Administration Statement

NOTE: The Review received the following document from the office of President Nancy Dye. It is printed as received.


Barnard incident

There are a few things many people seem to be unaware of.

First, Oberlin has a community-based judicial system. These cases were heard by a five-member panel composed of three faculty members and two students, which is called the Community Board. The Community Board is reserved for hearing serious offenses. It was this board that found two students guilty of assault and passed down the sanction of expulsion. The administration has not been involved in the process, nor would it be appropriate under the judicial processes for the administration to have been involved in the matter.

Under the College’s process, students who are found guilty have the right to appeal to the Community Board. An appeal must be based on several procedural matters or on the severity of sanction. These two students appealed on the grounds that expulsion was too severe a penalty.

When a student appeals, a second Community Board panel of three faculty and two students is convened. This panel reviews the record of the first hearing, and considers the appropriateness of the penalty that was imposed by the first hearing panel. In these two cases, this second Community Board panel decided that a two-year suspension in the granting of degrees to these individuals was a more appropriate penalty than expulsion.

This penalty is not as severe as expulsion, but it is still very real and serious. These students cannot receive their degrees until May 2003. Therefore, all of their plans for jobs, graduate school, etc. must be put on hold.

These students must leave campus following their last exams. They will not be allowed on campus during senior week or at Commencement.

Finally, these students’ transcripts will permanently include notice of the two-year suspension in the granting of their degrees. This means that this is a very long-lasting penalty. Although this penalty is not as severe as expulsion, particularly in the case of a senior in his final semester, it is nevertheless very real and serious.