Students take heart in Oberlin's newest clubs

Students who are not already stressed out, sleep-deprived, overcommitted and counting the days until Thanksgiving, may want to fill their free time with the new flux of student organizations.

Since Fall Break, charters for organizations as diverse as the Future Lawyers of America and the Pagan Awareness Network, Ecumenical Christians of Oberlin and the American Institute of Graphic Arts have been submitted to the Student Life Committee (SLC) for approval. Several political organizations have sprouted up on campus, including Oberlin Model United Nations, a Debate Club and the Conservative Forum.

"We are not having a surge [in new organizations]," student senator senior Dan Persky said. "We have maybe a few more than normal."

Organizations have various reasons for starting up.

Conservative Forum founder sophomore Tuukka said, "I felt very isolated my freshman year as a conservative student. I wanted to break that isolation somehow. I wasn't sure if the interest was there on campus."

"This campus is so politicized, albeit just one way, just liberal," Tuukka said. "And that can really get on your nerves as a conservative student to always have to defend yourself 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Tuukka was encouraged to come to campus when he heard about the OC Republicans in the Oberlin Viewbook. The organization disbanded before Tuukka arrived on campus.

"When I looked down the list [of organizations] at Wilder nothing took hold of me," Tuukka said. "If nothing else a freshman could look down the list and find an organization that interested him or her."

The forum has two purposes according to Tuukka of breaking the isolation on campus for conservative students and bringing conservative speakers to campus.

Tuukka knows about the isolation conservative students felt from his first-year experience. "I felt like transferring," Tuukka said.

"When in every one of your classes, no one else expresses views similar to yours, you start doubting everything that you are. It's very emotional. I went into a retreat, removing my self from politics, campus life," Tuukka said.

Tuukka found speaking up in class with his conservative views brought the whole class against him.

"I like discussion," Tuukka said. "I don't like a diatribe against me."

He couldn't defend his views against his entire class, so he just stopped speaking out.

"I can't match the brain power of 27 Oberlin students. It's like you versus Deep Blue. It's hard to speak out in that kind of atmosphere," Tuukka said.

The organization is a place where moderates, conservatives, libertarians and populists can voice their opinion in a safe space on campus according to Tuukka.

"I am glad it's here just because it gives people a place to voice their opinions that..." sophomore Robin Licker began.

Sophomore Beth Kontrabecki completed Licker's sentence. "That are therefore shot down by the parochial mindset that Oberlin possesses," Kontrabecki said.

Nineteen people responded with interest to the Conservative Forum and 11 students show up to its first meeting. A charter by and for the organization is in the works, according to Tuukka.

Other organizations haven't had the welcome reception the Forum did. Four people attended the first meeting of Oberlin Model United Nations last week.

Sophomores Mike Wallerstein and Honora Collins decided to form the organization last year, after participating in it at high school and finding out that Oberlin didn't have one.

"I was a little surprised, because most schools of Oberlin's caliber have a pre-existing Model UN club," Wallerstein said. "I just assumed that a school like this would have one."

Although the organization was approved last year, the Student Finance Committee (SFC) lost its charter and didn't allot it any funds. At the beginning of the year the organization applied to SFC for emergency funds. Two weeks ago the club received $250 from SFC, which amounted to a quarter of the cost to go to one conference according to Wallerstein and began "working on getting together and figuring out what we could do this year," according to Wallerstein.

Editor's note: This article was modified on Nov. 5, 2009 to remove a former student's name.