Planned ObieSafe Protocols to

Ohio Supreme Court Votes Against Hearing College Appeal in Gibson’s Lawsuit

Continued from page 1 consequences of an action, such as emotional distress. The Ninth district Court of appeals relied on precedent to award punitive damages based on uncapped compensatory damages. The College argued that the Court’s precedent was inapplicable in this case. The College thus contested the lower courts’ decision on the final amount awarded to the Gibson’s in damages, resulting in an sum of over $11 million more than Oberlin assessed legally permissible.

“The Court should accept jurisdiction and enter judgment for Oberlin and Dean Raimondo on the libel and [intentional infliction of emotional distress] claims, as well as the resulting punitive damages and attorney fees award,” the conclusion of the appeal read. “In the alternative, and at a minimum, the Court should vacate the punitive damages and attorney fees award or at least properly cap the punitive damages.”

With legal proceedings now complete, President Ambar emphasized the College’s continued commitment to its academic mission.

“Like me, the majority of the campus was not here at the beginning of this matter in 2016,” President Ambar wrote. “But it is also true that this case has been difficult for all of us who love this institution and its hometown. I am looking forward to all that is ahead, and remain focused on Oberlin’s core mission of providing a truly excellent liberal arts and musical education.”

The College will pay Gibson’s Bakery $36.59 million in damages, ending five years of litigation.

Photo courtesy of Bryan Rubin

Planned ObieSafe Protocol Updates To Take Effect Sept. 11

Sofia Tomasic

Senior Staff Writer

ObieSafe’s COVID-19 policy for this fall is a shift from previous semesters. Return testing was not required for students at the beginning of this year, and masking will be entirely optional starting Sept. 11 — unless there is a surge in cases and ObieSafe decides to reevaluate.

“Throughout the summer, we closely monitored COVID-19 and CDC guidelines,” the ObieSafe team wrote in an email to the Review. “In light of this information, coupled with our vaccination rates and the availability of rapid home antigen tests, it was decided not to require testing prior to the start of the semester.”

Students who have tested positive for COVID are expected to retrieve food for themselves, and temporary housing for COVID-positive students is no longer available. For students whose roommates have tested positive, temporary housing is only provided if the student has a “relevant accommodation” and housing is available.

Per the ObieSafe email released to students in August, “If only one roommate tests positive, healthy roommates should wear a mask and maintain social distance as much as possible.”

The ObieSafe team added, “We have a limited supply of housing, which varies day to day. We will work with immunocompromised students who feel the need to seek temporary housing while a roommate recovers from COVID.”

Further, ObieSafe is now placing the responsibility of contact tracing onto individual students.

“Oberlin is maintaining minimal contact tracing and is asking for your independent cooperation and ability to notify your close contacts on your own,” ObieSafe informed students in its automatic email response. “As we prepare to start the new academic year, your health and wellbeing remain our top priority.”

The ObieSafe email went on to outline several new policies, such as: “If and when requested to wear a mask by another member of the Oberlin community with whom you are interacting, please comply.”

Some students, though, are not satisfied with the new potential policies. College second-year Sophie Raymond, for one, is concerned about the new COVID policy — she feels that immunocompromised students like her were not considered in the College’s plan. Raymond feels that too much responsibility is placed on immunocompromised students’ shoulders to advocate for themselves when there should be a policy in place that protects them.

“In the past, I felt very safe here at Oberlin with both the masking and the required return testing, especially after breaks,” Raymond said. “But now that neither of those things are going to be happening, I’m really worried for both my safety and the safety of other people who are in my same situation.”

Raymond considers the policy of remaining in the same room with COVID-positive roommates to be particularly alarming.

“To me, that’s just nonsensical,” she said. “You can’t wear a mask when you’re sleeping. You can’t guarantee free flow of air in a single room.”

Raymond also brought up the accessibility issues with requiring an official diagnosis in order to receive necessary accommodations.

“I think actions speak louder than words,” Raymond said. “I think that Oberlin can say that they are supporting all of their student body as much as they want, but to me, these actions of dropping the COVID guidelines tell me that the administration doesn’t care about my safety or the safety of other people in my situation.”

Students shared their thoughts on fall semester COVID-19 protocols. Illustration by Madison Olsen

The Oberlin review

September 9, 2022 Volume 152, Number 1 (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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College New Hires Emphasize Diverse Skill Set, Community Relationships

Nikki Keating News Editor

Over the past two semesters, the College has restaffed multiple offices, divisions, and departments. The Multicultural Resource Commons, for one, has brought on a full staff for the first time since 2020. Katie Graham began her position as an LBGTQ+ community fellow in the MRC this semester. Graham graduated from Cedar Crest College in 2022 and focused on queer identity and intersectionality in American pop culture and the superhero genre during her undergraduate studies. She expressed excitement for the potential she sees within the MRC’s new staff.

“I’m very excited to be in an office that is very new because we’re really getting to shape what we wanna do,” she said. “All of us are new in this position. So, there’s a lot of potential.”

The Center for Student Success has also welcomed several new staff members this semester. Kyle Farris has joined the office as a director of student success & success coach, and he will specialize in working with students on the graduate school application process. Dean of Student Success Harmony Cross emphasized the importance of hiring staff with a diverse skill set for the office.

“It was important that the CSS staff offered different skills because students are not a monolith,” Cross wrote in an email to the Review. “In particular, some of the CSS staff members were former mental health professionals, and while they won’t be practicing in that role, that training and lens will always be valuable. Having a staff who offers a diverse skill set is particularly helpful, as they can serve as a resource to each other as different student concerns arise.”

College second-year Ezra Pruitt feels enthusiastic about the diversity of some of the College’s new staff members.

“I am really excited about the MRC and the Center of Student Success because now I get to see people that look more like me,” Pruitt said. “Diversity and inclusion are such big things, especially here. So now that I start seeing more kinfolk, it’s definitely a great atmosphere, and I feel more welcome, too, and more inclined to go into those offices and into those spaces.”

College second-year Alana Florencio-Wain also expressed excitement about the MRC and its new staff.

“I know it’s done a lot of good in the past, and that it is changing for the better,” she said. “Bringing in a new perspective allows for growth and newness at Oberlin, and that is exciting.”

Many new professors have also joined the Oberlin community to fill vacant faculty positions. The Africana Studies department, for example, has welcomed multiple new professors.

“I’m here for the culture. I was invited to apply for the open position after the great and illustrious Johnny Coleman retired,” Michael Boyd Roman, assistant professor of Design and Black Visual Culture in the Studio Art and Africana Studies departments said. “I’m an artist and I have a skill set there, but I’m also a Black man and have a knowledge base interest and skill set there as well. I wanted to be somewhere where I was valued for both. This is where I wanted to be.”

According to Roman, settling into a new community is about understanding the needs of the space.

“One of the first things you learn in community art is that one of the best ways to alienate a community or a population is to walk in and be like, ‘I’m the expert,’” Roman said. “Ideally, you’re going to get into a new space, a new community, and you’re gonna learn what they need, what they want, how you fit, and what you can bring to the table. So that’s why I say that right now, the goal is to immerse myself in the community as much as possible.”

New staff have also participated in recent events for their respective divisions. The MRC is opening up its spaces to POC students to hold events, and the CSS celebrated first-generation students for an entire week.

Students Living in Common Rooms Due to ResEd Housing Shortage

Alexa Stevens News Editor

The Admissions Office has seen a steady increase in the number of applications to the College over the past few years. According to Manuel Carballo, vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid, the College received 10,340 applications for the 2022–23 academic year, up from 9,243 in 2021, 7,919 in 2020, and 6,265 in 2019.

As a result, this year’s enrolled class size shows an increase as well with 893 new students, up from last year’s 883. The two larger-than-average classes have consequently placed a strain on Residential Education. At the start of last year, students who did not receive housing assignments were placed temporarily into rooms at The Hotel at Oberlin. However, this is no longer possible because The Hotel has returned to full guest operations.

Residential Education has developed solutions to accommodate the volume of new students this year. Several students, such as College third-year Martina Taylor, were placed in modified living spaces to address the housing shortage. Taylor is living in a double in Baldwin Cottage, the Women and Trans* Collective, that ResEd converted into a triple — with one of their roommates sleeping in a walk-in closet. Though ResEd had not originally positioned the third bed within the closet space, Taylor and their roommates arrived at this configuration to prevent crowding.

“So basically, in the spring I got my housing information from ResEd and they said that I was gonna be living in a double in Baldwin,” Taylor said. “And then when they sent out the info again, near the fall, right before classes started, they said that I had a different roommate, but it turned out that they turned the double into a triple without telling us. And it was very unclear. So we ended up just having two people in the front room and then one person living in the walk-in closet.”

For Taylor, lack of communication from ResEd posed a key issue. When they found out they would have a third roommate late this past summer, Taylor placed calls, left voicemails, and sent emails to ResEd.

“I really wish ResEd was more transparent about everything because I can see how, to them, turning a double into a triple wouldn’t be a big deal, but I spent the later half of my summer being really confused and worried about what situation I was going into,” Taylor said. “And I feel like where you sleep and live with a stranger is kind of a big deal.”

Similar occurrences have taken place not only throughout Baldwin but in other dorms, as well. Several students across campus are living in communal spaces, such as lounges, that ResEd has converted into dorm rooms. This leaves dorm buildings with fewer lounge spaces for community programming and connection.

College first-year Maia Hochheiser lives in a former lounge in Burton Hall that now acts as a double. The room looks different from many of the other dorms on her floor — it is carpeted and both the windows and the window panel within the door have been frosted over in an attempt to block out extraneous light. Hochheiser added that Burton’s hallway lights never fully turn off and are motion activated, resulting in increased light filtering through the door windows whenever someone walks by.

“I guess technically it’s a temporary room assignment,” Hochheiser said. “Which means technically [ResEd] could be like, ‘Hey, you’re moving.’ Like anytime. Which would be really unfortunate.”

Students like Hoccheiser are left uncertain about what the rest of their semester will look like as a result of temporary housing assignments and are questioning if and when they will receive answers from ResEd.

Friday, Sept. 2, 2022

Campus Safety officers responded to a report of a bat in the first-floor hallway of Severance Hall.

Officers and Oberlin Fire Department members responded to a report of a student stuck in the elevator on the second floor of the Service Building.

An Oberlin resident reported that they almost struck a student, who crossed the street illegally, on West Lorain Street by the Science Center. The student was not injured.

Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022

Officers and OFD members responded to a fire alarm at Noah Hall.

Officers and OFD members responded to a fire alarm at a Goldsmith Village Housing Unit.

A student reported a bat flying around in the second-floor stairwell of Talcott Hall.

Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022

An officer completing a walkthrough of Peters Hall observed a bat by the Language Lab.

Monday, Sept. 5, 2022

Officers and OFD members responded to a fire alarm at a Union Street Housing Unit.

Officers responded to a report of a bat in the laundry room of Talcott Hall.

Officers and OFD members responded to a fire alarm at Tank Hall.

Officers and OFD members responded to a fire alarm at Kahn Hall.

Officers and OFD members responded to a fire alarm at a Goldsmith Village Housing Unit.

Officers responded to a faculty member reporting a bat in the firstfloor restroom at Warner Center.

Officers and OFD members responded to a fire alarm at LordSaunders House.

Officers responded to a student reporting a bat in Talcott Hall.