December 10, 2021

The Oberlin Review December 10, 2021

Established 1874

Volume 151, Number 8

New Center for Racial Equity Announced Kush Bulmer News Editor

Students in the Cherry cohort PAL group wrap up their LEAD 050 course with the final meeting of the semester.

Photo by Khadijah Halliday, Photo Editor

Remote High School Poses Challenges for First-Years’ Transition to College Eric Schank Senior Staff Writer The class of 2025 entered Oberlin after nearly two years of remote learning and relaxed grading standards, accentuating an already steep learning curve that marks the transition to college. The unique circumstances facing this first-year class have resulted in some professors modifying their syllabi to help students build fundamental academic skills.

Double-degree first-year Hannah Stone is among the 876 first-years enrolled this year, and like most of her class, the latter half of her high school experience was largely remote. She felt unprepared for college academics, in part because working with academic literature, particularly scientific papers, was not something she was taught in her high school.

“COVID hit, and then I did like nothing for a year and a half,” Stone said. “I mean, my grades were fine, but I don’t think I really learned that much from Zoom school. … My school had a policy for that first semester that they would only give students either an A or an A minus or fail you entirely, so I didn’t really have to do that much.”

Chair of Rhetoric and Composition and Director of the Writing Program Professor Laurie McMillin stated that in first-year seminars, students are taught how to abandon the structure of basic, fiveparagraph essays in order to build more complex arguments. The problem is that many first-years aren’t even at that baseline yet.

“With the [100-level class] that I’m teaching, I’ve had to kind of backload,” McMillin said. “I had to sort of fill in some things that I had assumed were in place. So normally I would assume that people had a much stronger sense of structure and working with a thesis and providing evidence, and I’m finding that I can’t expect that in the ways that I had in previous years.”

McMillin suggested that lower educational

standards during COVID-19 may be to blame. In light of challenges posed by the pandemic, many colleges, including Oberlin, did not require SAT or ACT scores on applications this past year. She says that without a reason to study for college entrance exams or learn to produce rigid academic essays, some students are struggling to transition to college-level writing.

“I think that teachers were often more easygoing or weren’t so demanding about what they were asking,” McMillin said. “So, some students don’t have that experience of writing structured papers.”

However, McMillin acknowledged that most evidence for this impact is anecdotal. According to her, some professors have observed no such shortcomings among first-years. In fact, according to Robert and Eleanor Biggs Professor of Natural Science and Professor of Chemistry Matthew Elrod, remote learning seems to have done the opposite for first-year students in Chemistry classes.

“We might be more resilient towards a potential pandemic-caused problem of readiness to succeed than other introductory level courses because we have always had students with a wide range of high school chemistry backgrounds and have designed the first several weeks of the course to help bring everyone up to speed,” Elrod wrote in an email to the Review.

While STEM classes may move at a fast pace, introductory courses tend to be structured with an assumption of little-to-no background knowledge.

As a result, motivated first-years will likely find themselves no more challenged than they would have in previous years.

“Coincidentally, this topic was recently discussed at one of our weekly meetings of all CHEM 101 instructors,” Elrod wrote. “We were surprised to find that there wasn’t a significant difference in readiness to succeed in CHEM 101 compared to pre-pandemic years. If anything, the See First-Years, page 2

President Carmen Twillie Ambar announced the creation of a new Center for Race, Equity, and Inclusion this Wednesday as part of an update to her Presidential Initiative on Racial Equity and Diversity. The center is the first of several coming changes that will likely be announced in spring 2022.

Along with announcing the new center, President Ambar stated that she had received a set of recommendations from the Presidential Initiative as well as the results from students’ participation in the National Assessment of Collegiate Campus Climates.

These recommendations and results will be incorporated into a wider campus discussion of white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and gender inequality.

The Presidential Initiative was created in the wake of national protests against police brutality, white supremacy, and anti-Black racism following the murder of George Floyd Jr., Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, among many others. The Presidential Initiative created a commission of 21 members of faculty, staff, and students who discussed and recommended reforms to the College’s current policies and practices.

The creation of the Center for Race, Equity, and Inclusion will immediately address President Ambar’s recommendation that the College creates opportunities for students to apply their learning to current issues of race.

“This new center will ensure that Oberlin is consistently contributing to the national conversation on race,” President Ambar wrote in an email announcement. “The center will bring together academic opportunities, co-curricular experiences, career programming, mentorship, community building, and civic engagement.”

Though the College has received $1.3 million from donors in support for the Presidential Initiative, the infrastructure for this new center, including the hiring of an executive director and support staff, must be further developed and funded. However, according to Michael Grzesiak, vice president for advancement, raising money for the center should not be a problem.

“We are in the process right now of determining the full scope of the center and what we’ll need philanthropically to achieve those goals,” Grzesiak wrote in an email to the Review. “We’re confident that the alumni and friends of Oberlin will be very interested and supportive in making this vital work a reality.”

In her announcement, President Ambar also stated that the Presidential Initiative’s recommendations and takeaways from the survey will be incorporated into a campus-wide conversation this spring.

“My next steps are to analyze the survey results and review them with key members of the Presidential Initiative, the General Faculty Council, and key administrators,” she wrote.

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 Office of Religious, Spiritual Life Hosts Listening Session on Student Needs

05 Expected Overturn of Roe v.

Wade Undermines Basic Human Rights

08–09 They’re Back! Catching up with Oberlin Professor-Alumni

10 Oberlin Theater Performs Zora Howard’s AtGN

15 Students Represent International Teams, Reflect on DIII Experience

04 COVID-19 Campus Health Coordinator Katie Gravens

07 No Easy Solutions for Subtle Racism

The Oberlin Review | December 10, 2021

13 Community Reflects on Likely Overturning of Roe v. Wade

16 Rookie Athletes Shine in Oberlin Invitational

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

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Office of Religious, Spiritual Life Hosts Listening Session on Student Needs

Kathleen Kelleher Senior Staff Writer

An event organized by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life in association with the Division of Student Life on Thursday provided an opportunity for student leaders in Oberlin religious and spiritual life to gather with and meet local clergy, mentors, and teachers across traditions to discuss the state of religious life at Oberlin.

The 30-minute lunch featured a talk from Vice President and Dean of Students Karen Goff, who shared her vision for the possibilities for religious and spiritual life on campus.

“I would like us to reimagine how Religious and Spiritual Life, regardless of our faith traditions — or ‘no faith’ at all — can be a catalyst for meaningful dialogue and mutual understanding of each other’s perspectives and worldview while honoring and respecting differences,” Goff wrote in an email to the Review.

According to Director of Religious and Spiritual Life David Dorsey, Thursday’s event was a part of ongoing efforts by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life to better

cater to students of all beliefs and to help them connect with the greater community. “[In November 2020], we offered a series of listening sessions for students where we just listened to what they wanted from religious life, in particular around the pandemic, social justice challenges of our day, climate change, and democracy and social equity issues,” Dorsey said.

“There were some common themes: one was that we wished the diversity of religious life offerings matched the diversity of students, and was not simply duplicative of religious institutions around the square.”

Dorsey placed particular emphasis on the role of religious and spiritual representation in promoting diversity and inclusion for all students. He described how this summer’s listening sessions led to ideas of overarching change in the department.

“The students were exceedingly generous and kind about religious and spiritual life, but they were really pointing to structural pieces that either contribute to invisibility or to … challenges for finding mentorship that was a match for their personal interests,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey hopes that the Office can move toward a student-centered model, which would help connect students with a mentor that matched the student’s needs.

“It’s tricky because many students wouldn’t know who they can choose from,” Dorsey said. “Thursday is the beginning of what we hope will be a series of just bringing people together for connection and making sure that we’re doing our part in the office to facilitate connection [rather than] direct traffic.”

The discussion comes at a time when religious life leaders have spent the last two years addressing challenges, like being unable to gather or share food, that the pandemic created for religious life on campus.

“ORSL enjoys a rich relationship with our peers across student life and with local and area clergy,” wrote Multifaith Coordinator Maysan Haydar in an email to the Review. “In a way, the efforts made to improve student supports during the pandemic also improved our closeness as a division, since we all shared the same goals of checking in with students, helping them get into dorms safely and fed well, and to keep up their

spirits during tough times.”

Goff also arrived at Oberlin at a time when the Division of Student Life was experiencing a period of change with high administrative turnover that involved four Student Life deans leaving within two months.

Goff, whose background includes a master’s in Divinity and a history of involvement in issues surrounding religion, social justice, and pastoral care, looks forward to reimagining what the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life is capable of.

“The concept of ‘reimagining’ is just that — going beyond the status quo of what we have always done,” Goff wrote. “It means we have to be creative about our programs and services and to meet students and the community where they are.

While there are standard traditional practices, spirituality spans religious beliefs. For example, I would like us to contemplate how Religious and Spiritual Life contributes to wellness or lean into the concept of spiritual formation as an act of social justice.

The options are limitless if we are willing to allow our mind, body, and spirit to truly reimagine the possibilities.”

First-Years Adjust to Writing Intensive College Classes Continued from page 1

First-year students have faced a difficult transition to college this fall after finishing high school remotely.

Illustration by Holly Yelton, Staff Cartoonist

students seem more engaged (presumably because they are happy to have a fully in-person class experience).”

College second-year Chudi Martin Jr. expressed similar sentiments about the enthusiasm of the first-year students. As a Peer Advising Leader, Martin Jr. works to ensure that students have access to resources during their first year.

According to Martin, his PALees have been itching to reclaim the academic and social experience they lost as a result of COVID-19.

“The biggest thing about the class of 2025 ­— I’d say they have a lot of energy, and they’re very driven to do work and have a college experience in that sense,” Martin said. “I think, from my experiences being a PAL as well, a lot of my students reach out and asked, ‘What are opportunities that we can take advantage of?’”

Administrators overseeing academic programs also anticipated the challenges that these students might face as they started their college careers.

According to Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and First-Year Seminar Program

Editors-in-Chief

The Oberlin R eview Dec. 10, 2021 Volume 151, Number 8 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods.

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Director Elizabeth Hamilton, in addition to normal peer-to-peer resources the school offers, like the Quantitative Skills Center and Oberlin Workshop and Learning Sessions, the school also designed one-module courses to better support students.

“We have also developed new Learning Lab courses on essential college skills,” Hamilton wrote in an email to the Review. “Academic Writing Through Transition (LLAB 101) and Quantitative Thinking (LLAB 102) offer just-in-time practice and encouragement for students to be successful in any major that they pursue.”

McMillin has faith that students will catch up, but she emphasizes that professors need to acknowledge that COVID-19 has deeply impacted the way students learn, and there’s no going back.

“As long as teachers are flexible, and if they see a need and then work to fill it, the students will learn,” McMillin said. “Our students are freaking brilliant. I love them. You know, they’re still Obies in that way. They’re so smart, but we gotta be on our toes.”

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Corrections: In “Oberlin Redistricted for Congressman Bob Latta” published on Dec. 3, Congressman Bob Latta is incorrectly titled as “Senator Bob Latta” in the opening paragraph. The Review regrets this error.

In “OSCA Celebrates Halloweekend with Liquor Treat” published on Nov. 5, it is stated that The Oberlin Student Cooperative Association hosts the Liquor Treat event. OSCA does not endorse or sponsor this event. Individual members of OSCA organize their own events in OSCA spaces and are responsible for their own actions. The Review regrets this error.

New Center for Engaged Liberal Arts Under Construction in Mudd Center Basement

Security Notebook Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021 12:34 p.m. Oberlin Student Cooperative Association leadership reported an Oberlin resident dumping trash into the dumpsters by Keep Cottage. Campus Safety officers and the Oberlin Police Department responded and made contact with the resident, who was told not to use the dumpsters.

7:19 p.m. A resident of Kahn Hall reported that the second-floor bathroom door was locked. Officers and a maintenance technician responded and unlocked the door.

Friday, Dec. 3, 2021 6:38 a.m. A student reported the carbon monoxide detector sounding at their Village Housing Unit on West Lorain Street. Officers and Oberlin Fire Department members responded, but detected no carbon monoxide reading and determined that the detector was faulty. A work order was filed for a replacement.

Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021

The new Center for Engaged Liberal Arts in the basement of Mudd Center will be under construction until spring 2022.

Photo by Mads Olsen, Photo Editor Bryn Kearney Nationwide supply chain disruptions have delayed construction of the Center for Engaged Liberal Arts in the basement of Mudd Center, which the College aims to be an innovative hub for student centered programs. However, project managers hope that the new home for several critical academic and experiential learning offices will be operational in spring 2022.

The first phase of the project, which was originally scheduled to wrap up this month, will house the offices for Career Development Center, Fellowships and Awards, Undergraduate Research, as well as for the Sophomore Opportunities and Academic Resources, Peer Advising Leaders, Study Away, and Winter Term programs. The second phase’s completion date is yet to be determined and will involve work on the section that will house the Bonner Center for Service and Learning.

The College has contracted with

Makovich & Pusti Architects, Inc. and Infinity Construction Company to create the new center. According to Steve Jouriles, principal at Makovich & Pusti Architects, supply chain disruptions have delayed construction, and it is likely that the construction company will miss the delayed Jan. 7 deadline for completion. Jouriles hopes that the first phase can end March 2022, allowing construction of the northern Bonner Center section to begin. The 25,000-square-foot project will have valuable impacts on student life, both through its central location and the important services it will provide.

The decision to create CELA came directly from the 2019 One Oberlin report, with the intention of bringing together offices and programs that better support learning in a space that is more accessible to students.

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences David Kamitsuka shared the highlights of the new plan for the library.

“The idea is to bring together offices

and programs that support integrative and experiential learning in a studentcentered and centrally-located space,” he wrote in an email to the Review.

“The raison d’être of CELA is to support students’ self-discovery through oncampus programming, internships, fellowships, undergraduate research, community-based learning, peer cohort mentoring, and educational travel.”

Kamitsuka also described how the open-plan design of the center will bolster collaboration and exploration for both students and staff.

“CELA has great spaces for students to study, do group work, and hold small and large meetings,” he wrote.

There will also be gender-neutral bathrooms and a new, state-of-theart, multi-purpose lecture hall, which Makovich & Pusti Architects describes as the “centerpiece” of the new facility.

“It will be a wonderful enhancement to the educational activities happening in Mary Church Terrell Main Library upstairs,” Kamitsuka wrote.

Chief Facilities Officer Kevin Brown

8:20 a.m. Officers responded to a request for transport of an unwell student to the hospital. An officer transported the student from Barnard House to Mercy Allen Hospital. added that CELA will enhance the education students are already getting in the classroom.

“It takes what you’re learning in your courses and puts it into practice through internships, research, study away experiences, Winter Term, career exploration, and beyond,” he wrote in an email to the Review.

He also provided a progress update on CELA construction. While it has mostly been on track, there have been setbacks.

“The construction is going well,” Brown wrote. “The project timeline has been impacted by the current nationwide supply chain issues. Most of those issues have been addressed, and we are projecting an opening of CELA during the spring term.”

In the meantime, students visiting Mudd Center can continue to expect construction. Those eagerly awaiting the future hub for student success can visit Makovich & Pusti Architects’ website, which has digital projections of how the CELA will look.

COVID-19 Update Oberlin College Updates

Ella Moxley News Editor

Between Nov. 29 and Dec. 5, the College’s internal testing documented five COVID-19 cases among students. During the same period, the College was also notified of five new COVID-19 cases from outside testing sources.

Earlier this week, the College announced that Lorain County Public Health Department will host a COVID-19 booster clinic at Oberlin College on Dec. 16 from 2–6 p.m. in Hales Gymnasium. Students, faculty, and staff two months past their Johnson & Johnson vaccine or six months past their original series of either Moderna or Pfizer are eligible for a booster.

Students who have received their booster shot can reupload their vaccine card to the Student Health Portal, and faculty and staff can upload theirs through a form on Oberview.

“I recommend [a booster] highly because that’s going to increase your safety as well as the safety of your family,” said Campus Health Coordinator Katie Gravens. “Whether it’s [going to be] mandated, I don’t know. A lot of public health officials are saying a booster may become necessary in order to be fully vaccinated. … It’s too early to say.”

As of Dec. 6, 98.8 percent of students, 96.6 percent of faculty, and 90.5 percent of staff are fully vaccinated.

The Oberlin Review | December 10, 2021

Ohio Updates

Ohio continues to experience a rise in COVID-19 cases. Between Nov. 11 and Dec. 9, the state of Ohio recorded 159,636 new cases and 5,821 hospitalizations. Currently, there are 718.5 cases per 100,000 Ohio residents, up from 601.1 last week and 410.5 a month ago.

A recent surge in COVID-19 cases has left the state’s health infrastructure struggling to keep up with hospitalizations. According to Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Northern Ohio is particularly impacted by the increase in cases. On Wednesday, the Cleveland Clinic announced that they would postpone nonessential surgeries due to the spike.

As of Friday morning, the new Omicron variant has yet to be identified in the state. The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has increased its sequencing of COVID-19 samples in an effort to monitor the variant’s potential spread in the state. Early reports about the variant suggest that, while it moves quickly, people with three doses of the vaccine might be highly protected.

Currently, 58.53 percent of Ohioans have received their first dose of a vaccine and 53.77 percent of residents have completed the series.

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COVID-19 Campus Health Coordinator Katie Gravens Returns to Retirement challenge, but it’s been a great experience. I’ve really enjoyed Oberlin. Everybody has been great, and it’s given me an opportunity to work with Lorain County Public Health Department and University Hospitals.

Katie Gravens

Photo by Tanya Rosen-Jones

Kush Bulmer News Editor

Katie Gravens came out of retirement in August 2020 to begin working at Oberlin as the Campus Health Coordinator to navigate the College’s COVID-19 response. In her role, she coordinated the College’s vaccination effort, contact tracing, and its COVID-19 health communications all while consulting with the Lorain County Public Health Department regarding changes to quarantine and isolation practices. Prior to this position, Gravens worked in higher education as a program director and nursing faculty member for Lakeland Community College. She also served as a nurse practitioner with the Lorain County Public Health Department. On Dec. 22, Gravens will return to retirement, after a successful tenure at Oberlin.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What brought you to Oberlin?

I had actually retired. I taught nursing and was the director of a nursing program, and after I retired I was looking for a part-time position.

Then COVID-19 hit and everything that I was participating in — volunteering and taking classes — it all came to a halt. A friend sent me this position description. Although it was full-time, I thought it sounded interesting, so I interviewed with Chief of Staff David Hertz and then with President Carmen Twillie Ambar. I took a full-time position because I thought it sounded like a challenge, and it has been a

Could you describe some of the biggest challenges you’ve had to face in the position?

COVID-19 was an unknown, right? We were entering into something that no higher education institution or the country — at least in this timeframe — had ever experienced. When I started, Oberlin had most of their protocols set up. Testing was just beginning, and the decisions to de-densify the campus and shift to three trimesters had already been made. It was up to me to continue working on those things and to set up a contact tracing team. No one had ever done contact tracing. Johns Hopkins University had a contact tracing course, so there were a number of employees from various areas on campus who offered to help. All of them did the Johns Hopkins course and became certified. That was kind of fun and interesting. I then worked with the health department in setting up a protocol to determine what we would do with isolation and quarantine.

What are your thoughts on the Omicron variant?

Do you have any worries about a winter holiday spike?

Like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director keeps saying, we’re still having problems with the Delta variant. At the moment, Omicron is not a big issue. It’s beginning to increase, but Delta is still what’s out there. The cases that we have seen and the spread we have seen at Oberlin have all been based on social interactions in which students were close together and not wearing masks.

So my advice would be to wear your mask in indoor settings with your friends, and if you’re going to be eating, then make sure that you’re distanced while you’re removing your mask. I think in the time before people go home, they just need to be more mindful of that because we are seeing it spread. It is happening.

People have to use common sense measures. If you’re sick, please stay home; don’t go interact with other people. If you are with other people, wear your mask and make sure they wear their mask — that’s how we’ll prevent the spread.

Is it true that you’re moving on from your position at Oberlin?

I’m going to retire on Dec. 22. Actually, my initial contract ended on June 30, 2021. At the time, cases were low and things were very quiet, and President Ambar said, “Well, why don’t you stay part-time, you know, eight to sixteen hours a week, in case we need you.” And I said, “Oh, sure. I can work a couple days a week.” But that has not happened. It’s a little bit more than I want at this stage in my life, so I am going to retire. That’s where Special Assistant to the President for Student Affairs Clare Rahm comes in.

She and I have been working together so that she will begin to assume the coordination of COVID-19. We’re still hoping to hire somebody additional to help with things. But again, as you know, it’s really difficult to hire people at this time. We’d like somebody with a medical background. My background is in nursing, and I’ve done a lot of work in public health. But I think our policies are well setup. Administrative Manager Emily Speerbrecher in the President’s Office and I have worked closely. We do have somebody now that we’ve hired — an Oberlin graduate, actually, Catherine Mavrich. She graduated last May and works at the Lorain County Public Health Department. She is helping us with evening and weekend contact tracing.

I have truly loved working here. I’ve loved the students, how honest everybody is when I talk with them, and how intelligent they are. Last year, I would have students sending me articles from Johns Hopkins and all these very reputable sources defending their point. I really enjoyed that. I’ve loved walking through campus and hearing the Conservatory students playing music, especially last year when they couldn’t practice inside. It’s been a great experience, and I will be back to visit.

Do you have any plans for your retirement?

Well, I’m having a new grandchild in February in Chicago, and then I have two grandsons in Washington, D.C. I’m heading to D.C. in January and then to Chicago in February. I’m going to travel and take classes and go to the gym and read and all those kinds of things.

And I’ve loved working with the Review. I’ve talked to many of the people on the Review, and it’s been a nice relationship.

History of African-American Alumnae Brought to Life Nikki Keating A new research project by the History Design Lab, an initiative of Oberlin’s History department, aims to provide histories of Oberlin-affiliated AfricanAmerican women intellectuals. Former Associate Professor of History Tamika Nunley founded the Lab to engage students in archival research projects advised by faculty and professional staff.

This latest project strives to increase access to an archive of often-neglected, African-American women intellectuals affiliated with the College.

Nunley taught the course Research Methods in Black Women’s Intellectual History in spring 2020, which caught the attention of the History Design Lab, a collaborative community of students, faculty, and staff aligned under the goal of a research-based history project. This spurred the lab’s African American Women Intellectuals project, dedicated to developing an archive of scholarly biographies that document African-American women who attended or were affiliated with Oberlin College.

“It becomes an ongoing space where students can do really high-level research and learn how to present that research in a way that would be on digital platforms or speak to public audiences,” said the lab’s advisor and Robert S. Danforth Professor of History Renee Romano.

After Nunley, the lab’s previous advisor and the project mentor, left for a position at Cornell University earlier this year, Romano took over in providing a space for students to learn about and research the legacies of African-American women from Oberlin.

Students work in groups with defined leaders and editors where they choose an African-American

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woman affiliated with Oberlin College and do extensive research on the historical figure. This includes researching within the Oberlin archives and finding letters, papers, or organizations influenced by the figure before compiling the information into an exhibit.

“A lot of the research that I did originally was in the class, and that kind of served as the model for the way that people would research going forward,” said Benjamin Clark, College third-year and Oberlin History as American History project editor in the History Design Lab. Currently, there are 12 exhibits on the website that showcase African-American women affiliated with Oberlin College.

“We wanna focus on subjects whose stories haven’t always been told or told fully or told right,” Romano said. “You have to be really creative with how you look at sources because traditional archive collections may not be fully representing the experiences of women of color.”

The women chosen for the project, such as Ruth Anna Fisher and Shirley Graham Du Bois, excelled in many different areas. Fisher graduated from Oberlin in 1906, worked for the Carnegie Institution and later for the national archives, while Du Bois focused on producing operas that reflected the Black experience. Each exhibit showcases a different talent through the eyes of African-American women, an underrepresented group when it comes to recognition of intellectual achievements.

“A key part of this is to really recast and reframe an understanding of the important intellectual legacies and contributions,” Romano said. “They’re not just important people for what they did, but

they’ve gone on to influence and shape many other aspects of things.”

For Clark, the project is exciting because it helps make valuable information more accessible to the general public.

“People can then cite those sources in a way that links back to the institution and offer those sources up to people when otherwise they would have to personally request them from the archives and do research themselves,” Clark said.

The public can also become more aware of the contributions of African-American women that have not been broadcasted throughout the United States, or even the College.

“I think a fair amount of students who go here are really interested in the history of Oberlin,” College third-year Meredith Warden said. “It has a really strong history as a radical school, but also within that, there are stories — like the story of Edmonia Lewis who was a Black woman who went here who ... was the victim of racial hate crimes when she was here. I think it is really important to not just tell the stories of these women but do more research into them, so people are more aware of the fact that these women were up against so many odds.”

By contributing to this project, students have the pleasure of telling stories that hadn’t previously been told or valued, subsequently spreading the message that the story of any person’s life has inherent worth.

“If you see a wall of inventors, the chances that most of them are gonna be white men is … really high,” Romano lamented. “We need to change that, so kids recognize themselves [in their] role models.”

December 10, 2021

OPINIONS Established 1874

Moderate Candidates Are Worth Our Time Emma Benardete Contributing Opinions Editor Until recently, the use of the word “liberal” in a negative sense was monopolized by conservatives. It was used to demean and mock what they viewed as the kind of politics that made everyone oversensitive and gave unnecessary handouts to people who didn’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Despite these efforts to belittle liberals, liberalism was once considered the political embodiment of social justice. Young, politically-minded idealists were content identifying with the movement, wearing their affiliation as a mark of pride when confronted by older relatives with conservative leanings.

Now, however, the political landscape is changing. Many young people have separated themselves from the liberal movement, calling themselves “progressives” or “leftists” instead. They are demanding more progressive policies than ever before and are getting frustrated with the so-called establishment’s failure to keep up. In light of this change, progressive young adults have started to do what conservatives have always done: make “liberal” a dirty word.

If 2021 taught us anything, it’s that moderates are faring better than progressives in general elections. As the New York Times editorial board wrote on Nov. 4, “What is badly needed, is an honest conversation in the Democratic Party about how to return to the moderate policies and values that fueled the blue-wave victories in 2018 and won Joe Biden the presidency in 2020.”

Moderate doesn’t have to mean Joe Manchin moderate nor should it. However, we do need to be realistic about the kinds of candidates who can get elected, especially in highly contested races.

With the U.S. Senate in a 50-50 deadlock heading into the 2022 midterms and an Ohio seat left open, the upcoming race will prove to be both consequential and highly competitive. The last thing we need is for a Trump-loving Republican candidate to win the election. To keep that from happening, we need to ensure the Democrat is popular enough to beat out someone like Josh Mandel, a far-right member of the Republican Party.

This puts college students, and Oberlin students in particular, in a very difficult position.

On the one hand, there is a well-founded reason for our reputation as the most progressive college in the country. Many, if not most, students on campus view themselves as progressives or leftists and only begrudgingly vote for more moderate liberal politicians. As college students who are just barely old enough to vote, it is understandable that the more progressive among us don’t want to compromise their political principles. We are, after all, in the “honeymoon phase” of our political action, giddy that we can finally cast a ballot.

On the other hand, regardless of our individual politics, we are still squarely in the Midwest, where Trump flags abound. Here in Ohio, we have one Democratic and one Republican senator. Until 2020, the state predicted the outcome of every presidential election since 1964, making it the ultimate swing state. As members of the Ohio electorate, we have a responsibility to contend with and contribute to the reality that Ohio votes are important for the whole country.

Many progressives have been upset by the amount of support Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan has received for his Senate campaign, preferring instead to support the more progressive Morgan Harper. However, Ryan is the Democratic Party’s best chance at beating out a Mandel- or J.D. Vance-like figure come November, and he still supports President Biden’s ambitious policies like passing the Equality Act — he was one of its original co-sponsors — and increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

At Oberlin, I’ve heard plenty of criticism, and sometimes even contempt, for some of the more moderate politicians on the national stage. There seems to be this notion that moderates like Biden or Harris don’t deserve our time and energy. We actively campaign against them in the primaries, risking losing on electability in the general election, and then when moderate Democrats win those primaries, some people sulk and say, “No help from us,” while others put great effort into phone banking and working in other capacities to get the nominee elected, even if they weren’t their first choice.

I saw posts last year from progressive acquaintances — though not from Oberlin students, as I was still in high school — saying that they wouldn’t vote and if Trump won, we couldn’t blame them because Biden wasn’t progressive enough. This is the kind of rhetoric I’m concerned about heading into 2022. If Tim Ryan wins the primary, we at least need to support him, phone bank for him, and vote for him in November, even though he isn’t many people’s first choice. Beyond that, I won’t tell you whom to campaign for and whom to vote for when the Senate primaries roll around, but given Biden’s ambitious agenda and the fact that Democrats stand to lose the Senate, there is something to be said for nominating a candidate who can win over some Republican votes in this Midwestern swing state, where we might still have a fighting chance.

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

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

All writers must individually confirm authorship on electronic submissions. 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 | December 10, 2021

Volume 151, Number 8

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief

Anisa Curry Vietze

Kushagra Kar

Managing Editor Gigi Ewing

Opinions Editor Arman Luczkow

Expected Overturn of Roe v. Wade Undermines Basic Human Rights On Wednesday, Dec. 1, the Supreme Court finished hearing oral arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, involving a Mississippi law that bans abortion at 15 weeks. Under Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe and recognized the right to an abortion until 24 weeks of pregnancy, this Mississippi law is clearly unconstitutional. However, the oral arguments, and the conservative Court’s willingness to take on the case at all, have signaled that the Supreme Court is ready to reverse Roe v. Wade entirely. The official verdict will likely come in June or July, marking a historic decision in our country’s history.

Overturning this decision will precipitate a cascade of effects. If and when the Court overturns Roe, the decision will disproportionately affect low-income people, who constitute three-quarters of individuals seeking abortions. The nearest abortion clinic to 41 percent of individuals of childbearing age will close, and the average distance they would have to travel for abortion care would increase from 35 miles to 279 miles. A total of 21 states will either immediately ban or quickly reduce access to abortion.

Of these 21 states, 12 have “trigger laws” already in place that would immediately take effect, outlawing abortion entirely. In nine other states — including Ohio — abortion bans or restrictions that have, until now, been blocked by the courts due to Roe v. Wade could take effect.

To state what may be obvious: this Editorial Board is distressed by the potential ramifications of an anti-choice verdict. We are devastated at the prospect of moving forward into a world with fewer reproductive rights than our grandparents had. We are devastated for every person with a uterus who will no longer be able to access care that is sometimes necessary for an individual’s mental health, financial sustainability and medical survival.

This care is always, always, a human right.

At a place like Oberlin, where the ease of conversations around abortion is somewhat taken for granted, it can be easy to assume that we all share similar experiences and perspectives on the matter. While that assumption is not entirely off-base — according to a Pew Research survey released earlier this year, 59 percent of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases — it is certainly not as unanimously agreed upon in the “real world” as it is on campus. While it can feel like preaching to the choir to talk about abortion at Oberlin, it’s still important to treat the subject with care and consideration, especially in light of the impending Supreme Court decision.

If Roe is overturned, the current anti-abortion supermajority in the Ohio legislature will most certainly race to ban or extremely curtail access to abortion. Since 2011, over 20 anti-abortion laws have passed in Ohio, posing an already steep barrier to accessing safe pregnancy terminations. Today, there are only nine clinics that provide abortion in the state; 10 years ago there were 16. Even once a patient accesses a clinic, Ohio requires them to jump through several more hoops to access concrete care, including two in-person appointments — one of which is a “counseling and education session” — and a medically-unnecessary but mandatory ultrasound.

Some Ohioans who live in rural areas or who are beyond 20 weeks pregnant already leave the state for abortions to bypass restrictive access to care.

This means the likely overturning of Roe places parents, people without a solid support network, and low-income people seeking abortion in a particularly precarious situation. If Roe is overturned and Ohio bans abortion entirely, these individuals will be forced to travel even further if they need to access to care.

For some communities, a post-Roe world is already in effect. Many — though not all — Oberlin students will continue to have some access to abortion regardless of the Supreme Court’s decison. But while Obies often have the resources to travel far distances or hail from large urban centers where access is not threatened, the reality looks drastically different for our neighbors in Lorain County, and the state overall.

As the Court’s decision moves forward — particularly as it heads closer toward overturning Roe v. Wade — we ask that students take care to enter conversations about abortion with more consideration than they might previously have done.

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.

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Opi n ions

Concerts Need to Be Better for Students of Color Kayla Kim Columnist After a tumultuous few semesters, concerts and other staple events of campus life are back in full-swing. Unfortunately, not everyone feels welcome at these events, and once again, Black students and students of color are feeling uncomfortable at concerts because of their white peers.

College third-year Haley Sablay talked about her experience at her first Solarity concert over the summer semester.

“A white male was just falling all over the people around us,” she said.

“And there was this one person next to me who kept telling him, ‘Stop touching me, stop falling over me.’”

Sablay also noted that while the front mostly had students of color, they were slowly being pushed away toward the back as the concert continued. She and her friends eventually left.

Of course, concerts are meant to be enjoyed by everyone. But when there are so few resources for non-white students on campus, it can be upsetting when concerts headlined by artists of color are dominated by white students.

At an event like Solarity, which in recent years has highlighted Black artists and other artists of color, it’s hurtful when white students do not hold themselves accountable for their actions in such a space. Sablay said that, as a woman of color herself, she is hypervigilant and feared for her friends’ safety as well.

“People feel like — especially if they’re drunk or on something — they don’t really have accountability for any of their actions,” she said. “There are so many spaces on this campus that people of color don’t feel comfortable [in], and when you take into account other things going on that affect people of color the most, like COVID-19, it adds a lot of anxiety to these situations. It seems as though when there are things that happen that affect people of color, it just feels like the school doesn’t take it completely seriously.”

The requirements to attend Solarity last summer included watching a 30-minute bystander training video and completing a form with basic questions about drug use and consent. The problem is that these measures don’t necessarily prevent inappropriate behavior from happening. To improve the situation, Solarity organizers are implementing “vibe watchers” with the help of both Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and Preventing and Responding to Sexual Misconduct, in addition to seeking student input. Vibe watchers will make sure students are safe and comfortable at the concert. Additionally, Solarity coordinators College fourth-year Perry Mayo, College third-year Kate Steifman, and College third-year Erzsi Misangyi hope to make the event a safer space for people of different identities by requiring attendees to sign a community guidelines acknowledgement form prior to the event.

“We work to acknowledge power dynamics between attendants, attendees, and performers and remind all Solarity attendees to remember the spaces and identities they hold and how their identities interact with others around them,” they wrote in an email to the Review. “This year [we] will be releasing community guidelines and a mandatory community guidelines acknowledg-

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ment form that must be signed prior to entering Solarity.”

Unfortunately, this problem is not new or exclusive to Solarity. Sablay and I are both officers for the Asian Diaspora Coalition, and at the end of the meeting, one of our fellow officers talked about an experience at Coverband Showcase where white students slowly pushed her from the first row all the way to the fifth row. Additionally, College fourthyear Imani Badillo has written about this experience briefly in a Review article about the importance of Black-led spaces like the Oberlin Hip-Hop Collective and OSLAM, saying, “Respect for the sanctity of POC spaces is sometimes lacking; a common problem seen in the ’Sco is the physical pushing of POC and Black students to the back of the space, even during events that are intended to serve the interests of POC and Black students on campus.”

I also talked with College first-year Asquith Clarke II about his experience at a different event, the OSLAM backto-school performance on Oct. 9. As a Black student, Clarke acknowledged the importance of OSLAM, a space made to empower Black voices at a predominately white institution, but wished there was more context to the poster online, especially for new students. Like many first-years attending, Clarke decided to go with a friend, not knowing about OSLAM’s history. When he noticed white students being asked to leave to make space for Black students, he felt uncomfortable and left.

“People who came to just listen to poetry and not knowing the context of OSLAM overall were put in a situation that I feel they didn’t deserve to be in where they were subjected to this feeling of being treated differently because of their skin color,” Clarke said.

OSLAM later released a statement on Instagram clarifying their actions, saying, “It was solely our decision to ask white people to offer up their seats in an effort to free up seating for more Black people. It was our impression that after summers of activism and advocacy for the cause of ‘Black liberation,’ that this request would be met with empathy and the understanding that our goal wasn’t to remove white people from the space. It was to make space for Black people. This was meant to be an encouragement, rather than a demand, for those in attendance whose views were similar to ours and who wanted to make space for Black people.”

I had two takeaways after hearing Clarke and Sablay share their experiences. The first is to listen. Read Badillo’s article about the importance of the Oberlin Hip-Hop collective and OSLAM. Learn about who the concerts and events on campus are intended for. If you’re not part of that group, acknowledge that you are a guest walking into that space.

The second is to take action. If you’re a white student at a concert and you observe non-white students visibly uncomfortable or being pushed to the back, use your voice and say something.

And no matter who you are, be aware of your surroundings and how much physical space you’re taking up.

Especially with Solarity coming up, we all need to do our part to create a welcoming environment for Black students and other students of color to make sure that concerts can be enjoyed by everyone.

It’s Time to Reevaluate Traditional Pedagogy Zach Bayfield Columnist Picture this: you’re sitting in a King Building classroom on a dreary Thursday afternoon. Your professor has finally graded everyone’s midterms and leaves them on his desk for the class to pick up.

People rush to grab their midterm, folding it up or holding it against their body on the way back to their desks to avoid the embarrassment of someone else seeing their grade. Your professor then lectures for an hour and fifteen minutes straight, waiting until the end of class to ask, “Does anyone have any questions?”

The room goes silent, and the only sound comes from crickets chirping outside your classroom window.

This was an experience I had last week, and I am confident that many Oberlin students have experienced similar situations throughout their time here. This classroom, with an obsessive focus on grades and little chance for students to engage in discussion, emulates the prevalence of archaic educational standards. Oberlin is better than most colleges at challenging educational conventions, but there are still many academic disciplines where these standards remain uncontested. Despite the fact that Oberlin advertises itself as one of the best colleges in the world for fostering critical thinking, we continue to implement educational methods that are at odds with this identity.

Ironically, these educational methods teach us the opposite of what it takes to be independently successful. To be a successful individual, one has to embrace failure and learn from it, be willing to collaborate with others, and be willing to challenge authority when necessary.

Yet traditional educational methods teach us the exact opposite. They limit collaboration, teach us to fear failure, and make us reluctant to challenge authority. By cementing these values in the minds of students, traditional educational methods teach us to be complacent cogs within the machine of society.

I’m sure many students are already aware that the current grading system teaches us to fear failure. Parents, educators, and mentors alike teach students from a young age that failure is unacceptable and that good grades are the only avenue toward a better future. This may be enough motivation for some students to succeed, but for many, the fear of failure creates an underlying anxiety that makes them reluctant to engage in the educational process. As a result, the process of deeper learning is neglected for the sake of regurgitating information on tests that will be useless to students in the future. Rather than focusing on the journey of learning, the current educational system strictly focuses on the destination.

The fear of failure and its resulting consequences are even more apparent at Oberlin, where practically every student performs at a high academic level. In this environment, pressure to succeed comes not only from authority figures but also from our peers. The pressure to be successful from our previous and current experiences makes many students act as if failure is not an option. Everyone is constantly working for the sake of the next A+, or the next internship, the next performance. When it seems like everyone around you is constantly succeeding, even a small failure can feel like a ton of bricks weighing down on you.

How valuable is academic success when it comes at the cost of our mental health?

The limitations on collaboration within our education system further hinder our ability to become successful.

In many classes, tests and assignments are expected to be done independently without consulting our classmates.

According to the Honor Code, collaborating on an assignment intended to be done individually is a violation of academic integrity that can result in a number of academic sanctions, including suspension. Yet these rules embody the opposite of what is valued in most job sectors post-graduation. Many career paths require near-constant collaboration in order to become successful. Businessmen, journalists, and scientists alike work in close teams. Being able to work within groups and interact productively with others is an invaluable skill in any career field.

While I still think there should be room for independent thought in academia, increased collaboration would greatly benefit students. Collaboration exposes us to different thought processes and prepares us for working with others in the future.

Traditional educational methods also instill a reluctance to challenge authority in the minds of students. Even subtle factors like the positioning of desks make it clear which classes create a power dynamic that limits the educational process and which classes do not. In traditional classroom settings, everyone sits at their desk facing the front of the class. The professor is the only one standing and calls upon people as they please. When students ask questions, the answers are often brief and there is no room for the student to respond to the professor’s answer. Additionally, challenging the professor’s method is considered a huge faux pas in these types of classes. Deeper discussions are also limited.

In classes where critical thinking is encouraged, desks are arranged in a circle. The professor sits with the rest of the class to engage in discussions and only stands when it is absolutely necessary.

Additionally, with this arrangement students can critically engage with the material and are encouraged to challenge conventions. In these types of classes, there is a significant difference in the learning that occurs. Students ask and answer questions and are able to converse with their professors on an equal level. Discussion is encouraged, and it is conversational in nature. I’ve found that many students, myself included, learn better in these educational settings.

Based on my own experiences, I believe that most students learn on a deeper level when they take classes that reject traditional educational methods. So the question becomes, “Why do we still embrace traditional educational methods in the first place?” It makes no sense to continuously implement antiquated educational standards when these standards teach us to fear failure, reject collaboration, and refuse to challenge authority. Faculty should teach students to embrace failure and collaboration while fostering a healthy willingness to challenge authority. Schools across the country and around the world should take a long, hard look at their educational methods and what they can do to improve them. If they do not reevaluate traditional methods, our education system will continue to breed complacency and limit the capabilities of students.

Comic: The Elusive Albino Squirrel

No Easy Solutions for Subtle Racism Keagan Tan I’m standing in line outside the Cat in the Cream in the November cold. Sammy Rae & The Friends are about to perform. The band’s music is a beautiful jazz-pop-rock fusion with tinges of funk and soul thrown in. I can’t help but notice that all the genres at play find their origins in Black culture. Behind me are two white people, talking about their anticipation to watch this band live. Their conversation takes a turn.

White Person 1: (annoyed) Did you see the theme for this week’s Splitchers?

White Person 2: (restrained) Yeah.

White Person 1: Bollywood.

White Person 2: Yeah.

White Person 1: (exasperated) I mean, did it have to be this week? I dunno, it’s just not the vibe before the break, before Thanksgiving.

White Person 2: (cautious) Yeah, I mean, it’s not my place to say, y’know?

Their conversation moves on. I don’t think they noticed I was there. It takes me about 10 seconds too long to realize what I’ve heard. Before thoughts form, my blood begins to boil. I’m not quite sure why yet. I try to remember to breathe first.

It’s a small thing. I really shouldn’t be this angry. I’ve heard white people say far worse things. I’ve been orientalized by thoughtless students, heard people mock the words of Asian languages, been called a chink, and so on. So why does such an unimportant, off-hand comment about Bollywood Splitchers make my blood boil? The exchange was ambiguous enough that I could be misreading it.

But that’s one of the beauties of this contemporary style of racism: it cowers beneath subtext so that a blatant self-incrimination can never fully arise. Regardless of the intentions of the two people, this is what I interpreted their statements to mean.

White Person 1: Bollywood music makes me uncomfortable because it’s unfamiliar; it’s foreign and sounds funny. Why couldn’t they have made it more convenient for me? Most students are white.

They’re not gonna go to this.

White Person 2: You’re right, but I don’t want people to think I’m racist, so I’m just going to say it’s not my place.

The problem behind this interaction is not that it’s the most racist thing ever said. Rather, it signals something far subtler and maybe more insidious. Every time racism gets called out on this campus — be it through a Review article or a social media post — the solutions proposed often run along the lines of being action-oriented or public-policy concerned. This involves asking white students to do something like “listen to voices of students of color” or institute new codes of conduct. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, and it’s very necessary, but it can feel exhausting and unproductive. I highlight this because I don’t intend to offer any solutions to this problem in the same way as others might have. Instead, I want to reframe the racism I wrote about above in a different way.

In supposedly progressive spaces like Oberlin, there is an abundance of ready-made frameworks, buzzwords, and social media posts you can refer to to help you interpret the world around you. It’s very easy for anyone to feel like they’re being a good person because they know how to define intersectionality and outline institutional racism. This approach only works so long as the things you’re dealing with can be easily interpreted in the frameworks you’ve learned. This falls short when people inevitably come across situations that weren’t explained in a five-slide Instagram post, and their unconscious biases and intellectual laziness are exposed.

The problem is not that privileged people are secretly hiding bigoted beliefs — that implies a conscious concealment of their bigotry. Rather, it’s that they’ve already decided that they’re good people and that their engagement with social issues begins and ends with ready-made intellectual frameworks or language. As James Baldwin put it, “Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart; for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.”

What really pissed me off about the two white people’s comments wasn’t so much the racism of their speech but rather the soulless apathy with which they casually talked about cultures different from their own. From the tone of their voices, you couldn’t tell they were talking about people. It’s the tone I’ve heard when rich people talk to waiters or service workers without any hint of respect or warmth.

Proposing bite-sized solutions and ideas would only put a band-aid on this internal bleeding. That said, a decent starting point is to realize that sometimes the root of internal bigotry can’t simply be combated through external education or listening to marginalized voices; it requires introspection about how you as an individual relate to the world around you and serious questioning of who you interact with and who you want to be in the world. Are you engaged with the world, and do you actually try to understand the nuances of it around you? Or are you content with passively coasting on your privilege?

Culture is expression, and those who value their capacity to express themselves are seeking to be part of a culture. Oberlin College community traditions and practices — Splitchers, Oberlin Burlesque, Organ Pump — are unspoken opportunities for us strangers to share joy together. It’s a small thing, but shared public spaces — precisely because they’re so often taken for granted — are the lifeline of a community’s health. It is because these events aren’t loaded with obvious identity tensions and formalities that they’re vital. Students of color may need safe spaces and exclusive events for racial healing, but at the end of the day we are still a part of this community. Safe spaces are important, but we also have the right to share events of public expression and joy — such as Bollywood Splitchers — without fear of judgment.

The Oberlin Review | December 10, 2021

Clair Wang, Staff Cartoonist

January Classes Should Be Remote-Accessible Ava Miller Columnist I can’t count the number of times someone outside of Oberlin has commented on the peculiarity of our academic calendar. While there have been unique benefits for some Obies — such as a longer summer break for first-year students — this year’s calendar has caused a variety of issues for faculty, staff, and students. The condensed Winter Term gives students less time to enjoy one of their favorite parts about Oberlin, and time away from Oberlin is also shortened.

As Oberlin moves into winter break and finals season, College and Conservatory students face challenges regarding their plans for the remainder of the semester. After winter break, many professors have chosen to conduct their classes remotely so students have extra time at home. However, a few professors have chosen to require in-person attendance for classes after break. The decision to force certain students to stay on campus puts them in a tough position socially, academically, and financially. Instead, Oberlin students should have the ability to choose between remote and in-person classes, regardless of major or course.

While many students will remain home after break, the students staying on campus will likely be forced to attend Zoom meetings in their rooms with occasional in-person classes. Unlike last year, navigating Zoom meetings in dorm buildings, co-ops, and Village Housing will be harder because students aren’t restricted to living in housing with single bedrooms. Being mindful of roommates, who are also on Zoom, leads to a lack of stability and engagement in classes.

To many people, learning over Zoom brings back the wave of emotions associated with the COVID-19 lockdowns from last year. Aspects of lockdown life, such as isolation from friends and classmates, eating alone, and spending more time in bedrooms, will return for students staying on campus. Attending review sessions and taking finals is already difficult enough, but these additional factors are major disruptions to learning and mental health.

Assistant Professor of Politics David Forrest is choosing to hold classes remotely after winter break.

“The monetary and public health costs of having students fly back far outweigh the benefits,” he said.

It’s no shock that plane costs during the holidays are quite high and financially unreasonable for some Oberlin students, which is yet another reason for Obies to stay home after break. The context of COVID-19 is also important for professors to keep in mind, as it is getting stronger and mutating because many people still aren’t getting vaccinated. When many students go home for a week, they spend time in either maskless or heavily populated areas, such as family gatherings, airports, and shops. This puts them at further risk of contracting COVID-19 and spreading the virus at Oberlin.

Nevertheless, it’s important to note how certain Oberlin students, especially those in the Conservatory, strongly benefit from face-to-face interactions with their professors. Poor internet connection and time zone issues can be obstacles to music students who rely upon performances for their grade. Conservatory first-year Jude Watt believes in the significance of in-person learning and feels that classes should not be entirely remote.

“Learning in person is a big part of being a Voice major,” he said. “Without being in person, it would be extremely difficult. Singing in front of live people, whether it be your vocal instructor or an audience, is very important to the Conservatory curriculum.”

College students in STEM classes with labs also benefit from interactions with their classmates and professors, but it should be at the discretion of the student whether or not they should stay on campus. At the end of the day, students — not professors — know whether in-person or remote learning works best for them and their circumstances, and they should have the ability to advocate for themselves.

Ultimately, Oberlin students should not be required by any professors to attend classes in person. Instead, everyone should be given an option between in-person classes and remote learning. Every student has different academic priorities, health statuses, and family situations. It is up to professors to take Oberlin’s unique academic calendar into consideration when making decisions that affect the well-being of their students.

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T h is We e k

They’re Back! Catching up w Anna Harberger

According to Oberlin College’s 2019 Community Impact Report, over 600 Oberlin graduates currently live or work in Lorain County. Whether they are visitin each year sees the return of Oberlin College alumni with creative energy and intellectual drive in tow. The Review got in touch with several vibrant Oberlin gr campus as professors.

Spanning across decades, majors, and interest areas, professors Eli Stine, OC ’14, Alicia Smith-Tran, OC ’10, Elizabeth Rogers OC ’07, and Wendy Kozol, OC ’8 about their experiences as Oberlin students.

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Stine: In undergrad: Double-degree student, Computer Science major, TIMARA major, Composition minor. Currently: Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Music and Digital Arts.

Smith-Tran: In undergrad: Sociology major, Africana Studies minor. Currently: Assistant Professor of Sociology, on leave with a research fellowship.

Rogers: In undergrad: Creative Writing and Dance double major. Currently: Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Kozol: In undergrad: Art History major. Currently: Professor of Comparative American Studies and Affiliate of the Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies department.

Do you remember any specific classes, professors, or academic programs you really enjoyed?

Stine: The early TIMARA courses (which I’m now teaching), and the upper-level computer science classes such as Algorithms. Additionally, amazing Winter Terms brought me to Prague; Banff, Canada; and New York City.

Smith-Tran: My favorite courses were Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory with Professor of Sociology Veljko Vujačić, Journalism Basics with former Chief of Staff Ferd Protzman, OC ‘75 and History of the African-American Religious Experience with Professor of Religion A.G. Miller.

Rogers: So many classes! Nonfiction with Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Lynn Powell, who is now my close friend and departmental colleague.

Collaborations class with Professor of Cinema Studies Rian Brown-Orso and Dance Professor Nusha Martynuk that was cross-registered in Dance and Cinema Studies. We worked with guest artist Meredith Monk for a week and then spent the semester creating a multimedia performance. It remains one of my favorite creative experiences.

Kozol: I loved being an Art History major, as the Allen Memorial Art Museum and Clarence Ward Art Library provided such a wealth of resources. One standout seminar was with former Professor of Art History Richard Spear on European print culture. It had both undergraduate and graduate students (at the time the department offered a master’s program in Art History). I was so intimidated that I don’t think I ever opened my mouth, but I got extensive training in visual analysis and developed skills that I still use today.

What was the campus culture like during your time as a student? What did you get up to when you were not in class?

Stine: Until my last couple of years, I was pretty nose-in-my-books, save for venturing out for tasty food from Lord-Saunders Dining Hall and Johnson House with friends. I was an active member of the Oberlin Improvisation and NewMusic Collective, I attended CS department events, and played racquetball and ran 5Ks when I had the time.

Smith-Tran: During my time as an Oberlin student, an event that united much of the student body was the 2008 presidential election. Campus went wild after Obama won. I lived in Third World House and I remember people running and cheering all the way to Tappan Square. I was also a member of the women’s basketball team, a reporter for The Oberlin Review, and a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow.

Rogers: Like now, the campus was politically active and ethically awake. It was a resoundingly queerpositive place as well. We didn’t have smartphones, so it was harder to know where someone was at any given time. You had to be more intentional about crossing paths with people; there was also a lot of happenstance socializing. I wasn’t in many clubs, but I had a lot of jobs: tour guide, resident assistant, research assistant for Ann Cooper Albright, Dance department assistant, caterer, etc. I wrote a few Arts reviews for The Oberlin Review. I also taught the first round of Girls in Motion, an after-school program that has continued at Langston Middle School. I was very connected to Fairchild co-op, where I ate for four years. I was granola maker, bread maker, and then a head cook.

Elizabeth Rogers, OC ’07, with their wife, Sarah Newman, OC ’07. The si Fellowship orientation and have been together since February 2007. have a son, Newman Rogers.

Kozol: My memories of what I did outside of academics centered around social protest (I was an academic nerd and didn’t have any extracurricular activities). One standout was the initiative to pressure College trustees to divest from South Africa. I’m pretty sure we won that fight. I also recall the fight to keep the Inter-Arts program, which supported collaborative work between the Dance, Theater, and Visual Art departments in the College and the Composition department in the Conservatory. We lost that fight, and the College restructured the programs.

What was most challenging about being a student at Oberlin?

Stine: Managing time and learning to say “no” to projects/pieces/opportunities such that I was able to keep my head above water for coursework.

Smith-Tran: I struggled with impostor syndrome as an Oberlin student. Everyone was so high-achieving, I wondered if admissions made a mistake allowing me to attend. I should’ve had more confidence to speak up more in class and take courses I was too scared to take. I wish I’d known I was as deserving to be there as everyone else.

Rogers: I sometimes struggled with the feeling that everyone I went to school with had been exposed to so much already, intellectually and artistically speaking. It could be intimidating!

Kozol: Undergraduates weren’t allowed to have cars, and it was hard to get into Cleveland. Oberlin was even more isolated in those years, and the food options were worse.

Above: Eli Stine, OC ’14, studies at the McGregor Skybar.

Courtesy of Eli Stine Top left: Alicia Smith-Tran, OC ’10, receives her diploma.

Courtesy of Alicia Smith-Tran Bottom left: Elizabeth Rogers teaching students in the Girls in Motion afterschool program.

Courtesy of Elizabeth Rogers

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with Oberlin Professor-Alumni

ng or taking up residency, raduates who returned to

80 talked with the Review

Rishad Choudhury, OC ‘07 History Major

Since at least my third year, I knew I wanted to read and write about the past well into my future, but I was also only dimly aware of what it meant to pursue the path of a professional historian. The experience of being a student at Oberlin informed my intellectual trajectory in two important ways.

First, I stumbled upon my fascination for history after trying my hand at several other subjects. That privilege is something that distinguishes the American liberal arts institution. It has been emulated around the world in

e couple met during their Shan7. They now live in Oberlin and Courtesy of Elizabeth Rogers

more closely knit as a community. Despite our differences — we came from all over the world: Asia, Europe, Africa, and further afield — we found in each other a source of solidarity. In turn, I think that sense of cosmopolitan cohesion helped mitigate some of the more challenging aspects of transitioning to a new environment. It certainly helped many of us navigate the exigencies of what it meant to live and study as “legal aliens” in an America that was still very much in the shadow of 9/11.

As passionate and interested as I was about my intellectual pursuits, it was not until well into my time as a graduate student that I began to appreciate how being a scholar meant abiding by some of the same rules and rigmaroles that one might encounter in any other professional environment. At the same time though, I am still one of those academics who truly believes that something like the study of history requires the exercise of imagination and the mobilization of wonder, without which it is difficult to breathe life convincingly or compellingly into worlds that have long disappeared. Ultimately, being a professional scholar should not mean that we abandon the sense of romance that drew us into scholarship.

Courtesy of Rishad Choudhury

How has Oberlin changed since you were a student?

Stine: The introduction of minors allowed students who previously had to curate their own way through Oberlin to have an academic home and group of likeminded students to make their journey together.

Rogers: I’m still getting to know students, but watching my Creative Writing students discussing each others’ work in workshop, I believe this generation is kinder to and more supportive of one another than my own generation was. They lift each other up. In my day, the criticism you received from peers could be overly harsh. But my students understand they are part of a community, and they are accountable to one another.

Kozol: There have certainly been shifts in campus culture over the past 30 years. That said, Oberlin students continue to be passionate, smart, and dedicated to their studies and extracurricular projects. They work too hard and are overcommitted, but that is also what makes it a pleasure to teach here. As for academic trends, one of the most significant changes has been increased attention to intersectionality across departments. When I started teaching here, with notable exceptions, discussions of race were primarily in the Black studies department, gender primarily confined to Women’s Studies, class was confined to the Government department, and no one talked about sexuality.

Any advice to current Oberlin students who are interested in pursuing a career in academia at Oberlin or elsewhere?

Stine: What gives you joy and fulfillment within an academic setting? Is it teaching? Learning?

Community? Research? Many of these may be served outside of an academic context, but some others exist only within academia. Knowing what is at the heart of your desires is essential before pursuing higher education and/or an academic career.

Smith-Tran: Take classes broadly as an undergraduate student so you can figure out what The Oberlin Review | December 10, 2021

recent decades, but I still think we need to continue defending it, especially as colleges and universities move to cut funding for the human sciences to shore up the hegemony of the putatively “practical” disciplines.

Second, I profited immensely from the mentorship of inspiring teachers at Oberlin.

A colleague once told me that Obies tend to “major in professors,” meaning they often cram their coursework with classes offered by particular teachers. I guess I lived up to the cliché. My interest in South Asian history led me to work closely with Professor Emeritus Michael H. Fisher, who gave me a robust introduction to the study of that region. I also learned a great deal from professors like Anuradha Needham in the English department. But alas, and as Anu would surely confirm, my love for literature was wholly unrequited.

I arrived at Oberlin from Bangladesh, and my experience of being an international student played a key role in how I approached and organized my social life here. In those days, international students constituted only about 5 percent of the student population, which, if I am not mistaken, is a little less than half the total percentage of students that have overseas backgrounds today. I think our smaller numbers at the time meant we were

interests you. Talk to your professors to learn about what their day-to-day life is like and how to choose a graduate program that best fits your goals.

Rogers: Say “yes” to any wild career opportunity that comes your way. Everything you do eventually becomes a part of your path.

Kozol: Embrace your passions, as that is what will sustain you when it gets isolating and hard to motivate yourself. Don’t hesitate to reach out to faculty mentors. I bumped into a former student who teaches media studies at University of Maryland in Baltimore County. Conversations started there led to our present collaboration, a book project titled The War In-Between.

Alicia Smith-Tran, OC ’10, plays against Macalester College’s women’s basketball team.

Courtesy of Alicia Smith-Tran

Franne Kamhi, OC ‘08

Neuroscience Major, Psychology Minor I dabbled in extracurriculars — I worked at the Student Union desk (which sadly no longer exists), I was in the pottery co-op for a bit. When I wasn’t studying, I was mostly dressing up in ridiculous costumes and dancing with friends. And of course taking advantage of all of the conservatory concerts!

I never thought I’d end up back at Oberlin and it’s just as great a community as I remember it. The changes that stand out the most to me are the changes to campus such as the new first-year dorm and jazz building, Dascomb not having a dining hall, and shutting down some of the co-ops. In terms of campus culture, it seems to be pretty similar to me. The students I interact with are interesting, thoughtful, and well-rounded — and a little quirky. I like to think that hasn’t changed. Academically, there have been Franne Kamhi, OC ’08, attends Drag Ball with friends. shifts toward having more medical and businessCourtesy of Franne Kamhi related courses.

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A r t s & C u ltu r e

December 10, 2021

ARTS & CULTURE Established 1874

Volume 151, Number 8

Oberlin Theater Performs Zora Howard’s AtGN

Yesterday, the Oberlin Theater department premiered its mainstage production of AtGN, which will be showing through Dec. 12.

Sydney Rosensaft Senior Staff Writer On Dec. 9, the Oberlin Theater department premiered AtGN, a modern adaptation of the classical tragedy Antigone. While the play was originally written by the Greek poet and playwright Sophocles sometime around 441 BCE, Oberlin students are preforming Zora Howard’s 2016 version, which weaves contemporary questions into the ancient narrative. Howard, a writer, director, and performer from Harlem, intermingles present-day discusON THE RECORD

As the show progresses, arguments brew between family members and friends, resulting in the eventual deaths of Antigone; Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s lover; and Haemon’s mother, who commits suicide after the death of her son.

With Howard’s help, director Justin Emeka, OC ’95 and associate professor of Theater and Africana Studies, brings this modern spin on Antigone to the stage of the Irene and Alan Wurtzel Theatre. Howard engaged in transforming the story from script to stage, attending the initial rehearsSee Oberlin, page 13

Joanna Rakoff, OC ’94, Journalist and Author

Maeve Woltring Arts & Culture Editor Joanna Rakoff, OC ’94, is the author of bestselling memoir My Salinger Year and novel A Fortunate Age, winner of the Goldberg Prize for Fiction, the ELLE Readers’ Prize, and a San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller.

Rakoff began her writing career as a journalist, and has written frequently for The New York Times, Vogue, Marie Claire, O: The Oprah Magazine, and many other publications. My Salinger Year was adapted into a film that was released March 5, 2021 in North America.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did your relationship to writing develop before and during your time at Oberlin?

I come from a family in which no one is a writer. My parents were first-generation Americans, and though they were very intellectual, arts-oriented people, they considered the idea of being an artist ­— of any sort — a nightmare. As a very young child, I wanted to be a writer, but I couldn’t even articulate that desire or ambition because it didn’t seem possible to me. At Oberlin, it began to seem possible to me, partly because I made friends who were from a very different milieu — who grew up in households where it was normal to work in some avenue of the arts or in publishing or media. I started to realize, “Oh wait, this

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sions regarding performative and radical activism with the central tenets of Greek tragedy, offering profoundly resonant ruminations on individual consciousness and collective accountability. Oberlin’s performance of AtGN is the first-ever run of Howard’s script and is showing through Dec. 12.

Howard’s version of the play sets the show in a Black church with a majority Black cast. The play begins as Antigone returns from burying her late brother, Polynices, who was murdered for his homosexuality. Antigone and Creon, a priest, butt heads as she stands up for her brother.

Courtesy of Maeve Hogan

is something that a real person could do.”

It took me a while to have the courage to actually do it, but that kernel entered my consciousness at Oberlin.

Then there’s the academic component.

I took one Creative Writing class while I was here — really only one. I was an English major. At the time, I kind of thought that Creative Writing classes were too lightweight for me; I thought of myself as a serious English major and scholar. I was interested in reading very difficult books and writing very politically-oriented, analytical papers. I felt like if I wanted to write a short story, I could write a short story, but I didn’t need to take a class to do it. I realize how silly this sounds now, but that was really how I felt.

After Oberlin, you went to graduate school and then decided to leave in order to pursue poetry writing in New York. What inspired this radical shift?

While I was at Oberlin, I was part of the department’s honors program. The program was designed to prepare students for doctoral work, which I planned to do, as it seemed like a safe way to be a writer to me.

The truth is that my advisor and my mentor — David Walker and David Young — both said to me, “Don’t go into academia.”

They kept suggesting that I go work at a magazine. All these years later it’s so obvious that they were saying to me, “Academia isn’t for you; you’re not someone who See Joanna, page 13

Joanna Rakoff Courtesy of Mark Ostow

Community Reflects on Likely Overturning of Roe v. Wade Lily D’Amato Arts & Culture Editor As the Supreme Court is likely to undermine or overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v.

Wade decision on abortion in 2022, access to abortion and reproductive care in Ohio is under threat. On Wednesday, Dec. 1, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, in which the prosecution urged the Court to uphold a state law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Due to the 2019 “Heartbeat Bill,” which is likely to take effect in Ohio if Roe v. Wade is overturned, all of Ohio’s abortion clinics are likely to be shut down, forcing those seeking abortions to travel out of state.

This past Tuesday, Kendal at Oberlin hosted an educational panel on the historical, legal, and religious context regarding the issue of abortion, focusing largely on Texas’ Senate Bill 4, which bars any person from providing an abortion-inducing drug to a pregnant woman, and Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act. Panel facilitator and Kendal resident Mary Van Nortwick’s aim for the event was to spark a community-wide discussion about abortion access.

“At Kendal we always believe that it’s important for people to understand the background and the context within which decisions are made by any of our political leaders or government institutions,” Van Norwick said. “Kendal has been very isolated since the pandemic started. We were in complete lockdown for several months. This case could overturn nearly 50 years of progress and when this opportunity came up, we wanted to make education the priority … [so we could] provide a substantive approach to a topic that has

divided this country in many ways, especially as the Texas and Mississippi cases threaten abortion rights again.”

The panel featured Professor Emeritus of Religion Margaret Kamitsuka, whose scholarship explores the nexus between reproductive ethics and religion. At the event, she spoke about different understandings of abortion ethics between various religious traditions, stressing the contemporary pro-choice movement’s mobilization of a highly conservative interpretation of Christianity.

“Most people, both those against and in support of abortion, aren’t aware of these differences among the religious traditions,” Kamitsuka said. “I find that when I speak on the subject of abortion, that people — even people who consider themselves affiliated with the Christian tradition — are really unaware that current, very conservative viewpoints don’t represent the views that were held in Christianity traditionally and across its history.”

In an email sent to the Review following the panel, Kamitsuka emphasized the importance of discussion-based events like the one at Kendal’s, warning that threats to Roe v. Wade would undoubtedly affect the Oberlin community.

Nearly all forms of abortion would become illegal in at least a dozen states if Roe v. Wade is overturned, but abortion access in Ohio would not instantly disappear. That said, Ohio’s majority-conservative lawmakers are likely to renew a push to outlaw abortion in the state. In 2019, the Republican majority within the Ohio General Assembly passed a version of the “Heartbeat Bill,” which forbids abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat.

However, a federal judge blocked the bill before it could take effect, citing Roe v. Wade’s constitutional protection of a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion.

Although Oberlin was recently redistricted from Republican Congressman Jim Jordan’s 4th district to Republican Congressman Bob Latta’s 5th district, the City still falls under the leadership of a pro-life representative. In June 2021, Latta sponsored a bill that would uphold the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal taxes to fund abortion clinics.

“This radical and immoral policy makes it legal for taxpayer dollars to support and enable the abortion industry,” Latta said on the House floor. “One of the most basic ways we can protect innocent life is ensuring that taxpayer money is not being used to fund abortions. As a defender of the unborn, I do not support the removal of the Hyde Amendment.”

If Roe v. Wade is overturned and Ohio abortion clinics are required to close, the nearest clinic for Oberlin residents would be 94 miles away, in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. In other parts of the state, the closest abortion clinics would be in Virginia, Illinois, or New York.

College fourth-year Aniella Day, who is a member of the Oberlin Doula Collective’s leadership circle, says that the majority of ODC’s partnerships have been on hold since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization trains abortion doulas, non-medical support people who advocate for the person receiving an abortion.

“We’re not trained medical professionals,” Day said. “It’s our job to facilitate

emotional and physical support. So the training that we give is about answering hard questions and giving physical support measures such as holding a hand, or rubbing a back, or helping with stress.”

ODC does the majority of its work with abortion clinics in Cleveland. If abortion became illegal in Ohio following the Supreme Court’s decision, Day is confident ODC would remain active.

“Everything would have to turn into something that is underground, like it was before Roe v. Wade,” Day said. “I think the collective would likely try to stay in touch with the people that we know from the clinic ­­— ask them what they’re doing, and see how we can help in any way. Hopefully, we’d be able to get people to protests and help people figure out what would be a good way to challenge the ruling.”

Day also highlighted the ways in which social and economic inequality affect a person’s access to abortion rights. The reversal of Roe v. Wade would disproportionately affect low-income communities, where people don’t necessarily have the means to travel across state lines to receive reproductive care.

“In training, we’ve talked a lot about the fact that there are people who don’t have access to any kind of birth control and just don’t have the information that they need about how to use birth control or how they get pregnant by other means,” she said. “So it’s not always about education. It can be about things that happened to you in your life that you don’t have any control over.”

The Court is expected to rule on the Mississippi case in either June or July 2022.

WOBC Coverband Showcase Returns to ’Sco Lauren Krainess Last Saturday, WOBC-FM 91.5 hosted its semesterly Coverband Showcase, the first one to take place inside the ’Sco since fall 2019. While WOBC-FM hosted the showcase outdoors in the spring and summer, the event’s return to its usual venue revitalized the Oberlin tradition. Many first-year students took this opportunity to perform and participate in Oberlin’s bustling music scene.

According to College fourth-year and WOBC-FM Program Director Daisy Vollen, bringing the event back to the ’Sco was an easy transition and benefitted the showcase.

“I think that being in [the ’Sco] again definitely made the energy a lot higher and made it a lot easier for the bands and the audience to have more of a connection,” they said.

Vollen believes that the physical posters around campus, as well as the social media advertisements, helped recruit performers of all class years. They also said that by emphasizing that anyone could apply to perform regardless of experience or level of musical talent, WOBC-FM was able to draw in younger performers. According to Vollen, the number of first-year performers was fairly typical for the showcase.

“It’s also nice to make sure that underclassmen — and especially firstyears — have chances to get involved too,” they said. “It’s really nice, especially when there are bands that have a mix of grades.”

Double-degree first-year Matteo Herron played the nose flute with the Talking Heads coverband while dressed as a lamp. According to Herron, the band was made of solely first-year students and initially assembled for an open mic night performance earlier in the semester. As a first-year, Herron had never been to a Coverband Showcase before, and expected 10 to 15 people to show up to the event, so he expressed surprise over the large turnout.

“It was packed,” he said. “There was a line out the door, all the way around the building.”

Vollen also felt that the event had a great turnout, though they mentioned they had expected it given that the Coverband Showcase typically draws large crowds.

The event surpassed Herron’s expectations. He expressed some nervousness due to the large crowd but ended up enjoying himself.

“It was a lot more fun … than I expected it to be,” he said.

Herron enjoyed becoming more involved with Oberlin’s music culture through his participation in the showcase, and looks forward to continuing his engagement as the school year progresses.

The Oberlin Review | December 10, 2021

Photo by Katie Kunka

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A r t s & C u lt u r e

Birenbaum Hosts Latinx Musicians Showcase Erika Sharf On Tuesday, the Latinx Music Union held their first indoor performance during the pandemic in Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space. The union’s latest event, the Latinx Musician’s Showcase, featured a variety of acts, including classical vocal performances, modern Latin songs, and solos on flute, guitar, bassoon, piano, and clarinet.

Daniela Machado, Conservatory fourth-year and cochair of the Latinx Music Union, said that the mission of the union is to spread Latinx culture to campus. She wants to facilitate a space wherein the Latinx community can share in cultural and musical learning.

“Latinx Music Union is about creating a space for learning, appreciating, and spreading Latinx music and Latinx culture on campus,” Machado said. “I really just don’t think there was an emphasis before our organization was started. It’s a space for Latinx creators, musicians, and people to just get together to share our culture and share our music and, really, it’s for everyone. I want to emphasize that it’s to share our music with everyone.”

Conservatory fourth-year Isabel Fernandez, who co-founded the organization in 2019 with Gabriela Linares, OC ’20, added that in addition to spreading Latinx culture across the campus, they are also working towards diversifying the repertoire studied at the Conservatory.

“Our organization wants to show the campus that there is this huge library of composers that are not performed at all,” Fernandez said. “Our motive is to start performing these pieces so that professors and deans can see that there is this whole world … that they can incorporate in their programs. In the Conservatory, we’re so used to performing so many works of Eurocentric and Western composers.”

For both Fernandez and Linares, their initiative to counter Eurocentrism in music and uplift Latinx voices is close to home. They drew from a shared musical repertoire in the process of realizing LMU’s initiatives.

“Gaby and I, we grew up singing with other composers because we were both from Puerto Rico, so we decided to create LMU to just bring to campus this whole other archive of composers,” Fernandez said. “The goal is to also showcase the Latinx musicians here at Oberlin and show that they are really talented.”

Conservatory first-year Gabi Allemana, who performed in the showcase, feels that finding a place to share parts of your identity through music is really important. A student in the Jazz Department, she sees the group as a vital part of her college experience.

“This is something I’d really wanted to be a part of since the [Jazz Department] is mostly one demographic,” Allemana said. “I did a lot of Brazilian music with my dad at home, and I’m trying to find a space where I can do that again. I thought this would be a perfect place to start, showcasing that side of me and doing that with other people.”

On Tuesday, the Latinx Music Union highlighted a variety of Latinx musicians and composers in the Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space.

Courtesy of Khadijah Halliday Machado explained how being a part of the Latinx Music Union helped her connect with her culture as well.

She’s found that establishing a space for Latinx music has given her a sense of respite and belonging.

“My mom is from Colombia and my dad is from Puerto Rico; I grew up around this type of music,” Machado said. “Coming here was a little shocking; there was a lack of what I grew up with that was so abundantly found on every corner. There wasn’t really a space where our music was played or shared. It’s just nice to have a space to share music that we all grew up with.”

For Fernandez, founding the Latinx Music Union was an essential means of sustaining her selfhood as a performer. Having grown up with this genre of music, Fernandez feels her identity is completely tied to her musical heritage.

“It was ingrained in my culture,” Fernandez said. “It was ingrained in my musical studies too. For me, it’s important because, personally, it feels like I’m not complete without it. As a performer, I want to show my true self, and that’s a part of me.”

Allemana explained how she hopes that the event will promote and share Latinx music and culture on campus and within the Conservatory. In the days prior to the performance, she started to get excited about sharing that part of herself with the audience.

“I think it’s gonna be really powerful to show that side of me,” Allemana said. “In the Jazz program, the Latinx side of the music isn’t really showcased at all, so I think it’s gonna be really cool to actually get a whole group of people together that are all from different Latin American countries.”

Similarly, Machado explained that the show is truly a representation of the diversity in Latinx music. She feels

the showcase highlights the plurality of the Latinx experience.

“Latinx music isn’t just from one place,” Machado said.

“It’s from a whole bunch of different places, and we have people from all over showcasing their music and what Latinx music means to them.”

Audience members enjoyed classical vocal performances from singers such as Ricardo Perez Guerrero, who sang “Estrellita,” a song by Mexican composer Manuel Ponce; and Isabel Merat, who performed “El Majo Discreto,” a song by Spanish composer Enrique Granados. The show was not limited to voice performances and featured a variety of musicians including Gabriel Cruz Ruiz, who performed a Venezuelan folk ballad on flute; and Maya Irizarry Lambright, who performed Eugene Ysaÿe’s Violin Sonata in D minor, Op. 27, No. 3.

What was perhaps most exciting about the showcase was the opportunity for a full house of audience members to engage with this music. During the more upbeat songs, the audience was invited and encouraged to have fun and dance around to the music onstage. Fernandez was moved by the audience’s enthusiasm.

“It was also a very emotional scene,” she said. “It was really packed; there were people standing up in the back because they couldn’t sit, so it was very great to see the support. Because you know, I feel like we work so hard and we don’t show our skills enough and what we’re capable of. It was just a very great experience.”

The Latinx Music Union is unsure whether they will be holding another showcase next semester. In the meantime, the ‘Sco will be hosting a show featuring Latinx artists and musicians on Jan. 15.

From First- to Fourth-Year: How Oberlin Influences Personal Style Jocelyn Blockinger When I first arrived at Oberlin in the gloomy fall of 2018, I had little to no style.

I didn’t know at the time, though it should come as no surprise, that my staple wardrobe of an oversized, beige windbreaker; black leggings; and Air Force 1s did not cut it for Oberlin’s curated blend of styles mostly consisting of vintage throwbacks to the ’90s. Tasked with the challenge of defining my personal style for the first time, I found myself surrounded by the perfect canvas. Since that fall, I’ve been constantly inspired by the fashion of Oberlin students and have sought insight into how their styles came to fruition.

When I talked to College fourthyear Izzy Halloran, she said the greatest change in her style has come from gaining confidence and learning how to pick clothes she feels best in. Speaking on some of the bolder choices she made during her first year, Halloran mentioned that she tries to not be too critical of her past self, a lesson on self-compassion for fashion we would all do well to learn.

“I’d like to think I wore my most embarrassing ’fits in high school, but I definitely took some unfortunate fashion

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chances my freshman year — specifically, the very oversized denim jacket with pins on the pockets, which I have since retired,” she said. “I really came into my own [second] year at Oberlin. My [first] year I experimented with style and began to understand what I liked to wear.”

In addition to developing her style choices, Halloran has also had to account for ways in which her body has changed in the last four years.

“Something I think we don’t talk about enough is second puberty, which I underwent after we were sent home two years ago,” she said. “Strangely, I have grown a few inches, my chest grew, and my hips filled out.”

College fourth-year Luke Sprecher, on the other hand, only recently began to experiment with his personal style.

“I never thought of myself as having bad style; I just wasn’t so concerned about the way I dressed,” he said. “It started with needing a new winter jacket, but quickly turned into an opportunity to really think about what I liked in terms of style for maybe the first time. My wardrobe is a lot of basic staples, but I’ve grown to really enjoy adding to it.”

Recent additions to Sprecher’s ward-

robe include antique, brown Blundstones; bright orange, alpaca wool mittens; and, of course, a new winter jacket.

Sprecher cited Huckberry as his go-to source for fashion and accessories.

Oberlin students naturally encourage each other to express themselves through style and acknowledge how the growth we experience as people throughout college is often reflected in our clothes. This culture has allowed people to explore their style in individual and unique ways, creating a more open conversation about fashion and self-expression.

Oberlin Alum Discusses Early Career and Writing Process Continued from page 10 would do well toiling in an obscure field.

You’re an extroverted person. You write really well in layperson language.” I think that they knew that I was going to suck at being an academic, basically.

I didn’t listen to them, of course, and I enrolled in a literature master’s program at University College London. I had gone on the Oberlin-in-London program and I chose this master’s program largely because I wanted to move back to London.

While I was in the program, I began to realize that I didn’t want to write academic papers. I don’t want to say it wasn’t fun, because writing a novel is not necessarily fun either, but it just wasn’t interesting to me.

I was writing short stories and poetry, and I realized that I wanted to write my own work rather than analyze other writers’ work.

One thing I don’t talk about in My Salinger Year is that I transferred to a doctoral program in New York. While I was working at that agency, I was taking classes at night. I had a full fellowship and the program was wonderful and the professors were hugely supportive, but I hated it. It just wasn’t right for me. I wanted to be part of the cultural conversation, and in academica there are the few people who are, but most are not.

I didn’t want to be in the trenches writing papers that no one was ever going to read.

I wanted to write things that were rele-

vant to people’s lives. After two semesters, I dropped out and enrolled in Columbia’s M.F.A. writing program. While I was there, I had two professors who were at The New Yorker and they both independently said to me, “You should write for magazines.”

Coincidentally, at the same time, one of my best friends from Oberlin began working at The Atlantic and he also said, “You should write for us.” I thought, “All these people are telling me to do this; I should do it.” So while I was at Columbia, I started writing for magazines. And I loved it.

Once you started doing journalism, did it give you that sense of having your finger on the cultural pulse that you lacked in academia?

Yes, it really, really did. I did a whole bunch of different things in the journalistic realm. There was a period where I was a stringer for a section of The New York Times, and I wrote about all different things. One time, I wrote about a crime wave in which women were being mugged and how it tied into the popularity of Sex and the City, I wrote about the way women’s lives were effected by September 11, and lots of other subjects. I edited an arts and culture tablet for a while. I wrote hundreds of book reviews for anyone that would let me. I wrote pieces on postpartum depression and suchlike for women’s magazines. I loved doing interviews. I really loved writing profiles. I loved shaping

stories, and figuring out the difference between an idea and a story was really fun for me. I would have an idea and I would think, “What is the story there? How do I make this into an actual story?” All of that really, really helped me when I actually got the courage to write a novel.

On the topic of writing your memoir My Salinger Year, in an interview with The Guardian you mention the painful nature of revisiting that time in your life. How long did it take you to access that framework of memory and piece together the narrative?

My third book is due very soon. I’m very behind on it because of the pandemic, and because of this film coming out and the constant publicity, this is on my mind, too.

It can be very difficult to allow yourself to sink into a work when you know that the subject is going to be kind of painful. My Salinger Year came out of a long essay I published in 2002 about answering Salinger’s fan mail, which got some attention and I began receiving calls from editors and agents asking me to expand it into a book. I said no to all of them, but over the years this idea of turning the essay into a memoir kept popping up: I would meet an editor at a party and he would say, “Oh! I read your Salinger essay. Have you ever thought about turning it into a book?” But I kept saying no. I just didn’t feel like there was enough story there. In 2010, after Sa-

linger died, I wrote another essay for Slate, which the BBC asked me to turn into a radio documentary. When the documentary aired, editors started asking, again, and this time I said yes. Putting together the documentary led me to see that the story was larger than I’d originally thought. But after I signed the contract with my publisher, I became terrified that I’d made a terrible mistake. I then basically spent a year putting off writing it and doing research as a way of procrastinating.

Now, I see that I needed that research year to gather the courage to face the past and also to figure out, as I was saying about magazine articles, “What is the actual story here?” When I actually sat down and wrote the book, it came together very quickly.

It was a very different experience than writing my novel A Fortunate Age, on which I worked for six years. That novel came out of my thinking about the ways in which nothing had changed in like 50 or 60 years for women, and I wanted to write a novel that addressed that, but not in a pedantic sort of way. So I spent a whole year thinking, “Who are my characters? What are their life situations?” Literally just thinking — I didn’t even write anything down. Then I spent a full year writing the first hundred pages. I’m a person who needs a lot of time to think things through; the internal process takes longer than the writing.

AtGN Begins Four-Day Run at Irene and Alan Wurtzel Theater Continued from page 10 als and staying involved throughout the process.

“There’s something really exciting about integrating Black culture into classic texts unapologetically,” Emeka said. “Just imagining a world through a Black cultural experience, that’s what Zora Howard has done by essentially placing her story in a Black church.”

At its core, the tragedy of AtGN explores the balance between laws of man and laws of God. Each version emphasizes a unique theme. Howard wanted to tell the tale through the lens of Blackness, modernizing an ancient narrative that may initially seem irrelevant to our time or unrelated to current social issues. Through the adapted story, she highlights Black culture and its legacy.

“These old issues don’t go away, and every generation has to confront these ancient struggles in the context of their own society,” Emeka said.

The contemporary aspect of an ancient show is something that Emeka values in any classical text.

“I think the goal of [classical theater] is to help the audience really connect viscerally and see themselves inside of this ancient story, in these ancient dilemmas,” he said.

The Irene and Alan Wurtzel Theater, where AtGN is performed, is conducive to this intention. The audience sits directly on the stage, surrounding performers. Actors make eye-level contact with audience members and physically involve viewers in the show.

Many students involved in AtGN had previous experiences with Antigone’s story, but the opportunity to perform in a modern adaptation of the Theban play was a unique experience.

College second-year Vera Grace Menafee, who plays Ismene, Antigone’s sister, has acted in a rendition of Antigone before but had a very different cast experience.

“My senior year of high school, I was in a production of Antigone, but was the only Black cast member of the show, which is the complete opposite for this show,” they said.

Menafee is honored to be a part of this project at Oberlin.

“What Zora Howard has created is more than just an adaptation — it is a reimagining of Black stories that have existed and will continue to exist … and we have the honor of sharing [them] in the theater,” they said.

While helping current cast members grow into the roles, Emeka kept in mind the broader context of theater at Oberlin.

“Oberlin College has a unique legacy and commitment to Black people and Black culture through music, through education, and through theater,” Emeka said. “We at Oberlin College have a very exciting legacy with Black theater that extends well before I got here, so to contribute to that legacy is always exciting.”

The Oberlin Review | December 10, 2021

Zora Howard’s AtGN sets Sophocles’ ancient Greek tragedy in a Black church with a majority Black cast.

Courtesy of Maeve Hogan Unfortunately, the lingering presence of COVID-19 has impacted the production of AtGN. Rehearsals were masked, and so is the majority of the show, with the exception of some tense, emotional moments.

Despite this initial challenge and the impact on rehearsals, the cast is thrilled to be back on stage.

“COVID has definitely affected theater, but theater is resilient,” College fourth-year and AtGN cast member Cyril Amanfo said. “We are affected, of course, but we are big, we are back, and we will be sticking around.”

Emeka has grown to appreciate the masks as he thinks they lend themselves to the show’s modernity.

“I’ve been trying to incorporate the masks into the world of the play in a way that I think the audience is familiar with, given that we’re in a world that demands masks,” Emeka said. “And so, making the world of the play an extension or an abstraction of the world that we’re in now [is

important].”

Menafee acknowledged Emeka’s conscious effort to dissolve the feeling of a mask barrier.

“Justin Emeka has been really intentional about staging us distanced, but he has simultaneously been helping us find ways to bridge the physical distance on stage and maintain closeness and connection with each other,” they said.

Emeka has also found that masks enhance the way viewers absorb the script.

“You do find that [masks] tend to go away after a little bit, and everybody in the room kind of forgets about them and … starts paying more attention to the language and … listening closer to the language,” he said.

Howard’s AtGN is a unique play, and Oberlin students have the privilege of seeing its stage debut. The show is running through Sunday, Dec. 12.

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S p or t s

Track and Field The Plague Returns to Ice, Restoring College Hockey Tradition Finds Success at John Elrod Contributing Sports Editor Oberlin’s club hockey team, The Plague, returned to the ice for the first time in nearly two years this past Sunday, restarting a tradition of Oberlin College ice hockey. The Plague, which plays with non-checking rules, competed against a men’s team consisting of players mostly from the Cleveland metro area at North Park Ice Arena in Elyria. There was no official score due to referee shortages across local hockey leagues, but there were several standouts for The Plague on both offense and defense.

Fourth-year Kiernan Stone and second-year Joe Strabley led the team on offense while fourth-year Colin Regan shined on defense. Conservatory graduate student Nick Schrantz was strong in goal.

Defensive player Cortland Hill, OC ’77, was impressed with the first-time players, although he was anxious about how they would do against the competitive squad they were facing.

“I was concerned about how the game was going to go with our brand new players out there, but it went beautifully,” Hill said. “The game was a lot of fun — very competitive — and I think everyone had a good time. I was so pleased with how good the new players were.”

Regan, who has an extensive background in playing and coaching hockey, was also impressed with the less experienced players whom he taught prior to their first game.

“The thing I was proudest of the new players for was their eagerness to embrace failure,” Regan said.

“None of them got discouraged when they made mistakes or fell down. They just got back up and tried again. I would say they all worked really hard and pushed themselves.”

For first-year Ember Carerra, Sunday’s competition was her first ice hockey game ever, though she is not new to ice sports. Carerra competed as a figure skater from third grade through high school and was a part of a gold medal team at the Open Juvenile division at the 2020 Eastern Synchronized Sectional Championships. Still, the transition to hockey presented some challenges.

“When I first stepped on the ice with my hockey skates, I was so disoriented,” Carerra said. “Hockey skates support the foot differently than figure skates, and the distance between the inside and outside edges is larger. However on the whole, the skating aspect is very similar. The most difficult transition has been incorporating stick handling. Being aware of the puck and the stick have been quite challenging,

Oberlin’s club hockey team, The Plague, poses with its sticks.

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but the challenge is what makes this experience so exciting.”

Carerra also noticed some non-skating similarities between hockey and figure skating during Sunday’s game.

“Learning the logistical aspects of what it means to be on defense was interesting for me, who came from a highly choreographed discipline,” Carerra said. “I am just so glad I get to keep skating.”

Carerra is not the first member of The Plague to switch from a different ice sport to hockey while playing for Oberlin. Laurence Ducker, OC ’13, competed in the 2010 speed skating Olympic Trials but turned to hockey once he realized that attending college while training for Olympic-level speed skating was not sustainable. Ducker wrote to The Plague alumni about the cross-over and challenges between speed skating and hockey while he was on the team.

“It has been fun to struggle alongside other new players, learning to turn right and to brave trying to go backwards sometimes,” Ducker wrote. “The challenge of rounding out my skating has kept me coming back for more hockey.”

It is not just other skating sports that have similarities to ice hockey. Regan, who plays on Oberlin’s lacrosse team, recognizes some crossover between his two sports.

“The biggest thing that carries over is the handeye coordination,” Regan said. “I also feel like my instincts and anticipation skills are very reciprocal between the two sports. The physicality also definitely carries over.”

Sunday’s game was key to restoring the culture of the team, which tries to advocate for anyone who wants to play the game. Historically, all different types of students and faculty have played on the team.

Hill is an example of someone with a unique background, having played for Oberlin’s short-lived varsity ice hockey team in the ’70s before coming back to play with The Plague in 2003 when he became the faculty advisor for the team. Schrantz went to Florida State University for his undergraduate degree but came to Oberlin to work on two graduate degrees from the Conservatory.

The Plague has also featured guest players. Better Call Saul actor Bob Odenkirk played a game for the team in 2017 during a brief stay with Hill when his son attended the College.

The 2021–22 Plague squad looks to continue to unify the Oberlin community through ice hockey. In the spring, The Plague will host the team’s alumni weekend from March 4–6 with the alumni game set for March 5.

Courtesy of Ian Grochocinski

Season Opener

Third-year Iyanna Lewis competes for Oberlin track and field.

Courtesy of Iyanna Lewis Zoe Kuzbari Sports Editor Last weekend, the track and field team celebrated a number of accomplishments at their first meet of the season at Case Western Reserve University.

Third-year thrower Iyanna Lewis placed second in weight throwing, with her teammate, second-year Abby Cannon, placing just behind her in third place. Lewis believes this meet went better than expected and is very proud of the successes of her teammates.

“I think it went really well,” she said. “We had really great performances from many members of the team, which was really exciting to witness and be a part of.”

The team has undergone many changes since Lewis’ last competition, which was before COVID-19 began and under different coaching staff.

“The last time many of us competed was in February 2020, so it feels great to be back,” Lewis said. “I look forward to seeing what my teammates have in store for the rest of the season.”

Fourth-year captain Zac Ntia also finished second in the weight throw event and shares similar sentiments to Lewis.

“This last weekend was fantastic,” he said. “Half the people had never had an indoor meet, and the other half hadn’t had one in two years, and everyone came out and did unbelievable. The support and energy the whole team had throughout the meet was awesome.”

Ntia highlights the accomplishments of the players on the team and said being able to witness all of the team’s great performances solidified why he’s been so excited for this year.

“It’s exciting for the team to be in a good spot knowing we have a lot of room to still grow. I didn’t realize how much I missed getting to walk around and interact with the different groups on the team everyday.”

The team also had many other athletes place well in their respective events. Fourth-year Aesha Mokashi placed first in long jump and almost beat her personal best while fourth-year Sarah Voit placed first in the pole vault. Third-year Zack Lee placed second in the long jump, and fourth-year cross country runners Phoebe von Conta and Anna Scott secured first and second place, respectively, in the mile run.

Fourth-year Anna Scott is extremely pleased with their performance at this past meet and says this year has been incredibly special for them. “[This year] I’ve found a running partner and trusted companion in Phoebe von Conta,” they said. “We have been stride for stride since mid-season cross country, and we have pushed each other in a loving and supportive way so that we are not only the best athletes that we can be, but also the best versions of ourselves.

Scott says the two runners finished .07 seconds apart from each other last Saturday, taking 1st and 2nd place and immediately embraced after crossing the finish line.

“It was so joyous! And we both came within seconds of our PR times. I think this is the first time in my running career where I have actually trusted myself to compete at the highest level. I am no longer wondering ‘what am I capable of?’ And now just thinking ‘I can do anything.’”

The team will compete again this weekend on Friday, December 10th at Tiffin University.

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Women’s Basketball Star Gina Lombard

Second-year women’s basketball player Gina Lombard currently leads the team in points, an especially notable accomplishment considering this is her first collegiate season. Lombard, a Massachusetts native, is one of the starting five players and has contributed greatly to the team’s successes this year. The team is currently tied for first place in conference standings with a 8–0 record. Gina plays a crucial role in the program’s record-breaking year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Zoe Kuzbari Sports Editor How has the season been going so far? You currently lead the team in points– how does that feel?

So far, the season has been going really well. We’ve been really successful, and we’re all just excited to keep building on what we’re doing every day. As for leading the team in points, it definitely is a nice feeling to see all the work I put in pay off, but it’s more important to me that we continue to win and that I play the role my team needs me to each game in order to continue to be successful.

You’ve started every game this season. Were you expecting to be playing this much in your first collegiate season?

I didn’t really know what to expect when it came to playing time. It was important to me when choosing a school in the recruiting process that I went somewhere I could make an immediate impact. I knew I would be playing a lot of minutes considering we’re a really young team and most of our players are [firstand second-years] but I didn’t necessarily expect to be playing as much as I am.

What do you consider the team’s successes to be so far, and what do you attribute them to?

Our team has been doing a lot of really great things this season, but I think the biggest thing that we do each and every day is push each other to be our best.

We came into the season with a chip on our shoulders knowing we had a lot to prove, and we haven’t lost that edge. Our team is really close, and we make a constant effort to improve our team dynamic and make each other the best people, teammates, and basketball players that we can be. I’d also attribute a lot of our success to our coaches. They’ve prepared us extremely well for the season both mentally and physically, and it’s really exciting to see it pay off for both us and them because they work just as hard as we do.

Second-year women’s basketball player Gina Lombard poses for media day.

What made you choose Oberlin? How has your experience been at the College so far?

I chose Oberlin because I wanted a great school where I’d be able to continue my academic career but also still get to play basketball at a high level.

Throughout the recruiting process, the coaches here made me feel like I was part of a family, and the second I got on campus for my visit, the team felt like my best friends. Oberlin just seemed like a perfect fit for what I was looking for, and my experience has lived up to my expectations.

How long have you been playing basketball? What made you get into the sport and decide you wanted to play in college?

I’ve been playing basketball since I was six years old.

I first got into the sport when I would go to the Boys and Girls Club growing up, and then I joined a basketball league. My first basketball coach made me fall in love with the sport, and ever since then, it’s been a huge part of my life. I’ve wanted to play in college since I found out that was even an option, and I’m so grateful that I get the opportunity to live out that dream now.

Oberlin Athletes Play Internationally Continued from page 16

Fourth-year softball player V Dagnino, who is experienced in playing competitive softball, decided to try out for the Peruvian national team during their first year.

“I was always playing softball competitively, and prior to freshman year of high school [I’d] always played within my city, the northern part of the Bay,” they said. “Freshman year of high school I started to try out for more competitive teams further away.

I tried out for this extremely competitive team and made it.”

Dagnino had been introduced to many coaches, and happened to meet one who had played for the Peruvian national team.

“It was amazing seeing another Peruvian softball athlete,” they said. “I went to go talk with her … and learned how to contact [the team].”

Having recently obtained residency papers 11 years after their parents had relocated to the United States, Dagnino was permitted to travel to and practice in Peru. Before Dagnino knew it, they were traveling to Brazil to play in an exhibition game.

However, despite having an amazing experience, Dagnino has since retired from the national team.

“I’ve played world cups [and] pan-American qualifiers from the time I was 13 to the time of [my first] year of college, but [I] stopped to focus on other things,” they said. “Who doesn’t want to travel for free, to experience other things, to play the sport you love for the country you love? But no one really talks about how hard it can be at the age of 13.”

The pressure of the sport, along with the taboo of The Oberlin Review | December 10, 2021

LGBTQ+ and gender equality issues on the Peruvian team, caused Dagnino to gravitate toward playing Division III at Oberlin.

“I chose [Division] III because I was always the underdog; I was always overlooked,” they said. “But when I came to visit [Oberlin] I just fell in love with the atmosphere and it being so inclusive.”

Regardless of some of the drawbacks, Dagnino reflects on how lucky they are to have had this oncein-a-lifetime experience.

“My family made the effort to come see me play,” they said. “It was my dad’s favorite memory; similarly, for my grandfather. Just the support was overwhelming.”

Dagnino also spoke on the lasting impact of not only playing on the national team, but also in being able to see the world.

“My dad always said, ‘The best thing you can offer to a kid, parent to kid, is great education and travel,’” they said. “You never fully understand what’s out there. You never know the experiences of poverty, LGBTQ+, and gender issues until you see them. It’s influenced how I want to pursue my future, working with people and towards equal rights.”

These athletes’ experiences in sports have allowed them to appreciate people’s differences around the world, affected who they are today, and helped guide them toward who they want to be. At Oberlin, after having experienced the big stage, they have all found a community that fosters not only the competitiveness of their sports but also a passion for learning.

Courtesy of Gina Lombard

How have you found balancing school and season?

With no season last year and in-person classes this year, has the transition been hard?

Balancing school and the season has been challenging at times. Some weeks are worse than others depending on the time of the semester, but honestly, having a commitment every day makes me use my free time better. Having online classes and no season last year definitely gave me more free time, but that just made it easier to procrastinate, so I’ve kind of liked the structure this year. The transition from no season to being in season has been a bit hard with constantly being busy and feeling like I have a hundred things going on at a time, but being able to play basketball and have fun with my team to relieve some of that stress makes it a lot easier.

What’s your major? Are there things on campus other than athletics that you are involved in or what to get involved in?

I’m a Neuroscience major. I haven’t been involved in much outside of basketball and school, but after the season and with more free time, I’ve made it a goal to find a club or a group on campus that I want to join.

Athletics and Art Intersect at Maker’s Market

Continued from page 16

Review. “It was also cool seeing people I didn’t know made art and be proud of their products.”

Currently, the Rhinos are working to create a holiday calendar, a project that Das O’Toole believes combines the interests of her teammates who are also involved in art.

“Right now, we’re working on a naked holiday calendar, which has been a fun way for people who are artsy to create something that also involves rugby,” Das O’Toole said. “In terms of community, everyone on club sports teams is super supportive, and the same is true for the art community as well. … It’s nice to see how my friends work to support each other both on the team and off the field.”

At other schools, there is sometimes the stereotype that student-athletes are not involved in the rest of campus culture, but Das O’Toole believes that there is no basis for this myth at Oberlin.

“The average Oberlin student does so many things and has so many facets to their personality, including student-athletes,” she said. “Most athletes I know have an artistic outlet, and on the flip side, most people at Oberlin have a physical outlet like biking or running.

We’re lucky to have all of these opportunities, and people’s interests often intersect. The rugby team is really supportive of all teammates and their different outlets.

No one at Oberlin can fit into one box or be defined by one activity … because everyone does so much.”

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December 10, 2021

SPORTS Established 1874

Students Represent International Teams, Reflect on DIII Experience

Volume 151, Number 8

Maker’s Market Allows Athletes to Exhibit Art

Tables at the Winter Maker’s Market display student art for sale.

Zoë Martin del Campo Contributing Sports Editor

and prioritizing it. We were doing something all of the time on the national team. I still stand by my decision to go to a Division III school, but it was amazing to have a soccer-centered experience on the national team.”

Audrey Koren, second-year on the women’s lacrosse team, visited Israel as part of the Lacrosse Birthright program, a branch of the more wellknown Birthright program. Lacrosse Birthright provides opportunities for Jewish athletes all around the world to visit their ancestral homeland and connect with their Jewish roots and, of course, play lacrosse For Koren, being able to not only connect with her roots but to also forge friendships with like-minded people made the trip special.

“It was something I didn’t expect to do, not being very in touch with my [Jewish identity],” she said.

“Going there and meeting Jewish people like me made me more proud to be a part of that community.”

It also gave Koren an insight into Israel itself and Israel’s lacrosse community.

“Within Israel lacrosse, there were a few Muslim people, but everyone was able to come together through sport, [which] was really something special to see,” she said. “Nobody cared what religion you were from, what language you spoke — any of that.

We all just were there for the love of lacrosse, regardless of background.”

Although there were many prominent discrepancies between the skill levels of the athletes, they were all able to come together through their common love of the sport, ultimately forging amazing friendships.

“At the time, the Israel national team had two players who lived there who we trained with,” Koren said. “It was an amazing experience playing and training with athletes of such a high level, including a variety of Division I and Division III NCAA athletes. We were also able to form connections with the girls who we were coaching, and even play a few games with the locals.”

On Dec. 5, the Science Center walkway was flooded with students as they browsed prints, jewelry, and other handmade goods at the Winter Maker’s Market.

The event was an opportunity for student-artists to sell their work to the Oberlin community and for buyers to support their peers. Among those selling their work were a few student-athletes, including third-year and women’s tennis player Dina Nouaime, who was selling hand-painted bags. Art has always played an important role in Nouaime’s life.

“My parents would take me to art classes and art lessons,” she said. “I was always that kid that would doodle in class. A lot of my friends at Oberlin are also artists, and one of my friends was one of the people who helped revive Maker’s Market this summer, so a lot of my friends partook in it then. I unfortunately couldn’t make the summer Maker’s Market, but when I heard that it was happening again this semester, I knew that I wanted to participate.”

Third-year Maya Das O’Toole, a member of Oberlin’s trans-inclusive women’s rugby team, the Rhinos, knew that she wanted to be involved in the art scene but did not plan on selling art in college until her positive experience with the Maker’s Market over the summer semester.

“I’ve been doing art since high school, but I never really had the urge to sell my work,” she said. “But there’s such a good artistic community at Oberlin, and Maker’s Market went so well over the summer and was such a good space that I decided to participate again this semester.”

At a place like Oberlin, it is normal to see people with a wide range of interests, and student-athletes are no different. For Nouaime, both athletics and art have served as outlets to offset the stress of academics.

“Both [art and tennis] are pretty good outlets in terms of reinvigorating myself and destressing after class,” she said. “I’ve also been able to meet a lot of new people through the athletic and art community as well, which has been nice.”

Das O’Toole added that there are a lot of people who do art alongside athletics, as she was one of three people on her team who participated in Maker’s Market.

“Three people on our team sold stuff at Maker’s Market, so there’s definitely a lot of people who do art that are also on the team,” she said. “One of my good friends on the team is also a Studio Art major like I am, so there’s a lot of people on the team with similar interests so our interests in art and athletics definitely intersect.”

Third-year and field hockey player Post went to the Marker’s Market to support their friends and see everyone’s work.

“I loved getting to see all my friends be celebrated for such wonderful talent!” they wrote in an email to the

See Oberlin, page 15

See Athletics, page 15

First-year and women’s soccer player Adriana Morales poses with the Puerto Rican flag.

River Schiff Senior Staff Writer Division III sports have the impression of being an option for students who are not looking to go into sports professionally. However, three Oberlin athletes have had the opportunity to prove their high level of play while representing their countries over time.

Women’s soccer player and first-year Adriana Morales returned last month from Puerto Rico, where she trained with the national team after years of never being selected.

“I had been in a goalkeepers program that attracts people to the national team to train with them,” Morales said. “I had been called up to the U-15 back in the day and didn’t make it, and I fell off the radar.

Same thing for U-17, and then again for U-20 and finally made it.”

Morales’ hard work paid off. Not only was she able to train with the national team but she also got to see some playing time in their friendlies — ­­­exhibition matches — against Guyana.

“It was very shocking but felt good,” she said. “I was kind of emotional the first time I put on the uniform; it made it kind of real. It was just a wild thought that I was on the big stage.”

Puerto Rico’s men’s and women’s teams have never made the FIFA World Cup, but through her work ethic, Morales is hoping to be a part of the change.

“Team Puerto Rico is working towards the World Cup qualifiers,” she said. “There’ll be another camp during the spring semester, which will hopefully lead to qualifying for the Cup. We have a bit of a tough bracket, but I hope to be a part of that qualifier team.”

Morales maintains that, despite the amazing opportunities she has experienced outside of college sports, she’s glad to be a Division III athlete in a community as academically centered as Oberlin.

“When I was in Puerto Rico, there was no time for schoolwork. It was just soccer all of the time,” she said. “I wanted DIII because I wanted to be a student first, with coaches taking into account your studies

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Courtesy of Mads Olsen

Courtesy of Amanda Phillips