GF hear Dye's goals

General Faculty kicked off the school year with discussions of retention, diversity, governance and the building of buildings at their meeting on Tuesday.

At the meeting President Nancy Dye enumerated her goals for the semester: researching retention, diversity, facilities planning and College governance. Along with the four main themes Dye discussed the recent assault on campus and welcomed all previous, new and visiting faculty and staff.

The first two overlapping themes involved problems of retention and diversity within the College. "Oberlin's rate of graduation is at 80 percent, which is good for the Conservatory but for the college it's quite low - eight to 10 percent lower than other colleges at our same status," Dye said. She said the low rate is a major reason for Oberlin's low position in the US News and World Report college rankings. "We want to understand and recognize the problem."

Although Dye said she doesn't know why the graduation rate is so low, she has a few ideas. She discussed a project conducted by Assistant to the President Diana Roose which surveyed students about their satisfaction with Oberlin. Dye said the research suggested many students enjoy the small niches they fall into, but lack and desire a sense of larger community. Dye said students who "identify and have a sense of a larger community" will be more likely to finish a degree.

Diversity has always been the Oberlin tradition, and with diversity "we stress individualism but don't encourage integration," Dye said. She suggested that this might create divisions among the many different organizations on campus.

"There are many intricate social and academic factors affecting a student's decision to leave. Certain colleges have always carried traditional activities such as sports or religion which bring students together," Dye said. She reflected that this sort of bond is missing at Oberlin.

Dye's next focus was facilities planning. "We can't build all the buildings we want to build," she said. Among other plans, the College is planning to build a new Environmental Studies Building in Harkness Bowl and a new Science Center will be placed near Kettering science building. Dye said she would produce more specific goals for the next meeting.

The last theme involved discussion of the College's internal governance. "This is a particularly challenging time for American universities and we need to have an efficient governance that can creatively respond," she said. "We may look to outside facilitators to aid in the discussion."

Dean of the College Clayton Koppes and Dean of Conservatory Karen Wolff introduced new faculty members at the meeting. The college filled 18 permanent faculty positions while the Conservatory placed eight permanent members, an overall number that "was probably the largest in 30 years," Koppes said.

Dye also addressed concerns regarding the physical assault in Fairchild last Sunday early morning. After visiting the victim in the hospital Dye said "She is a very strong woman mentally and physically and she is expected to make a full recovery."