Student passion fades for Occidental College’s most famous alum: A group of Occidental students who analyzed the first year of President Obama’s performance on foreign affairs issued a mostly favorable report, concluding that Obama had been “consistent overall” in living up to his campaign promises. However, the President, who attended the Eagle Rock college about 20 years ago, might not be too thrilled about the response those same students gave to a question posed to them by professor Derek Shearer. Shearer, according to a college press release, asked the students if they were “still ‘in love’ with Obama, as many college students seemed to be during the 2008 campaign.” The reply:
“‘No,’ they said, more ‘in like,’” Shearer reported. “They admire and respect him, but also question his performance in office.”
Photo from Occidental College website
The Eagle Rock woman Occidental College students love to hate: Her name is Mo Oxford. But many of the students have another name (among others) for the Alumni Drive resident: party pooper. Oxford has for years waged a campaign against the noisy parties and rowdy behavior of the Oxy students who live or party off-campus in the neighborhood surrounding the school, according to a story in the student newspaper, Occidental Weekly. Oxford concedes that she has taken photos of students and has been involved in lawsuits against neighboring property owners in her quest for peace and quiet in her section of Eagle Rock.
While conditions have improved somewhat, she said what some students think of as a compromise does not work:
“And what they have come back with and said was, ‘What if we have one big blast a year? And we said, ‘Well that would work’ – except who’s going to have it? Which one house is going to have the 300 kids there, or 500 kids? . . . I mean, on this block alone, with the number of student-occupied houses that we have, we could be pretty well busy most of the year with just their ‘one a year’ . . . So I think the answer is tone it down, smaller parties, and understand that you are in a residential community – and if somebody wants to throw a big bash somewhere, the place to do that is go rent a venue. You know, rent a space where you aren’t going to disturb neighbors.”
Image from Occidental College Athletics website
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Occidental College today ends a month-long tribute to poet Robinson Jeffers – class of 1905 – with a series of events – from readings to bird watching and bee hive demonstrations – that combine poetry and Jeffers’ interest in the environment. The students pictured above were getting ready to begin a tour of the Eagle Rock campus to view artwork – called the Ecologies of Poetry – created for Robinson Jeffers Day. The events conclude at 2 PM.
Photo by Marc Campos/Occidental College
“You can watch YouTube videos relatively quickly compared to last semester when it would take 10-15 minutes for a video to load,” Eric Martinez (junior) said.
There were other reasons, some related to education, as well. More details in the
Oxy Weekly.
Jonathan Veitch, who has served as the dean of Eugene Lang College at the New School in New York, was named the 15th president to head Occidental, the Eagle Rock college announced today. Veitch is a Los Angeles native who comes from a family of actors, according to a profile of him last year in the New School Free Press
Veitch, in a campus press release, wasted no time mentioning the school’s Obama connection:
“One need only look at Occidental’s most famous student, Barack Obama. “Our new president demonstrates the very best qualities of a liberal arts education. It is evident in so much of what he says and does, and how he thinks.”
Photo: Occidental College
Occidental College has once again been ranked as one of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges. But this honor has nothing to do with the quality of the education at the Eagle Rock college. Instead, it’s based on the salaries of Oxy graduates. Occidental reports that it came in at No. 7 in SmartMoney’s “payback” rankings, which measures the return on investment, in this case college tuition, that students earn.
“With a median alumni salary of $51,900 three years after graduation and $105,000 after 15 years, Occidental had an average “payback” of 114 percent, according to SmartMoney. That return on investment is almost identical to Amherst, Bucknell and Holy Cross, and higher than such Ivy League schools as Columbia and Brown.”
Who said a liberal arts education doesn’t pay?
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