Race, class and leadership at Oberlin College
As the Supreme Court begins to hear arguments for and against affirmative action
at the University of Michigan, I wanted to share some general reflections on race, class and leadership
at Oberlin.
Ive spent five years now working for my alma mater interpreting Oberlin to others. We have
magnificent students. I have no trouble telling an audience of New Yorkers or Seattleites or Atlantans
what makes Oberlin students unique: they are more independent and mature than most students youll
meet. They are risk takers. They are intolerant of peer pressure. They love learning. They learn
from each other and from their professors. They are outstanding artists and researchers. More Oberlin
students go on to earn PhDs than from any other private undergraduate college. Oberlin students
organize; they do it for themselves; they dont sit around waiting for it all to happen. Oberlin
students make profound commitments to research, the arts, musicianship and athletics. And as the
admissions office will say, they think one person can change the world. Oberlin students come from
a fascinating mix of racial, religious, geographic, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.
Sometimes people in the audience will ask the hard questions: are there drugs at Oberlin? Do students
self-segregate? What are Oberlins weaknesses? Is Oberlin need-blind? Will students make fun
of a southern accent? I try to answer honestly in context. Colleagues at other schools are perhaps
less honest, but I dont believe Oberlin is the right school for the easily misled, or those
who must believe their school is perfect. And I think admissions would be doing the Oberlin student
community a disservice to portray it as a utopia, because I think we want students at Oberlin who
will appreciate the unique atmosphere at Oberlin, but who also are good at identifying and engaging
with the challenges inherent in any community.
Like many Obies, I like to think and talk about how they should fix the place. There
will always be things that need fixing, and Ill mention a few opportunities I see, but first
Id like to praise the place a little more in the areas of race, class and leadership. (One
of the biggest things that they need to fix, make that we, is that we dont praise the place
enough in balance with our expressions of concern). Since I graduated from Oberlin in 1987, the
college has roughly doubled its minority enrollment. After the fin-de-siecle retirement wave among
the professorate, Oberlin has made real strides in attracting new teachers who come from importantly
different backgrounds and life experiences (especially in light of how PhDs from the underrepresented
academic minorities are in great demand nationally). While Oberlin cant afford to be need-blind,
we enroll more Pell grant recipients and more students with financial need as a percentage of the
total student body than some vastly wealthier need-blind schools. While we dont wear uniforms,
our students choose not to emphasize their various class backgrounds by what they wear, perhaps
leveling the playing field a bit. Many of you come here from experiences of dramatic
leadership: you organized a gay-straight alliance at a Catholic school against parental opposition,
or you worked a job every week for as many hours as you went to school in order to help hold your
family together financially, or you mentored and tutored younger students, or you were first chair
of an all-state youth orchestra, or you captained an athletic team or two, all while making the
most of what your school had to offer. Many of you still do these things at Oberlin. Youre
awesome.
Beyond the leadership, the individual and personal achievements I read about from prospective students
are no less impressive: you won scholarships to academically challenging schools, and not only
succeeded in the classroom, but somehow managed to navigate the jarring commute from ghetto to
rich classroom and back every day. Or you managed to engage creatively with life despite the dulling
isolation of the teenage suburbs. You managed to perceive your privilege while others around you
were navel-gazing, and you started to give back and to lead. You nurtured a talent with discipline
and skill to a level of achievement few will ever reach. You overcame depression, or your parents
depression or your parents divorce. You overcame your parents.
I have the best job in the world reading the stories of prospective Oberlin students lives
so far. I have the hardest job in the world saying no to some applicants. We are all
very fortunate to be here.
In five years on the staff at Oberlin, I havent seen a year where staff received raises of
an equal much less greater measure than the faculty. The Oberlin classroom is what
you, the student, pay for, and I have seen the College trim expenses where it can to protect faculty
salaries and the core academic mission of the college. Undoubtedly, cuts in spending will hurt
other programs, including non-academic student programs (unless the recession is suddenly over
and we return to 20% gains in the endowment). Its a disappointment, but its also an
opportunity for those student leaders who havent engaged here yet.
In the areas of race and class, is there room for more student-run initiatives? Could new student
leaders help ease the transition for those of us who come here and face profound culture shock?
And if you dont see yourself as a leader, can you support one? With Oberlin student pride
as strong as ever, I am always gratified to see a student-lead solution to a problem outside the
classroom. Wed all like to see more students stay on and graduate from Oberlin after a challenging
and enriching experience here. If I were a student today and wanted to improve retention and relations
among students from different backgrounds, Id think about what student lead options could
help. I think the best solutions to student social concerns (outside the classroom) come from the
students: like ExCo, the Co-ops, the student-run music conferences and the new organizations every
year.
Students here achieve so much outside of the classroom, but I think we have a harder time with
teamwork than is ideal. We have some wonderful examples of successful teams on the fields and in
the orchestra halls, but sometimes, with all of Oberlins individualist strengths, we forget
to seek expertise in teamwork. Efforts to achieve consensus become a contest to see whos
the last one standing. Joint class projects end with someone saying, Ill just do it.
We forget to acknowledge the strengths of our opponents in discussions.
Ive always been a little weary of the Think one person? slogan. It works, it
gets our literature read by the right people, students who need to be here. But sometimes I wish
we could rephrase it: Think two people can change the world? Or think 2900 people can change the
world? So many of the great modern examples of Obies whove changed the world couldnt
have done it by themselves: Donald Henderson needed the World Health Organization to eradicate
smallpox, Julie Taymor needed Walt Disney to stage the Lion King, Eduardo Mondlane needed the people
of Mozambique to help improve the government, etc. Have you asked yourself who you will need to
help you change the world? Have you learned to work with people who are profoundly different from
you?
We should work deliberately as a community to be certain that students from different backgrounds
are encouraged to work together towards achieving a goal. This requires deliberate effort, but
it results in better harmony among the different. I do not think it is enough for students from
different backgrounds to go to class together. I agree with social psychologist Robert Cialdini
who suggests in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion that a desegregated classroom may increase
dislike among different students if the classroom experience is a competitive one. Cialdinis
is a marketing book, but his insights on how to get people to like something offer insights for
overcoming the divisions that may still be present at Oberlin against our better wishes for the
place. I think we can all agree we want to like each other.
People tend to like people with whom they have collaborated in overcoming an obstacle. Cialdini
suggests something called jigsaw learning as a cooperative model in the classroom that
will bring students from different backgrounds to appreciate one another. Im sure there are
other pedagogies that work too, but they all seem to require a self-conscious effort on the instructors
part. It may not be enough to throw everybody in the mixing pot of the classroom for it to work:
someone may need to stir.
Outside the classroom in the Oberlin student community, there may be different challenges. Mostly,
the college resists a role of in loco parentis and that is part of why many of you are here. Youre
grown up already. Youre more mature than some of your professors. But that makes it up to
you to change things in the social life of students at Oberlin. It seems unrealistic to expect
independence and also to expect the college to fix everything in the student social realm. Oberlin
students do it for themselves. Thats part of what makes you unique as a community. But heres
a challenge I see: Im beginning to think that its not always enough just to live near
people who are different from you to appreciate them. Rather, I think it takes leadership and collaboration
with those who are willing to stir the melting pot. Lead and take part in group challenges self-consciously
designed for people from different backgrounds. Its not enough to live together.
Of course, the academics here and the performance demands can be all the challenge anyone can wish
to face. It may be enough just to succeed in the classroom, but when youre feeling in control,
dont forget to take time to get out of your social comfort zone. From what I read, thats
part of why youre here.
Thank you to all of you who will spend time with the admitted students who will be visiting Oberlin
in droves in the next couple of weeks. What you say to them has a profound impact on where theyll
choose to go to school and whether those that have something exciting and needed to offer (each
in their different way) will come here. I cant tell you how many times Ive heard, I
chose Oberlin because of the people. You, our current students, are our best advertisement.
Thank you for taking that role seriously.
Edward Derby 87
Assistant Director of Admissions
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