Oberlin grads must be happy to see this - Grist Magazine reporting that it's the fifth greenest college or university anywhere. I know they'll all notice it's listed just ahead of Harvard, a spot most Obies have always considered its due on any scale, small-school pride being what it is. Anyhoo, here's what Grist has to say about it:
Oberlin College
Hoping to get an ober-view of energy use, faculty and students at this small liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, collaborated in 2005 to create a web-based monitoring system in some of the dorms that shows how much energy and water is being used, giving students real-time feedback that can help change their consumption habits. Last year, students worked with Cleveland-based CityWheels to create a car-sharing program on campus. The college's Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies is housed in a pioneering green building that opened in 2000. Oberlin also boasts Ohio's largest solar array and is transitioning to 100 percent earth-friendly cleaning products.
Sounds great and good for them (with or without my measly alumni contributions) and it's not really a surprise, given Oberlin's ultra-left credentials. But I have a little story about that.
Anybody read The Road from Courain by Australian-American writer Jill Kerr Conway? Well, her next book was True North, which covered her life in the U.S., including her 10 years as president of Smith College. What's of interest here is the part of True North where Conway compared two schools that were established during the 1830s, one all-women and one coed, those schools being Smith and Oberlin.
Now because Oberlin was the first coed college in the U.S. (as well as the first racially integrated one), this is a pretty big part of its pride in the world of progressive thinking. Damn right! And if you spend four years there you hear this history recited repeatedly, and I used to brag on it myself. But then I read what Conway found in her research.
I have no direct quotes and I won't be rereading the book just to find them BUT Conway found out that women were admitted (just a couple of years after the school opened for the purpose of educating male ministers) for three purposes:
- So that female students would be available to do the darning and other domestic duties for the male students.
- So the young ministers could find suitably educated wives.
- And one more reason just as obnoxious as these two that I can't remember, but you get the point.
Man, history can be inconvenient, can't it? Coz Conway just blew that whole progressive origins thing right out of the water and even had me worried that that their underground railroad history might turn out to be tainted, too. (So far, so good on that score.) But Conway's point is that entire educational program was then designed for men, with women as an afterthought. I guess I shouldn't have been all that surprised to find these conditions when I arrived there as a freshman:
- Women had curfews; men didn't.
- Men and women paid the same for room and board, but men had maid service in their rooms and women didn't.
SHOCKED? That's probably because you're young and sexism wasn't nearly as blatant by the time you came along, right? Do tell, readers. But now you see why I'm an equal-opportunity cynic.
Photo credit: Oberlin College.
I am young and I do find this shocking, but I always remember the story that my mom shared with me when I was a much younger woman. 33 years ago she was a married woman preganant with her first child (me) and living in Great Falls, MT. She went into her local Sears to buy some things for the nursery. She was working full time for the telephone company so had money of her own, but she wanted to open a charge account -- in her name, not her husband's. Sears would not give her an account without talking to her husband first and asking if it was okay with him. Can you imagine?
I'm old enough to remember when Sandra Day O'Connor was appointed to the Supreme Court. I distinctly remember the female nuns in my elementary school telling us girls that now we could grow up to be anything we wanted to be -- there was a woman on the Supreme Court! I was lucky to meet Justice O'Connor 3 years ago at a small reception where I shared that story with her and thanked her for her part in making it possible for me to do whatever I wished to do professionally. She was extremely gracious -- even giving me a hug. Later when she announced her retirement I read in an article about her career that when she graduated near the top of her class from Standford Law in 1950 (salutatorian if I'm not mistaken), she could not get a job at a single law firm -- though one offered her a position as a legal secretary.
A big thank you to all the women who broke down the barriers that I may not even have realized existed.
Posted by: Heather | August 13, 2007 at 07:41 PM
Women don't have curfews any more?
Posted by: Ed Bruske | August 14, 2007 at 03:18 PM
Hi there,
I just wanted to thank you for the positive mention and the link to our web site. We're happy to announce that Oberlin is so pleased with CityWheels and committed to carsharing for students/faculty/staff and area residents, that the college has just signed a three-year contract to host the two existing cars and add cars based on demand analysis.
Because of our start in Oberlin and the support of the college, we have been able to grow our company and plan for a long term future for carsharing in Cleveland and surrounding areas. It was an intern who encouraged my husband to start CityWheels and connected him with the President and CFO of the college. Thanks much Oberlin and all of the obies who have supported us.
Look for news announcements of our expansion coming up.
Thanks again.
Peace,
Miriam Schuman
Posted by: Miriam | August 14, 2007 at 05:03 PM
Boy that post brought back memories! I remember thinking the radical feminists of our day were "out there", but they sure brought us ladies a lot of benefits. I left the M.D. after my name to illustrate that; during one of my medical school interviews in 1973, I was asked why I didn't apply to nursing school instead!
Posted by: bev M.D. | August 15, 2007 at 08:49 AM
I spent my first 2 years of college at Bowdoin College in Maine. Women had been at the school for 20-some-odd years at that point, but the restrooms that had been "converted" to women's rooms still had functiong urinals. Also, all of the Greek organizations (read "fraternities") had to admit women as full members. What were these members called? Brothers. This was not quite 20 years ago.
Posted by: Erika | August 16, 2007 at 10:50 PM
I see my alma mater Univ of MD just squeaked into the Top 15 - darn, I was hoping the USDA partnerships and ag research on campus would make us crack the top 10, but I think by 'green' they only were looking at recycling and other eco-friendly "green practices," not actually growing and researching of green things. They mention the almost univeral student green initative at the school put us as high as it did on that score - go Terps! Only fitting for school represented by an native aquatic turtle native.
Posted by: Kathy, Washington Gardener | August 21, 2007 at 02:25 PM
Wow. That is cool. I'll have to let my daughter (Oberlin '04) know about it.
Posted by: Julia | November 08, 2007 at 01:41 PM
Oh, wanted to add: I'm not terribly young (53) but I'm still shocked to hear such things because sometimes I forget how bad it used to be. Really, really bad. Thank God it's different now.
Posted by: Julia | November 08, 2007 at 01:47 PM