Weird

An article about Oberlin’s identity and not one word about music? Now that IS weird!

Les, at 11:10 am EST on March 9, 2006

Endowment Strength

This past week, we saw MIT offering to double the amount of money from Pell Grants and we saw Harvard change their financial aid package to offer 100% tuition assistance to students from families with incomes below a certain level.

The difference between Oberlin and these two schools is the endowment. Oberlin needs to do something to stay afloat. They do not have the huge endowments of MIT and Harvard that afford such positive largesse.

At least I hope that is what Oberlin is doing. Oberlin is too good a school to just cut out their diversity. We all know that diversity helps build public and private goods that come from higher ed.

Grad student @ Penn State, at 11:25 am EST on March 9, 2006

Oberlin has a very substantial endowment, around 700 million and one which grew almost 20% last year. An endowment that rates very close to the top of the liberal arts list. Oberlin does a fairly good job of attracting low income students, about 16%, but they are certainly not overrun with poor kids. With about half the students able to pay full price they certainly have a reasonable number of full paying students. The problem at Oberlin appears to be in management, and ridiculous slogans are not going to solve anything, in fact, they may serve to shine the light on poor leadership. With the kind of endowment they have no reason to engage in the kind of nonsense they do. They need to make some changes in their admissions criteria and attract some more middle of the road kids — not necessarilly wealthier ones. Their values and policies appear to be in conflict.

owen, at 12:20 pm EST on March 9, 2006

Think one person can change a brand? Neither do we.

I’m just a student at Oberlin, so I don’t have intimate knowledge of all things. But this is what I know. I was very anxious about the campaign and I don’t know if fearless is the answer, but this is something we need to be doing.

Dr. RingDing, Oberlin is hardly a school for “limousine liberals.” I’ve only seen one limousine here over the past 3 years. Yes, Oberlin is working to attract more full pay students. It’s doing so because we now have much more of a normal income distribution than most schools (which tend to have a strong binomial distribution between poor and rich). We have a lot of middle class students here. The more tuition dollars coming in from increases in full pay students are going directly to lower income and minority students.

The right students at Oberlin are the ones who have and will make a difference in our world. They are the ones who are committed to bettering humanity. They are the ones with drive and will and desire.

And thank you for bringing up New Orleans, Dr. RingDing. Our college—administration, students, Conservatory, & College—has raised a tremendous amount of money for effected institutions of higher education. And our students—the right students—have spent their fall breaks and Winter Term in New Orleans to help with the recovery effort.

Why no mention of music? From my personal experience everyone already knows about the Conservatory. Whenever I tell people I go to Oberlin they ask me what instrument I play. But then again, this is an article that doesn’t go in depth to what the branding/identity plan is. Heck, the plan is just in the formation stages. I don’t grade papers based on the first sentences. Patience...

Captain Obvious: you’re partially right. Most of us have an idea of what Oberlin is. This branding project is more about finding Oberlin’s identity and better communicating that to the public.

Colin, student at Oberlin College, at 4:45 pm EST on March 9, 2006

Correction

Owen — Oberlin’s endowment is actually in the lowest third of endowments among our peer institutions. There are other small colleges with a lot more, for example Swarthmore’s endowment is over $1 Billion.

Ringding — I don’t understand your apparent distaste for Oberlin, but I would disagree with you. 60% of our student population receives financial aid of some sort, and with few merit based scholarships, most of that is needs based. That is a substantially higher percentage than at most of our peer institutions and is where the largest chunk of our yearly operating budget goes. That’s not to say that there aren’t very wealthy students here, but again, in comparison to our peers I think you’ll find a much more unique and diverse group at Oberlin than at any other top tier liberal arts college.

ObieKid, at 5:20 pm EST on March 9, 2006

Capitalizing on unconventionality

I definitely like the effort, and I think I like the approach, as long as it doesn’t get too cute. I hope the marketing folks Oberlin is working with are experienced in promoting colleges and not in selling peanut butter. With a history of unconventionality and a tendency to attract unconventional students, this would seem to be a promising avenue for promoting the college. With so many other schools (and society) seeming to become ever more conventional, a college like Oberlin is more necessary now than ever before.

One negative about Oberlin I’ve heard from some prospective students (including my daughter) is its location. I’m not sure what can be done about that, other than to show that Oberlin is not, in fact, in the middle of nowhere but is an hour away from most big city attractions. Is it Boston? Of course not, but students for whom those things are that important are probably not the “right” students for Oberlin anyway.

Ken, at 10:55 am EST on March 10, 2006

sorry pendant, but Bucknell, Colgate have far more students than Oberlin and Smith has about the same amount. B and C are financially sound and Smith has done a fantastic job of enrolling low income students. When you have 700 million you should be able to make things work. Perhaps the new slogan for Oberlin should be “the college that can’t”

owen, at 5:25 am EST on March 11, 2006

Yo

Hey Owen, how about you put your money where your mouth is. I don’t disagree, it takes more than a slogan to change a foundation, but if you have such great ideas about where Oberlin should go, why don’t you apply for a job with they staff, or at least send you ideas to the right outlets within the institution? Otherwise your just another critic. Straight up.

Dpeel, Hey Owen, at 7:00 am EST on March 19, 2006

The State of Higher Ed

I agree that redefining and better articulating Oberlin’s mission is important in ensuring the long-term health of the institution. I just hope the mission remains the cultivation of intellectual curiosity and a concern with issues of social justice. In the years since graduating, I’ve been most proud of the interesting and socially conscious work that Oberlin grads do. As an undergrad I often wondered if the campus rhetoric would amount to much in the real world (see the Limousine Liberal comment above). But many of my fellow graduates have made it very clear to me that their political concerns were true convictions and not a passing phase.

My greatest worry is that Oberlin will begin to redefine its mission and goals to fare better in the US News rankings. I applied to schools in the years when the rankings were just beginning to establish themselves as a key evaluative tool for prospective students. At that point Oberlin was ranked 8th (vs. its current standing at 23). I very much doubt that anything has changed in the intervening years, apart from the criteria that US News uses. My decision to attend Oberlin was based on the school’s history and its unique culture. Swarthmore, Pomona, Bucknell, Hamilton, and Co. are all wonderful schools but very different places of learning in terms of their curricula and student bodies. If schools begin to sacrifice their identities to achieve a better rank, we may lose the rich diversity of our higher education system – that should be a serious concern for those who worry about America’s intellectual health.

Students should focus on selecting schools that offer them an educational experience that will expand and deepen their understanding of the world. Oberlin, in turn, should make every effort to ensure that financially disadvantaged students have access to an Oberlin education. My appreciation for my Oberlin education has continued to grow over the years. Oberlin fostered in me a willingness to think critically and creatively. The fruits of an education are not easily ranked.

And a word of advice to rank-obsessed students at these elite schools: once you graduate and enter the real world the vast majority of Americans will never have heard of any of these schools (except for members of your “peer” group). Your energies are best spent availing yourself of your school’s unique educational offerings instead of fretting about the rankings in a magazine.

OC94, at 11:20 am EST on March 24, 2006