[Chazprime]

The merits of the case did not seem to bother Oberlin officials or student protesters. Dean of students Meredith Raimondo reportedly joined the massive protests and even handed out a flier denouncing the bakery as a racist business.

Without knowing the details of the case, it's hard to determine who's truly at fault here. Even so, given that the dean herself apparently chastised a dissenting staffer who advocated for the bakery (“F* ROGER COPELAND”), it's a bit disconcerting to think that this is someone who is charged with the well-being of every student on campus.

It's one thing to encourage student activism, but if these universities are teaching students to throw empathy, logic and reason to the wind, they are only doing them a disservice.

[surge]

Short of it was that a student was confronted about shop lifting a bottle of wine, two other students with them assaulted the shop owner/employee when they were confronted about it. All the students admitted guilt for the shop lifting of a bottle of wine and the assault. The university still pressed and encouraged the protests saying they were only targeted because of their race. It should be worth mentioning that the bakery has been a family business for over 100 years and at that point a community feature, and the defense argued the multi employee bakery was a business worth only 35k and so therefore, no sizable damage to its reputation was done. The school, with an endowment of 887 million, sent a mass email to the campus and alumni out after the verdict but before the full damages could be determined basically saying the jury were idiots in so many words for ruling against the college and sticking to their guns.

[ryanobjc]

It's all mixed up but when I hear that it was a 100 year family owned business the likely hood it is racist goes way up to me. I can't say for sure but the fact it's some kind of community staple hardly protects it from accusations of racism.

Remember: throwing the book at black shoplifters vs slaps on the wrist for white is definitely a key feature of racism.

[HillaryBriss]

I don't disagree. But, at a time when the cost/benefit ratio of college is challenged every day in popular discourse, maybe colleges have no choice but to embrace "The customer is always right" as a fundamental value.

[Chazprime]

The difference here is that the college appears to have actively taken part in the protests, as opposed to merely letting them happen.

[HillaryBriss]

Yeah, and that's how a college can really show some hustle and outcompete. I mean, imagine an idealistic 12th grader with a social justice bent. Does she choose a college that merely pays lip service to her righteous values, or does she choose one that jumps right into the trenches alongside her, blasting a megaphone and waving a giant sign?

[nradov]

College administrators always have the option of doing the right thing, even when it impacts revenue.