Oberlin connotes historical progressivism

The first clue that Oberlin has cemented its national reputation as a progressive institution showed up in the New York Times. Right there, under 56-Down, it said, "First college to admit women."

"Our progressive nature is a clue now," said Vice-President for Public Relations Al Moran. "It's out there."

Oberlin's reputation as a progressive institution has been out there ever since Oberlin's founders wandered west to set up shop in the deep forests of Ohio. The first advertisement of the founding of Oberlin College, published in the New York Evangelist, told of a school which would "provide for the body and heart as well as the intellect."

Oberlin has perpetuated its reputation through promotional materials, including the video Follow the Morning Star: Breaking the Color Barrier in Higher Education, which celebrates Oberlin's historic commitment to diversity.

Professor of History Geoffrey Blodgett, OC ''53, said he believes Oberlin has retained two major values throughout its history. "There is the 19th century tradition of moral radicialism and the tradition of academic distinction," Blodgett said. "Those two are not incompatible. If Oberlin endures, its tradition will endure. The process of recharging is to announce that they're lost."

Oberlin was founded as a seminary in hopes of producing ministers. The religious convictions which led to Oberlin's establishment profoundly influenced Oberlin's character in the nineteenth-century. John Barnard, author of From Moralism to Progressivism, quotes one female student who sent a letter home to her family in Kansas exclaiming "I've never seen a more religious place in my life." Students spent their days wandering in and out of prayer meetings. Professors were required to forsake the use of tobacco.

"You are not only educated," Charles Finney exhorted Oberlin's first graduating class, "but educated in God's College, a College reared under God, and for God."

Oberlin had adopted a commitment to Christian Perfectionism, an unusual doctrine which suggested that perfection could be attained on earth.

"If you believe that, boy, it drives you to do all sorts of things," Blodgett said.

In the relentless pursuit of perfectionism, Oberlin waged battles against the great sins of modern society. Driven by an unquestioning adherence to Christian values, Oberlin students engaged themselves in the struggles against slavery, sexism and alchohol. According to Blodgett, Oberlin received most of its national accolades for its role as a temperance leader. After the national experiment of Prohibiton proved to be an abysmal failure, Oberlin no longer paraded its temperence past.

Efforts at inclusion were not universally embraced. An editorial published in the Review in 1894 asked, "Is it nothing to the world to preserve in all its pristine vigor the grand old Anglo-Saxon race?"

Until the late nineteenth century, there were few other alternatives for women and blacks hoping to pursue higher education.

"In the 1880's, if you were black or female, chances are you went to Oberlin," Blodgett said.

One of the women to attend Oberlin was Winifred Rauschenbush, daughter of Walter Rauschenbush. Rauschenbush, a leading theologian, among Martin Luther King Jr.'s greatest influences. Young Winifred, upon arriving at Oberlin, founded Oberlin's first socialist club.

"Oberlin didn't lose it's moral edge, but it lost its religious edge," Blodgett said. Oberlin's values became secularized. Although God was removed from the equation, Oberlin continued to confront social issues.

"Oberlin is truthful to its traditions in many ways," Professor of African-American Studies Yakubu Saaka said. "It's better in some eras than others. Since the 1970's it hasn't done as well as its reputation suggests."

"Oberlin is on some cutting edges," Dye said. "It is by no means on all cutting edges and it never has been."