Guinea. The death toll for a recent outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa has passed 100, according the World Health Organization. Confirmed Ebola cases have occured in Guinea and Liberia with suspected cases also appearing in Mali. There is no vaccine for the virus, which kills between 20 and 90 percent of victims, but Doctors Without Borders suggest...

In honor of yesterday's Earth Day, Occidental is hosting its first-ever Earth Day Sustainability Fair Friday as the culminating event of Earth Week. The fair will showcase the sustainability efforts of a wide range of campus groups, such as the biology department, the Beekeeping Club, the Hawaii Club and the Green Bean Coffee Lounge. The goal of Occidental’s Earth Week...

Seven distinguished professors from seven separate departments will retire at the end of this semester. The group includes a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award Poetry Prize, a scholar-in-residence in the Office of Soviet Analysis at the CIA and an award-winning actor, director, filmmaker and producer. Those retiring include American studies professor Arthe Anthony, politics professor Larry Caldwell, theater...

England. AskforTask.com, a British technology startup, began allowing nap time for its employees but eliminated the option after it resulted in decreased productivity in the office. Nap time turned out to be counter-productive as many employees would sleep past 15 minutes, and several felt groggy or would take even more time getting coffee or splashing water on their faces to...

Director of Campus Safety Holly Nieto announced earlier this month that she will be retiring at the end of the semester. A presence on campus for the past 36 years, Nieto became known this year for her "Oxy has a plan for that..." emails about emergency preparedness. She also received and compiled data for Clery Act reporting. An April 1...

Project S. A. F. E. hosted its annual Take Back the Week (TBTW) event last week as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, with several changes to keep it current. Coordinators renamed the survivor vigil a "speak-out," in order to empower sexual assault survivors and their allies. "[TBTW] is a way for us to, one, inform the students and administrators,...

Adrianne Wadewtiz, the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Digital Learning (CDLR), died on April 8 at the age of 37 from injuries sustained while rock-climbing. Wadewitz helped to form Occidental’s 2012 Digital Scholarship Institute and guide CDLR-sponsored Faculty Learning Communities. In her free time, she volunteered as a Wikipedia campus ambassador and educational consultant with the Wikipedia Foundation,...

Open Source Club held its first meeting for students interested in computer programing on April 9. Dissatisfied with Occidental’s limited computer science department, a group of student computer programmers established the club to strengthen the computer science community on campus. Club co-presidents biochemistry major Myles Groner (junior) and mathematics major Daniel Park (sophomore) introduced the club by reciting its mission...

Faculty in the English and Comparative Literary Studies (ECLS) department are revamping the ECLS major to bring new academic life into a department that both faculty and students feel has declined. The major will be renamed "English" and turn away from its current focus on comparative literature. At an informational meeting last Thursday, professors from the department came together to...

The Associate Students of Occidental College (ASOC) General Assembly hosted a conversation between students and Ruth Jones, the school's new Title IX coordinator, Thursday. Jones explained the work she has engaged with since her start at Occidental in February and took questions from the audience. Fourteen students attended the event, eight of which were ASOC members. Jones explained that the...