Dye responds to student letter

Students glad to have response, plan meetings with President

After the student demonstration for institutional support on Oct. 16, a group of students penned a letter to College President Nancy Dye stating their demands. The letter requested a response by Nov. 3.

November 3 came and went, and students received no response. Assistant to the President Diana Roose contacted the letter writers to inform them that Dye was developing a response.

Dye's response--all 15 pages of it--was sent to the letter writers last Friday. The original letter, which was signed by eight students, demanded a specific response to questions concruiting, diversity and administrative support.

"I'm glad to finally have down in black and white the way President Dye sees things at Oberlin," senior Vayram Nyadroh said. "I do not agree with everything she said in her letter, but I hope we can get some productive discussion going on."

Senior Jennifer Lin said, "I agree with Dye to a point, but steady conversation can only go so far. Those steady conversations have to be followed up by student actions."

Lin and Nyradoh reported they were not particularly surprised by anything in Dye's letter. "I was hopeful from the beginning for something comprehensive," Lin said.

The eight students will meet with Dye next week to begin conversations.

Retention of administrators of color and LGBT administrators

...Oberlin has begun a retention study for faculty and staff of color. It will take time to collect all of the data we need for an effective, valid study, and it will take considerable time and effort to analyze those data. It won't be possible to have any meaningful results by December. What can be reported and discussed by the end of the semester is information about Oberlin's recruitment and employment of faculty, administrators, technical and clerical staff and service staff, and specific patterns of hiring and retaining persons of color within each of the College's employee groups.

A word about LGBT administrators, whose patterns of employment and retention you have asked to see as part of this study. The College... does not ask job applicants or employees to provide information about sexual orientation.

Students and the Board of Trustees

...Students should always consider attending the forums that our class trustees hold. The purpose of these forums is to listen to students, learn about the issues currently of concern to them, and communicate those concerns to the rest of the trustees.

Trustees also have some opportunities to meet students informally...Unfortunately, the board agenda is very crowded, and trustees do not have as many opportunities as they should to attend classes, concerts, athletic events, plays, art exhibitions and other events on campus, or to just sit down with students and enjoy some conversation and a cup of coffee. This is an aspect of Oberlin trustee culture I would like to see changed.

Open Forums

My first experience with an Oberlin open forum came during the presidential search in December, 1993. It was a disaster. In that forum and in every subsequent one I have taken part in, there has been considerable tension between the audience and the speaker - a tension that is inevitably adversarial...

Virtually any change, large or small, in a place as democratic as Oberlin can be brought about only by sustained discussion and extensive consultation. But the principle behind the open forum seems to be the reverse: change somehow can be brought about through a short, focused, verbal confrontation.

So what would I propose instead?...Conversation, I believe, is far preferable.

To be effective in moving a complex institution such as Oberlin, conversations need to bring together and engage different voices...To be effective, conversations also need to be sustained.

The Conservatory

Karen Wolff, the dean of the Conservatory, along with he Conservatory faculty council, the Conservatory faculty generally, and I, are committed to hiring more African American and Latino Conservatory faculty...We will continue to make every effort to improve the representation of faculty of color in the Conservatory.

The dean, the Con faculty, and I are aware of the inadequacy of the Jazz Studies space in Hales Gym. That space will be reconfigured and improved as part of an overall expansion and enhancement of arts facilities for the Conservatory and the College.

Administrative Support for Ethnic, Latino and Asian American Studies Departments

Both Clayton Koppes, Dean of the College, and I have been consistent and vocal in our support for diversifying Oberlin's curriculum...

I do not think that the College should create new and separate departments along the lines that you seem to advocate in your letter...I would much rather see us move in the direction of interdisciplinary programs such as a program in American cultures...

Oberlin Recruiting

I fail to see evidence in past or present publications that we "overrepresent students of color in order to sell the school." Similarly, I can see no evidence of "masking" gay and lesbian students. During the last few years, some excellent progress has been made in developing admissions materials for LGBT... students.

In the past year, we have greatly strengthened our efforts to recruit students in east and south Asia...We would like to recruit more students from Latin America and Africa as part of our efforts to make Oberlin as international a campus as it can possibly be.

Support for Faculty and Administrators of Color

Oberlin works hard to provide support to every individual who works at the College. There are no formal institutional support programs for minority faculty or staff, although there are informal associations...

Diversity

Is Oberlin diverse? I think the answer to that is two-fold. Oberlin is at once more diverse than most American colleges and universities and less diverse than it wants and needs to be if it is to continue to be as relevant as it has been historically to American society. In the preceding pages I have shared some of the ways in which I think that Oberlin can make progress in becoming as diverse as it possibly can be. I look forward to meeting with you.