March 6, 2020

The Oberlin Review March 6, 2020

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 17

COVID-19 Outbreak Suspends Study Away Programs Katie Lucey News Editor

Students, faculty, alumni, and United Automobile Workers members gathered to protest the College’s Feb. 18 announcement that it is “formally considering” outsourcing union labor.

Photo by of Pearse Anderson

Pressure Mounts Against Outsourcing Proposal; Senator Sherrod Brown Voices Support of UAW Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief Campus controversy continues to swirl around President Carmen Twillie Ambar’s Feb. 18 announcement that the College is “formally considering” outsourcing dining and custodial services, a proposal that could impact jobs currently held by 108 members of the United Automobile Workers union.

While students and alumni have made their dissatisfaction with the proposal known, regional politicians and media have also begun to take notice — most notably Senator Sherrod Brown (D–OH), who circulated a memo Thursday voicing his support for UAW workers at Oberlin.

Yesterday, more than 500 students, faculty, staff, and alumni gathered in Wilder Bowl to express their concern over a proposal they characterized as “union busting” — a characterization President Ambar has rejected. The assembled crowd was addressed by a range of speakers including Erik Villar, chair of Oberlin’s UAW chapter; Claire Solomon, OC ’98, and associate professor of Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature; and Henry Hicks, College third-year and Student Senate chair. UAW member Buffy Lukachko read aloud Brown’s statement of support for the union.

Solomon was the lone faculty voice of the evening. She decried the outsourcing proposal as “morally wrong.”

After listening to speakers, the group marched to the Hotel at Oberlin to escort five students to a meeting with representatives from the Board of Trustees, who are in town this week for their quarterly board meeting.

Prior to the meeting, Chair of the Board of Trustees Chris Canavan voiced his support of the outsourcing proposal.

“The plans are critical to carrying out the recommendations of One Oberlin — in this case, those outlined in Chapter IX of the report,” Canavan wrote in an email to the Review. “As the Oberlin community knows, the One Oberlin report was the result of wide consultation by the [Academic and Administrative Program Review] Steering Committee, [and] it was endorsed by over 80 percent of the faculty and … unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees. The report lays out a very compelling

case for why its recommendations are necessary.”

Last Friday, UAW leadership met with senior College administrators for the first time since the announcement to formally begin conversations about how to move forward.

According to Villar, that initial meeting focused largely on effects bargaining.

“They pretty much told us that they still want to outsource,” Villar said. “They definitely wanted to outsource [Campus Dining Services] altogether, but they wanted to keep some custodians, and they wouldn’t really give us a number as far as how many of those 55 custodians that they wanted to keep.”

Senior College administrators declined to comment on the content of the meeting. Villar said that, after the meeting concluded, he called international union leadership to discuss how to proceed and was told to try to find a way to save every UAW job.

Then, over the weekend, Villar said he received word that the College was willing to move away from discussing the effects of bargaining if the union agreed to open its contract early. The current UAW contract is set to expire Sept. 30, and negotiations would typically take place over the summer.

According to Villar, the union membership decided via a Monday vote to move forward with opening the contract early.

“We were kind of forced to open up this early so that … we could be given the opportunity to be able to be heard and given a chance to explore different avenues,” Villar said.

Still, Villar acknowledged that deciding to open the contract early comes with difficult tradeoffs for UAW members, especially those that don’t work in dining or custodial services.

“If we can’t reach a viable solution by a certain deadline … then we would be given a WARN notice come May,” Villar said. “We would still be bargaining for the groups that are left, that weren’t going to be affected by this.”

A WARN notice refers to a 1988 labor law called the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Under the act’s terms, employers with more than 100 employees are generally required to provide 60 days notice prior to enacting mass layoffs or closing entirely. The WARN act

In the wake of rising global concern over COVID-19, a newly-discovered strain of coronavirus, Oberlin students are finding their study away programs altered or abruptly terminated in countries facing travel advisories.

Although the College has issued statements indicating its ongoing support for affected students, the situation has raised questions about how program cancelations will impact the remainder of these students’ academic careers.

“As of March 4, six of those programs have made the decision to suspend the in-country portion of their semesters, impacting 12 Oberlin students,” Director of International Programs and Study Away Mike Rainaldi wrote in an email to the Review. “Those decisions to cancel were not made

by Oberlin, but by our partner organizations on the ground in China, South Korea, Italy, and France.”

These decisions follow the sweeping shutdown of schools and universities around the world in response to the outbreak. All schools in Italy are currently under lockdown until at least March 15, joining other school closures across Asia and Europe.

In late Feb, the State Department upgraded Italy, South Korea, and Mongolia to Travel Advisory Level 3: Reconsider Travel. China, where the outbreak originated, is currently listed under Level 4: Do Not Travel.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Sunday that colleges and universities “should consider asking current program participants to return to their home country.” The University of California and State University of New York systems, among other higher educational institutions around the county, have since heeded the CDC’s recommendation, either suspending or canceling their study abroad programs.

College third-year Marie Romanelli’s Florencebased program, hosted by the CAPA Global Education Network, canceled all in-person classes last Saturday. The decision has left Romanelli unsure of how the rest of the semester will proceed.

“Everything is very unclear,” Romanelli wrote in an email to the Review. “We’re switching to online courses, but no students or staff are prepared to handle getting credit with this new format and less interaction with the city. My program is very centered on the history of the city and class tours were a big part of the education process.”

College third-year Eleanor Cunningham, who was studying abroad with the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, returned to the U.S. on Monday following the cancellation of in-person classes. According to Cunningham, her program is compensating for the cost of travel.

Staff from the Office of Study Away plan to work closely with the 12 students whose programs have changed as a result of the outbreak.

These students represent only a small subset of all students studying abroad — 178 students are currently participating in 81 study abroad programs, according to Rainaldi.

See Protestors, page 3

See Abroad, page 2

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

02 Conservatory to Launch New Recording Arts and Production Programs

06 Democratic Party Should Shift Attention to Texas in Future

08–09 How Proficient Are Oberlin 10 Poetry Event “Afterwords” Students in Black History?

Reflects on Allen Exhibition

04 Off The Cuff with David Kris, Security Expert

07 Student Senate On Supporting UAW

The Oberlin Review | March 6, 2020

ARTS & CULTURE

11 TIMARA Recital Showcases Combination of Coding and Music

SPORTS

oberlinreview.org

15 Women’s Tennis Rides Momentum

facebook.com/oberlinreview

16 Yeowomen Edged Out of First Place in NCAC Indoor Championships

INSTAGRAM @ocreview

TWITTER @oberlinreview

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Ne w s

Conservatory to Launch New Recording Arts and Production Programs

The Conservatory is set to launch two new certificate programs in Recording Arts and Production.

Photo by Lucie Weismüller

Katherine MacPhail Editor-in-Chief The Conservatory has announced new one-year and two-year certificate programs for postgraduate students in Recording Arts and Production. The program is currently accepting applications for its first semester, which will begin this fall.

The program is spearheaded by Director of Audio Services Paul Eachus and Associate Director of Audio Services Andrew Tripp. They explained that the idea originated in the midst of the Academic and Administrative Program Review process.

“When AAPR initially started to get going, one of the things that they had charged everyone with was this mission to be a little more introspective about what it is that we do and how we can reach more people across campus [and] serve more communities,” Tripp said.

Building post-graduate certificate programs in the Conservatory was one of the official recommendations made in the One Oberlin final report.

“To strengthen the Conservatory brand and its ability to compete in the marketplace, we also recommend that Oberlin … create post-graduate study/experiences that would add value and generate revenue,” the final report read. “We have numerous opportunities to monetize existing resources outside of conventional four- or five-year degree programs.”

This prompted them to consider the knowledge and impressive technological resources available in the Conservatory’s Audio Services office that wasn’t being utilized to teach students.

“We were looking around, not only just [at the Clonick Hall recording studio], but all these other control rooms that we have, these great halls; performers, and wondering why we weren’t doing more with them,” Tripp said. “We have nine different venues and seven or eight different control rooms. … There were so many resources. There’s so much detailed, nuanced work that Paul and I do and there was no real outlet to teach that stuff. So I think it just made sense.”

This new Conservatory-based program is not the first of its kind. Oberlin already offers a two-year Artist Diploma in Piano Technology, which was part of the inspiration for this new endeavor.

“One of our goals with programs such as [Recording Arts and Production] is to create pathways into the institution for individuals beyond our usual target audience of traditional undergraduate-aged students,” Dean of the Conservatory William Quillen wrote in an email to the Review. “We believe that there are numerous individuals — postgraduate students, career-changers, non-traditionally aged students, and the like — who might be interested in programs such as this, and who would benefit from having access to an Oberlin education — and, in turn, would greatly enrich the school through their presence here.”

Students who complete the first year will earn a Professional Certificate in Recording Arts, and gain knowledge of the ins and outs of recording technology.

Students who complete the second year will earn an Artist Diploma in Recording Arts and Production, and graduate with an understanding of how to run a recording session and produce music. “[There’s] one year that’s really focused on sort of the technical aspects … that the type of production we do requires,” Tripp said. “Then if you really want to dig into start-to-finish production on really any type of music project — but in our area of expertise would

be primarily acoustic recording — there’s that second year.”

Tripp and Eachus are optimistic that there is a demand for graduates with the skills and credentials that this program provides.

“It is a niche, small community of classical engineers in the country,” Eachus said. “And they’re always looking for assistance, people that know with the highest quality what’s going on. So we’re hoping we can fill that void as far as when [students] leave Oberlin, they’ll be able to move right into a position of assisting possibly a Grammy award-winning engineer.

We’ve talked to engineers who are excited about the program.”

This program will also be beneficial to undergraduate Conservatory students, according to Eachus.

“One of the biggest parts of the program will be a constant feed of ensembles for them to record,” Eachus said. “The [Conservatory] students will get recorded much more in a professional sense than they are now, which will be great for both [musicians and Recording Arts and Production students]. They’ll end up with a great recording of their group, and the engineers … will get that great experience of working.”

Conservatory Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Peter Swendsen also feels confident that this program offers distinctive and valuable opportunities to prospective students.

“We looked closely at other programs and feel that ours will give students a unique option in several ways,” Swendsen wrote in an email to the Review. “Choosing a single-year or two-year timeframe [with] specific focus on recording and producing acoustic music, directly participating in the musical life of a world-class conservatory, and learning in a mentor-based system with significant opportunities [will] develop a personal artistic voice as well as technical proficiencies.”

Eachus and Tripp are planning to admit only three students for the first year. In the future, they don’t plan to grow the class size beyond eight, with the goal of providing an individualized learning experience. The program is currently accepting applications.

Abroad Programs Send Obies Home Following COVID-19 Outbreak Continued from page 1

“Our office is working with senior staff at the College to prioritize the wellbeing, agency, and academic progress of our study abroad students,” Rainaldi wrote. “We are in communication with our study abroad partner organizations around the world, are monitoring the guidance and advice of various global health and safety and security organizations, and are providing individualized support to our students abroad, along with their partners, guardians, and loved ones.”

The Office of the Registrar is working to ensure that individuals will still be able to gain credits for the semester.

“Where possible, we hope that the program might find ways to complete work long-distance,” Liz Clerkin, registrar and associate dean for academic advising, wrote in an email to the Review. “However, we have to acknowledge that there is a possibility that we might not be able to transfer all study away work for every student.

We are seeking to identify alternatives so that students are able to graduate on time; we are discussing Oberlin course alternatives such as adding a second module course that is already being offered or private readings to continue the work a student started in their study away program.”

Clerkin stressed that these matters will have to be handled on a case-bycase basis.

“Each student’s situation will be slightly different, but we are prepared to find the best options for each student,” she wrote. “That may be completing study abroad work from home when possible or returning to campus to take second module courses.

We are also exploring possible summer options.”

However, per CDC guidelines, Student Health is unable to accommodate most students who are returning from Level 3 and Level 4 countries. According to Director of Student Health John Harshbarger, the CDC recommends that these

The Oberlin r eview Mar. 6, 2020 Volume 148, Number 17 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch.

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POSTMASTER SEND CHANGES TO: Wilder Box 90, Oberlin, Ohio 44074-1081. Office of Publication: Burton Basement, Oberlin, Ohio 44074. Phone: (440) 775-8123

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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 Nico Vickers 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 Alice Koeninger Ella Moxley

students contact a medical professional by phone, self-isolate for 14 days upon return, and self-monitor their symptoms daily.

“Students returning from Level 3 countries will be advised to go directly to their permanent home,” Harshbarger wrote in an email to the Review. “Student Health will not be in a position to provide support for many students returning from Level 3 countries because they will not be residing in Oberlin upon return. If the student’s permanent home is in Oberlin, we will be coordinating with Lorain County Public Health Department to provide care and to monitor students’ symptoms while they remain in selfisolation.”

Although no cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Ohio, three residents are currently being tested for the virus at time of publication.

Seven others were investigated but test results returned negative. Regional health representatives as well as College officials are taking steps to Layout Editors

Ads Manager Web Manager Production Manager Production Staff

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

minimize possible exposure to the virus, including publishing up-todate information and preparing for a possible outbreak.

In a Tuesday email, the Office of Communications updated the campus community on the College’s current strategy regarding COVID-19. In addition to providing information about study away, the email outlined preventative actions such as supplying hand sanitizer in residential halls and sanitizing buses used by College athletes.

For Oberlin students who are unexpectedly being sent home, the situation has proved disappointing and difficult.

“At this point, I know I’m on a flight and it lands in the U.S.,” Cunningham wrote. “It has been such an ordeal and I feel like this experience was once in a lifetime and it was gone in a matter of days. It’s hard to wrap my brain around it.”

Information and updates concerning COVID-19 can be found on cdc.gov.

Corrections:

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

Protestors March to Hotel, Alumni Petition Continues to Circulate Continued from page 1

does not apply to just unionized employees and does not apply to employees engaged in a strike.

Villar believes that the College’s willingness to bargain with the union if the contract was reopened — rather than taking a step such as issuing a WARN notice in the near future — was due in part to pressure from students, alumni, and other stakeholders who oppose the outsourcing decision.

“I’ve been in contact with a lot of alumni and various different folks,” Villar said, citing a petition circulating amongst Oberlin alumni that, by the time of publication, has accrued more than 2,300 signatures.

“I kind of feel that that’s the only reason they decided to do this — it wasn’t because they had a change of heart.”

One of the petition’s commitments is that alumni who sign their names pledge to “withhold our financial support from the College until this decision is reconsidered.” Perhaps the most prominent instance of an alumni pulling their financial support came last week when Susan Phillips, OC ’76, published a letter to the editors of the Review announcing that she was indefinitely suspending the Susan Phillips Social Justice Scholarship Fund, citing opposition to the College’s act of “union busting” (“An Open Letter to Students,” Feb. 28, 2020). The fund had previously supported students pursuing summer internships related to social justice.

“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,” Phillips wrote. “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.”

Dana Hamdan, executive director of the Career Development Center and associate dean of students, said that she was “saddened” to hear of Phillips’ decision, and that she has “deep admiration and respect” for the work that Phillips has done to support students. Hamdan added that the College will continue to support students pursuing summer opportunities related to social justice.

Security Notebook Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 1:40 p.m. An officer was requested to assist a student who was not feeling well at the Science Center. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

3:32 p.m. A student reported the theft of prescription medication from their backpack while at the Mary Church Terrell Main Library. The student was transported to the Oberlin Police Department to file a report.

8:44 p.m. An officer on patrol of the Conservatory observed several nonCollege juveniles in the breezeway between Kohl Building and Kulas Atrium. When approached by the officer, the juveniles fled from the area. Police officers located the juveniles and warned them about being in Conservatory buildings.

Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020

Breakdown of signatures on the alumni petition by class year. Younger alumni are the most heavily represented. As of March 6, the petition has accrued over 2,300 signatures.

“This summer, the Career Development Center will be awarding students financially supported internships, including social justice internship opportunities similar to those that were awarded by Ms. Phillips,” Hamdan wrote in an email to the Review. “Students who wish to pursue internships focused on social justice can still apply for funding as they have done in the past. While we hope Ms. Phillips will reconsider her decision, we remain committed to supporting our students who want to get out into the world and do the good work we know they can do.”

In addition to the alumni petition, Brown’s memo made waves on campus, criticizing President Ambar’s announcement and charging the College with compromising its “history of standing for justice.”

Brown is known for his vocal support of worker unions across the state.

“These workers deserve to keep their jobs,” Brown’s statement read.

“No employer, especially a school with the resources and tradition of worker solidarity that Oberlin has, should arbitrarily lay off 108 workers and replace them with an outsourced staff. ” College representatives declined

to comment on Brown’s letter.

Local Democratic congressional hopefuls also chimed in to voice their disappointment with the College and support of UAW workers and the students rallying behind them.

Democratic congressional candidate Jeffrey Sites and Shannon Freshour’s campaign manager Matt Bell were in attendance.

“Super proud that Team Shannon stands and fights with @oberlincollege to protect @uaw workers as the school tries to Union bust!” candidate Shannon Freshour tweeted Thursday alongside a video of Oberlin students marching to the Hotel at Oberlin.

Prior to the march to the hotel, Villar expressed his gratitude for the support his union members have received from Oberlin community members, Brown, and others.

“I’m still very optimistic about this whole thing,” Villar said. “I feel that [with] the amount of pressure that’s been put on them, they’ve been, in a way, forced to hear us out and give us some opportunity, but we haven’t been given much time.”

According to Villar, the next formal meeting between UAW leadership and senior administrators will take place on Monday.

5:32 p.m. A student reported the theft of their backpack from the Kohl Building lounge on Thursday, Feb. 28. The backpack is a black Jansport valued at $50 and contained a MacBook Pro, valued at approximately $500.

10:53 p.m. Officers were requested to assist a student at Barrows Hall who was not feeling well. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

11:58 p.m. Officers were requested for a transport from Mercy Allen Hospital to Dascomb Hall to assist a student who injured their foot. Officers completed the transport.

Sunday, March 1, 2020 9:54 p.m. Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm in a room on the third floor of East Hall. There was no fire or smoke observed. The alarm was reset.

10:22 p.m. Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a second fire alarm in the same room in East Hall. While OFD was checking the room, a desk drawer was found full of ashes. A box was found in plain view that contained a bag with a green leafy substance, consistent with marijuana, a red grinder, and rolling papers. The items were confiscated and turned over to the Oberlin Police Department. An electrician responded to change the smoke detector. The alarm was reset with no further problems.

11:47 p.m. An officer on routine patrol of Finney Chapel located graffiti on the fencing surrounding the air conditioning unit. A work order was filed for cleanup.

Monday, March 2, 2020 8:07 a.m. Mary Church Terrell Main Library staff reported an unauthorized banner hanging on the southeast corner of Mudd Center. An officer responded and removed the banner.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Students and members of the United Auto Workers union gathered in the Oberlin Print Lab on Sunday to screen print messages in support of the UAW union.

Photo Courtesy of Eva Sturm-Gross The Oberlin Review | March 6, 2020

6:05 a.m. An officer removed an unapproved banner hanging on the exterior east wall at King Building. The banner was taken to the Campus Safety office.

2:06 p.m. A custodial manager reported graffiti in the King Building elevator. The graffiti appeared to be created with a soaplike substance. A work order was filed for cleanup.

2:55 p.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle, a blue Schwinn Trailway with a red lock, from the southeast entrance area of Burton Hall. The bicycle is registered but was not locked at the time of theft.

5:21 p.m. A student reported receiving text messages from someone claiming to be a dean at Oberlin College. Upon investigation, the messages were found to be phishing. The number was blocked on their phone.

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Ne New wss OFF THE CUFF

Off the Cuff with David Kris, Security & Surveillance Expert

Photo by Sophie Payne, Photo Editor

David Kris

David Kris held a session titled “Surveillance and Hate” in Hallock Auditorium this past Tuesday.

Kris is the founder of Culper Partners, LLC. He was the Head of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division under the Obama administration.

He has also served as senior advisor to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General, and he worked as a federal prosecutor for eight years.

Since 2011, he has worked as the general counsel of Intellectual Ventures and later became the deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer of Time Warner, Inc. Kris is a co-author of a leading manual in the field of U.S. foreign intelligence and surveillance, titled National Security Investigations and Prosecutions.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Ananya Gupta Managing Editor Kushagra Kar Production Editor Could you talk a little about your firm and the kind of work that you do there?

So, it’s called Culper Partners. And many people don’t know the derivation of that, but George Washington’s first spy ring was The Culper Ring. I think that’s a shortened form of Culpeper, Virginia, which is where certain members of that spy ring were located.

I want to be clear, we do not offer espionagerelated services. You can see on our website what we do [offer]. But, basically, we provide strategic business advice, not even legal advice — I’ve sort of stopped practicing law day-to-day — mainly to companies, either in the technology sector or that are somehow involved with or dependent on technology. That might be a media company for example, and others who are interested in issues around technology and government regulation and the like. So, for example, encryption and similar kinds of issues these days are very much in fashion, and we advise on those sorts of things.

It’s quite fun and it gives me a way of staying engaged in public policy issues that I am interested in and care about. And because it’s a consulting firm and I’m one of the two founders, I can sort of run it the way my partner and I want to run a business, which is nice. I’ve enjoyed that very much.

Given your experience with national security, what do you think are some of the biggest national security threats to the United States today?

It’s a tall order. There’s no shortage of difficult threats and issues. I mean, one of the things I’m planning to talk about tomorrow is the rise of hate crime and domestic terrorism. When I got into this business, it was before 9/11, and I had done a lot of work on domestic terrorists and white supremacists and the like. I spent many years prosecuting a group of individuals known as the Montana Freemen — a delightful bunch. And then, after 9/11, the emphasis shifted to international terrorism. What we’re seeing now, and what I will talk a little bit about tomorrow, is that we have come to a point of parity between domestic and international terrorism.

Just recently, Chris Wray, the current FBI director, stated that [the FBI is] now treating domestic terrorism on equal footing with international terrorism; Islamic State and Al Qaeda and the like.

And, indeed, recently, if you look at the deaths and the other problems caused by terrorists, the domestic terrorists are ahead of their international brothers and sisters within the United States. And it’s pretty clear that the trendlines are requiring much greater focus on domestic terrorism — in particular, white supremacist terrorism and related hate crimes. But I do think domestic terrorism is definitely one of the biggest challenges. Your intelligence community has now shifted its focus from a relentless counterterrorism emphasis to what they call a “2 + 3 model,” which is Russia and China — the two — and then Iran, North Korea, and violent extremists of all kinds.

Do you think surveillance adversely impacts people of color or lower income communities worse than others?

I think, broadly speaking, there’s no question that law enforcement generally has such an impact. I don’t know the answer [to] whether targets of surveillance have disproportionately been people of color.

Historically, surveillance policies [in this country] have clearly been used to oppress non-powerful groups. And that’s not just true of surveillance, that’s true of intelligence, behavior, and abuse generally.

Unless you’ve studied it, I would predict that no matter how suspicious you are about the government, it’s much worse than you would imagine. And things they did include, by way of example only, testing LSD on prisoners who were offered the drug of their

addiction. Say you were a heroin addict and you were in prison for a heroin-related offense, and you would be given heroin by the CIA if you were willing to participate in an LSD experiment. They politicized intelligence collection against, you know, the socalled women’s liberation movement.

I actually, in preparing for this talk, did a little extra research and I was very interested to learn that the FBI was concerned about two young men at Oberlin in 1968 who were engaged in a hunger strike to protest the war in Vietnam. And the Bureau wrote fake letters to these kids’ parents saying, “Oh, do you know, your boy is involved in left-wing activities that could be very dangerous to his health.” And often abuse ends up directed against vulnerable groups.

It is just the way it goes. Not always. I mean, to tell you the CIA not only did testing of LSD on prisoners, but they were in a joint research project with [United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases] and they literally spiked the drinks of their army colleagues without telling them.

So the answer to your question is yes, clearly law enforcement practices, including but not limited to surveillance, have over time been directed against vulnerable groups. But at times they’ve also turned on themselves.

You said that the things we could imagine the government doing, they’re actually doing worse.

So what advice would you give students in trying to protect themselves?

Not today necessarily, but back in the day. So just to be precise on that because, God forbid, I conveyed a message [and] not the one I intend: I am in no way suggesting that all has been well since 1976. I mean we have evidence of improper conduct of various sorts. But, before 1976, in the 30 years after the 1947 National Security Act, it’s really bad in a way that is in scale, and scope, and in cultural approach to the legality of it. And they would write these internal memos to themselves saying, “Oh yeah, we know this is completely illegal, and we’re going to just do it anyway. You know, if we get caught, we better find a scapegoat that we can blame and pretend it was somebody else.” Again, not to say everything’s been perfect since then on the legal front, or on the behavior front for the intelligence community. You should be suspicious of your government.

But you know, the message that I am going to try to leave the students tomorrow, and I don’t know if this will be successful or not, is despite all of that — despite the history of abuse, the potential for abuse, the reality of abuse — as they embark on a career of studying and working in surveillance, that they be open to the possibility of government as not just an oppressor of vulnerable groups, but as a protector of those groups. A good deal of my career was spent, as I mentioned, prosecuting white supremacists, which I think of as a protective act. And indeed, one of the things I plan to say to these students tomorrow is that I’m looking forward to the day in which I might come back and we get to focus on our differences, which would mean that the foundations have been restored, and the common ground that rule of law matters is established. But today, right now we’re really focused on [preserving] the basic integrity of a democracy under law. But I would like them to be open to the idea, at least the possibility, that the government can protect minority groups and oppressed groups instead of just oppressing them further. How you balanced the two possibilities — oppression and protection — well. It’s the one piece of actual advocacy tomorrow as opposed to just pedagogy that I have in mind. So it’ll probably fail utterly and totally.

Ohio Legislative Update Lorain County Responds to Coronavirus Dave Covell, health commissioner for Lorain County Public Health, presented updated information regarding COVID-19, a strain of coronavirus, to community leaders at Lorain County Community College on Tuesday. Fire and police chiefs, as well as other government officials, attended the briefing.

Although no cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Ohio, rising global concern over the outbreak has spurred efforts to minimize regional exposure to the virus.

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Human Life Protection Act Introduced Ohio State Representative John Becker (R– Clermont County) introduced the Human Life Protection Act to the Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday. House Bill 538 would return Ohio abortion law to pre-Roe v. Wade statutes if the United States Supreme Court overturns the decision made in the landmark 1973 case. Under HB 538, abortions would be punishable by law in Ohio unless a parent’s life or major bodily functions are put at risk by giving birth to a child.

Lorain Faces Lawsuit from Water Customers Residents of Lorain filed a class-action lawsuit against the city in the Lorain County Common Pleas Court on Monday. The plaintiffs, represented by Gerald W. Phillips, claim that the city’s water and sewage systems overcharged customers by a collective $41 million over several years and that Lorain improperly transferred funds from the city’s water and sewer funds to the city’s general fund, which funds the fire department and other services.

OPINIONS March 6, 2020

Established 1874

lEttErS tO thE EdItOrS

A Note of Thanks from OSTF’s Producing Artistic Director The Oberlin Summer Theater Festival is closing its doors and will not be offering a 2020 summer season. Nagging fiscal and staffing problems that we’ve found increasingly challenging to overcome have finally come to a head and made the operation unsustainable.

A group of us started OSTF in 2009 as an experiment. It had a clear mission to present professional productions of great masterpieces of our theatrical heritage in rotating repertory; to make admission free, so we could attract a diverse audience of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds; to develop a core company of talented theater artists, including Oberlin alumni; to provide a professional venue associated with the College’s Theater department; to develop a business model that promotes putting artists first and treating everyone in the company as equitably as possible while minimizing administrative expenses; and to bring people to Oberlin during the summer months, to enjoy not just our shows, but also our small-town setting, shops, and restaurants.

I believe we were able to accomplish all of these goals. By 2018, our total season audience was just shy of 13,000 — about 80 percent of whom were from out of town, and well over 40 percent from beyond Lorain County.

My personal goal was to run OSTF for 10 years. And now, after 11 successful seasons — during which we produced 32 shows, 20 of which I directed — it is time for me to move on to other endeavors. This has truly been a labor of love for me, and so the decision to close the theater was extremely difficult. I am very proud of the artistic work that our company did over these seasons. I will forever cherish the collaborations and deep friendships that have developed in the company. Every summer, a family of actors, designers, and technicians — eventually up to 50 people per season, literally hundreds over 11 years — worked tirelessly to make these productions happen.

We are all very honored that so many in the community supported our shows as patrons, returning year after year and bringing an ever-expanding audience to celebrate our summer theater tradition.

I know that the actors always felt that our OSTF audience was very unique — as demonstrated through your wonderful ovations and kind words. Thank you for supporting our artistic work!

– Paul Moser Professor of Theater OSTF Producing Artistic Director

Oberlin Must Be Sure to Take Care of Neighbors, Workers Most of us agree that Oberlin College must pay all its workers a living wage. But perhaps not all support this view. There is no universally agreed-upon definition for what amount of dollars represents a “living wage” — a sum for one person or a family of four, for those living in the most expensive area of the country or the least expensive?

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 | March 6, 2020

Volume 149, Number 17

EdItOrIal BOard EdItOrS-IN-ChIEf

Nathan Carpenter

Katherine MacPhail

MaNagINg EdItOr Ananya Gupta

OPINIONS EdItOr Jackie Brant

In Congressional Race, Third-Party Candidate Could Split Vote, Take Down Jim Jordan With Ohio’s March 17 primary elections rapidly approaching, the Editorial Board anticipates that many students are well-prepared to make a selection in the presidential race — especially given that the Democratic campaign has narrowed to two viable challengers, Senator Bernie Sanders and Former Vice President Joe Biden. However, many voters remain less informed about the developments in local races.

In particular, we are tracking the race to nominate a Democratic congressional candidate for this fall’s general election. Currently, three Democrats are competing for the nomination: moderates Shannon Freshour and Jeff Sites, and self-described progressive Mike Larsen.

All three hope to beat Congressperson Jim Jordan in this November’s general election. While the Editorial Board is not at this time choosing to endorse a particular Democratic candidate, we do recognize the urgent need to remove Jordan from office.

Since 2006, the increasingly embattled Jordan has represented Ohio’s 4th congressional district, which currently includes Oberlin — although “represented” is a strong word. Jordan is best known for his hardline conservative politics, unquestioning support of President Donald Trump, and controversies surrounding his time as a wrestling coach at The Ohio State University, when he allegedly participated in covering up instances of sexual misconduct.

Despite recent negative media attention, Jordan’s strong hold on the district appears as durable as ever. In 2014, 2016, and 2018, Jordan was challenged by former schoolteacher and Oberlin resident Janet Garrett. Each time, Garrett received roughly a third of the vote, despite growing from a write-in campaign in 2014 to developing a full-blown campaign infrastructure in 2018.

The consistency of Garrett’s losses says less about her performance as a candidate and more about how the shape of the district has created a firm ceiling for any Democratic congressional hopeful. For decades, Ohio Republicans have conducted a masterclass in partisan gerrymandering, and despite the fact that fair redistricting is hopefully on the horizon — especially following this year’s census count — Oberlin remains, for the time being, in a district that has little hope of electing a Democrat in a one-on-one race against Jordan.

Enter Chris Gibbs. An Ohio farmer and former Trump voter, Gibbs lost faith in the president’s vision after seeing the administration fail to fulfill its promises to his fellow Ohio farmers. Gibbs also sees Trump as instilling a sense of division among different groups of people that Gibbs believes should otherwise be uniting around their shared values.

Gibbs’ politics are conservative — more conservative than the district’s Democratic voters, and certainly more conservative than the average Oberlin student. Still, there’s good reason for Oberlin students, and other liberal voters across the state, to support Gibbs’ efforts to get onto the ballot as an independent candidate.

Currently, Gibbs is seeking the signatures of 2,600 Ohio residents in order to qualify for November’s general election, and getting his name on the ballot seems to be one of very few feasible paths to beat Jordan in November. Essentially, a Democrat can’t overcome the district’s gerrymandered boundaries alone. But with the help of a spoiler candidate like Gibbs, it is possible — although still unlikely — that the conservative vote could be split to the point that a Democrat could land a plurality of voters and take Jordan down.

We understand that throwing any level of support behind a candidate whose politics you disagree with is a big ask in a divisive political landscape. It’s important to note that we are not necessarily advocating that Oberlin community members vote for Gibbs — or any other candidate, for that matter. We’re advocating for a path to free the communities of the 4th congressional district from Jordan’s irresponsible and embarrassing leadership. And, short of complete and fair redistricting that we hope is still on the way, it seems like introducing a third candidate into the November election — one who appears to have significant potential to siphon votes from Jordan — seems like the best path to get there.

It’s a small glimmer of hope, to be sure, but it’s worth helping Gibbs get onto the ballot in order to see how many Ohioans choose not to support Jordan’s leadership when they’re presented with another option. Students and community members interested in helping Gibbs qualify for the general election can get in touch with his campaign through his social media channels. It’s important to remember that helping gather qualifying signatures does not constitute a commitment to vote.

If Gibbs qualifies for the November general election, the rest will be up to the voters.

Let’s see what happens if we get him there — it certainly can’t be worse than what we have now.

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.

5

Opi n ions

Democratic Party Should Shift Attention to Texas in Future

Voters wait in line at a polling site in Houston on Super Tuesday.

Jackie Brant Opinions Editor Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed victory in Texas on Super Tuesday in the wake of numerous accusations of rampant voter suppression across the state.

This voter suppression could have contributed significantly to Biden’s win in the state. This result is alarming and something that the Democratic Party must take notice of and capitalize on in future elections.

Texas is one of 21 states in the U.S. ruled by a Republican “trifecta,” meaning that the Texas House of Representatives, the State Senate, and the office of the governor of Texas are all currently controlled by Republicans. There has been a Republican trifecta in Texas since 2003, essentially giving Republicans relatively unchecked power in the state.

This trifecta allowed significant changes to occur in Texas after the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013. In a 5–4 decision, the SCOTUS ruled that states and local governments no longer needed to get clearance to change their voting laws and practices as they once were required to do under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This case allowed states to enact discriminatory policies and practices to influence the results of elections.

After this decision, there were several states that passed notably discriminatory voting policies, Texas included. The Texas State Legislature enacted voter identification laws that made it increasingly difficult for people to vote. There was even a case in which State Senator Wendy Davis and former Attorney General, Governor Greg Abbot, were barred from voting for a period of time because the names on their voter identification cards did not match the names that were on the voter rolls; they eventually were allowed to vote only after signing an affidavit. These kinds of voter identification laws are so strict that even state elected officials had trouble voting because of them. Thus, it is important to note that while these laws can and do affect all voters, they disproportionately affect voters of color within the state.

Further, the Texas state government has closed 750 voting sites since 2012. According to a study by the Leadership Conference Education Fund, Texas had only one polling site per 7,700 residents as of 2018, while in 2012 — before Shelby County v. Holder — they had one polling site per 4,000 residents. The polling sites that were closed were primarily located in counties with high populations of people of color or in counties with rapidly growing POC populations.

Despite the fact that Texas has one of the highest populations of people of color in the country and one of the most rapidly increasing populations of any state in the U.S., Texas has one of the highest rates of poll site closures in the country between 2012 and 2018. The Leadership Conference Education Fund also found that in the 50 Texas counties with the highest POC growth rates between 2012 and 2018, there were 542 polling sites closed. Alternatively, in the 50 counties with the lowest POC populations only 34 polling sites were shut down. These closures occurred despite the fact that the population within the counties where 542 polling sites were closed grew by almost 2.5 million.

As a result of these polling site closures, people in

6

Photo courtesty of The Texas Observer

these counties had to wait in excessively long lines to cast their ballots in the Democratic primary this Tuesday. Hervis Rogers was the last person to vote at his polling site at Texas Southern University, and he waited a total of seven hours to finally cast his vote.

“I wanted to get my vote in to voice my opinion,” said Rogers. “I wasn’t going to let nothing stop me, so I waited it out … it was set up for me to walk away … But I said ‘Nah, I’m not going to do that.’”

Unfortunately, this was not an isolated instance.

Many voters in Texas had to wait anywhere between three and five hours to vote in this primary.

This is especially concerning considering that the race in Texas between Sanders and Biden was extremely close in most counties. In many counties, Sanders was edged out by only a point or two. The fact that the POC community — particularly the Latinx community, who largely turned out for Sanders across the board for the primary — was directly disadvantaged in the polling booths certainly had a huge effect on the outcome of not only the primary in Texas but also the remainder of Super Tuesday primaries as a whole. Of the primaries on Tuesday, Texas has one of the highest delegate counts, second only to California. Had there not been voting barriers in place against the POC community in Texas, Sanders might have been able to win the race in Texas and would have gained a significant number of delegates as a result. This would have had the potential to change the course of the entire Democratic primary.

However, there is one good thing that we can take away from this situation. The high rates of voter suppression and gerrymandering in Texas are indicative of the Republican Party’s fear that it will soon irreversibly lose Texas.

As Texas’s population is exploding, the state is experiencing a drastic change in its political climate.

Domestically, most of these individuals are moving to Texas from California, New York, and Illinois — more left-leaning states. This movement is certainly contributing to Texas’ shifting political climate.

Furthermore, younger voters and voters of color in Texas have had a much higher turnout than in previous years, despite the struggles they may face with lines at the polls and voter identification laws. Both these groups tend to be more left-leaning, and therefore they are also contributing to the shift in Texas politics.

So long as Texas’ governorship and state legislatures are dominated by Republicans, they will continue to do what they can to suppress the votes of minority groups, be it through methods such as gerrymandering or through closing down even more voting booths. However, it is more important than ever that these voters continue to turn out if they are able and that people in positions of power help these groups overcome barriers to voting.

The Democratic Party needs to pay attention to Texas. While it is true that a blue Texas would give Democrats an upper hand in political races for years to come, Democrats should turn their attention to Texas for the simple fact that these egregious attempts at voter suppression have gone unchecked for over six years now.

It is a direct and blatant attack on the rights of communities of color. As long as Texas remains a red state, communities of color will be increasingly sidelined by Republicans and excluded from the electoral process.

L etters to the editors (cont.)

Continued from page 5

Let’s allow that the term lacks precision, but is a concept that must cover what we all think of as basic needs — food, housing, clothing, health insurance, etc. — with some notion of a barrier still, but hardly impossible to overcome. It is urgent for us to impress upon the College a sense of oneness as humans, caring and supporting each other in life’s journey, however much we may fail to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Oberlin College’s endowment may exceed $900 million — still, the existence of a serious budgetary challenge is indisputable. We should only hope that the Board of Trustees and the president explore all imaginable ways to respond to these challenges.

It need not be pointed out that the College is not in the business of providing jobs for certain employees and that students seek to enroll at Oberlin because of our outstanding academic departments and programs. However, we all need to be reminded that there are easily hundreds or more colleges out of more than 3,000 in our nation where there are outstanding professors in any discipline.

What has so long distinguished Oberlin from most, and is a driving factor for many students’ choice to come here, is our sense and purpose of being an institution with a progressive conscience; a longing for and striving toward social justice, so much lacking in our nation’s richness of material goods. At Oberlin, students get both a superb education and an added yearning to go out in the world and make a name for themselves while practicing, exploring, and sharing their humanity — their understanding of what it means to be rich in the pursuit of fairness, dignity, and purpose. Let our existence be a much richer one, not solely about the dollars and cents.

– Booker C. Peek Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies

Why Tear Down Our Heroes?

We Need Them Now Saturday night, I went to Finney Chapel to hear Beethoven’s first two symphonies. It was exhilarating — hearing fresh, committed performances of revolutionary music. The student performers were on the same wavelength with each other and with our wonderful conductor, Professor of Conducting Raphael Jiménez. The audience was listening in rapt attention, cheering at the end of each revelatory piece.

What’s wrong with this picture? Well, this is old music, part of the “hegemonic institution of the canon,” written by a dead white male, Eurocentric, a remnant of pernicious 19th-century patriarchy, an oppressive… okay, stop (“Beethoven’s Dead — Can We Move on Now?” The Oberlin Review, Feb. 28, 2020). Why do we need to attack great achievements of the past? They are part of the fabric of our culture, and there is no reason they can’t coexist with contemporary reality. There is no need to destroy past heroes to make room for new ones.

About Beethoven: He was no god — he was a flawed human being, cantankerous, ill-kempt, and disorganized. Yet, at his core, he was a noble soul, dedicated to the art of music, an affectionate friend, a jolly companion, and above all, a seeker of truth and transcendence in his chosen vocation.

Beset by impending deafness, he wrote in the Heiligenstadt Testament in 1802: “… what humiliation when anyone beside me heard a flute in the far distance, while I heard nothing, or when others heard a shepherd singing, and I still heard nothing! Such things brought me to the verge of desperation, and well-nigh caused me to put an end to my life. Art! Art alone deterred me. Ah! How could I possibly quit the world before bringing forth all that I felt it was my vocation to produce?”

Saved by his art, Beethoven continued to evolve as an artist, always pushing the envelope, always striving for deeper ways to express ideas that sustained him: reverence for nature (Sixth Symphony, Op. 68, “Pastoral”); illness and healing (String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132); bondage, freedom, and the power of love (the opera Fidelio, Op. 72); and religious faith (Missa Solemnis, Op. 123).

Let us celebrate Beethoven’s hopeful message of resilience, aspiration, and transcendence; his relevance today, 250 years after his birth; and the bracing beauty of his creations, free of ideology or preconceptions. And, if anyone else has heroes they wish us to emulate, let them proclaim them, and we can celebrate them as well.

– Peter Takács Professor of Piano

Don’t Buy Into Mass Student Senate On Supporting UAW Coronavirus Hysteria Henry Hicks Austin Ward Contributing Writers

Leo Hochberg Columnist Coronavirus has now spread to 81 countries after breaking out in Wuhan, China just a few weeks ago, with over 97,800 confirmed cases and 3,332 confirmed deaths as of March 5. As is typically the case with contagious diseases, false news, overblown risk assessments, and conspiracy theories have spread quickly, inducing plague-level fears surrounding a disease that is only slightly more of a risk to the global population than the common flu. And while everyone should doubtlessly be taking coronavirus seriously, the hysteria surrounding the disease, on both a social and governmental level, has realistically done more direct damage to global quality of living than the disease itself. Here’s why that hysteria is so dangerous.

First and foremost, the spread of disease and accompanying public hysteria have had a long legacy of motivating racism, anti-Semitism, and prejudice against minority populations; a legacy that we have already started to see in the past few weeks alone. The global spread of the virus has since been blamed repeatedly on Asian people, leading to racist attacks and public shaming of individuals who have nothing to do with the spread of the disease. In one case this past week, a 23-year-old Singaporean man living in London was punched in the face in a racist hate crime, during which the attacker reportedly yelled, “I don’t want your coronavirus in my country.”

Meanwhile, as public fears rise about the danger of the disease, individual consumers have begun purchasing critical medical supplies in bulk. Medical masks are necessary for individuals who could spread viral genetic material via coughing or sneezing, as well as for the health care professionals treating those patients. However, so many people are stocking up on masks that medical facility supplies have dropped to critically low levels.

For a member of the general public, wearing a mask does not significantly decrease one’s risk of contracting the virus. Yet a general lack of public knowledge about appropriate preventive practices combined with public panic over diminishing supplies has resulted in a shortage so severe that the U.S. Surgeon General has requested that Americans stop buying masks altogether.

Finally, economic anxiety has caused a precipitous economic fallout. Stocks have plummeted in recent weeks as markets have responded to coronavirus fears. The financial consequences of coronavirus fallout, from decreased travel to low consumer purchasing, have had near-devastating impacts on global trade.

While coronavirus has yet to fully spread across the world, the damaging impacts of fear and hysteria certainly have. So what can we do to counter this panic and promote an effective global response?

First, take coronavirus seriously, but understand the facts. Recently, the World Health Organization estimated that the death rate of coronavirus is 3.4 percent, although this number is subject to change and is based only on early estimates. In comparison, the flu typically kills fewer than 1 percent — an important difference, but regardless, the vast majority of coronavirus cases are mild and pose little risk to immunocompetent people. Meanwhile, policy-decisions and government responses will also play a critical role in stopping the spread of coronavirus, with many countries already acting quickly to temporarily close schools and rush medical care to affected people. While difficult in the medium-term, these measures are critical to ensuring that the disease is kept away from those who are most vulnerable — children, the immunodeficient, and the elderly.

Second, be keenly aware of who is responsible for the negative impact of coronavirus upon the infected, their families, and their communities. Blaming racial and ethnic groups or private individuals for the spread of coronavirus is a counterproductive response which only motivates and animates xenophobia and anti-Asian racism. However, while these sorts of disasters are not explicitly manmade, their impact is guided and facilitated through policies that are crafted by people. The world’s poor will suffer the greatest consequences of this outbreak, primarily due to the lack of affordable and accessible public health care, even in highly developed countries such as the U.S. Policymakers and politicians who stand in the way of accessible health care reform should be held directly accountable for the damage done by coronavirus, not racial groups or private citizens.

Finally, practice effective transmission prevention. If possible, see a doctor immediately if you find out that you have come into contact with an infected person. Avoid crowded public spaces if the coronavirus is reported in your area, and encourage others to do so as well. Cough into your sleeve and avoid touching your face, nose, eyes, and mouth. And for the love of god, wash your hands. Coronavirus is a threat to everyone, but we can all do our part to ensure that its spread is limited and that it is kept away from those whom it is more likely to kill. Hysteria is the enemy of common-sense health policy, so the best advice is to simply stay level-headed and not buy into narratives of mass panic.

The Oberlin Review | March 6, 2020

This article is part of the Review’s Student Senate column. In an effort to increase communication and transparency, Student Senators will provide personal perspectives on recent events on campus and in the community. This statement was originally released in an email to the entirety of the student body in Student Senate’s weekly newsletter.

Due to Oberlin College’s financial deficit, President Carmen Twillie Ambar and administrative staff have decided to formally consider contracting with outside vendors instead of continuing their contract with the United Automobile Workers union. This could lead to a total of 108 full-time workers losing their UAW jobs: 52 full-time dining employees and 56 fulltime custodial workers. This would reduce the size of the UAW union at Oberlin by two-thirds.

College administrators estimate that these layoffs and subcontracting could save more than $2 million annually.

This move toward outsourcing elicited a significant response from both UAW representatives and the student body. On Wednesday, Feb. 19, organizers estimate that more than 800 students and members of the Oberlin community demonstrated outside of a General Faculty meeting in King Building to show solidarity with the UAW, the workers, and their families.

As Student Senators, we succeeded in allowing UAW and student representatives to voice their opinions and concerns in the meeting.

Throughout the meeting, President Ambar repeatedly argued that Oberlin’s academic and musical excellence are the core of Oberlin’s mission and are the parts of the mission which should be prioritized as we look to Oberlin’s future.

We fundamentally disagree with the characterization of Oberlin’s mission as espoused by President Ambar. Of course, as she has argued, academic and musical excellence are key parts of what makes Oberlin great. But what makes Oberlin special is its historical commitment to social justice.

Oberlin has always portrayed itself as offering more than academics; it offers academics with a conscience. A vital part of an Oberlin education is how students are prepared to fight for what they believe in and do what is right, even — and especially — when it’s hard.

We believe that the College must stand by our community’s true mission, rather than alienating prospective students by talking the social justice talk but not walking the social justice walk. Gutting one of our campus unions and betraying the families that have built and maintained our community — in some cases, for generations — is unconscionable and runs

COMIC

counter to the mission that attracted us to Oberlin College in the first place.

We believe that in order for Oberlin to survive the current difficulties that all liberal arts colleges are facing, as well as our specific financial challenges, Oberlin needs to invest in the parts of itself that have historically made it stand out. Its identity includes an incredible Conservatory, a co-op system, a commitment to sustainability, and high-caliber professors.

But at the core of Oberlin’s identity is a commitment to social justice and standing up for what is right. Many students, including Student Senators, chose Oberlin because we felt that Oberlin’s moral commitment was something special and something we wanted to be a part of. Union busting doesn’t just betray the workers and their families who keep this campus running, it betrays the students and alumni who chose Oberlin for its values. When the actions of the Oberlin administration run so deeply and publicly counter to the image of Oberlin that’s sold to students, we worry that it turns away prospective students and believe it contributes to Oberlin’s plummeting retention rates.

We argue that any action severely undermining Oberlin’s long and oft-touted history of fighting for social justice threatens the health and longevity of the institution.

As a Senate we stand in full support of the UAW and we condemn the actions of the administration that run counter to Oberlin’s mission and values as stated on the Oberlin College website.

We support any further peaceful demonstrations and encourage all students to stand up for Oberlin’s workers. However, we also acknowledge that not everyone may feel comfortable protesting and that different students face different types of risks in these situations.

For example, students who aren’t U.S. citizens may experience much harsher consequences if police are called to a demonstration and they are arrested. Even if they are not involved in any unlawful behavior, pictures of them at an action on social media could negatively impact them since social media accounts are now monitored as part of the U.S. visa application process. It’s also increasingly likely that customs officers search students’ phones when they’re entering the U.S. They can look through messages, emails, and social media accounts to look for anything they believe to be unlawful behavior. Any perception of unlawful behavior could result in a student’s visa being revoked.

Please be mindful of this if you are encouraging others to attend a protest. Student safety is a priority for the Senate and for our whole community.

We also urge the student body to contact the Student Senate for support as well as guidance in future endeavors. We strongly believe in the cause and want to help!

A Love Letter to the Rapid Response Team

Ananya Gupta, Managing Editor

7

Text and Layout by Nico Vickers, This Week Editor

Black History Month may have ended last week, but it’s never a bad time to brush up on your Black history knowledge! During the fall 2019 semester, I conducted a survey in which I asked Black history quiz. The data has been run through SPSS, a statistical analysis software predominantly used in psychology research, to determine which Oberlin student populations

(from most often correct to least; partially correct excluded from percentage)

151

Oberlin students took this survey (1 out of every 18 students)

Surveys were distributed online, but paper copies were also handed out in person in spaces including classes, Afrikan Heritage House dinner, co-op meals, and other places around campus. In the data, area of study and racial identity totals will equal more than 151 because people were allowed to place themselves in more than one category. It is also worth noting that Africana Studies is listed twice, under AAST and Cultural Studies, which may have bolstered Cultural Studies scores. Finally, due to the survey’s distribution in my classes, there is an oversampling of second-years and students in the social sciences.

7.85

out of

18

1) Name two prominent crops that African slaves picked.

— 78.8% correct, 2.6% incorrect 2) Name one historically Black college.

— 70.7% correct, 26.8% incorrect* 3) Who were the Little Rock Nine?

— 62.9% correct, 31.1% incorrect 4) Name a famous Black inventor/ scientist and what they studied.

— 49% correct, 41.7% incorrect* 5) What was the decision in the case Plessy v. Ferguson?

— 35.1% correct, 64.2% incorrect 6) What is Rodney King famous for?

— 33.8% correct, 57.6% incorrect* 7) Which organization are Stokely Carmichael and Huey P. Newton famous for?

— 31.1% correct, 67.5% incorrect* 8) The Tuskegee Study (1932– 1972) studied which disease in Black men?

— 30.5% correct, 68.2% incorrect** 9) Name something that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibited.

— 28.5% correct, 66.2% incorrect 10) Who gave the speech “The Ballot or the Bullet”?

— 23.8% correct, 76.2% incorrect* I came up with these questions hoping to have a balanced mix of easy and hard questions that only scratched the surface of Black history. I anticipated that most of this information would have been encountered in school settings. * Black students performed better on this question

possible points

** White students performed worse on this quescance

The Results

By self-reported level of knowledge of Black history

By region

1. Southeast, 10.75 2. Great Lakes, 10.34 3. Mountain West, 9.2 4. South Central, 8.88

level of knowledge and getting a higher score.

Other predictors

5. Northeast, 7.24 6. California, 7.23 7. Mid-South, 7.21

Higher scores Being Black Having taken one or more AAST course(s) at Oberlin Primarily learned Black history in college Areas of study: Math and Science Cultural Studies Africana Studies

8. Northwest, 6.86 9. New England, 6.63 10. Midwest, 5 11. International, 2.86

Being white Primarily learned Black history in high school Areas of Study: English Philosophy and Religion

Lower scores

tion, described above are connections that were found between demographic variables and higher overall scores and these

Conclusions students performed worse than any other racial group. person, constantly reassuring guilty white Obies that their scores were acceptable, when in reality, I do not have the power to do that. It is up to each individual who ponders these questions to decide whether they are responsible for knowing this information based on their prior education, identity, privilege, and interest. Personally, I think that white Obies can do better, but I am truly no authority. I considered including the answers to the questions in this spread, but I decided not Google search.

Weekly Events Friday, March 6

Saturday, March 7

El Centro Volunteer Initiative Art Auction and Pottery Sale A silent auction of prints donated

by Oberlin students, and pottery from the Oberlin Pottery Coop. All proceeds go to helping El Centro Students pay for citizen application fees.

Oberlin Free Store Handsewing Workshop A workshop in which Free Store employees will teach attendees to mend clothes by applying patches and darning holes, among other strategies. Find an item

7–10 p.m. // 17 North Pleasant Street

1–2 p.m. // Free Store, Asia House basement

Monday, March 9

Roaring ’20s Purim Speakeasy Hosted by Chabad, this event will consist of live jazz, food, Megillah reading, games, and hamentashen to celebrate the Jewish holiday Purim. RSVP at the Resource Conservation Team jewishoberlin.com/purim will supply the rest.

8:30–9:30 p.m. // Peters Hall

Tuesday, March 10 Anxiety Toolbox session workshop designed to help students learn better skills To sign up in advance, visit tinyurl.

12:15–1:15 p.m. // Student Health and Counseling Center

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE March 6, 2020

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 17

Poetry Event “Afterwords” Reflects on Allen Exhibition Jaimie Yue Arts & Culture Editor Students, faculty, and community members gathered at the Allen Memorial Art Museum for “Afterwords: An Evening of Poetry at the AMAM” this past Tuesday.

The event was in tandem with the “Afterlives of the Black Atlantic” exhibition, also at the AMAM. “Afterwords’’ featured spoken word poetry by nine students who not only responded to the exhibition, but added to the art and left the audience with more to reflect upon.

The event was co-organized by members of OSLAM and the Oberlin Creative Writing Department, particularly Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing Lynn Powell and Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Chanda Feldman.

“Afterwords” also commemorated Toni Morrison, as it was inspired by The Foreigner’s Home, a documentary directed

by Associate Professor of Cinema Studies Rian Brown-Orso and Professor of Cinema Studies and English Geoff Pingree.

Through exclusive new footage, The Foreigner’s Home expands upon the 2006 exhibition of the same name at The Louvre in Paris, which Toni Morrison guest-curated.

In the exhibition, Morrison featured artists whose work dealt with issues surrounding race, identity, and what it means to be “foreign.”

Andrea Gyorody, who is AMAM’s Ellen Johnson OC ’33 assistant curator of modern and contemporary art, explained that the poetry reading event had been planned alongside the exhibition because “Afterlives of the Black Atlantic” shared similar themes as The Foreigner’s Home.

According to Gyorody, there are many ways in which ‘Afterlives’ and the documentary are connected, such as displacement, time, and travel. For example, artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s black banner

in the exhibition asks “ARE WE THERE YET?” in white block letters, echoing the questions Toni Morrison poses at the end of the film: How does history progress?

Where do we go from here?

As each poet performed, the projector behind them showed the specific piece from the exhibition that inspired their writing. College fourth-year Kaitlyn Rivers and College third-year Sierra Jelks both discussed how the ‘Afterlives’ exhibition resonated with them. Articulating an emotional reaction to the art exhibition proved to be a unique challenge.

Poetry is often more stripped down and sparer than prose, digging at the emotional core of language. Gyorody noted how, compared to the informative and educational nature of art exhibitions, poetry comes from a much more personal vantage point. “[Assistant Professor of Art History Matthew Rarey] and I both very much wanted the programming around the exhibition to provide opportunities to highlight the voices of scholars of color in particular who have been formative to our own thinking about these issues and the works in the show,” Gyorody said. “And in that same way, we wanted the poetry reading as it is in The Foreigner’s Home, in the scenes that inspired it, to be a space for student poets of color to reflect on the themes of the show. And I think that’s part of why the poems are so emotionally powerful because they represent intensely personal content for the people who have written those works.”

Initially, Rivers was hesitant to perform in “Afterwords” precisely because of its emotional, personal tone. Her poem, “Palatable Perception,” is an indictment against the sugar market, its historical dependence on slave labor, and the present-day ignorance toward that history, particularly by white Americans. It is directly inspired by “Untitled (Revenge)” by Felix

College fourth-year Kaitlyn Rivers reads her poem “Palatable Perception” in front of “Untitled (Revenge)” by Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor Gonzalez-Torres — a pile of blue candy laid on the exhibition floor for visitors to take and eat. Ultimately, Rivers decided that she wanted to share how the exhibit resonates with her.

“I think a lot of times people walk into installations like that — without reading labels, without knowing the backstory — and just kind of pass by it like it’s just a piece of art, when [for] some people like us, it’s so much more than just an art installation.

It’s a history, it’s people’s stories, it’s their lives. And it’s the modern issue that we live in right now,” Rivers said.

Inspired by the exhibit, the poets grappled with important, piercing questions.

“I feel like my poem and ‘Afterlives’ and Toni Morrison’s work all deal with the pervasive historical trauma of slavery and the fact that that’s something that unites both the past and present,” Jelks said of her poem “A False Juxtaposition.” “It’s just a thread that continues to have an effect on just the diaspora. … It’s more of an imagined space of, like, how do we imagine trauma, how do we create, how do we visualize it?”

See Poets, page 13

Behind the Scenes: Cosi Fan Tutte Opens This Wednesday Casey Troost Staff Writer Beginning Wednesday at 8 p.m., the Oberlin Opera Theater will continue to uphold a tradition that’s at least four decades old: producing Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte once every 10 years.

First performed in 1790, Cosi Fan Tutte is set in Naples and centered around a scheme between three military officers and a maid, Despina, to test the fidelity of two of the officers’ lovers. The eldest officer, Don Alfonso, bets against the younger Ferrando and Guglielmo that, by the end of the day, he will prove that their sweethearts, Dorabella and Fiordiligi, aren’t eternally loyal to them.

“It can be a harsh and bitter comedy,” said Costume Designer Chris Flaharty. “At the beginning of its life, it was taken as a very risqué and scandalous piece. The Victorians wouldn’t do it.”

Jonathon Field, the show’s director, explained that some of Mozart’s historical controversy stemmed from his challenge of social class conventions, which was also a theme in The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni.

“What he did that is so unique is that he wrote some of the more beau-

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tiful arias for the servant class,” Field said.

Conservatory fourth-year Alexis Reed, who plays Fiordiligi in two of the performances, explained Mozart’s focus on the working class.

“He makes the working class smarter than the upper class in most of his pieces,” Reed said. “He makes fun of the upper class to bring them down off their pedestal and celebrates the cleverness the working class uses to their advantage. You’ll see that Despina thinks the girls are stupid and tricks them all the time.”

In this time period, Western European society was hypersensitized to any challenge to class hierarchy.

“The rights and equality of humanity was very much a discussed topic,” Field explained. “[You] have the French Revolution, which [is] turn[ing] everything upside down, and you’ve already had the American Revolution.”

Though Cosi may not have been a hit in the 19th century, it’s now so popular it’s considered a standard. Still, Flaharty says that the opera maintains its controversy.

“I think it’s more provocative and challenging to audiences now than it was in 1790,” he said. “You learned a

little lesson, didn’t you, but now you can’t return back to the way it was.

With our contemporary eyes, we see those differences. I’ve also heard comments about the cruelty of the men’s actions. But the women romanticize their lovers just as much as the men do. It’s about four callow young people ... [coming] around to a sense of reality, like, ‘Wake up, we’re all humans here, we all make mistakes.’”

Though the performance has evolved since its debut, Oberlin’s production is set in the time period of its creation, featuring a finely-detailed, hand-painted set, mirrored floors, and nearly historically-accurate costuming.

“Because the construction was on the medium side, the painted details took more time,” said Joe Natt, the show’s technical director. “We started building this show at the beginning of December, painting it as we go along.”

Because of the size of some of the set’s components, the painters had to use a projector to keep the proportions accurate. Surprisingly, the painted detail is a more notable aspect than the mirrored floor — Natt has overseen three iterations of Cosi with this feature. Field explains that he’s continued to use the mirrored floor because

of how well it works.

“I love it because it heightens the artificiality of the characters [and] their manners,” he said. “The glow from underneath makes the actors look like moving Dresden dolls.”

Accentuating this artificiality is the actor’s historical physicality, driven by both the feel and physical constraints of period dress.

“Sitting down when you have layers of skirts feels different,” Flaharty said “It should help the performer with that feeling of elegance and refinement that we’re hoping they achieve for the character. The corsetry ... [won’t let] you bend over at the waist and pick up something. You find a different way to do it, and that’s how the women at the time would have done it.”

All of these design elements enhance the music and acting in the show.

“Pay attention to who sings together, because that means they’re in the same mind space,” Reed advises. “Mozart’s music reflects what the character is genuinely thinking and feeling.”

Cosi Fan Tutte plays Wednesday, March 11 through Sunday, March 15 in Hall Auditorium. Tickets are $8 for students and $10 for the general public.

TIMARA Recital Showcases Combination of Coding and Music

Double degree fourth-year Max Addae dancing with audience members at the end of his recital.

Photo courtesy of Max Addae Carson Li Staff Writer At the end of double-degree fourthyear Max Addae’s junior recital, audience members danced on stage as the Technology in Music and Related Arts and Computer Science major coded live beats. The recital, which was performed in Fairchild Chapel last Sunday, was aptly titled Algorhythm, a phrase that refers to the combination of computer algorithms and music used throughout the show.

In this performance, Addae used his coding skills in multiple creative ways, capitalizing on the intersection of his

two majors to create one beautiful show.

A computer screen was projected onto the wall for the show’s opening, and Addae typed in new codes to change the rhythm of the first piece.

Later in the recital, a piece titled “Short-Lived” caught the audience’s attention. “So fleeting is a thing called life,” Addae said at the start of the piece, which was based on the poem “A Fleeting Image” by Avi Fleischer. Then, he raised his phone, and the music suddenly started — moving like wind from speaker to speaker in a surround-sound fashion.

According to the program notes, a recording of the opening line was sliced

into short grains of sound that were randomly selected and output to various speakers in the space. The theme of the piece was the fleeting and uncertain nature of life, and Addae hoped this “randomness” of sound output captured that.

It’s clear from this recital that knowledge in computer coding can lead to a world of creative musical opportunities. For Addae, computer science skills came before the TIMARA major. Addae began his Oberlin career as a Computer Science and Musical Studies major in the College, but he applied to the Conservatory in the spring of his third year.

Just two semesters after applying for the major, Addae was able to put together an innovative performance, with help from both TIMARA faculty and online tutorials.

“I was kind of on my own in terms of learning how to combine code with my music,” said Addae. “But I have online resources like YouTube and tutorials and stuff like that. Online just made it so much easier, while also still having the support of the TIMARA community as a feedback space to just like workshop ideas with them and see what they thought about them.”

Addae’s faculty advisor, Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts Eli Stine, OC ’14, also studied Computer Science and TIMARA. Stine was able to help with certain aspects of the recital, such as the surround sound in “Short-Lived.” Stine explained that his computer science knowledge allows him to create various tool sets that generate visuals or audio.

“I’ve made digital musical instruments that you can perform over like multichannel loudspeaker surround sound systems,” Stine said. “I’ve made generative video systems where they

take in a microphone and then generate visuals from that. And in addition to that, just a bunch of other pieces of software that I use on my own to make sounds.”

Computer Science and TIMARA can intersect on a number of projects. Another TIMARA double-degree student, fourth-year Piper Hill, has a second major in Mathematics. While Hill said that he doesn’t generally use “computer science” in his music, he recalled a few projects that have used programming.

“In my junior recital, for example, I programmed a patch in software called ‘Max’ that allowed me to change effects and spatialization on my voice using a Wii remote,” Hill wrote in an email to the Review. “I’ve also used Wii remotes and Max before to create a virtual Chu Taiko Drum in a collaborative composition with [College third-year] Will FK Tokunaga. Recently, though, I have just been making pop music in Ableton, which doesn’t really involve computer science knowledge, but definitely heavily relies on technology.”

Computer Science skills are in no way required for the TIMARA major. Addae stresses that TIMARA is a diverse field, and there are many different paths that TIMARA majors can take.

“There’s the sound design; there’s the recording engineer; there’s live performance,” Addae said. “So I don’t think anyone necessarily needs any sort of skill set because you can just really make your own out of what you have, which I think is the best part about the major.”

“It’s not that everyone has to have a certain destination in mind.”

Even though these skills aren’t required, the combination of Computer Science and TIMARA skills is particularly exciting, especially in the case of Addae’s innovative Algorhythm recital.

Oberlin Sanctuary Exhibit Opens in Cleveland

This past Saturday, the Oberlin Sanctuary Project opened an exhibition tracing the town’s long history of providing safe spaces to people of marginalized identities. It serves to raise awareness about Oberlin’s role as a sanctuary city. The exhibit will run through the end of the month in Cleveland Public Library’s Langston Hughes branch.

“The goal of the Oberlin Sanctuary Project is to provide a resource for teaching, research, and discussion concerning Oberlin’s history of providing [a] sanctuary or safe haven for people in need,” wrote College Archivist Ken Grossi in an email to

The Oberlin Review | March 6, 2020

the Review.

This particular exhibition aims to highlight Oberlin’s role as a sanctuary for various oppressed groups, from the pre-Civil War era through the present day.

“Our traveling exhibit and online digital exhibit include stories such as the Underground Railroad and anti-slavery activity prior to the American Civil War, the Japanese-American students at Oberlin during World War II, and the work of the Overground Railroad Coalition in the 1980s,” Grossi wrote.

Because the exhibit opened in Cleveland and will travel to other locations, it will teach a wide audience about Oberlin history.

“The Oberlin Sanctuary Project traveling exhibit will give our patrons the opportunity to learn what role Oberlin has played as a sanctuary community over the decades,” William Bradford, OC ’76, manager of the Cleveland Public Library’s Langston Hughes Branch, wrote in an email to the Review.

Text by Gigi Ewing, Production Editor Photo courtesy of News 5 Cleveland

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

Anne Trubek, OC ’88, Founder of Belt Magazine, Belt Publishing to the term are interesting, and I respect all of them and understand that people don’t like that. But for me, it’s descriptive and neutral. I also think since 2016, the term has become more and more common, so it’s less and less surprising to people.

Photo courtesy of Tanya Rosen Jones

Anne Trubek Anne Trubek, OC ’88, is the founder of Belt Magazine and Belt Publishing. After graduating, Trubek returned to teach at Oberlin as a rhetoric professor from 1997–2015 before becoming a full-time freelance journalist, publicist, and entrepreneur. In addition to authoring a number of books, Trubek’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired, and many other publications. At Oberlin’s journalism symposium last Saturday, entitled “A Disrupted Media Landscape: Skills, Perspectives, Solutions,” Trubek spoke about independent publishing and how to pitch stories.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Lauren O’Hear Staff Writer What persuaded you to return to Oberlin for the journalism symposium?

I taught at Oberlin for 18 years and I mainly taught journalism, and in fact, I was involved with organizing the symposium that we did in 2011. So I thought that it was great that you all were doing this again. And honestly, everything was presented really well to me, so I thought it would be fun to help out if I could.

As a professor, what inspired or encouraged you to explore journalism as a career?

Definitely teaching. I love teaching the students and [being] so engaged with the ideas and concerns that [the students] brought to the classroom. [I was] thinking about

that in terms of the topics that I was writing about, wanting to be able to write about them for a larger audience and not just for other professors. I also had a very unusual situation at Oberlin — I had a half-time position, and I got divorced, so I needed money. So I started doing a lot of freelancing as a way to bring in more income, and then that just sort of snowballed to becoming my full-time job.

It must’ve taken a lot of courage to walk away from a tenured position to do freelance. What were you thinking about when you made that decision?

Well, it took me a long time. There were a couple of years I was on unpaid leave, and then I resigned my tenure. You know, everyone says you’re crazy if you leave a tenured position. I had internalized a lot of that, and I was worried that I was making a wrong decision. I’d saved up money for a few years and got enough confidence in my ability to bring in money, and realized that I was going to be able to succeed.

Both your magazine and your publishing company embrace the term “Rust Belt,” which can be used derogatorily to refer to areas of the Midwest that have experienced deindustrialization and economic decline beginning in the 1980s. What is the significance of that term in your work?

I see it as a neutral term. I completely understand people who see it as a derogatory. I see it as simply a very, very apt description of the de-industrialized part of the Midwest. I like it. It has richness of texture and complexity as a term. Other terms like “Great Lakes Area” are just sort of more bland. So I do find that people’s responses

A lot of your work focuses on creating a platform for voices from the Rust Belt. What is the value of those voices being heard in the national arena?

It’s a really simple thing. I felt like there was a gap that I could help fill. That there were just a lot of fascinating stories and writers who have things to say about the region, and there was a huge hunger on the part of readers to hear that. I think that because both media journalism and publishing are so centralized in New York, it can be harder for people there to understand why these are not just “regional stories,” but are important and have huge audiences. Not to mention the fact that there’s like 60 million people who live in the region. I felt like there was so much that had been under-told and underreported about the region.

I also wanted to be able to help writers who might not get past conventional gatekeepers. I will mention that the press does not only publish about the Rust Belt now. …

So our books now have a wider range of topics, but they still all have some commonality that’s rooted in our beginnings.

As you were beginning as a small publication and magazine, what were some of the challenges that you encountered?

Money, money, money! That was very hard. And also being taken seriously. We really wanted [the magazine] to be a place that was publishing complex stories that often didn’t shine a happy light on the communities that were involved. A lot of people didn’t like that. This is a region particularly that’s been beaten down, and they wanted stories about how great it is in Cleveland, or in Lorain County, or in Detroit. I think it’s great in all those places, but I wanted to be able to keep the complexity of the stories so that we weren’t either cheerleading for the region or beating up on it. But the fact that we weren’t cheerleaders I think disappointed people at first.

What role do small liberal arts colleges in the Midwest like Oberlin play in creating a platform for the complex stories from the Rust Belt?

I think traditionally Oberlin has not seen itself as part of its place, its region as much. I mean, definitely historically it sees its role, with abolition for instance. But I think that our default [instinct] is to often look to the coast.

There’s a worry that if [Oberlin] becomes too identified with Cleveland or Northeast Ohio, it will be seen less as a national institution. So there is a tension there, but I think these are really interesting and energizing issues because there’s just a lot of possible solutions and things that can come from thinking about the college’s literal place.

New Club Creates a Space for Alternative Black and Femme Students Alice Koeninger Senior Staff Writer Alt/Black, Oberlin’s new goth, punk, metal, alternative club for Black women and femmes, was founded by College second-year Jordann Sadler and College third-year Mikaela Howard at the beginning of this semester. The club welcomes “all Black, femme, and women-identifying students, as well as their constructive allies” who are interested in alternative subcultures.

“It’s about getting us [Black women and Black femmes] all together and seeing that we’re here and recognizing that we’re here,” Sadler said.

Sadler came up with the idea for the group as a Black woman and metal fan who does not see herself represented in the mainstream metal community.

“We saw all the gatekeeping — even within the Black alternative community — and it was just so weird to me,” she said.

“Alternative has always been anti-establishment, freeing yourself from restrictions that we put on ourselves. ... And it’s funny because in the liberal community we have [that promotes the idea of ], ‘Oh, be free and dress the way you dress.’ But

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if you’re Black, it’s like, ‘Whoa, wait a second.’ [Alt/Black] is about noticing the hypocrisy in those communities that are permanently white spaces.”

Howard, who is passionate about goth fashion, and specifically Lolita fashion — a Japanese fashion movement inspired by the Rococo period and born out of youth street culture — also finds gatekeeping an issue in traditional goth identity.

“When I was younger, there were pale blogs [where] only pale people were seen as like the correct answer [to goth fashion],” Howard explained. “And if you had darker skin, then you didn’t deserve to wear certain clothes.”

This type of gatekeeping and putting restrictions on the idea of “alternative” extends to the Black community as well.

“When [I’m] wearing pastels, sometimes even my Black friends will be like, ‘Are you sure you want to do that? Like, is that really what we’re doing?’” Howard said.

College third-year and Alt/Black member Madeleine Clements describes her experience a little differently.

“I think I had a hard time trying to figure out if I fit within [the alterna-

tive] community,” Clements said. “Like I identify as alternative, but not necessarily punk. I grew up listening to folk and country music. That’s not something, until ‘Old Town Road’ came out, that was really explored in the Black community.”

Many students who come to Oberlin experience a sort of culture shock when met with the alternative Oberlin culture.

“There were three Obie-like people [in my hometown], and then I get here and everybody’s Obie, and I can tell that I stick out like a sore thumb,” said Howard, who is from North Carolina.

As all these people have found, it can be difficult when everyone else is weird in the same way, but in a different way from you.

“It’s hard to be weird amongst a group of weirdos,” said Clements.

As a result, Alt/Black emphasizes a welcoming atmosphere where everyone can come and learn about different alternative subcultures, regardless of their background.

“Coming in, I didn’t know anything about the history of punk at all,” Clements said. “That just wasn’t my genre.

And [Sadler] had made a whole PowerPoint.”

Alt/Black is for people, specifically Black and femme people, who feel invisible or unrepresented on campus, or lonely. A lot of the group’s members focus on making connections and learning about all the different definitions of alternative, which vary from person to person, according to Sadler.

Future events include a trip to Volunteers of America thrift store where each participant gets an hour to find outfits for every other person in the group. Sadler is also hoping to host a movie screening of the documentary A Band Called Death, which is about a Black punk band from Detroit.

“If I wasn’t here, Alt/Black wouldn’t be created,” Sadler said. “So it was like out of this oppression and suppression, there’s something beautiful that comes out of it and that’s Blackness. Black is [about] creating the most beautiful thing.”

Alt/Black meets in Wilder 211 on Saturdays from 3–4 p.m. and is enthusiastic about welcoming new members. Sadler and Howard are in the process of getting a club charter for Alt/Black and encourage interested students to email them and join the Facebook group.

CROSSWORD

A Crossword of Definitions

Lauren O’Hear, Crossword Contributor DOWN 1. Hematocyte, abbr.

2. Distinctive span of years 3. Pastry fat 4. Navajo silverworking artist, Horace 5. Snugly embedded 6. Verb, to seem likely 7. Expression of surprise understanding 8. Concrete reinforcer 9. The number of operands a function takes 10. Dwight’s troubled cousin from The Office 11. Often treated with Adderall

13. Rain Man and Kramer vs. Kramer Oscar winner 17. Plural abbreviation of 19 across 20. Characteristic of soliloquy deliverance 21. Research laboratory within the National Institute of Standards and Technology that focuses on research and data, abbr.

22. It means no 24. “Angel dust” hallucinogen 25. It may make a splash but it keeps you going in the right direction 26. Ingredient in homemade soap 29. The largest archipelago in Southeast Asia 30. A suit for a suitor

31. Adaptive training, often after a serious injury, abbr.

32. Addition to a letter 34. Small child 36. Monarch’s flying fortress in Godzilla 37. American maritime navigation pioneer, Nathaniel 40. Old ones die hard 41. Wears away 42. Six-headed sea monster featured in The Odyssey 43. Pop artist known for her single “Moment of Truth” 44. British blackcurrant drink 45. Fabric for burial 47. “Cultural capital” of Morocco 50. Process of learning emotional regulation and building interpersonal skills, abbr.

53. George Washington’s value 54. Clinical term for high blood pressure, abbr.

56. Precedes a rewording or clarification 57. Martin Luther King’s father 58. Early multimedia, abbr.

ACROSS 1. Phew!

6. God and elder brother of Krishna in Hinduism 12. Milwaukee Brewers fielder, nicknamed “the Hebrew hammer” 13. Greetings from above 14. Judean King known in Christianity for his attempt to kill Jesus 15. Sagan, Weathers, and Azuz 16. Unusual 18. A mistake or blunder 19. A useless coffee 23. A bloodhound’s guiding sense 24. Math expression with variables and coefficients 27. Low, sandy island on the surface of a coral reef 28. High-ranking official in the Naval Air Reserve, abbr.

29. Denny’s competitor 33. Middle schooler 35. Subdivisions of an IP network 38. Doctor of optometry 39. Explosive drink 40. Archaic command 43. Angry dialogue 46. Slice of circumference 47. Akin to BTW 48. Contracted synonym of lacked 49. A hybrid berry, not yet a man 51. What a car does at a stoplight 52. Standardized test given to Ohio high school students, required for graduation 53. The Buckeye State 55. Disclose 56. Indifferent, first two vowels switched 59. Agency of the federal government that handles retirement, survivor, and disability benefits, abbr.

60. Whiskers 61. Place of refuge

Poets Share Personal Connections to “Afterlives” Exhibit Continued from page 10 Similarly, College first-year Fafa Nutor wrote about the urgent need to convey, as clearly as possible, how differently Black and white students occupy, learn about, and respond to museum exhibitions like “Afterlives.”

“It has become increasingly apparent to me that nonBlack people, especially those who are white, do not understand the gravity and the sacred nature of these [museum] spaces,” Nutor wrote in an email to the Review. “Black history and art and other facets of who we are have been taken from us for centuries. When I and other Black peo-

ple visit these spaces, we are connecting with entities and energies that we have been divorced from. My visit [to “Afterlives”] was a spiritual experience. [Non-Black students] can simply do their homework and bounce out.”

Jelks and Rivers went on to explain how Toni Morrison was one of the pioneers of Black literature, and how they felt compelled to continue her legacy by contributing to “Afterwords” as poets of color.

“We’re writing as Black women about these subjects, and all of our poems are vastly different,” Jelks said. “We have vastly different backgrounds.”

The diverse content within the selection of poems at this event alludes to the vastness of people’s experiences.

No one poem can fully encapsulate the entire Black experience, but each poem is a personal and, most importantly, genuine contribution toward it.

“I think it’s important for every student to go see the exhibition if not only to learn about your history, or your historical involvement in it, or how are you involved yourself now,” Rivers said. “Because it does play on historical and contemporary issues, and if you are not working to fix those contemporary issues, what are you really doing?”

COMIC Clair Wang Staff Cartoonist

The Oberlin Review | March 6, 2020

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Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

College Third-Year Tom Decker, Men’s Lacrosse Player

College third-year Tom Decker, the men’s lacrosse team’s leading scorer this season, is on a scorching tear. After burning the Thiel College Tomcats with a nine-point game in the Yeomen’s 21–10 season-opening win, Decker was awarded the North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Week award. He followed up that incredible performance with a solid four-point day against the Albion College Britons, propelling the Yeomen to a 12–11 victory.

The former All-NCAC honorable mention athlete is poised to have another big season for the team. When he’s not on the field, Decker studies Environmental Studies and is trying to make the most out of the remainder of his time in college.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jordan Auerbach What led you to Oberlin?

My father went here. Initially, I did not want to go to Oberlin. I wanted to forge my own path. My other top choices were Lewis & Clark [College] and American University, but American University was too close to home and Lewis & Clark did not have the sports I wanted. Based on what I told my college counselors and what they thought, it appeared that Oberlin was the best fit for me. I was thinking about doing environmental studies or environmental science. I liked the vibe on campus. What I would say to a prospective athlete is that no matter where you end up, I hope you’re as happy as I am here.

How did it feel to be an All-NCAC Honorable Mention last year?

Pretty similar to [winning NCAC] Player of the Week.

It was cool, but it didn’t make me happy. Player of the Week and Honorable Mention are fun honors but, in the end, it doesn’t really mean anything. They’re just another sign that I needed to get better.

What are your personal goals for this year?

For lacrosse, I want to start having more fun. I still

have a lot of fun. However, I complain quite a bit during practice, and it sometimes feels like a chore. But now, it’s really starting to sink in that I don’t have much time left [at Oberlin]. Therefore, I’m trying to enjoy every moment while it lasts. In terms of school, I want to really start figuring out what I want to do with the rest of my time here and what interests me academically as opposed to what classes are required.

What are your goals for your team this year?

I want us to have as much fun as we possibly can. I don’t really care if we lose every game. As long as we’re having fun I really don’t care what the outcome is.

Winning and not having fun is just a waste of time for me.

How old were you when you started playing lacrosse?

I started playing in seventh grade because all my friends stopped playing baseball. I’ve been playing ever since.

What athletes have influenced your playing style?

I don’t really watch any sports. So, no pro athletes.

[However,] my brother, my dad, and some of my high school and college teammates have all had an impact on me and my style.

What’s your favorite movie and why?

My favorite movie is the hit film Shaolin Soccer. It came out in 2001, and I watched it for the first time on a spring break trip with my family friends. My brother and I couldn’t stop laughing during the soccer scenes, and ever since then, it has been my favorite movie.

Why did you decide to be an Environmental Studies major?

In my junior year of high school, I had Environmental Humanities and Environmental Science classes in the same year. The teachers of those classes are my two favorite high school teachers, and they really gave me a perspective about how delicate and important the environment is.

College third-year Tom Decker.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

What else do you do on campus?

I love hanging out with my friends. Hanging out in the dorms and listening to music are some of my favorite things to do outside of lacrosse. Dining out at local eateries is another favorite pastime. I especially love Kim’s and The Feve.

Anything else to add?

For any athletes, remember that your time is limited and one day you won’t be able to play the sport you love with the people you love. Appreciate every day.

Men’s Basketball Puts Season Into History Books

The men’s basketball team recently closed a season that was not only the most successful in recent memory, but also one of the best in program history. The Yeomen finished with a 15–12 record, one win shy of tying the school record for total wins in a season. This campaign was also the team’s first winning season since 1991–92. In addition, the team upset DePauw University in the North Coast Athletic Conference quarterfinals for the program’s first conference tournament win since 1992.

“I am happy that our team was able to reach some notable milestones like having a winning record and winning in the conference tournament,” Head Men’s Basketball Coach Isaiah Cavaco wrote in an email to the Review. “It is nice that we can send this senior class off with some accolades.”

The six-man class of fourth-years will graduate as one of the most decorated in school history, both as a group and as individuals. Christian Fioretti, Dre Campbell,

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and Josh Friedkin all scored over 1,000 career points, placing them in the top 30 in program history. Fioretti also became the school’s all-time leader in assists, securing All-NCAC Second Team honors. Cavaco understands that this fourthyear class won’t be easily replaced, but he is optimistic about the future.

“We have some really capable, developing players that didn’t get a chance to show their talents during games because of our upper classes being so prevalent in our rotation,” Cavaco wrote. “I am excited to watch them take the fight I saw every day in practice into games next season. “There will definitely be a different feel to our team since that senior group took on big roles early in their careers, but our expectations are to keep the program moving in an upward trajectory.”

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

Women’s Tennis Rides Momentum

In Recruitment, Finding Fit Vital for Athletes Continued from page 16

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

College first-year Isabelle Olaes.

Zoe Kuzbari After an exhausting schedule with two consecutive double-headers, two away games last week, and three matches this past weekend, the Oberlin women’s tennis team is now 5–5. Despite a tiring past couple of weeks, the team still continues to bring its A-game. After a slow start to its previous season before rallying to finish fourth in the North Coast Athletic Conference, it’s been able to quickly pick up the pace and gain an immense amount of momentum for the rest of the 2020 season.

College second-year and member of the women’s tennis team Francesca Kern attributes the team’s success to its dedication and its confidence in their potential.

“We know that we have the ability to be the best in the conference, but we’re still aware of the fact that we need to work hard,” said Kern. “We want to be the best — and we know we can.”

The Yeowomen crushed their opponents this past Saturday 7–2 but lost the next day to DivisionII school Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 7–0.

Despite this, the team has high hopes for the future. College firstyear Dina Nouaime is looking forward to the rest of the season and the support of her teammates.

“I’m really enjoying the opportunity to play at the [number] one spot as a [first-year],” said Nouaime. “It’s definitely a challenge at times, but I have the support of my wonderful teammates to fall back on.

We have such great chemistry and cohesion and I am looking forward to seeing what we accomplish as a team this season.”

In addition to this, College fourthyear and team captain Delaney Black has had a successful start to the year The Oberlin Review | March 6, 2020

in doubles, going 8–2. As a captain for the second year in a row, she has been able to lead by example and inspire all the members of the team. She finished her season last year with many accolades, including making All-NCAC Second-Team in Singles, All-NCAC Second-Team in doubles with Francesca Kern, and a rank of 25th in the ITA Central Region.

Black had only positive things to say in regard to her doubles career for the new season.

“I’m really excited about how Isabelle [Olaes] and I are doing in doubles,” said Black. “We have great chemistry on [the] court, and our styles complement each other. I think the best part is we constantly teach each other something new about the game. She’s just getting her feet wet with doubles strategy, and I get to show her the ropes while adjusting my skills to a lefty’s style. It’s doubles at its finest, and I couldn’t ask for a better way to end my tennis career.”

Isabelle Olaes, who is currently 8–10 in doubles, is a first-year from Oberlin, Ohio. Her older sister, College third-year Claudia Olaes, is also on the team. Isabelle has not only had Black to help guide her collegiate tennis career, but a family member as well.

“Playing first doubles with Delaney has been great,” said the younger Olaes sister. “It’s also a lot of fun. We work well together. She is such a talented and smart player.

We know each other’s game and lift each other up. The lefty-righty combination is pretty sick too. It throws a lot of our opponents off.”

In addition, she feels she has an immense amount of support from her team in general.

“I also want to compliment my other teammates: my sister Claudia,

Dina, Alandria, Fran, Maja, and Hannah,” said Olaes. “[They] are awesome. We support and believe in each other.”

The team spends a lot of time watching film of their past games, assessing themselves to see what they can work on, and focusing on their own individual performance rather than that of their opponent.

The team unanimously agreed that tennis is one of the most mentallyintensive sports. Lack of focus will definitely cost a match, and getting caught up on mistakes unduly hinders performance. The team has focused on improving its goaloriented mentality and eliminating result-orientated thinking.

With this mindset, the vision for the team is clear: qualify for the NCAC and win. “[The team is] really looking forward to the NCAC tournament,” said Olaes. “If we continue to work hard and if the stars line up right, I think we have a great shot to come out on top.”

Coach Constantine Ananiadis is in his 13th season as the head coach of the program and has the same aspirations and high hopes for this season.

“Our team has a lot of potential this year,” said Ananiadis. “We have a young and talented group who works hard and gets along. We’ve had some mixed results so far this year though, unfortunately, due to some illnesses in the earlier part of the season. But, we seem to have the [worst] behind us now and we look forward to this small break we have now to recuperate and recharge the batteries!”

The Yeowomen have a bye this week, but they will return to their home court on Saturday, March 14 at 10 a.m. against John Carroll University.

and experience Oberlin themselves through our various visit programs.”

Coach Hepp believes that while athletics are an important part of the Oberlin experience for student-athletes, there are many other communities and activities that students should be able to take advantage of.

“The most important thing to our coaching staff is that, first and foremost, we’re recruiting students that fit Oberlin College,” Hepp wrote. “We want students who are passionate about their interests, who have a natural, intellectual curiosity and want to be surrounded by other students who share that same love of learning, and who want to be part of a community that fosters critical thinking, challenges norms, and positively impacts the world around them. Their time as a student-athlete at Oberlin is going to supplement and augment their overall experience here, but it’s just one part of the greater experience they have over four years on campus.”

Current student-athletes also play an important role in the recruitment process. They are tasked with spending time with recruits and showing them the ins-and-outs of Oberlin, from attending activities around campus to team dinners and housing overnight visits. For Head Women’s Basketball Coach Stephany Dunmyer, the work of current student-athletes allows recruits to experience Oberlin culture and establishes a relationship between them and their potential teammates. “[Current student-athletes] are tremendous,” she said. “They know what we’re trying to do as a program, they’re also looking for their next best friend, and they’re making sure it’s a good fit in all aspects. There’s no better recruiter than current students, in terms of just their experience here and being able to talk honestly about what they love about Oberlin and things that they would change if they could.”

It is this personalized attention during campus visits that attracted some student-athletes to Oberlin teams. College second-year Aesha Mokashi, who competes on the women’s track and field team, was interested in Oberlin as a place where she could pursue her interests in biology and theater while being an athlete.

“I visited through MVP and [coaches from the track and field team] made sure that I got a personal tour from one of the coaches,” she said. “The track team reached out and made sure that I met people from the team, for example I went to a team pasta dinner. And that was kind of it, I realized that this school wanted me, which was really nice.”

The process of finding Oberlin student-athletes is dependent on both potential students and coaches. Coaches work to find students who are a good fit for not only the team, but also Oberlin as a whole.

“It is all about finding the right fit on both ends,” said Rau. “Coaches want to find an athlete that will positively impact their team and the campus community, and potential student-athletes want to find a school and program where they will be happy and successful for the next four years. In the end, to be successful, both parties have to align.”

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SPORTS March 6, 2020

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 17

Recruitment Brings a Variety of Athletes to Campus Zoë Martin del Campo Contributing Sports Editor

College fourth-year Maya English.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

Yeowomen Edged Out of First Place in NCAC Indoor Championships Khalid McCalla Sports Editor Zoë Martin del Campo & Jane Agler Contributing Sports Editors This past weekend, the Ohio Wesleyan Bishops put an end to the Yeowomen’s three-year dynasty at this year’s North Coast Athletic Conference Track & Field Indoor Championships. Ohio Wesleyan and Oberlin have been neck-and-neck for the past several years, with Oberlin clinching the first-place spot for the past three years. However, it was the Bishops that knocked the Yeowomen off their pedestal by just eight points, finishing 175–167 respectively.

“We have a lot to be proud of,” said College fourthyear and women’s track and field team member Maya English. “The weekend had so many personal bests and new school records. When it comes down to it we fought hard; they just competed better than us that day. I don’t think this meet defines us as a team nor does it indicate how hard we prepared leading up to the meet. I think the meet definitely left us feeling unsatisfied. Some teams might see this as a loss, but for us it’s just a new challenge.”

Going into the competition, the expectations for the Yeowomen were high. The team has been one of Oberlin’s most successful varsity teams in recent years, accumulating several titles over the past couple of seasons. This strength was in part due to dominant athletes like sprinter Lilah Drafts-Johnson, OC ’18, and thrower Monique Newton, OC ’18, who have since graduated. The loss of so many successful athletes and leaders was something the team was well aware of heading into the season.

“Coming into this year we lost a lot of really great talent,” said College fourth-year and team member CeCe Longo. “Either from people graduating or from people transferring. It impacted what we expected of the year. We knew we had to go hard and work hard.”

Despite the natural turnover that collegiate teams experience each year, the women’s track and field team was still expected to be a high-scoring force to be reckoned with at the meet. This was partly due to the experience and leadership of third and fourthyear students like English and Longo, but also due to several impressive first and second-year students.

“We have high expectations for every competition we go into,” said English. “We worked really hard during the preseason and overall had an amazing indoor season.”

English’s teammate and College fourth-year Nae McClain shared a similar sentiment.

“During our meetings every day, we talked a lot about how we can’t just expect to win because we’ve

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been winning the past few years,” said McClain. “We have to go out every day and at every single meet and prepare ourselves. [That being said], I think the expectations were just to compete well and, at least in my mind, to win.”

With such a decorated recent history, the Yeowomen entered the 2020 NCAC Indoor Championships feeling a good deal of pressure.

However, this did not prevent them from a number of individual triumphs. Oberlin got six throwers, including Longo and English, in the top 10 on the scoreboard. In addition, college fourth-years Marija Crook and Oona Jung-Beeman clinched the top two spots in the mile. Despite these impressive individual accomplishments, it wasn’t enough. Still, the team displayed incredible sportsmanship throughout the meet.

“Honestly, I’ve never been prouder of my team than when we lost because I think we handled it with real grace,” said Longo. “It sucked. It sucked to lose, but we also stood up and clapped when OWU was announced the winner. We stayed a family.”

While the loss stung, for many members of the team it served as a reminder of several things they had been focusing on as a team all year.

“Before this indoor conference, we stopped saying OWU is our biggest competitor,” said Longo. “It was more like we are our biggest competitor — so how are we competing against ourselves to be better than we were the year before.”

Despite the initial shock of McClain’s first collegiate loss at a conference championship, she sees this as an important step for the team.

“I did not expect to [lose] in outdoor,” said McClain.

“My teammates and I were talking and maybe this is what we needed to put that fire under our butts to win at outdoor conferences. A couple teams made an enemy out of me and my teammates, so [we’re] going out to prove that those previous conference championships weren’t flukes and that we earned those.”

Losing at conferences was a humbling and unexpected experience for all members of the team.

However, as McClain alluded, it could have a positive impact on the team heading into the outdoor season.

“We’re hungry,” said Longo. “[For] fourth-years, this was our first loss. For people new on the team, this was their first loss. I think we’re focusing … not on other teams and what they’re doing, but on what we are doing and how we can perform and be better at outdoors.”

With this misstep behind them, the women’s track and field team is poised to regain its championship at the NCAC Outdoor Championships from May 1–2.

For many high school students around the nation, applying to college is a tedious process that often begins their junior year. However, for student-athletes, the college search process can begin years in advance, with some students contacting coaches as early as middle school. Oberlin coaches typically begin looking at the performance of high school students in their sophomore or junior season. They search for individuals who will not only fit their program, but also thrive at Oberlin both socially and academically.

For Head Women’s Volleyball Coach Erica Rau, the character of the individual is at the forefront when she is evaluating potential recruits. She believes that skills can be improved, but the character of the student is innate.

“I look for good people that are academically driven and love volleyball,” she wrote in an email to the Review. “I want players on my team who are kind, self-motivated, respectful, responsible, and hardworking. Mechanics are much easier to teach than character.”

College third-year and men’s lacrosse player Alec Palmiotti was unsure if he would play lacrosse in college, but changed his mind after touring Oberlin and meeting with Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach Topher Grossman who provided support throughout the application process.

“I was really interested in Oberlin for a variety of reasons and I had been in contact with Coach Grossman, so I was able to set up a tour with him and have an interview with admissions,” Palmiotti said. “Coach Grossman said that he would support me through the application process and I could really see myself at Oberlin. I ended up applying Early Decision and stayed with lacrosse.”

Campus visits and fly-in programs play a crucial role in attracting potential recruits, serving as an opportunity to interact with the team and gain perspective on what it means to be a student-athlete at Oberlin. In particular, the Multicultural Visit Program offers students from underrepresented backgrounds the opportunity to visit Oberlin for free. This program works to provide a well-rounded experience for students to understand what it means to be not only an athlete at Oberlin, but also a member of the school culture as a whole.

In previous years such programs attracted some of the best athletes that the team has seen according to Associate Head Track and Field Coach and Recruiting Coordinator John Hepp, OC ’07.

“Some of the best athletes in the history of our program made their initial visit to Oberlin through the Multicultural Visit Program, including Monique Newton (OC ’18; 2-time national champion and 8-time All American) and Ana Richardson (OC ’18; 2-time All American and 4-time national qualifier),” Hepp wrote in an email to the Review. “Ana actually came back to Oberlin last summer to start working in our admissions office, where she now has the opportunity to provide the same sort of accessibility for students to come See In Recruitment, page 15