Student Health Mishandles Mental Health Medication

To the Editors:

Let me tell you a story: about a year ago I wrote to the Review and had a letter published. It was different from much of what is published in the Review because it dealt with mental health. It talked about Oberlin College's policy of having students with mental health problems sign behavioral contracts.

After my letter appeared, a strange thing happened: I started getting e-mail about it. The mental health issues at Oberlin and the way they are dealt with are larger than I knew or imagined. There is a saying that over half of Oberlin is walking around on Prozac. Mostly we don't know what to think about that, but I, for one, will believe it and go further: that's not even a fraction of the story. I have talked to people who have antidepressant medication prescribed by Student Health like candy. Once a student went to Student Health, and said he was feeling 'sorta low' but it was all due to circumstances that would improve shortly but he wanted some meds anyway. He was handed antidepressants. Many students are also very troubled by the unavailability of good psychiatric care in Oberlin.

Many students have also encountered problems with the administrations because of mental illness. Many of us are forced to sign behavioral contracts, sometimes merely because one took a personal leave of absence part-way through the semester. Students have had to sign away their rights and have been forced to release medical records that the College has no right to. Students have had confidential information leaked to Res Life from the Counseling Center and leaked around Res Life. RCs are given access to information they have no right to. I know a student whose relationships with faculty members were ruined because of confidential information that was leaked.

I know many more students who wish there was a place they could talk without fearing that they would be kicked out of school or forced into degrading and dehumanizing situations. These are all Oberlin College students. We all attend this "progressive" institution. Let me tell you the next chapter of the story: Recently, a group got chartered to deal with these problems. It is a student group which comes from those of us who have dealt with these violations. We call ourselves "Oberlin Mental Health Initiative" (OMHI). Some of the people who wrote to me a year ago were instrumental in starting it. OMHI has two main purposes: 1) to work on administrative type problems students face, and 2) to improve accessibility to mental health resources. We are starting support groups for: POMs (People on Meds), SIN (Self-Injurers Network), depressives and eating disorders. We are working on setting up a transportation network so that students can see mental health professionals outside of Oberlin and are setting up a library so that students can access information.

If you're interested in any of these things, whether it's working on College-oriented issues or being part of one of the support groups, please come to our meetings, Tuesdays at 10:15 p.m. in Wilder T.B.A.

--Diana Smith, College senior

Bandwagon Protesters Hop Aboard Without the Facts

Within my four years at Oberlin College I have observed a lot of bandwagon political movements. These are often occasions for students to join behind a popular voice and make a political statement of one kind or another. Although mostly positive in nature, some seem to join them without being fully aware of the facts involved. The speech made at the Colors of Rhythm, in which the Memorial Arch was portrayed as a monument to "cultural imperialism," is a prime example.

The Memorial Arch was dedicated in 1903 in memory of those missionaries killed in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Primarily Oberlin community members, their role in China was unique. Most missionaries applied individually, but the Oberlin Band went together specifically with the hopes of establishing a school, an Oberlin in China. Considering the historical context, the pioneering stage of cross-culturalism, the group was extremely successful. They started schools for orphaned girls who would have otherwise been thrown away, established clinics to provide needed medical care and ran opium refuges to help the addicted. They opposed foot-binding and tried to elevate the status of women in general. Although they believed fervently in Christianity and attempted to preach it whenever possible, typically when they helping people off opium and dispensing medical treatment, few Chinese were actually converted. An important distinction, which seems to have eluded the speaker, is that their ideas were not forced, rather they were offered. The label "cultural imperialist" is thereby inappropriate in this case. The Oberlin Band was exchanging ideas. They studied Chinese language, wore Chinese clothes and adopted aspects of the Chinese lifestyle, all the while expressing and teaching their ideas to the Chinese. And let us not forget that these primarily Oberlin endorsed ideals were the same that made Oberlin a leader in the abolition movement and the fight for women's rights in this country. In modern Oberlin terms, the Oberlin Band thought one person could change the world. They were in China to offer what they considered to be a better way to live. It was up to the Chinese to accept or reject it on their own accord. It is likewise up to each of the graduating seniors to decide whether they will walk through or around the arch on commencement day. In the past, the arch has been labeled as both exclusionary, as it failed to memorialize the Chinese who were also killed, and as a symbol of cultural imperialism. The exclusionist debate ended with the addition of a plaque that incorporated into the monument the Chinese who were killed. The later debate preponderantly continues on. I would like to urge all the members of this community to consider this issue very carefully. If you attach the "cultural imperialist" label to the Oberlin Band, you must attach it to the noble traditions of this college, the same traditions that fought for the admission of blacks and women, the same tradition that fought against infanticide and foot binding in China, the same tradition that sent similar Oberlin bands all over the world to spread ideas on what they thought was right.

It seems to me the Oberlin Band, and the subsequent Shansi Association should be championed by these. Those involved in the Colors of Rhythm as a testament to people who fight hard and honestly to propagate their views. The Band held beliefs both extreme and unpopular, but was willing to face uncounted hardships, even death, all in the light of bettering the world with their message. I would think this is something Colors of Rhythm would embrace, despite having only a shadow of the dedication and commitment once found here on this campus and within the Oberlin Band.

--Jeremy Miller, College senior