Oberlin Observer. 1993-11-11

              OSeHin Cottege
Volume 15, Nttmber 6
OBserver OBerCin, Ohio
Thursday 11 November 1993
College considers change in aid policy
"Our current financial aid policy may
be interfering with the College's efforts
to reach goals for student recruitment
and retention." Presenting this possibil¬
ity to the college faculty 2 November,
the general faculty planning committee
offered four recommendations for
discussion.
The recommendations came from
two other committees, both chaired by
professor of mathematics George An¬
drews: the college faculty committee
on admissions and relations to second¬
ary schools and the general faculty
committee on student financial aid. The
admissions office has already received
two of the recommendations. The other
two must await general faculty ap¬
proval because they "impinge on the
college's current policy of need-based
aid and need-blind admissions," An¬
drews said.
Merit and index
One of the two recommendations
already communicated, Andrews said,
advised the admissions staff to explore
"new approaches to yield enhance¬
ment," including "merit-based
awards." The other suggested that the
staff use "an admissions selection in¬
dex as a basis for admitting students to
Oberlin." The most important factors in
the index are "academic strength as
measured by standardized tests and
high school record, type of application
[regular or early decision], alumni
connection, ethnicity, athletic experi¬
ence, and personal promise." A statisti¬
cal analysis identified these factors as
the ones which best explain the way
admissions decisions have been made
in the past, said director of research
Ross Peacock. The admissions commit¬
tee has not yet decided the weight to
give to each factor in the index.
One of the recommendations requir¬
ing faculty approval adds another
factor to the admissions-selection index
that would, in effect, end need-blind
admissions: "a weight for family con¬
tribution." The other recommendation
requiring approval would end need-based
aid for some admitted students:
"In conferring financial aid, a student's
admissions rating will be employed so
that the college can attract students
according to their desirability to the
institution." The rationale behind these
recommendations was in the general
faculty planning committee report
presented by committee chair Grover
Zinn, Danforth professor of religion
(and author of a related article in this
Observer).
'Honorable principles'
During the college faculty discus¬
sion, professors and student represen¬
tatives sought information and offered
opinions about the four recommenda¬
tions. The consensus was that the
present policy needs changing, but
some speakers questioned the need for
particular changes. Opening the dis¬
cussion, professor of classics Thomas
Van Nortwick warned against an emo¬
tional attachment to need-blind and
need-based admissions. "Financial aid
is eating at our budget while we pre¬
serve our honorable principles," he
said. Associate professor or history
Gary Komblith replied that the prin¬
ciples were not based on "mere emo¬
tion," that "the soul of the institution is
indeed at stake. If you change the com¬
position of the student body, you
change the character of the college."
Later Komblith said, "Students come
here caring about things intellectual. I
wouldn't trade that for higher board
scores."
Noting that Oberlin's aid has not
always b^en need-blind. Biggs profes¬
sor in the natural sciences Norman
Craig said that Oberlin had given merit
scholarships in the 1950s. Oberlin's
Eroblem now is the yield decline of the
ist 20 years. "We shouldn't make
projections only out of our recent his¬
tory," he said. "Rather, we should
make significant changes in order to
become more competitve, recognizing
that our history is complex." In the
1960s, said Jay professor of art Richard
Spear, Oberlin did not have to talk
aoout "marketing," but now it does.
"We can't keep doing what we're do¬
ing now," he said. "Unfortunately, we
can't be need-blind."
To improve yield, said professor of
chemistry Terry Carlton, Oberlin
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should make its "substandard" aid
package competitive with aid offered
by other schools. He warned against
faculty "polarization" on the aid issue.
Komblith saw "basic agreement"
among the faculty on the need to limit
the financial-aid budget but not on the
dollar amount of that limit.
Taking action
"We should have discussed this 10
years ago," said professor of biology
Richard Levin. It is "demoralizing to
students" he said, "to keep hearing that
they are of lower quality" than their
predecessors. "We should take action."
Professor of classics James Helm was
the only speaker to say he was "heart¬
ened" by the discussion. The situation
was so bad that it could only get better,
he said; the planning committee had
offered reasonable responses to the
problem; and he was confident that the
faculty would take action.
Only one vote was taken at the
meeting: Before discussing financial
aid and admissions, the faculty ap¬
proved a change in the membership of
one of its committees.
No smoking
The general faculty on 26 October
voted to limit campus smoking to out¬
door areas away from building en¬
trances, a policy recommended by the
general faculty council (Observer 14
October). The legislation does not de¬
fine how dose to a building a smoker
might stand, nor does it provide for
enforcement. A motion to refer the
legislation back to the council for spe¬
cifics on these matters, however, was
defeated, and the faculty approved the
legislation by voice vote, with some
dissent.
The faculty discussed proposed
course-scheduling changes that speci¬
fied new times when classes longer
than 100 minutes could be scheduled.
Some members of foreign-language
departments said the proposal would
reduce the time slots for courses taught
five days a week, as beginning lan¬
guages usually are. The faculty ap¬
proved a motion to table, postponing a
vote until another meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting the
faculty heard two memorial minutes:
Emeritus professor of music theory and
trombone Thomas Cramer read the
minute for emeritus professor of music
history Richard Murphy, and Long¬
man professor of English David Young
read the minute for emeritus professor
of English Francis X. Roellinger.
—Carol Ganzel
Students protest
graffiti, other incidents
Incidents of graffiti on the Memorial
Arch and a statement slurring Muslims
attached to the door of the Muslim
student group's Wilder office led to a
student protest Monday. Students
gathered at noon by Wilder porch to
listen to speeches, then reassembled at
Cox Administration Building.
In Cox they handed out fliers say¬
ing, in part, "These racist attacks
clearly illustrate the need for a Hate
Crimes Policy to challenge offensive
events and support services specific to
the concerns of students of color on
campus." The students issued a press
statement protesting "the lack of av¬
enues by which members of the Ober¬
lin College community can address
such events." Listed in Student Rules
and Regulations are informal grievance
procedures for persons who nave
suffered racial abuse and harassment.
In years past the student life commit¬
tee has considered a "hate crimes
policy," according to its chair, profes¬
sor of politics Ronald Kahn. It was
concerned both about protecting indi¬
vidual students from harassment and
protecting First Amendment speech.
At the time the committee operated
under concurrent-majority voting
procedures, Kahn says, and was un¬
able to agree on legislation to present
to the general faculty.
President S. Frederick Starr issued a
statement to the campus community
Tuesday on the subject of hateful graf¬
fiti and symbolic acts. In it he an¬
nounced a meeting that the students
had scheduled to discuss these matters;
it will begin at 10 pm tonight. Dean of
student life and services Patrick Penn,
dean of the College of Arts and Sci¬
ences Alfred MacKay, and professor of
politics Ronald Kahn, who chairs the
student life committee, are among
those who will attend. A long-sched¬
uled John Frederick Oberlin Society
meeting in New York will keep Starr
from attending.
Another incident referred to in the
protesting students' handouts was an
apparent cross-burning near Harkness
on Halloween. The security report in
Friday's Review said, "Officers...
found two wooden crosses had been
set ablaze with paper." The "crosses,"
however, had been supports for burn¬
ing scarecrows, according to first-year
student Joshua Robinson, who
watched them bum Halloween night.
"I saw the scarecrows in the hallway of
Harkness earlier in the day," he said.
The anti-Asian slurs on the arch
were apparently painted Saturday
night. Early Sunday afternoon building
maintenance area manager John
Howard learned of their presence from
• Continued on page 6
SISC town meeting
On 22 November from 3 pm to 6 pm in Finney Chapel, trustee chair William
Perlik will moderate a town meeting on "Strategic Recommendations for
Oberlin College." The strategic issues steering committee (SISC) published
these preliminary recommendations last month. The committee is inviting
students, faculty, other employees, alumni—all members of the Oberlin
community—to discuss the recommendations. Two open microphones will
be available in the aisles.
Besides Perlik at least two trustees from the steering committee will be
present—William Warren and Alan Wurtzel—as will administrators, fac¬
ulty, and student members of the steering committee.