brenda Levin’s plan also carefully preserved as many of the building’s murals as possible, including “Pitzer: Past, Present and Future” painted in 1997 by Pitzer students and artist Paul Botello (who will return to campus to restore and enlarge parts of the mural affected by construction). The serpent mural on the roof of Avery originally painted in 1973 by students and Peruvian artist Yando Rios will also be preserved. Strict building codes dictated that ADA compliant restrooms be constructed at the northwest entrance of the auditorium, which required building over several existing student and faculty murals. Fortunately, these murals and many others at Pitzer have been captured and preserved online in the Claremont Colleges digital library at http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/map.”

President Trombley’s Full Letter, including the above, is available online at the Pitzer website here: http://www.pitzer.edu/offices/public_relations/press_releases/09-10/2009_08_27_trombley.asp

Coffee Being Brewed at the Grove House (Photo by Benjamin Alpert)

On Tuesday, March 2, the Grove House hosted a coffee “cupping” to test out new coffees that the Grove House Committee is considering offering in its Kitchen. Pitzer Junior Bennett Cross (PZ ’11) led the event and is the one-man force behind changing the coffee offered by the Grove House. Cross works in the Grove House kitchen and is also a member of the Grove House Committee, but perhaps more importantly is an avid coffee enthusiast.

“I’m trying to change the way Grove House does coffee,” said Cross. “I’m looking for slightly more of an emphasis on quality, it would reflect well on the grove house and people would pay for that.”

Cross made the decision to affect that change, he said, after his return from being abroad in Italy last semester. “I went to Italy because of my passion for coffee,” said Cross. “I worked at a cafe there and studied the coffee culture.”

The coffee in Italy, said Cross, was consistently very good. “I got back, would go home or come to the grove house and would want a coffee, but the quality would be much lower.”

Between 10 and 15 students participated in “cupping.” Four different coffees were tasted, all of which are free trade, all organic, and sold by Monkey and Son coffee distribution, a company that at one point was a provider to the Motley Coffee House at Scripps.

Bennett Cross Led the Event (Photo by Benjamin Alpert)

The cupping process was similar to that of a wine tasting, focusing similarly on flavors evoked by the drink in participants’ palettes. Cross guided the process as he brewed each coffee and encouraged participants to really consider the taste of each, not just drink casually.

“Really try to slurp the coffee,” said Cross a number of times. “You want as much spray as possible to coat the mouth.” This technique, he said, would encourage the best taste testing possible.

Reaction was also important to Cross, who encouraged participants to use any adjective that came to mind, no matter how far out it might seem as an ordinary descriptor for coffee. He gave some examples as well, suggesting that coffees could often be described as nutty, earthy, acidic, or as having citrus notes. Participants did not disappoint, using such adjectives as rich, chocolaty, full-bodied, profound, smooth, mellow, and as having both middle and high notes to describe the various coffees’ flavor.

The feedback from this cupping will be used by Cross in his recommendation to the Grove House committee on what

Student Participants at the Cupping (Photo by Benjamin Alpert)

should be offered in the future. Whether the Grove House will offer one, a couple, or all of these coffees is undecided.

“I’ll need to talk with the grove house committee and decide on a budget, then look from there,” said Cross, “I can think of a bunch of different things we could get off the top of my head, but it depends on how much we can get for the project.”

* Indicates participant group favorite

Monkey and Son website: http://www.monkeyandson.com

Associate Dean Chris Freeberg and Dean of Students Jim Marchat at the Cupping (Photo by Benjamin Alpert)

The Pitzer Student Activities Committee (SAC) held its annual birthday event this past weekend, on February 27. The event, which was held in the Gold Student Center Multi-Purpose Room, featured a student DJ competition followed by a performance by popular mash-up DJ, Super Mash Bros.

Planning for the party began last semester, spearheaded by Pitzer freshman Sophy Cohen, who had originally wanted to bring Super Mash Bros. as a freshman event. Encouraged by Associate Dean of Students Chris Freeberg, she brought the idea to SAC. “They said ‘our birthday party is coming in the spring, do you want to do it for our birthday party?’ I said okay,” said Cohen.

In the end, coordinating the event with SAC proved a successful combination of efforts. “There were people from all 5 schools,” said Pitzer’s 5-C Social Chair Senate Social Chair, Christine Zarker Primomo (PZ ’10),  “and I’ve had tons of people, even people who aren’t necessarily a part of the ‘party’ scene, tell me how awesome it was.”

Senior Ben Rubin agreed, saying, “I thought that it was a good event, I liked that it brought people from the different campuses together.”

In spite of the favorable turnout, setting up the party was not without difficulties. Rain throughout the day on Saturday forced a last minute venue change from the outdoors, in front of Broad Center, to the Gold Student Center. SAC had rented a stage and lighting equipment that they believed too large to fit in the Gold Student Center. “We had to cut back on the lighting,” said Primomo, “but the stage still fit.”

The bigger problem, however, proved to be funding. Although originally planned as a free event, it was announced shortly before the event that all Claremont McKenna students and off-campus guests would need to pay a $5 entrance fee. This decision came at a time when it was becoming increasingly clear that SAC would be scrambling for funds due to what Primomo described as a “hefty cost” to put on the party. SAC targeted CMC students to pay as a result of a dispute with their student senate over what Primomo described as “negligible funding” and a late decision to throw another (even more expensive) party that same night.

“We were counting on a grand from the other schools, since it was going to be the big 5-C party of the weekend,” said Primomo. “I had already placed the event on the 5-C calendar [that the school social chairs use as a reference for event planning.] Unfortunately, on the first weekend of February, just 3 weeks before our event, Pomona and CMC decide to plan a party.”

The Wedding Party, as it was called, was not your run of the mill weekend party.  According to Primomo, it came with a price tag somewhere around $20,000. “The thing that was really frustrating is that this was a Pitzer event that people from all 5-Cs would be excited to come to. There were DJ’s from all other schools coming to perform in the DJ competition,” she said.

Pomona, despite having a hand in planning for the Wedding party, still donated a significant amount to SAC’s birthday party. Claremont McKenna, however, because the Wedding party was on the same night, offered only a couple hundred dollars in support, which their Senate has still not actually approved or provided. For that, SAC decided to charge their students.

Charging at the door made up for some of those lost funds, as will the sale of reusable, glow-in-the-dark cups at future parties. But SAC is expecting to have significantly less funding for events for the rest of this semester, according to Primomo.

“SAC won’t be completely in debt, we might lose more than planned,” said Primomo, “which means less beer money for the semester. But Super Mash Bros. was really easy to work with; everyone loved him. The party was a success.”

Arriving more than an hour in advance, students from all of the Claremont Colleges anxiously awaited the opportunity to hear Jesse Jackson speak on January 22. It marked was the 22nd annual address in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Claremont McKenna College.

Jackson, a prominent American civil rights activist, engaged in dinner with a group of Claremont McKenna students and then spoke to students of all 5-C’s at 7:00 pm in the Athenaeum. Jackson expounded on America’s historical racism and its relation to bigoted acts of sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, classism, etc. Emphasizing that there is still an urgent need for social change today, he said, “Your generation has work to do. We’re free but not equal. Direct our energy in a positive direction.” Jackson also made a point to recognize our country’s social progress.

Referencing King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, Jackson emphasized what King called the United States’ broken promise: the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. Jackson said, “Congress, you promised; Lincoln, you promised.” Slavery may have ended, but public spaces were not actually “public.” African Americans were still prohibited to use the same “public” toilet as whites. In this case, “public” adhered merely to white people. He said that King’s speech honors a one-hundred-year promise, including equal opportunity and equal access. Today, the term “public” can still be regarded as biased, or geared towards a more dominant group.

“I feel there’s no place where you can’t go,” said Raven Jones (’12) on the topic of Jackson’s ideas, “but I feel like there are spaces where, me personally, or maybe someone who is not part of the dominant group, might feel like they don’t belong there. People don’t want to go because they don’t feel welcome and comfortable.”

Jackson expressed his perception of, and experiences with, public space through personal anecdotes. Growing up as a child in Greenville, North Carolina, he described how he would ride in the front of his grandfather’s wood truck. When he rode the public bus for the first time, he sat in the front, but did not understand why the bus driver wouldn’t continue driving until he moved. His mother yelled at him for sitting up front, and someone later told him, “She did that because she loves you.” Later in life, Jackson was arrested for protesting the local government’s legal bar of African Americans from using the public library; it was an example of how he and many others were determined to use nonviolent discipline to protest the racial injustice.

In order to fight these types of bias, bigotry and racism, we need to “change the culture of denial,” said Jackson. Discrimination still exists, just in different forms. King led our country’s transition from rigid legal segregation to the right to vote; now, Haiti is an extension of that historical segregation. While we have abolished slavery, ended the Jim Crow laws, and established the right to vote, people are still starving to death.

Jackson said that King recognized the connection between racism and poverty; he decided to take leadership in the Poor People’s Campaign, and traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, where Jackson was with him on his final birthday to organize the March on Washington. King spent that day in a church basement strategizing how to fight poverty and disease, and how to end the Vietnam War.

“Who we are is measured by how we treat the least of things. You’ve got to really care. You’ve got to really believe,” said Jackson.

Jackson’s speech touched on many forms of social identity, including race, gender, religion, sexuality and ethnicity. During the Question and Answer period, one student asked about the similarities between the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement for black people and the more contemporary LGBTQ movement. Jackson responded by saying “It’s the same. Except, to be black is to be identifiable. You don’t have to declare black. People must not be treated differently under the law, including sexual orientation.”

Jackson explained his concerns about different forms of discrimination he has recently witnessed in our country. He used the example not only of same-sex marriage, but also of English-Only as it discriminates against non-English speaking immigrants. He wittingly said, “The 10 Commandments weren’t written in English by the way.”

While discrimination continues to ensue in our society, Jackson made a point to emphasize our progress, and said, “Each victory along the way wasn’t a victory for blacks only.” He continued to reference progress within institutional settings, such as women in professional settings. He noted that schools that once rejected people of color are now recruiting people of color for athletics, and that Obama’s election significant growth in tolerance.

Through his storytelling, current-event awareness and establishment of the connection between all prejudices and forms of discrimination, Jackson encouraged strong activism and faith in one another.

“I thought it was inspiration for our generation…he told us to stand up!” said Elisha Whitman (’12).

If you’re curious about learning more about Jesse Jackson and his activism today, visit his organization’s wesbite: www.rainbowcoalition.com

Stephen Glass, Pitzer Professor

“I knew the Claremont Colleges and loved them,” said Claremont resident and Pitzer classics professor Stephen Glass. “The chance to be a colleague with my old professors was irresistible.”

Glass graduated from Pomona College in 1957 and returned to Claremont several years later, when in September 1964, Pitzer College first opened its doors as a women’s college. Glass will retire in June 2011, five days short of his 76th birthday.

His talents are scattered but abundant, but his expertise in one area makes him no less adept in others. “Knowledge serves as a bastion of your critical abilities,” he said. Without it, “you’re at the mercy of whoever is telling you anything.”

Glass has spent most of his life in Southern California. He grew up in Los Angeles and throughout his life has shuttled between LA and the Mediterranean, where he is an archaeologist as well as a scholar. “Temperature drops below 60 or so and I grow morose,” said Glass.

During high school, he made money playing “cool school” West coast jazz in nightclubs even though it was illegal because he was underage.

“Nobody ever made any noise about it. Nobody ever asked and nobody ever told. It was a lovely way to spend the end of my youth,” Glass said. “I miss it everyday of my life.”

“I always keep [a guitar] in my office just in case the day’s annoyances are too much then I can retreat to the past.”

He is a wine connoisseur and an avid chef. “I cook dinner every night of the week and it’s a great relaxation and great fun. You never stop learning,” Glass said.

Glass’ academic specialties are Greek and Roman history, mythology and Greek and Latin. He has a reputation for being one of the most challenging professors on campus. He admonishes the Claremont Colleges for dropping the required course load from five to four classes a semester, saying, “The fifth course is to allow you to take stuff just for the intellectual hell of it.”

He believes students lack the academic background he expects and cited Kipling as an example. “You don’t know whether that’s an author or a present participle,” he joked.

Glass reads modern and ancient Greek, Latin and French, German, Italian and Spanish. Glass does the majority of his archaeology in Greece. “You have to be able to read those languages in order to be able to do any kind of study in depth,” he said.

“When I retire I’m going to go back to school,” Glass said. “I overspecialized. There are some things I should have studied.”

The only way I can describe my study abroad experience is with a tired exclamation: “Oh, ACC.” Most of my days comprised of waking up at 7am, going to class at 8 in the morning, and staying up into the wee hours of the night studying Chinese characters. Were there days that I utterly loathed my abroad program? Yes. But would I do it all over again? Absolutely.

I opted for a non-Pitzer study abroad program called Associated Colleges in China, better known as ACC, located in Beijing. This study abroad program, hosted through Hamilton College in New York, can more or less be described as Chinese boot camp. Hosting approximately 75 students in the summer and 60 students in the fall from colleges throughout the country, ACC attracts those looking for a way to improve their Chinese language skills. My roommate always said, “All ACC students are crazy, why else would we volunteer to do this program?”

She was right. All of us were somewhat nuts to voluntarily take a language pledge to only speak Chinese for an entire semester and study somewhere from 30 to 300 Chinese characters a night. I did the program for two semesters, suffering through the blistering heat in the summer and the snowy cold in the winter.

But all joking aside, for anyone interested in learning Chinese, you should consider this program. There is a steep learning curve to ACC, the language pledge is extremely daunting at first, but everyone eventually gets the hang of it. All the teachers are extremely patient and helpful and often remain after class to gave additional assistance.

Despite ACC’s emphasis on language learning, there was still time to indulge in other activities. We took trips to the Shaolin Temple, Xi’an, and Nanjing, learning about various cultures in China. Through experiences in Beijing, be it a result of conversation with a cab driver or interactions with our host families, we gradually understood the different bits and pieces of Chinese culture in the new millennium.

Looking back on my experience at ACC, I wouldn’t have preferred my abroad experience any other way. I didn’t only complete ACC with better Chinese skills, but also met amazing people from colleges across the country and grew more mature in the process.

The café was opened in spring 2007 by five Pitzer seniors: Alden Towler, Dane Pollock, Josh Lipkowitz, Gabe Guerrero and Fred Beebe. For the final few weeks of the semester, the five of them ran the café out of the small kitchen in the Gold Student Center, which had previously been the unsuccessful Mandarin Café. They cooked and served food in the tiny kitchen, which to this day doesn’t have a built in stove or oven.

They had a mission in mind, one that encompassed the values of Pitzer College. It was founded on the ideals of sustainability and social responsibility, pillars of the college from whence it came. The local, organic produce comes from the Claremont Farmer’s Market. Meat, because of its environmental impact, is minimal.

The café is staffed by work-study students and volunteers. Most come from Pitzer but anyone from the 5Cs is welcome. The café is a venue for performance and parties. Historically, it has been host to karaoke and open mic nights, and has been a space to show documentaries for club meetings.

On opening night, the warmly lit café is furnished with masks and mirrors, plants and lamps. Upon each table, there is a colorful tapestry and a vase with fresh flowers. The tables are full, the line is long, and no one would have known it was opening night. Customers got their food quickly with no complaints.

It’s a place where employees come to study or read and end up in the kitchen cooking or serving food. The three-hour shifts feel more like a study break or dance party than a duty.

On November 4^th, 2008, the Shakedown was packed with students eagerly awaiting the decision of the presidential race.

A family of students dedicate their hearts and souls in nurturing the café, which is a second home for many students and which could one day be one of Pitzer’s landmarks. But as of now, the future of the fledgling café rests on this year.

The Shakedown has minimal costs. They don’t pay for labor, or electricity. The sole expense is the food. Despite rumors that it could be the Shakedown’s last year, the café expects to end the year with profit. Regardless, Pitzer student president Brian Orser intends to keep the café open as a resource for students, provided that they offer sustainable and affordable options for students of any budget.

Students don’t want the Shakedown to shut its doors. “Say it isn’t so,” said Natalya Ratan, Pitzer sophomore, with a sad and dejected expression, when she first heard the rumors.

“A lot fewer people go to the Shakedown than should,” says Paul Waters-Smith, the student body vice chair. As new freshmen enter the scene, the café has become a multi-class endeavor, but hasn’t yet managed to become a 5C competitor.

In an effort to bring more customers, the Shakedown hopes to expand its desserts options. Pitzer sophomore and professional pastry chef Roxanne Degens hopes to liven up the menu with some of her signature delicacies. Degens loves to bake, but ironically is unable to eat most of the treats she makes due to a gluten sensitivity. Degens was a regular customer last year and decided to share her experience and recipes with the café.

The Shakedown reopened its doors on Monday, September 14^th.  They are serving their staples: pad thai with peanut or tamarind sauce, burritos, shakebowls and the sensual sensation salad. They feature seasonal specialties based on availability and seasonality of local produce. They pride themselves on making everything from scratch, including ketchup.

The Shakedown, like other campus eateries, accepts Claremont Cash, Flex, and cash. It’s open Sunday-Thursday, from six to eleven p.m. Last call for orders is at 10:45.

But if all the loyal customers have anything to say about it, it’s just the beginning of the journey. Catherine Escher, Pitzer sophomore, says, “It’s the Shakedown, there’s some loyalty involved.”

Peace, love and Quinoa

At first glance, they look like normal Nalgenes, but the water bottles that were given to the Class of 2013 by the Office of Student Affairs are the freshmen’s cheat sheet to what’s at the heart of Pitzer College.  Distributed at Welcome Week in hundred-degree heat, the water bottles are peppered with iconic images including an orange, a cactus, a chicken, a bike, the sun, a peace sign, speech bubbles – and a house unlike any other—the Grove House.

The Grove House is not only Pitzer’s oldest student center, it’s also a place that many students have come, quite literally, to consider their home away from home.  The bungalow style house was built in 1902 during the Arts and Crafts movement in Claremont, California, within a quarter of a mile of its current home on the Pitzer College campus.

The Grove House, formerly called “the Zetterberg House” in honor of its previous owners, originally sat amid a lemon grove.  Today, the Grove House is situated next to a small citrus grove, the college garden, and the chickens.  The brown Craftsman-style house has twelve spacious rooms, but it has the welcoming and intimate feel of a much smaller dwelling.

“Every age and generation brings something different to the Grove House even though the duties here are pretty much the same day-to-day,” said Leticia Grosz, the Grove House’s current caretaker.

Much of the indoor furniture is authentic to the Arts and Crafts Movement.  Downstairs rooms include the living room (which plays host to readings, talks, and musical events), the kitchen, and assorted study areas.  Upstairs is the caretaker’s room, the guest room, a poetry room and an art gallery featuring temporary student-created exhibits.

In 1975, History of Ideas Professor Barry Sanders brought the Grove House to the attention of the college. He was teaching a class called “The Arts and Crafts Movement in America.”

Sanders bought the decaying house for $1. The problem was the cost of moving it from its location at Pilgrim Place, a community for retired missionaries, down the two lanes of First Street, to the Pitzer campus adjacent to the clock tower.  The July 16, 1977 move was a success, although telephone wires on First Street were temporarily removed to accommodate the house. The house was transported in three separate pieces, and remained in this condition for several years on campus.

The home sat stagnant and unoccupied for some years before the Kemper Foundation donated money for its renovation. It was restored in 1980, and a commercial scale kitchen was built in 1988. It’s been furnished with authentic Arts and Crafts décor.

The sole reason The Grove House wasn’t demolished in the years it stood unused was because it had been coded as a historical building so as to avoid keeping it to code. When the internal debates about demolishing the house ensued, this status legally assured that the house would be preserved.

The delicate stonework on the porch was laid out on the ground and pieced together rock by rock by a blind man, and later installed onto the house.

The Grove House was Pitzer’s first student center, and remained so until the Gold Student Center was built. However, it was hardly displaced as the hub of Pitzer student life. The Grove House hosts countless club meetings – including Pitzer Outdoor Adventures (POA), Eco-Center, Feminist Coalition, Student Activities Committee (SAC), Kohoutek Planning Committee, and Art Collective. Groove at the Grove, weekend parties featuring DJs or visiting musicians, is Pitzer’s contribution. Additionally, it’s a popular refuge for students who are studying or simply hanging out.

“When I’m working at the Grove House I get to say hello to my friends as they come by, but it’s also a place to seek solitude,” said Ben Alpert, a Pitzer senior who felt an immediate affection for the Grove House upon his first campus visit.

Grosz agrees, saying, “Everything happens here.”

The Grove House’s renovated kitchen also features an acclaimed restaurant, which is renowned on campus for its cookies and limeade.  The kitchen also serves sandwiches and a seasonal special.  Food Services Manager Rachel Vandervorst, who has been at the Grove House for eighteen years, never features the same dish more than once in a month. She bases the menu on the weather. She cooks comfort food when it’s cold or rainy, and fresh, light meals on bright sunny days.  “Nothing ever stays the same.  And it shouldn’t,” says Vandervorst, who says that many students have told her that when they visited the Grove House, they knew Pitzer was where they belonged.

Abigail Darin, a Pitzer senior and Grove House worker, got a traditional dose of Grove House hospitality on her second visit to campus.  “When I visited Pitzer we went by the Grove House and they gave me a free cookie, which was amazing,” says Darin, now a manager.  “They were also having a crazy dance party, so I decided I wanted to work there when I came [to Pitzer].”

Darin says that the Grove House is more of a comfort than ever with the ongoing evolution of Pitzer’s campus.  Many of its familiar buildings are getting torn down, but, ironically, the once-endangered “Zetterberg House” is a permanent fixture.

“During a time when a lot of Pitzer is being renovated and everything’s under construction, the Grove House remains a constant and a central part of the Pitzer community.”

Amidst the stars was the figure of Buzz Lightyear. His white and neon green spacesuit was just as bright as in the “Toy Story” movies. His stature was bigger than the toy but smaller than that of a grown man. His voice was not powerful; it was the voice of a child. Buzz Lightyear is Wes Cutter, the four-year-old son of Claremont residents and Claremont College economics professors Maya Federman and Bo Cutter.

Wes bounced excitedly through the Star Wars themed-hall in Holden dormitory. A poster on the left-hand side read, “In a galaxy far far away there lived the greatest hall ever.” The trilogy’s theme song reverberated through the hallway. On the left were two Ewoks, drawn with brown chalk but clearly distinguishable as the bear-like creatures from “Return of the Jedi.” Chewbacca, a brown creature much like Big-foot in look and stature, was etched onto the black paper hanging across from the Ewoks. Adjacent was a carefully sketched picture of Darth Vader under which was written, “Luke, I am your father.”

Halloween in the Halls is an annual event at Pitzer College that welcomes children from the Claremont community for trick-or-treating. For over a decade, Pitzer has invited Claremont’s families to its campus, eliminating the barrier between the colleges and the community. This year over eighty costumed kids and their parents came to celebrate Halloween. The first floor of Holden, Pitzer and North and East Sanborn Halls were decorated with a unique theme, and students living in each distributed candy.

Golden paper and silver aluminum stars hung from a curtain of thin blue ribbon, dividing the Star Wars themed M hall from the entryway. Tin-foil decorations peppered the hallway where costumed kids knocked on the doors that advertised “trick-or-treat here” with handwritten notes.

Bright green and blue light sabers glowed in the light of the dark hall. On the far side, a lone white storm trooper stood erect in full combat gear. R2D2’s short round robotic frame appeared next to his cohort C3PO, whose gold body, despite his android state, is shaped in the image of a human. Appeared on the lower part of the wall, Jedi Master Yoda did. Wes admired Yoda, his favorite character from the Star Wars series.

Princesses and martial artists strolled through each hall, toting pillowcases and plastic pumpkins filled with Hershey’s and Nestle chocolate and coin gum and atomic fireballs.

Wild Western music greeted trick-or-treaters to the cowboy themed L hall. It was decorated with horses and cacti and paper cutouts of hand-drawn cartoon cowboys. At the end of their tours, led by Pitzer students, the families ended up in the Mead Hall lounge, where a haunted house spooked visitors. Families decorated cookies together and children reached their delicate fingers into a bowl of “eyeballs.” The eyeballs were made of grapes, but Maya told her son they were tomatoes so he would eat them.

In Wes’ group there were four other children, three of whom he knew. Some of the attendees were professors who came with their families, although event organizers hoped to cater to the greater Claremont community by advertising in the Courier and by posting fliers in the Village. Most visitors were not associated with the college, but learned of the event from the community outreach. It was the Federman family’s third time at Halloween in the Halls, but the first that Wes was old enough to remember.

“It was pretty fun,” said Wes, assuming the character of Buzz. He had only one suggestion for next year: to decorate a hall with a “Toy Story” theme.