As an alumni member of the Class of 1988, I recently received an invitation to our upcoming 25th Reunion. I also followed a blog link to [College senior] Kevin Gilfether’s recent opinion piece [“No Trespass List System Doesn’t Put Enough Accountability on the College” Feb. 8, 2013] in the Review and read about the college’s hidden “No Trespass” policy in the Plain Dealer. After a college experience in the 1980s visiting divestment shanties built in front of the college administration building and honoring “no business as usual” protests blockading the campus, I have to admit that I am frankly stunned by the implications of this policy. Let me get this straight — the current administration would have asked campus security to ban any local residents that were caught participating in similar activities? My college roommate could skateboard to her classes, but town kids would be detained for crossing campus on their boards? I find that possibility offensive.

Whether respect for free speech, due process or the right of public assembly are explicitly recognized by official College policy or not, they are clearly preserved in law and our community’s culture. When College property includes spaces that are clearly perceived as public areas, like Tappan Square or Allen Memorial Hospital, then I have a vehement objection to any members of the community being arbitrarily excluded from access under a policy that has no accountability to the community at large.

It is even more disturbing to learn from the Plain Dealer article that the local police may have access to this list and even feel compelled to enforce it. Let me be clear — I do not object to known criminals being banned from campus. However, there’s no assurance that this list is limited to known criminal offenders, or if simply being rude to College staff is enough to get a person permanently banned.

After learning about this murky policy, I would no more attend a reunion this May than I would break a picket line. So you can consider this my RSVP — I will not attend any reunion until the “No Trespass” policy is radically amended or terminated. If I do visit Oberlin that weekend, it will be with a protest sign in my hand and the expectation that someone, somewhere, will probably be putting my name on that list.

–Lisa Adkins OC ’86