The Oberlin Review March 31, 2023

The Oberlin Review

All in For Oberlin Secures Donations

Over $1.1M, Anticipates Further Changes to Outreach Strategy

Tuesday, March 28 was Oberlin’s annual day of donations: All In For Oberlin. In one day, 1,996 donors gifted a total of $1,135,929.

The Oberlin Office of Advancement has held this annual day-long fundraiser SINCS 2017. Students, staff, faculty, and alumni were encouraged to participate. This year’s goal was to receive gifts from 1,000 donors, and as of early afternoon Tuesday, this goal was surpassed.

In the past six years, not including this year, All In for Oberlin brought in approximately $5.2 million in donations.

Donors gave to various causes, including scholarships, the Shirley Graham Du Bois ’34 Africana Studies Endowed Fund, the Allen Memorial Art Museum, and Athletics.

In previous years, All In For Oberlin included a variety of events — prizes were given out, pizza was available at the Dionysus Disco, and in 2018, President Carmen Twillie Ambar rode around on a golf cart. This year, fundraising efforts differed in that no in-person events were held.

The campaign was run through

Ava Miller Senior Staff Writer

social media emails, and personal outreach. As a part of a new communication effort, alumni who graduated after 2013 were texted by student ambassadors from the Digital Engagement Center.

18 student ambassadors reached out to alumni and parents, writing thank-you notes, texting young alumni, raising awareness on campus, and producing videos in order to form personal connections. College fourth-year Niels Vanderloo has worked for the Digital Engagement Center since his first semester at Oberlin and noted the importance of communication between student ambassadors and alumni.

“We’re actually students, and we know what it’s like to go here,” Vanderloo said. “We can connect with alumni well and speak honestly. Our work is important because most of the money we raise goes toward financial aid.”

In a phone call with the Review, Walker Blue Miller, assistant director of annual giving, spoke about the new efforts to contact alumni via text.

“Most young alumni would overlook typical types of

communication [like] phone calls [or] emails,” Miller said. “Texting will be the best way to reach them where they are at and solicit a gift. Today is about reigniting support for Oberlin College.”

Vanderloo agreed that texting has been especially impactful.

“Younger alumni don’t pick up the phone anymore,” Vanderloo said. “They aren’t expecting calls because a lot of calls are spam calls. Younger alumni definitely respond better to texting, and there is a higher response rate.”

Assistant Vice President for Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving Terry Kurtz wrote about the next steps of All In for Oberlin in an email to the Review

“In the future, some of the particulars about All In for Oberlin — such as outreach efforts, specific funds that are highlighted, matches and challenges that are generously offered — might change; however, the underlying purpose of the event won’t,” Kurtz said. “We will continue to focus on celebrating Oberlin, inspiring philanthropy, and recognizing the amazing and positive impact we can have across campus by coming together.”

On Thursday, March 23, the Rural Response Network and Oberlin Community Services hosted a harm reduction pop-up event at the Oberlin Public Library, dispensing naloxone — often referred to with the brand name Narcan — kits and fentanyl test strips.

Fentanyl test strips are available on a rolling basis at Ginko Gallery, the Oberlin Public Library, Christ Episcopal Church during its hot meals program, and the Sexual Information Center on Oberlin’s campus. Narcan kits cannot be offered on a rolling basis because they require training. Most people receive narcan training at pop-up events.

“I want it to be accessible without question, so that people don’t have to feel shame in asking,” Brewer said. “I’ve noticed that when I do a pop-up on campus, they are running for it, but no one comes [to Oberlin Community Services] and asks me for it. Having to initiate it just stops them.”

In 2021, the National Institute on Drug Abuse recorded 106,699 overdose deaths, an increase from 91,799 reported deaths, or approximately 28.3 overdose deaths per 100,000 people in 2020. Since 2016, fentanyl has been the leading drug involved in overdose cases nationally and locally in Lorain County. In 2015, the Lorain County Health Department reported 21 deaths due to fentanyl overdose. In 2020, the county reported 117 fentanyl deaths.

The resource distribution efforts are an initiative of the Rural Response Network, which is funded by a grant of $1 million that the LCADA Way Student ambassadors worked to text and phone bank in the Digital Engagement Center.

Outside of pop-ups, RRN’s Oberlin Community Coordinator Marla Brewer, who works to organize events and set up resource distribution sites, has Narcan kits available at Oberlin Community Services.

See OPL, page 2

Cal Ransom News Editor

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Photo Courtesy of Al Evangelista

Al Evangelista

On the Record: Al Evangelista, Assistant Professor of Dance |

Friday, March 31

7:30 p.m.: Benefit Concert for Syria & Türkiye at Oberlin First United Methodist Church

Presented by the Musikos Collective, Oberlin Muslim Students Association, and Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine, the event is set to feature performances by students, professors, and community members alike. Proceeds go to relieve victims of the Kahramanmaraş earthquake.

7:30 p.m.–12 a.m.: Dandelion Romp in Hales Gymnasium

The annual contra dance weekend with music by Gallimaufry (Brian Lindsay, Alex Sturbaum, Ness Smith-Savedoff, Donal Sheets, Arthur Davis) and Countercurrent (Brian Lindsay and Alex Sturbaum). All attendees

UPCOMING EVENTS

are required to wear masks. Tickets are free for students and $65 for the general public.

Saturday, April 1

11 a.m.–12 p.m.: Raging Asian Womxn Taiko Drummers Panel

Discussion in Craig Lecture Hall

In advance of its 7 p.m. Finney Chapel performance, RAW, an all-Asian, all-womxn taiko drumming group, is set to lead a panel discussion on its mission toward creative resistance for social change.

1–2:30 p.m.: Clothing Repair Workshop in King Building, room 235

Bring an item and learn basic repairs, patches, hemmings, and alterations. Hosted by the Office of Environmental Sustainability.

Tuesday, April 4

12–4 p.m.: Free Tax Help Clinic at Oberlin Community Services (285 S. Professor Street) Families and individuals making less than $60,000 a year can receive free help with their taxes, courtesy of the Lorain County Free Tax Prep Coalition, the United Way of Greater Lorain County, and OCS. Interested parties should call (440) 774-5679 to schedule an appointment.

Wednesday, April 5

8 p.m.: Passover Seder at the Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space Chabad will be hosting an English-speaker-friendly seder. Free for students. There will be a second seder Thursday at 8:30 p.m.

Thursday, April 6

11 a.m.–1 p.m.: Trans Resource Fair in Wilder Main Lounge

Learn about resources for trans individuals from the College. Hosted by the Multicultural Resource Commons.

Friday, April 7

All day: Spring Swap Weekend Starts

Bring clean, unwanted clothes to designated lounges in Burton Hall, Kahn Hall, South Hall, Langston Hall, or Dascomb Hall Friday, April 7. Donated items will be available for others to pick up on Saturday, April 8 and Sunday, April 9. There will also be boxes available for unwanted underwear and socks.

Local Organizations Host Drug Harm Reduction Event Following Legalization of Fentanyl Testing in Ohio

Continued from page 1

received in September 2022 from the Health Resources and Services Administration. RRN is a partnership between nine community and government organizations which work to provide support and education for residents of Oberlin, Wellington, and the surrounding townships, with the goal of reducing overdoses and overdose deaths.

One of Brewer’s current initiatives is providing lockable medication bags at Oberlin’s CVS, which can prevent prescription medication from being accessed by individuals to whom the medication was not prescribed.

“Prescription meds are one part of the problem, but it’s really not the prescription, it’s the counterfeit pills given on the street, especially targeting college-age individuals, but it could be anyone at any age,” Brewer said.

Counterfeit pills can look identical to prescription medication, so Brewer recommends individuals use fentanyl test strips for any substances they ingest that are not received from a pharmacy.

Fentanyl test strips can detect fentanyl in drug residue mixed with water. Fentanyl test strips use a single line to indicate a positive test and two lines indicate a negative test. The test strips

were decriminalized in Ohio during January of 2023, allowing organizations to give them out.

Naloxone reverses the effects of opioids on the body during an overdose. During an opioid overdose, the central nervous system is dampened and the brain is starved of oxygen. Brain injury can occur after three to six minutes of oxygen deprivation and death can occur after 10 minutes. In rural areas of the United States, the average time for an ambulance to arrive is 14.5 minutes. Naloxone can reverse the opioid’s effects faster than health-care providers may be able to respond.

Brewer recommends that individuals carry naloxone, regardless of whether they are a drug user or know someone who is.

“It’s an issue for all of society,” Brewer said. “Even if we ourselves are not addicts or surrounded by addicts, it’s something that we need to understand is happening all around us and we need to be aware. Carrying and using Narcan is one simple way to reduce harm and potentially save a life.”

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration advises bystanders to call 911 immediately if a person exhibits any of the symptoms of an overdose. After

calling 911, bystanders can administer naloxone.

The symptoms of an overdose include a pale or clammy face, body going limp, fingernails or lips turning blue or purple, vomiting or gurgling, unconsciousness or inability to speak, and a slowed heartbeat or breathing. After calling 911, bystanders can administer naloxone and facilitate breathing with “rescue breaths.”

Seven people were trained to use Narcan at the pop-up. In addition to naloxone, the kits provided by Brewer include a face shield, which allows the user to perform rescue breaths and CPR without having direct mouth-tomouth contact with the patient.

“We don’t currently have another pop-up planned, but I would love to see that happen,” Rebecca Wedge, adult services team leader at the Oberlin Public Library, wrote in an email to the Review

Brewer emphasized that, in other villages and townships across Lorain, there is an even greater need for the services she works to provide at Oberlin. “Oberlin and Wellington aren’t even the hardest hit,” Brewer said. “LaGrange, Grafton, the even tinier communities that don’t have anything — they don’t have any community center, they don’t have any resources — it’s a problem.”

March 31, 2023

Volume 152, Number 18 (ISSN 297–256)

Editors-in-Chief

Kushagra Kar

Emma Benardete

Managing Editor

Nikki Keating

News Editors

Alexa Stevens

Cal Ransom

Opinions Editors

Emily Vaughan

Hanna Alwine

Arts & Culture Editors

Dlisah Lapidus

Yasu Shinozaki

Poetry Editor

Gillian Ferguson

Sports Editors

John Elrod

Kayla Kim

Conservatory Editor

Delaney Fox

Photo Editors

Abe Frato

Erin Koo

This Week Editor

Eloise Rich

Senior Staff Writers

Ava Miller

Chris Stoneman

Celia Perks

Gracie McFalls

Maeve Woltring

Web Manager

Nada Aggadi

Production Manager

Lia Fawley

Production Editors

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E.J. LaFave

Gideon Reed

Isaac Imas

Jasper Swartz

Serena Atkinson

Sumner Wallace

Trevor Smith

Layout Editors

Erin Koo

Grace Gao

Ohio Special Election on May 2, Early Voting Begins April 4

Alexa Stevens News Editor

On May 2 of this year, the state of Ohio is holding a combined primary and special election. The deadline to register to vote is this Monday, April 3, and both early in-person and absentee voting begin the day after on Tuesday, April 4. Oberlin voters will be asked to either renew or reject a tax levy that funds the Lorain County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

“A renewal of a tax for the benefit of Lorain County for the purpose of providing facilities, programs and services for Murray Ridge Center by operating Murray Ridge School, workshops, community based employment and residential facilities and making capital improvements on the buildings of Murray Ridge Center for developmentally disabled children and adults that the county auditor estimates will collect $11,942,701 annually, at a rate not exceeding 1.6875 mills for each $1 of taxable value, which amounts to $39 for each $100,000 of the county auditor’s appraised

value, for 5 years, commencing in 2023, first due in calendar year 2024,” the sample ballot distributed by the Ohio Board of Elections reads.

On April 7, Ohio House Bill 458 will go into effect. Notably, the bill includes sections updating the types of identification permissible for voters.

“(a) An Ohio driver’s license, state identification card, or interim identification form issued by the registrar of motor vehicles or a deputy registrar under Chapter 4506. or 4507. of the Revised Code; (b) A United States passport or passport card;

(c) A United States military identification card, Ohio national guard identification card, or United States department of veterans affairs identification card. (2) A ‘copy’ of an individual’s photo identification means images of both the front and back of a document described in division (AA)(1) of this section, except that if the document is a United States passport, a copy of the photo identification means an image of the passport’s identification page that includes the individual’s

PSA: The Review encourages all eligible voters to ensure that their voter registration is up to date and to participate in the upcoming election, for which Election Day is May 2 and early voting begins April 4. Eligible voters may also alternatively vote by absentee ballot beginning April 4.

name, photograph, and other identifying information and the passport’s expiration date,” the Bill reads.

The Ohio State University student publication The Lantern published an article detailing the potential impacts of these new restrictions upon financial aid.

“Anna Wagner, assistant director for Student Leadership Development and an indirect advisor to OSU Votes — a studentled group to encourage others to vote — said out-of-state students getting new state IDs in Ohio could potentially disrupt things like financial aid or residency, which makes it wiser to stick to mail-in voting,” the article reads.

However, Oberlin College Director of Financial Aid Michele Kosboth assures students that financial aid for Oberlin students will remain unchanged.

“The only aid that might be

impacted by a student changing their state of residence for any reason would be a state grant, if they qualified for one,” Kosboth wrote in an email to the Review.

“Many states do not let their grant funding travel outside of their state any longer, so fewer and fewer students are able to bring grant funding from another state to Ohio to use at Oberlin.”

According to Kosboth, though, this out-of-state grant funding applies to fewer than 20 enrolled students and, for those students, the College pledges to attempt to replace any lost grant-based aid.

“All other aid, and student charges, are not dependent on the state of residence of a student,” Kosboth wrote. “That answer could be very different at other colleges, specifically state universities where the aid and/or the charges can vary based on the students’ state residency status.”

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Illustrator

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Distributors

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Fentanyl test strips can be used to test for fentanyl in drugs.

Nikki Keating Managing Editor

Darius Butler is a third-year Africana Studies and Law and Society major from Columbus. Butler was recently accepted into the Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship along with 11 others out of more than 600 competitive applicants. During the four-week summer program, he will travel to Washington, D.C., Cape Town, Dublin, Derry, and Belfast to study figures involved in social change.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was the process of selection for the fellowship like?

I’ve been interested in studying abroad for a while. I’ve never been out of the country before, and this program really stood out to me because it allows me to travel to South Africa, Ireland, and D.C. while also taking a course that relates to my studies, Africana Studies and Law. It’s an intensive program, so I felt that it would be one of the best ways to prepare me for my future endeavors — wanting to pursue a career in law and specifically advocating on the behalf of marginalized groups with a focus on the Black

Darius Butler

Africana Studies and Law and Society Major

about the specific ways that we can enact change through not just social justice and advocacy and not just protests, but also through policy work and through starting dialogue with people who will be able to help us achieve what we want to achieve. I think, ultimately, that’s how we can nurture positive change. Furthermore, it doesn’t just end when the fellowship ends and we come back to our respective institutions. It’s on us to talk about our experiences and talk about what we learned and how we can apply that back home to actually see the change that we want to see.

Can you talk a little bit about the different communities you’re a part of on campus?

summer, and I was actually offered the full-time consultant position. Basically, I was just a researcher, but the official title is the Racial Justice Research Fellow. So I am a research consultant. I compile research about environmental racism and pollution within communities of color throughout the U.S. We also specialized in shareholder advocacy, and we monitor corporate responses to racial injustice throughout the U.S. A lot of that has to do with analyzing the programs put in place to help communities — what is the effectiveness of this program, how much money are they investing, and where is that money going?

community. I started working on the application when we came back to school for Winter Term, and Associate Professor of Africana Studies Charles Peterson was super supportive throughout this whole process. He encouraged me to pursue this. I found out that I was accepted during class, and I was so emotional — I mean, I was jumping up and down.

One of the goals the fellowship highlights is promoting social justice advocacy work. How does that align with your current and future goals?

Within the fellowship, we were studying the legacy of various agents of social change — taking time to look at figures like Frederick Douglass, Desmond Tutu, Abraham Lincoln, John Lewis, Nelson Mandela. Although each person obviously has a passion for social justice and advocacy, they each bring a unique perspective, and their fight for change is specific to their area. In doing this fellowship, I get to interact with 11 other students who have a common passion for social justice, which shows up in different ways depending on where that person is from. I think their upbringing also has a lot to do with it, just like their lived experiences. So basically, by coming together and taking this course, we learn

ODA, Student Affairs,

Layla Wallerstein Cole Mirman

On Tuesday, March 28, Oberlin students, faculty, and staff gathered in Mudd Center’s Moffett Auditorium for a forum on mental health. The Office for Disability and Access organized the event in collaboration with the Division of Student Affairs, Student Senate, and the Counseling Center to open up a discussion around mental health and raise awareness about the resources available on campus.

Vice President and Dean of Students Karen Goff, one of the forum’s organizers, explained that the increased attention toward mental health on campus came after the death of Conservatory fourth-year Maura Olivero last semester. Afterward, a group of students reached out to the dean to discuss the state of mental health resources at the College. They suggested an open forum, Tuesday’s event. The forum follows last month’s general faculty workshop on the same topic.

“The goal of the event was just to bring forth the conversation so that everyone could hear each other, and students could be more aware of the resources that are available to them,” second-

I’m a Law and Justice Scholar and Podis fellow. I work in the Writing Center, and the reason why I wanted to work in the Writing Center was, for one, when I applied, there were no current Black Writing Associates. I think visibility is very important, especially in spaces that are dominated by white people, and especially when we talk about academic writing and linguistic oppression. Through working in the Writing Center and setting up hours in Afrikan Heritage House, I just hope to be a resource for Black students who aren’t always as comfortable sharing their paper, sharing their work with a white student. Because the way that we write, the way someone’s voice comes across, can mean something completely different for someone who’s not familiar with that. So I try to just be a resource in the community through the Writing Center and also through the Speaking Center, because Black speech and Black writing have been criminalized since the inception of academia.

I am also the co-chair of Voices for Christ, which is a space for Black Christians. That space is very important for me, just coming together and creating a space where we can be comfortable in our faith. I just try to be the best representative of what Christianity means to me through that space and really allow for Black people to feel comfortable in their space.

Have you done work in connection with Law and Society before?

Yeah, for the past two summers. I worked with the non-profit As You Saw in Berkley California a fellow last

Senate, Counseling Center

year Fay Levin, a forum panelist and student wellness liaison for Oberlin’s Student Senate, said.

Mental health issues among Oberlin’s student body have become increasingly apparent. Last semester, there was a record number of student dropouts and emergency incompletes for mental health reasons.

According to representatives at the forum, Oberlin’s Counseling and Psychological Services staff see a little over 900 students in a year — roughly one third of the total student body. This compares to an average of about 10 percent at other colleges this size. Such high demand for resources and counselors strains their availability, something students brought up at the forum. However, mental health problems are not limited to this campus.

“It’s not an Oberlin issue,” Goff said. “It really is a national issue, and other colleges and campuses are experiencing similar patterns.”

Despite their ubiquity, students often find mental health problems difficult to discuss.

“It’s a stigmatized topic,” Levin said. “It’s also a personal topic, when you don’t know what details to disclose or what you feel comfortable with.”

By opening up a space to talk,

the forum aimed to address and explain the resources available to students. It began with a presentation from the Division of Student Affairs, educating students about the many support services Oberlin offers. These include programs like Well-Being Wednesdays, a BIPOC support group, and mental health round tables, which provide a space for discussions. The College’s triage program, launched this academic year, offers 20-minute initial appointments with lower wait times to make counseling more accessible. The presentation also discussed the Early Alert system, which sends weekly text alerts to students to check in on their wellness.

The crux of the event, however, was not the presentation but the subsequent dialogue between panelists and attendees. The conversation got personal as many of those present, from first-year students to longtime staff members, opened up about their own struggles with mental wellness. Some students expressed frustration with aspects of the College’s support services, including their limited hours and the role of Campus Safety in answering calls for help.

College first-year Lindsey Saxe attended the forum because she

Do you think being in the Oberlin community has shaped your perspective on law and justice? Did Oberlin help you when applying to the Frederick Douglass Global fellowship?

I think about this often — had I not come to Oberlin, what type of student I’d be and what type of person I’d be. I wouldn’t necessarily credit Oberlin as an institution, but rather I would credit the professors and the students that I’ve been able to interact with. Like Professor Peterson, Professor [Candice] Raynor — I mean, honestly, the whole Africana Studies department. I definitely came into college very naive and not as aware as I thought I was about issues, especially within the Black community. And I think here, there is a culture within the Black community of speaking out for social justice and on the behalf of marginalized communities even within the Black community, whether that be marginalized on the basis of sexuality, class especially. So I think definitely, the culture within the Africana Studies department and even the culture within the Afrikana Heritage House has been integral in my development as a student. It’s really opened my eyes, and it’s something that I’m forever appreciative of.

How does it feel to get the fellowship?

I’m still in shock, honestly. It’s an amazing feeling. It’s a very humbling feeling. I attribute it all to my faith. I’m very blessed to be given this opportunity to be able to represent my family, to be able to represent Oberlin, and to be able to represent my country when I go abroad. I’m just very thankful for it. I cannot wait until the summer.

Co-Host Mental Health Forum

and her friends have struggled with mental health and with the limitations of the resources offered. She felt that the forum addressed her concerns.

“They may not have given the answers I wanted to hear, but I appreciated their transparency,” Saxe said. “Mental health care should be a priority, and in order to care for all of the students who need care, more resources need to be put into it.”

When asked how Oberlin policies and practices might change due to the discussion,

Dean Goff suggested that the College might try to offer Counseling Center services beyond academic business hours. Currently, this resource is only available from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. Additionally, both Goff and Levin said they planned to hold more forums like this one going forward.

“I think it definitely began a conversation, and it’s on the right track,” Levin said. “It can’t be a one-time thing, and I’m very happy to hear that it seems that it won’t be.”

Photo courtesy of Darius Butler

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Counseling and Psychological Services Director John Harshbarger speaks to students at the mental health forum.

Darius Butler

Katherine Doane

Netanyahu responds to pressure to drop judicial reforms

Protests in Israel escalated after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for speaking out against judicial reforms. The reforms, originally proposed in January, would call any attempt by the country’s Supreme Court to veto legislation that it sees as unconstitutional to a vote in the Knesset, prevent the country’s Supreme Court from judging legislation based on “reasonability,” give the justice minister power to appoint public representatives who aid in appointing Justices, and allow government ministers to select their own legal advisers.

On Monday, protestors from Israel’s largest labor union joined with leaders from the tech and healthcare sectors in a nationwide strike against the legislation that threatened to paralyze the economy. Additional pressure came from the Biden administration, who bombarded the coalition government with warnings that Netanyahu was “imperiling Israel’s reputation as the sole democracy in the region,” according to BBC News. Netanyahu eventually announced the delay of the legislation, but said Tuesday that the government would come to a decision “not based on pressures from abroad.”

Footage circulates of fire at Mexico migrant center Footage has emerged of uniformed officials failing to unlock a group of men during a fire at a migrant center in Ciudad Juárez. The video, which has been widely shared on Twitter and picked up by Mexican newspapers, shows a group of men in what appears to be a locked cell. As the fire erupts in a corner, one of the detainees tries unsuccessfully to open the cell door, and uniformed officials seem to ignore his attempts. It is not possible to tell what the officials are saying or doing offscreen as the fire spreads. The fire comes at a time when Mexico is struggling to accommodate an influx of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S., but Trumpera border restrictions continue to force thousands into detainment.

Ukrainian forces strike Russian-held Melitopol

After declines in Russian attacks in Bakhmut, Russia’s longstanding target for its channels into the industrially dense Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces have shelled the Russianoccupied city of Melitopol. The attack struck a railway depot and caused widespread power outages in the region. Melitopol, found just south of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, has served as a railway hub for Russian forces. According to Reuters, the

attack could undermine forces from Moscow at a moment when Kyiv has indicated that it could soon organize counterattacks in areas where Russian forces have remained stationed but largely unsuccessful in advancing offensive lines. Kyiv’s forces, according to Ukraine’s military General Staff, continue to stand firm and are “repelling numerous enemy attacks”.

Lesotho MP calls for return of South African Land

On Wednesday, Parliament representatives in Lesotho gathered to discuss a motion to seek the return of large swaths of land from the country’s powerful neighbor, South Africa. These regions would include the province of Free State, which borders Lesotho, along with four other regions that were historically inhabited by the Basotho people. The motion is based on a 1962 United Nations resolution that acknowledged the small kingdom’s right to independence and selfdetermination, and it would expand Lesotho’s territory from around 30,000 sq km (11,600 sq miles) to around 240,000 sq km (93,000 sq miles). The additional land would allow Lesotho to improve its agricultural sector and economic independence. It’s unclear how the motion, if enacted, would impact relations between Lesotho and South Africa.

Security Report

Thursday, March 9, 2023

A student came to the Campus Safety Office to pick up his lost/ recovered wallet. The student reported $20 missing.

An Allen Memorial Art Museum Security officer reported an abundance of spray paint on the west lawn of the museum.

A student reported the theft of a Halo speaker, valued at $300, from the Heisman Field House.

Officers were requested at a Safety Inspection at South Hall.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

An officer responded to a report of a student inside the Conservatory after closing. The student was located and left the building.

Staff reported they slipped and fell while exiting Stevenson Hall. No injury reported at this time.

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Student reported the theft of a catalytic converter from their vehicle while parked on Forest Street.

Officers responded to a report of a strong odor of burnt marijuana on the third floor of South Hall.

Friday, March 24, 2023

Staff reported locating remnants of contraband in a practice room at Robertson Hall.

Staff reported several plants missing from Peters Hall. Plants were located and returned.

An officer conducting a building check at Kohl Building observed damage to the wall of the third floor deck.

Monday, March 27, 2023

Officers responded to a motor vehicle accident in the Rice Hall parking lot. No injuries were reported.

A student reported damage to their bicycle while parked at South Hall.

City Council Discusses Carbon Emissions, Reduction Goals

Celia Perks Senior Staff Writer

On March 20, the Oberlin City Council met and discussed emissions within the Oberlin community. Linda Arbogast, the sustainability coordinator for the City of Oberlin’s Office of Sustainability, presented an in-depth overview of the City’s emissions, reduction goals, and ways to reduce the total emissions as the years progress.

Before her time at Oberlin, Arbogast worked abroad, where she focused on development in Southeast Asia. Arbogast then began working in Oberlin at Oberlin College’s Bonner Center and later transitioned to becoming the director of Oberlin Community Services. After her time as the OCS director, she worked abroad as the country director for the Peace Corps in Guyana, a country that was primarily undeveloped rainforest until it emerged as an oil powerhouse.

“I worked in where I felt the critical needs were,” Arbogast said.

This mission brought her to eventually working as the Oberlin sustainability coordinator.

As a part of their Winter Term project, College fourth-year Eli Butler interned with Arbogast to help create this presentation given to the Council. Butler grew up in a very sustainable and environmentally-friendly household, which led to their interest in reducing emissions. Butler worked as an intern with Arbogast for Winter Term.

“The environment matters just as much as any other human being,” Butler said.

Emissions within the city have decreased by 60 percent since 2007, 50 percent since 2012, and 22 percent from 2018 to 2021. This change in emissions has resulted from the increased implementation of electrification and the decreased use of fuels

with both coal and oil emissions. Oberlin College plays a large role in reducing emissions for the community, including and stoppingped using coal usage in 2014.

The presentation also shared the City’s emissions reductions goals. Based on the 2019 climate action plan, the city has set three benchmarks for this reduction. During 2015 the city aimed to be 50 percent below the 2012 emission level. The city produced 53 percent of the emissions from 2015. In 2030, the town aims to be at 75 percent below the 2012 emissions. Finally in 2050, the goal is to be 100 percent carbon neutral. In comparison, Oberlin College has the goal to be carbon neutral by 2025.

During the time between the years of 2015 and 2018, there was a spike in emissions, which Arbogast attributed to how natural gas was measured by Columbia Gas of Ohio – outside of the control of Oberlin residents or city government.

To help aid reduction, many emissions reduction policies and ideas have been put in place. These policies impact electricity emissions and transportation emissions in both residential and commercial sectors of the city of Oberlin. 51 percent of Oberlin’s electric grid is sourced from landfill gas. Wind, solar, hydropower, and market power make up the remaining fuel, which is comprised of coal, renewables, natural gas, and nuclear power.

“The simple answer is to electrify,” Arbogast said.

Efficiency Smart, a policy which provides rebates for efficient appliances and home energy assessments reduced commercial emissions by over 100,000 pounds of CO2 equivalents in Oberlin in 2022. In 2021, the Oberlin community’s emissions were measured at 58,729 metric tons, but increasing efficiency could lower this number.

The city is currently working on electrifying their fleet and converting municipal building lighting to LED. Kendal at Oberlin, which is a northeast Ohio life plan community, is working with the town to also become more efficient. This community accounts for 1.8 percent of natural gas and 4.7 percent of electric use, but is trying to become efficient by using solar, LED, and EV chargers. The city is also working with the company POWER to weatherize homes.

Another way to reduce these emissions is through Renewable Energy Credits. Oberlin purchases RECs for the 14 percent of the electric grid that is fueled by market sources.

“RECs are where you are spending money to produce renewable energy somewhere else so your output is renewable,” Butler said. “Buying RECs is a great band-aid solution while we are waiting for the marketable grid to catch up to renewable energy.”

They also explained the importance of offsetting emissions instead of purely eliminating them.

“The goal is not to eliminate emissions, it is to be at net zero,” Butler said.

Oberlin College’s goal to reach carbon neutrality will also heavily aid the city in reaching their own goals. In 2021, the College

accounted for 26.71 percent of the City’s electricity use and 23.88 percent of natural gas use. The college is currently electrifying their vehicles, adding geothermal heating systems, and installing EV charging ports in college areas.

Transportation is the second largest sector contributing to emissions in Oberlin. Public transportation can reduce emissions by reducing the number of cars on the road. Arbogast highlighted three ways that residents can engage with public transportation in Oberlin – the Oberlin Connector, which provides low cost transportation for individuals, the GOhio ride planning tool, which allows individuals to plan their commute to incorporate carpooling and public transit, and the EV Car Share program, which allows residents and students to rent electric vehicles. During the last few years, over 5,796 bike lanes have been added throughout town and 3.4 miles of multi use trails have been repaired. Bike lanes can eliminate one ton of CO2 emissions every year for every $200 spent on them.

“We have invested a lot of money into bike lanes, and now Oberlin is a very pedestrian friendly city,” Butler said.

Arbogast provided some additional areas in transportation that the city can improve on.

“We the city are building charging stations and looking into the community to see where it makes the most sense. And then we need to bring the residents on board and educate them,” Arbogast said.

The EV Car Share allows students and residents to rent electric cars for $8 an hour.

“One cool fact of data about the car share program is that of the top five users, the people who use it the most … four of them are low income people of color,” Arbogast said. “That says to me that it is being used by the people who need it.”

Throughout the entire presentation, both Butler and Arbogast demonstrated how the small changes in reducing emissions are what will allow for the community to reach this goal. When one person aids in conservation, they can influence others to do the same.

“Little or big changes completely transform a City’s emissions rating,” Butler said. “We are half of what we used to be in 2012, and some of these were from one time changes like coal.”

Next, Arbogast and City Council President Bryan Burgess will be attending a conference led by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, where they will share what they learned and will answer future sustainability related questions.

Some City residents have installed solar panels to address personal environmental concerns.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

OPINIONS

Justice for Palestine Should Be Independent of Religious Opinions

Zane Badawi

Israel, so it’s said, was established on a land without people for a people without a land. Except, the land was not without people. Palestinians have long suffered apartheid at the hands of the Israeli state. Their status as second-class citizens within Israel’s borders, as well as their daily reality of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, are a testament to that fact.

A Jewish person born anywhere on Earth has the right to settle in Israel. By contrast, Palestinian refugees and their children do not have the right to return to their homes, which they inhabited mere decades ago. Small communities within Israel have full legal rights to exclude Palestinians from living within their borders on the basis that they would not fit into the “social-cultural fabric” of the towns. As proclaimed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, not of all its citizens, one-fifth of whom are Palestinian. It is not a beacon of democracy and equality in the Middle East but an overtly racist and exclusionary settler colonial state. I recommend those who are unfamiliar with the facts I’ve presented here to study the Human Rights Watch’s report, which accuses Israel of the crimes of apartheid and persecution.

American liberals are an outspoken group regarding social and political injustice across the globe. They rightfully criticize countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran for their human rights violations and strict conservative policies. Yet when Israel enters the conversation, many liberal voices fall silent. Suddenly, there is not enough information available for people to take a definitive stance. Suddenly, the issue is complex and nuanced, and more research needs to be done to resolve the conflict. Suddenly, the voices of the powerful and the powerless are of equal importance. This response, frankly, is cowardly and based on the assertion that denouncing Israel’s crimes against humanity is antisemitic. The general rebuttal to any Palestinian resistance is a proclamation that

said resistance is rooted in a hatred of Jews and is fundamentally incompatible with a modern liberal view of the world.

However, Israel is a state with a long track record of human rights abuses and international crimes, including assassinating journalists, establishing illegal settlements on Palestinian land, and impeding medical assistance in Gaza via deliberate killings of health workers. Opposition to Israel’s years of forced displacement, preferential settlement, and widespread apartheid, should not be a controversial stance. But, of course, it is controversial.

The conflict is, rightfully, framed through differentials of power. Many pro-Israel thinkers argue that the Israel-Palestine divide is a question of religion, of Judaism versus Islam. This depiction is helpful in framing Israel in a positive light; certainly, Muslims across the globe hold much more power than Jews.

The world’s Muslim population is approximately 1.8 billion, while there are around 14 million Jews worldwide. And, certainly, Jews have been oppressed by the Muslim world throughout history. So, denying Israel its right to “selfdefense” and expansion is seen as denying Jews their right to exist in peace.

The power differential truly at play here, however, is entirely different. It is not a divide along religious lines, but instead along ethnic ones. It is a tale of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. When we shift the reference frame, the power difference also shifts significantly. Israel has a U.S.-backed military, a strong economy, and high standards of living, and it imposes its will — and its bullets — upon the Palestinian people. Israel was also carved out of Palestinian land, taken by money or, for the most part, by force, and its establishment sent hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into statelessness. Most crucially, the State of Israel gives Jews preference over Palestinians in all matters.

I am, like many other progressives, inclined toward pacifism. I want to see a peaceful resolution

See Support, page 7

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Editorial Board encourgages anyone interested in submitting an Opinions piece to email the Opinions Editors at opinions@oberlinreview.org to request a copy of the Opinions primer. Opinions expressed in editorials, letters, op-eds, columns, cartoons, and other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of The Oberlin Review staff. Submission of content to the Review constitutes an understanding of this publication policy. Any content published by The Oberlin Review forever becomes the property of The Oberlin Review and its administrators. Content creators retain rights to their content upon publication, but the Review reserves the right to republish and/or refuse to alter or remove any content published by the Review. It is up to the Editors-in-Chief whether to alter content that has already been published. The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and op-ed submissions. All submissions are printed at the discretion of the Editors-in-Chief. All submissions must be received by Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the Opinions email for inclusion in that week’s issue. Full-length pieces should be between 800 and 900 words; letters to the editor should be less than 600 words. All submissions must include contact information, with full names and any relevant titles, for all signatories; we do not publish pieces anonymously. All letters from multiple writers should be carbon-copied to all signatories to confirm authorship. The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity, length, grammar, accuracy, and strength of argument, and in consultation with Review style. Editors work to preserve the voice of the writers and will clear any major edits with authors prior to publication. Headlines are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. 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 or otherwise promoting an event, organization, or other entity to which the author has direct ties.

EDITORIAL

Decline of Local News Media Jeopardizes Communities

In recent years, the ubiquity of print news media has been waning. According to a 2021 report by the Pew Research Center, the combined circulation of print and digital newspapers has been declining relatively steadily since the mid-1990s. An Associated Press article from July of last year noted that newspapers were closing their doors at a rate of around two per week. The same article noted that while 75,000 journalists worked at newspapers in 2006, that number had since fallen to 31,000.

A few years ago, the Oberlin News-Tribune, the City of Oberlin’s local newspaper, was bought out and ceased exclusive coverage of the City, leaving the Review to serve as the City’s paper of record. While the Review has continued to make efforts to serve the community effectively, there are unique challenges to being a student-run newspaper. For one, because we are full-time students, we only have the capacity to produce one issue worth of content each week. Given that, as a college paper, we largely cover College-related events, we are limited in the amount of community news we are able to feature. Beyond this, our publication schedule is dependent on the College’s academic calendar, and we publish only on weeks when regular classes are in session. This academic year, the Review has a total of 23 publication weeks. This means, for more than half the year, the City of Oberlin operates without a dedicated community publication. For long stretches of time, including the entirety

of the summer, there is no paper operating in Oberlin. While the Review does have a precedent for ad hoc reporting outside of the regular print calendar, it is exceedingly uncommon.

Beyond the logistical limitations of our print schedule and scope, it is also important to recognize that, as a student paper, our staff stay at the Review for no more than four years, often less. Because we spend such a brief period of our lives in this town, we often lack the perspective on town issues that longer-term residents might possess. We rely heavily on people who have far more knowledge than we do and are willing to lend their expertise and perspective. While many newspapers employ veteran reporters who have strong relationships with community stakeholders, it is difficult to build those relationships in the short time that we have. It is also difficult to maintain and continue these relationships given the high levels of staff turnover. The relationship with the community must be with the Review itself rather than with our reporters as individuals.

The Chronicle Telegram is able to fill some of the gaps in coverage, but its coverage of a larger geographic area means that it may not have as close of a relationship with members of the community as a paper based in Oberlin would. Its space and resources, like ours, are limited, and it is tasked with covering far more than our one town.

In some ways, the shift toward broader news sources is a good thing. The development of on-

line versions of major newspapers like The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post gives anyone with an internet connection the ability to read and analyze news from thousands of miles away. The ability to learn about conflicts facing international communities separate from our own breeds a type of understanding that isn’t possible with an exclusively local understanding of politics and social interactions. However, reporting on issues facing the international or even national community should not come at the cost of local news.

Coverage of local events is important for community building, especially in college towns where town and gown politics can create friction and conflict, particularly when there is inadequate information available about the reality of those conflicts.

The Review recognizes our responsibility as a publication that connects and provides a platform for productive discussion between these two parties. The town community and the college community work toward a common goal of creating a flourishing and lively Oberlin where people want to live and work. We recognize the critical need to continue to foster these relationships, and we would like to make an open call to Oberlin community members and students to not only use the Review to enhance your own understanding of your community but also as a platform to inform other community members about issues important to you.

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

New Ohio Senate Bill Restricts Curriculum Diversity in Higher Education Institutions

Emily

Alletzhauser

Republican-led state congresses around the country have been introducing extremist pieces of legislation. Many, such as Florida’s famous “Don’t Say Gay” bill, aim to censor public education. This legislative session, Ohio is getting ready to follow suit with Ohio Senate Bill 83, also known as the Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act. The bill, which is currently in committee, would limit the ability of institutions of higher education and their employees to speak about “controversial beliefs and policies” including climate change, systemic racism, and gender identity, would make it illegal for state higher education employees to strike, and would prevent institutions from accepting donations from Chinese students’ families, among other controversial initiatives. While the majority of this bill targets state institutions of higher education, parts of it would apply to Oberlin, and Oberlin students should feel obligated to stand up for our peers at other

Ohio schools and for our larger community regardless.

SB 83 defines a private institution of higher education as “a nonprofit institution holding a certificate of authorization pursuant to Chapter 1713 of the Revised Code,” a definition that applies to Oberlin. Under the bill, private institutions of higher education would not be able to receive state funding without committing to a prescribed list of affirmations. One is that they are “[c]ommitted to intellectual diversity.” The bill’s definition of intellectual diversity focuses on “perspectives that reflect the range of American opinion, but which are poorly represented on campus” — or, in other words, conservative ideals. A commitment to intellectual diversity in this context would essentially mean a commitment to incorporating more conservative viewpoints, which are often, racist, homophobic, transphobic, and otherwise harmful, into campus life. Another proposed affirmation is that private institutions will “not require diversity, equity, and inclusion courses

or training for students, staff, or faculty.” Currently, Oberlin’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion mandates non-discrimination training for all new students and faculty. These trainings uphold our community’s values and make Oberlin a safer place for members of marginalized communities. To end these trainings would undermine our mission as an institution. Luckily though, Oberlin only receives some government support, and almost all of its funding comes from the endowment and from private donors making the college less dependent on government funding. However, the fact that the College would have to even decide between upholding its long-standing commitment to social justice and receiving state funding is unacceptable.

In keeping with that long-held spirit of social justice and activism, Oberlin students should not discount this bill just because our institution gets off with only minor funding cuts. We are extremely privileged to attend a See Proposed Restrictions, page 7

AI Images Further Contribute to Misinformation Crisis

Sahil Novetzke Columnist

Last week, news sources far and wide spread speculative stories about former President Trump’s potential arrest. Despite the former president’s indictment for criminal activity Thursday, the initial spread of misinformation surrounding Trump’s arrest demonstrated the potency of social media, particularly artificial intelligence software.

Rumors circulated last week that Trump was to be arrested in Manhattan, but each day without updates prompted further online speculation from Trump supporters, media sites, and social media users who feared the potentially violent aftermath of the arrest. Reports from CNN, NBC, Fox News, and even the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, released before and after the date that Trump predicted he was to be arrested, articulated why the arrest could not have occurred and indicated that fears of the arrest were exaggerations of the truth: that a local investigation is being conducted into Trump’s past. But with Trump’s past inflammatory Twitter activity and his supporters’ unbridled devotion to him, the situation got out of hand. Through Twitter and other social media platforms, misinformation about Trump’s alleged arrest and possible reasons behind it spread rapidly, and people had very little time to process or unearth new information. Social media information can be spread in bite-size, one-post pieces. With such succinct, limited pieces of information, it’s easy to take this ostensible news as reliable, which can lead to the spread of misinformation.

What complicates this story

further, however, isn’t merely the misinformation of the falsely alleged arrest itself, nor the social media that was used to communicate the information. In a viral tweet last week, AI-generated images of Trump running from police, falling on the ground surrounded by officers, and even wearing an orange jumpsuit in a prison were circulated. These images, though now proven fake, looked very realistic. I saw these

images as soon as they went viral and believed, for a while, that they were real. These images, created with an AI software called Midjourney, were made by inputting a set of commands that indicated what the generated images should contain. The software itself is very easy to access — there are monthly subscription fees for extensive use, but it is free to generate up to 25 images.

This incident made it abundantly clear that multiple forms of digital information, working in concert, pose a great threat. First, the AI-generated images were generated and perfected — made to look as real as possible. Then, social media’s algorithms rapidly disseminated the information to thousands of people in a matter of days, and since social media is not a reliable platform for conducting research and verifying informa-

tion, many people believed the AI-generated images were real. While it may not initially seem like a big deal, Trump’s “fanbase” is large and works rapidly to escalate situations. Though Trump’s involvement in inciting violence on Jan. 6 is contested, it’s clear that his voting body quickly came to his defense and acted in a violent and dangerous manner. I visited New York City over spring break and heard much talk about barricades being set up and police officers being positioned in Manhattan to combat possible violence and outrage over the potential arrest.

This incident has clearly illuminated the importance of verifying information, but it also highlights the necessitation of further safeguards. The lines between social media and politics have become so blurred that, in recent years, politicians have started making official press-related announcements on social media. To combat further misinformation, the American government should try to implement additional safeguards on social media sites to prevent the algorithm from negatively impacting the American political landscape, as long as the safeguards do not too heavily restrict individual liberties. This is tricky, however, because social media conglomerates are incredibly powerful.

A transition to the digital era of politics, and a simultaneous adaptation of the way humans spread information, must be the responsibility of not just the government and the social media sites themselves, but of the people. Though it may seem arbitrary and insignificant, conducting one’s own research and not taking all information at face value is crucial.

Title IX Office Must Ensure Support for Survivors Post Doe v. Oberlin

the office and statistics, the court claimed to find evidence of discrimination in the office’s general “patterns of decision making.”

The purpose of my article is not to make a claim as to Doe’s guilt — or lack thereof — or whether his expulsion was justified, nor do I necessarily dispute that “irregularities” or misconduct were present in the handling of his case. I do, however, take issue with his claim of sex discrimination.

ual assault.

I believe in the veracity of Oberlin’s previous claim that “a very small minority of reported sexual assaults prove to be false reports.”

Cecily Miles Columnist

Doe v. Oberlin is in the news again. The most recent case was filed in 2020 by “John Doe,” a student at Oberlin College who was reported to the Title IX Office for sexual misconduct and who alleged that the office had engaged in various violations of federal due process, violations of Title IX, and violations of state tort laws. Doe was subsequently found by the Title IX Office not to have violated the Sexual Misconduct Policy, effectively nullifying his primary and premature argument that the office produced an “erroneous outcome,” and the case was dismissed. An appeal, which alleged that the office acted wrongfully in its investigation of him despite its

favorable findings, was returned to the lower courts just a month ago and is now available to be tried.

This case should sound familiar.

It is not the first Doe v. Oberlin, nor is it the first case in which Oberlin’s Title IX Office has been the subject of scrutiny raised by an accused student. A different “John Doe,” who was expelled by the College following an accusation of sexual assault, filed a suit asserting that the office had produced “an erroneous outcome in a student’s disciplinary proceeding because of the student’s sex” in 2017. Upon appeal, the student received a favorable opinion from the sixth circuit.

Based upon other apparent irregularities in the first Doe’s case, in tandem with explicit policies by

Cited in the opinion and employed in support of what the court asserts is a “plausible inference” of such discrimination is Oberlin’s instruction to its faculty, upon a revision of its Sexual Misconduct Policy in 2015, to “‘[b] elieve’ students who report sexual assault, because ‘a very small minority of reported sexual assaults prove to be false reports.’” Cited additionally in Doe’s complaint is that “during the very academic year in which Doe’s “‘responsibility’ was determined — ‘every single case’ that went to a hearing panel resulted in a decision that the accused was ‘responsible’ (i.e., guilty) on at least one charge.”

Doe’s particular case notwithstanding, this 100 percent responsibility rate does not strike me in and of itself as alarming, nor does it seem to me to be implausible. Rather, I take it to be reflective of the unfortunate prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses. That most, if not all, of the respondents were male in these cases is not, in my opinion, an indicator of a vendetta on the part of the office against male students but rather of the predominant demographic of perpetrators of sex-

I believe that reporters of sexual assault on campus, who might happen to be disproportionately female, should be taken seriously. No, the Title IX Office, which has a responsibility to both parties, should not neglect the rights of the accused in doing so. Yes, any reported sexual assault — including that by John Doe — could fall under the minority that prove to be false reports. Yes, the prospect of the Title IX Office finding responsibility on the part of an accused perpetrator where there is none is concerning.

But to suggest that what may very well be a misguided policy of believing accusations, no matter how dubious, to the extreme (if rare) extent that a clearly wrongfully accused student might be found responsible is the product of sex discrimination is to engage in a grave and dangerous distortion of the problem. As noted by Survivors of Sexual Harm and Allies, a student organization on campus dedicated precisely to the type of support for survivors that Title IX’s responsibility to accused students might otherwise inhibit it from providing, this notion ignores the reality that “anyone can be a victim — no matter their gender, sexual orientation, or age.”

I do not make a claim here to the particularities of Doe’s case, but neither is the court’s opinion based upon “‘a particularized causal connection’ between [a] flawed outcome and sex bias” in

his investigation. Oberlin’s blanket statement of support for students who report sexual assault does not support any variance in treatment of student reporters, and it should apply to all in practice. To only support female victims of sexual assault and only indict male perpetrators against female students would be to ignore a large swath of potential victims and to engage in sex discrimination of a different kind. If the aforementioned statistics of Oberlin’s responsibility rate are indicative of any misconduct on the part of the office, it is not that reports against male students are so often believed, but that potential non-male perpetrators are not accounted for.

If Oberlin has indeed erroneously found Doe, and perhaps other male students, to be responsible for the misconduct reported against them, I find the problem to be primarily an overzealousness in the Title IX Office’s attempts to secure justice for its female reporters. This certainly is wrong, though the Title IX Office should still retain its commitment to support for both them and accused students. The Title IX Office should apply the same vigor to its handling of other reports, an issue that I find more pressing and that I feel will be instrumental in implementing its express commitment to “maintaining a campus environment free from discrimination based on sex, gender identity, [and] gender expression.” In order to prevent these behaviors among its students, the office should first look toward its own conduct.

Photo courtesy of Eliot Higgins using Midjourney

Trump is arrested in an AI-genrated image.

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

The Title IX Office.

Effective Organization

Necessitates Call to Action

Proposed Restrictions Will Harm Academia

Continued from page 5

Emily Vaughan Opinions Editor

Earlier this month, the Oberlin Student Labor Action Coalition distributed a pamphlet around campus with information about the College’s layoff of 113 Campus Dining Services and custodial workers in 2020 and the specific stories and experiences of several of these workers. It provides a detailed timeline and overview of the layoffs themselves and the attempts by the labor union that represented the workers, United Auto Workers, to prevent them. The more interesting part of the pamphlet, however, centers the impacts of the layoffs, told through interviews with some of the workers who were laid off.

The quotes from the former workers and the narrative created by the interviews paints a painful picture of the impact of a large layoff such as this one. I found this insight to be the most valuable part of the pamphlet. Layoffs are bad. They have huge impacts on the lives of those laid off because, in the United States, the loss of a job means that, in addition to the loss of a much-needed salary, workers also lose benefits crucial to survival, such as health insurance. A reader of the pamphlet distributed by SLAC knows this, but knowing all of this is very different from hearing how exactly these losses affected the individuals who were laid off. I have been angry at the College’s decision to lay off these workers in favor of hiring subcontractors who sacrifice worker protection and benefits to keep costs low, since it happened when I was a prospective student. Reading this pamphlet and hearing directly from workers who were affected has made me angry all over again. What I don’t know now, though, is what I am supposed to do with this renewed anger over the College’s horrendous mistreatment of these workers and its continued layoffs in the name of outsourcing to get cheaper labor.

If the objective of this pamphlet is to simply raise awareness and educate the Oberlin student body, it certainly does an excellent job of doing that. I couldn’t help but wonder, though, if this was part of something bigger — and if so, then what? I felt that there was a glaring lack of any action items whatsoever, only barely teetering on providing anything that readers could do, but, in my opinion, ultimately falling short of doing so. While it does provide a list of upcoming expiring union contracts, it has no information on what steps students can take to support, and stand in solidarity with, workers as they, and their

unions, renegotiate their contracts in the next few years. It simply says “[t]hese dates provide a guide to potential layoffs as well as the opportunity to fight them,” and that an informed community “is vastly more prepared to combat anti-labor decisions.”

I understand that not every piece of writing needs a call to action and that, frequently, the role of organizational literature is to inform. That’s great, but what am I supposed to do with the information it contains? Effective organization not only provides an audience with information, but also tells the audience what they can do with said information without telling its readers what they should do, a crucial difference. After reading the SLAC pamphlet and digesting the information, I was somewhat at a loss for what I, as an individual, am supposed to do next. Was the purpose of this to get me mad at the College and its vague, amorphous administration? That ship sailed a while ago. And if the purpose was to convince me to take action, what am I supposed to do? Storming a meeting of the Board of Trustees has proven wildly ineffective, and unharnessed anger does nothing to help a movement.

This lack of a call to action has overall led me to doubt the efficacy of this campaign and this strategy of organizing. Combined with the fact that the pamphlet was released several weeks ago, I would expect to have seen at least a follow-up post on Instagram, but the organization has not posted anything about the pamphlet and its accompanying exhibit in Mary Church Terrell Main Library since they announced it in early March. If there is a long-term goal for this campaign, continued engagement is essential. At this moment, SLAC has an engaged audience. It can harness that audience and actually accomplish something if it organizes effectively in the following weeks and months.

I have found it hard to want to engage further with this campaign when I can’t find a longterm goal or action item within it. On its own, the pamphlet serves the sole purpose of being informative, but overall fails to truly engage its audience. I would like to see more concrete organizing surrounding the issues in the future. There are clearly opportunities coming up, some just around the corner, as are outlined in the list of upcoming expiring union contracts at the end of the pamphlet. At the end of the day, words and information can only do so much and go so far. Action is what is really needed to make a difference.

well-endowed private institution, and we must use that privilege to advocate for those who do not have the same opportunities. The majority of this bill targets state schools, which are the most accessible higher education options for lower-income students and those with other barriers to education. The bill directly names concepts such as climate change, immigration policy, marriage, abortion, allyship, diversity, social justice, sustainability, systemic racism, gender identity, equity, and inclusion as controversial issues, and prevents affected institutions and their faculty from commenting on these subjects publicly or showing bias in the classroom. In 2022, there were 65,795 enrolled students at The Ohio State University alone. Under this bill, that would be 65,795 students who couldn’t legally be taught scientific findings on climate change, 65,795 students who could not legally take a gender and sexuality studies class, and 65,795 students who could not be legally taught a complete version of our nation’s history with regard to race. That number represents just one out of the 37 institutions that would fall under the scope of this bill. This lack of access to adequate education will harm all of us. Think of the students impacted

by the bill not just as college kids or graduate students but as our future healthcare workers, mental health professionals, teachers, policymakers, or any other profession that affects our community. This bill would create a wave of professionals lacking a holistic education about race, gender, the environment, and other important issues and would send them into communities around the state, almost certainly including ones that Oberlin students interact with on a daily basis. Oberlin is not completely isolated from the world around it, and even if our roughly 3,000 students are protected by our finances and our status as a private institution, hundreds of thousands of others in the communities that we are part of will not be. As community members, we have an obligation to stand up for their right to a comprehensive education and for our community’s access to professionals who have received one.

Finally, the Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act is filled with other proposals that would, in fact, diminish the educational environment in this state. There are sections of the bill prohibiting any institutional interaction with educational institutions in China or associated countries, as well as donations from “any organization or individual who may be acting

on behalf of the People’s Republic of China, including a student or a student’s family member.” This is blatant sinophobia, and it will decrease opportunities for cultural exchange by creating a hostile environment for Chinese students at affected institutions. It also sends the message that the state of Ohio is not a safe place for Chinese people in general, which, as an institution located in Ohio, we should vehemently oppose.

At the same time, SB 83 states that institutions “shall not treat, advantage, disadvantage, or segregate any faculty, staff, or students by membership in groups defined by characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.” So, while state institutions must discriminate against people potentially associated with China, they cannot have affinity groups, scholarships that pertain to any listed group. The bill also adds employees of state institutions of higher education to the list of public employees for whom it is illegal to strike, a move that decreases workers’ rights and, therefore, schools’ abilities to provide the best education possible. Overall, this bill will cause harm, and I urge all Oberlin students to read it for themselves and to take action against it.

Support of Palestine Is Not Antisemitism

Continued from page 5

to the problem plaguing Palestine as much as anyone, but it is unhelpful to maintain the current centrism that decries both sides as equally responsible. Those who value human rights must support the Palestinian people and work toward breaking down the meritless argument that opposing Israel is antisemitic.

Such an assertion is based on an assumption that Israel and Judaism are one and the same, or, barring that, that all those who oppose Israel harbor a hatred of the Jewish people which their anti-Zionist sentiment stems

from. Hatred of Jews is a widespread and dangerous poison, but anti-Zionism is, at its core, a form of anticolonialism, not antisemitism.

Denying the Palestinian people the right to exist or supporting those actively working to erase Palestinian existence is nothing more than complacency with a racist settler-colonial regime. If progressives are true to their word, then support for both Jewish and Palestinian people’s rights should be widespread. Jews and Palestinians are not diametrically opposed, and support for one is not mutually exclusive with support for the other. But, to claim

EDITORIAL COMIC

Molly Chapin Staff Illustrator

to care about justice and equality while supporting Israel’s occupation is entirely hypocritical. We Palestinians are humans, not cockroaches to be crushed by settlers who want nothing more than for us to cease to exist. Progressives, Jews, Muslims, Christians, agnostics, atheists, and everyone in between must find within themselves the courage to speak out about and condemn the crimes Israel has committed and continuously upholds. No good can come of a world that does not maintain, at the very least, that human beings deserve to live in peace and security regardless of where or to whom they are born.

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

SLAC’s latest pamphlet and accompanying exhibit about Oberlin’s 2020 mass layoff was relased this March.

ARTS & CULTURE

AMAM Revises Mission Statement, Emphasizes Accessibility and Adaptability

Tate van der Poel Staff Writer

“A Deep Heritage, A Dynamic Future: Community, Creativity, and a Culture of Care,” reads the title of the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s new five-year strategic plan. The plan which includes an updated mission statement, values statements, and vision statement , was approved last month by Dean Kamitsuka as part of the AMAM’s ongoing process of routine re-accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums.

The new mission statement, updated for the first time since 2006, reads, “The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College inspires curiosity, inquiry, learning, and connection through experiences with original works of art for the broadest audience possible, both on campus and beyond.”

At 31 words, the new statement is less than half as long as its 85word predecessor. Dr. Andria Derstine, John G.W. Cowles director of the AMAM, said that the change is reflective of a trend toward shorter, more accessible mission statements. The strategy outlined in the statements is a product of the pedagogical reckoning museums worldwide have faced in recent years.

“It used to be that museums put information on labels, and they would have speakers come in and speak,” Derstine said. “Certainly, we do that, but it’s not a one-way flow of information from the museum to you. It’s now explicitly a two-way flow of information.”

The document reflects a renewed dedication to institutional evolution and community collaboration.

“For many years, … the Allen has been very receptive to the community — we’ve tried to be that way,” Derstine said.

The AMAM’s Curator of Academic Programs, Hannah Wirta Kinney, also highlighted the focus on collaboration in recent initiatives.

“[They are] indicative of how the museum is really seriously integrating different perspectives and allowing them to open up how we’re thinking about our work,” Kinney said.

One such initiative is Shared Art. Since the start of the program in 2021, AMAM staff have selected one work of art from the collection to be a starting point for conversation among incoming students. Through Shared Art and other initiatives such as exhibit focus groups held by Sam

Adams, Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Allen is trying to adopt a community-based approach, now formally outlined in the mission statement.

Knowing the AMAM reaccreditation process was on the horizon, early work on the strategic plan began in the fall of 2020.

“I started thinking about … how were we going to go through this process in a way that was inclusive, so every single staff member of the museum was going to be involved,” Derstine said. “We also wanted to involve faculty, some students, community members … We wanted to invite a lot of stakeholders of the museum … to be part of the process.”

The core group responsible for the plan was the Strategic Planning Committee, comprised of AMAM staff members Derstine, Kinney, Eric and Jane Nord Family curator of education Jill

Daisy Jones & The Six Captures Tiktok Obsession with ’70s Culture

Eloise Rich This Week Editor

I read Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones & The Six over Winter Term. The novel had dotted my social media feeds for the past three years, from BookTok to Goodreads recommendations, but I was quick to turn it down, time and time again. Ultimately, I needed a poolside read, and I figured there was nothing better than a fabricated oral history of a ’70s rock group. Admittedly, there’s an air of pretentiousness in the reluctance with which I picked up Daisy Jones in the first place, even more so with the televised adaptation. I’m happy I did, though.

The 1970s in film and literature have entranced me ever since my father introduced me to Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused right before I entered high school; Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous, golden gods and all, were soon to follow. When the pandemic hit and my self-expression began to flourish, I read Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, which is by far the most accurate depiction of the era, given Maupin was actually writing about his own scene in the fictionalized series. Each piece of media was distinctly its own, yet they were

united by fashion, music, and colloquialisms that I just adored. From fast-paced high school drama to rock and roll, it was as if I was witnessing people I could aspire to be, drenched in that kitschy air of romanticization that inched closer and closer to fetishization.

The question that these pieces of media present is how do I, or anyone who wasn’t alive during that era, determine whether or not a piece is a good representation of a culture I did not experience firsthand.

The Guardian has published a plethora of articles since Daisy Jones started coming out, each one making some proclamation as to why the show fails to faithfully represent southern California rockstar culture. It’s criticism upon criticism: “Daisy Jones & the Six review – not even Elvis’s grandkid can save this 70s rock’n’roll saga” or “Why Amazon’s Daisy Jones & the Six is missing that star quality.”

I, too, have trouble giving Daisy Jones the same merit as any of the aforementioned pieces of media. In part, it’s because the show is a high-quality Amazon production. It doesn’t have the grainy charm where you can imagine that everyone filming it was wearing the same bell-bottoms as the fashionable teenagers and rock stars depicted, but

it’s not like Almost Famous was low-budget.

Daisy Jones, airing 45 years after it’s set, dresses its characters in outfits that look like you could find them on SHEIN. In part, Suki Waterhouse, Riley Keough, and Camila Morrone are ultimately just “nepotism babies” and look like the ideal “TikTokified” “niche Internet microcelebrity.”

I know I’m not the first to say the music in the series sucks. The titular rock band’s song “The River” is a clear homage to Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” in both how it sounds and the way it’s filmed, but the result feels inauthentic.

There was an anticipated resurgence of ’70s culture when the Daisy Jones series came out earlier this month, particularly in the fashion realms of TikTok and Instagram, and viewers were greeted with Free People brand deals with influencers and how-to guides for the best rockstar outfits.

Interest in ’70s culture is fueled by the accessibility of clothing now. Fast fashion companies quickly generate a plethora of clothing at any one trend’s demand for cheap prices, even if they do so through corrupt business practices. Additionally, the digitization of vintage shopping has increased the convenience of purchasing outfits imbued with nostalgia.

Fashion cycles are circulating

Greenwood, former curator of European and American art Alexandra Letvin, and Katherine Solender, OC ’77.

According to Derstine, a key change in the new mission statement is “strategic emphasis on connections with other people in the community,” along with a focus on care.

“Not just literally care for the objects … but care for the community, and care for our connections with the community,” Derstine added.

Kinney believes that the emphasis on care is the result various social movements in the past couple years.

“I think we all became more aware of care and what care means, and what care looks like, and how it looks to different people, different perspectives,” Kinney said.

One notable example of “care” in the strategic plan is an item on the list of values:

“Acquiring, presenting, and caring for the objects in our collection based on the best practices of our field, and in dialogue with source communities,” Kinney explained. “We never thought we knew everything. Museum people never think, like, ‘We have the ultimate answer,’ this is just part of how museums present information that I think has this kind of barrier, opaqueness to it. But these [statements] are just putting out these values in different ways and saying, ‘These are things that we’ve believed, and now they’re just here for you to understand that these are who we are behind this facade.’” Derstine aims for visitors to identify with what they find behind the facade.

“I just hope that people will feel more comfortable and feel like they’re a part of the museum, whether they felt like that before or never felt like that before,” she said.

faster because of fast fashion. However, what the ’70s has to offer over many other decades is that its greater subversiveness — not only is it further back than the 1990s and Y2K, but it’s embellished with radical social movements, mindsets, and slogans that are easily commodified.

Something within me wants to gatekeep my vintage dresses, pants, and general music taste; and yet, that would only contribute to this commodification of the ’70s, making it possible for anyone to declare they were born in the wrong generation and are

more of a “groupie flower child” than others.

Despite its flaws, there is still much to love about Daisy Jones Jenkins Reid’s storytelling is phenomenal and the dynamics she produces between each and every character are enthralling. Daisy Jones can just be entertaining and plotless as Dazed and Confused is. They both play Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion.” It’s the Chateau Marmont in episode four versus the opening credits of high school parking lots full of cool cars and passed joints. Ultimately, TikTok can stay obsessed.

The release of Daisy Jones & the Six earlier this month brought a resurgence in interest in ’70s culture.

Photo courtesy of Pamela Littky

The Allen Memorial Art Museum has adopted a new mission statement.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Michelangelo Lovelace’s These Urban City Streets is the Shared Art piece for the class of 2026. Photo courtesy of the Allen Memorial Art Museum

Oberlin Students Receive Award for Theater Renovation Project

“A Memory”

Loie Schiller

Sometimes I lie awake at night and dream I think of all the things I left behind: the whispering woods, the ivy creeping green, the little stones and fossils I would find. The ponds with names given to match our own and little snail shells floating on the top I’d wade in to see how the plants had grown –Sometimes I wish the memories would stop. We’d splash around and build dams in the creek catching frogs and skeeters in our fingers. The trees around us echoing our shrieks, the shy ghosts of which still seem to linger. And now, no matter how hard I may strive, Never again will I feel so alive.

Loie Schiller is a College first-year and prospective English major. She wrote “A Memory” about her childhood growing up in rural Iowa surrounded by 200 acres of forest in the beautiful Driftless Area. She wrote this sonnet in 2020 during her sophomore year of high school, after moving for the first time in her life. The poem is about childhood, nostalgia, and desire for simpler times.

On March 15, two Oberlin College students traveled to St. Louis for the annual United States Institute for Theater Technology Conference. The conference was a threeday-long event featuring educational sessions, an expo floor with master’s degree programs, companies currently hiring, and companies selling products related to theater technology.

While College first-year Andrew McCraken and College second-year Nelson Gutsch happily took advantage of all that the conference had to offer, their primary purpose for attending was to participate in the biannual American Society of Theater Consultation USITT Venue Renovation Challenge. This took place on Friday, March 17. To begin the day, the students met with their ASTC consultant Howard Glickman, OC ’92.

“He’s a theater consultant professionally and has done many jobs that have actually executed plans like this, so he had a lot of insight on what we needed to be thinking about and how to make this project successful,” Gutsch said.

Clearly the students’ hard work and Glickman’s assistance paid off, as Oberlin College placed second in the challenge, winning the USITT Director’s Award.

McCraken and Gutsch were part of a group of six students who worked on the renovation project. This consisted of College

first-year Ansel Mills, College second-year Leanne O’Donnell, College first-year Charley Davis, and College second-year Nova Gomez. Gutsch, the leader of the group, described the project as “an initial pitch meeting” for a theoretical theater renovation. Students were tasked with finding a theater space on campus, investigat-

ing it, and proposing hypothetical improvements.

The Oberlin team chose Hall Auditorium. McCraken explained that “it was built in the ʼ50s, and it was built as a concert and recital hall, so it’s designed for acoustics.” This makes it difficult to use theatrically, leading the group to realize its great potential for renovations. Gutsch detailed the five different aspects of their proposed improvements. The first three proposals were purely for the benefit of productions. The group wanted to raise the roof over the stage, so curtains could be brought all the way out without being in sight of the audience. Additionally, they would fix lighting positions over the audience for better aesthetics and easier access. They also wanted to add a sound booth to the back of the house.

The two renovations take into account broader concerns. Because Hall Auditorium was built before the Americans with Disabilities Act, it isn’t compliant with current accessibility codes. The group also wanted to focus on sustainability.

“[We switched] over our lighting to LED to draw less power [and then reused] some of that power and putting it into motorized fly lines over the stage to bring in scenery and curtains,” Gutsch said.“[We left] space for a new HVAC system and any other mechanical systems we would need in the future … to be able to incorporate other environmentally sustainable systems.”

McCraken pointed out the unique nature of theater architecture.

“It’s totally different from other types of architecture just because of the nature of a theatrical space — there’s completely different code compliance requirements, totally different needs,” he said.

“By doing this project, I have now learned a whole other part of how

to see a space and how to see its capabilities and drawbacks.”

While Gutsch recognized the specificity of theater architecture, he noted that on the other hand, it has broader applications as well.

“It’s super useful in pretty much everything else I do,ˮ he said. “Getting … knowledge of how to build a set can also translate to a certain extent into practical knowledge. Learning about theater architecture; a lot of it is niche and specific to performance spaces, but a lot of it is applicable to any architecture.”

Theater technology can be a foundation for a number of jobs and careers as well. Gutsch is a Theater major, and McCraken intends to declare a Theater major. Both of them have a technical focus. They both offered praise for the ability to pursue theater technology at Oberlin, despite the fact that Oberlin isn’t particularly well known for that program. He said that this semester alone, he’s been able to do lighting design, sound design, sound mixing, run crew, and electrical work.

“Oberlin has a huge amount of theater kids and actors who want to do their own shows, and not a lot of tech kids,” McCracken said.

“[With 16 theater productions, there is] a huge amount of opportunity to just do design. By doing, you’re learning.”

Gutsch had similar feedback, pointing out that the Kander Lab Series is student-run and that there are a number of organizations on campus that support technology, such as Concert Sound or the Student Lighting & Sound Association. Additionally, he wanted to make clear that any student interested in learning about theater technology at Oberlin should feel free to reach out to him and that he would be more than happy to help them get involved.

Lucy Curtis Staff Writer

Bottom photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor Top right photo courtesy of Oberlin College Top left photo courtesy of Millennium Forums

The Irene and Alan Wurtzel Theater is one of Oberlin’s many performance spaces. Students designed a theoretical renovation for the Hall Auditorium, located within the same complex, for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology conference.

Dlisah Lapidus Arts & Culture Editor

Al Evangelista is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, choreographer, and assistant professor of Dance. His work focuses on social justice, queer and Filipinx identity, and technology. He is currently choreographing a performance for this semester’s Spring Back event, exploring movement in spaces and working with audio about recent legislation restricting freedoms for transgender people. Evangelista recently contributed to the Dance Studies Association’s Chats issue and is on the advisory board for the newly established Institute for Empathetic Immersive Narrative at Virginia Tech.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You are choreographing a performance for Spring Back; tell me about your process conceptualizing this work and what we can expect. This choreography came from thinking through all the legislation that’s happening. The audio that’s coming through the work is from the Senate floor and the news, which we are also incorporating into a drag performance. So we start with this idea of what is happening in the world, and then an actual drag performance happens on stage, which may soon be illegal for children to watch in multiple states. There will be six dancers, and there are two parts to my work. The first part of the work is listening to archival audio recordings or news clips, and then the performers will be on stage going into a drag persona while the other dancers on stage move around them. I think the core question of that work is: Can we still find empowerment for transformation?

You recently contributed to the Dance Studies Association’s Chats issue. What was this issue about?

Al

Evangelista Assistant Professor of Dance

The Chats issue actually started as an Oberlin class. When I started working at Oberlin during the pandemic, it was against COVID-19 safety guidelines for us to be next to each other. That really introduced the question, “How do you perform when you can’t even be next to each other?” It started as a class, and then continued to grow as those restrictions went away. At one point, we were hyper-aware of being in space with one another, and now that has kind of gone away. But I continued thinking about how we can think about being together. Also, what are the community-building practices that we had in social digital spaces? That’s where the Chats issue went. There are some lovely contributions from people who were thinking about moving during the pandemic and moving with people through technology. The core question is, where are bodies in digital space? And then literally, through augmented reality, we can visualize that. Chats is something that we’re trying to figure out how to bring to Oberlin in the future.

Tell me about your work on the advisory board of the Institute for Empathetic Immersive Narrative.

The Institute for Empathetic Immersive Narrative is this really cool project that’s happening at Virginia Tech, which I feel very fortunate to be invited into. They’re thinking about how we can get stories from the community told in different ways, through technology, that are truly accessible. Right now we’re in the planning stages, asking, who are we inviting? What technologies are we using? What artists are going to be able to use those technologies? How do we make sure they can use it? We are trying to honor how we can make this a community-based project in a real community.

You worked with augmented

reality in your 2023 work, places i can’t dance. How did you connect movement and technology to create this work?

For places i can’t dance, I started with a motion capture of me dancing in my driveway. There were three cameras around me, capturing all the movement. Then I fed the footage through a software to pick up on the movements, designed my avatar, and now I am able to place myself somewhere. For this project, I put myself in places I can’t dance. So there’s digital nowhere, Encinitas, California, where there was a dancing ban. There are still places, like New York City, where dancing in public is still restricted. My mainstage show last year was based on the 1904 World’s Fair and the human zoo, because the largest exhibit featured people from the Philippines. There were so many — what they called natives — that were on display. So by placing my avatar here, I am asking, what does it mean for me to dance at the 1904 World’s Fair? A really fun thing about this project is that you can place me in your own space.

I’m interested in this hyperawareness that we had of spaces in 2020 and the conversation about who’s taking up space and who’s allowed to take up space. I think about it a lot in terms of invisibility. Who’s taking up space but doesn’t know it, or who is actually in the space with us that we don’t see? That’s a big theme through all of this. In the 1904 World’s Fair, there was a 12-year-old named Antero Cabrera, who was known for singing America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee).” He toured the United States, including the White House, after the World’s Fair. I think of the spaces that he was in that hold the echoes of his performance, spaces that we have forgotten. I guess it’s a project of remembrance.

Photo courtesy of Al Evangelista

Multidisciplinary artist and Assistant Professor of Dance Al Evangelista recently contributed to the Dance Studies Association’s Chats issue.

Shrinking Aces Comedy in Emotionally Stirring First Season on Apple TV+

Kushagra Kar Editor-in-Chief

Jason Segel hasn’t actually been involved in anything noteworthy since How I Met Your Mother aired its finale nine years ago. Given the drought of — and frankly, lack of demand for — performances from Segel, I’ve found it easy to relegate him to indefinite irrelevance. Similarly, I haven’t bothered with anything starring Harrison Ford since Star Wars: The Force Awakens and, for all intents and purposes, consider him past his prime. Burdened with these opinions of fantastic indifference, I confess that I am not the target audience Apple TV+ had in mind when producing its new series Shrinking, which costars Segel and Ford. A show led by two older white actors whose best work was seemingly behind them just didn’t seem up my alley. Yet, despite the potential for alienation, I loved every moment of Shrinking

Based on the strangely popular comedy TV premise of a widower attempting to navigate life one year after his wife’s death, Shrinking follows Segel as a therapist at rock bottom. When the audience is introduced to Segel’s Jimmy, he is ankle-deep in drugs, depression, and a steady flow of sex workers. His relationships with his daughter, neighbor, best friend, coworkers, and mentors are nearly tattered beyond repair. In desperate need of a win, he gives one of his patients an ultimatum demanding that she either leave her husband or find a different therapist. Deciding not to heed the warnings of his boss and confidant, Ford’s Dr. Paul Rhodes, Jimmy becomes increasingly heavy-handed with his patients in an attempt to set their lives in order. Through their seeming improvement, Jimmy regains some of his own confidence and turns a corner in rebuilding his life.

While the show is essentially a comedy, it has the sensibility to deal with the heavier sides of its subject matter with gravity and allows space for each actor to

deliver a tour de force of a performance. Segel showcased an unsurprisingly on-point comedic talent, but more notably had the opportunity to flex his dramatic range. He excellently portrayed the grief and growing desperation of a man at his lowest and thrived in the subtleties of his character. Switching between infectiously hilarious and drowning in sorrow on a dime, Segel brought more to the show than I expected him to and held the lead role with immaculate poise. What makes the performance especially noteworthy is Segel’s ability to hold his own against a veteran like Ford, who even now can pull off a cool, charismatic, instantly likable character with a heavy on-screen presence. Segel manages to be enigmatic with an inherent magnetism and enviable capacity for seeming within his comfort zone when faced with the toughest dramatic conditions. Ford is at his peak, Segel doesn’t miss a beat in their on-screen partnership, and together they make a series that successfully speaks to me in unexpected ways.

An unfortunate byproduct of such likable characters is that it becomes easy to ignore some of their more problematic tendencies. For instance, the entire show is predicated on a series of grossly unethical decisions by Jimmy, most of which are wrapped up in a tidy and fundamentally positive bow by the season finale. While some characters push back against Jimmy’s approach, he is mostly forgiven and more often lauded for his meddling. For example, one of his patients ends up kissing him, and, meanwhile, he takes a veteran with PTSD and anger issues to kickboxing classes when talking doesn’t seem to work. This critique may be extratextual, but Jimmy is an awful therapist who is somewhat venerated by his patients in a toxic equation that goes largely unacknowledged within the show. Given the weight the show gives these therapy sessions and mental health in general, it expects the audience to be serious

about this discourse. Obviously, the audience knows the trouble with Jimmy’s choices, but I still found myself wishing for a therapist that would turn up in my home to give me the solutions to my problems. It may be an innocuous desire for a more direct therapist, but it is less than ideal to foster public expectations of effective therapy as something so inappropriately involved. For a show with three therapists at the heart of the story, the production severely undermines what therapy is really about. This doesn’t detract from the watchability of the series, but at the same time, it does stir some amount of discomfort in me as a viewer. Maybe the discomfort is an intentional choice by the showrunners, but, as it stands, that isn’t apparent in the writing.

Issues aside, it is worth noting that my enjoyment of this first

CROSSWORD

season was augmented by the excellent work of the supporting cast. Arguably the highlight of the show in her best moments, Lukita Maxwell’s Alice is entertaining and compelling as a teenager navigating a complex network of friendship, desire, family relations, and mental health. A testament to Maxwell’s range is her ability to play soulful mourning in both comedic and dramatic tones, and the juxtaposition of the two often confronts the audience with a kind of emotional whiplash that makes it impossible to look away. I didn’t care much for most of the subplots, but the budding friendship between Christa Miller and Jessica Williams’ characters, Liz and Gaby, was overflowing with chemistry. Both characters go on their individual emotional journeys over the season, but they never get as much narrative attention as their

ACROSS

1. In math, dy/dx

5. Viral line from Pearl (2022): “Please, I’m a ___!”

7. 10-sided 3D shape

10. With 5-across, famous song by Smash Mouth

11. Blind earthbender from Avatar: The Last Airbender

12. Canada’s pastime

14. Killer whale

15. Birds representing Athena

16. Burt’s buzzers

17. What you spill while gossiping

18. Monster in Beowulf

21. League of Legends World Championship 2018 theme song

24. First component of SOHCAHTOA, in trig

25. Smudge

26. Bane of the vegan vampire

27. Girls, informally

29. Jump out of a plane

31. ___: The Gathering

34. Home of the University of Virginia

performances warrant. Overall, the best moments in the show were when two or more of the supporting characters, especially Maxwell, Miller, and Williams, got involved in some kind of banter. Given the likelihood of a second season, I hope to see more scenes involving various combinations of these supporting characters, with significantly more emphasis on their narratives over Jimmy’s plotline.

I have to commend Shrinking for what it is: entertaining, witty, and well directed, with quality acting and great music. It’s a show I intend to rewatch, with a first season that I would advise anyone with Apple TV+ to bump to the top of their watchlist. It is the kind of show that is worth investigating its problematic aspects, and something I see Oberlin students appreciating for its themes, humor, and discourse.

DOWN

1. Skipping school

2. Daily browser game featuring a Wikipedia article

3. Large animal related to goats and sheep native to Asia

4. They killed the radio star

5. California county where ranch dressing was first sold commercially

6. Home of the Mayo Clinic

8. Large deer

9. Nearest airport to Oberlin

13. Sing with rapid changes between normal and falsetto voice

17. Final component of SOHCAHTOA

19. A beer hall or restaurant in a basement, for short

20. Suburb of New York where artist Edward Hopper was born

22. Sick

23. What the imposter is, in meme culture

24. Substance that dissolves a solute

26. Picturesque

28. Ancient yellow pigment

29. Cell body of a neuron

30. Southern counterpart of “yinz”

32. The organ in a fish that allows it to breathe

33. Middle component of SOHCAHTOA

Leah Burdette, Robert Lanpher, Shane Beckwith

Jason Segel and Harrison Ford star in Shrinking. Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

Selected Narratives of Prominent Oberlin Women

Eloise Rich This Week Editor

Oberlin provides a space where a variety of narratives can be cultivated and flourish during and after each student’s time here. To celebrate Women’s History Month, the Review presents three women, each distinct from one another and each as accomplished as any other, as so many Oberlin graduates are.

The selected figures include Shirley Graham Du Bois and Ruth Anna Fisher, notable Black graduates, and the more contemporary Lena Dunham, someone who is quite different from the aforementioned two, yet still represents the repertoire of impressive graduates Oberlin produces.

Ruth Anna Fisher (1886–1975)

Ruth Anna Fisher was born in Lorain County. She graduated from Oberlin in 1906 and taught at a collection of places post-graduation, beginning at the Tuskegee Institute and afterwards at schools in both Lorain and Indianapolis.

Additionally, Fisher was involved in the Young Women’s Christian Association in New York City, which led her to a year of graduate work at the London School of Economics in 1920, largely due to her growing awareness of the differences between Black experiences in the United States and in Europe.

She worked alongside historian J. Franklin Jameson, who she met in London, with The American Historical Review and researched documents for the Carnegie Institution. In 1927, after many years of work with the Carnegie projects, Fisher worked in the Library of Congress, supervising artifacts of American history within British archives.

Fisher’s work with the archives included her noticing that she was perhaps the only woman from a foreign country with a key to the British Museum, a lofty feat considering she was a Black woman in the mid-twentieth century.

Fisher was close with W.E.B. Du Bois — the two wrote to one another often, generally reflecting on differences in treatment based on race between the U.S. and Europe, including statements that characterized the Ku Klux Klan as similar to the Nazi Party. By and large, Fisher was far from fond of the United States, her return here forced due to the bombing of London during the second World War.

Aside from her work regarding African-American women, Fisher more broadly became a figure in the professionalization of history as a field that was nonetheless still obstructed by racism and sexism.

Shirley Graham Du Bois (1896–1977)

Shirley Graham Du Bois grew up in Indianapolis as the only daughter in a family of five children, making it almost fitting that she was to end up at the Oberlin Conservatory in 1931, just short of 100 years after the school admitted its first four women students.

Graham Du Bois’ time at Oberlin centered around music — before attending Oberlin, she was the head of the music department at Morgan College in Maryland, a music librarian while she was an unofficial student at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and, even before that, a student of musical composition at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Like Fisher, Graham Du Bois was acquainted with W.E.B. Du Bois, the main difference being that she and Du Bois married in 1951 when she was 54 and he was 83 years old.

Outside of her intimate life, Graham Du Bois was a successful composer as well as a playwright and writer, her works featuring the Black experience

Lena Dunham grew up in New York City, spending her summers in Connecticut. She graduated from Oberlin in 2008 with a degree in Creative Writing.

Both Dunham’s adolescence and her time at Oberlin were dominated by artistic endeavors ranging from writing to filmmaking, a medium that female predecessors like Fisher and Graham Du Bois didn’t have quite the same access to without YouTube — a platform Dunham utilized heavily while at Oberlin — in order to self-publish her films.

As a white woman, Dunham experiences a certain amount of privilege within her art so she is able to utilize sexual liberation as a feminist act — a theme throughout almost all her work. This is in part due to contemporary attitudes, but also her existence as a white woman, which allows her to satirize art through perversity without fear.

Her most recognized success comes with Girls, which premiered on HBO in 2012. Girls was written to ideally lay foundations for women similar to Dunham and perhaps future Oberlin peers who seek out New York City, female friendships, and that post-graduate lifestyle. Girls is controversial, and yet it has so far withstood the test of time, simply because it is so uninhibited.

Dunham is a writer, too, though her written work is much lesser known. Most notably, she co-created a feminist newsletter titled Lenny Letter with Jenni Konner that was initially supported by Hearst Corporation and later Condé Nast. Although the online newsletter no longer exists due to a combination of accusations of racism against Dunham and a decline in subscribers, it was an important endeavor nonetheless and served as evidence of her feminist ideologies.

throughout history and her novels in particular portraying noteworthy African Americans for the benefit of elementary-school-aged children’s education.

Graham Du Bois was a proponent of communism, and the ideology impacted her work. Some time after Oberlin, she worked with the Federal Theatre Project, a New Deal program coming out of the Great Depression with the intent of funding artistic performances across the U.S. that was eventu-

ally shut down by a collection of white supremacists, racists, Nazi sympathizers, and anti-communists.

Graham Du Bois’ work is vast and nearly impossible to capture within the span of a few hundred words, as she floated between a grand number of organizations combating racism, imperialism, capitalism, and colonialism. She floated about the world, too, having citizenship not only in the United States but also in Ghana and Tanzania at the time of her death.

Photo by Lena Dunham

Shirley Graham Du Bois looks off in the distance as her portrait is taken.

Photo courtesy of Shirley Graham Du Bois Papers

The College Archives features Ruth Anna Fisher’s yearbook photo.

Photo courtesy of Oberlin College Archives

A shoot for The Guardian spotlights Lena Dunham dressed in pink.

Photo courtesy of The Guardian

Shirley Graham Du Bois sits with W.E.B. Du Bois at Coney Island.

Photo courtesy of Shirley Graham Du Bois Papers

Lena Dunham poses to take a mirror selfie in the Wilder Hall bathroom.

Lena Dunham (born 1986)

CONSERVATORY

Bryan Rubin and Ben Steger

Entrepreneurs, Co-Founders of Virtu.Academy

Conservatory Admissions Shifts Back to In-Person Auditions in New Format

Delaney Fox Conservatory Editor

This past January, the Conservatory hosted in-person auditions for the first time in three years. This year’s auditions took place from Jan. 25–28 in a four-day, on-campus event filled with student performances, information sessions, and campus tours. An additional date in February supplemented the January audition event specifically for international students, who often complete all of their auditions in one trip.

How did Oberlin prepare you to be business owners?

Oberlin alumni Bryan Rubin and Ben Steger, OC ’18, co-founded Virtu.Academy, a virtual space that connects music teachers with students, in 2018. This business was boosted by Oberlin’s LaunchU competition for entrepreneurs, which is starting up again this year. Rubin and Steger returned to Oberlin Thursday to share their story and give advice to other budding entrepreneurs.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Where did the idea for Virtu. Academy come from, and how did it come to fruition?

Ben Steger: Originally, I was thinking that we have so many really talented musicians here, and for people who want to teach a little bit more and gain that experience, there’s not a ton of opportunities to teach around Oberlin. At the same time, through LaunchU, we were talking to schools in rural communities around Ohio where the nearest music teacher for any instrument was two hours away.

We thought, well, we have all this talent at Oberlin and all of these students who don’t have access to music lessons. Originally we called it ObieTeach, and it was just going to be some students at Oberlin who would teach. Once people graduated, it spread around different conservatories, and we now have people all over the world teaching.

Does Virtu.Academy offer any other resources besides private lessons?

BS: Yeah, something newer we’ve been experimenting with lately is virtual classes. All of our teachers have different passions and things that they’re super excited about, so it’s an opportunity for them to just come up with an idea for a class. There’s been classes around marketing — the business side of music — as well as jazz history and all sorts of subjects. We also have a blog section, which is still in progress. Hopefully we’ll have some more interviews with well-known musicians and some of our own teachers.

Bryan Rubin: We wouldn’t be here without Oberlin. Especially with the LaunchU program, which is one of the reasons we’re coming back to talk — because they’re rebooting it. I think Oberlin really helps because you get this liberal arts education, so you’re not focused on just one thing. When we started the business, I came from more of the arts side of things, and Ben had a finance and mathematics background, so we really worked well together. I was able to use things that I did from my photo and video classes at Oberlin and translate that into marketing in creative ways that I thought I would never really be able to do.

BS: Another aspect of it is when you’re running a business and it’s just two people, you have to be the marketing person and the developer and the finance person. You have all of these different roles that you have to play before you can afford to actually hire people. I think the liberal arts experience at Oberlin helps prepare you for all the crazy stuff you have to learn really quickly, versus if you went to a business school and only knew the finance side of it.

BR: This is something we’ll touch on in the talk we’re giving, but when we won the grant from LaunchU, we didn’t give up everything and go full-time with Virtu. Academy. We went down our paths that we were going down at Oberlin already. I worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, doing photo and video work with the Environmental Studies degree that I had. I think there’s a misconception that you have to drop everything if you have a business idea and go all in, whereas we slowly worked on it over the weekends and nights after our actual jobs that provided our income. That allowed us to continue to work on it without having to stress out about getting funding.

Do you think that entrepreneurship is important for Conservatory students in particular?

BS: Well, there’s just a lot of different career paths that I think people don’t know about. You could graduate with a music degree and want to do some per-

forming, but then you have some ideas for something like an arts nonprofit, or maybe you want to work with another company. Having a more entrepreneurial mindset where you’re willing to start things and run with it gives you a lot more options as a professional artist.

Is there anything you wish Oberlin had better prepared you for?

BS: I definitely think there should be more focus on the music business side of things. We only really got that side of it from the LaunchU program, so I’m really glad to hear that they’re starting to launch more entrepreneurship stuff, because that’s essential. Unless you graduate and get, say, an orchestra job right away, you probably need some networking skills.

What advice do you have for starting a business with a music degree?

BS: As Bryan said before, if you have an idea, grow it out organically. Now, there are so many resources out there for starting a business without spending a ton of money. You can build a website and register a company for under $100. Also, being resourceful and willing to figure out some other ways to start up, rather than taking the traditional entrepreneurship route, is helpful.

BR: This allows you to take more risks with it, too. Because again, it’s not your life yet. If something doesn’t work, oh well, try again. That’s what it was like in the beginning for us. We would spend late nights trying these different ads or different weird ideas, and it didn’t work. That was fine because we still had our jobs. Once we kind of got into a groove with trial and error, we knew what to expect if we could just jump off a ledge. But it’s no longer a ledge, you know, it’s just a little hill.

Any goals for the future of Virtu.Academy?

BS: We just want to keep growing it as much as we can. We’re now starting to work with school districts and big tutoring organizations. That’s definitely one of the big focuses now — expanding from just selling lessons to individual families to working with school districts and larger strategic partnerships like that.

them an easier outlet,” Teaster said.

At Oberlin, campus visits play a particularly important role in student yield. According to Teaster, students choosing not to come to campus for an audition because an alternative location existed posed a threat to enrollment.

“Students are much more likely to choose to enroll here if they have visited campus at some point in time,” Teaster said. “I don’t know if that’s true or as true of other institutions, but I know that itʼs really important here.”

Since COVID-19 struck right after the 2020 audition season, the Conservatory’s auditions and interviews have been held virtually through Zoom or by recording. Though the January admissions event marked the return of in-person auditions, the pandemic still had a lasting effect. According to Acting Director of Conservatory Admissions Josh Teaster, around 40 percent of students offered auditions this year chose to submit recordings rather than travel to campus. Regardless, almost 500 students participated in the January audition event.

“Pre-pandemic, the percentage of students coming to campus was usually a little higher, like 65 to 70 percent, so weʼre not quite back, but it was a really strong showing of students wanting to come,” Teaster said.

The Conservatory Admissions Office made a few more changes to the audition process in addition to the switch from all-virtual auditions to an in-person option. Prior to the pandemic, in-person auditions took place over five weekends in February and March. Oberlin also used to provide regional auditions, where representatives would go to hear students audition in cities like New York and Los Angeles in an effort to be more accessible and convenient. Right before COVID-19 began, Admissions had already decided to shift the on-campus auditions to the last week of Winter Term because it wanted more time to evaluate applicants and make thoughtful decisions by midMarch. In addition, admissions found that regional auditions actually discouraged families from visiting campus, which is why Oberlin no longer offers them.

“The reason we stopped doing regional auditions is because, most of the time, although I do think we were being accessible to some students, we were talking to families that did have the opportunity or means to visit campus but chose not to because we gave

To combat the loss of the regional auditions’ accessibility, the Conservatory implemented the Conservatory Audition Travel Fund three years ago. For the first time this January, the Conservatory fully funded 16 students to come to campus for their auditions. The Admissions Office hopes to continue the travel fund next year.

Because the campus visit is so important to Oberlin’s enrollment, Admissions worried about welcoming students to audition during Winter Term rather than in February because of the potential lack of students and performances. Despite their concerns, many students had returned to campus in preparation for the start of the semester. Admissions filled the audition days to the brim with events, including a welcome from President Carmen Twillie Ambar and Dean of the Conservatory William Quillen as well as student performances showcasing each division within the Conservatory.

“The audition experience itself is really an opportunity to show students what the Oberlin community is like,” Teaster said. “Through holding events, through offering tours, through giving them the opportunity … to have informal conversation with other students [and] with faculty members, the idea is that you can come for a component of your application, something youʼre required to do, but what you get out of it is a view of Oberlin and the community and the program.”

Third-year Vocal Performance major Elizabeth Hanje sat on panels and gave tours during the audition days. She also debuted the role of Lyra in the Winter Term opera Alice Tierney, which coincided with the last two days of auditions.

“It was cool to meet students and parents and talk about the work I do at Oberlin, and then actually get to show them that work,” Hanje said.

Lyric Anderson Senior Staff Writer

Bryan Rubin and Ben Steger presented a talk Thursday in StudiOC.

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Live auditions resumed this January.

Ben Ephraim

“My football career was done, so I just took advantage of it, and thankfully it worked out pretty well,” Chris Allen Jr. said when talking about joining the basketball team at Oberlin.

Allen started playing basketball when he was just five years old, and he played every year through his junior year at St. Augustine Preparatory School in Buena Vista Township, NJ. He chose not to play his senior year for a multitude of reasons.

“Once I started getting recruited for football, and some things happened with basketball, I stopped playing there and focused my attention,” he said.

Allen decided to go all-in on football, as it was the sport he believed he had a better future in, and his decision proved fruitful. He came to Oberlin and played in 28 games as a quarterback, finishing his football career this year in the Yeomen’s record books at fourth all-time in both career passing yards and career passing touchdowns.

However, when a new men’s basketball coaching staff was hired to lead men’s basketball, Allen reached out with the help of a connection in hopes of playing right after football ended.

“One of the guys that I worked with over the summer knew the head coach, [Shiva Senthil], so I reached out to him over the summer and told him I wanted to play,” Allen said.

That connection helped him get the opportunity, and when Allen arrived on campus this fall, he met with Senthil.

“I talked to him and just figured out the things I needed to do to be a part of the team, and the rest is history,” Senthil said. “Right off the bat you could see Chris’s leadership. He really picked up on our offense, was incredibly tough; he really could defend the

Chris Allen Jr. Football

Captain Turned Basketball Guard

post and rebound, and those are all the things that we were kind of looking for.”

The path Allen took to play basketball is different from the recruiting process most players go through in high school. One such example is Brian McGrath, a first-year guard on Oberlin’s squad. McGrath’s recruitment began during the fall of his senior year of high school with connections his AAU coach had to college programs.

“[My AAU coach] sent them my transcript, highlights on YouTube, high school accolades, and after that I got on the phone with [the Oberlin basketball coaches] and talked, and eventually I came after them,” McGrath said.

Just a week after his senior day game against The College of Wooster in football, Allen joined the basketball team. He noted that he still had to get in better shape to adapt to basketball.

“The pace of practice is a little bit different, a lot more quick pace running, so it took me a little bit to get in shape with everything,” Allen said. “Once I got into that rhythm, it was kind of natural, because it’s just something that I’ve been doing my whole life.”

However, Allen’s natural ability, along with his time shooting hoops during the football season, made the transition much smoother. He apeared in 17 games for the Yeomen and started five of them. Allen was a starter in one of the team’s biggest wins of the season — an upset over The College of Wooster on Jan. 28

“It’s one of those things that once you have it, once you start getting the reps again, everything kind of came back,” he said. “The first day of practice, I came in, I hit every shot I had. I just felt comfortable.”

In addition to the physical adjustment, Allen didn’t always

have a big voice on the basketball team. Although he was a football captain that year, he still had to adjust and earn his role as a leader and voice in a new group.

“I didn’t want to just come in and be the loudmouth, because I hadn’t been there,” Allen said. “I hadn’t played on the basketball team throughout my four years. As I was able to prove myself and show what I offered to the team, … the voice came over time. I think that’s just a natural quality that I’ve had.”

Allen finished his one season of college basketball with 35 career points and 21 career rebounds across 17 games. McGrath looks back on Allen’s short time on the team fondly.

“Chris was a great teammate, a really good leader,” McGrath said. “He’s a great guy.”

Youthful Cleveland Guardians Set for Another Successful Season

John Elrod Sports Editor

The Cleveland Guardians started their season last night on the road against the Seattle Mariners. The team is coming off a stellar 2022 season in which it won the American League Central and a series in the playoffs with the youngest roster in the Major Leagues. The roster boasts a strong core of position players and some notable pitchers who should bring more success to Cleveland in 2023.

Third baseman José Ramírez, the heart and soul of the team since he broke out in 2016, will once again be expected to lead the team. The Dominican Republic native hit 29 home runs with a .355 on-base percentage last season, all while dealing with a thumb injury for a majority of the year. He also finished in the top 15 in the MLB in wins above replacement — a stat used to evaluate a player’s entire game that combines hitting, fielding, and baserunning statistics.

Expect Ramírez to continue his

remarkable career in Cleveland and compete for the American League MVP in 2023.

Venezuela native second-baseman Andrés Giménez is another player with extremely well rounded skills. The 24-year-old broke out last year in his first full Major League season and had a .371 on-base percentage with 17 home runs and 20 stolen bases. He won a Gold Glove Award for his defense and finished with a 7.2 WAR — sixth in the league. Giménez just signed a seven-year extension

to stay in Cleveland through the rest of the decade and has incredible potential 25-year-old Steven Kwan burst onto the scene in 2022 in his rookie year. The outfielder made the Opening Day roster last season and proceeded to put the bat on the ball all year. He led the team with his .298 batting average and .371 on-base percentage and struck out in just nine percent of his plate appearances — the league average is around 24 percent. Like Gimenéz, Kwan is a two-way player and earned a Gold Glove Award for his work in left field. Pitchers will have a lot of film on Kwan now, but his bat-toball ability should allow him to remain one of the best pure hitters in the league.

Other position players to watch out for include first basemen Josh Bell and Josh Naylor, who will look to add some power to Cleveland’s lineup. Shortstop Amed Rosario and outfielder Oscar Gonzalez will look to build off of 2022 seasons in which they racked up hits. A potential breakout player for the Guardians is outfielder Will Brennan, who quickly rose through the minors in 2022 and found himself batting in pivotal moments in the playoffs last October.

The pitching staff is led by Shane Bieber, who has proven himself as one of the best starters in the

game when healthy. He won the 2020 American League Cy Young Award and had a great season in 2022 with a 2.88 ERA and two solid playoff appearances. Bieber’s slider and curveball remain some of the hardest pitches to hit in the game, and he is in position for another successful year.

Triston McKenzie, another key pitcher, will unfortunately be sidelined with a shoulder injury for up to the first eight weeks of the season after having a fantastic 2022 season. Closer Emmanuel Clase, who throws a 100 mile per hour cutter and won American League Reliever of the Year in 2022 while leading the league in saves, will likely continue to make hitters look foolish this year. A pitcher we could see breaking out for the Guardians is reliever Tim Herrin, who throws a fastball in the high 90s and a devastating slider.

If you are looking for good times to see these players, the Guardians have a number of big matchups to open the season. They host the Mariners in the first weekend of their home schedule from April 7–9 and face Aaron Judge and the Yankees the following week from April 10–12. As the calendar flips to May, Cleveland will host the division rival Minnesota Twins from May 5–7 and Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels from May 12–14.

Opening Day for MLB occurred yesterday.

Allen began playing basketball his fourth-year thanks to a connection.

Allen competes against Hiram College.

Photo courtesy of Thomas Hill

Photo courtesy of Suada Duvette

Photo courtesy of Drew Scofield

Transfer Portal, Extra Eligibility Contributes to Unprecedented Results in March Madness

Twitter Breaks Barriers For Sports Journalists

There has been an interesting trend in college athletics since the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to 2020, teams were typically composed of players aged 18–23, and many of the older athletes were fourth-years. Typically, athletes would only play for a fifth year if they lost a season due to injury or personal matters and had an extra season of eligibility. With this extra year also comes the chance to utilize the transfer portal, an opportunity for student athletes to switch schools. Historically, athletes would graduate from the school they started at, and transfer students were somewhat uncommon, especially in Division I athletics. Athletes’ bodies become much stronger as they age from their teens into their 20s, so teams that have more 22- and 23-year-old players on the court hold a significant advantage when facing teams with predominantly 18-year-old members.

The presence of more upperclassmen in many teams led to one of this year’s most shocking upsets in the Women’s March Madness bracket. For instance, for the first time in 14 years, Stanford University failed to advance to the Sweet 16. Mississippi, the No. 8 seed, upset the No. 1 seed Louisville Cardinals 54–49 in the second round. Although skill contributes to much of the differential in these games, age and size are factors as well.

The Rebels’ roster this year was mostly made up of upperclassmen. Of the 12 athletes on the team, only two were underclassmen: one first-year and one redshirt second-year. In fact, there

were as many graduate students as underclassmen. Of the seniors on the team, four out of the five were taking advantage of their extra year of COVID eligibility, which meant they were actually fifth-years. This age and strength disparity played a key role in the outcome of the game, with Ole Miss muscling away seven more offensive rebounds than Stanford.

The physical advantages of teams with more upperclassmen were on display in the men’s bracket as well. Heading into its Sweet 16 clash, Kansas State, the No. 3 seed, was favored against the No. 7 seed, Michigan State.

KSU’s roster this year is made up of three first-years, three second-years, three third-years, and six seniors. Four of its starters were upperclassmen, and five of the six underclassmen had never seen the court.

On the flip side, underclassmen make up nearly half of Michigan State’s team, and, with the exclusion of one fourth-year and one graduate student, every player started their career with MSU. Michigan State openly refused to open its transfer portal, thus limiting the potential talent and age on its roster. Alternatively, Kansas State’s roster was mainly made up of transfer students, with only two students from the 2021–2022 school year returning to Kansas State for the 2022–2023 school year. Most transfer students are upperclassmen and thus bring a greater physical advantage.

This year’s March Madness has truly lived up to its name, and the seemingly constant upsets in both brackets are no fluke. On the men’s side, for the first time in history, no No. 1, 2, or 3 seed-

ed team will be in the Final Four. Connecticut is the highest ranked team as a No. 4 seed, followed by Miami and San Diego State, who are both No. 5 seeds. The lowest seed and biggest shock of the tournament has been Florida Atlantic University, which has made it to the Final Four as a No. 9 seed. Only once in March Madness history has a No. 4 seed ever won — Arizona in 1997 — and a No. 5 seed and No. 9 seed have never hoisted college athletics’ most important trophy.

On the women’s side, two of the four No. 1 seeds went out in the second round. Stanford and Indiana lost to Ole Miss and Miami, respectively, which opened the doors slightly for a lower-seeded team to make a breakthrough to the Final Four. However, Caitlin Clark and the No. 2 seed Iowa Hawkeyes saw their window of opportunity and took it, beating Georgia, Colorado, and Louisville on their way to their Final Four matchup with the outright favorite, the undefeated University of South Carolina Gamecocks. On the other half of the bracket, No. 1 seed Virginia Tech has been clinical on its path to the Final Four, with its narrowest margin of victory coming at nine points against the No. 4 seed Tennessee. It faces No. 3 seed LSU, which is led by coaching powerhouse Kim Mulkey. Both women’s games will be played later tonight, followed by the men tomorrow.

Overall, the transfer portal and eligibility rules have significantly altered the state of college athletics. The results from this year’s March Madness are not out of the ordinary. They’re just a sign of what’s to come for the future of college athletics.

Kayla Kim Sports Editor

One year ago, I watched softball for the first time during the Women’s College World Series. Although I was not previously familiar with the structure or culture, I was able to learn about the importance of RBIs and Oklahoma’s dominance throughout the competition — not through lots of books or articles, but through Twitter, a medium through which sports journalism has flourished. Along with convenience and clarity, there is a great amount of accessibility on Twitter, and I owe the journalists on the site for helping me better understand events that I’m interested in and for aiding me as a sports editor. As I’ve previously written, I didn’t watch a lot of sports growing up, with the exception of the Olympics and one trip to the U.S. Open when I was nine. Because of this, I knew very little about the rules, regulations, and key players in many sports.

When I became an Ohio State fan and it came time to watch its annual football rivalry against Michigan, I had no idea where to start. Although there were articles and Wikipedia to help, what really fostered my interest was the football community on Twitter. Obviously, Twitter is not completely detached from the real world — there are a lot of hateful comments that often go unchecked. At that moment, though, it felt that no question was too stupid to ask. Additionally, it introduced me to other sports not common in the U.S. such as short-track speed skating, which was popular during the 2022 Beijing Olympics and which I hope to continue researching in the future.

Compared to other apps such as Instagram and Facebook, which heavily rely on visuals, Twitter is a fast and easy way to share bits of written information, making it optimal for journalists. Of course, this applies to all genres and forms of news, but Twitter’s relationship to sports journalism is exceptional. The entry into such

a competitive field is now changing — USC Annenberg Media now has guidelines for how to properly live tweet sports. No longer is it something only for a select few people — anyone can now reach out to experienced journalists or do some reporting on their own.

It’s one thing to see live stats on ESPN’s website for a basketball game, but it’s another to see them alongside commentary and various statistics. Watching this with the live broadcasts gives me a much clearer perspective on what’s going on, and it was something that I relied on heavily to better understand moments during March Madness, such as questionable calls, plays, and happenings off the court, such as the infamous interaction between Hailey Van Lith and Sonya Morris in the handshake line in a recent game.

Twitter thus presents a new way to tell stories about sports. I don’t want traditional longform reported pieces and live broadcasts to be replaced with short snappy updates or commentary; rather, the site is able to seamlessly combine these media together, blending oral and written forms of communication to create a unique and beautiful experience. With this, we can get in-depth looks at what’s going on behind the scenes at games, profiles on the fans who fill the stadiums, additional thoughts from reporters on the scene, and even memes, such as the infamous crying Northwestern kid meme in 2017 March Madness.

As I’ve said before, Twitter isn’t a perfect website. The community and amount of content can be overwhelming to look at sometimes. There can be an urge to look through every single game, or else not feel like the “perfect fan.” But especially as March Madness comes to an end, I have a deep appreciation and gratitude for what Twitter has done for the sports journalism community, and I hope that it can be an integral guide in the industry’s future. It’s sure to continue creating incredible moments for fans and players alike.

James Foster Production Editor

Photo courtesy of Frank Franklin II

Photo courtesy of Adam Hunger Kansas State’s Keyontae Johnson dunks during a March Madness Game.

Illustration by Molly Chapin

Michigan State’s Malik Hall competes in a game against Kansas State.

Baseball, Softball Find Success During Spring Break Trips

John Elrod Sports Editor

Oberlin’s diamond sports teams traveled to warm climates for spring break for a week full of games. The baseball team headed to Tucson, AZ, while the softball team went to Clermont, FL. Both teams picked up multiple wins during their trips and got a lot of work in ahead of conference play in April.

Baseball Shines in the Desert

The Yeomen played seven games in Arizona, going 4–3 over the week. They started off with a high-scoring win over the California Institute of Technology before dropping both games of a double-header against Saint John’s University. The team bounced back with a rematch win against Caltech and finished the week with a win over Wesleyan University and a two-game split against Carleton College.

Fourth-year Jacob Thompson came through big on offense for Oberlin as he went 8–15 overall, with two triples in the second matchup against Caltech that ended in the seventh by mercy rule. Second-year Max Cairo went 6–18 and collected eight RBIs over the week with his biggest moment being a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning of the first Caltech game.

On the other side of the ball, Oberlin struggled with pitching and defense during the week, but it did have one dominant pitching performance from third-year Vince Dolcemaschio. The righthander tossed a complete game in the seven-inning contest against Caltech, allowing four hits, no walks, and just one unearned run to help lead the Yeomen to victory. The performance earned him a North Coast Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week Award. Dolcemaschio believes he played well while working with fourth-year catcher John Schooner.

“We had a good game plan going into the game in terms of sequencing and what kind of pitches we wanted to throw,”

Dolcemaschio said. “It just came down to executing.”

Dolcemaschio, a California native, said it was not as warm in Tucson as the team anticipated, but that the week was still a highlight of the season.

“[The trip] was awesome,” he said. “For me personally, baseball is my passion and number-one priority. Being able to only focus on baseball without the burden of school or homework was a pleasure. I wish every week could be like that.”

The Yeomen picked up four wins, but Dolcemaschio feels the team could have posted an even better record in Arizona.

“We definitely let a couple games get away from us but we won’t dwell on it,” he said. “We’ll learn from the mistakes we made and move forward confidently. We have the right group of guys to make some noise this year in our conference.”

Oberlin is certainly poised to have a better season than last year when it went 7–29. After a win over Muskingum University on Tuesday after returning to Ohio, this year’s squad now sits at 6–6 overall. The Yeomen look to keep momentum going as they start conference play tomorrow with a home double-header against The College of Wooster.

Softball Battles in the Swamp Oberlin’s softball team played eight games in central Florida — going 3–5 over that span. The team started off with losses to Grinnell College and Lawrence University but defeated Keuka College twice in the first half of the week. The Yeowomen then lost to the University of Wisconsin-Plattville, Colby College, and Middlebury College but picked up a close win against Washington and Jefferson College in the second portion of the week. The wins were the Yeowomen’s first of the season under Head Coach Julie Pratt.

The Yeowomen had trouble pitching during the week, which led to some tough losses. Still, third-year Katie Austin had a

nice week on the mound, tossing complete games while allowing three runs or less in two of her four appearances.

On offense, Oberlin had several standouts. Third-year Alaina Di Dio went 15–25 with nine RBIs to lead her team. Di Dio’s scorching hot week earned her the NCAC Athlete of the Week Award. Firstyear catcher Kailey Dunham had a nice week going 10–23 while first-year Maria Chutko went 15–28 over the week. Chutko has embraced learning from coaches this season, but also values putting in work on her own to stay in good form.

“If I think there is something I could work on a little extra, I’ll take some time outside of practice to get reps in off a tee,” Chutko said.

Chutko carries an optimistic attitude on the field, which has allowed her to adjust well to the college game as a first-year player.

“I think that just playing to have fun has helped me,” she said. “It helps take extra pressure off during game time and reminds me that I am playing a sport that I have grown up loving, even if it is now at a higher level. Our upperclassmen do a good job of making us feel comfortable on the field as well.”

Like Dolcemaschio, Chutko values the intensive sport-focused environment of the trip and believes they still have work to do.

“I think the amount of softball we played allowed us to get lots of reps in a short amount of time to help us in preparation for the season,” she said. “The weather in Florida was amazing and we were able to play against some teams that we have never seen before. I have faith that we will see more wins as conference games come along, but our games in Florida have made us aware of our strengths and weaknesses for our future play. Coach Pratt has a lot of experience with the game of softball, and I think that she will take what she examined from our play in Florida and plan out what she wants us to work on.”

The Yeowomen picked up their first wins of the season in Florida

The Yeomen took their first trip to Arizona since 2019. Photos courtesy of Steve Schooner

Photos courtesy of Karen Austin