Last weekend I took a day trip to Sète, a seaside town close to Montpellier. The town has recently become a tourist attraction, with restaurants filled with fresh fish and coffee shops serving ice cream. A port city dating back to 1666, it has beautiful old buildings lining its numerous canals. After exploring what the city streets had to offer,...

If you live in America, you have probably heard of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). You may have heard about the Islamic terrorist group in the summer of 2014 when they began securing large chunks of war-torn Syria, or when a video was released showing an American journalist being beheaded. Or perhaps you noticed the group when...

This Halloween, students will trade in their costumes to dance the night away to the sounds of electric dance music duo ODESZA at Occidental Programming Board's fall concert. ODESZA, hailing from Seattle, Washington, is composed of members Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, who go by the pseudonyms Catacombkid and BeachesBeaches. Students may recognize the group from popular tracks such as...

On April 16, 2013, President Jonathan Veitch announced in an open letter to the college that Occidental planned to employ private lawyers Gina Smith and Leslie Gomez to compile a thorough review of Occidental’s sexual assault policy. This was just one of several steps taken to address a civil court case filed by 37 students and alumni, alleging that the...

Sexual assault is not a laughing matter, a fact that—based on our schools' recent history—Occidental students are perhaps especially equipped to understand. Yet last week, first-year students were forced to make light of this critical issue in their FYRE program. All first-year students are require to attend First Year Residential Experience (FYRE) meetings once a week for six weeks, in...

On Sept. 22, Wesleyan University announced it would require all residential Greek organizations to become coeducational by 2017. The administration posited this as an effort to promote inclusiveness, equality and safety, with an implicit focus on reducing the threat of sexual assault on campus. This controversial course of action is not unique to Wesleyan. Several liberal arts colleges, including Trinity...

As students who have reached this point in their education know, learning is not just about sitting in a classroom and listening to a professor. Sometimes the most powerful learning comes from our peers, especially those who offer a different perspective from our own. Yet at Occidental, a school of around 2,000 students, the potential for random encounters and meeting...

Never have I heard so many conversations on Occidental's campus surrounding feminism and gender equality—especially among men—than I have in the past week. The power of British actress Emma Watson’s speech on Sept. 20, in support of the launch of the UN Women’s HeForShe campaign, undeniably has played a role in this. Watson's speech was an important step forward for...

A family of five all dressed as Pikachu may seem out of the ordinary in any other context, but they fit in perfectly among the diverse crowd of the 16th annual Eagle Rock Music Festival last Saturday. One only needed to walk briefly along the festival grounds to see skateboarding high school students glide past young parents pushing strollers, and...

Many Occidental students who frequented The Hermosillo or The York last year can now be found packing into the small, dimly-lit space at Johnny's, located next-door to Cafe de Leche. This sudden rise in popularity among Occidental students has not gone unnoticed."Tequila shots ... A lot more tequila shots since you guys started coming here," bartender Mando* said, laughing. According...