Review and Senate must be better

To the Editor:

In last week's Review, Hanna Miller and Michelle Becker re-awakened a concern that dominates every discussion of student government here at Oberlin: can Student Senate be considered valuable if the average student doesn't really know what it's doing? It's a crucial question, and one that I once resigned over when I couldn't come up with an answer that satisfied me.

It all depends on what you want your student government to be doing. If you demand that your student government be at the cutting edge of each and every issue that grips this campus, then we've failed you. Student Senate is not a good vehicle for stopping U.S. intervention in Iraq or reforming tobacco industry ethics.

What are we good at? Boring shit. Stuff that doesn't make exciting copy for the Review, so it doesn't get reported on terribly much. Meagan Willits has read and analyzed a two foot tall stack of complex proposals and contracts in an effort to make sure our next student health care plan is better than the last one. Erika Hansen and Nnnena Onumah are working out the kinks in a plan to build a permanent link between the College and the OASIS animal shelter. Joshua Kaye discovered that we could reduce our textbook costs significantly if we could convince the faculty to hand in their book lists to the co-op a little earlier. He's going door-to-door to make it happen. The cost savings for a semester alone could pay for every dime spent on student goverment in the last decade.

Sometimes radical action is called for - a few dozen protestors, including at least one former Oberlin Student Senator, acted up at a meeting in Columbus and managed to send the American foreign policy establishment into spasms. That is not, however, the only model of activism available to us. I think that sometimes we bind ourselves too tightly to a romanticized ideal of '60's style student activism. Just because Senate hasn't held a rally and flipped over a cop car in the past week doesn't mean that it hasn't bettered the lives of students. I'd rather leave more radical change to more radical movements: Senate should make sure that other campus activists have the time, the space, the facilities and the peace of mind to pursue more visionary goals.

I don't, however, mean to say there isn't room for improvement. Senate has to buckle down and start producing more policy proposals that better students. Some say that we need better publicity: I believe that we're here if you need us, and I'm loathe to spend a dollar more on self-aggrandizing posters and press releases.

The Review could offer more in-depth analysis: its editorial last week made a joke about how I seem to be the only Senator anyone's ever heard of. The joke is real, though. There are many Senators doing many good things, but it seems sometimes that the Review only contacts and quotes a very few of us. Women outnumber men on Senate by far (sometimes it seems like Megan outnumbers us all by herself), but you can hardly tell it from the Review's coverage.

There are many modes of student activism at Oberlin, and both the Review and Senate need to be as creative in identifying and supporting such movements as students are in forming and pursuing them.

-Chapin Benninghoff College senior

Parking tickets are emblematic of Security's power tripping

To the Editor:

(The following is an open Essay to Campus Security)

As you may remember, Wednesday February 18th was a very rainy day. The rain started early in the morning and continued throughout the day. I had to report to work at the Office of Admissions at 1:30 p.m., and I am required by this job to look presentable and professional while I am in the office. As I was about to walk to work from my off campus apartment, I discovered that it was still raining heavily. I decided to drive to work and park in the large parking lot behind Stevenson. Upon arriving at this lot I discovered that not only were almost all of the parking spaces occupied, but that several individuals had parked along the driving paths that circle the lot. Luckily for me, there was one space open, down in the "student" section of the lot. I parked in this space and was enraged when I returned to find that I had been given a ticket which cited me for "no valid permit displayed" and for "unauthorized lot use." NOT ONE of the cars parked illegally outside of parking spaces (and in some cases, directly in front of "no parking" signs) was given a ticket. I was greatly disturbed that Campus Security has nothing better to do than find poor parking sticker-less students to screw when a rain of biblical proportions was descending upon our fair campus. I understand that I don't have a sticker, and I understand that I was parked (for three hours) illegally. However, I think that Security has better things to worry about, especially when there was such a shortage of parking due to the foul weather. I am angered that security gave me this ticket, and even more angered that they cited me for two identical violations (for if I had a "permit" than the lot would not have been "unauthorized"). I decided to write this letter so that I might shed some light on just what it is security is supposed to be doing around here. Apparently, they get a power trip out of discovering the one car in a parking lot that doesn't belong and slapping the offending student on the wrist. I do not intend to pay this ticket, and I hope that you will use this example to help shape your opinion of Campus Security.

-Jeremy Sullivan College senior

Oberlin seems to have a smoking epidemic

To the Editor:

I recently returned to Oberlin for the first time since graduating in 1975 for my daughter's college visit and interview. In the midst of the whoosh of memories and renewed excitement for Oberlin's academic programs, I became increasingly alarmed at the level of tobacco use I observed on campus. Aside from the obvious health concerns, the issue of smoking is an intensely political one. Tobacco companies are among the most diabolical in corporate America. A short list of their unethical, greed-driven tactics includes:

1. tampering with the nicotine content of cigarettes to guarantee addiction.

2. targeting children to ensure ongoing generations of addicted consumers.

3. selling a product that is harmful not only to users, but to innocent bystanders as well.

It is ironic that young people often feel that smoking is an act of defiance and self determination, when in fact they have been ever-so-successfully manipulated by tobacco companies' propaganda. The reasons for smoking among college students are undoubtedly more complex, and yet still fundamentally involve internalizing propaganda such as smoking as a catalyst for stress reduction or intimacy.

It appears to me that there is a smoking epidemic on the Oberlin campus. I challenge the Oberlin community to critically examine and debate the issues surrounding tobacco use.

-Dr. Julie Klein Class of 1975