David Nasr-Zalubovsky on Organizing Support for Ukraine

Continued from page 3 Group.

One Oberlin also recommends management development strategies for all levels of College leadership. The primary goal with these proposals is to decrease inefficient practices and articulate individual responsibilities to deter operational redundancies. Approaches to this involved investment in human resources and data management technology. Chief Human Resources Officer Joe Vitale wrote to the Review about a number of workshops that were created and facilitated across divisions with the goal to improve the institution’s understanding of roles and responsibilities at Oberlin. The Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and HR have worked together to refine search committee training, which the EDI has supplemented with workshops to address workplace harassment.

In addition to professional development, systems have also been implemented to evaluate employee performance in different departments. Starting in 2019, supervisors and employees were able to input assessments through an online portal year-round. According to Vitale, the benefit of this system is in affirming the idea of continual performance evaluations and the customizable nature of the system to suit specific department needs.

Changes to the Office of Student Life reflect One Oberlin’s commitment to streamlining employee responsibilities and increasing efficiency. Upon her arrival at Oberlin, Vice President and Dean of Students Karen Goff began restructuring the office. Most recently, Goff has introduced several new roles to focus on seven key strategic areas: Professional, Operational, and Administrative Excellence; Residential and Dining Experience; Student Belonging and Support; Student Safety and Wellbeing; Student Leadership and Involvement; Career Discovery and Development; and Student Success.

“The One Oberlin report, along with the external assessment, were instrumental in providing a roadmap for the path forward,” Goff wrote to the Review. “With many of these areas falling under a single leader, this should help to reduce the ‘silo’ effect, create and facilitate natural synergies across departments and units, which helps to substantiate the ‘role realignment’ where the administrative enterprise supports academic excellence, student success, and institutional value. Ultimately, the shift and improvement of operational efficiency should provide a more equitable and holistic student experience.”

An additional One Oberlin recommendation that falls under the purview of the Division of Student Life is to develop an equitable and financially sustainable residential experience. As of 2019, the operations of Oberlin’s student-run co-ops were resulting in an annual $1.9 million negative impact on the institution’s budget. Following a round of contract renegotiations that concluded in December 2020, the negative financial impact of the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association has been completely cleared. While the accomplishment of this task relieved some financial burdens on the College’s side, it placed additional financial burdens on OSCA, forcing it to close a dining co-op space and hike up the price of participation in the nonprofit.

“Originally intended to make Oberlin more accessible to low-income students, OSCA membership used to cost approximately half as much as [Campus Dining Services] membership,” College first-year Abigail Nordan wrote in an email to the Review. “Now, Oberlin’s administration reduces grant money awarded to prospective OSCAns dollar for dollar according to the price difference, making the financial incentive to join co-ops obsolete. In addition to this, the administration also lowers need-based financial aid to prospective OSCAns, as if there was still significant money to be saved by opting out of CDS.”

The final element of improving operational efficiency concerns the usage of space and facilities. According to One Oberlin, space costs amounted to approximately $42 million per year, which was 73 percent of Oberlin’s annual indirect expenditures. The report explains that the College maintains approximately 1,000 square feet per student as compared to an average of 818 square feet per student at peer institutions. The significant contributor to the total space costs, however, are depreciation costs, which accounted for $20.4 million per year. In an effort to reduce these costs, the College has begun investing in preventative maintenance, improved system efficiency and continued work in renovating and replacing infrastructure. The Sustainable Infrastructure Project on its own will improve system efficiency and annually save an estimated $1 million in addition to steam system repair expenses of $300,000–$500,000. An additional element of the SIP is to integrate air conditioning into some residential buildings.

Decreasing Oberlin’s physical plant — the total space over which the College’s infrastructure is spread — is the long-term strategy to improve operational efficiency. The Office of Finance and Administration is responsible for managing the institution’s spaces, and since 2019, has managed to eliminate 21,000 square feet of space through Village Housing deconstruction, and instead convert over 16,000 square feet of administrative space to Village Housing. Simultaneously, 14,000 square feet of administrative space has been consolidated into Mudd Center A-level, where the new Center for Engaged Liberal Arts is being constructed.

OFF THE CUFF

David Nasr-Zalubovsky on Organizing Support for Ukraine

David Nasr-Zalubovsky Photo by Angelo Angel

Lia Fawley

Production Editor

Conservatory third-year David NasrZalubovsky is a violin major who grew up in Ukraine and came to the United States when he was 16 years old for a gap year after high school. Recently, he has been involved in organizing events and fundraisers alongside members of OC Ukraine to support Ukrainian armed forces, state actors, and civilians who are resisting the Russian invasion that began Feb. 24. We sat down with NasrZalubovsky to discuss his letter to Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, the challenges and successes OC Ukraine met in its efforts thus far, and what the group is looking to accomplish in the future.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you give an overview of your work so far and what you have planned moving forward?

So far, we’ve started the group OC Ukraine. We didn’t make it an official school organization yet, but we do have an Instagram page. We have been working on raising funds for Ukraine and we also did the protest, where we sent out two letters — one to the school, the other to Senator Brown — with our concerns.

Can you briefly discuss talk about what you wrote in your letters?

The letter to the school was written by another Ukrainian student, Alexei Mikhailitchenko. I worked on the letter to the senator, and I basically explained how we think that the United States, by choosing to not oppose Putin’s genocidal behavior because of fear of future escalation, is making Russia stronger. The U.S. is undermining its own integrity as a leading nation by not confronting Putin directly for his crimes and not holding him accountable.

Ukraine’s problem does not seem to have a clear long-term solution because, being so close to Russia — which historically has an aggressive and violent expansionist culture — Ukraine can never be fully safe unless there is no aggression coming from the Russian side. I think the only way to stop the Russian aggression is for a change of government in Russia, but the only ones who can really do that are the Russian people. This dilemma involves the security of other previous Soviet republics and Eastern Bloc allies, some of them already members of the EU and NATO. Putin poses the greatest threat to global safety and security since World War II, and I feel that it’s important to communicate that to Oberlin students because there have been several students on Instagram posting stories basically labelling us as Nazis for supporting a country that is being genocided.

If Putin comes out victorious from this war in Ukraine, he will not stop at that; he’ll feel like he has to continue on to other neighboring countries, always maintaining the threat of nuclear power as a deterrent against NATO interference. I feel like the U.S., U.N., and NATO have not been looking at this problem from that perspective. It’s not just a local Ukrainian-Russian conflict, but rather a long-term strategic challenge that has to be stopped completely or contained without the possibility of a repeat scenario. Ukraine’s collective response — the people, the military, the parliament, and the president — have been doing a great job, I think beyond anybody’s expectation. I hope this spirit continues stronger than ever in peacetime. We’re building up Ukraine and beyond with emphasis on selfdetermination, inclusive economic growth, and shared prosperity for all layers of society, not just the privileged.

Do you currently have family in Ukraine?

Part of my family is in Ukraine right now. My grandmother is in Ukraine and I have a bunch of friends there too. Every day I’m talking to them and they’re telling me these horrible things that are happening — how they’re forced to make molotov cocktails and are not able to leave their homes. Then going on Instagram and seeing Oberlin students who seem to be just repeating Russian propaganda from TikTok without analyzing it is really upsetting, because those people have large amounts of followers. We just started the OC Ukraine account and it has 155 followers. So it really just undermines our work.

Would you say the turnout for the protest, and other events like the bake sale and poster making, were what you expected?

Yeah, we are really happy with the funds that we were able to raise so far. I think altogether with the bake sales and the fundraisers that we did in Mudd Center, we raised over $3,000. I think we also raised $1,100 in cash just yesterday at the faculty concert for Ukraine, and more through Venmo. So we’re doing pretty well. We were also asking the College to match the amount that we raised, but I don’t know if they’ve responded to that yet. College third-year Andreea Procopan has been taking care of the financial part of everything.

Is there anything that you’d like to say for students who might not know how to get involved or who want to participate more?

If students are interested in helping out, they can email me or message @oc_ukraine on Instagram. We’re welcoming everyone who is willing to help. They can sign up for slots for the fundraisers — we just need people to sit in the lobby of Mudd or the Conservatory and collect money for Ukraine. I’m the only Conservatory student in the group and I don’t really have free time during the afternoon, so if there’s someone who would like to sit in the Conservatory lobby and fundraise, that would be good. Students can also help by signing the two letters we wrote: the statement to the College and the letter to Senator Sherrod Brown.