April 21, 2017

The Oberlin Review

APRIL 21, 2017 VOLUME 145, NUMBER 22

Local News Bulletin News briefs from the past week Gibson’s Trials Pushed Back to May The trial for College sophomores Endia Lawrence and Cecelia Whettstone at the Oberlin Municipal Court has been rescheduled to 8:30 a.m.

May 15. The students’ attorney, Jack Bradley, requested the court change the date after learning that the two were targets of an investigation by the county prosecutor. The original trial start date was set for this coming Monday. Lawrence and Whettstone face misdemeanor assault charges with the municipal court for their alleged involvement in the Gibson’s Bakery shoplifting incident in November.

Lab Miscalculates Water Content City officials discovered that a laboratory mistakenly reported Oberlin’s water as contaminated with high levels of the chemical contaminant trihalomethane, according to The Chronicle-Telegram. While the standard amount of trihalomethane in water is 80 parts per billion, a recent lab report showed that over the last year Oberlin’s water had approximately 81.4 parts per billion.

However, Public Works Director Jeff Bauman said he believes there was a mishandling of the water sample that led to the mismeasurement.

City to Eliminate Orange Utility Tag Warnings The city will stop its practice of posting orange tags on the homes of residents who are about to have their utilities shut off after multiple complaints said this shamed residents. Instead, City Council will design a door hanger with information on how long residents have before having utilities shut off. According to The Chronicle-Telegram, the city posted 246 orange tags on residents’ doors over the last year, indicating a seven-day final warning.

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College Raises Tuition, Overhauls Room and Board Louis Krauss News editor Attending Oberlin College will cost $69,372 next academic year thanks to a 2.8-percent tuition increase announced by outgoing Vice President for Finance and Administration Mike Frandsen via email Tuesday.

The email lists significant changes to student dining and housing options that raise minimum costs and reduce the amount of need-based financial aid for Oberlin Student Cooperative Association members. Beginning with the incoming class, all nonOSCA first-years are required to have a 300-meal per semester plan at an annual flat rate of $7,990. The

College junior Hannah Sklar uses a meal swipe in Dascomb Dining Hall. Starting next semester, all first-years will be required to have a 300-meal-per-semester dining plan, unless they choose to eat in OSCA. Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo editor

See page 2

See Administrators, page 4

Administrative Turnover Stalls Plan Implementation Melissa Harris News editor With significant turnover in senior administrative positions at the end of this year, faculty members are navigating different avenues of maintaining the Strategic Plan implementation committees’ goals during a major transitional period.

Wednesday's faculty meeting opened with President Marvin Krislov's announcement that Vice President and General Counsel Sandhya Subramanian will depart Oberlin at the end of the semester to serve as Dartmouth College's general counsel next year. With Krislov and Vice President of Finance and Administraion Mike Frandsen set to leave this year and Dean of Admissions Debra Chermonte's departure last fall, this announcement marked yet another staffing loss in the senior administration.

The incoming administrative positional transitions will cause some hiccups and delays in some of the recommendations that implementation committees are currently assembling, according to Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Tim Elgren. While

the Strategic Plan Implementation Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — otherwise known as SPIDIE — presented its suggestions at the General Faculty meeting, for instance, Elgren said that SPIDIE’s more expensive recommendations are less feasible for implementation in the near future.

Some of SPIDIE’s suggestions include adding a chief diversity officer to the new president’s senior staff and having administrative monitoring of diversity standards during department hiring. The report also recommends increasing financial aid to students. Elgren said that implementing these recommendations is dependent on the findings of the Resource Management Implementation Committee’s final report.

Elgren explained that even though Resource Management’s March report identified and suggested costreducing measures, the group’s ideas cannot take off without Vice President of Finance and Administration Mike Frandsen assessing the actual financial allocations. With Frandsen leaving after this semester, the already rocky functioning of the implementation committees will face more

Faculty and administrators enter King Building Room 306 for Wednesday's General Faculty meeting. With impending administrative turnover, faculty is reckoning with the viability of the Strategic Plan. Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo editor

difficulties.

“I wished there was more communication [with] the implementation committees, and from what I can tell there was none,” said History Professor and Co-Chair of the Resource Management Implementation Committee Len Smith. “I think it was an off time to try and implement a strategic plan [last spring]. So much around here changes with a new administration. I’ve seen three of them in my

New MRC Director After serving as interim MRC Director, Toni Myers is now the permanent director.

format eliminates weekly meal plans, instead allowing students to use meals flexibly throughout the semester but forcing all incoming students to have the equivalent of 21 meals per week for their first four semesters. These changes are not applicable to current students.

The administration will also individually reduce OSCA members’ need-based financial aid by $1,000 if they eat in a co-op and by $2,000 if they live there.

According to Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, the reimagined system accounts for projected financial aid needs based on Residential Education’s new flat rate, which charges $7,872 annually for all College housing regardless of occupancy or location.

Although Raimondo said in an email to students that changes were made in an attempt to facilitate equal access to dining and living options on campus, many students view it as a subverted attempt to generate revenue in the midst of a self-inflicted budgetary crisis. Incoming College first-year Ellie Loane, who was considering joining OSCA after her first year, said the changes are unfair to incoming students.

“I understand the College's desire to create uniformity through the dining options, and I knew that Oberlin is struggling financially because of the economy, but I believe it is unfair to require students to alter their culinary habits for the College’s benefit,” Loane wrote in an email to the Review. “I don't think money should be taken away from need-based

Roll Mules Baseball rebounds in a doubleheader against the Hiram College Terriers.

Big Hundo

See page 15

Live From Studio B celebrates its 100th session with awksymoron and Thee Hundos See page 12

INDEX:

Opinions 5

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

time here, and there’s always so much in flux.”

Adding a chief diversity officer to the president’s senior staff will cost an estimated $300,000 to $500,000 per year, according to SPIDIE. Elgren said that diversifying the student body would also be costly because of the additional financial aid that the College would have to allocate to high-need See Faculty, page 2

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Myers Named Permanent MRC Director, Aims for More Outreach

Toni Myers, the new permanent director of the MRC, sits outside Wilder Hall. Myers hopes to expand community outreach and may sponsor a Social Justice Leadership ExCo next semester.

Photo by Rick Yu, Photo editor

Johan Cavert Toni Myers is now the permanent Multicultural Resource Center Director after serving as interim director since May. In addition to supporting the MRC's goal of creating a welcoming space for students of diverse backgrounds, and identities, Myers hopes to expand the center’s community outreach and continue partnerships with other student groups.

“I want the MRC to be seen as a partner in a larger campus coalition around diversity, equity and social justice,” Myers said in The Source’s online announcement of their permanent role. “I believe that all of us at Oberlin College have a stake in supporting historically disenfranchised students. If we begin to think of ourselves as a coalition invested in student success, it makes it a lot easier for us to foster that sense of community our students are really hungry for.”

Myers first came to Oberlin as the Africana student life coordinator at the MRC during the 2013–2014 school year. After earning a Master’s degree in Education: Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies at Stanford University, they returned to Oberlin last spring.

“I was super stoked to be back,” Myers said.

“My love for the students, and my love for the community, the faculty, the staff, the folks who are really committed to the things that I care about and the things I’m passionate about — it makes me really happy to come back.”

In the past year, Myers has expanded the roles of MRC coordinators to include work with the Undocumented Students Initiative, the Student Outreach to Success Initiative and expansion of social-justice education.

In terms of future plans, Myers hopes to increase outreach to the larger Oberlin and Ohio communities, hold training sessions in other campus buildings and sponsor a Social Justice Leadership ExCo next semester. The ExCo’s curriculum will include a focus on social-justice education theory and methods to foster dialogue about relevant contemporary social issues.

Latinx Student Life Coordinator Julio Reyes said he was impressed with the programs Myers has already established as interim director.

“A lot of the stuff that we’ve done this year [is] new, very new, and I’m excited to see what can happen as part of Toni’s leadership moving forward and how we can continue to both expand and really focus in on what the center does given the vision that Toni has put out there,” Reyes said.

As program director of the Undocumented Students Initiative, Reyes was glad that Myers has made a proactive effort to support his work with undocumented students.

“Having the opportunity to build out an initiative for undocumented students was really important,” Reyes said. “I had been doing that work during my first two years, and then coming into this year I could create something that could be sustained, something that was more institutional.”

In addition to taking on the permanent role as MRC director, Myers will also continue as Assistant Dean of Studies and encouraged students to utilize them as a resource in both capacities.

“I want students to be able to say, ‘I can talk to that person about my experience in college and they can understand,’ because its not been that long since I’ve graduated from undergrad,” Myers said. “How can you see me as a resource, but also someone who’s a cheerleader, who’s a coach, who has your back? ... I don’t mind hanging out with y’all in Wilder Bowl and chilling on TGIF and talking about how your classes are going.”

Brian Smith, College first-year and Social Justice Residential Education associate at the MRC, said that Myers is a valuable source of support.

“Toni makes it a point to be accessible and listen to students,” Smith wrote in an email to the Review. “You can always come to the MRC in Wilder 208! [The MRC] is a more social space and Toni brings so much love and laughter into the space. … Toni is always there to listen.”

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The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

Faculty Grapples with Turnover Continued from page 1 students. He added that recruiting diverse faculty members would be feasible, as it’s a relatively cost-neutral measure.

“I think that SPIDIE will be recast beyond compositional to interactional diversity,” Elgren said, explaining that changes in hiring could produce diversity on campus in the face of the costlier suggestions.

Japanese professor Ann Sherif said that even though some of the SPIDIE recommendations may not be able to take off, many areas on campus have already made moves to increase diversity.

“Many things in the report and the recommendations are actually in place, and many departments in the College actually have shared goals about diversity among staff, faculty and students and have had conversations about what diversity is and why it's essential, and that’s part of how we operate,” Sherif said.

Faculty has also been making steps to assist with cost-saving measures. The College Faculty Council and Conservatory Faculty Council have been holding listening sessions over the past two weeks to hear suggestions from faculty members about how to reduce costs. The cost of the Research Status and personnel are the two biggest considerations for the councils, which will produce final reports for the administration at the end of April. In turn, the administration will interpret and present the reports’ findings to the Board of Trustees in June. Elgren said that the College has already adjusted personnel expenses through actions like the Volunteer Separation Incentive Payment, a campus-wide offer to employees allowing them to retire at the end of 2016 with a full year’s pay and benefits. “[The faculty councils have] been having these conversations with faculty, and they’re asking a variety of things,” Elgren said. “The majority of our expenses are in personnel, so how we use the number of people that we have. Of course we started with [Oberlin College Office and Professional Employees] by reducing some of the positions that we gained through the VSIP. That was a small step, but it was the first step and it was because of the VSIP that we had that opportunity. Now the conversation will be how we think about the number of faculty that we have and how to think about that number. What’s the right number of people in different categories? We have tenure track-faculty, visiting faculty, we have teaching staff, and so all of those are the things we control in the College of Arts and Sciences, and that’s what the CFC is being asked to prioritize — our share of our cuts that come from across the College.”

Although only eight faculty members serve on the CFC, the greater faculty community feels the committee is handling the pressure of budgetary suggestions well.

“I have been extremely impressed with how [the] CFC is handling the process, and I’m very grateful for their seriousness and dedication,” Presidential Search Committee Faculty Representative Jennifer Bryan

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said.

Sherif echoed Bryan’s sentiment, adding that the listening sessions have pushed and empowered faculty to have a stake in financial decision-making processes.

“Having these particular listening sessions and reaching out to the faculty and trying to compile the range of views about budget priorities is something that kind of came up very suddenly at a very busy time at the end of the semester,” Sherif said. “I think that everyone thought it was a good idea for us to take this opportunity for us to express our opinions. We did have questions about how exactly the faculty’s views will be represented by the senior administration to the board and whether the faculty’s views — how they’re represented — will be communicated to the faculty, how the senior administration actually says to the board. … We haven’t gotten a response to that yet.”

Because the administration will present their interpretations of the faculty committees’ reports to the board, faculty members are hoping the administration will remain faithful to the councils’ recommendations and to the school’s long-term needs.

“Administrators are taking their orders from the Board of Trustees,” Politics professor Ron Kahn said. “They are very much concerned about having enough money to give to scholarships, and very concerned about taking too much out of the endowment. There is a purpose for deans and presidents, but they need to look at this very carefully. They are looking at the overall needs of Oberlin College over the next 30 years.”

In light of administrative turnover and the College’s financial austerity, Sherif said she felt that these circumstances are unique and should not be normalized; rather, it is important for the more stable communities on campus, like the faculty, to help changes occur.

“This is such a tremendously transitional time,” Sherif said. “I don’t think anybody at the College has seen this level of instability in the senior staff, and today, we learned of yet another departure. There have some staffing changes at other levels in key offices in the College in these last two weeks.

There’s just been too much going on to say that right now we’re going to start undertaking a major initiative like the SPIDIE report, … but first we really need to stabilize the senior administration and make sure that the College can run … and that we have good transparency and communication.”

Sherif added that the sentiment she has seen among her colleagues indicates that although the faculty is being proactive, it is important for the new senior administrators — namely the new president — to become involved and tackle obstacles the College faces as soon as possible.

“I think everyone in the faculty also feels very strongly to make sure that if there is an incoming president, that that individual be involved in these conversations and discussions as early as possible as soon as that person is identified,” she said.

Corrections

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The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

Off the Cuff: Mindi Kuebler, Activist Mindi Kuebler is the director of the Human Trafficking Collaborative of Lorain County. Kuebler founded HTCLC in 2009 after working as a forensic nurse, specializing as a sexual assault nurse examiner. She runs the HTCLC with her professional partners Shawn Cleveland and Kristi Miller. The HTCLC primarily does case management for human trafficking victims, working with the National Human Trafficking Hotline. Last year, the Hotline received 1,352 calls in Ohio, and 375 human trafficking cases were reported, ranking Ohio fourth in reported human trafficking cases behind California, Texas and Florida. Kuebler has been working with Oberlin’s Project Unbound in bringing awareness of local and national human trafficking issues to campus.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

carry around on a daily basis, you know, and just assist.

Why is human trafficking in Ohio — more specifically Lorain County — such an issue?

Actually, it’s an issue everywhere. We talk about Ohio just because it’s so very easy to get in and out of the state of Ohio in a very short amount of time. The freeway system — I mean you can go from one end to the other with our freeway system and be out in a few hours, so that makes it very accessible for people to [reach] our borders to Canada. And our waterways can get people in and out of here with relatively no issue. And I would say that that’s the main reason for Ohio.

In Lorain County, we’re actually no different than any other area, and when you see higher incidents of stuff happening, it’s because we’re actually looking for people. We’re looking for victims, and we’re looking for the traffickers themselves. In Cleveland and in Toledo, we have a human-trafficking task force. That’s what their job is — to search for these people. In other areas, they don’t have task forces, so they’re using their law enforcement for everything, for homicide, for drugs, for all of that, whereas a human-trafficking task force is specific to human trafficking. That’s why numbers in various locations are higher within the state.

Are there any particularly notable or difficult cases you’ve had that have really grounded you in your work?

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, definitely.

Can you explain what the Human Trafficking Collaborative of Lorain County does?

What happens is that we assist those who have been put in human trafficking situations. We get calls from the national hotline. We get calls from the juvenile court system. Just off the street, people will call who know our number, referrals, attorneys. We just get referrals. Our main referral is from the National Human Trafficking Hotline or the juvenile court system. What we do is that — say for the juvenile court system — we do case management with those kids, and we assist in making sure that they have mental health treatment, medical health treatment, and we assist in getting their schooling set up if they’re not in school. We just assist with making sure that all of their needs are met, so we’re a go-between. That’s what we do — it’s case management. I’m a nurse, and my partner in this is a social worker and so our roles within the Human Trafficking Collaborative are case management assisting those people. My capacity there is not a nurse but as director. I founded this in 2009, so I don’t work in the collaborative as a nurse; I work in case management because I’m a forensic nurse, and that’s how I started seeing things happening.

What made you interested in addressing human trafficking in the first place?

Well, as I said, I’m a sexual assault nurse examiner. In working at my job, I just started seeing things that I questioned — some odd situations when someone would come in for a [Wide Range Intelligence Test] kit or listening to stories. And then I saw a presentation on it by Celia Williamson in 2008, and from that point on I kind of just jumped in with both feet, found out as much as I could and started everything in 2009 with Shawn Cleveland and Kristi Miller. We’ve just been doing it ever since. We have a Lorain County hotline number for people to call, and that’s how we get our national hotline calls as well. And we

Aside from the hotline, how can people protect themselves and others from human trafficking?

It’s awareness and knowing your surroundings. You know, when we talk about our kids, we can’t be with our kids 24/7, as much as we would love to. But if we put the awareness out to them and to people in our community to look out for things and to say something if something looks odd, peculiar — that’s a way that we can protect. Human trafficking will never end. It will be with us forever because the demand for sex and labor is too high, but all we can do is put forth the awareness and try prevention strategies — that sort of thing.

Could you share any stories, or no?

No, I don’t like to really get into the cases, because in our community in Lorain County, you have no idea who knows who. I’m not comfortable with telling the stories. There’s one story that I tell often, but I found that in doing this over the years, everyone knows somebody.

I could tell you this one story for this one girl. She was 14 years old when I met her. She’s 21 years old now, and she went missing in [a nearby town], not far from her house. She was located a few weeks later. But my issue with telling this story is that because it’s in [this nearby town] and because we are so close, as our community, I just don’t want people to say, “Oh, I know that story,” or, “Oh, I know that girl.”

Are there ways for Oberlin students to get involved with the Human Trafficking Collaborative of Lorain County or in other antihuman trafficking efforts?

Project Unbound has done a great job in doing things on awareness and assisting us over the past few years. You guys have done some great fundraisers and awareness events, which have just been absolutely fantastic. Your awareness with the college community is great.

I mean, what you guys are doing are just great work, and there’s not a whole lot of other campuses we can say that does this type of stuff that you guys do.

Is there a message you want students to know about the importance of human trafficking and combating it?

I’ll say this again: We will never combat it. You know, a lot of things out there say, “Let’s stop human trafficking. Let’s do this, let’s do that.”

What I think we need to start focusing on is awareness and prevention, and because, as I said, it will never end. It won’t. That demand for sex and labor is too high, OK? And it’s awareness and prevention.

We need to make sure everyone in the community and at the College — especially at the College level — you guys need to be aware of your surroundings and be aware of the people you’re talking to online and out in the community. You just have to be aware of your surroundings and know that online, there are creepers out there, and they will do everything they can to know everything about you and lure you in. You just have to be careful of what you say, what you do, what information you give out. And it’s easy information. It’s general information that I think a lot of people take for granted [on] the internet. The internet is one of the largest avenues for human trafficking, whether it’s Craigslist, Facebook, any of those, it’s a huge avenue. Just because someone pops up and talks to you, and you get to know them for a few weeks or whatever, doesn’t mean that that person on the other end is genuine, OK? Awareness and prevention.

Interview by Melissa Harris, News editor

Page 3

City Upgrades Alert System, Saves Money Louis Krauss News editor City Council will save thousands of dollars on the city’s emergency alert system by joining the Lorain County Wireless Emergency Notification System. The city’s alert system allows those who subscribe to receive notifications via text, phone call or email of various hazards such as water contamination, fires and tornados.

Making the switch to the county-wide system, which has many more subscribers, will decrease the annual cost of emergency alerts from $5,840 to $414.

Whereas in the past Oberlin used a similar program called Code RED that sent out alerts strictly to those within city limits, the WENS allows the city fire department and other city workers to notify those in the surrounding townships.

City Fire Department Chief Robert Hanmer, who explained the new program to council Monday, said this integration would allow the city to create a bigger web of notifications for natural hazards in a much larger area.

“If we had a hazardous material released that was going to affect other communities, we can highlight where the effect would occur and warn them of it,” Hanmer said.

The other benefit is that WENS provides weather updates immediately after they are issued by the National Weather Service.

The city declined to join WENS in 2013, mostly because it prevented city officials from putting out alerts for Oberlin-specific issues. However, Hanmer said that since then, the online program has gradually improved and now allows more control by individual cities.

“Originally, we didn’t have any administrative rights on the WENS system, so we couldn’t really issue emergency alerts for water contamination,” Hanmer said. “Now that the system is up and running with the county, they’ve given us more rights to put out our own alerts and messages to people.”

City Manager Rob Hillard, who first came to Oberlin last fall, pointed out that the notification technology has greatly improved since the 2013 adoption of programs like Code RED and WENS. “Before cell phones became popular, the county used a system called Reverse 9-1-1 to alert residents of any emergency,” Hillard said. “When residents began to discontinue use of landlines, Reverse 9-1-1 did not have the capability of contacting those that used cell phones exclusively.”

According to Hanmer, the city will start using WENS within the next month and added that Code RED and WENS will be used simultaneously until switching at the start of January. Both Code RED and WENS are voluntary and free but require users to subscribe online.

Hillard told the Oberlin News-Tribune that it’s an important step in improving local communications.

“This is not a decision we’re making lightly or because we can save approximately $5,000. This is about reinvesting in communication with the community,” Hillard said.

Review Security Notebook Friday, April 14 1:35 p.m. A Safety and Security officer assisting a student at a Village Housing Unit on Professor Street found drug paraphernalia, which contained a substance consistent with burnt marijuana.

A bong was confiscated and turned over to the Oberlin Police Department.

3:15 p.m. A South Hall resident reported the theft of medication from their room. A report was also filed with the Oberlin Police Department, which is investigating the issue.

10:42 p.m. Officers, members of the Oberlin Fire Department and a College

electrician assisted students stuck in the elevator in South Hall. The students were safely helped out of the elevator.

The power was turned off, and the elevator will remain locked until repairs are made.

Saturday, April 15 12:12 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the third floor of Dascomb Hall. Smoke from burnt food set off the alarm, which was reset.

7:04 p.m. Officers assisted a student, who was drunk and unconscious, out-

side the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital.

9:10 p.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle from the northwest corner of Bibbins Hall. It is unknown if the bicycle was locked at the time of theft.

building check located a leaking hotwater tank in the Hall Annex basement.

Maintenance Tech responded, and the water was turned off until repairs were made.

Sunday, April 16

4 a.m. A Goldsmith apartment resident reported the theft of two PlayStation 4 game units, two black controllers and a black backpack.

1:31 p.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle from the east side of the Wright Laboratory of Physics. The bicycle was locked at the time of theft.

4:05 p.m. Officers responded to a report of an individual yelling in the south end of Dascomb Hall. The area was checked, and no one was aware of any shouting.

6:09 p.m. An officer conducting a

Monday, April 17

News

Page 4

The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

Purchasing Committee Addresses Nike Scandal Sydney Allen Production editor The College’s Purchasing Committee is preparing a response to a recent discovery that Nike — one of the school’s largest apparel providers — breached Oberlin’s Sweatshop-Free Apparel Code of Purchasing by buying from factories with unsafe working conditions and failing to permit outside labor monitors from inspecting its contracted factories.

Like most apparel companies, Nike doesn’t actually make its own clothes but contracts them out to factories all over the world. Under Oberlin’s Code of Purchasing, Nike must demand that the factories it uses adhere to certain labor standards, and it must also allow private inspectors into these factories to assess the labor conditions.

Oberlin’s Purchasing Committee, dedicated to ensuring that Oberlin buys clothes from facilities that adhere to these standards, was notified of the breach in the fall. The information came from a Workers’ Rights Consortium report in 2016 documenting widespread labor abuses at Hansae Vietnam Co. Ltd., which provides university-licensed goods for Nike and employs nearly 8,500 workers.

Among other findings, the report shows that Hansae Vietnam, a factory based in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam had labor violations such as verbal abuse of workers, unsafe exposure to chemicals and extremely high temperatures.

Hansae is a Korean corporation with factories in China, Guatemala, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Saipan and Vietnam.

The Worker’s Rights Consortium, an independent labor monitor affiliated with nearly 200 U.S. colleges and universities, including Oberlin, released a report accusing Hansae Vietnam of “wage theft; verbal abuse of workers; pregnancy discrimination; forced overtime; illegal restrictions on workers’ use of toilets; denial of sick leave, family leave and bereavement leave; and an array of health and safety violations,.”

Nike is currently refusing to release the names and locations of factories to which it contracts orders. Releasing these names, which the company has done in the past, allows outside inspection groups like the WRC to investigate labor conditions. Blocking third-party inspection directly violates the supplier contract the College has with Nike.

College sophomore and Purchasing Committee researcher Yijia Gao discussed the large-scale dangers of Nike failing to meet labor standards.

“If Nike does not change, other big brands will also follow them,” Gao said. “This would essentially cause a big drawback for the whole antisweatshop movement.”

Marc Blecher, chair of the Politics department and Purchasing Committee member, said that Nike has had a history of unethical labor practices.

“The original anti-sweatshop movement began around student concerns around Nike,” Blecher said.

“They were really not doing it the way they should have and … we cut them off. And a few years later they changed and got their act together. And then

we started buying from them again — quite happily. … Our goal is to try and exercise what influence we can to get them to do better. And then within the last year Nike has changed again, gone over to the dark side, for reasons we don’t fully understand.”

Though many students may not have heard of the Purchasing Committee, it has a huge effect on some students’ lives, particularly athletes.

The Purchasing Committee was the driving force behind the 2012 switch from Adidas to Nike when it became clear Adidas was using unfair labor practices. Blecher said the Athletics department — the primary recipient of Nike apparel — is partial to Nike brand items and hopes that they will turn their practices around before the contract has to be renewed.

Oberlin has a long history of antisweatshop activism. The Purchasing Committee has been monitoring these issues since the group’s establishment in 1999, conceived in a period of national anti-sweatshop advocacy. Students across the country mobilized around sweatshop concerns, leading marches, sit-ins and demonstrations.

In 1999, Oberlin students walked into then-President Nancy Dye’s office and demanded she sign a document they drafted stating the College would no longer do business with those who used sweatshop labor. She took one look and signed it immediately. Oberlin became the second college in the nation to sign such a document.

Soon a committee was formed, establishing a code of conduct that all apparel suppliers had to follow.

College Bookstore Manager Tammy Herman reorganizes clothes Thursday. The College’s Purchasing Committee will soon respond to the discovery that Nike breached the College’s Sweatshop-Free Apparel Code of Purchasing.

Photo by Rick Yu, Photo editor

The committee has gone by a variety of names since its inception: The Anti-Sweatshop Committee, the Sweatshop-Free Apparel Committee and most recently the Purchasing Committee. But its mission has always remained the same: use the College’s influence as a buyer to force companies to adhere to fair labor practices.

The committee has been trying to get in contact with Nike about why its practices have changed.

“We are at an impasse and so are many other colleges and universities,” Blecher said. “We’re a relatively small player — Nike is not going to change their whole corporate policy for Oberlin College, but it’s very important for us to be part of this big movement.

And so, we’re trying to find out who else is trying to raise some questions

with Nike. I mean, what we are looking for obviously are the big ten schools, who have worked very actively on this before.”

Committee members will be meeting with a Nike representative sometime in the coming months to discuss why Nike has changed its communication practices.

Oberlin is currently under a threeyear contract with Nike, which will be up for negotiation next fall. Blecher added that if the issue is still not resolved by that time, it could mean a break in partnership.

“I don’t think there’s any thought of abrogating it in the middle of the contract, but if this is still going on when it comes time to renew it, it’s going to be very difficult to renew it and we want Nike to know that,” Blecher said.

Administrators Cut Financial Aid for OSCA Members Continued from page 1 [OSCA] students because students without financial aid living in co-ops save money, while need-based students lose money? That's completely unfair.”

OSCA members held several organizationwide meetings this week to organize responses to administrative action. Rumblings include fears about the College setting the stage to dismantle OSCA altogether, though no credible sources confirm this theory. OSCA president and College sophomore Tara Wells expressed confidence in the organization’s viability despite changes at an all-OSCA meeting Wednesday night.

“I’ve heard a lot of conspiracy-esque theories that the College wants OSCA out, and I truly don’t believe that because I believe OSCA is a truly essential part of the Oberlin experience,” Wells said.

But Wells’ concerns are not entirely alleviated by her positive outlook on OSCA’s long-term lifespan. She worries that by reducing financial aid, additional work might pile on for OSCA members who are required to help cook and clean in their respective co-ops. With incoming OSCA students’ aid cut by tuition hikes, Wells said that receiving up to $2,000 less in savings, compared to the approximately $6,500 members currently save in OSCA housing, could deter prospective members.

“You’re in the co-ops doing work to earn your keep, live there and dine there,” Wells said.

“Those are hours you can’t be making money working at another job. If they’re working those same hours and not receiving the same financial benefit for it, for some people that makes all the difference and they can’t afford to spend those five to six hours being paid in another job.”

Although administrators say that financial aid will meet all the needs of accepted students, Wells said the system is flawed and often leads to students seeking out additional ways to save

money once enrolled.

“They estimate your family contribution, but the director of financial aid and the VP of finance have both admitted that it’s a very flawed system, but that it comes along with any institution,” Wells said. “I think it’s a lame excuse. It doesn’t give reason to not try to fix it or refrain from making it worse.”

Raimondo said administrators will continue meeting with OSCA representatives to work on finding a solution more students are comfortable with, and that there is not a clear timetable as to when the policies will be locked in for next semester. She also connected the OSCA financial aid decision to the new meal and residential costs, suggesting the flat rate may encourage more students to choose preferred housing with less emphasis on the discrepancies between the price of a single dorm room versus an open double, for example. Double-degree senior Jeremy Poe, student representative on the Presidential Search Committee, criticized the administration’s positing of the decision as increasing equality on campus.

“Reducing need-based financial aid for OSCA members, potentially shifting that to meet the demonstrated need of non-OSCA students with marginally increased grant money, raising the cost of on-campus room and board, requiring a more expensive and excessive meal plan for students’ first four semesters in residence, all while keeping the discount rate unchanged, means that students’ increased demonstrated need will require more loans or work-study, which is ‘equity’ only in the sense that Oberlin students and their families will be more impartially and equitably screwed over by the institution, simply to procure greater revenue,” Poe wrote in an email to the Review. “Senior staff has decided to reduce the accessibility of an Oberlin education to meet this ridiculous interpretation of ‘equity.’”

Another one of the more confusing aspects for many students is the elimination of flex points, which are used at on-campus venues

such as DeCafé. Raimondo clarified that the working plan adjusts how meals are used on campus, adding that the plan will include new spending options in other locations.

“We aren’t using the term ‘flex’ in the 300meal plan, but what changes in this plan is that students can use those meals at DeCafé and the Science Cart,” Raimondo said. “We’ll calculate what the full equivalent of a meal is. You could use it to buy groceries in DeCafé. You’ll have the value of that meal to spend on anything you want.”

Raimondo also said that the implementation of a higher, flat rate was not designed to increase revenue at the College and that additional revenue will go toward meeting future student’s financial aid.

“Any additional revenue that comes in is going to go to support that financial aid,” Raimondo said. “So it isn’t about making money, it’s about ensuring that all students have full access to food and to the community of dining, regardless of ability to pay.”

Aside from promoting equality, Raimondo said a main benefit of the 300-meal plan is ensuring students get enough to eat.

“One thing it addresses is food security because we know hunger is an issue on a lot of campuses, including this one,” Raimondo said.

“We wanted to ensure that all students were fully aided to participate in the three meals a day plan, because good nutritional science tells us people should eat three meals a day.”

Aside from his role as Vice President of Finance, Frandsen is also part of the Resource Management Implementation Committee, a group that History Professor and committee member Len Smith says is tasked with suggesting a “variety of avenues in which the College could restructure its activities” to reduce spending and save money. Despite this task, Smith said that in meetings, “the co-op system was not discussed in any detail in any of our committee meetings.”

The committee sent its recommendations to the General Faculty Committee on March 27, and despite Smith and the group’s “strong recommendation that it be made public,” it was never released to a wider audience, unlike the recommendations of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee, which made its documents public. After submitting suggestions, the Resource Management Committee disbanded.

College junior and Student Senator Jesse Docter said that the idea that conversations about changes to dining and housing might not have occurred within the Resource Management Group is unsettling.

“If the committee never had a conversation about the residential experience, and never identified the residential experience as a way to extract greater revenue, then this to me is a total betrayal of the strategic planning process,” Docter said. “On the issue of finance, there’s not a shared governance structure outside of the Strategic Plan. That committee, as dysfunctional as it was, was our best chance to have two students sit there and say, ‘You know what? OSCA is awfully good.’”

Student Senate sent an email to the student body early this morning around midnight supporting OSCA members, who planned protests in front of Carnegie Hall today, and condemning the administration’s decision to hike tuition.

“Despite a two-year strategic planning process intended to lay out a shared financial vision for the school, this policy has no pretext in any planning document that has been published,” the email reads. “Like so many financial decisions at Oberlin, it was made by senior staff, behind closed doors, without a structure that engaged constituents. Until Oberlin's administration finds a way to bring students, faculty, and impacted institutions to the table we can have no confidence that Oberlin's financial decisions will reflect its values or priorities.”

Both Frandsen and President Krislov declined to be interviewed for this article.

Opinions The Oberlin Review

April 21, 2017

Page 5

Letters to the Editors

The Oberlin Review

on the good name of the worker who is temping in the Chemistry department. I knew her when she worked in Mudd library as an undergraduate, and she bears no culpability in this matter.

Oberlin College and its lawyers negotiated a contract with the members of OCOPE. Every word in that contract was thoroughly vetted and approved by the College administrators and lawyers, and both sides agreed to the contract and signed it. I understand completely that the business of the College must continue, but the agreement that the College negotiated and signed with a group of its employees must also be upheld. When one party in an agreement decides that it can disregard with impunity a mutually agreed upon contract, it is making a powerful statement.

Does Oberlin College really wish to say that its word means nothing, that when it signs a contract or an agreement it cannot be relied upon to uphold its end of the bargain?

The current delays concerning the Chemistry department position smack of incompetence or deliberate delay tactics. The deans and

Editors-in-Chief Tyler Sloan Oliver Bok

Chemistry Hiring Delays Favor Temps To the Editors:

As a longtime member of Oberlin College Office and Professional Employees, Office and Professional Employees International Union, local 502, I would like to express my dismay at how the recent search for a new administrative assistant for the Chemistry department has been handled.

Not only was the posting of the position unnecessarily delayed for many months, contrary to language in the contract between the College and the Union, but the internal candidates for the position were misinformed about certain parameters of the job during the interviews, necessitating the reposting of the position and further delaying the process. Could it be that the rumors are true, that the Chemistry department will do whatever they want, including violating the contract and the rights of OCOPE members, to keep the temp for as long as they want? I do not wish to cast any aspersions

managers of Oberlin College have shown little evidence to OCOPE that they are willing to apprise and inform supervisors of the parameters under which an important group of employees of this institution work or of their responsibilities with regards to job searches and management of employees in general. It is not sufficient for HR and the College attorney to enter into an agreement if the supervisors who must also administer that agreement are not informed of the details of the agreement or choose to ignore those details with impunity and negatively impact the ways in which they interact on a daily basis with employees.

The delay of the hiring process has been blamed on OCOPE in a number of meetings. OCOPE requested a statement from the College explaining that the delay was caused by the department chairs not interviewing in a timely fashion with total disregard to the terms of our collective bargaining agreement. That has not yet happened.

– Michael B. Palazzolo OCOPE Personnel Coordinator

Specific Administrator Could Aid Diversity Kameron Dunbar Contributing writer Last week, the Review’s Editorial Board posited that Stragetic Plan Implementation Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion’s suggestion to add a chief diversity officer as “a roundabout way of handling the College’s diversity issues that would ultimately prove ineffective.” As a former member of SPIDIE, I shared similar concerns at the time of drafting, but my time working with the implementation group laid bare to me the necessity of someone with the dedication and administrative capacity to handle issues of diversity and inclusion.

When I left SPIDIE, it was composed of high-level administrators, well-respected faculty members, College staff and students whose goal was to collectively identify areas of diversity, equity and inclusion in need of improvement and to offer recommendations on how the institution could remedy them.

This often proved a challenge, as many folks on SPIDIE, through little fault of their own, were stressed for time and unable to dedicate the necessary resources to keep the group running efficiently. What seemed like a perpetual mode of stagnation eventually led two faculty members to resign from the group and to pursue diversity work by other means.

The Editorial Board asserted that achieving greater diversity in higher education is imperative — a sentiment with which I agree wholeheartedly — but it can’t be reduced to an administrator’s side hustle. Another six-figure salary on the administra-

tive team is worrisome in many ways, and I’m not confident in the notion that hiring a chief diversity officer will fill Oberlin’s current diversity gaps. However, the idea of someone having senior administrative oversight and the specific time to dedicate to making Oberlin a more diverse institution offers promise.

Many things could go wrong with hiring a CDO. Different constituencies within the Oberlin community could become lax in understanding their own individual responsibilities in making Oberlin a more diverse community. In that same vein, the CDO could be pigeonholed as the single individual on campus responsible for diversity work and treated as such. Still, opportunities for failure are accompanied by opportunities for success. A CDO could work as an effective liaison between various campus partners to prioritize long-term diversity initiatives, including a financial-model overhaul that would in turn allow Oberlin to be less tuition-dependent and go need-blind.

In reality, making Oberlin a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community is more than the job of a CDO, special assistant to the president or even the president. It’s the responsibility of our entire community, from the admissions team continuing their work in making Oberlin more compositionally diverse to professors making sure their classrooms are accessible spaces to all students. As the Editorial Board wrote, “there are sacrifices that come with prioritizing diversity.” At some point, we’ll all have to sacrifice something in the name of diversity.

Submissions Policy The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and op-ed submissions. All submissions are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. All submissions must be received by Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at opinions@oberlinreview.org or Wilder Box 90 for inclusion in that week’s issue. Letters may not exceed 600 words and op-eds may not exceed 800 words, except with consent of the Editorial Board. All submissions must include contact information, with full names and any relevant titles, for all signers. All writers must individually confirm authorship on electronic submissions. Op-eds may not have more than two authors.

The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity, length, grammar, accuracy, strength of argument and in consultation with Review style. Editors will work with contributors to edit pieces and will clear major edits with the authors prior to publication. Editors will contact authors of letters to the editors in the event of edits for anything other than style and grammar.

Headlines are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. Opinions expressed in editorials, letters, op-eds, columns, cartoons or other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Review. The Review will not print advertisements on its Opinions pages. The Review defines an advertisement as any submission that has the main intent of bringing direct monetary gain to a contributor.

Managing Editor Kiley Petersen Opinions Editor Sami Mericle

Stop Raising Tuition The administration’s announcement to raise tuition to a whopping $69,372 by overhauling the College’s housing and dining systems is a perfect example of everything wrong with how this school is run.

Administrators confidentially concocted major policy changes with no student involvement or consent, ultimately continuing its grotesque experiment of pushing tuition to the absolute limit with a 2.8-percent increase. Yes, the increase is lower than the already absurd 4-percent increases of previous years and matches the increase from last year. But “freezing” the rate of growth at 2.8 percent is not actually freezing anything, since the increase in absolute terms will continue growing annually. The principle of compound interest — something outgoing Vice President for Finance and Administration Mike Frandsen is presumably familiar with — says that in 14 years, it will cost more than $100,000 a year to attend Oberlin. The College may have slowed its self-destructive course, but the trajectory is still disastrous.

Perhaps most galling, there is a fundamental dishonesty in the way that administrators have attempted to sell these policies to students, positing changes as efforts to further embrace social justice and inclusion instead of squeezing revenue where it can. Let’s be honest: The changes to the College’s housing and dining policies have nothing to do with “fostering community” or dealing with “food insecurity,” as described in the administration’s emails. Frandsen has repeatedly and openly said in budget presentations that housing and dining are net revenue generators for the College. In other words, the College receives far more money for its housing and dining services than it costs to produce them. The College overcharges for dining and housing, and that overcharging subsidizes the rest of the College.

Of course, most students already know this. Anyone who has done the math on CDS meal pricing is painfully aware of the discrepencies between the end product dining costs, which comes out to anywhere from approximately $13 to $27 per meal, depending on the plan. The College will undoubtedly rake in money under the new plan, especially since in our experience, it’s far more common to hear students worry about wasting meals than running out. That’s in a system in which the vast majority of students are budgeted fewer than 300 meals a semester, making the idea of “food security” as a primary driver for changing the meal plan laughable at best.

But for argument’s sake, let’s take the administration’s claims at face value: That some Oberlin students go hungry because the College’s “baseline” financial aid assumes that a student has the 14-meals-a-week meal plan. If that is true — and the administration has provided no evidence that food insecurity is a problem with the student population — it would indeed need addressing. No Oberlin student should go hungry, for any reason.

Instead of forcing first-years and sophomores to buy 300 meals a semester, however, the College could have simply done what it did for housing by charging a flat rate for all Campus Dining Services meal plans. While still not ideal, that at least would have prevented food insecurity for low-income students while preserving some student choice. Instead, the administration chose to compel students to purchase 300 meals and thus raise the cost of attendance by nearly $2,000 for incoming students who planned to eat 12 meals a week in CDS. This change has little to do with “equity” and everything to do with the College’s bottom line.

The College also plans to reduce financial aid for students who eat in the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, arguing that the current system provides too large a financial bonus for members. We believe that the College should treasure OSCA as an integral part of Oberlin’s culture, protecting instead of exploiting it. This reduction in financial aid undermines OSCA significantly. As Nick Rowan Bassman notes in an op-ed this week (“Removing Options for LowIncome Students Exclusionary, Not Equitable”), slashing financial aid for OSCA students ignores the fact that members do work for their co-ops that the College doesn’t factor in. This instance reflects an administrative trend of making decisions in confidence from fear of disruptive students protesting at every point.

But more inclusion earlier on would result in less visceral reactions later, since it might interest administrators to know OSCA is a pretty big deal to students.

Ultimately, some of the College’s financial issues are difficult to understand as anything but self-inflicted wounds that students will, yet again, bear the brunt of.

While administrators have invoked rhetoric about food security and are reminding us that excess revenue will go back into financial aid funds, there will simply never be a good enough explanation for a nearly $70,000 pricetag to attend school in rural Ohio — the cost of living just does not add up. By continuing to hike tuition, soon Oberlin won’t look much like the Oberlin we know and love at all.

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.

Page 6

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

Removing OSCA Options for Low-Income Students Exclusionary, Not Equitable Nick Rowan Bassman Contributing writer If I were entering the Class of 2021, I would no longer be able to afford Oberlin College. It wouldn’t matter if the College met 100 percent of my demonstrated need. Without the money I’ve saved by living and dining in Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, I wouldn’t be able to afford to travel to and from Oberlin, adequately feed myself if I did somehow make it to campus or support my family with leftover funds if I somehow made it home.

It angers me that departing Vice President of Finances and Administration Mike Frandsen has the audacity to claim proposed financial changes will “improve equity challenges” in the same email in which he announces that tuition is rising to make total costs for first-year students well over $70,000 per year, including books and other expenses. But rising tuition isn’t what really hangs zero-family-contribution students like me out to dry. When the College closes off options for savings by making expensive room-and-board plans mandatory and reducing financial aid for students in OSCA, that’s what hurts low-income students most.

The proposed meal-plan system requires new students to spend their first four semesters on the most expensive meal plan, 300 meals per semester with no flex points for groceries, for $7,990 annually. 300 meals per semester comes out to approximately 3 meals a day for 14 weeks.

This means that unless a student eats at a dining hall three times a day, every day, they’re wasting money. By my calculation it also comes out to $13.31 per meal — almost $40 per day.

It would literally be cheaper to eat brunch from The Feve for every single meal.

Even as the system stands, there is no option to be off of a meal plan at any point. Ostensibly, according to the Housing/Dining/ Financial Aid Policy Changes FAQ emailed to students Wednesday afternoon, the motive for the meal plan lock-in is that “having students ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

“When the College closes off options for savings by making expensive room-and-board plans mandatory and reducing financial aid for students in OSCA, that’s what hurts low-income students most.”

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– living and dining together fosters community.”

But forcing students to pay exorbitant rates for mediocre food three times a day is not a healthy way to build a community.

The only escape from ResEd and Campus Dining Service’s predatory rates are OSCA and off-campus housing. OSCA membership is determined by lottery, as is seniors’ access to off-campus housing. This has profound implications on a number of levels. First, for students like me, who rely on OSCA and offcampus housing to afford Oberlin, our ability to continue attending each year depends on chance. I remember the lump of fear in my gut between my sophomore and junior year when I didn’t get into OSCA housing. Luckily, I got in off the waitlist before the school year began. If I hadn’t, I would have needed to take time off.

Second, tensions can run high in OSCA between students who need the co-ops for financial survival and students who don’t.

My membership in OSCA is an agreement to work for the co-op; my savings are derived directly from that work. By reducing low-income students’ financial aid on the basis of this decision, the College literally devalues the work we do for our co-ops and threatens the purpose and daily functioning of the entire cooperative system.

What the College proposes for OSCAns — a $1,000 per year reduction in financial aid for

students dining in OSCA and a $2,000 per year reduction for those who both live and dine in OSCA — results in a system of diminishing returns for low-income students. Perversely, students who are financially comfortable save more money through OSCA membership than low-income students do. In what world is this equitable? Perhaps Frandsen has confused a financier’s definition of equity — the value of an asset minus the value of all liabilities used on that asset — with a social justice definition of economic equity, focused on uplifting people disadvantaged by existing systems and dismantling those systems.

These policies make me feel like an asset on which too many liabilities have been used — devalued in the name of “equity.”

In 2014 and 2015, Defending Oberlin Financial Accessibility protested similar proposed changes — including tuition hikes and even more drastic cuts to financial aid for OSCA members — resulting in the administration “indefinitely postponing” aspects of these changes. I naïvely thought that this debate ended two years ago. We have expressed our fears to this administration again and again. Apparently, they just don’t care. It almost seems like what Frandsen refers to as efforts to “streamline costs and options” are designed to maroon those whose financial needs are outside the stream.

In fact, I’m convinced that’s the case. There’s a chilling logic behind it: The greater the number of low-income students attending Oberlin, the greater the financial stress for the College to maintain its illusion of meeting 100 percent of demonstrated need. The solution, in the College’s eyes, is to make it harder for low-income students to come here in the first place. But it looks bad if student retention plummets, which is why all students currently on campus are grandfathered into pre-existing rates for tuition, housing and board. These are gradual moves to make Oberlin’s student body wealthier.

Frandsen’s email mentions that “tuition, fees, room, and board for returning students will increase by 2.8% for next year,” but it’s also worth mentioning that the increase for incoming students is a good deal greater. At least in terms of room and board, $14,402 to $15,862 is not a 2.8 percent increase. It’s a 10.1 percent increase, from which OSCA membership will provide only limited respite. Is it obvious yet that the College wants as much money as it can possibly suck from its students?

Prospective students and their parents ought to be outraged.

I am full of bitter gratitude as I head toward graduation. I’m grateful to OSCA for $6,604 in annual savings when I lived there and $3,492 for board alone, now that I live off-campus.

But if the College had allowed me to feed myself, I could have bought my own groceries on half that budget. And I really am grateful to the Office of Financial Aid for the grants and loans that have sustained both my education and my family’s well-being. But I’m afraid for future generations of students like me — afraid that there won’t be room for us at Oberlin. I’m angry that, in the eyes of the College, the value we bring to campus apparently doesn’t exceed what the College saves by cutting us.

Oberlin’s administration didn’t have a change of heart in the spring of 2014. They simply realized that the changes they wanted to make weren’t politically expedient. Oberlin’s student body, alumni, prospective students and parents now need to make it clear that changes designed to alienate marginalized students will never be acceptable. What we need is not another indefinite deferment of this plan for another generation of students to oppose, but an end to this absurdity and an administration that listens.

So farewell, Mike Frandsen. May the financial plan you leave as your legacy be as shortlived as it is shortsighted. We’ll make sure of it.

Brian Tom

Libertarian Ideology Protects Capital at Workers’ Expense Jordan Ecker Contributing writer Jacob Britton’s latest attempt at political debate begins, “It was only a matter of time…” Indeed, I suppose it was. I can’t help but feel that the first paragraph of Britton’s latest foray into the wide world of political economy is symptomatic of the bizarre way the right behaves on college campuses: They seem fixated on producing disagreement and then howl with joy and roll around in the mud when they find it (“Positive Rights, Not Capitalism, Require State Violence,” The Oberlin Review, April 14). Britton hilariously echoes the meme “so much for the tolerant left” by accusing me of failing to live up to the left’s “benign” reputation — for the record, I have no interest in treating libertarianism benignly in the public sphere.

Britton attempts to make a coherent case for a minimal state by distinguishing between what he calls “positive” and “negative” rights, an argument that is more familiar to the Western philosophical canon as Isaiah Berlin’s distinction between positive and negative liberty. Positive liberty is affirmative — the freedom to act — as opposed to negative liberty, which is freedom from coercive forces. Britton argues that I advocate for the former, while a just state protects only the latter. In his view, negative liberty can be secured without coercive activity on the part of the state because it is a natural right. This is absolutely historically and empirically false.

Negative liberty — even understood in its most limited dimension, for instance, as the freedom to practice any religion — always requires a state apparatus equipped with police and a military ready to defend that right (heard of Europe’s 30 Year War?). No liberty is simply pre-given, found in nature; every right requires violence and coercion behind it to succeed institutionally, and so any distinction Britton hopes to secure between negative and positive rights on the grounds of naturalness is arbitrary.

Funnily, it’s not quite totally arbitrary — Britton does seem to have one criterium, to distinguish between positive and negative rights. Every freedom Britton associates with positive rights are freedoms the working class needs to resist domination. Strange coincidence — it is almost as if libertarianism’s talk of human rights is designed to be a defense of capital and not humans.

Britton says capitalism is not inherently violent because the “division of labor” ensures everyone will have a job. Not only does Adam Smith’s concept of the division of labor have very little to do with the question of full employment, but Smith himself saw a need for state intervention to help capital function. Further, Karl Marx demonstrated that the unemployed are a benefit to capital; it’s only by having an unemployed worker to replace your currently employed worker that you can push your employees’ wages down as far as possible. Unemployment is as old as capitalism. Rather than acting as though unemployment is a weird fluke, we should live up to that reality and challenge the paradigm that reproduces it.

See Capitalism, page 7

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

Page 7

Capitalism Undermines Labor Rights Limited Number of Humanities Continued from page 6 Finally, the “big” question: Why, oh why, do those merciless lefties want to violently coerce multi-billionaires to give up their hard-earned cash? Or, as Britton puts it: “If Bill Gates has a net worth of $80 billion and my net worth is $90,000, what moral atrocity has been committed?” Let me explain. Gates made his fortune by growing his company Microsoft. That company makes money by selling computer software, among other things. In order for people to buy computer software, they have to own computers. In order for them to own computers, someone has to make the computer. The person who makes the computer is typically a worker living in gross poverty in the global south. This worker contracts with a capitalist to trade their labor for money. If this were a fair exchange, by the end of it, the worker would have money and the boss would have a commodity. In reality, by the end of the exchange, the worker has money and

the boss has a commodity and profit. The profit is the difference in value between the amount of money the boss can get away with paying the worker and the amount of money he can sell the commodity for. So yes, Gates’ wealth depends on moral atrocities, and the working class’ poverty is proof.

Libertarianism is a weird ideology. It strings together a bizarre understanding of political economy and moral philosophy and forms a pastiche of entrepreneurial individualism and abstract musings about rights and the legitimate state. In the end though, with its incoherence, internal inconsistencies and empirical failures put aside, libertarianism should be measured in terms of its effects. And its primary effect is to perpetuate a capitalist regime that is built off of exploitation. Capitalism is a machine for changing hopes and dreams into toil and suffering. Libertarianism is ultimately just an abstract weapon, an ideological gear in a larger machine used by the few to dominate the many.

Divisions Between Disciplines Limit Education Liv Scott Contributing writer “Think one person can change the world? So do we.”

Oberlin’s Admissions Office uses this signature slogan to attract prospective students eager to tackle the problems of society. But at Oberlin, we do not learn how to change the world. Despite students’ best efforts to create an environment of social change, neither the structure of the College nor the classes themselves facilitate building skills for fostering this needed transformation.

Throughout my life, adults have told me, “You are the generation that will fix the world.”

But my academic experience has been essentially the same as my parents’ — just more expensive. How can my generation fix the world if twenty years and thousands of dollars worth of education has not given us the necessary tools?

Communication is a major complication of higher education that prevents learning how to facilitate change. Students and academics struggle to talk across disciplinary boundaries since they all use different terminology. While academia may have distinct disciplines, the world is highly interconnected. However, increasingly the “real world” is becoming clusters of those who think and talk like each other, which produces lone solutions to address problems.

For example, the solution to food security becomes genetic modifications. This monosighted vision produces additional problems stemming from the lack of an initial holistic understanding. While a liberal arts framework may provide more room for the cross-pollination of majors within a classroom, we are still restricted by the disciplinary boundaries, rhetoric and perspective of each class.

A second problem is a perceived hierarchy of knowledge.

College is becoming increasingly expensive and unattainable, yet in most cases, only

those who have higher education degrees are valued for their intelligence. However, it does not take a college degree to solve world problems, and there are numerous skills that higher education does not teach, such as creativity, emotional intelligence and local knowledge. Are college degrees alone going to resolve the refugee crisis, immigration or police brutality? In most ––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Communication is a major complication of higher education that prevents learning how to facilitate change. Students and academics struggle to talk across disciplinary boundaries since they all use different terminology.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––– instances, it is not college-educated individuals addressing these concerns. There is equal value in knowing how to feed your family with food stamps, how to listen to someone with opposing opinions and how to foresee the changes in ecosystems by wildlife abundance. By incorporating diverse groups, rather than just privileged young people, higher education can unite people to implement holistic transformations.

If Oberlin truly wants to teach students how to change the world, it needs to address these issues. In doing so, it could truly become a leading institution in communication, creativity and problem-solving by bridging gaps between people locally and globally.

Classes should be structured around an interdisciplinary, local issue with global implications. For example, a class could explore e-waste disposal both locally and globally. Local community members could bring both historical and first-hand knowledge of disposal or generate ideas

for alternatives, while building connections across generations. The course would also connect with perspectives of people who are receiving this e-waste, such as communities in China, or solutions other communities have found in handling e-waste. Thus, higher education can be used as a platform to cross-borders and hear the perspectives of many different people. The course clusters debuting next fall may be a first step in this direction, but the conversations within the clusters must incorporate various types of knowledge, thus providing space for multiple different experts and, most importantly, leave the ivory tower and engage with the world outside the classroom.

This is obviously a lofty vision that would require an entire reimagining of higher education. However, I truly believe that we can begin this change at Oberlin — but only if we initiate structural change within the College. Currently, major decisions are made primarily by the Board of Trustees, which limits the input of students, faculty, staff, administration, alumni and the Oberlin community. In order to enable the College to adapt to shifting needs of higher education, all the wisdom and experiences of these stakeholders must be valued, so each should have an equal role in decision-making.

This idea has already been part of recent campus discourse as groups push for student representatives on the Board of Trustees, but instead of just a few students, we need to represent the many voices that make up Oberlin. In this way, Oberlin College would be constantly adapting to truly meet the shifting needs of the community and society as a whole.

Oberlin students are capable and eager to galvanize change in the world. If the College seeks to become the progressive institution it claims to be, it must transcend boundaries to both build students’ skills and support the global transformation.

Classes Pigeonholes Students Jackie Brant Columnist

Registration season is a stressful time for many students. We worry about when our registration slot will be, if we will get into the classes we need and, if we don’t, if we will be able to successfully navigate add/drop period.

As a first-year this spring, I had the second-to-last registration window.

By the time I got to pick my classes, there was only one class with spots available in each of my majors, Philosophy and Politics, one of which required a prerequisite that I did not have. Though everyone reassures students that we can fix our schedules during add/drop, that consolation does not save us the stress of waiting months for add/drop over the summer. It also never guarantees that we will get our top-choice classes in the end.

It seems that, in general, humanities classes at Oberlin tend to fill up more quickly than the STEM courses. This is unsurprising, as only 21 percent of Oberlin’s graduates in the past three years majored in STEM fields.

At my registration time, most of the STEM courses were still open, whereas there were a maximum of two open courses per department left in Philosophy, Politics, Sociology, Anthropology, History, Comparative Literature and English and no 100-level courses left in any department besides Sociology and History.

Humanities classes fill up quickly partly because of the basic requirements that all students must fulfill by graduation. These include the two writing requirements and the two “courses outside of maximal division”.

For most humanities majors, the writing requirements are easily completed, as most upper-level humanities courses are considered writing-intensive courses. STEM majors, on the other hand, have a more difficult time fulfilling these requirements. According to the Oberlin course catalog, the only STEM courses that fulfill this writing requirement are one Physics lab course, a Geology course and a handful of Biology and Chemistry courses, most of which are 300- or 400-level.

This is a problem for STEM majors who are seeking to knock out their writing requirements. Often, STEM majors try to efficiently fulfill both their writing requirements and their courses outside of maximal division requirement simultaneously, leading them to take 100- and 200 levelcourses in humanities departments. Additionally, students who are on the pre-med track must take two English courses, as most medical schools require this. This ultimately results in non-majors overcrowding these lower-level humanities courses, particularly in departments like Art History and Cinema Studies, in which a single class is the primary introductory course for both intended majors and students who only want to sample the subject.

One might argue that this overcrowding cuts both ways because humanities majors must complete two QFR requirements and two courses outside their maximal division. Unlike the humanities courses, however, almost all STEM courses count as a QFR requirement, allowing humanities majors to easily fulfill these two requirements simultaneously. Furthermore, the STEM departments offer a few half courses that help satisfy requirements for non-STEM majors. These half courses, such as Physics 051, Physics 052 and Economics 099, have the benefits of being short, typically having pass/no pass grading and being predominantly filled with non-STEM students. As a result, they are easy for humanities majors to get into and offer alternatives to difficult introductory STEM courses.

The humanities departments offer some courses like these as well — a few Dance and language courses, a Creative Writing course and a Politics course — but none of these fulfill the writing intensive requirement that many STEM majors are looking to knock out. This makes those half courses a less compelling option than the 100- and 200-level courses that do satisfy requirements for STEM majors.

The disparity between the number of courses offered in STEM departments and the number of courses offered within most humanities departments is a glaring issue. In the Fall 2017 catalog, there are over 13 Biology courses, 10 Chemistry courses, 11 Neuroscience courses and 10 Computer Science courses offered, including different sections of the same course. Meanwhile, there are only eight Philosophy courses, seven Sociology courses and nine Anthropology courses. Some notable exceptions are the English, History and Politics departments, which offer a number of courses that are more proportional to the STEM options. However, at a college where 79 percent of graduates in the past three years were non-STEM majors, this balance in course offerings is insufficient.

One solution is to expand some humanities departments to include more lower-level courses. Many humanities departments, such as English, only offer one or two 100-level courses. If these departments with limited 100-level classes were expanded to include a few more introductory or half courses, STEM majors seeking to fulfill their requirements or other students hoping to explore a new field would have more options.

This would leave more spots open in higher level courses for humanities majors to fill.

Currently, humanities departments are working on expanding their courses for the Fall 2017 semester, according to the Office of the Registrar.

Philosophy in particular is looking to add a couple more classes, according to Professor Tim Hall, and other departments are also looking to expand their course selection. Hopefully, this will help the situation in the short run, but only the permanent addition of more introductory and humanities half courses will address the problem in the long term.

Trail Magic

Most of the wood scraps from construction were reused as kindling for the wood-burning stove or turned into plant mulch off-site.

Local and onsite trees were used for the floors and shelving. No boards larger than 2x6 inches are used in the entire house to avoid the destruction of old growth forests.

Water runoff from the roof fills a large tank which is then used to water the garden and other plants.

Less than two miles from campus stands Trail Magic, a two-and-a-half story house that uses 85 percent less electricity and 80 percent less water than the average American two-person home. Carl McDaniel, OC ’64, and his wife Mary were partially inspired by Oberlin College’s very own Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies to create a building that would be self-sustaining and environmentally friendly without being much more expensive to build. They minimized waste by recycling leftover building materials and using repurposed elements within the house, in addition to various features that minimize water and electricity waste. Here are some of the features which make Trail Magic an exemplary model for sustainability and clean living.

Low-flow shower heads, faucets and toilets are implemented to significantly reduce water usage.

Calendar The Rocky Horror Picture Show Friday, April 21, 11:59 p.m.

Apollo Theatre The cult classic returns to Oberlin!

The performance group Simply His Servants will enact an accompanying floor show and merchandise will be available for purchase in the lobby. Costumes and audience participation are encouraged! Admission is $5.

Solar panels cover the roof — any excess electricity generated is fed back into Oberlin’s power grid.

Windows come equipped with energy-harnessing technology to supplement the solar panels.

Layout and Text by Izzy Rosenstein,This Week editor ViBE Dance Company Showcase Saturday, April 22, 3–4 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

POC Community Block Party Saturday, April 22, 4:30–7:30 p.m.

South Quad

Interfaith Day of Service Sunday, April 23, 1–7 p.m.

Lewis House and Multifaith Center

Come see ViBE’s spring dance showcase, run entirely by student dancers and choreographers. The dance styles include jazz, tap and more!

This free event will include food, music, performances and other outdoor activities. Entry is prioritized for cultural organizations and community members of color, but everyone is welcome! Proceeds from fundraisers will go to the Undocumented Student Scholarship Fund.

This community-wide event uses service as a platform to bring together people with diverse perspectives to work toward a common goal. Check-in begins at the Multifaith Center and then expands to working in the greater Oberlin community.

Mead Swing Lecture — “Against Buddhism: A Christian Missionary in Tibet” Monday, April 24, 5 p.m.

Hallock Auditorium, Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies Donald S. Lopez Jr., professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan, will lecture about morality and religious conversion in Buddhist lands throughout history.

Senior Symposium Friday, April 28, Noon King Building Come out and support the culmination of four years of hard work! This annual symposium will have multiple presentations celebrating the academic and artistic achievements of the Class of 2017. A reception will follow.

Trail Magic

Most of the wood scraps from construction were reused as kindling for the wood-burning stove or turned into plant mulch off-site.

Local and onsite trees were used for the floors and shelving. No boards larger than 2x6 inches are used in the entire house to avoid the destruction of old growth forests.

Water runoff from the roof fills a large tank which is then used to water the garden and other plants.

Less than two miles from campus stands Trail Magic, a two-and-a-half story house that uses 85 percent less electricity and 80 percent less water than the average American two-person home. Carl McDaniel, OC ’64, and his wife Mary were partially inspired by Oberlin College’s very own Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies to create a building that would be self-sustaining and environmentally friendly without being much more expensive to build. They minimized waste by recycling leftover building materials and using repurposed elements within the house, in addition to various features that minimize water and electricity waste. Here are some of the features which make Trail Magic an exemplary model for sustainability and clean living.

Low-flow shower heads, faucets and toilets are implemented to significantly reduce water usage.

Calendar The Rocky Horror Picture Show Friday, April 21, 11:59 p.m.

Apollo Theatre The cult classic returns to Oberlin!

The performance group Simply His Servants will enact an accompanying floor show and merchandise will be available for purchase in the lobby. Costumes and audience participation are encouraged! Admission is $5.

Solar panels cover the roof — any excess electricity generated is fed back into Oberlin’s power grid.

Windows come equipped with energy-harnessing technology to supplement the solar panels.

Layout and Text by Izzy Rosenstein,This Week editor ViBE Dance Company Showcase Saturday, April 22, 3–4 p.m.

The Cat in the Cream

POC Community Block Party Saturday, April 22, 4:30–7:30 p.m.

South Quad

Interfaith Day of Service Sunday, April 23, 1–7 p.m.

Lewis House and Multifaith Center

Come see ViBE’s spring dance showcase, run entirely by student dancers and choreographers. The dance styles include jazz, tap and more!

This free event will include food, music, performances and other outdoor activities. Entry is prioritized for cultural organizations and community members of color, but everyone is welcome! Proceeds from fundraisers will go to the Undocumented Student Scholarship Fund.

This community-wide event uses service as a platform to bring together people with diverse perspectives to work toward a common goal. Check-in begins at the Multifaith Center and then expands to working in the greater Oberlin community.

Mead Swing Lecture — “Against Buddhism: A Christian Missionary in Tibet” Monday, April 24, 5 p.m.

Hallock Auditorium, Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies Donald S. Lopez Jr., professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan, will lecture about morality and religious conversion in Buddhist lands throughout history.

Senior Symposium Friday, April 28, Noon King Building Come out and support the culmination of four years of hard work! This annual symposium will have multiple presentations celebrating the academic and artistic achievements of the Class of 2017. A reception will follow.

Arts The Oberlin Review

Page 10

April 21, 2017

On the Record with Curator Andrea Gyorody Andrea Gyorody was recently hired as the new Ellen Johnson ’33 assistant curator of modern and contemporary art at the Allen Memorial Art Museum.

She graduated from Amherst College in 2007 and went on to receive a master’s degree in Art History from Williams College. Currently a Ph.D. candidate in art history at University of California, Los Angeles and a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and a German Academic Exchange Service Fellowship, Gyorody spent two years in Germany studying post-war and contemporary art and dove straight into her work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art upon her return. Gyorody is currently involved with planning an exhibit honoring the legacy of Ellen Johnson, OC ’33, a celebrated art historian and Oberlin professor of modern art from 1945 to 1977. Though she never held a curatorial position, Johnson worked tirelessly to build the Allen’s contemporary art collection as a member of the acquisition committee and commissioned 3-Way Plug, Claes Oldenburg’s first large sculpture, in 1970.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

As a curator and art historian, what are some areas of particular interest to you?

In undergrad I worked almost exclusively on East Asian art, and I did a lot with contemporary Japanese [art]. I did my undergrad thesis … specifically on images of young girls in contemporary Japanese art, mostly from the ’90s and early 2000s. Then, when I went to Williams, I kind of rediscovered German history as both a part of my own heritage and as a source of interest that I’d been really into as a kid and had kind of forgotten about for 15 years. I started working with a professor there who is one of the experts on German art in the U.S., and [I] kind of switched focus. The one kind of tying thread between the Japanese stuff and the German stuff is the post-war condition and how societies deal with extensive trauma both as perpetrators and as victims.

At UCLA, I continued mainly doing stuff with European and American post-war and contemporary art, and I’ve worked on three projects related to African-American art specifically, from the ’50s and ’60s to today.

What brought you to this field and to Oberlin in particular?

The very first class I took at Amherst was … a first-year seminar. ... I had seen one that was [about] Japanese art and literature, and I was like, “That sounds really interesting, and I know nothing about that, so I’ll try that,” and that class completely converted me to becoming an art historian. I think part of it was having an aptitude for formal analysis and for looking at things and being able to describe them and then an interest in interpreting works of art. I had been a high school debater; making arguments was something I wanted to do, so academia seemed like a good idea, and then I did a bunch of summer internships throughout college that really cemented … that this was the sphere … I wanted to be getting into and doing things [in].

What does your position at the Allen entail, and how have you found the work so far?

It’s very overwhelming — in a good way! I think part of the reason that I wanted to move on from my previous job is that my purview at LACMA was very, very narrow. I wasn’t necessarily looking [around] at the time when I got an email about this job, … but as soon as I saw the description in the email and looked at the Allen’s collection, it was just like, “This is exactly what I want to be doing.” The collection is amazing, Oberlin students are amazing — I went to two small colleges and I was excited about doing that again. I taught at UCLA for three years, so this is a nice way of dealing with students again.

As far as the work itself goes, obviously I’ve only been here for three weeks, but within three weeks there’s been already acquisitions to consider, future programming to consider.

I’m right now putting together the centennial show celebrating Ellen Johnson’s legacy, [which] will get installed this summer, so that’s literally on my desk at the moment. She’s an important figure at the College and the museum. There are a lot of people still alive who took classes with her and really knew her as a person, and a lot of the works that we’re going to install for that show are [some of] the most exciting objects that we have in my field. Eva Hesse will come out, and

Jackie Windsor, and Frank Stella, and a lot of Claus Oldenburg probably, Robert Morris, et cetera. It’s [a] dream body of work to deal with for a show, but it’s also very fast turnaround from my start here to the [installation] of that show.

Can you tell me more about the Ellen Johnson exhibit?

It’s going to be in the Ellen Johnson Gallery, as you might imagine, and we’re going to pull in different threads of her career here. She brought in a Monet, a Cézanne and a Picasso, all of which will be in the gallery alongside works by [other artists]. There’s [also] some more recent stuff that was given in her honor that takes us not quite to the present day, but a little further than [some of the artists I named].

In addition to that, which is already a lot, we’re hoping to do some programming around her legacy as a teacher and not just her legacy as a curator and collector or a librarian, which was what she was originally at the College. I don’t know what form that’s going to take yet, but I’d like to do something involving students, where we do — it doesn’t necessarily have to be performative lecturing; I don’t want someone to imitate Ellen Johnson — but we have recordings of her speaking and teaching. … I haven’t gotten to listen to all of them yet, but I feel like even if it’s just students essentially teaching other students about things … in the collection that mean something to them.

That’s in the works, probably for later next year.

We’re also hopefully going to revamp our blog and make it a little bit more amenable to longer-form writing. A lot of those recordings are digitized, of her teaching and of really famous artists she brought in that gave talks here, like Oldenburg and Jim Dine, super famous people who came here … when they were just starting out or had just gotten to be known.

I want to use the blog as a space to kind of think about all kinds of weird and interesting things that you can’t put in a show, which is a lot of stuff.

We own an Alice Neel portrait of Ellen Johnson that apparently she had to sit for for quite a long time and it was super uncomfortable, and we actually own … the outfit that she’s wearing in

the painting. It’s not something that makes sense alongside the works of art in the show, but it is something I think could make a really cool blog post.

What other changes are you hoping to bring to the Allen? What kind of a direction do you see it taking?

I can say one of the things I really want to do is — [that’s been] on the museum’s radar, but hasn’t really been a focus of either collecting or programming — is new media, film and video. That stuff is difficult to collect, because there are a lot of logistical issues involved, … and there’s been a lot of discussion lately in the art community about how best to preserve those things. I would really like to bring film and video to the collection, hopefully starting with a number of “historical” films from the ’70s and ’80s and then building up a contemporary collection.

Another thing I would like to do, in part because the Allen has only limited exhibition space, [is] to find spaces on campus or in town that could make sense for showing — not works in our collection because they can’t leave the building for security and climate purposes, but say we do acquire film and video. For all intents and purposes, the USB stick or the digital file doesn’t have the value, so you could put that on a screen, and it would be something that people would happen upon and have a different experience of than something they go to the museum with the intension of seeing. I think there are ways of activating the Oberlin space, broadly speaking, with works of art that we’re able to show outside of the space of the museum. It could be commissioning a sound piece that would be, say, under this tree or in the chapel. There are students, of course, who are installing work outside of the museum, but I think we could do that too.

I [also] really do want to acquire more works by artists of color [ from] 1950 onwards. There’s a lot being done now by contemporary artists of color, particularly African-American artists, that I think would absolutely make a contribution to our collection. The Allen already has some stuff, [ for example] these Fred Wilson piec-

Andrea Gyorody was recently hired as the Ellen Johnson ‘33 assistant curator of modern and contemporary art.

Photo courtesty of Andrea Gyorody

es, … and [a number] photographs by artists of color. I’m not starting from scratch, but we can do a lot more.

You’re in charge of several works by some very well-known artists, including Monet, Picasso and Modigliani. What’s been your favorite lesser-known artist or work so far and why?

At the Allen, I will say this: There was a conference here recently, … and they pulled out three works on paper by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and František Kupka, … and they’re just incredible. They’re really beautiful, and it shouldn’t be surprising that these things are in the collection of a museum at a small college, but I think most of the people who came through [had their] minds blown by the quality. The pastel by Kupka especially is just — it’s glowing. It has this yellow-gold, kind of thickly laid on pastel that is [practically] emanating light from within the work.

Is there anything I haven’t touched on that you’d like to add?

One thing I do want to add is that I’ve laid out all these things that I want to do, but one of the major contingencies is what do students want and what can faculty make really great use of in their teaching. As I get to know the College better, and the people who are frequently using the Allen’s collection, I think that will perhaps redirect what some of my priorities are. I’m … excited for what conversations may arise.

Interview by Victoria Garber, Arts editor

Lamar’s Lyrical Genius Impresses Again on DAMN. Daniel Markus Arts editor

As Kendrick Lamar finished a stunning set in the waning hours of Coachella Sunday night, diehard fans and internet detectives alike were left slightly disappointed. After releasing a new 14-track opus, DAMN., last Friday, fans desperate for even more music found themselves spurred on by a rapidly spreading internet theory that originated on Reddit; according to the sleuths, another album was imminent.

The theory began with the fact that DAMN. was released on Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus’ crucifixion.

DAMN.’s first track, “BLOOD.,” ends with

Lamar being shot and killed, and in “The Heart Part IV,” a single released ahead of DAMN., Lamar raps, “I said it’s like that, dropped one classic, came right back / ’Nother classic, right back / My next album, the whole industry on a ice pack / With TOC, you see the flames / In my E-Y-E’s; it’s not a game.”

Many interpreted that lyric to be a promise of an album following DAMN., specifically citing “TOC” as meaning “the other color,” a reference to Morpheus in The Matrix, the movie that all conspiracy theories seem to somehow revolve around. As ridiculous as the theory sounds, a variety of factors — DAMN.’s color scheme and a series of mysterious tweets by one of Lamar’s producers that

included a picture of Morpheus — made the theory seem believable. And there’s no denying how magnificent it would be ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Lamar is the premier rapper of our time, and if there’s anyone capable of pulling off such a perfectly orchestrated thematic feat, it’s him.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– for Lamar to die in DAMN. and return resurrected on Easter Sunday with yet another full-length LP. Alas, a second album never came

— not that it was necessary. DAMN. is a masterwork in its own right. But it’s worth noting how pervasive the theory was and that of all the releases by major rappers in recent years, this was the one where a sister album really seemed possible. Lamar is the premier rapper of our time, and if there’s anyone capable of pulling off such a perfectly orchestrated thematic feat, it’s him. 2017 marks the third consecutive year that Lamar has released a masterful full-length LP, with untitled unmastered. coming as a total surprise in 2016 and To Pimp a Butterfly released the year before. No one else at the forefront of popular rap music today See With, page 13

Arts

The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

Page 11

Jay-Marie and Friends are ‘Here, Queer & Staying’ Julia Peterson Production editor

Jay-Marie and Friends, who performed Sunday night at the Cat in the Cream, delivered a show that celebrated Black and queer identities. Musicians Jay-Marie Hill, Britt Baker, Suyá Nascimento and surprise guest Wriply Bennett showcased powerful protest anthems with unambiguous, unapologetic lyrics like “Here, Queer & Staying” and “Keep it marchin, marchin, placin, Raging, gracing / As we stagin liberation.” The performance represents part of a long tradition of Black art and activism going hand in hand, from Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” to a proliferation of works by contemporary artist-activists.

Hill, a “Black y Boricua genderQueer artist,” musician and activist described how the music they write and perform allows them to express numerous issues and moments that matter to them in a unique way.

“My music affirms that the things I care most about are all connected,” Hill wrote in an email to the Review. “Queerness, social justice, Blackness, liberation, gender, creating new worlds, acknowledging the daily pain of having your heart open to the world’s cruelty. Some might say these don’t all fit in the same box, but they fit in my music. And my ability to share that keeps me alive when all is lost.”

Hill’s music is both personal and political.

All the songs they performed Sunday night were written with traumatic or life-altering incidents in mind. “[I wrote] ‘#Bullet’ after the June 2015 Charleston Massacre, ‘Past Time’ after the 16th trans woman was killed in 2015 & in honor of Lamia Beard & trans woman [sic] killed earlier [in] the [y]ear, and ‘Get Ready’ after the election of Donald Trump,” Hill wrote in an email to the Review. “I find that these incidents had me at my most raw.

These songs feel exactly like a summary of

Conservatory senior Sarah Snider DJs as part of Lambda for Lambda, a fundraiser held at the ’Sco for Lambda Legal, a legal advocacy organization for LGBTQ people. The event was part of Queerfest, an annual series organized by the Multicultural Resource Center that celebrates Oberlin’s queer community.

Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo editor

how I feel about the issues in my everyday life as an artist-activist.”

Sunday’s performance was part of Queerfest, a week-long series of events celebrating the LGBTQ community in Oberlin and beyond. Hill and their fellow artists also led a workshop on Monday afternoon that focused on joy, artistic creation and affirming marginalized identities. For Elliot Director, the LGBTQ Student Life coordinator at the Multicultural Resource Center, bringing JayMarie and Friends to campus was a critical opportunity to highlight a variety of queer narratives and experiences within the week.

“We wanted to be really intentional about cultivating multiple spaces of joy inside of Queerfest,” Director wrote in an email to the Review. “We also wanted to ensure that [queer and trans people of color] were celebrated as part of these proceedings.”

Kristen Reynolds, MRC Africana Student

Life coordinator, also reflected on the importance of celebrating queer identity through art and music.

“Art, I think, offers creators the opportunity to expand the boundaries of what we think is possible while also tapping into how we feel about the world as it currently exists,” Reynolds wrote. “[The performers] all made affirmations about their queer identities while also making space for us to grieve and say the names of Black women who have been lost to antitrans violence and police brutality. When we celebrate identity through art, we create space for vulnerability.”

For Hill, their music poses a challenge to a world that systematically marginalizes Black and queer people.

“Black people are masters of failure, of deviance,” Hill wrote. “We have ‘failed’ the litmus test of what it means to be humyn [sic] time and time again. Queer people have

historically also been marked as deviant. So for me to be doubly marked as Black [and] queer ... is to be a master of failure at what the world calls valuable and useful under white cis hetero patriarchal capitalism.”

Their lyrics are a clear expression of this intention: “You’ve pushed us out and kept us down / You can’t get away with this much / longer.”

“All art created out of [marginalized] identities will improve the world, since people must be their most humyn selves in the creation process,” Hill added. “Failing, getting up, healing and trying again are what set us apart as humyn. Music is an embodiment of this life cycle in real time.

To me, queerness and music … walk in step with each other to create new worlds that actually work for everyone.”

The show attracted interest from a wide variety of groups and organizations on campus, many of which — including the MRC, the Oberlin College Black Musicians Guild, Lambda Union and the Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies department — officially sponsored it. However, this did not translate to high turnout, with most seats in the Cat in the Cream going unfilled.

“It was a powerful experience for all those that attended, and I wish it could have been shared with more people,” Reynolds said. “I appreciate that every person on stage was given an opportunity to share their personal music, but I also really enjoyed how well they worked together.”

For Hill, this intimacy was a contributing factor to the event’s positive environment rather than a disappointment.

“The performance at the Cat [in the Cream] felt like home,” they wrote. “Like I was in my living room sharing the most authentic and free parts of myself. And being joined by Black, queer comrades whom I love and make a point to see the full humynity of precisely because we live in a world that doesn’t value deviant Black and brown bodies felt safe and purposeful.”

Chan-Wook’s Handmaiden Unpacks Sexual Power Dynamics Christian Bolles Columnist “Of all the things I’ve washed and dressed, have any been so pretty?”

This is the first question Korean handmaiden Sookee asks herself upon meeting her new mistress, a softspoken Japanese noblewoman named Lady Hideko. Sookee’s immediate attraction to Hideko is objectifying — even clinical — mirroring the aesthetic fascination that revered Korean director Park Chan-Wook maintains for the decadent imagery that defines his most recent work, The Handmaiden.

The film is clearly about sex, but it’s also about the broader philosophical implications of the myriad power dynamics inherent in a sexual relationship. The film takes place during Japan’s annexation of Korea in the early 20th century and at its most high-concept, Park’s script frames the cultural exchange of this transitional period as something akin to a sexual relationship between the two countries, one just as fraught and dangerous as any physical embrace portrayed on screen.

Though its 140-minute running time is padded by some unnecessary detail, The Handmaiden operates at a mostly sustained fever pitch of tension and mystery, cleverly peeling back layer after layer of power play and attraction. It uses unconventional

storytelling and graphic innuendo to serve a surprisingly feminist narrative that is steeped in historical allegory and deception that will satisfy anyone with a taste for period detail, intricate plotting and revenge.

Part of this is accomplished by outright deception on the film’s part — no character in The Handmaiden is to be taken at their word. Sookee enters Lady Hideko’s home upon false pretenses, pretending to be a handmaiden when she has really been sent there to convince her mistress to marry a con man posing as one Count Fujiwara. Once married, Fujiwara plans on declaring his wife insane, confining her to an asylum and taking the fortune for himself. But their plans spin out of control when Hideko, who was raised under the strict watch of her uncle Kouzuki, takes a liking to her new handmaiden.

Soon, Sookee’s streetwise worldliness and Hideko’s lust for escape develop into an intense relationship that is utterly forbidden by the terms of Sookee’s agreement.

What ensues is a mind-bending descent into the disturbing depths of male depravity as Sookee discovers the secrets behind Kouzuki’s bookfilled mansion.

The complexity of the narrative might threaten to overwhelm, if not for the film’s distinct storytelling choices.

Instead of drawing out implications from Hideko and Sookee’s mutual

attraction, Park employs a temporally flexible three-act structure to divide the proceedings into manageable slices. Though each act focuses on a different perspective — the first act told through Sookee’s eyes, the second

by Hideko and the third jumping between characters — this choice should not be mistaken for narrative simplicity.

The Handmaiden provides a limited stream of information regarding the true nature of Fujiwara’s plot and Kouzuki’s estate, often withholding revelations by skipping over key scenes only to return to them later. In keeping with the director’s previous features, Oldboy and Stoker, the viewer is anything but omniscient; because of its strange timeline, the film’s characters almost always know more than the audience. While every central figure is caught in a web of mutual deception, the movie itself is just as duplicitous, rendering its few moments of truth both shocking and immensely satisfying.

As a story, however, The Handmaiden’s style becomes progressively messier as it unravels.

Certain scenes are robbed of emotional impact by coming later than they should, all in the name of dramatic effect. Furthermore, the film’s latter half suffers from overexplaining itself. This is a shame, as most movies like this benefit from a second viewing to parse out the

implications of any given twist, and the most thought-provoking stories often leave room for healthy speculation.

The Handmaiden instead goes out of its way to answer every conceivable question, leaving no page unturned.

While thorough, Park would have done well to place subtle hints as to the true nature of certain scenes on the first run-through, allowing viewers to solve the smaller parts of the puzzle themselves. Instead, The Handmaiden’s self-solving nature does a disservice to anyone enticed by mystery.

However, the film’s rich historical atmosphere is enough to allow the viewer to revel in even its slowest moments. Early 20th century Korea has been recreated in stunning detail, with the effect of the Japanese occupation dripping from every frame. The Korean Uncle Kouzuki, a learned collector of books, has a taste for the union of Japanese and Western culture, as exemplified by the fusion of architecture that characterizes his splendid estate.

Meanwhile, a Korean sensibility is noticeably absent, and when Fujiwara brings this up to Kouzuki, the count replies that he finds Japan possesses an elegance that Korea lacks. Though Fujiwara disagrees with Kouzuki regarding his perception of Korea as “wild,” the purpose of his visit is to claim a Japanese noblewoman as a sort of trophy. Likewise, Sookee only

agrees to deceive Lady Hideko on the grounds that she gets to keep Hideko’s jewelry.

Park’s clear message is that each culture objectifies the other and the opulence of Japan is positioned as a counter to Korea’s earthiness. Seeing Kouzuki’s estate through the eyes of Sookee, who has spent her whole life in the streets, the audience is meant to act as a surrogate for a nearly-absent Korea that rarely shows itself, except where it creeps up from under Sookee and Fujiwara’s carefully-constructed facades.

The Handmaiden’s labyrinth of secrets and betrayal is precise both in pacing and presentation. This beauty hinges entirely on its handling of sex, which has its delicate roots tangled throughout the estate. Though there are only two sex scenes, Park presents them with aesthetic grace and, more importantly to the story, symmetry.

Hideko and Sookee are reciprocal forces who complement one another, whereas the men who threaten to encroach upon their lives and bodies represent an unwelcome imbalance, consumed by greed without passion and unconcerned with consent.

While not quite a masterpiece, The Handmaiden is a gripping film that stares boldly at the best and worst of humanity, telling a deeply disturbing yet cathartic story that nearly reaches Oldboy’s frenzied heights.

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Arts

The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

Live from Studio B Celebrates Centennial Session high-quality packages of their music for distribution.

“This is a pretty incredible resource that is unheard of in most musical communities,” Winer said. “Our videos have helped artists get discovered, book tour dates and access a wider range of visibility than they may have been able to prior to our session.”

Live From Studio B, which airs every Sunday at 2 p.m. on WOBC, has seen a great deal of expansion under Winer’s tenure. The series’ staff created a Workgroup ExCo, a weekly class run by the show’s audio and video producers that teaches College and community members the basics of audio and video recording in the context of Studio B. Sessions are now also available for download on Staff members and guests on Live From Studio B celebrate the series’ 100th session, which featured two student Bandcamp. Listeners are able bands, awksymoron and Thee Hundos.

Photo courtesy of WOBC to pay as much or as little as they want — with the option of Daniel Markus videos, which hums with the both bands is fun and surfy with downloading sessions for free — Arts editor sound of a soothing synthesizer really eloquent and cathartic and any proceeds are donated to Quentin Nguyen-duy as the words “LIVE FROM lyrics, and it made for a really the ACLU. Staff writer STUDIO B” emerge from the sweet celebration for all of us ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– noise. Glanders has long since in Studio B last Sunday,” Winer It began as the pet project graduated and is now working said. “Athena is one of the co- Accessibility has been of TIMARA major Charles as the sound engineer for the chairs of the Gear Co-op along Glanders, OC ’14, with a VHS- band Whitney, but the show with our own Studio B Audio a key aspect of the tape recording of Nagual, an has become a mainstay in Producer Cena Loffredo, so it series since it began. ... ambient guitar duo formed by WOBC’s programming. Every felt especially significant to Sessions are recorded, Ian McColm, OC ’13, and David week, the show live broadcasts a celebrate our 100th session with mixed and mastered at Shapiro, OC ’12. The footage is performance by a musical group, someone who devotes a lot of grainy, washed out, and there’s spoken word artist or other their time, passion and energy no cost to the artist. only one camera view, a wide- performer and later releases on this campus to making ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– angle shot that’s a little off- video and audio recordings on music-making more accessible center. WOBC’s classical records YouTube. in Oberlin.”

For College sophomore Jules vault, where the session was Now helmed by College junior Accessibility has been a Greene, who joined Studio B recorded, is awkwardly lit, with Becca Winer, Live From Studio B key aspect of the series since her first semester at Oberlin the brightest areas where the recorded its 100th session last it began. In addition to online and now works as WOBC’s performers are not.

Sunday with awksymoron and streaming and live radio international genre director, the A lot about Studio B has Thee Hundos, two college bands broadcasting, sessions are group’s efforts are part of larger changed since then, with the fronted by College junior Athena recorded, mixed and mastered goals she hopes to achieve in only real constant being the Matsil. for release at no cost to the music. colorful, staticky intro to the “The music they produce in artist, providing them with “What Studio B is doing is

Wilder Night Celebrates Activism

Students flocked to Wilder Hall Wednesday evening to participate in Wilder Night, a conglomerate event comprised of numerous activities spread throughout the building’s three floors. Several of these activities were aimed at promoting sexual health, including free STI and HIV testing and interactive consent workshops. Among the many events, Oberlin Students United for Reproductive Freedom held a drive for menstrual products to donate to women’s and homeless shelters, where sanitary products are much needed and seldom donated. SURF will continue the drive in Mudd Library this week. Students also wrote letters to currently incarcerated LGBTQ individuals through the organization Black & Pink, and called political representatives in support of progressive causes. Student volunteers also gave free haircuts for several hours as part of the Resource Conservation Team’s Hair Recycling event, which will donate the hair to help clean up oil spills.

Less activism-oriented activities ranged from sampling essential oils and making lotions to participating in board games and tarot card readings.

Text by Victoria Garber, Arts editor Photo by Kellianne Doyle, Staff photographer

important now more than ever because it’s contributing to the change that I want to make happen in the music industry,” Greene said. “We’re at a point in our society where we’re at least becoming aware of these vast disparities between things like race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability … the fact that Studio B is attuned to this climate and is actively trying to be a force for change, I think, is a really strong way that the medium of radio can be used to hopefully make a difference in the long run.”

In addition to working to realize such changes, Greene values that the series has given a voice to many artists from the College, community and the outside world.

“I’ve been lucky enough to be able to book some of my favorite touring artists to perform on Live From Studio B as they passed through Oberlin, like Mal Devisa, Frankie Cosmos, SPORTS and Palm,” Winer said in an email to the Review. “But sessions with local [or] student bands are a lot more fulfilling for all of us, since we get to connect with members of our own musical community.

Some of my favorite local sessions I’ve done have been with Quartet M, a really incredible ensemble that plays a fusion of traditional Arabic music with western Jazz; Xango, a session I find myself watching all the time; and WOOF, which was actually the first session I booked as the Executive Producer of Live From Studio B, so there’s a special place in my heart for that one. But I really couldn’t name a session I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed.”

Arts

The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

Page 13

Princess Nokia Upsets Students with Second Missed Booking Samantha Spaccasi Staff writer Princess Nokia’s performance at the ’Sco on April 8 was supposed to be one of the biggest shows of the year. Students planning on attending the New York rapper’s concert, however, were in for an unfortunate surprise: Destiny Frasqueri, known by her stage name Princess Nokia, missed the show due to travel complications that arose the day before her scheduled appearance.

“The cancellation was due to flight delays the day before from LaGuardia and Delta [Airlines] having major issues,” Bojan Jovanovic, Frasqueri’s agent, wrote in an email to the Review. “It was difficult to find a new flight but we plan on rescheduling and coming back to Oberlin in the future.”

This marks the second time that Frasqueri has canceled an Oberlin appearance due to flight complications. The first time occurred in the spring of 2016, when she was scheduled to perform at the Cat in the Cream.

Many students were skeptical about the stated reason for Frasqueri’s cancelation. This skepticism was generated in part from posts on her Instagram account, which included carefree images and videos of the artist enjoying herself in New York City while Oberlin organizers attempted to reschedule her flight.

“That’s what everyone was talking about,” said Sky Davis, College junior and Cat in the Cream booker. “The day of [the concert], all throughout her Instagram there were pictures of

her dancing around all over [Central] Park and having fun the whole day.

We were like, ‘Why aren’t you here?’”

Frasqueri was also scheduled to perform at Kenyon College’s Horn Gallery on Friday, April 7, the day she was slated to arrive in Columbus, but canceled that appearance as well. College junior Rayna Holmes and Anya Schulman, the booker for the Kenyon venue, were involved in coordinating the rapper’s travel plans, including the trip from Kenyon in Gambier, Ohio, to Oberlin. Both bookers had expressed concern over the predicted snowstorms, which they feared would impact those plans.

“All of Thursday night and into Friday morning, [Anya and I] are going back and forth about weather and if the flight is getting canceled,” Holmes said. “We’re constantly checking our phones about whether or not the flight is being delayed, [or] whether or not the flights beforehand are getting canceled. We hit 11 a.m. on Friday, and we’re like, ‘OK, the flight only got delayed 20 minutes.’

We both de-stressed for five seconds, then Anya informed me that Destiny was not on the flight.”

Holmes subsequently scrambled to find alternative flights for Frasqueri, but was met with less cooperation than she would have anticipated.

“I was in my boss [Sean Lehlbach’s] office for the rest of Friday afternoon trying to get Destiny on another flight to Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, Detroit, anywhere. We would try to make it happen,” Holmes said. “Sean and I were looking at all the airlines,

refreshing the page every 20 minutes, looking at reasonably priced flights, and sending them to her agent.”

There was apparently a communication breakdown during this process, however, between Holmes, Frasqueri and Frasqueri’s agent.

“It felt like there wasn’t as much communication as there could have been,” Holmes said. “I personally feel that there was a way to salvage the situation and get her onto another flight. I know that at the airport, Destiny asked if she could fly standby, but all the flights were booked, and flights the rest of those days were booked because of the cancellations on Thursday. Things were not on our side in terms of trying to salvage [the show], and the communication between the agent and myself, and Destiny and her agent … was not how I would [have hoped it would be] in light of that crisis.”

Holmes also mentioned that communication between her and Frasqueri’s agent seemed to slow down at the end of the business day, which puzzled her.

“I’m not sure I would slow communication in that way if I wanted to make something happen,” she said. “Some people believe that this happened because people don’t respect Oberlin as much as they used to as a definite stop on the list and a high-priority stop for colleges,” Holmes said. “Some people believe that it’s incredibly disrespectful, no matter what the true circumstances are, for this to have happened a second time.”

College sophomore Ruby

Anderson reached out to Frasqueri the day of the concert via Instagram message to express her feelings about the cancellation.

“Hi Destiny – I just want to say that so many students are really disappointed that you aren’t playing in Oberlin tonight,” her message reads. “We were so upset when your flight got delayed in Spring 2016, and your show for tonight sold out in a matter of hours last week. Your music is especially important to students of color, and it can be so isolating to be a POC in Ohio. Posting videos of yourself dancing in your underwear and frolicking in Central Park adds insult to injury. You’ve let many people down.”

Frasqueri responded to Anderson via Instagram: “BEING PRINCESS NOKIA DOESN’T MAKE ME A METAHUMAN SO DO NOT TRY TO GUILT TRIP ME WHILE IM LIVING MY NORMAL LIFE OUTSIDE OF WORK. I DIDN’T MISS MY FLIGHT. THE AIR LINE AND ENTIRE NYC APIRPORT SYSTEM WAS BACKED UP WITH LINES OF PEOPLE THAT REACHED OUTSIDE IN THE SIDE WALK. I CUDNT CHECK ON TIME. I WENT HOME CASE CLOSED.” The artist added that she felt Anderson’s calling her out on her social media posts or expecting her to censor herself in light of an admittedly unfortunate situation was inappropriate.

“I APOLOGIZE I CUDNT MAKE IT BUT ASKING ME TO TRY TO HIDE MY HAPPINESS IS A REACH,” she wrote. “It’s actually very invasive and disrespectful. BOUNDARIES.” Regardless, many in Oberlin

remain convinced the artist could have done more had the show been of real importance to her.

Though students were disappointed in Frasqueri’s absence, Holmes managed to save the show by changing the lineup at the last minute. Quay Dash, a rapper from the Bronx who was originally set to open the concert, became the headliner. College sophomore and DJ Sammie Jo opened for Quay Dash.

Holmes and the Program Board also provided refunds for ticketholders.

“I still think we put on an incredible show,” Holmes said. “I’m still really happy at the turnout for the people who came to support Sammie Jo and Quay Dash. People were bummed about the changes, but it was really special to see all those people support for those performers. At the end of the day, that’s a very big part of my job, and I’m really happy to be involved with that.”

Though Frasqueri’s agent expressed interest in performing at Oberlin in the future, Davis doesn’t think it’s likely Princess Nokia will be asked to come a third time, but added that she personally thinks the artist is an “incredible person.”

“I would book her again, but this is the second time this has happened,” Davis said. “There was really no communication there.

There was money already spent.

[SUPC] hired Concert Sound, there were posters and tickets, so it was very inconvenient for a lot of people.

It makes the Student Union not want to book people who do that.”

With DAMN., Lamar Successfully Balances Experimental, Powerful Music Continued from page 10 has released three studio albums in three years — not Drake, J. Cole, Chance the Rapper or Kanye West.

DAMN. is just more evidence of Lamar’s dominance.

The album, as with everything Lamar seems to release, reveals a level of depth that many mainstream artists don’t reach, addressing themes of death, politics, spirituality, family, love and existence. Musically, it falls somewhere between Lamar’s 2012 major-label debut, good kid, m.A.A.d city, and his most recent albums, To Pimp a Butterfly and untitled unmastered.

Where good kid was a somewhat standard rap debut in terms of format, featuring a few skits and several radio-ready tracks with powerful beats like “Money Trees” and “Backseat Freestyle,” Butterfly and untitled veered off in an erratic, short-circuiting blend of jazz and experimental influences narrated by Lamar’s unfolding

monologue. DAMN. blends these two influences beautifully, an equilibrium that incorporates bangers like “DNA.” and laid back soundscapes like “YAH.” If DAMN. falters at all, it’s when Lamar features other artists alongside himself. “LOYALTY.,” which features Rihanna, will undoubtedly be on heavy pop-radio rotation for a while, which wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if DAMN. were a pop album. “LOVE.,” which features Zacari, is even more of a pop song and feels even less natural on the album. U2’s appearance on “XXX.,” which was a terrifying prospect before the album’s release, is the least egregious but ultimately unconvincing, perhaps due to the inherent comedy in Bono singing in between bars by a rapper as great as Lamar.

Ultimately, however, these are momentary falters in the album as a whole and will likely go on to be forgotten by those of us that care about Lamar’s music, because the rest of the album is too good to be impaired by such

small details. The album’s production, though perhaps not the most inspired or strangest in recent years, is stellar and brimming with musical ideas beyond Lamar’s tight lyrics. Additionally, DAMN. demonstrates yet again that there is no one better at creating an album that is just as suited to being played start to finish — which its forthcoming vinyl release will require — as being played in individual tracks. Unsurprisingly, Lamar ties it all together with the high-paced, witty rhymes that we’ve come to expect and some additional flourishes, such as samples from multiple Fox News clips that appear on “BLOOD.” and “DNA.,” leaving plenty of material to be remembered and analyzed in years to come.

DAMN. is yet another gargantuan effort from Lamar, and after the catalog he’s amassed to this point, I’m left wondering how he’ll attempt to top it. With how much he avoids having to shoulder expectations, however, he probably won’t be worried about doing so.

Sports

Page 14

The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

In the Locker Room length and clarity.

Chris Parker This week, the Review sat down with Chris Parker, a freelance beat writer who covers the Cleveland Cavaliers and recently authored a new book, King James Brings The Land a Crown, about the Cavs’ historic 2016 championship run.

In the past two seasons, Parker has traveled to all of the Cavs’ postseason games to write in-depth analyses for Cleveland Scene. Parker will be at the Oberlin Bookstore on April 27 from 1–3 p.m. for a book signing.

This interview has been edited for

What was your goal and what was your process [in] writing your book?

I hadn’t written a book before, so part of this was becoming an author, and I didn’t think there was a better story than the prodigal return of LeBron James. I had written for the Cleveland Scene before and contacted them for help getting credentialed. I covered all the home games, and then when the playoffs came I went to the road games as well. I did this in 2015, thinking that that was the year of the return and that they would win, but of course that did not happen. I did it again — and all of this was out of my pocket, and I didn’t get paid anything. Each game I would write a 2,500 to 3,000-word pretty indepth post-game analysis. Some of that detail helped me create this chronological story of the Cavaliers season, which became King James Brings The Land a Crown.

This year the Cavs are off to a good start in the postseason, but as they continue, what do you think will be their biggest obstacle?

That’s a good question. During the season, one of their biggest troubles was transition defense, but it becomes less of an issue in the postseason because people play harder and there

Chris Parker aren’t as many transition opportunities by large. So the real struggle, and a struggle they’ve had all season, is going to be stopping penetration. Can they do a good enough job keeping guys in front of them not to expose the back end of their defense? ... I think that for the most part the defense is only going to improve a little. It’s kind of who they are. The thing that we have to hope for and look for as Cavs fans is how good the offense gets.

Going back to the last two seasons, what was it like covering the NBA Finals and how did the city change after they won?

Its extraordinary to see and hear LeBron James every day, because he is incredibly articulate about the game. ...

I think we have seen a change in who he is from when he left to when he came back. He has very much matured.

I think over the last two years, he matured further and has grown in the way he deals with the press and his teammates, so that was kind of cool to see [ from the] inside. Covering most of the playoffs was incredibly fun and rewarding. The Golden State [Warriors] series both years were so incredible. The first year, when they lost the first game and Kyrie [Irving] slips out of there — they had it and blew it in overtime, and everyone was kind of surprised. They

didn’t think the Cavs could hang with the Warriors. And then the next two games, when they put the Warriors on their heels and Delly [Matthew Dellavedova] played himself into the hospital, it was extraordinary. It laid the foundation for what happened last year for the community. That rally, nobody expected that — [they] weren’t expected to win. … It gave us that first idea that this past year, when we got down 3–1, [we thought], “Don’t lose faith in this team.

Don’t lose faith in the king.” ... So many years you build up this callous [ feeling] of, “Oh, we’re going to get hurt, we’re going to get hurt.” But it’s also kind of a calloused optimism. You know at some point the sun has to break through. And the fact that we had to work so hard for it made it that much more glorious.

Is LeBron James the greatest of all time?

Absolutely, absolutely. He makes other guys better around him in a way that I haven’t seen since Magic Johnson, and honestly I am hoping that they can make the Cavaliers team kind of like that “Showtime” legacy that the Lakers created.

Interview by Sam Harris Photo courtesy of Chris Parker

Lacrosse Snaps Editorial: College Sports Video Games Spark Salary Debate Losing Streak

Softball League Focuses on Fun

Continued from page 14

Continued from page 14

on going into Saturday.”

After learning from Saturday’s match, Oberlin dominated Hiram in a well-rounded effort Tuesday. Eleven different Yeomen scored goals while Filson and senior Jorden Mandel were dominant in goal. Scoring nine goals in the first quarter, Oberlin didn’t look back.

Just over two minutes into the first quarter, junior midfielder Reese Koburov ignited the offense with his first goal of the game. The goal was quickly followed up seven seconds later by a score from first-year Erik Zeug. The offensive outburst was a theme throughout the game as the Yeomen outshot Hiram 74–11 and 54–7 on goal.

Hager led the Yeomen with a career-high eight goals while Fabrizio tallied five. The game also represented an opportunity for numerous players to contribute, as sophomore Elie Small and junior John Pierce logged their first goals of the season.

With two victories over the past week, Oberlin will look to end its season on the right foot despite being eliminated from postseason play.

“Most of our conference games are against very competitive teams,” said junior Sean Somerville. “I’m proud of the way our guys have fought through the season, and I think we were able to minimize the mistakes against Wabash and Hiram, which led to better outcomes.”

Tomorrow, the Yeomen will step onto the field for the last time as they host the DePauw University Tigers on Senior Day at 1 p.m. Falling to DePauw 9–8 in an emotional overtime battle last season, the Yeomen say they are ready for revenge. The sixth-place Tigers, who are 7–6 overall and 2–5 in the NCAC, are one spot ahead of Oberlin in the conference standings.

“DePauw is a very solid team,” Somerville said. “We won a close game against them in 2015 and lost last year in overtime. We’re working hard this week to make sure we are firing on all cylinders come Saturday.”

Continued from page 16

seems poised to produce another college sports video game in the near future.

“One day, I know we’ll be back,” EA’s Chief Competition Officer Peter Moore said in an interview with IGN in 2016.

Interestingly, Moore also admitted that the debate over paying players for their likenesses has become representative of the broader debate over whether college athletes should be compensated for their play.

“NCAA Football became the lightning rod for bigger issues regarding college athletes getting paid for their performances, not only in football, but in all college sports,” Moore said.

The biggest questions surrounding this controversy are how much college athletes should be paid and which ones receive compensation.

I believe that Division I college athletes should be paid because their practice and game schedules are the most hectic. Division I schools draw in significantly more athletic revenue than Division II and Division III schools, so their players should be rewarded accordingly. Division I student-athletes deserve a yearly compensation of $15,000, which would cover room and board, in addition to books, school supplies and traveling expenses.

The $15,000 would then be added to however much video

game companies are willing to pay players in order to use them in the games. During 2014, when EA Sports and the NCAA reached a settlement over the use of images of collegiate players, it was proposed that men’s basketball and football athletes could earn up to $5,000 for their likenesses. That $5,000 plus $15,000 from their universities would add up to a total of $20,000 yearly, without adding in merit or need-based aid.

That amount is reasonable given the amount of time student-athletes put into their sports. A study facilitated by the NCAA in 2011 found that Division I football players practiced 43 hours per week. Add on time traveling to and from games and hours of schoolwork — student-athletes are essentially working nonstop.

Also, student-athletes help their schools make large sums of money solely based off of their talents. According to ESPN, in 2008, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Florida and Ohio State all made over $100 million in revenues from their athletic departments. In ticket sales alone, Texas and Michigan totaled over $40 million.

Plans to bring back college sports video games could bode well for student-athletes and give support to their movement to receive the compensation they need and deserve.

aged in intramural softball. It is an unspoken taboo for members of Oberlin’s softball or baseball team to compete. Teams usually consist of groups of friends or campus organizations such as OSTEEL or Oberlin’s Bike Co-Op that decide to get a team together. Sophomore Eli Roane, team captain of Miller Lite, definitely had a freshblood mentality when choosing his teammates.

“Of the 16 people on my team, I’d say maybe three or four have played baseball in the past, and maybe one or two have played softball,” Roane said. “Most people don’t play any sports, or even know the rules of baseball. One of my friends just got her parents to ship her a glove, so that was a pretty big step.”

But experience builds, as most people who play one season are bound to come back and compete on one of the 16 teams the following year. Senior Dan Bisno, a member of Shirley’s Angels, a team comprised of ’Sco employees and enthusiasts, has competed with multiple teams throughout his time at Oberlin.

“I’ve been playing since my freshman year,” Bisno wrote in an e-mail to the Review. “I remember a lot of the older students really setting the tone of the league as a super fun and inclusive environment. Having people out there that are making it positive for everyone is really important.”

The season, which officially began Tuesday, is off to a late start due to rainy weather. Despite a shortened season, the players’ enthusiasm has not been deterred. While there may not be enough time to have playoffs, there will still be enough time for players from all different campus scenes to get in the Intramural Softball spirit.

“I don’t want you to strike out on swings if you’re someone I don’t know, but you’re really trying,” Zepeda said. “I want to win, but I also want to have a fun time and other people to have a fun time.”

Sports

The Oberlin Review, April 21, 2017

Page 15

— Baseball —

Baseball Rebounds to Split Weekend at Hiram College Julie Schreiber Staff writer

Conference record now stands at 3–5. Head Coach Adrian Abrahamowicz said he was proud of how the team responded in Saturday’s games.

“We played a little bit tight on Friday, but we were much more relaxed on Saturday,” he said. “Once a few things went our way, we played the way we are capable of playing.”

In the first game of the Saturday after-

noon doubleheader, Hiram took an early lead, scoring four runs in the first two innings. The Yeomen offense erupted for four runs in the Oberlin’s offense turned from cold to fourth inning as senior Brian Carney’s threescorching hot over a four-game series with the run home run and an RBI single off the bat of Hiram College Terriers. The Yeomen bounced senior captain Justin Cruz put Oberlin ahead back from two tough losses Friday to bury the 6–4. Pushing across eight runs over the final Terriers 14–4 in Saturday’s game one and 13–4 three innings, Oberlin would eventually 10in the nightcap. Oberlin’s North Coast Athletic run mercy the Terriers 14–4 in seven innings.

“Carney’s home run was one of the biggest highlights of the weekend,” said junior pitcher Sean Kiley. “Getting that lead in the game was a big confidence booster for us, and we were able to keep that momentum through the rest of the day.”

Oberlin’s pitching was also dominant in the game as sophomore Zach Steer earned the win to improve to 3–1 on the season. The Concord, MA, native allowed four runs over 6.1 innings on eight hits.

“After Saturday’s first game, you could see a fire in the team that wasn’t there before,” said senior Joe Greenberg. “It definitely carried into game two and really helped us win.”

During the second game, the Yeomen earned an early lead, scoring seven runs in the first two innings to go up 7–0. Key offensive plays came with RBI doubles from junior Quin Butler in the first inning and Cruz in the second inning. Oberlin’s offense continued to find a rhythm, adding six runs Sophomore Zach Steer pitches for the Yeomen. Steer is currently 3–1 and has struck out 18 batters in over the remaining six innings.

On the mound, sophomore Noah Gear 29.2 innings this season. The left-handed pitcher led Oberlin to a 14–4 win over the Hiram College Terriers last Saturday.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics kept Hiram’s bats in check, surrendering

just one earned run over seven innings. The Hampton, VA, native is now 3–1 on the season with a team second-best 4.03 ERA. With the Saturday victories, the team bounced back from its two Friday losses to Hiram. The Yeomen dropped the first game 6–1 and the second 6–5.

Oberlin’s offense stagnated during the first game as Cruz’s sacrifice fly in the fifth inning represented Oberlin’s lone run in the 6–1 loss.

Despite outhitting Hiram 11–3 in game two, situational hitting proved to be the difference in Oberlin’s 6–5 setback. With 11 conference games remaining, junior pitcher Nick Morgan said the Yeomen remain optimistic about their chances of returning to the NCAC Tournament for the third time in the past five years.

“It felt so good and relieving to end the series against Hiram with some wins,” he said.

“This is the momentum that we need to carry into our next two conference weekends.”

The Yeomen are preparing for a four-game series against the Kenyon College Lords that will begin tomorrow at 1 p.m. Next weekend, the Yeomen will host Allegheny College in four pivotal matchups with senior day slated for Sunday, April 30. With the biggest games of the season still ahead for the Yeomen, Abrahamowicz said focus is the key to success.

“The games are huge this weekend,” he said. “We’re facing intense and serious competition in the coming weeks. But we have to remember that we control our own destiny.”

Cool or Drool: Phil Jackson Targets Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony Dan Bisno Columnist As a 10-time NBA All-Star, threetime Olympic gold medalist and former NCAA Champion, Carmelo Anthony commands respect. But he’s received anything but from New York Knicks executive Phil Jackson.

Ever since Jackson joined the Knicks organization in 2014, he has been eager to take cheap shots at Anthony whenever possible. As the poster child of the Knicks for six years, Anthony is an easy target.

He is a once-in-a-generation talent without an NBA title to his name.

Prior to an early-April exit meeting with the Knicks front office, Anthony hinted that basketball is becoming less fun for him — echoing the sentiment shared by players who left teams headed by Jackson in Chicago and Los Angeles.

There is no question that Anthony feels slighted by Jackson’s unusual management tactics in New York. As the Knicks finished the season with a 31–51 record, many question whether Jackson has a win-now mentality or is looking to build a championship team after Anthony’s departure or retirement.

One of the NBA’s most contentious issues is the rise of intentional tanking to amass high draft picks.

After all, Jackson has made a series of poor acquisitions since arriving in New York, including trading for an injury-prone Derrick Rose last summer.

Last week, Anthony finally spoke up for himself.

“If somebody was talking bad about you indirectly at your job, what would you do?” he said in an interview to ESPN. “You would feel a certain way. You would want that person to come [be] straightforward with you.”

Given Jackson’s reputation as one of the biggest trash-talkers in basketball management, hurling inappropriate criticisms at players in the media and in his many books, Anthony is justifiably uncomfortable. Jackson intensely criticized Kobe Bryant in The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul.

Unfortunately for Anthony, more trash talk could be coming his way.

He may have unleashed the firebreathing, 71-year-old “Zen-master” menace of Manhattan.

Several days after Anthony’s ESPN interview, Jackson shot back in a press conference, “I think the direction with our team is that he’s a player that would be better off somewhere else.”

Jackson confirmed Anthony’s worst-case scenario — he really does want Anthony out of New York.

However, Anthony has regularly expressed frustration about the fact that he has minimal contact with Jackson. Given that Jackson had ample opportunities to work with Anthony directly to improve the situation, Jackson’s backhanded comments are strikingly petty. Despite Jackson’s 11 championship rings, his signature triangle offense and all of the hype that builds him up as the greatest coach ever, perhaps it’s Jackson, not Anthony, who is the poor fit for New York.

Anthony currently has two years left on a five-year, $124 million contract. More importantly, he possesses the sought-after no-trade clause, which allows him to veto any trade that Knicks management wants to make. Only veterans and future hall-of-famers like Anthony are in such a position of power in contract negotiation, which is presumably why Jackson has put so much pressure on Anthony in the media.

As Jackson’s comments began

to take a toll on Anthony, Michele Roberts, executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, became Anthony’s knight in shining armor. Roberts privately addressed the commissioner’s office regarding Jackson’s snide comments.

In addition, Roberts released a statement this past week that read, “If players under contract cannot, under threat of league discipline, speak openly about their desire to

be employed elsewhere, we expect management to adhere to the same standards.”

The way Anthony has been treated under Jackson’s reign in New York has been unfair. Not only has Anthony been at the forefront of philanthropy in the NBA, recently addressing political issues with his powerful voice, he has also tried to adapt to Jackson’s basketball ideologies, including playing more minutes at power forward. Jackson’s

comments reflect poorly on his ego, which has swelled like a balloon since Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant earned him 11 rings. It might be time for Jackson to realize that his beloved triangle offense might not work in New York and that treating players with respect might make his job easier. Until Jackson apologizes to Anthony and begins to voice his concerns internally, he earns a drool for his inappropriate comments in the media.

Sports The Oberlin Review

Page 16

April 21, 2017

— men’s lacrosse —

Yeomen Record First Conference Win Sydney Allen Production editor

Men’s lacrosse broke its fivegame North Coast Athletic Conference losing streak, defeating the Wabash College Little Giants 19–7 Saturday. Riding the momentum, the Yeomen downed the Hiram College Terriers 29–1 Tuesday to improve their record to 6–8 overall and 2–5 in North Coast Athletic Conference play.

The Yeomen defense set the pace for Saturday’s game, shutting out the Little Giants in the first half as first-year goalkeeper Calvin Filson went five-forfive on saves. Offensively, the Yeomen outshot Wabash 39–20 on goal. Reflecting on a season of ups and downs, Filson said he has grown from each step of the way.

“It’s been humbling in net this year,” Filson said. “For the most part, I’ve seen it all.

There’s no tougher position in sports I think than playing goalie in lacrosse. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play for a phenomenal group of guys and coaches this season.”

Sophomore Jay Messina and senior Eric Hager led the way for the Yeomen with four goals

StudentAthletes Deserve Pay Darren Zaslau Sports editor

First-year Regan Chasney cradles the ball while running past a defender. The Yeomen conclude their season tomorrow when they host DePauw University at 1 p.m. on Senior Day at the Knowlton Athletics Complex. Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

each. First-year Regan Chasney also netted three goals while senior Jack Fabrizio and junior Reese Koburov added two tallies each. The Yeomen also dominated in the faceoff circle as senior Kinori Rosnow won 21 of 23 draws.

Though the team was victorious, the Yeomen are still determined to improve their skills during the final week of the regular season.

“We still this year have not played a full 60 minutes,” Messina said. “Defense played a full

first half [at Wabash.] Offensively, we still have had some problems here and there, but we definitely strung a bunch of goals together. We definitely still have a lot of things to work See Lacrosse, page 14

— intramural Softball —

IM Softball Draws from All Corners of Campus

Seniors Dan Bisno and Gabe Jacobson joke around before an intramural softball game. The duo plays for Shirley’s Angels, a team comprised of ’Sco employees and enthusiasts. Intramural softball was set to kick off Tuesday, but rainy weather has delayed play. Some of the league’s teams will take to North Fields to play on Saturday.

Photo courtesy of Dan Bisno

Alex McNicoll Contributing Sports editor Passing by North Fields on a Wednesday afternoon, echoes of teammates calling for a pop-fly or the crack of a ball popping off a bat can be heard from over a hundred yards

away. This isn’t a varsity team warming up for its next game; it’s intramural softball, where students from all corners of campus take the chance to exercise and compete.

But with team names like Jose Queervo and Spicy Pork Bowl, it’s clear that intramural softball is largely about having fun.

Rules are made or bent so that players of all skill levels can compete and enjoy themselves. The five-strike rule strives to give everyone the best chance to make contact with the ball. While most players are new to the sport, Beatrix Parola, senior co-captain of the Peskin Fluties, said there is no shortage of competitive drive, support from peers and enthusiasm.

“Intramural softball is the most unifying thing on Oberlin Campus,” Parola said. “I think that it brings literally every group of people together — jocks, hipsters, etc. It’s the best. Period.”

Oberlin’s intramural sports are rooted in inclusivity, historically offering some of the first opportunities for women to compete on campus. To honor that tradition, teams maintain the rule that there must be at least three women on the field at all times.

New to this intramural softball season is a merger between rival teams, the Pecan Sandies and the Skinflutes, who recently came together to become the Peskin Fluties.

Even in the league’s most bitter rivalry, one that spanned multiple generations of Obies, there was unity and respect. Senior co-captain of the Peskin Fluties Hunter Zepeda said he believes that community vibe is paramount.

“In intramural softball you’re really able to interact with people who belong to different parts of the school,” he said. “ There’s a sense of camaraderie because you have a [drink] in one hand and a glove in the other hand. It doesn’t matter if you know how to play, as long as you know how to talk crap.”

In fact, experience is almost discourSee Softball, page 14

College sports video games have been out of sight, out of mind for the past three years. Not since the release of NCAA Football 14 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 have sports fans been able to play with their favorite collegiate athletes. The cancellation of this series, along with the NCAA Basketball and NCAA Baseball video games, has sparked controversy among athletes and fans.

The debate centers around video game companies’ failure to compensate athletes for the use of their likenesses. Talk of bringing these games back has recently begun to surface, but if companies plan to revive these games, players must be paid.

Video game companies such as EA Sports want their games to be as realistic as possible.

From the players on the field to their uniforms and stadiums, these details provide sports fans with the closest possible experience to the games they watch on television every day.

Unlike in Madden NFL and other professional sports video games, college video games were never allowed to feature players’ last names. Instead, only their numbers were used. This irritated student-athletes because, while their names didn’t appear on the screen, their physical features and jersey numbers created a likeness for which they weren’t compensated.

Despite being accused of exploitation, EA Sports See Editorial, page 14