February 13, 2015

The Oberlin Review

FEBRUARY 13, 2015 VOLUME 143, NUMBER 13

Local News Bulletin

ESTABLISHED 1874 oberlinreview.org

ONLINE & IN PRINT

Feature Photo: OHOP Hosts Killer Mike at Cat

News briefs from the past week Floor Caves in CollegeOwned House The floor of a Village Housing unit on South Professor Street suddenly dropped 3 to 4 inches and closely missed a gas pipe during a party last Saturday night, according to a Safety and Security report. The attendees of the party were asked to leave, and the residents of the house have been temporarily moved to dorms until repairs can be made.

Senate Email Hacked Student Senate sent an email to the student body about treasurer training under the username “The Patriarchy.” On Thursday, Senate explained that its email account had been hacked and apologized for any “pain, stress or misunderstanding that this caused.” According to an anonymous source, two students not associated with Senate are responsible for the prank.

New Restaurant to Open Sterk’s Catering, a familyowned business based out of Vermilion, Ohio, announced plans to open a new location, Sterk’s of Oberlin, by the end of April. The restaurant and catering business will be located in the former space of Presti’s of Oberlin, which closed last March after 77 years in business. The former owner of Presti’s of Oberlin, Eugene Presti, died Feb. 4 at age 80. The new restaurant specializes in German, English, Polish and Slovenian food. The Sterk family plans to expand its menu for the sit-down portion of its business to include smoked provolone sticks and sandwiches made with locally grown produce. Currently, the family is remodeling the Presti’s building and, once the restaurant opens, plans to hire 20 employees.

Killer Mike, a Grammy Award-winning rapper and half of the hip-hop duo Run the Jewels, speaks to an audience of students at the Cat in the Cream. The question-and-answer session, hosted by The Oberlin Hip-Hop Collective, covered a wide range of topics, from white privilege to Ronald Reagan and friendship. He also discussed the impact his family had on his life and music, the importance of local politics in his home city of Atlanta and how he uses rap to educate as well as entertain. The packed crowd of over 100 students responded positively to Killer Mike, clapping and snapping often. Over the last few years, Killer Mike has gained attention as an activist as well as a musician after being interviewed on CNN and other TV networks about racism, police brutality and Ferguson.

Effie Kline-Salamon

General Faculty Finalizes Tobacco Ban Louis Krauss Staff Writer The tobacco ban was finalized by the General Faculty during a meeting last December, according to Student Senate. This was the last step in a several-year push to ban the use of all tobacco products on College property, starting in 2016.

According to Senate Liaison and College third-year Machmud Makhmudov, the College plans to create an implementation committee that will hammer out a number of specifics for the ban, including enforcement and programs for helping student smokers quit before the ban goes into effect.

“I think at this point, we’ve moved past getting the ban itself to, ‘OK, now this is happening, let’s make sure we’re doing it correctly,’ which is why the implementation group is so important,” Makhmudov said.

According to Makhmudov, the

implementation committee will work to make cessation products available to smokers.

Though Safety and Security may have to actively enforce the ban at first, Makhmudov hopes that eventually campus culture will change so people simply aren’t smoking.

“I think everyone understands the purpose is not to be punitive; it’s to change the culture on campus so eventually [we’re] not policing each other,” Makhmudov said.

In the past year a number of schools, including Kenyon College, have adopted tobacco-free policies; College President Marvin Krislov feels Oberlin needs to shift with the national trend.

“We need to understand the national context in that most campuses are going to be smoke-free in the next year or two, I think,” said Krislov. “There are obviously a lot of different concerns, and the health concern is obviously the

primary one, but you also have to sort of look at the context, and I do think there are some disandvantages to Oberlin being seen as outside what is a norm in our society.

Smoking is considered something that is not safe for people.”

Makhmudov said joining this trend may change smoking culture on campus but won’t disrupt the overall College atmosphere.

“I think we do a lot of quirky things outside of smoking. To say that we’re inextricably tied to smoking on campus, that it’s going to cause some kind of revolution, I don’t think that will happen,” Makhmudov said. “I know it’s a big change, but it’s not a radical transformation.”

College second-year and Senate member Jordan Ecker disagrees, saying that he feels the ban goes against the spirit of Oberlin.

He believes the ban would not have made it past this final stage if more students had voiced

their concerns to Senate and the Administration.

“Honestly, if one in five students had voiced their skepticism of the ban last semester and sent an email to Senate or administration, this ban wouldn’t have passed,” Ecker said. “I wasn’t as active in Senate last year, but my impression was there was very little organization against the ban and that our opposition just got overrun because the pro-ban people were much more organized.”

Ecker added that, aside from the referendum last year, the other polls taken on Fearless and Loathing and Wilder Voice show that the majority of students are against the ban. The Review also conducted an online poll from Dec. 4, 2013 until March 8, 2014, garnering more than 2,500 responses, 66 percent of which were against the ban, while only 29 percent were in See Students, page 4

on the

Salaita Speaks

Love Struck

Steven Salaita discusses academic freedom and Palestine.

Yeowomen come up short against University of Chicago.

“Deciduous” Delight Cozy vibes enhance singer-songwriter’s set.

See page 3

See page 15

See page 10

INDEX:

Opinions 5

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

WEB

All of the content you see here is also available on our website. Check back for the latest stories and interactive polls.

Visit oberlinreview.org and facebook. com/oberlinreview and follow us on Twitter @oberlinreview and Instagram @ocreview.

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The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

Administration, Senate Try to Ease Textbook Costs Sarah Conner Staff Writer President Krislov doubled the emergency textbook fund after student senators appealed to Krislov about the burden that high textbook prices inflict on low-income students.

According to Krislov, the fund is meant to supplement students’ overall financial aid package.

“There may be individuals who have even more needs because of either the subjects they take or because certain things happen, medical problems or something like that. That’s why these emergency funds are so valuable and important,” said Krislov.

“Doubling the fund might mean exponentially increasing the amount of students who have access to these funds — students who might’ve always demonstrated need in some areas but didn’t recognize that they could turn to the College for financial assistance outside of grants and scholarship money,” said Megs Gisela Bautista, a College senior and one of the few student senators who identifies as low-income. “In the long-run, increasing the fund will at the very

College sophomore Zoe Reinstein purchases a book from Chris Bromberg, OC ’14, at the Oberlin College Bookstore. At the request of Student Senate, President Krislov doubled the emergency textbook fund to help alleviate college costs for low-income students.

Effie Kline-Salamon

least start a real, frank conversation on campus about class privilege and the ways in which Oberlin is structured,” she said.

Bautista expressed that she has only had positive experiences with the fund as far as accessibility goes; however, she worries that some faculty and administrators may be more skeptical and speculate that students are just trying to game the system. If students cannot afford to purchase books the tradi-

tional way, they are forced to find alternative sources.

“Students have been making do with electronic copies, photocopied library books, four-hour rentals of books on reserve and guerilla PDF sharing, which simply isn’t fair if the College [claims] to meet all of their demonstrated financial need,” Bautista said.

Another way students can get their textbooks is through SWAP, the Oberlin book co-op. Located in

the basement of Harkness House, SWAP has created a system that allows students to turn in their books for points and use those points to check out other books in turn.

“Our model is effectively just a formal system of what people normally do, which is just trade their books with their friends or people they know and shar[e] textbooks between semesters or try to find other resources or other ways to get cheaper books,” said Andres Cuervo, a College second-year and the web developer for SWAP. “It’s all about freedom to access of information.”

Cuervo said that since Barnes & Noble has taken over as the main place to get books on campus, some professors have been understanding, but not all.

“It’s very much a dichotomy,” said Cuervo. “Either a teacher refuses to acknowledge the costs of textbooks and says, ‘This is my textbook, figure out how to get it,’ or [they’re] really good about not updating to a new textbook because they changed a single page, trying to not to use a textbook as heavily or convert it to PDFs. But it’s definitely a mixed bag.”

Bautista said that Oberlin’s hidden costs do not stop at books, but instead include a plethora of other expenses, such as art supplies for classes, gear for student-athletes and other miscellaneous supplies such as notebooks, clickers and lab goggles. Other costs can include things like parking permits and bike down payments.

“Oberlin really wants to try to make sure that students have the basic necessities,” said Krislov.

“The challenge is trying to figure out how much the institution and how much the family contributes.”

According to Bautista, many wealthy students do not fully understand the challenges faced by their peers.

“Unless every low-income student is receiving a weekly or monthly stipend from back at home, there are students who have to make their toothpaste and soap last the entire semester or else and who have holes in their pants and little recourse to replace them … and DeCafé doesn’t even carry essentials like pads or tampons, so this really is an unavoidable expense that many who are financially secure don’t account for as a struggle,” said Bautista.

Retreat Provides Venue for Council Members to Air Concerns Elizabeth Dobbins News Editor The Oberlin City Council is working on communication. Last Friday and Saturday, the seven Oberlin City Council members, a paid facilitator and 10 to 15 interested community members filed into a small conference room at the Oberlin Inn for a rare midterm City Council retreat.

“How can we work as a team if we speak through the media instead of to each other?” asked first-term Oberlin City Council member Sharon Pearson at the retreat.

At the beginning of every two-year Council term, members attend a retreat to set goals; however, this is the first time in over five years that the Council has attended a second retreat during their term, according to City Council President Scott Broadwell.

“This is the first time we’ve had a chance to really talk to each other about procedure that will help us to operate more cohesively,” Pearson said in a phone interview.

The 2014–2015 Council has been characterized by many close 4–3 votes, such as the recent decision to increase Council wages by 66 percent, disagreement during the evaluation process of the city manager and, according to Pearson, communication issues.

“I feel there are some meetings that go on that I don’t have the information [I need] to know,” Pearson said during the retreat.

Other Council members, including longtime Council member Ron Rimbert, disagreed with Pearson’s concern, stating that

it is the responsibility of Council members to gather their own information.

“It comes to whoever wants to get out there and get the information,” said Rimbert during the retreat. “If that’s what you want to do, that’s what you do. You have to go out there and go and get it.”

Despite a few tense exchanges, the weekend focused on team-building and possible ways for the Council to improve its functioning.

“Tonight should be a team-building exercise, which is different from a dispute resolution exercise,” said facilitator Sy Murray during the retreat. “How do we act like a team?”

Murray, a former city manager of Cincinnati, Ann Arbor and San Diego, was paid $700 plus travel expenses to oversee and encourage productive discussions last weekend.

The retreat provided members the opportunity to continue to discuss topics which have divided the Council over the past year, such as the rejection of a measure to raise the minimum wage for city employees, the failure of the Green Acres project to gain Council approval before the Feb. 20 tax credit deadline and disputes over communication with the city manager.

“As a council, we need to have a clearer idea of what the goals should be,” Council member Elizabeth Meadows said during the retreat.

Council member Bryan Burgess added that, while he believes the Council shares some goals, members have different approaches to achieving them.

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February 13, 2015

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Facilitator Sy Murray writes Oberlin City Council goals and concerns on a notepad during a midterm City Council retreat last Saturday morning. Interested community members looked on as the seven City Council members discussed team-building and communication within the Council.

Elizabeth Dobbins

Moving forward, the Council members discussed a variety of solutions, including the possibility of involving the city manager in team-building discussions, different ways to improve the city evaluation of appointees and better outlining of how council members should communicate with each other.

Council Vice President Sharon FairchildSoucy believes the Council may need more than just the goals developed during the retreat to move forward.

“I don’t think we are capable of [acting]

Julia Liv Combe Herbst Allegra RoseKirkland Stoloff Managing editor Samantha Taylor Field Link News editors Rosemary Oliver Boeglin Bok Elizabeth AlexDobbins Howard Opinions editors editor Will Kiley Rubenstein Petersen This Week editor Zoë Sam Strassman White Arts Week This editorseditor Hazel Kara Galloway Brooks Arts editors Georgia Danny Evans Horn Sports editors VidaQuinn Weisblum Hull Sports editors Madeleine Nate Levinson O’Meara Layout editors Tiffany Tyler Sloan Fung Layout manager Ben Sarah Garfinkel Snider Layout editors Alanna Josh Blankfield Sandoval Photo editors Abigail OliviaCarlstad Gericke Brannon Rockwell-Charland Talia Rodwin Online editor Cyrus Alanna Eosphoros Bennett Editors-in-chief Editors-in-Chief

on all these issues without professional guidance and leadership,” Fairchild-Soucy said.

Broadwell said the Council is waiting for the report from Murray, which will arrive in the next few weeks, before deciding its next steps. However, he is optimistic.

“I think it went pretty well,” said Broadwell in a phone interview. “I think we had some pretty good discussions. … I think we were able to move forward and hopefully work a little more efficiently for the rest of the year.”

Photo editors Curtis Mike Cook Plotz Business manager Effie Savi Sedlacek Kline-Salamon Ads manager Reshard el-Shair Business manager Ian Campbell Production Sophia Ads managermanager SaraBamert Vaadia Production manager staff Stephanie Bonner Production Alice Fine Emma Eisenberg Production staff Abbey Bisesi Taylor Field Julia Davis Katherine Hamilton Lya Finston Julia Hubay Annelise Giseburt Tracey Knott Joseph Kenshur Noah Morris OliviaPeckham Pandolfi Anna Kiley Sheffield Petersen Silvia Michael Swantek Drew Wise Distributors Antonia JoeChandler Camper Edmund Metzold Joseph Dilworth Talia Krehbiel-Boutis James Kuntz

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The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

Page 3

Off the Cuff: Steven Salaita, pro-Palestinian activist and professor of American Indian studies Steven Salaita is a professor of English and American Indian studies and a pro-Palestinian activist. Last August, he had his offer of employment with the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign rescinded when he made a series of tweets that sharply criticized the Israeli government during Operation Protective Edge. Salaita had not yet begun teaching at UIUC but had received a formal offer and had already resigned from his previous position at Virginia Tech when the Board of Trustees at UIUC voted against a measure to approve his hiring. The Board was reportedly pressured into dismissing Salaita by donors, parents and professors who felt that Salaita’s tweets about the 2014 Gaza conflict were anti-Semitic. Salaita has vigorously denied the accusation and is currently suing UIUC to be rehired. Salaita gave a talk at Oberlin sponsored

by Students for a Free Palestine on Tuesday in which he spoke about his situation, his views on academic freedom and the Palestinian conflict.

Why do you believe academic freedom is important?

Scholarship really can’t occur without it.

It can occur, but interesting scholarship can’t occur. Academics need to be able to challenge conventional wisdom — challenge the status quo — and without that ability, the system of ideas on which the university is supposed to be based stagnates.

Do you think that there’s something specific about the Israel-Palestine issue that makes speech about it more likely to be suppressed?

Yeah, there definitely is. Professors have been fired for it. A lot of people have never been hired in the first place for their advocacy on behalf of Palestine. One of my attorneys called it a ‘Palestinian exception to the First Amendment.’ It’s said very often to be divisive and controversial and therefore unproductive, so we should just stay away from it. But in my mind, precisely because it has the potential to be divisive, because it’s complicated, because it’s hard to talk about, the college campus is precisely where those conversations ought to occur.

If you were an administrator at somewhere like Oberlin or UIUC, where would you draw the line in terms of professors’ speech?

In terms of the boundaries of what’s ac-

communicate on that platform. When you’re a witness to what reasonably might be called, by its legal definition, genocide, you’re not always in the mood to use flowery, civil language. Sometimes you want your language to try its best to match, in terms of its power, the horror of what it is you’re witnessing and responding to.

Steven Salaita, an academic and pro-Palestinian activist at the center of a Twitter controversy, who spoke at Oberlin on Tuesday night

ceptable versus what veers into hate speech, I would draw the line in pencil rather than pen. I don’t know if there’s a set of universal criteria that we can use to broadly determine what is hate speech and what isn’t. There are always going to be political considerations that inform our notions of acceptable speech versus hate speech. That’s the first thing: I would draw the line in pencil, but I do believe there are clear examples of hate speech. The problem is I would set the boundary in a different way than my colleagues might set the boundaries, and administrators might exploit the situation by setting their own boundaries based on policing viewpoints that they simply don’t want to hear or deal with.

In the end, academic freedom requires due process. So if a professor says something that raises a controversy, like I did or lots of other people have done, there needs to be a system of due process where people can closely examine what was said and [in] what context it was raised, and whether it meets any reasonable standard of hate speech versus simply acrimonious political debate. And secondly, I think it’s important to note where the speech act occurs. Did it occur in the classroom?

Did it occur in a departmental meeting? Was there any physical or personal intimidation involved? Did it occur completely outside the context of the university, like on Twitter or Facebook? All of these questions come into play, and without the careful system of due

Saturday, Feb. 7 Thursday, Feb. 5 11:55 a.m. A staff member reported a minor accident involving a College car at the intersection of North Professor Street and Lorain Street. The car was stopped at the intersection when a second vehicle lost control on the icy road and bumped into the rear of the first car. There were no reported injuries or visible damage.

8:28 p.m. An officer assisted a student in Dascomb Hall who smashed their finger in a door. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

1 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student ill from alcohol consumption in Kahn Hall. The student answered all the officer’s questions and declined medical treatment. A work order was placed for lounge cleanup.

12:53 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the first floor of Lord House.

Smoke from cooking activated the alarm. The area was cleared, and the alarm was reset.

Sunday, Feb. 8 12:02 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Depart-

process it becomes way too easy for upper administrators to arbitrarily determine that something is unacceptable and act on that belief without careful consideration of the context.

How would you respond to someone who would call your tweets ‘uncivil’ or ‘not productive’? Do you think speaking roughly can add something to political speech?

The first thing I would say would be [that] neither academic freedom nor free speech are contingent on civility or productivity. More than that, it depends on who you ask. I would urge people to not be so subjective in their judgments. It really depends on who’s reacting to the tweets and the politics the listener brings into an engagement with them in the first place. Palestinians are perfectly happy with my tweets — do you know what I mean?

Anti-Zionist Jews have been perfectly fine with my tweets. I don’t want to just reduce it to ethnicity or politics; I just want to point out that in situations where tremendous violence is occurring and you feel a party to it, sometimes you feel like speaking roughly. Sometimes you feel like cussing. Sometimes you feel like expressing anger. Sometimes it’s the human thing to do, to express anger.

And I would say there are way more tweets that express restraint and compassion. You can’t pull out 10 quotes from 10,000 and say that that’s a representative sample of how I

ment responded to a fire alarm on the second floor of Langston Hall.

Grease on the stovetop caused the smoke that activated the alarm.

The stove was placed out of order, and the alarm was reset.

1:22 a.m. An officer responded to a report of someone burning incense in a first floor room in Barrows Hall. The occupant admitted to burning incense and apologized.

2:09 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student ill from alcohol consumption in Langston Hall. The student declined medical attention.

7:24 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the third floor of Dascomb Hall.

How do you think students at Oberlin or elsewhere should try to defend academic freedom?

I would suggest contesting the language of civility that the president [of UIUC] and other administrators have been trotting out.

It’s a really subjective term; it’s a term that implies something noble without ever having to define how it’s actually performing. So students need to know how these terms are performing vis-à-vis what you’re actually allowed to do versus what might get you in trouble.

Second of all, keep your ears open for what is happening among the faculty and administration and what’s happening in your own classes. Pay note to the ways in which certain points of view are stifled or discouraged. These things don’t often happen formally. That’s the thing — they happen informally, through all kinds of informal modes of coercion and consent. Keep your ears [open] to them, and don’t let administrators or professors or fellow students try to suppress articulation of legitimate points of view — I’m not saying right points of view, they’re legitimate in the sense that they have a right to be raised, at the very least — by evoking this flowery humanistic language that is in fact meant to forestall certain forms of political articulation.

What role do you think your support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement had in your dismissal and in how people reacted to your tweets?

Let me preface by saying that these are observations; they’re anecdotal. I don’t have hard evidence that would suggest that what you mentioned are the reasons, but I suspect they played a role somehow, at least in making me visible in a certain way. Some folks have confessed to having tracked my Twitter account for at least a year. Without my participation in these BDS initiatives, I don’t know that I would’ve been visible in such a way so as to have been tracked and monitored in the first

Water, which had filtered through the roof into the smoke detector, activated the alarm. An electrician responded and replaced the detector.

Monday, Feb. 9 1:18 p.m. A student reported seeing an unknown individual enter their practice room on two separate occasions over the previous three days. When approached by the student, the person said they was looking for a friend, then left the area.

After the individual left, the student noticed $50 to $60 missing.

Officers checked the area, but the unknown person was not located.

See Salaita, page 4

Wednesday, Feb. 11 3:15 p.m. A student reported the theft of an unattended laptop from a room in Robertson Hall.

The laptop is a Hewlett Packard computer valued at $800.

6:30 p.m. Officers were requested on the third floor of Mudd library regarding two suspicious high school-aged individuals. Officers checked the area but did not find the individuals.

9:30 p.m. A student staff member reported a strong odor of incense on the second floor of Asia House. The occupant of the room was unaware that burning incense was not permitted and apologized. The incense was confiscated.

News

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The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

Group Collects Signatures for Legal Marijuana Katherine Kingma ResponsibleOhio, a large and well-funded group pushing for the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana in Ohio, listed the city of Lorain as one of 10 suggested growing locations around the state in ballot language released this past Monday.

The group is one of many marijuana legalization organizations in Ohio. However, proposals regarding what weed legalization should look like vary, with many organizations raising questions about who should be able to grow, sell or use and for what reasons.

Responsible Ohioans for Cannabis supports legalizing marijuana for all adults, and representative Tonya Davis emphasized the personal, rather than financial, benefit to legalization.

“Right now, marijuana is all about money,” said Davis. “But it needs to be about people.

People are hurting because they can’t legally get access to marijuana, and we need to change that. We need to work together.”

However, before anyone benefits from

marijuana legalization, any proposed measure must first go through the same lengthy legislative process. First, 1,000 signatures must be collected that support the ballot measure. The wording of the petition must then be approved

by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine before it is sent to the Ballot Board Review. Once the ballot has passed through the board, proponents finally have the opportunity to collect the 305,000 signatures needed to get it on voters’ ballots this November.

Even considering all of their separate efforts, most prominent groups are still caught in the first couple of steps on the path to legalization — the initial ballot approval.

ResponsibleOhio is among several groups in the final signature collecting process.

In addition to listing possible growing locations, ResponsibleOhio is running on the platform that this “new open market” will “create new businesses and thousands of jobs,” according to their website. Their initiative calls for a more highly regulated marijuana market, in comparison to many other proposals which would allow more people to grow.

Under their initiative, marijuana would be grown in 10 select facilities, then tested for potency and finally distributed to not-for-profit medical dispensaries and about 1,100 retail stores.

ResponsibleOhio has been criticized by other marijuana legalization groups for promoting a money-driven initiative that is more beneficial to marijuana retailers than other proposals that would allow more freedom in growth and distribution.

John Pardee, president of the Ohio Rights Group, also understands that finances are an underlying current in the fight for marijuana legalization.

“We need to move forward, and right now it’s the lack of funding that’s holding us back,” he said.

Currently, the Ohio Rights Group’s medical marijuana petition is one of the marijuanarelated petitions that is closest to approval.

John and his wife Linda Pardee, who is also the Oberlin College program coordinator for Comparative American Studies, Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies and Rhetoric and

Composition, began fighting for the legalization of medical marijuana, as well as the right for farmers to grow industrial hemp, after their son, Jason Pardee, began experiencing chronic pain after a serious car accident.

The Ohio Rights Group’s early efforts to build support began in Oberlin.

“We had a meeting right here in Rice Hall, and the first batch of signatures that needed to be collected were right here on Main Street in Oberlin,” said John. “We were sitting in Subway or something, and Linda just came and started pulling people off the street.”

Their working ballot proposal has around 150,000 signatures — half of the 305,000 needed to get their proposed amendment on the ballot.

The group has been working toward getting its current number of signatures since May 2013. Although John claimed there was renewed interest in the topic, they still face problems with funding for their initiative.

Groups that support recreational use, like ResponsibleOhio, may have the funding but are still early in the campaigning process.

Oberlin Public Schools Look to Increase Staff Diversity Tristan Cimini Oberlin Public Schools made headway on the district-wide initiative to broaden diversity by appointing former teacher, Assistant Principal and Administrator Gloria Buxton as the liaison for the project earlier this month. As a minority recruiter, Buxton will identify the staff ’s diversity needs, recruit talented teachers and mentor promising candidates with the aim of aligning the district with NAACP goals.

“I would define minority as any under-represented group, and so, by increasing focus on diversity, we are making sure that our district reflects our student population,” Buxton said in a

phone interview with the Review. Around 17 percent of Oberlin school district’s employees are people of color. The district hopes to balance this number with that of the student body, which is around 24 percent students of color. Buxton hopes that the project will give students more individualized support by hiring more teachers and staff members from a wider array of backgrounds and ethnicities.

Buxton’s schedule is quite busy, consisting of research on promising teacher certification, interviews with potential candidates and job fairs at which Buxton will speak with individuals who might be interested in coming to teach in Oberlin.

Buxton said that as an increasing number of teachers in the

district retire over the coming year, Oberlin is looking to bring in more teachers who have an understanding of cultural sensitivity and awareness.

“The goal is to identify potential talented candidates prior to their senior year [of college] and provide opportunities for them to learn about Oberlin City Schools,” said Superintendent John Schroth. Schroth is hoping that recruitment fairs will bring in a variety of qualified candidates who will remain in the district throughout their career.

Buxton says she is excited about leading the project. “It’s great to give back to [the] community that supported me through my career.”

Students Split as Work on Tobacco Ban Implementation Begins Continued from page 1

Student Senator and College junior Nick Canavan lights a cigarette. The College finalized the smoking ban last December, and the use of tobacco products on campus will be prohibited starting in the fall of 2016.

Nick Farfan

favor of the ban.

Ecker hopes these opponents will organize and weaken the power of the ban.

“Students need to agitate the people skeptical [of ] the ban to get them on the implementation committee. Senate needs to place people skeptical about the ban, police power and the idea that this is liberalism,” Ecker said. “If we do that, I’m fairly confident that we’ll be able to take the fangs out of this.”

However, Krislov has a very different view of student opinion on the ban. He said the ban was a student-led initiative and that, to his knowledge, the student body has largely been supportive of the new policy.

“The student senators were

overwhelmingly in favor of it,” said Krislov. “I have not heard anything negative about it, other than some comments expressed to General Faculty by one, maybe two, student senators. I think many of the concerns fall into the category of implementation concerns. … We will try to take in those concerns.”

The opinions of smokers on campus are far from uniform. College second-year Owen Kleiman said he isn’t against the ban since it could possibly solve some of the health issues associated with smoking.

“I smoke tobacco every now and then. I used to be against the ban, but I’ve been reading up about other universities and the good effect it’s had,” Kleiman said. “I used to be against it, but I think young people like us shouldn’t be smoking.”

Salaita Addresses Academic Freedom, Speech in Israel-Palestine Conflict Continued from page 3 place. So I think, at least tangentially, it played a role. But also, it’s part of a broader process where strong critics of Israel deal with forms of retribution or attempted retribution. It’s an ongoing process. We’ve seen scholars write in the Jerusalem Post that one way to deal with professors who support BDS is to look through their scholarship and try to find instances of plagiarism to try to get them fired, and so I can’t separate my situation from this historical process.

I remember watching an interview with Noam Chomsky where he was talking about his position on BDS. He said he opposed it on tactical grounds, saying that it makes pro-Palestinian activists more vulnerable

to accusations of anti-Semitism. As someone who has been accused of anti-Semitism and supports BDS, what do you think about that?

As always, Chomsky is raising a strong and provocative point. On this issue, I find myself in a rare disagreement with him, also on tactical grounds. I think it’s important to note that morally and politically, Chomsky doesn’t appear to have a problem with BDS. He strikes me as somebody who has essentially endorsed its content without actually endorsing it and making his endorsement formal, but I think that day is coming sooner rather than later.

I don’t believe that we ought to inhibit our activism or our tactical approaches based on the fear that we’re going to be outfitted with a particular slur. I think Chomsky’s point would

be more convincing if that charge of anti-Semitism that he worries about was actually true.

But because it’s not true, it seems to me that to stop BDS simply because we might be accused of anti-Semitism is ceding too much ground to that particular tactic, which needs to be confronted and challenged. I’m not going to stop short of what I feel needs to be done simply because somebody might falsely slander me. That, to me, isn’t a good enough reason to stop BDS. You’re pursuing legal action with the University of Illinois to get your job back. If you won in court and were rehired, would it be strange working at a school where there’s a certain amount of antagonism between you and the administration?

It’s always possible that it would be strange,

but I doubt it for a few reasons. Number one: In university settings, we don’t tend to interact with upper administrators very often if at all.

Faculty are largely self-governing or are supposed to be self-governing. The administrators I most frequently interact with would be the department chair, maybe the dean occasionally, but really very rarely with the provost or the chancellor and never the board of trustees.

And second: I don’t think it would be strange or antagonistic because, were I to be reinstated, I would go in with the attitude of being open about it, being willing to communicate with the administration, basically being totally willing to bury the hatchet and move on.

Interview by Oliver Bok, News editor Photo by Simeon Deutsch

February 13, 2015

Opinions The Oberlin Review

Letters to the Editors

College Must Accommodate Health Emergencies

Editors’ Note: College sophomore Goo Mattison posted the following letter on Facebook on Jan. 25 and has given permission for it to be printed in its entirety. The recent dissatisfaction with Oberlin College’s health services has been a major issue on campus this year, with the Oberlin Mental Health Alliance communicating with the administration and the Counseling Center to improve access to resources for those with disabilities.

To the Editors: I was debating whether or not I should publish this, as it’s fairly personal, but the importance of communicating the extent to which Oberlin does not care about the health of its students won out.

Before the week of finals began, I was doubting whether I could realistically finish the amount of work I had been assigned. I started right away, working three days nonstop without time to sleep, shower or even eat. I began seeing/hearing things, and my body was severely weakened. I realized the toll being taken on my health wasn’t worth it to finish in time.

I requested and was granted an incomplete based on the documentation of previous health issues. I finished the rest of my finals to the best of my ability and took the limited free time I now had to rest.

Unfortunately, the night before move-out, after taking a dosage of my usual medication ( for said disability), I fell unconscious. An ambulance was called, and I was brought to the hospital. As Mercy Allen Hospital did not have the facilities to care for me, I was airlifted by helicopter to a different hospital in Cleveland and taken to the ICU. I had stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated and intubated. My parents were called and told that their child most likely would not survive that night.

I woke up disoriented and in so much pain I was sure I

had been hit by a truck. I was released two days after waking up. I could not shower or walk by myself. While recovering, all I did was sleep. Oberlin’s administration was notified of what happened, and my parents met with the dean of studies on my behalf.

While focusing on regaining my health and struggling to attend my Winter Term internship, I barely realized the date to turn in my work was a day away and requested an extension, explaining in detail exactly what had happened to me. They asked for documentation, which I provided, and my mother called the dean of studies to confirm my story. After hearing that I had literally died the during the semester, in part due to circumstances created by the school itself, I was granted one week to finish the work I owed. This, of course, was told to me a day late, giving me only six days to finish the work.

Despite documentation of my disability, weekly meetings with Disability Services to manage and keep tabs on my health and documentation of my actual death just two weeks before that day, the school decided six days was plenty of time for me to recover and complete a month’s worth of work.

I can’t find the words to describe how I feel right now. I know it’s ridiculous for me to be shocked after witnessing and experiencing this school’s disregard for the well-being of its students more times than I can count, but being shown that actually dying still isn’t enough to receive adequate health or even sympathy has jarred me. For years I have been telling myself my disability is not my fault, but believing that to be true is so fucking hard when I keep being told that yes, it is, and that I need to be better than what I am.

I don’t know what to say at this point. To fellow students struggling, I know, I’m sorry, and you’re worth so much more than the way this place makes you feel you are.

–Goo Mattison College sophomore

Salaita Case Highlights Donor Influence in Higher Ed To the Editors: Like Students for a Free Palestine and many other campus organizations and academics around the world, I condemn the revocation of Steven Salaita’s job at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Chancellor Phyllis Wise. Like them, I also think that free expression and academic freedom are at stake.

But this analysis misses the root of the problem. The academy is not exactly notorious for being anti-Palestinian. On the contrary, university professors tend to be liberal or left-leaning, to the delight of some and the chagrin of others. Tellingly, Salaita sailed through every academic hurdle to his appointment. It was blocked by Chancellor Wise, but the Board of Trustees did not merely affirm her decision, as SFP suggests. We know from records made public some time ago that Wise bowed to pressure from members of the Board itself.

The Salaita case goes far deeper than anti-Palestinian sentiment; it points to the sway of private donors in higher education, and in public institutions in particular. The latter are woefully underfunded and so depend heavily on donor support. It is not enough to protest, piecemeal, every denial of employment or tenure that appears to be on political grounds. In addition, we all ought to agitate for better funding for public institutions, which would make them less vulnerable to donor preferences.

I think Chancellor Wise’s decision not to oppose the Board was cowardly, but it also reflects a tragic situation in which public universities are increasingly forced to choose between the values of higher education on one hand and financial security on the other, to the detriment of all.

–Jade Schiff Politics department

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 Taylor Field Opinions Editors Sam White Kiley Petersen

By Ignoring Parallels with Present, Audiences Undercut Black Retellings of History Fresh from the success of a powerful Winter Term production that filled Hall Auditorium last weekend, members of the cast of Dessa Rose reunited Wednesday for one final performance, this time before a markedly different audience: minimum-security inmates at Grafton Correctional Institution. “I cannot tell you how much [more] this one shortened sing thru version of the show meant to me than any of our performances combined,” wrote College sophomore and lead actress Tiffany Ames in a Facebook post. “More than any show I’ve ever done.” That the musical would take on new meaning in the context of prison should be no surprise. For some of those who took seats in Hall last weekend, however, the story’s contemporary political relevance appeared to go virtually unnoticed.

Dessa Rose tells the story of a young, pregnant, enslaved woman — Dessa, played by Ames — fleeing a death sentence and fighting to escape the antebellum South. She is aided by fellow fugitive slaves and an unlikely ally: Ruth, a white woman abandoned by her plantation-owning husband. It draws heavily on themes of captivity, incarceration and the brutal dehumanization of African Americans, and it poignantly conveys Dessa’s struggle to accept the company of a friend she sees first as an oppressor.

But the production was more than a beautiful performance. That diretor Caroline Jackson Smith selected the show years ago did not preclude the 2015 production from referring to the “Black Lives Matter” movement that has taken root in recent months. “This show is a love song to past and present student activists who practice and provoke deep democracy,” she wrote in her director’s note in the show’s program. “In Dessa Rose are the roots of our national shame and the legacies of the continual fight for liberation based in African experience.”

The show’s relevance in Grafton prison, furthermore, is no coincidence. In her 2010 book, The New Jim Crow, prominent legal scholar Michelle Alexander lays out the empirical argument that American mass incarceration has become a covert form of social control over African Americans, one which replaced overt Jim Crow segregation before it and slavery before that. In Grafton, skewed incarceration rates reflect national patterns: Roughly half of the prison’s 2,000 inmates are Black, compared with approximately nine percent of the general population in Lorain County.

“These men, these amazing Black men are my brothers, my father, my cousins, my uncles, my friends,” Ames wrote of the inmates.

“Dessa may be a play, but these men are living it every day of their lives in modern day chains that make up the prison industrial complex. So many of my lines barely made it out of my mouth because I was speaking their life stories.”

Dessa Rose is indeed a work of historical fiction, and it is possible to praise and appreciate it as such. However, to do so without also acknowledging the parallels that tie it inextricably to the present is to erase a vital component of the show’s value in the present moment. It is to erase the “continual fight for liberation” of which Jackson Smith speaks. It is to erase the need for a Black History Month every year and a Black Lives Matter movement every day.

Yet this erasure is pervasive. In Hollywood, Selma saw similar treatment: Despite clear signals — including the soundtrack’s closing number in which rapper Common explicitly connects Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic march in Selma, AL, with the recent protests in Ferguson, MO, and director Ava DuVernay’s frequent allusions in media interviews to the systemic racism in modern-day America — white audiences have only intermittently seen the timeSee Editorial, page 7 Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, managing editor and Opinions editors — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

Page 6

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

Student Hypocrisy Part of Problem, Contributes to Injustice James Tanford Contributing Writer I hate receipts.

Pure, unadulterated hate.

Every year, 250 gallons of oil, 10 million trees and 1 billion gallons of water are wasted in the United States alone to remind people that at 3 a.m. they bought a pack of Skittles and a six-month-old issue of People magazine. I daydream about ways to torture receipts, like holding them dangerously close to a candle until the flames swallow them up.

Nothing is more frustrating than the slow degradation of our planet by paper receipts — except that I do nothing about it. Rather than try to incite change, I merely crumple up my receipts and pretend they don’t exist. In fact, I do this with lots of things in my life: I crumple up my problems and throw them away, angry but distancing myself from any involvement.

I’m not alone. The biggest problem with society, regardless of religion, race, gender or political affiliation, is that nobody is a part of “the problem.” In their own eyes, they are always innocent.

Name an issue and Oberlin students contribute to it. Global warming? I see trash cans literally overflowing with beer cans, plastics and cardboard boxes every day, and I elegantly face-planted on the sidewalk this morning after tripping on a pyramid of cans. While the pyramid

might be pleasing to some, my bruised face — and planet Earth — disagree.

Easing racial tensions? During the police brutality demonstrations, one of my friends feared leaving his classroom after protesters repeatedly called him racist and threatened him and his classmates for not joining the march, and the petition to postpone first-semester finals produced some of the most intense, racially fired and naïve arguments I’ve ever heard from both sides. As someone who chose not to participate in the demonstrations or sign the petition for reasons other than my — according to some — blatant racism and rejection of cis white male privilege, I felt like I was walking on eggshells in every conversation. I felt ostracized. This is not the way to ease underlying tension.

Showing religious tolerance? Some people showed no mercy (no pun intended) when mocking the conservative Christian protesters in Tappan Square during the fall, but even more disturbing to me was hearing about a pro-life protester on campus verbally attacked for his beliefs. Whether you decide their opinions are wrong or not, did your actions do anything except make a few people chuckle and, in the process, irk me?

Not only was I stunned by the underlying campus tensions, but by my own — and others’ — sense of detachment; I assumed that since I wasn’t directly involved in the situation, I was not at all involved in the larger societal problem.

I thought I was the voice of reason, the single outlier in a sea of injustice, but I realized that I was just as much a part of the issue as everyone else. In all of these situations, I did nothing to ease the tension and merely assumed that my opinion was right and everyone who didn’t agree with me was wrong. I found myself throwing out recyclables and leaving my lights on unnecessarily, making uninformed remarks about race, religion and sexuality and standing by while others did the same things. I would tsk-tsk as someone

This, however, is a problem that can be remedied. It’s not difficult to respectfully disagree — I grew up with very religious friends, and we had discussions all the time that rarely strayed beyond the academic into the emotional. The fact of the matter is, there will always be someone who disagrees with you, and the important thing is to voice your opinion without being degrading. Do you want change? Stop letting emotions get the best of you in discussions. Passionate outbursts only end the conversation, and the point of these discussions is that they –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– don’t end, or else there is no change.

I crumple up my problems and Reducing your carbon footprint is even easier. You with the plastic water bottle: If throw them away, angry but you throw it out, feel bad, because there distancing myself from any are recycling bins all over campus. Make involvement. I’m not alone. The an effort to take care of the planet before it implodes from massive amounts of biggest problem with society, trash, and the carbon dioxide levels make regardless of religion, race, genit impossible to breathe. Don’t be overinder or political affiliation, is that dulgent, be open to new ideas, don’t be judgmental and if you find yourself havnobody is part of “the problem.”

In their own eyes, they are always ing judgmental thoughts, don’t say them aloud. You would be surprised how often innocent. people hear these comments. (Hint: It is ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– most of the time.)

Next time I get a receipt, sure, I’ll hate nonchalantly dropped their homework it, and I’ll still grin as I imagine blowinto a trash bin, only to do literally the ing its ashes into the midnight sky, but same thing minutes later. I was a hypo- maybe I’ll feel a little better if I recycle it crite — but so was everyone else telling and email Wal-Mart explaining why they me about the overarching problems that should switch to electronic notifications others contribute to. instead.

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

Valentine’s Day Too Often Compromises, Cheapens Intimacy CJ Blair Columnist If there’s a holiday that’s further out of touch with the reality of what it celebrates than Valentine’s Day, I haven’t found it yet. While the marriage of the commercial and the emotional is a trend far from alien to American holidays, this connection is more contrived and unwarranted with V-Day than any other. Though it would be an exaggeration to claim that Valentine’s Day is a year-long source of worry, its adverse consequences are often ignored in favor of narratives that fit the bill of a romantic February 14.

Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, which is not bad in and of itself. Yet the ubiquity of hearts and roses and the rhetoric of the importance of public displays of love have transformed the holiday into an artificial version of itself. To apply a gruesome metaphor, it’s the celebratory equivalent of injecting an old dog with adrenaline in an attempt to revitalize it — but revitalizing isn’t the goal of Valentine’s Day. Whatever its pre-sensationalist American intentions might have been, it has now become a day in which every couple — no matter their specific circumstances — is encouraged to jump inside a preordained frame depicting a public, affectionate and

unrestrained relationship.

For a relationship on a less-thandefinite trajectory, a single moment of obligatory romance might be enough to sink the ship for good. I ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Valentine’s Day is a celebration of love, which is not bad in and of itself.

Yet the ubiquity of hearts and roses and the rhetoric of the importance of public displays of love have transformed the holiday into an artifical version of itself.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––– can’t say how many relationships have ended around Valentine’s Day, but I’m confident the numbers aren’t pretty. When something as genuine and personal as a romantic relationship is suddenly thrust upon a stage and hyped up for one given day, we find ourselves less in 21st-century America as we do in the middle of an Orwellian satire. Of course, this sort of display can be desirable to some, but by and large there’s little about obligatory romance that is either appealing or logical.

Illustration by Review Staff

Through its stress on a specific vision of love and relationships, Valentine’s Day also inspires those without a significant other to question and doubt themselves. To someone who is single, every heart-shaped candy and chocolate box is either an irksome test of their patience or a frenzied reminder that they need to find a valentine ASAP. What a pitiful sight it is when an unattractive middle-schooler scrambles for cheesy traditional gifts like flowers or chocolate, when the best possible outcome is that their crush momentarily acknowledges them before ignoring them as usual.

If it sounds like I’m prepping to wage war with Valentine’s Day, let me assure you that I’m not. It’s just very frustrating to see such a cyclical pattern of heightened expectations met by a less exciting reality, with hardly anyone willing to admit that it’s a nuisance or to step outside the cycle. It may be impossible to change the widely held views and practices of V-Day, but what’s more feasible is using this opportunity to remember that relationships don’t have to adhere to that specific image.

I like to say that people are meant to be together if they both love something that everyone around them hates or doesn’t understand.

This definition may sound odd, but this mindset might be the necessary push to redirect Valentine’s Day from the impersonal to the personal. The fault of a commercial holiday is not that it reminds us what we’re lucky to have, but that it tells us how to express that luckiness. Instead of heart-shaped boxes, maybe a drive through the country listening to Bob Dylan is a more sincere way to remind someone they’re meaningful to you. Showing affection is natural and should be expressed however a couple sees fit. Valentine’s Day was never meant to be a nuisance, and by remembering the quirky individualism that makes romance worth celebrating, you can make great progress towards maintaining a sense of self through its organized chaos.

Editorial: Historical Dramas Must Not Be Stripped of Current Political Context Continued from page 5 liness of the film. Much of the mainstream critique surrounding Selma has focused heavily, often excessively so, on alleged historical inaccuracies. Few in the media spotlight, meanwhile, have praised DuVernay for pointedly reclaiming King’s legacy, providing a sorely needed counter-narrative to the watered-down image of King that prevails in most historical accounts. DuVernay’s

snub at the Oscars, while unsurprising given the Academy’s legacy of favoring white actors and directors, reflects this.

When Black artists make efforts to reclaim their stories, it is not enough for audiences to passively express their appreciation by focusing solely on artistic or historical merit. Instead, it’s vital that audiences engage with the art, think critically about its message and actively support the artists in their efforts.

Page 7

Just Ask Us: WT is Orientation 2.0 Jolie De Feis and Mike Plotz Columnists Since Oberlin’s inception in 1833, it has oft been discussed what the best time to be at Oberlin is.

Here at Just Ask Us and We’ll Tell Ya, we’ve been doing the cutting-edge research so you don’t have to (you’re welcome, reader). We dove headfirst into the extensive (and public) Oberlin Review archives to historically determine what was the best time to be at Oberlin.

While the late 19th-century literature clearly shows that May 19 was the most preferred time to be at Oberlin, there has been a marked shift towards March 12 since the 1950s. Independent filmmaker and College senior Evan Davies remains in line with this school’s original founders. He told us in an exclusive interview that May 20, 1969 was the best time to be at Oberlin. “It’s when it was cool to be weird and weird to be cool, and the weather was probably nice too,” Davies said. History is on Davies’ side, as the temperature was a breezy high of 69 degrees. And of course, one cannot argue about the best time to be at Oberlin without mentioning April 20. But in these writers’ opinions, the time to be at Oberlin is Winter Term.

Everyone’s first reaction to this is the same: “But it’s so cold!” We’re not here to disagree or even pretend that Oberlin ever gets above 10 degrees during the month of January. But the frigid weather and the collective desire for warmth and company are two of the things that make Oberlin a truly great place to start off the year. Besides, the Polar Vortex of 2014 hardly compared to the Blizzard of ’78, which selfproclaimed superstar and pet fashion major Harlee, College senior, describes as “horrible,” though admits she also does not know much about it.

The sub-zero weather forces impromptu giant sleepovers, and the closings of DeCafé and Dascomb drive everyone to join a co-op or risk starvation.

Plus, if you’re of age, you can forget how cold you are by taking part in local drinking culture, chugging some Long Islands and pretending you’re in the Bahamas. Winter Term is basically a time to make new friends and get closer to everyone you already know.

It is kind of like Orientation, but people have their shit together slightly more, and The Feve is the new Barrows.

The combination of schoolwork and extreme temperatures can be deadly, but you don’t realize how alive you can feel without the burden of problem sets and endless hours in Mudd. Winter Term is not without its problems, however. Many are upset by the Winter Term Youth Tennis Camp that has taken place on Oberlin’s campus every January since 2007. While it is nice to have energetic young life around, some are upset that the kids stay in dorms of people who are away during Winter Term. Resident resident and College senior Alice Fishbein was incredulous about the situation. “They’re not staying in our rooms, are they? Like, with our shit?” Fishbein asked. This writer has taken precautions every Winter Term he has not stayed in Oberlin by telling ResEd that he was.

That way, youth from the tennis camp would stay far away from his room.

All in all, even with strangers in your room and the cold weather, Winter Term is the 2015 spot to be.

Students just cannot get enough of the friends, the fun and the alcohol involved in this delightfully relaxed time.

Don’t forget to email us all of your questions, comments and concerns at justaskusandwelltellya@ gmail.com. And tell your parents, folks: Summer is out, winter is in.

THE HONOR CODE: STUDENTS STAFF FACULTY

Oberlin College students are on their honor to uphold a high degree of academic integrity. All work that students submit is expected to be of their own creation and give proper credit to the ideas and work of others. When students write and sign the Honor Pledge, they are affirming that they have not cheated, pla–full text of the Honor Code printed in the Student Regulations, Policies and Procedures Handbook giarized, fabricated or falsified information, nor assisted others in these actions.

To report their own or another’s Honor Code violation, students can fill out the Honor System Complaint Filing Form, available online.

At this point, the faculty member involved may request to resolve the issue informally with the student, if the suspected violation is minor and the alleged violator accepts responsibilty.

Faculty or staff who witness an Honor Code violation are recommended to encourage the involved student to self-report using the online form. The faculty or staff member must also submit an independent report of the incident to the Student Honor Committee within two days after approaching the student.

A two-thirds vote of the SHC is necessary to approve an internal resolution. “We take note of it, in case there’s future cases, but the rest is left up entirely to the student and the faculty,” said SHC member and College senior Kalind Parish. “I’d say we probably grant about 50 percent of the internal resolution requests, and the other 50 percent we actually hear.”

OUTCOMES FROM THE PAST THREE SEMESTERS

89 students were reported for Honor Code violations

35% First-Years 7% Cheating on Lab

32% Juniors

Every year, one in every 60 students is accused of an Honor Code violation. For the remaining students, the honor system can seem mysterious at best. This week, the Review sat down with three of the thirteen current members of the Student Honor Committee, the chair of the Faculty Honor Committee and a student who has been through the honor system in order to hear a range of different opinions about how the system functions and common misconceptions.

14% Sophomores

BY TYPE OF ALLEGED VIOLATION

This Week editor: Hazel Galloway Contributing writer: Lydia Moran Danenberg Honors Recital Part 1 Friday, Feb. 13, 7–9 p.m.

Warner Concert Hall This annual recital showcases 20 outstanding Conservatory students performing eight different pieces, ranging from Bach to Rachmaninoff to an electronic piece written and performed by double-degree senior Mitchell Herrmann. This recital constitutes the first segment of a two-part series, the second part of which will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21.

17% Improper Citations

5% Cheating on Quiz 7% Other

15% Plagiarism

40% Natural Sciences

13% Conservatory 24% Humanities

13% Social Sciences

BY DIVISION OF CLASS

These figures reflect only the 63 cases that have been settled informally or heard by the Student Honor Committee in the past three semesters. 20 cases from fall 2014 and six from spring 2014 are awaiting hearing.

Render: A Senior Dance Concert Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14, 8–9 p.m.

Warner Center, Main Space This dance and theater piece directed, choreographed and performed by College senior Miryam Coppersmith examines the ideas of permanence and impermanence in performance. It incorporates dance, speech, projected visuals and live electronics in a unique arrangement united by the words of Norbert Wiener, a founder of the field of cybernetics.

Hales Late-Nighter Friday, Feb. 13, 9 p.m.–1 a.m.

Hales Annex The Hales annex will be open late to ring in Valentine’s Day with free bowling, pool, food from The Feve and, at midnight, speed dating in the Cat in the Cream. To add to the festive atmosphere, student bands including Flutocracy, The Conductor and the Oberlin Mandolin Revival will be playing throughout the night.

Around 16 percent of students are found not responsible.

An anonymous report of the case is sent to the Faculty Honor Committee for review and approval. If the FHC approves the finding and sanctions, the full file is sent to the dean of the students’ division, who records the finding on the student’s record (in the case of a second offense) and acts as the final arbiter in the case.

STUDENT HONOR COMMITTEE 34 cases found responsible 12 cases found not responsible

Does the Oberlin Honor Code work?

17 cases settled internally 26 cases awaiting a hearing 46 cases heard by the SHC

36% Cheating on Exam 36% Cheating on Exam

6% English as a Second Language 5% Other (First-Year Seminars & Winter Term)

13% Cheating on Homework

A panel consisting of five members of the SHC hear the student’s case, in the presence of the student, the case managers and any witnesses called by the panel and approved by the case managers. The panel hears from both the respondent and the complainant, and question each further as needed. If both are present, they may ask questions of each other through the case managers. All hearings are audio recorded.

About 20 percent of cases annually are settled by internal resolution; these are taken note of in case the student is reported again but do not go on their permanent record.

BY YEAR OF RESPONDENT

19% Seniors

Each student is assigned one or two case managers, who review the information and gather the relevant documents for the case.

After the conclusion of the hearing, the panel has one business day to meet and find the student responsible or not responsible for the violation. Four out of five panelists are necessary to find the respondent responsible; if they are found responsible, a simple majority of three panelists is needed to decide on an appropriate sanction.

Common misconceptions

“Any Honor Code violation will go on your record.”

Actually: It’s done in a way that’s very anonymized. So the faculty do not know — there’s not a mark on [the student’s] record [for the first violation]. ... And it’s important for the faculty to know that reporting something is not going to be necessarily something that’s ending a student’s career or getting them kicked out.

–Benjamin Kuperman, chair of the Faculty Honor Committee

“People cheat more in the most academically rigorous classes.”

Actually: [Many] of our cases come from either English learning classes for people who ... maybe come from a culture where plagiarism isn’t quite as big of a deal, and then also a lot of Conservatory cases. We’re definitely trying to expand the education opportunities to both of those areas. ... What we’re trying to do is achieve a 50–50 balance; 50 percent enforcing the Honor Code, handing out sanctions, determining the responsibility, and then the other 50 percent being education.

–Kalind Parish, College senior and SHC member

“Most people are turned in by their peers or professors.”

Actually: About 50 percent of our cases are actually selfreports. ... I think there was one time when we found someone actually not responsible when they self-reported, because we were like, “No, that was not a violation, you’re fine.”

–Kalind Parish, College senior and SHC member

A Path Appears Documentary Screening Sunday, Feb. 15, 7–9 p.m.

King Building 306 This film aims to show viewers the ubiquitous nature of gender-based discrimination and inequality by following a team of reporters, authors and activists around the globe as it visits places suffering from extreme genderbased oppression and human rights violations. Shining Hope for Communities will host the screening, which features SHOFCO’s work at a Kenyan school for girls.

That’s my impression. I think there’s a large majority of the students that take the Honor Code very seriously and do follow it. I think that there’s probably a small subset of folks that see it as something they can get away with, in some cases, in terms of the seriousness that they take the Honor Code, but it’s not my sense that it’s a majority or it’s a large group of individuals.

–Benjamin Kuperman, chair of the Faculty Honor Committee I think it’s good in theory; I don’t think it’s good in practice. I do like the idea of students being involved; I think it’s a good thing to have that system of checks and balances between students and faculty. What I don’t like is that (a) the faculty never interacts with the defendant, and (b) that once a decision is made there is absolutely no way to go and actually change the decision. They say that they’ve never changed it in the entire history; I think there’s something wrong with that. That’s a broken system — there’s no way they’ve never made a mistake.

–Tori Willbanks-Roos, College sophomore and respondent in an Honor Code case I think it’s a pretty good system in general; I mean, there’s always going to be loopholes, but I would say it works. Students have a fair amount of freedom; they’re trusted to go take a take-home exam in their room or something if they wanted to. ... I think it also provides a system of trust between students and teachers that you wouldn’t find at most other schools.

–Kalind Parish, College senior and SHC member

Voices for Christ Gospel Concert Sunday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream Voices for Christ, Oberlin’s gospel choir, will be holding a free concert at the Cat in the Cream in honor of Black History Month. The concert also celebrates singer Andraé Crouch, who passed away in January and was known as the father of modern gospel music. Voices for Christ will be accompanied by a band that will include Conservatory and College musicians.

17 of the 30 available spaces on the Student Honor Committee are currently vacant.

DEMOGRAPHICS

4 9

men women

3 1

international students student of color

AVERAGE SANCTIONS Cheating on Exam Cheating on Quiz Plagiarism

8 5 7

hrs community service; 2 to 4-page reflection paper hrs community service

hrs community service; short reflection paper or fix citations

Citations vary in each case; these numbers represent common sanctions given in cases that were not resolved internally.

After the first violation, sanctions increase considerably, up to 40 hours of community service for a case of plagiarism.

Rules of Engagement: Civil War Courtship Letters Tuesday, Feb. 17, 4:30 p.m.

Mudd library 050 Professor of History Carol Lasser will give a presentation on Civil War-era letters written between Oberlin residents and other soldiers on the battlefield and their sweethearts at home. The correspondences shed light on how soldiers relied on their loved ones at home for emotional support during the long hostilities.

CALENDAR Dear White People Film Screening Wednesday, Feb. 18, 9:30 p.m.

Apollo Theatre This much-talked about satirical drama examining the position of people of color in America flared up on social media following its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. As the film progresses, four Black college students find their lives complicated by issues of race they raise on their campus. A discussion will follow the screening.

THE HONOR CODE: STUDENTS STAFF FACULTY

Oberlin College students are on their honor to uphold a high degree of academic integrity. All work that students submit is expected to be of their own creation and give proper credit to the ideas and work of others. When students write and sign the Honor Pledge, they are affirming that they have not cheated, pla–full text of the Honor Code printed in the Student Regulations, Policies and Procedures Handbook giarized, fabricated or falsified information, nor assisted others in these actions.

To report their own or another’s Honor Code violation, students can fill out the Honor System Complaint Filing Form, available online.

At this point, the faculty member involved may request to resolve the issue informally with the student, if the suspected violation is minor and the alleged violator accepts responsibilty.

Faculty or staff who witness an Honor Code violation are recommended to encourage the involved student to self-report using the online form. The faculty or staff member must also submit an independent report of the incident to the Student Honor Committee within two days after approaching the student.

A two-thirds vote of the SHC is necessary to approve an internal resolution. “We take note of it, in case there’s future cases, but the rest is left up entirely to the student and the faculty,” said SHC member and College senior Kalind Parish. “I’d say we probably grant about 50 percent of the internal resolution requests, and the other 50 percent we actually hear.”

OUTCOMES FROM THE PAST THREE SEMESTERS

89 students were reported for Honor Code violations

35% First-Years 7% Cheating on Lab

32% Juniors

Every year, one in every 60 students is accused of an Honor Code violation. For the remaining students, the honor system can seem mysterious at best. This week, the Review sat down with three of the thirteen current members of the Student Honor Committee, the chair of the Faculty Honor Committee and a student who has been through the honor system in order to hear a range of different opinions about how the system functions and common misconceptions.

14% Sophomores

BY TYPE OF ALLEGED VIOLATION

This Week editor: Hazel Galloway Contributing writer: Lydia Moran Danenberg Honors Recital Part 1 Friday, Feb. 13, 7–9 p.m.

Warner Concert Hall This annual recital showcases 20 outstanding Conservatory students performing eight different pieces, ranging from Bach to Rachmaninoff to an electronic piece written and performed by double-degree senior Mitchell Herrmann. This recital constitutes the first segment of a two-part series, the second part of which will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21.

17% Improper Citations

5% Cheating on Quiz 7% Other

15% Plagiarism

40% Natural Sciences

13% Conservatory 24% Humanities

13% Social Sciences

BY DIVISION OF CLASS

These figures reflect only the 63 cases that have been settled informally or heard by the Student Honor Committee in the past three semesters. 20 cases from fall 2014 and six from spring 2014 are awaiting hearing.

Render: A Senior Dance Concert Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14, 8–9 p.m.

Warner Center, Main Space This dance and theater piece directed, choreographed and performed by College senior Miryam Coppersmith examines the ideas of permanence and impermanence in performance. It incorporates dance, speech, projected visuals and live electronics in a unique arrangement united by the words of Norbert Wiener, a founder of the field of cybernetics.

Hales Late-Nighter Friday, Feb. 13, 9 p.m.–1 a.m.

Hales Annex The Hales annex will be open late to ring in Valentine’s Day with free bowling, pool, food from The Feve and, at midnight, speed dating in the Cat in the Cream. To add to the festive atmosphere, student bands including Flutocracy, The Conductor and the Oberlin Mandolin Revival will be playing throughout the night.

Around 16 percent of students are found not responsible.

An anonymous report of the case is sent to the Faculty Honor Committee for review and approval. If the FHC approves the finding and sanctions, the full file is sent to the dean of the students’ division, who records the finding on the student’s record (in the case of a second offense) and acts as the final arbiter in the case.

STUDENT HONOR COMMITTEE 34 cases found responsible 12 cases found not responsible

Does the Oberlin Honor Code work?

17 cases settled internally 26 cases awaiting a hearing 46 cases heard by the SHC

36% Cheating on Exam 36% Cheating on Exam

6% English as a Second Language 5% Other (First-Year Seminars & Winter Term)

13% Cheating on Homework

A panel consisting of five members of the SHC hear the student’s case, in the presence of the student, the case managers and any witnesses called by the panel and approved by the case managers. The panel hears from both the respondent and the complainant, and question each further as needed. If both are present, they may ask questions of each other through the case managers. All hearings are audio recorded.

About 20 percent of cases annually are settled by internal resolution; these are taken note of in case the student is reported again but do not go on their permanent record.

BY YEAR OF RESPONDENT

19% Seniors

Each student is assigned one or two case managers, who review the information and gather the relevant documents for the case.

After the conclusion of the hearing, the panel has one business day to meet and find the student responsible or not responsible for the violation. Four out of five panelists are necessary to find the respondent responsible; if they are found responsible, a simple majority of three panelists is needed to decide on an appropriate sanction.

Common misconceptions

“Any Honor Code violation will go on your record.”

Actually: It’s done in a way that’s very anonymized. So the faculty do not know — there’s not a mark on [the student’s] record [for the first violation]. ... And it’s important for the faculty to know that reporting something is not going to be necessarily something that’s ending a student’s career or getting them kicked out.

–Benjamin Kuperman, chair of the Faculty Honor Committee

“People cheat more in the most academically rigorous classes.”

Actually: [Many] of our cases come from either English learning classes for people who ... maybe come from a culture where plagiarism isn’t quite as big of a deal, and then also a lot of Conservatory cases. We’re definitely trying to expand the education opportunities to both of those areas. ... What we’re trying to do is achieve a 50–50 balance; 50 percent enforcing the Honor Code, handing out sanctions, determining the responsibility, and then the other 50 percent being education.

–Kalind Parish, College senior and SHC member

“Most people are turned in by their peers or professors.”

Actually: About 50 percent of our cases are actually selfreports. ... I think there was one time when we found someone actually not responsible when they self-reported, because we were like, “No, that was not a violation, you’re fine.”

–Kalind Parish, College senior and SHC member

A Path Appears Documentary Screening Sunday, Feb. 15, 7–9 p.m.

King Building 306 This film aims to show viewers the ubiquitous nature of gender-based discrimination and inequality by following a team of reporters, authors and activists around the globe as it visits places suffering from extreme genderbased oppression and human rights violations. Shining Hope for Communities will host the screening, which features SHOFCO’s work at a Kenyan school for girls.

That’s my impression. I think there’s a large majority of the students that take the Honor Code very seriously and do follow it. I think that there’s probably a small subset of folks that see it as something they can get away with, in some cases, in terms of the seriousness that they take the Honor Code, but it’s not my sense that it’s a majority or it’s a large group of individuals.

–Benjamin Kuperman, chair of the Faculty Honor Committee I think it’s good in theory; I don’t think it’s good in practice. I do like the idea of students being involved; I think it’s a good thing to have that system of checks and balances between students and faculty. What I don’t like is that (a) the faculty never interacts with the defendant, and (b) that once a decision is made there is absolutely no way to go and actually change the decision. They say that they’ve never changed it in the entire history; I think there’s something wrong with that. That’s a broken system — there’s no way they’ve never made a mistake.

–Tori Willbanks-Roos, College sophomore and respondent in an Honor Code case I think it’s a pretty good system in general; I mean, there’s always going to be loopholes, but I would say it works. Students have a fair amount of freedom; they’re trusted to go take a take-home exam in their room or something if they wanted to. ... I think it also provides a system of trust between students and teachers that you wouldn’t find at most other schools.

–Kalind Parish, College senior and SHC member

Voices for Christ Gospel Concert Sunday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream Voices for Christ, Oberlin’s gospel choir, will be holding a free concert at the Cat in the Cream in honor of Black History Month. The concert also celebrates singer Andraé Crouch, who passed away in January and was known as the father of modern gospel music. Voices for Christ will be accompanied by a band that will include Conservatory and College musicians.

17 of the 30 available spaces on the Student Honor Committee are currently vacant.

DEMOGRAPHICS

4 9

men women

3 1

international students student of color

AVERAGE SANCTIONS Cheating on Exam Cheating on Quiz Plagiarism

8 5 7

hrs community service; 2 to 4-page reflection paper hrs community service

hrs community service; short reflection paper or fix citations

Citations vary in each case; these numbers represent common sanctions given in cases that were not resolved internally.

After the first violation, sanctions increase considerably, up to 40 hours of community service for a case of plagiarism.

Rules of Engagement: Civil War Courtship Letters Tuesday, Feb. 17, 4:30 p.m.

Mudd library 050 Professor of History Carol Lasser will give a presentation on Civil War-era letters written between Oberlin residents and other soldiers on the battlefield and their sweethearts at home. The correspondences shed light on how soldiers relied on their loved ones at home for emotional support during the long hostilities.

CALENDAR Dear White People Film Screening Wednesday, Feb. 18, 9:30 p.m.

Apollo Theatre This much-talked about satirical drama examining the position of people of color in America flared up on social media following its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. As the film progresses, four Black college students find their lives complicated by issues of race they raise on their campus. A discussion will follow the screening.

Arts The Oberlin Review

Page 10

February 13, 2015

Render to Portray Apocalyptic Theory through Dance Mohit Dubey Render, a senior dance concert, will include multimedia forms in its exploration of everything from humankind’s growing reliance on technology to the final demise of the universe. The show will shed light on concepts of permanence and impermanence through artistic experimentation this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.

Created by College senior Miryam Coppersmith, who is majoring in Dance and Creative Writing, Render is set to center on the scientific theory of the universe’s “heat death.”

This theory predicts the eventual end of the universe through constantly increasing entropy. College first-year Savannah Crespo, a dancer in the show,

said that Render’s cast will “[take] analytical scientific concepts and tur[n] them into embodied movements,” creating a fresh perspective for students and community members interested in both science and art. In addition, the thought-provoking, interdisciplinary piece will utilize projected visuals and live electronic music.

Coppersmith has worked rigorously with Render’s cast and crew for the past four months to develop the show, but the impetus for Render began with an experience that dates back to Coppersmith’s high school chemistry class. She said that, at the time, a realization about the law of increasing entropy caused her to have a “version of a singularity” in which the “only thing

that existed [ for her] was the classroom.” She went on to say that this response was her way of coping with the implications of entropy.

This incident colored Render’s production.

Render will include influences from the emerging field of cybernetics, which attempts to understand how humans communicate with one another and, in turn, how artificial intelligence might fit into our world. Coppersmith was deeply inspired throughout Render’s development process by the writings of Norbert Wiener, a founder of the cybernetics movement. Render will incorporate Wiener’s ideas, including his notion that “our use of technology and our increasingly entropic universe are very interrelated.”

Coppersmith and her

team of dancers choreographed moves that demand interaction with live ––––––––––––––––––––––

Render will include influences from the emerging field of cybernetics, which attempts to understand how humans communicate with one another and, in turn, how artificial intelligence might fit into our world.

–––––––––––––––––––––– electronic music and visualizations. Crespo, who has vast experience in social dance but had never taken a technique class before her first semester at Ober-

lin, said that the most intriguing thing about Render is not “the challenge [ for] the dancers, but the number of codependent layers that comprise the show.”

Although the subject matter of Render may be labyrinthine, its material is posed in an artistic manner. College senior Dan Laufer, who works on modeling black holes with Professor of Physics Rob Owen, saw a workshop of the piece at the end of last semester and commented that it is “well thought-out; … [it’s] quite dense in the ideas … but playful in how it is communicated to the audience.” Laufer was fascinated with how the dancers drew parallels between the idea of increasing entropy in physics and specific references to human history.

Render’s title has a triple

meaning for Coppersmith.

For one, it means to cause, be or become; secondly, it means to represent or depict artistically; and, lastly, it means to melt down. All three of these meanings will reportedly factor into the show. Render will be Coppersmith’s culminating performance at Oberlin.

She plans on continuing her dance work after graduating and is interested in getting involved with film. She expressed deep gratitude to her cast and crew, inspirational choreographers Liz Lerman and Meg Stuart and visual artist and cyborg activist Neil Harbisson.

Coppersmith encourages Oberlin students and community members to attend the show “because it’s like nothing you’ve seen before.”

Despite Technical Difficulties, Burnett’s Set Proves Successful Samuel Rueckert Slow Train’s live sound is not equal in quality to its coffee, but College senior Autumn Burnett’s song-writing talent shone through at her Saturday night performance despite technical issues. Minutes before performing, Burnett sat at a table with a couple of friends, calmly sipping a glass of red wine. Unlike other artists who snag a last minute tuneup or run through chords in some inconspicuous pocket of the venue, Burnett appeared nonchalant before taking the stage.

With a visibly relaxed stage presence and quietly extroverted demeanor, the Musical Studies major appeared comfortable in the supportive atmosphere created by her audience.

Before commencing her set, Burnett thanked the audience and delivered a quick joke about using her mom’s guitar.

Singer-songwriters often fall into the trap of using blasé chord sequences, wielding shallow lyrics and, frankly, not owning their instruments.

Burnett managed not to fall prey to such clichés Saturday night. Autumn Burnett doesn’t do sing-alongs.

The title of her performance, “Deciduous,” accurately reflected her

sound. The “animal imagery” and “inarticulate fairy tales” mentioned in her event description failed to shine through live. However, it was not her fault that her lyrics lacked clarity. Slow Train’s sub-par sound system rendered her sound cloudy and muffled her lyrics. Unfortunately, even her beautiful guitar playing suffered. The feedback occasionally infiltrating the system was a hint that the soundboard technician that night was inexperienced with live sound.

Burnett, however, treated the mediocre sound setup professionally and still managed to put on a good show.

Despite the muddled sound quality, her ambient tones provided a solid reflection of what her show description suggested.

Burnett opened her set with a lullaby-like cover of an old Scottish folk song, “Ca’ the Yows.” Her dynamic chords were satisfyingly accurate, and the lyrics evoked images of mythical green lands and fairy tales.

The heavy influence of Scottish folk on her original songs sustained the “deciduous” vibe of her performance.

Similar to The Decemberists, whose sound blends American rock and British folk, Burnett integrates eclectic elements into her music. Her

Musical Studies major, singer-songwriter and College senior Autumn Burnett strums her mother’s guitar. Aside from technical issues, Burnett’s Saturday performance at the Slow Train Café delighted a welcoming crowd.

Bryan Rubin

second song, an original piece titled “Sable and the Cornucopia of Bad Dreams” invoked sonic elements of acoustic Led Zeppelin or even Simon & Garfunkel. Later, she covered Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather.”

Her songs strayed from repetitiveness with unexpected, yet natural, chromatic turns, and her solid singing ability and guitar technique bolstered an already bright performance.

Though Burnett wavered on a

handful of notes, her unpretentious stage presence and appreciation of the audience elevated her performance. After finishing her last song, she praised her audience: “I really like all of you.”

Devoted Crowd Flocks to Mick Jenkins’s Raucous Underground Concert Jake Frankenfield Content warning: This article contains a racial slur printed in full. The word is part of an artist’s stage name.

Mick Jenkins’ most recent record, the widely acclaimed The Waters, is known for its submerged, atmospheric production and intricate wordplay. Hailed as one of the best mixtapes of 2014, The Waters established Jenkins as a preeminent Chicago MC. Jenkins is currently touring with Saba Pivot, Noname Gypsy and a budding rapper affiliated with the Joey Bada$$-helmed Pro Era

collective, Kirk Knight.

Chicago has been central to the development of hip-hop as a genre since the early 1990s. In the ’90s, Chicago offered Twista; in the early 2000s, the city produced Kanye West and Common. Today, as hip-hop continues to redefine itself, Chicago has become a bastion for musical innovation, most notably through the work of Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa. On Sunday night at the Grog Shop in Cleveland, Jenkins provided a glimpse into the future of not only Chicago’s hip-hop scene but also the future of hip-hop in a broader sense.

Saba Pivot performed first. Of the three

Chicago rappers to perform, he was most clearly influenced by Vic and Chance. He ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Chicago has become a bastion for musical innovation, most notably through the work of Chance the Rapper and Vic Mensa.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– was eccentric and energetic, bouncing up and down through almost his entire set.

Pivot’s braids flopped to and fro, his movements almost cartoonish. His vigor awoke a sleepy crowd.

Noname Gypsy authoritatively slowed the pace. Her monotone, often a cappella, vocals engrossed the crowd. Her performance, albeit short and somewhat impromptu, may have been the most impressive of the evening. Her debut EP, Telefone, comes out later this year.

Kirk Knight’s time on stage was rather bizarre. With his new EP dropping relatively soon, he was clearly conflicted regarding See Jenkins, page 13

The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

Arts

Page 11

Feature Photos: Theater Capstone Projects

The Epicurean: Procuring the Perfect Taco Matt Segall Columnist

College juniors Caio Ingber and Kyle Roach (above) share an emotional moment, and Minor Cline and Tae Braun, both College juniors, pause for a serious interaction. Both duos explored the surreal space between theater and reality in PLAYTIME. The comical and immersive PLAYTIME, a collaboration between College senior Erin Amlicke and the show’s ensemble, debuted in Warner Gymnasium’s basement last weekend. College senior Julia Melfi’s genre-bending Devour Me premiered alongside PLAYTIME; the two performances were both capstone projects and shared an ensemble. Each emphasized self-referential qualities and a tendency toward cryptic themes. The immersive theater event required audience members to follow actors to various locations in Warner during the show, which provided a fresh departure from more traditional Oberlin theater events.

The event represents a shift to include more unique arts performances that feature interactive elements.

Text by Danny Evans, Arts editor Photos courtesy of Christine Walden (above) and Arif Silverman

This week we’re taking a break from snowy Ohio to explore California’s epicurean landscape.

The success of personalities like Guy Fieri, who touts outrageous dishes including deep-fried meatball subs and bacon and ham– topped cheeseburgers, seems to suggest an upward trend in overindulgent food pairings. However, as popular as Guy and his bleached soul patch are, most people I know couldn’t stomach the dishes he promotes. I have hope that epicurean simplicity will re-emerge.

The prevalence of taquerias supports the notion that a few simple ingredients can go a long way. Even Chipotle, the fast food spin on a typical Californian taqueria, has grown rapidly in popularity over the past decade. This suggests great mainstream potential for taquerias. Many opt for Chipotle even when more traditional offerings are equally accessible. Of course, that is not the epicurean way.

I spent my Winter Term at home in Silicon Valley. Among the array of tech startups, yuppie exercise studios and Tesla dealerships, one can find some of the best taquerias in the United States. While the neighboring towns of Redwood City and Mountain View are filled with taquerias — sometimes several next door to each other on a single block— I believe the best taco can be found in my hometown of Palo Alto, at Taqueria El Grullense M & G. I only arrived at this conclusion after visiting every taqueria within the densely taco-populated 10-mile radius around my house.

Before delving into the specifics of an El Grullense taco, I must define what one should look for in a taco. The traditional taco is a soft corn or flour tortilla with meat, onions, cilantro and salsa. That is all. There are no beans, no rice, no cheese, no cream and definitely no sweet potato. The five ingredients give unique flavor and texture to the dish.

El Grullense churns out perfection with every taco. They grill their traditional corn tortillas a la –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Ohlsson Performs Centenary Scriabin Recital Jeremy Reynolds Staff Writer After delivering a thunderous final arpeggio, pianist Garrick Ohlsson leapt from the keyboard to claim his accolades before the last notes of Alexander Scriabin’s fifth sonata had even finished reverberating through the hall. The wild enthusiasm of his listeners prompted Ohlsson to give not one but three encores after Tuesday night’s installment of the Artist Recital Series, which featured works for solo piano

by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Scriabin in Finney Chapel.

Ohlsson, who hails from White Plains, NY, began his studies at the Juilliard School

at age 13. The only American pianist to have won the prestigious International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Ohlsson is widely recognized as a Scriabin expert.

Ohlsson’s repertoire contains an array of works ranging from Chopin to Mozart to 21st-century compositions. He uses his impeccable technique to shape his phrases and packs recital halls across the globe.

Ohlsson began Tuesday’s program with Beethoven’s Sonata No. 30, a work that features thematic material ranging from virtuosic arpeggios to reverent, hushed chorales. He delivered each contrasting melody with profound individuality, carefully shaping every voice within the sonic texture to express his interpretation of the German

master’s music. With so much attention to detail, however, the pianist failed to present the work cohesively, as his focus on the independent motifs sacrificed the “bigger picture” of the piece’s emotional trajectory.

Conversely, Ohlsson’s performance of Schubert’s Fantasy in C Major, Der Wanderer, comprehensively represented the cyclical composition. After introducing the first theme in a fiery burst of energetic technique, Ohlsson recaptured that same fervor at each recurrence of the theme throughout the four-movement work. Schubert based the sonata on one of his songs by the same title, and its repetition represents the wanSee Artist, page 13

The traditional taco is a soft corn or flour tortilla with meat, onions, cilantro and salsa. That is all.

There are no beans, no rice, no cheese, no cream, and definitely no sweet potato.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– plancha (on a Mexican-style griddle) to achieve crispiness and to hold together all the other ingredients. With a variety of meat options, from approachable carnitas and carne asada to traditional tripe and tongue, El Grullense achieves impressive variety while remaining See El Grullense, page 13

Arts

Page 12

The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

’Round Midnight Alumni Provide Idiosyncratic Sound Nicolas Vigilante Matt Young and Gene Fukui, both OC ’14 and better known as TWINKIDS, demolished barriers of genre at a house show in Oberlin this past Friday, Feb. 6. Their enigmatic set recalled everything from Kaskade to Simon & Garfunkel. TWINKIDS represent a conglomeration of Fukui’s and Young’s individual musical aesthetics, drawing on Fukui’s experience songwriting for major Japanese labels as well as Young’s background in classical piano and music theory. The duo met while singing in ’Round Midnight, Oberlin’s student folk and jazz a cappella group.

TWINKIDS reached a

major professional milestone when they participated in the Banff Centre’s Independent Music Residency this past fall. Four bands are selected each year to attend this prestigious program, which is led by Brendan Canning, a founding member of indie rock band Broken Social Scene. The program involves two weeks of study in the Canadian Rockies with veterans of the music industry, including Weezer co-producer Shawn Everett and Crystal Castles engineer Alex Bonenfant.

The effects of varied forms of musical training were easy to hear upon listening to TWINKIDS’ music. Young and Fukui tackled tricky harmonic ideas and metric structures with

apparent impunity and demonstrated their musical chops by pulling off these intricate songs. Their songs contained musical ideas interwoven with one another to a near-dizzying extent. But in addition to all their complexity, TWINKIDS also exhibited a pop-like sensibility. This element kept their songs engaging and listenable.

The interplay between Young and Fukui defined TWINKIDS’ style. Watching the two interact while performing was intriguing.

Each paid such close attention to what the other was doing that it appeared they had completely forgotten about the audience and instead concentrated on upholding the synchronicity that was so central to their

music.

Double-degree sophomore Margaret McCarthy –––––––––––––––––––––

Young and Fukui tackled tricky harmonic ideas and metric structures with apparent impunity and demonstrated their musical chops by pulling off these intricate songs.

––––––––––––––––––––– and College senior Joseph Magee, performing as mid Atlantic rift and Cofaxx respectively, joined TWINKIDS to fill out the

bill. mid Atlantic rift’s sound was complicated but enjoyable. Unfortunately, a combination of poor mixing and less than ideal acoustics hampered the performance. Cofaxx eschewed the headiness of mid Atlantic rift’s music in favor of unexceptional beats designed to turn the concert into a party as swiftly as possible.

This raucous vibe changed when TWINKIDS took the stage. Instead of partying, concertgoers paid rapt attention to the music. Such is the charisma of the duo; they can entrance a room full of college students at a Friday night house concert without relying heavily on beat drops and other dance music tropes.

Indeed, the atmosphere during TWINKIDS’ performance felt unlike that of a standard house show.

Their last song that night, a hauntingly beautiful cover of Björk’s “Unravel,” was played to a near-silent crowd similar to the sort of audience one might find at a classical recital.

TWINKIDS’ performance on Friday was not perfect. There were some voice cracks, a few missed notes and one or two moments when Young and Fukui did not mesh musically.

But these mistakes did not detract significantly from the performance. Instead, they reinforced the fact that TWINKIDS’ remarkable sound has resulted from an excess of challenging, creative ideas.

On the Record: Tim Page, Acclaimed Music Critic and Visiting Scholar Pulitzer Prize–winning music critic and editor Tim Page, the visiting scholar-in-residence for the spring semester, is teaching the Advanced Music Criticism class for both College and Conservatory students this semester. His musical background propelled him into a fruitful journalism career, writing for publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Washington Post.

Page sat down with the Review Wednesday afternoon to discuss his move to Oberlin, Bob Dylan and retro New York.

pers, and by the age of 27 I was the junior critic at The New York Times, which was a big deal.

What has been your most exciting moment with music writing throughout your career thus far?

It was exciting when I got the Pulitzer Prize for music criticism in 1997. That was exciting. Giving you other concert ideas, it’s kind of hard to say, because I saw so many events and then [wrote] about them and [ forgot] about them, especially when I’d been doing it 10, 15 years. … But you know, I’ve heard almost all of the great conductors and the great pianists and great violinists, and I guess one thing that would make me excited was when I would find someone that was brand-new, and I’d hear a concert, and

What about Oberlin are you most excited to experience?

I’m excited to be working with some of the people that I’ve worked with before, and I just love teaching the art of criticism, which doesn’t have to be negative criticism.

I showed [my students] a movie last week which was meant to give them some sense –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– of the difficulties of starting off, and that’s basically it. It’s a school with a great history, “From when I was a little kid, if and I’m near Cleveland — a place I’ve lived my mom gave me a new record on and off over the years, especially when I or something which would get was working on a book by Dawn Powell. So me all excited, and especially it’s a great place to spend the winter!

Another reason I really like being here is if it was something unusual, I that the students here are incredibly smart would try to figure out what I and original, and they all just seem to be…

You know, I guess everyone is one of a kind, thought of it. From when I was but I just get that sense here. Everybody is a really little kid I would go up just so interesting and heading off in their to my dad’s typewriter and just own directions.

start writing.”

What inspired you to get into the field of TIM PAGE writing about music?

Scholar-in-residence Well, from when I was a little kid, if my mom gave me a new record or something –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– which would get me all excited, and especially if it was something unusual, I would I’d be able to write something wonderful try to figure out what I thought of it. And about that musician. There was a wondersometimes I found that writing would help ful violinist named Maria Bachmann. … She me figure out what I thought of it. From played with the Lark Quartet for a period of when I was really a little kid I would go up to time, and she has a group called Trio Solisti, my dad’s typewriter and just start writing. and she commissioned a violin sonata from I did this with film, too, and a few other Philip Glass. That was fun because I did a lot things, but then I got into music for a long of radio work and I presented a lot of radio time. I was studying to be a composer at premieres over the years, and that was a lot Mannes College The New School for Music, of fun. and I was a pretty good pianist. I wanted to be a composer, and then all of a sudden I Would you say being in New York was an decided I wanted to be a writer, so I trans- inspiration to you? ferred to Columbia to study writing for two At the time. I was very lucky to live in New years. And then I remember one of my old York at the time I lived there. I was there for professors said, “Choose one or the other! about 24 years, and it was a very wild and You can’t do both music and writing.” And interesting time in New York. Downtown I wasn’t trying to prove him wrong or any- was suddenly booming. You had these great thing, but just as I was about to graduate new wave rock bands, you had really unI started submitting articles to various pa- usual jazz, you had Einstein on the Beach [an

opera by Philip Glass], these things going [on], and that was fun to be a part of. I was young and, you know, it was dangerous, but it was really cheap. I remember friends who had apartments for $75 a month — try staying in the tri-state or anywhere near New York for $75 a night!

But it was pretty dangerous. I was lucky nothing really happened to me. I got to know a whole lot of interesting people, and I loved it.

By the time I left I was almost 45, and I had been living in Washington, D.C. [because I was at The Washington Post]. … What happened was, New York has diminishing returns. When you’re young and you’re thrilled by it, you think it’s so cool, especially coming from a tiny town like I did.

But I’d also, by that point, lived in Cleveland for a summer, I’d lived in Washington and in St. Louis, and I started to like smaller cities better.

Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic Tim Page, who will teach the Advanced Music Criticism class this spring.

Now that you’re not writing, is there anything you’ve been working on besides teaching?

I just collected the newspaper music criticism of a man named Virgil Thomson and, you know, it’s 1,200 pages, so it’s a big collection, and I’ve been working on that for a while. And I’m working on a few other things, but I probably shouldn’t say too much about them or I’ll jinx them.

What’s the thing that people don’t know you like to listen to or write about?

Well, I guess some people would be surprised that I listen to a lot of rock. A lot of the stuff from my era and some of the newer groups, too. But things have changed since I was a music student. Back then, I mean, I guess it was OK if you admitted you liked the Beatles, but people would look at you really strangely if you said that you were really interested in Brian Wilson or Bob Dylan or one of those guys at [that] point. ... But, you know, I don’t think it’s that way anymore, because [even] if you’re not listening to all the music that’s around you ... it’s there, [and you should listen to it even if you

don’t like it, or] you’re going to be kind of an ostrich, and there’s a price to pay for that.

If there’s any advice you have for any budding writers, what would it be?

Well, I can tell you how to be a good writer. Read your work aloud. Read it to your friends if they’ll listen, read it to your folks or your siblings or your mate if they’ll listen. But read it aloud, and read it seriously. Read it as if you were telling a story or giving a speech or reciting a poem. All sorts of things will become clear about your writing — when you’re using boring sentences, when you’re repeating words, when you do anything like that. And the more you read your work aloud, the faster you become a really terrific writer. I would also say — and I always tell this to my class and they don’t believe me at the start — that I can actually tell when they’re reading out loud because their stuff just goes, “Woo!” Just like that. It’s the great secret of how to write.

Interview by Vida Weisblum, Arts editor Photo courtesy of oberlin.edu

Arts

The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

Page 13

Artist Recital Series Features World-Renowned Chopin Expert Continued from page 11 derer’s search for the familiarity of home.

Still, as in the Beethoven, his playing could have benefited from less variation in the expression of each phrase. Ohlsson’s constant rubato — an expressive variation of tempo — occasionally impeded the otherwise seamless flow of Der Wanderer, which Schubert wrote without any space between movements to encourage structural unity in performances.

Post-intermission, however, the artist settled into his niche and began to truly mesmerize his listeners. Ohlsson reclaimed the stage with a languorous performance of Scriabin’s Désir before standing to introduce his audience to the Russian composer, a classmate of Sergei Rachmaninoff who was also influenced by Chopin. He explained that 2015 marks the centenary of Scriabin’s death and sketched out a brief biography punctuated with flashes of a delightfully dry wit.

Ohlsson discussed how the first Scriabin sonata on the program (No. 10, which happens to be the composer’s last) reflects the Beethoven sonata with which the pianist began the evening. “Oddly enough, they both seem to be obsessed with trills…” he commented.

The 10th sonata comprises a single movement adorned with constant trills.

Here, Olssohn created a vast range of emotion, from the nervously agitated tremolos to triumphant, soaring melodies. The pianist delivered Scriabin’s sinuous scalar passages and passionate blooms of color with complete mastery of the keyboard and the music. Though he performed the rest of the program from memory, Ohlsson chose to read this sonata from a score, perhaps on account of the meticulous detail with which Scriabin annotated the music.

According to the evening’s program notes

by Peter Laki, “One way to approach this piece is to read Scriabin’s unusual performance instructions, given in French, which

look like a running commentary on the entire work.” With directions as varied as “with profound, veiled ardor” to “radiant voluptuousness” to “trembling, winged,” Ohlsson created an entire microcosm of ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Here, Olssohn created a vast range of emotion, from the nervously agitated tremolos to triumphant soaring melodies.

The pianist delivered Scriabin’s sinuous scalar passages and passionate blooms of color with complete mastery of the keyboard and the music.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– emotion through the 10th sonata. This work was the unequivocal highlight of the evening.

The remainder of the program con-

El Grullense Boasts Enticing Taco Recipe Continued from page 11 in the taco domain. At El Grullense I am partial to the chorizo and spicy Mexican sausage, both fried loose on the plancha, and the tripe, which is slow-cooked for hours to remove the chewiness and then deep-fried. Cilantro’s flowery aroma and the sharp flavor of freshly diced white onion add needed bite to a milder, softer tortilla and savory meat.

The eatery’s pièce de résistance is their salsa, though. They serve three varieties — pico de gallo, green and red — which are all freshly made

in-house. Each is incredible, but the red salsa is particularly sublime. Their mastery of salsamaking sets El Grullense apart from any other taqueria I have visited — even the other El Grullense restaurants in the area. Their particular salsa is very smoky, and though it is probably imbued with the flavor of smoked chili peppers, it still maintains a subtle sweetness. There is as much artistry in their salsa alone as in the entire taco.

Ultimately, the perfect taco comes down to a few impeccably treated ingredients that just work. El Grullense defines this ideal.

sisted of three shorter works also by Scriabin followed by the fifth sonata. Ohlsson delivered each of the miniatures with his customary polished energy before diving into a potent final sonata. As with the rest of the evening, Ohlsson differentiated between contrasting motifs with clear expression. His body language flared dramatically from purposefully virtuosic as he swept up and down the range of the keyboard to quietly introverted, barely seeming to breathe as he carefully voiced each chord and melody with a tender grace.

As Ohlsson revved up for the close of the piece, his gestures became increasingly wild until he jumped from the piano bench, grinning mischievously, just before the music sounded as if it were finished.

He went on to surprise his enraptured audience with three short Scriabin études before exiting the stage to still-thunderous applause, no doubt leaving listeners craving more.

Jenkins Pays Homage to Chicago Legacy in Cleveland Set Continued from page 10 what he felt was appropriate to share. The result of this negotiation was myriad of half-baked, half-length songs that he rapped over rather unintelligibly. His energy, however, was impeccable. The rejuvenated crowd appeared eager to see the man of the hour.

Even as a highly anticipated, headlining rapper, Mick Jenkins exceeded, if not confounded, expectations. One of the greatest assets to The Waters was its atmospheric production. Jenkins brought life to one of the most buzzed-about mixtapes of 2014.

Even more impressive than any of these artists were the fans. These individuals came out to see essentially underground rappers on a Sunday night in Cleveland. At certain points in each set, the artist would stop reciting their lyrics only to have them picked up, rabidly and verbatim, by the crowd. There were moments in Jenkins’s set when he would hand the mic to individuals in the crowd for full verses, only to have them recited with equal parts gusto, nerves and excitement.

As this generation of conscious rappers evolves, we as an audience must continue to engage with them intently. We need their message.

Corinne Dorf Gunther, OC ’47, of Basking Ridge, NJ, passed away on Feb. 9. She was a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Born in Baltimore, MD, in 1925, she was married to Edward Gunther for 65 years before his passing in 2012.

Corinne taught first grade and coached girls’ high school athletics at the Waldorf school in Garden City, NY. Her calling to serve resulted in many accomplishments. She was executive director of the Visiting Health Services of Morris County, NJ, vice chairman of the Human Services Advisory Council, chairman of the NJ Home Care Committee for the White House Conference on Aging, board member of First Call for Help, past president of Northwest New Jersey Community Action Partnership, which oversees 54 action service programs, and past president of the Morris County League of Women Voters and of Zonta International, a worldwide service for women executives. Adored, respected and inspired by all who knew her, she is survived by daughter, Stephanie Shnay (husband, Abram); grandchildren, Scott Shnay (wife, Haesther) and Kate Termini (husband, John); great-grandson, Harley Shnay; and sister, Marjorie Jaffe. Services are private; should you wish, kindly make donations in Corinne’s name to a charity of your choice.

Arrangements are by J. L. Apter Memorial Chapels of Somerville, (908) 575-1800.

Sports

Page 14

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

Men’s Tennis First-Years

This week, the Review sat down with men’s tennis first-years Robert Gittings, Michael Drougas and Manickam Manickam to discuss their young team, the tennis program’s recent success and their trip to Australia.

How would you assess the season thus far?

Manickam Manickam: Our trip to Australia was a once-ina-lifetime experience. As for this past Saturday, it was disappointing losing to Wabash [College] in a close match, but the Tiffin [University] match was more of a relaxed setting. We got to play people that didn’t get a chance against Wabash. I don’t think we should hang our heads from Saturday, though. It was a lot to build on.

Michael Drougas: I think it’s going well. We’re practicing really hard, so hopefully we can have a good season.

Robert Gittings: We’ve had a lot of opportunities to get closer and more bonded, and going to Australia was a really big part of that. These last two matches were on the same day, so we were at the gym for about 14 hours. That was another big opportunity for bonding and getting closer.

Has the season met or exceeded your expectations?

MM: I’ve watched a lot of college tennis matches before, but actually participating in one like a conference match against Wabash was really shocking to me. It was our first conference match for all three of us, so we learned from it. I’m definitely happy with how we’re doing so far and with how hard we’re working. It’s all putting us in the right direction.

MD: I think my experience

Manickam Manickam (left), Michael Drougas and Robert Gittings thus far has exceeded my expectations. The team environment is really pretty cool.

How have the veterans on the team helped you improve your game since you got to Oberlin?

MM: We only have three upperclassmen. Soren [Zeliger] is our only senior, and Brandon [McKenna] and [Callan Louis] are juniors. Soren has been an awesome leader on and off the tennis court. Academically, he’s been really helpful to me. Those guys have been a part of teams in the past that were weaker than what we’ve been the last two years, so they know what it’s like to face adversity. I think they are really excited about the program this year, and that kind of trickles down.

MD: I think having maturity and people who have gone through what we’re going through for the first time is always helpful.

RG: The best thing about them is that they’re all super nice people. It’s really easy to talk to them

and ask them questions. They’re really welcoming, which made it easy to transition into Oberlin tennis and their way of doing things. If you weren’t sure of anything, you weren’t going to get busted on by your teammates. I could get better at tennis because I didn’t have to worry about anything else.

The team had a pretty successful season last year. How did that influence your decision to come to Oberlin?

MM: I’m from about 45 minutes away, so I practiced with a lot of the guys on the team before coming here. Knowing [Coach] Eric [Ishida] for a few years before coming here made it really easy for me to make the decision to come to Oberlin.

MD: Definitely seeing a program that is on the rise rather than the decline is a huge incentive to join that team. I really liked Eric, and I thought that he had a demeanor that would work

Feature Photo: Men’s Basketball

well with the way I learned and improved my tennis game in the past. I thought it was a good fit for me.

RG: It was a big incentive push.

Eric would always say, ‘Look how much better we’re doing this season.’ It wasn’t a factor in my decision, I think, but I really like this school, the team and Eric. Those were the biggest factors.

What were the most exciting moments of your first semester on campus, both tennis and non-tennis related?

RG: We beat Walsh College — that was pretty cool. We played this really close match with this team that thought they were much better than we were, and won the last match against the coach’s son. It was pretty sweet.

You have a pretty young team.

What advantages and disadvantages does that present?

MM: The advantage is that we’ll have this core of players for

Tell me about your Winter Term trip to Australia.

MM: Time of my life. Amazing. I really enjoyed spending two entire weeks with my teammates and getting closer to them and really getting to know a lot of my teammates better on a personal level. Never a dull moment.

MD: The trip was really cool. I think one of the best results of that was having better team unity and getting to know our teammates outside of Oberlin and in the real world. We were doing real things with people we don’t normally do that with. I think it will translate to a better team in the spring.

Interview by Nate Levinson, Sports editor Photo by Effie Kline-Salamon, Photo editor

Women’s Basketball Sets New Record for NCAC Wins Continued from page 16

Sophomore Zach Meyers attempts a close-range shot against the Allegheny College Gators on Wednesday. The Yeomen saw four scorers reach double digits and handily defeated the visiting Gators 79–56.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak and pushed the Yeomen’s season record to 9–13. They have three remaining regular season games, the next of which will come at home against the Hiram College Terriers this Saturday at 3 p.m.

Photo courtesy of Rachel Grossman

the next couple years, so we’ll all continue improving together. The disadvantage is the inexperience that we have. Mostly speaking for myself, being inexperienced, I haven’t played a lot of meaningful matches. We have a couple people on the team who have played a lot of meaningful matches and know how to compete, but some of the younger guys are still learning.

MD: We have a lot of potential for growth. We can have long term goals. Obviously the disadvantage is that we’re young and that we haven’t played college tennis before. Most of the successful teams in D-III tennis are teams that have been together a lot. It’s obviously a setback, but we have good junior and senior leadership for now.

RG: We talk a lot about who’s going to be the captain next year, but right now we’re pretty thin at the top. Right now, we have sophomores trying to claim leadership, but it’s cool. It’s friendly.

of the game to tie it up and force overtime, but going into overtime we kept our heads together and didn’t panic. We stayed strong, and Lindsey and Christina came out and hit two huge threes in a row. Our resilience and belief in what we were doing really allowed us to get that win.”

Assistant Coach Casi Donelan also attributed the overtime victory to the team’s ability to remain focused and convert points down the stretch.

“Our plan was to keep executing the way we were,” she said. “Keep attacking them offensively and limiting their three-point looks and easy baskets around the rim. We told the girls, ‘Keep chopping wood, stick to the game plan and finish every play.’”

Head Coach Kerry Jenkins described Wednesday’s game against the Allegheny College Gators as being less about the visiting Gators and having everything to do with the Yeowomen.

“Our plan is to do what we do well. Our game plan is to play our game,” he said.

As has been the case all season,

Bernhardt and Marquette were a big part of that game plan, helping the Yeowomen to a narrow 75–72 win.

The two combined for 45 points and 10 assists, including 24 points and only two turnovers in the second half, before Hamilton iced the game with five key free throws late in the game.

The win pushed the team’s season record to 13–9 and its conference record to 9–4, setting a new school record for NCAC wins and breaking the previous high of eight set during the 1998-99 season.

Winners of five of their last six games and eight of their last ten, the Yeowomen’s confidence is sky-high.

“The way we have been playing has made us successful. Therefore, enhancing our game execution will only make us a better team,” said sophomore guard Bri Santiago. “We know we can play with any team in the conference, but it’s a matter of executing with no mistakes for a full 40 minutes. Our ultimate team goal is to have a home playoff game.”

The Yeowomen will look to push their win streak to three when they take on the Hiram College Terriers at home this Saturday at 1 p.m.

Sports

The Oberlin Review, February 13, 2015

Page 15

— Women’s Tennis —

Yeowomen Struggle Against Ranked Foe Harrison Wollman Staff Writer The women’s tennis team dropped its season opener to the nationally ranked University of Chicago Maroons last Sunday, losing all nine matches.

In singles play, the No. 1 slot featured senior captain Grace Porter, currently ranked 17th in the region, against the Maroons’ sixth-ranked Megan Tang.

Jumping out to an early 0–3 set lead, Porter was able to clinch the first set 3–6. The second set took a turn in favor of the Maroons as Tang claimed the next two sets, ultimately shutting Porter down with final scores of 6–4 and 10–7.

“The biggest reason they beat us so decisively was because our preseason wasn’t very intense and we were a bit unprepared on the court,” said Porter. “We only practiced together a few times since last semester.”

Junior Erin Johnson faced a similar fate against University of Chicago junior Lucy Tang, falling in the first two sets 6–1, 6–4. Johnson attributed the Maroons’ clean-slate victories to their strong agility and fitness.

“They’re a really talented team,” she said. “I think they were a lot more physical than us out there. They were faster and

Senior captain Grace Porter sets up for a serve in a match against the University of Chicago Maroons last weekend. The women’s tennis team returns to its home courts to play Case Western University and Otterbein University this Saturday.

Courtesy of Kyle Youngblood

stronger and also have a little more experience than most of the girls on our team.”

In doubles play, Oberlin’s top duo of Porter and first-year Sarah Hughes battled against the region’s top-ranked pair of Megan Tang and Ariana Iranpour.

The Yeowomen came within three points but could not muster a victory, falling 8–5. Rookies Jackie McDermott and Mayada Audeh also saw tough competition in their match, falling 8–6 to the University of Chicago.

Prior to the Yeowomen’s first matches of the year, the team traveled to Australia with the men’s team for preseason train-

ing and fun. Various scheduling conflicts and inclement weather prevented Oberlin’s squad from logging as much competitive tennis as planned. Nonetheless, McDermott said that the trip was an invaluable experience.

“We spent a few days at the Australian Open, which was a really great experience — watching the pros and seeing the mental approach they take to the game, along with the physical intensity in both singles and doubles,” she said.

“It was a really amazing experience in terms of the tennis culture we got to see, and for team bonding, with all the time we

spent traveling internationally together.”

While traveling abroad, Head Coach Constantine Ananiadis decided to name three captains: Porter, Johnson and senior Emily Fuller. Ananiadis said that he believes the diverse leadership styles will contribute to the Yeowomen’s success this season.

“Our three captains all bring different qualities to the table,” said Ananiadis. “They each have different ways in which they lead. That’s mainly the reason why we have tri-captains this year, and so far it’s working really well.”

The Yeowomen captains have set the bar high for their team this year. Porter says she hopes that the Yeowomen will challenge and push each other to develop their skillsets.

“I expect the girls to work hard and try to be a little tougher out on the court,” she said. “If we are going to lose, we have to make our opponents earn the win. I expect the girls on the team to push each other and to challenge each other during practice.”

Looking forward, the Yeowomen will host regional foes Case Western Reserve University and Otterbein University this Saturday at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. respectively.

Men’s Tennis Falls Just Short Continued from page 16 the Australia trip we had a lot of good team dynamics going.”

Using that positive team energy, the men transitioned into 6:45 a.m. practices upon returning to campus, a time slot that has made their practice time especially productive. Ishida noted that morning practices allow the men to have sole use of all four indoor courts, while also freeing up the rest of their day to focus on academics.

Despite having to wake up early in the morning, Zeliger said he is pleased with the switch to an earlier practice time and praised the competitive mindset Ishida promoted in his first few years of coaching at Oberlin.

“It’s no longer exciting to just be competitive against good players,” said Zeliger. “We want to win.”

Ishida also sees this passion in the younger members of the team.

“We’re very strong — a confident group,” said Ishida. “We added four new players that are all buying into the program, and with the juniors and sophomores having a year or two under their belts, they’re very hungry, and they’re the nucleus of our team.”

The men will travel to Chicago next weekend to play the University of Chicago and Wheaton College. Ishida hopes to use each match as a learning experience in preparation for the conference championships in April.

“It’s an exciting season for us; this is a very capable team,” Ishida said. “We have depth, balance, chemistry, and our schedule is set up so that we can peak at the end of the year. That’s what we’re looking forward to — seeing how strong we are in April. Until then, there are a lot of lessons to be learned.”

Home Games This Week Saturday, Feb. 14 9 a.m. – Women’s tennis vs. Case Western Reserve University in John W. Heisman Field House 1 p.m. – Women’s tennis vs. Otterbein University in John W. Heisman Field House 1 p.m. – Women’s basketball vs. Hiram College in Philips gym 3 p.m. – Men’s basketball vs. Hiram College in Philips gym

Editorial: Forged Map Results in Stripped Title Continued from page 16 Having an adult in your life who is willing to haul you to some awful tournament in Disney World over New Year’s is truly invaluable.

However, there remains a distinct and crucial difference between a supportive mentor and an adult who, simply put, crosses a line.

The exceedingly invested parent can take one of three primary forms: the parent living vicariously through their child’s athletic endeavors, the parent who truly believes their child is the next Derek Jeter and, my personal favorite, the parent who thinks they should be the coach of the team because the coach clearly has no idea what they are doing.

While more often than not, it is the parents who become way too obsessed with their children’s athletics, coaches also waver in their morals at times. In the case

of Jackie Robinson West, Butler was too focused on winning and ended up compromising the integrity of his team. When adults are unable to put youth sports in perspective, the kids are the ones who really suffer.

By focusing so much on winning that he broke the rules and eventually sacrificed a championship title, Butler set a poor example for his team. Of course, winning is an essential part of athletics, but when it involves people who haven’t even hit puberty, it shouldn’t be the most important part. The curse of the overly involved adult lies in the fact that they damage the purity of the game at a young age.

Whether it’s a coach who bends the rules or a parent who pushes too hard, adults have the ability to ruin sports for kids, as we are reminded by the Jackie Robinson West situation.

Sports The Oberlin Review

Page 16

February 13, 2015

— Women’s Basketball —

Yeowomen Rally Late Over Gators Randy Ollie The women’s basketball team withstood a second-half surge by the Denison University Big Red last Wednesday, getting 14 points from senior forward Christina Marquette and junior guard Lindsey Bernhardt in the extra period to win 62–54.

Marquette and Bernhardt com-

bined for 34 points in the victory, which included a combined 6–11 from three-point territory. Marquette closed the game one rebound shy of a double-double, while Bernhardt chipped in four assists. The Yeowomen dominated the majority of the game, never trailing after Marquette tied the game at two with a jumper at the 18:37 mark.

The Yeowomen closed the half with a comfortable 22–14 lead and increased their lead to as high as 11 on a jumper by first-year Anna Moore with just over 13 minutes left in the game.

With a double-digit cushion and just over five minutes to play, the Yeowomen appeared to have the game wrapped up, but the Big Red refused

Junior guard Caroline Hamilton takes a crucial free throw late in the second half against the visiting Allegheny College Gators. Hamilton contributed 14 points off the bench, and the Yeowomen won 75–72.

Courtesy of Rachel Grossman

to go down easily and responded with a 10–0 run over the next 2 minutes and 50 seconds to tie the game at 43.

A layup by Bernhardt with a little over a minute left put the Yeowomen up 47–45, but a Denison jumper with 20 seconds left in regulation tied the game at 47–47 and sent it into overtime.

The Yeowomen jumped out to a quick lead in the extra period with back-to-back three-pointers by Marquette and Bernhardt. Marquette added a layup on the team’s next possession to give the team an eightpoint lead it wouldn’t relinquish. The junior scored nine of her fifteen total points in overtime to help put the Yeowomen over the top. Denison cut the lead to four at 55–51 with just under a minute to play, but the Yeowomen defense played tough, preventing another late Big Red rally.

Junior guard Caroline Hamilton led all bench scorers with nine points and blocked a shot in the last minute to help seal the Oberlin victory. After the game, she said that the win was made possible by the Yeowomen’s resilience and ability to combat Denison’s late charges.

“The key to our Denison win was that we were really able to answer any run that Denison made,” she said. “Their last run was at the end See Women’s, page 14

— Men’s Tennis —

Ishida Leads Competitive Spirit for Yeomen Jackie McDermott The men’s tennis team kicked off its spring season at home on Saturday, falling to conference rival Wabash College in a six hour-long 5–4 loss and 7–2 to Division II foe Tiffin University.

Oberlin’s marathon contest against the Wabash Little Giants culminated in a three-set match in the fifth flight between senior captain Soren Zeliger and Wabash’s Graham McMullen. The previous three regular-season meetings between the two teams ended in a close 5–4 score, and again on Saturday, the score stood at 4–4 as Zeliger stepped on court to play the deciding match.

“There were definitely some nerves at first,” said Zeliger. “I knew it was 4–4 and this would be the deciding match, so I just tried to stay calm and stay consistent, and maybe I overdid that and was lacking in energy at first.”

McMullen raced to a quick 5–2 lead in the first set before Zeliger gained some momentum, winning two games before losing 6–4 in the first set.

Zeliger then found an aggressive rhythm in the second set, getting to the net as much as possible and feeding off of the crowd’s energy to cruise to a 1–6 win. McMullen’s consistency ultimately proved too much for Zeliger, who struggled with his first serve percentage in the third set and fell 6–3.

Despite the disappointing loss, Zeliger counted the match as one of the most memorable of his college career.

“That was probably the most fun I’ve had playing a tennis match in my life,” he said. “At every point it felt like the whole team was behind me, cheering for me. That is a pretty unique situation to be in, and while it was nerve-wracking at times, it was also a ton of fun.”

Many of Zeliger’s teammates also found themselves in tense situations on Saturday, as four of the

six singles matches went to three sets. First-year Michael Drougas and junior Callan Louis both won three-setters at the second and third flights.

Drougas, now ranked 46th in the nation and 12th in the region after a stellar showing at the ITA Regional Championships in the fall, used his crafty slice and consistent lobs to best Wabash’s Michael Makio 7–5, 4–6, 6–1.

Despite the close loss, Head Coach Eric Ishida was proud of the way his team handled the tough test so early in the season.

“Overall, it was a great experience to get out there and play a high-intensity, important match this early in the year,” said Ishida. “We will definitely build on that tough loss.”

In the second match of the day against the Tiffin Dragons, Ishida changed most of the starting lineup, as matches against Division II teams have no bearing on Oberlin’s team ranking, but can serve as great match experience.

Though they fell 7–2, the Yeomen fought hard, with sophomore Lucas Brown and first-year Robert Gittings grabbing the team’s two singles points.

Gittings’s 10–8 win was the first of his college tennis career.

The match against Tiffin gave the Yeomen a chance to show off their depth, and Ishida was pleased with the performances of the second match starters.

“We have talented guys all the way down to the No. 12 position,” he said. “I wanted to give those guys the chance to prove themselves. … They competed extremely well.”

The Yeomen returned to campus in February after a Winter Term trip to Australia, where the men’s and women’s teams spent two weeks traveling in Melbourne and Sydney. There, they watched part of the Australian Open and played at a number of historic Australian tennis sites, including the

First-year Michael Drougas returns a shot during a game last fall. The Yeomen travel to Chicago this weekend to face the University of Chicago Maroons and the Wheaton College Thunder.

Courtesy of Brian Hodgkin

site of the Sydney Olympics and the former site of the Australian Open, the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club.

Ishida was thrilled that the Australia trip gave a great boost to team chemistry and hopes the good vibes from the team’s travels carry over into the season.

“I felt good about our first week of practice [leading up to Saturday],” he said. “Coming out of See Men’s, page 15

Grownups Ruin Fun Tyler Sloan Sports Editor For as long as youth sports have existed, so too have overly involved adults that manage to inadvertently detract from the spirit of the game. The recent stripping of the United States Little League Baseball championship title from the Chicago-based Jackie Robinson West team serves as a perfect example of this phenomenon. Jackie Robinson West, an all-Black team located in the city’s South Side, competed in the national competition to clinch the title last summer, ultimately falling in the world championship to South Korea. Just this week, the Little League announced its plans to strip all of the team’s 2014 wins, including the national title, because of the actions of the team’s coach, Darold Butler.

Butler broke League policy by falsifying maps and recruiting players who lived outside of the official district, unbeknownst to the actual members of Jackie Robinson West’s roster and their parents and guardians. While Butler faces suspension and a damaged reputation for his shortsighted actions, it is important to note that his behavior is far from isolated in the world of youth sports.

Too often, adults digest sports through the obscene sums of money professional athletes earn, and in turn, lose sight of why children get involved with sports in the first place. This is especially notable in the already contradictory practice of nationally broadcasting 11and 12-year olds playing baseball.

It is worth prefacing the rest of this article by saying that parents, guardians and whoever else takes kids to their late-night practices two hours away deserve all the praise in the world.

See Editorial, page 15