Faculty

“Professors at Oxy expect to be interrupted.  It’s OK for students to come in to talk, to complain, to learn, to discuss the day’s news.”
Jane Jaquette, Bertha Harton Orr Professor in the Liberal Arts

The hallmark of an Occidental education has always been the intimate interaction between students and faculty. Our 10:1 student/faculty ratio ensures small classes and personal attention inside and outside the classroom. Like our students, the faculty is diverse: Almost one-quarter are African American, Asian American, and Latino/a, and almost half are women. Although they regard teaching as their top priority, our faculty is engaged in research or creative work that enriches their teaching and provides unique research opportunities for students.

Our students regularly collaborate with faculty, working one-on-one with them in every discipline. Students who have taken advantage of this opportunity include:

• Rachael Yuson Williams, who spent three years working with Chemistry Professor Tetsuo Otsuki to synthesize a molecule that could be used as an anti-cancer drug.
• Leah Ordonia, an English and comparative literature major, who collaborated with Willa Cather expert John Swift on research involving Cather’s novel The Professor’s House.
• Andrew Pace, who continues to work on the synthesis of pharmaceutically important molecules with Chemistry Professor Donald Deardorff.

In your first year, you are assigned a faculty member as an academic advisor. When you declare a major, you will be assigned an advisor in your discipline. Advisors are there to answer questions, help you to determine how the curriculum relates to your academic and career goals, and provide information about special opportunities.