To the Editors,

It is ridiculous and outrageous the way Oberlin College students make sweeping generalizations on people and issues.

As I sat and read a letter published in last week’s Review claiming that Bosko Tomasevic is a guilty man walking free, it really made me rise up from my once complacent and apathetic stance to the ignorance on this campus and speak out on behalf of this young man.

First, let’s get the story straight. The author who wrote the letter, in the March 12, 2004 edition of the Review, claims that Bosko is guilty and that he was proven innocent based on “sexism and a rape culture endemic to U.S mainstream culture.”
Well, am I still in Oberlin ‘cause mainstream culture isn’t something I find easily at Oberlin College? Sexism?

Bosko was found innocent in a COURT OF LAW separate from anything associated with the College. But that wasn’t enough, here at Oberlin he was still forced to be found innocent once again through an Oberlin College court in which two of five jurors were his peers and at least two of them were women and once again, by a UNANIMOUS decision he was proven innocent.

Furthermore, at the helm of the college inquiry into the case were Camille Hamlin-Allen and President Dye who, the last time I looked, were both women.

The author also spoke about the college (naming some administrators specifically) holding people accountable for acts committed on campus in the fall of 2001.

Since when is the College a decider of rape and what it is? Who is responsible? And how should violators be prosecuted and punished?

I believe such responsibility should be left to OFFICIAL governing bodies of law and legislature. It is not the College’s responsibility nor do I want it to be and I doubt that even the severest punishment the college could give within its limits of power would be sufficient for violators.

Finally, who cares if the author in question doesn’t see Bosko as her hero. Great! Get over it! Unless you have evidence to show otherwise, Bosko is INNOCENT, a fact proven in not one but two courts.

If a professor brings me before the Honor Committee on grounds of cheating on an exam and they find me innocent, is it fair to let future professors know about those allegations and always throw it in my face and not let me have the same rights and privileges of praise for a job well done as everyone else?

No one here at Oberlin College has selective amnesia as the author mentioned. Bosko has to live with a stigma placed on him by everyone in this community.

So please let’s not make it seem like folks are forgetting because they haven’t, especially Bosko.

I personally think Bosko should sue the author for slander. I would. They are not my hero, they are not my hero.

–Ronnie Goines
College junior