Students involved in college finances

Students are diving into the College's financial agenda as groups of students plan to meet to discuss the College's investment policy and its financial aid system.

Junior Ramy Khalil, a member of the Oberlin Socialist Student Union, is a member of the group who plans to hold a campus-wide meeting to discuss the problems of rising tuition and financial aid.

He forsees a panel of students, President Nancy Dye and minority recruiters, among others, to field questions on the topic. Dye is unable to meet with the group until May as she is too busy, said Khalil.

"We've been doing research all semester as to why Oberlin got rid of the need-blind campaign and thought the College had to make Financial Aid a higher priority in the budget," Khalil said.

"After doing some research, we think the administration isn't lying when they say they're giving more money to financial aid than in the past," Khalil said. He also realizes rising tuition is a problem many instiutions face, largely as a result of the federal government's reduction of the education budget.

The Union wants to have a discussion with the President's office about the possibility of contacting governments at all levels: local, state and federal.

"The only realistic method of making education more democratic is for there to be free higher education," Khalil said, citing Canada and some European countries as examples.

"We're interested in this because the expense of education is inherently undemocratic, unjust and unfair," Khalil said.

Senior Noah Bunce is looking to make the College's investments more socially responsible.

Because the College invests in corporations such as Texaco and PepsiCola, companies that had companies in Burma and used child labor, Bunce "feels guilty."

While those two companies no longer have branches in Burma, Vice President of Finance Andy Evans said the College came to the decision to divest from those companies, but the companies divested before the College had a chance to take that action.

"I don't know where to stand on the issue [of child labor]," Evans said. "I don't think you can apply Western standards to a situation like that."

"The College's position is morally indefensible," Bunce said.

Bunce did some research to find out what companies the College did invest in, and feels the only way to stop companies from using cruel and morally irresponsible labor is for the College to divest from theses companies. He feels once someone takes the first step, other investers will follow. Bunce said many colleges invest in such huge corporations as PepsiCola and Texaco.

He plans to meet with Evans to discuss the College's investment plan, and hopes to take a poll of student opinions on where the College invests its money, which he will bring to another meeting with administrators.