This College is painfully passing through post-Fred Starr years

To the Editor:

Charlene Cole-Newkirk has resigned. That's a definite. What now? It's on your mind, you're just not sure what's up. Here's the state of things in the wake of her departure. Okay, first but not foremost, Afrikan Heritage and Third World houses lose their most visible and perhaps staunchest ally, which is bad. "The house" and its next door neighbor already take too much crap around here. "The house" and Third-World are what they are, it's time for the rest of the student body to get over it.

Second, in the next few months, you might see a great deal of position swapping. Barb Mehwald is a great AC, but so far she hasn't done anything to prove herself capable as a replacement for Deb McNish. The other day she commented on how run down Dascomb dining hall is, a situation that is hardly new. Mehwald has lived in Dascomb, in an apartment less than twenty feet from the old dining hall entrance (not used this year), for quite awhile. She had not been in the dining area, apparently, in a long time. But she's still learning, and she was a damn good AC, so I'm not going to rail on her right now.

YB? IF YB comes back, and this is still an issue because it is conceivable that she might not, what will happen to her? Will she be Mehwald's first mate? Interesting question. And what about the myriad of people whose positions went haywire when Charlene arrived? Believe me, there are many. There's a kicker in this too. There are several issues on campus that are soon to heat up. Racial tensions are, not surprisingly, at an all time high here at Oberlin. This is a big one, and its gotten a whole lot worse this year. Who's gonna fix this? This one needs to get resolved fast, because it is an issue in how people view our college.

Somewhat more internal is the dining issue. CDS is at an all time low for quality, and the planned food court in Dascomb is already a failure before it gets off the ground. Almost every student I talk to hates the idea. One suggested getting the student body to collectively refuse to pay their board bills as a group protest. THAT would be a disaster for the College. CDS jobs are also going unfilled because there are fewer low-income students here (blame the end of need-blind admissions), meaning that the dining halls are operating at something less than maximum efficiency.

Student employment is a touchy issue too. Although this campus is heavily dependent on student labor, the good jobs are hard to find. Nobody wants to work at CDS. Nobody wants to take a job like that, it might be a class thing, or it might just be that shit jobs aren't conducive to being happy. It also might be that CDS management treats its employees terribly. Whoever deals with these issues and is most popular is gonna come out (of the vacuum left by Charlene) on top.

And don't forget another issue, the health plan, which more students might want to get involved with for future's sake. What else? Now the student body gets to have a new dean. It's conceivable that Bill Stackman could move up in the world, but I doubt it. Not that Bill Stackman has many flaws, he's a great guy who really knows the student body's concerns. It is just more probable that the College will launch a huge and protracted search for another person like Charlene only perhaps with a better bedside manner. But there might be some good in this.

Unlike Charlene, this person might listen to the students. Unlike Charlene, this person might pay attention to all programs around campus, rather than concentrating on small areas (like Charlene often did with Afrikan Heritage and Third World houses). This person will be the dean who leads us into the next millennium, he/she had better be good.

And finally, what about Nancy Dye? She's the one who makes the laws around here, do you think she didn't have a hand in both the departure of Deb McNish and Charlene's own resignation? Don't count her influence out. What most students would like is to see more of her, because she just hasn't been around lately. She co-taught a class last semester in Women's studies. She made it to (maybe) three or four of ten or twelve classes. Maybe less. I personally think she's not a bad president, but she's hardly fantastic; and absenteeism won't make her a Henry Churchill King (shame on you if you don't know your Obie history).

This college is painfully passing through the post-Fred Starr years now, and we need to correct some of the mistakes made during that period. (The construction of Stevenson, financial dependence on the meal plan, the shriveling of the endowment, the end of need-blind admissions [I know this happened after he left, but it is his legacy to us]). It is the top of the eighth, and we still have time to correct these errors, but we're way behind. What we need now is a home run with this new dean. So kids, hope that we hit this one out of the park.