After consulting with community leaders, faculty, trustees, and staff, on Dec. 3, 2009 Occidental formally withdrew its application with the city of Los Angeles for a 20-year specific plan to guide future development of its 120-acre campus.

The decision was based on a number of factors, explains Occidental President Jonathan Veitch. "The comprehensive academic planning effort we are getting underway could have a significant impact on future space and facilities needs. Nor am I convinced that using part of the undeveloped portion of campus around Fiji Hill as a site to build new faculty housing is the best solution to the college's needs." Rather than isolate faculty housing on the upper campus, "I think it's worth exploring the possibility of creating closer ties between the college and the surrounding community by utilizing existing housing in the neighborhood for faculty housing and as well as for low-impact office space for administrative departments," Veitch says.

Community representatives have made it clear that they would like to see a planning process that extends beyond Campus Road, Veitch says. "We share many of the same goals: we want to see local businesses thriving on York, Eagle Rock, and Colorado boulevards, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly streets lined with trees and other attractive landscaping, and a greater engagement between the College and the community of which we are a part. Everyone benefits from this approach: if the community is prospering, it benefits the college, and if Occidental is successful, that success is shared by the community."

This does not mean, however, that there is no longer a need to plan for future campus development, or that Occidental is turning it back on all the time and hard work that the college and the community have invested in the planning process thus far. Occidental remains committed to the five basic principles laid out in its 2006 master plan: preservation of the college's historic buildings; making the campus more pedestrian-friendly; integration of sustainability measures into renovation and new construction; locating new construction on infill sites where possible; and neighborhood compatibility. Occidental remains committed to its historic identity as a small, private, residential liberal arts college that focuses on undergraduate education.

"But there is more that we can do," says Veitch. "We owe it to ourselves to more thoughtfully examine the interrelationship between the college and the neighborhoods that surround it." To that end, a working group made up of community representatives is being formed to examine the relationship between the campus and the community and to develop a plan to carry out mutual goals.

In the meantime, Occidental plans to move forward with two high-priority, time-sensitive projects: renovation and expansion of Swan Hall and construction of a new alumni center at 1599 Campus Road, across the street from the main entrance to campus. One of Occidental's three original buildings, the 96-year-old Swan Hall was converted from a men's dormitory to faculty offices in 1960. Today it houses more than one-third of Occidental's faculty, some of whom work in converted sleeping porches and storage spaces. The project would improve the interior layout of the original building and add badly needed space in a new wing on the west side while restoring all the historic external features of the original Myron Hunt building. The new two-story alumni center, which would replace the existing two-story former Phi Gamma Delta house, would make it possible to move Alumni Relations staff out of their current cramped quarters on Campus Road, and provide meeting space for the Alumni Board of Governors and guest rooms for distinguished visitors.

f you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, please contact Jim Tranquada.