When I first visited Pomona in April of my senior year of high school, I was still trying to figure out where I wanted to go for college. Pomona was one of only two West Coast schools I was considering, and many of my friends back east were shocked at the mere mention of California. After becoming endlessly fed up with the "decisions" made by some of those stupid "Ivy"League "schools," and finding myself hopelessly entangled with my notoriously nerdy high school’s acceptance/rejection gossip circles, I was hoping that Pomona College would be somewhere that I could go to learn. I liked the idea of being apart– mentally as well as physically –from the catty and competitive world that I figured existed within and among the different Ivy League schools. I didn’t think Pomona could possibly see itself as existing within the same atmosphere as the East Coast schools, not because it isn’t as good, but because it is simply different. It’s warm here. People drive a lot. An obvious part of the beauty of being here is not being there.

Then, for the sake of the segue, let’s say I took a walk around Claremont Village. I walked across College Avenue, to Harvard Avenue, on to Yale Avenue. Then, later, I probably went up to Scripps. I probably marched right up Dartmouth, and turned on Eleventh Street over to Columbia. Then, hell, I probably made a grand tour of Claremont, cruising down Rutgers Court, Oxford Avenue, Colby Circle, Radcliffe Drive, Bard Court, Amherst Street, Tulane Road, and Berkeley Avenue. And I hated every one of these street names. What happened to Oak, or Maple?

These street names are bizarre manifestations of our collective inferiority complex with regard to other colleges and universities. Streets named after eastern colleges betray an attitude of reverence toward the East Coast that was appropriate around the turn of the century, but at this point is just ludicrous. Just call it Bonita–it is bonita here! Or Foothill–what could be more appropriate? Indian Hill, actually, should really be changed as well. The Claremont Colleges should point out to Claremont that we have proven ourselves in the decades we’ve been here. Street names do not need to portray the Claremont Colleges as institutions that need to invoke the names of other colleges in order to prove their legitimacy. If anything, these names portray Claremont as a city which refuses to uphold its own unique and valid legacy, and prefers to glom onto the legacy of other cities as its only claim to fame.

Sincerely,

Nora Lawrence