As part of Pride Week this year, The Multicultural Resource Center and Lesbian Gay Bisexual (LGB) Union planned a variety of events. As in years past the Week has coincided with All Roads Lead to Oberlin. Deidra Wells, athe LGB intern at the MRC, said this is done purposely to make prospective students aware of the "vibrant and relatively large queer community here."
Scheduled events included dessert socials Tuesday and Wednesday, a speaker Thursday (see page 3), a queer men's meeting and a coffeehouse and a picnic today in Wilder Bowl. Also planned are a series of Bible studies about homosexuality.
Prospective students appreciate the visibility of the queer community, said Wells. If students introduce themselves as queer, the Admissions office gives them information the college directs them to the MRC for more information.
The Housing and Dining Committee is examining a new way to process mid-year room changes. The possibility of Area Coordinators (AC) being responsible for room changes in the future was discused at the last Housing and Dining committee meeting.
Sandra Hougland, manager of Housing and Dining said, "nothing really has been definitely decided." She said the committee hasn't "sat down to work out the details." Billing and reporting have to be kept in a centralized location so the proposal is still being discussed, she said.
The waitlist process, which is directed through the central Residential Life and Services office, is also being targeted for change because of its use of seniority as a powerful factor in who gets considered for a room change.
Members of the committee are questioning the fairness and effectiveness of seniority as a basis of priority in housing.
"Before any change would happen, there would be open meetings for students," Hougland said.
At its Sunday meeting, Senate was concerned with the small number of student organizations submitting charters this semester.
As the end of the semester approaches, Senate has expressed fear that many student organizations will lose funding for the 1997/1998 academic year. Seventy-five student of student organizations have yet to submit charters for the 1997/1998 academic year so that they can receive funding.
"I'm really worried because only 10 organizations out of 85 have submitted a charter to senate," said senator sophomore Chuckie Kamm.
The lack of charters submitted may result from the fact that any charter submitted by a student organization before 1994 must be resubmitted by that organization. Kamm emphasized that she has given her phone number and e-mail address to all 85 organizations needing to resubmit charters.
The process requires that a student organization first submit their charter to the Student Union, whereupon it travels to Senate to be approved, then to the Student Life Committee and lastly to the General Faculty committee. Kamm said all that is important now is getting student organizations to submit their charters.
"We just want to get [the charters] to the Student Senate and the Student Life Committee before the end of the semester," Kamm said.
The Department of Safety and Security is continuing a search for an assistant director. The search committee has narrowed the search down to three outside candidates and is planning to bring them to campus in the next two weeks.
The assistant director will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day functioning of the Offic as well as other duties.
James said he was pleased with the work of the search committee. "I had very little input in the final decisions. The search committee debated among themselves," he said.
Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 21, April 18, 1997
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