Concerns and Solutions – Alumni for Oberlin Values

2020 Mass Layoffs and Union-Busting
Financialization
Finney Compact and Faculty Governance
OSCA
Student Health Services
Pell Grants and Economic Diversity

We don’t have all the answers for what ails Oberlin, and we think that the best solutions will arise from faculty, students, alumni, staff, townspeople, and the administration working together. We’ve got some starting points, though, to jumpstart those conversations.

Alumni for Oberlin Values (AOV) Demands:

That the College establish clearly defined targets for increasing its recruitment and retention of Pell Grant recipients, e.g., by 2% per year for the next five years.
That the College restore Oberlin’s traditional commencement reunions effective May 2024.
That the College preserve, support, and make financially sustainable its unique co-op system, including the restoration of Kosher-Halal Co-op and allowing students to transfer into co-ops mid-year.
That the Board of Trustees renew its 2013 resolution to pay the faculty competitive salaries, and demonstrate its commitment to that resolution by reinstating the traditional PPO health care plan as an option for faculty and staff effective immediately upon renewal of its annual health plan, and by increasing faculty salaries by 5% effective in the 2024-25 academic year.
That the College take into account when recruiting new faculty the historic underrepresentation of persons of color on the faculty, especially in comparison to the sixteen colleges traditionally included as part of Oberlin’s peer group and enact specific and appropriate measures to remedy this situation.
That the College provide AOV with actual endowment performance/returns before operating expenses as well as all fees/costs for endowment management, and agree to a forensic audit detailing the college’s general financial condition, budget allocations and decisions, and debt and endowment history.
That the Board of Trustees restore to the College’s Bylaws the language removed from Article I, section 1 in 2022, and that it add as members of the Board:
- Four members of the faculty, to be elected by all full-time faculty.
- Two employees of the College who are neither members of the faculty nor those designated in the Bylaws as “Officers of the Corporation,” to be elected by all other full-time staff members.
- Two residents of the City of Oberlin who are not employees or former employees of the College, to be elected by the City’s residents.
That the College provide meaningful restitution to the workers harmed by the union-busting in 2020 layoffs, to be negotiated through the UAW.
That the College provide full transparency and accountability regarding proposed actions that potentially will have a negative impact on any segment of the Oberlin community (students, faculty, staff, alumni, and town residents) prior to making a final decision on the proposed action (except when urgency requires otherwise). Transparency for each proposed action includes:
- Disclosing in writing to all segments of the Oberlin community the facts and arguments pro and con that have been considered.
- Providing a reasonable opportunity after such disclosure for all segments of the Oberlin community to comment and provide feedback to the Board of Trustees.