About 150 students and some faculty from The Claremont Colleges devoted a morning and afternoon outside of classes to protest the war in Iraq. The March 5 rally was part of an international student strike, organized by the National Youth and Student peace Coalition and International ANSWER, which declared a 24-hour moratorium on school and business. Students living in the United States, as well as across the world in the United Kingdom, Canada, Bolivia, and Spain, were expected to participate.
Local activities planned for the day included a peace rally at Pomona College’s Walker Beach, radical cheerleading, music and drama performances, painting of peace flags and anti-war signs, and a march through The Colleges.
On March 25, about 150 students attended the CMC Symposium on the War in Iraq at McKenna Auditorium with panelists Diane Halpern, professor of psychology and director of the Berger Institute for Work, Family and Children; Edward Haley, W.M. Keck Foundation Chair of International Strategic Studies; Paul Kapur, assistant professor of government; Lt. Col. Michael Murphy, professor of military science; Kevin Arnold, Kravis Leadership Institute leadership educator and past commander, CMC ROTC unit; and Torrey Sun, vice president for student affairs.
The symposium, moderated by William Ascher, vice president and dean of the faculty, included time for questions following brief presentations by each panelist.