Michael Wells is a man with many titles. He serves as Occidental's Sports Information Director, assistant athletic director and an assistant basketball coach. He oversees almost every game Occidental plays, hosts and organizes the Annual Roy Dennis Senior Scholar-Athlete Banquet and the Occidental College Athletics Hall of Fame and manages Sports Facilities Rentals and External Relations. Wells's colleagues have high...

The creation of the Facebook group "OXY PICK UP" has made pickup sports more popular and more accessible to both students and faculty in recent years, but male turnout still significantly trumps female participation. Of the 136 members of the group currently, only six are female. The Facebook group provides a platform for students to rally players beyond their immediate...

Occidental women's basketball guard Ashton Reid (senior) has established herself as the team's jack of all trades over the first six games of the season. Despite the squad's slow start (0-6 overall, 0-0 SCAIC), Reid has continued to produce, ranking third on the team in points per game (6.6) and second in steals (1.4) per game. However, Reid is the...

Juwan Rice (senior) Guard Juwan Rice (senior) has been a defining presence as the team's lone senior player this season. After a 20-point, eight-steal performance in the season opener against Caltech, Rice racked up a combined 49 points, 20 rebounds and 11 assists over the past four games as the men's basketball team posted an even record against four non-league...

The NFL regular season is winding down with a second round of scrutiny and an ultimate resolution to the Ray Rice domestic violence case. The season began with a referendum on commissioner Roger Goodell's reaction to the controversy. The recent developments in the case further elaborate the NFL's mishandling of the situation. Rice appealed the NFL's decision to suspend him...

While recognizing that Henry Dickmeyer's Nov. 11 "Mind the cap: students need more work hours," is an opinions piece, I feel it necessary to point out that he is basing his opinion on several assumptions on the purpose of on-campus employment. Occidental College does not make employment laws (or any laws for that matter). However, we do make policies and...

New Year’s resolutions: the source of both hope and disappointment. This January, the staff of The Occidental Weekly suggests that students and staff make their resolutions not about gym memberships and self-help courses, but to the changes we can make within the larger Occidental community. At the top of this list of New Year’s resolutions should be a commitment to...

After the Ferguson grand jury verdict was released, I could not help but turn my thoughts to Occidental. I thought of the wave of protests demanding that we bury ignorance into the ground and lift the spirits of Michael Brown and Treyvon Martin by their roots. I tried to imagine the twisted relief Darren Wilson must feel by attributing racial...

When it comes to educating young people about drinking, many high schools take a “Mean Girls”-inspired approach. Teachers preach the familiar, “Don’t drink or smoke. You will become a junkie addict drunk driver, and you will die," and the room grows silent as one teary-eyed victim after another tells us about their alcohol-fueled tragedies. But come Monday, the students continue...

Growing up with relentless rain and snow in Massachusetts, I never experienced the kind of panic that currently surrounds California’s water shortage. But after a short time at Occidental, I have quickly come to realize that Occidental, in conjunction with the greater Los Angeles community, needs to drastically reduce the amount of water it wastes on landscaping. According to a...