Student
Petition is Unproductive
To
the Editors:
I
received a forwarded e-mail today regarding a petition of No Confidence
that the student body is circulating against Peter Goldsmith. So
youre ousting him for, what, being human? No, he didnt
always have excellent communication skills; no, he hasnt
always worked perfectly with everyone. Who ever has? Come on and
cast that ston er, write that petition.
Nothing that man does will ever be appreciated or accepted by the
student body, or at least the particularly identity-politicky clan
behind the petition. Id like to cast a No Confidence vote
at those students: I have absolutely No Confidence that they will
be able to see this situation in a balanced and fair manner. Neither
do I have any confidence in their ability to understand that, while
Goldsmith is the one doing the axing of staff in Student Life, its
likely because hes been given no other choice.
The College has very little money right now. It relies heavily on
alumni contributions to puff up the endowment. But we alums, it
seems, arent doing too well right now, what with the economy
shot and all. Sorry, but were not giving as much as usual.
As a result, the endowment has fallen, and now, so are the axes.
Actually, theyve been falling for some time: did you know
something like 40 percent of all A&PS jobs (the people in the
registrars, the library, departmental offices, etc.) are staffed
by temps? Theres been a hiring freeze for almost a year now,
in an attempt to save money.
So, Oberlin, what then should happen? If the MRC goes, the CAS people
protest: I see students wearing little sticky labels reading I
love CAS. If the Office of the Chaplains is targeted, the
campus Christians raise, well, hell: a good friend of mine wrote
a letter to the editor just last week in defense of Fred Lassen.
And if the Theater and Dance interns are attacked, OSTAs gonna
riot or Vibell show up at Peteys office to tapdance
on his forehead didnt I see some letter to that effect
a couple weeks ago?
Oberlin, there is not enough money to keep things going the way
they currently are. Somewhere, sometime, somehow, somethings
gotta give; the College will have to spend less money elsewhere
(and I betcha its not going to be in sports). If the student
body refuses to let go of any Student Life staff members, programming
like Cinema Studies, Comparative American Studies, and Environmental
Studies will suffer. Whats worse, so will Financial
Aid. Student need will play an even larger role in who, ultimately,
gets admitted; the College will be forced to accept even fewer first-generation
and low-income students because they cost the College more. (This
worries me because I likely would not get admitted today
as the first person in my low-income family to attend college, I
cost Oberlin $24,000 per year.) Yet more wealthy students will be
admitted. They receive no (or very little) aid, so theyre
more economically viable choices.
The campus is already growing wealthier year by year, and it will
only become more so. Is that what you want? I mean, what exactly
do you want? And more importantly, what are you going
to do about it?
Hint: the key isnt to oust Goldsmith, because then Nancy will
just have to conduct another job search, and that will cost even
more money. Look at the whole picture and dont shoot yourself
in the foot as you stomp it in protest.
Jill Certo
OC 00
|