Editing Occidental College (section)

==History==
===Early history===
[[File:St Vincent’s Pershing Square.jpeg|thumb|left|Pershing Square campus, ca. 1896]]
Occidental College was founded on April 20, 1887, by a group of [[Presbyterian]] clergy, missionaries, and laymen, including [[James George Bell]], [[Lyman Stewart]], and [[Thomas R. Bard|Thomas Bard]]. The cornerstone of the school's first building was laid in September 1887 in the [[Boyle Heights]] now [[East Los Angeles, California|East Los Angeles]] neighborhood of Los Angeles.<ref name = latimes87>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-04-20-vw-1118-story.html | title=Occidental College: A Lively Center of Learning Turns 100 | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date=April 20, 1987 | access-date=March 29, 2015 | last=Murphy |first=William S. }}</ref> The college's first term began a year later with 27 male and 13 female students, and tuition of $50 a year.<ref name = rolle>{{cite news | title = Occidental College: A Centennial History | year = 1986 | last= Rolle |first=Andrew}}</ref>

In 1896, the Boyle Heights building was destroyed by fire. The college temporarily relocated to the old [[Loyola Marymount University#St. Vincent's College|St. Vincent's College]] campus on Hill Street before a new site was selected in [[Highland Park, Los Angeles|Highland Park]] in 1898.<ref name = latimes87/> Eventually, the college erected three main buildings: the Academy Building, the Stimson Library, and the Hall of Arts and Letters (the Hall still stands today, converted to apartments).<ref name = kcet>{{cite web | url = http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/columns/history/occidental-college-the-campus-and-the-community.html | title = Occidental College in Highland Park: The Campus and the Community | publisher = KCET Los Angeles | date = April 18, 2012 | access-date = March 30, 2015 | last= Lin |first=Jan}}</ref> The Highland Park site was also bisected by the tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad,<ref name = kcet/> and was the site of two presidential visits, first by [[William Howard Taft]] in 1909 and subsequently by [[Theodore Roosevelt]] in 1911.<ref name = kcet/>

In 1909, the [[Pomona College]] Board of Trustees suggested a merger between Pomona and Occidental, but the proposal came to nothing.<ref>{{cite news | title = Pomona Trustees Meet | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = May 26, 1909}}</ref> The following year, the college severed formal ties with the Presbyterian Church and became a non-sectarian, non-denominational institution.<ref name = latimes87/><ref>{{cite news | title = New Charter for College | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = April 15, 1910}}</ref> The small size of the {{Convert|15|acre|adj=on}} campus and the disruption caused by frequent freight trains pushed the college's trustees to find a new location.<ref name = kcet/>

===1900s===
[[File:OccidentalColl-1904.jpg|thumb|left|Highland Park campus, 1904]] 
In 1912, the school began construction of a new campus located in Los Angeles' [[Eagle Rock, Los Angeles|Eagle Rock]] neighborhood. The Eagle Rock campus was designed by noted California architect [[Myron Hunt]], also known as the planner of the [[California Institute of Technology]] (Caltech) campus and as designer of the [[Huntington Library and Art Gallery]] and the [[Rose Bowl (stadium)|Rose Bowl]]. That same year, Occidental President [[John Willis Baer]] announced the trustees' decision to convert Occidental College into an all-men's institution. The plans were met with widespread backlash from students and faculty who protested the change. The community outcry garnered national headlines and the board later dropped the proposal.<ref>{{cite news | title = Ask Trustees to Reverse | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = April 11, 1912}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = Tells Students Way of Change | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = May 1, 1912}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.vs3-12.historypin.appspot.com/attach/uid31471/map/#!/geo:34.105168,-118.202036/zoom:15/dialog:87139/tab:details/ | title = Oxy remains co-ed | publisher = Occidental College Archives | access-date = March 30, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402050022/http://www.vs3-12.historypin.appspot.com/attach/uid31471/map#!/geo:34.105168,-118.202036/zoom:15/dialog:87139/tab:details/ | archive-date = April 2, 2015 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

Two weeks after [[Booker T. Washington]] came to visit Occidental, on March 27, 1914, Swan, Fowler, and Johnson Halls were dedicated at its new Eagle Rock campus. Patterson Field, today one of the oldest collegiate sports stadiums in Los Angeles, was opened in 1916.<ref>{{cite news | title = Honored Name for Athletic Field | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = February 24, 1916}}</ref> In April 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I, the college formed a Students Army Training Corps to aid the war effort.<ref name = rolle/>

[[File:Occidental College in the 1920's.jpg|thumb|Occidental College in the 1920s]]
Under Occidental President [[Remsen Bird]], the school opened a series of new Hunt-designed buildings, including Clapp Library (1924), Hillside Theatre and a women's dormitory (Orr Hall) in 1925, Alumni Gymnasium (1926), the Freeman Student Union (1928) and a music and speech building (1929).<ref>{{cite news | title = Myron Hunt at Occidental College | publisher = Tailwater Press | date = 2012 | last= Winter |first=Robert}}</ref> The Delta of California chapter of [[Phi Beta Kappa]] was established at Occidental in 1926, at a time when the only other chapters in California were at [[Stanford University|Stanford]], [[University of California, Berkeley|UC Berkeley]], and [[Pomona College|Pomona]].<ref name = rolle/>

English novelist [[Aldous Huxley]], who had spoken at Occidental's convocation ceremony in the then-new Thorne Hall in 1938, lampooned President Remsen Bird as Dr. Herbert Mulge of Tarzana College in his 1939 novel, ''[[After Many a Summer Dies the Swan]]''. Huxley was never again invited back to campus.<ref>{{cite book | title = Huxley in Hollywood | location= New York | publisher=Harper & Row | date = 1989 | last = Dunaway |first=David King |isbn=9780385415910}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], many students left Occidental to fight in the war. In July 1943, the U.S. Navy established a Navy [[V-12 Navy College Training Program|V-12]]<ref name="occidentalv-12">{{cite web |url=http://alumni.oxy.edu/s/956/index.aspx?pgid=410&gid=1 |title=Occidental College - Oxy Trivia |access-date=September 28, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519135727/http://alumni.oxy.edu/s/956/index.aspx?pgid=410&gid=1 |archive-date=May 19, 2012 }}</ref> officer training program on campus that produced hundreds of graduates before it was disbanded in 1945 at the end of the war. Occidental President Remsen Bird worked behind the scenes to help Oxy students of Japanese descent continue their education despite mandatory evacuation orders; his letters are included in the Japanese American Relocation Collection in Clapp Library.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://callimachus.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p4004coll1 | title =  Occidental College Japanese American Relocation | publisher = Occidental College Library Digital Archives | access-date = March 30, 2015}}</ref>

After having its first [[Rhodes Scholar]], Clarence Spaulding, named in 1908, Oxy seniors John Paden and Aaron Segal were awarded Rhodes Scholarships in 1958, the only time Occidental has produced two Rhodes Scholars in a single year.<ref>{{cite news | title = Two Rhodes Scholars Named at Occidental | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = December 21, 1958}}</ref> Paden and Segal were among the ten Occidental students who participated in Crossroads Africa that year, a forerunner to the [[Peace Corps]] that later became a national program.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://operationcrossroadsafrica.org/index.php#div[content]=1202 | title = What is Operation Crossroads Africa? | publisher = Operation Crossroads Africa | access-date = March 30, 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150402190138/http://operationcrossroadsafrica.org/index.php#div | archive-date = April 2, 2015 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

In 1969, 42 students were suspended for peacefully protesting military recruiting on campus. One year later, faculty voted to suspend classes in the wake of the [[Kent State shootings]] and America's invasion of Cambodia. Subsequently, Oxy students wrote 7,000 letters to Washington D.C., protesting U.S. involvement in the war in Southeast Asia.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://goarticles.com/article/Occidental-College-and-Its-Relationship-to-Eagle-Rock-and-Highland-Park-CA/9672790/ | title = Occidental College and Its Relationship to Eagle Rock and Highland Park, CA  | publisher = Go Articles | date = November 9, 2014 | access-date = March 30, 2015 | last= Fender |first=Nicholas}}</ref> Occidental launched one of the country's first [[Upward Bound]] programs in 1966, aimed at increasing the number of low-income, underrepresented high school students who become the first in their family to go to college.<ref>{{cite web |title=Upward Bound / About Us |url=https://www.oxy.edu/about-oxy/community-engagement/upward-bound/about-us |website=Occidental College |access-date=January 17, 2024}}</ref>

Also in 1969, the school opened its first two co-ed [[Dormitory|dormitories]], and two more followed a year later. In 1988, [[John Brooks Slaughter]], formerly Chancellor of the [[University of Maryland, College Park|University of Maryland]],<ref>{{Cite news|last=Goldstein|first=Amy|date=April 2, 1988|title=Slaughter to Quit U-MD. Post|language=en-US|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/04/02/slaughter-to-quit-u-md-post/590a8dcf-6283-492d-bd0d-401d1091732a/|access-date=July 14, 2020|issn=0190-8286}}</ref> became Occidental's first black president.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Biography of Dr. John B. Slaughter, Director of the NSF from December 1980 - October 1982|url=https://www.nsf.gov/about/history/bios/jbslaughter.jsp|access-date=July 14, 2020|website=National Science Foundation}}</ref> Building on faculty and student advocacy and a series of grants the college had received previously to increase the diversity of the Occidental student body, Slaughter led the process of creating a new mission statement that is still used today.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.oxy.edu/our-story/mission | title = Mission | publisher = Occidental College | access-date = March 30, 2015}}</ref> Also, Slaughter led the college's community outreach expansion with the creation of the Center for Volunteerism and Community Service, the predecessor for the current Center for Community Based Learning.<ref name=wallace>{{cite journal| title=Occidental College's Noble Experiment in Diversity| first=Amy |last=Wallace| date=Spring 1996| journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education| publisher=The JBHE Foundation | volume=11| issue=11 | pages=114–117| doi=10.2307/2963331 | jstor=2963331 }}</ref>

In November 1990, the college rededicated the campus' main chapel as the Herrick Memorial Chapel and Interfaith Center. The school also took down the crosses in the chapel in an attempt to "broaden Occidental's appeal among non-Christian students."<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-15-gl-6363-story.html | title = Occidental Removes Cross From Chapel | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = November 15, 1990 | access-date = March 30, 2015 | last= Grange |first=Lori}}</ref>

===2000s===
In July 2006, [[Susan Westerberg Prager]] became Occidental's first female president. She left her position in 2007.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Brief History of Occidental College |url=http://www.oxy.edu/x3684.xml | access-date = August 2, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819041020/http://www.oxy.edu/x3684.xml | archive-date=August 19, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Robert Skotheim]] served as interim president. In July 2009, [[Jonathan Veitch]] became Occidental's 15th president, and the first native [[Angeleno]] president.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://patch.com/california/eaglerock/an-interview-with-occidental-college-president-jonathan-veitch | title = An Interview With Occidental College President Jonathan Veitch | publisher = Eagle Rock Patch | date = February 15, 2011 | access-date = March 30, 2015 | last= Tokita |first=Mary}}</ref>

The college received national scrutiny in 2014 when the [[U.S. Department of Education]] [[Occidental College sexual assault controversy|named Occidental College as one of 55 higher education institutions under investigation]] "for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment."<ref>{{cite web|title=U.S. Department of Education Releases List of Higher Education Institutions with Open Title IX Sexual Violence Investigations|url=http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-releases-list-higher-education-institutions-open-title-i|website=U.S. Department of Education|access-date=July 14, 2014}}</ref> In response to student and faculty outcry the college adopted a new interim sexual misconduct policy, hired a former assistant district attorney as a full-time, independent [[Title IX]] coordinator, and added a new 24-hour, 7-days-a-week telephone hotline. The school also created a permanent Sexual Misconduct Advisory Board made up of students, faculty, and staff.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://occidentalweekly.com/news/2014/01/26/ruth-jones-named-new-title-ix-coordinator/ |title=Ruth Jones named new Title IX coordinator |publisher=The Occidental Weekly |access-date=August 23, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904050220/http://occidentalweekly.com/news/2014/01/26/ruth-jones-named-new-title-ix-coordinator/ |archive-date=September 4, 2014 |url-status=usurped }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxy.edu/sexual-assault-resources-support |title=Sexual Assault Resources & Support &#124; Occidental College &#124; The Liberal Arts College in Los Angeles |publisher=Oxy.edu |access-date=August 23, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oxy.edu/magazine/summer-2013/changing-culture |title=Changing the Culture &#124; Occidental College &#124; The Liberal Arts College in Los Angeles |date=July 16, 2013 |publisher=Oxy.edu |access-date=August 23, 2014}}</ref> Two years later, the investigation was concluded with the Office of Civil Rights finding that "the preponderance of the evidence does not support a conclusion that the College violated Title IX, except with respect to the issue of promptness in several cases during the 2012-13 school years."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/investigations/more/09132264-a.pdf |title=Occidental College |website=2.ed.gov |access-date=July 15, 2017}}</ref>

President [[Barack Obama]] attended Occidental for two years prior to transferring to [[Columbia University]]. In 2015, "[[Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories|birthers]]" falsely claimed that Obama's Occidental College transcript revealed he received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia after the resurgence of a fake news story from 2009.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.latimes.com/la-xpm-2012-may-30-la-pn-birthers-claim-obama-applied-to-college-as-a-foreigner-20120529-story.html | title = 'Birthers' claim Obama applied to college as a foreigner | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = May 30, 2012 | access-date = March 30, 2015 | last= Abcarian |first=Robin}}</ref>

In July 2020, Harry J. Elam, Jr., formerly vice provost for undergraduate education and Drama professor at [[Stanford University]], became Occidental's 16th president.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Watanabe|first=Teresa|date=February 11, 2020|title=New Occidental College president hailed for diversity efforts|url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-11/new-occidental-college-president-hailed-for-diversity-efforts|access-date=July 14, 2020|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref> In August 2023, it was announced that he will retire in 2024 for health-related reasons.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 22, 2023 |title=My Health and the Year Ahead |url=https://www.oxy.edu/about-oxy/college-leadership/presidents-office/community-messages/my-health-and-year-ahead |access-date=August 22, 2023 |website=www.oxy.edu |language=en}}</ref>  On March 26, 2024, it was announced that [[Tom Stritikus]], late of [[Fort Lewis College]], will become Occidental's president effective July 1.<ref>{{cite web|title=Tom Stritikus Named 17th President of Occidental College  |url=
https://www.oxy.edu/news/tom-stritikus-named-17th-president-occidental-college |publisher=Occidental College |date=March 26, 2024 |access-date=March 26, 2024}}</ref>