Responses to August 2014 E-mail

In August 2014, an email was sent to the Oberlin community inviting responses to the following questions: What current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin? In light of this challenge, what is the most important opportunity for us to explore?

As we receive responses, we will publish all those who granted permission here below.

09.12.14

Samuel Hartman - Staff

In view of the driving forces mentioned above, what current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin? 

Clearly it is the climate crisis facing us; in 50 years the earth will be a vastly different place and we must act now to ensure that citizens of Oberlin and the people who rely on our college (students, teachers, staff, and more) have a sustainable place to live, work, educate, and grow. Of course, this means environmental sustainability must be at the forefront of the Strategic Plan: an elimination of fossil fuels, a plant-based diet, a strong effort to remove wasteful practices and unnecessary waste (plastic bags, styrofoam, etc.) as well as a "cradle to the grave" approach for all current and future practices at the college. Oberlin College has always been a leader in this avenue and should continue to do by taking extreme approaches in our resource usage, carbon reduction, and overall approach towards sustainability.

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09.12.14

Ray English - Staff

What current or future challenges are most important for Oberlin?

Oberlin’s most important challenges involve dealing effectively with a variety of financial issues (Oberlin’s increasing costs, stagnant family incomes, slow labor force recovery from the financial crisis, student debt burdens, need for increased scholarship support, etc.) while also maintaining Oberlin’s identity (topnotch liberal arts college, superior training in the arts, diversity of the student body, access for the economically disadvantaged, commitment to social justice and environmental sustainability, etc.) and also continuing to improve on the overall educational experience of Oberlin students.

 

What is the most important opportunity for Oberlin to explore?

I would recommend starting by thinking afresh about Oberlin’s fundamental mission and especially its learning goals for its students.  The statement of Oberlin’s aims for its students, which appears in the “About Oberlin” section of the course catalog, has not—to my knowledge—been reexamined since it was formulated in 1977.  While the statement is not bad, it is limited in scope and does not address major societal and educational developments that have occurred since it was drafted.  It seems to me that thinking in fundamental ways about our educational goals is a necessary first step before thinking about strategies to address the many complex and interrelated issues that the college faces.  Such a process could help clarify approaches to other issues, such as how to strengthen the aspects of Oberlin that distinguish it in comparison to other liberal arts colleges, universities, and other ways of pursuing higher education.

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09.12.14

Bridget Flynn - Staff

Dear Strategic Planning Committee:

Oberlin College is in a unique position as a leading institution of higher education tasked with educating and preparing students for the future. Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. At the Oberlin College Office of Environmental Sustainability, we seek to go beyond that basic definition to strive for an essence of thriving or flourishing. Sustainability involves three components: Equity, Environment, and Economics. Our current and future challenges are all then essentially sustainability challenges.

A warming world, income disparity, rising cost of higher education, racial inequity, polluted air and water, obesity, war, increase in extreme weather events, religious tensions – while these challenges can be debilitatingly daunting, with Oberlin’s incredible capabilities, we can build upon inspiring solutions from across the globe to tackle these challenges and create more inspiring images in their place.

Oberlin’s last strategic plan, approved in 2005, included a move toward environmental sustainability as a key component. The justifications for this move have not changed; they have only become more relevant. They include “the unprecedented environmental challenges our students will face in the future; the great importance attached by current and prospective students to efforts to achieve sustainability; the learning experiences afforded to students as a results of these efforts and the continuing example Oberlin can set for other institutions, academic and otherwise.” Additional justifications include Oberlin College’s stated commitments of carbon neutrality by 2025 per the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) and our signing onto the Clinton Climate Initiative Climate Positive Development Program with the City of Oberlin and the Oberlin Project. Oberlin College must then further integrate sustainability into our curriculum, operations, and culture.

In achieving a “move toward environmental sustainability” strategies must go beyond seeking to reduce the amount of harm we are causing, but actively contributing to creating a better world. The College is in a good position to contribute to improving our physical environment and our community. Oberlin attracts students from across the world who care about these issues; the College can and should continue developing opportunities that enable students to work alongside the community to tackle real challenges. Oberlin attracts visitors and researchers from around the world who want to see for themselves the incredible work that’s happening on this campus and in this town. Oberlin has been awarded myriad donations and grants to improve upon and encourage the development of the Oberlin we aspire to. These connections put Oberlin out front as a leader while simultaneously creating networks of support worldwide. Through the Green EDGE Fund and efficiency funds that enable the institution to save energy, labor, and monetary resources, exciting renewable energy projects that yield social, environmental, and economic benefit, there are enormous opportunities the College must continue to grasp. Let’s utilize and build upon these assets.

Oberlin College has been viewed as a leader in the challenges of the day for quite some time. As the world acknowledges the challenges before us, our fellow higher education institutions have made great strides to becoming more sustainable. If Oberlin wants to continue to lead, we must aggressively work to achieve our stated goals. By the time of the College’s next strategic planning initiative in 10 years, it will be 2025 – our carbon neutrality date. The world will be watching. Will Oberlin College be in the position to lead?

Bridget Flynn, Sustainability Coordinator
Oberlin College Office of Environmental Sustainability

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09.12.14

Sean Hayes - Staff, Oberlin Project

The most important challenge that Oberlin College faces currently and into the foreseeable future is how it can maintain its role as an educational leader in a rapidly changing environment. Oberlin has a proud history of blazing new paths forward and challenging bright young minds with a curriculum that engages in the most pressing issues of the day.

Today’s college students are faced with unprecedented challenges that can be paralyzing in scope. Chief among those trials is how to deal with the systemic effects of climate change that threaten not just the biophysical world but culture and society as we know it. Within that daunting task, however, are a myriad of opportunities for Oberlin College to rise to the occasion and innovate. Fortunately, a liberal arts education is an invaluable asset in tackling problems of this scope that do not abide within traditional departmental boundaries. Our collective task will be to focus, refine, and leverage the strengths of this institution to prepare students with the skills to meet these challenges.

In Oberlin College’s last strategic plan (2005), a move toward environmental sustainability was a key strategic decision and has yielded enormous benefits for the college and the larger community. Oberlin has one of the best environmental studies programs in the world, which attracts students directly to the major, but has an additional benefit in attracting students who care about the environment but want to pursue another major (much as the Conservatory does for music lovers). Since its last strategic plan, Oberlin has made multiple public commitments to environmental sustainability, most notably pledging carbon neutrality by 2025, creating the Office of Environmental Sustainability, and actively participating in The Oberlin Project. These decisions build upon Oberlin’s proud tradition of leading the charge in addressing the most pressing social issues of the day, have cemented sustainability as part of Oberlin’s brand, provided innovative opportunities for applied education within the curriculum, garnered international attention, and have resulted in significant funding opportunities for the College from both grants and donations.

We are not alone in this effort, however, and if we are to maintain our status as a pioneer in this increasingly important arena we must continue to innovate at an accelerating pace. Despite our collective achievements over the past decade, the campus and curriculum are replete with opportunities to build upon our prior success, forge cross-disciplinary connections, connect the classroom to the community, region, and larger world, and achieve operational cost savings that simultaneously reduce our environmental impact.

By the time we write our next strategic plan, we will have arrived at our pledged carbon neutral date. It will not be enough to work toward sustainability over the next decade – we have already committed to achieving it. By that time, the world will be hotter with more people displaced and competing for scarcer finite resources. Current Oberlin students will be hard at work addressing these and many other issues. Current preschool and elementary students will be looking for higher education that will best prepare them for the emergent and pressing issues of their day. Will Oberlin be that institution? That is our most pressing challenge today.

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09.11.14

Michael Loose - Faculty

Suggestion for the Oberlin College Strategic Planning process

Learning and Teaching to Think

Given that there are a host of headwinds to obtaining large numbers of desirable applicants at the present moment and that these headwinds are predicted to increase substantially over the next 20 years our most important current and future challenge is to better stand out amongst our peer schools by providing a demonstrably superior education.  Competing in many other potential arenas such as pleasant living spaces is a losing tactic as others have more money and these ancillary things are, in a sense, the antithesis of what we stand for.  I propose that our best opportunity to stand out is to become widely known as the best institution of higher learning at which to learn to think critically and creatively.

Let me begin by making the point that I am speaking about two aspects of thinking.  As noted by Steve Volk in a couple of his recent CTIE emails see for example http://languages.oberlin.edu/blogs/ctie/2014/05/04/critical-thinking-in-the-classroom-some-questions-for-the-summer/ thinking critically does not have a single agreed upon definition.   One of the definitions Steve referenced was “Critical thinking is a habit of mind characterized by the comprehensive exploration of issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion.” Another definition offered was “Critical thinking consists of seeing both sides of an issue, being open to new evidence that disconfirms your ideas, reasoning dispassionately, demanding that claims be backed by evidence, deducing and inferring conclusions from available facts, solving problems, and so forth.”  One description of an ideal critical thinker that I like comes from the 1990 APA Report (obtainable here http://assessment.aas.duke.edu/documents/Delphi_Report.pdf ) and is “The ideal critical thinker is habitually inquisitive, well-informed, trustful of reason, open-minded, flexible, fair-minded in evaluation, honest in facing personal biases, prudent in making judgments, willing to reconsider, clear about issues, orderly in complex matters, diligent in seeking relevant information, reasonable in the selection of criteria, focused in inquiry, and persistent in seeking results which are as precise as the subject and the circumstances of inquiry permit.”   Creative thinking is also a term that has many, connotations.   Most relevant to this letter is that there is an extremely tight link between critical and creative thinking.  As Runco and Jaeger (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10400419.2012.650092) word it, “The standard definition is bipartite: Creativity requires both originality and effectiveness.”  The consensus of researchers into creativity is that learning to think critically is essential to thinking creatively.  From my perspective it is equally true that an artist needs to use both creative and critical thinking when deciding what to create and how to do it and that a scientist needs to use both creative and critical thinking when deciding what to test and how to do it.

For the sake of brevity I will briefly describe just three reasons for claiming that teaching our students to become superior critical and creative thinkers is the best opportunity for Oberlin to stand out amongst our peers.  There are many additional arguments in favor of deciding to become known as the school where one learns to think critically and creatively.  And I expect our discussions during the strategic planning process will raise and consider many of them. 

First, Oberlin already focuses on teaching students to think critically and/or creatively in many, if not most, of our courses.  In most cases however this is not made explicit to our students and in many cases it is not at the forefront of the professors’ minds either.  Thus, we would need to make explicit in the classroom what we have been emphasizing implicitly.  For example, one of the strengths of Oberlin is our broad and deep emphasis on the importance of learning to appreciate multiple cultural perspectives and we argue this makes our students better citizens.  An important element of the argument, though too seldom articulated, is that knowing that multiple perspectives are essential to making good decisions is exactly the hallmark of a good critical thinker.   That we already focus on critical and creative thinking, if mostly implicitly, is important because any large institution is difficult to change in any major way and it functions best when it stays true to its accepted core values.

Second, students who are considering pursuing a liberal arts education at a private school like Oberlin, and especially their parents if they are paying, must be convinced that there is a substantial advantage to doing so above pursuing more career-focused approaches, attending large, diverse universities, obtaining quick and cheap online degrees, etc.  The statement that we offer the student a broader perspective is no longer enough for many.  Rightfully, they need to understand what undergirds the importance and advantages of obtaining a broader education and perspective.  A related issue that liberal arts colleges must deal with is how to provide a coherent education, and this coherence must be something that students can easily understand and see the value of.  One way to achieve coherence and to make it easily understood by potential students why a liberal arts education at Oberlin is advantageous is for there to be some overarching goal toward which almost all coursework and many outside experiences are related to.  There are very few possible goals that are equally well taught by almost every discipline in the College of Arts and Sciences.  One of these happens to be thinking, both critical and creative thinking.  Thus, Oberlin can stand out by making the needed changes to explicitly focus the education our students receive so that it can be described (accurately) as the absolutely best way to obtain the education our students will need in their future, i.e. the ability to think critically and creatively.  

Third, there are two huge practical advantages to making a focus on critical thinking a major part of what Oberlin (explicitly) does.  These advantages follow from the very widespread and quite accurate belief that, though higher education professes to teach critical thinking, it neither focuses much effort on actually teaching critical thinking nor demonstrably achieves success at improving critical thinking.  Another widespread, and mostly accurate, belief is that higher education is unwilling to test itself on whether they are being successful at meeting their goals. The first practical advantage is that it would be relatively easy to advertise to, and indeed convince, the world that we are a unique institution of higher learning, one that actually does focus on teaching thinking.  The second practical advantage is that we could easily “prove” our unique value to students.  We could do this by assessing all of our first year and all of our graduating students and then publishing the results (good or bad) to the world.  There are well established and normed assessment tools we could adopt such as the California Critical Thinking Skills Test and the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory.  Publishing how well our graduates know how to think and how disposed they are to actually use what they have learned would demonstrate our unflinching commitment to teach our students what we claim they need to know and that we willing to be graded by our “customers” on how well we succeed in this commitment.  As a practical matter, an excellent way to stand out is to do what nobody else is doing and with this change we would be doing two important things that “nobody” else is doing.

While there are good reasons for the claim that a serious focus on teaching critical and creative thinking is our best chance to stand out amongst other liberal arts schools one should consider the costs of such a change.  Monetary costs would be minimal, funding some teaching workshops and some assessments, and this is a plus.  The larger cost would be the effort and the time it would take to make the argument and to ultimately convince a deeply conservative faculty to change, even a little bit, how they teach.  Otherwise, for example, adding a goal to one’s syllabi related to critical and creative thinking and then acting to carry out that goal would meet significant resistance amongst some, and perhaps many, faculty members.  These costs seem eminently reasonable considering the large, approaching existential, benefit that the College could accrue.

Michael D. Loose, Professor of Neuroscience

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09.11.14

Drew Wilburn - Faculty

What current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin? 

I believe that our challenge lies in defining what is important and different about a liberal arts education. In particular, communicating our role within higher education requires us to focus on education and on how we can best educate our students. One of the clear benefits of the liberal arts lies in breadth, and learning how to think through exposure to a variety of disciplines and approaches. Despite some arguments to the contrary, higher education is not marketplace where we must tailor the education we provide to the whims of the consumer. Rather, we need to clearly define what an Oberlin education has meant and will mean going forward.

In light of this challenge, what is the most important opportunity for us to explore?

The message from our alumni suggests that what they value most about their Oberlin experience was interaction with faculty, and this should continue to drive our planning for the future. Educational content will soon be readily available for much cheaper prices via MOOCs and other similar fora. Residential liberal arts colleges will remain unique experiences only if we cultivate, glorify and reward close mentoring relationships between faculty and students.  The combination of an increasing student to faculty ratio, stagnant salaries, and influx of administrative positions could easily deflate our faculty’s commitment to the institution and as a result their willingness to go the extra mile for our students. A primary feature that can continue to distinguish the value of an Oberlin education is in peril.

We need to encourage faculty to collaborate with students in meaningful and active ways as much as possible.  One model that seems quite successful is the collaborative research model used in the sciences. Educator-researchers (if I might borrow a hyphenated term from athletics, where the process of doing research serves an educational role) spend considerable time mentoring and working closely with students. These sacrifices may often slow the pace of research and always require the faculty member to bring students up to speed in ever-more complicated fields.  

The benefits, however, are enormous to the educational experience of the student. The humanities and social sciences are moving stridently into the realm of digital scholarship and research products. Here, too, we should explore the ways in which students can share in the research experience of faculty members by actively participating in data collection and interpretation. Students can learn the most from research experiences that are directed by researchers who are intimately familiar with the work being undertaken and the relevant bibliography, that is, when working on a small portion or sub-project within a faculty member's research agenda. These experiences can provide close mentoring and in-depth training in asking and attempting to answer relevant questions. Such training is crucial in any field of employment.

This form of collaboration, teaching and mentoring must be valued and rewarded in a manner that encourages more faculty to take on the challenge to their traditional view of research as a personal matter rather than an opportunity that can more directly benefit the Oberlin educational community.

Drew Wilburn, Associate Professor of Classics

Feel free to share this

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09.11.14

John Bucher - Staff

In view of the driving forces mentioned above, what current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin? 

Our most important and powerful challenge is the need to become much more agile and decisive.  The rate of change is accelerating, and Oberlin will need to come up with responses to these changes (especially technological change) much quicker than we have in the past.  Many of these changes will demand tough choices, such as reducing or eliminating some programs in favor of others.

In light of this challenge, what is the most important opportunity for us to explore?

We should start now to build a new model for decision making in the next decades.  We should begin some tough discussions about mission, goals, curriculum and extra-curricular opportunities.  What stays, what changes, and what goes?  How do we maintain the special qualities of this institution while incorporating the many changes that will be necessary for our survival?  We should be willing to seek and discuss "crazy ideas," with the expectation that a few of these will morph into pieces of the Oberlin College of the future.

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09.10.14

Catherine Oertel - Faculty

Dear Committee Members,

   I'm writing to share my responses to the questions you recently posed to the College community.  I think that an important challenge for Oberlin is helping students to have experiences that make connections between their liberal arts education and possible career and employment directions.  Closely tied to this challenge is that of articulating these connections to parents of current and prospective students.  

    I think that in addressing these challenges, Oberlin should cultivate stronger ties with other institutions and industries in northeast Ohio.  Our established pattern is that most students come from some distance to attend Oberlin and then return to the coasts after graduation.  We largely miss out on the chance to have recruiting relationships with regional professionals and their companies, to host them as guest speakers, or to situate Oberlin students in internships or Winter Term projects in Cleveland.   As a starting point, Oberlin could become involved in a program such as Summer on the Cuyahoga, which brings students from selective colleges and universities to Cleveland for summer internships.  Oberlin's location is often viewed as a drawback, yet we are less isolated than many other liberal arts colleges.  We should capitalize more on the advantages of our location.   

    This approach offers other benefits in addition to helping students in defining their trajectories.  Interactions between Cleveland-based professionals and Oberlin students will raise Oberlin's profile (beyond its already strong reputation in the fine arts) in our region and increase its appeal as a college destination for top students from northeast Ohio.  A richer regional network could also be stimulating to faculty and staff by providing greater opportunities for professional and even social interactions.

   You may share my comments if you'd like.

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09.10.14

Danny Rosenberg - Staff

Hello,

Please find my answers below. Feel free to post them. I am a staff member and and an alum.

What current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin? 

The most important challenge for us is to figure out how to opt out of the rat race that pits Oberlin against so-called "peer institutions" in a soulless competition for money and prestige.

In light of this challenge, what is the most important opportunity for us to explore?

We need to be honest about what kind of balance between progress and luxury we can achieve. If Oberlin is going to be as accessible and environmentally sustainable as it ought to be, we need to stop catering to bourgeois tastes. Rather than trying to undermine institutions like OSCA, we should be discussing ways that we can build on and expand their model as a way of cost-cutting and improving democratic decision-making. It's time that we start living up to our motto, "Learning and Labor."

Staff- Fellow in Environmental Studies

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09.09.14

Carol Lasser - Faculty

Interdisciplinarity and Curricular Agility: Strategically Reimagining The Framework for Dynamic Change

 Nothing is more critical to Oberlin’s future than rethinking and renewing its educational core in ways that empower students.  Technology, demography, and globalization change not only our educational environment; they change the nature of our student body, and, if we are honest, they should change the content of education in ways that we cannot yet even imagine.  Oberlin needs to consider how to achieve curricular agility in order to respond better to the dynamic development of new areas of knowledge and to nurture a robust and innovative academic program that draws students to our campus.  The intellectual, as well as the financial, imperatives demand bold thinking.

In 2014, Oberlin’s curriculum remains dominated by the disciplines and the disciplinary models established in a previous century.  While we have come to embrace some interdisciplinary endeavors—Environmental Studies, Neuroscience, and Africana Studies are prime examples—these areas have themselves risen to prominence based on models of disciplinary expertise: departments and programs stake out claims to academic fields, compete inside the governance structure for the allocation of scarce positions, then jealously guard their faculty resources, boxed within the requirements for teaching the major in their established area.  Faculty are reviewed for renewal, tenure and promotion based on their academic performance (both scholarship and teaching) within disciplinary or program confines.  The rigidity of department and program lines inhibits innovation across boundaries; moreover, perhaps a full decade can elapse between the conceptualization of an emergent academic area and the regularization of a tenured appointment in the area identified.  In a world where new knowledge quickly bubbles up and spills beyond disciplinary boundaries (think: behavioral economics, computational linguistics or even “book studies”), where dynamic global developments change the nature of inquiries into the social and natural sciences almost daily (think: the epidemiology of Ebola, Brazilian studies, economic infographics), such a system of allocation for scarce faculty resources at best maintains areas of traditional quality and insures continuity of knowledge; but it may also strangle the development of cutting edge knowledge that would empower our students for their futures.

 What could Oberlin do to create greater curricular agility?  Could Oberlin foster a culture of interdisciplinary, cooperative education by rethinking the ways in which we conceptualize faculty appointments and disciplinary boundaries? Could we envision a dynamic (and time-sensitive) process by which the faculty collectively became responsible for frequent review and redesign of curricular priorities, followed by encouragement of and support for development of new interdisciplinary and experimental endeavors?  What would happen if Oberlin reconsidered the permanence of faculty ties to their original departmental homes, perhaps encouraging individuals periodically to rethink their scholarly trajectories, and in so doing, migrate into new areas of knowledge?  Can we imagine new interdisciplinary processes of faculty appointment and new cooperative modes of support that would sustain faculty innovation across their careers while assuring faculty the security of their appointment?  I believe we can and should.

 Such innovations would benefit the education of our students, as well as the dynamic careers of our faculty. We could reflect better the changing knowledge environment for the benefit of all.  A fresh approach might lead us to rethink the scope and meaning of students’ majors and the organization of their learning. Developing curricular agility might also require revisioning the allocation of faculty and the reward structures for faculty.  But creating  new approaches to emergent and dynamic knowledge areas will be critical to maintaining Oberlin's position as an institution committed to providing an education that equips its students for the challenges of a world we are only yet imagining. 

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09.09.14

Olivia Scott - Student

Hello Planning Committee,

Thanks so much for your offer to hear from the community before you move forward in the planning process. Since coming to Oberlin, the awareness of the world around me has certainly increased. Specifically, I have realized how Climate Change is going to play a key role in how society will function in the future. The humans and the natural environment are intertwined, but as much as humans have tried to control their environment, the environment will govern the choices humans will make.

 As a place of higher education, Oberlin College, like many other colleges and universities, must be proactive and generate innovative ideas that will hopefully shape its students as they graduate and progress in life. With that in mind, I think Oberlin can prepare for this future by strengthening the interdisciplinary nature of courses. Over the summer, I researched Traditional Ecological Knowledge, which is the way indigenous people view their environment. The unique qualities I drew out from that experience was the concept of a holistic view of the world. The understanding that the world is interconnected and complex.  Although, the purpose of education is to try and understand the world, college classes often focus on simplifying the world and separating everything into distinct groups and disciplines.

 Inspired from the book Biomimicry by Janine Benyus, I decided to take an Economics course along side Systems Ecology. While it is really rewarding to see all these commonalities between the two disciplines; I learned this semester that I am only being taught one version of Economics. I noticed that at one level my education of Economics is not holistic because I am only being taught one theory not multiple different theories, and at a separate level the classes do not branch into other disciplines but rather remain separated. A large part of a liberal arts education is a ability to see the different connections between disciplines, but there is no room currently in making those connections into a conversation because each discipline remains primarily separated from each other. With that being said, I think Oberlin is a wonderful place, with the foundations to build a progressive and innovative higher education structure. The foundations that I see stem from the openness to take feedback, like this email. I think higher education is facing some hard years ahead, with documentaries debating whether a liberal arts education is worth the cost.

 My ideas for what Oberlin can do to plan for this future include richer interconnected community involvement. This community-minded perspective is already beginning with the Oberlin Project, but I think Oberlin could benefit immensely from even more initiatives. As much as accumulating knowledge is a goal of coming to school, we students are entering into a society that is stressing collaborative efforts. I foresee community-work and brain power becoming a common thread to remaining resilient throughout the changes Climate Change may bring. This mindset could alter what college could mean. A interconnected relationship between community and school could mean a primarily closed system where the cost of education could decrease if everyone is working to make the college better. More feedback channels would also make Oberlin a better academic institution; the student body is original in its passion for making the world a better place, so allowing students to take on leadership positions or participate in conversations that play a role in the school's future could be rewarding for both students and the administration.

 I find as a student that it is hard to get all the facts on various topics related to reasons for college policies. Some students may be passionate or frustrated with a policy the school has enacted, but I find that frustration stems from a lack of information available to understand the reasoning behind policy. Information should be easily available for students; I feel that answering fairly straightforward questions would require numerous visited to different offices to figure out who the right person with the information would be. If information on future and past decisions in different areas of the school were easily accessible with the contact information for follow up questions, the student body could play a more active role in making the school a better place. An avenue for student and staff feedback would also need to be established so administrators could take or at least hear alternative ideas or concerns and students and staff could feel apart of the future of their school.

  In summation, the future should be viewed through the light of environmental change because all the areas mentioned on the strategic planning website are going to change because of the environment. The future is going to look very different because of Climate Change, so I really hope the committee views the future with Climate Change in mind despite its absence on the website and on the list of items to consider on the email you sent out. The other areas, I brought up were: avenues for community involvement, cross-disiplinary courses or holistic courses, and even more room for student involvement in school policy or at least a better communication system within the school and maybe the community on the decisions and reasons for decisions. The latter, I feel, will make Oberlin a really special place. I know that policy is in place for a reason and with the best intentions, but using the body of knowledge both professors and students offer could create a positive feedback loop pushing Oberlin on a path for a prosperous and unique future. 

Thanks again for this opportunity. I was wondering if there was any more room on this committee, I really would love to be apart of this process.

Best,

Olivia Scott

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09.09.14

Rebecca Whelan - Faculty

In the September 9 issue, the New York Times ran an article titled "Top Colleges That Enroll Rich, Middle Class and Poor," featuring a table of "The Most Economically Diverse Top Colleges." I opened the interactive graphic in eager anticipation of seeing how well Oberlin was doing, but I was angered and saddened to see that we were not among the 90 schools noted for their share of Pell grant eligible students and their affordable net price for low- and middle-income folks. The details of this particular metric notwithstanding (since we all know not to put too much stock in such things), I encourage the thinkers behind the strategic planning process to espouse an aspirational vision of the education we offer. In this vision, bright and hardworking students without means or family financial support will be able to leverage the remarkable assets of Oberlin, to contribute to the complexity and brilliance of our campus and wider community, and to chip away--one graduate at a time--at the increasingly frightening edifice of economic stratification.

You are welcome to post my comment and use my name. Thank you.

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09.07.14

L.H. McMillin - Faculty

Greetings, 

Thank you for the chance to put in my 2 cents. It's stunning that climate change does not headline the list of changes we all must deal with -- it's arguably the most profound change we all will deal with, that will change our world forever.

We need to be at the forefront of thinking about and fighting and adapting to climate change.

Secondly, and this is not disconnected to the above, we need to develop more productive and thoughtful ways of dealing with stress, difference, and conflict. We attract students with diverse interests and bright minds: sometimes we cave too much to those with the loudest voices, those who, in fact, exemplify attributes that are hardly worthy of promoting: intolence, self-righteousness, lack of critical thinking, disrespect. If Oberlin can't figure out how to encourage thoughtful, reflective interactions, then I don't know who can.

Finally, I'd like to see us put more focus on how to live mindfully, dealing with stress healthily, and develop self-reflection. This would probably involve a movement towards practices that are more body- and mind- (and not just intellect-)focused.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Laurie

LHMcMillin
Professor & Chair, Rhetoric & Composition
Oberlin College

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09.06.14

Kaia Austin - Student

Hello,

I share the concern of many students that Oberlin needs to be more accessible. In order to live up to the "progressive history" that Oberlin College is so proud of when selling the school to prospective students, this institution needs to continue to break down class, race, and citizenship barriers (to name but a few) to education, rather than relying on students to do the work. 

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09.06.14

Emily Ostrom - Student

Dear Strategic Planning,

In my opinion, the most important step forward for Oberlin would be to bring in more tenured-track faculty of color, especially in STEM fields and in the classical portion of the conservatory.  Faculty of color are vastly underrepresented in the conservatory (except for jazz), and in departments such as math, computer science and physics.   We could use some more female faculty in the latter departments as well!!

You can post my name in association with this comment.

Thanks,

Emi Ostrom

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09.06.14

Cindy Chapman - Faculty

1. The most important goal for Oberlin is to make Oberlin's outstanding education accessible to qualified students from all economic backgrounds.

2. I don't have any specific recommendations here. 

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09.06.14

Evan Cameron - Student

Hi,

Here is my suggestion in your planning:

In light of new challenges facing higher education, especially financial ones, I think it is imperative that Oberlin look to alternative ways of maintaining and increasing its financial accessibility. I believe one of the hallmarks of a good liberal arts college is its ability to meet the financial need of its students, whether through the office of financial aid or in other ways. Oberlin is uniquely situated to meet the needs of its students through decades of operating under the "Learning and Labor" motto as well as operating closely associated with the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA). 

I will admit that I'm currently the President of said organization, so I may have a conflict of interest, but this is why I send this email from my personal email account, not OSCA's, as this opinion is my own and not mine as President. 

OSCA provides a model in which students literally follow Oberlin's original learning and labor ideal in practice. Students work (at the very least) four to five hours per week learning how to facilitate group meetings, write budgets, run non-profit organizations as management members, and so many other real world skills. In this, they embody the principle of learning while they labor, and vice versa. Through this labor, they also save money - currently upwards of $6,000. Any money they don't spend comes back to the members in the form of refunds. In this, since Oberlin remains in close association with OSCA, students are able to meet some of their financial need through a learning and labor experience that I believe is paramount to an Oberlin College education.

I believe that one of the best ways Oberlin College can move forward is not to attempt to receive more net tuition revenue per student, but support alternative ways of meeting student need, to both support its motto & mission as well as reduce the burden on the office of financial aid. If the situation is truly as dire as we have heard, students' financial need continues to rise, while our endowment remains mostly the same, providing for a difficult conflict. Meanwhile, student housing & dining cooperatives continue to sprout up around many campuses across the nation, and provide a means of financial accessibility that are hard to match.

 I would suggest to the committee that in the coming years, the support of alternative forms of financial accessibility like OSCA, as well as the Bonner program and others, are imperative. Providing for the ability for students to make their own savings through their own labor is something that wouldn't cost much, and would in the process provide a lot of learning to students as well.

So I would say my suggestion is that the new strategic plan should return Oberlin to its roots - Learning and Labor. 

***You are free to post this suggestion as well as my name***

Thanks,

Evan

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09.06.14

Nancy Boutilier - Visiting Faculty

On first look, yours seems like a comprehensive list: "developments in information technology, challenges to traditional financing models, a long-term stagnation of personal income for many, demographic shifts, globalization, and the emergence of new kinds of institutions in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, as well as other social, economic, and political forces."

However, I'm struck by the lack of reference to environmental concerns that seem to me relevant to any strategic planning at this time in human history. So, I hope we're taking our carbon footprint, global warming, clean drinking water, healthy and non-modified foods.

Furthermore, I'm not sure what you had in mind by this particular combination--"demographic shifts, globalization, and the emergence of new kinds of institutions in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, as well as other social, economic, and political forces"--but I do hope that reflects a mission to create an environment that promotes and exhibits social justice and healthy relationships between people is also being figured in,and that includes continuing to devote resources of sexual harassment and assault.

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09.06.14

Josie Davis - Student

What current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin?

• Accessibility and Affordability - the spiraling cost of attending college has become absurdly unreachable.  One of my biggest fears is that I will not be able to pay for the education of my own children.  I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to attend a school like Oberlin, but Investing in a liberal arts education should not come at such a great cost.
• Climate Change Resilience - one of the biggest issues facing our generation will be the implications of climate change.  Climate change should be considered from all perspectives and by all departments in the college.  What will adaptation and resilience strategies look like?  The consequences of climate change will be serious and may jeopardize the vitality of higher education institutions like Oberlin.  In the near future, I hope conversations about climate change and how it will effect Oberlin will become all-encompassing, multidisciplinary, and comprehensive. 

Submitted by Josie Davis '15

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09.06.14

Monique Duphil - Faculty

I think, as a school having a Environment Studies Department, it would be important to have topics like conservation, global warming and appropriate vision and behavior discussed and considered.

Actually it is probably the most imminent threat for our students generation. Let's encourage them to be aware and informed of the situation and contribute to slow down the threats.

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09.04.14

Benjamin Roidl-Ward - Student

Hello,

Thank you for your message and the opportunity to be a part of this process.

I feel that the greatest challenge facing Oberlin now and in the foreseeable future is the cost of an Oberlin education. Currently, this cost is completely unaffordable, and the high-tuition, high-award model is one that is unsustainable if we seek to make Oberlin an institution that is not exclusively accessible to the richest applicants. Since I entered Oberlin as a freshman, the total annual cost has risen by over $6,000. This growth in cost is frightening and must be curbed and reversed.

Certainly a different model for financial aid should be explored. I think there are merits to the "true cost" model, and to the Harvard (tuition based on a percentage of family income below a determined cutoff point). I think Campus living and dining need to be examined in depth. Both of these departments are insanely expensive compared to their alternatives (off campus living/dining), and the cost for both is rising at a rate that is out of control.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Ben Roidl-Ward

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09.04.14

Melanie Xu - Student

In view of the driving forces mentioned above, what current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin? 

I would say my studies are very important! However, I will definitely be putting my health before my studies, so I am going to get adequate sleep and exercise and set aside time to eat good food at the dining hall.

In light of this challenge, what is the most important opportunity for us to explore?

09.04.14

Cindy Frantz - Faculty

In view of the driving forces mentioned above, what current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin? 

You left an extremely important driving force off your list:  climate change.  Climate affects every other system we care about and depend upon:  food, water & shelter; economic stability; oppression and justice; migration and population shifts; war; political power; epidemics and human health; psychological well-being.  In my view, Oberlin cannot effectively plan for its future or educate its students without taking this reality into consideration (along with all the other important realities we are facing).  Factoring in climate change will make us more effective at understanding the other issues you mention (e.g. challenges to traditional financing models, a long-term stagnation of personal income for many, demographic shifts, globalization).  All of these things matter, and ALL will be profoundly affected by climate change.

 

In light of this challenge, what is the most important opportunity for us to explore?

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08.25.14

Jill Medina - Staff

In view of the driving forces mentioned above, what current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin? 

• work with other liberal arts colleges to reconstruct the rhetoric around the value of a liberal arts education
• inform politicians about the need to gain a better understanding about financial aid, student debt and spending
• increase the understanding among the student body about stewardship
• institutionally gain a more comprehensive understanding of costs vs income
• streamline what we are able to offer to students outside of the classroom
• continue to clearly articulate the benefits of a residential college
• we will have to tackle the ability to funding low-income students
• continue to strive to have a distribution of students from all socio-economic backgrounds
• maintain facilities and catch up on some facilities that need significant work

In light of this challenge, what is the most important opportunity for us to explore?

• additional revenue streams
• continued work to assess existing budgetary obligations
• grow the endowment
• increase student understanding of endowment and related issues

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08.25.14

Michael Reynolds - Staff

Dear Strategic Planning Steering Committee Members,

I have been working at the art museum since 2006. I saw the poor condition of the museum's HVAC system prior to the museum's renovation about four years ago; I worked closely with architects, contractors and museum staff during the renovation project; and I have observed the operation of the museum's new HVAC system over the last several years. 

I recommend that you take a very close look at ongoing maintenance of the HVAC systems in the college buildings, particularly LEED buildings. As with our personal homes and automobiles, preventative maintenance saves us time, energy, frustrations and money. 

Sincerely,

Michael Reynolds

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08.24.14

Peter Saudek - Student

In response to the email titled "The Oberlin College Strategic Plan: An Invitation to the Oberlin Community"

1. The current and future challenge I find most important for Oberlin College is how Oberlin College interacts with the Oberlin community, that is, the community that exists off campus.

2. I believe the most important opportunity for us to explore is how we can incorporate, listen to, and include the interests of the wider Oberlin community into the interests of the College. I think students would graduate with more valuable experience and knowledge if there were more opportunities for the College and the Community to collaborate.

Best,

Peter Saudek

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08.21.14

Stephanie Gunter - Student

"What current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin?"

 The main challenge that Oberlin must face now and in the future is the challenge of making change a central societal principle. Oberlin has always been known as a progressive school and we must use that reputation to our advantage. Many social, political and economic changes must occur in the next few decades to prevent and heal ongoing injustices. These injustices include the repression of the races, the sexes and the many species of the Earth beyond humans, as well as the destruction of our natural environment. The challenge will be for us, alongside others, to work to ensure that justice for all societies and all ecosystems can be reached through awareness, knowledge and the pursuit of reasonable and sensitive solutions.

"What is the most important opportunity for us to explore?"

 In order to pursue this challenge, we must take advantage of the opportunity we have at Oberlin to cooperate with others: Students, professors and other members of the school's staff. This way, we can create technological, artistic and moral solutions to our world's complex issues. It is important to understand that these issues are all connected and so the key to solving them is to work together to strive for the small steps which will help lead to the greater changes our world needs.

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08.21.14

Jake Holtzman - Student

I believe that in light of greater competition, Oberlin needs to be very careful not to lose sight of focusing on what it really means to act as a progressive, social-justice oriented institution. This means that one of the greatest challenges, I think for the school will be not to succumb too much to the Capitalist growth mindset and competitiveness. Obviously the school must face tough financial realities because of the economic environment we currently are in, but my hope is that the school can put a lot of energy into finding innovative ways around these challenges, so that the school can live up to its mission, and truly take a stand as a leader in social justice and inclusion. In some cases, this may mean putting resources toward initiatives or work that postpone campus beautification and renovation projects, for instance. To me, as nice as it is to have wonderful facilities to study in, it seems that Oberlin should be more directly focused on the more challenging, deep issues of inclusion, accessibility, and social justice.

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08.20.14

John Elder - Honorary Member, Board of Trustees

08.19.14

Gerri Johnson - Staff

My one recommendation for review (which may not be appropriate in the strategic planning process but is important someplace) is succession planning.  There is a large population of employees that will be of retirement age in the next 3-6 years and although many are not in key management positions, the impact of staffing changes will be greatly felt in the departments if recruitment and cross training is not adequately planned.

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08.18.14

Dennis Hubbard - Faculty

Please do not hesitate to draw on me or the Geology Department as you do your important work on the Strategic Plan.

08.18.14

John Petersen - Faculty

08.18.14

Kirk Ormand - Faculty

You recently sent an email out to faculty asking two questions.  My answers are below.

In light of this challenge, what is the most important opportunity for us to explore?

Oberlin, like every other college in the country, is facing a challenge of spiralling costs while family incomes remain stagnant.  A series of recent studies has shown that the vast majority of increased expenses in college education have been caused almost exclusively by administrative growth, particularly at the higher levels of the administration.  I attach here a chart from the Wall Street Journal showing the results of a study at the University of Minnesota:

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08.18.14

Carl McDaniel - Visiting Faculty

Professor Emeritus, RPI

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08.18.14

Sharon Pearson - Staff, Oberlin Project

8.17.14

Jan Miyake - Faculty

8.17.14

Gabriel Hawes - Student

Hello,

Gabriel Hawes

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8.16.14

Gary Kornblith - Faculty

8.16.14

DeSales Harrison - Faculty

In view of the driving forces mentioned above, what current or future challenge is most important for Oberlin?

In light of this challenge, what is the most important opportunity for us to explore?

8.16.14

Sebastiaan Faber - Faculty

8.16.14

Ronald Kahn - Faculty

I feel that in the master plans in the past, Oberlin has emphasized the needs of the Conservatory and Sciences in the College. The Social Sciences and Humanities have been viewed as residual parts of the Strategic Plans. This is most evident in the qualities of buildings  such as RIce and King versus the Conservatory and Science Buildings. It is important that the Strategic Plan have a real plan for the development of programs and missions in the Social Sciences and Humanities--where most of Obies actually take classes and majors. The only part of College that has been looked at in the past is Theatre and Film Studies. Best, Ron Kahn

8.15.14

Madison Szathmary - Student

8.15.14

Anne Salsich - Staff

Current or future challenge most important for Oberlin?

Scholarship, teaching and learning are increasingly requiring digital skills, coaching, software and equipment to conduct research, compile data or produce creative works, and publish original contributions in every discipline.  Yet Oberlin supports that work in a piecemeal fashion, unlike many other colleges and universities.  The library has made a strong effort, without additional staff, to provide faculty and students with digital surrogates of library and other holdings online through the Mellon grant awarded in 2009, and to encourage and support digital scholarship with a second Mellon grant awarded in 2013.  These two grants provided for one temporary hire each, for the duration of the grant periods.  That work cannot continue without a commitment from the College, and digital scholarship will only continue to grow in importance.  The library and OCTET are separate, and collaboration is awkward given that there is no department to coordinate and expand on their services in the digital arena.  Other colleges and universities are staffing and funding centers of digital research and production within the library.  See the Freedman Center for Digital Scholarship at Case University as an example: http://library.case.edu/ksl/services/digital/

 What is the most important opportunity for us to explore? 

8.15.14

Nina Pulley - Student

I feel the greatest challenges will be, as mentioned in the previous email, the stagnation of income and Oberlin's current tuition and fees, as well as globally revolutionizing developments in information technology. The overall goal will be to make Oberlin, the school, like a utopia - with features, an environment, amenities and an overall experience that no other location in the world.

Firstly, I'll address the cost of attendance. The current cost of attendance works against Oberlin's motto of "access, diversity, and inclusion." This means that in the near future, nearly all students will eventually have to attend with some form of scholarship or the administration should begin forging new partnerships with scholarship organizations to become the first "free" private school, where no student will pay more than, say, $1,000 for all four years, at no detriment to the quality of the educational and holistic experience. So this is a potential challenge and solution.

Because, honestly, if we remove the goal desire for profit and relaxed it with giving all we have to making this world a better place, quality should not suffer.

Another idea would be to open webinars online with minimal charge.

As we all know, STEM degrees are now more financially, politically, economically, and socially viable as handheld, transportation and other technologies continue to develop.

To condense, finding new areas of profit is the challenge, and that can be done by appetizing students and consulting the community on ways to make business (opening facilities to the public at a minimal charge; beginning online classes at a minimal charge). One potential source of dollars could lie in attracting contemporary musicians to perform on-campus or in the city - making Oberlin the new Madison Square Gardens or Royal Albert Hall, or precipitating a new wave of college concerts, where musicians play for free or reduced price to a crazy crowd of cultured, artistic, intelligent and pumped fans.

Another idea: continuing to pioneer new technologies environmentally - solar energy, mineral extraction, mass production, nanotechnology, the Tesla electric car - introducing cutting-edge tech & transforming Oberlin (the city) with new energy-efficient technologies, reforming its economy to accommodate them.

And another: filling Oberlin with new art mediums - everywhere. Prior love beauty.

Expand the museum, paint murals, landscape and begin changing the local ecosystem - make it a tourist destination, a community service gold mine, a concert locus.

Finding new ways to use rainwater; display concerts on city streets on the sides of buildings - involve students in cooperative fundraising campaigns; reapportion the budget to devote a significant amount towards making Oberlin College and the city a luxurious place for music, art, service, tourism.

This should begin with a brand new marketing campaign for the school - improving and increasing Oberlin's online presence. This should be pulled forward by the class of 2015 and future classes, because they understand today's culture better than most. Involve students' families. This should be a school-wide collaborative project. Everyone should be involved.

Language classes should also be integrated and promoted; texting classes in several languages via translators, to accommodate the global community and promote inclusion and diversity. Have more cultural festivals. Invite political and other great community organizers.

As you read, I know you may be envisioning the obstacles that stand in the way of these changes. But as a school that pioneered in over 150 years ago in accepting female and black students, we must retain that same bold spirit.

Oberlin has the potential to be the resurrected Alexandria, a utopia for art, literature, science, service, and inclusion. This will send shockwaves through the Midwest.

In final analysis, our job is to totally remodel; in other words: stay relevant. And I think the best way to stay relevant is to use this process of  problem-solving: what do people today want? What do people today need? Identify that and continue engaging the community as Oberlin has always done, and meet the greatest need.

Best regards,

8.15.14

Della Kurzer-Zlotnick - Student

8.15.14

Jacob Wilson - Student

8.15.14

Isadora Grevan - Visiting Faculty

8.15.14

Robert Bonfiglio - Student