Author: Ben Dalgetty
Approaching the end of my four years at Occidental, I found myself with little conception of the liberal arts beyond the oft-chanted mantras of critical thinking and writing. I’ve always known that the $200,000 plus sticker price of my education made it distinct from other schools, but is this difference really that important? Spurred by curiosity – a pillar of our brand of education – I set out to research and conduct interviews until I found out how Occidental interprets and implements its liberal arts mission.
Institutions like ours are constantly adapting and experimenting, lest we peril, but they are also grounded in ideas ancient and immovable. With President Jonathan Veitch now in office and incoming Dean of the College Jorge Gonzalez soon to follow, a strategic re-envisioning of an Occidental education is soon to follow. What exactly these changes will be is still to be decided, but they are likely to resonate for years to come.
THE PAST
The liberal arts are grounded in ancient Greek and Roman educational traditions. Classical thinkers like Plato, Aristotle and Cicero strove to develop leaders for the state and equip students with the skills to think independently by focusing on broadly understanding the world instead of emphasizing technical and professional skills.
This education was codified in the fifth century by Martianus Capella as the “seven liberal arts.” The trivium: grammar, dialectic (logic), rhetoric; and the quadrivium: geometry, arithmetic, music, astronomy.
The liberal arts languished in Europe through the dark ages, enjoyed a resurgence during the Renaissance, but were, for the most part, marginalized as preparation for theology, law, and medicine, according to a 2005 article by Christina Sorum, former dean of faculty and classics professor at Union College, “Liberal Arts Colleges in American Higher Education.”
The debate between professional and liberal curricula in American higher education reached a critical juncture in the early 1800s with two notable events. The first – which was referenced by Dean of the College Eric Frank in our discussion of the liberal arts – was the founding of the University of Virginia by President Thomas Jefferson in 1819. The school was important because it was the first American public multidisciplinary university. Describing the school, Jefferson wrote in a letter that “this institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind.”
The second event was the 1828 release of the “Yale Report” by University President Jeremiah Day and Professor James L. Tingly. Day and Tingly wrote, “The two great points to be gained in intellectual culture are the discipline and the furniture of the mind: expanding its powers, and storing it with knowledge.”
Written in response to Union College’s addition of an engineering program, the report became the foundation of the modern argument for a classical liberal arts education. Onto this stage, in 1887, a group of Presbyterian ministers founded Occidental as one of the first small liberal arts colleges on the west coast.
Broadly speaking, today’s liberal arts institutions aim to teach students how to think and how to learn. Students have far-reaching general education requirements, such as Oxy’s Core curricula, which forces them to think critically on a variety of subjects beyond their major.
Coupled with the requirement that students develop their ability to write on an array of topics, students are able to become independent thinkers, according to Director of Core Programming and Sociology Professor Dolores Trevizo ’88. “We don’t provide all the answers, we teach students how to pose critical questions,” she said.
The Association of American Colleges and Universities Web site says this liberal arts education translates into “a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings.” When asked what drew him to the liberal arts, Veitch said simply, “It’s like breathing for me, I can’t imagine [being without it].” Small liberal arts colleges like Oxy take these goals, mix in small class sizes and dedicated professors and preserve the best of these traditions.
There is no universally agreed-upon definition of what classifies that peculiar institution known as a small liberal arts college. However, as Gonzalez said in a phone interview, “the atmosphere of the college is completely different” than that of the university. The vast majority of liberal arts institutions are private, but a few institutions are public. Most are residential, owing in part to the fact that next to none of them are in big cities. Their primary focus is on undergraduate education but many of the schools have small graduate programs.
Because of their size – generally the cap is around 3,000 – small liberal arts colleges are also known for intimate student-faculty and faculty-faculty relationships. Michele Myers, former president of Sarah Lawrence and Denison University, wrote in the 2005 piece “The Future Ain’t What it Used to Be” that small liberal arts colleges are in an increasingly unique position to provide this type of education. “Liberal arts colleges go increasingly against the cultural grain. In a culture that values growth and bigness, they are small, individually and collectively. Embedded in a mass culture, they deliberately focus on individuals,” Myers stated.
This emphasis on individuals has proven very successful. Because students are the focus of the institution, small liberal arts colleges are able to encourage them to grow to their full potential regardless of circumstance. President of the Council of Independent Colleges Richard Ekman wrote in his 2005 essay “Selective and Non-Selective Alike: An Argument for the Superior Educational Effectiveness of Smaller Liberal Arts Colleges” that students from ethnic minorities and lower income backgrounds enrolled at small private institutions have a much greater chance of completing a degree successfully than students at a public school.
In addition, former history professor and president of Williams College Francis Oakley wrote, “Liberal arts college graduates not only go on to obtain PhDs, but also go on to excel in their fields of research at a rate at least two times greater than bachelor’s degree recipients in general.”
THE PRESENT
What distinguishes Oxy from these other small liberal arts college is a question with a million answers. According to Occidental’s Web site, the four pillars that make Oxy stand out from similar schools are: academics, diversity, location and size. Veitch added that Oxy’s political and social activism, as well as its friendly campus, make it unique. Trevizo said that Occidental offers a “liberal arts mission with a moral tint.”
Frank – who has taught here for 23 years – shared one embellished but illuminating story about a young man from Wichita, Kansas who took advantage of an Occidental education. The student came to Oxy without much of an idea of what he wanted to study, but had taken one semester of Chinese in high school. He took a few classes, developed relationships with a professor and, under the professor’s recommendation, traveled to Beijing for a semester abroad.
The student took an archeology class while in China, developed an interest and then, under the advisement of an art history professor, got an internship back at Oxy. The internship with the L.A. County Museum turned into a summer job. On another professor’s recommendation, the student then spent time at a German museum specializing in Chinese artifacts on a Richter scholarship and finally went to Oxford for a PhD in Chinese archeology.
This story perfectly showcases what Oxy strives for: international study, close relationships with professors and fieldwork leading to a career. Frank also shared stories about a small town gir
l who came to play basketball and became a successful clinical psychologist, as well as a city boy from a New York prep school whose conservative views were challenged and transformed because of Oxy’s liberal leanings.
Core
“The mission [of the CSPs] is to help students develop as writers and as critical thinkers,” Trevizo said. This is important, she continued, because while most first-years know how to write, they focus on reporting evidence rather than using it to make an argument. Long-time political philosophy Professor Roger Boesche, Trevizo, Frank, Gonzelez and Veitch all said the goal of Oxy’s core program is to teach students to make an argument and support it with a diverse array of evidence.
The question of whether instilling character or democratic values has a place in the curriculum engendered less agreement, however. Michelle Myers wrote in 2005 that one of the goals of a small liberal arts college should be “to teach democratic arts.” When asked whether he thought character development has a place in an Oxy education, Gonzalez issued a resolute “yes.” Frank referenced President Barack Obama ’83 as an example of the strong social justice values an Oxy education could instill, but also said the school should remain open to students who want to focus solely on their studies.
Similarly, Veitch said that he wants to maintain both scholarship and citizenship as options for students.
Community
Building an effective learning environment is essential to providing a high quality education. President Emeritus of Carleton College Stephen Lewis wrote, “If all we have is small class size we face real competition from larger universities . . . one of the factors that is, or should be, unique to what we do as institutions should be the ability create genuine and productive learning communities among students and faculty,” in his 2005 essay “The Importance of Institutional Culture.”
One of the most straightforward means of developing community is Occidental’s residential requirement, according to Veitch. Pointing to studies that show students living off campus become more disaffected, he said he was in favor of the three-year residency requirement.
“The hope [for first-year living and learning communities] is that there are more opportunities for students to have meaningful and intentional interactions with faculty staff and each other,” Assistant Dean of Students and Head of ResLife Tim Chang said in an e-mail interview, adding, “Living on campus gives students valuable experience in negotiating the intricacies of working in and with communities.”
One telling example of Oxy’s close-knit community came from Professor Trevizo herself. She taught my first semester CSP course, “Democratizing Mexico,” nearly four years ago. Yet, during this interview she was quick to recall unprompted the first paper I wrote at Oxy on democratic tendencies of the Aztec empire – despite my not having had a class with her since.
Location
Location, location, location. It is the word on the tip of everyone’s tongue when talking about Occidental. Veitch described the school as a “stunningly beautiful campus,” and Gonzalez said the Los Angeles location was one the school’s biggest draws for him.
For Vice President of Admissions and Financial Aid Vince Cuseo, one of the most unique facets of Oxy’s applicant pool is the mix of students the school gets. “We compete with a pretty broad set of colleges,” he said, pointing to schools like the University of Southern California and New York University as well as other liberal arts colleges.
Veitch, ever the Angelino, said the proximity to Los Angeles is a distinct advantage for the school. “It is such an amazing city,” he said. “It exerts a kind of centrifugal force on the campus where people are constantly going out . . . I kind of like it better that people are going away and coming back.”
Diversity
The legacy that has long defined Oxy – diversity – has also consistently been the most controversial. Cuseo said that on the biggest indicators of diversity (ethnic and socio-economic background), Oxy is doing quite well. Next year’s incoming admitted class consists of 42 percent students of color, and 20 percent of the students are on Pell grants, a federal grant for needy students. Oxy’s Pell grant rate is higher than any comparable institution aside from Sarah Lawrence, Cuseo said.
Diversity in both the student body and faculty is essential not just as a demographic indicator, but for the kind of multi-perspective education Oxy strives for.
“In a liberal arts institution, you want to have as many perspectives as possible,” Gonzales said. The school has, however, struggled to attract conservative students, and some alumni have refused to donate until the school becomes less “liberal,” said Nick Lee (senior), a Telefund manager.
When asked about this issue, Veitch agreed that there should be more diverse political discourse on campus, saying, “There could be campus anarchists, greens, conservatives . . . I’d like to see a richer political culture on campus.”
He added that, in addition to bringing David Brooks to campus as this year’s commencement speaker, the school is in discussions with the family of the late Jack Kemp ’57 to celebrate the contributions of Oxy’s most notable conservative alum.
THE FUTURE
President Veitch’s first year has been an exciting one. Lee said that this year, student callers at TeleFund have had more new things to talk about, from the opening of the Green Bean, to the renovation of Swan and the Alumni Gym, to Veitch’s inauguration.
Boesche described Veitch as someone that “moves at warp speed,” and Frank said that Veitch’s first year has been “a whirlwind, but in the best sense of the word.”
Unsurprisingly though, Veitch has encountered some resistance to change. Veitch said that he has struggled against the perception that decisions are made arbitrarily, a problem cited by Lee as his biggest complaint about the school.
However, Veitch and others cited Occidental’s institutional inertia as a saving grace during the recent presidential turnover. The strength and commitment of the faculty, as well as that of the vice presidents, helped steer and maintain the college, said Frank, but there is still room for improvement. Frank concluded that Oxy “needs to be polished rather than fixed.”
Core
Veitch, although reticent to tip his hand preemptively, said that he saw opportunity for discussion about the core program over the summer and next year. Occidental recently received grants from the Mellon and Endeavor foundations, which will be used to develop the program, potentially with an increased L.A. emphasis. Dean Frank pointed to Butler University’s “Semester in Indianapolis” program, and Veitch to Oxy’s California Environmental Semester as potential models. Veitch also said that he would be interested in more reading of the classics, an idea supported by Boesche. “There are ways to do a Western civ[ilization] requirement more thoughtfully than when it was done in the past,” Veitch said.
According to Frank and Trevizo, this could be implemented through pods, where four to six professors teaching different classes could agree on a few thematic core readings.
This clustering would likely be necessary, as both Boesche and Trevizo doubted the entire faculty could agree on any core set of reading. “The goal of reform is to get to a time when a student doesn’t say, ‘I need to get my general education requirement out of the way,'” Frank said. Gonzalez, who was hesitant to suggest changes before getting to campus, said that he would like to see more interdisciplinary programs and international engagement.
Community
In order to remain dynamic and engaging, Oxy needs to constantly change and tweak the community it develops, according to Gonzalez. Veitch said one of the best potential improvements is the introduction of more themed housing like at his alma mater Stanford. “If we’re gonna require people to stay on campus, we need to give them a rich experience,” he said.
Veitch is also looking to improve student faculty relationships, potentially by adjusting meal plans to encourage faculty eating more with students. He proposed “more events that put faculty and students together in a social setting, which I don’t think we have as much of as we should.”
Asked what changes he was considering, Gozalez said modestly, “My duty, at least in the first few months, is to listen a lot.” When pressed, he confided that he would like his legacy to be “an environment in which the academic world at Oxy flourished.” This would be accomplished in large part by “bring[ing] together students from many different disciplines.” Gonzalez also said he would be interested in opening discussions of an Honor Code like the one at Trinity University.
Occidental won’t grow much beyond its current size, Veitch said. He said that around “2,050” students would be the upper limit before Oxy stopped being Oxy. But Veitch was open to changing the campus to “something more like Cambridge or Ann Arbor or Providence in the way in which departments and housing and themed housing were distributed throughout the community and not just on campus itself.”
Location
“It’s not enough to say, ‘Here is Los Angeles, take advantage of it,'” Veitch said. “That engagement with the city needs to be structured.” He said that Oxy needs to “identify projects, organizations, nexus points, where problems are being worked out [in L.A.] and center classes around them.” This could include more scientific collaboration with the nearby Caltech and Jet Propulsion Lab, or more professionals teaching one class as an adjunct professor, he said.
Unfortunately, according to Frank, new “Semester in Los Angeles” programs focusing on the film industry that are starting at Syracuse University and NYU are “chipping away . . . [at] what we do because of our location.” Gonzalez joined in the call for increased engagement of the city, citing both the rich political opportunities and the diversity of spoken languages as ripe opportunities.
Trevizo, however, said engagement with L.A. “is a goal that is reached, we just don’t know how to talk about it as much as we could.” According to her, the more pressing problem is bringing together the disparate elements of Oxy’s Los Angeles engagement and creating a common narrative.
Diversity
Oxy’s commitment to diversity is particularly important because the changing college-bound demographic is one of the biggest challenges facing colleges like ours, said Veitch, Gonzalez and Cuseo. Incoming classes and first-generation college students are increasingly non-white, and Occidental needs to work to maintain its relevance.
Cuseo said that, while 15 percent of the incoming admitted class consists of students who are the first in their family to go to college, the school still needs to work to get its message out to these students. The first problem comes in defining diversity, the second is figuring out what to do with it. Like our Los Angeles location, though, Oxy’s tradition of diversity is not a laurel that can be rested on, Frank said.
Cost
Unfortunately, reaching out to untapped student demographics is not made any easier by the ever-increasing cost of tuition at Oxy. As Frank said, “It’s debatable whether we can go increasing tuition four or five percent for the rest of eternity.”
Veitch, who said that he’s found fundraising to be surprisingly enjoyable, added that making decisions to control costs has been one of the most difficult aspects of the job. Because small liberal arts colleges like Oxy don’t enjoy the privilege of endlessly expanding departments and services, there is a “zero-sum game,” he said.
The school plans to undertake a wide-reaching capital campaign next spring, and Cuseo said fundraising for scholarships will be a large component of it. Increasing costs and changing demographics are problems, but are also far from panic-worthy.
Boesche remembered one friend in the ’70s saying that when tuition gets to 10k a year, liberal arts colleges will be dead. As long as education costs rise faster than incomes, there will be challenges, but as Trevizo said, “Even in economic recession, there has been a sharp rise in applications and big yield in incoming class.”
Where You Fit In
So where does all of this leave Occidental’s newly minted graduates? Talk to alumni and they’re generally very happy with their education. Lee said, “For the most part, [alumni] seem very satisfied with what Oxy’s done . . . even if they’re in a totally different field [from what they studied]. The way that they address issues has really helped them.” He also said that one thing he frequently hears from alumni is that they plan to send their own kids to a small liberal arts college, a sentiment echoed by Trevizo, an Oxy graduate and mother of two.
When asked how prepared he thought graduating students were, Veitch was candid yet optimistic. He admitted pre-professional or vocational schools could lead to high-paying jobs, but said that he firmly believes a “liberal arts education is a slow boat to a better job.” Veitch also added that Oxy could provide improved career services.
Still, when I hear that my friend who is graduating from UC Berkeley with a computer science degree will be making upwards of $70,000 next year, it is hard not to be jealous. What I hope for, instead – and what Dean Frank said an Oxy education is designed to provide – is a “fulfilled life.”
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