Cole accomplishments go unnoticed
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Climate of fear ...
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To the Editor:
I feel that the Oberlin Review has provided a poor and biased representation of Dean Charlene Cole-Newkirk to the students, parents, and alumni of Oberlin College. In direct response to the articles in this past Review (Sept. 26) many of the comments made were generalized perspectives, a representation of a lack of professionalism, and distortions of the truth. Yes, it is true that students have many questions about pressing issues of Oberlin, but unfortunately, when these questions are unanswered, Dean Cole becomes the scapegoat. Instead of pointing the finger at Dean Cole for her actions, it should be taken into consideration that she does not act alone. It is very valid to say that she has to take responsibility for her actions, but as students we have to understand that she is given these responsibilities by her superiors including President Nancy Dye and many trustees. I feel that the stance that this Review has taken has been very racist and sexist. Would the Review portray our Dean in this same manner if she were a White woman? Or better yet, if this position was filled by a White man? Would their families be harassed by these journalists in the same way? Why is it that all other administrators can travel all over the world, but when Dean Cole goes to Africa it is an issue? We definitely need to ask ourselves why her actions are being questioned when her duties are completely within her jurisdiction.
Has the Review ever attempted to highlight the many accomplishments of Dean Cole? As an African-American woman I have noticed the support as well as the programming that has come from the Dean of Students Office, but why hasn't the rest of campus? Students fail to realize that Dean Cole has supported a number of student activities such as the Biennial Asian and Pacific Islanders Conference, SOBIE's fair, the Black Alumni Reunion, the LGBTU Reunion Conference and various lectures, concerts, and programs. The campus shuttle bus system, the renovation of Wilder, the Langston Student Emergency Fund, the AIDS Quilt, the review of Student Health, and the partial meal plan option are some additional projects. Does Dean Cole constantly have to be analyzed and accused to prove herself to this college? Maybe this campus needs to wake up, open their eyes and start acting maturely before making any more allegations that are unjustified.
To the Editor:
I just read today's issue of the Review and I am appalled by the story about Lana Hagge and Charlene Cole-Newkirk, both of whom I know. Your story has a number of allegations and unsupported assertions, and little fact. Indeed, most of the people you quoted and spoke to did not support your unnamed sources, including Hagge herself.
What's going on here? Rather than reflecting responsible journalism, your story smacks of tabloid-type tactics. I would hope that Oberlin students would represent the former, rather than the latter, approach to journalistic news. Your coverage of Dean Cole-Newkirk over the past months suggests that your reporters have taken a stand against Cole-Newkirk, rather than maintained a neutral stance. There appears to be some sort of vendetta against Cole-Newkirk, perhaps formented by a (numerical) minority of folks with a hidden agenda, a few disgruntled folks with their own axes to grind. Is this some sort of high-tech lynching?
If one were to speculate, it seems more plausible that if there were personal problems they might be on the part of those who have a problem working with or reporting to a high-level African American woman with an accomplished record of achievement. Of course, this is pure speculation, supported by nothing more than the ones you've so eagerly hurled against Cole-Newkirk.
To the Editor (in response to d.t. ogilvie's commentary):
I am an Oberlin senior who read your e-mail during a meeting, and though I have no affiliation with, nor great love for the Oberlin Review , or some of its reporting tactics, I do have a vested interest in the debate around Dean Cole-Newkirk. Perhaps you might say I am one of those "(numerical) minority of folks with a hidden agenda." My agenda is only to have the truth about A&PS workers at Oberlin exposed, to have students understand the climate of fear that has ensued because of this summer's firing (or as the administration would now have us believe, "resignation" of Deb McNish), the lack of accountability the administration has to us, and the work (or lack there of) Dean Cole-Newkirk has done for the benefit of the Oberlin community during her tenure.
It is very easy to superficially make this into a "white Oberlin Review, and Oberlin College administration" versus "poor defenseless Black woman Dean" issue, but it is much more complex than this. True, race is a factor but so is class, and power. Dean Cole-Newkirk would have us believe that she is powerless against Nancy Dye and the Trustees, that she rarely makes decisions of her own volition. If this be the case then I would like that to come out. But then I also expect an account of her role in the rash of forced resignations and firings that have taken place in the last two years. I cannot believe that an articulate woman who possess(es) several degrees is so consummately powerless in this institution which is structured in such a manner that the hands of its Deans are never tied.
And in terms of a high tech lynching, I ask why is it that neither you nor any other concerned Alumni leveled this charge when Deb McNish was fired, when Yeworkwha Belachew took a leave of absence, when Robin Russell and Diem Nyugen were forced to resign, or when Dwight Hollins was in the
middle of his battle with the College? Where were you and other concerned alumni when Third World House was being threatened after Kwame Ture spoke at Oberlin for the second time? When students from Third World House and Afrikan Heritage House were being harassed by faculty and other students after Ture's visit? It is interesting to note what battles we choose and what is at stake in each of these battles.
As a low income woman of colour, I choose my battles carefully and all I know is that suddenly after years of being frustrated that numerous faculty and staff who I knew to be supportive of me and my issues and concerns leave and are forced to leave Oberlin, a Dean who has not been supportive of me, who I never see in campus crisis situations, who I have to wait a month to make an appointment to see, who lowers her eyes away from students when walking down the street, who has turned down invitation after invitation to be involved with the lives of students, is now the supposed victim of a high tech lynching facilitated by those same students?
In terms of the personal problems of those who might have difficulties working with or reporting to a high-level African American woman, whose record of achievement I do not wish to debate at the moment, what of the African American woman she fired, what of the African woman she forced a leave from, what of them? What of those two women who students trusted and turned to, when Dean Cole-Newkirk couldn't be
bothered? What of her ability to work with them and others who were/are know advocates for students and their concerns and needs. Dean Cole-Newkirk didn't stay with frightened, and worried students after Baldwin Cottage had been attacked. Nancy Dye didn't stay, Deb, Y.B., Robin Russell, Diem, Wendy Hesford, Brinda Rao, Jan Cooper, they were the ones who stayed, and funny only one of them is still at Oberlin only a year and a half later.
Perhaps I have an ax to grind, but I expect that a Dean of Student Life will be supportive of students. I do not expect that sympathy should come pouring into her when the students she has ignored, and patronized in her tenure at Oberlin voice their dissatisfaction.
Related Stories:
Cole-Newkirk renovates home
The buzz around Dean Cole-Newkirk
Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review. Contact us with your comments and suggestions.
Cole accomplishments go unnoticed
Cole story really reeks of tabloid-type tactics
OC Alumni Board Member-at-Large
Associate Professor of Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University
Climate of fear ensued following firings and resignations
- September 26, 1996
- September 26, 1996
- September 26, 1996
Volume 126, Number 5, October 3, 1997