December 12, 2014

The Oberlin Review

DECEMBER 12, 2014 VOLUME 143, NUMBER 11

Local News Bulletin

ESTABLISHED 1874 oberlinreview.org

ONLINE & IN PRINT

Students Fight for Academic Leniency

News briefs from the past week Green Acres Moves Forward After Setback City Council sent a zoning change referral for Green Acres, a proposed development project on the east side of Oberlin, to the Oberlin Planning Commission last Monday. Last month, Green Acres received an underwhelming response from City Council, with members raising concerns about the lack of community input on the plans. As a result, progress on the project was delayed.

The developers for the project, The Community Builders, hope to apply for tax credits, but the Feb. 20 credit deadline means the project needs to move forward soon in order to qualify. If constructed, Green Acres will be a 50unit sustainable housing development.

Report Criticizes Cleveland Police In the wake of the Tamir Rice shooting, the Justice Department has released a sharply critical report about “systemic failures” within the Cleveland Police Department. The report lambasts the department for the frequent “unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force” as well as “its failure to investigate officers’ uses of force.” The report accuses the department of regularly violating the Fourth Amendment by using deadly force against “unarmed or fleeing suspects who do not pose a threat of serious harm to officers or others.” The report also recommended instituting an independent monitor to oversee systemic reforms to the Police Department after noting that the Justice Department’s 2002 suggestions for reform were almost entirely disregarded.

Students hold signs expressing a variety of demands outside Friday’s trustee dinner, including what many idenify as the College’s complicity in the systemic oppression of people of color. This week, some are pressuring the administration to temporarily suspend the standard grading system in the wake of nationwide protests and conflict following the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice.

Courtesy of Ty Wagner

Madeline Stocker News Editor As of Thursday evening, over 1,300 students had signed a petition drafted

by College junior Kiki Acey and other students of color demanding President Krislov suspend the standard grading system in the aftermath of the highprofile cases of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice.

The deaths of these three Black males — as well as the non-indict-

ments of the white officers who killed Brown and Garner — have gained national attention as representative of the country’s historic and systemic marginalization, brutalization and dehumanization of Black and brown Americans.

The petition, which was first circulated across Facebook and via email on Tuesday, calls for the College to institute a “no-fail mercy period” that would eliminate all failing grades and make a C the lowest possible grade a student

the state of Oberlin’s final examination period. “Others are being locked away by the millions for petty crimes. And many of us are still working every day just to be able to afford this education that fails to tell us how to free ourselves.”

The idea to request a suspension of the standard grading system was brought up during one of the many actions that students of color organized last week.

See Petition, page 4

Temporary CDS Workers to Receive Free Meals Oliver Bok Staff Writer Campus Dining Services has decided to allow temporary workers to eat a meal following their shifts after a petition by the Student Labor Action Coalition asking CDS to change its staff meal policy garnered over 1000 signatures.

“I need this week to communicate to the managers that work in four different [CDS locations] how this would work, and then we will implement [the new policy] right after that,” said Michele Gross, director of Dining Services, on Tuesday. “I think we’re going to have a test of it starting next week.”

The old staff meal policy granted a meal to nonstudent workers who worked at least five hours per shift. In practice, the policy excluded temporary workers from receiving staff meals because their shifts are typically four hours long.

Student employees of CDS, who also work relatively short shifts, have always been given staff meals.

College senior and SLAC member Jackson Kusiak said that his own experiences working in CDS provided some of the inspiration for the petition.

“Every day, when I go in there, within the first half an hour the manager tells us to go to break. We get to eat whatever we want when we go on break,

and usually the people who fill in for us while we’re on break are temp workers,” said Kusiak. “It basically just feels really shitty to know that some workers are being treated differently from all the rest.”

The SLAC petition also explained that temporary workers could be given meals at little to no cost to the College.

“At the end of the meal, most of the leftover food is thrown away. These temporary workers are forced to throw away hundreds of pounds of prepared food every day and are not allowed to eat any of it,” stated the petition.

According to Gross, the petition’s assessment of the financial cost of the change in policy is largely correct; the College regularly discards large amounts of uneaten food to remain compliant with health regulations.

“If we’re going to operate the plan as I currently envision it, I do not see a cost implication,” said Gross. “I’m hoping that there will be minimal cost implication, if any, because we’re planning to have this be food that we’ll have to discard.”

According to Gross, the issue was brought to her attention when students from SLAC discussed the matter with her several weeks ago. Since then, Gross said she had reviewed the issue and decided that the policy change was a good idea. She did not

Splish Splash!

Ghost Sit-In Student activists protested current Black enrollment and graduation rates.

could receive.

Though the administration has agreed to exercise flexibility in granting emergency incomplete requests for students struggling academically, a number of students have accused the institution of extending little other support for those who have been disproportionately affected.

“People’s communities are being mercilessly murdered and beaten in the streets every day around the world,” Acey said in a Facebook post regarding

Rhapsodic Reprise The Oberlin Orchestra took a second crack at Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue last Friday.

See page 2

See page 16

See page 10

INDEX:

Opinions 5

Swimming and diving wrapped up its 2014 season at the Fredonia Invitational.

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

say what impact the SLAC petition had on her decision making.

“I was surprised by how fast the petition gathered signatures,” said Kusiak. “A lot of people actually had direct experience working in CDS, knew about the issue, had felt frustrated about it, but didn’t really know what to do about it. ... I think a lot of people do care about workers on this campus, despite how removed we are from them in a lot of different ways.”

Some students at the financial information session held by Vice President of Finance and Administration Mike Frandsen last week questioned Frandsen on why Oberlin employs temporary workers at all. Kusiak agreed with the criticism and stated that he saw the staff meal petition partially as a way of sparking broader conversations about labor at Oberlin and temporary workers in particular.

“The position of temp workers is degrading,” said Kusiak. “It shouldn’t even exist as a position. … There’s no job security, the pay is close to minimum wage, and they are treated with disrespect by managers.”

In Gross’s view, temporary workers are a result of CDS employing a much larger percentage of students than most comparable college dining services.

See Students, page 4

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Page 2

The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

Data Reveal Black Student Graduation Rates Madeline Stocker News Editor A set of recently discovered data shows that 1 in 5 students who identify as Black or African-American did not graduate from Oberlin in 2013.

This 80 percent graduation rate is the lowest of any racial group — according to the data, which were publicly available on the website of the National Center for Education Statistics, 85 percent of students identifying as Asian, 89 percent of students identifying as White and 90 percent of students identifying as Hispanic or Latino graduated last year.

The low retention rates have galvanized action among a number of students; meanwhile, others are pointing to the fact that Black students make up less than 6 percent of Oberlin’s student body.

“Wherever you are, if you stand up and count the number of Black students, you’ll only need one hand,” said College senior Ali Amiri. “It’s ridiculous. Oberlin College, the first school to admit Black students, hardly has any representation.”

Amiri, a Black student himself, has organized several actions to call attention to what he defines as the “severe underrepresentation” of Black students on campus.

One of these actions took place on

Friday, when a number of students placed jackets on chairs througout Stevenson Dining Hall to signify what many have identified as the low enrollment rates of Black students at Oberlin.

“There aren’t people who look like me in my classes. I’ve hardly had any Black professors. And barely any of my readings are written by Black authors.”

Amiri also commented on the vast segregation of Oberlin’s campus — with the majority of Black students living on the south side of Oberlin.

“When I came to this school, I thought there were a good number of Black students,” Amiri said. “But all I had to do to find out what was really going on was to go north.”

While many have cited these numbers as deplorable, members of the administration have cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

According to Director of Institutional Research Ross Peacock, the data are unfavorably skewed in how they are documented. When the federal government adopted a new reporting protocol in 2010, several races and ethnicities were grouped together, while others were prioritized.

For example, after 2010, any student identifying as “Hispanic” is documented as Hispanic regardless

Students leave their jackets on the backs of chairs in Stevenson Dining Hall on Dec. 5 to bring attention to Black student enrollment levels. Newly discovered data on the enrollment and graduation rates of Black students have raised concern among activists.

Olivia Scott

of race. Similarly, anyone who is not Hispanic and who selects “more than one race” is counted only as “two or more.”

Under the pre-2010 method, the percentage of Black students enrolled at Oberlin would be 8.5.

“Without change in student composition, a number of African-Amer-

ican and Asian-American [students] moved out of their original categories and into new categories,” said Peacock.

Additionally, the statistics correlated with student enrollment, retention and graduation rates are often difficult to interpret, said Peacock. Since the administration

tracks students who enter in a given year and return the following year, the students who do not return will lower the retention rate, regardless of whether they plan to return in the following years.

“The changes have caused all See Oberlin, page 4

Ohio Senate Delays Decision on Fracking, Agriculture Bill Elizabeth Dobbins News Editor Ohio legislators are making a final push this month to move several bills through the Senate, including laws that could improve support for free clinics and weaken fracking regulation.

House Bill 320, which would lower the barriers to volunteering at free clinics, passed almost unanimously through the House in February and was approved by the Senate earlier this month.

The bill extends Ohio’s Good Samaritan Law, a law that allows volunteer physicians to treat uninsured patients by protecting these volunteers from medical malpractice. H.B. 320 expands this protection to physicians treating patients on Medicaid; as a result, Medicaid patients can now receive care at free clinics.

According to Paul Baumgartner, executive director of the Lorain County Free Clinic, this bill will help make care more accessible if passed.

“Despite the fact that we’ve seen Medicaid expansion in the state of Ohio along with the benefits of the Affordable Care Act with a certain population, there are certainly going to be quite a few individuals that are going to go without affordable and timely access to care,” said Baumgartner. “And anytime you can reduce barriers to care by getting patients to a provider in

a more timely fashion, or to get individuals to volunteer like at free clinics, it serves the population or community that much better.”

Physicians from throughout the county volunteer at the four locations of the Lorain County Free Clinic, including one at Mercy Allen Hospital in Oberlin. According to Baumgartner, creating awareness of both health care options and volunteer opportunities is a key mission of LCFC and an important step in making health care as accessible as possible.

“In the past, it’s always been an ongoing challenge to create awareness of need, and once you do that, it’s a full-time job to create that awareness but also to mobilize volunteers, and we have been quite successful in doing so for our 28-year history. Some periods it’s been more difficult than others.”

In an effort to bring attention and support to free clinics, H.B. 320 also includes language instituting a Free Clinic Appreciation Month.

While the Senate passed H.B. 320 28–3, other bills, such as H.B. 490, were met with more resistance. H.B. 490 is a large, highly amended bill proposing laws concerning telephone lines, agriculture and fracking.

In a statement to the Senate on Tuesday, Ohio Senate President Keith Faber announced that the bill will not be voted on this year.

“After consulting with my colleagues, I’ve

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decided the Senate will not act on House Bill 490 during this legislative session,” said Faber. “We simply need more time to consider the substantive issues contained in the 264-page document, and time is not our ally in a lame duck session. Our colleagues in the House had the benefit of eight months to consider the bill between its introduction and passage; we’ve had it in the Senate for less than three weeks. … We are absolutely committed to renewing the debate on these important issues at the outset of the new General Assembly in January.”

The bill proposes combining stateowned land to allow for horizontal fracking in a process known as unitization.

Unitization, legal under a rarely cited state law, has been used to force unwilling landowners to allow the extraction of oil and gas from their land.

According to Tom Stewart, executive vice president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association and proponent of the unitization language in H.B. 490, failing to approve this part of the bill will have a negative effect on Ohio’s fracking industry.

Additionally, H.B. 490 proposed that water withdrawals from Lake Erie be used for fracking. Opponents are concerned that this water withdrawal could potentially increase the concentration of pollutants in the Lake Erie watershed and infringe upon the Great Lakes Compact.

David Orr, special assistant to the presi-

Julia Liv Combe Herbst Allegra RoseKirkland Stoloff Managing editor Samantha Julian Ring Link News editors Elizabeth RosemaryDobbins Boeglin Madeline Alex Howard Stocker Opinions editor Will Rubenstein Sam White This Week Weekeditor editor Hazel Zoë Strassman Galloway Arts editors Jeremy Kara Reynolds Brooks Vida Georgia Weisblum Horn Sports editors Nate Quinn Levinson Hull Madeleine Tyler O’Meara Sloan Layout manager editors Tiffany Taylor Fung Field Layout editors Abigail Ben Garfinkel Carlstad Alanna TaliaSandoval Rodwin Photo editors Sarah Olivia Gericke Snider Photo editors Brannon Rockwell-Charland Mike Plotz Online editor Effie Alanna Kline-Salamon Bennett Editors-in-chief Editors-in-Chief

dent of Oberlin College on sustainability and the environment, strongly opposes this measure, stating it could contribute to fresh water contamination.

“Water will be the first major crisis of the climate-changed world, and it’s insane to draw down large volumes of water out of Lake Erie and contaminate other water, ground water and even surface water,” said Orr. The bill also proposed a change in the requirements for reporting fracking chemicals. Under this legislation, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources would be required to compile a database of “appropriate” information regarding chemical usage that could be made available to planning committees and emergency workers.

This department would have the power to decide whether or not to make this information public.

The ODNR has asserted that the creation of a database would improve transparency and efficiency, but opponents have raised concerns about slow response times from the ODNR in the past and feel that this information should be available directly from the company in the event of an emergency.

During this lame duck session, the Senate has also passed legislation to increase children’s access to vaccinations, a bill to make adoptions more affordable and a state-wide income tax reform.

Business manager JesseCurtis Neugarten Cook Business manager Savi Ads manager JuliaSedlacek Skrovan Ads manager Reshard el-Shair Online editor Taylor Field Production manager Sophia Bamert Alice Fine Production staff staff Stephanie Bonner Production Abbey Bisesi EmmaJulia Eisenberg Davis Taylor Field Louise Edwards Katherine Hamilton Lya Finston Julia Hubay Joseph Kenshur Tracey Knott Anna Menta Noah Morris OliviaPeckham Pandolfi Anna Kiley Sheffield Petersen Silvia Michael Swantek Drew Wise Emma Charno Distributors Joe Camper Edmund Metzold Joseph Dilworth Rachel JamesYoung Kuntz

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News

The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

Page 3

Off the Cuff: Renee Romano, professor of History, Africana Studies, and Comparative American Studies Renee Romano, professor of History, Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies and affiliate of the Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies Institute, recently released an article in The American Historian titled “Beyond ‘Self-Congratulatory Celebration’: Complicating Civil Rights Anniversaries.” Romano sat down with the Review to discuss the historical narrative of race and systematic violence in America.

What does it mean to “complicate” civil rights anniversaries?

It means that many civil rights anniversaries that we celebrate and recognize are part of a simplistic and misleading story that suggests that we should celebrate the movement as something that was fully successful, that solved our issues, that really explains that we made great progress, that we have moved far beyond [all] the issues that we have ever faced in the country in terms of race. So by complicating them, I mean recognizing them.

Civil rights anniversaries should not simply be an occasion for a pat on the back or for some kind of nostalgic self-celebration, but this should really be a space to think about our history. We need to complicate that narrative of “we have overcome everything,” which, in the [Faculty and Student Teach-in on Ferguson], I called the “civic mythology of racial progress” that concludes that we have solved our problems. Civil rights anniversaries can be part of that process, but often it’s reinforced — the celebration is reinforced — that kind of … narrative of “Rosa Parks came, she sat down, and now we have overcome.”

Could you speak a little more about the civic mythology of racial progress? How similar is the U.S. today to the U.S. during the civil rights era?

The civic mythology of racial progress is essentially the idea that we have, for the most part, overcome our racial issues. It frames racism as a story. Another way to put it is the embrace of colorblindness, the idea that we have been colorblind — we do not see color.

It frames racism as the aberrant act of particularly bigoted individuals. [The view is that] a Klu Klux Klan member is racist. So in the ’60s and ’70s, the civil rights era, there were people who were very opposed to any kind of change in the status quo, and they were not particularly shy about saying black people are inferior. “We don’t want to go to school with them” and “White people are better” and all

those kinds of things — the standing outside with signs that say “Race Mixing Is Wrong,” and those weren’t the words they used. That is something that was pretty common in the resistance to the movement.

What’s happened in part is that we’ve moved beyond a lot of that racist language.

It seems like a really good thing that we don’t have that overt racist language anymore, [that it is no longer] publicly acceptable, that it is a problem when someone uses overt racist language. We’ve also passed a series of laws that make it illegal for there to be overt — supposedly illegal for there to be overt — discrimination under the law.

So [the U.S. passed] the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, but in the aftermath of those laws and their passage, what we see is the emergence of a new racial ideology. It’s a new racial ideology that, when applying to historians [and] political theorists, is usually referred to as “colorblindness.” Essentially, it’s a racial ideology that upholds racial inequalities by refusing to recognize — refusing to acknowledge — the continuing daily importance and power of race to Americans.

So in the 1960s, [legislators] passed these laws, and the ideology of colorblindness really portrayed the rupture. We passed laws, then we’re done. The truth is, those laws, while important, have been, one, never as radical as they could have been, and two, they have been very much contained — their potential has been contained primarily by court rulings. … They’ve become less powerful since the mid-’70s [and] ’80s than they were in the mid-’60s. So that means to say that we have these laws that have done everything we need to do is really problematic, and it ignores [not only] both the legacies of the histories of inequalities and second-class citizenship that was imposed on people, but also the ways in which contemporary structure continue[s] to privilege certain people over others. That makes that very difficult for people to recognize and to acknowledge [and] to even understand the way in which race continues to structure society.

More specifically, how does understanding and knowing this history apply to recent examples of systematic violence, such as the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases?

Well, I think if you know and understand the history, it’s pretty easy to recognize that these examples of systemic violence are, in fact, systemic. That’s one of the key differences. Do you frame these acts as individual

Renee Romano, professor of History, Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies and affiliate of the Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies Institute, who discussed the Eric Garner and Mike Brown cases on the NPR program “The Takeaway” last week

[acts in which] the cops shouldn’t be accountable, or do you frame them as part of a larger structure and system that reflects ideologies that don’t place much value on black life or accept the idea that black men usually are dangerous threats? Even understanding the history helps one to see it as systemic rather than as individual acts that only need to be dealt with at an individual level, if at all.

This police officer felt in danger, therefore we can excuse what he did, and that’s not the conversation we need to be having in [this] country. But without understanding the history, it is very easy for that to be the conversation. I hope we can get a broader understanding so we can begin to think about the patterns. These recent killings are not aberrations, nor are they new. They reflect the continuity from the past, not a radical move.

It’s not something new, and that’s problematic — that we have not changed in that way. … It’s still endemic in our society, and we need to address it. We need to address it as a systemic [issue], not just an issue of a certain few people.

How could this history inform the responses to these events and the goals moving forward?

I would like to see a recognition — talking nationally — that there’s really a problem [and that] racial inequality remains and is

really problematic. African-Americans and other people of color have a different experience in this country than many white people. They very rightfully have fears of police, which is not a reaction that all whites can really relate to. [White people] have the privilege of ignorance. That needs to be a starting point. … I think there needs to be a lot of levels. One level would be what can be done about this kind of police violence and obviously holding people accountable, but holding people accountable in a way that makes clear that these kind[s] of police practices are unacceptable and that they are not things that can be condoned. Pulling guns on folks without any sense of real threat [is an example]. All of this has to change. We need prosecutors who actually really follow and try to talk to people. We need to rein in police.

But we need more than this. … How do we undermine that ideological association, that stereotype? How do we find equal opportunity so black people can find ways to live up to their full potential in this society? The conversation about how to change police practices is a starting point; it’s a really important one, and I hope we can move that conversation forward. … What kind of society do we want? Do we want a society where the police act this way? But also, then it needs to go deeper. In the longer run, we look at the incarceration of black men — the higher rates of incarceration. We are wasting so much potential. You know, [we have] schooling where kids are not given much of an opportunity to learn — the school-to-prison pipeline. …

There’s a number of folks in this country who are not nurtured to be able to live up to their full potential no matter what class they’re born in, no matter what they look like, no matter where they come from, [which] is staggering, and that’s got to change because it’s just everybody’s issue. It should be everybody’s issue because it is such a waste of human life.

It’s also just immoral and wrong for a society to devalue a segment of your population. … I’m hoping that we could eventually, as a country, get some of those conversations [going]. I think [we should be] starting with [the question], “How do we not only hold police accountable, but change the cultures by which policing is taking place through a civilian review board, through different types of practices and training?” I don’t just want these murders to be a [case in a courtroom]; I want them to stop happening permanently.

Interview by Elizabeth Dobbins, News editor Photo courtesy of Renee Romano

the area, located and identified.

One admitted to making the call and apologized.

area and found nothing.

Monday, Dec. 8

Tuesday, Dec. 9

Saturday, Dec. 6

Thursday, Dec. 4

Friday, Dec. 5

11:55 a.m. Officers assisted a student who fainted in Dascomb Dining Hall. The student told officers that they were OK and declined medical treatment at the time.

6:42 p.m. Officers responded to a blue light emergency phone activation in the southeast corner of Tappan Square. Three non-students were observed running from

8:53 a.m. An officer assisted a student who sustained an ankle injury from falling off a bed at Kahn Hall. The officer transported the student to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

9:03 p.m. A staff member reported observing a red light shining on them while walking on Lorain Street near Bosworth Hall.

Officers responded, searched the

12:22 p.m. A student reported that an unknown person had attached a wire cable to the rear wheel of their bike. Officers responded and cut the cable. The bike was somewhat scratched.

10:59 p.m. Officers responded to a noise complaint at Asia House and observed several underage students in a room playing beer pong. The officers confiscated and disposed of the alcohol.

7:48 a.m. A custodial staff member reported a fire extinguisher that was discharged in Fairchild House sometime over the weekend. Officers filed a work order to replace two extinguishers.

12:12 p.m. A grounds staff member reported that an unknown person or persons cut down a tree on Morgan Street just west of South Professor Street.

The flowering crabapple tree is valued at $800.

4 p.m. Officers assisted a student who injured their thumb while working with a nail gun in the Art Building. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Wednesday, Dec. 10 12:56 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at Lord House. The cause of the alarm was smoke from overheated oil. The area was cleared and the alarm reset.

News

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The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

Petition Garners More than 1,000 Signatures Continued from page 1 During these actions, students highlighted what they identified as the College’s complicity in the systemic oppression of people of color.

“It’s an inability to compartmentalize what’s going on in your life and around the world and on campus,” said College senior Megan Bautista, who met with Dean of Students Eric Estes in an attempt to garner institutional support for the petition. “This isn’t conducive to anyone doing well or to keeping up with their peers who are able to deal with this.”

Other than the announcement that the administration was willing to offer more flexible considerations of students’ incomplete applications, it has released relatively few public statements in response to student outcry.

“I will work to make this community as diverse, inclusive and safe as it can be,” President Krislov wrote in an email to the student body on Thursday. “I invite our students and all members of the Oberlin community to have a frank, open, and honest discussion of how we can work together to improve understanding and achieve our shared goals.”

The President then outlined several initiatives that he believes will help achieve several of these goals.

In his emails, President Krislov resolves to collaborate “communication between [deans and faculty] regarding end-of-the-semester stresses,” to create a “campus climate team which will focus on issues of inclusion for all students” and to meet with small groups of students and others to hear their experiences and thoughts.

Recognizing Oberlin’s reputation as the first College to accept Black students — Oberlin graduated its first Black student 19 years before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued — many have voiced their disappointment and frustration over what they identify as the College’s lack of institutional support for students of color. “[President Krislov] has made

minimal efforts to help those of us on this campus who feel afraid for our lives,” Acey said. “We are expect[ed] to be our best through finals? … This is not a fleeting pain. This shit will be happening two weeks from now [and] two months from now. And we do not have time to process. … I see my friends breaking because they are literally forced to choose between what they’ve been told they need and what they feel they need to do.”

Administrative Legacy Though President Krislov maintains that the College is working hard to ensure students’ comfort and safety, the College’s administration has taken a more active role in past instances of national trauma.

In May of 1970, the administration suspended classes and the standard grading system for the remainder of the year in response to the National Guard’s killing of four unarmed students at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.

The administration issued the suspension in the wake of mass student pressure.

In addition to the suspension, students had the option to take their most current grade or find a more conducive agreement with their professor in order to better focus on their activism, as well as to construct support systems for themselves and their communities.

Many Oberlin students and professors were also actively protesting America’s involvement in the Vietnam War at the time of the shootings.

In an open statement to the College, President Robert K. Carr explained his reasoning behind the decision to suspend classes — a choice that many peer institutions quickly adopted.

“Students and faculty alike have done their best to use the final two weeks of the regular semester to come to grips in creative and significant ways with the acute problems now facing mankind,” Carr wrote. “In doing so, they have been acting within the great tradition of moral and educational response

A photo from the Review archives shows students mourning on May 5, 1970, in the aftermath of the Kent State shootings. Administrators suspended the standard grading system in May 1970, setting a historical precedent for the demands outlined in the current petition.

Mac Moss

to human needs that has made Oberlin a unique College since 1833.”

Throughout the letter, President Carr highlighted the importance of community support and continuously referenced Oberlin’s roots as a progressive trailblazer.

President Carr and the rest of the General Faculty had also been meeting numerous times prior to the suspension; during these meetings, they drafted a letter to President Nixon demanding he withdraw American troops from Vietnam and the rest of mainland Southeast Asia.

“It is in our best traditions to challenge the wisdom and question the justice of national policies at home and abroad that do not conform to our understanding of the principles which should guide American policy,” the letter read.

The College’s Steering Committee also agreed to fund transportation for students who wished to travel to Washington, D.C. to attend anti-war protests but who couldn’t afford the costs.

Current Response In contrast to the formalized re-

sponses that the administration issued in the 1970s, the current administration has taken a more piecemeal approach in its response to student concern.

Some responses include Krislov’s column in the Source last week, the Multicultural Resource Center’s highly attended teach-in and the actions of various professors and administrators who have met individually with students.

However, many students have expressed anger over several of the responses from faculty and staff that have been made public.

One such response was in opposition to the petition, which was circulated through Oberlin’s email listserv. Administrative Assistant to the Office of the Controller Debra Thomas replied to the email saying she found the subject line of the email, which included the #BlackLivesMatter tag used by thousands of protesters around the world, to be offensive.

“ALL lives matter,” Thomas wrote in an email to the several hundred students that were a part of the thread. “I don’t care if you’re black, white, yellow or green. I’m tired of this racist non-

sense and tired of everyone screaming about specific races being targeted.

Blacks and hispanics [sic] are no longer the minority. We are all HUMANS, not colors.”

After numerous students responded to what some defined as her “postracial bullshit,” Thomas apologized for “unintentionally offend[ing] half the campus.”

Though several professors have been supportive of student efforts, others answered emails asking for grading or deadline flexibility with a single “No,” or ignored them.

While many students were unable to come to an agreement with their professors, a small group of studentathletes of color successfully convinced the College’s Athletics Department to issue a statement in support of their peers.

“We cannot tell you how to feel or how to respond, but we support you,” the department wrote in an email to varsity athletes on Thursday. “We can hear you. We can see you. And we stand with you. We are proud to be associated with students who speak up for their beliefs and for the rights of others.”

Moving Forward Students are continuing to work with one another in an attempt to garner institutional support for students of color — specifically Black students — who are disproportionately affected by the recent killings. At press time, the petition continued to circulate.

This week, students have been working on a list of demands to present to the administration. The demands currently include instituting weighted referenda for students of color, creating central spaces for deans to meet with students on a weekly basis, and giving students the power to hire and fire the position of the Dean of Students.

“People are really sensing that this is necessary,” said Bautista. “The administration would be insane to leave this up to the professors.”

Students Question College’s Employment of Temporary Workers Continued from page 1 Students often drop shifts, and temporary workers are hired to fill in.

“Students are an important part of our workforce, so their absence is a difficult challenge for us,” said Gross. “These agency workers are hired to fill [in] when students are not on the job. They vary in how many they are depending on the time of the year. So we will be having slightly more temp workers next week, because many students will start to say, ‘I need to be doing my academics, not working,’” Gross said. “[Temp workers] don’t have a job; they are filling in when students are not available or during shifts we haven’t found a student to fill.”

Gross stated that she did not view using temporary workers as ideal, although for somewhat different reasons than SLAC.

“We constantly review if there are other solutions because — nothing against a temp worker — they don’t have a commitment to us. [The United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers] has a commitment, students have a commitment, and then we have the temporary worker who could be here one week and never be here again. … We haven’t yet figured out a way to come up with any other structure, so I don’t see the agency workers going away,” said Gross.

Kusiak acknowledged that ending Oberlin’s use of temporary workers would be complicated. “I’m not sure what the solution is.

Students could be potentially penalized for calling out too late — there could be measures in place that wouldn’t necessitate on-call workers,” said Kusiak. He added that in his opinion, even if temporary workers prove impossible to do away with, the staffing agency — the company that the College actually pays and that employs

the temp workers directly — is not.

“The staffing agencies are completely unnecessary, in my mind. They provide almost no training. Yeah, they do some job recruitment, but they are taking nearly half of the temp workers’ pay for doing nothing,” said Kusiak. “ It really wouldn’t be that hard, in my mind, to run things more in-house, [to] eliminate the staffing agencies.”

Kusiak stated that two additional goals SLAC would pursue in the future are unionizing temporary workers and firing Bon Appétit as Oberlin’s food service company, which he believes is exploitative.

“Bon Appétit is owned by Compass Group. They are the largest food service company in the world. They invest in and profit off of prisons, militaries, oil rigs, mining camps. They’re an incredibly exploitative company,” said Kusiak.

Oberlin Promotes ‘False Image’ of Diversity, Says Amiri Continued from page 2 sorts of problems,” said Peacock.

Despite the difficulty in interpreting the statistics, Oberlin’s enrollment and graduation rates for Black students still fall on the low end of the spectrum.

When compared to 29 of some of its closest peer institutions, the College remains well down on the list. In terms of enrollment rates, the College has the 14th lowest percentage.

In graduation rates, Oberlin has the 21st worst percentage.

One reason for the low rankings may be that a

large number of Oberlin’s peer institutions have a larger endowment per student, allowing them to accept and fincnace more low-income students.

However, even when compared to institutions with similar endowment per student ratios, such as Davidson College, Wesleyan University and Colgate University, Oberlin still does not rank as high as might be expected. Among these institutions, Oberlin’s enrollment and graduation rates remain average.

For Amiri and many others, Oberlin’s low-toaverage rankings are unacceptable given what many have taken to defining as the school’s “false image” of diversity.

“They are profiting so heavily economically from [it],” said Amiri. “When [ financial] decisions are made, they aren’t thinking about people of color in the least bit. Anyone can tell you that increasing tuition is going to be detrimental to students of color being able to afford this school because of structural elements in our society of a whole.”

Amiri went on to say that, although Oberlin does reach out to communities of color, their sights are often set on those who are likely to be more capable of paying tuition.

“They’re literally using that fact to bring [in] as many white students who can pay full tuition as possible,” he said.

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December 12, 2014

Opinions The Oberlin Review

Letters to the Editors

Psychology Project Exemplifies Racial Microaggressions To the Editors:

When I read the description for my final project in my Psychology Research Methods II class, I was appalled and frustrated to find that it mentioned incarceration in ways that perpetuated racist and classist notions about who is incarcerated and why.

The project description explained that in a fictitious experiment, grade school students were forced to work next to prisoners as part of a summer program to show them “the terrible price of crime.” It failed to acknowledge the fact that people are incarcerated at disproportionate rates for the same socially defined “crimes” depending on their race.

The imaginary school board in the project stated that small behavioral problems “eventually grow into fullblown criminal behavior” and that scaring the students away from incarceration would prevent their further delinquency.

With the amount of time and energy Oberlin students are putting into raising awareness about police brutality and the injustices of the “justice system” right now, this felt especially insensitive, and I approached my professor about the project. My professor told me that she did not have complete control over the final and that I could work on an alternate final if I wanted, as long as I didn’t tell too many people about that option. I found that unacceptable, given that, as a white student, I am less directly affected by the nature of this prompt than many of my peers, who may feel even less comfortable raising their concerns with her.

I sent her a letter to forward to my class and the other Psychology professors. The following list, outlining some of my concerns with the assignment, is an excerpt: “1. This school board must have had their heads buried in the sand because there is a prolific amount of research that demonstrates that scare tactics are completely ineffective in preventing undesirable behaviors.

2. This description acknowledges that conditions in carceral facilities are abusive and unpleasant enough to scare people away from them, and paints that as an educational advan-

tage rather than a gross mistreatment of human beings who should have their human rights respected.

3. The description also neglects to acknowledge the ways in which children of color, particularly lowincome boys of color, are stereotyped as criminals and delinquents by the very people and institutions who are supposed to be educating and supporting them, and how these stereotypes that are present for their whole lives contribute to behaviors and actions of resistance that are labeled as ‘criminal’. If this concept is unfamiliar to you, read Victor Rios’s book Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys, or one of the many other easily accessible resources on youth criminalization.

4. The description ignores the family and community factors that play into the development of behaviors like substance use and disruptive behavior and refuses to look past the surface into reasons that may cause people to use loud self-expression and substances as a means of coping and surviving in a hostile environment.

5. It also doesn’t acknowledge how prison labor, particularly farm labor, arose from and continues to resemble the black slavery and violence that have characterized this country from its inception onward.

I understand that the tone of this prompt is sarcastic and that maybe the point is that the views being emphasized here are bigoted and misguided, but it is not appropriate to provide us with such a piece without also providing us with the information that we need to fight back against people who actually think this way. If we are analyzing data on ways to help young people stay out of contact with the criminal justice system, why should we waste our time analyzing data on the worst possible approach to youth reform instead of analyzing data on various restorative justice programs that actually exist and are trying to help people?”

Only after receiving my threepage letter, complete with cited sources, did she decide to talk to a representative of the Multicultural Resource Center, who asked her to change the project wording. Instead of forwarding my letter, my professor posted a new prompt to Blackboard.

The new description erases all mentions of incarceration, delinquency and incarcerated people from the assignment. I am aware that there are

time constraints and workloads to consider, but I am worried that this Band-Aid solution will be all the attention that this receives, burdening future students with the responsibility of continuing to call out the Psychology department on problematic material. Why can’t we be provided with projects that help us challenge existing power dynamics and structural inequalities instead of ones that affirm them?

In response to my assertion that the Psychology department needs to take some responsibility for providing us with an education that reflects the concerns of its students, I also received an email from the department head thanking me for raising my concerns, but reminding me that “the department” does not monitor assignments and that “the department tries to do the best it can to prepare students to make positive change in the world.” This further emphasizes to me how student feedback is swept under the rug and how complacency is valued over critical thought and sensitivity.

I am aware that I am talking about long-term resolutions to this problem, and that, meanwhile, we need to push for short-term solutions like the widely circulated student petition calling for grading flexibility.

Although our administration has offered additional short-term flexibility in awarding emergency incompletes and our president sent us a vague email about end-of-semester stress, people who are experiencing psychological trauma will not necessarily be able to use two extra weeks in the way that the administration intends.

The incomplete system also leaves a sensitive value judgment to the discretion of anonymous administrators who — by the looks of recent emails sent to students — do not understand why many students are so hurt and impacted.

Looking forward, I am worried about how easy it is for entire departments to get away with promoting class materials that hurt their students. This experience is an example of one of the numerous racial microaggressions that make Oberlin a toxic environment for students of color, particularly students who directly experience the racism, classism, ableism and homophobia of the United States “justice system” on a daily basis.

–Jasmine Eshkar College senior

SUBMISSIONS POLICY The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and column 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 the following Friday’s Review. Letters may not exceed 600 words and columns may not exceed 800 words, except with the consent of the Editorial Board. All submissions must include contact information, with full names, for all signers. All electronic submissions from multiple writers should be carbon-copied to all signers to confirm authorship.

The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for content, space, spelling, grammar and libel. Editors will work with columnists and 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. In no case will editors change the opinions expressed in any submission.

The Opinions section strives to serve as a forum for debate. Review staff will occasionally engage in this debate within the pages of the Review. In these cases, the Review will either seek to create dialogue between the columnist and staff member prior to publication or will wait until the next issue to publish the staff member’s response.

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 the author of a letter to the editors.

Opinions expressed in letters, columns, essays, cartoons or other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Review.

Page 5

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

Editors-in-Chief Julia Herbst Rose Stoloff Managing Editor Julian Ring Opinions Editor Sam White

Rolling Stone Errors Highlight Poor Journalism, Perpetuate Rape Culture Trigger Warning: This editorial contains discussion of sexualized violence.

After weeks of controversy over the veracity of a Rolling Stone article on rape at the University of Virginia, an anonymous source came forward on Tuesday claiming that the deputy managing editor of the magazine, Sean Woods, had offered his letter of resignation to Rolling Stone’s founder and publisher, Jann Wenner. The move follows a series of journalistic errors that has unnecessarily diverted media attention away from the realities of campus sexual assault.

The article, “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, told the story of a first-year, “Jackie,” who was gang raped by seven men at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party in 2012. Though the piece was initially hailed as having the potential to change the national conversation about sexual assault, journalists from the Washington Post, Slate and elsewhere began to call into question key elements of the story shortly after its publication.

Following these allegations and the ensuing public outrage, Rolling Stone’s Managing Editor, Will Dana, published a letter on Dec. 5 apologizing for the magazine’s decision not to reach out to the accused rapists for comment. “In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account.” Rolling Stone later updated its apology to remove language saying that its “trust in [ Jackie] was misplaced.”

While the fallout from the article has brought to light a number of poor editorial choices, the magazine’s decision to abide by Jackie’s request was not its biggest error; its decision not to accurately describe how Erdely reported the story was. As Dana explains in his letter, this is the sort of tough choice that editors make every day. But had Rolling Stone’s editors disclosed the fact that they had chosen not to reach out to the accused students when the story was initially published, the article would have at least been framed in the proper context.

Yet Rolling Stone also fumbled its apology. Rolling Stone’s initial statement, which blamed Jackie rather than its own staff for the publication’s mistakes, is symptomatic of the same rape culture that led to the initial crime. Intentionally or not, in writing that its trust in Jackie was “misplaced,” Rolling Stone invalidated the experiences of survivors far beyond the University of Virginia. Survivors of sexual assault are continually told that their testimony is not credible or that they do not have enough evidence to prove foul play. Often, survivors’ testimonies are imperfect, but not because they are fabrications.

Rather, survivors’ testimonies often get blurred by the trauma that follows an assault and in the length of time it can take for them to come forward with allegations. Rolling Stone’s apology, unfortunately, lends harmful credence to those who believe survivors lie about their traumatic experiences.

Not only did survivors of rape and sexual assault find the apology triggering and invalidating, it may also discourage survivors from coming forward in the future. At a Senate subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, Democratic Senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who together have been pushing Congress to combat sexual assault on college campuses, expressed concern that Rolling Stone’s letter would weaken their efforts.

“I am sad and angry because it is a setback for survivors in this country,” McCaskill said. “This is not a crime where you have random false reporting or embellishment. This is a crime that is the most underreported crime in America and will remain so. Our problem is See Editorial, page 6 Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, managing editor and Opinions editor — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

Opinions

Page 6

The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

OSCA Lacks Awareness Police Racism Dehuof Oppressive Systems manizes Black Youth Cara Welch-Rubin Contributing Writer The following critique of the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association is not the first time anyone has raised these issues. Many people have experienced or continue to experience various forms of classism, white supremacy, ableism and other manifestations of oppression within OSCA. My critique only serves to join these discourses and bring them to the attention of other white, able-bodied OSCAns. In a recent co-op discussion, one co-oper said, “OSCA is not some shady government.” While I can’t claim to acknowledge all forms of oppression within OSCA, I hope to undermine this misconception by shedding light on some of the forms of oppression that I have seen and experienced firsthand.

I stayed behind from Cleveland the day after the news broke that a grand jury had decided not to indict Darren Wilson in the murder of Mike Brown. I remained in Oberlin to address the white supremacy that manifests in OSCA. However, my attempts to raise this in committee meetings that day were shut down, as they have been throughout my time working for OSCA. I returned to a co-op to eat dinner and sat there, angry at myself for being stupid enough to stay behind thinking I could actually effect change in OSCA, when two people walked into the dining area.

They were commenting on how few people were in the co-op, complaining about how quiet the campus had become since noon and pouting about feeling lonely.

Excuse me? No one is around because they are in the streets fighting against the hundreds of years of oppression of Black and Brown bodies. Others filed in to eat; they sat around laughing and talking about nothing. Nothing. Not a single person mentioned Ferguson, Mike Brown, John Crawford III or Tamir Rice. Not a single person in the room was a person of color. The silence of my fellow white OSCAns and Oberlin students and faculty does not equal neutrality, and the lack of action apart from a few Facebook posts does not constitute “allyship.”

Yet OSCA staff spray-painted the raised fist across their staff T-shirts at the beginning of this semester, as if OSCA is actually a force for social justice and change. White students at this school post #BlackLivesMatter on Facebook, then joke about their sex lives, while others are exploding into the streets, calling for outrage and demanding justice.

All-OSCA staff fail to recognize their own complicity in the systems that have enabled and relied upon the marginalization, criminalization and murder of Black and Brown people in this country and this world.

In my time as an all-OSCA staff member, I have sat on numerous appointments committees, which review applications and interview candidates for different all-OSCA positions. Unsurprisingly, these committees are always predominantly, if not entirely, composed of white people deciding among white applicants. However, I have sat on recent committees for positions that require an understanding of how various forms of oppression exist and play out in OSCA, and these almost entirely or entirely white committees have been forced to appoint people to these positions who have not demonstrated an adequate understanding of the ways in which they participate in these systems or how these systems manifest in OSCA. I know that as a white, cisgender, able-bodied woman, my knowledge is far from complete, and I will always have to continue to challenge, criticize

and educate myself. I’m not assuming that there will be a perfect applicant who has completed their education on systems of power. I did, however, expect that my peers in OSCA would show more support in trying to put people into these positions who recognize explicitly that so many people feel that OSCA or the majority of co-ops are alienating spaces. Some efforts were put down by OSCA leaders citing the threat of the IRS closing OSCA due to potential tax status conflicts, while others were suppressed by apathetic, exhausted and/or uncritical OSCAns. Next, those who directly forced the outcomes of these committees were able to hide behind rules of confidentiality so that no one beyond those white walls would know what had occurred within. If we are going to engage in discussions about the unjust rulings of grand juries in countless cases of police brutality and murders, we must recognize the ways in which these same forms of systemic oppression that exist in this country and in the institution of Oberlin College also manifest on OSCA’s board and committees.

One member of OSCA recently talked to me about how the present conception of the U.S. government is too big to address the concerns of the millions of people it is supposed to serve. Even the state level is too far removed, they suggested; we need to refocus on community. I considered how this applies to OSCA and the communities that have formed in different co-ops.

In this regard, one of my biggest mistakes during my time in OSCA was applying to be an all-OSCA accessibility coordinator. First of all, my understandings of systems of oppression were and continue to be limited; rather than taking up more space by applying to an all-OSCA position, I wish I had sat back down and continued educating myself while actively working to educate those around me. Secondly, in prioritizing community, I should have remained AccessCo for Fairchild Co-op — if re-elected — to work on that individual community. Fairkid was the closest thing I had to community at the time, yet I had naïvely believed that I could address the manifestations of oppression in Fairkid from an all-OSCA level.

However, through classist food politics and policing of people’s diets, the space became toxic and damaging to me, and I ultimately had to leave. In the fall of 2013, as AccessCo for Fairkid, I had to facilitate numerous intense discussions about cheese.

Some vegans raised issues about from where we were buying our cheese because of the ideological issues they had with how Amish farmers treat their cows. We discussed the most minute details of cheese, stereotypes of Amish farmers and whether spending four times as much on a different cheese was actually a practical idea. My co-AccessCo and I struggled to remind people that we were having these conversations about cheese while others in this town, country and world are starving every day.

In the end, each hour we spent having co-op discussions and reconciliation committee meetings was time taken away from expressing outrage over the police murders of people of color, time reflected in the four and a half hours Mike Brown lay uncovered in the street, or in the years spent in prison awaiting release or death. Having the time not to be outraged is a privilege, one which so many white OSCAns don’t realize they have. And expressing this outrage only in words will not help bring about change; we must instead enact change by participating in resistance and rejecting systems that perpetuate oppression and violence.

Aliyah Abu-Hazeem Contributing Writer I’ve been thinking a lot lately, not only about the Ferguson decision, but also about the senseless violence that has been occurring across the nation. My thinking has, unconsciously, enabled my silence.

I am not silent because I have nothing to say. In fact, I have much to say. Far more than this white space can hold. I was brought up on the sentiment, “It’s not what you say, but how you say it,” and I know that my words are impactful and will resonate with many people, especially during a time of national grieving such as this. My silence doesn’t indicate a choice not to stand in solidarity for the innumerable Black and Brown individuals’ lives that are lost on a daily basis, in a system that we call just and that supposedly endows all humans with constitutional rights and protections.

There is not a waking moment my mind is not racing at 100 mph. I think not only of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown or Tamir Rice, but of the hundreds of lives lost every day across the nation due to police violence, brutality and racial profiling, carried out by trigger-happy miscreants who selfishly and irrationally strip away these supposedly inalienable rights we have and perpetuate injustice through ending the lives of so many individuals before they even have the chance to live.

I think about the hypocrisy that our nation founds itself upon, with its moneyhungry government officials who do nothing about ending gun violence or lowering crime rates until mass murder — or genocide — has already occurred. These officials make one statement to the nation calling out for justice to be served and then unapologetically believe their words will cause a drastic change.

However, there is still no day in court for the individuals who have had lives stolen from them at the hands of systemic violence.

Where does these systems’ righteousness lie when they decide to not pay reparations to the families and communities that have to go on living without their loved ones? Where is the acknowledgement of the continued pain, suffering and intolerance that these individuals face? Where is the repayment to society for the humans’ lives that were taken because they were deemed unworthy of existence?

They say there is nothing new under the sun. Well, this proves to be true in regard to the countless individuals who are at risk every day. At risk of losing their lives; at risk of no longer being a part of their communities; at risk of having their rights violated; at risk of being stripped the ability to have a future, accomplish their dreams, or make their goals a reality. In a supposedly post-racial, modern society, racism is still at the forefront of individuals’ everyday lives — whether or not you want to admit or acknowledge it.

We cannot continue to deny that racism is and will continue to be pervasive. The very fact that a Black male cannot walk down the street on the South Side of Chicago without

facing police harassment and racial profiling via interrogation is indicative of the racism that is continuously plaguing this nation.

The fact that a Black person cannot reach for something in their pocket without the assumption they are carrying a weapon speaks volumes to the state of our “post-racial” society.

Even beyond race, which is not to place race aside, we are all human and endowed with human rights. Being a human is intrinsic to all of us despite skin color, creed or ethnicity; but still the rights we have as human beings are not equal or impartial to us all.

Policies like “stop-and-frisk” that remain embedded within constitutional law circumvent the rights that we have as humans, enforcing stereotypes and biases upon individuals to define their proneness to lawbreaking. I wonder: What does a criminal look like? How can one assess criminality based on appearance?

Stop-and-frisk laws are made to dehumanize Black people. Let’s be real: Black people are the individuals getting stopped and frisked by the police. Those are the individuals that appear to be threatening to the police.

Let’s examine these individuals that I keep referring to. Instead of continuing the cycle of generalizing the population that is most affected by violence, which whitewashed society continues to do — I’m going to lay it all on the table. BLACK — YOUNG — MEN! These Black youths’ lives are being diminished every day. If Black men aren’t losing their lives, they are losing their right to live, which is analogous in severity.

I will not sugarcoat nor meander around the facts. According to FBI crime statistics for 2013, there are, on average, 8,500 Black people murdered each year. That equates to about 21.65 deaths per day. Now, let’s look at the murders of Black people involving police officers. Annually, there are approximately 400 police-related murders; of those 400 murders, 38 percent of them are of Black people. That is 152 Black people slain by police officers each year. This does not even include the murders that go unreported or swept under the rug, which we know, regardless of how much we try to deny it, occurs.

The numbers show whom those laws protect, and it’s not the Black minority. These laws are enforced as a way to persuade the easily deceived white majority that racism is null and void and that the system we live in serves and protects the lives and rights of all people. Well, all people in this nation were not enslaved. All people in this nation are not overrepresented in prison populations.

All people in this nation do not have to sell drugs to provide for their impoverished families. All people in this nation do not have to rely on government assistance to survive. All people in this nation do not fear or distrust the police. And all people in this nation do not have to constantly look over their shoulder because they don’t know what minute of any given day could be their last.

WAKE UP, PEOPLE, AND STAY WOKE!

Editorial: Rolling Stone Controversy Will Discourage Sexual Assault Reporting Continued from page 5 not victims coming forward and embellishing; our problem is victims are too frightened to come forward.”

Amid the fallout from within the journalistic community, few media responses have actually

addressed the journalistic problems with this case. One important exception is Alexis Sobel Fitts’s piece “How to handle a story correction” in the Columbia Journalism Review, which challenges Rolling Stone’s lack of transparency throughout the process.

“[R]ather than tweaking an apology in response to the findings of other media organizations, past mea culpas suggest that Rolling Stone would be best served by launching its own investigation from the get-go,” Fitts wrote. “Full transparency — which includes researching

the extent of inaccuracies and disclosing the editorial practices that allowed them to occur — is even more important in a digital culture, when the story of journalism gone wrong can go viral before the offending organization has a chance to address it.”

It is too soon to tell whether

Rolling Stone will heed the advice of critics like Fitts. However, it is clear that the magazine’s current strategy has done more harm than good, and that careful, honest journalism is essential in the necessary work of bringing survivors’ stories to light.

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

Page 7

Krislov’s Response Fails to Address Concerns Kiley Petersen Staff Writer Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov, the Board of Trustees and the Oberlin administration have been put under a lot of pressure by students during the past several weeks, from the “Hands Up, Walk Out” call for action to the protest at the Board of Trustees function on Dec. 4. Their response came in the form of an “Open Letter to the Student Community” emailed to students on Thursday night.

Since this was the only real acknowledgement of student activists’ call for change since President Krislov’s Dec. 3 article in the Source, “Confronting Difficult Issues Through Education,” I was hopeful about what the email would entail, especially since I had been pretty disappointed with the article. For the most part, the Dec. 3 article was simply a reaffirmation of Oberlin’s diversity mantra and the value of conversations about race and class disparities in society, with the announcement of working groups with “significant student representation” led by Tita Reed, assistant for community and government relations, and

Visiting Associate Professor Charles Peterson, faculty-inresidence of Afrikana House.

The email elaborated upon plans for working groups and committees, announcing plans for a campus climate team led by Meredith Raimondo, the special assistant to the president for equity, diversity and inclusion, and that Krislov, along with Dean of Students Eric Estes, would meet with small groups of students. It neglected to mention how — or when, given the imminence of reading period — these students would be selected to participate.

While I appreciate that Krislov is open to hearing students’ opinions, he failed to mention perhaps the most vocal and promoted opinion on this campus: support for College junior Kiki Acey’s petition. The petition, now boasting over 1,200 signatures, calls for suspension of the usual grading scale for this semester, making the lowest grade a student could receive a C. Yet Krislov breezed over this issue. “Our academic deans have communicated with our faculty regarding end-of-the-semester stresses and the needs of our students during this period,” the email read.

That would probably be relevant information to share in detail.

While I want to be hopeful and optimistic about these working groups and teams that President Krislov is intending to form, I have to agree with College junior Sophie Umazi Mvurya’s response to Krislov’s first article.

“We are not here just to discuss and have working groups,” she wrote in a comment on the Source article. “For how long have we discussed and had working groups on how to change a system that is unfriendly to people who do not fit into a certain ‘American-friendly’ category? If discussing and debating worked, we would not be in this situation right now.”

President Krislov’s response was better than nothing, but I would like to see more transparency from the Office of the President and the rest of the administration: transparency in everything from more student diversity data — especially on prospective student recruitment — to academic decisions involving finals, emergency incompletes and grading accommodations for students of color.

President Krislov and administrators: You don’t need to hold discussions. Students of color on our campus have explained what they need and why they need it. I hope you listen to them.

Lack of Internship Funding Presents Accessibility Issue Vida Weisblum Arts Editor Getting a job is largely dependent on the quality of one seemingly simple document: the résumé. Yet for many college students, résumé building comes at a price. Internships, aside from being personally rewarding, are advantageous in accruing a body of work experience; however, students who struggle to afford the steep costs of transportation and housing are limited in the opportunities they can pursue.

About 80 percent of Oberlin students receive financial aid to pay for tuition. Despite the roughly $30,000 in aid students receive each year on average to attend Oberlin, the journey to funding internships frequently results in a financial dead end. Every student who attends Oberlin undoubtedly deserves the same chance to pursue Winter Term opportunities regardless of financial position.

This accessibility requires efforts on the part of not just students but also the faculty and administration.

Though Oberlin does provide means to find potential hosts such as OBIEWeb and Switchboard, their results are not the same for all. Sophomore Emma Baxter still revels in her experience staying with two Oberlin alumni while working at the Hirschorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. “I still stay in touch. … I felt like I formed a strong relationship with them,” Baxter said.

“I miss them.”

In other instances, these online platforms proved disappointing. “I went through

OBIEWeb to find housing, Switchboard and the classifieds, which were all completely useless,” said College sophomore Olivia DeToma, noting that none of her correspondents accepted her housing requests and hardly any of them even responded to her emails. “My housing-finding process was asking around to see if [ friends and such] would host me, which puts people in a weird spot,” she said. “[I had to ask myself], am I close enough to this person to ask this big favor? How would I ever repay them? Money?”

College sophomore and Environmental Studies and Economics major Julia Murphy is facing a similar situation. Because she had not anticipated her acceptance to a green housing project internship in L.A., Murphy now faces the problem of finding affordable housing at the last minute without being a burden.

Due to logistical issues and inability to finance travel and housing, Murphy fears that she is spoiling potential future opportunities.

“By turning down an internship, you’re probably setting yourself up to not be able to do that internship in the future,” Murphy said.

She added that she wishes the opportunity had presented itself this summer so that she could have had more time to plan out how to finance her adventure and perhaps even get a job.

College sophomore and New York City native Linda Diaz felt passionate about making transportation feasible for students, even if they are interning while living at home. “I didn’t apply to a lot of New York City internships because they did not offer a metro card

to get to work, and I would be spending a lot of money coming back and forth,” Diaz said. Because students cannot receive pay for projects they complete during Winter Term, students like Diaz and Murphy often have to find additional means to support their journey. With internship application responses coming in anywhere from a week to a month after students’ initial requests, students have a hard time planning so far in advance.

Unfortunately, many students, including Murphy and DeToma, strongly considered turning down these internships for the sole reason of not having financial backing, which, upsettingly, could mean permanently forfeiting internships at esteemed establishments. Not all companies are aware of the difficulties students routinely face trying to pay their way through internships; declining a competitive internship could be mistaken as disinterest, flakiness or unreliability, even if the student responds with an explanation of their situation.

Even if the student is ultimately able to reclaim the internship in the future, doing so comes at the expense of time, and as a college student at the edge between the bubble that is Oberlin and the daunting black hole that is the real world, time, and the time to gain early experience, means everything. Given more options and accessibility for internship funding, students would not have to scurry to find last-minute jobs who knows where or scavenge for little-known grants in order to snag exciting work opportunities.

While Oberlin does offer grants for students interested in interning off-campus,

both Murphy and DeToma expressed dismay with the inaccessibility and lack of advertising for such financial aid. “The Career Center and the employers were incredibly late with getting back to us about [ financing] rejections or offers and did not push the deadline for submitting our forms,” said DeToma.

“There are few grants available, but they were only emailed about once, and only to those who applied for internships. [Some students] probably didn’t even bother to apply because they didn’t know there were opportunities for funding.”

The ironic traffic jam of financing internships creates a mess that affects everyone at Oberlin. It’s unfortunate that at an institution of higher education that attempts to provide all of the necessary tools to enter the workforce, students who cannot readily afford the inherent costs in interning spend much more time trying to figure out how to afford the opportunities sitting in front of them while others are free to take the fast lane. The question I ask myself is: Why can’t everyone take the fast lane, and what resources are necessary to allow all students to access the same opportunities?

There has certainly been talk of Winter Term funds that existed in the past, but it irks me that these efforts have not gained institutional recognition. Ultimately, while the administration does clearly provide some opportunities to receive funding, it needs to devise a more effective way to communicate what opportunities are available for financing internships, and it must work with students to create more of them.

Personal Definition of Home Provides Contentment, Stability CJ Blair Columnist The brief period between Thanksgiving and winter break is an interesting one for students. With the quick turnaround between break, finals and another break, many Obies find themselves shuffling between one familiar place and another faster than they might have ever done before. This constant change of setting prompts students to ask themselves: What is home, exactly?

This may seem like another philosophical question every college student is bound to ask themselves. In reality, though, forming an answer to this particular question is substantially more significant than it is for other ones like it. This is because a home grounds a person in the world, both physically and emotionally. Having a good one provides some assurance for support and security, while having a bad one can ensure just the opposite.

For this reason, it makes sense that some of the common experiences of students entering college include

anxiety, stress and the notorious homesickness. Homesickness is seldom limited to the physical components of a home, though these can certainly contribute to the feeling. More often, the pains attributed to homesickness are linked to the discontentment that results from changing locations. The feeling of contentment that a home can bring is more likely to be driven by various objects, people and memories that have left a lasting impression on a person.

Of course, not everyone is filled with remorse about leaving their home. A household may be just as much a microclimate for pain as it is for comfort. For many, coming to college isn’t so much letting go of a home as it is liberating oneself from the past. But there’s danger in so quickly turning away from a previous home: the prospect of not having one at all.

There’s something to be said for the freedom to meet new people and establish new relationships when entering college or moving to a different place. However, even the most social extroverts can’t survive in this state forever. For all of the various aspects that constitute home, the thread unifying them all is familiarity.

To have a home is to have a cushion you can fall back on when nothing else is going well. This doesn’t have to consist of years-old relationships and cherished childhood objects. It can be something recent, like a new friend or a quiet place to sit and think. When elementary school students learn ecology, they learn that animals need food, water and shelter to survive. While animals rarely die solely from lack of shelter, the lack of safety and personal stability attributed to homelessness might explain the reason for this third need: survival.

The concept of a home would be undermined if there were a single unifying definition for it. While there may not be much similarity from one definition of a home to the next, it’s reasonable to think that each example has its own specifics. A bed, a girl and a cat mean nothing on their own. Your parents’ creaky bed, your little sister who never shuts up and your cat that never lands on its feet are more likely to be resounding pieces of home. The real defining parts of a home is bound to stick with you in spite of distance or time, and it should be something you won’t forget and that won’t forget you. When I was home over break, I asked my little sister what it was like to be an only child now. She smiled at me and said, “I’m not.”

Voices of the Class of ’14½ What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I found out last spring that I could graduate early, and I was like, “Why would I not do that?” considering the amount of money it is for an entire semester here. And I’m actually living off-campus, so I won’t be kicked out of my home. I have some time to figure things out. … I’d like to go back abroad again; I studied abroad in India for a semester. I don’t know how, when or why I am going to do that, but I would like to. The other thing I’m looking into is becoming a registered dietician, which requires significantly more school, which I’m not excited about at this moment.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I would say, definitely, if you haven’t gone, you should go to an aerialists’ show because they’re literally amazing. I kept trying to get my friends to go all the time, and they were like, “Eh, I don’t know.” I’m like, “No, your mind’s going to be blown.

You should definitely go.”

One of the most fun nights I’ve had here was [when] my friend Robert set up hide-and-seek in Mudd … and it was literally so fun. You have your own team that you could make, and you’re competing against other teams, and no one’s in Mudd. You get to run around and be kind of crazy.

There’s tons of sugary snacks, which is awesome.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

The first thing that comes to mind is go to more events. But, obviously, everyone is so busy that it’s really, really hard to do that. So I guess my second piece of advice — which I’ve stuck to — is don’t get sucked into the world of coffee, because it’s bad. … It’s really bad.

Matt Young Classical Piano and Creative Writing Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I found out last semester [that I could finish early] … so I’m graduating in nine semesters instead of ten. … Last semester, I was really sad because a lot of my really close friends were leaving. But this semester, coming back, it’s been great … meeting new people and making new communities … which I thought would be a lot harder than it was. …

It’s been my best semester, almost.

It’s been awesome.

One of my friends that I met

here [and I] started a music project together last year, and we worked on it all summer, and we’re going to continue working on it in the spring.

We’re a duo. It’s like a pop music project, so we’re going to be in Chicago for a little bit, writing and recording and stuff, and then we’re going to probably move to New York in February to try to perform and play and write some more work [and] record an album.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I think the people I’ve met here, the late nights spent hanging out with people listening to music [and] talking about music. All the creative people I’ve met have been so influential to me. I took that for granted while being here, and I think that’s going to be hard to find again in the future.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

I think it’s a really hard place to be; this is a really hard school to be at.

It’s stressful, it can be hard to make friends; when I was a freshman, I had a really hard time making friends.

Even though it’s small, communities can seem really exclusive, and it can be hard to get your voice heard. …

So I’d just tell people to trust themselves, and just get out there and get involved.

I just think people pigeonhole themselves too soon here. And that’s not the point of the education structure; it’s to let you try as many things as you can, and you should take advantage of that.

Sara Harris Biology Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I wasn’t actually planning on [graduating early] at the beginning of this semester. I knew that I could, but I figured I would stay. … But then I met with the dean, and she was like, “You can graduate early,” and I was like, “Cool, I don’t think I am.” And then I met with another dean, and she was like, “Wait, why aren’t you graduating early?” And I was like, “Well, that’s a good question.” … I’m graduating with a bio major, but my plans are to get my master’s in architecture.

[Laughs.] What is undergrad?

I want to take time off before [graduate school]. I’m thinking of going to do a craft furniture-making program for a little bit in Asheville, NC. … I feel like that’s also a more unique way to come at getting stuff for a portfolio.

What’s something that comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I was in OSCA my first year; I lived in Keep. And so the very first night I

was on campus, our [Housing Loose Ends Coordinators] took us to the Arb. None of us had ever been to the Arb. It was night; it was dark. They even took us a convoluted way to get there so even if we’d been to the Arb, we wouldn’t know where we were going. And there was a bunch of people around a campfire playing music, singing songs, drinking. I mean, that was the night when I was like, “Yeah, I’m really glad I came to Oberlin.”

Is there any advice you would give other students?

Everyone is always like, “You need to connect with professors,” and I think partially because I was convincing myself that I was super interested in bio, I never did that. It’s not like you have to do it with everyone, but specific professors that you really like — actually do go to their office hours and chill with them. Because there’s a lot of really great professors on this campus, and they literally block off time to talk to you. That’s something I wish I had done more of.

Abigail Barr Theater Major, Sociology Minor What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I have sort of had one foot out the door of Oberlin since second semester freshman year. I have a lot of stuff happening at home in New York. I took the maximum number of credits for about five semesters, and because I’m a senior, the course credit system ended up working in my favor. … I decided that this would make the most sense financially as well — just to graduate and get out there. … I have an internship in New York. I grew up in New York; I have friends [there].

Hopefully [in the future] applying to more internships, maybe getting a full job somewhere, working on shows, that kind of stuff.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

Directing my senior capstone show was a really big thing for me. It was 4,000 Miles; it went up in October in Little Theater. For me, I mean honestly, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs. … I’ve had as mixed a relationship to Oberlin as anyone else could have.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

In terms of why I was able to do this, it was because I got everything out of the way. … So if you’re a freshman, you should be taking classes in diverse things. Act like you’re still in high school when they made you take math, and they made you take English, and all these things, because that’s the only way that you discover what you like. I mean, I was a [Sociology] minor; I did not walk into Oberlin thinking,

“Oh, I want to minor in Sociology.” …

So if you don’t actually do the liberal arts exploration like they want you to do, you won’t be able to figure out that you might like something that you didn’t think you were going to coming in.

Claire Yeske English Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I hadn’t actually considered graduating early until the beginning of the semester when I found out that I even could. … It just seemed like the right decision to make for me. I went abroad last semester, and was really happy to have the opportunity to be out in the real world, outside of the Oberlin bubble. As much as I love the Oberlin bubble, and as great as it is, I’m kind of looking forward to get jumping on the opportunity to get out of it. I’m in off-campus housing, so I still have my house available — my housemates are still living there — so I might be coming back and forth to Oberlin a little bit. … I’m probably going to be studying for grad school exams, potentially getting a job part-time, full-time, not sure yet.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I was on the field hockey team for three years while I was here, and I’m not on it now; this is my first and only year not playing field hockey. And so I would simultaneously say that playing field hockey for three years and then not playing field hockey this year were two of the best things that I did while I was at Oberlin.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

I think that Oberlin is a place where a lot of people feel a lot of pressure to overextend themselves as much as possible. It’s like we have the stress Olympics constantly, where it’s like, “I’m more stressed than you because of this.”

And I think that people just need to remember that it’s not something that you have to do, and that selfcare is really important, and it’s OK to just do one or two things and do them really, really well, rather than doing eight million things and feeling overextended and like you can’t give 100 percent to all of them.

The other piece of advice I would probably give is to definitely, at some point before you graduate, go skinny-dipping in the Arb. Just do it. It’s liberating and it’s fun and it’s great, and when it’s really hot outside, it’s a really good way to cool off !

Midyear graduates fulfill their requirements and finish their degrees with little of the pomp and circumstance afforded to those that finish in May. We asked a group of December graduates to reflect on the path that led them here and the wisdom they’ve collected along the way.

Where do grads go?

OBIEWeb, the alumni office’s database of past students, contains 23,839 registered community members. Of those, 363 live in Oberlin, constituting 4.3 percent of the town’s total population. Approximately 4.4 percent of registered alumni currently live in New York City, while 2.1 percent live in Chicago. There are 36 Obies in Australia, 20 in Switzerland and one in Iraq. The maps below plot the whereabouts of alumni in the U.S. from last year’s graduating class against those who graduated 10 and 20 years ago.

Class of 2014

Class of 2004 15 % Percentage of each graduating class registered in each state

Ryan Cioffi Anthropology Major, Art History Minor

Tom Rathe Environmental Studies Major

10 %

5%

0%

Class of 1994

What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I’m graduating this semester because I took a semester off in the spring of my junior year. As it stood originally, it was looking like I would need every semester to graduate, so it made the most sense to take an extra semester, rather than trying to cram extra courses in. I’m moving back to Virginia. As of now, I’m going to just work for a little while and save up some money doing landscaping and gardening, which I’ve done in the summers before … and just kind of see what happens in the next year.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I would say being part of student organizations in general. In my case, it was playing with Oberlin Steel. I joined as a freshman, and it was a really good experience — not only in being part of a performing group and playing shows and going on tour over spring break, but also just making friends with people in all different years throughout the time I was in the group.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

As someone who took a semester off, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing that. The advice I would give is just don’t hesitate to reach out. I had a really good experience talking to my class dean, who was just extremely helpful and accommodating [in] a difficult situation that led me to take a semester off. … I felt like faculty advisors were pretty supportive in the personal leave process, so by all means, if it feels like something you need to do, there’s precedent to it.

Josh Curtis Piano Performance and Math Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

For me, it’s actually [graduating] on time, because I took a semester off for knee surgery once. I’m finishing my 10th semester — five years — double-degree. I’m applying to graduate school for piano; that would start in the fall. So I’d still be in Oberlin in the spring, hopefully working somehow and practicing for auditions.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

Just sort of opening my mind to different perspectives in a way that wasn’t really possible for me in high school. Not that Oberlin is that diverse of a place compared to the rest of the world, but I think there’s more emphasis on the responsibility to educate yourself about different viewpoints, and just really having the chance to hear some of those viewpoints, and to hear people

open up about that, and get a better understanding of other people’s experiences.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

My first year, I was very closed off.

I was focused on doing what I had to do for my classes — you know, practicing piano and stuff — so I didn’t take advantage of all the amazing things that were going on: all the performances in the Conservatory, other music performances, theater, dance … all sorts of student organizations, rallies, protests. I was very not aware of this whole giant melting pot of things that are happening on campus. I guess, [take] advantage of that richness that I don’t think is going to be present elsewhere in the same way for the rest of life. …

Be receptive to all the ideas that are coming at you and all the opportunities to see different things and hear different things.

Laura Gray Biology Major, Geology Minor What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I hadn’t planned on graduating early, but then I got here this semester and found out I “only” needed 19 credits to graduate. So, instead of taking a half course load each semester, or one class next semester or something, I decided to cram it all in and then save a lot of money on not being a student next semester. …

My plans for next semester involve a lot of research. I’ll be traveling to Spain for part of it, because I did some research over the summer, and for that project, I’m being sent to present that work at an international science conference in Spain and then extending my trip for fun. … My plans are basically to hang out in Oberlin next semester and do research in the bio department when I’m here, and then when I’m not here to do these other researchrelated things and apply for jobs! My plans mostly consist of finding some sort of entry-level position in the field of biology and marine science ... for a couple more years, and try to figure out what I want to go to grad school in.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I’m one of those people who has been probably the happiest ever with Oberlin. I know there’s a lot of disillusionment on this campus sometimes with what happened on campus, and things about the political climate, social climate, etc.

But as an academic institution, it’s provided me with the opportunity to do everything I’ve wanted to do — oftentimes a lot of support and funding to do everything I wanted to do. I’ve formed incredible relationships with my peers and my professors [and] faculty alike. Coming out of Oberlin, I’m really just thankful

and happy about the way the entire three and a half years turned out.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

Only take classes you love; that’s my best advice I can give. Because there’s always graduate school if you want to specialize; there are always other opportunities to get the skills you need. But the reason we all came to a liberal arts school is so we could take all the classes that we love in all the different divisions. And if you’re doing that every semester, that’s all the passion and motivation you need to enjoy your educational experience here. And that informs all the rest.

Rachel Davidson Psychology Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I knew coming into Oberlin that I was going to have to graduate a semester early or go down to very, very, very part-time if I was doing honors, because my family didn’t have money for the last semester.

I brought in a ton of AP credits because I knew I was going to have to do that. I’m not [going to stay on campus], but I live on the east side of Cleveland, and so I’ll probably be visiting sometimes. … I just got a job interview, so that’s good! … Primarily, I’m looking at direct service nonprofit work, so I’ve been applying for a lot of positions.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

Being an RA in Hebrew Heritage House was without a shadow of a doubt the most wonderful thing I got to do on campus. I did that for a year and a half, and I found that extremely rewarding and meaningful; and before that I did some interfaith works. I helped plan a longest night service, an interfaith Thanksgiving celebration, and doing that was really nice too.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

Don’t take a class with a terrible professor, ever. Even if you like the class, or you think you will like the class, you probably won’t if there was a bad professor. So pick your classes based on a good professor, and talk to your friends about who those professors are. Another bit of advice I would give is make an effort to learn from your fellow Obies. I think a lot of the learning I have done at this school has been outside of the classroom, and the learning I value the most has been outside of the classroom, from my peers.

The Review congratulates all students graduating this semester, and regrets that it is unable to recognize all graduates, as the College considers their names confidential.

This Week editor: Hazel Galloway

CALENDAR Work It! A Fundraiser for Preterm Abortion Access Fund Friday, Dec. 12, 10 p.m.–1 a.m.

The ’Sco Students United for Reproductive Freedom wraps up a busy semester with a benefit concert at the ’Sco. Proceeds from the show will be contributed to a fund that aims to help disadvantaged women overcome the financial and legal barriers to abortion. And What!? will also perform at the show.

Opera Scenes I & II Saturday, Dec. 13, 4–6 p.m. and 8–10 p.m.

Kulas Recital Hall, Conservatory Central

Unravel Saturday, Dec. 13, 7–7:45 p.m.

Fairchild Chapel

Bead Lizard Craft Session Sunday, Dec. 14, 1–3 p.m.

RPC Room, Basement of Harkness House

Unsilent Night 2014 Sunday, Dec. 14, 7 p.m.

Wisdom Tree, North Quad

Pancakes with the President Monday, Dec. 15, 10–11:30 p.m.

Dascomb Dining Hall

Empty Bowls Holiday Brass & Organ Spectacular Tuesday, Dec. 16, 7–9 p.m.

First Church in Oberlin

Conservatory students in the Voice and Opera Theater programs will present 12 short scenes from operas spanning three centuries. The most contemporary of the selections, Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, was first produced for radio in 1939 and afterwards adapted for theater to great acclaim. The performance will be staged in two halves separated by two hours.

Oberlin’s new contemporary vocal ensemble, ocoVoco, will be holding its second concert featuring selections from 20th- and 21st-century artists. The songs will span four languages and three countries of origin, encompassing both secular and religious works.

The Recycled Products Co-op and Oberlin Animal Rights join to offer a break from finals stress in the form of carefree crafting. Beads, beading guidance, string and tea will all be provided at this casual gathering. Look for signs with directions to the Recycled Products Co-op room in Harkness’s basement.

Bring any kind of portable sound-playing device for this annual work of art, performed worldwide by groups of participants carrying speakers and walking together through cities and towns. The Oberlin walk will gather at 6:50 p.m. and progress through the streets of Oberlin to the Arb. Those wishing to participate should download the sound file in advance from www.unsilentnight.com.

President Marvin Krislov and Dean of Students Eric Estes will be making an appearance at the final Monday fourth meal of the semester, open to all students free of charge. Come early to beat the crowds at what promises to be a packed pancake experience.

This holiday extravaganza will feature Conservatory brass and organ players along with members of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestras and Oberlin Choristers. Although admission and beverages are free, over 1,000 handcrafted ceramic bowls will be for sale to benefit Oberlin Community Services.

Voices of the Class of ’14½ What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I found out last spring that I could graduate early, and I was like, “Why would I not do that?” considering the amount of money it is for an entire semester here. And I’m actually living off-campus, so I won’t be kicked out of my home. I have some time to figure things out. … I’d like to go back abroad again; I studied abroad in India for a semester. I don’t know how, when or why I am going to do that, but I would like to. The other thing I’m looking into is becoming a registered dietician, which requires significantly more school, which I’m not excited about at this moment.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I would say, definitely, if you haven’t gone, you should go to an aerialists’ show because they’re literally amazing. I kept trying to get my friends to go all the time, and they were like, “Eh, I don’t know.” I’m like, “No, your mind’s going to be blown.

You should definitely go.”

One of the most fun nights I’ve had here was [when] my friend Robert set up hide-and-seek in Mudd … and it was literally so fun. You have your own team that you could make, and you’re competing against other teams, and no one’s in Mudd. You get to run around and be kind of crazy.

There’s tons of sugary snacks, which is awesome.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

The first thing that comes to mind is go to more events. But, obviously, everyone is so busy that it’s really, really hard to do that. So I guess my second piece of advice — which I’ve stuck to — is don’t get sucked into the world of coffee, because it’s bad. … It’s really bad.

Matt Young Classical Piano and Creative Writing Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I found out last semester [that I could finish early] … so I’m graduating in nine semesters instead of ten. … Last semester, I was really sad because a lot of my really close friends were leaving. But this semester, coming back, it’s been great … meeting new people and making new communities … which I thought would be a lot harder than it was. …

It’s been my best semester, almost.

It’s been awesome.

One of my friends that I met

here [and I] started a music project together last year, and we worked on it all summer, and we’re going to continue working on it in the spring.

We’re a duo. It’s like a pop music project, so we’re going to be in Chicago for a little bit, writing and recording and stuff, and then we’re going to probably move to New York in February to try to perform and play and write some more work [and] record an album.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I think the people I’ve met here, the late nights spent hanging out with people listening to music [and] talking about music. All the creative people I’ve met have been so influential to me. I took that for granted while being here, and I think that’s going to be hard to find again in the future.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

I think it’s a really hard place to be; this is a really hard school to be at.

It’s stressful, it can be hard to make friends; when I was a freshman, I had a really hard time making friends.

Even though it’s small, communities can seem really exclusive, and it can be hard to get your voice heard. …

So I’d just tell people to trust themselves, and just get out there and get involved.

I just think people pigeonhole themselves too soon here. And that’s not the point of the education structure; it’s to let you try as many things as you can, and you should take advantage of that.

Sara Harris Biology Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I wasn’t actually planning on [graduating early] at the beginning of this semester. I knew that I could, but I figured I would stay. … But then I met with the dean, and she was like, “You can graduate early,” and I was like, “Cool, I don’t think I am.” And then I met with another dean, and she was like, “Wait, why aren’t you graduating early?” And I was like, “Well, that’s a good question.” … I’m graduating with a bio major, but my plans are to get my master’s in architecture.

[Laughs.] What is undergrad?

I want to take time off before [graduate school]. I’m thinking of going to do a craft furniture-making program for a little bit in Asheville, NC. … I feel like that’s also a more unique way to come at getting stuff for a portfolio.

What’s something that comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I was in OSCA my first year; I lived in Keep. And so the very first night I

was on campus, our [Housing Loose Ends Coordinators] took us to the Arb. None of us had ever been to the Arb. It was night; it was dark. They even took us a convoluted way to get there so even if we’d been to the Arb, we wouldn’t know where we were going. And there was a bunch of people around a campfire playing music, singing songs, drinking. I mean, that was the night when I was like, “Yeah, I’m really glad I came to Oberlin.”

Is there any advice you would give other students?

Everyone is always like, “You need to connect with professors,” and I think partially because I was convincing myself that I was super interested in bio, I never did that. It’s not like you have to do it with everyone, but specific professors that you really like — actually do go to their office hours and chill with them. Because there’s a lot of really great professors on this campus, and they literally block off time to talk to you. That’s something I wish I had done more of.

Abigail Barr Theater Major, Sociology Minor What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I have sort of had one foot out the door of Oberlin since second semester freshman year. I have a lot of stuff happening at home in New York. I took the maximum number of credits for about five semesters, and because I’m a senior, the course credit system ended up working in my favor. … I decided that this would make the most sense financially as well — just to graduate and get out there. … I have an internship in New York. I grew up in New York; I have friends [there].

Hopefully [in the future] applying to more internships, maybe getting a full job somewhere, working on shows, that kind of stuff.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

Directing my senior capstone show was a really big thing for me. It was 4,000 Miles; it went up in October in Little Theater. For me, I mean honestly, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs. … I’ve had as mixed a relationship to Oberlin as anyone else could have.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

In terms of why I was able to do this, it was because I got everything out of the way. … So if you’re a freshman, you should be taking classes in diverse things. Act like you’re still in high school when they made you take math, and they made you take English, and all these things, because that’s the only way that you discover what you like. I mean, I was a [Sociology] minor; I did not walk into Oberlin thinking,

“Oh, I want to minor in Sociology.” …

So if you don’t actually do the liberal arts exploration like they want you to do, you won’t be able to figure out that you might like something that you didn’t think you were going to coming in.

Claire Yeske English Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I hadn’t actually considered graduating early until the beginning of the semester when I found out that I even could. … It just seemed like the right decision to make for me. I went abroad last semester, and was really happy to have the opportunity to be out in the real world, outside of the Oberlin bubble. As much as I love the Oberlin bubble, and as great as it is, I’m kind of looking forward to get jumping on the opportunity to get out of it. I’m in off-campus housing, so I still have my house available — my housemates are still living there — so I might be coming back and forth to Oberlin a little bit. … I’m probably going to be studying for grad school exams, potentially getting a job part-time, full-time, not sure yet.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I was on the field hockey team for three years while I was here, and I’m not on it now; this is my first and only year not playing field hockey. And so I would simultaneously say that playing field hockey for three years and then not playing field hockey this year were two of the best things that I did while I was at Oberlin.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

I think that Oberlin is a place where a lot of people feel a lot of pressure to overextend themselves as much as possible. It’s like we have the stress Olympics constantly, where it’s like, “I’m more stressed than you because of this.”

And I think that people just need to remember that it’s not something that you have to do, and that selfcare is really important, and it’s OK to just do one or two things and do them really, really well, rather than doing eight million things and feeling overextended and like you can’t give 100 percent to all of them.

The other piece of advice I would probably give is to definitely, at some point before you graduate, go skinny-dipping in the Arb. Just do it. It’s liberating and it’s fun and it’s great, and when it’s really hot outside, it’s a really good way to cool off !

Midyear graduates fulfill their requirements and finish their degrees with little of the pomp and circumstance afforded to those that finish in May. We asked a group of December graduates to reflect on the path that led them here and the wisdom they’ve collected along the way.

Where do grads go?

OBIEWeb, the alumni office’s database of past students, contains 23,839 registered community members. Of those, 363 live in Oberlin, constituting 4.3 percent of the town’s total population. Approximately 4.4 percent of registered alumni currently live in New York City, while 2.1 percent live in Chicago. There are 36 Obies in Australia, 20 in Switzerland and one in Iraq. The maps below plot the whereabouts of alumni in the U.S. from last year’s graduating class against those who graduated 10 and 20 years ago.

Class of 2014

Class of 2004 15 % Percentage of each graduating class registered in each state

Ryan Cioffi Anthropology Major, Art History Minor

Tom Rathe Environmental Studies Major

10 %

5%

0%

Class of 1994

What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I’m graduating this semester because I took a semester off in the spring of my junior year. As it stood originally, it was looking like I would need every semester to graduate, so it made the most sense to take an extra semester, rather than trying to cram extra courses in. I’m moving back to Virginia. As of now, I’m going to just work for a little while and save up some money doing landscaping and gardening, which I’ve done in the summers before … and just kind of see what happens in the next year.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I would say being part of student organizations in general. In my case, it was playing with Oberlin Steel. I joined as a freshman, and it was a really good experience — not only in being part of a performing group and playing shows and going on tour over spring break, but also just making friends with people in all different years throughout the time I was in the group.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

As someone who took a semester off, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing that. The advice I would give is just don’t hesitate to reach out. I had a really good experience talking to my class dean, who was just extremely helpful and accommodating [in] a difficult situation that led me to take a semester off. … I felt like faculty advisors were pretty supportive in the personal leave process, so by all means, if it feels like something you need to do, there’s precedent to it.

Josh Curtis Piano Performance and Math Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

For me, it’s actually [graduating] on time, because I took a semester off for knee surgery once. I’m finishing my 10th semester — five years — double-degree. I’m applying to graduate school for piano; that would start in the fall. So I’d still be in Oberlin in the spring, hopefully working somehow and practicing for auditions.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

Just sort of opening my mind to different perspectives in a way that wasn’t really possible for me in high school. Not that Oberlin is that diverse of a place compared to the rest of the world, but I think there’s more emphasis on the responsibility to educate yourself about different viewpoints, and just really having the chance to hear some of those viewpoints, and to hear people

open up about that, and get a better understanding of other people’s experiences.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

My first year, I was very closed off.

I was focused on doing what I had to do for my classes — you know, practicing piano and stuff — so I didn’t take advantage of all the amazing things that were going on: all the performances in the Conservatory, other music performances, theater, dance … all sorts of student organizations, rallies, protests. I was very not aware of this whole giant melting pot of things that are happening on campus. I guess, [take] advantage of that richness that I don’t think is going to be present elsewhere in the same way for the rest of life. …

Be receptive to all the ideas that are coming at you and all the opportunities to see different things and hear different things.

Laura Gray Biology Major, Geology Minor What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I hadn’t planned on graduating early, but then I got here this semester and found out I “only” needed 19 credits to graduate. So, instead of taking a half course load each semester, or one class next semester or something, I decided to cram it all in and then save a lot of money on not being a student next semester. …

My plans for next semester involve a lot of research. I’ll be traveling to Spain for part of it, because I did some research over the summer, and for that project, I’m being sent to present that work at an international science conference in Spain and then extending my trip for fun. … My plans are basically to hang out in Oberlin next semester and do research in the bio department when I’m here, and then when I’m not here to do these other researchrelated things and apply for jobs! My plans mostly consist of finding some sort of entry-level position in the field of biology and marine science ... for a couple more years, and try to figure out what I want to go to grad school in.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

I’m one of those people who has been probably the happiest ever with Oberlin. I know there’s a lot of disillusionment on this campus sometimes with what happened on campus, and things about the political climate, social climate, etc.

But as an academic institution, it’s provided me with the opportunity to do everything I’ve wanted to do — oftentimes a lot of support and funding to do everything I wanted to do. I’ve formed incredible relationships with my peers and my professors [and] faculty alike. Coming out of Oberlin, I’m really just thankful

and happy about the way the entire three and a half years turned out.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

Only take classes you love; that’s my best advice I can give. Because there’s always graduate school if you want to specialize; there are always other opportunities to get the skills you need. But the reason we all came to a liberal arts school is so we could take all the classes that we love in all the different divisions. And if you’re doing that every semester, that’s all the passion and motivation you need to enjoy your educational experience here. And that informs all the rest.

Rachel Davidson Psychology Major What led you to graduate in December?

Do you have plans for the future?

I knew coming into Oberlin that I was going to have to graduate a semester early or go down to very, very, very part-time if I was doing honors, because my family didn’t have money for the last semester.

I brought in a ton of AP credits because I knew I was going to have to do that. I’m not [going to stay on campus], but I live on the east side of Cleveland, and so I’ll probably be visiting sometimes. … I just got a job interview, so that’s good! … Primarily, I’m looking at direct service nonprofit work, so I’ve been applying for a lot of positions.

What comes to mind as one of the best things you’ve done at Oberlin?

Being an RA in Hebrew Heritage House was without a shadow of a doubt the most wonderful thing I got to do on campus. I did that for a year and a half, and I found that extremely rewarding and meaningful; and before that I did some interfaith works. I helped plan a longest night service, an interfaith Thanksgiving celebration, and doing that was really nice too.

Is there any advice you would give other students?

Don’t take a class with a terrible professor, ever. Even if you like the class, or you think you will like the class, you probably won’t if there was a bad professor. So pick your classes based on a good professor, and talk to your friends about who those professors are. Another bit of advice I would give is make an effort to learn from your fellow Obies. I think a lot of the learning I have done at this school has been outside of the classroom, and the learning I value the most has been outside of the classroom, from my peers.

The Review congratulates all students graduating this semester, and regrets that it is unable to recognize all graduates, as the College considers their names confidential.

This Week editor: Hazel Galloway

CALENDAR Work It! A Fundraiser for Preterm Abortion Access Fund Friday, Dec. 12, 10 p.m.–1 a.m.

The ’Sco Students United for Reproductive Freedom wraps up a busy semester with a benefit concert at the ’Sco. Proceeds from the show will be contributed to a fund that aims to help disadvantaged women overcome the financial and legal barriers to abortion. And What!? will also perform at the show.

Opera Scenes I & II Saturday, Dec. 13, 4–6 p.m. and 8–10 p.m.

Kulas Recital Hall, Conservatory Central

Unravel Saturday, Dec. 13, 7–7:45 p.m.

Fairchild Chapel

Bead Lizard Craft Session Sunday, Dec. 14, 1–3 p.m.

RPC Room, Basement of Harkness House

Unsilent Night 2014 Sunday, Dec. 14, 7 p.m.

Wisdom Tree, North Quad

Pancakes with the President Monday, Dec. 15, 10–11:30 p.m.

Dascomb Dining Hall

Empty Bowls Holiday Brass & Organ Spectacular Tuesday, Dec. 16, 7–9 p.m.

First Church in Oberlin

Conservatory students in the Voice and Opera Theater programs will present 12 short scenes from operas spanning three centuries. The most contemporary of the selections, Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, was first produced for radio in 1939 and afterwards adapted for theater to great acclaim. The performance will be staged in two halves separated by two hours.

Oberlin’s new contemporary vocal ensemble, ocoVoco, will be holding its second concert featuring selections from 20th- and 21st-century artists. The songs will span four languages and three countries of origin, encompassing both secular and religious works.

The Recycled Products Co-op and Oberlin Animal Rights join to offer a break from finals stress in the form of carefree crafting. Beads, beading guidance, string and tea will all be provided at this casual gathering. Look for signs with directions to the Recycled Products Co-op room in Harkness’s basement.

Bring any kind of portable sound-playing device for this annual work of art, performed worldwide by groups of participants carrying speakers and walking together through cities and towns. The Oberlin walk will gather at 6:50 p.m. and progress through the streets of Oberlin to the Arb. Those wishing to participate should download the sound file in advance from www.unsilentnight.com.

President Marvin Krislov and Dean of Students Eric Estes will be making an appearance at the final Monday fourth meal of the semester, open to all students free of charge. Come early to beat the crowds at what promises to be a packed pancake experience.

This holiday extravaganza will feature Conservatory brass and organ players along with members of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestras and Oberlin Choristers. Although admission and beverages are free, over 1,000 handcrafted ceramic bowls will be for sale to benefit Oberlin Community Services.

Arts The Oberlin Review

Page 10

December 12, 2014

Jittakarn Delivers Polished Rhapsody in Blue Jeremy Reynolds Arts Editor The Oberlin Orchestra does not recycle repertoire. In an effort to expose students to a broad array of music, Raphael Jiménez, director of the Oberlin Orchestras, has yet to program any piece more than once for either of the ensembles he directs. For the second time in his four-year tenure, however, Jiménez stepped up to the podium Friday night to conduct the Oberlin Orchestra in a performance of George Gershwin’s crowd-pleasing Rhapsody in Blue in Finney Chapel.

Not only has the orchestra played this music before, but frequent concertgoers will recall that the first performance of the semester featured the same rhapsody as interpreted by Professor of Piano Sanford Margolis.

Last week’s concert spotlighted Conservatory senior San Jittakarn, one of four winners of October’s annual Senior Concerto Competition.

A highly decorated pianist, Jittakarn commanded the keyboard with an adroit mastery, first taking his time with the piece’s familiar melodies before racing through the more technical passages with an intrepid gusto. Each phrase was carefully and beautifully crafted, full of dynamic contrasts and a nuanced approach to

timing. Gershwin meticulously notated each of the piano cadenzas, but traditionally there is great discrepancy between performances. While engaging and varied — and performed nigh flawlessly — Jittakarn’s slightly over-polished interpretation was entertaining but felt vaguely contrived.

The same cannot be said for the orchestra, which seemed to relish the opportunity for a second crack at this renowned American work. From the raunchy opening glissando in the clarinet to the powerful brass fanfares, instrumental soloists and ensemble members alike displayed a strong commitment to ebullience. The slower middle section allowed both the orchestra and Jittakarn to relax and demonstrate a more soulful character, stretching each phrase with an almost loving tenderness.

In the piano cadenza preceding the finale, Jittakarn’s hands blurred over the keys before the brass initiated a slow crescendo that stretched to the very end of the piece. During this final section, Jittakarn’s playing lost some of its sophistication but gained an exhilarating sense of abandon that brought the audience leaping to its feet even before the final chord had finished resounding.

After intermission, Jiménez led the orchestra through a perfor-

Concerto competition winner and Conservatory senior San Jittakarn performs George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Oberlin Orchestra. The pianist powered through cadenzas with unparalleled virtuosity.

Effie Kline-Salamon

mance of Sergei Rachmaninoff ’s Symphony No. 2 in E minor. Beginning with the ominous first scales in the low strings, the orchestra captured the composer’s thick, dark soundscape through their coordinated and emotive playing. The ensemble blended excellently, both as individual sections and as a cohesive group.

The second movement features the horn in a strident opening melody, admirably

and energetically performed by double-degree fifth-year Kevin Grasel. A stark contrast between this first theme and the slower, more lyrical trio makes this music sound like two distinct movements in one, but the orchestra dexterously switched character to accommodate the rapid musical variation.

During the third movement, Conservatory junior Ryan Toher performed one of the more

famous clarinet excerpts in the standard repertoire with a sweetly singing quality. The balance here, however, did not favor Toher’s hushed, smooth tone. The strings’ sound threatened to overpower the clarinet, and though Toher was clearly audible, the movement could have benefited from a softer string dynamic.

The final movement’s passion See Orchestra, page 13

On the Record with Bad Writing Organizers Srijit Ghosh and Paris Gravely College seniors Paris Gravely and Srijit Ghosh joined forces to organize a celebratory weekend of poetry titled Bad Writing, in which they brought poets Jaswinder Bolina, Tarfia Faizullah and Richard Siken to campus. The two Creative Writing majors shared their experiences in putting together the student-centric event.

So, what was the impetus for hosting the Bad Writing event this weekend? Were you urged by faculty to do this?

Srijit Ghosh: [Paris Gravely and I] wanted to bring some poets to campus because we really felt like there wasn’t enough programing coming from the students. Faculty bring poets; Kazim [Ali, Creative Writing department chair] brings a bunch of famous people [to Oberlin], but very infrequently do you see students bringing people that students want to come out and hear. And so that was one of the driving forces: to make this a very studentcentered event, organized by the students for the students. The other thing was we wanted to have a literary festival at Oberlin to promote more of a community within the Creative Writing student body here and the general student body, too. At least, I feel that ever since I came here the Creative Writing department has been very insular … in that once you’re a part of it … it’s hard to feel a sense of community. You see everyone in class, but after class everyone kind of disappears. And I think that’s because there aren’t many reasons for students to come together.

Paris Gravely: I think it also came out of a frustration with the ways that writing in general was being treated on this campus by the student organizations themselves, in particular the hit The Oberlin Review received. The Grape, Wilder Voice, Plum Creek Review, all these stu-

dent-run publications were put in a vulnerable place because of [the Student Finance Committee], and I don’t know the politics behind it, but I do know that there was a pretty big backlash, it felt, against literary publications.

When did you start putting it together?

PG: The beginning of the semester. It’s been an ongoing process.

SG: It was an ongoing conversation.

So it wasn’t directly in response to the situation with SFC? PG: Right, and I think it began in an alternative but also an influential form, as conversations about how the Creative Writing department can create an exclusive writing community, and yet there were all these alternative venues for writing to occur, and even those were being hit. So I think it was a dual response. And the thing about Bad Writing that I really love was that it was open to everyone, and I think that’s important in validating the writing of students who, for some reason or another, cannot participate in the Creative Writing department — and there are many, many different reasons.

SG: I think the main kind of reason behind Bad Writing was to promote a sense of community within the Creative Writing department and between the Creative Writing department and the rest of the student body, so it was to make the Creative Writing department in some ways accessible to people who are not involved in it.

How did you choose the poets who came, and how did you get them to come? Was it difficult?

PG: We met with Kazim Ali and [Assistant

Professor of Creative Writing] Shane McCrae at the beginning of the semester when this was just a budding enterprise, and Srijit and I spent the entire lunch throwing out all of these names that we were super excited about, and through talking about who knew who, and who we were most excited about, and who we thought Oberlin students would be the most excited about, we came upon Jaswinder Bolina, Richard Siken and Tarfia Faizullah, and they became our dream team. We did the usual emailing and negotiating, and ultimately they were able to come.

Were there backup options?

PG: We had a few, but for the most part, the people who we wanted to come came.

SG: The way we went about it was from experience in Creative Writing workshops and with students within the Creative Writing program and also outside it — just kind of having conversations with them to see who they wanted to bring to the campus, who they’d want to see read or do workshops. That kind of helped us decide on those three names. And they were responsive, that’s the cool thing — these guys are famous writers, but they’re so humble, and they just got back to us and kept talking to us.

Do you think they’re relevant in the context of Oberlin?

PG: They do [relate].

SG: I think all of them are read by the student body. We got good attendance to their readings and their events — especially Siken.

PG: And not to narrow the wide scope of the wide topics they covered, but if you look at the buzzwords that they write about, it feels very Oberlin. So Richard Siken writes a lot about gay rights and, importantly, mental illness, love,

which as Oberlin students we all love. And then you have Tarfia, who writes about sexualized violence, and being a woman and being — SG: Being a POC. PG: Yeah, the ethics of interviewing, which I think is at least interesting to Oberlin students if not relevant. Jaswinder writes about the South Asian immigrant experience, among a lot of other different topics.

SG: It’s about POC justice, you know? Experiences of POCs with law enforcement. They were all very pertinent. They were very pertinent poets in those kind of events. With those things being prime topics of discussion, it was a great opportunity and feeling to get them here.

Why did you choose poetry over fiction?

PG: There were a lot of different reasons. The biggest reason is [that] Srijit and I are pretty big poetry geeks.

SG: It’s a genre that we have so much experience in that it’s easier to decide, it’s easier to organize, it’s easier to have that culture and vocabulary to try and reach out to people. And I also just think that the way I envision this is that we wanted to have a united feeling for this festival other than “bad writing.” … We wanted to be focused on one genre, not multi-genre, because the way I see this going every year is that we’ll focus on one genre and explore it fully.

So are you hoping to create institutional memory of the event and pass it on in the future?

SG: We definitely want to make this a thing on campus, because we think it’s necessary to celebrate literature that promotes conversation … in a productive way.

Interview by Vida Weisblum, Arts editor

Arts

The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

Page 11

Unusual Crowd Turns Out for Machinedrum Sam Winward Staff Writer

A surprisingly elderly crowd equipped with e-cigs and beat-up jean jackets casually awaited Travis Stewart’s ’Sco appearance, most with a brew in hand. The 32-year-old electronic music producer, known as Machinedrum, arrived in Oberlin last Wednesday night and immediately deemed the town of Oberlin “cute” to his 40,000 Twitter followers. Machinedrum’s ’Sco debut apparently marked the North Carolina native’s first trip to

Ohio. Nonetheless, he did not seem out of place with his ragtag look, marked by a sleazy ’stache, bulky glasses and a trucker hat.

The night began as College seniors Jay Rosen and Joseph Magee took turns amplifying their mixes to a fairly decent ’Sco crowd. The collegiate audience occupied an area about 10 feet from the stage, while the older folks were scattered around the bar, patiently awaiting Machinedrum. By 11:30 p.m., the student section of the audience filtered in, though it was unclear how

many students were drawn by the prospect of Machinedrum or how many had hoped for an evening resembling Splitchers and decided to stay for the show, considering they were already intoxicated. Regardless, Stewart, appearing very self-assured, took the stage and wasted no time in providing danceable, energetic tracks.

Since his first independent release in 1999, Stewart’s hyperproductivity has yielded over a dozen albums under various aliases. Last year, Stewart’s fulllength, critically acclaimed EP, Vapor City, was accompanied

by a New York City art exhibition, a world tour and an interactive website following an artistic multimedia approach Obies tend to appreciate.

Continuing as Machinedrum, Stewart released a follow-up record, Vapor City Archives, which hardly strays from its predecessor. While there’s value in refining a distinct sound, Machinedrum toes the line and often oversaturates similarsounding compositions.

Machinedrum’s sound is characterized by fast-paced rhythmic patterns with heavy bass lines and smooth melo-

dies. Most works seem rhythmically grounded — hence the name Machinedrum — with echoing snares and a kick drum eager to accent and syncopate.

He uses sporadic soulful vocal samples to accentuate synth melodies and add personality to the atmosphere.

Many aspiring student producers were present, intrigued

by Machinedrum’s set. A highly experienced performer, Stewart deserves acclaim as a master of his craft. He visually guided the audience into every drop, with somewhat goofy, drawn-out gestures. While

many DJs are immobile, Stewart bounced around, which facilitated similar behavior within the crowd. He was spontaneous in his musical performance as well, adding percussive elements in real time with a sound pad.

Still, many audience members seemed disengaged. Maybe it was the dread of rapidly approaching finals or simply the desire for one last Splitchers before reading period.

However, even those not quite enraptured in his sound could respect his craftsmanship and overall well-prepared set.

The Epicurean: Hidden Students Perform on Gamelan, Talempong Hometown Treasures Aviva Blonder Staff Writer

Matt Segall Columnist This is a biweekly column highlighting our local culinary scene. Restaurant reviews, research, interviews, recipes and more will all come together in order to identify what makes the Cleveland experience unique.

For the most part, eating out in Oberlin is not a memorable experience. That’s why, in my coverage thus far, I have focused on dining establishments outside of Oberlin. We are lucky to be in an area with such a rich history, which is quickly achieving national recognition not just for food, but for art, music and sports — we’re looking at you, LeBron. Get out to Cleveland and take advantage of what the city has to offer! However, even in the small town of Oberlin, there are some standout dishes that deserve our attention.

My favorite dish can be found at the frequently disparaged Lupita’s. While they are lauded for their $1 margarita nights, the food has never received much praise. I’ll admit, some of the other dishes I have tried have been less than stellar. But the carnitas are always magnificent. Traditionally, carnitas consist of pork that is slowbraised until tender, like pulled pork, and then fried until crispy.

Lupita’s sticks pretty close to the standard preparation but chops their meat into delectable nuggets of crispy, tender pork perfection. The queso dip with chorizo is quite a tasty way to start the meal, and the homemade churro is a more than acceptable way to finish. I also appreciate the conservative hospitality.

You get exactly what you ask for, and fast, but they will not check up on you every 10 minutes.

Another less-than-renowned Oberlin establishment, Mandarin, cooks my second-favorite dish. Again, most of their menu items are completely underwhelming, often consisting of massive hunks of meat and onion and bell pepper in a sweet brown sauce. But their salt and pepper pork chop is something

magical. Chunks of bone-in pork chop are batter fried, then tossed in chilis and crispy garlic.

The result is salty, spicy, garlicky pork nubbins. Oberlin’s restaurants seem to have a way with crispy pork dishes.

Everyone flocks to the Feve for burgers, but the Black River Café has a much better iteration. Every Feve burger I’ve tried to enjoy is dense and dry. The elaborate toppings seem to be there to cover up the taste and texture of mediocre meat. Quality meat in a burger is step one.

Black River uses fresh ground beef that can be cooked to temperature, as opposed to the Feve’s mandatory well-done.

Black River’s brioche bun holds up much better to the juicy meat. Their hand-cut fries are crisp and plentiful, but anything would taste amazing with their malt vinegar aioli.

Kim’s Grocery and Carryout is my treasure. Hidden behind the Slow Train Café, the restaurant is overlooked by many coffee-deprived students. The $5 lunch bowl specials are tasty and satisfy almost any appetite but are not balanced with anything green. The real star is the bibimbap — the crown jewel dish of Korean lunch spots.

Seasoned rice is topped with varieties of cooked and pickled vegetables neatly organized around the bowl. It comes with bulgogi — barbecued beef — but there is also a vegetarian option. The pièce de résistance is the fried egg on top. The sweet and salty beef, the bright pickled vegetables, the savory and earthy sautéed vegetables and the rich coating of the egg yolk all coalesce in delicious culinary synergy.

It is important to realize that Oberlin represents a unique economic market. Because it is such a small town, there is not as much competition as there is in urban environments. This means that businesses do not have to maintain as high a level of quality and service to stay profitable. But seek out these dishes, and some faith in Oberlin’s culinary scene just might be restored.

When the audience filtered into Shipherd Lounge in Asia House this past Sunday afternoon for a concert of Indonesian gong music, only a small portion of the ensemble was present, seated on the floor and surrounded by a variety of percussive instruments. Then, once everyone had taken their seat, a shrill sound resembling that of a bagpipe — actually produced by a small horn — began emanating from outside the room. The sound slowly got louder and louder, until the remainder of the ensemble paraded inside and lined up in front of the audience to take a bow and begin its performance.

Many of the students in both the talempong and gamelan ensembles, led by Professor of Ethnomusicology and Anthropology Jennifer Fraser, had only been studying the instruments for a single semester. Nonetheless, they capably performed a broad selection of works that exemplified the uniqueness and diversity of this Indonesian musical tradition. Indonesian gamelan pieces feature circular rhythms, counted in multiples of two and are divided up into nested intervals marked by gongs of varying sizes.

The drums cue what part of the song the musicians should play and how many times they should repeat a given section. No one instrument projects louder than another. Instead, all of the sounds merge into a rich, echoing melody.

As Fraser said in her introduction to the first piece, in Javanese gamelan the deep, reverberating sound of a large gong marks the beginning and ending of every song cycle. The gong used in Sunday’s concert is a very old instrument; Fraser explained that gong-makers don’t make gongs that large anymore because they are very difficult to cast. Smaller hanging and kettle gongs, such as the kempul and kenong, are used to

mark every half or quarter cycle of the music.

During each piece, the musicians performed a skeletal melody on metallophones of varying sizes. In the first piece, “Ladrang Asmardana Laras Sléndro, Pathet Manyura,” which recounts the narrative of a warrior bidding farewell to his love as he leaves for a battle he knows will be his last, the scratchy sound of a sitar and haunting female vocal melody further enhanced the musical narrative. Together, the musicians created a coherent melodic thread, like rushing water that flows as one current. All of the parts were equally audible and combined to produce a beautiful, meditative atmosphere.

The smaller talempong ensemble replaced the gamelan ensemble to play a series of Sumatran melodies. Beginning with “Siamang Togogau” (translated as “Surprised Gibbon”), the musicians brought out a different set of gold instruments, the most notable of which were the ensemble’s namesake instrument, the talempongs. These looked like several small pots placed on clear elastic bands strung over a wooden box. As Fraser explained, the instruments were usually played outside at important ceremonies, such as weddings, coronations and rice harvestings — typically, people focus little on the music at these events.

The talempong sound, which is sharper and louder than the gamelan, emphasized the rhythmic motion of each piece. For each song, the students switched between different instruments. Each song began with a slow build with one musician playing an instrument alone, usually the talempong; others gradually joined in.

Most of the songs were performed on two drums and a single talempong played by two students. When two people played talempong, their parts overlapped, so they had to time their playing so as not to hit the same pot at the See Indonesian, page 12

From left: College juniors Alex Frank and Isabelle Rew and College seniors Noelle Hedges-Goettl, Adrian Ziaggi, Edmund Metzold and Shonari Edwards perform a concert of traditional Indonesian gong music. Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology Jennifer Fraser hosted the concert, which took place in Shipherd Lounge in Asia House. Courtesy of Ika Apriani Fata

Arts

Page 12

The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

Kid Business Struggles to Keep Up with ExCo Cast Adam Chazin-Grey Last Saturday night at the Cat in the Cream, members of the short-form improvisational comedy troupe Kid Business struggled to achieve the same level of humor as the up-and-coming talent of the 2014 improv ExCo class. Shortform improv requires audience input to guide the direction of each short improv game. Audience members seemed to revel in their ability to influence the direction of each improv game; each time the audience was given the green light, loud cries for different character roles or skit themes rang out from the crowd.

First up on the Cat stage was the ExCo class, which included a range of levels of talent. Without explicitly being told, no one could tell that these confident, witty students had only just begun interacting with each other on stage. Time seemed to fly by as skit after skit was met with increasingly louder applause from the crowd.

The ExCo students saved their best skit for last, displaying their quick thinking, witty humor and sexual confidence in the funniest segment of the night. Audience members had

to fill in the blank: “Sex with me is like…” When describing how an orange is a metaphor for sex, one performer responded, “Sex with me is like an orange; when you squeeze me the right way, I will squirt on you.” The crowd roared in approval. Later, when comparing bowling to sex, another actor responded with a completely straight face, “Sex is like bowling; I never hit strikes.” At Oberlin, self-deprecating humor may be valued more than any other type of humor, and these improv apprentices did not disappoint.

With the final vigorous round of applause over for the 2014 improv ExCo performance, Kid Business, one of the most accessible and energetic troupes on campus, took the stage. Formerly known as OBehave, Kid Business was born of the 2009 improv ExCo class when a group of students decided to form the first shortform improv group on campus.

The ExCo’s exquisite display of creativity, intelligence and wry comedic instinct was difficult to follow. As Kid Business transitioned into its first segment, a noticeable lull washed over the crowd, which had been eagerly anticipating what they hoped would be an even

College sophomore Keenen Willis gives a bitingly witty theatrical performance at the Cat in the Cream alongside Kid Business, Oberlin’s only short-form improv troupe. Despite its established presence on campus, Kid Business depended on a handful of performers to keep its skits lively after the improv ExCo group stole the show.

Bryan Rubin

more hysterical performance.

The first skit seemed slightly forced and not quite up to Kid Business’s usual standard. The troupe did not lack in creativity or enthusiasm, but rather in subtle confidence.

Short one cast member — College sophomore Adira Baum joined the cast last spring but was unable to perform due to illness — Kid Business gave a decent but not supremely memorable show. Despite brief waves of humorous moments, the

various improvised skits ultimately blurred together, and the troupe appeared to be actively seeking audience approval. As they progressed through a series of improv games, only a handful of performers clicked with the tasks they were given.

College sophomore Keenen Willis gave an outstanding performance and maximized every moment on stage to display his exuberant spirit and multifaceted acting ability. Willis proved to be a chameleon,

transforming himself into a wide variety of personalities.

His dramatic expression and confident punchlines penetrated the gray cloud of less inspiring comedy that the troupe presented — mainly in comparison to last year’s fall ExCo and Kid Business show. College sophomore Joseph Kenshur gave a similarly exciting performance.

His impressively quick wit provided much-needed relief from his fellow performers’ less exciting retorts. In a skit where actors were forced to

revise their initial impulses, Kenshur’s lines were outrageously funny and provided the shocks of humor necessary to keep audience members engaged.

The evening was generally engrossing, despite Kid Business’s struggle to acquire comedic momentum. One can only hope that members of the ExCo’s impressive cast will audition to join Kid Business’s cast in the spring, when they will have more opportunities to perform.

Indonesian Gong Concert Displays Cohesion, Rhythm Continued from page 11 same time. The students accomplished this admirably, performing with impressive coordination to create an intricate, unified rhythm.

The second piece of the talempong portion of the program, “Urang Halaban Batimbang Baju” (“People from Halaban considering what clothes to wear”), featured two hanging gongs that produced a low pitch to contrast with the higher sound of the pots. According to Fraser, people traditionally played the gongs by hitting them with java fruit, though a fork could be substituted.

The ensemble’s last few pieces were sharper still, incorporating a bottle played by hitting it

with a fork — the Sumatrans had initially used plates, but found glass bottles had a stronger sound and didn’t break as easily — a tambourine, and another drum. The timbre was painfully bright at times, but the musicians flawlessly performed the work’s fascinatingly complex and elaborate rhythm.

At the conclusion of the talempong performance, one of the musicians explained how the native performers of the talempong are a marginalized group in West Sumatra, which further impedes the preservation of an already fading art. Some of the students in the ensemble visited the villages from which the music originated and studied with women who play the instrument. Currently, older women rep-

resent the only demographic that still plays the traditional music, because the younger generation is not as involved in the traditional culture.

The gamelan ensemble then returned to its green and gold instruments to play “Ladrang Kagok Semarang” by Ki Nartosabdho, one of the few pieces for gamelan that was composed recently enough that the name of the composer is recorded. The piece involved a seven-tone gap scale that is typically used for ceremonial and majestic pieces, but Nartosabdho, who is known for his creative use of traditional modes, employed the scale here for a dance song. It was an energetic piece, and the students’ rendition was pleasantly lively and

well-balanced.

The final song of the afternoon, “Lancaran Singa Nebah, Laras Pelog Pathet Barang,” also featured a unique facet of gamelan music: irama. Irama is translated as the “density” of a song; the denser a piece is, the more intricate the rhythmic layer as compared to the skeletal melody. In this work, the drummer clearly signaled each shift in tempo, and the musicians responded with practiced coordination.

The music of the Javanese gamelan and Sumatran talempong has a uniquely cohesive, rhythmic sound and the musicians played the music with clear skill despite their limited experience.

Dominguez, Keeny Interpret Dark Solos with Arts and Sciences Orchestra Colin Roshak Staff Writer Oberlin’s Musical Union, College Choir, and Arts and Sciences Orchestra collectively plunged to the depths of calamity before reflecting soulfully on the nature of life after death in their program in Finney Chapel Sunday night. Jason Harris, director of Choral Ensembles and assistant professor of Choral Conducting, led the three ensembles in a rousing performance of Johannes Brahms’s agonized Tragic Overture before seeking emotional solace in the in the unearthly beauty of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem.

Musical Union debuted in 1837 and is the second-oldest choral ensemble in the United States. In the past, MU has presented concerts in which they performed works such as Carl Orff ’s Carmina Burana, Joseph Haydn’s Creation and Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky. This most recent performance of Brahms and Mozart featured four Conservatory students: junior soprano Meryl Dominguez, senior mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Decker, senior tenor Daniel McGrew and double-degree fifth-year bass Aaron Keeney.

The program began with the Tragic Overture, whose title suits the tortured and turbulent character of the music. Brahms alternates between sweetly melancholic melodies in the winds and strings and assertive, blaring horn calls. The strings played high, soaring runs with confident virtuosity while the brass responded with excellently synchronized, biting chords. The orchestra as a

whole maintained a powerful and textured sound throughout the duration of the piece. Despite the occasional cracked horn note or intermittent intonation mistake from a violinist, the ensemble succeeded in capturing the agony of the German master’s composition.

After the emotionally charged overture, MU and the College Choir joined the orchestra for the main portion of the concert: Mozart’s revered Requiem. The orchestra began the “Introit” with an intense yet subdued tone that provided an energetic soundscape for the choir’s entrance. The singers began with a strong forte before alternating skillfully between grand passages and softer, more introspective phrases.

The movement is constructed so that the orchestra introduces a musical idea that the choir echoes in response. The resulting dialogue between instrumentalists and vocalists became an increasingly dramatic back-and-forth which allowed each to reciprocate the other’s energy.

Dominguez sang a striking solo during this movement, her voice flowing effortlessly above the orchestra. Well-supported by the strings, Dominguez passed her melody through the first violins while maintaining a strong body and tasteful vibrato to her sound. Her diction remained comprehensible even despite the unfavorable acoustics of Finney Chapel.

The “Kyrie” proved to be much more of a challenge. The choir executed the difficult fugue well, but the lower voices struggled to maintain a consistent tempo during some of the more difficult passages. Mozart continues the fugue’s main subject with

contrapuntal melodies in the sopranos, and on Sunday, the tension built between the different voice types until the very ending, when the movement came to an exuberant and dynamic climax.

A sequence of six shorter movements comprise the “Sequentia,” the third section of the Requiem: “Dies irae,” “Tuba mirum,” “Rex tremendae,” “Recordare,” “Confutatis” and “Lacrymosa.”

The ensembles thrillingly executed the “Dies irae” despite its notorious difficulty. Both the orchestra and the choir performed with a solid pulse and demonstrated a thorough understanding of the somber text.

The trombone solo that heralded the beginning of the “Tuba mirum” began with trepidation as the soloist struggled with difficult intervals and intonation. Keeney, however, sang the responsive bass part with a deep and mature tone, blending well with the lower strings. Both Keeney and the trombonist displayed a clear appreciation of the grim musical subject. They communicated Mozart’s apprehension about the Christian Judgment Day to the audience with ease and grace, maneuvering through rising and falling lines with impeccable timing. All of the soloists sang with intelligible diction throughout the rest of the “Tuba mirum” as well as the “Recordare.”

Dominguez’s solo in the final movement provided a fitting conclusion to the evening’s performance. Her part reprises the material from the solo in the first movement of the Requiem, and Dominguez sang with the same precision and expressive musicality as before, marking the finale of an evening of extraordinary collaboration.

The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

Orchestra Delivers Emphatic, Lengthy Program

Arts

Page 13

Feature Photo: Piscapo’s Arm Performs

Continued from page 10 was tinged by the fatigue of musicians onstage. Rachmaninoff ’s symphony is particularly long, with performances typically running for about an hour. The sharp dynamic contrasts were strikingly executed, but the rhythmic energy lacked the sparkling clarity of the orchestra’s earlier playing. Even so, the musicians rallied for the finale, and the ensemble delivered the final phrases, strongly reminiscent of the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, with a thundering rigor. During Jiménez’s first curtain call, the conductor made his way to the back of the orchestra to emphatically shake Toher’s hand before acknowledging other soloists and the concertmaster, Conservatory senior William Overcash.

While the Gershwin and Rachmaninoff both provided opportunities for the orchestra to feature both individual members and its coordination as an entity, the best ensemble playing undoubtedly ocurred in the first piece on the program, Antonín Dvorák’s Carnival overture. Here, the percussion section set a rock-steady pulse atop which the violins performed Dvorak’s complex technical figurations with confident stability. Though the brass may have been a bit loud at the very opening of the music, the exciting beginning set a jubilant atmosphere for the rest of the piece.

As in Rhapsody in Blue, the gentler middle section allowed for a more delicate sense of expression. After a timid beginning, English horn player and Conservatory sophomore Casey Kearney exhibited a beautifully rich timbre and a warm style that introduced a chorale-like woodwind passage. The wind section performed with excellent intonation.

Having memorized the score and therefore unencumbered by page turns, Jiménez danced across his podium as he led the orchestra through Dvorak’s sudden tempo changes with a firm and intelligible hand; the ensemble performed the sporadic shifts in speed with superior sophistication. The musicians played the rousing finale with tasteful measures of zest and restraint, successfully conveying the ecstatic atmosphere of Dvorák’s Carnival without losing control of the speed or volume. The maturity demonstrated by the performers during this concert belies their age, and, despite the length of the program, the orchestra maintained a delightful polish throughout the evening. ^

^

Piscapo’s Arm, Oberlin’s only sketch comedy group, gave an exciting performance this Sunday in the Cat in the Cream. The members pictured here — College first-year Emma Howe (left), College junior Willa Rubin, College first-year Liam McLean and College first-year Rebecca Primoff — presented a humorous skit titled “Slow Train Hipsters” written by troupe member and College junior Jackie Milestone.

Co-founders Keith Friedlander and Jeff Harvey, both OC ’01, created the original script for the show as a Winter Term project in January of 1998 and assembled the first cast in the fall of 1999. In addition to the members mentioned above, this year’s troupe includes double-degree fifth-year Anasuya Shekhar, College seniors Anna Menta and Erik Larson, College junior Olivia Harris and College sophomores Emma Eisendrath and Rachel Sacks.

Text by Jeremy Reynolds, Arts editor Photo by Effie Kline-Salamon

Sports

Page 14

The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Swimming Coaches

This week, the Review sat down with Head Swimming and Diving Coach Andrew Brabson and Assistant Swimming and Diving Coach Sarah Biasello to discuss what it’s like being a young coach, how they’ve adjusted to life at Oberlin and at what time they get up in the morning.

How has the season gone thus far?

Andrew Brabson: So far, the season has gone extremely well.

Training-wise and meet-wise, we’re way ahead of where we were last year. I think the midseason invite we had last week was a clear indication of that.

There were two school records on the women’s side and a bunch of lifetime bests. Overall, I’m really happy about the direction we’re going and where we are right now.

Sarah Biasello: Coming into this [season], I wasn’t really sure where the team was at. From what I’ve seen so far, I’m really impressed with what they’re doing, and I know they’ve done a lot better than they did last year, so I’m just happy to be a part of it.

How have your own college experiences affected the way you coach?

AB: I try to make sure that when we’re running practices, the swimmers know exactly what they’re getting out of the sets that we’re writing. At a highly academic school like Oberlin, people want to know why they’re doing something, and a lot of times when I was in college, it was just, “Do this because we’re telling you to do it.”

SB: I didn’t have the most positive college experience the whole way through, so one thing for me is that in everything I do, I try to make sure my swimmers are happy and they know that they can always come to me for anything.

don’t go their way. That’s a thing the team as a whole can improve on.

How has this year’s team changed since the start of the year?

AB: Just in a year, we’ve upped the intensity of our workouts a lot. There is definitely a bit of a shift in terms of being able to actually see the results of the hard work paying off and seeing that next level.

SB: It’s a really long season, and I think they’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In practice, everyone is real excited, especially after the success of our last meet.

Sarah Biasello (left) and Andrew Brabson Has it been hard adjusting to life in Oberlin?

AB: I was familiar with Oberlin coming in because I swam for Oberlin, but I think just getting adjusted to telling people why I was giving them instructions was tough. Having that NCAC background, I knew what I was getting into, though.

SB: I was not familiar with Oberlin, and it was a pretty big adjustment — not in a bad way, but it’s a culture that I wasn’t used to. I really respect the kids for how much they care about school and how much they prioritize it.

How helpful are the team captains in communicating with other teammates?

AB: The main role of our team captains is to give us the opportunity to communicate with our whole team when we don’t necessarily have the time to meet with everyone individually or as a group. It’s a nice way to disseminate information to the team without actually having a team meeting. It’s also a

good way for them to give us feedback so we can see what the general mindset of the team is.

What are your strengths as a coach?

AB: Both of us have a pretty well-rounded grasp on sprint, mid-distance, distance groups and all the different strokes.

We were both [individual medley swimmers] in college, both breaststrokers as well, and I think having that IM background gives us a nice background to correct strokes for all four strokes.

SB: We’re both young coaches, and I think we’re both good at taking feedback and open to learning new things. We’re not stuck in one way of coaching or anything like that.

Both of you are still relatively young. Do you feel like that helps you better connect to students?

AB: We can relate a little bit more to what they’re going through as far as training and stressors in the academic envi-

ronment and just general stressors of being an 18- to 22-yearold college student. We’re not that far removed from undergrad, and I think both in terms of swimming and being that age, we can relate a little more to that.

SB: I don’t feel that far out of college; sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. I think it helps when trying to understand where the athletes are coming from as far as a swimming perspective.

What would you like the team to improve on going forward?

AB: All these kids’ minds are constantly thinking about different things, and you can do that in practice, but when you get to a game, you just have to turn your mind off and focus on racing the people next to you. It should all be muscle memory by that point. Sometimes you can think too much, and you have to turn your mind off and let your body do the work.

SB: Mental toughness and overall positivity when things

How is the recruiting process going?

AB: It’s been a lot better than last year. I was basically doing it by myself last year, and I came in pretty late. This year, visits have been up by quite a bit. Our recruiting base has picked up a lot, and having Sarah on as a full-time assistant has helped quite a bit. Having a full year here, I really understand what kind of person wants to come here.

SB: It’s going really well as far as the types of kids we are recruiting. They are really talented swimmers. It’s just down to kids committing at this point.

What time do you wake up to make it to 6 a.m. practice every morning?

AB: I live in Lakewood, so I have a bit of a commute, and I wake up at 5 a.m.

SB: Andy has to get up earlier than I do. I live about two minutes away, so I wake up at 5:50 sometimes. I plan it really well.

Interview by Nate Levinson, Sports editor Photo by Yushu Liu

— Track and Field —

Track and Field Opens Season at Kent State Gala Sarena Malsin Staff Writer The track and field team opened its season at the Kent State Golden Gala last Saturday in record-breaking fashion. First-year Monique Newton set a new school record in the women’s shot put with a 13.93-meter throw on her second attempt. The throw earned her third place in the competition, the highest among all first-years.

In addition to setting the school record, Newton was also named the North Coast Athletic Conference Female Field Athlete of the Week and is currently the Division III national leader in the shot put.

Needless to say, Head Track and Field Coach Ray Appenheimer was impressed with the strong showing.

“I can say easily that was the single best freshman performance we’ve ever had at Oberlin College,” he said.

Newton attributed the strong performance to staying level-headed, a tough task considering that the Gala was her first-ever meet. The lack of a boisterous crowd only helped her maintain focus.

“I wouldn’t even say I was nervous,” she said. “It’s a different feeling in indoor — it’s much quieter.”

Newton was far from the only first-year to shine in the season opener. First-year Caracol Haley finished fourth in the women’s 800-meter run in her inaugural collegiate track competition, coming in at 2 minutes, 25.56 seconds.

Fellow first-year Lilah Drafts-Johnson also shined, claiming two 11th-place finishes: one in the triple jump with a leap of 10.33 meters, and one as a member of the women’s 4x400 meter relay. Drafts-Johnson and seniors Margaret Miller, Katharine Skayhan and Nuria AlishioCaballero put their relay team across the finish line with a time of 4:22.21.

Appenheimer was pleased after the performance and sees the sky as the limit for the team this season.

“If this is any indication of how the rest of the season will go, then the bar is set pretty high,” he said.

A number of strong performances by upperclassmen also gave the team reason to celebrate.

The Yeomen saw inspiring performances from senior captains Jerry Choi and Evan Finch. Choi led the team with two eighth-place finishes in the 400-meter dash and the 4x400-meter relay, also finishing 23rd in the men’s 200-meter dash with a time of 23.29. Finch, meanwhile, set a personal record with a jump of 1.85 meters in the high jump.

Though the Yeomen and Yeowomen will not be competing again until after winter break — Friday, Jan. 9 at the Dan Kinsey Invitational — the Kent State Gala was a good chance for the teams to get a competition under their belts before heading into the rest of their season.

The long layoff until the next meet will also give the team’s distance runners a chance to recover from their cross-country seasons. Most of them did not attend the

Gala, but for the sprinters, throwers and jumpers, the competition was a welcome opportunity to showcase their skills.

“For the track and field team members, it’s so gratifying to actually get to go,” said Coach Appenheimer. “They’ve been kind of caged up all fall long, looking forward to just one competition before we all go away for break.”

Though the tough part of the season has yet to begin, the opening meet was a good time for members of the team to measure their progress and hard work.

“We’ve been working so hard for the last three months, so everyone was like, ‘Let’s see how this goes, so we can build on it,’” Newton said. “Everyone did great, and I’m really looking forward to the rest of indoor and the outdoor season.”

Home Games This Week Saturday, Dec. 13 1 p.m. – Men’s basketball vs. DePauw University in Philips gym 3 p.m. – Women’s Basketball vs. DePauw University in Philips gym

Sports

The Oberlin Review, December 12, 2014

Page 15

— Women’s Basketball —

Women’s Basketball Comes Up Short to Penguins Tyler Sloan and Casey McGuire Sports Editor and Contributing Writer The women’s basketball team could not keep up with the undefeated Division I Youngstown State University last Saturday when the Penguins trampled the Yeowomen by almost 50 points, ending in a final score of 92–43. Despite the tough loss, senior captain Christina Marquette managed to set the all-time school record for rebounds.

“We started off well. I think we actually scored the first basket of the game, so we were beating them for a couple seconds,” said Marquette. “Offensively, we were getting in the flow, and at about the 10-minute mark, [Youngstown] went on a run. We couldn’t stop them from scoring, and pretty much from there on it was all downhill.”

Marquette tallied five points for Oberlin, but her real feat took the form of a season-high 12 rebounds, pushing her total career rebounds to 751. Saturday’s game moved Marquette past the previous record-holder Alyssa Clark, OC ’09, who made 746 rebounds over the course of her career from 2006–2009.

However, Marquette proved to be the lone bright spot for the Yeowomen as the game fell out of Oberlin’s control early. Just 10 minutes into the contest, the Yeowomen appeared visibly fatigued and were unable to

keep pace with the Penguins. Junior guard Lindsey Bernhardt said that fitness ultimately hurt her squad in the matchup.

“After our team started getting tired, our execution started to fall apart,” said Bernhardt.

The Penguins racked up 20 points in a six-minute stretch in the first half, eliminating any hope the Yeowomen were still clinging to, and concluded the half with a 40–19 lead.

Marquette attributed Oberlin’s downfall to the home team’s ability to efficiently capitalize on scoring opportunities and turnovers. Unlike Bernhardt, Marquette said that her team maintained its ability to execute in tough circumstances throughout the half.

“Overall, we did well executing, but every single time we made a mistake, they scored or got a steal,” said Marquette.

Marquette went on to praise her team for its mental toughness and tenacity heading into the second half, despite the tumultuous open half.

“It’s really easy to give up when you’re down 20 points, and we didn’t do that,” she said. “I thought in the second half we went to the boards really hard. We made some adjustments to match up better with their size, and we didn’t give up.”

Junior center Katie Lucaites, who

Junior Lindsey Bernhardt navigates around a Thiel College defender at home on Monday, Nov. 24. The Yeowomen are currently 3–4 overall and 2–2 in conference play.

Courtesy of Rachel G rossman

battled past the Penguins to put seven points on the board, also commended her teammates for keeping their heads up after a tough battle against the Division I Penguins.

“We lost by a lot, but I think it was a really good experience for our team, and I think that we improved from having played the game,” said Lucaites. “I’m very confident that if we play any other team on our schedule with the energy we played with against Youngstown State, we can win. I think it was a really effective and productive game.”

Looking forward, Head Coach Kerry Jenkins said that the Youngstown game was a learning experience more than anything else, and he plans on using the experience as a lesson in future games against conference competition.

“We fought back and handled the pressure and the intensity and the pace fairly well,” said Jenkins. “And the good thing for us, as I told the players afterward, is [that] that is the best team we’re going to play all year. So now we know what to expect moving forward. We took a lot of positives from it.”

Next, the Yeowomen will head into a North Coast Athletic Conference double-header when they play The College of Wooster in an away game on Friday night, followed by a home contest against DePauw University at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13.

Editorial: Knox College Athletics Failed to Prioritize Student Safety Continued from page 16 Black people in the United States — actions that, to say the very least, are violent and shameful.

After receiving much-warranted negative press, Knox College, located in Galesburg, IL, released the following statement just three days later, announcing the reversal of Smith’s suspension and separating the college’s viewpoint from the action of the coaching staff: “This past Saturday, a Knox College women’s basketball player staged a protest prior to the start of a regulation game in response to the events in Ferguson, MO. The player was suspended for one game for leaving the court and sitting out the competition. Upon review of the situation and discussion with the team, and in recognition of the larger national context, the decision was made to reverse the suspension, and the player has been invited to resume all basketball activities. The college deeply appreciates the many viewpoints expressed by the women’s basketball team and their thoughtful dialogue as we sought to arrive at a resolution that considered all perspectives.”

What?

Where is the apology in this manufactured response for the impact of Eisele’s actions, regardless of his intentions?

Where is the deep regret of the ignorance that the athletics department, which plays a vital role in this learning institution, has perpetuated by suspending a Black student-athlete? Where are the repercussions for the athletics department that wrongly suspended Smith from participating on a team for peaceful protest?

The responsibility to create a safe

space for students falls on the college and who it chooses to employ. A college athletics department is not separate from the learning institution and has the same responsibility to prioritize students’ safety. The Knox College Athletics department, and by extension Knox College, failed to provide this basic guarantee.

Back at Oberlin, a large portion of the student body has expressed frustration with how the College has responded to recent events in Ferguson, New York and Cleveland. Amid protests and calls for administrative support, Oberlin Athletics has expressed solidarity with Smith in an email sent to varsity athletes, which reads: “We cannot tell you how to feel or how to respond, but we support you. We can hear you. We can see you. And we stand with you. We are proud to be associated with students who speak up for their beliefs and for the rights of others.

We heard, saw and stand with Knox College student-athlete Ariyana Smith on her decision to allow her conscience to merge with action on Dec. 3.”

The College and the Athletics department must continue to speak out and hold themselves to the highest of standards by supporting students of color in any way they can. Smith’s own words best articulate why failure to do otherwise is indicative of an issue much larger than her own temporary suspension.

“As an athletic department we hold ourselves to a higher commitment — we are representatives of excellence,” Smith said in an interview with the Galesburg Register-Mail. “But I have to be honest.

The way we collectively conduct ourselves is anything but excellent.”

Sports The Oberlin Review

Page 16

— Men’s Basketball —

Yeomen Slam Wolverines at Home Bob Cornell The men’s basketball team rebounded from a rough outing Saturday against Wabash College, beating the Grove City College Wolverines 77– 50 on Monday night at home.

In need of a win to get back on track after falling by double digits in consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference games, the Yeomen dominated the Wolverines from the start, jumping out to a 40–17 first-half lead.

The victory was a team effort, as four Yeomen scored in double figures. Junior big man Randall Ollie led the way with 14 points on five-of-six shooting to go along with two rebounds and three blocks in a limited 19 minutes of play.

Senior guard Austin Little also played well, matching Ollie’s team high of 14 points and going four-of-seven from behind the arc. Sophomore guard Jack Poyle, the team’s leading scorer, added 13 points of his own to give him his fifth double-digit scoring output of the season. Junior guard Ian Campbell rounded out the high scorers, chipping in a career-high 12 points off the bench in the emphatic win.

Little in particular was a vital spark off the bench, hitting multiple clutch three-

pointers to extend the Yeomen’s lead in the second half and put the game out of reach for the Wolverines.

“The majority of the looks I got were wide open, which means our offense was getting the defense to shift and rotate a lot,” said Little. ”And then other guards were doing great drawing all the help and finding me and other shooters.”

After scoring a combined three points over his previous three games, Little knew his luck would improve if he continued getting open shots.

“The law of averages came into play; I had been really cold for a few games, so eventually the shots had to start falling,” he said.

The team debuted a new starting five against Grove City, with senior Miles Gueno getting the nod and junior Matthew Walker coming off the bench. Gueno performed well in the role, contributing five assists and two steals.

Despite the promotion to the starting lineup, he continued to preach a team-first attitude.

“I am at a point in my college basketball career where all I want to do is win, and I am willing to make sacrifices as a senior in order to do so,” he said. “Whatever Coach [Isaiah] Cavaco asks me to do,

I will do for the team.”

The guard-heavy lineup effectively utilized its speed and quickness on both sides of the ball, forcing 24 turnovers — 21 of which came off of steals by the Yeomen. That defensive effort paid off on the offensive end as the Yeomen scored 24 points off of turnovers and 15 fast break points. They also held the Wolverines to a .304 field goal percentage, all while shooting .409 from the three-point line and .463 from the field.

“A four-guard line plays into how we really want to play, which is fast,” said Gue-

no. “We want to speed teams up on defense and force them into bad shots. On offense, a four-guard lineup puts pressure on the opposing defense because we get out in transition quickly and about every guard can step up at any time and provide a lot of the scoring if necessary.”

On Wednesday, the Yeomen were unable to continue their winning ways against conference rival Denison University. The team fell behind 43–24 in the first half against the Big Red and was unable to make up the deficit, eventually falling 90–56. Sopho-

more guard Nathan Cohen led all Yeomen scorers with a game-high 14 points but also committed a costly eight turnovers.

“Our focus wasn’t what it should’ve been,” said Ollie. “If you don’t come with your Agame, that’s the result you’re going to get. Now we just have to work hard in practice and get a better result on Saturday.”

Looking to rebound from the tough loss, the team will wrap up its three-game homestand when it takes on the DePauw University Tigers on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Sophomore Nate Cohen attempts a layup against the visiting Grove City College Wolverines last Monday. The Yeomen play the DePauw University Tigers at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Philips gym.

Couurtesy of Rachel Grossman

— Swimming and Diving —

Yeowomen Take Second at Fredonia Invitational Harrison Wollman The swimming and diving team saw success at the Fredonia Invitational competition after making the long trek to upstate New York last weekend, with the Yeowomen taking second and the Yeomen securing fifth of eight competing teams.

On the women’s side, sophomore Nora Cooper, junior Samma Regan and sophomore Maddie Prangley swept the 200-meter freestyle race, claiming first, second and third place respectively. In the event, Cooper’s time of 1 minute, 55.87 seconds broke Regan’s previous school record. Less than a second behind Cooper, Regan also broke her own record coming in at 1 minute, 56.3 seconds. Sophomore Vera Hutchinson also bolstered the Yeowomen’s points when she placed first in the 100-meter butterfly.

Reflecting on the weekend, Regan cited her race as one of the moments that was key to Oberlin’s success.

“The 200 freestyle really stood out for me,” said Regan. “Nora Cooper broke my old record, which was amazing. Also, we had a 1–2–3 finish of Nora, then me, then Maddie Prangley, which was one of the

most exciting races I’ve ever been in.”

On the men’s side, senior Chris McLauchlan spearheaded the Yeomen’s efforts in the one-meter diving events, placing third with 460.40 points. Sophomore Nils Gudbranson also finished in a strong fourth in the 50-yard free with a time of 22.16.

Head Coach Andrew Brabson said that the lack of roster depth often creates a challenge against larger teams, and that given a team of just 11 members, the Yeomen performed exceptionally well.

“We give up a lot of points simply because we cannot fill events the same way the larger teams can,” said Brabson. “With how small the men’s team is, I was very impressed that we were able to finish fifth out of eight teams at the invite.”

The Fredonia Invitational served as the halfway mark in a season that starts in October and continues all the way into late February, with the potential for the team to compete in March depending on its success. With the longest season of any Oberlin sports team, Regan admitted that while the lengthy season can definitely prove trying at times, it is something that the team embraces.

“It’s really easy to get broken down and to lose sight of your goals, but the greatest thing about our team is that we’re all so passionate about the sport that we understand our roles on the team and as students,” said Regan. “I honestly don’t know how we do it, but it’s kind of like a tunnel vision of setting your goals and working hard every day.”

With a strong mix of senior leadership and young talent, the swimming and diving team has its eyes set on late-season success.

Prangley said that she believes that both teams are more than capable of meeting their goals.

“I definitely think that we are

going to do better than we did at conference last year,” said Prangley. “The places that we are at right now, the times people are swimming, are just way better than they were last year.”

Coach Brabson echoed Prangley’s optimistic attitude about the remainder of the season.

“We certainly have some individuals who are capable of qualifying for the NCAA D-III Championships in March,” he said.

Looking ahead, the swimming and diving team now has time to rest during the holiday season before returning to campus to face conference foe Allegheny College on Saturday, Jan. 10 at Carr Pool.

December 12, 2014

Smith Unjustly Punished Tyler Sloan Sports Editor The national anthem filled the Fontbonne College gym before the women’s basketball game against the visiting Knox College Prairie Fire on Saturday, Nov. 29 — a common occurrence at the small Division III school situated just outside St. Louis. However, this game would be different.

As lyrics hailing the “land of the free” played, Knox College junior Ariyana Smith crossed the court to silently protest the grand jury decision to acquit police officer Darren Wilson, a white man, of the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager.

Smith kneeled beneath an American flag for the duration of the anthem while assuming the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” gesture, then lay down for four and a half minutes to symbolize the four and a half hours that Brown’s body remained on the sidewalk where he was killed.

Following the demonstration, Smith was escorted from the gym while raising her fist in a Black Power salute. Head Coach of the Prairie Fire Emily Cline and Associate Coach David Elliot walked Smith out of the gym after asking her to stop her protest because it was interrupting the start of the game. Knox College Athletic Director Chad Eisele immediately suspended Smith from the team indefinitely and later revised that suspension to just one game. Cline, Elliot and Eisele are all white.

In a move reflective of the nationwide lack of institutional support for people of color, the coaches cited Smith’s “walking out on her team” as the cause for suspension, not the protest. In doing so, the coaches prioritized the significance of a Division III non-conference college basketball game over the opportunity to draw attention to the continual police brutality and the systematic oppression of See Editorial, page 15

Senior Chris Ayoub races during a meet this season. The swimming and diving team concluded its 2014 competition at the Fredonia Invitational last weekend.

Courtesy of Simeon Deutsch