Students
Should Work Together
To
the Editors:
By
now Im sure youve all seen the petition calling for
the removal of Dean Goldsmith. This petition makes me sad. In Dean
Goldsmiths years at Oberlin, I have worked with him closely
on a number of projects, and have never found him to be anything
but a kind, understanding administrator at this College. Never once
did he show any sort of disrespect towards myself or my opinions;
in fact, he went to great lengths in all my workings with him to
make sure that my (and others!) opinions were heard and taken
into account.
Two years ago I was one of the first people to call for Peter Goldsmith
to be thrown out of his position even before he got on campus. I
was closely involved with a long e-mail which caused, in the end,
for Cox to be taken over by students. In a meeting with the President
of the College and other senior administrators, I acted as a representative
of the religious community on campus. I experienced first hand a
discussion with Nancy Dye about why Peter Goldsmith was hired, and
I still was unconvinced. Yet, after all the protests blew over and
Peter Goldsmith became Dean Goldsmith the next year, I got to know
him. I found him to be an excellent administrator, and all my misgivings
about him were swiftly washed away.
I think that everyone needs to step back from this situation and
take a deep breath. This is only Dean Goldsmiths third year
at this College, and I think we can all agree that he needs an opportunity
to better acclimate himself to the politics of this campus. Student
politics at Oberlin are different than politics at other campuses;
Oberlin students demand that their voice be heard, as it should
be. But the answer to our voice being heard should *not* be calling
for the resignation of a perfectly capable administrator. I ask
you all to remember that the College is having severe financial
difficulties right now, and certain things need to be cut. If your
favorite program isnt cut, someone elses favorite program
will be no matter if Dean Goldsmith is here or not.
I have a solution to this problem (although I doubt anyone will
really care, but I thought Id use this soap box to spell it
out). First, students must recognize that as members of the Oberlin
College community, we have a responsibility to work with the college
administration. The administrators, faculty and staff of Oberlin
College are all equal members in this dialogue. Second, the administration
needs to recognize that the students are paying over $30,000 each
year to come to this school. Along with the endowment, we pay the
salaries of everyone who works here, which means that the administration
has a responsibility to heed our demands.
Once there is a semblance of mutual respect, I believe that an Ad
Hoc Task Force should be charged by the President, made up of students,
faculty, and staff chaired by Dean Goldsmith to address the current
budget crisis. This Task Force would make recommendations to the
President and the Board of Trustees of what programs should be cut,
what should be kept, and what should be scaled back. However, this
requires that all sides realize that there must be compromise. We,
as students, simply cant get everything we want. Nor can the
administration. Part of living in a community such as this one is
respecting the many voices and many opinions, and trying to work
out a position which is acceptable to everyone.
Students: calling for Dean Goldsmiths resignation will get
you nowhere.
Administrators: cutting programs willy-nilly without student input
will cause far more problems than its worth.
Its time for everyone to sit down as equal partners in this
community and work out a mutually acceptable agreement so the College
can make it through this difficult time.
Joseph I. Andriano
College senior
|