I wondered on Thursday whether Oberlin would learn its lesson from the $33 million defamation verdict against the college, and explained why the answer was almost certainly No. You can strike “almost.” Today the New York Times reports that Oberlin’s president has confirmed that they are determined not to learn anything from the verdict:
In an email to the Oberlin community on Friday, Carmen Twillie Ambar, the college president, said that the case was far from over, and that “none of this will sway us from our core values.”
Good to know that Oberlin’s core values now apparently include total disregard for the truth (though that should not be a big surprise, since the core teaching of Oberlin’s curriculum is that truth is subjective, so those students were merely “liberating” that bottle of wine back in 2016), and callous indifference to its students defaming an innocent small business.
The Times reminds us:
Oberlin tried to distance itself from the protesters in court papers, saying it should not be held responsible for their actions. It blamed the store for bringing its problems on itself.
“Gibson bakery’s archaic chase-and-detain policy regarding suspected shoplifters was the catalyst for the protests,” the college said. “The guilt or innocence of the students is irrelevant to both the root cause of the protests and this litigation.”
So chasing down thieves is considered an “archaic” policy? Suggestion to an enterprising Oberlin student: decline to make your tuition payment, because tuition is an “archaic” policy, and college education is a fundamental human right now.
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