February 28, 2020

The Oberlin Review February 28, 2020

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 16

Administrators Address Potential Impact of COVID-19 Carson Li Staff Writer

A vacant lot on Elm Street. The College has completed demolitions of seven Village Housing Units since January after filing to do so in November.

Photo by Sophie Payne, Photo Editor

Community Responds to College’s Demolition of Village Housing Ella Moxley Senior Staff Writer Last month’s demolition of seven Village Houses has sparked conversation over whether the College should have been more intentional in consulting the surrounding community before making the decision to tear the houses down. The College currently has no plans to build on the vacant lots, and some residents are concerned about how the demolition could change the character of their neighborhoods.

Carrie Handy, director of planning and development for the City of Oberlin, says her office has received a few questions.

“Obviously, they’re concerned about what might go there in the future,” Handy said. “I guess maybe they thought, you know, ‘Is it going to be student housing? Is it going to be … just a single-family house?’ Those kinds of questions. They’re just not certain of what’s going to happen in the future.”

According to Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, it is primarily Facilities Operations’ job to communicate to the City about any demolition or construction through the permitting process.

She believes that it is up to the City, not the College, to communicate directly to residents. However, she does agree that the College must be cognizant of the way its actions affect residents.

“I think it’s really important for the College — as an institution — to be a good neighbor,” Raimondo said. “And because it does own properties that are in neighborhoods, that includes thinking about its presence in those neighborhoods. That principle, to me, should always guide — and I believe and hope always does guide — the work that we do that touches residential neighborhoods.”

Because the College is a nonprofit organization, it’s exempt from a majority of property taxes. While the College does not pay a property tax on its academic buildings, it does have to pay property taxes on Village Houses. With the demolitions, however, the College will pay less in property taxes for these lots, which will sharply decrease in value.

“They’ll still pay a little bit of property tax, but not to the extent that they were,” City Councilperson Kelley Singleton said. “So, of the houses that have come down, they were paying around $20,000 a year in property tax.

Now that money will go away: $10,000 of that will not go to the local schools, [and] $1,200 a year won’t go to the

library to help fund that. So it might not sound like a lot of money, but try going into the library and asking them for a check for $1,200 and see how far you get.”

This is not the first time in recent memory that questions have arisen regarding how the College should engage with its largely tax-exempt status. Back in 2015, students made an unsuccessful push for the College to contribute a payment to the City in lieu of property taxes, a fee that some nonprofits voluntarily agree to pay to offset their tax-exempt status (“Students Push for Agreement on College Taxes,” The Oberlin Review, Dec. 12, 2015).

Singleton suggested that a possible option for towngown collaboration on housing and property issues could be the Oberlin Community Land Trust, a new nonprofit that seeks to create affordable housing for low-income people, seniors, families, and first-time homeowners.

Krista Long, owner of Ben Franklin & MindFair Books, is the land trust’s president. She says that the College previously offered houses to the Oberlin CLT but that they were not the right fit for the organization at the time.

However, the Oberlin CLT was not consulted with regard to the seven properties that were recently demolished.

With the College looking to downsize its physical footprint after the release of the Academic and Administrative Program Review final report, Long had hoped that the administration would seek to work with local organizations to address this problem.

“What are they going to do with that property?”

Long said. “I would like to see them turn it over to an organization like ours so that we can get affordable housing on the street. Oberlin College probably has another plan.”

Singleton echoed Long’s feelings of uncertainty.

“When the College uses the word ‘community,’ they don’t mean Oberlin,” Singleton said. “They mean Oberlin College. I would like it to be a community, not just separate entities. … Let’s have One Oberlin, one where it’s all of us together trying to raise the ship together.”

Long says that her organization is open to collaboration with the College in the future but echoes Singleton in saying that communication can sometimes be a challenge.

“It’s a chronic problem and a chronic two-way problem,” Long said. “When you have an institution like Oberlin that is such a large part of the community — a large property owner, a large employer, a large consumer of utilities — all of those things affect the way the City makes decisions. While there has been some improvement in that, I think it’s a struggle.”

As the newest iteration of coronavirus, known as COVID-19, continues to spread around the world, Oberlin — like other colleges and universities across the country — is preparing to address challenges that the virus may inflict on campus life.

Administrators are taking steps to support current and prospective international students impacted by the viral outbreak, as well as to anticipate the potential financial impact of COVID-19 on Oberlin.

According to President Carmen Twillie Ambar, some of the potential financial difficulties could stem from foregone tuition from students who would not be able to come to campus in the fall, should international travel restrictions remain in place until that time.

“Most colleges and universities in the U.S. are facing impacts from what is now being called COVID-19,” President Ambar wrote in an email to the Review. “At Oberlin, students from China represent about 12 percent of our student net revenue. If, for whatever reason, those students suddenly could not attend Oberlin, we could lose a significant portion of our student net revenue, which is about $84 million [total].”

According to notes circulated to the student body by Student Senate on Feb. 22, President Ambar stated during the Feb. 19 General Faculty meeting that COVID-19 has the potential to have a $10 million dollar impact on Oberlin’s bottom line.

When reached for comment, President Ambar could not confirm the amount, but did say that COVID-19 has the potential to impact the institution financially through a variety of different levers, including foregone tuition and room and board.

The first detected case of COVID-19 surfaced in Wuhan, China in December 2019. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the infectious disease has since spread to 37 locations internationally.

According to Vice President and Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Manuel Carballo, Chinese students made up 20 percent of Oberlin’s international applicants this year. As students are not required to let the College know their decision until May 1, it is still too early to say how COVID-19 may affect incoming enrollment and yield numbers.

“A lot can happen between now and at the end of August when students [arrive],” Carballo said.

“But, before then, it’s going to be things like: Will the embassies be open students be able to get visas? Will the airlines resume travel?”

Carballo maintains that COVID-19 will not affect admissions decisions for the incoming class — Admissions is currently finalizing regulardecision acceptances, and most of the letters will be mailed out by late March.

“We are also reaching out to current applicants to reassure them that their applications are being reviewed as they have been in the past and that we don’t foresee changes in our decision-making process,” Carballo said.

See COVID-19, page 3

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 Rapid Response Team Debuts at UAW-Related Protests

05 Pro-UAW Activism Shows the Best of Obies

08–09 Get Involved With Local Nonprofits

16 Football Welcomes New Head Coach

facebook.com/oberlinreview

03 Office of Undergraduate Research Provides Unique Opportunities for Students

07Join OCSA in Coronavirus Support

10 Fashion Show “Look Black At It” Celebrates 50 Years of Africana Studies

16 Oberlin Should Support Women’s and Men’s Athletics Equally

INSTAGRAM @ocreview

The Oberlin Review | February 28, 2020

11 “Bridging the Gap” Encouraged Dialogue Across Campuses

oberlinreview.org TWITTER @oberlinreview

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Ne w s

Rapid Response Team Debuts at UAW-Related Protests

Student Life employees Thom Julian and Josh Whitson engage with student activism via their work on the newly-formed Rapid Response Team.

Photo by Sophie Payne, Photo Editor

Alexa Stevens Production Editor President Carmen Twillie Ambar’s Feb. 18 announcement that the College is formally considering outsourcing 108 dining and custodial jobs currently held by United Automobile Worker union members incited a campus-wide conversation and student-led protests and demonstrations. As activism in support of UAW continues, the College is in the midst of considering how best to approach its relationship with student activists.

One approach taken by the Division of Student Life is to assemble a Rapid Response Team, meant to engage with student activism on campus in a constructive way. The team intends to inform students about different demonstration policies — such as maximum occupancy requirements — and employ de-escalation techniques in select situations, among serving other roles.

“In the Division of Student Life, what we’ve come to realize is that although Oberlin students have this [activist] reputation that we’re very proud of, the division itself doesn’t really have any protocols or processes in place regarding student activism,” said Josh Whitson, assistant dean of students and director of the International Student Resource Center, who is one of the team’s co-chairs.

Administrators maintain the team was not created in anticipation of student activism surrounding the outsourcing announcement, but rather was formed in response to student activism in general.

“It was put together in response to some of the challenges around student protest and

demonstration in the past,” Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo said. “I’m thinking about the events at Gibson’s; I’m also thinking about some of the protests that occurred around the ABUSUA demands. … We wanted [to get] something up and running this semester, I think with the knowledge that spring is a time when typically there’s something that’s going on.

But [creating the team] was not specifically driven by the outsourcing announcement.”

Team members also hope to provide a platform for students to engage in conversation with a staff member rather than a local authority.

“The purpose is really of the team to support students in their right to express their … freedom of speech, to make sure that students are aware of campus policies, and to support that process from a neutral perspective,” said Thom Julian, assistant dean of students and director of student conduct and community standards, who is the team’s other co-chair. “The members of this team are not supposed to have an opinion, necessarily, when they’re assisting and supporting students when it comes to whether they agree or disagree with the message of the student activists; it’s really just to support the students as students.”

Conversations about safety codes can occur either before or during protests. Whitson explained that, depending on circumstance, the team might reach out to various organizations beforehand.

“If we know who the organizers are, if something is organized in advance [and] it’s well-publicized, it’s easy to meet with the organizers in advance and just discuss some of those things,” Whitson said.

Alternatively, organizers can request to meet

with the team. According to Julian, the organizers of last week’s protest met with the Rapid Response Team prior to the demonstration.

“I just want to compliment the organizers for that,” Julian said. “They were extremely receptive; they spoke with our group prior to the protest and just asked if there’s anything they needed to emphasize. We just discussed ‘please don’t block the classrooms’ … [and] they relayed that message throughout the entire time. They were very responsive and responsible, so that’s kind of the ideal relationship that the Rapid Response Team and organizers would have.”

However, College fourth-year and student organizer Riley Calcagno, who has handled much of the organizers’ outreach to local press, feels that the Rapid Response Team did not communicate their role as well as they could have.

“We were aware of Thom [Julian] and Josh [Whitson]’s presence,” he wrote in a statement to the Review. “We were not made aware of their roles as leaders of this team. We were also not aware of the Rapid Response Team and until the College releases more info on this team, we are unable to comment on its efficacy.”

While the team does not have the authority to intervene in a capacity similar to that of Campus Safety, the Division of Student Life believes it will be instrumental in helping de-escalate challenging situations.

To help the team carry out the protocols, Whitson and Julian led the training of its members, which supplemented other divisional meetings and trainings, according to Raimondo.

“We did two sessions, one that was really focused on the potential educational outcomes for students participating in activism and what, as student life professionals, we can do to foster those positive outcomes,” Raimondo said.

In the second session, staff reviewed case studies detailing protests that have occurred on other campuses. They focused on administrators’ responses and the effectiveness of these responses to determine what could be made part of the team’s functions.

Raimondo emphasizes the importance of meaningful student-staff relationships in promoting effective student activism.

“Working with student activists is a major responsibility of folks in student affairs,” she said.

“I’ve never seen it as a passive relationship, but as a place where important co-curricular learning takes place.”

Student activism around the outsourcing decision continued earlier this morning with an 8:15 a.m. demonstration in Wilder Hall, ahead of the first official meeting between union leadership and senior College administrators regarding next steps.

Ginko Gallery and Studio Owner Reports Break-In of Store

Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief

Ginko Gallery, a downtown business known for its art supplies and its resident kittens, suffered a break-in robbery earlier this week. Oberlin Police Department officers were called shortly after 9:00 a.m. last Friday, Feb. 21 in response to a broken window at the gallery, which is located at 19 South Main Street.

According to Liz Burgess, OC ’73 and gallery

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owner, nobody was harmed in the break-in. However, store merchandise was damaged when the front window was broken, and the front register’s cash tray was taken, according to the police report.

Burgess said that she has received support from Oberlin community members following the break-in.

“I am just relieved that no one was hurt and only a few pieces of artwork were damaged,” she wrote in an email to the Review. “Oberlin has crime and vandalism like any town, but we also have a caring and concerned community. I am grateful for all the encouragement and support we are receiving.”

Editors-in-Chief

Nathan Carpenter Katherine MacPhail Managing Editor Ananya Gupta News Editors Anisa Curry Vietze Katie Lucey Opinions Editor Jackie Brant This Week Editor Lily Jones Arts Editors Aly Fogel Jaimie Yue Sports Editor Khalid McCalla Cont. Sports Editors Jane Agler Zoë Martin del Campo Photo Editors Mallika Pandey Sophie Payne Senior Staff Writers Ella Moxley Alica Koeninger

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Ads Manager Web Manager Production Manager Production Staff

Burgess added that the cost to her as store owner will ultimately be greater than the cost of broken merchandise and stolen cash.

“Although I don’t own the building, I am responsible for the plate glass windows,” she wrote.

“As a small independent retail business owner, the cost of repairing the window (and sadly, installing a security system) will be a greater financial burden than any cash the burglar took.”

According to Ginko’s Facebook page, in an effort to move on from the robbery, everything in the store will be 10 percent off between now and March 8.

Kushagra Kar Parker Shatkin Nico Vickers Jabree Hason Sheng Kao Devyn Malouf Drew Dansby Gigi Ewing Olive Hwang Kushagra Kar Arman Luczkow Allison Schmitt Alexa Stevens Nico Vickers

Corrections:

To submit a correction, email managingeditor@ oberlinreview.org.

Office of Undergraduate Research Provides Unique Opportunities for Students

Students in a lab in the Science Center. The Office of Undergraduate Research supports students who hope to pursue faculty-guided research.

Photo by Sofia Herron Geller

Ella Moxley Senior Staff Writer The cornerstone of many students’ undergraduate careers is the opportunity to pursue independent research while guided by faculty members who are experts in their fields. The Office of Undergraduate Research offers a variety of programs and events that support faculty-assisted student research, and is currently accepting abstracts through March 8 for the Undergraduate Research Symposium, which will take place May 1–2.

Associate Professor of Neuroscience Leslie Kwakye, OC ’06, took over the office as its new director last June.

In addition to supporting overall undergraduate research, Kwakye works to ensure equitable access to research opportunities for students whose backgrounds are historically underrepresented in academia.

“The thing that really sets schools like Oberlin apart is the fact that undergraduates cannot just get involved in research, but can get involved on a project and be the main person on the project,” Kwakye said. “They can take ownership of the project.”

One of OUR’s notable programs is the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, a two-year program in the social sciences and humanities that prepares

traditionally-underrepresented students for Ph.D. work after Oberlin. Assistant Professor of History and Comparative American Students Tamika Nunley is the program’s faculty coordinator.

“The Mellon Mays program is part of the Mellon Foundation that supports students who are interested in venturing into those careers, in getting the professional development resources that they need to navigate that career, because it’s really challenging being someone who is underrepresented in institutions of higher education,” Nunley said.

Nunley believes that OUR’s mission is critical to the success of undergraduate research at Oberlin.

“I think that undergraduates at Oberlin are always going to do research just because that’s how they are wired,” Nunley said. “I think that we can provide support and assistance for those goals in ways that are more effective if there is a hub that they can go to get the resources they need, and faculty mentors, and financial and summer resources — also equipment resources, and just having a space where they can be around other like-minded undergraduates who are interested in doing research.”

OUR also sponsors the Science and Technology Research Opportunities for a New Generation program. STRONG is a summer program for incoming first-years that helps them establish relationships

with mentors, build community, and gain research experience before they start at Oberlin. This year, OUR is working to expand STRONG through additional programs, a larger cohort, and a residential experience called Roots in STEM. College second-year Natalie Soord participated in STRONG and worked in a geology lab before starting her first semester. Soord felt that the program not only gave her research experience, but also helped her form a community with her cohort before starting the academic year.

“It was nice to have a group of support,” Soord said. “You also live in the same hall as your cohort the first year as part of the contract. So we were all neighbors, and a lot of us took the same STEM classes, so we would all support each other.”

A key part of STRONG is connecting students to mentors. OUR works with both students and faculty to develop mentoring skills to support underrepresented students participating in STEM fields.

“Early research for the students is really important,’’ Kwakye said. “It contributes really strongly to a student’s future success in STEM or future persistence in STEM. And the early connection to a mentor or establishing a mentoring relationship early in a student’s time at an institution is especially important for keeping students in STEM.” OUR also has two other cohort-based programs, one of which is the Oberlin College Research Fellowship. OCRF supports students and their mentors as they conduct research over two summers.

Kwakye encourages students to pursue their own research in the areas that they are interested in. The best place to start is a conversation with their faculty advisor, who can guide students toward meaningful research opportunities. OUR can also support students in finding and building a relationship with mentors.

COVID-19 May Affect Revenue, Enrollment Continued from page 1

In looking toward next spring’s recruiting cycle, Admissions is facing interruptions to its overall strategy because of concerns over the worldwide outbreak.

For example, Admissions has fewer opportunities to connect with prospective students in China through inperson events this year, potentially affecting application numbers. The College cancelled a March recruitment trip to China due to travel restrictions.

To mitigate the potential impact of these cancellations, Senior Assistant Director of Admissions Sophie MettlerGrove — who leads international admissions — already reached out to Chinese schools that send a high number of students to Oberlin. She will host multiple virtual “campus visits” via webinars over the next few weeks.

Admissions’ decision-making process must work within a broader context of national policy designed to minimize the risk of a possible coronavirus outbreak in the United States. President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order on Jan. 31 that bans all foreigners who have been in China for at least two weeks since the outbreak from entering the U.S. This means that students may have to go to another country that will allow them to stay there for two weeks before they come to Oberlin.

In addition to navigating possible challenges regarding recruiting and retention, the administration is working to support current students impacted by COVID-19.

One of the most urgent concerns for the administration is accommodating students and graduating seniors whose parents are in China. The uncertainty of when the travel ban will be lifted affects whether families will be able to travel to campus for Commencement, or whether students will be able to return home for the summer as planned.

The Oberlin Review | February 28, 2020

“While our initial messaging/support for students and the wider Oberlin community centered around everyone’s return to campus and the start of the semester, we are now looking forward and beginning the planning process for the concerns like commencement, summer, and fall,” wrote Josh Whitson, assistant dean of students and director of the International Resource Center, in an email to the Review.

According to Whitson, more information will become available to campus stakeholders over the next few weeks as more clarity emerges over the number of students affected by the virus. Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo said the College is in the process of putting together larger protocols to support students.

“We’re prepared to provide housing to [impacted] students and certainly could assist with them identifying work opportunities on campus,” Raimondo said of students potentially forced to stay on campus through the summer.

“My hope would be that any student who [remains] in Oberlin could have a great summer experience doing something that feels meaningful in terms of their goals.”

Besides COVID-19, international students face other concerns studying in the U.S. Some feel that the Trump administration’s attitude on national immigration and travel policies makes the U.S. a less welcoming place for international students.

Carballo is empathetic toward students affected by any of these concerns.

“I think this is just a reminder [that] there’s a lot of families and a lot of students who are going through some really hard times,” Carballo said. “So my thoughts are with all those families dealing with all these challenges, and the best we can do is to figure out how we can be flexible to make sure that this doesn’t affect them as they’re looking for where they want to be.”

Security Notebook Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020 7:25 p.m. Campus Safety officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at Asia House. Smoke from burnt cheese had activated the alarm. The area was cleared, and the alarm was reset.

Friday, Feb. 21, 2020 7:02 a.m. A Campus Dining supervisor reported damage to the refrigerator in the McGregor Skybar. It is unknown whether anything was taken. The incident is under investigation.

11:19 a.m. An officer, while taking a report at South Hall, observed graffiti written in blue marker on the walls of the elevator. Custodial staff also reported graffiti on a second-floor door that leads to the roof. A work order was filed for removal.

Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020 3:15 p.m. A student reported the theft of their wallet from their jacket pocket while attending a party on South Professor Street. The student received a notice that three attempts to use the debit card were made. The student filed a report at the Oberlin Police Department.

Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020 12:23 a.m. An officer locking doors to the Conservatory discovered that an unknown person(s) ransacked the McGregor Skybar. Numerous condiments and hot chocolate packets were scattered on the floor, carpet, and stairs. The incident is under investigation.

1:30 a.m. A student reported a bat in their room at a North Main Street Village Housing Unit. A maintenance technician responded. The bat was removed.

1:36 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student, ill from alcohol consumption, on the first floor of Langston Hall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

8:22 p.m. A resident of the Firelands Apartments reported a strong fishy odor in the lobby of the building. Officers responded and confirmed the odor. Upon checking further, officers located what appeared to be a blood-like substance in the elevator. The area was professionally cleaned.

Monday, Feb. 24, 2020 5:58 a.m. A resident of Langston Hall reported their cat missing from their room. Officers responded and checked the building. The cat was located on the third floor and returned to the owner.

4:20 p.m. Officers were requested at South Hall regarding a Life Safety violation. A black skull bong, a blue glass smoking pipe, a wood smoking pipe, and a pill bottle containing a substance consistent with marijuana were found in the room. Items were turned over to the Oberlin Police Department for disposal.

4:28 p.m. Officers were requested to assist with a Life Safety inspection at Fairchild House. Three knives, a sheath, and a leather strap were located. The items were confiscated and have been placed in the Campus Safety property room until the end of the school year.

Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020 7:26 a.m. Custodial staff reported graffiti on a vending machine in the Conservatory. The non-offensive graffiti was written in blue marker. A work order was filed by custodial staff for removal.

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Ne New wss OFF THE CUFF

Aaron Zitner, OC ’84, News Editor, The Wall Street Journal

Aaron Zitner Photo courtesy of Aaron Zitner

Aaron Zitner, OC ’84, is a news editor at the Wall Street Journal whose work focuses on using data to tell stories about politics and trends in America. He uses mediums such as video and interactive graphics to translate quantitative data into engaging and accessible stories. While at Oberlin, Zitner was News Editor of the Review and majored in English. Zitner is visiting campus as part of A Disrupted Media Landscape: Skills, Perspectives, Solutions, a journalism and media symposium cohosted by the Review and The Grape. On Saturday, Feb. 29 at 11 a.m. in Mudd Center 113, Zitner and Rani Molla, OC ’08, data reporter for Vox and Recode, will lead a data journalism workshop. Participants will get a look behind the scenes of how journalists like Zitner and Molla use data and visuals to craft compelling stories.

Visit disruptedmedia2020.com for more information on the symposium.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Anisa Curry Vietze News Editor Can you talk about the work that you do right now at the Wall Street Journal?

I have a really great, privileged job. I do two main things. I work on the Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll, which is one of the gold standard political polls in this country; it’s gone on for 30 years, so we have 30 years of data about politics, but also about the country and how it’s changed. Everything from family structure and parenthood, to “Do you have a tattoo?

Do you know anyone who’s had a tattoo?

What values are important to you? Is having kids important to you? Is making money important to you? Is patriotism?

Is religion?” So we have this great dataset about America. And on top of it, we have topical questions about Bernie Sanders versus Joe Biden. But if you go back, it’s John Kerry versus Howard Dean versus Wesley Clark. And you can go back in the archives and history kind of pops out from these poll questions. I try to also go back and find deeper insights about America from the poll.

Wow, that’s so cool. When you were talking about polls earlier I assumed it was just political polling.

We used to treat it entirely as political — but hopefully we can bring some depth to it. We just hit our 30-year anniversary so I did one project that covered the 30year period that said, “Here are the main themes of the last 30 years as found in the poll numbers.” One [theme] is an America that becomes more comfortable with diversity, with changing social roles, with changing gender roles, with gay marriage, with women in the workplace. But the second story is of an America becoming more polarized. And these two stories are intertwined because the diversity I think is driving some of the polarization.

I think after the 2016 election, so many people were so blindsided by the results, that I think there’s some hesitancy around the validity of polling. I wonder how you would respond to that.

I find this very interesting because there’s 2016 and what happened, and now polling has changed. So for 2016 I have two answers: I have the defensive answer, and then I have the less defensive answer. The defensive answer is we didn’t get it wrong.

At the end we said that Hillary [Clinton] was going to win by about four, which is also what The Washington Post poll said and the Fox poll might’ve also said that — that kind of was a convergence of Hillary up by four and she won by a little more than two so that’s within the margin of error.

If anyone got it wrong — and this is still the defensive answer — it was the state polls and they probably got it wrong for two reasons. One, they were not weighing their samples for education, so they weren’t finding the right balance of college and non-college. They were undersampling people who don’t have college degrees.

And they were undersampling Trump voters. Two, there were a lot of people who were negative to both candidates.

They didn’t like Hillary, and they didn’t like Trump, and a lot of them broke at the last minute, and they went for Trump.

So if you weren’t polling right at the end, you weren’t going to catch that shift. So that’s the defensive answer. The defensive answer is, “Nothing’s broken, we’re fine, we called the election at four points and it ended up being two.”

The more honest answer I would say is: That’s still all true. But we didn’t tell the right story. The numbers were right, but the story was wrong. We had Hillary Clinton up by like 10 points at some [times] in the year — and maybe she was up by 10 points — but we had the numbers in front of us, and I think we didn’t have the imagination to use the numbers to their best advantage. We were very focused on the push and pull around Trump. We were very focused on the fact that for everything he did that brought a voter into him, he was alienating another voter and

we should have paid more attention to the mixed feelings around Hillary Clinton.

The other thing that’s interesting now though is the kind of polling that we do, — telephone polling with live interviewers — has gotten very expensive. It’s gotten expensive because response rates have dropped and I mean, look, I don’t call anybody on the phone, I text them first and say, “Is it okay that, you know, do you want to talk?” And people tend not to pick up numbers they don’t recognize. It’s hard to get through to people on the phone.

So you majored in English and you worked at the Review. Did you know that you were so interested in telling stories through this very technical medium?

None of what I do now was in my mind.

I was pre-med, and then I realized I didn’t want to do that. I thought being a doctor would be a way to see the world and travel around. And in the end, I think I pictured myself being in a hospital or a doctor’s office all the time and I wanted to be out there — and journalism gets you out there.

When you have your notebook, you can go and ask people questions and you can go to places that you’re not so comfortable going to.

By my third job I was working in New Hampshire. I sat in on a murder trial of a kid my age, you know, he must’ve been 23.

He was developmentally delayed in some way, but he had been in jail for a long time.

[He was on] trial for murder, and I would go to the trial every day. I would see him and his lawyers wouldn’t let him talk to me.

He was acquitted and I followed him when he left the courthouse. He went to an apartment nearby where his father was and finally I got to talk to him. It was just amazing to talk to this guy after seeing him in court. He had been in jail for a number of years awaiting trial and he was just acquitted. He wanted to go back to the place where he worked — he worked at like in a municipal garage — and I offered him a ride. And then I was driving this kid who was my age and had just been acquitted of murder. I would have a lot of experiences like that. Journalism is a great way to have contact with things I couldn’t otherwise have contact with.

For people who can’t make it to your talk Friday or Saturday, what do you hope to cover?

I have two main things that I hope to tell people. The first: The conundrum of journalism is just when the finances get hard. Local journalism is dying; people aren’t paying for it. Fastball journalism in the age of Trump is doing well. But just when journalism has this financial challenge, at the same time, there’s this explosion of storytelling techniques and creativity. I mean, we all see the podcasts and visual journalism and data journalism and new templates. There’ve been more new ways to tell stories, delivered to your

cell phone, delivered to your smart speaker, than ever. I mean we were very, very textbased until just a few years ago and now we can combine video, graphics, photo into a package to bring people to a place and get them to understand something better than ever. And it’s really exciting. So one thing to convey is that this set of digital storytelling tools, audio, video, graphics is really great and this has made journalism very exciting.

The other thing is that I want to be sure people know how much newsrooms have changed and how much job functions have changed. And I mean in just the last few years. One thing that I’ll point out is in the 2016 election in the Washington Bureau, we had one person doing graphics, we had one person doing video, and then we had like a junior video person. There was more of that staff up in New York, but that’s what we had right around us. Today, for this election, we have five people to do graphics instead of one. We have three people who have a job function that didn’t exist, which is data reporter. We have a census expert, we have a guide to political data, and we have someone who does all kinds of data stuff. Those people, those job functions weren’t there a few years ago.

And we have me and a partner working on demographic and polling data. Beyond that, we’re really not just a journalism company; we’re a technology company that does journalism. We have teams that didn’t exist just a few years ago. Anytime you see a cool visual of any kind where the stuff is moving on the screen, someone had to code. We have people who are trying to take the best story formats and turn them into templates so that me, who is unskilled, at my desk can do that cool thing with point and click or drag and drop.

We don’t want to have to have someone spend three weeks building a cool thing every time. So we have tools and templates teams, we have a lot of people doing just engineering of the website. We have a podcast. We have a much more robust video team that’s doing everything from Twitter videos to news and explainers of the moment, all the way up to stuff that we’re trying to feature kind of documentaries. We have [Search Engine Optimization] people who just try to maximize our impact. We can monitor minute to minute how much something’s being read. But now we have a lot of people who are really working with the data to try to figure out how to serve the right story to the right person at the right time and to segment our readership because not everybody might want the same right story at the right time. So it still is all about the story. It’s still all about developing sources, breaking news. Nothing is more important than getting a scoop, but there are just a lot of different positions someone can play in a newsroom now that didn’t exist just a couple of years ago. And I want to convey that to anyone who’s interested in going into journalism.

Ohio Legislative Update Anti-Trans Athletes Bill Proposed Ohio state representatives Jena Powell (R– Arcanum) and Reggie Stoltzfus (R–Paris Township) introduced the Save Women’s Sports Act on Tuesday. The proposed act would require the Ohio High School Athletic Association to ban transgender athletes from girls’ high school sports. OHSAA currently requires transgender high school athletes to prove that they have been on hormonal therapy for at least one year prior to sport participation.

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Controversial Gun Law The Ohio Supreme Court discussed a case in oral arguments Tuesday regarding Ohio residents’ right to carry an unloaded gun while intoxicated in their own home. Frederick Weber, a resident of Felicity in Clermont County, brought the case to court following a 2018 incident during which Weber was convicted of a first-degree misdemeanor and given probation after his wife reported that Weber was drunk and carrying a firearm. Authorities found that Weber’s gun was unloaded and Weber’s attorney has since argued that his actions were within his constitutional rights.

HB 518 Ohio state representatives Kristin Boggs (D–Columbus) and Allison Russo (D–Upper Arlington) introduced House Bill 518 last Friday.

The bill is meant to prevent caps on jury-awarded compensation for victims of rape and sexual assault.

The bill comes after a 2005 torts law reduced Jessica Simkins’ $3.6 million compensation to $500,000.

Simkins sued her church after experiencing sexual abuse committed by her pastor.

OPINIONS February 28, 2020

Established 1874

lEttErS tO thE EdItOrS

An Open Letter to Students

It’s with sincere and profound sorrow that I want you to know that the Susan Phillips Social Justice Scholarship Fund spring interviews have been suspended indefinitely.

I know that this will disappoint the students who have benefited from stipends each summer for the past four years, and will deprive others of important internship opportunities in the future.

I have looked forward tremendously to coming to campus in the spring to listen to your creative project proposals and again in the fall to hear about your actual experiences. You have restored my faith in the future during these bleak, divisive times for America — more than I can ever express.

Therefore, the decision I’ve made to suspend the program this year as well as to reconsider the continuation of the program in future years has not been an easy one.

As you well know, the Oberlin administration has announced that it is seriously considering laying off 108 United Automobile Workers-represented custodial and food service workers and outsourcing those positions. As a lifelong union activist, I can’t in good conscience fund a social justice program when Oberlin’s administrators are contemplating going down the road of union busting. The outsourcing proposal runs completely counter to Oberlin’s long history of promoting social justice. Consequently, if Oberlin succeeds in busting UAW Local 2192, the scholarship fund will be terminated permanently.

I fully understand the need to cut expenses to ensure Oberlin’s long-term survival. But targeting members of the union that has represented Oberlin’s service workers for two-and-a-half decades is callous, shortsighted, and of questionable benefit. Oberlin has renewed contracts with the UAW for eight consecutive three-year contract cycles.

Why now is a union workforce with decent wages suddenly not acceptable?

The College administration claimed that Oberlin’s support staffs’ wages are far higher than comparable positions in the area.

This statement overlooks the value of the cooperative history of labor relations that has existed between the UAW and Oberlin since the 1990s. Outsourcing these jobs not only would devastate the lives and futures of those laid off but also would undermine Lorain County’s economy by creating throwaway jobs with substandard pay. Even a single person can’t live comfortably on the $9–13

per-hour rate subcontractors typically pay for custodial and foodservice employment — much less support a family.

The so-called “shared sacrifice” is not being evenly felt across the board.

Even if top-salaried employees, including professors, have taken wage freezes and benefit reductions, they start at a much higher level and the economic squeeze is likely felt minimally by those who do keep their jobs, if at all. Living in a small town like Oberlin is more than affordable for people who have six-figure salaries.

Oberlin needs to take a hard look at its values and history and realize that financial decisions are not just about the bottom line. The College’s administration needs to embrace leadership, community, and decency as it considers cost-cutting options. Workers should never be considered expendable.

I love Oberlin and continue to try to find ways to be involved with Oberlin students. But union busting, added to the Gibson’s fiasco, will serve only to strike another deeply damaging blow to Oberlin’s reputation and future. There are other ways to cut $2 million from the long-term annual budget. I know that many hours have been spent on ideas and discussions to ensure that Oberlin will be robust and financially secure for generations to come. I respectfully urge President Carmen Twillie Ambar and her administration to take union busting off the table and explore other solutions.

– Susan L. Phillips, OC ’76

Students Call for Open Dialogue Regarding UAW As students of the Oberlin community, we are writing to call on our fellow students and faculty members in an appeal to President Carmen Twillie Ambar. It is time to launch an open dialogue with the entire Oberlin community to discuss and explore creative ways to retain individuals who have made invaluable contributions to our college lives.

As a result of recent administrative decisions, 108 United Automobile Workers Local 2192 — members of the Oberlin community — stand to lose their jobs. Those who do find jobs with outside contractors will face pay cuts, benefits losses, and degraded working conditions. Unions are critical to upholding living wage jobs and securing rights in the workplace. Replacing union workers with outside contractors in order to cut costs is union See Letters, page 6

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and op-ed submissions. All submissions are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. All submissions must be received by Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at opinions@oberlinreview.org or Wilder Box 90 for inclusion in that week’s issue. Letters may not exceed 600 words and op-eds may not exceed 800 words, except with consent of the Editorial Board. All submissions must include contact information, with full names and any relevant titles, for all signers. All writers must individually confirm authorship on electronic submissions. The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity, length, grammar, accuracy, strength of argument and in consultation with Review style. Editors will work with contributors to edit pieces and will clear major edits with the authors prior to publication. Editors will contact authors of letters to the editors in the event of edits for anything other than style and grammar. Headlines are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. Opinions expressed in editorials, letters, op-eds, columns, cartoons or other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Review. The Review will not print advertisements on its Opinions pages. The Review defines an advertisement as any submission that has the main intent of bringing direct monetary gain to a contributor.

The Oberlin Review | February 28, 2020

Volume 149, Number 16

EdItOrIal BOard EdItOrS-IN-ChIEf

Nathan Carpenter

Katherine MacPhail

MaNagINg EdItOr Ananya Gupta

OPINIONS EdItOr Jackie Brant

Pro-UAW Activism Shows Best of Obies With only one day’s notice after President Carmen Twillie Ambar announced the College’s plan to formally consider outsourcing 108 United Automobile Workers jobs, over 600 students and other community members assembled outside of the General Faculty meeting on Feb. 19 to voice their support of unionized employees. As Oberlin students, we are proud of the scale of the protest, the speed and skill with which it was organized, and the commitment that pro-union organizers have demonstrated to continue making their work more open to and inclusive of students and other community members of color.

As outlined in our previous editorial, we believe that the College should not move forward with its proposal to outsource more than 100 jobs (“Outsourcing Proposal Creates Unfair Burden; Cuts Must Come From Elsewhere,” Feb. 21, 2020). We believe that activism from both students and alumni has the potential to help shift the conversation and encourage senior administrators to more fully consider paths forward that do not include the elimination of campus UAW jobs.

To this point, activists have done a remarkable job setting themselves up for success. They have organized in a way that is beyond the reproach of administrators, stuck to clear and effective messaging, and, when possible, articulated tangible goals for the next steps they would like to see administrators take.

The steps that organizers took to ensure that student voices were protected and to maintain the safety of those who attended last Wednesday’s demonstration were impressive. Student liaisons wore color-coded clothes to signify their role as spokespeople responsible for answering questions and speaking to press, or as coordinators dedicated to maintaining a safe environment and de-escalating any potentially challenging interactions with Campus Safety or law enforcement officials. These measures established a structure that ensured the student organizers’ message was received.

In addition to largely effective campus communication during last Wednesday’s demonstration and beyond, student organizers should also be commended for effectively engaging with outside media. The protest was written about by publications in Lorain and Cleveland, and candidates running for Ohio’s fourth congressional district were asked about their opinion on the issue in a local debate last Monday. Students have been thorough in documenting the unfolding demonstrations through video, photography, and press releases.

While we commend the efforts of student activists, we also feel drawn to comment on another important conversation regarding the role of diversity and inclusion at pro-union demonstrations in the future. Students of color who did not feel that they were represented or fully respected in initial pro-union organizing spaces held an event — UAW Solidarity: POC Forum, which took place in the Third World House Lounge on Feb. 25 — in order to ensure that their thoughts and opinions are heard as activism continues.

The discussions surrounding inclusivity present an opportunity for student organizers as a whole to reaffirm their commitment to centering the voices of people of color on campus. Student activism will only be made stronger by becoming more diverse and inclusive, and we are glad to see conversations to this effect taking place.

Today marks the first formal conversations that will take place between UAW leadership and senior College administrators since last week’s outsourcing announcement. While we don’t know at the time of writing this editorial what those conversations will entail, we are glad to know that student support of unionized campus workers is unwavering. We know that students will continue to fight for the values that initially drew so many of us to this campus, and also that they will continually seek better, more inclusive ways to do that hard but important work of imagining better futures. As contentious and challenging as this moment is, we remain proud to be Obies.

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.

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Opi n ions

Letters to the editors (cont.)

Continued from page 5

busting — plain and simple.

Oberlin is not alone among colleges facing tough financial times. We need to learn what other colleges are doing to control costs and generate revenues to continue operating at the highest levels. For instance, other colleges are raising sizable amounts of money by partnering with other schools around the world to sell their virtual courses.

We know budget cuts continue to take place. But the doors to these discussions need to be opened wide so we can explore creative solutions, keep our campus from becoming more polarized, and maintain our core values of social justice, equity, and inclusion.

This is a college of diverse individuals with a wide range of perspectives, and through discussion other ideas will surface. Right now, we are creating a petition calling on President Ambar to begin this community-wide discussion.

As you see our flyers distributed across campus bulletin boards pages, please take a moment to scan the QR Code and sign our petition.

It’s time to come together to find ways to help retain the 108 UAW workers who contribute so much to make this a unique and outstanding college.

trustees and administration risk destroying Oberlin’s very soul. Oberlin’s core mission is not just academics, but has always been to be “peculiar in that which is good,” as Oberlin co-founder John Jay Shipherd wrote in an 1834 letter. Union busting, outsourcing jobs, and destroying the lives of people dedicated to our school is anything but good.

The students and alumni know that the proposed union cuts do not represent their Oberlin, and the administration and trustees would do well to follow their lead. The faculty should stand with our students, past and present, in defense of fellow workers and the ideals to which we have always aspired.

– Zeb Page, Associate Professor of Geology Tom Lopez, OC ’89, Associate Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts Pablo Mitchell, Professor of History and Comparative American Studies Alysia Ramos, Assistant Professor of Dance Sam Taggart, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Executive Committee, Oberlin College Chapter, American Association of University Professors

– Jess Wilber, College third-year Jemma Johnson Shoucair, College second-year

Oberlin’s Future Administration Aban- Hinges on Razor-Thin doning Oberlin’s Core Decisions Institutions of higher education in the United States are facing significant challenges after decades of soaring tuition costs and a population that is increasingly skeptical of the value of a liberal arts education. Oberlin College faces these same challenges, which are exacerbated by the recent legacy of fiscal irresponsibility on the part of trustees and administrators who indebted the institution in the pursuit of vain building projects, charting an unsustainable fiscal course. The current administration and the Board of Trustees have quite rightly striven to correct these mistakes by slowing the increase in tuition and reducing the yearly draw on our endowment.

Unfortunately, in their eagerness to correct their past mistakes, the board has imposed a regime of austerity that has resulted in a significant loss of jobs among our most vulnerable (unorganized and untenured) administrative and professional staff colleagues, but that was not enough. Now, in order to meet their budgets, the administration is targeting the jobs of 108 custodians and foodservice workers in order to preserve a planned endowment growth rate.

In their desire to increase endowment growth, the

Thousands of alumni want to stop supporting Oberlin College financially following the administration’s announcement of proposed outsourcing. But we should continue to support Oberlin financially — perhaps even more generously than in previous years — and encourage all our friends to join us, however razor-thin the decision to remain loyal may be in light of the impending mass firings of those most vulnerable. It’s the right thing to do.

The Board of Trustees’ decision to be one of the first colleges to admit blacks in the 1800s was a razor-thin one, but it was the right decision. A decision made by President Carmen Twillie Ambar to reconsider the College’s decision to make these layoffs may be a razor-thin one, especially because the original recommendation was likely made by her.

But the call for the College and for President Ambar to guarantee that all janitorial and cafeteria workers receive a living wage and health insurance, with current workers being given the first chance at any new positions, should not be a decision made by a razor-thin margin. Doing the right thing, especially when it is difficult, is Oberlin’s most distinctive and inviolable quality. It can become everyone’s.

Affirmative Alumni Engagement Vital in UAW Discussions Editor’s Note: This letter was previously posted on an online forum for Class of 1968 announcements.

I support Oberlin College, including financially, as it wrestles with economic realities in the interest of its long-term survival. Our astute Board of Trustees — made up almost entirely of alumni — hired President Carmen Twillie Ambar to accomplish this daunting task.

As a lifelong union member, I strongly support the College in finding the most humane, responsible, equitable, and socially-responsible results possible under the current circumstances. Positive responses to President Ambar’s forthrightness, transparency, and clarity — all of which I applaud — are more productive than threats of punitive measures against my alma mater.

My support is far from uncritical. I have both been in a vortex of institutional change — I graduated with the Class of 1968 — that resulted in major improvements to the institution, and now feel a part of the widespread support within the institution, including from alumni, for the groundbreaking One Oberlin initiative.

As President Carmen Twillie Ambar stated clearly in her Feb. 18 communication to alumni and students, addressing the College’s unsustainable structural deficit already has affected faculty and administrative staff, as well as retirement and health benefits for all.

Given that 63 percent of the College’s annual budget goes toward employee compensation, how could anyone be surprised that compensation for service sector employees — including dining and custodial services — is part of the mix? It is noteworthy — and apparently overlooked — that the College will potentially be negotiating both with the union and with potential outside vendors.

A desirable result in all these negotiations is a living document that can evolve with the times. Others have given different suggestions wherein present workers don’t lose anything; current employees have the right to continue in their jobs at the same wages and benefits; the contract prohibits firing except for the same causes that would have gotten anyone fired by Oberlin; the conditions for any outside employers stipulate that they should employ a unionized workforce.

I welcome others joining me in this affirmative approach.

– Booker C. Peek Associate Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies

– Paula J. Gordon, OC ’68

Democratic candidates appeared to hold very similar policy positions on all of the issues, while independent Chris Gibbs tended to have more moderate, bipartisan stances.

Before I make my case for why Oberlin students and community members should back Shannon Freshour’s campaign, I want to highlight each candidate currently in the race. Each candidate showed different strengths and weaknesses.

Jeffrey Sites, a veteran and current assistant manager of shipping and receiving, did an excellent job of weaving his policy positions and personal narrative. When asked about healthcare and Social Security, Sites talked about his brother who is disabled and depends on affordable health care and Social Security in order to survive. On the topic of United Automobile Workers union firings at Oberlin College, Sites talked about his father, a former UAW union member. Still, based on current polling, fundraising numbers, and social media following, it appears that Sites has failed to create enough momentum surrounding his candidacy in order to win the primary election.

Mike Larsen — a writer, former union member, and former senior advisor to Representative Jackie Speier — knows how to engage an audience. He speaks with intention and has the energy necessary to excite voters throughout the district. Despite this, his most memorable moments of the night consisted of him engaging in petty fighting with Chris Gibbs — even though he will not be facing Gibbs in the Democratic primary.

Even more puzzling, there are some disconnects be-

tween his progressivism on Twitter and mainstream messaging in person. In addition to attacking his fellow opponents, Larsen brands himself as the only progressive running against Jim Jordan, often touting his support for progressive policies like Medicare For All. Yet, throughout the debate, there was no mention of his support of Medicare For All, even when the topic of healthcare was brought up.

Did he merely forget to mention his support for Medicare For All and other bold progressive policies? Did he believe that swinging too far left could hurt his support among voters who attended the debate? Or does he only conveniently mention his progressivism on Twitter, when it benefits him and his social media following? If Larsen is truly running as the “only progressive,” I would’ve appreciated that distinction between him and his opponents at the debate.

Then, there is Chris Gibbs, a farmer and former Republican from Shelby County. Because he is running as an independent, he will not be showing up on the primary ballot. I want to take this moment to thank Chris Gibbs because his candidacy is the reason we will have a Democratic congressperson come 2021. Even if he takes just five to seven percent of Jim Jordan’s voters, the eventual Democratic nominee will finally have the numbers to defeat Jordan in the general election.

Chris Gibbs and I agree on very little. I am progressive, and he is a former Republican who voted for Trump in

In Congressional Race, Let the Boys Fight; A Woman Will Prevail Ilana Foggle Columnist

For the past year and a half, we have seen constant coverage of one primary and one primary only: the Democratic presidential primary. At this point, many Oberlin students and community members have already decided who they will be voting for as the Democratic nominee for president. Yet, if you asked Oberlin students who is running for Congress in our district, most would be at a loss for words.

Perhaps this is due to the fact that students see no scenario in which a Democratic opponent unseats Republican incumbent Representative Jim Jordan in our heinously gerrymandered district. Well, for the first time since Oberlin was gerrymandered into Ohio’s 4th congressional district, I can say with absolute confidence that we have a real chance to successfully elect a Democratic candidate as our representative. That candidate is Democrat Shannon Freshour.

This past Monday, I attended the Jordan Watch’s congressional debate in Elyria. All three Democratic candidates — Jeffrey Sites, Mike Larsen, and Shannon Freshour — were in attendance, in addition to independent Chris Gibbs and Libertarian Steve Perkins. Moderated by former Democratic congressional candidate Janet Garrett, all five candidates answered questions regarding health care, social security, gun control, education, and the union busting occurring right here at Oberlin College. The three

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See Shannon, page 7

Beethoven’s Dead — Can We Move on Now? Clayton Luckadoo Contributing Writer

With Beethoven’s 250th birthday coming up, there are innumerable plans to celebrate the prolific composer worldwide. Among other activities, Oberlin Conservatory students will perform the legend’s complete symphonies and string quartets in his honor. While this is a grand undertaking, and the intentions are noble, the result is exclusionary for many. At an institution known for progressive programming and an awareness of exclusionary power structures in the classical music world, this is rather disheartening.

I write this not to undermine the impact Beethoven has had on classical music. Thanks to his music and his influence with an avid Beethoven fan in the administration of the Paris Conservatoire, orchestra rehearsals became standardized and intensified. The conductor as we know it was born, and the caliber of orchestras worldwide increased to the level we have grown accustomed to. Music in the 19th century has become all but synonymous with the sublime and anxiety of influence (specifically in reference to Beethoven). He has almost certainly become the most performed composer around the world, year after year. But for this revolutionary’s birthday, is overplaying his music the best celebration we can do?

Concert programming is not a simple task; it is not just about finding and playing pretty music. Yes, Beethoven

wrote some great music, but he also influenced generations following him. I’ll tell you a secret: There is a lot of other great music out there, and not all of it is written by dead, straight, white, cis men. In fact, discovering more would be a wonderful project in itself.

It is important that we ask ourselves: What are we celebrating when we celebrate Beethoven? Why do we place his music on a pedestal and deify him? It isn’t because he wrote the most beautiful music or the most exciting, but because he was revolutionary, took risks, and challenged the standards in the music world. What was once revolutionary gradually becomes conservative. It is hypocritical to claim Beethoven is relevant today because his music was revolutionary 200 years ago.

The hero worship invoked in the statement that music would be completely different had he not existed is self-evident. While it is true to say that it would have been different, who is to say that it wouldn’t have been better?

How much did the focus placed on Beethoven silence voices that could have exceeded him had they been given the chance? While, yes, it is possible that the development of European art music could have been severely hindered had he never existed, to treat him as a god is simply wrong.

This hero worship is the fault of a system that endorses the Myth of Genius and the Great Man Theory. These are, at their heart, the same issues that have led to the rise of fascism and numerous dictatorships. While it is perhaps a bit extreme to compare Beethoven to a dictator, there

are parallels worth acknowledging. The two conditions required for the maintenance of a dictator’s power are: 1) There must be a sufficient majority that believes in the necessity of maintaining existing power; and 2) There must be a strong enough deterrent against dissent. While the consequences of contesting Beethoven’s rule are not so dire, if one were to renounce Beethoven’s music, it would be analogous to ending one’s career (of course, this only applies to those who play instruments for which he wrote). To refuse Beethoven’s god-like reign would be to refuse a career performing classical music. And while I would love to live in a world where the creation of music is not contingent upon capitalism’s nod of approval, that is simply not the world we, as musicians, live in. We live in an age of subsistence musicianship. We do what we can because we must.

Returning to Oberlin specifically, I understand that this is a (largely) “classical” music institution and, as such, has a responsibility to prepare the students for a career playing mostly canonical Western music. But what should make this institution special is its ability to train musicians to expand and question the hegemonic institution of the canon at the same time. As such, this critique is only about Beethoven insofar as it is not about Beethoven. If we were to approach any piece of music with the same scrutiny we place on Beethoven, we would be able to learn just as much from those pieces, and they would be just as hard.

Tradition is no reason to neglect and oppress.

Join OCSA in Coronavirus Support Shannon Freshour Stands Rena Wang Yan Jin Contributing Writers Editor’s Note: All interviews in this article were conducted in Chinese and have been translated into English by the writers.

Responding to the outbreak and spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus, the Oberlin Chinese Student Association started a fundraising campaign Jan. 27, seeking donations from Chinese students and parents. The goal was to purchase protective suits in the U.S. to be donated to hospitals in the Hubei province of China, where coronavirus is believed to have begun.

When OCSA first collaborated with Chinese student associations at universities on the east coast, it found its first potential suit supplier. A few days later, however, the supplier backed out, and the order was canceled. Soon after the first attempt, OCSA found another supplier on its own.

However, as it turned out, the second supplier did not work out either. According to Wenting Gao, a College second-year and the OCSA member tasked with contacting the suppliers, “the [second] supplier drove up prices to an unreasonable level, and they wouldn’t even let us see or inspect their goods.”

Finally, OCSA teamed up with Bard College, Colby College, and Vassar College. Once the alliance formed, the next step was actually finding a reliable supplier of protective suits.

“For the last week of Winter Term, all we were doing was contacting suppliers during the day, and coming together and reporting the progress at night,” said Gao. “For a few days in a row, I woke up receiving tons of messages from potential suppliers telling me they couldn’t do it.”

Fortunately, the colleges found the Chinese Student and Scholars Association of Cleveland Clinic, which pointed them toward a reputable supplier. However, this was just one step in a long process. Once protective suits were purchased, they still needed to go through both American and Chinese customs. Even once the supplies arrive in China, they cannot go directly to front-line hospitals and medical professionals. Instead, they must go through a short list of charities, including the Red Cross Society of China.

The Red Cross Society of China has a reputation for overstocking and mismanaging relief supplies. The lack of transparency and the procedural complexities have long caused public dissatisfaction. Yet the Red Cross Society of China is the only legitimate channel for donating supplies to the front line.

Still, according to Gao, the Cleveland Clinic CSSA found a way of directing the supplies The Oberlin Review | February 28, 2020

straight to Huanggang Municipal Hospital via a contract agreement that looked somewhat like a recommendation letter.

Of the $12,472 raised from four liberal arts colleges, Oberlin College alone contributed $7,618.

Gao recalled that, within the first 24 hours of fundraising, OCSA received about $5,000 from Chinese students and parents. She said this was because OCSA accepted both dollars and renminbi, while other liberal arts college student associations only accepted dollars. So far, the league of four liberal arts colleges has donated $11,000 to Cleveland Clinic CSSA for them to coordinate the purchase and delivery of relief supplies. Gao reports that the bundles are now in Chicago, waiting to be airshipped by China Southern Airlines.

Along with fundraising efforts, there was a candlelight vigil held at Asia House on Feb. 13. Sponsored by OCSA, the activity provided students with a space to pray for Wuhan, understood to be where the outbreak began. Approximately thirty students gathered and observed one minute of silent prayer.

“However, sometimes on specific means to achieve the goals there were disagreements, as we have seen students debating on social media,” said Luke Chen, a College fourth-year and event organizer. “So I think this activity was not only to provide students a platform to share thoughts, but also to remind people that we have the same fundamental hopes; it sought to build a sense of community. We, as a group of three, planned the vigil in five days. If more people are willing to be a part, bringing in their diverse interests and perspectives, we may see a series of events centered around the coronavirus issue. And that series of events could have a much bigger impact than a single vigil.”

On March 6, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m., there will be a conversation at the Allen Memorial Art Museum related to the coronavirus. “The candlelight vigil was quite direct to some people, so then we were thinking about an alternative way to open up discussions about coronavirus through artworks that are thematically related, such as those about diseases, disasters, bondings between people, and politics,” said Wenling Li, the third-year Environmental Studies and Economics major who came up with the idea. “AMAM was very supportive of our idea. … They have prepared a list of related artworks from a diversity of cultures and traditions.”

The event will consist of two parts— a tour of the gallery where the curators will introduce the visitors to the selected works, and a 20-minute discussion. Oberlin students should come out to this event to show their support for OCSA and for coronavirus victims. They are encouraged to bring in their perspectives, as well as exchange their concerns and responses to the issue of the coronavirus.

Out at Local Debate Continued from page 6

2016. Still, I have a lot of respect for Gibbs, not only for denouncing Trump and the Republican Party earlier this year, but also for taking the time to listen, grow, and learn as a candidate. When Gibbs first came to Oberlin back in December for a listening session, he faced pushback on his policy positions surrounding gun rights and gun sense reform. At the debate, it was clear that Gibbs had grown since his visit back in December.

He talked about how he is a proud gun owner but understands that steps must be taken to curb gun violence in Ohio and throughout the country. Yes, this is not the answer I want to hear from my candidate. I want to hear that my candidate supports closing the boyfriend loophole, implementing universal background checks, and banning assault weapons, which all three Democratic candidates support. Still, there was nuance and growth in his response that I had not seen from him earlier, and for that, he earns my respect.

Meanwhile, Libertarian Steve Perkins failed to show any comprehension of the policies, issues, and questions being raised and stated the words “rights and consent” more times than I can count.

When asked about gun control, he pulled out a fake plastic gun and talked about Second Amendment rights. Despite Garrett asking attendees of the debate to refrain from booing, Perkins was booed.

I disagree with libertarianism, but that is not the issue here. The problem is that Perkins was not even able to make the case for his policy positions. Whether it was due to lack of knowledge or preparation, it became clear from the opening statements that Perkins is the weak link out of the five candidates.

This brings me to Shannon Freshour. Truthfully, I went into this debate with low expectations.

In fact, I thought that given my

policy positions, I would more closely align with Mike Larsen. Boy, was I wrong! Shannon Freshour embodies all of the positives that I mentioned earlier. She did an excellent job weaving her personal story and policies, energizing voters, and targeting Jim Jordan in all of her answers.

While Gibbs and Larsen were having their little boys fight, Freshour rose above it, and stayed focused on giving Ohio’s fourth congressional district the representation it deserves. When asked about gun violence prevention, she pointed to the plastic gun Perkins brought with him and said, “That looks like the toy gun Tamir Rice was playing with when he was shot and killed.” She then proceeded to talk about the specific gun sense policies she would support as a member of Congress.

When asked about UAW firings at Oberlin, she affirmed her support for unions and praised Oberlin students and community members for their activism and advocacy. After noticing that I was visibly upset at the absence of questioning on reproductive justice, Freshour came right up to me after the debate finished and said, “The only people who should get to make medical decisions about my body are me and my doctor.

And the only people who should get to make medical decisions about your body are you and your doctor — period.” Freshour is confident, smart, personable, and determined.

As you continue to weigh your decision on whom to support for the presidential primary, I encourage you to look at the three excellent candidates running for the Democratic nomination to unseat Jim Jordan and choose the candidate that is right for you.

Make calls, volunteer, go door knocking, and most importantly — vote. For the first time, Democrats can win a race in a gerrymandered district. And with that I say: Jim Jordan, be scared.

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Oberlin Heritage Center

Oberlin Early Childhood Center

The Oberlin Heritage Center is a museum, historical society, and preservation organization. Created in 1903 as a community improvement group, the Heritage Center seeks to share Oberlin’s heritage, foster an appreciation of history, and provide opportunities for people to connect with each other and the Oberlin community.

The Oberlin Early Childhood Center is an early care and education program that serves children aged six weeks old to kindergarten. The center was founded in 1968 as a summer preschool program for low-income families, and is now the largest early childhood program in Oberlin.

How to get involved: The Oberlin Heritage Center has many opportunities for volunteers, which vary in time commitment and amount of training required. There are many positions available, including docents, gardeners, researchers, and fundraisers. If you’re interested in volunteering, call (440) 774-1700, or email Amanda Manahan at amanda.manahan@oberlinheritage.org. Student volunteers are accepted at the beginning of semesters and the summer.

How to get involved: If you enjoy working with children, the Oberlin Early Childhood Center takes applications for volunteers to help in the classroom. Volunteer activities include helping document childrens’ work, assisting with activities, rocking and feeding infants, assisting with meals, and organizing and cleaning. Interested volunteers should contact ssimpson@ oberlinearlychildhood.org.

OCS is an amazing resource for residents of Oberlin and Lorain County.

You may have seen their community garden, which supports a number of gardening education programs. Their programs also cover all kinds of other services, including a food pantry and other food services, emergency assistance, counseling and advocacy, and employment and education assistance.

How to get involved: OCS takes many volunteers from the Oberlin community. Volunteers can assist with food programs, gardening, and tutoring. Trainings are held monthly.

Email the OCS Volunteer Coordinator, Rosa Gadsden, at rosa@oberlincommunityservices.org for more information.

I wanna do more things in Oberlin!

Me too!

Text and Layout by Lily Jones, This Week Editor

From co-ops to athletic teams to student publications, Oberlin students love many commitments as possible on our plates. While we often publicize the end pus clubs and extracurricular opportunities available, off-campus options aren’t as frequently. It’s easy to get caught up in the campus bubble, but one of the b about being an Oberlin student is our proximity to town.The City of Oberlin i

a selection of those local organizations and how to get involved with their pro

Weekly Events Friday, Feb. 28 & Saturday, Feb. 29 “Liminal Spaces: A Pedestrian’s Guide” Firelands Association for the Visual Arts

Western Reserve Land Conservancy

FAVA encourages public engagement with the visual arts through education, exhibitions, and community events. It offers art classes and workshops for children and adults, and have a gallery with changing exhibits.

Born from a merger of land trusts, the Western Reserve Land Conservancy has preserved over 55,000 acres of land in Northern Ohio since its creation in 2006. While it is often the case that the creation of parks and reserves is focused in higher-income areas, Western Reserve seeks to promote access to natural spaces for people living in less ties where farmland may be abundant but there is often a lack of access to public recreation spaces. In 2011, the organization launched itsThriving Communities initiative to transform vacant spaces in urban communities.Their Fire-

How to get involved: Visit the gallery, which is open Tuesday–Sunday. FAVA’s upcoming exhibit, Displaced: Cairo, An American City, opens March 15. You can also take a class! FAVA offers a wide range of classes focusing on many different mediums, including drawing, painting, photography, ceramics, and stained glass. Classes are on the pricier side — around $100 — but full and partial scholarships are available.

e having as dless camt discussed best things is home to

ograms.

How to get involved: Western Reserve needs volunteers for a number of initiatives, including trail and river cleanups and planting events. If you are interested in or have questions about volunteering, contact Amy Huntley at (440) 528-4162 or at ahuntley@ wrlandconservancy.org.

Directed by College fourth-year Georgie Johnson, this show incorporates circus arts, dance, and physical theater in an experimental dance performance. Tickets may be purchased for $5 from Central Ticket Services.

8 p.m. // Warner Main Space Saturday, Feb. 29 From Stats to Stories: A HandsOn Data Journalism Workshop As part of A Disrupted Media Landscape: Skills, Perspectives, Solutions, the 2020 Oberlin Journalism and Media Symposium, Recode Senior Data Reporter Rani Molla, OC ’08, and Wall Street Journal News Editor Aaron Zitner, OC ’84, will lead a workshop on how to incorporate data into journalism projects.

11 a.m.–12 p.m. // Mudd Center 113 Black Oscars BHM Ball night of music and dancing. Tickets may be purchased from any ABUSUA member.

8 p.m. // Root Room, Carnegie Building Tuesday, March 3 Afterwords: An Evening of Poetry at the AMAM Join poets from the Oberlin comexhibition Afterlives of the Black Atlantic and to remember Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. The event is co-organized by the Creative Writing Program and OSLAM. 5:30–7:30 p.m. // Allen Memorial Art Museum

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE February 28, 2020

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 16

Fashion Show “Look Black At It” Celebrates 50 Years of Africana Studies Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief

College first-year Kamcee Ugwokegbe at the Black History Month Fashion Show.

Photo by Mowa Bamdos

College third-year Jasmine Mitchell at the Black History Month Fashion Show.

Photo by Mowa Bamdos

The 50-year anniversary of Oberlin’s Africana Studies department was celebrated in style at the Black History Month Fashion Show last Saturday. This year’s event was themed “Look Black At It: 50 Years of Fashion.”

College third-year Jasmine Mitchell was one of the event’s key organizers. She said that the planning committee started putting the show together about six months ago. “[We began] with ideas for the theme, creating a budget to support the ideas we had, then reaching out to models and makeup artists, contacting photographers, getting a DJ, and, finally, numerous rehearsals,” Mitchell wrote in an email to the Review. “This year … really focused on the importance of knowing Black history, particularly Oberlin’s Black History, and maintaining institutional memory.”

Building on that theme, Director and Faculty-in-Residence of the Africana Heritage House Candice Raynor said she was excited to see a broad range of community members attend the show.

“The Black community at Oberlin College and the local Black community used to have a very close relationship,” Raynor wrote in an email to the Review. “Even though we still have a relationship with the local Black community, it is not as strong as it once was. When I began at Oberlin, the Afrikana Studies department made it clear that strengthening our relationship with the local Black community is a priority of the department. The local community turnout this year at the fashion show and other Black History Month programming makes me feel like our efforts have started to bear fruit.”

College fourth-year Brian “B” Smith, who hosted the event, said that the annual fashion show represents an opportunity to highlight an important part of Black culture.

“Dressing well in my community is a reflection of how one feels about themselves,” Smith wrote in an email to the Review. “It means you take pride in who you are and how you exist in the world. Black people are the innovators of style. We define what it means to be fly, sexy, and cool.

It was an absolute honor hosting the fashion show this year.”

Smith added that he saw the event as an opportunity to highlight the power of representation.

“I knew I wanted to wear something that also represented Black queer people,” Smith wrote. “Black LGBTQ people push the boundaries of fashion further than anyone else. Blackness and queerness are the two most radical and explosive forms of creativity and imagination. I was proud to stand on that stage. I dedicate my appearances to all the young boys who played in their mother’s shoes.”

College second-year Timothy Grant at the Black History Month Fashion Show.

Photo by Mowa Bamdos

College fourth-year Brian “B” Smith at the Black History Month Fashion Show.

Photo by Mowa Bamdos

Shit Pit’s Spring Opening Welcomes New Stand-Up Comedians Alice Koeninger Senior Staff Writer The requirements for Oberlin’s stand-up open mic are simple: Keep it to five minutes and use your best judgment when it comes to offensive jokes. The underground stand-up collective was started by Sophie Zucker, OC ’15, and Maya Sharma, also OC ’15, during their fourth year at Oberlin.

Today, Zucker’s sister Clare Zucker, who is a College second-year, and College second-year Juli Freedman run the collective. Shit Pit held their first open mic of the semester this past Saturday.

When Sophie Zucker and Maya Sharma started Shit Pit, they were inspired by a similar underground comedy and variety show in Chicago called Shithole. Like Shithole, Shit Pit takes place in different venues and locations depending on who can host and it also encourages comedians to come and workshop their material with other people either involved in or interested in comedy. “[Sophie and Maya] contacted the Shithole and asked if they could create a similar group on campus, and

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they said ‘yes,’” Zucker explained. “It used to happen more regularly, and it used to be more of a workshop-type thing.”

Zucker had no idea that her sister had started Shit Pit when she first got involved, though. She found out about the collective through her improv troupe, the Sunshine Scouts.

“I asked if [my sister] had heard of the group and she was like, ‘Um, yeah,’” Zucker laughed.

Zucker, who normally uses stories from her own life in her stand-up, found hosting on Saturday to be a different and more difficult experience than performing.

“You have to win the audience over and you’re doing more one-liners and jokes than a whole thing,” she said, adding that the audience was supportive as usual. “You always get some laughs, which is nice.”

College third-year Miles Harriss-Bauer performed for the first time on Saturday night. He explained that he appreciated the comedic community that Shit Pit inspires.

“My friend told me about it and I was inspired to try my hand at stand up,” he wrote in an email to the Re-

view. “I like the number of passionate aspiring comedians [who] foster a culture where I feel motivated to create work. Shit Pit is a prime example of just that. I think the small, insular nature of the campus makes it scarier to perform a terrible performance ; it stays with you. Comedy as a medium asks a great amount of vulnerability from its writer [or] performer.”

When Gabi Shiner and Brian Weaver, both OC ’19, and College fourthyear PJ McCormick organized Shit Pit last year, it was a smaller community.

“There have been valid claims that it was possibly too exclusive and inaccessible,” said McCormick. “One reading of it would be exclusive and inaccessible to large groups of people.

The other way to look at it would be that, at the time, it was envisioned as a place where people would go to workshop material with other people who were interested in comedy as opposed to [a place where] people would really perform.”

McCormick, Shiner, and Weaver decided to advertise Shit Pit events to Facebook instead of using an email Listserv — their first step toward making the group more accessible.

“Clare [Zucker] and Juli [Freedman] have been expanding what we were trying to do last year ... and just making it a campus-wide event, which is phenomenal,” said McCormick.

Zucker told the Review that the event went smoothly, though she wished there had been more performers.

“It was less than an hour,” she said.

“Juli and I were trying to make up for time [as hosts] by telling more jokes. …

We’re still trying to advertise better.”

Although there were few participants this year, Shit Pit is an Oberlin legacy that has proven a great outlet for aspiring comedians.

Gabi Shiner, OC ‘19, explained that her Shit Pit connections helped her in her post-grad experience in the New York comedy world.

“In general, the Oberlin comedy scene is a wonderful place to gain support in finding your voice,” said Shiner. “For me, this support has extended beyond my time at Oberlin– the founders of Shit Pit, Sophie Zucker and Maya Sharma, are New York comedians who have really helped me start to find my footing in the comedy world.”

“Bridging the Gap” Encouraged Dialogue Across Campuses

Oberlin College and Spring Arbor University participants of the “Bridging the Gap” Winter Term project in front of the state Capitol in Lansing, MI before they met with elected officials to discuss prison reform.

Photo courtesy of Simon Greer Aly Fogel Arts & Culture Editor Oberlin College is no stranger to critiques of our political leftism. In an effort to reach across the aisle and encourage dialogue across difference, the Winter Term project “Bridging the Gap: Dialogue Across Campus in a Time of Political Polarization” brought together a group of 10 Oberlin students and five students from Spring Arbor University, a conservative Christian school in Michigan. Progressive philanthropist Simon Greer led the group, teaching the students dialogue techniques like active listening and storytelling skills.

Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, the project’s sponsor on Oberlin’s end, tied the dialogue work into larger national dynamics.

“I think this is a moment in the United States where people’s ability to communicate across differences … is really, really important because we’re pretty polarized right now and don’t have many positive ways to engage across difference,” said Raimondo.

After the Oberlin students traveled to Michigan to meet the Spring Arbor students on their campus, all participants toured a vocational program at a correctional facility, where they used their dialogue skills in conversations with Michigan Corrections Organization

board members, the Director of Michigan’s Department of Corrections, advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, and inmates. As a final group project, the students created plans for Michigan Corrections reform, which they all presented at Oberlin. Now that it’s been a few weeks since the program’s conclusion, participants have had time to process this intense experience.

Third-year Spring Arbor student Elizabeth Stewart reminisced on the friendships she cultivated with the Oberlin students during the program.

“I miss it a lot because when the [Oberlin] students were here, it was a time where a lot of other students weren’t on campus,” Stewart said. “It felt like … they [were] my closest friends, and they became my family and we were with each other for so long.”

Though friendship between these two politically polarized schools seems unlikely, Greer believes that it is possible to respect, and even love, someone with whom you have fundamental disagreements.

“I was even a little hesitant about calling it ‘Bridging the Gap’ because it can sound to people like we’re going to water down our beliefs,” said Greer. “And I don’t actually think that’s what we’re doing. I think we’re helping to see the truth by bringing in more perspectives ...

Maybe we have fundamental disagreements, but I could

still like you. I could still really respect you.”

Participants said the “gap” between the students from both schools was surprisingly small. This may be due to the self-selecting aspect of the program. Both Stewart and Alexis Lewis, a third-year student at Spring Arbor, said that their centrist group was not representative of the overall conservative beliefs of their student body.

Oberlin College second-year Maleek Cusack felt that the lack of disagreement between the groups weakened the intent of Greer’s dialogue exercises.

“It felt like there were no stakes involved,” Cusack said. “After that point, we just needed to get to the criminal justice part of it.”

In the visit to the correctional facility, students did encounter intense situations and disagreements.

Both Lewis and Oberlin College second-year Darielle Kennedy have family members who are currently or formerly incarcerated. Kennedy said that this experience gave her valuable insight into the lives of correctional officers, and the project as a whole changed her life by giving her a voice in prison reform.

However, there were also moments at the correctional facility in which students were confronted with racist and homophobic beliefs. In one instance, a white student from Spring Arbor, who joined the project late, quoted a false statistic that Black Americans are 13 percent of the US population but commit 50 percent of violent crime. This statement was alarming for both the Spring Arbor and Oberlin students, especially because the student is part of the school’s campus safety.

“Somebody took him to the side and they told him that [the statistic is wrong], and they also told him the things that you say can get people hurt,” Kennedy said.

“It gets people killed because not only do you believe stuff like that, but there are real police officers who feel the same way.”

Though this student’s comment sparked a long conversation, Kennedy believes that the student didn’t learn anything from the experience, and the student emailed his campus safety boss to defend himself.

In another situation at the correctional facility, a correctional officer said that he didn’t believe that samesex couples make good parents. The chaplain of Spring Arbor also said that sex between two people of the same gender is sinful when he talked to the “Bridging the Gap” participants, a view reiterated in the 2019-2020 Spring Arbor Community Guidelines.

“How do you give validity to a view like that?” questioned Cusack. “Simon [said] you don’t have to move to listen to and respect someone else’s beliefs. And I was like, ‘No, if I’m respecting this belief, I do have to compromise something within myself.’”

See Winter, page 12

“Liminal Spaces” Opens This Weekend

Dance, physical theater, and circus arts all come together in College fourth-year and Dance major Georgie Johnson’s senior show “Liminal Spaces: A Pedestrian’s Guide” this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in Warner Main Space.

Johnson has a unique background in circus arts, as she attended a circus school growing up.

“My base has always been circus, even as I moved through the dance world,” Johnson said. “I have taken a lot of different classes and been influenced by different areas of dance [as well as] circus arts, which made me want to combine the two in a way that was specific to me.”

The Oberlin Review | February 28, 2020

Part of the reason why Johnson chose Oberlin was because of its inclusion of aerial silks through the Oberlin College Aerialists, a student organization affiliated with OCircus. Aerial silks is a circus art in which a person performs acrobatics, including climbing, while hanging from one or two pieces of fabric attached to the ceiling.

Johnson chose to combine circus arts and dance in her show because of the overlap she believes exists between the two disciplines.

“In my experience there [has] actually been a lot of crossover between the Dance department shows and the aerialists clubs specifically,” John-

son said. “Usually there’s at least one aerialist’s piece in every Dance department semester show.

I really appreciate the overlap that is created at Oberlin.”

It’s not just the performance Johnson hopes will resonate with students, but the title too.

“Some of the concepts that I took going into the process [were] these concepts of liminality and being in limbo between two places, which I think is especially close to us as college students,” she said.

Text by Nina Auslander-Padgham Photo by Sophie Payne, Photo Editor

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A r t s & C u lt u r e ON THE RECORD

Melissa Floyd, OC ’91, NASA Astrobiologist might like their career too. There were a bunch of tests, and they all came out suggesting science and engineering. So I had to go back to school.

What was the transition from Russian to a STEM field like?

It was not the easiest thing in the world to do. I discovered that I liked it and was good at it. I was smart enough to get it, which was also a concern [when applying to schools of higher education]. I actually told [a professor at George Mason University], “I think there must be a mistake. I got a D in high-school chemistry. I’m not smart enough to do this.” And she was like, “You’ll be fine. You’re plenty smart.”

But yeah, I hadn’t had that experience.

I had grown up being good at English and languages, so I never really challenged myself. I liked science, but it didn’t come as immediately.

Photo courtesy of NASA

Melissa Floyd, OC ’91 Melissa Floyd is currently a NASA research biologist who specializes in environmental microbiology, microbial ecology, microbial biogeochemistry, and astrobiology. After graduating from Oberlin with a Russian major in 1991, Floyd decided to pursue an M.S. in Environmental Science at George Mason University. Floyd will speak as a member of the “Transitioning to Globally Engaged Careers” panel at Norman C. Craig Lecture Hall Friday, March 6 at 12 p.m.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Abigail Kopp Kushagra Kar Production Editor How did you first get interested in this field of work?

I did not obviously have a direct path in life or in my career. This is my second career. I changed careers because I

didn’t go into college with this idea of, “I want to study X to become Y.” And I think part of that was that I graduated high school in 1987. ... I wanted to study Russian, and I graduated college.

I really did have a ready-made career in front of me because the Soviet Union collapsed that year, but I didn’t want to do that. So I avoided that for as long as I could and just worked jobs to pay the bills. Eventually, I moved my way back east and found myself in a career because I could still speak Russian. ... It wasn’t the world’s worst career, but it wasn’t where I wanted to stay. ... I went to a career counselor, and she told me that I should be doing science and engineering.

What made her suggest that?

They give you tests. ... Whatever the questions are that they give you, the counselor will match them up against people who really enjoy their career, the idea being that if they like this thing and they liked their career, then you

If you were to redo undergrad, would you still choose to major in Russian or do you think you would’ve just gone right into science?

I wouldn’t trade my Oberlin career for anything. One of the things I really valued about Oberlin was that I could do so many different things: I could play field hockey and work for The Oberlin Review and sing in the chorus and meet people who were studying all kinds of different things.

What research are you currently working on at NASA? So my research focuses on looking for novel biosignatures of life on other planets. Up until now, it’s mainly been chemists thinking about this. They’ve really been thinking about things like isotope ratios and looking for amino acids signatures and things like that.

And I think about things a little bit differently — can I give you the geekiest phrase that I’m currently in love with?

It’s umwelt. I think in German it means ‘point of view,’ but it’s grown a little bit to mean the point of view of both human and non-human animals. And to a certain incredibly nerdy degree, like the rest of my life. ... I think about how the bacteria see things. You have all of these different organisms that do such

Winter Term Attempted to Bridge Divides Continued from page 11 College third-year Austin Ward said that it is more difficult to find common ground when it comes to explicit attacks on your identity.

“I think [in cases of ] people saying racist things, people saying homophobic things, really insulting things to people’s identity and character — I don’t know if the gap can be so easily bridged,” Ward said.

Lewis appreciated the way that Simon Greer allowed the class to empathize with others while never budging in their firmly held beliefs. “[Greer] talks about empathy and accountability, and for me, I know if I get upset at a person, I want to hold them accountable,” Lewis said. “But if they started talking about their feelings and stuff like that, I tend to get more on that empathetic side. And I felt like that was like me letting them off the hook. And Simon was saying, it’s not like you can’t hold a person accountable and still empathize with them as a human being.”

Whether or not the “gap” was “bridged” between the two student groups depends on whom you ask.

Cusack believes that the project will be marketed as a complete success, but he’s not convinced that the project accomplished its goals.

“If you’re going to market this as some kind of revolutionary approach [through] having dialogues [between] politically divided college campuses, maybe actually have people who are diverse before screaming from the rooftops that the program works,” Cusack

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said. “I don’t know if the program worked. It’s inconclusive.”

For many students, though, the program was a step in the right direction. Stewart had a positive experience with the project, and she recalled a particularly touching moment in which a non-religious Oberlin student commented on her faith.

“When he left he said to me, ‘I love the way that you live out your faith,’’ Stewart recalled. “And for a Christian, that is like the biggest compliment that you can receive. … the biggest fear of a Christian or someone my age is that we’re oppressing someone else or that we’re aggressive with our beliefs and we’re forcing our scripture on someone else, and when he said that to me it changed my life.”

Ward, who is from Dayton, was originally interested in the program because he hopes to work in the public sector, and he finds value in speaking to those he disagrees with.

“If I can’t talk to conservatives about things, then I won’t be as successful at my job,” Ward said. “If I want to stay in Ohio and [do] governmental work in Ohio and Southwestern Ohio, I have to be able to have productive conversations with people that think differently than me. This was really the first opportunity at Oberlin that had offered me exactly that.”

In April, the Spring Arbor students will come to Oberlin for a reunion. Greer hopes to expand this program to eight other college campuses next year and many more in the future.

incredible things and live in such interesting ways. And so what chemical markers could those metabolisms leave that would: A) persist in an environment; and B) would we be able to measure using, some of the instruments that we’ve already gotten really good at building and sending into outer space?

What have some of your findings been?

I had a paper published about a year ago on a signature of iron-oxidizing bacteria. ... This is very relevant to Mars, right? Because there’s iron all over Mars. ... We put in for more proposal funding last spring, and we didn’t get it. So we’re gonna put in for that again this year, and keep our fingers crossed, kind of tweak the proposal. I also just put in a proposal to look at the signature of one of the molecules that bacteria use to communicate with each other and how much that molecule persists in nature, as well as different ways that we could measure that.

What does the future of your field look like?

Well, there’s a couple of different ways to interpret my field. I kind of think of myself as a microbiologist first and an astrobiologist second. One of the things that I think is really interesting about microbiology, historically speaking, is that most of the work that has been done ... started with looking at organisms that were trying to kill us.

Right? And that makes sense. You have things like smallpox and cholera. So that’s where people first got involved in finding bacteria. And so everything else that’s out there, we know really very little about, and most of those organisms can’t be cultured and isolated in a lab. I think what’s interesting is that microbiologists are having to begin to look at other ways of examining who’s out there. But so there’s so much out there to look at. And I think it’s vital because bacteria really drive ... everything on this planet. This is their world. They drive the iron cycle, the carbon cycle, the sulfur cycle, and the nitrogen cycle.

They have helped us thrive, and they can take us out. And so it behooves us to know who our tiny overlords are.

Parasite’s Success is a Triumph for Expanding Global Cinema Jaimie Yue Arts & Culture Editor Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for Parasite.

It’s no secret that Parasite, the latest film from South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho, has swept the globe.

With its shocking twists, its meditated commentary on wealth inequality, and its historic accolades, Parasite is not only a critical and commercial success, but also a personal win for its Asian and Asian-American fans at Oberlin.

This past Saturday, College fourthyears and East Asian Studies student representatives Will Cramer and Liam Hefta organized a free dinner and discussion followed by a group screening at the Apollo Theatre, with support from the East Asian Studies Department, Oberlin Korean Student Association, and Asian American Alliance.

While Cramer personally enjoyed the film, he also saw it as an opportunity to promote East Asian cinema and the East Asian Studies department to interested students.

“I thought it would be good to showcase East Asian cinema, and there are [professors like] Keren He who teach on East Asian cinema,” Cramer said.

“And then Parasite on its own is such an amazing movie, so it was a way to draw people in, get them interested.”

Cramer and Hefta approached Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies Emer O’Dwyer with the idea, who said she was “all for it.”

Parasite presents its audience with two families: the Kims and the Parks.

The Parks live in a private lot with a wide green lawn, a personal housekeeper, and the best private tutors for their children. In contrast, the Kims lead a more modest life; we first meet the Kim siblings Ki-woo and Ki-jung as they scuttle about their semi-basement apartment trying to pick up on

a free Wi-Fi signal while their father, Ki-taek, lets pesticide spray inside as “free extermination.” There is no reason for these families to ever cross paths — but when Ki-woo’s friend Min asks him to take over as Da-hye Park’s English tutor by faking his credentials, it is an economic prospect that Ki-woo cannot resist.

Thus begins an erratic, nearly unbelievable string of events all motivated by lies, deception, and greed. Parasite teeters wildly between genres, but it retains a dark satirical commentary on the pitfalls of capitalism throughout.

While Parasite is a contemporary film about South Korean society, it includes wider global issues and influences that intertwine seamlessly: wealth inequality, classism, and climate change. Midway through the film, a torrential rainstorm hits Seoul, flooding the Kims’ apartment and forcing them to take shelter with hundreds of other displaced families in a gymnasium. As the scene cuts to the next morning, we open on the Park family home, where the family’s matriarch, Yeon-kyo, marvels at how nice the sunshine is for her spoiled son’s birthday party. While not intentionally malicious toward the lower class, the Parks embody the utter obliviousness that is characteristic of privileged upper-class society.

“No place is immune from this environmental devastation,” O’Dwyer commented on the rainstorm. “However, as Director Bong suggests, the wealthy have many more resources and choices when confronted by it.”

For Oberlin’s Asian students and faculty, Parasite’s widespread viewership and critical acclaim is a personal victory. Visiting Instructor of History Jiyul Kim, who is Korean-American, recalled how he was “amused and appreciative” of non-Korean viewers who were so willing to watch a movie that was “so quintessentially Korean”

in its imagery, themes, and script.

“My first impression after the movie was to ask myself how someone not familiar with South Korean society and culture could really understand the nuances of the images and language [in the film],” Kim wrote in an email to the Review. “But my 13-yearold son’s reaction made me realize how wrong I was. This young man, who [is] only half-Korean by blood and all-American teenager in culture, emphatically said, ‘That was the best movie I have ever seen.’”

Kim further explained various details that were distinctive of South Korean culture in the film.

“For example, [the film alludes to] the politics of private tutoring, which has been made illegal because it gave the rich unfair advantage in the hyper-competitive South Korean education system.”

The way Parasite explores universal themes with a distinctly South Korean presentation is what makes it truly groundbreaking. From winning the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival to sweeping the four major categories at the Oscars — becoming the first foreign film to win Best Picture — Parasite, along with Roma in 2018, could be reflective of a changing American entertainment landscape opening its doors to non-Western cinema.

“Clearly I agree with the vast majority of non-Korean viewers that Parasite’s universal appeal has to do with its socioeconomic subject and message, which comes across regardless of any opaque cultural filters,” Kim wrote. “And it’s also because that universal message was presented through an entertaining and memorable story, an intoxicating cocktail of drama, comedy, and horror that lingers long after.”

Parasite’s masterful storytelling and its numerous awards legitimize foreign films as not only worth watching, but capable of winning awards

alongside Hollywood blockbusters, and whose non-white, non-English-speaking casts proudly grace the stage.

College second-year and Chinese-American student Michelle Tyson attested to the value of international representation and the use of films to focus on marginalized groups such as the Kim family.

“I’m so proud of a film that features really amazing South Korean actors and a story that so blatantly deals with class,” Tyson wrote in an email to the Review. “The public reception to films like Moonlight and Roma, which, like Parasite, made me so grateful to see marginalized identities and class so clearly portrayed on the big screen.”

College second-year Rachel Fang, while having a slightly different perspective as a Chinese international student, discussed that after growing up watching numerous high-quality, Asian-made movies, she hopes that Parasite introduces white American audiences to everything that global cinema has to offer.

“As an international student seeing lots and lots of Asian movies … Parasite is just one of the good movies that I’ve seen,” Fang said. “I hope more people can get the chance to watch more good Asian movies because there are a lot of Asian movies that are as good as Parasite that [have] not [been] nominated [at] the Oscars.”

While Parasite is only one film, and may not guarantee greater diversity in future awards shows, it has still disrupted what has long been a stagnant lineup.

“Will [Parasite] have staying power?” Kim pondered. “The true impact won’t be known for decades. Still, at the very least, I think Parasite’s win has opened many people’s eyes to Korean cinema, which has become very vibrant and relevant, so I hope it will lead to wider viewership and appreciation for Korean films.”

New ExCo Course AstroCo Nurtures Campus Interest in Astrology

Illustration by Clair Wang, Staff Cartoonist Allison Schmitt Production Editor On Oberlin’s campus, astrology — the study of celestial bodies’ impact on humans — is often the subject of both deep discussion and check-in questions. This semester the common conversation starter has been turned into an Experimental College course called AstroCo, taught by College second-year Ella Franklin and College first-year Nicolas Zamora.

The course covers the basics of astrology, including circle charts — which show planets, zodiac signs, and houses at the moment of your birth — and the ways that the elements and modalities of each planet play into the 12 zodiac signs. There is also a focus on relationship astrology, which involves synastry — a process that compares two people’s charts to gain insight into their relationship by evaluating how planets interact with each other.

Franklin and Zamora are well-versed in astrology The Oberlin Review | February 28, 2020

and have a long-running interest in the subject.

“I delved deeper into astrology when I was in 10th grade or 11th grade,” Zamora said. “Once you look deeper and start learning all about it and its charts, it’s really interesting and complex.”

Franklin’s interest deepened when she looked more closely at her astrological chart.

“Once I got to look more at my chart and realize that all of these factors in my chart did apply to me in my life, I got ... interested in how these things have impacted my life,” she said.

In recent years, astrology posts and memes have become increasingly popular on social media. Astrology’s widespread influence and appeal have sparked other students’ interest in the subject.

“I used to consistently read my horoscope on the Cosmopolitan Snapchat’s Discover page, and I followed @astropoets on Twitter because I thought it was interesting,” College second-year Chloe Yanoviak, one of the students in AstroCo, wrote in an email to the Review.

College third-year and AstroCo student Sam Fertig’s introduction to astrology came from his connections with other Oberlin students.

“I never really gave it much thought until, at the end of [the] spring [2019 semester], Co-Star began making its way through different social circles on campus,” he wrote in an email to the Review. “I found out that my chart was very compatible with my crush’s. At that point, I was invested.”

Though astrology is popular at Oberlin, not every student fully believes in it. For Fertig, astrology provides an engaging account of the forces that influence our lives.

“I think Obies love walking the line between ironic appreciation and genuine belief,” Fertig wrote.

In addition to this “ironic appreciation,” many

Obies seem to be knowledgeable about astrology.

Franklin and Zamora, however, both found that the general understanding is fairly limited.

“Whenever it’s mentioned in this school, people’s first thought goes to Co-Star,” Zamora said. “And CoStar has tendencies to be problematic. ... It can be very misleading.”

One of the issues with Co-Star, the popular horoscope app, is that it “doesn’t hire any professional astrologers,” Zamora said. Additionally, he explained how the app’s daily updates feature also “relate[s] astrology to mental illnesses, which is very problematic.”

Through the ExCo, Franklin and Zamora hope to show that involvement with astrology goes beyond checking Co-Star. It is also a way to articulate the universal human experience and place of belonging within the universe.

“All of these rocks orbiting around us, with us, have some sort of impact on our life,” Franklin said. “When you think about it, if the moon can control the tides of the ocean, [and] we’re made up of what, like 80 percent water? Surely these entities, these celestial bodies, have some sort of impact on us.”

At its most basic level, astrology is a way to learn about oneself, and it can be a nearly-universal interest point.

“Humans have some sort of desire to know about themselves,” Franklin said.

Zamora echoed F--ranklin’s sentiment.

“You can use this ... to learn about yourself: why you act this way in love, how you act when you’re actually angry, how you communicate,” Zamora said. “It’s just so [much more] intricate [than] what meets the eye.”

Though it may seem like it’s just an Oberlin fad, AstroCo proves that there is more to astrology than just Snapchat and Co-Star.

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Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Dan Palmer, Head Women’s Soccer Coach

Head women’s soccer coach Dan Palmer has led the women’s soccer team to some of its best seasons ever, including the most successful four year stretch in team history between 2014 and 2017. Despite his impressive résumé, Palmer and the Yeowomen struggled this season, posting a 4-14-1 record. Still, Palmer is excited about the future of the program. While he is known for his work with the team, Palmer is also widely active in other aspects of campus life. Palmer currently works with the horseback riding class and has taught financial classes to student-athletes, in addition to many other activities. The former North Central College wrestler has come a long way from his days as a Theater major.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Zoe Kuzbari Is it true you were a Theater major?

I entered college expecting to major in Accounting and Sociology and become an FBI agent. I ended up majoring in Speech and Theater. I have a master’s in Speech and here I am.

What made you change your major?

A couple of things. So, I grew up in the west suburbs of Chicago, and once I got to college I realized that there was a lot more to the world than I had experienced. And I thought that, as a law enforcement agent, I [would be] too naive and might get myself or somebody else killed.

So I didn’t think that was a good career path. And then I just started taking classes. I enjoyed it and I really enjoyed Speech and Theater. I didn’t have a plan for a career when I entered it, but I enjoyed it and so I pursued it.

Do you still do anything related to theater now?

No, I don’t have any time.

What is your background in athletics?

I was a college wrestler. I was a national-class wrestler. So, a pretty good athlete. My high school gained soccer the year after I graduated, but they announced that they were going to have it. So, I was allowed to just come out and kick a ball around. And then, [in college], I came out [for soccer], sat for two or four games, and played one year in college.

What made you get into coaching soccer?

I did not plan on that as a career. I had graduated from school and knew some Oberlin graduates. The athletic director just came up to me and said, “We’re going to make our soccer position full-time and I think that you would be great for it. Are you interested?” And that was my interview. So, apparently, he saw things in me as an athlete that he thought would be good qualities to be a coach and develop a program. And so, I wasn’t thinking about it. I was planning on getting my Ph.D. in Speech and becoming a college professor, but fate just kind of took a different turn.

What did you think about this past season with your team?

It was disappointing and I don’t think anybody thinks otherwise. It was just an unfortunate set of circumstances and we couldn’t find the right combination of things to make it go better. But the players competed well. And they always work hard and compete hard, and that part of it is always very enjoyable. But I think we’ve got a pretty good nucleus of players returning and in recruiting, so I think we’ve improved ourselves. So we’re very optimistic about the future.

What are your goals for next season?

It will be a disappointment if we don’t qualify for the [North Coast Athletic Conference] tournament, so, that.

Then, you know, go as far as we possibly can for sure.

It’s rumored that you have a unique alcohol policy for players. Care to elaborate?

Interesting. I don’t know. I mean, our team policy is no alcohol within 48 hours of a contest. I mean, it’s pretty much a universal Athletics Department policy. I don’t know if anyone has a stricter one. You know, if people choose to drink, whether they are violating team policy or state or federal law, I just expect them to be forthcoming about it. If they get written up, I’m going to find out about it ultimately, and I prefer to hear it from them rather than through other resources.

We’ve heard that you’re connected to the Equestrian team. Is that true?

Wow, there’s a lot of rumors going around. So, no, I am not. I am the instructor of record of the Equestrian class through [the Athletics department], but the class is

Head Women’s Soccer Coach Dan Palmer.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

actually taught by Rick Weitzel who runs a stable about a mile outside of town. So I coordinate the organization of the registration and all that, making sure that the class has what they need to go. But Rick is responsible for teaching that and he actually coaches our Equestrian club.

Is there anything else around campus that you’re involved in that we don’t know about?

Yeah. I am very passionate about trying to help our students, student-athletes in particular, in preparing for life beyond Oberlin. And so, once or twice a spring, I conduct a financial literacy course for any [fourth-year] athletes that want to attend and just to try to help them navigate the financial world once they enter the workforce.

How long have you been doing that for?

Three years. And, I’ve also been on the dining committee but I am no longer in those capacities.

Are there any more rumors you’d like to squash?

I don’t know what other rumors are out there. I will share that I’m very passionate about Oberlin College and in the opportunities here for students in the community.

When I applied for the job, this last time that I was hired was actually the third time I applied for the job. So I’ve been very interested in and excited about Oberlin for quite a long time.

Christine Impara Shatters School Record

The men’s and women’s track and field teams competed at the North Coast Athletic Conference Combined Events Championships last Saturday. The day saw several athletes put together impressive showings, headlined by College third-year Adriano Atallah and College fourth-year Christine Impara setting new school records in the heptathlon and pentathlon, respectively.

Impara, whose 2,995-point day broke the previous school record of 2,984, felt that it was a culmination of all the hard work she has put into the sport.

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“It’s been a long time coming for me,” Impara said.

“To see the improvement that I have seen [since my first year] is very rewarding. I have had my eye on the school record for a while now and it is so gratifying and surreal in a way to have achieved that.”

Impara, Atallah, and the rest of the track and field teams will compete in the NCAC Conference Championships today and tomorrow at Denison University to conclude their indoor season. The teams will have about a month after that to prepare for their outdoor season, which will

begin March 28 at The College of Wooster. For Impara, the rest of her senior year will be focused on helping the team and cherishing her final moments.

“My goal for myself is to score as many points as possible for our team and give everything I can to the competition,” said Impara. “I really want to appreciate every moment with this team and this sport.”

Text by Khalid McCalla, Sports Editor Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

Women’s Lacrosse Opening Nailbiter Women’s Sets High Bar for Upcoming Season Athletics

Should Not Be Pushed Aside Continued from page 16

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

College second-year Bette Imhoff.

Jane Agler Contributing Sports Editor Third-year varsity women’s lacrosse player Ali Wessel looked forward to returning to the field this spring after being sidelined the previous season due to an ACL tear. She did not expect, however, to return and play in some of the most memorable games of her lacrosse career.

“I think it was the most exciting game I’ve ever played in — ever,” she said of the Yeowomen’s season opener last Saturday.

The Yeowomen trailed behind their opponents for the majority of the game. Wessel sparked the competition with a goal less than a minute after the clock started, but Oberlin soon trailed its opponents after Hope College scored six consecutive goals. However, thanks to a late game surge, the team was able to ultimately beat Hope 14–13.

“It was a shock,” said College third-year Tess Siciliano. “Our coach addressed minuscule corrections [at halftime] that we knew we were doing. We also figured out our defense in the second half; our goalie Maranda Philips made [around] 10 saves in a row to shut [Hope] down. Once we reached 11–13, we realized we could possibly win this game.”

The Yeowomen eventually snagged an equalizer with a few minutes to go. With just seconds left on the clock, College second-year Bette Imhoff managed to clinch the victory when she netted her fifth goal of the game just as the buzzer went off.

“Getting the game-winning goal was definitely the highlight of my The Oberlin Review | February 28, 2020

lacrosse career,” wrote Imhoff in an email to the Review. “I wasn’t aware of how much time was left on the clock I definitely should’ve [been], but I was so focused on playing that I didn’t have a lot of emotions going through my head before I shot.

However, after that ball went in, I lost it and went ballistic. There’s no better feeling than running into your team’s arms and being able to celebrate everyone’s hard work. It still feels unreal to me and makes me excited for the rest of our season.”

Wessel also explained that the team had high spirits after the game, and she hopes they will carry that energy into the rest of the season. “[The win] gives us a lot of confidence,” said Wessel. “If we can get out of this situation and pull out a win, then we can really do anything. This shows us not to get down on ourselves and to keep pushing forward.”

Despite the team undergoing a number of personnel changes, the Yeowomen have high hopes for this season. The team is without the efforts of four newly graduated players from last season, but they added seven new first-years and five members of the Oberlin’s varsity field hockey team to their current roster.

“This year, we lost many strong and talented seniors from the year before and other players due to injuries, but it’s been a positive reinforcement for many players to step up as leaders and athletes,” wrote Imhoff. “I think for our first time playing as a team we did very well, especially with the incredible comeback, but we definitely have specific things we need to work on.

This particular game reflected every

player’s character on the team. It doesn’t matter if we lose. What matters the most is that at the end of the game we can all attest that we gave it our all and left everything we had on the field.”

Wessel explained that the team possesses the most talent she has seen during her time at Oberlin, but will need to work on navigating the field as a more cohesive unit.

“It’s really interesting to bring in a whole new set of people into the team,” she said. “They all have such great energy and they’re so willing to learn. I honestly think, the more the merrier [adds] to team spirit. …

We have a lot of talent on this team, but working to put it together as a unit is an important [goal] for this season.”

Last year, the team went 6–9 and made it to the North Coast Athletic Conference semifinals, where they fell to Denison University — who would go on to win the entire conference title. The Yeowomen also welcomed the arrival of a new head coach, Kim Russell, who has implemented various new strategies to promote wellness, focusing just as strongly on the athletes’ emotional and mental well-being as their physical well-being.

“It was definitely hard at first to adapt to her style of play and teachings, but it’s worked out really well,” Siciliano said. “I think we will have a very good season with her.”

This weekend, the team will travel to Tennessee to compete against Sewanee: The University of the South on Saturday and Roanoke College on Sunday. Their first NCAC competition will be next Wednesday at home against Baldwin Wallace University.

scheduled in the early slot on weekdays, which start between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

This time slot is extremely inconvenient for numerous reasons. Many people are still in class at this time, as certain classes on weekdays are in session until 4:20 p.m.

This is also primetime for other teams’ practices. Almost every sport, whether in season or not, has either practice or lift starting at some point between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. This means that many athletes couldn’t attend 4 p.m. games even if they wanted to.

Furthermore, most of the women’s games are scheduled for the early slot on Saturdays, too, typically beginning between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. The early games are also at a distinct disadvantage.

Many students don’t typically wake up that early on Saturdays, which certainly affects attendance. But perhaps more importantly is the fact that people are likely to come to the end of the early game and stay for the entirety of the second game. However, women’s sports rarely get the benefit of people staying over between games because we almost always play first.

We have also noticed that, even on special occasions, it seems that women’s games are consistently scheduled to overlap other games. For example, this year, women’s soccer was scheduled for almost every late slot, with just two exceptions — one of which was during Homecoming weekend. Women’s soccer played the early slot, which directly overlapped with both football and volleyball. Whether or not this scheduling was done purposefully, a very clear message was sent: Whoever created the schedules cared more about preventing two men’s athletic events from overlapping than they did about the attendance of the women’s Senior Day soccer game that weekend.

Attendance and crowd engagement has the potential to change the course of games, and this is something that women’s sports do not get to benefit from or enjoy. This is not to say that people never show up for women’s games — this season, the women’s soccer team won a game in double overtime, and much of the team gives credit to the men’s soccer team for showing up and engaging with that game and helping us build momentum.

However, many students who play women’s sports feel that this attendance and engagement is deeply unbalanced.

While there are times when attendance is larger at women’s games, this support is sporadic at best. Women’s sports teams are tired of seeing our peers show up for men’s athletic events and not receiving consistent and unconditional support in return.

Many members of women’s athletic teams think the change must start from within men’s athletics. Despite scheduling challenges, members of men’s athletic teams need to start consistently showing support for other women’s teams around campus.

People need to ask themselves why they are able to make time to attend men’s athletic events but not women’s athletic events, especially when the games are back to back. Is it really that you don’t have the time? Or is it that you don’t want to make the time?

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SPORTS February 28, 2020

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 16

Oberlin Should Support Women’s and Men’s Athletics Equally Jackie Brant Opinions Editor

Head Football Coach Steve Opgenorth.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

Football Welcomes New Head Coach Zoë Martin del Campo Contributing Sports Editor

When newly hired Head Football Coach Steve Opgenorth enters the room, his energy and approachability jump out. On his desk is a copy of The Football Coaching Bible by the American Football Coaches Association, and various accolades hang from his wall.

“Trust the process,” is one of the many catchphrases Opgenorth employs when discussing his love of the game.

Before Oberlin, Opgenorth spent five seasons at Baldwin Wallace University, serving as associate head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks’ coach.

Opgenorth has entered the program during a turbulent time of transition for the team in the wake of former Head Coach Jay Anderson’s departure. Despite this, he has already begun to implement changes in workouts and is working to bring in new staff who share his philosophy that football is a sport that should promote teamwork and a competitive spirit. It is clear he has ambitious plans for what he wants the program to become.

During the hiring process, Opgenorth was impressed by the people he met, including the students that he will now coach.

“In a place like this, you can grow,” he said. “It allows you to build a foundation and it allows you to find victories academically, athletically, socially. There was a sense of pride among the current players that I met. I thought this was a challenge worth accepting and couldn’t be more excited to be here.”

Delta Lodge Director of Athletics and Physical Education Natalie Winkelfoos praised the renewed energy that Opgenorth has brought to the team and highlighted his previous success with recruitment and coaching.

“Coach O’s energy is unmatched,” she wrote in an email to the Review. “His successful recruiting and coaching experience at a high academic institution is beneficial. His drive to compete and advance the culture of our football program on the field and off made him an exceptional fit.”

Opgenorth is faced with multiple challenges as he joins a team that has a roster that is smaller than usual and has faced a low retention rate in recent years. Last week, the Review covered concerns raised by former players about football coaching and training staff (“Current and Former Players Express Concern About Team Culture,” Feb. 21, 2020). While the accusations did not occur during Opgenorth’s time at Oberlin, he believes in moving forward and setting a new standard for leadership.

“You learn from the past and you move forward in the future to grow and develop,” he said. “I’m not sure exactly what was done or what was said, but I do know it’s my responsibility, too, to build a standard both on and off the field and grow from that foundation. Our kids are working extremely hard, both in the weight room and in their studies. I’m going to push them academically and going to push them in community service. I know that it’s going to be fun to move forward.”

Opgenorth thinks that this shift to a team-based approach to coaching will help with retention rates and

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transparency in the recruitment process.

“I think the collective retention of our student will change because the recruitment piece will change,” he said. “They’re going to get every piece of information about me, about our staff, about our culture, and about Oberlin College and the environment here. I want them to hold onto every piece of it and love it all. And if they do, I don’t expect them to leave. Retention is big and that’s one piece that will continue to help our success.”

One of Opgenorth’s goals for the team is to get players more involved in community service. During his time at Baldwin Wallace University, Opgenorth cultivated a relationship with the Special Olympics in Ohio and regularly volunteered his team to serve at the winter games. The team also had the opportunity to participate in Night to Shine events, where student-athletes were prom dates for differently abled individuals. Opgenorth hopes to implement similar programming at Oberlin, kicking off spring training with a community service event at the Cleveland Browns showcase.

“Community service is self-serving for our young men,” he said. “It’s self-serving for our programs. Community service allows us to be in uncomfortable situations at times and be comfortable in those situations through experiencing these events. And it translates to college football games: I want our guys to be comfortable with two minutes left and we got 90 yards to drive. I think it stems to how many times I can put them in situations where they understand their opportunity and how neat it is to be a college football player.”

With community service as a focal point of his coaching philosophy, it is also important to Opgenorth to recruit student athletes who will contribute to that culture.

“The recruiting process is a 12-to-14 month process to understand who the young man is, if he is a fit for Oberlin College, and if he’s a fit for the program,” Opgenorth said.

“Our young men will understand what it means to be a Yeomen college football player. It’s not easy, but they’re going to know what the expectations are.”

First-year wide receiver David Strunk has already noticed a change in energy under Opgenorth’s leadership.

“Since he got here, our workouts have revamped energy-wise and everybody is excited,” he said. “We can actually see ourselves achieving something now and he has a go-get-it kind of attitude. He really encourages competition. In the past, we’ve struggled with that, at least last year. He’s bringing a whole new set of standards.”

As Opgenorth looks forward to the upcoming season, he has set a high bar for the Yeomen, seeing his role as a facilitator of their athletic potential.

“My goal for 2020 is for our young men to trust the process and collectively reach their full potential,” he said. “I believe the football field is an extension of the classroom. My classroom happens to be 120 yards long at 53-and-a-third yards wide. We’re going to teach harder, we’re gonna teach better and we’re going to have fun doing it. My goal is to make the 2020 season the most positive and influential season for our seniors and one that they can remember for the rest of their lives.”

After attending both women’s basketball and men’s basketball games several times this year, I have begun to notice a disturbing pattern. The women’s basketball team has been playing the earlier game slot this season, while the men’s basketball team plays the later game slot. This has been the case the whole season — with the exception of last Wednesday. The women’s basketball games consistently have lower attendance than the men’s basketball games, and I chalked this up at least partly to the convenience of the time slots. I gave people the benefit of the doubt. However, after last Wednesday, I know that this is not the case.

After the men’s game, which took place at 6 p.m., almost the entire stadium emptied out.

Hardly anyone stayed to watch even the first quarter of the women’s game, which started promptly after the men’s game at 8 p.m.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident at Oberlin. After I saw what happened last Wednesday, I began talking to my friends on other women’s sports teams, and have since realized that this is a common experience for pretty much every women’s team on campus. I myself have actually heard players from rival teams joke in the middle of a game about how they had more fans than we did.

The fact that this occurs across all sports indicates that attendance — or lack thereof — has little to do with the record or skill with the teams involved. Several members of the women’s basketball team recall that even when they won the North Coast Athletic Conference championship a couple of years back, they still received a significantly smaller audience than the men’s basketball team. Furthermore, when the women’s basketball team won by 17 points last weekend against the second-seed team in the NCAC, they still had significantly lower attendance than the men’s basketball team that lost by 22 points on the very same day.

There are two problems that the athletes I spoke to and I can pinpoint specifically. First, and most importantly, there is a culture of men’s games being viewed as “events” in a way that women’s games are not. Even when the football team went 0–10 a few years ago, they still received massive crowds. People — especially people who participate in men’s athletics — still tailgated every game, attended games with their groups of friends, and chirped the opponents.

That culture simply does not exist here for women’s sports. There is no reason why people cannot tailgate our games or come and chirp in the same way that they do men’s games. In fact, we would love it if people did. People on women’s sports teams are weary of hearing the same excuses time and time again about why our friends can show up for men’s athletic events, but not ours. There is absolutely no excuse for this double-standard except for a blatant disrespect for and bias against women’s athletics rooted in deeply sexist narratives.

Second, there is an inherent bias in the way that games are scheduled at Oberlin, whether done intentionally or not. Women’s games are almost always before men’s games, which poses several problems. If you look at the current athletics calendar, most of the women’s events are See Women’s, page 15