Obie Questioning Ties to College After Assault Ruling

To the Editor:

I’m writing in regards to the assault in Barnard in March. It’s taken me a while to get to actually writing, but the news that the perpetrators of this assault will be walking at Commencement in a few weeks was the final straw. I want to express to you, [President] Nancy [Dye] [Dean of Students] Peter [Goldsmith] and my fellow Oberlin students, how I feel about this entire monstrosity, and what I firmly believe needs to be done. Please hear me out.
There are many, many levels on which this whole incident makes me sick, and it’s very hard for me to express this in a coherent, organized way. I have had many friends in Zeke, and was angry when I heard that Zeke will be going co-ed next year, since I understood what it has meant to 30 years of Zeke residents. But now? Hey, burn the place to the ground for all I care. I thought that Oberlin was a bastion of free speech and free thought. I never in a million years would have thought that even one of my fellow Obies would honestly believe that a piece of writing that annoyed them gave them the right to assault the writer of that piece. Surely the administration, an admittedly imperfect organization that I nevertheless believed to care for the students and the good of the Oberlin community, would do their best to see justice done in a situation like this. While I know that some members of the administration have done just that, and have worked hard and well to reach that end, I now know that some others...well, didn’t do anywhere near enough. I was certain that the student body would come to the defense and support of one of its own if a student were to be assaulted. This is the worst of all –– plenty of students will show up to defend rats to be used in a neuroscience lab with an astonishing fervor, but precious few will rise up and speak out in support of a fellow student, since you don’t know him.
I have no idea how to react to all this. I wonder whether it’s actually worth it for me to keep struggling to get my degree, to be honest. I would feel ashamed to share an alma mater with people like the perpetrators of this assault. Luckily, this won’t be an issue for me this year, but once I finish, and if I still finish at Oberlin, it’s not going to be an easy decision. I wonder how far Oberlin has fallen when a student is assaulted for expressing himself and the supposedly caring and passionate student body can’t be bothered to notice. And this is for you, Nancy Dye and Peter Goldsmith. While I am sure that the Community Board operates as an autonomous unit without any direct input from either of you, I’m dead certain that if you had spoken out against these monsters and in favor of them receiving the punishment they so richly deserve, a different decision would have been reached and I wouldn’t be forced to write this letter. The last word I’ve found is your joint letter to the Review of April 6, and I quote: “The College will not tolerate violence, or threats of violence, against others on our campus, and we will prosecute fully any individuals who are involved in this or in any other such incident.” I find this to be ironic, to say the least.
I wish there was something I could do about all this besides just write this letter. I’ve relayed this story to a number of alumni, including my mother, class of ’71, and plan to contact a number of her classmates shortly. But I still feel like this isn’t enough. I do know that I would feel a whole lot better if Dye were to say something. So, I ask you, Nancy Dye, to do just that: make a statement to the Oberlin College community on this horrible miscarriage of justice. Explain why we have heard nothing from you since that letter in the Review, and why the two criminals who will be “prosecuted fully” will be having their names called at Commencement in a couple weeks. Please, just say something. It won’t be enough to make this terrible and horrifying situation all better, but it will let us know that you actually care. This is your responsibility to the Oberlin community, like it or not, and it’s time you fulfilled it. Thank you.
–Andrew Bayer
College senior