Rednorthstar

I spent 8 years at Oberlin, on and off, from 2000 through 2008. I can't tell you how drastically the student demographic changed over those years. Certainly plenty enough remenants remain for Oberlin to retain its 'fearless' or 'hippie' or however you choose to categorize it, identity, but things have changed drastically over the past decade. To the outsider's eye they are little things, but to a student on the inside watching his alma mater morph into a conservative parody of its former self it was quite shocking.

dave72

Sorry, Rednorthstar, but as someone who has been in/at Oberlin for 40 years, I can tell you that students have been saying exactly this sort of thing for all that time. It's a myth. Alumni and upper-class students always want to believe that they were more badass than the entering first-years, that the administration is somehow engineering things to make this happen, but it's just not so. What in your previous post you were blaming on the previous president was also blamed on the one before her, etc., etc. In my view, it was you changing, and US society generally, not Oberlin.

monydad

"What in your previous post you were blaming on the previous president was also blamed on the one before her, etc., etc. In my view, it was you changing, and US society generally, not Oberlin."

D1 graduated a couple years ago, as a junior (pre-Krislov) she certainly had the notion that the previous administration was taking deliberate action to broaden/ modify the student (or at least applicant) composition somewhat, by emphasizing athletics more for one. Many current students were upset about it, at the time.
But what you're saying is that no such "repositioning" initiative was actually taking place, it was all in their collective heads, and has always been such.

Interesting.

I remember when I was in college (elsewhere) , when I was a junior the new freshmen seemed to be of a completely different type: much less long hair, more dressed up, button down, etc. In that case, this was certainly not the result of any administration initiative, but just reflected the change in the times and prevailing social norms. The lingering 60s influence on America's youth had finally run its course, nationally.

But I'm not aware of any comparable social change taking place recently.

Rednorthstar

No doubt I changed over my tenure at Oberlin. And I'm sure that clouded my view, and I've taken that into consideration. And times too have changed, no doubt of that either. And there will always be, I'm sure, a traditional Obie demographic, even if it isn't as 'unique' as it once was. I'm also sure each 'fearless' oncoming class thinks its stars shine brighter than the last. But isn't this the collective thinking of most incoming 18 year old classes at most colleges?

But I'm concentrating on a lot of little things that have changed over the campus. The radical feminist magazine, Ample Cleavage, has been out of publication now for years. I got flack for supporting John McCain in the 2000 primaries. And a lot of it. Yet 5 years later there was an Oberlin Republicans group on campus. How about safer-sex night? The tent of consent no longer even exists. Times have changed, and yes I've changed with them. But Oberlin has also changed with the times.