Chuck Hagel, despite the best efforts of the Republican minority in the Senate, will be the next United States Secretary of Defense. The events of the last couple of weeks, during which a vote on Hagel’s nomination was effectively filibustered by Republicans in the Senate (an unprecedented event), have resonance not for the results they will bring but rather for...

Though soccer is the world’s most popular sport, it is hardly the best regulated. Amid the revelation in the last few weeks that hundreds of matches from low level league games to World Cup qualifiers and European Champions League games may have been fixed through influence from organized crime syndicates, there have been cries for reform of the sport’s international...

On its surface, Telefund is a group of 40 students in swivel chairs and headsets collecting gifts from alumni and parents across the country. But closer inspection reveals a reality of pick-up pictionary games and candy bowl politics — a reality more beautiful and bizarre than one could imagine. Telefund operates out of the basement of Thorne in what Telefunders...

Can you imagine seeing your writing performed on stage? How about by professional actors? In the 15th annual New Play Festival, sponsored by Occidental's Theater department, six students experience exactly that. "It's for the writer to see their work performed by actors," theater and history double-major Emily Abbott (junior), the festival's student producer, said. Abbott is responsible for organizing all...

Scott Ericksen "On my high school team, I didn't really fit in; I was the 'nerd.' At Occidental, we're kind of all 'nerds,'" Scott Ericksen said. He's certainly found his place with his fellow Tigers on the baseball team, where he can be a self-proclaimed geek while pitching fastballs at over 90 MPH. Not to mention he's able to follow...

Carnegie Hall and the Great Wall of China are only some of the widely acclaimed venues in which the CalTech-Occidental Concert Band has performed, but for their annual winter concert, the group returned to the more familiar stage of Occidental's Thorne Hall. Nearly all the performances featured individual musicians as soloists, but the concert gave band members the opportunity to...

Amid three days of sunshine, rain and cold temperatures at Splash! La Mirada, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams showed no signs of letting up, as races were won by mere hundredths of seconds and a long list of All-time Occidental records were left in the dust. The women’s team narrowly missed out on third place to the...

From open mic nights to performing at parties to Apollo Night, Occidental musicians have taken the spotlight. Students are starting to take advantage of opportunities and resources around campus not only to perform their music but also to professionally record it at a studio and broadcast it through a radio station. The Black Student Alliance (BSA) presented Apollo Night, a...

In the midst of the crystalline peaks and icy pinnacles of the Peruvian Andes, the Rio Rimac is born, and its story begins. From snowy mountains to the Pacific Ocean on its desert coast, the Rimac supplies water to most of Peru, including its capital, Lima. But due to rapidly escalating climate change, the river will eventually run dry. Climate...

While Occidental College emphasizes interdisciplinary coursework, extracurricular activities and engagement with the community, it lacks emphasis on a critical part of a student's education today: technological proficiency. Occidental should focus on expanding its computer science program to help students understand the connections between technology and the liberal arts, thereby empowering students to harness and refine tools for the future. Understanding...