Oberlin College is displaying its elitist face in charging people five dollars a pop to use Philips Gym. The College is a center for higher learning and, supposedly, not the place to come to only to learn how to succeed economically. Harvard and Yale breed enough CEOs, lawyers and uppercrust housewives for the world.
Even so, there is generally an extreme class distinction between students at the College and people from the town. One of the top liberal arts schools in the country is outlined by a poor, underfunded school district and the shops and restaurants downtown cater to Oberlin students because they know we have money. We flagrantly display that fact with our nice cars, expensive shoes and addiction to high-priced coffee drinks.
The students at Oberlin readily fight for distant causes. The administration spends a lot of time and money hiring the best, smartest professors and gathering material on the best way to run an aware, liberal, inclusive college like Oberlin. But what does all this effort gain? Those of us who had the chance to make it to college now go on to succeed in the workplace. Those people around us who didn't have the chance before probably still won't get the chance.
Oberlin College cannot halt this inequality, but there is no need to unnecessarily perpetuate it. Philips Gym is essentially the only such facility in the area where kids can go to work off restless energy, especially during the winter months when it is too cold to be outside. The local schools need their limited space for team practice and they cannot afford to leave the doors open to the public all the time.
Obviously, the College needs money to function. However, it is also part of the Oberlin community. By labeling itself as inclusive and civic minded, Oberlin College has taken on a responsibility to that community. Oberlin should take a swing at the exclusivity so common to other schools and live up to its reputation by lowering the fee to one or two dollars or even eradicating it altogether, at least for certain hours.
Editorials in this box are the responsibility of the editor-in-chief, managing editors and commentary editors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 19; April 5, 1996
Contact Review webmaster with suggestions or comments at ocreview@www.oberlin.edu.
Contact Review editorial staff at oreview@oberlin.edu.