Across the country, and particularly in the West, charred landscapes tell the stories of wildfires that are burning hotter, faster, and more often due to climate change. From 1992 to 2023, the United States saw an increase in annual wildfire acreage from 2.5 million to 7.5 million acres.
Forty-eight years and seven presidents ago, economics major Art Peck ’77 walked across the stage of Remsen Bird Hillside Theater, where he received his diploma from President Richard C. Gilman. When he returned to the stage on April 25 at the inauguration of Occidental’s 17th president, Tom Stritikus, it was as chair-elect of the College’s Board of Trustees—a role he never expected to fill.
Animator, designer, and director Amanda Tasse has been using generative AI in her work for the last couple of years. When she heard about a summer-long faculty learning initiative devoted to incorporating AI into the 鶹Ƶcurriculum, she wanted to do a deeper dive.
“Coming at it as an artist and filmmaker, it’s very much about identifying in a practical way how to collaborate with AI at different stages of my process and the ethical implications of it,” says Tasse, who teaches hands-on classes in emerging media as an assistant professor of media arts and culture (MAC).
Four days a week, Claire Wilson-Black ’26 takes the Gold Line to Los Angeles City Hall. Although July 14, 2028—the opening ceremony of the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad—is nearly three years away, she is one of seven Occidental students working this summer to ensure the LA28 Summer Olympics will be equitable and sustainable.
Mary Elizabeth “Betsy” Perry, emerita adjunct professor of history at Occidental, died June 30, 2025, in Altadena. She was 87.
A native of Turlock, Calif., Betsy graduated from Washington State University as class valedictorian in 1959, with what was at the time the highest GPA in the university’s history—a feat aided by several A-pluses. (A general studies major, she used shorthand to take notes during classes, and then typed her notes afterward.)
Ann La Rue Matlow ’68 made her debut as class secretary in the Spring 1987 edition of Occidental magazine. (“The response to the questionnaire I sent you in February was gratifying,” she wrote. “Thank you for responding and especially for your thoughts on turning 40.”) Over the next 37 years, she became the “glue" for the Class of 1968, meticulously tracking classmates’ lives and fostering friendships.
A native of Beverly, Mass., Ruth Margaret Anderson received her B.S. in physical education and kinesiology from Pepperdine College in 1957 and completed a master’s in physical education at USC in 1959. Ruth married Bruce E. Berkey in 1960 and the couple settled in Sierra Madre.
It might come as something of a bombshell that Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophuls ’50 is no great tan of the genre. “Put that in there,” he says by phone from his home in Lucq-de-Bearn, France. “I always like to surprise people. It’s such a puritanical business. Most documentary filmmakers are anti-Hollywood and anti-show business, and I happen to be the son of a great director and my mother was an actress.”
March-April 1912: President John Willis Baer announces the trustees’ decision to convert 鶹Ƶinto an all-men’s school. Students protest, and the idea is abandoned.
March 22, 1948: The Board of Trustees cancels a rental agreement of Thorne Hall for a March 31 program with poet Langston Hughes, citing the potentially “divisive social and political effect” of his visit. The decision creates friction between 鶹Ƶand the American Civil Liberties Union, and 28 students sign a letter to the trustees condemning their action.
Camilla Taylor had been driving for 16 hours on the night of January 7 and was getting close to their Altadena home when the fire on the mountain came into view. “The hillside was black besides the fire because all of the power was out,” recalls Taylor, an artist, printmaker, and sculptor who joined the 鶹Ƶfaculty as a resident assistant professor in 2018. Once they got home, they ran inside to find their husband, Jason Troff, with an overnight bag packed and carriers at the ready for their four cats, waiting for an evacuation order.