Pitzer Vandals' "Punishment" -- If You Can Call It That

I fired off a letter to The Claremont Courrier after I learned of the totally destructive behavior of our Pitzer friends up at Claremont Graduate University. Here it is in its entirety. 

Pitzer vandals

Dear Editor:

I wasn't surprised to see that Pitzer College students were behind the latest wave of vandalism at Claremont Graduate University. After having destroyed Claremont McKenna's fountains earlier this year at the Karl Rove protest, one shouldn't expect any proper behavior on their part.

It's high time the college punish those responsible. If they fail to do so, I recommend disallowing Pitzer students access to our campus and classes. At Claremont McKenna, students are required to pay dorm damages if there is property damage, even if they aren't to blame. Why isn't Pitzer?

Charles Johnson
Claremont McKenna

Apparently, my little letter provoked another one -- this time from Kira Poplowski, Vice President of Public Relations and Marketing of Pitzer College.

Here's her letter, courtesy of The Claremont Courrier's Saturday edition, by way of The Claremont Insider. 

Dear Editor:

In response to the recent story [print only, not online] and letter to the editor regarding vandalism at the old Claremont Graduate University apartments on Dartmouth Avenue, please note that the Pitzer College students found to be involved were held accountable by the College.

They were required to pay for the clean-up, will perform community service and face additional sanctions. Statements to the contrary are untrue.

Kira Poplowski
Vice President of
Public Relations and Marketing
Pitzer College

That's nice, but isn't graffiti a crime? Don't we threaten to find the "perpetrator" whenever someone draws a bad epithet on the wall? Why weren't the Pitzer students charged? 

Just what are those "additional sanctions"? I hope it's not more community service! 

Responses from Alumni on CMC Hollywood Types

Contrary to popular perception, The Claremont Conservative does receive fan mail on occassion, even from those that disagree with us politically. It goes without saying that we will reprint any letters upon permission and that we welcome contributions (read: not hatemail, unless funny, of course) to this site.

Below is the response from a post I wrote last week about Claremont Men's College and Hollywood types. To the three or four people who told me that I should mention Joanna Repsold CMC '06, I should add that I've already written on Ms. Repsold!

In any event, here's the letter. I've withheld the name from the post and taken away some of the details in deference to the source. Also, the name of the president he's mentioning is Mr. Howard R. Neville who served as the president for all of one year in 1969.

In response to your comments about Paul Brickman, as a graduate of class of '71 with Paul I remember him fondly. He said that he got is film experience by starting out working on pornos. One of his claims to fame was that he bought (very cheap) the car (very big) that had been purchased to shuttle the second CMC president (very dumb) from his house (which after him became the first Athenaeum) to Bauer Hall because he did not wish to walk across campus. That president, whose name escapes me, lasted less than a year. . . .

Also, check out Miles Swarthout, class of '68. He did the screenplay for the John Wayne film, The Shootist, from the book written by his father. Seehttp://www.glendonswarthout.com/milesbio.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glendon_Swarthout.

Regarding Robin Williams, he is shown in the 1996-1997 alumni directory as a Class of '73 student, though he did not graduate. My wife (Scripps '[year redacted]) remembers seeing him perform in Alice in Wonderland. She says that he was memorable. I was away for my junior year, the only year he was on campus.

The actor cutup in my dorm (Marks) was John Achorn. He is still acting, but in smaller roles. See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009854/.

One Hollywood connection in our class was Erich von Stroheim III, descendent of the great actor and director of silent films (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Stroheim). The alumni directory is silent as to what Mr. III is up to.