September 4, 2015

The Oberlin Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2015 VOLUME 144, NUMBER 1

Local News Bulletin News briefs from the past week Professor Named President of Historical Society Professor of History Carol Lasser was selected as the president of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic this August. She will lead roughly 1,000 other academics in their continued exploration of United States history between 1776 and 1861.

Lasser teaches several courses at Oberlin, including First Wave American Feminism this spring.

Heritage Center Reveals New Director Patricia Murphy stepped down as the executive director of the Oberlin Heritage Center this summer after 22 years. Murphy retires as the first-ever Heritage Center director, having developed a public events calendar as well as tour and internship programs. The OHS Board of Trustees named Liz Schultz the new executive director, following her position as the organization’s museum education and tour coordinator. Schultz took the reins of the center on August 22.

Gateway Center Construction Continues After a year of work, the first phase of construction on the Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center is 65 percent complete, according to the developer, Smart Hotels, LLC. The Center will include the Oberlin Inn, a restaurant and a conference center. The exterior of the building is expected to be complete this fall, and is on track to open in early 2016.

The building is designed to meet LEED Platinum standards, the highest possible standards for environmentally friendly construction.

Krislov Loses Presidency Bid at Iowa Tyler Sloan News Editor The University of Iowa announced that Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov will not serve as the institution’s 21st president on Thursday afternoon. The university instead selected former IBM executive J. Bruce Harreld in what has been called a controversial move, as Harreld has no previous experience working on the administrative side of higher education.

“I consider it an honor to serve as the President of Oberlin College, and I look forward to continuing my work here,” Krislov said in an email to the Review following the announcement.

The decision came after the top four finalists traveled to the university’s campus for a series of convocations on Aug. 27, Aug. 28, Aug. 31 and Sept. 1. Harreld beat out nominees Tulane University Provost Michael Bernstein, Ohio State University Provost Joseph Steinmetz and Krislov for

The final candidates for the University of Iowa presidency, clockwise from top left: Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov, former IBM executive J. Bruce Harreld, Ohio State Provost Joseph Steinmetz and Tulane University Provost Michael Bernstein.

Courtesy of the candidates

the position.

Only 1.8 percent of faculty and 2.6 percent of other respondents voted that Harreld would be qualified for the position prior to the university’s announcement, according to a poll conducted by the University of Iowa Chapter of American Association of University Professors. The low numbers were in sharp contrast to the 90 percent who believed that Krislov,

Bernstein and Steinmetz were all qualified to serve as president.

But the Iowa Board of Regents, the committee charged with selecting the new president, clearly had a different impression.

The Board voted for Harreld unanimously, despite his lack of experience.

“I will be the first to admit that my unusual background requires a lot of help, a lot of coaching,” Harreld said in a

statement to the press at the University of Iowa on Thursday. “My question back to the community is, ‘OK, let’s prioritize [the issues] and figure out which ones we’re going to work on right now.’”

Krislov took the opportunity to address cornerstone administrative issues during his visits.

He focused his rhetoric on how he believed working at Oberlin for nine years, and previously as the vice

president of the University of Michigan for another nine, prepared him to take on a presidency at the University of Iowa.

“In all these settings, I’ve had one goal: to make a difference, to be someone who can bring people together to reach common goals built on shared values,” Krislov said in the opening of his speech to a crowd of nearly 250 people at the University of Iowa on Thursday, Aug. 27.

He added that despite obvious differences in student population size, Iowa and Oberlin share many similar qualities.

“Iowa is an extraordinary place with a deep history of engagement with both the arts and humanities, as well as the sciences,” he said. “The academic reputation and excellence in both fields, as well as a lot of their other interests in access and affordability, are very powerful. I think Iowa and Oberlin actually share a lot of the same values in terms of wanting to be a See J. Bruce, page 4

College Installs 145 New Security Cameras Oliver Bok News Editor Students moving into dorms last weekend were greeted by a surprising sight: security cameras staring back in every residence hall entrance.

To administrators such as Vice President and Dean of Students Eric Estes, the new security cameras represent a continuation of the existing practice of installing cameras into entranceways as the College renovates different residence halls. Over the summer, the College put 145 cameras in dorms that had not been renovated recently.

To many students, however, the installation of the cameras without student consultation represents more than what Estes described as a “basic upgrade” in an email to the student body.

“I really think that the only thing that can make anyone pass

off putting security cameras in front of a living home as a minor upgrade, or just in line with basic procedure, is the fact that they don’t live there,” said College junior and Student Senator Jordan Ecker. “It’s disturbing to me that administrators who don’t live there make a decision for the people who do live there without engaging meaningfully about whether those cameras should be there, and how they should be used.”

Safety and Security does not monitor cameras in real time “as a typical, day-to-day practice,” Estes wrote in an email to the Review. He also stressed that the cameras surveil dorm entrances but not indoor or outdoor spaces. The cameras are intended to help the College “during an incident and post-incident in terms of deterrence as well as response,” he said.

According to Marjorie Burton, director of Safety and Security, footage from security cameras can only be viewed by the director and the as-

A security camera surveys campus from its perch above a Noah Hall entrance. The administration installed 145 new cameras on the entrances of dorms over the summer.

Bryan Rubin

sistant director of Safety and Security.

The footage is archived for about 30 days before being deleted.

For Ecker and other students, one of the most important unanswered question regards the conditions

under which Safety and Security will access the footage.

“They should have strict triggering criteria for when they review security See Administration, page 4

on the

New in Blue The city chose Juan Torres as its new chief of police.

ESTABLISHED 1874 oberlinreview.org

ONLINE & IN PRINT

Squad Goals

Mural Masterpiece Chalk Walk organizers preserved art using social media this summer.

See page 2

See page 16

See page 10

INDEX:

Opinions 5

The Yeomen defeated Otterbein 2–1 in their season opener.

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

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News

Page 2

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

City of Oberlin Appoints New Police Chief Katherine Kingma Oberlin announced the hiring of new Police Chief Juan Torres following a national search to fill the position this summer. Torres joins the department after serving with the Alexandria, VA police department for 24 years in four different positions, most recently as police chief.

The Virginia native was hired through an extensive process of gathering community input, narrowing down candidates and interviewing the top nominees, City Manager Eric Norenberg said. A panel consisting of community members, including an Oberlin College student, ultimately made the appointment.

Juan Torres, the new Oberlin police chief, works at his desk. Torres has stated his desire for instituting community policing and adding more women and people of color to the force.

Kellianne Doyle

“We gathered input from the community and the City Council as well as the police force about what would make an ideal candidate, and launched recruitment on a national level around February,” Norenberg said.

Norenberg added that Torres’ previous experience in Alexandria gave him an edge over other candidates.

“I was impressed that [Torres] presided over a community with a lot of diversity, a lot of different people from different backgrounds with different wants and needs,” Norenberg said. “That’s helped him stand out, and it’s great that he’ll bring that to the table.”

However, the differences between Alexandria and Oberlin are stark. According to the 2014 census, Alexandria has a population of 150,575 while only 8,251 people live in Oberlin. 70 percent of Oberlin and 52 percent of Alexandria is white. According to the state governments of Ohio and Virginia, 204 crimes were committed in Oberlin and 3464 in Alexandria in 2013.

Torres started his position as police chief on Aug. 3, and now heads

the office of 24 full-time employees.

He said he is focusing on building a community policing program in Oberlin.

“I want to create opportunities for police, College and community interaction,” Torres said. “I want you guys to know what we do and vice versa.

I want policemen to be able to go to communities and for them to tell me what kind of policing they want.”

In line with his vision for a more accessible police department, Torres said he wants to increase the department’s social media presence and host events that allow for community members to interact with officers. He also said the creation of police-liaisons that cater to specific communities is in the works.

“Instead of people calling 911, I want them to have a go-to person,” Torres said.

Torres added he has plans to increase the involvement of people of color and women on the force, and said he will allow the community to have more say in policing policies.

“A big part of this problem is that we need to make our policies known to the public so there aren’t any surprises,” he said. “We also need to en-

sure that every complaint is investigated completely and fully.”

College fifth-year Megs Bautista, who taught an ExCo on police brutality last spring, said she remains skeptical of community policing plans.

“The Oberlin police force is currently just as problematic as other police forces in terms of racial profiling, escalating instead of de-escalating situations and a bunch of other things,” Bautista said. “And I don’t think having a minority police chief will help. If you’re a part of the system, you’re corrupted. For me, as a minority, seeing him as a minority joining the police department just seems like a slap in the face.”

Still, Norenberg says Torres’ appointment and future policies will reflect a trend towards learning and advancement.

“We need to learn the lessons from other communities and apply them to Oberlin,” Norenberg said. “We were already doing pretty cutting-edge stuff with technology, but it’s good to see us grow on other fronts, too, like community policing.

I’m looking forward to seeing Oberlin continue to advance.”

SEC Reaches Settlement with Trustee Charged with Fraud Oliver Bok News Editor After allegedly committing fraud within his hedge fund, Thomas Kutzen, OC ’76 and chair of Oberlin’s Investment Committee, resigned in early July from the Board of Trustees.

Kutzen is the founding CEO of AlphaBridge Capital Management, a hedge fund that cheated investors by inflating the value of the fund’s assets and repeatedly deceiving the firm’s internal auditor, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In January 2014, after the scale of the overvaluation of AlphaBridge’s assets had become apparent, the auditor decreased the official net asset value of the fund from $138 million to $48 million — a 65 percent decrease. Since AlphaBridge collected a management fee of two percent of the firm’s assets and 20 percent of the firm’s profit, the valuation of AlphaBridge’s assets directly corresponded to the personal income of Kutzen and his co-owners.

The SEC fined Kutzen, Michael J. Carino and AlphaBridge a grand total of $5 million, banned Carino from working in the financial industry for at least the next three years and officially censured Kutzen. Neither Kutzen nor Carino admitted to the SEC’s charges, but both agreed to accept the punishments as part of a settlement.

As chair of the Investment Committee, Kutzen worked closely with the College’s investment staff and kept the rest of the committee informed of any changes to the endowment.

Kutzen was also a member of the Audit Committee and Executive and Debt subcommittee.

According to a press release from the Com-

munications Office, Kutzen “will continue to support the institution in a variety of volunteer capacities.” When asked what those volunteer capacities would entail specifically, a spokesperson for the College declined to comment.

“He’s resigned and then he’s continuing on board as a volunteer? So it’s not really a resignation,” said College junior and member of the Responsible Investing Organization Jasper Clarkberg.

In response to the scandal, RIO wrote a petition calling for increased transparency in Oberlin’s investments.

“If something is transparent, then it’s hard to make mistakes like this,” Clarkberg said. “Transparency is good because it forces you to be ethical and be sure about what you’re doing and be precise. Since we don’t know a lot about what our endowment is invested in, or how the office works, it’s really hard to hold it accountable.”

The petition also called for greater diversity on the Board, including adding more members from “non-financial industries” and marginalized communities.

“We don’t think that the fraud allegations have anything to do with the Oberlin endowment; we just think that it’s indicative of a larger culture of wanting to hire people who will create the most profit for the endowment rather than wanting to hire people who have an ethical basis for the investments and will probably not commit fraud,” Clarkberg said.

In response to questions from the Review about the demands in RIO’s petition and whether the College would be reviewing its investments in light of Kutzen’s fraud settlement, General Counsel Sandhya Subramanian

The Oberlin Review — Established 1874 —

Volume 144, 140, Number 1 2

(ISSN 297–256)

September 4, 2015

Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods.

Advertising rates: $18 per column inch. Second-class postage paid at Oberlin, Ohio.

Entered as second-class matter at the Oberlin, Ohio post office April 2, 1911.

POSTMASTER SEND CHANGES TO: Wilder Box 90, Oberlin, Ohio 44074-1081.

Office of Publication: Burton Basement, Oberlin, Ohio 44074.

Phone: (440) 775-8123 Fax: (440) 775-6733 On theOn web: thehttp://www.oberlinreview.org web: oberlinreview.org

released the following statement on behalf of the College: “While the College is not in a position to comment on the SEC’s action regarding Mr. Kutzen, it is among the Board’s highest priorities to ensure responsible stewardship of the College’s endowment. The Board is pursuing a due diligence process to confirm that reasonable oversight and accountability measures are in place and will continue to balance its fiduciary duties with its commitment to responsible transparency about its actions and the College’s operations. The Board also continues to be dedicated to enhancing diversity within its ranks, in accordance with the institutional priorities reflected in the College’s strategic planning process.”

According to current and former members of the Investment Committee, Kutzen was an exceptional investment chair for Oberlin.

“He was a complete gentleman,” said Leonard Smith, professor of History and a member of the Investment Committee from 2011 to 2013. “He was very devoted to the College. I thought he worked very hard on the behalf of the College.”

Smith said he was “saddened” by the news that Kutzen had settled with the SEC for allegedly committing fraud.

“I don’t altogether know what to make of it. I know that in the business community, I’ve been told by people with absolutely no connection to the College, let alone Tom Kutzen, that you can’t presume guilt on the outcome of an SEC investigation. They’re a zealous organization — it’s in the public good, I’m not faulting what the SEC did, not at all, but I think in my own mind

Julian Liv Combe Ring Madeline Allegra Kirkland Stocker Managing editor Samantha Vida Weisblum Link News editors Rosemary Oliver Boeglin Bok Alex Tyler Howard Sloan Opinions editor Will Kiley Rubenstein Petersen This Week Weekeditor editor ZoëGrace Strassman Tobin Arts editors Louise Kara Edwards Brooks Georgia Danny Evans Horn Sports editors Sarena Quinn Malsin Hull Madeleine Randy O’Meara Ollie Layout manager editors Talia Tiffany Rodwin Fung Layout editors Abby Ben Garfinkel Carlstad Alanna Alexa Sandoval Corey Photo editors NathalieOlivia Hawthorne Gericke Photo editors Brannon Rockwell-Charland Bryan Rubin Online editor Alanna Ben Shepherd Bennett Editors-in-chief Editors-in-Chief

I’ve reserved judgement because I’m not really competent to know what happened.”

The SEC accused Carino, a minority owner and the firm’s chief compliance officer, of primarily perpetrating the fraud. According to the SEC, sometime between 2008 and 2010 Carino routinely supplied his own estimates of the value of AlphaBridge’s assets to brokers who were supposed to produce independent and unbiased valuations. The brokers then passed Carino’s estimates to AlphaBridge’s internal auditor and lied, saying that Carino’s estimates were, in fact, their own. Both brokers were eventually fired for their participation in the scheme.

The SEC’s statement does not appear to implicate Kutzen as an active participant in the alleged fraud. But it indicates that Kutzen may have been aware of what Carino was doing. According to the SEC, after the auditor became suspicious of the brokers’ numbers in 2011 and asked to communicate with the brokers without Carino’s interference, “Carino emailed the auditor’s questions to [one of the brokers], along with Carino’s suggested responses. Carino copied Kutzen on this email.” The broker then sent the auditor a slightly modified version of Carino’s drafted response.

“Although I remain a qualified, registered investment advisor with the SEC, I have stepped down in the best interests of the College,” Kutzen said in an email to the Review. “I am pleased this matter has been resolved and is behind us at the firm. I believe Oberlin is a very special place, and it has been an honor to serve Oberlin.

I wish to thank the many friends and members of the community who have sent in emails, calls and notes of support.”

Business manager Maureen CurtisCoffey Cook Business manager Savi Sedlacek Ads manager Caley Watnick Ads manager Reshard el-Shair Online editor Cyrus Eosphoros Production Sophia Bamert Production manager manager Hazel Galloway Production staff Stephanie Bonner Production staff Ryanne Berry Emma Eisenberg Julia Davis Taylor Field KiraHamilton Findling Katherine Lya Finston Julia Hubay Tracey Knott Annelise Giseburt Noah Morris Auden Granger Anna Peckham Jennifer Jimenez Silvia Sheffield Sami Mericle Drew Wise Distributors Mike Ode Distributors Joe Camper Natalie Rathgeber Joseph Dilworth KylaJames Van Gelder Kuntz

Corrections

Corrections: The Review is not aware of any corrections week.

The Review is not awarethis of any corrections at this time. To submit a correction, email The Review strives to print all managingeditor@oberlinreview.org. information as accurately as possible.

If you feel the Review has made an error, please send an e-mail to managingeditor@oberlinreview.org.

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The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

Page 3

Off the Cuff: Jan Thornton, professor of Neuroscience Jan Thornton is a professor of Neuroscience at Oberlin. She recently co-authored a review for Hormones and Behavior with Veronica Burnham, OC ’14 on the way hormones impact Alzheimer’s disease. The review arose from research Thornton presented at the International Congress on Neuroendocrinology in Sydney, Australia.

I should warn you, I’ve forgotten most of the biology I learned in high school.

I started in journalism in college. I started more in humanities, journalism and then actually communications, so I was working in the speech department and then psychology. And I like the humanities and the social sciences and all of that stuff.

So there’s hope for me. I can still be a neuro professor if I want?

Sure. And actually that skill set that I learned back then too is still useful. I am putting out the Neuroscience department newsletter this year. So those things that I learned about in journalism have been useful, I keep using those things.

What made you interested in studying Alzheimer’s disease?

Actually, I’m interested in a combination of biology and psychology, the biological basis of behavior. I’ve had a longstanding interest in that and I’ve studied it from a number of different aspects and a couple different endpoints. Now, for a while I’ve started thinking about [how] gonadal hormones — estrogens and androgens — are important for maintaining the maximal cognitive functioning of humans as well as other animals.

A lot of times there are these sex differences between males and females, and so people have said, ‘So what’s going on with some of those? Are they due to the hormones, or are they due to something else?’ One of those endpoints of cognitive function is memory, and one of those sex differences is actually in Alzheimer’s disease. … Women get Alzheimer’s disease more than men and earlier than men, and it looks like some

Monday, Aug. 31 10:48 a.m. A student reported a suspicious person near her practice room in Robertson Hall, along with $50 missing from her purse. Officers and members of the Oberlin Police Department responded and checked the interior and exterior of the building but the individual was not located.

2:35 p.m. A student reported she lost a key in the area between Peters Hall and Allencroft House and requested to be notified if it is located.

6:30 p.m. Officers and mem-

of that might be because women go through menopause and their estrogens plummet. Whereas for men, their androgens decrease over time but it’s much slower, so they too will get Alzheimer’s disease, but a lot of times it takes a little longer than it does for women because of those estrogens.

So that’s what we’re thinking is going on: Those estrogens will help maintain that cognitive function as we age. … So we’re looking at an aging model — because of what happens with aging and memory loss — as well as [an] Alzheimer’s disease model, as well as actually a schizophrenia model.

I saw that in your research, you’re looking at the luteinizing hormone? What’s that?

It turns out that the whole control of the system — there’s a hormone for the brain that then goes to the pituitary that hangs off the base of the brain — causes a release of LH, or luteinizing hormone.

That’s actually the hormone that causes estrogen to be produced in ovaries and androgens to be produced in testes. And then there’s negative feedback. So what those androgens and estrogens do is they keep those LH levels low, so that what happens with menopause is that those estrogens go down, that negative feedback is no longer there and LH levels go very high.

What we’ve been finding is that not only are the estrogens important and the estrogens are acting on the brain to help with memory functions, but estrogens are also important in keeping that LH level low. High levels of LH seem to be rather toxic to the hippocampus, an area of the brain that’s really important for learning and memory. As far as drugs to lower LH, as far as we know, none of those cause cancer. Those don’t have big problems like that, whereas estrogen does.

What kind of models are you using?

We use rat models because of evolution there’s a whole lot of physiology that’s the same across mammals, so they have the same hormones that cause the same kind of effects and they also seem to be very similar in terms of their effects on the brain. Certainly humans are much, much, much, much, much more sophis-

bers of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm in the kitchen of Keep Cottage.

The cause of the alarm was found to be excessive heat from the stoves with no ventilation.

The alarm was reset and those cooking were instructed to use the vents.

10:12 p.m. A student reported the theft of his bicycle from the north side of Barnard House sometime around 7 p.m. The bicycle is mainly blue with some silver, possibly a Mongoose mountain bike. The bicycle was not registered and was not locked at the time of theft.

Tuesday, Sept. 1 10:30 a.m. An officer on

ones, it’s going to be a great opportunity to have something that helps out with that.

Neuroscience Professor Jan Thornton, who recently published a review of the impact of hormones on the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

ticated with what they can do with their brains. So rats are kind of a simpler model of simple memory, but there seems to be a relationship there.

How do you elevate the rats’ LH? We remove the ovaries, the main source of estrogen. In humans, when that’s done it’s called surgically induced menopause.

So broadly speaking, the rats that you give estrogen to show improved memory?

Yeah, what happens is if you remove the ovaries in female rats, their memory gets a lot worse. If you give estrogen [to them], it gets better. But if instead of estrogen you just lower their LH level, their memory is also much better.

Is the LH level a potential cause of Alzheimer’s or simply just one factor?

It’s more of a treatment. It’s not going to be something that cures schizophrenia or Alzheimer’s disease. But right now, as far as Alzheimer’s disease goes, it’s a devastating illness; the baby boomers are all getting older, and we’re getting a lot more people with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s not just devastating for the individual, but for the whole family. And if this is something that really helps maintain one’s memory and the ability to recognize one’s loved

patrol observed an unlocked bicycle in the bike rack on the southwest corner of Hall Auditorium. The owner was contacted and reported the bicycle as stolen, but a report was not filed. The bicycle was transported to Safety and Security for safekeeping.

1:19 p.m. A student reported the theft of a bicycle sometime during the last week of August from outside of Lord House.

The bicycle is a gray, pink and white Huffy Trailblazer, valued at approximately $125. It is registered and was secured to the bike rack at the time of theft.

6:19 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the first floor of Price House.

In your opinion, are researchers making any progress on figuring out what causes Alzheimer’s disease?

Lots of people are looking at it. It’s been one of those tough nuts to crack as far as trying to figure out what’s going on. We don’t know. We know that there’s a lot of increase in a protein named beta-amyloid that seems to be really problematic in terms of causing destruction. One of the things the field is looking at now is inflammation and whether that may be playing a role. We don’t have a good handle on what causes these things or a good handle on how to treat them. And so kind of hitting it at both sides to kind of help things is strategy that’s often used in science.

How is your research related to schizophrenia?

There’s some interesting correlational work in humans where individuals who have schizophrenia, women who have schizophrenia, tend to report that their symptoms are lower at times when usually their estrogen levels are higher. … Estrogens aren’t going to cure schizophrenia, but the treatments these days are just not as good as we would want them to be. So maybe if we learn more about what’s going on with the estrogens and how they’re acting, we might be able to come up with another tool in our tool belt to be able to help people lessen some of the symptoms of schizophrenia.

What’s next for your research?

We’re continuing to use this model of aging and Alzheimer’s disease to better understand how these hormones are acting on the brain, to again kind of think about potential treatment options. So one of the things we’re looking at is whether these hormones might be acting on what are called neurotrophic factors in the brain, which are these proteins that are involved in maintaining the health of neurons. So that’s one of things we’re looking at.

A facilities electrician responded to check the detector and the alarm was reset.

Wednesday, Sept. 2 6:25 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at Goldsmith Apartments. No cause for the alarm could be found. A work order was filed for electricians to check the detector.

9:35 a.m. Campus dining staff reported a vehicle accident in the parking area on the north side of the Carnegie Building. There were no injuries, but there was minor damage to both vehicles.

10:10 a.m. Officers re-

Interview by Oliver Bok, News editor Photo courtesy of Jan Thornton

sponded to assist a student who injured her ankle on the third floor of Fairchild House.

The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

10:10 a.m. A student reported the theft of a bicycle sometime during the night from the front of Stevenson Dining Hall.

The bicycle is a silver Shimana with a light and bell in front and a basket on the back, valued at approximately $250.

8:20 p.m. Officers responded to a noise complaint at a village house on Professor Street.

Residents in the front yard were advised of the complaint and were told to bring their speakers inside.

News

Page 4

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

School Board Delays Bond by Another Year Sarah Conner Staff Writer

Oberlin City Schools delayed passing the bond necessary to build a new school that would move the city toward having a K–12 campus.

In order to start construction, voters would have to approve a bond to raise enough funds to finance the project. The bond vote was originally scheduled for this May. However, according to School Board President Ken Stanley, Superintendent John Schroth’s illness and death earlier this year severely delayed the district’s future plans, causing the district to move the bond issue to November.

The Board then decided to pull the bond issue from November’s ballet this week, delaying it by another year.

“This past year has been a tough one for the district,” Stanley said. “We brought in an interim superintendent who did a terrific job, and was also the principal at Prospect [Elementary School]. Keeping the district running was more important than the bond issue. Then, what is going to sound like a series of excuses is just a series of realities. Then, we went into the process of hiring a new superintendent.”

Originally, Oberlin Schools wanted to rehire the interim superintendent, but he declined. After going through roughly 50 applications from across the country, the Board decided Dr. David Hall was the right choice.

“My family and I are very proud and excited to become members of the Oberlin commu-

nity,” Hall said in a statement on the district website. “I come to Oberlin City Schools with 22 years of educational experience, which ranges from being a classroom teacher in the Kalamazoo Public School system to an assistant superintendent for Lorain City Schools.”

This week marks his completion of one month in office. The Board pushed the vote back another year to allow Dr. Hall to focus on the day-to-day tasks of his new job and allow taxpayers to have a full discussion about the future of the district.

As of now, the four Oberlin schools were built for a capacity of 2,000 students, but currently have just over 1,000.

“We have too much space, we have too many rooms, but they are not as large as what the state mandates today,” Stanley said.

“Children like to graduate from one school to the next, and parents like that children go to school in the neighborhood, but maintaining four school buildings is expensive and there are a lot of costs involved, such as having four principals and more administrative staff. Fewer buildings would be more efficient.”

Within the next 20 years, Oberlin City Schools plans to have a K–12 campus. The school would be located near the current Oberlin High School football stadium.

The district hopes to breach its goal by building a pre–K through fifth grade school building, which would be partially funded by the College.

Once a 7–12 building is constructed, the original building would turn into a K–6 school.

The new Oberlin Schools Superintendent David Hall stands in his office. The district has delayed plans to issue a bond in November to finance new school construction.

Benjamin Shepherd

The second building would come to fruition once state funding is received. One of the main motivations for the new school buildings is to increase efficiency in areas such as bussing and administration.

“We currently have music teachers, art teachers and language teachers that travel from building to building and spend a lot of their time just packing their supplies and moving it,” Stanley said. “The teachers don’t get to talk to other teachers in other buildings

much at all, so it will simply be more efficient to have a K–12 campus.”

As of right now, the new school would replace Eastwood and Prospect Elementary School. Eastwood would be repurposed and maintained by the school district. Prospect would either be sold for an appropriate use or get torn down. The building of the new school will raise taxes minimally, but the Board maintains they are looking into finding ways to localize labor and help the local economy.

Committee Begins Search for New MRC Director Melissa Harris A search committee comprised of faculty, staff and students will meet for the first time this week to kick off the hunt for a new director of the Multicultural Resource Center.

Former Associate Dean for Academic Diversity Director Alison Williams left her post at Oberlin College to take on the role of associate provost for diversity and intercultural education at Denison University earlier this summer. Williams began her tenure at Oberlin in September 2012.

“The thing that we’re most excited about in the search is the opportunity to hear what students are

interested in and what their priorities are for the director of the Center,” said Kristen Surla, Asian and Pacific Islander Diaspora Community Coordinator.

Dean of Students and Vice President Eric Estes announced that Associate Dean of the Curriculum and Professor of Religion David Kamitsuka will chair the committee. Faculty and staff members Kazim Ali, Gillian Johns, Shelley Lee, Meredith Raimondo, Dana Hamdan, Dim Jackson Davidson, Chris Jenkins and Marcelo Vinces join Kamitsuka in the search. Students Brian Cabral, Anne Chege, Alex Cunningham, Miles Ginoza and De’Ron McDaniel will also contribute to the selection process.

Former IBM Exec Beats Out Krislov Continued from page 1 force of good in the world.”

University of Iowa Chair of Presidential Search Committee and Interim President Jean Robillard led the charge in determining a permanent successor. The search committee, comprised of 21 voting members, consisted of nine faculty members and an assortment of Alumni Association, Staff Council, ex-officio members and others. The group began meeting in February after former President Sally Mason announced her retirement in January. Mason served as the University’s president for eight years.

Krislov has not confirmed whether he will continue to seek employment elsewhere, but stressed that he remains passionate about working at Oberlin and looks forward to continuing his tenure.

“I have had a wonderful set of experiences, and my family and I are very happy at Oberlin,” he said. “If I end up staying at Oberlin for many, many years, that’s all good.”

The College plans to begin advertising the position this week and will begin holding listening sessions open to the public in late September, according to Estes. The search process is expected to conclude by early December following intensive interviews and on-campus visits.

Estes added that the search committee will seek to procure a candidate “who is enthusiastic and has a real academic and activist track record working with students, especially historically underrepresented students.”

Surla and Estes both stressed how vital student participation will be in conducting listening sessions, as they will allow those who utilize the MRC to better shape the Center according

to their needs. Africana Community Coordinator Dio Aldridge also said that faculty and staff engagement is key to better understanding the desires of the student body.

“I think it’ll offer the faculty and staff from other departments to see what other students are interested in and ultimately use it in their departments, too,” Aldridge said.

The search committee plans to announce the schedule for listening sessions within the next few weeks as the process unfolds. Estes said the new director will be tasked with uniting faculty and staff with students around the intellectual and political life of the community. “[We are looking for] someone who can be an institutional leader,”

Estes said. “[They need] to increase not just the compositional diversity of our community, but also the capacity of all students, faculty and staff needed to make this a more inclusive and socially just community.”

The MRC plays a pivotal role in supporting underrepresented students and providing educational resources regarding social justice and anti-oppression issues, as well as other topics. The Center’s mission statement claims it “serves as a crucial hub for the collaborative support of historically disenfranchised communities and works on issues of diversity and inclusion within a social justice context at Oberlin College and Conservatory.”

New Cameras Draw Ire from Students, City Residents Continued from page 1 tapes, and that criteria should not include nonviolent crimes,” Ecker said.

While it’s not clear if the Oberlin administration has compiled the kind of detailed criteria that Ecker describes, Estes made it clear that the introduction of the cameras was about student safety, not enforcing rules or punishing students who might be using illicit substances in the footage.

“To be honest — and speaking for myself — my greatest priority is the safety of students,” Estes said. “Our approach to substance abuse has not changed and has always had a strong focus on individual responsibility and an emphasis on education and outreach.”

Deacon of Oberlin’s House of the Lord Fellowship and longtime WOBC host Meeko Israel said the influx of cameras caused “surprise and disappointment” among Oberlin residents.

“It doesn’t help the town and gown relationship at all,” Israel said.

“The College has a great reputation and it has traditionally [had] a feeling of openness and not like you’re at a run of the mill campus where everything is highly controlled and policed. … It begs the question, why?”

Israel also expressed concern that increased surveillance could lead to overly vigorous policing.

“It will have the potential of having the ability of the police and/ or [Safety and Security] being able to now really micro-watch people and follow people on the campus with these cameras, which I think could open the door to arrests for petty things,” Israel said.

A student enters a dorm under a security camera. Every dorm entrance now has a camera mounted above or beside the doorframe.

Kellianne Doyle

Opinions The Oberlin Review

September 4, 2015

Letters to the Editors Division Between Oberlin, Real World Exaggerated Dear first-years, Throughout my time here at Oberlin, I have grappled with the question of whether what I am doing here really matters.

I have spent weeks writing essays that only two pairs of eyes will ever see. I’ve had drunk conversations that neither of us remembered the next morning.

My concern is that Oberlin is an environment where ideas are exchanged but seldom applied outside of college life. Discussions with friends have confirmed that I am not the only one who has lingering suspicions that a liberal arts education at a wellfunded college campus that is seemingly walled-off from the surrounding corn fields is not a productive or valid way to learn about the real world.

I am sure that during your time here at Oberlin, you will hear people refer to this school as a bubble — as a brief departure from the real world that we take in order to prepare ourselves for the injustice and oppression that will confront us outside of the walls of this institution. When I have returned home at the end of every semester and had to explain what I’ve been doing for the past few months to people from my hometown, they roll their eyes at my explanations of trigger warnings and pronouns.

They ask me, “Why do you go through the trouble of coddling people when they will soon have to fend for themselves in the real world?”

It is common to conceptualize Oberlin as “apart from the real world.” Accordingly, all Oberlin graduates go through a ceremony titled Commencement, meant to signal the beginning of our lives and our entrance into the real world. This conceptualization of college as purely preparatory prevents us from viewing Oberlin as a real place with real problems; it prevents us from addressing the social and political atmosphere of this campus in favor of think-

ing about how we will change the world. It’s even in the motto: “Think one person can change the world? So do we. Oberlin.”

However, this is not just a place to think. I do guarantee that you will think a lot during your time here. You should.

This is no revelation. However, throughout this period of intense thought, your place in the real world is never compromised. You will see institutionalized power structures acted out between individuals and groups on this campus. You will have the chance to participate in international academic discussions by publishing papers and presenting at conferences. The trigger warnings and safe spaces that we use are not meant to provide marginalized groups with a brief escape before their descent into the oppression of the broader country. No, these ideas are meant to transform society, and that transformation begins here on this campus.

So, regardless of your opinions about the value of the subject matter you will learn, just know: This is as real as it gets.

–Jake Nash College senior

Oberlin Alumna Gives Back to Community To the Editors: After completing my Africana Studies degree in 2014, I joined City Year, a national service organization that partners with public schools in high-poverty urban communities to help students graduate from high school ready for college and career success. My nine teammates and I directly supported academic achievement and student engagement in and out of the classroom in a predominantly Latino high school in Chicago.

I am writing this letter because many people have yet to know or understand what City Year really is. At its root core, it’s not about the amazing networking events the program has to offer, it’s about the students. It is

about reminding others about the voices that are oftentimes forgotten underneath all the data, negative media portrayals and stereotypes. Oberlin taught me to be an activist and to fight for social justice. City Year was just one way I decided to go about starting my silent revolution – by bringing it home and serving mi comunidad.

I joined City Year because I wanted to be the role model my mother wished she could be for me. My mother immigrated to the U.S. at 16 and has worked in a factory since then. Her American dream was to see me and my three younger siblings obtain the best education possible. However, as a first generation student, earning something as simple as an 8th grade diploma proved to be difficult.

As an English as a Second Language student living in Chicago’s South Side, I could not advocate as easily for myself as other students because I did not know where to start. With my mother’s resilience and the amazing support of my teachers, I earned scholarships from the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund and the Posse Foundation, which sent me to Oberlin. Thanks to my professors and scholarship coaches, I am now wearing a bright red City Year jacket.

The more I understood my identity growing up, the more I recognized that I was only one of many Latino students who felt trapped by the statistical barriers that news reports and research placed before them. Unfortunately, not everyone can escape their zip code.

My students are part of those statistics and they are daily warriors. One student I worked with was frequently late to class and constantly put her head down because, as she admitted later in the year, she had low self-esteem. Sitting in the front of the classroom was torture because it would require her to speak out loud and she felt awkward about her voice.

After many words of encouragement, she began arriving before the first bell and ended the year with a higher grade than she anticipated.

Another student called me “professor” for a month just as See Letters, page 7

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 Julian Ring Madeline Stocker Managing Editor Vida Weisblum Opinions Editor Kiley Petersen

Mental Health Initiatives Reveal Where Student Opinion Heard Loudest Laundry prices and ObieID password changes notwithstanding, few things at Oberlin are as widely maligned as the College’s mental health resource infrastructure. While Student Health Services as a whole receives a significant amount of criticism from students year after year and while the College makes regular efforts to respond in due course, the way Oberlin handles mental health issues seems to consistently receive low marks.

These resources are understandingly in high demand, since any environment in which academic pressure and personal stresses collide necessitates an effective outlet for seeking help. In line with the issue’s persistence, Dean of Students Eric Estes’ Aug. 25 email to students — which focused largely on improvements to mental health — was the subject of intense scrutiny in the days leading up to the start of fall semester. Whether approaching its contents with criticism or commendation, Estes’ message offers valuable insight into the priorities and resolutions of an administration often billed as deficient.

In his email, Estes cites feedback obtained via the Oberlin Mental Health Alliance and the administration-endorsed Student Senate referendum as prompting funding reallocations and support staff hires. The cooperation that helped bring about the newly-minted Peer Support Center was due largely to the efforts of students in bringing the issue to light, Estes said. In an email to the Review he added that certain changes, such as Student Health Services’ addition of Saturday hours, were made in response to clear feedback. On the 2014 spring Student Senate referendum, 172 out of 321 respondents — or 53.6 percent — said they would like to see the Counseling Center’s walk-in hours open during the weekend.

However, this is not always the case. The College remains silent on more costly changes, such as moving Student Health Services and the Counseling Center closer to campus. Overwhelming student support (92.3 percent of students responded “Yes” to the move in the 2014 referendum) and a recommendation from the Student Health Working Group’s end-of-semester report has not seemed to influence the administration’s actions.

In a report, the Student Health Working Group stated that “neither the working group nor Student Senate have the resources to conduct a survey that would provide [an accurate account of student opinion]. If financial incentives are required,” the report read, “we believe that the benefits of information well exceed the costs that would result.”

The larger lesson here is that the administration generally prioritizes neater and cleaner avenues of change carried out in smaller increments. This is not a statement intended to devalue the effectiveness of grassroots organizing, nor is it intended to criticize the administration’s decision-making. It is, however, an informed observation. When it comes to budgeting for the maintenance and expansion of mental health facilities on campus, the administration often turns to affiliated metrics to assess student opinion.

This may help explain why the referendum’s completion rate remains consistently low, as it has for years. This past semester, 415 out of 2,961 total students filled it out. In 2013, 860 students completed the referendum, but those numbers may be affected by the survey’s extension into the fall 2014 semester; the 2013–2014 referendum required at least half the student body to vote. Aside from this notable exception, however, previous referendums exhibit uniformly poor completion rates. So why, on a campus known for speaking out, does the number of voices on this survey dwindle?

See Editorial, page 7 Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, managing editor and Opinions editor — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

Opinions

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The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

Domestic Partnership Policy Invasive, Exclusive Cyrus Eosphoros Columnist Two things happened in my life last May, within weeks of each other: I proposed, and my fiancée graduated. She decided to live in Oberlin. I decided to live with her.

Technically, we could have gotten married already. We might have even been able to manage it the day I proposed if we had borrowed a car. But we’d decided to wait until after I got out of college in spring 2018. We were engaged, anyway, ring and all; we’d made our intention to marry as clear as possible. How hard could convincing the school of that fact be?

I want to note that every person I interacted with from ResEd was absolutely lovely. Over the course of the summer I got polite responses to my panicked and probably incoherent emails at all hours of the day. The process was probably as painless as it could’ve been. It’s just that the people who make this system chose to create a process that is inherently painful and invasive.

Oberlin’s domestic partnership policy recognition application is used for off-campus housing and dining exemptions for “same-sex” partnerships. The only information ResEd offers openly is what you shouldn’t do with a housing exemption. Numerous warnings pepper the policy, explaining that DP is not a “loophole” for students to abuse in order to excuse themselves from the restrictive housing and dining requirements.

Some parts of the web page are almost charmingly nonsensical. Statements like “It is not for students who are in serious (engagement type) relationships, only those wishing to formalize and celebrate a life-long commitment

to one another,” raise the question of what, ex- nership exemption; all the space is taken up by finished. We’d won. actly, the administration thinks an engagement telling you not to try. Thankfully, the first person On my way out, I remembered to ask how the demonstrates an intention of doing. The rest is who replied to my emails sent me the require- College was going to refund my family the housfar less charming. ments list. I read it and balked. ing and dining fees, which is how I found out Under the heading “What does the commuResEd wants at least one document from that getting this exemption means the College nity say about DP?” students were quoted only each of two lists. Category one requirements reconsiders my financial aid package — all of it. in order to preemptively accuse the applicant of included durable power of attorney, a will beWould it have changed my decision to try to abusing the policy they apparently loved. queathing personal property to one another as live off-campus? I don’t know. At no point during The worst of these was, “Abuse of this policy determined by state law or an insurance policy that process did anyone tell me I was jeopardizis an insult to [our LGBTQ community] and to naming one another as beneficiary, among oth- ing my scholarships. All I can do now is refresh our struggles to achieve a more just society for ers. Category two included a lease or verification PRESTO daily and hope things turn out. people of all sexual orientations,” wrote Heather of co-habitation for six months prior to the date When I set out to write this article, I braced West, OC ’97. of application or evidence of joint credit cards, myself for people to ask why I was complaining.

These quotes assume that the default use of among others. The last line of the list of paper- After all, our case had been approved. On some the DP policy must be with a dishonorable in- work requirements is, “Or as the sole document: level, I was already asking myself that. Why tention, not for those who actually wish to up- Evidence of a domestic partnership/marriage wasn’t I happy to have cleared all the hurdles hold the policy — queer couples. I don’t blame document from a state, city or municipality.” between me and the opportunity to wake up in the alumna for that, to be clear. I blame the sysAfter the stressful process of acquiring all the morning next to the woman who will be my tem that taught them that constant suspicion of documents, I received an email saying that our wife? other LGBTQ people keeps them safe from hoI couldn’t make myself be thankful for the ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– mophobia and transphobia. fact that I’d managed to, by pure luck, match The assumption of cisgender, monosexual I blame the system that taught them the administration’s criteria for what a truly imqueerness — “gay and lesbian marriages” to be that constant suspicion of other portant queer relationship must look like. They exact — was as ever present in the policy as it that “students affirm that they are one LGBTQ people keeps them safe require was unsurprising. ResEd was under no obligaanother’s sole partner.” For my polyamorous tion to include transgender students when most from homophobia and transphobia. friends to make the same request as me would people forget that equal marriage is a trans ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– require perjury. rights issue for straight trans people as well.

Ironically, the ResEd site states that this Tentatively, I sent the first of many, many request had been approved around an hour af- policy is an answer to bans on equal marriage in emails. My fiancée and I were technically al- ter we dropped the paperwork off. Technically, Ohio. This seems to be where the invasive charlowed to marry, if we both misgendered the it would be approved pending additional infor- acter comes from: a belief that a domestic partother. But due to the protracted legal battles mation; we still needed a credit card with both nership is an inferior substitute for marriage. As that transitioning would involve (legal names our names on it, and that was at the mercy of a supposed favor to the unfortunate queer, the and correct genders, for example), we were still the U.S. Postal Service. But for every meaningful College takes it upon itself to audit whether or functionally unable to marry. Would we qualify? purpose, we were done. not I can be trusted to eventually get married — They said yes.

A couple of days later, the card we needed love, longevity of partnership or literal engageThe website doesn’t have any of the instruc- arrived. I ran to the ResEd office to show it off. ment ring aside. It’s obvious that they presume tions on how to actually get a domestic part- Everyone was all smiles, including me. It was the answer is no.

Great Power Politics Return to International Relations Sean Para Columnist Last year was a watershed year in international relations. We are seeing its dramatic effects this year and will continue to do so in many ways, as 2014 marked a return to previous Great Powers’ political relationships.

First of all, the Ukraine Crisis and ensuing civil war in Donbass laid bare the divisions between Russia and the West and reintroduced the specter of war to Europe. China has become a central player in international politics and has been actively trying to replace the United States as the country with the greatest influence in East Asia, a role the U.S. has fulfilled since 1945. A few years ago many still believed that the end of the Cold War had brought

an end to this sort of geopolitical competition, but in fact this was a serious misjudgment.

What our society has seen in the past quarter century falls well within an established pattern of the rise and fall of Great Powers. Great Powers emerge onto the world stage as major political players only after a substantial period of economic development, during which a country’s wealth far exceeds its influence abroad.

This pattern can be seen again in our own age with the rise of China, which has assumed its new position as a burgeoning superpower only after decades of rapid economic growth. The U.S. is another example, as it experienced hasty economic growth and became recognized as a Great Power after defeating Spain in

1898. The U.S. only achieved a place of global preeminence after two apocalyptic World Wars, long after it had been the world’s largest economy.

Paul Kennedy first pointed out the pattern of a power’s economic then political rise in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, and the theory rings true today.

The United States is still by far the most powerful nation in the world, and leads a coalition of liberal democracies that, between NATO and America’s Pacific allies, represents perhaps the wealthiest and most militarily able alliance in world history.

However, after a decade of economic stagnation and imperial fatigue, many of its alliances have frayed. China is now the second largest economy in the world and exerts an enormous

amount of influence in its region and increasingly around the globe.

For instance, China has recently launched an aggressive campaign of land reclamation in the South China Sea, creating military bases to buttress its claims to sovereignty in the area. It has also taken aggressive actions against Japan and recently created an international rival to the IMF, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Russia, after almost collapsing in the 1990s, had a period of rapid development during Putin’s first decade in office. Russia’s future is not as certain as China’s, largely due to the economy’s over-dependence on exporting fossil fuels and a lack of a strong manufacturing or consumer economy.

Nonetheless, Russia exerts an

enormous amount of influence in the post-Soviet world and Eastern Europe, most clearly seen in its massive intervention in Ukraine, which has weakened Ukraine to such a degree that it will not be able to affiliate itself with NATO any time soon. Like China, Russia clearly desires to push the United States out of its backyard and assert itself as a major power.

Therefore, what we are seeing now is a balancing act: Rising powers, foremost China and Russia, are asserting themselves more forcefully on the geopolitical stage after a period of economic growth since 1991.

The incipient alliance between Russia and China therefore falls into the traditional pattern of Great Power fluctuations and should have come as a surprise to no one.

James Joyce Teaches Master Class on Seizing Opportunities CJ Blair Columnist Few transitions are stranger than starting summer break after a year of college.

Admittedly, I thought going to Oberlin would grant me a lifetime exemption from boredom and access to any internship I wanted. But being an Obie doesn’t change the fact that many workplaces don’t accept first-years, leaving a lot of younger students at home for their first summer of college. With three months at hand, summer provides a glimpse into how a year of college has changed students and how successfully they may balance practical and enjoyable aspects of their lives once they graduate.

One of my most ambitious summer projects was reading Ulysses, the great and terrible mega-novel by James Joyce. Since reading a book was among my most impressive feats, it should be obvious that I didn’t have anything majorly exciting lined up for the break. Yet as I read Ulysses, I realized that it was actually rep-

resentative of everything I was doing with my summer.

In addition to that book, I read almost a dozen others, learned to cook, worked as a veterinary technician and ran 60 miles a week.

The sum of all those activities is exactly what you would guess: a hodgepodge. There was no crowning achievement I could present at the end of the summer, just a handful of experiences, some dull and some wonderful. This is, to a tee, exactly how I would summarize my experience reading.

Ulysses is an 800-page riff on the Odyssey that takes place in early 20th-century Dublin, featuring an eclectic series of adventures written in dozens of styles. About half of its 18 chapters were unbearable, scholarly nonsense that were nearly impossible to finish. However, the other half were profound and hilarious like nothing else I’ve read, and I enjoyed it despite likely missing the majority of the references. As I neared the end of the book, I began to realize how this impression of Ulysses was applicable

to my feelings about the summer.

First off, I was trying to find some sort of meaning in the way I spent my summer and in Ulysses, both of which I now know are impossible. When faced with inevitable boredom and loneliness, I start to feel like a blade that needs to be sharpened and I scramble to do things I know will be considered productive. I imagine a lot of people are also like this, especially students stripped of the social and intellectual excitement of college. But then I thought about the things I truly enjoyed about my summer and had an epiphany.

The things I enjoyed most were the ones I either didn’t expect or pursued for no reason. I wanted to get better at identifying plants, so I bought a field guide and learned the names of dozens of trees around my town. I planted 1500 golden rods and learned about a renowned Kentucky writer by working in her garden.

On their own, it’s hard to say that any of these things were very productive. I wasn’t thinking about the greater good or preparing for classes I

would take. They were just moments I snatched out of the air to see where they took me, with no real expectation of where that would be.

While I wouldn’t recommend trying to read Ulysses in its entirety, the book itself represents an idea I believe everyone should hear: When

––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The things I enjoyed most were the ones I either didn’t expect or pursued for no reason.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– given the time, gladly take whatever comes your way, and realize the things that you’ll enjoy and learn the most from can’t be predicted.

If asked whether I would ever do again what I did this summer, I would reply like the exalted Molly Bloom in the 40-page closing sentence of Ulysses: “yes I said yes I will yes.”

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

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Trump’s Proposed Wall Ineffective, Unnecessary Josh Ashkinaze Columnist The idea of America needing a big wall to keep out Mexicans is the political equivalent of aluminum: unattractive but recyclable.

It’s not surprising then that Donald Trump wants to build a “great, great” wall to stem the flow of illegal immigration.

His platform might be fuzzy, but as the first position paper on his website clearly lays out, “There must be a wall across the southern border.”

But really, a big wall to keep Mexicans out is both ineffective and unnecessary.

Big walls don’t work. Sociologists have found that increased U.S. border security increases the number of undocumented immigrants. Getting over the border once is expensive, so doing it twice is unlikely. And that leads to the worst possible scenario: immigrants who have come to the U.S. “illegally” can’t find a job and now can’t leave either. We have managed to create a weird type of involuntary freeriding.

After all, as good as big walls are at keeping immigrants out, they’re just as good at sealing them in.

In theory, we could just deport all of the undocumented immigrants that are sealed in.

But this is unrealistic. American Action Forum, a right-leaning think-tank, calculated that it would take 20 years and between $400 and 600 billion to deport all undocumented immigrants and prevent future undocumented immigrants from entering. That’s infeasible.

Increased border security leads to decreased freedom of movement. This is just one reason why 195 economists, lawyers and professors, among other professionals, signed the Open Borders Manifesto, which advocates removing state boundaries. The logic is that when people can cross from country to country more freely, they can travel to where their labor is actually needed. A 2011 paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives found that removing labor migration barriers

would increase global GDP by at least 50 percent.

But you don’t need to be an economist or wish to remove borders altogether, to realize that it’s –––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Big walls don’t work.

Sociologists have found that increased U.S. border security increases the number of undocumented immigrants.

Getting over the border once is expensive, so doing it twice is unlikely.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––– a bad idea to keep people trapped in a country where they can’t find a job. More freedom of movement, not less, is the solution.

Further, if you look at some of the big walls throughout history and around the world today, it’s not clear why we need one. When I think of a really big wall that kept people out, I think of the Berlin Wall. But this worked mostly

because of the amount of guards and a much smaller area to cover than the U.S.-Mexico border. And again, the Berlin Wall was built to keep people in, but I don’t think that’s the goal of Trump’s wall.

Of course, there’s the Great Wall of China, erected for military and defense reasons. The current biggest and most expensive walls are also defensive in purpose: Israel’s long-standing border wall with Palestine or Saudi Arabia’s new border wall with Iraq and parts of Yemen, for example. But wait, are we in a military conflict with Mexico?

No. We have a pretty nice relationship with Mexico — a $1.5 billion per day trading relationship.

But it wasn’t always this way.

In order to find the justification to build a big wall to keep Mexicans out, you have to take a time machine and go all the way back to the 1910s. That’s when there were actual soldiers invading our borders. In 1916, for example, a famous Mexican military general, Pancho Villa, commanded an army that overran and raided a town in New Mexico,

Letters to the Editors, cont.

Continued from page 5 long as I called him “doctor.” I reminded him that every completed worksheet meant one step closer to his future medical career.

I had students who illustrated courage every day, hour and second. One admitted not being able to find a safe space outside of the classroom because of the circumstances of his neighborhood, yet he excelled at algebra and managed to make the strictest teacher laugh with his authenticity and play on Spanglish phrases. I was their cheerleader, the same way my mother and mentors were for me.

My teammates noticed I was creative, but my fear of failure kept me from showing my students that mistakes are learning opportunities. During our team meetings, my team would suggest that I take on additional leadership roles. They taught me the importance of confidence and deliberations.

Not once had I seen myself as a leader until they complimented my potential. My partner teacher and coaches also demonstrated faith in my students and in me when they allowed space for constructive feedback and facilitation opportunities.

Now I am back for a second year because of my students and my strong belief in the power of young people. In the same way that my mother, mentors, students and teammates pushed me beyond my limits, I hope to guide future AmeriCorps members as they break down the barriers that younger generations are still trying to fight on their own.

–Jessica De Paz OC ’14

Community-College Ties Strengthened by City Council Representation Dear new and returning Oberlin students, Crafting this letter, I began as any good student would: I googled “letter to the editor.” It turns out these things are for sharing an opinion on a local issue. Today, the issue

I’d like to talk about is our local government, and my opinion is that myself and other young adults are alienated from formal democracy in Oberlin and beyond.

I graduated from Oberlin College in 2010, and while most of my classmates scattered to pursue their dreams, I chose to pursue mine right here in town. Since then, I have been involved in community organizations and non-profits throughout Lorain County.

I have worked for food justice by bringing fresh local produce to residents of all incomes through City Fresh and the Winter Farmer’s Market. I spent three years creating a sustainable food program for the Oberlin Early Childhood Center, administered a federal after-school program at Langston Middle School and served on the boards of the Oberlin Underground Railroad Society and the New Agrarian Center. Currently, I serve as the food service manager for Lorain County Head Start, feeding 700 children healthy meals each day.

Despite all of the work I have done in the community, for a long time I felt that government was not an effective way for me to create the social and political change I wanted to see. Why sit on committees dealing with the minutiae of city governance when I could work directly with community organizations to create initiatives and programs based on my values and relationships? Like many current and former college students I have spoken with, I was also wary of meddling in the town’s politics.

However, my views have changed. During my 10 years here, I have grown increasingly concerned about the ways that students and lifelong residents can feel disconnected from each other, even in this small community. Moreover, I am concerned that both groups feel disengaged from our local decision-making structure.

I have come to see a rift between, on the one hand, the halls of council and our codified ordinances and, on the other, the network of daily relationships and interactions that make living in Oberlin both a joy and a struggle. The space between the two can get frustrating and loud, but as our First Lady recently said right here in Oberlin: “Run to the noise.”

To that end, I have decided to run for

Oberlin City Council to get involved and give back to the town that has given me so much.

My work, if elected, will be to create more avenues for the community to understand and influence local politics. And to students, I would like to say that whether you plan to stay in Oberlin beyond your time at the College or not, you are an essential part of that community. You study here, you work here, you volunteer here. Your –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

During my 10 years here, I have grown increasingly concerned about the ways that students and lifelong residents can feel disconnected from each other, even in this small community.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– contributions to this town are important and participating in local government is another way to do what many of you have been doing for years. Whether that means voting, attending council meetings, joining a commission or running for office like me, I encourage you to do what you already do so well: Inform yourself, think carefully and act passionately and responsibly.

There will be ample opportunity to register to vote as groups like the League of Women Voters, Oberlin College Republicans and Libertarians and Oberlin College Democrats set up tables at campus events, including the upcoming Community Connections Fair on Tuesday, Sept. 8, from 4:30–6 p.m. You can also attend City Council meetings on the first and third Mondays of the month. Additionally, there are often open seats on local commissions which need the support of young people who are willing to work hard to develop wise policy.

Our community will always need your creativity, curiosity and courage. This is my invitation to show up and be seen.

–David Sokoll OC ’10

took over a U.S. cavalry camp and forced President Woodrow Wilson to send 75,000 troops to fight Villa’s army. But it’s not 1916 anymore. Mexicans aren’t invading American cities. Even the most at-risk demographic — undocumented Mexican men without high school diplomas — are three times less likely to be incarcerated than their native-born peers.

In short, we are much more likely to see migrant laborers come over the border than armies.

We don’t need a big wall. We need more freedom of movement.

So why does the big wall keep invading discussions? Think of aluminum. Aluminum isn’t pretty, but it’s useful because it can be endlessly recycled. Similarly, the attractive characteristic of the big wall proposition isn’t its truth, but its enduring reusability to the conservative media and lawmakers.

After all, just as aluminum won’t disintegrate, the (manufactured) need for a big wall won’t just dissolve. Both are simply reprocessed for further use.

Editorial: Senate Referendum Amplifies Student Voice Continued from page 5 Unfortunately, the answer to this question isn’t exactly clear.

Apathy may be the culprit for some students, though outcry among several communities of students remains consistent. Confusion in the face of bureaucracy is also a viable explanation, likely for a broader student base.

Clearer is that this trend must change. Students who desire change in the more immediate future must take the Senate’s referendums, working groups and other administrative paths to action seriously. At the same time, it is up to the administration and, to a lesser –––––––––––––––––––––––––——

The larger lesson here is that the administration generally prioritizes neater and cleaner avenues of change carried out in smaller increments.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––— extent, Senate, to develop more straightforward methods of assessing and responding to student opinion.

Whether by incentivizing the completion of forthcoming referendums or by creating a new, simplified survey all its own, the administration must understand that increased transparency with regard to mental health initiatives is not only possible but essential if they hope to decrease friction between themselves and the students they serve.

Oberlin Summer Highlights In Town:

APO L

Daniel spent a week living at a monastery located in Maryland. As Burmese tradition has it, one is supposed to attend meditations once before the age of 20 and once after.

His father did not complete these mediations, but Daniel was interested in continuing this tradition. He meditated for 6 to 9 hours a day and didn’t eat after 7 p.m. Reflecting on the experience, Daniel said he has been “trying to be mindful in everything I do.” This mindfulness has since translated into his daily life and has made Daniel reflect more on his daily routines and habits.

Emma received the Dalai Lama Fellowship from Oberlin College in 2015. She started an arts program for a government school located in Chiplun, India, six miles from Mumbai. The program’s goal was to bring students together through art. Emma gained an interest in Buddhism and education while studying abroad in India. Being mindful not to impose Western art practices, Emma employed local artists to teach in the school. The program continues to develop the art education of the school and help the students grow.

Daniel Thin, College sophomore

Emma Leiken, College senior

Outreach Initiative The Apollo Outreach Initiative program has been directed by Rian Brown, Claudio Orso and Geoff Pingree since 2009. The program offers courses throughout the year, giving Oberlin College students a wide range of art and media residencies, including working with kids in public schools. Each summer they offer a media literacy program that reaches out to students ranging in age from 12 to 17.

College senior Wyatt Kroopf, an Africana Studies and Creative Writing major, mentioned that the students this summer came from a range of towns in the area including Lorain, Elyria, Oberlin and Wellington.

As someone who has done a lot of work with kids and is interested in arts education, Wyatt enjoyed AOI’s summer program’s “wide array of opportunities for the kids.”

Abroad:

Oberlin In Italy

Anthony is a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, a national program that allows underrepresented students to take part in an intensive two-year research project. He worked with Professor Justin Emeka studying the relationship between Blackness, pop culture and the concept of authenticity as based off of the work of R&B singer Teena Marie. Anthony is also a Bonner Scholar and worked at the Bonner Center for Service and Learning helping organize upcoming events. Anthony said he felt the experience left him with a renewed “confidence in self,” as he continues both these projects into the school year.

Claire spent her summer traveling independently with a backpack around the West Coast and Chicago. Without much planning, she experienced many adventures.

Claire participated in a three-day queer ceremony in southern Oregon with Radical Faerie Sanctuary. The group has Native American roots, and the event was multi-cultural and family-centric.

She also worked with WWOOF, farming in both Santa Cruz and Oakland. The experiences lead her to “listen to herself more and reconnect with home.”

Anthony Moaton, College junior

Claire Kotarski, College sophomore

Every summer, the Oberlin Conservatory participates in a training program for opera singers, pianists, instrumentalists, conductors, stage directors and design and production artists. The program takes place in Arezzo, Italy. The five-week course consists of around 60 students and includes not only musical study but also Italian language and cultural immersion. The selection process is held in the United States through national auditions. The program’s faculty is made up of renowned artists, teachers, coaches, conductors and stage directors.

Conservatory junior Rachel Rossello, who took part in the program this past summer, sang in condensed versions of operas, which were intended to make the openair piazza performances more accessible to audiences.

Rachel “got a lot of experience doing performances,” was able to develop her Italian language skills and worked with an incredible voice teacher and coaches. “There’s nothing like singing in Italy,” she said.

Anthony Moaton, OC ‘17

Written and designed by Grace Tobin

Calendar Guest Recital: Tian Lu, OC ’06, Piano Friday, Sept. 4, 8–10 p.m.

Warner Concert Hall

Religious and Spiritual Life Celebration Friday, Sept. 4, 8:30–10:30 p.m.

Lewis House and Multifaith Center

Social Justice Institute for First-Year Students Sunday Sept. 6, 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

Carnegie Building, Root Room

Comedy Concert: Piscapo’s Arm Monday, Sept. 7, 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Seeds of Peace and Cooperation Tuesday, Sept. 8, 11:45 a.m.

Cox Administration Building

Jazz Forum Friday, September 11, 12 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Body Proxy: Clothing in Contemporary Art Semester-long Event Allen Memorial Art Museum

Tian Lu, an Artist Diploma recipient and alumna of the Conservatory, will perform a two-hour program of Chopin. Praised as “a clearly gifted and promising artist” by the Miami Herald, Lu has made orchestral appearances in Ukraine, Venezuela, Thailand and across the United States. This year, she will perform in China and Japan, as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Join student religious groups such as the Oberlin Buddhist Fellowship, Chabad, Eclectic Christians of Oberlin, Interfaith Student Council, Multifaith and Spirituality Hall, Muslim Students’ Association, First Year Initiative, Oberlin Humanist Collective, Oberlin Christian Fellowship, Quakers, Hillel, Unitarian Universalists, Newman Catholic Community and others as they gather to enjoy music, desserts, and a chance to mingle with other spirituallyminded folks on and around campus.

This workshop invites participants from different backgrounds to come together and explore multicultural issues. Topics including privilege and oppression, classism, heterosexism, racism and sexism will be explored through a variety of activities. This opportunity will enable first-years to develop allyship skills and create a stronger relationship between College students and town members.

Piscapo’s Arm, Oberlin’s only sketch comedy group, will be presenting its 15th annual orientation extravaganza titled, “Sexual Tension.” These performers write jokes and storylines in advance and flesh them out on the spot for your entertainment. Topics on the agenda will include fallopian tubes and undoubtedly a few innuendoes.

Oberlin College and Oberlin Shansi ask you to join them outside of the Cox Administration Building to accept ginkgo seeds from trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. There will be a tour of the future planting site in Tappan Square with executive director of the Asian Network of Trust and Cofounder of Green Legacy Hiroshima, Tomoko Watanabe.

This lunchtime forum showcases the work of students from the Conservatory’s Jazz department. Performances include both original compositions and collaborated works. Bring your lunch, buy a coffee and enjoy the free music. The event is open to all and feedback and responses will be discussed at the end of each set.

This new exhibit examines how clothing is used as a medium in contemporary art, and how the relationship between clothing and bodies leads to the development of a strong narrative. The show features sculpture and mixed media works using cloth dating back to the 1960s. The show includes pieces from 30 international artists such as Joseph Beuys, Jim Dine, Leonardo Drew and Doris Salcedo.

The show will remain open until Dec. 13 during regular AMAM hours.

Oberlin Summer Highlights In Town:

APO L

Daniel spent a week living at a monastery located in Maryland. As Burmese tradition has it, one is supposed to attend meditations once before the age of 20 and once after.

His father did not complete these mediations, but Daniel was interested in continuing this tradition. He meditated for 6 to 9 hours a day and didn’t eat after 7 p.m. Reflecting on the experience, Daniel said he has been “trying to be mindful in everything I do.” This mindfulness has since translated into his daily life and has made Daniel reflect more on his daily routines and habits.

Emma received the Dalai Lama Fellowship from Oberlin College in 2015. She started an arts program for a government school located in Chiplun, India, six miles from Mumbai. The program’s goal was to bring students together through art. Emma gained an interest in Buddhism and education while studying abroad in India. Being mindful not to impose Western art practices, Emma employed local artists to teach in the school. The program continues to develop the art education of the school and help the students grow.

Daniel Thin, College sophomore

Emma Leiken, College senior

Outreach Initiative The Apollo Outreach Initiative program has been directed by Rian Brown, Claudio Orso and Geoff Pingree since 2009. The program offers courses throughout the year, giving Oberlin College students a wide range of art and media residencies, including working with kids in public schools. Each summer they offer a media literacy program that reaches out to students ranging in age from 12 to 17.

College senior Wyatt Kroopf, an Africana Studies and Creative Writing major, mentioned that the students this summer came from a range of towns in the area including Lorain, Elyria, Oberlin and Wellington.

As someone who has done a lot of work with kids and is interested in arts education, Wyatt enjoyed AOI’s summer program’s “wide array of opportunities for the kids.”

Abroad:

Oberlin In Italy

Anthony is a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, a national program that allows underrepresented students to take part in an intensive two-year research project. He worked with Professor Justin Emeka studying the relationship between Blackness, pop culture and the concept of authenticity as based off of the work of R&B singer Teena Marie. Anthony is also a Bonner Scholar and worked at the Bonner Center for Service and Learning helping organize upcoming events. Anthony said he felt the experience left him with a renewed “confidence in self,” as he continues both these projects into the school year.

Claire spent her summer traveling independently with a backpack around the West Coast and Chicago. Without much planning, she experienced many adventures.

Claire participated in a three-day queer ceremony in southern Oregon with Radical Faerie Sanctuary. The group has Native American roots, and the event was multi-cultural and family-centric.

She also worked with WWOOF, farming in both Santa Cruz and Oakland. The experiences lead her to “listen to herself more and reconnect with home.”

Anthony Moaton, College junior

Claire Kotarski, College sophomore

Every summer, the Oberlin Conservatory participates in a training program for opera singers, pianists, instrumentalists, conductors, stage directors and design and production artists. The program takes place in Arezzo, Italy. The five-week course consists of around 60 students and includes not only musical study but also Italian language and cultural immersion. The selection process is held in the United States through national auditions. The program’s faculty is made up of renowned artists, teachers, coaches, conductors and stage directors.

Conservatory junior Rachel Rossello, who took part in the program this past summer, sang in condensed versions of operas, which were intended to make the openair piazza performances more accessible to audiences.

Rachel “got a lot of experience doing performances,” was able to develop her Italian language skills and worked with an incredible voice teacher and coaches. “There’s nothing like singing in Italy,” she said.

Anthony Moaton, OC ‘17

Written and designed by Grace Tobin

Calendar Guest Recital: Tian Lu, OC ’06, Piano Friday, Sept. 4, 8–10 p.m.

Warner Concert Hall

Religious and Spiritual Life Celebration Friday, Sept. 4, 8:30–10:30 p.m.

Lewis House and Multifaith Center

Social Justice Institute for First-Year Students Sunday Sept. 6, 8:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

Carnegie Building, Root Room

Comedy Concert: Piscapo’s Arm Monday, Sept. 7, 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Seeds of Peace and Cooperation Tuesday, Sept. 8, 11:45 a.m.

Cox Administration Building

Jazz Forum Friday, September 11, 12 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Body Proxy: Clothing in Contemporary Art Semester-long Event Allen Memorial Art Museum

Tian Lu, an Artist Diploma recipient and alumna of the Conservatory, will perform a two-hour program of Chopin. Praised as “a clearly gifted and promising artist” by the Miami Herald, Lu has made orchestral appearances in Ukraine, Venezuela, Thailand and across the United States. This year, she will perform in China and Japan, as well as at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Join student religious groups such as the Oberlin Buddhist Fellowship, Chabad, Eclectic Christians of Oberlin, Interfaith Student Council, Multifaith and Spirituality Hall, Muslim Students’ Association, First Year Initiative, Oberlin Humanist Collective, Oberlin Christian Fellowship, Quakers, Hillel, Unitarian Universalists, Newman Catholic Community and others as they gather to enjoy music, desserts, and a chance to mingle with other spirituallyminded folks on and around campus.

This workshop invites participants from different backgrounds to come together and explore multicultural issues. Topics including privilege and oppression, classism, heterosexism, racism and sexism will be explored through a variety of activities. This opportunity will enable first-years to develop allyship skills and create a stronger relationship between College students and town members.

Piscapo’s Arm, Oberlin’s only sketch comedy group, will be presenting its 15th annual orientation extravaganza titled, “Sexual Tension.” These performers write jokes and storylines in advance and flesh them out on the spot for your entertainment. Topics on the agenda will include fallopian tubes and undoubtedly a few innuendoes.

Oberlin College and Oberlin Shansi ask you to join them outside of the Cox Administration Building to accept ginkgo seeds from trees that survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. There will be a tour of the future planting site in Tappan Square with executive director of the Asian Network of Trust and Cofounder of Green Legacy Hiroshima, Tomoko Watanabe.

This lunchtime forum showcases the work of students from the Conservatory’s Jazz department. Performances include both original compositions and collaborated works. Bring your lunch, buy a coffee and enjoy the free music. The event is open to all and feedback and responses will be discussed at the end of each set.

This new exhibit examines how clothing is used as a medium in contemporary art, and how the relationship between clothing and bodies leads to the development of a strong narrative. The show features sculpture and mixed media works using cloth dating back to the 1960s. The show includes pieces from 30 international artists such as Joseph Beuys, Jim Dine, Leonardo Drew and Doris Salcedo.

The show will remain open until Dec. 13 during regular AMAM hours.

Arts The Oberlin Review

Page 10

September 4, 2015

Social Media Archives Temporary Chalk Art Louise Edwards Arts Editor

Because the chalk art is impermanent, taking photos of the creations and uploading them to social media sites has naturally become a means to preserve the pieces. The event is extensively documented by both professional photographers hired by Chalk Walk organizers and the College, as well as by community members who take pictures of their own works. Chalk Walk organizers upload many of these photos to the organization’s Facebook page and website, while community members post them on their personal social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.

This year, organizers decided the event website needed a new look. “We felt it was time to update the website because one thing it was lacking was a lot of imagery,” said James Peake, the education and outreach coordinator at the Firelands Associaton for the Visual Arts. “The Chalk Walk is all about the imagery of all of these amazing pieces of art that the public comes and pro-

On a June afternoon this summer, children and adults alike held brilliant pastels in their hands and sprawled themselves across the sidewalks of downtown Oberlin. Vibrant images emerged from the pavement outside Hall Auditorium, one of the prime locations to create drawings during Oberlin’s 10th annual Chalk Walk. Soft sandstone pavement serves as a great palette to blend colors, and its smooth texture creates an excellent canvas. Despite scattered showers as event organizers set up chalk distribution stations, the rain stopped around 9 a.m., allowing ample time for participants to construct their works of art.

Amazingly, the Oberlin Chalk Walk has only been postponed once because of rain, although it has sometimes rained just hours after the Chalk Walk ended. Barry Richard, the founder and organizer of the event, expressed his disappointment about this unfortunate reality, however he noted that chalk artists have a differ–––––––––––––––––––––––––– ent perspective. “Especially the professional ones go, ‘That’s just Because the chalk art is the nature of the medium, of the impermanent, taking phoart.’ There’s nothing you can do tos of the creations and about it,” Richard said. “And depending on how much it rains, it uploading them to social will fade … so it gives the piece of media sites has naturally art a different look over time as it become a means to preweathers.”

Additionally, the temporary serve the pieces. nature of chalk art is key to the –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– event and makes it easy to organize. Trimmer noted the city and duces. You never know what’s local businesses readily grant going to appear on the sidewalk, permission for artists to take over and there’s just so much artwork the sidewalks for a day, whereas everywhere, so we wanted a new installing permanent art might website to help showcase it, which add another layer of logistics. we weren’t able to do as easily be-

A mural outside the Oberlin Public Library showcases work from a team of artists led by Laura Dahle. Artists including James Peake, Claudio Orso-Giacone, Gregory Cross, Terry Flores and David Baker designed this thought-provoking image during the Oberlin Chalk Walk in June.

Bryan Rubin

fore.” Curator of Education Jason Trimmer, who works at the Allen Memorial Art Museum and helps organize the Chalk Walk, hopes that in the future images will be compiled onto one site.

Trimmer also noted the usefulness of Facebook as a tool to reach out to people. “What I found, especially this year, is people would tag themselves if they saw their work,” he said. “So [Facebook] is nice because [it preserves the art], but you’re also kind of getting that critical engagement that people always talk about.” Additionally, Trimmer said that social media was useful for connecting Oberlin Chalk Walk to events that happen nationally and around the globe. Trimmer hopes that through these web connections, artists who participate in Chalk Walk will become known at a national level. Connecting with

other chalk festivals also allows Chalk Walk organizers to glean ideas and inspiration from other chalk events.

Originally, Richard got the idea to start Chalk Walk in Oberlin from photos of 3D chalk art on sidewalks in Europe that a friend showed him. “There’s this really cool illusion that’s created where you have to stand at a very specific spot, but when you look at the sidewalk it looks like this art is just popping right off of the ground,” Peake said. “If you view it from any other vantage point it looks very distorted, very elongated; you have to be standing at just this one spot, but that right there is just this ingenious approach to the medium.” Despite this modern approach to chalk street art, the tradition of chalk art dates all the way back to Renaissance Italy and artists who

drew images of the Madonna on streets in hopes of receiving donations from passersby.

While chalk on sidewalks has historically been temporary, Laura Dahle, a community member involved in many festivals in Oberlin, started a tradition of doing chalk art on the wall in the parking lot of the Oberlin Public Library. Unlike the other creations, this mural is sprayed with fixative and remains throughout the year. Then a team of artists collaborates to refurnish the wall with a new image during each Chalk Walk. Peake often helps create the mural. “Some years we want it to be more thoughtprovoking, while other years, it’s more of an element of beauty,” he said.

While social media has helped See Chalk, page 13

Hackneyed Songwriting Plagues Eskimeaux Set Danny Evans Arts Editor Despite enthusiastic stage presence, solid audio and an obviously practiced four-piece lineup, Eskimeaux, the recording project of New York-based musician Gabrielle Smith, did not impress at the ’Sco last Friday night. As the headliners of this year’s orientation show, Smith and her live bandmates Oliver Kalb, Felix Walworth and Jack Greenleaf squandered their opportunity to win over a room packed with incoming first-years by failing to stand out from hordes of similar lo-fi rock acts.

Based on Smith’s older records, she might have played a set that would fit snugly into the ambient and drone genres, or at least contain trace elements of these styles. Disappointingly, the songs she offered adhered more closely to indie clichés.

Throughout the show, the absence of more experimental material — namely, songs Smith released in the era before her most recent album, May 2015’s O.K. — could be felt.

Eskimeaux’s performance was not remarkable, but it wasn’t terrible, either.

The problems with the show lay more in the content with which the band chose

to represent itself. Eskimeaux’s mixture of washed-out, ethereal production and a relatively developed pop sensibility made the project special in the past: Records like 2010’s superb Ixsixán exemplify Smith’s trademark songs-obscured-by-fog style. Tracks from O.K., which made up the majority of the show, ran together to the point of disinterest. Many of these songs, ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Eskimeaux’s mixture of washedout, ethereal production and a relatively developed pop sensibility made the project special in the past.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– which the band often confusingly chose to play one after another — see “The Thunder Answered Back” and “Everything You Love” — share one predictable structure and have basically indistinguishable drum lines. Mixing in some older tracks might have done wonders for the band in terms of retaining audience attentiveness.

Eskimeaux’s ambient layer was absent at the set Friday, though, and Smith’s song-

crafting skills have never been deft enough to merit a more traditional pop presentation of them. The lack of a droning noise component throughout the set didn’t clarify or define Smith’s sound, as she perhaps intended; rather, it simply placed the unoriginality of her chord progressions and the drabness of her melodies front and center. The band simply did not have the energy to make a set made up of songs all written in the same vein interesting, even given that it performed those songs passably.

Opener All Dogs, which hails from Columbus, Ohio, did not do much to help Eskimeaux’s case. Indeed, they accomplished the opposite by playing a relatively unoriginal style of indie rock that only served to highlight how derivative Eskimeaux’s newer music is.

Unfortunately for Smith and her bandmates, All Dogs’ set was actually more appealing than Eskimeaux’s due to its punkier attitude. All Dogs’ lyrics appealed on a more intellectual level than Eskimeaux’s, too. Just compare All Dogs’ nuanced look at self-sustainability in the context of a romantic relationship in the song “Say” (“When you are not around / I still have something to say”) to Eskimeaux’s irritat-

ingly wholesome single “Broken Necks” (“Nothing in this world is holier than friendship”). As a whole, All Dogs served as just another example of why Eskimeaux flopped: Like plenty of other bands, their music sounds like Eskimeaux’s — but better.

Eskimeaux’s set did not contain any clear red flags; in fact, the band sounded like more of a cohesive unit than one might have expected, given that Smith records most of her parts on her own. However, the songs played could have easily been written by a number of other artists with better results. It’s no coincidence that Frankie Cosmos comes to mind as one group that has fashioned superior bedroom-recorded hymns of the same vein: Smith has worked with that group, who are also a solo project-turned-fullband, in the past. Maybe Frankie Cosmos is the reason why Eskimeaux’s set failed to excite. The former — alongside closely related band Porches, which also features Eskimeaux collaborators — played the orientation show last year far more successfully with nearly identical content.

With this in mind, it’s no surprise that Eskimeaux’s set ended up feeling like a bland facsimile.

Arts

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

Page 11

Arts Festival Seeks to Revitalize Abandoned Spaces Lillian White Just up the road in Lorain, Ohio, a festival is heating up. On Sept. 26 from 4 to 10 p.m., the

FireFish Festival will rock the local arts scene, bringing people together for an evening of food and drink, music and movement and, as the name might suggest,

Lorain County’s Broadway Avenue will be the site of the new FireFish Arts Festival. James Levin, the festival’s organizer, envisioned the event as a way to revitalize a neglected area of town.

Bryan Rubin

fire breathers. The venue? A stretch of empty storefronts and quiet alleys on Broadway Avenue in downtown Lorain.

Some of Oberlin’s own artists will perform alongside featured acts Grupo Fuego, The Great Lakes Light Opera, Sheela Das and the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, as well as giant puppets made by local youth.

The festival is coming together under the artistic direction of artist, attorney and cultural activist James Levin. Levin is known for founding Cleveland Public Theatre and launching the Gordon Square Arts District, the Ingenuity Festival, Cleveland World Festival and The Bridge Project. “The idea behind FireFish is not simply to ‘do’ another festival but to bring attention and life to a beautiful but under-used — and to a certain degree abandoned — industrial downtown,”

Levin says. “[The arts] bring people together, celebrating human expression and showing people like investors and Lorain government people a glimpse of what could be if the spaces were activated year-round.”

FireFish is also perfect for Obies, Levin says. “You would not be at Oberlin if you A: did not want to change things; B: were not adventurous. FireFish allows you to do both. The idea of coming to something in its inaugural state should be pretty exciting.

Here you have an opportunity to explore an old industrial town basically now on life support.

The steel mills have all but left, the Ford Motor Co. is just a vestige, American Ship Building is gone [and] the industrial pillars have been decimated. What is left? Beautiful downtown vacant storefronts, charmed alleys, abandoned courtyards,” he says.

“What happens when the wand of art and music transforms these spaces into something more active, vibrant and magical? Students and others should see this — the very beginning of something transformative.”

A few students already have.

President’s Public Service Fellow and double-degree senior Caylen Bryant provided artistic leadership for youth employed by the program over the summer. Some students also worked with FireFish during their Day of Service.

College senior Anna Droege, who is assisting with graphic design, was particularly struck by the vision and aesthetic cohesion she observed in Levin’s programming leadership. Double-degree fifth-year Ben Rempel, who will be performing with an emerging music ensemble, finds motivaSee Students, page 12

On the Record with Jinjoo Cho, new teacher of Violin Jinjoo Cho, a violinist from Seoul, South Korea, is joining the Oberlin Conservatory faculty this fall. At age 26, she was the winner of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis after previous successes at the Aspen Music Festival and the Alice Schoenfeld International String Competition. She has played with artists including Kent Nagano, Michael Stern, Yoel Levi and James Gaffigan, as well as numerous orchestras. Cho is also known for her community and outreach work and her engagement with various audiences, a vibrant energy that she hopes to bring to Oberlin. Cho sat down with the Review to talk about avantgarde music, community outreach and what her future holds.

Why did you choose to teach at Oberlin?

I live in Cleveland right now, and this is going to be my home base for at least the next two or three years. I did not even know that Oberlin was looking for violin teachers, but the Conservatory asked me if I wanted to teach part-time. I was invited to teach a master class last semester, and I thought it was an amazing opportunity to see Oberlin kids. As close as the [Cleveland Institute of Music] and the Oberlin Conservatory are geographically, there really isn’t much communication between the two institutions. I feel very honored to teach here, actually.

A lot can be read about your engagement in the communication surrounding music and outreach initiatives in different communities. Are these initiatives something you consider a big part of your work?

Honestly, it is something I started very naturally when I was younger. I started doing outreach things when I was in middle school — maybe because I went to a Catholic middle school and high school. But also, CIM has an excellent outreach program, and people would keep asking me to do all these different things. So I do not think it was anything special — it was just part of my life. As I grew into an adult, I found these things very liberating: to play at all these different venues, for example, once in a while. It is really easy to forget the touch — what makes our audience tick — in a way. It is really important to keep that in mind. Of course, it is important to push our boundaries, look for new things and explore our profession deeper and deeper, but at the same time it is very important to keep the balance between what is easily understood amongst our audience and our academic exploration.

That is what interests me. I really, truly believe that you can be as avant-garde as you want and still have an interactive and [communicative] language within your music. That is where the spark comes from on stage and in real life.

Ohio seems to be a very interesting part of the U.S. for that kind of exploration. It is a very rural state, after all — definitely more so than some states on the East or West Coast.

Well, honestly, I kind of do these outreach things for myself. I like [it], and it helps me to grow. I would love to say that I am a selfless person and that I do

this for the greater good, but I am not. I love it, and it helps me with what I want to do.

You left Seoul at the age of 14. Do you go back there often? Did you ever plan to go back and teach there?

Maybe not teaching, yet. I go there a lot to perform. I am finishing a residency at a hall called Kumho Art Hall in October. It will be the ending of a series of recitals. I am really excited about that. This year I went to Seoul a lot of times — five or six times. After October, I won’t go back until April.

Earlier you said that you plan on staying in Cleveland for the next two or three years.

Any plans for what comes after that?

A lot depends on what comes from this community that I have just recently committed to. I am really excited to teach at Oberlin. If this is something I can sustain — the relationship between CIM and Oberlin — and if the feeling is mutual between faculty and administration, I would love to remain a part of both CIM and Oberlin. I say two or three years just because of my personal things that are going on, but there is always a chance that I might stay longer. I don’t know what the future holds.

Jinjoo Cho, new teacher of violin. Cho has strong ties to the Cleveland music scene as a performer and educator.

Courtesy of Jinjoo Cho

Romantic Dynamics Spice Up Shivering Timbers’ Folk-Rock Mary Fischer Seldom does one come across a band whose music captures all the best facets of country, blues and rock, but last Saturday at the Cat in the Cream Shivering Timbers proved that it is possible. The trio from Akron, Ohio, consists of vocalist and bassist Sarah Benn, guitarist Jayson Benn and drummer Daniel Kshywonis. They showcased their musical talent with cuts ranging from bluesy ballads to rock songs about life and romance.

From the beginning, dynamics between the two married members, who have performed together for many years, drove the show forward. The couple interacted onstage in an intimate and familiar way, which was reflected musically in the interplay between the guitar and bass lines throughout the songs. Unfortunately, they also overshadowed Kshywonis at times.

The band opened the concert with a calm song from its last record Sing Sing. Sarah Benn immediately captivated the au-

––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The couple interacted onstage in an intimate and familiar way, which was reflected musically in the interplay between the guitar and bass lines throughout the songs.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––– dience with her strong but sensual voice. The band introduced the two next pieces as songs from its as-yet-untitled new record, to be released this fall.

The lyrics of these songs appear to be written mainly from the Benn couple’s perspective and to focus on their relationship.

The show then moved toward the band’s country-rock repertoire. This seemed to stir a little more interaction between Sarah Benn and Kshywonis.

Sarah Benn’s performance in particular fit well with the rockinspired songs. Kshywonis and Jayson Benn both had enchanting solos during this portion of the set.

The less lively, more folkand blues-influenced songs re-

flected the band’s earliest work and first album, We All Started in The Same Place, which was born out of the couple’s desire to make music for their thenyoung daughter. Discovered and supported by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, they recorded We All Started in The Same Place in 2010. More recently, they have been touring with numerous artists and bands including Shovels & Rope, Joe Pug, Jessica Lea Mayfield and Kopecky.

See Shivering, page 13

Arts

Page 12

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

Unique Storyline a Highlight of Futuristic Game Avi Vogel Columnist When I started Over The Moon Games’ The Fall, I had no idea what I was getting into. I’d put this game on my wishlist after reading its description: a dark sciencefiction game that promises to ask deep questions regarding artificial intelligence and centers on a character stranded on a planet. Everything I read encouraged the player to leave behind the idea that this was a game in any traditional sense.

Rather, critics encouraged gamers to see it as an interactive, highly linear story. To me, this seemed like it could be a pretentious attempt to hide gameplay faults behind lofty goals. So when it finally came time to play The Fall, I didn’t know what to expect — and that’s why it blew me away.

It’s important to say that the opinions I had read were correct. There are only a few elements that one might consider game-like within The Fall. You, the player, explore a two-dimensional area, moving forward into the unknown core of the planet upon which you’ve crashed. You wander around the environment and collect objects that will interact with other objects to open up the path ahead, recalling classic adventure games. There is shooting at points, but it doesn’t control incredibly well — not that it needs to, as the sections featuring shooting are incredibly easy because the non-player characters employ simple, easily defeatable AI tactics.

On the other hand, the puzzles — which constitute

the majority of playtime — become infuriating at certain points. It’s one of the few games that actually led me to turn to a strategy to get back on track. Only a few of the puzzles give any sense of real accomplishment once their clever design is cracked. But despite all that, I love this game.

Art, story and music come together to commendably form the atmosphere of The Fall. Bright neon lights emanating from robots emphasize the contrastingly somber environmental color scheme, emphasizing a sort of dissonance between who your character is and where they are. The simple sound effects leave you with a sense of dread and fear of what you might uncover around the corner. When the game ratchets up, a soundtrack of electronic music builds in the background, establishing a sense of breakneck momentum. When certain bits of dialogue need to be emphasized, the building sounds cut out to a bare minimum, lending greater focus to the finely crafted script.

Each of these elements come together to create the story of an AI-controlled suit named ARID that goes on a quest to heal its pilot. Stranded on a planet, neither you nor the character you control have any idea what is going on. But as you move forward, the story gets more complex, specifically in regards to your character.

ARID is not a static character. In the beginning, it is an entity bound by three rules reminiscent of Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. Created only to help and be used

Students Participate in New Lorain Arts Festival Continued from page 11 tion to participate in a desire to spread out beyond the boundaries of Oberlin’s arts scene. “After performing so much in Oberlin, I want to get into the outside world more,” Rempel says. “This is an opportunity to work — not directly collaborate with — but at least work with artists who are part of a larger world than the Oberlin College bubble. I can’t expect people to support me without also supporting other things going on in the area, and this is also an opportunity to perform for others and see what that offers.”

Levin has a broader context in mind for FireFish, as he has for many of his previous endeavors. “I have focused on how art can enhance the quality of life throughout my career,” he says. “Art and music can at first bring people together and then sustain the energy, like CPT at the Gordon Square Arts District.”

The reality of what “sustaining the energy” will look like in Lorain remains to be seen and brings with it questions of gentrification. Even as it brings appreciative outsiders into Lorain, FireFish and the redevelopment of the city may shape the voices and visions of Lorain’s own residents in unforeseen ways. When FireFish takes off this year on Lorain’s Broadway Avenue, it will offer both an evening of celebration and magic as well as an opportunity to establish precedents for radical community partnerships.

by humans, ARID theoretically cannot progress without getting consent from its pilot. As the pilot is silent and injured, watching ARID find ways around programing is not just interesting but also haunting in that

it appears to be a possibly realistic future for AI. Like any good science fiction story, The Fall portrays the future in an intriguing way. It does not rely upon its artistic beauty, as glossy games of-

ten do. The Fall works out to be more than eye candy. The game is a story first and foremost and, although its gameplay isn’t excellent, it shines — much like the location it takes place in — amidst its own rubble.

The protagonist of The Fall engages with a computer-controlled artificial intelligence enemy. The video game’s narrative content outshines its gameplay.

Courtesy of Avi Vogel

Arts

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

Page 13

Bodies Beguile in Featured Allen Installations Elizabeth Akant While last year’s Latin American and Latino Art exhibit at the Allen Memorial Art Museum was housed in the modern and contemporary art gallery for almost an entire year, this year’s theme takes up almost the entire museum. Seven exhibitions centered around the theme of “the body” will be on display from now until May 29. Many of these exhibitions are intended to engage students and community members in an interdisciplinary fashion.

Even students not usually inclined to visit the Allen may end up visiting an exhibition this semester during class or even for a homework assignment. One exhibit, Psycho/Somatic: Vision of the Body in Contemporary East Asian Art, focuses on mind-body relationships as directly relating neurological and physiological elements that could feasibly attract students from numerous academic backgrounds.

Museum learning across disciplines is also exemplified in an exhibition curated

by Associate Professor of English Wendy Hyman and her spring 2015 senior seminar titled Words and Things. The exhibition, The Body Looking In and Looking Out, stands out as interdisciplinary, as it was organized by professors outside of the Art department. From the start, the exhibition was heavily connected to education at the College. Last semester, students in Hyman’s class devised the themes of which the exhibition is comprised: sexuality, death, physiognomy, fragmentation and movement.

“Groups of students each thought of a theme and placed three to four objects per theme,” said Professor of Comparative American Studies Wendy Kozol, who aided in curating the exhibit. “They [next] wrote labels for some of the objects and then organized them [into the themes they came up with]. [The students came] up with themes we didn’t actually anticipate and [made] really great connections.”

Kozol and Hyman’s goal was to have viewers think beyond the realm of art and art history. “[The exhibition should] get the viewer to be thinking about the ways in which scientific looking is also about objectifying bodies and sexualizing them, and these aren’t really as separate as we

This installation, “Five Chicken Wire Hearts (for James Peto),” features clothing at the Allen Memorial Art Museum as part of the exhibit Body Proxy.

The exhibit opened this Tuesday and reflects the Allen’s year-long theme — the human body.

Bryan Rubin

like to think they are,” Kozol said.

Curator of European and American Art Andaleeb Badiee Banta similarly sees her exhibition Transformation: Images of Childhood and Adolescence as a similarly effective tool for interdisciplinary learning. “[The exhibition explores] the idea that not only do we physically change ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

One exhibit, Psycho/Somatic: Vision of the Body in Contemporary East Asian Art, focuses on mind-body relationships as directly relating neurological and physological elements that could feasibly attract students from numerous academic backgrounds.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Shivering Timbers Showcase Rootsy Repertoire Continued from page 11 Despite the professionalism and talent of the three musicians, the songs seemed to blur into one another toward the set’s end. The show lacked an element of surprise or notable energy changes, and the back and forth between lead singer and guitarist began to get a little repetitive. However, at the end of the show, the audience seemed content. Shivering Timbers offered a perfect set for parents and first-year students to attend together, reassuring parents while leaving students full of good vibes for the rest of their first Saturday night at Oberlin College.

Shivering Timbers satisfied with sometimes dreamy — but never sappy — lyrics and wellarranged songs. The Cat picked a good show to open its year: a low-key performance that people with eclectic music tastes could enjoy despite the lack of shifts in mood changes throughout the night.

the most between infanthood and adolescence but also emotionally and intellectually,” she said. “[It examines] how artists’ attitudes towards children and their desire to depict children has also shifted through history. … The exhibition naturally explores social justice issues throughout history as well as the history of gender, race relations and issues in childhood sexuality.”

Banta offered further explanation on the benefits of the museum for all disciplines, specifically this year’s theme of the body. “Part of the reason we pick these general topics is that it allows an approach from a variety of angles and interests,” she said. “One shouldn’t take a class to only study what is in the title of the class but to think of way in which the class connects to other things. Art is one of those wonderful things that has existed through humanity to connect things that wouldn’t usually come together.”

The exhibition Hidden Mother, curated

by Lara Larson, OC ’88, explores psychological, societal and historical themes alongside artistic ones. The exhibit looks at a phenomenon common in early photographic portraits of children — in order to have an infant stay still for a long exposure, the infant’s mother would have to be in the photograph to keep her child still.

Because people generally did not want the mother in the child’s portrait, they devised clever methods to hide the mother in the final product. Mothers appear ghost-like, either behind cloth or studio props or even partially erased with chemicals. Questions of motherhood and the mother’s role in society arise from examining these photos.

The exhibits facilitate learning both for College students and community members by providing opportunities for students to learn about curating and for the community to broaden their conceptions of how the human body is depicted in art.

Chalk Walk Made Accessible to Broader Community Continued from page 10 pants hear about the event through Facebook, speaking to Richard’s original vision of keeping the event low-key with a homespun feel. “We’ve never really hyped it too much. …

We just want to concentrate on people having fun,” he said.

However, keeping a balance between promoting Oberlin and keeping the event simple has gotten harder as Chalk Walk has gained popularity. This past summer, the walk had 915 registered participants — more than five times as many as its first year in 2006. In City Council discussions about food truck guidelines, some suggested Chalk Walk as an event where food trucks could come. But Chalk Walk organizers worried that trucks at the event would draw business away from local restaurants and stores. Chalk Walk also received queries from nonprofit organizations wanting to set up booths at the event. “We don’t want people setting up things and impeding the flow of traffic,” Trimmer said. “The point is to walk and give the sidewalk space to the artists.”

The positive homespun feel that Chalk Walk organizers have cultivated also permeates the art. “If you’re there on the day of Chalk Walk, and you’re walking around town, there is this really positive vibe going around. I think that a lot of that vibe kind of translates through the imagery. A lot of the pieces are really clever, or they’re funny,” Peake said.

The inclusive and accessible nature of the event also adds to the overall ethos. The event is completely free and professional-quality pastels are provided. The event organizers also hire and support four to five master artists from out of town plus five to six local artists, to create large-scale works.

The artists gain visibility through the event, and are also paid for their work. Additionally, Chalk Walk runs free workshops for children in summer camps and day care programs ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—–

“If you’re there on the day of Chalk Walk, and you’re walking around town, there is this really positive vibe going around. I think that a lot of that vibe kind of translates through the imagery. A lot of the pieces are really clever or they’re funny.”

JAMES PEAKE Education and Outreach Coordinator, Firelands Association for the Visual Arts ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—– in Elyria and throughout Lorain County. Children learn techniques such as blending chalk and creating 3D letters.

Peake explained “The reason why I think it works so well is that most anybody has picked up a piece of chalk, scribbled something on the sidewalk or even just used chalk on a chalkboard,” he said. The medium of chalk itself is accessible to all ages.

Sports

Page 14

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

Varsity Coaches

This week, the Review sat down with field hockey Head Coach Tiffany Saunders and Softball Head Coach Sara Schoenhoft to discuss their first year coaching at Oberlin College.

a personal level has been great. We spent a lot of time together this preseason, and getting to know my players both on and off the field has been the highlight of my time here.

SS: For me, my favorite moments have been every time that I’ve gotten to interact with my players. Every moment I’ve gotten to spend with them has been a highlight.

Where are you from originally?

TS: I’m from Virginia Beach, VA. SS: I grew up in Cincinnati, where my family still lives.

What is your athletic/coaching background?

TS: I went to Radford University with an athletic scholarship and played field hockey there for four years. Then I returned to my alma mater, where I coached for five years, and after my program was cut I came out to Ohio.

SS: I went to Kenyon [College], so I never imagined that I’d ever be coaching at Oberlin, and most recently I was the assistant coach at Kenyon, so I traveled an hour and a half through cornfields and ended up here. I did graduate work in Massachusetts and coached a few different programs in that area during that time. I was the head coach at Emory & Henry College in Virginia before returning to Ohio.

What drew you to Oberlin?

TS: I saw that there was a strong opportunity to build a foundation here with a great group of individuals. I’ve always looked for players with passion and drive, and the opportunity to teach my players with that drive who buy into the program is what I am most excited about.

SS: I wanted to stay at a high academic school, and it’s hard for me to admit, but Oberlin is a better academic school than Kenyon.

So the transition is easy in that regard, and I’m glad I get to stay in Ohio and be close to my family.

Field Hockey Head Coach Tiffany Saunders (left) and Softball Head Coach Sara Schoenhoft Is our athletic community different than other places you’ve been?

TS: When I came in for the interview process, I came from a program where we weren’t as supported by the administrators. Everyone was more or less in their own bubble.

But when I visited, everyone I saw in the hallway was smiling. I thought, “Did everyone say, ‘OK, the hockey coach is coming today, everyone smile on three?’” Then I met Natalie [Winklefoos], and when I finished my interview, I texted my husband immediately and told him, “I’m doing this!” The administration made my decision for me. Everyone here is so helpful and supportive; it’s really comforting to know that we’re all on the same team.

SS: What really stood out to me was when I wrote thank you emails to everyone that I met with on various search committees for all the jobs that I had applied to over the summer, I got a thoughtful, personal

Editorial: “Deflategate” Ruling a Failure of Accountability Continued from page 16 ball boys involved and no proof from his cell phone (which he destroyed prior to his NFL interview along with over 10,000 text messages), the league’s subsequent appeal of the federal court’s decision looks to be yet another example of its judicial incompetence.

This is the real problem with the whole situation. For all the money and resources that the NFL possesses, it consistently fails to hold players and organizations responsible for their actions. In and of itself Deflategate is no big deal, as the Colts lost the AFC Championship game decisively to the tune of 45-7. In fact, as Colts tight end Dwayne Allen put it, “They could have played with soap for balls and beat us.” Bountygate, the Ray Rice incident and now Deflategate all represent a disappointing illustration of how the NFL regularly fails to follow through on its judicial action.

It undoubtedly was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s intention to make an example out of Brady; had he not been reinstated, he would have lost up to $2 million in salary. So if anything, Brady had, and may still have, the most to lose from this situation. While I don’t entirely agree with holding Brady more accountable than the Patriots as a whole, the league’s contemporary culture of minimal accountability is worrisome to say the least. If the NFL can’t hold a player responsible for simply deflating a football, what can it do?

Moving forward, we can only hope for an NFL season without controversy. This, as impractical as it sounds, may be the best-case scenario for the league, teams and fans alike. I will definitely have a watchful eye on the Patriots and Tom Brady this season, not to mention on the footballs they are using at home games.

response from everyone that I met with here [at Oberlin]. That gesture cemented the deal for me. Having a staff that cares so much about the school, is supportive and wants to succeed is great. At my previous program every coach ran their own team, and here it really feels like we’re an athletics department.

Tiffany, how has the experience been for you going from a Division I to a Division III program?

TS: I have a million questions most of the time. Compliance-wise, we had to be very meticulous about every move we made at Radford, so I’ve been asking questions just to make sure that I am within the guidelines. Most of the time, my colleagues will say that what I’m thinking is OK, but it’s always better to be sure. The duties of a head coach as compared to an assistant, even at Division I, are still a ginormous jump.

I’ve had a lot of work in that regard, especially coming in and starting

preseason right away and having so much to do in a small amount of time. Overall, the transition has been great given the timeframe.

Sara, coming from another NCAC program and a big Oberlin rival at that, do you have any apprehension? Is the job you’re going to do made easier or harder?

SS: I am a little sad, mostly because I went to Kenyon and I will always love it there. But I am excited: There is good softball in the NCAC, and I am really glad to get the chance to stay in this conference. I already know what I’m up against in the conference, so I don’t have to start over scouting.

What has your favorite moment in Oberlin been thus far?

TS: My entire preseason has been the highlight of my time here. Running practices while still memorizing names was stressful, but getting to know each one of my players on

If you could improve one thing about Oberlin’s Athletic Department, what would it be?

TS: Air conditioning in Philips gym!

SS: I mentioned already to the administration some changes I wanted to see on the softball field, such as a warning track near the fence and from the backstop to the foul lines.

And they’ve already begun to implement some of the changes I want to see. I want to improve that, but the administration has done a great job supporting what I want to see done.

Sports

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

NACWAA, NCAC Honor Oberlin Administrators Sarena Malsin Sports Editor Oberlin’s Administration earned commendations for achievement in athletic leadership and management this summer. President Marvin Krislov was elected President of the North Coast Athletic Conference, while Delta Lodge Director of Athletics Natalie Winkelfoos was honored with the NACWAA award for Administrator of the Year in Division III Athletics.

Both Krislov and Winkelfoos were recognized for being inclusive,

accessible leaders who exert a concentrated effort to provide athletic opportunities to all students, especially those who are potentially disadvantaged in athletic communities, according to NCAC and NACWAA press releases for the honors.

Krislov’s responsibilities in the NCAC will not drastically change with his new position, as the conference’s decisions and initiatives are still decided by the administrative group as a whole. The main addition to his role will be to convene administrative meetings, he said.

According to Krislov, his new

position in the NCAC doesn’t fall outside board services that school presidents typically provide. He was active in NCAC’s administration, and many other administrative boards, long before his ascension to conference president.

In previous years, Krislov chaired a committee on diversity that eventually led to the NCAC Branch Rickey initiative, a proposal to hire more coaches actively committed to promoting racial diversity in staffing.

The initiative, launched in 2008, is named for Branch Rickey, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who

If I looked through your iPod for the last song you played, what would it be?

TS: Rebelution, “Sky is the Limit.”

If you time it with the pull-ups, it’s a good workout song.

SS: Rascal Flatts. I went to their concert this past weekend at Blossom. I don’t even like them that much, but the concert was so much fun. I’ve been listening to them a lot lately.

What is your favorite song to play during pregame?

TS: DJ Sammy, “Heaven.”

SS: I like any song that moves me. Last year, I played “Ghost” by Ella Henderson before our games.

It pumps up no one, but it gets me pumped up!

Interview by Alex Wright Photo by Bryan Rubin

Page 15

College President Marvin Krislov (left) and Natalie Winkelfoos share a laugh outside the Austin E. Knowlton Athletic Complex. This summer, the NCAC elected Krislov as Conference president and the NACWAA awarded Winkelfoos Administrator of the Year for Division III Athletics.

Benjamin Shepherd

brought Jackie Robinson to the team in a historic breach of the color barrier in the sports world.

The program was recognized with a large grant stipend from the NCAA. “What we were noticing — and it’s still a challenge — is as we were recruiting for [staff and coaching positions], we did not always have the most diverse pools,” Krislov said.

This mindful leadership is also what earned Natalie Winkelfoos recognition for her transformative

year that spoke volumes for the progress made in Oberlin’s athletics program.

Five coaches — women’s lacrosse coach Lynda McCandlish, men’s tennis coach Eric Ishida, women’s swimming and diving coach Andrew Brabson, women’s cross country coach Ray Appenheimer and women’s basketball coach Kerry Jenkins — were distinguished as conference Coach of the Year. Additionally, Oberlin ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– College finished fifth in the NCAC All-Sports Trophy competition, the Both Krislov and Winkel- school’s highest finish to date.

This growth, according to Winfoos were recognized for kelfoos, is the result of a firm combeing inclusive, accesmitment across the athletic department to use athletics as an avenue sible leaders who exert to generate pride and energy for the a concentrated effort to entire Oberlin community. provide athletic opportuGoals of revitalization through nities to all students. inclusion will be at the center of Winkelfoos’ plans for Oberlin in the –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– coming year, she said. effect on the athletics program, “Our department would very which she believes is on a positive much like to proclaim ourselves as trajectory at Oberlin. constant contenders for championThe NACWAA, a premier leader- ships, but our goal is always to esship summit for women working in tablish venues … that add value to intercollegiate athletics, honored the college experience for all memWinkelfoos based on her “intel- bers of our community,” she said. ligence, enthusiasm and ability to Krislov’s plans within the NCAC manage people” and her reputation for all conference schools also highas an “innovative, inspirational and light accessibility in athletics. He inclusive leader,” which they believe mentioned foundations for discushave revitalized health and well- sions to “make sure students are ness at Oberlin. “This honor is just able to balance athletics and comanother signal … that Oberlin Col- petition,” an allusion that will likely lege athletics has arrived,” Winkel- translate into clarifying student foos said. schedules with regards to athletic The Athletic Director empha- events and continuing efforts to sized that it wasn’t just summer garner support for athletics within accolades, but the entire 2014-2015 the conference schools.

— Football —

Football Looks to Break Out in Upcoming Season Harrison Wollman Staff Writer Coming off of a 2014 season marred by injuries and inconsistency, Oberlin football’s 2015 team has nothing but confidence heading into their contest with The College at Brockport.

This is due in part to several coaching staff changes headed by second-year Head Coach Jay Anderson. Chief among these changes is the addition of former Baldwin Wallace University Offensive Coordinator Keith Grabowski, who will take the same role with the Yeomen in addition to coaching the offensive line.

In addition to Grabowski, former Case Western Reserve University Coach Ben Lolli will handle the Yeomen’s linebackers and special teams, former Ursinus College lineman Brett Smyers will manage the defensive line and player performance and former Atlanta Falcons Graduate Assistant James Flowers will work with the team’s running backs.

The Yeomen have also brought back 2010–2013 running back Moses Richardson as student offensive assistant coach, former University of Akron player Mike Hayes to assist Anderson with defensive backs and Matt Coyne, hired in March 2015, as recruiting coordinator. Coyne will also work with the team’s quarterbacks.

Anderson said he is looking for his overhaul of coaching staff to translate immediately into on-field success for the upcoming season.

Senior running back Blake Buckhannon was quick to commend the new coaches.

“The new coaches have been great so far; they’ve taught us a lot,” he said. “Everybody in the offense has been picking up Coach Grabowski’s schemes and formations really well so far.”

Leading the Yeomen into the 2015 campaign are four senior captains, quarterback Lucas Poggiali, offensive lineman Nick Blaszak, defensive back Gabe

went down for the year with few replacements. This year, the Yeomen addressed their issue of depth with 15 newcomers: notably, six defensive backs and three wide receivers.

Edwards asserted the important role that the first-years can play for the upcoming season.

“We brought in a lot of freshmen that are going to help us immediately,” he said.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– “Players at both the skill position and “The new coaches have been great some big men have promise to be good players.” so far; they’ve taught us a lot.

Underpinning the Yeomen offense is Everybody in the offense has been All-NCAC Second Team junior wide receiver Justin Cruz, who set the school repicking up Coach Grabowski’s cord for touchdown receptions last year schemes and formations really with 11 in addition to racking up 828 rewell so far.” ceiving yards.

Poggiali is also leading the offensive Blake Buckhannon attack accounting for 17 total touchSenior Running Back downs — 14 in the air and three on the ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ground — in 2014. Poggiali’s main source of protection looks to come from Blaszak, Edwards and defensive lineman Spencer who will also help to mentor and guide Conley. Anderson had nothing but praise the rest of the line throughout the season. for the group as he looks for them to guide On the defensive side, All-NCAC Honthe team both on and off the field. orable Mentions Edwards and Conley lead “We have a great group of seniors. the Yeomen. Other returnees such as juThey’re not a very large class, but a very nior linebacker Justin Bute, senior defentalented class that works extremely hard,” sive back Tim Kondo and junior defensive Anderson said. “We have four good cap- back Larry Leggett should help to lead the tains that understand where we have been group as well. and where we are trying to go.”

While the 2015 Yeomen squad looks to One of the greatest challenges that stay healthy and benefit from the knowlthe Yeomen faced last season was injury. edge of their new coaches, Poggiali said Buckhannon, junior safety Adrian Kelly, that success for the upcoming season is senior defensive lineman C.J. Ihle and dependent on the mindset of the team. senior running back Justin Williams all “We need to control what we can con-

trol,” he said. “So many times last year we got caught up in worrying about our opponents, and now we just need to worry about executing ourselves,” he said.

Oberlin’s first game is Sept. 5 against The College at Brockport at Bailey Field.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m.

The Yeomen hustle during an afternoon preseason practice on Bailey Field in preparation for their first game on Saturday. Expectations are high for new additions to their coaching staff and their increased depth to contribute to the success of their upcoming 2015 season.

Bemjamin Shepherd

Sports

Page 14

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

Varsity Coaches

This week, the Review sat down with field hockey Head Coach Tiffany Saunders and Softball Head Coach Sara Schoenhoft to discuss their first year coaching at Oberlin College.

a personal level has been great. We spent a lot of time together this preseason, and getting to know my players both on and off the field has been the highlight of my time here.

SS: For me, my favorite moments have been every time that I’ve gotten to interact with my players. Every moment I’ve gotten to spend with them has been a highlight.

Where are you from originally?

TS: I’m from Virginia Beach, VA. SS: I grew up in Cincinnati, where my family still lives.

What is your athletic/coaching background?

TS: I went to Radford University with an athletic scholarship and played field hockey there for four years. Then I returned to my alma mater, where I coached for five years, and after my program was cut I came out to Ohio.

SS: I went to Kenyon [College], so I never imagined that I’d ever be coaching at Oberlin, and most recently I was the assistant coach at Kenyon, so I traveled an hour and a half through cornfields and ended up here. I did graduate work in Massachusetts and coached a few different programs in that area during that time. I was the head coach at Emory & Henry College in Virginia before returning to Ohio.

What drew you to Oberlin?

TS: I saw that there was a strong opportunity to build a foundation here with a great group of individuals. I’ve always looked for players with passion and drive, and the opportunity to teach my players with that drive who buy into the program is what I am most excited about.

SS: I wanted to stay at a high academic school, and it’s hard for me to admit, but Oberlin is a better academic school than Kenyon.

So the transition is easy in that regard, and I’m glad I get to stay in Ohio and be close to my family.

Field Hockey Head Coach Tiffany Saunders (left) and Softball Head Coach Sara Schoenhoft Is our athletic community different than other places you’ve been?

TS: When I came in for the interview process, I came from a program where we weren’t as supported by the administrators. Everyone was more or less in their own bubble.

But when I visited, everyone I saw in the hallway was smiling. I thought, “Did everyone say, ‘OK, the hockey coach is coming today, everyone smile on three?’” Then I met Natalie [Winklefoos], and when I finished my interview, I texted my husband immediately and told him, “I’m doing this!” The administration made my decision for me. Everyone here is so helpful and supportive; it’s really comforting to know that we’re all on the same team.

SS: What really stood out to me was when I wrote thank you emails to everyone that I met with on various search committees for all the jobs that I had applied to over the summer, I got a thoughtful, personal

Editorial: “Deflategate” Ruling a Failure of Accountability Continued from page 16 ball boys involved and no proof from his cell phone (which he destroyed prior to his NFL interview along with over 10,000 text messages), the league’s subsequent appeal of the federal court’s decision looks to be yet another example of its judicial incompetence.

This is the real problem with the whole situation. For all the money and resources that the NFL possesses, it consistently fails to hold players and organizations responsible for their actions. In and of itself Deflategate is no big deal, as the Colts lost the AFC Championship game decisively to the tune of 45-7. In fact, as Colts tight end Dwayne Allen put it, “They could have played with soap for balls and beat us.” Bountygate, the Ray Rice incident and now Deflategate all represent a disappointing illustration of how the NFL regularly fails to follow through on its judicial action.

It undoubtedly was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s intention to make an example out of Brady; had he not been reinstated, he would have lost up to $2 million in salary. So if anything, Brady had, and may still have, the most to lose from this situation. While I don’t entirely agree with holding Brady more accountable than the Patriots as a whole, the league’s contemporary culture of minimal accountability is worrisome to say the least. If the NFL can’t hold a player responsible for simply deflating a football, what can it do?

Moving forward, we can only hope for an NFL season without controversy. This, as impractical as it sounds, may be the best-case scenario for the league, teams and fans alike. I will definitely have a watchful eye on the Patriots and Tom Brady this season, not to mention on the footballs they are using at home games.

response from everyone that I met with here [at Oberlin]. That gesture cemented the deal for me. Having a staff that cares so much about the school, is supportive and wants to succeed is great. At my previous program every coach ran their own team, and here it really feels like we’re an athletics department.

Tiffany, how has the experience been for you going from a Division I to a Division III program?

TS: I have a million questions most of the time. Compliance-wise, we had to be very meticulous about every move we made at Radford, so I’ve been asking questions just to make sure that I am within the guidelines. Most of the time, my colleagues will say that what I’m thinking is OK, but it’s always better to be sure. The duties of a head coach as compared to an assistant, even at Division I, are still a ginormous jump.

I’ve had a lot of work in that regard, especially coming in and starting

preseason right away and having so much to do in a small amount of time. Overall, the transition has been great given the timeframe.

Sara, coming from another NCAC program and a big Oberlin rival at that, do you have any apprehension? Is the job you’re going to do made easier or harder?

SS: I am a little sad, mostly because I went to Kenyon and I will always love it there. But I am excited: There is good softball in the NCAC, and I am really glad to get the chance to stay in this conference. I already know what I’m up against in the conference, so I don’t have to start over scouting.

What has your favorite moment in Oberlin been thus far?

TS: My entire preseason has been the highlight of my time here. Running practices while still memorizing names was stressful, but getting to know each one of my players on

If you could improve one thing about Oberlin’s Athletic Department, what would it be?

TS: Air conditioning in Philips gym!

SS: I mentioned already to the administration some changes I wanted to see on the softball field, such as a warning track near the fence and from the backstop to the foul lines.

And they’ve already begun to implement some of the changes I want to see. I want to improve that, but the administration has done a great job supporting what I want to see done.

Sports

The Oberlin Review, September 4, 2015

NACWAA, NCAC Honor Oberlin Administrators Sarena Malsin Sports Editor Oberlin’s Administration earned commendations for achievement in athletic leadership and management this summer. President Marvin Krislov was elected President of the North Coast Athletic Conference, while Delta Lodge Director of Athletics Natalie Winkelfoos was honored with the NACWAA award for Administrator of the Year in Division III Athletics.

Both Krislov and Winkelfoos were recognized for being inclusive,

accessible leaders who exert a concentrated effort to provide athletic opportunities to all students, especially those who are potentially disadvantaged in athletic communities, according to NCAC and NACWAA press releases for the honors.

Krislov’s responsibilities in the NCAC will not drastically change with his new position, as the conference’s decisions and initiatives are still decided by the administrative group as a whole. The main addition to his role will be to convene administrative meetings, he said.

According to Krislov, his new

position in the NCAC doesn’t fall outside board services that school presidents typically provide. He was active in NCAC’s administration, and many other administrative boards, long before his ascension to conference president.

In previous years, Krislov chaired a committee on diversity that eventually led to the NCAC Branch Rickey initiative, a proposal to hire more coaches actively committed to promoting racial diversity in staffing.

The initiative, launched in 2008, is named for Branch Rickey, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who

If I looked through your iPod for the last song you played, what would it be?

TS: Rebelution, “Sky is the Limit.”

If you time it with the pull-ups, it’s a good workout song.

SS: Rascal Flatts. I went to their concert this past weekend at Blossom. I don’t even like them that much, but the concert was so much fun. I’ve been listening to them a lot lately.

What is your favorite song to play during pregame?

TS: DJ Sammy, “Heaven.”

SS: I like any song that moves me. Last year, I played “Ghost” by Ella Henderson before our games.

It pumps up no one, but it gets me pumped up!

Interview by Alex Wright Photo by Bryan Rubin

Page 15

College President Marvin Krislov (left) and Natalie Winkelfoos share a laugh outside the Austin E. Knowlton Athletic Complex. This summer, the NCAC elected Krislov as Conference president and the NACWAA awarded Winkelfoos Administrator of the Year for Division III Athletics.

Benjamin Shepherd

brought Jackie Robinson to the team in a historic breach of the color barrier in the sports world.

The program was recognized with a large grant stipend from the NCAA. “What we were noticing — and it’s still a challenge — is as we were recruiting for [staff and coaching positions], we did not always have the most diverse pools,” Krislov said.

This mindful leadership is also what earned Natalie Winkelfoos recognition for her transformative

year that spoke volumes for the progress made in Oberlin’s athletics program.

Five coaches — women’s lacrosse coach Lynda McCandlish, men’s tennis coach Eric Ishida, women’s swimming and diving coach Andrew Brabson, women’s cross country coach Ray Appenheimer and women’s basketball coach Kerry Jenkins — were distinguished as conference Coach of the Year. Additionally, Oberlin ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– College finished fifth in the NCAC All-Sports Trophy competition, the Both Krislov and Winkel- school’s highest finish to date.

This growth, according to Winfoos were recognized for kelfoos, is the result of a firm combeing inclusive, accesmitment across the athletic department to use athletics as an avenue sible leaders who exert to generate pride and energy for the a concentrated effort to entire Oberlin community. provide athletic opportuGoals of revitalization through nities to all students. inclusion will be at the center of Winkelfoos’ plans for Oberlin in the –––––––––––––––––––––––––––– coming year, she said. effect on the athletics program, “Our department would very which she believes is on a positive much like to proclaim ourselves as trajectory at Oberlin. constant contenders for championThe NACWAA, a premier leader- ships, but our goal is always to esship summit for women working in tablish venues … that add value to intercollegiate athletics, honored the college experience for all memWinkelfoos based on her “intel- bers of our community,” she said. ligence, enthusiasm and ability to Krislov’s plans within the NCAC manage people” and her reputation for all conference schools also highas an “innovative, inspirational and light accessibility in athletics. He inclusive leader,” which they believe mentioned foundations for discushave revitalized health and well- sions to “make sure students are ness at Oberlin. “This honor is just able to balance athletics and comanother signal … that Oberlin Col- petition,” an allusion that will likely lege athletics has arrived,” Winkel- translate into clarifying student foos said. schedules with regards to athletic The Athletic Director empha- events and continuing efforts to sized that it wasn’t just summer garner support for athletics within accolades, but the entire 2014-2015 the conference schools.

— Football —

Football Looks to Break Out in Upcoming Season Harrison Wollman Staff Writer Coming off of a 2014 season marred by injuries and inconsistency, Oberlin football’s 2015 team has nothing but confidence heading into their contest with The College at Brockport.

This is due in part to several coaching staff changes headed by second-year Head Coach Jay Anderson. Chief among these changes is the addition of former Baldwin Wallace University Offensive Coordinator Keith Grabowski, who will take the same role with the Yeomen in addition to coaching the offensive line.

In addition to Grabowski, former Case Western Reserve University Coach Ben Lolli will handle the Yeomen’s linebackers and special teams, former Ursinus College lineman Brett Smyers will manage the defensive line and player performance and former Atlanta Falcons Graduate Assistant James Flowers will work with the team’s running backs.

The Yeomen have also brought back 2010–2013 running back Moses Richardson as student offensive assistant coach, former University of Akron player Mike Hayes to assist Anderson with defensive backs and Matt Coyne, hired in March 2015, as recruiting coordinator. Coyne will also work with the team’s quarterbacks.

Anderson said he is looking for his overhaul of coaching staff to translate immediately into on-field success for the upcoming season.

Senior running back Blake Buckhannon was quick to commend the new coaches.

“The new coaches have been great so far; they’ve taught us a lot,” he said. “Everybody in the offense has been picking up Coach Grabowski’s schemes and formations really well so far.”

Leading the Yeomen into the 2015 campaign are four senior captains, quarterback Lucas Poggiali, offensive lineman Nick Blaszak, defensive back Gabe

went down for the year with few replacements. This year, the Yeomen addressed their issue of depth with 15 newcomers: notably, six defensive backs and three wide receivers.

Edwards asserted the important role that the first-years can play for the upcoming season.

“We brought in a lot of freshmen that are going to help us immediately,” he said.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– “Players at both the skill position and “The new coaches have been great some big men have promise to be good players.” so far; they’ve taught us a lot.

Underpinning the Yeomen offense is Everybody in the offense has been All-NCAC Second Team junior wide receiver Justin Cruz, who set the school repicking up Coach Grabowski’s cord for touchdown receptions last year schemes and formations really with 11 in addition to racking up 828 rewell so far.” ceiving yards.

Poggiali is also leading the offensive Blake Buckhannon attack accounting for 17 total touchSenior Running Back downs — 14 in the air and three on the ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ground — in 2014. Poggiali’s main source of protection looks to come from Blaszak, Edwards and defensive lineman Spencer who will also help to mentor and guide Conley. Anderson had nothing but praise the rest of the line throughout the season. for the group as he looks for them to guide On the defensive side, All-NCAC Honthe team both on and off the field. orable Mentions Edwards and Conley lead “We have a great group of seniors. the Yeomen. Other returnees such as juThey’re not a very large class, but a very nior linebacker Justin Bute, senior defentalented class that works extremely hard,” sive back Tim Kondo and junior defensive Anderson said. “We have four good cap- back Larry Leggett should help to lead the tains that understand where we have been group as well. and where we are trying to go.”

While the 2015 Yeomen squad looks to One of the greatest challenges that stay healthy and benefit from the knowlthe Yeomen faced last season was injury. edge of their new coaches, Poggiali said Buckhannon, junior safety Adrian Kelly, that success for the upcoming season is senior defensive lineman C.J. Ihle and dependent on the mindset of the team. senior running back Justin Williams all “We need to control what we can con-

trol,” he said. “So many times last year we got caught up in worrying about our opponents, and now we just need to worry about executing ourselves,” he said.

Oberlin’s first game is Sept. 5 against The College at Brockport at Bailey Field.

Kickoff is at 1 p.m.

The Yeomen hustle during an afternoon preseason practice on Bailey Field in preparation for their first game on Saturday. Expectations are high for new additions to their coaching staff and their increased depth to contribute to the success of their upcoming 2015 season.

Bemjamin Shepherd

Sports The Oberlin Review

Page 16

— Men’s Soccer —

Yeomen Take Season Opener 2–1 Sam Kreisberg The Oberlin men’s soccer team won its season opener against Otterbein University 2–1 in Westerville, Ohio on Tuesday night, securing a 1–0 record for the Yeomen.

It was Otterbein junior Ross Pfeil who had the first goal of the match, capitalizing on an Oberlin turnover and notching one past first-year goalkeeper Koryn Kraemer in the third minute. Kraemer was impenetrable for the remainder of the game and finished the

match with three saves.

A leveling goal from first-year midfielder Trenton Bulucea followed by a late game-deciding shot in the 75th minute from senior forward John Ingham ensured that the scoreboard showed in Oberlin’s favor after 90 minutes.

Oberlin’s defense stayed strong and compact for the rest of the match and didn’t offer Otterbein’s attacking players many opportunities.

“Other than the first goal we gave up, I thought the rest of the game we showed

a lot of patience and discipline and really didn’t give up many chances,” said men’s soccer Head Coach Blake New. It took the Yeomen some time to gain offensive momentum; according to senior midfielder Louis Naiman, the first few moments of the game were rocky at best. “We struggled during the opening 20 minutes to find a good rhythm and didn’t do well to dictate the pace of the game,” Naiman said.

Despite the slow start,

Senior forward John Ingham fends off a defensive slide from Otterbein midfielder Chance Bailey. Ingham scored the winning goal to secure a 2–1 win for the Yeomen’s season opener on Tuesday.

Courtesy of Ryan Baker

Oberlin’s luck took a turn in the 20th minute when Bulucea received a cross from junior Adam Chazin-Gray and hit it into the back of the net. This game marked both Bulucea’s first collegiate start and first collegiate goal.

“Scoring my first goal on my debut was a pretty special experience,” Bulucea said. “There were teammates hugging me and yelling in happiness … it’s something I’ll probably never forget.”

Heading into halftime, the game was still tied 1-1, but by this point Oberlin was firmly in control of play.

Oberlin retained the majority of the possession and offensive chances through the first half and continued this trend into the second, which culminated in Ingham’s breakaway score. “[There was] so much happiness and relief that our work had paid off and we finally took the lead,” Ingham said. “The best part, though, is that we held on and didn’t let them tie it up again. We fought really hard.”

The goal came after a narrowly missed chance by junior forward Sam Weiss, and though Naiman said

he was concerned that the miss would break momentum, the team remained resilient.

The Yeoman’s toughness paid off for the whole team, and certainly for junior defenseman Galen Brennan.

Brennan was awarded the hustle suit, a single game MVP award by the team for his solid and consistent play at center back. “[Brennan] plays center defense, so it is hard to see, but he won every ball in the air and didn’t let much get by him at all,” Ingham said. “When you have such a great player at the base of your team it makes everyone else’s jobs much, much easier.”

The Yeomen’s next two games take them out to Southern California to play Occidental College on Friday, Sept. 4, and PomonaPitzer on Sunday, Sept. 6.

Coach New and the team are excited for this opportunity. “This trip out to California can do us a lot of good if we get results out there,” New said. “We’re playing two good teams that finished in the top 10 of their region last year, so it’ll be a good test for us, and if we have a good trip, we’ll come home on a roll.”

— Volleyball —

Oberlin Falls to Michigan-Dearborn Darren Zaslau The University of MichiganDearborn overpowered Oberlin at the net on Tuesday as their 9.5 blocks bested the Yeowomen’s four to defeat them in their seasonopening match.

The Yeowomen fell 26–24 in the first set before winning their lone set of the match 28–26 in the second. But UMB swept the remainder of the game, as the Wolverines won the final two sets 25–19 and 25–23.

Each match was close between the two non-conference opponents; the largest point differential among the sets was six.

Erica Rau, Oberlin College Volleyball head coach, said she saw the match as highly competitive, with the Yeomen resting on the Wolverines’ heels for the majority of the game.

“The scores were really close, and each set could’ve gone either way,” Rau said.

Rau, who is entering her fifth year as head coach, was pleased with the team’s effort but not the final result.

“I think we had some first-game jitters and were a little tense at times,” she said. “But I’m really happy with the overall skill and way we

played on the court.”

Claudia Scott, sophomore middle hitter and 2014 kills leader, led the offensive charge for Oberlin with 16 kills. Junior right side and outside hitter Ave Spencer followed with 10 kills. Oberlin’s offensive opportunities were a beacon in the competition, boasting 152 to UMD’s 119.

“We were really good at always being on the attack and hitting as hard as we can to go after them,” said junior middle hitter Maggie Middleton, who added three kills and two blocks in the loss.

Score notwithstanding, Oberlin dictated the game’s tempo for the majority of the match and dominated offensive stats across the board. The Yeomen led the Wolverines not only in kills but also in assists, digs and aces.

While they dominated offensively, Oberlin’s errors proved to be the difference in the match. The Yeowomen had 29 attack errors to UMD’s 18 and 14 serve errors, while the Wolverines committed just six.

“We served well last night but not our best,” Rau said. “We had a lot of misses and need to keep working on our ball control so we can run our offense the way we want to.”

Though the Yeomen put up a fight, it was clear that UMD made the most of their offensive attacks.

The Wolverines’ hitting percentage was .235 to Oberlin’s .145. Ashley Parks, who had a game-high 23 kills and four aces, led the Wolverine offense.

As for individual performance, two Yeowomen netted high marks.

Two-time NCAC Honorable Mention Meredith Leung made a match-high 42 assists. The junior setter also had 14 digs and two aces.

Senior captain and defensive specialist Molly Powers fulfilled her role as a staple of the Yeowomen’s defense, logging in a team-high 16 digs.

“I was pretty satisfied with my performance. I think I did a good job helping keep our serve-receive on point and kept a positive energy going,” Powers said.

The Yeowomen have been progressing as a team in recent years.

During the past four seasons under Coach Rau the team has improved their overall record every year. Most recently, the squad finished sixth in the North Coast Athletic Conference, ending 2014 at 13–19 overall, 2–6 NCAC. With this positive trajectory, the Yeowomen hold high ambitions for

this season.

“We want to finish top three in the conference, have a winning record and keep improving steadily,” Middleton said.

Oberlin will be on the road this Friday as the team travels to Pittsburgh, PA to take on Washington and Jefferson College and Alfred University in a doubleheader. The first serve is slated for 4 p.m.

September 4, 2015

Patriots Get Their Way Again Randy Ollie Sports Editor With less than a week left before the NFL season begins, the New England Patriots can finally sleep easy knowing their future Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady has been officially reinstated. U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman nullified the quarterback’s four-game suspension Thursday for the Deflategate controversy, which was met with a collective groan of frustration from the NFL community.

While I, along with many other NFL fans, have become accustomed to the fact that every Patriots season is imbued with some kind of controversy, part of me wonders when, if at all, the league will finally take definitive action to ensure that rule breakers face the consequences they deserve.

Putting aside my dislike of the Patriots and their track record of cheating, it is noteworthy that the case against Tom Brady was far from concrete. The NFL spent over $3 million dollars in its investigation of Deflategate, which seems like a bad joke when you compare it to the measly punishment that they gave the Patriots: a $1 million fine and the loss of two draft picks.

Considering that the league failed to produce a key witness or produce any significant proof that Tom Brady was directly involved in the ball deflating, the federal court’s decision was not surprising in the least. A multimillion dollar investigation that revealed no tangible evidence for the simple crime of deflating footballs sounds like the start of a bad pun.

With no omission of guilt from Brady or any of the See Editorial, page 14

Sophomore Claudia Scott spikes the ball against the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The Yeowomen fell to the Wolverines on Tuesday.

Benjamin Shepherd