New policy cries for more clarity

All right, for all of you who have crammed and struggled through a semester of Con-Law it's time to pull out those massive red books and read over all that legalese such as substantive due process yet again. The General Faculty has passed a revision to the old Sexual Offense policy. No surprise to anyone the least acquainted with the law, it is filled with ambiguity and gray areas, mostly concerning sexual relations between faculty members and students.

In accordance with recent Supreme Court decisions, the vote to convict has been changed from 4-1 to 3-2. Along with the voting changes there are now more strict restrictions banning faculty-student relations. Gone are the days when faculty members could have relations with students as long as there were no direct relations, such as teaching classes or advising students. Instead, faculty are now banned from any and all sexual relations with students, even if both parties are considered consenting.

While this may seem to be a very sensible and sound policy, is it over broad? It can be assumed that since most students are over eighteen years old, that we should be allowed to see whomever we choose, even if that person happens to be a faculty member. Conversely, there would seem to be some definite ethical concerns involved with faculty members having sexual relations with students, regardless of whether there is a direct academic correlation. However, this revision is not a result of any Supreme Court ruling.

Since this restriction seems so hazy, the new policy requiring faculty members to report all relations is steeped in additional controversy. Granted, since all student-faculty sexual relations are now forbidden it makes sense that anyone knowing of such behavior be required to report such abuse. Forbidding students to have sexual relations with professors is not grounded in any legal decision, so the further requiring of faculty members to report such behavior is an unfair regulation. When is a faculty member to draw the line? Are too many visits to office hours a cause for suspicion? Are seminar meetings at a professor's house going to draw raised eyebrows and increased scrutiny?

These latest revisions are undoubtedly a product of good intentions. However, they also seem to have elicited much confusion and controversy. What is needed is more clarity. The new sexual offense policy may lead to more suspicion and distrust than increased professionalism and better relations between faculty and students.

Goodbye Oberlin

Remember when we went, giggling or maturely straight faced, to Sex at Seven? Some of us had already been well-indoctrinated in the ways of the Obie, straight out of high schools that prepared us for "diversity" and a multicultural society. Others hailed from more homogenous backgrounds, from towns that discouraged the kind of outrageousness promoted at Oberlin by such spectacles as Drag Ball and Safer Sex Night. Together we all (or at least most of us) filed into Hall, herded by CRO's and RC's, to see staged performances of college live... or at least the sometimes sordid, oftentimes confusing, segment of it that related to the melding of lips and tongues and teeth.

That was one of the first things that we went through together. Since then, there have been athletics and aesthetics, parties and panicky late-night cramming sessions full of gulped coffee and desperately forced knowledge. There have been professors, coaches, classmates, townsfolks and administrators we'll never forget, classes we'll regret that we took, momentary flashes of understanding and more solid growth and stretching than we're likely to find anywhere else. We all have been exposed to a more global appreciation of the rights and wrongs, blessed equalities and harsh realities of our society and beyond. We have made friends, concocted nemeses, laughed, screamed and cried... all while averaging at least 14 hours of coursework a semester.

There have been protests and pot-fests, divisive events and decisive statements. Student senate has waxed and waned, public sentiment about the Review has been generally a consistent ambiguous, stretched between devouring the Security notebook and scoffing at the latest review of the show you saw (or starred in) that week,

We will not be together again.

Reunions and get-togethers be damned. We will spread out, reproduce, marry each other, grow old together, and die. Many of us will eventually return to Oberlin, our sharp memories of this place clouded by a haze of time and the polarization of recollections that comes with nostalgic hindsight. We will come to appreciate the parts of Oberlin College that we overlooked, and be thankful to leave behind those nagging imperfections and annoyances in the fabric of this beautiful bubble.

Still, some of us will never look back, cursing the institution under our breath even as we take the $100,000 piece of paper from Nancy as we walk across the Commencement stage. Love Oberlin or hate her, this 4 (or 5 or 6)-year summer camp has come to an end. Fall approaches and the "real world" awaits. We should not stare back so desperately that we trip over our feet, but we have to recognize the gift of education and understanding that has been offered to us. Look around Oberlin before you go. We shall not pass this way again.