To the Editor: On Monday night, May 20, I put leftover Subway sub in the refrigerator on the second floor of Talcott, expecting to have to have it for dinner the next day. On Tuesday, when I went to fetch my sandwich, I found that the refrigerator had been emptied - obstensively to clean it, even though the inside of the fridge was still caked in smelly debris. I was not too upset that all my other food had been thrown away - food that I lanned to eat during Commencement Week or the summer, which I will spending here in Oberlin - but I was furious that my dinner had been discarded without warning. I put a sign on the refrigerator asking whoever threw away my food to reimburse me at the $3 it cost. This afternoon (Wednesday), I went into the kitchen and saw that the sign had been removed. Obviously someone had read my note, but nobody had even apologized, let alone given me any money.
I see this as not as an isolated incident, but as symptomatic of the way the graduating seniors have been treated this week. The other day, while watching TV in Baldwin, I was interrogated by a custodian as to whether I was supposed to be off cleaning rooms somewhere. A week ago, I receved a letter from my hall coordinator which told me in curt tones that any use I might have for any of Talcott's lounges must be surrendered to the whim of the Class of 1971. The "Congratulations Graduate" sign taped to my door is obviously not a note of congratulatoins but a thinly-veiled marker to keep the hall cleaners out. From the elaborate "Welcome Class of 1971" signs which now dominate the hallways, to the fact that I am getting kicked out of my room at 9 a.m. the day after Commencement, it has been made clear to me that Commencement Week is not about students but about the alums who are coming back for their reunions, and more importantly, the dollars that they will be bringing with them.
Again and again I have had to take a back seat to the conference services/ commencement committee machine, and to work around the esteemed alumni who are returning to celebrate, what, that they graduated 25 years ago and are still alive? I am graduating now - this is my time, and Talcott is my home. I might even be excited about the prospect of sharing my space with returning Obies if the idea hadn't been soured by the disrespect that is being shown on a daily basis. I want to remember Oberlin as a place where I was treated with respect and care, not as an instituton that I am embarassed to call by alma mater.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 25; May 24, 1996
Contact Review webmaster with suggestions or comments at ocreview@www.oberlin.edu.
Contact Review editorial staff at oreview@oberlin.edu.