To the Editor:
A while ago, a Review staffer offered up a critique of the Student Senate. He was way off base, and I said so in a vigorous defense of Senate in the following week's Review. As bad as his essay was, he had the right intent. Senate is very much in need of critique. Senate is very much in crisis. Senate is getting things done surprisingly well, but it's operating on a haphazard, day-by-day basis. The whole PuppyGate hostage scandal got me thinking about where Senate's weaknesses really lie.
The first and most obvious point is the most critical one. Come to a Senate meeting. Take a look around. It'll become painfully obvious to you. Senate isn't diverse enough. Not even close. Only one of our members is African-American. With the resignation of Toshio Mana, we are left with no representatives of the Asian-American community. While there is presently a diversity of sexual orientations, we lack the kind of focused, strong-minded LGB voice that Oberlin's LGB community deserves. In short, if it weren't for a couple of fantastic new Latina Senators, our weekly meetings would have less melanin than a polka festival.
Why? We clearly can't blame our constituency. Oberlin's minority communities operate some of the strongest, most vibrant and best organized organizations on campus, so clearly they have amongst themselves great potential Senators. I hardly think that Oberlin's voting public would be reticent to elect them, if they ran. There's the problem. No African-Americans ran. No Asian-Americans ran. Where the community appears to be reasonably progressive, where individual passions are strong and dedicated, we must look for a failure in the institution itself. In this case the institution is the Senate.
Can Senate operate effectively under these conditions? Ryan Maltese, a recent alumn, addressed this point at a speak-out last year. I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this, "You gotta take anything Senate says or does with a grain of salt." He was right. You can trust the current Senators to do what they think is best, but you can't trust them to know what is best. I can be as empathetic as I possibly can be, but I wake up every morning as a white man with a white man's privileges and a white man's limited world-view.
So what can I do? I think I might have a start. At least week's Senate meeting, I proposed the formation of a Senate Task Force on diversity. I nominated college first-year Bobbi Lopez as chair. Senate approved the whole deal with notable enthusiasm. What is this Task Force doohickey gonna do? That's up to Bobbi. The only thing I know for certain is that it'll have a lot to do with outreach. Let's start right now. Call, e-mail, or write Bobbi. Me, too. Any Senator, for that matter. Senate meetings are every Sunday, 7 pm in Wilder. Stop by. Chew us out. We deserve it. Tell us what you think we can do to help. All of Oberlin deserves that.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 6; October 11, 1996
Contact Review webmaster with suggestions or comments at ocreview@www.oberlin.edu.
Contact Review editorial staff at oreview@oberlin.edu.