We were given two options: the short way, an easy two hour horseback ride along a dirt road, or the long way, a four hour horseback ride to the oldest Tibetan monastery in the world across a high Himalayan mountain pass. Needless to say, we chose the long way. We were to be the first explorers to cross the pass...

Today, it is the South Island that attracts most of New Zealand's wide-eyed adventure enthusiasts. It hosts the best bungee jumping, skiing and hiking. All well and good. But the true heart of New Zealand, as a country and a people, beats from the North Island. I just returned from a 10 day excursion during which I ventured from Wellington...

A string of local robberies, thefts and assaults in the past few months have left some students at Occidental concerned about their safety. According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), while crime in Eagle Rock has decreased over the last 20 years, the number of violent crimes and property crimes in the Northeast Division—which covers the area between Downtown,...

Residential Education (ResEd) will offer several additions to Occidental's non-traditional housing options next fall by creating Queer House, the Social Justice Institute in Pauley Hall and the Global Diversity Floor in Newcomb Hall Next year, 1480 Campus Road will become Queer House as part of ResEd's themed living community program. Known as Pet House since 2012, the residence will provide...

Project S. A. F. E. hosted its annual event series Take Back the Week (TBTW) April 5–10 in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, focusing on intersectionality in sexual assault activism. Project S. A. F. E. program coordinator Karla Aguilar said that the discussion around sexual violence often focuses solely on women. This year’s programming aimed to recognize and address...

When Holocaust survivor Eva Brettler walked to the front of Choi auditorium April 8, a hush fell over the crowd. Students and community members alike had flocked to the auditorium to hear the story of a woman who survived one of the most devastating genocides of the 20th century. Hosted by Occidental Hillel, the talk was also sponsored by a...

Australia. Qantas, a popular Australian airline, released photos of four koalas named Paddle, Pellita, Chan and Idalia traveling in first class Monday. The koalas are a gift from Australia to Singapore to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s independence. Still, the photos were only promotional—the koalas will board a Qantas cargo hold and be delivered to the Singapore Zoo in...

“There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE. There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me. There will never be a n*gg*r in SAE,” Members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Delta Delta Delta at the University of Oklahoma (OU) sang in a video posted to YouTube...

The Queer Straight Alliance and Beauty Beyond Color recently hosted a “genderf**k” fashion show that I participated in as a last-minute addition. The show featured both cisgender and queer models. According to the event's Facebook page, the show aspired to "help open the conversation of beauty beyond the gender binary and to create a space where all gender and racial...

On March 30, Detective Patrick Cherry pulled over and berated an Uber driver in New York City for no legal reason at all. After the driver honked his horn at Cherry for stopping his car without signaling, Cherry decided to retaliate by pulling over the Uber driver to teach him a lesson. Detective Cherry articulated his hope of teaching the...