Occidental Magazine - Winter 2020 by Occidental College

Ofﬁce of Communications F-36 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314

WINTER 2020

Nonprofit U.S. Postage Paid Occidental College

Words and Pictures: Artist Kenturah Davis ’02

Dan Springer ’85’s Designs for DocuSign

Address Service Requested

WINTER 2020

Lois Aroian ’67 knows firsthand the sacrifice that many parents make to send their children to college. “My dad worked his whole life so that my sister [a Stanford graduate] and I could attend a private college if we wanted to,” she says. “My mother, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in which her father had been killed, had won a full scholarship to Smith College but couldn’t accept it because her family had no money. “Each of us, whether we received any financial aid or not, knows that Occidental can continue to thrive only with the aid of those alumni who came before us. Whatever resources we have, however modest, are gifts from God to be used to help others in whatever way we choose,” adds Lois, who honored her mother’s memory through the creation of the Arminé Dingilian Aroian Global Opportunities Endowed Fund. “I am setting up this fund to help students who would like to go abroad but who can’t come up with all the money for whatever reason,” she explains. “I don’t think they should have to spend their time abroad working if they should be studying and learning about their host country or culture.” Professionally, Lois has enjoyed a broad range of careers: from teaching and research to diplomacy to ministry. During her diplomatic career, she preached and led worship at various churches abroad until the call to fulltime ministry became so strong that in 2003 she entered seminary part-time and placed herself under the care of the National Capital Presbytery. “It took me six years to finish,” Lois says. “I interned for two years at the Gaborone Methodist Church in Botswana while serving as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy. I was able to involve the entire U.S. Mission community in supporting the church’s food bank, which delivered food aid to needy residents of Gaborone.” Although Lois ended up pastoring fulltime in South Dakota and Michigan for only 6½ years, she still leads worship as a guest pastor and is active in the Presbytery and Synod. At the most recent General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), she

Photo courtesy Lois Aroian ’67

“Learning about other cultures makes us at home in the world,” says Lois, shown in Bodo, Norway.

roomed with Carolyn Harris, wife of Brice Harris, Occidental professor of history emeritus. “I’m delighted that my relationships with people I knew at Oxy continue to the present day,” Lois says. “I still seek a better world,” she adds. “In this era of extreme partisan politics and social dislocation, it’s very important that people understand that the same homo sapiens occupies the planet. Learning about other cultures makes us at home in the world. You shouldn’t have to be wealthy to be able to go abroad.”

oxy.edu/magazine

Occidental College Oﬃce of Gift Planning M-36 | 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314 | Phone: 323-259-2644 Email: giftplanning@oxy.edu | oxy.edu/giftplanning | facebook.com/BenCulleySociety

OXY ARTS SETS UP SHOP IN THE COMMUNITY /// RACING PAST BARRIERS: GIRLS GOTTA RUN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KAYLA NOLAN ’11

Lois Aroian ’67 Sees the World

Aquaﬁnally!

The sparkling new De Mandel Aquatics Center changes the Tigers’ competitive landscape— and ushers in a new era for Oxy athletics

OXYFARE Upward Bound Marks 55 Years With a Reunion and Celebration Volume 42, Number 1 oxy.edu/magazine OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

Jonathan Veitch President Wendy F. Sternberg Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College Charlie Cardillo Vice President for Institutional Advancement Vince Cuseo Vice President of Enrollment and Dean of Admission Rob Flot Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Amos Himmelstein Vice President & Chief Operating Officer Marty Sharkey Vice President for Communications and Institutional Initiatives Jim Tranquada Director of Communications

Courtney Stricklin Burgan ’03 Summer Staﬀ Softball Commissioner

Occidental College Bookstore oxybookstore.com To order by phone: 323-259-2951 All major credit cards accepted

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Photos by Nick Jacob (Upward Bound), Don Milici (2000), and Phoebe Seman ’17 (Gleason)

It was 20 years ago this May: Members of the Class of 2000 contemplate the future.

Dick Anderson Editor Laura Paisley, Jasmine Teran Contributing Writers Marc Campos Contributing Photographer Gail (Schulman) Ginell ’79 Class Notes Editor SanSoucie Design Design DLS Group Printing

Whether it’s been ﬁve years or 50 since you walked across the Hillside Theater stage, we invite you to return to Oxy, connect with friends old and new, and get a ﬁrsthand look at what is happening on campus today. Take tours of prominent L.A. landmarks, attend classes taught by your favorite professors, and celebrate this year’s Alumni Seal Awards honorees. We can’t wait to welcome you and your classmates back home this June!

Published quarterly by Occidental College Main number: 323-259-2500 To contact Occidental magazine By phone: 323-259-2679 By email: oxymag@oxy.edu By mail: Occidental College Oﬃce of Communications F-36 1600 Campus Road Los Angeles CA 90041-3314

Joanna Gleason ’72 Emerges Out of the Eclipse 5

1. Jesus Maldonado ’00, Upward Bound director, receives a citation from U.S. Representative Jimmy Gomez. 2. Judge Mablean Ephriam emceed the event. 3. Marguerite Archie-Hudson talks with ﬁlmmaker and former Upward Bound staﬀer Jesus Treviño ’68. 4. Kiyomi Ontiveros, a Franklin High School student and current Upward Bound participant. 5. Former Board of Trustees chair John Farmer P’94 and President Emeritus John Brooks Slaughter. 6. Upward Bound alumnus Hilly Hicks Sr. (1966-67) catches up with Dennis Collins P’94.

Letters and class notes may be edited for length, content, and style. Occidental College online Homepage: oxy.edu Facebook: facebook.com/occidental Twitter: @occidental Instagram: instagram.com/occidentalcollege Cover photo by Marc Campos Oxy Wear photo by Marc Campos

Full-zip Occidental College sweatshirt 50/50 cotton/poly. Available in granite or black Sizes S-XXL. $49.95

Alumni Reunion Weekend

editorial staff

OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

Courtney Stricklin Burgan ’03 Associate Dean of Admission

On Feb. 1, Upward Bound graduates and current program staﬀ gathered with a number of Oxy alumni who served as the program’s ﬁrst tutors to celebrate 55 years of service of one of the country’s oldest and most successful Upward Bound programs. Oxy’s Upward Bound Advocate Award was presented to former program director Marguerite Archie-Hudson and Dennis Collins P’94, former director of admission, dean of students, Board of Trustees chair, and an early supporter of the program.

Save the Dates: June 12-14 JUNE 12-14, 2020

4.20.20

Oxy is having its ﬁrst Day of Giving! Join the celebration on Founders Day.

Out of the Eclipse—Joanna Gleason ’72’s tuneful, tearful, and at-times laughﬁlled memory piece about her parents’ twilight years—played to an packed house that included scores of Oxy alumni and students at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Renberg Theatre on Feb. 16. Following the performance, Gleason spoke about using theater as a means of “processing my folks” at a post-show Q&A moderated by Professor Emeritus Alan Freeman ’66 M’67 and Professor Laural Meade ’88 from Gleason, left, discusses her craft with Freeman and Meade. Oxy’s Theater Department. Lauded by Freeman for her bravery to bare her emotions on stage, Gleason replied, “Why do it unless you’re going to peel back some of the artichoke and get to the heart?” Having staged it nine times now—twice in Los Angeles, six times in New York City, and once near her home in Connecticut—the Tony Award-winner (Into the Woods, 1988) plans to “put down” the show for a while. Gleason will be back on the Oxy campus on May 17 for Commencement, when she will be awarded an honorary doctorate for her commitment to the arts.

alumni.oxy.edu

WINTER 2020

Features 10 Second Signature In 2014, Dan Springer ’85 left a CEOship to raise his two sons. Then a dream job with DocuSign lured him back—and personally and professionally, he’s never been happier.

14 Harry J. Elam Jr., vice provost for undergraduate education at Stanford University, has been selected as Occidental’s 16th president and will begin his term July 1. Elam will be proﬁled in the Spring magazine. Visit oxy.edu/next-president to read more about him.

30 OxyTalk A generation of Black student activists rallies to support academic and life success for the underrepresented.

20 The Shape of Water What holds 598,000 gallons, contains 15 lanes, and has a capacity of 188? (It’s not your grandfather’s pool.)

First Word President Veitch salutes Oxy’s low-key hero in the college admission scandal. Also: Alumni appreciations of musicminded professors emeriti Allen Gross and Tom Somerville.

From the Quad A renewed commitment by the College provides a sense of community to veterans making the transition to college life. Also: The Oxy family mourns the deaths of two promising students.

Page 56 DWA and politics major Lencia Kebede ’16 ﬁnds her way from the footlights of Keck Theater to the touring companies of two of Broadway’s biggest shows—Rent and Hamilton.

Tigerwire Class notes for odd years.

17 Blur in the Interest of Precision Kenturah Davis ’02 explores the relationship between words and humanity through her intricate portraits—and L.A. Metro riders will be seeing a lot more of her work.

Departments

Feeding a Need With a rich menu of contemporary programming, Oxy Arts nourishes a socially conscious dialogue between the campus and community.

26 Personal Best Using running as a foundation for a better life, Girls Gotta Run executive director Kayla Nolan ’11 brings hope to school-age girls in Ethiopia one step at a time.

PHOTO CREDITS: Marc Campos Elam, Feeding a Need, From the Quad | Occidental College Special Collections First Word | Alice Walker Duﬀ ’69 OxyTalk | Desmond Nunn Page 56

FIRST WORD » FROM PRESIDENT VEITCH

Oxy’s Doing Fine With a Clear Bright Line Photos by Marc Campos

College admission officers are used to saying no—it’s an often difficult but necessary part of the job. Oxy Dean of Admission Vince Cuseo has to say it many times each year, which is why he didn’t think much of it in 2012 when he said no to an independent college counselor who urged him to reconsider a negative decision on an application. But this counselor was Rick Singer, who emerged last year as the central figure in the national college admission scandal. That’s why the story The Wall Street Journal posted on its website Nov. 6 was headlined, “When Admission Advisor Rick Singer Called, This School Said, ‘No, Thanks.’” Those of us who have worked closely with Vince during his 21-year career at Oxy were not surprised that he would reject an unethical proposition from anyone. Family wealth is not a factor when we make admission decisions. Vince has been a model of integrity in guiding our admission process and I respect him for it. Singer has confessed that he falsely presented his wealthy clients’ children as athletes, faked their test scores, and bribed college officials with “donations” to get them into top universities. Like any college president, fundraising is among my chief responsibilities, if not my biggest task. It would be disingenuous to claim that there are not times when we are aware of some applicants’ families’ giving potential. We do 2

OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE WINTER 2020

far left: Prospective students and their families check out Oxy during an admission event in February 2019. left: Dean of Admission Vince Cuseo says “Yes, thanks” to Oswald.

engage them if they are admitted and choose to enroll. But it has long been Occidental’s practice to disregard giving potential when considering students for admission. Without a clear bright line, the ethics of the admission process would be hopelessly compromised. To be fair—and we made this point to the Journal—many of our peers approach admission with the same kind of ethical standards. But the reporters had Singer’s specific complaint about Oxy’s unwillingness to entertain his dubious proposals, so we wound up as the focus of their coverage. One of the ironies in this situation is that by turning down Singer and whatever financial deal he was prepared to broker, Oxy has been the beneficiary of tens of thousands of dollars in financial support as a result of the Journal’s coverage. Within hours of the story’s publication, gifts started arriving—not just from alumni and parents but from members of the public who wanted to signal their support for the integrity of our admission process. Some of those who gave to the College in this way were motivated in part by the Journal’s reporting that Occidental, in deciding not to emulate the more aggressive fundraising efforts seen on some other campuses, has paid a financial price for sticking to its principles. It’s true that Occidental’s endowment is not as large as

some of its peers, and we do not have a palatial fitness center or a lazy river on campus. What we have had is a decade of balanced budgets, record high applications, and an impressive list of capital projects that have addressed long-standing needs, including the renovation and expansion of Swan Hall, construction of the De Mandel Aquatics Center and McKinnon Family Tennis Center, and the creation of the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs and the Anderson Center for Environmental Sciences. Our chief financial challenge is not that we say no to the Rick Singers of the world. Rather, we have recognized that we need to build a more robust philanthropic culture at Oxy. Last May, we launched the public phase of The Oxy Campaign For Good— the most ambitious fundraising effort in the College’s history—with a goal of $100 million slated for student scholarships, our perennial priority. Already we have raised $152 million toward our overall goal of $225 million. As many parents and alumni pointed out in response to the Journal’s front-page article, Oxy has its priorities straight. “Not once in my four years on campus did I wish we had a lazy river,” one alumnus wrote. What we need now is for our community to fully embrace The Oxy Campaign For Good to move the College to the next level and make it possible for us to transform our priorities into realities—for good.

FIRST WORD

» FROM THE READERS He Heard a Symphony Thank you for the thoughtful obituary of Professor Allen Gross (Fall 2019). I knew Allen and his wonderful family from his ﬁrst days at Occidental in fall 1983 to his last days in August 2019, when we sat together on his back porch in Pasadena enjoying a beautiful summer evening with some great French red wine. It was a bittersweet last few days. But even then, he still enjoyed talking about great music. Allen led the Occidental-Caltech Symphony for 31 years, longer than just about any other music director of any kind in Oxy’s history. Only Howard Swan, at 37 years, conducted a musical group—the chorus—longer. Allen conducted hundreds of concerts over those decades for tens of thousands of audience members. In addition to students, lots of prominent Oxy community members played in the group or performed solos. A few examples include professors Woody Studenmund and Bob Winter, Los Angeles Philharmonic member Larry Sonderling ’71, and former President Ted Mitchell. Many prominent Caltech folks performed too, including President Emeritus and Nobel laureate David Baltimore. But for Allen it just wasn’t about the quantity of the concerts or the prominent performers. With his devotion to his students and the music, Allen was able to raise the level of musicianship of the OxyCaltech Symphony to such a level that it was considered one of the top community orchestras in all of California. Indeed, while Allen was at the helm, The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges said that one of the things that every student should do before graduating was to go to an Oxy-Caltech Symphony concert. In talking about the last piece he ever conducted, Allen described Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 as “very near and dear to my heart. For me, Haydn makes the world whole. There is this great human optimism that pervades Haydn throughout.” Fittingly, Allen’s last piece was also the last symphony ever composed by Haydn. Currently, the combined Oxy-Caltech Symphony is on hiatus, but I have spoken to Chris Kim, the wonderful new conductor at Occidental; many current Oxy orchestra

musicians; and the head of Caltech’s Music Department. They all would love to see the Oxy-Caltech Symphony reunite. With great optimism, let us hope that Oxy’s Music Department allows this to happen and makes the Oxy-Caltech Symphony whole again. Bob Gutzman ’87 Pasadena

nity and a life during my years on the East Coast. And of course, he gave me my name. For four years at Oxy he wasn’t just my conductor—he was a father to me. Thanks, Professor Somerville, for all your gifts. I’ll always carry you in my heart. Lande Ajose ’87 Oakland

“He Gave Me My Name”

Obstacle Course

Thomas Somerville, professor emeritus of music and longtime Glee Club director, died Feb. 25 (From the Quad, page 7). Lande Ajose ’87 posted the following tribute on Facebook. When I was a freshman, the Glee Club was lucky enough to take a trip to sing in several sacred and secular spaces in Europe. In preparing for our European tour we all, obviously, had to have a passport. This is where I hit a snag. I registered for college with the surname you all know me as. However, my passport held a secret I’ve carried since the third grade. As a young feminist, I thought it ridiculous that I carry my father’s last name since my parents divorced when I was 2. So I changed it, and the only vestige of this act of resistance was contained in my passport. This created a problem since my passport, which needed to be renewed, carried my given surname but my ticket and accompanying documents all had my common surname. It took a few trips and I spent many hours with Tom Somerville at the passport office in Westwood to resolve this issue. The resolution came when he signed an affidavit verifying that I was in fact known as my common name so that both names could be placed on my passport. My passport has read that was ever since. Tom Somerville passed away after several years living with Alzheimer’s, yet all I can think of are the gifts he gave me. Over my time at Oxy we took two trips to Europe. He gave me the gift of international and domestic travel, friends with whom I made music and found community and with whom I’m still close to this day, and a deep love and appreciation for all kinds of music. He opened up his family life to all of us and gave me treasured memories with Ginnie, Tod, and Ian, and ultimately the confidence to leave California behind and strike out on my own, making music, friends, a commu-

In response to “’23 and Me” (Fall 2019), the following was submitted as an “open letter to Elili Brown ’23 and students of color.” Implicit racism is all around us. Your awareness of it is mirrored by many persons of color. It is unfortunate but it’s the reality we live in. When I was accepted to Oxy, the number of persons of color was minimal. The introduction of larger numbers of persons of color to campus in the 1970s made Oxy life interesting. Racism was subtle and implicit. My professional career also reﬂected the implicit racism that exists. One example is the comment, intended as a compliment, by a manager to me: “Louie, you know what I like best about you is you’re not a typical Mexican.” (What is a typical Mexican? Also, note that my name is not spelled “Louie.”) Being aware of the obstacles for those of us who have a greater amount of melanin is the ﬁrst step in thriving. Luis F. Garcia ’77 Hanford

A Deﬁnitive Answer On page 3 of the Fall 2019 magazine, there is a set of seven photos. The subject of the last, No. 7, is unidentiﬁed. I must confess that it is I. Lawrence Arnold ’57 New Canaan, Conn.

Arnold taught math at Oxy from 1962 to 1963.

Department of Corrections In “’23 and Me,” the last name of Joaquin Madrid Larrañaga ’23 was misspelled. And in “Waste Not, Want Not,” the class year of Christy Leavitt ’95 was misidentiﬁed. Occidental magazine regret the errors. WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

FROM THE QUAD

Tyler Melchisky ’21, ﬁancée Taylor VanEtten, and Maggie, their Staﬀordshire Terrier, moved into the College’s new veterans housing complex last February.

Coming Home A renewed commitment to military veterans—complete with a dedicated housing unit—provides a sense of community to servicemembers making the transition to college life 4

OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE WINTER 2020

Coming out of the Marine Corps in 2016, Tyler Melchisky had no idea what he wanted to do next: Should he start working, or head to college at age 24? After moving from San Diego to Los Angeles with his girlfriend, Taylor VanEtten, Melchisky enrolled at Pasadena City College for a couple of exploratory years. When it was time to transfer, VanEtten suggested he apply to Occidental. Not only was Melchisky accepted but the couple—recently engaged—became the first to live in the College’s newly renovated veterans housing complex last February. “Transitioning away from the service and having Occidental help you find your path outside of the military was really nice,” says the Oxy junior, who hopes to graduate in 2021. “I felt at home at Oxy because it’s such a small school—it’s been more like a family atmosphere.” Reaffirming a long-standing commitment to supporting U.S. military veterans, Occidental had been looking for an opportunity to provide affordable, off-campus housing that would accommodate veterans’ unique needs. Through the generosity of The Ahmanson Foundation, in 2018 the College finalized the purchase of five structures on a sprawling, lushly landscaped property on Toland Way, about a mile west of campus. A duplex and a small house stand side-by-side, with a view of Toland Way Elementary across the street and the stately San Gabriel Mountains in the distance. As you climb the property’s upward slope, a brick path leads through jungle-like plants and exotic trees, and you encounter greenhouses and koi ponds and standalone tiled patios. The atmosphere is rather magical. “We designed this housing to serve as a community,” explains Nathan Graeser, director of Occidental’s veterans programs. “We organize dinners together, hang out on the back porch, and we’re also planning some amazing events this year. Our goal is to build a sense of place for our veterans.”

FROM THE QUAD

Photos by Marc Campos | Archival photos courtesy Occidental College Special Collections

For most vets coming out of the military, the GI Bill provides an allowance for college tuition and housing. Despite the high cost of housing in Los Angeles, Oxy takes only half of what the GI Bill allots, subsidizing students’ living expenses so they can focus on their rigorous education and not have to take a job on the side. “We’re here to provide a truly affordable housing experience for veterans,” says Graeser, a licensed clinical social worker and military veteran who has counseled countless veterans and their families on dealing with the challenges of service and returning home. The history of veterans housing at Oxy dates back to just after World War II, when a preponderance of returning soldiers, many of whom were married with small children, created a need for veteran-specific housing. Starting in 1947, functional family units (aka “the Boondocks”) were constructed on the west side of campus. As the number of veterans attending Occidental declined, special housing was discontinued in the 1970s. Since 2010 the College has participated in the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Yellow Ribbon Program, which helps fund tuition expenses. Oxy is also one of 24 California colleges and universities that participate in the Ahmanson Veteran Scholarship Initiative, created by The Ahmanson Foundation in 2013. Oxy formally launched its Veterans Program last year, with Graeser at the helm. (Woody Studenmund, the Laurence De Rycke Professor of Economics and father of Army Staff Sgt. Scott Studenmund—who was killed in a

1. Oxy’s veterans housing on Toland Way near campus incudes a fully renovated duplex with attached back studio apartment. 2. From left, juniors Jarad Angel, Dylan Sullivan, Alex Borghes, and Melchisky—veterans all—queue up for pizza on Super Bowl Sunday with Nathan Graeser, Occidental’s director of veterans programs. 3. Melchisky shares a hug with faculty adviser Woody Studenmund. 4. In the kitchen with Taylor and Tyler. 5. As more units are renovated on the Toland Way property, Oxy will welcome an even more diverse community of veterans and their families.

“friendly fire” incident in Afghanistan in 2014 —serves as faculty adviser to the group.) Under the supervision of Samuelson Brothers—whose principals include Jack Samuelson ’46, a WWII veteran and Occidental trustee emeritus, and Samuelson’s son Reid ’72, a current trustee—renovations are just beginning for the property’s “big house,” which will provide four more bedroom-bathroom suites and downstairs communal space. Graeser’s tiny office sits on a knoll on the edge of the Toland Way property. In the meantime, the community is growing and thriving. Four student veterans—ages 23 to 31—are living in the duplex, including Melchisky, who is working on a history major with a minor in urban and environmental policy. The vets decided to participate in a Spartan obstacle course race together this fall, and Melchisky and neighbor Jarad Angel ’21 (an economics major from Carlsbad) are taking an Oxy yoga class this semester. Having Graeser as a liaison and being around other students who have lived through the military experience is a plus, Melchisky says.”It’s great to be able to make those connections and not feel lost. Being a little older, we’ve had different life experiences and we’ve been on our own for a while. It’s nice to be off-campus and able to step back a bit at times—I’m a student, but I also have these other priorities.”—laura paisley

top: After WWII, returning veterans and their families lived in special housing units built on the west side of campus. above: Veterans family units under construction in August 1947, where Berkus Hall is today.

WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

FROM THE QUAD

Two Students, Too Soon Ilah Richardson ’23 and Jaden Burris ’22 were deeply immersed in the Oxy community—and their deaths three weeks apart left a hole in our hearts

Hearts were heavy on campus with the the exact cause of Richardson’s death has yet deaths of two students in three weeks on the to be determined, “We have no reason to beOxy campus—less than a month into the lieve that the circumstances were anything spring 2020 semester. but a catastrophic medical event,” Wendy Ilah Richardson ’23 grew up in Los An- Sternberg, vice president for academic afgeles and enrolled at Occidental from the fairs, wrote in an email Feb. 27. Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Conn. She was looking at a group language major, with a focus on studying Chinese and linguistics. Richardson hit the ground running upon arriving on campus last fall, serving on the Associated Students of Occidental College Senate as a first-year class senator and working as a program assistant for the International Programs Office (IPO). above: A student-led initiative to raise Richardson participated in funds to help the family of Ilah RichardOxy’s Multicultural Summer In- son ’23 defray the costs of her funeral stitute prior to the start of school, surpassed its goal in a day and a half. right: Jaden Burris ’22 celebrates his during which time she got to birthday surrounded by Oxy friends. know Julie Kimiko Santos, IPO associate director. “When I met her, I in“It is impossible to find the right words stantly knew she was special,” Santos told to honor all that Ilah was and to express how The Occidental newspaper. Together with much she will be missed by her family, classmate Hannah Pearlman ’23, Richardson friends, and members of our community,” also attended Chai Chats, a series of weekly wrote Nina Srdić Hadži-Nešić ’21, ASOC teas produced by L.A.-based artist and trav- president, in an email to campus Jan. 30. eler April Banks and sponsored by Oxy Arts A celebration of life service for Richardon York Boulevard last semester. Richardson son was held Feb. 3 at Herrick Chapel. “I was and Pearlman called the event their “ground- struck by her mind, her cosmopolitan poliing activity” each week, River Lisius ’22 wrote tics, her interest in the cultures of the world,” in The Occidental. said Jacob Mackey, assistant professor of Richardson reportedly contacted Cam- comparative studies in literature and culture. pus Safety and was found in the Pauley Hall “She participated out of a love of discussion, common room in medical distress shortly bringing along everyone else in the class with after noon on Jan. 27. Emergency services her. In our last conversation, she said, ‘I have were called and she was transported to the so much more to say about that.’ ” hospital via ambulance—and was joined there by Erica O’Neal-Howard and Vivian Jaden Burris ’22 “came to Occidental with a Santiago from Student Affairs—but she died desire to become an attorney and to follow shortly after her arrival at the hospital. While in the footsteps of Barack Obama ’83 in a 6

OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE WINTER 2020

career of public service,” President Jonathan Veitch wrote in an email to campus Feb. 20. An undeclared major from Smyrna, Ga., Burris was found unconscious in his residence hall room Feb. 16 “after attempting to take his own life,” Veitch wrote. “Emergency services were immediately called and he was transported to the hospital via ambulance.” His parents arrived from Atlanta and Louisiana the next day and made the decision to remove Burris from life support Feb. 20. On Feb. 21, the organization Harambee —a group of Black male students who strive to empower and support their peers at the College—arranged for a group photo in the Quad in memory of “Jaden and his radiating spirit,” as they wrote in a message to campus. “All we pray going forward, knowing his spirit continues on in us, is that we create more moments of love and togetherness throughout the community.” At a celebration of life service in Herrick Chapel on Feb. 25, family, friends, and faculty wearing red—Burris’ favorite color— remembered the sophomore as loud, boisterous, smart, hardworking, and passionate. Burris was a Dean’s List student and a sprinter on the track and field team—always in motion, always singing, with a joy and optimism that drew people to him. “Jaden’s spirit was infectious,” his mother, Lisa Alvelo, said at the memorial service. “His smile lit up a room. He could change the vibe entirely. He had that much power … you could feel him. He was a beautiful young Black man.” Tyler Yamaguchi, Burris’ sprints coach, recounted the first time he met Burris as a high school senior during a visit to campus. “Jaden stood up tall and said, ‘I am definitely coming to Oxy next year.’ I asked him, ‘Why Oxy?’ And he said, ‘Coach, I want to be the next Barack Obama.’ I knew then and there I wanted Jaden Burris on our track team.” In an email to campus Feb. 21, Rob Flot, vice president for student affairs, wrote: “This a time of extreme anguish and pain for all of us, but I believe the pain is especially poignant and raw for the Black community at Oxy. … We will persevere and manage, in time. However, we’re not at that time. We are at a time for community and togetherness.”

FROM THE QUAD

Somerville, front row, center, and members of the 1978-79 Glee Club. Photo courtesy Occidental College Special Collections

‘A Truly Inspired Leader’ Sharing the joy of performing with generations of students, Thomas Somerville epitomized Glee Growing up on the south side of Chicago, Thomas Somerville studied piano and played string bass for a Chicago dance band. “I had different plans for my life when I was very young,” he told the Glendale News-Press in 1981. “Although I had always played an instrument and had a great interest in music, it took one special concert to bring it all together. I heard a great chorale in concert and the sound was magnificent. I had never realized the scope and effect one could achieve in choral work.” With a 20-year tenure (1977 to 1997) as director of the Occidental Glee Club, second only to the legendary Howard Swan’s 37 years at the baton, Somerville expanded the organization’s international reach, leading the group on two trips to Europe in the 1980s, and to the former Soviet Union in 1990.

After a long battle with Alzheimer’s, Somerville died Feb. 25 in the memory care unit of his retirement community in Aliso Viejo. He was 85. In a message to her “Glee Club family,” Helen Shafran ’87 wrote that Somerville’s wife of more than 60 years, Virginia, had played for him the Brahms Requiem in the days leading up to his passing, even as he received around-the-clock hospice care. “Tom was a lovely human being and phenomenal musician,” Desiree LaVertu, Oxy’s director of choral and vocal activities since 2009, wrote following Somerville’s passing. “He was a truly inspired leader who impacted countless young people in his time at Oxy and beyond.” Somerville received his B.A. and B.M. degrees at the University of Dubuque and completed his master’s and doctoral studies

in music at USC. He also taught at USC from 1972 to 1977, where he directed the Concert Choir, University Chorus, and Trojan Chorale, and spent summers as assistant conductor and chorus manager for Robert Shaw’s choral workshops. In 1974, he moved to Glendale, where he became director of music at Glendale First Presbyterian Church. Three years later, he joined the Occidental faculty as professor of music, succeeding Henry Gibbons as Glee Club director. In an era that saw fewer students auditioning for glee clubs, Somerville was able to assemble outstanding groups of men and women to perform under his skilled direction. As a Los Angeles Times critic observed, “The eyes of the singers never leave the conductor, and he leads them to shimmering towers of sound.” Frequent performances of classical masterworks, especially from the Baroque, deﬁned the Somerville years. But there were many highlights: In 1982, composer Elinor Remick Warren’s Good Morning, America! (commissioned by Occidental for the 1976 Bicentennial) was sung with the CaltechOccidental Symphony in Herrick Chapel. In the early 1980s, the Glee Club recorded a concert for the KCET TV series “On Campus.” Prior to a pair of concert tours in 1981— a spring tour of Northern and Central California and a summer trip to Hawai‘i— Somerville reﬂected on the “joy” of performing. “It is challenging to constantly seek new ways of keeping music fresh for the singers so that we can keep the music fresh for the audience. “In some ways, the Glee Club tour can become one of the most stimulating educational experiences of college,” he continued. “After all, tours are the only way most college students can experience what it is like to be a professional performer.” Somerville served in numerous roles after retiring from the College in 2000. Until 2001, he was director of the Los Angeles Bach Festival and minister of music at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. Somerville also enjoyed a long association with the Oregon Bach Festival at the University of Oregon in Eugene, serving as director of a master class in choral/orchestral music for many years. In addition to his wife, Somerville is survived by sons Tod and Ian. WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

FROM THE QUAD

Photo by Marc Campos

» WORTH NOTING

Heard on the Street A Wall Street Journal examination of Oxy’s admission practices rings the bell with Tigers and bulls alike

It began with a trickle of emails, then swelled to a chorus of telephone calls, Facebook posts, and texts. The messages came from Occidental alumni, parents, faculty, and trustees; college counselors and admission professionals from other campuses; neighbors in Eagle Rock; and even the parents of an admitted student who had decided to go elsewhere. All of them were spontaneous reactions to The Wall Street Journal’s Nov. 6 story that detailed the College’s refusal to participate in a scheme that is now at the center of the national college admissions scandal. Over and over, one word kept cropping up: proud. “We’re all pretty proud of Oxy today as the WSJ story makes the rounds,” wrote one current parent. Occidental “is special in ways that are really meaningful but don’t often get valued or seen by the outside world,” an alumnus wrote. “So it’s nice to see it recognized like this.” The story recounted how in 2012 independent college consultant William “Rick” Singer emailed Dean of Admission Vince Cuseo, asking that the College reconsider the application of one of his clients, the daughter of a wealthy family. Singer, the Journal reported, suggested that the parents would give Occidental money on top of regular tuition payments. “We can create a win-win for both of us,” Singer proposed in his email. Cuseo’s answer: “No.” Singer’s admission that he inflated test scores, created fake athletic resumes, and bribed college officials to get his wealthy clients’ children into top universities is at the heart of a federal criminal investigation, dubbed Operation Varsity Blues, that has resulted in the filing of criminal charges against 52 people. The scandal “highlighted the role of money in admissions and the often wide gulf 8

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between high ideals of meritocracy and mercenary business practices,” the Journal wrote. “Occidental has charted a different path.” “I’ve taught extraordinary people of every ethnicity and family income over the years,” one faculty member wrote in response to the story. “Children whose parents could buy the school and those whose families couldn’t afford a week’s tuition. This piece in the WSJ is uplifting in affirming Oxy’s belief in supporting opportunity.” In addition to the messages of pride and celebration, many people—some of whom had no ties to the College—sent in gifts totaling tens of thousands of dollars. “Let all of us send a contribution to Occidental right now to recognize the importance of what they are doing,” one Journal subscriber posted. “I tell every college-bound kid I know to apply to Occidental,” wrote the parent of the accepted student who enrolled elsewhere. “I hope someone will read the WSJ article and give you gobs of money. Oxy richly deserves it.” » Speaking in Thorne Hall on Feb. 5—the same day the Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump in his historic impeachment trial—former U.S. Senator Jeff Flake expressed deep concern about the future of the Republican Party as Occidental College’s 2020 Jack Kemp ’57 Distinguished Lecturer. A loss at the polls in November would lead Republicans to engage in a much-needed reexamination of the party’s current direction, predicted Flake, who represented Arizona for 18 years in the House and Senate before deciding not to run for re-election in 2018. “If the president wins, it’s difficult to see how that will happen,” he told moderator Grant Woods ’76—the former two-time attorney general of Arizona—before a large audience of students, faculty, and alumni. “Not much in Washington is driven by philosophy

Former U.S. Senator Jeﬀ Flake, right, talks to fellow Arizona Republican Grant Woods ’76 as the 2020 Jack Kemp ’57 Distinguished Lecturer. Launched in 2013, the lecture series strives to engage Oxy students and faculty in dialogue on important issues of public policy.

or principle now. We may have a cult of personality in a way. … On core big issues that the president defines as important and rallies the base on, if you are contrary on those, you will have a hard time.” Flake said he agreed with Trump’s positions on such traditional conservative issues as tax cuts, support for the military, and reducing federal regulations. But the president’s embrace of authoritarian leaders, the imposition of tariffs, his denigration of allies, and his demonization of immigrants represent populism, not conservatism, and “will have long-lasting consequences,” he said. To support the president, “I would have had to denounce policies I believe in and condone behavior I simply couldn’t condone,” Flake continued. “I would have to stand on a campaign stage with the president, and be forced to look at my feet while he was ridiculing my colleagues or minorities. I just couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t do it.” » For the 15th 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. Seven Oxy seniors and one alumna won 2019-20 Fulbrights to work and study in seven countries on three continents. The eight are among 116 Oxy students and alumni who have won Fulbrights since 2003. Occidental’s seven student awards tied it with Amherst, Vassar, Wesleyan, Franklin & Marshall, and DePauw among top liberal arts college producers. This year is the first time Oxy has sent Fulbright winners to Moldova, Romania, Russia, and South Africa.

FROM THE QUAD

» MIXED MEDIA We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism —American Style, co-edited by Peter Dreier (New Press). Not since the Great Depression have so many Americans questioned the fundamental tenets of capitalism and expressed openness to a socialist alternative. We Own the Future provides an overview of the history and practice of democratic socialism, a picture of what it might look like in practice in the United States, and proposals for how it could be implemented. The collection— co-edited by Dreier, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics at Occidental—features an essay on voting rights, campaign ﬁnance, and election reform by Mijin Cha, assistant professor of urban and environmental policy. The Scent Keeper, by Erica (Rechtin) Bauermeister ’80 (St. Martin’s Press). Emmeline lives an enchanted childhood on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the inconceivable happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world—a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity, a quest that takes her from her isolated island all the way to the complicated world of scent branding, challenging the limits of her heart and imagination. A New York Times best seller, The Scent Keeper is the fourth novel by Bauermeister (The School of Essential Ingredients) and was selected as the Reese Witherspoon book club February book of the month. She lives with her husband, Ben Bauermeister ’82, in Port Townsend, Wash. Her “memoir in essays,” House Lessons: Renovating a Life (Sasquatch Books), will be published March 24.

Thinking Through Crisis: DepressionEra Black Literature, Theory, and Politics, by James Edward Ford III (Fordham University Press). Ford examines the works of Richard Wright, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes during the 1930s in order to articulate a materialist theory of trauma. Ford highlights the dark proletariat’s emergence from the multitude apposite to white supremacist agendas. In these works, he argues, proletarian, modernist, and surrealist aesthetics transform fugitive slaves, sharecroppers, leased convicts, levee workers, and activist intellectuals into protagonists of anti-racist and anti-capitalist movements in the United States. Ford is associate professor of English. Dear Jerome: Letters From a Cop, by Jack Mullen ’56 (CopWorld Press). It is 1958. Billy Considine is a rookie San Diego cop. Alone and lonely, Billy begins writing letters to his older brother, Jerome, sharing his life on the streets. The letters continue for 30 years, following Billy through the police academy, patrol work, courtship, life on the vice squad, marriage, and promotion to homicide. Billy’s journey takes him through the civil rights movement and race riots, the student revolts of the 1960s, the counterculture and anti-war 1970s, the dynamic growth of San Diego and of the American economy in the 1980s. Billy matures as America matures. It is not always a pretty process. Dear Jerome is the third novel from Mullen, a former Marine and retired San Diego homicide sergeant. He lives in Laguna Woods. James Baldwin: Living in Fire, by Bill V. Mullen ’81 (Pluto Press). As a lifelong radical, anti-imperialist, Black queer advocate, feminist, and pro-Palestinian, James Baldwin’s (1924-1987) life and writing has been an inspiration to generations and his words continue to resonate through our culture at large. Mullen explores how Baldwin’s life and work channel the long history of the AfricanAmerican. Fighting toward what he hoped

would be a post-racial society, Baldwin’s philosophy was tragically ahead of its time. Mullen is professor of American studies at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Murder by the Sea, by Deni Starr ’80 (Silverlead Publishing). While BJ McKay is incarcerated, her sister Cindy is murdered near her home in a small town on the Oregon coast. When BJ is finally released from prison nine months later, she heads to the beach for answers. She finds the sheriff has made no arrests and has no suspects or leads. He’s also hostile and unhelpful. BJ begins to investigate on her own and learns that before her death, Cindy had changed her locks and bought a gun, actions that didn’t square up with BJ’s knowledge of how Cindy would act. After making friends with some of the quirky locals, BJ gets a little help with her inquiries, but then another inexplicable murder occurs. Will BJ put the pieces of the puzzle together in time—or will she be the next victim of a malicious murderer? Murder by the Sea is the fourth novel by Starr, who majored in English and philosophy at Oxy and is owner of Litigation Support Services in Portland, Ore. Briefly noted: Diplomacy and World Affairs Professor Anthony Chase has co-written “Broadening Human Rights: The Case for a Pluralistic Approach,” a chapter in the new book Why Human Rights Still Matter in Contemporary Global Affairs (Routledge; May). The book presents the argument that to inform a powerful alternative to global xenophobia, human rights must be reconceptualized to more ambitiously advance economic equity and political pluralism. “‘Fugitive Liberated Congoes’: Recaptive Youth and the Rejection of Liberian Apprenticeships, 1858–61,” History Professor Sharla Fett’s new chapter in Liberated Africans and the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1807-1896 (University of Rochester Press), looks at the experiences of African youth “liberated” from illegal slave ships and placed into apprenticeships in Liberia during the mid-19th century. Although U.S. and Liberian officials viewed these arrangements as humanitarian anti-slavery efforts, many young “recaptured Africans” (as they were called) resisted their apprenticeships as a new form of slavery. WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

At the height of his career in 2014, Dan Springer ’85 stepped away from the daily grind to raise his two sons. Then a dream job with DocuSign lured him back to the oﬃce—and personally and professionally, he’s never been happier

Second Signature

ROWING UP IN AN ERA WHEN CHECKS were a part of everyday life, Dan Springer ’85 would balance his mom’s checkbook for her. But his penchant for organization didn’t stop there. “I often created programs for myself and for other people in my family,” he recalls. “I would call them more to-do lists than truly schedules. But deﬁnitely, yes, I was a very organized and structured person.” In its own 21st-century way, DocuSign— founded in 2003—brings organization and structure to the documented agreement process. A $15-billion player in the e-signature and larger Agreement Cloud space, it’s a natural for Springer, who joined the company as CEO in January 2017 after a long and protracted search. Like millions of others, Springer’s initial exposure to DocuSign was as a consumer. “I thought it was such an amazing product,” he says. DocuSign eSignature is the world’s No. 1 way to sign electronically on practically any device,

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By DICK ANDERSON Photos by JIM BLOCK

with more than 560,000 customers in more than 180 countries. “People tell you stories about how they bought their house using DocuSign or used it at their job,” Springer adds. “It’s a great place to work because customers love the product.” Springer’s initial exposure to Occidental came during a college tour with two high school buddies. It was late in the application season, and the three of them drove from Seattle down to Los Angeles. “For some crazy reason, I had applied to only big universities,” recalls Springer, who was attending Lakeside School, a small private school in Seattle. “One of my friends was looking at Pomona, and the other [Stuart Meredith ’85] was looking at Occidental. I had just been in the Bay Area and got kind of lost at Berkeley and Stanford. When I walked around Oxy, I fell in love with the place.” In the grand tradition of the liberal arts, Springer changed his major more than once. After taking his

first political science class taught by Roger Boesche, Springer says, “I wanted to be a poli sci major. Then I met Woody Studenmund and I wanted to major in economics. I just kept finding professors and getting excited about what they did.” Eventually he wound up as an economics and math double major. He also became involved in the Blyth Fund, the student-run investment group, and was president of the fund his senior year. Working with an alumnus who was a broker with Kidder, Peabody—the renowned investment securities firm—Springer and his team learned how to evaluate companies with the potential to be successful investments. Some picks, he says, worked out better than others—Prime Computer falling into the latter category. “We bought it and rode it up very successfully over a year and a half. And then Prime had some challenges in that last year and we saw it come down. It was a great learning experience—feeling really good about a stock and then realizing the things we missed afterward. And for me, it created a huge interest in investing. I thought I would end up working in banking when I graduated.”

Springer at DocuSign headquarters in San Francisco. Opposite page: Sharing a photo with sons Robert and Michael, and partner Lisa Coscino â&#x20AC;&#x2122;85.

Photos courtesy Nasdaq (left) and Salesforce (below)

above: DocuSign rang the opening bell after joining the Nasdaq on April 27, 2018. above right: Springer and DocuSign COO Scott Olrich with Einstein, left, and Astro, mascots for Salesforce. right: The biggest challenge of running DocuSign —which is approaching 4,000 employees—is time, Springer says. “I have a very open-door policy. But there’s so many people, and there’s too few hours.”

After graduating from Harvard Business School with an MBA, Springer landed his dream job as a consultant at McKinsey & Company—first in San Francisco, and later opening an office in Seattle. While he enjoyed developing strategies with various clients for their business, he found himself frustrated by the itinerant nature of his work. “I wanted to be part of the success,” Springer says. “I realized I should probably be in more of an operating role.” In late 1997, Springer became head of marketing at a company called NextCard in San Francisco—effectively a general manager role at an early-stage startup. He helped take the company public on his 36th birthday in May 1999, and followed that with stints as CEO at Telleo (a San Jose-based startup) and managing director of Modem Media (an interactive marketing strategy and services company in San Francisco). Those operating roles teed Springer up to take the reins of Redwood City-based Responsys, a privately held email services provider that became the leading provider of cloud-based business-to-consumer marketing software under his leadership. “Responsys was a great experience for me,” Springer says. When he arrived on April 1, 2004, the company was in need of a turnaround, having ridden a hot streak through the late 1990s and early 2000s, “right before the dot.com crash,” he says. “They had a couple of CEOs that didn’t work out and the company was floundering a little bit,” with 12

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shrinking revenues of about $15 million and a diminished roster of some 75 employees. After Responsys went public in 2011, the company was sold to Oracle in 2014 for $1.6 billion, “which is a very good outcome,” Springer admits. He calls his 10-year run as CEO “probably the formative experience for my career. Whatever management style I might have, it got shaped at Responsys.” Springer was named the Bay Area’s Most Admired CEO at a public company with revenue under $500 million by the San Francisco Business Times in 2011. “You get way too much credit for something being successful if you’re the CEO, and sometimes you get too much blame if something doesn’t work out. But I got way more credit than I deserved for Responsys.” At the height of his success, Springer, newly divorced, walked away from Responsys to become a full-time parent to his two teenage sons. “I know it sounds weird to not

have a job as a career, but that was the best career decision I ever made,” he says. “I was always a very hands-on dad, but it’s a different level of when you will make that your No. 1 priority. I worked with a private equity firm. I helped with investments. I joined five boards. It wasn’t like I didn’t do anything, but I only worked 9 to 5.” The big difference about having an operating role vs. a consulting role, he says, is being able to step away from the job each day. “When you’re just on boards and working with a private equity firm, you go to lacrosse practice to watch the entire practice and pick the boys up, you don’t think about work—your mind is all on them. And being able to have that time, it really enriched our relationship to a whole new level.” “When I think about what makes Dan really special as a parent, he has a tremendous sense of humor with his kids and about himself,” says Lisa Coscino ’85. “He’s such a

good listener and doesn’t interrupt someone 20 times even if what he’s hearing is really tough to hear.” Coscino—an Oxy trustee and executive director at Pacific Art League of Palo Alto— reconnected with Springer through LinkedIn, of all places. “I did not believe Lisa would have remembered me,” Springer says. “I told her, ‘You must be thinking of somebody else.’ And she said, ‘No, I remember.’ And I said, ‘If you can say three things about me that are true, I’ll give $1,000 to your favorite charity.’ ” Coscino told him three things: “You were captain of the soccer team, you had curly dark hair, and you dated Kathy Witwer ’85 all through college.” Springer made good on his bet, invited Coscino to a Cubs-Giants game, and the two have been close ever since. Springer lives two blocks from DocuSign headquarters in San Francisco. The company’s biggest office is in Seattle—two miles from his mother’s house. (When he travels there for meetings, he sleeps in his old bedroom and has breakfast with his mom every morning.) Even so, it took some arm-twisting to lure Springer back to the daily corporate grind. Founded in Seattle, DocuSign relocated its headquarters to the Bay Area in 2014. In October 2015, chairman and CEO Keith Krach announced he was ready to step down from his CEO duties, prompting a search for a successor. Springer’s name cropped up on the short list of candidates—but at the time, he wasn’t looking for a new gig. In addition to his commitment to his sons, he was “on a total career high” after turning around Responsys, taking it public, and selling the company “for a great outcome,” Springer says. “I didn’t have that need for self-validation in a significant way.” More than a year later, he was having a conversation with venture capitalist Pete Solvik about a CEO opening in the Bay Area. After a bit of conversation, he learned that the company was DocuSign. This time, he was interested. “DocuSign had a great industry-leading product—by far the largest in that space, more than double the next biggest player,” he says. Following a whirlwind of conversations—and with the blessing of his younger son, Robert—Springer DocuSigned his job offer on Christmas Eve. With a largely new management team in place, including a number of his colleagues

In business as well as in parenting, “Dan is all about lifting people up to their best potential,” says Lisa Coscino ’85.

from Responsys, DocuSign went public on April 27, 2018, at $29 per share. The day after the IPO, Springer scheduled an earlymorning meeting with his team. “I wanted to remind everyone we’ve got customers to take care of,” he says. “It’s one of the reasons I try to get people to not focus on the stock price.” As of this writing, DocuSign was trading within a few dollars of its all-time high of $92.55—but don’t look to Springer as the bearer of that news. “I only look at our stock price on Friday afternoon,” he explains. “I won’t look at it during the week. Stocks tend to be very volatile—I get that—but when people ask me about our stock price, I make a point of saying, ‘I can tell you what the price was last Friday. But I don’t know what it is on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday.’ “It’s not that I’m not excited that we are building value,” he adds. “But it’s all because we take care of our customers. It’s all because

we make this the best place for people to do the best work of their lives. And if we do those things, the stock price takes care of itself. When you start focusing on stock price, companies get messed up because people start thinking about their own wealth creation.” His own aﬀection for DocuSign notwithstanding, the main reason Springer wanted to get back into general management is his passion for developing people. He likens it to “having kids—when you start to realize I love someone more than I love myself and my focus is on their development. “I do love it when customers say, ‘I love DocuSign,’ and it makes me feel good that what we do has a lot of value. But the biggest part is watching people grow and thinking, ‘She never would have been able to do that if it hadn’t been for this company. He never would have achieved that goal.’ ” That’s the sign of a true leader. WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

With a rich menu of contemporary programming, the College’s Oxy Arts initiative nourishes socially conscious dialogue between the campus and community By JIM TRANQUADA Photos by MARC CAMPOS 14

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hen San Cha walked into the packed Oxy Arts gallery on York Boulevard for the Feb. 6 opening of artist Shizu Saldamando’s new solo show, her face lit up with the glow of recognition. “There’s Maria—and Tiﬀ and Kathi!” the Highland Park musician said, pointing to two of Saldamando’s compelling portraits of Angelenos displayed on the gallery wall. “This is my ﬁrst time at Oxy Arts. It’s exciting to see brown faces up on York and to see people I know.”

Five years in the making, Oxy Arts was conceived as a community-facing arts hub to appeal to neighbors like Cha. Her presence and that of other community members in the multiracial, multigenerational crowd of students, faculty, artists, and residents at the opening suggests that the College’s storefront approach to community engagement through the arts might be succeeding. “Oxy Arts is deﬁning a new way to program and curate a public arts space,” says director Meldia Yesayan in her oﬃce in the Oxy Arts building, a modest one-story 1920s commercial structure at the corner of Armadale

left: Performers from an Oct. 11 performance of Flex, a dance theater work by Jay Carlon, a contemporary choreographer based in Highland Park. below: Community members participated in a soldout Super 8 ﬁlmmaking workshop in November.

left: April Banks’ The Price of Rice. Tomorrow I Wake Up Hungry, an installation from the fall 2019 exhibit Breaking Bread in L.A.: Connecting communities and cultures through food. right: Studio art major Makayla Keasler ’20 mounts her senior comps exhibition with the help of Emma Connnelly ’20, left. above: Puppeteers from the neighboring Bob Baker Marionette Theater performed a series of shows at Oxy Arts last summer.

Workshop and senior comps photos courtesy Oxy Arts

Avenue and York, just one block south of campus. “This is a space where you can provide cultural community-based resources as well as showing world-class artists. It’s a space not just for exhibits and performances but for public use. By listening and partnering with community, we want to create meaningful encounters for and between the campus and the residents of Northeast Los Angeles.” Inviting the Northeast L.A. community to participate in developing programming “is a very holistic, multifaceted, almost kaleidoscopic way to envision community engagement,” says Amy Lyford, professor and chair

of art and art history and one of the coauthors of the original 2015 faculty proposal for the space. “It reﬂects an approach to art not only as a practice essential to a liberal arts education but as a strategy to maintain the vitality and identity of a community. In many ways it mirrors the vibrancy and diversity of L.A.’s artistic culture.” Saldamando’s show is just the latest programming in the Oxy Arts space since it opened its doors last May. (Two spaces on the west side of the completely renovated 5,400-square-foot building will be home to locally owned eateries expected to open later

this year.) Last summer, Los Angeles’ historic Bob Baker Marionette Theater was in residence, with free weekly puppet shows and workshops for every age group. The gallery featured Compass Rose, an exhibition based on a collaboration between Oxy Arts, Oxy’s Institute for the Study of Los Angeles, and Highland Park artist Debra Scacco. The personal stories of Highland Park residents, shared with Oxy students as part of an ongoing NELA Stories oral history program, were at the heart of Scacco’s Compass Rose, which reinterpreted historic Sanborn ﬁre insurance maps of the area. “I thought WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

right: A visitor engages with the work of artist Phung Huynh, middle image, drawn on a pink donut box. far right: From left, Broken Bread executive producer Juan Devis of KCET, chef Roy Choi, and Süprmarkt founder Olympia Auset at a Sept. 25 discussion about food equity in Los Angeles. below: Oxy Arts director Meldia Yesayan, left, with artist Shizu Saldamando at the Feb. 6 opening of her exhibit L.A. Intersections.

that was a great idea,” says Kathy Gallegos, who founded Highland Park’s nonprofit Avenue 50 Studio more than 20 years ago to feature Chicano art. “It was a way to find out about the community, bring those stories alive, and give honor to the people who live here and their history.” Fall brought Breaking Bread in L.A., an exploration of how food offers the possibility of cross-cultural connections, with a group exhibition, performances, film, lectures, panel discussions, and—of course—food. The idea behind it was a simple one: “In a time of deep social divisions, to find a sense of belonging and connection through the unique legacies and culinary traditions of our multicultural communities,” says Yesayan. Twice a week, community members are invited to drop in, have a cup of coffee, and browse a selection of books from the College’s library. “Oxy Arts was designed as a space for people to engage, to think about as their own,” Lyford says. “The goal is to be open and welcoming, which is reflected in the architecture. Our storefront approach is more about people walking by and saying, ‘What’s that?’ and being welcomed into the space.” Stephanie Maynetto-Jackson, a Highland Park native and current president of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, likes what she’s seen so far. “It’s an amazing program,” she says. “They want everyone to feel welcome in that art space. It’s nice to 16

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have a safe space to go to. It’s not an intimidating space to get into.” In addition to its collaborative, community-based approach, another factor that sets Oxy Arts apart is the Wanlass Artist in Residence program. Funded by the Kathryn Caine Wanlass Charitable Foundation, the program makes it possible to bring in acclaimed local artists like Saldamando, named by ARTnews as “One of 15 Los Angeles Artists to Watch” last year, to teach and work with students. Launched in 2013, the Wanlass program has brought major artists such as Candice Lin, Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle, and Rafa Esparza to campus, “artists who are L.A.-based, on the cusp of their careers exploding, who are being invited to the Whitney Biennial and being written about in The New York Times,” Lyford says. It’s also evidence of the growing national prominence of L.A. artists, she adds —what The New York Times earlier this year called “America’s most exciting scene.” “It’s an incredible legacy to be a part of,” says Saldamando, a San Francisco native and UCLA graduate who lives in East Los Angeles. “There’s really nothing else like it. They pay you to teach, put on an exhibition, and put together a catalog. I have taught at other places where it’s kind of been sink or swim, but at Oxy I went to teacher orientation and they hooked me up with other professors. The students are really amazing, super smart. I’ve gushed about how amazing this residency is. … I have a feeling it’s going to grow.” A new ﬁve-year, $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation will make it possible for Oxy Arts to widen its network of community partners in Northeast L.A. and expand its arts education programs through a series of collaborations with local arts organizations, educators, teaching artists, and the Los Angeles Uniﬁed School District. Focused on underserved public school students, the arts education initiative will involve Oxy students in providing a wide range of opportunities, from visual art and dance workshops to the-

ater, that develop creative solutions for the daily struggles facing their neighborhoods. Oxy students are already active through ColLABorate, a series of after-school arts education workshops for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders from local schools. This spring, students are working with lead teaching artist Patricia Yossen to develop original visual art, performance, and creative writing curricula based on their individual skills and interests. Oxy Arts also provides studio art, theater, and music majors with a sophisticated public space to present their senior comps. In December, 10 graduating studio art majors presented the multimedia Syndicate: A Comprehensive Exhibition. “For the first time comps is in an actual public gallery, where it’s accessible to everyone,” says August Barringer ’20 of Norwalk, Conn., whose monumental vermilion sculpture Effulgence became the symbol of the show. Theater and music comps are scheduled for later this spring. The centerpiece of the York space is a multipurpose room with a sprung floor for dancing and movement and a state-of-theart AV system that make it “the only place we can hold our music production senior comps recitals on campus,” says David Kasunic, associate professor of music and department chair. “It’s an optimal place for other events, such as a workshop on Afro-Brazilian dance and music, a senior comps project that is a musical theater song cycle, or a solo upright bass recital, all of which are happening this year.” On its most basic level, Oxy Arts is rooted in the idea that art matters, and that it matters as much to community members as it does to Oxy students and faculty. “We do not take art seriously enough,” says Gallegos of Avenue 50 Studio. “Average people say artists are different. ... That causes this divide, where art becomes inaccessible and remote rather than being seen as a part of the everyday fabric of society. I’m glad the College took the arts off campus and into the streets. That’s a good thing.”

“Even when I’m making objects that aren’t obviously ﬁgurative, they’re still motivated by thinking about human relationships,” Davis says.

CAN’T REMEMBER A TIME WHEN I didn’t want to be an artist,” says Kenturah Davis ’02, sitting at the broad worktable dominating the reconfigured dining room of her Highland Park home and studio. But her journey to this point— and the evolution of her intricate, evocative work—has been long and circuitous. Davis’ own current portraiture involves what she calls text drawings. “They’re works on paper made by handwriting texts in repetition,” she explains. “Others are made by using rubber stamp letters and stamping out a phrase in repetition to render the figure. “I like referring to them as drawings because that seems to be the most flexible category for me,” she adds, “thinking through the way we write, the way we experience written language on a page, and blurring the distinction between writing and drawing.” She’s shown her work internationally, and returned to Oxy in 2018 as an adjunct assistant professor of art and art history. Later this year, 10 of her text-based portraits will be incorporated into the Downtown Inglewood station on the new Metro Crenshaw/LAX Line, on permanent display to urban riders. The drawings she created for Metro are an extension from a series titled Sonder, which she exhibited at the Papillion Institute of Art in Los Angeles in 2013. The name comes from a project called the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, in which writer John Koenig “was inventing new words and these really poetic definitions for them,” Davis explains. “Sonder basically describes the experience of noticing strangers and being curious about what their lives are like.” 18

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In putting together the project, Davis put out a call throughout Los Angeles for anyone with a connection to Inglewood to participate in a photo shoot. “What was beautiful was just watching people engaging or even not engaging but just people noticing strangers, people that they didn’t know,” she says. Davis ended up using that word, sonder, to render the images. “Everything kind of clicked in a way,” she says, “because that is the kind of experience that you can have on a train or in public transportation.” It can be hard to deﬁne the intricate, random bouillabaisse of inﬂuence that sparks a young person’s journey into a lifelong pursuit of art. In Davis’ case, it’s a delicate mixture of the subtleties of plein air water colors and the artistic set design nuances of Godzilla, Tron, and Star Trek. “My dad, Keni Davis, was a set painter for movies and TV, and was in the union for over 30 years,” says Kenturah, who grew up in nearby Altadena. “He would take me and my sisters, Trenae and Tresell, out painting down by the Rose Bowl to show us how to draw in perspective. And my mom makes quilts and taught me how to sew, so there was that side too. I can’t imagine having better and more supportive parents.” Witnessing her dad’s professional work, as well as his still-active plein air passion, “contributed to me thinking that being an artist was very practical as a career. I didn’t realize how challenging it was.” Despite her innate drive toward art, it was volleyball that landed Davis at Occidental— at 5'9" she could jump high with serious hang

time, and she played at Oxy for all four years. “My coach from high school, Jennifer Pullen ’98, had gone to Occidental and then at a tournament we met Linda Lyke,” says Davis. “She saw something in me early on.” “Her team was playing my daughter’s team,” recalls Lyke, who has taught art and art history at Oxy since 1976. “I sat with Kenturah’s mother just coincidentally, and I said, ‘Where’s your daughter going to go to school? Why don’t you try Occidental? She’s a great volleyball player, and she would be a great student for Oxy and she’s interested in art, and I’d be happy to try to help her get in.’ ” Prior to her freshman year in 1998, Davis was invited to participate in Oxy’s Multicultural Summer Institute. “I lived on campus, and that primed me for what college life would be like,” she says. Having graduated from John Muir High School in Pasadena, “It was really a step up in terms of thinking differently, more critically than high school. It was really valuable and just super rigorous.” Davis, who graduated cum laude with a B.A. in visual arts and art history, took every printmaking class Lyke taught. “Kenturah was a standout, always, from 40 years of teaching,” says Lyke, who became a mentor to the budding creative. “There’s just a handful that you consider to be real artists. And she definitely had the drive, talent, and inclination of going deeper into her work in terms of trying to have a clear voice of what she wanted to do.” Occidental’s liberal arts program had the broadening impact Davis was hoping for: “I was thinking about ideas beyond just painting and drawing or whatever I was interested in doing visually.” She ended up minoring in anthropology, and then-associate professor Elizabeth Chen “played a big role in opening my mind to other fields, and how these disciplines can overlap,” Davis adds. “I started to think about language and linguistics and how they operate in our lives. It had a huge influence later in my work.” After graduating from Oxy, Davis found herself “struggling” to make a living as an artist,” so she moved to Washington, D.C., where she found work in a gallery and bookstore. “I was painting but grew frustrated with the kind of paintings I was making. I stopped making art for about two years, and spent that time doing a lot of reading and writing. I eventually found that I was interested in our relationship with language and

working through how I might address those ideas visually.” In 2004, Davis came back to Los Angeles, still maneuvering the tricky worlds of making art and survival. She took a job in West Hollywood as a receptionist at Gemini GEL (Graphic Editions Limited), an artists’ workshop and publisher. Davis stayed there for nine years, eventually rising to director of sales, putting in 40 hours a week while creating into the wee hours at her Highland Park studio. “The beautiful thing about that job was meeting artists that I’d only read about in history books and seen in museums,” she says. “They came to the studio, and you got to witness them start a project and see it through from beginning to end. Eventually it got to the point where I was showing, and then to where I thought I could leave that job and keep working on my own.” A clothing designer friend invited her to move to Accra, the capital of Ghana, to manage production—a six-month gig that turned into a year and a half. “The ﬁrst thing that hit me when I got oﬀ the plane was that Accra has a distinct warm smell to it,” recalls Davis, who still goes back annually. “It immediately felt like another home. It’s so vibrant. You’re going through the streets passing by goats and cows, but it’s also very metropolitan. I quickly fell in love with it.” Soon after her return from Accra, Davis enrolled at the Yale School of Art. Toward the end of Davis’ productive two-year stint in New Haven, L.A. art dealer Matthew Brown contacted her. He’d seen her last local show in 2014 at a gallery in Leimert Park in South Los Angeles and was planning to open his own space. Brown visited her at Yale, asking her to create work that would serve as his inaugural exhibition. “I was immediately blown away by how intricate her works were,” Brown says. “The more I learned about her process the more impressed I was. It was a dream to be able to open the gallery with Kenturah.” Davis’ show, Blur in the Interest of Precision, debuted in January 2019. “She represents everything I would want the gallery to be aligned with, both as an artist and a human

far left: A Surreal Presence for Every Possible State (2018), from her exhibition at Matthew Brown Gallery. left: A quilted smock (2009) created for Andrea Zittel’s Smockshop— A-Z West. below: For Loom I (2017), Davis wove mixed media into a wooden loom. .

being,” Brown says. “I will always be indebted to her for taking such a risk on me.” Brown’s gallery show and surgery on Lyke’s knee became the catalysts for Davis not only returning to her hometown but to Occidental. “I had a medical procedure,” says Lyke, “so we needed an adjunct to teach the printmaking classes. I asked Kenturah if she would teach for us, and the department was delighted because they all knew her from her days as an undergraduate. She was already experienced as an artist in L.A., so it was great.” “Linda having the confidence in me to take that on felt too good to pass up,” Davis says. “It was a great chance for me to think about the kind of teacher I wanted to be, and working that out was valuable to me as a maker of art. “The teachers I learned from the most were people who realized that—while they had a lot to offer their students—they didn’t know everything, and their students could have something to offer to them,” Davis continues. “It was like the classrooms were a space to experiment together. That’s the kind of thing I tried to create in the two printmaking classes that I’ve taught.” There’s not a lot of furniture in Davis’ living room, but there is an intricate scale model of the SCAD Museum of Art, part of the Savannah College of Art and Design in

Georgia. Looking down into the roofless, maze-like mockup, there are small pieces of art on the foam core walls. It could be a highend gallery for erudite mice. “I’ve got my first solo museum show coming up there,” says Davis of her Feb. 6 exhibition at SCAD’s Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies. “It’s about 3,000 square feet. I worked with the curator to design the setup and what would go where.” But, as he was decades ago, her father continues to be in the picture. “Oh yeah, he still helps me sometimes,” she says. “My dad actually built this model for me.” Next spring, Davis will be back teaching printmaking at Oxy, something she wants to continue. But, as the demand for her art increases, it makes for a full dance card. “Right now I’m trying to figure out what that balance is like,” she says. “I don’t know how Linda [Lyke] and all the other fantastic faculty that I’ve had teach full-time and make art. I love it so much, but it’s tough sometimes keeping up with the deadlines these days. But that’s a good problem to have.” Gilstrap wrote “’23 and Me” last issue. WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

The Shape of

WATER By JIM TRANQUADA

Photos by MARC CAMPOS

What holds 598,000 gallons, contains 15 lanes, and has a capacity of 188 people? (Hint: It’s not your grandfather’s pool.)

left: Still waters run far deeper in the De Mandel Aquatics Center. below: Director of facilities Tom Polansky, left, and project manager Greg Ochoa pour a ceremonial bucket of water from Taylor Pool into its successor.

Photos by Sam Leigh/Sam’s Photo Services

above: Zander Granath ’20, left, and a rival Sagehen prepare to square oﬀ in Oxy’s last home swim meet at Taylor Pool on Jan. 11. right: If these waters could talk. 22 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE WINTER 2020

hen team captain Zander Granath ’20, a sociology major from Salt Lake City, led Oxy swimmers through a rapid-ﬁre rendition of “Io Triumphe” at Taylor Pool before the Jan. 11 Pomona-Pitzer meet, no one paid any particular attention. It was a pre-meet ritual that had occurred hundreds of times before at Taylor, which turns 90 in November. Things were looking up: The sun was out, with temperatures in the high 50s; the sometimes balky scoreboard and timing system were both working; and parents from as far away as Washington state were in the stands to cheer the Tigers on. In the back of everyone’s mind, however, was the promise of a new era on the other side of Taylor’s graceful red tile-topped arcade: the new De Mandel Aquatics Center, the new pool just a few city inspections away from opening for business. After literally decades of anticipation, this could have been the very last “Io Triumphe” at the last meet in Taylor Pool, one of the oldest active outdoor pools in the NCAA. “I’m really grateful I got to swim in this pool,” Granath said between races

as towels draped over the arcade’s iron railing dried in the sun. “We’ve produced national champions in this pool. It’s fun to compete against a Chapman or a Pomona and beat them in a meet here. But at the same time I’m envious of the first-years who will get to enjoy most of their career in the new pool.” Cindy Dong ’22, a media arts and culture major from Sarasota, Fla., manages the swim team’s Instagram account and has been responding to a constant stream of messages asking when the new pool will be ready. “Of course, we’re all looking forward to it,” says last year’s SCIAC champion in the 200 fly. “The first time I saw it filled with water it was like, wow, this is really happening.” Earlier that morning, before the meet began, as many as eight swimmers were jammed into a single lane to warm up. The new pool has a different kind of problem, if you can call it that: It has 15 lanes, but the scoreboard can only accommodate 12. “It’s gorgeous. It’s beautiful. All of us can’t wait,” Jack Stabenfeldt ’13, men’s and women’s water polo coach, says at his desk in the Payton Jordan Athletic Offices. While there has been frustration about the delays in opening, which has been pushed back multiple times, “The bottom line is that the

10 Questions For Shanda Ness Shanda Ness was 23 years old and fresh out of grad school when Dakota Wesleyan University athletic director Doug Martin offered her the opportunity to start a softball program at the NAIA-affiliated school. “I was the same age as some of my players,” says Ness, who grew up shooting hoops on a farm in small-town South Dakota. “But that’s what sports can do for people. It can give them opportunities.” A quarter-century later—following a long and successful coaching career at Cornell College in Iowa and Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, and two years as athletic director at Thomas College in Maine— Ness migrated west to Occidental as the College’s new athletic director. She arrives at an opportune moment for Oxy sports, with a new home (the Payton Jordan Athletic Offices), new aquatics and tennis centers, and a palpable sense that the Tigers’ fortunes are on the upswing. As her one-year anniversary approaches in March, she reflects on the state of Oxy athletics. How did you find the spirit of the program when you arrived at Occidental? It was clear to me that the coaches and staff were hungry to move forward, and I have felt very supported in the leadership that I’ve offered and the ideas I’ve brought to Oxy. It is very important to me to have our entrie athletic department operate as a team. Do you miss coaching at all? Yes. I loved coaching. I’m the same person as I was when I coached, and now I lead coaches versus leading student-athletes. Although my days look somewhat different, they are much the same in that way. I have always known that being an athletic director was the next step in my career because of my desire to lead, mentor, and have an impact on the lives of student-athletes and the broader community. Do you meet with your coaches as a group? We have meetings every other week, and I think that coming together collectively is very important. One of the things we did really early on was to engage with each other to establish core values. Our coaches don’t just coach their team, they all have other roles within the department. We rely on each other to be successful and to propel each other forward. When one program does well, it helps us all, and I think we have that mentality. I believe we have created an environment within athletics filled with positive and inviting energy. Do you have an adequate budget to do what you need to do? Overall, my budget is adequate but there are certainly areas that I would like to enhance or develop. There are a few facility enhancements that would help—our stadium turf and lights need attention. And then there’s personnel—support for the coaches, full-time assistant positions, things like that. And we could always use more resources for team travel that enhances the student-athlete experience.

“I want all of our student-athletes to graduate and be able to say that they had a great experience with Oxy athletics.” What constitutes a successful student-athlete experience? I like to say that winning is important, but it’s not the only thing that’s important. Paying attention to mind, body, and spirit in the overall development of a student-athlete—and not focusing on only one of those—needs to be part of our everyday process. Is Occidental at a good place moving forward in providing opportunities for women in sports? Yes; however, there’s always work to be done in that area. It is something that we are mindful of and intentional about. While I think we have great opportunities for our female student-athletes, we are striving to make Oxy even better for them. What are your thoughts about the long-term prospects for football at Oxy? Our football staff has worked very hard and diligently to move the program forward. It is not a quick process; it requires some patience. But I think they have taken steps in making sure that, first and foremost, we have a viable team. With strong recruiting and retention efforts, we can continue making progress. I gather you attended some football games this season. I attended all the home games. Our players went out there and left it all on the field. They competed really hard and I took a lot of pride in that. That speaks to their character and who they are as people. How many Oxy teams have you seen in competition? I think I’ve seen them all now. It’s a big deal to me to attend our competitions. That’s what our student-athletes work hard for every day—putting in the time and the practice. So, I make it a priority to get out and support them. What’s the most surprising thing about your experience here so far? I’ve been in college athletics for a long time, so it’s pretty hard to surprise me. But I feel very fortunate to have become invested, intertwined, and connected to Occidental so quickly. And I think that’s a result of the people being so open and welcoming to me. It’s not hard for me to say that I’m all in for Oxy.—dick anderson WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE 23

new pool will make swim and water polo more competitive.” Some of the delays were unavoidable, including 40 days lost to rain during construction, says Tom Polansky, associate vice president of facilities. Others were due to the complexities of building a pool on a sloping site and dealing with inspectors from multiple city and county departments. “But when the crew you bring in to plaster the pool tells you how beautiful the pool is compared to the other jobs they’ve worked on, that helps put it all in perspective,” Polansky says.

The water’s ﬁne: Taylor Pool in 1931.

After winning the women’s 1,000-meter free at the Pomona-Pitzer meet, Siena Lucido ’22,

1931 photo courtesy Occidental College Special Collections | 1981 photos by Glenn Mar ’84 | 2012 photo by Marc Campos

Taylor Made Memories Mary Barbara Taylor ’29 was among a crowd of 200 on hand for the dedication of her namesake pool on Nov. 21, 1930. “This is an occasion in the approach of Thanksgiving for which we can truly give thanks,” Occidental President Remsen Bird said in his remarks, which also marked the dedication of the E.S. Field Memorial Building, named for the ﬁrst president of the Board of Trustees. In the nearly 90 years since, Taylor Pool has hosted hundreds of swim meets and water polo matches. Cornelia AlmásyBiedermann ’00 remembered women’s water polo coach Dennis Fosdick “doing all he could to encourage the team that they were bound for greatness, and being dropped oﬀ in front of the pool with fans and banners to welcome us when we

above center: Ed Currie ’84, right, in men’s water polo action on Sept. 23, 1981. above: The Tigers take to the water against Lewis & Clark in a home meet on Jan. 9, 2012. 24 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE WINTER 2020

returned from Santa Cruz as Division III national champions in 2000.” After we reached out via Facebook for alumni stories of Taylor Pool, respondents shared memories of inner tube water polo (Sean Waklee ’96), water ballet (Susan Ashley Meyer ’68), and late-night swims (Robert Rose ’83). For Jeff McLean ’81 and his buddies, gaining access to the pool entailed jumping off the roof into the deep end above the left-most light fixture. “One could then go to the doors and let more sane friends in,” he wrote. “I can’t imagine this will end up in the magazine, since it involved rule breaking, but it was an amazing night,” wrote Patricia Costales ’88. “Super hot out, no one could sleep. A small group of us decided to sneak into the pool, well after midnight. We climbed up and over, only to find a full spread of leftover food and drink laid out on tables waiting for us. It was like hitting the jackpot.” Noel Hollowell-Small ’11 wrote of practicing for her first triathlon in Taylor Pool in 2010. Kevin Ozaki ’12 recalled learning to swim with baseball teammates Jacob Lee ’13 and Josh Throckmorton ’12 during 6 a.m. conditioning sessions—to which Lee replied, “Cannot forget Brooks Belter ’11 catching swine flu in this pool either.” “Best pool story is a friend of mine said they looked at the pool area and Ben Affleck ’95 was sunbathing and saw Ben kiss both of his biceps,” Jerrod Cardwell ’91 wrote. “This absolutely was put to me as a real story.”

Photo courtesy Jeﬀ McLean ’81

a cognitive science/group language major from San Pedro, ran through a list of some of the ways the new pool will make a difference. Its 15 lanes mean the team will no longer have to practice in shifts. Team divers who now have to practice and compete in Pasadena will be able to come home for the first time in decades. “It’s looking really nice,” Lucido said. “We’re excited to finally get in.” As a sprinter, Granath said he is excited about the new pool’s starting blocks—“those will be huge”—and the faster times that will come with a bigger, deeper pool. “We will be able to do so much more,” he said, adding wistfully: “I really am a little bit jealous.”

Not far away, All-SCIAC swimmer Laura Chun ’19, a history major from Arcadia, was cheering on her friends and former teammates. “It would have been nice if we had been able to use the new pool when I was swimming, but it’s OK—I loved my experience here,” said Chun, whose father, Ron Chun ’87, also swam for Oxy in Taylor Pool. After De Mandel opens, current plans call for Taylor to be ﬁlled in and the arcaded E.S. Field Building that surrounds it to be restored. The resulting Cannon Plaza will be used as a multipurpose event space. “It’s a lovely pool. It’s a piece of classic California architecture,” said Ann Rendahl of Tacoma, Wash., who has two sons on the

Taylor Pool circa 1937.

swim team—junior Sam Sachs and ﬁrst-year Nate Sachs. “I’m glad they’re not going to tear all of it down, given all the history and meaning it has for the College. But the new pool will be much better.”

Funding for the project has come from scores of alumni, parents, and friends, including a naming gift from the late Ranier De Mandel ’25, who pledged his support in 1995.

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Personal Best

Using running as a foundation for a better life, Girls Gotta Run executive director Kayla Nolan ’11 brings hope to school-age girls in Ethiopia one step at a time By DICK ANDERSON Photo by RICK DAHMS

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left: “Every year it’s been new challenges and new opportunities,” Nolan says of her work with Girls Gotta Run. “It’s been a really creative endeavor, which is what I was looking for.” opposite page: Nolan at home in Seattle.

AYLA NOLAN ’11 TOOK UP RUNNING as a teenager, when she ran cross country at Sammamish High School in Seattle. When she was looking at colleges in California, the Sacramento native wanted to find a school where she could run competitively. “Occidental had a really great program under Coach Rob Bartlett, who’s still there,” Nolan says. “I’m still not a very fast runner, but I love running. I also really got excited about Oxy’s environmental studies program. “When I visited campus, that’s when the running community came to life for me,” she adds. Running at Oxy helped her explore Los Angeles as well: “I got to see amazing places and run through different parts of the city that I don’t think I ever would have thought to go to.” There is perhaps no sport as universal—or accessible —as running. Athletes from 78 countries participated in the Los Angeles Marathon on March 8, with runners from Ethiopia and Kenya winning the men’s and women’s fields, respectively. For young women in some of the poorest nations in the world, running competitively is seen as a path toward a better life. As executive director of Girls Gotta Run Foundation (GGRF), an organization dedicated to the empowerment of girls through running and education in Ethiopia, Nolan has devoted nearly eight years of her life to changing the lives of hundreds of girls and their families by giving them a road map to a better future. From its modest beginnings in 2006 around the simple idea of providing shoes and athletic gear for teenage girls in Ethiopia, Girls Gotta Run has evolved into an organization dedicated to the empowerment of girls through a variety of tools, including education and entrepreneurship. “It started with such a humble mission,” says Nolan, whose connection to the foundation dates back to her sophomore year at Oxy. “It was really a small idea that seemed like it would make a ripple of an impact with people all the way across the world. “When we had very few funds, we tried to invest them where they would make the biggest impact,” she adds. “If girls can just make it past the age where they’re most vulnerable to dropping out of school and entering early marriage, they already have a greater opportunity of earning an income, getting a higher education, and having the community and tools to navigate those challenges.”

It’s a remarkable organization with a mission that’s rooted in the core values of Occidental. And Nolan would likely have never been a part of it had she not embraced the many opportunities she was afforded at Oxy—beginning with a Richter Scholarship, which funds independent research abroad under the supervision of a faculty member. “As a long-distance runner, I was looking at the empowerment of women through running and wondered what that experience was like for other women my age,” recalls Nolan, who majored in politics. “I was looking at Kenya, Ethiopia, and Jamaica because those are pretty solid running countries. I decided not to choose Jamaica because I wasn’t a sprinter and felt I would relate more easily with athletes who ran the same distance as I did.” Political violence in Kenya ruled out that country, so Nolan looked instead to Ethiopia. “That’s when I first got in touch with Girls Gotta Run Foundation because they were the only organization working with female athletes around education and early marriage prevention,” she says. “They were a very small project at the time. So I figured, ‘OK, that’s my in. That’s how I can talk to female runners when I get there.’ ” Girls Gotta Run was founded by Patricia Ortman, a retired women’s studies professor and artist in Washington, D.C. Ortman read an article in The Washington Post

above center: “Integrating people into sport is a good way to teach values like teamwork or how to socialize with one another, how to ﬁnd your place,” Nolan says. “Running is pretty rebellious—it doesn’t require a lot of gear and it doesn’t require a team.” above: Nolan visits with a women’s group in Ethiopia.

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5 Photos (pages 27-29) courtesy Girls Gotta Run Foundation

1: Girls Gotta Run works with about 300 girls and women, impacting over 1,300 community members. 2: Runners in the program in April 2016. 3: GGRF invests in girls during adolescence when they are most vulnerable to dropping out of school to marry early. 4: Participants in the Bekoji 100, a 100-mile ultra-relay organized by and for women through Ethiopia’s Oromia Region, held on Jan. 10, 2019. 5: “It’s been amazing to see the girls and their families just choose their own path,” Nolan says. “That’s really what empowerment is: It’s being able to design your own future, not having that dictated by cultural norms or the economic situation or marriage.”

describing the lives of teenage girls in Ethiopia who drop out of school and can be sold into marriage by their parents as early as age 12. These girls see running as “a real statement of freedom that actually turns into power,” ElShadai Negash, editor of a sports magazine in Addis Ababa, told the Post. “Female runners are idols in part because of their financial success.” Ortman “started out with that humble idea: Let’s support women who are working so hard to choose something different in their lives,” Nolan says. “From there it expanded, and continues to evolve.” Living that summer with an Ethiopian family, Nolan immersed herself in the country’s language and culture and, with the support of Girls Gotta Run, spent most of her time talking with women runners of all ages in different cities. “I would ask them questions like: Why pursue running out of all the things that you can pursue in your life? What keeps you going? A lot of the themes that came out from those discussions centered around national identity—that participating in the sport of running in Ethiopia brought a lot of pride to them and to their families and also economic opportunity. “I felt like there’s just so much untapped potential in Ethiopia,” she adds. “And not many people were asking them what their lives were all about. Here I had the

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opportunity to sit down and talk to them, and I wanted to amplify their voice and put their story out in the context of the research, which at that time missed women’s participation in athletics in East Africa. “There wasn’t a lot of research going on about running, which is funny now because everything is about running now,” she continues. “But there was an interesting upsurge in support for women’s athletics because they were just killing it internationally. The Ethiopian Athletics Federation wanted to support women because they saw the depth of talent in that ﬁeld.” With Peter Dreier, E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics, as her project adviser, “It started looking like a quality project that I could get some value out of— not only for myself but also for eventually where the research would go. I had found a niche where not a lot of people had been researching this particular topic. So I think that opened more opportunities to me to be able to share that research.” “Kayla wrote an outstanding report on her research, as good as many master’s theses,” Dreier says. She was subsequently invited to give a paper on the topic at a conference on women in sport development in Africa at Oxford University in the U.K. (which Nolan was able to attend with support from the Young Fund). Professor Jane Jaquette and Dreier worked with Nolan to turn her Richter report into a conference paper, “but in truth, she did it almost entirely on her own,” Dreier says. She was also invited to present her research at a conference on “Sport and the Global South” at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. It was around the time that she got a call from Ortman of Girls Gotta Run. The organization was looking to grow from an all-volunteer structure to “something that can have more of an impact,” Nolan says, and they wanted to her to come aboard to help grow and eventually run GGRF.

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“I was 22 or something,” Nolan recalls. “I had no idea how to run an organization. But I knew the core work, so it felt like an exciting opportunity.” So Nolan joined GGRF in 2012 as executive director, working alongside Ortman while getting a crash course in running a nonprofit from the Foundation Center in New York City, “which is like a free library for nonprofits,” she says. “Girls Gotta Run had a good mission and a good heart in what they were doing, but were limited in their strategy and capacity to fundraise and to have an impact. The more I started looking at it, the more I realized we needed to change our program model to better serve the girls that we’re working with.” After she moved to Ethiopia full-time in 2013, Nolan concluded that some of GGRF’s program partners “weren’t the right fit for our funding model and what we were trying to do with our work,” she says. GGRF overhauled its programming the following year to support girls and their families through such areas as education (providing full scholarship support, including books, food, hygiene supplies, and medical services), running (providing girls sports gear, shoes, snacks, and water), and life skills (developing safe spaces and helping girls to build empowered lives through weekly workshops). For each incoming class of girls, there’s also a five-day workshop for their mothers, where they learn to collectively save and gain access to seed capital, “helping them build financial resiliency as we are working with the girls,” Nolan says. By 2017, Girls Gotta Run was flourishing and its staff was well entrenched. Interest in the program exceeded the foundation’s means to support it, so Nolan moved back to the States to focus on organizational development and growth. “That’s really where I could add more value,” she says. “I’m based in Seattle now and I spend a couple months out of the year in Ethiopia.” Her office is based at the Riveter, a co-working space for women in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Nolan continues to develop new revenue streams for the nonprofit. Proceeds from a fundraiser in Los Angeles last October were earmarked to launch a new program location in Agaro, a well-known coffee growing community in southwestern Ethiopia. “We’re looking to launch a program there because that community does not have any educational programming going on,” Nolan says. One of the organization’s first partnerships was with Allegro Coffee, which created a seasonal East African coffee blend in support of Girls Gotta Run “as complex and focused as these remarkable young runners,” according to the Allegro website. On Jan. 10, 2019, the girls participated in the Bekoji 100 relay, Ethiopia’s first ultra-relay organized for and by girls and women. Half of the team were from Girls Gotta

Run and the other half were international athletes and recreational runners. Forty-eight runners worked together to cover the 100-mile course through the Bali Mountains and the Red Valley. “It was all to raise awareness for women’s empowerment and peace in that area, and to bring a new experience to the girls.” (A short ﬁlm documenting the Bekoji 100 premiered at the No Man’s Land Film Festival in Denver on March 7—International Women’s Day—and will screen in connection with the Boston Marathon on April 18.) Nolan is into her eighth year with Girls Gotta Run— an eternity for many people her age. “If I had known what it would take to get to where we are now as an organization, I don’t know if I would’ve taken it on,” she admits. “I’m so glad that I did but it’s one of those things that’s so much harder than you could possibly imagine.” Returning to founder Ortman, Nolan adds, “I don’t know if she really imagined it going where it is today. It’s so powerful to see something that you created take a life of its own. I think that’s like what we would all love to see—that you make something that has its own legs and it keeps going.”

above: “Running is like meditation for me,” says Nolan, jogging through a neighborhood in Seattle. left: Runners in the central Ethiopian town of Bekoji. GGRF has seen 96 percent of program participants at its two locations graduate into higher levels of education, avoid early marriage, and complete the three-year curriculum.

WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE 29

OXYTALK

Investing in Success With Alice Walker Duﬀ ’69 and husband Joe Duﬀ ’68 leading the charge, a generation of Black student activists rallies together to support academic and life success for the underrepresented Photo by Kevin Burke

The Duﬀs in their Los Angeles home. “The relationships we formed at Oxy were so strong and deep and so enduring that there’s no doubt our life was enriched by that experience,” says Alice.

30 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE WINTER 2020

As student activists at Oxy more than half a century ago, Alice Walker Duff ’69 and Joe Duff ’68 and their friends vividly remember the struggle to persuade the College to address the issues now embodied in the four cornerstones of Oxy’s mission: excellence, equity, community, and service. Today, that same close circle of friends— a high-powered group that includes five current and former Occidental trustees—is in a position to engage in a different kind of activism. In conjunction with The Oxy Campaign For Good, the Duffs, Gene Grigsby ’66, Carl Ballton ’69, and a host of others have endowed the African-American and Underrepresented Student Success Fund. “It’s the kind of thing we talked about as students,” says Alice Duff, a sociology major at Oxy who went on to earn a Ph.D. and cofound Crystal Stairs Inc., the nonprofit child development corporation that pioneered child care services and advocacy with low-income families in South Los Angeles. “We had talent but not wealth then, but we were able to stay together and push forward using our Oxy education, and now we are in a position to do something,” says Joe Duff, a political science major at Oxy who became a civil rights attorney and served as head of the L.A. chapter of the NAACP from 1989 to 1994. Created “to support academic and life success of African American and underrepresented students” at Oxy, the fund is structured to give the dean of the College and a designated adviser (preferably a faculty member) flexibility to address evolving needs. Specifically, the fund can be used for everything from internships to promoting an understanding of the lasting effects of slavery and segregation in the United States. (Out of a total enrollment of 2,081 at the outset of the

OXYTALK

Photo courtesy Alice Walker Duﬀ ’69 | Kim photo by Marc Campos

2019-20 academic year, 4 percent of students self-identified as Black or African-American. Another 14.7 percent identified as Asian, 14.1 percent as Hispanic, and 0.2 percent as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.) Gifts to the fund just passed the critical threshold of $100,000, which under College policy means it can start funding programs in the 2021-22 academic year. The coming year will be used to develop a first-year plan. “Everyone recognizes that the fund will only generate a modest amount of funding initially,” says Grigsby, retired CEO and president of the National Health Foundation. Grigsby looks forward to growing the fund: “My audacious goal is to have 100 percent of all African-American alumni contributing to Oxy financially. Hopefully, as its impacts become known, other underrepresented alumni will add their support.” As emeriti trustees, Grigsby and Alice Duff understand the importance of the campaign and building Occidental’s endowment. “It’s critical that Oxy grow its endowment,” says Alice Duff. “We really want to support Oxy’s mission, and if people aren’t stepping up to give—no money, no mission.” But for the Duffs and their friends, their own memories of being Black students at Oxy during the civil rights era are an equally powerful motivation. “Socially, Oxy was the most frightening, frustrating experience I’ve ever had,” says Grigsby, a sociology major who was one of two Black students in the entering class of 1966. Not being able to find a local barber shop that would cut his hair, being told by off-campus landlords that they didn’t rent to “your kind,” and being confronted and reported by a dorm mother for his choice of a date—this was his reality for four years. Despite—and because of—all this, “Oxy prepared me to be competitive with anyone, anywhere,” he adds. “I breezed through my Ph.D. program because I was so well prepared at Oxy. The challenges shaped my strengths.” Ballton, an Oxy trustee since 2009, is another success story, having retired in 2015 as managing director of Union Bank and president and CEO of the Union Bank Foundation. “My experience at Oxy was so overwhelmingly good, it put me on a trajectory that far exceeded what I thought was possible,” says the diplomacy and world affairs major, who was president of the Black Stu-

Joe and Alice, seen here at a 1965 ATO party, were engaged by the end of freshman year. “My father was furious: ‘I sent you to Oxy to get an education, not a husband, and from the look of your grades you’re not getting much of an education,’” Alice recalls. “I got straight A’s after that.”

dent Caucus at Oxy. Looking back on his experience as a Black student, “I know it was a challenging experience for most of us, and that’s one of the reasons I’m happy to help out. I want to give back.” Political science major and ASOC president Don Cornwell ’69, who earned a Harvard MBA and served as CEO of Granite Broadcasting—the largest Black-owned broadcast company at the time of its founding in 1988 —also speaks in terms of giving back. “I am very happy to support an initiative designed to be meaningful to Oxy students of color,” says the former trustee. “When Alice asked me to participate, it sounded like a wonderful idea.” Psychiatrist and trustee Greta Johnson Mandell ’72 agrees. “My goal is to enable as many young people as possible to come to Occidental and learn, grow, and thrive as I did,” says Mandell, who majored in biology at Oxy and went to UCLA Medical School. “It was very difficult to be a Black student at Occidental,” Alice Duff says. That’s why it’s so important to be involved now, she stresses. “By no stretch of the imagination is Oxy a perfect place, but we benefited tremendously from Oxy so we should be contributing to cement those four cornerstones of the current mission firmly in place for all students. Without alumni giving and engaging, how is the College going to get there?” —jim tranquada

» CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK Buoyed by a ﬂurry of gifts in recent months, The Oxy Campaign For Good has raised more than $155 million through the end of February. That’s an increase of $37 million since its public launch last May, putting the College on pace for one of its best fundraising years in history. “We are very encouraged by the outpouring of support thus far,” says campaign cochair William M. Kahane ’70. “Signiﬁcant progress has been made toward our top priority—scholarship endowment—and we are witnessing growth at nearly all gift levels to the Oxy Fund. We could not be more hopeful about the College’s future.”

Recent highlights include a string of gifts to support the music program, reﬂecting the work of the Music and MAC task force. A gift from the Choi Family—including Lucia Choi-Dalton ’89, Greg Dalton ’86, and Queence and Henry Choi ’90—will endow a broad range of programs in the Music Department. The Choi Family Music Production Center, to be dedicated in April, brings stateof-the-art production facilities to campus and includes a maintenance and equipment fund. The Choi Family Directorship for Instrumental Music will underwrite the salary of Chris Kim, above, who joined the College last July. Kim’s duties include overseeing all instrumental ensembles and private instruction, directing chamber music, and conducting the Occidental Symphony Orchestra. A $100,000 gift from Lucy and Barry Holt ’73 will endow the Holt Scholarship for Music Performance. The fund will support non-music majors who demonstrate a passion for music through instrumental or vocal performance on the Occidental campus. An anonymous $150,000 grant from an Oxy alum will establish the Satchmo Endowed Music Lessons Fund to cover and defray the cost of music lessons for students with demonstrated need of ﬁnancial assistance. WINTER 2020 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE

PAGE 56

Left: Kebede as Motormouth Maybelle in a 2013 production of Hairspray at Oxy. Right: On stage in 2019 as a member of the Hamilton ensemble.

says Kebede, who double-majored in diplomacy and world affairs and politics. “I wanted to be involved in those arenas but was also interested in politics and international relations.” Long fascinated by the legal and political sphere, Kebede participated in Oxy’s Kahane U.N. Program. She spent 10 weeks interning for the Guatemalan mission at the United Nations headquarters in New York City, working alongside diplomats and high-profile individuals whose work she had studied in class. She also spent a summer in the Los Angeles mayor’s office through the Hameetman Career Center’s InternHairspray photo by Marc Campos | Hamilton photo by Desmond Nunn LA program, an experience that became a job opportunity after Oxy. With her graduation approaching, Kebede looked back on her time at Oxy and pinpointed her happiest moments: singing in the Glee Club and working in the theater and music departments. “If I didn’t pursue theater to see how far I could go with it, I would be disappointed,” she says. “The mayor’s office was wonderfully flexible in my ability to in short notice leave for auditions.” Following successful roles in community theater, Kebede booked a profesof symbolism,” Kebede explains. “Having a sional job, qualifying her for the Actors’ Eqgreater historical and sociological context uity Association and opening more doors. enhances my ability to play these characters. When a foray into international waters at Tokyo Disney came up, Kebede immersed I understand where they come from.” As the understudy for Angelica, Peggy, herself in the performance lifestyle, singing and Eliza, Kebede has had to learn three in six shows a day and learning how to mainparts on top of the ensemble choreography tain her vocal and mental health. After seven months in Japan, Kebede and singing. For this massive undertaking, Kebede still relies on lessons learned at Oxy. returned to the States, landing the lead in an “Professor Desiree LaVertu [the College’s East Coast production of Sister Act (with a director of choral and vocal activities] has book by Emmy winner Cheri Steinkellner ’77). enhanced me as a technical singer tenfold, From there, “I was blessed to sing backup for and to this day I use things I’ve learned from Beyoncé’s Coachella rehearsals,” she says, in her in my Hamilton rehearsals all the time.” advance of the singer’s acclaimed 2018 conKebede jumped into the theater scene as certs. “It was a very different space than the a first-year, performing the role of Motor- theater environment. Getting to see in juxtamouth Maybelle in Hairspray in April 2013. position the two experiences helped me grow “The heartfelt singing by Kebede echoed more as a performer and as a person.” With a series of successes in the rearview through a silenced theater that was hanging on her every word,” Juliet Suess ’14 wrote in mirror, Kebede’s shooting star is not done rising. “Elphaba in Wicked is a dream role,” The Occidental. In choosing Oxy, “I wanted to go to a she says. “Joanne in Rent was as well, and small liberal arts school, and was pretty sure Angelica and Eliza definitely. I’m living the I didn’t want to major in theater or music,” dream.”—jasmine teran

From Hairspray to Hamilton DWA and politics major Lencia Kebede ’16 ﬁnds her way from the footlights of Keck Theater to the touring companies of two of Broadway’s biggest shows

Growing up singing in her church choir, Lencia Kebede ’16 juggled sports and homework along with choir rehearsal, often pushing the latter aside. But as her talent began to earn her solos and leading roles, she realized, “Hey, I’m actually pretty good at this, and I’m able to make people really happy through these shows,” she recalls. Thousands of happy faces later, Kebede is touring the country playing her dream roles from some of Broadway’s biggest shows. In April 2018, she landed the part of Joanne Jefferson in a 20th-anniversary revival of Rent, Jonathan Larson’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning musical. And since last September, she’s been an ensemble member in her biggest production to date: Hamilton, which is playing in Miami through March 15, with upcoming stops in Jacksonville, Fla. (March 17-29), Atlanta (March 31 to May 3), and St. Louis (May 5 to June 7). Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-, Grammy-, and Pulitzer Prize-winning portrayal of founding father Alexander Hamilton “is a giant piece 56 OCCIDENTAL MAGAZINE WINTER 2020

OXYFARE Upward Bound Marks 55 Years With a Reunion and Celebration Volume 42, Number 1 oxy.edu/magazine OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE

Courtney Stricklin Burgan ’03 Summer Staﬀ Softball Commissioner

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It was 20 years ago this May: Members of the Class of 2000 contemplate the future.

Dick Anderson Editor Laura Paisley, Jasmine Teran Contributing Writers Marc Campos Contributing Photographer Gail (Schulman) Ginell ’79 Class Notes Editor SanSoucie Design Design DLS Group Printing

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Courtney Stricklin Burgan ’03 Associate Dean of Admission

Save the Dates: June 12-14 JUNE 12-14, 2020

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Oxy is having its ﬁrst Day of Giving! Join the celebration on Founders Day.

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Photo courtesy Lois Aroian ’67

“Learning about other cultures makes us at home in the world,” says Lois, shown in Bodo, Norway.

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OXY ARTS SETS UP SHOP IN THE COMMUNITY /// RACING PAST BARRIERS: GIRLS GOTTA RUN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KAYLA NOLAN ’11

Lois Aroian ’67 Sees the World

Aquaﬁnally!

The sparkling new De Mandel Aquatics Center changes the Tigers’ competitive landscape— and ushers in a new era for Oxy athletics