Jonathan Veitch

Last updated
Sarah Veitch
​
(after 1992)​
Jonathan Veitch
Oxy-J.Veitch.jpg
Veitch in 2009
15thPresident of Occidental College
In office
2009–2020
Children3
Parent(s)Carol Lee (mother)
John Veitch (father)
Relatives Alan Ladd (step-grandfather)
Alma mater Stanford University
Harvard University
Website www.oxy.edu/faculty/jonathan-veitch

Jonathan Veitch (born 1959) is an American college administrator, author and former professor. He was the 15th President of Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. He became president in July 2009, succeeding interim president Robert Skotheim [1] and ended his term in June 2020, followed by president Harry J. Elam Jr. [2] Veitch previously served as a professor at the University of Wisconsin and dean of The New School's Eugene Lang College. [3] He authored American Superrealism: Nathanael West and the Politics of Representation in the 1930s in 1997. [4]

Contents

Early life and education

Jonathan Veitch was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His father, John Veitch, was the president of Columbia Pictures' worldwide productions, and his step-grandfather was actor Alan Ladd. [3]

Veitch attended Loyola High School in southern California before he received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University in English and American Literature. He later received his doctoral degree in the History of American Civilization from Harvard University. [1]

Career

In 1993, Veitch became an associate professor of English at the University of Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin Press published his first book, American Superrealism: Nathanael West and the Politics of Representation in the 1930s, in 1997. That same year, Veitch moved to New York and became an associate professor at The New School, teaching courses in cultural history, American history and American film pertaining to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. [5]

Veitch was named Dean of Eugene Lang College in 2004, where he remained for a tenure of four years before stepping down and becoming the president of Occidental College in 2009. [5]

Veitch was elected to RMR Group Board of Directors in summer 2020. [6]

Occidental College

Veitch is the first president of Occidental College to be a native Angeleno, having been born in Los Angeles. He succeeded Robert Skotheim as the fifteenth president of the college on June 30, 2009. [3] [7] Veitch has worked to improve relations between the College and the surrounding community, limiting expansion of the campus into the community in response to neighborhood concerns. [8] [9]

On his first anniversary at the college in August 2010, Veitch hosted a public forum for Los Angeles activists and local officials to discuss the city's environmental future. He also brought on Ella Turenne as the college's assistant dean of civic engagement. [8]

Veitch announced the new name of Occidental's football stadium in 2011, which was renamed after alumnus Jack Kemp, former professional football player, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives. Veitch also unveiled a new statue for the former student who died in 2009. [10]

After a two-year consultative process initiated by Veitch, Occidental approved a five-year strategic plan in 2012 that laid out goals such as curricular innovation and fostering a cosmopolitan campus culture. [11] On the school's 125th anniversary in April 2012, President Veitch announced that Occidental would be the recipient of a $5 million donation to renovate Johnson Hall, one of three original buildings on the campus. [12]

During Veitch’s tenure, Occidental implemented new programs in computer science, [13] media arts and culture, [14] music production, [15] and Black studies. [16] In April 2013, Veitch unveiled a 1 megawatt solar array on the Occidental campus, to generate a portion of the campus's energy supply. [17]

In September 2017, Veitch announced the creation of the Barack Obama Scholars Program, a four-year scholarship program aimed at exceptional students with an emphasis on first-generation students, veterans, and community college transfers who "want to contribute to the public good." [18] Veitch has publicly supported the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. [19] Partnering with the lobbyist group Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities, Veitch helped to organize a March 2017 symposium that brought participants from more than 40 Southern California institutions to Occidental to consider how to respond to changes in immigration policy. [20]

Personal life

Veitch married Sarah Ann Baxter Kersh, the former director of international licensing and distribution for Calvin Klein, in December 1992. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occidental College</span> Liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California, United States

Occidental College is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of California</span> Public university system in California

The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, the system is composed of its ten campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz, along with numerous research centers and academic abroad centers. The system is the state's land-grant university. Major publications generally rank most UC campuses as being among the best universities in the world. In 1900, UC was one of the founders of the Association of American Universities and since the 1970s seven of its campuses, in addition to Berkeley, have been admitted to the association. Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Diego are considered Public Ivies, making California the state with the most universities in the nation to hold the title. UC campuses have large numbers of distinguished faculty in almost every academic discipline, with UC faculty and researchers having won 71 Nobel Prizes as of 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of California, Los Angeles</span> Public research university in Los Angeles, California

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the California State Normal School. It was absorbed with the official founding of UCLA as the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, making it the second-oldest of the ten-campus University of California system after the University of California, Berkeley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State University, Northridge</span> Public university in Los Angeles, California, U.S.

California State University, Northridge, is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students, it has the second largest undergraduate population as well as the third largest total student body in the California State University system, making it one of the largest comprehensive universities in the United States in terms of enrollment size. The size of CSUN also has a major impact on the California economy, with an estimated $1.9 billion in economic output generated by CSUN on a yearly basis. As of Fall 2021, the university had 2,187 faculty, of which 794 were tenured or on the tenure track.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pomona College</span> Liberal arts college in Claremont, California

Pomona College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became the founding member of the Claremont Colleges consortium of adjacent, affiliated institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loyola Marymount University</span> Jesuit university in Los Angeles, California

Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located in downtown Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference</span> College athletic conference that operates in the NCAAs Division III

The Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) is a college athletic conference that operates in the NCAA's Division III. The conference was founded in 1915 and it consists of twelve small private schools that are located in southern California and organized into nine athletic programs. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer are combined teams for sports purposes.

East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communities comprising its primary service area and an enrollment of 35,403 students, ELAC had the largest student body campus by enrollment in the state of California as of 2018. It was located in northeastern East Los Angeles before that part of unincorporated East Los Angeles was annexed by Monterey Park in the early 1970s. ELAC offers associate degrees and certificates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State University, Los Angeles</span> Public university in Los Angeles, California

California State University, Los Angeles is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degree programs, 122 master's degree programs, and 4 doctoral degrees: the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in special education in collaboration with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership, Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), and Doctor of Audiology (AuD). It also offers 22 teaching credentials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polytechnic School (California)</span> Private K–12 school in Pasadena, California, United States

Polytechnic School, often referred to simply as Poly, is a college preparatory private day school located in Pasadena, California with approximately 850 students enrolled in grades Kindergarten through 12.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western University of Health Sciences</span> Private medical graduate school in California and Oregon

Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU) is a private medical school and health sciences university with its main campus in Pomona, California, with an additional campus in Lebanon, Oregon. With an enrollment of 3,724 students (2022–23), WesternU offers more than twenty academic programs in multiple colleges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William I. Traeger</span> American politician

William Isham Traeger was an American law enforcement official who served as sheriff of Los Angeles County from 1921 to 1932, and went on to serve one term as a United States Representative from California.

Robert Allen Skotheim is an American educator who has served as president of several colleges and institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Dumke</span>

Glenn Schroeder Dumke was an American historian, educator, university president, and chancellor of the California State University system. Dumke was the 6th President of San Francisco State University, serving from 1957 to 1961. He served as the second chancellor of the California State University system from 1962 to 1982, for most of its first twenty years. He developed common standards for the colleges and universities in the system, supported affirmative action to recruit women and minority students, and assisted the establishment of four new campuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Rheinschild</span> American football player and coach (1884–1960)

Walter Meadowfield Rheinschild, known also by the nicknames "Rheiny" and "Rhino", was an American football player and coach. He played for the University of Michigan in 1904, 1905, and 1907, and was once "rated as the highest salaried amateur athlete in the business." He later coached for Washington State University in 1908, St. Vincent's College in 1909, Throop College in 1913, and Occidental College in 1917.

The Southern California Marine Institute (SCMI) is a multi-campus research facility and non-profit oceanographic institution headquartered in Terminal Island, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals</span> Obama administration immigration policy

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, colloquially referred to as DACA, is a United States immigration policy that allows some individuals with unlawful presence in the United States after being brought to the country as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for an employment authorization document in the U.S. To be eligible for the program, recipients cannot have felonies or serious misdemeanors on their records. Unlike the proposed DREAM Act, DACA does not provide a path to citizenship for recipients. The policy, an executive branch memorandum, was announced by President Barack Obama on June 15, 2012. This followed a campaign by immigrants, advocates and supporters which employed a range of tactics. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting applications for the program on August 15, 2012.

In April 2013, Occidental College was one of the first in a series of US higher education institutions to be accused of failing to take campus sex crimes seriously by improperly reporting and adjudicating sexual assaults and covering up rapes. Occidental students and faculty filed two federal complaints against the College, alleging violations of Title IX of the US Education Amendments of 1972 and the Clery Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditions of Pomona College</span> Aspect of Pomona College culture

Numerous traditions have been established at Pomona College, a highly selective liberal arts college in Claremont, California, since its founding in 1887. They have varying levels of popularity, longevity, and institutional recognition. Taken together, they are a significant component of the school's culture and identity, promoting social cohesion among students and other community members.

References

  1. 1 2 "President's Bio" . Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  2. ↑ "About President Elam".
  3. 1 2 3 Gordon, Larry (31 January 2009). "Jonathan Veitch named president of Occidental College". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Edmunds, Susan (Winter 1998). "American Superrealism: Nathanael West and the Politics of Representation in the 1930s (review)". Project MUSE. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  5. 1 2 Ovenshine, Sam (6 December 2011). "President's Day". The Occidental Weekly. Archived from the original on 26 March 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  6. ↑ "The RMR Group Inc. Elects Jonathan Veitch to the Board of Directors". Business Wire. Berkshire Hathaway Company. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  7. ↑ "Jonathan Veitch". Pasadena Educational Foundation. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  8. 1 2 Tokita, Mary. "An Interview With Occidental College President Jonathan Veitch" . Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  9. ↑ Fleischer, Matthew (21 January 2014). "The Weekly Q & A: Occidental President Jonathan Veitch". Pasadena Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  10. ↑ "Occidental College Names Football Stadium After Jack Kemp". CBS Los Angeles. 29 April 2011. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Veitch's Vision Focuses On Occidental's Urban Location - The Occidental". The Occidental. 1 January 2016.
  12. ↑ Gordon, Larry (19 April 2012). "Occidental College to get $5-million donation". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  13. ↑ "Computer Science is the newest major on campus - The Occidental". The Occidental. 17 October 2017.
  14. ↑ "MAC, AHVA split in unanimous vote - The Occidental". The Occidental. 1 March 2016.
  15. ↑ "New music production emphasis could make Occidental a soloist in the symphony of collegiate music programs - The Occidental". The Occidental. 31 October 2017.
  16. ↑ "American Studies professors introduce Black Studies program - The Occidental". The Occidental. 1 November 2016.
  17. ↑ Rees, Brenda (7 January 2013). "Occidental College prepares to plug in to solar power". The Eastsider. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  18. ↑ Anderson, Nick (26 October 2017). "New Occidental College scholarships honor school's most famous student: Barack Obama". Washington Post.
  19. ↑ "College & University Presidents Call for U.S. to Uphold and Continue DACA". Pomona College in Claremont, California - Pomona College. 20 November 2016.
  20. ↑ "Occidental hosts Southern California AICCU symposium - The Occidental". The Occidental. 9 March 2017.
  21. ↑ "WEDDINGS; Sarah Kersh, Jonathan Veitch". New York Times. 20 December 1992. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.