By Charlotte Korer ’27
Editor-In-Chief
At around 10:15 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30, a Pomona student was arrested near the Clark V Residence Hall. The Los Angeles County Fire Department invited officers from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to the Pomona campus, according to an email from the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) sent to Pomona students and later forwarded to the other campuses. The officers were in unmarked vans and out of uniform, leading to confusion among students.
“We were briefed alongside Campus Safety during our pre-event meeting that ABC agents were likely to be orbiting campus, but, thankfully, there were no incidents at Scripps involving them to our knowledge,” said Evelyn Cantwell ’28 and Avni Kalia ’28, SAS 5C event co-chairs who organized the SAS and Pomona Events Committee (PEC) collaborative party on Elm Tree Lawn. “Given that the arrest happened after most students had ventured out for the night, it’s hard for us to know how it might have impacted our event.”
Office of Student Engagement (OSE) and Campus Safety briefed the 5C event co-chairs at 9:45 p.m. on Friday, around 30 minutes before the arrest on Pomona campus.
Oct. 31 at 4:46 p.m., the day after the arrest, SAS shared a message with the Scripps student body. Here is an excerpt: “Scripps is private property, and the ABC is only allowed to operate on public property. However, we understand that the general presence of ABC around the 5C campuses, especially given what happened last night, causes anxiety and puts students at explicit risk. As such, SAS is resharing the statement put out by Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC), below. We hope that you are all able to have a safe rest of your Halloween and want to serve as a resource to you all.”
There was no mention of SAS and Campus Safety’s prior knowledge of ABC’s presence on the Claremont College campuses.
Because the arrest occurred on Friday, there was a feeling of tension around the Claremont Colleges for Halloweekend festivities on Saturday night.
“I was a bit more cautious going out on Saturday and more aware of my surroundings and made sure that my groups of friends and I stayed close together and we never went out by ourselves,” said Samantha Klaffenbach, ’29. “It definitely made me a little bit more fearful to go out in the future, especially as a person of color.”
It wasn’t just Scripps students feeling the tension of the arrest, especially with parties taking place across the 5Cs. “I go to CMC, so going to Scripps and Pitzer, I have to go into public property, and I just keep wondering what happened to my friends- who are [ABC] targeting?” said Charis Chu, CMC ’30. “I feel like this kind of arrest is unfair in nature and going to make the students of color feel more unsafe.”
“It was terrible. I definitely enjoy a position of real privilege, so it didn’t make me concerned for myself. But friends that are international students or on full-ride [scholarship] situations were definitely really worried about it, and it sucked,” Jesse Cufley ’29. “It’s a college campus. We should be practicing harm reduction; it shouldn’t be punitive or carceral.”
While the law enforcement presence on Pomona’s campus caused stress among the student body regarding the safety of 5C nightlife, students at other 5C parties were fortunate to have a sense of normalcy in their evening. Most students at the SAS x PEC party at Scripps’s campus were unaware of what was happening a 15-minute walk south of them. Because of that unawareness, the SAS x PEC party was able to be a success.
“We feel that collaborating with Pomona was a really valuable way to build more cross-campus collaboration on events, which we think is great,” said Evelyn Cantwell ‘28 and Avni Kalia `28, SAS 5C event co-chairs. “One of our goals in the role has definitely been building community across the 5Cs and uniting campuses to build even more excitement around the 5C tradition of Halloween parties!”
As many students didn’t know about the arrest, the Scripps Halloween party was a success. “We sold out of wristbands and had great attendance. Things are always a little slow early in the night, but once people started trickling in, it got pretty exciting!” said Cantwell and Kalia. “We hope that everyone had so much fun with us on Elm Tree. All the costumes were fantastic!”
Students enjoyed the Scripps party as well. “I had so much fun at that party; I greatly enjoyed it,” said Klaffenbach. “The music was pretty easy to sing along to; it did cut between songs kind of quickly, so I wish that each song would’ve lasted a little longer. But the music selection was good, the decorations were nice, it wasn’t too crowded, it was fun! I stayed there for an hour and a half or two hours.”
Saturday night featured the Pitzer party in the rain and the aftermath of the arrest.
For many at the 5Cs, the arrest and certain organizations’ foreknowledge of ABC’s presence on the campuses raises concerns for students’ safety and calls into question the extent of the colleges’ complicity with unidentified law enforcement.
