Murray likes the unique Oberlin community

New Co-op Coordinator uses like idea of co-ops and energy of students

Tracy Murray keeps his eyes and ears open at Oberlin, partly because his job as Co-op Area Coordinator (CAC) requires he be aware of situtations and issues, but also so he can collect stories for his writing about the people who live, work and study here.

Murray said he likes to work on college campuses because they are so rich in source material for his novels and screenplays. Murray has contributed to screenplays such as Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Everybody's All American and Blaze.

As CAC Murray acts as an adult liason between OSCA and the College, and attends meetings such as faculty and residential life meetings. Although he enjoys his job he said the one drawback is that the College and OSCA don't always recognize they have a common goal in meeting student's needs.

Murray is trying to work to improve this relationship, which he thinks is improving already. "Neither has to act like its approach is best for everyone," he said.

Murray came to Oberlin to continue working in college communities and also because he was intrigued by the co-ops at Oberlin. He found the CAC position on the Internet, and he learned more about Oberlin through a phone interview.

Murray thinks co-ops are important because people enter them knowing they are joining a community. He said it's harder to have a real sense of community in a dormitory because residents often don't choose to be part of a community. Co-opers are different, he said, because most choose to work to maintain a community.

He will be Oberlin's CAC again next year. He is eager, he said, to stay at Oberlin a little longer.

Murray's move to Oberlin was an adjustment in several ways. He usually likes big cities, and said he was afraid initially that he wouldn't like a town of Oberlin's size. He has found plenty to do on campus, however. He said he especially likes to see the plays and hear the visiting writers.

His previous job was at a large institution that specialized in business education. There he said it was hard to get students there to do something they believed in. For example, he couldn't get students to write a 500-word proposal to change a college rule they thought was unfair.

Oberlin students are a big contrast to that, Murray thinks. He said he heard the average Obie belongs to seven organizations. He doesn't know if that's true, but he thinks the possibility is amazing. He is also impressed by the actisvism of Oberlin students. Oberlin has impressed him as a place where students act for whatever causes they believe in. He said students on other campuses he's worked at don't have the energy and initiative he's seen here.

Murray was also struck by the campus politics students enter into at Oberlin. When he first came, he couldn't understand why students here complained so much about College rules, he said. But now he thinks the important issue is how existing rules make students think. "If one person thinks something is important then it is important," he said.

Murray has experienced College life first-hand through his living arrangements as well as his job. He lives in the CAC's apartment in Tank with his wife Maura, who is a graphic artist, and currently works in the copy shop at the Co-op bookstore.

Murray brings a variety of experiences to Oberlin. His slight southern accent gives away his origins, but Murray doesn't seem to attatched to them. He is from the small town of Minden, La. but he said he's been back 20 days at most since he graduated from high school there. Since then he's worked in residential life departments at various institutions.

Murray was a Resident Assistance in the dorms at Louisiana State Univerity (LSU), his undergraduate college. Murray then received his masters in film at Northwestern State. He's working on his Ph.D. in literature at LSU but said he is putting off writing his dissertation.

He said college campuses inspired his writing, and after he left them he had trouble writing. Since his return to residential life he has been writing ever since.

As he was choosing screenplays to work on, he was given a choice between Blaze and Steel Magnolias and chose the former. He said Steel Magnolias was the worst movie ever made. "Nobody could sit through it," he said.

Murray's involvement with Sex, Lies, and Videotape included making sure the slang and accent was authentically Southern since the movie was set in the south. He checked that individual characters' language was consistent throughout the movie and also wrote some scenes. He said that the characters' costumes were the clothes the actors had shown up in.

William Faulkner and Toni Morrison are his favorite authors. He said he was happy to learn Morrison is from Lorain. He said he likes Morrison's novels because "You can dislike (Morrison's) characters and still understand why they do what they do."

Murray started working on a novel last summer which he said he will probably turn into a screenplay.

Tracy Murray: The new Co-op Area Coordinator has continued living and working at college campuses because he likes the stories he can collect at them. Murray is a writer. (photo by Mike Kabakoff)