Oxy Disorientation Guide 2019

Welcome to the 2019 Oxy Disorientation Guide!

This guide is meant to act as a force of accountability to the administration of Occidental College. Oxy as an institution is given the privilege of a fouryear graduation cycle, which the administration has historically taken advantage of in order to erase the activist histories of the student body, faculty, staff and community members. The Guide seeks to disrupt this erasure by uplifting voices of the present and past Oxy community, following in a tradition of Disorientation Guides from universities across the U.S. By arming you, the incoming students, with the knowledge of the past, present and potential futures of Oxy, we hope you take away a critical perspective on not only Oxy, but all institutions of power. Through this guide we are encouraging you to fully engage with Oxy, beyond your peers and friends, to push yourself to question the narrative of the College. Resist the ease of passivity.

We additionally hope to provide you all with the tools to navigate Oxy’s many facets while you are here, from financial aid to student organizations to administrators, so you can create some joy! How to gain institutional knowledge is not something universities of “higher” education advertise in their glossy pamphlets, however it is possibly the most crucial part of making $70,000 a year in tuition feel at all worth it.

In the following pages you will encounter compiled narratives of the students, faculty, staff and community members of Oxy which call into question how Occidental College has lived up to the enlisted “mission cornerstones” of excellence, equity, community and service. Even further, the Guide will call into question the notion that Oxy is the diverse, socialjustice-oriented, radical place of learning that it claims to be. This specific issue will focus on the 2015 AGC Occupation, where students of Occidental College occupied the administrative building continuously from November 16-20, 2015. The Class of 2019 was the last class at Occidental to have witnessed the Occupation, so it is imperative that the narrative of the Occupation preserved outside of the white-washed accounts of The Weekly and the Oxy Administration.

We would like to thank all of the student supporters, student organizers, faculty, staff and community members who have supported the revival of Disorientation, without your input, expertise, critiques and perspective, this publication would not exist. We also would like to extend our love to the students who will use this guide as they navigate this institution’s many oppressive forces and obstacles.

In love & solidarity, Oxy Disorientation Team

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Disclaimer: (adopted from Northeastern Disorientation 2017) This unofficial guide was created by a diverse group of students with a wide range of experiences and opinions. This guide was not sanctioned officially by any member of the Occidental College administration or faculty and is not the product of any official student group.

The views and opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of the individuals involved but are meant to foster dialogue and encourage students to creatively address issues in the greater Occidental College community.

The views, opinions and histories are in no way complete, and are open for debate, discussion and contestation.

If you have anything you wish to contribute to future Disorientation Guides, please email oxydisorientation@gmail.com.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Oxy Disorientation Guide Team wants to thank the professors, students, alumni, staff and organizers who contributed to and helped in the process of producing the Oxy Disorientation Guide Fall 2019. We are incredibly thankful to be able to record the stories of student organizers and those who stand in solidarity with them.

Specifically we would like to thank Anna Palmer, Cruz Riley, César Martinez, and Antonio Romero for providing all of their photographic and video work from the 2015 Occupation. Not only are the photos visually stunning, they create a necessary visual record of the power of student organizing on campus. Without your work this Guide would be devoid of powerful imagery.

We also express gratitude to the O-Team, DEB members and other voices on campus who are committed to distributing the Guide!

GROUND RULES The Oxy Disorientation Guide Team recognizes that Occidental College, and all U.S. territory, is stolen land. Specifically, Occidental exists on the occupied the land of the Tongva people, who cultivated lives, land and culture long before colonization. We stand with indigenous people, including the Tongva, in their fight for decolonization and autonomy.

Oxy Disorientation Guide operates under the truth that all institutions are inherently violent, specifically built on the traditions of anti-blackness which ground all workings of the United States. Anti-blackness operates in many intentionally-created form of oppression, including: mass incarceration, interpersonal microaggressions, limited access to monetary or educational resources, gerrymandering, political rhetoric and police violence. This means that although Oxy seeks to rhetorically form itself as a space for radical education or capitalizes on their students of color to proport a kind of diversity, it is truthfully a very unsafe space in many capacities for non-white students. Recognizing the prevalence of antiblackness on Occidental’s campus can more fully equipped us as students to combatting it, and ultimately aid in the healing of our peers of color.

While anti-blackness may seem irrelevant to an economics major, a physics major, a psychology major, it is necessary to point out that the choice to not reckon with one’s indoctrinated whiteness is both a privilege and actively

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affirms systems of oppression. It is not enough to read the New York Times or to hate Trump, you must self-educate and decolonize. With these understandings, Oxy Disorientation Guide calls on students (specifically non-black students) to interrogate how they have been indoctrinated in the United States to participate in a system of white supremacy. Moving into a process of decolonization not only opens up new avenues of connection to your peers, professors and community members, but it can aid in the addressing of anti-blackness at Oxy. Resources for interrogating capitalism, anti-blackness and starting a process of decolonization within yourself: à Articles: - https://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Miner-1956BodyRitualAmongTheNacirema.pdf - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P0OU6GlelE à Michael Hardt, About Love talks à Books: - Frantz Fanon, “Black Skin, White Masks” - Keeanga Yamahtta Taylor, “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation” - Reni Eddo-Lodge, “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” - Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton, “Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter” - Angela Davis, “Are Prisons Obsolete?” and “Freedom is A Constant Struggle”

à Films: -

“Citizenfour” “Inside Job” “13th” “Miss Representation” “I Am Not Your Negro” “Sorry to Bother You” “The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson” “Paris is Burning”

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TABLE OF CONTENTS …7: 2015 Occupation …19: C.O.D.E. …30: Organizer Reflection from 2015 …39: ASOC …41: What Should I Do on Campus? …42: What Classes Should I Take?

---43: Project S.A.F.E. …46: Active Minds …47: Emmons …51: Current Organizing On Campus …60: Resources for Further Research on Student Movements at Oxy (essentially our works cited page)

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2015 AGC OCCUPATION Basic Info on the Occupation of 2015: Why was the occupation started?

Instigated by national calls for confronting institutional anti-blackness on college campuses, most notably University of Missouri. In reaction to the anti-blackness of President Veitch, the administration of Occidental College and the structural and interpersonal anti-blackness of the College.

Who started the occupation?

CODE (Coalition at Oxy for Diversity and Equity) and Oxy United for Black Liberation.

What were the goals of the occupation?

List demands; addressing antiblackness, sexual assault What was the reaction to the occupation?

Commodification of agency; legal action against students; rewriting protest & dissent policy What is the legacy of the occupation?

Spirit of protest without concrete actions, factioning of some student organizing groups, burnout due to emotional labor of organizing.

The Occupation had struggles with structure, why?

- Essentialism of identities - Lack of direction (reactionary not proactive) - Seniority (not passing down institutional knowledge or how to organize in the future)

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A student films senior administrator while reading the Occupation demands.

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The AGC Occupation of 2015, led by CODE and Oxy United for Black Liberation, is the most notable student movement at Occidental since the anti-Apartheid and anti-war movements of the 1960s. With the Class of 2019 being the last witnesses of the Occupation, it is imperative to record the narrative. As we know, Oxy relies on the graduation cycle to reimpose the clean-cut narrative of the “progressive liberal arts school” onto the incoming first-years. The Occupation confirms not only the strength of student power on campus, but that Oxy is founded on and continues to perpetuate anti-blackness. It is also a powerful lesson for student organizers on the importance of balancing labor to avoid burnout, of protecting one another from administration and of resisting essentialism in order to effectively organize.

The following timeline detailing the 2015 AGC Occupation, led by the student group Oxy for Black Liberation, are compiled from the Special Collections archives project produced by Aaliyah Davis during her 2016 Undergraduate Summer Research project at Oxy. Information detailed here is also compiled through Professor Donna Maeda’s project: the History of Diversity and Equity at Occidental which Maeda completed with her class in the Spring of 2014. As mentioned in the project’s about page on their special collections website: “According to Occidental's Mission Statement: The Mission of Occidental College is to provide a gifted and diverse group of students with a total educational experience of the highest quality--one that prepares them for leadership in an increasingly complex, interdependent and pluralistic world.

The distinctive interdisciplinary and multicultural focus of the College's academic program seeks to foster both the fulfillment of individual aspirations and a deeply rooted commitment to the public good.

As a small liberal arts College, Occidental's approach includes the idea of "community" in a way that differs from larger institutions.

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Occidental prides itself on promoting diversity through its pluralistic community, which is dedicated to addressing the complexity of multicultural issues. Despite these intentions, it is important to continue to provide attention to college's mission to build diversity- so as not to undermine these goals through neglect. The goal of this archive is to critically examine the transformation of equity and diversity at Occidental College by employing a historical approach.

This project was started by a small group of socially conscious students and faculty under the direction of Professor Donna Kay Maeda. During the Spring of 2014, Maeda’s community-based learning course titled, “Culture and Community,” reflected critically upon issues at Occidental within the larger framework of diversity in higher education. Here, students assumed the role of “activist archivists,” as they documented the history of diversity at Occidental in order to better evaluate its presence today.

By providing a publicly accessible archive, we hope to provide others with a centralized space for discussion on diversity and equity at Occidental.

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[Timeline] This timeline includes the context of the Occupation, the leading up demonstrations and the push by students to create what is now the Diversity and Equity Board.

Fall 2014: Diversity and Equity Board Initiative (DEBI) is created by a collective of students committed to addressing systemic modes of oppression existent in the institution of Occidental College, calling for the creation of a student-led branch of ASOC Government that focuses on raising awareness and presence of issues of diversity and equity, as well as empowering structurally-marginalized students at Occidental College. Diversity in DEBI includes, but is not limited to, race, gender, sexuality, ability, religious affiliation, age, nationality, and citizenship. - RESF also issued a statement of support for the creation of DEB. Spring 2014: - Honor Board voted against funding/creation of DEB three times.

- On April 13, a student group begins circulating a petition to amend the ASOC constitution; the petition calls for student body fee increases to be approved through a student body vote instead of through Honor Board. The petition collects 667 student signatures, fulfilling the 600 signature minimum necessary to put the proposal on the ballot. However due to a discrepancy in language between a digital petition and an in-person petition, the amendment is nullified. The following semester, the vote is reintroduced and is approved through a student body vote.

Fall 2015: - Student demonstrations at sports events, the following is the statement released from the C.O.D.E. facebook page on November 14, 2015: “In 1968, the Black Power fist was raised by two Black olympians, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, as an act of protest. The event is regarded as one of the most overtly political statements in the history of the modern Olympic Games.

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After the ceremony, Tommie Smith stated, "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight."

In 2015, Black Oxy students sang the Black National Anthem before the last football game of the season while being heckled. Black students held up their fists when the song began while shouts of “America” and “look at the flag” were heard from the stands.

This was the first recorded instance of the Black National Anthem being sung in Jack Kemp Stadium.

After the Black National Anthem, white student allies were shoved and blocked from leaving the stadium.

In 1968 the Black Student Caucus delivered a list of demands to the President, that to this day have gone unmet.

We have waited for almost 50 years, we will wait no more.”

- Students air grievances on the quad and Veitch refuses to engage in a meaningful way; walked away at one point when challenged on his role in defending a sexual assaulter the following is the Oxy United for Black Lives official statement from FIND DATE. This statement is also the landing page for the C.O.D.E. website (https://codeoxy.wordpress.com/): Yesterday revealed the ongoing pain of black students on our campus. By no standards was this the first demonstration of such pain. Under President Veitch’s authority, black students have held town halls, organized for a VP of Diversity, protested countless racial incidents such as the ISIS-EbolaMalaysian-Airlines Halloween party, and have filed multiple reports through appropriate administrative channels. What President Veitch has identified as a memorable day has been and continues to be a process of rage and humiliation on this campus.

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If in his eyes this was truly a conversation, President Veitch would not have walked away from students as they spoke on their experiences at Oxy. He was unable to face the realities of campus life. Moreover, his comments ignore structures, are not directed at those that wield power, and do not address those that inflict violence. His comments are aimed at soothing those who grieve.

President Veitch does not need a Chief Diversity Officer to tell him what to do; he has already been given a list of demands. A pledge of commitment means nothing if he cannot recognize the extent to which black students have articulated unmet demands--since 1968.

Veitch has shown for the past 7 years that he is incapable of dealing with any issues concerning the well-being of marginalized students. This incapability reveals that Veitch in not able to identify culture at Oxy, let alone change it. In an ideal world, Veitch would have addressed each demand with leadership and conviction. He would have identified the exact channels and processes necessary to help students, and he would have committed himself to do so. Instead, he has not only failed to guide students in their journey for justice, but he has failed to provide a coherent vision of unity for the Oxy community.

For video and photo documentation of these confrontations with Veitch, please see the OUBL website: (http://oxyunited.weebly.com/). Videos are on the bottom of the home page.

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- November 16-21, 2015 AGC is occupied.

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Demands: the following are the demands of the AGC Occupation, formulated by OUBL and CODE. While there was speculation on how the demands were formed, OUBL & CODE student organizers were intentional with their demands, going as far as to create a Google Doc on the OUBL website which explains each demand in detail. The document is attached here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D8U33eRlFlsjQUmyTSXw0MZ BhYjApuCyB2mCzB_yFKg/edit#gid=0

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- Teach-ins are held by students, faculty and off-campus speakers, with food and beverages provided to those occupying by the dining workers of Oxy. - Students are encouraged by organizers to avoid speaking with admin to avoid misrepresentation, which became more prevalent when off-campus media came to the AGC to interview students.

- Media sources are used in support of admin, often using poc students as collateral and sensationalizes the story.

- Using white bodies as safety, for example during a confrontation with President Veitch led by students of color, white students gathered in concentric circles around black and brown students to mitigate the violence perpetrated by campus safety and LAPD. - Increased policing on campus, specifically LAPD had a large presence on campus.

Post-Occupation - DEB begins receiving funding through student body fees (~$40k annually)

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- Changes to protest and dissent policy to discourage students from participating in mass action on campus.

- Administration attempts to completely erase OUBL and CODE from the campus narrative, especially watering down the demands of students and student power in the explanations of protests which were disseminated online.

Veitch running away from peaceful protesters in front of Samuelson Alumni Center during the occupation:

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C.O.D.E. C.O.D.E. is an abbreviated term for Coalition at Oxy for Diversity and Equity and was a group of professors and students which formed to not only organize to keep administration accountable to their rhetoric about Oxy, but to foster a sustainable coalition of young organizers and elders. C.O.D.E. used a mentorship model between first-years and senior or upperclassmen, creating a sense of community which proved most effective and healing for organizing. Additionally C.O.D.E. made a point of bringing their organizing off-campus as well, since burnout on campus is common.

SOURCE: https://codeoxy.wordpress.com/timeline/ C.O.D.E. believes that Occidental College will achieve its full potential as a leading liberal arts college only by broadening and deepening our decadeslong institutional commitment to excellence and equity. We fully support the current mission statement of Occidental College. C.O.D.E. wishes to encourage all those connected with the college (Alumni, Administrators, Faculty, Staff, Students, and Trustees) to consider seriously the curricular, compositional, and structural changes needed if we wish to implement our unique mission effectively in and beyond the rapidly changing city of Los Angeles in the twenty-first century.

Our mission is to serve as the conscience of the institution. C.O.D.E. challenges Occidental College to match our rhetoric with concrete reality.

Timeline: (Note: This timeline draws from ASOC’s Multicultural History Report, 2008, which cites The Occidental Weekly, the 2006 Mission Initiatives Advisory Group’s Briefing Report and Recommendations to President Susan Prager, Racial Diversity at Occidental College: A History by Jean Paule, and data from the Institutional Research Office; reports by College

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committees, and interviews with Occidental students, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumnae/i.)

1916: K.S. Inui, a Japan scholar, is the first Asian (and first “non-white”) faculty member at Occidental.

1947: George Ellison, ’52, enrolls as the first Black student at Occidental.

1952: Along with Ellison, the first Black women graduate from Occidental: Janet Stafford and Barbara Bowen.

1961: Baltimore Scott, ’62, becomes the first Black student body president.

1966-67: July 5, 1966: President Gilman writes a letter inviting Martin

Luther King, Jr., to give a speech on campus. In it, President Gilman proudly asserts that “this College has in its own way sought to contribute positively to the movement for equality for the American Negro in a variety of ways” and that Oxy “constantly” pursues “new ways to do more than we have to date.” Dr. King addresses the campus in Thorne Hall on April 12, 1967. However, the College does not yet address equality and diversity on an institutional level.

1968: The Black Student Caucus, which had formed in 1967, presents a

list of demands to the administration. The list includes demands for faculty and student exchange programs with Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs); minority student/faculty/administrator control over minority admissions; a $15,000 fund, to be controlled by the Caucus, to run academic success programs for Black students; special funds set aside, and controlled by the Caucus, to bring Black speakers to campus; campus purchasing policies to buy products only from “nondiscriminatory suppliers and contractors”; and Black Studies-related courses: Swahili, Black Literature, and African Art/Peoples of Africa. BSC organizes a 2-day protest and sit-in at the opening dedication of the new administration building, now known as AGC.

1970: Students walk out to protest the “History of Civilization” general education course.

1973: Faculty vote to establish a committee on multicultural education.

1975: MEChA presents “MEChA Reports: A Report on Discriminatory

Practices at Occidental College” to the Board of Trustees. The Report calls

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for the “need for an immediate and extraordinary effort for a comprehensive, all-college commitment” toward multicultural education as a necessity for a quality liberal arts education. The report also states that “Either we stop deceiving our students by purporting that this college maintains a multicultural education, and in doing so stop the incoming flow of minority students, or, more realistically, condemn that mythical character and proceed with positive action.” The report calls for changes in faculty hiring and offers critiques of faculty failure “to acquire a sensitivity of cultural awareness” and limitations in course offerings.

1982: Students and faculty push the Occidental College administration to develop a way to address issues of race on campus and to institutionalize diversity and multiculturalism. A small group of faculty and administrators meet with the Dean to stress the need to address these issues.

1983: In 1982, based on the advocacy of this group, President Richard

Gilman appoints an Ad Hoc Committee to examine issues facing minority students at Occidental. The Committee is chaired by Dean James England; Co-Vice Chairs are Arthé Anthony, Department of American Studies, and James Montoya, Director of Admissions. The Committee, consisting of faculty, staff, students, administrators, and alumnae/i, reports on six major areas, with recommendations for action: Student Life, including Minority Student Recruitment, Admission, and Retention; Minority Faculty Recruitment and Retention; Minority Staff Recruitment, Retention, and Diversification; Curriculum Development; and Alumni Relations.

This Report is an important document in Occidental’s transformation to its current institutional mission.

1987: The Multicultural Summer Institute (MSI) is started as an

intensive residential academic program for approximately 50 incoming students. MSI students engage with questions of identity and power in academic and co-curricular components of the program, which also 21

includes workshops and field trips around the Los Angeles area. MSI serves as the model for the reconfiguration of the College’s Cultural Studies Program (general education program) in the mid-1990s.

1988: John Brooks Slaughter becomes President of the College, brought in to lead the transformation of the institution. The college begins to diversify the student body, faculty, and curriculum. Within a decade, the college becomes known for its commitment to equity and diversity. However in years after it became apparent that his programs were intentionally limited in scale by the BoT. “We expect you to dream about a future for this College and this Nation that is free of fear, prejudice, intolerance, and injustice ... We expect you to help us understand that quality and equality are inseparable and that diversity is synonymous with what is best in America and should be celebrated and not feared.” -President John Slaughter, addressing students in Sept., 1988.

late 1980s: A diverse group of students, including alumnae/i of

MSI, push the College to establish the Cultural Resource Center (precursor to the Intercultural Community Center) and the Multicultural Residence Hall.

1990s: The multicultural mission, based on the principle that excellence

cannot be separated from equity, serves as the centerpiece and organizing principle for planning at various levels of the College. The general education program is redesigned as the Cultural Studies Program, the curricular foundation for implementing the College mission. All entering students enroll in team-taught, interdisciplinary courses in which “[n]ew perspectives are taken on traditional material, and new material is introduced into the curriculum as we expand our knowledge of the world and its constituent cultures. The contributions of traditionally undervalued groups... to the history and society of our own and other cultures take their rightful place in a tapestry whose colors are becoming richer as they become more varied” (Occidental College: Pursuing the Vision of Excellence and Equity 1997-2001).

Discussions about new faculty positions are shaped by conversations about fulfilling the College Mission. The College works to align efforts across Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and upper Administration in order to meet the needs of the Mission.

mid-1990s: Occidental establishes an Irvine Leadership Fellows

Program for a cohort of students with funding from the James Irvine Foundation. Fellows receive scholarships, automatic enrollments into the 22

Multicultural Summer Institute, summer internships, and focused faculty mentors. The Program ends at the College after initial funding ends and no commitment is made to institutionalize it.

Occidental also begins to participate in the Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence in the Liberal Arts, bringing minority scholars to campus as doctoral and postdoctoral fellows who teach and research at the College for two years. Participation in the program leads to the hiring of several scholars into full-time, tenure-track positions.

1994-1995: Students organize a sit-in and occupy the administration

building for multiple days in protest of waning support for multiculturalism on campus.

1998: Occidental College ranks number one for diversity according to US News and World Report.

1999: Enter the

period of austerity, down-sizing, fiscal “prudence.” The commitment to the mission is weakened in several structural ways. ● Discount rate is lowered – less financial aid provided, admission of underprivileged student of color plummets. ● Diversity comes to stand for class, geographical, and gender differences— in short, almost anything but race—while the numbers of students of color dropped. ● Excellence and diversity become mutually exclusive – diversity comes to mean weaker students who are unprepared and unqualified. ● Curriculum changes undermine the mission – cultural studies colloquiums (interdisciplinary projects focused on issues of diversity) are cancelled. The freshman program becomes more individualistic and less mission-focused.

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● Faculty hiring freeze – few new faculty of color were hired for the next decade. Little is done to ensure retention of faculty of color already working at Oxy. ● Faculty workload increases and faculty of color are particularly hard hit with more advisees, mentoring and larger classes, yet the demands for tenure and promotion remain the same – it can be argued that the tenure and promotion requirements become even more demanding in all areas, including teaching, research and committee service.

The Decade of Administrative Turmoil (2000-2008) From 2000 to 2006, the structural backpedalling away from diversity and racial equity begun in 1999 takes a deeper hold amidst several changes in higher administration. In this whirlwind, key events include:

2004-2005:

In the Fall, students create Oxy Unite to organize around lack of support for the multicultural mission and their experiences in an often hostile campus climate. In Spring 2005, student protests (including an action at an admission event) lead to a presentation at a faculty meeting and a campuswide townhall meeting in Thorne Hall. Oxy Unite negotiates an “18-point Plan” with President Mitchell and Dean Chan. Students Caitlin Lynch, Ali Raymond, and Penny Saephan write an extensive Occidental College Diversity Re-Investment Report (2009) that documents students’ concerns, experiences, organizing efforts, and demands, as well as agreements made by the administration. As the Report notes, The student[s’] demands particularly addressed the third cornerstone [of the mission] of equity.... They wanted to ensure that the mission, particularly the equity portion, was upheld with the utmost seriousness and effort by all parties at the school because of the inconsistency of the written mission and lived experiences (p. 2).

2005-2006: In response to student protests during the 2004-2005 year, a Special Assistant for Diversity (Prof. Donna Maeda) is appointed for a year by the acting president. Participants from across the campus accomplish the following:

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â—? Three reports, with recommendations: one by a faculty-led advisory group; one by a combined group of staff, administrators, and faculty; and one by a diversity consultant who worked with the campus over the academic year. LINK â—? Meetings with successive campus leaders to discuss the reports. None of these reports is ever acted upon.

2007-2008: Occidental ends participation in the Minority Scholars in Residence Program (formerly the Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence in the Liberal Arts).

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The Veitch Years (2008 – present): The

mission succumbs to further erosion in terms of structure and commitment. Oxy’s mainstream rhetoric of valuing excellence and equity remains the same. But excellence and equity continue to be seen as mutually exclusive. As a result, the pursuit of equity is made out to be the culprit in Oxy’s decline rather than years of administrative missteps and structural setbacks. Yet, increased further structural retreat from the mission has not led to Oxy being on the cutting edge in any other category or rankings.

Structural Erosion: ● At the height of multiculturalism (mid- to late 1990s), incoming classes were over 50% students of color.

Currently, the percentage is around 37%. ● One marker of the decline is that when US News and World Report first created a diversity ranking for Colleges and Universities, Oxy ranked #1 for national liberal arts colleges. We are now tied for #12. Since falling from #1 for diversity we have never achieved #1 in any other ranking category of US News and World Report or other widely known ranking systems. ● Over the years a steady number of faculty of color have left the institution (Numbers overall, AND since 2008. ● No position exists dedicated specifically to coordinating diversity on campus. 2005 is the last time such a position even exists and it is interim. ● No concerted effort, in terms of structural changes, exists to address issues of recruitment, retention, and tenure and promotion of faculty of color. ● Faculty Council creates a Diversity Task Force in 2012-2013 after an adhoc committee of concerned faculty begin meeting regularly in 2012. ● Lack of institutional support and mentorship for faculty of color. ● In 2012-2013, four white candidates are hired out of four national hiring searches authorized by Dean Gonzalez although several of these teaching

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positions focus on subjects regarding people of color, both nationally and internationally. Two faculty of color are hired through target of opportunity hiring processes. Hiring process/practices have not changed despite rhetoric. ● Over the years, there has been steady growth in the administration and a growing lack of diversity among them. ● There has been a concerted effort to marginalize and alienate administrators of color who have focused on diversity. ● A growing disconnect between the administrative moves to “professionalize” the college by re-defining merit, diversity, and excellence, showing in hiring and retention. In the Associate Dean search of 2013, a white woman was hired over two women of color (37% of the 71% of white faculty are women). ● Curriculum: Diversity is no longer the core of our core curriculum for 1styear students. Oxy has taken up a “marketplace of ideas” approach where the faculty chooses whatever they want for the content of first-year seminars. The faculty is encouraged to think about courses related to priority themes for the College, such as Los Angeles and global thinking, interdisciplinary teaching and learning. This approach is random compared to when diversity was clearly at the center of the mission. ● Multicultural Summer Institute (MSI): This program was key to the College’s transformation; it provided the model for the core curriculum.

Currently MSI brings in about 50 students of color, with an emphasis on those from underrepresented groups, plus any student who is especially interested in diversity and equity. Some administrators have viewed this program as being detrimental to the institution because students become too aware of equity and diversity and are thus critical of the institution and vie to transform it. However, MSI graduates some of Oxy’s best students who maintain strong ties to the 27

College. Undermining this Institute alienates current students and future alumni. ● Center for Community Based Learning (CCBL): As the College adopted a strategic focus on Los Angeles and advertised our location in this diverse city, attention was paid to wealthy cultural institutions rather than the collaborative work with underrepresented groups in Los Angeles that CCBL had been emphasizing for over a decade. Resources for the CCBL shrunk.

Lack of Commitment to the Mission ● Growing reliance on equity and excellence that redefines equity in terms of geographic location (mid-west etc), class, and skills (sport, clubs, travel, etc). ● “Excellence” is now considered separate from diversity. ● The diluting/neutralizing of a commitment to diversity by relying on administrators who are diverse, but are conservative vis a vis .... ● A clear move away from the mission towards an institution that fails to attend to equity for diverse populations. ● An isolation of diversity efforts rather than an institution-wide commitment. ● The marginalization of faculty of color and the work they do. ● The marginalization of diversity in the curriculum. ● The marginalization of students of color by using the rhetoric of diversity and failing to attend to the realities. ● Few institutional resources/mentorship to support and move the college mission forward.

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Fall 2010: A Student Diversity Coalition forms and compiles a list of hate incidents on campus, especially targeting LGBTQ students. In addition, the organizers craft a Plan of Action that includes a list of demands.

Spring 2011: Faculty vote to approve a Diversity Statement.

Spring 2012: Students push for community forums to address

hate incidents and a hostile campus climate, focusing on (but not limited to) LGBTQ students.

2012-2013: Occidental College ties for number 12 for diversity according to US News and World Report.

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Organizer reflection from 2015 The following is a paper written by a core organizer of the AGC Occupation of 2015. All names have been redacted and/or changed to preserve the privacy of all students involved in the Occupation and surrounding events.

This reflection is a very important exercise in self-critique, which the students of Oxy can learn from immensely. *indicates name has been changed to preserve anonymity Introduction In solidarity with Black students at the University of Missouri and in the context of over two years of concerted organizing efforts around diversity issues, students at Occidental College occupied the Arthur G. Coons Administrative Building for five days to remove the President of the College from office. Black students at the University of Missouri successfully removed the President of the university from office, by organizing the football team to boycott all games until he stepped down. The university system would have lost millions of dollars of revenue, had the team refused to play, therefore forcing the administrative body’s hand. After the President stepped down, Black students continued to fight for racial equality and called other colleges and universities to hold actions in solidarity.

The Coalition at Occidental for Diversity and Equity (CODE) is an activist organization on campus with both students and faculty serving in a leadership capacity. CODE’s aim is to hold the institutional accountable for matching its actions with its rhetoric of multiculturalism and equity.

CODE’s biggest success to date was creating the Chief Diversity Officer position at the Vice President level. CODE’s work in the year before the occupation had enlivened the campus through the successful impeachment of the Student Body President, [name redacted], and the creation of a new branch of student government, the Diversity and Equity Board (DEB) (Shugarman, 2015). At the same time, a member of the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi, [name redacted], attempted to throw an Ebola/ Malaysian Airlines/ ISIS themed Halloween party (Rewers, 2014). Then a year later, shortly before the occupation, Ben Warner posted a Facebook status saying he “should have gone bigger;” the status was ‘liked’ by several current Occidental College students, including the President of Greek Council, [name redacted] (Appendix 1). I posted a screenshot of his status, along with pictures of those who had ‘liked’ or commented on the status, sparking a campus dialogue on racism and Internet etiquette.

On November 9, 2015, Rebecca Taylor*, while working at her internship found the Mizzou Call to Action (Brooks, 2015). Rebecca, an active member of the Coalition at Occidental for Diversity and Equity, showed the article to Kaya Kumara* and myself. We then contacted leaders in the Black Student Alliance, Ivan Richardson*, Vanessa Abrams* and

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Olivia Jilani* in order to plan an action for the next day. This sparked a protest of 600 students and a five-day occupation of the AGC, fundamentally shifting the culture of the school and setting the stage for more impactful student activism. Out of this moment, the organization Oxy United for Black Liberation was born.

Oxy United for Black Liberation (OUBL) centers black people, who face the most insidious forms of racism. In a speech, I wrote, “We recognize that anti-black racism is the most pernicious and violent form of racism in our society. By centering blackness, we create a more expansive and emancipatory movement for liberation” (2015). Furthermore, the movement aimed to put black students in leadership positions, for reasons that seemed like an extension of standpoint theory, meaning they were most capable of revealing the racism of the institution and making decisions.

During the occupation, our leadership became very hierarchical because of the necessity of making quick decisions in the face of constantly changing information. Due to my experience and engagement with organizing, I, a non-black person of color, began to lead the occupation and make strategic decisions, which seemed to be a betrayal of the ideals of the movement. Moreover, this experience called into question this idea that only those marked as ‘black’ were able to make decisions. At the end of the occupation, I was left feeling empty. We did not have an ideology. We did not know who we were. We did not the future of our organization. I was left wondering: What is blackness? Is it essentialized? Does our construction of blackness lay the groundwork for the most effective and sustainable movement building?

This paper is an attempt to grapple with these questions and raise questions onto the soundness of our structure and ideology. By no means do I claim to have absolute answers, but hope to raise concerns, grounded in political theory to improve our theory and praxis. I argue that Oxy United for Black Liberation, while attempting to internally support a deessentialized blackness cannot do so in political praxis, alienating both black and non-black students. Instead, OUBL should view blackness as the product of an epistemic community, whose posture can be adopted by anyone, while in recognition of the material conditions that criminalize, punish and dehumanize black bodies in unique ways.

What is Blackness to OUBL? For the duration of the occupation, OUBL did not have a definition of blackness. It must be inferred through the actions, discourse and structures of the movement. Blackness must be centered in both political actions and goals of the movement. At the rally kicking off our five-day occupation, I said, “Blackness must be centered in any path towards liberation. We recognize that anti-black racism is the most pernicious and violent form of racism in our society. By centering blackness, we create a more expansive and emancipatory movement for liberation.” Blackness must be centered because black people face the most racism. This rhetoric 31

sets up a hierarchy of racial violence. Black people face the most violent form of racism, and non-black people of color face varying degrees of racism.

Therefore, we center blackness, and the struggles of black people in order to achieve racial liberation for all. We physically centered black students in the first protest by forming an inner circle of black students, then concentric circles of non-black people of color and white people (Appendix 2). People were allowed to self-identify their race, but the circles seemed to represent the phenotypic expressions of race, meaning those of African decent were considered to be Black.

In the first large protest, blackness on campus was implicitly defined by similar experiences of racism. Students openly talked about the liberal use of the word, “nigga” by their peers, the disproportionate criminalization of black students by Campus Safety, professors’ inability to encourage black students and the administrations incapacity to support black students once they are recruited to campus to increase diversity numbers (Personal observation). Thus blackness is defined by a shared experience of violence from structures of power—economic, administrative, and academic. Thus, blackness is also defined by a shared experience of oppression at the hands of structural, interpersonal and discursive violence.

An interesting caveat to this is seen in the experiences of a student of North African decent. In the debrief after the first protest, students were broken into debrief groups based off of their racial background: white, Asian, Black, Latinx. The student of North African decent did not feel as though their racial identity was represented, felt very triggered and left.

Thus, it seems as though blackness is implicitly defined by an African phenotype. But, Africa is a large continent, and phenotypes are expressed in diverse ways. Therefore, blackness seems to be related to a specific African phenotype associated with darker skin. One’s phenotypes must be expressed in a certain way for one’s experiences to be centered in Oxy United for Black Liberation. The racial divisions produce erasure of those who are outside of the traditional racial categorizations at Occidental: Black, white, Asian, Latinx.

The issues of defining blackness, and who is Black enough for their experiences to be centered pre-date the inception of Oxy United for Black Liberation. When talking to my queer Black peers and friends, they discussed how they did not feel welcome in the Black Student Alliance because they felt as though they were forced to compromise their queerness in order to participate in discussions. Thus, the structure was insufficient to deal with the many intersections of identity. Moreover, other students have said they do not feel as though they are “black enough” to actively participate in BSA, because only a certain type of Blackness seems to be accepted. A student chosen to be part of OUBL core echoed this sentiment.

She said that seniors wanted black students who were “like them,” meaning embodying a type of normative blackness in terms of speech, dress, and coming from predominately black communities. Therefore, blackness is

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implicitly accessed through specific phenotypic expression, shared experiences of violence, and ascribing to a ‘normative’ blackness.

The Dangers of Essentialism and Exclusivity Essentialism is problematic because it excludes allies, and reifies conceptualizations of race as a biological truth instead of a social construction. OUBL essentializes blackness and reifies existing structures that make students feel as though they must choose between their blackness and other identities—queer, womxn, wealthy, transnational adoptee etc. The traits of blackness are seen as irreducible, meaning they make up the core of what it means to be black. Thus, those who do not share those traits, even if they are seen as black, due to their phenotype, are excluded. When these traits are seen as irreducible and necessary to blackness, without engaging with the ways in which they are socially produced and constructed, the community becomes exclusive: “As such, not only may the community itself become oppressive to those who do not share those attributes, or who wish to articulate experiences that differ from those expressed by the majority, but the community itself may be weakened in its resistance to other forms of oppression by the distraction of its internal policing against difference.” (Bhambra, 61).

For people in the black community who do not share the essentialized, and irreducible traits that ‘define’ blackness, they are excluded, and oppressed through their difference. This is the most relevant in regards to students who have other target identities and feel as though they do not have a space to discuss their experiences if they want to be ‘black.’ Internal policing is not usually explicitly done; internally leaders of OUBL espouse the necessity of an unessentialized, inclusive blackness. But, the policing is implicit; black students who do not feel as though they are welcome, are not active members of the Black Student Alliance, or look for other spaces on campus.

Moreover, the organizing space itself becomes toxic when the incapacity to deal with internal difference is revealed. In the OUBL organizer group chat, Melissa Ortiz* said that “one boy and one girl” first year should sit on the new OUBL core. Some organizers (Fatima Levi* and myself) gently mentioned that asking for “one boy and one girl” reified the violence of the gender binary and erased non-binary, gender non-conforming, and gender expansive black students. Melissa said it was “not my intention” to hurt others, and the conversation shifted to procedural issues instead of the oppressive language that was used. When Tatum Williams* brought up the issue again; they/he were called “childish” for their reaction. Then, we were told the issue was being handled internally, and active members of BSA were texting Melissa. The issue of disparate ideas of the internal ideology of the group and the violence of essentialized blackness were only resolved when Ivan Richardson, president of BSA wrote, “Melissa I think that what you have to understand is that when we’re speaking of people’s lives that can’t always be done respectfully or in a 33

way that fosters community. The community became toxic when you silenced and rendered individuals that don’t operate in the binary invisible” (Appendix 3).

While the rhetoric of inclusiveness is used in some leadership circles, in practice violent language is used. Megan* eventually apologized for her behavior, but the damage done was irreversible. We revealed that while we exhibit an image of embracing difference, we cannot internally.

Furthermore, we implicitly police gender expansive individuals when we do not recognize their presence. Thus, the community is less responsive to and perpetuates other types of oppression.

The new structure of OUB, which only allows Black students into the decision making group, in some ways essentializes blackness. The structure assumes that Black students are best suited to identify and make decisions based off of their social location and experiences, which then turns these similar experiences into irreducible traits of blackness, assuming “that the possibility of knowledge about particular situations is restricted to one’s possession of the relevant (seemingly) irreducible traits” (Bhambra, 60). The relevant experiences of blackness thus lead to only certain epistemologies concerned with liberation practiced by OUBL. Only black students possess the relevant knowledge to make decisions and set goals that further racial justice on campus. This structure then seems to deny that this epistemology is accessible to non-black students and community members because they cannot lead this movement. If only black students possess relevant knowledge to be in leadership positions of the highest level, then we are left wondering what happens when black students do not agree with the movement. Is Jackson Reyes’* rejection of a movement reason to revoke his ‘black card’ (Watanabe, 2015)?

Essentialized notions of shared experience, thus lead to a predilection to certain ideologies under this structure. But, do not account for the ways in which Black people can reject a seemingly Black ideology that centers resistance. Thus, blackness becomes more exclusive to difference. It assumes that black people will have the same ideology, values and epistemologies due to their race because of essentialized notions of experience. This is problematic because black people have different experiences and identities, leading them to think in different ways as seen with those who recognized the erasure of gender expansive people in the OUBL group chat and those who did not. Moreover, one’s similar phenotypic traits with a group do not mean they will fight for that group’s liberation as seen in the actions of Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson or Alton Luke II. Professor Alvaro Perera* Takes a Stand- Essentialism Is its Own Form of Violence Blackness at Occidental is seen to be formed as essentialized, and thus exclusionary of other marginalized identities, and based on victim politics that does not focus on resistance. In conversation with a popular 34

professor in the Critical Theories of Social Justice department, I gained insight into critiques of OUBL from those also seemingly dedicated to liberatory practice. The rhetoric of micro aggressions becomes a defining feature of Blackness, thus reifying victim politics, which undermines the effectiveness of movement building. Perera believes that focusing on “insistent victimage,” meaning the rhetoric of constant micro aggressions, imprisons the movement into talking about only one small type of violence, which is not compelling “in a world of macro aggressions”. Instead of focusing on the ways that Black people have been hurt, OUBL should focus on the how Black people have resisted and succeeded (Appendix 4).

By focusing on the micro aggressions of people who are perceived as Black, OUBL is seen to essentialize blackness to the ways in which Black people have been historically oppressed, instead of conceptualizing Blackness as resistance. In Griffin’s view, OUBL portrays suffering as an essential component of Blackness, which excludes the construction of Blackness as resistance to whiteness, as defined by Baldwin. Baldwin writes, “We…even when we face the worst about ourselves, survived and triumphed over it. If we had not survived, and triumphed there would not be a Black American alive” (Baldwin, 2). Thus, the existence of Black people, who were marked as such only by the Middle Passage, are defined by resistance to whiteness; to be Black, is therefore an ideological position of resistance instead of a phenotypic marker.

Because OUBL aims to give decision-making power to people perceived as Black, a hierarchy is created in who can be Black enough to have power. This formation of power arises from a sense of Black self determination, which says Black people must make decisions for the Black community and also that Black people have a unique vision because they stand at the margins of society, a concept adopted from feminist stand point theory (Harding, 127). Therefore, Black students, because of their social location, are best equipped to make decisions for what constitutes Black liberation. But, OUBL operates in a context in which some students who are perceived as Black feel excluded from the implicit definition of Blackness.

Therefore, Perera asks “ are the ‘blackest’ people going to make the best decision? By this he means, are those who best fit an exclusionary definition of Blackness best equipped to make decisions.

Moreover, this gives the ‘blackest’ people a moral high ground because they have suffered the most under this framework of micro aggressions.

Professor Perera’s analysis thus seems to reference an application of Nietzsche’s concept of slave morality. Black students seemingly focus on the hurt caused to them by white students and non-Black students of color, thus their focus is on their badness. The desire for power is then painted as an immoral act because it is associated with the master, and suffering becomes a virtue; consequently paralyzing OUBL’s ability to act (Nietzsche, 156). Because of the positionality of those considered to be the ‘blackest’ students, they are “bereft of any responsibility, the “other” has become “the good other,” a victim with moral currency and epistemic authority that if 35

thrown into question leave the critic open to the charge of generating “poisonous” ideas” (Enns, 19). To critique the structure of Black students at the top of the hierarchical structure of OUBL is seen as being anti-Black, because those are the students who have suffered the most, and are therefore the most virtuous. This reifies the construction of race as a function of phenotype, further essentializing Blackness. Professor Perera advocates for a completely de-essentialized Blackness that encompasses all those who seek to resist oppression, regardless of the material reality of the differences of treatment based off of phenotype. Furthermore, he believes that the focus on micro-aggressions leads to a violent victim politics, which has a “low strategic and epistemological horizon for resistance” in the face of a world of macro aggressions (Appendix 4).

The Inevitability and Necessity of Essentialism Even though some believe that essentialism is both limited and the lynch pin of destructive movements, it is inevitable if we hope to ascribe meaning to our words. To be able to talk about anti-Black racism necessitates a common idea of what it means to be Black. Therefore, discourses on race necessitate a common understanding of a concept in order to engage in critique and disclosure. Critiques falsely assume that a non-essentialist discourse is possible, reifying essentialism: “As such, it presupposed an oppositional theoretical architecture at its core, in the supposed and self-serving distinction between a discourse or position that does not operate on the basis of an essence and those that do. It thus all the more emphatically presupposes a simple essence as the ground of its discourse, in both conceptual and practical, that is, political, terms” (Chandler, 347-348).

By creating a binary between essentialist and non-essentialist discourse, Professor Perera more emphatically assumes an essentialist framework; he is caught in a binary that need not exist. Therefore, an understanding of essentialism and Blackness, that understands how this binary is complicated expands the definition of Blackness, while recognizing the ways in which those coded as Black are impacted by racism in different ways. To escape the violence and exclusion of an essentialized discourse, we must push to uncover different discourses and conceptualizations of race.

A defined, or even essentialized consciousness is necessary to begin to disclose the needs and experiences of Black students on campus. Black students feel the subalternizing effects of being unheard in predominantly white institutions, where they feel as though they are voiceless. While not subaltern, because their experiences are not unknowable, that is to say outside of the limits of our ways of knowing, Black students are merely guests in an institution catering to white people. Therefore, to begin to organize, and speak necessitates a shared experience, or “consciousness” in order to gain collective political power. It is necessary and strategic to recover a shared consciousness or experience that is obscured by 36

whiteness: “This is all the more significant in the case of recovering a consciousness because… consciousness is the ground that makes all disclosure possible” (Spivak, 221). Thus, a common understanding of Blackness allows for Black students’ voices to be heard, and understood in a way that is strategic and powerful. This disclosure functions as the basis for political action as seen in the first rally of Oxy United for Black Liberation, disclosure was the catalyst for large sustained political action.

While this shared sense of consciousness, definition or essential quality is necessary for political action, OUBL should also be aware of the instability of consciousness. Continuously breaking the “sign-chain” of the construction of Blackness allows for new forms of intervention, thus pushing against the hegemonic conceptions of race as biology. A sign-chain is the symbols that produce the meaning of Blackness, which are used to oppress. For example, conceptualizing Black as inferior, unintelligent, unoriginal and deviant through the controlling images of the Black woman as Sapphire, Jezebel or Mammy. Therefore, while it is necessary to essentialize in order to build collective action and power, that consciousness must also be constantly interrogated and disrupted. Spivak writes, “the possibility of action lies in the dynamics of the disruption of this object, the breaking and relinking of the chain. The line of argument does not set consciousness over the socius, but sees consciousness as itself also constituted as and on a semiotic chain” (Spivak, 217). The shared consciousness espoused by OUBL must constantly be interrogated and disrupted because it too is on a semiotic chain, allowing for a continual examination of the signs that signify blackness as essentialized and subordinate. The construction of individual relationships, or socius, is not superior to consciousness, but exists on the same plane as a semiotic chain that is impacted by signs that confer meaning. Thus, social interactions must be interrogated, so they can be disrupted, and signs take on new meanings.

Conclusion: To Define Blackness An un-interrogated, essentialized Blackness excludes, and perpetuates oppressive discourses that are part of that definition. While some critique essentialism, which specifically focuses on the rhetoric of micro aggressions, as reducing the possibilities of the movement, and supporting a victim politics that makes suffering virtuous, essentialism is both necessary and inevitable. Thus Blackness ought to be broad enough to encompass all those who work in resistance to oppression, while recognizing the ways in which people who are perceived as Black through phenotype, are treated in specifically insidious ways. Therefore, Blackness should be defined as a “shared epistemological and political project as opposed to notions of fixed characteristics—the focus is on the activities individuals participate in rather than the characteristics they are deemed to possess” (Bhambra, 63). But, with the recognition that this conception of Blackness focuses on black as resistance to whiteness, is also that the characteristics 37

of resistance change, which changes the meaning of “Black.” This definition allows for an expansive and inclusive Blackness, recognizing the ways in which those who are phenotypically “Black,” do not engage in resistive practices, and includes those do engage in resistance.

Essentialism is necessary to begin to disclose a collective’s shared experiences and begin the process of building political power. But, with that essentialism must come the constant interrogation and recognition of the ways in which the construction of Blackness is constantly changing.

Therefore, OUBL should construct Blackness as resistance to white supremacy, as defined by Baldwin, while recognizing the many ways in which resistance is practiced. An expansive, and self-reflective definition builds political power, allows for disclosure, and recognizes the multiplicity of Black identity.

Appendix Appendix 1 [Name redacted] Appendix 2 First protest Appendix 3 Group Me Violence Appendix 4 Conversation with Professor Perera Works Cited http://occidentalweekly.com/news/2015/04/14/asoc-senate-impeachesstudent-body-president-vps-of-finance-and-external-affairs-resign/ http://occidentalweekly.com/news/2014/11/04/party-theme-reignitesdialogue-on-diversity/ http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-campus-dissent20151121-story.html http://www.theblacktribune.org/2015/11/09/mo-state-activist-calls-fornational-action/ https://codeoxy.wordpress.com/why-c-o-d-e/ Sandra Harding Whose Science/ Whose Knowledge? Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1991 Nietzche Genealogy of Morals

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Asoc (Associated students of occidental college) As you may have been encouraged to participate in ASOC already by OTeam Leaders, upperclassmen, or another trusted person in your life, it is necessary to give you the necessary information concerning the importance of ASOC. While it may seem completely irrelevant to be a representative in student government, the

Each of the 4 branches of ASOC: Senate, Diversity & Equity Board (DEB), Renewable Energy and Sustainability Fund (RESF or Sus Fund) and Honor Board have their own budgets and operating power. While there is communication between the branches when it comes to larger leveraging of student power, it is a foundational understanding that all branches are autonomous. That being said, Senate and Honor Board have historically worked to limit the autonomy of DEB and RESF. As was mentioned in the Occupation section, when the proposal for what is now DEB came to Honor Board and Senate to vote on, Honor Board rejected it three separate times after an overwhelming student vote in support of DEB. Senate has asserted itself as the “legislative” branch of ASOC and Honor Board as the “judicial” branch, effectively creating a hierarchy within the actual functions of ASOC. Honor Board has the power to veto votes conducted from the entire student body. To boil it down, DEB and RESF were formed from student rallies for support of sustainable and equitable initiatives but remain just lines in Senate’s budget.

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More recently, Honor Board and RESF have made significant steps to building working relationships with DEB that have proved to be fruitful: DEB, RESF and Honor Board now have liaisons at most of each other’s meetings as usually only used to be the case for Senate. It has also become apparent within the last two years that some members of Senate have partnered with administrators in the delegitimizing of DEB, going as far as to question DEB’s use of the budget among other incidents.

Below is the 2018-2019 DEB report, which was discussed during the biannual DEB Report Town Hall this past spring semester. The report details what DEB members have been working on in their respective positions this year and offers a useful resource into what campus work can look like from inside ASOC. DEB 2018-2019 report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZlKpSYZKNzOcyN5m8XsVCOxnoruzCocK /view DEB website (has history of DEB!): https://www.oxydeb.com/

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WHAT should i DO ON CAMPUS? The following is a list of various official and non-official groups on campus which vary in their organizing capacities, but all provide students with spaces to push their critical thinking into more radical places and build a tangible community.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Active Minds Black Student Alliance (BSA) Beauty Beyond Color (BBC) Diversity & Equity Board (DEB) FEAST First Gen Club Jewish Student Union (JSU) Latinx Student Union (LSU) Oxy Students United Against Gentrification (OSUAG) Oxy Sexual Assault Coalition (OSAC) Project S.A.F.E. Queer House RESF (Sustainability Fund) S.A.G.A. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Student Labor Alliance (SLA) Womxn’s Rugby

What classes do I take?

In higher-education you will inevitably encounter a lot of theory. People experience theory differently based on their lived experience, theory can describe your life, truly resonating with your realities. However there is an impenetrable nature to a lot of theoretical texts and discussions, contributing to the elitist nature of universities. These classes have been proven essential to us in our first years because they gave us malleable tools to critically-engage with more advanced materials.

- Intro to Islam (Professor Malek) This is the most comprehensive overview into how racism and xenophobia developed and persists in our society, along with an in-depth theological 41

discussion of monotheisms. It really changes the way you approach academic work and the ways in which you reproduce Orientalist ideas in your own life. Professor Malek makes himself available to his students to really engage deeply with the material and is amazing at debating ideas in order to nuance understandings of our world.

- Whiteness (Professor Griffin) This class is the only one of its kind within undergraduate studies because it centers the White “identity” versus the Black identity. It is an exploration into critical white studies and the formation of Whiteness in American law. It examines how Whiteness continues to evolve itself by the inclusion of some and exclusion of Others. Griffin’s goal for the class is not for black people to come out of the class further identifying with their blackness, but to truly consider the race paradigm through an understanding that for blackness to exist, whiteness also exists.

- Rastafari (Professor Griffin) Most radical use of theory in order to bridge the theoretical gaps between Whiteness, Love and Justice. Not just another class on ganja-smoking Rastas.

- Joyful Noise (Professor Ford) Black Joy is important. Black musicality is the backbone of the United States. Great integration of both in order to celebrate the complexity of identity and the struggle toward justice.

- Race and American Politics (Professor Freer) Race and American Politics dismantles the traditional framework of what a political system entails and challenges our understanding of Politics within the United States. Critically analyzing the role of race within the political realm, the class observes institutional disenfranchisement of racial and ethnic minority groups.

- Freire, Fanon and Freedom in Education (Professor Terry) If you are a “good” student, this is not the class for you. Professor Terry emphasizes the radicality of Freire and Fanon’s pedagogies to an extent that forces you to engage at their level. Rather than follow traditional ways of approaching education, the class dives deep into the critiques of modern education methods and the grading system. Guaranteed to raise your GPA and your critical consciousness.

- Religion and Politics (Professor Malek) This is an absolutely formative class, making you rethink what you believe and why you believe it. Especially important to take this class before deciding your major, because it forces a reflection on what you believe and 42

why you believe it. Through an analysis of the philosophical grounds of historical alt-Right movements in the West and the underlying capitalist system you are asked: why do we treat anyone well? It also asks “why do you owe anyone anything?” in the context of immigration. Malek makes the compelling claim that all theory and ideology is weaponized morality, which forces you to critique the accepted moral grounds which have informed your decisions up until this point.

Project S.A.f.e.

The following was written by a current staff member of Project S.A.F.E. Please find below between the two horizontal lines the history of Project S.A.F.E., as written by Alma Olvarria Gallegos ’19.

—In 2002, student government pushed to have more counseling resources, a more concrete anti-rape policy, and mandatory sexual assault education at orientation and during hall meetings. As a result of these efforts, the Project for a Sexual Assault-Free Environment (Project S.A.F.E.) was formed in 2003 when the Office of Student Life hired three students as programing assistants to head a new Health and Wellness unit dedicated to educating students about sexual assault prevention.

In 2007, the Intercultural Community Center hired a new assistant director who had previous experience working with survivors of sexual violence. She agreed to head Project S.A.F.E. as well and became a certified survivor advocate in order to provide direct support to students who had experienced sexual violence. Under this new guidance, Project S.A.F.E. expanded its mission and began to train their student staff how to support survivors directly. Project S.A.F.E. staff trained alongside students working at the Intercultural Community Center and the Center for Gender Equity; this collaboration encouraged a deeper understanding of the connections between trauma, gender, sexuality and ethnicity.

After student protests in 2013 and two federal complaints about the school concerning its treatment of and response to sexual assault allegations, Occidental invested more resources into Project S.A.F.E. and its Title IX office. The College institutionalized a permanent program manager to oversee Project S.A.F.E. and added more programming assistant positions to work as peer educators on issues of sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, stalking, sexual harassment and sexual exploitation. The Intercultural Community Center assisted the College in applying for a federal grant which allowed Project S.A.F.E. to add a program coordinator position. With a larger staff, Project S.A.F.E. was able to develop a two-

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pronged approach to sexual assault on campus: preventative education and survivor advocacy.

In 2013, Project S.A.F.E. moved from the jurisdiction of the Intercultural Community Center to become a suboffice of the Emmons Wellness Center. This provides a stronger link between the confidential support services that the Project S.A.F.E. senior manager and survivor advocate offers to the campus and those of the medical and mental health professionals at the Wellness Center.

Project S.A.F.E. strives to create a nonjudgmental and welcoming space for survivors of all identities and experiences, and works to create a culture of believing survivors, healing and empowerment at Oxy. ———————————————— Here’s what I have to say about Project S.A.F.E., just given I work there and what I’ve come to know since coming to Oxy. The first thing that people tend to get wrong about Project S.A.F.E. is the assumption that it’s a club, so I want to clear that up right off the bat. It’s a campus office, in which students work after applying for the position, receiving it, and undergoing a two-week, 9-to-5 training.

A second assumption is that only people who have faced sexual violence are interested in working there, which isn’t the case at all. Project S.A.F.E. workers are motivated by dozens of different reasons, many of which are obliquely rather than directly related to sexual violence.

While we only hire in the spring, I wanted to include this in the disorientation guide because there are many ways people can engage with Project S.A.F.E. without working at the office. There are two large programming weeks we do every year, one in the fall semester to raise awareness for domestic and intimate-partner violence, and one in the spring semester for sexual violence. We share information, host events and speakers, and do activities for each week, and having the community’s tangible support through the presence of individuals and organizations

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volunteering to collaborate with us on this undertaking means the world to us.

Additionally, we do trainings and events by invite for clubs, teams, and organizations. Past events have included a healthy relationships workshop for Valentine’s Day with Active Minds at Oxy, and we have collaborated a lot with Oxy’s Planned Parenthood club in recent years.

I, personally, am trying to get some more consistent, open events off the ground, such as self-care nights for survivors, support people of survivors, and perhaps this year begin open dialogues for those who are interested.

These would be open to students, and on occasion staff and faculty as well, in the hopes of reminding students of the support structures in place for them.

Our office is also actively working towards becoming inclusive and accessible. Our hiring practices seek out a diversity of backgrounds and experiences so that we may better connect with the campus and its many communities. We have worked on making our office hours more accessible by holding them on lower campus at regular intervals, and have started using Alt Text on instagram. Accessibility is still one of our biggest struggles, because Oxy is not exactly the most accessible place.

That’s all I have to say as a worker.

However, as a nonbinary, lesbian survivor of color, I’d like to add that working there has been incredibly, for lack of a better word, empowering.

It’s new to me, being able to enter survivor spaces and spaces centered on dialogues around domestic, sexual, and intimate-partner violence and assert myself despite my marginalized identities. Working at Project S.A.F.E. has given me the tools and confidence to bring all of me––my transness, my queerness, my mixed heritage, and my story of survivorship––to the table and say “all of this matters, so we’re going to work with all of this”. I’d love if more students were interested in Project S.A.F.E., because the more voices we have, the more effective we can be in our mission of ending sexual, domestic, and intimate-partner violence at Oxy.

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Active minds

The following was written by members of Active Minds.

Active Minds at Oxy is the Occidental Chapter of the national organization, Active Minds. Active Minds at Oxy seeks to raise awareness and reduce stigma surrounding topics of mental health. All of our meetings are open to all students—we usually have a core group of students who attend every meeting and a more fluid group of students who come and go depending on the topic. We encourage students to come to any and all meetings whose topics interest them, with the understanding that not every topic will be interesting to everyone. In the past we hosted activity nights, events where we teach practical skills for supporting your own and other’s mental health, and fireside chats, which give people a space to share and re-calibrate.

It is often misunderstood to mean that we are a club that focuses on mental illnesses. While we certainly do work towards spreading awareness, tools, and resources for mental illnesses, a significant portion of our focus is on self-care and creating space to cultivate mental health. Our work is often focused through the lens of this acknowledgement of human neuro-diversity. In the 2018-2019 academic year, we tabled regularly, had biweekly open meetings, and held our annual mental health story-sharing event. This is on top of our advocacy work on campus, which has included successful efforts to print the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number on the back of new student ID cards.

One of our concerns with this club is the lack of racial and gender diversity.

Mental health is a conversation for everyone, and while not everyone needs a space like Active Minds, we are worried that cisgender men and POC feel our space is inaccessible. We have hosted men and mental health events in an effort to combat this and are working on creating POC-centric spaces in the coming year. We are, however, extremely proud to provide a space that focuses on mental health, embraces neuro-diversity, and provides peer-topeer education and emotional and practical support for students. For more information you can email activeminds@oxy.edu or follow Active Minds at Oxy on FB and our Insta (activeminds.oxy).

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EMMONS Fall 2017:

During the Fall 2017 semester, students from the Media Arts and Culture class “Digital Tools for Radical Change” identified a campus-wide issue affecting students, administered a survey to collect and analyze data in regard to the survey results, and developed a creative strategy to address the issue.

The results (https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-MCK8YVVY8/) Our group identified Emmons Wellness Center as a point of conflict for many students. We drafted a seven-question survey of which many voiced their complaints about a series of misdiagnoses, particularly among women being underdiagnosed, difficulty in booking an appointment, and a lack of professionalism when dealing with student’s concerns. Many of these students felt that they weren’t being listened to and that their health needs at the time were serious. Seeing as efficient and thorough health care can make the difference between life and death of students, we feel this to be an incredibly valid concern

Where we are known/what we know ● 300+ signatures on petition ● Sara Semal claims they’re already undergoing an assessment

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● The Emmons Student Council offered to meet with students and learn more about the project Where we want this to go/Next Steps ● We want the administration to look into these issues and assess the effectiveness of Emmons including the areas of students’ concerns ○ Continue boosting the petition on social media, email blasts, and poster campaigns ○ Meet with Sara Semal and understand what she means by ‘we’re undergoing an assessment’ ○ Emmons is open to also sharing patient statistics ○ Reach out to Emmons Student Committee to potentially collaborate ----Emmons Review in BoT: - Emergency Town Hall (12/05/17) → Wrote handwritten notes to Board of Trustees describing the importance of Emmons, ways it could be improved, experiences with Emmons staff and practitioners - Sara shared a ppt with DEB members to help edit ppt for transparency and making sure the wording was good - Sara delivered them to the Board meeting in January where they were well received and used to support more funding for Emmons

Spring 2018: - Sara gave the students the same presentation she gave to the BoT to increase transparency - Focus groups were held that were for several marginalized identities (queer, poc, international, general) o o

- 1 international student showed - 15 QTPOC students showed and aired grievances about lack of support

- Recommendations were made

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o o

- Presentation was not shared widely - Recommendations were sometimes academic citations rather than concrete ways of addressing concerns

Fall 2018: - One full-time therapist position is added (Anna Rivera) - Queer students came to DEB and Senate expressing lack of support for queer students, specifically QTPOC students - Mel Rivera was unnecessarily let go, Mel supported QTPOC students with casual therapy sessions (“What’s the Tea?”) and interpersonal/club guidance - DEB & Senate formed the Gender and Sexuality Equity Committee (GSEC) - GSEC made Revised Recommendations to Emmons’ original focus group recommendations - Talking circles and rants were held thru DEB - Community Accountability Meeting I & II I: GSEC presented revised recommendations to community with Emmons staff present to listen to students o II: Emmons presented their action plan in response to revised recs with concrete steps and goals o

- Did not once mention “QTPOC” within document, despite GSEC’s focus on proactive support for QTPOC students

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Spring 2019: Emmons hosted Decolonize Your Body and

Building a Movement through Movement events with therapist Anna Rivera and community member Marina Magalhaes Search committees are formed for a new counseling director and full-time therapist which specifically focus on student feedback and community engagement.

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Current organizing work While there are many groups on campus who have engaged with and been organizing on campus, as the graduation cycles ebbs and flows, so does the capacity for groups to organize on campus. These are just a couple student-led groups who are actively engaging with different forms of campus organizing work.

Student Labor alliance (SLA):

SLA is an unofficial group on campus, specifically working with the campus cleaning staff, faculty, groundskeepers and dining hall workers to leverage student power for the workers which are essential to Oxy’s existence.

Specifically this past year SLA has worked with Non-Tenure Track faculty (NTTs) in supporting their decision to unionize. When students rallied in support of the NTT unionization, Dean Wendy Sternberg sent a letter discouraging NTT from unionizing. This is completely illegal. In response SLA wrote the following message: On Tuesday April 2, 2019, non-tenured track professors at Oxy filed with the National Labor Relations Board to hold an election to officially unionize. Oxy’s Student Labor Alliance (SLA) mobilized over 100 students to stand in support of the faculty as they delivered their petition to administration. SLA’s organizing centers on a coalition between the students of Oxy and the employees of the college to create a unified political front from which students’ privileged positionality can be leveraged to uplift the humanity of the campus community at large. We are still actively working to support our staff that face understaffing and overworking in every department. In 1991, Oxy had 56 cleaning staff workers but in 2018 it decreased to only 38. Additionally, there has been a 52.7% decrease in grounds staff, from 23 workers in 1991 to only 11 in 2018 despite a significant increase in the workload. Although workers won 4 new bargaining-unit positions last summer during their contract negotiations, the issue is far from being resolved. Cleaning, grounds, and other facilities staff are still suffering the physical damage and mental toll of being overworked every day at Oxy. While most of the public organizing SLA has been a part of revolves around the long-unionized custodial, dining, grounds, and facilities staff, SLA fully supports the work of Oxy faculty who constitute a great part of the community and are also at the mercy of exploitation by the administration. One-third of Oxy professors are non-tenured, and many face job insecurity with their appointments varying “from full time to part time from semester to semester or year to year" (American Association of University Professors), along with not being fairly compensated for their work.

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This mobilization comes off the heels of Black Studies Associate Professor Courtney Baker’s resignation Monday April 1, citing “hostility from the senior administration about preserving American Studies,” the need to compensate faculty serving on advisory boards who “are effectively conducting at least 150% of the work of single- appointment faculty,” and the need to hire faculty who can adequately address Oxy’s “recent history of blackface, invocations of an Aryan alliance, [and] the repeated celebration of a leading eugenicist.” All of these incidents call to the forefront the need to uplift the labor of all members of the Oxy community and actively fight against legacies of settler-colonial exploitation and white supremacy that undermine the livelihoods of Oxy students, staff, faculty, and neighbors. Labor issues are inextricably enmeshed with the all of the oppressive social structures that aggrieve our campus and it is vitally important to organize around them. For all of these reasons, we as the Student Labor Alliance are in full support of the list of demands articulated by the ASOC Direct Action committee to begin to address the constant exploitation our community faces.

Status of Non-Tenure Track Faculty (American Association of University Professors) https://www.aaup.org/report/status-nontenure-track-faculty • “Non-tenure-track faculty account for about half of all faculty appointments in American higher education.”

• “Some part-time faculty members never work full time, and some nontenure-track faculty members are never part time, but for many others, their appointments may vary from full time to part time from semester to semester or year to year, depending on fluctuations in funding and enrollment.”

• “Academic programs and a tenure system are not stable when institutions rely heavily on non-tenure-track faculty who receive few, if any, opportunities for professional advancement, whose performance may not be regularly reviewed or rewarded, and who may be shut out of the governing structures of the departments and institutions that appoint them.”

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Oxy students united against gentrification (OSUAG):

OSUAG has worked as an official group on campus to establish a conscious awareness of the ways in which Oxy contributes to and is complicit in the gentrification of Eagle Rock. This past year OSUAG mainly worked through the Principle’s Working Group to develop guidelines for how Oxy can develop meaningful relationships with the community it has stolen land from. In OSUAG’s words: The Principles Working Group, made up of faculty, staff, community members and students, has crafted Principles for Occidental College-Community Neighborhood Development.

These outline how Oxy should interact with the HLP and NELA community, including not displacing residents, being respectful of the community's historic culture, and more. PWG has been working to get the Board of Trustees (BoT) to accept this Principles Document. At the October meeting of the BoT, the Building and Grounds committee made edits to the Principles document that essentially made the document meaningless. They didn't allow the Principles Working Group to attend the January meeting. Now, the students involved in the PWG are trying to gain leverage by engaging more of the student body. By merging forces with OSUAG, we want to revive the campus discussion about gentrification and Occidental's role in it.

OSUAG held a teach-in for the Oxy community in which faculty, students and community members had a panel discussion on their experiences with gentrification, living in the Eagle Rock area.

Students for justice in palestine (SJP): SJP at Oxy is a student group on campus which works within the national coalition of Students for Justice in Palestine to both raise campus consciousness about the occupation of Palestine, and to leverage student power through the call of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions. This past 53

semester SJP had a week of events during their Israeli Apartheid Week which consisted of artistic events, panel discussions and open campus conversations about the Palestinian struggle and the call for BDS. Attached below is the BDS handbook released from SJP during the 2019 Spring semester, during the launch of their BDS campaign which will continue this year. The demands of BDS were signed on to by all branches of ASOC, and the formal statement from SJP is as follows: We are a coalition of Occidental students who call upon the Occidental College Administration and the Occidental College Board of Trustees to divest all stocks, funds, endowment, and other monetary instruments from companies that profit from the State of Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights through its ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid (1).

Our campaign is in direct response to the call by Palestinian Civil Society (2) for international solidarity. It is embedded within a larger movement by campuses, academics, religious institutions, and organizations (3) in the United States that put economic pressure on the State of Israel to recognize and respect the fundamental rights of Palestinians. This will be done through a movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) the State of Israel. Modeled after the South African anti-apartheid movement, BDS is a non-violent movement that urges individuals, organizations, and countries to pressure the Israeli government to comply with international law and halt its human rights abuses of Palestinians.

After a period of active organizing and a concentrated effort to raise awareness on Occidental’s campus, we are proud to have garnered the support of many of our community members. As part of our campus organizing, we have built a coalition of groups representing the diversity of Occidental community members who have supported our efforts for a larger Ethical Investment campaign: Jewish Student Union (JSU), Sexuality and Gender Acceptance (SAGA), Oxy 350, Muslim Student Association (MSA), MULTI, South Asian Student Association (SASA), Latin Student Union (LSU), No Lost Generation (NLG), Black Student Alliance (BSA), Oxy Beekeeping, Armenian Student Association, Planned Parenthood, and Occidental StudentLabor Alliance (SLA).

As Occidental students, we are compelled by the mission of the College (4) to “create and sustain a campus environment characterized by a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation based 54

upon our common vision and shared values.” With a heightened sense of responsibility, it is clear that we must take action to ensure that the administration upholds the very vision it puts forth. This is why we call upon the College President, Administration, and Board of Trustees to recognize that the College’s actions and monetary investments are not separate from the people affected by and complicit in Israeli human rights violations (5). The communities impacted by Israel’s continual violence include students, academics, people of color, indigenous people, religious and gender minorities, refugees, Israelis, and Palestinians both in Palestine and its diaspora — all communities which the College claims to serve with its commitment to equity.

Here, we also point to Occidental Investment Committee's role (6) in “set[ting] the policies and procedures that guide investment decisions... and ensure[ing] that the Board’s fiduciary responsibilities as respects [sic] the prudent handling of the College’s endowment.”

We recognize that the Investment Committee’s oversight over the College’s endowment policies and procedures are necessarily guided by a deeply rooted commitment to public good; thus, we emphasize that Occidental’s monetary apparatus is inextricably linked to standards of socially responsible investment. Since Occidental is a private institution, we are limited in our capacity to gauge the extent to which Occidental invests in corporations directly connected to Israel’s violence against the Palestinian people. However, many U.S. colleges and universities are invested in such corporations and we outline in detail the ways in which these companies engage in human rights violations. We assert that by supporting such companies, Occidental College is profiting of the illegal military Occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights and Siege of Gaza, the destruction of Palestinian homes and construction of illegal settlements (7), the restriction of freedom of movement and the surveillance and policing apparatus that is the Apartheid wall (8), the theft of Palestinian resources (9), and the unequal treatment of Palestinians under the law (10). Accordingly, we demand: Occidental College to immediately withdraw investments in securities, endowments, mutual funds, and other monetary instruments with holdings in the companies we have identified as being complicit in the State of Israel’s violations of International law and that it makes public statement confirming divestment. Occidental must confirm that it will not invest in these companies until they cease their 55

operations in and profits from Israeliapartheid, or until the State of Israel dismantles its apartheid wall and occupation, promotes the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, and allows Palestinian refugees to return as demanded by the larger Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (11) solidarity movement.

More transparency regarding Occidental’s investments. We ask that Occidental makes available, to all members of the community, information about its investments and endowment in the spirit of transparency and mutual accountability.

The formation of an Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investment (or Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies). This Committee will conduct research on all holdings (direct and indirect) in order to determine if they are complicit in Israeli practices that are illegal under international law.

Furthermore, we request the public availability of this research, in pursuit of a socially responsible commitment to transparency and neutrality. This Committee will also guide future investments and assess social harm related to the College’s monetary practices.

Link: SPRING2019BDSHANDBOOK

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ASOC Direct action committee:

In response to the uncovering of Board of Trustees member Jennifer Townsend Crosthwaite in blackface in the Occidental yearbook from (find year), the Direct Action Committee was formed to hold the administration accountable to the history antiblackness on campus. Through many discussions and organizing the Direct Action Committee organized the first ever student meeting with the Board of Trustees which took place on (find date) this past spring semester to address their list of demands.

The first students heard of the uncovering happened in the early days of spring break, which is interesting timing and not unlike other actions by administration and the student newspaper to undermine student organizing. This was also followed with the uncovering that Eugenics “doctor” and fervent racist Paul Poponoe received an honorary degree from Oxy. As mentioned in an article in The Occidental: “ASOC Senate established the Special Committee for Direct Action via a vote March 25. The special committee is intended to engage student interests, according to Lesure and committee member Anjolie Charlot (first year). The committee is a group of over 50 students who are focused on mobilizing direct actions in accordance with mission statements across ASOC branches, according to Lesure and Charlot. According to Lesure, creating the committee as part of ASOC will provide resources for student causes.

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‘By creating a committee in ASOC, echoing and supporting the work of student organizers can more effectively take place across student leadership,’ Lesure and Charlot said via email. “Tools such as email listservs, financial resources, and opportunities to connect with administration become more accessible under this model.’”

The meetings with BoT were publicized via email by ASOC President Jacques Lesure through the DAC, where any student could sign up and was randomly assigned a group of faculty, board members, staff and other students. The discussions were facilitated by a member of the Direct Action Committee and consisted of a pointed discussion of one of the listed demands.

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The flyer above was distributed through ASOC DAC during the lead-up to 2019 Springfest, whose headliner was Joey Bada$$.

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Resources for further research on student movements at oxy OSAC website: https://oxysexualassaultcoalition.wordpress.com/timeline/ CODE website: https://codeoxy.wordpress.com/ OUBL website: http://oxyunited.weebly.com/ Special Collections projects: • • •

http://specialcollections.oxycreates.org/roots/neatline/show/roots-ofprograms-at-oxy http://specialcollections.oxycreates.org/equitydiversity/s/oxy-united-forblack-liberation/page/timeline https://oxyequitydiversity2014.omeka.net/

Student photographer of Occupations César Martínez Barba’s website: http://www.cmphoto84.com/occupation/deqos0jb936d1sb7rihd88zynz1tb u Oxy Administration’s formal response to the protests: https://www.oxy.edu/news/oxy-student-protest-updates News article about the MU protests which sparked occupations & protests across the nation: https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/higher_education/fallprotests-molded-mu-s-class-of-that-history-fades/article_0777e428-6ab511e9-ab0f-cf4a2cab022f.html News articles about the Occupation: • https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trustees-confirm-blackli_b_8589358?guccounter=1 • https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-college-race20151117-story.html • https://www.usatoday.com/story/college/2015/11/17/occidentalcollege-students-occupy-administration-building-with-list-ofdemands/37409189/ • https://www.scpr.org/news/2015/11/16/55685/occidental-collegeis-latest-scene-of-protest-for/ The Weekly articles about / concerned with organizing on campus (take lightly as they have proven to not consult student organizers when publishing): • https://www.theoccidentalnews.com/culture/2019/04/16/then-vsnow-a-brief-look-at-campus-activism-through-time/2897775

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• •

•

https://www.theoccidentalnews.com/news/2014/11/04/partytheme-reignites-dialogue-on-diversity/2871642 https://www.theoccidentalnews.com/news/2016/01/01/asocsenate-impeaches-student-body-president-vps-of-finance-andexternal-affairs-resign-2/2884264 https://www.theoccidentalnews.com/news/2018/11/14/as-class-of-19nears-graduation-occupation-demands-leave-lasting-impact/2895225

Blackface uncovering: • https://www.theoccidentalnews.com/news/2019/04/23/asocspecial-committee-for-direct-action-issues-nine-demands/2897945 • https://www.theoccidentalnews.com/news/2019/04/03/amidtownsend-crosthwaite-pool-renaming-deadline-for-construction-stillunclear/2897375 • https://www.theoccidentalnews.com/breakingnews/2019/03/08/donor-and-former-trustee-among-three-alumnaein-84-yearbook-blackface-photo/2896798 • https://www.theoccidentalnews.com/breakingnews/2019/03/09/update-donor-barry-crosthwaite-80-bill-davis-80among-five-alumni-in-aryan-alliance-yearbook-photo/2896844 Op-Ed on Poponoe Honorary Degree: https://www.theoccidentalnews.com/opinions/2019/03/20/should-oxyrescind-an-honorary-degree-to-a-racist-recipient/2896993

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