Institutional Goals

INSTITUTIONAL GOALS

The following institutional goals serve as touchstones to ensure that we are always working in support of Occidental’s mission, our community’s needs, and our opportunity to build on existing strengths to chart an inspiring future for the college. Moreover, these institutional goals will provide the framework for institution-wide assessment that will both guide our efforts and align each area in measuring progress towards these goals. 

1. ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE: Sustain and enhance academic excellence.
2. FISCAL HEALTH: Sustain and enhance the College’s fiscal health.
3. HEALTH, SAFETY, WELL-BEING: Sustain and enhance the health, safety, and well-being of faculty, staff, and students so that all members of our community thrive.
4. OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: Sustain and enhance operational excellence.
5. LOS ANGELES: Sustain and enhance our partnerships and connections with the people, communities, institutions, organizations, and industries of the greater Los Angeles area.
6. SUSTAINABILITY: Prioritize sustainability and climate resilience in maintaining and developing our campus and in our approach to delivering academic and co-curricular programs.
7. JUSTICE, EQUITY, INCLUSION, DIVERSITY: Sustain and enhance justice, equity, inclusion, and diversity in our community.

COLLEGE-WIDE STUDENT LEARNING GOALS

Occidental College understands its educational goals as an evolving dynamic commitment they are the basis for assessment, subject to constant re-evaluation and re-imagining. Within this culture of self-aware and rigorous critique, our interdisciplinary approach to the liberal arts promotes student achievement of five college-wide learning goals and outcomes. These include:

1. Synthesis of ideas across broad areas of knowledge within the liberal arts
2. Linkage of theory and practice within group and self-directed research leading to intellectual or creative contributions
3. Mastery of essential content, methods, concepts and technical aspects of an academic discipline
4. Development of key intellectual skills:
   • Analytic inquiry and problem solving
   • Communication through writing, oral presentation, and creative expression
   • Critical reading, writing, and thinking
   • Critical Self-Awareness
   • Ethical Reasoning
   • Analysis of media and images
   • Quantitative reasoning
   • Scientific methodology
5. Capacity for active intellectual community engagement:
   • Community learning, participation, and service
   • Ethical reasoning and action
   • Global, intercultural and socio-political awareness
   • Leadership and collaboration
   • Personal well-being
   • Respectful engagement with diverse perspectives