We Oberlin students have had a lot to say in the past several months. We've spoken out against violence. We've said Oberlin's student health services are inadequate. We've said we value the Expository Writing program. We've asked to be allowed to opt out of dissecting in biology classes. We've asked for safe transportation to and from campus at night. We've again called for the creation of an Asian-American studies program.
We've shown each other that we're committed and concerned. But it might not look that way to the Board of Trustees, the body that controls Oberlin's purse strings and looks out for its future. The Board is currently in town, mostly to approve the guidelines for next year's budget. But that's not all it's doing. Thursday night, the Board hosted an open forum, designed for students and trustees to swap ideas. It seemed a grand opportunity for us to tell the Trustees what matters to us. Instead, we told them absolutely nothing.
It was a dismal gathering; just two of them showed up. And besides the reporter the Review sent, none of us went. It's a sad thing that for all the ideas we toss around and all the convictions we have, we aren't willing to give up an hour or two of a Thursday night to tell people who can do something with our ideas.
Granted, the forum was not well advertised and granted, not enough trustees showed up. But if we care about what we say we care about, we should be going out of our way to find out when the forums will be held and we should turn out in force to speak up for our beliefs. We should seek trustees and tell them what's on our mind at every chance and especially when they have a forum designed to give us a chance at them.
Sure, if we showed up in force with a list of demands, the trustees probably wouldn't change their agenda to satisfy us. In fact, they might ridicule us. But when we don't show up at all, they don't have a gauge of how serious we are. Yes, the trustees receive the Review, which attempts to deal with the issues on the minds of students, and student senators make reports to the Board, but none of us wants the Review and the student senate to be the sole links between ourselves and the Board. And we blew our chance for the spring.
We all know how serious we are, but we're the only ones who know. We've got to tell them. When the Board comes back in October, its forum should not have such a dismal turnout. We need to get there and speak our minds because we have a lot to say.
We sometimes say the trustees don't care about us, as if the Board is comprised of an anonymous "them" out there, far removed from everything. We should shoulder part of the blame for their seeming removed. We've helped remove them. And we lead them to believe we don't care about anything.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 17; March 8, 1996
Contact Review webmaster with suggestions or comments at ocreview@www.oberlin.edu.
Contact Review editorial staff at oreview@oberlin.edu.