Editorials

Dye Ruling Assures Future Justice
 
President Nancy Dye’s decision to personally review the Barnard assault case was a difficult and incredibly gutsy one. Once that decision had been made, the decision to expel seniors Ryan Catignani and Rick Kocher was a relatively easy one. The facts of the case were almost never in doubt, as the still-harsh judgement of the second Community Board demonstrated. The real decision here was whether or not a bad and unpopular ruling warranted administrative intervention in what is almost entirely a community-based judicial process. Dye decided that it did and the Review applauds her for that decision.
This is not a decision to be taken lightly, as Dye herself has made sure to acknowledge frequently. But there is not, as some have suggested, the danger of this action setting a precedent for increased administrative intervention in College judicial procedures. For one thing, as the Review noted in its May 11 editorial, the office of the Dean of Students is already intimately involved –– though not in a voting role –– in the judicial process. They possess the power, as we said, “to frame the sanction, implying severity by analogy to previous infraction sanctions,” in that they compile “a log of similar infractions so that the Board may be guided by precedent.” (Rules and Regs, Section VII, Part B, No. 6)
Such is the power of this ruling. By operating in part outside of the normal judicial process, Dye has created a precedent for the severity of offense which would warrant the extraordinary measure of personal review by the President. The message, then, should be clear to future College adjudicators exactly what kind of action warrants expulsion at Oberlin; something which, in Dye’s words in her statement to the Oberlin community, “[violates] several of the College’s most fundamental principles and values.” This reprehensible assault –– an assault on a student sleeping in his own dorm room, by fellow students –– clearly did just that. As such, this unusual and “extraordinary” action by President Dye was without a doubt a necessary one, and should go a long way to preventing further use of such supernormal powers as were used in this case.

Chartering Process Provides Promise
 
The new chartering process for student organizations passed at the General Faculty meeting on Tuesday, May 15 does much to strengthen student government accountability and responsibility. But even beyond that, it creates an opportunity for student government to acquire more political capital and legitimacy than it has possessed in recent memory.
The new chartering process is, in many ways, like a pet. If students do not display responsibility and take care of the process by pushing the it along at every step of the way, it will not die, exactly, or prove to be an improvement on the status quo. General Faculty, through the one-month oversight period granted by the compromise amendment (see article page 3), would be the default adjudicator for student organizations should the process fail. But student government now has the autonomy and authority to determine whether the process is effectively and judiciously run. Should this be the case, and should the charters which come before GF are be viable and professionally presented, the GF, like a parent proud of their child’s care-taking for the family pet, will grant student government more authority and responsibility.
Though perhaps patronizing, the analogy of the GF as parent to the child of student government (through Student Senate and student representatives on other committees) is a valid one, as the debate surrounding the chartering process revealed. Though perfectly willing to cede process authority for student organizations, even most of the faculty supportive of the new process were unwilling to cede ultimate authority for organization approval to primarily student organizations (there is one faculty member on Student Life Committee).
Thus, it is critical that Student Senate and other student government representatives display the utmost diligence in the execution of their duties in the next school year. A great opportunity exists, created through the hard work of many past an present student government representatives; it would be a shame to squander it.