The Oberlin Review
<< Front page News October 1, 2004

More Letters to the Editor

AIDS week involvement needed

To the Editors:The Office of Health and Life Skills Education is calling on all interested students to participate on the planning committee for 2004 Oberlin World AIDS Week. Oberlin has had a long and successful history of organizing events to highlight the reality of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the world as well as in our daily lives.In line with the 2004 World AIDS campaign (UNAIDS, United Nations) this year we will focus on HIV/AIDS in women and girls. Interestingly, women run a very high risk of getting infected by HIV from a single contact, compared to men who seem to be less susceptible to single-contact infection. Moreover, in the U.S. alone, heterosexual contact accounts for 68 percent of infected women. The UNAIDS Campaign also focuses on women of color in the U.S. and poor women worldwide. Oftentimes, the increased sexism and patriarchy in their environments don’t ensure the right of choice about sexual practices.This committee also proposes that our campaign broadens to include issues of woman-to-woman transmission and the risks for transgender people. Because these are often underrepresented in the literature, misconceptions and myths about actual risk prevail.While these are the proposed topics, the final focus of the event is going to very much depend on the actual members of the committee. Therefore, if any of these topics is interesting and important to you, we strongly urge you to become involved with the committee. Please e-mail igor.holas@oberlin.edu or attend our next planning meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 4:30 p.m., Wilder 211.

–Igor Holas, Student HIV/STI Prevention Programs Coordinator, Office of Health and Life Skills Education

When does interest go up to 11 percent?

To the Editors:

In “Money Talks—Saving: the next generation” in the Sept. 24 issue, Joe Collura wrote, “So let’s have some fun. With $600 a year, $600 every following year, at 11 percent interest will equal over $426,000 in 40 years.”

Gosh, that would be fun! I may well fly in from Boston to learn how to take all the money in my savings account, which is currently earning slightly more than two percent interest, and put it somewhere with an interest rate of 11 percent!

(Putting the money in other than a savings account—a mutual fund, for example—doesn’t generate “interest,” so those don’t count.)

–Paul Wilczynski, College sophomore

OC professor critical of College tactics

To the Editors:

For all of us there are revelatory moments, moments when the true nature of something that has been long disguised appears in its true form. That moment has now arrived for me in observing the manner in which Oberlin College treats its poorest and most vulnerable employees. I am frankly disgusted by and ashamed of the negotiating stance taken by the College.

For months now, OCOPE, the white collar union on campus, a union that is 90 percent female, has bargained in good faith with the College. Along the way it has made significant concessions on a whole range of issues and its diligence has saved the College (and all its employees, whether unionized or not) tens of thousands of dollars in healthcare efficiencies. It has never threatened to strike, its rhetoric has been unfailingly polite and accommodative and it has sought little more than to continue talking in order to reach a settlement.

Contrast this with the College. It has issued “take it or leave it” ultimatums, refused to return to the bargaining table for seven weeks, talked up a strike in order to panic faculty, students and union members, never acknowledged the contributions of OCOPE negotiators to reducing our healthcare costs and steadfastly refused to bargain seriously to settle the few differences that remain between the two sides. Tiny sums of money would be required to settle this, but the College would apparently rather buy expensive furnishings and create new administrative positions than reward its employees for their hard work in keeping the college running. The idea that Oberlin College’s budget situation prevents it offering a fair contract to OCOPE is laughable in light of the places where it is willing to spend lavishly.

It is also laughable because the College offered the UAW, a blue collar union that is 60 percent male, better benefits and sizable bonuses, which were not offered to OCOPE, to compensate for the pain of accepting the new healthcare plan. How can Oberlin College, which never misses an opportunity to trumpet its long history of support for women’s rights, justify treating OCOPE this way? It is hard to stomach the sight of the College treating secretaries as second-class citizens and reproducing the macho tactics and tone that we associate with union-busting corporations.

At the end of the day this is not about money; it is an old-fashioned lesson in power, a reminder to poor women not to get uppity and to know their place. The College all but dared these women to walk off their jobs, refusing to make the small gestures that would have been required to reach a settlement, knowing that the financial costs of a strike for people on low incomes (many single mothers worried about losing healthcare coverage for their kids) would sow discord within the union. This is truly sickening and one hopes that the College will at least be consistent and in the future drop the sententious crap about its progressive mission. No amount of minority faculty hires or assorted ethnic and gender studies programs can make up for the most basic violation of respect shown for the poorest and most vulnerable members of our community.

We, by which I mean faculty and students, do not appear to have much influence over those who make policy at Oberlin College. But what we can say, and what we must say, is that this is wrong, that it is contemptible and that it demeans us all. Throughout this whole sorry affair, the only bright spot has been the example provided by the OCOPE members themselves, who have shown us how to act with courage, restraint and dignity. Should it surprise us that we cannot find these qualities in our administration or our trustees, but that we have to look to the poorest among us to find them?

-Chris Howell, Professor of politics

Palestine group not responsible for rock design

To the Editors:

As many students have by now seen, two rocks on Tappan square have been painted with Palestinian flags and slogans in commemoration of the beginning of the second intifada on Sept. 28, 2000. For the record, Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine were not behind this particular exercise. While we welcome any attempt to raise awareness of the Palestinian issue, we feel that this was an inappropriate and ultimately ineffective way to address this sensitive topic.

We feel that writing “Victory to the intafada[sic]” on a rock is an exercise in empty sloganeering, devoid of any useful content that might help educate students on this issue. It is also unlikely to persuade anyone who doesn’t agree with such sentiments already. Given the complexity and sensitivity of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the association—rightly or wrongly—between the term intifada and acts of terrorism that no sane person supports, we believe that it is crucial to engage in awareness-raising activities that don’t involve the kind of sensationalism and provocation we saw in this incident. Obviously, we feel that there is another perspective on this debate—one that does not see intifada as a dirty word—that is not given sufficient attention in the United States. However, it is SFP’s belief that meaningful dialogue and interaction with students, not inflammatory and confrontational tactics, are the best way to bring that perspective to the student body’s attention.

We hope that in the future, students will engage with this issue by going to meetings, attending events held by various groups and ultimately developing informed opinions. SFP’s mission as a Palestine solidarity group is to raise awareness of the Palestinian perspective on the conflict, a mission that is crucial due to the bias and under-reporting it receives in the United States. Currently, the bulk of our efforts are aimed at bringing speakers and holding a film series to educate about the conflict and Palestinian/Arab culture and the campaign to divest Oberlin’s funds from Israel’s military in order to exert pressure toward ending Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. For more information on what SFP is doing and what stands for, please visit our website:http://www.oberlin.edu/~sfp.

-Ryan Batjiaka, College sophomoreStudents for a Free Palestine

College told: It’s not easy being “green”

To the Editors:

Oberlin College and the city of Oberlin have recently entered into an agreement in which the College will purchase from the City green tags for approximately 13,200 MWh of electric energy. This represents all of the green energy from the city’s electric portfolio. I write to comment on this arrangement.

In addition to having our own town power plant, Oberlin Municipal Power and Light (OMPL) is a part owner (through AMP-Ohio) of other power generating facilities around the state. These include coal plants, a hydroelectric dam, and now the wind turbines located in Bowling Green. Roughly 17 percent of the power-generating facilities that we own generate green power (dams, wind, etc.). The energy produced by these plants is more expensive than that produced by the usual dirty coal plants. The additional cost varies but, on average, OMPL customers pay about one cent more per kWh for this electricity in order to support these green power-generating facilities.

Many Obies, including those who manage OMPL, believe then that 17 percent of their electric energy is green. This is false. Every kWh of energy sold to OMPL customers at this point in time is as dirty as the coal that generates 89 percent of Ohio’s electric energy. The reason for this is that OMPL has sold off the “green tags” for its 17 percent green energy to a company called Green Mountain Energy. For 0.2 cents per kWh (just one-fifth of what it really costs us) we have sold off the legal right to the energy green to someone else. Green Mountain Energy then sells electric power generated from its dirty plants combined with our green tags to their customers and calls the energy green! Customers around the country who are obligated by law to buy some amount of green energy use this kind of scheme to satisfy the requirement. This scheme allows, for instance, investor-owned utilities that would otherwise be forced to pay the full cost of acquiring green power generation to satisfy their legal requirements by only paying a fraction of the true cost of green energy. And, like it or not, this leaves our power 100 percent dirty! Like Esau in the Biblical story, we have sold off our birthright for nothing more than a bowl of pottage. OMPL customers pay the full cost to support green energy generation but let the green value slip away for a 20 cents on the dollar.

What the new agreement with Oberlin College means is that no longer will Green Mountain Energy purchase these tags—they will be purchased by Oberlin College. This is an important move, because Oberlin College will be spending $27,000 that it did not have to pay for these green tags. And, it is a good deal for Oberlin College because it buys the green label for just 20 percent of the true cost of the green energy. And it is marginally better for the world, because now Green Mountain Energy has to find a replacement for these green tags—and presumably this will eventually result in the production of more green energy. But it is cost-neutral for the City because no new revenue is generated (Green Mountain was paying the $27,000 before)— though it does mean that someone local is getting the benefit.

I am in favor of green energy and am willing to pay more to support it. But I am offended that I pay 80 percent of the cost of green energy while someone like Green Mountain Energy or Oberlin College reaps all the benefits! I would be willing to pay the 0.2 cents/kWh more myself to actually receive the green energy that I subsidize. Why should OMPL customers pay most of the costs so that someone else can enjoy the benefits? The bottom line is this: OMPL customers are paying about $135,000 extra for the 13,200 MWh of the green electricity that we are getting yet we are selling the entire green value of this to someone else for a measly $27,000.

So, this agreement with the College is marginally better for the City in that one OMPL customer will receive the green benefit of the town’s green investments. But I think this scheme is inherently flawed and all of the OMPL customers who pay for the generation of green energy should receive the green benefits. I would urge the city council and our utility commission to rethink this policy and stop selling green tags.

And while I applaud Oberlin College for this modest move towards green energy, I urge the College to go all the way and pay the full cost of the green energy, not just purchase the subsidized tags.

– John Scofield, Professor of physics

Sexual assault services available for students

To the Editors:

The Lorain County Rape Crisis Center offers the following resources to anyone in need of sexual assault support services:

24-hour hotline response (1-800-888-6161) (Ask for rape crisis on-call advocate)

Sexual Assault Care Unit—collection of evidence

Legal Advocacy

Child Advocacy

One-on-one support and education to survivors of sexual assault/abuse

One-on-one support and education to significant others of survivors

Curriculum based support and education group

Community education

All services provided at Nord Rape Crisis follow the rape crisis model of support and education and the belief and focus that all sexual abuse is about power and control, and is, therefore, examined first and foremost as a crime of violence. Furthermore, services are free and anonymous. A Nord Rape Crisis Advocate has office hours on campus in Wilder 301 the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, from 1-3 p.m. You do not need an appointment—just stop by.

The Nord Rape Crisis Center also trains and utilizes volunteers both for community education and to answer the hotline. Hotline volunteers have been, and are currently, Oberlin College students, Lorain County residents, people of color, people interested in the justice system, bilingual people and LGBT persons.

If you have any questions about Nord Rape Crisis Services, please contact Kay Jones, Crisis Advocate, at imagineyou@hotmail.com.

– Lori K. Morgan Flood, Assistant Dean/Director of Health & Life Skills Education

Alumni president chides Review over coverage

To the Editors:

As the former chair of the Oberlin College Alumni Association’s Awards Committee, I was extremely disappointed with The Oberlin Review’s story on the recent visit to campus by my classmate Bill Schulz OC ’71. Your reporter failed to note in her story the reason why Schulz was back on campus, namely, to receive the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award. That award was specifically designed to be more than something that the Alumni Association does to honor the recipients. The award’s criteria require that the recipient must be available to come to campus to receive the award and engage with current faculty, students and staff in an appropriate manner. To fail to note the real reason Schultz was back on campus was sloppy reporting. He did not just decide to show up as part of a book tour.

Beyond my concern about the Schulz story, your Sept. 17 issue does not contain any information about Alumni Council Weekend, an event that takes place each September and brings back to campus the entire alumni leadership group. Alumni work in countless ways for the long-term institutional benefit of Oberlin College and for the immediate benefit of the current student body.

For example, the Career Services Committee of the Alumni Association has worked extremely hard with the campus career services staff to put on programs that bring together alumni with current students for mentoring and career development interaction. During this year’s Alumni Council Weekend, as in the past, a large number of current students had dinner and a chance to network with alumni in a broad variety of careers. You would never know about this event from reading the Review.

I hope that in the future there will be better coverage in the Review of the many Alumni Association sponsored activities on campus and recognition of the individuals and groups that put these programs together.

–Wendell P. Russell, Jr. OC ’71 President-Elect, Oberlin College Alumni Association
 
 

   

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