The seats in Wilder 112 were full for the first time in several months on Sunday night as the now complete 15-person Student Senate sat down for its first meeting since the election of three new senators Monday.
After a day-long retreat to orient the new senators, Senate sat down to face a packed agenda and many guest speakers.
Several proposals were submitted to Senate regarding College investment policy, Oberlin's stance on U.S. military action in Iraq and College rules and regulations.
Oberlin Coalition for Peace Proposals
In light of current events concerning U.S. foreign policy in Iraq, first-year Laurel Paget-Seekins and former senator junior Russell Menyhart attended the Senate meeting to represent groups such as Amnesty International, the Oberlin Coalition for Peace, Oberlin Students for Socially Responsible Investing, Oberlin Action Against Prisons and Students for a Free Palestine. They submitted two proposals for Senate's approval.
The first proposal recommended that Senate support a movement to create a "code of conduct" for guidance in College investment policy. Menyhart and Paget-Seekins were concerned that the College currently invests in companies who profit from military products, such as the GTE corporation, and thus financially supports U.S. officials' threats to bomb Iraq.
"We feel it's irresponsible for Oberlin not to have a code of conduct in regards to the investments we make," Menyhart said. "At this point I'm unaware of any lines that have been drawn with regards to what Oberlin College invests in."
Menyhart added that he felt it was urgent Senate approve the proposal so it could be presented to the Board of Trustees at its meeting this weekend.
Senators recently have become very familiar with issues of College investment. Several weeks ago they voted in favor of a symposium to discuss College investment practices, in response to a student raising the issue of possible divestment from College-owned tobacco stocks. Some senators spoke out against tobacco-specific issues.
Some of those senators spoke up again on Sunday night.
"I feel it's very important that our school remain neutral so students can form their own beliefs and opinions," senator senior Chapin Benninghoff said. "We discussed a lot of these issues before in Senate and there was a lot of dissension. If the community as a whole agrees that Oberlin is an active community and this is the stance we should take, I feel there should be wider community dialogue."
Senator junior Lara Iverson was among the many senators who questioned the process of developing a code of conduct. "Who would determine the code of conduct? How would it be developed? What lines do you intend to be drawn?" she asked.
Menyhart said many committees and administrators would be involved in the process. "But we're not asking for specific guidelines right now. We just ask that the issue be addressed," he said.
Several senators worried that the proposal was more philosophical than practical.
Newly-elected senator Adriana Lopez-Young, a Double-degree junior, said, "I wonder if the statement you're asking us to adopt is more symbolic in nature rather than about structural framework. We need to separate the two. We could adopt a philosophical statement and use it to work toward a framework, but we need to know what we have here."
Senator junior Meagan Willits agreed. "I think we can all see something good in this, and I think there is something we could find common ground on within the Senate, but I don't think this is it," she said. She added that she felt the proposal needs more work before it goes before the Board of Trustees.
Menyhart said he felt the proposal is just the beginning of what he'd like to see happen. "We've tried to keep this nonspecific, but we see this as the very basis to begin from and not as a culmination to vote on. It's a basis for the stimulation of discussion for Trustees and the Oberlin students," he said.
Senators voted by ballot and did not pass the proposal.
Menyhart also proposed that Senate take an official stance against U.S. military action in Iraq and support students' actions to express anger against U.S. policy.
"This isn't a traditional proposal; we're asking Senate to take a position outside the Oberlin community. We believe it's in Senate's power to consider things outside of Oberlin and to make statements about them. We feel this is a direct reflection of the feelings of an overwhelming majority of Oberlin students," Menyhart said.
He said he did not think it would be responsible of Senate to vote on the proposal without first conducting further outreach.
Senators voted to table the proposal until such outreach can be done.
ACLU Proposals
Senators also received two proposals from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) members sophomore Jane Glynn and sophomore Rebecca Egeland. The proposals concerned changing the wording of the sections in the College's Rules and Regulations handbook discussing room searches and the alcohol and drug policy.
The first proposal dealt with modifying the wording of Section X-J, the College's room searches regulations. Glynn, a Residential Coordinator (RC) in Noah Hall, said the necessity for the proposal came about after fire inspections over winter break led some students in her hall to complain to her.
"The handbook doesn't really mention confiscation. I think the policy needs to be cleared up a little bit," Glynn said. "The list of contraband is the same as what's listed under fire and safety hazards, but in recent inspections, things like bongs were taken. Why were they confiscating that if it's not under the list of contraband items?"
The proposal suggested that a clause be added insuring that anything construed as evidence of crime resulting from such inspections cannot be used in a College judicial proceeding. It also emphasized the need for a student to be notified 24 hours before a search can take place, and asserted that when a search does take place, confiscation of property is only permitted when it is contraband and the subject of a probable cause search.
Senator senior Joshua Kaye supported the proposal. "This is not only an issue for students, but also for the College; it doesn't have a firm sense of the rules and regulations in this section, and many would say they have a problem and need to take action," he said.
Senators passed the proposal.
The other proposal submitted by Glynn and Egeland concerned the wording in section X-K of the Rules and Regulations, which deals with alcohol and drug policy.
The wording currently reads that students are responsible for "following the letter and the spirit of the alcohol, drug and tobacco policy" and that, "It is assumed that the accepted principles of social decency and common morality that belong to all good societies will be regarded as binding upon every student." The proposal asked that this section, along with a clause saying that, "all community members will support efforts to enforce College policies on alcohol, drugs and smoking," be deleted from the handbook.
"Decency and morality are not issues of right or wrong but of beliefs," Egeland said. "This College is about free thinking and acceptance of others' beliefs, so it shouldn't impose one sense of decency."
Benninghoff said he was torn as to which way to vote because he'd found a link between this and the earlier proposal of the evening concerning College investment. "I'm radically in support of this proposal. I think it's tremendously important," he said. "But as far as shareholding is concerned, if we do think in the long term we'll support shareholding responsibility, it may not be good to strike out against that capability to create a moral authority today."
Despite Benninghoff's reservations, senators passed the proposal.
Copyright © 1998, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 126, Number 17, March 6, 1998
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