After a five-month search process, the Occidental College Board of Trustees unanimously appointed Tom Stritikus as Occidental’s 17th president, the Board announced in a campus-wide email March 26. Stritikus is currently the president of Fort Lewis College (FLC), a public liberal arts college located in Durango, Colorado. He will begin his term at Occidental July 1, taking over Harry Elam Jr., who announced last August that he will end his presidency early following his diagnosis with Parkinson’s Disease.
Stritikus said that he wanted the job because Occidental’s long-standing commitment to diversity and equity mirrors his own career.
“I’m the first in my family to go to college. I’m the son of Greek immigrants,” Stritikus told The Occidental.* “I’ve long worked in areas of success for students of color and Oxy’s been long committed to those issues.”
According to Board of Trustees member Art Peck ’77 P’10 P’14, Stritikus’ experience as a college president will ensure a smooth transition of leadership that he is excited to witness.
“We are quite focused on making sure that, as much as possible with a new president coming in, we do not miss a beat in terms of continuing the work that Harry [Elam] got started. So that was something I think was a standout because Tom [Stritikus] is very straightforward, which I think we all appreciated as he was clear as to who he is and what he believes in,” Peck said. “He has a personal deep connection to what the power of higher education means in terms of the trajectory of your life.”
Peck said that he believes Stritikus will seamlessly integrate into campus life as he moves into the Wallis Annenberg President’s House.
“He is bringing his dog to campus, so he’s going to have to walk the dog and I think it is just going to be a real opportunity for him to quickly become a normal part of the college community,” Peck said.
Echoing Peck, Board Chair and presidential search committee member Lisa Link P’18, said Stritikus not only demonstrates the right experience and qualifications as a liberal arts college president but has an infectious personality that will make Occidental thrive.
“Tom is a very engaging, upbeat, energetic guy and down to earth,” Link said. “I think that he will really be able to engage with and inspire the various constituencies to help take Oxy to the next level.”
In addition to trustees, faculty, staff and alumni, Julien De Goldsmith (sophomore) and Claire Kosek (junior) served as student representatives on the search committee. According to De Goldsmith, Stritikus made a strong impression during their initial Zoom interaction, propelling him to become a leading candidate.
“Something I really liked about him is he definitely portrayed [leadership] characteristics,” De Goldsmith said. “But he also was a person that showed empathy and that showed that he wanted to make the school a better place for students and for faculty.”
Kosek said in a text to The Occidental when she met Stritikus, she knew that he would be Occidental’s next president.
“He leads with compassion, communicates with respect, and is outstandingly humble given his accomplishments,” Kosek said. “When I think about the future of Occidental College and the institutional power we have to enact real and substantial change there is no track record more convincing than Dr. Stritikus’ to serve as a guiding light.”
Stritikus graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a bachelor’s degree in English and earned his doctorate in language, literacy and culture from the University of California, Berkeley, according to the college press release. Before becoming president of FLC, the press release said Stritikus served as the Dean of the University of Washington’s School of Education before becoming the Deputy Director of Education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Stritikus said that he has many goals as Occidental’s president.
“What’s standing out for me is [that] I want to make Occidental College the premier place in the country when people think about a liberal arts education with impact,” Stritikus said. “And to imagine the way that the liberal arts is used in interaction with real-life problems, in ways that are authentic and reciprocal to really make the world a better place.”
During his FLC presidency, Stritikus focused on student success, emphasizing academic support, advising, and social and mental health services, according to FLC Trustee Mary Rubadeau. She said his approach acknowledged the cultural influences and advantages of the Southwest region, and integrated cultural and indigenous health wisdom during the launch of a nursing program between FLC and a medical campus in the Colorado University system.
“Tom has worked with the Trustees to increase our fiscal stability and sustainability through successful grant writing, transformational fundraising, increasing the reserve policy to 25 percent and successfully lobbied for $54 million in new capital improvements, including the health sciences center and IT upgrades,” Rubadeau said via email. “President Stritikus has had a long-lasting impact on our college. We are grateful for the inspired, dedicated and highly effective leadership that he brought to the college and community.”
In a video announcing his election, Stritikus said that he trained at Belmont High School in the Westlake community of LA when participating in Teach for America. Stritikus said that training at Belmont opened his eyes to what happens when schools do not cultivate and meet the needs of students.
“Young people are very critical of institutions right now. And why? Because sometimes those institutions don’t do everything to meet their needs,” Stritikus said. “And that’s been a driving factor of the way I think about my work as a leader.”
Contact Olivia Fishman at ofishman@oxy.edu and James Miller at jmiller4@oxy.edu
*This article was corrected at 12:43 p.m. March 27 to state that Stritikus is the son of Greek immigrants, and not an immigrant himself.
This article was corrected 10:54 p.m. March 27 to state that Peck is a Board member and Link is the Board Chair.
