Occidental College President Harry J. Elam Jr. announced on Tuesday, Aug. 22, his plans to retire due to a recent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
“Please know that I am doing well, with excellent medical care and a strong support system,” he wrote in a letter to students. “But in order to prioritize my health and time with family, I have made the difficult decision not to serve the final (2024-25) year of my five-year term as President.”
Elam joined Occidental in 2020, coming from Stanford University where he was vice provost for undergraduate education and oversaw nearly all the university’s programs, policies and more than 7,000 undergraduate students.
Bill Davis, the founding president of KPCC and an Occidental alumnus, wrote in an email on Wednesday to Southern California News Group that the “unfortunate diagnosis for President Elam will have a profound impact on Occidental College.”
Davis added, “I’m sure I speak for all the alumni when I say that we all support President Elam’s difficult decision and wish the best for him, his family, and his health care going forward.”
Starting in 2017, Elam served as Stanford’s first vice president for the arts, heading the Bing Concert Hall and the Cantor Art Museum. And as senior vice provost for education he oversaw the Haas Center for Public Service.
Also at Stanford he launched the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, a summer bridge program for first-year students from under-resourced high schools, and he created a program for students of color who were pursuing graduate degrees in STEM, according to Occidental’s website.
Elam, who for many years was a professional theater director, earned his doctorate degree in the dramatic arts at UC Berkeley and authored and co-edited seven books, including the award-winning The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson, along with dozens of articles.
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