November 6, 2015

The Oberlin Review

NOVEMBER 6, 2015 VOLUME 144, NUMBER 8

Local News Bulletin News briefs from the past week Norenberg to Leave Oberlin for New Job Oberlin City Manager Eric Norenberg announced that he is leaving his post next month. He has served as city manager for the past eight years, helping Oberlin earn awards like Climate Action Champion, Clean Energy Community of the Year and Solid Waste Operator of the Year. Norenberg is moving to manage another city but has not yet disclosed where due to employmentagreement negotiations.

The Review will cover the full details of his departure in next week’s issue.

Student Senate Hosts Campus Dining Forum Student senators will hold a Campus Dining Forum event on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Wilder Hall. The meeting comes on the heels of the Board of Trustees meeting last month, where multiple groups of students complained about Campus Dining Services. Some concerns mentioned before the event included portion sizes, prices per meal and menu selection in dining halls across campus.

Steering Committee Holds Strategic Plan Draft and Listening Sessions The seven students who sit on the Steering Committee will host three listening sessions over the next two weeks to hear feedback from the community about the most recent Strategic Plan draft. The draft, which was released last Tuesday, contains the Board of Trustees’ financial plans for roughly the next 10 years.

Sessions will take place next Tuesday from 12:30–1:30 p.m., Wednesday from 8–9 p.m. and next Monday, Nov. 16 from 12–1 p.m. in Wilder Hall, room 115.

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Issue 3 Flops in Election Day Turnaround Tyler Sloan and Eliza Guinn News Editor After the proposed legalization policy went up in smoke, many Ohioans were left wondering why the pro-marijuana support had seemingly vaporized behind the polls.

The push for marijuana legalization, which previously accrued 90 percent approval from those vying for medical marijuana and 53 percent from recreational cannabis supporters, was shot down by 64.1 percent of voters last Tuesday. Issue 3 flopped after the language of Issue 2, an initiative fasttracked to counteract the legalization amendment, swept through the Buckeye state.

Because Issue 3 required 10 growers to maintain exclusive commercial rights, many raised concerns over ResponsibleOhio creating an oligopoly over the industry. To prevent this, Issue 2 called for the institution of a Ballot Board to review whether the initiative constituted a monopoly, oligopoly or cartel and to reject it if it did.

But the main backers of Ohio’s pro-weed campaign have confirmed that they are going to continue their attempt to cultivate the necessary approval rating for their initiative.

“We started the conversation, and we’re going to continue the conversation starting tomorrow,” said Ian James, executive director of ResponsibleOhio, in a statement Tuesday night. “The status quo doesn’t work, it’s unacceptable, and we’re not going away.

All the things we’ve fought for are true. Ohioans still need treatment and deserve compassionate care, and our state needs the jobs and tax revenue that marijuana legalization will bring.”

While future campaigns may not involve at-

College sophomores Josh Biales (left) and Christian Bolles file out of Philips gym after casting their votes on Election Day. Ohioans voted yes on Issue 1, which calls for redrawing voting districts, and on Issue 2, an anti-monopoly initiative, but rejected the initiative to legalize marijuana.

Bryan Rubin, Photo editor

tempting to legalize recreational marijuana outright — several politicians have cautioned against attempting to garner voter approval in an off-year election — it is likely that James’ vision of a legalized state will find room to grow. Democratic Rep. Mike Curtin of Columbus, one of the authors of Issue 2, told USA Today that he predicts Ohio voters will first vote in medicalized marijuana, paving the way for recreational cannabis to gain necessary traction.

As for the influence of Issue 2, ballot measures in Ohio will no longer be allowed to grant monopolyies oligopolies or cartels exclusive financial benefit.

“I think the speculation could be endless that

See Singleton, page 4

Campus Reform Targets College in Video “Sting” Oliver Bok News Editor Oberlin College has joined an exclusive club that includes NPR, the New Jersey Teachers Unions, Planned Parenthood and ACORN — organizations that conservative activist James O’Keefe has infiltrated under false pretenses, secretly recorded and then sought to embarrass.

In a video posted on the conservative website Campus Reform Tuesday, an associate of O’Keefe posing as an Oberlin student named “Angela Boynton” asks College professors for support, saying she had been triggered by someone handing out the United States Constitution on campus. “Boynton” secretly videotaped the professors’ responses without their consent.

Responding to the fake student’s fabricated mental health issue, Professor of History and Director of Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies Carol Lasser called the Constitution an “oppressive document.” The video

also shows Chair of Comparative American Studies Wendy Kozol saying, “The Constitution in everyday life causes people pain.”

The bulk of the video focuses on Vassar College, where administrators assisted the fake student in shredding the Constitution as a therapeutic measure. O’Keefe himself appears in the video dressed as the Constitution, distributing copies to Vassar students and asking women for their phone numbers.

To Oberlin Director of Media Relations Scott Wargo, the video represented a blatant violation of journalistic ethics.

“Posing as a student in crisis, secretly recording a private conversation and then strategically editing the footage in order to support a specific, predetermined agenda is deplorable,” Wargo wrote in an email to the Review.

Wargo also stated that the administration would not let this incident affect how the College operates.

“When someone reaches out to

faculty and staff for support, saying they are a student, it is reasonable to take that at face value. We are not going to let one incident shatter the trust that inherently exists in our community.”

According to Lasser, both she and Kozol have received a large amount of hate mail since the video was posted. However, Lasser also stated that community support has made the experience less upsetting.

“One of the really lovely things that has happened as a result has been an outpouring of support from my colleagues and especially from students,” Lasser said. “And it’s been really wonderful to hear from students who have been terrifically supportive of me and Wendy Kozol, and we both really appreciate that.”

College junior Tory Sparks described the video as containing multiple “layers of bullshit,” including misogyny. “[T]here is an inherent misogyny to all of it that we should be paying attention to,” Sparks said. “All of the

Saving South Woods An environmental group recently purchased land at Oberlin Great South Woods.

unions, any type of corporation, anybody who where a court or the ballot board could construe that there is some sort of financial benefit, they may say that that group cannot bring that ballot initiative or has to go through this extra hurdle,” said Mike Brickner, senior policy director at the ACLU of Ohio, in an interview with Ohio Public Radio.

The final initiative on the ballot, Issue 1, was not nearly as controversial as Issues 2 and 3. Issue 1 creates a bipartisan committee that will redraw Ohio’s voting districts, which have been historically sub-

Dive In! Oberlin swimming and diving hosted its home opener Saturday.

Subversive Songwriters Salvadoran musician-activists performed at the Cat.

See page 4

See page 16

See page 10

INDEX:

Opinions 5

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

victims to this were women — especially women professors, who are a minority in their own right. … At the very end of [the video], you see he’s very creepily hitting on someone, a woman, and she’s very clearly uncomfortable.”

Sparks also attacked the video for undermining mental health issues.

“There’s a mockery of a very serious mental health issue at stake and then a manipulation of the feelings of people who are concerned about that mental health issue,” Sparks said.

O’Keefe told the Review that he chose the College as a target for two reasons: the College’s reputation and the laws of Ohio.

“Oberlin is renowned for being a place where political correctness has been taken to the extreme,” O’Keefe said. “I doubt that someone like me has very many fans at Oberlin College. We typically work in what they call one-party consent states — that See Right-Wing, page 4

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The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

CDS Appropriates Asian Dishes, Students Say Clover Linh Tran Diep Nguyen, a College first-year from Vietnam, jumped with excitement at the sight of Vietnamese food on Stevenson Dining Hall’s menu at Orientation this year. Craving Vietnamese comfort food, Nguyen rushed to the food station with high hopes. What she got, however, was a total disappointment.

The traditional Banh Mi Vietnamese sandwich that Stevenson Dining Hall promised turned out to be a cheap imitation of the East Asian dish. Instead of a crispy baguette with grilled pork, pate, pickled vegetables and fresh herbs, the sandwich used ciabatta bread, pulled pork and coleslaw.

“It was ridiculous,” Nguyen said.

“How could they just throw out something completely different and label it as another country’s traditional food?”

Nguyen added that Bon Appétit, the food service management company contracted by Oberlin College, has a history of blurring the line between culinary diversity and cultural appropriation by modifying the recipes without respect for certain Asian countries’ cuisines. This uninformed representation of cultural dishes has been noted by a multitude of stu-

dents, many of who have expressed concern over the gross manipulation of traditional recipes.

Prudence Hiu-Ying, a College sophomore from China, cited an instance when Stevenson was serving General Tso’s chicken, but the product did not resemble the popular Chinese dish. Instead of deep-fried chicken with ginger-garlic soy sauce, the chicken was steamed with a substitute sauce, which Hiu-Ying described as “so weird that I didn’t even try.”

According to CDS management, these dishes are a result of Bon Appétit’s foray into nutritional diversity. The food service company has recently been upping their output of cultural dishes in an attempt to diversify students’ options in taste and flavor profile.

“Hopefully, if you dined with us in Stevenson, there would be one thing in every meal that you would want to eat,” said Michile Gross, director of Business Operations and Dining Services.

Perhaps the pinnacle of what many students believe to be a culturally appropriative sustenance system is Dascomb Dining Hall’s sushi bar.

The sushi is anything but authentic for Tomoyo Joshi, a College junior from Japan, who said that the un-

dercooked rice and lack of fresh fish is disrespectful. She added that in Japan, sushi is regarded so highly that people sometimes take years of apprenticeship before learning how to appropriately serve it.

“When you’re cooking a country’s dish for other people, including ones who have never tried the original dish before, you’re also representing the meaning of the dish as well as its culture,” Joshi said. “So if people not from that heritage take food, modify it and serve it as ‘authentic,’ it is appropriative.”

Still, some students are not convinced that Bon Appétit’s menu qualifies as cultural appropriation.

Arala Tian Yoon Teh, a College sophomore from Malaysia, said the dining service’s food selections are a reflection of cultural collision, not cultural appropriation. She added that she thought Bon Appétit was inspired by Asian cuisine and just made dishes with the available ingredients.

Gross said Bon Appétit did not intend to serve the dishes disrespectfully and that there is room to correct the issue.

“Maybe what we should do is describe the dish for what it is as opposed to characterizing it with a specific name,” Gross said.

Richard Tran, a Vietnamese-

An employee makes a roll at Dascomb Dining Hall’s sushi bar. Many international students have cited Campus Dining Services’ cuisine as culturally appropriative.

Bryan Rubin, Photo editor

American College senior, suggested that Bon Appétit look into the history and original recipes of the foods they are trying to make, as there are food taboos within cultures they should avoid. Mai Miyagaki, a College junior from Japan, added that a meeting between Bon Appétit employees and international students could help alleviate tensions.

“I wish they could do something like a collaboration with the cultural student [organizations] before starting new stuff like this [sushi bar],”

Miyagaki said. “Overall, I think we — including myself — can always learn more about how to admit that we don’t know everything about every culture in the world and have a ‘We’re still trying to learn more’ kind of attitude.”

In line with Miyagaki’s hopes for collaboration, Gross said she is planning on setting up a meeting in upcoming weeks to discuss these issues.

“It’s important to us that students feel comfortable when they are here,” Gross said.

Former President Nancy Dye Passes Away at 68 Melissa Harris Staff Writer Nancy Schrom Dye, the first and only woman to serve as president of Oberlin College, died on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at her Lakewood home after battling a rare neurological syndrome. She was 68 years old.

Dye was the 13th president of the College, serving for more than a decade from 1994 to 2007.

During her presidency at Oberlin, Dye shaped the future of the College in a variety of ways. She was the head of the largest fundraising effort to date at Oberlin, raising $175 million in a capital campaign that funded new construction, financial aid and faculty salaries.

She oversaw the construction of the $65 million Science Center and the Adam Joseph Lewis Environmental Studies Center. She also instituted the restoration efforts of Allen Memorial Art Museum.

Throughout her career, Dye made it her mission to bring students’ academic and social experiences to the forefront of College policy.

Dye contributed to the creation of the Office of the Dean of Studies to enhance campus advising and academic intervention for students.

She also worked for the welfare of minority students, forming partnerships with the Posse Foundation and QuestBridge in order to promote diversity in admissions.

“She was completely devoted to student welfare,” said Clayton Koppes, professor of History.

Nancy Dye, 13th president of Oberlin, passed away this week.

Courtesy of Griffith Dye

“She was very empathic about how students are at Oberlin. She really believed that each individual had enormous potential. She wanted to eliminate any barriers that might prevent people from realizing that. She also believed that students and faculty should be challenged to achieve that potential.”

While striving to improve the College’s accessibility, Dye further expanded the College’s services to the town by creating the Bonner Center for Service and Learning. She also oversaw the creation of Oberlin’s William L. Robinson Scholars program, which grants full Col-

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“No one had more character and integrity than President Dye,” said Wayne Meisel, former Bonner Foundation President. “Nancy [was] a champion of the Bonner Scholars Program and all that it stands for: access to education, commitment to low-income students, passion about community engagement and a desire to work together for our common cause.”

Dye continued to sustain Oberlin’s mission with her achievements overseas. In 2004 she became the first president of a U.S. college or university to visit Iran in over 25 years. While there, she worked to reestablish educational connections between Iran and the United States. In 2005, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Obirin University in Machida, Japan.

“She was an outstanding leader, a fine scholar and teacher, a caring and engaged citizen of the world and a giving, kind person,” President Marvin Krislov said.

Dye graduated from Vassar College in 1969 and went on to earn her master’s and doctorate degrees in history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She focused her historical research on American women and workers and went on to author two books on the subject: As Equals and As Sisters: Feminism, Trade Unionism, and the New York Women’s Trade Union League and Gender, Race, and Class in the Progressive Era, the latter coauthored by Noralee Frankel.

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“I have always admired her as a liberal thinker and principled feminist,” said Gabrielle H. Cody, professor of Drama at Vassar. “I thought her presidency at Oberlin was an amazing move for her. I will always think of her as a phenomenal example of a great public intellectual.”

Dye continued working in academia after leaving Oberlin, serving as the first Vice Chancellor of the Asian University of Women in Bangladesh and establishing a residential college for women at United Arab Emirates University.

She was born in Columbia, Missouri, daughter to Ned Stuart Schrom, dean of students at Montclair State University and SUNY News Paltz, and Florence Elizabeth Ahrens, former assistant to the dean of New York University Law School.

Dye is survived by her husband, Dr. Griffith Dye; their children, Molly and Michael; two granddaughters, Kennedy and Madeline; and her brother, Michael Schrom.

“She had a terrific sense of humor and she loved to laugh,” Dr. Griffith Dye said in an email to the Review. “She was incredibly curious. She believed in learning things, working hard, and making things better. She exhorted students to lead what she called ‘a generous life.’ She certainly made me a better person (although some may dispute this). And she often said that being president of Oberlin was the job that she loved the most.”

Contributions can be made to the Nancy S. Dye Scholarship Fund at Oberlin College in lieu of flowers.

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Corrections: In “BoardCorrections Rejects Student Divestment Proposals” (Oct. 30, 2015), it was reported that “every Theacademic Review isdepartment” not aware of endorsed Student for a Free Palestine’ s divestment any corrections this week. proposal. Only a few departments endorsed thestrives proposal.

The Review to print all information as accurately as possible.

In “Visiting Professors Discuss Latinix If you feel the Review has made an Culture, Baseball” (Oct. 30, 2015), error, please send an e-mailthe to word Latinx is misspelled in the headline. The managingeditor@oberlinreview.org.

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The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

Page 3

Off the Cuff: David Makovsky, Washington Institute Fellow David Makovsky is the Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute, a foreign policy thinktank. He worked as the senior advisor on Secretary of State John Kerry’s Israel-Palestine peace team from 2013–2014 and has written extensively about conflict in the Middle East. Makovsky is also an adjunct professor of Middle East Studies at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. The Review sat down with Makovsky before he gave a talk titled “Seeking Justice: Strengthening the Prospects for Middle East Peace” at Wilder Hall on Tuesday night.

Given the Iran nuclear deal and increasing global frustration with Israel, how do you envision the future of U.S.-Israeli relations?

There’s going to be a meeting on Monday, Nov. 9 where [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu will be the guest of President Obama. I think there’s going to be more commonality than people may think. Prime Minister Netanyahu is going to be speaking at the Center for American Progress, which is the leading liberal thinktank.

I’d like to think that we’ve been in a very rocky period, and the Iran issue really brought out a lot of differences, but ultimately the U.S. and Israel are going to work together. No one has an interest in seeing Iranian proxies like Hezbollah get a windfall of money to blow people up. I think the same with Hamas, too. … The security cooperation between the United States and Israel is really strong. President Obama says the amount of intelligence cooperation is unprecedented.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama’s relationship has become a focal point of media attention. The two are meeting for the first time in months to discuss the Iran nuclear deal and the Islamic State next Monday. What went wrong between them?

It’s a fair question. It’s hard to see in the seventh year of an eight-year administration that you’re [not] going to have this magical reset. …

These two have had their differences. Everyone agrees they all want the same objective. You want a two-state solution; you want to make sure Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon; you don’t want to embolden radical forces like Hezbollah and Hamas. Everyone agrees with the top-line stuff, but how do you get there? That’s where there are differences. I think Obama, coming in in 2009, thought he would focus much more on settlements. And then Obama, as it went on, thought, “Oh no, let’s not focus on that. Let’s focus on getting [Israel and Palestine] to the table.”

Secretary of State [John] Kerry really believed that each side said they wanted a two-state solution, so let’s help them get there. Ultimately, I think that part of the issue was that Netanyahu had no problem with the U.S. holding Israel to a high standard, but he felt the United States held the Palestinians to no standard, and yet, these two have to be accountable for peace. That was a key piece to this and the Iran deal, obviously. The President would say, “Hey, Bibi, you don’t want them to get nuclear weapons, I don’t want them to get nuclear weapons.” Netanyahu felt that the United States did not optimize its leverage in those talks and might have been able to get a better deal. … You could ask, “Is this ... perfect being the enemy of the good?” You couldn’t get the perfect deal, but you got the best deal you can? I think [Obama and Netanyahu] differed over those two things. Those are the two major differences.

You co-authored an article called “Israel’s Drive Toward Self-Destruction” for Politico Magazine earlier this year. In it, you wrote, “Palestinians can push the campaign against Israel at the International Criminal Court and other international forums, and nothing will be expected of them. Unfortunately, none of these steps will advance the day that Palestinians see an end to Israeli occupation or the emergence of their state.” What steps do you think Palestine can take to end Israeli occupation?

I think the way to do it — like Jordan’s [former] King Hussein [bin Talal] and [former president] Anwar Sadat of Egypt — is to say, “You’re here to stay, we’re here to stay. You recognize that we’re the nation-state of the Palestinian people, and we’ll recognize that you’re the nation-state of the Jewish people.” There’s too much history and too little geography, and it’s hard. The whole area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River can be 50 miles, and you have to shoehorn these two states. And if [Israel] thinks the other side really doesn’t accept them and it’s a waystation for them to eliminate Israel, they’re going to have their back up.

On the Israeli side, they’ll say — and I think this gets lost in some college discourses — “Wait a second. In 2000 [Israel] wanted to end the conflict and find a border.” In 2007–2008, with Condoleezza Rice and the Annapolis process with Kerry in 2013–2014, Israel said, “We’ve made three big efforts. We don’t want to dominate anybody, we just want to end it.” And you get the feeling that the Israelis will say [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas doesn’t really want to end the conflict, he wants to perpetuate it.

transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Friday, Oct. 30 6:10 p.m. Staff at Philips gym reported the theft of an iPad Air and cell phone from a locked office.

Safety and Security and members of the Oberlin Police Department responded to the scene. The theft is under investigation.

10:50 p.m. Safety and Security officers and members of the Oberlin Police Department responded to an accident involving a motor vehicle and a bicycle on Professor Street near Kade House. The bicyclist was

Saturday, Oct. 31 12:25 a.m. Officers responded to a report of an unauthorized party on South Professor Street. While breaking up the party, officers located an intoxicated student. The student was assisted to a security vehicle and transported to Mercy Allen for treatment.

1:21 a.m. Residents of Firelands Apartments reported that an air conditioning unit was malfunctioning and making a loud noise. Facilities responded and the power was turned off until repairs could be made.

and everything is within very tiny distances.

The problems are really complicated and it’s very hard to say … the overall tumultuous environment of the region, where there’s kind of a meltdown of the old state system, is not the most conducive to saying, “Here are the security arrangements.” This is not a footnote. When Israel left Gaza, you had rockets coming from the northern Sinai in the Gaza and thousands have been fired, and this is after Israel got out. All I’m saying is it’s hard for us as Americans because we have the liquid assets — the Atlantic and the Pacific — and peace with Canada and Mexico. But let’s say we didn’t have any of that and we lived in a tiny, tiny area where the landscape was being transformed before our eyes. It makes it harder.

It doesn’t mean we should give up, though. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do what we can do.

David Makovsky, Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute and former senior advisor on Secretary of State John Kerry’s Israel-Palestine peace team.

The more charitable view is that each one wants a deal, but they want a deal on their terms. But as long as you’re going to find the grand deal very high, it’s a bar that can’t be met.

I’m not here to say Netanyahu has been perfect. I think in the campaign, he needed to have a much more broad-based coalition, and the coalition he has is problematic. But he’ll say, “Look, the other guy doesn’t want to solve this thing, don’t you see it? Three times we tried. Why aren’t they writing about that in America?”

You talk about the three points that Palestine and Israel can’t agree on: Jerusalem, security arrangements and defining the character of both states. As senior advisor on Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace team, what did you perceive as the most difficult barriers for Israel and Palestine in reaching a peace agreement?

That’s an excellent point. I think the hardest one is security arrangements, ironically, which is not what I used to think. I think the aftermath of the Arab Spring has transformed the immediate landscape. Lebanon was a country, but you have Hezbollah — the people who fire the shots call the shots there. Syria used to be a country; it’s come apart. And you have an al-Qaeda offshoot on the northern border. You’ve got ISIS over the horizon. Thankfully, you still have Jordan there.

You have Hamas in Gaza. You have an affiliate of ISIS in the Sinai. You thankfully have this security cooperation in the West Bank that has got to stay strong, but you’re not surrounded by states,

A recent poll from the Israeli thinktank Mitvim shows that 60 percent of Israelis disapprove of Netanyahu’s government’s performance on foreign policy. The same poll showed that only 34 percent of people disapproved last year. How have you seen Netanyahu’s role changing in Israel in the past year?

It’s very interesting. The problem is the disapproval with the wave of stabbings; he’s losing the right. The right thinks he’s too squishy, that people are getting stabbed and he’s not doing enough to protect the citizens. And the polls that I’ve seen say [former Minister of Foreign Affairs] Avigdor Lieberman — who is more to Netanyahu’s right — should take over. People feel helpless. I think there’s always danger in polling in the middle of crises. The dust settles and public opinion tends to settle, too.

The polls that give me the most hope are these: that a majority of Israelis and Palestinians — a bare majority, I’ll now posit it’s dropped — will say they want a two-state solution, but they’re convinced the other side doesn’t want it. And that’s part of the problem here. There’s a public sense of disbelief, and how do you deal with that? When people say, “Look, America, you’ve tried three times to solve all the problems, and yet it was elusive because despite all your best efforts, the Venn diagram on all five of the issues — territories, refugees, Jerusalem, mutual recognition and security arrangements — did not all come together. Maybe you got two out of five.” So, one way is to just give up, but I think — and that’s what my message here is — that’s a mistake.

2:44 a.m. An officer located a student sleeping under the first floor stairwell of Saunders House.

The student smelled of alcohol and was transported to Mercy Allen for treatment.

2:21 p.m. Officers were requested to assist a student ill from ingesting medical cannabis at Burton Hall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen for treatment.

sumption in Zechiel House. The student was transported to Mercy Allen for treatment.

1:15 a.m. Residents of Dascomb Hall reported a male student running through the hallways and creating a disturbance on the second floor. Officers responded and located the student in their room.

The student denied being involved and was advised to stay in their room for the night.

Sunday, Nov. 1

Tuesday, Nov. 3

1:05 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student who fell, subsequently hitting their head, while ill from alcohol con-

2:10 a.m. A staff member reported a suspicious person on their front porch attempting to remove a hammock. The Oberlin

Interview by Tyler Sloan, News editor Photo courtesy of David Makovsky

Police Department responded but could not locate the individual on scene.

10:23 a.m. Allen Memorial Art Museum security staff was requested to assist a student who fainted while in class. The student declined medical treatment and went home with friends.

6:27 p.m. Facilities reported a car accident in the parking lot of Philips gym. A truck backed into an unoccupied, parked vehicle.

The Oberlin Police Department responded and both vehicles’ owners were located to exchange insurance information.

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The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

Conservancy Group to Preserve South Woods Jake Berstein A local conservation group plans to open a new park featuring a wetland habitat.

The Western Reserve Land Conservancy, an organization that works to preserve and restore natural habitats in eastern Ohio, recently bought the Oberlin Great South Woods, a 63acre wetland property. The nonprofit plans to preserve the land and create a park for the community.

According to Andrew McDowell, vice president of Western Fields Operations, the acquisition is the result of years of work and organizing.

“It was a long process. … It’s been on various Oberlin residents’ radars for many, many years to protect those woods. We’re talking probably decades,” McDowell said.

The Conservancy ultimately bought the land from a developer using money from various organizations — including the College and the state of Ohio — interested in its conservation.

The College’s Green EDGE Fund contributed a total of $20,000, $10,000 from a carbon management grant and $10,000 with a sustainability grant. Through a waivable Green Fee, College students contribute to the Carbon Management Fund Account and the Sustainability Grant Account with $5 and $20 respectively. However, according to McDowell, students contributed more than just money.

“We have work-study students here in the Oberlin office, and they helped put together the grants for the project,” McDowell said. In addition, the Conservancy partnered with EDGE to get a large contribution from the

Clean Ohio Fund, a state fund focused on restoring and protecting Ohio’s green spaces. “[The Conservancy was] more likely to get this grant if they had money promised from other people,” said EDGE Fund board member and College junior Julia Murphy.

In addition to the recreational and environmental benefits of preserving the woods, the purchase also addresses safety concerns.

“There has been a lot of flooding over there on Reserve Avenue, and the fact that it’s preserved is going to help any future flooding that might happen here,” Firelands associate field director Kate Pilacky said.

If the previous owners had developed the land, which was their original intention, properties downstream and other areas in the Plum Creek Watershed Partnership would have had an increased risk of flooding.

“With more asphalt and shingles, you would have nothing there to absorb the water,” McDowell explained. “But it’s gotta go somewhere.”

Pilacky has worked toward the acquisition of the Great South Woods since the founding of the Firelands Land Conservancy chapter in 2002. When other land conservancies in the area joined together to create the Western Land Conservancy, the acquisition of the woods gained some momentum.

“I’m just really glad that it all came together,” Pilacky said. “I’m just happy that it’s done.”

The Conservancy’s long-term plans for the woods involve partnering with the Lorain County Metro Parks. In the past, the Conservancy has done the heavy labor of grant-writing for a land acquisition and the subsequent transfer of the property to the Metro Parks.

The Western Reserve Land Conservancy recently purchased a 63-acre parcel of the Oberlin Great South Woods. The environmental group plans to turn the area into a preserve for Oberlin residents.

Courtesy of Western Reserve

“We are talking to Lorain Metro Parks, and they’ve indicated interest in [the land],” McDowell said. “This is going to be a property that people are going to use, … and it could be better served in the hands of a more proactive land-management-type organization like the park district.”

The forest has a long history within the community. Records of local residents studying the wetlands date back to the 19th century.

“We have botanical records for the area going back to the late 1800s from the Natural History Museum in Cleveland, so even going back to the 1800s people knew it was a special place,” McDowell said.

Local residents had been birdwatching and botanizing in the wetlands for years before it was sold to a developer.

“We’ve never really worked on a project that had that much data going back that far,” Pilacky said.

The park could also be used for educational purposes.

“I foresee various opportunities where classes from the College or high school could use it as an outdoor lab area,” McDowell said.

Pilacky organized a hike at the Oberlin Great South Woods last Sunday to celebrate the acquisition, answer questions about future plans and explore the area.

Singleton, Slocum Elected to Oberlin City Council Continued from page 1 ject to gerrymandering. The initiative won overwhelming approval both in Oberlin and in greater Ohio. The initiative was approved with 88 percent of Oberlin’s vote and 71.5 percent of the state’s vote.

On Issues 2 and 3, Oberlin’s votes swung a different direction than the rest of the state. Only 46 percent of voters supported Issue 2 while 44 percent voted in favor of Issue 3. Still, voter turnout was notably low, with only 28 percent of Oberlin residents showing up to the polls.

Voters also elected new City Council members Linda Slocum and Kelley Singleton on Tuesday. The newcomers will join incumbents Bryan Burgess, Scott Broadwell, Ron-

nie Rimbert, Sharon Soucy and Sharon Pearson in the Oberlin City Council for the next two-year term.

Fourteen candidates ran for seven seats on the council — an unusually high number, though not unprecedented in Oberlin. Former City Council member Elizabeth Meadows was not reelected, and former councilwoman Kristin Peterson did not run.

“It usually happens when there’s a major issue in the city,” said Burgess, referring to the high number of candidates. “There are lots of people who want to weigh in on what should be done. So I would take 14 candidates as an indication that whatever the topic of the day is, it’s a really important topic.”

Pearson said she agreed that the large number of candidates reflected

the importance of the issues being debated. She added that the competition encouraged candidates to step up their game and will force them to stay active and engaged even though the election is over.

One of the most pressing issues City Council faces this term is how to allocate the money returned to Oberlin through Renewable Energy Certificates. Bryan Burgess, Sharon Pearson and Sharon Soucy all agreed that the most important and contested issue in this election involved the use of approximately $800,000 in rebates.

This issue, according to Pearson, has become increasingly controversial. One option is that the money could be returned to the ratepayers in the form of small installments.

This has raised questions about the long-term benefits of the payments, which, while providing short-term payments to community members, could take funds from the underfunded Sustainable Reserve Fund.

An alternative is to put the money back into the Sustainable Reserve Fund to be used for citywide green initiatives, which was the original aim of the initiative. This would help reduce energy costs in the long run and increase energy efficiency. Incumbents Burgess, Pearson and Slocum have all previously voiced their support for this initiative. Soucy advocated for returning the money to the ratepayers while still providing the option of contributing the payment to the fund if any ratepayers decide to do so.

City Council will also address affordable housing and the Green Acres project, which would provide rental space for low-income and senior Oberlin residents. Other City Council priorities will include lowering the unemployment rate, raising the minimum wage and increasing public transportation. Burgess added that he is also concerned about flooding issues in Oberlin.

“It’s more than just a nuisance now,” he said. “It’s more than just a wet basement. It’s streets that are so flooded the ambulance can’t get through the street. A few years ago, someone had a heart attack on Reserve Avenue, and the ambulance couldn’t get to them because the street was flooded. That can’t be allowed to continue.”

Right-Wing Activist Poses as Student, Secretly Films Professors Continued from page 1 means it’s legal for me to secretly record.”

He then rejected the suggestion that his tactics breach journalist ethics.

“Mike Wallace used to do this type of work, and the guy who catches the predators on Dateline does this type of work; journalists have used pretenses for decades, and many of them have won Pulitzers and Peabodys and Emmy awards.

There’s a long, storied tradition of undercover reporting.”

For O’Keefe, political correctness is nothing less than creeping totalitarianism.

“Political correctness has gone so far, and to such an extreme, that it borders on fascism and oppressing people’s right to express themselves freely,” O’Keefe said.

He suggested that, while college administrators and professors should take mental health seriously, Vassar administrators should have referred the “student” to a therapist instead of

shredding the Constitution. O’Keefe also argued that Lasser and Kozol’s statements were controversial enough to merit coverage.

“What we do is we confirm suspicions. We visualize what people may already know to be the case. It does shock many people — it’s gone viral, hundreds of thousands of views now — so some people are shocked and disgusted by the opinions expressed by people in the academy.”

In a response to a question from the Review, Peter Fricke, a reporter for Campus Reform who wrote the article accompanying the video, stated that the Constitution can be considered sacred.

“Is it a sacred document in the sense that the Bible is a sacred document? Not really, because it doesn’t have the religious context. In the sense that many people venerate it as a source of wisdom? I suppose it would qualify for that label.”

Fricke also noted that Campus Reform played no role in producing the video and said that O’Keefe had “no affiliation” with Campus Reform.

But O’Keefe and the Leadership Institute — the conservative nonprofit that bankrolls Campus Reform — have deep ties. O’Keefe worked for Leadership Institute in his first job out of college before getting fired by the institute for potentially jeopardizing the nonprofit’s tax-exempt status by making overtly political statements.

According to Fricke, there are “no hard feelings” between O’Keefe and the Leadership Institute.

O’Keefe briefly occupied the media spotlight in 2009 when he used similar tactics to portray ACORN, an organization that advocated for low-income families and registered millions of voters, as corrupt. O’Keefe’s video resulted in ACORN getting defunded both by the federal government and private donors, resulting in the organization’s liquidation. Investigations by prosecutors subsequently found that ACORN employees had done nothing wrong and that O’Keefe’s video was misleading, having been heavily edited.

According to Chris Faraone, an editor at

DigBoston who covered O’Keefe extensively for the Boston Phoenix, a stunt like this represents a regression in O’Keefe’s oeuvre, as the man once at the center of the rightwing zeitgeist now tries to embarrass college professors and administrators.

“I’m not surprised that James O’Keefe is back testing his antics on college campuses,” Faraone wrote in an email to the Review. “He got his start in that environment, pulling pranks back in New Jersey at Rutgers [University]. ... It’s more sad than anything else, his continuing this childish crusade to prove that college campuses lean to the left. Of course they do.”

Faraone added that, in his opinion, O’Keefe simply isn’t worth getting worked up about.

“Please tell anyone who came into contact with this impotent turd to take a shower and forget about him like everybody else he’s ever slimed. He’s not worth the attention, and that’s coming from someone who spent half of a year and flew out to Los Angeles writing about him.”

Opinions The Oberlin Review

November 6, 2015

Letters to the Editors Professors Require Support in Project Veritas Scandal To the Editors: Amidst the chaos and anger about the Angela Boynton “right-wing-sting” from Project Veritas’ video on shredding the Constitution, I wanted to bring attention to the importance of caring in this college community. When incidents like this happen, as we saw with Christina Hoff Sommers’ OCRL lecture last semester, conservatives and extremists target our left-leaning campus with hate mail. Phone calls and hate mail have been flooding the inboxes of many offices on campus, and, even more importantly, those of professors Carol Lasser and Wendy Kozol, who are shown in the video.

Anger is the immediate reaction when hearing about this egregious breach of ethics and privacy, as well as the treacherous deception, but it is imperative that we channel that anger into compassion for those tar-

geted. There are many, many levels to the egregious nature of this incident. In addition to the deceitful and horrific journalistic ethics of undercover reporter “Angela Boynton” and Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe, there is an apparent misogyny to it all as well that should not go unnoticed.

The faculty members targeted were women, and the imposter journalist known as Angela Boynton was playing on tropes of female weakness and sensitivity. Much of the hateful discourse aimed at them is coming from men. We need to examine the ways in which misogyny manifests itself in rightwing attacks, and we need to be accountable to care for one another and ourselves when bullshit like this occurs. And, of course, it should not go unnoticed that the imposter falsely reported and delegitimized the very real and painful mental health issues so many people face at the hands of systematic oppression (of which the Constitution and the government are integral parts, by the way). This is, of course, not unrelated to

the harmful gendering of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The rhetoric of “over-sensitivity” and “over-political correctness” so often used to undermine resistance to marginalization has been interlaced with the identities and mental health issues many hold to create this vicious attack.

So, Oberlin, I am asking you to take some time out of your day to affirm these professors that were targeted, and tell them their actions were justified.

They need to know that their work here is far more important than incidents like this, and that they were doing the right thing in attempting to support a student whom they thought was in crisis and to engage with them the best they could. The work of professors Lasser and Kozol is important and appreciated by students, and there is no better time than now to let them know that.

Thank you, – Tory S. College junior

Can I Appropriate My Own Culture?

Cyrus Eosphoros Online Editor Día de los Muertos has been a culturally important feature of my life for as long as I can remember. My first grade class wandered off to the neighboring cemetery to see the wreaths, photographs and stuffed animals people laid out on family graves. Afterward, I’d accompany my dad to take photos of them. Every year, my community center in Todos Santos, Mexico, had the biggest altar I’d ever seen, which stayed up long past the day itself because the people who’d built the huge, room-size display were that proud of it.

During my junior year of high school, a fellow student and I built an altar for the murdered women of Juárez, a city across the border from El Paso, where young women — mostly poor and working-class — have been systematically killed for decades. Class requirements meant the altar was more stringently traditional and ornate than I was used to, with seven levels instead of two or three and the addition of the sign of the cross in sand. The victims’ anonymity meant the only objects with which we had to represent them were the pink crosses on their graves. We didn’t know what things they liked. We tried to hedge our

bets on food and other material offerings: tamales, fruit, nice heels, makeup. Things that girls our age might like.

The physical objects you set out by the altar are for the ghost. Unlike funerals, which provide closure for the living, everything about Día de los Muertos is meant for the ghost. An altar is constructed out of symbols: a fixed number of levels for the soul to ascend to heaven, topped with a palm arc for them to pass through. It is decorated with candles and incense to purify the spirit; with earth, fire and water; with brightly colored paper cutouts for purity and pain; and, famously, with little calaveras, or “sugar skulls,” sweets that serve as a dual reminder of the inevitability of death and the idea that it isn’t so bad after all.

That’s what makes up the altar itself. For it to matter and not act as a meaningless prop, you need to dedicate it to someone. You add photos of the person you’re mourning; You set out food that they liked, clothes they wore, objects that remind you of them. While the spirit is wandering around in early November, that will hopefully draw them to you for a visit.

During my first two years at Oberlin, there See Día de los Muertos, page 7

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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

Marijuana Legislation Must Account for Racial Injustice With an almost two-to-one ratio vote on Issue 3, Ohio did not legalize recreational marijuana on Tuesday. By a much smaller margin, Issue 2 passed. The state-sponsored Issue 2 was a direct response to ResponsibleOhio’s marijuana legalization proposal, which would have created an oligopoly of 25 total investors in 10 proposed growing plots, concentrating the revenue from legalization in their already-wealthy hands.

A recent poll from Quinnipiac University showed a 53 percent approval rate for recreational marijuana and a 90 percent approval rate for medicinal marijuana. Yet Issue 3 may not have passed because many voters were concerned that Black and other minority communities affected most by the drug war and criminalization of marijuana wouldn’t see their share of the profits from legalization.

In Ohio, there’s no doubt that Issue 3 going up in smoke will disproportionately affect Black people and other people of color who are being arrested for possession at a much higher rate.

An exhaustive report by the American Civil Liberties Union shows that as of 2010, Black Ohioans were four times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession as whites and made up 38.1 percent of possession-related arrests, despite making up only 12.6 percent of the state’s population. Less evidence has been collected on the arrest rates of other communities of color, but history shows that the majority of non-white communities have been disproportionately punished for drug-related crimes.

Had Issue 3 passed, all penalties on possession of one ounce of marijuana would have been eliminated, and 12,000 arrests per year would have been prevented, saving the state over $100 million annually. Legalization also would have paved the way for the proposed Fresh Start Program, an initiative designed to expunge the records of those convicted of marijuana-related crimes and allow those convicted to petition the court to reverse or modify any sanctions currently imposed.

Legalization would have, if nothing else, helped ease the burden of Black and low-income Ohioans whose fight against the criminalization of drugs, police brutality and systemic incarceration is a daily reality.

But for many, all the “would haves” and “could haves” didn’t add up to a “should have.” The main argument among those otherwise pro-legalization was that it would have created an oligopoly, limiting the profits to former reality star Nick Lachey, fashion designer Nanette Lepore and sports stars like retired NBA star Oscar Robertson and the Arizona Cardinals’ Frostee Rucker, among 22 other well-off investors. In the words of The New Jim Crow author Michelle Alexander, “Granting an oligopoly to 10 wealthy investors who hope to get rich quick by exploiting an opportunity created by a movement that aimed to remedy decades of relentless punishment of the poorest and most vulnerable is not justice.”

At the polls, voters decided the reality of the state’s political situation: Those disproportionately affected will continue to suffer until a more equitable legalization policy is proposed. The rejection of Issue 3 may disregard the urgency of the communities who would have benefited from legalization, but we’ve made our decision. The next step is to capitalize on the time gained from tabling the legislation and advocate for a policy that will prioritize racial justice over capitalist greed.

Inevitably, developing just legalization policy would involve a multitude of strategies: increased advocation, community See Editorial, page 7 Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, managing editor and Opinions editor — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

Opinions

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The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

Russia Prevents Ukraine from Joining West Sean Para Columnist The calm that has settled over eastern Ukraine in the past two months has been billed by many as a victory for the West.

Russia, as the narrative goes, has failed to take over the territory as it had originally intended. The Russian economy has been battered by sanctions and the drop in oil prices, a staunch juxtaposition to Ukraine’s economic outlook, which includes state reform and a potential political recovery. “Ukraine has turned toward the West and is lost to Russia forever,” experts say. While this is a convenient narrative for Western governments, it is patently false.

The “Russia lost in Ukraine” narrative does rely on facts and evidence. It is certainly true that the Ukraine crisis has isolated Russia internationally, that the sanctions have had a dire effect on its economy and that everything did not go as Putin might have hoped. Nonetheless, the war in the Donbass and Russia’s larger hybrid war against Ukraine have achieved their core objectives — Ukraine has lost crucial parts of its country and will never become a serious threat to Moscow as long as Crimea and Donbass remain outside of its control.

The seizure of Crimea and the creation of the rebel People’s Republics of Donetsk

and Luhansk follow a longstanding trend in Russian foreign policy that emerged just after the fall of the Soviet Union.

An obscure example was the self-rule of Transnistria in 1990. This largely Russianspeaking region declared its independence from Moldova in an attempt to remain part of the Soviet Union before its 1991

––––––––––––––––––––––––– The “Russia lost in Ukraine” narrative does rely on facts and evidence. It is certainly true that the Ukraine crisis has isolated Russia internationally, that the sanctions have had a dire effect on its economy and that everything did not go as Putin might have hoped.

––––––––––––––––––––––––– collapse. The conflict remains unresolved, with a working relationship between the rebel region and the Moldovan government. Russian troops remain ensconced in the Transnistria, theoretically as guarantors of the 1992 ceasefire but effectively as an occupation force. This “frozen conflict” has become an effective tool for Russia to project influence across the post-Soviet

space. Its military dominance among its neighbors allows Russia to follow through with small, effective military campaigns that do not escalate into major wars, since the outcome of one would be obvious. The rebel republics act as levers for Moscow to influence these various former Soviet republics. Trouble will arise should they draw too close to the U.S.-led alliance system. Most importantly, they have worked.

Moldova, Georgia and Armenia — which have pro-Russian separatist statelets — have not been able to embrace NATO the way that the Baltic states have. Moldova continues to stay somewhere in between committing to either side. The 2008 RussoGeorgian War effectively shelved Georgia’s accession to NATO as well. In Ukraine, the same thing has happened yet again. Russia has been able to bully its neighbors time and time again due to its preponderant power in the post-Soviet space.

The creation of a frozen conflict in Eastern Ukraine is now all but assured.

The only other option is more bloodshed.

The Minsk II agreement reached in February has slowly come into effect. After nine months, an actual ceasefire has taken hold. The Donetsk and Luhansk Republics are, for the first time, accepting the idea of staying part of Ukraine in some form, and the government in Kiev is not attempting to destroy the rebel republics. As long as

this situation holds, it is impossible that Ukraine will ever join NATO, as countries with outstanding territorial conflicts cannot join the alliance system.

War could break out at any time in the east should Ukraine do anything too dissatisfying to Moscow. While Putin did not succeed in adding Ukraine to his Eurasian Economic Union or turning it into a subordinate ally like Belarus or Kazakhstan, he was able to prevent the total loss of Ukraine; Ukraine will be unable to reform and become a Western-style liberal democracy in the foreseeable future. This outcome is not surprising given the asymmetry of Russia and the West’s respective relationships with Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia have only been separate countries for 24 years. Ukraine has always been central to the Russian national myth, Russia’s economy and its security.

Putin is willing to do absolutely anything to prevent it from coming under Washington’s sway.

On the other hand, Ukraine is simply not as important to the West. Therefore, Western foreign policy should seek to further the present situation, as it represents the best possible compromise between the interests of Russia and the West. Further attempts at incorporating Ukraine into the NATO alliance system will only inflame tensions.

Discouraging Dissent Stifles Intellectual Growth Aaron Pressman Columnist The first tenet listed in Oberlin College’s mission statement is to “graduate … students who have learned to think with intellectual rigor, creativity, and independence.” Yet it seems to be increasingly common on campus for students who make up the majority opinion to stifle dissent.

We must allow for a free flow of ideas, and students must exhibit the intellectual capability to respect dissent. I have been disappointed with the frequency with which students holding popular beliefs on campus immediately dismiss the views of those who disagree. I find this especially problematic at a school that so strongly prides itself on tolerance, acceptance and diversity.

All too often, students dismiss dissenting views as “violent” so as to avoid having to acknowledge their existence. This contradicts the principles of both free speech and intellectual discourse. Even if we are talking about extreme examples of racist speech, such as comments made by white supremacists, it is best that we know when people truly hold these thoughts. By allowing these comments to be expressed, the worst-case scenario is that we know who holds racist opinions and, in some cases, can take measures to avoid interacting with them. At best, we can come together in opposition to the hateful comments and start a movement. Regardless, suppression of speech does not suppress beliefs, and as long as these ideas are out there, it is best for everyone to know what they are and who holds them.

However, nearly every case of stifling speech on campus I

have observed is not one of these extreme examples of racist or otherwise prejudiced speech held by extremists. Most of the statements students attempt to stifle represent commonly held beliefs on campus. This does not mean that no one will find these beliefs to be racist or hateful in some capacity, and I can think of a lot of examples of mainstream opinions I believe are prejudiced.

However, this is all the more reason to engage people with these opinions. In order to make real change, we cannot pretend that mainstream political opinions we deem hateful do not exist.

An example is the Black Lives Matter movement. According to a poll conducted earlier this year by the Public Religion Research Institute, only 49 percent of those polled believe that the recent police killings in Ferguson, Staten Island and Baltimore are part of a pattern in the way that police treat Black Americans, yet I have observed many students quickly stifling opinions that question Black Lives Matter and socially ostracizing those who would dare make such a claim.

Students trying to silence this opinion generally claim that it is violent and harmful and refuse to acknowledge its existence.

While I would vehemently challenge anyone who argues that there is no racism in policing in the United States, and I have had plenty of intellectual debates with people who do hold this belief, I certainly would never attack individuals with this belief personally or refuse to engage them in conversation. All this does is anger the speaker and cause me to lose an argument before I even begin it. Instead, by engaging dissenters and respecting their opinions, I can poten-

tially change someone’s point of view. This does not mean passive-aggressively telling speakers that I am going to educate them but rather stating my disagreement with their opinions and not with them as people.

I am not saying that no one should ever be offended by speech. After all, the whole point of free speech is to protect speech that offends people. If free speech only went as far as to protect non-offensive speech, we would not need to institutionalize it because it would never be challenged. People can rightfully perceive speech as hateful or emotionally harmful and respond with free speech of their own. However, I caution against the illogical dismissal of arguments without consideration.

This is what unnecessarily aggravates people and regresses society. Departure from common sense and the use of ad hominem arguments will not be accepted in society after leaving Oberlin.

Understanding that some people in this world will make offensive comments, and learning how to respond in a civilized manner is an important part of the college experience.

Many students may actually find that they will change their stance on a lot of issues through intellectual discussion. In general, speakers do not have malicious or offensive intentions but are trying to do what they believe is best. The students who are quick to silence the opposition need to understand that, just like anyone else, they will be wrong sometimes. Approaching discussion with an open mind and acknowledging the existence of opposing opinions may cause students to change their opinions from time to time. This

is not only a fundamental purpose of college but a great way to adapt our opinions and truly better the world.

I do not expect everyone to agree with my arguments. I not only respect that but will have accomplished my goal if this article sparks intellectual thought or discussion. Though I hope this does not happen, I will not be surprised if some members of the Oberlin community call this

article “violent” and dismiss it without considering my argument. If you read up to the second paragraph and began to find my article violent, I encourage you to think about what I have to say. If you still disagree with my arguments, write a letter to the editor in opposition. I only ask that if you choose to express your dissent, you do so by attacking my arguments instead of attacking my character.

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

Día de los Muertos a Symbolic Tradition, Not a Prop Continued from page 5 was an altar in Stevenson Dining Hall next to the dessert table from Halloween until around Nov. 3. Laid out with unappetizing, stereotypical Mexican food, the altar had nothing to identify the person it was dedicated to, no personal belongings or photographs.

I’m more superstitious than the average person, so maybe I reacted more strongly than another Mexican would. “They might as well lay out a random embalmed body. At least then the dead person would have an identity!” I complained.

I didn’t go to Stevenson this week. I don’t think it was intentional, something just kept coming up between meals. But I didn’t see their latest supposedly “Latin American” menu or check for another empty altar.

Some people — the Mexican government included — fear that Halloween will supplant Día de los Muertos. However, decades of American influence aside, every community finds someone to mourn, creating altars everywhere from restaurants to community centers. People always find excuses to write calaveritas, poems mocking each other for the fact that they’ll die. People always have someone dear to them who has passed away, a relationship they aren’t afraid to put on display.

The other main tradition that comes with the holiday is people painting their faces like the altars’ sugar skulls. The history of calavera face paint and people dressing up as catrinas and catrines with it is oddly short. The Catrina herself, an elegant, skeletal woman in a broad-brimmed hat, was a political cartoon at the beginning of the 20th century, mocking women of the privileged class and their fashion affectations with the inevitable equalizer of death. Maybe people missed the point, because a hundred years later, we mimic her for fun, with skeletal faces decorated with flowers and the fanciest clothing we have on hand. Foreigners further miss the point, bastardizing the tradition into Halloween costumes.

At my high school, the school counselor did face paint for anyone who’d take it. I wore my catrín face paint proudly for the rest of the school day. The vice principal got all dolled up in a long black dress and a wide black hat with a long black veil. When light hit her, she shimmered purple, and if you squinted, you could see the white and black greasepaint beneath. She floated through the building, taking the odd boy by the arm and walking with him a few steps. I watched one young man whose elbow she touched turn and run,

shouting in half-joking fear. I didn’t walk with her, but I watched, grinning. During my senior year, the counselor did face paint and waved me over when I walked in, expecting me to be her model. I said no. She looked like I’d punched her.

Way back in 2012, I’d just been exposed to the idea of cultural appropriation, learning sociology from the internet. It was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I had a name for the discomfort that built in my chest when Americans were catrinas for Halloween or built altars for their dogs instead of people.

On the other hand, I’d been told I was appropriating the culture in which I’d grown up. American conceptions of race said that whites couldn’t be Mexican, and that I was white and nothing else. I’m a dual citizen; the concept of me inherently betraying my patria by having ties to the colonizer nation — a serious accusation in a culture that has a word for those who fraternize with colonizers — wasn’t new.

What was new was the angle: People older than me, smarter than me, with better English and more extensive academic backgrounds, were saying I was willfully hurting my own people. I wasn’t even the palest person in my grade, but I believed them when they said the American passport in my name meant that didn’t matter. I was so scared of hurting people. I withdrew from the festivities, and I didn’t talk about why.

I haven’t been back home in almost two years. I try to make light of it. “White Mexican stranded in Oberlin” is a feature of my online bios. It’s not entirely a joke. I’ve gotten used to feeling alone and adrift. Oberlin has brutalized me the least of any place I’ve ever lived, but I miss living in a culture that made sense to me.

I was going to do face paint this past Monday for the first time in three years. I agonized over the decision, afraid that because people read me as nonHispanic white I was legitimizing appropriation of my own culture by putting it on display. I tried to steel my nerves. If someone tried to call me out, I could take them, I told myself. I made jokes on Facebook about putting my Mexican passport in my pocket and slapping anyone with it who claimed I had no right to my home, the one I left thousands of miles away. People from my high school liked the posts and made encouraging comments.

But as long as people outside my culture make it a costume, I’m afraid to express it myself. What if people assume I’m one of those outsiders? What if the foreigners use me to justify their appropriation?

I chickened out again. Maybe next year.

Editorial: Accountability Essential for Equitable Legalization Policy Continued from page 5 organizing and wider educational policy, to name a few. Issue 2 does ensure that no future monopoly will gain full financial benefit of the future industry, but this does not mean that policymakers will prioritize racial justice while forming future legislation.

As a community of temporary Ohioans, it is our job to make sure that the crawl toward legalization remains at the forefront of policymaking. This is a history that recognizes that Black folks, people of color and low-income communities have been shamed and punished for selling the drug for the past half-century — a history that has destroyed families and fed millions back into the prison industrial complex. Tightening Ohio’s alreadystrained resources with a state prison system that exceeds capacity by 33 percent is a history that we have the potential to indefinitely alter.

As we move to different avenues of legalization, it is imperative that we hold ourselves accountable to these histories and ensure they do not persist. A truly equitable legalization policy is one that nei-

ther erases nor further exploits the communities disproportionately affected. Issue 3 was not the answer to this injustice, but the 2016 ballot has yet to be written.

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Waving Can Promote Sense of Community CJ Blair Columnist Forty percent of my social interactions are unreciprocated waves.

There are times when I think that I’m the only one who feels this way, but in my second year at Oberlin, I’ve learned that plenty of other people share my uncertainty about waving. College is one of the most ambulatory times in a person’s life, and on a small campus like Oberlin’s, it’s all but certain that students will pass by someone they know on their way to class.

When they do, they have the choice of acknowledging or ignoring this person, and the decision they make can demonstrate their uncertainty about how exactly to handle such a brief interaction.

Social interaction has always been a struggle for me, and every time I pass someone I know while walking between classes, I freeze. All of a sudden I find myself straining to decide the best way to acknowledge them, even if I’m good friends with the person. Should I say something? Is waving enough?

Will I look like an idiot? These questions may sound meaningless, but passing someone on the sidewalk is one of the few social interactions that is impossible to prepare for,because there’s almost no time to think. You have to pick a path of action and commit.

Because there’s such a small window of time in which to act, some have an automated response they apply no matter whom they pass, which is usually to

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Social interaction has always been a struggle for me, and every time I pass someone while walking between classes, I freeze. All of a sudden I find myself straining to decide the best way to acknowledge them, even if I’m good friends with the person. Should I say something?

Is waving enough? Will I look like an idiot?

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– look down and quicken their step. However, I think the majority of people are more inclined to wave to friends rather than acquaintances. Others, however, might wave to everyone they’ve ever spoken to. Yet another option is deciding to wave or not based on how favorably you view the person and whether you want to affirm or deny an amicable relationship.

This isn’t to say that choosing not to wave means you despise whomever you’re passing, but it does create ambiguity. For every person who thinks not receiving a wave is trivial, I can guarantee there’s another like me who worries about what it could mean, considering that there are a multitude of conclusions that the interaction creates.

Even if there’s little certainty on waving, the truth is that a non-action is the hardest thing to interpret. A wave can feel like a small and inconsequential movement, but just making the effort is a clear sign of friendliness. Part of me believes that Oberlin students don’t wave to people they don’t know because they assume others prefer solitude, or are too cemented in their own friend group to want to talk to anyone else. This is a valid way to think, but then again, when has receiving a friendly wave ever made you feel angry or annoyed?

Personal preference and sociability will always play a role in whether a person waves, but I would ask students who don’t like to wave what they think when someone deliberately avoids eye contact when they pass. It’s a small request and wouldn’t require a paradigm shift, but if Oberlin students lifted their eyes and offered a wave to the people they pass, I guarantee it would make the campus seem more like the community that it is. It requires a leap of faith for the socially inept like me, but by and large, the fear of what might happen is far outweighed by the fact that a wave is an unambiguously friendly gesture — one that can make fewer students feel like they are walking alone.

No snacks for Always. me.

DO YOU PREFER TO STUDY IN LOUD OR QUIET SPACES?

DO STUDY BUDDIES HELP YOU GET STUFF DONE?

ARE YOU A NATURE LOVER?

Give me trees or give me death.

THE IDEAL STUDY SPOT

U R YO

No. Not really.

DO YOU LIKE TO STUDY WITH ANIMALS?

So cute.

Yes.

Yes. Kinda.

Yes.

Heck yeah!

QUIZ BY HANNAH BERK Parents Weekend Begins!

Friday, Nov. 6

Hide your liquor, make your beds and open your textbooks — the parents are coming! If you see a lot more adults around campus this weekend, now you know why.

Oberlin’s Involvement in the Underground Railroad Friday, Nov. 6 at 3 p.m.

First Church in Oberlin

Learn about those who helped slaves make their way to freedom.

This guided tour costs $6 for adults and is free for children and Oberlin students.

A Cappella Extravaganza!

Saturday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

Finney Chapel

The Obertones, Acapelicans, CHALLaH cappella and Nothing But Treble will put on a joint concert. Tickets are $2 if you buy them in advance from a performer or $3 at the door. Feel free to bring your parents!

ANDERSON LOUNGE

No, I hate north ARE YOU A SCIENCE campus.

MAJOR? I like being in the middle of campus.

No, I am more in interested in languages.

No, thanks.

WHAT ABOUT BIRDS?

The

is the place ie nc eC

nd enter, seco

fl

You study best in the ra Lib

N I F D

DO YOU PREFER A BIG WINDOW TO GAZE OUT OF?

No.

Wilder Hall

DO YOU SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN NORTH QUAD?

Sc

I need noise.

FO

Yes.

The perfect place for you is the second floor of

oo r

Quiet!

No.

DO COMFY SEATS HELP YOU RELAX?

ry

E SI C

r

Yes, please.

flo o

DO YOU PREFER TO HAVE SNACKING ACCESS?

Nah, too distracting.

d in on the AJLC, sec

Go to the

language lab in Peters Hall. You will love it.

Calendar Annual Student Showcase Saturday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Go impress your parents by showing them your classmates’ great performances. OSlam will be there!

Geoff Eley: Placing the Holocaust in History Monday, Nov. 9 from 4:30–6 p.m.

Wilder 101

If you are interested in how perspectives on the Holocaust are changing, go hear Eley, a professor of Contemporary History at the University of Michigan.

The Baltimore Waltz Thursday, Nov. 5-7 at 8 p.m., Nov 8 and 9 at 2 p.m.

Little Theater

See what a brother and sister will sacrifice for another in their final moments together. This moving play was written by Paula Vogel and directed by College senior Colin Anderson. Tickets are $5.

No snacks for Always. me.

DO YOU PREFER TO STUDY IN LOUD OR QUIET SPACES?

DO STUDY BUDDIES HELP YOU GET STUFF DONE?

ARE YOU A NATURE LOVER?

Give me trees or give me death.

THE IDEAL STUDY SPOT

U R YO

No. Not really.

DO YOU LIKE TO STUDY WITH ANIMALS?

So cute.

Yes.

Yes. Kinda.

Yes.

Heck yeah!

QUIZ BY HANNAH BERK Parents Weekend Begins!

Friday, Nov. 6

Hide your liquor, make your beds and open your textbooks — the parents are coming! If you see a lot more adults around campus this weekend, now you know why.

Oberlin’s Involvement in the Underground Railroad Friday, Nov. 6 at 3 p.m.

First Church in Oberlin

Learn about those who helped slaves make their way to freedom.

This guided tour costs $6 for adults and is free for children and Oberlin students.

A Cappella Extravaganza!

Saturday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.

Finney Chapel

The Obertones, Acapelicans, CHALLaH cappella and Nothing But Treble will put on a joint concert. Tickets are $2 if you buy them in advance from a performer or $3 at the door. Feel free to bring your parents!

ANDERSON LOUNGE

No, I hate north ARE YOU A SCIENCE campus.

MAJOR? I like being in the middle of campus.

No, I am more in interested in languages.

No, thanks.

WHAT ABOUT BIRDS?

The

is the place ie nc eC

nd enter, seco

fl

You study best in the ra Lib

N I F D

DO YOU PREFER A BIG WINDOW TO GAZE OUT OF?

No.

Wilder Hall

DO YOU SPEND A LOT OF TIME IN NORTH QUAD?

Sc

I need noise.

FO

Yes.

The perfect place for you is the second floor of

oo r

Quiet!

No.

DO COMFY SEATS HELP YOU RELAX?

ry

E SI C

r

Yes, please.

flo o

DO YOU PREFER TO HAVE SNACKING ACCESS?

Nah, too distracting.

d in on the AJLC, sec

Go to the

language lab in Peters Hall. You will love it.

Calendar Annual Student Showcase Saturday, Nov. 7 at 8 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

Go impress your parents by showing them your classmates’ great performances. OSlam will be there!

Geoff Eley: Placing the Holocaust in History Monday, Nov. 9 from 4:30–6 p.m.

Wilder 101

If you are interested in how perspectives on the Holocaust are changing, go hear Eley, a professor of Contemporary History at the University of Michigan.

The Baltimore Waltz Thursday, Nov. 5-7 at 8 p.m., Nov 8 and 9 at 2 p.m.

Little Theater

See what a brother and sister will sacrifice for another in their final moments together. This moving play was written by Paula Vogel and directed by College senior Colin Anderson. Tickets are $5.

Arts The Oberlin Review

Page 10

November 6, 2015

Political Folk Group Pays Tribute to Salvadoran Civil War Andrés González When live music manages to create a connection with the audience, it is often through the merit of the music being played — how much the audience enjoys the melodies, how in sync the performers are and how much energy is passing between audience and performer. Yet there is another way in which music can touch listeners: through honesty and palpable earnestness of expression. The curious part about music of this last sort is that it can transcend traditional notions of skill and preparedness.

When Salvadoran activists Elizabeth Membreño and Victor Torres went onstage at the Cat in the Cream Tuesday night, they brought an intense musical passion and sincerity that was accentuated by the straightforward nature of their songs and lyrical themes. Performed with only an acoustic guitar — played by musical colleague Peter Nataren — and their two voices, the directness of the melodies and lyrics was both entrancing and haunting. Although a song titled “Maiz” (“Corn”) induced chuckles from the audience, Torres explained the importance of the crop to the people of El Salvador. “This song is for our parents and the farmers of El Salvador who feed our country every

day,” he said. Indeed, most of the songs Torres and Membreño performed shared a similar theme.

The guitar and vocal melodies were strongly influenced by the nueva trova movement that began in Cuba in the 1960s, a political singer-songwriter tradition that became popular throughout Latin America and Spain.

The nueva trova movement and these new songs it has inspired owe a great deal to North American folk revivalists such as Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary and Bob Dylan. It is clear that the unionist, socialist roots of the American folk revival have not been lost on the songwriters of El Salvador and Latin America at large. Torres even paid tribute to one of the great Cuban singersongwriters of this generation, Pablo Milanes, by performing a rendition of his romantic and lyrical song “Yolanda.”

Simpler, pop-influenced melodies were paired with lyrics that paid tribute to the more than 75,000 people killed in the Salvadoran Civil War and to traditional Latin-American leftist calls for solidarity among women, the poor and the working-classes.

Membreño and Torres mixed many of the tropes of nueva trova, such as hope, solidarity and the use of national poetry as lyrics with experiences more specific to the Salvadoran context.

Guitarist Peter Nataren strums to Elizabeth Membreño’s melodic singing. The Salvadoran artists, whose music is influenced by the Cuban nueva trova movement, performed at the Cat in the Cream Tuesday.

Courtesy of Oberlin in Solidarity with El Salvador

Several songs specifically dealt with the subject of individual and national trauma. One song, titled “Mi Pesadilla” (“My Nightmare”), describes scenes from the Salvadoran Civil War, remembered as “just nightmares” that remain decades after the violence brought about by government and rebel death squads has ended. Witnessing these songs of resistance, it was clear that

these were not so much anthems as they were personal prayers and methods of coping with brutal realities that have consumed the lives of thousands. It is hard to roll one’s eyes at a call for revenge on the oppressors when it is coming from someone who spent years in refugee camps, exiled from their homeland.

Several of the songs also included spoken word sections

recalling many of the same topics, decrying violence and its humanitarian consequences.

It is as powerful as it is rare to hear songs forged in conditions of true desperation, performed by those who lived through those desperate times themselves. It was an effective explication of the current struggles in which See Cat, page 13

Eosphoros, Durham Organize Villainous Halloween Showcase Louise Edwards Arts Editor During the opening act of Oberlin Musical Theater Association’s Villains Showcase, presented last Friday and Saturday in a Kahn Hall lounge, College junior Julia Redden threw open the doors of the closet she was hiding in and began belting “Miss Baltimore Crabs” from the musical Hairspray. As Velma Von Tussle, a racist and body-shaming producer, Redden introduced the night of villainy to follow.

The Villains Showcase, a revival of a similar event from 2013, was envisioned as a way to get more people involved in musical theater on campus, especially those with little prior experience. Showcase co-director, College junior and the Review’s Online Editor Cyrus Alexander Eosphoros explained how the original Villains Showcase came about. “OMTA used to have a general showcase with the intention of getting first-years and people new to musical theater into the fold,” he said.

“OMTA stopped doing that, did a lot less outreach, a lot less accessibility stuff in that vein. So the first director wanted to fill that gap and thought that the villains theme and going up on Halloween would be a fun thing,” said Eosphorus.

Both Eosphoros and his co-director, College senior Martin Durham, had roles in the original show. They wanted to resurrect the event this year with the same welcoming atmosphere.

Eosphoros said performing in the first showcase helped him to become a confident actor and learn more about his own identity.

“I came into Oberlin really timid, and

I also had never been in the position to present male full-time before,” he said.

“So I learned to act. I learned what theater looked like, and I learned how to occupy space in a way that wasn’t just trying to hide under anything. It’s weird to say that singing a single song about murdering 12-year-olds gave me a lot of tools that have helped me as an artist and as a person, but it [did]. I want to be able to give that kind of opportunity for growth, and that kind of opportunity for learning to … other people.”

Eosphoros and Durham began visualizing this year’s showcase a year ago as a diverse display of both humorous and dark content. “It’s villains, so we wanted to strike a balance between comedy and horror, basically, which was a place where [a] division of labor happened some, because I did more on the serious side and Martin does more comedy,” Eosphoros said.

The combination of upbeat and mysterious piano accompaniment balanced the humorous but spooky acts Eosphoros and Durham wanted to highlight. College junior and music director Ryan Yates noted how the music enhanced the actors’ communication through inflection of lines and body language. “Music communicates in a different way than vocal language and body language do, and it’s kind of its own language,” he said.

While some of the songs that the directors chose to include were originally sung by villains, the directors adapted others originally sung by heroes or neutral characters to make them evil. Durham was interested in this process, as it showed how characters’ moralities can be called into question when the motivations for their

actions change.

“I actually really enjoyed reimagining the circumstances from other songs partially because it feeds into a bit of my philosophy, which is that a lot of the way we view morality is in the way that we see ourselves and our contexts,” Durham said. “So someone who is a hero in one context — if you take a little bit of their self perception and tweak it or make it so that they’re justifying their own actions without really looking at them too hard, it’s easy to make someone who sees themselves as heroic into someone who is clearly, to an audience, villainous.”

A highlight of the show for Durham was “Rita’s Confession” from Lucky Stiff.

College senior Walker Griggs played Rita LaPorta, who accidentally shoots her ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

“I learned what theater looked like, and I learned how to occupy space in a way that wasn’t just trying to hide under anything.”

Cyrus Eosphorus Co-director, OMTA’s Villains Showcase –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– partner Tony because of her blindness.

College junior Jay Shapiro played Rita’s brother Vinnie DiRuzzio. “Walker and Jay were just so utterly and completely perfect for that,” Durham said. “It was wonderful. It was kind of one of the no-brainers of the show. … They came in [as] friends who already did this kind of thing. … They

came in having exactly the right dynamic, being super comfortable with each other and easily improvising around each other, … and they also ended up coming up with a lot of beautiful moments that I wouldn’t have thought of myself.”

For Eosphoros, it was most rewarding to see actors gain more confidence in their performance skills.

“There were actors that were really cool to watch, because we got people to coax out of their shell into this more self-assured position as a master of evil,” he said. “It was neat to watch that as an evolution for people who didn’t feel like they’d been given the opportunity to make a statement and occupy space that way before.”

Yates said he enjoyed working with the directors and the actors and seeing his visions materialize.

“It’s the first time I’ve been involved in a production team, and it was really rewarding to see everything come together the way that it did,” he said. “It was a really nice feeling to just watch things fall into place as [the] other directors and I interacted in ways that meshed, how we brought different parts of the music out, how we edited different parts of the music as we went along to bring them out better than we had originally envisioned them to be.”

While Durham will be graduating in the Spring, Eosphoros and Yates are already scheming about what pieces they will include in the showcase next Halloween. “Ryan is already really fervently campaigning for ‘Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf ’ to be in the show,” Eosphoros said. “I may have said yes.”

Arts

The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

Page 11

On the Record with Jon Fine, OC ’89, Guitarist and Author Jon Fine, OC ’89, released his memoir, Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock’s Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear) last May to rave reviews. The book explores the rise and fall of the boundarypushing, genre-defining indie rock scene he helped establish during his time with bands like Don Caballero and Bitch Magnet, which formed at Oberlin during Fine’s first year.

This past Wednesday at the ’Sco, Professor of Sociology Rick Baldoz hosted a question and answer session with Fine, who currently serves as executive editor at Inc. magazine.

The Review spoke with Fine about WOBC, Ronald Reagan and the downsides of touring with a small band.

You talk a lot in Your Band Sucks about people with surprisingly similar interests suddenly being in the same room. I know that feeling.

That was magical. You’ve got to understand, that was incredibly important. Forgive me for getting all, “Let grandpa tell you how things were in the early 1900s,” but this is the ’80s. There’s no Internet. There’s no means of communication. Finding a record was a hard thing. One of the great joys of this culture back then — and one of the great limitations — was the handmade nature of it. Everything had to be handed off, literally in person. If someone wasn’t giving it to you in person, they were physically putting it in an envelope and getting it to you. There’s no Amazon. There was no record store doing any mail-order of any scope whatsoever that you cared about.

You were dealing directly with the people that you dealt with. And not only that — if you grew up slightly weird in a high school where there weren’t others like you, you could just actually think, like, “Oh, I guess this is how it’s going to be for the rest of my life.” You cannot imagine the joy and relief at finding people like you — finding your tribe, really. It is so huge to find your people.

Was the first time you discovered that culture and found your tribe at Oberlin?

Absolutely. I grew up in a very comfortable suburb. I was very well taken care of in that sense. It was 40 or so miles from New York City, but it may as well have been a million miles away. The area that I grew up in, in the 1984 election, it went approximately 10 to 1 in favor of Reagan. There were kids in high school with Reagan stickers. Like,

“Really? You’re going to be old and boring now?” There were five or six freaks I hung out with. Everybody hated us. We hated everyone, but they probably hated us first. It kind of sucked.

I got to Oberlin not knowing that it was going to be one of those places where it was all those people — one of those schools where the five weird kids went. There were actual bands in Oberlin writing and performing their own music. There were people there doing band things. Guys in bands in high school would be like, “I guess we’re going to try to write a song.” People would be like, “Whoa. Wait, what? You can do that?”

At Oberlin, there was a very important band called Pay the Man with Chris Brokaw, who has done a million things, and Orestes Morfin, who ended up in Bitch Magnet. I hope some of their recordings at WOBC still survive.

You talk about how you would go on tour and play shows in all these weird little towns.

We weren’t even that much older than you. I was 22 when Bitch Magnet broke up. I did that stuff pretty early. You probably will and should do that. I do readings, and there are primarily older people there. They’re like, “Oh, we did this, but the kids today can’t do it because of the internet.” I’m like, “Well, hold on. You and I aren’t going to hardcore shows in someone’s basement anymore. So, this circuit still exists. Just because you and I aren’t interfacing with it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

There seems to be an extremely limited group of people that are all in touch with each other and all play shows with each other.

That’s how it starts, and it grows from there. The difference between my generation and yours is, in a lot of cases, you really didn’t know what was going to happen until you got to town. I mean, you kind of knew certain things. Like, Champaign, IL — everyone stays with Poster Children. In Louisville, you stayed at Rocket House, which is where a guy named Jon Cook lived and where the bands Crain and Rodan lived and practiced.

But in a lot of towns, you would play your show, get on stage at the end of the night and say, “Thanks. By the way, um, if anyone can put us up, we’re clean and not crazy. We’d really appreciate it.” And some

Jon Fine, OC ’89, guitarist and author of Your Band Sucks: What I Saw at Indie Rock’s Failed Revolution (But Can No Longer Hear), who came to Oberlin for a question and answer session Wednesday.

Kellianne Doyle

of them, you’re still in touch with 20 years later. The generosities of people that essentially didn’t know you at all were unbelievable. It’s moving for me to recall it to this day.

With a lot of bands that feature angular guitar lines and complex time signatures, I often feel like there’s a human element missing. But with Bitch Magnet, there is an emotional experience at the forefront. Did you feel aware of that?

I was. Sooyoung Park was the singer, and he basically wrote the songs. There’s a scene in the book where it was our senior year. It was one of those waning fall days, and I was feeling sad or angsty. Sooyoung came over with this song that became “Americruiser.” The whole package — the way the song preceded, the quiet and loud parts, the lyrics — it completely captured what I was feeling. In the back of my head, I was like, “How did he do that?” It’s like he reached into the back of my brain and pulled out the lyrics that I didn’t know I wanted to write.

I feel like there’s a less active rock scene than there was when you were here.

It was active, but it wasn’t like Bitch Magnet played and 500 people showed up.

It wasn’t until our last semester where it felt like people got excited. Pay the Man

became a big deal their senior year on campus. There’s a scene at a Pay the Man show in the book that I’m really fond of, in the lounge of Barrows [Hall]. There were probably a couple hundred kids there. It mattered a great deal to me and my friends, but it didn’t mean that everyone showed up when Pay the Man played. It was still much more aggressive than most people wanted to hear.

What kind of music were you listening to when you were at Oberlin? Were you listening to other bands that sounded like what you were making?

Bitch Magnet was friends with Bastro and Slint. There was a lag between what they were onto musically and what had been released. So, we knew that, between their first and second records, Bastro was going to make this giant leap, because we’d been hearing those songs for a while. We knew that they had friends in Louisville — this band called Slint that was going to put out this really weird record called Tweez.

We were completely obsessed with Tweez.

When Spiderland came out, I was like, “It’s all right, but it’s not as good as Tweez.” It’s a really strange record; it’s kind of humorous in a very dry way. It really sounded like nothing else.

See Fine, page 12

Seniors Combine Dance, Music, Electronics for Joint Performance Piece Mary Fischer With their piece append, double-degree senior Christy Rose and College senior Molly Barger proved on Saturday that exceptional work is created when artists work together to cross boundaries and defy expectations. The performance served as both Rose’s junior TIMARA recital and Barger’s senior Dance project. Marked by mostly ensemble-based choreographies and a wide variety of acrobatic elements, this 30-minute investigation of human relationships and the role of technology was relatable and immersive.

The show consisted of five different sections, each focusing on different choreographic and musical elements related to the title themes: interaction, connection, distraction, construction and consumption. A collaborative spirit was clearly visible on stage from the beginning of the inter-

action section. As the dancers moved in horizontal and vertical lines across the stage, their spatial awareness and attention to one another was at the forefront, suggesting that the eight students spent much time rehearsing together and that Rose and Barger had a clear vision of what the final piece would look like.

As the dance piece moved forward, dancers interacted for brief moments and performed what appeared to be repeated choreographed patterns. This gave the first section of append a semi-improvised feel, as these gestures took place at seemingly random moments and varied places on stage. Despite the relatively limited vocabulary of movement used in this section, the performers’ differing levels of skill and dance background gave each of these parts a freeform atmosphere and added to the exploratory vibe of the entire piece.

The second section, connection, featured more solo sections as well as choreographed aerial acrobatics. These seemed the most rehearsed parts of the show. The acrobatics were generally paired smoothly with key segments of the atmospheric music.

Visually and formally moving toward representations of technological interaction, connection incorporated the use of stretch sensors, which look similar to long cables, attached to each of the dancers. A physical constraint on the dancers, the sensors served as a tangible connection between the musical world and the world created on stage.

The interaction between dance and music was successfully executed, as the sensors used movement to create sound.

The third movement, distraction, saw an extension of the deconstruction of boundaries between humans, technology and

dance by introducing “the box,” a pressure-sensitive granular synthesizer that Rose devised.

Barger and College senior Alex Katz excelled with an organic, thoughtful choreography on “the box.” Both dancers performed with equal amounts of energy, as though they were trying to speak –––––––––––––––––––––––––––

A physical constraint on the dancers, the sensors served as a tangible connection between the musical world and the world created on stage.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––– each other’s language with their bodies. The musical landscape changed based on how they interacted with “the box”; the pattern made by impacts with “the box” controlled how an original

audio file was processed through the synthesizer.

The introduction of a live trio, composed of Rose, double-degree senior and saxophonist David Diongue and double-degree fifth-year and percussionist Justin Gunter was a great addition to an already successful show. It gave the relatively abstract musical landscape that had so far governed the show a more tangible, concrete feel. The trio did an excellent job, effortlessly meandering in and out of improvisational sections within Rose’s piece.

At a school with the artistic breadth of Oberlin, it is surprising that pieces like append are a relative exception. Not many students choose to collaborate with others for their final projects, especially not outside of their discipline; collaborations between the Conservatory and the College are even less common. Rose and Barger succeeded in making a case for the value of more of these collaborations.

Arts

Page 12

The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

Feature Photo: Oberlin Mozart Players

Principal Conductor and Conservatory junior John Paul Jennings leads the Oberlin Mozart Players Sunday in Warner Concert Hall. Audience members warmly received the program, which included Mozart’s Overture to Le Nozze di Figaro, Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C Major. The Mozart is drawn from Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), an opera widely seen as a masterpiece of the genre, while the Wagner, directed by guest conductor and Conservatory senior Justin Weiss, is a symphonic poem. The Beethoven symphony highlights the influence Haydn and Mozart had on the Austrian composer’s early work. The Oberlin Mozart Players, founded

by Jennings in 2014, is entirely student-run, and students can earn credit for performing with the orchestra by taking its accompanying ExCo. This semester, the Players’ season will feature works by Haydn, Brahms and Sibelius in addition to the composers featured at the Warner show.

Text by Louise Edwards and Danny Evans, Arts editors Photo by Matt Payne

Fine: “40 People in Morgantown, WV ... Was Enough” Continued from page 11 Jesus Lizard were starting. I didn’t love Jesus Lizard, but I loved David Yow, and I loved David Sims — I thought he was an amazing bassist. [I also listened to] all the Touch and Go [Records] and Homestead [Records] stuff at the time. Sonic Youth was really undeniable. My freshman year, in January of ’86, I saw Hüsker Dü play this old theater in Cleveland and it was the most terrifying, exuberating experience of my life. It sounded like one giant car crash; you couldn’t tell one song from another. It was so exciting.

Was there a moment when you felt you had reached the indie-rock equivalent of “making it” with Bitch Magnet, Don Caballero or any other bands?

Bitch Magnet actually did well in Europe. On our last tour, we sold out a venue of around 1,200 people in London. In the bigger cities, there’d be several hundred people there. It felt like something. I also knew the band was breaking up at that point, so I couldn’t get too attached.

Don Caballero played to much bigger audiences than Bitch Magnet did.

In Chicago and New York City, 500 people would come see us. That was ecstatic. When you leave the club after soundcheck to get dinner and the place is packed when you come back, that feels great. But there were so many bigger bands of various stripes.

40 people in Morgantown, WV, or Grand Rapids, MI, on a Tuesday night was enough, though. I’ve been in bands where nobody comes. Anyone being there is kind of great. That’s where the whole thing starts.

How did you end up working at Inc. magazine? How did that come about in your life? Was it related to your interest in zines, or was it a separate entity?

I always liked writing and thought I was kind of good at it, whether I actually was or not. When I got out of school, I wanted to focus on music. I needed to something to pay the bills. My brilliant idea was to get involved in journalism, which is not a really good way to pay the bills. But I liked the people I was around, the work that I was doing, the process of reporting and writing and the atmosphere of a newsroom. I stuck with it.

Interview by Danny Evans, Arts editor

Arts

The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

Cat Hosts Activist Songwriters Continued from page 10 Torres and Membreño are involved, including education, HIV prevention and advocacy, nutrition in impoverished regions of El Salvador and justice for political prisoners across Latin America and the world. Most of these efforts are centered around the village of Santa Marta, described as a “community of activists and guerilla fighters” with strong ties to the FMLN, a Marxist guerrilla resistance movement that fought the U.S.-backed right-wing government in the Salvadoran Civil War. Membreño, Torres and Nataren embody a strong tradition throughout Latin America of resistance to oppression rising from the grassroots level, linking feminist, pro-indig––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

It was clear that these were not so much anthems as they were personal prayers and methods of coping with brutal realities that have consumed the lives of thousands.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– enous, Marxist and religious organizations together against what are often perceived as capitalist attempts at intervening in and controlling their communities. Their music and artistic activities are envisioned as a form of “preserving historical memory” both within El Salvador and throughout Latin America. In this they greatly succeed, connecting their stories of struggle and resistance with broader narratives of social justice and equality. From the haunting stories of war and struggle, to the traditional — and truly delicious — pupusas served during the performance, Membreño, Torres and Nataren brought a powerful and important story to the Cat in the Cream — one that will certainly remain in the minds of those present for a long time to come.

Page 13

Visuals, Soundtrack Enhance Hotline Miami Avi Vogel Columnist Hotline Miami is a game about killing everyone in sight.

Sure, there is more to this game: It boasts a unique art style, an incredible soundtrack and tight controls. All of these elements are solid on their own, but developer Dennaton Games brings them together in Hotline Miami for a single purpose: to make the act of killing enjoyable. Whether or not that sounds agreeable to you will dictate whether you will believe Hotline Miami deserves veneration or outright hatred. However, most gamers will find it worthy of praise on the level of pure enjoyability.

Released way back in 2012 — but recently put on sale in celebration of the release of its sequel — Hotline Miami is a top-down, fast-paced, bombastic shooter that presents you with the singular task of murdering everyone that you come across. It’s not a realistic looking game — if it was, the violence would be gruesome and revolting. At times, the story attempts to give great weight to your actions, but the pumping electronic music of the soundtrack, the satisfying sound effects of the weapons and the brightlycolored blood that spills from the enemies are all designed to release as much adrenaline as possible. In that sense, this game really does just glorify violence to a somewhat unprecedented degree.

This violence might seem overdone if the game simply fed you mindless victims that

Hotline Miami’s player-controlled protagonist moves through an enemy-heavy level. The game’s flashy visuals, stellar soundtrack and enjoyable mechanics outweigh its lackluster storyline.

Courtesy of Avi Vogel

had no way of fighting back.

However, every enemy taken down yields a reward for doing something right. The people you’re sent to kill are faster than you, always begin armed and never think before taking a potshot at your face with a shotgun from offscreen.

Every time you die it’s because you did something wrong. Maybe you took too long waiting in a hall, and an enemy found you; maybe you forgot that there was a window in your room that someone could see into. Every death is deserved, and the game’s precise movements and controls make sure of that. Responsive and wellbalanced, this game gives you complete control so that you only have yourself to blame for your mistakes — and you will make mistakes. Part of the process of completing a level is running through it with repeated deaths and learning where the enemies are, what weapons you can ex-

pect to use and finding what powers — which are unlocked through discovery and movement — are most beneficial for the situation.

When you finally work your way through a level, having bounced between rooms so that you’re never caught, and once you’ve ––––––––––––––––––––––––

Responsive and wellbalanced, this game gives you complete control so that you only have yourself to blame for your mistakes.

–––––––––––––––––––––––– chained together kills to get the most points, you feel an incredible sense of accomplishment — not from the kills but from accomplishing a task that previously seemed insurmountable.

There’s not much else to say about Hotline Miami outside of its gameplay and aesthetics. Its story isn’t well-developed or essential, and the characters are forgettable. But that doesn’t ruin Hotline Miami, because the game isn’t afraid to be itself. It attempts to tell some strange story of why you feel the drive to kill, but that’s not the most important aspect of this game in any sense.

Fundamentally, this game is about being slick. It’s a piece of art that has beautiful colors and technique but lacks any depth, which is fine. Not every game needs to be a well of knowledge or reinvent how we experience player-driven narratives.

This game is pure, unadulterated fun, injected straight into your veins.

If this game sounds abnormally simple to you, you’re absolutely right, but don’t let that stop you. Just enjoy the rush.

Tetzlaff Receives Ovation After Energetic Recital Colin Roshak Staff Writer German violinist Christian Tetzlaff presented a daunting program of over 90 minutes of works for solo violin last Friday. This was no easy feat, but Tetzlaff was up for the challenge. He strode confidently onto the stage, greeted by enthusiastic applause, and wasted little time delving into the music.

The program featured Bach’s Sonata No. 3 in C major and three modern pieces that demonstrated Bach’s influence on later composers. Tetzlaff ’s rendition of the sonata was charming and entirely organic. Each phrase flowed seamlessly into the next, aided by an impeccable sense of rubato. The second movement was the centerpiece. Tetzlaff delicately balanced the intertwining subjects above well-struck harmonies. In the Largo, Tetzlaff played with a rich, beautiful tone while maintaining a certain lightness necessary for performing Bach. The only interruption came from the occasional dropped phone or cough in the audience.

The Bach sonata was bracketed by pieces heavily influenced by the composer’s writing. Tetzlaff prefaced the Bach with Eugene Ysayë’s Sonata in G minor. The structure of the first of Ysayë’s six sonatas for solo violin resembled Bach’s sonatas; in the second movement fugue, Ysayë tips his hat to the master of the form. Tetzlaff played energetically and brilliantly emphasized the piece’s changing characters and colors. The shifts to extended techniques were effortless and never disrupted the music. Following Bach, six short pieces by György Kurtág were played. Selected from a volume of 16 miniatures for solo violin titled Signs, Games

and Messages, each of the selections took on its own distinct character. The first movement, “Hommage à J.S.B.,” showed Kurtag’s admiration for Bach, yet hardly resembled the baroque master’s own writing.

Béla Bartók’s immense Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin was at the center of the second half of the program. The combination of baroque forms and techniques and unmistakably Bartókian harmonies and ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Tetzlaff played energetically and brilliantly emphasized the piece’s changing characters and colors. The shifts to extended techniques were effortless and never disrupted the music.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– melodic language made this piece a difficult undertaking for any violinist. However, Tetzlaff held his ground under the unrelenting hammering of virtuosic passages and unworldly technical demands. Of all the pieces on the program, the Bartók sounded the most polished. The 26-minute piece whisked by, aided by Tetzlaff ’s varied use of timbre as well as his breathtaking dynamic control.

The concert was an immense success. After a standing ovation and guttural screams of “Bravo!” from a stomping crowd, Tetzlaff ended the night on a tender and sentimental note with the Andante from Bach’s Second Violin Sonata.

Page 14

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Sports

The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

Field Hockey

This week, the Review sat down with field hockey seniors Sophie Weinstein, Kendra Lian and Taylor Swift to discuss nostalgia, personal development and the benefits of a positive team environment.

How did your last game go?

Taylor Swift: Our last game was against Kenyon [College], who’s number one in our conference. They scored twice on us in the first five minutes, and we were like, “This is going to be 70 minutes of awful.” But then we held them for 65 minutes!

Kendra Lian: The funny thing about our team this season has been that we respond when something stressful happens first, so after being scored on, then we wake up and we play more cohesively as a unit. So even during the last game, that’s exactly what happened. It took us five minutes to really wake up, and then it was one of our best games.

Sophie Weinstein: And it was just a really wonderful way to go out because we played so well as a team, and I’m pretty sure that’s why, at the end of it, we were all really emotional.

Taylor also got concussed, so she was emotional for that reason too.

TS: This time it was by an AllAmerican, and not by a wall …

So you guys were emotional when the game ended?

SW: I was personally really, really emotional, and we all sat in the cage and started talking, and then I was bawling my eyes out.

TS: Also, our freshman year, our last game against Kenyon was our best game, and we won 1–0. It was a complete underdog thing. So [this game] was like completing a full cycle.

KL: That’s still, to this day, one of the best games I’ve ever played. So yeah, it was nice to end on that good note, and even though we didn’t win, we played really well. And like we said, when we were gathered around the cage and said positive things, [it was clear] there was something that everyone had done during that game that was just awesome. It totally showed how we had grown as a team and as individuals as well. So that was really awesome.

Taylor Swift (left), Kendra Lian and Sophie Weinstein How has the team evolved over the course of your careers?

KL: It’s always really hard to transition when you have a new coach, so [Taylor and I] came in with a new coach, and she was with us for our first three seasons, and just this year we got another new coach. Collectively, what I’ve gained from my time being here is that we have evolved to have a much more competitive, cohesive mindset, and we’ve all been slowly getting to the point where we’re playing not just because we love it, but because we also want to win.

TS: Also, I think our team has probably had the most struggles.

When half of your team quits — that happened going into our junior season — when we had people who had never played field hockey before coming on to the team, which we loved, but at the same time that doesn’t happen with most of the teams here. That learning process, and also all the injuries our team has had, it just piles on and piles on.

SW: [Half the team quitting] is one of the reasons I joined. I think this year with Coach [Tiffany Saunders] coming in, and Coach [Adrianna Napoletano] coming in, our team had a whole new energy. And they are both so excited to be here. It feels like a new start for the program, and

Farewell, Grantland, You’ll be Missed Dan Bisno Columnist There are an exorbitant number of publications and media platforms available to the 21stcentury sports fan who wishes to follow the current events of the sports world. While media sources like ESPN and Sports Illustrated dominate the scene, sports journalism has grown so vast that each fan must find their niche — writers they like, publications they follow — in order to remain grounded in the flurry of articles published following every sporting event. Sports and pop-culture blog Grantland was one that stood apart.

Grantland represented the highest echelon of sports journalism. Known for its lengthy articles, extensive use of sports analytics and unconventional statistics, it lured readers in with its unique approach. Reading a Grantland article made you think. It challenged the way that we think about sports. Every feature was a controversial essay in

we had a huge freshman class come in [this season], all really amazing, and I think those things combined brought in this really fresh vitality to the team. I think the program’s going to be really successful.

Do you have one best memory of your career?

TS: The Kenyon game from our freshman year. It’s picture perfect in my head: This player who graduated last year, Jody, she had been practicing chip shots in practice and never could get it, and then in the game, with 10 minutes left — Kenyon had shot, like, 30 times, and we had one shot on goal — she made this beautiful goal off a chip, went right over the goalie’s head, and did this High School Musical-type dance. The other team just started crying.

KL: Oh yeah, I remember that.

Like Beverly Hills style, this one girl just dropped on the floor, dropped her stick and cried.

TS: Everyone was just playing out of their mind that day.

SW: I have so many highlights.

I have so many favorite memories with this team, but I think after our last game, just sitting and talking, and saying goodbye. I’m so in love with every woman on this team, and it really felt like a family sitting there, and that’s something I’ll al-

which a writer would make a bold claim and discuss the evidence to substantiate it. While you could not go to Grantland’s website to check last week’s Yankees game score or the latest injury update on Jamaal Charles, you could find a wellresearched piece about a controversial event or idea in the sports world that took a 25-minute chunk out of your day.

Since its creation in 2011, many sports fans have gravitated toward Grantland. Fans’ interests have become more complex, and they quickly become bored of every publication proclaiming that “Kobe is not the great player he once was” or “Are the Patriots cheaters?” But on Oct. 30, 2015, Grantland was no more. A huge void is left in the sports world, and it feels as if it all happened so quickly.

It is important to understand how this happened. Grantland is owned by ESPN, which is owned by Disney. Successful and controversial sports analyst Bill Simmons started Grantland in 2011, but left ESPN in May 2015 after he was unable to agree to a contract. At the time, ESPN claimed to be fully committed to maintaining Grantland, as it was generally understood that the blog had developed a zealous following.

ESPN announced Grantland’s shutdown with a statement that read, “After careful consid-

ways remember and hold with me, and I’m just really thankful for the opportunity to feel that.

What is one of the most significant ways being on the team has affected you?

TS: Honestly, the reason I came here was for field hockey, and it’s the reason I love Oberlin, just the team that I came in with, they helped me grow so much as an individual. Hockey has helped me bring out the competitive side in me, but in a safe way. I’m at the point where it’s like, “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I just love hockey too much.”

KL: I’ve had a lot of great things happen while I’ve been here, but just the team experience, to say that I’ve gotten to be a part of this family for the past four years, has made my decision to come here so gratifying.

Obviously, it’s not always about winning, and I have definitely learned a lot of lessons about myself and about how to interact in a team dynamic, especially for someone who’s more introverted. There’s a lot to be said for thinking every person on the team has something to offer, has something to teach you, and

eration, we have decided to direct our time and energy going forward to projects that we believe will have a broader and more significant impact across our enterprise.” Many have interpreted these words, doused in ambiguity, to mean that Grantland was not deemed profitable enough.

Simmons’ criticisms of ESPN since departing are also unlikely to have helped Grantland’s case with the media giant.

Since the announcement, Simmons has tweeted, “I loved everyone I worked with at G and loved what we built. Watching good/kind/ talented people get treated so callously = simply appalling.” Simmons is referring to the 300 employees that ESPN intends to lay off, in addition to the Grantland writers, some of whom found out about the blog’s sudden demise via Twitter.

While many Grantland writers are being absorbed into other ESPN projects, Simmons has reportedly already convinced others to join him on a soon-to-be announced new project.

After Simmons departed, Chris Connelly took over as the interim editor-in-chief at Grantland. After months of requests, he finally agreed to an interview with Sports Illustrated on Nov. 2, just three days after Grantland was shut down. When asked if he would have taken the job knowing that the blog would only survive

it’s been really awesome playing with everyone.

SW: I actually spent two years at Oberlin not being an athlete.

It’s been really interesting living life here as an athlete versus a non-athlete, and I don’t think I’ve fully processed everything I’ve gained from this team, because it’s so much. I’ve never felt confident in my body, like I’ve never felt strong before; I’ve never felt like I can accomplish something physically. It’s always been something I’m really terrified of — competing athletically. But this season, I realized I could be really fast, like I could beat someone to a ball. There was one time during a game where I was running to a ball and two other girls were running with me, and I beat them.

That was huge for me, because I have never been able to do that before. So athletically, it’s been really important, and it’s made me a lot more confident in myself. The other biggest thing is the people. Any time you spend this much intimate time with really incredible people you gain a lot and you learn a lot about how to interact with people who are really different from you because you’re part of a community.

KL: Another thing is that I think our team overall fosters a very healthy attitude about body image, especially. Because everyone comes from a different background, but we all come in with these stereotypes of what beauty looks like and what an ideal body type is, especially an athletic body type, and I always have been insecure about my body structure, and I don’t feel that insecurity anymore. All of us are so positive about everything.

It’s never about bringing each other down. It’s just been about emphasizing the good parts of each of us and bringing out the beautiful parts of each of us.

Interview by Randy Ollie, Sports editor Photo by Benjamin Shepherd, Photo editor

five months more, he responded, “Yes, I would have … because my friends asked me. Marie and John asked me.” Connelly is referring to ESPN President John Skipper and ESPN Executive Vice President Marie Donoghue. Further into the interview, it became clear that Connelly did not have a strong commitment to Grantland. He goes to great lengths to praise Skipper and his decisions to tank the blog while failing to recognize Simmons’ achievements as its founder.

Unlike the committed writers at Grantland, the blog served as a career stepping stone for Connelly, whose job security remains unaffected.

Gone are the days when Grantland could be Simmons’ outlet to call Roger Goodell a liar after the video was released of Ray Rice punching his wife and dragging her out of an elevator. Fortunately, Simmons will be hosting a sports show on HBO in 2016.

Grantland’s website now reads, “It was a good run.” The blog archives are still available online, and I strongly encourage those who have not enjoyed its genius before to scroll through some of its beloved articles. Hopefully it is not long until a band of ambitious, young writers pursue a project like Grantland, and the sports world can once again have access to quality, thought-provoking sports discussion.

Sports

The Oberlin Review, November 6, 2015

Page 15

— Cross Country — P L AY E R O F T H E W E E K

Maddie Prangley

Collegeswimming.com named junior Maddie Prangley the North Coast Athletic Conference Swimmer of the Week last week. Prangley earned this honor following two standout performances last weekend against the Hiram College Terriers and The College of Wooster Fighting Scots. She dominated her Hiram competitors in the 800-meter freestyle on Friday, winning the race by 56 seconds with a time of 10 minutes, 2.5 seconds. She took home another victory for the Yeowomen in the 100-meter freestyle, finishing at 1:05.92 and contributing to the Yeowomen’s landslide overall victory of 182–32 against the Terriers. Though the Yeowomen couldn’t quite tally a victory against the Fighting Scots on Saturday, Prangley still shone with a commanding performance in the 500-meter freestyle and a team victory in the women’s 200-yard medley relay with fellow Yeowomen Lauren Wong, Dierdre Haren and Nora Cooper.

Photo Courtesy of Amanda Reagan

Editorial: National Team Loses an Icon Continued from page 16 needs convincing of Wambach’s influence need look no further than the turnout for her last international game against the China PR women’s soccer team on Dec. 16, which sold 20,000 tickets alone. Compare that to the 31,000 tickets sold for the three other women’s national teams’ games in December combined.

Few described Wambach’s influence as a person better than U.S. Coach Jill Ellis. “Abby is a player who has transcended our sport, and her legacy as one of the world’s greatest players is set forever,” Ellis said. “What she has done for women’s soccer and women’s sports overall with her amazing talents on the field and her personality off it has been inspiring to watch.”

Wambach quite literally took an offfield position for the 2015 Women’s World Cup, during which she served as the “occasional super sub” after starting in every World Cup game since 2003. Wambach understood that her career as a soccer superstar was waning given her age and numerous injuries, and put the team’s success ahead of her pride and personal minute count. But Wambach wasn’t only accepting of her decreased on-field role; she took control of the situation and gave everything she could to her team from the sidelines.

ESPN analyst and former women’s national team star Julie Foudy described

Oberlin Misses NCAC Championship Title Scott Rivlin Expectations were high for the men’s and women’s cross-country teams as they traveled to Gambier, Ohio, this past weekend to compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships.

With senior standout Geno Arthur and the Yeomen hoping to claim their first NCAC Championship and the Yeowomen looking to win their seventh consecutive championship, both teams were prepared for the tough conference competition.

Arthur would ultimately be Oberlin’s lone champion, outlasting 2014 champion Logan Steiner of Allegheny College to win the individual men’s championship.

Going into the race, Arthur acknowledged that he had expected that the individual competition would come down to Steiner and himself. “I had a pretty good idea it would be Logan and me,” Arthur said.

“It was close at the Rumble, and I knew it would be the same at Conference. He is just a really tough runner.”

Arthur outlasted Steiner and won the individual championship with a time of 25 minutes, 0.7 seconds — eight seconds faster than any other competitor in the men’s 8K, a time that landed him the first male NCAC championship in Oberlin history. Head Coach Ray Oppenheimer praised Arthur for his dominant championship performance. “I was really proud,” Oppenheimer said. “He has put in so much hard work towards that goal. To see how he did it,

Wambach’s role as essential. “She led with positivity. She led by celebrating others.

She led unselfishly. She led by example. …

I often argue that if Abby had responded differently to her new role, the U.S. would not have won the World Cup,” Foudy said.

Wambach’s selflessness and positivity in spite of losing time in the limelight is a far cry from the behavior of most other professional athletes, especially in men’s leagues, who play far past their physical prime to ride off of the glory of their early careers and ultimately hinder their –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

“What she has done for women’s soccer and women’s sports overall with her amazing talents on the field and her personality off it has been inspiring to watch.”

Jill Ellis U.S. Coach ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– teams’ success. There are more than a few international male soccer athletes you could pick out on any given pitch who have been on their last legs so long, it’s shocking they can still stand up to make cocky waves to all their fans.

Wambach spearheaded the move to file a discrimination lawsuit against FIFA regarding the 2015 World Cup, arguing that it should be played on grass fields like all men’s World Cup games, not artificial turf. Though the charges were eventually dropped after little progress was made, Wambach’s assertions brought

controlling that race the whole way, into regionals. “I think that the key moving the last mile, it just made my at regionals will be to be competiheart swell.” tive and confident,” Loewus said. “We Arthur’s feat was not the only no- ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– table performance for the Yeomen, as senior Joshu Urso and junior E.J. Dou- However, although a conglass also had strong outings. Urso ference championship finished 11th with a time of 26:00.1, and Douglas finished 18th with a time eluded them, the Yeowomof 26:08.6. Similarly, first-year duo en still have much to look Ben Gilvar-Parke and Grant Sheely forward to, as they gear up finished 21st and 24th in their first for the NCAA Great Lakes championship appearance. Overall, the Yeomen would finish third with Regional alongside the 75 total points.

Yeomen in less than two The Yeowomen had several standweeks. out performances as well. Senior Sarel Loewus led the way with a fifth- ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– place finish of 23:01.1 on the women’s 8k course and was closely followed have such a strong top seven right by first-year Linnea Halsten who now and I really think that we can came in seventh place with a time of make it to nationals.”

23:08.9. Junior Emily Curley finished Similarly, Halsten stressed the in 12th place with a time of 23:28.5 importance of preparation and foand sophomore Sarah Urso and fresh- cus heading into regionals and that man Vanessa LoChirco finished back- the upcoming race was just like any to-back, coming in 16th and 17th, other. respectively.

“All season we have been practicDespite the superb performances ing seven days a week — running , by the Yeowomen, the Allegheny Col- lifting, cross training and doing track lege Gators were able to edge out a workouts,” Halsten said. “When we victory by only six points, knocking get to a race, our coach always reOberlin’s women’s team to second minds us we are prepared, having put place. However, although a confer- in the training. Now all we have to do ence championship eluded them, the is show it off.”

Yeowomen still have much to look Oberlin’s season continues on forward to as they gear up for the Saturday, Nov. 14 at the Great Lakes NCAA Great Lakes Regional alongside Regional Championship, where they the Yeomen in less than two weeks. will run against the top competitors Loewus maintained that confi- in the Midwest and try to advance to dence would be integral in the Yeo- the NCAA championships. women’s competitive edge heading

gender inequality in sports back to the forefront of people’s minds and sparked discussion about these issues on an international scale. The national team’s success in its tournament, especially in comparison to the men’s disappointing performance in theirs, led Wambach to speak about the pay gap between the women’s World Cup monetary winnings and those of the men’s, which were $2 million and $8 million, respectively.

Wambach has also served as an inspiration for LGBTQ athletes. Though she didn’t make a concentrated effort to politicize her career and fame based on her sexual orientation, she made no effort to hide it and allowed the world to see the relationship with her wife Sarah Huffman, also a professional soccer player, as an important aspect of her life.

Her openness made just as much of an impact and sent an incredibly positive message worldwide. An example of this is when she ran to kiss Huffman after the team’s World Cup victory, leading to a picture that circulated as a symbol for LGBTQ pride.

“She’s been able to give hope and pride to young LGBT people in athletics,” said Sports Project Director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights Helen Carrol.

Abby Wambach is leaving behind a legacy, but it’s composed of much more than her athletic prowess. She is leaving behind a legacy of what it truly means to be a good athlete and a good person — a legacy as an athlete who took all the valuable lessons she’s learned through years of hard work on a sports team and put them into action in her life, her personal relationships and her convictions.

Scots Spoil Home Opener for Oberlin Continued from page 16 Winikoff and Gudbranson also contributed winning efforts, with Winikoff finishing first in the 50-meter sprint and 100-meter with times of 24.56 and 56.36 respectively, and Gudbranson victorious in the 100-meter fly with 1:01.44. Additionally, Cooper had first place finishes in both the 400-meter IM and 200-meter free.

On the other side of the pool, sophomore diver Rachael Andrews totaled 165.30 points off the 3-meter board and 150.30 points on the 1-meter, receiving 18 total team points for the Yeowomen.

Senior Benjamin Miyamoto won the 1-meter event with 195.25 points and went uncontested in the 3-meter event, garnering 173.65 points for the Yeomen.

Looking forward, Regan said that there is still much room for improvement in both squads.

“I think the team can definitely improve upon the little things,” Regan said. “We race while still training really hard, and we race tired, which means that you might forget to emphasize proper technique or splitting a race correctly. If we learn how to do the little things now, who knows what we can achieve by the end of the season.”

Head Coach Andrew Brabson was also adamant that competing on the national stage is a goal both the Yeomen and Yeowomen are gearing towards this season.

“The goal is to get to national qualifiers this year,” Brabson said. “Our women were eight-tenths of a second away in the 800 free relay last season.

With David and our returnees from the women’s side, we’re looking to get to national qualifiers and move up in the conference as well.”

The Yeomen and Yeowomen will jump back in the pool this Saturday at 1 p.m. when they travel to Cleveland to compete against Case Western Reserve University.

Sports The Oberlin Review

Page 16

November 6, 2015

— Men’s Soccer —

Yeomen Down Big Red, Fall to Lords Darren Zaslau Staff Writer A powerful early shot from the Kenyon College Lords to the lower left corner of Oberlin’s goal spelled defeat for the men’s soccer team at the North Coast Athletic Conference semifinals on Wednesday. Oberlin was unable to equalize after Kenyon’s junior forward Tony Amolo found the back of the net just 14 min-

utes into the first half, ending their conference campaign with a score of 1–0.

The loss to the Lords was all too familiar for the Yeomen, as they were also defeated

by Kenyon College 1–0 in the first round of the NCAC tournament in 2013. This year, the defeat brings the Yeomen’s regular season to a close with a record of 11–7–1.

Oberlin saw two other chances to balance Wednes-

Junior forward Sam Weiss dribbles past a Little Giant of Wabash College on Saturday, Oct. 20. The Yeomen concluded their regular season with a record of 11–7–1.

Benjamin Shepherd, Photo editor

day’s score in the first half with shots from senior forward John Ingham and first-year midfielder Trenton Bulucea, both of which Kenyon keeper Sam Clougher saved with relative ease. Ingham and Bulucea’s shots on goal would be the only threats to Clougher for the duration of the game.

The highly competitive and foul-heavy contest began to wear on the Yeomen in the second half, as they failed to get any late-game shots on goal. Over the course of the game, the Lords drew 13 fouls while the Yeomen pulled 11, with Ingham and Kenyon’s Woo Jeon each receiving a yellow card.

Despite being unable to break the Lords’ narrow lead, the Yeomen’s loss is overshadowed by the showstopping victory that brought the team to the conference tournament in the first place. In a must-win game at Denison University last Saturday, junior midfielder Nick Wertman’s double-overtime goal proved to be the difference as the Yeomen defeated the Big Red 2–1.

Oberlin and Denison each entered the game knowing the winner would advance to the conference tournament while the loser would watch their season end with the sound of the final whistle. The Yeomen were prepared for a tough game, not only because of the must-win situation, but also because they hadn’t defeated the Big Red on the road since 2005.

For the majority of the first half, the game was a deadlock.

It took 35 minutes of play un-

til the first goal of the game, when Bulucea scored his third goal of the year to give Oberlin a 1–0 lead.

This advantage would hold until halftime, but it didn’t take long for Denison to find its stride in the second half.

The Big Red tied the score at 1–1 after Denison’s Karch Majtenyi found the back of the net off a rebound shot.

The 1–1 deadlock held all the way up until double-overtime. With the Yeomen’s season on the line, there was no better player on which to rely than Nick Wertman, who had been named the NCAC Player of the Week and had already scored two game-winning goals this year. In the 102nd minute, junior midfielder Adam Chazin-Gray sent a cross into the box and Wertman headed it into the goal to send Oberlin back to the NCAC tournament.

Yeomen Head Coach Blake New praised his squad for their performance under pressure.

The Yeomen have been consistently competitive this year due in large part to the play of first-year goalkeeper Koryn Kraemer. The rookie’s .822 save percentage is best in the conference.

Coach New is very satisfied with Kraemer’s play and development this year. “He has exceeded our expectations,” New said. “We can’t be more pleased with Koryn’s play throughout the season,” said New. In addition to Kraemer’s effort, the offensive play this year has been crucial to Oberlin’s success. The Yeomen have

scored 40 goals, which is the third-best in the NCAC. For the Yeomen, returning to the conference tournament was an expectation. Despite their 2013 loss to Kenyon, the Yeomen received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament that year. On the national stage, the Yeomen defeated the State University of New York at Oneonta in the first round of the Rochester, NY, Regional 2–0, before falling to 11th-ranked University of Rochester 3–0.

Junior forwards Sam Weiss and Dan Lev were members of the 2013 team. Weiss believes the team is more prepared this year than they were the last time they appeared in the NCAC tournament.

“We are a lot older,” Weiss said. “This is not a position where we are surprised to be.

We were disappointed to not be here last year.”

Although there was disappointment last year, there were also some low points this year in a number of close losses throughout the duration of the regular season. Every Yeomen loss this season came by one goal.

Senior midfielder Louis Naiman commented on the resiliency of the team to fight back despite such setbacks.

“We know we are a good team,” Naiman said. “We know we can be successful. It really is just a matter of executing.”

With the conclusion of the regular season the Yeomen will await a potential postseason invite to the 2015 NCAA tournament for another chance at national competition.

— Swimming/Diving —

Oberlin Unable to Make a Splash in Home Meet Randy Ollie Sports Editor The swimming and diving teams were defeated by The College of Wooster Saturday in their first home dual-meet of the season.

The Yeowomen saw early success at the home opener, with the team of seniors Lauren Wong and Deirdre Haren and juniors Maddie Prangley and Nora Cooper defeating the Fighting Scots in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1 minute, 55.31 seconds. Cooper and Prangley would go on to take first and second in the 200-yard free, clocking in at 2:0.45 and 2:2.80 respectively. Senior Samma Regan, sophomore Oriene Shiel and junior Kathleen Falk dominated in the 1,000-meter, finishing in first, second and third respectively. But the Yeowomen would ultimately be defeated 161–135 despite such superb performances.

For the Yeomen, the squad of

first-years Jacques Forbes and David Bright, sophomore Adam Winikoff and junior Nils Gudbranson were edged out in the 200-yard medley to finish second with a time of 1:40.55. Junior Jeremy Cooper would similarly be the runner-up in the men’s 1,000-yard free, clocking in at 10:35.01. Bright’s performance in the 100-yard breast represented a high point of the afternoon, setting the fourth-fastest time in program history at 1:00.43 and going on to win the 200-yard free in 2:18.95.

While acknowledging his success on Saturday, Bright noted that there are still other season goals that he wishes to accomplish.

“I was excited to see that I started the season with such a good time,” Bright said. “I would like to try and break the school record in the 100 breast sometime before the end of the semester.”

In the end, the Fighting Scots would overpower the Yeomen, fin-

ishing the afternoon with a final score of 207–87.

Prior to Saturday’s meet, both teams were able to get a win at Hiram College on Friday, the Yeowomen finishing 182–32 and the Yeomen finishing 140–67.

A highlight of the meet was Prangley’s dominant performance in the 800-yard freestyle, finishing ahead of all other competitors by 56 seconds with a final time of 10:02.05.

Additionally, the team of sophomore Megan Letkeman along with Regan, Wong and Cooper finished 6 seconds ahead of the pack in the 200-meter medley relay with a time of 2:13.92. The Yeowomen would go on to win 12 of the 13 competitions of the night.

In his first collegiate dualmeet, Bright was victorious in the 800-meter freestyle, winning by 16 seconds and clocking in at 9:47.95.

See Scots, page 15

Wambach Withdrawal Sarena Malsin Sports Editor International soccer star Abby Wambach recently announced her retirement following the U.S. Women’s National Team’s visit with President Obama at the White House in celebration of its World Cup victory this summer. Wambach, 35, finishes her national career of 15 years with 252 international appearances, the alltime fifth-highest number of caps in U.S. history. She had 184 international goals, two Olympic gold medals in 2004 and 2012 and, her most recent accolade, a 2015 World Cup championship.

Wambach’s status as the top scorer in international soccer, male or female, ensures that her presence on the field will surely be missed. But her powerful legacy of setting an example for personal standards, leadership, selflessness and self-confidence, in addition to her being an extremely influential female athlete, will leave the most lasting impression.

Records can, and most likely will, be broken, but Wambach’s presence extends far beyond that. It is hard to ignore someone with the most international goals under her belt — with 67 of those scored with her head.

As ESPN Senior Researcher Paul Carr determined, Abby Wambach’s head alone ranks fifth in scoring in the National Women’s Soccer League. Although her role on the national team has changed in recent years, she has become a symbol much bigger than the number 20 on her jersey. She is a powerful female athlete contributing to the growth in legitimacy that women’s soccer deserves, but she’s also significant as a role model for how athletes should carry themselves in the international spotlight. Anyone who See Editorial, page 15

Senior diver Benjamin Miyamoto curls into his 3-meter dive at Oberlin’s Robert Carr Pool at the swimming and diving team’s home opening meet. The College of Wooster Fighting Scots defeated the Yeomen and Yeowomen 207–87 and 161– 135, respectively.

Courtesy of Jeong Hyun Hwang