Staff and students gathered in Moffett Auditorium on Friday, April 24 to attend “Conversations With Counsel: Duties and Responsibilities of the Oberlin Board of Trustees.” The event was hosted by Oberlin College Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary Josh Nolan as part of the larger series Conversations with Counsel. 

This conversation was held with the intention of allowing students to ask questions about the work and processes of the Board of Trustees, especially those considering a class trustee position. Every graduating class has the opportunity to elect one of their peers to the Board, where they serve a three-year term. 

Nolan said that he hopes to expand the student population’s awareness of the class trustee position, as well as their understanding of the financial elements at play in the Board’s decision-making process. 

“This is an opportunity, particularly for current fourth-years, or folks that will graduate in ’26 to learn about those obligations and to understand what the Board is,” Nolan said. 

The administration is working to make the processes of the Board more transparent following a yearlong campaign by the Oberlin Young Democratic Socialists of America to release a pre-meeting agenda and minutes. Nolan and his office agreed in March to publish meeting summaries, the first of which came out last week. 

Nolan hoped that the conversation would give students a better understanding of the responsibilities of the Board. Board members may not vote on issues based on personal belief, but rather based on the best interests of the institution. These “fiduciary obligations” were a large part of Nolan’s presentation. He specifically discussed the duty of care, duty of loyalty, and duty to manage accounts, which are the responsibility of all board members. In addition, he reviewed the charter and bylaws and discussed conflicts of interest. The discussion ended with a hypothetical situation typically used in Board member training, in which participants identified when a member would need to communicate a professional conflict of interest in a decision to purchase new educational technology. 

“[Board members] basically have to say, ‘What’s in the best interest of the institution?’ So they have to create this sort of fictionalized version of themselves,” Nolan said. “They can’t say ‘What do I want as a human being?’ [Instead,] it’s ‘Knowing what I know and knowing what my fiduciary responsibilities are, how do I help provide strategic oversight?’” 

College fourth-year Juwayria Zahurullah has spoken with the Board on multiple occasions regarding student proposals for divestment in weapons manufacturing. Now running for the class trustee position, she said that her relationship to the Board has changed significantly during her time at Oberlin.

“I feel like maybe a few years ago, I definitely had the perception that [the Board] is a homogeneous body of people that have strictly financial interests and are not interested in what students have to think or say,” Zahurullah said. “Maybe that was my opinion three years ago. But in that time, I’ve had a lot of great conversations with members of the Board of Trustees, and I’ve really come to see it as a diverse body that, in a lot of ways, represents me in the time that I spent here.”

College first-year Abigail Bobrow attended the event with the hopes of understanding the decision-making process regarding divestment. In particular, they wanted to ask if there would have been a measurable financial loss to the College from divestment.

“I believe the Board and the school have a responsibility to protect both the image and the spirit of the school and what we believe as an institution, and I think that that should be weighed against the financial responsibilities — maybe not on even terms, but in the same realm,” they said. 

Bobrow added that while the event seemed to be developed with the class of 2026 as a target audience, they still learned a lot about the operations of the Board. 

College fourth-year Nathaniel Liu attended the conversation and is considering running for a class trustee position. In his time at Oberlin, he said that he has noticed that the Board of Trustees is an enigmatic body in the minds of many students. By going to the Friday event, Liu hoped to learn more about the Board and its role in Oberlin decision-making. 

Liu acknowledged the importance of expressing dissatisfaction. However, he emphasized that for him, becoming a class trustee would not only be a means of amplifying concerns but also a means of achieving tangible change at the College. 

“Complaining works,” Liu said. “Complaining is great. Complaining about people not doing their jobs the way they should be, complaining about people not understanding us … but it’s not where we need to stop. And I think as a trustee, I can imagine not just complaining, but doing.”