March 10, 2017

The Oberlin Review

MARCH 10, 2017 VOLUME 145, NUMBER 18

Local News Bulletin News briefs from the past week Police Enforce Bicycle Ordinance The Oberlin Police Department is beginning to reinforce last fall’s bicycle ordinance, which states that bicycles should be secured to city racks and cannot be parked for over 24 hours. The new ordinance prohibits locking bicycles to trees, streetlights, stop signs and other public property on city streets and sidewalks.

Violators may be issued a $20 ticket. If police officers cannot locate bicycle owners, they will confiscate bicycles left in prohibited places and dispose of them if they are not claimed within 90 days.

Heritage Center Holds Women’s History Walk The Oberlin Heritage Center is celebrating National Women’s History Month with “One Step More: Oberlin Women’s History Walk.” An OHC tour guide will lead the walk, which will cover landmarks and include the stories of prominent women of both the College and city. The tour will start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 25, at the southeast corner of Tappan Square. Tickets are $6 for adults and free for OHC members, children and College students.

SLAC Hosts Weekend of Action The Student Labor Action Coalition is holding a Weekend of Action Friday through Sunday evening. The weekend will include workshops, film screenings and discussions hosted both by student and local organizations, including the Free Ohio Movement, the Greater Cleveland Immigration Support Network, the InterReligious Task Force on Central America, Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine and Oberlin College Jewish Voice for Peace. The topics will cover prison justice, civil rights and dignity for immigrants and Palestinian rights.

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Trustees to Investigate Adding Student Rep Sydney Allen Production editor After months of pushing from student senators and activists, the Board of Trustees agreed to create a task force that will investigate adding student representatives to the board.

The breakthrough results from a proposal senators sent the board last Wednesday asking for the creation of a task force. The board then held its executive session Friday afternoon, after which senators received email confirmation that their proposal had been accepted — a drastic change from the seven-month waiting period Senate had to endure after their previous proposal in May 2016, which asked outright that the board allow students into its sessions and received a non-response from the board.

Several senators speculated that the revised phrasing of the proposal, and the support from Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo and the student body, convinced the trustees to accept the proposal.

“I think we owe a lot of it to the students who came out on [Thursday] to stand in solidarity, as well as the administrators who have been advocating with for us behind the scenes for a number of weeks now and to the success of the retreat,” said College sophomore and Student Senate Associate Liaison Meg Parker. “I think the organizing of the retreat as well as the actual retreat served as an experiment for how student-board relations could go, and I really think everyone came out of the mini-retreat with a better understanding of one another and the work that the other does.”

Raimondo agreed, highlighting how the improved relationship between the board and sena-

Student Senator and College junior Josh Koller speaks at Sunday’s Student Senate plenary meeting.

The Board of Trustees agreed to create a task force to begin the search for a student representative to sit on its board, an effort Senate has long pushed for.

Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo editor

tors could have affected the proposal’s reception.

“My sense is that the board and Student Senate have been engaged in productive, ongoing conversation for over a year,” Raimondo said. “In my view, it is not that this proposal was received differently, but that by working together and building relationships, the board and Senate were able to take this next step together.”

Although details of the task force still need to be worked out, the timeline outlined in the Senate proposal states that decisions about who will be sitting on the task force could be made by spring

See Student, page 4

Administrators Approve Advising Overhaul Plans Melissa Harris News editor When the Dean of Studies office dissolves at the end of this semester, its duties will scatter among the offices of the Deans of Students, Arts and Sciences, the Conservatory and a new office set to launch this summer: the Academic Advising Resource Center.

The center will take over the space vacated by the Admissions office in the Carnegie Building when the office moves to the Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center.

Among other tasks, the Academic Advising Resource Center will condense all College advisingrelated services into one location, handling the functions of the Registrar, first-year advisor assignments, personal leaves and withdrawals, part- and over-time permissions, incompletes and the 3-2 Engineering Program.

“The idea of one-stop shopping

The Admissions office, located on the first floor of the Carnegie Building, will move to the Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center. Some functions of the the Dean of Studies office will be incorporated into a new Adcademic Advicing Resource Center in the former admissions space .

Photo by Clover Linh Tran, Staff photographer

is critical,” said Tim Elgren, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

“What I really had hoped is that we would put all aspects of academic planning and support services into one place.”

Elgren added that while the Dean of Studies office has served as an intermediary for other deans, this “redefinition” provides a more direct mode of advising to students — a goal established in the Col-

OCOPE Counters College The group recently lodged an official complaint against the College with the NLRB.

break and meetings could occur as early as April 3.

“If the structure of the proposal is followed — which said the task force should begin convening within a month of the acceptance date — I would guess within the next week or so we should know what composition is going to look like and start hearing some chatter about who is going to sit on that task force,” said College junior and Student Senator Josh Koller.

The proposal recommended the task force be

Throwers Thrive Yeowomen post national-caliber performances in the field and on the track during the NCAC Indoor Championships.

Cinderella Story

Oberlin Opera Theater’s Cendrillon opened this week.

See page 2

See page 14

See page 13

INDEX:

Opinions 5

This Week in Oberlin 8

Arts 10

Sports 16

lege’s Strategic Plan last year.

“One of the things that happened in the Dean of Studies office is that we had a handful of people doing many, many tasks,” Elgren said. “Part of pulling those things apart was trying to make sure that there wasn’t a blending of these roles, so now those roles come out in differently defined structures. …

We don’t need there to be an intermediary role.”

In this reconfiguration, the dean of the Arts and Sciences will embrace responsibilities like managing College students’ academic standing, study away and academic leaves, Winter Term processing and projects involving the Bonner Center for Service and Learning. The Dean of the Conservatory’s office will cover Conservatory students’ academic standing and advisor assignments and support English for Speakers of Other Languages See Advising, page 4

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The Oberlin Review, March 10, 2017

OCOPE Files Unfair Labor Practices Complaint Eliza Guinn Staff writer

Oberlin College Offices and Profession Employees filed a charge of unfair labor practices against the College with the National Labor Relations Board Feb. 21, specifying that the College failed to abide by its collective bargaining contract with the union.

The charge specifically refers to the College’s refusal to release information relating to OCOPE’s employees and their job descriptions, information necessary for the union’s ability to advocate for its members, according to OCOPE President Tracy Tucker.

At the end of last year, the College implemented the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program, a campus-wide buyout program that resulted in the departures of 32 OCOPE members and eliminated a number of their former positions.

In January, the College eliminated four additional OCOPE positions.

During the implementation of VSIP, a task force was arranged, in part to ensure that the bargaining agreement between OCOPE and the College was upheld. The task force consisted of Vice President of Finance and Administration Mike Frandsen, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Tim Elgren, three faculty members and two OCOPE members — one of whom was Tucker. However, Tucker said that the elimination of positions without the input or involvement of the OCOPE representatives pushed them to file charges against the College with the NLRB. Elgren previously confirmed that he was the one who ultimately made the final position eliminations.

“The final model emerged from this broad consultation with the task force and discussions with me,” Elgren said to the Review last month (Administrators, Unions at Odds on Cuts, Feb. 10, 2017). “The final decision on the restructuring model was mine.”

Both Frandsen and Elgren declined to comment on OCOPE’s charges.

Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, who was not involved in the task force, said Frandsen and Elgren could not comment for confidentiality reasons.

“The offices that are directly involved probably cannot talk on it,” Raimondo said. “It’s often the case with collective bargaining that there’s an expectation … that you’re not supposed to try to use external influence. … That’s what the purpose of confidentiality is, to make sure that it’s the process itself where the determination is made because it has rules and trained people.”

Raimondo added that while she does not know how the College intends on responding to the charges, she and other administrators work to uphold the provisions of the collective bargaining contract.

“The College is committed to honoring the terms of its collective bargaining agreements, including their resolution processes,” Raimondo wrote in an email to the Review. “The College also respects any other rights afforded to employees, including members of collective bargaining agreements, to utilize the external grievance process available to them.”

While Frandsen and Elgren have not released a response outlining the reasons for their actions, Raimondo added that the decisions were probably made in an effort to address budgetary concerns.

“The College is looking to control the costs of an Oberlin education, which includes looking at what we spend on all employee groups — faculty, administrators, union members — because we all know that tuition can’t continue to rise at the rate at which it’s risen,” she said. “There’s really an across the board effort to think about how we structure the workforce here at Oberlin. I imagine that this is part of how this came to be.”

Meanwhile, Tucker said that the administration’s decision shows a disparity between them

Circulation Coordinator and OCOPE member Greg Solow works at his computer in the Conservatory Library. OCOPE recently filed charges against the College on the basis that it violated their collective bargaining agreement.

Photo by Rick Yu, Photo editor

and the rest of the College community.

“When you give the data to number-crunchers, they’re only seeing the data,” Tucker said.

“They’re not seeing the loyalty or the years spent working here. It’s the administration that’s the problem. It’s running the college more like a corporate place than ever before.”

Tucker pointed to the administration’s business-like way of running the College as a concern for her and others beyond OCOPE who will be affected.

“The decisions the Dean's Office has made not only affected OCOPE members,” she wrote in an email to the Review. “The administration has taken a very corporate approach to things without taking into consideration the full impact on the employees, students and faculty. This is not the ‘Oberlin way.’ We are more than just data on a piece of paper.”

Tucker said that the taskforce meetings made it clear that the administrators were not at all familiar with the content of the contract.

“The administration wanted their restructuring changes effective within a week,” she said.

“But the contract requires a 45-day notice to employees to changes or eliminations of their positions. Otherwise, they have to be paid a day’s wage for every day less than those 45. So the college decided to give them those 45 days. They obviously didn’t know what the requirements of the contract were.”

It is unclear how the charges with the NLRB will play out, but Tucker said she would be unsurprised to see more similar cuts in the future. “[The thing I want to see most moving forward is] respect,” she said. “Human Resources has always handled job vacancies, job descriptions, appointment letters, etc. Now, the dean's office is micromanaging these duties and in doing so causing delays and multiple errors. HR has been stripped of their authority on many levels.

It wasn't this way years ago. Responsibility for managing employees needs to be returned to the department that knows what they are doing.”

Krislov Forms Task Force for New Admissions Dean Louis Krauss News editor Following the retirement of longtime Dean of Admissions Debra Chermonte last fall, College President Marvin Krislov created a search committee of 10 members to help select a replacement to lead the admissions office.

Physics Professor and Search Committee Chair Yumi Ijiri said the group had met in the fall but then delayed future meetings and the formal announcement for the committee until releasing an online advertisement last week. The consulting firm Witt/Kieffer is conducting the search and published the ad.

“We were announced, maybe not as widely in faculty notes, but we didn’t bother to say, ‘Hey, we’re here’ until we were actually going,” Ijiri said.

“We put it on hold to align it better with the presidential search committee.”

According to Krislov, the new president will have the chance to look over the shortlisted candidates for dean of Admissions before one finalist is selected.

“The plan is for the new president to interview the finalists for this job, so that the finalists would be presented at some point after it’s

known who the new president is,” Krislov said.

There was no comprehensive process to determine who should be on the committee; Krislov said he simply picked those he thought would do a good job, as well as several who had been on the general faculty admissions committee for many years.

“Part of it was trying to figure out who was interested, who had time, and who [could] contribute something,” Krislov said. “There are obviously a lot of people, so on the faculty side, we looked for people who had worked on the general faculty admissions committee. On the senior staff, we looked at people who had particular relationships with admissions.”

Among other functions, the job entails managing the admissions staff, advertising the school and interacting with scholarship programs like Posse and QuestBridge. Chermonte has filled the Admissions dean position for over 25 years and despite retiring is still visiting the office parttime each week to assist the other staffers.

Ijiri said that the challenge of the job is balancing efforts to increase diversity in the student body while also maintaining a steady enrollment number and being financially stable.

“You have to do that in the right financial

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March 10, 2017

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backdrop, such as having enough students or not enough students,” Ijiri said. “Over the last few years we’ve had times when there’s not enough first-year dorm space or other issues, so all of that goes into the job.”

In addition to faculty, several administrators and two students are also in the group. Natalie Winkelfoos, the Delta Lodge director of athletics and physical education, was added to the committee after expressing interest. Krislov said Winkelfoos has had experience working with admissions in the past in regards to student athlete recruitment.

“Natalie [Winkelfoos] was someone who was interested, and there are a lot of student-athletes and so forth,” Krislov said. “I’ve been very supportive of athletes and student athletics, and Natalie’s been very successful and works very closely with admissions.”

Winkelfoos did not respond to the Review’s request for comment on her role.

In order to incorporate a wide range of opinions, Krislov also added two students: College junior Deron Essex and Conservatory junior Olivia Cosio. Ijiri said Krislov chose Essex partially because he is a Posse scholar; Posse is one of the major scholarship programs the school works

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with. Still, Essex was surprised by his selection, as Krislov did not send out applications or explain his reasoning.

“I’m not really sure how I got put on the committee,” Essex said. “I just got an email saying, you’re on this [committee]. It’s a pretty big position, so I was honored to be asked.”

Essex was pleased that Krislov decided to add students to the group.

“Whoever comes in, my role is to make sure that they are looking out for students’ best interests; that’s my biggest thing,” Essex said. “It’s great to have so many faculty and administrators on the committee, but student input is really important.”

Mathematics Professor Susan Colley, Religion Professor A.G. Miller and Conducting Professor Tim Weiss are other faculty members on the committee.

Now that the committee is aligned with the presidential search, Ijiri said they will begin interviewing candidates later this month, and selected finalists will visit Oberlin throughout April to be interviewed. The committee hopes to have the position filled soon after the next College president is chosen.

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Corrections: Corrections A headline for the 3 issue The Review is March not aware of read: "Women's Tennis Flounders in Wittenberg any corrections this week.

Matches." In reality, women's tennis had not playedThe Wittenberg; the team lost to Review strives to print allDePauw University andas won against Centre College. information accurately as possible.

If you feel the Review has made an To submt correction, email error, pleaseasend an e-mail to managingeditor@oberlinreview.org. managingeditor@oberlinreview.org.

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The Oberlin Review, March 10, 2017

Page 3

Off the Cuff: Jodi Dean, Professor of Political Science Jodi Dean is a Political Science professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and has written multiple books on political theory and communist revolution. Dean’s 2016 book, Crowds and Party, explains why movements such as Occupy Wall Street were unable to maintain momentum after they ended and explains how the left should reinvigorate itself. Dean’s talk, “Crowds and Party: Movements, Organizing, and Fighting Back,” is the Oscar Jászi Memoral Lecture hosted by the Politics department. Much of the talk will be based on Dean’s work in Crowds and Party, but may add a part that pertains to how political movements will differ under the Trump administration. The talk will take place in Craig Lecture Hall Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Could you talk a bit about your recent book, Crowds and Party?

The basic idea is to make an argument to the contemporary left that we need to be better organized, more tightly organized, and that means we have to stop focusing on singular movements and on individual opinion before building a new revolutionary communist party.

I gathered that some of the book is inspired by the Occupy movement over recent years?

Yes, the stimulus from the book came from Occupy Wall Street and its end. I was concerned with what happened after the movement stopped. It was also inspired by what happened with Syriza in Greece. Syriza is the coalition of the radical left in Greece, and they moved from the Greece equivalent of Occupy, the Greek movement of the squares, … into government. They had problems when they got there, but that was an inspiring way to use movement politics to

Thursday, March 2 1:32 p.m. Staff reported that unknown people made unauthorized access to the roof of Mudd library to hang a banner on the east side of Mudd. The banner was non-offensive in nature and was removed from the roof.

2:24 p.m. Safety and Security officers and Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at Mudd library from the first floor restroom. The alarm was set off by aerosol being sprayed.

The alarm was silenced and reset.

Friday, March 3 5:04 a.m. Officers assisted a staff member who fell on the ice in Mudd parking lot. The individual was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

create a radical political party.

What would you say are the main ways the internet and how we digest information have impacted these political and social movements?

I have a theory of communicative capitalism, and it emphasizes the way democratic practices and capitalist economy have blurred into one another to the detriment of democracy.

Now people think all the things they do democratically, like expressing their opinion or signing petitions or sharing stuff on the internet, they think that’s the way they understand democratic practice. But that actually tightens the grip of capitalism on our everyday lives.

There’s a problem that left politics confronts these days, and one way to understand it is through the framework of communicative capitalism. Part of my view is to emphasize to the left that, look, just getting information out there or spreading awareness or making a new website or creating a Facebook page, not only is that not an end or goal, it’s not even the best kind of means. We can’t avoid doing that, but we have to recognize it’s part of the trap we’re in, and we won’t be able to address it until we recognize it. There are thinkers in new media that emphasize [that] the internet is a democratizing force. But they ignore how it’s a force to strengthen the grip of capitalism.

And what was the purpose or argument of your other book, Communist Horizon?

The Communist Horizon first says that the left needs to reclaim communism, recognize that we're still in a framework where communism should be our goal. This is crucially important because communism is the set of political ideas that tells us the only just system is one that has production for the benefit of all, based on needs, not on the profit of the state. The left is confused when it

12:27 p.m. Officers assisted a staff member who was feeling ill in the Professional Services Building. The individual was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital.

Saturday, March 4 3:40 a.m. A Dascomb Hall resident reported an individual had entered their room uninvited. The individual was found to also be a resident of Dascomb who was under the influence of alcohol and mistakenly entered the wrong room.

7:55 a.m. Officers responded to the report of a person sleeping in the foyer at Firelands Apartments. After being awakened, the individual said they came in by bus to visit their sister. The person was transported to the Oberlin Police Department until contact could be made with the sister.

1:15 p.m. Officers responded to a report of a strong sulphur odor in

share it because it’s outrageous. Half of the time, people share really quickly, not paying attention [to] whether they agree or not. This is a feature of communicative capitalism. It means that meaning falls away in favor of circulation.

All of this stuff on fake news, it misses the point. The point is all communication in social media circulates with no regard for truth or falsity. It’s the same way capitalism doesn’t care if a business owner is a good guy or bad guy, or what his race is, or what his religion is, in general. It’s just like how people will share anything on social media. To try and make something like fake news, that doesn’t even matter anymore on social media. It’s like the dynamics of social media operate at a completely different level.

Jodi Dean, Professor of Political Science doesn't address this. As long as there's capitalistic exploitation, there's going to be inequality and injustice. We're going to have a hideous police state that's used to keep people down. Such a police state is totally racist. It uses racial division and mobilizes racism to protect the capitalistic elite. Any division that it can, capitalism mobilizes.

In Crowds and Party, do you relate to how protests and movements will change going forward in the Trump administration?

It’s easiest to just think about stuff in social media. In social media, truth and lies are equal to each other. Both can circulate, both are shared. Anything that I call the use-value of an utterance falls away in favor of its exchange-value.

Meaning matters less than circulation power. That’s why you can circulate stupid memes and cat photos and such. It doesn’t really matter what they mean, it’s just, "are they sharable?" People can share stuff for different reasons, some will share it because they agree, others

Longman hallway at Stevenson Dining Hall. The Oberlin Fire Department also responded to check the area. The odor was believed to be coming from two dried traps in the basement. Maintenance personnel were also at the scene.

Sunday, March 5 12:05 a.m. Officers responded to a loud music complaint at a Goldsmith apartment unit. Contact was made with residents of the apartment, and the music was turned off.

4:41 a.m. Officers assisted a student ill from alcohol consumption at Kahn Hall. The student was aware of their surroundings and able to answer all questions asked. The student was able to stay in their room for the night.

Monday, March 6 5:45 p.m. Officers were requested at Philips gym as several unauthorized

It definitely seems like the clicking and automatically agreeing to things we share on Facebook makes it so we don’t have time to actually read through an article.

Absolutely, speed is part of it. The total speed up of communication dynamics we have online, it’s just like factory speed up under industrial capitalism.

Communicative capitalism relies on fastness, volume — and we need to experience that a little bit, yet stupidly. People, myself included, feel happy and good if we get a bunch of shares or retweets or likes. It’s like, “Oh, somehow that’s good for me,” which is a little inane, but it is the way we feel, so it’s part of the dynamics of the media. I think Trump is clearly a feature of communicative capitalism, and now what we can see is we’ve got the Twitter-ization of mainstream politics. That’s a little bit new and interesting that it follows from communicative capitalism.

Interview by Louis Krauss, News editor Photo courtesy of Jodi Dean

juveniles had entered without IDs. The individuals were located in the gym area and asked to leave.

Tuesday, March 7 12:54 p.m. Officers assisted a staff member who passed out in the women’s restroom at Stevenson Dining Hall. The individual was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

6:40 p.m. Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at an Elm Street Village Housing Unit. The cause of the alarm was smoke from burnt bacon. The area was cleared and alarm reset.

10:34 p.m. Officers and Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at a Union Street apartment. The cause of the alarm was smoke from burnt popcorn. The area was cleared of smoke and the alarm reset.

News

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The Oberlin Review, March 10, 2017

Oberlin Project Ends Eight-Year Run Jenna Gyimesi For eight years, the Oberlin Project has innovated green programs while endeavoring to stimulate economic activity in a collaborative effort between the College and city. In light of completing its many goals, the program will close its office this summer.

The Oberlin Project was initiated, in part, through the efforts of Environmental Studies and Politics Professor and Special Assistant to the President of the College David Orr. The project had a specific set of goals upon its establishment, inherently making it a temporary program. Some of its aims were to create a 13-acre Green Arts District on Main Street, to invest in more renewable energy sources, to improve the local food and farming economy, to initiate new business ventures and educational alliances with surrounding schools and to help other institutions develop programs similar to the project. The Oberlin Project, succeeding at meeting many of these goals, can now conclude.

The Oberlin Project was supposed to only last six to seven years before completing its tasks. According to Sean Hayes, executive director of the Oberlin Project, the office is closing simply because of how successful it’s been, even leading the Obama administration to select Oberlin as a “Climate Action Champion.” He said that despite the stress of meeting the project’s goals, he feels confident that it will have lasting effects.

“I’ve been really fortunate in that we have a tightknit group,” Hayes said. “When we realized that it was the time, they have reminded me that we all signed up for this job knowing that this day would come. We’ve been here longer than some of us expected.

There's a level of stress with the unknown; change is never easy. The flipside of that is a lot of that stress is internal, and a lot of that would be higher if we weren’t confident in our abilities and that our work matters and matters to other organizations. I have no question about any of that.”

Hayes added that the programs that have been enacted have advanced to require a “structure that is different from the way this project operates.” The programs will continue to grow and solidify the legacy of increasing education on the local and national level as well as influencing progress toward a practical vision of an environmentally and economically resilient society.

“The need [of sustainability work] will only grow, so you know those opportunities will exist,” he said. “We are looking for time in this transition for the staff to sort out what

Continued from page 1

The Oberlin Project helped the Oberlin Municipal Light and Power System initiate a threeyear Efficiency Smart Power Plant program to support investments in sustainable electric energy. Establishing energy efficiency in Oberlin was a goal of the Oberlin Project, which will close its office this summer.

Photo by Rick Yu, Photo editor

those opportunities are.”

While recent federal actions that threaten environmental protection linger, Hayes said that he is still confident that the Oberlin Project and programs like it will be able to “speak across the political aisle.” He said that the emphasis the project placed on local building programs gives the Oberlin Project power to withstand possible federal decisions.

“The more things at the federal level are slashed and burned, the more important these things at the local level become,” Hayes said.

Hayes also said that since the program was established without the aid of federal agencies, an unsupportive federal administration cannot take away the Oberlin Project’s innovations.

City Councilmember and Project Coordinator Sharon Pearson said the future benefits of the program will help welcome new environmental projects and innovations in Oberlin. She said that not only has the program increased communication between the city and College, but it has also expanded sustainability influence beyond Oberlin.

Both Pearson and Hayes said that while the small and forward-thinking nature of Oberlin helped make the program successful, initiatives like it could very well be replicated elsewhere. Pearson said that other international and local communities and the Department of Energy are looking to the project as a model to work with and, subsequently, continue the influence of the project on local, national and international levels.

“Having this program at Oberlin has been

a great testing ground,” Pearson said. “Its success proves that community can replicate what we are doing even though we are so unique. We don’t want to be too unique because we cannot be the only community that can withstand climate change.”

Pearson said that the closing of the project will be an opportunity to further forge city and College connections in the future as well, as the Oberlin Project has inherently forged a cooperative relationship throughout its run. City Manager Rob Hillard agreed, saying that the partnership will have lasting effects in Oberlin.

“I have appreciated the city’s working partnership with the Oberlin Project,” Hillard added. ”They have educated, as well as assisted us in working toward our core value of environmental sustainability. In my time as the city manager, I have benefited from the Oberlin Project, as it relates to outreach with the College as well. We anticipate these relationships to continue, but always appreciated the effort the Oberlin Project provided in building this partnership.”

Hayes said that he hopes students will uphold the legacy of the Oberlin project by engaging with their community. He said he hopes that the program the Oberlin Project has modeled will continue to spread through the actions of Oberlin citizens and students, subsequently catalyzing similar green infrastructures and solutions in the future and elsewhere.

“The work of the Oberlin Project is not done,” Hayes said, adding that the office “does not need to exist” for Oberlin students to get involved in local environmental work.

Student Senate Successful in Proposal to Board Continued from page 1 comprised of two students, two trustees, two administrators and two faculty members so it would “mirror the composition of many effective governance structures within Oberlin College” and “include all campus constituencies in the investigative process.”

But both senators and Raimondo added during Sunday plenary that this structure and who is appointing these members is potentially up for debate as part of an ongoing conversation of what the task force should look like. One of the senators interested in renegotiating the task force structure is College junior and Student Senator Jesse Docter.

“If we have leeway to renegotiate the proposal I think that would be good, because

Advising Center to Move into Carnegie

I think it was kind of a rushed document and I think it would be better structured as a 50-50 trustee-student committee,” Docter said. “I still haven’t heard the rationale for what faculty and administrators will add to the committee. … I think that faculty often tend to follow the expertise in the room in a way that students don’t, and I know a lot of faculty committees where non-voting administrators who aren’t even voting completely control the direction of the vote because faculty don’t feel like they have enough information to go against it.”

Raimondo spoke about her excitement regarding the creation of the task force.

“I enthusiastically support the establishment of a task force to determine the best way to ensure student experience is communicated effectively to

the board,” said Raimondo in an email to the Review. “I know Senate has been thinking deeply about the responsibilities and roles of board members as it has studied the question of a student representative, and I'm confident the task force will help identify the best way to ensure meaningful engagement of students with the board.”

Although this comes across as a victory for Senate and much of the student body, College junior and Student Senate Liaison Thobeka Mnisi added that there is a long way to go before a student is actually put on the board.

“I think the board appreciated that we demonstrated an understanding of how they function, and although this is a victory for us, it was a very small ask compared to what we really want,” Mnisi said. “We were

only asking for a conversation; I imagine it'd be difficult for the board to come up with a good reason to refuse an investigation that doesn't even ask them to endorse any particular outcome at this point.”

For senators who have pushed for student representatives and increased board transparency for years, the response gives them hope for the future of trustee-student relations.

“Sometimes I think about how [next year] is — hopefully — going to be my last year here, and while it’s a little bit of a bummer, it’s also not,” Koller said. “Because that’s not even the point; this is for the entire future of the student body here and I think it has the power to be a really long-lasting positive force for students.”

services. Meanwhile, the Dean of Students office will absorb the Career Center and issues revolving around the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System program for processing student visas and medical leaves.

When the three deans’ offices adopt new individual roles, they will also find themselves overlapping in certain areas. Double-degree advising and Musical Studies, for instance, will move under the wings of the deans of Arts and Sciences and the Conservatory, while work around student fellowships will be shared by the deans of Students and of Arts and Sciences.

Dean of Studies Joyce Babyak said that although there are many changes underway, the principles and functions of advising will not change other than anticipated improvements in processing data.

“I think it’s just a different way of accomplishing the same goals,” Babyak said. “It’s hard when you’re used to a system one way to imagine a system working differently yet still be effective, and the whole point is to look at this from a student experience and make sure that resources are available to students.”

As the administration considered restructuring the existing advising system, Elgren said input from Student Senate and campus-wide surveys came into play, adding that he has also been in touch with Oberlin’s Center for Information Technology to develop more efficient software to make academic planning easier.

“Prestissimo was done by Ben Kuperman, a faculty member, who thought that there has to be a better way of accessing [academic] data,” Elgren said. “You should be able to do a lot of your academic planning just by looking at what the available options are. Our goal is to make that much easier to access. We shouldn’t be spending all of our time dealing with the transactional piece of this conversation.”

Still, the overhaul will not come without changes in employment. Elgren said that while some staff members in the Dean of Studies will transition into new locations and positions, others will not.

“Some of those people will be moving on; others won’t,” Elgren said. “For some of them, some of the jobs that we’ve envisioned are not the jobs that they’ve done, so they’re not the right person for that other job. Part of it is a true restructuring and finding the right people. Some of the people are the right people, and some of the jobs have really just moved on to very different functions.”

Some members of the Dean of Studies office will return to old positions, like Babyak, who will move back into the Religion department as a faculty member once the office closes. While some face positional eliminations, Elgren added that other job opportunities on campus will become available.

“Change can be challenging, but change is undertaken for very good reasons, so we just have to be patient with ourselves going through the process of change and transition,” Babyak said. “But I think students will be absolutely fine.”

Moving forward, faculty members are also hopeful that the new advising structure will continue to benefit students and their advisors.

“I am hopeful that the changes [Associate Dean of the Curriculum] David Kamitsuka described at the College faculty meeting will streamline advising and help maintain the already good systems and relationships that some faculty have, while improving and making more efficient the work of others,” Shelley Lee, professor of Comparative American Studies and History, said in an email to the Review. “I don’t know how the changes will affect my own day-to-day life and relations with advisees, but I trust that the committee undertook its work with thoughtfulness and thoroughness.”

With the Dean of Studies office leaving Peters Hall, Elgren said that the plans for its new occupants remain uncertain, but the administration has been considering moving the Undergraduate Research, Study Away or Comparative Literature offices into the space.

March 10, 2017

Opinions The Oberlin Review

Letters to the Editors

Petititions Circulate to Preserve REC Fund To the Editors:

In May 2007, the Oberlin City Council voted unanimously to establish a Sustainable Reserve Program funded by the revenue from selling renewable energy credits. This week, former Oberlin City Councilors, business owners and other respected Oberlinians are starting to circulate a pair of petitions that, together, will enable the voters to preserve funding for that program. I urge students, staff and faculty who vote in Oberlin to sign these two petitions.

Why do this now? The Ohio legislature has been cutting in-

come for the city’s general fund.

The Trump administration is slashing the EPA budget. We can’t expect any federal or state support for local sustainability efforts, but thanks to 2007’s City Council, the city has the funds to undertake long-term, large-scale energy-saving programs that benefit the whole community. We need to do this to achieve Oberlin’s Climate Action Plan goals.

Last month, City Council passed a “Community Choice Fund” ordinance that has a fatal flaw: It requires that 85 percent of the RECs’ income be diverted from the Sustainable Reserve Fund to electric rate-payers, with the bulk of the money going to big entities such as Walmart. By artificially reducing electric bills, this would disincentivize energy efficiency — just the opposite

of what the Sustainable Reserve Fund is intended to accomplish.

And it would leave substantially less money for programs such as Providing Oberlin with Efficiency Responsibly to help low- and moderate-income households and small businesses.

One petition puts this flawed Community Choice Fund ordinance “on hold” until the November election. The other petition makes clear what we know the 2007 City Council intended. The original ordinance reads simply “the revenue.” The amended ordinance will read “all net revenue.”

Add your signature and put these two issues to a vote on Nov. 7.

– John Elder OC ’53 Member of Communities for Safe and Sustainable Energy

Emotional Focus Puts Facts Second in Politics Amber Scherer Contributing writer Since the election, President Donald Trump’s opponents have struggled to find their role in the new era.

Political norms seem irrelevant and liberals are struggling to make themselves heard. Two weeks ago in the Review, Will Cramer suggested that activists rely on intuition over facts to make arguments, particularly in regard to immigration reform (“Immigration Raid Discourse Requires Moral Intuition,” Feb. 24, 2017). I agree that appealing to people’s compassion and morality can be persuasive.

I also share in Cramer’s frustration about the cold, empirical politics of establishment Democrats. But this perspective, fairly prevalent among Oberlin progressives, could exacerbate the anti-truth trend in American politics.

I can’t overstate the danger of “alternative facts” (credit to the President’s advisor Kellyanne Conway for that term). Knowledge is power in a democracy. How can we productively contribute to public policies if we don’t understand relevant issues and candidates?

Trump and his administration pose a serious threat to objectivity in Washington and, by extension, the United States. A month ago, for instance, Conway cited a nonexistent massacre in Bowling Green as evidence to support Trump’s travel ban.

Then, White House Press Secretary

Sean Spicer barred prominent news organizations from a press briefing.

They have demonstrated a dangerous desire to control what information reaches the public. But, not to be outdone, Trump continues make baseless, misleading statements and accusations that Republican officials largely refuse to denounce.

Current conservative policies ignore facts on gun violence, climate change, immigration and other critical issues. That disparity between the truth and recent legislation is frightening. We know that the majority of Americans support background checks for gun purchases, that global climate change is caused by human activity and that no immigrants from the countries targeted by Trump’s travel ban have ever been responsible for terrorist-related deaths in the U.S. Yet legislation continues to be crafted around this misinformation.

Republicans are not the only ones who sometimes veer from the truth.

The same could be said about progressive economics or other Democratic policies. As exciting and inspiring as I find Senator Bernie Sanders, for instance, I admit that some of his platform was discredited in academic circles, particularly by economists.

Often, Democratic leaders like Hillary Clinton or Senator Elizabeth Warren rely on emotional appeal in political debate, framing opponents as not just factually wrong but morally wrong.

When policies blatantly ignore the truth, we need to return author-

ity to science, data and facts. Misinformed policy needs to be rejected, no matter where it falls on the political spectrum.

Trump’s opponents must ground their arguments in truth. I admit that basing decisions solely on facts, rather than emotion, can seem callous.

Liberals are only human; like everybody else, we’re prone to trusting our feelings rather than facts. But when we govern with our feelings, we’re susceptible to biased views of reality.

This vulnerability is especially dangerous now, as our executive branch censors and distorts the truth.

Our knowledge is our power.

Without it, we have no concept of what works and what doesn’t, and, to a deeper extent, what is right and what is wrong.

It’s impossible to isolate instinct or emotion from our policies entirely, I know. However, if recent political history is any indication, we need to contain instinct in favor of rationality. Trump embodies our post-truth era. He has demonstrated appalling ignorance and unwillingness to learn, as well as a bias towards ideas that flatter him. There is no “factually correct” in that culture. There is only “I’m right, and you’re wrong.”

Democracy cannot thrive without diversity and debate. Yet liberals often seem to share Trump’s preference for people and ideas that agree with us. We must be vigilant in challenging our ideas to ensure they are fully grounded in science and truth.

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

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.

Page 5

The Oberlin Review Publication of Record for Oberlin College

Editors-in-Chief Tyler Sloan Oliver Bok Managing Editor Kiley Petersen Opinions Editor Sami Mericle

Students Neglect Existing Communication Channels The trustees’ decision to create a task force to investigate adding student representation to the board is a credit to everyone involved.

Student Senate deserves praise for creating the initial proposal and building a relationship with the board, as do student activists for adding pressure at a key moment and the board for showing flexibility and vision. This is an example of what college governance should look like: an active student body and a responsive administration.

Still students must continue pushing for a student representative.

Creating a task force is an important victory, but by no means is it the same as actually adding a representative. Students must also be made aware of the fact that student representation in College governance already exists through faculty committees, many of which have seats reserved for students. Unfortunately, those seats often go unfilled, leaving important faculty committees without a student perspective.

The same impulse that inspires calls for student representation on the board should also encourage fuller participation in the representative structures already available. Students are intimately affected by what takes place on faculty committees, as they often influence institutional choices. For example, the Educational Plans and Policies Committee oversees the operation of academic departments, and the Admissions and Financial Aid Committee advises the President on financial aid policy. But unless students step up and volunteer, the student body will go without a voice on major issues. That would be a shame.

Many have complained that the principle problem currently plaguing the College’s governance is a lack of communication. Students, administrators, faculty, staff and trustees all seem to operate in independent silos, leading to resentment and misunderstandings on all sides. While students taking a more active role in College governance won’t necessarily solve this issue, it will certainly help. Filling these roles also adds legitimacy to students’ concerns regarding institutional governance, since unused communication channels give the false impression of a lack of student interest in governance.

One of Student Senate’s most critical institutional roles is selecting students for faculty committees, but if students fail to apply for those positions Senate’s role is lessened. Increased student engagement with faculty committees would also aid Senate’s current upswing. The more seriously students take Senate, the more seriously other parts of the institution will, too.

Make no mistake: The board needs to add a student representative, and the collective and widespread energy put toward these efforts has been imperative. But some of that energy should go toward taking full advantage of the representative structures that already exist. Many faculty committees only meet a couple of times per semester, meaning students can participate in College governance without taking on a huge time commitment. In the interest of the student body as a collective force, someone has to do it. You have nothing to lose but your apathy.

There are currently eight faculty committees with vacancies for student positions: Educational Plans and Policies Committee (one open seat), Academic Calendar (two open seats), Musical Studies/ Double Degree (two open seats), Student Assemblies (one open seat), Winter Term (one open seat), general faculty committee for Equity and Diversity (several open seats), the strategic plan implementation committee for Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (one open seat) and Dining Committee (one open seat). In addition, Student Finance Committee ­— the group that manages and distributes the Student Activity Fund — has five vacancies for next year; positions on SFC are paid while the other committees are unpaid.

Students can contact Student Senators Kai Joy or Cecilia Wallace to learn more about applying for these positions.

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.

Opinions

Page 6

The Oberlin Review, March 10, 2017

Philosophy Department Responds to Gender Disparities Jackie Brant Contributing writer As I argued in the Review several weeks ago, women are underrepresented in philosophy, both in Oberlin’s department and the field as a whole (“Philosophy Departments Lack Diversity,” Feb. 10, 2017). Since then, I have had the opportunity to meet with Professor Katherine ThomsonJones, chair of Oberlin’s Philosophy department, to discuss Oberlin’s efforts to diversify the department.

I see three main causes for the lack of women in the field: underrepresentation of women philosophers in syllabuses, women being less likely to participate in class and a misunderstanding of what philosophy truly is as a discipline. Oberlin is addressing each of these components with specific strategies.

A study conducted by NPR found that 89 percent of readings taught in philosophy courses are written by men. This rings true for my experience at Oberlin, where the syllabuses severely lack authors of various genders and cultural backgrounds. However, the department is attempting to address this issue. After attending an Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges workshop at Reed College that addressed improving the learning climate for women in the philosophy classroom, Professor Todd Ganson initiated optional syllabus sharing at Oberlin starting last semester.

Syllabus sharing allows professors to check each other’s syllabuses for diversity of authors and topics. This program could prove instrumental in increasing diversity in course readings if officially mandated. Half of the professors in the Philosophy department participated last semester.

It is vital that the professors in the department be accountable in ensuring that many voices are represented in their syllabuses, since relevant philosophical pieces written by underrepresented groups are plentiful.

For these reasons, I hope that all the professors in Oberlin’s Philosophy department will participate in syllabus sharing in the future.

According to research by Columbia University, women are less likely to participate in class, be called on and elaborate in class in general.

Because of this, it is imperative that classrooms be made as comfortable as possible so that people of all genders, cultures and perspectives feel free to share their ideas and opinions.

This can be particularly tricky in philosophy classrooms, where it can be intimidating to offer up your personal thoughts for critique, especially for women, who are often outnumbered.

In response to this, Professor Martin Thomson-Jones is leading an initiative within the department to experiment with various teaching methods in the philosophy classroom. One of the main focuses is to make classes more activity-based and less lecturebased. Rather than holding large discussions, it can be useful for students to break up into small groups to discuss topics and then share their smaller discussions with the class.

This way, those who may feel uncomfortable speaking in a large group setting will feel more encouraged to share their thoughts within a smaller group. This is a method Professor

Dorit Ganson uses effectively in her course Reason and Argument. Another method being experimented with is addressing pedagogy. Specifically, professors are encouraged to discuss with their students the often combative nature of philosophical discussions and help brainstorm ways to change this atmosphere in favor of logical and level-headed discussion.

Professors Martin Thomson-Jones and Owen King both devote time in their classes to discuss issues of underrepresentation of women and people of color in philosophy. As a student in King’s entry-level philosophy course last semester, I deeply appreciated this discussion. Bringing awareness to this lack of diversity can improve the atmosphere of the classroom and can create a more comfortable environment for underrepresented groups. Addressing diversity would be extremely beneficial for all philosophy classes, especially entrylevel courses, and I would like to see all professors initiate this discussion in their classes.

Many students lack an understanding of what philosophy actually is and believe philosophy classes are similar to politics or English classes.

In contrast to other humanities, a central goal of philosophy is the development of logical thought processes. One of the main reasons why misconceptions are so common is because philosophy is rarely introduced to students before the college level.

To address this issue, Katherine Thomson-Jones is introducing a new course this fall, Philosophy in the Schools Practicum, in which Oberlin students will make weekly visits to Eastwood Elementary School. During these visits, they will teach philosophy to elementary school kids through children’s literature. The PHITS Practicum and other programs like it are being implemented across the country. This program has the potential to be extremely beneficial in helping increase the diversity of the philosophy field in general. Through exposure to philosophy at an early age, individuals will be more informed as to what philosophy actually entails. The program will also help introduce philosophy to a diverse group of people: children from a variety of backgrounds will be exposed to it, which will help in increase diversity within the field.

Though there is still much work to be done at Oberlin and elsewhere, crucial steps are being taken. As an institution that has historically been dedicated to embracing diversity and progressiveness, Oberlin should lead the way in increasing diversity in philosophy. Under the leadership of Professor Katherine ThomsonJones and other dedicated professors in Oberlin’s Philosophy department, we are definitely on the right track.

However, all professors in the department should actively participate in syllabus sharing, address issues of diversity in each of their classes and experiment with different teaching methods. Professors have the ability to make huge strides toward diversity within their own classrooms and at Oberlin in general; they are held accountable to do so in order to make their classroom as comfortable and productive as possible for students of all backgrounds.

Brian Tom

Activists Must Tackle Bigotry on Local Level Nathan Carpenter Contributing Opinions editor Donald Trump’s presidency endangers many people in the United States, citizens and non-citizens alike. Over the past week and a half, this threat has materialized in a very real way for the Oberlin and greater Lorain County communities.

Earlier this month, a swastika and hate speech were carved into the door of a synagogue in Lorain. A Facebook page called Oberlin Illegal Immigrant Tipline began encouraging people to report undocumented immigrants in our community.

These dehumanizing acts of hate are local, immediate examples of how Trump’s rhetoric is inciting violence in increasingly personal and intense ways. We as a country put a virulent racist in the White House, and now we’re seeing the impact of that in our own communities as Trump’s hateful ideology has trickled down from Washington to every corner of this nation.

To be sure, forces of bigotry and discrimination were alive and well in the U.S. before Trump’s inauguration. But his election has legitimized strains of white nationalism and xenophobia, including in Oberlin.

For many, Trump’s presidency promised a return to the “good old days” in which white men were the undisputed ruling class and everybody else was subordinate in the eyes of –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Forces of bigotry and discrimination were alive and well in the U.S. before Trump’s inauguration. But his election has certainly legitimized strains of white nationalism and xenophobia, including in Oberlin.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– the law. Vandalism at the Lorain synagogue and the creation of the tipline group, among other actions, are direct manifestations of that vision.

These recent local developments and national actions from the Trump administration, such as the travel ban and an increased emphasis on deporting undocumented immigrants, have, for good reason, spawned great fear and uncertainty. However, they have also emphasized the personal obligation we all have to look out for both neighbors and strangers.

There are people who do not share the vision of equity and inclusion that is so important to most Oberlin students. And some of those people live just down the road from us.

No longer can the privileged members of our community — white U.S. citizens, to start — address the risk of Trump’s presidency in a dis-

tant, academic context. The danger has arrived at our doorstep, and we must be prepared to stand by targeted members of our community in more effective ways.

For those of us who have not been directly impacted by the outcomes of Trump’s rhetoric, ongoing incidents in our community must serve as a call to action. The threat to our neighbors is clear and present, and our responsibility to honor and protect the humanity of our peers is stronger than ever.

Oberlin students like to talk about using their privileges to support those who have been marginalized or silenced. Now is a vital time to turn that talk into action. We must affirm our commitment to supporting those who are directly affected by recent and developing events. We must raise our voices against any and all actions that violate our values of equity and inclusion.

In preparing to raise our voices and take action, we must be conscious of groups in our community that are already leading the way on these important issues. While passion is commendable and encouraged, it is important to not duplicate the already effective efforts of others.

This weekend provides an immediate opportunity to get involved. The Student Labor Action Coalition is hosting a Weekend of Action that provides options for students angered and energized by recent events, both locally and nationally, to get involved with campus activism. Obies for Undocumented Inclusion is also active on campus. Leaders from these groups have been in this fight for a long time, and they know what they’re doing — listen to what they have to say and learn where your advocacy will be most effective.

In times that challenge our shared humanity, there can be a natural inclination to freeze and fail to act, perhaps in the futile hope that a lack of change in our behavior will somehow signify that nothing in our communities has changed. But so much has changed. While the future is uncertain, our commitment to justice and action should not be.

At other points in Oberlin’s history, people were morally compelled to take action to defend the humanity of their friends, neighbors and strangers. Oberlin remembers with great pride that it was a once a stop on the Underground Railroad, a place where those fleeing legalized slavery and oppression could briefly seek refuge.

The challenges faced today are undeniably different. But it is vital that we maintain that same welcoming spirit of inclusivity. Oberlin can — and must — be a place that opens its arms to those facing persecution.

Let those in Lorain County, the state of Ohio and the greater United States know Oberlin as a place that, when faced with injustice both locally and nationally, decides to take a stand.

Opinions

The Oberlin Review, March 10, 2017

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Controversial Speakers Deserve Fair Platform Will Cramer Contributing writer

Author Charles Murray was invited last week to speak at Middlebury College in a move that was certain to invite controversy.

Notorious for his 1994 book The Bell Curve, which suggests that IQ rather than economic opportunities or access to basic services such as health care is the most effective indicator of future success, Murray is justly despised by many liberals. His work lacks credible peer review and is often cited by white supremacists to justify their racism, since Black people scored an average of 15 points lower than white people on IQ tests at the time of The Bell Curve’s publishing.

Middlebury students swarmed the speaking venue and chanted to prevent Murray from speaking.

After 20 fruitless minutes, Murray was ushered offstage, and the talk moved to a virtual platform, streamed across campus.

Students discovered the location of the streaming and attempted to disrupt it as well. Eventually, Murray was escorted out of that classroom and to an off-campus location, although not without

more aggressive confrontation and harassment from students.

While the students have a right to free speech, they misused that right by not allowing Murray to exercise his.

To understand the significance of this event, we must understand the process by which ideas circulate. The world is a conglomerate of distinct and opposing worldviews, where a “natural selection” of ideas, concepts and morals takes place.

Just ideas gain larger contingents of followers, as do compassionate or inspiring ones. Evil ideas can also flourish, often through

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

The world is a conglomerate of distinct and opposing worldviews, where a “natural selection” of ideas, concepts and morals takes place.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––– appealing to concepts such as inherent superiorities. Eventually, their faults are exposed and they fall away.

Like an ecosystem, these

competing intellectual processes naturally balance each other and result in an orderly chaos. For this system to work, therefore, each individual must hold the right to promote their own distinct ideology and try to alter or outright eliminate others. This intellectual right is protected by unconditional free speech.

Liberals would do well to keep this in mind. They’ve twisted the concept of tolerance into a tool to deflect criticism and attack other ideas through nonengagement. They shy away from critiques of their ideas by declaiming these critiques as fill-in-the-blank-ist (even when they are) and then view this denunciation as a trump card that ends debate. When on the attack, they block speeches and shout down opposing ideas.

They believe that individuals can use free speech to block other free speech, because the state is the only entity that is technically prohibited from interfering.

This argument is petty and goes against the spirit of democracy.

This argument is an intentional tactic to destroy any environment conducive to intellectual engagement with offensive or

hateful views. In other words, it’s an intellectual and rhetorical cop-out. If their ideas are truly

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

For this system to work, therefore, each individual must hold the right to promote their own distinct ideology and try to alter or outright eliminate others. This intellectual right is protected by unconditional free speech.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––– superior, they should eliminate their opponents’ in a fair fight and therefore should engage at any possible opportunity.

Thus, Murray should be allowed to speak. In environments like Oberlin and Middlebury, most liberal students are surrounded by friends with nearidentical opinions and it’s often hard to grasp the importance of free speech in this intellectual ecosystem. It’s hard to understand the necessity of develop-

ing sophisticated and nuanced points so that one stands a chance when engaging with other, hardened ideas outside of school.

Although the format of the talk did not give students a chance to ask questions, they could have done so anyway: just break the rules and shout out the questions. The students can’t pretend that the rules of the talk were a limiting factor for their actions after chanting and harassing Murray. Even though they have a right to their own free speech, they used that right poorly in silencing Murray. A better use of it would be in blindsiding Murray with a well thought-out question. This would do much more damage to their rival ideology than chanting sound bites. While debating with Charles Murray probably would not — and should not — have changed the minds of many Middlebury students, it may have helped them learn how to fight in a productive and effective manner. And learning how to fight, how to survive in the intellectual wilderness of the real world, should be a skill that every progressive student holds dear.

Global Redistribution of Wealth Could End Poverty Russell Jaffe Columnist The futurists once had a dream: Through technological advancement, all of humanity’s needs would someday be provided for automatically, leaving us free to pursue our passions and aspirations.

In the 1930s, for example, economist John Keynes predicted that his grandchildren — now the people of today’s workforce — would need to work a mere 15 hours a week, and their descendents would work even less. Someday, according to this dream, everyone would have a home, enough food to eat and the resources to cultivate ourselves into the very best people we could be, unhindered by a rat race for basic necessities.

And then, miraculously, technology surpassed these expectations. In the United States alone, empty homes outnumber the homeless six to one.

The world produces more than enough food to feed everyone on earth and information has never been more widely accessible.

When automated machines began to take our jobs, we should have rejoiced, finally free to enjoy our lives rather than just amassing enough income to survive.

However, this is obviously not the case. Somewhere along the way, the futurists’ dream was forgotten. Contrary to

Keynes’ prediction, our work hours have only been getting longer, with stress on the rise worldwide. Worse, over 1.6 billion people currently lack adequate housing, more than one in nine people across the globe are malnourished and more than 26 percent of the world’s adult population is considered illiterate. The absurdity of this situation is not just that these problems are fixable but that they are well-known, and yet few people seem willing to even acknowledge them.

In every society in history, there have always been some people who ––––––––––––––––––––––

Over 1.6 billion people currently lack adequate housing, more than one in nine people across the globe are malnourished and more than 26 percent of the world’s adult population is considered illiterate.

–––––––––––––––––––––– have more than they need and others who need more than they have. Now, even though there are more than enough resources in the world for everyone to have their necessities provided for, the gap between

the rich and the poor has never been greater. The eight richest individuals hoard more wealth than the entire poorest half of the world’s population put together. As a result, the issue that seems to be holding back the futurists’ dream is not a matter of society lacking the ability to make it real but rather radically uneven resource distribution.

The wealthy elite will often deny that this disparity is a problem, arguing that they earned their wealth through great contributions to society.

Many, like President Donald Trump, even claim that through philanthropy and job creation, their wealth “trickles down” to benefit everyone. In the most extreme cases, some have even gone so far as to argue that realizing the futurists’ dream would have negative impacts, asserting that all necessities are already provided for through welfare and any further resource redistribution would lead to complacency or even idle hedonistic dependency.

However, the rates of world hunger, homelessness and illiteracy are evidence that such unsubstantiated arguments have failed. Trickle-down economics have been repeatedly disproven and criticized by the analysis of the International Monetary Fund, the Tax Justice Network and politicians like Damien O’Connor,

who refer to the system as “the rich pissing on the poor.” Additionally, neither philanthropy nor welfare has satisfactorily demonstrated the ability to fill even a fraction of the most basic necessities for the nation’s neediest people. More than ever

before, the world needs the dream that the futurists once promised us.

Ultimately, achieving the futurists’ dream on a massive scale will require global change. Nations worldwide must unite in order to peacefully redistribute resources based on

human need. As citizens, we have a duty to demand this change from our representatives and leaders.

We must remember that the futurists’ dream cannot precede the futurist. The dream will come true the moment that the world begins to accept it.

AAArt Collective: Yaeji Mixed-Media Installation

NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED

Richard D. Baron Art Gallery Saturday, March 11. 1–2 p.m.

Artist Yaeji explores the relationship between sight and sound in mixedmedia art. This show was created through a collaboration between aural artists, who first produced looped audio clips, and visual artists, who produced videos in response. Yaeji will also be available to answer questions.

March is National Women’s History Month, celebrating the diverse accomplishments of non-dudes and progress in achieving gender equality. The battle for intersectional feminism and truly equivalent opportunities is one still being fought today, but there are always opportunities for non-dudes to continue to change the world and many different ways to engage with women’s history this week on campus. These events are opportunities to celebrate.

OBurlesque Early Spring Show

DJ Mursi Layne

Cat in the Cream. Tuesday, March 14. 8–10 p.m.

This variety show includes people of all genders celebrating their bodies and individuality through dancing, acting and music. Various degrees of clothing and nudity will be incorporated.

CALENDAR: Organ Pump Finney Chapel Friday, March 10 11:59 p.m.–1 a.m.

A free, monthly concert featuring Oberlin Conservatory organ majors.

Stick around at the end to hear the Review’s Security Report sung by Conservatory students, set to an Anglican chant.

The ’Sco. Thursday, March 16. 10 p.m.–1 a.m.

Trinidad-born Mursi Layne is a Brooklyn resident and self-taught DJ. As a queer woman, she is paving the way for women producers in a male-dominated field. Her music incorporates genres such as electronic, hip-hop, dancehall and more.

Scholarships The following resources highlight scholarship opportunities to help women and LGBTQ people achieve their own aspirations. · Point Foundation: provides financial support and mentoring to people marginalized due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. pointfoundation.org · Money Geek: has a guide specifically for helping women find and apply for scholarships. moneygeek.com

Film Screening: Tracking Edith Dye Lecture Hall. Tuesday, March 14. 7–8:30 p.m.

This documentary follows the story of Edith Tudor-Hart, an Austrian spy and photographer who assisted Russia in acquiring the atom bomb after WWII. She also helped assemble the Cambridge Five, an incredibly successful spy ring. After the movie, filmmaker Peter Stephan Jungk will read from his book, Die Dunkelkammern der Edith Tudor-Hart, and answer questions.

Layout and text by Izzy Rosenstein, This Week editor SUPC Presents: Father

The ’Sco Saturday, March 11 10 p.m.–1 a.m

Gear Co-op Band Mix Tappan Square Saturday, March 11 2–5 p.m.

Father is an up-and-coming rapper from Atlanta creating a new sound in hip-hop. His songs incorporate catchy beats and are largely influenced by the Atlanta music scene.

A mixer for musicians interested in meeting other musicians and making music together! There will also be snacks, music and other activities.

Global Issues Symposium 2017 Lecture: Leo Chavez Dye Lecture Hall Monday, March 13 7:30 p.m.

Leo Chavez is an anthropology professor at University of California, Irvine. This lecture, followed by a reception, will discuss issues regarding Latinx and immigrants in the United States over the past 50 years.

“Crowds and Party” Lecture Craig Lecture Hall Tuesday, March 14 4:30–6 p.m.

Professor of Political Science Jodi Dean from Hobart and William Smith Colleges will speak about activism in the current political climate. Read an interview with Dean in the News section this week to learn more about her work.

Lindsay Howard: Lecture on Temporary Highs The Art Building, Classroom 1 Wednesday, March 15 4:45 p.m.

Independent curator Lindsay Howard will speak about curating digital art and how the internet can affect one’s perception of art and self.

AAArt Collective: Yaeji Mixed-Media Installation

NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED

Richard D. Baron Art Gallery Saturday, March 11. 1–2 p.m.

Artist Yaeji explores the relationship between sight and sound in mixedmedia art. This show was created through a collaboration between aural artists, who first produced looped audio clips, and visual artists, who produced videos in response. Yaeji will also be available to answer questions.

March is National Women’s History Month, celebrating the diverse accomplishments of non-dudes and progress in achieving gender equality. The battle for intersectional feminism and truly equivalent opportunities is one still being fought today, but there are always opportunities for non-dudes to continue to change the world and many different ways to engage with women’s history this week on campus. These events are opportunities to celebrate.

OBurlesque Early Spring Show

DJ Mursi Layne

Cat in the Cream. Tuesday, March 14. 8–10 p.m.

This variety show includes people of all genders celebrating their bodies and individuality through dancing, acting and music. Various degrees of clothing and nudity will be incorporated.

CALENDAR: Organ Pump Finney Chapel Friday, March 10 11:59 p.m.–1 a.m.

A free, monthly concert featuring Oberlin Conservatory organ majors.

Stick around at the end to hear the Review’s Security Report sung by Conservatory students, set to an Anglican chant.

The ’Sco. Thursday, March 16. 10 p.m.–1 a.m.

Trinidad-born Mursi Layne is a Brooklyn resident and self-taught DJ. As a queer woman, she is paving the way for women producers in a male-dominated field. Her music incorporates genres such as electronic, hip-hop, dancehall and more.

Scholarships The following resources highlight scholarship opportunities to help women and LGBTQ people achieve their own aspirations. · Point Foundation: provides financial support and mentoring to people marginalized due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. pointfoundation.org · Money Geek: has a guide specifically for helping women find and apply for scholarships. moneygeek.com

Film Screening: Tracking Edith Dye Lecture Hall. Tuesday, March 14. 7–8:30 p.m.

This documentary follows the story of Edith Tudor-Hart, an Austrian spy and photographer who assisted Russia in acquiring the atom bomb after WWII. She also helped assemble the Cambridge Five, an incredibly successful spy ring. After the movie, filmmaker Peter Stephan Jungk will read from his book, Die Dunkelkammern der Edith Tudor-Hart, and answer questions.

Layout and text by Izzy Rosenstein, This Week editor SUPC Presents: Father

The ’Sco Saturday, March 11 10 p.m.–1 a.m

Gear Co-op Band Mix Tappan Square Saturday, March 11 2–5 p.m.

Father is an up-and-coming rapper from Atlanta creating a new sound in hip-hop. His songs incorporate catchy beats and are largely influenced by the Atlanta music scene.

A mixer for musicians interested in meeting other musicians and making music together! There will also be snacks, music and other activities.

Global Issues Symposium 2017 Lecture: Leo Chavez Dye Lecture Hall Monday, March 13 7:30 p.m.

Leo Chavez is an anthropology professor at University of California, Irvine. This lecture, followed by a reception, will discuss issues regarding Latinx and immigrants in the United States over the past 50 years.

“Crowds and Party” Lecture Craig Lecture Hall Tuesday, March 14 4:30–6 p.m.

Professor of Political Science Jodi Dean from Hobart and William Smith Colleges will speak about activism in the current political climate. Read an interview with Dean in the News section this week to learn more about her work.

Lindsay Howard: Lecture on Temporary Highs The Art Building, Classroom 1 Wednesday, March 15 4:45 p.m.

Independent curator Lindsay Howard will speak about curating digital art and how the internet can affect one’s perception of art and self.

Page 10

Arts The Oberlin Review

March 10, 2017

Trump Administration Threatens Oberlin Arts Funding

Since 2002, the College and Conservatory, faculty members and the Oberlin community have received more than $3 million in federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services, as well as funds from state affiliates, the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Humanities Council.

Graphic by Kiley Petersen, Managing editor

Daniel Markus Arts editor Before President Trump took office in late January, multiple publications reported that his transition team had begun compiling a list of federal programs to eliminate in an effort to trim domestic spending. According to The New York Times, that list is expected to be finalized by the Office of Management and Budget next week as part of the President’s first federal budget proposal. According to ABC News, the forthcoming budget draws heavily on budget outlines produced by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of 172 Republican representatives in the House of Representatives that focuses on pushing conservative legislation.

The RSC’s plan, called the “Blueprint for a Balanced Budget 2.0,” proposes the elimination of a huge number of federal programs, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services, each of which has provided funding to the College, Conservatory and Oberlin community in recent years. The NEH and NEA also fund state-level affiliates across the country, including the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Humanities Council, both of which have also funded projects in Oberlin.

Despite accounting for a miniscule fraction of the federal budget — a combined .014 percent of the government’s $4 trillion in spending projected for this fiscal year — the funds are significant to Oberlin. Since 2002, the College and Conservatory, individual faculty members, the city of Oberlin and Oberlin community organizations have received more than $3 million in support from the NEA, NEH, OAC, OHC and IMLS. The money has impacted a variety of people and groups in Oberlin: Recent recipients include community organizations like Oberlin Choristers and the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts, Professors Lynn Powell and Ann Sherif and the Allen Memorial Art Museum.

For Andria Derstine, the Allen’s director, the national endowments have been crucial.

“It’s been huge. It’s been really

important for us,” Derstine said. “One of the [grants] that we got most recently from the National Endowment for the Humanities was a $500,000 Challenge Grant that had to be matched three to one to endow our curatorship in Asian Art, and … we have done that. But if it had not been for that Challenge Grant, who’s to say if we would’ve gotten the matching money in another way? That really enabled … us to hire a full-time, endowed curator of Asian art, and Asian art is about a third of the collection at the Allen. To have someone in here full-time — in perpetuity, now that it’s endowed — is really important in terms of teaching with that collection and doing exhibitions with our collections, reaching into classes not only in East Asia[n] Studies, Art History and History, but all across the curriculum.”

According to Derstine, the Joan L. Danforth Curator of Asian Art position that the NEH’s funding helped create, now held

by Kevin Greenwood, has been important in the museum’s programming around Asian art. Greenwood’s impact seems clear from the Allen’s current exhibitions alone: He curated four of the museum’s 11 currently on view — Conversations: Past and Present in Asia and America; Marking Time: The Seasonal Imagery in Japanese Prints; Lines of Descent: Masters and Students in the Utagawa School and The Archaic Character of Seal Script. Derstine noted that the grant’s impact has stretched beyond the exhibitions themselves. “[There] has been a significant uptick in the number of exhibitions we’re able to do around Asian art, the number of classes we’re able to serve, the number faculty and students we’re able to serve and the amount of teaching, … scholarship and research that goes on here in that field,” she said.

Along with the multitudes of students reached by the Allen’s programming made possible with the help of federal funds, grants and stipends from the NEH, NEA and OAC have helped faculty members from the College and Conservatory advance their own work. Last summer, Assistant Professor of Music Theory Megan Long received a summer stipend of $6,000 from the NEH that facilitated research for her book.

“I work on popular music in the 16th century, and my question about it is: ‘How

does that contribute to the big change that happened in music between the 16th century and the 18th century?’” Long said. “[The grant] funded two months of my time to research and write about this thing. I needed to go to Europe to look at some of these 16th-century books, because most of them, there’s only one … or two copies that survive, and they don’t [loan those out].

You have to fly to the library that houses them and get permission to look at them, and then spend some quality time with them to learn about them so you can write about them.”

Furthermore, grants have had significant reach in the Oberlin community. In 2015, the city received a $25,000 grant from the NEA to “strengthen the community economically, by developing and promoting Oberlin as an arts destination” and to “raise community and visitor awareness of downtown Oberlin and its contents and other historic sites and recreational opportunities.” Every year since 2012, the Oberlin Summer Theater Festival, which presents free, professional productions of classic theater works, has received a grant from the Ohio Arts Council. This year, the festival reached nearly 12,000 people, according to Pamela Snyder, the executive director for the Office of Foundation, Government and Corporate grants.

When faced with the prospect of elimination of federal programs supporting the arts, humanities and related areas, Derstine and Snyder are concerned about the prospect of another reduction to resources in an already highly competitive funding landscape. According to Snyder, the funding rates for summer stipends and fellowships from the NEH are around five or six percent, and the NEA has had few individual awards since the 1980s when its budget was last cut.

“Unfortunately, the opportunities for funding in the humanities are not terribly great for scholarship and so NEH has been such a bastion of support for humanities teaching and scholarship,” Snyder said, adding that in addition to the tenuous state of federal funding in the arts and humanities, the Great Recession could be clearly seen in fewer opportunities for funding from private organizations.

Derstine agreed.

“Even though there is a universe of places you can apply to, including private

sources, just to have any portion of that universe potentially go away is not a good thought, given how few options there really are in the arts and humanities,” Derstine said.

Despite the uncertainty that faces grant-seeking organizations like the Allen and individual professors seeking funding for their work, both Long and Derstine expressed that Oberlin is likely to fare better than many other educational institutions should President Trump’s budget plan come to fruition.

“We’re very lucky at Oberlin that the College also [has] funding available for faculty to travel, and that we’re funded to do our research in the summers,” Long said. “That’s not the case for everybody or every school, so I should preface that by saying that I could have done this research anyway, without the NEH grant, because Oberlin would have helped me pay for it. Having the funding from the NEH as well as Oberlin funding enabled me to do maybe a more ambitious trip than I would have been able to do otherwise. We’re very lucky here at Oberlin, but there are a lot of institutions where federal funding is one of the primary ways that scholars can go and travel and do their research. That will have a huge impact on the types of projects people are able to do, the types of questions people are able to ask and the kind of progress we’re able to make in our various fields.”

Snyder underscored this point further, noting that elimination of funds will mean that professors’ research opportunities will be much more dependent on their individual fortunes.

“I think for faculty, [elimination of federal funding] makes a difference in terms of the time that they can devote to projects [and] whether they can take the time off to do [them]. It certainly slows their research and … for some people it may be easier to take a leave than it is for other people depending on family circumstances or where they are in their careers, and having that [ funding] there keeps advancing scholarship and teaching, which is fundamental to what we as educational institutions do,” Snyder said.

For the Allen as well, the threat of losing the National Endowments is less existential.

“What I think about the most with this threat is the potential future special projects that we might not be able to do,” Derstine said.

Long, Derstine and Snyder all noted the value that the arts bring, something that seems to be misunderstood in Republican budget proposals, both in terms of geographical impact and overall return on investment.

“Both NEH and NEA … make sure that what they are funding … is touching every single congressional district, so these are programs that touch all Americans, and I feel like … we have to think about what a bargain it is. It’s a bargain that we’re getting as Americans with this very tiny portion of the budget that’s touching so many people and improving so many lives,” Derstine said.

You can read a full accounting of the federal and state funding received by the College and Conservatory, Oberlin faculty and the Oberlin community at oberlinreview.org.

Managing editor Kiley Petersen and Arts editor Victoria Garber contributed reporting.

Arts

The Oberlin Review, March 10, 2017

Page 11

On the Record with Edward Hummingbird Edward Hummingbird, a Cherokee from Oklahoma, was in Oberlin from Tuesday to Thursday this week to give lectures and a demonstration on Native art. Hummingbird currently serves as the Director of Institutional Research, Effectiveness and Planning at the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, NM. In addition to his administrative role, Hummingbird is passionate about education, and often speaks about the diffusion of Native knowledge into the American mainstream. Sponsored by the Environmental Studies, Biology and Art History departments, the Allen Memorial Art Museum, the Ellen Johnson Endowment to Contemporary Art and Baldwin Art Lectures Endowment, Hummingbird’s visit included a lecture to the Environmental Studies 201 course, a public lecture in the Arts Building and a painting demonstration in the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies’ Hallock Auditorium.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Is the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute unique in that it is one of few colleges federally operated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs?

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education operate 183 elementary and secondary schools and then two post-secondary schools. Of the 33 [accredited] tribal colleges, only three are multi-tribal institutions.

Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute is one of two national American Indian colleges. We have students from all parts of the country represented at our school, but most come from Arizona and New Mexico.

I moved to Albuquerque … to work for the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute in 2011, to help them regain their recently lost accreditation status. We tore down and rebuilt the institution — not physically, but to completely re-do things in a way more consistent with higher education. We wanted to go from a

government bureau that happened to be in higher education, to a higher education institution that happens to be a part of the government. I think we have made tremendous progress, and we regained accreditation in 2014. It was an honor and privilege to be a part of the process of reaccrediting the school because it doesn’t happen often. When schools lose accreditation, [they] usually close their doors not too long afterwards. We have an open door policy, meaning all American Indian students are welcome and we have chosen to take them on regardless of where they fall on the education spectrum. In spite of the fact that many of them are not college-ready, we have chosen to take them on.

Their success is our responsibility.

It is a challenge, but I think it’s a worthwhile challenge.

You are currently living in New Mexico. As a Cherokee Indian, has your identity changed at all since leaving Cherokee land in Oklahoma?

It increasingly becomes a question of how I define my cultural identity. When you grow up in Cherokee country, you grow up a member of the Aniyun-wiya, the real people, [or] the only people, and it’s very ethnocentric. When you leave that area you begin to develop an appreciation for other Indigenous cultures, and the frame of reference shifts. For me, [in going from] identifying with the Cherokee experience to identifying with the broader American Indian experience, I have developed an appreciation of the clan systems and social systems of the Southwest tribes. They are very different from us but in some ways similar. I appreciate the similarities by nature, but you really appreciate the differences because it helps you better understand what it means to be an American Indian, not just a Cherokee from Oklahoma.

In your lecture on Native American art and conceptions of the environment you spoke

extensively about the life cycle of stories. Stories and histories inevitably have a beginning, middle and end. Given your position that stories naturally die out as generations pass away, what do you think of cultural revitalization efforts that seek to preserve histories and cultures when they are vanishing?

At the heart of culture are sets of values, beliefs and convictions that have withstood the test of time [and] been around for centuries that allowed Indigenous people to live on this continent in relative peace, harmony and equilibrium for thousands of years. This reminds me of a story about visitors from Germany to my old gallery in Dallas, Texas. The German tourists told me they were “interested in seeing what you are doing in Native America because we believe that those values [and] beliefs that have allowed you all to live in a relatively steady state for centuries are ultimately the values and beliefs that are going to let us save ourselves from ourselves.”

Diffusion into the mainstream is kind of a scary thing, but what is truly scary is that the diffusion could occur without ever making a difference on the mainstream that we are diffusing into. There are Cherokee beliefs and values that need to be heard. There are tribal values and beliefs from all over Native America that hold immense value and helped us achieve and maintain a steady state for centuries.

What concerns me is that in the future there might come a time when maybe there is not a single Cherokee left and the culture is completely diffused. If that happens, that is just part of a natural cycle, but what does concern [me] is the thought of that happening with never having the impact that we could and we should on the mainstream. There is a lot that Indigenous America has to teach the mainstream if we are willing to teach and others are willing to listen.

What insights can non-Natives take away from viewing American

Edward Hummingbird, director of Institutional Research and Planning at the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute, who delivers a talk Wednesday in conjunction with AMAM exhibition Exploring Reciprocity: The Power of Animals in Non-Western Art Photo courtesy of Chie Sakakibara

Indian art forms that depict the natural world?

All ethnographic and all American Indian art is no different.

The subject is ultimately the human condition. What Indian artists try to do is to use the art to draw lines of delineation and also the blur the lines of delineation between “us” and “them.” The real beauty of American Indian art is the ability to draw and blur those lines of delineation at the same time. American Indian art allows the viewer to see the world through the prism of the American Indian perspective and that prism is shaped by cultural sensibilities. The other thing I love about American Indian art is that it offers the outside world a peek into the very soul of the culture.

As you stated in your lecture, there is an inexorable link between Native culture, fauna and flora —

is there any precedent in American Indian art to use art forms as a medium of awareness or concern for global climate change?

Yes! It’s one of the purposes of art to better understand our place in the world. There are many American Indian artists who are trying to raise cultural awareness of critical issues. Jaune Quick-To-See Smith is an artist who looks at the impact that technology has on the cultures, resources and the [impact] exploitation of resources will have on tribes. One thing American Indians are passionate about is the environment, and art is a form to make their statements and have their voices heard. It is an important motif of contemporary American Indian art. American Indian artists are very socially conscious and at times incredibly deep thinkers.

Interview by Owen Ellerkamp

Logan Succeeds with Faithful Adaptation of Wolverine Comics Evan Johnson In an early scene of James Mangold’s new X-Men feature Logan, Hugh Jackman, as James “Logan” Howlett, the superhero formerly known as Wolverine, discovers a comic book with himself on the cover. It’s not Wolverine as we’re seeing him now, weaker and having aged as the adamantium in his bones slowly poisons him, but his former self, young and drawn with a pulpy gloss that highlights his muscular torso.

He’s trying to convince Gabriela (Elizabeth Rodriguez) — a nurse from a failed project created by a corporation called Transigen that bred children as mutants — that he cannot take care of the 11-year-old girl in her custody, Laura, also known as X-23 (Dafne Keen).

After rummaging through the mess of Gabriela’s apartment, Logan unenthusiastically agrees to help her out upon finding the comic.

It’s a very brief moment, but it instantly conveys the part of Jackman’s character that makes him so fascinating: his self-awareness. This mutant may recognize his superhuman abilities, but he knows he can’t rely on them anymore. He’s too old to be a superhero, his self-healing abilities hampered by his progressive poisoning.

Instead, he has to survive on his intellect.

The look on Logan’s face — simultaneously derisive and forlorn — at the sight of his comic self summarizes the attitude of the film. This is the least cartoonish superhero movie ever.

Prospective viewers shouldn’t be concerned, though: Mangold provides plenty of action and forward momentum to satisfy comic book aficionados while easing into Wolverine’s mythology so that those who are unfamiliar with the X-Men series will still be able to enjoy the movie.

The narrative set-up is simple. It’s the year 2029, and Logan and his father-figure, Professor X (Patric Stewart) — an 80-year old telepath losing control of his powers — have to take a road-trip from the U.S.-Mexico border to Laura’s only safe haven, an obscure location in North Dakota called “Eden.” They quickly discover that Laura — an result of the Transigen breeding program created using Logan’s DNA — is wanted by the Reavers, a group of cyborgs loyal to Transigen and dedicated to exterminating mutants created by the company’s breeding program. An extended car chase ensues, led by Donald Pierce (Boyd Holbrook).

Despite the film’s admittedly absurd conceit, its tone combines the Western dystopian

cynicism of Hell or High Water with the murky restraint of Special. It’s an interesting balancing act that Logan attempts to pull off and mostly achieves. The film certainly succeeds in taking itself more seriously than recent DC Cinematic Universe misfires like Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad.

This seriousness is displayed in the unique quasi-father-son dynamic between Professor X and Logan, so much so that the movie actually works better as a study of their relationship than it does as a blockbuster action flick.

Their exchanges sway from affectionate to downright nasty, simultaneously highlighting the mutual respect they have for each other and their fundamentally different outlooks on their duties as X-Men. Stewart and Jackson play off each other so well that their dynamic elevates the film above occasional lulls in the script.

The film’s best asset, though, is the young Dafne Keen, who plays Laura with a stoic detachment that adds another layer of meaning to Logan’s perpetual old-age frustrations. Laura, bearing the same claws as Wolverine, is a constant reminder of his own past, and the result is a heated yet tender relationship. Although silent for most of the

film, her lack of lines doesn’t detract from a terrific performance.

That said, the prevailing dryness between the three principle players doesn’t always work in the film’s favor. The film occasionally drags between action sequences. Mangold, who is also credited as co-writer, has a clear affinity for writing individual lines, but the pace of the script overall struggles throughout; some conversations stretch long enough to warrant the occasional yawn.

The action scenes themselves, however, make Logan more than worthwhile. The fights are lean, kinetic and full of raw energy. Mangold finds the right balance of improvisatory realism and choreographed claw-thrashing that this kind of R-rated escapism depends on.

There’s no shortage of blood and expletives.

There’s a moment later in the film in which Wolverine notices Laura reading another comic of him. Without hesitating, he yanks it from her hands and says to her, “You know they’re all bulls---, right?” Maybe so. But in any case, Logan is the best drama to come out of this franchise and makes a strong case that adaptations from the comic book world, when executed with dignity, can be thoroughly entertaining.

Arts

Page 12

The Oberlin Review, March 10, 2017

AAArt Collective Kicks Off Third Biennial Event Series Victoria Garber Arts editor

The third Asia America Art Collective will commence this evening with a 7:30 p.m. screening of Kenneth Eng’s My Life in China in the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies’ Hallock Auditorium, followed by a late night ’Sco performance by Yaeji, v1984 and College senior Rachel Katz, who makes music under the name Xuan Rong. The collective is a biennial event series geared toward highlighting artists who identify as Asian or part of the Asian and Pacific Islander Diaspora. This year’s events will include a mix of workshops, screenings, mixed-media, audiovisual installation and spoken word and musical performances.

In addition to calling attention to the work of Asian and Asian-American artistic communities, AAArt Collective will address the immense diversity of these communities, in an effort to dispel misconceptions of any sort of standard, monolithic Asian identity or narrative.

“I personally identify … as part of a larger Asian diaspora in the U.S.,” College junior Elka Lee-Shapiro wrote in an email to the Review.

“But how I identify changes all the time. Being Asian American at Oberlin, an institution that is predominantly white, has encouraged me to become more engaged with Asian American and POC organizing, issues, and politics.”

Lee-Shapiro, along with College senior Holly Hoang spearheaded the series’ organization, with help from College senior Miles Ginoza.

For Hoang, interest in the collective and artistic activism organically came out of a growing sense of community with friends she found her sophomore year.

“It was a rather unstable time for me because I had just transferred out of the Conservatory … and into the College, where I was having a difficult time figuring out how to navigate these new intellectual and social spaces,” Hoang wrote in an email to the Review. “In my exploring, I met a lot of new friends who were part of the AsianAmerican community on campus and also found out about this collective that a number of students were in the midst of planning since

the previous summer. Art has always been an undeniably important part of my life, and slowly, Asian American community building, activism, and advocacy did, too.”

All three organizers also view having these artists on campus as an exciting opportunity not only to meet people whose work they have personally admired for a long time in many cases, but also to engage the Oberlin community in social and political dialogue.

“For me, going to a show and seeing Asian and Asian-American DJs, producers [and] musicians always gives me warm and fuzzy feelings,” wrote College senior Miles Ginoza in an email to the Review. Ginoza organized the ’Sco performance. “It’s inspiring to see Asian and Asian-American folks up there thriving in their element.”

In the past, the collective has gathered APID artists from a broad range of disciplines, bringing such artists as the Blue Scholars, a Seattle-based hip-hop duo, photographer and filmmaker Mia Nakano, stand-up performer Hari Kondabolu, writer Derek Kirk Kim, writer and producer Sahra Vang Nguyen, actor Ryan Wong and performance artist D’Lo to Oberlin.

This year, organizers feel they have put together a balanced event series of performances, lectures and screenings, as well as more interactive events like workshops and question and answer sessions.

“Art spheres in Oberlin and at large have traditionally been predominantly white, and I think it’s important to make space for and celebrate artists who occupy identities that are marginalized within mainstream art spheres and are engaged with resistance work,” LeeShapiro wrote.

Liz Moy, a member of Chinatown Art Brigade, a gentrification resistance group whose activism centers in New York City’s Chinatown, will give a workshop on art and activism Saturday. The Allen Memorial Art Museum currently has “MacArthur Nurses,” a painting

by Jenifer K. Wofford, another Chinatown Art Brigade member, on display in the exhibition Conversations: Past and Present in Asia and America. Wofford, whose work addresses a

number of intersecting issues including race and gender, will also give a talk Saturday afternoon.

“I really like their approach to art and activism, and wanted to share their work with the Oberlin community,” Lee-Shapiro wrote.

Gentrification isn’t the only issue facing APID artistic communities. As spaces where artists of color have built lives and communities become whiter and more expensive, aspects of their cultures and art are often appropriated by white artists, either out of affinity or to exotify their brands.

“There’s this huge issue with Asian aesthetics being appropriated in electronic music by white artists,” Ginoza wrote. “You see it a lot in vaporwave where random white producers will have names with Japanese characters that don’t really mean anything or just have random Japanese characters on their cover art. So this idea of reappropriation and reclaiming an Asian identity, sort of utilizing and repackaging these sensational Asian aesthetics is really interesting to me.”

Another focus of the event series is the vast diversity of the Asian and Asian-American identities. Hoang chose to bring Eng to Oberlin specifically because his documentary struck her as uncannily similar to her own parents’ immigration story, delving into experiences and ways of life she feels are frequently sidelined in discussions of roots and identity.

“When I watched it for the first time, it was really as if I was watching my own dad talking on screen,” Hoang wrote. “It meant a lot to be able to see someone share their story in such a visible way because it feels like a narrative that isn’t always highlighted when speaking to migration experiences within the APID community at Oberlin.”

The documentary centers on a family from rural southern China, incorporating regional minority languages and speech patterns as well as largely unexplored perspectives on manual labor and the Chinese restaurant industry as ways of life many depend on. Hoang felt she could follow the thread of her own family narrative through these aspects of the film, which also depicts the lack of awareness surrounding

mental illness in these communities.

“As one who has been involved with the Asian-American community here, I’ve found there are these moments when certain faces and certain narratives are prioritized,” Hoang wrote. “Not only is it disheartening but emotionally isolating, and bringing Kenneth and his documentary to campus is a way to bring these stories back into those spaces.

Non-APID students and community members are also welcome and encouraged to attend. Organizers hope the series will contribute to an atmosphere of greater understanding and inclusion across the board, but have asked that audiences and participants be respectful and aware of the space they occupy, approaching these events not only as enjoyable experiences but also as opportunities for learning and growth.

“For all, I hope these events will be inspiring and educational,” Lee-Shapiro wrote. “In many mainstream spheres, there is limited representation of APID people and issues. I hope that through these events, people at Oberlin can gain better understanding [about] the diversity within Asia America, and learn from artists engaged in great work.”

All program events are free and open to the public.

Friday, 7:30-9:30 p.m. in Hallock Auditorium: film screening and question and answer session with filmmaker Kenneth Eng Friday, 10 p.m. - 1 a.m. in the ’Sco: performance featuring Yaeji, v1984 and Xuan Rong Saturday, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. in Wilder 112: workshop with Chinatown Art Brigade member Liz Moy Saturday, 1-2 p.m. in the Alumni Center’s Baron Art Gallery: mixed-media installation with Yaeji Saturday, 2:30-4 p.m. in the Allen, Classroom 1: artist talk and viewing by Chinatown Art Brigade member Jenifer Wofford Saturday, 7:30-8:30 p.m. in the Cat in the Cream: spoken word performance by Troy Osaki

Night in the Woods Navigates Complex Emotional Landscape Avi Vogel Columnist Night in the Woods, released February 21, provides an intimate window into a microcosm of human narrative drawn directly from real-world struggles. The game presents an unassuming but enjoyable experience centered around character interactions, rather than grand story lines and epic battles. The early and middle sections of the game don’t cry for attention or churn out one

plot device after another to drive the character forward.

That’s not what the creators care about. Behind the stylized town and the cartoon animal characters, Night in the Woods is at its best when exploring the depths of the human spirit in its quiet moments.

Developed by Infinite Fall, Night in the Woods doesn’t fit neatly in a genre. It’s more platformer than walkingsimulator, as other games in this style of interactive fiction tend to be. The game revolves around

In Night in the Woods, developed by Infinite Fall, players explore Possum Springs as Mae Borowski, a 20-year-old college dropout returning to her hometown and rediscovering the life she left behind.

Image by Avi Vogel

Mae Borowski, a 20-year-old returning to her home town of Possum Springs after dropping out of college, as she rediscovers the town and friends she left behind.

Gameplay follows a relatively simple loop that accompanies Mae through Possum Springs each day, when you can talk with almost everyone in town.

The dialogue, crisp and wellwritten, is the game’s main draw. I spent every day going to every location I could remember and simply talking with the people there, from Selmers, a neighbor who sits on her porch and spouts terrible couplets, to Bruce, the drifter who lives outside of the church.

The other main characters are her parents and friends from high school — Gregg, the up-for-anything best friend; his more serious boyfriend Angus; and Bea, who would leave Possum Springs if she could.

Each one of these characters is so incredibly real that it was difficult for me to even think of them as characters. Gregg is lost and only seems able to find balance through Angus, who in turn sees Gregg as his other half. Bea feels trapped in a life she doesn’t want. The player chooses interactions

and activities that reveal the complex motivations of each character. Mae’s mother, for example, proved to be one of the most interesting characters I’ve interacted with in any game for a long time, possibly ever. She rides the line between lovingly supportive of her daughter and desparately tired so incredibly well that, as the player, I felt for her even if Mae didn’t.

This leads to my largest problem with the game: I hated Mae. Notably, you don’t really shape Mae’s character, even if you do have some choice in dialogue. Essentially, you’re just guiding Mae’s interactions and watching her be herself.

Throughout the story she is written as selfish and selfdestructive, causing trouble and distress, almost always disregarding the concerns of her friends and family. This comes out most in her interactions with Bea, but it is also prevalent in late-game interactions with her mom.

Ultimately, the player is given an incredibly humanizing explanation for Mae’s callousness that puts her in a more sympathetic light.

However, the early and middle parts of the game paint her as a shallow, frustrating person,

and it was shocking to me how much the people in her life would cater to her every whim.

Because this game draws so heavily on the internalized experiences and emotions of the player, others may read Mae somewhat differently. For me, no matter how hard I tried, Mae always messed up, refusing to acknowledge pain or desires other than her own.

Despite my distaste for Mae’s character, I was still enthralled in the game through the writing.

Each piece of text is written with such life that I could imagine people I know saying every single line. Even when dialogue does get sentimental, it never squanders these moments with forced intimacy, spending them instead on deep catharsis and character building.

Night in the Woods is about real struggles faced by real people trying to get by. It is about losing your home, having mental breakdowns and being trapped by circumstances outside of your control. And it’s sad. But it’s also more than that.

It acknowledges all these things and then asks the question, what next? The game doesn’t cheapen the struggles of its characters by giving them tidy solutions, and I don’t think it needs to.

The Oberlin Review, March 10, 2017

Arts

Page 13

Cendrillon Opera Charms with Quips, Fantasy

The cast of Oberlin Opera Theater’s production of Cendrillon, which opened in Hall Auditorium Wednesday and runs through Sunday.

Photo courtesty of the Office of Communications

Julia Peterson Production editor Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers.

With its production of Cendrillon, Oberlin Opera Theater invites audiences to join them in a world of fantasy, romance and stories that live beyond their pages. In this interpretation of the classic fairytale Cinderella, a score by Jules Massenet and a French libretto by Henri Caïn weave a rich atmosphere of non-reality from the moment that the first note is played.

The opera is accompanied by English superscript projected above the stage, which — aside from a few minor mistranslations — makes Caïn’s emotionally rich libretto accessible to an anglophone audience.

The opera’s prelude is playful — half dance, half game — which sets the stage for the entrance of the harried servants, Cendrillon’s father Pandolfe, the Countess and Cendrillon’s two stepsisters as they prepare for the palace ball. The personalities of these characters are taken to comical extremes — if they weren’t so funny, they would seem one-dimensional. “[With] this character, I explore a part of me that I don’t really access at all — that nasty, unforgiving, [unreasonable] part,” said Conservatory

sophomore Abigail Peterson, who will play the Countess today and Sunday.

“There are no redeeming qualities in [the Countess] — she’s truly evil and selfish to her core.”

Early in the first act, the Countess tells her daughters that “what you read in books could happen to you,” which sets the tone for the rest of the opera. The role that books play in this production can hardly be overstated — the first time Cendrillon appears on stage, she is reading and has a stack of other books next to her, and the same is true of the Prince when we meet him in the second act.

Cendrillon, whose mournfulness stands in sharp contrast to the antics of her stepsisters, sings her first aria to her imaginary friends, impossible creatures that appear in her dreams to comfort her when she is alone. As we watch the first part of her story unfold, she is living in her own imaginary world. “[Cendrillon] has been deeply hurt by the death of her mother and has taken refuge in books,” director Jonathon Field said. “This is from the original Perault version of the story. ” The Prince’s reaction when people try to disturb his reading — ignoring them by lifting his book higher up — will immediately endear him to the readers in the room. Like Cendrillon, he reads to escape his loneliness.

The set itself is framed by two doors

Jeremy Benjamin.

The Fairy Godmother’s scenes are delightful, as she and her entourage of magical creatures enter in a twirling, shimmering dance.

“The Fairy Godmother and … the six ‘fairy assistants’ … have some of the most delightful music in the show as they’re getting [Cendrillon] ready for the ball,” Ristow said. “It’s straight out of Disney.”

When Cendrillon descends the staircase at the ball, she meets the Prince’s gaze, after which they have eyes only for each other. The pair sings the first of many charming treble duets, the Prince played by a dramatic soprano.

“There is a theme in the duet between the Prince and [Cendrillon] in the palace,” Field said. “She looks at him and sings ‘Vous êtes mon Prince Charmant’ [You are my Prince Charming], and that theme slowly expands into the duet. We hear the theme again for their duet in the woods, and she repeats it again when

she comes back at the end of the opera.

It is a simple theme, but really effective.”

After Cendrillon flees the ball at the stroke of midnight, she briefly reunites with the Prince underneath the Fairy Godmother’s magical oak tree. The backstage chorus gives an otherworldly feel to this scene, as though the night itself is singing. But after all this fantasy, the moment when Cendrillon and the Prince are allowed to see each other again is hauntingly real. The lovers are only allowed a brief moment together before they are separated, and Cendrillon even becomes convinced that the whole story was a dream. She then hears about the glass slipper and returns to the palace, where the Prince recognizes her.

The opera concludes with the cast breaking the fourth wall and singing that they “hope you enjoyed this trip to the land of imagination” directly out to the audience.

and a set of tall, moving panels with text printed on them, all of which give the impression that the opera itself is taking place within the pages of a book.

“Throughout [all the set changes], the recurring theme is pages from the French version of Grimm’s fairy tales,” said Gregory Ristow, OC ’01, the opera chorus master. “So in Act 1 Scene 1, if you look closely, the far left panel and the far right panel make up the split halves of the first page of Cendrillon in the French.”

Set designer Laura CarlsonTarantowski created glorious set pieces for the three main settings in the opera — a fireplace for Cendrillon’s home, a staircase for the palace ballroom and an oak tree for the forest. Nothing on stage appears quite possible, but everything works to build the atmosphere of the story.

“We’re just trying to create a world that’s as romantic and as emotional as the music is,” Carlson-Tarantowski said.

The lighting design for the opera was a critical component, both for the showy effects, such as the repeated appearances and disappearances of the Fairy Godmother, and for more subtle emotional cues.

“We’re in [Cendrillon’s] house … and it’s cozy, it’s warm, there’s a fireplace, but … there’s this kind of starkness in the fact that she’s not equal to the rest [of the family],” said lighting designer

Ariel Miller

Sports

Page 14

The Oberlin Review, March 10, 2017

In the Locker Room This week, the Review sat down with Associate Head Track & Field Coach and Recruiting Coordinator John Hepp, OC ’07, and junior thrower Ana Richardson. Women’s track and field earned its first outright conference title in program history last weekend at the North Coast Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, where Richardson was crowned conference champion in the weight throw. Before departing for this weekend’s NCAA Indoor Championship meet in Naperville, IL, the coach-thrower duo reflected on their historic achievementt, their training approach and the team chemistry that makes their squad successful.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you describe how the weekend unfolded?

John Hepp: We knew it was going to be a good meet. We knew that we had a very talented team across the board, in all event areas. Ohio Wesleyan had won the last eight conference titles and we had been second [several] of those times. We were certainly, as a group, collectively very focused and determined on our end goal of winning a championship. The first day was great. We had conference champions and a couple people did some really big things. It gave us really good momentum going into the second day. The second day we kept that tone going in the morning with the field events. … It was easily the loudest and best energy I’ve ever experienced in that building, and that’s including my time as an athlete here. … All those hours of work, practices, lifting, everything else — you finally get to see something tangible at the end of the road, which is pretty special.

Ana Richardson: The only thing I have to add is, coming out of day one, we definitely had a large lead. But it

Track and Field meet. What got me here was the ability to explore.

John Hepp (left) and Ana Richardson was the tone of our team — everybody was ready to fight for our win. … We still felt that urge to go and get it and do it 100 percent, which is why I think we ended up beating them by 38 points. … We really stuck it out and went and got every point, and we earned it.

What was it like having the meet at home and being ranked No. 1 in the pre-championships poll?

AR: We actually talked about the poll as a team. We really took that as motivation for us to show up because we knew that was going to be fire for OWU. We wanted to use that as our own fuel to go and get it. When it comes to nerves, at least in the throwing program, we knew that we were going to come out and dominate, and we did.

JH: I think we have the best homefield advantage of any school in the conference. We knew that it was going to be exciting and loud and there would be great energy and a lot of people out to watch, but it was even better than any of us anticipated. It was incredible, and I think that lesser teams might have channeled those

nerves differently, but as a group, both teams used it to our advantage.

How does friendly competition play a role on the team?

AR: On the women’s side, we obviously have a bit of competition with each other but we’re all there to cheer each other on and see each other throw at our best possible distances every time, even if that means you might lose to that person. If you’re going to beat someone, you want to beat them at their best.

Everything we do is trying to get our own teammates to be their best. The type of competition we have definitely moves us forward. … Competition is not detrimental for us. It’s positive and we feed off of it.

JH: We have this incredible dynamic where, on the women’s side, you have three of the top 15 or 20 throwers in the country on the same team. The leadership from Ana and [junior] Monique [Newton] brings the other four [women’s throwers] along, which has been such a special thing to watch from my end. They’re being mentored and led by two very successful athletes and incredible

Editorial: Krzyzewski Should Bench Grayson Allen for Aggressive Play Continued from page 16 get to step on the court is an opportunity to play the game again and play the game the right way.”

But this proved to be a false promise when Allen’s aggressive and harmful play was put on display once again in late December. In Duke’s 72–61 victory over the Elon University Phoenix, he tripped Elon’s Steven Santa Ana. It was at that point where Krzyzewski had seen enough.

Immediately after the game, he stripped Allen of his captaincy and suspended him indefinitely. But after missing just one game, Allen returned to the court for a Jan. 4 game against Georgia Tech.

But only a one-game suspension? Duke University represents the cream of the crop in college basketball. Sitting Allen out for one game is not the discipline that a harmful player at a premier program

deserves. If it were only once or twice, I would understand because basketball is a game of constant contact, but three times?

If I were Krzyzewski, I would have benched Allen for at least two weeks. Not only do the flagrant and technical fouls hurt the team, but they also completely swing momentum to the opposing team. This season, Allen has had four technical fouls — four too many. Most importantly, he has become a continuous distraction to his team for over a year now.

One would think that by this point he would have learned his lesson, but no.

In Duke’s 72–64 win over the University of Pittsburgh, Allen extended his right foot to trip Jamel Artis. Though he was not issued a technical or flagrant foul, all eyes returned to Allen’s poor sportsmanship.

For the Blue Devils to win another national champion-

ship, they will not only have to play their best basketball, but also block out the unnecessary media attention Allen has provoked. Both tasks are not easy to complete in the high-pressure stage the NCAA Tournament presents every year.

While Duke has some of the country’s best talent, Krzyzewski needs to take a deeper look at the program to understand the players he wants to recruit. Allen’s actions may have long-lasting negative impacts on the program. Aspiring college basketball players may not want to play at a school that promotes harmful and overly aggressive play with a lack of discipline for its players.

With the NCAA Tournament starting next week, Duke has a lot of thinking to do about what kind of players it wants to wear “Blue Devils” across their chest moving forward.

leaders and people. That has made their learning curve that much less steep. It’s allowed that group to come together in a very special way. This weekend was the first time for the conference and for anyone who was there to actually see it on a big stage.

How did Oberlin end up with so much national-caliber talent?

JH: It’s a special thing to have so many talented people here at once, on the whole team. For me, it’s exciting that all of these people really appreciate what this place has to offer and what a special opportunity it is to be a student at Oberlin College.

Their success on the track is a direct reflection of how happy and successful they are at the school. They love the school — that’s why they came — and they love track.

AR: I definitely think what got me here was realizing that Oberlin had something unique. It offers me a way to get ahead and do things that I love in a serious way. … I don’t think I’ve ever been given such a great opportunity in my life, to come to such a selective school and do these things and meet people I never thought I’d

Coach Hepp, what experience do you hope to impart on your athletes? Ana, what do you hope to take from your college athletics experience?

JH: You have very few chances in your life, especially at this young age, where you get to do every single thing you want to do. This school gives you the opportunity to do that, whether you’re a student-athlete or not. Your success in life is, in a lot of ways, predicated on the opportunities you have. When you come to Oberlin College, you’re going to have more opportunities, I think, than you would at any other school in the country. It gets me very excited, very emotional to think of all the incredible things that our student-athletes are doing and what that means they’ll be able to do down the road and for the rest of their lives. … The lessons that our athletes learn are more satisfying to me than any athletic accomplishment.

AR: I think what I’ve already gotten from my experience is really leaning into things that are uncomfortable, both in sports and school.

I remember entering Intro Chemistry and thinking that I didn’t belong there and wasn’t prepared. But now, making it through that class and going further has made me so much stronger and better. “Maybe this just isn’t for me” — that kind of thing has been abolished from my thought process. Even with workouts, we do things where I think, “Maybe this is not for me.” But leaning into that — those are the things that really make you better.

Interview by Jackie McDermott, Sports editor Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo editor

Yeowomen Cruising After Three Non-Conference Wins Continued from page 16 An all logged two goals each.

With a talented veteran squad and underclassmen rising to the occasion, the Yeowomen have found a tight cohesion on the field so far. In Saturday’s matchup, 16 of 22 goals came from combinations between two or more players. Senior co-captain Sloane Garelick said she believes the team has been thriving as a result of everyone’s support and dedication.

“On and off the field, everyone on our team supports each other and enjoys spending time together,” Garelick said. “This translates into a great environment while we’re playing in which everyone respects one another and values each other’s opinions and advice on the field.”

With the Yeowomen able to take such significant leads early in matches, Head Coach Lynda McCandlish has had the flexibility to rotate in combinations of players consisting of under and upperclassmen, allowing rookies to test out their skills in the collegiate arena for the first time. The firstyears have flourished in this role, with three of four netting at least two goals each.

McClandish said she has been pleased with the team’s upperclassmen, who have led the way for the Yeowomen statistically this season, reflected in Oberlin outshooting their opponents 72–14 and 57–6 on-goal.

“Our leadership with our captains and our entire senior class is awesome,” she said.

“I think our team dynamic is a reflection of their personalities and leadership and it will be interesting to see what happens this year.”

The Yeowomen will look to continue their success against non-conference opponents next Wednesday when they travel to take on the John Carroll University Blue Streaks at 6 p.m. Last year, Oberlin fell to the Blue Streaks 21–18 in a high-scoring matchup. Still weeks out from their first North Coast Athletic Conference contest, the Yeowomen and McCandlish are approaching the season step by step.

“We still have a few weeks before conference play starts and are facing some hard opponents, so we aren’t thinking about conference games yet,” she said. “We’re just taking it game-by-game and day-by-day.

Sports

The Oberlin Review, March 10,2017

Page 15

—Baseball —

Baseball Sweeps Berea Mountaineers in Doubleheader

Senior Brian Carney drills a three-run home run in Oberlin’s 12–1 season-opening win over Berea College. The Yeomen were also victorious in game two of the doubleheader , winning 17–0.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

James Cato With 31 hits and 29 runs, the baseball team opened up the 2017 season in style by defeating the Berea College Mountaineers in a doubleheader 12–1 and 17–0. After a disappointing 2016 campaign, the Yeomen are looking to build off their current 2–0 start to recapture the

magic of 2015, when they claimed the first conference championship in program history and made a deep run into the NCAA Regionals.

“The disappointment from last year has left our guys extra hungry for success this season,” senior co-captain Michael Masella said. “Our preparation for the upcoming season started on the first day of classes in September. It’s been

Track, Field Earns Program’s First NCAC Championship Continued from page 16 McClain surprised many by defeating her mentor, junior Monique Newton, who finished second. Newton was ranked first in the nation in Division III shot-put heading into the meet. She qualified for NCAAs earlier in December with a throw of 49-09.25 at the Kent State University Golden Flash Gala. Newton said she was happy with the team’s collective success.

“I didn’t win,” Newton said. “I’ve won the previous four [NCAC indoor and outdoor championships]. My streak is over, but I would trade an individual title for a team conference title any day.”

Back on the track, first-year and LaGrange, Ohio, native Shannon Wargo claimed the victory in the women’s mile as her family cheered her on from the bleachers. Outrunning highly ranked competition from DePauw and Allegheny, Wargo finished the mile in 5 minutes, 6.09 seconds in her championship debut.

Junior captain and sprinter Lilah Drafts-Johnson also finished first in the women’s 400-meter dash with an NCAC record-breaking time of 57.18.

To top things off, she finished second in the women’s 200 and helped her teammates finish second and third in the 4x200 meter and 4x400 meter relays, respectively. Drafts-Johnson gave all credit to her team.

“Being a ‘good’ runner requires more than just talent,” she said. “You need to be dedicated, vulnerable and fearless in competition and in practice. … We were able to win because we’ve worked hard, given 100 percent effort, and learned from our failures. We just needed to perform like the deep, talented team we are, and that’s exactly what we did.”

The Yeowomen finished with a grand total of 181 points and 10 awards from the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, as well as the women’s coach of the year accolade for Appenheimer and the sprinter/hurdler of the year honor for Drafts-Johnson.

While the meet was incredible on the track, Appenheimer said he will remember the support the Yeowomen showed each other, even those who were not competing.

“Their excitement buoyed us to do incredible things in two days,” he said. “There’s a saying about the high tide that raises all ships. The people who didn’t compete were our high tide. They lifted us up. It was incredible to see the 65 women up on the stand together sharing this achievement.

There’s nothing else like it.”

Appenheimer will travel with Drafts-Johnson, Richardson, McClain and Newton to compete in the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships in Naperville, IL, this weekend.

The rest of the Yeowomen are already back in action, training for the outdoor track and field season. Appenheimer said the team has set its sights on earning another title at the outdoor NCAA Championships in April.

“We’ve never won [a] conference in the spring,” Appenheimer said.

“But after this weekend, we all know that we want to do this all again.”

a long offseason. We’re definitely all itching to get going.”

Led by senior right-fielder Brian Carney, who went five for six with a three-run home run and seven RBI, the Yeomen offense exploded against Berea. Junior shortstop Sam Harris succeeded at the plate and in the field, going five for eight with three doubles, four RBI and five runs scored. Sophomore Ian Dinsmore, who led the team in 2016 batting .389 in 36 starts, added four hits as well.

The Yeomen also dominated on the mound, led by sophomore Zachary Steer and junior Sean Kiley. A 2015 All-NCAC Tournament Team selection, Kiley started off the day with a win in game one, tossing five shutout innings with four strikeouts. In game two, Steer logged his first collegiate win on the mound by tossing five scoreless frames with seven strikeouts. Defensively, the Yeomen posted a clean sheet by not committing a single error in either game.

Head Coach Adrian Abrahamowicz said he credits the team’s early success to the improved pre-game preparation.

“The chemistry of the team is better than it’s been in past years,” he said. “We have better synergy at practice, and the guys hold each other accountable. Last year was different because we lost a lot of seniors.”

After finishing 14–26 overall and 6–13 in NCAC play last year, the Yeomen are looking to fill the void left by the loss of 12 seniors. But a veteran group of nine seniors has meshed well with nine talented first-years throughout the offseason.

“We have talented freshmen, and the older guys are going to carry the gauntlet for us,” Abrahamowicz said. “They’ve earned it.”

This year, the Yeomen will enter as underdogs. In the preseason NCAC poll, Oberlin was predicted to finish in eighth place behind division rivals Kenyon College and Allegheny College. They will also have to contend with The College of Wooster, which was projected to repeat as conference champions and is ranked No. 14 nationally. Despite their underwhelming projection, the Yeomen have their sights set high.

“It’s nice to see that everyone is motivated on their own this year,” senior captain Justin Cruz said. “We’re improving on not making as many errors in the field, and winning the ‘freebee war’ as we call it, which means taking walks and hit-by-pitches when we can. That way, we chip away at the other team.”

The Yeomen will continue their non-conference schedule today when they take on the Calvin College Knights in a doubleheader in Westfield, IN. After Sunday’s doubleheader at Earlham College, the Yeomen travel westward to Arizona for 10 games in five days starting March 18.

With conference play beginning April 1 at The College of Wooster, Oberlin is determined to replicate its 2015 success.

“This team has meant so much to me over the past four years,” Masella said. “I’d love nothing more than to end my career here with a conference championship.”

Cool or Drool: Soccer’s CTE Problem Dan Bisno Columnist “Ha sido sólo un susto” — It was only a scare. Fernando Torres tweeted those words following the traumatic header that could have cost him his career, not to mention his life.

While the collision lasted only a fraction of a second, the aftermath was a peculiar blend of emotions. Immediately after the 32-year-old striker fell to the ground, more than half of the players on both teams rushed to his assistance. Torres was unconscious. Players began prying open his mouth to ensure he didn’t choke on his tongue and asphyxiate.

Meanwhile, other players looked stunned. Perhaps the most unanticipated reaction was the tears. Almost every grown man on the field was weeping as if someone had died.

Many medics and players couldn’t even look at Torres, whose neck had contorted in mid-air. Perhaps this is the sports landscape to get used to in 2017 following developments in concussion research.

Torres was diagnosed with a “traumatic brain injury” at the hospital, yet miraculously discharged a day later and told to take 48 hours off of physical activity. What kind of concussion protocol is this? Especially considering all we know about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease found in athletes who have sustained repeated brain trauma, letting Torres back on the field following a quick MRI is naive.

CTE plagued boxers for decades.

The frequent head hits and concussions were known to cause brain damage. Memory loss, early-onset dementia and poor balance are just a few of the many symptoms that afflict patients. Until recently, CTE was thought to be a only boxing disease.

However, since 2002 many American football players have been diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and it is beginning to gain attention in other sports.

While soccer may not expose players to the same risk of CTE as sports like football, a study published less than a month ago found that four of six post-mortem evaluations of former professional soccer players were consistent with signs of CTE. Furthermore, all six had developed Alzheimer’s disease. Especially considering how recently this study was published, La Liga should be reevaluating their sub-par concussion protocols.

Following this study, the American Youth Soccer Organization banned headers for youth players ages 10 and under. The scientific community acknowledges that those with the highest risk of CTE are those who accumulate many head hits over their career, most of which do not result in a concussion. Many youth soccer players report hundreds of head hits per year.

These facts should start conversations about the necessity of headers in soccer. Full disclosure: This is a tough topic, and I do not necessarily condone the removal of headers from professional soccer. But do we want millions of children practicing headers during regular practices? While we should cherish tradition, there must be a point in which we learn from the scientific research about the risks of these practices.

Players are praised for their resilience when faced with roadblocks, whether those be injuries, sickness or concussions. While Michael Jordan playing through the flu in his famous 1997 flu game probably had zero impact on his long-term health, Bo Jackson’s decision to run through the

pain of a hip dislocation ultimately ended his football career and led to a hip replacement. Jackson has even remarked that he would have never played football if he had known about CTE. Torres is a veteran. In fact, he’s Spain’s golden boy, and the thirdhighest goal scorer in his country’s history. Despite a slump in his play after his 2016 return to Atlético Madrid, where he started his career, Torres is back on his game. This is not the time in a player’s career to be the hero that plays through the concussion that leads to decades of misery from CTE. Players must learn to exhibit patience through these injuries, and more importantly leagues must enforce it.

Through all of the bleak discoveries in CTE research, a new hope may have been found. The National Institute of Health has introduced a new approach to concussion protocol testing, whereby blood samples are taken within six hours of contact.

Levels of tau in the blood, a protein whose aggregation is associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, may be a better determinant of the brain damage sustained by an athlete. Researchers have found an algorithm that relates tau protein concentration to the minimum rest time a player should take.

Ultimately, better concussion protocols may help FIFA in the long run.

Already, the NFL has paid millions to former players who suffered brain damage during their playing days. To save itself from that liability and protect its players, FIFA must adapt to the demands of other contact sports and take CTE more seriously. While we admire Torres for his determination to return to the field, this story and many more like it earn a drool for the trivial treatment of concussions in soccer.

Sports The Oberlin Review

Page 16

March 10, 2017

— women’s Track and field —

Yeowomen Claim Conference Title Julie Schreiber, Staff writer Jackie McDermott, Sports editor Women’s track and field smashed conference records and reached new heights last weekend at the North Coast Athletic Conference Indoor Track Championship, claiming its first outright title in program history. As boisterous cheers reverberated off the walls of Heisman Field House, the Yeowomen stood alone on their home turf after besting the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops, the team that had tied them for first in 2009.

“To perform so well at home here in Oberlin, in such a convincing fashion, made the win very special,” Head Coach Ray Appenheimer said.

The two-day competition kicked off Friday with top performances by Yeowomen in virtually every category. Two juniors dominated the field as Annie Goodridge earned first place in the triple jump, and Ana Richardson took the crown in the weight throw.

Richardson, who entered Friday’s weight throw as the top seed in the round of 18, threw 56 feet, 11.5 inches to qualify for nationals.

Goodridge jumped 37-10 in the preliminary round, the mark which eventually secured them the win, despite recently enduring a bout of norovirus. Goodridge said they and their teammates were fiercely determined, and, although the team was ranked No. 1 in the prechampionships poll, the Yeowomen avoided being lulled into a false sense of security.

“The coaches and captains reminded us that the prediction meant nothing unless every single person brought their full energy to the meet,” Goodridge said. “There was a tangible electricity in the field house, both coming from my fellow teammates on both the men’s and women’s side and people who just came to watch.”

Goodridge said even their teammates who were

Darren Zaslau Sports editor

Women’s track and field recorded its first outright indoor conference championship in program history last weekend, defeating Ohio Wesleyan University by a 38 point margin.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

not running in the conference meet made a huge impact.

“Competing or not, every single person on our team who was able to make it to the meet made the conference win possible,” they said. “It’s not just what we did that day, but the months of preparation and the hundreds of hours we’ve spent together on the track that really defines who we are as a team. I have never felt closer to such a large group of people in my life.”

The squad’s successes continued to accumulate on Saturday, with senior pole vaulter Ave Spencer’s

conference-winning vault of 11-09 on her second attempt.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day came from first-year thrower Naeisha McClain. McClain bested the NCAC record with her throw of 49-02.50 in the preliminaries, qualifying for NCAAs in her first ever NCAC championship meet.

“It was absolutely amazing to win,” McClain said.

“Seeing and hearing the crowd of loud, cheering familiar faces was a feeling unlike any other.”

See Track, page 15

— Women’s Lacrosse —

Women’s Lacrosse Dominates Openers

Junior Natalie Rauchle, named NCAC Player of the Week last week, maneuvers past a Kalamazoo College defender in Oberlin’s 22–2 home-opening win over the Hornets. The Yeowomen are currently 3–0.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

Sam Harris Women’s lacrosse continued its hot start to the 2017 season Saturday with a 22–2 win over the Kalamazoo College Hornets. Led by junior Natalie Rauchle, who scored five goals, 10 different Yeowomen tallied goals.

The Yeowomen were also victo-

Duke Needs Discipline

rious yesterday, defeating the Otterbein University Cardinals 19–4 to improve their overall record to 3–0.

Rauchle continued her dominant start to the season by tallying three goals to move her team-leading total to 12, while junior Sydney Garvis, senior Maggie Mullard and sophomore Hayley Drapkin added three goals each. Oberlin’s offense dominated

once again, outshooting the Cardinals 32–4 and 23–4 on goal.

For her efforts, Rauchle was named the North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Week after also scoring four goals in Oberlin’s 17–2 season opening win at Heidelberg last Wednesday. She credits the team’s early success to the team dynamic.

“There is so much leadership within the team that we’ve been able to form a new, strong chemistry,” Rauchle said. “These games have been really important in giving us a grasp on how we truly play as a team. We’ve also been using these games to perfect our plays as much as possible before we start conference play.”

On the back end of the field, the defensive unit came out of the gates strong to prevent the Kalamazoo Hornets from taking a single shot in the first half. Offensively, Oberlin immediately found its stride as Garvis netted a quick goal less than three minutes into the game. With 25:29 left in the first half, Rauchle scored on an assist from first-year Eliza Amber to give the Yeowomen a 2–0 advantage. From that point on, the Yeowomen went on a 13–0 scoring run to enter halftime up 15–0.

In the second half, the Yeowomen picked up right where they left off with sophomore Sabrina Deleonibus rifling a shot into the back of the net to score her second goal of the game. Oberlin’s attack was relentless, outshooting Kalamazoo 41–4 and 34–2 on-goal. Garvis added three goals, while Deleonibus, Drapkin, sophomore Sydney Allen, senior Sara Phister and first-year Josephine See Yeowomen, page 14

Duke University has always been a national powerhouse in men’s college basketball. The Blue Devils are tied for third in most national championships with five wins, command an NCAA-best .755 NCAA tournament winning percentage and have suited up 71 players who went on to the NBA. Under the direction of Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the all-time leader in wins in Division I men’s basketball history, winning is an expectation, not an aspiration.

Entering this season, the Blue Devils were the firstranked team in the Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll. Not only were they projected to win another national championship, but the Blue Devils also had numerous preseason All-Americans and top-tier talent on the floor. Junior guard Grayson Allen was the highlight of this year’s group and is now considered one of the best players in the country.

A second-team All-American and first-team all-conference last year, Allen has become a center of controversy. On Feb. 8, 2016, Allen aggressively tripped Louisville’s Raymond Spalding and received a flagrant foul, but this was just the first of Allen’s harmful plays. Just a few weeks later, he intentionally tripped Florida State’s Xavier Rathan-Mayes when Duke was up by 15 points with only five seconds left. Although he wasn’t called for a foul, the replay showed Allen deliberately lifting his right foot to trip the other player.

Upon the 2016 season’s end, Allen vowed to put the tripping episodes behind him in an interview with ESPN.com.

“I know there’s never completely a clean slate,” he said.

“That’s going to be replayed and not forgotten about. But for me, every opportunity I See Editorial, page 14