OC Must Safeguard Free Speech

To the Editor:

I will try not to make this a long rant, but I really felt that something must be said, by someone who has no vested interest in the case, on the subject of the expulsion of the students responsible for the assault in Barnard. I must say that I have found this entire matter positively shocking. First, that any of my fellow students, two of whom were seniors no less, would have participated in such a hurtful, foolish and callous act. Second, and more importantly, I am surprised by the administrative response to this event.
This latter aspect is most shocking, I think, because there seems to be, although I am merely informed in the matter by what I have read in the Review, very little dispute over the facts of the case. Judging by the articles that I have read and the letters both for and against the expulsion, it would seem that it is on all sides it is agreed that the accused wrongfully entered a fellow student’s room masked and with the premeditated intentions of physically assaulting him. This alone should be grounds for immediate expulsion from the College. The administrative response, however, is even more disgraceful in light of the significance of this case as a matter of protecting the student body’s right to free speech. For my part, I was outraged when I read of Assistant Dean [of Students Bill] Stackman’s advice to the victim “not to write anything inflammatory” in his Grape column in the future. If we as students cannot rightly expect to be able to express ourselves freely without fear of physical reprise from dissenters then the spirit of Oberlin as a liberal institution has been sorely betrayed. Furthermore if we cannot even count on the administration to endorse our right to free speech by prosecuting cases like this to their fullest extent and with all the gravity and severity that they deserve then we must recognize that this institution has no right to claim itself to be a place of higher learning.
As I previously stated that I have no vested interest in this case having only a passing, although admittedly mildly undesirable, acquaintance with one of the defendants, my only intention here is to point out that, in light of the facts of this case, the overturning of the expulsion of the defendants represents not only a failure of the judicial system at Oberlin but a failure on behalf of the administration to clearly guarantee the right to free speech on this campus. If I am mistaken about the facts of the case and I sincerely hope that I am, then I would call upon the administration to clarify the matter immediately.

–Anthony Buccitelli 
College senior