Diversity concerns overdue, other letters

To the Editors:

Recent letters from faculty members to the Review regarding the future of affirmative action and human resources at Oberlin College were disturbing. I applaud the concern of these faculty members but I am amazed at the delinquency of their reaction.

I held the position of associate director of human resources and AFFIRMATIVE ACTION OFFICER at Oberlin for several years, until my position was “eliminated” in 1996. I was told, by Ruth Spencer ironically, that my position was chopped based upon the formula, Salary + Benefits = amount designated for H.R. budget reduction. That was the “respectable standard” by which the course of my career was changed.

As affirmative action officer and associate director of human resources, I handled my responsibilities with integrity and commitment. There was a definite process for the filling of all job vacancies and faculty and administrators had to justify the hiring of white males over qualified females and members of other protected classes. Yet when I departed no one questioned, “Who will be the affirmative action officer, or what will happen to those responsibilities?” Can it really be true that in the nine years that I have been gone no one has known who killed Cock Robin? Was I less visible or important, or more expendable because I am white? Who, other than me, was worried about affirmative action when the Grim Reaper of Downsizing cast his shadow on my position?

To my knowledge, Ruth Spencer was never Oberlin’s affirmative action officer. Camille Hamlin Allen, assistant to the president for equity concerns, assumed my affirmative action responsibilities, sources told me. All one has to do is consult the Oberlin College directory to see where responsibility for Oberlin’s affirmative action plan is housed! The fact that at least some members of the College community, perhaps many, perhaps all, do not know that Ms. Allen assumed those duties, not Ruth Spencer, is distressing. Maybe this is owing to Ms. Mitchell’s skill at performing her duties so skillfully that her efforts are invisible. Or maybe Oberlin just “paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

As affirmative action officer, I reported to President Dye, yet she never spoke to me about the pseudo elimination of this half of my position. Reassigning duties does not eliminate them (Labor Law 101). The affirmative action report that I prepared annually for the President and for presentation to the Board of Trustees, and which is called for in the affirmative action plan, fell by the wayside for several years until one astute trustee recollected that no one had seen such a report “in a long time.” This awakening prompted the appearance of a hastily constructed report from Mary Tvaroha, who also was never the affirmative action officer, but has survived two attacks on human resources.

I am annoyed that no one worried about the fate of affirmative action at Oberlin College until an African-American woman left. Ain’t I a woman too? Moreover, why has the affirmative action plan been ignored? Has General Faculty allowed the usurpation of a governing document that only it has the right to change or abolish?

Faculty members, you have the power to demand accountability about affirmative action at Oberlin, and you have the responsibility to inform yourselves about its history, the text of the Plan and its mandates, which include the position of affirmative action officer. I hope that you will seek this knowledge and find answers. When you do, I hope you realize that this white woman cared about affirmative action, too.

–Sue E. Bommer

To the Editors:

(Disclaimer: I am writing this letter as a student, not on behalf of Senate.)

In an editorial two weeks ago, the Oberlin Review raised questions about the legitimacy of Student Senate. While I agree that serious work is needed, I dispute the suggestion that there is anything corrupt or illegitimate about this semester’s Senate. The Review begins by reminding us of past mistakes during elections and referenda, especially last spring. In an institution with as little collective memory as Oberlin, such reminders are important. However, we must remember that Student Senate is composed of individuals, of senators. Not one member of the current Senate was on Senate at the time of either of these past scandals, as all of those senators have either resigned or not been re-elected. If that is not an example of the student body using their power to hold senators accountable for their actions, then I don’t know what is. And in that light, I think the Review’s characterizations are unfounded and shameful.

In the coming months and years, there will be major changes on this campus. Students must involve themselves in this process or risk being marginalized. Student Senate wants your support and wants to hear your voice. Although Senate is but one of the many avenues through which students can call for and create change, it is one of the most effective. The institutionalization of student voices in the form of Senate ensures that student causes are consistently advocated for, not just ignored and sidestepped until students graduate or forget.

We all agree that mistakes were made in the February election. However, Senate is working hard to correct them and also taking new steps to become as open and communicative as possible with the student body. I think students can already see some of these changes, and the rest will be clear later this semester, when the Spring Referendum is held. In fact, you’ll be able to vote on them. Really, it boils down to this: there has been no conspiracy to seize power or change the school, just a bunch of normal students making honest mistakes.

Contrast this with the openness of our administration. Over the past few years, we have seen many scandals, which burn so clearly in our minds that I need not list them all here. Every week brings new revelations of how little we really know about what is going on behind the scenes at our school. Yet no one has been held accountable. There has been no change of course and no real transparency of decision-making or finances. Without Student Senate or the General Faculty, the aggrandizement of power in one branch of our college would be unchecked.

For me, that knowledge is a constant remember of why I ran for Senate in the first place. When it comes to the future of this college, whom do you trust?

–Marshall Duer-Balkind
College junior
Student Senator

To the Editor:

Where does our food come from? How much of the food we eat in the co-ops and in the College dining halls is made up of fresh, delicious produce, cheese, milk, eggs and meat from the surrounding Ohio farmland? Does it matter where our food is grown and how far it travels before landing on our plates?

As OSCA’s Local Food Coordinators and organizers of this exciting conference, we would like to invite you to join us for a unique forum on the role of local food in Oberlin. Taking place in the Cat in the Cream on Saturday, April 9 at 3 p.m., the forum will include a panel of farmers, distributors, students and CDS employees who will each offer a unique perspective on the role of local foods in Oberlin, followed by a lively discussion and a fantastically delicious, free local meal.

Brad Masi, Oberlin grad, visiting professor and co-founder of the Northeast Ohio Foodshed Network, will offer the opening address. We are also very lucky to have Amish farmer, author and local foods activist David Kline to present the closing address.

For more details about the schedule of events, see Oberlin’s online calendar and keep an eye out for posters and brochures.

–Claire Cheney
College sophomore
–Kevin Herschman
College junior
–Allison Shauger
College senior

An open letter to the student body:

I am running the Oberlin portion of a national campaign to lower the prices of textbooks. The average student in America spends around $900 per year on textbooks, which at state schools can be equal to 20 percent of their tuition. Textbook publishers charge students in the UK and the Middle East 80 percent of what they charge us, and they publish unnecessary new editions of their books with only minor changes in order to quash the used book market for their old editions. We seek to change their habits.

Next week the campaign is putting together a photo gallery of pictures of old, useless textbooks being used for anything but their intended purpose, and we are asking any students on campus to either send a picture or e-mail us and we’ll come take a picture. You know the book you bought for $110 last year that you can’t sell for even $30 because they put out a new edition that you’re using to prop up the window? We want a picture of that. Or the collection of old books you used to raise your bed the critical extra two inches? We want a picture of that. Have a truckload at home? Bring them when you come back from spring break. If you have books that you can’t sell for the paper it’s printed on, we will take them for future publicity events. E-mail opirg@oberlin.edu.

Also, check out the national PIRG solution for local campus book-swaps made easy at www.CampusBookSwap.org.

–James Ashenhurst
College senior

To the Editors:

You probably already know about the renter’s handbook stored behind the desk in Wilder. It’s the most comprehensive source of information on off-campus rental housing and landlords, with addresses, contact numbers, brief descriptions and feedback from past student tenants. But not only is the book getting old, it fails to serve the needs of the non-student renting population! You can help PIRG and the Low-Income Housing ExCo update and expand the book by completing a quick survey online www.oberlinrentbook.org or on paper starting March 21 at the Wilder Main desk. Then, look for the new and improved renter’s handbook this spring. Your help is much appreciated!

–Jeff Conor
College sophomore
OPIRG
–Isabel Call
College senior
Low-Income Housing ExCo
–Jen Mellen
College senior
Low-Income Housing ExCo
 
 

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