Kevin Tidmarsh | Nov. 11, 2015, 8:02 p.m. 
 
 A crowd of students congregated outside Claremont McKenna College’s Hub Grill during Dean of Students Mary Spellman’s office hours at 2 p.m. today, Nov. 11, to protest the CMC administration’s treatment of marginalized students. The students waiting at the Hub were soon met by the protest's organizers, who read aloud a series of testimonies of discrimination from students of color and queer students at CMC, and then presented their demands to Spellman and CMC President Hiram Chodosh. 
 
 Many students carried signs that mentioned the “CMC mold" in reference to an email Spellman sent to Lisette Espinosa CM ‘15 that infuriated many students of marginalized identities. Although it was not part of the of the protest organizers’ original demands, students at the protest also called for Spellman to be removed from her position. 
 
 “[W]e are working on how we can better serve students, especially those who don’t fit our CMC mold,” read Spellman’s response to Espinosa, who had sent Spellman and other CMC administrators her Oct. 23 TSL op-ed about her experience feeling unwelcome at CMC as a low-income woman of color. This phrase quickly became a rallying cry for CMC students who had experienced discrimination and intolerance on campus and felt frustrated and ignored by the administration. 
 
 
 
 Students wait for CMC President Hiram Chodosh to speak outside CMC's Hub. Alex Smith • The Student Life 
 
 This morning, the campus groups organizing the protest released an open letter detailing, among other things, "a list of aggressions towards students of marginalized identities in the past two years," four of which specifically mention the dean of students office. 
 
 Although Spellman’s reference to a “CMC mold” and backlash over racially insensitive Halloween costumes helped to galvanize the protest, most of the demands that the protesters made today were not new. In fact, the campus group CMCers of Color presented a set of proposed actions to Chodosh in April of this year containing the same demands made today, as documented in the student groups' letter. 
 
 “This isn’t a new conversation,” Michaiah Young CM ’18, one of the protesters, said. “People have been feeling this way for years now.” 
 
 The actions proposed included hiring a diversity chair in the dean of students office, increasing funding for multicultural clubs, increasing diversity among faculty and staff, and founding a resource center and mentorship program for students of color. 
 
 Seven months later, most of these goals had not been met, although Chodosh committed at today’s protest to create both a temporary and permanent resource center. Chodosh said in an interview with TSL and the CMC Forum that CMC has authorized diversity positions in both the dean of students and the dean of faculty offices, although the hiring processes for each of these positions has not yet begun, and that he intended to address the rest of the students’ demands. 
 
 In the same interview, Chodosh did not confirm whether he was considering firing Spellman but said that Vice President for Student Affairs Jefferson Huang had placed her under institutional review. 
 
 Taylor Lemmons CM ’17 announced in an open letter about an hour before the protest that she intended to go on a hunger strike until Spellman had vacated her position. Zain el-Jazara CM '16 soon joined the hunger strike. 
 
 “With the pursuit of cultivating and maintaining an inclusive environment at CMC, I believe that Dean Spellman should resign as Dean of Students, due to her insensitive comments, her inaction in supporting marginalized students at Claremont McKenna College, and the fact that her actions, independent of any isolated incident, reflect her inability to truly understands the students at CMC,” Lemmons wrote. 
 
 Spellman addressed what she meant by the “CMC mold” at the demonstration and in an email to community members this morning. 
 
 “Please know my intention was to affirm the feelings and experiences expressed in the article and to provide support,” she wrote in the email with the subject line “apology.” 
 
 
 
 CMC Dean of Students Mary Spellman speaks next to a protester. Liam Brooks • The Student Life 
 
 Spellman announced no intent to resign her position at the protest. She only spoke occasionally when students addressed her, and one participant at the event said that she saw Spellman’s eyes closed, as if she were sleeping. Spellman offered no response to this allegation. 
 
 Spellman’s sister, Julie Spellman Sweet CM ’89, currently sits on CMC’s board of trustees. 
 
 “I will reiterate: I am committed, as I have always been, to support students of all backgrounds, of all needs and interests, and I will work to continue to change the institution,” Spellman said at the protest. While she was saying this, students called out “false” from the crowd. 
 
 Chodosh confirmed a permanent programming space to support campus climate, including “identity, diversity, and free speech,” in an email sent to students 20 minutes before the protest and in an interview with TSL and the CMC Forum before the protest. However, following pressure from the protesters, Chodosh also committed to the implementation of a temporary space to be created this semester. 
 
 The letter from CMCers of Color stated that “issues of shared governance” prevented the resource center from being established despite being told over the summer with a “95 percent certainty” that a temporary space would be established this fall. However, it was not implemented because a space could not be found, according to Chodosh. A basement room had been found for the center, but the administrators in charge of planning the space did not believe it was suitable. 
 
 The students present at the protest called out Chodosh for his lack of action regarding the firing of Spellman and for not taking action on CMCers of Color’s demands. 
 
 “You stand here like a man in front of me and tell me you can’t afford a space for us to feel safe?” el-Jazara, one of the hunger strikers, said to Chodosh at the protest. 
 
 Students from CMCers of Color, the Brothers and Sisters Alliance (BSA), the Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA), the Asian Pacific American Mentoring Program (APAM), and GenU, an organization for low-income and first-generation college students, marched to the Hub before Spellman's office hours began. Students from other schools in the Claremont consortium also came to show their support for CMC students of color. 
 
 “I was just thinking, I see my fellow brothers and sisters of color crying,” said Ashley Land PO ’16, one of the students calling for Spellman’s resignation at the protest. “When they started crying, that got to me, and I was like, ‘No, this is not OK.’ In what world does someone who’s an employee of the college, who’s a part of the dean of students office, want to email a student and say, ‘You don’t fit here.’ That’s how I feel about the email. I feel like that’s an automatic firing.” 
 
 This protest came at a time when students across the 5Cs have expressed their solidarity with students of color at the University of Missouri, which has seen threats to the safety of Black students after Black activist groups, saying that school leaders did not properly deal with racism on their campus, forced the resignation of the university’s president and chancellor. 
 
 “We’re all going through this at the same time because this generation is waking up and ready to act,” Young said. “It’s different at the other schools, but it’s all related in that social media has been great in helping us communicate with each other.” ||||| Lisette Espinosa | Oct. 23, 2015, 4:36 a.m. 
 
 "Many people report a sense of appreciation and pride to be affiliated with CMC, but there are also those who feel disenfranchised." –Claremont McKenna College’s 2011-2012 Campus Climate Task Force Report 
 
 "Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind? Who taught you to hate the race that you belong to so much so that you don't want to be around each other? No... Before you come asking Mr. Muhammad does he teach hate, you should ask yourself who taught you to hate being what God made you." – Malcolm X, May 22, 1962, Los Angeles 
 
 In elementary school, I remember being proud that my father was a waiter. For Halloween one year I happily dressed up in a white dress shirt, bow tie and my father's waist apron. When my fifth grade teacher asked the class to write about our career of choice, I, of course, wrote "waiter." He politely asked if I could choose something else. 
 
 In high school, I wanted to distance myself from my background. I envisioned having a family like my first boyfriend's mother's side of the family, who were mostly white and middle class. This is what a "normal" American family looks like. Since families like mine were not well represented in the media I consumed, I considered my family "abnormal." 
 
 Not until college did I realize I had been taught to be ashamed of being from a working class, immigrant Mexican family, despite growing up around many families like my own. Anywhere from the media to the Claremont Colleges, I am constantly receiving the message that we aren't worth anything. To this day, I am still trying to unlearn these twisted concepts of "success" and "normality" that made me want to turn my back on my hometown and community. 
 
 The author as a child. • Courtesy Lisette Espinosa 
 
 One of the many things I've learned from queer activists is that assimilation does not equal liberation. Achieving the "American Dream" for myself does not mean that people like my parents, relatives or hometown community will stop being dehumanized or that they will be given the respect they deserve. You only need to look at the news to list the stereotypes often projected onto working class people of color. These myths and misrepresentations are often internalized. 
 
 Maybe most of us have felt out of place at Claremont McKenna College for one reason or another, but my feelings of not belonging cut deep across economic and racial lines. It was uncomfortable coming to CMC and seeing my home being better represented in the poorly paid, working-class staff rather than those more central to managing the school's trajectory and curriculum. Over the years, I have seen many people with similar backgrounds to mine build relationships with the workers at the 5Cs. Referring to the Colleges, a student in my Latina Activism class, Neftali Dominguez HM '17, said in class the first week, "How can they say they care about students of color when they treat their brown workers like shit?" At the Claremont Colleges, it is not unusual for workers to get fired or harassed for organizing for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. 
 
 Within the first weeks of school, I told an upperclassman Latino that I felt like I was admitted to fill a racial quota. Why would they want me here? Impostor syndrome is prevalent among first-generation students. These feelings caught me by surprise as I had never known what it felt like to be the "minority" in my predominantly immigrant, low-income Latinx hometown. The week after classes started, I cried at the Chicanx/Latinx New Student Retreat, where I felt comfortable enough to voice my concerns about the school. Feelings of inadequacy have haunted me throughout my time at CMC, and my struggles with anxiety and depression first arose at the end of my second year. 
 
 Students of color often report feeling unwelcome at predominantly-white institutions, and CMC is far from an exception. Our campus climate and institutional culture are primarily grounded in western, white, cisheteronormative upper to upper-middle class values. Last school year, approximately 60 percent of undergraduate students did not qualify for financial aid based on ability to pay. And it was homophobia and transphobia on campus that encouraged me to complete a gender studies sequence. My second year on campus, the LGBTQ-related posters in the Stark elevator were consistently being ripped, written on, and literally clawed at. 
 
 The CMC administration knows the college needs a lot of work. As mentioned in their most recent Campus Climate Task Force (CCTF) report: "By some, CMC is perceived as an institution that fails to prioritize diversity and lacks sensitivity to diversity issues." In a formal report released by CMC in 2013, the Climate Task Force, which was composed of students, faculty, and staff, agreed that the college needs to do considerably more to support its students of marginalized identities and backgrounds. In fact, the report outlines CMC's long history of resisting this type of change. 
 
 The report states that while CMC's national reputation grew in the 1980s, some members of the CCTF remember that period as "marked by overt misogyny" and "hostility toward gays and lesbians." In 1989, a prominent CMC faculty member "attacked the gay liberation movement" in a campus speech and a publication. Many CMC faculty and administrators resisted pursuing affirmative action and creating ethnic and women's studies departments, unlike other liberal arts colleges at the time. This contributed to CMC's image as a college unwelcoming to those of "diverse backgrounds" and those interested in teaching or learning about these topics. Though praising its reputation as a "leading liberal arts college," CMC’s accrediting body, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, criticized the school’s lack of “recruitment of talented women and persons of color” and “attention to diversity and campus climate issues for minorities” in reports in the 1990’s, 2000, and 2009. 
 
 Mirroring its continual neglect of "diversity issues," CMC also reproduces indifference to social inequalities and oppression in its own student body. 
 
 Although 90% of students surveyed in 2011 reported feeling treated well by the CMC student body, Black and Latinx students were less likely to agree that CMC is "free of tension related to ethnicity/race." Furthermore, the college was described by the report as having a "pervasive, 'hyper-masculine' and heteronormative ethos...that generally discourages the expression of nonconforming gender identities and sexual orientations." 
 
 In the report, women reported feeling valued as intellectuals and friends by day and sexually objectified by night. My second year, I was sexually assaulted by an intoxicated student who followed me into the elevator and tried to forcefully pull me to his room. Many people have had similar experiences across college campuses. 
 
 Gaypril poster in CMC's Stark Hall clawed at in 2013. • Courtesy Lisette Espinosa 
 
 When Carlos Ballesteros, another CMC student, wrote an op-ed for TSL on how issues regarding the party scene receive a disproportionate amount of outrage compared to issues of diversity on campus, multiple online commenters suggested that he transfer. They had a hard time understanding why Carlos cared so much about having more professors of color and more students from low-income backgrounds. It pained me they could not put themselves in our shoes. I was not surprised The Onion wrote this satire about an "Orange County native" and "Claremont McKenna graduate" who believes those not as well-off must somehow deserve their circumstances: "I look around and see a lot of people who don’t have what I have, which leads me to conclude our social institutions have these built-in disparities for a purpose—one that I trust makes perfect sense." 
 
 I have been told by staff that one reason hiring more diverse faculty is difficult is because the hiring process is biased. Those who have connections on campus are more likely to be hired. In addition, the CCTF reported that the problem is in part due to "unwelcoming attitudes" of people currently employed at the college. Letters to CMC administrators and colleagues reveal "instances in which members of the professional community have felt devalued, or have been harassed because of their gender or sexual identity," leaving some faculty "afraid that researching or teaching in gender or ethnic studies would diminish their chances of achieving tenure." 
 
 The Climate Task Force offered a long list of recommendations in "community composition," "facilities and space," "policies and practices," "academics: curriculum and advising," "co-curricular activities and student services," and "institutional commitment and celebrated success." Last semester, a group of students interested in organizing those who have felt isolated by the campus climate and institutional culture because of their racial or ethnic identities met to discuss their experiences at CMC. The group, CMCers of Color, sent both CMC President Chodosh and ASCMC a petition of proposed actions that echo many of the same concerns the college's own Climate Task Force Report outlined. Disability issues, socioeconomic issues, and Islamophobia were some of the additional issues underscored. 
 
 These problems are not new to those who see disparities and experience these tensions on campus. 
 
 I frequently use resources and attend events at Pomona College, Scripps College, and Pitzer College. I would visit Scripps Communities of Resources and Empowerment so often that someone had wondered if I had transferred schools. 
 
 At the beginning of this semester, a friend invited me to attend a dinner for Scripps students of color. A tent covered a large portion of Jaqua Quad and a dozen tables were filled with students, faculty, staff and alumni. But the event frustrated me. I could not imagine this type of event being held at CMC. Back during speaker Devanie Dóñez' '94 time as a Scripps student, the welcome reception for students of color was held in a dorm living room, and she noted the event's growth in size. I wondered how many CMC students would have appreciated hearing from their own school what I heard from the alumna Trustee's speech: 
 
 "Diversity and inclusion are not themes that we talk about for a month or a year. We will never stop talking about this or these issues... We will never reach a point where the work is done... Tonight, I want to remind you again, you are welcome here. You belong here. You are needed here to be known, to…be visible leaders of the call for the most inclusive Scripps possible. And all the rest of us here tonight...as trustees, as administrators, as educators, we will support you and be accountable to you as we strive to do better...So often assumptions are made about students of color, what it means to be a student of color, who we are, where we are from...One faulty assumption I think we may all face at some point is the idea that diversity and excellence are mutually exclusive. I hear that implied in conversation..." 
 
 She also spoke about the time she was mistaken as a dining hall worker because she was Latina. Last semester, a Latina CMC alumna disclosed that she had been confused with housekeeping: "We're out of paper towels." 
 
 Not once in my four years have I invited my parents to CMC's Parents Weekend. It feels strange having my parents to “experience CMC culture” when that culture doesn't value their work or experiences. 
 
 Whether we believe the Colleges are committed to "diversity and inclusion" or just playing a part key to their image, something is wrong here. 
 
 Some will think I am overreacting. Some will say I do not belong at CMC and should have transferred (which I cannot afford). Some will believe I am "biting the hand that feeds me." Others will say I am focusing too much on the negative aspects of CMC's campus (those that I frequently hear in private but hardly in public) and not enough on the positive. I see these types of comments often on Carlos' articles online. 
 
 These types of reactions discourages students from speaking up, fearing possible repercussions. 
 
 My friend Denys Reyes once wrote, "I understand that it is intuitive to defend our school, but someone's first reaction to injustice should not be, 'Not all of CMC!', but 'What can we do to make sure CMC is not this way again?'" 
 
 Luckily, my experiences at CMC resulted in immense personal growth, a re-evaluation of my values and identities, and improved relations with my family and community at home. I am a proud Chicana. My background is not a deficit, but a strength. 
 
 Whose voices are the loudest on campus? Whose voices are kept at the margins? Who do we look to for knowledge, and whose knowledge is valued? Are our "success" and "leadership" measured in dollar signs? What role do the colleges play in replicating inequality while touting "responsible leadership"? Who is respected, and who is not given a living wage? Whose life is given priority, and whose lives are criminalized, jailed, detained and disposable? What stereotypes and ideologies do we allow in our lives that contribute to the normalization of structural inequality and social suffering? 
 
 This is why I want to ask, who is our Claremont education for? 
 
 Lisette Espinosa CM '15 is from Oxnard, Calif. She will be graduating with a degree in neuroscience and a gender studies sequence. ||||| On Wednesday, Chodosh announced that new leadership positions on diversity and inclusion would be created in the offices of academic and student affairs. The administrators will work to increase diversity in hiring and in the curriculum, and a new space will be dedicated for work on diversity, identity and free speech, he said in a letter to the campus community. 
 
 
 
 "I stand by our students," Chodosh wrote. "I support their right to speak out forcefully, and want their voices to be heard." 
 
 
 
 After Chodosh's announcement and Spellman's resignation, student protest leaders said they would continue to press for greater institutional support for students who feel marginalized. 
 
 
 
 "This is not the be-all and end-all," said Jincy Varughese, 21, a senior environment, economics and politics major. "The fact that it took eight months of protest and two students saying that they wanted to go on a hunger fast to create all of this to happen is very telling." 
 
 
 
 Varughese says students want to be involved in creating and designing temporary and permanent resource centers that have been promised as well as in the hiring of the new dean of students and a diversity administrator. 
 
 
 
 "I think we are seeing some movement in claiming a voice for ourselves and receiving acknowledgment that we do have a problem," Varughese said. 
 
 
 
 ||||| After the resignation of President Timothy M. Wolfe, students and faculty agreed that a new approach is needed to combat the rising number of racist incidents at the University of Missouri. 
 
 Published On Nov. 9, 2015 Credit Credit Austin Huguelet for The New York Times
– Another college official has resigned in the wake of racial tension, this time in California. Mary Spellman, dean of students at Claremont McKenna College, stepped down Thursday, after sending an email that sparked an uproar last month, the Los Angeles Times reports. But the larger brouhaha started in April, when around 30 students of color wrote to the college's president to complain about feeling uncomfortable on campus. Just 4% of undergraduates at the school are black, 8% are mixed race, 10% are Asian-American, 12% are Latino, and 43% are white. The students listed incidents such as racial slurs, vandalism, and mockery on campus, and accused administrators of trying to silence their complaints. Then, last month, one Latina student wrote an op-ed in which she discussed feeling uncomfortable at the school, and Spellman responded with a letter promising to assist students "who don't fit our CMC mold." Cue outrage. Spellman's email sparked more protests, including a hunger strike by two students, and the university did a review of her office. She apologized but ultimately stepped down anyway. "I believe [stepping down] is the best way to gain closure of a controversy that has divided the student body and disrupted the mission of this fine institution," she wrote in her resignation email. The student protest leaders say they're not done; they want more diverse faculty and staff and more funding for multicultural clubs, among other things. In addition to similar protests at Mizzou, the Times notes that students at New York's Ithaca College are also calling for the president to resign because he allegedly has not addressed racial problems on campus; the New York Times reports that students at Yale and UCLA have also been protesting in recent weeks over campus racial tensions.