Absent Administrator Resigns

Vice President of College Relations Al Moran confirmed Thursday that Assistant to the President Mark Blackman, who has been absent from campus all semester, has announced his resignation. "He's notified us that he intends to resign for medical reasons," Moran said. Blackman's resignation will be effective immediately.

President Nancy Dye's return from a west coast business trip proved fruitful for the Hip-Hop Planning Committee, as she increased her initial donation of $1,000 to $6,000 Monday. The committee is still in the process of amassing sufficient funds to host April's hip-hop event, "Six Million Ways to Speak: The Oberlin Community Hip-Hop Conference 2000," following Blackman's absence from campus this semester.

Goldsmith seemed sympathetic to general campus bafflement over Blackman's sudden disappearing act. "I certainly understand people's puzzlement over his absence," he said.

Professor of History Carol Lasser said that she had known nothing about Blackman's absence from campus until reading last week's Review. "Honestly, that's not surprising," she said. "Many personnel changes take place in the administration that we [faculty] don't even know about."

Committee co-coordinator Thomas Yagoda, a junior, praised Blackamn for attempting to offer so much assistance to the hip-hop committee. We understand that he may have been ambitious in trying to help us, but at least he was supportive," he said. However, Blackman's not honoring the promise of funds to student organizations is not unprecedented. Dye said that last semester he promised a donation to student dance organization Dance Diaspora that he proved unable to honor. As with the funding he promised to the hip-hop committee, Blackman failed to first consult Dye before promising the allocations.

Moreover, Goldsmith said, "I hadn't known specifically about Dance Diaspora, but I knew of a pledge to another student group, and it wasn't certain to me if the president's office was going to be able to honor that one." Goldsmith could not remember the organization to which Blackman made this promise of funding.

Sophomore Tai Collins, who managed the fundraising for Dance Diaspora's Winter Term in Cuba trip, admitted that Blackman offered Diaspora a sum of money the president's office proved unable to deliver. After asking for $10,000 from the president's office, Collins said Blackman promised them $5,000 and hoped to raise as much as $15,000. "I met with Blackman at least twice a week...and he kept assuring me that we would at least receive $5,000."

Collins said that Dye told Diaspora that the president's office could not grant them any money only the day before the deadline for Winter Term project proposals. "50 cents is more than what the president's office gave us," she said. Collins proceeded to express frustration at the College's hypocrisy in exalting Dance Diaspora publicly, yet failing to help with funding. She stated that the Admissions Office consistently asks them to perform during the "Fly-In" program and that they appear on the Oberlin web page.

"I do not understand the actions of the president's office and I wonder how one can be so unprofessional by dishonoring verbal promises," she said.

Yagoda described the mood of Monday's meeting as "very intense", and said that Dye seemed embarrassed at the awkward position the president's office has been forced to assume following Blackman's absence from campus.

Over the course of several meetings last semester, Blackman had promised at least $5,000 to the committee, and ultimately hoped to increase that figure to between $15,000 - $20,000. However, when committee members returned to campus this semester seeking an appointment with Blackman, the president's office steered them toward Dye's other Assistant, Kathryn Stuart, informing them Blackman was no longer on campus. When the committee inquired as to the money previously promised by Blackman, the President's office offered $1,000. "The $1,000 seemed like an insult," said senior and committee co-coordinator Mie Anton.

Dye attributed the $5,000 increase in the president's office donation to her direct interaction with committee members Monday. "In dealing directly with the students I had a much better sense of the misunderstanding, and it seemed appropriate to make a larger contribution," she said. Dye said she had originally been concerned with the large size of the conference, but committee members' meetings with Goldsmith, among others, regarding this aspect has erased her concerns. "My real concerns were about the scope and logistics of the conference and all that has been taken care of," she said.

Committee members vigorously sought a telephone conversation with Dye during her west coast trip last week to discuss the confused funding question to no avail, feeding their accusations of her inaccessibility. "She wasn't available to us," said junior and committee co-coordinator Thomas Yagoda. In response to committee members' criticism of being deflected from the president to her assistants, Dye said, "I have a staff dealing with student organizations; dealing with them is never something I did directly." However, Yagoda said that in Monday's meeting with Dye, she told him "If this is really so important you should have come to me." Dye denied having said this.

She emphasized that the money Blackman promised to the hip-hop committee last semester was out of the scope of the president's office's budget. "I would not have authorized a donation of money to that magnitude. It's way out of the range of resources of what would have been responsible," she said. Dye stressed that the president's office lacks the financial resources necessary to support any student organization on as grand a scale as Blackman had envisioned. "The amount [promised] is more than we give out in a year to student projects - probably more like a year and a half," she said.

Blackman is the second Assistant to the President in two years to leave campus on a personal leave. He replaced Diana Roos, who left her position as Assistant to the President last year on a personal leave.