March 30, 2018 by The Oberlin Review

The Oberlin Review March 30, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 18

Board of Trustees Approves External Financial Review Lila Michaels Staff Writer

commuting to other dining halls with their tight practice and class schedules. “With our demanding schedule, the most viable option for Conservatory students has always been Dascomb,” Linares said. “Having to walk to Stevie is very inconvenient because it is too far for people who have classes at 12. We are also worried about relying on DeCafé because it can get very crowded, and now it could take even longer to get food.” Raimondo explained that the College intends to address accessibility concerns by updating dining options. “We want to invest in Stevenson in a way that makes it more attractive for students and to make it more accessible,” she said. “One thing that I hope will happen next year is to bring some of the grab-and-go capacity to Stevenson that is currently in Wilder. Having another place where students can get that kind of lunch experience would be great.” To address South Campus dining needs, Raimondo added that the administration is considering adding lunch options at Lord-Saunders. “We are looking at some kind of lunch offering at Lord-Saunders, which is actually the same time difference from the Conservatory as Dascomb is,” she said. “There may be some other options as well, such as having grab-and-go options delivered to the Con or setting up some really high-quality vending machines with

The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to proceed with the Academic and Administrative Program Review during the March 9 board meeting, instructing President Carmen Ambar to put together a 30-person Steering Committee that will oversee the review, which will be led by educational consulting firm Stevens Strategy. This Steering Committee will be made up of 15 faculty members and 15 board members, students, administrative and professional staff, and union members, and it will be chaired by Ambar. “[The Board of Trustees indicated] that I should convene a cross-functional team that includes representation from important faculty committees and faculty leaders as well as other stakeholders,” Ambar wrote in an email sent to all faculty and professional staff. General Faculty met to discuss the proposal and two motions that were proposed in advance of their Wednesday meeting. One proposal, which asked that the final results of the AAPR go to the General Faculty for approval before reaching the board, was approved 104 to 44. The second motion proposed that eight of the 15 positions designated for faculty on the AAPRSC be elected by General Faculty, and the remaining seven be appointed by the General Faculty Council. This motion failed 74 to 63. Ambar and other administrators are hoping to bring in a representative from Steven’s Strategy to meet with General Faculty in an attempt to alleviate concerns about the firm’s qualifications. After the March 9 board meeting, Ambar addressed concerns students, staff, and faculty brought up regarding the financial review, particularly faculty worries that a consulting company is not qualified to evaluate an academic department. “We all have program reviews, every single academic program at Oberlin undergoes a program review where outside academics — leaders in their field — come in and evaluate the program,” said Chris Howell, James Monroe professor of Politics. “Those are the people who can evaluate your program, not a consulting company.” Ambar responded by saying this process is about reviewing the College more generally than just in its academics. “This process is broader than that,” Ambar said. “Certainly you need to think about some quality metrics, but you’re also trying to think about mission centeredness. You’re also trying to think about potential student interest, which is not something that happens in that type of process, and you’re also trying to think about the financial piece. All those pieces have to come together, so when a group comes to review an academic department from the outside in the pure academic ways, they’re not thinking about the sort of financial framing of it in the context of the entire institution.” Chair of the Board of Trustees Chris Cana-

see Administration, page 3

see College, page 4

Students line up to get food at Fourth Meal, which will be moved to DeCafé and the Rathskeller next fall due to the closing of Dascomb Dining Hall. Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

Dascomb to Close, New CDS Options Introduced Simon Idelson Staff Writer Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo announced that Dascomb Dining Hall will close next semester in a March 12 campus-wide email. To offset the meals specific to Dascomb, both DeCafé and Lord-Saunders Dining Hall will offer breakfast, and DeCafé will host fourth meal. The administration is also looking to increase dining accessibility by extending Lord-Saunders hours and adding grab-and-go options, currently available in DeCafé, to Stevenson Dining Hall as well, which will otherwise continue operating under the same hours as the current semester. The campus dining changes follow President Carmen Ambar’s presentations last month detailing the financial status of the College. Ambar noted in these presentations that because enrollment has dipped in recent years, it makes more fiscal sense to consolidate dining spaces to increase savings. Raimondo said that the College will save an estimated $500,000 per year by closing Dascomb. Most of the costs come from staffing and the energy and resources it takes to operate the facility. “Some of [the savings] is from the staffing reductions, and Oberlin runs an extremely high number of commercial kitchens for a college of its size,” Raimondo said. “They are

very expensive in terms of equipment maintenance and in terms of power.” Although Dascomb’s closure is intended to help Oberlin tackle its financial situation, Campus Dining Service workers are concerned about the loss of jobs it presents. “I feel terrible that people are being disposed to other places,” said Valerie Hardnett, a non-union Dascomb CDS employee. “But it is a reality of life. I think people need to be prepared, have a plan, have funds saved, etc. Overall this decision to close Dascomb is about saving the institution for future generations.” Students also said that they are upset that closing Dascomb will reduce student job opportunities and the sense of community that students find there. “There is 100 percent a community amongst all people who work at Dascomb — among the students, chefs, and temps,” said College sophomore and Dascomb studentemployee Sarah Behrend-Wilcox. “I love coming to work because I know that I’m going to love the people who I work with. Stevie just doesn’t seem to have that sense of community.” Other students said they were concerned about dining location accessibility with the coming changes, since Dascomb is the dining hall most central to campus and closest to several academic buildings. Conservatory sophomore Gabriela Linares said she and other Conservatory students are especially worried about the distance of

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 Four Startups Win $37,000 in 2018 LaunchU Competition

05 Fasley Equating Gun Control With Abortion Restrictions Prevents Productive Reform

08-09 March for Our Lives

10 Chamber Play Delivers Performance on Cyclical Abuse

14 Kickboxing, Martial Arts Empowers Individuals

11 Cooperative Game Will Make Players Long for A Way Out

15 Hughes, McDermott Highlight Successful Spring Break Trip

03 Chemistry Students Showcase Research at Meeting-In-Miniature Symposium

06 Eulogy for ObieHub, Democracy As We Know It

The Oberlin Review | March 30, 2018

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Four Startups Win $37,000 in 2018 LaunchU Competition Avery Resor, who did not attend Oberlin. The fledgling company walked away with $20,000 to help launch their business. O’Hare described their sustainable, ethical method of harvesting seaweed from shallow waters. “We only go out to about our knees or our hips and just use scissors and harvest these varieties in a way that they can regenerate — we are really careful to follow ethical harvesting practices,” O’Hare said. “And then we dry Winners of the LaunchU competition stand together. From left to right: Cath- it out in the sun, and we have a erine O’Hare, OC ’11, and Tessa Emmer, OC ’11; double-degree senior Benjamin commercial kitchen where we do Steger and College senior Bryan Rubin; College first-year Katie Kim; and Col- a lot of the processing and making lege senior Hassan Bin Fahim . Photo by Yevhen Gulenko our products.” While their respective studies casting, how to build and work Devyn Malouf did not directly translate to entrewith a team from a start-up perStaff Writer preneurship, both Oberlin alums spective, website building, and noted the impact that their OberThe sixth annual LaunchU more. lin educations had on their curInitially, 31 participants were program — Oberlin’s startup acrent career path and this venture. celerator, boot camp, and pitch involved in the program with a to“Being a student at Oberlin, the competition — came to a close tal of 21 independent ventures. 17 expectation among that commuMarch 10, as 10 teams of startup ventures made it to the first pitch nity there, and with all our Obercompanies competed for a pot of competition in February, and 10 lin community past there too, is $37,000. Three of the four win- advanced to the final round in that we care about the impact of ning businesses were made up of March. In the end, the first, seccurrent Oberlin students, while ond, and third place teams re- what we’re doing and trying to ceived monetary awards, as well do it in a way that thinks about one team consisted of alumi. our impact at every level — social The program began with a as an honorable mention. This year’s first-place pitch and environmental,” Emmer said. 12-day, 12-hour “boot camp” of sorts in January that offered a va- was Salt Point Seaweed, a Bay “That responsibility carries with riety of resources and trainings to Area seaweed harvesting com- you past Oberlin, for sure.” According to O’Hare, the pair educate the novice entrepreneurs pany founded by Tessa Emmer, of Oberlin alums got involved on key aspects of succeeding in OC ’11, a former Environmental with LaunchU in the hopes of obbusiness, such as training on mar- Studies and Economics double taining the means to sustainably keting, intellectual property law, major; Catherine O’Hare, OC expand their business, while rebranding, finance, business fore- ’11, a former Biology major; and maining true to its mission.

“We had been looking for accelerators like [LaunchU] and thinking about it, but we’re such a unique company that it felt like we didn’t fit into the totally normal tech startups that are in the Bay Area. We’re kind of in this funny middle ground,” O’Hare said. “So, when we saw ... LaunchU, it felt like a great fit, and I was really excited to come back to Oberlin.” Bara Watts, the director of LaunchU, called the businesses to come out of the program this year “uniquely Oberlin,” noting how an Oberlin education situates people to come up with creative, socially conscious ideas. “Because we’re a school without a business school program, our students and alumni come in with a mindset more focused on a broader set of issues,” Watts said. “They start from where the issues are and what the problems are and work backwards for where to deal with it — the business aspects, which is actually a very exciting and a very different way of pursuing start-up businesses. And because of that, I think we have some really interesting companies and products that have come out of it.” Emmer discussed how this type of incubator program can help unseasoned startups, particularly when the contestants don’t have a business background. “I think that regardless of where you are in your business,

the frameworks that you work with in this type of incubator program in terms of understanding who your potential customer is, how to put together a business plan, how to put together your financial projections, what it means to actually be sustainable financially — having the tools to think through that that is huge,” Emmer said. “Those tools stay with you, and then you know some of the questions you have to ask yourself early on, which aren’t necessarily intuitive.” Salt Point Seaweed plans to use the money to create a seaweed farm on land, rather than manually retrieving it from the ocean. This will allow them to increase the amount of seaweed they are able to produce, as well as reduce the amount they are taking from the ocean so as to promote more sustainable practices. The second place prize of $10,000 was awarded to College seniors Bryan Rubin and Benjamin Steger for their startup Virtu. Academy, an online music lessons service that connects Oberlin Conservatory students to middle and high school students across the state of Ohio. The website is currently in the pilot stages, but has already hosted a few lessons, and is welcoming its first paying customer later this week. “You can scroll through a list See LaunchU, page 4

Sidewalks, Social Justice Discussed in State of the City Address Tess Joosse Staff Writer City Council President Bryan Burgess and City Manager Rob Hillard addressed past successes, such as improvements in city services, public works, social justice, and energy sustainability, as well as challenges and future projects in Oberlin’s State of the City address last Thursday. Burgess also gave the attendees an update on construction of the NEXUS pipeline, which he said will inevitably be built, despite local activists’ best efforts. For several years, the city has engaged in litigation aimed at rerouting the NEXUS pipeline, which in recent months has become the subject of several protests in the community. However, since a federal judge ruled in favor of NEXUS in December, Burgess said construction is expected to begin by late April. “Once they arrive they’ll be here for about two months,” Burgess said. “We’re talking hundreds of workers [and] big earth-moving machines installing a pipe within stone’s throw distance of houses on Reserve Avenue. It’s frustrating —

so frustrating.” The rest of Burgess and Hillard’s presentation was more optimistic in tone and focused on the city’s recent successes and upcoming projects. One such project is the continued implementation of the Safe Routes to School grant, which provides the city with $500,000 to increase the safety of children traveling to school. Money from the grant has already been used to install bike racks, covered awnings, and more lighting on crosswalks along heavily traveled routes in the community. “The big chunk of the money that we’re still waiting on is for the sidewalks — approximately $350,000 worth of sidewalks,” Burgess said. “Main Street, Lorain Street, and College [Street] are the main thoroughfares for children to get to school and it’s important to us to make sure they can get to school on sidewalks.” The address also discussed the city’s Complete Streets program, which aims to make streets more accessible and navigable. “Streets are for everybody,” Burgess

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Melissa Harris Christian Bolles Managing Editor Daniel Markus News Editors Sydney Allen Roman Broszkowski Opinions Editors Jackie Brant El Wilson This Week Editor Lucy Martin Arts Editors Julia Peterson Ananya Gupta Sports Editors Alex McNicoll Alexis Dill Layout Editors Hannah Robinson Parker Shatkin Elena Hartley Photo Editors Bryan Rubin Hugh Newcomb Business Manager Monique Newton

added. “We expect when a street is designed it will provide access for vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists.” Vice President of City Council Linda Slocum agreed that developing a more connected infrastructure in Oberlin is an important goal for the city. “We’re trying to make Oberlin a bikeable, walkable community,” she said. “I also want to connect more to neighborhoods. It’s important to me to involve neighbors in deciding where they want the sidewalks to be, in more of a downup process.” Councilmember Kristin Peterson agreed, noting the deterioration of some of the city’s roads and water lines should be prioritized. “I look forward to continued progress on infrastructure — road repairs and maintenance and water line replacement,” Peterson said. Also, close monitoring of right of way legislation and its impact on the city’s utility poles.” The State of the City presentation reflected on some of the city’s accomplishments from the past few years. Since residents voted to increase the income

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tax rate to 2.5 percent in 2014, the city’s financial state has become more stable. The city also achieved over 85 percent carbon-neutral power recently. Burgess added that we have some of the lowest electricity rates in the state of Ohio and the lowest in Lorain County. The city also hopes to implement a climate action plan this summer with the goal of complete carbon neutrality by 2050. Other highlights include the passage of laws and regulations that reaffirm the city’s commitment to social justice. These include replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, raising the minimum wage for municipal employees, increasing protections for LGBTQ people, and protecting individuals affected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Burgess acknowledged the responsibility that comes with Oberlin’s reputation and renown. “Oberlin has this knack of making national headlines,” he said. “We’re a town of 8,000 people. We have an impact on the rest of the nation that I don’t think we realize.”

Corrections: The Oberlin Review is not aware of any corrections at this time. To submit a corrrection, email managingeditor@ oberlinreview.org.

Chemistry Students Showcase Research at Meeting-In-Miniature Symposium Gabby Greene Staff Writer

Oberlin Chemistry students presented their research findings for the annual Meeting-In-Miniature Wednesday. This event, both a presentation symposium and networking opportunity, was sponsored by Oberlin’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the Cleveland branch of the American Chemical Society. Oberlin, the host of this year’s event, gave seven students the opportunity to feature their work alongside graduate and undergraduate students from local institutions. College juniors Alyssa Altheimer and Cecilia Wallace were the only students of the seven presenting as a team. The two researched with Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Jason Belitsky in his lab, examining melanin, the biological pigments found in skin and hair. “This is the first time we’re presenting, but I went [to the MeetingIn-Miniature] last year at Cleveland State University,” Altheimer said. This Wednesday was the first time Oberlin has hosted the event since 2012. In the lab, Altheimer and Wallace coated discs with melanin-like compounds and placed the discs in water with heavy metals. Melanin has a property that binds to heavy metals, changing colors in the process. Altheimer and Wallace simulated heavy metal pollution water and observed the resulting color changes when the discs interacted with the metals. “I feel like we’ve both gotten a lot more excited about kind of the wonders of melanin and the interesting sort of background that drives everything we do,” Wallace said. “It’s kind of cool to really, really dive into the specifics of one area instead of just learning the general stuff in class.” The projects students presented reached across many different fields within chemistry and biochemistry. College senior Arden Hammer presented her research in material science in the same section as students researching organic chemistry. She is optimistic about the mix of different topics the symposium covered. “All of the cool ideas later discovered are the result of talking to someone at a conference and them suggesting something that made you have a spark,” Hammer said. “Hopefully something like that happens at the Meeting-InMiniature, especially since there are so many fields in chemistry all coming together.” The event offered an opportunity for local undergraduate students, graduate students, and professors to share research and ideas. Visiting Professor of Chemistry Duy “Zoey”

good, healthy food.” DeCafé has been adjusting over this past year to expand its dining options and include more groceries, causing greater traffic during peak mealtimes. Raimondo said that the College is working to further address this challenge. “Better traffic flow is a high priority,” Raimondo said. “We have not decided yet, but there are a bunch of different options on how can we use technology, maybe to The Oberlin Review | March 30, 2018

Thursday, March 8, 2018

8:51 a.m. A staff member reported receiving a phone call from an Oberlin College number used in a credit card scam. The information was reported to the telephone office. 9:45 a.m. A student reported the theft of items from their unlocked Union Street Village Housing Unit sometime during the night. A red, white, and blue Fila jacket and a black and orange JBL speaker were taken.

Friday, March 9, 2018 Emily Pentzer giving the plenary lecture at the Chemistry and Biochemistry Departments Meanting-In-Miniature Wednesday. Photo by Hugh Newcomb, Photo Editor

Hua and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Robert Thompson served as this year’s organizers. “Organizing an event like this I think requires being able to think longterm,” Hua said. “The thing about the symposium is that we only let undergraduate and graduate students in local institutions present, so this is a good experience for a student because you rarely get to do it at a larger platform.” Aside from encouraging students to share their own work, the Meeting-InMiniature also invited Emily Pentzer, the Frank Hovorka Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Case Western University, to give the plenary lecture. Pentzer’s lecture touched on the work her lab has done, including the creation of new materials for supercapacitor electrodes and the importance of communication and collaboration. “Some of our projects have really started with just conversations over coffee,” Pentzer said. “Collaboration can really help kind of get outside of that box of what’s normally done and have more creative and inventive ideas, and ideally those will lead to better performance and properties.” Pentzer’s lab reflects this collaborative nature, with high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows participating in research. The Meeting-In-Miniature inclusion of graduate students in the event offered undergraduates the chance to observe future pathways. “I think it’s always helpful to get that sort of outside perspective that maybe will bring something to my attention that I haven’t thought of before,” College senior Mikaila Hoffman said. Hoffman, a Chemistry major with a concentration in Cognitive Sciences, presented her research on the formation of cocrystals, crystalline substances made of caffeine and malonic acid. Both Hoffman and Hammer’s research served as their senior Honors projects. After graduating Oberlin, Hoffman is looking to continue on to graduate school. “The sort of exercise of having

ownership over a project, being involved in the experimental design of the project and really the heavy lifting of actually doing the research and then also writing it up and presenting on it seemed like a really excellent opportunity to develop those skills going into grad school,” Hoffman said. The research process offered personal as well as scientific discoveries for students. College senior Gabby Walsh’s research on using analytical chemistry to better detect ovarian cancer helped inspire her to change paths. Walsh, a double major in Biology and Biochemistry, now plans to attend medical school instead of graduate school. “Part of what made me change my mind was realizing how focused research can be and how focused grad school would be, which was appealing to me at certain points, but also in other ways I wanted to do more than just work on a single project and then make a thesis about that,” Walsh said. Walsh added that she believes that opportunities such as Meeting-InMiniature help make science more accessible. “I think science can be really frightening sometimes,” Walsh said. “I think it’s really cool that, with conferences here, friends can come by, or even in previous years, like presenting in Cleveland.” Having the Meeting-In-Miniature at Oberlin presented an opportunity for local researchers and Oberlin students to learn and collaborate. Hoffman said she believes Oberlin is a good fit for this kind of event. “If anyone’s wanting to do chemistry but is intimidated by the sort of the reputation that surrounds chemistry, this is a really good place to get past that,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of great people here who are willing to help and really wonderful ways.” Oberlin, among all of the liberal arts schools in the U.S., has one of the highest rates of students continuing to earn Ph.D.s in STEM fields.

Administration Announces Campus Dining Changes continued from page 1

Security Notebook

have people pre-buy their lunch. We might consider limiting the number of design-your-own sandwich preparations during the lunch hours because it is so labor intensive. We might be able to make a by-theounce sandwich bar so people could make their own sandwiches.” Despite the difficulties that emerge with the coming changes and dining restructuring, Raimondo added that those obstacles also require the College to innovate the future dining program it wants in

collaboration with the community. “Challenges create the opportunity for creativity because you can’t just keep doing what you’re doing,” she said. “My own impression is that students want more creativity in the dining program, so this could be a good way to meet students’ needs and the institutional sustainability needs. Many people involved in the dining program are pretty energized by the ability to think outside the box.”

2:35 a.m. A Safety and Security officer on routine patrol observed lights on in a practice room on the second floor of Robertson Hall. Upon further investigation, a student was found standing against the wall in the room. The student acknowledged being asked to leave at closing but did not. The student was again asked to leave the building and complied.

Saturday, March 10, 2018 1:34 a.m. Officers assisted a student, ill from alcohol consumption, on the third floor of Johnson House. The student was able to answer all questions and was transported to their dorm room for the night. 10:05 p.m. Officers responded to a reported strong odor consistent with burnt marijuana. Officers made contact with students of the room in question. Several open beer and alcohol containers, along with two bongs, a propane torch, and a bagged smoke detector were observed in plain view. The alcohol was disposed of, the bongs and propane torch were confiscated and delivered to the Oberlin Police Department, and the bag was removed from the detector.

Sunday, March 11, 2018 1:20 p.m. A student reported losing their dorm room key somewhere in the area around Zechiel House, Langston Hall, and Wilder Hall. The facilities manager on call was contacted for a lock change.

Monday, March 12, 2018 12:29 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at a Union Street Village Housing Unit. Boiling paraffin wax mixture that had caught fire caused the alarm. The fire was immediately put out with a fire extinguisher. The area was cleared of smoke and the alarm reset. A work order was filed for cleanup.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018 8:20 p.m. A student reported the theft of their yellow Hydroflask water bottle from the fourth floor of Mudd library. When the student reported the theft to the main desk, staff advised they had received the student’s cell phone. Upon checking the phone, an unknown person had sent a threatening message to one of the student’s friends, who was notified of the circumstances.

Friday, March 23, 2018 5:52 p.m. A staff member reported that their vehicle was damaged while parked in the Wilder Hall lot. An officer observed a scuff mark and small dent in the right rear door. The individual responsible for the damage is unknown. 8:25 p.m. Officers assisted a staff member who fell down the stairs near the TIMARA studios. The individual was transported by ambulance to the Mercy Allen Hospital emergency room for treatment.

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College Will Undergo Review

CIT Replaces PRESTO With OberView

continued from page 1 van, OC ’84, echoed Ambar’s reasoning, touching upon the importance of contextualizing the review as an aide in helping the College manage its finances in the future. “I think we need to put in context the role of the consultant and not inflate it into something it’s not,” Canavan said. “… This is a process that’s going to be directed by Carmen. It’s going to be overseen by a steering committee. The consultant is a resource, a service doing a lot of the heavy lifting, some of the advising at different parts, but not really determining the agenda. Otherwise we haven’t succeeded.” Ambar said that although she will captain the review process, she stressed that she wants input from across the campus. “Part of this process is to test new ideas, but the idea isn’t to test Carmen Ambar’s ideas,” she said. “The ideas have to bubble up from the campus, and I’m hoping that they will bubble up from the entire campus.” The president added that she is prioritizing surveying and other forms of campus communication to broadly collect ideas across the campus. She said that these would include alumni, current, and prospective student surveys, as well as open meetings for campus community members. In regard to students, particularly first-years, who have expressed wariness that investing in Oberlin’s distant future might compromise current resources available to students, Ambar said that upcoming changes also aim to strengthen immediate student benefits. “I don’t think we have to lose sight of the fact that we can still invest in the key areas that are important to students,” Ambar said. “And it doesn’t mean that we’ll be able to do it perfectly. But part of this process is about freed-up resources so that we can do the things that have the most impact on moving the institution forward.” Ambar expressed that although the process of financial review will be a challenging one, it is one that she is looking forward to. She hopes to, as she put it, “throw the constraints off” and lead the way for all of higher education. “What Oberlin is dealing with is not an Oberlin-specific challenge. It’s just what’s happening in higher education. And the question is who is going to be the most innovative institution to solve this conundrum of what higher education is going to look like 50 or 60 years from now. Somebody is going to do that, so let it be us. Right? Let it be us.”

Juniors Alyssa Altheimer and Jesús Martinez pick up their free merchandise to celebrate the Center for Information Technology’s launch of Oberlin’s new all-in-one website to help students access online campus services. OberView will replace PRESTO as the hub for Oberlin’s various online portals. Students were able to cast their vote to name the new portal, and OberView was one of the top choices. Photo By Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

LaunchU Competition Awards Four Businesses continued from page 2 of teachers, and all teachers you know are going to be really good quality from Oberlin, Julliard, whatever — and then a student can book a lesson with them, their calendar is synced up with the site, so you just click a time they’re free and both people click the link to the room and you’re in a video-chat with a teacher,” Steger said. The pair hopes to expand the company to access different teachers from prestigious conservatories across the country, as well as low-income students, those in remote areas, or those who for other reasons do not have easy access to musical education. “A big part of the whole idea is also to make it more accessible, so being able to teach free lessons to underserved communities, and starting already, a bunch of teachers have volunteered — or said they would volunteer — their time to teach lessons for free, so it’s a good thing for both students and teachers,” Rubin said. The money they received from LaunchU will help the pair develop their platform more quickly, and enable them to start implementing features of the streaming service that are more unique to the services of Virtu.Academy. While the company is still in its early stages, it has already received a lot of positive feedback. “The one thing that really hit us — we started the pilot program and we just called a few random band directors in Ohio, and the first person that responded said that this is an opportunity that he’s been wanting for his students because his school is over two hours away from any music teacher,” Steger said. “The band director was re-

ally frustrated because none of his students were taking private lessons, so he became really excited about this idea and he’s been sending us a bunch of students and all the teachers from Oberlin have been teaching them.” College senior Hassan Bin Fahim secured third-place, receiving $5,000 for his website creation platform, UPage, which aims to empower people in developing economies where the internet is relatively new, so that they will be able to build a website for themselves easily and affordably. The program is still in the developing stage, but Bin Fahim projects that the final product will be a platform that is simple, local, and affordable so that users may be more inclined to complete their projects and utilize them for a variety of purposes. Bin Fahim has high hopes for the venture, partially based on what he has learned through LaunchU, which is the program that initially brought him to Oberlin. “I ended up coming to Oberlin because of LaunchU,” he said. “I’ve been involved with LaunchU since my freshman year. I participated my first year with a similar version of my current company — just an earlier version of the idea — but I was a freshman at that time, and all the feedback was, ‘focus more on your company, think about your Oberlin experience, try to get more experience, and then try to pursue this fulltime.’ For my sophomore and junior years, I was interning with the program and helping run it, and my senior year I participated again.” Bin Fahim plans to continue to develop uPage full-time once he graduates from Oberlin.

Oberlin Community News Bulletin

Oberlin Police Officers Will Receive Pay Increase

First Church Sponsors Easter Festivities

City Council approved a 2.5 percent pay increase for Oberlin Police Department sergeants and patrol officers earlier this month. Other changes include the annual pay raise amount for officers, as those with a Bachelor’s degree will now get a compensation increase of $600–700 and those with a master’s degree will see an increase between $700–800.

First Church will celebrate Easter Sunday with a breakfast at 9 a.m. and an Easter egg hunt immediately following the 10 a.m. Easter Sunday Worship service. Children of all ages are encouraged to participate in the egg hunt, and the service will be open to all, regardless of denomination or identity.

“The money from LaunchU is really helpful because it allows me to hire people and start the development process,” he said. “I’m hoping to raise more money and then be able to pursue this full-time after I graduate.” College first-year Katie Kim received an honorable mention and $2,000 for Bobalin, a boba stand she sets up in Tappan Square on Sundays, which she hopes will eventually become a college-operated service for students. “My number one goal is just to have boba on campus,” Kim said. “I never expected any of this LaunchU stuff to happen, but it was an incredible experience and one that I’ll definitely take past Oberlin and past Bobalin — and it looks like I’m establishing that. I’m working with my mentor, Bara Watts, and she’s been really helpful in talking with people in the administration.” Although Bobalin’s future is up in the air right now, Kim is hoping to partner with the College to get the service into a dining hall or Azariah’s. “Right now, it’s a matter of interest and the College being interested in this idea, but I’ve gotten some support from members of the administration about having it in Azariah’s, and that would be a huge step in my goal — where I could have it made in a food-safe kitchen, and have regular hours and students would regularly go there,” she said. Though the LaunchU competition is over, the Creativity and Leadership program still has a number of funding opportunities for students interested in funding a project, interning over the summer, or launching a venture.

Oberlin Public Library Will Hold Playwriting Workshop The Oberlin Public Library will hold a free playwriting workshop with children’s book author and literary agent Victoria Selvaggio Wednesday, April 4 6–8:30 p.m. The program, titled “Plot: It’s All About the Characters, Mainly, the Main” will help participants fine tune their writing skills, particularly around character and plot. The workshop will cover how to craft a plot, while highlighting the importance of the main and secondary characters.

OPINIONS March 30, 2018

Letters to the Editors Publication of Numerous Articles Attempts to Censor Conversation To the Editors: By publishing no fewer than three responses to Jacob Britton’s letter on AR-15s, The Oberlin Review showed that its interest is not in dialogue but in punishment for holding dissenting opinions. The commentary by the two editors of the Review in particular is built on straw horses and unfinished arguments. When Roman Broszkowski and Julia Peterson write about grenades, they twist Britton’s argument. They jump from arguing about the individual right to bear arms as established by District of Columbia v. Heller to attacking the stance that all weapons should be legal, a stance which Britton does not take. Grenades aren’t firearms, nor AR-15s, nor have they been used prolifically in mass violence. Britton was not talking about grenades, and the individual right to bear arms as established by District of Columbia v. Heller doesn’t extend to cover grenades, nor should it, nor, I am confident, would any court interpret it so. Broszkowski and Peterson go on to argue that “the Constitution is full of contradictions, and was meant to provide full rights to only a fraction of the population.” While I disagree that the constitution is contradictory, it is without a doubt that the original document was designed to create a racist and sexist society. However, the Second Amendment exists in many ways as a check against that. Gun control has historically been used not as a defense against mass violence but as a means to disarm the Black population, and enforcement of gun control categorically results in discrimination against people of color, such as Philando Castile, a licensed legal gun owner who did everything right and was still murdered by the police, with not a peep heard from the NRA. The right to bear arms exists as a fundamental check against the establishment further concentrating the legitimate use of force in the hands of the few, the wealthy, and the white. Assistant Professor of Politics Jade Schiff as well attacks a straw horse, drawing a distinction without a difference between public schools and private schools in Britton’s argument. Their letter as well rests on a misunderstanding about the concept of a “good guy with a gun.” While I firmly believe that arming teachers is a ludicrous idea, it is resoundingly clear that once a mass shooting is underway, the most effective response is to neutralize the shooter, which is why police SWAT teams are called. When Schiff writes that “there is absolutely no good evidence to support this ‘good guy with a gun’ argument,” they overlook, deliberately or not, the wealth of instances of mass violence being stopped by police intervention (good guys with guns) or private citizens (also good guys with guns, but maybe more neutrally instead of lawfully). For a letter so proud to be “defending truth against the forces arrayed against it,” it fares little better under scrutiny than Britton’s. The Review has a responsibility to publish factual, sound arguments, but of course not every argument is perfect. However, by publishing not one, not two, but three passionate responses to a single letter, responses rife with emotional charge and bad arguSee Letters, page 7 SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and op-ed submissions. All submissions are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. All submissions must be received by Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at opinions@oberlinreview.org or Wilder Box 90 for inclusion in that week’s issue. Letters may not exceed 600 words and op-eds may not exceed 800 words, except with consent of the Editorial Board. All submissions must include contact information, with full names and any relevant titles, for all signers. All writers must individually confirm authorship on electronic submissions. The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity, length, grammar, accuracy, strength of argument and in consultation with Review style. Editors will work with contributors to edit pieces and will clear major edits with the authors prior to publication. Editors will contact authors of letters to the editors in the event of edits for anything other than style and grammar. Headlines are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. Opinions expressed in editorials, letters, op-eds, columns, cartoons or other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Review. The Review will not print advertisements on its Opinions pages. The Review defines an advertisement as any submission that has the main intent of bringing direct monetary gain to a contributor. The Oberlin Review | March 30, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 18

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief

Melissa Harris

Christian Bolles

Managing Editor Daniel Markus

Opinions Editors

El Wilson

Jackie Brant

Falsely Equating Gun Control With Abortion Restrictions Prevents Productive Reform While the student-led movement to tackle gun reform has spread across the country, culminating in hundreds of thousands participating in the March for Our Lives throughout the U.S. on Saturday, many Americans still want to protect the status quo of gun accessibility. Pro-gun advocates often argue that people kill people, not guns; point out cases of armed officers in schools foiling the attempts of shooters — whether true or not; or express fear that a restriction on legal circulation of guns will endanger people who relinquish their arms to the government from criminals. As frustrating as these excuses are for failing to address how absurdly easy it is to obtain firearms in this country — especially the AR-15, which was used by Nikolas Cruz at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month and in four of the five deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history — one of the most disappointing pro-gun arguments is that gun restrictions should not be considered if abortion restrictions are not considered first. Conflating access to abortion and guns in the face of endemic cases of mass shootings is a blatant example of “whataboutism” — a faulty form of argumentation that sidesteps an accusation by claiming an opponent is just as guilty of some other offense as the original subject, however unconnected those offenses may be. In this case, “pro-life,” pro-gun Americans argue that advocacy for productive arms regulations and violence prevention should not come to fruition so long as abortions remain legal. This logic is flawed and counterproductive. It equates the intentionally violent nature of mass shooters with people enduring the intimate and morally challenging processes of deciding to have an abortion. More importantly, refusing to stand by gun reform — whether banning bump stocks or instating more requirements in the gun-purchase process — unless abortion is addressed first directly contradicts the pro-life stance: Paralysis and neglect of gun law change has only enabled more violence and death to occur. We first want to address the disparity between gun and abortion regulations to illustrate that it logistically does not make sense to refuse to approach gun reform so long as abortion remains easily accessible. Access to abortion is overall significantly stricter than for guns, even with regulations varying by state. Forty-three states prohibit abortions after a certain point in gestation. Eleven states restrict private insurance coverage of abortions. Forty-five states allow individual doctors to refuse to perform an abortion, while 42 allow health care institutions to do the same. Eighteen states require that people receive counseling before deciding to have an abortion. Twenty-seven states require waiting periods for abortions, 14 of which have laws that mandate people make at least two different trips to an abortion clinic before undergoing a procedure. Here in Ohio, Republican state representatives have introduced a bill to ban abortions altogether, regardless of cases of rape, incest, or endangerment to the person’s health or life. These legislations are not “pro-life.” They are barriers that put people’s well-being at risk and prevent them from making decisions about their health. These state-level restrictions are topped off by the Hyde Amendment, which was instated in 1976 to block federal Medicaid funding for abortion services. According to this legislation — and counter to many conservative arguments claiming that tax dollars enable abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics — federal health care funding does not cover abortion procedures. Exceptions to this ruling only occur in certain cases when a person’s life is in jeopardy. But even then, the Hyde Amendment further interferes with the ability of people to make healthcare decisions, especially for those who are low-income. Compare these restrictions to ones imposed on guns: Many Americans can enter a gun store and walk out with a new weapon the same day, so long as they pass an instant background check on individual criminal convictions, citizenship or immigration status, and instances of domestic violence. Although some states have other restrictions, such as further background check requirements and waiting periods, overall, many gun control experts and some former law enforcement officials say that gun sales still frequently occur both formally and informally with little oversight or enforcement of regulations. The New York Times reported that because of these relaxed laws, about a third of American gun owners buy guns without background checks, especially since federal law does not require them when purchasing from private sellers. The Times compares U.S. restrictions to the more intensive gun regulations and ownership requirements of other countries, such as Japan, Australia, Mexico, and Russia, among others. Requirements to own a gun in many foreign nations include firearm classes and exams, medical evaluations for mental fitness, several-month waiting periods, memberships and regular practice at shooting clubs, and documentation by local authorities to prove a clean criminal record. Countries with stricter gun regulations consequently have significantly lower rates of mass shootings and gun violence than in the U.S. Even with the disparity in regulations, a perspective that equates abortions with gun slaughter is narrow at best. It’s a point of view that disregards the way abortion restrictions and decreased funding to Planned Parenthood centers — which provide overall women’s and family health care, and many of which do not provide abortion procedures — compromise the quality of people’s lives. For many people, opting for an abortion is a morally challenging process that requires them to gauge how having a child will affect their financial, physical, and mental wellbeing. The decision whether or not to have an abortion is deeply personal and difficult. Mass shootings, on the other hand, are impersonal, inhumane, intended to inflict suffering upon others, and violate the “sanctity of life” that so many “pro-life” advocates dogmatically stand by. So, we ask those guilty of this false equivalency: If you’re so preoccupied with saving lives, why aren’t gun buyers held to the same standard you set for people who want to consider getting an abortion? Even if abortions were altogether prohibited, how would that change trends in gun violence? Would further restricting abortions prevent another 17 high school community members or 58 Las Vegas concert-goers from dying at the hands of a gunman? Why won’t you engage in productive dialogue and participate in efforts to prevent mass shootings and gun violence? Most of all, why won’t you protect the lives you seek to save? We’re waiting. Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editor, and Opinions Editors — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review.

Opi n ions

Ableism Displayed Through Paralympics’ Lack of Attention El Wilson Opinions Editor On March 18, 2018, the U.S. Paralympic sled hockey team won an unprecedented thirdstraight gold medal in the Winter Paralympics after beating Canada in overtime 2–1. This was after creaming Japan (10– 0), the Czech Republic (10–0), South Korea (8–0), and Italy (10–1). Yet, the historic win didn’t make front page news. In fact, many people don’t even know what sled hockey is. To clarify, it’s hockey played on very small sleds that sit on top of two ice hockey blades. The players navigate the ice using two small hockey sticks with metal picks on the end of them. The rules are essentially the same as typical hockey. Even though the Paralympic Games have been around since 1948, they’ve only recently

started to receive the attention from the media and from sponsors that they deserve. The typical Pyeongchang Olympics had over twice the number of worldwide sponsors that the Paralympic Pyeongchang Olympics did. Paralympic and Olympic athletes do not receive salaries from the International Olympic Committee and therefore have to pay their way through the games using their own money or company endorsements. Early in the Games’ history, American Olympians legally had to be “amateurs,” which meant no company could sponsor them. However, in 1978 the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act was passed, allowing Olympic athletes to receive company endorsements to pay their way through the games. Yet, it still took 20 years for the act to be amended to include Paralympians.

Recently, certain summer Olympians — such as swimmer Michael Phelps and gymnast Simone Biles — have reached celebrity status in the United States. However, the vast majority of people can’t name a single Paralympian. Although Phelps is held up as one of the most decorated Olympians, with 28 total medals, his career pales in comparison to that of Paralympian Trischa Zorn. During her Paralympic swimming career, which lasted from 1980 to 2004, Zorn won 55 medals. I believe this lack of attention stems — at least partially — from the idea that Paralympians aren’t “real athletes.” Scope, a British disability rights organization that makes YouTube videos about the awkward questions and microaggressions that disabled people experience, felt the need to make a video featuring TV journalist Sophie

Morgan clarifying that just because someone is in a wheelchair doesn’t mean they were in the Paralympics. Although I’m very grateful that Scope made the video, the fact that this is a common misconception is absurd. Making it to the Paralympics means that you are one of the best athletes in the world. Although many disabled people participate in a wide variety of sports, most of us don’t even come close to the Paralympic level. Physically disabled bodies are often viewed as inherently “less than” typical bodies. Even though having physical disabilities does mean that your body has limitations that most bodies don’t have, this doesn’t mean that disabled bodies are less valuable or worse than typical bodies. Because I use a manual wheelchair most of the time, many people comment on how

strong my arms must be. My arms aren’t that much stronger than a typical person’s legs. I only accept the compliment because I know that my arms are muscular from yoga, the rowing machine, and making bread for my co-op every week — which involves a lot of lifting and kneading. By minimizing the accomplishments of disabled athletes, we furhter ableism and undermine real athletic achievements. The Paralympics is just as entertaining and amazing as the typical Olympics. When the 2020 summer Olympics come around, don’t turn off the TV after Aug. 9; on Aug. 25, the Paralympics begin, and those athletes deserve just as much of our attention. Besides, table tennis is far more exciting when the players hold the paddles in their mouths.

Eulogy for ObieHub, Democracy As We Know It Madi Mettenburg Production Editor

Today and all days after this, we mourn the death of ObieHub. Tragically struck down too young by the cold, unfeeling hand of the oppressors, our fallen son was far more than a candidate in a CIT PRESTO-renaming competition. ObieHub was the hero we needed in a time of chaos and distrust, chosen to lead our school as a symbol of hope, resilience, and pornography. But first, let us celebrate its life; I began chronicling the journey of ObieHub in the op-ed “ObieHub Rams Expectations Hard” (March 2, 2018, The Oberlin Review). Here, I outlined our hero’s origins as an administrationchosen name, appearing to us after an earlier poll was sent out requesting the

help of students in renaming PRESTO. Though many of this first poll’s writein answers were creative and colorful, the administration deemed them unworthy, and a carefully-pruned selection of names was then sent out for our perusal. Peruse it we did, and choose we did — from the options the administration provided, the students chose the name ObieHub. Here, we reach a stage of ObieHub’s life that is gray: What happened in between? Why was it shot down so soon after its coronation? Who is responsible? And who now is this imposter, this despot called OberView, sitting on the throne laughing at us — despising us! — with malice in its eyes? There is no firm answer as to why the chosen name is now OberView, but there is no doubt that there are traitors among us. Whispers have

been heard that ObieHub’s secret was leaked to the administration, which swiftly acted again to wipe out what it deemed unworthy. How much these informants were paid or what reward they received from giving up ObieHub’s true identity is unknown. In realizing just how many unknowns this gray stage had, I decided to investigate. Student Senator and defender of democracy Samuel Waranch valiantly agreed to help, using his position of power to reach out to Chief Information Technology Officer Ben Hockenhull in the hopes that he would give us some answers. However, I am informed that even several days later, there has been only chilly silence from Sam’s inbox. And so we may just have to accept the hush that falls across campus every time the question is asked — who,

or what, killed ObieHub? It is clear that the tyrants are unwilling to speak. It would be hard not to feel powerless in the wake of all this; they asked for our voice, we gave it, and they exerted their will regardless. But what we must take from this is not the despair — we must remember that we all bore witness to a hero. ObieHub was our choice, the dirty Mudd-drinking-fountain water that we turned into wine. And though they have deposed it from its natural place of honor, they cannot depose ObieHub from our hearts. It will forever be remembered as a symbol of hope in a time of deficit and darkness, unjustly taken from us all because of a light association with PornHub — that may or may not have been known, and cherished, by the entire student body.

Philosophy Degree Gives Students Major Edge in Work-Force Jackie Brant Opinions Editor As a Philosophy major, I have heard all the jokes. One of my personal favorites: “What’s the difference between a large pepperoni pizza and a philosophy major? A large pepperoni pizza can feed a family of four.” Countless people have looked at me, puzzled, asking me about my post-graduation plans. It has been included in many — often misinformed — lists of “the most useless majors.” While I admittedly do have a personal bias in this matter, the idea that philosophy is a useless degree is simply false. I could talk all day about why I love philosophy — all the different perspectives on the world it offers, new ways to think about our surroundings, the admirable rhetoric often used by philosophers, the ongoing debates that have existed since ancient times, and the shocking, sometimes controversial ideas that can open your mind. It seems cheap to argue the importance of phi-

losophy on any other basis besides its inherent value. Unfortunately, these merits don’t seem to do it for a lot of people, which is why more justification seems required. The New York Times ran an article in 1986 that quoted Dr. Clark Glymour, who said that there was an “incredible need for philosophers,” and this is still true to this day. How can this be? In a world that is so technologically advanced, how can a discipline like philosophy still be relevant? This Winter Term, I interned with Christina Storm, founder of Lawyers Without Borders. In one of our conversations, she mentioned the difficulty of finding people who are able to think critically and creatively as one of the biggest problems when hiring people. Furthermore, a study done by The Atlantic stated “We hear again and again that employers value creative problem solving and the ability to deal with ambiguity in their new hires” and that no other major prepares you for this better than philosophy. I completely agree. Noth-

ing prepares you for creative and critical thinking better than philosophy — the openended writing assignments, the quick thinking that is required when something you say in class is challenged, and the approach you must take to provide a fresh response to a philosophical problem that millions of people have wrestled with over time. There is a reason why philosophy majors tied economics majors for the highest LSAT score in the nation — it’s a test designed to gauge the ability of the test-taker to think creatively, critically, and logically. Furthermore, philosophy majors also rank highest by far in verbal reasoning and analytical writing skills, according to the Educational Testing Service. There are too many wellknown lawyers, politicians, presidents, and Supreme Court Justices who have extensively studied philosophy to name, but a few include Bill Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, Stephen Breyer, Martin Luther King Jr., and Aung San Suu Kyi. While philosophy majors

excel in the field of law as made obvious by their LSAT scores, they also make excellent entrepreneurs and business owners. The same skills that prove beneficial for philosophy majors on the LSAT also prove beneficial for them on the GMAT, as they score the fourth highest on the test and score the highest out of any humanities major on the test. There are also many incredibly successful business people who majored in philosophy; some notable ones include Carly Fiorina, Carl Ichan, George Soros, Peter Thiel, Stewart Butterfield, Reid Hoffman, Gerald Levin, and John Mackey. Many of these individuals have actively discussed how much philosophy helped them in their careers. Finally, philosophy majors score the highest out of any major on the verbal and analytical sections of the GRE, according to the newsite Daily Nous. Although some employers may not actively seek philosophy majors, they do actively search for the tools that philosophy arms its students with.

While there are many merits to philosophy that do not center around earning potential, scoring highly on tests, or successful people who majored in philosophy, they certainly help in understanding the practicality of earning a philosophy degree in a society that deems it useless. It deeply saddens me that I so often must defend my choice of major based on these grounds. However, when paying $70,000 per year for a degree, I suppose it is a legitimate question, especially when coming from your parents. Don’t just take it from a biased philosophy major, though. Coming up on April 9 at noon, Storm will be coming to speak on the importance of a philosophy degree on her career path and also about the work she does in general. If you are at all interested in hearing about why philosophy is an excellent discipline to major in or hear about, come listen to her speak. She is the perfect example of how philosophy can truly change the world.

Letters To The Editors Continued from page 5

mentation, they demonstrate a haughty derision for Britton’s contribution to the conversation and their own interest in controlling the conversation on campus instead of fostering it. The Review is fully permitted to have political stances, but I believe this should invigorate the conversation, not shame the opposition. Jacob is a friend of mine and a good man, deserving more respect than the Review showed him by publishing every response thrown their way. – Jonathan Karpatkin OC ’18

Alums Disrespected, Tricked By Oberlin Alumni Association To the Editors: A word to the wise from a 1962 alumnus: After graduation, prepare for a lifetime of slick marketing and disingenuous representations by the Oberlin Alumni Association. I’m one of 1,720 alumni who just learned the hard way not to trust OAA’s promises. OAA has just reneged on a promise it made roughly 15 years ago, which 1,720 of us chose to rely on, and it’s hitting me like a ton of bricks. OAA’s promise was a permanent free email forwarding service. This is different from a normal email address. It invisibly forwards all messages it receives for you to your actual email address, which can, and often will, change from time to time. People change their email addresses, or adopt additional ones, for various reasons. However, changing gets complicated if you’ve put your email address on business cards, letterheads, websites, etc. It’s also a huge nuisance to chase down all your contacts and make sure they use the new address. If you can use a permanent forwarding service, all those hassles are avoided. OAA’s offer seemed generous, and I cele-

brated that. The virtual address I got seemed kind of clunky, but I have used it confidently in the knowledge that OAA was good to its word. OAA now reports that at least 1,720 alumni accepted its offer. What we weren’t told was that behind the scenes, it was actually a service that Google offered for free. It is not a service that the College itself actually offered. Because the service is run through Google, it was subject to termination at will. I set aside the issue of whether Google was capturing and/or selling our content. The important thing here is that Google did recently terminate this service. Now OAA says continuing the service would require “resources,” and since we are “only” 1,720 users, we should all understand and be happy to simply make sure that each one of our lifetimes’ worth of contacts knows to use our current actual address before June 30. The “resources” issue is interesting, because OAA recently converted its fluffy house organ, Oberlin Alumni Magazine, to full-color on heavy paper. Welcome to the world of smooth talk! – Stan Robinson OC ’62

Comprehensive Evaluation Essential For Academic Success To the Editors: Every 10 years, Oberlin College is formally reviewed by our accreditor, The Higher Learning Commission. A successful review is necessary to award accredited degrees, thereby demonstrating quality and maintaining good standing with the U.S. Department of Education and Oberlin’s eligibility for federal financial aid funds. The HLC reviews Oberlin as a single institution and assesses formal educational activities, governance and administration, financial integrity, student services and resources, academic achievement, orga-

nizational effectiveness, and relationships with outside constituencies. A team of faculty and administrators has been preparing for the actual site visit on Oct. 15, 2018 conducted by a five-member outside team of higher education faculty and staff. More information about the accreditation process can be found under the accreditation tab at the HLC’s webpage. Part of this process is a brief survey conducted by HLC that will go out to all enrolled students on Monday, April 2, 2018 and close on Wednesday, April 11, 2018. The email announcing the survey will be sent from the Office of Institutional Research and will include a link to an HLC-administered site. Oberlin is mandated to announce the survey to students but the survey itself is voluntary and anonymous. The results will be one of many factors the team will use in evaluating Oberlin. The HLC will share the results in aggregate form with Oberlin in preparation for the team visit. Nobody will have access to identified individual responses. In addition to notifying students of this survey, the Oberlin Self Study team also expresses the regret that this semester will see an unusually large number of surveys. Not all students will receive all surveys, but we do want to let students know that they will be asked to respond to several. We apologize for this unavoidable schedule. All of the surveys are voluntary, but those administering them certainly hope you will give consideration to responding. Questions about Oberlin’s preparation for the re-accreditation (now formally called re-affirmation) process can be directed to Daphne John in the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Bill Quillen in the Office of the Dean of the Conservatory, or Ross Peacock in Office of Institutional Research. – Daphne John Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences – Bill Quillen Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of Conservatory – Ross Peacock Institutional Research and Planning

(cont.)

Communal Support Imperative in Fighting for Tolerance To the Editors: I was heartened to be able to join several hundred other Obies on March 14 at the bandstand in solidarity with school kids across the country walking out to protest gun violence. Hearing from the College’s dean and the city’s mayor added to the event. Later we learned of a walkout by Oberlin High School students — which was initially prohibited — adding their numbers to the over 3,000 such expressions of outrage and solidarity. This nationwide manifestation of youth activism will alter the political landscape. I’d like to share a statement adopted by our local Quaker Meeting that speaks to the immediate and underlying issues: Oberlin Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) share the grief and concern for recent school shootings in Parkland, FL, and other attacks on schools and community gatherings. We support the “Never Again” and “March for Our Lives” efforts led by these students, allied with supportive groups and communities across the country. We endorse the need to restrict access to guns in a minimum of three regards: reinstating a ban on assault weapons; universal background checks for all gun purchases; and raising the age limit for gun purchases. In a larger context, we share our distress at the degree to which the American culture accepts, uses, and relies on violence by individuals and groups across the range of interpersonal and societal relationships. We ally ourselves with the victims of such violence and with their sense of urgency in seeking reforms through non-violent means. We affirm our belief, faith, and experience in the power of love, respect, tolerance, and friendship as bases for living in community with those around

us, in family, community, societal, and global relationships. We welcome being joined by those who share these concerns. – David H. Finke OC ’63

Oberlin Court Finds Excellent Candidate in Charlita Anderson White To the Editors: Magistrate Charlita Anderson White is a glowing example of professionalism, intuition, and legal knowledge. She is the only candidate with 19 years as a domestic relations court jurist. I met her almost 20 years ago while I was assigned to her courtroom to interpret for Deaf participants. Her patience, fairness, knowledge of the law, and her compassion impressed me. I always felt privileged to be assigned to her courtroom. She has a wonderful way of reassuring Court participants. Children, parents, lawyers, and witnesses have been confident that they are safe and their rights have been being protected for over 19 years. She has presided over trials, pre-trials, motion hearings, and many other proceedings. I admire her competence and her good-natured manner. She is firm and respectful and she really cares about the people that come before her because she has touched and served generations of families. She is also a very skilled and knowledgeable professor of Law and Ethics. She was my professor at Tiffin University. Her approach to teaching is calm, reassuring, and engaging and I saw that in her work as a magistrate. She explains and deliberates with the same precision as a law professor. She is also a spiritual person. She believes in toughness, fairness, and grace in making her rulings. Make the best choice for judge. Vote for Magistrate Charlita Anderson White for Lorain County Domestic Relations Court on May 8! – Leona Grigsby Oberlin Resident

CARTOON OF THE WEEK Amanda Asofsky

The Oberlin Review | March 30, 2018

march for our lives layout and text by Lucy martin, this week editor background photo courtesy of jh’ordan johnson The March for Our Lives was the culmination of nationwide displeasure with legislative neglect for gun regulation reform. In particular, March for Our Lives showed solidarity with students, family, and community members affected by the Parkland, FL, shooting, as well as victims of gun violence across the country. A notable difference with this demonstration — as opposed to others, such as the Women’s March — is that it was organized entirely by students from Never Again MSD with the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety.

Emma González

González gained notoriety for a speech she gave at a rally against gun violence after surviving the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. She continues to advocate for gun control, having debated with a representative of the NRA at a televised town hall meeting and helping organize the March for Our Lives. Her speech at the march included a moment of silence for the students who did not make it and a call for empathy, rather than apathy.

Naomi Wadler

At only 11 years old, Wadler helped lead her school’s walkout. She and her fellow students even provided the reporter covering the march with a press packet. At the March for Our Lives, she gave a speech declaring herself the representative of Courtlin Arrington, Hadiya Pendleton, Taiyania Thompson, and all Black women and girls whose stories don’t gain the publicity and support that the Parkland shooting did.

Saturday, March 31

Program Board hosts Hales Late Night Skate Jam and Glow Bowling with a glow-in-thedark skating rink. Student DJs will provide music and Program Board will provide the skates. Hales Gymnasium 8 p.m.–12 a.m.

Sunday, April 1

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee invites you to a campus-wide dodgeball tournament. Each team is allowed a maximum of seven players and snacks are provided. Philips gym 12:30 p.m.–5 p.m.

Sunday, April 1

Oberlin’s OSLAM is participating in the National College Poetry Slam — CUPSI — and invites students to hear the poems they have created for the competition and give the poets an audience. Cat in the Cream 7 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

Thursday, april 5

OC Democrats worked with Lorain County Rising, For Our Future Fund, and Organizing For Action to develop a workshop on Voter Engagement and Registration. King 306 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 5

The annual Spring Back dance showcase features site-specific performances throughout Warner. Tickets must be purchased in advance for $5 and performances are limited to 50 audience members. Warner Main Space 8 p.m.

Emma González

Naomi Wadler

Saturday, March 31

Sunday, April 1

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee invites you to a campus-wide dodgeball tournament. Each team is allowed a maximum of seven players and snacks are provided. Philips gym 12:30 p.m.–5 p.m.

Sunday, April 1

Thursday, april 5

OC Democrats worked with Lorain County Rising, For Our Future Fund, and Organizing For Action to develop a workshop on Voter Engagement and Registration. King 306 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 5

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE March 30, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 18

Chamber Play Delivers Performance on Cyclical Abuse Ananya Gupta Arts & Culture Editor Editor’s Note: This article contains mention of sexual abuse and trauma.

Chamber Play, written by Amanda Faye Martin, is the dark, cryptic story of several characters, particularly Amanda (played by College first-year Sofie Rejto) and Sabina (played by College first-year Anna Aubry), and their experiences with cycles of abuse. The play examines amnesia as a result of sexual trauma, implying certain side effects of posttraumatic stress and illustrating the almost involuntary nature by which a victim becomes a perpetrator. Aside from sexual assault, the play also handles issues of agoraphobia, safety, and abuse in parent-child relationships. Martin received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College and MFA from Harvard University. She is trained in dramaturgy and playwriting, and she also attended Trinity College in Ireland, the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia, and the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Poland. Her friend and College senior Zoë Kushlefsky, who directed the play, brought Chamber Play to Oberlin. The production premiered yesterday and will run until March 31 in Kander Theater, Hall Annex. Martin’s stint at the Moscow Art Theatre seems to explain the Strindbergian nature of Chamber Play, which includes confusion between the real and the imaginary, and often uses music to convey subtle meaning. “It very much flows between reality and imaginary,” Aubrey said. “There are times when you can’t tell who’s real and who’s not, and what’s truly happening and what’s not.” As audience and actors are placed on the same level, the play is incredibly intimate. The set is a small basement

Students stage Chamber Play in Kander Theater. Chamber Play is a dark drama about amnesia and sexual abuse written by Amanda Faye Martin and directed by College senior Zoë Kushlefsky. Photo by Zoë Kushlefsky

decorated to suit 14-year-old Sabina’s room. The audience is peering into what Kushlefsky describes as “four glass walls,” and further, delving into the psychological complexities of the characters. “[This theater] is a much more intimate space than Warner Main, and it’s a much more accessible space than the Cat [in the Cream],” said College sophomore Abigail Bowman, who plays Sabina’s mother, Zoe. “Since you’re on the same level as the audience, it’s much easier to form a connection with audience members — not necessarily that you have any interactions with them, but it’s easier to sense emotion and feeling and how what you’re saying and what you’re doing is affecting the audience.” The cast and crew repeatedly stressed the fact that they are not attempting to generalize human responses to abuse, making abundantly clear that the story is illustrating the events of certain individuals alone. “There’s no real moral I’m trying to push or anything,” Kushlefsky said.

“I hope people can see this as a standalone narrative and one example of one person’s experience. I think there’s a problem in stories of sexual assault where it’s like, ‘If you are assaulted, this is how you will react,’ which is not the case at all. People aren’t monolithic like that at all.” The timing of this play is very apt considering the current #MeToo movement and several media role models being called out for sexual assault. While the play is more about acknowledging one’s role as a carrier of trauma and understanding the caution such carriers need to demonstrate in their future relationships to prevent the cycle from continuing, it also serves to start the conversation, fighting the taboo nature of the topic and beginning the healing process. “There’s no one way to heal from something like sexual assault, but I think that this national movement and this sort of union and ... ‘sisterhood’ that’s forming is a really powerful thing,” Kushlefsky said. “And I think that the #MeToo

movement is an important intervention for that kind of thing, because I think that reckoning with and understanding your own personal issues is, for many people, the first step to healing, whatever that means to someone. To finding some kind of peace. And that’s part of it, for this character [Amanda] in this play. She doesn’t even know what happened to her, so she can’t reckon with it until it’s too late and she’s continued the cycle.” In such a serious play, it seems absurd that it could create any moments of comic relief — yet it does. The comedy is not quite dark humor, nor is it slapstick or insensitive in any way. Instead, it is subtle — describing a traumatic event as boomerang-like in its relentlessness, for example — offering a momentary break from the intensity of the subject. “Obviously, in a play, sometimes things are going to be highly dramatized,” Aubry said. “So I think just making sure at every step of the way to be considerate of the subject matter [is important.] It’s easy for the room to get really somber when talking about these things, and I think we’ve done a good job of keeping it light-hearted but at the same time ... also understanding the moments when you have to be a little bit more serious about it.” Chamber Play lends a window into the psyche of someone who has faced a traumatic incident, and often features troubling content and can at times be difficult or triggering to watch. However, it is an important piece for both assault victims and those who have committed assault either knowingly or unknowingly. “Be warned that it’s a heavy play, but it is so worth it to see,” Bowman said. “Even though it has these heavy things, it handles them so well and it’s so beautifully written. It takes this really ugly concept and turns it into a beautiful piece of art.”

New Pullman Novel Fails to Live Up to Earlier Work Kirsten Heuring Staff Writer

I attended Catholic school for 12 years, and my first act of heresy involved the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. A high fantasy series rooted in the tradition of Milton’s Paradise Lost, the trilogy is set in a parallel world dominated by a powerful theocracy that suppresses dissent and free thought, commonly referred to as the Church. The world is full of wonderful details, like souls that live outside of people’s bodies in animal forms, powerful armored bears, and magic particles that glide and swirl through the air. But the series is also a scathing critique of the Catholic Church, and in 2007, the Catholic League actively campaigned against the first book in the series, The Golden Compass (titled Northern Lights outside of North America). According to the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, the series was among the top 100 banned or challenged books of 2008–2009. The Golden Compass was one of my favorite books when I was a child, and I still go back to it today. When I saw that Pullman had released the first book in a new series set in the same world, I knew I had to read La Belle Sauvage, the first volume of The Book of Dust, as soon as I could. When spring break came around, I delved in eagerly. I was mildly disappointed. La Belle Sauvage is a prequel to the original series, and centers around a boy named Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon (the physical, animal embodiment of a person’s soul), Asta. When Malcolm and Asta find a

tiny acorn holding a mysterious note, they are drawn into the periphery of an organization devoted to defying the Church. As they watch for the Church’s agents, they are focused on taking care of and protecting a young baby, Lyra — the future protagonist of His Dark Materials. When a flood whisks Malcolm, Asta, Lyra, and a dishwasher named Alice away on Malcolm’s boat, La Belle Sauvage, they must find a way to protect the baby and bring her to her father, Lord Asriel, while being pursued by the Church’s police and a man with a terrifying hyena dæmon, who both want to get to Lyra first. Some themes and characters from this new novel are reminiscent of the first series. Familiar faces like Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter, Coram van Texel, and Lyra are back, but they are not as prominent as they were in the initial series. Mostly, the novel focuses on new characters Malcolm, Hannah Relf, and Alice. Malcolm is a precocious, perceptive 11-year-old boy who works at his parents’ restaurant and inn and helps Hannah, who is a scholar at this world’s Oxford University. She studies the alethiometer, a truth-telling device which is extremely hard to read and understand. Hannah helps pull Malcolm into the periphery of the Churchdefying organization. Alice is a fiery, no-nonsense girl who ends up helping Malcolm care for baby Lyra after the flood washes them away. La Belle Sauvage is meant for an older audience than the original His Dark Materials trilogy. For instance, Alice has to deal with being sexually harassed by a bar patron, and another character was imprisoned

for sexually assaulting a young girl. There are also inside jokes that children might not understand. For example, a key feature in Pullman’s novels is the existence of multiple universes, and at one point in the novel, Malcolm reads a book titled A Brief History of Time, alluding to the book of the same name by the late Stephen Hawking. La Belle Sauvage does not capture the magic of The Golden Compass, failing to absorb the reader into the world the same way the original series does. I was enthusiastic to read it at first, but once I started getting into the novel, I had to push myself onward at times. By no means, however, is this a bad read. The descriptions are excellent, and the antagonist can genuinely fill a reader with dread. It also expands the universe that Pullman created in his first series in interesting ways. However, there are no real stakes. The reader knows from the events of the first series that Lyra will be perfectly fine; she will get to her destination and live a decent childhood before getting wrapped up in the events of His Dark Materials. I will be the first to admit that part of my disappointment may stem from nostalgia. I can be biased when it comes to things I enjoy. I would recommend the original series first before you read this novel, since this one contains many major spoilers for the first series, and I found His Dark Materials to be far more enjoyable than this first foray into The Book of Dust. However, the second book in this new series, The Secret Commonwealth, is scheduled to come out later this year. I truly hope it lives up to the first series more effectively than La Belle Sauvage.

ON THE RECORD

sam sax, Writer, Performer

sam sax, OC ’09, is the author of four chapbooks and the 2017 poetry book Madness, winner of the National Poetry Series. He is also the poetry editor at BOAAT Press. sax has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, and Lambda Literary. His poems have appeared in The New York Times, Poetry Magazine, Buzzfeed, PANK, Tin House, and more. His latest collection, Bury It, winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, is forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press in 2018. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Interview by Kate Fishman Staff Writer

Can you tell me a bit about how and when you first came to writing poetry? I did a lot of theater. I was a playwright, because my brother was an actor, and I sort of got into that world that way. I also tried out other performance styles. I was in a poetry group in high school, but mostly that was just a way to mess around with friends. It was at Oberlin, where there were these weekly open mics that my friend ran at Agave, I think, so I’d go to those weekly events and sort of have to channel all these multidisciplinary things that I was doing into this one poem form, which ended up being a lot more compelling. I hadn’t planned on it being my life until I graduated, and then I ended up getting in a car with some friends who were on a poetry tour and ended up traveling around the country for a year doing readings. It was at that moment — when I saw how communities are built around literature, and how transformative a poem can be to someone’s internal and external material life — that I decided I wanted to dedicate my life to it, and it became my focus and passion. But it was a slowly evolving act for me. You just recently published a full-length book, Madness. What has that experience been like for you, having published it, and has that changed anything about your relationship to your writing? A book is something I’ve wanted for a very long time. For a while [I had] very unrealistic expectations about what a book would do for my life, and then no one would pick up my book for many years. Then I ended up writing a second book, which was Madness, which then got picked up immediately through the National Poetry Series. At that point I had pretty low

expectations about publishing, and a pretty dismal understanding about how the publishing industry works for poetry. But since then, it’s been great. The person who picked my book is named Terrance Hayes, and we’ve become friendly through that. I guess I’d been touring well before having a book, but it opens certain doors academically, where I’m doing readings at certain institutions, and opened up certain speaking options that weren’t there beforehand. But I don’t know if it’s changed my writing. I think it’s important for me to write away from the idea of the work being in the world or being published. It’s nice to have a book out there, but it’s still important for me to write many things that won’t be seen. I think what sort of helped with that process is that being a second book. There’s a lot of pressure on a first book of poems in a way that I think tends to dead someone’s writing process, so I think having it be a longer process or practice of writing, there’s less stifling of it. And my next book is coming out in the fall, so I think being able to immediately hop into another project has also made me feel a little anxious about what this book is doing and the effect it has on my writing life and on the world. How much does identity inform your poetry in Madness? Can you speak to how that informs your process, especially in these larger collections? Entirely. I feel like I’m always writing from my particular position in relation to the world, so being hyper-aware of that makes for the most compelling and honest work I can make. Everybody has, obviously, multiple identities, and I think it’s important for me to follow the path that they all lean towards. It’s important for me to write

about Judaism and queerness and whiteness and masculinity, and that affects my particular vantage on how I look at history and how I move through the world. All of the historical work that goes into this work is rooted in that as well — being the grandson of a Freudian analyst and negotiating mental illness — it’s all sort of tied in. You mentioned earlier that you’ve done slam and spoken word. How does the relationship between doing that, and also writing poetry for the page, work for you? Do you find them to be very similar or different? It sort of happened organically. I came to writing through performance, and through seeing how transformative a poem can be when spoken. And then I started making chapbooks to sell on tour, so the publishing part of it became a necessary outgrowth of the spoken gesture of the poem. And then I turned to the page a little more and saw how poems in space offer voice on page in the same way that moves me about spoken poetry. So I’m thinking about Terrance Hayes’ “Wind in a Box” or “Teahouse of the Almighty” by Patricia Smith or Essex Hemphill’s “Ceremonies” — they’re all books that I read early or that showed me what’s possible on the page. I think some poems work better in the air, some poems work better on the page, but for me it’s more interesting to make work that is able to sing across multiple media — in the ear, in the eye, in the brain, in the mouth. Yeah. I think it also prioritizes the necessary urgency of the spoken gesture. In line with that concept of urgency, what role do you think poetry is playing or has to play in today’s political climate, and do you think it can

sam sax, queer Jewish writer, performer, educator, and organizer. Photo courtesy of sam sax

remain apolitical? Are there obligations artists have to respond to what’s happening in the world? I think the political import and impact of poetry is first and foremost representation and empathy. Poetry very much can be alive, and I think that in order to mobilize people or mobilize bodies they have to be alive for it to sink in. I think that’s the primary effect — seeing that your experience in the world is not singular, seeing that your struggles and the immaterial qualities of your life are experienced by other people is one of the most powerful things a poem can do. It can help people feel the lives in and around those conditions. I also think it’s a useful tool for accessing the potential of our world, where you can imagine a better world in the writing. I think there’s some freedom in a poem to speak back … or through to power in ways that are suppressed in other forms. Which is why I think, historically, poets are often the first people assassinated or incarcerated by repressive and fascist governments. I don’t think the work that poetry is doing now is different from what it has been doing historically in various policed and repressed communities in the United States and elsewhere. It continues to serve that similar function. How does the presence of an audience inform the way that you work and the way that you interrogate your personal experience in poetry? Well, I think there’s something about performing — an audience can be a really excellent editor. Seeing how the poem lives and

works in the air really helps you hear what the poem is doing on the page, and also seeing how it’s going to affect folks, right? Often you write in isolation, and you don’t know what kind of work your poem’s going to do until it does the work. I’ve read a poem before where I’ve seen people wince at moments that I’m not trying to have them wince at, and that’s really telling, you know? Or, they wince at moments where I want them to wince. And that’s affirming for the poem that I’m making. I think having a regular audience is really useful. I don’t have a regular spot I go to anymore, but I think hearing your work aloud can be really helpful. Do you have obsessions that you write about and can you talk a bit about how they manifest in your work if you do? Often my body will have a response to the world that I don’t understand, either disgust or pleasure or desire, and I’m like, “Oh, why am I feeling this way?” I think those tend to be the moments that I try and write myself into, whether it’s my feelings around Zionism, or anal pleasure, or these larger embodied and historical topics that root around at me. I use the poem as a way to navigate how I feel and situate myself in and around it. I think generally my writing is invested in desire, and where that comes from, like how identity is constructed and inherited. Mental health and addiction come up a lot; grief tends to be the major circling point. I think also the questions seem to be evolving, thank goodness, so it’s not a singular area of interrogation.

Cooperative Game Will Make Players Long for A Way Out

Christian Bolles Editor-in-Chief

Editor’s note: This review contains light spoilers for Josef Fares’ A Way Out. “If you don’t like it, you can break my legs.” These were the words of Swedish game developer Josef Fares in anticipation of his new title, A Way Out. The twoplayer cooperative game requires players to work together to escape from prison as convicts named Leo and Vincent before hunting down the man who wronged them both. With its unique use of a split-screen mechanic that favors one player’s vision over the other depending on their current situation, A Way Out’s conceit is brilliant. One wonders, then, whether it’s a greater shame for players or for Fares himself that the game is a steaming pile of horse

manure. Fares’ belief in the quality of his own game is understandable, if misguided. Once a film director who fled the Lebanese Civil War with his family at the age of 10 — an experience that gave rise to his very personal, widely-praised film Zozo — he surged into the spotlight of the gaming industry with his breakout indie hit Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, one of the greatest story-based game experiences ever created. Brothers puts players in control of two boys — each controlled with one stick of a gamepad — and tasks them with solving puzzles while on an emotional journey to find a magical elixir that could cure their ailing father. After all the well-earned praise leveled at the game, Fares found success that he never dreamed of as a filmmaker. “The Oscars should f**k themselves up, this is the s**t,” he famously said on-stage at last year’s Game Awards. He tackled his next game A Way Out,

then, with all the confidence expected of an M. Night Shyamalan-like figure under the impression that he can do no wrong. Yet just a few minutes into his new title, a pit might sink in a player’s stomach as they realize the folly of Fares’ attempt to write what is essentially a screenplay, making his successful stint as a filmmaker all the more perplexing — Brothers was completely wordless. Though A Way Out’s problems certainly do not end with its writing, the script is the rotten core of this wormfilled apple. One could place good money on a bet that every single line of dialogue was plagiarized from the lexicon of generic action movie shlock that most directors with an ounce of taste abandoned decades ago — it’s lucky, at the very least, that the game is set in the ’70s, though the director neither knows nor cares which specific year or place. Had Fares committed to making the corny period crime drama that the game accidentally becomes, the Continued on page 13

The Oberlin Review | March 30, 2018

A r t s & C u lt u r e

CDS Serves Up Sweet Food Skills Lessons

Campus Dining Services chef Matt Krasnevich teaches a cooking class to the Food Writing 101 ExCo. This year, CDS has been organizing a series of food workshops, including one about cooking with chocolate that took place Wednesday afternoon. Photo by Pearse Anderson Julia Peterson Arts & Culture Editor

As many college students know well, it can be difficult to cook for yourself while living in a dorm. This year, students can overcome this challenge by participating in Campus Dining Services’ series of informal classes and tastings. The primary purpose of these events isn’t to give intensive lessons or embark on especially challenging recipes — they’re meant to be a lighthearted, fun, delicious way to spend part of an afternoon learning about food. DeCafé Unit Manager Daron Frederick taught the fourth class in the series, “Cooking with Chocolate,” Wednesday afternoon at the Rathskeller. “We were looking for something fun to engage the students and to reach out and share our resources here at Oberlin with the student body,” Frederick said. “[This series is] something that’s just trying to engage and get the word out and interact with the student body and try to understand what they want and what people would like to learn how to do. We have a lot of knowledge in the kitchens, with all the different chefs that we have working here, and it just makes sense to pass some of that forward.” The series comes in a set of six, and CDS intends to hold more in the future, College Campus Nutritionist Eric Pecherkiewicz said. “We’ve covered Valentine’s Day treats, salsas and guacamole, and coffee tasting,” Pecherkiewicz said. “The last session is an overnight oats class in Kahn

Hall’s first-floor lobby on Wednesday, April 11, at 5:30 p.m. We do plan to continue holding these in the [next] school year, but dates and subjects have not yet been determined.” Wednesday’s tutorial began with a brief lesson on chocolate history and trivia, then moved into recipes. In a nod to the potential savory uses of chocolate, Frederick provided two recipes for molé sauces — a chocolatebased sauce typically used in Mexican cuisine. The rest of the class focused on desserts, including molded chocolates, dips, and microwave mug cakes. “[Chocolate] is one of my main loves,” Frederick said. “I’ve always loved playing with chocolate, making chocolate, finding new recipes that you can make with chocolate. When we got the email earlier this year to discuss doing these cooking classes … [CDS] gave us a list of a lot of things that we could choose from. One of the things that was on there was cooking with chocolate, and I went right after it.” Although chocolate is an extremely popular dessert, the class itself was poorly attended — two people attended, one of whom was College first-year Jeff Heo. “It was very intriguing, actually,” Heo said. “I did know a little bit about chocolate, and making and molding chocolate, but doing it with the chef was a different experience. He told us a lot of information about how chocolate should be dealt with, and its history, and ways of using it. I think it was a very meaningful way to spend the middle of a

Wednesday afternoon.” With a big bowl of molten chocolate on the stove, Frederick began by demonstrating how to make a variety of molded chocolates. While carefully making sure not to let any steam seep over the edge of the bowl, which would cause the chocolate to seize and turn grainy, Frederick poured the chocolate into square molds, flower-shaped molds, and even one giant mold in the shape of an Easter bunny that was almost as large as an actual rabbit. “Some of the molds that

we used today I inherited from my grandmother from years and years ago,” Frederick said. “She had a very long passion for making chocolates and doing molds and stuff like that, so it’s something that I’ve done since I was a little kid. … I do it every year at my own home for Christmas presents, and sometimes around Easter as well. It’s just something that I’ve always enjoyed doing, and something that’s super easy that can be done in a microwave — it can be done with little to no prep and little to no experience with working with it. It’s just something that’s fun to do, and it’s delicious. I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate?” Frederick then moved on to demonstrate how to make items dipped in chocolate, including strawberries, Oreos, pretzels, and potato chips. These desserts can easily be made in a dorm kitchen, using only a microwave and a fridge. Students can melt the chocolate in a microwave, taking it out in slow intervals to prevent it from burning, Frederick said, and it can work just as well as melting chocolate over the stove. Once things are dipped in chocolate, the treats only need to be refrigerated for about 20 minutes before they are ready to be enjoyed. The tutorial ended with a lesson on how to make mug cakes, another simple recipe that requires only five minutes, minimal ingredients, and access to a microwave. Frederick said that to make a mug cake, melt two tablespoons of butter in

a microwave-safe mug. Add a quarter-cup of cake mix, a tablespoon of milk, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and one egg. Mix the ingredients together, then put the mug back in the microwave for one minute or until the cake is done. Because using the microwave cooks the egg very quickly, Frederick explained, mug cakes are safe to eat even when they’re not cooked through all the way, like a chocolate lava cake. For Frederick, this semester’s series of classes may only be the start of a much more ambitious program, depending on how the student body responds to the continuing events in the series. “I would love to see the word get out and have more people attend,” he said. “I would love to see it get to the point where we have to fill an entire classroom and maybe reserve a special space just for that class, and maybe even one day get it on the curriculum. I would love to see that.” In Heo’s opinion, classes like this one can provide a real benefit to college students who don’t know much about cooking for themselves. “This was a great program, and it was a very entertaining way to spend two hours of time,” Heo said. “I think it gives you a lot of experience on how to cook. For those people who don’t know the basics of cooking, this would be a really good introduction course.”

There’s Not A Way Out of Cooperative Game’s Massive Flaws

CROSSWORD

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Puzzle by Daniel Markus Managing Editor 1

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Across 1. Voiceover opportunities in video games, abbr. 5. Type of 29. Across 9. Bowling outcome of a ball thrown imperfectly 14. Oobleck or flubber, for example 15. Hee haw 16. Biochemistry assay that utilizes antibodies 17. Gumbo ingredient 18. Tarry 19. Villanelles and cinquains 20. Elected positions, informally 22. See the circled squares in the bottom left 24. Elementary insult 25. Strenuous 27. Qty. that time cards track 29. What you get by rotating this puzzle clockwise 45 degrees with the circled squares filled 33. Morning pick-me-up 34. What you might say after discovering an answer in this puzzle 37. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” and “take it with a grain of salt” are examples 38. Four of the 50. Down on a 29. Across 40. Some cells in the human eye 41. Reversal 43. Musician Kurt 44. Always right, according to some 46. Quake 48. Singer Garfunkel 49. Be the last one standing 50. “I see drawings and pictures in the _____ of huts and the dirtiest of corners.” – Vincent Van Gogh 51. Governmental title, abbr. 52. Literally billions of years 53. Fanfiction with sexually explicit content 56. Desert far to the 22. Across 58. Type of renewable 63. British band fronted by two brothers 65. Crossed traveling from the U.K. to the U.S. 67. Membrane encasing the brain and spinal cord: _____ mater 68. Sierra _____ 69. Type of sax 70. Cookie ingredient, sometimes 71. Purge 72. Persist 73. To do the opposite of 18. Across Down 1. The Red Cross and UNESCO, e.g. 2. Trendy food featuring raw fish and sushi rice 3. Iron Chef Cat 4. Tiff

The Oberlin Review | March 30, 2018

5. Reward for a sacrifice fly, abbr. 6. Directions 7. From Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra: “...My _____ days, / When I was green in judgment, cold in blood...” 8. Where threads are fed 9. Type of IRA 10. Large farm implements 11. Place 12. Political ideologies and artistic movements, for example 13. Russian news agency that is among the largest in the world 21. A fixed fight, say 23. Actor Billy Bob 26. Qualifier before a generalization 28. Legendary basketball coach Auerbach 29. News app owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group 30. Foul smell in London 31. A haze in the center? 32. Stake 33. Rattle 34. A popular example would be Cowboy Bebop or Bleach 35. Sometimes appear on nights with cloud cover and a bright moon 36. Vigilant 38. Contemptible person 39. American band Bon _____ 42. Hamilton’s face is on it 45. Be indebted 47. American department store chain 50. A 29. Across has them in multiples of four 51. Agitates 52. Virus that broke out in Africa in 2014 53. Qualifier before a generalization 54. Lake formed in a volcanic crater 55. Govt. agency that oversees meat production 57. Precious stone 59. See 30. Down 60. Hawai’ian tradition that includes a pig roast 61. Supported by one of the U.S.’s national endowments 62. Reckless 64. Understand 66. Org. that oversees road safety Editor’s Note: Solutions to this puzzle will appear in next week’s paper.

dialogue might at least have retained a sense of charm. Yet its self-seriousness betrays itself line after line, making the outlandish situations in which the characters find themselves come off as unintentionally comical instead of fun. In one sequence, players — occupying adjacent cells, in a coincidence only justified much later — must watch one another’s backs as they alternately use a screwdriver to loudly remove the toilet from the wall in order to escape, even as guards pass by them. In another, the two escape a police blockade and a helicopter via a plainly-visible rowboat without so much as a downriver chase. The insistence of A Way Out to forgo a sense of danger in favor of dream logic is worsened by its complete lack of compelling characters. A game centered around the relationship between two protagonists should, at bare minimum, inspire players to connect with them on some level, and it certainly makes an attempt to do just that. Yet in this realm, Brothers is almost retroactively worsened by A Way Out’s reliance on the mere existence of family as a tool to dredge up emotional weight. In the case of Brothers, that worked, as the player was free to express the wordless brothers’ bond through their actions. However, the family dynamics of A Way Out are nothing short of laughable in their bluntness, coming close to Tommy Wiseau’s The Room in terms of their inability to capture the way humans think and act. One scene has Leo attempting to console his son, who has just learned of his father’s criminal status. This scene is cut short with little Timmy scrambling out the window to avoid a conversation. All is well just minutes later, though, once Leo repairs a “Keep Out” sign stationed at the kid’s treehouse. Cue a completely unearned swell of strings. The characters of Leo’s and Vincent’s wives are underdrawn and completely contingent on their husbands. In over five hours of gameplay, they are the only female characters except for the brief appearance of an untrustworthy arms dealer. Near the end, a scene involving one of the wives comes close to being emotionally compelling. Then, the camera pans out of a window, cutting the dialogue audio completely and leaving players to conclude that Fares couldn’t be bothered to write the reaction of someone in a state of grief. The already abysmal script is worsened by hollow performances — in an industry where even low-budget games are often lauded for the quality of their voice acting, there’s no real excuse for how phoned-in our protagonists’ voices sound, even as the story itself reaches the point of melodrama. A Way Out is such a complete failure that the central conceit itself is wasted. Player choice was supposed to figure heavily at key points in the narrative, allowing co-op partners to choose either Leo’s brash and violent path, or Vincent’s methodical and cautious path. Not only are there just a handful of opportunities for such decisions, but the consequences only affect the next few minutes of gameplay, if they make any difference at all; in one case, the choice to go with Leo’s plan and knock a police officer out cold in an elevator results in no repercussions whatsoever. Further, each decision requires both players to reach a consensus, meaning that choosing either way seems out of character for whichever of the two concedes. The game could mine gold by fostering some actual tension between the two players, but it instead gives them no reason to distrust each other until the inevitable, painfully obvious final half hour. Credit should be given where it’s due: Fares, given his otherwise-impressive track record, is at the helm of a talented group of developers, and his vision is admirable. A Way Out has a level of polish and technical proficiency that consistently elevates the experience, and the visual style is a logical, pleasing progression from the painterly storybook quality of Brothers. The ever-shifting split-screen mechanics are implemented well; it’s apparent that a sizeable amount of genuine effort was put into the game’s every moment, and few games try so hard as A Way Out to break the mold. Unfortunately, it’s all the more disappointing that both Fares’ ambition and his team’s skills were thrown away. The most interesting uses of the co-op dynamics were all shown in gameplay previews before release — one player sneaking another through security via laundry basket, for example — and are stuffed in the opening few hours of the game. By the third act, the game takes a surprising and completely unwelcome turn into a pale imitation of Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment’s popular action-adventure series Uncharted, complete with subpar vehicle chases through an anonymous jungle and mediocre cover-based shooting galleries that serve only to pad an already-lean running time. Besides the chops of its developers, A Way Out finds its only redemption in delivering exactly the twist it desperately needs. Some might consider the plot point genius, but unlike the legitimately unpredictable left turns delivered by Shyamalan, this one will be guessed by all but the most engaged players, as there’s really no other way to end a game that forces two players to cooperate than by inverting that central dynamic. Qualms about spoilers be damned; A Way Out continually spoils itself time and time again. “If you play this game all the way through from beginning to end, and see it for what it is, it’s impossible not to like it,” Fares once asserted of A Way Out. Ironically, the game is ruined by his own refusal to see it for what it is: a cheap ’70s crime thriller knockoff with no sense of humanity or humor. Yet his confidence has been validated by the cesspool of gaming journalism, pulling in positive reviews very nearly across the board from reviewers whose only metric for narrative quality is a game’s belief in its own brilliance. It’s all too likely, then, that Fares won’t learn from this mistake and continue to take on bolder and bolder projects that display the same fundamental lack of a soul — if this is the case, then the industry would have failed him. His past work was, by most accounts, promising in its empathy. It’s tough to see Fares’ creative passion and fraught past and not root for him to succeed. But looking at A Way Out, it’s even harder not to gain a sense of cynicism for the future of narrative-based games. If this is considered a compelling story, then what constitutes a bad one? Perhaps, in time, Fares himself will provide the answer.

Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Dana Rae Goldstein, Softball Player, Environmentalist

College senior Dana Rae Goldstein is a key player on the softball team. As a junior, she started all 40 games in the outfield and hit a team second-best of .368. She led the team with 49 hits and collected 27 runs and 23 RBI. However, she does plenty outside of the athletic community at Oberlin. As an Environmental Studies and Psychology double major, Goldstein has served as a mentor for the Office of Disability Resources and engages in several projects to help her fellow students use resources more efficiently. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Dana Rae Goldstein

Interview by Alex McNicoll and Alexis Dill, Sports Editors

The Jewish Sports Review selected you for the 2017 College Softball All-America Team for your efforts last spring. What are some things you want to accomplish this year as a senior? I think what I’m trying to accomplish is timely success — not even so much just hits, but sacrifice flies when my team needs them or hits when my team needs them. I think that is the next step for me in my development as a player. You can hit a single with two outs, and that’s great for your average, but I hope that this year I can contribute in a more tangible way on the scoreboard. You just got back from your spring break trip in Florida. What are some takeaways from those games? Each year seems less daunting for me. I had never experienced playing that many games in such a short period of time before I got here, and I didn’t know how to prepare for that kind of fatigue or prepare mentally. This year I went to Florida with my body feeling its best and just mentally ready to play those games. I also learned how to enjoy time with my teammates, whether it’s shopping at Disney Springs or just the little things that we do together. I think it’s uncommon to find a group of 18 girls who can happily wake up together at 6 a.m. We’re a special group

that wants the same thing, and I’ve really learned to enjoy that team aspect. What is your favorite part of being a member of a team and a larger athletic community at Oberlin? I love that it is such a big part of my life but also is kept in balance. I identified so strongly as a softball player growing up, working really hard and making sacrifices … so that I could become a better player. It feels really great to improve as a player, but also it’s Oberlin and it’s Division III. I’m allowed to embrace my other identity as a student with other interests. It’s really exciting. I think every student-athlete you meet has unique interests that they pursue outside of their sport. They take the skills that they use to prepare and be their best as an athlete and use them in their other interests as well. You used to be a mentor for the Office of Disability Resources, which was a role you took very seriously. Why do you view mental health as something that deserves a lot of attention? I had learning challenges growing up, but I never took advantage of accommodations because I didn’t think I needed to. When I got to Oberlin, I found that I didn’t know how to form good habits, show up places on time, hand things

in on time, or work around writer’s block, and it became very apparent that new environments give space for different disabilities to arise in new ways. I did poorly my first semester here and was really lucky that I had my mentor [and] also my teammates. Not everyone is so lucky as to be on a team here, so I felt that it was my duty to pay it forward and be someone else’s “team.” It just felt like becoming a mentor was the right thing to do. You’re invested in preserving the environment and using resources efficiently. What are some of the projects you take part in? I’m a Psychology and Environmental Studies double major. I picked both because at the time, I couldn’t decide which I liked more. It just so happened that they fit very well together. Cindy Frantz has been a really big part of my time here. She’s a psychology professor and a faculty member in the Environmental Studies department. I took her social psychology class the fall of my sophomore year, and it became so apparent how connected the two areas of study are. I’ve been in her research lab since the spring of my sophomore year. It’s called Community-Based Social Marketing. I work alongside Anna Moore from the basketball team most of the time, and I’ve loved the projects that we work on together. We’ve evaluated

Photo by Hugh Newcomb, Photo Editor

how people go about sorting in the mailroom. We’ve done interventions and evaluations with recycling in the Union and Goldsmith houses. Our research yielded that psychology and sociability increase the success of the interventions. The more people that were there at the time of our quizzing or educating, the more effective and improved the houses become at recycling. Currently, for the practicum I’m in, my group and I looked at different buildings all over campus and evaluated what kind of lighting systems they have and taught ourselves all about how lighting works. Then we proposed retrofits for different buildings and calculated how much energy they would save and the money that would be saved. Hopefully we receive an $11,000 grant from the Green Edge Fund to install 726 LEDs in the [Conservatory buildings]. That should save the school around $100,000 in a decade. There’s a big project you’re currently working on that you’ve been excited about. Can you explain what it is? There was a green container takeout program in Dascomb, and it’s still there. However, we’re trying to incorporate it into DeCafé, especially now that Dascomb is closing and there’s going to be an excess of green containers. So now, in the DeCafé line, you can ask for

a green container for free, and you just return it whenever you feel like it. All you have to do is sign up. I’m really excited about it, because it’s something that can continue to have an impact beyond my time here. It really speaks to the type of work I want to do. Not only are you producing less waste, but you’re buying fewer materials, which is using fewer resources, which has a smaller carbon footprint. It creates this cycle of improved behavior, which is happening now. If you could go back and change anything about your college experience, what would you change? I think I would go to more concerts and talks that I don’t initially have interest in just to expand my horizons a little bit. I picked Oberlin because it offered me so much that I didn’t know about, and I wanted to be pushed like that. I love my friends. Their interests are so varied. I can walk into my kitchen and see one friend practicing Egyptian belly dancing for a class, one friend might ask me if she could read me her screenplay, and another might ask me for a psychological analysis. I just love how nuanced and passionate everyone’s interests are. I wish I could have taken more for that, because it’s so easy to get caught up in, “Oh, I need to take more reps,” “I need to do more for this class.”

Kickboxing, Martial Arts Empowers Individuals Julia Peterson Arts & Culture Editor

I do not look intimidating. I know that. As a young woman, people who claim to look out for my best interests often choose to preemptively categorize me as a target and demand that I behave accordingly. I shouldn’t wear that shirt because it’s too provocative. I shouldn’t walk alone outside after dark, even if the route is familiar, because there might be threats lurking in the night. I shouldn’t post that opinion online, because we all know about the reactions women draw when they write controversial pieces on the internet. But even though I do not look intimidating, I am hardly as defenseless as people first assume. When I decide to go against this sort of well-meaning advice, it is not because I am unaware of any risks that I might face, but because I believe that I can adequately protect myself from harm. I love to see the way people’s expressions change when I tell them that I kickbox. Suddenly, I have gone from a person who is presumed to be defenseless to

someone who is perceived as a force to be reckoned with. I’ve never fought competitively — as a Psychology major, I love brains too much to deliberately put myself in situations where head injuries are so common. But I train as much as I can, either at a gym when I’m home or sharing techniques and strategies with sparring partners who come from different fighting backgrounds. These fighting communities have been some of the most supportive groups that I know, and I think that there is a lot to be learned from the way that respectful fighters conduct themselves in training. In particular, I have never been in another community that placed more emphasis on consent. Part of this is out of necessity — if the people who have agreed to a practice fight aren’t all crystal-clear about the nature of what they are doing, someone is probably going to get hurt. If I tell my sparring partners, “I’m not comfortable fighting unless heads are off-limits,” for example, I know that my limits will not be ignored or treated like they are up for debate. They are simply a fact of fighting

with me. In this setting, no one considers these conversations to be prohibitively awkward or thinks less of someone for expressing their needs or preferences. Deciding to learn how to fight may seem daunting, especially if your main exposure to the sport is through watching professionals. But it can be an extremely beginner-friendly sport. Oberlin has a number of active clubs for a variety of martial arts, and martial arts ExCos are offered almost every semester. And you may have more related experience than you know. I quickly found that boxing shares many elements with figure skating, which I did for years. At first glance, these activities might seem like polar opposites; figure skating is all about athleticism with an elegant, composed grace, while boxing is gritty, sweaty, and violent. But both require a similar understanding of the way your body moves through space. You need a similar type of balance and an understanding of your own movements and strength. The main difference is that in figure skating, if you slam into something, you’re doing something

wrong. Through learning how to fight, I have learned to see myself differently in the world. I have no illusions that I am invincible — in fact, the more time I spend learning how to fight, the more I become aware of my own limitations. I frequently run up against them when I train. And I know better than to go around picking fights with people outside of the gym — both because I have no interest in starting a violent confrontation, and because I would likely lose. But I am also aware of my capabilities. If someone were to pick a fight with me, I could defend myself. I know how to throw a really good punch, I have great respect for the impact of a wellplaced elbow or knee, and I have enough training that I will not freeze under pressure. As a woman, society tried to teach me that the best way to protect myself in the world is to exist as invisibly as possible, lest I draw unwanted, violent reactions. Fighting teaches me that I can exist in the world exactly as I want to, and become capable of dealing with whatever reactions I may draw.

Hughes, McDermott Highlight Successful Spring Break Trip

Senior Mayada Audeh warms up for the ITA Central Regionals, hosted by Oberlin in September. Over spring break, the Yeowomen won all three of their matches, giving them a six-game winning streak heading into conference play. Photo courtesy of OC Athletics Alexis Dill Sports Editor

The women’s tennis team doesn’t pay much attention to their record or national ranking, despite boasting an impressive 10–5 record. The plan is the same every year: gain a competitive advantage over North Coast Athletic Conference opponents by scheduling tough opponents before conference play begins. The Yeowomen collected three hard-earned wins during their spring break trip to Orlando, FL, which should give them a boost of confidence and some momentum as they look to build on their six-match winning streak tomorrow against Division II Tiffin University. On the first day of

competition, the Yeowomen played a little below Head Coach Constantine Ananiadis’ expectations, despite beating Hamilton College 6–3. They had some help from their opposition, as the Continentals forfeited the No. 3 set in doubles play and No. 6 set in singles play. Ananiadis said he would like for his team to be more consistent, especially when conference play begins April 6. “We need to play more consistently if we are to challenge for the conference championship,” Ananiadis said. “One day we play good singles, the next good doubles. One day the top of our lineup carries us, the next it’s the bottom that comes through. Our only chance to beat [teams like Kenyon College and Denison

University] is if we play good tennis from the start of doubles and to the end of singles.” Senior Sarah Hughes and sophomore Lena Rich earned an 8–5 victory at No. 1 in doubles play. In singles play, senior Jackie McDermott clinched the victory for the team with a 6–2, 6–2 victory at No. 4. Hughes beat her opponent 6–2, 6–1 at No. 1. First-year Maja Shaw Todorovic collected an easy win at No. 5, 6–1, 6–0. The team faced challenging competition against Grinnell College, but used the toughness and experience they gained in the beginning of the season to finesse a victory. After two hours of doubles competition, Oberlin gained a 2–1 advantage. Hughes and sophomore Delaney Black won 8–4 in the top flight, and McDermott and sophomore Rainie Heck won a close matchup at No. 3, 9–8 (7–5). The Yeowomen had an easier time in singles play, as five of the team’s players won their respective matchups. Hughes beat Grinnell’s Milica Cvrkota, who was 14–0 in dual matches and 21–2 overall before Hughes unseated her. Heck, who competed in the No. 2 spot, won 6–0, 6–4. Senior Mayada Audeh won 6–3, 6–0 in the No. 3 spot, McDermott won 6–4, 6–3 at No. 5, and Black won 6–1, 6–0 at No. 6. On the third and final day of competition, the Yeowomen

concluded their successful spring break campaign in a 7–2 win against the St. Lawrence University Saints. McDermott highlighted the day as she collected her 100th career victory — a career milestone that Audeh has also reached in her final collegiate season. McDermott said she wasn’t aware that the victory she and Heck earned in doubles play at No. 2 would go down as her 100th until her dad told her. “My dad signaled to me that that was my 100th, and I was really excited because it’s a nice milestone to hit, but it was really nice to be playing with Rainie when it happened and to have worked through a really tight match with her,” McDermott said. Hughes and Black needed a tiebreak to win their doubles match 9–8 (7–5). According to Hughes, the cheering and encouragement of her teammates helped the duo persevere. “I think Delaney and I found that support from our teammates allowed us to pull out the win,” Hughes said. “We were getting unnecessarily nervous throughout the match, especially because of the harsh wind conditions, so it definitely helped to take a step back during the tiebreak, relax, and focus on things we could control, like our movement and attitude.” For her efforts on the court

all week, Hughes was named NCAC Women’s Tennis Player of the Week. She extended her winning streak in singles play to four and in doubles play to five. Despite the successes Hughes and McDermott earned individually while in Florida, the two are focused on being good teammates. “Before my collegiate career comes to a close, I hope that as a team we not only compete to our best ability, but that we also keep in perspective what’s most important,” Hughes said. “It is so important towards the end of a long season — and especially when results seem to matter the most — to keep our calm and be grateful for each other and our sport.” McDermott insists that her personal success wouldn’t be possible without the help of her team. “All the success I’ve had at Oberlin is only possible because of my teammates,” McDermott said. “The player that I am now is someone who I never would have even imagined I could be before I got here. I definitely attribute that to my teammates pushing me every day and my coaches taking such a special interest in developing me as a player.” The Yeowomen look to continue their winning ways as the Tiffin University Dragons come to Oberlin tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Scoring Uptick Highlights Season Goals for Yeowomen

Senior Natalie Rauchle readies herself in the Yeowomen’s 16–5 loss to the John Carroll University Lobos on March 24. She earned NCAC Player of the Week this week, in part because of her eight-goal performance against the Wittenberg University Tigers. Photo courtesy of OC Athletics Jane Agler Staff Writer

The women’s lacrosse team fell to the University of Mount Union Purple Raiders 13–7 Wednesday evening. After losing in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship game last year, the Yeowomen have lofty expectations this season. Despite Wednesday’s loss, they’ve also largely delivered thus far, winning their first conference game against the Wittenberg University Tigers 18–15 SaturThe Oberlin Review | March 30, 2018

day following a two-game road trip to Colorado College. “We have big goals [for this season],” Head Coach Lynda McCandlish said. “But the big goals are accomplished by working on the small goals and working on the small things that we do every day.” The Yeowomen offense could not get into rhythm on Wednesday, falling behind 5–1 by halftime and allowing the Purple Raiders to coast to victory. Senior Natalie Rauchle, who

was named NCAC Player of the Week Monday, only managed to score one goal due to an intense face-guard, and the Yeowomen coughed up a seasonhigh 36 turnovers to the Purple Raiders’ defense. Sophomore Eliza Amber was the only Yeowoman who ignited the offense, scoring four goals by the end of the game. On the other side of the field, junior goalie Siena Marcelle led an impressive defensive effort. Marcelle recorded 16 saves and held the Purple Raiders — who currently lead the country in average goals per game with 22.86 — to their season-low of just 13 goals. Amber, who figured the explosive Mount Union offense would greatly test the Yeowomen, said she was happy with her team’s performance but thinks they lack consistency. “We were really pumped up,” Amber said. “We knew they were going to be good. A lot of that game looked really good. Getting all the pieces together is all that we needed. We definitely have the skills to [win], but we have to make the whole game instead of little bits. It was such a bummer to lose, but it was a good experience to learn. It was a good game, and people played hard.” In their first conference game of the season, the Yeowomen were able to beat the Wittenberg Tigers 19–14 in a shootout. The Yeowomen offense came out hot, as Rauchle scored her first of eight goals in just the second minute of the match. The teams were locked in by the halftime, with the Yeowomen leading just 9–7, but Oberlin cushioned its lead with four consecutive goals to start the half.

However, the Tigers responded with five straight of their own, making the game 13–12 for the Yeowomen. With just seven minutes remaining, the Yeowomen stretched out their one-goal lead with another scoring outburst of five straight goals, ultimately sealing the game. In Colorado, the Yeowomen dropped their first game in a heartbreaker to the Colorado College Tigers. After leading 8–4 at the half, the Yeowomen lost the lead in a string of five consecutive goals by Colorado College, bringing the score to 11–10. After trading goals, the Tigers separated from the Yeowomen with just seven minutes remaining, winning 15–13. However, they quickly bounced back, blowing out the Hamline University Pipers 18–7 just a few days later. “We prepared for the Colorado trip and the games the same way we prepare for all of our other games,” McCandlish said, “We try to know a lot about the other team and, in practice, focus on things we know we need to improve. Hopefully we are more fit than we were before the trip [after] working out in all of that altitude.” The Yeowomen will next face off against the Heidelberg University Student Princes tomorrow on Bailey Field at 1 p.m. “[We take our season] game by game,” sophomore Laila Telles said. “We don’t think about our past, and we acknowledge that any team has a likelihood of winning or losing this game despite their past record or perceived skill.”

SPORTS March 30, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 18

I Kneel to Start a Conversation Aiden Day Contributing Writer

First-year outfielder Alexis Castillo dives toward third base. The Yeomen won both of their games against the Wilmington College Quakers Sunday, bringing them to 7–11 for the season. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press

Stellar Pitching, Big Hits Lead Yeomen Past Wilmington Jason Hewitt Staff Writer

The Yeomen baseball team had big expectations going into the season. After a spring in which they finished 23–20 and broke program records for total wins and total conference wins, the team earned a third-place preseason ranking in the North Coast Athletic Conference this year, which was voted on by all of the coaches in the NCAC. The Yeomen began this season slowly, but after sweeping Wilmington College last weekend, the team looks to carry some momentum into their first NCAC matchup against Ohio Wesleyan University tomorrow. The team, which is currently 7–11, showed glimpses of its potential by significantly defeating Wilmington in two games Sunday. The first game ended in a 10–1 victory for the Yeomen, and they showed no mercy in the second game as they produced 12 runs and only gave up three. Pitching played a big role in the series sweep. In game one, junior lefty Zach Steer threw six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and striking out three. The junior — who has a 3–0 record and 2.57 ERA through 21 innings — earned NCAC Pitcher of the Week for his efforts. Junior pitchers Musa Matiwane, Dave Gaetano, and Stephen Kellner each threw a scoreless inning in the first game as well. Junior starting pitcher Noah Gear earned his third win of the season in the second half of the doubleheader, giving up just three hits, two runs, and two walks in four innings of work. Senior Sean Kiley contributed two innings of work, while juniors Alex Amorello and Jack Reiss and sophomore Bradley Jamison each threw one. A few changes have been made in the Yeomen’s pitching lineup, and so far they have paid off. The team will likely depend on Steer and Gear to be their go-to starters and keep opposing offenses off the bases. “For our team this year, I think pitching is where it starts,” Gear said. “If we’re throwing the ball well, we’re going to give our guys a chance to win each and every time we go out there. We have some things to work on, but overall I think we’re in a good spot. This first doubleheader against Ohio Wesleyan will be a test to see where we are compared to the rest of the conference.” Just a year ago, Gear posted a team-best 6–2 record with a 3.40 ERA through 42.1 innings of work. He is looking to improve on those numbers this spring and is well on his way, with a 3.63 ERA through 17.1 innings of work against strong competition. “When I pitch, I’m trying to get hitters to ground out

or fly out, so it’s really a testament to the guys behind me,” Gear said about his early success on the mound. “Our pitching staff can be at the top of the conference if we just focus on throwing strikes and forcing hitters to swing the bat.” The team’s offense also came alive Sunday. After struggling to get their bats going against tough competitors like nationally-ranked Baldwin Wallace University and Washington & Jefferson University, the Yeomen sluggers finally started to get hot in the box against the Quakers. The team collected eight doubles, 22 runs, and sent two balls over the outfield fence. Senior sidearm reliever and utility player Milo Sklar has been red-hot for the Yeomen. In game one, he smoked a two-out, three-run double. In game two, he went 3-for-4 at the plate with three hits, three runs, and four RBIs. The most impressive part of Sklar’s statistics is that his role was limited to pitching during his first two years at Oberlin. He started seeing at-bats as a designated hitter last spring and kept his spot by hitting .323. This year, after 52 at-bats, Sklar leads the team with a .404 batting average and 21 hits, eight of which went for extra bases. Sklar said that whatever Head Coach Adrian Abrahamowicz needs him to do, he is happy to do it, whether it’s knocking in the first two batters on the lineup card or coming in for relief. “In terms of pitching, my role hasn’t changed too much since my freshman year,” Sklar said. “If anything, it has gotten easier as our pitching staff has grown and added depth. Getting back to swinging has been really fun for me these last two years. I’m just happy that I’ve been able to contribute and help the team.” Sklar isn’t the only player whose role has been altered. Junior Jack McGowan went from being a member of the bullpen to chasing down fly balls in the outfield and busting out hits. McGowan, who did not hit his first two years in the program, boasts a .364 average with 12 hits and 9 runs through 33 at-bats. Other players who have produced for the Yeomen lately include sophomore second baseman and outfielder Maxx McGee and senior first baseman Quin Butler. McGee, who saw a decent amount of playing time as a first-year, is hitting .429 through 28 at-bats. Butler maintains his reputation as a slugger first baseman with a .313 batting average and eight extrabase hits. The team is looking to start conference play on a positive note as the Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops come to campus for a doubleheader at noon tomorrow.

I’ve played sports all my life. This is mostly thanks to my dad, who saw sports as a great way for me to stay healthy, as well as one way to make myself stand out during the college process. For me though, above all else, participating in sports has been about having fun. From recess in elementary school to my high school varsity games, I’ve had the privilege to win and lose many exhilarating games of capture the flag, dodgeball, football, soccer, and — of course — lacrosse. Now that I’m finally here at the college level, I play lacrosse for Oberlin not out of some obligation or necessity, but because it’s something that I love doing. But who I am is much more than the sport I play. Just like every Oberlin student, I have goals that I wish to pursue throughout my education here. I came to Oberlin to improve my ability to help the powerless and oppressed in our society. That’s my goal: Through selfimprovement, I wish to help people less privileged than myself and create a more equal society. As a straight white man in America, I represent what our culture considers the pinnacle of privilege. I do not face racism like people of color do, nor do I receive the homophobic or sexist remarks millions of people around the world do every day. I am also fortunate enough to be supported by many loving family members and friends who inspire me to do the best I can and do the right thing. It’s not fair that others be treated any differently, and I wish to help combat inequality and injustice in its many forms. One way that I fight is by taking a knee during the national anthem at my lacrosse games. I kneel in support of Colin Kaepernick’s protest against racial inequality in America. I kneel to mourn the deaths of Black people like Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin, whose murderers were not punished for their crimes. I kneel in solidarity with athletes across the U.S. who were labeled “sons of bitches” by our president. But above all else, I kneel out of desire to start a conversation amongst white people about race in America. I see my simple yet noticeable action as a means to raise awareness of the current racism and bigotry that plagues this country after centuries of slavery and continued segregation. However, it would be ignorant of me to think that everyone shares my point of view. I currently have family in the U.S. military, and I understand the perspective of those who view my protest as disrespectful. With that said, I don’t see enough privileged, powerful people doing what I am doing. I want to make an effort to increase the racial fluency of white people who do not feel like they can talk about race. POC should not be the only ones fighting back against said injustices. My reasons for taking a knee do not end with racial inequality. In my final class with my favorite high school teacher, Mr. Baker — a Jewish man who lost family in the Holocaust — I read about many people who had the opportunity to do the right thing but didn’t out of fear. When I ask myself what I would’ve done in the shoes of the men and women who were “just following orders,” I wondered if I would’ve had the courage to do what I thought was right. One of the core reasons why I take a knee during the anthem is connected with what I took away from this class with Mr. Baker. If I don’t do what I think is right because I might be met with backlash, then what kind of person am I? I’d be a bystander, someone who had the opportunity to follow through with what I believed in, but didn’t have the courage to do it. For me, it’s not about the game. It’s not about what division my team is in, or about how many times we’ve won or lost. It’s not about how much playing time I get or my skill as a lacrosse player, and it’s not about the color of my skin. If I am the man I say I am, I should do what many people throughout history have failed to do: not be a bystander and stand up for — or in this case take a knee for — others by starting these necessary conversations.