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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Readings

Krizia-Dion Oasin — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 18:01:42 +0000

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Readings

March 9, 2022

Krizia-Dion Oasin Wed, 03/09/2022 - 10:01

The Biology Department is committed to addressing racial injustices within the biological sciences and proactively working towards inclusion and unfettered access to science.

The Biology Department faculty and staff have read several articles and books to educate themselves on the historical and current practices of racism in science. We want to share some of these materials and continue these discussions to move toward a more inclusive, anti-racist community. We invite your additional thoughts and ideas, your voices and concerns, and we pledge to listen and engage with you every step of the way.

Books

Superior: The Return of Race Science | Angela Saini

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks | Rebecca Skloot

Articles

"Without inclusion, diversity initiatives may not be enough" | Puritty et al 2017

"Grappling with racism as foundational practice of science teaching" | Sheth 2018

2019 Glee Club Welcome Concert

aredford — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 05:42:41 +0000

2019 Glee Club Welcome Concert

The ��鱨վ Glee Club welcomes you to the new academic year with selections from their 2018-19 season!

aredford Sun, 08/25/2019 - 22:42

2019-08-27T22:00:00-0400

203

This concert is free and open to the public. Stay afterward for an informal reception with Glee Club members and director Desiree La Vertu.

Presented by the ��鱨վ Music Department.

Arts

Add to Calendar 2019-08-27 19:00:00 2019-08-27 19:00:00 2019 Glee Club Welcome Concert The ��鱨վ Glee Club welcomes you to the new academic year with selections from their 2018-19 season! Herrick Memorial Chapel & Interfaith Center ��鱨վ info@kwallcompany.com America/Los_Angeles public

Summer With the LA Phil

Richard Anderson — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:53:12 +0000

Summer With the LA Phil

A donor-funded 10-week internship program will take 10 ��鱨վ students inside the operations of the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Richard Anderson Tue, 04/07/2026 - 06:53

This summer, 10 Occidental students will get an exclusive opportunity to work behind the scenes of the Hollywood Bowl, Walt Disney Concert Hall, or The Ford—taking on meaningful projects, receiving mentorship from industry professionals, and immersing themselves in the creativity and excellence of the LA Phil.

Funded by an anonymous donor to ��鱨վ, the Hollywood Bowl-��鱨վ Internship Program will offer participants the chance to explore career pathways across 10 high-impact sectors, including philanthropy, programs, marketing, social media, data and evaluation, production, and management.

“By welcoming Occidental students into our venues and our teams, we’re investing in the next generation of creative leaders with hands-on learning that demystifies how a cultural institution operates—from artistic programming to audience engagement and production,” says Meghan Umber, president of the Hollywood Bowl and chief programming officer for the LA Phil. “We’re excited to support students as they experience firsthand the collaborative spirit that drives our work.”

“This partnership is a powerful reflection of the Occidental Promise—where ��鱨վ’s liberal arts education comes to life beyond the classroom, empowering students to integrate critical thinking, creativity, and real-world application at the highest level within the dynamic landscape of Los Angeles,” says Hameetman Career Center Executive Director Jamila Chambers. “Through these internships, ��鱨վ students will not only explore potential career pathways but also deepen their sense of purpose, access, and possibility in one of the world’s most creative cities.”

Open to students from any major, the program will fully fund participants’ living expenses and provide a stipend, ensuring that this transformative opportunity is accessible to all. The inaugural cohort of interns will be announced in May.

The Hollywood Bowl-��鱨վ partnership builds on ��鱨վ’s expanding opportunities for students to engage with the music business industry. Following the 2024 launch of the John Branca Institute of Music, the College—recognized by Billboard as a top music business school—recently welcomed renowned producer Michael Lloyd as the inaugural Linda and Mike Curb Visiting Fellow and will introduce three new music business courses this fall.

This new program will add to the breadth of funded summer internships available to Occidental students, including InternLA, the Undergraduate Research Center’s Summer Research Program, and the recently expanded Justice Summer Program.

Allie Gordon

Photo by Timothy Norris

April 7, 2026

Spring 2026 Los Angeles From the Quad

A Couple’s Legacy

Richard Anderson — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:55:43 +0000

A Couple’s Legacy

A scholarship gift honoring Shirley and Dale Morter ’56 will bring students from southwestern Pennsylvania to Occidental

Richard Anderson Fri, 03/27/2026 - 15:55

When Chino High School class valedictorian Dale Morter ’56 visited Occidental for the first time, he had all but chosen Pomona. But a teacher at Chino—an Occidental graduate—urged him to take a look at ��鱨վ. He got a campus tour from Dean of Men Ben Culley, who offered him a scholarship that same day.

“If I went to Pomona, I would have lived at home,” Morter recalls. Instead, he chose ��鱨վ, where he majored in psychology, joined ATO fraternity, and eventually became a “dorm daddy” (’50s speak for resident assistant). “It worked out really well,” he says.

Seventy years after graduating from ��鱨վ, Morter has facilitated a gift that will ensure that applicants from southwestern Pennsylvania will have the same opportunity he did. Thanks to a grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the Dale C. Morter ’56 and Shirley Rudisill Morter Annual Scholarship Fund will award a minimum of $20,000 per year to support the educational experience of at least three students from the region.

Shirley Rudisill was born in Eagle Rock, Va., a small town located in the Shenandoah Valley. She met Morter through her brother-in-law when he was in personnel officers school. “I fell in love with Shirley,” Dale recalls. After completing his training, Dale was stationed in Japan, and he and Shirley were married in 1958, navigating a dual civil ceremony between the American consulate and a Japanese ward office—with a giraffe in a trailer holding up traffic on the way back to base.

Upon returning from Japan in 1959, Morter enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to pursue a master’s in psychology. “The ��鱨վ faculty had a great reputation with UNC’s psychology department,” he says. “My ��鱨վ degree was pretty much a guarantee of getting into Chapel Hill to graduate school.”

Dale helped establish and grow a mental health center in North Carolina before moving to Pittsburgh, where he worked as a clinical child psychologist at St. Francis General Hospital and maintained a private practice. Eventually, the Morters returned to the Tar Heel State, and Shirley continued her own distinguished career. She logged 34 years of service to UNC’s Department of Psychiatry over two separate stints, retiring in 2013 as director of administration for UNC’s private patient psychiatric practice.

The inspiration for the scholarship is rooted in Shirley’s generosity. “Shortly after we got married, Shirley tracked down an orphanage,” Dale recalls, “and we had two orphan boys spend the weekends with us during most of our time in Japan.”

Over the years, by his reckoning, Shirley fostered nine children. Among them was Catharine Mellon Cathey, who lived with the Morters in Pittsburgh from age 12 to 17. “The Morters are family—they shepherded me through my adolescence as loving mentors,” Cathey says. “Shirley was my fierce defender, a strong female role model in a family of accomplished men. She instilled in me my love of travel with her enthusiasm for exploring.

“Dale was always available for advice, which he dispensed in his inimitable gentle way. He taught me to drive a stick shift and helped me choose my first car.” He even talked her out of wanting to be a truck driver, “a very brief career aspiration of mine.”

After Shirley’s death in November 2022, Dale read an article in Occidental magazine about a faculty recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship funded by a national philanthropy. Inspiration struck, and he reached out to Cathey with the idea of creating an initiative to honor Shirley’s work with foster children. “My idea was it would be just in memory of her,” Dale says. “Catharine added me to the mix.”

“I was excited about the opportunity, given Occidental’s strong academic reputation,” says Cathey, who serves as president of the Richard King Mellon Foundation (RKMF). “I wanted to include Dale as an honoree. He is a proud Occidental alum.”

Foundation director Sam Reiman worked with Occidental’s Office of Institutional Advancement to develop a grant that aligned with RKMF’s mission to advance prosperity in southwestern Pennsylvania “and would fulfill Dale’s wish to let others learn about the work Shirley did,” Cathey says. The first Morter Scholars are expected to enroll at Occidental this fall.

Dale continues to live near Jordan Lake in Chapel Hill. His boating days are behind him, but he still enjoys gardening, watching TV, and “fixing things around the house.” Younger son Chris is an attorney in Atlanta. Older son Greg, a physician, and wife Connie recently moved nearby. Grandson Benjamin and great-grandson Dexter live in Carrollton, Va.

“When my family and I attended Shirley’s memorial, I was surprised to learn that Shirley and Dale had fostered many more young adults in North Carolina,” Cathey says. “Chris laughingly asked if I had thought I was the only one. I had. They made me feel that special. That was their magic.”

Above: Dale and Shirley Morter on January 1, 2000. Photo courtesy Dale Morter '56.

Dick Anderson

March 27, 2026

Spring 2026 Impact The Last Page

Weaving Community Into Curriculum

Richard Anderson — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 22:19:40 +0000

Weaving Community Into Curriculum

Working with faculty across the academic spectrum, Occidental’s Center for Community-Based Learning has become part of the institutional fabric

Richard Anderson Fri, 03/27/2026 - 15:19

Growing up in Highland Park, “Occidental has always been part of my life,” Celestina Castillo says. Her mother participated in the College’s Upward Bound program in the 1970s, and in her five years (2003-08) of working at the nonprofit Los Angeles County Children’s Planning Council, Castillo collaborated with Occidental’s Center for Community-Based Learning (CCBL) on educational organizing efforts in Northeast Los Angeles.

Founded in November 2001 by a group of ��鱨վ faculty and then-President Ted Mitchell, CCBL was designed to build long-term reciprocal partnerships with community organizations, with faculty embedding community engagement directly into the curriculum.

The program steadily grew under the leadership of founding director Maria Avila, and when the assistant director position at CCBL opened in 2009, colleagues encouraged Castillo to apply. Following Avila’s departure, Castillo served as director from 2013 to 2020, when she left ��鱨վ to pursue a Ph.D. in gender studies at UCLA. She returned to ��鱨վ as CCBL’s executive director in 2023.

CCBL executive director Celestina Castillo and assistant director Kelsey Sablan Martin '19, photographed in ��鱨վ's FEAST Garden by Marc Campos.

Kelsey Sablan Martin ’19 was raised in Beaverton, Ore., and graduated with a sociology degree from ��鱨վ but jokes that she “majored in CCBL.” After completing her studies, Sablan Martin worked at Whitman College helping to build a community-engaged learning initiative. Drawing on her CHamoru identity and the Indigenous feminist framework she encountered at CCBL, she later completed a master’s degree in Indigenous education at the University of British Columbia. At the start of 2025, Sablan Martin reconnected with her mentor as CCBL’s assistant director. When she learned of the opening, returning to ��鱨վ felt like a calling, she says: “I couldn't be prouder to be back in this office doing the work that we do.”

Community-based learning at ��鱨վ does not follow a single template. When new faculty arrive, CCBL meets them where they are. The office helps identify potential partners, facilitates introductions, assists with budgeting and transportation logistics, and offers project support funding. Community partners receive honoraria for their time and expertise.

Central to many courses is the Education in Action (EIA) program. About 20 student facilitators each semester provide leadership and logistical coordination. In ARTS 100, the Arts Education Practicum, ��鱨վ students teach art workshops to local youth at ��鱨վ Arts. The course often includes partnerships with organizations like Heart of Los Angeles.

In POLS 253, Theorizing Membership and Migration, taught by Associate Professor of Politics Samuel Chan, students explore citizenship, borders, and diaspora. This semester, they partnered with Immigo L.A., creating short videos to help community members prepare for their citizenship test.

Economics Professor Bevin Ashenmiller’s Sustainability Lab (ECON 201) offers another model. Students operate a campus thrift store, Touchdown Thrift, learning firsthand about sustainable business practices. The course draws on partnerships with organizations such as Remainders Creative Reuse in Pasadena and Suay, a textile recycling leader.

For years, much of CCBL’s labor remained invisible. That has begun to change, however, as community-based learning has become increasingly central to the College’s identity. Sablan Martin has noticed the shift, especially compared to other institutions. “If a new faculty member comes in now, they know this is part of the norm,” she says. Policies supporting tenure and promotion make it possible to integrate community engagement deeply into academic life.

That institutional commitment has paid dividends. Occidental first earned the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Carnegie elective classification for community engagement in 2008 and was reclassified most recently in January. Since the 2015 review, the number of community-engaged courses and participating students has more than doubled.

As CCBL observes its 25th anniversary this year, the office is planning alumni gatherings and celebratory events. The guest list could get crowded: Hundreds of students have participated directly through EIA roles, and many more through coursework. “There have been bumps along the way,” Castillo says, “but I think CCBL has gotten deeper into the culture of the institution.”

Dick Anderson | Illustration by Gus Scott

March 27, 2026

Spring 2026 Academics Los Angeles From the Quad

Fertile Imagination

Richard Anderson — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 21:28:29 +0000

Fertile Imagination

Thom Harp ’92 waited for years to direct his first movie—and after a long birthing process, he’s the proud father of two features

Richard Anderson Fri, 03/27/2026 - 14:28

As a student filmmaker at Occidental, Thom Harp ’92’s storytelling choices gravitated toward affairs of the heart—even if his approach to the subject matter feels a little jaded in hindsight. His senior comps film, Be My Girl, was about a man who is in love with a blow-up doll and the marital troubles that ensued. An earlier short, The Proof Is in the Pudding, depicted a 1950s housewife who poisons her husband with the titular dessert. “I was not in a good place with relationships,” he admits with a laugh.

More than three decades later, Harp is still in touch with his emotions, with a pair of comedies that tackle the prospect of parenthood from wildly divergent perspectives. Home Delivery, which opened in theaters nationwide on March 27, centers on a young newlywed who invites her estranged family to witness the home birth of her first child. It’s his follow-up to The Donor Party, his 2023 feature about a single woman trying to conceive a baby through a one-night stand unbeknownst to the prospective father.

“The kinds of stories I’m attracted to are where there’s someone who gets a really bad idea, but it’s a really good bad idea,” says Harp, whose comic short films have played at festivals worldwide and garnered more than a million views on Funny or Die. Thirty years into his career, Home Delivery and The Donor Party are his first two features.

While Harp is a bit of a late bloomer by comparison with many of his contemporaries, “I said yes to all of the opportunities that gave me richness in life,” he notes. “I said yes to going to Alaska with my wife. I said yes to having kids in the middle of her med school. Each of those opportunities ends up being something that is part of who I am—and it naturally comes out in the work.”

After a brief flirtation with psychology, Harp wound up double majoring in film and theater—a period he remembers as “being drunk on creativity.” Film and media studies professors Chick Strand and Esther Yao “gave us the freedom to figure out what we wanted to make. I was focused on narrative filmmaking. I even bought a light meter and rented a dolly for my senior comps.”

After graduating, Harp worked as a camera assistant and cinematographer. He got back together with Karin Patterson ’92, whom he had briefly dated in college. Karin, who had majored in kinesiology at ��鱨վ, told him she was applying to med school, and the couple made a pact “to go wherever she got into school,” Thom says. The couple was married in 1995, and after spending a year in Karin’s native Alaska, they moved to Seattle for med school, Portland, Ore., for her intern year, and back to Seattle for her residency.

While Karin was studying to be a dermatologist, the couple was living off Thom’s income, “which fluctuated wildly,” he says. “Some months I would do really well, and other months I would get two days of work.” He was shooting his first feature when Karin visited the set one day with the welcome news that they were having a baby.

Their second child, Quinlan, was born midway through Karin’s studies, and his arrival marked a turning point in Harp’s career. “Together, we decided that I would stay at home and raise the kids, and I would shift my focus to writing,” he says. “I had this idea that eventually became The Donor Party about someone who was desperately trying to get pregnant because of the craziness that we went through.”

Fatherhood changed his approach to writing as well. “While I was changing my eldest, there was a massive diaper blowout,” he recalls, “and my baby was smiling and laughing and having the best time.” In that moment, he had a messy epiphany: “How can I take this world seriously? The only way to survive is having a sense of humor.” The first feature he wrote was a comedy, and he’s never looked back since.

Harp found a writing partner in Seattle, advertising professional Mike Standish, and they wrote a script called Booty Camp that landed them a manager. In 2005, they were invited to make a short film for the Seattle International Film Festival: “You had to write a film in a week, shoot it in a week, edit it in a week, and then present it at the festival,” he says. “Our film was a love letter to John Hughes movies called Driver’s Ed, and the audience was blown away.”

Their next short, filmed at a fortune cookie factory in Seattle and titled Fortune Hunters, starred Gedde Watanabe (16 Candles) and played at festivals worldwide.

In 2010, a feature-length treatment of Driver’s Ed was optioned by Paramount and came within a three-point turn of getting made. Harp moved his family to Los Angeles and began taking meetings. Then Paramount released a teen movie that crashed and burned at the box office, “so they decided not to do any more teen comedies,” he says.

“Everything fell apart after we moved. I lost my manager, my writing partner stepped away from the industry, and I felt like I’d put my family through a major upheaval for nothing,” he says. “Eventually, I wrote another script that helped get me back into the mix.”

One of the best pieces of advice Harp ever got came from filmmaker Lynn Shelton (Humpday), with whom he came of age in the Seattle independent film scene. “I would shoot her short films and she would edit my short films,” he recalls, “and she told me, ‘If you want to make something inexpensive, then you have to give yourself really strict parameters. You should be in one location for that whole day—you lose several hours loading up the truck again and moving to the next location. If everything happens over the course of a day, then it’ll help with the costume changes and the hair continuity.’”

In 2014, he completed the first draft of Home Delivery, leaning into his ability to create strong characters and giving each one their own voice. “I wanted to tell a story that was intimate, character-driven, and producible,” he says. The film begins as a broad comedy and sneaks deeper emotions into the narrative as it unfolds.

“At its core, it’s about family dynamics—how complicated and messy those relationships are,” says Harp, who is a child of divorce. “But it’s also about what happens when something real forces everyone to show up for each other. The emotional core of the story comes from lived experience.”

Adhering to Shelton’s maxim, Home Delivery takes place over two days. (The film is dedicated to Shelton, who died of acute myeloid leukemia in 2020 at age 54.) “I wrote it to be cheap enough for me to direct—that was a non-negotiable,” Harp says. “I knew I could do a really good job with it because I knew that it would play into a lot of the strengths that I got at ��鱨վ through the Theater Department, like working with a group of actors telling an ensemble story. I really wanted this one for myself.”

In 2019, Home Delivery finally secured funding, with Harp attached to direct. The pandemic threw a wrench into the schedule, but filming commenced years later with an ensemble cast that includes Donald Faison, Joe Pantoliano, Lesley Ann Warren, Peter MacNicol, and a third-act appearance by Rainn Wilson as a midwife.

Actors Melanie Field, Rainn Wilson, and Donald Faison on the set of Home Delivery. Photo courtesy The Lounge Booth

“One of the advantages of writing a small, ensemble piece is that you can give every character something meaningful to do,” Harp says. “Actors respond to that—they want moments to shine. I was also fortunate when we found Melanie Field for the lead. She was a revelation, bringing vulnerability and humor to the part.”

Harp wrote Wilson’s character with The Office stalwart in mind after directing a short for his production company, SoulPancake, titled Phil Ma: Fortune Cookie Writer, starring Randall Park. During the pandemic, the two collaborated on a 15-episode comedy podcast, Dark Air With Terry Carnation, starring Wilson as the embattled host of an AM radio paranormal call-in show.

“Rainn asked me to not only be one of the writers but also to produce the show. I ended up doing a lot of the directing as well,” he says. Performing the show over Zoom, “The writers and creatives would pitch jokes in the chat and Rainn was so fast and was able to incorporate our notes into the improv sections. We also had these scripted segments that were absolutely bonkers.”

Currently, Harp has a number of film projects in development. Crash Course—the screenplay formerly known as Driver’s Ed—is looking to go into production this summer with Harp as director (“Nothing is ever truly dead in this business”). He’s also working on a murder-mystery comedy, Killer Party, which he will direct for producer Josh Shader, and an adaptation of the New York Times bestseller Business or Pleasure for producer Margot Hand, whose Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar was a pandemic-era streaming hit.

While Harp may have forgone pursuing a psychology major at ��鱨վ after an iffy grade in a statistics class, he’s never given up on trying to figure out relationships. “In Shakespeare, either everyone dies or everyone gets married—that’s the paradigm,” he says. “I have a great marriage and I believe in the possibility of great relationships, but I know that it comes with as many valleys as there are peaks. You can choose to see life as meaningless, or tragic, or hilarious. I choose hilarious because it gives me strength.”

Dick Anderson | Photo by Sela Shiloni

March 27, 2026

Spring 2026 Arts Mixed Media

Remembering Steve Hinchliffe ’55, Devoted Steward of Occidental

Richard Anderson — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 23:39:15 +0000

Remembering Steve Hinchliffe ’55, Devoted Steward of Occidental

Throughout his 47 years as an ��鱨վ trustee, Hinchliffe held an unwavering belief in the power of a liberal arts education

Richard Anderson Mon, 12/15/2025 - 15:39

Stephen F. Hinchliffe Jr. ’55, former chair of the ��鱨վ Board of Trustees and a devoted steward of his alma mater, passed away December 9. A longtime resident of Palos Verdes Estates, he was 92.

Steve’s connection to Occidental spanned nearly seven decades, defined by exceptional service, leadership, and generosity. He joined the Alumni Board of Governors in 1965 and went on to serve the College as an alumni trustee from 1970-1975, trustee from 1979-1999, emeritus trustee from 1999-2009, and again as an active trustee from 2009-2016, including board chair from 1990-1992. His 47 years of service place him among the longest-serving trustees in Occidental’s history—second only to the Rev. William Stewart Young, one of the College’s founders.

A native Angeleno, Steve enrolled at ��鱨վ in 1951 and graduated with a degree in economics before earning his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School in 1957. After completing his graduate studies, he served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and later built a highly successful business career, including work at McKinsey & Co. and the founding of the Leisure Group Inc., a manufacturer of consumer products.

Steve met his wife of nearly 70 years, Ann Hoffmann Hinchliffe ’57, at Occidental, and together they are among the College’s most generous and steadfast benefactors. The Hinchliffes’ philanthropy—much of it directed quietly to student scholarships—has transformed the lives of generations of ��鱨վ students. In 2016, the College dedicated Hinchliffe Hall, the addition to Swan Hall at the heart of campus, in recognition of the family’s extraordinary service and support. Steve received an honorary doctorate that same year.

At the dedication of Hinchliffe Hall, fellow trustee emeritus John Power ’58 offered a tribute that captured Steve’s impact: “Steve has a rare combination of qualities one treasures in a trustee. He is an articulate advocate with excellent judgment; sharply intelligent and deeply collegial; someone with vast external experience, a profound understanding of the College and its history, and a genuinely entrepreneurial spirit.”

Beyond his extraordinary institutional legacy, Steve will be remembered for his warm presence, his sage strategic advice, and his unwavering belief in the importance of access and opportunity and the power of a liberal arts education.

Steve is survived by his wife, Ann; his daughter, former Board chair Lisa Hinchliffe Link P’18, and her husband, Dave; his son, Stephen F. Hinchliffe III P’23, and his wife, Terry; and his son, John Hinchliffe ’88. He also leaves four grandchildren—Andy Link (and his wife, Sarah), Ryan Link ’18, Mackenzie Hinchliffe, and Katelyn Hinchliffe ’23—and his great-granddaughter, Stevie Rae Link. Additional survivors include his brother, Doug Hinchliffe ’64; sister-in-law, Robin Street Hinchliffe ’60; and many beloved relatives and friends.

A private celebration of Steve’s life is planned for January 10, 2026. The Occidental flag will be flown at half-staff on January 26, 2026, in his memory.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Hinchliffe Family Endowed Scholarship at ��鱨վ or to one of Steve’s other cherished organizations, such as the Los Angeles Metropolitan YMCA or Centre Theatre Group.

Above photo: Steve and Ann Hinchliffe at the 2016 dedication of Hinchliffe Hall.

Photo by Marc Campos

December 16, 2025

Fall 2025 Obituaries Sidebars

Miller’s Crossing

Richard Anderson — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 23:29:37 +0000

Miller’s Crossing

Former GOP operative Tim Miller recounts his own political reckoning—and offers pearls of hope in the face of despair—as the 2025-26 Jack Kemp '57 Distinguished Lecturer

Richard Anderson Mon, 12/15/2025 - 15:29

Best-selling author, political commentator, and Bulwark writer-at-large Tim Miller addressed party dynamics, the future of the conservative movement, and antidotes to doomscrolling as the 2025-26 Jack Kemp ’57 Distinguished Lecturer at ��鱨վ on October 21.

In her introductory remarks, Kathryn Leonard, interim dean of the College and vice president for academic affairs, quoted Kemp—the nine-term U.S. congressman, Housing and Urban Development secretary, and 1996 GOP vice presidential candidate: “The American idea is that the Declaration of Independence applies to every individual. Everyone should have the same opportunity to rise as high as their talents and efforts can carry them. And while people move ahead, we should endeavor to leave no one behind.” That ideal, Leonard said, “fits squarely with our mission here at ��鱨վ.”

Occidental Professor Caroline Heldman with Kemp Lecturer Tim Miller.

Speaking in Thorne Hall with Professor Caroline Heldman, chair of the Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies Program at ��鱨վ, Miller traced his political evolution back to what he called “the moral, uplifting, patriotic, Bob Dole-ish version of American politics. I bought into the free markets and free people—America as a shining city on a hill.”

Entering politics professionally in the 1990s, Miller campaigned for mostly mainstream, moderate Republican candidates. “I really got attracted to the game of it,” he said. “I worked with a lot of people who could have just as easily changed teams who kind of stumbled into politics. There was very little political disagreement—that was the era I grew up in.”

Over time, however, Miller began to feel that he had become “a cog in something that I didn’t feel good about.” While working for Sen. John McCain during his 2008 presidential bid, he said he felt “very uncomfortable” with then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate “with somebody that old at the top of the ticket.”

After coming out during the 2008 campaign (which he recounts in his 2022 memoir Why We Did It: A Travelogue From the Republican Road to Hell), Miller stepped away from politics briefly before returning as national press secretary on former Utah governor Jon Huntsman's 2012 presidential campaign. He went on to work for the Republican National Committee during the 2012 general election and served as a communications director for Jeb Bush during his brief 2016 presidential run.

Despite his avowed dislike for President Trump, Miller continued to identify as a Republican until 2020, when he and others were trying to build a base of support for a more populist party in the post-Trump era. But his efforts to recruit a candidate such as Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois (the 2023-24 Kemp Lecturer) or Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to primary against the incumbent Trump came up empty. “Obviously the party was uninterested in it,” he said.

One of the central failures of the pro-democracy, anti-Trump coalition, Miller argued, “is that we stopped even trying to persuade the other side.” Writing off large segments of the electorate as irredeemable may feel morally satisfying, but it is “bad politics,” he said. “Whatever you think about that as a moral or ethical question, that’s not how you win political races. The whole point of politics is trying to persuade people.”

That belief shaped Miller’s critique of Democratic strategy more broadly: Whereas Democrats once held Senate seats in states such as North Dakota, South Dakota, and Arkansas, he said, now they do not even seriously contest them. “If you ever want to have enough Democratic senators to be able to pass actual legislation and change things, you have to win in those places.”

As the discussion turned to political exhaustion—“I’d like to say it’s just my students who are doomscrolling and they’re way maybe into despair, but I think it might be all of us,” Heldman said—Miller advocated for engaging with politics at the local level, such as school board and city council. “Stuff that is happening close to you matters,” he said. “You can start to not feel despair if you are engaging on an issue that matters where you can actually feel the change.

“If you have the time and the inclination, go out and volunteer and talk to people in the communities,” added Miller, who moved to New Orleans in 2023. “I just think that engaging with actual people in a community, whether in political setting or a volunteer setting, is useful.”

Launched in 2013, the Kemp Lecture Series strives to engage the Occidental community in dialogue on important issues of public policy such as the political economy, economic growth in the context of a market system, communitarian values, and bipartisan relations. The series is made possible by the Jack Kemp ’57 Scholars Endowment.

Dick Anderson

Photos by Marc Campos

December 19, 2025

Fall 2025 Alumni Engagement ��鱨վ Talk

Remembering Marsha Kinder: Pioneer, Collaborator, Mentor

Richard Anderson — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 19:42:04 +0000

Remembering Marsha Kinder: Pioneer, Collaborator, Mentor

Marsha Kinder founded film and media studies at Occidental, and her work influenced generations of alumni filmmakers and scholars

Richard Anderson Mon, 12/08/2025 - 11:42

Editor's note: Dr. Marsha Kinder, who founded film and media studies as a member of the Occidental faculty from 1965 to 1980, died November 26, 2025, in Los Angeles. She was 85. A native of Los Angeles, Marsha received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at UCLA. Survivors include her husband, Nicolás Bautista; their children; and her extended family. A memorial service was held at Mount Sinai Hollywood Hills on December 2. The following tribute was prepared by the faculty of the Media Arts & Culture Department.

The Media Arts & Culture (MAC) Department and the broader ��鱨վ community mark the passing of Dr. Marsha Kinder, who founded film and media studies at Occidental, and served as a colleague and mentor of multiple MAC faculty.

Marsha Kinder, photographed in 1971 by Helga Gilbert.

Marsha was a pioneering, interdisciplinary figure in the field of film and media studies—a prolific theorist-practitioner who advanced new areas of scholarship while simultaneously developing new forms of interactive media practice. Her scholarship ranged from foundational texts on Spanish cinema, children's media, transmedia, and psychoanalytic film theory to groundbreaking interactive documentaries exploring memory, migration, and cultural heritage. Through the Labyrinth Project at USC's School of Cinematic Arts, she produced works such as The Danube Exodus, an immersive experience that included interactive DVD-ROMs, games, and site-specific installations at institutions including L.A.’s Getty Museum and Skirball Cultural Center, each blending documentary, archive, and digital art into new narrative forms that challenge how we engage storytelling and cultural memory.

Two years after joining the Occidental faculty in 1965 as a specialist in 18th-century English literature, Marsha launched film and media studies ventures at the College, marking one of the first undergraduate experiments in integrating critical film theory and production practices. In 1970, she brought experimental filmmaker Mildred “Chick” Strand on board to lead production courses, and Strand went on to run ��鱨վ's filmmaking program for 25 years. Together, they established foundational commitments to interdisciplinarity, criticality, creative experimentation, local/global perspectives, and social justice that continue to animate the MAC Department today.

Throughout her career, Marsha mentored generations of leading media scholars and practitioners. After moving to USC in 1980, she remained actively engaged with MAC. In 2006, she brought the Labyrinth Project's interactive documentary installations to campus as part of MAC’s Digital Dialogues Series. At a 2009 memorial screening of Strand's Soft Fiction (1979) on campus, Marsha shared anecdotes about Strand's time at Occidental and reflected on the film's blending of truth and fiction. Her last formal appearance at ��鱨վ was at a 2019 MAC Cinematheque panel on emerging media. Last spring, director Jesús Salvador Treviño '68 honored Marsha at a MAC Cinematheque event, recounting how her Global Cinema courses and Strand's filmmaking courses shaped his work as a founding member of the Chicano Film Movement.

In 2016, when MAC became a standalone department, it established the Kinder Prize for Innovation and Excellence in Critical Media to honor outstanding critical media work by a student that embodies the originality and excellence that Marsha modeled throughout her career. Through this prize and her continued influence, Marsha endures in the department as an aspirational figure and guidestar for current and future generations of students carrying forward her legacy of rigorous inquiry, bold experimentation, and generous collaboration.

Vale, Dr. Kinder!

December 8, 2025

Fall 2025 Academics Obituaries Sidebars

Meet the 2025 Athletics Hall of Famers

Richard Anderson — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 11:11:05 +0000

Meet the 2025 Athletics Hall of Famers

Reiner Kolodinski ’81, Rebecca Kopchik Carcamo ’94, Murray Via ’54, Olivia Sabins, and Jacqueline Shimamoto ’14 join a select group of ��鱨վ legends

Richard Anderson Wed, 12/03/2025 - 03:11

The Occidental Athletics Hall of Fame welcomed five new inductees with a spirited ceremony in Cannon Plaza—site of the old Taylor Pool—on October 19, with coaches, family, teammates, and colleagues inducting this year’s honorees. Established in 2012, the Hall of Fame recognizes outstanding achievement in competition, service, dedication, and commitment to ��鱨վ athletics.

Cannon Plaza, site of the 2025 Occidental Athletics Hall of Fame ceremony.

Murray Via ’54 is Occidental’s all-time batting leader in baseball with a .435 career average and holds the school single-season batting record at .500 (in 1954). Playing center field for Coach Bill Anderson, Via was selected First-Team All-Conference for three consecutive years and co-captained the championship 1954 team, which was inducted in the ��鱨վ Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.

Jacqueline Shimamoto ’14 is ��鱨վ’s all-time hits leader in softball. A four-time All-SCIAC selection and two-time First Team pick, she leads the Tigers in a number of performance metrics, including career batting average (.422), career hits (139), and most hits in a single season (50, in 2014). Hitting .455 her senior year, Shimamoto was a second team National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Region selection in 2014.

Reiner Kolodinski ’81 M’01, a 5'11" point guard, led the Tigers to the SCIAC men’s basketball championship with an 11-1 conference mark and advanced to the NCAA Division III Western Regional playoffs. He was selected as All-SCIAC Second Team in 1979, and All-SCIAC First Team and All-District in 1980. After graduating from ��鱨վ, Kolodinski played pro basketball in Germany for two years with ASC Göttingen in the Basketball Bundesliga, and was a member of the 1983 German championship team.

A two-time SCIAC champion in cross country (1991 and 1993), Rebecca Kopchik Carcamo ’94 is widely considered ��鱨վ’s best-ever female distance runner. A seven-time Division III All-American in cross country and track and field, she was the 5k national champion in track and field in 1992 (with a time of 17:57.46) and national runner-up in cross country in 1991 (with a personal-best time of 17:33).

Department Coordinator Olivia Sabins joined the Occidental Athletics Department in February 1989 and was a mainstay of the department for more than 36 years, retiring in June. She was known as the welcoming face of ��鱨վ athletics, supporting thousands of students and staff and helping foster the department’s family-like culture—which was evident on a morning full of Tiger pride.

Dick Anderson

Photos by Marc Campos

December 17, 2025

Fall 2025 Alumni Engagement Athletics From the Quad

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Readings

2019 Glee Club Welcome Concert

Summer With the LA Phil

A Couple’s Legacy

Weaving Community Into Curriculum

Fertile Imagination

Remembering Steve Hinchliffe ’55, Devoted Steward of Occidental

Miller’s Crossing

Remembering Marsha Kinder: Pioneer, Collaborator, Mentor

Meet the 2025 Athletics Hall of Famers

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