Dean search ends; Goldsmith chosen

The spring semester brought the selection of a new Dean of Student Life and Services and a dramatic takeover of the Cox administration building to protest the final decision for the position.

The nationwide search for a replacement for previous Dean Charlene Cole-Newkirk, who resigned in the fall of 1997, began last December, and ended with the selection of dean of first-year students at Dartmouth College, Peter Goldsmith this April. Deb McNish has been serving as interim dean since the begining of this year.

A search could not begin until late November when three students were selected by Student Senate as full-voting members of the search committee.

The first task for the committee was to define the characteristics it was seeking in the new dean. Ray English, director of libraries and the chair of the committee said in December, "We need somebody who will be a good administrator, who can think very imaginatively and creatively about student life programming, who can work well with people, who can communicate effectively with the entire campus community, who can be a strong advocate for students, and who can work well with the faculty."

By early March, the pool of candidates had been slimmed down to four from more than 65 applications. These final candidates included Goldsmith and McNish, as well as Richard Chapman, dean of students and common learning agenda faculty member at Bucknell University and Bill Stackman, associate dean of student life and services at Oberlin. Chapman would later withdraw from the search in early April, citing personal reasons.

Each candidate then had a three-day campus visit in which candidate forums open to all students were held. The timing and publication of these meetings would become a major issue for protesters who felt that students did not have adequate input on the search process. Anyone who attended one of these interview sessions had the opportunity to submit written feedback for the committee to consider.

Although Goldsmith's forum occurred weeks before he was offered the position and the subsequent protest over his selection at Cox, it took on an ominous tone when sophomore Alyson Cambridge asked what his reaction would be to the hypothetical situation of a student siege of Cox. His response was that there was a proper time and place for that sort of thing, and said "People generally need to get to their offices." He added, however, that he felt activism was vital to student life. "Activism of all kinds is healthy for you."

In McNish's open forum, she addressed questions ranging from what she thought her legacy was to her role as a supporter of queer programming on campus, about which she said, "Probably the first thing I'd do is look at it within a framework of oppression." Concerning the diversity of Oberlin, she said, "I feel there is a hypocrisy in the Oberlin community not just with students, but with adults. I will bring to the table a real approach to questioning those things. People who have been oppressed can feel it, and I might bring out pointing out the elephant in the womb."

Many of the questions posed to Stackman were identical to those for McNish. He explained his interest in the position. "Oberlin has always been a dream school to me. I was attracted to the kind of student Oberlin attracted, the values that the institution holds through its history and legacy," he said. Stackman also discussed in depth his understanding of queer issues and his concerns about problems within the African-American community.

Just prior to Goldsmith's selection as Dean, McNish withdrew her name from consideration after accepting a position at Earlham College as dean of student development. Although she expressed sadness at leaving Oberlin, McNish was excited to move to Earlham. In April she said she felt that Earlham has a cohesive, integrated community which she thinks is sometimes missing at Oberlin.

After the visits of all the candidates, the committee formed a recommendation for Nancy Dye who made the final decision. Dye selected Goldsmith as dean during the first week of April.

Many students were upset with this decision and began showing their support for Bill Stackman. Rocks in Tappan square were painted with slogans such as "We Want Bill," to show support of the Associate Dean of Student Life. Rumors surfaced that Goldsmith was a personal friend of Dye's although she denied them, and said she had met him only twice before.

Members of the search committee, on the other hand, were quite pleased with the selection. Senior Laura Iverson said the process was completely consensus based. "I was pleasantly surprised," she said, "I was expecting to come out of this with a bitter taste, but I feel really excited about the whole process."

Although the members of the search committee and Dye expressed disappointment at the low turnout in each of the low candidate forums, students argued that they took place during midterms and were not well advertised, despite all campus mailings.

Students who disagreed with the decision expressed concerns that Goldsmith did not have an adequate history dealing with LGBT community issues. Goldsmith did not feel this was a fair perception he said in an interview, shortly after accepting the position. "I've had strong connections at Dartmouth with the LGBT community. I'm confident that I've always been viewed as an advocated of LGBT issues," he said.

The committee was confident with its decision. English, the committee's chair and spokesman, said, "I am delighted that Peter Goldsmith will be the next dean of student life and services. He brings a strong vision of the role of student life at Oberlin, and he is especially capable of relating student life concerns to academic life."

Goldsmith will begin his job on July 1, despite these objections.

Rain or shine: Outside of Cox, Professor of Politics, Eve Sandberg talked with protesters. (photo by Pauline Shapiro)