CAMPUS NOTES
Join Human Resources next Thursday, October 31, from 10-11:30 a.m. for Oxy’s annual Boo Bash! This year's event will take place on the second level outdoor North patio between AGC and Johnson Hall. There will be refreshments for all and prizes for the winners of the best carved/decorated department pumpkins, as well as the best individual and department costumes, plus the always-popular performance by the Child Development Center students. (For those who wish to give packaged candy to the children, please remember to bring nutless treats.) If you plan to compete in any of the contests, let HR know here.
The Oxy Vote Center in lower Herrick will be open for early voting from Saturday, November 2, through Monday, November 4, from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. and on Tuesday, November 5 from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. The Vote Center will also include a Vote-by-Mail Ballot Drop Box.
The College encourages members of the community, including faculty and staff, to submit recommendations for new members of the Occidental Board of Trustees. If you have someone you would like to nominate, please submit your recommendation here. The submission will be routed to the Board's Nominating & Governance Committee for consideration.
Every day, V Spehar breaks down global news and national politics for over 3 million TikTok followers. The podcast host and online journalist will discuss their work, and the future of citizen journalism, at the next Oxy Live! on Wednesday, November 13. Reserve your ticket today.
SLICE's Annual Craft Fair will take place on Thursday, November 14, from noon-2 p.m.! All interested staff are invited to showcase and sell handmade, upcycled, and otherwise creative items. If you would like to participate, register here by Wednesday, October 30, or reach out to slicepc@oxy.edu with any questions.
OXY NEWSMAKERS
Professor Jane Hong Appointed to Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lectureship Program
Associate Professor of History Jane Hong is one of 28 historians recently appointed to the prestigious program.
$500,000 Gift from Mike Curb Foundation Endows New Program at John Branca Institute for Music
The gift establishes the Mike Curb Endowed Program in Popular Music History, which will enhance the Institute’s curricular offerings by providing a range of guest speakers and career development events to Occidental students and alumni, as well as the naming of recognized music professionals to the Linda and Mike Curb Fellowship.
Occidental College Rises in US News & World Report Rankings
Occidental rose one place in US News & World Report ’s 2025 Best College Rankings, landing at No. 34 nationally among liberal arts colleges, a 15-year high.
HR CORNER
The start of Occidental's annual Open Enrollment for the 2025 plan year is just around the corner! This is the yearly opportunity for eligible employees to review and make benefits enrollment changes without a Qualifying Life Event. The two-week Open Enrollment period for our Employee Benefits begins November 4 and ends November 15. Keep an eye on your email for important updates prior to and throughout the Open Enrollment period.
Below is the latest list of arrivals and departures from September 18 to October 21:
Arrivals:
Erik Batcke, Utilities & Energy Management, Plumber B
Alexander Clark, Physics, Research Scientist
Adrian Contreras, Neighborhood Partnership Program, Academic Adviser
Claudia Dietrich-Joe, American Studies, Senior Department Services Coordinator
Cindy Dominguez, Support Services, Work Center Coordinator
Melissa Gamba, Associate Vice President of Human Resources
Richelle Gaunt, Critical Theory and Social Justice, Faculty Services Assistant
Jonathon Hollis, Advancement Services, Senior Analyst, Gift Operations
Roy Johnson, Assistant Women's Softball Coach
Benjamin Mendez, Library, User Services Specialist
Albert Mudica, Library, Resource Sharing Specialist
Siana Park-Pearson, UEPI, Project Coordinator
Jakelin Perez, Neighborhood Partnership Program, Academic Adviser
Morgan Scott, Theater, Department Coordinator
Charlie Sorrenson, Major Gifts, Development Coordinator
Stacy Spell, Associate Director of Campus Safety
Maira Tejeda, Neighborhood Partnership Program, Academic Adviser
Departures:
Russell Campbell, Moore Lab of Zoology, NSF Research Technician
Zenus Dismukes, Neighborhood Partnership Program, Academic Adviser
Denise Frost, Senior Director, Principal and Major Gifts
Kayla Norwood, Campus Safety Officer
SHOUTOUTS
From Jennifer Locke and Angela Vawter in the National and International Fellowships office: Many thanks to the National and International Awards Faculty Committee and to the many other faculty and staff who supported Oxy's Fulbright applicants this year, including Julie Prebel, Charlyne Sarmiento, Juney Chen, Sarah Parramore, Sarah Pickle, Erin Sulla, Kristin Peace, and Alanna Quan. We couldn't have prepped and interviewed all 30 student and alumni applicants without you!
From Kimberly A. Diaz, Visiting Instructor in the Department of Religious Studies: Shoutout to Erin Sulla, who has a genuine passion for the intellectual growth of both students and the greater campus community. This passion of hers organically radiates to others and inspires them to learn! Another shoutout to Kristin Peace who joined Oxy this year as the Social Sciences and Data Literacy Librarian. Kristin is such an incredible librarian and educator, adapting her knowledge on information legacy toward student engagement.
From Saraith Murillo P'24, Assistant Director of Events: I just have to give a big shoutout to Jasmine Teran! She's always the one behind the scenes coordinating these kudos for everyone else, but I cannot forget how much she goes above and beyond for all of us! Jasmine, you and the amazing OMC team are truly supportive of all of us on this campus—we couldn't do it without you!
From Courtney Stricklin Burgan '03, Senior Associate Dean of Admission: The Office of Admission recently held a week of programs for over 800 college counselors, made possible by immense campus support! Campus Dining catered the best served reception we've ever hosted, complete with custom menus. Facilities was instrumental in the setup of our event spaces. The Oxy Jazz Band and KOXY DJs brought top notch performances. Forty-six campus partners joined us, including a mix of trustees, alumni, faculty, staff, students, and the Financial Aid team. It is not an exaggeration to say we couldn't have done this without everyone's help!
From Lindsay Nyquist, Chief of Staff, Office of the President: Thank you to Gabriela Ortega for her unbelievable support handling all of the logistics and scheduling for the Vice President of Marketing and Communications search. It was a massive amount of work and Gaby handled it expertly.
KUDOS
Associate Professor of Chemistry Jeff Cannon was awarded a three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study chemical reactions driven by harvesting energy from visible light. The grant will support the study of fundamental chemical reactivity as well as the involvement of undergraduates in synthetic organic chemistry research. Cannon also recently published an article with four undergraduate co-authors reporting a new chemical reaction for the production of alcohols. These reactions are commonplace in synthetic organic chemistry. Energy from light was used in the place of chemical energy to enable a reactivity that uses less hazardous and less toxic materials.
The Chemistry Department has been awarded a Jean Dreyfus Lectureship for Undergraduate Institutions. This award will bring a distinguished chemist to campus to teach two seminars, one that is aimed at the general public. During their visit, the lecturer will also interact with Occidental faculty and students around interests and topics in chemistry.
In an open-access article appearing in the journal Anti-Trafficking Review, Professor of Diplomacy and World Affairs Laura Hebert provides detailed documentation of the U.S. federal government’s relative underfunding of anti-human-trafficking activities that target the conditions that render certain populations at heightened risk of being trafficked and that enable the exploitation of precarity.
Professor of Art and Art History Amy Lyford received a rave review of her book Exquisite Dreams: The Art and Life of Dorothea Tanning calling it “grand summation of Tanning’s work” in the The Brooklyn Rail.
Head Golf Coach and Coordinator of Community Wellness Will Morris was chosen by the Pasadena Educational Foundation to be an honorary Principal for the Day at one of the Pasadena Unified School District schools. This honor goes to prominent members of the community to connect them with the public schools in Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre. Will is a PUSD grad, the parent of PUSD alumni, and has helped provide guidance on pathways to careers and college.
Assistant Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy Karla Peña has been awarded a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad fellowship to support three months of fieldwork research in Ecuador in summer 2025. Professor Peña's fieldwork will build on her on-going research on bananas and climate justice and the subsequent shifts to clean energy infrastructure and sustainability along the supply chain.
Professor of American Studies Julie Prebel co-edited a new volume of Disruptive Stories: Amplifying Voices from the Writing Center Margins. The book applies an activist editing method to select and publish authors who have been marginalized in scholarly conversations and enrich the understanding of lived writing center experiences that have been underrepresented in writing center scholarship. These chapters explore how marginality affects writing centers, the people who work in them, and the scholarship generated from them by examining the consequences.
Prebel was also featured on the podcast "Slow Agency" in a conversation with Elizabeth Kleinfeld discussing “activist editing,” the method that they and Sohui Lee used to edit Disruptive Stories. The podcast is part of a two-part series she participated in August and September.
In a new article published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Professor of Physics Janet Scheel and co-authors studied the dynamics of thermal and momentum boundary regions in three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of Rayleigh-Bénard convection and found that the velocity field is dominated by strong fluctuations of all three components around a nonexistent or weak mean.
Cognitive reflection, or the disposition to privilege analysis over intuition, has been shown to predict children's understanding of counterintuitive scientific concepts. In a new article published in Frontiers of Psychology, Professor of Psychology Andrew Shtulman and his co-author show that cognitive reflection also predicts children's domain-general scientific reasoning, independent of age and executive function.
In another new paper published in Science & Education, Shtulman examined people's views of nature. Is nature a peaceable kingdom or red in tooth and claw? The research finds that most students hold overly benevolent views of nature, and these views negatively impact their understanding of evolution, as a selection-driven process, independent of their understanding of other key biological ideas.
CALENDAR
The Sustainability Office will host an Olive Harvest Fest on Friday, November 1 between 8 a.m.-1 p.m. in Mullin Grove (the front of campus). All are welcome to spend any amount of time helping harvest olive from our century-old campus trees. Participants will enjoy a special curated lunch featuring 2023 Oxy olive oil; register here to participate.
The Office of Equity and Justice will host an election debrief holding space for staff and faculty to process the collective experiences of harm throughout this election cycle toward disenfranchised communities. This event will take place on Wednesday, November 6, from noon-1:30 p.m. in JSC Salsbury Young. Lunch will be provided; please register here.
Get to know our feathered friends on campus! The Moore Lab of Zoology will lead a community bird walk on Friday, November 8, at 8 a.m. Meet outside of the Moore Lab entrance and bring binoculars if you have them (they'll have some to share, too). RSVP here.
This fall, Culley Guest Artist Alana Dietze '07 returns to direct Chiara Atik's Poor Clare and Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies Will Power directs Sophocles' Antigone, translated by Robert Fagles. Tickets for both shows are on sale now.