The Oberlin Review
<< Front page News April 8, 2005

Site criticizes plan
Online magazine takes aim at Oberlin planning

Seniors can frequently be overheard griping Oberlin just isn’t the same as it was when they were first-years. Now they have a credited news source to back up their claims.
Related link:
Liberal Arts and Not So Liberal Economics, Inside Higher Ed

On March 17, academic news website insidehighered.com ran an article about the implications of the College’s recent strategic plan adoption. “Liberal Arts and Not So Liberal Economics,” written by co-editor and co-founder of the site Scott Jaschik, addresses Oberlin’s budget plight of the last several years and examines the administration’s plan of action to create financial stability.

Jaschik opened his piece by acknowledging the fact that Oberlin is “justifiably proud of its academic reputation, with a top-notch liberal arts college and a world famous conservatory of music.” He also praised the College’s classically forward-thinking and liberal traditions.

However, Jaschik went on to report that members of the larger higher education community are beginning to feel Oberlin’s quality has been slipping in the recent past.

Jaschik cited the College’s difficulty attracting students accepted to a similarly reputable institution as one possible indication of the alleged diminution.

“Oberlin likes to think of itself as among the nation’s top colleges, but it also released its disappointing ‘win rates’ against some other top liberal arts colleges,” he stated. Win rates are the rate at which students choose a college over peer institutions. Oberlin rates 25 percent against Wesleyan, 37 percent against Vassar, 41 percent against Carleton and 42 percent against Grinnell.

Michael London, founder of private admissions service College Coach, stated in the article, “Vassar is an A- [high school average], 1400 SAT school and Wesleyan is a little higher than that, and Oberlin is more of a B+ 1300 school. They may be guilty of thinking that they are stronger than they are.”

And due to the fact that the bulk of the strategic plan concentrates on means to amend academic quality, Jaschik asserts the College is of the same opinion. “To read the plan, it seems that Oberlin agrees,” he said.

However, the article also suggests that perhaps academics aren’t the problem. Joan Casey, another admissions counselor interviewed by Jaschik, stated her belief that Oberlin’s geographical location, essentially “in the middle of nowhere,” is the factor most detrimental to its win rates and prospective students’ decisions regarding where they will attend.

Yet whatever the reason, Oberlin is planning in the foreseeable future to finance a boost it feels is necessary in the College’s overall quality, outlined by the strategic plan.

Oberlin isn’t the only institution facing tight economics while simultaneously looking to maintain its reputation. Many other schools are facing budget crises as well. “The financial issues at Oberlin are not unique,” Jaschik told the Review. “It’s tough to be a good liberal arts college. You just don’t get the donations that other places get. It’s challenging.”

The strategic plan suggests generating funds largely through hiking tuition revenues. African American Studies professor James Millette was interviewed by Jaschik regarding the possibility of this decision. Millette stated in the piece that he worries the plan has the potential to homogenize Oberlin’s classically diverse student body.

“We’re going to be getting more kids from the wealthy suburbs and diminishing opportunities for African Americans and for those who are late bloomers,” he said.

“I thought it was a good, well-balanced article,” Millette stated of Jaschik’s report. “It knew a lot more about Oberlin than I thought it might.”

President Nancy Dye, however, disagreed.

“The article was very, very unfortunate because it relied on highly confidential information that was clearly given to this new publication by people on campus, or somebody on campus, and this was information that anybody would recognize as the kind of information that might be communicated on campus but should not go off campus,” she stated. “So I thought it a most unfortunate occurrence. I find it quite distressing.”

Dye also expressed frustration at what she believed were inaccuracies in the depiction of the strategic plan.

“The discussion of the strategic plan in the article was so incoherent that I have no comments on it at all to its criticisms,” she said.

Despite disputes regarding the validity of the claims reported by Inside Higher Ed., perhaps the more pressing issue facing the Oberlin community is, does the strategic plan have the power to achieve the goals the College hopes it will if it is carried out?

Strategic planning is not a process unique to Oberlin, but a fairly common exercise among educational institutions everywhere. And the 2005 plan is not the first the College has authored.

In 1996 Oberlin wrote a long-term planning document entitled “Broad Directions for Oberlin’s Future” which articulated the administration’s hopes for the latter half of the 90’s and early 2000’s. This report, like its current descendant, was somewhat controversial and many of the criticisms expressed regarding the 2005 strategic plan echo those voiced of the ’96 plan.

Chuckie Kamm, a student senator at the time, described it as a “wishy-washy Nirvana document.” Others communicated frustration that it didn’t specify priorities or how its goals would be realized.

Millette expressed concern that many of the aims listed in “Broad Directions for Oberlin’s Future” never came to fruition and are merely being restated in the current plan.

“I’m reasonably certain we are repeating some of the aspirations of years past because they haven’t been fulfilled yet,” he told the Review. “I think a useful exercise would be to see what you’ve achieved [since the last plan] and have critical review of what was not. What happened to the last plan should be a guide for the new.”
 
 

   


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