by David Edward Clark

Shayne Wells ’11 first met his councilmember Adrian Fenty ’92 when he was 16. Since then, he has volunteered for, interned with, and has acted as special assistant to  the mayor of Washington, DC.

Adrian Fenty '92 with Shayne Wells '11 close behind (left).

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By David Edward Clark

Patrick Doherty '11

Patrick Doherty ‘11 stepped down from his position as Student Senate Liaison on Sunday.   Former Outreach Coordinator Marlo Barrera ’12 has taken his place as Liaison.

Doherty’s letter of resignation, which he posted on the Student Senate website, contained accusations against fellow senators and came as a surprise to many on Senate.

The letter contained critiques of Student Senate.  “Once elected, many of you cease to put effort into accomplishing anything meaningful,” wrote Doherty. “Many of you are more concerned with superficial, pointless projects that would do nothing to benefit the student body as a whole. You whine, complain, and demonize the administration, yet you are unwilling to recognize that the most effective way to change Oberlin is to work with the administration.”

Senators commented on Doherty’s letter for 25 minutes during Sunday night’s plenary meeting.  Barrera was the first to speak. “First off, I’d like to say that this email was like one of the shittiest things I’ve ever read in regards to anything any of us have worked on,” said Barrera.  “I think Patrick was really off the mark in saying that we’re working on petty, petty things because he just didn’t really seem to be interested in any of the things we were working on–especially because the only thing I can think of that he did on Student Senate was revise the bylaws.”

Doherty’s use of the Senate website was quickly called into question.  Outreach Coordinator Pete Sabo ’11 called for a vote, which never materialized, to take it off the website.  Chartering Liaison Jin Wong ’12 asked whether Doherty broke the Senate bylaws by posting the letter on the website.  “I think he’s misusing his access to the website,” said Wong.

Committee Appointments Coordinator Savi Sedlacek ’12 responded to Sabo and Wong. “First of all, I’m glad it’s on the website; it’s public information and people should know why he resigned.”

Sedlacek expressed regret over Doherty’s resignation and pointed out that, although criticizing some senators, he retained that some members are doing good work.  Sedlacek then suggested that the discussion over Doherty’s resignation be tabled for a later date.  “I think we should keep this open.  I think it’s our responsibility to respond to the press,” said Operations Manager Alex Posa ’11.

Posa largely disagreed with what Doherty wrote in the letter.  “I’ve actually seen this semester’s Senate do a lot more than I’ve seen in the past.”

Wong expressed many senators’ feelings when he discussed his shock over the resignation.  “I feel like this really came as a surprise to us.  I feel like we never had any discussions about this before.  He didn’t tell us his opinions, he didn’t tell us how he felt, and it’s just like a sudden outbreak,” said Wong.

Some senators could see the position Doherty was coming from.  “I agree with what he’s arguing in principle, that it’s better to work with the administration instead of having this ‘us vs. them’ mentality, but I do think it could have been phrased a little bit better,” said Associate Liaison Gavin Palmer ’12.

Committee Appointments Coordinator Alex Hohauser ’13 was also disappointed with Doherty’s tone although she saw his resignation as a chance rally.  “I think this is a tremendous opportunity for us, not that we necessarily needed to step it up, but maybe we do a little bit and really get things done and just take this and let it reenergize us and just really make a huge push and do so many great things for the rest of the semester,” said Hohauser.

Sabo disagreed with the allegation that the current Senate alienates the administration and builds an “us vs. them” mentality.  He asked Associate Dean of Community Life Shozo Kawaguchi his thoughts on Doherty’s claims.  Kawaguchi declined to comment directly on Doherty’s resignation, but he said that he felt no alienation from Senate.

Sabo then expressed his feelings toward the letter.  “I pretty much refute a lot of his statements and his little whiney letter,” said Sabo.  “I felt that his email was a lot of kiss assery.  I thought it was really unnecessary a number of times, and, what is he, asking for a recommendation letter from them or something?”

Student Finance Committee elected Co-Chair Ted Waddelow ’11 recognized merit in some aspects of Doherty’s letter.  “I think it does speak in a lot of ways to the core of the concerns that a lot of students have about Student Senate and how they proceed,” said Waddelow.  “People don’t see Senate acting as a united body to pursue common goals.  They see people using this position to pursue stuff they are already interested in.”

“How Senate picks the things that it discusses and pursues them very often seems to be reactive.  Some sort of situation arises and another working group pops up—they proliferate like mushrooms—rather than Senate setting out two or three objectives that it has for itself as an institution to pursue over the course of the semester or year.  I think maybe if Senate took that sort of approach, it might lead to better, clearer results that you could communicate to the student body.  The tradeoff there is that some people may have to sacrifice their interests,” said Waddelow.

Green Liaison Mary-Clare Erskine ’13 responded to Waddelow.  “I think it’s really worthwhile to have people working on all of these small issues that they’re passionate about.  If I cut what I’m passionate about then I’d leave Senate like that,” Erskine said, snapping her finger.  “I’m on Senate so that I can change things that I think need to be changed.”

Though stepping down, Doherty wrote in his resignation letter that he will “continue to act as a resource for anyone who has questions about Senate.”

By David Edward Clark

In four to six weeks, the East College Street Project will be complete and The Slow Train Café will no longer be the only draw for students to the east side of town.

The building behind Slow Train will have an Asian food market that will also serve Korean food to go.  Beside the grocery store will be a Tansu (a form of fancy Japanese cabinets) studio, and an accounting firm.  A barbershop and a psychologist’s office will be on the second floor, though there is still space left for another shop.

On the corner of Pleasant and East College, a local couple is opening a gourmet pizza parlor.  “They’re going to have like butternut squash and goat cheese pizza,” said Josh Rosen of Sustainable Community Associates.  They should be opening their doors by mid-November.

SCA tried its hardest to bring an Indian restaurant to Oberlin, with no such luck.  “It’s a tough climate for restaurants to go to banks and get business loans,” said Rosen.  “But I should add, there’s still one 1,600 square feet space that an Indian restaurant could go into.”

In addition to retail and office space, the East College Street Project contains 33 mixed income condos.  Over the summer, those who bought condos moved in.  “All the affordable housing rentals are already taken,” said Rosen.  Only eight condos are left that will be sold at the market rate.

In terms of the project’s LEED status, which measures a building’s environmental friendliness, SCA will not know their rating for sure for another six months.  However, Rosen is confident that they will achieve their target goal of LEED Gold.

For their next endeavor, SCA is “investigating a two to three megawatt solar project with the City of Oberlin and Oberlin College,” said Rosen.  “It just feels like energy is the next thing to do so that’s what we’re working on.”

SCA aims to stay local.  “It’s been our home and we’d like to keep working here if possible,” said Rosen.  They are also looking into development opportunities around the Cleveland area.

On October 9^th, SCA is holding an open house in the courtyard behind Slow Train.  At 2 p.m., there will be tours of the entire project and at 6 p.m. there will be music, pie and cider for all.