May 4th, 2018 by The Oberlin Review

The Oberlin Review May 4, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 23

Student Senate Expects Further Momentum in 2018–2019 Tess Joosse Staff Writer

Village Houses on Woodland Street will be shut down and demolished over the summer. These houses represent 11 of the 17 units that will be torn down due to disrepair. Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

ResEd Decommissions 17 Village Houses

Sydney Allen News Editor Lila Michaels Staff Writer As housing selection for the 2018– 19 academic year wraps up, many students have been left disappointed as Residential Education struggles to meet demand for Village Housing and private dorm rooms after decommissioning 17 Village Houses due to disrepair. The change is partially a result of Oberlin’s increasing financial austerity, as the College is reluctant to pour more money into dilapidated, depreciating houses each year. All 11 of the Woodland Street Village Housing Units are set to be razed over the summer — however, some students were still allowed to register for these buildings due to a staff error. Those who registered were notified afterward that the selection had been a mistake and were then assigned a different housing time. The error has left several students feeling frustrated and disappointed with their new housing placements. College junior Millie Cavicchio is one of the people who registered for a Woodland House, only to find out later that the choice was invalid. Now she and her group-mates are slotted to live in dorms for the 2018–19 academic year. “ResEd closed the houses because they need to be repaired but didn’t open enough adequate housing for the seniors,” she said. “They will not

open more off-campus housing spots until they overenroll the incoming class, even though it is not fair to have some of the students who waited until their last year to get a house not get one. No one is happy with the housing situation this year. Students are getting screwed left and right.” Cavicchio added that though the group can apply to a waitlist for housing changes, which officially started accepting applicants yesterday, the changes to available housing and a general lack of adequate communication have put some students in a tight spot. “I feel like the College is putting so many students in an uncomfortable living situation but do not care enough to change it because that would require having the College lose money on housing and dining plans,” Cavicchio said. “Housing is one of the main reasons students do not come to Oberlin and do not stay at Oberlin.” Time slots for housing registration are generally organized by semesters in residence, with the idea being that students who have been at Oberlin longer get an earlier registration time. This spring, however, various mistakes throughout the registration process have meant that this is not always the case. Typically, Village Houses are reserved for groups of seniors or those with four or more semesters in residence, offering them the chance to enjoy “the privacy and space of post-collegiate life while retaining

many of the conveniences of collegemaintained property,” according to Oberlin’s website. However, many rising juniors and seniors scrambled to snag even private dorm rooms as housing registration began this week, such as singles and super quads, following the reduction in Village Housing options. Despite 17 houses being taken off-line — most of them with a capacity of four students — the number of students selected in the off-campus housing lottery remained unchanged, further limiting the housing options available to rising upperclass students. “Dealing with ResEd has been one of the biggest headaches of the semester,” College sophomore Jason Hewitt said. Hewitt believed that he and a teammate had successfully registered for a super quad until receiving an email from ResEd that, due to a scheduling error, his registration was invalid. “‘Sorry that you guys are being punished because of our huge mistake, but there’s nothing we can do for you now,’” Hewitt said that the email read. College sophomore and Student Senator Justin Godfrey shared a registration experience similar to Hewitt’s. After registering for his preferred housing, his assignment was invalidated and he was asked to move into a less desirable housing assignment. However, he said he is grateful for the efforts

After a year of milestones and challenges, Oberlin Student Senate is looking forward to continued progress on a number of initiatives in the next academic year. “Senate has made many major strides forward as an organization this year,” said Eddy Tumbokon, College first-year and Student Senate Communications Director. “We’re experiencing new degrees of cooperation with the Board [of Trustees], and I think that’s something to be proud of. Senate has also revamped our working group models to a much more structured and intentional framework. Working groups now regularly meet and bring in non-senators, administrators, staff, and community members.” Among those working groups, the Student Community Working Group is tasked with addressing students’ desires for increased campus unity and a more cohesive community. The group hosted a fish fry in the ’Sco on Thursday and has plans to launch a community service initiative in the fall. Other working groups are hoping to build stronger resources for students to remain informed about campus changes. The Capital Projects and Campus Infrastructure Working Group is focusing on fostering communication between students and administration regarding Oberlin’s financial issues, while the Career Readiness and Applied Learning for International Students Working Group is administering a preliminary advising survey to gather international students’ perspectives about the types of support available to them on campus. As for Student Senate, many of its current and future projects are related to the results of its fall 2017 campus climate survey, including addressing student desires for more campus community and requests for time and activities in, and access to Cleveland. “Next year Senate will focus on being responsive to students’ identified needs in our referendum,” Tumbokon said. “We also want to use our platform to support all campus events built towards creating great campus community and student culture, [as well as] continuing to tackle head-on some of the deficiencies in our student government system, and hopefully, develop a platform or solution that is congruent with Oberlin values and running a functional system of representation.” The survey indicated that students are dissatisfied with current campus resources, prompting Student Senate to look at ways to change how students interact not just with

See Housing, page 4

See Senate, page 3

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 New Restaraunt Promises Friendly Local Experience

05 ResEd Neglects Student Needs in Housing Registration

08 Holi

15 Yeowomen Clinch Third Place in NCAC Championships

03 College Students Join McDonald’s Boycott

06 Student Finance System Limits Efficacy of Committee

10 Infinity War Shatters Expectations, Box Office Expectations, Hearts

The Oberlin Review | May 4, 2018

11 Ben Franklin Closes Poetry Month With OSLAM Reading

16 Big Red Sweeps Yeomen Baseball

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New Restaurant Promises Friendly Local Experience

Dana Juliano, Brad Pickens, and Allen Wilson are the owner and chefs for Oberlin’s newest restaurant, The Corner Joint, on East College Street, which opened April 20. Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

Bryan Rubin Photo Editor Alex Davies Staff Writer The Corner Joint has opened on East College Street as one of the newest restaurants in the area. Employing an eclectic, farm-to-fork menu, the restaurant opened its doors April 20 and has already attained a five-star rating on Facebook and Yelp. The Corner Joint is in the location formerly occupied by India Garden, which closed its doors in February after serving Oberlin for just under two years. Owner Dana Juliano and her boyfriend, Head Chef Brad Pickens, hope to revitalize the space and make The Corner Joint the go-to spot for high-

quality, locally-sourced food. The two run the restaurant with co-chef Allen Wilson. Pickens draws from both his experience cooking for Michael Mina at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and his San Francisco upbringing, which Juliano fuses with her East Coast roots in Atlantic City. Meanwhile, Wilson brings a local touch, since he hails from Ohio. These varied backgrounds have resulted in what Juliano calls a “classic and newage food concept.” All three formerly worked together at Black River Cafe on South Main Street, and have been looking for a venue in which to start their own restaurant ever since they left after a change of ownership. “Everybody’s enjoying the food,” Pickens said. “I just need more people

to come because nobody seems to come to this end of the block, and I want to change that. I’ve been wanting to have my own place because I know what I’m doing, we make really good food, and I just like making people happy. It’s a lot of work, but I get satisfaction out of it.” Originally, Pickens had attempted to buy Oberlin Kitchen, formerly Main Street Diner, but was stymied by the owner of Black River. “When the owner of Black River Cafe heard [about Pickens buying Oberlin Kitchen], he went and paid cash for it,” Juliano said. “We saw his car there that Sunday, and [the sale] closed that Sunday. He paid $75,000 cash; the [seller] never returned Brad’s phone call.” Despite that obstacle, staff are unfazed. With two weeks under their belt, Juliano feels confident that The Corner Joint will be a game-changer in the community. “It’s not about the name, it’s not about the people as much as it is about the food,” Juliano said. “And then, of course, it’s about Brad and his vision: … good people, good business, local food, locally sourcing, local lettuce, local coffee — like, keep it here in town. This is a beautiful area for farming and everything, so we have the community in mind, we have the food in mind, the farms in mind. So I’m blown away by the success.” Pickens spoke about how The Corner Joint ended up where it is today, which has been a long time coming. “One of our regulars from Black River is the owner of the building where we are now, so she’s been trying to get me in here for a couple years,” Pickens said. “We finally made it happen, trying to do what we used to do there — everything from scratch, as much local and sustainable product as possible. I like

to keep things simple yet perfect, very consistent. That’s what brings people back: consistency.” The commercial front on East College Street has seen relatively high turnover in recent years. Before India Garden opened, Magpie Pizza closed in the spring of 2016. In fall of 2016, Tree Huggers Cafe also closed its doors while Cowhaus Creamery took the cafe’s space to downsize. Despite the patterns of turnover, Pickens said he has confidence that his establishment will last due to its inexpensive food and high quality. “Things are just falling into place — it’s like the old Black Rivert’s The Corner Joint, that’s what it is,” Juliano said. Juliano added that the cornerstone of The Corner Joint will be community, as the trio aims to bring folks together through their restaurant. “We have the community in mind, we have the food in mind, we have the farms in mind,” she said. “I mean, I’m blown away by the success. I thought we were going to be sitting in an empty restaurant. This is about appreciating people.” “Everyone was really friendly and accomodating,” said College senior Josh Biales, who ate at The Corner Joint for the first time earlier this week. “I hadn’t realized that there was even a storefront over there until India Garden hosted its closing banquet, so I was excited to find out that a new place was already coming in. Whenever I’m with friends and we don’t feel like waiting for a table at The Feve, someone’s always said, ‘Well, uh... how about Black River?’ with a bit of a shrug. Now, we have a much better alternative — and the mac and cheese is unbelievably good.” Black River Cafe employees and management declined to comment for this article.

Edmonia Lewis Center for Women, Transgender People Shuts Down Hannah Robinson Layout Editor

After several semesters of inactivity, the Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People has officially shut down. The building, which is in a state of disrepair, will be decommissioned this summer after the current residents of the house move out. According to the Oberlin website, the ELC is “a collective of students, staff, and administrators who strive to transform existing systems of oppression based on sex, gender, race, class, sexuality, age, ability, size, religion, nationality, ethnicity, and language.” However, over the past several semesters, the center’s active role on campus has drastically dropped. According to Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, the student board of the ELC ceased to exist in Spring 2016 and did not appoint new members. This inactivity, combined with a perceived lack of interest in continuing the center’s operations, led Raimondo to reallocate the funding for the center and effectively close the ELC. Students have continued to live in the residential portion of the house, since half of the building is technically part of College housing as a Village House. “Because the program had been inactive for several semesters, I made the decision to reassign the funds in

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the Student Life budget that supported the ELC to other social justice initiatives,” wrote Raimondo in an email to the Review. The center is named for Mary Edmonia Lewis, who was an Oberlin student from 1859–1862 and went on to be a famed sculptor. Lewis, whose mother was a Native American of the Chippewa tribe and whose father was African-American, was one of only about 30 students of color at Oberlin College in 1859. During her time at Oberlin, Lewis was the center of a town scandal when she was accused of poisoning two white classmates. She was acquitted of the crime, but after being accused of stealing art supplies from the College, she was not allowed to continue as a student. When Lyala Khan, a College sophomore who works in community outreach at the Multicultural Resource Center, heard about the ELC closure from her boss at the MRC, she posted on Facebook to see if other students were interested in preserving the center. “The response was honestly stunning,” Khan said, as many students replied to the post asking how they could be of help. “The administrators complaining about lack of student support can largely be attributed to the fact that students did not know the center was closing down.” While administrators have told students that they will not be able to repair the house, Khan and others are

Editors-in-Chief

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 & Culture Editor 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 Ads Manager Jabree Hason

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working to find a way to continue to honor Lewis’s legacy on campus. “I really do think that as an institution we failed her back then, and I just really don’t want us to do that again,” Khan said, referring to the refusal of the Oberlin administration to allow Lewis to continue on with her studies. Some students have proposed that Baldwin Cottage, the College’s safe living space for women and trans people, be renamed for Lewis. However, due to the complexity of renaming a building, it seems that the creation of an Edmonia Lewis Center inside of Baldwin may be more likely, according to Khan. Although the ELC will not continue to create social justice programming as it once did, Raimondo sees the center’s work as a success. “At the time of the ELC’s creation, it was the primary space on campus for students to create intersectional feminist programming and women of color organizing outside of academic programs,” Raimondo said. “In part due to the important work of ELC collective members, such frameworks are now widely used by many cocurricular programs and student organizations. ... The program has not ended, but rather has been taken up in many places by a wide range of people, demonstrating the success of the ELC’s efforts.”

Corrections: To submit a corrrection, email managingeditor@ oberlinreview.org.

College Students Join McDonald’s Boycott While the overall goal is to pressure McDonald’s to accept stronger animal protections, each protest also has its own independent goal. “[Our] goal for today is two-fold,” King-Nobles said. “Primarily, we want McDonald’s executives or higher-ups — whoever supervises this restaurant — we want them to hear about this. The second goal, which I think is also important, perhaps less important, is that we educate individual consumers about it.” The Humane League has said that the I’m Not Lovin’ It campaign is its biggest campaign yet and has planned for dozens of ads and events to pepper Chicago, where McDonald’s is based. Similarly, Oberlin activists see their protest College junior Haven King-Nobles and College sophomore Will Cramer protest outside Ober- as the start of a longer local campaign. lin’s McDonalds as part of a nationwide movement against the chain. “I expect we’ll be out here as long as Photo by Justin Bank, Staff Photographer it takes,” King-Nobles said. “I’d love to get something going every week. I’d like Roman Broszkowski fare policy. to get to know the managers a bit more, News Editor “Many of McDonald’s competi- get a bit friendly with them — hopefully tors have already committed to the ask they won’t hate us too much because Members of Oberlin Animal Rights that we’re going for,” King-Nobles said. we have nothing against them. We just held a two-hour protest and posted fly- “Namely that they switch to higher wel- want them to be aware where their food ers outside Oberlin’s North Main Street fare breeds, that their chickens grow comes from and hopefully encourage McDonald’s Monday to protest inhu- slower, at a more healthy rate for their their company to make more ethical demane animal conditions and food sourc- bodies, and also that they’re less crowd- cisions.” ing as part of a nationwide campaign ed and they have cleaner, more natural For the Humane League and to local against the franchise. conditions.” animal rights activists, the battle with Although OAR’s effort was a small, Humane League protesters passed McDonald’s is a crucial one to win in the three-person protest, the national mis- out literature claiming the chickens Mc- fight for animal rights. sion of the campaign is to exert pressure Donald’s purchases are bred unethically “This campaign as an effective way on McDonald’s and convince the chain and treated inhumanely. Two sections to improve the welfare of chickens,” Luto adopt stricter regulations for suppli- of the flyers, titled “Bred To Suffer” and Lerner wrote. “As always, I wish there ers in their treatment of chickens. “Trapped In Filth,” list specific exam- were [something] equally effective to “We’re working in conjunction with a ples which activists say justify a boycott. do more for the chickens, but since Mcnationwide campaign that’s asking Mc“Chickens raised and killed for Mc- Donald’s is a massive chain which sells Donald’s to improve the welfare policies Donald’s food are still selectively bred an abundance of chicken meat, shifting of their chickens,” said College junior to grow unnaturally large, unnaturally their welfare policies would have an and protest organizer Haven King-No- fast,” one flyer reads. “Overcome by their enormous and prolonged impact on the bles. “This nationwide coalition includes own genetics, many die of organ and wellbeing of chickens.” groups like the Humane League, … Mer- heart failure.” The conclusion of the NGO’s backcy for Animals, Animal Equality, [and] The national campaign began after ground information sheet sums up the Compassion in World Farming.” McDonald’s released what the Humane strategy in its entirety. The protest lasted from 4–6 p.m. League categorized as an unsatisfactory “Ultimately, a policy from McDon“Generally, I was [satisfied with the public chicken welfare policy. The poli- ald’s will lead to a complete overhaul of protest],” OAR Liaison and College cy itself arose from months of dialogue the American chicken industry, dramatisophomore Lily Lu-Lerner wrote in a between animal protection NGOs and cally reducing the suffering of billions of message to the Review. “We seemed to the restaurant chain. animals annually. It’s time for McDonpositively engage with those who were Unhappy with the result of the pre- ald’s to change.” curious about our campaign, and as the vious discussions, the Humane League OAR meets weekly, is working to ban protest went on, we were more able to and its allies ran an ad in The New York puppy mills in Ohio, and is planning communicate concisely and capture the Times March 25 requesting that the res- a trip to an animal sanctuary May 12. interest of the public.” taurant franchise adopt more scientific Oberlin students are free to join. According to OAR, activists have standards for meat-sourcing. The camRepresentatives from the North singled out McDonald’s for its refusal to paign, I’m Not Lovin’ It, began two days Main Street McDonald’s declined remeet industry standards in animal wel- later. quests for comment.

Senate Introduces 2018–2019 Agenda, Plans

Continued from page 1

the campus, but also with the College’s surrounding area. “Some of the clear changes that came about as a result of the survey are the institution recognizing a need for greater transportation and mobility around Northeast Ohio,” Tumbokon said. “The reality is that we’re not in the middle of nowhere — we’re very close to a major national metropolitan city.” In addition to plans Senate hopes to pursue as an organization, individual senators are continuing to work on their own goals. Last month, Senate Sexual Health Liaison Kirsten Mojziszek held a listening session for students to express concerns and critiques about the College’s Title IX policy and compiled the feedback into a document to present the Title IX Policy Review Committee. “We took some time to discuss what we could feasibly respond to, what we could change and what was bound by legal obligations, and how we could make the language of the policy The Oberlin Review | May 4, 2018

clearer to avoid misunderstandings,” Mojziszek said of the listening session in an email to the Review. “We also had a conversation about what we could do to ensure that students feel they are educated on the policy and how faculty and staff could make efforts to open up dialogue.” When the Committee decides on final recommendations they will be presented to Student Senate and the General Faculty Committee for approval. Discussions on the policy are ongoing, and Mojziszek encouraged students to contact her or the Title IX Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion with any thoughts or concerns. “Community participation in this process is key,” she said. In addition to the Title IX Policy review, Mojziszek will be reframing the Oberlin Bystander Initiative program for fall 2018. OBI trainings will be given to first-years throughout new student orientation, replacing the online substance-abuse education course new

students were required to complete in years past. “I am really excited about this project because it allows us to focus on what healthy consumption can look like and how students can keep themselves and their community safe,” Mojziszek wrote. Students who are interested in becoming an OBI Bystander or leading one of the training workshops are encouraged to contact Mojziszek at kmojzisz@oberlin.edu. “To us, what has been most impressive and inspiring to watch is our colleagues’ commitment to finding opportunities for growth and improvement even in times of fiscal constraint,” Kameron Dunbar, Senate chair, and Cecilia Wallace, Senate vice chair jointly said in Senate’s April update to President Ambar and Senior Staff. “We look forward to our continued work in building a better student experience, and in turn a better Oberlin.”

Security Notebook Thursday, April 26, 2018 10:50 a.m. A staff member reported non-offensive graffiti behind the home-stand bleachers and on the press box at the Knowlton Athletics Complex. A work order was filed for removal. 2:00 p.m. A construction employee reported non-offensive graffiti on the Hall Auditorium Annex. An unknown person(s) spray-painted the building and adaptable walls.

Friday, April 27, 2018 1:15 a.m. Safety and Security officers reported an individual lying in the middle of Woodland Street in front of the Science Center. The officers contacted the student who said they fell off the back of another student while “goofing around.” The student, who was under the influence of alcohol, received a laceration above their eye and was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment. 2:47 a.m. Officers responded to a report of a student passed out in the hallway on the second floor of Noah Hall. Officers contacted the student, who was under the influence of alcohol and had several abrasions on their leg. The individual was walked to their room for the night. 11:34 a.m. Allen Memorial Art Museum security officers were advised of a student who felt ill at the museum. The student declined medical assistance and went back to class. 6:38 p.m. A student reported a large black trunk, containing a large white cloth that belongs to the Dance department, missing from Fairchild Chapel where it was stored. Officers conducted a search of the area for the missing trunk with negative results. 8:06 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm in South Hall. When officers entered the building, they detected a strong odor consistent with burnt marijuana and air freshener. The area was cleared and alarm reset. 11:27 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department assisted two individuals stuck in an elevator at South Hall. The elevator was opened, and the students exited. The elevator was shut down until repairs could be made.

Sunday, April 29, 2018 1:40 a.m. Officers and paramedics assisted with a student ill from alcohol consumption. The student declined further medical treatment and went to their room for the night. 2:15 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the second floor of Dascomb Hall. There was no fire present, but the area smelled of smoke. The area was cleared and the alarm reset. 12:47 p.m. Campus dining staff reported a bag found on a table in the Stevenson Dining Hall kitchen that contained a green leafy substance consistent with marijuana. Officers transported the item to the Office of Safety and Security, where it was picked up by members of the Oberlin Police Department.

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Housing Cuts Leave Students Worried Continued from page 1

of administrators to correct these mistakes. “Was it a frustrating experience?” he asked. “Yes, but I absolutely commend everyone at ResEd for their patience. … I know our administration is attempting to make this as smooth of a process as possible, but there are clearly some things that need to be worked out.” Even rising sophomores, unable to apply for any Village Housing, are bothered by the closures, as access to other types of housing is limited in a trickle-down fashion. College first-year Lee Khoury intended to register for a quad with three friends, but quad options closed more quickly than usual this week. “I expected to get that quad because I had heard the demand for quads was not too high, and I was really looking forward to it,” Khoury said. “I particularly think that it is unfair that this class has been screwed over in this instance because we also got shafted with the dining plan.” For some students, as the chaos of this year’s housing selection winds down, their thoughts are turning to how this can be prevented in the future. “Finding creative ways to expand our housing options are absolutely essential,” Godfrey said. “My thoughts are that maybe we should think about making one of the dorms a senior/junior dorm with all super singles [and super] quads. I know some solutions are in the works and I would love for them to get students involved in finding creative solutions to the problems we are facing. For example, the Student Senate Capital Projects working group, which if any student wants their concern heard and want to be part of the solution, they should definitely come to their meetings.” Representatives from Residential Education and the Dean of Students Office did not respond to Request for comment.

OFF THE CUFF

Mike Keith, Oberlin College Transportation Department Mike Keith has worked at Oberlin College for the past seven years. He started out as part of the custodial staff in Dascomb Hall, and has since moved to transportation services for the College. During his time at Dascomb Hall, Keith was known for being a warm and enthusiastic member of the community and for going out of his way to welcome students. He has been dubbed by many students and signs off his emails as “Dascomb Mike”. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Jackie Brant Opinions Editor Where are you from? Are you originally from Oberlin? I’m originally from Texas, and I moved up here to the Oberlin area in 1991 with my parents. [I’ve been] working here for — going on my seventh year. What kind of stuff did you do while you were working at Dascomb? Mostly cleaning — cleaning the building, cleaning the restrooms, stuff like that. I did the whole second floor and the west end of the first floor. What did you like best about working at Dascomb? I liked being around the students a lot. They were a lot of fun, and I made a lot of good friends. Do you still keep up with residents who used to live in Dascomb when you worked there? Yeah, quite a few of them. I go to lunch with them sometimes, but I usually just see them around and stop to talk, especially around the Science Center. Can you explain what you did for everyone’s birthdays? That’s something old residents remember fondly about you. I probably started doing it my second year working at Dascomb. I started doing it because, you know, students are away from home and everything, and some students probably don’t get birthday cards on their birthday or they get it late. That’s why I started doing it. I did a card and candy. And around the winter break I’d give everyone — the whole building — holiday cards. How do you remember everyone’s names from Dascomb? That’s something I always remember about you, you always seemed to know every resident’s name. I have no clue; it’s surprising to me at times, too. Yeah, I don’t know how. I have a pretty decent memory, I’d say. It probably stems from writing all those birthday cards out too, that helps you remember everyone’s names. You once signed an email to me last year as “Dascomb Mike.” Are you aware that this is something that stu-

dents call you, and if you do, do you know how it came about? I never knew that, I never knew that. I just signed that because there are so many Mikes and who knows which Mike I’m talking about, so I just signed it that so everyone would know, “Oh yeah, that’s Mike from Dascomb.” What’s the most memorable situation you ever had to deal with or that you witnessed at Dascomb when you worked there? Oh, maybe a kid kicking a hole through the wall in the second floor lounge. Yeah, they called me. They called someone else to fix it, but they called me to come clean it up. I’ve seen the video of it though — it was hilarious, it was just crazy. He was just having a good time — he was probably drunk. Is that something you had to deal with a lot when you worked in Dascomb? No, not really, actually. You know, I don’t know why, but the kids never really messed up the area too much. Every now and then they’d mess it up, but it wasn’t really too bad. When did you stop working at Dascomb and what have you been doing since then? I stopped working at Dascomb February of last year and I’ve been in the Transportation Services department since then. That just consists of moving people around, and you know, setting up events and stuff like that. Do you miss working at Dascomb at all? Just the student aspect of it. I don’t miss the cleaning of the bathrooms and stuff like that. I remember you came to my soccer game last spring when I used to live in Dascomb, and I know you went for Jordyn Morris on my team, who lived in Dascomb her freshman year. Did you often go to students’ events like that? You know, if students tell me about it, like plays or things, I try to go. Like Cat Potts, she reached out to me a couple times and said, “Hey Mike, I’m having a play this week,” and you know, I’ll go and see it. I still go now too if someone tells me they have something to come see.

Mike Keith. Photo by Jackie Brant, Opinions Editor

Will you be sad to see the Dascomb Dining Hall go next year? Yeah. Yeah I will, but you know, I understand what they’re trying to do. But I’m still definitely sad to see it go. What does a typical day at work look like for you now? Oh, man. Well, with the All Roads stuff, it was extremely busy. You know, doing those events, setting up for the various events in the Science Center corridor for the stuff for prospective students. We get work orders every day from our boss that’ll say like “Hey, you have to go move a piano out of Bibbins Hall and take it to Stull Hall,” things like that. Where’s your favorite place to eat on campus or in town? I like that one spot, Kim’s [Grocery]. There’s not too much I eat anymore now, I’ve gone vegan. Well, not really vegan right now, vegetarian actually. Do you think Dascomb Dining Hall food is better than Stevenson Dining Hall’s food? I thought Stevie was better, actually. Just because they have more of a variety over there though. If I would’ve started out at Stevie though, I probably would’ve thought Dascomb was better. What do you think about Safety and Security moving into Dascomb Hall next year? I think it’s better, just because of the disability aspect, you know. I mean, some people can’t get up to Safety and Security where it’s at now. It’s been hard for them. And you know, now they’ll be able to come in, and it’ll just be a lot easier, and the same with Student Health Services going in there. It’ll be a lot closer for everybody — you won’t have to walk all the way over to the west end of the town.

Oberlin Community News Bulletin Election Results Watch Party Lorain County Rising and the Oberlin Area chapter of the League of Women Voters are throwing a results watching party May 8 to await the results of the 2018 Ohio primary elections. The event will be held at The Corner Joint on East College Street from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.

ASL Bingo Obility, Disability Resources, and the Deaf Culture ExCo are planning a night of American Sign Language Bingo and dinner on Wednesday, May 9 . All levels of experience are invited to join and learn ASL vocabulary. The event will be at Wilder 112 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Fourth Annual Brave Girls Symposium YWCA Elyria will host an event May 9 dedicated to women’s connection, healing, and empowerment. The symposium will cover topics such as consent, feminism 101, and body image and will include a special focus on mental health, social change, and discrimination. Doors open at the YWCA 9:30 a.m. and the event will last until 2:30 p.m.

OPINIONS May 4, 2018

Letters to the Editors

Oberlin Must Present True Facts About Hotel To the Editors:

I write to express my concern about the misleading and false claims being made by Oberlin College with regard to The Hotel at Oberlin. I understand that our nation has a President who lies on a regular basis and the public is apparently unwilling to hold him accountable. But is the College no different? A recent article in the Spring 2018 issue of the Oberlin College Alumni Magazine claims that “The hotel … is one of only five U.S. hotels to have qualified for the rigorous LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Its heating and cooling systems rely on a geothermal well field …” These claims are also posted on the Hotel’s website, www.thehotelatoberlin.com. Nearly two years ago, the Alumni Magazine wrote that the Hotel was 100 percent solar-powered, a claim still made on the Hotel’s website. The above claims are a combination of lies and deceit. The Hotel at Oberlin is not LEED-certified at any level! The designers of this building are working on the process of certification, and hope to one day achieve the coveted platinum rating. Thousands of buildings have declared their intent to become LEED-certified while never actually achieving that goal. Others achieve certification, but fall short of their original target. It is a bold-faced lie to claim the Hotel is a LEED Platinum building until it achieves that status. Academia considers words and titles to be very important. A professor discovered to have made false claims about their degree will readily be terminated. It is important that our institution meets these same standards of integrity. The claim that the Hotel “relies on a geothermal well field” for its

heat is partially true, but entirely misleading. The majority of the Hotel’s heat comes from natural gas which, conveniently, is not mentioned in the article. In fact, The Hotel at Oberlin annually burns more natural gas than any other Oberlin College building except for the Science Center! This may not be the design intent, but it is the end result. The Hotel at Oberlin is the crowning achievement of the now-defunct Oberlin Project. The Oberlin Project and its supporters have fought to keep natural gas out of this community. The hypocrisy is simply stunning. As far as the solar power claim — consider the facts. There is not a single solar collector on the Hotel or its property. Like other College buildings, the Hotel purchases its electricity (1,500,000 kWh annually — nearly double used by the building it replaced) from the local power company. Oberlin College would have you believe that the Hotel is powered by the large Oberlin Spearpoint Solar One photovoltaic array north of the athletic fields. But this PV array was constructed in 2012, long before the hotel ever existed. From the outset, the College chose to connect the OSSO array directly to the city power grid (not to campus buildings) and entered a 25-year contract with the city in which the city takes all of the energy generated by the OSSO array in exchange for money ($0.085 per kWh). Oberlin Municipal Light & Power Systems counts this array among its generation assets and sends the College a monthly check for the electric energy produced by the array. All College buildings continue to purchase electricity from OMLPS as they did before the array was ever constructed. The electricity generated by this array is distributed to all OMLPS customers. The College keeps the renewable energy credits associated with this array. Presumably, the College can assign these credits to any building it wishes — Finney Chapel, the Hotel, Wilder — the list is large. If this is what the College means by See Letters, page 7

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

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

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 23

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief

Melissa Harris

Christian Bolles

Managing Editor Daniel Markus

Opinions Editors

El Wilson

Jackie Brant

ResEd Neglects Student Needs in Housing Registration

In the midst of the housing selection process this week and next, students have been surprised to find that their choices were more limited than usual. Rising juniors discovered that singles were mostly taken by their allotted registration period, while other upperclassmen found themselves without the Village Housing that typically comes with seniority. Though navigating Residential Education’s housing process is typically stressful and daunting to students in any given year, ResEd made a crucial error in planning when it eliminated multiple Village Housing options without adding a reasonable amount of alternative choices. Houses may be typically reserved for seniors, but the trickle-down effect is felt by all students, and the College must rectify its housing debacle; if it takes away houses, it must supplement the loss with comparable living spaces or more off-campus housing options. ResEd removed 17 houses from the available choices while doing virtually nothing to accommodate the students who expected to live in those houses. Simply increasing the number of super singles and super quads available was nowhere near enough. Assuming that each house accommodates four students, a whopping 68 Village Housing spots were lost. That means dozens of upperclassmen were forced to compete for the remaining Village Houses. Last year, there were some Union Street Village Housing Units that had four juniors living in an apartment; this year, some seniors who wanted to live in a house did not get to register for one at all. These seniors — who have undoubtedly looked forward to having a house for three years — must now live in a dorm, apartment, or co-op. Although President Ambar announced that the College would include more singles in coming renovations in dorms like Langston Hall, dorm-living is still disappointing to many rising seniors who want to live in a house instead. The rising junior class has also struggled with housing as a direct result of the removal of the 17 houses. Because more rising seniors will occupy Village Houses next semester than usual, more juniors than usual must occupy dorms. Singles are one of the most popular housing options for juniors, and rising juniors have not typically had difficulty getting singles in the past. Many sophomores this year even have singles. However, by the time some rising juniors had the chance to pick their housing this week, the singles were already gone. This leaves many of them in divided or open doubles — options that are usually relegated to underclassmen. Part of the excitement of being a junior is finally having all housing options realistically available to you; this housing selection period dashed those hopes. There have also been some cases of students being vacated from units or dorms that they had already picked out. As reported in the Review this week, several students were led to believe that some of the Woodland Street Village Housing Units were still available because they were included on the housing selection sheet; this group was later told that these houses were not available, and by that time, all other houses and apartments had been taken. In another case, rising College juniors Ben Marshak and Jason Hewitt spoke to members of the Editorial Board and said they picked out their housing at their assigned time but were told later that there was a glitch in the system, that they should never have been able to register at the time that had been designated to them in the ResEd email. They were consequently removed from the rooms they had picked and given a later registration time. Multiple groups of juniors had similar misfortunes. This is an unacceptable move from ResEd. ResEd made the mistake, not these students — yet the students are the ones being punished. One of the most disappointing parts of next year’s housing situation is that ResEd did not take nearly enough measures to troubleshoot and prevent the problems students now face. When the College decided it would begin decreasing Village Housing options, it could have allowed for more students to apply for off-campus housing, and given greater notice to students about what would happen to specific housing units. These obvious preemptive actions would have eased the housing selection process. Instead, students were surprised and anxious as they arrived at their registration times to discover that their options were reduced; many scrambled to make new housing plans. Based on their campus life survey last fall, Student Senate found that students are generally unhappy, and as the Editorial Board also wrote last semester, we believe the questionable quality of dorm and housing life at Oberlin significantly impacts the happiness of students. Earlier this spring, Senate revealed that one of the greatest sources of student unhappiness came from dorm life. Considering the mounting concerns, we want to reiterate that the College and ResEd should push a significantly greater and more genuine effort to improve living conditions for students. While closing the older, run-down Village Houses may be a smart long-term move for the College — as it removes the cost of renovating those buildings and gives the College the opportunity to build new living spaces, namely on Woodland Street — the College dropped the ball in the short-term. When juniors and seniors can’t find housing in houses or singles and when underclassmen are forced to pick up the scraps of housing options, we aren’t working toward student satisfaction, but rather reducing morale at a time when student happiness has never been more fragile or crucial. Too often, the College has taken options away from students and other stakeholders on this campus without replacing those entities or programs with sufficient substitutes — just look at Oberlin Disability Resources or Campus Dining Services. Now, this trend has taken its toll on housing, by all accounts a vital part of college life. If Oberlin wants to reach its goals toward leading the field of change with its peer institutions, it has to cover the baseline first and ensure something as simple as housing registration can be completed without chaos and disappointment. Not only do current students deserve better, but prospective students expect it. 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

Student Finance System Limits Efficacy of Committee Kameron Dunbar Columnist Elijah Aladin Contributing Writer

Students here each pay $428 in tuition costs toward a communal pot of money valued at near $1.3 million. This fund, the Student Activities Fund, is allocated by the Student Finance Committee and distributed by the Office of the Student Treasurer. As two students who have been members of both Student Senate and the OST, we’ve observed some serious issues with Oberlin’s system of student financing. Fortunately, these are problems we can fix. As it currently stands, SFC allocates around 85–90 percent of the Student Activity Fund. The vast majority of this goes to individual student organizations, while a much smaller portion is used to support student life through other areas like Winter Term grants. In theory, this model should work. If you fund clubs, then you fund all of student life, right? Not quite. Under the current model, SFC fields budget requests and student organizations submit budgets in the spring for the following academic year. Organizations will typically over-budget or request more money than they actually need under the assumption that SFC will reduce their budget. In operation, many clubs end up drafting budgets with events that they don’t know if they’ll actually hold because they’re created up to a year in advance.

What happens then? The majority of money is divided into individual accounts, with a little left over for an ad-hoc geared toward unanticipated expenditures. The ad-hoc pool dries up quickly, and when that happens, students are virtually out of options for planning events not anticipated or budgeted for in their yearly budget. Once the ad-hoc pool is allocated, they’re technically unable to fund an event because all of the funds are budgeted — however, plenty of dollars remain in the total Student Activities Fund. This year, for example, while student organizations were told no more funding was available, plenty of the Student Activity Fund remained. Even as late as April 24, nearly 45 percent of the Student Activities Fund was unspent. That’s over $600,000 that was still available with three weeks left in the semester and just around two months left in the fiscal year. It’s time for students to start critically engaging with the Student Activity Fund. In Student Senate’s fall referendum, we heard loudly and clearly that students want improved campus spaces for student use, greater mobility around Northeast Ohio, and more campus-wide events. We, students, have the funding resources to do this — it’s the model that is prohibitive. The current model of funding was developed over 25 years ago and incrementally adjusted without an ordered system for review. Thus, the allocation process is archaic

and, we argue, no longer an effective strategy for allocation because it is not responsive to the current needs of the student body. The current budgeting process forces SFC to make many allocation decisions without adequate information relevant to the programming requested during the spring budgeting process. Currently, budgets are submitted to SFC in early March. SFC spends the remainder of the semester allocating to groups for programming based on several pieces of information: the spending as reported in Banner, which is the school’s financial management software; currently processed forms through the OST; the mid-year report responses submitted by treasurers with budgets; and information provided at a face-to-face meeting with an SFC member. From this information, the committee must determine if the cost associated with each budgeted event is necessary or relevant to the function of the event and the mission of the group. The committee must also consider how likely an event is to occur, and how closely the spending will adhere to the budget. This is a difficult task because there is a considerable amount of time between when budgets are submitted and when events are planned to occur. In that time, group sentiment, goals, membership, and even leadership can change. In fact, they often do. Thus, spending done by student groups differs greatly from what mem-

bers include on their budgets in the prior year. So what? The issue becomes that allocations are no longer responsive to the needs of current students and individual groups end up with too much or too little money to sponsor the programming that students request. Currently, whatever portion of the Student Activity Fund that is not allocated during the spring budgeting process is pooled into an adhoc fund, from which students can request funds to host programs throughout the year. In the past, ad-hoc allocations were solely for unforseen programming; recently, however, SFC has removed the “unforeseen” stipulation from the ad-hoc policy. We believe this is a first step toward allocating more efficiently and responsibly because it will allow the committee to fund programs if and when they are fully planned. This would place a higher standard of organization and fiscal responsibility on the part of event planners to budget for what they actually plan to spend. In this model, groups can wait until they have all the details about their event and request exactly what they need when they need it, instead of submitting exorbitant budgets that they likely won’t spend because they believe they won’t have another opportunity to make a request. As of April 25, 2018, the aggregate amount spent from student groups who received an allocation from SFC for FY18 was $793,009.37, leaving

$604,812.46 allocated but unspent with less than a quarter of the school year remaining. Looking at the remaining balances, we wonder what could be done with that money if it were not already divided up and allocated. What events could be sponsored? What buildings could be improved? What student body needs could be addressed? Could ad-hocs have continued? The current allocation process compels students to compete for their share of the Student Activity Fund to host the activities they want to see and collaborate when their allocation falls short. To us, the process needs to be flipped on its head so that event organizers can collaborate in designing and scaling each event, and then receive an allocation that reflects the financial needs associated with hosting quality programming or the current demand for a specific resources that students request in the Senate surveys. Aggregated, the Student Activity Fund has the potential to address many complaints and concerns of the student body beyond if allocated responsibly. As it is divided, however, the fund cannot solve the big issues that impact campus until the following year when the spring budgeting process begins again. We need a more responsive system, and we can create one. We can make the change ourselves and have the things we want and need.

GOP Cannot Rely on Celebrity Buzz to Gain Gen Z Vote Duncan Reid Contributing Writer After Kanye West started tweeting last week that he and the president share “dragon energy,” and that “the thought police want to suppress freedom of thought,” some conservative pundits were quick to welcome West to the right. Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones, for example, tweeted back their praises, with Jones going so far as to extend Yeezy an invitation onto his infamous radio show. Other conservatives remarked that West was making conservatism hip again, and that his endorsement of “Make America Great Again” politics would somehow attract young voters familiar with the artist to the GOP. But is the Chicagoland rapper even on the right, or does he merely agree with the President that some on the left sometimes disregard the first amendment and other essential liberties because it inconveniences them? Let us not forget that West is a man who, among other things, raps lines like, “Come and meet me in the bathroom stall, and show me why you deserve to have it all,” and who once hijacked a post-Hurricane Katrina TV fundraiser to embark on a diatribe about how he disapproved of the Bush administration. West’s

behavior hardly fits into a party whose coalition is inseparable from evangelical Christians and the Bush family. But West is not the only celebrity those on the right side of the aisle are crushing on. Roseanne Barr, the lead on ABC’s Roseanne, has garnered the support of conservatives even though she has said in the past that she believes that the Bush administration played a role in allowing the 9/11 attacks to happen, and that the Boston Marathon Bombings were a “false flag attack.” West and the emergence of other celebrities who purport to be conservative have some in the GOP thinking that the “celebrification” of conservatism is the way for the Republican party to add millennials and Gen-Zers to its coalition. Additionally, these occurrences lead some to believe that in the age of social media, making conservatism “hip” is the way to expand their current majority. They couldn’t be more wrong. The support of one man, who seems to share nothing with the current leader of the GOP besides an affinity for Twitter and reality television will not win over young voters. Instead of focusing on celebrity, the GOP should be focused on policy.

Polling shows that younger voters, especially those in Gen Z, share character traits that align with the current GOP coalition. Eight out of 10 Gen-Zers call themselves “fiscally conservative.” Church attendance among Gen-Z is up 23 percent, and those under 22 are more risk– averse, as teen pregnancy and drug use have both dropped in recent years. One might think that the GOP should be doing extraordinarily well among these voters who value Judeo-Christian morals and fiscal responsibility. But they’re not — not because there are no celebrities on the right, but because of giant policy roadblocks. Republicans’ abandonment of sustainable environmental policies and their overwhelming insistence to be behind the times on gay marriage are costing Republicans votes at an alarming rate. But there are ways to fit these two issues within GOP rhetoric, which would increase the size of the coalition backing the Republican platform. After all, the founder of the U.S. Forest Service was a Republican. The founder of the EPA: Republican. The administration that signed the Montreal Protocol: Republican. Therefore, promoting free-market policies to combat climate change and conserve natural

resources are not ideas that are foreign to conservatism. In addition, the Republican Party is a party that prides itself on promoting liberty and creating strong communities. If the GOP truly believes in liberty, then the party shouldn’t care who people love. If the party truly thinks that strong communities and families are the foundation of our nation, should they really care about what kind of couples make up those families? The way forward for the GOP is not to steer to the far-right, nor is the way forward to rely on so-called celebrities to spread the message of conservatism. The only way the party will replace its aging base is by making slight policy shifts to attract new voters who share values with those currently in the base but are hesitant to pull the lever because of a few wedge issues. Conservatism has never been about celebrity and has never needed to be hip to win elections. GOP candidates have never needed catchy songs or the support of late night comics to win. All it has ever needed is common sense answers to their counterparts on the left. In adapting policies that appeal to young moderates and conservatives, Republicans can provide those answers.

Oberlin Must Improve Arabic Program Sophie Drukman-Feldstein Contributing Writer I have wanted to study Arabic since middle school. When I came to Oberlin, I was thrilled to finally get the opportunity. Two years in, it feels like the work my classmates and I put in is finally paying off. In this past semester, we have expanded our vocabularies to move beyond our initial discussions of menus, taxicabs, and passports and are finally making our first, clumsy steps into meaningful conversation. I was therefore deeply disappointed when I found out that no Arabic classes would be offered beyond the 200-level. Oberlin only employs one Arabic instructor — Basem Al-Raba’a, a visiting assistant professor — and a 300-level class would exceed his course load. Last semester, he suggested that we might continue our studies through a shared classroom experience, in which we would learn Arabic via videoconference with a class at Denison University. However, this plan ultimately fell through, leaving my classmates and me with few options going forward. The only way to continue our studies is through private readings, but this is not a sustainable solution. For one thing, it is not fair to the instructor. Professor Al-Raba’a explained that, between private readings and regular classes, he “generally ... teach[es] more than [his] workload,” and sacrifices time that he could otherwise spend on research. Yet even with this extra uncompensated labor, he is unable to meet student demand. “Some other students who finished their second year [of Arabic] emailed me for private readings,” he said, “but I couldn’t because of my workload. So there is definitely an interest on the part of the students. ... I can’t meet all this interest.” While building up a more robust shared classroom program would be a step in the right direction, Oberlin can best meet student demand by hiring another Arabic professor. Of course, given our school’s financial difficulties and the looming austerity measures, this is easier said than done. Many departments and programs need additional resources. Yet when one considers Arabic in the context of Oberlin’s other language departments,

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solar powered building, then any building in the world can have the same distinction by simply purchasing solar RECs from the REC market. The claim is hollow and deceptive. Usually a PV array is added to a building to make it greener. Here a building is added to a PV array to make it dirtier! The solar claim is nonsense and just shows how shallow Oberlin College’s sustainable claims are. Should it one day bestow its LEED platinum rating on The Hotel at Oberlin, the USGBC then faces a serious problem. You see, The Hotel at Oberlin’s energy use is rather high for a hotel. The Energy Information Administration estimates there to be 30,000 hotels in the U.S. The EIA’s 2012 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey shows that the median energy use per square foot for these 30,000 hotels is less than what it is for The Hotel at Oberlin. In other words, The Hotel at Oberlin uses more energy than 15,000 other hotels in the U.S. on a per square foot basis — not exactly the stellar performance you expect from one of the five greenest hotels in the world. If the Oberlin College administration is willing to misrepresent The Hotel at Oberlin’s green characteristics, why should we believe its claims on related issues? It is widely-known that the Hotel was millions of dollars over-budget and is responsible, in part, for the College’s current budget crisis. President Ambar claims that the Hotel now contributes $700,000 to our annual deficit, and that this will go away in a few years when she projects that the Hotel will break even. But take a look at the empty first-floor retail space and ask yourself — who provided the President with this rosy prediction? Furthermore, all evidence suggests that the College is marching down the same path with The Hotel at Oberlin that The Oberlin Review | May 4, 2018

it seems only reasonable that we should have at least two instructors. Next semester, according to our Fall 2018 course schedule, Oberlin will have several language courses and instructors — three French instructors, four German instructors, four Russian instructors, and two Latin instructors. These exclude Honors projects and private readings. They also exclude those instructors simply listed as “staff.” What’s more, none of these languages have as many native speakers as Arabic does. The prioritization of these less widely spoken languages shows a Western bias that is contrary to the diversity standard of Oberlin’s curriculum. The College does teach a few non-Westerncentric languages such as Japanese at a 300-level, but there is still an overall imbalance. We would hope to see Arabic treated with the same degree of respect as French. There are many reasons students want to learn Arabic. It has hundreds of millions of native speakers worldwide and a rich cultural and historical legacy. It’s also rising as one of the most widely spoken languages in the U.S. For some students, it provides a link to their roots. “There are students who want to study Arabic to connect with their relatives and families abroad,” Al-Raba’a said. Al-Raba’a also pointed out that some of his students want to work in the Middle East, stressing that the department is “extremely essential” for them. The limitations of our Arabic program present a significant barrier to these students’ goals. “I want to go into human rights work in the Middle East,” said Middle East and North Africa major Leo Hochberg. “If I can’t achieve proficiency by the time I leave Oberlin, I won’t be able to get any jobs. I may have to transfer because of this issue.” Arabic has many and varied interdisciplinary connections. Given the current state of the world, Arabic is profoundly relevant to two of Oberlin’s most popular majors, Politics and Environmental Studies. As the language of one of the most influential religious texts in existence, it is essential to the Religion major. The language’s unique dialectical variations make it a particular point of interest for linguists and anthropologists. Furthermore, the rapid growth of Oberlin’s Middle East and North Africa program over the past few years reveals

CARTOON OF THE WEEK Mikaela Fishman

our student body’s interest in the Arabic-speaking world. Students will only be able to make these connections in their majors if we get the chance to properly learn the language, however. Arabic is grammatically and phonetically complex, and it differs greatly from English. The U.S. Foreign Service Institute classifies it as among the hardest languages for native English speakers to learn. Based on my experience as a student, two years is not nearly enough time. According to Professor Al-Raba’a, it takes students four or five years to speak fluently, and three years to be able to “live in the Middle East and just function using the language that they know.” As a school that values inclusion, Oberlin should do justice to the richness and complexity of the Arabic language. This will only be possible with at least two professors.

Letters To The Editors it did 16 years earlier with the Adam Joseph Lewis Center. That building used three times more energy than its designers claimed it would. More than a decade after the AJLC was constructed, after one to two million dollars in design changes and upgrades (including the tripling the size of its PV Array) that building still used more energy than it produced annually — despite numerous College claims to the contrary. (See John H. Scofield, “A paler shade of green” for more information.) Unless it honestly faces up to its inflated claims about The Hotel at Oberlin, there is every reason to believe the College will pour millions more into this building fixing design flaws and trying to cover its ass on the false claims it has already made. It is time for the College to admit its mistakes and move forward with transparency. – John H. Scofield Professor of Physics

Oberlin Students Must Re-Envision College Slogan To the Editors: Oberlin students are familiar with the poster featuring the slogan: “Think One Person Can Change the World? So do we.” Changing the world is on the minds of the current generation of students. A recent Pacific Standard survey found that twothirds of college students intend to change the world, and more than one-third think they will have an impact within five years. The slogan speaks to the idealism and energy that incoming students now bring to Oberlin. The survey researchers also note

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that liberal arts colleges produce a disproportionate number of leaders because they produce inquiring, less self-certain, and more concerned citizens. Admittedly, one person changing the world seems presumptuous. A video asked a freshman class the more realistic question of what they would do in their first year to change the world. This resulted in responses such as: “I will learn multiple languages so I can bridge cultures,” or “I will make music to stir the souls of others,” or “I will be kind to others.” For me, these responses prompted a different interpretation of the question. It can embrace both macro changes and micro changes. Consider: “Think one person must change the world?” This framing speaks to the oneness and unity of all creation. It is a theme prevalent in almost all religions — or ancient wisdom traditions, as Deepak Chopra refers to them. It is the concept of interconnectedness, cause and effect, reap and sow, kindness begets kindness, communion and community. One of its expressions, karma, is described in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions: the actions of the beings of the universe create not only individual experiences of pleasure and pain but also the domains in which those beings dwell, and the physical universe is the product of the individual and collective actions of all the inhabitants of the universe. If every individual were accountable for their spirit, many of the world’s problems would diminish. It took me a long time to learn that being selfish and self-centered was giving into the lazy default. Being grateful for my existence and free will required dedication to being consistently positive, not comparing myself to others, and not judging others negatively. Obie blogger El Wilson, who was skeptical of the slogan’s hyperbole, ended their

post musing that they were likely to land where they could focus on making the community around them a better place, by being “kinder than necessary.” They seemed to take issue with the expectation of the outsized leadership foisted on Obies. We should applaud their sentiment, as it expresses a desire for a slower tempo enabling one to experience a better quality of life. When we think of the slogan’s grander aspiration, we should focus not on leadership based on authority over others, but rather on creativity that inspires the action of others. Obies are known for creativity and intellectual curiosity. Today’s world does present challenges to innovation. As progress marches along, creativity seems more and more challenging. For example, in the sciences, many significant discoveries have already been made. But whatever the field — science, economics, education, law, the arts — new advances require focusing on the interstices, the small gaps between discoveries already made. When creativity comes to fruition, it is like a pebble dropped on the surface of a pristine lake. A ripple circle begins to move outward and multiplies into the surrounding expanse. Creativity is associated with people who value individuality. Cultivating individuality leads to endeavors that value autonomy and self-improvement. Autonomy is the antidote to the alienation that arises from being a small player in a big system. Creativity, too, can make life more interesting, enjoyable, and gratifying. – Donn Ginoza OC ’74 At-large Member Alumni Leadership Council

History of Holi

SASA’s Holi Celebration

Holi

Holi, originally known as “Holika,” was once a special rite performed for the happiness and well-being of married women’s families. Now, Holi is known as the Festival of Colors, a celebration of positivity and love where friends and family are able to get together to enjoy each other’s company and repair broken relationships. It brings all people of the community together in a festival of joy.

SASA invites their Oberlin family and friends to join them in celebrating Holi — because spring has finally come to Oberlin! The event will be in Wilder Bowl and feature good food such as samosas and lassi, water balloon fights, and lots of skin-safe colored powder to throw at each other. Bring a shirt that can get colorful and come celebrate this festival of colors and life.

Wilder Bowl Sunday, May 6 12–3 p.m. Layout and text by Lucy Martin, This Week Editor

Holi Songs Songs are an integral part of celebrating Holi. Many of the most popular songs are from Bollywood movies, which often show the main characters being doused in colored water while their community dances merrily around them. The song “Rang Barse” from the movie Silsilay, featuring Amitabh Bachchan, is a festival favorite, often considered a Holi anthem.

International Celebrations Because Holi is a celebration that brings people together, it can be difficult when they are not with their families. Holi is observed globally, with festivals in Australia, Bangladesh, Guyana, Nepal, Pakistan, and many more countries. In the U.S., New York City holds many Holi festivities such as parades, dance performances, fashion shows, and concerts.

Thursday, May 3 Oberlin Dance Company continues to explore Contact Improvisation originally developed during Steven Paxton’s, OC ’72, Winter Term project at their collaborative performance. It will include theater arts, musicians, and dancers from the Varsity Contact dance course and will also be performed May 4 and 5. Warner Main Space 8 p.m. $5 admission

Holi Etiquette Though some consider celebrating Holi to be cultural appropriation if you are not Hindu or South Asian, especially since there are not many Hindu people at Oberlin, SASA assures that this event is not appropriative because they invite all of Oberlin as their family and friends. However, they do ask those planning on taking pictures to be conscious of the people featured and incorporate the groups throwing the event as well as underrepresented communities.

Saturday, May 5

Sunday, May 6

Joelle Eliza Lingat, OC The ViBE Dance Company ’14, will guide a workshop will perform studentdiscussing Filipino choreographed dances from this past semester. The show immigration and labor. The will feature tap and jazz talk, hosted by the Filipinx performances, as well as a American Student Association, will specifically focus on special collaboration with Philippine labor export the Obertones, Oberlin’s policy, and snacks will be all-male a cappella group. provided. Cat in the Cream King 339 9 p.m.–10:30 p.m. 1:30 p.m.–3:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 9 The Physics department will host a pizza lunch for women and non-binary physics enthusiasts and majors. The department invites them to come eat pizza, make connections, and explore “things we never quite understand in physics.” RSVP by noon May 8 Link to RSVP is on the Events Calendar page. Wright 209 Noon–1 p.m.

History of Holi

SASA’s Holi Celebration

Holi

Wilder Bowl Sunday, May 6 12–3 p.m. Layout and text by Lucy Martin, This Week Editor

Saturday, May 5

Sunday, May 6

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE May 4, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 23

Infinity War Shatters Expectations, Box Office Records, Hearts Christian Bolles

Editor-in-Chief Editor’s note: This review contains major spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War. You can — and really should — catch it tonight at the Apollo Theatre instead of reading ahead. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Over the course of the previous 18 films, Marvel charted the rise of a cast of super-powered characters who all now share a popculture pedestal. To many, they may as well be real — in a changing world, their heroism has provided a welcome source of stability. Every year, fans rely on a handful of new stories, each invested in illustrating and protecting a shared sense of humanity. Recently, Marvel has used their considerable platform to set a new bar for representation in blockbuster filmmaking with the wildly successful Black Panther, a precedent which they promise to match in the coming years. It’s safe to say that never before has a franchise captured the hearts of such a wide audience in so little time — Marvel knows this, and had every reason to expect a massive box office success from their biggest title ever released. In other words, they set the perfect trap. Infinity War, the third Avengers movie and certainly the best so far, is nothing short of diabolical. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo with a screenplay by Marvel veterans Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, the film sees right through your expectations. It knows that you think either Captain America or Iron Man is

going to bite the dust; it understands your fatigue with giant battles against nameless enemies; and it’s aware that you couldn’t care less about Thanos, that big purple space man you may have caught a glimpse of in previous installments. Not only does Infinity War ensure that those predictions and worries crumble into ash, but it actively works against them, providing a compelling counter-narrative that not only subverts, but also inverts the typical comic-book movie trope of good triumphing over evil into a story that seems like exactly the opposite — though good and evil are barely involved at all. Much like Captain America: Civil War, every character is thoroughly convinced that they are doing the right thing; yet unlike Civil War, the stakes could scarcely be higher. Whether Thanos can even be considered the antagonist of Infinity War is up to the viewer. Given the most screen-time of any character in the movie, his arc is eerily similar to that of a typical superhero rather than that of a villain: a call to action, a rise to power, a deeply personal sacrifice, and a hard-won victory. His ambitions come across as tragically misguided rather than delusional, largely thanks to the film’s deep concern with his troubled past. Consumed by the fate of his overpopulated home planet, which fell into ruin due to — in Thanos’ opinion — its leadership’s refusal to sacrifice some of its citizens for the benefit of the rest, Thanos has concluded that the best way to cure the ills of the universe is to cleave its population in two. The

only way to achieve this end is through the possession of an Infinity Gauntlet imbued with the power of six unique Infinity Stones, which will, in his words, allow him to turn half the universe to ash with a snap of his fingers. Once he is finished, he says, he will watch the sunrise over a better world. Remarkably, he does just that. Despite its overt focus on Thanos, Infinity War spends plenty of time following more familiar characters in their struggles to thwart him. A few related but neatlypackaged subplots follow groups of heroes in their journeys across both Earth and the universe at large, resulting in a film that may play like multiple episodes of a television show intercut with one another, but is never anything less than coherent. Fears of a mishmash of superheroes filling every frame in a melting pot of CGI spectacle should be put to rest — the number of prolonged fights in the movie can be counted on one hand. Nonetheless, this is pure entertainment, with a gripping plot that features a variety of locations and long-anticipated character pairings. Want to see a proverbial dick-swinging contest between Star Lord and Thor? Wish granted. Aching for an Iron Man/ Doctor Strange match-up? You got it. Curious whether Rocket Raccoon has the mettle to captain his own ship? Probably not, but that’s exactly what you’re getting. Wherever the film’s focus shifts, it’s always deeply intentional, and the payoff is satisfying, giving each character their due while never lingering long enough to test your patience.

Curiously, most of the original Avengers are sidelined in favor of others — a decision justified by the rug-pull of an ending, and a clear set-up for a sequel more tightly focused on their journey. Through it all, the film strikes a largely successful tonal balance between humor and heartbreak. When it comes to that heartbreak, Infinity War doesn’t pull a single punch. Its many, many deaths range from visceral, to emotional, to flat-out devastating. It’s hard not to pity the thousands of parents whose kids attended the movie dressed as Spider-Man and who had to explain to their children why their hero died terrified and begging for his life (in a brilliant, sickening improvisational turn from Tom Holland). We won’t know for another year if the characters who turned to ash will be brought back, whether in their original form or as spirits once trapped in the Soul Stone — in that time, many will rightly grieve. Those who dismiss the deaths as meaningless given their likely reversal could stand to re-evaluate why we watch these movies in the first place. Marvel films have always been about their characters above all else, and to them, Thanos’ genocide is permanent, real, and impossibly devastating. Now, the Avengers truly have something to avenge: half of the damn universe. For a mainline release from one of the biggest franchises in the world, Infinity War has a surprisingly cynical streak. Kindness, friendship, and love — all concepts which, in previous films, have carved the heroes’ paths to victory — here lead to nothing

but failure, as characters continually refuse to sacrifice those they love despite the overwhelming consequences. Conversely, Thanos wins precisely because he’s willing to make that sacrifice — a parallel the movie practically begs audiences to draw. As he watches the sunrise from his home just before the credits roll, it’s hard to imagine anyone finding satisfaction among the horror they’ve just witnessed. Yet Infinity War’s investment in its themes lends the completion of Thanos’ goal a certain poetry, allowing the film to stand on its own and offering some kind of catharsis, however bleak. Love it or hate it, Infinity War won’t be forgotten in a hurry. One hopes that its sequel — which will be released in just a year — won’t completely undo the consequences of Thanos’ victory, as the near-silent sequence of characters turning to ash deserves to be remembered as the haunting gut-punch it is. Yet taken on its own, the third Avengers outing is still a remarkable achievement in filmmaking, managing to juggle dozens of characters without losing its audience along the way. Barring its reliance on prior knowledge of those characters, the movie presents a convincing case for the continued existence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — for a franchise so often derided for its predictability and weightlessness, Infinity War is the perfect counterpoint. Over the course of the next year, it’s worth relishing the bold reality of this nowbroken universe. There may not be a film quite like this one ever again.

Varsity Contact Class Highlights Improv Dance in “One Breath” Kate Fishman

Staff Writer Amidst Monday’s rehearsal for Oberlin Dance Company’s upcoming show, College sophomore Georgie Johnson ran up to College junior Gabrielle Ment. Both made a show of a common exercise for starting out lifts in contact improvisation — breathing the arms up and then sweeping them down for momentum — before Johnson launched onto Ment’s shoulders and spiraled in the air, lifted by her partner, spreading her limbs wide and grinning even wider. They spun like a human top. Smiles like that are one striking aspect of the Varsity Contact class performance in “One Breath: An Evening of Stillness and Motion.” It makes sense that this would punctuate the practice — contact is wordless,

while also completely improvised, and serendipitous moments of connection elicit reactions at once joyful, tender, and humorous. “A lot of times people think improvisation is the absence of technique or structure, just a freefor-all kind of thing,” said Ann Cooper Albright, chair of the Dance department and director of “One Breath.” “That’s not at all the way I look at improvisation. I look at improvisation as a structure of skills that look different than the skills we normally are used to seeing. They’re skills of coordination, of kinesthetic dynamics that are shared among people. … Rather than thinking about the form of the body, we’re really working with … the way in which the whole group moves with different kinds of forces.” The upcoming performance

is heavily centered around the connection of the group and the partnerships and small group dances that make up the typical framework for contact improvisation. It’s been important for them to remember to “flow with the energy of the group,” College first-year and dancer Kate Trapnell wrote in an email to the Review. Breath is a key part of this — and it is everywhere in the installationlike performance space, including in the sweeping rolls of paper spread throughout Warner Main Space. These were created by set designers Laura Carlson-Tarantowski and Joanne Steggall in the style of the artist Theresa Antonellis. Antonellis herself will be in-house for the performances, painting live in the style of her series “one breath/one line.” She places her paintbrush

on an inhale, and then pulls a line down on the exhale. The paintings are a documentation of breathing — Carlson-Tarantowski and Steggall entered the space for the first time after their creations had been hung and joked, “Look! That’s our breath up there!” Cooper Albright recalled. To create the performance’s structure, the dancers and Cooper Albright also worked in collaboration with lighting designer Anton Crooks. “If you’re going to dance for 50 minutes with 11 other people, you need to have some other things going on,” Cooper Albright said. The dancers not only needed real structure to their movement, but also trust in the integrity of the movement and where it wanted to go in a given moment. See Oberlin, page 13

ON THE RECORD

Deborah Kamen, Associate Professor of Classics

Deborah Kamen is an Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Washington. She is also an adjunct professor in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, and the graduate program coordinator at UW. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from Bryn Mawr College; a Master of Studies in Greek History from New College, Oxford; and a Ph.D. in Classics from University of California, Berkeley. Her interests include Greek and Roman social history, sexuality, slavery, and status. Kamen is widely published and her first book, Status in Classical Athens, is about social and legal statuses in Classical Athens. Kamen gave a lecture titled, “Your Mother Sells Vegetables! Status Insults in Classical Athens” in Oberlin yesterday, focusing on status insults, citizen status, and the difference between benign and offensive comic mockery. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Interview by Ananya Gupta Arts & Culture Editor Can you tell me a bit about how you got into Classics and your academic journey? I started taking Latin in high school and fell in love with the language. I went to Bryn Mawr and I picked up Greek when I got to college. Originally, my interests were very much language based. I liked learning about languages, grammar, and got into literature. At a certain point, I discovered that what most interested me, and touched on my interest in general, was sort of social history, especially issues of status. When you read ancient literature, there’s a certain picture you get of the ancient world, which is all about “great men.” But I became interested in, you know, what about slaves, and what about women, and those who don’t have a voice? And so that kind of became a path I took. What kind of sources did you use to write your book and articles? One of the biggest sources [for the talk] is these Athenian law court speeches. We don’t have transcripts from trials from antiquity, but people would write speeches to deliver in court and then because they were models of ... good rhetoric, they were copied and studied by students. So we’re lucky to have hundreds of these court speeches ... from [which] we get a sense for what kinds of ... language [was] used in court, [and] also glimpses

of laws. And so you’ll cite a law that says, “You can’t call someone a murderer,” or whatever, and then that’s our evidence for that. For this project I’m using comedy to a certain extent, so comic plays put on stage which are, at least for Athenian comedy, full of insults. Especially [in] Athenian comedy, it’s these prominent public figures who are kind of like Saturday Night Live [characters] or something like that, where they’re all taken down and insulted, in a joking, ribbing kind of way. It’s a great source for seeing what kinds of things people are insulted for and the language being used in those incidents. Can you tell me how insult comedy today is different as compared to what it used to be? That’s an excellent question. At least the biggest forum for insult comedy right now is late night television. And in that case, it’s usually just one person, talking about the news, giving it a funny or satirical spin, and then mocking some celebrities or politicians. This was a very established literary forum, which is a comedy you are putting on. You have characters who are based on [real people]. So in a sense, the only thing that we have that’s kind of similar is Saturday Night Live — actors playing famous people and then they come off as buffoons and whatever. I think that’s probably the closest thing we have to

ancient comedy. For the most part, I’d say most of what we consider insult comedy today is stand-up, or late night [shows]. What do you think is the connection between status insults and hate speech? They didn’t have a concept specifically of hate speech in antiquity. To me, it seems like a parallel that could be drawn in that, to protect the interest and identity of certain people, certain laws were established to prevent language from being used. Now, they weren’t concerned about protecting foreigners or slaves. For the most part, they weren’t that concerned. But to the Athenians, people who they thought of as [having] very precarious status, … poor citizens, those people are a protected class in a sense. And so I’m trying to argue that the reason you’re not allowed to insult people by saying, “Your mother works in the market,” is because for those poorer people who can’t afford to defend themselves, they need extra protection, and that’s kind of like hate speech legislation. Now, again, [it] doesn’t exactly map onto our ideas, but what I’m trying to get at is that Athenians are so devoted to this ideal of freedom of speech. What are people interested in Classics pursuing right now? I think that really depends on the field — the subfield of Classics you’re in. I’d say within the last 10, 20 years,

Deborah Kamen, Associate Professor of Classics

what’s become much more hot is studying the subaltern and studying marginalized individuals, marginalized voices. And that sort of continues to be expanded as people think to look for other categories of individuals. First it was just for women ... and then it was ... how the Greeks are talking about foreigners or their set of prejudices and assumptions. But currently I think there’s interesting work being done, say, in gender and sexuality, [like] was there a conception of something like the trans individual in antiquity. That’s, I think, the kind of direction that we’re moving [in] now, as categories and identities are multiplying, understanding of categories are multiplying, we’re starting to kind of turn to the ancient world and see

Photo by Chloe Isaacs

how that illuminates things there. What are you working on in the future? I only am sort of giving a slice of this now, but [like] I said, there’s other aspects I’m really interested in. For example, sexual insults. The ways in which sexual insults can be used, not just to hurt someone’s feelings or make them feel un-manned, but in the case of democratic Athens, where, for example, a male prostitute is disenfranchised, even if he were born a citizen. Calling somebody, saying of some man that he is the object of sexual penetration or something, could actually jeopardize the citizen’s status. And so that’s the kind of stuff I’m looking at as well.

Ben Franklin Closes Poetry Month with OSlam Reading Ananya Gupta Arts & Culture Editor Ben Franklin and MindFair Books hosted a small, intimate poetry reading featuring OSlam poets in their midstore gazebo Monday. This wasn’t a regular performance with a large crowd and deafening applause, but more personal, as listeners sat beside speakers. The event was evidence of Ben Franklin’s efforts to overcome the alleged college and town divide. The reading, held in this particular space, welcomed students into the town, creating a warm atmosphere through a shared love of poetry. The store stayed open past normal hours for a flash minireading to celebrate the end of National Poetry Month, keeping the interaction succinct out of respect for the stressful time of year for students. The Oberlin Review | May 4, 2018

Ben Franklin often collaborates with MindFair Books to invite beloved authors and poets like Margaret and David Young to read their work to audiences. It has also hosted numerous musical events over the past several years, including a performance by Conservatory junior Aliya UltanMeyer on the cello and some live jazz performances. “We were invited to come to Ben Franklin because the wonderful owner came to the sam sax [OC ’09] show, and she really liked our poems,” said Hanne Williams-Baron, a College junior and OSlam co-chair. “She invited us to come into her space because Ben Franklin is celebrating April, [which is] National Poetry Month, so they’ve been having a bunch of cool readings and events here.” Ben Franklin’s original owner, John

Cochrane, brought the store to Oberlin in September 1935 and most recently, Krista Long purchased it in 2001. Over the years, Ben Franklin has developed different avenues of business, such as supplying both new and used books, natural and sustainable products, and engaging in fair-trade merchandising. Ben Franklin also supports local producers by sourcing goods such as honey, maple syrup, and beauty products locally. The store also prides itself on its initiatives to foster the literary community at Oberlin with poetry readings, workshops, and performances. “I have been in Oberlin for almost three years,” Ben Franklin event coordinator Sherri Chavez said. “Working in the bookstore, looking at the rich poetry history that Oberlin has because of the College, and just because

of the people who have lived here in this town, it just feels like something that Oberlin should continue to be known for.” Chavez attended sam sax’s poetry reading at the Cat in the Cream on March 29. Several members of the OSlam team opened the event for sax, which caught Chavez’s attention. “I think that the Creative Writing department here at Oberlin is wonderful, and we’re just thrilled to be a vehicle where people can come and share what they’re working on in an environment where they can feel comfortable,” Chavez said. “We hope to continue to build that here at Ben Franklin through our poetry group on Tuesdays and through other events we have throughout the year.” See OSlam, page 13

A r t s & C u lt u r e

Jam City Invites Fans to Hogwarts Via Mobile Game Lucy Martin This Week Editor Congratulations! You have finally been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry — at the tender age of 21. Ever since Pokemon Go came out two years ago, fans of Harry Potter have clamoured for an interactive mobile game of their own. There were a multitude of fan-made trailers anticipating gameplay, incorporating elements such as catching fantastic beasts or collecting chocolate frog cards from the equivalent of Pokestops. However, the gameplay construction of Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is more akin to The Sims mobile app that came out earlier this year than to Pokemon Go. Much like The Sims, you design and control your avatar and use limited energy to complete events. Each event holds the potential to acquire gold Galleons, gems, or gain courage, empathy, and knowledge points to progress through the overall storyline. The game begins at the start of your Hogwarts experience, starting off with a visit to Diagon Alley to buy a wand and books. Your character is half-blood instead of muggleborn, which means they were exposed to magic as they grew up, and their brother went to Hogwarts before them. The

plot of Hogwarts Mystery surrounds the brother’s expulsion from Hogwarts and his subsequent disappearance after he began investigating the “Cursed Vaults,” which also become integral to the player’s Hogwarts experience. The gameplay is incredibly interactive, and high-quality graphics present familiar faces such as Madams Hooch and Pomfrey; Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Snape; Rubeus Hagrid; Nymphadora Tonks; and Bill Weasley in recognizable relief, bringing a sense of familiarity to the new storyline. Each professor has their own expressive personality that matches J.K. Rowling’s characterizations. New characters like Rowan, the first friend you make in Diagon Alley, and Merula Snyde, a first year Slytherin who believes she is the best witch of your year, add new narratives to the comfortable backdrop of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The storyline is set right after baby Harry defeats Voldemort for the first time in 1981, which is why your character goes to school with the older generation of Tonks and Bill rather than Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Secondary characters like Bill and Tonks did not get much screen-time in the books compared to the

Golden Trio, so their inclusion in this narrative is a lovely homage and an opportunity to learn more about them. This choice allows fans to explore another part of Hogwarts’ history, keeping J.K. Rowling’s world fresh and preventing it from falling into the SpiderMan trap of repeating familiar storylines. While you’re completing the main storyline, there are side quests that are available during the cooldown times between events. As you move between class years, you gain access to more classes, but at the beginning of your time at Hogwarts, only Potions, Charms, and Flying lessons are available. Each class correlates with an attribute — for every class you complete, the overall reward is points towards the respective attribute in addition to House Cup points. This aspect of the gameplay works particularly well because the level of each attribute you have can restrict the choices you can make in different scenarios. You can choose to develop different attributes to varying degrees, and thus each player’s gameplay will be a little different depending on your choices. Attributes aren’t the only way gameplay can vary. For the main storyline, the game often has the player decide between two options, with no hint as to

how each will affect the total outcome. By making Hogwarts Mystery a “choices matter” game, developer Jam City added weight to the player’s decisions, making gameplay more engaging. There are various customization opportunities for your character, as well as ways to make in-game purchases for gems, energy, and gold Galleons. For players like myself, one of the most valuable items to buy is energy, because the recoup time for each unit of energy is four minutes. When you have only an hour to get an event done and you’re risking the loss of house points if you fail, $0.99 for ten units of energy doesn’t seem like much. But the game is completely playable and enjoyable without making in-game purchases as long as you’re willing to be patient, because different events drop gems that can be exchanged for energy, and on occasion they will offer an energy reward. Energy can also be collected in each level of the castle: Dungeons, East Towers, West Towers, Lower Floor-West, Lower Floor-East, Hogsmeade — which isn’t available until third year — and the Castle Grounds. However, the energy is hidden, and can only be found by observing which parts of the castle or scenery appear to be slightly out of

place. Not all events require energy, which is helpful when you’ve depleted all your resources and really shouldn’t be spending any more money. Some events simply involve talking with one of the other characters and trying to assure them of a plan or comfort them about something they’re afraid of. In these types of interactions, you have the option to choose between three responses to their question or comment: one will be the best, one will be OK, and one will be terrible. There are only so many “turns” that you can use during these interactions, which is why it is important to pick the right response. Having high attribute levels helps as they give bonus points to the overall event meter, which varies in the required number of stars to complete the event. Dueling, where you utilize the spells and potions that you’ve learned to engage in wandfights with your fellow classmates, also does not require energy. Though, be warned, dueling in the corridors is strictly prohibited at Hogwarts. Overall, though the gameplay is unexpected compared to what fans imagined, this format is much better. Hogwarts Mystery tells us a story and lets us relive what we love best about Harry Potter: the wizarding world.

Oberlin Aerialists Transport Audiences to “Circus of Dreams”

Anika Lindsey, a College senior, spins through the air in the Oberlin College Aerialists’ show last Saturday. The OC Aerialists, members of which are frequently referred to as “OC Flyers,” performed a show titled “OC Aerialists Present: Circus of Dreams” in Hales Gymnasium. The hour-long show was catch-or-miss, as it was performed a single time with free admission. Described as “Oberlin’s place for those who hang upside down” on their Facebook page, OC Aerialists created an intense, beautiful, surrealistic atmosphere that left the audience wanting more. Text by Ananya Gupta Arts & Culture Editor Photo by Sarah Herdrich Staff Photographer

OSlam Performs Flash Mini-Reading at Ben Franklin Continued from page 11

The OSlam performers at Ben Franklin featured several members of the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational team that went to Philadelphia this semester, including College sophomore Zite Ezeh, junior Sarah Ridley, sophomore Jalen Woods, and WilliamsBaron. The OSlam CUPSI team competed in the preliminary rounds of the tournament before being eliminated. Other OSlam members who performed at the mini-reading included College senior Jane Werntz and junior Naomi Liss. Performers showcased some of their new or previously unheard poems, reinforcing the admiration of poetry-fans on campus. “I’ve been to some OSlam events and am always blown away by the poets and the writing that Oberlin students do,” College junior Cecilia Wallace said. “Something that I really like about Oberlin is that we have such an incredible Creative Writing program, really incredible spoken word artists, and that’s something that I like to just follow around and enjoy. I feel like a fangirl. I just follow people to events.” The setting in Ben

Franklin broke down the barrier between audience and performer, allowing both to sit side-by-side in a circle and share art. The space allowed non-OSlam members to share some of their poetry as well, so that all speakers could be vulnerable yet comfortable with their mostly unheard, new pieces. “It was really cozy, and it was really sweet,” Wallace said. “I think Ben Franklin is a space that has really elegantly combined the Oberlin community with Oberlin College and with reading, and that’s something that I love about it.” Ben Franklin is also promoting the first Oberlin Poetry Walk. Thirteen poems will be framed and displayed in 13 store fronts, until the next round of selections, submissions for which are due June 15. Students, faculty, residents, and anyone connected to Oberlin can participate in this event. It is for all ages — one of the youngest writers in the first selection is a sixth-grade student. “Poetry Walk is designed to encourage participation from everybody,” Chavez said. “We’re hoping ... to get word

OSlam team members connect the College and town through poetry in the cozy, intimate mid-store gazebo in Ben Franklin Monday. The setting allowed performers and audience members to sit side-by-side in a circle. The poetry reading celebrated the end of National Poetry Month, and also featured some poetry from non-OSlam members. Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

out to students through help from the College. It will be wonderful to help that be a bridge between the town and the College.” Oberlin’s first Poetry Walk

was kicked off with a reading of the first set of poems in the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts Gallery on Tuesday. Ben Franklin also hosted this event, and hopes to continue

the tradition of sharing poetry through various events and happenings in Oberlin.

Oberlin Dance Company Improvises with Breathing, Dance, Live Art Continued from page 10

“Once you know how to do the shoulder lifts, [you have] to make sure that you’re not just doing that habitual stuff — that you’re really investigating a situation that allows you to move beyond that,” Cooper Albright said. “There may be some of that there, but it’s coming out of a different impulse than just wanting to show off your tricks.” The performances are also kept honest and new for the dancers by rotating the placement of cast members. “There are always possibilities for surprises as we perform,” College junior and dancer Elana Rosenberg wrote in an email to the Review. In just one rehearsal, there was an unexpected foot-five as two dancers spiraled past one another in a trio, laughter after an assisted headstand, and an unexpected face-plant from which dancers quickly recovered. There are also moments of slowness and

sweetness — dancers often clasp hands or nuzzle into one another as they parse out ways to move with their weight and breath shared. It is all in line with Cooper Albright’s motto: “Replace ambition with curiosity.” The beautiful and remarkable aspects of the performance come from the dancers’ willingness to be vulnerable, listen, and never expect any one improvisation to be like another. A lot of this vulnerability comes from the teachings of acclaimed modern dancer Mary Starks Whitehouse’s technique of “authentic movement.” In “authentic movement,” one dancer in a partnership closes their eyes and, watched by the other, does not move until they feel compelled to do so. Cooper Albright likes to call this “witnessing,” and it is an environment they have strived to create between the audience and the performers for this show — “a supportive gaze rather than a critical gaze.” At the beginning, the audience members will be allowed to walk around the space, getting a closer

look at the dancers and artwork. From there, they can watch the show lengthwise from either side — an intimate experience of closeness to the dancers in the expanse of the historic space. “Contact has the power to bring the audience into our awareness of tactile sensation, such that it becomes part of their perception of the performance, rather than their perception being limited to visual form,” Cooper Albright said. “They start to see past our bodies into our experience.” “One Breath” will be performed in Warner Main Space Friday May 4 and Saturday May 5 at 8 p.m., and Sunday May 6 at 3 p.m. for the all-ages performance. Tickets are $5 and are on sale in Hall Lobby or through Central Ticket Services.

THE UNFORTUNATE OWL: Panic Paddy McCabe

The Oberlin Review | May 4, 2018

Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Sonia Bloom, Preying Manti Frisbee Player

College senior Sonia Bloom joined the Preying Manti, the women’s and trans Ultimate Frisbee team, during her second year at Oberlin. Since then, the team has been a major part of her college experience. For the first time in two years, the Preying Manti will compete at the DIII College Nationals May 19–20 in Rockford, IL. The Preying Manti beat Lehigh University 11–4 on Sunday to advance. The Flying Horse Cows, the men’s team at Oberlin, will also advance to nationals competition after earning a victory Sunday. It is the first time that both teams will compete at nationals in the same year. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Interview by Alex McNicoll and Alexis Dill, Sports Editors

How long have you been a member of the Preying Manti? I’ve been playing since my sophomore year. I didn’t play my freshman year because I was injured, but I played Ultimate in high school, so I knew that I was going to join. This is my third year on the team. I started playing in high school because I really wanted to play a sport. I played a bunch of sports in middle school and had played Ultimate at summer camp, which is a common way that people get into it. My high school had a team, and there were no tryouts or anything. It was just a commitment, which is pretty common for a lot of Ultimate teams, especially at the youth level. I just loved it — Ultimate is a unique sport in terms of how it functions as a community. It’s self-refereed, and there’s a lot of different variables that go into making it a really tight-knit national and international space. I actually played with an Ultimate team in Spain while I was there over Winter Term. If you are an Ultimate person, you can find Ultimate people everywhere. Do the two teams practice together? How often do you practice? We usually practice separately. Last semester, for the first time, we actually sent a mixed team to mixed regionals, which is like a new tournament they just started, which was so fun. But they function as two separate teams. We usually practice around four to five times a week — it’s intense. It’s a club sports team, [which is how] it functions everywhere because of the way it’s set up. There’s a different buy-in when it’s your personal commitment, and you’re like, “I’m gonna go to this whenever I can. I love it, and I know that I’m gonna get better by going.” It’s a different tone and vibe that is created. This season, something that has

been really different from past years is [that] there’s been a lot more [of a] mental element. We do a lot of mental check-ins, we have classroom time where we look at footage, and that’s something that normally Ultimate teams don’t do because of navigating that line — respecting people’s time and not having it being considered serious as a varsity sport. But that’s something that has given us an edge this season. How many people are on the team? How often do you compete? From year to year, it’s usually between 30 and 40. On our A-team, we have 18. We split A and B most years — the Manti do and so do the Horse Cows. The spring season is the competitive season. We just had regionals this past weekend, so that’s part of the postseason, and before that we had sectionals, which was just Ohio. April ends up being a crazy month because we’re gone for at least two of the weekends. Before that, we had gone to two sanctioned tournaments and also spent spring break playing together in Myrtle Beach. Do you prefer that Ultimate remains a club sport rather than turning into a varsity sport? I think that’s something that people talk about beyond Oberlin. In my relationship with Ultimate, there’s always been a fight for legitimacy. At my high school, we didn’t get any funding from the school. At a lot of colleges, [teams] don’t get funding from the school. We’re lucky we have club sports the way they are [at Oberlin]. Also people [sometimes say], “Oh, Ultimate? That’s an activity, not a sport.” All of that rhetoric is very common. I think there are parts of [Ultimate] being a club sport that make the culture very unique, but I also think that Ultimate is in a good position to ask a lot of hard questions about sports culture and equity in sports, because it’s so comparatively

Sonia Bloom, Preying Manti Ultimate Frisbee team player. Photo courtesy of Sean Yu

new. There’s so much work to be done in that regard, and I think that fits into that question of [whether] it should stay a club sport or become a varsity sport. What’s the community like in the sport, specifically at Oberlin? Something that makes a club sport so special is that everyone can have their own personal relationship to it. There are definitely people on the team who can’t always come because they’re working a lot or have other commitments, and there’s definitely the flexibility for that. For me personally, it’s one of the top ways I spend my time outside of class. Something we always ask is, “How do we make this a community? How do we spend more time together both on and off the field?” We try to make it as positive a space as possible. We’ve been lucky this year to have Ally Fulton, [OC ’16] — who graduated from Oberlin two years ago and played on the team here — as a coach. It’s really cool to have someone who is affiliated very closely but has that level of someone who doesn’t appear in the same way because she’s graduated and serves to facilitate practices. Both teams are advancing to nationals. What was that experience like when you first clinched a spot? It was so great. There were a lot of parents who came because we were in eastern Pennsylvania. The Horse Cows were in Columbus, so a lot of parents from Boston and New York came. When we first won, there were a lot of tears. We also do shout-outs after every tournament, which is where we sit in a circle and go around and, for each other, say positive things. During that, there’s a lot of crying. We actually found out that the Horse Cows had won later, because their bracket was different so their game was later. It was great, because one person was like, “The Horse Cows just won!” It rippled as we were packing up, and everyone was

just jumping up and down. This season, we were like, “We’re going to Nattys. This is happening. We’re gonna make it happen.” I know the Horse Cows were very much unsure, so they were super pumped to get that win. Are the two teams close? Yeah. I would say that over the years there have been a lot of ups and downs in terms of closeness. But getting to play in a mixed tournament last semester was really great for rebuilding relationships between the teams. We spend a lot of social time together even though we don’t play together that much. There are a lot of friendships across the teams. What are you doing to prepare for nationals?

I’m actually going to practice right after this. Since we were away this weekend, I think there’s going to be a lot of thinking about goals that we have for nationals — personal and team goals. That’s something that we talk about a lot, but we haven’t re-checked in about that yet for nationals specifically. Especially at the end of the semester, it’s hard for everyone to keep coming and keep taking care of their bodies, because everything falls to the wayside with school. People are also gonna have to finish their finals early [for nationals]. Who joins Frisbee and how? It’s a mix. There’s a lot of orientation planning. There’s a lot of casual tossing on North Quad, and so I think that during the first month or two of school we have a lot of first-years who come once and figure out if it’s a good fit for them. We definitely get a mix of people who have played Ultimate before and people who played a different sport in high school but didn’t want to play it here or their body couldn’t take it anymore, but they love sports and they love running. Orientation is a huge time for recruitment for us.

Men’s Tennis Tops Battling Bishops, Finishes Third

Sophomore Stephen Gruppuso had one of his best performances of the spring in the Yeomen’s battle with the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops Sunday. Gruppuso and fellow sophomore Camron Cohen earned an 8–4 victory at No. 1 in doubles play. Photo courtesy of OC Athletics Alex McNicoll Sports Editor

The men’s tennis team clinched third place in the North Coast Athletic Confer-

ence at its annual tournament last Sunday. After beating the DePauw University Tigers 5–1 last Friday, the Yeomen dropped their semi-finals matchup to the Denison

University Big Red 5–1, sending them to the matchup for third place against the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops with another 5–1 win. Against the Bishops, the Yeomen won their secondstraight third-place prize. To senior Michael Drougas, who played his final collegiate tennis match last weekend, the tournament is the best place for the Yeomen to measure their skill and growth against their conference rivals. “The NCAC Conference tournament is always a good opportunity to try to put the pieces together,” Drougas said. “It is the final event after a long, hard season, so the hope is that it can be a culmination of hard work and dedication in which we can play some of our best tennis.” Against the Tigers, the Yeomen had little trouble advancing to the semi-finals. In the doubles matches, sophomores Camron Cohen and Stephen Gruppuso lost the first

match 8–6. However, that would be the Yeomen’s only loss of the day, as Drougas and senior Manickam Manickam, as well as seniors Levi Kimmel and Robert Gittings, handily won their matches. Entering the singles matches, the Yeomen had a 2–1 lead and enjoyed wins from Gruppuso, Manickam, and Gittings in the second, fourth, and fifth singles matches, respectively. With Gittings’ win — a 6–2, 7–5 dredging — the Yeomen won the game 5–1, leaving Drougas, Kimmel, and sophomore Zachary Vaughn still on the court. “Coming out on top against DePauw was a very special moment for the team after losing to them in a close battle last year,” Gruppuso said. “The leadership of our four seniors is the reason why we accomplished as much as we did this spring.” Despite their victory over the Tigers, See Yeomen, page 15

Yeowomen Clinch Third Place in NCAC Championships

Sophomore Lena Rich played a big role in helping the Yeowomen secure third place in the NCAC Tournament last weekend. Rich won her singles matchup 6–0, 6–0 at No. 6. Photo courtesy of OC Athletics Jane Agler Staff Writer

The women’s tennis team finished its season by winning third place in North Coast Athletic Conference tournament last weekend. As the third-seed in the tournament, they first played the sixth-seeded Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops last Friday. After dropping the semifinals to the second-seeded Denison University Big Red, they played their final match against the fifth-seeded DePauw University Tigers Sunday. “The season was very successful,” Women’s Tennis Head Coach Constantine Ananiadis said. “We

had more wins … than last year after having lost two key players [the season before]. A lot of people stepped up and … had big improvement.” The Yeowomen quickly disposed of the Battling Bishops in the first round of the tournament in a decisive 5–0 victory. In the doubles flights, the Yeowomen established a lead out of the gate, winning their first three matches. Seniors Sarah Hughes and Mayada Audeh clinched an 8–3 win in the top-flight doubles. Following them, senior Jackie McDermott and sophomore Lena Rich won their match 8–4, and sophomores Delaney Black and Rainie Heck also dominated 8–4. In the singles matches, the Yeowomen

were just as victorious. McDermott beat her opponent with 6–3 and 6–2 sets while Rich triumphed with 6–1 and 6–0 sets, racking up to a straight 5–0 victory. “The conference tournament is kind of a unique thing,” McDermott said. “You play to decision, so you play until one team gets five matches. The matches can be shorter. … Physically, it tends not to be as grueling as some of our other weekends in the season. … For me that was the case this weekend. I felt physically fit and ready to play well all three days, but mentally, it is tough.” In their first matchup against the Big Red since last season’s third-place match, the Yeowomen had no answer for the second-ranked team. In the top two flights of doubles, the Big Red scraped by the Yeowomen 8–2 and 9–7, but the dynamic duo of McDermott and Rich once again added to their team’s scoreboard with an 8–3 win in the third doubles match. Going into the singles, with the Big Red leading 2–1, Audeh tied the score in the second singles match after fighting to the bitter end of three sets. However, after winning the first and fourth matches against Heck and McDermott, Denison clinched the game in the sixth singles match against Rich for a final game score of 5–3. Hughes, who has carried the Yeowomen as the top singles and doubles player all season, didn’t have time to finish her match before the Big Red won. The Yeowomen entered the final day of competition out of contention

for the first-place prize, but were still able to make it by the Tigers in a nail-biting 5–4 game. After losing two out of the three flights of doubles, the Yeowomen entered the singles portion of the competition trailing 2–1. Hughes brought the heat and quickly equalized the score to 2–2 after crushing her opponent with 6–1 equal sets in the top flight. Rich also continued to win her match with two 6–0 sets. With the score tied at 4–4 and just McDermott left on the court, her match would ultimately decide who won. McDermott fought through three sets, losing the first but winning the last two with 6–4 counts and bringing the season to a close with a third-place finish. Hughes reflected on the season and commented that despite the thirdplace finish, the final few matches of her career have been bittersweet. “I don’t know what I’m feeling to be honest,” she said. “It was such a long and grueling season, and I am proud to have made it out the other side, but I’m sad [and] grateful for the friendships and memories I’ve made. It is a mixed bag, which I’m sure most [senior athletes] … are feeling at the moment.” The team will bid farewells to three seniors: Audeh, Hughes, and McDermott — who have cumulated 331 wins in singles and doubles throughout their four years competing at Oberlin. However, with a solid core of sophomores Rich, Black, and Heck, the team is sure to be back in action this September.

Cleveland Botches Potential Rebuild Yeomen Fall to Big Jason Hewitt Staff Writer

The 2018 NFL Draft was critical for the Cleveland Browns after a season in which they didn’t win a single game, compiling a record of 0–16. There has only been one other team in National Football League history that has gone winless: the 2008 Detroit Lions. The Browns, whose performance has been notoriously bad over the past couple decades, need to make significant changes if they want to overcome their current laughing-stock standing as a laughingstock in the league. One of the best opportunities for a franchise to improve is through the NFL Draft, which occurs every April. Quick changes were absolutely necessary for Browns executives looking to keep their jobs, and they responded by making a number of big — and surprising — moves. Football fans all over the world were stunned last Thursday when the Browns named Oklahoma quarterback and 2017 Heisman Trophy winner Baker Mayfield as their number-one pick. Many analysts predicted in their mock drafts that Cleveland would choose Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions running back Saquon Barkley, who many believed was the best player in the draft. However, the Browns desperately need a quarterback as well, and fans can’t always depend on sports analysts — at the end of the day, it’s general managers who make the decision. Cleveland needs a franchise quarterback who will lead the team to success in the next few years, and John Dorsey and his staff believe that Mayfield is that guy. This decision might silence doubters and pay off, or it might fail in epic fashion — something the Browns are all too familiar with. The city of Cleveland has seen the rise and fall of a plethora of quarterbacks throughout the years — some who were doomed from the start. Recent examples include the likes of former Texas A&M star quarterback Johnny Manziel and former Baylor University Bears and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Robert Griffin III, both of whom were also Heisman winners. Many Browns fans are skeptical for this The Oberlin Review | May 4, 2018

reason. Mayfield could end up becoming another Johnny Manziel, as he has a similar reputation. When considering the context, I completely understand why many Browns fans are dissatisfied with the Mayfield pick. Cleveland recently picked up quarterback Tyrod Taylor from the Buffalo Bills this spring, which led many fans to believe that Taylor would be the Browns’ franchise quarterback. In fact, Taylor might still fill that role for the organization, so why would the Browns draft another quarterback instead of drafting Barkley, who is clearly the best running back in the draft? After all, the Browns needed a running back, and they already wasted a second-round pick on quarterback Deshone Kizer last year. His name may infuriate many Browns fans, considering he performed terribly in the only season he played for the franchise before being traded to the Green Bay Packers. Kizer threw 11 touchdowns in 15 games compared to 22 interceptions before being traded to the Green Bay Packers. Another one bites the dust. Despite the doubts and skepticism, the Browns are optimistic about the upcoming season, and with all these changes, maybe they should be. Even with all of the surrounding concerns, Mayfield has a lot of potential, and if he develops like he’s supposed to, he could enjoy a lot of success in the NFL. In addition, the competition between Mayfield and Taylor will make each one better, which, in turn, will make the team better. The quarterbacks also have a number of weapons to work with after acquiring star wide receiver Jarvis Landry during the offseason and bringing back Josh Gordon from last season. But let’s all remember that it’s the Cleveland Browns we are talking about. The Browns embody the epitome of Murphy’s Law: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. The franchise’s history of bad luck has been the theme of their embarrassing seasons of the past several years. We can only hope that Mayfield will prove himself as a leader who can turn the entire organization around. We’ll just have to patiently wait until the fall to see.

Red in NCAC Semis Continued from page 14 the Yeomen couldn’t topple the Big Red in the tournament’s second round. Denison eliminated the Yeomen and sent them to the matchup for third place. The Yeomen had no luck against them in the doubles matches, losing all three. After Kimmel and Gittings dropped the third doubles match 8–0, the Yeomen were unable to find their composure in the singles matches. Cohen managed to get the lone win of the day 6–4, 6–3, but Vaughn, Manickam, and Drougas were all unable to finish their matches before Big Red had clinched the win 5–1. After their comptetition with Denison, Drougas said that the Yeomen were not willing to lose their final match of the year, even if they had already been eliminated from first place. “The fear is that after a tough loss against an opponent who you really want to beat that there could potentially be a letdown,” Drougas said. “I think our team responded in a mature way, however. Knowing that it was the last match of the season, everyone really wanted to finish with a decisive victory, and we were able to do that.” Moving on to play the Battling Bishops, the Yeomen did not disappoint, giving up just one match in a 5–1 win. In the doubles matches, the Yeomen swept, including a nail-biting 9–8 win from the new duo of first-year Elliot Nuss and junior Matthew Gittings. With a 3–0 lead, it didn’t take much time for Kimmel and Vaughn to collect singles wins and take the game 5–1. The win gave the Yeomen’s back-to-back NCAC third-place finishes. As of now, the Yeomen have only five players returning, as they will lose four seniors in Drougas, Manickam, Robert Gittings, and Kimmel, but with a strong core of Gruppuso and Vaughn, a few great recruits could put the Yeomen right back in contention for next year’s NCAC Tournament. “The team has gotten stronger every year I have been here,” Drougas said. “That is great to see and I am happy to have been a part of that growing process. I look forward to watching future teams continue to build on the progress that we have made as a team over the past four years.”

SPORTS May 4, 2018

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 23

James Deserves Reverance, Even If He Leaves Cleveland Alexis Dill Sports Editor

Junior third baseman Ian Dinsmore races around third base in an April 21 doubleheader against Wabash College. Although the team will not make its goal of earning a spot in the NCAC tournament, Dinsmore and his teammates look to end the season on a high note this weekend with doubleheaders against Hiram College and Cleary University. Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

Big Red Sweeps Yeomen Baseball Alex McNicoll Sports Editor

The baseball team collected three more losses this week in what has been a disappointing season for the promising squad. After making the North Coast Athletic Conference semi-finals last season, expectations were high for the Yeomen, but now — at 10–26 overall and 2–14 in the NCAC — returning to the playoffs is out of the question. The Denison University Big Red swept the Yeomen in a two-game series Wednesday, and their game against the Heidelberg University Student Princes Monday was representative of the season, as they let up a shocking 29 runs in their 29–13 loss. Sophomore outfielder Jack Marsjanik recognized that the Yeomen are out of contention but still sees these last few games as a way to build some positive momentum for next year. “At this point we’re really just trying to build up momentum and confidence going into next year,” Marsjanik said. “It was nice to see our offense come alive [against Denison], but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to get a win. Everyone is really looking forward to [Senior Day tomorrow], and hopefully we’ll be able to end our season on a positive note with sweeps of both [Hiram University] and [Cleary University].” The Yeomen pitching staff had no answer for the rival Big Red’s offense in the Yeomen’s second-to-last conference series of the year. In the first game, junior pitcher David Gaetano let up three runs in the first inning, and the Big Red were able to cruise to victory from there. The Yeomen offense lagged as well, only scoring one run through the first seven innings off an RBI single from senior first baseman Quin Butler. In the eighth inning, the Yeomen were down 7–1 but managed to close the gap to four when first-year right fielder Lawrence Hamilton took home off an error and Butler hit another RBI. However, the Big Red scored 11 runs through the final two innings in their decisive 18–6 win. Assistant Coach Brandon Jossey said the NCAC’s transition into a round-robin schedule has been challenging for his team, but he was satisfied with how they responded in the second half of the doubleheader. “This year we ended up playing every team in the conference twice in one day instead of half of the conference four times in two days,” Jossey said. “Typically, in the sport of baseball, games are spread out over the course of 2–3 days in order to get a look at how much depth the team has and to see how teams respond after a good or bad day. In a one-day matchup, one team might carry a ton of momentum and energy and have one really good day. I don’t know if it helped or

hurt our season, but the format change is definitely something worth discussing.” Oberlin made some adjustments in the doubleheader as the offense jumped out to a 2–0 lead in the first inning off a home run by junior catcher Brandon Mapes. Denison was quick to respond, scoring four runs in the second inning with junior pitcher Noah Gear on the mound. In the third inning, the Yeomen fired back with three more runs of their own, including RBIs from sophomore center fielder Amari Newman and senior designated hitter Jack Brewster. In the bottom of the third, Denison reclaimed the lead with two more runs, and carried their 6–5 lead all the way to the sixth inning when they scored three more runs from a bases-clearing triple off senior pitcher Milo Sklar. In the seventh inning, Newman and Sklar recorded RBIs in a four-run effort that tied the game at nine a piece. The game would remain tied until the bottom of the ninth, when Sklar gave up the winning run off a wild pitch. Gear noted that with so few games left, each player has to individually find their motivation for closing out the year. “Well, to start, we’re all pretty disappointed in how the season went,” he said. “Now that our common goal isn’t going to happen, we’re all playing for different reasons. The seniors want to play well to end their careers, the juniors and sophomores are looking to build something to hold our heads high about in the fall, and the [first-years] are trying to win some spots and prove something to the coaches.” The Yeomen struggled to find motivation against the Student Princes, and tensions rose in their loss. The outcome of the game didn’t result in much drama. While the Yeomen scored a couple runs in the first two innings off a home run from Mapes and a hit from junior outfielder Jack McGowan that drove in Hamilton, the Student Princes exploded for nine runs in the bottom of the second. Through the third inning, the Yeomen trailed 18–3, and as the Student Princes continued to pour in runs, the game got chippy. By the time the Student Princes were up 23–5, pitchers began throwing at opposing batters, and the teams were on the verge of a fight. The Yeomen managed to collect seven runs in the sixth inning, but it was too little, too late, as they lost the game 29–13. Looking forward, the Yeomen will host the Terriers on Saturday and the Cougars on Sunday, each a two-game series. The Yeomen will be graduating seven seniors this season, and losing the last remaining members of the 2014 NCAC Championship team will be a challenge for next spring’s squad.

Quicken Loans Arena erupted last Wednesday as LeBron James sank a game-winning, buzzer-beating three-pointer over the outstretched arm of Indiana’s Thaddeus Young to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 3–2 lead going into Game 6 of the series. After chest-bumping Cedi Osman and receiving embraces from his other teammates, James jumped onto the scoring table and pounded his chest as he looked into the sea of Cavs fans. Even if the Toronto Raptors eliminate my hometown team in this upcoming series, I’m grateful that one day I’ll be able to tell my kids I watched the greatest player to ever grace the NBA hardwood and was blessed with celebratory moments like this. As the end of the NBA season looms, James will have to make a decision — whether to stay in Cleveland or join another franchise. For now, fans must put the possibility of James’ departure to the side and appreciate what he continues to do on the court each playoff game. Heading into the second round of the playoffs, many fans and analysts doubted that James’ efforts would continue to be enough for the Cavs to win games. I myself didn’t feel like the Cavs deserved to advance. The Pacers outplayed them in the first round, outscoring them by over 40 points. The only reason the Cavs came out of the series victorious was because of James’ heroic play. James, who only sat for a total of 27 minutes in the seven-game series, collected 45 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists in Game 7. In Game 1 of the second round last night, in his least impressive performance of the playoffs so far, James earned his 21st postseason triple-double and made the basket that would send the game into overtime. Even if the team’s season ends this series in a disappointing fashion and James decides to leave Cleveland over the summer, I am forever indebted to James for carrying my Cavs for the past four years — winning us our city’s first championship in 52 years and taking us to the finals for three consecutive years. In the 15th season of his career, James has been absolutely brilliant — even his best, you might argue. He became the only member of the NBA’s 30,000/8,000/8,000 club, running his career totals to 31,038 points, 8,415 rebounds, and 8,208 assists. He led the league with 3,026 minutes and 2,251 points throughout 82 games. He dished out 747 assists for a career-best 9.1 average and grabbed 709 rebounds for a career-best 8.646 average. He earned a career-high 18 triple-doubles and was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month four times, bringing his career total to 38 nominations. In March, James said he was playing the best ball of his life when he was asked about his level of play in his 15th year in the league. “[I’m playing at] probably an all-time high,” James said. “Just because of my body, my mind, and the way I go out and approach the game. And then, by the grace of God, giving me the ability to do this. I’m blessed, and I never take it for granted.” His performance in the playoffs has been just as otherworldly and should solidify his reputation as one of the all-time greats. Tuesday night, James became the seventh player in NBA history to reach 2,000 rebounds in the playoffs. James became the first player to score 20 points or more 200 times in the playoffs and passed former Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen for most steals in NBA playoff history Sunday. It’s unbelievable that the 33-year-old has put up the numbers he has, exerting as much energy as possible to carry his team — which hasn’t provided much help or support aside from Tristan Thompson — to the second round and past the better-equipped Raptors in Game 1 to steal home court advantage. After beating the Pacers in Game 7, James admitted that he’s “burnt right now,” yet in Game 1 Tuesday he raced into the crowd to save a ball from going out of bounds — consistent with the effort and intensity that James has shown throughout the playoffs so far. We cannot ask for anything more from the King. In fact, we owe it to him to stop comparing him to other NBA legends. We should all just appreciate greatness while it’s right in front of us on our TV screens. To me, it doesn’t matter if the Cavs don’t make it to the NBA Finals for the fourth year in a row, because James has given me something even more special than an exciting playoffs finish. I’ve gotten to plop down in front of a television screen with my parents every few nights to marvel at the astonishing no-look passes James has thrown, the clutch shots he’s sunk, and the hustle and heart he has displayed for his team and city each and every time he steps on the court. Next year he might be a Laker, a Rocket, a 76er, or he may choose to stay a Cav. But no matter where he goes or whether he decides to remain in Cleveland or not, James will always have a fan in me. James has given his entire heart to my city, and I was blessed to be able to watch him achieve greatness night in and night out throughout my lifetime.