In November 2016, hundreds of students occupied the Arthur G. Coons (AGC) administrative building of Occidental College in protest against the college administration. They sought to begin a movement for institutional change and administrative action regarding matters of diversity, equity and inclusion. Students issued a list of 14 demands, nearly all of which the administration committed to fulfilling in some capacity. The occupation rocked the college campus: some teachers held classes inside the AGC, many administrative staffers were told not to come to work that week, a number of them quit their jobs to move on to other institutions and students stood and slept together in emotion-wrought solidarity as they waited for responses from the administration.
One year later, The Occidental Weekly conducted a school-wide survey on campus climate, asking students, faculty, staff and administrators alike to reflect on the events and their aftermath. Students were given one survey while faculty, staff and administration were given a variation of that survey.
Here we present to you the results of both surveys. We received a 15.6 percent response rate from students and a 26 percent response rate from faculty, staff and administration.
We originally took the survey down after we published in the Fall due to technical difficulties. We have since fixed the problems. Thank you to the faculty and community members who have provided guidance and support throughout the process.
* Percentages for student responses add up to more than 100 percent because we allowed participants to select more than one option. Occidental’s enrollment demographics allowed for only one choice.
Data collected and processed by:
Wellesley Daniels
Caelan Barr
Yinbo Gao
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