Oxy : Liberal Arts College Has Low Profile, Loyal Alumni and a Large Endowment

Since Occidental College was founded in 1887, it has survived an economic crash that left it with just seven students, a fire that ravaged what was then its only building, student unrest and allegations of racial discrimination.

Although hundreds of other colleges have folded in the wake of similar adversities, Occidental continues to endure. College officials attribute the school’s stability to its large endowment and the support of its fiercely loyal alumni.

As the small liberal arts college in Eagle Rock celebrates its centennial, it boasts an academic reputation as high as its tuition.

Yet, some say, it still lacks its own clear identity. The school’s colors--black and orange--and its nickname and mascot--a tiger--mimic Princeton. Concrete pedestals at its three main entrances are reminiscent of Harvard. And students refer to Oxy as “the college of Stanford rejects.”

But David Danelski, Occidental’s dean of faculty, staunchly maintains that Oxy’s identity has been long established: that of a small, liberal arts and sciences college that stresses high-quality teaching. “Our identity has been remarkably constant over our 100 years,” he said. “We have remained true to our commitment to undergraduate education.”

Not Widely Known

Others, however, concede that Occidental is still not widely known outside of educational circles, even on the West Coast.

“I had never heard of Oxy until my high school counselors recommended it,” said senior Ken Lowney of Palo Alto, who also applied at Whitman in Walla Walla, Wash.; UC Berkeley, and the University of Oregon before he settled on Occidental as his first choice.

Senior Heidi Melsheimer of Arizona said she resisted the urgings of her parents, both Occidental alumni, that she attend the Eagle Rock campus because she felt it lacked the prestige of larger institutions. “I was determined not to like it--until I got here,” she said. “Now I love it.”

The sprawling 120-acre campus tucked into a residential enclave only minutes from downtown Los Angeles is an enigma. Unlike the noise and concrete that typifies other metropolitan campuses, Occidental is a tranquil island in the city--with acres of meticulously kept lawns, rose gardens, eucalyptus and jacaranda forests.

But life at Occidental is markedly different from that of the Ivy League schools in the East after which it was patterned. Shorts are common attire at Occidental, even in January. Students barbecue steaks outside their dormitory every two weeks. Professors often move their classes to the grassy knolls on campus or to nearby museums and art centers.

Many students say that the smallness of Occidental (only 1,650 students), the reputation of its faculty and the beauty of its grounds were important in their decision to attend.

Richard C. Gilman, Oxy’s president for 22 years, points out that Occidental is relatively young contrasted with many leading campuses. “It takes time to nurture and develop a reputation,” Gilman said. “To attain the reputation of a Dartmouth or a Wesleyan takes a long, long time. Occidental emerged on the national scene much more recently, only in the last 25 years or so.”

But emerged it has.

The academic rank of colleges is often based on the size of their endowments because foundations and corporations give the greatest sums to schools with the highest reputations. Occidental’s endowment rose from less than $13 million when Gilman took the helm in 1965 to $110 million today. It has received grants from such leading contributors as the Rockefeller, Ford, Dreyfus and National Science foundations.

Aggressive Fund Raising

Much of the large endowment was raised in the last 10 years when the college undertook an aggressive fund-raising campaign. Earnings from the endowment are being used, in part, for improvements to some of the 33 buildings on campus and to develop new science, research and cultural facilities. Almost $16 million in improvements have been completed since 1975, and projects costing another $23 million are planned.

Occidental’s resources place it in the top 5% among the 800 small, liberal arts colleges in the nation, according to the Research Corp. of Tucson, Ariz. And, out of more than 2,800 institutions ranked nationwide, including such large ones as Stanford, USC and Princeton, Occidental places about 70th, according to the National Assn. of College and University Business Officers.

But, in other studies, including a 1986 report in Change Magazine which ranked undergraduate schools on the percentage of doctoral candidates they have supplied, Occidental ranks lower than many of its California competitors, including its closest rival, Pomona College, also celebrating its centennial.

Fewer Graduate Students

Occidental officials said that those ratings, which use data going back to the 1920s, reflect the school’s relatively recent emergence as a supplier of graduate students. Until the last few decades, the college had concentrated heavily on producing teachers, said Lee Case, vice president of development.

A report in the Journal of Chemical Education, which tracked the postgraduate success of more recent graduates, from 1967 to 1976, ranked Occidental’s chemistry department 14th in the nation. During the last 15 years, 87% of Oxy’s chemistry graduates who applied to medical school were accepted, Case said. In all, about 75% of Occidental’s graduates continue their formal education.

Occidental received its first national recognition in 1922 when the Rockefeller Foundation awarded $166,000 to the campus. But the school remained little known among the college-bound until recently, when it began recruiting nationally, said Charlene Liebau, director of admissions.

70% Live On Campus

In contrast to the frenzied commuter life of many students at nearby UCLA and USC, more than 70% of the students at Occidental live on campus--all freshmen are required to do so--and most students know, or at least recognize one another.

“In an environment of this size, there develops a camaraderie, a sense of community, a sense of place and identity,” Gilman said.

Students accepted at Occidental generally have placed in the top 20% of their graduating class at a school that offers a strong college preparatory program and demonstrate “a willingness to challenge themselves academically,” Liebau said. About half the students are from outside of California, and 25 other nations are represented. The college purposely selects students from throughout the country to provide a diversity of experience on campus, Liebau said.

Opportunities for Research

Danelski, the dean of faculty and a former professor at Stanford, Cornell and Yale, summarized the difference between Occidental and the more reputed professional schools: Graduate schools, he said, focus on “the discovery of knowledge” whereas Occidental emphasizes “the dissemination of knowledge.” Often, undergraduate students at Oxy are able to participate in research that otherwise would be available only to graduate students at large universities, Danelski said.

Gilman describes the Occidental program as “the preparation for middle age.” All students are required to complete a “core program” of studies on philosophy, history, literature, science and the arts. Gilman said he believes a wide range of knowledge is necessary for people to become “both interested and interesting” beyond the specialties of their careers. A former professor of philosophy, Gilman once defined knowledge as “a seamless web which builds up gradually and in many different directions.”

When the nationwide student population began dwindling in the 1970s, many universities branched out into new areas to attract more students to the campus, Gilman said. They offered more vocational and training courses that promised a speedy road to jobs and stressed graduate programs suited to workers seeking to advance their careers.

Lowered Enrollment

But Occidental chose a different course, one that Oxy’s president acknowledges was a “high-risk venture.” The college decided to purposely trim its enrollment from a peak of 1,800 students 10 years ago--a number Gilman termed “a bit bloated.” And trustees agreed to virtually eliminate the college’s doctoral program in order to strengthen its undergraduate studies.

Gilman said trustees resisted the popular trend to broaden the range of programs offered and, instead, decided to strengthen its traditional programs by narrowing its focus. “We did not want to become a mini-university,” Gilman said. The strategy, he said, “worked out.” Whereas some established colleges disappeared because of diluted resources, Occidental, which has operated without a budget deficit since 1937, prospered.

The cutback was a bold move for Oxy because the college relies heavily on tuition for its revenues, Gilman said. But the tuition lost because of trimming enrollment has since been countered by increased earnings from the growing endowment.

Fears About Rising Costs

Still, Gilman worries about continually increasing costs of education and the growing “tuition gap” between public and private colleges. He fears that high costs are forcing many students away from independent colleges towards public institutions, where costs are subsidized by taxpayers.

The annual cost of attending Occidental, including room and board, rose from $8,200 in 1980 to $14,000 this year--a 70% increase. Annual tuition alone is $10,344. Only six other colleges in California charge more for tuition: Stanford, Pitzer, Pomona, USC, Caltech and Harvey Mudd. Tuition and fees at campuses of the University of California, in contrast, are less than $1,500 a year.

Nationwide, Occidental ranks 50th in the cost of tuition, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. Because of the high costs, officials said, almost two-thirds of Occidental students receive some form of financial assistance, averaging $9,366 a student.

Few Minority Students

Occidental has other problems. Faculty and students for decades have urged that more minority students and faculty be brought to the Eagle Rock campus. But enrollment of blacks and Latinos has declined, from a high of 13% in 1976 to fewer than 10% this year, despite the growing minority population in the Los Angeles area.

Officials from 27 colleges, including Occidental, are meeting this month at Swarthmore College to discuss how liberal arts colleges might recruit more minority students. The faculty at Occidental also has urged that the college initiate a summer workshop for minorities throughout the nation to introduce them to the college before their freshman year.

Although the student atmosphere at Occidental has remained relatively tranquil despite the nationwide unrest of the 1960s and 1970s, protests are still heard today. A coalition of about 150 students, supported by many faculty members, erected a shanty town last year in protest of the school’s South Africa investment policies.

Low-Profile Sports Program

Some of Occidental’s sleepy reputation is attributed to its low-profile sports program, which receives none of the publicity afforded by nationwide coverage of major college teams. Yet Oxy is considered to have a strong sports program and counts nationally acclaimed athletes among its alumni, including 1957 Olympic Silver Medal-winning pole vaulter Bob Gutowski and Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), a professional football player for 13 years before he was elected to Congress.

Although the college offers no athletic scholarships, its football, tennis and track teams have excelled in their intercollegiate athletic division. A world-class, all-weather running track was constructed for the 1984 Olympics along with the renovation and installation of other training facilities. Nearly 10% of the 800 male students suit up for the Tiger football team.

Severed Religious Ties

Occidental College was founded in 1887 by members of the Presbyterian Church but severed its religious ties shortly afterward. It was born in the midst of a land boom spurred by a railroad rate war, then nearly died in the economic crash that closely followed.

The first campus was situated at 1st and 2nd streets in Boyle Heights, where the college’s sole building was destroyed by fire in 1896. By the following year, enrollment had dropped to only seven students, according to Oxy historian Andrew Rolle.

A new site was found in 1898 in Highland Park, where the college began to thrive until encroaching development and construction of a railroad line infringed on the tranquility of the cramped, 13-acre campus, according to Rolle.

By 1914, the college had moved to its present site in Eagle Rock, where barley and wheat fields stretched out on all sides backed by dry hillsides almost barren of trees, according to historical accounts. A syndicate of developers who had backed the college planned a circular road around the campus with the college as the center. Residential lots then radiated out from the circle, forming the quiet enclave that buffers the campus today from the nearby city.

Architect Myron Hunt, commissioned to design the campus, chose a conservative, neoclassical motif with red-tile roofs and Italian-style arcades centered on an axis. He brought instant greenery to the barren hillside by planting flats of blue-gum eucalyptus and tobira bushes. Landscaping has been under constant renewal ever since at Occidental.

Today, the college claims to be the only small liberal arts college in a major metropolitan area--”a green place in the city.”