President Nancy Dye's contract was renewed for another five years at June's Board of Trustee's meeting. The Board approved the new contract to span from July 1999 to June 2004.
The board was enthusiastic in its approval. A statement by Board Chairman Bill Perlik says: "We are singularly blessed to have a leader of President Dye's caliber taking the College into the year 2004 and beyond."
Other business at the meeting included discussion and planning on the Capital Campaign, a report on the College's Master Plan as well as personnel issues.
The Master Plan is a long-term plan of development for the College's facilities and buildings.
The trustees also approved a new member: Philip C. Hanawalt, OC '54. His term began July 1 and will conclude July 2004.
The board also approved several appointments to the College's senior staff. Mike Muska was approved as Oberlin's Athletics Director and Kay Thompson was approved at the Vice President of Development and Alumni Affairs position.
Kay Thompson has been named vice president of development and alumni affairs. Thompson, who served as acting vice president since the departure of Young Dawkins in September 1997, has been with the College since 1995.
President Nancy Dye announced the appointment in July. She said there was not a fully implemented search to fill the position.
As vice president of development and alumni affairs, Thompson is responsible for both administering the development and alumni affairs operations and supervising the College's fundraising efforts. Thompson oversees a staff of about 20.
The Vice President is responsible for both fundraising herself as well as strategizing for the fundraising other staff members undertake. A major part of Thompson's job has been and will continue to be the Capital Campaign. The Capital Campaign is a long-term fundraising campaign. The campaign will be made public in 1999.
Thompson previously worked for both the University of Alabama and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.
Thompson is also a professional singer, and holds certification in performance and teaching from the Royal Academy of Music, London. She studied voice as an undergraduate at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.
Oberlin fell to 24th this year in the U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking of national liberal arts colleges, with a score of 82 out of a possible 100. Last year the College was ranked at the 22nd spot.
Oberlin tied with five other schools for the 24th position: Barnard College, Colorado College, Connecticut College, Macalester College and the University of the South in Sewanee, TN.
School are ranked on various categories including SAT scores, selectivity, student/faculty ratio, faculty resources, graduation and retention rates, academic reputation and many others.
The number one school on the list was Amherst College. Second and third spots went to Swarthmore College and Williams College.
Oberlin also appeared on the ranking of "schools that offer the best value" at the 21st position. The ranking reported that 54 percent of Oberlin students receive grants based on financial need. It also reported that the average tuition discount for students is 52 percent.
The number one school in this category was Mount Holyoke College, which gives aid to 74 percent of students at an average discount of 56 percent.
Oberlin was absent from the list of colleges with the most diverse student bodies. The most diverse national liberal arts college, according to the rankings, was Occidental College in California.
Think again before throwing away that reminder to register your car. Parking enforcement is a top priority for the Department of Student Life this year.
"We haven't consistently enforced parking in years," Acting Dean of Student Life and Services Deb McNish said. But this will change as the College tightens up restrictions this year.
McNish said the top priority is getting everyone's car registered. She said the College needs to know how many students have cars before planning for increased parking.
First-years are also encouraged to register their cars. In the past regulations have forbidden first-years to have cars.
"We are going to register everyone that has a car," McNish said.
McNish also said the school will begin cracking down on delinquent parkers. She said security officers would be able to use "the boot" to immobilize cars, and they would ask Hills Service Center to tow cars.
The union which represents 189 Oberlin office and professional employees (OCOPE) ratified a new three-year contract with the College in July.
Members of the union accepted the agreement giving them pay increases of 3.5 percent during the first year and 3 percent the second and third years. It also gives workers an increase in retirement contribution and an increase in tuition remission.
"We were definitely satisfied with the contract," said Julie Weir, president of the union. "A large majority voted for it."
Weir said for the union the most important victories were an increase in the percentage the College pays into members' retirement funds and new language that better protects the workers' jobs.
The negotiations were conducted by seven members of the union, including Weir and three College representatives, including Director of Human Resources Ruth Spencer.
OCOPE represents a wide variety of College employees, from secretaries to library assistants to piano tuners, Weir said.
In other union news, Weir was elected in June to the executive board of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) at its convention in Chicago. OCOPE is affiliated with OPEIU, a national union.
Weir was elected - along with two others - to represent nine states including Ohio as a vice president. The region includes more than 18,000 OPEIU members. Weir is among 21 vice presidents elected at the conference and she will serve a three-year term.
OPEIU leads the country in representation of women on the International Executive Board; of its 21 vice presidents 11 are women.
Weir is reference room supervisor at Mudd Library. "I am very excited and very pleased," she said. "It is a lot of responsibility and an opportunity to lead our union."
Copyright © 1998, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 127, Number 1, September 4, 1998
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