Student Petition is Unproductive

To the Editors:

I received a forwarded e-mail today regarding a petition of No Confidence that the student body is circulating against Peter Goldsmith. So you’re ousting him for, what, being human? No, he didn’t always have “excellent” communication skills; no, he hasn’t always worked perfectly with everyone. Who ever has? Come on and cast that ston — er, write that petition.
Nothing that man does will ever be appreciated or accepted by the student body, or at least the particularly identity-politicky clan behind the petition. I’d like to cast a No Confidence vote at those students: I have absolutely No Confidence that they will be able to see this situation in a balanced and fair manner. Neither do I have any confidence in their ability to understand that, while Goldsmith is the one doing the axing of staff in Student Life, it’s likely because he’s been given no other choice.
The College has very little money right now. It relies heavily on alumni contributions to puff up the endowment. But we alums, it seems, aren’t doing too well right now, what with the economy shot and all. Sorry, but we’re not giving as much as usual. As a result, the endowment has fallen, and now, so are the axes. Actually, they’ve been falling for some time: did you know something like 40 percent of all A&PS jobs (the people in the registrar’s, the library, departmental offices, etc.) are staffed by temps? There’s been a hiring freeze for almost a year now, in an attempt to save money.
So, Oberlin, what then should happen? If the MRC goes, the CAS people protest: I see students wearing little sticky labels reading “I love CAS.” If the Office of the Chaplains is targeted, the campus Christians raise, well, hell: a good friend of mine wrote a letter to the editor just last week in defense of Fred Lassen. And if the Theater and Dance interns are attacked, OSTA’s gonna riot or Vibe’ll show up at Petey’s office to tapdance on his forehead — didn’t I see some letter to that effect a couple weeks ago?
Oberlin, there is not enough money to keep things going the way they currently are. Somewhere, sometime, somehow, something’s gotta give; the College will have to spend less money elsewhere (and I betcha it’s not going to be in sports). If the student body refuses to let go of any Student Life staff members, programming — like Cinema Studies, Comparative American Studies, and Environmental Studies — will suffer. What’s worse, so will Financial Aid. Student need will play an even larger role in who, ultimately, gets admitted; the College will be forced to accept even fewer first-generation and low-income students because they cost the College more. (This worries me because I likely would not get admitted today — as the first person in my low-income family to attend college, I cost Oberlin $24,000 per year.) Yet more wealthy students will be admitted. They receive no (or very little) aid, so they’re more economically viable choices.
The campus is already growing wealthier year by year, and it will only become more so. Is that what you want? I mean, what exactly “do” you want? And more importantly, what are you going to do about it?
Hint: the key isn’t to oust Goldsmith, because then Nancy will just have to conduct another job search, and that will cost even more money. Look at the whole picture and don’t shoot yourself in the foot as you stomp it in protest.
–Jill Certo
OC ’00