The Oberlin Review
<< Front page News April 7, 2006

This Week in Oberlin History

Spring: the season of love, sunshine, blooming flowers, TGIF on Wilder Bowl...and coconut cream pies? Apparently the covert society of militant Oberlin activists thought so when they barraged the Board of Trustees with them during an open forum. Intrigued? So were we.

–The News Team

Oberlin in History
April 7, 1978

Three students disguised in ski masks and hats entered an open forum of the Board of Trustees last night, threw pies at the trustees and fled.

One student, senior Mark E. Kirby, was accosted near the King Building and later charged with disorderly conduct and assault. Another student was tackled outside the meeting but escaped.

At his arraignment this morning, Kirby entered a plea of not guilty on both counts. He is free on $1100 bond. The two other students were still at large as of noon today.

None of the trustees was struck directly by the coconut cream pies, though one was splattered, college officials report.

Positive identification of two or three assailants was made by Dean of Students George Langeler. Langeler asked bystanding students to confirm the names of the attackers by identifying photographs taken from the files in the Dean’s office. Neither police nor college officials would release any of the names except Kirby’s.

Langeler indicated that the students would be subject to both municipal prosecution and College disciplinary action.

A communique found at the scene of the pie-throwing identifies the group responsible as the Leon Czologosz Commando Squad of the Oberlin section of the Direct Action Bridge.

The paper states that the “essential nature of our action is symbolic; its attempt bring to the forefront the issue of student powerlessness.”

While several of the Trustees were visibly shaken by the incident, the discussion, which centered primarily on South African corporate divestment, and the Long Range Plan, resumed almost immediately.

The Trustees viewed the disruption as the work of just a few individuals, according to Robert Haslun, assistant to the president for external and student affairs. Because of this, Haslun did not see the incident as jeopardizing future Trustee forums.


 
 
   

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