The Biology Department faculty and staff have read several articles and books to educate themselves on the historical and current practices of racism in science. We want to share some of these materials and continue these discussions to move toward a more inclusive, anti-racist community. We invite your additional thoughts and ideas, your voices and concerns, and we pledge to listen and engage with you every step of the way.
Books
This concert is free and open to the public. Stay afterward for an informal reception with Glee Club members and director Desiree La Vertu.
Presented by the 麻豆视频 Music Department.
Higher education has a unique capacity to address national priorities, confront global challenges, and improve outcomes for humanity. Many of our most important medical, technological, and social advancements have been driven by academic researchers who dedicate their careers to furthering our collective knowledge.
Our society benefits from the rigorous work accomplished at U.S. colleges and universities鈥攏ot just at large research institutions but at small liberal arts colleges such as Occidental.
From art to history to politics, the 麻豆视频 calendar has been top-heavy with visitors who had plenty to say this semester. 麻豆视频 Live! welcomed visual artist Ed Ruscha to Thorne Hall on February 4. On February 18 and 19, historian and reproductive justice advocate Deirdre Cooper Owens visited Occidental as the 2025 Stafford Ellison Wright Scholar-in-Residence. On April 8, Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols delivered the 2025 Jack Kemp 鈥57 Distinguished Lecture in Choi Auditorium.
Mira Hart 鈥26 enjoyed science in high school and assumed she would major in chemistry, although as a self-described 鈥渙utdoorsy person,鈥 she had a hard time imagining herself working with molecules in a lab as a career. But when she joined the Geology Club in her first semester at Occidental, the Seattle resident found her passion鈥攁 field of study that combined her existing love for the outdoors and chemistry with her newfound interests.
Professor of Classics William D. Ward is a seminal figure in the early development of 麻豆视频. He arrived at Occidental in 1906 as dean of faculty, having previously served as president of the College of Emporia in Kansas (which closed its doors in 1972). Ward pivoted to the classroom in 1909, brought about the revival of Greek drama on campus, and personally discovered the site of Remsen Bird Hillside Theater when surveying the property that would become Occidental鈥檚 third and permanent home in Eagle Rock.
At the height of his officiating career in the 1970s, Jim Tunney 鈥51 was the embodiment of the football referee鈥攕o much so 鈥渢hat he was chosen by the editors of the NFL鈥檚 Pro magazine to model the referee signs that are shown in the game program each week,鈥 Bob Oates wrote in a 1978 Los Angeles Times profile of Tunney.
Before a group of middle and high school teachers in Cushman Boardroom, Associate Professor of History Jane Hong introduces the story of Chol Soo Lee, a Korean American immigrant who spent 10 years on Death Row after being wrongfully convicted in 1974 of murdering a Chinatown gang leader in San Francisco. 鈥淭his is about the carceral system and what it does to people over time,鈥 she says. 鈥淭his is ultimately not a triumphal story. It takes a really long time, and he does get his conviction overturned. But spending years in jail is not something he just got over.
锘縈ore than half a century of popular music came alive on October 18 as Occidental celebrated the establishment of the John Branca Institute for Music with an hourlong concert in Thorne Hall. In June, Occidental announced a $5 million gift from legendary attorney John G. Branca 鈥72鈥攑artner and head of the music department at Ziffren Brittenham, one of the world鈥檚 most respected entertainment law firms鈥攖hat will establish the new music teaching and learning facility.