Occidental and Pasadena City College (PCC) signed the first transfer agreement between the colleges, which is in effect as of Fall 2026. The agreement is the first of its kind between Occidental and a local community college focused on clarifying a pathway for both students and advisors to support those considering enrollment at Occidental. The agreement lists general transfer information and guidance pertaining to the transfer experience, then provides a list of courses at PCC which can be applied to core requirements at Occidental.
Occidental Chief of Staff Lindsay Nyquist said President Tom Stritikus met with the President of PCC, José A. Gómez, PhD, in October 2025. Nyquist said the colleges agreed to enter a partnership, and talks began in November 2025.
“It started with a really big picture idea of [servicing] all the different students in our region, and then [identifying] what steps we need to take internally and externally to make that as smooth of a process as possible for our transfer students,” Nyquist said.
According to Nyquist, the transfer agreement consisted of two parts: the Memorandum of Understanding, which expresses the shared goals and relationship between the colleges, and the articulation agreement, a technical document that helps PCC students figure out what courses transfer to Occidental.
“We’ll have events on PCC’s campus,” Nyquist said. “We’ll invite PCC students to transfer events on our campus, like our Transfer Open House that we hold every January.”
Nyquist said she is the convener of the Transfer Council, a committee formed fall 2025 focused on improving the transfer student experience at Occidental. According to Nyquist, the Transfer Council consists of representatives for faculty, admissions, academic affairs and student affairs.
“A lot of different parts of campus are interacting with transfer students,” Nyquist said. “We get together about every two to three weeks, and work on a bunch of different issues that support transfer students.”
Nyquist said Occidental is seeking out similar partnerships with other colleges in the area.
“We’re currently in conversations with LA City College and Glendale Community College,” Nyquist said. “Dean Angie Bos and I are going to go meet with Compton College.”
According to Dean of Admissions Robin Hamilton Meryl, the process of creating the agreement was smooth due to prior interest in a transfer pathway from both colleges.
“There has always been interest in Oxy from PCC students, and we have consistently enrolled wonderful PCC students over the years,” Meryl said via email. “Establishing our first community college agreement made sense given PCC’s proximity and our long-standing relationship with the college. Our hope is that the PCC agreement is the first of more to come.”
According to Meryl, the expectations laid in this agreement will help PCC transfer counselors better support students interested in transferring to Occidental. Meryl said the agreement and potential future agreements will help remove barriers and present Occidental as an exciting option for community college students.
“While there are many similarities across the California community college system, each campus has its own policies, course offerings and approaches to articulation agreements, so we will likely work with each campus individually,” Meryl said via email.
According to Associate Dean of Curricular Affairs Brandon Lehr, the Core Steering Committee, Academic Planning Committee and department chairs worked together to develop the articulation agreement with PCC. Lehr said PCC students interested in transferring to Occidental will be able to identify key transfer resources and academic policies in the agreement.
“The Core Program reviews a course to ensure that it meets the relevant Core requirement designation criteria and student learning outcomes,” Lehr said via email.
Lehr said approval of a course transfer to Occidental may depend on many factors based on a review of the course’s syllabus and how the course is taught.
“Each course listed in the articulation agreement was reviewed by the corresponding Oxy department chair to confirm its transferability to Oxy for general elective credit and whether it must be taken in person,” Lehr said.
According to Associate Dean for Student Academic Affairs Carolyn Brighouse, meetings between PCC and Occidental representatives discussed PCC students’ needs for transferring to Occidental.
“My role was to share with PCC what some of our supports for transfer students are when they get here, like the transfer experience on the academic side,” Brighouse said. “I talked about the specialized transfer advisors and academic advisors in each department.”
Brighouse said conversations surrounding the agreement highlighted Occidental’s support for transfer students.
“We have a dedicated orientation just for transfer students, and we also do community building to set the year off for transfer students,” Brighouse said. “[We] let PCC know all of those things so that they could understand what their transfer students would be facing when they enter Oxy.”
According to Brighouse, academic and social integration efforts are important for transfer students to maximize their time at Occidental. Brighouse said she serves as the advisor for the Transfer Student Union and hosts biweekly “Transfer Tea” community-building events as a relaxed get-together for all transfer students.
“We have been working over the last five years to really try and figure out what barriers there are to provide support for transfer students to get here and be able to start with good classes,” Brighouse said. “We really want to be able to incorporate [transfer students] into as many of the opportunities that other Oxy students have [in] their time here.”
Contact Vivian Pei at vpei@oxy.edu
