News Briefs

Students Polled on Iraq War
A Student Senate referendum appeared in students’ mailboxes on Thursday, Nov. 21, with only one question: “Do you support US Military action in Iraq?” The referendum lacked any background information, in a self-proclaimed attempt to be as “neutral as possible.”
The Senate questionnaire is intended to gauge student opinion and make it public, but some students hoped that it would do more.
Oberlin Coalition Against War (OCAW) organizer senior Marianna Leavy-Sperounis said that the administration had expressed “a strong anti-war sentiment” with a recent teach-in, which the questionnaire could bolster.
“We’re hoping that with some student support articulated by the passage of the referendum, the Administration will feel like they have the leverage and the support to come out publicly [against the war],” she said.
Some students hope that won’t happen.
“I’m concerned that student groups who oppose the war are going to try to use the results of the referendum to pressure Nancy Dye into coming out with a formal College position on the War,” senior Chris Holbein said.
“I think [the College] should be left as a neutral institution where students explore their own beliefs and debate with each other without any set political ideologies characterizing the institution as a whole,” he continued.
OCAW tabled on Wednesday and Thursday in Wilder and Mudd in anticipation of the referendum.

— Blake Wilder

Retired Employee Gets Award

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio presented its Liberty’s Flame Award to Oberlin resident and retired College employee Carol Ganzel, for her “decades-long service as a leader within the ACLU,” on Nov. 16.
Ganzel has been active in the ACLU since the early 1970s, when she joined the board of what is now the ACLU North Central Chapter. A few years later, she joined the Ohio affiliate board of directors as chapter representative, and continued to serve until early 2002.
As a board member, she helped improve the financial health of the Ohio chapter. She also participated in efforts to strengthen the affiliate’s education and litigation programs.
Ganzel retired from Oberlin College in 1995, where she had been editor of the staff newspaper since 1981. She is also vice-chair of the City of Oberlin’s Historic Preservation Commission, on which she has served since 1995.

— Jesse Baer