This year's senior class gift campaign is a continuation of a campaign begun last year to start an endowed Lorain County Scholarship Fund. The fund would allow a first-year Lorain County student to attend Oberlin.
Last year's senior class raised $11,000 towards the endowed scholarship, leaving $14,000 needed until the fund is large enough to support an endowed scholarship. When the scholarship is endowed it will be offered on a yearly basis.
Serjio Acevedo, senior class president, said the gift committee hopes to get contributions from staff faculty and students. "$11,000 is a long way to go, but we hope the idea of contributing positively to the surrounding community will persuade everyone to offer a donation.," Acevedo said.
Members of the committee are excited about the campaign because it will extend Oberlin's relationship with the outside community.
"I'd venture to say that we get as many students from other continents as from around the corner," Diepiriye Kuku, senior class vice president, said. "From tutoring in the area and getting around the county a bit, it is my understanding that Oberlin is accurately perceived as elitist and inaccessible."
Kuku said he thinks the scholarship is a first step in Oberlin's attempt to live up to its ideal of learning and labor and engaged citizenship. "However, our efforts cannot end there. Throwing money at someone is a quite typical elite class reaction to [our] own elitism," he said.
The Senate did not turn in their budget proposal in time which has resulted in their not getting money allocated for the upcoming academic year. Senator junior Dan Persky said the budget was in the Student Finance Committee (SFC) mailbox the day after it was due, but SFC considered that too late.
"Many people are annoyed by this, but SFC is holding pretty strong," Persky said.
"It wasn't in by the deadline, so we didn't accept it," junior Becca Barnes, SFC treasurer, said.
Persky said Senate plans to appeal the budget in the fall, but Barnes said there aren't enough members on SFC to vote, so the process will be held off until more members are appointed
Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 23, May 2, 1997
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