To the Editor:
I'm glad that the SLC sent out a co-ed housing survey this week, gladder still that the response box in Wilder is overflowing with responses, and would like to voice my support for the implementation of co-ed rooms.
I'm interested to hear that the administration is considering a revival of in loco parentis. If they are acting on behalf of my parents, then they should be aware that my parents trust my independence and competency as a young adult and have faith in my ability to make the right choices for my life. They let me choose the college I wanted to attend and did not present me with defeatist arguments upon hearing that the college I chose would cost us roughly $27,000 per year. We figured out a way to make it possible.
I realize and respect that not everyone has encountered this situation with his or her family. Many parents, concerned about their children's safety, take more precautionary measures. Oberlin serves a different purpose - to offer us the progressive educational environment necessary in order to prepare us for improving the society in which we live to the best of our personal abilities.
This desire to act in the place of our parents is neither progressive nor productive. It is the same argument effectively wielded by the Christian Right to restrict our constitutional right to free speech on the Internet. By choosing to act as censors in the place of parents, they have made it illegal to discuss important issues such as abortion on-line. Only parents have the right and responsibility to educate their children about the pleasures and dangers of material that is discussed and available on-line and in the real world. Therefore, only our parents have the right and responsibility to give us the information and support necessary to choose whether or not to live with someone of the opposite gender. Now that we have reached this stage of maturity in our lives, it is time for us to exercise our freedom of choice.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 22; April 26, 1996
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