<p>Let’s see what the OP says is the purpose of his inquiry:</p>
<p>"Post #1 - whether there is a line that has been crossed between a school being open and accepting to one where they’ve lost their sense of decorum (by letting males wear dresses to class). . </p>
<p>Post #11 -Students are trying to sort out where they want to go to school and weighing pro and con - that after all is why students come to this forum. </p>
<p>Post #11 -concerned about going to a school that has become a magnet for the disenfranchised. </p>
<p>Post #13 - someone can test well or play the flute well and still be a distinct outlier in society </p>
<p>Post # 17 - Stated plainly, should college be a safe haven where young adults are in a super tolerant bubble or some sort of middle ground between the ‘real world’ and the bubble? And if the latter, what should that middle ground be for Oberlin College? </p>
<p>Post #19 The question at hand is … would Oberlin College be better off reigning things in a bit? </p>
<p>Post # 19 - What I AM interested in are opinions as to what Oberlin College thinks its culture is, should be and what path they are charting to get there."</p>
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<p>Looks to me like the OP believes that Oberlin should be less tolerant than it is, and is trying to engender (pun intended) opinions toward that end.</p>
<p>I particularly like the question posed in Post #17: what “should” the middle ground for Oberlin be, implying that there is something wrong with where it is right now.</p>
<p>The answer to that is simple: culturally, Oberlin is fine the way it is; Colgate likewise; as is CMU, Harvey Mudd, UVM. Schools have different identities, and . . . that is a GOOD thing that there are different cultures at different schools.</p>
<p>The questions about to what extent “college” should be a bubble pretends that there is one appropriate model for the culture of “college”. That is a red herring, as are OP’s topics of males in dresses, hippies that never got over being hippies, who is “disenfranchised”, what is an “outlier” in society, and whether "decorum is being lost. </p>
<p>Taken together, OP appears to be making a case for bringing all of “college” toward a normal center. If Oberlin were more like that, it would not have been the first college in the US to adopt a policy to admit students of color nor the first college to award co-ed bachelor’s degrees to women. It would not be Oberlin any more.</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>P.S. Any bets on how “normal” OP’s response will be? I vote for defensive and aggressive (e.g., see post # 19)</p>
<p>P.P.S. I do have to thank the OP for clueing this old guy into the fact that “flying a freak flag” is no longer about hair :-)</p>