President Stritikus welcomes the community to the 2025–26 academic year and touches on the opportunities and challenges ahead.
Dear Occidental Community:
Welcome to the 2025-26 school year! The past several months have been busy here on campus, where I was encouraged by the many students who devoted their summer internships and research to living our core values of excellence, equity, community, and service. I’m also excited to welcome the impressive Class of 2029 to the Oxy community. Considering what they’ve already achieved, I know they’ll make a valuable impact during their time here, and their lives will be enriched because of our accomplished, diverse, and engaged students, faculty, and staff.
One of my favorite parts of being on a college campus is the sheer number of opportunities to get involved with issues that drive you, explore new interests, and engage in incredible experiences. Some of these opportunities will occur during your coursework, thanks to our outstanding faculty, who are constantly finding new ways to help our students apply their education in and out of the classroom. I also encourage you to check out our Involvement Fair (iFair), where you can join a variety of student-run clubs and organizations. And I know that offices and departments across campus, including SLICE and Oxy Live!, as well as our athletics teams, are gearing up for a year of truly excellent programming, shows, performances, and events—I hope you’ll join me in attending.
Although I’m looking forward to the learning and discoveries this year will bring, I want to address the concerns I’ve heard from some members of our community about the existing challenges on our campus and across the country. Ongoing decisions by the federal government have continued to impact higher education institutions nationwide. As I’ve previously reaffirmed, an Occidental education remains accessible for all of our students, regardless of citizenship or immigration status, as has always been our commitment in compliance with federal and state law. With input from student government, Faculty Council, and other members of the Oxy community, the College has advocated for international students, published protocols related to immigration issues, and provided a number of resources. We’ve also updated our College policies to more strongly assert our commitment to free speech and to clarify what constitutes protected speech. Additional information about the steps we’ve taken is available in my Apr. 9 community message, and senior leadership is assessing how we can continue to support our community as federal policies change.
In the face of these challenges, the leadership team is committed to strengthening community relationships through education and dialogue, and to creating spaces where all voices can be heard. One of the strongest arguments for the value of a liberal arts education is that it teaches us to think critically about a spectrum of ideas, rigorously examine our beliefs, improve our capacity for empathy alongside advocacy, and cultivate our shared humanity—all of which prepares our students to lead confidently in a complex, pluralistic world. As ASOC president Trisha Bhima ’27 said in her profound Convocation speech yesterday, being active in our community “means paying attention. It means showing up. It means engaging with people whose experiences are different from yours, and listening deeply. It means using the resources you have here . . . to imagine something better.”
As the academic year begins, I look forward to my continued engagement with you and remain grateful that Oxy provides us all with opportunities for connection and community.
Best,
Tom