September 11, 2015

The Oberlin Review

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 VOLUME 144, NUMBER 2

Local News Bulletin News briefs from the past week Bryan Stevenson Delivers Keynote Convocation MacArthur Fellow and Equal Justice Initiative Founder Bryan Stevenson opened the fall Convocation series with a talk on mass incarceration and the current status of our criminal justice system. Stevenson is widely known for his legal justice work, his TED talk about injustice in the United States and his critically acclaimed memoir Just Mercy. He currently teaches at the New York University School of Law. Future convocation speakers will include novelist Zadie Smith on Sept. 29, journalist Sonia Shah OC ’77 on Oct. 27 and entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt on Nov. 5.

Student Senate Now Accepting Nominations Student Senate announced that it is now accepting nominations for this year’s election. Students have the opportunity to nominate themselves or others, and nominees will be allowed to present their platforms publicly leading up to and during the election. Voting is scheduled to take place from Sept. 13– Sept. 18.

Art Rental Enters its 75th Year The annual art rental program will take place at the Allen Memorial Art Museum on Saturday, Sept.

12 from 8 a.m.–12 p.m. Students and faculty can pay $5, cash or check only, to rent a piece from the museum’s extensive collection.

The top-20 selections from last spring included paintings by Picasso, Dalí and Lichtenstein, among other notable artists.

ESTABLISHED 1874 oberlinreview.org

ONLINE & IN PRINT

Issue 3 Puts Weed Legalization on Ballot Tyler Sloan News Editor ResponsibleOhio, a procannabis legalization group, is riding high on the newest addition to the state’s ballot.

Ohio residents will decide whether to pass the organization’s Ohio Marijuana Legalization Initiative, commonly known as Issue 3, to legalize medical and recreational cannabis use.

If the amendment passes, Oberlin will play host to one of six statewide testing facilities and one of 10 production plants.

“College campuses, especially in Ohio, are really hubs of research and innova-

tion,” said ResponsibleOhio Spokesperson Faith Oltman.

“Through Issue 3, we want to make Ohio a huge part of innovation for the marijuana industry, and by placing those testing facilities near college campuses we can more easily work with the great research that’s being done at college campuses, and students and researchers who are coming up with ideas for the future.”

Other counties slated to host testing facilities include Athens, Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Scioto and Wood, but Lorain is the only one that would house both testing and production facilities.

The amendment mandates that all testing facilities be

situated near colleges and universities.

“I think Lorain County stands to benefit tremendously if Issue 3 passes,” said John Pardee, vice president of the Ohio Rights Group. “This is going to bring a ton of jobs, not only just the jobs at the grow center, but also all the insular jobs from dispensaries, manufacturing facilities, transportation, marketing.”

Pardee’s organization is a nonprofit that aims to legalize medicinal, therapeutic and industrial use of marijuana. The activist group attempted to put its own amendment on the ballot for several years, but failed to collect enough signa-

ResponsibleOhio, a group pushing for the legalization of marijuana, recently received enough signatures to get their proposal on the ballot this November. If passed, Oberlin will host a testing facility and a production plant.

Bryan Rubin

tures to push the initiative forward.

But where the Ohio Rights Group’s efforts floundered, ResponsibleOhio, a group with much more financial backing, flourished. The organization collected the minimum standard of 1,000 petition signatures for the initiative to be filed on March 13, and needed to amass a minimum of 305,591 total signatures by July 1 to be put on November’s ballot.

The group exceeded expectations, reporting a total of 695,273 signatures on June 30.

Testing and production facilities are expected to create 40 new jobs in Lorain County, according to ResponsibleOhio representatives. The organization expressed interest in a 32.78-acre plot of land on State Route 511 and Oberlin Road to City Manager Eric Norenberg back in February. Norenberg said there has been no official offer to purchase the property as of late.

Still, there has been strong pushback against ResponsibleOhio, even from groups that support legalizing marijuana. Opponents of the organization cite its capacity to monopolize Ohio’s entire cannabis market as a reason not to back the amendment.

“It seems like if you have enough money, you can basically get anything on the ballot,” Tony Coder, assistant

director of the Drug Free Action Alliance in Ohio, said of ResponsibleOhio and Issue 3. “This is giving 10 investors the ability to have a monopoly on a market through the Ohio constitution.”

Pardee said that the Ohio Rights Group initially shared similar reservations about small businesses being pushed out of the market

by ResponsibleOhio, but that the two organizations have been in contact regarding such concerns. Ohio Rights Group has not yet issued an official stance on Issue 3, but is expected to publicize its position soon.

“A lot of people forget the fact that the only thing that’s exclusive are the grow centers,” Pardee added. “All the other opportunities are still wide open for anyone to apply for.”

Spokesperson Oltman added that accusations of ResponsibleOhio creating a monopoly are misguided, and that Issue 3 will realistically create more competition.

“There’s unlimited opportunities for Ohioans to get involved in manufacturing, creating marijuana-infused products,” Oltman said. “For the people who aren’t interested in the commercial side at all and are 21 and older, you can grow up to four plants on your own. A monopoly will never invite you to make your own products.”

Committee Weighs Possible Budget Reduction Oliver Bok News Editor The College’s financial position isn’t healthy, and the community will have to make tough decisions about where to put resources in the near future.

At any rate, that’s the conclusion that many members of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee — the group of students, faculty, staff, trustees and administrators who are tasked with planning the College’s fiscal and educational future

— seem to be coming to.

“To put it simply, we have made a lot of promises that cost money,” said double-degree junior and committee member Hayden Arp. “We promised to raise faculty salaries to the median of our peer group. We promised to be carbon neutral by 2025.

And then there’s the things we want to do: We want to increase the amount of diversity on campus. We want to increase student support services, and all those things cost money.”

Since tuition provides

the vast majority of the College’s revenue, cost increases directly impact tuition rates. To many members of the Steering Committee however, Oberlin’s tuition is so high and increasing so rapidly — tuition increased by four percent last year — that the school simply cannot continue on its current trajectory.

“Everyone understands that at a certain point it’s going to be impossible for large parts of the population to come here if tuition keeps going up the way it

is,” said College senior and committee member Machmud Makhmudov.

However, if the Steering Committee recommends reducing the rate of tuition growth, the result would seemingly necessitate spending cuts of some kind.

“80 percent of Oberlin’s revenue is from tuition,” said Art History professor and committee member Erik Inglis. “80 percent of its expenses are from personnel. We want [them] to be well-compensated for what they do. We want

Strange Bird Lands

Bee Balling

A new fusion bistro replaced Weia Teia on Main Street.

The Yeowomen tied the Yellow Jackets 1–1 in double overtime.

Sexual Satire The sketch comedy troupe aped humorous college relationships.

See page 2

See page 16

See page 12

INDEX:

Opinions 5

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

to control tuition. And that just seems almost antithetical. They are two laudable goals, and they are in real tension with one another.”

Adding to the financial pressure, the Committee has also been debating the appropriate size of the endowment payout, the amount that Oberlin takes each year from the overall endowment for the operating budget. Some committee members reportedly feel that the en-

on the

See Strategic, page 4

WEB

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

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

News

Page 2

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

Strange Bird Bistro Promises Global Flavors Oliver Bok News Editor Strange Bird Bistro, a new restaurant at 9 South Main Street, has landed in Oberlin and looks like it will be here to stay.

For first-time restaurant owner and chef Jennifer Sale, Strange Bird is the culmination of years of hard work in the food industry as a personal chef, small event caterer, hostess and waitress. After years of working for the visions of others, she now gets to pursue her own. “[It’s] all the food that I love all put together — definitely a global influence. Lots of Asian, Cuban, Mexican, Eastern European, French, and a lot of it kind of mashed up with classic American dishes — meatloaf and macaroni and cheese with different spins,” Sale said.

According to Sale, the name of the restaurant reflects the heterodox menu.

“A lot of people asked when I was first wanting to do this, ‘Well, that’s kind of a weird concept to have all of those things together.’

You can go to a Cuban restau-

rant, or you can go to a Mexican restaurant. To have all those things together is a little bizarre, so Strange Bird is a reflection of that.”

Sale mentioned the Korean meatloaf and the Cuban citrus mojo pork (both $15) as two items that are particularly popular with customers.

Sale was working on a business plan for a food truck when she saw that the owner of globalthemed restaurant Weia Teia had put the property on the market to focus on a new restaurant in Beachwood. The opportunity was too good to pass up.

“It’s a perfect location,” Sale said.

But the timing left something to be desired. With only a couple of weeks to go before orientation and the resulting rush of potential customers into town, Strange Bird had to move in fast.

“It was insane,” Sale said. “We did it literally in 12 days. We opened because we definitely wanted to capitalize on that orientation week and really get it out there while there was a massive amount of people in the city. … I

had a lot of support from people I had worked with before that came in just to help, that refused to be paid and really just wanted to help me and support me.”

According to College senior Clara Berger, Strange Bird has already won her over.

“I’ve been there a lot since it’s opened,” Berger said. “It’s a great restaurant. My friends and I go on Friday nights, and it’s really fun.”

Berger also shared her delight about the new brunch menu.

“They have a bacon jam grilled cheese which is really good, [and] they have more seating than some of the other brunch places.

The menu also has crème brûlée French toast, biscuits and gravy.

There’s a whole assortment of different things.”

Berger also noted that she always sees a range of people at Strange Bird, both students and residents. To Sale, that’s exactly as it should be.

“My hope is that it’s a place where everyone can feel comfortable and also get a great meal — high quality with intense layers of flavor,” Sale said.

A customer enjoys a meal at the recently opened Strange Bird Bistro. The restaurant replaced Weia Teia and serves food inspired by a wide range of cuisines.

Benjamin Shepherd

SEED Ventures Aims to Help Local Entrepreneurs Xiaoqian Zhu Handcrafted chocolate, personalized cards, DIY art, dinnerware products made from recycled fabrics and soap for dogs: On Oct. 1, all of these things and more will be available at the Sustainable Economic and Environmental Development Ventures popup store in downtown Oberlin.

SEED is an Oberlin Project initiative that seeks to help local entrepreneurs in Oberlin start businesses by providing them

with business education and a space to sell their products. The program also connects the fledgling businesses to students with social media, website and logo design skills who can help market products to the community.

According to College senior and lead SEED developer Scott Hulver, the business coaching that SEED provides to the entrepreneurs is key.

“Most of [the entrepreneurs] come from a technical background; they know how to

College junior Abby Cali (left) and College senior Anna Droege begin painting a new mural to decorate the SEED Ventures pop-up store in downtown Oberlin. The SEED Ventures program helps local entrepreneurs with their various creative ventures.

Bryan Rubin

The Oberlin Review — Established 1874 —

Volume 144, 140, Number 1 2

(ISSN 297–256)

September September11, 4, 2015

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

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

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make handmade sweaters really well, they know how to make wood products, [but] they don’t have [a] business education,” Hulver said. “We are having a business incubator. Spontaneously, entrepreneurs can attend workshops and get business coaching … so they know how to read financial statements and how they can be better [at] promoting their products and things like that.”

The incubator provides business coaching through the Lorain Small Business Development Center and is open to anybody interested in learning how to start their own business in the community. The 2,000-square-foot pop-up store opens the door for many small businesses in town to gain experience of operating in a real store.

“I have sold online and wholesale, but I have never offered my products in a retail environment,” wrote Janet Michal, OC ’77 and one of the SEED entrepreneurs, in an email to the Review. “I’m really looking forward to seeing people’s reactions to them.”

Ann Mickel, an entrepreneur who makes personalized cards, expressed her appreciation for the retail opportunity SEED provides.

“I don’t have the space necessary to work and sell my product to give it a trial run. SEED Ventures will assist with all of this. … Previously, I was making crafts as a hobby. SEED Ventures saw more potential in what I do and offered me an opportunity to invest in my passion. They provide me with the resources I need to be successful.”

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

The student consultant program, on the other hand, benefits more than just the entrepreneurs. It matches business owners with students from Oberlin College, Oberlin High School, the Lorain County Joint Vocational School and other local schools who have experience in social media, web development and graphic design. The entrepreneurs will receive help for their businesses, and the students will get paid for their work.

College junior Brynn Riesenberg and College seniors Anna Droege and Abby Cali came together this summer to work on a mural project for SEED Ventures in the popup store. The artists sketched a black river, native plants and the earth to symbolize natural resources, as well as human hands to represent people who take these resources to make them into a finished product.

The mural was intended to demonstrate the “Entrepreneurship, Ohio, Community” theme of the SEED Venture program.

The program also aims to improve the town-gown relationship in Oberlin, as students who normally don’t interact with the town will get to work with the local entrepreneurs and community members and use their talents to assist community development.

“I think people make efforts [to improve the College-town relationship], but they are hard to pull off sometimes,” Droege said.

“But the Big Parade is a really good example of [College-town cooperation], so we want to do something like that.”

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

Corrections Corrections: TheofReview not aware of Police In “City OberlinisAppoints New corrections Chief,any ” (Sept.

4, 2015)this Juanweek.

Torres was reported as having served as a chief of the The Review strives to print all Alexandria, VA police department. He was information as accurately as possible. actually a captain.

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

The Oberlin Review

SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 VOLUME 144, NUMBER 2

Local News Bulletin News briefs from the past week Bryan Stevenson Delivers Keynote Convocation MacArthur Fellow and Equal Justice Initiative Founder Bryan Stevenson opened the fall Convocation series with a talk on mass incarceration and the current status of our criminal justice system. Stevenson is widely known for his legal justice work, his TED talk about injustice in the United States and his critically acclaimed memoir Just Mercy. He currently teaches at the New York University School of Law. Future convocation speakers will include novelist Zadie Smith on Sept. 29, journalist Sonia Shah OC ’77 on Oct. 27 and entrepreneur Martine Rothblatt on Nov. 5.

Student Senate Now Accepting Nominations Student Senate announced that it is now accepting nominations for this year’s election. Students have the opportunity to nominate themselves or others, and nominees will be allowed to present their platforms publicly leading up to and during the election. Voting is scheduled to take place from Sept. 13– Sept. 18.

Art Rental Enters its 75th Year The annual art rental program will take place at the Allen Memorial Art Museum on Saturday, Sept.

12 from 8 a.m.–12 p.m. Students and faculty can pay $5, cash or check only, to rent a piece from the museum’s extensive collection.

The top-20 selections from last spring included paintings by Picasso, Dalí and Lichtenstein, among other notable artists.

ESTABLISHED 1874 oberlinreview.org

ONLINE & IN PRINT

Issue 3 Puts Weed Legalization on Ballot Tyler Sloan News Editor ResponsibleOhio, a procannabis legalization group, is riding high on the newest addition to the state’s ballot.

Ohio residents will decide whether to pass the organization’s Ohio Marijuana Legalization Initiative, commonly known as Issue 3, to legalize medical and recreational cannabis use.

If the amendment passes, Oberlin will play host to one of six statewide testing facilities and one of 10 production plants.

“College campuses, especially in Ohio, are really hubs of research and innova-

tion,” said ResponsibleOhio Spokesperson Faith Oltman.

“Through Issue 3, we want to make Ohio a huge part of innovation for the marijuana industry, and by placing those testing facilities near college campuses we can more easily work with the great research that’s being done at college campuses, and students and researchers who are coming up with ideas for the future.”

Other counties slated to host testing facilities include Athens, Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Scioto and Wood, but Lorain is the only one that would house both testing and production facilities.

The amendment mandates that all testing facilities be

situated near colleges and universities.

“I think Lorain County stands to benefit tremendously if Issue 3 passes,” said John Pardee, vice president of the Ohio Rights Group. “This is going to bring a ton of jobs, not only just the jobs at the grow center, but also all the insular jobs from dispensaries, manufacturing facilities, transportation, marketing.”

Pardee’s organization is a nonprofit that aims to legalize medicinal, therapeutic and industrial use of marijuana. The activist group attempted to put its own amendment on the ballot for several years, but failed to collect enough signa-

ResponsibleOhio, a group pushing for the legalization of marijuana, recently received enough signatures to get their proposal on the ballot this November. If passed, Oberlin will host a testing facility and a production plant.

Bryan Rubin

tures to push the initiative forward.

But where the Ohio Rights Group’s efforts floundered, ResponsibleOhio, a group with much more financial backing, flourished. The organization collected the minimum standard of 1,000 petition signatures for the initiative to be filed on March 13, and needed to amass a minimum of 305,591 total signatures by July 1 to be put on November’s ballot.

The group exceeded expectations, reporting a total of 695,273 signatures on June 30.

Testing and production facilities are expected to create 40 new jobs in Lorain County, according to ResponsibleOhio representatives. The organization expressed interest in a 32.78-acre plot of land on State Route 511 and Oberlin Road to City Manager Eric Norenberg back in February. Norenberg said there has been no official offer to purchase the property as of late.

Still, there has been strong pushback against ResponsibleOhio, even from groups that support legalizing marijuana. Opponents of the organization cite its capacity to monopolize Ohio’s entire cannabis market as a reason not to back the amendment.

“It seems like if you have enough money, you can basically get anything on the ballot,” Tony Coder, assistant

director of the Drug Free Action Alliance in Ohio, said of ResponsibleOhio and Issue 3. “This is giving 10 investors the ability to have a monopoly on a market through the Ohio constitution.”

Pardee said that the Ohio Rights Group initially shared similar reservations about small businesses being pushed out of the market

by ResponsibleOhio, but that the two organizations have been in contact regarding such concerns. Ohio Rights Group has not yet issued an official stance on Issue 3, but is expected to publicize its position soon.

“A lot of people forget the fact that the only thing that’s exclusive are the grow centers,” Pardee added. “All the other opportunities are still wide open for anyone to apply for.”

Spokesperson Oltman added that accusations of ResponsibleOhio creating a monopoly are misguided, and that Issue 3 will realistically create more competition.

“There’s unlimited opportunities for Ohioans to get involved in manufacturing, creating marijuana-infused products,” Oltman said. “For the people who aren’t interested in the commercial side at all and are 21 and older, you can grow up to four plants on your own. A monopoly will never invite you to make your own products.”

Committee Weighs Possible Budget Reduction Oliver Bok News Editor The College’s financial position isn’t healthy, and the community will have to make tough decisions about where to put resources in the near future.

At any rate, that’s the conclusion that many members of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee — the group of students, faculty, staff, trustees and administrators who are tasked with planning the College’s fiscal and educational future

— seem to be coming to.

“To put it simply, we have made a lot of promises that cost money,” said double-degree junior and committee member Hayden Arp. “We promised to raise faculty salaries to the median of our peer group. We promised to be carbon neutral by 2025.

And then there’s the things we want to do: We want to increase the amount of diversity on campus. We want to increase student support services, and all those things cost money.”

Since tuition provides

the vast majority of the College’s revenue, cost increases directly impact tuition rates. To many members of the Steering Committee however, Oberlin’s tuition is so high and increasing so rapidly — tuition increased by four percent last year — that the school simply cannot continue on its current trajectory.

“Everyone understands that at a certain point it’s going to be impossible for large parts of the population to come here if tuition keeps going up the way it

is,” said College senior and committee member Machmud Makhmudov.

However, if the Steering Committee recommends reducing the rate of tuition growth, the result would seemingly necessitate spending cuts of some kind.

“80 percent of Oberlin’s revenue is from tuition,” said Art History professor and committee member Erik Inglis. “80 percent of its expenses are from personnel. We want [them] to be well-compensated for what they do. We want

Strange Bird Lands

Bee Balling

A new fusion bistro replaced Weia Teia on Main Street.

The Yeowomen tied the Yellow Jackets 1–1 in double overtime.

Sexual Satire The sketch comedy troupe aped humorous college relationships.

See page 2

See page 16

See page 12

INDEX:

Opinions 5

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

to control tuition. And that just seems almost antithetical. They are two laudable goals, and they are in real tension with one another.”

Adding to the financial pressure, the Committee has also been debating the appropriate size of the endowment payout, the amount that Oberlin takes each year from the overall endowment for the operating budget. Some committee members reportedly feel that the en-

on the

See Strategic, page 4

WEB

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

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

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

News

Page 3

Off the Cuff: Justin Emeka and Yveline Alexis, assistant professors of Africana Studies and Black Lives Matter panelists Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Theater Justin Emeka, OC ’95, and Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Yveline Alexis led a panel about the Black Lives Matter movement on Oberlin’s campus and abroad on Thursday evening. Professor Alexis teaches a number of courses about Caribbean history and is currently writing her manuscript “Haiti Fights Back: Charlemagne Péralte and the Structures of U.S. Empire.” Professor Emeka pursues acting, writing, directing and capoeira and teaches all four of these topics in his courses at Oberlin. The Review sat down with both professors bfeore the panel to discuss the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, its growing role on Oberlin’s campus and more.

I want to start off by asking if you would highlight the main points from your panel for those who couldn’t make it.

Justin Emeka: The event is really just to give us an opportunity as a community to reflect on this movement that’s happening in the nation and how it impacts our work and presence here at Oberlin College. We didn’t go in to create an agenda. It’s really to just give students an opportunity to hear specifically from Black faculty about their perspective and responses to what’s going on. And then to also allow students to express what they’re feeling and what they’re seeing at this moment in history off campus and on.

Yveline Alexis: I share Justin’s sentiment that when we first thought of this idea, or rather when Justin first thought of this idea, it was to bring Black faculty together and students to share this space of healing and we

thought it would be that type of space — not academic, not formal. Just us getting together as a community to think about this historically and not just the 2015 movement but the long, enduring struggle for Black Lives Matter. From the African slave ships that we were first upon to this year, the bloody summer we just had, culminating with the end of Sandra Bland’s life.

So really having perspectives in a time to come together early in the semester to say this matters to us in the way we’re acting, thinking, moving, teaching, researching and hopefully coming together — and not just us.

Not just it being led by either Justin or myself but that there’s so many, I mean you can see from the general outpour of people who would like to attend that people are thirsty and very hungry for, I hope, a space where we can come together and debate and talk and feel.

There are many misinterpretations of the Black Lives Matter movement and its goals. May I ask what Black Lives Matter means to you?

YA: I’m a little confused as to what the misinterpretation is. Especially when I feel like many voices of color, specifically Black people, almost have to defend the term. And to me, I’m at my wits’ end after Emanuel Nine [the victims of the Charleston, SC, shooting] and especially with Sandra Bland and the lack of answers, to debate “Do all lives matter?” We know that, that’s almost a nonsensical question.

For people to challenge even the title of Black Lives Matter or try to critique it as a youth movement makes me realize that people are divorced from history of long civil rights — of people like Frederick Douglass, who at seven dared to think of freedom, people like

Friday, Sept. 4 Thursday, Sept. 3 1:08 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student ill from alcohol consumption at Talcott Hall.

The individual answered all questions asked and went to their room for the night.

9 a.m. A student reported the theft of a yellow purse from the 'Sco. The purse contained identification, gas and medical cards and approximately $100.

6:22 p.m. A student reported damage to their 2004 Lexus. Two long black and red scratches were observed along the driver’s side door. Members of the Oberlin Police Department also responded for a report.

4:26 p.m. An officer on routine patrol stopped near the Language Maze to assist a student who injured their finger. The officer applied first aid and transported the student to their dorm.

6:53 p.m. Facilities staff reported a broken water pipe at a Village Housing unit on West College Street and shut off the water. An area coordinator on call was contacted for temporary relocation of the unit’s residents.

Saturday, Sept. 5 1:12 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the first floor of East Hall. Responders found an activated smoke detector in a flooded stairwell. An electrician responded and replaced the detector,

center, not on the margins. But you don’t have America if you don’t have the Black experience. So not even to separate this as a “Black thing” but the specificity of this as a Black story that informs and inspires and binds us all as Americans.

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Yveline Alexis and Assistant Professor of Theater and Africana Studies Justin Emeka.

the youth involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s — and this idea that we may or may not need leaders. All of us are leaders on this struggle. The fact that we’re surviving white racial violence, I think we’re leading our own daily survival and movement.

I’m not sure why we’re even addressing this idea of “Do Black lives matter? Should it be all lives?” At the University of Pennsylvania, one of my sisters went on a rally after Ferguson and white liberals are passing out fliers on climate change. So us asserting these spaces of healing and grief, and it not being co-opted by everything other than a Black life, I think is really indicative of where we are as a nation.

JE: I think buried in the foundation of our country and in the foundation of our society is a long history of unrest that’s connected to our legacy of racial inequality, specifically around the formation of the notions of Blackness and whiteness, [which are] implicit in how those formations have

come to inform American identity and inform everybody who comes to America no matter what background you are. You still have to negotiate this duality of Blackness and whiteness, and where you fall in that spectrum.

And I think that Black Lives Matter at one level is evidence that the Black community does not feel recognized or seen or, for a lack of a better word, loved by America — as evidenced by institutions that justify Black murder, and the loss of Black lives in such a cavalier manner. In a way that makes Black people feel unsafe, in a way that’s very old, unfortunately. This generation is really just discovering that painful unease of the relationship with their country.

And so I think the Black Lives Matter movement is aimed at getting America to address and assert its relationship more proactively, its love for Black people and Black life because Black life is at the center of the American experience for all people.

Black culture, I should say, is at the

4:11 a.m. Officers were requested to assist with a student ill from alcohol consumption on the second floor of East Hall. The student answered all questions asked and was walked back to their room for the night.

1:36 p.m. Officers were requested to assist with a student ill from alcohol consumption on the third floor of Kahn Hall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

2:10 p.m. Officers responded to the Fred Shults Field to assist a visitor who became ill, possibly from the heat. An ambulance arrived and the individual was transported to Mercy for treatment.

5 p.m. A student reported that approximately $60 was taken from her purse while she was away from her practice room in Robertson Hall.

11:13 p.m. Officers responded to a loud noise complaint on Wood-

land Street. Upon arrival, they observed approximately 300 students in the Woodland Street parking lot consuming alcohol and yelling. All the students scattered in various directions.

Sunday, Sept. 6 11:13 p.m. Officers responded to a loud noise complaint on 1:22 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student to Noah Hall from a house on North Main Street.

Upon arrival, the officers found the student intoxicated and unable to communicate. The student was transported to Mercy for treatment.

2:56 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Police Department responded to reports of a fight between two individuals outside the Oberlin Inn. One was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

9:48 a.m. Custodial staff reported vandalism on the first floor of

Your panel discusses the Black Lives Matter movement on campus and abroad. How have you seen the movement interacting with Oberlin’s campus specifically?

JE: As indicative around the country, young people are feeling the turmoil and unrest that resonates as a result of things that are happening in communities like Ferguson, Baltimore, South Carolina. Those moments are resonating, sending a ripple effect. And I think the Oberlin community feels the same rage and sometimes the same helplessness, the same impotence within their own lives here at Oberlin College and is desperately trying to process those feelings and figure out a way to proactively find resolution in their own presence here in Oberlin. Black, white, brown — everybody is now questioning what their presence means as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The unique thing about the movement is that it’s not one led by a leader with these set of demands, although we start to see certain ideas that are emerging, agenda items, it’s not one thing. So I think we’re still in the process of forming a movement, so to speak. And that’s what this meeting is all about: to discuss how we transform our feelings into movement, so we don’t all become immobilized by our frustration and pain.

YA: Just to connect on a point that Professor Emeka made about this See Off the Cuff, page 4

South Hall. The fire extinguisher cabinet was broken and glass was on the floor. A work order was filed for glass replacement and a custodian cleaned up the glass.

Monday, Sept. 7 12:49 a.m. An officer responded to assist a student who fell off their bike on the south side of Wilder Hall. The officer supplied first aid and bandages.

Tuesday, Sept. 8 12:21 a.m. An officer on routine patrol heard talking and observed students on the roof of Severance Hall. Officers asked the individuals to come down from the roof and all but two complied.

See the full Security Report at www.oberlinreview.org

News

Page 4

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

Off the Cuff: Justin Emeka and Yveline Alexis, Cont.

Continued from page 3 generation feeling a sense of unease — so, we have a biracial president, Barack Obama, and there’s this sense of relief that comes over people of having a face of a Black family, including his girls and his wife and mother-in-law, in the White House. So there’s a layer of it when we agitate against the word post-racialism, specifically in light of this continuation of white violence on Black bodies. And I think this year, especially this bloody summer, I mean after Emanuel Nine, who’s not reckoning with the racial truth of this day?

And the fact that Oberlin for some people is a bubble, a haven, might be safe for some — I can’t say all, given our own incidents and what happened in 2012 on this campus — but thinking about how students and faculty and staff have to come to class to learn, to teach, to give, but Cleveland is right near by and we know about Tamir Rice, may he rest in peace, and what happened with that chase and how many bullets were shot into that car.

So we’re literally only 30 minutes away from that kind of intrusion or even ourselves being followed by cops, arguably for good reason or not for good reason, as oftentimes it has been proved.

We’ll see how tonight unfolds. I think it’s going to provide a valuable space for us to gauge the temperature of what is needed. Is it a space to vent?

Is it a space to continue acting on solutions? Is it a space for us to just be like “I just want to hold your hand and listen”? Or wail at this recrudescence

of violence? I’m thinking of some of the youth involved in the Black Lives movement — I’m impressed by them and the fact that despite almost a monthly occurrence, they’re still going on. After Emanuel Nine, I personally shut down for a couple of days and could not think beyond “wow.” So the fact that despite so many incidents, so many crimes against Black people, that this movement is still alive and still going, I think we can find solace in that as well.

We had a big surge in organizing and action last year after the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray and too many others.

Many students criticized Oberlin’s response to these events, citing many cases where the institution failed to be supportive. How do you feel about the administration’s response to these events? Could more have been done?

JE: From my vantage point, it is a little regrettable that the events of the Black Lives movement last year are characterized, or came to a climax, over the issue of extensions or no extensions. I don’t know about fault in that regard, but I don’t feel like that’s the crux of the issue. That’s in there, but that’s not the crux. And I think that at one level that became too much of the crux of the issue. With this moment, we’re trying to do more, we’re trying to improve upon what’s happened last year, the year before that, the year before that.

At this point I’m not as concerned

about looking at that moment and trying to point fingers, I want to think about how we move forward toward something specific, and for each of us it’s going to be different. There’s not going to be one thing that we’re going to attain and say, “Ah, see, the administration or the students should have done that.” We need to build a process that allows us to examine what’s going on critically and express our rage and emotion without those feelings becoming the issue itself. It plays an important role, so we have to know how to be upset and angry; we also need to know how to be very clear about what the prize is that we’re trying to attain.

YA: In terms of thinking about Oberlin the administration, I think of Oberlin College as us, the people who are working and studying here. We are those people. I feel if there’s agitation against staff who didn’t do too much, students who didn’t organize a rally, faculty who didn’t do a teach-in, that it behooves all of us to get involved. So I’m not waiting for the administration to say, “Okay, you get this extension,” or “It’s okay for you to miss class to plan a rally.” It’s more so about what we are doing collectively to keep this movement going, which I think is more important to me.

In an ideal world you want to fulfill every institution from BP gas stations to Spelman [College] to the White House to sign a Black Lives Matter petition, but again to Professor Emeka’s point, what is that end game? What does that look like and what does that really achieve? It’s an interesting ques-

tion and I’m glad that you pose it, but I don’t necessarily look at the administration as separate from how we all act.

Does Black Lives come up on day one of your classes in biology? In philosophy?

Is it just in Africana Studies or Comparative American Studies? It should behoove all of us, whether you’re in the Conservatory or in the College. More important, how about just reaching out to the Oberlin community at large and being like, “Hey, how is Black Lives Matter impacting you? What are ways that we can act and plan together?”

Is there anything that I didn’t ask you about that you want to speak on?

JE: I will say this about Oberlin the institution: As a large institution, in micro and macro levels, I would like to see our Oberlin community take pride and be articulate in our pride for the presence of Black people at Oberlin. Because I think we have a very unique history at Oberlin

that gets diluted sometimes, and one of the things that I hope to help students, administrators and professors with is being articulate about their commitment towards Black lives in a way that does not threaten their commitment to everyone else. Because the idea that it’s either-or, that it’s Black Lives Matter or it’s all lives matter, is a false assumption. One does not threaten the other.

There are different ways of articulating the same idea, and right now we have it where it feels like is it this or is it that.

YA: We hope [the panel] is just an inaugural event. ... We hope to continue throughout the rest of the year and onwards of that. It isn’t reactive, but proactive in the sense that it’s not until we have another violent incident that we’re coming together to discuss this, but more so making it part of our everyday.

Interview and photo by Tyler Sloan, News editor

Strategic Plan to Decrease Spending, Members Say Continued from page 1 dowment payout is too large and needs to decrease, which would further reduce the amount of funds available to spend.

“The endowment, which isn’t as large as some of our peer institutions on an endowment per student basis, has also not done as well as those in peer institutions,” Inglis said. “If the school is thinking about Oberlin in 2050, to track the payout rate to a level that’s sustainable for 2050, that means potentially, some people think we need to bring the endowment rate payout down.”

In a statement to the Review, Committee co-chairs Diane Yu and College President Marvin Krislov shed light on the current state of the College’s finances.

“The budget of the College and Conservatory projects a slight surplus this fiscal year. In fiscal 2017, we are projecting a budget deficit. In subsequent years, we will be faced with growing annual deficits unless we take action to balance costs and revenues effectively. … Oberlin’s financial situation is unsustainable unless we act strategically. That means we need to manage our finances carefully to achieve our goals. To become financially sustainable we will have to make some wise choices if we want Oberlin to live up to the aspirations that all of us share for this great institution. ” Yu and Krislov also stated that the Committee has yet to decide on any specific recommendations and that the Committee’s work reflects student concerns about recent tuition increases as well as Oberlin’s overall financial situation.

To several students on the Committee, the real problem is that Oberlin does too much with too little.

“I think that Oberlin is a small school doing more than I think it can with its resources,” Arp said. “I think it’s better to do what you do best really well rather than doing everything at a pretty good level.”

However, several committee members stressed that the strategic plan will not include specifics about where exactly Oberlin should reduce spending. Instead, the Committee will leave the specific decisions to the community at large.

“We’re not making those tradeoffs,” said College junior Jasmine Anderson. “We will make it clear that those tradeoffs need to happen, and the tradeoffs will come from the community — the student body, the faculty and the administration — when the implementation process begins.”

Originally, the Committee was supposed to be finished with the plan by Dec. 3. However, they now plan to wrap up the process in March 2016.

In October, the Board of Trustees and the Steering Committee will both meet. The Board will reportedly weigh in on the financial considerations involved in the strategic planning process, such as the size of the endowment payout and future tuition increases.

The Steering Committee also plans to release the next public draft of the Strategic Plan in October, although it’s unclear to what extent the public draft will include discussion of the College’s finances.

According to Anderson, the level of student engagement directly impacts how effective the students on the Committee can be.

“It gives us credibility sitting in the room for them to know that the student body is paying attention,” Anderson said.

Opinions The Oberlin Review

September 11, 2015

Letter to the Editors

Board of Trustees Crucial in Next Step for Divestment To the Editors:

The opening sentence of the Oberlin College Wikipedia article remarks that we were the first American college to regularly admit black students and women.

The words “activism” or “advocacy” appear nine other times on the page in relation to student-led anti-war, civil rights and environmental efforts. These progressive actions have both defined us and galvanized other higher-ed institutions to follow in our footsteps.

In contrast, the Wikipedia pages of Wesleyan, Haverford and Pitzer have either zero or one mention of the words “advocacy” and “activism.” However, those schools are each a part of a social justice movement that Oberlin isn’t: the fossil fuel divestment movement.

Over the last three years, public campaigns to divest from oil, gas or coal have emerged in over 300 college campuses, businesses, cities and churches, with our historically progressive institution notably absent.

Divestment is the process of removing financial holdings from specific companies or industries as

a political tactic used to stigmatize and highlight their immoral practices. Divestment, as a coordinated global movement in which many colleges, cities, businesses and churches participated, was particularly successful at denouncing South African companies during apartheid, as well as the tobacco industry.

In 2014, the fossil fuel divestment movement was reported to be the fastest-growing divestment movement in history, and yet Oberlin was not yet involved. Over the course of the 2014–2015 academic year, five Oberlin students recognized this absence and came together to write and submit a fossil fuel divestment proposal to the Board of Trustees. The proposal was submitted alongside numerous endorsements from students, faculty, the Student Senate and various alumni groups.

The three-page proposal outlines several social and economic arguments calling for divestment and ultimately asks the Board of Trustees “to divest all direct holdings from the 12 corporations that contribute most to global greenhouse gas emissions,” arguing that “any economic investments Oberlin holds in the companies that contribute to these catastrophes reflect a tacit approval of the harm inherent to these corporations’

business models.”

Since its submission on March 12, 2015, the vice president of the College and the chief financial advisor of Oberlin’s endowment have reviewed the proposal and acknowledged that it includes all the requisite elements outlined in the Divestment Resolution. The Board of Trustees must now complete a “threshold review” and make a decision.

They could respond in a number of different ways. In one situation, the Board of Trustees will approve the proposal early on this semester.

In another, they may dismiss the proposal outright or simply fail to give a direct response. Either way, the next steps for the fossil fuel divestment movement hinge on the Board’s next meeting, taking place in Oberlin from Oct. 8–10.

For more information, visit the Oberlin Fossil Fuel divestment blog.

–Naomi Roswell College sophomore –Jasper Clarkberg College junior –Ellie Lezak College junior –Hayden Arp Double degree junior

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.

How I Became More Feminine on T Elly Higgins Contributing Writer Even as a non-binary person, it’s important to recognize that in a lot of ways I am privileged within the trans community. As a white, trans-masculine person, my voice is often prioritized over my trans feminine siblings and my siblings of color. Though I didn’t have the easiest time getting access to testosterone (commonly shortened to T), most trans people are denied hormones the moment they show any sign of hesitation. Further, medical transitioning can be a very expensive process even for those who have insurance, as the insurance can refuse to cover trans healthcare (shoutout to Blue Cross Blue Shield for rejecting my coverage twice). I was very lucky in that I was able to receive affordable care from a queer health center, but even this route is not available to everyone. What I’m sharing here is only a reflection on my personal decision to start hormones and how my ideas of gender have changed over the years.

Two days ago, I had my “two months on T” birthday, which is not something I ever thought I’d say.

Though I’ve known that I was a non-binary trans person for the majority of my life, I never really felt that medically transitioning would be a viable option, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to anyway.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

I was very lucky in that I was able to receive affordable care from a queer health center, but even this route is not available to everyone.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– For me, being non-binary meant a rejection of the gender binary, and though I was uncomfortable being seen by most of the world as female, I didn’t think I’d be any more comfortable being viewed as male.

Testosterone was certainly on my mind a lot; I watched a few close friends begin their medical transitions in high school and spent hours scouring See Hormones, page 7

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

Kutzen Allegations an Opportunity for Greater Oversight Following news in early July that Trustee Thomas Kutzen, OC ’76, had been charged with fraud by the SEC and had stepped down as chair of the Investment Committee, the Office of Communications released a statement about the incident — that is, if one can call three short paragraphs released nearly two weeks after the story broke a statement. It included all the basics: Kutzen’s hedge fund AlphaBridge Capital Management neither confirming nor denying the SEC’s findings, his record of service to Oberlin and so on. Tucked at the end of a paragraph was a small but important note: “Kutzen has now retired from active service as a voting member of the Board but will continue to support the institution in a variety of volunteer capacities,” it read.

The Responsible Investing Organization also released a statement about the allegations. It read very differently.

Among the numerous changes RIO demanded was increased transparency when it comes to the selection for Board of Trustees members and the endowment management process in general. “Our college leaders have been incentivized to ‘follow the money,’” the statement read, “which has come at the expense of responsible management and governance that adheres to Oberlin’s supposed mission of fostering social consciousness.”

The administration’s response to RIO’s statement was a courtesy response from Sandhya Subramanian, vice president of General Counsel and Secretary, who forwarded the statement to the “appropriate Board of Trustees governance entity.” No one from the Board of Trustees has commented on RIO’s letter at press time.

With an incident like Kutzen’s alleged fraud making headlines within the Oberlin community and beyond, it comes as a surprise that he has been kept on the Board in a volunteer capacity, especially when the College knows the general attitude of the student body with regard to financial transparency and responsible investing.

While his name is no longer listed on the Board of Trustees membership page, Trustee meetings are largely inaccessible to the student body, meaning students will remain in the dark regarding Kutzen’s influence over the Board and endowment issues.

The 35-member Board convenes four times per year during the months of October, December, March and June. Despite three of the four meetings occurring while classes are in session, students are not allowed to attend Board meetings or be privy to meeting minutes. The only way students can express concerns to the Board is through the Trustee-Student Forum, which requires students to sign up in advance to attend.

While the Office of the General Counsel and Secretary does outline trustee eligibility requirements and the nomination process on its website, the basis upon which the Board selects its members remains poorly understood — and among Oberlin’s student body, less information often brews greater suspicion. As reported in last week’s Review, College junior Jasper Clarkberg said, “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.” (“SEC Reaches Settlement with Trustee Charged with Fraud,” Sept. 4, 2015).

We cannot accuse the Board of knowingly electing a member accused of financial crimes. We can, however, push for greater oversight and student involvement in endowment management and election processes. Financial and administrative decisions are, as of now, rarely informed by student input, and if they do include student voices, those students often have very little influence relative See Editorial, page 6 Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, managing editor and Opinions editor — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

Opinions

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Editorial: Make Board Accessible

to the many professionals on the Board. Members are, of course, Continued from page 5 on the Board by virtue of the fact that they are professionals with financial expertise; the majority of students lack the relevant skills and experience to manage an endowment. But since the student body has little knowledge of the mechanics of Board meetings, how are students to feel comfortable with Kutzen’s presence and confident that the Board is thoroughly considering student voices in their decisions? The question here is one of simple access and understanding.

The organization of Board meetings needs to be re-examined in light of Kutzen’s SEC allegations. Opening up Board meetings to students is a solid first step, as is holding more accessible Trustee-Student Forums or even allowing students to elect — and not just nominate — Board members. These are feasible policy changes, and if the Board is truly interested in, as its website claims, “the welfare of the institution,” it would do well to reconsider its inside-lookingout approach to governance.

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

U.S. Fails to Learn from Mistakes in Middle East Sean Para Columnist A remarkable and nigh-apocalyptic period of tumult and war is occurring in the Middle East. An order that grew out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire and was cemented after the WWII has collapsed across the region. The first step in this process was the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq, which destroyed the Iraqi state that grew out of the British mandate and was dominated by Sunnis. The invasion showed that the dictators who had been in power since the Cold War — the Assad family, Hosni Mubarak, Muammar Gaddafi — could be toppled. The Iraq War also demonstrated the disastrous consequences that would ensue. Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator and certainly did not rule a legitimate government. However, the current state of Iraq speaks to the dire consequences of the American invasion.

American policy in the Middle East has been severely misguided for more than a decade. It has failed to take into account many key factors, most importantly the role of other powers in the region and the importance of choosing effective allies. The U.S. has failed to foresee the possible consequences of its actions; the mismanaged occupation of Iraq is a perfect example. In 2003, a whole class of experienced administrators from the previous regime was purged from the government, and the Iraqi army was disbanded.

The U.S. government also failed to predict the repercussions of supporting a Shi’a-led government in the place of Saddam Hussein’s Sunni-dominated one. While the reasons for these measures are clear — to create a new Iraqi state free from the tyranny of the past — they had disastrous consequences. The new Iraqi bureaucracy was hopelessly corrupt and ineffective, and the military collapsed into organized and well-trained armed groups

with a vendetta against the new government; sectarian tensions were inflamed to the point of civil war. It is worth reflecting on the mistakes of 2003, given the way that the United States has consistently repeated them in the past 12 years.

The Arab Spring of 2011 shook the Arab world to its core and destroyed many of the dictatorial governments that had enforced sectarian tensions, minority rule, poor government and bad economic policy. The Tunisian, Libyan, Egyptian and Yemeni governments collapsed, while the Assad regime launched a brutal crackdown that turned an initially peaceful opposition movement into an armed rebellion. Surprisingly, the U.S. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

American policy in the Middle East has been severely misguided for more than a decade. It has failed to take into account many key factors, most importantly the role of other powers in the region and the importance of choosing effective allies.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– made many of the same mistakes in 2011 and onwards that it made in 2003. After a military intervention to depose Muammar Gaddafi, Washington failed to provide enough support to the new Libyan government, and Libya has collapsed into civil war. Policy towards Yemen was also misguided, as the U.S. supported the post-2011 government, despite its mismanagement of affairs.

The dire consequences of the U.S.’s policy towards Syria are also clear. After failing to support a moderate opposition in the early part of the Syrian Civil War, the U.S. was left with few palatable allies against the Islamic

State or the Assad regime and has nonetheless been draw into the war.

The Islamic State is the most dramatic repercussion of the U.S.’s failed Middle East policy. The Obama administration continued to support the Maliki government as it alienated the Sunnis, whose appeasement had created a brief respite from the violence that engulfed Iraq after 2003. This, combined with the emergence of a powerful Islamist element to the Syrian rebel forces, allowed the Islamic State to coalesce and take advantage of disaffected Sunnis on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border, creating the jihadist state of today.

The United States’ half-hearted and misguided interventions and poor choice of allies in the Middle East has inflamed tensions across the region and contributed to the pervasive state collapse. U.S. policy-makers have failed to take into account longstanding historical trends, not understanding the underlying weaknesses of the Middle Eastern dictators or the collapse of civil order that would follow their loss of power. Democracies and effective government do not spring out of the ground. They take a long time to emerge.

Behind the peaceful rhetoric of Western governments lies a dark history of violence, genocide, ethnic cleansing and oppression. U.S. policy-makers fail to take into account the underlying processes that lead to peaceful development — strong, accountable states with clear goals and reasonable economic agendas. These factors have led to shocking economic growth in East Asia since WWII. Until they exist in the Middle East, no change will come about. The United States must therefore stop its misguided interventions and create policies that work. What does Washington see as the future of U.S. involvement in the Middle East? It is not clear. The current policy — treading the line between constant political, military and economic intervention and withdrawal — is helping no one.

Students Must Allow Dissent, Avoid Admonition in Classroom Robert Bonfiglio Contributing Writer Students at Oberlin College have a diverse array of interests and passions, resulting in an intersectionality often mentioned as a selling point on admissions tours. One common anecdote we share with prospective students is how chemistry students participate in guided research about the erosion of organ pipes.

It is not difficult to find similarly collaborative efforts across the disciplines studied at Oberlin, whether it’s chemists working with organists, artists working with historians or dancers workings with Africana Studies scholars.

Many students come to Oberlin because they can see that their interests will be nurtured in this environment. However, during my brief time at Oberlin, I have identified a difficulty that accompanies the exploration of new interests. In the classroom setting, there are times I refrain from contributing because I am lacking the confidence to question. I can feel my curiosity being suppressed. So why do I feel this way? I was often that kid in high school who would be chided by his fellow students for asking a question in math class whose answer seemed obvious. But I was relentless, and day after day I would ask my questions. So what changed when I got to Oberlin?

There seems to be a common factor linking all Obies: We want to change something. However, every so often we disagree on how to make that change. These disagreements, when brought up in the classroom, often stifle discussions rather than add diversity to our learning. Little difference in perspective is offered, and the chance to learn for most, if not all, students in the classroom is severely limited.

Students criticize their peers for being lax with their learning.

They try to make it clear that it is a privilege to be at Oberlin, and that the education gained here is a gift as well as a tool that can and should be used to help those less privileged than ourselves. Those who do not understand or recognize this privilege of being at Oberlin are shamed. They are not confronted thoughtfully, respectfully or critically. Students simply are not being helpful to one another. In our small class settings, students are more often than not teachers to one another. So why snuff another who holds a different, if challenging or upsetting, perspective? What is to be gained by ignoring or ostracizing them?

That student’s learning is then limited, and in turn, those who won’t listen are thus limiting their own learning. Yes, oftentimes certain people should not hold the responsibility of needing to teach everyone about a particular experience, whether that be with

regard to identity or history, but those who are ignorant cannot teach themselves without some form of guidance. There must be — to use a phrase I have been hearing more and more every day — a “generosity of learning.”

Focusing on a shared learning and teaching experience, Barbara Tomlinson and George Lipsitz write in their article “American Studies as Accompaniment” that “The field of American studies has always profited greatly from the fact that it does not speak with one voice, that people participating in its dialogues are not the same. The differences that hurt can also help if scholars develop an imagination of unity that does not require unanimity or uniformity. People do not need to be identical to identify and ally with one another” (American Quarterly, March 2013). Although specific to American studies, I believe their comments are transferable across all disciplines. They further state that “[t]he diversity of … experiences and perspectives teaches … lessons [not found] in lectures and books alone.” There must be an understanding among us college students that diversity is good, including diversity of opinion.

Many individuals get caught up in their privilege and cannot make room in discussions for other voices. As Lady Grantham says on Downton Abbey, “If you wish to understand things, you must

come from behind your prejudice and listen.” Of course, this is the common saying we know all too well as “check your privilege.”

However, she also highlights one of the most important processes of learning: listening, as well as knowing when to speak and when to listen.

Oberlin is a liberal arts institution, and we are all ignorant in some field or another. A favorite –––––––––––––––––––––––––––

There must be an understanding among us college students that diversity is good, including diversity of opinion.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––– quote of my father’s goes, “These are the years to celebrate uncertainty.” We — as students, as teachers — must respect others’ choices in what they decide to learn, whether they prefer calculating numbers, testing flies, debating politics or writing poetry.

The power that unites all these interests in affecting change is the power of collaboration and recognizing each others’ strengths.

But this means there must first be an acknowledgement of each others’ weaknesses. Reflecting on my experience this past summer, during which I taught seventh graders, every day we would

remind the students to want to make mistakes. What’s the point if you already know everything?

How else do you learn?

So I am calling for students to voice their opinions, as well as their weaknesses, and then challenge one another. Do not be afraid to speak because there are individuals who will attack you for being wrong or ignorant. Trigger warnings are important, yes, but rather than shutting down the conversation, create a dialogue and space to breathe, where experiences and language can be be voiced. Just because someone simply disagrees with something does not justify a limiting of that student’s comments. Rather than limit, discuss. Share. Teach.

Learning is accompanied by being wrong and ignorant. That is the process, and Oberlin is inherently part of that process. Silence is valuable, but understanding when to be silent and when to speak is the goal; classrooms cannot operate purely in silence or in silencing. Be patient. Difference in opinion is valuable; otherwise, there would be nothing left to learn. That is what challenges and makes people rethink. As Henrik Ibsen writes in his masterful Ghosts, “There are many occasions in life when one has to rely on the opinion of others.

That is the way in this world, and it is quite right that it should be so. What would become of society otherwise?”

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

Page 7

Including Marginalized Authors in English Classes Expands Canon Kiley Peterson Opinions Editor A recent discussion in my Women and Politics course got me thinking about the intricacies of accessibility and oppression in academia. When asked about potential concerns for the course, a student commented on the whiteness of our class. Someone else suggested that our demographics might be the result of a conflicting African American Studies class, African American Women’s History, which also meets on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. This might cause some students to prioritize an aspect of their education or identity — race, gender or class, for example — when choosing between two courses they might be interested in.

While not an intentional transgression on the professors’ parts — class time slots are chosen by individual professors to fit their schedules — departmental or institutional oversight in what classes overlap and how that might affect schedules is severely lacking.

For a campus as radically leftleaning as Oberlin, individual classes or professors may be progressive and inclusive of students’ needs, but the department or institution in which those centers of learning are situated is generally much more conservative, hierarchical or conventional. I’m

sure there was a student who was interested in both Women and Politics and African American Women’s History — or better yet, Black women’s involvement in politics — yet was forced to choose a class because of major constraints or other graduation requirements, such as fulfilling a Cultural Diversity requirement.

I understand that we have a CD requirement because not every class explicitly offers diverse course content, nor is it possible for some classes — especially STEMbased courses — to incorporate those requirements in empirical learning environments.

But many classes, especially in the humanities and social sciences, can embrace more varied content. This is part of a larger discussion about the need for our Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies and East Asian Studies departments, among others — which I still think are necessary for specialized study. Yet the CD requirement often results in students taking language, anthropology, literature or history courses for a few semesters, while the rest of their learning still centers around traditional Westernized, whitewashed subjects. Diversity should be built into the institution itself, not exist merely as a three-credit requirement.

Take the English department, for example. I’m an intended major, so I sincerely

hope my critiques of the department identify as flaws in a larger system of organization and pedagogy, not individual professors or their areas of study. Despite students consistently bringing up issues of privilege, oppression and identity, course syllabi — especially in intro-level courses — still feature canonical white European or American male authors.

In the study of literature, it is necessary to examine those authors and their historical context, but not to focus on them. Obviously the English department is centered around English literature — Comparative Literature is a whole different ballgame that –––––––––––––––––––––––

Diversity should be built into the institution itself, not exist merely as a threecredit requirement.

––––––––––––––––––––––––– I highly recommend pursuing.

But by limiting the discourse in these intro-level classes to the traditional Eurocentric literature and theories, students are missing a huge wealth of literature written by women, people of color, LGBTQ folks and other marginalized identities, which can provide context for the discussion of a literary movement or ideology.

These neglected authors have expanded the range and scope of literary theory by applying it to previously ignored identities and areas of the world.

Europe’s literature had the vast impact it did because of the power of colonialism, imperialism and white supremacy. But those traditions and ideologies, such as Romanticism or Modernism, have been taken from their origin point and expanded into world literature that has either been written in or translated into English. I think examining these concepts in introductory literature courses would be less alienating for potential majors that are turned off by the same European authors they read in high school.

I’m not saying that the wonderful CD courses I have taken have not been rewarding or that we should remove all specialized courses from the department in favor of every course receiving CD standing.

But I urge the department to incorporate more theory and literature from marginalized communities into introductory courses especially.

The texts are out there, and the students are asking for them. It’s up to the English department, as well as every department at Oberlin, to push the boundaries of their classrooms by making cultural diversity a standard of both content and discussion.

Embracing Intellectual Diversity Improves Decision-Making, Problem-Solving Skills CJ Blair Columnist When you look outside your dorm room window, the trees you see are probably maples, oaks or honey locusts. While this is not a guarantee, they are far and away the most likely choices, with only a handful of other possibilities. After a summer of reading a field guide to trees like it was the Bible, I’m now equipped to make wonderfully strange observations like this. Learning to identify trees was the best way for me to gain an appreciation for the everyday diversity that I so often overlooked, but it also revealed the degree of homogony and unspoken mistakes in landscaping that I found prevalent in many other aspects of the world.

I grew interested in botany while working at a plant nursery back home in Kentucky. After countless hours sorting and potting plants, I began to tell them apart by their flowers, leaves and even taste. As I became better at recognizing each species, I found that doing so boosted my self-confidence and gave me a much better understanding of the variety I’d previously failed to notice. But as I started taking inventory of the trees I saw around town, I had a revelation that suddenly depreciated my contentment: There sure are a lot of red maples everywhere.

Anyone can make these observations,

but many people find themselves unable demia, it takes only a week on campus to to because they think tree identification realize these are problematic statements. is strange and inaccessible, a pastime Similarly, our ranking as one of the nabetter left to nerds like me or experts who tion’s leaders in sustainability becomes fully appreciate it. But identifying trees incredibly hard to grapple with when the is no different than any other activity in that a firm grasp of the basic concepts –––––––––––––––––––––——————— can help you navigate the more difficult This isn’t to say that everyone parts. If people were willing to make this tiptoe of faith, they would be able should walk around tasting pine to make informed statements about not needles or reading books on only trees, but all the other topics they political theory, but accepting tend to shy away from, like politics and the power that lies in rudimenchemistry.

This isn’t to say that everyone should tary knowledge would help them walk around tasting pine needles or read- make decisions in their own ing books on political theory, but accepting the power that lies in rudimentary self-interest. knowledge would help them make deci- –––––––––––––––––––––——————— sions in their own self-interest. In my hometown of Lexington, KY, the only spe- proclaimed eco-friendly dorm is the only cies of tree planted in the town square one with air conditioning and solar panwas Bradford pear, and when fire blight els that don’t actually work. infected one of them, all the trees had to Despite its shortcomings, I still conbe chopped down. If the city planners or sider Oberlin the best college I could’ve townspeople had even a basic knowledge asked for. There are countless aspects of botany, they would’ve put the kibosh of the College I know students would be on planting only one species of tree in a eager to change, and all it takes to do so heartbeat. is to make an effort to find them. It’s not Similar detriments due to lack of in- always possible to get to the root of every formation occur everywhere, and Oberlin problem, but my advice for getting startCollege is no exception. While the Col- ed and gaining the necessary awareness lege’s claims of ethnic and ideological is turning to the trees and learning to tell diversity are common knowledge in aca- a spruce from a cedar.

Hormones Not Exclusive to Binary Trans People Continued from page 5 YouTube for transition videos. But every trans person I knew identified as a trans man and their conversations were about becoming more masculine, more “male” or how to pass as cisgender. That kind of talk scared me away from T. Being queer and non-binary are and have been a huge part of my identity, and I had no desire to pass as cis or male. I was concerned that testosterone would somehow make me more binary, even in the eyes of other trans people. Beyond that, for most of the time I was thinking about T, I wasn’t openly trans except among a small group of friends. The process of having to come out as trans, specifically non-binary, and then begin the medical transition was a very long road. Testosterone seemed so far in my future that it almost didn’t feel like a real possibility, or at least one that would only be accessible to me very far in the future. In spite of all this, I was struggling with dysphoria and wanted a more androgynous body. For years I decided to put T out of my head, knowing that this option only amplified my dysphoria since I had no access to it.

So how did I get here, applying goopy gel that smells like rubbing alcohol to my stomach every morning before class? The short answer is that I talked to my family about gender over spring break last year and finally got so fed up with having a period that when I got home for the summer I told them I was planning on starting hormones. But this decision came tentatively and after years of internal turmoil over the question.

Cis people like to propagate the notion that hormones somehow fundamentally change a person’s behavior and personality, and while I never believed that, there definitely was some small part of me that still worried. In truth, I think testosterone has changed me in that it has let me be a much more authentic version of myself — which is certainly not to say that trans people who haven’t done any medical transitioning are inauthentic, just that I’ve been able to come out of my shell. Testosterone has allowed me to be more myself in many ways; my body looks closer to what I’ve always imagined it to look like. This has allowed me to be more feminine, in ways that used to make me uncomfortable, as I no longer worry so much about being read as female. Being more comfortable in my body has also allowed me to be more secure in who I am and more confident in the things I do and say. Testosterone hasn’t made me any more “male” than I ever was.

It’s just that I now see myself as I want to be seen, which helps me forget about concerns of how others see me. I don’t know what will happen over the course of the next several years — how I will change or not change, and if I am even going to stay on testosterone. But so far, medically transitioning has allowed me to recognize the person I see in the mirror as me.

Who’s New?

Percentage of new prefessors in each of Oberlin College’s divisions:

An introduction to some new professors on campus: 1. Where are you originally from? Where did you go to school?

I’m from Missoula, MT. I went to undergrad at Claremont McKenna College and got my PhD at University of Oregon.

Humanities

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

I have a soft spot for any sort of swashbuckler story or artist.

3. Where is a place you want to travel? Why? I’d really like to go to southern Chile and Patagonia. I hear that it’s an astoundingly beautiful and unique place, and I think it could change dramatically as the climate changes.

15

Natural Sciences

percent

Social Sciences

3

percent

12 percent

4. What is your secret talent?

It’s no secret nor a talent, really, but I like to play bluegrass on the mandolin.

Ben Fitch-Fleischmann Assistant Professor, Economics and Environmental Science

5. What excites you most about Oberlin?

The students, of course!

1. Where are you originally from? Where did you go to school?

I am originally from Bethlehem, PA. As a high school senior, I had my college possibilities narrowed to two: Oberlin and Yale (one of my first Oberlin experiences was attending Drag Ball as a prospie). I ended up going to Yale, but I’ve been back to Oberlin a few times, mostly visiting my little sister, who is OC ’07.

1. Where are you originally from? Where did you go to school?

I was born and raised in Japan, and my hometown is Nagoya. While in Japan, I attended the Aichi Prefectural University as an American Studies major. Then I transferred to and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BA in Native American Studies and an Anthropology minor, an MA in art history and a PhD in cultural geography.

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

Book: My favorite author of all time is Shiba Ryotaro, Japanese novelist, but unfortunately his work is not widely available in the U.S. book market. So I would like to name Deborah Bird Rose’s Wild Dog Dreaming.

Movies: Smoke Signals; Departures; Hachi.

Music: Shiina Ringo; Tokyo Incidents; Lufa-Lufa; Deolinda.

Artists (painters): Albrecht Dürer; Gustav Klimt; William Morris; Kenojuak Ashevak.

Chie Sakakibara Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies

Colin Dawson Assistant Professor, Mathematics

3. Where is a place you want to travel? Why? The list of the places where I want to travel is endless, so it is difficult to choose one place. I would love to visit Greenland and/or Finland someday. I do my fieldwork in the western Arctic — mostly northern Alaska — but I have never been to the other side of the Arctic. I would also like to spend some time in Portugal just to relax and enjoy life.

4. What is your secret talent?

Not that it is a secret talent, but I am taking ukulele lessons at Woodshed Lesson Studio.

5. What excites you most about Oberlin?

Pretty much everything about Oberlin is exciting. I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to come work here with students that are intellectually curious, socially and politically engaged and such musical badasses. Academics, politics and music are three of the most important things to me, and I don’t think there’s anywhere else that has that combination to the extent that Oberlin does. I’m really enjoying getting to know my students a little bit so far this semester, and I’m really looking forward to getting to know them better and getting to know other students in the future and learning about all the awesome stuff they are doing all the time.

1. Where are you originally from? Where did you go to school?

I moved around a lot when I was younger, but I consider myself to be from the Chicago area. I stayed in-state for college, attending the University of Illinois, and did my graduate work at the University of Wisconsin.

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

Book: This changes daily, but the book I am thinking about most right now is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. It should be required reading.

Film: Raiders of the Lost Ark Song: “Canto de Ossanha” by Vinicius de Moraes.

1. Where are you originally from?

I was born and grew up in London. After the University of Oxford, I came to the U.S. for graduate school. I finished my PhD at Stanford University in 2014.

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

I love Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Tolstoy. For my film I’d pick Strike; for a novel, Anna Karenina.

3. Where is a place you want to travel? Why? I have dreams of taking a road trip through the western United States.

CALENDAR

Art Rental at the AMAM Saturday, Sept. 12, 8–12 p.m.

Allen Memorial Art Museum

Every semester the Allen rents out an amazing collection of artworks to college students, staff and community members.

The process works on a first-come, firstserved basis. Get there early or sleep out in the courtyard the night before to grab a good spot in line. Each student is allowed to rent two pieces for $5 each. What better way to decorate your dorm?

3. Where do you want to travel? Why? I had the amazing opportunity to travel around the world for 12 weeks singing for my plane tickets and lodging when I was in an a cappella group in college. But it’s been a little bit of time in a lot of places — not enough to really know them. I think one of my favorite places I’ve been was Buenos Aires, where I went on my honeymoon. I’d actually like to go back there the next time I have an opportunity to take a bigger trip.

4. What is your secret talent?

I used to be able to talk backwards. If you recorded it and reversed the recording, it would sound weird, but you could understand what I was saying — think The Red Room from Twin Peaks.

5. What excites you most about Oberlin?

I fell in love with Oberlin because it is a beautiful town with a strong sense of community. The intellectual curiosity and energy that the Oberlin students bring to and beyond the classroom are phenomenal, and I feel inspired on every occasion in which I interact with them.

I cannot wait to start working closely with my students and colleagues as the semester progresses. Last but not least, I am also looking forward to getting acquainted with the famous albino squirrels on campus!

Matthew Rarey Assistant Professor, Arts of Africa and African Diaspora

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

Books: When we read The Real Life of Sebastian Knight in a 20th-century lit class in college. That set me off on the super nerdy … project of reading all of Nabokov’s novels in chronological order, which took a couple of years.

Movies: I love the Coen Brothers — I have a special fondness for The Man Who Wasn’t There, Hal Hartley (especially Trust) and earlier Christopher Nolan. I absolutely loved the movie Drones, which was codirected by Amber Benson from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Stories We Tell, the not-quite-documentary

by Sarah Polley.

Songs/Artists: It’s impossible to pick just a handful … but I love Cat Power, Man Man, Metric, Patrick Watson, Sylvan Esso, Kishi Bashi … and Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is absolutely one of my desert island discs. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Bach choral music.

3. Where is a place you want to travel? Why? I would love to travel to China. My wife is a scholar of the Cultural Revolution, so I have heard plenty of stories.

4. What is your secret talent?

I have a knack for eating barbecue.

5. What excites you most about Oberlin?

There are many things that excite me about teaching here, from the engaging students and colleagues to the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s stellar collections. But above all, I am thrilled to be working for a college that both preaches and practices such a strong commitment to teaching excellence and shared faculty governance.

4. What is your secret talent?

I play the classical guitar.

Luke Parker Visiting Assistant Professor, Russian

5. What excited you most about Oberlin?

Teaching students who see their reading load as an end in itself.

writing and design by Grace Tobin Spreadsheets and Graphing Workshop Saturday, Sept. 12, 2–3 p.m.

Science Library, Mac Lab Learn about how to better express data through tables, formulas, pie charts, scatterplots, column graphs, trend lines and more. The event is led by Marcelo Vinces and Kendra Lian through Oberlin’s Center for Learning, Education and Research in the Sciences, commonly known as CLEAR.

Guest Recital: David Kim and Jeffery DeVault Sunday, Sept. 13, 3–4 p.m.

Kulas Recital Hall, Conservatory Central Unit Violinist and Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim will describe his career experiences at this afternoon performance. He will be accompanied by award-winning pianist Jeffery DeVault. The talk will be intermixed with performances of Kim’s favorite works.

Jivamukti Yoga Class Monday, Sept. 14, 5–6 p.m.

Philips gym, Multipurpose Room

OSlam Club Meeting Monday, Sept. 14, 9 p.m.

Wilder Hall, Room 211

Amos Kennedy: Movie Screening and Artist Q&A Wednesday, Sept. 16, 3–5 p.m.

Allen Memorial Art Building, Classroom 1

This fast-paced class will be instructed in vinyasa style. The class covers a breadth of poses including asana warm-up, chanting, setting of tension, sun salutation, standing poses and meditation. This class is open to people of all levels of yoga practice. Remember your mat!

Oberlin’s slam poetry team and club is looking for members. The group welcomes everyone who is interested in spoken word, slam poetry or performance poetry. No experience is necessary — the club meets at this time weekly to write, talk and create together.

The Art department, in partnership with the Oberlin College Library, will host Amos Kennedy for a screening of his film Proceed and Be Bold. The movie is about Kennedy’s personal experiences moving from a 9–5 job in printmaking. It consists of interviews with Kennedy, his friends and family in relation to his work. Challenging norms of the art world, in both a monetary and racial sense, the movie is known for its provocative nature.

Observatory and Planetarium Friday, Sept. 18, 9–11 p.m.

Observatory and Taylor Planetarium, Peters Hall This event is hosted by planetarium coordinator Dave Lengyel on nights when the sky is clear. Visit the Observatory and gaze at the great views of the night sky. The view on North Fields is nice, but this one beats all others!

Azúcar: Latin Night Friday, Sept. 18, 9:30 p.m.

Spanish House, Events Room The event will be full of dance, including salsa, merengue, bachata and more. The event is open to all.

No dancing experience is necessary; there will be a workshop held in the beginning of the night for all to learn the basics. Shake out the stress of the week and dance the night away!

Who’s New?

Percentage of new prefessors in each of Oberlin College’s divisions:

An introduction to some new professors on campus: 1. Where are you originally from? Where did you go to school?

I’m from Missoula, MT. I went to undergrad at Claremont McKenna College and got my PhD at University of Oregon.

Humanities

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

I have a soft spot for any sort of swashbuckler story or artist.

3. Where is a place you want to travel? Why? I’d really like to go to southern Chile and Patagonia. I hear that it’s an astoundingly beautiful and unique place, and I think it could change dramatically as the climate changes.

15

Natural Sciences

percent

Social Sciences

3

percent

12 percent

4. What is your secret talent?

It’s no secret nor a talent, really, but I like to play bluegrass on the mandolin.

Ben Fitch-Fleischmann Assistant Professor, Economics and Environmental Science

5. What excites you most about Oberlin?

The students, of course!

1. Where are you originally from? Where did you go to school?

I am originally from Bethlehem, PA. As a high school senior, I had my college possibilities narrowed to two: Oberlin and Yale (one of my first Oberlin experiences was attending Drag Ball as a prospie). I ended up going to Yale, but I’ve been back to Oberlin a few times, mostly visiting my little sister, who is OC ’07.

1. Where are you originally from? Where did you go to school?

I was born and raised in Japan, and my hometown is Nagoya. While in Japan, I attended the Aichi Prefectural University as an American Studies major. Then I transferred to and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BA in Native American Studies and an Anthropology minor, an MA in art history and a PhD in cultural geography.

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

Book: My favorite author of all time is Shiba Ryotaro, Japanese novelist, but unfortunately his work is not widely available in the U.S. book market. So I would like to name Deborah Bird Rose’s Wild Dog Dreaming.

Movies: Smoke Signals; Departures; Hachi.

Music: Shiina Ringo; Tokyo Incidents; Lufa-Lufa; Deolinda.

Artists (painters): Albrecht Dürer; Gustav Klimt; William Morris; Kenojuak Ashevak.

Chie Sakakibara Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies

Colin Dawson Assistant Professor, Mathematics

3. Where is a place you want to travel? Why? The list of the places where I want to travel is endless, so it is difficult to choose one place. I would love to visit Greenland and/or Finland someday. I do my fieldwork in the western Arctic — mostly northern Alaska — but I have never been to the other side of the Arctic. I would also like to spend some time in Portugal just to relax and enjoy life.

4. What is your secret talent?

Not that it is a secret talent, but I am taking ukulele lessons at Woodshed Lesson Studio.

5. What excites you most about Oberlin?

Pretty much everything about Oberlin is exciting. I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to come work here with students that are intellectually curious, socially and politically engaged and such musical badasses. Academics, politics and music are three of the most important things to me, and I don’t think there’s anywhere else that has that combination to the extent that Oberlin does. I’m really enjoying getting to know my students a little bit so far this semester, and I’m really looking forward to getting to know them better and getting to know other students in the future and learning about all the awesome stuff they are doing all the time.

1. Where are you originally from? Where did you go to school?

I moved around a lot when I was younger, but I consider myself to be from the Chicago area. I stayed in-state for college, attending the University of Illinois, and did my graduate work at the University of Wisconsin.

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

Book: This changes daily, but the book I am thinking about most right now is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. It should be required reading.

Film: Raiders of the Lost Ark Song: “Canto de Ossanha” by Vinicius de Moraes.

1. Where are you originally from?

I was born and grew up in London. After the University of Oxford, I came to the U.S. for graduate school. I finished my PhD at Stanford University in 2014.

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

I love Sergei Eisenstein and Lev Tolstoy. For my film I’d pick Strike; for a novel, Anna Karenina.

3. Where is a place you want to travel? Why? I have dreams of taking a road trip through the western United States.

CALENDAR

Art Rental at the AMAM Saturday, Sept. 12, 8–12 p.m.

Allen Memorial Art Museum

Every semester the Allen rents out an amazing collection of artworks to college students, staff and community members.

The process works on a first-come, firstserved basis. Get there early or sleep out in the courtyard the night before to grab a good spot in line. Each student is allowed to rent two pieces for $5 each. What better way to decorate your dorm?

3. Where do you want to travel? Why? I had the amazing opportunity to travel around the world for 12 weeks singing for my plane tickets and lodging when I was in an a cappella group in college. But it’s been a little bit of time in a lot of places — not enough to really know them. I think one of my favorite places I’ve been was Buenos Aires, where I went on my honeymoon. I’d actually like to go back there the next time I have an opportunity to take a bigger trip.

4. What is your secret talent?

I used to be able to talk backwards. If you recorded it and reversed the recording, it would sound weird, but you could understand what I was saying — think The Red Room from Twin Peaks.

5. What excites you most about Oberlin?

I fell in love with Oberlin because it is a beautiful town with a strong sense of community. The intellectual curiosity and energy that the Oberlin students bring to and beyond the classroom are phenomenal, and I feel inspired on every occasion in which I interact with them.

I cannot wait to start working closely with my students and colleagues as the semester progresses. Last but not least, I am also looking forward to getting acquainted with the famous albino squirrels on campus!

Matthew Rarey Assistant Professor, Arts of Africa and African Diaspora

2. What is your favorite book? Movie? Song/artist?

Books: When we read The Real Life of Sebastian Knight in a 20th-century lit class in college. That set me off on the super nerdy … project of reading all of Nabokov’s novels in chronological order, which took a couple of years.

Movies: I love the Coen Brothers — I have a special fondness for The Man Who Wasn’t There, Hal Hartley (especially Trust) and earlier Christopher Nolan. I absolutely loved the movie Drones, which was codirected by Amber Benson from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Stories We Tell, the not-quite-documentary

by Sarah Polley.

Songs/Artists: It’s impossible to pick just a handful … but I love Cat Power, Man Man, Metric, Patrick Watson, Sylvan Esso, Kishi Bashi … and Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is absolutely one of my desert island discs. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Bach choral music.

3. Where is a place you want to travel? Why? I would love to travel to China. My wife is a scholar of the Cultural Revolution, so I have heard plenty of stories.

4. What is your secret talent?

I have a knack for eating barbecue.

5. What excites you most about Oberlin?

There are many things that excite me about teaching here, from the engaging students and colleagues to the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s stellar collections. But above all, I am thrilled to be working for a college that both preaches and practices such a strong commitment to teaching excellence and shared faculty governance.

4. What is your secret talent?

I play the classical guitar.

Luke Parker Visiting Assistant Professor, Russian

5. What excited you most about Oberlin?

Teaching students who see their reading load as an end in itself.

writing and design by Grace Tobin Spreadsheets and Graphing Workshop Saturday, Sept. 12, 2–3 p.m.

Science Library, Mac Lab Learn about how to better express data through tables, formulas, pie charts, scatterplots, column graphs, trend lines and more. The event is led by Marcelo Vinces and Kendra Lian through Oberlin’s Center for Learning, Education and Research in the Sciences, commonly known as CLEAR.

Guest Recital: David Kim and Jeffery DeVault Sunday, Sept. 13, 3–4 p.m.

Kulas Recital Hall, Conservatory Central Unit Violinist and Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster David Kim will describe his career experiences at this afternoon performance. He will be accompanied by award-winning pianist Jeffery DeVault. The talk will be intermixed with performances of Kim’s favorite works.

Jivamukti Yoga Class Monday, Sept. 14, 5–6 p.m.

Philips gym, Multipurpose Room

OSlam Club Meeting Monday, Sept. 14, 9 p.m.

Wilder Hall, Room 211

Amos Kennedy: Movie Screening and Artist Q&A Wednesday, Sept. 16, 3–5 p.m.

Allen Memorial Art Building, Classroom 1

This fast-paced class will be instructed in vinyasa style. The class covers a breadth of poses including asana warm-up, chanting, setting of tension, sun salutation, standing poses and meditation. This class is open to people of all levels of yoga practice. Remember your mat!

Oberlin’s slam poetry team and club is looking for members. The group welcomes everyone who is interested in spoken word, slam poetry or performance poetry. No experience is necessary — the club meets at this time weekly to write, talk and create together.

The Art department, in partnership with the Oberlin College Library, will host Amos Kennedy for a screening of his film Proceed and Be Bold. The movie is about Kennedy’s personal experiences moving from a 9–5 job in printmaking. It consists of interviews with Kennedy, his friends and family in relation to his work. Challenging norms of the art world, in both a monetary and racial sense, the movie is known for its provocative nature.

Observatory and Planetarium Friday, Sept. 18, 9–11 p.m.

Observatory and Taylor Planetarium, Peters Hall This event is hosted by planetarium coordinator Dave Lengyel on nights when the sky is clear. Visit the Observatory and gaze at the great views of the night sky. The view on North Fields is nice, but this one beats all others!

Azúcar: Latin Night Friday, Sept. 18, 9:30 p.m.

Spanish House, Events Room The event will be full of dance, including salsa, merengue, bachata and more. The event is open to all.

No dancing experience is necessary; there will be a workshop held in the beginning of the night for all to learn the basics. Shake out the stress of the week and dance the night away!

Arts The Oberlin Review

Page 10

September 11, 2015

New Record Label to Support Marginalized Musicians Louise Edwards Arts Editor

them making music and doing it on their own.”

With encouragement from a friend, Sarah created a kickstarter campaign over the summer to earn money for the label.

Executive Producer of WOBC’s Live from Studio B and College sophomore Becca Winer quickly noticed Snider’s project. “I saw Pretty Records blow

Sarah’s rather modest $500 ambition has raised $1,600 dollars already, so there’s On a weekend night last obviously more of a comyear, the Harkness House munity inclined to support basement was crowded this than was her baseline with students excited for hope,” Larry Dunn said. a night of music perforPretty Records just remances. Guitarist Claire leased its first recordings Kotarski plugged her inthis week, including songs strument into an amp. A

by Charlie Down, Emo man working tech for the Side Project and i tried to show approached her and run away when i was 6. said, “You’re not supposed While all the bands play ––––––––––––––––––––––– to do that. That’s not the indie-rock music, Snider right amp to plug into.” “Our goal is to notes that Pretty Records While this man was simseeks to support diverse ply frustrated and short provide visibility genres of music, reflecting with the musician, he for [marginalized] the diversity of non-dude didn’t think twice about people. It’s really musicians. the power dynamics inSnider started Pretty helpful for people volved in this interaction.

Records in part because Such statements can make to see people like of patriarchal oppression women and non-binary them making music she observed within music musicians doubt themcommunities in Oberlin and doing it on their selves and their knowledge and elsewhere. She noof technical equipment own.” ticed that often people jusand can turn musical ventify not adding women and SARAH SNIDER ues into uncomfortable non-binary folks to the Creator, Pretty Records and inaccessible spaces. booking list because they Double-degree junior ––––––––––––––––––––––– don’t want to book just Sarah Snider, who is part any non-dude act, but one of the TIMARA depart- up on Facebook when it that is excellent. Snider ment and a co-electronic first came out and clicked explains how this thinking genre director at WOBC, it immediately because I is oppressive and flawed. hopes to work toward dis- think Sarah Snider defi- “Since [non-dudes] are exmantling the patriarchy nitely knows what’s going pected to be the best from within music communi- on,” she said. “It’s the kind the get go, [they] never reties through her new re- of thing that you’ve been ally get the opportunity cord label, Pretty Records, waiting so long for some- to make mistakes and exwhich she launched at the one to just do and Sarah periment, which guys do. end of this summer. The really just did it. I shared For guys it’s like, ‘They’re record label is specifically it right away, put in a cou- growing as a band,’ or for women and non-binary ple bucks and am excited ‘They sang really badly, but folks or “non-dudes” — to see what will happen it’s just their style,’ wherean inclusive and informal next.” Community mem- as if you’re a non-dude and term that Snider likes to bers and new music en- you play the guitar poorly, use to describe people thusiasts Larry and Arlene then, ‘Oh, you’re a terrible who don’t identify as cis Dunn were also thrilled to musician.’” Snider hopes white men. “Our goal is to hear about Pretty Records that the label will help provide visibility for [mar- and have been vocal and combat these unjust attiginalized] people,” Snider passionate supporters of tudes that she and others said. “It’s really helpful for Snider’s efforts. “It was observe by giving legitimapeople to see people like encouraging to see that cy and weight to non-dude

A logo for double-degree junior Sarah Snider’s record label, which specifically promotes “nondude” musicians, depicts a concerned woman. Snider hopes the label will provide a supportive community for women and non-binary musicians.

Courtesy of Sarah Snider

musicians.

Pretty Records also hopes to build a supportive community for nondudes in music simply by organizing people to work toward the common goals of opening up spaces and resources for non-dudes in music and encouraging them to make music.

Winer emphasizes the importance and need for such a community. “I think there’s no better feeling than having a conversation with someone in a similar boat as you. That’s a really strong way to validate your experience where you just feel totally empowered and totally supported.”

Alison Kozol, OC ’14, who, along with Snider, is involved in activism supporting marginalized voices in music, thinks that Pretty Records will also be vital in raising awareness of non-dudes in music. “It

allows for invisible acts, bands and musicians to have a publicized platform, which is all you really need to be noticed or booked.

I think it’s good because it just showcases these people who you wouldn’t normally see perform or record because of so many complex reasons.” Snider elaborated that simply seeing people like yourself performing is empowering, especially considering the erasure of non-dudes from stage spotlights and roles in studios. Recently, she came across a blog called Female Pressure that displays images of women in the studio. “We’re not documented in the studio; the images that you see are dudes doing things, so just having a place where you see so many pictures of people who are not straight cis white guys in the studio was empowering.”

Another aspect of patriarchy within the music communities at Oberlin that both Snider and Winer have noticed is that non-dudes often don’t know how to get involved in male-dominated studio work and doubt their own abilities because of patriarchal arrogance. “I know a lot of guys here who mix and master a ton of recordings or just go into a studio and figure it out,” Winer said. “They can just pick up a wrench and become an engineer, but for me, I feel I want training. I need some sort of proof that I’m capable of doing this, and I think it’s definitely resulted from this culture where non-dude people are made to feel that they need to earn their space here, whereas it’s given on a platter to a white cis See Pretty, page 13

Alumnus’ Cleveland Music Organization Achieves Nonprofit Status Lillian White The IRS recently granted nonprofit status to The Syndicate for the New Arts, an organization devoted to transforming the way contemporary music gets presented and experienced in Cleveland and throughout the Rust Belt. Founded by Joshua Rosner, OC ’14, the nonprofit builds connections in the Cleveland music scene by hosting touring artists and initiating collaborations with existing institutions such as restaurants, museums and schools. Syndicate musicians also highlight work by local modern composers and Cleveland and Rust Belt artists whose careers have gone unrecognized.

The Syndicate’s new nonprofit status qualifies it for key grants to support free programming.

Additionally, as collaborator double-degree fifth-year Caitlin Mehrtens pointed out, the

status strengthens the group’s credibility.

When applying to become a 501(c)(3), the Syndicate drew on the legal counsel of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts to guide them through the process. Rosner praised the Cleveland branch of the VLA for its tireless advocacy for the arts.

“A lot of times artists are so involved in their craft that they aren’t aware of licensing or copyright issues,” the team’s VLA attorney Jaclyn Vary said. “[My role] is to make sure they aren’t encountering any unforeseen obstacles. … I’m very excited for them; it is wonderful that they can continue their mission [as a nonprofit].”

The support of Vary and artistic mentors from other highprofile Oberlin ensembles, including contemporary sextet eighth blackbird and the International Contemporary Ensemble, proved invaluable. Both Rosner and Meh-

rtens said that learning the legal and business side of running a nonprofit has been a new and challenging experience. Vary said placing artists in administrative positions is a common approach with new nonprofits, challenging the musicians to learn new skills while keeping decision-making in their hands. Rosner said there exists a disconnect between the administrative and artistic components of other established music organizations with which he has been involved. He enjoys that musicians run Syndicate, since it streamlines communication and priorities.

Rosner said he wanted the organization to primarily promote Cleveland composers and musicians because of formative experiences he had as an intern with the Wet Ink Ensemble in New York City.

“I found that cities like New York and San Francisco are great

for the arts but pretty bad for their artists,” Rosner said. “I was looking for a different model for making music that was appreciated not only for what it was but for how it brought people together and built community.”

Rosner said the possibility to foster and shape the contemporary music scene in Cleveland excited him and he saw Cleveland’s history as a former center of wealth and manufacturing as a goldmine for musical opportunity.

“I think there’s a real need and desire to build community here,” Rosner said. “I think it’s exciting to be here building art that is relevant to post-industrialization.”

Mehrtens said the Syndicate is commited to community development.

“Building community [means] prioritizing voices within artists’ communities that need support, that we can help however they

need,” she said. She also said she hopes to see circles of local freelance composers and musicians expand in the process.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

“I was looking for a different model for making music that was appreciated not only for what it was but for how it brought people together and built community.”

JOSHUA ROSNER, OC ’14 Founder, Syndicate for the New Arts ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– For Rosner, the Sydicate’s goals hinge on one simple, central question: “How can the Syndicate supplement what is already here, as well as create new opportunities for people that are here and not here yet?”

Arts

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

Page 11

Sexual Innuendo Drives Piscapo’s Arm Debut Sophie Kemp “We sometimes get offensive, so if we do, you can throw a Cat cookie at us — preferably at the mouth region,” a member of Piscapo’s Arm informed the audience gathered at the Cat in the Cream last Friday. No Cat cookies were thrown, but the troupe stayed true to its message and presented a show that perfectly satirized sexually-fueled tensions at Oberlin, for which the show was named.

Piscapo’s Arm’s Sexual Tension show was the first of the semester for Oberlin’s oldest sketch comedy group. The troupe moved seamlessly between goofy R.A.related innuendos, Cookie Monster condom jokes and discourse on the lengths we go to charm a lover, like sending nudes. At many points throughout the show, the subject matter was incredibly relatable to life at Oberlin. While most of us can’t claim to have been hit on at a fencing match — two of the members of Piscapo’s Arm are on the fencing team — the way the characters interacted echoed personal experience.

It’s easy to feel uncomfortable when talking about personal experiences, especially when it comes to sex, which is why

sometimes the easiest way to talk about it is through comedy.

Sketch comedy creates space to tell stories we’re often embarrassed to hear. While some of the scenes could have been cringeworthy and too sexually explicit, Piscapo’s Arm successfuly walked the fine line between offensive and comedic.

To achieve a sense of personal narrative within a sketch, the members of Piscapo’s Arm frequently write their sketches individually and workshop them together. Many of these sketches are never performed, making the writing process and workshop time crucial to success. This calculated aspect boded well for the most part during the performance; there were very few awkward pauses in the audience. It was genuinely funny. There were some moments that seemed a little too safe, however, such as the sketch about falling for an R.A. The jokes followed the typical first-year story arc: random charades, doing a room condition report incorrectly. These jokes felt a little obvious, but the sketch ended on a high note when College sophomore Liam McLean asked College junior Rachel Sacks to “go for a professor instead.”

College sophomore Liam McLean performs in a humorous sketch during the first Piscapo’s Arm show of the year.

The show parodied college students’ romantic and sexual mishaps.

Kellianne Doyle

The group draws on influences like Broad City creators Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, as well as older acts like Michael Palin’s Monty Python and Sam Speigelman’s Old Jews Telling Jokes. These carried out well into the sketches performed during the Labor Day show: awkward, a little gritty and, of course, sexually charged.

Sketch comedy à la Piscapo’s Arm is a pleasant diversion from the large improv scene on campus. The show had a very different feel from the comedy stylings of Oberlin’s three improv groups.

The scenes had defined beginnings and ends; the jokes had clear arcs with predetermined punch lines. The longer writing

process allowed for sketches to be more narrative. The troupe used aspects of improv when performing to keep things interesting.

This variety of comedy on campus was refreshing. Despite the fact that sexual tensions ran high in the performance, the show provided a relaxing evening after a long day of studying.

Student ExCo Teachers Aim to Fill Academic Voids Rebecca Cohen Talented Obies are gearing up to lead their peers through the discovery of art forms and media genres in several new ExCos offered this semester. Several teachers — or facilitators, as some preferred to be called — expressed a desire not only to share their passion and knowledge with classmates but also to foster communities surrounding their topics of interest.

Strong queer- and feminist-oriented themes connect several new courses, including Women and Television; GraphEx: An Exploration of Graphic Narratives (with a focus on artists and creators who are women and/or trans); Experimental Feminist Film; and Queer Women OnScreen. College senior Anne Buckwalter wants to expose her peers to comic books written by women and trans individuals while asking students to keep a daily drawing log to get into the practice of creating regularly.

A Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies major, Buckwalter discovered in comic-writing a medium that offered a high level of freedom to experiment with how queer identities can be visually represented. She finds it challenging yet valuable

to condense verbal stories into bite-sized bodies of text to accompany images. “The combination of words and images can be really powerful. … If you draw someone in a comic, you can make their gender ambiguous. You don’t have to use a pronoun for them,” she said. We are constantly bombarded with digital images or videos of human bodies in everyday life; in comics, characters retain their dynamic qualities while remaining stationary.

Buckwalter emphasized the accessibility of GraphEx. “You do not have to be good at drawing or art in order to draw comics,” Buckwalter said. “They don’t have to be funny either — they can be about your life, about a hippo, about sad things.”

College sophomore Sophie Miller has a glint in her eye when she talks about television, especially if women are in charge of its production. Each week in her Women and Television ExCo, students will watch shows written or created by a woman and discuss how the series portrays women in comparison to shows not written or directed by women. They will discuss critical paradigms such as the Bechdel test, a method that feminist critics use to acknowledge misogyny in media. The

test asks whether a work contains a scene where at least two women talk to each other about something other than men.

Many films and television shows do not meet these requirements.

Miller will ask her students to consider how well the female-identifying characters they see on-screen exemplify threedimensional, relatable and intelligent personas who act, feel and think independently of the men in their lives. Miller also hopes to challenge students to look beyond preconceptions or judgments they may harbor toward certain personalities or genres in order to celebrate and learn from each woman’s successful career in a historically white and male-dominated industry. By establishing a structured yet fun atmosphere to talk about TV with a critical eye, she hopes to expose herself and fellow students to women who haven’t been afraid — to enter and perhaps dominate — the writer’s room.

College seniors Kaïa Austin and Gracie Goodman are also paying homage to their roots as explorers of feminist and queer media during their early college years, during which they searched for a community where they could meet likeminded people. Having met in The F-

Word, an ExCo focused on feminism they took their first year, Austin and Goodman now want to continue fostering a safe but challenging environment. They will offer a student-run discussion space built upon community agreements that prioritizes how students respond emotionally to the subject matter.

The group will discuss themes and stereotypes the media has recently perpetuated about queer women and femmes.

“This is an ExCo that I wanted to take as a freshman that didn’t exist,” Goodman said. “So I thought, wouldn’t it be cool if I taught it myself with my best friend?”

Other ExCos look to fulfill what their instructors see as an academic need.

“We’re filling what feels like a void,” said College junior Rob Jamner, who is coteaching Songwriting Workshop, a space where aspiring musicians can share skills and make connections for future musical collaborations. “There’s the Jazz department, there are poetry classes, Music Theory and small ensembles, but there wasn’t that center.”

His co-teacher, College junior Brendan Eprile, has had experience interning See SixCo, page 13

Paper Rad Founder Explores Digital Art Trends in New Classes Mary Fischer With the rise of the digital age, the internet and mass media have found their way into the contemporary art world and now constitute a vital tool for many artists.

Responding to this trend, Oberlin’s Art department has added numerous that would have been unheard of a few decades ago, such as the integrated media classes taught by Jacob Ciocci, OC ’00, who joined the Art faculty this fall.

Jacob’s interest in media art sprang from his interest in computers in high school and continued through his Oberlin classwork.

“I met Cory Arcangel during my time in Oberlin, an undergraduate from my senior year, who was also an artist,” Ciocci said. “[Arcangel] and Paul Davis, who was also an undergraduate at the time, had a big influence in my interest in computers, I would say, and digital and networked art. I liked drawing, and after Oberlin I did a lot of drawing,

but I saw the potential in digital art.”

Artists like Jacob and Arcangel, OC ’00, a post-conceptual artist located in Brooklyn, NY, finished their education right when the art world started using digital media as a means to create artwork. Of course, video artists in the ’80s and ’90s had already made names for themselves by remixing different media to create mash-up works, but using the internet as a tool on its own was still a new development. The audience for

mash-up art was still small, and anyone who went on to work within that realm had to attempt to make media art a sustainable form of expression.

“When I was in my early 20s I never thought I would make a career path out of it,” Jacob said.

After college, Jacob moved to Boston where his sister Jessica lived. Jessica notes that she and Jacob shared a sense of playful exploration while growing up, and they both drew artistic inspiration from the vibrant underground mu-

sic and art scene in Boston. “There were a lot of young people around at the time making things, which I think we both saw as inspiring and sings of possibility — art, music, drawings, self-published books and zines, which was definitely motivating and inspiring,” said Jessica.

“We wanted to be a part of that and contribute to it too, in a new way.”

Drawing from such influences, Jessica and Jacob created an online See Ciocci, page 12

Page 12

Arts

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

Political Issues Weigh Ciocci to Lead Integrated Media Classes Down Action Film Continued from page 11

Christian Bolles Columnist Content Warning: This review discusses violent and potentially offensive themes that may be disturbing to some readers.

In order to properly instill fear in the audience, horror and action filmmakers exploit deep sources of paranoia and thrust them onto the screen. This leverage of the human psyche often manifests itself as a masked man with a knife or a bloodthirsty beast; the former plays on our knowledge of the potential cruelty of other humans and the latter on our wariness of the unknown. No Escape weighs both of these options and settles for a not-so-happy medium. This decision gives rise to one of the greatest narrative miscalculations in recent memory.

Brothers John and Drew Dowdle, who wrote and directed this picture, became known over the last five years for the tepidly-received scare flicks Quarantine and As Above, So Below. As it turns out, the brothers’ inaugural foray into the action-thriller genre is a confusing meld of competent filmmaking, good performances and appalling narrative design.

From the opening scene, the tone is clear. The prime minister of an unspecified Southeast Asian nation is dead and rebels have taken over a nameless city. Before viewers have time to react, we find ourselves time-hopping back 17 hours earlier to a plane with pensive Jack (Owen Wilson at the top of his game), good-natured Annie (Lake Bell) and their two extremely annoying daughters. They’re on their way to Southeast Asia so that Jack, an American engineer, can help build a waterway. He seems to be the only one certain about the move, and this dynamic becomes clearer once the family hits the streets of the unnamed city.

The city’s entire culture is immediately painted as the other: a place of confusion and anonymity rather than an actual living, breathing human landscape. The foreignness of it all is exaggerated in as many ways as possible; though the cinematography is excellent, the entire story is told from the perspective of our four heroes.

That’s not to say that the movie is incapable of humanizing its characters. In one early scene, Jack finds Annie on the bathroom floor late at night, curled up in a ball and crying. He tries to explain to her his reasons for moving, but she cuts him off in a line more poignant and visceral than any of the film’s violence: “I’m sorry, Jack. I can’t comfort you right now.” Perhaps if this emotional rawness had persisted for the duration of the feature, the rest would have been redeemable. However, as Jack wanders the streets the next morning, the people around him are given no such humanity. They stare at him coldly, as if they are the ones doing the othering rather than the filmmakers. Suddenly, the streets are filled with rioters, and the film’s premise takes the screen by storm. Jarringly out-of-place slow motion shots pepper a fight between police and rebels in a show of pure brutality.

Throughout the film, this demonization of the invading force remains the Dowdle brothers’ chief means of terrorizing the audience. The rebels are never given subtitles, so the film plays like Independence Day for the politically oblivious.

This brazen xenophobia makes for an often boring, repetitive struggle at the core of the film. Without a face or even a name to assign to the seemingly endless supply of rebels thrown at the main characters through the course of the narrative, it becomes difficult to justify why any of this is happening in the first place. When the rebels are finally given a motive three quarters of the way through the movie by a battlehardened man called Hammond (Pierce Brosnan), the justification is painfully half-baked and does little to humanize a seemingly inhuman enemy.

Some of the action scenes are legitimately pulse-pounding, and although those in danger are, as a result of the premise, always Americans, it’s hard not to get swept up in the tension of it all. The acting lends more credibility to these moments of panic; Owen Wilson pulls off a very convincing father driven to the end of his rope and Lake Bell really should be acting in better movies. However, the film’s formula — hide from the bad guys, wait for them to pass and then keep running — gets tired around the midway point, and it’s easy to stop caring about the characters when the script replaces moments of tenderness with more scenes meant to shock viewers with the rebels’ brutality. This too grows stale, and eventually the writing plunges into groan-worthy melodrama comprised mostly of variations on the exchange, “We’re not going to make it!” “Yes, we are!”

Ultimately, No Escape, while competently put together, mishandles its touchy material, using civil conflict as a way to exploit America’s fear of the other. Despite its moments of tension and convincing performances, the Dowdles were unable to raise the movie above its problematic premise, and the narrative buckles under the weight of their mistake.

arts collective called Paper Rad with Ben Jones, an artist and cartoonist who later created a show for Cartoon Network, The Problem Solverz. Through an almost overwhelmingly colorful arrangement of art designs, comics, drawings, writings and links, Paper Rad caught the eyes of internet users internationally.

After a few years living in Boston, Jacob went on to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University, where he finished with a degree in Fine Arts in 2005. He then taught introductory courses in video art at the same school. After a fellowship at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center in New York, he worked as an adjunct professor of media at City University of New York from 2013 to 2014 before returning this year to teach at his alma mater.

Jessica is confident that Jacob’s return to Oberlin will be an easy transition. “Jacob genuinely likes sharing with people, creating a sense of shared growth and learning and exploring topics of cultural interest with others,” she said. “He really loves other people and values community, which will make him a great teacher.”

College senior Luisa Levine, who will be a teaching assistant for Jacob’s integrated media art classes, is also glad that Jacob has rejoined the Oberlin community.

“His art is very interesting and unlike the art of anyone else in the department,” she said. “I really like how a lot of it is internet-based and non-traditional. I also know I will learn a lot about how to use new programs and technical things in ways that I didn’t think of before, which is really enticing.”

Jacob recalls his time at Oberlin as being particularly valuable be-

cause of the conversations and sharing of ideas that happens between students.

“I found that Oberlin College students are really good at talking and writing and thus are also very willing and excited to share their thoughts,” he said. He appreciates that Oberlin enables students to engage with different subjects that inform their artwork, unlike many art schools.

“I feel honored to be invited to Oberlin and already feel like I am learning a lot from my students here.

I would like to give back to the community something of what it gave to me,” Jacob said. As an artist whose focus lies on the relationship between popular culture and the human mind, Jacob is bringing the perspective of a young, driven and energetic artist to the Art department.

Integrated media artist and Visiting Professor Jacob Ciocci, OC ’00, poses in front of a wall of creative works. Ciocci became internationally known through an online arts collective, Paper Rad, that he created with his sister Jessica and Ben Jones, a well-established cartoonist.

Courtesy of Jacob Ciocci

Lu Delivers Masterful Chopin Performance Colin Roshak Staff Writer Since graduating from the Conservatory in 2006, pianist Tian Lu has traveled around the world honing her craft. This past week, she returned to Oberlin to perform a recital consisting entirely of works by the influential Polish composer Frédéric Chopin. Lu received her undergraduate degree as well as Artist Diploma from the Conservatory under the tutelage of Professor of Piano Monique Duphil and her master’s degree from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with Boris Slutsky and Leon Fleischer.

Chopin’s works, all 230 of which include piano, contain some of the most technically demanding yet haunting beautiful music in the standard repertoire. Although trained in the style of German masters such as Beethoven and Mozart, Chopin was strongly influenced by the music of his Polish homeland. His harmonic textures are thick and his melodic language is eloquent and unmistakable. An entire recital program of Chopin’s works is no easy task, but Lu was able to handle it with elegance and unrelenting technical prowess.

The concert began with a short scherzo in B minor that juxtaposed boisterous chords and virtuosic scale patterns with slower, more lyrical moments. Lu played maturely and phrased with an unfaltering sense of legato. The next piece on the program, a nocturne in B major, conjured a feeling of melancholic homesickness with Lu’s sensitive touch on the keyboard. Each phrase felt entirely organic and expertly paced. The rest of the first half of the program, consisting of two different

etudes, a barcarolle and a brilliantly flashy polonaise, flew by.

The most satisfying moment of the evening came at the beginning of the second half of the program. Each of four segments of Mazurkas, Op. 17 had its own distinct character. The first was noble, the second more reflective. Lu really found her stride with the third mazurka, completely dis0pelling the feeling of monotony in the music with her magical interpretation. It began with a short, heartfelt theme, which returned many times. Lu’s flawless sense of rubato allowed for each repeat to hit harder. The final mazurka of the set moved slowly and peacefully with occasional interjections of a very whimsical melody. The music slowed until the last few quiet chords died away.

Following the stunning mazurkas was the largest single piece on the program, Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor. The four movements blazed by in a flurry of fingers in full flight. The second movement, Scherzo: Molto vivace, was filled with breathtaking virtuosity and the third movement, Largo, was severe and tragic. Although performed exceptionally well, the sonata felt out of place in a program populated by short character pieces.

Incredibly, after such a demanding rendition, Lu returned for one final piece — a short berceuse.

The charming lullaby captured the audience and ended the evening with a touching mood.

Lu played superbly throughout the entire twohour marathon, never missing out on a chance for musicality and expression. It’s clear that in the years since she has left the Conservatory, she has taken the first steps in a long and successful performance career.

Arts

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

Page 13

Meiji-Era Sculpture Returns to AMAM Harley Bosco Upon hearing about the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s new Return of the Dragon exhibit, I couldn’t help but be excited: The exhibit, which honors the return of the infamous Coiling Dragon statue to King Sculpture Court, sounds more like the anticipated sequel to a popular chain of movies than an art show. I perhaps built the exhibit up in my mind. I expected something grand — the kind of visually overwhelming stimuli a summer blockbuster might bring. In some sense, it was like a summer blockbuster, but in all the wrong ways.

As I approached the AMAM, I prepared myself to be totally blown away by the might of, well, dragons. After all, dragons are one of the most aweinspiring creatures in mythology. How could one not be amazing by an exhibit entirely devoted to their visual might?

As I pushed back the doors of the Allen, my anticipation was quickly overcome by a wave of confusion. Where were all the dragons?

Directly in front of me was “Coiling Dragon,” sitting where it had always sat prior to a renovation at the AMAM. The Meiji-era bronze sculpture stands over two feet tall and is visually stunning.

Dynamically poised, the roaring beast is covered in what must be at least a thousand scales, all of which shine brilliantly.

I expected the exhibit, like the statue to which it pays homage, to be both captivating and inspiring. Parts of the exhibit truly shine, but it isn’t given the opportunity to be the best it could be.

The exhibit itself, which consists of 16 pieces, is set up a bit awkwardly. While half of the exhibit is in King Sculpture Court, the other half is relegated to a corner of the South Ambulatory. The two sections are spatially disjointed; it feels like something is missing in between. The mission of the exhibition, as stated by this description, is “to introduce visitors to the symbols, stories and spectacle of dragons in East Asia” through “dragon-themed works in a diversity of media.” Provided with this lens to view it, the exhibit does in fact accomplish what it sets out to do. There is a generous variety of media and techniques represented in this exhibition, including woodblock printing, bronze casting, pottery, ivory, wood, embroidery and ink. Having a unifying theme between these works allows space for a viewer without any extensive knowledge of East Asian art to engage with these pieces through a point of com-

parison that familiarizes them with Eastern aesthetics while introducing them to a variety of techniques utilized in Eastern art.

One piece that particularly amazed me was “Articulated Dragon,” a Japanese okimono, or decorative art object, from the 19th century. Hand-carved in ivory, each joint and section of the carved dragon is totally movable — an aspect that can be viewed on your phone by ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

There is a generous variety of media and techniques represented in this exhibition, including woodblock printing, bronze casting, pottery, ivory, wood, embroidery and ink.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– scanning the QR code on its museum label. The labels that accompany the pieces on display in the exhibit are one of the best aspects of its curation. These labels are incredibly in-depth, going to great lengths to give viewers the correct vocabulary, cultural knowledge and individualized history needed to think critically about these pieces.

Though the pieces and their individualized presentations have clearly been thought out with much attention to their viewers, the overall exhibit suffers from its layout as a cohesive exhibit. Unfortunately, because of the light that pervades the sculpture court and the delicate nature of some materials traditionally used in Eastern art (scrolls, woodblock prints and embroidery on silk), it is impossible to display much of the work within King Sculpture Court itself without incurring damage.

In fact, as the show continues throughout the year, pieces such as the scroll “Artist Painting a Dragon” will likely be interchanged with other dragon related pieces in AMAM storage to preserve their quality. This, on one hand, is exciting: The exhibit will continue to evolve over time, an occurrence rarely seen in shows not considered a part of the permanent collection, and that will allow visitors to expand their repertoire and knowledge of East Asian art. However, it is also this conservationism that severs the exhibit between the South Ambulatory and the sculpture court.

The execution of the exhibit within King Sculpture Court is even more troublesome than the separation of the Court from the South Ambulatory.

The Allen Memorial Art Museum’s exhibit Return of the Dragon features this sculpture, “Coiling Dragon,” made in 19th-century Japan. Assistant Curator of Asian Art Kevin R.E. Greenwood organized this exhibition of mixed-media art illustrating dragons.

Aaron Cohen

Firstly, only two out of the eight walls that account for the Sculpture Court are dedicated to the exhibit. The two walls happen to be opposite each other and are arranged as symmetrical counterparts, though one is devoted entirely to Japanese depictions of dragons, and the other entirely to Chinese. This is actually an incredible feat for the AMAM, which, despite owning an extensive Asian art collection, has not allotted it much physical space in the past. However, in the context of this exhibit, it feels like too little, as the other half of the court is filled with Western pieces that are unrelated and detract from the purpose of the exhibit.

The more unforgivable part of the exhibit’s arrangement in the Sculpture Court is the walls that are directly perpendicular to the exhibit showcase.

These two walls display two beautiful but completely unrelated Islamic prayer rugs. Though aesthetically this choice may make sense as it creates a pleasing symmetry between both sides of the exhibit, it decontextualizes both the rugs and the work on exhibit in Return of the Dragon. By placing these works next to each other, they are drawing a connection for the viewer between the works, which confounds the two completely different purposes and iconographies as being synonymous. It also further divides the room into what is accepted as work from the Western canon and work that is symbolic of an “Oriental” aesthetic. This diverts the attention away from appreciating the artistic vocabulary that is utilized in East Asian art as something that is unique to a cultural purpose and makes it more about how this vocabulary can be compared and contrasted to a Western canon.

Though it is clearly arranged for a Western viewer, the exhibit does make many meaningful strides in the way Asian art is presented at the Allen. It is an exhibit crafted with good intention. The care given to the pieces’ individual presentation makes up for any discrepancies or disconnects in the overall layout of the exhibition. In the end, the exhibit is successful in what it aims to do, and even if an understanding of East Asian art goes soaring above your head, these beautiful depictions of dragons will surely soar straight into your heart.

Pretty Records Issues First Releases Continued from page 10 male.” To combat this problem Snider offers people who release through her label help with mixing, mastering and recording if they want it as part of Pretty Records. Meanwhile, Winer is in the process of planning a biweekly open hour for non-dudes at Studio B to create a space for them to share their musical, studio and recording knowledge and ask questions.

These positive efforts are only the start to eliminating patriarchy in the Oberlin music scene. Snider especially encourages men to speak out when they see instances of such oppression. “When there’s an all-dude line-up just be like, ‘Hey, this is messed up,’ or if you see someone acting in a way that might make other people feel unsafe in a space and it’s your buddy who’s drunkenly moshing at this thing and making a bunch of people feel uncomfortable, just be like ‘Hey maybe don’t do that right now. You may not realize this, but you’re bumping into a lot of people and pushing them out of their physical space.’” Kozol adds that she ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

‘I think there’s no better experience than having a conversation with someone in a similar boat as you.

That’s a really strong way to validate your experience where you just feel totally empowered and totally supported.’

BECCA WINER Executive Producer, Live from Studio B –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– hopes that concertgoers will pay more attention to who they’re supporting and giving profits to. “One of the things you can do is patronize musicians and buy stuff from them: buy tickets to their shows, donate money to them, go to their concert, help them poster for the concert, tell your friends about it, share music. If you have a radio show, you could have a femalethemed show, which a lot of people do, but you could also just not have a female-themed show or just not do a themed show and just have a genre show and play mostly not-dude musicians. Just normalize these things.” Winer concludes emphatically, “I think if we could never book another all male line-up again that’d be really great!”

SixCo, GraphEx Among New Arts ExCos Continued from page 11 at an independent record label and as a personal assistant for a band in Brooklyn. “It’s about time there’s a class for this,” he said. “[Songwriting is] not [treated as] an academic field. ... It’s on the side — just for fun. I think it’s kind of a shame.” He intends to share his thoughts about entering the “real” world in terms of self-presentation, professionalism and navigating the music industry with ExCo students. Songwriting can be collaborative, and the two hope to foster such an atmosphere by hosting co-writing parties, inviting guest songwriters and searching for more perfor-

mance opportunities on campus for members of the ExCo and the Oberlin Songwriters.

SixCo, named after the six-second limitation of the video genre it focuses on, will attempt to take a practical look at Vine videos. Aspiring filmmakers and bloggers can encapsulate plenty of drama, wit or artistic nuance in six and a half seconds. The beauty of the app, according to teacher and College junior Sol Solomon, is the instant gratification of a short looping clip, as well as the unbiased subjectivity of the forum, which does not censor content.

This creates a space where everyone, from activists to commercial advertis-

ers to comedians, finds a medium for expression.

Students will read scholarly writing about the current media landscape as well as historic cinematic theory. They’ll also watch at least a 100 Vines — which adds up to only 10 minutes in total — and produce three Vines per week. Solomon said she hopes critical discussions about pop culture trends like Vine will help balance out the lack of a new media requirement in the Cinema Studies curriculum. The new art ExCos open up opportunities for students to explore unconventional subjects and quirky passions, creating unique communities.

Sports

Page 14

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

KORYN KRAEMER AND TRENTON BULUCEA

This week, the Review sat down with men’s soccer first-years Koryn Kraemer and Trenton Bulucea to discuss the Yeomen’s California adventure, their goals for the upcoming season and how it feels to start their careers as varsity athletes.

hard and caught us mentally unprepared. But eventually we calmed the game down [by] controlling the pace and the mood of the game.

TB: The Otterbein win was a bit special for me because I scored my first career goal to tie the game up in the first half. The Pomona win was also special because the winning goal came so late in the game, and the pure jubilation from the bench and from the players on the field was really something to remember.

How was your recent trip to California?

Koryn Kraemer: California was really sunny! It was wonderful to spend quality time with the team — on and off the field — in an interesting and rich part of the country.

Trenton Bulucea: The trip to California was fantastic! Between the sightseeing, the matches we played and the experiences we shared together, it was a trip I’ll never forget.

It’s just a shame that we could not have stayed longer.

What are your individual goals for the season? What are your team goals for the season?

TB: As a freshman, my personal goal is to get on the field as much as possible. At the moment, I’m focused on playing my hardest when I get on the field and making the most of my opportunities.

KK: This season, I expect to reach the [North Coast Athletic Conference] championship game and compete for the title, a goal I think our whole team shares.

TB: We have very high hopes for this season. We know the talent we have, and our goals for the season reflect this mentality.

What has the transition been like from high school to college play?

What would you say has been the toughest part?

KK: The speed of play in college was a little overwhelming at first, and even though I’m a goalie in net, I can tell the physicality is also more demanding. But after acclimating to the physical standards, it was really just the mental preparation for practices and game day that were difficult for me.

TB: For me, the transition from high school to college soccer hasn’t been much of an issue. The only tricky part is that, as a smaller player, the opposing players that we face are sometimes much bigger

First-year keeper Koryn Kraemer (bottom) and first-year midfielder Trenton Bulucea and taller than I am. I’m used to this though, because I’ve experienced it throughout my entire soccer career, so it’s just a matter of sticking to what I’m good at.

Are there any games you are particularly looking forward to?

KK: Honestly, I look forward to the next game every time there is one. The best way to take a season is in small steps, and so right now, I am really looking forward to Waynesburg this Friday.

TB: I’m particularly looking forward to some of the rivalry games this season, specifically with Denison University and Kenyon College.

Those games are always special, with so much passion on both sides and both teams dying to win the game. They should be lots of fun!

What have the upperclassmen taught you guys about preparation for games and practices?

KK: The upperclassmen have been true leaders, not only in the way that they hold us accountable for high intensity levels and focus, but also in the way they have welcomed us into the soccer family.

Cool or Drool: Poor Geno Smith Continued from page 16 pretty big dude. In fact, he weighs about 250 pounds and broke Smith’s jaw in two places.

Now the starting quarterback for the Jets is recovering from jaw surgery, set to miss six to ten weeks of the season, and the Jets will start the season with Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm. At least Fitzpatrick is probably happy.

While Enemkpali was released from the team and Smith decided to drop charges, this kind of adolescent tussle has no place in the NFL. Way to go Enemkpali, you earned yourself a drool at the Review.

The NFL offseason was filled with an exorbitant amount of drool in the face of Deflategate, the latest New England Patriots scandal surrounding accusations that the Patriots team was involved in deflating their footballs below NFL regulations for the 2014 AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts. More times than I can count,

Within two weeks of being on campus, we developed a tight-knit bond and a team character that I think will serve us very well this season.

TB: The upperclassmen have been very helpful in easing freshman into the soccer experience. For games, they especially get the team hyped up and focused at the same time to execute things in games we’ve practiced all week long. The same goes for practices; the upperclassmen are the most vocal, which pushes everyone to do their best.

How is it playing for Coach New? KK: Coach New maintains a competitive but enjoyable practice environment, which made the grind of preseason less daunting.

Most importantly he has offered great guidance off the field about academic life, community resources and time-management that have made the first couple weeks of college more doable.

TB: I really love playing for Coach New. He has actually been watching me play since my sophomore year in high school, because he coaches a local club team that my club team frequently played against. Through-

Patriots fans have defended their beloved quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick against serious and, in some cases, substantiated allegations of cheating.

While Brady’s four-game suspension was recently overturned at his appeal, he may never live down the suspicion of his involvement.

After all, did the Patriots really need to deflate their footballs in a game that they won 45–7?

Do NFL wideouts really need an underinflated football to perform better? I thought this was what they did for a living.

What solidified this story as a drool was the response of presidential candidate Donald Trump. He tweeted, “Congratulations to Tom Brady on yet another great victory — Tom is my friend and a total winner!” Wait, these guys are friends? As a follow up, Trump made a video in which he suggests that Tom Brady should sue the NFL for $250 million on the basis of defamation. Sorry Pats fans, number two on this list is a big drool, even if Brady was not involved.

Clocking in at number one is our second story from New York. But enough with the Jets — this is about New York Giants’ star defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul. You may recognize his

out the recruiting process, he assured me that I would fit in to the team just fine, given Oberlin’s playing style, and he was exactly right. I am currently playing the same position that I have always played, but his version of my role on the field is a little different than I’m used to, so I’ve had to change my play a bit. But I’m getting the hang of it.

Can you tell us a little about your wins against Pomona-Pitzer and Otterbein University?

KK: Pomona was a team that was both physically and tactically below our level. And to be completely honest with you, the first half was a poor showing where we failed to successfully build our attack [and made] foolish turnovers that created opportunities for the other team. Fortunately, the one positive takeaway was a high work rate, which when continued into the second half and, when coupled with some tactical adjustments, allowed us to completely dominate the second half. We deserved the win, and when our goal finally came with 11 seconds left to go, we were all ecstatic. Otterbein came out

name from the multiple Pro Bowls he has competed in or maybe just for his terrifying 6-foot5-inch, 270-pound frame in concert with his terrifying facemask — not the standard in the NFL. Pierre-Paul made news this summer because of an accident on Independence Day. While many Americans were watching the fireworks exploding in the sky, Pierre-Paul was being rushed to the hospital after sustaining a

––––––––––––––––––––––––– While Brady’s four-game suspension was recently overturned at his appeal, he may never live down the suspicion of his involvement.

––––––––––––––––––––––––– hand injury on account of lighting a firework.

What was the outlook? Doctors told Pierre-Paul that he might be able to save the damaged finger through significant, timeconsuming therapy. Instead, he chose to have doctors amputate his right index finger when it became clear that this brave decision would get him into NFL action faster. What a beast.

Pierre-Paul now has nine fingers and a heal-

If the team wants to have a successful year, what should you focus on?

TB: If the team wants to have a good year, we need to focus on both sides of the ball. So far, our defense has been very solid, but our offense has been struggling a bit. We need to take every practice and game seriously and push each other to play to the best of our ability because we are going to come against some very good opposition throughout the course of the season.

KK: If we want to succeed, we have to focus on composure, communication and consistency. I feel we’ve done well with the second two, but at times, both in the Otterbein and the Occidental College match, we began to lose our heads, which is not the calm playing style we’re going for.

How does it feel to be contributing so early in your careers, with you two only being freshmen?

TB: Honestly, it’s a dream come true to contribute so much this early in my career. I love the game, and I love this team, so I’m glad to be doing everything I can to contribute to the team’s success.

KK: I came here with the desire to be the starting keeper, and I will continue to make sure that I have earned my position. It is a blessing having the opportunity to compete so early in my career, but I don’t want to think about myself as a freshman this season. I am just a player on the field doing my best for the team like everyone else.

Interview by Scott Rivlin Photo by Bryan Rubin

ing fractured thumb for the love of the game.

What more could legendary Giants coach Tom Coughlin ask of his star defensive end? Sure, not blowing off your finger would be nice. But Pierre-Paul is ready to get back on the field ASAP. Recent reports have confirmed that he will not be competing in their week-one game versus the Dallas Cowboys, but let’s be honest, they didn’t stand a chance anyways.

Pierre-Paul’s story reminds me of when Baltimore Ravens’ star outside linebacker Terrell Suggs tore his ACL playing basketball and of when former Philadelphia 76ers’ center Andrew Bynum casually went bowling and subsequently missed the entire season due to a mysterious knee injury, although he still collected his $20 million from the sidelines.

While it’s easy to criticize Pierre-Paul, seeing as he is a professional athlete and needs to stay healthy during non-football activities, his story reminds us that he is also human. He is entitled to enjoy his life, make mistakes and stage comebacks, even at the cost of his own bodily health. Plus, choosing to be amputated is a badass move, and one that we consider cool at the Review.

Sports

The Oberlin Review, September 11, 2015

Page 15

— Women’s Field Hockey —

Big Red Surge Past Yeowomen in Second Half Randy Ollie Sports Editor Unable to counter a strong secondhalf surge by the Denison University Big Red, the field hockey team fell 6–1 at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex this past Wednesday. The loss puts the Yeowomen at 0–3 for the season and 0–1 in the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Following a competitive first half in which neither team surrendered a goal, the Big Red began the second half firing on all cylinders. Denison unleashed a barrage of 23 shots in the second session with six finding the back of Oberlin’s net, three of which came within the first 11 minutes of the half.

The Big Red finished the game with 40 total shots, 28 of them being on goal, whereas the Yeowomen finished with seven total shots and only four on goal.

Senior captain Taylor Swift attributed the tempo shift to a drop in the Yeowomen’s energy and focus.

“Going into the game we all had a ton of adrenaline, which helped us to connect both offensively and defensively in the first half, but we didn’t maintain it going into the second,” said Swift. “We held Denison, [the] NCAC finalist from last year, 0–0 the first half, which was absolutely incredible, but I think knowing that caused us to go into the second half a little complacent.

Despite Denison’s late-game dominance, one bright spot for the Yeowomen came at the 63 minute, 27 second mark, when junior forward Maureen Coffey dribbled past the defense and deposited her second goal of the season. Coffey said later that the Yeowomen were taken off guard by Denison’s halftime adjustments.

“Denison changed the way they

Junior attacker and Review Business Manager Maureen Coffey dribbles toward a breakaway on Bailey Field. The Yeowomen fell to a late-game surge by the Denison University Big Red during their home opener on Wednesday, Sept. 9.

Juliette Greene

Editorial: League Leaders Fail to Address Concussions Continued from page 16 ity of life or physical and mental capabilities.

I’m sharing this personal story for two reasons: one, to emphasize how much I owe my parents for taking proper precautions and two, to provide a realistic firsthand account of a sports concussion. What happened to me was neither unique nor was it nearly as severe as what many other athletes have experienced, but it was voiced. And for some reason, that is more than what the professional sporting world has been able to do: recognize the threat of concussions and their effects on athletes, despite growing awareness and efforts to uncover the truth.

Concussion, a movie from Sony Pictures Entertainment set for a Christmas Day release in the United States, represents one of these efforts. Based on a 2009 article written by Jeanne Marie Laskas for GQ Magazine, the movie follows a forensic pathologist and neuropathologist as he discovers chronic traumatic encephalopathy (a progressive degenerative disease commonly found in professional contact sports players) in two NFL players’ brains.

The film is intended to share a traumatic true story and also to reveal the extensive measures the NFL has taken to cover up the severe effects — notably dementia and death — that concussions have on their players. The inspiration for the film’s protagonist, Dr. Bennet Omalu, was publicly denounced and dismissed by the NFL after publishing his research.

However, recent hacks of Sony Studio’s email chains

played in the second half,” Coffey said.

“They pushed almost their entire team into our defensive circle, which we were unprepared for. It took a while for us to adjust to such an aggressive style of play.”

Despite the result, junior attacker Ariana Enzerink commended her team for its effort, while acknowledging the merit of Denison’s play.

“We fought hard and our defense was stellar,” Enzerink said. “Denison was able to play very offensively pretty much the entire game, and they had a lot of shots on goal and some of them were bound to go in.”

Junior goalie Maggie Gossiaux was one example of the stellar defense to which Enzerink referred. She finished the game with 22 saves in her 70 minutes in goal.

Leading up to Wednesday’s match, the Yeowomen fell to the St. John Fisher College Cardinals to the tune of 8–1.

The match was highlighted by a late goal by Enzerink, who finished the match with three shots on goal.

Reflecting on the season so far, Head Coach Tiffany Saunders had nothing but praise for how well her team has been working together and the improvements she has seen.

“So far this season I love the cohesiveness of this team on and off the field. They are so supportive of one another, and there is always a lot of positive feedback,” Saunders said. “A challenge for our sport is not talking on the field, so we’ve worked on small changes to speak up, and doing so has definitely translated to us connecting our passes more consistently.”

The Yeowomen will travel to Granville, Ohio, this Sunday to take on the Johns Hopkins University Blue Jays.

exposed email interactions between Sony representatives, marketing executives and Concussion director Peter Landesman that revealed their collective decision to curb the film’s more shocking plot points so as not to incur the wrath of the NFL. A particularly telling quote was lifted from these email leaks in which Dwight Caines, president of domestic marketing at Sony Pictures, says, “We’ll develop messaging with the help of NFL consultant to ensure that we are telling a dramatic story and not kicking the hornet’s nest.”

Landesman and other Sony officials have since denied “bowing” to the NFL, saying instead that they were trying to give the NFL as little to complain about as possible so as not to damage the film’s credibility in the future, but the recognition that the NFL has the monetary and influential power to damage the credibility of a very real and powerful cautionary tale is, itself, horrifying.

The NFL casts a frightening shadow, carrying enough weight to avoid changing its own behavior while influencing the behavior of its critics. But what is most upsetting is that it’s not the only sports powerhouse in the business of undermining head injuries.

FIFA has also made its failure to install concrete concussion protocol or any recognition measures glaringly apparent. This was evident most recently in the USA-Germany semifinal of the Women’s World Cup. German midfielder Alexandra Popp and U.S. midfielder Morgan Brian each contested an airborne ball, causing a bloody head collision. Though both players demonstrated fairly obvious signs of head trauma, a view shared by sports newscasters, former athletes and sports medicine professionals alike, they were back on the field within minutes, an incredibly common sight in upper-level international contests in particular.

Arguments, especially in defense of football and the NFL, highlight the inaccuracies behind drawing a

Yeomen 0–1 After Brockport Loss Continued from page 16 “We just need to go back to our fundamentals,” Cruz said. “We have to trust the coaching a little bit more and the guys next to us.”

The Oberlin defense played much better in the latter part of the game, holding Brockport to just 16 total points in the second half. Junior linebacker Justin Bute and senior defensive back Gabe Edwards had eight tackles each to lead the Yeomen defenders.

Junior safety Larry Leggett was also a force to be reckoned with as he chipped in with six tackles on the day. Leggett said the Yeomen defense needs to improve its consistency.

“We did not make the plays that needed to be made,” Leggett said. “We need to do our job to the best of our ability.”

Oberlin opens up North Coast Athletic Conference play this weekend against rival Kenyon College. The Yeomen are not only trying to secure their first home victory in over a year, but also want to start conference play out on the right foot.

According to Coach Anderson, the Yeomen must execute on all sides of the ball to beat the Lords. As the Yeomen defensive coordinator in 2013, he knows the defense must step up as well for Oberlin to come away with the win.

“Defensively, we have to defend the run, fly to the football, make tackles and play with energy,” Anderson said.

Oberlin defeated the Lords on the road last year 47–28 to open up their NCAC schedule, but it was just one of two wins they had for the season. The Yeomen have not recorded a .500 season since 2007, when they went 5–5.

This year, Oberlin is relying on veteran leadership to turn the tides.

“We have a really good core group of captains and leaders on the team who set themselves apart, whether they are upperclassmen or lowerclassmen,” Cruz said.

Kickoff against Kenyon is this Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex.

direct causative relationship between contact sports and diseases like CTE and lament the “death” of true football as increased safety measures are taken for high school teams. But a direct relationship doesn’t have to exist to acknowledge that head trauma resulting in serious degenerative effects is a threat that contact sports players have to face. The integrity of these sports doesn’t have to suffer to deal with this threat.

What do have to suffer are habits of appeasement, carelessness, lack of accountability and silence.

Contact sports are dangerous in their very essence, but more harmful is sweeping experiences of players under the rug. This not only allows their employers (or other responsible supervisors) to shirk obligations toward their health, but also creates a culture of delegitimizing serious threats to players, shutting out productive discourse about injury prevention and education.

As giants and leaders in the sports world, FIFA and the NFL have a responsibility to their teams bound by league regulations, hyper-competitive culture and the audiences who follow examples they broadcast. Concussions aren’t fun, sexy, or comfortable to talk about, and admittedly knowledge about them is still shaky.

But this is why it is imperative that these organizations lead the push toward open discourse about head injury. Otherwise, the only way people will confront this threat is through immediate experience, which, while effective, is a grossly lazy and sadistic fallback plan.

What really makes me bang my head against the wall is that they are no strangers to profiting from the physical drama of the spectator sports they support. Entire newscasts are dedicated to inevitably healing ankle injuries keeping players out of a total of three games while potentially life-altering head blows are presented as a non-issue. Adult-onset dementia doesn’t sell.

Sports The Oberlin Review

Page 16

September 11, 2015

— Women’s Soccer —

Yeowomen Tie Home Opener 1–1 Sam Kreisberg The Oberlin women’s soccer team tied its home opener against Baldwin Wallace University 1–1 on Tuesday night, moving their record to 0–2–1 for the season.

It was Oberlin sophomore midfielder Caitlin McCuskey who opened the scoring early, capitalizing on decisive service from junior forward Taylor French to

bypass Baldwin Wallace senior keeper Emily Tallmadge. The goal came after just 1 minute and 20 seconds and was the first of McCuskey’s collegiate career.

It wasn’t until late in the first half that Baldwin Wallace evened the score. Senior forward Kelsey Nemeth delivered a stinging attack from the Yellow Jackets, snagging an errant pass from Oberlin’s defense and shooting one past first-year keeper Jor-

Senior midfielder Ellie Huizenga dribbles toward Baldwin Wallace defender Brianna Osborne. The Yeowomen tied the Yellow Jackets 1–1 on Tuesday.

Maria Stull

Cool or Drool: NFL Offseason Goofs Dan Bisno Columnist

dyn Morris. However, Morris was impenetrable for the rest of the game and finished with five saves.

“She is doing really well in goal and communicating well with the team, which is key as a goalie,” said senior midfielder Ellie Huizenga about Morris. “Yesterday she really stepped up and kept us in the game.”

Despite Oberlin’s early score, the remainder of the game was everything but net.

“The rest of the game was a battle, where we knew Baldwin Wallace would capitalize if we made a mistake,” Huizenga said. “Although we played hard throughout overtime with many chances, we were just not able to close the game.”

Oberlin allowed the Baldwin Wallace defense little rest, recording 18 shots with 10 on goal, their accuracy besting their opponent’s six shots on target. Though their efforts didn’t translate to the scoreboard, the Yeomen maintained their energy throughout the second half and beyond regulation play, seeing several promising runs and shots from sophomore forward Gwennie Gardiner.

— Football —

Eagles Eclipse Yeomen in Opener Darren Zaslau

It’s been a little over seven months since Super Bowl XLIX. America’s most watched sport has been on hiatus and, as always, the offseason has been filled with some of the juiciest sports stories of the year, centered around a variety of players. What were these guys thinking? Did they forget that their actions are microanalyzed, maybe more than actors, actresses and musicians? Or maybe they wanted the spotlight.

Let’s go over how this works. “Cool or Drool” is a column I traditionally write with fellow junior Henry Weissberg. While he studies abroad in Chile spending an insurmountable amount of time studying statistics for fantasy football, I will continue “Cool or Drool” this semester. In a nutshell, this column analyzes the most interesting off-field antics in national sports. After ruminating on all of my biased opinions, I ultimately rank them cool or drool.

I hope that it is every sports star’s dream to be cool in the eyes of the Review, so without further ado, let’s get to it!

Our third most exciting offseason news story broke just before the Oberlin academic year began.

New York Jets starting quarterback Geno Smith was expected to fly out to a football camp run by fellow Jets linebacker Ikemefuna Enemkpali. Enemkpali bought Smith a $600 plane ticket, for which he expected to be reimbursed. But Enemkpali had another thing coming: Smith didn’t show up, and all the hype around Enemkpali’s camp disappeared.

Enemkpali had no options left; he had to confront Smith. He approached Smith in the locker room the only way he knew how: by sucker punching Smith in the jaw after he refused to pay him back. Can you blame him? Smith makes over a million dollars a year but he wouldn’t pay back a $600 plane ticket.

Unfortunately, we can blame him. Enemkpali is a See Cool, page 14

“Overall our work rate and intensity were top-notch, and we just made a few errors that unfortunately caused a goal for them,” said senior defender Tricia Souza.

Sophomore midfielder Josie Marshall embodied that intensity and work rate, earning her high praise from her teammates.

“MVP for the game would definitely be Josie,” McCuskey said.

“She played nearly the entire game and was beat down over and over with no fouls called. I was really impressed with how tough she was both mentally and physically controlling the middle of the field.”

Even without the win, Head Coach Dan Palmer was happy with the Yeowomen’s play.

“We emphasized that it was going to be hard, it was going to be very hard, and it was. But they rose to the occasion and I was very proud of their performance,” Palmer said.

Yeowomen take the field on Friday, Sept. 11 at 7:30 p.m. for a home game against Waynesburg University and again on Sunday, Sept. 13 at 4 p.m. for a game at Defiance College.

The College at Brockport decisively defeated Oberlin to open the Yeomen’s season for the second year in a row, this time with a final score of 44–7. The Yeomen are still looking for their first home victory at the Austin E. Knowlton Athletics Complex, which opened one year ago.

The Golden Eagles’ offense was dominant throughout the entire game as they racked up 452 yards to the Yeomen’s 161 while scoring on four of their first five possessions.

Many of those yards were due in part to the play of Brockport senior quarterback Wayne Bonsell, who completed 21 of 30 passes for 283 yards and two touchdowns.

Junior running back Dan Andrews also had a tremendous day, rushing for 101 yards and

three touchdowns on 22 carries.

Oberlin second-year Head Coach Jay Anderson thought Brockport outplayed the Yeomen.

“Brockport played better than us on Saturday,” Anderson said. “We had our hands full trying to get going offensively, and we struggled to tackle.”

The lone Yeomen scoring drive came late in the second quarter as senior quarterback Lucas Poggiali connected with junior wide receiver Justin Cruz on a seven-yard scoring strike to cut the Brockport lead to 28-7.

Cruz, who caught four passes for 44 yards and one touchdown in the game, believes that the offense needs to go back to the basics in order to be successful.

See Yeomen, page 15

Trauma Drama Sarena Malsin Sports Editor The best way I can describe a seizure is to compare it to a dream where it is absolutely imperative that you move, but despite your most concentrated efforts, you realize with dawning terror and limited consciousness that you have no control over your body.

I was concussed when I was 12 years old playing defense in a soccer tournament for my premier team. It was an unremarkable play — I, a slightlybuilt spit of a kid, was steamrolled by an attacker twice my size — but this time, instead of popping back up, I stayed down after my head snapped back to meet the ground.

My left arm shot up and stayed there for the duration of the two minutes I was seizing, which, according to witnesses, was a wildly unsettling image. Apparently I looked so bizarre that at first my teammates could only laugh at the absurdity.

My dad, however, is still haunted by the scene.

I had what was called a contact seizure, where after a particularly severe blow to the head, your brain bounces around inside of your skull, stimulating brain tissue that causes seizures.

This isn’t a sob story; I’m extremely lucky to have my parent’s prudence and miraculous good fortune.

Baseline tests showed that my mental processes were completely unaffected and my parents handled the situation very conservatively, limiting my playing time for the maximum duration suggested by professionals. The injury has certainly impacted me, but not in ways that have interrupted my qualSee Editorial, page 15

Sophomore tight end Matthew Bullock tackles The College at Brockport running back Ray Johnson. The Golden Eagles defeated the Yeomen 44–7 on Saturday.

Kellianne Doyle