April 5th, 2019

The Oberlin Review April 5, 2019

established 1874

Volume 147, Number 18

Students Organize CDS Boycott Keifer Ludwig

College junior Cat Robinson, College first-year Lily Lansdell, and College junior Katherine Carson baking late at night in the Pyle Co-op kitchen.

Photo by Meg Parker, Photo Editor

OSCA and College Discuss Future Partnership

Jenna Gyimesi News Editor Oberlin College and the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association have begun the process of collaboratively discussing the terms of the financial relationship between the College and OSCA, which feeds 590 students and houses 180. These conversations were prompted by data revealed by the Academic and Administration Program Review steering committee, which identified that the College loses $1.9 million in annual revenue through its relationship with OSCA. While AAPR leadership has emphasized the $1.9 million figure as a reason to reconsider the College’s relationship with OSCA, OSCA’s current and future leadership — including President Hannah Tobin-Bloch and incoming President Gio Donovan — argued that conclusions should not be drawn from that statistic alone.

“There are so many ways that this supposed loss of revenue for the College does not represent the non-financial services that OSCA provides to the College that are impossible to quantify, nor does it take into account how big of an admissions draw OSCA is for the College,” they wrote in an email to the Review. “We provide nearly a quarter of the school with benefits such as (but not limited to) problem- and conflictresolution skills, experience working with Ohio Health Code, the responsibility of cooking and cleaning for yourself and your peers, accessible dining options

for those with dietary restrictions, 35 student employment opportunities and nearly 300 leadership opportunities in individual co-ops each semester, not to mention a more financially accessible dining and housing option (even for those with undocumented need).”

Further, additional data identified by AAPR leadership in their “Summary of Work to Date” document, which was made public on March 29, indicates that OSCA has fewer low-income students, fewer international students, students with less financial need, and fewer people of color than Campus Dining Services and Residential Education.

While the document did not reveal specific figures, other campus offices have identified that, in 2018, 7.6 percent of students in OSCA housing identified as low-income, compared to 10 percent of students in non-OSCA housing. Additionally, during the same year, 5.6 percent of OSCA residents identified as first-generation college students, compared to 9.8 percent in nonOSCA housing.

OSCA officers countered that these figures may be misleading since the College only factored in documented need.

“OSCA provides lower bills regardless of their status of documented need,” the officers wrote in the statement. “Many OSCA members could not attend Oberlin College if not for the atcost benefits of being a member of OSCA — a cooperative model the College has graciously supported for 60 years.”

Other students in OSCA agreed with this sentiment.

“Oberlin has 100 percent demonstrated need fulfillment,” College senior Charlie Thomson said. “So people with that demonstrated need get their dining plan, but the College is only considering demonstrated need. OSCA is a way for people in the middle, who don’t have the same demonstrated need, but who couldn’t fully afford to come here without OSCA.” Conversations to address these issues and potential points of disagreement are already ongoing and will continue regularly between College and OSCA leadership throughout the 2019– 2020 academic year.

“Our conversations so far have been open and collaborative, and [they] set the stage for a productive discussion going forward,” Vice President for Finance and Administration Rebecca Vazquez-Skillings wrote in an email to the Review. “In addition to participation at OSCA’s Rent Contract Forum, members of the AAPR steering committee have held two separate meetings with OSCA thus far to discuss the AAPR areas of recommendation.

We are in the preliminary phases of discussion.”

In order to allow for more time to chart a viable long-term financial approach, the College is advocating for a one-year extension of the current rental agreement between itself and OSCA. Under the terms of that agreement, OSCA is assigned just over 70,000 square feet of space See College, page 4

Oberlin students staged a boycott last Tuesday to protest Campus Dining Services after receiving two emails from the Office of Residential Education and Dean of Students Office regarding meal plan changes. Leaders of the boycott encouraged students to abstain from attending any of the CDS dining halls or DeCafé for 24 hours, and the boycott’s Facebook event received over 200 student responses.

To increase accessibility, food donation boxes were set up in Langston Hall, South Hall, and Dascomb Hall — and many co-ops welcomed visitors for the day.

The protests were influenced partly by an error in which administrators had students register online for meal plans that will no longer be offered in the 2019–20 school year.

The mistake was announced in a March 19 email from Assistant Vice President Adrian Bautista that contained information about the correct meal plan changes which will go into effect at the start of next semester. This was followed up by a more comprehensive email expanding on the plan from Oberlin’s Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo on Monday, April 1, the day before the protest began.

“Students in their first and second year will participate in the GoYeo Plan: a plan that will provide unlimited access to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and healthy breaks between meals in Stevenson Dining Hall [as well as] … access to regular meals at Lord Saunders, break meals in Wilder, and $200 Flex [points] per semester,” she explained.

The other two options are only available to juniors and seniors. The Gold Plan features 200 meals a semester at any dining hall with $150 in Flex per semester. And the Cardinal Plan — which will become available in the fall of 2020 — includes 100 meals per semester at any dining hall with $100 Flex per semester.

In the email, Raimondo wrote that these changes were being made under the rubric of giving “greater flexibility” to students.

However, many of the student protestors cited lack of flexibility as one of their main issues.

“The reason we organized was out of concern about how low-income students were supposed to pay for a more expensive plan with less flexibility,” said student organizer and College first-year David Mathisson, who set up the food donation boxes and organized an additional protest outside of Dean Raimondo’s office. “The email Dean Raimondo sent to the students … suggested that Fourth Meal was in danger, and while some concessions were included, accessibility to [how the] low-income students [would pay for the cost increase] was not included.”

While other students expressed similar sentiments to Mathisson, Raimondo maintains that the changes are meant to benefit lowincome students.

“Need-based financial aid is assigned based on the cost of the meal plan (i.e., tuition plus fees),” Raimondo wrote in an email to the Review. “A family’s estimated contribution See CDS, page 2

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

02 Legion Community Garden Faces Uncertain Future

05 Students Need More Data

08 What Are Conservatory Profes- 10 Bringing Gothic Thrillers Back, sors Listening to in Their Spare Us Breaks Box Office Time?

11 Oberlin’s Friendship Festival Celebrates 10th Year

04 Kosher Passover Meals Come to DeCafé

The Oberlin Review | April 5, 2019

06 Sustainability Crucial to AAPR Success

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS 15 OC Athletics Spring Break Photo Series 16 SAAC Highlights Mental Health Awareness During DIII Week Programming

oberlinreview.org facebook.com/oberlinreview TWITTER @oberlinreview INSTAGRAM @ocreview

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CDS Meal Change Policy Sparks Activism Continued from page 1

— whether it is $5,000, $20,000, or $50,000 — remains the same even when costs increase.”

College junior Yaxiong (Luke) Chen, one of the event organizers of the Boycott CDS event on Facebook, disagrees and feels that these plans do not increase student flexibility.

“The administration went back on its promises and simply imposed [these changes] on behalf of the student body,” said Chen. “[It’s] a reflection that shows how arbitrary and undemocratic the administration can be.”

Students who participated in

the boycott hope to bring a more democratic process to Oberlin.

“Our demands are more affordable options, better qualities of food, and we want to push for an open forum in which students can voice their thoughts directly to the administration,” College sophomore Rena Wang said.

However, the effectiveness of these protests has been questionable. Even though over 200 people responded to the Boycott CDS Facebook event, Wang was disappointed that this represented less than 10 percent of the whole school. And while there weren’t any numbers recorded for how many people followed up on the

boycotts, not a single person showed up on time to the protests outside of Dean Raimondo’s office.

College senior Jackson ZinnRowthorn felt ambivalent about the boycott.

“I’m not sure how much progress a boycott like this could make given that all of the meals have been paid for already, and I think the goals of the boycott are a little unclear,” he says.

“But it’s good to have a boycott every now and again, as long as nobody goes f**king nuts, and it doesn’t seem like anybody went too nuts.”

The administration is taking pains to listen to student concerns and requests.

“I very much regret that Oberlin did not communicate these plans effectively to students, and I understand why people are frustrated by our ineffective communication,” Raimondo wrote in an email to the Review. “I hope the changes in Campus Dining that have happened or are in the works — from the addition of SkyBar Grab & Go to menu changes reflecting student input and the upcoming addition of flex to the new meal plan structure — demonstrates that we are listening carefully to student voices and seeking to provide as strong an experience as is possible within a sustainable budgetary model.”

Legion Community Garden Faces Uncertain Future

Legion Field Community Garden, which is currently hoping to land a new fiscal agent, is located on South Professor Street. Photo by Devin Cowan, Staff Photogtapher

Leo Lasdun Staff Writer The future of Oberlin’s Legion Field Community Garden — which has been operating for nearly 10 years — is uncertain as it seeks to secure a new fiscal agent. The garden, which grows on city-owned land on South Professor Street, was previously backed by a 10-year contract between the City of Oberlin and the Zion Community Development Corporation. Zion CDC is now unable to provide the necessary funds to keep the garden open. However, the garden has found a new potential sponsor: a local organization called Our Fathers and Mothers Involving Local Youth.

In an attempt to become the garden’s fiscal agent, Our F.A.M.I.L.Y. has requested time on the agenda of the Oberlin City Council’s April 15 meeting.

“Our F.A.M.I.L.Y. believes that access to fresh,

The Oberlin R eview April 5, 2019 Volume 147, Number 18 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch.

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nutritious, affordable food by community members is vital in promoting community health and preventing disease and that a community garden can provide not only a source of vegetables and fruit, but also educate the wider community about organics, food, and food security issues,” Our F.A.M.I.L.Y. wrote in a letter sent to City Council. “For these reasons we are offering to be the fiscal agency and lead organization for the Legion Field Community Garden.”

After ending its financial relationship with the garden, Zion CDC had planned to donate the garden’s various equipment to the city. However, in a 4–3 majority the Oberlin City Council voted not to accept the equipment, leaving Zion CDC in charge of removing all materials from the plot.

Vice President of City Council Linda Slocum was one of the three council members who voted to accept the materials, saying she wanted to take the

Editors-in-Chief

Sydney Allen Nathan Carpenter Managing Editor Ananya Gupta News Editors Anisa Curry Vietze

Jenna Gyimesi Opinions Editor Jackie Brant This Week Editor Mikaela Fishman Arts Editors Kate Fishman

Katherine MacPhail Sports Editors Jane Agler

Alexis Dill Photo Editors Mallika Pandey Meg Parker Senior Staff Writers Carson Dowhan Roman Broszkowski Julie Schreiber

time to try to figure out something better to do with the area rather than forcing Zion CDC to clear the land.

Slocum suggested that the reason the city elected to reject the materials was due to an unwillingness to assume responsibility for the garden.

“Accepting the materials would have meant that the city would take over the garden, and the city is not prepared to get into the gardening business,” she explained.

The garden was established with the goal of promoting sustainability and building community in Oberlin. Plots in the garden were available for community members to rent for a fee of $20 per plot or four hours of volunteer work at the garden.

Oberlin resident and garden manager Peter Crowley explained that the garden has been an important part of the community.

“It’s a neighborhood asset,” said Crowley. “We’ve created a garden which is an ecosystem in itself that doesn’t require a lot of input from commercial fertilizers and things. So we’ve created a very healthy place for people to recreate.”

The garden also helped implement Oberlin’s Climate Action Plan. “[The plan] says that one of the ways in which a community can become more resilient in response to climate change is to develop local food resources, and that’s what we’re doing,” Crowley said.

City Manager Robert Hillard, who was the first to be notified by Zion CDC President Michael Sabiers of the defunding, explained that he already believed that the future of the community garden was uncertain even before receiving the letter.

“There’s a long history to the garden,” he said.

“Over the last two years there’s been a variety of discussions around the future of the garden, so as of winter when notice came that [Zion CDC] was no longer interested [in funding the garden], it wasn’t necessarily a surprise.”

No matter the future of the garden, Slocum believes that the uncertainty may serve as a potential conversation starter that will spur City Council to re-evaluate community building, as well as issues of greenspace and public goods.

“I think we can use this as an opportunity to step back and examine what the purpose of gardens are: what we want them to accomplish, [and] how they fulfill our climate action plan,” Slocum said.

Parker Shatkin Corrections: Jake Butcher Lila Michaels The Review is not aware of any corrections this week.

Lillian Jones Business Manager Jared Steinberg To submit a correction, email managingeditor@ Ads Manager Jabree Hason oberlinreview.org.

Web Manager Sage Vouse Production Manager Giselle Glaspie Production Staff Christo Hays Olive Hwang Lior Krancer Devyn Malouf Madi Mettenburg Allison Schmitt Annie Schoonover Ivy Fernandez Smith Layout Editors

Kosher Passover Meals Come to DeCafé

Security Notebook Thursday, March 21, 2019

9:46 p.m. Residential Education staff conducting life safety inspections in Burton Hall reported locating empty beer cans, a glass bong, and a bagged smoke detector in a room on the second floor. The bong was turned over to the Oberlin Police Department, and the plastic bag was removed from the detector.

Friday, March 22, 2019

5:14 p.m. A Campus Safety officer on routine patrol of the College ash dump reported that three individuals ran from a smokey area. Members of the Oberlin Police Department and Lorain County Sheriff ’s Office also responded. The individuals were identified as students, and they stated that they were burning an old stuffed animal and a book. The sheriff ’s deputy warned the students that open burning is prohibited in Ohio.

Sunday, March 24, 2019

College senior Noah Binford checks out DeCafé’s lunchtime offerings.

Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor

Anisa Curry Vietze News Editor With help from both Chabad at Oberlin and Campus Dining Services, DeCafé will now offer kosher food during the week of Passover. Keeping kosher can be more difficult during Passover because the holiday comes with additional dietary restrictions and laws. Additionally, many Jews who do not otherwise keep kosher find it more important to keep kosher during Passover.

Every spring since Chabad opened its doors in 2010, the organization has provided food that meets Passover’s kosher guidelines to students during the holiday.

“We were serving sometimes over a thousand meals in the week, between the Seders and then lunch and dinner everyday — it was a lot of meals,” said Rabbi Shlomo Elkan, the co-director of Chabad. “The College acknowledged a few years ago that that was a big undertaking for Chabad. Chabad funds the whole thing through the generosity of parents and alumni and things like that, just like everything at Chabad.”

Chabad will continue to serve kosher dinner each night of Passover, but this year is the first that kosher selections for Passover lunch will be offered by the College.

“We’ve always offered Passover meals, but making kosher versions of them is challenging from a number of aspects,” wrote Wayne Wood, general manager of the dining hall staff, in an email to the Review. “When Rabbi Shlomo outlined his vision for how we could offer kosher options for Passover observance this year, and offered his help doing so, we were excited to try it.”

DeCafé will offer options in both the Grab & Go section, which can be purchased with meal swipes, and the retail section. Options include pre-made frozen meals as well as housemade ready-to-eat meals prepared on kitchen equipment that CDS bought specially for kosher foods. The kosher options will be offered Sunday through Friday, April 21–26, according to Wood.

“What the College is providing is manpower, and they’re funding it — the lunches and the grocery items,” Rabbi Shlomo said. “[Chabad is] providing a kosher supervision over all of it, to make sure that it meets the highest kosher standard possible, which also increases accessibility. Everybody that keeps kosher for Passover should feel comfortable eating this food.”

College first-year Havi Carrillo-Klein said that, for students like her who observe Passover customs, it can be difficult to find the right foods in the midst of a busy schedule.

“I mean, it’s about religious accessibility, and it can be often challenging to meet those needs, especially because it’s only these eight days in the year and some people celebrate to such a rigorous level,” Carrillo-Klein said. “I think it’s

The Oberlin Review | April 5, 2019

really good that the school paid attention to the fact that students need this.”

Some of the additional restrictions for kosher eating during Passover include not eating anything leavened, or “chametz.” This includes most products that contain wheat, barley, rye, oats or spelt. In addition, food that has come in contact with utensils used for leavened food is not kosher for Passover.

“In the Chabad House case we have totally separate utensils, or we kasher — we make them kosher for Passover through a process, and obviously the College just doesn’t have that infrastructure,” Rabbi Shlomo said. “There’s also lots of different customs, so most Ashkenazi Jews, people from European descent, don’t eat what we call kitniyot, which is anything that has legumes — so like peanuts, beans, lentils, rice, corn.”

Because of this, the College is not able to prepare kosher food from scratch at this time, but the possibility might be open for future years.

“In searching for options this year, Campus Dining Services — with Rabbi Shlomo’s assistance — was able to source kosher items for DeCafé for a pilot program for Passover,” wrote Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo in an email to the Review. “We see this as a first step in creating a robust kosher option in Campus Dining, which will require some facilitites investment to realize but which would be an important step in increasing dining access.”

Financial burden was not a huge concern in introducing kosher foods to DeCafé.

“While there are certain expenses associated with preparing and sourcing kosher meals, we have been able to budget carefully and keep costs within financial parameters established by the College,” Wood wrote. “Rabbi Shlomo has been enormously helpful in making this happen, and we are pleased to be able to offer these various kosher and traditional Passover options to Oberlin’s Jewish community.”

For students planning to keep kosher this Passover, the pre-made meals will have a big impact.

“I’m excited,” Carrillo-Klein said. “Just having this available and making it not something you need to stress about on top of your schoolwork and other things you might have to do. It’s really nice to not need to worry about where you’re going to get food, and plus it’s so central to campus.”

Passover is in two weeks, starting on Friday, April 19 and continuing through Saturday, April 27. Chabad at Oberlin is hosting two Passover Seders to mark the beginning of the holiday on Friday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, April 20 at 8:30 p.m. in the Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space. To join, RSVP at jewishoberlin.com/passover.

11:28 p.m. Officers responded to a report that a student was stuck in a practice room in Robertson Hall.

A College maintenance technician and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded and were able to get the door open. The student reported that they were OK and exited the room.

Monday, March 25, 2019

6:04 p.m. A staff member reported that wooden furniture was moved from the Burton Hall patio to the center of North Quad. The furniture was not broken but had been disconnected from the chains tethering it to the concrete. A work order was filed.

Thursday, March 28, 2019

6:38 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at a Village Housing Unit. The alarm was activated by smoke that resulted from cooking on a dirty stove. The area was cleared, the alarm was reset, and the students were advised to clean the stove.

6:52 p.m. A student reported observing two young individuals possibly trying to steal bicycles at the bike racks near Price House on the evening of Tuesday, March 26. The student said the individuals left the area after being observed.

9:09 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm in Langston Hall.

The alarm was activated by smoke from cooking oil.

The area was cleared, and the alarm was reset.

Saturday, March 30, 2019

11:30 a.m. A resident in Price House reported an ant infestation in their room. A College maintenance technician responded.

6:59 p.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle from outside of Price House. A report was also filed with the Oberlin Police Department.

Sunday, March 31, 2019

5:00 p.m. A student reported two juvenile individuals sitting on the bike rack near Fairchild House. The individuals were later seen entering the Kohl Building, where they were approached by an officer. The individuals were identified and advised that they could not use the facilities unless accompanied by someone affiliated with Oberlin. The individuals left the area.

6:51 p.m. A student reported the theft of their PlayStation 4 from their Village Housing Unit on Cedar Street at some time during spring break. A window was found with the screen pushed in and the window propped open with a stick. Members of the Oberlin Police Department also responded.

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

5:08 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to an activated fire alarm on the second floor of Bibbins Hall. The area was checked, and officers did not discover the reason for the alarm.

The alarm was silenced and reset. It is not known who pulled the alarm.

5:12 p.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle from outside of Harkness House over spring break.

8:38 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm in Barrows Hall.

The alarm was activated by smoke from burnt food.

The area was cleared, and the alarm was reset.

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Ne w s OFF THE CUFF

Nick Petzak, Director of Fellowships and Awards

For the 10th year in a row, Director of Fellowships and Awards Nick Petzak has led Oberlin to be recognized as a top producer of Fulbright Scholarship students. The Fulbright Program, which historically has a percentage award rate in the low 20s, sends students to over 140 countries to engage in research and teaching opportunities. Besides success with the Fulbright scholarship, the Office of Fellowships and Awards has also been highly successful helping students land awards including Truman, Goldwater, and Watson.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Ella Moxley, Staff Writer Can you tell me a little about your office?

The office coordinates advising and recruiting for all of the major awards. From their first year to their fourth year, helping [students] navigate Oberlin, helping them find experiences that will make them competitive later on. Helping students move from [one] experience to another, and to think about what they have learned to where they want to go next. I work with students in the Conservatory and the College — really any major and discipline — and I think a common misconception is that I only really work with students who have from a 3.7 to 4.0 GPA range. In certain circumstances, there are bright lines; so if we are talking about a Marshall Scholarship, that’s a 3.7 to be eligible, but for so many other programs that I work on — including Goldwater — the GPA is not the most important.

In fact, the selectors are looking for people who have taken initiative, have summer experience, leadership roles on campus, or something academically — all sorts of ways to demonstrate what you are excited about.

Can you tell me a little about why Oberlin has been so successful with the Fulbright?

I can point to three or four [reasons]. Oberlin students think

internationally, and obviously that is crucial to be involved in international experiences at a personal level and a policy level. The other thing is that Oberlin student[s] just make fantastic ambassadors. They understand what it takes to operate internationally. They understand what it takes to make community, they know how to listen first and listen deeply, and how to add themselves to the mix.

And more pragmatically, there are so many opportunities for Oberlin students to teach: Ninde [Scholars Program], America Counts, the El Centro program. Also the faculty, who are so generous with their time and energy, contribute a lot to the Fulbright application process.

The alumni network is also really generous. Alumni are always really helpful to current students and that is a tremendous advantage.

What is the biggest challenge your office faces?

Sometimes it’s just a matter of a time crunch. If you’re looking at the way these [fellowships] are constructed, the deadlines are at the head of the semester — so Fulbright, Marshall, Mitchell, I could go on, all within two weeks, [the last] of September or [the first of] October — so that is a tremendous challenge. The challenge is to start early enough, so given the

time crunch, it’s important we start the spring of their junior year.

If a student is interested in Fulbright, what should they be doing?

Well, let me answer that one slightly more philosophically. They need to do whatever it is that they do, well. They need be ambitious about summer, Winter Term, whatever they do outside of class. But whatever it is, they need to be excited about it, and they need to communicate their passion for something. You need to get people excited about what you are excited about.

Do you have any fun stories about interesting things students you’ve worked with have done?

Wow, so many. Allow me to give you some examples from just this week. So this week, a student I’ve been working with since 2012 on various projects won a Gates Cambridge Award to go study geography at the University of Cambridge. I’ve been working with them since, 2012 and they have applied for various things, but never won anything before, and ... now all has come to fruition. I had a student in my office who memorably said, “I just love baroque music so freaking much.”

She is now going to go study Baroque Harp in Switzerland next year with the person whom she considers the best

Nick Petzak

Photo by Brian Rubin OC’ 18

teacher in the world. That is super exciting. I’m working with a secondyear student who is just beginning to think about what she is most excited about, and she is going to Scotland to help her get her some clarity on that. I can go on. That’s the great thing.

What are you excited about for the future?

I am really excited about the way fellowships might work with the Career Communities initiative.

I’m optimistic that this will change the way we think about the kinds of relationships between these applications, and I am interested to see how my office works with that initiative. I am interested to see how the new [Career Development Center] director takes that fantastic work and builds from that.

College and OSCA Will Evaluate Finances Through AAPR Continued from page 1

across seven College facilities.

“We want and have the time to undertake a thoughtful, collaborative conversation about how to achieve our mutual goals,” Vazquez-Skillings wrote. “The College is hopeful to finalize a oneyear agreement this month.”

Some members of OSCA fear that this process will not adequately account for the intangible benefits OSCA provides to the campus community.

“My parents would not have allowed me to come here if I didn’t promise to be in OSCA every semester, for financial reasons,” College junior Lily Lu-Learner said. “OSCA also makes Oberlin a unique, cooperative place, where we can build community.”

OSCA leadership also pointed out that students are admitted to OSCA through a lottery process,

meaning that documented financial need and other factors are not considered. This lottery process is part of what makes OSCA unique in the eyes of its members.

“This means that any Oberlin student has an equal chance of getting into OSCA via our lottery and waitlist systems,” they wrote. “Accordingly, OSCA mirrors Oberlin’s admission enrollment decisions. Financial considerations are not part of the membership enrollment process for OSCA as we do not have access to students’ financial aid information.”

However, due to the lottery system and the fact that OSCA has no control over which students it admits, some students with financial needs may not have the opportunity to eat or live in an OSCAoperated facility, creating potential financial hardship.

Oberlin Community News Bulletin Guest Speaker Visits Citizens’ Climate Lobby Meeting The Oberlin chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby will host a special guest speaker, Reverend Susan Hendershot, via video conference at their monthly meeting on Saturday, April 13 from 1–3 p.m. in the craft room of the Oberlin Public Library. Rev. Hendershot, of Interfaith Power and Light, will speak about faithful stewardship of creation, and the group will discuss what can be done to advance current bipartisan climate legislation in Congress. All are welcome regardless of faith or political affiliation.

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Oberlin Public Library Hosts Community Spring Book Sale The Oberlin Public Library is hosting a low-cost sale of used books April 10–14, with most items priced between $0.50 and $1.00. Members of the Friends of the Oberlin Public Library will be given first pick of the books on Wednesday, the first day of the sale; however, everyone is welcome to join at the door. Those interested in the book sale can come to the library at 65 S. Main Street on April 10 from 5–8 p.m., April 11 from 10 a.m.–8 p.m., April 12 and 13 from 10 a.m.–5:30 p.m., and April 14 from 1–3 p.m.

“I am kind of low in the lottery,” College sophomore Jonas Mondschein said. “I was thinking that I may have to take a semester off if I do not get in.”

For its part, the College recognizes that OSCA offers a valuable and unique part of the Oberlin experience, and administrators say there are no plans to discontinue the partnership between the College and OSCA. “This area of recommendation [in the AAPR report] does not contemplate the College ending its relationship with OSCA,” Vasquez-Skillings wrote. “The steering committee recognizes the importance and contribution of OSCA to currently participating students and engaged alumni and believes it is beneficial for OSCA to remain part of the fabric of the College in a sustainable way.”

Energy Efficient Free Light Bulb Exchange Comes to Oberlin Oberlin residents can, for free, exchange up to 12 standard light bulbs for more energy efficient ones from April 20 through April 28. Replacing incandescent or CFL light bulbs with more efficient LEDs helps conserve energy and can save more than $150 in energy costs over the span of 20 years. Those interested in participating in the exchange can go to IGA, the Oberlin Public Library, or Watson Hardware from 12–2 p.m. and 4–6 p.m. Monday–Friday or 10 a.m.–6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Those who have questions or are interested in volunteering can email cbrinley@oberlin.edu.

April 5, 2019

OPINIONS

Letters to the Editors

AAPR Should Remove Unions From Recs

The Academic and Administrative Program Review Steering Committee has now made a series of public presentations and released a summary of its work to date. There is a lot to digest, but dotted throughout both the presentations and the summary report is information about employee costs — specifically those of the unionized hourly employees — and what appear to be implicit recommendations regarding the number of unionized employees, their wages and benefits, and the way the work they do is provided.

It is not necessary to take a position on the information provided — whether our unionized workers are overpaid, or have benefits that are too generous, or should be eliminated, or have their jobs outsourced — in order to agree that all discussions and recommendations related to our hourly workers should be removed from whatever the AAPR ultimately presents to the Oberlin community, President Ambar, and the Board of Trustees.

That is for four reasons.

First, recommendations concerning the unionized workers do not need to be part of the AAPR. Budget-cutting is taking place through multiple processes, some AAPR, but also actions by the College Faculty Council to cut faculty positions, and ongoing administrative efforts to increase efficiencies. If the Board of Trustees has some target of cuts, they will not care where they originate or how they are arrived at as long as in aggregate they meet that target. Changes to the terms and conditions of hourly workers can and should be achieved outside the AAPR. Second, the AAPR has no business offering recommenda-

tions relating to hourly employees. The AAPR Steering Committee includes representatives for faculty, students, administrators, alumni and trustees, but not a single representative for the unions on campus. Not one of its 52 consultative outreach meetings over the last 10 months has been with the unions. The General Faculty body that will vote on the AAPR recommendations also contains no hourly employee representatives. The AAPR process lacks both the knowledge and legitimacy to make recommendations in this area.

Third, faculty and students should not be asked to weigh in ahead of time on one side of the collective bargaining process.

Collective bargaining is regulated by federal labor law. If the senior administration wants to task the Department of Human Resources and its legal team with seeking changes to employment terms and conditions in upcoming collective bargaining, it is welcome to try. But this is for the bargaining parties only.

AAPR is not party to those negotiations, it should not be interfering in them, and the broader Oberlin community should not be urged to endorse a particular bargaining position, particularly in the absence of any voice for the hourly employees affected.

Fourth, much of the data used to derive hourly wage comparisons come from institutions whose equivalent employees are not unionized, and some of the recommendations appear to involve removing current College positions from the unionized bargaining units. As such, the recommendations are at a minimum hostile to unionization, and at worst, tantamount to union-busting, and have no place in a set of recommendations that seek broad community endorsement.

For these reasons, the AAPR should excise all references and recommendations to hourly emSee Letters, page 7

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and oped 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. 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.

The Oberlin Review | April 5, 2019

established 1874

Volume 147, Number 18

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief

Sydney Allen

Nathan Carpenter

Managing Editor Ananya Gupta

Opinions Editor Jackie Brant

Students Need More Data Since the launch of the ongoing Academic and Administrative Program Review, transparency has been an oft-repeated concern of Oberlin community members — and for good reason. The AAPR is the first comprehensive analysis of Oberlin’s finances and was created to address the College’s structural budget deficit. As a recent report from the AAPR steering committee reminded us, their work “is an ambitious effort that touches almost every part of the institution.” This breadth of responsibility, understandably, comes with considerable apprehension.

However, as the Review reported following the initial public rollout of the AAPR’s areas of recommendation on March 13, AAPR leadership has taken important steps toward publicly addressing some of these concerns (“AAPR Announces Areas of Recommendation to Oberlin Community,” March 15, 2019). Their arguments are well-supported by data that has been made available on Oberlin’s website.

Sharing this data publicly is an important step that deserves recognition. The committee’s “Summary of Work to Date” document is available not only to students, faculty, and staff, but to prospective students and families, Oberlin residents, alumni, and any other interested parties — even when such transparency could damage enrollment figures, for example. Further, the committee has promised even greater transparency with the appropriate faculty governing bodies in the coming weeks and months. This openness represents a bold and important confidence from the committee that its process and logic are sound.

While the AAPR committee is not attempting to hide or disguise any of its recommendations, as difficult as their decisions may be, all the data that has been released so far has been in direct support of their areas of recommendations. The committee has made its case well, but community members — particularly the general student body — now need to be able to access more information if they are to effectively give the kind of informed feedback that the AAPR committee is currently seeking.

An environment for informed and engaged campus dialogue has yet to fully materialize. As it stands, one party — a committee of 31 faculty, staff, students, and alumni — currently has access to all relevant information, while nearly all other constituents have access only to relevant information that supports the committee’s conclusions and recommendations.

Take, for example, the recommendations concerning the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association.

AAPR data has revealed that the College loses $1.9 million in annual revenue from students released to OSCA dining and housing — a figure that creates a compelling case for redefining OSCA’s relationship with the College. However, some students still have questions that cannot be directly addressed by the data currently publicly available, including why OSCA is being singled out when all students pay for many departments and programs that they don’t directly use, such as athletics. It must also be mentioned that OSCA has been less than forthcoming with its own books, leaving administrators to guess about the organizational efficiency of the co-ops — another factor as to why conversations around housing and dining have been so fraught.

In a public AAPR forum on March 13, Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo said that athletics was an area ultimately left alone by the AAPR, due to both the revenue it generates and its relatively low operating costs compared to other departments. She also shared data that revealed that athletics has strong learning outcomes and mission-centeredness.

Raimondo’s response effectively addressed the concern, but the exchange illuminated the broader reality that, without greater access to data, all community members can really do is grasp at straws instead of constructing more substantive and informed critiques.

Committee members have planned a series of meetings with various campus constituencies and said that they are interested in meeting with campus groups to discuss remaining questions or concerns. At these meetings, committee members will likely be more transparent and forthcoming than they have chosen to be in the public forums. Still, these meetings will not live up to their potential as forums for constructive feedback if community members don’t know what questions to ask — and, realistically, AAPR leaders will be limited in the amount of time they can give to these conversations, making the need for students to come to meetings already informed even more vital.

By making more data available to community members, the AAPR steering committee can fortify its arguments, further prove its commitment to transparency, and allow for deeper, more critical community engagement. Community members — especially students — will benefit from focusing their questions and exploring areas not directly mentioned in the AAPR documentation to date.

To be fair, sharing data is more easily said than done. Numbers must be properly contextualized, which they are in the AAPR documents currently available; a complete and unexplained dump of every spreadsheet compiled by the committee would benefit nobody. Committee members need to find a way to share data and information that does not threaten the integrity of this important process, but they must do it soon, as the window for community members to provide substantive feedback will close in the coming weeks. Community members, for their part, must recognize that transparency is a two-way street, and need to ask focused and direct questions about what data they would like to see — organizing around specific issues is a much more effective approach than loudly shouting for general transparency.

A potential solution to these challenges could look like committee members hosting open office hours where students and other community members could request to be walked through parts of the AAPR data not made publicly available. On the whole, though, greater availability of contextualized information will only serve to elevate the level of campus discourse — a positive outcome for both AAPR committee members and the broader Oberlin community.

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.

5

Opi n ions

Sustainability Crucial to Discussions Regarding Dining Changes Must Include Student Input, Voices AAPR Success Johan Cavert Brian James Contributing Writers This article is part of the Review’s Student Senate column. In an effort to increase communication and transparency, student senators will provide personal perspectives on recent events on campus and in the community.

During the week preceding spring break, the Academic and Administrative Program Review released findings from its yearlong effort to document and propose solutions to Oberlin’s current financial predicament.

Integral to that assessment was evaluating the College’s institutional sustainability and recognizing that Oberlin must improve both environmentally and financially in order to make its continued success possible.

In their report from March 29, AAPR members wrote that their goal “is to help Oberlin fulfill its mission in a new way, translating its core values and distinctive strengths in a way that is most relevant and sustainable for future generations.”

We live in an era when record-breaking temperatures are the norm, seasonal forest fires run rampant, and the Midwestern plains are covered by unprecedented flooding. The recognition of environmental health is a crucial element of Oberlin’s commitment to our shared future. AAPR presents a unique opportunity for students and the greater Oberlin community to reshape and actualize that institutional commitment while acknowledging and improving upon existing efforts.

The Office of Environmental Sustainability, the Committee on Environmental Sustainability, campus green groups, and the Board of Trustees’ Sustainable Infrastructure Planning Committee are already pursuing diverse initiatives, supported by the work of Student Senate’s own sustainability liaisons.

Many of these groups have dedicated themselves first and foremost to realizing our institutional commitment to be carbon-neutral by 2025. Past successes mean this goal is already over halfway realized. The next major step forward will require addressing our outdated heating system, Oberlin’s largest source of carbon emissions. Student Senate, OES, and the Board of Trustees are tackling this problem and in the next few years hope to convert to a renewably-powered hot water heating system.

CES and OES have also led in the educational realm, working to further integrate sustainability into Oberlin’s curriculum.

From courses in the Conservatory to those in the Neuroscience department, professors and staff have successfully made our environmental values present in the classroom. As AAPR con-

6

siders improvements to campus facilities, it should choose to boost OES’ past successes by relocating their physical space in a more central spot. This would help diminish the costs of a sprawling campus, allow OES and students to collaborate more effectively, and elevate the status of campus sustainability.

From the student side, green groups across campus continue to organize bold actions, as exemplified by the Sunrise Movement’s demand for political support of the Green New Deal.

Students for Energy Justice and the Citizens’ Climate Lobby continue to advocate for community and legislative change on environmental issues, while the Resource Conservation Team and Green Edge Fund help fund and facilitate local green initiatives. As sustainability liaisons on Student Senate, we continue to coordinate with campus and community constituencies while supporting and publicizing a diverse agenda of projects and advocating for long-term energy conservation measures.

Oberlin will likely undergo major changes in the coming years as it seeks to adapt to the changing climate of the national collegiate landscape.

We must also adapt to the realities of global climate change.

As bold environmental policies like Middlebury College’s “Energy2028” become standard in many universities across the U.S., Oberlin must set the standard for green institutions. Data from Oberlin’s Office of Institutional Research shows that 70 percent of students who arrived in the fall of 2018 felt that “Oberlin’s commitment to the environment” was important in their decision to attend, and 90 percent felt climate change was an immediate challenge.

In order to improve retention and access, Oberlin should capitalize on its existing reputation as a leader in climate action, an often undersold but important point of attraction for prospective students. OES surveys reveal that 83 percent of 2018 first-years had a high interest in sustainability, but 40 percent said their perception of how much the College actually cares about these issues had decreased since they arrived. The evidence is clear: A reinvigorated campus-wide commitment to sustainability is sorely needed.

As AAPR prompts a dialogue about Oberlin’s future, it is critical that we acknowledge the need to broaden our definition of sustainability and apply it as a foremost principle in every decision. Planning for the future of Oberlin means contemplating our ability to contribute to the world for generations to come. To thrive, we must exist in a manner that is environmentally sound, socially just, and economically viable — in other words, sustainable.

David Mathisson Contributing Writer The Office of Residential Education sent an email to all rising juniors March 19 notifying students that previously promised meal plan options would no longer be offered. Instead, the office planned to limit them to more expensive meal plans that provide fewer options to students. Concerned about the impact on low- and middle-income students, a small group of passionate student activists planned a boycott in response. Later that day, because of the accessibility concerns, I joined as an organizer. I created a food donation plan to ensure every participant would get enough to eat during the boycott, regardless of income.

I’d like to thank Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo and the Dean of Students Office for addressing our concerns and creating an alternative meal plan system. Financial aid will cover the cost increase for low- and middle-income students, meal swipes will remain usable in DeCafé, and Fourth Meal is safe. I’d also like to thank my fellow organizers and the 225 students who joined us in the boycott.

It was inspiring to see the community come together to stand up for middle- and low-income students, and I’m proud that together we have made an impact.

Nonetheless, we need to address the disconnect between administrators, Student Senate, and the rest of the student body that brought us to this point.

The current lack of communication between the administration and students is unacceptable. For two weeks, a major policy change was played off as an administra-

tive error, leaving low-income students wondering how they were going to handle the cost increase. The day before the boycott, students received an email which — while substantially better than being left in the dark — still left out important information. The cost increase for students, the use of swipes in DeCafé, and the status of Fourth Meal in the new meal plans were all completely unaddressed. It shouldn’t be a surprise that students were frustrated by the information omitted in the email. There should be more channels of communication to and from the Dean of Students Office, ResEd, and other student-centered offices, and they must be more accessible to the student body. We need to build bonds of trust between students and the administration, and the first step is to turn over a new leaf of transparency.

Student Senate — which was formed as one such channel of communication — must strengthen its connections with the student body as well. Student Senate was made aware of the problem and wanted to address it. I reached out to many of the senators for help circulating a call for food donations on social media. None of them were willing to help. One even publicly condemned the movement without offering an alternative.

I respect and even admire most of Oberlin’s student senators. Many of them are my friends. I know they are better than this. The reason they took this job was because they care about connecting the student body and administrators. Now is the time for senators to reach out to their constituents. Now is the time to work with student activists instead of against them.

We all want to improve the same community. It’s time we work on this goal together.

It is also imperative that the administration addresses the lack of student involvement in policy decisions — particularly decisions that directly affect students. During this period of change brought by the Academic and Administrative Program Review, we are witnessing important changes to student life like dining and housing largely as outsiders. This should absolutely not be the case. For administrators, more student involvement in those areas would strengthen the trust between students and the administration and provide vital but otherwise overlooked student perspectives. For students, more involvement in policy decisions means policy decisions that reflect our needs and a better community for all of us. Increasing student involvement in policy decisions will do more than just resolve the issues that forced us to organize in protest. It will be a win-win for everybody.

We’ve got a long way to go, but effectively informing students of ways to improve policy decisions is a good start.

While many of our concerns were addressed, the details of flexibility and accessibility are still being worked out. This is a great time to get involved! Join committees, volunteer for working groups, share your ideas with the administration via email, and meet with them in person. Student input — for every aspect of campus life, but especially in campus dining policy — should be a vital part of every policy decision.

Tuesday’s Campus Dining Services boycott showed us the power of our voices. Let’s keep putting them to good use.

Ananya Gupta, Managing Editor

AAPR Process Must Value, Respect All College Employees Jae Muth Contributing Writer

Letters to the Editors (cont.)

Continued from page 5

ployees from its reports going forward. The Human Resources Department is perfectly capable of developing a collective bargaining strategy without AAPR, and neither AAPR, the elected faculty governance committees, nor the General Faculty has standing to intervene in that process. If the AAPR final report does make claims or recommendations with regard to the hourly employees, we should refuse to endorse it. I certainly will.

– Chris Howell James Monroe Professor of Politics

Oberlin Students Should Consider Decreasing Meat Consumption Imagine a world identical to ours, except for one aspect: No one eats meat. For whatever reason, however, billions of farm animals — many not unlike our pets — are still raised in horrific and unnatural conditions and then slaughtered after a few months. In this world, nothing is done with the meat these animals produce. It is simply thrown out.

I think most of us have the intuition that such a world would be a moral atrocity. But how different is that world from our own, especially given that we waste roughly 40 percent of our food anyway? Does our demand for cheap meat — particularly from affluent households in affluent countries — justify the cruelty of factory farming?

Roughly 70 billion land animals (10 times the number of humans on Earth) are raised and killed each year for human consumption. Twothirds of these animals live in what we call “factory farms”; and in the U.S., that number The Oberlin Review | April 5, 2019

increases to 95 percent.

Conditions in factory farms are miserable.

Pigs are confined in crates so small that they can’t turn around. Chickens are genetically manipulated to grow twice as large as they did 60 years ago, leading to broken legs and mangled feet. Modern turkeys can’t reproduce naturally and must be artificially inseminated. Fish are sometimes eaten alive by the sea lice that thrive in the densely-packed waters on fish farms.

All of this is to say nothing of the climate impacts of animal agriculture, nor of the horrific working conditions of slaughterhouses — both of which disproportionately affect underprivileged human populations.

So what can we do about it?

Despite what we often hear, you do not have to be vegan to care about the welfare of farmed animals. You just have to oppose extreme and pointless animal cruelty. Reducing your meat consumption — even if you don’t cut it out entirely — is a great way to show your support for farmed animal welfare. Oberlin has numerous vegetarian options at nearly every restaurant, and they are even more widespread around campus dining spots.

You can also get involved with Oberlin Animal Rights, an organization which advocates for farmed animal welfare issues, such as national campaigns that encourage food companies to improve the welfare standards for their animals.

With persistent poverty, systems of oppression, climate change, and increased threats from new technologies, we are living in a pivotal time. Let’s not have the enormous suffering caused by factory farming be yet another cause for our grandchildren to look back at us with shame. We can, and must, create a better world for all.

You can reach out to animalrights@oberlin. edu for more info on how to join the millions of people worldwide who are fighting for a food system that is truly humane.

– Haven King-Nobles College senior

The areas of recommendation first publicly presented by the Academic and Administrative Program Review steering committee on March 13 and 14 have exposed clear divisions between different parts of the Oberlin community. Students, faculty, staff, and administrators each face a challenging set of potential changes that, to this point, have only been offered to the campus community in blurry terms.

The vague statements — veiled in large part by the language of development, progress, and nominal references to Oberlin’s ethical standards — have incited confusion, misunderstandings, and difficult conversations among the people who attend and work at Oberlin. Yet, student discourse largely seems to ignore the most precarious group likely to be affected by the AAPR process: the workers who clean our dorms, cook our food, maintain our buildings, organize our departments and their functions, and much, much more.

Without these workers, Oberlin would be nothing more than an idea. Therefore, it is vital that the administration, students, faculty, and staff continue to keep in mind what the AAPR represents not only for themselves — as real and threatening as their anxieties may be — but also to the people who work in our dining halls, dorms, and elsewhere behind the scenes.

These workers stand to lose far more than students. While the thought of losing academic programs and student activities to widespread structural changes is distressing, we must also keep in mind the fact that hourly workers at Oberlin stand to lose pay, benefits, and job security. The AAPR and associated budget cuts endanger people, families, and livelihoods in the name of the College’s austerity. The AAPR presentation, vague as its statements were, has already indicated that workers are not its priority when making difficult changes.

Consider one figure shared at the presentation: According to a slide about staffing and employee compensation, Oberlin’s hourly wage workers make, on average, 34 percent more than at our peer Ohio institutions, while our faculty make 11 percent less than those at comparable liberal arts schools, the socalled “Sweet 16.”

This 34 percent figure obscures the fact that Oberlin’s

workers perform incredibly valuable work, and it reduces their dignity and vital contributions to this school to nothing more than an item in a spreadsheet. It erases the fact that Oberlin’s workers may still struggle to pay their bills while working full-time, even while receiving these wages.

Furthermore, even though hourly workers stand to lose their livelihoods in the AAPR process, these statistics — intentionally or not — ask us to balance these numbers such that workers lose pay in favor of increasing compensation for faculty. They entirely ignore the fact that faculty and hourly workers are all employees, and both groups deserve fair compensation and a living wage for their work.

The AAPR’s approach both threatens workers’ livelihoods and pits Oberlin’s faculty against its hourly workers — despite AAPR’s slogan of “One Oberlin.” How are we meant to become a unified community while pitting employees against one another?

And, more importantly, what does it mean that Oberlin — with its alleged commitment to social justice — would cut wages for its workers, undermining its stated convictions?

Why is it that the College has yet to demonstrate concrete plans for providing its workers with living wages, not just wages equivalent to its competitors, even as it makes more concrete recommendations about other factors at stake in the AAPR? Is Oberlin’s version of social justice one which does not include the most vulnerable within its community — those who stand to lose the most as a result of the AAPR? If Oberlin wishes to continue its commitment to a residential education that does not cease outside the classroom, or to prevent its social justice convictions from becoming mere hypocrisy, it must value and respect its employees and their families. The AAPR process and student responses to it must account for the fate of hourly workers alongside other community members, as well as the wider ethical implications of the way we pay and manage our employees.

It is simply not acceptable to sacrifice workers on the altar of austerity, nor is it accceptable for students to focus entirely on their own anxieties. If social justice is truly an idea that this living and learning community is committed to, then our priorities can’t be abstract; we must materially enact them within Oberlin itself.

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WHAT ARE CONSERVATORY PROFESSORS LISTENING TO

IN THEIR SPARE TIME? Layout and Text by Mikaela Fishman, This Week Editor To listen to these recommendations, visit bit.ly/ConRecs Alexa Still | Associate Professor of Flute Song: “Famous Blue Raincoat” Artist: Leonard Cohen “I have listened to this for years because I think it is the most perfect song ever.”

Song: “Sinfonietta” Artist: Leoš Janáček. “[This] is also a desert island piece for me. I love the grand scale of the boldness, the colors of all the instrumentation, the rhythms, the sadness … everything about this piece is just thrilling and I think demonstrates the power of symphonic music.”

Song: “Spiegel im Spiegel” Artist: Arvo Pärt “It is so meditatively beautiful, about as close as you can get to a musical prayer.”

Jan Miyake | Associate Professor of Music Theory

Bobby Ferrazza | Professor of Jazz Guitar Song: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” Artist: Bud Powell “I've always loved it because Bud [is] brilliant, yet loose, [and] rooted, yet with an edge.”

Robert Shannon | Professor of Piano

Song: “Smile (A Capella version)” Artist: By John Turner, Geoffrey Parsons, and Charlie Chaplin. Performed by Erin Bentlage, India Carney, Kenton Chen, and Ben Bram “Climate change, Trump, Oberlin's deficit ... old age ... why not?”

“I've been listening a lot to Noam Pikelny's album Universal Favorite because it makes me smile and sing. I also love the album because it features amazing musicianship, the banjo, and a wide variety of styles.”

THURSDAY–SATURDAY, APRIL 4–6 Songs from My Mother’s Seashore Songs from My Mother’s Seashore is a play about “a Black transgirl being loved and finding Self-Love,” according to director and College senior Nani Borges.

Kander Theater • 8 p.m.

FRIDAY–SUNDAY, APRIL 5–7 Dandelion Romp Contra Dance Weekend

SUNDAY, APRIL 7 Pickle Making for First-Yea

This three-day contra dance festival features dancing, workshops, and more. Touring bands Center Street and Sassafras Stomp will play music alongside callers Dela Murphy and Alexandra Deis-Lauby. Free for Oberlin students! Pricing information for non-Oberlin students is listed at oberlin.edu/stuorg/dromp/registration.html.

North Hall, Starlight Loung

Hales Gymnasium • Friday,7:30 p.m. to Sunday, 4:30 p.m.

An opportunity for first-yea learn how to make pickles a take their pickles home with Coffee, tea, and food will be (in addition to cucumbers, o

Peter Swendsen | Associate Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts

Kathryn Metz | Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology

“Now is one of the best times of year to unplug from your headphones and listen outdoors in places like the North Fields, the Arb, and even the pond by the [Adam Joseph Lewis Center For Environmental Studies].

Large numbers of migratory birds, many of which have amazing songs, pass through Ohio in springtime, and the small but incredibly loud frogs just emerged in ponds and puddles.

Go for a walk, follow your ears, and take your time. It’s a particularly active soundscape that only lasts for a few weeks.”

“I’ve been listening to Khalid lately. His sort of rambling lyrics that he delivers rather nonchalantly match the dreamscapes that the string arrangements and beats create. I can’t tell if he takes himself seriously or not, but he sounds simultaneously lovely, silly, and earnest to me. I hear hints of India Arie, Frank Ocean, and Benjamin Clementine, which are three influences I definitely enjoy.”

Christa Rakich | Visiting Professor of Organ

“[I’ve been listening to] the Sanford Sylvan/David Breitman recording of Franz Schubert's song cycle, ‘Die schöne Müllerin.’ These are songs I have known for many years, but this year the singer, Sanford Sylvan, died suddenly. I knew him distantly. I tend to listen to things compulsively, glomming on to a recording and practically living in it to the exclusion of all else. Imagine my joy when I came to Oberlin and found [Associate Professor of Historical Performance] David Breitman's studio was right across the hall from mine!”

Rebecca Leydon | Professor of Music Theory “During the last few months I've been listening to the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, from the early 1700s. He wrote 555 of them, so if you like his style there is endless fun to be had. Quite a few of them are easy to sight-read, too, if you play piano.

All little one-movement binary forms, they are funny, freakish, beautiful, imaginative, and groovy.

I like to hear them played on modern piano and I am especially fond of Ivo Pogorelich's [1992] quirky recording of 15 of them.”

Marilyn McDonald | Professor of Violin

“Wait till you hear ‘Bach Trios’ played by YoYo Ma, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer –– makes me want to practice!”

Gregory Ristow | Director of Vocal Ensembles and Associate Professor of Conducting “I’ve had Caroline Shaw’s ‘To The Hands’, performed

by The Crossing with Donald Nally conducting, on loop lately. It’s a response to the suffering of displaced peoples around the world, and our responsibility to support our fellow beings. It reminds me that, as artists, we are called to model and strive to create the beauty we hope to see in the world.”

ars

ars to and then h them. e provided of course).

ge • 4 p.m.

CAMPUS CALENDAR MONDAY, APRIL 8 Oberlin Friendship Festival

This celebration of friendship will include live music, food from Aladdin’s Eatery, spoken word poetry, raffle prizes, and friendship-bracelet making.

Wilder Hall, Wilder Main • 4–6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 Screening: Fire

Fire, an Indian film directed by Deepa Mehta, tells the story of a romantic relationship between two sisters-in-law who are unhappy in their marriages. Panel discussion to follow the screening.

Apollo Theater • 7 p.m.

THURSDAY, APRIL 11 Sexual Assault: A Story of Healing and Forgiveness Maytal Schmidt, OC ’10, was sexually assaulted as a student at Oberlin and now works with people who have committed sexual offenses.

She will give a talk about her experiences and professional work related to sexual offenses.

Wilder Hall, room 101 • 4:30–5:30 p.m.

A r t s & C u ltu r e

April 5, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE established 1874

Volume 147, Number 18

Short Film Documents Government Shutdown in Oberlin

A still from the recent documentary 35 Days, a short film detailing the Oberlin community’s experience of the January government shutdown.

Photo by Feixue Tang

Katherine MacPhail Arts & Culture Editor In just 12 minutes, the documentary film 35 Days explores the challenges presented by the government shutdown this past January and the Oberlin community’s response. The film shows the perspectives of local air traffic controllers who worked without pay and Oberlin Community Services staff who contended with food insecurity, which was exacerbated in the shutdown’s wake. It also recounts how businesses like Slow Train Cafe and IGA supported their fellow community members through this challenging time.

The film comes out of Standard Deviation Productions, a small documentary company unaffiliated with Oberlin. The idea originated with Nicholas Manting Brewer, who worked as the project’s director. Manting Brewer was drawn to Oberlin because it houses the country’s third largest Air Route Traffic Control Center — and because of the stories he heard about the community rallying around the air traffic controllers employed there.

Over the course of the project, Manting Brewer’s interest expanded to include the shutdown’s effect on people who depend

on social welfare programs.

“I was wondering what was happening to people that were depending on programs like food stamps and other social safety-net programs that were likely going to be affected by a government shutdown,” Manting Brewer said. “I was interested in doing a small piece that touched on those topics and hopefully showed how all of these things are connected. When the government shuts down, it’s not only the federal workers who are suddenly out of a job and not being paid for weeks on end, but it’s also all of these people who are depending on help from the government who suddenly may not get it.”

Aside from the shutdown, the month of January also brought brutal, dangerous cold to the town of Oberlin. The Californian filmmakers expressed their shock at the weather conditions, which disrupted their shooting on at least three occasions when camera equipment shut off because of the freezing temperatures.

Feixue Tang, the film’s cinematographer, spoke about how their artistic vision was shaped by this phenomenon.

“What we really tried to capture is the coldness of the weather and the nature in contrast with the warmth of the commu-

nity in Slow Train Cafe and in the community center where people are trying to help each other,” Tang explained.

The filmmakers’ hope is that their humanistic approach to the government shutdown will prompt people to look beyond their political alliances and consider the impact that a shutdown has on individuals.

“I really hope it will put some human faces onto the really abstract political debates that we often get dragged into,” said Michael Gil, the team’s editor. “The power of film is that it can produce a response of empathy in a viewer and that even if we don’t all agree with the ideas being expressed in an intellectual sense, that it can help us understand other people.”

Emily Grandcolas, who produced the project, said she hopes that the film will reach elected representatives, in addition to a more general audience.

“What I want to do is get this in front of a lot of government officials in Ohio, and other government officials,” she said. “I know I’m going to share it with my own politicians in California.”

When Manting Brewer caught up with the subjects of the film a few days after the shutdown had ended, they expressed to him that their anxieties were not over.

“I think for them it was this sense that they’re convinced that another shutdown is possible, if not imminent, and that they just wanted to show what had happened,” Manting Brewer said. “I think for them the impact is still very real.”

Manting Brewer also explained how the shutdown’s ramifications will continue to be felt far into the future.

“A lot of these programs are cyclical and they depend on cycles of money to come in,” Manting Brewer explained. “So while they may not immediately feel the ramifications of the shutdown, they may feel them three or four months from now

when that next cycle of funding comes in, and a certain amount of money isn’t available because the government was shut down for 35 days.”

The filmmakers hope that 35 Days’ peek into the experiences of one small town will open people’s eyes to how the shutdown affected people across the nation.

“I think in telling the air traffic controllers’ story you are telling a lot of other people’s story in the country too — what they’re going through and the effect on the community — because it ripples out when people aren’t getting paid,” Grandcolas said. “… It’s about Oberlin, but it’s also about the rest of the country. People are still feeling the effects of that shutdown and we just cannot have another one. It’s just not acceptable.”

The film isn’t all negative, however — it also has an uplifting story to tell.

The Oberlin community’s resiliency and support for one another stuck with all the filmmakers. The contributions from Slow Train Cafe and IGA to support the air traffic controllers, as well as the efforts from OCS and Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio in grappling with the overwhelming food insecurity in their area, show how residents stepped up to take care of each other when government officials let them down.

The filmmakers have faith that the theme of community support carried across the country, as people came together to help each other make it through the month.

“That situation that played out in Oberlin is something that probably played out in a lot of communities,” Manting Brewer said.

35 Days is available on YouTube and Vimeo. Links can be found on the Review website and the Standard Deviation Productions Facebook page.

Bringing Gothic Thrillers Back, Us Breaks Box Office Ananya Gupta Managing Editor

Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers of the movie Us. Jordan Peele’s Us is a gripping horror film that dabbles in a variety of uncanny, terror-inducing devices — doppelgängers, scientific experiments gone wrong, and darkly creative scenes of pursuit, stabbing, and bloodshed.

The plot follows Adelaide Wilson, played phenomenally by Lupita Nyong’o, as she navigates the childhood trauma of finding a little girl who looks exactly like her in an abandoned mirror maze. Returning to the location where this took place — this time as an adult with a family of her own — she experiences a sense of foreboding that her doppelgänger is coming to get her. Adelaide’s fears come true, when not just her double, now fully grown, returns, but doubles of her husband and two children all show up at their front porch, baying for blood.

Later in the film, we discover that it’s not just the Wilsons who are unfortunate enough to witness these horrors come to life. Millions of Americans face off against and are murdered by an entire army of American doppelgängers, the Tethered, who emerge from the inhumane conditions of their homes in underground tunnels — which actually exist in the continental U.S. While the production of the film is extremely engaging as we descend through a literal and metaphorical rabbit hole, Peele’s “Easter eggs” tend to

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be heavy-handed. For example, the mask belonging to Adelaide’s son Jason, which seems to represent the characters’ duality, and his toy ambulance, which hints at the getaway car used in the finale, both seem like unnecessary foreshadowing in an otherwise brilliantly-told story.

However, Nyong’o’s performance as Adelaide, as well as her double, Red, is genuinely awe-inspiring.

Her portrayal of each character evokes both fear and sympathy, a truly heroic feat to accomplish while constantly engaging in extreme violence.

Her line, “Be careful” and the unsettling smiles and laughs peppered tastefully throughout the film continue to induce shivers down my spine days after watching the film. Her acting is beautifully nuanced, with lithe, spider-like movements, unnerving head tilts, unblinking eyes, and two completely distinct voices for her two characters.

It’s worth noting that Nyong’o has received a lot of criticism regarding the breathy, stilted voice she used for Red’s character, which she mentioned in an interview with Variety was inspired by a condition called spasmodic dysphonia, a larynx disorder that can sometimes be the result of experiencing trauma. Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, president of nonprofit activist group RespectAbility, condemned Nyong’o for this acting choice. “Connecting disabilities to characters who are evil further marginalizes people with disabilities, who also have significant abilities and want to contribute to their communities just like anyone else,” she said in an interview with The Guardian. Nyong’o has sincerely apologized for offending anyone with the condition, stressing

that it was never her intention to vilify a disability.

The most chilling aspect of the film, surprisingly, is the question the film raises about who is truly “evil.” Is it the bloodthirsty Tethered, who are merely avenging decades of being deprived, forgotten, and mistreated? Or the privileged people who live happy, full lives in ignorance of this suffering?

Us grapples with the dichotomy of ‘us versus them’ and the human rights of each while raising important sociopolitical issues around the demonization of oppressed communities.

These issues of oppression are particularly reflective of American race and class politics, bringing forward the interpretation mentioned in Peele’s interview with Yahoo Entertainment: The film mirrors the U.S., especially through its constant reference to the 1980s Hands Across America charity event protesting hunger, which inspires the violence by the Tethered. The film critiques not only how poorly the U.S. treats underprivileged groups, but also the nation’s insistence on sugar-coating its horrors with capitalistic production.

Interestingly, there isn’t a single gun showcased in such a violent movie about America. The characters in the film use scissors, golf clubs, baseball bats, and boats to murder one another, but not even an extra is seen using a gun. Gun culture’s conspicuous absence suggests that American society is violent enough even without firearms.

I must also mention the presence of brief but memorable comedic moments in the film, mostly See Us, on page 13

Oberlin’s Friendship Festival Celebrates 10th Year Jaimie Yue Oberlin’s annual Friendship Festival, now in its 10th year, will take place this Monday in Wilder Main Space.

Featuring crafts, guest speakers, free food from Aladdin’s, and raffle prizes, the event is sponsored by the Oberlin Friendship Circle. It comes out of of 12 years of friendship studies at Oberlin and aims to celebrate friendship as the antithesis of war, prejudice, isolation, and hate.

For Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, Presidential Scholar in Islamic Studies and the Nancy Schrom Dye Chair in Middle East and North African Studies, the annual Friendship Festival is also a culmination of over three decades dedicated to studying international relations and friendship. Before coming to Oberlin, Mahallati served as the Director General for Economic and International Affairs in Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and also acted as Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations.

As U.N. ambassador, Mahallati spent time mediating the Iran-Iraq war — an experience which changed his perspective on mediation. In order to be effective, Mahallati learned, mediation requires an interdisciplinary approach of humanities and social science — much like economics and sociology.

“I was convinced that [mediation] was more than a knowledge,” Mahallati said. “It’s an art as well.”

By the time he arrived at Oberlin, Mahallati had spent two decades teaching and navigating the complex issues of war and peace.

“When I came to Oberlin, I needed something totally different to refresh my mind,” Mahallati said. “And naturally I thought, ‘What is the opposite to war? Oh, friendship.’ So let’s work on friendship.”

To Mahallati’s surprise, this realization would carry him through the next 12 years, as he has worked to make friendship not only a teachable subject but also a practical one. He has concluded that friendship must be taken

seriously as a strategy for policy-making and can no longer be treated as just an intellectual inquiry or marginal idea.

College sophomore Gillian Chanko, co-president of Friendship Circle, attests to the impact of Mahalatti’s classes.

“We talk a lot about using friendship in foreign relations, being not just allies but having presence of positive peace,” Chanko said. “So, good relationships rather than just the absence of war, because you’re much less likely to go to war with someone that you genuinely care about, which friends do. I don’t think people often think of diplomacy in terms of friendship.”

In 2011, to test the practicality of friendship studies, Mahallati went to the Oberlin City Council and successfully persuaded them to create the Friendship Resolution No. R11-05 CMS. This resolution establishes friendship as “a powerful foundation for international peacemaking.”

According to Mahallati, he told the council that the U.S. is the number-one arms exporter in the world, but it also celebrates Valentine’s Day as a day of love. While Mahallati appreciates the importance of Valentine’s Day, he believes that friendship is more universal and warrants its own day of celebration.

Oberlin students eagerly responded to this idea and created the Friendship Circle, a weekly gathering space for folks to discuss friends, music, poetry, cultures, and other universal uniting forces.

College sophomore Brigit Cann, the group’s other co-president, explained how the club can change perspectives on diplomacy.

“I think people often think of diplomacy in terms of preventing war or preventing conflict,” Cann said. “But I think the message of the club and one of the goals of the club is promoting positive peace-building and positive interactions and communications between individuals and whole communities.”

Mahallati also aims to incorporate aspects of Islamic religion and culture into his teachings of friendship. Most importantly, he focuses on the collaborative aspect of religious rituals such as group prayer as “an encouraging mechanism within religious rituals that say, ‘Hey, come on, do it together.’” Similarly, friendship is based on togetherness, which inspired Mahallati to create this festival.

Friendship Festival is the club’s biggest event of the year. Kiera Markham, College sophomore and Friendship Circle’s treasurer, explained that speakers are chosen based on how they contribute to the organization’s goals of community building.

Besides guest speakers, “The biggest thing that you’re going to be spending money on is food, because food is just such a uniting factor for people,” Markham said.

The importance of friendship is currently being recognized outside of Oberlin as well. In Britain, for example, Prime Minister Theresa May appointed the first Minister of Loneliness to investigate means of alleviating social isolation. The appointment followed a report released by the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness in January 2018, which found that 9 million Britons — 14 percent of the population — suffer from loneliness, which has devastating and costly effects on mental health.

“Friendship is exactly an antidote to all this too,” Mahallati explained. “It’s against war; it’s against loneliness.”

For Professor Mahallati, this mission began within his family. He cites their mediation skills as representing “the United Nations of our family.”

In the future, Mahallati hopes to introduce the festival to other communities, launch friendship studies as a full program, and bring these theories to international relations.

The friendship festival will be held this year on Monday, April 8 from 4–6 p.m. in Wilder Main Space, and is open to the entire Oberlin community.

Songs from My Mother’s Seashore Celebrates Black Trans Woman Love

College seniors Elijah Aladin and Nani Borges rehearse Songs from my Mother’s Seashore before opening night Thursday.

Aly Fogel A woman in white and gold walks on stage, caressing a framed portrait of a Black woman shrouded in white cloth who stares defiantly at the viewer with one breast exposed. Over the sound of gentle waves in the distance, she wonders aloud, “If God were to stand before us, would we recognize her magnificence?”

Songs from My Mother’s Seashore is an original work written and directed

by College senior Nani Borges, who also plays the lead in the show: a character with Borges’ name who represents a future version of herself. The theater production uses music, dance, and poetic writing to tell the story of a young Afro-Latinx transgender girl and her healing process.

“A lot of the dance and music is related to my education at Oberlin, but ultimately, when I think about what Black life and the Black aesthetic [are] … [they’re] filled with all those mediums,” Borges said. “We use all of those things to overcome trauma, we use all of those things to heal. But more importantly, we use all of those things in ritual.”

Her storytelling monologues also bleed into songs and dances, as well as

The Oberlin Review | April 5, 2019

Photo by Julia Harbutt

scenes of dialogue — most often featuring the male love interest, Isaiah. The romantic aspect of the show is important to Borges because stories about Black trans characters often focus solely on their trauma.

“I feel like there are so many movies, so many plays about a white girl… being young and dumb and in love,” Borges said. “What if I wrote a story about a young trans girl being young and dumb and in love, and it didn’t end in her death or a tragedy, but it ended in something that was to be continued, that would be continued, and would be worked on and would be better?”

This show is a celebration of the Afro-Latinx experience, the trans body, womanhood, and the spiritual self.

“Black trans love can be rough and can be beautiful,” Borges said. “When you push towards love, it is a vulnerable process that begs you to reckon with your past traumas and your past joys. But through reckoning, through understanding them, through reflecting on them, you will find a way back to your truest self.”

Songs from My Mother’s Seashore runs April 4–6 at 8 p.m. in Kander Theater. Tickets are $5.

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A r t s & C u lt u r e ON THE RECORD

Eli Conley, OC ’08, Queer Activist and Musician As an activist, educator, and musician, Eli Conley, OC ’08, is making strides in the Bay Area by cultivating spaces for free expression of gender and sexuality. A 2008 graduate of Oberlin College, with a major in Comparative American Studies, he is now the founder of Queer Country West Coast, a concert series for queer and transgender country artists in the Bay Area. When he’s not hosting workshops on songs promoting social justice for queer people, trans folks, and allies, he is writing and performing powerful songs about what it means to be a transgender man in the 21st century.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Carson Dowhan, Senior Staff Writer

Eli Conley, OC ’08, performing at the Cat in the Cream last Wednesday.

Photo by Meg Parker, Photo Editor

What inspired you to create Queer Country West Coast? What are its goals and purpose?

It’s an ongoing show series that I do a couple times a year. It was inspired by a show in Brooklyn, NY, that a friend of mine, Karen Pittelman, runs called Queer Country Quarterly. She’s a queer country artist and [wanted] more space in queer communities for country music.

We really believe that those two things don’t need to be at odds. There’s this idea that country music is inherently conservative or that it’s not a space that’s welcoming to queer people, but there are so many of us out there that are making roots music who are part of the LGBTQ community. Karen actually has a song about her going down on her girlfriend in the back of her truck or something like that. It’s a perfect space for that. Why can’t you write an amazing country song about that?

The fact that I sing songs about me being a gay, transgender man does kind of surprise people in more traditional country venues; it’s not what they expect. I was inspired by Karen to start the show in the Bay Area, and it’s been a really nice way to invite artists to curate a space that is for queer country music.

I’ve been doing it for three years, but a little less recently because the music that I’ve been writing is a little less country. It feels weird to host a queer country show and play more sort of folk-pop songs.

How did studying at Oberlin end up impacting your career today?

I was a Comparative American Studies major. I took a lot of classes in the Conservatory — I sang in Collegium Mu-

sicum, sang in the Baroque Ensembles, I took private lessons in singing. I think the thing that was really incredible about Oberlin was being in a space where there was really high-level music not only in Classical and Jazz, but in all different fronts. I wanted to go to a school that also had a liberal arts focus and where I could actually study social justice movements and learn more about the history and practice of social change. At the same time, spending a lot of my time doing music was really powerful. I started writing songs in high school, but I played at the Oberlin Folk Fest — that was one of the first performances of my own songs.

I also played at the Cat in the Cream.

Oberlin was a complicated place for me, where I was learning a lot about what injustice looks like and how that happens systematically in institutions.

Oberlin is an institution. With that said, I really wouldn’t trade it for the world.

As a voice teacher, you primarily focus on working with queer communities and allies. How do you work with transgender men who are taking testosterone?

I work with all singers in my private studio, but my group classes are specifically focused on queer people, trans people, and allies. My students are transgender men, transmasculine people, nonbinary people who are taking testosterone and feeling out what the effects of that are on their voices — folks who are just starting and folks who have been on hormones for years.

The process of taking testosterone if you’re a singer can be really scary. I put off doing it for a few years when I was here because singing is a part of my identity, and is so important to me — it wasn’t something I wanted to lose.

Around 2005 or so, everyone I’d talked to who had taken hormones that was a singer had lost their voice. It was a huge risk. Thankfully for me, I worked with a couple of different Voice majors in the Conservatory and had taken voice lessons. Through that process, I kind of figured out how to weather it and came out still singing on the other side. It was very much a process as a songwriter, as you know, if your instrument is literally

changing, that means your songs have to change.

Part of the reason I became a teacher is because of that experience here, and working with teachers who said, “We don’t really know what’s going to happen to your voice on a day-to-day level, but we’re here and we’re going to support you.” Now, I work with students who are going through that process, and everyone is different. There are some similarities to when cisgender guys go through puberty, and some differences too — everybody’s voice drops. You even have to re-learn how to match pitch.

Why is it important to create safe and accessible spaces for voice lessons in queer communities?

The thing that I hear over and over from folks taking my classes is that it is so meaningful to be in a space where they don’t have to be worried people are going to misgender them or that they’re going to be perceived in a way that is incorrect, or that they have to hide an aspect of themselves.

I think it creates a lot of space to play with gender in songs. There was a guy who took my recent class, a transgender man who sang a Taylor Swift song and used she pronouns to refer to himself in the song because that’s what was in the original song. It was amazing and very sassy. In the end, he said, “That was really meaningful because up to a couple years ago I wouldn’t have been comfortable expressing any degree of femininity. I needed people to see me correctly.”

But because he was in a space where we would all know he was still a man, even if he sang something written from a woman’s perspective, it kind of creates this space of gender freedom that we don’t necessarily have in most progressive places in this world right now. I think that’s huge because we need places where we can express ourselves fully.

How can straight and cisgender songwriters create a more accessible community for queer songwriters such as yourself?

The thing is often that trans and queer songwriters don’t necessarily have the same platform and access to people

already in the industry. That’s the way that privilege operates — if it’s white, straight, cisgender men who make up the majority of the music industry, people who look like them are automatically going to be seen by those in the industry. Be conscious of that dynamic, and if you’re in a community with queer and transgender songwriters, invite them to play shows with you. Listen to their music. Buy their music. Cover their songs.

And also think about your own relationship to gender and sexuality. All of our relationships to gender and sexuality are complex — it’s not only queer and transgender people.

Writing songs about what it means to be a straight or cisgender man and actually interrogating that can be really powerful. We’re going to make mistakes in that process, but part of how we learn is being open to feedback. I think folks who aren’t from the community have a platform to talk about that kind of stuff in a way that might be heard by different people.

What message do you want to promote as a queer country artist, educator, and activist?

I think a big message for me that is important to communicate is that we’re all in this together. If we’re going to build a world where everybody truly has what they need and can experience true freedom, then we have to be in alliance with each other across difference. The political right is organized across difference. We have evangelicals, conservative business owners, anti-abortion diehards, wealthy people who just want to hold onto their money no matter what. I think for those of us on the left, the task is to build connection in the broadest way possible because I believe there are more of us. When we stand together, we really are powerful. But so often in social justice movements and broader progressive spaces, there’s a lot of critique and criticism of each other. I hope that my music can be something that can bring people together across lots of different communities and also remind us that we have power when we take collective action. That’s the secret message behind my music.

First Church Celebrates Pete Seeger, Folk Musician and Activist Roman Broszkowski Senior Staff Writer Community members celebrated the 100th birthday of famed folk musician and activist Pete Seeger with a concert and fundraiser at the First Church in Oberlin, United Church of Christ last Thursday, March 28. Annie Patterson and Charlie King, longtime friends of Seeger, performed songs inspired by Seeger’s commitment to labor organizing, as well as other selections from the songbook that Patterson created with Peter Blood, OC ’68, Rise Up Singing and Rise Again.

Seeger gained national fame for his politically progressive songwriting in the ’60s but was blacklisted following his refusal to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Oberlin remained one of the few places that still allowed Seeger to perform.

“During that time, there were a few places that always would give him a venue, and Oberlin College was

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top of the list,” said David Finke, OC ’63, one of the concert organizers. “So he performed here … it filled Finney Chapel and there was a real love affair between Pete and his audience.”

Seeger continued to perform at Oberlin throughout his career and was selected as the Class of 1972 commencement speaker before he passed away in 2014.

Patterson and King, who worked closely with Seeger, decided to do a tour in honor of his 100th birthday and reached out to Finke in order to include Oberlin as one of the stops. “[They] wrote to me and said, ‘We’re having a 15city tour honoring the 100th birthday of Pete Seeger,’ [and asked], ‘Can we stop at Oberlin on the 28th?’” Finke said. “Well, that [was] spring break, [but] 60 people turned up and it was really high energy!”

College junior Wren Fiocco, who attended the concert, agreed.

“I had a good time,” they wrote in an email to the

Review. “The messages in a lot of the songs that were performed were pretty powerful, and some of the others were more lighthearted in nature but were about important social justice-related themes, including xenophobia, walls, labor organizing, and violence against women.”

Concert-goers were encouraged to sing along with Patterson and King, which Fiocco believed added power to the performance.

“A lot of the songs were pretty easy to pick up and sing along to,” Fiocco said. “I think there can be a lot of power in singing together, and in telling stories through song, and it was also really fun to sing with everyone.”

Sarah Johnson, OC ’15, an Oberlin resident, echoed Fiocco’s thoughts.

“I was really touched to see so many people there and left with an unexpected sense of connection,” she wrote in an email to the Review. “I think music can be See Folk, page 13

Us Rakes in $176 Million During Opening Week Continued from page 10

courtesy of Adelaide’s husband Gabe Wilson (Winston Duke). His weird, stereotypically masculine obsession with his motorboat and general disbelief at all the apocalyptic events of the film are entertaining and much-needed moments of relief in an otherwise tense, hypnotizing thriller.

Us is already a box office success and has grossed over $176 million worldwide within a week of release. It has also surpassed advance ticket sales from other films in the genre, such as A Quiet Place and Peele’s own Get Out. However, Us is definitely not for everyone. Despite its important

CROSSWORD

COMIC

The Oberlin Review | April 5, 2019

criticism of American society, incredible acting, and portrayal of strong Black women, it is also a grisly and harrowing experience.

It is certainly a cinematic masterpiece, but one must go into this film prepared to relive its terrifying scenes over and over again.

Particularly because the horror in the film is not confined to the dark — the doppelgängers are more than happy to kill you in broad daylight — since watching it, I have spent the last week masochistically listening to the film’s haunting soundtrack, “I Got 5 On It,” and imagining my double taking over my life. So, be warned and brace yourself.

Folk Concert Fundraises for First Church Sanctuary Continued from page 12

an enormously powerful tool in organizing, and while protest music as a tool has fallen out of favor somewhat among activists of our generation, for itself, singing is still something that does me good in body and soul.”

The event also doubled as a fundraiser for First Church’s sanctuary project, which aims to reorganize the church’s facilities in order to offer sanctuary to people at risk of being deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“First Church went through a yearlong process of discerning whether they could declare a sanctuary congregation,” Finke said. “[So far] they have remodeled parts of the basement so that there’s a very private but ample bedroom that

could hold up to a family of four or a single individual.”

Finke pointed out that although much work has been done, and someone seeking sanctuary could be immediately accommodated, the church would like to do more and was hoping to raise money for an ADA-compliant bathroom through the concert.

“I thought, gee, if we raise $300 or $400, it’d be great,” he said. “We cleared over $1,600. I think after hearing [the reasoning behind the sanctuary church movement] … people just got out their checkbook and put some in the basket.”

The concert was a resounding success on multiple fronts, celebrating the legacy of a great artist and supporting an initiative to help the Oberlin community.

Alex Metz

Clair Wang

Staff Cartoonist

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Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Clare Tiedemann, Track and Field First-Year

A native of New York City, College first-year Clare Tiedemann came to Oberlin with a plethora of interests. She sings, dances, plays piano and guitar, is interested in wildlife and environmental conservation, and competes in almost every event for the track and field team. She broke the school record in the indoor 60-meter hurdles at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships this past winter and looks to be a key competitor in the hurdles and long jump for the squad this spring.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Alexis Dill, Sports Editor Your nickname on the track team is Sticky Spaghetti. Can you explain?

That was from something my coach said at one point. He put a bunch of people in the long jump just to try it out, and basically the idea was to throw spaghetti at a wall and see if it sticks. That’s what’s happened to me this whole year. I’ve just tried a bunch of new things, and every one of them has stuck, so I’m sticky spaghetti, I guess. Everything I’m doing now is something I’ve never done before this year. My high school didn’t offer many events other than running and shotput because our track team was super underfunded.

What events have you competed in this year?

I’ve mostly just done hurdles, and I just did shot-put for the first time, which is not my event — yet. But I just started high jump and long jump, and long jump is basically where I got the nickname, because I had practiced it like twice before our first meet and I did pretty well, which was really exciting because I did not expect that I would do well. I changed the leg that I

Clare Tiedemann

was going to jump off of the day before the meet, so it was really stressful for me, but it worked out.

What will be your main events for the outdoor season?

Definitely hurdles. I think that’s my strongest event right now for sure. And long jump.

Which is your favorite?

I love hurdles. The reason I do track is because I really like going fast, and there’s something about flying over obstacles that’s really exciting to me.

Long jump has grown on me, though.

I was actually terrified of the hurdles and long jump at first, but once I overcame those fears those events became two of the things I enjoy most.

What’s it like transitioning from the most populated city in the country to Oberlin?

The one thing that has changed the most is the accessibility of everything.

You can find anything you want in New York. You take a 15-minute subway ride and you can get anything you want. I moved around a lot more

Photos courtesy of OC Athletics

there. Here, I’m basically on campus at all times. But I really appreciate that I can say hi to people that I know, because you never really run into people you know in the city. I like being able to walk around and wave to people. It feels like a small-town vibe, which I’ve never experienced before.

Clare Tiedemann Photos courtesy of OC Athletics

You took a gap year before coming to Oberlin. What did you do?

I spent the first three months taking a NOLS course in New Zealand, which is the National Outdoor Leadership School. Basically we did really intense outdoor activities for three months.

The first month I spent mountaineering on a glacier, which was 100 percent the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. There were many days where I thought I was going to die, but getting through that changed me as a person.

The second month was sea kayaking, which was really cool because we got to see all the aquatic wildlife, like orca whales and stuff. Hiking was the last month, which was definitely the most fun because we were in really good shape at that point. It was super cool hiking up mountains with all my buddies.

That was just the beginning of my gap year — I did two more organized things. I did culinary school in England for a month. I was in Somerset, England, so it was mostly cows. Actual England wasn’t super exciting, but it was really cool to learn how to cook. I thought I knew how to cook, but I really didn’t.

The last thing I did was I spent six weeks in Costa Rica working with wildlife.

kind of wanted to go here ever since I looked, which was when he first looked here. I just really liked how relaxed people here seemed and how it’s kind of weird. That was my favorite part of high school. There was a group of people who were weird and artsy, and I really liked that. I feel like that’s definitely here.

You and your brother Charlie, who is a College junior on the men’s basketball team, are very close. Did he influence your college decision at all?

I don’t know. When I came and visited him, that definitely was nice to actually see what life here is like, and not just from a touristy point of view. I

If you had to pick a dream job, what would it be?

I actually know. I really want to be a NOLS instructor, which is the program that I did in New Zealand. That is my ideal job because it’s super athletic, I’d get to be outside, and it has a focus on sustainability, which is something I’m really passionate about.

Are you into art?

At my high school they offered the ability to be an art major, which is basically just making art a core part of your academics. I did that and really enjoyed it. I want to get back into it, but I haven’t really fit it into my schedule yet.

You take classes through Oberlin’s dance program — when did you begin dancing?

I kind of started dancing in fifth grade, and I’ve been on and off doing it. I really got into it my last year of high school. I joined our dance ensemble, which is a student-choreographed dance group. It was really amazing, and I wanted to be a part of it here, too.

Do you want to dance after college?

I don’t know. I think it’s something that’s more for me. I don’t know if I see it as a career. I just see it as something I really enjoy doing.

Mental Health Awareness Given Priority by Student Athletes

Nipsey Hussel’s Death Incites Grief From NBA Players, Fans

Continued from page 16

Continued from page 15

all day Saturday.

By using their DIII Week to promote mental health awareness, Oberlin athletes combined their pride in being DIII athletes with a call to action to takebetter care of athletes on campus.

However, Rasmussen emphasized that there is a strong need for ventures like DIII Week beyond Oberlin’s campus.

“Personally, I think that the stigma surrounding mental health in America is incredibly strong,” Rasmussen said.

“Athletes often feel the need to portray strength at all times and I know many who have struggled to seek help for this very reason. The physical and mental stresses of playing a sport and attending an elite academic institution are important to acknowledge and

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talk about, along with solutions to ease these stresses.”

In the wake of the deaths at Wabash and Denison, students, teammates, and staff and faculty members were prompted to look internally to understand the mental health crises occurring among the student-athletes at each college, and were urged to destigmatize mental illness by encourage their student-athletes to seek the help and attention they need.

Oberlin student-athletes constructed their DIII week with the same logic — there can be both pride in sports and concern in how players treat themselves, and by continuing to promote mental well-being through sports, we can protect our athletes and ensure their holistic wellness.

behind in critical academic areas and other factors.

Like Hussle, James knows what it’s like to grow up in an impoverished city and wants to show kids that it’s possible overcome adversity and help others succeed. James, who is now a multi-millionaire and the face of the NBA, missed 82 days of school in [the] fourth grade because his mom didn’t have a car. In fact, James barely had a home. He and his mother bounced around, often crashing on the couch of a family friend for weeks at a time.

“I know exactly what these 240 kids are going through,” James said at the grand opening of his school.

“I know the streets that they walk. I know the trials and tribulations that

they go through … I know everything that they dream about. I know all the nightmares that they have, because I’ve been there.”

While a light was taken from the world Sunday, and fans and friends of Hussle continue to mourn his death, they also reflect on the wonderful legacy he has left behind and contemplate their own impact on the world.

Like many of his friends in the NBA, he did far more than just excel in his field — he used his influence to provide opportunities and resources to people who need them and uplifted an entire city. May we all strive to be so kind-hearted and philanthropic that we’re remembered more by the quality of our character than by what we did for a living.

NBA Fans and Players Mourn Nipsey Hussle, Celebrate His Legacy After Rapper’s Death Alexis Dill Sports Editor With just over a minute left on the clock and a safe 16-point lead over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Billy Donovan pulled his starters. But as Paul George, Jerami Grant, and Dennis Schroder sauntered off the court, Russell Westbrook stayed put.

Seconds later, Westbrook snagged a missed 15foot shot off the fingertips of Lakers rookie Isaac Bonga, running his rebound total to 20. By doing so, he became just the second player in NBA history — and the first player since 1968 — to put up 20 points, 20 assists, and 20 rebounds in a single game. The first to do so was Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain, who many argue is among the top five players in basketball history.

“20 plus 20 plus 20,” Westbrook said in a postgame interview with TNT’s Jason Terry, “They know what that means, man, that’s for my bro.”

Westbrook was referring to rapper and community activist Nipsey Hussle, who was shot and killed outside of The Marathon Clothing, his apparel store, in South LA on Sunday.

Hussle’s previous experience with street violence and gang culture — he was formerly affiliated with the Rollin 60’s Neighborhood Crips, an LA street gang — inspired his music and the steps he took to rejuvenate South LA, specifically the Crenshaw District.

While Hussle was a Grammy-nominated rapper, many of his mourners admired him most for what he did outside of the recording studio. In fact, plenty of people who expressed their sorrow and sent words of support and encouragement to Hussle’s family and friends on social media admitted they are unfamiliar with his music. Hussle was a contemporary cultural icon who didn’t solely care about materialistic goods or a strong social media presence — he

also wanted to provide for his loved ones and community and change how kids experience growing up in inner cities.

Last year, Hussle launched his Too Big to Fail initiative, which included opening a STEM education and networking center for children in Crenshaw. He was also involved in the Destination Crenshaw arts project, which sought to celebrate Black LA through a mile-long arts and culture event. He owned several businesses — with plans to turn a strip mall into a residential space — and often gave jobs to struggling and homeless residents. He was planning to meet with the LA Police Department and representatives from Jay Z’s entertainment company, Roc Nation, on Monday to discuss how to curb gang violence in the city, and had participated in several anti-gun violence rallies over the years.

On Wednesday, Congress member Karen Bass, who represents California’s 37th District — which includes Los Angeles, Inglewood, and Culver City — tweeted, “I will be heading to the House Floor next week to formally enter Nipsey Hussle’s contributions to South Los Angeles into the Congressional Record where it will be a part of United States History forever.”

Hussle’s influence spread to athletics, where he had formed close relationships with many players in the NFL and especially the NBA. In 2016, he helped serve food to guests at Westbrook’s Why Not? Foundation’s fifth annual Thanksgiving dinner in LA, and Westbrook — born in Long Beach, CA — attended the opening celebration of Hussle’s apparel store in 2017. In 2018, Hussle and fellow LA rapper YG performed a halftime show together at a Los Angeles Clippers game to promote Hussle’s debut album, Victory Lap. He also teamed up with athletic clothing brand Puma to renovate a basketball court in his hometown and attended the 2019 NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte.

After his death, the Golden State Warriors paid

tribute to Hussle with a musical break during their game Sunday, Los Angeles Clippers players Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams put replica jerseys with “Hussle” written on the back in their lockers, and a plethora of other players spoke on Hussle’s legacy and scribed his name on their sneakers. Cleveland Cavaliers player J.R. Smith even got Hussle’s face tattooed on his leg.

Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, a good friend of Hussle’s fiancee Lauren London, was among the players to publicly lament for Hussle.

“It’s unfortunate, as we continue to lose so many important young men in this world, especially the ones who are doing good and are trying to do good for others,” Wade said. “It’s a big loss for our community. It’s a big loss for his family. It’s a big loss for this world.”

Hussle’s death hit close to home for many athletes, because they shared a similar upbringing and desire to give back to their communities — which TV presenter Shannon Sharpe addressed on the April 3 episode of his show, Skip and Shannon: Undisputed.

“Nipsey Hussle had a different influence,” said Sharpe, a former NFL star. “I didn’t really know his music. I knew him more for what he was trying to do for his community. All my life I grew up trying to become something to remove myself from the environment [I came from]. … But that’s not what this young man did. He became something, stayed in the community, [and] tried to empower others to say, ‘Yeah, you can leave, but you can stay and be prosperous here.’”

Lakers star LeBron James, who posted three different tributes to Hussle on Instagram, is another athlete who can relate to him. Born and raised in Akron, Ohio, James returned to his hometown in July 2018 to open the I Promise School. The school provides education for 240 third- and fourth-graders who were identified by Akron Public Schools as See Nipsey, page 14

OC Athletics Spring Break Photo Series Oberlin athletes are known for their passion and dedication to the sports they love — and that doesn’t end when school is out of session. The Yeomen and Yeowomen traveled all over the country over spring break to compete with some of the nation’s premier teams. Check out where Oberlin’s spring teams spent their spring break this year.

Photos courtesy of OC Athletics Men’s and women’s lacrosse flew out to California. The Yeomen found themselves in Whittier, CA, while the Yeowomen made their way to Claremont, CA, but both reconvened in Los Angeles for a Heisman Club dinner with Oberlin lacrosse alumni.

The track and field team ventured over to Spartanburg, South Carolina to compete with Wofford College, a D-I school.

The men’s baseball team had four days of double-headers at the Tucson Invitational Games in Tucson, Arizona. The team finished the invitational Tuesday with a 5-3 record.

Men’s and women’s tennis headed out to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The Yeowomen were unable to come away with a win out of their three competitions, but the Yeomen brought home a 3-for-4 spring break record.

The Oberlin Review | April 5, 2019

Oberlin softball was busy at the 2019 NTC Games in Clermont, Florida. With double-headers on each of the five days they competed, the Yeowomen came back with four wins under their belt.

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April 5, 2019

SPORTS established 1874

Volume 147, Number 18

Fiscal Attack on Special Olympics Opens Dialogue About Impact of Sports Jane Agler Sports Editor

The Student Athlete Advisory Committee hosted a number of events this week to celebrate NCAA Division III Week, including a sports and OC Athletics-themed trivia night in the Knowlton Athletics Complex this Tuesday.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

SAAC Highlights Mental Health Awareness During DIII Week Programming Julie Schreiber Senior Staff Writer

Content Warning: This article contains mentions of suicide.

When Evan Hansen, senior captain of the Wabash College football team, took his life on Monday, Sept. 10, 2018, no one saw it coming. He had started for the Little Giants for nearly his entire collegiate career, and all of his teammates loved and admired him. However, Hansen was struggling behind the scenes — not unlike many student-athletes all over the country.

His tragedy can hardly be seen as an isolated incident. Hansen was the second Wabash football player to take his life in the past few years, following Austin Weirich, who committed suicide on the exact same day, two years earlier. Weirich “masked his depression in perfectionism,” according to his mother, Leslie Weirich. Similarly to both Hansen and Weirich, Denison University baseball player Sean Bonner was more recently found dead from an apparent suicide on Nov. 7, 2018.

The mental wellbeing of collegiate athletes across the country has been in peril for many years. According to USA Today, a University of Washington study centered around student-athletes’ mental health revealed that, out of 500,000 student-athletes involved in NCAA sports nationwide, 477 died by suicide between 2003 and 2013 — an average of nearly 48 deaths per year.

But statistics can feel arbitrary until they affect your own community, and in the wake of alarming student-athlete crises at Wabash, Oberlin student-athletes — who compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference with the Little Giants — know that their voices matter here, too.

It’s a tradition for the NCAA to celebrate Division III athletics every year with a ritualistic “Division III Week,” in which participating schools across the country celebrate the unique expe-

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rience of being a Division III athlete — where schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and social events are just as important to the students’ experience as their sports.

The theme of this year’s DIII Week at Oberlin is mental health awareness, and the events — which run April 1–7 — feature a slate of activities for student-athletes and non-athletes alike.

The programming focuses heavily on promoting mental health and wellbeing through different resources provided by the College and its athletic facilities.

Perhaps the most on-brand activity for the week’s theme was Mindfulness Monday, a celebration of the grand opening of Oberlin’s new “Mind Spa,” located in the Shanks Health and Wellness Center. The Mind Spa includes tools for mindfulness and meditation, such as salt lamps, teas, relaxing lights, and coloring pages, and is intended to serve as a space for athletes to reflect, relax, give their minds and bodies the physical and emotional care they need, and learn longterm strategies to promote health and well-being in the future.

“We tried to be more intentional with our programming this year,” said Hannah Rasmussen, College senior, softball player, and Student Athlete Advisory Committee co-chair. “So, while we want to have fun and engaging activities, like trivia, we also wanted to have events such as our mindfulness workshop.”

Other events included Wisdom Wednesday, where coaches of various Oberlin teams joined their athletes in class, and Thankfulness Thursday, when all Oberlin athletes were invited to write what they feel thankful for on a banner posted in the lobbies of Shanks Health and Wellness Center and the Science Center. The week will conclude today with a Friday Fire dance party at the ’Sco and a block party tomorrow afternoon featuring food, games, and a celebration of the slate of Oberlin athletics events taking place See Mental Health, page 14

Due to President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the 2020 fiscal year, the Department of Education is facing a potential 10 percent budget reduction and is looking for ways to effectively subsidize the loss. This is the third year in a row the President has prioritized the military and the building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border over education, putting pressure on Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to make up the difference.

However, her resulting proposal was yet another ill-informed and ludicrous step in her long history of errors as education secretary. Last week, DeVos proposed a $17.6 million cut in funding for the Special Olympics, a move that has garnered widespread criticism from colleagues and the general public alike.

DeVos explained that she supports the intentions and work done by the Special Olympics but stood by her proposal to drastically cut funding, blatantly disregarding the grand effect it would likely have on the world’s largest organization for children and adults with disabilities.

“I think the Special Olympics is an awesome organization … [but] given our current budget realities, the federal government cannot afford to fund every worthy program, particularly ones that enjoy robust support from private donations,” DeVos said in a statement last Wednesday, President Trump contradicted DeVos’ statement (and his own) proposal on Thursday, claiming to have “saved the Special Olympics” by telling “his people” to fund the Special Olympics again, despite having been the initial force defunding the venture.

It is important to note that the Special Olympics not only trains people with intellectual and physical disabilities in over 30 Olympic-style sports, but also has a federally-funded anti-bullying program implemented in over 6,500 schools nationwide. Beyond these efforts, Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver was quoted in The New York Times explaining that the organization is “trying to educate young people about the importance of an inclusive mindset to the future of the country.”

He further elaborated on the organization’s mission by relating it to the national education system. He added, “What do you send your kids to school for? [To] read, write, of course. But to learn how to respect the fact that everybody matters? Big lesson.

Our athletes are teaching it.”

This threat to the Special Olympics has shed light on the socio-political significance of sports within the United States.

In the past few years, the nation has seen professional and non-professional athletes standing for much more than just physical excellence. The world of sports has grown to represent the world as a whole, wrought with the same issues, politics, and controversies embedded in our society. Over the past few years, Colin Kaepernick has become much more than a football player. His efforts have promoted the reality that racism and brutality are issues dealt in every sector of national media and society, not just in football. More recently, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has highlighted the persistence of gender inequality in the U.S. through their discrimination lawsuit against U.S. Soccer.

Like many programs funded by the federal government, the livelihood of the Special Olympics is in danger due to the present political climate within the United States. The idea that the Special Olympics might be considered a partisan issue is surprising, though, given its mission lacking affiliation with any side or party — a detail best represented by the mix of White House Republicans and Democrats reacting negatively to DeVos’ proposal. However, the matter of finding space in the proposed budget for the Special Olympics has caused various news outlets to voice their outrage that “taxpayers” are being forced to fund the organization or, just as dangerously, are depicting Trump as a hero who “saved” the Special Olympics from being defunded.

Tony Reali used his platform on Around the Horn, a popular ESPN sports talk show, to voice these concerns and encourage the public to think more deeply about the issue beyond the restrictions of partisan politics.

“The power of sports lies in its ability to instill and inspire positive change, and that’s exactly what the Special Olympics does,” he explained. “This isn’t about public, this isn’t about private. This isn’t about budget plans, this isn’t about voting. We’re all public. I ask us to consider to look inward now. We’re asked to include all people every day. Do we?”