Students at Occidental College share certain common experiences as a product of attending the same school. One of those is move-in day. The college works hard with Residential Education and Housing Services (ResEd), O-Team and other student volunteers to see that the move-in process at the beginning of the academic year runs smoothly. But then ResEd fails to pay the...

(Released on Wednesday, Feb. 12 to the Occidental community.) Friends and Colleagues, Yesterday at approximately 5:40 p.m. I received an email informing me that the College Administration had fired Lieutenant Joseph Cunje as of February 28th of this year. Despite 30 years of wonderful service to this college, 20 years with a sparkling record as Head of Campus Safety along...

Johnson Hall was inundated with sewage last Sunday as a result of a backup in the main sewer line that runs underneath both the building and the Academic Quad. The overflow resulted in the temporary relocation of classes and faculty offices as well as the shutoff of heating and cooling systems in the building. The overflow originated from toilets and...

California’s new minimum wage law, passed last September, will go into effect on July 1 of this year, making the new minimum in Calif. $9.00 an hour. The minimum wage is scheduled to increase by an additional dollar on Jan. 1, 2016, to $10.00 an hour. For Occidental students working on campus, the new law will mean an increase in...

Faculty members recently proposed a five-class writing minor in response to requests for an interdisciplinary writing program. If passed, the minor will be available to students next semester. Faculty advocates for the minor sent out a petition last week in order to measure student interest and were met with resoundingly positive results, according to professor of Writing and Rhetoric Julie...

Copenhagen. The Copenhagen Zoo attracted criticism this week for its decision to kill a two-year-old giraffe. Zoo officials explained the action was an important step in combating inbreeding, which is a serious problem among captive populations. The giraffe was shot with a bolt gun and then dissected and fed to the zoo’s lions. Al Jazeera Petersburg, Ky. In a highly...

A recent change in campus policy means that off-campus residents could be receiving more visits from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), as after a first call and warning from Campus Safety, further complaints from neighbors are handled by the LAPD. A Jan. 28 email from Dean of Students Barbara Avery informed off-campus residents of this new protocol. According to...

Facilities Management increased its sustainability efforts following the reinstitution of Occidental’s sustainability committee last semester. With projects that range from solar panel experiments to water and energy conservation, the committee is working closely with Sustainability Coordinator Emma Sorrell ’13 and Facilities Management to oversee all of the college’s sustainability plans. According to Sorrell, one of the sustainability committee’s most ambitious...

President Jonathan Veitch and senior administrators discussed topics such as campus renovations, fundraising and diversity at the the first in a series of campus community meetings in Choi Auditorium on Tuesday. Students, staff and faculty packed the auditorium to hear from college officials on these issues and the strategic plan underlying administrative actions. At the meeting, Vice President for Finance...

It is not everyday that a person can dine at a restaurant considered by the New York Times to be one of the top ten in the world. However, after the opening of Din Tai Fung at Glendale's Americana, world-class dining has become much more accessible. With its signature dumplings, Din Tai Fung – sometimes abbreviated as DTF – offers...