More than two years after the Occidental College Commission on Athletics (OCCA) released a report detailing a roadmap on how the college’s athletic teams can become competitive in their respective conferences, the athletic department has hired new coaches, increased employment periods for full-time coaches, made various facility improvements and created a Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) team, according to Director of Athletics Shanda Ness.
In July 2020, President Elam formed the OCCA in order to seek recommendations for supporting the Athletics Department after the COVID-19 pandemic abated, according to Rob Flot, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students. By April 2021, the commission reported that in order for the college’s athletic teams to be competitive, the college must invest in upgrading athletic facilities, increasing salaries of head coaches, hiring more full-time assistant coaches and creating various programming for community building.
According to women’s basketball head coach and assistant director of athletics Anahit Aladzhanyan ’07, the commission was made up by a body of representatives from the college’s administration, coaches, faculty, student athletes and alumni. She said that OCCA focuses on two pillars: competitiveness and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
Aladzhanyan said that the athletics department has made an effort to get the wider campus community more active in athletics, through events such as Tiger Pride Tapas and Homecoming Weekend.
“I’ve seen gradual improvement over the years, and I believe we are at a point where we have systems in place for checks and balances,” Aladzhanyan said via email.
According to Ness, full-time assistant coaches have been hired for men’s and women’s basketball and swimming and diving. Ness said that all head coaches are now 12-month employees (months varied previously) and all full-time assistant coaches are now 10-month employees, up from a nine-month employment previously. Ness also said numerous improvements have been made to athletic facilities.
“We have installed a new turf playing surface in Jack Kemp Stadium and made improvements to the varsity weight room,” Ness said via email.
Former men’s soccer athlete and OCCA member Jazz Henry ‘23 said that during his time on the team, the renovation of the Jack Kemp field made a big difference to him and his teammates.
“My freshman year, our field was horrible,” Henry said. “We had the worst field ever and I feel like every team who played Oxy knew that our field was bad.”
Henry said that the new turf not only reduced the number of athlete injuries but also felt and looked more professional.
“The ball didn’t bounce weirdly anymore,” Henry said. “It just felt really good to play on it, and we had a great season as well.”
According to Ness, JEDI was formed shortly after the OCCA with Cori Vallembois leading as Coordinator of JEDI Programming.
“The multi-dimensional program has really grown over the last two years under Cori’s leadership,” Ness said via email. “Our staff, our teams, and our student-athlete JEDI committee all partake [in JEDI programs].”
Henry said that with most teams spending more than 17 hours a week together, it was important to be able to have space to talk about things like identity, which JEDI made possible.
“When people are given the platform to talk about it, then those conversations [about JEDI] happen a lot more naturally,” Henry said.
Movindri Reddy, a Diplomacy and World Affairs professor and member of OCCA, said she was impressed by the group’s cognizance of the role of academics in students’ lives.
“Coaches really understand that students are here for academics, and they are also athletes, and that [it’s] a delicate balance and it’s challenging,” Reddy said.
As a member of the college budget committee, Reddy said that fundraising challenges are the main obstacle to following through with recommendations.
“Shanda is very efficient and very capable of running athletics, so it’s not how to use the money—it’s where to get the money,” Reddy said.
According to Jordan Brown ’13, former men’s tennis player, OCCA member and Senior Assistant Dean of Admission and Coordinator of Student Athlete Recruitment, ensuring student-athletes feel supported by the College is important to competitive success. Brown said that when he transferred to Occidental, he was struck by the fact that at the time there were only four tennis courts. According to Brown, the team had to play their official games off campus, which resulted in little to no audience for their matches.
“I loved my experience overall but competing on campus would have been a nice way to feel more connected to the other teams and the campus community more broadly,” said Brown via email. “This is why I love Homecoming weekend. It is so awesome to see the Oxy community come out and support our Fall sport student-athletes.”
Contact Michelle Teh at teh@oxy.edu
