Oxy in the News

October 2008

• Assistant Professor of Politics Caroline Heldman was interviewed on KCET-TV Channel 28 on Oct. 30 regarding the impact of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s impact on American politics.
  
  
• Associate Professor of Mathematics Ron Buckmire was interviewed on KCRW-FM on Oct. 30 and quoted in the Oct. 22 Los Angeles Times regarding Proposition 8 in his role as head of the Barbara Jordan/Bayard Rustin Coalition.
  
  
• Financial Aid Director Maureen McRae was quoted in an Oct. 28 Chronicle of Higher Education story about the impact of the economy on college students.
  
  
• Jack Kemp ’57 was pictured with Republican presidential candidate John McCain in an Oct. 28 Los Angeles Times story about the campaign. Kemp served as a senior adviser to the Republican nominee. Kemp also was mentioned in a Hall of Fame magazine article about Hall of Famers who have been able to stay relevant by reinventing themselves.
  
  
• Barack Obama ’83’s years at Occidental continued to draw significant media attention, including mentions in an Oct. 26 New York Times profile and the Oct. 6 issue of Time magazine. A BBC interview with Ken Sulzer ’82, who lived across the hall from Obama in Haines, aired Oct. 10 as part of a larger profile of the candidate.
  
  
• Portland (Oregon) homeless program manager Sally Erickson ’82 was quoted in an October 22 USA Today article about the alarming rise in numbers of homeless people in major U.S. cities.
  
  
• Oxy juniors Gisele Goldwater-Feldman, Laura McSay and Katja Nelson were pictured in a Oct. 21 Los Angeles Times story about Eagle Rock, “a little hipster-ville in the making.”
  
  
• Oxy’s Thomas Logan ’10 ran as the Libertarian candidate against incumbent Democratic Pasadena state Assemblyman Anthony Portantino. An Oct. 20 Pasadena Weekly article discusses that and other political races.
  
  
• Pardis Mahdavi ’00’s new book, “Passionate Uprisings: Iran’s Sexual Revolution” was the subject of a lengthy review in the Oct. 17 Chronicle of Higher Education. Mahdavi is an assistant professor of anthropology at Pomona College.
  
  
• Stacey O’Brien ’86, author of the best-selling memoir, “Wesley the Owl,” was profiled in the Oct. 16 Orange County Register.
  
  
• Nancy Steele ’80 was quoted in an Oct. 16 obituary of Heal the Bay founder Dorothy Green broadcast on Southern California Public Radio’s KPCC-FM.
  
  
• Vanessa Stedman ’99, director of the Junior League Finance Park, was quoted in an Oct. 15 Los Angeles Daily News story on a Junior League financial literacy program for high school students.
  
  
• In an article in The Nation on Oct. 14, Peter Dreier and Jim Vrabel gave the Kingston Trio credit for helping launch the folk music revival in the late 1950s, but also note their reluctance to challenge the Red Scare era's fearful political climate. Dreier also wrote a Sept. 17 Huffington Post article on Oxy’s unique campaign semester.
  
  
• Occidental publications editor Dick Anderson discussed the sociopolitical subtext of “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” in a tongue-in-cheek editorial in the Austin-Statesman on Oct. 13, calling the film Obama’s “October surprise”—his attempt to win over Latinos and dog lovers, two constituencies that were slow to warm to the Democratic presidential candidate.
  
  
• The New York Times reviewed Mike Mathis ’78’s new TV series “The Chef Project” on Oct. 11, saying the show “feels like reality TV giving back and compensating for a hundred prior sins.”
  
  
• Associate Professor of Politics Regina Freer was interviewed on National Public Radio Oct. 9 regarding the impact of the presidential race on black Republicans.
  
  
• Kenneth Hoffman ’52, professor of mathematics emeritus at MIT, was the subject of a staff-written obituary in the Oct. 6 Washington Post. He died Sept. 29.
  
  
• Mezzo-soprano Joy Davison ’59, who sang her first solo at Oxy, was featured in the October issue of Classical Singer. The article highlights her one-woman play about Maria Callas, aptly named Maria.
  
  
• Angelica Salas ’93, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, was named one of Hispanic Business’ “100 Most Influential Hispanics” in the magazine’s October issue.
  
  
• A home designed by architectural and interior designer Don Longworthy ’82 was featured in LUXE Magazine's fall Colorado edition in a 10-page spread.
  
  
• While calling an Alaska minor league baseball game this past summer, Donny Baarns ’08 interviewed Alaska governor Sarah Palin before she was named the Republican vice-presidential candidate. The interview was posted Sept. 16 as part of the Top of the Ticket LA Times political blog.
  
  
• An Aug. 8 New York Times article quoted Spencer Jemelka ’08, who now lives in Beijing, China, about his experience as a tour guide to U.S. Olympic wrestlers visiting the Great Wall of China. He also wrote a blog about the Olympic experience in Beijing for the Boulder Daily Camera.