James Young, Class of 2022

As far as liberal arts colleges are concerned, I think Oxy is one of if not the most diverse. That being said, no institution is without its struggles and Oxy is not an exception. Our Black Studies department got off to a rocky start when they were officially founded in 2018 (lack of support for the faculty involved coupled with an administration that didn’t seem to understand the importance of the department), but in recent years they have grown stronger and stronger. As far as student organizations go, I would say that this really is where we excel as a collective. Both the Black men’s organization and the BSA as a whole have a strong presence on campus and that has only gotten stronger since I first started at Oxy in 2018 (which seems to be a trend). For example, on my first day at college, an older Black student came up to me and introduced himself and told me that he would look out for me during the rest of our time here. I like to mention that just to say that we know being Black at a predominantly white institution can be a bit of an alienating feeling, but we really go out of our way to connect with each other.