Goldsmith begins his tenure

New dean of student life outlines his plans for the future

Amidst a storm of controversy that culminated in the now-infamous student takeover of the Cox Administration Building, Peter Goldsmith was chosen last April to replace Charlene Cole-Newkirk as the new dean of student life and services. At the time, many students contended that Goldsmith, who came to Oberlin after serving time as the dean of first-year students at Dartmouth College, was less qualified to fill the position than Bill Stackman, the popular associate dean of student life and services who has spent nearly two years at Oberlin. Furthermore, they charged, the dean search was biased, lacking the necessary degree of student participation.

But, as the saying goes, time heals all wounds. Now that the dust has settled, Peter Goldsmith has made himself comfortable in his office at Wilder Hall and is finally ready - not to mention eager - to tackle his first year at Oberlin. He looks forward to the upcoming semesters as an opportunity to listen and to learn, to become more closely acquainted with the complicated and sometimes conflicted student body that was so hesitant to roll out the welcoming mat just four months ago.

"I'm focusing my atttention for the next few months on a couple of things," he said in a recent interview. "I'm learning about Oberlin and listening to students, getting out of my office to encounter students where they live and eat and recreate. Basically, I want to get a greater sense of how this institution works.

"But there are a couple of tasks that I expect to push forward during the year. One of them has to do with a review of the judicial process. There was a committee formed some time ago by Nancy Dye to prepare a redrafted judicial system, and some form of that draft has been prepared. The process in the months in the months ahead will involve circulating that draft very widely on campus so that students can see it, hear about it and understand it. They need to provide feedback and get engaged in the review process.

"Another big project that I've spoken about on campus is to think about fairly deliberate ways that individual students could be supported by administrative structures both in the classroom and outside the classroom. There are plenty of resources available here to support students as individuals and as members of a larger community, but they are very compartmentalized, and there are times when students must go to several different places to solve complicated problems that may be interwoven and interrelated. I would like to devise an integrated system that makes it perfectly clear to any given student who the person in the administration is that will coordinate the various support structures that will help them socially, emotionally and academically. And one way to accomplish this goal might be to have deans specific to each class, as they have on other college campuses, who could be drawn from the pool of administrative talent that we have here at Oberlin. This class dean system would clarify the support systems available to those students who need them, but it must not eclipse the already existing faculty advisor relationships."

Outside of his specific plans for the next few months, Goldsmith also expressed a strong desire to encourage students who seek to explore their own ethnic, sexual and racial backgrounds while alternately attempting to embrace the diverse community that comprises the Oberlin student body. "These two goals can be achieved simultaneously and are not mutually exclusive but are, in fact, mutually reinforcing," he said. "That is the goal of exploring one's identity - to be looking both outward and inward socially." According to Goldsmith, one administrative structure designed to promote such explorations is the Multicultural Resource Center, which helps students to appreciate social diversity while allowing them to better understand their own individual identities. Unfortunately, he also acknowledged that the Center has recently suffered from certain administrative departures that will be addressed during the upcoming year.

When asked to describe the nature of his interactions with students since his tumultuous first days at Oberlin, Goldsmith insisted that his experiences at the college thus far have been nothing but positive. He reiterated that he viewed the Cox protest not so much as a personal attack but as an indictment of the dean selection process itself; he also said that such student activism was not only welcome but healthy. Since the Ides of April, he has worked with countless students and faculty members, all of whom have been friendly and supportive. Still, Goldsmith does not want anyone to hesitate before confronting him with a problem of any nature. "I don't want people to feel that there is anything that they can't talk to me about, including that," he said. "To understand the forces that contributed to [the protest] is critical to understanding this institution as a whole."

Clearly, Goldsmith welcomes debate as a means of expressing ideas that must be voiced and opening the necessary channels of communication between students and the administration. On a final note, he added that, more than anything else, he wishes to foster an environment in the Oberlin community where students can disagree in a manner that will promote a greater understanding of each other without jeopardizing friendships and causing widespread hostilities. Although he understands that Rome was not built in a day and that such a Herculean task will not be accomplished during the upcoming year, he nevertheless has a plan. "I think I have to begin by setting a tone within my own work environment," he said. "I want the people working with me, whether they be students or co-workers, to know that they can speak their mind to me and they will receive my own honesty and support in return."