ITS sent out an email to selected students to take a survey regarding library and other technological services. Clearly they have never tried to use the Internet at 10 p.m. when it is at its highest usage, when it moves slower than a slug crossing an entire swamp. Because if they had, in fact, used the Internet during that time,...

Silent Solidarity, a program designed to help students understand the experience of marginalized social groups, will be offered to Occidental students for the first time on Mar. 28. Participants in the program take on an assigned identity and refrain from all forms of communication, including social media and texting, from 9 a.m. until a debriefing session at 5 p.m. in...

Arabic students at Occidental are expressing frustration with the lack of advanced Arabic classes the department offers, limited by low student enrollment and a lack of cooperation by other institutions in the area. While the Spanish and French studies department houses the Arabic program and offers advanced Arabic (300 level), they are not able to offer the course every year,...

Student-taught classes could appear in the Occidental course catalog as early as Fall 2013 as part of the proposed Experimental College of Occidental (ExCO). Vice President of Academic Affairs and economics and politics major Nick McHugh (sophomore) is spearheading the effort, which seeks to provide an alternative to the traditional notion of course-taker and course-giver, according to the proposal to...

Reports from local media on Wednesday about an alleged rape near campus came as a surprise to students, who are now organizing a Facebook protest. Although Campus Safety and other campus officials were aware of the report as early as Sunday night, students received no notice of the event until today. Notice came in the form of an email from...

Black Student Alliance (BSA) President Brandi Locke (senior) created and distributed an online petition on Feb. 8 to support the creation of a Black/Africana Studies major. The petition sparked widespread enthusiasm from students, quickly reaching several hundred signatures. The proposal, which can be accessed on the BSA’s Facebook page, needs less than 200 more endorsements before it is presented to...

Professor Robert Hansen, an artist, father, birder and Occidental professor for over 30 years, passed away in his home in Carpinteria, Calif. on Feb. 10. He was 89. Hansen joined the Occidental art department as a faculty member in 1956 and stayed until the end of his academic career in 1987. Although he was a full tenured professor at Occidental,...

Starting this semester, students will no longer be required to provide a note from Emmons Health Center to be excused from class due to a minor or moderate illness. Although the Dean of Students Office will alert professors of absences due to severe illnesses, it will be the responsibility of the student to directly communicate with professors about more minor...

Human Resources recently informed the student managers at the Green Bean that they are required to reduce their work hours, despite an agreement earlier this school year allowing them to work 15 to 20 hours per week at a wage of $12 per hour. According to Assistant Director for Student Life Justin Gerboc, the Green Bean managers had an earnings...

The Blyth Fund, Occidental's student-run investment group, is running a virtual stock competition open to all students in an effort to spread awareness on campus. The competition, which closes to entrants on Feb. 15, gives students $100,000 in virtual money and challenges them to invest it as profitably as they can. The contestant with the highest profit at the end...