As the sky went to black Saturday evening, hipsters, popcorn, burgers, a classic hearse and an FM radio station channeling “Harold and Maude” came to life at Electric Dusk Drive-In.The downtown Los Angeles drive-in theater, open year-round, began its third movie screening as part of its summer series, featuring director Hal Ashby’s 1971 classic cinematic endeavor.
The Electric Dusk Drive-In is not a ’50sdrive in with carhops. However, once the digital ticket has been scanned, the grill is going and customers are guided at the perfect angle into the huddle of cars. The film tells the story of the blossoming friendship between an antisocial young man and a vibrant 79-year-old woman, both of whom enjoy attending funerals for fun. The film matches perfectly with the quirky setting. It is hard to expect anything less than a cult classic, as Electric Dusk’s summer schedule features films such as “Dirty Dancing,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
In one corner of the drive-in theater is a snack shack, complete with an outdoor grill and a classic and inefficient popcorn machine. Getting popcorn requires making small talk with the popcorn machine employee for fifteen minutes; however, the leisurely pace of the snack bar is all part of the experience. In order to maximize snack-purchasing possibilities without worrying about the cost of admission, customers can also pay ten dollars and enter a raffle to win free admission for a subsequent visit.
Couples and friends return to their cars or lawn seating to curl up in their quilts. Audience members who backed into their spots and cleaned out their trunks successfully create the ultimate viewer experience.Others settle to sit in the regular car seats. Intermission provides an opportunity for audience members to stretch their legs and readjust. A thematically appropriate hearse in the back of the venue proves popular for various photo opportunities for dedicated “Harold and Maude” fans.
Though the chances of winning the raffle are slim and the food does not vary from standard movie theater cuisine, the undeniably classic movie yields an overall memorable experience. Coming prepared with blankets, pillows and snacks to avoid the line is encouraged, although a little fraternizing in the popcorn line on a warmer night is not a terrible night spent in L.A.
Electric Dust Drive-In is located at 1000 San Julian Street, just off the 5, 10, 101 and 110 freeways in downtown L.A. Doors open 90 minutes before screening begins. The next screening is May 17 featuring “A Streetcar Named Desire” at 8:30 p.m. Tickets range from $8.50 to $50 depending on desired parking location.
Students gathered on Branca Patio under Los Angeles’ starless sky Thursday night for a medley of student performances that included beatboxing, stand-upcomedy, a cappella and guitar solos. This open mic, co-hosted by the Green Bean and Raw Records, was the second of the semester and marked the last event in the Green Bean’s spring series, ending the yearlong event series.
Unlike the previous open mic that was hosted inside the Green Bean, last week’s location on Branca Patio unintentionally incorporated campus trademarks such as the bell tower chimes and a Campus Safety officer on his nightly rounds. The impromptu atmosphere fit the nature of the event, where one did not know which member of the audience was slated to perform, or what talent would be showcased.
The Green Bean staff planning the event provided a stage suitable for various types of acts, from athletes to Raw Records musicians, for both seasoned performers and newcomers. Music major Claire Tolman (sophomore) has performed at previous open mics, as well as with the Glee Club and the Accidentals. She often performs original compositions, but ThursdayTolman sang a cover of a Pentatonix song with other members of the Glee Club.
“I love performing with the Glee Club but it’s totally different [than performing at an open mic],”Tolman said. “We usually do classical stuff and when you’re performing with such a big group you’re not really seen unless you have a solo.”
History major Ben Silver (senior) began writing stand up comedy a couple months ago. Although he has performed at comedy club open mics around L.A., Thursday was his first time performing at Occidental.
“I was the most nervous I’ve ever been for a show for this one, mostly because it was the first time all my friends had been able to see what I’ve been working on these past two months,” Silver said. “But also because – I’ll preface this by saying this is a great campus, I love it here, I wouldn’t change anything – but there are definitely a lot of jokes that you can and cannot tell.”
Silver explained that not only are comedy club audiences expecting more outrageous jokes than the college crowd, but that they are more interactive and responsive. AtOccidentalopen mics, where students primarily perform music, it can be harder to engage with the audience and elicit positive responses.
The Green Bean has occasionally organized eventssince it opened in 2009, but when Urban and Environmental Policy (UEP) and economicsdoublemajor Lillian Krovoza (junior) became Green Bean Programming and Customer Experience Manager at the beginning of this year, she attempted to host an event every two weeks. When UEP major Caroline Bringenberg (senior) took over this semester while Krovoza studiesabroad, she continued Krovoza’s programming strategy. This semester’s eventshaveincluded two open mics, a trivia night, Fantastiprov show andwaste audit at the Earth Day Fair Friday.
According to Bringenberg, the Green Bean events have been well–attended this year due to consistency in programming and increased advertising.
“I think that the Green Bean is a really special place on campus because it’s just completely student run, which is really unique. There’s really nothing else on campus that really functions that way,” Bringenberg said.
Krovoza will return to the programming manager position when she returns to campus in the fall. Bringenberg hopes that Krovoza will repeat some of the more successful programs, such as the open mics and the Raw Records showcase that happened in the fall, but also put on new programs, perhaps an art opening.Krovoza’s goals include collaborating with clubs more often and having more opportunities to perform spoken word and poetry.
“Being able to plan events for the GB and work with so many different students and organizations on campus was so fun, and I can’t wait to kick it off again next year,” Krovoza said via email.
I recently downloaded the hit iPhone game “2048,” whichhas consumed all of my free time. It’s so addicting that I once narrowly avoided walkinginto a parked car while gazing at the magic on my phone.
“2048” has taken Occidental by storm. Many studentsplay it while waiting in lines for food or can be heard sharing their high scoresin between classes. “2048” isn’t perfect, but it keeps players hooked.
The concept behind “2048” is simple:Swipe the numbers in any direction in a 4-by-4 grid. Like-numbers will combine when swiped into one another. Every time a player swipes in any direction, another two or four tile pops up in a random spoton the grid. You lose when you can no longer make any moves, and you win when you combine enough like-numbers to get the tile that reads 2048.
Speeding through the beginning is easy, but crucial moments of either mathematical genius or luck are required to win. As of right now I haven’t seen the beautiful 2048 tile in all of its glory, but it has been magical for the fewwho have done so. On the App Store reviews,user KyStride describes it as “My Greatest Achievement!” while lulu247’s review istitled “Life Itself.”
However, like Squidward from “Spongebob Squarepants” doing his favorite things in Tentacle Acres, the satisfaction of repeated victories in games like this are less amazing the more they happen. In addition,some players dispute the app’s legitimate puzzle quality, claiming that there is too much luck involved and not enough strategy. There are strategies (for example, keep high numbers in one corner as best you can) but they only grants higher scores, rather than ensuring more victories.
The app’s developer, Ketchapp, does not seem to mind some of these issues, as they are riding high on their amazing success. The addicting game’s success rivals that of sole programmer Dong Nguyen’s,”Flappy Bird.” “Flappy Bird” is an unforgiving game in which the player must tap the screen at exactly the right time to make a bird travel through a small hole between two pipes. The score increases with each pipe you pass, but make any wrong moves and the game is over.
Both Flappybird and 2048 have topped the charts, spawning hilarious variations on the popular apps. “Doge2048” replaces the numbers in 2048 with the internet’s hit meme Doge,while “Flappy 2048” combines the touch-to-flap gameplay of “Flappy Bird” with the look of “2048.”
All of the different iterations of these apps demonstrate how we are all gamers in one way or another. They are so much more than just tiny video games on our phones; these games are cultural phenomena. If VH1 did a segment of “I Love 2014” I am positive that Flappy Bird, 2048 or any of their culturally significant games would top their list.
In the meantime I can be content in knowing that one day I too will see the 2048 tile. Like solving my first Rubik’s Cube, I will enjoy, Marvel and call my mom.
After four long, yet simultaneously ephemeral years at Occidental, I will reap the fruits of my laborious days spent here, along with about 500 other seniors, in a little over two weeks. The two research papers standing between my Bachelor of Arts degree and me make it highly unlikely that I will cross off from an impossibly long list many of the things I meant to do and the food I meant to eat while on the sunny West Coast. In the course of my tenure at Occidental, my values and beliefs have evolved, I have gained incredible self-confidence and I can assuredly say I am leaving this place a better person. Yet I cannot help but wonder how much more I could have gained throughout my time here had I been more willing and able to stand out during my first year.
Most students begin college without a solid grasp of who they are, what they want or what they really care about. They start their undergraduate careers as malleable, eager balls of energy with the intention of excelling academically and socially. Throughout students’ college years, they adopt new ideas and concepts that resonate with them, shed preconceptions that no longer hold water and deepen previously held values. As cliched as it is to say, college really is a period of transformation. Yet no one ever tells students that it is okay to feel vulnerable, to be unsure and to struggle with their sense of self. Most importantly, it is okay to talk to people about feeling vulnerable and insecure.
The first months of college tend to be as emotional and tumultuous as the final ones. From the momentous to the trifling, students make countless decisions during their first year of college that can shape, for better or worse, their undergraduate careers. Along with deciding what clubs to join, which people to become friends with and which classes to take, students make choices about how they want to present themselves and how open they want to be with others. When I became a student here in 2010, the biggest concern on my mind was whether I would fit in. I can laugh about the silliness of it now, but at the time, as a shy, contemplative 18-year-old from the Northeast, I genuinely feared the possibility of not making friends.
In an apparently self-fulfilling prophecy, I spent most of my first-yearweekends in, Skyping with friends from high school and reading about whatever I was interested in at the time. Suffice to say, I did not make many friends that year. Introversion was a factor, sure, but I assumed that something was wrong with me because I hated small talk and because it took me longer than a night of drunken banter to want to befriend someone. Everyone around me seemed to bond over the most inconsequential details, like a shared hatred of the Marketplace’s weekend hours or a mutual affinity for the Mac and cheese bites at the Cooler. I agreed, but I could never articulate myself in a way that was not painfully forced. As my first year passed by, I became complacent with solitude and repetition.
At a place like Occidental, a lot of professors will tell students not to generalize — especially about large groups of people — because although we are all ultimately a lot more similar than different, our varied and diverse backgrounds, personalities and experiences make us distinct individuals. Yet as vulnerable, insecure teenagers, we sometimes sacrifice or conceal parts of ourselves that are essential to who we are when we start college in order to acculturate to the dominant assumptions and expectations about how people should behave. In my first year, I pined to be that gregarious, vivacious person that everyone warmed up to immediately, but I could never be that person because I was, and am, naturally more reserved until I get to know and like people. By aspiring to something I inherently was not, I became even more self-conscious in social situations.
Eventually, the desire to be extroverted subsided when I grew to accept that the way I socialize is part of what makes me who I am and is a pretty great quality.Looking back over the years, though, I feel a twinge of regret for not opening up to people sooner and for not being more transparent about feeling isolated that first year. A surprising number of seniors I have talked to this year related similar feelings of loneliness, inadequacy or seclusion earlier in their college careers. I cannot help but wonder how much richer all of our years would have been and how much more connected Occidental would be as a community if more students who felt alone or isolated decided to reach out to others when they experienced those feelings. If we looked to where our experiences overlap we could create a more empathetic culture here.
As my days as an undergraduate rapidly dwindle, feelings of anxiety, anticipation, relief and elation wash over me, sometimes all at once. The shy, self-conscious 18-year-old who started here is still a part of the grounded 22-year-old that will leave here in two weeks. But perhaps the greatest difference that divides those two people is the acceptance of being imperfect, of being vulnerable, of being human. With the induction of Active Minds and a growing emphasis on mental health, Occidental is poised to welcome the class of 2018 with the message that just as everybody poops, everybody sometimes feels alone and imperfect. Rather than try harder to be what we think we should be, Occidental students should feel comfortable speaking up and standing out.
Cordelia Kenney is a senior history major. She can be reached at ckenney@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyCKenney.
“A new era has begun, one started this time in the laboratories and factories of America. No doubt the period from 1945 to the destruction of our civilization in the next world war will be called the Television Age by future historians,” John Utzinger wrote in an April 1951 issue of The Occidental Weekly.
Some 63 years ago, Utzinger boldly prognosticated the significance of the new manifestation of entertainment — television. Utzinger wrote this piece as part of a series titled “Quad Queries” in which, presumably, Utzinger meandered the Academic Quad, interviewing students in order tounderstand current perceptions on various subjects. The topic of interest that week was the emerging entertainment technology, known by the acronym TV, which wasabuzz on campus at the time.
I found this gem one day while studying in the quiet sections (aka Harry Potter Room) of the library. Across from me stood an array of tattered black books of varying sizes with the golden text “The Occidental” etched into the bindings. From “The Occidental” archives I retrieved the newspaper collection labeled “1950-1951.” I brushed though the broadsheet pages and was transported to a different time.
After reading the article, I made an attempt to recreate Utzinger’s experiment in order to evaluate how perceptions of television have changed over a 63-year time period. Using the same methodological approach, the same research question and the same research site, I took to the Quad to embark on a short, unofficial social experiment.
Utzinger and I took to the quad armed with the same simple question: “What do you think of television?” The month was April, his of 1951, mine of 2014.
I found that despite the enormity of differences between our world and the world of Occidental students in 1951, perceptions about television are quite similar. Our minds have been molded for analytical thinking, so everyday technologies such as TV are subject to informed criticism and hypotheses about their larger negative implications. But generalizing aboutthe Occidental population is difficult, and many students, regardless of time period, also choose to focus on the more positive aspects of TV. No universal principals nor sociological theories came from this experiment, but if nothing else, some entertaining quotes.
Junior Guy Steiner ’52 gave a wise critique of the entertainment platform.
“There are three mediums of entertainment in this country: the stage, the movies and television. Movies reiterate what is said on the stage, television reiterates what the movies say. TV is the lowest form of entertainment,” Steiner said.
Urban and Environmental Policy major Halley Crane (sophomore) also exposed some of the lower aspects of TV.
“Television perpetuates the media’s power over our understanding of society. It constructs a reality based on stereotypes,” Crane said.
First-year Robert Hansen ’54presented an alarming scenario — a warning call against the dangers of the mind trap that is television.
“Social life is reduced to [a] neighborhood chewing stale popcorn and swilling staler beer while engrossed in the images on a light bulb — horrible!!” Hansen said.
But TV is not all bad. It has positive qualities which have enabled it to remain a dominant aspect of society for over 60 years, according to economics major Jessica May (sophomore).
“I personally love TV because it provides an escape from everyday life. There is so much happening in life and stress from academics that I appreciate the opportunity to escape into someone else’s world,” May said.
TV todayenables the viewer to leave all worldly problems behind. But in 1951, this might not have been the case.
“Television is still very much in the embryonic stage. But when one is forced to watch wrestling almost every night of the week a need for improvement in programming is definitely indicated,”Hunt said.
The wise words of sociology major David Pino (senior) signal that this problematic aspect of television, for better or for worse, has been fixed.
“There are hella channels nowadays,” Pino said.
TV has undoubtedly changed. It has been evolving since the 1878 invention of the telephonoscope and it continues on its evolutionary journey today. Though television seemed a novelty to many students in the ’50s, a few recognized its potential staying power.
“I think it’s here to stay,” senior Jeff Meisser ’51 said.
In the 1950s, TV transitioned from black and white to color, from small audiences to larger ones, and from limited programming to a wider range of options. Today, this transition is from cable to the Internet. The Internet throws an interesting twist in the subject, complicating how we define television, where we watch it and what it contains.
Art History and Visual Arts major Cullen Parr (senior) provides an interesting insider’s perspective, drawing from his academic emphasis on media arts and his recent completion of film comps.
“I think TV is a really exciting medium, especially in this age. Many predict that TV as we know it will soon cease to exist as it gets replaced by on-demand and web streaming. And in terms of content, writers are starting to realize the great potential for plot and character development over a ten, twenty-hour season rather than just a two-hour movie. The production quality is also getting astronomically better as the technology improves and more people invest in it,” Parr said.
Mathematics major Joey Manville (senior) put it more succinctly.
“The TV is dead,” Manville said.
Today we have the obvious advantage of hindsight in analyzing the societal effects of television. Thankfully, this era is not historically known as the Television Age, we have not become mindless television zombies, and we have not endured a civilization-ending third world war. But the more subtle predictions from Utzinger’sarticle may have been spot on: the more artistically fulfilling medium of live theater has decreased in popularity and social life has become increasingly dominated by stagnant, individualized experiences.
Watching TV is an inherently personal experience. Therefore, an individual’s opinions about television as an entertainment medium are determined more so by the individual than time period they are in.
One of my biggest pet peeves is when television takes the place of other, more important things, such as intellectual conversation. This can be direct, such as when a group of friends get together to watch a show, or indirect, when an event on television dominates conversation. The act of watching television in moderation is of little concern, but when it comes to dominate interests, conversation and thoughts, it poses a serious threat to social progress.
Recently, the show Breaking Bad had such an effect. While the drug-fueled drama is a brilliant piece of art, the show became so popularized that campus conversations were dominated by talk of Heisenberg and Jesse Pinkman. During this time, I heard many of my friends engaged in impassioned conversations about the show, but it seemed to me that these were taking the place of more meaningful discussions such as those concerning academic inquiries, philosophical debates or world events.
Television is a wonderful art form, but it is also dangerous. It revolves around infatuation and isolation, which, similarly to video games, Facebook and other digital entertainment mediums, can disconnect individuals from reality.
Television and entertainment continue to evolve. The opinions of Occidental students on this evolution, despite the drastically different technologies of each period, signify the similarities between Occidental students across time.
How TV might evolve in the next 63 years, I cannot say. I can, however, predict that Occidental students will continue to be critical of new entertainment mediums and attempt to use them wisely. Keegan McChesney is a sophomore politics and Urban and Environmental Policy double major. He can be reached at mcchesney@oxy.edu or on Twitter at @WklyKMcChesney.
Two Sundays ago, as I drove down Eagle Rock Boulevard to my house in Cypress Park, I was met with barricades and flashing lights. But it was not for a double homicide, which had last shut down this stretch of road. Instead, as I pulled over and got out of my car, I was met with the sound of hundreds of people singing hymns in Spanish. I had completely forgotten that it was Easter Sunday.
Unlike most Occidental students, I live about four miles from campus, where Eagle Rock turns into Cypress Boulevard and artisan coffee shops and craft beer bars are replaced with decrepit convenience stores and taco stands. Here, bougainvillea spills from cracked stucco fences, which hide homes with bars on the windows. Mutts roam the streets as rampantly as the fleet of ice cream trucks which run from noon until 9 p.m. It is a predominantly Latino neighborhood, and it is the first place where, I as a white Jew, have been a minority.
That day, I was returning from a family Passover Seder in the San Fernando Valley. I had spent the weekend in the kitchen with my mom, rolling matzo balls and crying over chopped onions as we sang along to Otis Redding. Despite being an atheistic family, Jewish culture has defined much of who we are and how we operate. We may not keep Kosher and cannot remember a single Sabbath prayer, but we always celebrate Passover. It is a time when we pull out our prayer books (albeit rewritten by my dad’s communist, leftist Berkeley family who replaced most prayers with folk songs) and reflect on the meanings of peace and compassion. It is a time when we ask difficult questions, when we argue, when we sing together and laugh together and hide the wine from Grandpa. As I drove down Eagle Rock Boulevard and heard the sounds of Spanish hymns, I realized that I had little awareness or understanding of the celebrations of other religion.
Though I come from an open and compassionate home, I was raised to distrust organized religion, to in some way judge those who put their faith in God or follow an ancient doctrine. While that informed much of who I am, it caused me to disavow religious tradition.
On that Sunday, however, I pulled over my car to watch the Easter parade. Hundreds of people followed behind a priest in white and red cassock, who read prayers into a microphone. His words were echoed by a congregation who held large wooden crosses. The procession was led by an old, Toyota pickup in whose bed sat an older woman playing guitar and singing, her voice projected through speakers. For miles, the community was filled with her voice, with his prayers. I watched from the corner. Next to me sat a homeless woman, face bronzed by sunlight, black trash bags at her feet filled with her possessions. She raised her face and arm to the sun as she sang, closing her eyes in reverence. In that moment, she was with her God, joy and peace on her face. Her warmth spilled over onto me.
A religious holiday brought my extended family together, to hold each other with words and comfort. It was a religious holiday that gave me a moment on a street corner, talking to a homeless woman who smiled at me warmly and engaged me in conversation — a woman I would have easily driven by on any other day. And it was a religious holiday that brought hundreds of people from a community still suffering from gang violence, poverty and poor nutrition out into the street to sing together.
I cannot say that I believe in God, and I cannot say thatI always understand religion. But I can say that it is our job to actively learn about the cultures and faiths of others and to appreciate the ways in which tradition and moments of difference can, in fact, nurture love and understanding. We learn so much more when we turn to our friends and ask about their backgrounds, when we open ourselves to the things that, however different, comfort others. Perhaps it is not tolerance that Occidental needs, but genuine curiosity about and respect for difference.
Ari Laub is a senior English and Comparative Literary Studies Major. She can be reached at alaub@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyALaub.
It is a question every college student in Southern California hears: “Oh my god, are you going to Coachella this year? The lineup’s, like, super sick!”
Unfortunately, no matter how “sick” the lineup is, those who want to make the hipster pilgrimage down to Indio, Calif., are often stopped in their tracks by the staggering cost of attendance.
Standard passes for Coachella cost $375 at face value. Prices increase sharply for extra bells and whistles, such as VIP passes, hotel rooms, shuttle tickets or even camping spaces at the festival grounds. Factor in three days of overpriced food and beverages, and suddenly the Coachella price tag becomes comparable to that of a new laptop computer.
Most college students simply do not have the room in their budgets to justify such a large purchase. Fortunately, there are many new ways for students to enjoy all the features of a music festival without destroying their bank accounts. These alternative events take place much closer to Los Angeles, allowing attendees to sleep in their own beds, shower in the privacy of their homes and still post photos on Instagram to their heart’s content.
For example, Goldenvoice, the organizers behind Coachella, have taken note of the festival’s high price and responded with a series of concerts called “Localchella.” These shows happen throughout the month of April and feature nearly 40 bands from the Coachella lineup, performing headlining sets at local venues in L.A., Pomona and Santa Ana. The shows include up-and-coming acts like The 1975 and Haim, as well as more established bands like Foster the People and MGMT. It also allows fans the opportunity to see the one band they really care about on the lineup for about one-tenth of the festival cost. Additionally, since the various bands headline each show, their set lists tend to be longer and more varied than what they would play at a festival like Coachella.
There are also a growing number of independently-organized music events happening on Coachella weekend. For the 21-and-over crowd, “Brokechella” offers four stages of live music and interactive art exhibitions for the incredibly reasonable price of $10, which took place in downtown L.A. on the second Saturday of Coachella. Record Store Day happens the same day and sponsors live shows, merchandise giveaways and more at music stores all across L.A.
If these events fail to completely satisfy that Coachella itch, the Internet can help satiate music fans no matter where they are. Live streams for both weekends can be found online, allowing everyone at home to experience the music of Coachella while saving them from the dehydrating 100 degree heat. And if they cannot watch the bands perform live, they can find bootleg videos from every set uploaded to YouTube by the end of the weekend.
So next year, before torching anentire paycheck for a Coachella wristband, consider seeking out these alternative opportunities. Not only will they serve as a prime chance to wear that homemade flower crown — they will save hundreds of dollars in the process.
Jeremy Childs is a junior English and Comparative Literary Studies major. He can be reached at jchilds@oxy.edu or on Twitter at @WeeklyJeremy.
As the semester comes to a close, students are given the opportunity to evaluate their professors and their experiences in class via Occidental’s course evaluation process.
Effective feedback allows professors to redesign their courses to better meet students’ needs and achieve students’ goals. Because professors rarely teach the same class back to back — most classes are only offered once a year — professors have time to adjust syllabi. Students have the potential to improve the courses they have taken, so that future students can have a better experience. Course evaluations also play a large role in faculty decisions regarding the rehiring of non-tenure professors.
Given the considerable influence of these evaluations, we believe that the current system should be revised to make the process more efficient and more representative of student experiences.
Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs Hanna Spinosa has worked to pilot an online course evaluation process as a potential solution. According to Spinosa, the majority of the 380 students who participated in the fall pilot (60 percent) preferred an online evaluation to a paper form. Spinosa hopes that the program, which received 90 percent participation from students in the politics, Cultural Studies Program (CSP), biology, geology, philosophy, kinesiology, Art History and Visual Arts (AHVA), economics and religious studies departments in fall 2013 and spring 2014, will be completely implemented by fall 2014.
It is our hope that the administration, seeing the success of this project, will adopt an online evaluation system that allows students to spend more time on their course evaluations. In the meantime, we remind students to take advantage of the important impact that their responses can have on professor and peer experiences at Occidental.
This editorial represents the collective opinion of The Occidental Weekly Editorial Board. Each week, the editorial board will publish its viewpoint on a matter relevant to the Occidental community.
On Sunday evening there was a candlelight vigil for survivors of sexual assault on campus outside of the board of trustees dinner. I was one of the students in attendance: standing in solidarity with survivors, as well as seeking change.
We were, and remained, a peaceful group — standing holding our posters and candles at the exit of Booth. We engaged with many of the trustees and other guests who exited the event, thanking them for taking our literature and wishing them a “good evening.” We had many friendly conversations with the trustees and others when they came and engaged us — that was until a peer of mine was verbally accosted by a member of the board of trustees.
Once one trustee found out that we were standing in solidarity with survivors his tone became fierce, and he began to act and speak toward my peer that in a manner that only can be described as bullying. My peer was left shaking as fellow students and professors came to her flank to support her, but even with reinforcements arriving the bullying did not end.
The trustee continued to berate my peer, myself and an Occidental professor; not allowing for us to finish our sentences and yelling over us. Completely dismissing the fact that 65 percent of sexual assaulters are not expelled by asking for us to present him with specific names, which would have not only been unethical, but also illegal. He referred to my peer as a “child” and to a Ph.D’ed professor as a “young lady,” at one point even directing her to go seek professional mental health services because of her support for survivors. The interaction became more tense when the two of the Trustees, rolled their eyes when the professor stated, “these are people’s stories, people’s lives.”
All this is only representative of the attitude that the board of trustees and the administration of our college have toward survivors of sexual assault — and all who stand in solidarity with them. They dismiss the stories and facts we present toward them, citing faux administrative change and hollow new positions.
The attitude of those in power at this school is toxic, dismissive and disgusting. Students, professors and members of the Oxy community should never be bullied or vilified for their personal experiences, or where and who they stand with on campus. Sunday night not only proved to me that the powers that be need to change, but also that the Occidental community supports one another — and we can and will become stronger and better, only if change occurs from the top down.
Andrew Eichar
(Sophomore, sociology and politics)
*******************
Dear Editor,
In the April 9 Oxy Weekly, Board of Trustees President Chris Calkins suggested that Oxy’s sexual assault issues have been effectively fixed, and pledged support for President Veitch’s leadership. This is an effective denial of the experiences of 52 students, faculty, administrators, and staff who report that the college has seriously mishandled sexual assault/rape cases.
The problems have not been fixed. The changes enacted in the past year have been cosmetic, we address each change individually:
“Completely revised policies and procedures.”We moved from a short, watered down policy to a 61-page watered down policy that includes a fuzzy definition of physical “consent,” fails to lay out sanctions for each violation, and does not include an expulsion policy for students found responsible for rape. From 2009 to 2013, only 35% of students found responsible for sexual assault/rape at Oxy were expelled.
“Hired a full-time survivor advocate and a full-time Title IX coordinator.” But the adjudication process is still not in compliance with federal Title IX law (adjudication going well beyond the 60 day recommendation from the DOE, failure to report the rape of a minor to law enforcement, survivors not being told of their right to go to local law enforcement).
“Established a 24/7 hotline.” After hours, the new hotline rings through to a national hotline, not an Oxy staffer trained to accommodate the needs of survivor; 24-hours in name only.
“Significantly increased mandatory preventive education programs for all students.” Mandatory orientation is not an effective deterrent to sexual assault/rape because Oxy’s definition of consent is fuzzy and sanctions are not clear or universal.
“Brought in two of the country’s top experts to help evaluate our progress.”Gina Smith and Leslie Gomez are known for managing crises and minimizing liability, not minimizing sexual assault/rape. They avoided speaking with survivors and federal complainants during their many visits to campus, and, like the Board, they cannot possibly deny the experiences of 52 complainants without even speaking to them.
The Board of Trustees should follow in the footsteps of the Dartmouth trustees who just unanimously passed a stricter sexual assault policy. President Veitch has not offered to move forward on this issue in good faith. Will you?
For the school to move we advise that the Board of Trustees and administration:
Revise the 61-page policy to be more accessible to students;
Reinstate verbal consent as the standard;
Reinstate an expulsion policy for all students found responsible for sexual assault/rape;
Establish an orientation that emphasizes the verbal consent and expulsion policies;
Establish a trained, independent office to adjudicate sexual assault proceedings;
Keep all adjudications within the 60 days recommended by the Department of Education; and
Publish an annual report with information about the disposition of sexual assault cases.
Sincerely,
Andrew Eichar
(Sophomore, sociology and politics) Point of Contact
On behalf of Concerned Members of the Oxy Community
As graduation looms nearer, seniors begin to worry about finding a job for the upcoming year. They send out resumes, have their friends edit and re-edit their cover letters and check their emails incessantly for job request replies. Suddenly they realize they have no way to pay rent, no way to buy groceries, no way to pay the doctor’s bills unless they find employment soon. This process is nerve-wracking enough to go through during senior year. Imagine going through it every year for the rest of your life.
Such is the lifestyle of most non-tenure track professors, or “adjuncts,” as they are colloquially known. Non-tenure track (NTT) professors are faculty members who sign contracts to teach at an institution for a semester — or a year, if they’re lucky — while tenured professors are guaranteed employment until they choose to retire.
Tenured and tenure-track (T3) professors also enjoy a sizable pay raise over their NTT peers. According to a survey by the American Association of University Professors, the lowest-paid T3 professor at Occidental makes $65,600 per year, plus health care and other benefits. Part-time NTT professors, in comparison, are paid $6,000 per class. If a NTT professor taught five classes in an academic year, equal to the normal course load of a T3 professor, they would still make over $35,000 less per year than their tenure-track peers. NTT professors who are hired full time, meaning they teach six classes per year, are offered $10,000 per class, plus benefits. Full-time status must be offered by the school, however, and only 37 of the 137 NTT professors at Occidental are full-time employees.
According to former psychology department chair Anne Schell, NTT professors are sometimes taken on to replace T3 professors who are out on sabbatical or on emergency leave. Other times, NTT professors are brought on to serve as resident experts in their field or to teach a niche subject. Schell used the example of professor of psychology Heather Banis, who runs a clinical psychology practice part-time and also teaches classes on clinical psychology at Occidental in a NTT position.
“That’s a good reason for having [NTT professors], where you want someone who really is experienced in the practice of doing it,” Shell said. “You don’t want someone teaching clinical psychology who isn’t an active clinician.”
Unless they are full-time, NTT professors are not contractually obligated to teach a certain number of courses every year. They are also not required to serve as student advisers or carry out formal research. This flexibility is a benefit for NTT professors such as Banis, who have other sources of financial support. NTT Spanish professor Gloria Orozco is another such case.
“I love teaching very much and being an adjunct lets you concentrate more on teaching,” Orozco said in an email to The Weekly. “This works great for someone like me — free spirited and unconventional — but I am lucky and privileged that my family was not dependent exclusively on my income and that I am covered by my husband’s health insurance. That is not the case for most adjuncts.”
As Orozco points out, the lack of job security poses a problem for those attempting to make their living solely by teaching as NTT professors. The lower salary and lack of benefits for a part-time NTT professor saves money for the school, but many believe it is unsustainable for the professors themselves.
“That’s the reason why Oxy has so many non-tenure-track, adjunct faculty,” Schell said. “Because they are paid, per course, much less than a tenure track faculty member; so little that in some ways it’s almost exploitive, for people who are teaching only one or two courses.”
This balance between flexibility and security — between the desire to teach and the need to earn a livable income — defines the careers of NTT professors at Occidental and across the country.
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Occidental College is one of many institutions across the country where NTT professors make up nearly half of the faculty — 46.2 percent, according to Human Resources. According to a January Congressional report, NTT faculty make up over 75.5 percent of the national workforce. Over the past 5 years, the number of full-time NTT professors at Occidental has jumped from 11.5 percent in 2009 to 17.8 percent in 2013, while the number of part-time NTT faculty has fallen from 35 percent to 28.5 percent in that same period.
According to President of Faculty Council and professor of mathematics Nalsey Tinberg and Chair of the Subcommittee on Finance (SCOF) and professor of chemistry Michael Hill, both faculty and the administration are strongly concerned with Occidental’s high ratio of T3 faculty-to-student body size. A low T3 faculty-to-student body size is desirable because T3 faculty provide students resources that NTT faculty are not equipped to provide. Occidental’s ratio of T3 faculty-to-student body size rests at 14.4:1, which lags behind many peer institutions, or “comparison schools.”
Source: Dean’s office
“We will never look like our peers in regard to the tenure-track-to-non-tenure track ratio,” Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs Hannah Spinosa said.
However, the Deans’ office says they are committed to improving this ratio.
“Colleges like Occidental are traditionally staffed by tenured faculty, and we need to continue that. We strongly believe that tenured faculty should be at the heart of the college,” Dean for Academic Affairs Jorge Gonzalez said.
Although NTT faculty are qualified professionals with appropriate degrees and specialties — 89.9 percent of all faculty hold Ph.Ds — T3 faculty have the job security that allow students to approach them for recommendations, work in research labs and develop lasting connections both at Occidental and after graduation. T3 faculty do not have to worry about next year’s contract, whether they can keep their advisees, their chance to commit time to students or their capacity to forge working relationships with the college and its constituents.
“It’s very important to have continuity,” Hill said. “For long-term advising, for stability, you want to have tenure-track people. I think everybody feels that we aren’t at that balance here.”
But when there are not enough T3 faculty to support the number of students at the college, departments may be forced to use adjuncts in ways that are, in the long-run, inconvenient or inefficient for the department. Adjuncts are sometimes forced to fill a hole left by a retiring professor or teach entry-level courses rather than instruct in their particular area of expertise.
“Every year we’ll have two or three courses, at least, that need to be taught by adjuncts because we just don’t have enough tenure-track faculty to staff them,” Schell said.
Professor of politics Larry Caldwell, who has observed Occidental’s increasing use of adjuncts over the past 20 years, contends that there is a strong consensus among the faculty that there are too many NTT professors at the college for the type of education that Occidental seeks to provide. Adjuncts, according to Caldwell, must be used prudently, as experts in their field with a clear understanding of their position at the college.
“The question is whether you want to enrich the curriculum by adding courses, or whether you’re principally interested in the kinds of minds in a classroom,” Caldwell said. “I’m on the second half of that spectrum.”
Caldwell understands that NTT professors sometimes have the ability to work closely with students and make the effort to connect with them.
”We’ve had adjuncts who have spent more hours meeting, talking and working with students outside of the classroom than any of our tenure-track professors,” Caldwell said.
Diplomacy and World Affairs (DWA) major Elliott Reed (senior) has taken nine courses in the DWA department, out of which all seven have been taught by adjunct faculty. While studying abroad in Serbia during his junior year, the DWA department informed Reed that he would no longer be an advisee to his current adviser — a NTT faculty member — with whom he had developed a close connection.
“It’s hard, halfway through my academic career, to switch advisers from someone I know really well to someone I don’t,” Reed said.
Aside from this close connection with his former adviser, Reed has felt removed from his own department.
“I’m graduating as a DWA major, and I feel like I have absolutely no connection to the department as a whole,” Reed said. “I have had to engage with the DWA department, and it hasn’t engaged with me. I don’t feel like I can go to any DWA professor and ask for a recommendation.”
Art History and Visual Arts (AHVA) and Group Language double major Samuel Wylie (junior) also believes his experience as an undergraduate could have been enhanced by the presence of more T3 faculty members.
“As an underclassman, it seemed impossible to develop a relationship strong enough to get a letter of recommendation when tenured faculty rarely taught my classes,” Wylie said. “Even now, it is tremendously frustrating to reintroduce myself each year to new professors and know our relationship will begin and end with a single class.”
Biology major Tina Tran (senior), who is beginning a Ph.D program at Cornell University in the fall, expressed similar concerns regarding recommendations, as well as anxiety for her department as a whole.
“In the last couple years at Oxy, I haven’t seen any more open positions in the biology department for Occidental professors,” Tran said. “I think it’s really sad because going into academia, you don’t make much money and you don’t get many benefits without having a tenured position.”
When professors in lab sciences acquire tenure, they also gain access to their own lab, thus providing a better space for research and interaction with students and a space from which to gain credibility in the field of academia. According to Tran, Cornell and other Ph.D programs would not accept letters of recommendation from NTT faculty.
Stories from students like Reed, Wylie and Tran are not uncommon at Occidental, where almost 30 percent of all faculty members are part-time NTT faculty.
“When I have talked to trustees and alumni, I always hear arguments about the wonderful resource of being in Los Angeles,” Caldwell said. “I’ve heard almost no understanding for our issues we’re talking about. Since the trustees are often speaking from the business perspective, I say, ‘Do you really think your colleagues are going to pay the Occidental tuition for your kid to go to Occidental and not have regular full-time faculty?’”
Caldwell described an event in which the impact of increased NTT hirings was impressed upon him. In the time that he sat on SCOF, the committee discussed the use of adjuncts at one of its meetings. A student representative — a senior who had been nominated for a Rhodes Scholarship — stood up in front of the committee and confessed that she had nobody to write her first-year letter of recommendation. All of her first-year professors had left the college.
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While students may feel the impact of the NTT position on the quality of their education, most are unaware of the effect that it has on the lives of their professors. For those professors who aspired to be tenured professors all throughout graduate school, the reality of working multiple NTT jobs can be disheartening.
“When you go to a university and go to grad school and get your Ph.D, there’s a hope that you’re going to land a tenure-track position because that’s what your advisers are preparing you for,” one Occidental NTT professor said, who chose to remain anonymous to protect her employment. “It’s disappointing to not get tenure-track position and not be able to devote all your time and energy to your students.”
But obtaining a T3 job is no easy task. In an attempt to recover from the economic downturn, colleges have been taking on less tenure track faculty in recent years. In order to continue their academic careers, recent graduates looking for T3 jobs may turn to adjunct teaching in order to pay the bills. Unfortunately, if a T3 job takes too long to come along, it may never turn up at all.
“If you don’t land a solid tenure-track position within the first two, maybe three years after getting your Ph.D you are no longer viable and you will probably never land a good tenure-track position, period,” another anonymous NTT professor said. “The way academia works, it’s like you’re stale goods if you’re not taken off the shelf within the first two years.”
This is how so many Ph.D graduates end up working multiple jobs on different campuses, while making half of what their tenured counterparts make.
“Oftentimes, adjuncts have to take several courses, not all on the same campus,” one Occidental NTT professor said. “It’s not a matter of you choosing — it’s a matter of you taking what you can get.”
Even when employing the “take what you get” strategy, there is no guarantee that NTT professors will get as many teaching opportunities as they want or need. While full-time NTT positions are available at Occidental, only 17.8 percent of NTT professors actually work full-time. Although there is no formal rule that restricts the number of classes they can teach, several Occidental NTT professors expressed that there seemed to be informal caps keeping them from working more than three or four classes. One NTT professor told of being offered almost a full course load by her department, only to have the offer rescinded at a later date. Orozco also said that she was not allowed to teach more than four courses at Occidental this year, indicating that this was a change from past policies. Schell explained that one of the reasons the school might be reluctant to hire NTT professors for more than a few classes is because they do not want these professors to depend on their NTT position at Occidental as their only source of income.
“We can’t really offer adjuncts enough money to make it a very rewarding job for someone who’s teaching five courses,” Schell said. “You’re not making as much as someone teaching public school would be — someone teaching sixth grade somewhere. And for someone with a Ph.D, that’s demeaning.”
Spinosa confirmed that the Dean’s office generally dissuades departments from taking on NTT professors to teach more than four classes in a year because they consider the pay offered to be too low for that amount of work.
“It’s not fair; it’s not equitable,” Spinosa said. “At that point we should be paying you full-time.”
But more problematic to many NTT professors than the comparatively low pay is the lack of job security. Contracts for NTT position are between one and two semesters long, and sometimes do not come earlier than one month before the start of the semester, according to many of the faculty interviewed. Although the Dean’s office explained that they like to have contracts for the fall semester in the hands of NTT professors by early May, several professors said they had not been notified of their hiring until weeks, even days, before their first course. Even then, if the course fails to reach a minimum enrollment of students, the Dean can choose to cancel it entirely.
“You don’t know what classes you will teach and you need to accept what classes they will give you,” an Occidental NTT professor said. “The security is not there. It’s always uncertain what will happen next semester and you have to think to yourself, ‘Can I survive without this job? Can I make it where I need to without this job?’”
Another Occidental professor put it even more succinctly:
“I haven’t been able to plan my life […] I haven’t been able to make a plan for the future because I don’t know. That’s what being an adjunct means.”
Many NTT professors also expressed the loneliness and feelings of isolation that come from being a part-time instructor on a residential campus. Because they frequently have to jump from job to job or campus to campus, it can be hard to feel a part of the campus community.
“A couple employees were very welcoming, but the rest — you feel like nobody knows you,” one part-time NTT professor said. “You don’t attend the staff meetings, and you don’t feel like part of the faculty.”
Others said they felt like “second class citizens,” or like they were looked down upon within their departments. Several tenured faculty members, however, went to great lengths to emphasize how much they appreciated the NTT faculty. Caldwell said he considered the politics department lucky for having been able to employ a number of high-quality NTT faculty.
“There are really dedicated, excellent teachers,” Caldwell said. “There are people who should have tenure track positions and who, because of larger market in higher education, haven’t gotten tenure track positions. Of course we’re lucky.”
Over and over, NTT professors expressed how they wished they could give even more time to their students. Some expressed a desire to have more office hours, some wanted to take on student advisees and some simply wanted to be included on the faculty listserv so they could stay up-to-date with the rest of the faculty. But despite their wishes, the reality of their position kept many of these professors from being able to truly invest in the Occidental experience.
“I’m not here — I can’t be here, because I’m other places,” one NTT professor said. “And my students have no idea.”
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During President Veitch’s administration, efforts have been made to improve the working conditions of adjunct faculty and create more tenure-track positions at the college.
The Dean of the College approved a proposal last October that included a three-year review process for both part-time and full-time NTT faculty, the opportunity for upward mobility for NTT faculty and benefits for full-time NTT faculty. With some components put into effect this spring and others implemented in the fall, the policy also more concretely defines the role of adjunct faculty and clarifies standards for appointment.
“The college seeks to create a culture that recognizes and rewards the work of NTT faculty who teach, provide service and enhance the academic experience of our students,” the new NTT faculty policy states.
The Faculty Council has also created a standing committee composed of two full-time and two part-time NTT faculty, as well as one T3 faculty member. The group meets regularly to discuss issues related to NTT faculty.
“NTT are a critical component for what this college is about,” Gonzalez said.
Clarifying the role of adjunct faculty, particularly NTT faculty, has the potential to give both department chairs and full-time faculty greater security. Acknowledging that part-time faculty are often unable to be on campus every day for their students, an increase in the number of full-time faculty — be it NTT or T3 faculty — appears to be a priority for both faculty and the administration.
Source: Human Resources Office
“The full-time professors are more of a presence,” department chair and professor of Spanish and French Studies Robert Ellis said. “It’s not just a question of tenure line versus non-tenure — it’s beneficial to everyone if professors can be full-time.”
Adjunct assistant professor of German, Russian and Classical Studies Walt Richmond agrees that this policy will be a step forward in addressing concerns from NTT faculty regarding benefits and upward mobility.
“In comparison to other colleges, it’s an excellent first step,” Richmond said. “Both from the point-of-view from what it actually accomplishes, and from the point-of-view from the administration. It shows that the administration wants to solve the issue and whatever problems are involved.”
But Occidental’s move to improve working conditions and standardize NTT review processes does not fully encapsulate the dilemma of NTT employment. The college’s history of opening tenure-track positions has varied widely depending on economic expediency and resources, as well as cyclical hiring and retirement trends among faculty.
Richmond, an NTT faculty member at Occidental for 19 years, recalled his efforts to seek tenure in the early 2000s. Originally hired to teach second-year Russian, Richmond found himself teaching courses in three separate departments — Cultural Studies Program (CSP), Languages and Literatures and English Writing — by 1996. In 1999, Richmond was called upon by the dean to “save” the Russian program in his department over a two to three year period, after which the administration would seek out a tenure-track hire. However, during that time period, President John Sloughter was replaced by President Ted Mitchell.
“There was no communication between the two about reopening the tenure-track line,” Richmond said.
By the end of Mitchell’s administration in 2005, there had been no effort made to reopen the tenure-track line, leaving Richmond without a tenure-track opportunity. “When the tenure-track position searches finally opened up [under Mitchell],there was an overwhelming demand, and I think voices of my department got drowned out by the others,” Richmond said.
Richmond’s situation illustrates the difficulty with promising tenure-track hires to departments when so many are constantly in need of new T3 faculty. According to Caldwell, the college went through nearly a decade and a half, from the late ‘90s through today, of not hiring many tenure-track faculty members. From 2009 to 2011, there was an increase from 134 to 141 T3 staff members, but that number has stagnated over the past three years.
According to Hill, the college must either scale back the number of students or increase the number of T3 positions in order to decrease the T3-student ratio.
To move closer to the target of an 11:1 ratio — a target for SCOF and the Dean’s office — the college must decide how to efficiently open tenure-track positions, fill spots that have been vacated by retiring faculty and reduce the student body size.
“It’s a balancing act, because what you always want to do is you want to provide both the best possible experience for the students that are here and make sure that the educational experience is sustainable,” Hill said.
But according to both Tinberg and Hill, T3 faculty can only be hired so quickly. Considering the extent of the search, review and hiring processes, only between eight and 10 faculty hires can be conducted at one time.
And that’s not to mention the economic burden that a hiring binge would have on the college.
According to data drawn from the Dean’s office and compiled by SCOF, two scenarios would decrease the student-to-T3-faculty ratio to 11:1: a decrease in the number of enrolled students by 1,000 or an increase in the number of T3 faculty by 41. Since the cost of both options alone would be sizable over a short period of time, a quick solution requires finding a middle-ground. Even so, such a process would take between six and 10 years.
“We didn’t get into it in a small length of time, and we won’t get out of it for a small length of time,” Tinberg said.
While a plan must still be set in terms of decreasing the T3 faculty-to-student body size ratio, the Dean hopes the recent change in the NTT policy will provide better working conditions for faculty that are seeking tenure-track spots at the college.
The other challenge faced by the college, however, is figuring out which departments should be awarded new tenure-track lines.
According to Gonzalez, all department chairs are invited to apply for new T3 positions to be created for their respective departments. After submitting a detailed application to the Academic Planning Committee, the committee returns applications to the proper department with a list of questions and concerns. Each department is then evaluated more by the committee and the committee makes recommendations to the Dean as to which departments are in most need of tenured positions.
But because of the nature of the position, NTT faculty members are still working contract-to-contract, craving a more secure position and an opportunity to advance either within the college or at other institutions. While the new NTT policy aims to clarify the role of adjuncts at the college as a whole, each department has its own way of approaching specialists, guest lecturers and other NTT faculty. The use of NTT faculty will largely rest on a department’s needs or requirements.
“[The number of NTT positions in each department] depends on department, depends on time and depends on circumstance,” Gonzalez said.
Faculty and administration agree, however, that NTT professors must be hired and utilized wisely.
“The goal is to find people who are right for those kinds of positions and give them the right kind of treatment for that position, rather than take someone who needs a full-time job with no chance of advancement,” Richmond said.
One anonymous NTT professor shared a similar view for the role of NTT faculty at Occidental.
“In general, hires have been to fill in spots that have been vacated,” the professor said. “One thing to look for is how often adjuncts seem to be substituting for a specific professor or for a certain professorial role, or how often someone is brought in to teach a vibrant course of their own design.”
The way departments use NTT faculty is contingent on a number of faculty members. After considering the cost of salary and benefits associated with converting NTT positions into T3 positions and the loss in revenue caused by a from a decrease in the student body size, the administration and faculty will continue negotiating for an economical solution to Occidental’s robust NTT population.
“The faculty keeps pushing the administration to [open T3 positions] faster,” Schell said. “The administration doesn’t always — there’s a pot of money, and sometimes they decide what they really need is another administrator, who will make a lot more than another faculty member, or there’s an administrator who needs a big raise. Sometimes the faculty are not at all happy about that. So there is tension between the administration and the faculty with respect to the piece of the total pie that’s being devoted to converting adjunct positions to full-time faculty positions, as opposed to being soaked up somewhere inside of Coons.”
