Charfauros McDaniel a Dedicated Asset to Oberlin

To the Editors:

I am a third-year sociology major. My first course in sociology was “Diversity, Justice and the Sociological Imagination” which was taught by Antoinette Chaufauros McDaniel. Her teaching provided a framework for how I have approached my academic career here at Oberlin College.
In class, I learned definitions and theories that have allowed me to begin to analyze my personal cultural socialization process and to approach my experience within a global context. The reading Professor Chaurfauros McDaniel assigned on the syllabus was rigorous and valuable. Along with the reading, she organized her course structure in a way that allowed me and other students to interpret history and conditions of injustice in a new and purposeful way. Professor Chaurfauros McDaniel’s lectures and outside of class meetings encourage students to engage and question our assumptions about issues of race, class and gender. Group discussions, group projects, individual assignments, papers and exams always accessed the actual learning of the material rather than a verbal exercise in retaining and reporting information and ensured that many student voices were heard. From meeting one-on-one with students, advising, speaking at the Indigenous Women’s Series, organizing the East of California Conference and constantly speaking up about Asian Pacific Islander history and experience, Professor Chaurfauros McDaniel has continued to demonstrate both a personal investment in and social responsibility to the education of the entire Oberlin College community.
I could go on about the ways in which Professor Chaurfauros McDaniel has both made herself accessible to the student body and created a way for students to access knowledge, learn the skills to critically analyze knowledge but in practicing what she taught, I feel it is important to look at her recent dismissal from an institutional level. Oberlin College prides itself on its progressive history and policies. We proudly sponsor speakers and events to continue to keep the campus community educated and communicating about social causes. From the “Follow the Morning Star” video and convocation speakers, to organized lecture series on the state of the world after Sept. 11, Oberlin seems to foster a sense that our administration actually does care about justice and hearing from the community. Yet, hidden in this, we must keep asking: Why is it that Oberlin has such a low retention of people of color faculty? Why is it that every year since I started at Oberlin we lose at least one female faculty member of color? What is it about the hiring process, College policies and the set-up of the administration that has set up a seemingly discriminatory system? I commend you on your ability to attempt to listen to student concerns and to recognize that we would like to participate in deciding how our hefty tuition is used for our higher education. Please reconsider decisions and policies so that Oberlin can in some ways live up to its prestige and history.
Please take my praise of Professor Chaurfauros McDaniel sincerely and know that her potential loss to the Oberlin College community is something we will all regret. I urge you to talk with the Board of Trustees, the mediation committee and other people of influence about
reconsidering the termination of a qualified, dedicated, motivated, scholarly member of our academy. If you do decide to finalize the decision, I hope that you will both recognize how this is detracting from preserving Oberlin’s reputation and keep all students interested in Comparative American Studies, sociology and justice as part of your further decisions. Thanks for your time, energy and reconsideration.

–Rosa W. Goldberg
College junior