Oberlin College News & Features

Corrections and Clarifications of Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial
On September 21, the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran an editorial, "Decisions to make at Oberlin," addressing Oberlin College President Nancy S. Dye's announced retirement and the future of the College itself. The editorial contained a number of inaccuracies. Below is an annotated response to some of those points.
September 21, 2006

Squeezed between an increasingly restive faculty and unrelenting economic pressures1, Oberlin College President Nancy Dye will step down this summer.

Her departure will bring to a close a 12-year tenure marked by impressive new construction, record application numbers and a growing concern that the institution risked losing its soul in the struggle to maintain economic viability. At the same time, it challenges trustees, alumni and faculty to change their focus from Dye's own performance to the broader future of the school.

Oberlin has a rich history as a progressive campus committed to racial and economic diversity. It granted the first baccalaureate awards given to women in the United States and distinguished itself by enrolling and graduating large numbers of black students in the second half of the 19th century. More recently, the college has become known for sending a significant portion of its alumni higher in academia2; in fact, for several years the school has ranked first in the country for the number of undergraduates who go on to earn doctorates.

Of late, however, Oberlin has been hamstrung by its own success. Jobs as professors and musicians may be professionally rewarding, but seldom provide the kinds of compensation required to swell the alma mater's coffers3. At the same time, enrolling impressive percentages of low-income students requires the college to tap more funds for aid, placing an even greater strain on the institution's overall budget. Operating deficits have been common4 despite Dye's massive fund-raising, forcing the college to adopt a strategic plan5 in 2005 that called for reducing enrollment by 163 students and cutting the faculty size by seven6. The plan also sought to maintain the number of students who pay full tuition, which meant the school would enroll fewer who required financial assistance.

Some considered these moves a betrayal of the college's history, while others complained that Dye had not been collaborative enough. It didn't help that earlier budget constraints prompted the university to lay off some support staff even as Dye collected substantial raises. More recently, the college abruptly suspended its program in London7 - a move that angered faculty members as much for the absence of consultation in the making of the decision. Last spring, the trustees hired a consultant to evaluate Dye, but then limited the evaluation to an oral report to a small subgroup of the board8. Finally, this month, 67 faculty members sent an e-mail to the trustees calling upon the board to select a new president.

An Oberlin spokesman said Dye's decision was unrelated to the faculty e-mail, and in fact predated it by several weeks. It's clear, however, that the popularity she enjoyed earlier in her time on campus had waned.

From this point on, the Oberlin community no longer can blame Dye for every disappointment. To attract the kind of president the institution needs to prosper, constituents must come together to forge a common vision for Oberlin's future9. No matter who next leads Oberlin, ambitions will outstrip resources. The challenge is to find balance while keeping fealty to the values that have made Oberlin so special for so very long.

1. Oberlin College faces the same economic pressures all colleges and universities face in working to keep higher education accessible to young Americans across the socioeconomic spectrum at a time when the costs of providing an excellent education continue to rise far faster than the consumer price index. Oberlin has developed a five-year financial plan that will put the College on firm footing to achieve financial sustainability. The plan enables the College to secure a revenue stream adequate to meet the ongoing operational and capital needs of an institution devoted to academic and artistic excellence, to balance revenues and objectives, and to improve its relative financial standing among comparable institutions.

2. Many Oberlin graduates become scholars, scientists, and musicians. We are proud that Oberlin has produced more Ph.D.’s than any other predominantly undergraduate institution in the United States. At the same time, we are proud of the many Oberlin graduates who are innovators and leaders in business and finance (In Cleveland, e.g., Stewart Kohl, Managing General Partner of The Riverside Company, and John Koch, President and CEO of Charter One Bank). Many Oberlin graduates can be found in the ranks of distinguished lawyers and jurists, physicians and surgeons, journalists, and every other learned profession. Many others have distinguished themselves in the arts.

3. Oberlin recently completed the largest capital campaign in the College’s history, exceeding by 10 million its goal of $165 million. The tremendous success of the campaign provided a significant boost to student scholarships, faculty support, and new facilities including a $65 million science center.

4. Oberlin has not ended a fiscal year with an operating deficit since 1973. During the years of President Dye’s tenure, the College ended every year with a small budgetary surplus. Compared to regional and most national colleges and universities, Oberlin has an enviable financial profile, as indicated by its AA bond rating and its endowment that has grown from $260 million to $700 million during Dye’s presidency.

5. Faculty, trustees, and administrators developed and adopted its strategic plan with the goal of preserving and enhancing Oberlin’s mission and standing among institutions of American higher education in an extremely competitive environment. A central feature of the plan calls for making Oberlin modestly smaller in size. If an institution were in financial distress it would not decrease its largest revenue source—tuition. The decision was made to reduce enrollment to improve access to classes and return Oberlin to the same size it was in the early 1990s.

6. To make Oberlin smaller, the student body is being reduced by 176 students to reach a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,720. Also part of the plan to reduce Oberlin’s size is the reduction of 12 faculty positions (5 in the Conservatory of Music and 7 in the College of Arts and Sciences) which will be achieved through attrition. At the end of this process, Oberlin’s current student-faculty ratio will be maintained. The effort to make Oberlin a bit smaller will help the College strengthen its financial sustainability in the years ahead.

7. The Dannenberg Oberlin-in-London Program was suspended, but was revived one year later as a partnership with Grinnell College providing new opportunities and more options for students along with new facilities and greater financial stability.

8. The consultant’s information was included, together with the views of trustees, in an oral report that was presented to, and discussed with, the entire Board of Trustees at its June meeting.

9. Oberlin has an overwhelmingly unified Board of Trustees and faculty that are both focused on fortifying the College’s future. The strategic plan, which charts a course that will strengthen Oberlin's academic program and ensure the College's financial sustainability, was approved unanimously by trustees, and by the faculty by a vote of 170-33 with two abstentions.