Bridging the Gap Could Provide Valuable Experience for Students

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.

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.

Oberlin’s Dining Services Letting Down Students

Zach Bayfield Columnist

It’s no secret that over the past few years, the quality of Oberlin’s dining services has been consistently declining. I’m a fourth-year, and every year that I’ve been on this campus, meal plans have become more and more overpriced while the food quality has worsened. This semester, the situation has reached a breaking point.

The poor nutritional quality of our meals makes it difficult for all students to maintain healthy eating habits. At DeCafé and the Rathskeller, meals tend to be 400–600 calories per meal swipe, in addition to a side. Recommended calorie intake varies based on factors such as age, weight, height, lifestyle, and overall health, but, regardless, the recommended daily calorie intakes in the US are around 2,500 for men and 2,000 for women. So, even after getting three full meals from either of these locations, most students would still fall short of their recommended daily intake. It is even worse for people who are more physically active; for many athletes, the daily requirement just to maintain muscle mass is at least 2,500–3,000 calories.

Even if you do manage to get the requisite number of calories, healthy options that actually satisfy students’ hunger are so limited that most of the calories consumed come from unhealthy foods.

“Especially late at night, the most substance you can get is from the Rat, which is such greasy food,” said College thirdyear and track and field athlete Emma Hart. “I’m never energized with the food that I eat from there.”

Combined with the lack of sustainable food options, the excess costs of the meal plans this year are forcing some students to go without food entirely. Depending on their plan, students are expected to pay $10.30–24.00 per meal swipe. However, after reviewing the AVI Foodsytems menus at all dining locations, I estimated that the cost of ingredients for these meals is substantially below their listed prices. I would assume the remainder of meal plan payments goes into wages and capital expenses, which makes sense— what doesn’t make sense is charging extra Flex Points for meals. One meal swipe should be able to cover a full meal since we already pay so much per swipe. There is absolutely no explanation for why the school is charging additional Flex Points — other than a blatant prioritization of profits.

In addition to overcharging on meal swipes, students have also complained about overpriced grocery options in DeCafé. College second-year Maya Yin Fahrer, who started a petition to raise awareness about the shortcomings of our dining services, was shocked when she first saw the inflated prices.

“People were talking a lot about how grocery items are four times the amount that they would be in a grocery store,” she said. “I didn’t even know that until recently, but after hearing about it, I went down and looked, and a cup of ramen, which is like … 50 cents [in a grocery store], is $5 [in DeCafé]. It’s insane.”

For low-income students, this could be detrimental.

“Seeing the people who have health issues or people who are low-income students saying, ‘I haven’t eaten in three days’ — it’s eye-opening,” Yin Fahrer said. “When people say that to you, I think it’s much harder to ignore.”

Oberlin is compromising accessibility for an entire demographic of students, which is directly at odds with the school’s intended mission.

As if high costs weren’t enough, long wait times for food are making the meal plan even less accessible. From personal experience, I’ve found that the wait during mealtimes at most dining locations is approximately 15–45 minutes.

“At most dining locations, you have to wait an astronomical amount of time to get your food,” Hart said. “The workers are doing their best, but there is just not enough being done to cover the understaffing issues.”

For students who are working through hectic, fast-paced daily schedules, spending the better part of an hour waiting for a flavorless chicken bowl is simply not a reasonable option. Yet, AVI appears to be so understaffed right now that this seems unlikely to change anytime soon.

Solutions to this problem have been introduced, but it is still not enough. AVI previously required student workers to work a minimum of 12 hours per week, an arbitrary policy that did not exist when Bon Appétit Management Company ran dining services. That policy has since been reduced to four hours per week. While this is a significant improvement, most students at Oberlin simply do not have the time to work this many hours. It is extremely difficult for students to work this much while balancing classes on top of clubs and extracurricular activities.

Yin Fahrer says that things ran much more smoothly when Bon Appétit ran dining services.

“There were four or five students working per hour, and people were picking up the slack left and right,” Yin Fahrer said. “I think reducing the hour requirement would fix a lot.”

While the wait times are a significant inconvenience for all students, the way AVI manages student workers is creating further consequences for low-income students. Because AVI is a private, non-unionized company, campus dining jobs are no longer considered a part of the Community-Based Work-Study Program. This program is meant to give students requiring financial aid the opportunity to work on-campus jobs with flexible hours to help pay their tuition. Because dining services are no longer a part of this program, there is a shortage of CBWSP jobs on campus.

“The people who work on campus here usually are the people who need money, and they fill their needs by working for them,” Yin Fahrer. “Because of this, [low-income students] can’t work for campus dining services, which previously has been a place where most kids got their work-study.”

If these policies were changed, AVI could tap into a plethora of willing, capable workers that could help improve wait times while making on-campus jobs more viable for low-income students.

Though AVI claims that our complaints and suggestions are being heard, it is clear that nothing will substantially change unless more students speak up about this issue. Oberlin’s administration may be actively choosing profits over the well-being of the student body, but it doesn’t have to be this way. For those involved in running Oberlin’s dining services, I implore you to consider some of the changes mentioned in this article, in addition to suggestions from students. There is no doubt in my mind that campus dining can be made more accessible for everyone. Holly Yelton, Staff Cartoonist

College Doesn’t Value Student Feedback

Reginald Goudeau Columnist

I feel like a broken record when discussing mental health at Oberlin. But then again, each week, there are always new things that have gone wrong. While I believe that the school values feedback in some capacity, after two public forums were scheduled for inconvenient times last week, I’m no longer sure that is the case.

The first of these critical forums was an open event to discuss dining concerns on Oct. 21. I would not blame you for missing this event, since much of the advertising was very last-minute. Someone placed flyers around campus a day or two before it happened, and there was a single announcement in the Campus Digest, posted on the same day as the forum. Even if AVI foodsystems had advertised earlier, the event was from 3–4 p.m. that day, when many students — myself included — had class. This behavior is the first in a string of similar actions that make me feel that AVI does not value feedback as much as it claims. Otherwise, why would it be so hard to give feedback in the first place?

I would have attended the Mental Health Coalition forum scheduled later the same day, but I had to work in the Writing Center instead. The panel happened from 7–9 p.m., and even putting my conflicts aside, it occurred at the same time as many Oberlin Workshop and Learning Sessions. As a former premed student, I can attest that STEM majors who attend these sessions frequently have to endure the most challenging courses and have the worst mental health on campus. Perhaps the College could not schedule these events at any other time, but regardless, the scheduling was highly inaccessible. Even though the pandemic has encouraged people to make in-person events remotely accessible, I did not see a Zoom link, audio recording, or transcript for either forum. This makes it even more difficult for students to provide feedback.

I also have criticisms of the existing mental health resources on campus. First, the wait times for therapy and psychiatrist appointments are horrendous. When I contacted the local CVS to refill my antidepressants, they told me to contact my psychiatrist in Oberlin for a refill. I called the Counseling Center on Oct. 19, soon after speaking with CVS, to set up therapy and psychiatrist appointments. They told me I could see a psychiatrist on Oct. 28 and my therapist on Nov. 2. On top of this, my psychiatrist said I only needed to email her about refills after my appointment. I did all of that work for nothing. Juggling this delay, classwork, writing articles, and play rehearsal gets exhausting. I’ve already had to miss work twice for mental health reasons over the past few weeks, and the pattern worsened until I finally got my medication back last week. It may be easier said than done to hire more people, but if the alternative is failing students like me, Oberlin needs to do more.

Food accessibility is also essential to mental health. The other day, I went to the Rathskeller before class and received a breakfast burrito with toppings different from what I ordered. With only 15 minutes before my class, I simply had to take a few bites and leave it at home while I went to class on an empty stomach. My partner experienced a similar mistake a few days ago. It’s challenging to have enough to eat when you don’t receive the food you ordered. At most times, DeCafé is nearly a food desert. Whenever I try to go, I usually leave with two Pop-Tarts and a drink — I may get a banana if I’m feeling spicy that day. I don’t want to overstate the obvious, but a lack of food can worsen mental health. This makes me irritable, unfocused, and even depressed on the worst days. AVI recently provided a survey for students to give feedback, but it includes a measly five questions that aren’t very in-depth. Student Senate has already recommended that students fill out a separate form to file grievances against AVI, which tells me enough.

I do see one effort on Oberlin’s part to improve mental health, but I’m still skeptical. When I checked the Campus Digest on Oct. 25, I saw a new application for students to become Mental Health Ambassadors. To no surprise, I was immediately disappointed. The position only pays $10 per hour, and it requires students to work four hours a week (with some weekends), attend meetings, organize monthly events, and possibly facilitate listening sessions. This pay is insulting for the importance of the job and its many listed and unlisted requirements. Beyond this, the position also requires a cover letter, résumé, and three references. I would hesitate to apply even if the pay were $12 per hour with half of the requirements. As a Black individual who has tried and failed to implement policies to improve mental health while on Student Senate, this position seems like a burden on Black people and POC. Improving campus mental health should not worsen the mental health of those already struggling.

When the College makes it difficult for students to provide feedback, it makes me feel that administrators do not care. One person can change the world, but only if given the proper support and resources. $10 an hour is not sufficient to support anyone, especially already marginalized groups who would take on that work. Minimal food availability does not give students the tools to study and succeed. Disorganization within vital resources like the Counseling Center is inconvenient and dangerous. It is disappointing that things are still this way after all this time, but I hope they can get better. I want Oberlin to change, but I’m not sure that the administrators with influence here want the same. I hope that the good people working at this school are not in the minority, but these trends do not give me faith.

MOHAMMAD JAFAR MAHALLATI

Written by Anisa Curry Vietze and Kushagra Kar Editors-in-Chief

Additional Reporting by Gigi Ewing Managing Editor On Oct. 8, 2020, allegations brought against Professor of Religion and Nancy Schrom Dye Chair in Middle East and North African Studies Mohammad Jafar Mahallati claimed that he helped cover up mass killings of political dissidents in Iran in 1988. A year after the initial allegations, activists and family members of the victims came to campus this Tuesday to protest, demanding to know why the College’s internal investigation cleared him of any wrongdoing. In his time at Oberlin, Mahallati has been known for his work in peace and friendship studies, earning him the unofficial title, “Professor of Peace.”

Professor of Religion and Nancy Schrom Dye Chair of Middle East and North African Studies Mohammad Jafar Mahallati.

Courtesy of Jennifer Manna

Historical Context

Members of the Baha’i Faith have been persecuted since the faith’s inception in Iran in 1844. However, conditions worsened after the 1978–79 Islamic Revolution. Amnesty International has reported that 202 Baha’is have been killed since the revolution. Hundreds more have been imprisoned or tortured, and over ten thousand have been banned from schools and jobs.

1983The United Nations Commission on Human Rights discussed the death sentences on 22 Baha’is for practicing their faith. While Mahallati was not yet the ambassador, he served as a representative of Iran in this commission. In notes from the U.N. report on the commission, Mahallati is quoted comparing the activities of Baha’is to acts of immorality, sexual abuse, and murder. He also questioned why, in Europe and the U.S., such acts were punishable by execution, while Iran was held to different standards regarding executing the Baha’is.

“It would also be interesting to know why the European Parliament had the right to restrain the activities of the followers of certain sects and, for example, to prevent sexual abuses committed by those sects whereas his country was required to tolerate all immoral behaviour or sexual abuse, sometimes advisable according to groups such as the Baha’is, why some countries such as the United States had the right to execute murderers, while his country could not punish terrorists who burned schoolchildren and, finally, what was the definition of religion and in what way a religion differed from a sect,” the report read.

1987Four years after that commission, Mahallati was appointed as Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the U.N. as the Iran-Iraq conflict entered its seventh year. Mahallati played a prominent role in brokering peace between Iran and Iraq during his tenure as ambassador. 1988Former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions S. Amos Wako submitted a report to the Commission on Human Rights on the situation in Iran. A Nov. 3, 1988 New York Times article on the report reads, “200 Mujahedeen supporters were believed to have been killed in Evin Prison in Teheran [sic] on July 28. The bodies of 860 more ‘executed political prisoners’ were reported to have been taken from the same prison to the Behesht Zahra cemetery from Aug. 14 to 16. The report lists numerous other executions of Government opponents in the summer.” Mahallati agreed to respond to these allegations against Iran in a meeting with U.N. Special Representative on the Human Rights Situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran Reynaldo Galindo Pohl. “[Mahallati] indicated that he intended to present a procedural decision under which the Iranian Government would express its commitment to co-operate with the Special Representative in all respects before the end of 1988,” reads a Jan. 26, 1989 Commission on Human Rights report. Yet nine days after the initial meeting, on Nov. 29, 1988, Mahallati met with Pohl again denying allegations of the killings. “[Mahallati] referred to the alleged wave of executions mentioned in the interim report and denied the allegations,” reads the same 1989 report. “He indicated that many killings had in fact occurred on the battlefield, in the context of the war, following the invasion of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the organization called the National Liberation Army (NLA). The Permanent Representative showed the Special Representative a videotape produced by NLA, which he qualified as political and propaganda material, indicating that films of that nature were regularly being broadcast into the Islamic Republic of Iran from the NLA headquarters in Iraq.”

NOVEMBER

THE PAST

15 YEARSIn 2007, Mahallati joined the Oberlin College Religion Department. Four years later, in 2011, Mahallati’s initiatives on campus resulted in the official chartering of the Oberlin Friendship Circle as a student organization. A year ago, on Oct. 8, 2020, family members of the victims and former political prisoners wrote a letter to President Carmen Twillie Ambar leveling accusations against Mahallati for being complicit in covering up mass killings in Iran in 1988. The letter called for a review of the process behind the decision to hire and give tenure to Mahallati, his removal from office, and an apology from the College to families of the victims “for hiring and promoting a person who … was involved in hiding crimes against humanity perpetrated against them.” The next day, on Oct. 9, 2020, Mahallati submitted a letter to the Review responding to the allegations. “I categorically deny any knowledge and therefore responsibility regarding mass executions in Iran when I was serving at the United Nations,” Mahallati wrote. “I was in New York the entire summer of 1988, focusing on peacemaking between Iran and Iraq, and I did not receive any briefing regarding executions. There was not a single communication from Tehran to Iran’s U.N. embassy informing Iranian diplomats of those incidents.” However, Director of Iranian Refugees Alliance Inc. Deljou Abadi wrote to President Ambar arguing that Mahallati’s claim that he did not know about the executions at the time was not substantiated. “The allegations that Mr. Mahallati must answer are the following: that he took a key role in obstructing the U.N.’s investigation of these executions after they took place; that to this end he fed the U.N. misleading information; that he likely would have known of the executions by November or December 1988, as both the families of the executed and key Tehran officials were aware of the executions by that time; that later, when Mr. Mahallati acknowledged the executions in Feb. 1989, he continued to fend off a U.N. investigation by spreading untruthful and insulting characterizations of the victims,” Abadi’s letter reads. In 2021, Oberlin College hired an unnamed third-party to investigate allegations against Mahallati. On Oct. 12 of this year, Director of Media Relations Scott Wargo shared a press release with the College’s conclusions from the investigation. “After consulting a number of sources, and evaluating the public record, the College could find no evidence to corroborate the allegations against Professor Mahallati, including that he had specific knowledge of the murders taking place in Iran,” the College’s press release reads. After activists’ demands for information into the details of the College’s investigation were not addressed, protesters led by Iranian human rights activist Lawdan Bazargan gathered at the Tappan Square Memorial Arch on Nov. 2. The protesters object to the College’s continued employment of Mahallati and lack of transparency around the investigation. On Nov. 1, the College released a fact sheet on Mahallati and the situation to the Review. The sheet includes background on Mahallati’s time as a professor, statements from Mahallati and his lawyer, and the College’s response. The College responds to the allegations of antisemitic behavior and about the executions of People’s Mujahedin of Iran members. It does not address the allegations about the Baha’is or details about the investigation.

Protesters set out portraits of their family and friends who were persecuted in the ongoing political killings in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Photo by Khadijah Halliday, Photo Editor