Oberlin College - Hi-O-Hi Yearbook (Oberlin, OH)

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Branner Smoot and the FEat lee Cheez Loume and Teem Bopperi Pewe

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MINORITY GOAL SUPPORTED BY CF A rally and strike of student workers on May 5 in support of a numerical goal for the Colleges minority student recruitment culminated a year-long concern with the issue. In October the Oberlin Review reported that the Office of Admissions had consciously limited the minority enrollment for 1976-7 to seventy minority financial aid recipients and ten minority non-financial aid recipients. This limit disregarded the General Faculty legislation of 1971 which had committed the College to a target of I10 minority students per year Carl Bewigy Director of Admissions, told the Review We have reduced minority enrollment to the extent that we have to limit those students who are on financial aidf' The problem seemed a purely financial one. In order to meet the 110 minority student goal, the College would have had to set aside, exclusively for minority students, more than half of its $545,700 financial aid budget. The College felt that such a division was inequitable and decided to spend $200,0CD Iapproximately 3700 of the totall for minority financial aid. President Danenberg denied that the College had ever changed its policy on minority recruitment. Akiba Sullivan, director of Afrikan Heritage House, in October ... Any time any group wants to start segregating, they can do it almost perfectly along financial lines, she told the Review. In April the General Faculty was charged with the responsibility of deciding the College's future minority enrollment policy. The Committee to Review Minority Programs twhich had spent months researching and analyzing data on minority programs and performance at Oberlinl recommended to CF that a commitment of 35-38070 of the finanacial aid budget be made to minority students. This percentage goal would clear up the internal contradictions of the 1971 legislation which proposed 110 blacks and latinos enroll in Oberlin each year, but limited the expenditure of the financial aid to minorities to 3106 per year. The College has found that even 50070 of the budget cannot accommodate this number. The General Faculty did not establish a numerical goal but approved the 353-3896 financial aid expenditure in its first vote on the subject. However, after a massive show of support by the student body for a numerical goal, the CF reconsidered and decided in favor of stating a target goal of 110 minority students enrolled per year and a commitment of 35-38070 of the financial aid budget to minority students. The supporters felt that even though the numerical goal probably will not be lawngmgbwtkn. la EHUV'ERAJ'uaAq-h. e. achieved in the next few years, it is important to have that figure as a stated, on-the-record target. expressed her feeling that the problem was not merely a financial one. I'l think they are capitalizing on the financial issue to exclude blacks and other minorities from this school The year . . . briefly :Vrhcaw- 46vmwin Reverend L. Peter Beebe, removed as rector of Christ Church in March, 1976, won his appeal in an Episcopal clerical review court in late April. Beebe supported women's ordination in defiance of Bishop John Burtls ruling against it by inviting two women priests, Allison Cheek and Carter Heywood, to celebrate the Eucharist at his church A vocal majority in the parish was opposed to Beebe's illegal defiance of Church authority i lk 3'! :0: On April 2, 1976, the Board of Trustees appointed David Boe dean of the Conservatory. Boe became acting dean in spring of 1975 following former dean Emil Danenberg's selection as president of Oberlin College. Boe mentioned that his plans for the Conservatory include improvement of the proportion of women and minority members on the faculty, hiring of a costume and scene designer for work in opera productions, and eventual faculty positions in ethnomusicology, vocal coaching, jazz, and eurythmics. xx :0: 2i: xix In a year when Yale returned to a standard grading system and when academic ethics have been undermined by flagrant violations of honor codes, Oberlin College experienced its share of discussion about and adoption of more conservative academic practices. In October new rules for academic standing established more stringent credit requirements for freshmen and sophomores to stay off academic probation. The Educational Plans and Policies Committee devoted much time to a consideration of reinstitution of distribution requirements, which Oberlin had abolished in February of 1972 Extreme concern about entrance into graduate schools or ability to find employment upon graduation is presumed to be the major factor in an increased emphasis on strict academics nation-wide. Ijlmh