ExCo Edit Was Out of Line

To the Editor:

Rather than “re-assess,” as suggested in last week’s editorial, the Experimental College committee has chosen to re-affirm our existence as a reputable alternative educational institution. Our responsibilities go way beyond ensuring that “students mostly have fun,” as declared by the graciously anonymous author of last week’s editorial, who also suggested that ExCo is incapable of expanding our audience to community members and in that, we have failed to follow our charter in which a commitment to community is highly valued
We would like to point out the holes in the research done to arrive at the striking conclusions of last week’s editorial. We will have it be known that 15% of ExCo courses offered this semester are taught by non-students. Additionally, many community members enroll in ExCo courses and are pleased with the services ExCo provides. We use the same methods to recruit teachers from the community as from the Oberlin student body: through ads, posters and the distribution of course catalogs around town.
While ExCo highly values community involvement, it is not our primary goal to educate community members in the fields that ExCo courses cover. Therefore, should the number of non-student taught courses decrease, it would not justify rewriting our charter, which accurately delineates our strong commitment to the Oberlin community. A copy of our charter is available for viewing on our website, www.oberlin.edu/~exco.
The Experimental College is a fully student-run organization committed to enhancing the educational experiences of those around us, and to exclude absolutely no one. We are fully confident in ExCo’s ability to meet these goals and we hope that any further issues or concerns regarding the ExCo program are somewhat justified in their claims.

–Emily Toder
College sophomore
–Marie Rinkoski
Double-degree senior
–Jennie Spitulnik
Conservatory senior