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In Memoriam: bell hooks, 1952–2021 Continued from page 1
and she invited me to her house and she spoke about what it would mean to work here. It was very important to hear from her because she was, at that point, the only woman of color in the English department and she herself had come here the year before. She had come on a visiting professor position and the students petitioned the College and they got her hired on a tenure track position.” Novelist Zoe Zolbrod, OC ’90, commemorated hooks’ death in a Facebook post in which she described her experiences with hooks during her time at Oberlin. “[I] took Black Woman Writers with bell hooks at Oberlin in 1989,” she wrote. “She lit the room with a crackling light. … We read Morrison, Larsen, Shange. Over the years, moments from that class have returned to me repeatedly. What a profound impact she has had and will continue to have.” Needham explained that, along with prolific and groundbreaking writing — which was her main pursuit — hooks was also an engaging public speaker, a good friend, and an attentive teacher. “If you look at obituaries and look at the superlatives — well, all obituaries use them,” Needham said. “But I would never say that about Gloria, because it seems like each one of those superlatives belongs with her work. And with how she spoke, how she interacted.
I remember her at talks where she would interrupt her talk if she saw someone putting up a hand or expressing something. She had this incredible sort of ability to constantly engage with her audience. … She was teaching people — not just teaching them in terms of knowledge production, but in order to live their lives.” Johns related her latest experience with hooks’ moving and insightful writing, after expressing gratitude that hooks was able to create the bell hooks Institute at Berea College before her death. “I’ve just finished reading Belonging: A Culture of Place, which is partly about her return to Kentucky to teach at Berea College and reconnect with her family home, and I was moved again by her unique gift to communicate intimately with readers about complex and meaningful theoretical and social questions,” Johns wrote. “She wrote in the preface: ‘The idea of place, where we belong, is a constant subject for many of us. We want to know whether it is possible to live on the earth peacefully. Is it possible to sustain life? Can we embrace an ethos of sustainability that is not solely about the appropriate care of the world’s resources, but is also about the creation of meaning — the making of lives that we feel are worth living?’”
bell hooks, renowned writer, cultural critic, and former associate professor of English at Oberlin, died this week at the age of 69. Courtesy of Karjean Levine
Insufficient College COVID-19 Testing Causes Students to Turn to Community Resources Lauren Krainess Staff Writer This semester, some students have turned to COVID-19 testing resources offered by Oberlin community providers rather than the College. As a result, community providers such as the Oberlin Public Library have struggled with the increased demand. However, the College maintains that its testing protocols and facilities are adequate and meet Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Currently, students who are unvaccinated receive weekly tests from Student Health Services. Students who are symptomatic or who have been exposed to COVID-19 are assessed by Student Health to determine if they meet the CDC criteria for a test. Many students who wanted a test due to exposure or other symptoms were told by Student Health they do not qualify, prompting them to seek tests from other sources. The OPL provides self-administered COVID-19 rapid tests for anyone who requests one on a first-come, first-served basis. Adult Services Team Leader Rebecca Wedge said that the library typically runs out of rapid tests between shipments and cannot provide rapid tests for every person who requests one. “We run out of them as soon as we get them,” she said. “We can’t keep up.” Wedge said that the library’s test distribution doubled between September and October and has probably doubled
again since then. Though the library does not track whether test recipients are students, Wedge has noticed an increased number of younger individuals she believes to be students receiving tests. “I don’t think it’s more students than community members, but I definitely noticed an uptick in the number of students accessing them,” Wedge said. College second-year Aidan Sweney sought out a COVID-19 test from Student Health after an individual in his dining co-op, with whom he had dined in the same room, tested positive for COVID-19. However, according to Sweney, Student Health did not fulfill his request because he had no COVID-19 symptoms and had not spent an extended time unmasked within six feet of the individual who tested positive. “Everyone’s eating together and cleaning together,” he said. “I would have expected the College to be more concerned.” Sweney took a self-administered rapid test he received from another coop member that he said he believed had been purchased online. Although he did not attempt to access Oberlin community COVID-19 resources, he heard from other co-op members in similar situations that the OPL and Oberlin CVS were out of COVID-19 rapid tests. Although he said that contacting Student Health had been his first choice to receive a test in this situation, he said that he might be more averse to utilizing Student Health’s Editors-in-Chief
The Oberlin R eview Dec. 17, 2021 Volume 151, Number 9 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch. Second-class postage paid at Oberlin, Ohio. Entered as second-class matter at the Oberlin, Ohio post office April 2, 1911. POSTMASTER SEND CHANGES TO: Wilder Box 90, Oberlin, Ohio 44074-1081. Office of Publication: Burton Basement, Oberlin, Ohio 44074. Phone: (440) 775-8123
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COVID-19 resources in the future. “It’s a lot less likely that I would go straight to the College,” he said. According to Campus Health Coordinator Katie Gravens, students who are not symptomatic, have not been officially contact-traced by the College, and do not meet CDC definitions of close contact with a COVID-positive individual will not always have access to a Collegeprovided COVID-19 test. Gravens believes these testing protocols fulfill the needs of the College’s current COVID-19 situation. “There is adequate symptomatic testing,” she said. “I have not gotten reports of any student being tested offcampus. If they are, they must be testing negative because we’re not hearing about it.” According to Gravens, Oberlin College Chief of Staff David Hertz speaks with the Oberlin City Manager, Rob Hillard, every week and has not received any complaints about Oberlin students accessing community testing resources. However, in October, concerns regarding COVID-19 prompted 12 students to request COVID-19 tests from Mercy Allen Hospital, after which the hospital requested a meeting with Gravens. According to Gravens, Student Health could not handle increased demand for COVID-19 tests, so the College reinstituted Mercy Allen Hospital into Hales Gymnasium to meet demand and alleviate their concerns. Gravens has since confirmed with the hospital that the Anisa Curry Vietze Kushagra Kar Gigi Ewing Ella Moxley Kush Bulmer Arman Luczkow Emma Benardete Maeve Woltring Lilyanna D’Amato Zoe Kuzbari John Elrod Zoë Martin del Campo Anna Harberger Mads Olsen Khadijah Halliday Eric Schank Walter Thomas-Patterson Sydney Rosensaft River Schiff Kathleen Kelleher
College has resolved the issue. “We had a quick meeting,” she said. “I told them how we were addressing [it], and they’ve had no complaints.” Gravens also said that students might believe they had close contact with an individual who tested positive even if they did not have close contact per CDC guidelines. Although these students may request COVID-19 tests from the College, Gravens said she wants to reserve resources for symptomatic students or for those who meet the CDC definition of close contact. “The supply is limited, which again is where we say, ‘Let’s keep our resources for students who truly need it,’ because they are identified as symptomatic or a true close contact, as opposed to it being based on fear,” she said. Gravens emphasized that the College monitors relevant data, maintains contact with public health officials, and follows public health guidelines. So, she wishes that more students would trust the College’s testing protocol. “I think you have people at Oberlin who truly care about the health and safety of the campus, but we want you to focus on enjoying the experience and we will look at keeping you safe,” she said. According to Gravens, the College is prepared to adjust testing protocol if it encounters a change in its current COVID-19 situation. However, she says that there is no need for a policy shift right now.
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