Editorial

Oberlin College: a humanitarian establishment or a business institution, you be the judge. The College has lost $40 million dollars of its endowment and the Administration is now faced with a problem that unfortunately results in people losing their jobs and/or taking pay cuts. Those who are losing their jobs are not the individuals closely watching and controlling the College’s investments. The 11 members of the College community whose positions are being eliminated are six union OCOPE positions and five administrative and Professional Staff positions. To add insult to injury, Officers of OCOPE had little to no input prior to the layoff decisions; OCOPE gave the Administration a College budget proposal last spring which they say went unheeded. OCOPE’s efforts to provide some solutions to the budget problem should not go unnoticed.
Forty million dollars is a lot of money to lose anytime but who is accountable for these actions? It seems unfair to point fingers and remedy the problem by getting rid of the employees who form the very backbone of College functions. The people who are being laid off do not have the power to take College money out of the stock market; therefore their jobs should be protected. The College could have easily come up with the amount to cover the incomes of those who were laid off by if they had taken an earlier initiative to reduce the amount of flagrant expenditures such as exorbitant holiday parties, College-funded travel and outside consulting. There needs to be an amendment to the standards of behavior thus far and a creation of policies that protect administrative and Professional Staff and other positions in jeopardy of being eliminated. Compensation packages given to members of the administration, Dye and possibly Evans, should be an incentive for them to make sure other peoples’ jobs are protected. Just imagine the future compensation packages that could be given to the Administration if they did a better job of protecting the College’s assets. Oberlin College would then truly be a unique establishment in the regard of its peers.
We have yet to see the administrative consequences of the trade-off of protecting other peoples’ jobs in favor of monetary funds. So let’s allow the humanitarian side the College claims to possess reign and suggest a possible solution — that the 11 OCOPE members be further compensated with 100,000 dollars divided amongst them for every year of service, in addition to the severance package already offered. This amount conveniently matches the compensation package Dye accepted.
For a person who loses their job with only a month’s notice, the issue becomes very personal: “Job eliminations do irreparable damage to human lives.” (See News, pg. 1.) It appears that the structure of our value system is in flux when financial trouble begins to brew. Strength does not exist when things are calm; it is exhibited through struggle and strife. Many people are upset because when the struggle is eminent, the administration begins to whimper and take what appears to be the easiest road out. How about the road less traveled? Let’s traverse that road as a community and aid these 11 people in some way or another.
With all this stated we must remember that the economic problems the College is facing is not a unique experience. It follows in accordance with the way the business world works and is a reason why the American economy has been successful in the past. It is beyond our scope, or OCOPE’s, to fight the evils of all capitalism. “Downsizing” may be an understandable response to financial stress. That’s just practicality. The issue is that downsizing means different things to different groups on campus. For instance, some may consider the shiny new expanse and bright lights of the Science Center to represent peripheral spending in the College’s current financial situation. But really, science is important to the College and to keep the school competitive in the liberal arts circuit — an issue of concern for any that plan to receive an OC diploma or who already have one — the College needs to continue to prove its commitment to the sciences as well as the humanities.
Unfortunately, success and humanitarianism don’t always go hand in hand. It is now that Oberlin must decide where it stands.