Andreas Pape, OC '98, has been declared the winner of the 1998 class trustee election, edging David Heafitz, OC '98, 137 to 113.
Pape will serve on the Board of Trustees for three years ending on Oct. 10, 2001.
The election turnout remained very low, tallying a dismal 17 percent, but still five points higher than last year.
Pape will begin his term at the Trustees meeting in December.
Pape described his objectives for his term. "I want to reconnect with student organizations," he said. "I want to make sure that people feel the class trustee is a resource and won't feel uncomfortable contacting me. I'm not just representing alumni, but also students on campus."
Pape survived three rounds of elections, beginning with a general round with 18 candidates. He will represent the classes of '97, '98 and '99.
Pape sees the turnover in professors as a key issue facing the school as well as new facilities planning. Applying his general goals to these issues, Pape hopes to introduce students into the decision making processes.
"A lot of the processes happen sort of in the dark," Pape said. "I want to make sure that especially student organizations are connected with what decisions are going on."
In other Trustees news, the Board will be on campus this weekend for their annual October work session.
There is no open plenary session but the trustees will meet to discuss diversity in a closed session today. Certain committees, including the Budget and Finance Committee, the Buildings and Grounds Committee and the Nominations Committee, will also meet.
The trustees will also participate in the opening events of the Mondlane Conference happening this weekend.
Danforth Professor of Politics Sonia Kruks was cited this week in a New York Times article regarding Simone de Beauvoir, the late French novelist and intellectual. Kruks was contacted by the Times because of her extensive writings on Beauvoir in several articles and a chapter of her book entitled Situation and Human Existence.
The Times article focused on Beauvior's revival as a philosopher in her own right, not as a "disciple," as she called herself, of Jean-Paul Sartre. In the article, Kruks said one of the reasons for her revival was a shift in gender theory toward the notion that culture, not biology, defines a woman. "People are beginning to grope for some other way to answer that question of what is a woman," Kruks was quoted as saying.
The renewed interest in Beauvoir is highlighted by a 50th anniversary celebration of The Second Sex . Beauvoir is chiefly famous for her work The Second Sex, considered by some to be the impetus in the creation of modern feminism. In it she argues that cultural, not biological influences shape a woman. Many say that this work distinguished her from her lifelong companion, the famous existentialist philosopher Sartre.
Oberlin students will be splashing their colors on canvas this week to raise awareness of diversity issues in our community.
This week students can add their handprints and comments on issues of diversity to a "many voices, one community" canvas. The diversity canvas activity stems from a grant Oberlin received to create programs related to diversity.
Oberlin has been chosen as one of 50 leading institutions in college-town diversity programming by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU). Oberlin received an $8,000 grant to explore a specific question: "What should higher education be doing, with its local communities, to prepare graduates to address the legacies of racism and the opportunities for racial reconciliation in the United States?"
"The tie-in is that on Oct. 6 AACU is giving out a national poll of what Americans think about diversity on campus," Associate Dean of Student Life and Services Joe DiChristina said.
The Office of Student Life and Services, the Multicultural Resource Center and the Center for Service and Learning are collaborating to decide how to best use the grant. "We haven't come up with a final game plan," said DiChristina.
The actual canvas is in four pieces, each one four feet by three feet. The canvas creation is set for Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Wilder Bowl.
Copyright © 1998, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 127, Number 5, October 2, 1998
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