Editorals

Male Dorms Viable
 
Yesterday the Housing and Dining Committee passed a proposal to change Zechiel Hall to a co-ed housing option beginning in Fall 2001. This is, without question, a good thing. But there is also, without question, a place for all-male housing on this campus. Nor are these mutually exclusive conclusions.
Zeke, as currently constituted, is an Oberlin aberration. It is a place that many students, female and male alike, do not feel comfortable entering, and this should be true of no place on Oberlin’s campus. It is not, in any sense of the word, a safe space.
That being said, there is a place for all-male housing and even perhaps a male safe space at Oberlin. This is a College that values diversity and a comfortable student environment, and providing a living environment and/or safe space for the College’s largest minority –– men –– certainly fits within that vision. 
Where should the College go from here? There is already a demonstrated, if small, demand for all-male housing, even in the form of Zeke; an average of 21 students over the last seven years have requested to live there. While this is certainly not enough for Zeke (with 43 beds), it is enough to justify some sort of all-male campus housing arrangement.
Now is the time when that demand, if it still exists, will most fully manifest itself. Deprived of the last guaranteed all-male living space on Oberlin’s campus, men are now just like any other group on Oberlin’s campus. They must demonstrate that not only is there a demand for all-male housing, but that such an arrangement would be in some way educationally beneficial and would include some sort of programming schedule. Zeke’s becoming co-ed could in this way prove to be a net positive for all-male housing on Oberlin’s campus.

College Medical Services Lacking

Running a college is a tricky business. In addition to providing the core academic services, an institution of higher learning must provide housing and food to several thousand young people. Additionally, it must provide for the health, safety and well-being of those young people, often not known for their good judgement, and who at the start of every semester bring hundreds of strains of virus and disease to the campus from every corner of the world.
By and large, Oberlin provides these basic student needs. There is sufficient housing, more or less, and food (more or less). The College employs a sizable security staff given the smallness of Oberlin’s campus, and recently purchased a money-losing hospital, among other reasons, in order to ensure easy access to emergency care for its students. 
On the biggest and most visible issues, the College is doing at least a passable job. It is at the margins, however, where Oberlin’s services deteriorate. For basic medical care, Student Health as it currently exists is without a doubt inadequate. Situated half a mile from the main campus, it is not the first place a student thinks of going when sick, especially since, given the small staff and short hours, appointments are hard to come by. Student Health unequivocally needs to be larger and more convenient; this costs money, yes, but health should not be viewed as a purely bottom-line issue.
The experience of Student Health’s inconvenience is a universal one. On less universal issues it performs even less well, particularly with regard to sports-related injuries by those who are not varsity athletes. For varsity athletes, access to the trainer’s room and its staff is a given; for members of club sports teams, dancers and any other student with a turned ankle or bum knee, a lack of access is the given.
Yes, there are questions of liability in allowing universal access to College-provided sports medicine. This is a litigious society, and concern over legal sanctions is a natural one. But there is a problem here, and the College is doing nothing to solve it and instead hiding behind fear of an unlikely lawsuit. Inaction and stonewalling are certainly an easier course of action than an active dialogue.
This is not to suggest that the trainer’s room, as it is, should be suddenly opened and publicized as open to all students; that is not feasible, as any would acknowledge. However, there should at least be an investigation of options: of who would use the trainer’s room in event of its being open to all students; of how those students could assuage the College’s fears; of how and where an expanded trainer’s room or sports medicine facilities would function; of expanded staff and cost. If any such options are being investigated, there certainly is not a student-College dialogue on the issue.
The Review’s editorial page is beginning to read like a broken record. Every week, it seems that there is another issue of College accountability and a desire for better student services. This is not accidental. There are critical flaws in many of the College’s institutions, and many require immediate action.