As professors and staff entered Tuesday's General Faculty meeting, about 120 students lined the hallway on the third floor of King wearing blindfolds, gags, and the names of famous authors, scientists and artists. Students organized this demonstration after concerns the Tribe 8 concert raised concerning censorship and freedom of expression.
Most protesters wore cloth strips as a blindfold or a gag. Many wore signs with names including the Marquis de Sade, Galileo, Verdi, Eugene O'Neill, Madonna, Kwame Ture, Vittorio De Sica, Mae West and Salman Rushdie.
President Nancy Dye was quoted in the Nov. 1 issue of the Review as saying ""[The concert was] absolutely contradictory to the values of this comunity." Students and some faculty feared that Dye and other administrators' disapproval of the Tribe 8 show would spread to all performances on campus. It became an issue of censorship.
Students organized several meetings during the week to voice issues and discuss how to spread those issues to the community. Tuesday night Oberlin Student Theater Association sponsored a meeting in Wilder. About 100 students attended, though signs posted around campus advertised the meeting to all members of the Oberlin community.
Professor of Theater Roger Copeland, the only faculty member present at the meeting, spoke first. He asked the audience "Did anyone happen to see what Nancy Dye wore when she went trick or treating?" He then showed a film clip of Jesse Helms.
Copeland then delivered a speech where he addressed his concerns about censorship. He said he was worried that the content of some of his classes would be considered offensive. Copeland thought Dye was putting herself in a precarious position, something he called the "slippery slope" principle.
"Nancy Dye has set herself on an icy slope set at about 45 degrees," said Copeland. "That means there's no way she can't slip off." Copeland spoke for much of the audience when he worried about Dye's power to stop Oberlin's "unfettered freedom of expression."
OSTA co-chair Abby Bush continued Copeland's train of thought and added that freedom of speech was the only issue. Student senator junior Chapin Benninghoff spoke about Senate's attempts to engage the administration and students in a discussion of recent events.
Senior Art Ettinger spoke about the meeting he had made with Dye during the previous week to discuss how he felt about the Tribe 8 reaction. He said he walked into the office and said to Dye "I'm here to express my disgust at your complete disregard for free speech on campus." After a twenty minute discussion, Ettinger said Dye thought the discussion was not productive and asked him to leave.
Concerns were also raised by sophomore David Rothchild and others as to the nature of free speech. Some members of the discussion felt that it was typical of Oberlin students to loudly protest free speech matters that they believe in, but that true free speech protects all matters. "Remember to respect free speech issues that offend you," said Rothchild. Later, someone asked attendees to raise their hands if they would support Nazi rights to speak on campus, and about a fifth of the audience raised their hands.
Junior Bronwen Densmore was one of the people at the meeting who was in charge of organizing the protest. Densmore thought the protest was a success because "our point was to be there as a presence, to get the ball rolling on discussion."
There was talk of a more aggressive protest, where students would stand shirtless and sport zucchinis, but Densmore and others decided that would backfire. "It becomes scary when the administration thinks it can decide what's good for the community," said Densmore.
Senior Emily Bank, another of the organizers, dismissed the idea of an aggressive protest. "Because everyone's not aware [of the reason for the protest], we wanted it to be very specific, to tell what it was about," said Bank. Bank felt that one of the most pressing issues was that Dye needed to explain herself to the students directly. "There's so much heresay it's getting ridiculous," said Bank.
According to senior Jeremy Broomfield, who made the fact sheets for faculty attendees of the GF meeting, "This is the first step, to make sure every faculty member knows what is going on and is armed with the facts."
"The main purpose," said Broomfield, "was to make sure that the faculty knew what was going on and give them the facts so they could read them however they saw fit."
Senior Noga La'or, who also helped structure the protest, stressed that this was not a confrontation with the faculty. "We are not protesting the faculty, we are asking them for help," she said.
Most students were pleased with how the reaction at the GF meeting went. Student senator sophomore Chuckie Kamm was glad the GF addressed the protesters' issue, and said there was an "intense discussion" on the topic.
For some, it was a protest for free speech rights. One protester held a sign protesting "Dye's legacy of censorship." He cited the president's reactions to Below the Belt in 1995 and Kwame Ture last spring as other examples of censorship.
Other protesters felt that Dye's remarks showed more than basic censorship. "It's not just about free speech, it's sexual politics," said senior Miriam Axel-Lute. According to Axel-Lute, Tribe 8 performance offended some because "it was a lesbian band, because they were doing something to men."
Others expressed their belief that no one has the right not to be offended. "A good number of people on this campus seem to think that they have the right not to be offended," said junior Julian Dockhorn. Dockhorn and others believe that the First Amendment guarantees people the right to express themselves, even when it offends others.
"I would have rather seen [the handout given to faculty members as they entered the faculty meeting] bring up what this issue showed about what we find offensive," said senior Matt Borus. Borus noted that many of the books in the Oberlin curriculum were written by authors with histories of racism or misogyny.
Kamm noted that the GF meeting did not go flawlessly. She said some of the problems that remained were that, while faculty generally agreed that censorship was bad, that there should be a "standard of appropriateness" in the Oberlin community.
Students wanted more definite measures taken before they let the issue rest. Some expressed desires to see a campus-wide mailing by Dye with an apology of her censorship actions.
Students want an open dialogue between the administration and students. "We need to have closure," said Kamm. "I don't know if a panel could lead to closure, but it would help get part of the way there."
The senate appeals to have a senate-mediated meeting have not been accepted by Dye. One anonymous senator said "The president has got this whole Long Range Planning Process. How are we supposed to trust her with our future when she refuses to talk with us about the present?"
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