News Year in Review

The Dolan Debates
Compiled by Nina Lalli from articles by Alyson Dame, Nick Stillman, Ben Gleason and Liz Heron.

Class Trustee Meeting Dominated By Wahoo Controversy 

The annual Class Trustee meeting, created to help open dialogue between the trustees and students, was unusually crowded this year. Amie Ely (OC ’99), one of three class Trustees, facilitated a discussion on Dec. 6. Most of the evening was spent discussing the controversial addition of Cleveland Indians owner Larry Dolan to the Board of Trustees. 
Senior Amber Schulz, co-chair of the American Indian Council on campus, read a prepared statement. “I am here representing the American Indian Council here at Oberlin College. I would like to express our concerns with the appointment of Larry Dolan as one of the newest Trustees of the College, he also being the new owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team,” she said. 
Later in the statement, Schulz said, “I am only asking this: that you evaluate your own personal feelings on the issue, keeping in mind that members of the race the mascot is made to represent are highly offended. I am trying to open up dialogue in a calm and rational manner so that perhaps we can see all views and perhaps find a happy medium. Please keep in mind that silence is the voice of complicity.” 
Ely had copies of Acting President Clayton Koppes’ statement about the appointment of Dolan and passed those out. Schulz said that many of the people had already seen Koppes’ statement and were at the meeting because they wanted the Trustees’ thoughts on the issue. Ely opened the floor up to the six board-elected Trustees who had also come to the meeting. 

Bill Robinson Defends Dolan

Senior Trustee Bill Robinson, who attended the meeting, was taken aback by the student response to the Wahoo symbol. “Comments were made that kind of threw me a little bit. What you’re asking us to do, in my words, is to open up our hearts and think about these things,” he said. 
In a later interview via e-mail, Ely said that her experiences with Dolan as a Trustee had been positive. “Larry Dolan has been, from what I’ve seen, dependable and present at the meetings. He offers his acuity as a respected and successful lawyer. He offers his perspective as a local businessman and non-Oberlin graduate,” she said. 
Ely clarified that Dolan had purchased the Indians after being elected to the board. “I offer that not as an apology, but to inform students of a fact that has been given little regard. Dolan was a Cleveland area businessman and lawyer long before he decided to purchase the team. His ties with the Cleveland community interested the board,” she said. 
Robinson defended Dolan’s place on the Board, but said that he would ask Dolan to meet with students. “He’s got a lot of contacts that we need and don’t have access to. Larry Dolan said the right things when we interviewed him and he has followed up on those things as a Trustee. He’s been faithful and has come to the meetings,” Robinson said. “I’m going to be blunt about it, Larry Dolan has my full support and I will resist any effort to remove him from the Board.” 
Schulz clarified her concern. “I was not asking that Larry Dolan be removed from the Board. I know how unlikely that would be,” she said. Schulz was concerned with the image she believed having an owner of the Indians on the board gave. “To the outside world, I think there’s a connection [between Trustees and what Oberlin College values],” she said. 
Robinson did not see the correlation as clearly. “How are we condoning owner Larry Dolan’s use of Wahoo as a mascot because he is on our Board of Trustees?” he asked. 
Board-elected trustee Peter Kirsch was also present. “One of the most insidious things for any institution is to have a litmus test. We need to have a vigorous discussion of the issue,” he said. 
Kirsch also defended Dolan, saying, “Is somebody’s view so infected the ability to serve the institution that they should not be allowed to [serve as a trustee]? I try not to associate with Republicans. Does that mean I should use that as a test, that I should not want any Republicans to be elected to the Board? The question is what is best for the institution. We have to be very careful in not defining our criteria on our particular views right now in an intolerant way.” 

Students Say “You are Who You Run With”

The students present saw a stronger correlation between the values of the College and its Trustees. “If you’re running Oberlin by your principles, then how can you separate the institution and personal views?” senior Kerri Greenidge said. 
Junior Naomi Sabel said, “The bottom line is you’re as good as the people you associate with and I don’t think Oberlin students want to be associates of Larry Dolan.” 
One student said that students should have more of a voice in who is elected to the Board of Trustees. “We should have the power to say we don’t want to have this person as the trustee of our College,” she said. 

Schulz asked the trustees what the extent of their influence was. Robinson agreed to encourage Dolan to speak to the students, but said that he could not in any way force Dolan to such a forum. 
Upon hearing about the protest of Secretary of the Treasury Summers’ speech Dec. 4, however, Robinson said, “I am not willing to press Larry [Dolan] to come so he can be vilified. When I invite him it will be under the understanding that he will come to engage in a dialogue.”

Dolan Agrees To Meet With Students 

“I think [Chief Wahoo] represents the Indians very well and we expect him to stay on,” Dolan told the Review on Dec. 8, but later added that he would be willing to hear more on the subject from the Oberlin community. “Maybe if this group comes to this meeting with the idea of educating me...who knows where it might go?” he said. 
The discussion took place Dec. 19 at noon. Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith said, “Larry Dolan has asked us to provide him with an opportunity to meet with a group of students who can help him to understand the depth and complexity of the Chief Wahoo symbol controversy. Although he has not yet specified a number, we expect that he will want to meet in an informal and fairly intimate setting with a modest number of students.” 
The group who spoke with Dolan included around nine students who had proved themselves outspoken on the issue and two or three faculty members, according to Vice President of College Relations Al Moran. 
“This is a subject which many people feel strongly about, and we encourage a constructive exchange of views,” Koppes said in a statement released in late November. 
Although Dolan was originally slated to come to Oberlin Friday, Dec. 15, the administration was impressed with his willingness to reschedule despite being occupied with his attempt to re-sign free agent outfielder Manny Ramirez. 
“On the day the Indians were scrambling to sign Manny Ramirez, in all the chaos and major business deals, [Dolan] took my call. It went straight in. [That] shows that he treats the issue seriously,” Moran said. 
Dolan requested that the College limit the number of people to meet with him. “A small group raises the chance of a reasonable dialogue,” Moran said. “Hopefully it will be the first in a number of discussions with him where we can have a wider audience.” Moran established an e-mail address as a way of including the whole Oberlin community without compromising the intimate nature of the planned discussion. 
Many students at Oberlin were surprised to learn Dolan had been chosen to represent Oberlin as a Trustee, as his position on the Chief Wahoo logo seemed divergent from the majority of students’ views. 

Openness Cited in Defense of Dolan as Board Member

Koppes was adamant in his view that personal politics do not play a role in the selection of Board members. “The Board of Trustees, much like Oberlin’s students, parents and staff, is composed of people with varying political and cultural perspectives,” Koppes said in his statement. “We don’t impose a political test of views as a requirement for affiliation with Oberlin College, and we encourage respect for a wide diversity of opinion.” 
Dolan, a lawyer and entrepreneur, joined the Oberlin Board of Trustees in June of 1999, shortly before he bought the Indians for a record-breaking $320 million. He is currently the president of Thrasher, Dinsmore and Dolan, a Chardon, Ohio law firm. 
Trustees are elected by other members of the Board and serve six-year terms, after which they can be elected again for a second and last term. After the age of 75, trustees assume honorary status. Dolan does not plan to serve a second term because of his age. 
“The Board seeks diversity in a number of things, including geography,” Secretary of the College Bob Haslun said. According to Haslun, before Dolan joined the Board, “One thing we were a little shy of was a connection to Cleveland-based people.” 
“He’s very prominent in the Cleveland business community,” Koppes said in an interview Sunday. “He’s somebody with instant name recognition and a very wide circle of connections in the area. That kind of influence can be very helpful to a college.” 
Koppes believed that Dolan would be open to students’ ideas, but warned students against being overly optimistic. “I think he is prepared to listen with an open mind. That doesn’t necessarily mean the result will be what students interested in this issue will want,” Koppes said before the meeting. 
“I think he’s prepared to listen to reasonable arguments. He’s willing to take time out of a heavy schedule and I don’t think he would do that just for show,” Koppes said.

Dolan Defends Logo Students 
Call Racist 

The air was thick with tension when the small, invitation-only group of students and faculty met with Dolan Tuesday, Dec. 19. 
Surprisingly, the most strained moment of the afternoon may have come before the meeting actually began when Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Will Wilson and Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith became engaged in an argument over whether Wilson would be allowed to tape record the meeting and take photographs. 
Everyone present agreed to a taping of the discussion for archival purposes and senior Pauline Shapiro was given permission to take photographs throughout the discussion. 
Professor of Rhetoric and Composition Laurie McMillin, who acted as moderator, warned against such tiffs between the panel members and Dolan, saying, “I remind us that a dialogue involves an exchange of ideas.” 
Schulz began the discussion by reading a prepared statement in which she expressed concern over Dolan’s status as a trustee representing the College. She continued to cite two different types of protesters of the issue, one designed to garner media attention, the other attempting constructive dialogue. 

One of the most poignant moments of the discussion came when Dolan’s son Paul said, “Whether or not [Chief Wahoo] is offensive is not really a debate. Whether it’s racist is really the crux of the issue.” 
Wilson, a Native American, then donned a Chief Wahoo mask, saying, “I do have a hard time with the image and I think it’s racist. This image of a human being I don’t think is appropriate.” 
Dolan, who seemed calm throughout the emotionally charged discussion, recalled his time spent in the Southwest, where he claimed he saw Native Americans wearing the Indians logo. “I firmly reject that Wahoo is racist. I see that it makes some Natives uncomfortable, clearly not all. I think I understand racism when I see it.” 
Professor of Jazz Studies Peter Dominguez accused Dolan of ignoring the voice of Cleveland-based Native Americans and read several statements he had collected from them. One read, “The trouble with caricatures is that people think that’s what we look like.” 

Dolan later said, “I look on [Wahoo] as positive. I have a warm, affectionate attitude toward Wahoo.” 
Dominguez responded, saying, “There’s no positive meaning in caricature,” and asked Dolan if he thought caricatures could ever be positive. 
Dolan said they could be, concluding, “It isn’t clear to me that it’s offensive to Natives.” 
Dolan pointed out the difficulty the Indians organization and fans would have in accepting that their mascot may carry racist implications and predicted that Cleveland would react with outrage if the mascot were changed. However, he said, “If we were the Redskins, the day after I owned the team the name would have been changed.” 
Several times Dolan argued that Natives don’t universally find the symbol offensive, claiming this diminished his incentive to take action.
Schulz pointed out the difficulty of uniting Natives to form a solid voice of opposition to the Wahoo mascot and Dolan retorted that African Americans were able to unite strongly for the Civil Rights battle. 
When Schulz said that Natives didn’t have the strong leaders African Americans did, Dolan argued that the panel was asking him to do their work for them, and that they needed to form a more unified opposition. 
The discussion ended on a positive note, as Dolan claimed he wished to further educate himself on the issue of insensitivity toward Natives and asked the panel to suggest appropriate reading material. Schulz presented him with a packet of information regarding Cleveland-based Natives. She later said the packet included commentary from non-native people like Catholics who also cite Chief Wahoo as an offensive caricature. 

“I don’t think he can understand how harmful it is to American Indian children in Cleveland and how they have to face this every day,” Schulz later said. Still, Schulz conceded that Dolan seemed sincerely interested in understanding her position. “He seemed really genuine,” she said. 
“I think he was open-minded,” McMillin later said. “He said he wanted to be educated and I believe he was sincere. He showed a lot of humility.” 
McMillin said the discussion went more smoothly than she originally expected. “I tried to prepare for conflict but it seemed like people were respectful. It was a very civil conversation.” 
Regarding her ultimate goal in meeting with Dolan, Schulz said, “The only goal is to change the mascot, but that’s such a huge goal. Maybe a start is something just as small as getting Oberlin to recognize [the issue].” She also said she will proceed by writing Dolan a letter so as to retain an open dialogue with him. “I’m going to do this however he’s most comfortable,” she said.