Kosovo teach-in to aid students

This Sunday, the Oberlin community will have the opportunity to learn about and discuss the fact and fiction surrounding the war in the Balkans.

The All-Community Teach-In on the war in Yugoslavia will consist of a series of panel discussions and information sessions taking place throughout the campus. Beginning at noon in Finney Chapel, College President Nancy Dye will lead a session during which panelists will give an overview of the history of the Balkans and the current status of the conflict.

At 1:45 p.m., college faculty will lead two smaller, in-depth discussions dealing with the role of NATO and the United Nations and how students and community members can get involved. At these discussions, sophomores Maja Gosovic and Zeljko Petrovic, both native Yugoslavians, will present their views on the conflict as representatives of their regions. The chief of the Albanian Service of the Voice of America, Elez Biberaj, a radio broadcast station to Europe, who is also an ethnic Albanian, will complete the panel.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Veljko Vujacic, a member of the Finney Chapel panel, will participate in the discussion groups as well as Assistant Professor of Politics Stephen Crowley and Associate Professor of Politics Eve Sandberg.

"We were trying to get a representative from the U. S. State Department to participate to present a balanced opinion," said senior Marvin Rader, a member of the student planning committee for the event, "but the limited time frame we were working with really complicated matters."

"We are trying to get a variety of perspectives," said Diana Roose, assistant to the president.

An activist speak-out and ice-cream social in Wilder Bowl at 4 p.m. will complete the Teach-In. Student and local organizations will open information booths to interested students and community members.

Organizers believe students should be provided every incentive to attend such an event. "President Dye tried to get classes cancelled on Friday and have it then, but the General Faculty Council didn't think it wise to cancel classes this far into the semester," said Mark Graham, editorial intern at the office of college relations.

In fact, this event came together in less than a month.

"We started talking about it three weeks ago," said Rader. "The most important thing about the event is to educate people at Oberlin who don't even know where Kosovo is on the map. We need to allow students to form their own educated opinions."

"I'm very excited about the Teach-in," said Roose. "It will raise the level of awareness and interest about the war in Yugoslavia.

"Roose said that the community has been quite cooperative in preparing for a teach-in before the end of the semester. "Everyone was mainly willing to jump in and help out," she said. "We've had plenty of students coming up to ask how they can help."

The Teach-In is modeled after similar events that have taken place in previous eras. "There were teach-ins during the Vietnam and Gulf wars at least to my knowledge," said Roose.

The Teach-In is being sponsored by the President's office and volunteers.