Oberlin's President Says No

mamabear232
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 14:40:54 +0000

@MomOnALaptop “he’s rather worried that if his classmates feel micro-aggressed by their cafeteria offerings, his head will explode.”

I loved this! It made my morning.

My junior daughter is very keen on Oberlin so we have been following news on Oberlin with some interest. My impression is that there are small vocal minorities at Oberlin that get press attention and there are many other kids that fall at various points of the spectrum of liberalism to radicalism, and a very few right-leaning students. Given that I’ve read on this forum that Cornell wants to abolish the non-inclusive mistletoe and that students at Yale were petitioning to repeal the first amendment in an effort to keep hurtful speech at bay and got up in arms about the political correctness of Halloween, the actions of these Oberlin students do not seem unusual to me.

I read their manifesto and observed some writing mechanics problems, as well as a fundamental lack of understanding of how universities function and the rules that govern hiring, firing, and tenure. Embedded in there were also some good ideas that could be modified. As a Star Trek geek, I rather like the idea of an academic building named after Avery Brooks.

They are, what, 18-20 years old? I’d cut them some slack on their presentation skills and try to separate the wheat from the chaff.

IMO, the President struck exactly the right tone - I’m willing to talk but not to be bullied. Let’s see how they respond.