Author: Dean DeChiaro
At his inauguration ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 24, Occidental’s 15th president Jonathan Veitch presented an ambitious plan to improve the school during his tenure at Oxy. “Occidental is at a moment in its history when high-minded abstractions are not enough,” he said. “What we need most now is a narrowed sense of vision.”
His address, delivered to several hundred guests in the Remsen Bird Hillside Theater, was the culmination of a 90-minute inauguration ceremony. He was preceded by speeches from the Chairman of the Board of Trustees Dennis Collins, honored guests Eugene Lang and Eugene Tobin, as well as several school representatives including ASOC President Andrew DeBlock.
Veitch’s proposed plan outlined twelve areas in which he felt that the school could more successfully fulfill its potential, including the core curriculum, the library, community outreach and sustainability. “The core curriculum must provide our students with a purposeful and thoughtful synthesis of what we most value as an institution,” he said. “To do less is abdicating out responsibility.”
Highlighting his new plans for revamping the library as an academic commons, Veitch outlined several areas in which he planned to improve the space, including providing increased digital resources, increasing support for undergraduate research initiatives and more advanced assistance centers that would provide writing and quantitative analysis assistance.
He also spoke about the need for more opportunities for Oxy students to use Los Angeles as a resource, and called for more outreach into the city’s lower classes to ensure that the school brings the best and brightest to Oxy, regardless of their background. “Occidental must remain committed to [its] historic mission by enhancing its scholarship support for first generation students,” he said. “Colleges and universities have a crucial role to play in safeguarding upward mobility.”
The liberal arts were another centerpiece of the President’s address. Veitch spoke about the definition of the liberal arts philosophy and how it can be justified and defended to its critics. “Much of what we do here is not understood by the world at large,” he said, citing widely misinterpreted ideas of what the philosophy dictates. “After all, there are quicker ways to wealth.”
The address, entitled “Magdalena’s Lamp” after Magdalena Arenas, used Arenas’ story, as well as the stories of late Congressman Jack Kemp ’57 and and President Barack Obama ’83, and the formation of three newly formed liberal arts colleges in formerly Soviet Eastern Europe to outline why he believed the liberal arts are imperative to the future of society.
Arenas was one of 11 children whose father would not support her dream of going to college. She attended Oxy, bringing only a lamp to campus, and is now Veitch’s physician at Huntington Medical Center in Glendale. Reinforcing his belief that her story truly justified the liberal arts, Veitch invited her family, who was received warmly by the audience, to the ceremony. “I can’t think of a more powerful reminder of the importance of our mission than her inspiring example,” Veitch said.
Veitch also recounted his trip to Eastern Europe as a consultant assisting the founders of three new liberal arts colleges in Bratislava, Warsaw and the former East Berlin. “At the very moment that the United States was doubting the value of this sort of education, dismissing it as too expensive, an indulgence not useful enough,” he said. “Here was a commitment to a tradition, a practice and a set of ideas that mattered enormously to people only just recently released from the thumb of tyranny.”
Given Oxy’s recent lack of presidential retention, Veitch aimed to assuage any remaining doubt that he would not be with the school for the long run.
“Clearly this is an agenda that requires a great deal of hard work and dedication. It is also an agenda that requires a great deal of longevity,” he said. “So let me assure you, I plan to be here for a long time.”
Reactions to the president’s address were positive. “I thought it was moving, interesting, and it helped me appreciate the value of a liberal arts education,” said Beth Goldsmith, mother of Aliza Goldsmith (sophomore) and Noah Goldsmith (senior), “Magadalena’s story helped me appreciate Oxy’s commitment to diversity.”
Even President Veitch’s old college buddies, who were in attendance for the event and were used to his lofty prose, were impressed with his latest oration. “It was fabulous . . . very articulate. It made me want to read a book,” said Jennifer Dovoll, who was a friend of the President during his undergraduate days. Dovoll’s husband Matt said that he believed Veitch and Oxy were a good match. “Everything they said about him was dead on. I’ve known him for a number of years, and I think he’s in a perfect position here,” he said.
Students were also excited about the prospects of Veitch’s tenure after hearing his speech. “I don’t want to admit that I got chills when he talked about why liberal arts colleges matter, but I did,” said Leah Glowacki (sophomore). “It’s comforting to know that he believes in the mission of our school.”
And though students felt comforted by Veitch’s assertion that he would be staying at Oxy longer than a year, they say that our checkered history is still not something to ignore. “I’m hoping this is a commitment he won’t back out of, because I would love to see where he will take Oxy in the next ten to twenty years. It will be nice to see all this talk take action,” said Natalie Monterrosa (junior).
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