The Restorative Ledger
Oberlin College, Division of Student Affairs, and Institutional Failure of Care
Accountability Statement
Oberlin College & Division of Student Affairs Mission Statements (Context)
Oberlin aims to prepare graduates with the knowledge, skills, and perspectives essential to confront complex issues and to create change and value in the world.
Oberlin is committed to educational access and opportunity. It seeks to offer a diverse and inclusive residential learning environment encouraging a free and respectful exchange of ideas and shares an enduring commitment to a sustainable and just society.
The Division of Student Affairs collaborates in empowering students to explore possibilities, engage their communities, and experience personal growth and development by co-creating a holistic and transformative living-learning environment. Through these experiences, students are prepared to lead with purpose and thrive in a diverse and complex global society.
Clarifying Statement
Kyle R. Williams is no longer employed by Oberlin College.
This statement names patterns of harm connected to his conduct during his tenure, including public commentary about Siir Cole on a personal podcast and associations that resulted in reputational harm to Kiing Curry. These actions, alongside documented administrative decisions that amplified harm, reflect broader institutional failures of care and accountability.
This page situates these harms within the context of power, proximity, and institutional politics that shape hiring decisions and whose voices are protected or marginalized.
purpose
High Level Summary
This statement documents our experiences with the Division of Student Affairs (DOS) and the Center for Intercultural Engagement (CIE), identifies points of alignment and misalignment between stated institutional values and daily practices, and names the impacts of institutional decisions on our professional participation and well-being. It also outlines pathways toward repair grounded in restorative justice and institutional accountability.
Key Areas of Concern
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Movement Toward CIE
We expressed interest in contributing to CIE through formal roles and programming aligned with Oberlin’s stated priorities and our professional expertise. -
Values vs. Practice
Oberlin’s commitments to belonging, DEI, and restorative justice have not consistently been reflected in daily practice, indicating gaps in care, integrity, and accountability. -
Impacts of Administrative Decisions
Decisions made in response to unverified claims—without our involvement—restricted our professional contributions, caused reputational harm, and extended harm through the actions of additional employees. These decisions minimized expertise that was repeatedly requested by students and staff and weakened restorative justice in practice. -
Path Forward
We are calling for a restorative response that includes acknowledgment, accountability, intention, care, and respect, alongside an honest conversation about equitable access to engagement and contribution.
Timeline of Institutional Harm
This timeline documents specific moments in which administrative practices and decisions enacted harm.
Fall 2024
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Curry was encouraged to apply for Oberlin’s TEDx event. After applying, the event was canceled without communication, apology, or acknowledgment of labor. This initiated a two-year pattern of encouragement followed by withdrawal of opportunity.
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Siir applied for two roles within CIE (Director of Intercultural Engagement and Assistant Dean for Intercultural Engagement & Director of the MRC). Although not selected, his expertise continued to be requested for programming and student engagement, including the November masculinity panel and affinity group facilitation.
February 2025
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An email from Shanelle S. Betts (using the name Tyrie Cole) was circulated to campus departments, resulting in reputational harm and restriction of professional opportunities.
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Siir met individually with Karen Goff and Kyle R. Williams to address concerns raised. Subsequent actions suggested the claims were treated as credible without our involvement or opportunity for response.
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A “conflict of interest” guideline for event planning was raised verbally. Due to Siir’s neurodivergence, he requested written clarification. This documentation was not provided until November 11, 2025. During this period, students and staff continued to request our services, creating uncertainty and administrative burden that others in similar roles did not face.
May–December 2025
Concerning Remarks
Siir experienced a pattern of concerning and inappropriate remarks by Kyle R. Williams, including comments perceived as supportive of gentrification; dismissive statements regarding a student death; use of derogatory language toward a team member; dismissive responses regarding personal boundaries; and comments during a masculinity panel that were experienced as transphobic and misogynistic.
Broken Trust and Inconsistent Standards
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HR requested our services for a staff workshop on colorism, which was declined by Kyle. In follow-up communication, Curry was encouraged to “volunteer” expertise rather than be compensated, despite repeated student and staff requests for professional engagement.
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In a subsequent meeting with the full CIE team, we were labeled a “conflict of interest,” while other contracted collaborators with prior campus relationships faced no such restriction.
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In an HR meeting, Siir learned that Kyle stated the email from Shanelle S. Betts prompted him to prevent institutional association with Curry.
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Kyle has publicly discussed Siir and other employees on a personal podcast in ways that echoed the narratives advanced by Shanelle S. Betts, further extending harm.
Instituitional Politics, Proximity, and Harm
The harms documented here did not occur in isolation. They are shaped by institutional cultures that reward proximity to power, political alignment, and perceived legitimacy over accountability to impacted communities. In higher education, these dynamics often mirror plantation logics—where access, protection, and advancement are mediated through proximity to authority rather than through integrity, care, or demonstrated alignment with communal values.
Within Black institutional spaces, including networks shaped by Greek-letter organizations, these dynamics can become further entangled with respectability politics, gatekeeping, and internal hierarchies that reproduce colonial and patriarchal patterns under the language of legacy, leadership, and excellence. When proximity to these networks is treated as credibility, harm can be obscured, concerns minimized, and those outside dominant social formations rendered disposable or suspect.
These dynamics undermine restorative justice and DEI work by privileging performance over practice and affiliation over accountability. They create conditions where institutional actors are shielded from consequence while those who live the work of justice—particularly queer, trans, and otherwise marginalized practitioners—are subjected to heightened scrutiny, isolation, and exclusion.
Naming these patterns is not an attack on community or tradition. It is a refusal to allow institutional politics—whether racialized, fraternal, or administrative—to override care, truth, and responsibility. Restorative justice cannot coexist with plantation logics of extraction, protectionism, and disposability. An institution committed to belonging must be willing to examine how power circulates internally and whose harm is taken seriously.
Personal Statement
Oberlin’s mission emphasizes belonging, retention, and equity. The question before the institution is how such commitments are embodied when conflict, uncertainty, or reputational risk emerges.
Two years ago, after a period of housing insecurity and homelessness, my partner and I arrived in Ohio. Oberlin is where we landed. When I say “we,” I refer to my spouse of five years, Siir Cole, who is currently employed at Oberlin College as a Success Coach.
We name our experience of housing insecurity deliberately. It was not accidental, nor the result of personal failure, but shaped by engagement in restorative justice spaces where accountability was often articulated but not practiced. We were harmed by individuals and systems that profess justice while failing to embody it.
We encountered similar patterns in the conduct and leadership practices of Kyle R. Williams. Actions taken within CIE and DOS reflected performance of restorative justice rather than grounded practice, resulting in extended harm and the restriction of our ability to contribute meaningfully to the College.
Restorative justice is rooted in queer, African, Indigenous, matriarchal, and communal praxis. It is not a credential or rhetorical posture; it is a lived ethic requiring accountability, proximity, and responsibility to impacted communities. When institutions invoke restorative justice without grounding their practice in these foundations, harm is often reproduced rather than repaired—particularly for those whose identities and labor are already marginalized.
Following contact initiated by Shanelle S. Betts (using the name Tyrie Cole), a series of administrative decisions were made that affected our participation and professional standing without our involvement. The claims made by this individual are demonstrably false.
We maintain documentation related to these incidents and were compelled to seek external support due to the severity of harassment. At no point were we meaningfully consulted in decisions that directly affected our professional contributions.
In February 2025, I facilitated Litm(us) at Afrikana House. The absence of DOS from this event reflected institutional distancing shaped by these claims. This event represented the culmination of over a decade of community-based restorative justice practice—work capable of contributing meaningfully to Oberlin’s learning ecosystem.
The broader impact of these decisions extended harm across campus through patterns of transphobia, colorism, and institutional complicity. Oberlin positions itself as preparing students for futures not yet known.
This preparation cannot occur through the reproduction of colonial or patriarchal norms, but through a return to pre-colonial practices of intention, care, accountability, and collective responsibility.
The question before Oberlin is whether it will continue to prioritize performance over integrity, proximity over accountability, and hierarchical “progress” over communal well-being.
Oberlin already has people within its ecosystem capable of guiding this transition. This work requires those who live beyond dominant norms and remain grounded in practice even when marginalized or silenced.
Those individuals are Siir Cole and myself, Kiing Curry.
To move forward and restore trust, we are requesting a restorative response that includes acknowledgment, accountability, intention, care, and respect. We welcome a formal response to this statement from Oberlin College.
In the spirit of restorative justice,
Kiing Curry & Siir Cole-Chambers
