To the Editors:

I’m a (more or less) ex-Obie who is now attending college elsewhere, but can’t help reading the day-in and day-out negativity that seems to have been brewing back on campus about the budget. I recently had an online conversation with my friend on the situation. Here are some collaborative thoughts:
Me: I still miss it, but from reading the Review online, doesn’t look good.
Adam: Nuh uh! Totally downhill.
M: So much talk about administration overspending, presidential
snafus with accepting of monetary incentives at financially strapped times...World Economic blah blah blah.
A: Well, word around campus is there’s going to be some MAJOR changes...or at least we hope there will be.
M: How major?
A: Well, our college has turned into Abercrombie and Bitch land.... I fear it will be worse, ten-fold, by next year. You know...cell phones, smoking, and designer clothes are becoming more of a prerequisite. It’s already become so much more ‘straight’ lately, and have you read the letters sent in from alumni over the past year? Horrible...
M: My sense is that the campus is incredibly inefficient — too many dorms, too many dining halls...
M: But every Obie has complained about that for decades.
A: Well, the too many dorms part is a definite.
M: And there’s too much of a clash of students — bio majors vs. connies vs comparative lit and CAS people. It’s diverse but no one agrees with each other.
A: And they’re going to build another one!
M: I know! But the town housing thing is a good idea. Luther has those, but then again, only sixish in addition and one dining hall and a Decafe-like place
A: Is it too crowded?
M: Basically big traditional dorms, baker village (houses farther from campus), and married student (cluster apts that usually don’t house married people) surprisingly, no. Luther has 2500, so a little less than Oberlin, but I think it’s working out.
A: Wow.
M: Thing is, the Oberlin campus is like a big white elephant, too many buildings, too much space so nothing can really be centrally located...
A: But, I don’t think there’s any major problem with location. I believe our campus classrooms are pretty centrally located. It’s just the dorm situation is out of control.
M: Right, classrooms are fine, I meant the dorms. You don’t need 8 million tiny dorms that only house 40 people like program houses.
A: We should culminate them into one giant program DORM, you know?
M: Language houses could go off-campus (that’s what Luther has, it’s a subsidized thing kind of like OSCA).
A: Each floor being a different language.
M: Build a super program dorm, get rid of Barnard, the maze on South campus, Zeke, possibly. Dascomb. They’re all ugly and outdated.
M: Make Burton or Noah the program dorm or get them off campus update North and South and Talcott and Baldwin. Ooh, maybe a Talcott-Baldwin complex? I wish there were like a Sim-Oberlin.
A: Yes. I don’t know why Oberlin is throwing such a to-do about the off-campus sitch. It’s horrible! One would assume there’s enough off- campus housing supplied by Oberlin that the money made would stimulate more of a flow to regulate more available off-campus housing, and therefore increase the monetary intake to help supply the college with more funds to operate with. ::sigh::

—Angelina Calderon OC ’04
—Adam Tully OC ’03