News
Briefs
Students Polled on Iraq War
A Student Senate referendum appeared in students’ mailboxes
on Thursday, Nov. 21, with only one question: “Do you support
US Military action in Iraq?” The referendum lacked any background
information, in a self-proclaimed attempt to be as “neutral
as possible.”
The Senate questionnaire is intended to gauge student opinion and
make it public, but some students hoped that it would do more.
Oberlin Coalition Against War (OCAW) organizer senior Marianna Leavy-Sperounis
said that the administration had expressed “a strong anti-war
sentiment” with a recent teach-in, which the questionnaire
could bolster.
“We’re hoping that with some student support articulated
by the passage of the referendum, the Administration will feel like
they have the leverage and the support to come out publicly [against
the war],” she said.
Some students hope that won’t happen.
“I’m concerned that student groups who oppose the war
are going to try to use the results of the referendum to pressure
Nancy Dye into coming out with a formal College position on the
War,” senior Chris Holbein said.
“I think [the College] should be left as a neutral institution
where students explore their own beliefs and debate with each other
without any set political ideologies characterizing the institution
as a whole,” he continued.
OCAW tabled on Wednesday and Thursday in Wilder and Mudd in anticipation
of the referendum.
— Blake Wilder
Retired Employee Gets Award
The
American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio presented its Liberty’s
Flame Award to Oberlin resident and retired College employee Carol
Ganzel, for her “decades-long service as a leader within the
ACLU,” on Nov. 16.
Ganzel has been active in the ACLU since the early 1970s, when she
joined the board of what is now the ACLU North Central Chapter.
A few years later, she joined the Ohio affiliate board of directors
as chapter representative, and continued to serve until early 2002.
As a board member, she helped improve the financial health of the
Ohio chapter. She also participated in efforts to strengthen the
affiliate’s education and litigation programs.
Ganzel retired from Oberlin College in 1995, where she had been
editor of the staff newspaper since 1981. She is also vice-chair
of the City of Oberlin’s Historic Preservation Commission,
on which she has served since 1995.
— Jesse Baer |