Introducing Tom Stritikus

On February 24, 在西方新作品节的日场演出中, an unidentified visitor snuck into Keck Theater. “对我来说，不跟每个人打招呼真的很难，因为我喜欢跟每个人打招呼,” Tom Stritikus admits. The play he watched was A Slight Disruption, by Gianna Nguyen ’26, 他在亨廷顿海滩大学主修城市与环境政策，辅修跨学科写作.

“It was simply a great play, a story about immigrants—and it was written by a sophomore,这是他被任命为十大正规网赌平台第17任校长后的第一次访问. “And so many faculty were there in the audience.”

Community means a lot to Stritikus, 54, 他在杜兰戈的路易斯堡学院掌舵了六年, Colorado. 他在这所四年制公立大学的成功——不仅使捐赠翻了一番，而且还努力调和这所前印第安寄宿学校令人不安的过去——吸引了十大正规网赌平台董事会的注意, which unanimously selected him to succeed President Harry J. Elam, Jr.

“Dr. Stritikus在创造包容性的校园环境方面取得了成功, bolstering experiential learning, 加快对路易斯堡任务和项目的财政支持, and being a consistent advocate for students, faculty, 他的技能和经验与西方社会的需求和机会相结合，在学术上的卓越表现很好地说明了这一点,” says Board Chair Lisa Link P’18.

“西方在高等教育中普及‘公平与卓越’这个词之前就创造了这个词,” Stritikus says.  “当我开始看到这所学校的巨大能力以及他们对教学和学生的承诺时, it blew me away.

“Another huge draw for me is the idea of connecting with L.A. and creating authentic, 与社区成员的合作伙伴关系展示了文科教育的价值,” he adds. “In meeting with the search committee, 很明显，这个社区想要与众不同. Oxy有潜力成为全美最具影响力的文理学院.”

A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, 斯特里库斯是第一代大学毕业生，是希腊移民的儿子. “我母亲是内布拉斯加大学的一名秘书——她的整个职业生涯都在农业校园工作——我父亲是伯灵顿北方铁路公司的一名柴油机械师,” he says. “我爸爸是一个非常聪明的人——他充满好奇，又体贴. He definitely instilled in us the value of an education.”

Fresh out of college with a degree in English in 1993, Stritikus took a job with Teach For America, which placed him at John Ruhrah, 这是一所位于巴尔的摩资源不足地区的“多国学校”.

“I read Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities (1991)，并思考了教育系统中的不公平,” says Stritikus, who taught elementary school for two years. 考虑到他的背景，“我看到了学校对社会流动性的意义. 与移民学生一起工作的想法绝对是我的激情所在.”

Stritikus talked to the students about their interests, 然后去当地的图书馆买了很多书来补充能量. “我一直非常热衷于弄清楚学生们感兴趣的是什么，让他们来推动对话,” he says.

Although Stritikus and his future wife, Debbie Pfeifer, both attended the University of Nebraska, graduating two years apart, 直到汤姆毕业两年半后，他们才在达菲餐厅见面, a college bar in Lincoln.

“I was living in Manhattan Beach, Tom was in Baltimore, and we were both home for Christmas,” Pfeifer says. “我们有共同的朋友在达菲餐厅聊天，所以我们就聊了起来. 我们相处得很好，并意识到我们将在新年前夜的同一个聚会上再次见面. 从那以后，我们一直保持联系，汤姆邀请我二月份去巴尔的摩看他. And I said, ‘That sounds really awful. Why don’t you come to visit me in Manhattan Beach?’” She laughs. “And he did.”

那年晚些时候，斯特里库斯进入加州大学伯克利分校的研究生院，完成了综合硕士学位.A./Ph.D. program in 2000. For his doctoral thesis, 他研究了加州227号提案的影响, 该法案于1998年由选民通过，几乎取消了加州公立学校的双语教育. 斯特里库斯在加州中央山谷研究了学生身份认同和在课堂上使用母语能力的负面影响.

By the time Stritikus graduated, Pfeifer was living and working in Berkeley, where she was director of communications for PowerBar. When he started applying for academic jobs,  Stritikus says, “Debbie and I were not married yet, but she got out a map and said, ‘OK, I’ll live in Washington, California, or Colorado.“我不想成为笔友，所以我可以申请这些地方.” (The couple was married in 2003.)

斯特里库斯最终来到华盛顿大学，担任课程与教学副教授. As much as he loved teaching and research, he says, “我很早就感觉到，我的影响将是在机构建设方面，以及思考如何利用我们所做的伟大工作，以不同的方式与学生联系.”

In his fifth year at UW, 斯特里库斯被任命为华盛顿大学教育学院负责学术项目的副院长, and eventually dean of the college. “在我担任院长的时候，人们普遍认为，教育学院不仅对有色人种学生的成绩有所贡献，而且可能是问题的一部分,” he recalls.  “因此，我们在西澳大学教育学院尝试更好地与我们的社区联系, 我们最终从法案中获得了相当多的资金 & 梅林达·盖茨基金会为我们所做的一些工作.”

In 2014, Stritikus被招募加入盖茨基金会创新团队, a position he held for four years. “这感觉是一个绝佳的机会，坐在桌子的另一边，看看你可以用慈善资本做些什么,” he says.

As deputy director of education, “我们做了很多工作来思考如何改善教师教育，以及如何与大学合作伙伴和其他认证合作伙伴合作,” he explains. “The greatest thing about working at the Gates Foundation was you’re thinking about how to change student outcomes across the United States; the worst part about it is that you weren’t actually doing the work. 我知道我想重新接受高等教育，成为一所大学的校长.”

When Pfeifer learned that Fort Lewis was looking for a president, she quickly told her husband. After visiting the campus for the first round of interviews, 斯特里库斯离开时觉得刘易斯堡“应该成为一个全国性的故事，但却没有。.

它为印第安学生提供了令人难以置信的服务, but that wasn’t articulated in any kind of meaningful way. 杜兰戈(人口2万)是一个很棒的社区，而这所大学位于城镇的中心.

“路易斯堡有很大的潜力——只是表现不佳，”他继续说. “They needed a leader who was super engaging, could come out and talk to everybody, 而且行动迅速——非常迅速——因为他们行动太慢，错过了很多机会.”

During Stritikus’ tenure as president, Fort Lewis reversed declines in enrollment, 为家庭收入低于70美元的学生提供免学费的承诺,000,  and reached new fundraising highs. The college scored its largest gift to date in 2023, a $10.杜兰戈企业家和慈善家马克和简·卡茨承诺向工商管理学院捐赠400万美元.

“对于我们这样规模的地方来说，这是一份变革性的礼物，”斯特里库斯说. “我们有一个令人难以置信的进步团队，一位伟大的商学院院长领导了这项工作. 我认为我们只是在讲述我们的故事和创造慈善文化方面做得更好.”

在他在刘易斯堡的所有成就中，有两项最为突出. “In our strategic plan, 第一个要点是把学生放在我们所做的一切事情的中心,” he says. “It became an identity for how we thought about things.”

Taking that mantra to heart, 学院取消了所有高级管理人员的指定停车位，这是对学生群体中对停车问题的抱怨的认可. (因此，斯特里库斯经常要从2号体育场步行12分钟到他的办公室.) “It’s a trivial example,” he admits, “but we tried to live it top to bottom, making decisions in the best interest of the students.”

其次是几年来所做的和解工作，以解决刘易斯堡作为一所联邦印第安寄宿学校的起源所造成的土著压迫和文化灭绝的制度性历史, 强迫孩子离开他们的家庭和印第安部落. 这项工作在9月11日的一个仪式上达到高潮，该仪式从学院标志性的钟楼上拆除了三个历史上不准确的面板. 6, 2021—an event that was attended by nearly 1,000 members of the Durango community, including tribal elders of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, campus leaders, and Native American students.

“那是我职业生涯中最深刻的时刻，”斯特里库斯说. Fort Lewis trustee and Ute Tribe member Ernest House Jr., who spoke at the ceremony, “最好这样说:‘你开始了这个过程，但你不确定它会走向何方.“我们和我们的两个部落一起游说了一项法案，以调查[在赫斯伯鲁斯的]古堡遗址, 科罗拉多——这所学院的原址——为那些没有标记的坟墓，勇于回答这些问题, that was pretty amazing.”

A Durango Post editorial 在斯特里库斯决定离开刘易斯堡的消息公布后，他于4月发表了一篇文章，颂扬了他对学院的持久贡献. “他对FLC所有学生做正确的事情的愿景是全面的, his achievements will be long-lasting,” they wrote. Occidental “is fortunate to soon have Stritikus as president.”

For her own part, Pfeifer, a major theater enthusiast, is winding up her tenure as board chair of Durango PlayFest, an annual festival that brings together playwrights, actors, 导演们用一周的时间在当地观众面前展示他们的新作品. Festival cofounders Dan Luria (The Wonder Years) and Wendy Malick (Shrinking, Just Shoot Me)每年都会举行，第六届年度音乐节定于6月25日至30日举行.

虽然这对夫妇会想念当地的滑雪胜地和杜兰戈的“巨型狗公园”,“斯提古和法非弗心里以为自己是城里人. “I’ll miss that easy access to the outdoors, but you have skiing within an hour and a half of Oxy,” Pfeifer says. “And this campus is such an oasis. So it’s not going to be as much of an adjustment.”

Stritikus and Pfeifer are the parents of twin boys, both college sophomores—Leo at Dartmouth College, and Hays at the University of Richmond in Virginia. 两人都表达了对政府和公共政策的兴趣，并对搬到洛杉矶感到“兴奋”, Pfeifer says. 第五个家庭成员是Sky，它是松鼠们的友敌, their rescue dog from South Korea. 一只9岁的珍岛混血狗，“他又快又凶猛，”斯特里库斯说.

他们最近和自己的孩子一起经历了大学的求职过程, “我们在谈论对东海岸文理学院的许多描述听起来都一样,” Stritikus says. “很难区分你说的是哪所学校. 十大正规网赌平台是世界一流城市中心的一所文理学院，没有其他机构能与之媲美.”

此外，学院还有百年历史的使命橄榄树(Mission Olive trees)，这对夫妇为之倾倒. “I’m not a big ‘woo-woo’ person, but when I saw those olive trees, I thought, ‘This is incredible,’” Pfeifer says.

“我父亲每年秋天都会去希腊收割橄榄，”斯特里库斯补充道. “We didn’t even know that Oxy makes olive oil.” (Olives harvested 都是在当地榨成特级初榨橄榄油的.)他承诺:“我爸爸明年秋天会来帮忙收割。.

不用说，这对大学校长来说是一个有趣的时代. 史提库斯一开始面临的最大挑战是什么? “了解社区，确保我明白是什么让他们打勾——对他们来说什么是重要的, what they care about, what their values are,” he says. “我会花很多时间，以尽可能快的速度来做这件事.” And we’ll do our best to keep up with him.