GF Vote on Whether to Charter BDSM Group Ties

Last Tuesday's well-attended General Faculty (GF) meeting ended with high drama, as the faculty vote on whether or not to pass the student SECURE charter deadlocked in a 41-41 stalemate. One faculty member abstained. As a majority is required for charter passage, members of the student group will have to wait until next year to present a new version of the charter to the GF. If passed, the charter would have allowed for the student group to congregate to discuss domination, sadomasochism and bondage.

College President Nancy Dye prefaced the discussion with a brief statement expressing her hope for the GF to pass the charter due to its protection of free speech. "Oberlin has a very robust tradition of protecting and respecting speech that must be continued." Although Dye said she stood in opposition to the passage of the SECURE charter two years ago because it proposed behavioral freedom for students wishing to practice bondage, domination and sadomasochism (BDSM), she expressed approval for the most recent revision of the charter which merely seeks the liberty to discuss those issues. "It's never a good idea to mess with speech," she said.

Some GF members expressed concern on the foggy issue of consenting to behavior involving BDSM. "Given the problems arising out of conventional [sexual] activities on college campuses of consent, it becomes much more difficult to deal with it when another layer of sexual consent is added on top of it," Dye said.

Professor of History Steve Volk echoed Dye's worry on consent, saying, "I'm troubled by the potential for lasting damage on a person's psyche. I'm also troubled by therapy conducted by those not trained." However, Volk continued, saying that if the charter merely proposed the freedom to discuss, he supports the freedom of student speech.

The GF did not wholly avoid addressing the moral message of passing the charter. Professor of Physics John Scofield seemed to oppose the charter's passage, saying, "This isn't something we ought to be encouraging students to participate in." Agreeing with Volk's concern regarding damaging students' psyche, Professor of Politics Marc Blecher said, "There is systematic evidence to the effect that this behavior is often engaged in by people who are troubled. I think we do students a disservice by leaving these issues up to them."

Professor of Politics Ron Kahn asserted that issue of chartering SECURE should center around its request for the freedom to discuss. "It's a speech issue because part of that is the right to organize - you have to organize to be an effective speaker." Kahn also urged his colleagues to not allow liability concerns to affect their vote. "Should we say let's get rid of the Outing Club because someone is going to fall off a mountain? There are a lot of side effects to a lot of groups we have."

Moreover, Kahn expressed strong support for chartering SECURE because of Oberlin's historical commitment to protecting minority viewpoints. "The notion of deep-sixing this charter is ignoring what Oberlin is. We're not supporting the activities they do in private - we have a responsibility to maintain certain values even though there are certain costs to it."

While some GF members expressed concern regarding safety, others questioned the potential logistical drawbacks of passing the charter. Professor of Philosophy Alfred MacKay, who said he stood in opposition to passing the SECURE charter, pointed out the consequences passage of the charter could entail, specifically for admissions. "I worry that should we charter this organization, that might be inimical to other goals, specifically the aim to achieve diversity with students and staff." MacKay asserted that passing the charter could repel more conservative students from applying to Oberlin. "The number of desired student target population doesn't necessarily share ideas and beliefs of being on the cutting edge of social issues."

Senior Senator Sam Taylor, an African-American, contested MacKay's remarks, saying, "The facts are that minority students care about education."

Adding to the drama of the drama of the agonizing tie was Director of Expository Writing Jan Cooper's request that the small child of Classics Professors Jennifer Lynn and Charles Hedrick leave the meeting because it disrupted her hearing. The two promptly ended a subsequent discussion regarding whether children should be allowed to attend GF meetings by leaving in a huff and relinquishing the opportunity to vote.

Due to the extended length of Tuesday's meeting, the GF re-convened the following Thursday to discuss the recently revised Judicial Board Charter. The two hour meeting resulted in a small amount of minor language changes to the charter revision produced by Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith and Associate Dean of Students Bill Stackman.