Several meetings among faculty, administration and students have been held to further discuss reactions to the Tribe 8 concert.
Some faculty and administrators were concerned that steps be taken to create regulations for future performances at Oberlin. Other faculty members and students believe that possible regulations could risk censoring performances and other Oberlin activities such as Drag Ball and theater and dance performances.
The Oct. 28 concert, reviewed in the Nov. 1 issue of the Review, featured the lesbian punk band Tribe 8. Toward the end of the show, lead singer Lynn Breedlove took off her shirt and exposed a dildo from her pants. The Review ran a photo of the topless Breedlove holding a bowie knife near the dildo along with another photo and the concert review.
After reading the concert review, faculty, students and staff voiced some concern over the contents of the show. Those who voiced concern did not attend the concert.
Rumors have spread through the faculty and staff that Breedlove actually dismembered the dildo with the knife during the concert. Those beliefs were fueled by the picture of Breedlove holding the knife near the dildo.
Although the dildo was not actually dismembered, many still remain offended by the content of the show, and believe that the show was sexually offensive.
Dean of Student Life and Services Charlene Cole-Newkirk said that from the photo printed in the Review she "got the image of sexual violence." She and others assumed "something happened related to the knife," said Cole-Newkirk.
The Sexual Offense Resource Committee (SORC) met Tuesday to talk about the concert and whether it could legally be prosecuted as a sexual offense.
President Nancy Dye met with Cole-Newkirk, Associate Dean Joe DiChristina and other administrators to review the concert and prepare for future performances.
Dye has also met with Chris Baymiller, assistant director of Student Union, and the Student Union staff to discuss what appropriate action should be taken in future events. Some students and faculty are concerned that Baymiller will be held responsible for the contents of the show and lose his job.
Students have organized several meetings to discuss general concerns. They have addressed the possibility that Baymiller could lose his job, as well as broader issues concerning censorship of art and performances on campus.
Dye, Cole-Newkirk and other faculty members attended a private meeting about planning for future concerts and performances. DiChristina said that the meetings were not held to construct concrete rules and regulations, but to discuss future procedures.
DiChristina said that the point of the meetings was not to "point fingers" and assign blame, but that Dye and Cole-Newkirk were "collecting data" and "providing guiding thought."
Cole-Newkirk said they had an attorney coming in to look at the College's general policies and procedures. The attorney will also review them in light of the Tribe 8 concert.
"What we're talking about here," said DiChristina, "is doing some double-checking on bands before they come [concerning] behavior we expect and don't expect."
The group discussed the educational purpose of programs and concerts held at the 'Sco and other places on campus. The intent is to "respect everyone's opinions," said DiChristina. He is one of many faculty who feel that the creation of regulations is not art censorship.
"I don't feel it is [art censorship] to give guidelines to a performer. When performers are on stage, there are lines they shouldn't cross," said DiChristina.
"It's not censoring, it's letting [the performers] know it's our institution," he said, adding that Oberlin has its own specifications as to what is and is not appropriate at a performance.
Several students and faculty feel that implications from the discussion and meetings will affect more than just performances at the 'Sco. The possible formation of performance regulations could possibly cross the line into art censorship. Over fifty people, both students and faculty, attended a meeting in Wilder Wednesday night to discuss their concerns.
Students at the meeting did not like the fact that the administration was handling the issue without student input. They were against what they termed the "behind the scenes" approach that Dye and others were taking concerning the decision-making process.
"Whether or not [Dye] lays out a decency law, the damage has been done," said one student. The fear among students and some faculty is that even if nothing is written down as law, the repercussions from the Tribe 8 show will still affect the way Concert Board and other organizations plan events.
Decisions to regulate future concerts would possibly affect productions other than those at the 'Sco. Many of the people at the meeting were concerned that other events such as Safer Sex Night, Drag Ball and theater productions such as Equus would be eliminated or altered to fit the new sexual offence policy if one were created.
At the SORC meeting, members discussed both the school policy and state law. Both state that "that if a workplace or educational environment is threatening or offensive, that would constitute sexual harrasment," said Associate Professor of Politics Chris Howell, who is also co-chair of SORC.
In the meeting, SORC concluded that "in no way was what appeared to happen an offense of sexual policy," said Howell. "This is way, way over on the side of free speech," said Howell.
Theater professor Roger Copeland was one of the faculty members in attendance at the Wilder meeting. As a former member of a panel of the National Endowment for the Arts, he worked extensively with issues of art censorship and obscenity.
He said that the legal precedent was set in the 1973 Supreme Court case Miller v. California, which created a series of tests that a work had to fail in order to qualify as legally obscene.
That precedent has protected works such as Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs in the Cincinatti Museum of Art, which some people found disturbing or offensive. A panel of people was elected from the community to decide whether the photographs were legally offensive, and the decision was that the photographs were not obscene.
Copeland also said that most art critics, curators and scholars decide what art is on its "art context" - where they rely on the context a piece is in to tell if it is art or not. That way, a piece of art is protected by the place where it is shown.
"The Disco is a performance place," said Copeland. "No one who knows anything about the law would think [the Tribe 8 concert] could be prosecuted."
People at the Wilder meeting organized a petition that supported Baymiller and the capability of the Student Union to book future concerts. They also formed groups to write letters to Dye and the Review which would formally state their concerns. Protests were discussed but no definite action was decided upon.
The matter will be brought up at the Nov. 19 General Faculty meeting as well as several other meeting on campus. A general interest meeting for administration, faculty and students will be held Sunday at 10 p.m. in Wilder TBA.
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