Occidental Magazine

April 30, 2025

The Eaton and Palisades fires in January took their toll on members of the Occidental family, including students, alumni, faculty, and administrators. With a long rebuilding process ahead, they find strength and support among the...

Occidental Magazine

Occidental magazine brings you campus news, in-depth features, and profiles of exceptional alumni. For the 2024-25 academic year, the magazine published two print and digital issues (Fall 2024 and Spring 2025) and one digital-only issue (Summer 2024).

Features

Profiles

Contrarian Documentarian

Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophuls ’50, who attended Occidental for three years before dropping out to finish his studies at the Sorbonne, died May 24 at the age of 97...

Los Angeles

Life After Fire

The Eaton and Palisades fires in January took their toll on members of the Occidental family, including students, alumni, faculty, and administrators. With a long rebuilding process ahead...

Faculty

Advanced Projects in Photography

With two exhibits opening simultaneously and a new teaching space at ��ɫ��Ƶ, Assistant Professor Janna Ireland navigates her burgeoning career as she parents two growing boys

Eddie Gorton ’01, Paul “PK” Kim ’98, and David Murphy ’02

Profiles

Sitting Down With the Stand-ups

Paul “PK” Kim ’98, Eddie Gorton ’01, and David Murphy ’02 trace their comic odysseys from talent shows and laundromats to Thorne Hall and the Laugh Factory

Professor William D. Ward at his desk in the Hall of Letters on Occidental’s Highland Park campus.

��ɫ��Ƶ History

Unseen Occidental

From 1898 to 1914, ��ɫ��Ƶ called Highland Park home—and a treasure trove of photos from the 1910s offers a glimpse of campus life before the move to Eagle Rock

Academics

Red States, Blue Fates

Election Day produced surprises, concessions, and a ballot box full of lessons to unpack

Obituaries

Remembering the "Dean of NFL Referees"

With three Super Bowls on his resume, Jim Tunney '51 (1929-2024) became the face of football officiating

Alumni Engagement

Sustaining the Alumni Community

��ɫ��Ƶ's Alumni Board of Governors is actively working to expand and promote alumni activities not just on campus, but around the world—and you're encouraged to get involved

Obituaries

Remembering Professor Tamás Lengyel

A internationally renowned scholar in the math community, a mathematical constant and a sequence of numbers were named in his honor

First Word

President Stritikus

Tapping Into the Power of Research

��ɫ��Ƶ students and alumni use their lifelong affinity for learning to answer important questions—beginning with a research-driven liberal arts education

From the Quad

Ruth Berkey and members of the 1978 women's volleyball team

Obituaries

Remembering Ruth Berkey: A Pioneer in Women's Athletics

Ruth M. Berkey, Occidental’s director of athletics from 1977 to 1980 and a pioneering advocate for women’s sports, died May 18, 2025, in Grants Pass, Ore. She was 89.

��ɫ��Ƶ Live! welcomed visual artist Ed Ruscha to Thorne Hall on February 4.

Los Angeles

Spring-loaded With Speakers

Ed Ruscha, Deirdre Cooper Owens, and Tom Nichols lead the discourse at ��ɫ��Ƶ this semester

Assistant Professor Natasha Sekhon studies broken stalagmites to decide whether they should be brought back to the U.S. for further research.

Undergraduate Research

An Underground History of Climate Change

Assistant Professor Natasha Sekhon and junior geology major Mira Hart take their research abroad, looking for clues inside Philippine caves

Faculty

All Paths Lead to ��ɫ��Ƶ

Hailing from China, India, Mexico, and all over the United States, Occidental’s newest cohort of tenure-track faculty embraces the liberal arts in Los Angeles

Chris Kim, the Choi Family Director of Instrumental Music, conducts the Occidental Symphony in a performance of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature.”

Academics

The Sounds of Branca

A concert for the ages celebrates the generations-spanning clientele of music attorney John Branca ’72 and the launch of the John Branca Institute for Music

Members of the Pacific Crossings “Dream Team”: From left, Nakatsuka, Gilder Lehrman program coordinator Leah Baer, administrative assistant Thea Wilson ’24, and Hong.

Academics

Teachable Moments

Associate Professor Jane Hong and a “dream team” of educators bring 150 years of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history into focus

Mixed Media

More Mixed Media

Terry Kitchen '81 performs "We All Dream."

Arts

Mixed Media

A host of new works by ��ɫ��Ƶ alumni explore explore themes of democracy, resilience, and human connection—as well as our fascination with horses, dragons, and ocean life

Carole MacNeil ’84 with her mom, Eleanor, in 2019.

Arts

Mixed Media

New books by Carole MacNeil ’84, Jessica C. Harris ’08, Jessica Keith ’00, Marsha de la O ’74, and the latest documentary short by César Martínez Barba ’17

��ɫ��Ƶ Talk

More ��ɫ��Ƶ Talk

Profiles

Judgment Calls

Separated by 2,700 miles, National Labor Relations Board administrative law judges Brian Gee ’87 and Ira Sandron ’71 find common ground in ��ɫ��Ƶ

As program director of Research Corporation for Science Advance- ment’s RCSA Fellows Initiative, Spain will support postdocs in physics, astronomy, and chemistry as they transition into their faculty careers.

Faculty

To Chemistry and Beyond

After 28 years in the classroom and mentoring 74 students in her lab at ��ɫ��Ƶ, Professor Eileen Spain pivots to prepare future generations of faculty in the physical sciences