Trustee Forum Draws Dozens of Students
By Greg Walters

Around three dozen students met with six trustees at Thursday’s Student Trustee meeting for over two and a half hours to discuss issues ranging from student housing to environmental concerns. Though at times discussion was heated, both students and trustees took pains to emphasize they were on the same side and were simply trying to work through the issues students care about most.
Of all the issues, the budget was the most regularly recurring theme. Representatives from Students for a Free Palestine raised the issue early on of opening the college’s books and instituting “ethical investing” to ensure the College isn’t giving money to companies that sell weapons to Israel.
“It’s much more complicated than that,” trustee Judith Plows said, explaining that when Oberlin buys one company’s stocks, the College is not actually giving that company money. Rather, the College is buying stocks from another investor.
“The issue of opening the books is not so hard,” Plows said. “The problem is, I think, that if you open the books, you will not find what you expect to find there.” The reason, Plows explained, is that much of the endowment funds are given to independent handlers, who protect their own investments as business secrets.
Other students raised the issue of Dye’s deferred compensation, and their concern for the workers who have been laid off.
The trustees, however, were firm in their praise for Nancy Dye’s leadership, and also in their conviction that Dye’s deferred compensation package is a savvy investment.
“We’re looking at Nancy’s situation in terms of how we see her leadership,” Plows said. “It’s extremely important to have that kind of leadership. It includes increasing the admissions, also the relative openness to students of the open door policy and not having to push the College to be more financially disciplined.”
Other trustees chimed in that in their decades of experience with Oberlin, Dye is a prime contender for the best President Oberlin has ever seen.
"I’m not sure we’re paying her enough for what she’s doing for this institution," trustee Harry Stang OC ‘59 said, adding that Dye seldom receives praise from the student body itself.
"What we also see every day is she’s getting pounded every day over and over and over again, and frequently on the basis of misinformation,"he said.
The issue of Oberlin’s role in climate change produced a degree of discord within the trustees but also a note of promise for future action.
Trustee Peter Kirsch, however, reacted more positively.
“You don’t have to convince me,” he said. “I think Oberlin should take a lead in this.”
He added that students need to keep the college’s budget problems in mind, to make climate proposals that are "expenditure neutral or expenditure negative." Such proposals, he said, would be well received by the board of trustees. "I think there’s an awful lot we can do within the existing current expenditures category that will make us an industry leader – the industry being academia.
"I would encourage you to think about this no just in a political and moral way… but also in terms of self interest." On Friday, Dec. 6, the trustees have scheduled a meeting on Oberlin’s role in climate change.