Renovations will be taking place in Chilcott Hall to convert the common area into a 68-seat screening facility meant to serve the Media, Arts & Culture (MAC) program. Additional work to rejuvenate the surrounding outdoor spaces, which serve as communal gathering areas for students and faculty, are also planned. MAC Department Chair Katarzyna Marciniak said Occidental is planning to complete the theater by the Fall 2026 semester.
In a Feb. 2 email to the student body, Board of Trustees Chair Art Peck said the screening facility would be “state-of-the-art.” Marciniak said MAC faculty were elated at the news.
Marciniak said the new facilities, which have been years in the making, are a necessary part of the MAC department’s recent boom in enrollment, now the fourth largest major at Occidental.
“MAC has experienced absolutely amazing growth that we’ve called unprecedented, unexpected, wonderful, gratifying,” Marciniak said. “We consequently need more classes and more spaces for teaching.”
As part of that effort, Marciniak said changes to the MAC curriculum are being implemented to streamline the major in conjunction with the hiring of additional faculty across areas of expertise.
“One way to think about why this growth has been happening is because MAC has been allowed to grow in terms of number of faculty members who teach in the program,” Marciniak said. “We’re going to introduce some new classes, different paths and better advising.”
Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and David B. and Mary H. Gamble Professor of Religious Studies Kristi Upson-Saia said while classroom space is a priority, the college is also working to ensure Chilcott residents will still have areas to congregate in after their common room is transformed.
“One of the hardest things that I’m constantly working on is how to maximize the use of classroom spaces,” Upson-Saia said. “This will add a classroom, which is great for us. [But] we don’t want to take away community space for classroom space […] There’s been more of a commitment to have more outdoor spaces for students to hang out.”
Upson-Saia said the Chilcott theater will bear similarities to the existing Choi Auditorium in Johnson Hall and will also be used to host screening events with special guests, and that the new theater will hopefully resolve issues caused by competition for the use of Choi.
“Choi is difficult, because the [audiovisual controls] in there [are] accessible to everyone all the time,” Upson-Saia said. “If I have a speaker and I go and setup [the theater settings] and walk away for an hour, someone could come in and change all the settings. There’s been some technical problems that are just not appropriate when you have high-profile guests.”
Owen Voigt (sophomore) said his job at the Cage, the MAC department’s gear rental service, allows him to hear lots of direct feedback from students. Voigt said he is excited by the renovations, but hopes further improvements to Weingart are in store as well.
“[Weingart is] one of the oldest buildings on campus. There are parts of it that need a little help,” Voigt said. “Watching the MAC program grow and seeing smaller spaces be renovated and rebuilt […] makes me excited because I think it means we have the opportunity to do bigger stuff that can benefit the program more in the future.”
Upson-Saia said she hopes to incorporate more student feedback into renovation projects while continuing to juggle the many requirements such projects hold.
“We’re trying to balance department-specific needs and general-use needs,” Upson-Saia said. “But there is a strong desire among many people working on the project for [students] to be part of the process.”
Marciniak said faculty is constantly working to meet the needs and challenges presented by the department’s expansion.
“We are super proud of the growth and the fact that students seek us out, that they’re drawn to us,” Marciniak said. “It puts pressure and responsibility on us, faculty, to be careful, mindful about the way we guide students.”
Contact Jay Ward at jward3@oxy.edu
