Demand for Creative Writing Courses Not Met by Department Size

Refusal to Raise Faculty Salaries Disgraceful

Kayla Kim Production Editor

On March 1, the Board of Trustees released a three-page letter formally refusing the faculty’s request for better compensation and benefits. This article is not the first, nor will it be the last, written in the Review about the nearly 10-year fight for higher wages for faculty.

In the past several years, Oberlin has been falling behind its rival liberal arts schools, such as Swarthmore College and Pitzer College, in terms of compensation. This has had a devastating effect on faculty members and, by extension, students. Many faculty members have chosen to leave Oberlin in favor of colleges and universities that offer better pay. As a 2019 opinion piece by Raavi Asdar, OC ’21, stated, “For me and many of my peers, these changes have meant the sudden departure of some of our most valued professors, advisors, and sources of support on campus.” (“Oberlin Must Retain Professors Despite Financial Difficulties,” The Oberlin Review, December 13, 2019).

Between teaching multiple classes, publishing a book, coping with deaths in her family, caring for elders in her community, and simply surviving in the face of violence against Black and Brown women, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies Yveline Alexis is just one of many faculty members who have been significantly affected.

“I’m told by a financial planner in my life that I could make more teaching at a high school,” Alexis said. “The students who are curious and really committed keep me here, but I think there’s gonna be a real impact about us being able to stay with security.” She also mentioned that she and many of her colleagues are being approached by other prestigious institutions, including Ivy Leagues such as Princeton and Brown University.

Oberlin has an approximately $1 billion endowment, so why is it that esteemed faculty members, who are regularly praised by the College for their dedication, barely make enough to get by? Almost nothing has changed in the 10 years since the Board of Trustees passed its 2013 resolution to increase faculty salaries — except for rising copays, a two-year salary freeze, and most recently the compulsory switch to a Consumer-Driven Healthcare Plan and Health Savings Account. It is clear that, as an institution, Oberlin has abandoned its values of “Learning and Labor” in favor of austerity and greed.

It’s also worth noting that the lack of faculty compensation has a disproportionately adverse effect on marginalized faculty and students. Oberlin prides itself on its progressive values, such as being the first college in the United States to accept women and Black students. Yet, by refusing to compensate professors adequately, Oberlin sacrifices these very morals at the expense of both marginalized faculty and students. By losing marginalized faculty members, students lose invaluable resources and mentors who are already underrepresented in academia.

Alexis addressed the premature departure of marginalized faculty and how it affects students in terms of representation in academics. “You can study these people, but do you know them? Are they invited to your house?” she asked.

There has already been action planned in response to the trustees cementing their abandonment of their own five-year plan to raise faculty wages approved in 2013. The Student Labor Action Coalition released a statement in response to the Board of Trustees’ decision, which reads, “We echo the calls from students around the country fed up with the current system of unelected and unaccountable wealthy individuals with nearly absolute power that has wreaked havoc on campuses around the country through their mismanagement and misplaced priorities. The Oberlin Board of Trustees is not alone in their incompetence and condescension, but we are also not alone in opposing them.”

Crediting her union background, Alexis planned a two-hour protest this past Thursday, in front of Memorial Arch and the Cox Administration Building. Hundreds of students and faculty gathered to speak, perform, and read works by Black revolutionaries. During the protest, Visiting Assistant Professor of German Peter Woods stressed the importance of openly discussing salaries, describing how one of his colleagues earned only $6,000 for teaching one course and was denied an official position, and how another makes only $26,000 annually teaching three courses. Additionally, multiple student spoke about the one-to-two-year turnover rate for professors and the lack of adequate mental health resources. These speakers showed how students and faculty alike are overlooked and mistreated and that change is long overdue.

At this point, telling faculty we are thankful for their “incredible ingenuity and resilience,” as in the Board of Trustees letter, is empty and hollow. It’s time for the Board to take action and for the Oberlin community to rally together to finally uphold our institution’s values of “Learning and Labor.”

Oil Stains PAL Program Feels Like Just Another Responsibility

Phoebe McChesney Columnist

I went to a very fast-paced high school, the kind of place that prided itself on attracting and accepting the “best and brightest” of Chicago’s youth. It’s consistently ranked within the top five public high schools in the nation. Academically rigorous, classes were usually one of two distinctions: Honors or Advanced Placement. The culture was geared toward perpetual achievement, the kind that former Mayor Rahm Emanuel made a point to acknowledge during his victory tour of Chicago when he left office.

By my senior year, I was looking forward to a new start. Coming from burnout and exhaustion of high school, I was hoping for a slow transition and easy-going start to college. That’s when I encountered Oberlin’s Peer Advising Leaders program. Designed to serve as an introduction to college life, it helps direct students to resources, provides a cursory overview of college academics, and facilitates exposure to other first-years through cohort groups. The idea was brilliant for the energetic and inspired, the ones who are eager for college life.

But for those of us who were left disenchanted by the high school experience, it would’ve been nice to hit the pause button. Is it really necessary to start meeting over the summer if there are going to be cohort meetings during the school year? Both my parents work full-time jobs, so I only got to see them in the evenings at home; the virtual PAL meetings cut into our precious time together before I left for Oberlin.

When I arrived on campus, I was immediately inundated with obligatory happenings, along with job training, and started school immediately after. PAL was an additional commitment with its meetings before the start of the school year, mandatory orientation events, and 8 p.m. one-credit class sessions. It started to feel less like a constructive experience and more like just another responsibility. For me, it was a lot at once and as the first semester progressed, I had to balance Introduction to Oberlin Life and Learning classes with homework assignments and work shifts.

The PAL program promised to launch me into college preparation, but I had spent the past four years doing just that. Much of the heart of the matter, the guidance itself, seemed to be of little use. I, and most of my fellow cohort members, already knew how to write emails, engage in class discussions, and use Google Suite. Entire class periods just for these activities seemed rather unnecessary. I think PAL academic preparation is worthwhile for those who would like that extra support with understanding classroom etiquette and digital infrastructure in college, but not needed for those with prior experience.

I did enjoy getting to meet other first-years and connecting with an experienced student. I first met my cohort over Zoom. Engaging in Jamboard or discussing pieces of art were useful and fulfilling, but they were not as frequent as “how-to” activities like learning to navigate Gmail. The latter seems to be more beneficial on a case-by-case basis; there should be available resources to get those questions answered or to seek individual assistance.

While it is possible to drop LEAD 050, that option is not provided to students until after the semester begins. Students are required to participate in the PAL activities that occur during orientation, arguably the busiest and most stressful period of the first weeks on campus.

So, for the sake of students like me who are tired of the academic rat race, the PAL program should provide an relaxed environment that doesn’t focus on academic success. Much is already expected of so many students to contribute to the highly esteemed reputation of the college. Financial aid and merit scholarships are based on the maintenance of good academic standing. The PAL program doesn’t need to add to that stress. So when the time comes to begin the first year of college, students should be able to ease into college, not be immediately thrust into it.

Clair Wang, Staff Cartoonist