Editorial
Be
Understanding
The
Womens Resource Center was going to be closed until it could
find somewhere else to go, and now it isnt. There has been
not one but a string of errors on the part of the College. First,
it informed the employees of the Center and its director that it
was closed until further notice, but refused to show them the letter
prompting the move. Then, due to some diligent reporting on the
part of the Reviews news section, the administration decided
that the WRC doesnt need to be moved. Whatever happened, the
College has misjudged everything about the process and has mishandled
the WRC from its inception five years ago. Most students dont
know that the WRC is, like the MRC, an office of the College and
not a student organization. Many dont even know where it is
or what it does. According to the administration, the City of Oberlin
informed the WRC that its office is in an area zoned for residences,
and hence must move. The City claims it did no such thing, but even
so, the College could possibly have informed the office of any zoning
rules before it gave the WRC the space or at any time in the last
five years. It could also have provided funds for a director for
the center other than MRC director Rachel Beverly, who is wearing
both hats. If the WRC is a legitimate office then it should have
its own staff and be able to hold more than a few ill-publicized
office hours, but that never seemed a concern of the Colleges.
What a womens resource center should be is an open, welcoming
place that every student knows about and feels comfortable in. It
should have a well-stocked library, which the WRC does, and a knowledgeable
staff, which the WRC maintains through its ExCo, but should also
have professional staff on hand. It should fund programs, which
again the WRC has tried to do over the years, from hosting speakers
to getting tickets to the Ani DiFranco concert. It should be active
in education on womens issues and outreach for community service.
In short, the WRC should be a vital part of Oberlin, especially
since Oberlin is such a gynocentric environment and will remain
so for the foreseeable future. The WRC deserves the full respect
of the College, and it certainly doesnt seem to be getting
it.
Construction Ahead
If everything continues according to schedule, the
new science center should be finished by May. The devastation wrought
on North Eighth (half of North Quad) will finally be over and we
will have a few more crucial ranking points in U.S. News and World
Report. Then we will be on to new ways to spend alumni dollars on
projects to improve campus spaces.
Number one on that list should be full handicapped access for every
building on campus to bring us up to Americans with Disability Act
standards. While academic buildings as a whole are pretty good,
students in wheelchairs currently have access to two dorms. Warner
is not only a nightmare of inaccessiblity, its a nightmare,
period. The second job at hand is new performance and practice space,
and lots of it. The only space with real curtains and backdrops
is Hall, which is used mostly for Sex at 7:30, two operas and the
occasional very ambitious student production once every ten years
or so.
A real student theater, or at least a black box, is needed for theater
and dance performances. Plans should be underway to convert Crane
Pool into such a space. New art studio space would also be nice.
Finally, there is the issue of current academic buildings that are
not as ritzy as the recently overhauled science buildings, namely
King. The desks are ancient, tiny and uncomfortable. The ventilation
system, as is pointed out on the signs outside, draws smoke directly
into the building. Fixing just these two problems would make life
a lot more bearable for the students who spend hundreds of hours
a year there.
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