Pomona College Magazine Spring 2009
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PoINSIDE: mEL ESPECTADOR / SEARCoH YOUR FEELINGS n/ GOSSIP GIRL a COLLEGE MAGAZINE Spring/Summer 2009 TheS PCECoIAmL ISiSnUgE: TEHEx tNiEnWSction SPRING / S UMMER 2009 1 Pomona / Home Page / /The News/ Dance! Students in Pomona’s Dance Program perform "Las Mujeres de Santa Maria," set to vocal music / FEATURES / of 15th- and 16th-century Spain, as part of the program’s annual Spring Concert in April. The The Future of the News 15 work was choreographed by Professor Laurie Cameron with costume design by Karen Weller The Reporter/ Endangered Species / BY RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA ’84 15 and lighting design by Tantris Hernandez. The dancers are Lisa Kau (Scripps ’12), Ellen The Columnist/ Revolution Redux / BY MARY SCHMICH ’75 18 McCormack ’12, Alex Friedlander-Moore, Alison Noll ’10, Caitlin Radcliffe (Scripps ’12), Abby The Editor/ Not With a Bang / BY BILL KELLER ’70 20 Taubman (Pitzer ’12), Maggie Tietz (Scripps ’12), The Blogger/ Holding On & Letting Go / BY TERESA VALDEZ KLEIN ’05 Ingrid Vidal ’10 and Whitney Yang ’11. 23 —P HOTO BY KATE FEHLHABER Search Your Feelings / BY LORI KIDO LOPEZ ’06 Professor Sarah Sood’s cyberquest for the heart of the blogosphere. 26 El Espectador / BY AGUSTIN GURZA Ignacio Lopez ’31 and his scrappy forerunner to today’s ethnic media. 29 Paper Route / BY ELLEN ALPERSTEIN Ben Sparks ’91 and the China connection of newspaper recycling. 34 TSL / BY VANESSA HUA Pomona’s student paper, The Student Life, adapts to the online world. 36 Gossip Girl / BY ADAM ROGERS ’92 Molly Goodson ’04 feeds the endless cycle of online celebrity news. 39 / DEPARTMENTS //CLASS NOTES / 51 Stray Thoughts 2 Notes Your Letters 3 Distinguished Service 51 Pomona Today 5 Distinguished Alumnus 52 Bookshelf 42 Bulletin Board 53 New Knowledge 46 Expert Advice 54 Alumni Voices 49 Inspirational Alumnus 57 Mind Games 64 Scrapbook 58 Pomona Blue 64 Births & Adoptions 60 Obituaries 60 More at PCM ONLINE / ON THE COVER www.pomona.edu/magazine Photo illustration by Mark Wood SPRING / S UMMER 2009 2 Pomona College aa 4 POMONA COLLEGE MAGAZINE / Stray Thoughts / Pomona / Letter Box / COLLEGE MAGAZINE graduates, are about “getting there.” The articles are about a Pomona grad in Buenos The Debate Goes On Spring/Summer 2009 • Volume 45, No. 3 Missing the Aires eating out by herself, about another Not a day goes by without my experiencing Burning News Visit PCM Online at www.pomona.edu/magazine. grad who photographs cars by himself, and deep gratitude for the wonderful education I Larger Story about one who drives a truck by himself. received at Pomona. I was a history major who EXECUTIVE EDITOR & ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER I wonder what’s become of the college I They, like Mike, are depicted and celebrated pursued the field in graduate school, but it was Mark Wood ([email protected]) for what they have done as individuals. This y career as a journalist was short-lived but intense. I would say “rich,” attended in the ’60s. The Winter 2009 issue my four years at Pomona that taught me the M MANAGING EDITOR of what I still call Pomona Today has an article contradicts one of the most enduring, and but that would be misleading. I spent those years hovering happily just Mark Kendall ([email protected]) importance of critical inquiry, of always seek - about Michael Hill ’64, a classmate of mine endearing, things I learned at Pomona: I am ing to examine primary documents and source above the poverty line. After marriage and a child, I probably dipped below. WEB EDITOR Laura Tiffany ([email protected]) and best man at my wedding to Cheryl not by myself. materials, to check and double check all data But I’ve never enjoyed a job more than those five years at a small-town ASSISTANT EDITORS Overin ’65 in Kenya in 1965. I am proud that —Ward Heneveld ’64 and sources, and to revise a position as new daily in rural Arkansas. I worked at various times as darkroom technician, Sneha Abraham (Scripps ’00) my friend has received the recognition for his Enosburg Falls, Vt. facts are uncovered. I learned to recognize and Mary Marvin photographer, editorial cartoonist, beat reporter, feature writer, sports work with HIV/AIDS victims in Malawi adjust for bias, to establish an appropriate his - CLASS NOTES EDITOR writer, wire editor, lay-out designer and paste-up artist. There were days— Perdita Sheirich these last few years, and Pomona College torical context for understanding, and to lots of them, now that I think about it—when I was all of these things in Magazine has helpfully shared that work with Torn Pages, Teary Eyes weigh hearsay and memory against unequivo - PUZZLE EDITOR rapid succession, juggling tasks with the energy of the young and dedicated. Lynne Willems Zold ’67 a larger group of people. However, the article By the time I finished reading the Winter cal fact. I learned the necessity of adhering to Armed with reporter’s pad and camera, pockets bulging with pens and CONTRIBUTORS is only about Michael and his achievements as 2009 copy of our daughter’s Pomona College rigid standards, based on intellectual integrity, Ellen Alperstein (“Paper Route”) is an independent writer and an individual. I think you missed the larger filmpacks, I sat through interminable city council and planning commission editor for the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service. Magazine , half of it was in pieces on the table which are the foundation of any investigation story—and better article —that would put meetings, reporting on setback variances and airport fees. I dug through Agustin Gurza (“El Espectador”) is a freelance writer who has in front of me. Bats, for my husband’s cousin? or decision-making process. covered Latino cultural and political life for three decades, Mike’s Malawi experience in the context of stacks of police reports and court filings like a 49er panning for gold. I Check. Chickens on campus, for my sister The research I conducted last summer on including stints at the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County his relationship with us, his Pomona College schmoozed with city employees and petty politicians. I took pictures of Register. Two of his siblings are Pomona alumni. who lives on a 600-bird “hobby” farm? the origin of “Hail, Pomona, Hail” led to an age mates. Check. Ten favorite drives in America, for all 18-page report establishing the alma mater schoolchildren holding awards and donors brandishing shovels. I wrote my Vanessa Hua (“TSL”) is a former reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. The article as published makes of the confirmed road-trippers was in no way associated with any minstrel stories on a green-screened computer terminal in the corner of a noisy news - Jerry Irish (“Beyond Tolerance”) is the McLean Professor of no mention of Mike’s connections in our family? Check. (But show. The facts in the report, based on con - Religion and Religious Studies at Pomona College. room and helped paste up the newspaper in a backroom redolent of hot to his classmates or of the rich net - Bill Keller ’70 (“Not with a Bang”) is the executive editor of The Steve Wilkinson apparently temporaneous documents, have never been wax. Then, while the day’s paper was rolling off the presses, I went back out New York Times. work of relations that define us all hasn’t driven the Seward and disputed. My report, originally characterized in search of the day’s new happenings. Lori Kido Lopez ’06 (“Search Your Feelings”) is a doctoral stu - together. His classmates had lost Sterling Highways in Alaska, as a “Skeptic’s Report” by the Committee on dent at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication. touch with Mike until about five with their oceans, eagles, and College Songs, was disregarded by them and Of course, most of what we called journalism in Batesville, Ark., would Richard Perez-Pena ’84 (“Endangered Species”) covers the print probably strike you as pretty lightweight stuff—a feature about a woman media for The New York Times. years ago, when word of his work steaming volcanoes.) Malawi was not distributed by the College to be read turning 100 or a man who spent his weekends exploring caves, a story about Adam Rogers ’92 (“Gossip Girl”) is a senior editor for Wired in Malawi spread on our class list - Peace Corps, for our friends in by students, faculty, staff or trustees. The magazine. the widening of a street or a fire at a local landfill—but not all of it was fluff serv and some of us began send - the Malawi Peace Corps adminis - committee simply chose to sideline my report, Mary Schmich ’75 (“Revolution Redux”) is a columnist for the ing money to support his pro - and routine. Because of an agreement between the newspaper and the local Chicago Tribune. tration? Check. And there were thus never having to address the undisputed gram. In August 2007, 11 of us police, I was, for several years, on call two nights a week as a police photog - Teresa Valdez Klein ’05 (“Holding On & Letting Go”) works as those I didn’t tear out—pretty facts that challenged their position. A conver - a social technology strategist for T-Mobile, USA and blogs at from the class of ’64 visited Mike much every other article in the sation with me would have forced them to rapher. In that role, I saw a few things I’d rather forget. The worst, for some TeresaCentric.com . in Malawi and reunited with him for the first magazine, but read avidly for either present facts to prove their position or reason, was usually processing the film afterward.