December 6, 2019

The Oberlin Review December 6, 2019

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 11

College Maintains “Minimal Exposure” to Fossil Fuel Investments Katie Lucey News Editor

example — are required to submit their enrollment data to the National Student Clearinghouse, because doing so makes compliance with federal law much easier.

According to the NSC’s website, their work is “designed to facilitate compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, The Higher Education Act, and other applicable laws.”

The NSC also oversees a research branch that works with educational institutions, including colleges and universities, to facilitate better decision-making by educational leaders. It’s this branch that Brinker and other researchers coordinate with to generate the biennial NSLVE report.

“Our process starts with colleges and universities signing up for NSLVE,” Brinker said. “And what participating really means is that they authorize the National Student Clearinghouse to use the records that they already submit. … If they authorize that, what happens is the Clearinghouse uses a third party vendor to match those enrollment records to public voter files.”

Next, the Clearinghouse sends the NSLVE team a “de-identified dataset with the student-level records but with no personally identifying information,” according to Brinker. The researchers then package the numbers into campus-specific reports and send them to the individual at each college and university who oversees institutional or internal research. At Oberlin, that person is Ross Peacock, assistant vice president for institutional research and planning.

Peacock said that, after consultation with the College’s senior leadership, he decided to participate in the NSLVE study to get some concrete data about political engagement on campus.

“Oberlin students tend to be engaged,” Peacock said.

“Well, here’s a measure of civic engagement — let’s see how we do there from an [institutional research] perspective.

That was my interest.”

When the numbers started coming back, Peacock was surprised by what they seemed to reflect — that Oberlin students were voting at much lower rates than this campus’ reputation for political engagement would suggest. He’s glad that Page decided to take a closer look at local numbers.

“Thank goodness, because some of our rates [appear] ridiculously low, even in 2016,” Peacock said.

In 2016, Oberlin’s NSLVE report indicated that, nationwide, 2,154 students registered to vote but only 989 did. That 46 percent turnout rate for all registered Oberlin

Five years after the Board of Trustees published an official Resolution for Divestment and established the Impact Investment Platform, Oberlin’s endowment remains partially invested in companies that benefit from the production and consumption of fossil fuels.

“Oberlin still has minimal exposure to fossil fuel investments,” wrote Vice President for Finance and Administration Rebecca Vazquez-Skillings and Chief Investment Officer Jun Yang in a joint email statement to the Review. “However, they are legacy investments and the College has not made any new investment for several years.”

In 2014, The Board allocated $5 million to fund the IIP and adopted an official Resolution for Divestment.

Each year for the past five years, $1 million was transferred from the endowment’s General Investment Fund to the IIP. The platform, a subcommittee of the Investment Committee, financially promotes environmental sustainability and social justice by investing in companies and securities that meet rigorous environmental, social, and governance standards, rather than divesting from those that do not. Currently, around $30 million of endowment fit the criteria of the IIP. The Board acted in response to student requests for divestment from companies that profit from the production and consumption of fossil fuels, private prisons, or the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The resolution provides an outline for the Board to consider future divestment requests.

Divestment would require the Board to vote to cease all current and future investments in holdings that contribute to or support activities that “shock the conscience, such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, unjustified disregard of profound environmental degradation and other wide-scale acts of injustice,” according to the official resolution document.

The Investment Committee — co-chaired by current trustees Amy Chen, OC ’79, and Leah Modigliani, OC ’86 — oversees the performance of the endowment, facilitates third-party investor manager relations, and assists the Board in pursuing both active and passive investment strategies. A majority of the nine voting members must be members of the Board, according to the committee charter.

However, the decision to divest requires the approval of two-thirds of the Board, according to the 2014 resolution.

The co-chief investment officers of the Oberlin Student Finance and Investment Club — College thirdyear Christian Ikeokwu and fourth-years Jubreel and Jabree Hason — feel that divesting is more of a politically symbolic action than an effective financial tool to disempower fossil fuel companies.

“Some issues may arise when large institutional investors decide to boycott or sell out of their positions in these environmentally-unsustainable companies,” the co-chairs wrote in a joint email statement to the “We would argue that in the perfect scenario, all investors would divest from environmentally unsustainable positions. In all actuality, though, it only takes the buy-in of a few large investors to keep their stock prices afloat.”

Benchmark indices, which track the performance of

See NSLVE, page 2

See Full Divestment, page 3

Associate Professor and Chair of Geology Zeb Page in his office. Page wrote a program to reconcile local student voting engagement numbers against data from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement.

Photo by Lucie Weismuller

Student Voting Participation Higher Than Previously Reported, Says Professor

Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief Since 2012, reports generated by the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement have calculated voter participation at Oberlin College as below national averages for college students across the country. Now, independent research undertaken by Associate Professor and Chair of Geology F. Zeb Page reveals that the NSLVE numbers may be inaccurate.

Page was initially motivated to examine the NSLVE numbers because of a hunch.

“When we look at [low turnout numbers], we imagine our student body to be more engaged than this,” he said. “I think that that’s because we actually are.”

Page decided to pull the Lorain County voter file and write a program to match internal student data — specifically names and birthdates — with county registration and voting records for the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 general elections.

“You have a high certainty that those matches are accurate,” Page said of the 2018 numbers. “It’s [based on] first name, last name, year of birth, month of birth, date of birth.”

Page’s program located 1,737 students who were registered to vote in the 2018 general election in Lorain County alone. Of those students, he found 1,273 who cast a ballot in the county — a 73 percent turnout of locallyregistered students.

Oberlin’s NSLVE report for the same election painted a very different picture. The report located 2,003 Oberlin students registered nationwide, not just in Lorain County.

Of those, the report estimated that 917 voted — a voting rate of 45 percent for registered students.

“I’ve got 1,273 ballots by Obies cast in Oberlin [in] 2018, and they’ve got 917 nationwide,” Page said. “The fact that I’m actually counting more votes in Lorain County than they’re counting nationwide suggests that NSLVE’s current method is undercounting Obie voters in Lorain County.”

NSLVE is an initiative of the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education at Tufts University, with the goal of charting voter participation on college and university campuses across the country.

“It began as an ambitious project,” said Dave Brinker, a senior researcher at the IDHE. “It wasn’t clear how feasible it was at all in the beginning.”

Brinker explained that almost all campuses with students who receive some kind of federal assistance in paying for school — through financial aid or loans, for CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 National Media Responds to Memorial to Palestinian Combat Victims

05 Repeated Staffing Shortages Reveal Concerning Patterns

08–09 Low and No-Cost Holiday Gift Ideas

10 Slow Train Storytellers: Bringing Oral Storytelling to Oberlin

15 Oberlin’s Magic: The Gathering Team Ranked Within U.S. Top 10

13 Urinetown Takes a Comedic Look At Dark Societal Issues

16 Women’s Pole Vaulters Look Toward Future

03 HIV Peer Testing Center Reopens, Undergoes Changes

06 House Bill 6 Poses Serious Environmental, Health Risks

The Oberlin Review | December 6, 2019

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National Media Responds to Memorial to Palestinian Combat Victims Ella Moxley Senior Staff Writer

A memorial to Palestinians killed in a November attack by the Israel Defense Force was installed before Thanksgiving by student organizations Jewish Voices for Peace and Students for a Free Palestine.

Photo courtesy of SFP

Before Thanksgiving break, Oberlin students from Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for a Free Palestine erected a memorial for Palestinians killed in a Nov. 12 airstrike by the Israel Defense Force.

The memorial commemorated the lives of 34 people — including eight children — killed in a round of combat that lasted two days. Palestinian officials reported that over 80 people were wounded during this time.

The combat began when Israel launched an airstrike in an attempt to assassinate Bahaa Abu el-Atta, considered a terrorist leader by the Israeli government.

Abu el-Atta was a commander in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a Damascus-based organization formed in 1981.

Israel credits Abu el-Atta with planning multiple terror attacks against Israel.

The initial airstrike was launched at Abu el-Atta’s home, killing him and his wife and injuring his children.

After the attack, militants in Gaza fired back on Israel.

Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace, commented that the UN was working to de-escalate the situation.

“The indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars against population centers is absolutely unacceptable and must stop immediately,” Mladenov said in a statement.

The idea for the Oberlin memorial originated in a

JVP meeting as a way to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. Soon after the strikes, JVP and SFP worked together to obtain permits to place the memorial on Wilder Bowl. The memorial was taken down upon the expiration of the permits.

The memorial’s inclusion of Abu el-Atta and other members of PIJ prompted a backlash from local and national commentators, including many Oberlin alumni, and was covered by local and national media outlets.

The Chronicle-Telegram covered the memorial, as did major news outlets including Fox News and Daily Mail.

The latter articles accused Oberlin students of honoring terrorists.

The College released a public statement about the memorial in response to the media attention.

“Oberlin College is aware that an installation on campus last week by two student groups offended some members of our large and diverse community,” the College wrote in their statement. “Oberlin students, like all citizens, are entitled to their own thoughts and expressions and are individually accountable for how they engage in public discourse. Students do not speak for the college, and the college does not dictate the views of its 2,850 students. … Oberlin opposes all forms of anti-Semitism, as we do all forms of prejudice and oppression.”

Student organizers from SFP and JVP declined to comment for this story.

NSLVE Report Found to Underestimate Oberlin Student Voting Rates Continued from page 1

students is much lower than Page’s estimate of 87 percent.

Further, Page found record of 1,742 students who voted just in Lorain County in that election — almost twice NSLVE’s national figure.

College fourth-year Ezra Andres-Tysch was a first-year during the 2016 general election, and a dedicated volunteer for Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in Oberlin. He saw students being energized on Election Day, and turning out to vote — suggesting a greater degree of participation than reported by the NSLVE. “I feel like everyone that was eligible had a plan,” Andres-Tysch said. “They had registered with someone.

They reached out. Oberlin doesn’t have the best voting culture in the world, but 2016 was probably the height of [student participation].”

Brinker said that he has no reason to doubt the accuracy of Page’s numbers, and that discrepancies in the NSLVE data — at Oberlin and elsewhere — could arise for a number of reasons.

“We have two major potential places where we think we can improve our process,” Brinker said. “The first is in how registrars submit their data to the Clearinghouse.

Our processes [require that] the campus has submitted complete records for the Clearinghouse, and that’s not always the case. … I’m not saying that that’s a problem at Oberlin. … The other place that we can have a problem is in … matching the student enrollment record to the voting records.”

Brinker also cited the fact that Oberlin is a highly “mobile” campus — meaning that most students don’t come from Lorain County — as a potential challenge in the data matching process. He said that the NSLVE team appreciates the opportunity to engage with campuses directly about how to make the report more responsive to specific institutions.

“We’re always grateful when campuses reach out and just ask questions about their data,” Brinker said. “We have over a thousand campuses in the study, so we don’t tailor our process to any particular institutional profile. So

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Since 2012, a report from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement has estimated voter participation by Oberlin students in general elections. The report’s nationwide estimates are above, alongside contrasting estimated figures found by Associate Professor and Chair of Geology Zeb Page. Page’s numbers reflect participation in just Lorain County, not nationwide.

our ability to monitor the data quality at each institution is limited, and that’s why we really depend on campuses contacting us.”

Peacock says that he hopes to continue working with Brinker and other NSLVE researchers ahead of the 2020 election to help the report become more accurate in the future.

“We plan to continue to work together and may participate in some test runs after the 2020 election if they are ready to do that,” he wrote in a follow-up email to the Review. “Zeb and I expressed our gratitude that they have started this effort, understand how there can be some

Editors-in-Chief

Nathan Carpenter Katherine MacPhail Managing Editor Ananya Gupta News Editors Anisa Curry Vietze Katie Lucey Opinions Editor Jackie Brant This Week Editor Lily Jones Arts Editors Kate Fishman Aly Fogel Sports Editor Jane Agler Cont. Sports Editors Khalid McCalla Zoë Martin del Campo Photo Editors Mallika Pandey Chris Schmucki Senior Staff Writers Imani Badillo Ella Moxley

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bugs, and both NSLVE and Oberlin look forward to our continued partnership.”

For his part, Page hopes that his ongoing research will encourage Oberlin students to vote. “[If ] people are discouraged from voting because they believe people at Oberlin don’t vote and aren’t really engaged, then that’s a positive feedback loop that is rooted in something that I don’t believe to be true,” he said. “I think it’s important to recognize that perhaps the story of engagement is not being told correctly in a lot of spheres, that it’s in particular not being told correctly about Oberlin.”

Emma Jane Haas Lila Michaels Parker Shatkin Nico Vickers Ads Manager Jabree Hason Web Manager Sheng Kao Production Manager Devyn Malouf Production Staff Gigi Ewing Christo Hays Jimmy Holland Olive Hwang Kushagra Kar Allison Schmitt Ivy Fernandez Smith Jaimie Yue

Corrections:

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

HIV Peer Testing Center Reopens, Undergoes Changes

HIV peer testers conduct free, confidential tests for students. The HIV Peer Testing Center reopened this semester after roughly a semester-long hiatus.

Photo courtesy of HIV Peer Testers

Alexa Stevens Staff Writer After being closed for more than a semester due to changes at the state level, Oberlin’s HIV Peer Testing Center has reopened sooner than expected and reinstated its free HIV tests. However, unlike last year, student peer testers can only administer testing twice a month, when a Lorain County Public Health tester is on call.

“There was a change in Ohio state laws regarding what services we have to perform in order to be an official testing site within the Ohio Department of Health network,” said College fourth-year and HIV Peer Testing Co-Coordinator Fiona Sherman.

These services include confirmatory blood tests to rule out false positive results. However, peer testers did not have permission from Student Health Services to offer confirmatory tests in the event of a positive result, despite several peer testers being trained in administering blood tests. At present, peer testers administer testing orally and are in convesation with Student Health about what could be possible in the future.

“In order for them to list us as an official testing site, we needed to be

able to offer blood testing for both preliminary and confirmatory tests, which is something that we weren’t able to do under Student Health because they weren’t comfortable with us doing it,” Sherman said.

The ODH is currently in the implementation phase of the Rapid HIV Testing Protocol, according to Sherman. In addition to requiring testers to offer same-day confirmatory testing, the protocol also mandates that a regional Disease Intervention Specialist must be notified after a client receives two positive rapid test results.

“The DIS will work with the client to, ideally, get them medical appointments before they even leave the test site,” said Lorain County Public Health Community Health Nursing Supervisor Natalie Karn.

LCPH has transitioned their HIV test over the past year from an oral swabbing method to a finger pricking method, a change that has allowed them to stay in compliance with CDC and ODH regulations. Since peer testers only conduct tests via oral swab, LCPH serves an important role in helping the HIVPT program offer confirmatory tests.

Blood tests are more precise than oral swabs, as they test for both HIV-

infected antibodies and antigens rather than just antibodies. If a peer tester-administered test returns a positive, an on-call nurse from LCPH will visit the College to conduct a confirmatory test.

However, there are some limitations to HIV testing, including the statistical possibility of false positives and inaccuracies based on timing.

“Whether it’s oral or blood, the HIV test will only show a positive for someone who contracted HIV three months prior,” Karn said.

Because LCPH only conducts confirmatory tests twice a month, only about 16 students are tested each month on a by-appointment-only basis through the Peer Testing Center. Still, despite the limited time slots available for testing, most students who request confidential testing are able to have their needs accommodated.

“We have multiple trained testers,” Sherman said. “So, if there’s a little bit of overlap, we’ll have our half an hour slots through the day. We’re usually able to fit everyone in.”

Sadie Munter, HIV peer testing cocoordinator, hopes to be able to offer testing more often in the future. If the peer testers were able to offer blood tests, they would no longer require assistance from LCPH. “We’re still trying to figure out how we can move to a model where we can do testing more than two days a month,” Munter said.

According to Sherman, there is substantial student demand for continuous and more accessible peertesting services.

“We’re pretty booked up every time that we do testing this semester,” they said.

While the future of the HIVPT will likely continue in a state of flux, peer testers remain confident in the importance of confidential peer-topeer testing.

“I think that makes a lot of students feel more comfortable coming in to get tested,” Sherman said. “So it helps to de-stigmatize the idea of getting tested in the first place. And it also just makes it a more accessible space.”

Full Divestment Presents Challenges, Admin Say Continued from page 1

a specific basket of assets, help measure the endowment’s financial performance as compared to the rest of the market.

According to the investment policy, the Investment Committee compares each asset class — a group of investments with similar characteristics — held in the endowment to specific benchmarks that reflect a long-term view of expected return and potential risk.

Many benchmarks are at least somewhat buoyed by fossil fuel investments, depending on their exposure to energy markets. This presents challenges for ESG-minded investors; it can be difficult to find an index that is both composed of sustainable investments and performs as well as the rest of the market.

“The benchmark that many investors use to compare returns to is the S&P 500 index, which — as of today — holds a little over 4 percent in energy stocks,” Ikeokwu, Hason, and Hason wrote.

Some of the indices that Oberlin uses as benchmarks, including Cambridge Associates’ Global Private Energy index and the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Exchange Traded Note, contain holdings that are at least The Oberlin Review | December 6, 2019

partially invested in fossil fuels. 3.95 percent and 12.55 percent of the DJP ETN tracks natural gas and gasoline commodities, respectively.

Members of Sunrise Oberlin, the student chapter of the national environmental activism group Sunrise Movement, argue that divestment is a vital step toward systematic change and is necessary for fostering a greener economy and society.

“We believe that all institutions, Oberlin College included, need to do more than divest from fossil fuels, but invest in building a just and sustainable economy that is not dependent on fossil fuels,” wrote College second-year and Sunrise Oberlin member Rachel SernaBrown in an email to the Review. “That said, we believe the College should pledge to completely divest from fossil fuels, and urge them to quicken the process of moving towards the reliance on alternative energy sources.”

Vasquez-Skillings and Yang maintain that divestment can be tricky to achieve given the financial complexity of endowment funds.

“Given the little exposure, it is difficult technically and financially to divest fully,” they wrote.

Other colleges and universities — including Middlebury College and the University of California system — pledged earlier this year to fully divest from fossil fuel investments, citing financial risk.

“The reason we sold some $150 million in fossil fuel assets from our endowment was the reason we sell other assets: They posed a long-term risk to generating strong returns for UC’s diversified portfolios,” wrote University of California’s chief investment officer and treasurer Jagdeep Singh Bachher and chairman of the UC Board of Regents’ Investments Committee Richard Sherman in an article in The Los Angeles Times (“UC Investments Are Going Fossil Free. But Not Exactly For The Reasons You May Think,” Sept. 16, 2019).

Although current Oberlin students, employees, and alumni can submit divestment requests via email, “it appears we have not received any requests in the past few years,” according to Vasquez-Skillings.

Requests must be approved by the Office of Investments prior to submission to the Board for consideration.

Security Notebook Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019 12:38 p.m. Campus Safety officers responded to a report of someone smoking marijuana on the second floor of Langston Hall.

Officers made contact with the occupant, who denied smoking marijuana in the room. In plain view, officers observed a glass pipe with marijuana residue, an ashtray with marijuana stems and residue, a glass tube grinder with marijuana residue, and a bag of tobacco. Items were confiscated and turned over to the Oberlin Police Department for disposal.

Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019 4:37 p.m. A student reported being approached by the same unknown individual on two separate occasions. The first contact occurred on Thursday, Nov. 29 in the downtown area. The individual said something about a child and needing medication.

The next day, the individual again asked for something near the Conservatory. The area was checked, but the individual was not located. Information was shared with the Oberlin Police Department.

5:20 p.m. An officer locking Mudd Center observed vandalism in the second-floor lounge area.

A jar of glitter was spread on the couch and all over the floor. A plant in the area was also damaged. It is unknown at this time who is responsible.

Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019 12:03 p.m. Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at a Goldsmith Village Housing Unit. Smoke and steam from cooking activated the alarm. A maintenance technician responded to install a filter in the exhaust fan, as there wasn’t one.

An electrician responded to make repairs to a smoke detector.

Monday, Dec. 2, 2019 6:43 p.m.

Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at a Goldsmith Village Housing Unit.

The cause of the alarm was cooking without the exhaust fan turned on.

The area was cleared and the alarm was reset.

9:14 p.m. Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm in the basement of Talcott Hall. There was no smoke or flame observed. An electrician was contacted to replace the smoke detector in the laundry room, and the alarm was reset.

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019 11:29 a.m. A student requested transport from an off-campus address to Mercy Allen Hospital because they were feeling ill.

An officer responded, and the transport was completed.

11:54 a.m. A student requested transport from Langston Hall to Mercy Allen Hospital for flu-like symptoms. An officer responded, and the transport was completed.

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Ne New wss OFF THE CUFF

Tom Rosenstiel, OC ’78, Journalist and Fiction Writer

Tom Rosenstiel Photo courtesy of Tom Rosenstiel

Tom Rosenstiel held a convocation speech titled “Objectivity, Facts, Fiction, and the Future of Journalism” at Oberlin on Thursday. Rosenstiel is nationally recognized for his work as an author, journalist, researcher, and media critic.

He founded the Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Center and directed the program for 16 years. He has written seven books on journalism, politics, and ethics, including The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect with Bill Kovach, which is widely used in journalism education worldwide. Most recently, he has also delved into the world of fiction and published three novels.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Katherine MacPhail Editor-in-Chief Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief What journalism did you do while at Oberlin, and how did you get into the field after you graduated?

I had been the editor of my high school newspaper, and it had been a big part of my high school life. When I got to Oberlin I thought, “I don’t know if I need to do that again.” I did not spend much

of my freshman year doing it. I decided as a sophomore to do some work for the school paper. A woman named Laurie Cohen, who was I think a year ahead of me, got a secret document leaked to her that the administration had secretly decided to depress Black enrollment.

Pretty controversial for Oberlin — this was the mid-1970s. Laurie sought me out to help her with the story, and we broke it. It was a major exposé. It made national news and embarrassed the administration significantly, and there were a series of stories that followed.

I realized I was hooked all over again and found myself spending just an enormous amount of time at the paper because of what you were able to learn about the lives of students, the lives of people our age when we were in school.

You also meet some great people, like Laurie, who went on to be a reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Then my junior year, I was the editor. And one of the things that you learn working on a school paper is sort of organizational life. How do you motivate people? You’re learning writing, you’re learning reporting, you’re learning how to do all the things you do as a scholar, but you’re doing it sort of in real time.

If you want to write in any capacity, I think you’ll just find the school paper an amazing experience. The alumni of college papers around the country is this sort of dazzling list, many of whom did not practice journalism professionally but benefited enormously from doing it often on their own without academic supervision.

Oberlin is a small campus with an intense media microscope. How can students actively engage in shaping the narrative that goes out about Oberlin?

It’s very hard to change a narrative in real time. It’s like that quote from Martin Luther King that was something like “The long arc of history bends towards justice.”

You’re not going to necessarily see that in a year. When you’re 18, 19, 20, 21, or 22, time

moves way more slowly for you. ... You’re impatient when change doesn’t happen in that kind of timeframe that you’re imagining. When you’re older you realize, “Okay, this narrative about Oberlin actually took many years to set in. It will take many years to change it.”

You can do things to change it as a student, but you may not notice that it’s changed until after you leave. You can be part of that change. You can be part of telling a more accurate story about what the College is. And the way to do that is not just to change the way the story is told, but to change things that happen here. That will eventually change the story that’s told.

Some of your work has been in teaching or developing educational programs for new journalists. What inspired you to go down that avenue and what are the most important things you want people to learn?

My friend Bill Kovach, who is from another generation and came of age as a journalist in the late ’50s and early ’60s, said every generation creates its own journalism. When I got into the business, the story was civil rights, and then we had the counterculture of the ’60s. Kovach said that journalism — which was very establishment — had to become more a voice of this counterculture.

And then the journalism that I grew up in — which was after Vietnam and Watergate — it was much more analytical.

There was a lot of change, none of it really driven by technological disruption that was collapsing the business model or anything radical like we have now.

For journalism to kind of renew itself, it really needs to be better. It needs to be more meaningful in people’s lives. When I came of age in journalism, we were still at a moment where you could be meaningful to people by simply having calendars in the newspaper or weather or the nightly news. … Now journalism has to do much more. …

The old metaphor was that journalism was a gatekeeper over what people knew. Now,

people know all kinds of things without us, without journalists. I realize, okay, we just can’t do things the way we used to and think that it’s the audience’s failure if they don’t appreciate that.

I also found that you can have much more impact talking to the next generation of journalists than you could to the current. People who are in their teens and early twenties were using technology in new ways. They’re not the next audience for media; they’re the leading edge of the current one. It makes sense that the people who are going to invent the next journalism are in college. When I went to journalism school, really all we were trying to do is learn how to do what our elders did, almost like matching our footprints into the snow. And it was exciting to realize that the future is going to be found by not doing that, by walking a different path.

You’ve made a shift to fiction writing in the last few years. Can talk about why you made that shift?

I decided I wanted to write fiction just because I like to read it and I thought it would be fun to try it. I was at the Pew Research Center at that point, and I was bored. I realized that there’s actually something more going on underneath; fiction tells a different kind of truth. It gets at a part of the world that you can’t really get at with journalism. Good fiction is another way of telling the truth, but it tells the truth of the interior of things. How did something feel? Why do people do the things they do? How are they changed by the things that happen to them?

That’s graspable for journalism, but it’s very hard to get at, and it takes a lot of time.

The other part, I think, is that our public life or political life seems inexplicable to us. How did we get here? How did we find ourselves in this mess? Journalism struggles to explain that, because you almost need to be in the hearts of these people who are barely on speaking terms with each other anymore. I think I’m trying to do that in fiction.

College Increases ExCo Stipend, Committee Offers Full Courseload for Spring Arman Luczkow Staff Writer The Experimental College Committee’s compensation was increased by the Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences last month, from $6,000 to $7,000 for the 2019–2020 academic year. In October, the five-student committee announced that they would need to reduce the number of ExCo courses to 50, due to changes in the way committee members are paid. The increased finances will mean that ExCo will be able to maintain its typical offering of approximately 70 courses in the spring.

Members of the ExCo Committee met with their advisor, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Elizabeth Hamilton, over the past month to discuss this.

“The ExCo Committee met with Dean Hamilton and basically remade our case,” said College second-year Serena Zets, who sits on the committee. “We met in the middle, and she basically explained how passionate she is about ExCo and about how she wants it to succeed and thrive, but in an era of contraction at the College, it’s

difficult to get any increase in any area. We had gotten an increase of $1,000 from last academic year to this academic year, which was still much less than we had asked for.

But, when every other thing was being cut, and we got an increase, it was hard for her to lobby on our behalf.”

On Nov. 22, Hamilton informed the ExCo Committee of the funding increase via email.

“I enjoy sustained conversation with ExCo’s student leaders about their work and their compensation,” Hamilton wrote in an email to the Review. “As reported in the Review last month, the Dean’s office review of committee members’ wages led to the first decision to increase their total compensation for 2019–20. Our mid-semester review of documented work and careful attention to ExCo’s goals led to the decision to increase the overall amount of funding for the academic year.”

Before the College increased ExCo Committee’s funding, committee members and Student Senators brainstormed alternate pathways for ExCo to acquire necessary funds. Student Senators and College third-years Caleb Knapp and Bridget Smith also met with Hamilton

Ohio Legislative Update Hearing for Voter Registration Bill Senate Bill 186 was scheduled for a hearing for next Tuesday, however, bipartisan lawmakers are calling for a delay. The bill seeks to make voter registration easier for Ohioans by automatically updating registration through the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The bill would automate registration so that the individual’s information is transferred to the Board of Elections unless they opt-out, making more eligible people able and prepared to vote.

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Proposed Bill Would Create New Abortion Felony Last month Ohio lawmakers introduced Ohio House Bill 413 that many say, if passed, would be the most prohibitive abortion law in the U.S. The proposed bill would create a new felony, called “abortion murder.” Under this bill, those who provide or receive abortions could be subject to a life sentence in prison. In addition, the bill suggests that medical providers must attempt to reimplant ectopic pregnancies, when an embryo attaches

and Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo to aid the process.

“Alums started reaching out to us,” Zets said. “There [were] talks of separating ExCo from the institution, having it be completely privately funded. There [were] talks of it becoming endowed, becoming a 501(c)(3). People were throwing out really radical ideas.”

Before the ExCo Committee was aware of the funding increase, they took care not to work past the hours allotted by their $6,000 stipend.

“We’ve all been a little more restrictive on waiting until our office hours to send emails back, or waiting until the committee meeting to do this,” said ExCo Committee CoChair and College third-year Emily Spezia-Shwiff. “In that sense, we’re not as communicative as we’ve been in past semesters. We’re not as fast to respond, and we’ve cut back on doing things like conferences.”

The ExCo Committee has their next monthly meeting with Hamilton scheduled for Dec. 10, where they hope to receive clarification about the longevity of the increased funding.

on the outside of the uterus. However, medical professionals maintain that the medical technology to reimplant ectopic pregnancies does not yet exist.

Local Plastic Bag Bans May Be Halted After Cuyahoga County and other local governments passed legislation that banned or taxed plastic bag use earlier this year, a proposed bill at the state level would make these bans illegal.

A House committee voted 8–6 in June to advance the bill, and it has been idled since. On Tuesday, House Speaker Larry Householder said he plans to pass the bill before the end of the year.

OPINIONS December 6, 2019

Established 1874

lEttEr tO thE EdItOrS

OSCA Effectively Prepares Students for Post-Grad Life, Supports College’s Mission

I am a 2006 Oberlin graduate and an alumnus member of Kosher Halal Co-op — formerly a part of the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association. I also served as the archivist and librarian for OSCA during the 2005–2006 academic year, and took a seat on the OSCA board as part of that role. For three-and-a-half out of my four years at Oberlin, I planned, cleaned, cooked, sang, budgeted, laughed, and worked with my peers to make not only food for our members, but also a deeply entwined interfaith community. All of my most indelible memories of Oberlin took place in that small kitchen in Talcott Hall.

Like most liberal arts institutions, Oberlin is experiencing a period of financial uncertainty. It is my understanding that, through the context of the Academic and Administrative Program Review and One Oberlin plan, the administration views OSCA as a $1.9 million liability to the College. In my view, nothing could be farther from the truth. OSCA is something that sets Oberlin apart from other small liberal arts colleges, and is one of the first things I mention when telling my students that they should consider applying to Oberlin.

OSCA has led the way on sustainability and diversity efforts for the College as well. During my time in OSCA, we thought about and worked on the ethics of food consumption, local food purchasing, racist food packaging, providing safe spaces for marginalized populations, talking openly about privilege and oppression, and negotiating between competing interests in the co-op system.

OSCA prepared me for my adult

life in many more tangible ways as well. When I decided that I wanted to live not just as roommates, but as a cooperative community with the people renting alongside me, my OSCA experience made that possible.

I was surprised by how many practical skills my housemates lacked that I had learned in OSCA, from mopping to cooking for a crowd to creating a food budget. My experience as an OSCA archivist–librarian served me well when I worked on my master’s degree in Library Science.

In the 13 years since I graduated from Oberlin, my experience on the OSCA board prepared me to serve on a couple of nonprofit boards where I was the youngest member as other people my age lacked the experience to participate. I learned so much about the beauty and difficulty of doing interfaith work through being a member of Kosher Halal Co-op in particular, and I am still devastated that it has had to part ways with OSCA. OSCA is one of the largest per-capita student cooperative systems in the country. This is as much a fundamental part of what makes Oberlin different from other liberal arts institutions as the Conservatory. OSCA embodies the Oberlin motto of “Learning and Labor” better than any other institution on campus; we work together, eat together, learn together, and learn from each other. We work at the basics of life and learn the dignity of manual labor, we work to feed ourselves and learn the ethics involved in our choices, we work to meet our loftier needs and learn how to do so responsibly in a diverse community.

The answer to Oberlin’s temporary economic issues cannot come at the expense of what makes Oberlin unique. Becoming more like other colleges will not save us; supporting what makes us different can. It is my fervent hope that instead of seeing OSCA’s interests as opposed to the College’s, the administration will come to understand how OSCA supports Oberlin’s mission and the value it adds to an Oberlin education.

In cooperation and solidarity.

– L. Lee Butler OC ’06

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 | December 6, 2019

Volume 149, Number 11

EdItOrIal BOard EdItOrS-IN-ChIEf

Nathan Carpenter

Katherine MacPhail

MaNagINg EdItOr Ananya Gupta

OPINIONS EdItOr Jackie Brant

Repeated Staffing Shortages Reveal Concerning Pattern First, it was the Office of Disability Resources in fall 2017. Then, it was the Multicultural Resource Center in fall 2018. Now, the Counseling Center becomes the third office in as many autumns to face resource shortages that directly impact its ability to provide vital student support services.

“Office of Disability Resources Faces Staffing Shortage,” read the Review’s Oct. 6, 2017 headline, following the sudden resignation of Isabella Moreno, the office’s former director. Moreno cited being tasked with a workload far beyond the capacity of any person to manage as the key reason for her resignation. In an email, Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo asked staff to avoid discussing the state of staffing shortages in the ODR. “MRC Faces Staffing Shortage,” was the headline for a Nov. 9, 2018 Review article about the resignation of four of the MRC’s five full-time staffers over the course of six months. At the time, students expressed fears about the future of a resource that many found integral to their Oberlin experiences, especially when they were first trying to find their footing on campus.

Finally, in “College Strengthens Mental Health Resources,” published Nov. 22 of this year, the Review ’s news team reported on “unusually long waittimes for student appointments” at the Counseling Center this semester. The supposed culprit? Staffing shortages, once again.

Each time students expressed concern or outrage over the interruption in services provided by these offices, they’ve been told that hiring processes are delicate, that times of transition are hard, and that they just need to be patient.

All of these things are true and, in isolation, perhaps each of these three major incidents could be forgiven. But there’s a clear pattern emerging with regard to staffing in key student support offices on campus, and it doesn’t reflect well on the Division of Student Life’s ability to plan ahead or to prioritize the functionality of these core offices.

Commitment to disability and mental health resources, as well as to providing space and support for marginalized students on campus, needs to be more concerted than tepid statements about improving in the future.

Oberlin’s ability to provide these resources for its students is directly tied to their wellbeing in the present. Without them, students cannot thrive personally or academically, and risk feeling disconnected or isolated on a campus that doesn’t have the staff to meet their needs.

Particularly at a time when student retention is, understandably, at the fore of many administrators’ minds, the consistent failure to do something as basic as provide enough staff to effectively provide adequate student support services is appalling. Making a pitch for a student to stay on campus is tough when that student reasonably feels as though their mental health, disability, and identity-based needs won’t be met by the institution.

As the Editorial Board has emphasized when these staffing shortages have arisen in the past, we don’t believe that these persistent challenges are the result of malicious intent on the part of any administrator or other staff member in the Division of Student Life. On the contrary, those employees show everyday that they are dedicated to making the Oberlin student experience a positive one.

However, time and time again, the reality emerges that there’s just not enough of them. And while it’s tough to plan for unexpected resignations and other personnel changes, at a certain point, it no longer matters to students why there aren’t enough staff members to keep these offices running — it just matters that there consistently aren’t.

As senior administrators implement the One Oberlin plan and call on students to be institutionalists, they must return that same commitment.

The institution must be able to show its students that, even in a time of significant and often rapid change, the core services offered to students will remain intact.

Otherwise, students are left to wonder which office will be the next victim of the seemingly unavoidable, nebulous plague of staffing shortages. We’d like to believe that there won’t be one, but if the distinct pattern that has emerged over the last three fall semesters is any indication, there likely will be.

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

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Opi n ions

Michigan Gerrymandering House Bill 6 Poses Serious Victory Provides Hope for Environmental, Health Risks Battles in Ohio, Elsewhere Klara Jacobs Contributing Writer

Leo Lasdun Contributing Writer Last week, in a woefully underreported turn of events, a grassroots voter organization in Michigan earned a critical district court victory in the fight for fair redistricting laws. The organization, Voters Not Politicians, has been working since 2017 to unravel the mess of gerrymandering, a practice stubbornly entrenched in Michigan’s political landscape. Its efforts have mostly focused on creating an independent, non-partisan commission to draw congressional boundaries, which would take the reins from the biased Republican State Legislature.

Their reform measure, which proposed an amendment to the Michigan State Constitution, passed decisively in 2018 with a 61 percent majority. Unsurprisingly, Republicans responded with an onslaught of legal challenges. Now, roughly a year later, it appears that Voters Not Politicians have weathered the storm of litigation, and its proposed redistricting committee will become a reality. The final breakthrough was when Janet Neff, a Bush-era federal court appointee, rejected an absurd plea against the amendment, in which Republicans claimed that the independent committee would impinge on their rights to free speech and party association.

Gerrymandering — the almost entirely Republican practice of drawing outlandish, nonsensical boundaries around congressional districts in order to solidify a partisan majority — became a manipulative force in electoral politics after Republicans claimed a sweeping majority of state legislatures in 2010. For context, Republicans claimed their largest state legislature majority since the Great Depression. Since then, the Republican Party has used gerrymandering as a weapon for what is essentially codified voter suppression.

As many Oberlin students already know, Ohio is no stranger to gerrymandering. In May of this year, judges found that Ohio’s congressional districts were unfairly drawn and heavily favored Republicans. The judges ordered a new map be drawn by the next month, a triumphant moment for Ohio’s demo-

cratic process. Sadly, though, in predictable fashion, the Supreme Court ruled against state Democrats, preventing them from drawing a new map before 2022 at the earliest.

Though Ohio’s congressional districts aren’t gerrymandered to the same extent as states like Michigan or North Carolina, it’s certainly true that the district boundaries don’t follow any discernible logic apart from strategic muscling. One particularly beastly Ohio district — the 9th district that sits just north of Oberlin and includes Lorain, Toledo, and parts of Cleveland — is nicknamed the “Snake on the Lake” because of its long, thin shape.

The Supreme Court’s decision means that grassroots efforts like Voters Not Politicians are likely to be the most viable option for undoing gerrymandering.

In its decision against Ohio Democrats, the Court essentially acknowledged the existence of unfair and manipulative districting in several states, but determined that federal courts would not be the body to address the problem. Given the Republican majority on the bench, the decision is not surprising.

Ohio’s congressional map is unconstitutional — the original federal court ruling is enough to confirm this — but without any available avenues for judicial recourse, the problem becomes nearly impossible to address. The way Ohio’s districts are currently drawn ensures a longstanding conservative majority and undermines any hope of a progressive congressional swing in the state.

That’s why the best approaches to addressing gerrymandering in Ohio, as well as in other states, will have to circumvent established processes entirely.

It is apparently impossible for state legislatures to fairly redistrict, so setting up an independent commission, like what Voters Not Politicians accomplished in Michigan, is an ideal end-goal. And the way to get there is through state-level action and grassroots efforts.

One of Voters Not Politicians’ organizers, Nancy Wang, describes the group as “political novices,” and yet they were able to maneuver against a party of experienced political operators. This is the kind of change needed desperately in Ohio and the rest of the country.

The debate over Ohio House Bill 6 — which outlines a seven-year program that will subsidize Ohio’s two major nuclear power plants — has implications far beyond what one may presume. Effective as of October, HB 6 suggests that this subsidy will produce a large-scale increase in environmental and economic payoff from the plants.

The two plants, Perry and Davis-Besse, are run by FirstEnergy Solutions, a bankrupt subsidiary of Ohio’s major energy production company. FirstEnergy threatened to shut down the plants in 2020 unless subsidies were provided for their continuation. Ohio lawmakers approved HB 6 in July, meaning that fees, capped at 85 cents per month, will be added to taxpayers’ electricity bills. It is estimated that HB 6 will garner $150 million each year, beginning in 2021.

However, far from being implemented smoothly, HB 6 has caused uproar from opposition groups. Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts and the Ohio Consumers Power Alliance have worked to raise awareness about the bill’s detrimental impacts. Far from a simple disagreement, opposition groups are raising questions about the bill’s negative impact on the environment and opening a discussion regarding health concerns.

OACB brought its complaints to light when it asked the Ohio Supreme Court to consider its case against the bill. However, without enough signatures on the ballot to oppose HB 6, OACB is arguing that the deadlines put in place by the Ohio Supreme Court were unfair and limited their time to collect signatures.

In considering the complexities of the arguments for and against a bill supporting nuclear power, our environmental crisis in the United States comes to mind. With an increasing interest in the country’s renewable energy, Ohio mandated that 12.5 percent of the state’s energy production be renewable. Unfortunately, with the passing of HB 6, this mandate was lessened to 8.5 percent.

The bill itself relies on rhetoric that preaches environmental concerns, namely through the bill’s Ohio Clean Air Program, which would incentivize the construction of plants that promote environmentally sustainable practices. However, those opposing the bill warn that this environ-

mentally-friendly angle is used to lure the public into bailing out the big business corporation, FirstEnergy, from bankruptcy.

While the pro-environmental rhetoric of the bill may indeed be misleading, it is estimated that if the plants were to remain open, $2.1 billion would be saved, and 19.4 million tons of carbon emissions would be prevented. These figures make the bill sound promising in the short term. In the long run, however, the bill may compromise long-term environmental goals delayed by reworking the mandate for renewable energy, as previously mentioned.

By breaking down the already-functional program for mandated environmental awareness, the bill may create loopholes that could cause a dramatic emissions increase in the near future.

Aside from environmental concerns, the passing of HB 6 has health implications that should not be overlooked. The Center for Nuclear Matters estimates that with the plants’ closing, there would be an increase of 126 excess deaths from air pollution in the region each year. Thus, it seems evident that the bill should be passed to potentially eliminate pollution that could be caused by replacement energy sources. However, passing HB 6 does not address the issues with safety regulations at the Perry and Davis-Besse plants that have a direct impact on the health of Ohioans.

Backup system failures that occurred at the plants in 2018 alerted the public to the lack of transparency within FirstEnergy’s production and could continue to be detrimental if not appropriately addressed.

Given that backup system failures were the preeminent cause of the reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima plant in Japan, and FirstEnergy has a history of non-transparency with malfunctions, should we be backing a bill that supports the growth of the company?

While HB 6 has already passed and we are bound to see results soon, opposition groups are still lobbying for a reassessment of the bill. Trapped in legal proceedings, Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts continues drawing attention to the inadequacies in the HB 6 propositions for “change.”

As we keep environmental and health concerns in mind, it is time to reassess our support of House Bill 6 and seek to understand the intricacies of the nuclear power industry that will continue impacting our future.

Statute of Limitations Harms Victims, Should Be Repealed Jackie Brant Opinions Editor Democrats in the Ohio General Assembly have recently introduced a bill to the state legislature that would abolish the statute of limitations for sex crimes in the state. This same bill would also eliminate exemptions for sex crimes including spousal rape and sexual battery.

The introduction of the bill comes in response to Governor Mike Dewine’s comments following the exposure of previous sex crimes committed at The Ohio State University. Richard Strauss, a former athletic trainer at OSU, was found to have committed at least 177 separate cases of sexual abuse during his time at the university between 1979 and 1996. Strauss committed suicide in 2005.

Despite the number and severity of these cases, it is likely that Strauss could not have been prosecuted for the vast majority of his crimes if he were alive today. Ohio’s statute of limitations for rape specifically is 20 to 25 years depending on the circumstances, and the statute of limitations for other felony sex crimes can be as short as six years. Misdemeanors are even less, with some being only one to two years.

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After these allegations against Strauss blew up this year, Dewine urged the state legislature to consider drafting and passing a bill that would not only abolish the statute of limitations for sex crimes, but would also increase the penalties for sex crimes — especially when committed by authority figures such as college employees.

These sorts of cases unfortunately occur all too frequently. This Strauss case is very similar to what occurred with the numerous allegations against Bill Cosby regarding the function of the statute of limitations. At the time of Cosby’s trials in California, the statute of limitations for rape was only 10 years. The majority of the allegations against Cosby pertained to events that occurred between 1960 and 1980, rendering all the accusers from that time period unable to bring charges against him.

Ultimately, Cosby was only found guilty on three counts of aggravated assault from an incident in 2004 in the state of Pennsylvania, and was sentenced to 3 to 10 years in prison. He faced no charges in California. Soon after the allegations surfaced, California abolished the statute of limitations for sex crimes in direct response. Unfortunately, this repeal of the statute of limitations is not retroactive, meaning that the repeal will only impact future crimes.

It seems that Ohio will take this same path. Just as Cosby’s victims will never be able to receive justice or closure for his actions, Strauss’ victims will never receive justice for his actions. The statute of limitations for sex crimes has literally prevented hundreds of people in these two cases alone from getting the justice they deserve.

Currently, fewer than 30 states have abolished the statute of limitations for first-degree rape charges, and even fewer have abolished the statute of limitiatons for any sex crimes other than rape. If Ohio’s state legislature successfully passes this bill, it would be one of the most comprehensive and progressive repeals of the statute of limitations for sex crimes in the United States.

While I understand the reasoning behind the statute of limitations — to ensure that adequate evidence can still be gathered — the practice is simply unnecessary today, given advancements in modern DNA technology. There was a time when the statute of limitations made sense, but now it is entirely outdated. Not only has DNA testing evolved, but our ability to store all sorts of evidence — including DNA evidence — has also advanced to an extremely high See Ohio, page 7

Land Mines Remain a Global Security Issue, Must Be Addressed Leo Hochberg Columnist In the canon of weaponry often involved in crimes against humanity, what comes to mind for most people is a realm of technology including biological weapons, chemical gas, and drones. However, in recent decades, land mines have risen to prominence as a grave security threat for civilian populations in war-torn countries and disputed territories. This is because landmines are an indiscriminate weapon; because they are triggered by the victim instead of the attacker, there is no assurance that a buried mine will not take the life of a child, civilian, medic, or aid worker. Some land mines will stay active for decades after the conflict for which the mine was laid has come to a close and can be triggered in unrelated circumstances. Land mines also make mine-contaminated land unusable and prevent development and farming even in times of peace. While the changing utility of military technology and concerted efforts from global activists have curtailed land mine usage since the turn of the century, land mines remain buried all over the globe and demand greater attention from world leaders.

This story begins with a notable bright side: Land mines are certainly not the mass killer that they used to be. The global transition away from land mine usage began in 1992 when a group of prominent global health organizations launched the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, leading to massive international coverage through the 1990s, a Nobel Peace Prize, and finally, the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty — also known as the Ottawa Treaty.

As far as international weapon regulation treaties go, the Ottawa Treaty is commonly hailed as one of the most successful multinational weapon-regulation treaties in history. With 133 signatory states, this treaty bans the production, laying, and sale of anti-personnel land mines with meticulous regulation and surveillance. The treaty’s adoption was aided by changing developments in international methods of warfare; armies are becoming more mobile, and as such land mines are less necessary because they can be easily bypassed using modern detection technology. The treaty has since resulted in a massive decline in global land mine usage. By the time the treaty went into its third review in 2014, reports by the ICBL claimed that 87 signatory states had no stockpiled land mines, including 34 states which destroyed their

stockpiles after the treaty went into effect.

However, as is pointed out by Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, a prominent international land mine watchdog, 56 states and four other areas still carry a threat of land mine contamination. This is primarily because dozens of states remain non-signatories of the treaty, and unfortunately, most of the states which have yet to sign refuse to do so because they have active security threats which they combat through the usage of anti-personnel mines. For example, South Korea has not signed the treaty because it deploys mines throughout the demilitarized zone along the border with North Korea. Other major non-signatories such as China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Russia, and the United States demonstrate that countries engaging actively in global combat are less likely to sign the treaty or comply with its directives. Thus, while 133 countries have signed on, critics argue that the treaty is ineffective if it mostly remains exclusive to the countries that use mines.

Land mines also remain a tricky and persistent problem because most planted anti-personnel explosives simply never deactivate and can only be removed through active demining efforts, which is an expensive and dangerous process. For

example, tracts of land in Southern Lebanon remain unusable due to mines placed by the Israeli Defense Force during Israel’s occupation from 1985–2000. Likewise, decades of conflict with a variety of internal and external actors have left Iraq one of the world’s most mine-ridden countries, with thousands of Iraqi communities now cut off from their land and countless displaced people prevented from returning home safely.

The world must remember that ending the threat of land mines is an active process which requires significant resources and long-term dedication. While the Ottawa Treaty has done excellent work in preventing the production and laying of new mines, more work must be done to encourage demining in active zones of conflict and in areas which suffer from long-term mine contamination. Governments around the world must resist the temptation to consider the issue resolved and encourage wider compliance with the Ottawa Treaty, including lobbying non-signatories to commit to the treaty’s provisions. Simply put, land mines will remain a problem until every single one has been pulled up from the ground and safely destroyed. The fates of thousands of children and civilians will certainly depend on it for decades to come.

Ohio Could Lead On Abolishing Limitations for Sex Crimes Continued from page 6

level. As long as evidence can be collected efficiently and stored effectively, the argument in favor of maintaining the statute of limitations in cases of rape and sexual assault collapses.

Ohio residents — especially progressive Ohioans — should be both excited and hopeful by the possibility of this bill passing. First and foremost, the bill would allow thousands of people in the future to get the justice that they deserve. The statute of limitations allows abusers to hide behind these limitations and escape the punish-

ment that they deserve — it protects perpetrators of sex crimes rather than victims of these crimes. Abolishing the statute of limitations would be a step in the right direction to ensure that lawmakers are doing everything in their power to make the justice system work for victims of sex crimes.

However, the high likelihood of this bill passing is also symbolic of something deeper. During the past few years, Ohio residents have gone through a great deal.

We faced a shocking 2016 election, abortion rights have been under attack, we have seen a mass shooting with no action

by the Ohio legislature to prevent another one, and the opioid epidemic continues to ravage the state. The political and economic turmoil across the state has led some to question whether Ohio can even be considered a swing state anymore.

However, this bill provides a reason for hope. Although this story has been drastically underreported by popular local news sources, all Ohioans should care about it.

The investigation into Richard Strauss and The Ohio State University was both appalling and terrifying, and it shocked residents of the state and the country in general.

However, Ohio has a chance not only to prevent this from happening again in the future, but also to enact one of the most comprehensive and progressive reforms to the prosecution of rape and other sex crimes in the country.

The Ohio state legislature must seriously consider passing this bill not only to correct the current wrongs of the justice system, but to protect its citizens going forward. Ohio has the unique opportunity to be a trailblazer in this arena. Lawmakers have a responsibility to protect its citizens to the best of its ability.

COMIC

Athina Apazidis, Staff Cartoonist

The Oberlin Review | December 6, 2019

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Low- and No-Cost Holiday Gift Ideas

Text and Layout by Lily Jones, This Week Editor

Now that it’s December, many people have entered full-blown holiday mode. Whether you celebrate a winter holiday or not, the mood can be infectious — even Ohio’s dreary winter can’t dampen the cheerful lights and festive drinks! What might be less fun, however, is the prospect of spending lots of money on gifts for friends and family. Luckily, there are endless ways to show people you care about them while spending little to nothing. This week, we have featured a few low- or no-cost gift ideas that are much more personal than a store-bought gift — and will save you money as well.

Do a book exchange If you and a friend or family member are both unsure of what to get each other, consider exchanging favorite books. You’ll get to share something you care about and learn more about their taste too!

Photo courtesy of ODCS Press

Offer to babysit, petsit, or help around someone’s house Give someone the gift of free time. They will appreciate the reduced stress when they plan their next night out or vacation. And doing chores for a friend or family member can double as a chance to catch up with them!

Photo courtesy of CBS News

Give free lessons Are you a musician, athlete, or artist? Give lessons to someone who has shown interest in learning your skill. It will save them money and help you become better at your craft!

Photo courtesy of The Toronto Star

Knit, sew, or build something Homemade gifts have the reputation of being cheesy, but well-made artwork, clothing, or decorations can last for years and be more meaningful than any storebought equivalent.

Photo courtesy of roxy.com

Call a family member or friend It can mean a lot to someone to have you check in on them. Set aside an hour or more of your time to call a relative or friend and listen to what they’ve been up to.

Photo courtesy of amazon. com

Gift flower bulbs Winter is a great season to gift plant bulbs, especially ones that bloom indoors.

Paperwhites are an easy option, and you can buy packs of them at most garden centers for less than $10. Fill a paper bag or cloth pouch with some gravel and a couple of bulbs, then tie it shut with a ribbon. Add a small instruction sheet, directing your recipient to place the gravel in a container with water and nestle the bulbs in the gravel.

Photo courtesy of chapelfarm.com

Make your own cookbook If you enjoy cooking, share some of your favorite recipes with others. This could be in the form of a physical book or one created digitally. Consider spicing up the pages with your photography or hand-drawn doodles!

Photo courtesy of Elyon Tableware

Friday–Saturday, Dec. 6–7

Monday–Thursday, Dec. 9–12

Wednesday, Dec. 11

Thursday, Dec. 12

Latinx ’Sco Night

Holiday Card & Ornament Decorating

Green EDGE Fund Sustainability Celebration Banquet

Noite Brasileira featuring Grupo Oberlinho

Decorate Hanukkah and Christmas cards, and make other holiday-themed crafts.

Sponsored by Student Union and Program Board.

A celebration of the Oberlin community’s sustainable work, featuring food, live music, and presentations on environmentally-focused projects.

Dance to Brazilian pop, rock, samba, choro, and bossa nova with Oberlin’s Brazilian Ensemble to celebrate the last day of classes.

8 a.m. – 12 a.m. Monday through Thursday // Wilder Lounge

5:30 p.m. – 7 p.m. // Adam Joseph Lewis Center For Environmental Studies

10 p.m. – 12 a.m. // The ’Sco

Come dance with featured DJs Bembona and Riobamba from New York City. Sponsored by La Alianza Latinx as part of their Latinx Heritage Series. Free, with all donations going toward the Undocumented Student Scholarship Fund.

10 p.m. – 1 a.m. // The ’Sco

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE December 6, 2019

established 1874

Volume 148, Number 11

Slow Train Storytellers: Bringing Oral Storytelling to Oberlin

Illustration by Alex Tash

Klara Jacobs Slow Train Storytellers will bring members of the Oberlin community together to share their stories over coffee this Friday from 7–9 p.m. Limited to five unscripted minutes, community members are encouraged to share their personal stories in a safe and supportive environment.

As a new feature of our artistic community, Storytellers has been meeting on the first and third Friday of each month since October. The Storytellers night was inspired by The Moth, a global spoken-word community in which brief, unscripted sto-

ries centered around a theme of the night are told live on air. After listening to the Moth Radio Hour for years, Storytellers Founder Kelly Garritt Waite decided to bring this spoken-word magic to Oberlin.

Waite explained that she had a two-fold intention when creating the group.

“I’ve always found kind of a gap in the [Oberlin] community for writers and storytellers,” she said. “I wanted to create a space for people who are not necessarily tied to the College to tell their stories, and more important than that, I wanted to bring together town and gown.”

While Waite has been crafting stories

through the written word since a young age, she explained that oral storytelling is a vastly different genre. It can be easy to overlook the value of storytelling in Oberlin’s fast-paced environment, which perhaps overlooks the authenticity of oral stories in favor of written academic work.

Storytellers night is attempting to change this focus and integrate the College and greater Oberlin community.

With the intention of enhancing the town and gown relationship, Waite’s Storytellers has seen a turnout of mostly community members aside from one College student who shared a story last Friday.

While increasing College participation is certainly a future goal, stories from community members have proved to be humorous, healing, and intriguing. Corrie Purcell, a College third-year and current employee at Slow Train Cafe, enjoyed listening to the stories during her shift.

“There was one person who wasn’t planning on telling a story (he was in town for a concert, a violinist) and he was so charming and ended up telling a hilarious story,” Purcell wrote in an email to the Review.

If you’re not there for the laughs, Waite explained that the personal stories can also prove to be very cathartic.

“I have definitely seen people experiencing healing,” Waite said. “When someone is telling a personal story, you definitely see healing going on.”

Since the theme for the events is always changing and open to interpretation, you

are bound to end up with some interesting anecdotes.

“I think one of my favorite stories was told by a woman from Canada,” Waite said.

“She was talking about the time she used a penis bone to chase off someone who was robbing her. Apparently in animals, this [bone] is a thing, and it was quite large.”

Looking forward to this evening’s event, College first-year Mariah Leontopoulou-Cochran is planning to share her own interpretation of “revolution.” Leontopoulou-Cochran is eager to utilize the event to better understand her community.

“Every other outlet for storytelling is directed by the College and solely for students, so I’m looking forward to interacting with Oberlin’s broader community,” she said. Leontopoulou-Cochran shares the series’ sentiment that there is power in bringing people together through their stories.

“Being intentional with what you share, because of the five-minute limit, makes it a more meaningful experience for both the performer and the listener,” she said.

Intentionally designed to foster healing and community connection, Storytellers will continue to uplift the Oberlin community and College campus during all of their gatherings still to come.

“We’re all humans,” Waite said. “We all have stories. We all have baggage.”

In providing a space to share your own personal experience, Storytellers’ continuation of the oral tradition may be just about as human as it gets.

cal issues. Davidson explained that the foster process was easy for them. After submitting an online form, she was invited to the Lincoln Street shelter that same day to meet some of the animals in what she described as a “speed dating” session.

“Warren was so sweet,” Davidson said.

“We also wanted to make sure that we were getting someone who wasn’t on the hot list for adoption.”

CATSS is the backbone of adoption organizing in the town, and through its donor support, the volunteers are able to make sure that all cats are vaccinated, FELV/FIV tested, and spayed or neutered.

“There are two shifts of volunteers each day, one in the morning and one at night, and we organize the schedule one month out,” Angell and Burgess wrote in an email to the Review. “We also use email and text to communicate about [the] emergency situations that come up when you are dealing

with living creatures.”

When dealing with feral cats in particular, CATSS follows guidelines created by an organization called Alley Cat Allies.

“If you think a feral cat is sick or injured, call us and we will help the cat!” Angell and Burgess wrote. “Our mission is to help Oberlin’s cats, and to maintain their health.”

They also advise people that if they notice a cat with a tipped ear, it means that the cat is feral and shouldn’t be approached. Even if a cat is approaching you, you shouldn’t necessarily feed it — this can confuse cats and make them less likely to return to their home if they do have one.

CATSS encourages students to reach out if they are ever concerned about an outdoor feline. Those looking to get involved with the organization are encouraged to volunteer at Ginko’s, help foster, or reach out to CATSS for more information.

CATSS Cares for Local Felines, Supports Health, Awareness

Kate Fishman Arts & Culture Editor

College towns seem to be dumping grounds for folks looking to get rid of their pets — whether because of turnover in students and staff, or because such communities often come together to care for animals. Oberlin has its own share of feline friends, sometimes seen on campus in colonies or dashing down the street. As the weather grows colder, seeing these cats outside can seem grim. Concerned citizens can be comforted, though, by the knowledge that Oberlin’s feline inhabitants have an extensive network of support on behalf of a volunteer organization called Community Action To Save Strays, or CATSS. “We have been working within the Oberlin community for about 20 years now,” Board Chair of CATSS Sue Angell, OC ’99, wrote in an email to the Review.

“We started as a [trap-neuter-return] group. Students got involved, but when they graduated, residents and community members took over to make CATSS what it is today!”

The owner of Ginko Gallery & Studio, Liz Burgess, OC ’73, became a founding member and original board chair of the project, spearheading CATSS work since.

“When Liz Burgess became involved, CATSS found a person who was able to save fragile neonates and care for compromised kittens, turning them into social, loving cats that found forever, loving homes with Obies far and wide,” Angell wrote.

For many Oberlin students and even prospies, the back room of Ginko Gallery & Studio is a prime destination. Burgess first started using the back room as a place to care for stray kittens, eventually opening it up to visitors and fostering mutually bene-

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ficial cuddling arrangements for both visitors and cats.

Beyond just capitalizing on some good old-fashioned times with kittens, students and professors have been known to step in to address feline needs by bringing strays indoors during freezing weather, or fostering grown-up cats who are normally housed at CATSS’ Lincoln Street location to give them a break from shelter life. Professor of Russian Tom Newlin has a particular strategy and skill for beckoning cats over.

“I’m afraid that the flattering rumor [Professor of Politics Eve] Sandberg has been spreading about me being a ‘cat whisperer’ is a bit of an exaggeration,” Newlin wrote in an email to the Review. “It’s true that I like cats and they generally like me.

But I think the real trick is that I mostly talk [to] them in Russian, which is a much more sinuous and feline language than English, so they respond better to it.”

Sandberg has often fed stray and feral cats in the past, and has reached out to CATSS representatives to help sick or injured campus felines. While she identifies as a dog person, Sandberg now has three cats of her own.

College students are often dissuaded from animal adoption with good reason, since making this lifetime commitment while in college is a serious undertaking.

As Newlin says, “Friends don’t let friends ditch their cats.” However, fostering can be a great way for students who live in pet-friendly housing to help local animals.

College fourth-year Jacey Davidson, who volunteered at Ginko’s as a first-year student, was able to foster a cat this year, Warren, with her housemates. While foster parents need to pay for food and water, CATSS can provide funding for any medi-

A mother cat and her kittens. CATSS provides care for younger animals at Ginko Gallery & Studio, and for mature cats at their Lincoln Street location.

Courtesy of Sue Angell

Book Nook Reviews: Lasser and Kornblith’s Elusive Utopia In the third grade I, like every other elementary-school student in Oberlin’s public schools, received a copy of an Oberlin history textbook. The book portrayed Oberlin as a utopian community that had transcended issues of gender and race from its inception. Yet my lived experiences and the stories I heard growing up as an Oberlin resident often contradicted this idealistic narrative.

I was introduced to the monograph Elusive Utopia: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Oberlin, Ohio last semester in an oral history course with Executive Director of Integrative & Experiential Learning and Assistant Professor of History Tania Boster. In this course, students worked on a collaborative, community-based research project about the life and influence of Betty Glenn Thomas, the first Black teacher in the Oberlin public schools and an alumna of Oberlin College.

In the first few weeks of the class we read Elusive Utopia to establish a foundational understanding of Oberlin’s history, and we had the opportunity to talk with the authors, Professors Emeriti Gary Kornblith and Carol Lasser, about their work and meticulous research process. Elusive Utopia has transformed my understanding of Oberlin history with its detailed and nuanced account.

The book uses archival documents — including newspaper articles, census data, city records, and biographical case studies — to explore the often contested history of race in Oberlin from the town’s inception in 1833 through the mid-1920s.

Through this book, I gained historical insight into several underlying issues in my community and acquired a valuable tool that has helped me to speak more knowledgeably about issues of race and poverty in Oberlin that still persist today. I highly recommend that any student, resident, or person interested in a more accurate history of Oberlin read Elusive Utopia so that they can be more fully informed of this town’s complex — and at times troubling — past. I can only hope that Professors Lasser and Kornblith continue their research, and one day publish a second volume on how the issues they discuss have evolved, for better or for worse, over the last century.

- Nalin Beckman, College fourth-year

The Oberlin College Archives staff enjoyed working with Professors Emeriti Carol Lasser and Gary Kornblith on their book project Elusive Utopia: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Oberlin, Ohio. The authors cited a number of materials in the book that are held by the College’s archives. In assisting with their research, our staff gained a better appreciation for the various collections that we hold. Additionally, Elusive Utopia is a great resource to use in our instructional sessions for visiting classes. Students learn about important issues in Oberlin’s history, and we explain how primary sources are made available to historians for teaching, research, and writing. We are grateful that we had the opportunity to assist the authors in this outstanding book project.

- Ken Grossi College Archivist I’ve kept my copy of Elusive Utopia: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Oberlin, Ohio either in my backpack or on my bedside table since I first read it on a plane ride home at the end of the fall 2018 semester. The book inspired a private reading I undertook this past spring, resulting in a series of opinion columns about Oberlin’s history I published earlier this fall, and countless conversations with community members about our complex history.

Elusive Utopia was written because of Oberlin’s complex, problematic, often-misrepresented history — not in spite of these things, which is one of the aspects of the book that I find compelling. One passage in particular, from the third chapter, exemplifies Professors Emeriti Carol Lasser and Gary Kornblith’s nuanced approach to writing about Oberlin’s complicated history.

In 1851, two white female students and another young white woman from the town had an altercation with two female students of color. It’s not clear exactly what happened, but the tense interaction escalated and one of the white students fell off the sidewalk, built above the muddy streets to protect residents from debris and muck. All students involved were instructed by College administrators to write letters of apology — an attempt to deal out “an even-handed punishment for all involved.”

The two students of color were displeased with the de-

cision and declined to write letters of apology. “[Their] resistance suggests that students of color embraced different conceptions of fairness and justice than those applied ‘impartially’ by the white authorities who governed the college,” Lasser and Kornblith wrote of the incident.

While this event is not one that shaped Oberlin’s longterm trajectory, it is a historical example that dispels mythologies that paint early Oberlin as an ultra-progressive, racially-inclusive community. Sometimes, I think there is a collective tendency on campus to characterize the history of social justice on campus as very linear. Anecdotes like this one, and others scattered throughout Elusive Utopia, show that this trajectory has been anything but simple.

Every time I pick up Elusive Utopia, I draw new meaning from the depth of its research and the richness of its analysis. With my time at Oberlin coming to a close, I wish I’d been able to pick it up earlier — and I encourage every community member, especially those just arriving on campus as first-years, to do so.

- Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief

Middle School Students Celebrate Poetic Accomplishments

The Cat in the Cream was packed on Monday night, as middle schoolers, family members and Oberlin students gathered to hear Langston Middle School students read poetry from anthologies of their work.

The subject matter ran the gamut, touching on times they felt powerful, people that are important to them, advice they don’t like to hear, and their relationships with their hometowns, among other sources of inspiration.

This work came out of seven-day residencies in the middle school Language Arts classes, taught by college students through the Writers in the Schools Program. This program, directed by Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing Lynn Powell, is the focus of her Teaching Imaginative Writing course. College students compiled the culminating anthologies of middle school poetry, will be on shelves at the school and the Oberlin Public Library.

“I preach to my Oberlin students that to teach well you must prepare yourself as well as you can, and then go have an authentic conversation with your students,” Powell wrote in an email to the Review. “Staying curious and learning together is what keeps both teaching and poetry alive.”

The Oberlin Review | Dec 6, 2019

College third-year Elmo Tumbokon participated in the class last year, and taught again as a practicum this fall.

“If you’ve heard the poems that eighth-graders read, it’s literally the most profound thing in the world,” said Tumbokon. “And [to help] kids have access to poetry over and over again, and all I have to do is volunteer my time. … It means the world to me.”

Another student teacher, College fourth-year Jack McMillin, participated in WITS when he was a student at Langston Middle School. In his final year at the College, he’s come full circle with the program.

“As a middle school student, the program was such a joy because it allowed me to think imaginatively in a school setting,” McMillin wrote in an email to the Review. “For me, it’s early chances like the poetry [residency] where I could play around and experiment with my voice that made writing a liberating world, and the more this expanded during my time at Oberlin, the more I wanted to pursue creative writing.”

Text by Rachel Fang Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor

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

Cyril Amanfo, Equilibrium Student Playwright, Director

College second-year Cyril Amanfo is a Neuroscience and Theater double major from Lowell, MA. Last year, Amanfo was the assistant stage manager for Professor of Theater and Africana Studies Caroline Jackson Smith’s staging of BJ Tindal’s, OC ’16 play, What We Look Like, an experience that inspired Amanfo to try his hand at putting on a play. Amanfo is writing, directing, and acting in the resulting show alongside a cast of nine and design team of seven. The result is a bold fusion of dance and spoken word called Equilibrium, an Oberlin Student Theater Association show running Dec. 5, 6, and 7 at 8 p.m. in Wilder Main Space.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kate Fishman Arts & Culture Editor Can you describe Equilibrium?

Equilibrium is very, very abstract. It essentially is this take on life, put on stage.

It basically deals with things like who we are as people and [what motivates] us to do different things. You get four different pieces of equilibrium, and they’re based on the four elements — there’s fire, water, earth, and air, and each piece has its own narrative. You get to watch three characters within each piece deal with their own narrative, telling their own story that fits into this bigger story — this bigger exposétype-thing on life and what it takes to live it. I have a thing about putting abstract things on stage, things that people haven’t seen before. This is the most abstract I’ve gotten.

You called it a choreo-poem. Can you talk more about what that means?

A lot of it is a mixture of spoken word to dance, so there are very poetic aspects of the show. It’s not your typical dialogue — this person speaks to that person — it’s more people speaking to the audience or people speaking to each other, but in some sort of poetic setting. There are little words and tricks that [make you think,] “Oh, okay, I caught onto that.” So that’s the poetry aspect, and then there are about 13 or 14 movement sequences, dance, that help emphasize the story and push the story along as well.

Did you write the entire script before starting work on the performance?

I started writing the script in February of this year and finished it before I cast the show. I ran it by a couple of people to edit and to read to make sure that [I wasn’t the only one that thought] that it sounded good. My approach to directing was like, “These are the words on the page, but what brings them to life is different.” So [the cast and I] collaborated [on questions like]: “When are you on stage? When are you exiting?” I didn’t want to do blocking in the sense of telling people where to go — I was just like, “Go where you want to and if it looks bad, I’ll tell you and we’ll try

COMIC

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something else.” The script is just words on a page and obviously that’s important, but also what comes after that, I think, is a lot more important and needs to be collaborative. It’s a 10-person cast, including myself. My stage manager, my assistant director, everyone working on the show, were like, “Let’s all put it together based off of what we have on the script.”

Are you performing in the show?

I am performing in the show. It’s kind of a lot, I’m not going to lie. It’s my little Lin-Manuel Miranda moment. But it’s been fun. It doesn’t feel overwhelming just because I have a really good support system in the cast and the crew and everyone working on it.

When did you first get the idea to do the show?

I started writing it at the end of Winter Term [2019]. What We Look Like was a show that was written by BJ Tindal, OC ’16, and they wrote the show and did it a couple times while they were here, and then Ms. Caroline picked it up. Being [part of ] that process and seeing what an original show looks like — a recent original show — I was like, “I’m going to do something like that.”

I’ve always been thinking about, you know, when am I going to take control and write something? I auditioned for a lot of shows last year and I didn’t get a lot of them and some people just told me, “If you don’t get opportunities, create your own.” And so I really didn’t know where I was going. At some point I was just writing some poetry — putting these words together because I thought they were important things — that were on my mind at the time.

These existential-crisis questions that you have sometimes and you’re like, “Why are we really here?” And as I was writing, I was like, “I could turn this into something bigger.” So I started editing those and making it a cohesive story [and that] is what led to Equilibrium.

Can you talk about your relationship with your student design team for this show?

[College second-year] Windley Knowlton is my stage manager. She’s probably the best person I know. She is also a theater person and so she’s not only a stage manager keeping us all in check, but she also knows what good acting looks like; she knows what good choices look like. ...

We wouldn’t be opening this week without Windley Knowlton, that’s just a fact.

[College second-year] Analise LaRiviere was the choreographer. The collaborative process in choreography was really interesting because I’m not a classically-trained dancer, but I am a dancer, and Analise is a classically-trained dancer.

So the two of us making this choreography together was a lot of trial and error, a lot of back-and-forth, bouncing ideas, all of that. A lot of just get up and dance and see what comes out of it. We’ve created some

College second-year Cyril Amanfo.

really, really cool pieces that way — by just getting up and dancing and dancing with each other. We work really well together, [which has] been a lot of fun.

[College fourth-year] Clarissa Heart is my assistant director and she is just smarter than I’ll ever be. So the goal is to surround myself with people who I respect and who can hold it down. Clarissa is just an incredible, incredible creative talent.

[Double-degree fourth year] Max Addae is doing sound. [College second-year] Daniel Moses is doing lights. [College firstyear] Kobi Gomes just jumped on and is doing costumes. ... You’ve got this group of seven open-minded people who want to create this thing from the ground up, and obviously I’m the director and I have the final say, but it’s never come to the point where I had to be like, “Absolutely not” ... because all of the ideas are so good that we found a way to weave and incorporate all of those different things.

Is there anything you want people to be thinking about going into the performance?

Be ready to be affected. Come in with an open mind. Like I said, it’s not anything that I’ve ever seen on stage before. ... Call and response is a big part of the show. Audiences are welcome to engage — if you have something to say, you should say it, not in the sense of interrupting the show, but if you want to laugh, you should laugh.

If you want to cry, you should cry. If you

Photo by Mowa Badmos

want to throw in a “mm-hmm” or some snap[ping], that is really necessary for this show.

Once you step into the theater, you’re basically in the show. The actors will interact with the audience. They will get up, they’ll go talk to people; they expect the audience to listen to them, and they expect to listen to the audience. … I feel like if you do come in with an open mind you will leave with something. And I think that’s what the point of theater is.

Anything that you’d like to add?

The cast is incredible. I talked about the design team, but the cast is absolutely incredible... I can honestly say right now that I couldn’t have cast anybody else, nor could I have cast anybody in any different role. The way that this cast is set up right now is borderline perfection, and that’s not only because of the talent, but it’s also because of the hard work. I have a lot of people who are like, “I’ve never acted before.” A lot of people who have never danced before, and now they can all say that they are actors, dancers, and they all also sing on the track. So it’s a whole triple-threat type of thing where they came into it really not knowing what they were getting into … because it is a very abstract thing. But now we’re at show week and we’re all really, really confident in terms of what we’re doing. ... I’m really excited for the cast, mostly — to be able to share this experience.

Michelle Liu

Urinetown Takes a Comedic Look At Dark Societal Issues

Urinetown’s ensemble cast rehearsing for its opening night, which took place Thursday.

Kabir Karamchandani Staff Writer Described in the director’s note as “an eerily relevant takedown of Capitalism’s worst case scenario,” the Oberlin Theater Department’s production of Urinetown, a darkly satirical 2001 musical, is still uncomfortably applicable to our political and social climate today. The production deals with a variety of heavy themes, including the dangers of capitalism run amok, as well as racially-charged violence, cli-

CROSSWORD

mate change, and more.

Yet the show itself is anything but dreary — filled with colorful musical numbers and bawdy jokes, Urinetown feels, for the most part, like a fun, light-hearted show, and it’s morbidly pleasant to watch. It’s only when you start to reflect on the subject matter behind the fun songs and recurring toilet humor that you realize Urinetown, while funny, is undoubtedly dark — at times terrifying and particularly topical.

“This play is actually a critique of the way we’re not together … right now, because of so much that is

51. Talent show hosted by Cat Deely, abbr.

53. Suitable for a postcard 56. Letters for Bezos or Musk 57. Painfully smart German physicist 58. Apple vs. Android, e.g.

61. Young violinist known for choreographing her violin performances, initials 62. Sushi appetizer 63. Praise in verse

Lauren O’Hear

ACROSS 1. Calls into question 6. Canonical Hebrew scripture 10. French infantry man in WWI, literally “hairy one” 11. Variety of Japanese soup 13. Outdo in tennis 16. Ready and willing to play 18. Harry Potter on West End 19. Academic 21. One who pursues The Oberlin Review | Dec 6, 2019

Courtesy of John Seyfried

23. When one is on a ship 24. First word of the Constitution 26. Grandmother, affectionate 27. Persona ______ grata 28. Big Ten Hoosier 29. Arm, leg 31. The only golf thing it’s acceptable to break 32. I see you, in a hospital 33. Titanic’s transmission 34. Universal standard for compas-

going on in our culture, we need to think critically, but we also need to find ways to reach one another through laughter and compassion, and I’m hoping that the play will do that,” said Professor of Theater Matthew Wright, who directed the show.

While by no means a feel-good show, Urinetown allows onlookers to laugh and as a result come together to change the oftentimes broken system.

“The thing I like most about the show is that no one is wrong, but no one is right,” said College second-year Isaac Slomski-Pritz, who plays Billy Boy Bill.

Urinetown doesn’t shy away from contentious issues. The central idea behind the musical’s world is that a shortage of water has led to severe rationing, including a ban on private toilets and a system where everyone has to pay to use a restroom. This not-sothinly-veiled reference to climate change drives much of the show, and the characters’ attempts to solve this problem allude to the drastic consequences of different political or bureaucratic approaches to real-life political issues. Urinetown makes a clear statement — crises of this caliber demand a nuanced and considered approach.

“If you do actions just because they feel good, it doesn’t always lead to the right outcome, and if we at Oberlin start to see that, maybe we’ll take something from this musical,” said College third-year Gina Fontanesi, who plays Dr. Billeaux.

Its thought-provoking political nature aside, Urinetown is a treat to watch. Every aspect of the production works excellently, with stellar performances from actors, fantastic music and choreography, and breathtaking set-design. Despite the heavy subject matter, the show’s jokes rarely fail to land, allowing you to see the light side of the grim issues. You’ll be laughing out loud from your seat, and thinking about the all-too-real subject matter long after the curtain call.

sion 37. Lead-in to X, Y, and Z 38. Junior’s parent 39. Crunchy 41. Gift on the third day of Christmas 43. Knight errant 45. Mitch Albom’s great equalizer 47. Corporate VIPs 48. “Marley and _____” 50. To act as a go-between

DOWN 1. Artisanal beer type, abbr.

2. The Show-Me State, abbr.

3. Dutifully religious 4. Australian sandstone formation, also known as Ayers Rock 5. Intestinal tenacity 6. Involuntary facial movement 7. Realist art movement based in New York 8. A refusal 9. Australian marsupial 11. Fugi, Kilimanjaro, and Everest, abbr.

12. Lush green 14. Changed rock 15. A young man of classic beauty 16. Hired henchman 17. Deepest trench in the ocean 20. A Stark TV network 22. Tattletale mouse 24. Carefully consider a heavy situation 25. _____ expectations 30. Moles, groundhogs, and gophers 31. An Oberlin first-year’s best friend 34. Ruler across the Styx 35. Half a bicycle 36. Under-bed inhabitant 39. Happiness so great that it invokes song 40. Stretch out in Scotland 42. Catholic VIP 44. ____, reuse, recycle 46. Style of Christian worship known for its chanting 48. Rapping Hammer’s first initials 49. He’s gotta catch ‘em all 52. A toy with many ups and downs 54. An illustrator’s prison 55. Revamping the female reproductive system is a make_________ 58. Ancient Egyptian dorm monitor 59. Online chat 60. First developed radio broadcasting technology

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Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Dre Campbell, Basketball Captain and Vlogger

College fourth-year and varsity basketball player Andre “Dre” Campbell can be spotted traversing far stretches of campus, from the basketball court where he holds the position of team captain all the way to the art building. One unexpected place where the Sociology major and Studio Art minor can be found is on YouTube. Campbell has uploaded 28 vlogs to his channel, Fashodre, detailing his daily life and varsity basketball career at Oberlin. Born and raised in San Francisco, Campbell is looking forward to the remainder of the basketball season and staying out of the Ohio frost.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Zoë Martin del Campo Contributing Sports Editor What does being named a team captain mean to you?

It’s the label of a leader of the team, and that means that you’re a representation of men’s basketball at Oberlin. When you’re in that role, you set the example.

It’s your responsibility to know the plays and help the other players navigate college basketball, because it’s so much different from playing in high school. So it’s not only setting the example of what it is to be a good basketball player and representing Oberlin, but it’s also being a figure that someone looks up to.

Have you had mentors that have taught you about leadership?

My first year, there were a lot of seniors, and each offered different types of advice. So whenever I had trouble, I always had people to turn to, which was pretty cool. And that’s one thing that I also wanted to be able to do — channel the energy that they provided for me and be someone that you’d reach out to about everything.

How have you felt about the season’s so far?

I’m so pumped. It’s awesome to be 6–2 right now. To have a whole shifting winning program right now, it’s pretty awesome, especially my senior year.

I’m not looking back at anything so far in disappointment; I’m always looking forward and excited because this is my last year playing basketball in college. I’m trying to absorb all that I can and have a good time. I’m always smiling during practice and goofing off a little bit to keep the energy up of the guys and remind them that we’re volunteering our time because we all want to play this sport.

How does it feel to be a fourth-year?

Oh, I feel old. It’s cool to be a fourthyear because I’ve been on this campus for [what feels like forever] — I almost want to label myself as a native of Oberlin. It’s bittersweet, though, because I understand that I only have a few months left of sitting in a classroom and absorbing as much knowledge as I can from the fantastic professors at this

school. The level of engagement and critical thinking skills [required] in a classroom setting is fantastic. Oberlin pushes you to think more critically and doesn’t sugarcoat the facts. So it is a little bittersweet, but also it’s my time. When I see young first-years, I remember those days and realize that it’s my time to walk through the arches and move on.

How have these last four years been for you?

They’ve been up and down. I think that’s just because I’m far from home.

I’m from California, so it’s just hard; I’ll never get used to snow. Oberlin is also very rigorous and requires a lot of work academically, so you always have to be on top of your game, and sometimes with basketball and other things, it’s easy to get distracted. But I just remind myself that I just have to get back up, so it’s been a good time.

What are your goals for this season?

I think for everybody on the team, it’s to win conference championships. We have to put it out there. We can’t be shy.

We just have to say, “Hey, we want to win a conference championship,” and see where it goes from there.

How old were you when you began playing basketball?

I actually originally started out with soccer through my mom. When I was four or five, I had a huge growth spurt, so I was bigger than everyone else. I was the biggest five-year-old you’ve ever seen. So I’m doing soccer, and obviously I think I’m the Messi of soccer and wanted to be the agile forward. But instead I was a goalie, and being a goalie — I was not having fun. Just standing in there, I wasn’t doing anything but knocking a few balls.

So then I switched to basketball, starting at the Jewish Community Center, and I played there for a while. That’s where I found a love for basketball. It was easy for me — you just take a ball and put it in the hoop, and it helps when you’re tall.

When I was younger, my dad would also take me to NBA games, and I remember thinking, “Wow, those guys are massive” and wanting to be there. It was an awesome experience, even though I wasn’t always paying attention to the

College fourth-year Dre Campbell goes up against a defender on the way to the basket.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

game at the time. So I think that kind of just grew on me and made me really love basketball.

Then, in fifth grade, the JCC told my dad that I needed to leave because I was too good. And my dad didn’t know the ins and outs of where to go, so the JCC recommended travel basketball. I was so nervous in the first try-out I had because I didn’t know how to play defense, or know the terminology. The coach called me out and told me to sit, which means to get into a position where you’re defensive and can move well laterally. I literally sat on the court, and everyone laughed at me. And the coach was like, “No, not that, sit a defense.” So that was really embarrassing. But I have those tiny anecdotes, moments that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life, which I love. That’s what sports and clubs give me, even non-athletic ones.

How did you get into vlogging?

It took about three years of my best friends nagging me, and all these people I met in entertainment told me, “Dre, you have to do this. You have to vlog. You’re a funny guy, and you present yourself in a certain way in the world.” And I didn’t want to do it at first — I wanted to be private and have a good time. They kept pushing it. It wasn’t peer pressure, it was more encouragement, so I decided to try it out. I went on YouTube, looked at a bunch of vloggers to study them, and began to grasp the concepts of how to vlog. I made a “big boy purchase,” as they say, and got a camera which was expensive. Once I had that, I couldn’t back out.

I was nervous when I made the first few videos because I felt that I wasn’t qualified to vlog. But it’s an opportunity to express myself, and if it fails, it’s a learning experience. I love that my personality or what I say adds positivity

to someone’s day. I’m all about positivity and making people’s day better. On top of that, it’s my fourth year in college, so I wanted to create almost a documentary of what’s going on now so I can look back on the memories later.

How does basketball come into your vlogs?

When I vlog, I usually try to incorporate a lot of “day in the life” stuff and sometimes goofy clips of friends, roommates, or myself. Basketball comes into my vlogs because it’s part of my life, I’m doing it all the time. So I was like, “Well, if I’m playing basketball and I’m also filming goofy clips, I might as well just put them together because that’s my authentic self.” I include the highlights and the process of game time, but I can’t film everything because I also have to get into the game zone. But I love putting basketball clips in my vlogs because I’ve been playing for 18 years.

Do you have any plans to continue playing basketball or vlogging?

Absolutely. I think I’m going to pursue the basketball dream a little longer and enjoy the opportunities. I would love to play pro overseas or wherever offers me something, and I’m not giving up yet.

Even though my body’s like, “Okay, slow down, slow down.” And vlogging will always be there. I promised myself to do a hundred vlogs, which will turn into a sort of achievement that I can look back on in a couple of years. I’m also interested in putting a portfolio together of my artwork and potentially displaying it at The Feve. A lot of my friends are pushing me to do it, and I think that it would be a really cool opportunity.

Do you have anything else you want to add?

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Inspired by Myles Garrett, Athletes Join Aggression Debate Continued from page 16

“Every form of aggression that makes your playstyle more impactful without destroying form [is acceptable], but even that is a blurred line depending on an individual’s abilities and their coach.”

When discussing aggression in athletics, safety always comes up.

Markham, like Nuss, thinks it is impossible to separate the two.

“I think that when a player is clearly injured or unwell, play should stop,” Markham said. “The health of players from both teams is much more important than the game. I think that players who deliberately seek out physically dangerous play completely cross the line. [That said,] when I see teams that

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are over-aggressive, I assume it’s to compensate for abilities they might be lacking.”

All of these differing opinions on the purpose and place of aggression in athletics begs the question: Is aggression a positive or a negative in sports?

“I think, as an outlet, aggression is an important thing in some sports,” Macintyre said. “I believe that using sports as a release for aggression, anger, stress, and other challenges is very important. And I believe that as an athlete, you can fuel a lot of your motivation and intensity through aggression. However … when it matters less about how to win, and more about physically beating the opponent —

often by pushing the rules — I believe aggression is a negative.”

While Nuss does believe that there is no place for excessive physical aggression in athletics, he thinks appropriate levels of other forms of aggression are a little more flexible.

“Personally, I don’t think there really is much of a place for physical aggression that greatly exceeds the expected aggression level or falls outside rules of a sport,” Nuss said. “When it comes to other forms of aggression, I think that there is more of a place for trash talk and mental warfare.”

Aggression is regularly one of the most polarizing elements of competitive sports. Some fans think that athletes

are too soft, going so far as to discredit certain sports for their perceived lack of aggression. Others think certain sports are overly aggressive and barbaric in nature.

The truth, it seems, lies somewhere in between these two extremes. Aggression, physical or otherwise, whether you like it or not, is part of athletics. However, it is up to the individual to control it.

“Not all athletes are aggressive,” Macintyre said. “Sometimes they are only aggressive in their sport. I wouldn’t consider myself aggressive anywhere in life unless I was lined up next to the person in hurdles. And I believe that it is possible [for everyone] to reach a similar balance.”

Oberlin’s Magic: The Gathering Team Ranked Within U.S. Top 10 Jane Agler Sports Editor One of Oberlin College’s most successful sports teams does not practice at the gymnasium. They do not need sneakers, cleats, or any special attire to compete. Their sport does not require physical contact with anything inanimate or living, except with a deck of cards or a computer.

Oberlin’s unofficial Magic: The Gathering team was recently ranked the fourth-best collegiate Magic team out of over 70 colleges or universities competing in the Collegiate StarLeague’s first ever Magic tournament. Oberlin’s team is currently first in its conference, though its ranking is subject to change after each Saturday’s match-up until the tournament’s end in March.

Magic is a collectible card game first launched in 1993. The two-or-moreplayer game is a battle between wizards, who cast spells and summon creatures — among other things — represented by over 18,000 unique playing cards, and attempt to deplete their opponent’s life points. Over twenty million people play the game worldwide, with a smaller percentage taking part in professional competitions. The game can also be played online, the medium Oberlin’s team uses for the Collegiate StarLeague tournament.

The team comprises three members: College fourth-year Charlie RinehartJones, College first-year Luc Antonelli, and College second-year Kabir Karamchandani. They are active members of Oberlin’s small Magic scene on campus.

“Collegiate StarLeague is nice because I love college sports and sports [in general],” Rinehart-Jones said. “I did sports in high school, but I wasn’t any good. Now I’m good at something, [Magic], and I can do it in a way that is like [collegiate] athletics.”

Magic can be played in different formats with varying parameters around the basic gameplay. The Collegiate StarLeague requires competitors to face off using the Standard format, where players must design their decks with specific sets of cards released within the past two years. “[Standard] was pretty bad the first couple weeks of the event,” said Antonelli, who is not a frequent Standard format player. “It’s no longer a problem as much, now.”

Rinehart-Jones is a certified professional Magic player, and has been competing in official, in-person Pro Tour tournaments since the 2013 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C. Many of these tournaments are high-stakes — they often require an entry fee of over $500 and award a total of $240,000 in prize money, with $50,000 going to the first-place winner.

The Collegiate StarLeague’s online tournament does not require an entry fee and has a $20,000 scholarship for the first place college or university.

Oberlin is facing much larger schools, such as University of California, Santa Cruz; University of California, San Diego; and Oberlin’s very own neighbor, The Ohio State University.

So far, Oberlin has a 5–1 record.

Rinehart-Jones feels that first place is within the team’s reach.

“I thought we were going to be [ranked] first because we have the most wins of any team right now,” he said.

“We haven’t lost a game after our first match, so we are 14–2 in games. It’s kind of like a point-differential.”

The accessibility of the collegiate tournament is seldom seen on the Pro Tour and other tournaments, which normally have expensive entry and travel fees on top of payments to add to their 60-plus card deck, which can cost anywhere from one dollar

College fourth-year Charlie Rinehart-Jones in the middle of a Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour competition.

Photo courtesy of Charlie Rinehart-Jones

to several hundred dollars. The most expensive Magic card in existence is “Black Lotus,” which has been sold for $166,000.

“It’s definitely a luxury hobby,” said Rinehart-Jones. “When I was a kid and not a competitive player, the cost wasn’t so high because [I didn’t] care about winning. But when you’re competitive, it’s not only that the cards are expensive, but they are constantly becoming obsolete. You have new cards coming out four or five times a year, and the old cards [aren’t legal and] don’t count anymore, so you have to get the new cards. I’m lucky because I have close friends that loan me cards.”

Antonelli agreed.

Club Teams Maintain High Attendance, Even at Midnight Practices

On any given day, many of Oberlin’s club sports teams that compete outside — such as club soccer, rugby, frisbee, and quidditch — can be found in North Fields.

However, North Fields becomes inaccessible with the arrival of Ohio’s frigid winter months, when temperatures can drop below zero and snow and ice almost always covers the ground. To avoid the chill, club sports teams will often move their practices into Williams Field House. The space is also used by varsity sports teams, which take priority. As a result, some club sports frequently start practice as late as midnight — like the club soccer team pictured above.

“Late night soccer is great because the energy is different from our regular [afternoon] practices,” said Laila Telles, College fourth-year and club soccer team captain. “I think everyone feels more loose and comfortable and we all laugh even more than usual. [The fact] that we will play soccer at any time of day shows how dedicated we are.”

Text by Jane Agler, Sports Editor Photos courtesy of Laila Telles

The Oberlin Review | December 6, 2019

“The physical decks are very expensive,” said Antonelli. “My Modern [format] deck is probably $1,000 right now. I’ve had it for a while and have been collecting the cards for it for a [long time], but the cost cap is high for certain ways of playing this game.

But [online] I basically have not spent any money, and [this] could be a [more accessible] option for others.”

However, Karamchandani feels differently. He argued that Magic is often misunderstood as being economically out of reach, and said the Collegiate StarLeague Tournament shows that this is not necessarily the case.

“I feel like Magic has a lot of misconceptions,” said Karamchandani.

“The [Collegiate StarLeague] tournament has no economic accessibility concerns because, unlike other Magic tournaments, there is no entry fee and you don’t have to pay money for cards. I feel like there is a strong conception that Magic is a ‘play-to-win-play-to-compete’ type game, but I have never spent more money on Magic than I have made from Magic.”

With the rising popularity in nontraditional sports like eSports and Magic, colleges and universities will likely see a stronger push for organizing such teams, if they haven’t already. Oberlin has several active groups on campus with such focuses, such as the Oberlin eSports Club — which hosts Super Smash Bros. video game tournaments, among others.

“I think that there’s a lot of people who really like [eSports] and table-top and board games, but don’t really know how to get into it or increase their skill level,” Antonelli said. “There are a lot of people who don’t think of it as part of their identity but really enjoy playing [different] games. I think that could definitely become a bigger part of the campus’ identity.”

The three members will face off against OSU this Saturday. While many games are live-streamed with commentary on the Collegiate StarLeague website, this one will not be. However, many future games will, and those who are curious can watch their fellow Oberlin Magic players putting Oberlin on the eSports map.

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SPORTS December 6, 2019

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 11

Does Aggression Compromise Safety?

Khalid McCalla Contributing Sports Editor

College fourth-year Grace Finney takes a final step before launching herself into the air. Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

Women’s Pole Vaulters Look Toward Future Zoë Martin del Campo Contributing Sports Editor When College fourth-year Grace Finney is not mentoring first-years through the Peer Advising Leader program, and College second-year Sarah Voit is not working on the Solarity board, they are pole vaulters on the varsity women’s track and field team, regular sailing over nine feet through the air. A mighty duo, both have brought the team prestige through their success at meets.

With track season starting this week, both are energized to get back into competition — in part due to watching the success of their teammates on the varsity women’s cross country team as well as having a vigorous pre-season schedule themselves.

“Anytime I’m watching my teammates succeed, it makes me excited about when we’re all together on the track team,” said Finney. “Most of the cross country runners are also our track teammates, so it gets me excited for the big meets.”

Since Finney’s first year, the women’s track and field team has won both Indoor and Outdoor Conference Championships. Last year, despite studying abroad in Ireland during the spring, she supported her fellow teammates when they competed at Nationals through check-ins and watching online streams.

During Finney’s absence, Voit achieved her career best season, as she was named an All-American and won the North Coast Atlantic Coast Championship. She is the first All-American pole vaulter in Oberlin history, in addition to being the second first-year to earn the accolade.

Voit attributes her success to the family-like dynamic among the pole vaulters last year.

“The team culture I think was also a big highlight of last season,” she said. “Like the pole vault squad, which included everyone including Grace, Jahkeem [Wheatley, OC ’19], and [former College student] Talia Rose [Barton]. There was always a lot of good energy in the room.”

However, this season, Finney will be the only fourthyear pole vaulter, as the team has lost a number of others, who have either graduated or transferred to other institutions. It was a particularly difficult transition for Finney, who experienced her first season without former pole vaulters Wheatley and Daniel Mukasa, OC ’19.

“I’ve never been a part of the team without Jahkeem and Daniel being there,” Finney said. “So that’s new and kind of sad, but we’ve carried on a lot of the inside jokes and a lot of good energy into this year and we have a couple first-years, in addition to our teammate [College second-year] Carter [LaPointe] who wasn’t able to jump very much last year. So we’ve lost some of our teammates, we really miss Talia Rose, but we still have a good community. And we get to build the team environment that we inherited from graduates and shape it our own way.”

LaPointe was injured the entirety of last season, but appreciated the supportive community that pole vaulting has offered him as he recovered.

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“Pole vaulting is definitely an experience like none other, and the pole vault family we have are some of the most supportive and best people I know,” he said. “We all just want to see each other succeed and do our best to drive each other to get there.”

Pole vaulting is considered the most dangerous event in track and field; however, neither Finney nor Voit concentrate on the risk when they vault because of the intense preparation that they go through, in addition to their backgrounds in similarly risk-prone sports. When Finney joined track and field her first year of high school, she gravitated to the intensity of pole vaulting.

“I was a diver before joining track, and that was way scarier,” said Finney. “Usually when you start vaulting, you’re so bad that you can’t actually get high enough off the ground to really hurt yourself. And by the time you’re getting high enough to hurt yourself, you have a really good understanding of the technique so it’s harder to just randomly go flying.”

Voit echoed similar sentiments, as she started pole vaulting after encouragement from her teammates in high school.

“I came from a background in gymnastics,” said Voit.

“So pole vaulting is almost less scary because as long as you do everything correctly, you’re going to land on a squishy mat. So you just do what you know and hope you don’t die,” she laughed.

Outside of meets, Finney said the women’s track and field team has made Oberlin a place where she is comfortable in all spaces, and helped her learn more about the various opportunities on campus.

“It opens up a comfort level with interacting with other parts of campus,” she said. “When I was a firstyear, we didn’t have the PAL program at the time, so having teammates show me the ropes and including me in things was a huge part of the beginning of Oberlin for me. And then continuing that tradition has made me feel more connected with incoming years of students since then.”

Former Oberlin student Talia Rose Barton emphasized Finney’s and Voit’s dedication and commitment to the team as a source of inspiration when she vaulted here.

“They are both very committed to being the best athlete they can be for themselves and for the team,” she said. “They are both so driven. Sarah’s natural athleticism and the fact that she continues to push herself to be better pushes every vaulter around her to work harder.

Without Grace’s leadership skills and experience in pole vaulting, Sarah and I couldn’t have done as well as we did last track season.”

Though the number of pole vaulters on the team has changed, the traditions and memories of former teammates continue to strengthen the bond between those that remain — traditions that Finney and Voit will pass on to the new members of the team as they launch into the track season this weekend.

Over the course of the last month, several high profile sports leagues and the NCAA have seen suspensions handed out due to fighting. In the NBA, the Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid and Minnesota Timberwolves’ KarlAnthony Towns got into a fistfight during a game in October, leading to both players missing key time. This past Saturday, University of Georgia wide receiver, George Pickens, was ejected after fighting Georgia Tech defensive back Tre Swilling.

These incidents bookended an all-out brawl that occurred between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns on Nov. 14, which culminated in Browns defensive end Myles Garrett hitting Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph in the head with Rudolph’s helmet. These highly publicized incidents have opened up a discussion about the place of aggression and violence in sports. “[Aggression is] in every play of every day,” said College third-year and football player Thomas Heffer. “You can’t hit a man standing across from you with success without being aggressive. It is preached as the third element of football, along with technique and effort.”

Heffer is right. Some sports, like football, require physical aggression in order to be effective — but not all.

College third-year Elliot Nuss, a member of the men’s tennis team, would agree that levels of aggression vary from sport to sport.

“On the tennis court, you rarely see any physical aggression between competitors,” he said. “For the most part, there is more of a psychological and mental battle going on out there.”

Nuss highlights a key point. Usually, aggression is only viewed as physical, as in the cases mentioned earlier, but it can take many other forms. Mental, emotional, and verbal aggression are all present in athletics, each leaving a different imprint on the competition.

College third-year Kiera Markham, a women’s soccer player, sees a lot of verbal aggression in her sport and believes it can alter how the game is played.

“Certain teams and games are more tense than others and tend to produce more aggressive behavior,” said Markham, “I think that the fans play a major role in the verbal aggression that can happen during games. If you’re playing against a team whose student section is loud and is chirping, the more aggressive the game tends to be.”

Some sports, like track and field, have barriers that prevent athletes from being physically aggressive with one another. College third-year Cameron Macintyre, a member of the men’s track and field team, thinks this can lead to aggression being channeled into other areas.

“Aggression can take the form of confidence, determination and, in some cases, more toxic attitudes,” Macintyre said. “Cockiness is not something that track shies away from, [and] this may be because of the lack of physical aggression.”

Clearly, aggression, in its many different forms, is a part of athletic culture. That said, there has to be a line.

Most people would concur that Towns and Embiid, Swilling and Pickens, and Myles Garrett all crossed it. But when exactly does aggression shift from being acceptable within the parameters of a sport to becoming something dangerous? The answer is complicated.

“I think the definition of the line is dependent on the sport,” Nuss said. “Obviously, some sports are more physical than others, but I think it can be agreed that physical aggression crosses the line when it becomes evident that the deliberate use of physical force is excessive and clearly is causing or has the potential to cause harm.”

While Nuss views checking athletes’ aggression as a matter of safety, Heffer — a member of one of Oberlin’s higher-contact teams — views aggression as a necessary part of playing at a high level.

“The only line that exists is when your aggression starts to negatively impact your play,” Heffer said.

See Inspired, page 14