February 5, 2016

The Oberlin Review

FEBRUARY 5, 2016 VOLUME 144, NUMBER 13

Local News Bulletin

ESTABLISHED 1874 oberlinreview.org

ONLINE & IN PRINT

News Brief: Residents Form Energy Co-op

News briefs from the past week New Bike Paths Expected Lorain County Metro Parks began building new bike paths earlier this year in Elyria at Cascade Park.

These paths will extend to Lake Erie and will be completed within the next four years. LCMP is currently in negotiations with Wellington Reservation and Findley State Park to bring accessible parks to the greater Ohio area.

Annual Transportation Forum The Lorain County Transportation Forum was held Wednesday Feb. 3, 2016. Residents met to discuss the lack of public transportation, which has been a long-standing issue in Lorain County. Residents stressed the importance of public transit at the meeting because many people in Lorain County do not have access to cars. The consequence is that jobs and public resources have become inaccessible. According to AECOM Cleveland, 6.6 percent of households in Lorain County do not own cars. Lorain County is currently considering plans for expansion of the transit system.

Oberlin College Ranks 68th in Nation for Value Oberlin College is among 11 colleges in Ohio included in Kiplinger’s annual ranking of 300 Best College Values. Kiplinger, a finance magazine that publishes business information and personal finance advice, evaluated schools according to their admission rates and student-to-faculty ratios among other information. Oberlin College is one of the most expensive colleges on the list.

Adam Gittin Kerensa Loadholt News Editors Oberlin residents have begun forming Lorain County’s first solar energy co-op, Oberlin People’s Energy Cooperative, which will give consumers more resources and information about installing solar panels on their homes. The initiative is spearheaded by Ohio Solar United Neighborhoods, a local nonprofit working to organize solar co-ops across the state.

Chaired by Carl McDaniel, OC’64, the Oberlin’s People Energy Cooperative will educate community members on alternative energy sources and help homeowners in the switch to solar, a shift that can cut costs y up to 20 percent, according to OH SUN. In Ohio, energy co-ops have worked with nearly 500,000 homes and businesses across the state.

The exact price of solar energy system installation is dependent on a ho-

Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

Krislov Responds to ABUSUA Demands Kerensa Loadholt News Editor While the list of ABUSUA student demands has attracted excessive media attention over the past eight weeks, it wasn’t until recently that College President Marvin Krislov issued an official response to the 14-page document.

In his email, which was sent to the student body Jan. 20, Krislov says the administration is taking the necessary steps to improve campus race relations, and subsequently invites all faculty and staff to join them in their efforts.

“Racism and all forms of injustice hinder us from achieving our mission and must be challenged by the College wherever they undermine our goals for

academic, artistic and musical excellence,” Krislov said in the email.

However, while the email expressed a sense of deep commitment on behalf of the administration, it also showed their reluctance to respond to the document as it is. In the email, Krislov says that he will not respond to the document directly because it does not allow room for “collaborative engagement.”

ABUSUA members are currently in the process of reorganizing in order to increase efficiency moving forward.

Rather than having a divided front, members have committed themselves to focusing more specifically on individual issues.

Members of ABUSUA have also expressed uncertainty surrounding the administration’s

true plan of action regarding their demands, as Krislov has yet to respond directly to them.

The 14-page document was addressed to the Board of Trustees, President Marvin Krislov, Vice President and Dean of Studies Eric Estes and “all other appropriate governing bodies.”

An overarching concept of the demands was to give credit to Black people who helped make Oberlin College and Conservatory what it is today. The demands included renaming several buildings (e.g. the Kohl Jazz Building to the Wendell Logan Building), offering assistance for Black students on campus, more Black students in the sciences and in the Conservatory and the rehiring of local Black workers.

The second page detailed

Ball Up

Departing Dean Dean of Studies Eric Estes will be moving to Brown University.

meowner’s energy consumption. While solar panels are initially expensive to install, they tend to be more economical in the long run. A survey conducted by Clean Power Research in 2011, which analyzed more than 45,000 solar estimates from homeowners across the U.S., found that Ohio residents could save an average of $17,527 over 20 years by switching to solar power.

When a homeowner first signs up for an energy co-op, the their roof is examined and a quick assessment is taken to see whether the roof is viable for a solar panel installation. Solar panels cannot be installed if there is too much shade on the property or if the roof has holes, bad angles or other hindrances To choose an installation company, a selection committee of around 15 volunteers from the co-op takes bids from local solar contractors and determines the price that best fits the co-op’s needs. The chosen contractor will then examine the properties of co-op members and issue individual price estimates, or decide that a property is unfit for solar energy.

Periscope Performance

The Yeowomen dropped a heartbreaker to the Denison University Big Red.

Students created performance art during Winter Term.

See page 3

See page 16

See page 10

INDEX:

Opinions 5

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

that the larger goals of the group were to see an increase of Black and POC students and faculty on campus, divestment from Israel and all prisons, safe spaces exclusively for Black people, an end to any erasure of Black contributions to the College, an end to College gentrification of the town of Oberlin, an end to hegemony in the curriculum of both the College and the Conservatory and action on the behalf of the administration.

Shortly after the demands were released and the accompanying petition was sent out over Facebook, anonymous attacks poured in from online sources.

Hate speech and racial epithets, including depictions of Adolf Hitler and swastikas, flooded a See News, page 2

on the

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News

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The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

News Brief: Estes to Become Brown VP

Students, Alumni Demand Response to Alleged Anti-Semitism Jake Berstein

Vice President and Dean of Studies Eric Estes will be leaving at the end of this semester to become the vice president for campus life and student services at Brown University. He came to Oberlin College in 2004 as an associate dean of studies and director of the Multicultural Resource Center. Here, he advocated for student activism and organizing and brought students and faculty together for community building. He has led the Division of Student Life, which includes 16 departments and offices, since 2011. During his time at Oberlin, Dean Estes has become one of the most recognizable administrators on campus. He has increased the staff in the Counseling Center and Office of Disability Services and served as an assistant professor in the Comparative American Studies department. Since 2009, he has been Oberlin’s representative to the Consortium on Higher Achievement and Success and is currently chair-elect. He has been a member of its Steering Board since 2011. Most recently, he helped to create a student support fund for lower-income students.

Photo by Rachel Grossman

The Oberlin Alumni and Students Against Anti-Semitism sent an open letter to President Marvin Krislov on Jan. 3 concerning reports of anti-Semitism on campus and demanding specific action from the administration. Their letter prompted responses from Oberlin’s Students for a Free Palestine and Palestine Legal, a national organization that provides legal advice and support to students, activists and communities advocating for Palestinian freedom.

The open letter accused the Boycott, Divest from and Sanction Israel movement and SFP of “falsely portraying Israel as an illegitimate, colonialist and murderous regime.” It went on to claim that the primary goal of these organizations was to “demonize the Jewish state.” Signed by nearly 250 alumni and current students, the letter cites claims of anti-Semitic acts on campus, such as the expulsion of the Kosher Halal Co-op from the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association.

“As Oberlin students and alumni representing a diversity of views on Israel, we accept criticism of its leadership and policies,” the letter See Pro-Palestinean, page 3

Africana Unity and Celebration Month Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom Feb. 6, 6:30 p.m.

Finney Chapel The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop Feb. 6 Workshop: 4:30 p.m.

Performance: 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

The Power and Limits of Name Changing (Kai M. Greene, PhD) Feb. 18, 7 p.m.

Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies Transpacific Anti-Racism (Yuichiro Onishi) Feb. 19, 12:15 p.m.

Wilder 101 Janae Johnson Feb. 20, 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

America’s Long History of Racial Hypocrisy (Jason Sokol, OC ’99) Feb. 9, 7 p.m.

Lord Lounge, Afrikan Heritage House

The Narrative of a Slave Woman — Overcoming Odds in an Everyday Life Feb. 11, 6:30 p.m.

David H. Stull Hall Jeanine Donaldson Feb. 14, 7 p.m.

Lord Lounge, Afrikan Heritage House Chi-Raq Feb. 17, 7 p.m.

Lord Lounge, Afrikan Heritage House

The Oberlin Review — Established 1874 —

Volume 144, 140, Number 13 2

(ISSN 297–256)

Februrary February 5, 2016

Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods.

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Entered as second-class matter at the Oberlin, Ohio post office April 2, 1911.

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Swimming in Dark Waters: Other Voices of the American Experience Feb. 20, 8 p.m.

Finney Chapel Tricia Rose Feb. 24, 7:30 p.m.

Dye Lecture Hall

Julian Liv Combe Ring Madeline Allegra Kirkland Stocker Managing editor Samantha Vida Weisblum Link News editors Rosemary Adam Boeglin Gittin Kerensa AlexLoadholt Howard Opinions editor Will Kiley Rubenstein Petersen This Week Weekeditor editor Zoë Hannah Strassman Berk Arts editors Louise Kara Edwards Brooks Georgia Danny Evans Horn Sports editors Sarena Quinn Malsin Hull Madeleine Randy O’Meara Ollie Layout editors Sydney TiffanyBernal Fung Ben Alexa Garfinkel Corey Nathalie Alanna Hawthorne Sandoval Photo editors Anya OliviaSpector Gericke Photo editors Brannon Rockwell-Charland Bryan Rubin Online editor Alanna Ben Shepherd Bennett Editors-in-chief Editors-in-Chief

Naomi Jackson Feb. 25, 7 p.m.

Lord Lounge, Afrikan Heritage House Complicated Relationships: Mary Church Terrell’s Legacy for 21st Century Activists Feb. 26–27 Mudd library Fighting Apartheid Since 1948: Key Moments in Palestinian and Black Solidarity (Robin Kelley) March 2, 7 p.m.

Dye Lecture Hall From Guinea to Brooklyn: The Journey of My Happy Feet March 4–5, 8 p.m.

Warner Center Danez Smith Performance: March 5, 8 p.m.

Workshop: March 6, 2 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Business manager Maureen CurtisCoffey Cook Business manager Savi Ads manager JuliaSedlacek Murphy Ads manager Reshard el-Shair Production managers Ryanne Berry Production manager Sophia Bamert Kira Findling Production staff Stephanie Bonner Production staff Victoria Albacete Emma Eisenberg TaylorBisesi Field Abbey Katherine AnneliseHamilton Giseburt Julia Hubay Auden Granger Tracey Knott Jennifer Jimenez Noah Morris Anna Peckham Sami Mericle Silvia Julia Sheffield Peterson Drew Wise Distributors Adira Baum Distributors Joe Camper Brady Marks Joseph Dilworth James Ben Steger Kuntz

Corrections

Corrections: The Review is not aware of any corrections week.

The Review is not awarethis of any corrections at this time. To submit a correction, email The Review strives to print all managingeditor@oberlinreview.org. information as accurately as possible.

If you feel the Review has made an error, please send an e-mail to managingeditor@oberlinreview.org.

The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

News

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Off the Cuff: Lori Young, Director of Oberlin College Career Center Lori Young is the new director of the Oberlin College Career Center. She comes to Oberlin from ReadyNow!, a leadership training and consulting business that she founded in 2014. Young holds a B.A. in communications from Ashland University and a master’s degree in College Student Personnel from Bowling Green State University. She has worked in career services at Case Western University, Baldwin-Wallace University and the University of Georgia, and in leadership development departments at the Cleveland Clinic and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. She recently earned a professional certified coach credential from the International Coach Federation.

How did you decide on a communications major?

I stumbled upon communications, partially because of a professor I had that I really just got a lot out of … but I also liked to write, so applied writing was my minor. I knew that communication was a strength of mine, both in written form and in speaking, and I initially thought that I would want to go into something like public relations. I was very involved on campus, so I knew I wanted to do something [centered] more around events and bringing people together.

But it was ultimately through my experiences with residence life and other student organizations that I discovered that working on a college campus was actually a career option for me. Going into school, I didn’t know that there was even such a master’s degree as college student personnel — it wasn’t in my purview — and it was through the other administrators at Ashland that I learned more about their educational backgrounds, and it led me to apply to graduate school.

Helping someone find what their interest is, either in a major or a career, is a lot more nuanced than reviewing a resume. How do you tailor your recommendations to a single student?

It’s a little different. As a coach, I wouldn’t recommend something to a student. My job would be to help take you, or any student, through a process [where] you discover that for yourself. … It has to start with who you are as an individual, what you are interested in, you know, what kinds of things do you get excited about? Do

you naturally gravitate to certain kinds of books, certain kinds of movies, certain kinds of hobbies?

That generally tells people what kinds of interests they have.

But you can’t make a decision on one variable, so I usually have people discuss [two or three more things]. What you’re good at, where do you find that you’re excelling, what things come to you naturally, when do things come easily to you, what are those strengths, etc. And then I saved this one for the last because I think it’s most important: What do you believe in? What are your values? What’s at your core?

What do you need in order to be fully satisfied and happy in what you do? So even as a coach with ReadyNow!, even as a leadership development person at the [Cleveland] Clinic or the [Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland], and then certainly with students when I worked in higher education, it really comes down to that question: “What is my purpose, and where do I find meaning in work?”

Lori Young, Oberlin College Career Center Director By going through that whole process of figuring out those things how do we make it easy for the stu- even for people like me who are a lot about yourself — which seem like, dent to navigate that process, as well older, but especially when I had my “Gosh, I should know that, I’ve lived as get the information easily that own business and I had to sell mywith myself from the day I was born!” they need to help inform those deci- self all the time in order to be chosen — but most people don’t take the sions? A challenge is that you are all for the work that the client had — is time to sit down and articulate those extremely busy with your academic how you demonstrate your value. It things. You used the words “more nu- work and whatever other student in- comes back to knowing who you are, anced,” and we could certainly put volvement things that are really criti- what you’re skilled at, and then betogether a structure where people cal to your college experience. How ing able to tie that back to ways that go through those questions, but it is do you fit in the career preparation on you’ve demonstrated those things. working one-on-one with people, or top of all of that? Those are questions even in a peer group … if that’s a com- that I have, and that’s our job right Are there any changes you’re lookfortable place, where you start to talk now: to help figure out how to do that. ing to make to how the career cenabout it and say what it is that you ter operates? want. Usually it lends itself to some How can you help students get job One of the first things that we themes and patterns that are pretty experience while they’re still tak- are doing as a team is a needs asclear about where you should be. ing classes here? sessment to reach out to the student The experience part doesn’t have population in various ways. Whether Except for a few master’s pro- to wait until after you’re done … in- it’s through surveys or focus groups grams in the Conservatory, Oberlin ternships are a great way to do that, or individual interviews, we want to only offers undergraduate degrees. but a lot of times the student jobs understand what you need most to Does this create any challenges? and groups that people are involved help you make that transition, and For a large portion of students, in provide experience. Different find out where the gaps are so we can graduate school is the destination for projects in classes provide experi- make better decisions about if and them right after Oberlin, depending ence. You come out of Oberlin with what we’re changing. on what their longer-term career goal a lot of experience, and it’s our job We’re currently doing a lot of outis. But there is a large number of stu- to help you figure out how — and reach through the peer advisors; our dents who don’t do that right away or this isn’t an appealing word — how team goes out and does classroom just may not go at all, and that’s fine you market or sell that experience, presentations and [goes] to student too. … I think the challenge is uncov- which doesn’t have to come from a groups and residence halls. I think ering the unique possibilities for each paid job. One of the things that I think this needs assessment will help us to person. I think another challenge is is tricky for everybody — it’s tricky know where the best use of our time

is to reach students in a way that’s realistic. Even though it might be interesting to come to a panel or a workshop around career development, there are 12 other things that you could attend, and there’s just not enough time. I think one change is to try to create more “just in time” resources that students can access in a way that they don’t have to come to a program to get the information, or they don’t always have to have a meeting with someone here. We are really savvy about getting you the information you need, and certainly with social media and technology I want to figure out ways we can do that without losing any kind of personal touch, so that students know that they can still see a person, but that they can also access information in other ways, too. Also, we may change our name to be something that is more contemporary to the student population and what we’re trying to do.

Could you tell me more about the needs assessment?

In the next couple weeks we’re putting together a committee that represents various people on campus, including faculty, the Conservatory, our staff — and I’d like to bring in some students — and use that group to help guide me in doing an assessment that works for this campus culture. Basically we want to find out, what do you all need? What do you want? Where are you now? And then how do we fill that gap in between? What we find out [ from the needs assessment] is really going to help us know if what we’re doing now is meeting that need or if there are other ways that we could approach that work. So it’s going to start by putting together this committee representative of the campus, and then we’ll be reaching out to do various surveys, focus groups, probably some one-on-one interviews, tally all that information and then put together a recommendation and proposal.

Interview by Adam Gittin, News editor Photo courtesy of Lori Young

Pro-Palestinian Groups Counter Alumni Accusations Continued from page 2 states. “However, we do not believe Israel should be singled out for condemnation, and we object to questioning its right to exist.”

The authors of the letter call for the administration to take steps toward investigating and documenting acts of anti-Semitism, creating a forum through which students’ experiences with antiSemitism can be shared and discussed and putting together a committee to form an immediate plan of action addressing the situation. The committee would include students, faculty and staff, alumni, President Krislov and Rabbi Shlomo Elkan, an affiliate of the Chabad Student Group.

According to Palestine Legal Director

Dima Khalidi, Palestinian activist groups often face allegations of anti-Semitism, many of which are false accusations.

“This is something we’re tracking; we get hundreds of requests for advice and for legal help every year,” Khalidi said. “In our 2016 data, over 50 percent of those [requests] involved some kind of false accusation of anti-Semitism, and by that we mean accusations based solely on criticism of Israeli policies,” Khalidi said.

Khalidi also cautioned against allowing these cases to blur the vision of those navigating allegations of anti-Semitism.

“It’s crucial for university administration officials to recognize the distinction between anti-Semitism, which is a hatred of and disdain for and discrimination against Jewish people because of their ethnic and religious ancestry, and

criticism of Israel.”

SFP responded to the alumni and student letter with a statement saying that the accusations of anti-Semitism are inaccurate. The group also said they are trying to distinguish their advocacy work from the racist and anti-Semitic acts of March 4, 2013, which SFP members said they feel have been conflated by the media since the release of the letters.

The organization argued that criticisms of Israel are not criticisms of Judaism, and that while confronting the reality of the occupation may be uncomfortable, it is not anti-Semitic.

“In calling our criticisms intimidation tactics and hate speech ... those who accuse us endanger earnest debate on the ways in which we are complicit in the oppression of Palestinian people,” SFP

stated in their online response to the accusations of anti-Semitism. “If Oberlin is to uphold values of intellectual freedom and social engagement, it cannot implement the proposals in the letter.”

According to Sarah Minion, a College third-year and co-chair of Oberlin’s chapter of J Street U, a national network of student activists promoting a twostate resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the letter reflects a larger problem within Oberlin’s Jewish community.

Minion said that it is often difficult to students to have “the tough conversations” about the occupation.

“I do not want to invalidate peoples’ feelings of anti-Semitism, but I don’t think that’s fully representative of Jewish experiences,” Minion said.

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News

The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

After Admin Response, ABUSUA Students Mobilize Continued from page 1 Google Doc that contained over 700 signatures in support of ABUSUA’s petition before the group was forced to make the document private.

The online intimidation included threats, which were ultimately baseless, to kill Black students at the College at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 17. In response, the administration told students via email that it would increase security and inundated the campus with Safety and Security officers and members of the Oberlin Police Department. Just two weeks earlier, an unidentified person verbally assaulted students in Afrikan Heritage House. Safety and Security officers were unable to track down the trespasser, who allegedly shouted racist comments and death threats at bypassers before he left the premises.

While exams and protests were simultaneously happening in late December, the administration maintained frequent communication with students via email.

The messages included information about campus security, mental health resources and access to academic support, among other items.

However, a direct response to the demands and subsequent petition was not as timely as some students had hoped.

College first-year and ABUSUA mem-

ber Antonio Lunn said they were irritated with the amount of time it took for President Krislov to respond, especially given the short turnover with which he responded to accusations of anti-Semitism.

“A lot of other schools have put out or are putting out demands, and their administrations are responding and enacting real change,” Lunn said. This can be seen in the case of the University of Missouri’s Concerned Student 1-9-5-0.

“However,” Lunn continued, “Oberlin’s administration has chosen to respond to obviously inaccurate anti-Semitic accusations. Saying that divesting from Israel, which has had a very large negative impact on Palestine, is anti-Semitic isn’t true. We see parallels between Israeli and Palestinian relations and anti-Blackness in America.”

Although the response itself has come under intensive criticism, the College has myriad outlets to further demonstrate the “deep commitment” the administration has to the concerns of its students.

Perhaps the most noteworthy opportunity is the upcoming final draft of the Strategic Plan, which, when published later this year, will lay the groundwork for the College’s academic and economic expenditures for the upcoming decade.

“Issues of recruitment and reten-

Students rally at a Black Lives Matter protest outside Wilder Hall on November 20. The demonstration addressed racism on college campuses across the country, and was held several weeks in advance of the release of the 14-page document.

Aaron Cohen, staff photographer

tion of students and faculty of color, campus climate, professional development around diversity, student support on campus, etc. are all addressed in the Strategic Plan,” Professor of Politics and Steering Committee member Chris Howell wrote in an online commentary on Krislov’s response, which was published on The Source Jan. 20.

In his response, Howell encouraged those reading Krislov’s response to turn their attention toward the upcoming Strategic Plan.

“Certainly the responses won’t go far enough for some (and will go too far for others), but it is in that document that we should be looking for the specifics of how Oberlin is responding, not President Krislov’s much shorter open letter,” Howell said.

The document has garnered over 200 responses thus far.

Moving forward, ABUSUA students will focus on collective action in the coming weeks. Before meeting with any external figures, students plan to hold

Feature Photo: Voter Registration

Double-degree junior Jeremy Poe and College sophomores Mia Antezzo and Eli Hovland, all members of the Student Voter Coalition, table outside Mudd. The organization, which works to register Oberlin students to vote, tabled on the first floor of Mudd library for voter registration during the Oberlin College Democrats’ showing of the Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton debate held in Azariah’s Café on Thursday. The debate itself was in New Hampshire, which will hold its primary on Tuesday. Ohioans must wait until the primary on March 15 to cast their votes. The SVC includes ABUSUA, JStreetU, the OC Democrats and Students United for Reproductive Freedom. Since Fall 2015, SVC has helped over 650 students register to vote.

Photo by Benjamin Shepherd, Photo editor

a meeting to separate the demands and determine the most efficient ways to utilize the strengths of the individuals in their community.

Members say they hope the meeting will clarify the community’s desires, and that they plan to use the time to brainstorm further ideas.

Near the end of his response email, Krislov left students with a sort of call to action, encouraging all members of the institution to come together and create change.

“Achieving these goals will only be possible if we can marshal our community’s intellectual, teaching and creative skills to tackle the difficult challenges we face on our campus and in our nation,” he wrote.

Members of ABUSUA expressed similar sentiments in their call to action.

“As you will see these are not polite requests, but concrete and malleable demands,” the peition states. “Failure to meet them will result in a full and forceful response from the community you fail to support.”

Opinions The Oberlin Review

February 5, 2016

Letter to the Editors

We Should Question the Term ‘LowIncome Student’ To the Editors:

Certainly, it makes sense to provide immediate money for student necessities — from travel tickets for international study to cash for Oberlin Winter Term groceries. Since no student can control the womb nor circumstances from which they come, let’s think twice before using the term “low-income students.” No student is three-fifths of a human being, as slaves were once considered.

Let’s continue to reject the notion that children and young adults be classified by family financial status. Let’s continue to

reject notions of financial segregation. Let’s not feed immoral ideas; let’s feed the language of equality and the language of human wholeness.

This moral principle should drive consideration of many proposals — including policy changes along these lines: 1. Oberlin College and Conservatory return to financialneed-blind admissions, which it changed away from in the early 1990s.

2. Make all international study programs equally available to all students, regardless of departmental major and regardless of financial costs.

3. Make OSCA and other coops available to all, with no limited number of spaces.

4. Make co-op-style housing and dining open not only

to students, but also to faculty and staff.

5. Prohibit the waste of any institutional resources, especially Campus Dining Services food that has not yet been taken by individuals.

6. Make professional development and cross-training available and convenient for all employees.

This change in approach may be both refreshing and practical: Instead of expecting students to apply constantly for funds in one scholarship form or another, expect Oberlin College and Conservatory to be a place of equal belonging, in which people work with a common pot of resources.

– Aliza Weidenbaum Oberlin resident

Broken ExCo System Disrespectful to Students Cyrus Eosphoros Columnist Columnist Note: Some ExCos are taught by community members or College staff and faculty, but the vast majority are both attended and taught by students. I’m addressing the effect that the current ExCo system has on students. I’m also largely writing from the point of view of someone who’s been a student but not a teacher.

Oberlin College officially admits that the ExCo system works to fulfill gaps in the College’s curriculum. “ExCo supplements the regular curriculum by offering classes not typically available in traditional courses of study,” the College website says — the page on ExCos, by the way, is listed under “Student Life: Student Organizations,” not academics — but those classes include language, literature and history that would not be out of place in an official department. Instead, they count for co-curricular credits, which don’t affect majors, minors or distribution requirements and have limited impact towards graduation.

No matter their topic, ExCo courses aren’t recognized as having academic content for people teaching them or studying in them, while a private reading on the same material wouldn’t be co-curricular and could count towards a major or a minor.

Quite frankly, taking an ExCo is likely to be a liability, as far as one’s academic life goes, instead of the benefit it’s supposed to be. For someone who needs to work in order to keep food on the table and a roof over their head, who needs to graduate early and maxes out their credits every semester to do so, whose usable hours in the week are cut short by disability or who lacks

flexibility in their schedule as they try to fulfill multiple major and minor requirements, participating in the Experimental College could be a breath of fresh air. Instead, it’s a huge expense of time and effort with very little academic return. People from disadvantaged populations are far more likely to look at their class schedule in terms of how it optimizes their ability to graduate quickly and with the credentials they need, due to the cost of attending Oberlin in stress, time commitments and money. Participating in ExCos becomes a literal privilege.

The system also lacks institutional memory.

While some people teach the same ExCo for years, as soon as they leave Oberlin, their class is likely lost. Sometimes people consider it their responsibility to choose successors and furnish them with the materials they used to teach, but that depends on whether a random crop of students in a given semester happens to contain people who are in a position to take on that commitment. Otherwise, if someone wants to restart an old ExCo, they’re left hunting down the former teacher by word of mouth. At minimum, the Student Union could maintain records of past ExCos and their curriculums, and make them easily available to people who might want to revive them — the same way it does for former chartered organizations.

Here are some potential ways to give ExCos the value they deserve: enabling credits from ExCos to count toward major requirements in a department, allowing ExCos to fulfill distribution requirements, removing or further raising the limit on co-curricular credits or awarding more credit for taking and teaching ExCos. Just one of See ExCos, page 6

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Page 5

The Oberlin Review Publication of Record for Oberlin College — Established 1874 —

Editors-in-Chief Julian Ring Madeline Stocker Managing Editor Vida Weisblum Opinions Editor Kiley Petersen

Black Representation in the Arts Crucial to Dismantling Racism Black entertainers will abound at the 88th Academy Awards in February. Comedian and actor Chris Rock will host alongside presenters and performers including Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Hart, The Weeknd and Pharrell Williams. But with the announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations on Jan. 14, media erupted with indignation. For the second year in a row, no actors or actresses of color were nominated for awards, sparking the viral hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.

Arriving at the tail end of Black History Month, the ceremony itself will be snubbed by many Black actors and actresses. The Academy has scrambled to find more faces of color to fill the seats and stage before Feb. 28 and has announced “dramatic steps to alter the makeup of [its] membership.” Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs issued a statement describing how, “in the coming days and weeks, [the Academy] will conduct a review of [its] membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in [the] 2016 class and beyond.”

The history of white art and entertainment is the history of appropriation of Black culture, from musical styles like jazz, blues and hip-hop to internet slang. Miley Cyrus has twerked her way to superstardom while it took until last June for Misty Copeland to become the first Black principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre.

Many films and plays with Black leads are pigeonholed into wellworn tropes — the “slavery story,” for example, has seen a handful of reimaginings in the past decade with 12 Years a Slave, Django Unchained, Belle, Lincoln and The Birth of a Nation.

There’s clearly a diversity drought in the performing arts — one that plagues more than the professional realm. At Oberlin, ABUSUA’s extensive demands to the Board of Trustees and administration decry, among many other things, a lack of representation in the Conservatory as well as the College’s Theater and Dance departments.

Whatever your feelings about the demands as a whole, there’s no denying the larger point their artistic subset, and #OscarsSoWhite, make. It’s easy to forget how vital it is for art to promote and reflect social progress. Amid national conversations about racism, increasing and acknowledging Black contributions to the arts is one of the most powerful things we can do. We should recognize, rather than erase, the accomplishments of talented artists of color. And for aspiring musicians, dancers and actors, the importance of seeing role models who look like them excel on the local and national stage can’t be understated.

We know we can do both because there are existing works that prove it. Take, for example, a new production of Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom — written and composed by Nkeiru Okoye, OC ’92 — by Cleveland and Oberlin Opera Theaters. A slave narrative that aims to eschew the pitfalls of the genre, the production not only features student performers of color, but also highlights the musical and narrative talents of a Black creative mind. By touring Black churches in the Cleveland area, it seeks to validate the experiences of the Black community while empowering and inspiring the artists of tomorrow. In a musical genre that for centuries outfitted white performers in blackface, this is a good thing.

The Oscars have the potential to inspire a diverse national audience in the same way, but it’s going to take a major restructuring — at the very least, the membership shakeup Isaacs has promised — for it to do so. That kind of action, though, is more than necessary. In the broader struggle to combat racism in the United States, we cannot forget the role that Black representation in the arts plays in creating an artistic landscape that reflects the world we live in.

And we must remember that students of music, theater and dance will be looking to today’s works to figure out how to build the world they want to see tomorrow.

Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, managing editor and Opinions editor — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

Opinions

Page 6

The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

ExCos Should Count for Additional Credit, Distribution Reqs Continued from page 5 these changes would go a long way toward making an ExCo an asset to one’s attempts to graduate on time instead of a liability.

The limited amount of co-curricular credits that can count towards graduation — somewhere between five and eight, according to the inconsistent websites — disincentivize taking ExCos at all. Suddenly whether to take an ExCo isn’t only a question of if you have the time and effort to devote to the class, but whether it’s worth taking up one of your remaining opportunities for an ExCo to pay off. Often people need to load up on ExCos in order to graduate on time, as issues over the course of their past years add up and mean that, as seniors, they have to take 18 credits. So there’s an incentive to “save up” co-curricular credits in case they’re needed then, which keeps people from just choosing a class they want to learn from. In theory, I suppose this exists to preserve the sanctity of earning a major, but I sincerely doubt anyone would try to “cheat” their way to graduation by taking dozens of one-credit classes. There simply aren’t enough hours in the week, and considering it a valid risk doesn’t give students’ commitment to their education — or the potential value of an ExCo — enough credit, literally and figuratively.

I doubt the College could be convinced to allow ExCos to count towards majors.

But if we had a way to support long-lived ExCos, perhaps after being taught for a semester or a year, the people organizing said ExCos could petition to have their classes supported by an academic department. For example, allowing a course in American Sign Language to count towards cultural diversity requirements or to add Korean to East Asian Studies. These courses wouldn’t have to satisfy internal major requirements, like Politics majors’ obligation to take a course in American politics, for this shift to make a difference in the value of ExCo classes to students.

While, theoretically, the number of credits an ExCo counts for can vary based on the level of commitment it requires, in practice the difficulty of getting two credit status is an effective disincentive so most ExCos are worth only one credit — the equivalent of a quarter of a class.

A course like Beginning Dungeons and Dragons may not fit in with an academic department or one of our distribution requirements, but it still requires great commitment of both time and effort from students. For people to spend eight hours of their week working for one cocurricular credit is an insult to the value of students’ labor and time. In addition, the odd amount of credit throws off people looking to satisfy the minimum

14-credit requirement, stay within overload’s 20 credits, or work within Conservatory rules. To use ExCos to get to 14 credits, which someone struggling with balancing their academics and the rest of their life needs to stay enrolled, one must commit to two classes that last the entire semester and require hours of commitment per week that could be spent on work or other classes. That commitment and effort is valued the same as secondary music lessons that ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Suddenly whether to take an ExCo isn’t only a question of if you have the time and effort to devote to the class, but whether it’s worth taking up one of your remaining opportunities for an ExCo to pay off.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– spend half an hour in the classroom or a half-semester course below the 100 level that also counts for distribution requirements. If all ExCos were half classes instead of a quarter, they wouldn’t throw off people’s credit requirements, and the payoff would better reflect what passing one means.

Meanwhile, teaching an ExCo requires

Self-Insight Can Be Gained from Solitude CJ Blair Columnist Washington, D.C., is a metropolis of history, politics and tourism that has become one of the most popular residences of Oberlin alumni. Yet despite the draw that D.C. exerts on Obies, I felt out of place when I spent my Winter Term there studying invasive plants. While I left my internship with a wealth of knowledge about kudzu and honeysuckle, I found that I learned just as much outside the office on the weekends, when I explored the city on my own. It was in D.C.’s busy streets and museums that I began to understand how meaningful solitude can be in crowded places and decided that everyone should have the opportunity to try it.

Since I would only be in the city for a month, I made a point to spend most of my days off sightseeing. I visited over a dozen museums and art galleries, ate in dark little restaurants and visited bookstores by myself, but I was never really alone. Everywhere I went, I was surrounded by people, but no one who I knew. After just one day in the city, I realized that this would be the hardest adjustment to make during my trip.

I think that I can handle loneliness better than the average person, but over the course of the month, I started to notice social tendencies that I couldn’t fulfill.

When I saw a gorgeous sculpture or painting, I caught myself turning around as if to ask a friend what they thought about it. Of course, no one was there. Even for someone who gravitates toward solitude, this sort of phantom interaction was uncomfortable and introduced me to a type of experience I had never felt before.

When you’re on your own in a place filled with emotionally and intellectually challenging material, you’re forced to interpret what you see without any external influence. As I tried to understand mineralogy at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History or when I started crying

at the end of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, I had no one to talk to or to distract me from what I saw. If I came across an idea or image I didn’t understand, there was no way to avoid it. This sort of confrontation with the unfamiliar is incredibly humbling, as it traces the limits of your knowledge and imagination to show you what you really know about the world.

Other effects are more pedestrian. Sitting in a movie theater full of couples and groups of friends was like being a ghost among the living: I felt less like a part of the crowd than like an observer of it.

Surrounded by the bustling world, being alone was in equal parts liberating and melancholic. Being able to explore whatever I wanted for a month was wonderful, but feeling tasked to understand the world single-handedly was often exhausting.

Depending on the person, prolonged isolation can be heavenly or horrible. For someone with a mental illness, it might be dangerous. Yet to anyone for whom being alone isn’t a danger, I believe it provides an invaluable experience. I’m sure even the most outgoing extroverts could tolerate silence long enough to understand its merits as well as something about themselves.

Those inclined to stay to themselves might also be shocked by isolation, as it will reveal the subtle desires to be social that weren’t as strong when surrounded by friends.

Surprisingly little of what I learned during my internship involved invasive plants, and for that, I am grateful. Being alone in D.C. was one of the greatest intellectual and emotional challenges I’ve faced, and as a result, I have a better understanding of how I need to interact with others to be happy. I’ve always favored solitude,and still believe that my greatest personal growth happens when I’m alone. However, if I’m forced to be alone longer than I’d like, I will start looking over my shoulder for someone to talk to. When that happens, I hope I will have brought a friend to hear me.

great dedication and a level of expertise that’s at least assumed to be above average for a college student. It’s a crash course in teaching and organization that’s worth only two credits. It doesn’t count for major requirements either, even if someone’s an education major getting practical experience teaching or running a class. Some large or especially complex ExCos will even have teachers who don’t earn credit at all because they need more than two people to run the class effectively.

Because the ExCo Fair happens in the first week of add/drop, people often can only attend one class of an ExCo before deciding whether they’re staying in. If a promising one disappoints, they have a handful of days to find another way to make up the credits. Between this leap of faith and the fact that only eight co-curricular credits can count towards graduation, picking an ExCo becomes unnecessarily fraught with potential risk.

And yet, hundreds of people take and teach dozens of ExCos a semester as an undervalued act of love. The ExCo system is touted by the College as emblematic of the freedom and creativity that Oberlin offers. It’s true that the system is emblematic — of the College’s consistent devaluing of Obies’ labor and taking students’ passion and dedication for granted while exploiting ExCos for its own image.

Iowa Caucuses Reveal Flaws in Archaic Primary Election System Sean Para Columnist This week’s Iowa caucus began the 2016 presidential campaign in earnest. The media has reported on the various candidates’ every move and turn of phrase. The results promise a tough campaign for the candidacy of both parties. Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders by 0.3 percent of the vote, meaning that the two politicians will likely have a state-by-state duel in the coming months, a far cry from the bloodless nomination that former Secretary of State Clinton expected to obtain when she announced her candidacy. The Republican field remains scattered, with Ted Cruz narrowly winning the caucus with 27.6 percent of the vote, followed by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio with 24.3 percent and 23.1 percent of the vote respectively.

This means that Trump did worse than many had expected, while Rubio has a real shot at clinching the nomination due to his broader appeal than the first two candidates. The caucus process has therefore dealt a relatively strong hand to Senator Sanders and Marco Rubio, while Donald Trump has become a loser in the minds of many; not coming in first place in Iowa is widely viewed as the beginning of the end for his scandalous and poorly organized campaign.

These results and the coming months of campaigning will highlight the way our political system is broken. The way we choose presidential candidates in this country is ridiculous and must be changed.

The electoral system is fundamentally flawed and extraconstitutional.

There were never supposed to be only two candidates or political parties in the presidential election. The modern system of primaries and caucuses evolved as a way to prevent any strong candidate from emerging outside the

two presidential parties and to narrow a diverse field of candidates into two choices. Furthermore, different states have different electoral rules for primaries and caucus. Most states use primaries — general statewide elections — while others still use caucuses, which are more informal voting procedures held by each party in which they consult with their members in the state and hold a vote to assign delegates. Primaries can be open, meaning anyone can vote for a candidate, even if not a member of that party. The opacity of the process is furthered by the existence of superdelegates, independent delegates able to vote any way that they choose at the national party conventions. This system takes power and choice away from average voters and only allows candidates with enough backing from special interest groups to be elected. If there is to be any hope of creating a true American democracy, the candidacy process needs to end.

Instead of state-by-state primaries and caucuses electing delegates to vote in national conventions, we should institute an open presidential election where more candidates can run before a president is chosen in a second round of elections between the top two candidates. This would also involve scrapping the Electoral College system — a relic of a past age that is fundamentally oligarchic. Technically speaking, the electors, rather than voters themselves, elect the president; almost all states now have their electors vote for whoever won in that state, but this is not stated in the Constitution. A more streamlined and simplified electoral system would allow the citizens themselves to decide who becomes president. Our current process, on the other hand, does not: Voters are given a false choice between two candidates who have effectively been picked for them.

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

Page 7

Let’s Make Campus Politics More Constructive Marc Blecher Professor of Politics and East Asian Studies I was lucky to come of age during a time of social and political radicalism. The 1960s movements for democracy, justice and peace taught me the profound value and significance of political engagement. They are the reason I chose a career in the academy. I’ve also been fortunate enough to be able to ply my trade among a community of such bright, serious, socially responsible and politically engaged students as Obies. In that context, here are my hopes for campus politics for 2016 and beyond.

Today, race dominates politics on our campus and our country — from police violence to incarceration to extreme segregation of neighborhoods, employment and education to the ugliness that has sullied even the presidential campaign, to name just a few. The completely justifiable outrage we feel tempts us to respond with our own epithets against a litany of deplorable “-isms.”

But we also know that that’s no substitute for looking at what’s actually going on in all its complexity. Sure, Oberlin College always has much more to do around diversity, justice and equal opportunity. But to understand and act on our shortcomings, we need to know more and think harder. Are we not taking racism and diversity as seriously, or understanding them as fully, as we need to? Are we trying hard but failing? Is the problem incompetence, insufficient resources or something else? It’s easy to demand that Oberlin truly become a place for all, but it’s much harder to work out what it will actually take to make that happen. It’s work we need to do, and it’ll require forthright discussion and thoughtful, dispassionate analysis that follows the facts where they lead us.

Can we also look outward? Oberlin and other college campuses could do a lot better, but, frankly, they pale in comparison with what’s going on in our cities, battlefields, environment, economy and halls of power.

Joe Queenan once wrote, “The left gets Harvard, Oberlin, Twyla Tharp’s dance company and Madison, Wisconsin.

The right gets NASDAQ, Boeing, General Motors, Apple, McDonnell Douglas, Washington, D.C., Citicorp, Texas, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Japan and outer space.”

Let’s not fall into their trap. I hope 2016 will be a year in which, for just one example, students who care so deeply about racism finally put together a national movement to stop police violence and advance equality in education and employment, to name a few important goals.

Can we think harder about choosing our targets? The

lame bánh mì turned out by Bon Appétit may have as even worse, “You shouldn’t be talking about it.” Of course much to do with culinary inexperience, problems sourc- we should all talk fearlessly about everything. ing authentic ingredients or the requirements of mass We’ve spent the last decade or more elaborating analproduction as with disrespect. I love Obies’ penchant for yses of the ways ability, class, ethnicity, gender, nation, politicizing everything, but the theory of cultural appro- race and sexuality, to name just a few, intersect to create priation can find way bigger and juicier targets than that. perverse permutations of exploitation, oppression and Now, of course, the popular news and opinion media had injustice. This has taught us a great deal and has higha field day blowing some pretty ordinary late-semester lighted problems to which we were insufficiently attenmoaning about dining hall food way out of proportion. tive. The unintended effect, though, has been to divide But that’s another good reason for choosing targets stra- us into an increasingly complex array of subgroups that tegically, so as not to give opponents easy avenues of at- vie for attention, focus us inward and make it difficult to tack. Perhaps we can talk more about macroaggressions ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– by putting the great perversions of economic, social, cultural and political power front and center. They are, It might help to focus more on what’s being after all, what drive microaggressions in the first place. said and less on the social background of And speaking of aggression, even in blogs, and most certainly in public documents, can we think twice be- who’s saying it. Too many white people on fore pillorying individuals anonymously and without campus now feel they cannot think, talk and evidence? act around race; too many men feel the same Can we put the concept of “safe space” back where it belongs — as a small haven from the rigors of battle about women’s issues; on and on. where people can find a little rest and support? Ex- ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– panding it into a way of life can create deep, structural barriers to understanding each other and to living and prioritize our struggles for change. Can we now start to working together, which we should treasure and which focus on how, despite our profound differences, we can is unavoidable anyway in our increasingly intercon- join together to identify our common targets and fight nected world. Perhaps we can also begin to transcend effectively? “allyship,” which is premised on what divides us, by reFinally, can we take much more seriously the complex turning to some good old-fashioned “solidarity” around material roots of the crises we face? Police violence has what unites us. a great deal to do with plain old racial hatred, but the Likewise, can we try to understand the way the fo- ways in which African-American communities have been cus on privilege undercuts real conversation, analysis ruined over the last several decades by the employment and participation in common causes? It might help to crisis of late capitalism, perverse real estate markets focus more on what’s being said and less on the social and the collapse of educational and social provision rebackground of who’s saying it. Too many white people on sulting from neoliberal attacks on the state are also its campus now feel they cannot think, talk and act around mother’s milk. The poverty-level wages and employment race; too many men feel the same about women’s issues; conditions of food service workers should be front and on and on. I’ve had students in tears in my office around center in our thinking about Bon Appétit, not just tossed this. That should never happen at Oberlin. Of course ex- in as an afterthought, like a crouton on a salad. And one perience and social position affect how we understand of the most significant victories we could win for racial and work for change, but they also have serious limits. and gender justice would be the national campaign for As a professor of Chinese politics, I tell my Chinese stu- a $15 minimum wage, which the Oberlin Student Labor dents that they understand many aspects of their coun- Action Coalition has been helping to push forward here try better than I do, but also that my position outside in Ohio. it, and my colder analytical and theoretical tools, give Here’s to a wonderful, powerful and delicious new me a valuable perspective that’s hard to get from inside. year of progressive politics together.

I never, ever want to hear anyone say, “As a [ fill in the blank] person, I really shouldn’t be talking about this” or,

Peer Support, Solidarity Only Provided During Campus Crises Robert Bonfiglio Contributing Writer Two winters ago, in a student study room at a Dartmouth College medical building, I got bored with my Winter Term project and took a break to watch a documentary on the Belle and Sebastian album If You’re Feeling Sinister. I had been trying to find the album on YouTube, but ended up happening upon this documentary that details the simplicity and beauty of the lyrics. The lead singer, Stuart Murdoch, suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome early on in his life, explained how his simple lyrics came to be so meaningful. “I wanted to write about normal people doing normal things because I was not normal,” he said. “I was not part of the game.” Everyone feels this: being left out of the game. Murdoch’s lyrics express this universal human experience.

At Oberlin College, there is a divide that most talk about and acknowledge: the physical divide of North and South campuses, with South where it is assumed that students of color reside — Afrikan Heritage House and Third World Co-op are both prominent features of South campus. This divide is more than just geographical and erases the commonalities that people living on either side share; North is often stereotyped as a more athletic side and South is often thought of as more diverse and politically radical.

We forget that we can all identify as college students, an identity in this nation that is criticized as we combat racialized

police violence, rising tuition costs and technological developments. Yet, despite our collective power as students, we are prevented from coming together and living productively on this residential campus by this divide. Yet every year, an issue will require both sides of campus to unite in solidarity, and this issue almost always involves anti-Black racism. My freshman year it was the March 4 racist incidents.

Sophomore year, it was the Student Senate debacle. This year, it was the violent response to ABUSUA’s demands.

This consciously racial divide on Oberlin’s campus elicits pockets of solidarity, where the entire student body gathers together to demonstrate recognition of the struggles that Black students face, where they feel distanced from the rest of the Oberlin community, where they do not feel “part of the game.” I say Black, because that is what I have been conditioned to say; all those posters and event descriptions that declare priority seating or participation for “Black students and other marginalized communities,” leaving as an afterthought other students of color, students who are not straight, students who are struggling daily to find a place on this campus that will make them feel normal, whatever they feel like normal means.

This conditioning is because, as Sandra Harding states in her Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader, “not all marginality is potentially equally politically progressive,” and at this time in our nation’s history, it is all about race, and especially

about Black individuals. Other forms of discrimination, such as racism against other students of color, sexism against women, gender non-conforming people, homophobia and transphobia are also prevelant on campus and can often intersect with issues of anti-Blackness, but anti-Black racism is the most hypervisible oppression that divides campus.

So when North campus becomes aware of some racial injustice, they rally together and think about how they can help the community that they are divided from.

They become compassionate, but then, as laborious students at Oberlin College, they fall back into their routine of selffocused activity, with no time to drive someone to the airport, to get lunch with someone, or step outside of their comfort zone. According to Lynne Fauley Emery in her book Black Dance, there is a dedication “to the idea that greater sympathy … among the peoples of the world derives from knowledge of each other’s way of life.” Momentary support in times of crisis is just momentary; there can be little knowledge gained from each other in that time. There becomes a complacency that this will always be the case, which creates two situations: one in which others will be compassionate and supportive only for a time and one in which others who are struggling and feeling lost on Oberlin’s campus will receive neither compassion nor attention.

The risk in subverting Oberlin’s campus divide is in making oneself feel abnormal, something individuals do all

the time when encountering new jobs or classes or activities. The sheer notability of the divide on campus is no different, except that there is a greater risk. It cannot be overcome during times of crisis, however, because it is too impersonal.

That is not when relationships are made and risks are taken. To overcome the divide, there needs to be compassionate interactions among students, where it is explicitly stated among individuals that you are welcome to be here, you are welcome to join us, and you are welcome to be a part of our game. And if people don’t want to join, that is not the point. The point is in the transparency of knowing that, yes, we might not normally socialize, because we define ourselves through socially-constructed identities that limit interaction; but you are still welcome to take this risk with me and learn something about me, and I’ll learn something about you. Especially when the reasoning concerns someone who has no one else to be with, has no community at Oberlin and does not fit onto either side of the campus divide.

Then it is even more important that they are welcome to try to feel normal, to take that risk. You never know when someone might need to feel welcomed, because it is not always in times of crisis. According to our childhood friend Kermit the Frog, “Maybe you don’t need the whole world to love you, you know? Maybe you just need one person.” At times people might not need their community; they might just need a welcoming hand and an open heart.

WEATHER IN OHIO THIS WINTER

Photo courtesy of Vida Weisblum Open Observatory and Planetarium Friday, Feb. 5, 7–9 p.m.

Observatory and Taylor Planetarium, Peters Hall If you spent Winter Term in a city where you couldn't see the stars, this is the perfect time to get your fill (hopefully). The Observatory will be open to the public. If it's cloudy, the party will move to the Planetarium.

Why has it been so warm this winter?

El Niño! … Obviously.

El Niño is a weather phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years. Although scientists know that it operates cyclically, they still do not understand all the reasons behind it.

It all begins when warm water in the western tropical Pacific Ocean moves eastward toward the coast of South America.

FUN FACTS ABOUT EL NIÑO:

Theater Production: Family Happiness Thursday, Feb. 4, through Saturday, Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m; Sunday, Feb. 7, 2 p.m.

Hall Auditorium Thursday was the opening night of Alexis Macnab's, OC '01, adaptation of Tolstoy’s novella “Family Happiness.”

Did you know that El Niño has a sibling, La Niña?

Ordinarily, there is an upwelling current of cold water that causes warm water to remain near Asia and the cold water near the Americas.

This occurs when the waters of the tropical eastern Pacific are colder than normal, causing the opposite effects.

The name El Niño comes from South American fishermen in the 17th century who noticed the odd phenomenon. The name was chosen because of the strange warm water that occurred in December. Because Christianity teaches that Jesus was born in December, this weather pattern was named El Niño, which means "little boy."

This causes a change in evaporation from the warm waters and causes the tropical storms to move eastward. This all results in a drastic change to the jet stream.

Men’s Basketball vs. Wittenberg University Saturday, Feb. 6, 3–5 p.m.

Go support the Oberlin basketball team as they continue their season. The more support they get, the more likely they will dominate against Wittenberg University.

Francesca Blanchard, singersongwriter, performs at Oberlin Sunday, Feb. 7, 8 p.m.

Cat in the Cream It would be a shame to miss this 23-year-old singer on her tour through Ohio. Born and raised in France, Francesca’s music has been heard and loved all around the world.

During El Niño, instead of flowing straight across North America, trade winds make the jet stream stronger in the northwest.

Biggest storms in Oberlin history: Jan. 18–20, 1994 The entire state huddled inside while residents watched their thermostats remain below zero degrees Fahrenheit. In Cleveland, the temperature was a shocking -20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Jan. 25–27, 1978 The combination of 50–70 mph winds and an atmospheric pressure of 28 inHg made this massive blizzard the worst in Ohio’s history. 5,000 members of the Ohio National Guard were called in to help rescue stranded people and assist with snow removal. This storm killed 51 people and was one of the deadliest in Ohio history.

Calendar

This changes the weather throughout the Americas so that people in the south are experiencing flooding and colder climates, while those in the north are experiencing dry, warm conditions.

Art Exhibit: Holding Water Monday, Feb. 8, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Richard D. Baron ’64 Art Gallery Duy Phuong Le Nguyen’s photography exhibit, Holding Water, opens on Feb. 8 and runs through March 10.

Quantitative Skills Drop-In Center Monday, Feb. 8, 7–11 p.m.

Science Library, group study room Feeling like you need help in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, computer science or other quantitative science? Start your semester off feeling confident and stop by to get help from tutors.

Nov. 23–27, 1950 (The Great Thanksgiving Storm) This storm goes down in Ohio’s history as the snowiest, with 10–30 inches of snow in just over five days. By the end of this eventful Thanksgiving, so much snow had accumulated that some buildings collapsed under the weight. It was not an ideal weekend.

WEATHER IN OHIO THIS WINTER

Photo courtesy of Vida Weisblum Open Observatory and Planetarium Friday, Feb. 5, 7–9 p.m.

Observatory and Taylor Planetarium, Peters Hall If you spent Winter Term in a city where you couldn't see the stars, this is the perfect time to get your fill (hopefully). The Observatory will be open to the public. If it's cloudy, the party will move to the Planetarium.

Why has it been so warm this winter?

El Niño! … Obviously.

El Niño is a weather phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years. Although scientists know that it operates cyclically, they still do not understand all the reasons behind it.

It all begins when warm water in the western tropical Pacific Ocean moves eastward toward the coast of South America.

FUN FACTS ABOUT EL NIÑO:

Theater Production: Family Happiness Thursday, Feb. 4, through Saturday, Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m; Sunday, Feb. 7, 2 p.m.

Hall Auditorium Thursday was the opening night of Alexis Macnab's, OC '01, adaptation of Tolstoy’s novella “Family Happiness.”

Did you know that El Niño has a sibling, La Niña?

Ordinarily, there is an upwelling current of cold water that causes warm water to remain near Asia and the cold water near the Americas.

This occurs when the waters of the tropical eastern Pacific are colder than normal, causing the opposite effects.

The name El Niño comes from South American fishermen in the 17th century who noticed the odd phenomenon. The name was chosen because of the strange warm water that occurred in December. Because Christianity teaches that Jesus was born in December, this weather pattern was named El Niño, which means "little boy."

This causes a change in evaporation from the warm waters and causes the tropical storms to move eastward. This all results in a drastic change to the jet stream.

Men’s Basketball vs. Wittenberg University Saturday, Feb. 6, 3–5 p.m.

Go support the Oberlin basketball team as they continue their season. The more support they get, the more likely they will dominate against Wittenberg University.

Francesca Blanchard, singersongwriter, performs at Oberlin Sunday, Feb. 7, 8 p.m.

Cat in the Cream It would be a shame to miss this 23-year-old singer on her tour through Ohio. Born and raised in France, Francesca’s music has been heard and loved all around the world.

During El Niño, instead of flowing straight across North America, trade winds make the jet stream stronger in the northwest.

Biggest storms in Oberlin history: Jan. 18–20, 1994 The entire state huddled inside while residents watched their thermostats remain below zero degrees Fahrenheit. In Cleveland, the temperature was a shocking -20 degrees Fahrenheit.

Jan. 25–27, 1978 The combination of 50–70 mph winds and an atmospheric pressure of 28 inHg made this massive blizzard the worst in Ohio’s history. 5,000 members of the Ohio National Guard were called in to help rescue stranded people and assist with snow removal. This storm killed 51 people and was one of the deadliest in Ohio history.

Calendar

This changes the weather throughout the Americas so that people in the south are experiencing flooding and colder climates, while those in the north are experiencing dry, warm conditions.

Art Exhibit: Holding Water Monday, Feb. 8, 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

Richard D. Baron ’64 Art Gallery Duy Phuong Le Nguyen’s photography exhibit, Holding Water, opens on Feb. 8 and runs through March 10.

Quantitative Skills Drop-In Center Monday, Feb. 8, 7–11 p.m.

Science Library, group study room Feeling like you need help in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, computer science or other quantitative science? Start your semester off feeling confident and stop by to get help from tutors.

Nov. 23–27, 1950 (The Great Thanksgiving Storm) This storm goes down in Ohio’s history as the snowiest, with 10–30 inches of snow in just over five days. By the end of this eventful Thanksgiving, so much snow had accumulated that some buildings collapsed under the weight. It was not an ideal weekend.

Arts The Oberlin Review

Page 10

February 5, 2016

Performance Art Grapples with Girlhood, Grieving Louise Edwards Arts Editor For her final performance in the Winter Term Performance Art & Technology class, College sophomore Elizabeth Grooms filmed herself with Periscope, an app that allows users to livestream anything and viewers to leave comments on the video. She performed her installation alongside classmates at Storage art gallery on Jan. 28. Grooms’ project focused on how girls and women view themselves through technology. “I was filming a video of myself, and then people were commenting, but I wasn’t saying anything,” she said. “Then I was reading the comments in another video that was also being livestreamed, and it was just this cycle.”

The Winter Term class, offered for the first time this year

by Art Department Technology Coordinator Francis Wilson, OC ’12, provided students with a historical overview of performance art and gave them hands-on experience in creating it. Some of the first creators of performance art in the ’60s emerged from movements like Dadaism, an anti-establishment art movement that posited that anything can be art.

“To define [performance art] is really difficult because a lot of the point of the movement in the ’60s and ’70s was that these are taking things out of your daily life and just doing them, but doing them in a gallery or doing them as a performance,” said College sophomore Han Taub. “There’s one group that had one piece called ‘Making a Salad.’ So they stood in the gallery and made a huge salad, and that was the piece.”

Historical context provided in the class helped Grooms conceptualize her final installation. She said she drew her vision from famous performance artist Marina Abramovic.

“[Abramovic] had a piece where there was a table with a bunch of objects on it,” Grooms said.

“She just stood there for six hours and let people do whatever they wanted to her, which I thought was really cool and inspiring.”

Wilson explained that from the ’60s to the present, the human body has taken center stage in many performance pieces. “The ’60s was a time when … performers were using the body as the main medium of performing,” she said. “The body’s role in performance has been something that’s been talked about and been a consistent conversation throughout performance art since then.”

College junior Fiona Hoffer’s final performance, which was about grieving and healing after her mother’s death, presented the theme of using the human body as a creative agent.

Her piece included a live video that tracked Hoffer’s repetitive tumbling movements in a white outline alongside text that read, “My mother died like an exploding star. Today is 812.”

While tumbling, Hoffer counted to 812, the number of days it had been since her mother had passed away.

Hoffer said the creative experience was taxing, but ultimately rewarding. “It was very physically exhausting and mentally exhausting, but there’s also this meditative quality to it,” she said. “So, for me, [part of it was] just pushing myself to do it when I had never done it before, because I’m not going to practice doing that 812 times. … I find it really useful to address personal trauma through creative things, because it allows me to work with them in a way that’s slightly removed, because it’s going through a creative lens. So I’m still doing the work that I need to do emotionally, but it’s still way more fulfilling than addressing those issues any other ways, because I get to

make something that I love.”

In addition to learning about the historical context of performance art, Wilson also introduced students to technology as a resource. The class worked with Isadora, a program used to create live videos that allows one to change how a video is reacting, as well as Arduino microcontrollers. Wilson said that Arduino technology is easy for beginners to use, since students don’t need to know how to program. “It really allows artists to experiment with DIY technology,” she said. “I had several Arduino boards with some premade sensors that either reacted to light or to heartbeat, or to if it bends a certain way as a way of introducing how we can –––––––––––––––––––––––––––

“I find it really useful to address personal trauma through creative things, because it allows me to work with them in a way that’s slightly removed, because it’s going through a creative lens.”

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

College sophomore Elizabeth Grooms creates a live stream of herself as part of the Performance Art & Technology Winter Term class taught

by Art Department Technology Coordinator Francis Wilson. Students learned about the history of and the technology used in performance art.

Courtesy of Francis Wilson

use the space around us or our bodies.”

Throughout the class, students gained hands-on experience by creating short pieces through video or live performance that culminated in the final showcase at Storage. One assignment was to create some sort of public disruption and document it. For this assignment, Taub sat on the floor of an Allen Memorial Art Museum gallery and colored in a Star Wars coloring book with markers while recording the experience. Another short piece they created allowed them to explore their own identity. “I played a

1950s anti-gay PSA, and I sat on the floor and covered myself in finger paint,” they said. “It was an interesting experience for me as a performer, since it was a really vulnerable space to be in.”

Taub said they appreciated the class, since it is one of few opportunities on campus that focuses on both learning about and creating performance art.

“Performance art is something that there’s not a whole lot of stages to do it unless you decide to do it yourself,” they said. “Painting classes will have showcases and photography classes will have galleries, but

Fiona Hoffer College junior

there’s not really a place here to do performance art, so it was a nice experience to have in a classroom.”

Wilson said performance art remains approachable to many people, since it’s such a wideranging medium. “I think it’s something that people from any kind of creative background can engage in, because there’s actually an infinite number of ways that one can perform or be a performer,” she said. “I think everybody has some way in which to do something in front of an audience that feels natural and comfortable while still being challenging to them.”

Anomalisa Comments on Gender Politics in Romance Christian Bolles Columnist

The Apollo Theatre marquee advertises several Oscar-nominated animated features, including Anomalisa. The film is a masterful piece of storytelling and design, writes Christian Bolles.

Ben Shepherd, Photo editor

Very few filmmakers are capable of confronting the contradictory selfishness of love with the heartbreaking honesty of Charlie Kaufman. After toying with the idea of a procedure that can render one’s previous relationships forgotten in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kaufman explores the other side of the coin in Anomalisa, telling the story of a man who seems unaware of his own doomed cycle of infatuation and disinterest. Simultaneously a fable about what it means to grow older and a pitch-perfect commentary on our tendency to move on, Anomalisa is a beautifully animated film that stands among the ranks of today’s most emotionally resonant cinema.

The story follows Michael Stone, an author writing about customer service who has inspired thousands with his workplace advice and who finds himself stuck in a marriage devoid of pas-

sion. We join him for his overnight stay at the Al Fregoli Hotel, a strange place staffed by overly genial men with wooden expressions and nondescript halls that grant immediate precedent to the characters themselves. The tendency for many smaller details to blur into the background is a symptom of the production’s design; Michael’s life has become a series of surreal, unrelated events in which he fails to engage with his surroundings while everything in between is just another solemn respite steeped in beleaguering solitude. The film is, needless to say, a bit of a downer.

As the night progresses, our aging protagonist confronts various stages of his past, setting the stage nicely for the unexpected arrival of someone new. Lisa immediately captures Michael’s attention, bringing him an intense surge of joy, the likes of which he hasn’t felt in years.

This spark is communicated with unusual nuSee Kaufman, page 11

The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

Arts

Page 11

On the Record with Maria Miranda, Artist and Activist Maria Miranda, a reproductive health activist from Cleveland, serves on the NARAL ProChoice Ohio board, works at an online reproductive healthoriented publication called RH Reality Check and has worked with other social justice organizations including Greater Cleveland Community Shares and Preterm. She has received numerous awards for her contributions to social activism. She has visited Oberlin twice before for reproductive health workshops and is one of three artist-activists who participated in Students United for Reproductive Freedom’s event Out of Silence: Destigmatizing Abortion through Art and Storytelling, which took place Thursday at the Cat in the Cream.

How are you feeling about coming back to Oberlin? You were here before for a workshop on reproductive justice, right?

Yeah. The students at SURF have invited me out twice now.

It’s interesting. I’m an Ohio native, and I know several Oberlin graduates. So it was just funny that after all these years, it took SURF to get me out to the campus. Oberlin has a really great reputation for producing social justice activists. I was just really impressed with what the students put into the issues and their willingness to speak out on what’s wrong. I think it’s really fantastic that there’s such momentum and energy on campus around these really big issues, such as reproductive rights.

What are your thoughts on the concept of destigmatizing abortion through storytelling?

I think that storytelling is a really powerful tool to break down a lot of the socializations that we have embedded in ourselves through being part of a mainstream-dominant culture.

For women particularly, and marginalized groups from all traditions, storytelling is one of the primary ways that we are able to speak our truths and tell our stories for generations to come. In terms of destigmatizing abortion, speaking on abortion is the first thing that we

have to do because it’s such a silencing issue for a lot of women.

So the movement to tell stories is huge. It’s really impactful in terms of getting people comfortable with the subject of abortion, but also providing a safe, validating and healing space for women who have experienced abortion. … I think having a movement like this is going to be part of a bigger movement to change the way abortion is handled in Ohio.

Can you speak about your interest in the co-opting of reproductive rights activism?

Reproductive justice is a movement that was founded around 30 years ago by women of color in response to the race justice movements and the gender justice movements [excluding] us. It was an entire movement by women who had to make decisions about their bodies, families and communities. What’s happened over the years is that more mainstream, pro-choice organizations — and the pro-choice movement itself — has kind of co-opted the term “reproductive justice” as this new way to say “pro-choice,” which it’s not. The challenge has been that women of color over the past several years have really pushed back against major organizations like Planned Parenthood to say, “Hey, this is a movement that began with us.” It’s not that we don’t accept white allies, but this is really a woman-of-color-led movement.

Using that term without understanding its history, which is often what happens, is really insulting to the women of color of all backgrounds who worked really hard to [start it]. I think that’s the rub. Whenever we can take time to clarify that distinction, it’s really important [to do so].

Have you worked with Mallory McMaster or Taba Aleem before Out of Silence?

Yeah, I know both of them.

Taba Aleem is a phenomenal woman. She has been in the game for a long time, and her story is really powerful. I’ve heard her story; she’s spoken at rallies and public spaces for

years. She is very active in the Northeast Ohio-Akron community. She works at Planned Parenthood. She just has a really amazing perspective. Taba has a really big passion for getting young women leaders developed in the movement. You can always find her trying to cultivate young voices, especially around reproductive health and justice movements.

I’ve met Mallory [ fewer] times … we worked on a project together around creating advocates for abortion patients. It’s a small-world kind of thing, you know? Mallory has been eager to jump into the reproductive health and rights movement as a leader. She relocated to Cleveland several years ago at this point and has really embedded herself in the community. She’s now a recognized force. When I saw their names on the agenda, I was really excited and thought they were good choices. I really admire Taba as a woman of color. She has some really great, inspirational insights around black women and reproductive health specifically.

In a more general sense, how are the activism and arts scenes in Cleveland?

There’s a pretty healthy, vibrant community of artists/ activists in Cleveland. There are a number of local theaters that have done a lot of plays and presentations around social justice issues, speaking on political, current, controversial issues. There’s female artists and artists of color — primarily African-American artists — who have created safe spaces for themselves. There are a number of small, independent bookstores that are also meeting spaces for justice activists, which I think is really important — kind of harkening back to the days of the beatniks, and even prior to that, when people would go to shops to discuss these things. The creative class itself in Cleveland has been a huge part of the economic revitalization of our town. Also, I feel like artists in Cleveland are the first people to speak out about social justice issues. I will also say that, for me, as a social

Feminist and activist Maria Miranda, who spoke at the Cat in the Cream Thursday Courtesy of Maria Miranda

justice activist, art can be a really powerful way to make those connections. ... A lot of folks are homegrown, and there are some that are from here. There’s a really good mix of people who have different perspectives. It’s not just Midwest; it’s national and global. I think that makes it all the more robust.

Can you tell me your thoughts on the intersections of art and activism in the context of reproductive rights?

It’s been years since I’ve tried to be creative. I have done performance art pieces and things like that. … I will say that, when I work with creative women, we were able to not only tell our own stories and learn from each other but also create something for other people to digest. I will say that I feel the most uplifted when I’m working with something artistic. I did a lot of work exploring femininity and how it impacts our lives. … It’s really great to hear from women, and that’s what I’ve got as an artist.

It helps me create my spaces.

On a broader scale, [the connections between] art and activism are huge. SisterSong, a national organization for women of color and reproductive justice, has started an initiative … around art. There are a lot of talented activists and artists who are interested in activism.

What we find is that, a lot of times, awareness is generated through art. Someone might see a piece of performance art, hear a song, read a poem, see a film or go to a play, and they say, “Oh. This is an interesting topic.” Then they have conversations. We find that art is a way to spark dialogue and conversation. Looking at movements historically, art has been a way to spark movements. It’s a crucial part of revolutionary movements: I would say that any movement that doesn’t include art is missing out on something.

I think it’s an important form of expression for marginalized people.

Interview by Danny Evams

Kaufman Creates Fleeting Desire with Puppetry Continued from page 10

advances inherently take advantage of her lack of confidence and youth; viewers sensitive to such ance and rawness, considering Michael’s broken situations may be affected by their interaction affection with just as much weight as Lisa’s inse- more strongly than others. Despite the gender curities and passions. The fact that he has abso- politics of their relationship (about which the lutely all of the power in the situation means his film is refreshingly self-conscious, depicting Mi–––––––––––––––––––––––––––———— chael as no hero), the sex scene is perhaps one of the most genuine ever put to film.

And it’s with puppets. This is the clincher of Simultaneously a fable about the whole deal. Anomalisa takes on the seemwhat it means to grow older and ingly herculean task of imbuing lifeless amalgaa pitch-perfect commentary on mations of felt and plastic with true humanity, our tendency to move on, Anombut the painstakingly detailed craftsmanship of the whole thing delivers it in spades. The film’s alisa is a beautifully animated felt felt. film that stands among the The animation is so intelligently expressed ranks of today’s most emotiothat the viewer could be forgiven for forgetting that they’re watching puppets lock lips. Only in anlly resonant cinema. the last few minutes of the film does the deci–––––––––––––––––––––––––––———— sion to render the narrative with dolls become

clear, and the entire process is thereby justified as the heartbreaking nature of Michael’s psyche is revealed.

Fantastic performances from David Thewlis (seen in Harry Potter as everybody’s favorite werewolf, Remus Lupin) and Jennifer Jason

Leigh give the picture the final force it needs to drive its sucker-punch of a message home. Audiences will leave the theater with a sense of scope, sorrow and loss. This is the kind of movie that brings one’s life and decision-making into question, and that’s just how Charlie Kaufman likes it.

Arts

Page 12

The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

Painting Exhibit Depicts Bodies, Human Agency Luke Nikkanen

something prehistorically beautiful, like a cave painting that contains a cosmic secret.

Reigl’s Outburst series embodies a controlled chaos, like an explosion frozen in time. Thick, dark lines of paint contain passion in every stroke, appearing both

Judit Reigl’s Body of Music exhibit, the first retrospective of her work in the United States, is a visceral exploration of the forces that govern the human body and our autonomy. In an exhibit that opened Tuesday at the Allen Memorial Art Muse–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– um, her works embody our collective desire for freedom over our bodies and over Reigl’s art evokes a sense of the paths we walk in the world. Curated

by Curator of Modern and Contemporary darkness, timelessness and the Art Denise Birkhofer with assistance from primordial. She employs paintMallory Cohen, OC’15, the exhibit runs ing as a means of affirming through May 29 in the Ellen Johnson Galhuman agency in the face of an lery. Reigl’s art evokes a sense of darkness, timelessness and the primordial. She em- indifferent universe. ploys painting as a means of affirming hu- –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– man agency in the face of an indifferent universe. accidental and intentional as large patIn 1950, Reigl escaped the Iron Curtain terns in an unpredictable processes. The of the Soviet Union and fled to Paris, fi- textures of these pieces create a sense of nally freeing herself from the forces that three-dimensionality; the paint almost had constricted her. After engaging with bursts out of the canvas. These pieces are the Surrealists in Paris, she began to stray a powerful expression of the relationship away from stylistic restraints and experi- between humanity and chaos, evoking ment with other methods of creation. feelings of beginnings and births.

Reigl practiced automatism, in which she Other pieces, like her Center of Domiused her body’s unconscious instincts to nance series, convey similar moods as express herself in her paintings. centered energies and cosmic circles form To put it in her own words: “It happens a powerful life-force. This art feels both — rarely, hardly ever — in painting: The universally expansive and human at the body becomes the instrument, precise same time. and perfect.” Through the act of painting, The narrative progression of Reigl’s the body is turned into a means of physi- work is a particularly striking aspect of cal creation, through which energies can the exhibit. When observed chronologibe contained, expressed and unified with cally, her creations reveal the gradual shift the intangible. from the intangible to the tangible human Reigl’s exploration of contingency and form. In her Outburst series, the human accident is fascinating. Many of her works element is merely implied; by her Mass contain elements created without her Writing series, the human outline begins control. Her Guano paintings started out to take shape in negative space, asserting as the accumulation of paint drippings its right to exist in the spaces in between on a canvas on her floor and turned into the void. These paintings were the most

violent of the ones featured at the exhibit, reducing the color spectrum to a stark black and white with the dark bleeding into and almost choking the light.

Reigl’s later work, especially Facing, produced in 1991, stands out. These paintings contain her most realized human form, such as a shimmering golden outline of the ageless human stepping out of the void and into our realm. The last paintings featured were also Reigl’s most recent productions. They expressed a far more tranquil condition than the constant tension contained in her other art.

Gentle, fluid shapes depicting birds and abstract, unfolding lines suggest that she has found peace in her old age. Perhaps she has achieved a higher sense of free-

dom and actualization.

Reigl’s Surrealist collages, however, leave much to be desired. They seem to lack the primal beauty of her other pieces, instead acting as diversions and cartoonish juxtapositions. Furthermore, her Untitled series resembled crude scribbles devoid of any kind of intent.

The significance of some of her more abstract pieces was not immediately apparent. What makes Reigl unique above all else is her awareness of her own freedoms — her self-actualization through evocative pieces of art that tap into her unconscious being. This brings light to the power that her style of expression can have on anyone willing to trust their instincts, to look inward and create.

Works by Judit Reigl. LEFT: “Mass Writing,” 1965. Oil on canvas. JRZA Trust, New York. CENTER: “Man,” 1966. Oil on canvas. Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 2009 (2009.146). RIGHT: “Mass Writing,” 1961. Oil on canvas. Collection of the artist.

Rick Yu

AMAM Highlights Disabled Artists in A Picture of Health Julia Peterson Production Editor Since mid-January, visitors to the Allen Memorial Art Museum who climb the stairs to the Ripin Gallery have been able to peruse the exhibit A Picture of Health: Art and the Mechanisms of Healing. The exhibit includes everything from paintings and sculptures to amulets and an interactive rotorelief, all of which depict or were intended to be involved with health and treatment.

Assistant Professor of Renaissance and Baroque Art History Christina Neilson, who co-curated the exhibition with State University of New York Buffalo’s Associate Professor Frances Gage, said that the exhibit is unique because it allows viewers to make crosscultural connections between diverse healing objects.

“It’s a different type of exhibition from a traditional or conventional exhibition in terms of the broad range of objects and the wide array of cultures that are represented, but also in terms of the approach,” she said. “We’re really interested not just in showing beautiful things, though there are some beautiful things in the exhibition. We’re interested in exploring the effect that these objects had on viewers

and that we can see interesting connections between cultures in terms of the way that these objects have the potential to heal.”

Amelia Kemler, OC ’15, one of the exhibit’s organizers, agreed.

“It was interesting to compare how different regions and cultures perceived the body and the practices used to either heal oneself or ward off potential hazards,” Kemler said in an email to the Review.

Although the title of the exhibit might suggest that stereotypical paintings of darkened operating theaters and other classic depictions of sickness would dominate the scene, the works presented tell a very different story. A Picture of Health is a testament to humanity’s shared experience of healing, and is imbued with a sense of constantly striving for “better,” however it may be defined.

“The intent of this exhibit is to present a complex picture of health,” Neilson said.

“What we’re not interested in is representations of the healing process. That’s something that’s been done many times.

[Instead], we approached this exhibition from the perspective of an artist’s take on the subject.”

The pieces included in the exhibit do not end with por-

trayals of physical, mental or spiritual health. Works like Burton Silverman’s 1956 painting “A Bus Stop in Montgom–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Although the title of the exhibit might suggest that stereotypical paintings of darkened operating theaters and other classic depictions of sickness would dominate the scene, the works presented tell a very different story.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ery,” which depicted a segregated bus stop during the Civil Rights movement and Sue Coe’s photo-etching of Irish Republic Army member Bobby Sands are intensely political.

Neilson said the exhibit defines health broadly.

“How this exhibition touches on social and political issues ... might be somewhat surprising for this topic,” she said. “In designing this exhibit, we were thinking about health very broadly — about physical and mental health, yes, but we’re also looking at social and political health.”

Neilson spoke on the diversity of viewpoints and tradi-

tions that visitors to the gallery experience with this exhibit. “[A Picture of Health] explores the healing power of art from a number of different perspectives, both cultural and also in terms of how art itself has been understood to heal,” she said. “It is quite widely known and acknowledged that art can heal, but we were interested in how this worked.”

The artists featured in A Picture of Health add to the diversity of perspectives highlighted in the exhibit. One section specifically presents work by disabled artists, though the exhibit itself is lodated in a gallery only accessible by stairs.

Most of the pieces are culled from the AMAM’s own collection, but there are also works on loan from Oberlin’s Clarence Ward Art Library and the Mudd library special collections, as well as from the Dittrick Museum of Medical History in Cleveland.

The exhibit is arranged such that the constrained space of the balcony-like Ripin Gallery becomes an advantage. Visitors who start at the designated beginning will walk from works focusing on the spiritual to works that depict more sociopolitical, psychological and anatomical portrayals of health. While it is clear that these are not hard-and-fast

categories and that there is significant interplay between all of the pieces, the fact that visitors must experience the art in a certain order adds to the cohesiveness of the exhibit.

College first-year Elizabeth Altier, who visited the exhibit, said the arrangement of the pieces worked. “I thought that –––––––––––––––––––––––––––

“What we’re not interested in is representations of the healing process. That’s something that’s been done many times. [Instead], we approached this exhibition from the perspective of an artist’s take on the subject.”

Christina Neilson Assistant Professor of Renaissance and Baroque Art History ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– the exhibit itself was organized very well, and that the spread of information and artifacts from all over and from different time periods was good.”

A Picture of Health challenges expectations and celebrates a diverse understanding of what it means to be well.

The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

Arts Events Coming This Semester

Arts

Page 13

Feature Photo: Goodnight, Tyler

New Season of Good Talk Oberlin’s late-night talk show, Good Talk, returns to the ’Sco this spring with new host and College junior Jesi Gaston. The inaugural episode, called “Introductions,” premieres Monday.

Transdudes the Musical College senior Tae Braun conceived and directed this musical, a comedy centered on the lives of young trans men. The musical premieres Feb. 19 at the Little Theater.

Golden Dragon Acrobats The renowned Chinese acrobatic touring company will perform at Finney Chapel February 25.

Sebadoh, Amanda X Indie rock pioneers Sebadoh will bring their signature, lo-fi sound to the ’Sco March 5.

Philadelphia, PA, post-punks Amanda X are set to provide support.

Brad Mehldau Trio A jazz pianist acclaimed for his grasp of complex melody and seamless integration of pop and rock songs into live performances, Mehldau will join bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard in Finney Chapel April 21.

An Evening with Gary Shteyngart, OC ’95 Searingly witty and always self-deprecating, the New Yorker contributor and author of Little Failure and Super Sad True Love Story will deliver a convocation in Finney Chapel March 31.

College senior Axandre Oge, who plays the title character in College senior B.J. Tindal’s play Goodnight, Tyler, rests on a couch. The play, performed Jan. 30 to Feb. 2, tells the story of a young Black man, Tyler Evans, who was murdered by a police officer. Tyler’s ghost haunts Davis, Tyler’s white best friend, as details of Tyler’s murder are revealed throughout the play and his friends and family grieve. Tindal created tension between how Tyler was perceived during his life and how he is remembered after death — a symbol of police brutality around which protestors rally. The nuanced relationships between characters provide social critique and highlight the complexity of identity politics. Though Tindal’s play dealt with emotional topics, Fannie, Tyler’s grandmother (College junior Amara Granderson), delivered quips that provided witty comic relief. The audience received the play well, giving a standing ovation on opening night.

Text by Louise Edwards, Arts editor Photo courtesy of Eric Steggall

Sports

Page 14

The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Softball

This week, the Review sat down with softball team junior captains Ariana Enzerink and Tori Poplaski, both new additions as of last year, to discuss adjusting to a new team, the importance of team chemistry and their goals for the season.

What has been your favorite part of softball at Oberlin so far?

Ariana Enzerink: I’ve been on the field hockey team also, so I just kind of joined the softball team on a whim because I like to be on a team and to compete and win. I think the best part has been the camaraderie of it. I love my teammates, and I love spending time with them, and it’s such a great group of girls and such a small group too — we’re all pretty close, we all talk, we eat meals together … It’s just really fun. It’s a good atmosphere.

Tori Poplaski: Last year was also my first year here [at Oberlin] because I’m a transfer student from University of Rochester. I think what makes this team so special is, like Ari said, we all get along, we’re really close, and because we’re so small, that’s so important. I mean, these girls are my best friends, and that’s not always something I’ve had on other teams in the past.

What drew you to the team?

AE: For me, I’ve been playing softball forever. I stopped for a little bit in high school because I was focusing on field hockey, but it’s just kind of part of what [I] do.

I was excited to get back, but it was nice to have a break. I think I got a little burned out. But I came here, and I’m used to being in season all the time — I was a threesport athlete in high school — and, coming to Oberlin, I came off of a great freshman season in field hockey, and then I was like, “What do I do in the spring?” It was such a good decision, and I’m so happy,

there was a lot of uncertainty. It’s just about making the most of the situation.

Junior softball captains Ariana Enzerink (left) and Tori Poplaski and so far this season has been really, really fun.

TP: Same with me. I was always a three-sport athlete in high school; it was always softball, all year, all the time. It’s a huge part of my life and who I am, and I couldn’t imagine a college career without it.

Are there any difficulties involved in adjusting to a new team?

AE: I think with anything you do where you’re committing a lot of time and people are very passionate about it, there are always going to be complications and difficulties, and I think that’s normal and we’ve been able to get through the adversity we’ve faced really effectively and really well. It’s not always easy, but that’s part of it and kind of what makes it exciting, fun and worthwhile.

TP: With everything you do in life there’s a challenge, and our team has always faced a lot of adversity — like, we’ve always had a smaller team than the other pro-

Debunking Superfood Isabel Hulkower Columinst Nutritional advice is a dime a dozen in our current landscape of dietary confusion.

Conflicting fads and misinformation urge consumers every which way, recommending everything from all-smoothie diets to paleostyle meat-centricity. However, many programs converge on a single topic: superfood.

Superfoods have become extremely popular in recent years, and their clout has inspired thousands of blog posts and product reconfigurations. Kale, wild salmon, açaí berries, avocados and green tea are a few notable superfoods that most people are familiar with. But what exactly is a superfood? Calling something a superfood implies that it is nutritionally dense, beneficial to health and presumably sparse in calories. Some claims go further, delving into their antioxidant properties, utility for weight loss and other health benefits such as preventing stroke and heart disease. In reality, there is no set definition for what a superfood is. While the term evokes vitality and wellness, there are no criteria to differentiate a superfood from

grams, so we have had to work harder in those respects and be there for the team and at [our] best all the time, because [as a teammate] you’re always carrying your own weight. But I think that with any challenge, it’s definitely worth it, and we come out of it as better people. I think in the past year our team has grown tremendously to overcome those challenges.

What are you excited about for this season?

AE: We have such a great group of girls this year. We’ve only had two practices, but they’re already the most fun I’ve had out of any practice. It feels really good, and we’re all meshing together and working well. I think we just have the right chemistry. We have a group of people where we’re all individuals, we all see things differently, but we do all have the same end goal. We may work a little bit differently to get there, but we all have the same understanding of where everyone comes from and

all the other garbage you love to eat.

This lack of criteria is not surprising, however, because the category “superfood” is not scientific whatsoever. Think of it as a designation rather than a genre of food and, perhaps even more precisely, think of it as a marketing technique. Critics and nutritionists have held that superfood is merely a buzzword, convincing buyers to believe something is nourishing and influencing them to purchase it despite their dubious knowledge of the product or its actual benefits. Many of these foods tend to be somewhat exotic and extremely pricey. Foods like goji berries, wheatgrass and quinoa are now widely available and popular for their vague promises of nutrition, despite their high prices.

Undeniably, we are living in the age of superfood. The presence of these nutritional powerhouses has completely saturated our culture; I even had the good fortune of

why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Getting along on and off the field really helps us work together as teammates.

TP: To that end, our freshmen really add more to the team this year. The other day at practice, our coach called us a “motley crew” — we all have different personalities, but we all love softball and we want to win. We want to make a statement about what it means to be Oberlin softball players and athletes. I actually think that [mentality] is spreading through the whole athletic program.

How’s the new coach?

TP: It’s definitely a transition.

She’s the third college coach I’ve had in three years, and it’s always a tough adjustment. It’s something we as teammates have to support each other through. It’s too early to tell how it’s going to go — we’ll see at the end of the season — but so far it’s helped bring us together as a team.

AE: Coaches for both of my teams changed this summer, so

and flow. We are currently as a stage in the cycle where consumers are looking for purer and more wholesome food and shifting away from the extremely processed, non-nutritious food that has dominated the market for years. This is a huge shift in the food industry as a whole; the cult of the superfood is just one of many symptoms. Of course, the ability to opt for these alternatives is extremely class-restricted, as this shift to more nourishing food is inaccessible to many consumers.

Clearly superfood is not all that it’s cracked up to be. Products that bear the buzzword have a sort of health halo around them, marketing them as little morsels of panacea. Of all of the dieting fads on the market, superfoods are certainly among the most benign. Eating a diet rich in these products will certainly not harm you, and will most likely be at least somewhat beneficial. There is no arguing about these foods’ nutritional value — they’re fruits and veg––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– etables, so of course they are full of vitamins.

The real trouble lies with the intersection of Products that bear the buzzword marketing and health. Consumers are easily have a sort of health halo around misled to spend their hard-earned money on them. overpriced foods that offer little to no added nutritional value compared to cheaper alter––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– natives. To balance these issues, it’s imperacoming upon the “superfood” section of the tive to eat wholesome food, but always be menu at The Cheesecake Factory during a re- wary of branding and focus on eating good cent visit. Their meteoric rise to prominence, vegetables rather than opting for a specific however, is not unheard of. Food trends ebb superfood.

Anything you’re working on with the team as captains in preseason?

AE: Definitely focus and intensity, and maintaining that throughout preseason and going into the season starting off strong.

We don’t want to get into a deficit and come back from that.

TP: What Coach did this year is call us her “leadership committee,” which all four of us [juniors] are, because we’re the upperclassmen and there are no seniors on the team this year. I think you have to take on a little bit of a different role; you can’t be the one to get upset, you have to be positive and really try to see both sides of the story when players get upset with the coach, or when coaches get upset with how practice is going. You have to be the impartial individual and take yourself out of [the conflict], which can be difficult, and you really try to be a role model on and off the field.

What are you looking to accomplish this season?

TP: Last year the goal was to make the conference tournament, but then the season got off to a bad start, and it just kind of spiraled down from there. I think our goal this season is obviously to do better than we did last year, but we shouldn’t be thinking too big picture too early. I think a really good goal for this team is to take one game at a time, one inning at a time, and just try to win every play, and just put in the most effort [we] can possibly give. And that will build on itself.

Interview by Sarena Malsin, Sports editor Photo by Ben Shepherd, Photo editor

Tennis Trumps Indiana Tech Continued from page 16 the walk and lead by example. We have young players that are doing things the right way already, but for the program to jump to the next level, our older players will need to set the bar higher, and the rest will follow.”

A tough test comes early for the Yeomen as they travel to Crawfordsville, IN, to take on their rivals the Wabash College Little Giants on Saturday. The Yeomen fell to the Little Giants by a score of 5–4 during last year’s regular season but bounced back in the conference tournament with a 5–3 win, as NCAC Tournament matches are played to decision.

“Wabash is always a tough match,” Ishida said. “We play at their home courts and they are coming off of a tough loss, so I expect we will see their best, and we will be ready.”

Sports

The Oberlin Review, February 5, 2016

Feature Photo: Men’s Basketball

Page 15

Yeowomen Hang Tough With Big Red Continued from page 16

First-year guard Eli Silverman-Lloyd tees up a three-pointer against the visiting Denison University Big Red. The Yeomen made an impressive second-half comeback following a 13-point deficit in their game on Wednesday night, but ultimately fell to the Big Red 69–65. The team came out of conference play over Winter Term with a balanced 6–6 record, with Wednesday’s game pushing them to 6–7. Their game this Saturday against Wittenberg University will give them another chance to balance the books, in addition to celebrating the team’s seniors. The match is also part of Go4theGoal’s Lace Up 4 Pediatric Cancer campaign, for which the Yeomen will both wear and sell gold shoelaces to contribute to awareness for the cause.

Photo by Briana Santiago

— Track and Field—

Track and Field Vaults Past Wooster Julie Schreiber Amid cheers from their enlivened teammates, the track and field team saw powerful performances on and off the track at The College of Wooster’s invitational on Saturday.

The Yeowomen’s 94 points earned them a third-place finish out of five schools, while the Yeomen finished fourth with 67 points. Field performances highlighted the day for both teams.

Sophomore jumper Annie Goodridge landed their triple jump at 36 feet and 8.5 inches. The jump was only 2.5 inches shy of breaking the Oberlin triple jump record, set at 36-11 by Shannon Houlihan nearly 15 years ago.

Head Track and Field Coach Ray Appenheimer lauded Goodridge’s progress, but said he was sure their best was yet to come.

“It’s been really exciting to watch Annie grow as a competitor and as a jumper,” Appenheimer said. “I’m confident that [they will] break the school record this season — as early as this Friday.”

Track and field meets can last for hours.

While many athletes from competing schools spent the day lounging at the team camp, eating bagels and doing homework, leaving only every once in a while to compete in their event, Oberlin’s team camp was a ghost town, as the Yeomen and Yeowomen remained in the center of the action to show their support.

Appenheimer said he valued the team’s cohesion as well as their competitive successes.

“I’m always proud of the individual performances, but what’s most gratifying is seeing the kids act as a community,” Appenheimer said. “I don’t have to constantly remind them to support each other. They want to do it on their own.”

With one month down, the team’s winter season is off to a great start. The team has earned personal bests and broken school records at nearly every meet.

Junior Ave Spencer and first-year Jahkeem Wheatley furthered the season’s success at Wooster. Spencer took home first place in the pole vault, pitching a height of 3.2 meters on her

first attempt, while Wheatley finished first on his third attempt at 3.95 meters.

Continuing Oberlin’s control of the field, sophomore Ana Richardson took home two second-place titles with a weight throw of 15.83 meters and a mark of 11.90 meters in the shot put.

Not to be outshone by their field counterparts, Oberlin’s runners lived up to their stellar reputations as well, with seniors Sarel Loewus and Sarah Trutner contributing two first-place finishes in the women’s mile at 5 minutes, 26.50 seconds and in the 800-meter dash at 2:32.87, respectively.

The Yeomen also cleaned up in the track events, with senior Sam Black’s 7.24-secondrace earning him second in the 60-meter dash, and senior Joshua Urso taking third place in the men’s mile, completing the distance in 4:33.08.

The indoor season always poses hurdles, as many student athletes use the six-week winter break to pursue outside academic projects, but the commencement of second semester has replenished the team’s roster.

“These kids want to be committed to the team, and they want to support each other, but they also have lots of other interests in their lives,” Appenheimer said. “We recruit kids who really belong at Oberlin, so we respect the other things they are passionate about.”

With many track and field athletes, including Oberlin heroes senior Geno Arthur and sophomore Monique Newton, back from Winter Term, the Yeomen and Yeowomen are anticipating many successes in the second half of the season.

“I think we’ll see a lot of season-best performances across the board,” sophomore Owen Mittenthal said.

The teams have already homed in on their targets for a strong season finish. “Wabash is definitely the team to beat for the men, and Ohio Wesleyan will be strong competition for the women,” Mittenthal said.

This weekend, Oberlin will hold its annual Crimson and Gold Invitational, hosting four schools from Pennsylvania: Edinboro University, Geneva College, Grove City College and Westminster College.

“But we are starting to come together now, and I’m really hopeful and confident that we will be back.”

Denison’s Jordan Holmes proved why she is in the running for NCAC Player of the year, scoring 12 points with 14 rebounds. Holmes, along with the rest of the dynamic Big Red offense, was challenging to defend against, but the Yeowomen were successful in keeping her under her season average of 15 points per game.

Although the Yeowomen kept Holmes and Denison’s other playmakers in check, the Big Red defense kept the entirety of the Oberlin offense below their season scoring average of 57 points per game as well.

Junior guard Briana Santiago explained that, although the team’s offense didn’t score as much as they hoped, there were bright spots throughout the game.

“I think we hit a lot of big shots,” Santiago said.

Eight different Yeowomen players scored, which Santiago mentioned was important for keeping Oberlin in the game. Denison nearly matched this number with seven different contributing players.

“When everyone is able to [score], we normally do well,” she said.

While the team hosted the conference tournament playoff game last year, the goals are even higher this season.

“Our goal for the season is to play in the final four of the conference tournament,” Bernhardt said.

The Yeowomen have lost four games in a row and will need to continue their strong efforts in their game next Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m. on the road against the Allegheny College Gators.

Allegheny is a competitive team that will be a tough test for Oberlin. The Gators defeated the Yeowomen 62–58 at Philips gym back on Jan. 23 in a nail-biting game, and are currently in fourth place — 10–9, 5–5 NCAC. Despite the recent consecutive conference losses, Jenkins said he believes that, although the team has made mistakes, it is within their control to fix them in the final stretch of the season.

Editorial: Endorsements Biased Continued from page 16 Slam titles of her own and 35 career titles. Why Sharapova garners nearly double the endorsements Williams gets and has been the highest-paid female athlete in the world for 11 consecutive years is as baffling as it is troubling.

Granted, marketability is by no means an adequate measure of the talent of a given athlete. For example, Kobe Bryant made over $26 million this past year from endorsements, despite playing the worst basketball of his career in recent seasons and being on the verge of retirement. Similarly, Tiger Woods received over $50 million in endorsements last year, despite being currently ranked the 436th best golfer in the world. However, despite their recent decline, both Bryant and Woods are largely considered to be the greatest athletes of all time in their respective sports, meaning their marketability has largely remained intact.

Michael Jordan’s subsidiary brand of Nike is a great example of sports icons remaining marketable long after their careers end.

However, Sharapova has never been considered to be an all-time great in women’s tennis, whereas Williams is largely considered the greatest of all time and is still far from retirement.

Considering that Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard was named the most marketable athlete in 2015 after winning only one title in the previous year, and considering her losing record in the months after, there seems to be a tragic pattern inherent in the women’s sports market. What do

Bouchard and Sharapova have in common? They’re both blond-haired, aesthetically pleasing Caucasian women in their twenties.

In 2015, Williams was the only woman of color ranked in the top 10 highest-paid female athletes in the world. While every single athlete in the top 10 is accomplished and decorated in her own right, at first glance it is apparent that many of these women have a market appeal that extends beyond their sports performance, which

–––––––––––––––––––––––– The disparity between the two is especially interesting because Williams’ professional career is unquestionably superior to Sharapova’s.

–––––––––––––––––––––––– is backwards. While it may not bother Williams much, the fact that some athletes will make more money than others based on physical appearance rather than skill is just plain wrong.

Inherent in men’s and women’s sports is the notion that certain body images will sell better than less conventional ones.

With regard to women’s tennis, this means that aesthetically pleasing Caucasian players will inevitably make more money off the court than their non-white counterparts, which is an outdated and biased mode of thought.

While racial barriers are being broken down every day by more and more athletes of color participating in what are predominately white sports (tennis and golf ), this represents only half the battle. The latter half must be addressed by the companies that endorse athletes.

Just because something will sell doesn’t necessarily mean it will sell for the right reasons.

Sports The Oberlin Review

Page 16

February 5, 2016

— Men’s Tennis —

Yeomen Serve Up Win in Spring Opener Jackie McDermott The men’s tennis squad opened its spring season this past Saturday with a hard-fought 6–3 win over the visiting Indiana Tech Warriors.

The Yeomen initially struggled to adjust to the Warriors’ powerful groundstrokes, as they dropped games early in all three doubles matches. The Warriors, who play in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, featured an array of talented international players.

The first- and second-flight doubles teams did not let their opponents’ talent distract them.

Senior Callan Louis and junior Abraham Davis were initially at a deadlock with Indiana Tech’s junior pair of Fernando Fernandez and Mikel Oscoz with 4–4, but the Oberlin duo eventually edged out an 8–5 victory.

Davis said that the pair, having played together for much of the 2013–2014 season, have developed a bond that allows them to deal with high-pressure situations.

“By the time it got to 4–4, Cal and I felt like we were going to pull it out,” Davis said. “We have had a lot of close matches together, and we have come out on top most of the time.”

The first-flight doubles pairing of junior captain Ian Paik and junior Jeremy Lichtmacher won a nail-biter of a game in a 9–8

tiebreaker on court one against sophomore Nicholas Aguirre and senior Joaquin Ferrando.

Finishing doubles play with a 2–1 lead, the Yeomen claimed the first singles victory of the day; Louis took the first singles point at the third-flight when his opponent retired due to injury.

Sophomore Michael Drougas then contributed a second-flight singles win. Drougas won a commanding first set 6–1 and continued to an early 5–2 lead in the second set, eventually defeating junior Fernando Sousa 6–4.

Paik was the next Yeoman off the court, trading impressive hard strokes with Indiana Tech’s talented big hitter Ferrando. However, his efforts fell short, as he ultimately lost 7–5, 7–5 in firstflight singles.

Davis then delivered another important win for the Yeomen.

His 6–4, 6–2 victory at fourthflight singles clenched the match, putting the Yeomen up 5–1.

The number three doubles pairing of junior Billy Lennon and senior Brandon McKenna were the lone duo to be defeated that afternoon. Lennon and McKenna started the match down 7–1 to Indiana Tech’s senior Rui Lima and junior Kino de Leon, but they fought back to win four more games before ultimately being defeated 8–3.

The Yeomen look poised to improve upon their 2014–2015 season, one of the best in re-

Randy Ollie Sports Editor

Junior Abe Davis lofts the ball up to serve to Fernando Sousa and Mikel Oscoz of Indiana Tech Saturday. Davis and his senior partner Callan Louis defeated their Indiana Tech opponents 8–5 in doubles action, and the duo each earned wins in singles play to contribute to the Yeomen’s 6–3 win in the afternoon.

Courtesy of OC Athletics

cent memory, when Oberlin finished fourth in the conference, achieved a regional ranking of 12 and finished the season with a 12–11 record.

Other accomplishments from that season include Head Coach Eric Ishida winning the North Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year award.

McKenna said that Ishida’s presence has not only improved the team’s record and standings, but also its chemistry.

“Simply put, Eric is the man,” he said. “He’s taken a program that was 0–22 a couple of years before his arrival to one that is competing for a national ranking.

[Ishida’s recruiting] has really resulted in a genuinely cohesive team dynamic — we hang out a lot, and are all pretty close off court, but still are always competing with one another.”

With an experienced group of upperclassmen leading the charge, supplemented by an impressive sophomore class, Ishida is confident that great things are in store for the program.

“With seven juniors and seniors, we finally have an older team, so this is not considered a ‘building year,’” Ishida said. “I ask the leaders of the team to walk See Tennis, page 14

— Women’s Basketball —

Oberlin Lose Heartbreaker to Denison Darren Zaslau Staff Writer The Denison University Big Red, North Coast Athletic Conference leaders, narrowly edged out the women’s basketball team 45–44 on Wednesday night in the Yeowomen’s first game of the spring semester.

With the loss, Oberlin now holds seventh place in the Conference, falling to a record of 10–11, 4–8

“Beauty” Over Backhand?

NCAC. The victorious Big Red stretched their winning streak to 11 games and advanced their record to 18–3, 11–1 NCAC. The game was a back-and-forth tilt, featuring an unusual nine lead changes. Oberlin held Denison to just six points in the first quarter, which proved to be the largest deficit either team bore for the duration of the match — Oberlin led 23–22 at the half.

Both the first half and final quarter of the game were marked by a steadfast defense and a struggling

Junior guard Bri Santiago dribbles at the top of the key against the visiting Denison University Big Red Wednesday. Santiago grabbed four rebounds and two steals in the contest, but the Yeowomen were defeated to the tune of 45–44. The Yeowomen are now 4–8 in the NCAC and 10–11 overall.

Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo editor

offense on both sides. While Denison’s offense failed to find a rhythm all night, they eventually cracked the stiff Yeowomen defense to retake the lead at the end of the third quarter 38–35.

Denison’s slim lead held for the majority of the fourth quarter. With just about 12 seconds to play, Denison led 45–44. Oberlin was unable to force a foul, as the Big Red passed the ball around the Yeowomen defense to wind down the remainder of the game clock on the final play of the game.

Head Coach Kerry Jenkins said he believes the Yeowomen could have capitalized on the close score at the end of the contest, but that offensive plans failed to come to fruition.

“There was a lack of execution,” he said.

Jenkins also cited technical confusion in the final quarter as responsible for breaking the team’s concentration.

“I think our players, anticipating that the referees were going to blow the whistle, kind of stood up, and then they didn’t blow the whistle,” Jenkins said. “From there, everybody just got a little bit disoriented.”

Offensively, Yeowomen senior guard Caroline Hamilton led the way with eight points and a teamhigh five assists. Sophomore guard Tyler Parlor chipped in four points and a team-high 12 rebounds.

Along with Parlor and Hamilton, senior guard Lindsey Bernhardt added six points. Despite the close loss, Bernhardt was pleased with the team’s performance, especially on defense. “We have been a little inconsistent in our defense,” Bernhardt said.

See Yeowomen, page 15

Last week, the tennis world was lucky enough to witness another highly anticipated matchup: the United States’ Serena Williams and Russia’s Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

The pair are undoubtedly the world’s most celebrated female tennis players both on and off the court, and fans witnessed the two stars face off in another competitive matchup.

Aside from the excitement and anticipation of the matchup and the Australian Open as a whole, debate over Sharapova’s ranking as the highest-endorsed female athlete in the world resurfaced for the first time since it began last fall.

Sharapova has a host of sponsors, including Nike, Porsche and Tag Heurer, whose 2015 endorsements totaled over $23 million last summer. In comparison, Serena Williams amassed an estimated $13 million in the same period, with Nike, Gatorade and Chase headlining her own collection of sponsorships.

The disparity between the two is especially interesting because Williams’ professional career is unquestionably superior to Sharapova’s. Williams’ career prize money is more than double that of Sharapova, which speaks to Williams’ dominance both in her rivalry with Sharapova and within women’s tennis as a whole. The duo have competed against one another 21 times, with Williams besting Sharapova in all but two outings. Furthermore, in her career, Williams ranks third of all time in Grand Slam titles with 21 and has 69 career titles to her name, while Sharapova has five Grand See Editorial, page 15