Norris advises Goldsmith be given time

To the Editors:

The MRC was the subject of letters in your last edition which made some assertions about current and past activities of students, the MRC and the Dean of Students, Peter Goldsmith. To begin at the beginning, students did not found the Office of Multicultural Affairs (the first name of the MRC) and certainly should not be blamed for its numerous shortcomings in the early years. The OMA was founded by then Dean of Students Pat Penn, who was attempting to resolve what he perceived to be an internal personnel problem and which also involved a personnel problem in a different division. My concern from the beginning was that the resulting structure of the OMA created a kind of institutional ghetto within the Division of Student Life where marginalized student groups were clustered and dealt with. It was part of a general mess (stew?) out of which came the resignation of two counselor/coordinators who had played very important roles providing support for Asian American, Latino/a and Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual students.

In the Fall of 1993, the OMA was one target of student complaints about inadequate support for students of color and lesbian, gay and bisexual students on campus. The loss of the two counselor/coordinators was another, as well as a series of other processes and events, including racist and homophobic graffiti, perceived invasions of safe spaces and cross-burnings, etc. Student concerns about these matters were eloquently expressed in a large speak-out. These events and actions are described in detail in the report by the Special Committee on Multiculturalism and the College Community.

A second point raised is the matter of the relationship between program houses and academic departments. I fail to understand the uproar over Dean Goldsmith's recognition that Third World House is the only program house without some kind of formal tie to an academic entity. In the 1980s I was involved in a process with Third World House residents and members of the Third World Studies Curricular Committee to provide exactly that kind of linkage. House residents wanted to overcome their marginalized status, which included problems obtaining a budget and support for programs. The Committee often supported TWH student programs. Members of the Committee were quite distressed when our petition was refused. You might ask if that kind of academic linkage has harmed Afrikan Heritage House or Spanish House, to give examples of houses with which I am familiar.

As for the control of the MRC, whether the Dean directly oversees the MRC or indirectly oversees the MRC, the fact is that the MRC is within the Division of Student Life and thus the responsibility of the Dean of Students. From my perspective, the lack of a rush to judgement about filling positions and changing structures is the right way to proceed. We should give the Dean time to adjust to Oberlin, to consult with all of his constituencies, and then, when he acts, analyze and if necessary criticize what he does, rather than read all kinds of sinister meanings into what he has not done.

--William Norris, Professor of Sociology

College and city conspire on fire codes

To the Editors:

It just isn't fair! What's a Spin Commander to do when all he has to work with are the paltry resources of Oberlin College? Poor old Al Moran! His daunting task is to defend against vicious, relentless attacks from that powerful cabal of renegade rooming house landlords! These ruffians are heavily armed with whistles, too much idle time and a fax machine, and are bent on obliging the noble (but dainty and vulnerable) College to comply - can you imagine! - with the same petty, hectoring regulations that bind lesser creatures, lesser institutions. What effrontery! What lesse´-majeste!!

Lucky it is for Mr. Moran that Oberlin College and the City of Oberlin are allies in this mighty struggle, joined in what Fire Chief Kirin describes as a very special relationship. This relationship is so special that, 1) every whipstitch the Chief issues criminal citations against the renegade landlords for what he alleges to be fire code violations, but when he encounters similar conditions in College buildings he does not issue citations; no, no, instead he sends "hazard warning letters" (Dear Nancy?), but usually doesn't even do that, 2) rooming house owners are denied license renewals for refusing to remove fire escape ladders (ladders earlier mandated by the City!), or for not having two means of egress ( i.e., interior or exterior stairways) from upper floors, while ladders remain in undisturbed profusion all over the campus, and Old Barrows has only one stairway between the second and third floors; 3) rooming house landlords are denied license renewals by the building inspector for the lack of porchstep handrails, a "serious hazard" according to the City, while College buildings, some of which lack porchstep handrails, are not even inspected by the building inspector; 4) the College issues and re-issues a decree which promises that permission to live off-campus will be revoked if the chosen place of residence "fails to meet the City's licensing standards. Regulated rooming houses are properties with five or more tenants." What the decree did not mention was, being supremely confident that it was above such niggling annoyances as inspections and licensing requirements, the College exempts itself from this decree. Thus, residents of Allencroft and Old Barrows, with its third-floor escape ladder, a fire safety device once required but now forbidden by the City, live in uninspected and unlicensed tranquility; 5) this month, within two days of receiving a complaint of an unlicensed rooming house (an inaccurate complaint as it turned out), the City sent an ultimatum to the owner: "occupant load should be reduced to four (4) immediately." Throw out the tenants, IMMEDIATELY! In contrast, since mid-July, the City Solicitor has been "researching" the "history" of Old B and Allencroft - unlicensed locations for more than thirty years - to determine whether these facilities fall within the regulatory reach of the rooming house ordinance. There is only one relevant criterion bearing on this determination: Do these buildings house from five to 20 rent-paying tenants? But, at the Solicitor's deliberate pace, this research project will produce no finding until well after the City's moratorium on new rooming house licenses expires at the end of the year; 6) and so on, and so on....

A very special relationship, indeed. A relationship of gracious, accommodating reciprocity: The College pretends to obey the laws, the City pretends to enforce the laws. Both parties understand that the College, THE COLLEGE!, requires and deserves this favored status. This understanding has been the touchstone of Oberlin's town-gown relationship for more than 150 years. Enter the landlords. They reject this understanding. These raffish, clamorous, vindictive, renegade landlords, who, being neither gracious nor well cut, churlishly reply, "This stinks!" and name it Hypocrisy.

So, how now, Spin Commander? The Countercheck Quarrelsome?

--David E. Sonner, Oberlin Landlord

Looking for good stories

To the Editors:

I am conducting research for a book on the American college town and have selected Oberlin as one such town to study more closely. To help me in my research, I am writing to request that you publish the following author's query as a letter to the editor or a news short:

For a book on the American college town, I would appreciate hearing from anyone with insights or information relevant to the evolution and contemporary character of Oberlin as a college town. I would welcome personal observations and reminiscences, correspondence, diary entrees, photographs, clippings, student research papers and citations to published sources on the subject.

I am especially interested in the following topics: the evolution of the campus and its use for non-academic activities, the impact of the growth of the school on the city, town-gown relations, student-oriented commercial areas, off-campus student residential areas (e.g., "fraternity row" and the "student ghetto"), traditional faculty neighborhoods, college-related industrial development, the legacy of the 1960s, the college town as a place of personal discovery, the impact of college sports on local life, college town eccentrics, the seasonality of life in college towns and images of college towns in literature and film.

I am also interested in a broader sense in what life is like in college towns and how college towns differ from other cities. Please respond to Blake Gumprecht, Department of Geography, University of Oklahoma, 684 Sarkeys Energy Center, Norman, OK 73019-1007, gumprecht@ou.edu

Thank you for your consideration.

--Blake Gumprecht