President Jonathan Veitch announced the creation of the Campus Committee on Sexual Responsibility and Misconduct (CCSRM) Oct. 24, days before releasing the Pepper Hamilton report on Occidental's sexual assault policies. Veitch charged the committee with several tasks, including reviewing the college’s sexual assault policy, engaging in community outreach and providing feedback on educational programming. Members of the 13-person committee were...

Roughly 1 percent of Occidental's endowment—$3.5 million—will go towards funding campus sustainability projects, thanks to a measure approved by the board of trustees in October. Occidental’s Sustainability Committee created the newly-funded Green Revolving Fund (GRF) in order to make campus greening initiatives more economically feasible for the college, according to Sustainability Coordinator Emma Sorrell. The GRF will provide loans for...

The board of trustees approved a measure to allocate last year's $1.3 million budget surplus to maintenance and repairs, according to Vice President of Finance and Planning Amos Himmelstein. The surplus resulted from both savings in some areas and increased revenue in others, Himmelstein noted. Vacancies in administrative positions, decreased spending on faculty salaries and revenue from "auxiliaries"—proceeds from Campus...

Professors invited journalist Chris Goffard, poet and author Sarah Manguso and screenwriter Hilly Hicks, Jr. to campus last Tuesday to celebrate the launch of the interdisciplinary writing minor. The event marks the culmination of a four-year effort by Writing & Rhetoric Professors Julie Prebel and Thomas Burkdall, English professors Martha Ronk and John Swift, theater professor Laurel Meade and Media...

Employees of the Eagle Rock Brewery are preparing themselves for their fourth conditional use permit (CUP) hearing in five years, set for Nov. 6, which will determine the extent of time they are permitted to do business. The City of Los Angeles requires all new breweries to obtain a CUP before opening their doors and renew it again every ten...

Burkina Faso. General Honore Traore announced the creation of a 12-month transitional government in the West African country of Burkina Faso. The interim government was established in response to an incident last week in which thousands of protesters invaded and burned downed the parliament building in the capital city of Ouagadougou. Former President Blaise Compaore agreed to dissolve his government...

Last week, the Occidental community saw how far we still are from understanding racial equality on campus. An attempt by two Occidental students to host an “End of the World” party, playing off of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, ISIS-related violence in the Middle East and the Malaysian Airlines incidents, resulted in immediate and overwhelming condemnation from both students...

Occidental's first Unity Week kicked off Monday with a cultural club mixer hosted by the Black Student Alliance (BSA). The weeklong event brings together cultural clubs from across campus to celebrate diversity and multiculturalism. Unity Week was developed by BSA president Samarah Jackson (senior) and e-board members of other cultural groups on campus. Organizers originally called the program Solidarity Summit...

Oxypreneurship is expanding and lengthening this year's January Term (J-Term) due to the success of last year's pilot program. The upcoming J-Term, which will take place Jan. 7-18, will give more students a chance to explore entrepreneurship in-depth over winter break. Oxypreneurship member Maddie Caldemeyer (senior) describes the program as an entrepreneurial boot camp where students can learn entrepreneurial skills...

Students and local residents crunched numbers at Occidental's first Datathon this past weekend to analyze the effects of gentrification in Highland Park. The 12-hour event was organized by four organizations within Occidental, American Public Media's Marketplace and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. The idea behind the event was to use data that was publicly available and turn it...