Senate votes against coalition's Iraq proposal

Senators dispute statement behind strongly-worded proposal

At its Sunday night meeting, Student Senate continued discussion of a proposal brought to them the week before on behalf of several student organizations, as well as talking about communication between the Board of Trustees and College students.

Coalition for Peace Proposal
The proposal, submitted to Senate by junior Russell Menyhart and first-year Laurel Paget-Seekins, requested that senators "condemn any preemptive military action against Iraq and the Iraqi people."

Senators tabled the proposal last week at the suggestion of Menyhart and Paget-Seekins, who urged Senate to do outreach to students and affirm that this was what students wanted.

This week, Menyhart and Paget-Seekins took a different approach. "I'm asking you to encourage students to express opposition to this situation, to take a stand and be active," Paget-Seekins said.

"This is asking Senate to question what their agenda is and what it should be," Menyhart said.

Many senators expressed uncertainty about or opposition to the proposal. "I think Student Senate does have an agenda and that is to represent the views of the student body as a whole, but only when we're confident of those views," senator senior Chapin Benninghoff said. "I don't think we've gotten the views of the body yet. It's dangerous to do this in isolation."

Senator junior Meagan Willits said the attitude conveyed in the proposal made her uncomfortable.

Willits said she could not support the current wording of the proposal, which reads, "This situation requires a strong voice of opposition from Oberlin College students."

"The only thing I could endorse is, 'this situation requires Oberlin students to react in a manner they think is appropriate. It's not our job to tell students what to think but to listen to them," Willits said.

Senator first-year Amy Pandjiris said, "What is the advantage of Senate responding to this proposal?"

"We feel we need to make a statement," Menyhart said. "The reason we came to Senate is because Senate is given a mandate by the student body to question things like this. Just as we need to react to situations directly related to us within our community, we also need to respond to things not directly related to us, outside Oberlin."

Senator first-year Micah Thorner asked whether the proposal reflects the beliefs of most students. She said, I feel like not every group on campus would agree with this."

The proposal has been sponsored by the Oberlin Coalition for Peace, Oberlin Students for Socially Responsible Investing, Students for a Free Palestine and Oberlin Action Against Prisons.

"I happen to think this statement in its present context represents a large majority of students. There's nothing any government can do that responds to everybody. The role of the government is sometimes controversial and involves taking a proactive stance," Menyhart said.

Senator senior Joshua Kaye said he'd gotten mixed results in the outreach he'd done over the past week.

"It's not the sense I got that many people were very informed about this issue," Kaye said. "I personally am not going to make a political statement since I think if my information is wrong, I could be making the wrong statement. On behalf of Oberlin students, I don't want to do that."

Senator first-year Erika Hansen said she had very strong feelings against approving the proposal. "The primary reason I decided to go to Oberlin was that it's hard to find two people who agree on something, let alone an entire campus," she said. "By approving this proposal we'd be adopting an ideological stance and creating a party line and that takes away from the multifacetedness of Oberlin College that makes it so great. It's abominable that we would do that."

"I agree the proposal has strong language. We brought the proposal back to Senate to keep discussion open so students can get educated and make opinions. Oberlin has a reputation about students taking action, taking a stance on issues inside and outside of the College," Paget-Seekins said.

Eleven senators voted against the proposal, while two voted for it and one abstained. One senator was absent from the meeting.

"I'm disappointed that the proposal didn't pass but it was exciting to hear the discussion that went on as a result because the proposal was brought. The senators presented a lot of valid arguments for changing the proposal or voting against it," Menyhart said of the meeting.

Trustee-student relations
After setting aside the Oberlin Coalition for Peace proposal, Pandjiris told Senate about the Class Trustee forum she'd attended March 5.

"I'm wondering why, if the Trustees kept saying that Senate is an appropriately recognized channel for students to go through, students don't make use of that," she said.

"The truth is there's a lack of education about what the Trustees' role is in the College government system and what Senate's role is in communicating with them," senator sophomore Nathaniel Stankard said. "For the past few years Senate has been seen as a powerless body but this year it seems like the first time in awhile that we're coming out of that deficit of legitimacy."

Willits said the Trustees' endorsement of Senate was a good opportunity for Senate to publicize to students. "We should put out comment cards and encourage people to come to our meetings," she said. "The only way people will get the message to come to us is if we get it out there and take this opportunity."

Paget-Seekins gave senators input from a non-senatorial point of view. "As a student who came to Senate and had both of her proposals fail, I think a lot of students don't come to Senate because it's seen as a passive voice that doesn't really take real active roles and is all bureaucratic," she said.

Benninghoff questioned whether there will ever be a time when many students look to Senate to solve their problems. "How can Senate be successful as a centralized power and decision maker on a campus where people are known for their distrust of centralized power structures? There's a strong feeling here that people want distributed authority," he said.

At the encouragement of Associate Dean of Students Bill Stackman, who sits in on Senate's weekly meetings, senators decided to continue looking into better means of communication with both the Trustees and the student body.