November 10, 2017

The Oberlin Review November 10, 2017

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 9

Marijuana Company Granted License to Grow in Oberlin Jack Brewster Staff Writer

Students and community members gathered in front of Gibson’s Bakery last November to protest after three College students were involved in an altercation with Allyn Gibson at the store.

Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

Gibson’s Files Lawsuit Against College, Raimondo Sydney Allen News Editor

David and Allyn Gibson, the father and son co-owners of Gibson’s Bakery in downtown Oberlin, filed a lawsuit against Oberlin College and Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo in the Lorain County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday. The lawsuit stems from a series of protests and boycotts directed at Gibson’s after an alleged incident of racial profiling and student shoplifting.

The Gibsons allege eight counts against the defendants, including accusations of libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress, engaging in deceptive trade practices, tortious interference with contract, and other accusations that resulted in “severe and permanent economic damage as well as substantial distress,” according to court filings. Each of the counts carries a minimum penalty of $25,000, not including interest, attorneys’ fees, court fees, and any additional costs.

The 32-page lawsuit includes accusations of wrongdoing involving students, administrators, student senators, professors, and other College community members.

The first and second counts allege that the College, Raimondo, and other unnamed parties intentionally engaged in libel and slander to defame Gibson’s by “promulgating fake news” as part of their “longstanding agenda against the Plaintiffs.” They state that

this resulted in “the loss of business earnings, injury to their personal and business reputations, and mental anguish and humiliation.”

The suit also alleges that Raimondo improperly interfered with a business contract between two outside parties in instructing former Bon Appétit Manager Michele Gross to cease buying from Gibson’s, a claim that Raimondo denies.

The Gibsons also directly attack Raimondo in the suit, stating that she and other unnamed administrators were “not competent to perform their duties” and calling the College negligent in hiring, supervising, and retaining such employees.

The College and Raimondo rejected all claims made in the lawsuit. Raimondo will be defended by the College’s as yet unnamed legal counsel.

“Oberlin College and Dr. Raimondo deny and reject all claims asserted in the lawsuit filed by Gibson Bros., Inc. in the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas,” wrote Director of Media Relations Scott Wargo in an email to the Review. “The allegations are untrue and we will vigorously defend against them.”

Interim Vice President of Finance Alan Norton announced the suit through an email to faculty and staff yesterday morning, which the Office of Communications forwarded to students yesterday afternoon.

In the wake of the suit, the College announced it will be cutting off all

business with Gibson’s, effective today.

“We are saddened that the Gibson family has chosen to pursue litigation,” Wargo wrote. “As this is now a legal matter, the College will suspend, effective immediately, its business relationships with Gibson’s Bakery until such time as a mutually productive relationship may be re-established.”

Student organizations have also responded individually to the Gibsons’ lawsuit. ABUSUA released a statement yesterday announcing they will boycott Gibson’s to support Black students on campus.

“The ABUSUA board is expressing our constitutional right to protest in the form of a boycott,” the statement said. “It is our unanimous decision as a board to not utilize ABUSUA funds to support Gibson’s Bakery. We are choosing to refrain from taking any action other than this statement.

The board is choosing to focus our energy on supporting the Africana community on campus. ABUSUA is unwavering and unapologetic in our decision and our support of Black life.”

The suit was filed almost one year to the day after an incident involving a conflict between Allyn Gibson and three students last November, all of whom are Black.

College junior Elijah Aladin was accused of shoplifting two bottles of wine from Gibson’s, leading to See Bakery, page 4

The Ohio Department of Commerce approved a license last Friday for Ascension BioMedical LLC, a medical marijuana company, to build a facility in the Oberlin Industrial Park. The approval makes it one of the few cities in Ohio — and the only in Lorain County — to grow medical marijuana.

City Councilmember Kelley Singleton has advocated for medical marijuana growers to settle in Oberlin since this spring, arguing that the medicinal marijuana industry would bring economic benefits.

“I think it’s a great victory for the city of Oberlin,” Singleton said. “This will provide some good paying jobs and some muchneeded tax revenue.”

Fadi Boumitri, the owner of Ascension Biomedical, said he chose Oberlin as the site of his new business because of how open and welcoming the town is. Boumitri is an attorney living in Cuyahoga County.

“A lot of cities around Ohio were not very receptive to the idea of having any type of medical marijuana business,” Boumitri said. “We reached out to Oberlin, and they were very helpful — much more so than any of the other cities we dealt with.”

The state has the ability to grant up to 12 companies Level II licenses and 12 companies Level I licenses. The Level I licenses will be announced in the near future. Ascension BioMedical was awarded a Level II license — which allows companies to grow up to 3,000 square feet of medicinal marijuana. The Level I companies can grow up to 25,000 square feet of the plant.

According to Boumitri, the company is in the process of securing a lease in the Oberlin Industrial Park. Per town zoning regulations, the park is the only place in town where medical marijuana businesses are permitted.

Although medical marijuana was legalized throughout Ohio in June 2016, the program has been slow to get off the ground.

The state did not issue its first round of growing licenses until last Friday and has not yet granted any Level I licenses or any dispensary licenses. Until a dispensary is given a license, medical marijuana will not be accessible to patients.

Multiple cities in Ohio have banned marijuana production or distribution due to safety concerns and because marijuana — although now legal in many states — is still considered an illegal substance by the federal government. On Monday night, for instance, City Council in Strongsville, Ohio, unanimously passed legislation outlawing the growing, processing, and distributing of medical marijuana in town.

Some Oberlin residents have also expressed hesitation over introducing the

See Ascension, page 3

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

College Launches New Buyout for Faculty

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02

Editorial: Policy of Silence Threatens Students

Palestinian Activist Encour- 06 Letters to the Editors: 2017 Candidates and Issues ages Students to Join Cause 03

The Oberlin Review | November 10, 2017

07 Athletics Encourages Toxic Belief Systems THIS WEEK

The Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick 08

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

11

On the Record with Nikita Makarenko

15

Oberlin Professor Unveils Critically Acclaimed Novel

16

12

Lords Eliminate Yeomen From Playoff Contention Forum Mediates Sports Dialogue

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

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REC Profit to go Toward Sustainable Reserve Program

16 would put all money from the credits into the Sustainable Revenue Fund, while Issue 17 would allow City Council to launch the Community Choice Program for Oberlin citizens to determine the REC revenue distribution.

Issue 16 garnered 1,350 votes in support while 585 residents voted in opposition, according to the Chronicle Telegram.

The Sustainable Reserve Program was originally created in 2007, and since then the city has used it to fund six different projects focused on sustainability. Issue 16 requires that any future changes

to the program must be made through legislation.

Community member Robert Henning said he voted for Issue 16 due to its potential benefits for Oberlin homeowners.

“As I understand it, 16 is going to make it possible to use the money that we saved on wise energy usage to help people improve their homes and save energy,” he said.

Many College students came to the polls to express their desire to help the city become more environmentally friendly.

“I want the city to do things that encourage a greater use of renewable resources and [attempt] to take away any dependence on fossil fuels,” College first-year Lucy Kamisky said. “They’re going to spend money on a lot of things, and I think that just having some of it be environmentally directed is a good idea.”

While Issue 16 passed, Issue 17 did not. Issue 17 collected 749 votes in favor of the Community Choice Program, but was ultimately opposed by 1,163 voters.

Had the issue won, 85 percent of the revenue would have been returned to Oberlin’s highest ratepayers, including the College. All ratepayers’ electricity bills would have been reduced, and any money left over would have been returned to the city with the approval of the ratepayers.

Some voters are disappointed with the results of the election.

Changes will also be made to policy for faculty on sabbatical. Faculty on sabbatical are usually given five-ninths of pay according to the handbook, and the College’s 2016 buyout offered these faculty members sums based on their sabbatical pay. This is no longer how pay will be determined.

“Being on sabbatical is part of this job,” Elgren said. “[The sum offered to faculty in the new buyout] has to be based on your full-time equivalent fraction and your base pay, not what you were paid recently.”

The full-time equivalent fraction measures the workload of an employee or student. An employee with an FTE of 1.0 is considered a full-time worker. “[Last year’s offering based on sabbatical pay doesn’t] make sense to a faculty member because they’re not a part of how we think of our jobs,” Elgren said.

While considering FTE may benefit faculty on sabbatical, it has proved difficult in securing buyout offerings for staff.

“The College won’t increase our FTEs,” said Tracy Tucker, Oberlin College Offices and Professional Employees president.

OCOPE, the group of College employees most affected by the buyout, saw 32 of its members leave their positions last year. However, the OCOPE members

who left were not replaced, resulting in increased amount of work for remaining office workers, particularly administrative assistants, according to Tucker. Despite the increased workload, assistants did not receive an increase in their FTEs. Whether employees were considered full-time affected their eligibility for the 2016 buyout. According to Tucker, anyone not full-time did not receive an increase.

“Employees, no matter how long they’ve been working here, or if they worked full years in the past — say they’re 11- or 10- month employees now — they don’t qualify,” Oberlin United Auto Workers Chair Milton Wyman said.

As UAW chair, Wyman asked Human Resources to include UAW members in the College’s 2016 buyout.

“I believe [the 2016 buyout] was a good opportunity for many,” Wyman said.

“I know there were a couple of members who had spouses that were, I would say, chronically ill and needed care ... and it gave them the opportunity to do that a year earlier than they anticipated.”

Although more staff than faculty members accepted the buyout in 2016, the new plan is currently only offered to tenured faculty.

One key strategy of the new plan, according to Elgren, is “breakage,” which

Oberlin students and residents vote in Tuesday’s election in the auxiliary gym at Philips gym.

Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

Lila Michaels Staff Writer The constituents of Oberlin voted in favor of depositing revenue made through Renewable Energy Credits into a Sustainable Reserve Program in Tuesday’s election.

Oberlin earns RECs by utilitzing renewable energy sources to generate electricity, the collection and sale of which has garnered the city more than $2 million in revenue. Issues 16 and 17 on the ballot addressed how to handle this profit made specifically through sustainably generated electricity. Issue

“I [liked] the idea of having a choice [about] what I do with whatever [money is left],” resident Eric Cowley said. “It’s great thinking of the future and what we need in this community for furthering environmental causes, but I still like the idea of having a choice [about] what happens to that money.”

Community member Barbara Fuchsman disagreed.

“While I understand why people think it’s a good idea to return funds to where they may have come from, at the same time this is a unique chance because this windfall isn’t going to keep coming or come again, it [looks] like, with this administration,” Fuchsman said. “It’s a chance to really do something substantial for the health of this city — at the same time working for social justice, [while] creating a sustainable future.”

Though not everyone sees it as a negative development.

“I’m delighted that we’ll be able to have that money in a sustainable reserve fund and look for ways to help the entire community and to have it address our climate action goals,” said City Councilwoman Linda Slocum.

By investing in the Sustainable Reserve Program, Oberlin maintains its commitment to the Climate Action Plan and hopes to become carbon-neutral by 2020. Environmentally concerned Oberlin residents like Fuchsman will look forward to an increase in funding for issues related to sustainability as a result of the passing of Issue 16.

College Launches New Buyout Directed Toward Faculty Gabby Greene

The College sent a memo to all faculty members announcing the launch of a new buyout last Tuesday. Unlike the 2016 program — the Voluntary Separation Incentive Package, which was directed at all College employees — the incoming buyout is only open to faculty.

The new VSIP means that the College will offer lump-sum payments to fully tenured faculty in return for their voluntary departure.

While Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Tim Elgren does not know how many faculty will accept the buyout or how much money the buyout will save, he believes it will not only save the school money, but will also have a larger success rate than the 2016 VSIP. “Restructuring it in a way that makes sense for faculty, I think, will get the yield we were hoping it would get,” Elgren said.

The new buyout has been reworked to appeal to faculty members already considering retirement.

“The timing is different,” Elgren said.

“It gives people time to think about this, because the offering allows faculty who are thinking about retiring an opportunity to accelerate that decision if it’s appropriate for them.”

The Oberlin R eview November 10, 2017 Volume 146, Number 9 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch.

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saves money as people retiring at high salaries are replaced by people at starting salaries. Elgren said that directing the buyout for higher-earning faculty increases the College’s potential to save money. He added that the higher salary and benefits tenured faculty are likely to receive make gearing the buyout toward them more lucrative than staff.

Tucker agreed that the new plan will help more financially than the one it is replacing, even if it is offered to fewer people.

“They’re looking to save money, so if they can reduce paying someone’s salary of $150,000-plus a year, that’s where their savings are [going to] be, not on the average of $45,000, which is basically what an average OCOPE member makes,” Tucker said.

Wyman said he believes the College does not see a reduction in UAW members as beneficial, especially considering the addition of new buildings to campus.

Unions like the UAW and OCOPE are still recovering from loss of employment from last year’s buyout. The timing of this new buyout, however, could still be desirable to them.

“I’ve heard a lot of folks say, if it was offered to me again, I would definitely take it,” Tucker said.

Corrections: In “Community Showcases Student Research,” (Nov. 3, 2017) Alyssa Altheimer was inappropriately identified as a College sophomore. She is a junior.

Giselle Glaspie Eliza Guinn Willa Hart Courtney Loeb Kaitlyn Lucey Madi Mettenburg Kendall Mahavier Distributors

Bryan Rubin Ben Steger Mason Boutis

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

Palestinian Activist Calls For Student Engagement

Security Notebook Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017 4:00 a.m. Safety and Security officers assisted a student, ill from alcohol consumption, in Langston Hall. The student was conscious, answered all questions, and said they would stay with a friend for the night.

12:37 p.m. Student Union staff turned in a coat left in Wilder Hall. The coat contained a wallet with cash and a bottle with a green, leafy substance consistent with marijuana. The bottle was turned over to the Oberlin Police Department and the coat and wallet were released to the student owner.

2:33 p.m. Officers assisted an ill student in the Science Center. The student was transported to Student Health, then to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

3:54 p.m. Two students reported being harassed by an individual from Elyria who recently attended an event on campus. The Oberlin Police Department was contacted and met with the students for a report. The incident is under investigation.

Friday, Nov. 3, 2017 Palestinian field researcher and spokesperson Nasser Nawaj’ah shared his personal experiences and promoted student activism in Craig Lecture Hall Wednesday.

Photo by Justin Bank

Jenna Gyimesi Staff Writer Palestinian activist Nasser Nawaj’ah came to Oberlin Wednesday to share his personal experiences with students and educate them on the demolition of villages in the occupied West Bank. His visit was sponsored by J Street U, an organization that is active at at least 70 campuses nationwide. Oberlin was one of two schools chosen to host Nawaj’ah.

Nawaj’ah was born in the small village of Susya, Palestine, which has been wrecked seven times since 1985 and is currently being demolished.

Families have been displaced, children have been prevented from receiving an education, and Israel has gained control over all aspects of Palestinian lives.

“Where is justice?” Nawaj’ah asked. “The state decreed a decision to demolish everything — from schools to hospitals to clinics [to] houses.”

Susya is just one of the many villages under threat by the Israeli state.

Its annihilation may trigger even more violence in the surrounding area of the West Bank, according to Nawaj’ah.

“At least 28 villages are under threat of demolition,” Nawaj’ah said.

“Susya is the one village that is internally known. If Susya gets demolished, then the other villages can be destroyed as well.”

Nawaj’ah emphasized that American citizens can influence — even pre-

vent — further injustices and oppression in Palestine.

“We are in need of the international community’s solidarity and support,” he said. “These days, American silence gives the impression that it’s OK to destroy Susya and other areas of Palestine. Our message is to have you ask the government to get out of its silence — to see the role that human rights have in this town.”

College senior Ethan Aronson and junior Yael Reichler, co-chairs of the Oberlin chapter of J Street, said that the goal of the organization is to build a sense of community and use it to advocate for peace.

“We want to push the American political community and the American Jewish community to seek national leadership and push for the end of the occupation in the areas in the West Bank,” Aronson said.

Reichler said she hopes the Nawaj’ah’s presentation will motivate students to take action and contribute to J Street’s “Stop Demolition: Build Peace” campaign.

“This campaign recognizes the urgent situation in the West Bank, especially in regards to the demolition of villages like Susya,” Reichler said. “With this campaign we have the ability to put international pressure on Netanyahu and the Israeli government and to support the work of Palestinian communities to ensure a future of peace in this region.”

Nawaj’ah also has partnerships with Rabbis for Human Rights and

B’Tselem, which he said he finds particularly challenging as a native Palestinian. Rabbis for Human Rights and B’Tselem are organizations that fight for Palestinian rights in Israeli-occupied territories. However, he said he believes such partnerships may be necessary to induce change and end the suffering in his homeland.

“If they [Susyans] scream, it would only be the surrounding neighborhoods of Palestine that would hear them,” Nawaj’ah said. “Now with the cooperation of Israel and Palestine, the whole world can hear Susya.”

Oberlin students who attended Nawaj’ah’s event expressed that they found Nawaj’ah’s first-hand experiences quite moving.

“This event is a great kickoff for the year and for a lifetime of activism for American students,” College junior Sadie Keller said. “We have so much of a role to play in protecting Suysa and ending the occupation in Palestine. It’s one thing to make a campaign. It’s another thing to have someone look you in the eye and tell you that their son asked them, ‘Why can’t I have the things the Israelis do?’”

The intention of his presentations, Nawaj’ah said, is to inspire every American citizen to contribute to the fight against destruction and oppression in Palestine.

“Suysa is in danger,” Nawaj’ah said.

“Suysa is under threat. Every American voice should urge the American government to end the silence.”

Ascension Biomedical Chooses Oberlin For Site Continued from page 1

industry to town. Mark Cooley, who owns Main Street Barber, said he approves of legalizing medical marijuana and allowing companies to grow it in Oberlin but is worried it might lead to a slippery slope.

“The way I look at it, everything is incremental,” Cooley said. “I’ve seen too many people’s lives ruined by recreational marijuana.”

By and large, however, Oberlin has welcomed the medical marijuana industry with open arms.

The Oberlin Review | November 10, 2017

Oberlin City Council unanimously passed a resolution in May to allow for medical marijuana growth in the city, and the Oberlin City Planning Commission approved zoning changes to the park to support the possibility of future marijuana facilities in April.

Associate Professor of Politics and Oberlin resident Michael Parkin said he is in support of allowing Ascension Biomedical and other medical marijuana businesses into Oberlin. He said he believes that the product has the potential to improve the health of many people.

“It’s my sense that these things are heavily regulated and that any concerns about safety or criminality are pretty minor,” Parkin said. “It benefits a lot of people who could use the benefits.”

Singleton envisions the benefits of the construction of the facility differently. He said he thinks it will be a moneymaker and questions why other towns in Ohio were hesitant to take advantage of the added tax revenue and creation of new jobs.

“It’s a state law,” Singleton said.

“Why not capitalize on it?”

3:16 p.m. Staff at Cox Administration Building reported an odor of smoke and stated that the building was hazy. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded and the building was evacuated. The cause of the odor was from freshly painted heat radiators.

Saturday, Nov. 4, 2017 3:06 a.m. A resident of East Hall reported that an unknown student entered their unlocked room while they were sleeping. The student, appearing to be intoxicated, left the room and ran down the hallway.

Officers checked the area but could not locate the individual.

6:27 p.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle from the bike rack outside of Kahn Hall. The bicycle was locked at the time of theft.

11:07 p.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle from outside of Mudd library sometime between the hours of 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. The bicycle was not locked at the time of theft.

11:15 p.m. Officers assisted an intoxicated individual at an Elmwood Place Village Housing Unit. The individual, who was not a student at the College, was unresponsive but breathing. An ambulance was requested, and the individual was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017 11:26 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at a Union Street Village Housing Unit. Smoke from cooking caused the alarm, which was reset. A work order was filed for inspection of the exhaust fan.

6:13 p.m. Officers assisted a student who slipped on wet leaves and injured their ankle on Woodland Street. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

10:53 p.m. Officers were called to Kahn Hall to pick up a container, found by a resident, containing contraband. A tin, a baggie containing a green, leafy substance consistent with marijuana, and a bottle containing a green, leafy substance were confiscated and turned over to the Oberlin Police Department.

Monday, Nov. 6, 2017 10:21 a.m. Officers and an ambulance were requested at Philips gym to assist an individual who tripped and struck their head on a bench in the weight room. The individual was transported by ambulance to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

1:30 p.m. Staff from Philips gym reported being involved in a minor accident on Sunday, Nov. 5 on Main Street. A College van scraped a parked pickup truck.

There were no injuries.

11:51 p.m. A resident of South Hall reported that an unknown person(s) discharged a fire extinguisher in the bathroom on the second floor. The area was searched, but the extinguisher was not found. A facilities manager on call was notified for clean-up.

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Bakery Alleges Libel, Contract Interference in Lawsuit Continued from page 1

a physical altercation between Aladin, Allyn, and College juniors Endia Lawrence and Cecelia Whettstone in Tappan Square Nov. 9, 2016.

Aladin was charged with seconddegree robbery, and Whettstone and Lawrence were both charged with misdemeanors. Many students, professors, and community members said that this was a misunderstanding rooted in racism, asserting that Gibson’s has a long history of racial profiling.

The day after the incident, students organized a protest outside Gibson’s that lasted more than 12 hours and garnered significant media attention. The protest drew criticism from some local businesses and community members, including a group of counter-protesters who gathered to support the bakery the weekend after the initial protest.

Protestors also distributed flyers asking people to boycott Gibson’s. The lawsuit claims that the College and Raimondo were involved in distributing the flyers, which are reproduced in court documents.

Aladin, Lawrence, and Whettstone’s cases were not resolved until August, after all three had plead guilty to misdemeanors and read a statement releasing Gibson’s of any wrongdoing or racism. The students were also placed on one year of probation.

Allyn and David Gibson are represented

by Owen J. Rarric, Terry A. Moore, Matthew W. Onest, and Lee E. Plankas, all based in Canton, Ohio.

Allyn and David declined to comment directly, though Rarric wrote in a statement to the Review that the lawsuit is a result of the College’s financial aggression against the bakery.

“The complaint filed this week identifies Oberlin College’s troubling conduct in attempting to bully and financially strangle a century-old local business for refusing to succumb to the College’s demand that Gibson’s ignore student shoplifting,” Rarric wrote. “In response to Gibson’s resisting such bullying tactics, the College has further tightened the economic squeeze by cancelling business with Gibson’s. … The example that Oberlin College is setting is that if an institution is powerful, that institution and its members do not have to follow the Rule of Law,” he added.

Student Senator and College junior Meg Parker said that Senate is standing with community members affected by the suit.

“The safety and success of students remain our utmost priority,” Parker said.

“The interests of all students always comes first for us.”

OFF THE CUFF

Linda Slocum, Vice President Of Oberlin City Council Linda Slocum has lived in Oberlin for 27 years and served one term as vice-president on Oberlin City Council. She graduated with a B.A. from Ursinus College and a M.A. from the University of Massachusetts before working as the Gifts Librarian & Managing Editor of Oberlin College Press for 17 years. She has been a part of the League of Women Voters, Oberlin Community Services, and Family Promise, an Interfaith Hospitality Network. She is married to Dr. Harold E. Slocum, and together they have three adult children. She was reelected to City Council in Tuesday’s election.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Sydney Allen, News Editor Nathan Carpenter, Opinions Editor

Can you clarify how long you worked at Oberlin and where you’re originally from?

We moved here in 1990, so 27 years ago. And up until Heather won, was not a very long time, because somebody told me that after the last election I was the only one on council who was not born and raised here.

But we’ve been here since [the] 1990s.

I was born in Allentown, PA. Prior to moving here, we were living in Danville, PA— another small town. We decided [on] small town life. My husband’s a family physician, but when we were looking for a place to move from Danville, we realized we got used to small towns.

How did you end up on City Council?

I decided to run two years ago for the first time, even though I was retired from working at Oberlin College, because there were some communication problems on City Council. I like to think of myself as a moderating voice and a good listener. I came to my interest in politics through my many years of working with the League of Women Voters, and while I was president of the league [for] the last several years, I ended up attending a lot of things in town — being present, hearing voices, hearing sides of arguments, and that kind of thing.

I also advocated for civic engagement as a league person, in voting, in all those kind of things. I thought, “Well, I could maybe do it myself, try it myself.” That’s how I came to it two years ago. There were 14 candidates, so it was kind of a whirlwind. As a newcomer, I got the highest number of votes, just as Hweather [Adelman] did last night as a newcomer. I’ve found after two years, I’ve finally figured out how to get things done, so during these next two years I really can work to be more effective than I even was the first two years. So I decided to run again, and I’m just thrilled.

What did you do at the College during your time there?

I worked in the library. I was the gifts librarian in technical services part-time, and I was managing edi-

tor of the Oberlin College Press with David Walker and David Young, the Creative Writing folks.

In your first two years on council, what would you consider to be some of your big successes or council’s big successes during that time period?

One that I’d like to think I was instrumental with just came to fruition on Monday night at our council meeting. I’m liaison to the Historical Preservation Commission, so one of the first meetings I went to when I came on council was a presentation from the Cleveland Preservation Society about their historical home improvement program. This was when I was asking questions like, “Well, they presented there. Now how do those ideas get to council?” I asked that question, and I think because of that, the Restoration Society presented to council at a council meeting. Then, luckily, Carrie Handy, the head of the planning department, picked up on it. It’s two years in the making, but we finally found a bank, and we’re going to have a low-interest loan program going for people to [rehabilitate] their homes.

With this second term on council, what are your personal plans?

One of the things I wanted to do this morning was to sit down and just start typing — so many ideas. I’ve mentioned the housing. That’s a big priority for me. The other thing is, what I started to address in the first two years and what I want to continue is this whole process of how do ideas get translated to reality, to public policy. In parcel with that is training with boards and commissions, and I’m really big on and starting to think about neighborhood involvement — having more organic participation in even just their own small neighborhoods, trying to figure out how neighborhoods can get together and to decide, “Well, do we need a bigger bench here, or do we need another playground?” Or — and this is one of my big issues — is sidewalks, which is a very contentious issue that goes back 20 years in this city. One of my goals is to get it settled in these next two years, because I think we can come to a really good settlement, but we have to sit down and have a good discussion about how we’re going to

Oberlin Community News Bulletin

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Warfield Hired Despite Internal Opposition

Q&A with Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate Nan Whaley

Clarence “Ryan” Warfield was officially hired as Oberlin’s new police chief Monday after City Council voted to change the annual vacation time from 15 days to 25, per Warfield’s request. Warfield, who will begin Nov. 20, sparked some controversy when three police sergeants — Patrick Durica, Melissa Lett, and Steve Chapman — penned a letter to council in October questioning the fairness of the hiring process as well as Warfield’s qualifications.

Oberlin College Democrats and Lorain County Rising will host a Q&A session with Nan Whaley, Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, on Monday from 7–9 p.m. in Dye Lecture Hall. Whaley will discuss her plans for students, Oberlin, Lorain County, and Ohio if she is elected. The Candidate Series is a multipart, monthly event series that brings candidates to the College to meet with and speak to students and members of the community.

Linda Slocum

Photo by Bryan Rubin, Photo Editor

do it and how we’re going to pay for it.

There’s opportunities to work with the College. Public transportation is so big, and I think both the city and the College have that as a concern. My interest is a little bit more immediate just within the city, and that also ties within the Sustainable Reserve Fund; you buy two shuttle buses — electric shuttle buses — with Sustainable Reserve Fund money.

One of the things that we noticed throughout the City Council election season was that your name was popping up a lot in letters to the Review and that you held your office hours in Azariah’s [Cafe] and talked to students. I’m curious why interacting with College students was such a priority of yours throughout the process?

In the League of Women Voters, I was trying to register College students to vote, then we were trying to make sure College students were informed about the issues, so I always think of College students. I realized: You’re important.

In the League of Women Voters, I was trying to register College students to vote, then we were trying to make sure College students were informed about the issues, so I always think of College students. Also, because I worked at the College and had a lot of student interns and just loved working with students, I realized: You’re important. But I realized I’ve also been retired now for a number of years, so I don’t have as many contacts as I used to have. Although, I’m a coordinator for the Interface Hospitality Network, and I train students to be volunteers for that program, so I do meet some that way. I just thought I’d like to make sure that I was able to meet some and get my name out there.

Adelman Tops City Council Votes Heather Adelman collected the most votes in Oberlin’s City Council election Tuesday: 1,368 at 14.75 percent. Of the eight candidates, William Jindra is the only one who was not granted a seat. All incumbent councilpersons retained their positions, with Kristin Peterson gaining a seat as a newcomer. Linda Slocum received the second highest number of votes with 1,357 at 14.63 percent. Results are unofficial until the Lorain County Board of Elections certifies all ballots in the coming weeks.

OPINIONS November 10, 2017

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Letters to the Editors

Warfield Represents Change Police Department Needs To the Editors:

I am writing regarding the Review’s Nov. 3 article “Oberlin Police Chief Hire Sparks Controversy Within Department.” Readers who did not follow the process closely might not be aware of the thought and care that went into the police chief search.

This past spring, Oberlin City Manager Rob Hillard conducted five listening sessions to determine what our community desires in its police chief and police department. Listening session participants — a total of 180 people from all segments of the community — expressed a clear vision for policing that focuses on developing positive relationships between the police and Oberlin residents. A summary of the listening sessions, including details of the session held on campus, is linked from the community voices page of the city’s website at https://goo.gl/ sWsFZ3.

The panel reviewed all the applicants, and the panel included five people who had extensive experience in police work. Four of the five were Oberlin residents and one of those four is a former city councilmember. Two of the four are members of the civil service commission, which oversees the city’s policies for police and fire personnel. The city’s human resources administrator and the city manager also worked with the panel.

Mr. Warfield emerged as the clear preferred candidate from this process. He was viewed as the candidate best able to realize the vision for the Oberlin Police Department that our community has expressed. He also passed an extensive background check. I am delighted that he has now accepted the position and will begin work as Oberlin’s new police chief Nov. 20.

As an Oberlin citizen, I find it both disturbing and unacceptable that the three police sergeants questioned the search process by implying Mr. Warfield is unqualified and that they also bypassed the city man-

ager in sending their letter to members of City Council. Their actions show fundamental disrespect for the city’s administrative structures and processes.

The three sergeants’ behavior is a clear indication that change is needed in Oberlin’s police department. I urge community members to join in supporting the city administration and Chief Warfield in working for a police department that realizes the vision that Oberlin citizens, including many members of the College community, have expressed.

– Ray English Director of Libraries Emeritus

Student Debate Will Help Strengthen Personal Views To the Editors: When some anti-Semitic signs appeared on campus, President Ambar announced that her administration will not automatically amplify those messages by informing the entire campus each time they appear. But she will surely do an all-campus notification if need be.

I have no idea if she explained to students or the campus what her rationale was before taking this action; in any case, her position does seem to be a good one, if only because there is nothing anyone can ever do to prevent one person — perhaps not even associated with the College — from having the power to sow fear throughout the entire campus by posting hate-filled scribblings.

When President Ambar visited New York City about two weeks ago, she received a few questions from alumni and Oberlin friends about anti-Semitism on campus. I wasn’t there, but I learned that one questioner indicated that a mother had chosen not to enroll her son at Oberlin because she had heard that antiSemitism is rampant, and far too little is being done to stamp it out.

Arguably, Oberlin College today towers above all other institutions in its abhorrence to anti-Semitism, racism, or any other form of discrimination, injustice, etc. But even here, too many of these evils are alive; therefore, See Letters, page 7

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and op-ed submissions. All submissions are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board.

All submissions must be received by Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at opinions@oberlinreview.org or Wilder Box 90 for inclusion in that week’s issue. Letters may not exceed 600 words and op-eds may not exceed 800 words, except with consent of the Editorial Board. All submissions must include contact information, with full names and any relevant titles, for all signers. All writers must individually confirm authorship on electronic submissions. Op-eds may not have more than two authors. The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity, length, grammar, accuracy, strength of argument and in consultation with Review style.

Editors will work with contributors to edit pieces and will clear major edits with the authors prior to publication. Editors will contact authors of letters to the editors in the event of edits for anything other than style and grammar. Headlines are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. Opinions expressed in editorials, letters, op-eds, columns, cartoons or other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Review. The Review will not print advertisements on its Opinions pages. The Review defines an advertisement as any submission that has the main intent of bringing direct monetary gain to a contributor.

The Oberlin Review | November 10, 2017

Volume 146, Number 9

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief Melissa Harris

Christian Bolles

Managing Editor Daniel Markus

Opinions Editors

Nathan Carpenter

Jackie Brant

Students Should Not Engage Gibson’s as Lawsuit Ensues “When they go low, we go high.”

This quote by Michelle Obama became an overused and often cringe-inducing centerpiece of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. But there is a lot of truth and power in Obama’s words, which can serve as a meaningful guide for the Oberlin College community now searching for a response to news of a lawsuit recently filed by Gibson’s Bakery against the College and Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo.

News of the lawsuit — which is meant to bully and intimidate College students, faculty, and staff, and can be read in full on the Review’s website — was relayed to the College community almost exactly one year after students initiated a protest against Gibson’s Bakery following a violent altercation at the store involving College students.

Part of the original protest was a boycott of Gibson’s by College students and, initially, the College as well. However, in late January 2017, the College resumed business with Gibson’s — a move students harshly criticized.

Now, following the announcement of the lawsuit, the College has once again ended its business arrangement with Gibson’s. In an email Thursday, interim Vice President of Finance and Administration Alan Norton wrote, “Because of the litigation initiated against the College, all College business with Gibson’s, i.e., purchases with College funds, is prohibited effective as of November 10, 2017, and until further notice.”

As the College severs its business ties with Gibson’s for the second time in a year, students should maintain their commitment to doing the same. There are few acts of protest so quiet yet so powerful as the decision to not patronize a specific establishment because of fundamental disagreement with what it stands for. There are also few responses so appropriate to the situation we now must grapple with.

In reading the legal documents filed by the Gibson family, it is clear that their intention is to provoke an explosive, emotional response from students. Many of the claims they make are against a nameless person or group of people, and are meant to be generally incendiary rather than substantive. The documents also have racist undertones that further expose the core reasons for the lawsuit. The Gibsons have no interest in finding any resolution to this conflict — instead, they seek to assert their prideful moral superiority over the College, which they view as biased and discriminatory.

This provocation is best left ignored. When people attempt to dredge up old conflict in a way that is petty and unproductive, there is no use engaging with them. Playground bullies live not for the act of bullying itself but for the response it inspires.

Instead, students would be wise to follow the example of groups like ABUSUA, which released a statement Thursday that read, in part, “We are choosing to refrain from taking any action other than this statement.” We agree with ABUSUA’s assessment. Any attempts to intimidate will be validated only if we give the Gibson family the response they seek — a sudden, volatile reaction that could be picked up by national right-wing media and used to once again construe Oberlin students as unstable and reactionary, which could again place students directly in the path of potential backlash.

Gibson’s is also attempting to force its conflict with College students to define relations between the greater College and town communities. In the year since the original protest, Gibson’s has repeatedly pointed to its long-standing history in the Oberlin community as a reason that it should be supported while outspoken College students should be condemned.

The justification of a long lifetime is poor reasoning to divide the College from the rest of the city. Injustice should be identified and addressed with resolve everywhere, regardless of the perpetrator’s age. The Gibson family’s blatant attempt to lure students into isolating themselves from the town of Oberlin should be ignored as well — it is imperative that we do not allow sour relations with a single Oberlin establishment to spoil all of the positive, symbiotic relationships that members of the College community have with Oberlin’s other residents and businesses, and with many Oberlin College programs like Bonner Scholars and WOBC. Finally, members of the College community should remember to support each other during this difficult time. Students of color were disproportionately targeted in the fallout from last fall’s protest of Gibson’s — a result we should be careful to not replicate. We should also lend our support to Dean Raimondo, who works tirelessly to support students. Even when students do not agree with her, her compassion and commitment to us never wavers. It can sometimes be difficult to remember that administrators are human too, but now is as good a time as any to return that compassion to her.

Gibson’s stands to benefit if negative national media attention twists and distorts elements of their lawsuit. Oberlin students have been framed as irrational before, and we will be again.

We should, therefore, refuse to engage with Gibson’s and avoid expanding the scope of the conflict. Let them raise a fuss — we should want no part of it. We have already spoken our piece in defense of the members of our community, and we encourage you to continue voicing your opinions through choosing to spend your money intentionally, supporting your community members and loved ones, and enacting Michelle Obama’s words and spirit.

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.

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Opi n ions

Weinstein Scandal Representative of Deeper Dynamics Christian Bolles Editor-in-Chief

“They knew.”

That’s a mantra oft-repeated by the public in response to the cascade of celebrities who have denounced their colleagues following a cataclysmic domino effect of assault allegations made over the past month. Accusations of harassment, rape, and all-around creepiness leveled at Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein were the first cracks in the industry’s golden façade — which has now shattered beneath the weight of hundreds of similar claims aimed at other titans of that breeding ground of fame and misfortune. In the hugely disturbing wake of this scandal, sharp words have been exchanged, tears have been shed, and giants have fallen — but the question at the tip of everyone’s tongues, right after “Who else?”, is the inevitable product of an industry predicated on close relationships: “Who knew?”

The immediate answer — and a correct one — is, of course, “Nearly everyone in Hollywood.”

Rumors spread through the film industry like wildfire, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone

without a Weinstein-like story.

But this is an easy answer — easy and incomplete.

Perhaps more so than any other commercial machine, Hollywood is not self-contained.

Though secretive about its inner workings, audiences — literally, you and me — are the industry’s lifeblood. Without a steady stream of paying viewers, a movie falls straight into the dollar bin, and Harvey Weinstein sheds a pathetic little tear. Fortunately for him — and unfortunately for the women surrounding him — he’s basically never had to.

Gifted with an undeservedly shrewd eye for box-office successes, a good chunk of the industry has been molded by Weinstein’s grabby hands. As he himself has admitted, Weinstein’s own proclivities were inspired by the equally depraved minds of the film moguls who trained him. Thanks to the monopolistic influence of people like him, Hollywood is practically a wildlife reserve for sexual predators — and every time we buy a ticket, we’re sponsoring an animal.

Of course, we don’t go to the movies to support the systemic coercion, blackmail, and harassment of countless individuals; we

go for the sake of a couple hours of escapism. That is an immutable truth traceable to, and the cause of, the beginning of mainstream film. Yet we’re more influenced by what we see on that screen than some may realize.

While movies mean something different to everyone, we share a tendency to seek empathy for and identification with their characters, and we inadvertently pick up pieces along the way. Though usually the product of a great deal of money and the tireless contributions of hundreds to thousands of people, films become personal experiences, just like any other art form. Some viewers go so far as to adopt movies as aspects of their identity, as evidenced by the inexplicable number of people who suffer through, for example, the masterful but deeply twisted gauntlet of A Clockwork Orange on a routine basis.

What, then, do we make of the ways in which the Weinstein-ian culture of abuse and silencing bleeds onto the screen? Not a single classic of the medium is free from that influence. As we watch women on screen routinely dominated, torn apart, rescued, tossed aside, and recycled, we become numb, shock turning to indiffer-

ence in the span of minutes. But that visceral punch audiences feel when a woman is robbed of power and endangered on screen doesn’t fade away for the actresses whose careers have been marred by the greed, malice, and cowardice of powerful men. As we absorb their on-screen plight, we instinctively cast that struggle into the periphery; after all, we just wanted to see a movie.

Do you like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining? Millions do, and thousands of those might rank it among their favorite films. Many rightly point to Shelley Duvall’s frenzied, bug-eyed performance as Wendy Torrance — whose stay at the fabled Overlook Hotel quickly turns into a madcap game of survival when her husband embarks on a murderous rampage — as one of the movie’s highlights. Yet the true horror of the film is the source of Duvall’s palpable fear — her continual harassment, belittlement, and abuse at the hands of her director, Kubrick, who hoped to draw a more frayed performance out of her at any cost. As one of cinema’s most beloved directors, Duvall’s abuser escaped consequence; even his reputation has endured unscathed.

But his victim’s psyche did not.

Duvall is just one victim of an industry contingent on the maltreatment of actresses whose only foreseeable path to a sterling career leads down a dark road, where only leering men with power complexes light the way ahead. Can we comfortably watch The Shining with full knowledge of Duvall’s abuse? It might be easy to answer with a resounding “no,” but what about movies starring women whose abuse is less documented? Can we ever know?

Thinking back is difficult, because we weren’t paying attention at the time. Now that the industry is subject to a paradigm shift after the exposing of Weinstein and many others, we may not have to — but that shouldn’t stop us from interrogating our passive role in feeding Hollywood’s culture of violent, systemic misogyny.

When the next allegations surface — and they will, if the steady rate of revelations about oncerevered figures like Louis C.K. and Kevin Spacey is anything to go by — think about the implications of pointing fingers at those surrounding them. They rose to prominence on a tower built from our support. Let’s tear it down.

Accessibility to Philosophy Will Positively Affect Field PAL Represents Best, Worst of Oberlin Jackie Brant Opinions Editor

The role of college students in the Oberlin community has long been hotly debated. So, too, has been the lack of the diversity in the field of philosophy. Though these two issues may seem unrelated, the new Philosophy in the Schools Practicum has made a great start in addressing both.

Spearheaded by Chair of the Philosophy Department Katherine Thomson-Jones, the PHITS class is a course in both philosophy and education. Every week, the 16 Oberlin students enrolled in PHITS go to Eastwood Elementary School in Oberlin and teach three classrooms of second graders and one of first graders.

There, the college students read a children’s book, like Morris the Moose or The Giving Tree, to the class and then facilitate a philosophical discussion responding to the reading.

In “Philosophy Departments Lack Diversity” (The Oberlin Review, Feb. 10, 2017), I addressed the lack of women and people of color in the philosophy field. As of 2014, only 28 percent of master’s degrees and 31 percent of doctorates in the discipline were held by women in the U.S. At Oberlin, an average of 28.9 percent of philosophy degrees have been awarded to women since 2013. Across the board, statistics concerning people of color in the field are similarly low.

PHITS is a program that, if implemented in universities across the country, has the potential to begin to address these discrepancies. Philosophy can be intimidating to people who are new to the field, and is often misunderstood as a result. Because of its inaccessibility and because philosophy

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courses tend to be dominated by white men, philosophy can often be exclusive to others without experience or privileged identities.

It is noteworthy that 12 out of the 16 Oberlin students in PHITS are women because, even at a progressive institution like Oberlin, the philosophy field tends to be dominated by men. This highly unusual gender distribution could be due to the fact that PHITS is cross-listed with the education concentration, and, according to NPR, women are much more likely to study education than men. Indeed, many of the students in PHITS, including some of the women, are pursuing education concentrations instead of philosophy majors.

The fact that PHITS also counts as an education course potentially creates promising inroads for women and people of color who may otherwise feel alienated in the field. This exposure could, over time, lead to an increased number of women and people of color in philosophy. If a student takes the course because they are interested in education, they may find that they are actually interested in philosophy as well.

Furthermore, about 47 percent of the students who attend Eastwood Elementary are children of color. Many students at Eastwood are also considered high-needs, according to Thomson-Jones.

Teaching philosophy to children of color and to high-needs children will drastically affect the accessibility of the philosophy field.

By exposing children to philosophy at a young age, we teach them that philosophy is a field that anyone can certainly contribute to and succeed in.

Early exposure to philosophy can also give children the confi-

dence they need to enter philosophy classrooms down the road.

Recent studies have suggested that having a weekly philosophy class positively affects literacy and mathematical proficiency in children — especially those considered high-needs — by teaching valuable skills such as the articulation of perspectives, respectful listening and discussion, and how to structure an argument. Teaching philosophy to kids at a young age therefore enhances their reading comprehension and their overall educational experience.

Finally, PHITS provides a nontransitory town-gown program.

It is a difficult task for college students to form any real, lasting relationships with a community that they are only a part of for four or five years. However, having the consistent presence of college students teaching elementary schoolers and making topics like philosophy more accessible to them is a good way for college students to have a long-term, positive impact on the Oberlin community.

At the end of the PHITS program, the elementary students will receive bracelets reading, “I am a philosopher.” This is a powerful message to these students at such a young age, and an affirmation that they are capable of pursuing whatever discipline they choose. Philosophy should not discriminate, nor should any other academic field. PHITS serves not only to teach students philosophy, but also to give confidence to local children and to foster a relationship between the college and community. It is a method of teaching both college and elementary school students more about philosophy, and should serve as a model for other fields to aspire to.

Kameron Dunbar Columnist

I never had a PAL, but I certainly could have used one as a fledgling first-year. Oberlin has a lot of resources available for students, many of which are difficult to access if you don’t know they exist. Fortunately, I had the iconic Alex Cunningham as a mentor to lead me in the right direction and keep me on my path. Not everyone has such a positive experience — students are often left to fend for themselves without guidance from peers.

One positive thing that came out of the College’s recent Strategic Plan was an acknowledgement of the need for reform in Oberlin’s advising system. Putting it bluntly, students shared a common feeling of disappointment in Oberlin’s pre-major advising mechanisms. This is how the Peer Advising Leaders program came about — it was a direct response to students saying that they needed more. And the PAL program has delivered.

The PAL program emerged as a student-centered approach to mentorship at Oberlin. PALs survive a rigorous vetting and training process to be paired with a cohort of first-year students. We PALs then conduct a series of class sessions geared towards creating a more fluid matriculation into the college experience for first-year students. Our proximity to the firstyear experience and knowledge of how to navigate Oberlin as a student positions us well to provide advice on just about any challenge a first-year may face.

In many ways, some responses to PAL represent the worst of Oberlin: institutional resistance to change that students have clearly demonstrated the need for. Some faculty view it as an encroachment on their territory, arguing that advising responsibilities should not be delegated to students. Others view the program as requiring too large a time commitment on top of their hefty research commitments and service obligations.

While these concerns are certainly understandable, the hard truth is that what was happening previously was not working for students — which in itself should be a catalyst for change.

Oberlin works best when we come together as a community to realize our collective needs and work collaboratively to address them. This approach is what PAL is all about. This approach is Oberlin at our best.

The program is not without flaws. PALs are currently unpaid, even with the significant time demands required in the gig. PAL also needs to place a greater emphasis on social mentorship outside of the classroom. But PAL is a step in the right direction, and first-years are lucky to have a program geared toward ensuring their success.

We owe a debt of gratitude to those who have worked to make PAL successful, even in the face of adversity. Hopefully this is just the beginning of an Oberlin that recognizes student needs and works diligently to address them.

American Apathy Perpetuates Gun Violence Sam Schaffer Contributing Writer Editor’s Note: This article contains mentions of violent imagery.

America is truly an exceptional place.

One exceptional aspect of American life is the possibility for an American to go to a concert and leave with wounds similar to those suffered by soldiers in wartime. Here’s another: An American can to go to church on Sunday and leave in a blood-soaked body bag.

Here’s one more: Any American can be assured that, if an indiscriminately fired bullet puts them or their friend, sibling, parent, or spouse on the mortician’s table, the same is bound to happen to another person somewhere in America, without warning and with the guarantee that it will happen again.

We all heard that it will happen again, after Sandy Hook, Miami, Charleston, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, and more.

Why that awful refrain? More importantly, why here? Why is it that a nation with such a rich history of progress and change cannot seem to achieve the very basic goal of preventing mass murder?

The answer to that question lies in yet another exceptional American characteristic — one which has developed in recent years into a collective national attitude responsible for bringing out the worst in us. That characteristic is our own uniquely American brand of apathy.

There is more than enough welldocumented evidence of the rise of American apathy on individual and

national levels. We lag behind most developed nations in voter turnout.

Across demographic lines, citizens express a lack of trust in government and its officials. Conservatives and liberals alike choose to reject compromise in favor of partisanship and ideological entrenchment. Much of our news cycle is dominated by information that is either frivolous or apocalyptically dreadful — a reflection of a public too dispassionate to pay attention to anything else. Our impassivity is demonstrated by an unwillingness to fix the problems which confront our society and a widespread loss of faith in America and her promises — promises which were once enough to draw many of our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents from far away, promises responsible for some of our most admirable moments as Americans.

This apathy is so great that we are left unable to fix the problem of mass murder of Americans by Americans. After every mass shooting we are compelled to go through the motions, but not one call for gun control legislation or “thoughts and prayers” has prevented another massacre more twisted than the last — in fact, three of the five worst mass shootings in U.S. history have taken place in the last year despite these ‘thoughts and prayers.’

We react to these tragedies with a strange and surreal mournfulness that seems more appropriate for the death of a loved one suffering from terminal illness — as if each shooting is somehow inevitable and that burying our dead and moving on is about as much as we can do. But every time a mass

shooting occurs and we do nothing, we are killing American citizens with our apathy. If we do not address this, Americans will continue to die senseless, violent deaths, and surreal melancholy may become all too appropriate. If we continue to make half-hearted attempts at addressing mass shootings, mourning will essentially become the only thing we can do in response to these shootings.

This attitude is also what motivates us to ignore the homeless person who sleeps on the sidewalk and asks for change. It’s also what brought about last year’s election season. It is what compels us to selfish, unthinking behavior and persuades us to stay comfortable and distract ourselves with whatever means necessary from the world at large — to stay sheltered inside of our own lives.

The same apathy is what tells us that mass murders are an immutable aspect of American life.

The best moments in American history have been characterized by engagement and concern in the most desperate situations. Now, we are at a crossroads. The situation is desperate: Do we abandon our apathy or allow ourselves to sink into the abyss?

If we don’t make a change, a doleful response may be in order for future generations who will inherit a dying America — an America made exceptional not by its promises, but by its complete lack of a soul.

Facing these possible futures, we must decide to either carry on the American experiment or abandon it altogether.

bought into rumors about Clinton’s health circulated by Russia and the far-right.

In assessing whether Brazile’s claims are credible, it is important to consider her history. Many factors suggest that Brazile should not be trusted. During the Democratic primary, she received debate questions from CNN in advance and forwarded them to Clinton, a decision which was clearly unethical. It is commonly understood that the contestants of presidential debates will not — and should not — have access to the questions beforehand, especially if one candidate is given access and others are not.

Brazile initially denied these accusations, stating to journalist. Megyn Kelly that the allegation was “totally false.” Finally, on March 17, 2017, Brazile admitted in a TIME essay that she shared debate questions with Clinton, and expressed regret for doing so.

The fact that Brazile has been dishonest and has engaged in unethical behavior in the past does not immediately discredit all of her book’s assertions. It does, however, mean that her claims must be taken with a grain of salt.

It is also important to consider that Brazile has already walked back some of the claims in her book. In Hacks, Brazile describes microaggressions by Robby Mook as being motivated by gender bias.

However, when she later appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show, she denied that Mook displayed any sexist behavior, instead asserting that he had been “condescending and dismissive.”

In a different interview, Brazile withdrew some of her claims regarding the DNC and the Democratic nomination being rigged for Clinton. On ABC’s “This Week”, she claimed “there was no evidence” that the nomination was rigged in favor of Clinton. This statement was made in direct contradiction to statements in her book, in which she reveals that she sought to find evidence that the nomination was rigged and was then able to find the smoking gun in the form of the fundraising agreement between Hillary For America and the Hillary Victory Fund.

Ultimately, the claims levied by Brazile may be true, but the fact that she has engaged in dishonest behavior in the past and ended up walking back those claims indicates that further investigation is needed before accepting the conclusions that she offers in her book. Controversies regarding the 2016 election will likely be rehashed for years to come — understanding those controversies will require careful evaluation of the available facts, and digging to uncover what may be under the surface.

Brazile Revelations Must Be Carefully Evaluated Xander Kott Contributing Writer

Donna Brazile, the former interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, made waves last week by publishing an excerpt of her new book Hacks: The Inside Story of the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House. Brazile asserts that her book tells some “hard truths.” The book, published Tuesday, Nov. 7, makes a number of explosive claims about Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Among those claims is that the DNC made an unethical, but legal, agreement with the Clinton campaign, stipulating that Clinton would be given near-complete control of the party in exchange for fundraising and financial support. The agreement was signed

by Amy Dacey, former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager.

More than 300 former Clinton staffers signed an open letter pushing back against the book’s claims. While the letter does not explicitly deny the existence of a fundraising agreement between Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, it does assert that the staffers “do not recognize the campaign [Brazile] portrays in the book.” The letter’s signees further sought to discredit Brazile by claiming she The Oberlin Review | November 10, 2017

CARTOON OF THE WEEK

Melissa Harris

Letters to the editors (cont) Continued from page 5

we must redouble our efforts to protect, nurture, and embrace diversity and differences. Specifically, except when there is a reasonable risk of immediate danger, we must become known for our eagerness to hear students, faculty, and especially outside guests whose views we find most repugnant.

The few who may be anti-Semitic, who may wish to use the n-word, who might feel that America belongs to the purest white people, should find at Oberlin an audience willing to debate, not an audience attempting to silence the speakers.

Few holding inflammatory views are generally eager to speak openly. That’s understandable. We should have debates where there is role-playing. In fact, Oberlin has long encouraged students to debate the many sides of arguments or views. These open debates do not necessarily need the actual persons holding despicable views. In fact, we can often examine and critique views more easily when we are not distracted by the presenter.

All professors are in pursuit of the truth and most, along with the many capable students, are willing to help us all become stronger and more effective defenders of our core values of loving, caring, and empowering all humanity. An argument is that we should never give certain people a platform to express hatred. Because these people already have that right under the First Amendment, it is better to offer them an open forum where their opinions may be properly challenged.

– Booker C. Peek Emeritus Associate Professor of Africana Studies

Ohio Residents Should Consider Whaley for Governor To the Editors: Of all the candidates running for Ohio Governor, Nan Whaley is my favorite. I see something refreshing — presidential — in her. She brings experience as the Mayor of Dayton, moral clarity, and a spark of youth.

She has a knack for facilitating help that’s both speedy and systemic. She has helped lots of homeless veterans find permanent housing, many kids get better pre-K education, thousands of people get mentors, mentors get training, and lots of new Dayton residents feel welcomed, supported, and encouraged to start businesses.

When Nan Whaley sees a problem, she responds as a governor should.

Nan Whaley will be in Oberlin soon — Nov. 13, the Monday following Oberlin’s local elections. Mark your calendars and hear for yourself. Park in the hospital parking lot, enter the College’s Science Center building, and go to Dye Lecture Hall — the big lecture hall on the first floor off the central atrium — at 7 p.m.!

– Aliza Weidenbaum Oberlin Resident

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MONDAY

Oprestissi mo designed b is a wonderful tool y Oberlin students th is much m at ore user-fr iendly tha PREST n O. It can classes by departmen organize t, and what institution time, day, al requirem ents they fulfill.

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Don’t forget to relax! While orks registration is stressful, it all w out in the end. There’s always add/drop next semester.

(Provided by College junior Julia Katz)

Write down your CRN­— that’s course registration number — somewhere on your computer, whether in a document, virtual sticky note, or a notes app, so you can copy and paste it into PRESTO.

let’s make consent a conversation (courtesy of Oberlin consortium of memes for discourse ready teens)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10

StudiOC presents Women of Will, a one-act play that addresses women’s issues in Shakespeare through iambic pentameter. The play adopts modern feminist perspectives to take a new look at Shakespeare’s female characters.

StudiOC, 8 p.m.

Find back-up classes for each course you want to register for — and then find back-ups for your back-ups.

(Provided by College junior Emma Eisenbraun)

ks on r o W e e r g e D Use d ahead n a t s r e d n u o t PRESTO eed for n u o y s e s s la c t of time wha or(s). in m d n a ) s ( r your majo

A-House and ABUSUA Present: Community Soul Session. A safe space to share poetry, songs, dances, and other forms of artistic expression.

Afrikan Heritage House,9 p.m.–10 p.m.

Student Dance Showcase, featuring performances from: KOREO, ViBE, Tap and Jazz, Kinetique, And What?!, and more.

Warner Main Space, 8 p.m. (Friday and Saturday)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11 Oberlin College Football vs. Allegheny College Bailey Field, 1 p.m.

Make sure to check if you need consent for your courses before your registration period so you can email professors ahead of time. Also if you get consent to join a course, that’s one less course to worry about!

Have your sticker with your RAP number somewhere handy — like next to the track pad of your computer — and get on PRESTO at least five minutes before your registration time so you can enter it right away.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13

Carmen E. Henderson discusses her experience as the first Black woman to serve as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the state of Ohio in A Life in the Law. Wilder 101, 4:30 p.m.–6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 Enjoy tea, hot chocolate, and snacks while you listen to poetry at International Poetry Night.

German House, 8 p.m.–10 p.m.

Layout and design by Lucy Martin, This Week Editor

MONDAY

Oprestissi mo designed b is a wonderful tool y Oberlin students th is much m at ore user-fr iendly tha PREST n O. It can classes by departmen organize t, and what institution time, day, al requirem ents they fulfill.

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Don’t forget to relax! While orks registration is stressful, it all w out in the end. There’s always add/drop next semester.

(Provided by College junior Julia Katz)

Write down your CRN­— that’s course registration number — somewhere on your computer, whether in a document, virtual sticky note, or a notes app, so you can copy and paste it into PRESTO.

let’s make consent a conversation (courtesy of Oberlin consortium of memes for discourse ready teens)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10

StudiOC presents Women of Will, a one-act play that addresses women’s issues in Shakespeare through iambic pentameter. The play adopts modern feminist perspectives to take a new look at Shakespeare’s female characters.

StudiOC, 8 p.m.

Find back-up classes for each course you want to register for — and then find back-ups for your back-ups.

(Provided by College junior Emma Eisenbraun)

ks on r o W e e r g e D Use d ahead n a t s r e d n u o t PRESTO eed for n u o y s e s s la c t of time wha or(s). in m d n a ) s ( r your majo

A-House and ABUSUA Present: Community Soul Session. A safe space to share poetry, songs, dances, and other forms of artistic expression.

Afrikan Heritage House,9 p.m.–10 p.m.

Student Dance Showcase, featuring performances from: KOREO, ViBE, Tap and Jazz, Kinetique, And What?!, and more.

Warner Main Space, 8 p.m. (Friday and Saturday)

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11 Oberlin College Football vs. Allegheny College Bailey Field, 1 p.m.

Make sure to check if you need consent for your courses before your registration period so you can email professors ahead of time. Also if you get consent to join a course, that’s one less course to worry about!

Have your sticker with your RAP number somewhere handy — like next to the track pad of your computer — and get on PRESTO at least five minutes before your registration time so you can enter it right away.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 13

Carmen E. Henderson discusses her experience as the first Black woman to serve as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the state of Ohio in A Life in the Law. Wilder 101, 4:30 p.m.–6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 Enjoy tea, hot chocolate, and snacks while you listen to poetry at International Poetry Night.

German House, 8 p.m.–10 p.m.

Layout and design by Lucy Martin, This Week Editor

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE November 10, 2017

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 9

Through The Night Strikes Warm, Thoughtful Tone

Buffalo-based musician Derick Evans performed an experimental show in Fairchild Chapel last Friday night, which included his original one-act musical Through The Night.

Photo courtesy of Olivia Evans Julia Peterson Arts & Culture Editor

As the audience filed into Fairchild Chapel last Friday night and filled up the pews in groups of twos and threes, a peaceful ambient track filled the space.

Viewers murmured with anticipation as they waited for Derick Evans — hosted in Oberlin by the Asian American Alliance — to take the stage. Perhaps people had chosen to see Evans perform because of the eye-catching, color-saturated posters for “In The Chapel” that had appeared around campus, or because they were intrigued by the event’s promise of “experimental pop + performance art,” and an original one-person existential musical that Evans premiered at Sugar City in Buffalo, NY, this year. But from the moment Evans took the stage, he immediately set the tone for an evening that would hinge on the unexpected.

“I want to start tonight with something

sort of strange,” Evans said as he opened the show.

As he explained, he was going to kneel down and balance a large black speaker on his head, and from the speaker the audience would sometimes hear him saying words that they should then say back to him. No one would have guessed the words that Evans had chosen — “vroom,” pita bread, and caterpillar — but along with the ambient music and rhythms that Evans had previously recorded, the call-and-response element of the piece constituted a surprisingly interesting, engaging dimension.

“It was very important for me to open up the space and establish an environment that would promote a feeling of community and engagement right at the beginning,” Evans wrote in an email to the Review.

“In performing for an audience, rather than creating a spectacle for others to behold from a distance, I am much more interested in trying to cultivate an

atmosphere where any one person in the audience might feel a sense of being part of the total experience and just as important as the performer.”

Before launching into the series of original pop songs that would comprise the first half of the evening, Evans introduced another element to his performance which truly showcased his warmth as a performer. He had looked up the names of the people who had said that they would be coming to “In The Chapel,” and had written out individual dedications for every song.

“I want the audience to know that I see them and care about them — and that others do too!” Evans wrote.

This sense of caring came through in many of Evans’ pop songs, which feature lyrics about love and self-love, with titles like “Thank Myself,” “Warm Light,” and “Everything is Fine.”

Sitting in Fairchild and listening to the first part of Evans’ show, the lyrics weren’t nearly as intriguing as the effect that Evans created. As he transitioned back and forth from piano to guitar — with a few recorded harmonica solos that got big cheers from the audience — each song came across as sweet, catchy, and relaxed. The songs weren’t overly ambitious, and they weren’t a radical departure from most pop music, but they were thoroughly enjoyable.

The highlight of the night was Evans’ second act; Through The Night, an original, one-person, half-hour musical. As Evans prepared the stage, he explained what the musical was about, and every description made the premise seem weirder. First, he told the audience that the setting is a tiny house surrounded by giant skyscrapers, and the main character is waiting for his friend. Then, we learned that the main character’s favorite radio station is the fictional hippo.fm, a station which only plays music about hippos, the main character’s favorite animal. Finally, we learned that the friend that the main character was waiting for is God. The musical lived up to all its promise

and more — it was a silly, dark, and fun time. Given its premise, there would have been so many ways for it to go badly, but Evans handled all of the emotional nuances with exceptional dexterity. Even the musical’s placement in the evening was a large part of the reason why it was so wellappreciated by the audience. If Evans had not earned our trust with his performance in the first half of the show, the audience might have been too skeptical to go along with his premise, but we already knew that he could make all sorts of off-kilter elements work for him.

This trust made sure that when he took us on a journey to this world — where characters call God and get the answering machine, sing along to commercials on a radio station about hippos, and give hilariously inaccurate frame-by-frame narrations of the movie Up — we gladly followed, delving into a story about how people can uplift each other and themselves from dark places. By the time Evans wrapped up the last song, singing “Take me back to the beginning / Let’s start this over / Let’s make things right,” we were all nodding along.

“I wrote the musical back in August after a friend had asked me to perform at a benefit concert that he’s organized in response to the Charlottesville attack,” Evans wrote. “He specifically said he wanted me to help create a feeling of solidarity. This musical was my attempt to do that. … The musical … presents itself, I hope, as genuinely funny and charming, while also carrying beneath its surface some very dark and very real themes that someone who enjoys the musical can continue to reflect on afterward.”

In his performance, Evans struck a tone of radical hope and caring, which our community, like all communities, can certainly benefit from. If there is anything to take away from Evans’ performance aside from the many earworm tunes, it is that we can all be more deliberate in finding ways to care for and uplift the people around us.

Fall Forward Highlights Vulnerability, Dynamism in Student Dance Kate Fishman Staff Writer

What comes out of a showcase of auditioned dance works with no theme or specified criteria other than a vision, a faculty advisor, and the ability to be performanceready by a certain date? Last week, from Nov. 2–4, the 2017 Fall Forward performance featured eight pieces — seven student-choreographed and one by a faculty member — that answered this question with dynamism, variety, artistry, and integrity.

“It was a lovely group of students,” Director and Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Holly HandmanLopez said. “It was a delight to sort of shepherd it forward. It was very satisfying to see the growth that happened from auditions to rough run to technology to the performance.”

While the pieces explored diverse ideas with a variety of dance styles and movement vocabularies, all of the works were united by a common thread of vulnerability and exploration.

The show opened with Slip, the first draft of a duet that will be shown in its final iteration in February, choreographed and performed by College senior Kalei Tooman and College sophomore Kierra Nguyen. It is a dramatic window into both the foundations of a relationship, and where it goes from there — as Tooman said, “[The dance] follows two people through the initial moment of contact between two bodies that are unaware of each other and moves until the two people no longer have any interaction with one another.” The movement 10

operates with obsessive, constantly-connected energy despite the dancers rarely touching.

Tension was also actively present in College junior Louise Wurzelbacher’s scratch paper. The dance featured one performer inching along the ground across the upstage for the duration of the piece, wrapped fully in butcher paper in an image reminiscent of Jabba the Hutt. The piece was inspired by a minimalist sculpture (Untitled) by Robert Morris, after Assistant Professor of Dance Alysia Ramos’ choreography class visited the Allen Memorial Art Museum. Six dancers occupied the stage’s foreground, playing with a long strip of butcher paper that was then broken into many sections, allowing for both sequences of individual movement with the paper and interconnected moments, such as when one dancer wrapped the others in the paper and they shoved their arms through it, spinning rapidly. To quote the press release, “This work is an investigation ... of the body as a tool for expressions of static and mobile movement within a framed environment.”

College sophomore Buster Coe’s solo work When I Can’t Sleep brought a different energy to the stage, while incorporating the same intimacy as other works through movement and lack of accompanying music.

“Auditioning the piece … was actually very interesting for me,” Coe wrote in an email to the Review. “I had written the dance on my hand because I didn’t know it.

The dance faculty loved that I did, so I kept it. It was a happy accident.”

Coe’s movement was both casual and explosive, punctuated by his glances at his hand and the title’s

intimate context of a window into someone’s life as they try, and fail, to sleep.

College senior Celia Morris’ Time Signatures created a haunting space using low lighting; an original, live string composition performed by Conservatory junior Aliya Ultan; and focused, circling movement of the pelvis, wrists, and feet. The choreography was inspired by line drawings in a novel, illustrating the creative process.

“Although the lines swooped and cascaded all over the place, they had a very linear arc where they continued moving forward in a semi-contained sphere,” Morris said.

“These drawings stuck … which started with the idea of the movement moving horizontally back and forth in a line across the stage, designated by a strip of light. I started building movement by tracing the patterns of the line drawings in space as well as inhabiting the patterns in my body.”

College senior Shai Wolf also explored process in their “quasi-balletic conversation between injury, gender, and existential angst” entitled Corps. The title, Wolf explained, played on the use of the word both to represent dancers in a ballet, and to represent the body.

The piece opened with Wolf soloing to Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage,” wearing a chest binder and attached by an ankle to the chair from which they danced. They were then joined onstage by a variety of dancers in whites and greys performing ethereal ballet choreography to the soft music of the band Sleeping At Last, and were eventually coaxed into performing with them. The piece closed with Wolf in the chair again, the lights going down on an See Student, page 13

ON THE RECORD

On the Record with Steven Ellis Roman archaeologist and professor Steven Ellis of the University of Cincinnati delivered four lectures on the university’s ongoing excavations of the Porta Stabia neighborhood at Pompeii, of which he is director, as part of the Martin Classical Lectures series.

The lectures took place in the Craig Lecture Hall on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and today. Ellis has done fieldwork in Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, France, Morocco, and Algeria, and is the author of The Making of Pompeii: Studies in the History and Urban Development of an Ancient Town. Ellis has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, and National Geographic. In 2012, he won the prestigious Rome Prize.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. that matter. It’s only now, looking back, I realize, “Ah, that’s what happened.”

Professor Steven Ellis, Roman archaeologist

Photo by Christian Bolles

Interview by Christian Bolles Editor-in-Chief

What was it like gaining a foothold in the field of classics?

It’s kind of a loaded answer, because it’s a difficult one to talk about, if only because it’s a difficult field to break into. And I want to be clear: there’s a lot of privilege involved, and I recognize that. So, in my position as a white male from Australia, I had certain challenges to break in — as any academic does into their discipline — yet I didn’t have the challenges of others, of course, who would have a much harder time than me to break into the field. For me, I got in via Roman archaeology. So, I’m a Roman archaeologist. My education was at the University of Sydney; I did an undergraduate honors degree in Classical Archaeology and a Ph.D. at the same institution. Now that I’m a professor of classics in the United States, it’s interesting to think back on those days in Sydney, where our education system is so different. We are more likely to do all of our education at the one institution, whereas here in the United States we bounce all over the place. The whole idea is to get breadth, whereas there it was all about getting depth in a particular topic at a particular place.

My challenge was that when I finished my Ph.D., I had to find employment, and I found it in the United States. I was lucky because I got a job straightaway at the University of Michigan, and I was a visiting assistant professor there for a couple of years. After the two years, I got the job at Cincinnati.

How did that translate to your work in Pompeii?

I had an opportunity to go there as an undergraduate student on an excavation, and that was part of the love affair with a place like Pompeii. But I think the ultimate reason why I didn’t so much go to Pompeii in the first place, but the reason why I stayed there, was that I realized, looking back on those earlier years — on all those decisions and choices that I had maybe subconsciously made in those first years of a career — were because I am inherently fascinated by communities, networks, neighborhoods, and social relations. And in essence, that’s an element of society that is really reflected very well in the evidence from the Roman world. Romans had cities. For someone who’s interested in cities and organization, the Roman world is the perfect place to be. Now, I wouldn’t have articulated it that way 20 years ago. I wouldn’t have known it 20 years ago. I just knew that I was enjoying Roman archaeology, but I couldn’t put my finger on why I was leaning more towards the complexity of urban cultures from the Roman period than I was getting into, say, Greek archaeology or West Asian archaeology or any other archaeology, for The Oberlin Review | November 10, 2017

What does it mean for you to dig the Porta Stabia in Pompeii?

So, the Porta Stabia neighborhood is essentially these two town blocks that are closest to this main gate that comes into the city from the south. What it means for me is an extraordinary opportunity, an unimaginable privilege to get at the livelihoods of a neighborhood of people who are otherwise entirely wiped from history. This is not another one of those large, handsomely-decorated houses in Pompeii that we’ve known so much about for the past 250 years. This is a neighborhood that had been ostensibly forgotten; a people who were not just forgotten but ignored. And so for me, I see it as a privilege not just to be able to work at such a large urban landscape, such a famous site as Pompeii, but we’re privileged to be able to get at the types of people who lived in this neighborhood, these so-called “sub-elites” who would otherwise be completely hidden from us. They had their stories. If that’s the privilege, then my expectation now is to be able to tell that story. And that’s my duty now — to be able to try to get at their livelihoods, try to get at understanding who they were, how they responded to each other, as well as to changes over time, over generations, in that neighborhood, and developments — social, political, economic, cultural developments. If I can understand that about this sub-elite neighborhood in Pompeii, then it’s not a matter of stretching that story over other sub-elite neighborhoods, but maybe promoting the idea of doing sub-elite studies at other urban sites like Pompeii.

What is the value of an archaeological story?

Archaeology is going through all sorts of changes right now because of the technical revolutions of the past 10 or 20 years, and certainly in the last few years. What we’re doing right now is really fetishizing the data. We’re fetishizing our ability to be able to collect it, record it, organize it, and store it. And these are all really important pursuits. But what’s easily lost in that is the story. I think what we have to work better at as a discipline is to not just do the fieldwork on an archaeological site for the benefit of the data itself, and the ongoing storage and accessibility to that data, but also to tell a story — why we dug it in the first place, what we learned from it ourselves. So for me, telling the story is the most crucial part of all of this.

That’s not to take anything away from collecting, recording, storing, and making the data accessible, but that’s to say that that should just be par for the course. We shouldn’t be celebrating that, we should just be doing that. What we should really be celebrating is coming up with ideas, new ways of thinking, new outcomes, new conclusions. I think that’s what we should be championing a little more.

As you tell that story, there are some unavoidable dissonances between the modern day and the ancient world.

What is the role of the concept of class when we think about telling a story about Pompeii? How has it been used, and how should it be used?

Class has been used fairly sloppily.

It’s hard, because we have so many contemporary views on the ancient past, whether that contemporary view is right now in 2017, or whether that’s the way we looked at the past in the 1950s or the 1890s.

It’s hard for us to look at the past without having the contemporary lens. So, I think that really dictates how we understand class. And it’s important to step out of our own society and try to see how all of this works.

Class is a very complicated topic to talk about, much less understand, because I’m not sure that we even understand our own class systems today, let alone those of 2,000 years ago in a Roman town. For me, I think one of the difficulties of the way we have been studying class is that we’ve been seeing lots of very binary divisions — binary divisions between the rich and the poor; the noble and the pleb; the haves and the have-nots — and not really appreciating, because they’re hard to understand and delineate, a texture across all the classes. Now, having complexity is great. It doesn’t mean we have to understand it, but it means we should try to appreciate it, and find new ways of engaging with the complexity of a class structure. Because at the end of the day, one of the veritable hallmarks of Roman society was that it was socially stratified.

We know that. But that stratification is more than just the rich and the poor.

It’s everything in between. So what I’ve been trying to do is to get at that, is to try to delineate that texture and to try to find ways of identifying the expression of class, and find ways of identifying the engagement between and among the classes as well. And not just from a topdown perspective, not just from a bottomup perspective, but zooming back and forth.

With that complex ideological interplay happening on every level of archaeology, how do you simultaneously interrogate that while also making classics more accessible?

I think there is an accessibility there, because in spite of our wanting to see those binary divisions and the separations, this patchwork of class structures, we inherently have our own complexity and structure and texture within, say, modern American society. There should be a certain immediacy of understanding that they, too, could have had a more flexible, less rigid, and more complicated system than just a one-or-the-other system, because we have that. That’s where we can actually use our own understanding of class structure to appreciate an ancient, complicated class structure, rather than just using our own class structure to impose a current, modern ideology onto the past.

How has technology affected your work?

It’s changing so much. It’s also changing very, very quickly. There’s always technology in archaeology.

Different scales, to be sure. But what we’re seeing now, in particular, is cheap, readily accessible, and easily-used technologies.

So, 10 years ago, we used all sorts of machines that go ‘ping’ on archaeological sites, but only certain people could use them. Now, you can put the iPad in the

hands of anyone, and they’ll know how to make the most of it on an archaeological project. So that’s one big thing that’s changing. I think it’s becoming simpler.

Now, that all sounds great, but it’s actually not. There’s a flipside to that. The flipside is that because the use of technology in the field is becoming so much cheaper and so much simpler, and so much glossier, I think there’s a bit of a malaise in the way we are using the data in the end. I think we are getting caught up with the fact that we can use an iPad; we can get caught up with the fact that we can use a drone; we can get caught up with the fact that we can all have access to all that digital data, but we’re not necessarily using it to come up with new stories. We’re reaching satisfaction just with the recording of data digitally, not with the publishing of it and the publishing of our ideas from that data.

I am all for exploring new ways of doing things, because I think there are all sorts of great new ways of doing things that we weren’t able to do five years ago or 50 years ago, but I wish we could do better at knowing what the end game is, knowing how many more steps there are to go before we can do our collective high-fives.

We end up still not telling the story.

We’ve collected the data, and we can show it all — and it’s digital, and it’s shiny, and it’s in color, and you can share it. That’s great. These things are all great things.

These are all important things to do, but they don’t constitute the job. They should be a step towards something rather than the destination itself.

In light of budget issues facing colleges across the country, what argument would you make for the continued existence of the classics in a liberal arts setting?

One of the great things about studying the classics is that we can still live in a world where we can study the classics.

Too many times I hear justifications for the classics or for the study of history that were, “We need to understand the past if we’re going to understand the present and the future.” And that’s only a little bit true, I think. It’s almost too obvious for that to be an effective answer. And I don’t think it’s an answer that has helped us in any way in the past to survive as a classics department.

So, though I have a thousand answers in my head, I won’t pretend that any one of them is more important than the other.

I don’t know how I would hierarchize them to answer this question, but one thing I would say is that it’s a horrifying question, because the alternative is a terrifying prospect. It’s unimaginable to think that we could live in a world where we didn’t and couldn’t study the classics.

Not because of the value of the classics itself, but because of the value of studying.

The value of learning.

That’s the value of studying the classics. It’s not because knowing what happened in ancient Rome or ancient Greece is going to change something in the administration of the university, or much less the administration of the country. It’s that the idea of learning about something else about another people in another time should be one of the absolute fundamental — not just desires, but needs — of a culture, of a society. I love studying classics simply because I still can. And we still can.

11

A r t s & C u lt u r e

Student Musicians Deliver Original Take on Britney Spears Ananya Gupta Arts & Culture Editor

The phrase “It’s Britney, bitch!” — though iconic — seems out of place for the “Britney Showcase” performed at the Cat in the Cream Tuesday night. Directed and orchestrated by College junior and Musical Studies major Alex Ngo, the showcase took a musical theater, opera, and jazz framing to Britney’s music and covered her hits with hyperbolic elegance.

Donning sexy vintage costumes and personas, doubledegree sophomore Celine Opdycke and Conservatory first-year Georgia Heers, as well as Conservatory junior Abby Orr and double-degree junior Marina Wright, who was also the assistant director of the showcase, transformed the Cat into a jazz bar worthy of the streets of Chicago for the show.

Instead of the accompaniment that one would normally expect for Britney Spears’ music — a DJ, or a dubstep launchpad — the showcase featured an enormous live band, including several violins, guitars, a clarinet, piano and trumpet, and more.

“There were so many parts to it, so many instrumentalists, vocalists ... getting everybody

Double-degree junior Marina Wright performs in the “Britney Showcase,” which featured Britney Spears songs with innovative arrangements and orchestration.

Photo by Hugh Newcomb, Photo Editor

together for run through and getting everything together and wrapped up was probably the hardest part,” Opdycke said.

Despite the impressive training and credentials of the entire cast and crew of the project, it was Ngo’s idea to cover a pop icon rather than his original thought of working with something more traditionally associated with an elevated performance style.

“I wanted to work on a show that was fun and light,” Ngo said. “I came up with this idea of doing a showcase of Britney Spears’ songs with mostly jazz arrangements and some other styles. I just really like messing around with songs and seeing if I can come up with arrangements, so I thought it would be a fun thing to do.”

While focused on the music, the show had many elements

of theater, particularly through comedic exaggeration. One song, “Lucky,” was arranged to have a slow, do-wop texture.

In Orr’s performance of “Oops! ... I Did it Again,” she transformed the originally upbeat, sassy number into a wailing operatic piece. Much to the delight of audience members, Orr coupled her lament with tragic acting choices such as dramatically looking off into the distance

with dewy eyes and wringing her hands together in despair.

Her performances were met with laughter and thunderous applause.

“That was the most comedic performance she ever gave,” Ngo said. “She was really playing off the audience’s laughter.”

These extensions to the music were a combination of Wright’s direction and the creativity of the performers themselves.

“I did most of the physical movements and helped choose costumes,” Wright said. “Because I have a theater background and [Ngo] has more of a music background, we decided that I could help with that part of the show.”

As evidenced by an enthusiastic audience who sang, clapped, and snapped along to the music, the showcase was decidedly well received.

“I loved the showcase — there were really funny bits too,” College sophomore and audience member McKenzie Maurer said. “I think the last song was my favourite because it was funny, but it also showcased all of the singers’ talents and the band, and it was just a great finale.”

Bethesda Delivers Satisfying Narrative, Gameplay in Wolfenstein II Avi Vogel Columnist

Editor’s note: This article contains discussion of Nazism and child abuse.

The opening of a game is a thematic statement, meant to tease where a story might go without showing all of its cards. So when Wolfenstein II begins not with a bombastic scene of war like its predecessor did, but by delving into the consequences of conflict and the family history of its main character, one must take a moment and examine what’s going on.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, which was released on Oct. 27 by Bethesda Softworks and developed by MachineGames, is the sequel to one of the biggest gaming surprises of 2014. The first Wolfenstein was set in an alternate history where the Nazis had won WWII and conquered the world. Lauded by players and critics alike for its storyline and combat, it was a flawed masterpiece.

Though it was uneven in places, it was still a wonderful gaming experience at a time when well-crafted singleplayer shooters were on the decline. The latest iteration of the game — advertised with slogans like “Make America Nazi-Free Again,” “There is only one side,” and “These are not ‘fine people’” — promised a darkly relevant 12

narrative that emphatically rejects the rise of white nationalist speech and action in the U.S. The narrative of Wolfenstein II is set immediately after the end of the first game, wherein the main character, B.J. Blaskowicz, was left severely wounded. From that starting point, the narrative goes some truly unexpected places. The game grapples with serious themes including abuse, racism, and the inherent flaws of the U.S. even before it was taken over by Nazis in-narrative, all the while embracing absurd and hilarious moments. It would seem that these two tones would clash, creating a dissonant tone, but they only serve to heighten each other.

Watching moments from B.J.’s childhood and seeing the abuse he endured at the hands of his father is horrific.

Later, listening to a character come up with a plan to get B.J. to a Nazi Space station on Venus made me laugh louder than I had all year. The game makes sure to provide adequate time for harsh and dour moments to earn their weight, exploring what they mean instead of glossing over them. It creates a sense of grounding that validates the game’s more outlandish moments.

MachineGames has also established one of the best casts of characters in any game I’ve played. Grace, a

pregnant Black woman and a charismatic resistance leader on the front-line, and Sigrun, a recent ex-Nazi, to name only a couple, are compelling in the cutscenes and in the conversations you hear while exploring your hub. And since the game features two possible timelines depending on who you decide to save in

a prologue scene, I’m already excited to go back and see how the dynamics of the cast change from playthrough to playthrough.

Beyond the narrative, Wolfenstein II boasts a satisfying combat system.

The way that you choose to approach the game affects your experience with the

world in satisfying ways. Rely on stealth kills and you move more quietly, but choose dual weapons and you deal more damage. It’s a simple system that is genius in its execution.

That, along with the subtle leaning mechanic that allows you to peek around corridors, are the hallmarks of the See Political, page 13

Rocking Out the Revolution

The Cat in the Cream hosted a Soviet/ Post-Soviet Dance and Costume Party Wednesday night. The event was organized by the Oberlin Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies. It compliments the extensive programming that the OCREECAS has facilitated over the past few weeks in conjunction

with the centennary of the Russian Revolution, which included musical events and talks from visiting scholars and artists.

Text by Julia Peterson Arts & Culture Editor Photo by Patrick McBride

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Student Dancers Explore Emotion Through Artistry Continued from page 10

image of introspection.

The ultimate message, Wolf said, was that “in facing our limitations and fears by allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, we can remember that we are not alone, and help each other grow by appreciating the expression of our internal turmoil and emotional chaos to find a common humanity.”

College senior Gloria Lewis’ Aw Baby, Dance with Me approached internal turmoil in a different way, intending to celebrate individuality.

Lewis said it was “inspired by the feeling of being the odd one out and yearning for someone’s attention.”

“I was inspired by my own experiences growing up and being a little awkward,” Lewis said. “I wanted this piece to invite the audience to be the person who has to see the Black girl who wants to be celebrated. It’s a happy piece — a celebration that I want people to feel brought into.”

In from Agabatana, College sophomore Kara Nepomuceno explored a duality of meaning in Frank Stella’s “Agbatana III” (from the AMAM): Agbatana was both an ancient Asian city and a word meaning “to lean out a window” in Ilocano, a language from the northern Philippines. This was executed with both classic modernism in dance style and palpable tenderness between her dancers.

“I felt like things really came together during level-set rehearsals

when Dan James added lighting to the piece,” Nepomuceno said. “It felt like the sun was moving across the sky, setting just as the dancers finished.”

On Thursday, the show ran a bit longer with a closing performance of Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Dance Talise Campbell’s Yanvalou.

“Yanvalou is a traditional piece I created exploring the Fon people of Dahomey, the home of present day Benin in West Africa,” Campbell wrote in an email to the Review. “This is the historical dance of the snake god.”

The piece required deep inquiry into the Fon people and their traditions, she explained, as well as an emphasis on embodying the movements of both water and a snake.

It also utilized live performance with both drums and vocals. The dance cast consisted of her students from the class Dance Forms of the African Diaspora and was choreographed in class.

The show was well ordered and dynamic, keeping a pace that engaged the audience with each dance’s particular brand of emotionality and eclectic movement as well as with the performwance as a whole. The takeaway was an environment of privacy and intimacy, which we as audience members were privileged to enter and witness.

Political Relevance Elevates Game Continued from page 12

gameplay, resulting in an engaging style that requires constant attention.

However, some smaller game elements are less satisfying.

Wolfenstein II is very difficult to play. While part of that comes from enemy placement and the non-regenerating health system — which contribute to an enjoyable game experience — odd and perplexing decisions about other elements of gameplay also add to the difficulty. Some items are picked up automatically, while others require you to pick them up manually. This leads to is running around while mashing the interact button so that you can pick up the health, armor, and ammunition you desperately need. Furthermore, the game provides scant feedback

when you take damage. Most of the time, the screen doesn’t change — or colors only slightly shift to let you know when you’ve been hit — so death can come as a surprise. At times I felt frustrated, as the tighter environments felt constrictive compared to the wide open streets of New Orleans that I got used to early in the game.

But those grips are not enough to detract from an incredible game.

The combat still feels satisfying, sneaking around is fun, and the narrative is one of the best that I’ve experienced in a game. Especially in our current political climate, a game like Wolfenstein II about overthrowing the evil in America is a timely and cathartic narrative to partake in.

THE UNFORTUNATE OWL: QUICKSAND PADDY MCCABE

The Oberlin Review | November 10, 2017

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Sp ort s

Swimming, Diving Fall Short at Case Western Meet Jane Agler Staff Writer

The swimming and diving teams left Case Western Reserve University empty handed, with the men’s and women’s team losing 199–70 and 189–85, respectively. Despite first-year Tesla Waters having a performance worthy of the Oberlin all-time swims list, the Yeomen and Yeowomen were unable to snag a victory.

“Case is a very strong team,” Aquatics Director and Head Swimming and Diving Coach Andrew Brabson wrote in an email to the Review. “The women are 11th and the men are 18th nationally in the collegeswimming.com dual meet rankings. I was proud of how we competed, despite being over-matched and outnumbered.”

On the women’s side of the meet, sophomores Sarah Dalgleish, Devyn Malouf, and Alex Grande teamed up with Waters for a 1:46.73 first-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Waters, a native of Greenville, SC, saw to a first place finish for the 50-yard freestyle in a career-best 24.70 seconds in the event. Her 50-yard performance propelled her to fourth on the Oberlin’s all-time swims list, and her 100yard, 54.52-second first-place finish put her at eighth on the same list as well.

Waters remained humble

when she spoke to her success, adding that her training has been a challenge.

“I know that list is comprised of many hardworking and talented swimmers throughout the years at Oberlin,” she said.

“I’m honored to be listed among them. I’ve spent the past three years battling health challenges and had to take a significant chunk of time off of swimming to deal with them, so I’m pretty thrilled that I’m able to come back to the sport this season and be competitive.”

The Yeowomen saw more success in the 400-yard individual medley, with first-years Molly Marshall and Ellisa Lang clinching first- and second-place, respectively. Grande snagged the third-place spot in the 100-yard backstroke as well, achieving a season-best 1:05.94.

“Despite the score of the meet, I was quite pleased with our performances this past weekend … [but] there are always things to work on,” Brabson wrote in an email to the Review. “We will continue to fine-tune race strategy, technique, and conditioning as we move forward.”

On the Yeomen’s end, the 200-yard freestyle team comprised of first-years Michael Liu, Farzad Sarkari, Xander Lee, and sophomore Matthew Berry secured the first-place spot with a final wall-touch at 1:33.62. A team made up entirely of sopho-

Junior swimmer Jacques Forbes competes at Oberlin’s meet against the Hiram College Terriers last year. Both the men’s and women’s teams lost their meets against the Case Western Reserve University Spartans last weekend.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics

more students Jack McKeown, Kristoph Naggert, Sean Pawelko, and Michael Lin saw to a 1:43.28 third-place finish in the same medley. Lin, who was awarded North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Week last season, finished first in the 400-yard medley and achieved a seasonbest time of 58.92 seconds in the 100-yard breaststroke.

“I had some good swims,” Lin said. “We are pretty deep into the season now, so everyone is worn out and tired going into the meets. This time our team

had better results, but I think we could still be tougher towards the end of a long meet.”

McKeown and Naggert followed behind Lin in the 400yard medley to come in second and third.

As for the diving events, senior Sofia Moscovitz came in second place with a 173.78 score and first-year Laura Young achieved a career-best of 142.58.

Looking toward their next meet at the University of Mount Union and the remainder of the season, Brabson noted that he

wants his swimmers to focus on discipline and improvement.

“The main thing that I am looking for is improvement: swimming smarter races, focusing on mental toughness, promoting positive self talk and confidence, tweaking technique, and improving the back half of races are a number of details that we will be looking to improve,” Brabson wrote in an email to the Review. “If everyone continues to work diligently on these areas, the team will experience success.”

Manfred, MLB Must Rid Baseball of Discrimination Julie Schreiber Sports Editor

During game three of the 2017 World Series, Houston Astros’ first baseman Yuli Gurriel made a racist gesture in the dugout after hitting a homerun off of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish, a native of Japan. The camera displayed Gurriel pulling his eyes back and mouthing the term “chinito” to a teammate, a slang term for “little Chinese boy.” Gurriel — who later apologized and tipped his helmet to Darvish in game seven of the series — didn’t face immediate punishment from the MLB, but eventually was suspended for the first five games of the 2018 baseball season and will have to undergo mandatory sensitivity training before playing again. While Gurriel should have been reprimanded more severely, the MLB’s resolution to penalize him for his racial insensitivity indicates that the organization takes racism and discrimination seriously, as emphasized by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred’s public statement that “there is no excuse or explanation that makes that type of behavior acceptable.”

Why then, does the MLB continue to allow publicizing, broadcasting, and profiting off of Chief Wahoo, the embarrassingly racist and parodied mascot of the Cleveland baseball team’s franchise?

If the MLB claims to take racial discrimination seriously, then it is long overdue to drop Wahoo.

The logo, a caricature of a Native

14

American face, is insensitive, dramatized, and has elicited major offense and controversy for years. The Indians organization has considered replacing the mascot multiple times in the past, but every proposal has been recalled.

Replacing a racist logo is by no means an unprecedented change — various colleges, universities, and professional sports teams in the past 50 years have exchanged or adjusted their mascots to reverse discrimination, such as Dartmouth College’s change from the Indians to the Big Green in 1974, Syracuse University’s removal of the “Saltine Warrior” in 1978, and the Toronto Blue Jays Triple-A team’s replacement of “Chiefs” with “Skychiefs” in 1997.

The history of progress in organized sports is no mystery to the administrators of the Indians franchise, whose support of Chief Wahoo has gradually declined. However, in recent years as Cleveland has risen to the top tier of the MLB and continues striving for a World Series Championship, the team’s racially insensitive mascot has become increasingly burdensome. It has elicited protest from progressivelyminded baseball fans, Native American associations, and social justice advocates.

Commissioner Manfred, who publicly shared his “desire to transition away from the Chief

Wahoo logo” in April, reportedly met with the Cleveland baseball team’s owner Paul Dolan various times in the past two years to discuss the future of the mascot, and has made clear his eagerness to see the logo disappear.

It is time for Dolan, Manfred, and the rest of MLB officials to do away with complaints from fans and exercise consistency with their

treatment of racial insensitivity by scrapping the racist mascot that has offended countless people and communities and tainted the organization’s reputation for years. They cannot just fight individual instances of discrimination; they must rise to the challenge of undoing racist traditions embedded in entire franchises and remove Wahoo for good.

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

In The Locker Room with Strength and Conditioning Coach Grant Butler This week, the Review sat down with Strength and Conditioning Coach Grant Butler, who is in his third year of employment at the College. Since his last interview with the Review two years ago, he has strived to improve his redesign of Oberlin’s strength and conditioning program by shifting his focus to athlete’s mental toughness.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Grant Butler, Oberlin College strength and conditioning coach.

Photo by Ben Shepard

Alex McNicoll and Julie Schreiber Sports Editors

What is your role on campus and in the athletic department at Oberlin?

My role on campus is primarily to work with the athletic department to design the strength programming for student athletes and to help the athletes execute the programming. I also do basic supervisory work in the weight room too, but my main focus is to work on strength training with most of the varsity teams.

How has your program changed and developed over the past two years you’ve worked with Oberlin athletes?

My first year coaching at Oberlin was the 2015–2016 school year. Year one was focused on building a base — trying to get athletes accustomed to what this kind of work is going to look like, what it’s going to feel like, and ultimately how to mentally and emotionally do what we’re asking of them. A lot of what we do in training is very high volume, very painful, and both mentally and emotionally challenging. So year one was really just geared towards understanding how to do the basics and build a base with stability and power. Year two was focused on expanding that base, trying to build upon it and make it grow. This year ­— year three — we finally have that base, so we’re building from here,

and really focusing on developing the strength and power that sets athletes apart at this level.

It seems like a lot of your training involves mental and emotional strength, as well as physical. Can you expand on that?

Physically, a lot of athletes at this level match up really closely, but one of the things that separates them is their mental and emotional abilities. When you’re mentally and emotionally stronger in places like the weight room, that’s really going to carry over on the field. In the weight room, we try to set up the athletes with difficult challenges, but I never ask them to do anything they can’t do. The goal is to push them because the more they succeed at the mental and emotional parts and the more they recognize they’re performing well, the more that confidence carries over to what they do not only on the field, but in everything they do in their lives — whether that be academics, independent projects, or their professions. The mental and emotional components are so crucial to what we do that we have to build it. The weight room is so much more than just a physical entity.

What do you value about working with Oberlin athletes,

and with Division III athletes in general?

What really resonates with me about Oberlin athletes is their commitment to academics while also trying to play sports. That’s something that’s very tough to juggle, and the higher up you get into Division I sports, the more businesslike everything is — not that there isn’t a focus on academia at all, but at this level it’s different. At the Division III level, there’s a focus on trying to make each student athlete a better person and to feel confident that, at the end of the day, we’re here to focus on developing these kids’ values and moral compasses.

When we send them out into the world after their Division III experience, we’re pretty hopeful we’ve sent out a better person.

Obviously the program you run is rigorous and challenging.

How do you motivate your student-athletes to stick with it?

One thing I really focus on is staying positive and encouraging.

When I’m in the weight room I’m pretty loud, but if you really listen to what I’m saying, it’s only words of encouragement. I’m constantly saying things like, “Hey, let’s find a way. Hey, you can do this.

You’re in the driver’s seat” — to try to remind them that they’re in control of themselves and what

they can do. I try to be the most motivated and focused person in the weight room, because I have to set the tone of what the environment in there is gonna be like. If I’m focused, excited, and ready to go, the athletes are gonna be more focused, excited, and ready to go. I also focus on transitions — pushing people to the next level is crucial for their success. Lastly, I have to talk the talk and walk the walk myself.

Everything I ask my athletes to do, I’ve done it myself. If the program doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for them. It’s really important to know that.

In the weight room, do you find it hard to accommodate to the needs of each individual athlete? Has it been difficult to accommodate for how each individual athlete gets inspired and motivated?

Yes. It’s one of the most difficult parts of the job.

Generally, I’m pretty extroverted, and I can be really intense, and for some people, they mistake that as anger. For me, if I think I’m having fun and joking, it doesn’t always get communicated that way. So when I’m developing relationships with new athletes, I have to try and learn more about their personalities and figure out how they best respond. If I reach a point where I pushed the limits

too far, I need to approach that person, check in, and make sure I can bring them back. It’s all a process of learning the athletes and letting them get to know me better too. Growing up, and through my past experiences, I’ve been very used to militarylike structure, and intense environments are really where I thrive, but when I came here that wasn’t the structure in place.

Athletes here have had to adapt to me a little bit, and I’ve had to adapt to them, but overall I want them all to know that I’m really here to see them all succeed.

What is your proudest moment you’ve had in the weight room this year?

I don’t have a specific moment, but in general, watching people step up and try to become leaders for their teams has been great.

Since I’ve been at Oberlin, the drive for leadership on each team has really been growing, and now we’ve reached the tipping point. People may not necessarily be great leaders yet but they’re working hard to be — they’re looking for inspiration and solutions for their teammates and holding each other accountable.

Watching teams work together has been very exciting to see, and that’s the biggest thing this year that I’ve felt proud of.

Yeomen, Yeowomen Prepare for Basketball Season Openers

Sophomore forward Andre Campbell pulls up for a mid-range jumper in the Yeomen’s practice yesterday.

Photo courtesy of OC Athletics Alex McNicoll Sports Editor

The men’s and women’s basketball teams will both take the court next week for the first time since last February. The Yeowomen foster big expectations, looking to build on their past success after falling in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals last winter to the number 12-ranked DePauw Tigers 58–54.

The Yeomen face an uphill battle this year, as they will follow up a 3–22 record with zero returning seniors, including their lone All-NCAC Honorable Mention athlete Jack Poyle, OC ’17. Yeowomen Head Coach Kerry Jenkins, who enters his 10th season The Oberlin Review | November 10, 2017

with the team as the coach with the most wins in program history with 81 victories, does not see much changing with his team’s roster or approach.

“Compared to last year, not much has changed. We’re almost exactly the same from a roster standpoint, other than adding three first-years,” Jenkins said. “We only graduated one senior last year, and we brought back all five starters and ten of our eleven best players.”

Last year, the Yeowomen went 13–14 overall, including 9–7 in the NCAC, and were defensive juggernauts as they lead all Division III teams in total blocks (203) and blocks per game (7.5). Junior center Olivia Canning, who recorded a program

record of 103 blocks, joined senior forward Abby Andrews as All-NCAC Second Team Members. She looks to lead the Yeowomen back to the NCAC Tournament again this year. Junior guard Alex Stipano, another key returning player this season, seeks to sustain her offensive success last season, when she led the team with 10.1 points per game in scoring.

Senior forward Anna Moore, who appeared in all 27 games last season, has confidence in the Yeowomen’s disciplined approach to the offseason.

“We’re getting ready for the season this year by working on skills, conditioning, and playing within our team system,” Moore said. “We’re working hard and coming together. [You know what they say:] learning and labor.”

The Yeowomen will kick off their season Wednesday, Nov. 15, against the University of Mount Union Purple Raiders in Alliance, Ohio.

“We’re preparing like we do every year,” Jenkins said. “It’s cliché amongst coaches to say the phrase ‘trust the process’, and we all say it. But right now we do feel like we have a process. We have to incrementally build ourselves up. We’re not too concerned on what happens early in the season, we just know that we’re building depth, chemistry, and cohesion as a group.”

While the Yeomen do not have as much to build on coming into this season, they will look to cultivate the potential on their

incredibly young team. With no seniors, just three juniors, and six first-years on a 16-person team, the Yeomen hope to grow from their 3–22 record from last year. With just a 2–16 NCAC record last year, they were the only basketball team not to compete in the NCAC tournament, ranking dead last in the conference.

The Yeomen do lack experience, but they have been working hard to catch up to the rest of the conference. Junior guard Eli Silverman-Lloyd will look to carry much of the offensive burden, as he was third on the team in points per game last year with 9.4, and the first-years have been quick to adjust to the breaks of the game at the Division III level. In an offseason that included a fall break trip to Toronto to train and bond, first-year forward Isaac Finestone has been as much a student as a player of the game.

“We are preparing just as most teams do,” Finestone said. “We’ve set the building blocks for our offense and defense and are now building upon both every day. We’ve also taken part in leadership training and team bonding that has helped us construct a healthy team atmosphere. This year you can expect a young and optimistic team with strong leaders and plenty of energy.”

The Yeomen will begin their season this Wednesday, as they face the reigning NCAC champion the College of Wooster Fighting Scots, in Wooster, Ohio.

James Cato contributed reporting.

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SPORTS November 10, 2017

established 1874

Volume 146, Number 9

Professional Athletes Risk Image for Autonomy Alex McNicoll Sports Editor

Sophomore defensive back Jubreel Hason plays tight coverage against the Hiram College Terriers receiver last Saturday in their 27–14 win.

Photo by Kellianne Doyle, Staff Photographer

Football Earns Decisive Win During Parents Weekend Julie Schreiber Sports Editor

The Yeomen won their first game in nearly two months last Saturday, as they defeated the Hiram College Terriers 27–14, holding control for practically the entire game. The win, the Yeomen’s third at home this season, also put an end to their six-game losing streak.

“It was great to execute consistently,” sophomore linebacker Von Wooding said. “We always find better energy when we play at home in front of our fans.”

The game took place during parents weekend and featured an impressive turnout from many of the Yeomen’s family members in attendance, making the win all the more rewarding, according to Wooding.

“My parents were there, and lots of my teammates’ parents made long trips to watch us play,” he said. “That made Saturday’s win even better.”

The Yeomen got on the Bailey board first, as a forceful interception by senior linebacker Drew Nolan resulted in a field goal from sophomore kicker Michael Leshchyshyn. The Terriers were quick to respond, reeling in a 21-yard pass for a touchdown, going up 7–3.

The Yeomen then fired back with a 39-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Zach Taylor, giving the Yeomen a 13–7 lead at the half. Oberlin seized control of the game from there, eliminating any chance of a Hiram comeback.

“After the half, we took away most of their successful plays,” Wooding said.

An early 18-yard run by Taylor in the beginning of the third quarter put the Yeomen in good scoring position, eventually leading to a touchdown by sophomore running back Melvin Briggs — his second of the season.

Both Briggs and Taylor contributed game-

16

changing offensive outings during the Saturday game, running for 113 yards and 104 yards, respectively.

“The key … was to buy into our game plan early on and execute our assignments consistently,” Taylor said. “And the team dynamic was great.

We were supportive of each other throughout the entire game.”

The game’s crucial performances did not only result from its offensive team, however.

Strategic defensive plays came from senior defensive back Bennett Jackson, who made 10 tackles and two pass-break ups, as well as from first-year defensive back Malachi Clemons, with eight stops and one break. However, the biggest impact play came from senior defensive lineman Jonathan Smith, who blocked field goal in the statement win.

The premiere defensive performance came from Wooding as his 15 tackles of the day increased his season total to 93 and earned him NCAC Defensive Player. If Wooding can earn seven more tackles in tomorrow’s game against the Allegheny College Gators, he will become the first Yeoman to achieve 100 tackles in a season since Chase Palmer, OC ’08, who made 103 in 2007. Wooding credits much of his success, however, to the effort executed by the whole team.

“Our defense saw a culmination of everything we’ve been working towards thus far this season,” Jackson said. “We really got back to our roots — playing fast and just swarming to the football.”

The Yeomen take the field again tomorrow at 1 p.m. for their 2017 season finale, where they will face the Allegheny College Gators and honor their 16 seniors. They are hoping to uphold the success of the past week to finish the season on a strong note, according to Taylor.

“We’re going to focus on how we play,” Taylor said, “not who we play.”

Eric Bledsoe, who tweeted “I don’t wanna be here” Oct. 22, was traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday. While he claimed that he referenced being in a barber shop, Bledsoe has not been with the team since being sent home by Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough after the tweet. Bledsoe’s bizarre departure from Phoenix is just the latest installment in athletes using social media to voice their opinions and the risks that run with it.

The Phoenix Suns had no place for Eric Bledsoe on their roster, and keeping him there was a waste of his prime years. With one of the youngest cores in the league, centered around 21-year-old Devin Booker, the Suns do not plan to contend for a while. Bledsoe, on the other hand, is 27 years old, and has bounced between the bottom-feeding Los Angeles Clippers and the Suns, both of which have failed to let him live up to his expectations as a “miniLeBron,” as he was nicknamed by scouts after coming out of college. Twitter may have hurt his public image as a competitor — as people questioned his willingness to play — but it did give him a say in where he is going to suit up, which is something that not all athletes get.

However, the double-edged sword of social media does not always land players what they want and can even alienate them from their fans and teammates. In summer 2016, Kevin Durant spurned his teammates and shocked the world by leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder and joining the Golden State Warriors, and has taken heat for it ever since from fans. After being called a snake so many times on Twitter he joked about getting a snake tattoo, Durant has not kept a level head through his public shaming by the NBA’s faithful.

Everything rose to the surface this summer when he responded to a fan’s tweet asking why he left the Thunder.

Durant said that his old franchise’s roster “wasn’t that good” and that he did not want to play for Coach Billy Donovan. The tweets were met with confusion, as Durant had never publicly called out his old teammates before, and it was revealed that Durant thought he was retweeting from an alternate account. Since then, even his new Warriors teammates have been concerned with his obsession with public opinion. While it has not seemed to hurt his performance thus far — since he averages 24.8 points, 7.7 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game — it has certainly hurt his reputation both in and out of the locker room.

Professional sports is a business, and although team loyalty is expected of individuals — unless they want to watch their jerseys get burned — teams rarely reciprocate that devotion. Isaiah Thomas, who resurrected his career last season by averaging 28.9 points per game and bringing the Boston Celtics back to championship contention for the first time in seven seasons, gave everything he had to Boston. Even after his sister died before the start of the playoffs last season, Thomas ground through his emotional state to deliver a 33-point game against the Chicago Bulls.

This summer, he led the recruitment campaign of All-Star forward Gordon Hayward. But the Celtics traded Thomas for Kyrie Irving right before the start of the season.

Players’ voices are potentially damaging, but teams’ voices speak louder.

Just two weeks ago, Bob McNair, the owner of the Houston Texans, likened NFL players protesting to “inmates running the prison,” and was met with immediate criticism. Although the team did consider skipping the following practice, the athletes ended up playing the Seattle Seahawks the next Sunday, losing 41–38.

While professional athletes should double-check what they write before they post on social media — like when Larry Nance Jr. tweeted “Gee I sure hope Kobe can keep his hands to himself in Denver this time. #rapist” before getting drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers — the autonomy to express themselves publically online translates into greater control over their careers.