In an effort to ensure fair admissions to California universities, the president of the UC system, Richard Atkinson, has proposed eliminating the SAT from admission criteria. For over a decade, researchers have cautioned that the exam is plagued by race, class, and gender biases (by inadvertently posing questions from a certain background or understanding), and that it serves as a poor predictor of college success for the groups who consistently perform the most poorly on it.

In one of my classes last week we were discussing Hannah Arendt’s On Revolution in relation to life at Pomona College. The book is a critique of the United States Constitution for killing the democratic spirit of the American Revolution. A very brief summary of her argument is that while the Revolution embraced democratic principles and involved Americans at all levels of decision-making, the Constitution is designed in such a way that government is taken away from the people. Arendt laments the fact that United States citizens don’t live truly political lives; instead we let other people make our decisions for us and we trust them with the political aspect of our humanness. The question is: how much does this also describe life at Pomona College? My answer is: very well.

Coming to school was a difficult transition for old Duke. I came from a house where I was the only child and ruled my dog and cat with an iron fist. As a result when I stepped onto the playground for my first day of preschool, several things were awry. First, my teachers thought I was dyslexic thanks to a misguided attempt to be "boy wonder," which left me insisting on wearing my blue underwear on the outside of my pants. And second, the power from the dictatorship I ran at home still coursed and pumped through my veins.

There is a movement brewing on campus. This movement is about a change in our lifestyles and the way we learn at the Claremont Colleges. Students and faculty are attempting to change the way we do things on campus. The catch phrase of all this is sustainability. This word is hard for any of us to understand, not only because it has such broad implications, but also because the way we live today is so far removed from a sustainable way.

And so, as foretold by the prophet Norbert, in the year of our Lord Two Thousand and One it came to pass that little Jimmy did on his way home from school lose his way and stumble into a holy clearing. And in this holy clearing, the son of Robert did find a golden spark plug. Seeing this, Jimmy took the spark plug and immediately the heavens opened and did reveal to Jimmy the future and all the secrets of the Earth. Filled to the brim with holy necessity, Jimmy returned to his place of rest.

I find it amusing and slightly distressing that so many professors at Pomona College perceive the Pass/No Credit option as their bureaucratic nemeses. Perhaps Professor of Art History Judson Emerick and his gang of anti-grade inflators are unaware of the complete chaos of the class scheduling system for students. I truly hope the P/NC change is the start of a complete restructuring. That would only be fair in light of the crap the school puts us through at times.