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“Dr. Stritikus’ demonstrated success in creating an inclusive campus environment, bolstering experiential learning, accelerating financial support for the mission and programs at Fort Lewis and being a consistent advocate for students, faculty, and academic excellence speak well to the alignment of his skills and experience with the needs and opportunities in the Occidental community,” Lisa Link, chair of the college’s Board of Trustees, said in a statement.

In coming to Occidental, Stritikus will head a college significantly different from Fort Lewis.

At Fort Lewis, Stritikus led efforts to reckon with the college’s origins as a Native American boarding school, where about 1,100 children and young people were forcibly separated from their families, stripped of their traditions and made to “assimilate.”

Although one Fort Lewis student leader dismissed Stritikus’ efforts, saying Native American students were “not actually valued,” a board member said the president’s evaluations by students, faculty and staff members were “overwhelmingly positive,” according to a local media report.

Since taking the helm at Fort Lewis in August 2018, Stritikus said he increased private donations from about $3 million annually to $19 million during the first six months alone of the 2023-2024 fiscal year.