OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE
ANNUAL R E P O RT 2015-2016
annual report
2015-2016 1
CONTENTS 2
From President Jonathan Veitch
ccidental’s momentum reflects a powerful mission, a O shared vision, and hard work by students, faculty, and staff.
4
The Life of the Student Occidental enables talented, visionary students to manifest their passions—and here are just a few of the ways they’re doing it.
6
Acting Locally, Acting Globally From metropolitan Los Angeles to a Japanese mountainside, Oxy students emerge as citizens of the world.
8
Scholarship in Action
ndergraduate and faculty scholars collect accolades and U honors in the liberal arts and sciences.
10 All in for Oxy Athletics With baseball’s first SCIAC title in 24 years, a continued resurgence in track and field, and improvements in other programs, student-athletes and their families are embracing the Tigers’ mantra.
12 Equity & Excellenece Gifts from Linda and Tod White ’59, Lois and Dickson Shafer ’50, and the Hearst Foundation, among many others, make an impact on the College’s core mission.
14
Engaging Alumni & Families You don’t have to return to campus to be an active member of the Oxy community—and it was another busy year to be a Tiger.
16
Oxy Annual Fund The combined efforts of students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff create a foundation of support that the College could not do without.
18 The Bottom Line Oxy’s 2015-16 results underline the fundamental importance of the College’s endowment in providing an enduring source of revenue.
20 Board of Trustees/Alumni Board of Governors
annual report
2015-2016 1
24
annual report
2015-2016
A
s I begin my seventh year at Occidental, it’s deeply gratifying to be able to cite strong reviews of our institutional performance. We are one of the country’s top liberal arts colleges, according to The Wall Street Journal; one of the country’s most economically diverse campuses, according to The New York Times; and benefit from strong governance and financial management, according to Forbes and Moody’s Investors Service. These results reflect a powerful mission, a shared vision, and hard work by faculty, students, and staff. This last year also yielded additional evidence that others recognize the value of our efforts. We recruited an outstanding group of young professors with expertise ranging from paleoclimatology to modern architecture. We received major funding for the Fletcher Jones Foundation Genomics Center in Moore Laboratory of Zoology, a centerpiece of our innovative new environmental sciences program. A new grant from the National Science Foundation will make it possible for us to encourage students with financial need to consider majors in science and mathematics. At the same time, we have made several key hires to maintain our momentum as an institution that combines liberal arts excellence with providing access to talented students, regardless of their background. We lured Charlie Cardillo away from Harvard to head our fundraising efforts and take on the critically important task of building our endowment and increasing student scholarships. Cherena Walker joined us from Princeton to run the Hameetman Career Center and help students understand the value of their liberal arts skills in today’s marketplace. And we hired Rhonda Brown of Temple University as our first chief diversity officer to help us better address the concerns about equity and inclusion that were voiced so eloquently at Oxy and other campuses across the country. None of this would have been possible without your support. I am enormously grateful for your generosity, which has underwritten Occidental’s continuing success. Thank you.
Using Payscale.com data for graduates of the schools in its 2016 Top 100 Colleges list, Forbes found that Occidental graduates saw the highest increase in pay from early to mid-career earnings of any other top 100 school—a 142 percent jump, to $112,000.
Rated by The New York Times as one of the country’s most economically diverse campuses, Occidental (with an endowmentper-student figure of $157,000) serves a larger percentage of low-income students than higherranked schools such as Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford, where endowment-per-student figures exceed $1 million.
GIFT RECEIPTS BY SOURCE
For Occidental’s new $34.27-million bond issue, Moody’s confirmed the College’s Aa3 credit rating— fourth-highest on Moody’s 21-point scale—based on Oxy’s financial health, strong governance and management, and student demand based on its reputation as an elite liberal arts college.
(Total: $25,247,656)
Alumni
$6,074,283
Friends
$488,431
Bequests
$4,603,107
Parents
$872,028
Corporations and Foundations
$7,901,595
Students
Faculty, Staff, and Administration
$47,147
Trusts
$1,744 $148,574
Total trustee giving in 2015-2016 was $4,916,737, which includes $1,409,357 in influenced gifts through foundations and corporations.
GIFT RECEIPTS BY KIND 5% $1,172,335 Oxy Annual Fund Scholarships
12% $2,916,767 Oxy Annual Fund General
(Total: $25,247,656) 0% $13,316 Other
31% $7,864,622 Capital (Plant, Building, Equipment, etc.)
1% $232,912 Oxy Annual Fund Athletics 2% $490,542 Annuity and life income
15% $3,758,102 Departmental support
Jonathan Veitch President 35% $8,799,060 Endowment annual report
2015-2016 3 5
The Life of
TH E STUD E NT rounded in the College’s longstanding mission, Occidental prepares students to thrive in a complex and diverse world. This is the benefit of a liberal arts education that is uniquely Oxy. Hard work is rewarded here, with an intellectually rigorous and stimulating academic environment, and intimate classroom settings where talented professors know their students by name. No residential liberal arts college campus is so perfectly situated within the heart of the world’s most dynamic, global city, yet so connected (through the Kahane United Nations program, Campaign Semester, and Study Abroad opportunities) to every corner of the world. With three-quarters of students receiving financial aid—which is only possible through the support of alumni, parents, and friends of the College—Oxy firmly believes that access fosters excellence. Occidental is a place for talented, visionary students to manifest their passions.
THE CL ASS OF 2020 AT A GL ANCE
508 STUDENTS 36% 15% 8%
The College extended admission to 46 percent of all applicants
APPLICANTS TO OXY
8.5%
increase from the previous year and a new College record
4
annual report
2015-2016
INTERNATIONAL
STUDENTS
FIRST-
GENERATION
STUDENTS
25
students from
CHINA
7%
students from
CALIFORNIA
with ties to Oxy, including one fourthgeneration Tiger
3
PROFESSIONAL
ACTORS
1
6
1. Frances Delfin ’17 shares her InternLA experience working at the Echo Park Film Center during the Career Development Center’s Reverse Career Fair in September 2015. 2. Jackson Goode ’18 uses a virtual reality headset to watch a film about the Ebola virus aftermath in the Varelas Innovation Lab of Johnson Hall in February 2016. 3. Jacques Lesure ’19 discusses “Apathy Factories: Lack As Violence” at Oxy’s second TEDx event in Choi Auditorium on April 2, 2016. 4. Nick Foy ’17 conducts original scientific research in Norris Hall of Chemistry in June 2016 as part of Oxy’s Summer Research Program. 5. Many teachers quickly mobilized their classes after hundreds of students occupied the Arthur G. Coons Administrative Center in November 2015—a protest that lasted five days. Adelaida Lopez, professor of Spanish and French studies, took her Advanced Spanish class to the first-floor hallway of the AGC. 6. Black Eyed Peas member Taboo (aka Jaime Gómez) poses with Oxy students after participating in “I Am Latino in America,” hosted by Soledad O’Brien, in October 2015.
2
3
4
5
annual report
2015-2016 5
Acting
LOCA LL Y
Inspired by his colleagues and students’ enthusiasm for research on Los Angeles, Jeremiah “Jem” Axelrod—an adjunct professor of history, American studies, art history, and urban and environmental policy at Oxy—set out to design and propose a new institute dedicated to teaching and research about the city. In fall 2015, Axelrod formally announced the launch of Occidental’s new Institute for the Study of Los Angeles.
6
annual report
2015-2016
Rooted in the College’s strategic vision of an academic program intertwined with all that metropolitan Los Angeles has to offer, the institute and its interdisciplinary mission are the product of a collaboration between dozens of faculty from 11 departments, a long list of community partners, and President Jonathan Veitch, who secured a major grant from Howard Ahmanson ’72’s Charitable Community Trust.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a five-year, $800,000 grant to Occidental to fund the College’s new Arts and Urban Experience Initiative. The money “will enable us to develop our new Oxy Arts Center into a creative hub that will link the arts and urban life and effectively transform the liberal arts experience at Occidental,” says President Veitch. The grant also will be used to stimulate deeper collaboration between academic departments, Oxy Arts, and the new Institute for the Study of Los Angeles.
A five-year, $606,191 grant from the National Science Foundation will fund a series of annual grants to talented Occidental math and science majors with financial need—part of the national effort to produce more STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates.
Occidental’s Moore Laboratory of Zoology has received a total of $1.15 million in grants from the Fletcher Jones Foundation and the Keck Foundation to transform the 65-year-old lab into a state-of-the-art genomics center. Together with a $1.8-million grant from a generous anonymous alumnus, the College has raised $2.95 million in new funds to make over the lab. The $750,000 grant from the Fletcher Jones Foundation will be used to renovate the second floor of the lab and establish the Fletcher Jones Foundation Genomics Center.
Acting
G LOBA L L Y W
ith the burden of finals behind them, nearly two dozen Oxy students made a 5,500-mile journey to Japan from December 14 to 22, 2015, at the invitation of Harry H. Horinouchi, consul general of Japan in Los Angeles. Out of 83 applicants, 23 lucky undergrads (six freshmen, 10 sophomores, four juniors, and three seniors) were chosen to participate in the Kakehashi Project, the country’s Friendship Ties youth exchange program. (“Kakehashi” means “bridge.”) All expenses—including airfare, meals, lodging, and transportation—were paid for by the Japanese government.
annual report
2015-2016 7
SC HOL ARSHIP IN ACTION Undergraduate and faculty scholars collect accolades and honors in the liberal arts and sciences
Professor of art history Amy Lyford, winner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s 2015 Charles C. Eldredge Prize for distinguished scholarship, delivered the museum’s annual Eldredge Prize lecture on sculptor Isamu Noguchi on Jan. 27, 2016. Lyford presented her talk, titled “Isamu Noguchi, Asian America, and Artistic Identity in Postwar New York,” at the museum in Washington, D.C. Jurors for the prize called Lyford’s Isamu Noguchi’s Modernism: Negotiating Race, Labor, and Nation, 1930-1950 (University of California Press, 2013) “beautifully written … This pioneering book will change how we think about Noguchi, modernist sculpture, and American art.”
8
annual report
2015-2016
Jennifer Piscopo, assistant professor of politics, was named the 2016-17 Peggy Rockefeller Visiting Scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University— a prestigious appointment that provides support for a visiting scholar from any country whose work involves Latin America. Piscopo, an expert on Latin American quota laws that require political parties to nominate certain percentages of women to legislative office, will return to Oxy for the spring 2017 semester.
Mary Christianakis, associate professor of critical theory and social justice at Oxy, has been appointed to a three-year term as editor of Teacher Education Quarterly, a peer-reviewed journal published by the California Council on Teacher Education since 1972. As editor, she plans to expand the treatment of such issues as teacher education for English Language Learners in STEM fields; exploring the links between the latest brain research and teacher knowledge; and teacher education involving critical social justice. An award-winning scholar, Christianakis studies literacy development, language, and discourse and chairs Oxy’s CTSJ department.
For the 10th consecutive year, Occidental is one of the country’s top producers of student Fulbright Awards, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s annual Fulbright rankings. Eleven Oxy seniors and alumni won Fulbrights in 2015 to work and study in nine countries on four continents. Occidental ranked ninth overall among liberal arts colleges, according to the Chronicle rankings, ahead of such colleges as Swarthmore, Wellesley, Macalester, Carleton, and Claremont McKenna. Chelsea Blankenchip ’17 (a biochemistry major from Carmichael), Kayla Currier ’17 (a mathematics and physics double major from San Dimas), and Natalie Dwulet ’17 (a chemistry major from Los Altos) are among 252 recipients of 2016 Goldwater scholarships, presented to sophomores and juniors who plan careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering.
In keeping with the 2015-16 College theme of “Sustainability,” assistant biology professor Amanda Zellmer snapped this image at the corner of Campus Road and Avenue 47 last March, taking second place in Oxy’s Earth Week Photo Contest. The name of her entry? “Sustaina-bee-lity.”
annual report
2015-2016 9
All in for Oxy
GABRIEL BARRETT-JACKSON ’18 Soccer First Team All-SCIAC (2015)
AT HLET I CS
JEH JOHNSON ’17 Track & Field Two-time All-American
“Momentum is on our side when it comes to Occidental athletics,” says associate vice president and athletics director Jaime Hoffman. Coming off a 2015-16 season that saw baseball’s first SCIAC title in 24 years (led by 2016 First Team All-American Devon De Raad ’17, left), a continued resurgence in track and field (including Hugh Pegan ’18’s national title in the 200m), and improvements in other programs, student-athletes and their families are embracing the mantra “All in for Oxy.” And with a new aquatic center and the addition of two new tennis courts soon to follow, the College is bringing the momentum home.
ROSE SEABROOK ’17 Swimming Three Oxy school records
JULIE KHIL ’17 Soccer Three-time First Team All-SCIAC (career)
SIERRA SLACK ’19
10
annual report
2015-2016
Lacrosse First Team All-West Region, First Team All-SCIAC (2015)
ANDREW JOHNSON ’18 BRYAN SCOTT ’17 JAY MILLER ’17 Basketball First Team All-SCIAC (2015-16)
Football SCIAC all-time passing leader (career)
Basketball Two-time Second Team All-SCIAC (2014-15, 2015-16)
CLAIRE STROHM ’18 Volleyball Two-time Second Team All-SCIAC (2015, 2016)
ALEXANDRIA BATTEST ’18 Softball Batted .306 as a junior annual report
2015-2016 11
EQUIT Y & E XCELLENCE Gifts from Linda and Tod White ’59, Lois and Dickson Shafer ’50, and the Hearst Foundation, among many others, make an impact on the College’s core mission Five years after graduating from Oxy as a political science major, Tod White ’59 made his first gift to the College. That $5 ($38.51 in 2016 dollars) was the start of a lifetime of philanthropy that culminated in a matching-gift challenge that, during the 2015-16 fiscal year, generated $811,655 in support of Oxy’s track and field program. An emeritus trustee of Oxy (having served from 2002 to 2010), White has long been a champion of the College. In 2007, he and wife Linda made a generous gift to Oxy’s endowment that not only supports the College’s Center for Teaching Excellence but also facilitates the awarding each year of the Linda and Tod White Teaching Prize to some of Oxy’s most talented faculty members. “Someone has to step out first,” says White, who was introduced to Linda by his track and field From left, Linda and Tod White ’59 with teammate and relay partner, Ty Hadley ’58. “Good professors Gretchen North (biology) and Felisa Guillén (Spanish and French ideas just need one person.” studies), the 2015 recipients of the White Tod White’s philanthropy has inspired Teaching Prize. many of his peers—including Edward Bixler ’59, Loren Brodhead ’59, Dennis Lanterman ’57, Bob Lord ’58 M’61, Alex Reisbord ’59, Dave Reisbord ’58, Larry Wray ’57, and John Zetzman ’58, among others—to endow Oxy’s track and field program. Their efforts were spearheadedby financial planner John McGrath ’63, a three-time Amateur
12
annual report
2015-2016
Tod White ’59 and relay partner Ty Hadley ’58 as undergrads.
“Good ideas just need one person.” —TOD WHITE ’59 Athletic Union champ in shot put, who years ago mounted the first annual fund campaign for track and field (the predecessor for today’s Tiger Club). Add to that support from track and field standout John Kuechle ’74 P’09, and they were well on their way to the finish line. In recognition of Oxy track’s unparalleled legacy (56 men’s and 13 women’s SCIAC championships), the group mounted an effort to raise $1 million for the endowment to support track and field’s coaching, recruiting, and related needs in perpetuity. White was the first to step up, pledging $2 for every dollar raised up to $500,000. Coupled with the College’s renewed commitment to excellence in track and field, Oxy has made great strides in a short period of time. After a sixth-place finish in 2014, men’s track Hugh Pegan ‘18, a mathematics major from finished second to Claremont-MuddUkiah and Oxy’s first national track and field Scripps in 2015 and came within 25 champion (in the 200m) since 1985. points of upending the Stags in 2016 after going undefeated in SCIAC dual meets. Given the momentum that the Tigers are enjoying, Oxy’s prospects of grabbing a 57th SCIAC title next spring are looking very strong, indeed.
Professor of biology Gretchen North has been appointed the John W. McMenamin Endowed Chair in Biology, a new position created with an estate gift by the late Dickson Shafer ’50 as a tribute to his favorite professor. A 1940 graduate of Oxy, McMenamin taught biology at the College from 1946 until his retirement in 1982. His teaching and research interests focused on cellular and developmental biology. Later in his career he studied the histology of fishes, especially the structural adaptations of the ovary of surfperch (the livebearing marine fishes along the West Coast). John W. McMenamin ’40 During his 12 years as chair of the College’s biology department, several institutional grants provided modern facilities and instrumentation for research and the number of faculty members in the department doubled. North joined the Oxy faculty in 1997. Her research focuses on plant physiological ecology, with an emphasis on the water relations of arid land plants and plants in the rainforest canopy. She also investigates cellular and subcellular mechanisms of plant water uptake and transport. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution, and she has received numerous honors while at Oxy, most recently the Linda and Tod White ’59 Teaching Prize in 2015. Dickson Shafer, who died in 2015, attended Oxy for two years as a psychology major. While at Oxy, he was intrigued by Professor McMenamin’s plant physiology class, and later he returned to this passion as an avid avocado grower in his retirement. Together with his late wife, Lois, he created a pair of charitable trusts, the remainder of which (more than $1.8 million) will fund the McMenamin Chair Professor of biology Gretchen North in perpetuity.
A $100,000 grant from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation will make it possible for Occidental to continue to meet its longstanding commitment to first-generation, low-income and underrepresented students. The new grant provided annual scholarship support for seven highachieving Occidental students with financial need during the 2015-16 academic year. The funds will complement the College’s endowed Hearst Scholarship Program, which was established in 1985 and currently supports two students. The 2015-16 scholarship recipients are: Gabriel Barrett-Jackson ’18, an urban and environmental policy major from Seattle; Marcus Forbes ’19, a critical theory and social justice major from Folsom; Onye Nwabueze ’17, a cognitive science major from San Francisco; Saaron Ramirez ’17, a politics major from Los Angeles; Ruth Sanchez ’16, a Latino/a and Latin American studies and Spanish studies double major from Los Angeles; Gabrielle Seiwert ’18, a critical theory and social justice major from Galesburg, Ill.; and Kailee Whitten ’18, a Chinese studies Hearst Scholar and All-SCIAC sprinter Onye Nwabueze ’17 major from Wuhan, China. “Occidental’s mission and strategic plan are both clear: Our goal is to ensure that students from all backgrounds have the opportunity to attend, and thrive at, Occidental,” says Vince Cuseo, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission. “The continuing generosity of the Hearst Foundation will play an important role in making sure we continue to meet that goal.”
annual report
2015-2016 13
Engaging
ALUM N I & FAMILIES Thousands of Oxy alumni and parents returned to Eagle Rock for Family Weekend & Homecoming in October 2015, and again in June 2016 for three days of reconnecting with old friends at Alumni Reunion Weekend. But the growing reach of the Office of Alumni & Parent Engagement and regional chapters across the country means that you don’t have to come back to campus to be an active member of the Oxy community. From Tokyo to Honolulu and from Seattle to Washington, D.C., alumni were able to attend lectures by Oxy faculty, visit museums, enjoy music and theater, or just get together for a social happy hour. Some explored the world with other alumni as part of the Tiger Travel program, including the sold-out New York and London theater tours. Others didn’t have to leave home and met with teammates and other friends through affinity groups such as Tiger Club, Black Alumni of Occidental, and Alumni of Occidental in Education. All in all, it was another busy year to be a Tiger!
A special thank you to the more than 100 alumni and parent volunteers who helped with Reunion, regional events, and affinity group activities. These dedicated Tigers act as ambassadors, strategic planners, and hosts and help build stronger networks within the Oxy community.
14
annual report
2015-2016
ALUMNI SE AL WINNERS Clockwise from upper left, Alumni Seal honorees Silva Zeneian ’01 (Erica J. Murray Young Alumni Award), Jack Hodges ’61 (service to the community), Leslie (Bolt) Dennis ’66 (service to the College), and Fred DuVal ’76 (alumnus of the year). Ippolita Rostagno ’86 (professional achievement) was unable to attend. Each year, the Alumni Association presents the Alumni Seal Awards to recognize outstanding alumni contributions in four areas: outstanding young alumnus or alumna, service to the community, professional achievement, and service to the College.
1
2
1. Members of the Class of ’96 during Alumni Reunion Weekend in June. 2. Hamilton actor Jonathan Groff meets with members of the New York Theater Tour in April 2016. 3. Rosalind and Sammy Lee ’43 visit with President Veitch during the 2015 Athletics Hall of Fame reception. A twotime Olympic gold medalist in diving, Lee died Dec. 2, 2016. 4. The New York Regional Engagement Committee hosted a reception honoring Ming Cho Lee ’53 at a MOCA exhibition of his work in September 2016. 5. Tigers of all stripes, including Oswald, party like they’re back in college during the Throwback Bash under the Tiger Tent. 6. Alisa Fishbach ’87, assistant director of alumni and parent 3
engagement, with husband Tom Kosakowski ’88 and their children, Thomas Kosakowski and Emery Fishbach.
5
4
6
annual report
2015-2016 15
OXY ANN UAL FUND The Oxy Annual Fund is critical to providing a high-quality experience for undergraduates through:
• Scholarships for talented students • World-class academic programs • Preservation of Oxy’s stunning campus • Real-world career preparation and internship opportunities • An exciting intercollegiate athletic program • High impact co-curricular experiences such as Study Abroad, Glee Club, and Campaign Semester • Hands-on research opportunities with faculty
In the 2015-16 academic year, the Oxy community contributed 8,013 gifts totaling $4.3 million. Your generosity supports Oxy’s greatest needs: 5% Athletics
27% Scholarships
68% Academics, student programs, and student life
16
annual report
2015-2016
Students of Music 268, Vienna 1890-1914—accompanied by associate professor of music David Kasunic (back row, far right)—concluded the spring 2016 course with a three-week trip to Vienna, attending lectures, classes, and concerts, and visiting the historical, cultural, and musical sites they studied on campus. The trip was sponsored by Oxy’s International Programs Office with the support of the Oxy Annual Fund.
Students in Kasunic’s Music 268 class recreated a turn-ofthe-century Viennese coffee house on April 27, 2016, in Erdman Hall.
From student callers and recent grads to alumni and parents, the Oxy Annual Fund depends on the fundraising efforts of dozens of people who devote their energies to giving future generations of students the best possible Oxy experience. Parents Council members engage with fellow parents from across the country to discuss their philanthropy to the College. Rising Philanthropists include some of Oxy’s youngest alumni—graduates of the last 10 years—who feel strongly about supporting the Oxy Annual Fund over the long term. Leadership Giving members are philanthropic leaders in the Oxy community and strengthen ties between the College and its alumni supporters. Reunion Giving committee members encourage their classmates to contribute to Oxy in honor of their milestone reunion every five years. Senior Class Gift committee members encourage their classmates to support the College with a gift prior to graduation, helping to ensure that their own meaningful Oxy experiences will be available for future generations of Tigers.
A COMMUNIT Y OF GIVING Raising money for the Oxy Annual Fund requires the combined efforts from students, parents, alumni, faculty, and staff to create a foundation of support that the College could not do without.
EVERY GIFT MAKES A DIFFERENCE Every dollar counts! Of the $4.3 million raised in 2015-16, gifts of less than $1,000 accounted for nearly 20 percent of that total. Even the smallest gift helps Oxy fulfill its mission of providing a total educational experience of the highest quality to a community of gifted and diverse students.
TeleFund students provide year-round outreach in support of the Oxy Annual Fund. These students share their own personal experiences at the College in reaching out to alumni, parents, and friends. Their efforts are crucial to Oxy’s financial well-being.
As an urban and environmental policy major at Oxy, Lila Singer-Berk ’14 (left, with Grace Bender ’15 in the FEAST garden) introduced many of her fellow students to sustainability initiatives on campus. Now she is a research assistant at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where she is pursuing a master’s in urban planning. “My professors at Oxy not only helped me get into graduate school, but they taught me to read critically, engage in a social justice and equity mindset, and speak up in class with confidence,” she says. “I give back to Oxy as a volunteer [with the Rising Philanthropists program] and with my annual donation to ensure that future students have an experience that is as transformational as my own.”
annual report
2015-2016 17
TH E BOT TOM LINE Oxy’s 2015-16 results underline the fundamental importance of the College’s endowment in providing an enduring source of revenue The 2015-16 fiscal year was a difficult one for college and university endowments, yielding the worst performance since the 2009 recession, according to Bloomberg. Occidental was not immune: As of June 30, 2016, the College’s endowment stood at $371 million, with a negative 3.9 percent return for the fiscal year. Given that result, it’s cold comfort that Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Pomona, and many others also saw negative returns. The Board of Trustees investment committee necessarily takes the long view. Over the last 15 years, the Occidental endowment has earned an average annualized compound return of 6.1 percent. Our 2015-16 results, while disappointing, help illustrate the fundamental importance of the College’s endowment in providing an enduring source of support for Occidental. Since 1903, when it was launched with a three-year campaign that raised $202,000, Occidental’s endowment has generated a significant and reliable flow of funds to the College’s operating budget. By pursuing a sensible balance between the needs of the present and the needs of the future, the investment committee seeks to achieve several important goals: •E nsuring that a consistent level of funding will be available each year for the College’s more than 360 student scholarship funds, regardless of periodic market downturns. •P roviding a hedge against inflation and ensuring that the endowment’s buying power is preserved over time. •M aking budgeting a more predictable process and smoothing out what might otherwise be dramatic fluctuations in revenue.
18
annual report
2015-2016
Overall, Occidental’s fiscal management has received high marks. Moody’s Investors Service recently confirmed the College’s Aa3 credit rating—fourth highest on Moody’s 21-point scale—based on our financial health, strong governance and management, and reputation as an elite liberal arts college. Forbes’ most recent Top Colleges Financial Grade list of private colleges gave Oxy an A, and the U.S. Department of Education’s Financial Responsibility Composite Score for Oxy is a 3.0—the highest possible. But strong budget management and even the best of annual returns cannot solve Occidental’s chief financial challenge: A modest endowment that currently produces only 16 percent of operating budget revenues. (At Harvard and Yale, the endowment produces roughly onethird of budget revenues; at Pomona, more than half.) With nearly 70 percent of operating funds coming from tuition revenues, Occidental is much more vulnerable to the vagaries of the admission process, in which a single year’s recruitment shortfall could have serious budget consequences. Whether it’s making an Occidental education accessible to talented students regardless of their background, offering competitive faculty salaries in a metropolitan area with a high cost of living, or keeping current with the latest technology, growing the endowment is key. This is why Occidental continues to make building the endowment our top fundraising priority. Amos Himmelstein Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
AV E R AGE A N N UA L CO MP OU N D RE TURN S FOR PE RIO DS EN D I N G JU N E 3 0 70/30 BENCHMARK* 1 year
-3.9%
-0.7%
OPER ATIONAL E XPENDITURES
3 year 3.7% 5.6% 5 year 4.5% 5.1% 10 year 5.1% 4.8% 15 year
6.1%
4.2% Public service
5.3%
* invested 70% in global stocks (as measured by the MSCI All Country World Index) and 30% invested in U.S. bonds (as measured by the BC Aggregate Bond Index)
2.7% Research
6.8% Advancement
OPER ATING REVENUE
3.6% Federal and state grants and contracts
35.4% Instruction
8.4% Academic support
2.6% Auxiliary services (bookstore, conference, filming, food) 2.3% Other
10.3% Institutional support
6.7% Private gifts, grants, and contracts
12.5% Student services
16.0% Endowment support designated for operations
19.7% Auxiliary services
68.8% Net tuition revenues
annual report
2015-2016 19
BOARD OF TRUSTEES 2016-2017 Patricia Lebre Alireza ’94 Research Scientist Quantum Matter Group David H. Anderson ’63 Attorney (retired) Carl A. Ballton ’69 Senior Vice President (retired) Union Bank David W. Berkus ’62 P’95 President Berkus Technology Ventures LLC Coit D. Blacker ’71 Professor & Senior Fellow Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University John G. Branca ’72 Partner Ziffren Brittenham LLP Eileen Anisgarten Brown ’73 Real Estate Developer Brown’s Building Blocks David W. Burcham ’73 Professor Loyola Marymount University Christopher C. Calkins ’67 P’96 President Carltas Co. Anne Cannon ’74 Independent Financial Adviser and CPA Dennis A. Collins P’94 President & CEO (retired) The James Irvine Foundation
20
annual report
2015-2016
Bill Davis ’80 President Southern California Public Radio Hector De La Torre ’89 Executive Director Transamerica Center for Health Studies Susan M. DiMarco P’17 Dentist (retired) Gloria Duffy ’75 President & CEO Commonwealth Club of California Louise D. Edgerton ’67 M’69 Secretary, Treasurer & Director Edgerton Foundation John R. Farmer P’98 Senior Director Goldman Sachs
Lisa H. Link P’18 Gordon A. MacInnes ’63 President New Jersey Policy Perspective Susan H. Mallory ’76 M’78 Chair Practice Executive, Banking/ Wealth Management Northern Trust Greta J. Mandell ’72 P’92 Psychiatrist Eric B. Moore ’83 Principal Avison Young Steven J. Olson Partner O’Melveny & Myers
Vincent Padua ’74 Alan G. Freeman ’66 M’67 P’89 ’91 General Counsel Hassen Development Corp. Professor Emeritus Occidental College John B. Power ’58 Partner (retired) Ronald R. Hahn ’66 O’Melveny & Myers Chairman Lotus Separations, LLC Steven R. Robinson ’77 President Fred J. Hameetman ’61 SRR Trading LLC Chairman American Group Stephen D. Rountree ’71 Managing Director Octavio V. Herrera ’98 Center Theatre Group Co-founder Lucid Sight Inc. Rick Rugani ’75 Independent Financial Adviser Asad Jumabhoy ’84 (retired) CEO The Scotts Group Janette Sadik-Khan ’82 Principal (Transportation) Giles “Gil” Kemp P’04 Bloomberg Associates Founder and President (retired) Home Decorators Collection Reid Samuelson ’72 Partner Naomi Kurata Samuelson Partners Managing Partner Tree Capital Group, LLC
Catherine Young Selleck ’55 President & CEO (retired) Metaphor Inc.
Alice Walker Duff ’69 Managing Director Bread of the World
Soroosh Shambayati ’86 CEO Guggenheim Investment Bankers S.A.
J. Eugene Grigsby III ’66 President & CEO (retired) National Health Foundation
Leslie Trim P’14 Co-Founder & COO (retired) Polaris Communications Christopher Varelas ’85 Partner Riverwood Capital
E X OFFICIO Jonathan Veitch President Occidental College Charles McClintock ’68 Professor & Dean Emeritus Fielding Graduate University
PRESIDENTS EMERITI Theodore R. Mitchell Robert A. Skotheim John Brooks Slaughter
CHAIRS EMERITI
Stephen F. Hinchliffe Jr. ’55 Chairman & CEO The Leisure Group Inc. John T. Knox ’49 P’84 Partner Nossaman, Gunther, Knox & Elliott Allen W. Mathies Jr. President Emeritus Huntington Memorial Hospital Ian McKinnon ’89 Founding Partner Sandia Holdings LLC Kristine A. Morris ’76 Founding Partner (of counsel) Morris & Berger Catherine A. Pepe ’64 Partner (retired) O’Melveny & Myers
Virginia Goss Cushman ’55 Civic Volunteer
David H. Roberts ’67 Retired Citibank/Citigroup
Irwin S. Field Chairman Liberty Vegetable Oil Co.
Jack D. Samuelson ’46 P’72 ’77 President Samuelson Partners
Peter W. Mullin Chairman & CEO Mullin Consulting Inc.
Rosemary B. Simmons ’53 Former Councilmember (retired) City of San Marino
TRUSTEES EMERITI
S. Tod White ’59 Founder & CEO (retired) Blessing/White, Inc.
Ronald J. Arnault President RJA Consultants
Charles E. Young Chancellor Emeritus UCLA
ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF GOVERNORS 2016 -2017 Carlos E. Aguilar ’98 Richard Askew ’98 Monica D. Banken ’99, member-at-large Amy Laslett Berger ’08 Lois G. Carwile ’45 Anne H. Egerton ’76 David J. Estrada ’05, vice president Bradley C. Fauvre ’87, vice president Benjamin L. Finser ’13 Vincent M. Gallo ’79 Jessica M. Gelzer ’11 Yelka W. Kamara ’12 Wendell “Mort” Mortimer ’58 Charles McClintock ’68, president Ara J. Najarian ’82 P’16 Tuan Q. Ngo ’07 Tayler K. Renshaw ’14, vice president Danielle H. Siegler ’11 Frank Van Der Baan ’67 Eric H. Warren ’69 Joan B. Wickham ’07 Robert B. Wicklund ’05
Taken on a trail above the Greek Bowl on March 5, 2016, Jodie Henderson ’16’s “Morning Prayer” won the Earth Week Photo Contest at Oxy last spring. Henderson is a sociology major and classical studies minor from Window Rock, Ariz.
Editor Dick Anderson Director of Communications Jim Tranquada Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communications Marty Sharkey Director of Campaign Communications Michelle McMichael Photography Marc Campos* Design Meghan Leavitt Printing DLS Group Published by Occidental College Office of Communications F-36 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314 Printed on recycled paper * Additional photography by Kevin Burke (cover, pages 6, 10, 17), Bob Palermini (page 12), Kirby Lee (page 13), John Valenzuela (page 10) Illustration by Todd Webb (page 17)
1600 Campus Road Los Angeles, CA 90041-3314