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We Must Take Action to Protect AVI Workers Gabe Stefanides We are failing. AVI Foodsystems is violating the rights of people working for them on campus, and we are not protecting the workers. Our collective privilege has made us blind to the hooks of capitalism present and persistent here on campus. The disruption of my ignorance began in the spring when I started working for AVI. Before my first shift, I signed a contract that stated that, as a temporary employee of AVI, I would receive no more than six days off over the entirety of my time with the company. Gravely misunderstanding this policy at first, I left halfway through my first shift — one I had picked up voluntarily — because of a splitting headache. Strike one, I guess. I then called off for a mental health day when I was scheduled to work a night shift and an early morning shift back to back, which I had explicitly told them that I couldn’t do because of my diagnosed insomnia from anxiety. Strike two. When I called out sick after getting my second COVID-19 vaccine dose, I was promptly terminated. Even though I didn’t take off all six days, AVI was still able to fire me. Ohio is an “employment at will” state, so employers can fire you for basically whatever they want. I fought like hell to get my job back. I contacted my immediate supervisor, and when she didn’t respond, I contacted Resident Director Caleb Crandall. I emailed him, called him, and met with him in person. He offered me my job back, and I accepted. I didn’t realize he meant I would still be subject to their six-days-off policy. Shortly after that conversation, I realized I couldn’t work for a company that didn’t give me the support I needed when I poured my everything into my work. A company that pays only wages with no benefits is not a company that is concerned about its people. Making $13.50 per hour to be belittled, manipulated, and gaslit is not what I nor any of the other employees working for AVI had signed up for. I refused to compromise my values and stop taking care of myself and my fellow employees. Why should I have had to prove that I deserved basic dignity? So I quit. I acknowledge that my privilege allowed me to quit, and I recognize that many people cannot do the same. It is a crucible in which to create space for privilege to exist for all people. We can no longer feign blindness or ignorance when we look upon the plight of those working for AVI. We must acknowledge our privilege and act to influence change. We need to call on AVI to abolish its ableist and discriminatory practice of allowing only six days of excused absence and protect the unionized and student workers alike. We must pursue radical change and justice so that those people are protected here on campus. I call on President Carmen Twillie Ambar and the College to affirm that we will not operate with a company that harms its students and staff. The College loves to tout its motto: “Think one person can change the world? So do we.” How can the College promote leaders if suffering is the modus operandi and students have no safe space to call “home?” I also call on the student body to act. We like to think that Oberlin is a bubble, but we cannot avoid politics; we cannot avoid capitalism. AVI is a company that reflects corporate America, and it cannot have a place here in our world if we genuinely care about changing it. No longer can we perform half-actions. We must make hard choices. We cannot fight for the world’s people if we don’t fight for the ones right here on campus. We must act now. First, we need to open our eyes and understand the problem. If you feel so inclined, ask a staff member if they are experiencing any issues with AVI. Take the time to listen to them and then report back to your friends and colleagues. Information is the ammunition that we can use to fight our battles. Knowing themes of abuse is the first step in stopping that abuse. Second, we need change. Do research and support local businesses that provide adequate time off. Tell your friends to do the same. We will buy from AVI again when they have removed their ableist and discriminatory policy of only six days of call-off, issued a formal apology admitting fault, and implemented strategies to prevent disabled or ill students from being penalized in the future. Do not support AVI until they change their problematic policies. Lastly and most importantly, support AVI’s union and unions in general. Vote to keep unions expansive and healthy. We must first create positive change in the space immediately around us and then let that momentum flow forward. We can change the world, but it must be done one step at a time, little by little, each weary step after the other fraught with blood, sweat, and tears from all of us. The hard work begins now.
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Uncleaned Houses Sign of Administrative Disorganization Continued from page 5
“There was definitely some extra cleaning we had to do once we got into the house,” she said. Mokashi and her roommates found coffee grounds on the floor of the kitchen, as well as several structural problems. The floor of the upstairs bathroom was entirely rotted through, and gutter leaks caused the downstairs ceiling to mold. “When it would rain, we could see the ceiling bulging in,” Mokashi said. Mokashi and Povilaitis’ complicated move-in processes reflect a larger issue of disorganization in ResEd. The transition between the summer and fall semesters gave the administration less than enough time to prepare for students’ arrival. This caused a strange limbo period. Students living on campus in-between semesters, including athletes, moved in at staggered times and often had to live in temporary housing. “I can sympathize with the College and understand that it was really difficult to turn things around quickly from the summer term,” Povilaitis said. “There’s only a month, and then athletes stay for preseason.” Another impediment to ResEd’s organization was the number of first-year students arriving in the fall.
With a class size of 871 students, adjustments had to be made. Fairchild House was turned into first-year housing, and mostly first-years moved into mixedyear housing like Burton Hall. It’s possible that this resulted in ResEd’s attention being scattered across campus, forcing Village Housing students like Povilaitis and Mokashi to be ignored. As a first-year student myself, I can say that I had a relatively easy experience moving into my traditional dorm. No first-years I know walked into an unclean room on move-in day. ResEd has clearly put more energy into certain buildings and living spaces than others. Oberlin students, regardless of their class year or where they live on campus, shouldn’t be forced to take on the responsibilities of ResEd and Facilities Operations. It is on the College to provide us with adequate living situations and to take on issues such as mold and leaking before we move in. When planning the summer term, the administration should have considered the impact it would have on housing. After all, according to the ResEd website, Oberlin is a “residential” college that believes “that living and eating together fosters a strong community.”
Bridging the Gap Could Provide Valuable Experience for Students Emma Sullivan “If you truly wish to carry on the Oberlin legacy of service and social justice, then you need to run to — and not away from — the noise,” said former First Lady Michelle Obama in her 2015 Commencement address. “Today, I want to urge you to actively seek out the most contentious, polarized, gridlocked places you can find. Because so often, throughout our history, those have been the places where progress really happens.” Being an activist means engaging in hard conversations. However, right now, several Oberlin students are protesting a Winter Term project — Bridging the Gap: Israel, Palestine, and the Politics of Division Here at Home — under the guise of social justice, ultimately discounting Obama’s words on genuine advocacy. It is time we remind ourselves that social progress can only be achieved by facing the noise, not fleeing it. The Bridging the Gap Winter Term project, which is being planned in partnership with the national civil rights organization Western States Center, is providing Oberlin students with an opportunity to visit Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories for eight days in hopes of better understanding the situation. “The program is intended to cultivate participants’ ability to listen, understand, be heard, and seek common ground solutions as we build movements towards our shared goals of democracy and social justice,” the program description read. Two student organizations at Oberlin, Students for a Free Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, recently put out a joint petition condemning the Bridging the Gap Winter Term project. “The genocide occurring in Palestine is ongoing, and to take a trip to Palestine under any circumstance other than working towards Palestinian liberation is grossly inappropriate and directly supports apartheid,” the petition read. The Bridging the Gap program coordinators responded to the petition in a public statement, defending the purpose of the trip. “Those who participate in this trip will directly engage Palestinian, Israeli, and East Jerusalemite activists, politicians, and community leaders, as well as Ethiopian Jewish Israelis, Palestinian citizens of Israel, Christian Palestinians, and members of migrant communities trying to find footing and safety in Israel,” the statement read. It would be nearly impossible for Oberlin students to grasp the intricacies of the Israel-Palestine conflict and achieve social change without first immersing themselves in the two nations’ cultures. Oberlin’s motto is, “Think one person can change the world? So do we.” If Oberlin students really want to change the world, they need to learn about it first.
Protesters need to ask themselves what their goal is. Is it to simply remain angry about a perceived injustice or to create peace in the region? If they desire meaningful change, they need to stop boycotting. A boycott will not only be fruitless, it will stunt any potential progress. We would never tell diplomats not to visit the countries for which they are trying to broker a peace agreement, so why are we trying to bar Oberlin students — perhaps our future leaders, ambassadors, and negotiators — from having this valuable experience? The petition against Bridging the Gap argues that Oberlin students should not visit Palestine. “Many Palestinians are barred from returning to Palestine because of Israel’s discriminatory laws and policies, so why should non-Palestinian Oberlin students have the right to take a school-sponsored trip?” the petition read. However, in their response to the petition, the Bridging the Gap coordinators disagree that refusing to travel to Palestine is the solution. “The Palestinian rights activists (including both Palestinians and Israelis) with whom we are engaged in Israel/Palestine are deeply concerned with the outsized influence that the United States wields in the region and welcome open-minded American visitors interested in hearing their perspectives, witnessing their struggles, and bringing those lessons home,” the statement read. It is therefore hypocritical to imply that students who visit Israel and Palestine “support apartheid.” Does this mean that students should never visit a nation that has committed human rights abuses? Should we not study Russian culture in Moscow because of the government’s continued violations against Jehovah’s Witnesses or the LGBTQ+ community? Should people from other countries refuse to come here because our government forced Japanese Americans to live in internment camps during WWII? If so, we’d be living in an incredibly isolationist and divided world. The brutal truth is that we live in an unjust world. You’d be hard-pressed to find a nation that hasn’t committed human rights abuses. We shouldn’t prohibit individuals from traveling to countries that are accused of committing injustices. Rather, we need to travel to these countries to learn more about the people, the culture, and their history so that we can hopefully reverse the injustices and enact change. As Obama said in her commencement speech, “If you want to change [people’s] minds, if you want to work with them to move this country forward, you can’t just shut them out.” If Oberlin students are truly intent on changing the world, they should adhere to Obama’s inspirational words and start running toward the noise.
