Sustainable PCM
I’m delighted to see Pomona’s recent moves toward sustainability with the addition of LEED certified buildings and campus activities to reduce energy use. I’m also glad to see the words “printed on recycled paper” in Pomona College Magazine. Chirp! You can check out how other colleges are doing with their “green” efforts in the 2008 College Sustainability Report Card, issued by the Sustainable Endowments Institute and available at www.endowmentinstitute.org.
—Indra Neeper Frank ’85
Indianapolis, Indiana

Editor’s Note: The magazine has been printed on recycled paper for some time, but I’m happy to report that as of this issue, it’s also certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council, meaning that all steps of the printing process—from paper to chemicals —involve only renewable resources and earth-friendly processes. —Mark Wood

The Sagehen Community
I am writing a rather delayed response to your Spring 2007 issue of the Pomona College Magazine (sorry about that!). Your focus on the “Meaning of Community” really struck a chord with me: it was Pomona’s community that led me directly to my current career as a criminologist. The College was ideally situated for me to make my first explorations into some of the most notorious gangs in the Los Angeles basin and into the Youth Training School and California Institute for Men at Chino—ironic, considering how sheltered and idyllic the College itself appears to be. If it weren’t for Professor Bob Herman’s requirement for field work in his criminology course, I would probably still be oblivious to the world which has become the center of my working life and given me an entirely new perspective on what “community” actually is.

On a completely different note, I also wanted to respond to the letter regarding cat and dog food. I cannot vouch for what happens in the U.S., but I would be surprised if things were very different here in the U.K., as we have the same brands of animal food here. My husband is a vet, and during his training he learned that cat and dog food must be fit for human consumption due to studies that found that sales of dog and cat food exceeded levels of pet ownership in certain areas, leading to the suspicion that dogs and cats were not the only ones eating the food. Animals that have been euthanased cannot by law enter in to the food chain (this includes more traditional food animals like cows and sheep) due to the drugs used to euthanase them. Farm animals that have died through other means (i.e., ones that have been shot) were at one time used in food for other farm animals, but this has stopped due to its suspected role in the development of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD or “mad cow disease”). I am not aware of companion animals being used in pet food; all those euthanased at vet practices here are cremated, unless the owner chooses to take the body.

Thanks again for your work on the magazine—really looks great!
—Nancy (Loucks) Kenny ’89
Lanark, Scotland

47 Sighting
I spent the last semester studying abroad at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand—I’m a geology major, and it’s a great place for that—and on a road trip at the end of August, I saw this bar & grill that I couldn’t pass up. It’s the “On 47 Bar and Grill,” located in Hanmer Springs, New Zealand, on the South Island. I didn’t eat there—my friends and I had other plans—but it was quite a find.
—Ryan Frazer ’09
Hartland, Vermont

You can send us your letter or 47 sighting at the address at left or via e-mail. We welcome letters from alumni and friends. Letters may be edited for length, style and clarity. For a full list of magazine policies about letters to the editor, see PCM Online at www.pomona.edu/magazine.