Oberlin students aren't the only ones talking about diversity at Oberlin these days. Students at The College of Wooster have chimed in with a few opinions of their own.
Oberlin was featured in the Oct. 23 issue of Wooster's student newspaper the Wooster Voice. In an article entitled, "Oberlin and Wooster: Examining the Difference," Campus Issues editor Dawn Packer chronicled her recent Friday afternoon field trip to Oberlin. "Oberlin's campus is replete with diversity," Packer wrote. Packer referenced the international flags that fly over Main Street and the Chinese charachters that adorn the Memorial Arch, a structure which has been widely criticized in recent years for glorifying Western imperialism.
Packer, a native of Lorain County, headed north on I-77 hoping to get a glimpse of the diversity that has made Oberlin famous in Wooster.
"Oberlin is known for its diversity," Packer said this week. "You see different kinds of people there. There's a much wider range of opportunities."
Although Wooster draws nearly ten percent of its student body from beyond American borders, statistics published in the Voice report that Wooster's minority enrollment is ten percent less than Oberlin's.
"There are signs for Asian studies fellowships, Jewish women's organizations and black men's support groups...and yet their publications, like Wooster's, complain of elitism, segregation and insensitivities," Packer wrote. "How would Obies react to a campus where ...squirrels come in more colors than professors?"
"It made me jealous," Packer said. "Even if you look for it, there isn't so much here."
As the Chinese premier visited the nation's capitol late last month, other Chinese dignitaries visited Oberlin as well. According to Brandon Ong at the Shansi Association, Fayuaiv Gao and Jiaren Wu of Yunyan University visited the College last week.
Gao is chairman of the Yunyan University council and Wu is the party secretary of the school according to Ong.
The dignitaries visited as part of the link between the College and China. They attended a conference in Chicago and decided then that they would stop by Oberlin and visit Cleveland.
President of the College Nancy Dye said she welcomed them with token gifts.
Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 126, Number 8, November 7, 1997
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