Rolling in the Deep

It was an ambitious gambit from the beginning: the creation of a college on the outskirts of a ramshackle city. But as Los Angeles grew into "a nexus of creativity, diversity, 世界上的机遇和挑战每天都在复杂地上演”——借用十大正规网赌平台新的五年战略计划中的一句话——学院坚持了下来, evolved, and thrived in tandem with its surroundings.

Now, after more than two years of intensive navel-gazing and thoughtful, often passionate debate, President Jonathan Veitch has taken the wraps off Oxy's road map for the future. 该计划将洛杉矶作为十大正规网赌平台转型为“充满活力的国际校园”的跳板,他的愿景不亚于将奥施康定打造成“全国最具特色的城市文理学院”."

摆在我们面前的核心任务是，在文科和理科的基本价值受到抨击之际，Oxy有能力重新诠释文科传统. "We must reinvigorate our curriculum, make the case for the importance of the liberal arts to prospective students and the public at large, and define the skills and qualities of mind that we want our students to possess when they graduate," Veitch says.

Rather than hedging its bets, 十大正规网赌平台将完全接受文科教育的变革本质，这一过程正在学院125周年庆典中进行. Far more than a nostalgic glance at the past, 这个为期一年的系列活动是为了纪念文科在牛津大学校友的生活和事业中所发挥的作用, while addressing how—and why—that mix of skills, knowledge, and qualities of mind still matter today.

Building on the College's 1990 mission statement, the new strategic plan (formally approved by the faculty on May 15 and by the Board of Trustees on June 11) "strikes a very good balance between the general and specific," Veitch says. "It's general enough so that people can see a lot of things in it they'll find encouraging, and specific to give us some very clear direction." That noted, 维奇发出了他在整个计划过程中不断重复的警告:奥施康定面临着一些艰难的决定.

"We realize that a strategic plan without money is a letter to Santa, so we've already done some hard things," he says. "We've cut 5 percent of the budgets of every non-academic department, and now have some resources set aside to serve as a downpayment on the future. 现在摆在我们面前的一个困难的任务将是获得接下来的5%——这是我们开始切入骨头的地方, and making hard choices about what we won't do."

As the strategic plan points out, 自从奥施康定在其百年生日蛋糕上吹灭蜡烛以来，高等教育的格局发生了巨大变化. Tuition increases have far outstripped growth in household income, making it increasingly difficult for families to send their children to private institutions. And while Oxy awarded $36.2011- 2012年，美国政府为学生提供了300万美元的经济援助，比前一年增加了近300万美元.

"Colleges today face the toughest external environment in 80 years," says Jorge Gonzalez, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College. "Federal and state governments are cutting back, foundations and philanthropists are giving less, and endowments are producing less. The financial challenges are very real. At the same time, the perceived value of the liberal arts is under fire, 对机构问责制的呼声越来越高，这要求大学更好地为自己辩护."

Internally, Gonzalez says, Occidental is in a relatively strong position: "Our application pool is largest ever, and the quality of the students we admitted is the best in many years. We are bringing superb faculty to campus. The quality of our teaching is amazing." Dozens of longtime Oxy faculty are expected to retire over the next 10 to 15 years, including seven who are now enrolled in the College's phased retirement program. “必须更换那些造就了今天的奥克斯克斯大学的教员，这既是一个挑战，也是一个机会，让我们重新思考奥克斯克斯大学文科和理科教育的轮廓。," he says.

Under the guidance of a campus-wide planning committee (co-chaired by Amos Himmelstein, vice president for finance and planning, and Amy Lyford, professor of art history and the visual arts and Faculty Council chair), 11个工作队负责在教学等领域确定优先次序并提出建议, the residential college, the arts, civic engagement, and diversity. 随后的谈话涉及方方面面，从Oxy作为一所住宿学院的身份，到鼓励学生走出校园，利用洛杉矶的优势之间的紧张关系, to the delicate balance between teaching and research, how to address a growing number of adjuncts on the faculty, and the proper role of public art on campus. That the discussion was wide-ranging and prolonged was no surprise, Himmelstein says. "It's been 15 years since the Oxy community—faculty, students, trustees, staff, and alumni—completed the process of hammering out a consensus on what the College's future should be."

For faculty, the quality of an Oxy education is key. "Our major goal is to enhance what we do to make it better," says Lyford. "Our role is to drive the quality of this institution and our teaching." Inevitably, 战略规划的谈话触及了长期以来正规博彩十大网站排名推荐最佳规模的争论. In the years ahead, Occidental will likely take a two-pronged approach, trimming the number of students and increasing faculty, Gonzalez says.

During the discussion, 维奇提出了一个担忧，即规划过程往往有利于现有的选区和项目. "Where is the opportunity to think through what we're not doing yet that we should be doing?" he asked faculty, 引用计算机科学(“一个正在改变我们生活的领域”)和媒体研究(“在一个全球媒体之都的城市里，这是一个奇怪的遗漏”)在当前课程中的代表性不足.

Ultimately, much of the plan emerged from what Veitch calls "Oxy's DNA." That includes a longstanding commitment to diversity (ensuring that talented students from all backgrounds can thrive at Oxy); historic strengths in the arts and sciences (incorporating artists and thinkers from Christo and Common to Eric Schlosser and Samantha Power into campus life); community engagement (supporting students' development as citizens beyond the confines of campus); an active alumni community (strengthening the Oxy network worldwide); and location, location, location.

"We're urban—we won't suddenly wake up to find ourselves in a cornfield in Iowa," Veitch says. 在与奥特里国家中心和西南博物馆等组织建立现有关系的基础上.A. 101," Summer 2011) and partnering with other L.A. academic institutions, “这个计划为充分利用洛杉矶提供给我们的大量机会奠定了基础," he adds. "Some might say we have only redefined what we already are, and there is some truth to that. But if you read the plan carefully, it puts meat on the bones of what we say Oxy is."

The plan's guiding vision closely parallels the one Veitch unveiled in a major Founders Day speech. “每一个从十大正规网赌平台毕业的学生都将准备好承担他们作为世界公民的责任, skilled at negotiating its complexities, eclectic in their interests and tastes," he said. (For the full text, go to tbc007.net/presidents-office/2012-founders-day-speech.)

However, as he notes, "God is in the details.“即将到来的学年将致力于制定一项运作计划，重新分配当前和未来的资源，以配合计划的新优先事项。. The Faculty Council has formed working groups on community engagement, research and scholarship, and career discernment to start the process. "We saw these as encompassing the largest number of people and programs on campus," Lyford says.

去年的资源优化项目——要求每个非学术部门检查其运作，并提出相当于其预算5%的削减——不仅仅是为实施战略计划的优先事项提供了种子资金. According to Michael Groener, vice president for administration, 它还提供了令人信服的证据，证明与许多同行机构相比，十大正规网赌平台是一个精简的机构:“在支出或项目方面，没有可以轻易取消或重新分配的唾手可得的成果.该计划的目标突显出，对于一个收入高达哈佛大学四倍的机构来说，建立捐赠基金以支撑年度运营预算是必要的. As Veitch observed in a planning meeting earlier this spring, "This is a fundraising document as well."

Despite all the challenges, 规划对话中固有的自我检查对十大正规网赌平台的机构健康和福祉至关重要. "The liberal arts and sciences are not a static entity," Veitch says. "Every generation needs to go back to that well, and engage in a debate about what belongs there. What books, which ideas matter, and why? As President Remsen Bird said shortly after he arrived at Oxy more than 90 years ago, we need to make that case in every generation."