March 1, 2019

The Oberlin Review March 1, 2019

established 1874

Volume 147, Number 15

SFC Implements New Budgeting Strategy Leo Lasdun Senior Staff Writer

This tree on the corner of Edison Street and Pleasant Street was one of many uprooted during last Sunday’s wind storm.

Photo Courtesy of Bryan Burgess

Windstorm Whips Through Northeast Ohio Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief It was a blustery weekend across the Midwest and Northeast, as winds reaching 65 miles per hour uprooted trees, damaged buildings and vehicles, and triggered power outages.

Just down the road in Cleveland, a brick wall fell on a parking lot full of cars and left destruction in its wake, according to Cleveland 19 News.

David Orr Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Associate Professor of Biology Roger Laushman said that the storm was caused by the interaction of two different pressure systems.

“Wind speeds and gusts are related to the pressure differential between high and low pressure areas,” Laushman wrote in an email to the Review. “We had a large high pressure system west of us and two low pressure systems east of us, which generated the strong local winds.”

Fortunately for residents and students alike, Oberlin was spared from much of the storm’s wrath.

A couple of trees fell down, but property damage was minimal and power was lost briefly only twice.

“For the most part, Oberlin fared very well for the amount of wind and the gust magnitude that had come through,” said Oberlin Municipal Light and Power System Distribution Superintendent Matt Horwedel.

City Council President Bryan Burgess emphasized that this weekend’s storm was not as

destructive as Oberlin’s previous major windstorm, a microburst in the fall of 2016.

“The last time we had a major windstorm, it was a little over two years ago,” Burgess said. “Power was out for about three days. … It’s probably the worst natural disaster Oberlin’s had in years and years, at least in my living memory. So what happened yesterday was nowhere near that.”

According to Horwedel, residents on the east side of Oberlin were likely the most impacted.

“Primarily the east side of residential customers were the bulk of who experienced the outage,” he said. “That was due to a very large tree on Edison Street [that fell] over and landed on the high voltage lines.”

The tree on Edison Street didn’t directly cause an outage but the power had to be turned off in order for the tree to be safely removed.

“The only way that the three guys could safely clear the way was if we turned off the power for them to do the cutting,” Burgess said. “We don’t mind [those kinds] of repairs. We [gave] out the notice ahead of time.”

While Burgess can’t pinpoint whether these kinds of wind events have increased in recent years, he did say that city policies — including the upcoming revision of the Oberlin Climate Action Plan — are made with climate change in mind.

“We take it as a given that climate change is happening,” Burgess said.

“It isn’t something to be prevented in the future — it’s something to deal with in the present” According to Laushman, evidence

suggests that storms like these will be exacerbated by the changing climate.

“It isn’t easy to predict how local winds will be affected by climate patterns, but it is predicted that some places will have decreased winds while others will have increases,” he wrote. “Westerlies, which are the prevailing winds in our region, are predicted to increase according to a study published last July. [This is] correlated with increased CO2, so a direct consequence of climate change.”

Plans to address the impacts of severe weather events — like this weekend’s storm and the recent polar vortex — will be unrolled in the revised Oberlin Climate Action Plan.

“We have the new climate action plan written now,” Burgess said. “It’s under [the] review process. It’ll be passed sometime, probably in June.”

For now, Burgess and Horwedel both emphasize that Oberlin was fortunate this time, but the importance of preparing for severe weather events can’t be overstated.

“On the preventative side, we have selective tree plantings that won’t cause a problem,” Burgess said. “[For] the trees that are there, we have preventative maintenance cutting to keep it from becoming a problem. We keep emergency crews on standby, but that’s not just for storms — that’s seven days a week.”

Horwedel added that residents who notice any issues with fallen trees or downed power lines should immediately contact local authorities so the problem can be addressed swiftly.

The Student Finance Committee is planning to introduce a new budgeting strategy aimed at fostering collaboration among student organizations and more efficiently coordinating the timing of events.

The new budget plan will divide clubs and organizations into different councils based on the type of organization. Examples of these councils include religious, cultural, community engagement, and sports organizations. Each council will work with an appointed SFC staffer who will help organize events within each group, with the goal of decreasing overlap.

According to College sophomore and SFC Outreach Coordinator Miriam Khanukaev, the changes hope to structure events in a way that is more conducive to student engagement.

“The thinking behind this was [that] there’s a lot of events on campus that happen at the same time,” Khanukaev said. “We’re trying to create programming to better suit the needs of the students. We want to see purposeful programming and less redundant spending.”

In the past, lack of communication has frequently led to groups planning events at the same time, decreasing student turnout at each.

“There wasn’t any collaboration between similar organizations,” said College first-year and SFC staffer Rebecca Kukushkin.

Though not implemented yet, the SFC hopes the new strategy will be a significant improvement over the curren\t budgeting guidelines.

“We’re going to have two sessions, or more if each club council needs it, and we’re talking about how we’re going to provide clubs and organizations with the autonomy to create programming that best serves their mission,” said sophomore SFC Co-Chair Elmo Tumbokon. “Once we’re in club councils we’ll put that all in the same calendar so we can see how all of our expected programming and events fit into one another.”

The changes will also impact the SFC’s secondary funding process, an important component of its operations which is run on an asneeded basis. The SFC can provide ad hoc funds to groups or individuals seeking to host specific events or cover unforeseen costs. As it stands, students or organizations seeking ad hoc funding must submit a request directly to the SFC organization liaison, who, upon determining its validity, presents it to the committee for a vote. The new council system will streamline the ad hoc process.

“The idea is [that] if organizations or individuals have an ad hoc, they would bring it to the council that it was deemed most appropriate for,” Kukushkin said, emphasizing that proposed ad hoc changes have yet to be finalized. “Those [proposals] will go through the council, and organizations will decide who wants to take it on. [The council] would vote on whether or not they want to do it, and then it would come to a final vote at SFC.” Along with the creation of councils, the SFC plans to take a more involved approach in handling budgeting processes, emphasizing that organizations should think intentionally about the timeline by which they need funding. This won’t See Student, page 3

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 New Restauraunt Hopes to Provide Authentic Cuisine

05 Community Engagement Should Be Academic Priority

08 Scavenger Hunt

10 BHM Fashion Show Celebrates Black Culture, Body Expression

03 Symposium Showcases International Perspectives

07 We Can­— ­And Must — Implement Green New Deal

15 As Rockclimbing Enters Mainstream, Accessibility Concerns Remain

The Oberlin Review | March 1, 2019

11 Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edita-thon to Promote Marginalized Artists

16 Women’s Lacrosse Relies on Wellness to Win

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

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“Justice for Some” Talk Looks at IsraelPalestine Conflict Anisa Curry Vietze News Editor In an effort to increase campus consciousness around the Israel-Palestine conflict, two student groups — Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine and Oberlin College Jewish Voice for Peace — have invited PalestinianAmerican author, legal scholar, and human rights activist Noura Erakat to speak on campus Monday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. in Dye Lecture Hall.

College senior Nicki Kattoura was inspired to bring Erakat to speak at the College after Palestinian activists were targeted and brutalized last March. Erakat offered instrumental insights into the violence.

“During Trump’s embassy move to Jerusalem, the Palestinians — as they do every year — held their Great March of Return, which basically signals Palestinian demand to have refugees return to Historic Palestine who were displaced after the formation of Israel,” said Kattoura. “Thousands and thousands of people marched along the Gaza border and were basically massacred by Israeli military forces.”

Noura Erakat is an assistant professor of Legal Studies, International Area Studies, and Social Justice/Human Rights at George Mason University. Her upcoming book Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine looks at the role of international law in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“We thought it was important to bring someone who could bring an international law perspective to the Palestine issue,” said College senior Raphael Dreyfuss, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Many students agreed that more education See Author, page 4

New Restuarant Aims To Provide Authentic Cuisine Keifer Ludwig After months of anticipation, Catrina’s Tacos y Margaritas has opened its doors a and is now providing the community with culinary creations in a captivating dining environment. The restaurant, which opened Feb. 20, is located on West College Street between Hanson Records and Bead Paradise.

Catrina’s owner Nicolás Vázquez has made authenticity a priority. After learning traditional Mexican techniques from working at his parents’ restaurant in Sacramento, CA, Vázquez decided to open his own restaurant in Oberlin.

“My grandma showed me how to make the salsas, the tacos, the authentic tortilla soup, the tortas, the barbacoa, which is essential in La Piedad,” Vázquez said. “We brought the [decor] from Mexico too. Calaveritas [sugar skull designs] — we handmade and painted and processed them all ourselves.”

In addition to the “tacos and margaritas” promised in the name, Catrina’s will offer daily Mexican breakfasts each morning, along with

an assortment of high quality desserts, appetizers, sandwiches, hot dogs and more.

The entrance to Catrina’s features a chalkboard explaining the philosophy behind the restaurant’s name.

“Catrina has come to symbolize El Día de los Muertos and the Mexican willingness to laugh at death itself,” it reads. “She reminds us that death is a neutralizing force, we are all equal in the end.”

The restaurant also has a colorful Catrina — a skeleton wearing a hat, which has become a hallmark of Mexican popular culture — painted on the wall. The image was painted

by Nathalie Bermudez Pineda, a Colombian artist living in Lakewood, Ohio.

“We decorated everything like Día de los Muertos, and on [the holiday], we want to put up altares here to celebrate the dead and my city,” Vázquez said. “[I want] you guys to know a little of my culture.”

Many Oberlin students noticed that Catrina’s seems to have joined a

The Oberlin R eview March 1, 2019 Volume 147, Number 15 (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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Editors-in-Chief

Sydney Allen Nathan Carpenter Managing Editor Ananya Gupta News Editors Anisa Curry Vietze

Jenna Gyimesi Opinions Editor Jackie Brant This Week Editor Mikaela Fishman Arts Editors Kate Fishman

Katherine MacPhail Sports Editors Jane Agler

Alexis Dill Photo Editor Mallika Pandey

Senior Staff Writers Carson Dowhan Roman Broszkowski Leo Lasdun Julie Schreiber

College senior Gabe Schneier and Conservatory junior Emmett Sher eat a meal at Catrina’s, Oberlin’s newest restaurant. Photo by Meg Parker, Photo Editor

crowded market.

“Well, this is our third Mexican restaurant, so that’s interesting,” College senior Katie Ryan-O’Flaherty said. “I’m sure Agave [Burrito Bar & Tequilería] is stressed out, as I’m sure Lupitas [Mexican Restaurant] is, but they kind of have a corner on the market with the dollar marg business. So I guess it’ll just come down to whose food is better.”

Nikki Stipp, one of the owners of

Layout Editors

Parker Shatkin Jake Butcher Lila Michaels Lillian Jones Business Manager Jared Steinberg Ads Manager Jabree Hason Web Manager Sage Vouse Production Manager Giselle Glaspie Production Staff Christo Hays Olive Hwang Lior Krancer Devyn Malouf Madi Mettenburg Allison Schmitt Annie Schoonover

Agave Burrito Bar & Tequilería, was not as concerned.

“I think that it’s fantastic because the more delicious, wonderful restaurants we have in town, the more places there are and things to do, and the more the community thrives,” Stipp said. “I think that they’re doing something different [from us]. They’ve got this sit-down See Catrina’s, page 3

Corrections: In the article titled, “OMTA Ushers in Hilariously SelfDeprecating [title of show] This Weekend,” Feb.22, 2019, the Review wrote that College first-year Emmy Soll played the character Heidi. In fact, Soll played piano for the show.

College first-year Katie Friedemann played Heidi.

In the article titled, “French and Arabic Teaching Assistant Programs Reduced,” Feb. 22, 2019, the Review misspelled the name of faculty-in-residence Kévin Rocheron.

To submit a correction, email managingeditor@ oberlinreview.org.

Symposium Showcases International Perspectives Jenna Gyimesi News Editor Oberlin’s first Public Intellectuals in a Changing World symposium launched this week, with a mission to foster impactful interdisciplinary and intercultural conversations.

The event will consist of five panels and 15 different speakers and runs from Feb. 28 through March 2.

“This might be the first time that the College hosts an event that has a really grand ambition of combining all the different fields — arts, sciences, and music — together,” said Hsiu-Chuang Deppman, director of the Oberlin Center for Languages and Cultures, director of East Asian Studies, professor of Chinese and Cinema Studies, and the organizer of the symposium. “So it really works with the two broad goals for liberal arts education — internationalization and interdisciplinary learning.”

The symposium kicked off cross-cultural dialogues yesterday with a showing of Faith in Ailao Mountain, directed by Zhang Ci and Bumming in Beijing: The Last Dreamers, directed by Wu Wenguang.

Wenguang also delivered a keynote speech titled “The Art of Unforgetting: A Folk Memory Project” earlier today. His most recent film, Investigating My Father, will be shown later tonight at 9 p.m. in Hallock Auditorium.

Many students who attended the showings left with new perspectives

and felt inspired to learn more.

“I don’t have much knowledge [about China]” said College firstyear Harper Ross. “It’s good that I have to branch out from my normal areas of interests.”

Deppman explained that the events are particularly powerful because they can communicate information to all individuals, regardless of culture, language, academic discipline, or geographical location.

“Art is a lingua franca,” Deppman said. “[All people] can use art to speak to people from different parts of the world.”

Many students echoed Deppman’s sentiments, expressing that the documentaries in particular had the unique ability to explain complex cultural issues and practices. “I feel like [American Oberlin] students are interested [in international culture], but sometimes I feel like I did not do a good job at presenting my own culture,” said first-year international student Rachel Fung. “Sometimes I have an idea, but I do not know how to explain it. [Art] is helpful, and I think that more students should come and see these things.”

Overall, the symposium hopes to promote understanding, and global communication in times of seemingly increasing divisions.

“This is the time for us to be together, to envision new possibilities.” Deppman said. “As of now, we feel that a storm is surging.

There are so many ways of dividing borders, and creating boundaries.

This symposium functions to see what possibilities are out there. I would categorize it with a Chinese expression, which was invented during the the warring period around the 5th century B.C: ‘Four seas as one family.’... It projects a peaceful optimistic vision of bringing people together and just to see that we are in this endeavor and adventure together.”

The organizers of Public Intellectuals in a Changing World hope that these events will continue to promote cultural understanding and communication at Oberlin College.

“The goal is to integrate language and the teaching of culture across the curriculum, across the different units of the College and the Conservatory,” said symposium coorganizer and Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Stiliana Milkova. “To see the connections between different languages and cultures — nothing is in isolation, or in a vacuum.”

She also encourages students to take language courses during their time at Oberlin.

“Take advantage of what we have here at Oberlin,” she said.

“Take languages, learn about other cultures. Languages give you access to another culture, to another way of thinking. That’s probably the best way to challenge your own preconceived notions.”

Student Orgs Will Face New Budgeting Processes Continued from page 1

Left to right: Student Finance Committee members College sophomore Elmo Tumbokon, College senior Meg Parker, and College sophomore Emma Edney discuss changes to finance policy in an SFC meeting.

Photo by Devin Cowan

mean that spring-exclusive events such as Folk Fest will need to submit a budget by the fall, but rather that they will be meeting with the SFC more regularly throughout their normal budgeting process.

Though the council system will resolve a number of issues SFC has faced in the past, Tumbokon says the new plan could involve some unforeseen problems.

“A lot of questions still need to be answered, for example how do we determine which organizations ... need funding?” Tumbokon said. “What if an organization that was inactive this semester comes back in the Fall but they weren’t here for agenda setting?”

The SFC comprises seven student representatives who are appointed by Student Senate. The committee is responsible for allocating funds to student organizations and providing guidance to individuals interested in starting an organization. The SFC allocates funds to organizations and projects such as ExCos, clubs, WOBC, The Oberlin Review, and the Cat in the Cream.

Catrina’s Serves Up Traditional Fare Continued from page 2

vibe and seafood options and we’ve got our quick serve concept and our house-infused tequilas and our latenight thing that had become super popular. … I think it’s a fantastic thing to not have an empty storefront.”

Agave employee Corey Kelley also seemed unphased.

“I mean, it’s cool,” Kelley said “You know, it’s right next door … but I honestly wanna try it. … It seems like people in Oberlin like Mexican food, so there’s three places. I mean, who doesn’t like tacos?”

Vázquez also doesn’t see other Downtown restaurants as a problem.

“For me, I have nothing to say about other restaurants,” Vázquez explained. “Every restaurant has The Oberlin Review | March 1, 2019

their own recipes. And this is a taqueria — it’s a little bit different. I don’t want to make competition.”

Among Vázquez’s ideas is keeping Catrina’s open late, until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., once they get their liquor license.

“We make organic margaritas with the good tequila,” Vázquez said. “We’re making mojitos, a lot of appetizers for people to enjoy with a beer.”

There appears to be a price for authenticity, however — Catrina’s can be more expensive than Agave or Lupitas. A burrito from Agave starts at $7.00, but burritos from Catrina’s start at $8.99.

Catrina’s also offers table service and a more diverse menu. For instance, customers who order the

guacamole and chips at Catrina’s can select from a large swath of toppings including mango, pineapple, cucumber, queso fresco, and pomegranate. Catrina’s also features a lunch menu.

Although some believe that their will be competition between the restaurants, Vázquez is still ecstatic to be here.

“I love cooking,” Vázquez said.

I love the kitchen. I love to show the cooks how to make the tacos, the barbacoa, the carnitas right. I love what I do. And I want to make Oberlin happy with my food.”

Catrina’s is currently open from 12 a.m.- 9 p.m. on Sundays, from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Security Notebook Thursday, Feb. 21, 2019

4:11 a.m. Campus Safety officers were requested to assist an ill student in East Hall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

11:26 a.m. A student reported that their backpack was lost or stolen, possibly from the patio of the Kohl Building. The backpack contained a MacBook laptop, blue Beats headphones, a manuscript, and a blue accordion folder.

4:00 p.m. Officers were requested to assist with a Life Safety inspection on the third floor of Talcott Hall. A bagged detector was observed, along with a pipe containing a substance consistent with marijuana. The bag was removed and the pipe was turned over to the Oberlin Police Department.

4:17 p.m. Officers were requested to assist with a Life Safety inspection on the first floor of South Hall. Officers found two bagged smoke detectors, a glass bong, a small container holding a substance consistent with marijuana, a grinder, a brown wooden smoking device, a pipe, a butane lighter, and butane torch. Items were turned over to the Oberlin Police Department.

Friday, Feb. 22, 2019

10:07 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student at Kahn Hall who had food stuck in their throat. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019

10:55 a.m. Officers responded to a report of a broken window in the third-floor bathroom of South Hall. Custodial staff came to clean up the glass, and a carpenter boarded the window.

1:38 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at a Village Housing Unit. Smoke from burnt food caused the alarm. The area was cleared of smoke and the alarm was reset.

Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019

9:15 a.m. Grounds staff reported a large limb had broken off a tree and was hanging near the north side of Talcott Hall. Officers responded and assisted in setting up barricades. The Facilities Operations manager was contacted for removal and cleanup.

9:56 a.m. Officers responded to a report that a large pine tree had fallen down between the Carnegie Building and Stevenson Dining Hall.

Barricades were put in place until the tree could be removed.

10:50 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student in Langston Hall who cut themself on glass from a broken window. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

11:59 a.m. A student reported that their belongings were stolen from a party at a Village Housing Unit. The items taken were a coat, a wallet, and numerous cards.

1:06 p.m. Officers responded to a report that a gutter had fallen down on the north side of Baldwin Cottage. The area was barricaded with caution tape, and a work order was filed for repair.

1:00 p.m. An officer on patrol observed that a pine tree had fallen and was lying next to the Johnson House driveway. While waiting for the grounds crew to respond, two more pine trees fell in the same area.

2:25 p.m. A student reported the theft of their jacket from a party on Professor Street. There was approximately $10 in cash in the pocket.

Monday, Feb. 25, 2019

7:58 p.m. A student reported that items were taken from their backpack, which was left unattended for a short period in a Robertson Hall practice room. A wallet and approximately $50 in cash were missing.

The wallet was located a short time later, but the cash was no longer there.

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019

8:30 p.m. A student reported the theft of three Xbox controllers from a lounge on the second floor of Dascomb Hall.

8:57 p.m. Officers were requested to assist an ill student at Dascomb Hall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

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Author to Speak on International Law in Israel, Palestine Continued from page 2

around the issue would be beneficial.

“I think it’s a conflict where you really don’t hear both sides of the story a lot of the time,” said College first-year Julia Binder. “I grew up in a very liberal Jewish community that was super open to talking about everything and very inclusive, and somehow this topic — the IsraelPalestine conflict — almost never came up, and I very much felt like I had to educate myself on it.”

While the Israel-Palestine conflict is often hotly disputed, pro-Palestine groups on campus find that events are mostly well-received by the campus community.

“We don’t really find that events are particularly controversial on campus,” said Dreyfuss. “Students are generally very receptive — even students who disagree often come to our events, and we talk things through. Where we find the most pushback is from people off-campus. ...

We often get pigeonholed by off-campus views of our voices; there’s all sorts of people who would like to present Jewish students at Oberlin as under siege by the Palestine movement when the reality is that [Jewish students] actually make up a large percentage of the Palestine Solidarity Movement.”

Other students think the talk is an exciting opportunity to educate students on campus. “[When] the Israel-Palestine conflict comes up, almost everyone I talk to is like, ‘I feel like I don’t know enough to say anything’,” said Binder, a member of J Street U. For Kattoura, starting the conversation is a fulfilling enough goal.

“We just try to mobilize students to organize around campus,” he said. “And it doesn’t have to necessarily be Palestine in particular, but organize. [Noura Erakat] is a great speaker, I think if it’s a matter of you leaving the event and speaking to your friends about the event, I think that’s going to be enough for me.”

OFF THE CUFF

Rosa Brooks, Georgetown Law Professor

Rosa Brooks is a law professor at Georgetown University currently focusing on issues related to police brutality. She was the keynote speaker at Oberlin’s 2019 Global Issues Symposium, giving a Feb. 15 lecture titled “How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon.” In 2016, she published a book under the same title which discussed hyper-militarization in the United States.

Brooks has served as counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the Obama administration, as a columnist and contributing editor at Foreign Policy, and as a weekly op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sydney Allen, Editor-in-Chief What is your primary focus at Georgetown right now?

You know, I don’t really have one — or rather, the area that I have done most of my scholarly writing in has been international law and national security law, human rights law. But in the last couple of years, I have been, at least temporarily, focusing in a completely different direction on criminal justice issues. So this semester I’m teaching a criminal procedure course and I’m co-teaching [an] experiential practicum course called Innovative Policing.

We have students doing research on how to make policing better, and supporting a fellowship program that we co-started, which brings young D.C. police officers to Georgetown for workshops on issues like race, criminal justice, overcriminalization, and mental illness — the kinds of things that you think police officers should be getting, but don’t really get in the training that they received from police departments.

I’m working on a book on policing at the moment.

How has the book you’re working on been influenced by the class you’re teaching right now?

One of the things that’s just been fascinating and, as a teacher, warms my heart, is our students — probably like

Oberlin students — tend to be very critical of police. ... Some of them were very leery about doing anything that puts them into contact with cops. Part of what they do in the practicum is serve as breakout discussion group leaders with recruits of the police academy. So when we bring lecturers into the police academy and all 200 recruits [are] in the auditorium, [we have the students lead small group discussions].

I think for us, one of the most amazing things is to have our students come back and say, “They were so interesting. They were so great. I had no idea that they thought this or that they were wondering about that or that.” And the recruits and those in our fellowship program come to us and say like, “That’s so great. I had no idea. I thought law students were a bunch of smarty-pants, obnoxious, elitist brats. And those students are so interesting. I had no idea.

Maybe I’ll go to law school.”

Our mantra was “more curiosity, less judgment.” And basically saying to people, “Some people are gonna say things that are going to offend you.” If people are going to say things that are going to upset you, that’s OK. Don’t offend somebody on purpose, but if somebody says something that offends you or upsets you — more curiosity and less judgment.

Rosa Brooks

Photo courtesy of Rosa Brooks

Can you tell me what your talk was about for readers who couldn’t attend?

The talk [was] about the issues I talked about in my last book, the title of which is pretty descriptive of the contents of the book, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. The talk was a sort of capsule summary of the main themes of the book, which focuses on the ways that — particularly in the post 9/11 environment — U.S. policymakers have increasingly viewed every threat through the lens of war, which in turn means that every threat seems like it has a military solution. I spoke about both the impact that that’s had on the military and on civilian institutions, but also about the ways in which that pulls in the set of legal norms associated with war, which are really different than those of peacetime. War law permits much greater secrecy, much greater state power. [It] is very focused on the good of the state, superseding the individual, whereas peacetime law is much more focused on due process, individual rights.

Local Convenience Store Mickey Mart Will Open 24/7

Mickey Mart, a small convenience store and gas station on South Main Street, recently expanded its hours to 24 hours a day.

Photo by Devin Cowan

Lily Jones Layout Editor Mickey Mart, located at 155 South Main Street, is now open 24 hours a day, making it the only full-time business within reasonable walking distance of Oberlin College. Many students and community members are

excited about the extended hours.

Mickey Mart employee Tricia Phillips said that the decision to stay open later was a benefit to business as well as the student population.

“It’s convenient,” she said. “They’re making good money; we’re very happy with it.”

Previously, Walmart was the only 24-hour option anywhere near the College. But for most students, it is only accessible via car, since it is nearly two miles from campus,. This becomes especially true at night, when walking or biking on roads can be dangerous.

“It’s nice to have a place on campus that’s a lot closer than Walmart that can address student needs 24/7,” Conservatory Senior Birsa Chatterjee noted. “With food options already being fairly limited at Oberlin, and late nights being even worse, it’s convenient to have a place where I can run and get some snacks.”

Many students shared Chatterjee’s sentiment.

Currently, Agave Burrito Bar & Tequileria and Domino’s Pizza are the popular late-night food choices, open on weekends until 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m., respectively.

Junior Maryam Ghazala is excited for better access

Oberlin Community News Bulletin Firelands High School Showcases Student Work Students from Oberlin City Schools will exhibit their projects and art in the Falcon Showcase March 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Firelands High School. Kindergarteners and high schoolers alike will participate in this student-led event that aims to give students an outlet to show off their accomplishments from the school year. Students will lead demonstrations and conversations about their studies and projects. Come see what academic and creative achievements local students have made this year.

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Oberlin Heritage Center Awarded Funding from the Ohio History Connection The Oberlin Heritage Center was recently awarded $2,000 as a part of the Ohio History Connection’s annual Statehood Day event in Columbus. The newly procured funds will be used to launch a program to generate data reflecting the best ways to conduct self-guided tours of historic house museums. The Ohio History Fund has awarded more than $600,000 in funding to historical organizations across the state since 2012.

to food to curb hunger while studying. Since DeCafé closes at midnight, Mickey Mart’s extended hours will give students more choices when staying up late doing work. This will be especially welcome during finals when libraries have extended hours.

“I wish [Mickey Mart] was even closer to campus,” Ghazala added. She explained that taking a study break to walk half a mile sometimes isn’t realistic or possible.

Chatterjee also noted that Mickey Mart’s extended hours will increase access to over-the-counter medication and health products. In cases of an emergency, Mickey Mart will be the only location within walking distance of the College that offers these sorts of products.

Some students were less excited about the changes.

First-year Ila Astin agreed that it was nice to have the option available, but said she didn’t often go to Mickey Mart, so the changes were unlikely to affect her.

“I eat in a co-op, so our late-night food options are usually the [in] fridge,” she explained.

Mickey Mart offers a variety or products including snacks, beer, cigarettes and other convenience goods.

Performers Complement Exhibition with Flute Selections Associate Professor of Flute Alexa Still and several Oberlin Conservatory flute majors will perform solos and chamber pieces to accompany the exhibition Women Bound and Unbound on Thursday, March 7 from 5:30–7:30 p.m. at the Allen Memorial Art Museum. The exhibition was coordinated by five Oberlin faculty members from various departments. The pieces displayed will explore ideas of “women as mothers, sinners, saints, witches, warriors, citizens, socialites, and sometimes simply as bodies,” according to the event description.

March 1, 2019

OPINIONS

Letters to the Editors

Students Should Rally in Support of Tom Reid

In his 42 years as a student or staff member at Oberlin, former associate director of the Student Union Tom Reid, OC ’80, touched the lives of thousands of students and community members through his leadership at College Lanes, the Cat in the Cream, and the Wilder Hall Student Union Office. As current students, alumni, and members of the community, we are writing to voice our continued frustration with Oberlin College’s decision to eliminate Tom’s position. In September, we sent a petition to President Ambar calling for his reinstatement. The petition collected over 1,100 signatures and nearly 500 personal testimonials in less than a week. In November, a group of nearly 40 current students, alumni, staff, faculty, and community members submitted the petition in-person to President Ambar. Hundreds of alumni also called the Office of the President and the Office of Alumni Relations to support Tom and demand his reinstatement.

Tom’s importance to Oberlin is well-documented. He became one of the most popular teachers at Oberlin through his bowling classes. Because of his effective leadership, Oberlin College Lanes hosts a junior bowling league, several adult bowling leagues, and a seniors’ league, which help to connect the College and the Oberlin community.

Tom also served as faculty advisor of Folk Fest. Highly acclaimed artists like Odetta and Lake Street Dive have performed at Oberlin College, largely thanks to Tom Reid.

It is very disturbing that President Ambar and the Dean of Students Office have continued to ignore the voices of current students and alumni on this issue. Oberlin should not isolate students and alumni, especially in difficult financial times. We are hoping that the Board of Trustees will listen to us and understand why Tom’s value far exceeds the cost of keeping his position and why this decision does not make financial sense. We all understand that Oberlin is

established 1874

facing financial pressures. But nobody has received the outpouring of support that Tom has since the elimination of his position. This is a unique situation.

Because the administration has completely ignored our requests to meet, current students, alumni, and community members will continue to advocate for Tom and his reinstatement through any channels possible.

Please join us for a rally in support of the reinstatement of Tom Reid this upcoming Thursday, March 7 at 4:30 p.m. outside The Hotel at Oberlin during the Board of Trustees meeting. We will continue to keep advocating for Tom’s reinstatement until the administration agrees to meet with us and reconsider this decision.

Jody Shanabrook College junior Johnnie Kallas, OC ’14 Erin Loschetter Oberlin Resident

Liberal Arts Education Still Has Plenty To Offer Students If you are an administrator at a liberal arts college, the news is mostly ominous and foreboding. Colleges that are highly dependent on tuition revenue and possess small endowments are reducing their faculty to cut costs, and in some cases even closing.

In the 1960s and 1970s, my parents had but a fraction of my current income and were able to put both my sister and me through Oberlin with no loans to repay after graduation. My parents were also the offspring of immigrants from Asia. I experienced the subtle pressure to seek out a “safe” career path guaranteed through higher education; in those days, this translated to doctor or lawyer.

Today, the emphasis is more on seeking schools that prioritize engineering and the sciences. As a volunteer for the Alumni Recruiting See Letters, page 7

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and oped 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 | March 1, 2019

Volume 147, Number 15

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief

Sydney Allen

Nathan Carpenter

Managing Editor Ananya Gupta

Opinions Editor Jackie Brant

Community Engagement Should Be Academic Priority The City of Oberlin and Oberlin College have always been very closely connected, as can be expected of the relationship between a small liberal arts college and the small, rural community it shares a backyard with. Indeed, the two were founded together — the town and then-Oberlin Collegiate Institute were one and the same, reveling in shared triumphs and coming together in difficult times. However, in recent years that relationship has faltered, and interactions between the town and College have become strained.

These divisions have doubtless come with heavy cost, and silos that seemed unimaginable early in Oberlin’s history now too often feel deeply entrenched. Clearly, work must be done to rebuild those bridges — a well-recognized reality that is more easily identified than addressed.

Fortunately, some at the College have recognized the missed opportunity for community connection and solidarity, and are working to build equitable and sustainable partnerships in and around Oberlin.

A good chunk of that work is happening at the classroom level. To their credit, many Oberlin professors do an excellent job incorporating community-based learning into their syllabi and making off-campus engagement a core focus of their classes.

The Environmental Studies Program is an excellent example of this kind of advocacy in action. All students in the program’s intro class, Environment and Society (a required course for majors), choose local community partners to collaborate with over the course of an entire semester. Partners include Providing Oberlin With Energy Responsibly, the George Jones Memorial Farm, and the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, among others. These projects provide students — often first-years and sophomores searching for connection early in their college careers — opportunities to connect in tangible ways with their community outside the context of a traditional classroom project.

The program also manages the Environmental Dashboard, which provides a calendar of community events, features the “Community Voices” series, and maintains real-time information on the City’s electricity and water usage. The consumption rates are tracked not just for College facilities, but in buildings downtown and in Oberlin public schools.

Many classes in other departments — including Philosophy, Comparative American Studies, Creative Writing, Biology, Geology, Latin, and Spanish, among others — involve students in important community engagement, broadening their academic experiences and simultaneously leveraging the College’s resources for positive outcomes.

Given that many professors and departments have identified the need for stronger community engagement in their curriculum, now is the time for the College to invest more institutional resources in recognizing community engagement as a legitimate academic pursuit. Strong community-based learning allows students to apply skills and concepts learned in classrooms to real-world situations. It also has the power to connect students to organizations and people in fields they are interested in, providing them with valuable connections and experiences long after the course is over.

Further, community engagement builds life skills in ways that more traditional classroom experiences don’t. Transferable skills in strategizing, agenda-setting, and developing solutions to direct, tangible challenges is vital — particularly in a rapidly changing job market. This Editorial Board has previously argued that the changing nature of higher education will compel Oberlin to set itself apart from its peers; embracing community-based learning from an institutional standpoint is one way the College can stand out.

The College is entering a season of change. President Ambar’s tenure signals a plethora of new institutional possibilities, particularly as the College begins to revise its financial model.

The recommendations of the Academic and Administrative Program Review are close to being revealed, representing a significant challenge and also a major opportunity to evaluate and direct the College’s priorities.

There are many steps the College could take to more fully support the community engagement work that faculty across many departments are already undertaking. One could be creating a tag within the course catalog — similar to Cultural Diversity or Writing Intensive — to signal that a course features significant off-campus engagement. This would allow students interested in community-based work to more easily chart an academic path that fully engages their interests.

This step could also allow for the creation of a community-based learning concentration — a potential selling point for prospective students drawn to Oberlin’s strong social justice reputation but who aren’t quite sure how Oberlin stands out from the state school closer to home. Given the number of courses already focusing on community engagement, creating this concentration would require minimal investment of resources. Instead, the main task would be identifying and institutionalizing the good work that is already being done.

There was once a time in Oberlin’s history when professors were leaders not just on campus, but for the community at large as well. There are certainly still professors here who value their roles in both the College and the town communities, but their work needs greater institutional recognition and support in order to achieve its full potential. With that, we can move toward addressing town-gown conflict and setting Oberlin apart from its competition in a powerful and responsible way.

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

Student Senate Welcomes Seven New Senators Serena Zets Contributing Writer This article is part of the Review’s Student Senate column.

In an effort to increase communication and transparency, student senators will provide personal perspectives on recent events on campus and in the community.

In February, outgoing student senator and College senior Cecilia Wallace wrote an article in the Review to urge students to vote for Senate, and they did (“Students Must Vote in Upcoming Senate Elections”, Feb. 2, 2019). This semester, Oberlin Student Senate welcomes seven new senators, as well as two re-elected senators. The incoming senators are College first-years Serena Zets, Raavi Asdar, and Renzo Mayhall; College sophomores Bridget Smith and Emma Edney; and College juniors Charlie Rinehart-Jones and Johan Cavert.

An overarching goal for this new class of senators is to increase Senate’s visibility and approachability across campus.

Senate’s purpose is to represent the student body and its best interests; thus, this piece is an opportunity to get to know these new senators and introduce you to their work.

Serena Zets will serve as Senate’s new Communications director and chair of the Communications Working Group. When she’s not doing Senate-related work, Serena is a member of the

ExCo Committee, a Cat in the Cream employee, and a member of South Asian Students Association and Multi-. She ran for Senate because she’s extremely passionate about improving relationships between the College and the greater Oberlin community. Serena’s platform focused on inclusion, transparency, and connection — all values she plans to bring to the Communications branch of Senate. A fun fact about Serena is that she has lobbied for comprehensive sex education in schools at the Pennsylvania State Capitol!

Raavi Asdar will serve as Senate Chartering Liaison this semester; if you’re hoping to charter a student organization, he’s your point person. On campus, Raavi is a part of OSCA, the Pottery Co-Op, and SASA. Raavi ran for Senate to represent his peers and better understand the bureaucracy and inner workings of the College. He’s planning on serving on the Student Wellness Working Group, where he’ll focus on the development of mental health and crisis response policy. Raavi interprets Senate’s role on campus “as one that is empowered to represent the student perspective to the administration. [He thinks] it’s important that senators are approachable and people bring their concerns to [them].” He also wants the student body to know that he’s a big fan of homemade bread (especially sourdoughs).

Renzo Mayhall is an intended

Philosophy and Economics major and serves as the chair of the Campus Dining Working Group.

He plays on the Frisbee team and is an Admissions Ambassador. He decided to run for Senate because of his strong love for Oberlin and its students and his desire to make Oberlin a better place for everyone. He’s excited about focusing on Campus Dining to continue Senate’s work in improving accessibility, sustainability, and overall quality of campus dining options. He also wants to promote Senate’s visibility on campus so that students can be even more engaged with its work.

Bridget Smith is a sophomore transfer student and the chair of the Winter Term Working Group. On campus, she serves as co-chair of the Oberlin College Democrats, works in the Office of Study Away and Winter Term and in the Writing Center, is on the Model U.N. team, and is a 2019 Cole Scholar in the Politics Department. She ran for Senate to reform Winter Term programming to make it more accessible. She believes Student Senate’s role on campus is to improve the Oberlin experience for all students by helping to reform current programs, hosting on-campus events, and communicating student concerns to the College. A fun fact about Bridget is that she accidentally choked on her lunch when she met Mitt Romney at the U.S. Capitol, where she spent Winter Term.

Emma Edney is involved with

club soccer Students Demand Action, works as a research assistant for Associate Professor of Politics Michael Parkin, and is training to be a Peer Listener at the Peer Support Center.

She decided to run for Senate after taking the Intro to Peer Helping Skills class over Winter Term. She’s most excited to use the Student Wellness Working Group to develop the peer support center, increase access to mental health resources and Narcan on campus, and interpret and administer Title IX policy changes. She hopes to develop workshops for Residential Assistants, OSCA leaders, varsity and club sports captains, PRSM trainers, and others in peer support practices so that people in these critical campus roles are better equipped to listen and respond to their peers’ difficulties.

A fun fact about Emma is that she’s a dual citizen of the U.S. and the U.K. Charlie Rinehart-Jones is a Politics and Cinema Studies major as well as Senate’s treasurer this semester. In addition to Senate, he is a Politics Major Representative, Admissions Office Tour Guide, Managing Editor of The Grape, and a professional gamer! He ran for Senate because he feels strongly about health and wellness at Oberlin — specifically, expanding drug safety, advocating for disability justice, and coordinating mental health resources, all of which he will address through the Student Wellness Working Group.

During his term, he also wants to work on maintaining Senate’s institutional memory and improving transparency. Charlie wants the student body to know how grateful he feels to have been elected to Senate.

Johan Cavert is returning to Student Senate after a semester abroad in Cuba. On campus, he’s a part of Pyle Inn co-op, Spanish in the Elementary Schools program, has a WOBC show, and works with the Green Edge Fund. His previous Senate term demonstrated his commitment to improving institutional sustainability, something he will continue to prioritize through the Green Edge Fund, the Committee on Environmental Sustainability, Carbon Neutrality Student Advisory Board, and as one of Senate’s Sustainability liaisons. Johan asserts that “as we undergo the AAPR process … I intend to advocate for valued programs while developing creative solutions to prevent further losses. Oberlin is facing major changes, and student engagement is crucial!” Johan loves winter sweaters, snow, podcasts, and public radio!

Now you know a bit more about your new senators! Remember that we’re here to represent you, so make your voices and demands heard by coming into our office hours, which can be found in the online Spring 2019 Senate Directory, or joining a working group. I have no doubt that it’s going to be a productive and proactive semester.

Administration Must Justify Chronic Campus Theft Problem Reducations to Language TAs Has Yet To Be Addressed Shogo Ishikawa Contributing Writer As reported in the Review last week, the French and Arabic departments are undergoing budget cuts, resulting in decisions that will potentially affect the overall quality of language education and the education community at Oberlin (“French and Arabic Teaching Assistant Programs Reduced,” Feb. 22, 2019). As a nonFrench Oberlin student who appreciates the French language and culture and the broader language community, I believe the administration’s decision to reduce the number of French TAs is unacceptable and has been left completely unexplained. For my Winter Term project, I wrote an essay arguing for the need to establish an absolute educational standard to which all programs must adhere: any class or program must be more vAluable than any plausible alternative. Furthermore, not establishing the absolute standard would lead to attacks on education.

The administration’s decision to reduce the number of French TAs affects students who take, or plan to take, French classes, as well as the French TAs themselves. Therefore, whoever is responsible for this decision must be able to justify reducing French resources instead of reducing those dedicated to other subjects.

Further, according to John Dewey, an American philosopher of educa-

6

tion, the values of all subject matters are intrinsically equal and can only be evaluated under a certain standard.

For example, although the values of the natural sciences and language are intrinsically equal, if the school thinks that students should be equipped to contribute to technological innovation in the future, teaching the natural sciences would be more valuable than teaching language. However, if we value the ability to understand different cultures, teaching languages would be more valuable than the natural sciences. Therefore, valuing the natural sciences over teaching languages is only possible under a particular criterion.

The administration has the responsibility to prove that other subjects are more valuable than French — or any other language — if it is going to reduce resources in various language departments. They should publicly present a plausible and unproblematic standard that justifies their value judgments before making this decision — or else risk attacking education against students, faculty, and TAs. Although my emotional attachment to the French TAs — from whom I have learned a lot — seems absent from my argument, it is rather a rational representation of my emotional attachment to them. I thank the College for giving me an opportunity to learn about the philosophy of education. However, I cannot thank it for unjustifiably cutting TA positions.

Jack Derwin Contributing Writer During my three years at Oberlin, there has been a steady stream of theft on campus. The crimes often occur at the same times and in the same locations year after year. Despite the obvious patterns, however, the College has done little to address the situation, and students’ belongings remain vulnerable.

As a student, I have heard about all sorts of items being stolen — cellphones, gaming systems, laptops, money, shoes, clothing, posters, and more. The thefts I’ve heard about are nearly always nonviolent, occur when students are away from their on-campus homes, and are concentrated in school-owned Village Housing Units.

These incidents are usually reported but never solved, and students often get little sympathy from the College and local police.

One such wave of thefts took place this Winter Term, when several college-owned and off-campus student houses were targeted while students were out of town. Unfortunately, my own Village Housing Unit was hit during the string. My housemates and I had hundreds of dollars worth of items stolen, including a gaming system, jewelry, and brand new winter boots.

This experience provided me with a firsthand sense of the gravity of the

issue. We reported the incident to Oberlin Police and Campus Safety.

Since those reports, however, we have heard very little about the incident and our belongings, and neither department has provided a follow-up to our report. We are holding out hope that we will hear back from the police and even potentially get the items back, but at this point this seems highly unlikely. As of now, our experience feels like just another burglary added to a long list of similar thefts that have gone ignored by the College.

Beyond monetary costs, the pattern of theft on campus takes a toll on victims and the campus population more generally. Many feel unsafe in their campus residences and that they must be on high alert at all times. Sure, a completely crime-free campus is unrealistic, and employing caution is useful. But students should not need to fear for the safety of themselves and their possessions.

Much of the feeling of insecurity is due to the fact that the situation has yet to be seriously addressed.

On the contrary, it seems that there have been no security improvements.

There is no single simple solution to the problem, but surely steps can be taken toward solving it.

A good first step would be better communication between the school and theft victims. After our initial report, the information we gained came See Village, page 7

We Can — And Must — Implement Green New Deal

Dan Kennedy Contributing Writer

Days after Democrats won a majority in the House of Representatives in last year’s midterm elections, 150 young activists from the environmental activist group Sunrise Movement staged a massive sit-in at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office.

Their demand? That the new Democratic majority produce a bold, comprehensive plan to address climate change. The United Nations’ climate report from a month earlier issued a stark warning: drastically reduce carbon emissions by 2030 or face an irreversible climate catastrophe. After decades of inaction and missed opportunities, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirmed that our next chance will be our last to enact transformative climate legislation.

As the demonstrators prepared for arrest, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez squeezed past the wall of reporters and gave an impassioned speech, proclaiming her support for the protesters and vowing to fight with them for a Green New Deal.

The Sunrisers watched in awe, realizing they had finally elected one of their own.

This electric encounter sent shockwaves through Washington, and after decades of stagnation, instantly transformed the political realities of climate change.

The Green New Deal is a policy framework designed to address the dual crises of environmental destruction and economic inequality. It currently exists in the form of a 14-page Congressional resolution — essentially a mission statement that lays out major goals and projects, which various think tanks and policy experts will fill in with details. The resolution’s five goals include achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions; creating millions of highwage jobs; investing in infrastructure to

sustainably meet the challenges of the 21st century; securing clean air and water for all; and promoting justice and equity by addressing historic, current, and future oppression of vulnerable communities on the frontlines of climate change and economic inequality.

To achieve these goals, the Green New Deal calls for World War II-style economic mobilization, with the federal government leading the way by investing in green energy infrastructure, mass transit, energy efficiency, and reforestation. Rather than downplay the daunting scale of this project, the Green New Deal leans into the economic potential of such a transition, promising to leave no one behind. A federal jobs guarantee is central to the proposal, as are racial justice and Indigenous sovereignty. This is a sharp departure from the market-based, deficit-neutral, colorblind climate policies of the past.

The shift is jarring for some. Confronted by young Sunrise activists last week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein dismissed the proposal as too expensive and not politically feasible. This argument is hard to take seriously, if only because the cost of the Green New Deal pales in comparison to that of environmental destruction. The IPCC report demands, “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” This is what the Green New Deal offers. Those concerned about fiscal responsibility should release their plan to pay for the devastating economic impacts of climate change, which will shrink our economy by 10 percent this century according to the U.S.’s National Climate Assessment.

Feinstein’s view also ignores the recent history of climate politics. In 2009, the American Clean Energy and Security Act — which sought to establish a nationwide cap-and-trade system to curb greenhouse

Village Thefts Create Uncertainty, Fear Continued from page 6

only after we reached out to the police and Campus Safety ourselves. This lack of communication gives the impression that the school is doing nothing to address these crimes. One certainly hopes that this is not the case, but we can’t know for sure. More effective communication would, at the very least, give students the sense that safety officials take these incidents seriously.

There are additional steps the College can take beyond public relations improvements. For example, Village Housing security is poor and in need of significant upgrades. In my experience, many outside door locks are either weak and easily manipulated or don’t work at all. No one expects the school to make its houses totally impervious, but a complete revamp of the locks is reasonable and entirely necessary.

Furthermore, Campus Safety officers can do a much better job when students are on breaks. My house was burglarized in early January, and the back door was left open until I returned weeks later. A simple check-in on the house could’ve prevented that and likely discovered the theft weeks earlier. Time is crucial in solving such cases, and the delay likely squandered any chance we had at getting our belongings back.

Oberlin College housing is a recurring target of the thefts, suggesting that burglars view it is as an easy target. The College has done little to nothing to change that perception, and this cannot continue. With the housing costs the school charges, students deserve a much higher level of safety in their on-campus homes, and burglaries should be rare events rather than expected occurrences. The College must take significant action to solve the problem rather than ignore it and hope that no one notices.

The Oberlin Review | March 1, 2019

Student members of Oberlin’s new chapter of the Sunrise Movement gather at Senator Sherrod Brown’s office to demand he support the Green New Deal.

Photo by Rachel Serna-Brown

gas emissions — died in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Already staring down the gauntlet of healthcare reform, several moderate Democrats abandoned the effort amid a barrage of right-wing attacks. This was an important lesson for environmental activists — any serious climate policy is a threat to the fossil fuel industry and will incur the wrath of Republicans, even a relatively conservative program like capand-trade. The question is not whether a bill can appease opposition, but how much support it can build, and how effectively that base of support can hold Democrats accountable. No one was marching in the streets for cap-and-trade because people don’t mobilize for half-measures; the grassroots enthusiasm for the Green New Deal has shown that real solutions find real support. The Green New Deal’s economic and social commitments are not liabilities, but crucial for building the broad, diverse, energized coalition necessary to take on the fossil fuel empire.

For all its naysayers, the Green New

Deal has gained enormous popular support — 80 percent of registered voters support a Green Jobs Guarantee according to a recent poll from Yale University.

The Congressional resolution has racked up 100 co-sponsors, including virtually every Democratic presidential candidate.

This week, about 30 members of Sunrise Oberlin — a local chapter of the national movement — drove to Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office and demanded that he sign on as well. Across the country, hundreds of similar Sunrise groups are materializing, each representing scores of young people ready to rally their communities behind the Green New Deal. And, for the first time in our lives, we have representatives in Washington who are fighting for environmental justice.

A solution is finally on the table. Is it unrealistic? Some may think so, but it is necessary for human survival. If the Green New Deal is politically impossible, our job is to organize, mobilize, and build the people power necessary to make it possible.

Letters to the Editors (cont.)

Continued from page 5

Network, I have represented Oberlin at college fairs and QuestBridge orientations and found this bias persists, particularly for first-generation college students. And where I experienced virtually no pressure in choosing a college, parents today exert greater influence on choice due to the burden of financing an education.

Few remember, but back in the 1950s, Oberlin was ranked as the number one liberal arts college in the country. It remained as high as fifth in 1985. These rankings were based on the quality of our students and the stellar nature of the education provided. We once produced more students who go on to receive doctorate degrees than any other liberal arts college.

Over time, Oberlin witnessed what has seemed like an inexorable slide down the rankings. This largely stemmed from new metrics, many of which are weighted toward the institution’s financial standing, such as “faculty resources” (faculty salaries and benefits like sabbatical time), “student-faculty ratio” (benefiting schools that can admit fewer students while maintaining the same size faculty), and “admissions selectivity” (again benefiting smaller schools not requiring as much income from tuition-paying students).

Nevertheless, as a close observer — my son is a recent graduate — I am convinced there has been no change in the quality of an Oberlin education. While we have fallen in the official rankings, this is because rankings these days simply look at the wrong factors. Thus, it comes as particularly welcome news that Inside Higher Education recently ran an article reporting on a study by two economists that refutes the popular assumption that attending a liberal arts college diminishes your chance of reaching a comfortable economic station in life (“The Economic Gains (Yes, Gains) of a Liberal Arts Education,” Feb. 15, 2019). Students attending elite liberal arts institutions are only 2 to 4 percent less likely than students at elite non-liberal arts colleges to enter the top 40 percent of earned income.

Though STEM-trained college graduates had higher

rates of achieving this financial status, liberal arts colleges award larger shares of STEM degrees in nonengineering fields than do comparable non-liberal arts colleges. The study noted that the comparatively lower incomes of liberal arts graduates are attributable not to the type of college attended but the compensation awarded by the labor market. This should reassure graduating high school students that choosing the courses and teachers that most inspire them is perfectly reasonable, rather than prioritizing the monetary compensation associated with a particular course of study.

What the Inside Higher Education article does not note is a point emphasized by many in the Oberlin community — including the Alumni Leadership Council’s former president (and Obie parent), Lorri Olan. In her speech to a recent graduating class, she noted that one of the unique benefits of an Oberlin education comes from the particular values that are absorbed during transformative years on campus.

The humanities in particular — including literature, history, philosophy, religion, and the arts — inculcate the enduring values of human civilization: conviction and courage, intuition and insight, compassion and diversity of expression, moral responsibility, the nuanced and the sublime, among others. Such values, and the type of inquiry and exchange that permeates the institution as a result, are critical for preparing future generations to assume leadership and stewardship of the world.

My faith in these values and the quality of the Oberlin experience gives me the confidence to believe Oberlin will continue to compete for the best and brightest students. Admittedly, the challenges and headwinds are real. But I envision success, especially if Obies reflect on the benefits of their experience, as Ms. Olan encourages, and remain willing to build a community that stands behind our noble traditions.

Donn Ginoza, OC ’74 Member, Alumni Leadership Council

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13.The Stubborn Structure by Northrop Frye

4. Anagram: ann cooked

5.Stand around three feet away from the first floor TV. Face the direction that Marvin Krislov is pointing in his official portrait. Turn right 90 degrees. Walk forward until you reach a wall. Look to your left, inside the hole behind a broken switchless light switch cover.

2. If you made a music group with a heart, lungs, and kidneys, this instrument would definitely be in it.

W

6.The room number is the highway from Salina to Wichita.

Look behind a poster.

S

9.Once again, it’s time to start thinking about the presidential elections! Before we do that, though, let’s reflect on a past election –– specifically the 2008 election when Sarah Palin kept going on about that door to nowhere –– no, wait, it was a bridge to nowhere. Darn it, this clue isn’t gonna work.

The point is, go find the door to nowhere.

N E

11.Objects better suited to be hats for very tiny people are used here to contain water.

CALENDAR SATURDAY, MARCH 2

Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon Create and improve Wikipedia articles about women, transgender, and gender non-conforming people in the arts. Attendees will be taught how to edit a Wikipedia page. Laptops not provided.

Allen Memorial Art Museum, East Gallery • 12–4 p.m.

SATURDAY, MARCH 2

Jaboukie Young-White New York City-based comedian, filmmaker, and rising star Jaboukie Young-White comes to Finney Chapel. Free with OCID. Finney Chapel • 8–10 p.m.

10.There once was an egret airbase, where the birds didn’t regret their pace.

As they loaded their trucks, to go fight with the ducks, they looked in the ______ ______.

12.Look on the one-half floor (hint: you can’t use the stairs to get there).

7.If you were a hungry nerd, where would you go?

1. If you had to reenact The Lion King opening by dangling a newborn microscope off a cliff, this would be the place to do it. Once you’re there, look under a table.

8.On the ∫02x3dx floor, look at the bottom of the Tune-Yards single released in 2014.

3.So you’re eating in a coop and you’re about to clear your plate, but then all of a sudden gravity is reversed.

Where do you put your plate?

SCAVENGER HUNT LAYOUT BY MIKAELA FISHMAN, THIS WEEK EDITOR TEXT BY MIKAELA FISHMAN AND GAVIN EPSTEIN, CONTRIBUTOR

*Note to hunters: please do not remove clues; simply write them down as you find them.

MONDAY, MARCH 4

Noura Erakat –– Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine Human rights attorney and George Mason University Assistant Professor Noura Erakat delivers a lecture on her upcoming book, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, which discusses the Palestinian struggle for freedom through the lens of international law.

Science Center, Dye Lecture Hall • 7:30–9 p.m.

THURSDAY, MARCH 7

Filmmaking After Graduation Tasha Cohan, OC ’11, and Nikki Heyman, OC ’12, discuss what it’s like to work as independent filmmakers post-Oberlin.

King Building, Room 343 • 4:30 p.m.

A r t s & C u ltu r e

March 1, 2019

ARTS & CULTURE established 1874

Volume 147, Number 15

BHM Fashion Show Celebrates Black Culture, Body Expression

Students in Black By Popular Demand: The Black History Month Fashion Show. From left to right: sophomore Nia Lewis, sophomore Mikaela Howard, junior Sage Petrone, first-year Deverrick McAllister, and sophomore Kristen Harris.

Photo by Daquan Williams

Imani Badillo Staff Writer Black Oberlin student and faculty models took to the runway to showcase Black beauty and style in Black By Popular Demand: The Black History Month Fashion Show.

This year’s show took place on Saturday, Feb. 23 in the Root Room of Carnegie Building.

Representing different themes — including ’90s, thrift, and formal wear — each featured collection focused on the many ways Black culture has permeated today’s popular media and mainstream styles. Each ensemble flowed differently, and each model posed with a bit of their own personal flair. The fashion show was a Black event, and the runway was full of affirmations. As models walked, the room filled with clapping, cheering, and proclamations of “OK!” and “Queen!” These inputs only further highlighted

the many ways Black culture unites a space.

The show’s main goal was not only to celebrate Blackness, but also to create a culture of acceptance of all bodies. The various acts and stories incorporated multiple art forms into the space, and the event celebrated Black culture as a place of respect and beauty that calls attention to all parts of fashion and media.

“The mission of the show was to be an inclusive space, rejecting the norms and traditions of the fashion industry in regard to what the ‘model type’ looks like,” said College sophomore Jasmine Mitchell, who helped organize the event.

By not only showing Black beauty but also including a variety of styles, this show dismantled the traditional image of the high fashion model. In this way, the BHM fashion show fostered a culture of inclusivity that many fashion spaces have yet to create.

Many of the clothes at the fashion show were for sale through a silent auction. Event attendees could participate online by bidding on items as they were modeled on the runway. The auction proceeds benefited the Sickle Cell Association of Antigua and Barbuda, which supports patients with sickle cell anemia and their families. The organization also works to raise awareness about the condition, which makes it the perfect beneficiary for such a largescale event.

College first-year Iesha Phillips beautifully summarized her experience walking the runway.

“Our show was filled with Black excellence and creativity,” she said. “The fashion show committee did a great job showing the diversity of Black clothing and hairstyles. Being involved in this event was an amazing choice. It helped me build community and support other Black students on this campus.”

As seen in the crowd, the event not only showcased looks on the runway, but also inspired attendees to don amazing outfits of their own.

The fashion show also celebrated Black music. Halfway through the event, double-degree sophomore Kopano Muhammad, accompanied by Conservatory junior Benjamin Oglesby-Davis, sang and invited the attendees to join and sing along as they walked up and down the runway, calling attention to the power and beauty of the space.

Later, event-goers were asked to stand and sing the Afrikan Heritage House song together, a call-and-response tune about the principles and meanings of Kwanzaa. Both of these activities drew the audience into the experience, creating a full narrative through which people could participate in the event.

Many students also felt the power of simply being in a space of Black excellence. Whoops and hollers erupted throughout the room in response to every look, effectively including all individuals in celebration.

“The show wasn’t even for me, because I’m a white lady, but it meant a lot for me personally to see all the different sized and shaped models,” said College first-year Mimi Hourihane, who attended the show.

The show’s mission and attention to Blackness created attendee appreciation, respect, and learning on multiple levels. This space made for an incredible mix of style, culture, and expression that was open for all.

“Simply put, the fashion show was reaffirming of how lit Black people are,” College seniors Jabree and Jubreel Hason said.

Agreed.

Joyce DiDonato Performs Brave New Arrangements of Timeless Classic Carson Dowhan Senior Staff Writer Musician Joyce DiDonato and company brought an eclectic fusion of jazz and classical music to Finney Chapel on Wednesday, Feb. 27, performing songs from their new experimental compilation album, Songplay. This show is part of the Oberlin Artist Recital Series, an initiative known for bringing renowned musicians to Oberlin’s campus, joining campus and community together in a shared love of music.

What makes Songplay unique is not only the lineup of project collaborators, but also the arrangement of the songs. Pianist Craig Terry did that arranging, which ranged from Baroque epics to American contemporary classics. Terry approached the tracks from a jazz perspective, which resulted in a strong juxtaposition between the original pieces and their new adaptations.

In the event program, DiDonato described her performance style as a playground that “has joyously expanded to include an extraordinary gathering of instrumentalists across all genres, each bringing a particular sound and expertise.”

She echoed this idea in her opening

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banter, elaborating about her initial experiences of singing lessons. Her self-introduction resonated with Conservatory Voice majors in attendance, and moments of laughter echoed until the performance’s end.

As a whole, the show was well-paced.

DiDonato slowly built up her accompaniment across the opening songs, beginning with Terry on piano, then Chuck Israels, double bass; Jimmy Madison, percussion; Charlie Porter, trumpet; and finally Lautaro Greco, bandoneon.

“These musicians are all titans of their field,” Terry said in an interview with Mike Telin published by Cleveland Classical.

“When we made the recording it was fun, because Joyce and I come from our side of the business, and they all come at it from a different way. … We had to figure out what out what our common voice was, which took some time, but they’re all a total joy, and I’ve learned so much from them.”

The instrumentation was chosen thoughtfully to fill the remaining registers under captivating mezzo-soprano. The instruments were balanced and worked in tandem with one another as the night continued. Even in pieces where the instrument lineup seemed foreign to classical music, their roles did not feel forced. Rath-

er, the addition of trumpet and bandoneon added flavor to timeless compositions.

The performance spanned simple instrumentation and powerful operatics, from Giordani’s “Caro mio ben,” which had Terry and DiDonato playfully picking on each other for attention, to a powerful rendition of “Will He Like Me?” from Jerry Bock and Joe Masteroff’s 1963 musical, She Loves Me. As if any surprises could be left by the time of the first encore, a rendition of Vivaldi’s “Arsilda, regina di Ponto” sent shockwaves through the crowd as the drums kicked in, introducing a jazz-inspired rendition of the Italian opera piece.

At times it seemed DiDonato was not truly in the spotlight. During the retextured classical pieces, jazz solos were tossed around among the band.

While they were impressive in their own merit, and the performers shared the space well enough, DiDonato was the only one who didn’t join the fray.

Rather, she waited patiently for her rehearsed part next to the grand piano, sometimes nodding her head or tapping along to the beat. While it would have been interesting to see her improvise as well, the mezzo-soprano does not come from an improvisational background and didn’t take a stab at

it in this experimental performance.

She seemed more comfortable when performing the pieces like the Vivaldi.

“From a singer’s point of view — having sung some of those the Twenty-Four Italian Songs and Arias songs in a strictly classical sense — hearing back-to-back those and American standards was somewhat jarring in a way,” commented first-year Voice and Composition major Evan Tiapula. “The styles were so different. At the same time, DiDonato was ‘jazzing up’ the Italian songs, [and] that made them flow together.”

“I think in terms of DiDonato’s performance for the Vivaldi, [that was] where she was most in her element,” Tiapula continued. “Maybe that was due to the fact that it was an encore, and it was separated from the rest of the concert. She really came alive then in the concert style — it was refreshing to see her voice so present.”

Songplay is a rare treat for the Oberlin community, and the live performance brought surprises at every turn. There were no weak links or long pauses in the lineup — DiDonato and company brought a night full of expertise and energy to Oberlin.

Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon to Promote Marginalized Artists Anna Farber Wikipedia is a source hailed for its informational scope and critiqued for its accuracy, but critics and supporters alike will both agree that it is widely used. Despite its wide reach, Wikipedia has less information on women and people of color in the arts than it should. Oberlin’s annual feminist Wikipedia edit-a-thon is designed to help bridge that gap.

The Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-athon is a national movement that started six years ago. According to the Art+Feminism website, Wikipedia is the largest and most popular general reference work on the internet, yet less than 10 percent of editors on the website are women.

Edit-a-thons aim to teach people of all gender-identities how to edit Wikipedia articles, while at the same time spreading knowledge about underrepresented groups in the arts. This is the project’s third year at Oberlin College and its second year as a combined effort between the Oberlin College Libraries and the Allen Memorial Art Museum.

This year, Oberlin’s edit-a-thon will focus on women, gender-nonconforming people, and people of color in the arts.

Joan L. Danforth Curator of Asian Art Kevin Greenwood, along with his assistant College sophomore Leina Fieleke, have compiled a list of Asian artists included in the Allen’s collection. The Wikipedia entries for these figures are in need of expansion or are missing entirely.

The Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art Andrea Gyorody put together another list of underrepresented female artists, and also facilitated the edit-a-thon’s connection between the Allen and the libraries.

“The AMAM and OCL are invested in centering marginalized voices and narratives,” she wrote in an email to the Review. “The hope is that folks interested in contributing to Wikipedia come to the museum to learn some basics and get their feet wet, and then find themselves — as many people do — addicted to editing, [and] making a contribution to an invaluable source of information accessible to anyone with internet access almost anywhere in the world.”

While the edit-a-thon is a national movement, Oberlin is a particularly fitting place for this event. The Allen and Oberlin’s history of social justice are both well known and important to the community’s legacy. The Allen Memorial Art Museum’s Nord Curator of Education Jill Greenwood, one of the project’s organizers, spoke about how the event is relevant to the issues that Oberlin students are most passionate about.

“Discussions of representation and gender are part of the students’ everyday conversations, thoughts, and lives,” Greenwood said.

Professor of Renaissance and Baroque Art History and Chair of the Art History Department Christina Neilson will provide extra credit for students in her Methods in Art History class who attend

Drawing by Alex Tash

and write an article at the edit-a-thon.

The class is mandatory for all Art History majors.

“I want to empower students so they can participate in art history, and writing an entry on Wikipedia is really doing that,” she said.

Neilson is also teaching a class called Gender and the Visual Arts in Europe from 1450-1750. She spoke about how the inequities for women in the arts run deeper than just entry-level scholarship on Wikipedia — part of the reason Wikipedia is so devoid of entries on female artists is the lack of existing scholarship on them at all.

Neilson pointed out that high-caliber female artists, such as Michaelina Wautier and Clara Peeters, have only been

recently acknowledged as the artistic masters theywere. There are many more women who have yet to receive the recognition they deserve. Upgrading platforms like Wikipedia is one way to bring these artists to a wider audience.

The inequities in the field of art history run deep, and a lot of work remains to be done. But Oberlin’s community is ready, willing, and able to tackle the problem the best they can. Oberlin’s Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is happening Saturday, March 2 in the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s East Gallery, from 12–4 p.m. The event is free and open to all, designed to bring College students and community members together to help Wikipedia become a more equitable space.

Final How To Train Your Dragon Installment Warms Hearts Kabir Karamchandani Staff Writer Editor’s note: This review contains major spoilers for How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

The How To Train Your Dragon franchise has always held a special place in my heart, largely because it’s very loosely based on Cressida Cowell’s book series, which I loved as a child. With stunning visuals, one of my all-time favorite scores, and unusually mature themes for children’s movies, How To Train Your Dragon is undoubtedly one of the best animated series of the last decade. Although the latest installment, The Hidden World, pales slightly in comparison to its predecessors, it is still a thoroughly enjoyable movie and provides an emotional end to a fantastic trilogy.

A large part of the franchise’s appeal is the journey of Hiccup, the movies’ hero. Prior to The Hidden World, Hiccup struggled with his identity as a viking and then as a leader; however, here he tries to find who he is without his dragon, Toothless. The film’s storyline isn’t quite as developed as the previous two installments, yet the concepts it does build on lift the film above mediocrity.

One area where the movie falls short is with its villain, Grimmel. Grimmel is, in theory, Hiccup’s diametric opposite, using his intelligence and contraptions to hunt dragons rather than tame them. Properly developed, the evil version of the hero is one of my favorite villain archetypes,

COMIC: POCKET HAMLET

The Oberlin Review | March 1, 2019

as it shows how a hero is more than just their abilities. Yet Grimmel never gets the development his character really needs, rendering him one-dimensional and rather boring.

In a way, Grimmel is most disappointing because of his potential. These shortcomings, however, are not enough to sink the movie; the engaging characters and emotional subplots more than make up for the lack of a compelling antagonist.

John Powell’s score across the franchise is one of my favorites, and The Hidden World does not disappoint.

The music is not only beautiful, but provides the perfect accompaniment for every scene, evoking sorrow, excitement, and even fear when needed. The music is matched, scene for scene, by the movie’s stunning visuals, which bring the vibrant world to life. From colorful dragons to panoramic ocean shots, action-packed fight scenes to hazy flashbacks, the animation is consistently stunning, not only matching its predecessors but taking risks to to stay fresh and interesting.

While the movie excels when showing off its world and focusing on Hiccup, its secondary characters are less successful. Both Hiccup’s girlfriend, Astrid, and his mother, Valka, receive far less attention than in previous films, and The Hidden World is definitely worse for it. Instead, the film spends more time with Hiccup’s friends, primarily Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut. These characters are played primarily for laughs, and while they are funny at times, the lack of meaningful interactions between Hiccup

and those he is closest to makes the movie feel less meaningful.

One of the reasons that the How To Train Your Dragon movies — and books — stood out to me growing up was that they felt like they were made specifically for me.

We’re a weird bunch here at Oberlin, and in many ways, these are our movies — they’re about feeling like you don’t quite fit in and finding a place where you do. For me, that was Oberlin — for Hiccup, that was with Toothless and among the dragons. When the question of saying goodbye to Toothless first comes up in the movie, it brings to mind the all-too-real fact that sometimes we have to say goodbye to the communities and people that helped forge our identities and made us feel at home.

These emotional themes are why The Hidden World succeeds. The characters and relationships built over the course of the last two films provide a truly touching and heartfelt ending to the series. I had mixed feelings for most of the movie’s runtime, yet I was completely sold by its finish — a great ending for the movie and the franchise, and possibly one of my favorite endings from any movie ever.

The movie is worth watching for its finale alone.

The Hidden World is clearly the third chapter of a series, and I would not recommend it if you have not watched the first two. If you have, however, seen the first two films and enjoyed them, then The Hidden World is a must-watch.

While not quite as good as its predecessors, it still manages to entertain and is an excellent send-off to the franchise.

Clair Wang Staff Cartoonist

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A r t s & C u lt u r e ON THE RECORD

Kat Burdine, Cleveland-Based Visual Artist

Artist Kat Burdine uses objects and prints to negotiate ideas about physicality and the body. A graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art and currently based in Cleveland, she is the founder of Wondershop Studio and teaches at both the Cleveland Institute of Art and Cuyahoga Community College. She has collaborated with many artists on a variety of projects, including Talking Dolls in Detroit. Her recent lecture at Oberlin, “A Matter of Hapticstance — One Queer’s Feeling on Feeling(s),” discussed “the possibility of engaging within the space we lose when our understanding of self, relationship, and community is controlled by language.” She will be back later this semester to work in the Reproducible Print Media Lab. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kate Fishman, Arts & Culture Editor

Kat Burdine speaking to Oberlin students last Monday.

I’m aware of the irony of interviewing you after part of your lecture was about the limitations of language, so I’m just curious if you could tell me a bit about what you feel you’re able to articulate through your art that doesn’t necessarily have the same impact in words.

I tend to work fairly physically. I have a relationship with my materials — I respond a lot to how they feel in my hands. So I think that from the beginning, the conversation I’m having with the work and the material is pretty physical. But I also think that in physical spaces, some of what I’m interested in talking about is slippage — and maybe I’m not a wordsmith, in that there are people I know who use language in very beautiful ways that can hold all of that slippage of meaning.

I’m not that person, fortunately and unfortunately, so I think that if I can open up spaces where there’s possible slippage, there’s possible disarming in that. Because language can be so precise — which at times is very important, but I prefer the openness of the body and the things that, when we’re paying attention to our bodies, the body tells us.

In regard to empathy and understanding, we are smart creatures, so we often jump to conclusions and assume for various reasons. I think if our bodies interact with material or site-specific work or whatever it is, if our bodies interpret it and it takes us another beat to make a connection, what happens in that space?

What are we opening up? Are we opening up the ability to empathize with another experience or feel a certain kind of silliness that we don’t allow ourselves in our daily performance? Or are we able to feel uncomfortable, in a way that our ways of carrying ourselves in the world don’t allow? So hopefully in that way it’s opening these new spaces in which to be sensitive to our bodies and to other people.

I think that normative bodies often don’t feel as out-of-place as non-normative bodies. People who fit in, in whatever ways they apply convention, are less aware of the type of space their bodies take up. On the other hand, not only are we working on that openness that can make people sensitive to their bodies and more aware of that — and everybody

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has their own baggage with bodies — but the way that normative bodies get to exist in the world.

If I can bring some of that other awareness into a room, then it also breaks down different conceptions of space and allows us to have different sorts of openness.

What made you interested in creating installations that promote audiences’ physical engagement, and how have you approached doing that?

I think I’ve always been interested in the idea of body awareness. The idea of installation felt like a pretty easy way to start thinking about tapping into body awareness. I think scale starts to make us reassess our size against other things and make us a little uncomfortable, since the world is designed to fit our scale. So I think that installation is kind of an easy access point. I am very sensitive to space and I’m sensitive to how space is activated, but I’m not necessarily having installation conversations that are architectural. I’m using installation in a very specific way, and I don’t usually use that word to describe my work. I’m more interested in spatial intervention, because I think, again, what I’m trying to tap into is activation. I’ve never done anything where I transform space; it’s more like an intervention in that space that allows our bodies to think about the way we take up space. And I’m still figuring it out!

How do you distinguish between the contexts of gallery or non-gallery spaces, and how does that inform what you do?

They carry a different set of complications or contexts — they’re weighted very differently.

I’m entering into a conversation that the gallery has established or that the space has established.

In a lot of ways I’m working against convention, or I’m working against some of the notions of how that space is already charged. But collaboration is part of the way I exist, so if there are histories in a space I’ll often work with those too, because we all carry those with us. But in non-traditional spaces I feel like I can play in a different way or I can be more improvisational with the audience because there’s much more room for the unexpected. So in the dance party per-

Photo by Julian Ireland

formance that I mentioned in the lecture, some of what was really exciting was that I love dancing — I don’t know that I’m any good at it — but on the dance floor your whole body’s engaged. You get to improvise with this community around you — in whatever way that you feel comfortable but also as defined by the dance floor.

There’s already this exciting set of social rules. So I feel like I get to play in that space differently, because there’s less weight on the other person. You get to play in a totally different way.

I wanted to talk on Monday about how to build your own world map in this wildness — because if I’m talking about less-articulated spaces, it’s a really easy place to get lost in. For me, things like improv are really nice ways to set up protocols that indicate how I behave in wilderness or open spaces. It’s not scary if I go in and say, “All I need to do is respond in a way that’s respectful to the people I’m responding to and add to the situation.” And if those are my rules, then there’s no fear behind that. If people are engaging together, all you’re doing is building something together.

When you were telling us about the work you did with flannels, you talked about signifiers and symbols in your work. I’m curious if there have been other times when you’ve chosen to tap into recognizable signifiers in your work.

Often I default to athletic equipment, specifically baseball.

I’ve played a lot of sports, but baseball holds this really strange place in American nostalgia that allows me to think specifically about my experience, but also larger contexts. Baseball has a specific meaning that starts to unlock sensory and contextual memories, and so I’ve used my experience in that and started queering bats and gloves and undoing their function to create a new space that still exists and references that initial impulse.

I also grew up on a block that was like a silly Norman Rockwell painting — there were like 13 boys and me. So we played ditch every night, and we played quarters, and we invented all these games.

Through game and play and proving yourself, or your toughness, we were establishing these momentary hierarchies of who

was the toughest. Everyone else at the table thinks it’s one moment and then kind of arbitrarily your whole personhood depends on winning that moment. There’s always this construction of identity and how it exists — thinking, “Oh, I really need to do something here to make sure people see me as valuable.”

In your PowerPoint, you listed sources at the end, but on the slides you also listed materials or inspirations you’d interacted with that informed a piece.

How do both personal and academic research interests work as sources for your artistic practices?

The footnotes are something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, whether the appropriate form is footnotes or not. But I’ve noticed that there are times when we go to academic talks where we still reiterate the independent genius of the artist. I could not exist without the communities I’ve been able to build or those who were invested in me, and I’m trying to practice different ways of acknowledging that I can only exist within the context of those who exist around me. I was really trying to confront the importance of relationship, relational building, communal knowledge, and informal transfer. We have bibliographies as these very formal ways to acknowledge people we’re referencing.

With my footnotes, I was trying to reference the generosity not only of the authors I’m reading but also of the people in my community who’ve taken time to feed back in — and hopefully I’ve been able to reciprocate. How do you start networking in different formats? How do you start referencing the informal spaces of critique and research that are not part of a system of academia or privilege or other sorts of [exclu-

sive] systems? I’m trying to figure out how to tap into the relational importance of the amount of learning we do socially, and all of these layered networks we feed into with our ideas. Part of my initial effort is just acknowledging that those networks exist, because I’ve seen people erase those by not acknowledging that they’re learning together.

I’m now writing a lecture that has no formal messaging; it’s all footnotes-based. How can I spend an hour reading work that both makes sense and doesn’t make sense but is a necessary tool for context?

I understand that you’ll be back to work at Oberlin on a project this semester. Do you have any idea what that will look like?

Sort of! [Associate Professor of Studio Art and Reproducible Media] Kristina Paabus is amazing, and I’ve been super excited to get to know her better and see the department that she’s building and the dialogue that’s going on. It’s been exciting to figure out how to enter into the conversation that they’re having. I don’t want to come in and say, “This is what I want to do.” So we talked and went out to dinner, and I asked the two students who will be helping me what they’re interested in. Because I’m interested in slippage and because I have two or three modes of production that carry content, I’m trying to figure out how to fit into that dialogue and make it more of a conversation. I’m trying to think of it how I think about everything: How do we take a traditional set of order of operations and where can we insert the fly in the soup? We can create an unexpected outcome that will undo itself or rebuild itself in ways that we could not do without going through the process together.

Ohio 5 Dance Conference Returns to Oberlin, Builds Community Katherine MacPhail Arts & Culture Editor Now in its sixth year, the annual Ohio 5 Dance Conference returned to Oberlin last Saturday for the first time since its inception. The event, which 78 people attended, brought together dance students and faculty from the Five Colleges of Ohio, a consortium of liberal arts schools that includes Kenyon College, Denison University, Ohio Wesleyan University, and The College of Wooster. The conference has proven to be an invaluable opportunity for faculty and staff to share their knowledge and form a community.

The day started with a big group warm-up before people split into their classes. Students were able to choose between three different workshops for each of the two class periods, and in both periods one of the three workshops was student-taught — a new addition this year. Students taught a hip-hop class in the morning and contact improv in the afternoon; other classes offered included Flamenco, African dance, Feldenkrais, and pilates.

Ann Cooper Albright, chair of the Dance department, spoke about how beneficial this conference is for Oberlin students.

“Because we had a lot of visiting professors, we were able to call on them to teach classes that don’t normally get taught,” Albright said.

Student Dance department representatives Kierra Nguyen, a junior Dance and Studio Art major, and Celia Morris, a senior Dance and Comparative American Studies major, both played a role in organizing this conference.

Morris talked about the African Dance class that she and Nguyen took with a Denison professor during the conference.

“We’re both in a contemporary class pretty regularly, and I was just craving something a little different,” she said. “I really appreciated that the teacher went back and forth with tracing the genealogy of the movements that she was teaching us and also asking us to bring ourselves into the movement. It was also traditional African dance, and then there was a lot of funk and groove that was built in there, and she really made it a collaboration and a conversation with the

musicians.”

Nguyen also spoke about her experience with the visiting professors and students.

“You get the opportunity to not only see and learn from watching the people from other schools and how they move — and that influences how you move in return — but also the pedagogical practices of different professors,” she explained.

“Another thing that I really appreciated about the classes is that professors also take the class with you,” Nguyen added. “It was really great to be moving alongside your teachers.”

After classes ended, an informal showing was held where participants could share what they learned in classes that day. The showing was followed by a conference-wide contact improv jam, accompanied by live music.

Albright said that the final jam was one of her favorite parts of the event.

“The faculty just went out and made work,” she said. “They went right out and started dancing in a way that was actually creating performance right in front of us, it was great.”

The Ohio 5 Conference has historically been a valuable opportunity for Oberlin students to connect with people outside of their college bubble. Oberlin has sent students to the American College Dance Festival, but that conference has a lot of competitive energy and involves a greater financial expense. The Ohio 5 Conference is designed to provide a collaborative and supportive environment, and it’s funded by the Ohio Five Consortium.

Morris explained that the visiting students brought great energy to the conference.

“They just entered the space with a lot of generosity. With new bodies in the big Warner Main Space we had a lot of room to move, but also we came in contact with each other. We warmed up with everyone in the same space. Being able to pass by, you say hello.”

The conference has also allowed schools to develop networks and form communities that continue to grow through supplementary meetups and collaborations.

“I think it’s really great to see what other pro-

Students and instructors take a class in Warner Dance Studio as part of this year’s Ohio 5 Dance Conference, hosted

by Oberlin College.

Photo courtesy of Ann Cooper Albright

grams are doing,” Albright said. “The other thing that happens, because I teach contact improvisation, and we have open jams all the time [is that] we’ll invite people from Ohio 5 and they might come up and join us. Having those exchanges is super healthy for everyone.”

She also spoke about how useful this conference has been to her as a professor. “It’s great for faculty, because it’s about advocacy and ‘How’s dance doing in your neck of the woods?’ ‘Oh this is what we’re fighting for, this is what we’re working with.’ And we can share resources. [For example,] sometimes if we have visiting artists or something like that, they’ll go to more than one campus.”

Each year the conference moves to a different college, and for many students it has affirmed their love of the Oberlin Dance department.

“I always end up leaving these conferences really appreciative of Oberlin and what Oberlin has to offer,” Morris said. “We offer a pretty wide range of classes and styles, and we almost always are the school presenting work at every conference, and that’s pretty special. I end up being a little proud Obie at the end.”

Around the World in 105 Days

CROSSWORD

Roman Broszkowski Senior Staff Writer ACROSS 1. Trump proposal 4. Describing something obtained unfairly 9. ___ ­culpa 10. Portuguese negative 11. Czech town where Pilsners come from 15. Ruling Polish political party (acronym) 16. Lion’s home 17. Cowboy’s tool 18. Writing system without vowels 19. Assistant Secretary in charge of doomsday prepping (acronym) 20. German cardinal direction 22. Short for uneven (first four letters) 24. Cultural capital of Brittany in France 28. City in Israel known for its French Jewish population 31. Capital of Cabo Verde 32. April 15th celebration of important milestone in the Deaf community 33. Type of Buddhist or Hindu temple 34. Capital of Togo 38. Large body of salt water 40. Scrapes by 41. Important German river 44. Milk’s favorite cookies 46. British secret military group in WW2 (acronym) 47. Type of beer with higher alcohol content 49. Southern Italian city that gives its name to a type of pizza and ice cream 51. Iranian province where the word Persian comes from 52. Mountainous region of Northern Morocco 53. Pacific atoll and capital of Kiribati. Site of the Battle of _____ during WW2 54. Scottish English for a cut of beef

The Oberlin Review | March 1, 2019

DOWN 1. Type of blood test (acronym) 2. Conservative American political think tank (acronym) 3. The current space force (acronym) 4. International group that wants less nukes 5. One of the global financial capitals 6. Internet slang for whoever starts a thread 7. Between now and the finish 8. Sound of a snake (one letter, repeated) 10. Capital of Chad 12. Do Re Mi Fa So ___ (sung nice and long) 13. Middle English form of to spy, also a type of award 14. French Vikings? Where?

21. A student before Oberlin (usually) 23. Angolan liberation group 24. Not so short Corsican dictator 25. Direction (acronym) 26. Caribbean capital named after French guy named after French village 27. Woody and Buzz 29. The Black and ____ in Ireland 30. Not naa 33. The only Polish city most people know 35. Plant which is a key ingredient in gumbo 36. Short, high-pitched sounds, especially as emitted by an animal 37. Classes to help people learn English 39. Pop band from Orange County, California with a cult following but limited mainstream success 42. Type of Jewish dance involving a circle 43. Dumbo’s tools 45. To place down 48. Not the truth 50. German fascist paramilitary group (acronym) 51. Do Re Mi ___

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Emily and Izzy Berner, StudentAthletes and Sisters IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Sisters Emily Berner, College junior, and Izzy Berner, College first-year, grew up in an athletic family of seven in Reisterstown, MD. Although a majority of the Berner siblings played baseball and softball, Emily picked up lacrosse in fourth grade and has flourished in the sport ever since. She was an All-North Coast Athletic Conference Second Team selection for the Yeowomen in 2017 and a First Team selection in 2018. Izzy chose Oberlin for its reputation in academics, but was encouraged by Emily to try out for the softball team just days after arriving at Oberlin. Although the sisters’ busy schedules don’t allow them to spend much time together, they remain each other’s number one fan on and off their respective fields.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Alexis Dill, Sports Editor

Izzy, athletics didn’t play a role into your college decision at first. What did you hear about the athletic community from Emily and what about being a part of a team convinced you to join softball?

Izzy Berner: I really enjoyed playing softball in high school, and I was kind of upset my senior year that I didn’t try to play a sport in college. I had just seen Emily and her team interact, and they’re all goofy, and they’re fun. And I just kind of wanted something to do — something to keep me active, and to have a close-knit group of friends. I love softball.

You have a really big and athletic family that is super into baseball and softball. Tell me about that.

Emily Berner: I’m like the outsider. Everyone always wanted me to try softball,

Izzy and Emily Berner

and I always did want to try softball, but I picked lacrosse up instead. I think I was one of the only ones in, like, fourth grade, and then I just really loved it. Everyone else pretty much stuck with baseball and softball.

How did you get into sports?

EB: When we were young, our parents just had us in recreational sports that you do on the weekends. ... It’s always just been a thing in our family.

IB: As a release — and we can do it together. We always would run around together outside.

EB: We have a close age range [as siblings]. We had overlap on teams a lot.

coming an overall better defender in terms of body defense, one-on-one, and really improving my lacrosse IQ. And I think as a team we’ve been really fantastic at adjusting to having a new coach and really trying to focus on getting to know her and figuring out how to do stuff with her.

So probably just improving and developing even more chemistry on the field.

IB: Team goal is obviously is to get to the conference tournament. We really want to get to conference and then win conference. Personal goal is … I can’t control if I’m the best player or not, but I want to be the hardest working player so I have a shot at improving and seeing the field.

What are some personal and team-specific goals you have for the spring?

EB: I really just want to work on be-

What’s the best part of having a sibling on campus?

EB: We actually don’t spend a lot of time

Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor

together, and I think that’s because of the age difference. Our classes don’t overlap.

For me the best part is just having someone to text and be like, “Hey, do you want to hang out or get dinner or something?”

Or vent. We know a lot of the same people now, so Iz will come over and be like, “Oh my god, did you hear about this?”

IB: It’s definitely nice to have someone to vent to if I get sick — it’s really hard being sick away from home — and it’s really nice to have someone who can go out and grab me soup and drinks and medicine and stuff.

EB: And I think you introduce me to new people. Because sometimes as an upperclassman, you don’t expand as much in terms of meeting a bunch of underclassmen outside of your team, and you’ve introduced me to a lot of people.

Emily, what are you most proud of Izzy for?

EB: Probably just how strong and persistent she is in the face of problems, and she’s able to work them out and keep pushing through. I mean, she works really hard and makes me really proud.

Emily Berner, women’s lacrosse player.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

Izzy, what do you look up to Emily for the most?

IB: Emily is by far the hardest worker that I know. We talk about this as a family.

We’re like, “Emily is the smartest out of all of us,” but the truth is that she just works so much harder than everyone else. She’s also really good at caring for people and listening to people.

EB: Thanks, bud.

IB: I love you.

Izzy Berner, Oberlin softball player.

EB: I love you, too.

Photo by Meg Parker, Photo Editor

NBA Questions One-and-Done Rule Following Williamson’s Injury Continued from page 16

than a day when USA Today reported that the NBA had proposed to the National Basketball Players Association that the minimum-age requirement be lowered to 18 years old.

In some ways, the one-and-done rule makes sense. One year of pre-professional (or international) basketball for high schoolers gives NBA franchises an extra year to scout prospective rookies.

For one thing, high school basketball players go through a lot of physical changes before turning 19. New Orleans Pelicans forward-center Anthony Davis is a strong example. Between his sophomore and senior years in high school, he went from being a 6-foot-2-inch prospect with only one offer from Cleveland State University to, seemingly overnight, a towering 6-foot-10-inch, 230-pound powerhouse who ultimately committed to the University of Kentucky. Upon reaching the NBA, Davis gained an additional 23 pounds and is now considered one of the best players in the world.

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However, in Williamson’s case, his stature and physique are not a considerable issue. At 6-foot-7-inches and 285 pounds, Williamson is only an inch shorter than LeBron James — and 35 pounds heavier.

According to CBS Sports, there is only one player in the NBA who is reportedly heavier: Boban Marjanovic, who weighs in at 291 pounds. Despite his massive stature, Williamson has surprising control of his body and speed. Unlike previous big men, he can stride down the court with the handles of a point guard before dunking with the grace and levitation of someone 100 pounds lighter than him.

In the midst of this discourse, the G League is attempting to promote itself as an alternative to a year of college basketball. They recently announced that “elite” prospects who choose to join a G League team over spending a year in college will be offered a $125,000 contract. The meaning behind the word “elite” was not included.

Additionally, the careers of some players who were drafted directly out of high

school, before the inception of the oneand-done, have been cited as evidence that players need one year of college in order to mature. Some professional careers collapsed before the end of a single season due to mishandling finances, substance abuse, and the lack of preparation from being thrust into an adult life at the young age of 18. Basically, the belief is that one year of college could equip incoming NBA professionals with the necessary skills to keep such setbacks at bay.

However, it should be acknowledged that people from all walks of life mishandle their finances, not necessarily just young star-athletes. In reaction to the debate, Charles Barkley explained that a basketball player’s career is not solely concerned with money. He himself played three years in college, as did Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal. The fact that players have been choosing a year of college basketball instead of international and G League play also shows that income is not necessarily the driving force behind their pre-professional decisions. Besides,

the copious amounts of money raked in by NCAA teams allow college teams to have access to the best coaching, facilities, and medical care. Above all, college players can already develop a strong fan base before entering the NBA through national TV exposure.

With respect to not being able to take care of oneself at such a young age, it is difficult to predict how any given draft pick will handle themselves with or without a year of college play under their belt.

There are many valuable arguments for and against using one year of college basketball, G League, or international play as a stepping stone toward a professional NBA career. But keeping the one-anddone rule denies players the freedom of choosing their own futures. A free education is a privilege and provides opportunity for many young athletes who want a degree in higher education, but a high school graduate should have the liberty to choose a professional career and millions of dollars over a year in college if they so desire.

As Rock Climbing Enters Mainstream, Accessibility Concerns Remain Katherine MacPhail Arts & Culture Editor Alex Honnold’s figure is only partially visible, positioned halfway inside the deep fissure that runs through the granite wall he is scaling. He pushes steadily upwards, moving through the motions of the 3,000-foot route he knows by heart. The camera pans away from the cliff face, displaying in startling clarity the hundreds of feet of open air between his body and the valley floor below.

The documentary film Free Solo captures Honnold’s staggering endeavor — climbing El Capitan, a daunting rock formation in Yosemite National Park, without a rope. The film’s recent Oscar win in the documentary feature category marks an important milestone in rock climbing’s current trajectory. With each passing year, the sport becomes more mainstream and commercial, with the Academy’s recognition and rock climbing’s upcoming debut in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as two prominent examples.

American rock climbing first took off in the Yosemite Valley in the 1960s and ’70s. Climbing started as a fringe sport, a counterculture movement populated by “dirtbags,” or people who have forsaken traditional employment and mainstream society for the pleasures of a rough-and-tumble lifestyle in the backcountry, scaling mountains and eating expired cat food.

Nowadays, the sport is populated by full-time professional climbers. There are film festivals, conventions, and state-of-the-art indoor gyms all dedicated to rock climbing. That small community of people dirtbagging in Yosemite has grown to become a global phenomenon.

Some climbers are unhappy with the sport’s movement into the mainstream, but Piper Triggs, College sophomore and climbing wall supervisor and treasurer, has a positive outlook on the matter.

“I think a lot of climbers are hesitant to accept it as a mainstream sport, because a lot of the foundational ideas of climbing come from the subversiveness of it,” they said. “But I personally think it’s a really cool thing.”

Despite its recent rise in popularity, rock climbing has always been inaccessible to minority and lower income groups, according to Sarah Edwards, College sophomore and climbing wall supervisor.

“Rock climbing gyms are kind of hard to come by in a lot of places and [they’re] really expensive,” Edwards said. “And learning to climb outside takes a lot of practice and training because that [requires] a lot of technical expertise.”

Triggs spoke about how certain aspects of climbing culture can discourage people from entering the sport.

“There’s a huge climbing bro culture,” they explained. “I think as the sport expands there is more space for other voices to be heard.”

College sophomore Jae Muth, climbing wall supervisor and gear and maintenance coordinator, said that the prevalence of “mansplaining” also drives some people away.

“A big part of climbing culture right now is what we call ‘spraying beta,’” they explained. “Beta” is what climbers call the advice they give for specific moves to make when climbing a route. “When men give you advice, and it’s bad advice, and you have to kind of smile and nod because they’re kind of a big deal in your gym, it sucks a lot.”

Muth described how the Oberlin climbing wall strives to be more accessible than other climbing spaces.

“One of the things I really like about the climbing wall here is that it’s free, and all the gear is free, and you can just come in and climb and we’ll teach you how to do things,” they said. “I think that’s really super awesome because in a lot of places you don’t get that.”

The climbing wall also has dedicated women and trans hours once a week, which Triggs helps supervise.

“This is my second semester working women and trans hours, and I just love the community and the solidarity,” they said. “People walk into this space and you can feel the energy of it and the kindness and the acceptance, and people really relaxing into this space. That’s incredible to watch as an employee.”

Muth spoke about the importance of creating spaces that support trans people, especially in sports.

“I really appreciate the fact that it’s not just open to women but to women and trans people,” they said.

“It’s super important to create a space where trans bodies can be represented and not made fun of and not commented on — especially a physical space. It doesn’t matter what your body looks like if you’re trying your hardest.”

It is also important to draw attention to the ways rock climbing’s overwhelmingly white demographic discourages people of color from entering the sport.

Although a lot of rock climbing today takes place at indoor gyms, it began as an outdoor sport, and people of color have historically been barred from national and state parks. Today’s rock climbing community remains disproportionately white.

James Mills, experienced mountaineer and the author of The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors, has written about the lack of diversity in rock climbing. He identifies the sport’s lack of diverse representation as one of rock climbing’s

College fourth-year Julia Butler and first-year Mira Newman at the Oberlin College Climbing Wall.

Photo by Meg Parker, Photo Editor

biggest barriers to POC — which is slowly changing with a new generation of young climbers.

Nineteen-year-old Olympic hopeful Kai Lightner and 17-year-old Ashima Shiraishi are two of the most well-known American rock climbers, and both are breaking into the rock climbing scene as people of color. As the popular faces of rock climbing become more diverse, it will encourage more POC to get involved in the sport.

As rock climbing enters the mainstream, more initiatives like Brothers of Climbing, Brown Girls Climb, and Color the Crag will start to pave the way for greater diversity in rock climbing and outdoor recreational sports in general. Color the Crag is a four-day outdoor climbing festival, and Brothers of Climbing and Brown Girls Climb both host meetups for people of color. All of these organizations seek to promote more diverse representation and build community among POC who are interested in rock climbing.

Ultimately, the growth of rock climbing’s commercial value marks a pivotal opportunity for increased accessibility. Alex Honnold’s feat in Free Solo was an extraordinary milestone in the sport’s history, and the national attention it won was another. Climbers like to talk about “pushing the sport,” and expanding the limits of what people think is physically possible. It’s time that rock climbers look past the next hardest climb, and set their sights on another goal: overcoming exclusivity in outdoor sports.

First-Year Football Player Launches ObieEats Business Jason Hewitt Staff Writer Between classes and football practice, College firstyear Raul Segredo has little time to spare. Recently, his list of commitments grew when he launched his own business, ObieEats, through Oberlin’s LaunchU program — an 11-day entrepreneurship summit over Winter Term that teaches students the ins and outs of entrepreneurship through information sessions and workshops. ObieEats is a food delivery service similar to Uber Eats — you pick a local restaurant, place your order, and ObieEats picks it up and brings it to you.

Segredo said he understands how inconvenient it is to go out to buy a meal in Oberlin’s harsh winter weather conditions, and wanted to provide an alternative to students and residents alike.

“Coming from Miami, I wasn’t used to having to walk through snow, and I wished there was a way I could get food and avoid having to go outside,” he said.

Entrepreneurship runs in Segredo’s family, so he combined his genuine desire to help others with his natural business skills.

“My dad and uncle are both very successful entrepreneurs,” Segredo said. “More importantly though, starting my own company has been a passion of mine The Oberlin Review | March 1, 2019

for my entire life. I could name countless little makeshift businesses I’ve made throughout my life, like lemonade stands, selling origami, and throwing parties in high school.”

Segredo credited LaunchU with supporting what he learned from his father and uncle.

“In LaunchU, I was able to meet a lot of people who were able to guide me through the logistics of the company,” Segredo said. “A huge shoutout goes to Bara Watts, who was a big motivator and is the director of entrepreneurship here at Oberlin. She was really my mentor throughout creating ObieEats, and my dad and uncle also really helped me out with different questions throughout the process.”

Segredo’s ObieEats has a cheaper price format than similar companies like Uber Eats and PostMates, charging a maximum 30 percent delivery fee on the food that customers order. So far, Segredo works with Kim’s Grocery & Carry-out, Agave Burrito Bar & Tequilería, Black River Cafe, Oberlin Kitchen, and The Feve.

So far, the company has received positive reviews across the Oberlin community. Oberlin resident Carmen McFarlin said she was excited when she saw the ObieEats account on Instagram.

“As a community member, I have often wished for a food delivery service, so I was very excited to see Instagram suggest that I follow ObieEats,” McFarlin

wrote in a message to the Review. “I looked them up online and then contacted them to see if they delivered off-campus, which they do. We ordered a delivery from Kim’s … through [the ObieEats] app. Delivery was very prompt, and I was very happy with the service. I definitely plan on using it more. However, since delivery is done via bicycle, I am hesitant to order when the weather is bad or especially cold.”

College first-year Ben von Mehren was also pleased with his order. “[Segredo’s] always under 45 [minutes], and the food is just as good as if it were a normal delivery,” von Mehren said. “People just have to try it to like it.

I feel like everyone’s unsure because he’s the new kid on the block, but [ObieEats] works like you’d want it to.”

The company plans on partnering with every restaurant in town as it continues to grow. As a student-athlete, Segredo already deals with a hectic schedule, but manages to make deliveries for hungry Obies Monday through Saturday from 6–10 p.m.

“What really appeals to me is the grind,” Segredo said. “I think when you’re starting your own business, your hard work is really transparent in the product you make, and that’s what appeals the most to me.

I’ve never cared so much about personal publicity. I just wanted to find a way to positively affect people’s lives and try and make the world a better place.”

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March 1, 2019

SPORTS established 1874

Women’s Lacrosse Relies on Wellness to Win

The women’s lacrosse teamm, under the leadership of new Head Coach Kim Russell, has focused on holistic wellness this season.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

Julie Schreiber Senior Staff Writer Women’s lacrosse Head Coach Kim Russell has a unique motto for her players whenever they’re feeling stressed, scattered, or overwhelmed: Eat a Cheeto.

“As a coach, I really prioritize wellness,” said Russell, who just kicked off her first official season in Oberlin after serving as the first women’s lacrosse coach at Baldwin Wallace University and subsequently holding a brief tenure as director of girl’s lacrosse at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. “Now, Cheetos might not make you think of wellness, but when you look at the [Chester Cheetah] on the bag, this is what you want to look like. He’s having fun and enjoying himself — this is just a game.”

Although she’s a lacrosse coach by profession, Russell’s background is really in wellness; she is a certified yoga teacher and lives every day with a commitment to mental, physical, and spiritual health. Even though the spring season has just begun, she has already infused the team with a breadth of new rituals, including starting every practice with a collective breathing exercise and keeping essential oils on hand for any team member in need of relaxation.

But perhaps Russell’s most significant change is her emphasis on emotional intelligence, or EQ, as it is more casually known.

Some time ago, Russell came across the results of a neuropsychological study that explained how an athlete’s brain can exist in three different zones — green, yellow, and red — and when an athlete enters a red zone, most likely due to a stressful game situation, their brain incurs a chemical reaction similar to the one catalyzed by walking into the street and almost being run over by a car. If you don’t have the tools to get out of the red zone,” Russell said, “your mind and body can stay there for up to four hours.”

That’s why Russell, along with Assistant Coach Erin Kehn, have placed such a great emphasis on understanding one another’s EQs. “Athletics can lack the balance of being in touch with yourself,” Russell said. “On the field, you can’t strive for maximum mental toughness unless you feel really capable of yourself and what you’re doing.”

Russell knew that the team could only win together if they made a point to under-

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stand each other’s emotional intelligence and how help each other move out of the red zone. So far, their strategies have proven successful.

“Coach Kehn already used a strategy with one player on the sideline during a scrimmage,” Russell said. “She was way in red, and we didn’t know if we’d be able to play her, but [Kehn] remembered what she needed to hear. Would it have been something either one of us would’ve thought of?

Probably not.”

In addition to EQ recognition, Russell can already see the team improving and responding positively to her emphasis on emotional wellness. Taking the time before practice to relax, breathe together, and make sure everyone is in their green zone has reshaped practice sessions to be more positive and productive.

“The first two scrimmages made me realize that sometimes even I don’t recognize when I’m entering my own danger zone,” Russell said. “So this EQ stuff is helping us — both coaches and players — learn how to stay grounded and remember that, at the end of the day, it’s just a game.”

Members of the women’s lacrosse team said they appreciate Russell’s dedication to wellness and believe her tips and techniques have helped them prepare for the season, which began last night at Baldwin Wallace.

“I appreciate her commitment to making sure that we’re healthy and ready to play physically and mentally,” College junior Emma Weiss said.

College senior and captain Haley Drapkin agreed with Weiss’ sentiment.

“Coach is committed to building a holistic team and a holistic player,” she said.

“She doesn’t just focus on our play on the field, but [also] who we are off the field. I think this will heavily contribute to the strength and growth of our team this season.”

Sports can be stressful. For each member of the Oberlin women’s lacrosse team, transitioning from their red zone to green zone will be a different process. But the strategies implemented by Russell and Kehn — whether it be a breathing exercise, a dab of essential oil, or a handful of Cheetos — can help players channel their emotions into a positive, competitive, and fruitful season.

Volume 147, Number 15

Zion Williamson’s Shoe Incident Revives One-and-Done Debate Jane Agler Sports Editor When potential number one NBA Draft pick and Duke University’s current star forward Zion Williamson walked onto the court last week, it was to compete in one of the most heated rivalries in college basketball history. The North Carolina Tar Heels were due to face-off against the Duke Blue Devils, drawing heavy attention from sports news outlets and beyond.

People were excited about the game, but they were more excited to see Williamson dominate the court in the same manner he has all season, averaging 21.6 points, 8.8 rebounds, and 2.2 assists per game. Even former U.S. President Barack Obama was eager to see the 18-year-old in action and made an appearance at the game.

However, after trying to change directions with a quick crossover within the first minute, Williamson’s force distributed onto his left foot caused the toe of his Nike PG 2.5 to rupture, and he collapsed at the top of the key.

The injury was later announced to be a knee sprain — vague language that now leaves fans wondering whether they will see Williamson’s anticipated bloodbath during March Madness. The shoe episode also caused basketball viewers to scratch their heads and ask why this

powerhouse is not already in the NBA; he looks, acts, and plays like a professional.

The misfortune of getting injured while on the cusp of a promising NBA career just seems unnecessary, if not unfair.

In 2006, the NBA implemented its one-and-done rule, outlawing high schoolers from entering the NBA Draft immediately after graduation. In place of an immediate Draft entry, freshly-graduated high school players are directed toward one year of college basketball, the NBA’s minor league — the G League — or international play. Additionally, the minimum age for Draft eligibility is 19 years old.

In light of the late 2017 FBI sting that revealed illegal payment practices in NCAA Division I basketball, some questioned whether these amateur players, who are earning millions for their respective colleges, should receive financial compensation beyond just a free education — especially considering that the single year of college is just a transition period before launching their professional careers.

Now, with all eyes on Zion Williamson and his recent injury, the argument’s focus has shifted onto whether high school basketball players should be able to graduate and immediately enroll in the NBA instead of college. In fact, Williamson’s shoe had been broken for less See NBA, page 14