The Oberlin Review Nov. 11, 2022

The Oberlin Review

Maura Olivero

Maura,

SFC to Disperse Student Activities Fund at Pre-Pandemic Rate

Ava Miller Senior Staff Writer

As of May 2022, the Student Finance Committee has spent the entirety of the surplus funds it had available in the 202122 academic year. SFC was able to grant more funds to student organizations than it would under regular circumstances due to a variety of COVID-19 restrictions that limited the number of organizations requesting funds. With COVID-19 restrictions now lifted, there are more student organizations requesting funds than last year. The funds available for the 2022-23 academic year, however, are similar in size to the sum of the Student Activity Fund from the 2019–20 academic year.

According to Director of Student Involvement Tina Zwegat, budgeting for student organizations and fiscal policies as a whole are continually subject to change pursuant to student

and institutional needs. In the 2021-22 academic year, students were eager to restart organizations that had become inactive during the first year of the pandemic, incurring higher initial capital costs.

“The Office of Student Leadership and Involvement stays on top of this and continually works with SFC and student organizations to ensure that the money is well spent and that there is collaboration whenever possible,” Zwegat wrote in an email to the Review

This semester, the total amount of money requested from all councils (e.g. Student Senate, publications, club sports) was $1,318,799.84. SFC had $713,000 to allocate and finally distributed $620,423.06 across organizations. The rest went to adhoc to support unforeseen expenses and for innovative events or programming. Adhoc funds have been distributed at $10,000-$15,000 per week to ensure that cultural and religious

organizations, as well as other groups on campus, have funding for events later in the semester.

For additional context on SFC spending, the total allocation during the 2016–17 school year was $1,224,610.66, averaging at $612,305 per semester. This fall has already seen higher expenditure than the 2016–17 average.

There have been many requests for funding that SFC has been unable to accommodate this year due to lack of money and increased demands to their budget. Cultural organizations requested $57,210.21 worth of funding but received $20,206.97. There is also a notable difference between requests for funding and the amount allocated to club sports, which asked for $132,259.78 but received $43,499.24.

“The only reason we cut is if expenses are too high to be equitable or if the event violates an Oberlin policy,” Leo Hidy, head of SFC, wrote in an email to the Review

“If organizations ask for a high amount of funding, but they abide by policy, we will work with them to find a compromise.”

SFC change in budgeting has also left differences in large student organizations such as Student Senate. Though tasked with the general updating and wellbeing of Student Life, Student Senate has had to rethink and accommodate for the overall decrease in student funding.

“This year we’ve gotten more creative with partnering with more student orgs and reaching out to departments whose interests may align with an event to pool funding,” Chudi Martin Jr., president of Student Senate, said. “Overall I’d like to commend SFC for ensuring that student organizations can keep the heart of what they aim to accomplish possible. It’s tough to tell so many great people with great ideas no, and I think SFC has been doing a great job in helping people figure out other ways to accomplish meaningful work even if SFC can’t entirely fund it.”

Conservatory fourth-year Maura Olivero passed away on Friday, Nov. 4. Olivero was a Trumpet major and is remembered by friends, colleagues, and professors as a talented, kind, supportive, and cheerful force in every space they occupied. The community gathered to celebrate Olivero and stand vigil this past Wednesday evening. Olivero’s friends and family spoke and performed music in memory of their loved one.

The Oberlin Review staff offers its condolences to everyone touched by Olivero’s life and light.

you are missed.

Photo courtesy of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life

Breakdown of 2022 Lorain County Election Results

Kayla Kim Contributing Sports Editor

This past Tuesday, Lorain County residents headed to the polls to vote in statewide and local elections. Continuing a 2020 trend, Lorain County voted primarily Republican; out of the 23 total races Lorain residents voted in, 17 Republican candidates were favored.

Not including the races in which candidates ran unopposed, the four races in which Lorain voters favored Democrats were for U.S. Senate, where Tim Ryan earned more votes than Senator-elect J.D. Vance; for Lorain County Auditor, where Craig Snodgrass defeated

Rodger Roeser; for District 53 State Representative, where Joe Miller narrowly beat Marty Gallagher; and for Lorain County Court of Common Pleas judge, where Melissa Kobasher won against Darrel Bilancini by a 58.5 percent majority. Incumbents were also successful; out of 17 contested races where there were incumbents, 15 defended their titles among Lorain voters. In the two races where incumbents lost, Republican Scot Stevenson defeated Democrat Thomas A. Teodosio for Judge of the Court of Appeals for the 9th District and Republican Jeffrey Riddell narrowly defeated Democrat Matt Lundy for Lorain County Commissioner. Lorain County also voted in line with the rest of

Candidate Party Votes Pct % Anthony Eliopoulos Democrat 47,209 43.49 Nathan H. Manning* Republican 61,340 56.51

Candidate Party Votes Pct % Thomas A. Teodosio* Democrat 50,808 48.19 Scot Stevenson Republican 54,624 51.81

Candidate Party Votes Pct % Amber Crowe Democrat 49,552 47.38 Jill Flagg Lanzinger Republican 55,041 52.62

Candidate Party Votes Pct % Craig Snodgrass* Democrat 56,870 53.06 Rodger Roeser Republican 50,316 46.94

Measure Result

Issue 1 is an amendment to the State Constitution. It removes the state Supreme Court’s role in setting rules for bail and compels courts to consider public safety, the seriousness of the offense, the person’s criminal record, and other factors.

Issue 2 is an amendment to the State Constitution. It prohibits local governments from allowing noncitizens to vote in elections and requires that voters be eligible U.S. citizens to vote in the state. Ohioans would now wait to register more than 30 days in advance before voting, and 17-year-olds would no longer be allowed to vote in primary elections.

Issue 7 proposed a renewal of a tax levy for Lorain County 911 services.

Issue 8 proposed a renewal of a tax levy for the Lorain County Drug Task Force.

Passed: 82,237 Lorain County voters (77.89 percent) voted for the amendment, and 23,340 (22.11 percent) voted against.

Passed: 81,994 Lorain County voters (76.83 percent) voted for the amendment, and 24,734 (23.17 percent) voted against.

Passed: 77,703 (72.03 percent) voted for the tax levy, and 30,171 (27.97 percent) voted against. The renewal will begin in 2023 and will be first due in 2024.

Passed: 71,357 (66.37 percent) voted for the tax levy, and 36,150 (33.63 percent) voted against. The renewal will begin in 2023 and will be first due in 2024.

The Oberlin r eview

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Ohio to pass State Issues 1 and 2. Issue 1 will amend the Ohio State Constitution to require that courts consider factors such as public safety when setting bail. Issue 2 will amend the State Constitution to bar non-citizen Ohio residents from voting in local elections. Voters also renewed tax levies to fund Lorain County 911 services; the Lorain County Drug Task Force; the Lorain County Board of Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery Services; and Lorain County Community College. Oberlin voters renewed both municipal income tax levies, and Precinct 5 approved the sale of alcohol and mixed beverages at ALDI for all seven days of the week.

Candidate Party Votes Pct % Bryan Burgess Democrat 11,213 41.13 Dick Stein* Republican 16,047 58.87

Candidate Party Votes Pct % Erica Voorhees Democrat 48,955 46.49 Donna J. Carr* Republican 56,343 53.51

Candidate Party Votes Pct % Matt Lundy* Democrat 53,531 49.85 Jeffrey Riddell Republican 53,951 50.15

Candidate Party Votes Pct % Darrel Bilancini NA 37,525 41.51 Melissa Kobasher NA 52,882 58.49

Issue 9 proposed a renewal of a tax levy for the Lorain County Board of Mental Health, Addiction, and Recovery Services.

Issue 10 proposed a renewal of a tax levy for the Lorain County Community College District University Partnership program.

Issue 37 proposed a renewal of the municipal income tax or a 3/5 percent levy on income for providing funds for operating and capital improvement expenses for the City of Oberlin for ten years.

Issue 38 proposed a renewal of the municipal income tax or a 1/5 percent levy on income for providing funds for operating and capital improvement expenses for the City of Oberlin for five years.

Issue 39A (Precinct 5 only) proposed the sale of beer, wine, and mixed beverages by Aldi Inc, located on 14885 State Route 58.

Issue 39B (Precinct 5 only) proposed the sale of wine and mixed beverages on Sunday by Aldi, Inc, located on 14885 State Route 58.

Passed: 78,089 (72.52 percent) voted for the tax levy, and 29,595 (27.48 percent) voted against. The renewal will begin in 2023 and will be first due in 2024.

Passed: 72,250 (66.92 percent) voted for the tax levy, and 35,719 (33.08 percent) voted against. The renewal will begin in 2023 and will be first due in 2024.

Passed: 2,910 (73.22 percent) voted for the renewal, and 801 (26.78 percent), voted against. This means that the municipal income tax renewal will be effective Jan. 1, 2025.

Passed: 2,239 (74.29 percent) voted for the renewal, and 775 (25.71 percent), voted against. This means that the municipal income tax renewal will be effective Jan. 1, 2025

Passed: 367 (81.02 percent) voted yes and 86 voted no (18.98 percent).

Passed: 351 (78 percent) voted yes and 99 (22 percent) voted no.

Ginger Kohn Molly Chapin

Illustrators

Nondini Nagarwalla

Neva Taylor Will Young

State Senate (13th District)

State Representative (54th District)

Judge of the Court of Appeals (9th District)

Judge of the Court of Appeals (9th District)

Judge of the Court of Appeals (9th District)

Lorain County Commissioner

Lorain County Auditor

Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Lorain County

OSCA Threatens College with Legal Action Over Alleged Rent Contract Violations

Emma Benardete Editor-in-Chief

An independent inspection conducted by Pardee Environmental Sept. 25 found significant evidence of mold growth in Tank Hall, Keep Cottage, and Harkness House — all of which are rented to the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association by the College.

The inspection report includes photos taken during the inspection in which mold growth and water damage are visible. The screening was entirely based on John Pardee’s visual analysis and expertise from personal experience with mold screenings — no samples were collected for analysis.

“Based upon the inspections, it is clear that mold growth has been allowed to take hold in all three of the buildings I inspected, to varying degrees of severity,” Pardee wrote in the report. “It is incumbent on the College facilities office to respond with appropriate urgency to the students’ repeated requests for a professional investigative response and remediation.”

On Oct. 10, all-OSCA leadership sent the Pardee report and a letter detailing a total of 49 alleged violations by the College of their rent contract with OSCA. The alleged violations include failures to meet Ohio Department of Health code and landlord obligations per Ohio Revised Code. An attached list further outlined the specific issues, such as missing window screens, a hole in the back door of Keep Cottage, and storage of College supplies in the basement of Tank Hall.

“This letter shall serve as your official notice of these violations and your obligation to remedy these violations immediately,” the letter reads. “You now have 30 days to rectify these issues before we are forced to take action.”

According to Chief Facilities Officer Kevin Brown, Facilities Operations attempts to address concerns as they arise.

Mold and water damage were found in OSCA buildings.

The report included recommendations to maintain indoor humidity levels at 50 percent or below and to clean the HVAC systems in Keep Cottage and Harkness House.

“The health and safety of Oberlin students is my top priority,” Brown wrote in an email to the Review. “I know OSCA feels the same. My team and I have reviewed the OSCA-initiated inspection, conducted our own investigation, and formulated a remediation plan which we have shared with OSCA.”

Nicole Chase, OSCA President, declined the Review’s request for comment.

College Deploys Early Alert to Track Campus Mental Health

Keating News Editor

The Counseling Center and the Office of the Dean of Students have deployed a wellness and support app called Early Alert. The service, which includes a weekly check-in, informs users of resources on Oberlin’s campus to help with students’ overall well-being.

“Early Alert is a once-a-week text message asking you to rate your wellness on a scale of one to 10, with one being really, really poor and 10 being excellent,” Director of Student Wellness Promotion Monique Burgdorf said. “At any point, a student can text a wellness bot the word ‘resources’ and then get a list of Oberlin-specific referrals.”

The app is based on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Eight Dimensions of Wellness framework: emotional, social, spiritual, occupational, physical, financial, environmental, and intellectual. Early Alert is focused on analyzing and checking in on each category. Each week, a question is directed toward an individual student users to check in with regard to one of the wellness dimensions. The survey data is then anonymously sent to

the Counseling Center and the Center for Student Success. This data gives insight into which category students are struggling in the most. The school will only get information about a student if they consistently report feeling low to the wellness bot.

“It helps us to know what students are reporting on to help us target those areas and plan programs along those areas so that we can proactively reach out to a student for support,” Executive Director of Student Safety and Wellbeing Andrew Oni said. “It’s an added layer of support that is directly at the ready for students.”

The app’s overall goal is to have real-time wellness checkins and be a resource for students waiting to get therapy or counseling through the school. It is primarily a preventative measure for students.

“If you reach out maybe on a weekly basis, what it does for us is [lets] us to know ahead of time if somebody needs support,” Oni said. “And if needed, Monique Burgdorf reaches out to the student specifically to ask, ‘What can I do to support [you]? What do you need support on? Here is what we have on campus; any additional support you may need, let us know.’ And she does that very consistently.”

Photos by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Nikki

Oberlin’s Student Wellness Center and Counseling center has rolled out a mental health app. Courtesy of Oberlin College

City Plans Infrastructure Projects

Sofia Tomasic Senior Staff Writer

The Oberlin City government is working on two simultaneous plans designed to develop local infrastructure.

According to City Council member Michael McFarlin, one of these projects is a comprehensive plan addressing a variety of sectors including housing, economic development, and general infrastructure. The project will run until the end of 2023.

“If residents of Oberlin need something, ideally we would like to have a situation where they’re 100 percent coming downtown or staying in the City,” McFarlin said. “The reality is we all have to kind of go outside of Oberlin right now to get some things we need or want.”

The second project, run by a group called Downtown Strategies, is focused on a gradual revitalization of the downtown area over a fiveyear period. The project will advise the City on ways to make downtown Oberlin more accessible. This project is managed through a City

board and commission, called the Oberlin Community Improvement Corporation. The OCIC is made up of several business owners in the town, along with City officials and residents.

“They’re looking at all these data to kind of identify where the City, if they so choose, could put some effort into either recruiting businesses or improving downtown in certain ways,” McFarlin said. “From helping with facades on buildings through certain programs or through signage. Just wayfinding around the City so that people can find parking or they can find whatever they need.”

The projects are being completed in collaboration with one another, with the consultants for the comprehensive plan working with Downtown Strategies on a survey where people can give feedback on improvements that can be made within Oberlin.

“We’re always looking for improvement,” McFarlin said. “We’re always looking to help out those businesses that are already here for sure.”

The teams behind both projects are looking for input and communication

from residents and business owners.

“We definitely want public input,” McFarlin said. “All of these meetings are public meetings. Folks can go to the City website and look at recordings of ones they haven’t attended, they can look at what’s coming up, and attend the public meetings for sure. But in particular, that survey is live right now through the end of November.”

Henry Smith, owner of Doobie’s and The Arb, is excited about the development plans and appreciates collaborating with City leadership.

“I have faith in the consulting plan,” Smith said. “There’s no really hidden agendas involved. Working with downtown administration, I’ve learned, is a valuable asset for the community because they are very resourceful and willing to help small business owners develop and grow.”

Jerry Anderson, owner of Watson Hardware, commended the City’s work to help all members of the community.

“I think it’s heading in the right direction,” Anderson said. “I think they’re trying to help everybody, to help us.”

Have You Considered Voting?

Security Notebook

Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022

Campus Safety officers transported a student from Mercy Health - Allen Hospital to Kahn Hall.

Staff reported the loss of two keys in an unknown location.

Officers and Oberlin Fire Department members responded to a fire alarm at an Elm Street apartment.

A student reported the theft of their unlocked Fuji Saratoga bicycle from the bike rack outside of the Allen Memorial Art Museum.

Friday, Nov. 4, 2022

Officers transported a student from Mercy Health - Allen Hospital to Asia House.

An officer spoke with a resident who filed a complaint against the driver of a College vehicle.

Officers assisted a student near the south door of Barrows Hall who appeared to be ill.

An officer transported students from Mercy HealthAllen Hospital to CVS Pharmacy.

Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022

Officers and a maintenance technician assisted in removing a bat from an Elm Street apartment.

Campus Safety officers responded to Wilder Main Space to assist an ill visitor attending the Parents Resource Fair.

Officers transported an ill student from Kade House to Mercy Health - Allen Hospital.

Officers and maintenance technicians removed a bat from a North Main Street apartment.

Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022

A student reported their bicycle stolen from the bike rack between the Science Center and Wright Laboratory of Physics.

An officer on patrol of the exterior of Carnegie Building found a prescription bottle on the ground. The bottle was transported to Campus Safety.

Monday, Nov. 7, 2022

Custodial staff reported damage to the vending machine on the second floor of Langston Hall.

Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022

Officers and Oberlin Police Department members responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle/person in the area of South Professor Street.

Officers and an electrician responded to assist an individual stuck in the elevator at Mudd Center.

Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022

Officers transported a student from Mercy HealthAllen Hospital to CVS.

The Oberlin City Government plans to improve the downtown area of Oberlin. Courtesy of Oberlin College

Illustrated by Molly Chapin, Layout Editor

COMIC

Oberlin Opera Theater Presents Double-Bill Performance

Delaney Fox Production Editor

In a double-bill performance of Jacques Offenbach’s op eretta Le mariage aux lanternes (The Wedding by Lantern Light) and Gioachino Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro (Op portunity Makes the Thief), the Oberlin Opera Theater department presents a night of deception and hilarity. Vocal performance students take the stage tonight and tomorrow at 8 p.m. and on Sunday for a 2 p.m. matinee of the two one-act operas under the baton of Joseph Mechavich, OC ʼ92. Supertitles will be projected in En glish for both operas.

The operas tell two different stories but are united in the theme of marriage, a theme not uncommon to the opera buffa or comedy. Offenbach’s operetta narrates the tale of two orphaned cousins, Denise and Guillot, from the perspective of their uncle Mathurin, whose plotting kindles their romance. Meanwhile, two comical widows fight over Guillot.

In Rossini’s opera, two men find themselves at a train station together during a storm. One of the gentlemen, Count Alberto, admits to the other that he is on his way to meet his bride-to-be, Berenice. When the two men’s luggage gets swapped during the chaos, the other, Don Parmenione, decides to disguise himself as Count Alber to to steal his bride. Chaos ensues as the men both ar rive, claiming to be the same person. Little do they know that Berenice and her maid Ernestina have also swapped identities, confusing the love triangle even more.

Each opera has its own distinct sound, as Jonathon Field, associate professor of Opera Theater and director of this fall’s double bill, explained.

“The music of the French piece is much like Gilbert and Sullivan; it’s very much a song sort of style,” Field said. “It’s even a little pop-y in the sound. It sounds very, very bright, sort of like musical theater. The Rossini

[piece] has longer melodic lines … it’s got some very long beautiful singing moments, kind of like Chopin set to voice.”

The contrast of their styles is not the only reason Field chose to place these two operas side by side. He also wanted to emphasize the humor in both of their plots.

“This thing is an absolute riot,” Field said. “Combining the two kind of gives us a little soufflé and a little spa ghetti.”

Another exciting aspect of the production is the set design. In the Rossini opera, red luggage hangs from the ceiling and even makes up the stairs and doors of the set, adding to the thematic elements of absurdity and con fusion.

“We sort of worked out the idea of what was big in the first scene becom[ing] small and what was small in the first scene becom[ing] big,” Field said. “All of a sudden we have a proliferation of lost luggage all over the place, and lost luggage sort of flying through the air. And it gets into a slightly surreal version and makes the whole thing a little bit more fantastical.”

This production also features two different casts for each opera. This was done to ensure more performance opportunities for students, though some singers were cast in both operas.

“We decided to take the tenor from the Offenbach and also use him in the Rossini because we thought that [it] would be interesting for the audience to see one actor perform two completely different roles,” Field said.

Conservatory second-years Travis Guillory and Brad ley Boatright play both Guillot in the Offenbach and Don Eusebio in the Rossini. In preparation for their perfor mances, the two learned double the amount of music and rehearsed twice as much as their peers.

“It was a little hard, but we made it through,” Guillory said, reflecting on the work he and Boatright put into the

AMAM Collection Houses Benin Bronze Piece, International Museums Begin Repatriation to Nigeria

Leela Miller Senior Staff Writer

Last month, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Rhode Island School of Design Museum returned a total of 31 Benin Bronzes in their collections to Nigeria, where the pieces were looted by colonial British forces over a hundred years ago. Earlier this week, Digital Benin launched the first ever on line archive of 5,246 of these works of art from the former Benin Kingdom, housed across 131 institu tions. The website also contains oral histories, de scriptions of the various bronzes and their specific cultural significances, and a map highlighting the historic landmarks of Benin Kingdom.

“Benin Bronzes” refers to a group of several thousand brass and bronze plaques, reliefs, and

sculptures that once decorated the Royal Palace of the Oba of Benin in what is today Edo State, Nige ria. According to the Digital Benin website, the ob jects “are an expression of Benin arts, culture and history, and were originally used as royal represen tational arts, to depict historical events, to com municate, to worship and perform rituals.” Most of these works were stolen by the British Army when it ransacked and raided the Royal Palace of the Oba in 1897 in an attempt to consolidate Britain’s impe rial control. Some of the pieces were then sold to pay off military debts, while others were brought to be displayed in the British Museum. Today, these artworks are scattered across various institutions — mostly concentrated in Europe and the United States. The Digital Benin website includes a map

The pit orchestra rehearses with opera singers.

Digital Benin created a map locating the 5,246 Benin Bronzes across 131 institutions globally.

The AMAM collection houses the Benin Bronze “Uhun mwun-Ekhue (Leopard Hip Ornament).”

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Photo courtesy of Digital Benin

Photo courtesy of the Allen Memorial Art Museum

Firelands Association for the Visual Arts Opens New Fiber Arts Studio

Yasu Shinozaki

Last month, the Firelands Association for the Visual Arts opened its new fi ber arts studio. Executive Director of FAVA Kathleen Jackson said that the organization has been given multiple looms by the local senior center that closed during the pandemic. The goal of FAVA’s fiber studio is to allow local artists to share their work and spread their interest in the fiber arts, which in clude weaving, knitting, and quilting, to a greater audience.

Founded in 1979 and based in the for mer Union School on South Main Street, FAVA offers classes and workshops to community members, exhibits work by local artists, and hosts jury shows, in cluding the second oldest biennial quilt show in the world. Besides fiber arts, FAVA also provides instruction and op portunities for those interested in draw ing, painting, ceramics, jewelry, and many other forms of visual art.

Jackson emphasized that the focus at FAVA’s fiber studio is on contem

porary craft. While the techniques used in fiber arts are centuries old and many people in the community still do traditional crafts, much of the art done at FAVA is experimental.

“Even the quilt show that we do is a focus on pushing the boundaries of what is a quilt,” Jackson said.

She elaborated that submissions for the last quilt show included a quilt that was made out of ceramic, and several others that were made out of paper.

“One of the big things is 3D tapes tries,” local artist and FAVA instruc tor Gina Talandis said. “They are de vising all kinds of different ways to do 3D. There’s a lot of metal weaving with … wires and coppers and fibers.”

Talandis has been working with fi ber arts for approximately 30 years, and has experience creating both functional and purely aesthetic piec es. Quilts and tapestries of this kind are not intended to be used, but rath er displayed — like they are on the walls of FAVA’s first-floor gallery.

“Since we’re not having to create functional objects … I have the oppor tunity to go back and make something that’s just for visual effect.” Talan dis said. “It doesn’t have to be func tional. And since I’m not locked into functional anymore, I can do what I want, and I can play with colors and I can play with structure and it doesn’t have to deal with day-to-day wear and use.”

Even when Talandis creates practical objects, such as mug coasters and dish towels, the primary goal is still visual effect. Jackson agreed with this char acterization of the contemporary fiber arts.

“It’s really cool because you can make things that are non-functional that are just art, where I think a hun dred years ago that wasn’t the thing,” Jackson said.

The fiber arts studio is located in the basement of the New Union Center for the Arts where FAVA is based. Addi tionally, there are certain times when people taking a class can come in and

work independently. Classes are open to all. Talandis said that the fiber arts studio attracts a wide variety of ages and experience levels, including peo ple who were involved in the fiber arts since they were very young, and others who became interested later in life.

“We’ve got people in their twenties in the guild and people in their nineties. It’s really quite a lot more expansive than you would think,” Talandis said.

The emphasis at FAVA is on taking traditional techniques and using them with creativity. “It’s not your grandma’s quilt show,” Jackson said. “It’s not your grandma’s loom weaving. It’s thinking about how to take these old traditional crafts and make them really contempo rary and cool.”

Other than artistic expression, both Talandis and Jackson noted another reason people do fiber arts: it is ther apeutic. Talandis said that, for her, the focus of her work is not always the final product.

“A big part of it is enjoying the pro cess,” Talandis said.

Digital Benin Website Locates, Exhibits Stolen Benin Bronzes

Continued from page 5

which reveals that nearly every museum housing Benin objects is in a former colonial power.

The Allen Memorial Art Museum currently houses a Benin Bronze titled “Uhunmwun-Ekhue (Leopard Hip Ornament)” in its African and Oce anic Art Collection. The AMAM’s digital descrip tion of the work reads, “This ornament depicts a leopard, the oba’s sacred animal. Military officers or court officials wore it to symbolize their social status and authority to take human life. Worn at the waist along with other pendant-masks depicting ancestral spirits, this object was distinguished by its small bells, which jangled as the owner walked.”

The AMAM website acknowledges that the piece was stolen and welcomes input on proper care and display.

The Benin City National Museum is the only Ni gerian museum in the list of the top-ten largest col lections. Located in Benin City, Nigeria, it current ly houses 285 bronzes. The British Museum has by far the largest collection of artifacts at 944 pieces, while the museum with the second-largest collec tion — the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin — has roughly half of that number at 518.

In August, a contract was signed transferring ownership of the 512 Benin objects from the col lection of the Ethnologisches Museum to Nigeria, the most extensive case of repatriation to date. The first objects began their return to Nigeria this year.

On Oct. 11, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the RISD Museum transferred 31 Benin bronzes from

their collections to the National Commission for Museums and Monuments in Nigeria.

The British Museum has made no public state ments about plans to repatriate any of the works currently in their possession.

Chao Tayiana Maina, a Kenyan digital heritage specialist and digital humanities scholar, wrote an essay on the Digital Benin website commenting on the unprecedented opportunity for people to view all of the Benin Bronzes in a centralized location.

“This in itself presents a radical departure as the Benin bronze collections have not been viewed in a centralized location since their violent removal. It is uncertain if and when the physical collections will ever be viewed together as currently made possible via the digital platform.”

The Firelands Association for the Visual Arts is housed in the New Union Center for the Arts on South Main Street.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Conservatory Produces Romance, Humor, Fantasy in Opera

operas.

Both students appreciated the experience of working with two very different characters. While Guillory ac knowledged the freedom and humanity of a character like Guillot, Boatright highlighted the simplicity of Don Eusebio.

“The Offenbach is a lot sillier,” Guillory said. “I feel free to be silly and throw myself into the role. With the Rossi ni, I feel like I’m still playing a silly role … but it feels more like a serious opera.”

“The Rossini came a lot easier because he’s a more sim ple character,” Boatright said. “It’s like a stereotype with in Rossini opera: the old man who thinks he’s in control but isn’t. He’s the butt of the joke, and it’s fun to play.”

Romantic, funny, and fantastical, the operas are an es cape from reality, leaving us with simple, happy endings, despite all the chaos that precedes them.

“I hope they just have a laugh,” Guillory said. “I hope they have the time to get into the story, and be confused for a little bit, and let that be okay.”

Grisling Hall Deals with Grief Through Theater

Juliana Gaspar Arts & Culture Editor

Editor’s Note: This article contains mention of death, grief, and sexual assault.

Grisling Hall is an original play written by College fourth-year Jordan Muschler that opens this evening at 8 p.m. in Wilder Main. Grisling Hall follows two sib lings, Sophie and Will, as they navigate the death of their father. Their complicated grieving process be comes an exploration of memory and legacy as they reconcile with the fact that they may not have known their father as well as they thought they did. The play, at its core, is a discussion of power dynamics between faculty and students, as well as a larger exploration of institutional memory and who deserves to be remem bered. Grisling Hall calls attention to the fact that many buildings on college campuses are named after people deemed important enough to be honored but whose legacies are often complex.

“I originally had the idea … when I was first tour ing colleges because I was looking around at the ico nography that’s often named after people,” Muschler said. “I wondered, who are they? And then, what have they done? Have they done anything awful? I want

ed to write about how we react to awful things. I’ve known people that have done really awful things and who are my friends, who were my relatives, and I was interested in how we reckon with having a good ex perience with someone personally but knowing that they’ve done something awful.”

In Grisling Hall, Sophie and Will struggle to deter mine whether or not their father should be remem bered by people other than just themselves. Over the course of the play, Sophie and Will represent the myr iad ways grief can manifest, not only in oneself but also in relation to others. The audience is forced to consider how grief can cause distance between peo ple who care about each other — especially when that grief is unexpected. The death of their father was an ticipated, but the death of their ability to idolize their father was not.

“Different parts of me are in each character,” Mus chler said. “The character I’m most like is Sophie; the way that she deals with grief is the most similar to the way I deal with grief. She’s a lot more internal about it. The dad character was the most strange to write. You have to connect with him even though he’s a person who’s obviously done awful things, because otherwise he’s just a one-dimensional foil. Theater is the best medium for connecting with characters who are right in front of your eyes.”

College fourth-year Maggie Elsen, who is direct ing the play, agrees that theater allows its audience to connect with a story in a way other media cannot.

“Live theater especially is focused on relationships because you are physically in the space with the char acters while they’re navigating the situation,” Elsen said. “In that way, live theater has a really powerful ability to convince people to think about things deep ly and in a nuanced way as they experience it with the characters.”

Grisling Hall only has three characters, which narrows down the family dynamics. As an audience member, you empathize with some characters but hate others. In a way, you go through the conflicting emotions the siblings feel along with them. The ac tions of characters frustrate you, and yet you can’t help but want them to be better and act better. You connect to the siblings through their relationship and feel most attached to them, even though the father character is the only one that directly addresses the audience. The audience sits, it feels, in the middle of the family’s living room — almost included within the unit. Thrown into the conflict, the audience must draw their own conclusion to the unfolding events alongside the siblings.

The words sexual harm or assault are not said out right, but it is understood that this is what the play is discussing. The audience hears the words “power dy namics” and “creep,” but also sees how Sophie inter acts with the two men in her family. Sophie is the only present female character, and the only other women mentioned are those who have suffered harm. Her frustration toward her brother and father is ground ed in an understanding of sexual harm that comes from being a woman that they will never understand.

Humanizing someone who has committed harm may seem counterproductive, but in reality, those who commit harm are not far removed from us. By acknowledging that you can care about someone and also recognize that they have done harm and hold them accountable, the play addresses the ways in which two seemingly opposing things can coexist. Just because you know one version of someone and think you know them well doesn’t mean you know ev ery version of them.

“I think that Oberlin students have a fear of recog nizing nuance,” Elsen said. “This show is about ac cepting that two things can be true at the same time.”

The Grisling family invites their audience to recog nize that people who do harm do not always look like monsters. The more we realize that those who cause harm can be our friends, our family, and those around us, the easier it will be to hold these people account able and support those who have been harmed.

Ansel Mills and Gina Thompson read through lines during rehearsal.

Photo courtesy of Cady Hurlbert

Alan Rendzak, Elizabeth Hanje, Bradley Boatright, Clara Dahmer, and Chris Leimgruber (left to right) star in Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro

Clara Dahmer plays Berenice in Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Cable Co-op Inc. Updates Oberlin Infrastructure with Fiber Optic Technology Ahead of State-Wide Initiative

In a 2018 Pew Research study, almost a quarter of rural households said that access to broadband in ternet was a “major problem” in their community.

The Federal Communications Commission defines broadband internet as a service having a minimum download speed of 25 megabytes per second and an upload speed of three megabytes per second. This minimum speed allows households to browse the internet, use email, and stream to a single device.

According to the FCC 32.5 percent of the rural population in Ohio has access to broadband inter net, while Ohio’s statewide coverage is 76.7 per cent. This disparity is known as the digital divide.

The state of Ohio set goals in August 2022 to close the digital divide by providing access to highspeed internet service for low-income house holds, aging populations, incarcerated individuals, veterans, people with disabilities, people with language barriers, racial and ethnic minorities, and inhabitants of rural communities. This is part of President Biden’s allocated $2.5 billion for three federal grant programs within the Digital Equity Act which will allow states to develop and im plement plans to close the digital divide over five years, starting in 2024.

In addition to Ohio’s plans for grants received from the Digital Equity Act, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed a bill in May 2021 to begin award ing grants to internet service providers for the ex pansion of broadband internet to rural areas. The construction of broadband projects by Internet Service Providers that receive funding is projected to finish in 2024.

Map Courtesy of InnovateOhio

Chart Courtesy of Pew Research Center

Chart Courtesy of Pew Research Center

Cal Ransom This Week Editor

Rural communities have historically relied on electric co-ops for service. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Rural Electri fication Administration with the goal of ex panding electricity access beyond metropolitan centers. The Administration created Ohio’s first electric cooperatives in 1936, which successfully built infrastructure to bring electricity to farms and rural households across the state.

“We are a non-profit cooperative, which doesn’t mean we don’t make a profit, but means that I am able to use that money to do projects that better the community, like the fiber optic project,” Jay Shrewsbury, general manager of Cable Co-op Inc., said.

Fiber optic cables transmit information using light passed through fibers made of glass or plastic, meaning that information can travel long distances at nearly the speed of light.

“Fiber optic is really expensive — it’s a huge investment, so big companies who are going into cities and putting in fiber aren’t put ting [it] into rural areas because they’re not gonna get [their investment] back, so there’s a huge discrepancy between rural and urban areas, furthering the gap of the digital di vide,” fourth-year Computer Science major Adrien Koritz, who is a tech intern at an internet service provider in northeast Ohio, said.

Shrewsbury said bringing more fiber optic cables into Oberlin will make the internet services they provide faster and more re liable while reducing costs. According to Shrewsbury, Oberlin began offering the minimum 25/3 speed to meet the threshold of broadband close to 20 years ago, outpac ing other rural communities in Ohio.

Oberlin’s Cable Co-op Inc. operates in the tradition of historic electric co-ops, building internet infrastructure in Oberlin. Many rural communities won’t see high-speed internet projects begin before 2023 due to how recently funds were allocated. Cable Coop Inc., which serves about 80 percent of households and 85 per cent of businesses in Oberlin, will provide access to high-speed internet by expanding fiber optic cable in Oberlin by 2024 thanks to its unique business model.

Ohio Residential Broadband Expansion Grant Program Map of Coverage

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Map Courtesy of InnovateOhio

Photo Courtesy of New Deal Network

LETTER TO THE EDITORS

Review Article on College Divestment Missed Broader Significance of Decision

Dear Review Editors:

To me, the article published in last week’s Review (“Trustees Reject Immediate Divesti ture, Move to Divest Gradually,” The Oberlin Review, Nov. 4, 2022) missed the point. The central story should have been that a group of alumni, students, and faculty organized, lob bied, and proposed that Oberlin College make a formal commitment to divesting from fos sil fuels. After prior attempts occurring over multiple decades, the trustees finally agreed to do just that. Yes, the proposal submitted included a shorter timeline than what was accepted, but most proposals get modified. In this case, the central goal was clearly a pub lic commitment to divestment from fossil fuel holdings. That central goal was accepted and not rejected. Other media, such as the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram’s Nov. 3 story (“Oberlin College pledges to fully divest from fossil fu els”) captured the larger significance of Ober lin’s action.

Frankly, I agree with the trustees that it would be difficult to immediately divest given the systems of indirect investment in various instruments that Oberlin uses as financial in struments; we have funds that are managed by other entities that are controlled by other entities. Oberlin’s new decision and commit ment will take time to implement. The point is that Oberlin now has a clear new decision and direction from the board to follow the long chains and to completely eliminate fossil fuel holdings, even at the margins. This finally brings our investment policy in line with the commitment to operate a carbon neutral cam pus that former President Nancy Dye made in 2006 when she was first among presidents of our peer institutions to sign the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment .

It will have taken Oberlin 18 years from signing the ACUPCC to achieving a carbon

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

neutral campus. As someone who has re mained engaged in the twists and turns of this process throughout, I can say that I have often been frustrated by the slow pace we have taken in the face of an ever-expanding and increas ingly evident climate emergency. However, a carbon-neutral campus, like a fossil fuel-free investment portfolio, does take time to imple ment. I credit the trustees for working toward the investment in the Sustainable Infrastruc ture Program necessary to achieve this.

I also credit the trustees for work toward the fossil fuel divestment goal even before they made this new formal commitment. Twenty years ago, Oberlin had significant investments in fossil fuel companies. Today, Oberlin has no direct holdings. Now, Oberlin has approved policy to make this divestment commitment formal and public and bring even indirect holdings to zero. This sends a message to the world that Oberlin views a fos sil fuel-free global economy as central to the education and survival of future generations.

The board and our administration have been subject to a great deal of what I consider legitimate criticism regarding recent policies on labor, health care, governance, etc. Let’s take a moment to give both the Oberlin board and the alumni-student coalition that worked with them the credit they deserve for this important step forward for Oberlin College. Celebrating and giving credit for successes as they are achieved provides us with at least a little bit of forward momentum. We need all the momentum we can get as we ponder the far larger steps that are necessary to address the existential challenge of the climate ca tastrophe that is now beginning to unfold all around us.

John Petersen, OC ’88

EdItOr I al BOard

EdItOrS IN-ChIEf Kushagra Kar Emma Benardete

OPINIONS EdItOrS

Elle Giannandrea Emily Vaughan

“Commitment Scholarship” Places Financial Burden On Upperclassmen

This school year marks the first time that Oberlin College has a sticker price — tuition, housing, meal plan, and other fees, before any financial aid is ap plied — of over $80,000. Tuition is the largest contributor to this figure, com ing in at $61,106. These numbers are astounding, especially when you con sider that the median household income in the United States was $67,521 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau.

While tuition and fees continue to climb, the College has made the deci sion to grant $10,000 “commitment scholarships” to all students starting at Oberlin in the fall of 2021 or after. To be clear, this isn’t a scholarship you’d apply for or a grant awarded based on demonstrated need; you just need to accept your offer to Oberlin and you will receive the money. Every single member of those classes is entitled to scholarship, regardless of any other factors. Veiled in the rhetoric of understanding and supporting the expens es of higher education, the College is moving to reduce the tuition costs for incoming students. As an independent decision, we applaud the College and its desire to improve access to higher education, and reducing tuition is an important step in the right direction. But this decision doesn’t exist inde pendent of other factors, most notably the fact that students who enrolled at Oberlin before fall 2021 won’t experience these benefits. On the contrary, these students continue to experience tuition hikes, and in a way are footing the bill for the $10,000 commitment scholarships for incoming students. The College also states on its website that this scholarship will be given to all new students enrolling in fall 2023 as well.

Paul

Sears Distinguished Professor of Envi ronmental Studies and Biology, Director of Oberlin Environmental Dashboard Project

The Editorial Board encourages 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 re fuse to alter or remove any content published by the Review . It is up to Senior Staff’s discretion whether to alter content that has already been published. The Oberlin Re view appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and op-ed submissions. All sub missions are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. 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 signa tories 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 pag es. 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.

The burden of College fees is not unique to incoming class years, so why do only current first- and second-years, in addition to future classes, benefit from this? There are not currently dire economic circumstances that make it so that new students in 2022 and 2023 have financial constraints not faced by members of other class years. Current third-year students entered college in the midst of a pandemic, during which many people lost their jobs or were otherwise unable to work, therefore resulting in massive losses of income. Global conflict has slowed the economy in significant ways, and that impact is felt by all of us, most especially by lower-income families. If there is a sur plus of scholarships to distribute, or the College’s financial circumstances make it so that more money can be given to students, why not introduce din ing and housing subsidies, or offer a flat tuition reduction across the board for all class years? The College could, for the same overall cost, offer a $5,000 tui tion reduction to every currently enrolled student. Why not improve funding for student worker salaries and create more and better-paid positions? Of all the possible options, why specifically should the College offer $10,000 to new students just for commiting to Oberlin? Students who enrolled after fall 2021 do not have outstanding financial needs that other class years do not share.

We are not arguing with the principle of Oberlin providing financial aid to mitigate the prohibitive cost of a college degree; rather, we question the execution and selection of benefactors. As happy as we are for class years receiving commitment scholarships, the whole scheme seems less like an al truistic initiative and more like a strategic move by the admissions office to motivate more people to attend Oberlin. We’ve seen two consecutive years of record-breaking class sizes, but it is also worth noting that both class years have benefitted from the commitment scholarship program. Oberlin famous ly meets 100 percent of demonstrated financial need — why not instead in crease the number of students with higher demonstrated need, possibly even implementing need-blind admissions, then fulfill that demonstrated need? Consider that the $80,000 granted across eight students who don’t otherwise require financial support from the College could instead be used to provide a full ride for one student who couldn’t afford Oberlin any other way. Instead, students whose families can easily afford an Oberlin education are being giv en unnecessary scholarships. Where is the equitable access to higher educa tion in that?

As it stands, the problem with the concept of a “commitment scholarship” is that it misses a very obvious base of Oberlin’s already committed student population: upperclassmen. What Oberlin is willing to provide for third, fourth, and fifth years directly influences their connection to the College. By using an established connection with the College as a ballooning revenue flow to entice new applicants, Oberlin is turning away from its obligations to half the students that currently call thiscCollege home.

Editorials are the responsibility of the Review Editorial Board — the Editors-in-Chief and Opinions Editors — and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the Review

Seizure of Z-Library Domain Detrimental to Student Access to Educational Materials

Oliver Niehaus

On Friday, Nov. 4, the Department of Justice and the FBI seized the domain of the e-book site Z-Library. The site claimed to have over 10 million e-books, academic texts, general interest fiction, and nonfiction books, as well as nearly 85 million scholarly journal articles, for free. This is a major blow to people, especially students, looking for free access to books. The site allowed users five downloads per day without an account and ten downloads per day if they made a free account. Concerns about the site stemmed from its violation of piracy and copyright laws.

The idea that access to information should have a price tag is a shaky one at best. While it’s true that authors deserve to reap the benefits of their work, that isn’t being undermined by sources like Z-Library. Holly Witteman, a health informatics researcher and professor at the Université Laval in Quebec City, Canada, said in a tweet, “That $35 that scientific journals charge you to read a paper goes 100 percent to the publish-

er, 0 percent to the authors. If you just email us to ask for our papers, we are allowed to send them to you for free, and we will be genuinely delighted to do so.” If authors are happy to disseminate their papers anyway, it doesn’t seem like those almost 85 million scholarly articles that Z-Library provided for free actually hurt the authors.

Additionally, textbooks for college are expensive. According to the Education Data Initiative, “The average postsecondary student spends between $628 and $1,471 annually for books and supplies as of the 2021–22 academic year.” Many of those books were available for free on Z-Library. The removal of this resource is another hurdle for students who are simply looking for an affordable way to get the resources they need, especially when they likely are already paying thousands of dollars to get an education. This is not to mention that banning Z-Library won’t stop the pirating of textbooks. Rather, students will spend more time searching for pirated materials they otherwise could have gotten through Z-Library.

French sociologist Émile Durkheim had a unique theory that crime serves a function to help indicate underlying societal needs that are not being met. When Durkheim was alive, graverobbing was common. Durkheim said that instead of just condemning and prosecuting the grave robbers, people ought to consider why they were robbing graves in the first place. The reason was that there was a shortage of bodies available for scientific research, and thus huge sums of money were offered for fresh corpses. What needed to be done, then, was to make the process of donating one’s body to science easier and to repeal laws restricting one’s ability to do so. If we apply this theory to the use of Z-Library, Durkheim would say that the pirating of textbooks online indicates that textbooks are inaccessible to many people. The way to address this problem is not to take away that resource, but rather to improve accessibility. To put it more simply, instead of forcing students to become better at pirating online textbooks, how about we just make books more available?

Like me, you’re probably wondering what the fate of Z-Library will be. And frankly, I don’t know. It’s likely that this will be a long, drawn-out legal battle in which everyone, authors and users alike, lose. However, it’s important to step back and look at the ridiculousness of this situation. There are people arguing that having access to more information is a bad thing, that they’d rather profit off of others than allow them the resources they need to be successful. That is exactly the problem. As long as our society puts the profit of large corporations, in this case publishing companies, over the well-being of the majority, things like this will continue to happen. The reality is that access to information should not be determined by the depth of one’s pockets. And yes, an implication of that would be free higher education. This is a very small piece of a much larger issue, and I hope that we all see this seizure of Z-Library for what it is: another instance in which the interests of corporations have been put over the rest of us.

Oberlin’s History Not As Gender-Inclusive as You Might Think

Lucy Parker

This year, Homecoming coincided with Oberlin College’s reunion for the classes of 1961, ’62, and ’63. I initially went to the Homecoming football game to say I had gone, but I ended up staying a lot longer than I had planned, though it wasn’t because I was holding out hope for an Oberlin win. The man sitting in front of me was a class of ’62 alum with an insight into Oberlin’s history previously unknown to me. Amidst cheering, gasping, and booing, he began to tell me about the differences he had noticed since being back on campus. One of the most memorable things he mentioned was the 10 p.m. women-only curfew that was in place during his time at Oberlin, jokingly remarking that once the women went home, the men didn’t have much of a reason to be out anyways.

When I toured Oberlin in 2021, my tour guide boasted of gender-neutral bathrooms, a lack of Greek life, and the fact that Oberlin College is the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States as markers of the institution’s radical inclusivity. Learning about a women-only curfew being in place as late as the 1970s shook my perception of the College. I couldn’t understand how an institution with a reputation such as ours could support rules that were so obviously oppressive to women during a time of mass social advocacy for women’s rights.

At Oberlin College, 1966 was a year characterized by fierce student advocacy. For years, the student body protested the women-only curfew and the strict opendoor policies implemented in public student meeting spaces aimed at preventing male and female students from entering into relationships. The student body was in agreement that these rules undermined student autonomy and that the constant supervision by the administration inhibited a cohesive living and learning community. The Sept. 20, 1966 issue of The Oberlin Review discussed the beginning stages of a transition away from Wilder Hall parlor monitors and mandatory open-door policies. However, these discussions were not based on the administration’s desire to provide students with more autonomy and freedom but rather were influenced by a monetary incentive. The Dean of Students at the time, Bernard Adams, stated that the College’s reasoning for not hiring parlor monitors for the coming semester was that “the money could be put to better use elsewhere.”

Published in that same edition of the Review was an editorial written by the Editorial Board. The article expresses discontent with Wilder parlor “dating rules,” and voices a very legitimate fear that discussions about these outdated rules will “go on for months, thereby preventing a direct confrontation between what students want and what the Student Life Committee

might not want to give them.” The editorial concludes with fighting words that aptly illustrate the student body’s fatigue with a domineering administration resistant to change: “if there is going to be a fight, let’s cut out the philosophy and have it already.”

The disconnect between Oberlin’s reputation and its practices is apparent nowhere more than in the historical record left by the Review in the late fall of 1966.

On the front page of the Nov. 1, 1966 issue of the Re view is an article that discusses the United States’ recognition of Oberlin College as a national historic landmark — being the first college in the United States to admit women. At the same time, signs of a continuing debate shone through the Review’s coverage, such as in a news brief included at the end of the previous issue, published just three days before on Oct. 28. The brief covers the concessions made by both Student Senate and the Faculty Committee on Student Life, in which Student Senate had to reject a SLC proposal that “parents of sophomores be given the opportunity to ask that their daughters not have unlimited hours.” In this way, the College faces a strange dichotomy of culture, on the one hand being praised for its inclusive reputation, and on the other, facing an internal pressure to restrict the agency of its female students. History like this shows that, even within an institution that makes strides toward progressive policy, the truth of its morals and customs can be much more complicated.

College administrations are similar to federal governments, and not just in that college students love to

complain about them. As the governing institution of the student body, a college administration must reflect the sentiments of the students. The only way to do that is by listening, not just by providing a platform for students. Having a nominally powerful Student Senate that is given the opportunity to communicate with administration is little more than a performative act by the administration if the exchange does not lead to policy change that helps close the gap between student values and the rules they must adhere to. If this does not occur, students are given a soapbox placed in front of a brick wall.

Oberlin’s progressive reputation is well deserved and something to be proud of, but we must be clear about who we credit for this reputation: Oberlin is progressive because its student body is progressive. Even considering that the regulations at Oberlin were not excessively oppressive by 1960s standards, the issue lies in the dissonance between the political attitudes of its student body and the administration that represents them.

Even if it feels like the administration’s attitude will never truly reflect the sentiments of the students, students should not throw in the towel on consistent advocacy for better living and learning conditions. The fact that the administration has been willing to change policy for the purpose of quieting the student body, even if its motives were disingenuous, shows that volume still leads to change.

Peggy Koye looks up from her books as Mary Laub performs the chore of signing out at Webster’s bell desk for the evening.

Photo from The 1951 Hi-Oh-Hi Oberlin yearbook

Oberlin Should Offer Broader Range of Regional Food

Sahil Novetzke Columnist

One of the things I’m missing most about home, besides my family and friends, is my mother’s food. My mother’s food has always been important to me for a num ber of reasons. For one, she’s the most exceptional cook I know. She used to tell me that although her dishes were cooked with many ingredients, the most import ant one was love.

My mother is Indian, and though we live in the United States, my mother has been feeding me Indian food since be fore I can remember. Now, as an 18-yearold, my mother’s food means more to me than just flavor. It represents an interac tion between mixed-American me and my rich and beautiful culture back in In dia. It represents generations of knowl edge about food and cuisine, passed down from my great-grandmother, to my grandmother, to my mother, to me.

I often feel incredibly detached from my culture, and for me and many others, our food is one of the only ways we in teract with our culture that we are so far removed from geographically. So, upon moving to Oberlin from Seattle, I knew living without that piece of my culture would be difficult.

Despite this, Oberlin does a fine job of providing ethnic food options. Umami, for instance, serves Japanese-inspired food with a blend of other Asian cuisines.

The Rathskeller serves Mediterranean and Mexican-American cuisine for its Monday and Tuesday Fourth Meal op tions. Stevenson Dining Hall occasional ly offers ethnic cuisine — granted, amidst a sea of traditionally white American food. AVI Foodsystems recently catered Indian food for the South Asian Student Association’s Diwali celebration, which was relatively good considering the lim ited scope of westernized Indian food.

And though these options are solid and provide a sort of break from more — no offense — bland white foods, I still feel a piece of my culture is missing. I recognize, however, that demanding my own personal culture be reflected in Oberlin’s dining options is an unrealis tic and somewhat absurd request on my part. I’m not asking for my own culture

to be accurately reflected in the food. I just want more variation, more change.

There are several limitations in my theoretical quest to expand Oberlin’s dining options. For instance, many eth nic, non-American cuisines require ex pensive and often obscure ingredients that don’t seem feasible for Oberlin to obtain. In addition, staff members may not have sufficient experience to cook or prepare ethnic foods.

One final obstacle, and potentially the most prominent, is that AVI gets priority on catering contracts for Oberlin-affiliat ed events. This means, for example, that rather than cater from a local or Cleve land-based Indian restaurant, SASA’s ca tering for its event was taken up by AVI. While more authentic and traditional Indian food may have been available for SASA, AVI catered and received payment for the event instead of, for example, a local Indian restaurant. Here arises an other core issue — the removal of agency from student and faculty-led events in decision making for their groups.

Despite these obstacles, I think Ober lin could make some changes to further increase the diversity of its dining op tions. For instance, the aforementioned Fourth Meal provided by the Rathskel ler could be turned into day-long meal options. This would make ethnic food available at this location for entire days, rather than just three-hour periods, and would be convenient for AVI because they wouldn’t have to switch from day time offerings to Fourth Meal. Allowing individual student and faculty-led or ganizations to choose catering options rather than giving AVI the right of first refusal would mean food at events would be more specific to the group’s vision for their event, and more authentic to the culture being represented.

Additionally, many cuisines contain food based on rice. Umami serves al most exclusively rice-based food. This provides the opportunity to serve more ethnic cuisines — for instance, making a simple dal (a spiced Indian soup made from steamed lentils), fried rice (prom inent in Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese cuisine), or Mexican rice with tomatoes and spices. Though this wouldn’t be a fully authentic representation of these

ethnic cuisines, it would help to improve diversity in the food being offered.

It should be mentioned that, although it shut down two years ago, Oberlin used to offer Mediterranean food at Elia, a dining option that existed where Umami currently stands. When co-ops reopened after pandemic restrictions had been lift ed, a few dining options were removed. I do believe that, if reopened, previous ly closed dining options would receive a tremendous amount of traffic, consid ering how tired some students are of the current dining options.

It’s safe to say that after a couple of months of eating the same food each day, students will start to demand more op tions. We are a unique school in that we are located in an incredibly small town. Non-Oberlin-affiliated dining options exist but are pricey, few in number, and often difficult to access without a car, which many students do not have. Stu dents in other schools, especially those located in large urban areas, have many

cheap, local, non-school-affiliated din ing options that offer a wider and more diverse variety of cuisine. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that Oberlin offer more variety, with a rotation of options throughout the school year.

Oberlin values diversity and inclu sion, so much so that it is one of the school’s main tenets. This value has been integrated into our course offerings; our events; our student and staff body; and our clubs, groups, and organizations. I think Oberlin could do a better job of incorporating this value into the dining options, too.

I recognize that this request is a ma jor one and would require a lot of work on the part of Oberlin and AVI. It would also require a change in the way AVI op erates on campus. With that being said, ethnic food is important to students who come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. For students like myself, our food is a way for us to connect to our cultures that we are so separated from in rural Ohio.

Oberlin’s Curriculum Lacks Any Courses on African Continent

Historically and presently, the international commu nity has done its best to exclude Sub-Saharan Africa from the global conversation. The lack of substantial representation of the African continent in Oberlin’s academic offerings is reflective of that reality in more ways than one. Oberlin offers East Asian Studies, Rus sian and East European Studies, Jewish Studies, Latin American Studies, Hispanic Studies, Middle East and North Africa Studies, and Africana Studies, but does not offer even so much as a Sub-Saharan African Stud ies concentration within the Politics or Africana Stud ies departments.

Most higher learning institutions in America only offer Africana Studies, African-American Studies, or Black Studies. This is different from African Studies, which is the “interdisciplinary study of the arts, his tory, cultures, politics, and development of Africa,” as defined by Yale University, one of the few universities with an African Studies department. Africana Studies, on the other hand, is described on the Oberlin website as the “academic engagement with the history, cul tures, politics, and experiences of African-descended peoples.” The main difference is that Africana Studies is mainly centered around the Black experience in the United States, with the inclusion of some classes on the Caribbean and Africa.

The history of Black people in America is rich and extensive, which is why it more than deserves a whole department, and many colleges recognize that. Simi larly, the complexities of the African continent are also deserving of a specific field of study and department at Oberlin. Changes must be implemented in the quest to achieve this, namely an increase in the number of classes that teach about Africa.

Where are the classes on the Rwandan genocide? The dynamic realities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, past and present? The role of feminism in the anti-Apartheid movement? Kenya as a global bea con for climate change reform? More often than not, when these complex topics are discussed, they are condensed into a single one-hour lecture. How can Oberlin claim to educate on the realities of the world we live in with such limited learning options on such a complex continent? How can Oberlin claim to produce well-equipped Politics majors when an entire part of the world is barely featured in its Politics department? It is disappointing because a different reality is possi ble. African Studies departments are not unheard of; additionally, the amount of African literature and ex pert African scholars, and the necessity to study the Af rican continent and its operations, increase everyday. Moreover, the lack of classes on Sub-Saharan African history and politics is reflected by the few books and resources the library has on the region, since course content informs the libraries’ purchases. Furthermore,

in the classes we have taken, discourse around Africa is usually limited or met with very little interest — main ly from students, but professors play a role in this, too. Usually it’s because they know very little or nothing at all about the region. This is inexcusable, since more often than not, they are unwilling to ask questions or find out more when an African country is brought up.

It’s shocking how when we bring up examples from the continent, nobody builds on them or draws paral lels — most times, the conversation shifts back to an other region. Obies pride themselves on their critical thinking, intellect, and interest in social justice, so how is it that when a topic about one continent is brought up, most have nothing to say, but when any other re gion of the world is mentioned, it is met with enthu siasm?

It’s exhausting that we have to carry the burden of educating not only our peers, but our professors, too. From interactions both inside and outside the class room at Oberlin, the reality that Africa is seen as the “dark continent” has really set in. Few know or care to know about a whole region. The disregard for edu cation about Africa showcases subconscious anti-Afri can sentiments — the region is still not seen as one of great importance or worthy of extensive research and study. On its website, Oberlin recognizes that “diversi ty broadens perspectives.” How exactly does this work when a whole continent is significantly underrepre sented?

Chemutai Ruto Kambura Kinoti

Photo by Katherine MacPhail

Umami, introduced in 2020, offers Japanese-inspired food.

College Should be Held Accountable to Divestment Promises

Karthik Ranganadhan

The October resolution of the Board of Trustees to completely divest from fossil fuel investments is undoubtedly a monumen tal win. The decision highlights the efforts of student and alum ni activist groups like the Oberlin Fossil Fuel Divestment Work ing Group and how their work can lead to change in the College. At a time of heightened concern about climate change, paired with the need to act swiftly to stave off environmental catastro phe, the College has shown that it is committed to working for the future of our planet.

The groups working toward divestment must be given their due praise. Their hard work has resulted in this incredible de cision that will hopefully ensure that the College is no longer investing in the fossil fuel industry. The action also highlights the work of the Impact Investment Advisory Group, which was recently formed to promote the Investment Office’s Impact In vestment Platform. The platform involves the divestment from fossil fuels and will be invaluable in promoting transparency in investments and how they affect Oberlin’s commitment to the environment and global social change.

Yet, as reported in last week’s edition of the Review , the deci sion does not mean an instant divestment, with the board mov ing to instead gradually divest. Speaking then to the Review , Chair of the Board of Trustees Chris Canavan, OC ’84, explained the complex nature of such investments, saying that “divesting immediately and completely from anything connected to fossil fuels is problematic — it’s problematic in some cases because sometimes it’s not obvious that your investment is indirectly an investment in a fossil fuel business or an industry that relies on fossil fuels.”

While the board’s pragmatic concerns about the feasibility of an instant divestment are reasonable and, as the article men tioned, less than 1 percent of the Oberlin endowment is invested in fossil fuels — significantly lower than the 5 percent that it was in 2015 — Oberlin’s endowment is $1.2 billion, highlighting the fact that the College still has a significant amount of money invested in these industries. The fact that no new investments in that sector have occurred since 2017 is an optimistic sign, but now the College must cut down on the investments that it does have.

It has been clear for a long time that we need to act on cli mate change. As CNN noted in its coverage of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, the time in which we can avert this crisis is running out. Recent catastrophes like the floods in Pakistan are a result of us not acting fast enough. As noted in the board’s Resolution, Oberlin has long been a leader in combating climate change ever since it signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2006. The board did also restate its commitment to carbon neutrality by 2025, demon strating its willingness to work with students on the issue.

We can turn back to the 1970s and ’80s to see an example of student activism changing the College’s investments. From 1978 onward, students were involved in widespread demonstrations urging the College to divest entirely from South Africa because of Apartheid. Only after protests that led to 59 students being charged with violating General Faculty regulations on social and political unrest and a two-day sit-in at the Cox Adminis trative building did the board commit, in 1987, to divest fully by 1988, an entire decade after the issue was first raised. The board’s fossil fuel divestment commitment did come swiftly by comparison, but it does not include the hard deadline that the 1987 commitment did. While the promise itself is hugely signif icant, as it makes Oberlin one of only 76 U.S. colleges to commit to fully divesting from fossil fuels, it is not the immediate di vestment that the Fossil Fuel Divestment Working Group origi nally pushed for. Nonetheless, it represents progress.

However, not making a hard deadline risks transforming the occasion into merely a symbolic victory if real action does not see the light of day. Divesting too slowly would also not help, and the board will have to balance its pragmatic considerations with the need to fulfill its commitment. Neither the board nor the students can afford to take their foot off the accelera tor. Oberlin has a well-earned reputation for student activism and a history of action on the issue of climate change. There is much cause for hope that the College and students can work to ensure a brighter future for us all. Groups like the Oberlin Fossil Fuel Divestment Working Group and the student body as a whole must continue the campaign to ensure that the board does not falter in its commitment. Only through united action is the change we seek possible.

Focus on Oberlin’s Lack of Recycling Detracts from Larger Issues

Neva Tayler Columnist

With many sustainability projects on cam pus, and a committed goal of carbon neu trality by 2025, Oberlin College is known for being a green school. Oberlin has been recognized nationally for its environmental efforts in the past decade. In 2019, the Si erra Club’s Sierra magazine ranked Oberlin at 35 out of 282 undergraduate colleges and universities on its list of America’s greenest schools. The Oberlin Board of Trustees ad opted an environmental policy in 2004 that “covers all aspects of campus management including buildings, food, energy, transpor tation, purchasing, and recycling.” By far the biggest environmental project the College has currently taken on is the Sustainable In frastructure Program, which is expected to bring the College to 90 percent carbon neu trality.

In light of all of this, it’s interesting to note that a recent debate has risen around recycling on campus. Students have ex pressed their displeasure and confusion as to why our green campus has not been recy cling for the past few years. Many have felt it is hypocritical to call ourselves a sustain able and green school when we aren’t even recycling. However, much of this criticism, if not misplaced, at least misses the bigger picture.

While there has yet to be a simple answer for the students, it turns out there is a host of reasons behind the College’s lack of re cycling. China’s “National Sword” policy went into effect in January of 2018, severe ly impacting the global recycling recovery marketplace. The policy set strict quality standards for certain recyclable materials, and mixed paper and post-consumer plas tics were banned entirely. The impact of this has trickled down to Oberlin. In April 2019, the service the city of Oberlin used, Republic Services, increased recycling pro cessing charges. In July, it increased prices and implemented a contamination charge for every load that contained more than 15 percent non-recyclable items. The recycling processing fee was again increased in Jan uary 2020. At the height of the pandemic, the City of Oberlin suspended its recycling services to protect its employees’ social dis tancing. The City later reset its recycling program to an opt-in service which was not available for commercial customers at the time. Over the last few years, it has been hard to get recycling up and running again.

In 2021, the College hired Reduction in Motion to evaluate its previous recycling system — which was plagued with contam ination issues — as well as conduct a waste audit and make recommendations for a re-envisioned recycling program. Heath er Adelman, the Sustainability Manager of Oberlin College’s Office of Environmental Sustainability, has been working on finding another recycling hauler for the College, creating a redesigned system that will dra matically reduce contamination, including identifying new bins and lids with restric tive openings, a new branding campaign, and new signage. There have been many promising moves, and Adelman is hopeful that recycling will be back on campus by early next year.

So, if recycling is coming back to cam pus, and there are reasons why it has taken

a while, why are we still talking about this back and forth? It’s not only because recy cling on campus should be occurring and people don’t know that it’s coming back soon. We also want to talk about this small debate around recycling on campus because it provides us a window into a problem in our wider culture.

The dominant topics of environmental debates, from dinner tables, to work gath erings, to our conversations on campus, revolve around personal changes we can make. Are you recycling enough? Are you composting? Are you wasting water? Do you turn your lights off? Notice how easily we can get a discussion going about recycla bles. As a culture, we love to get involved in heated debates over personal environmen tal change issues, but we never seem to get beyond that as a country.

These personal changes alone make very little difference when compared to the sys tematic, cultural, and corporate changes we need. At last year’s 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, U.N. Secre tary-General António Guterres spoke about the urgency of addressing climate change.

“Our fragile planet is hanging by a thread,” Guterres said. “We are still knocking on the door of climate catastrophe. It is time to go into emergency mode — or our chance of reaching net-zero will itself be zero.”

The discussions at the conference were about big issues such as pushing wealthy countries to invest in more climate change actions, ensuring countries are honoring climate finance commitments, strengthen ing national climate targets, and requiring decision makers to show that they are seri ous about their COP26 commitments. Right now, we need to be in emergency mode. We might not be able to get to the same solu tions these conferences aim to reach, but we can have the same discussions and get to a point of pushing for more drastic, necessary change.

We should be having these higher-lev el conversations, but we aren’t, because we’ve let ourselves become enamored with the less complex and less scary discussions. It’s almost as if we like having these smaller discussions because then we don’t have to tease out the more complex issues. But our culture needs to be brave, because the big stuff is the only thing that will save us. Once we get past our own personal actions, here’s how we can go further: by joining a large movement. The use of collective action could possibly help take us a step further and put pressure on our political leaders. The webiste Count Us In helps explain per sonal actions that one can take for the envi ronment, but also helps open the discussion further by pointing people toward challeng ing their leaders to act more boldly on cli mate change. The U.N.’s Act Now campaign helps get people involved in speaking up about climate change. The first major step is talking with one another and centering our discussions around impactful change.

So by all means let’s push each other to put recycling bins in all our buildings, com post bins in all of our kitchens, and electric cars in all of our garages. But let’s also notice how seductive that part of the discussion is. Let’s notice that that personal work tempts us to ignore the bigger stuff. It’s ironic, but this temptation might be what’s holding us back from making the greatest impact for the health of our climate.

Oberlin Equestrian Team Competes in Hunt Seat Show

Before COVID-19 restrictions severe ly limited its activities, the Equestrian Team was one of the largest intercol legiate club sports on campus, hosting approximately 30 members. After a two-year hiatus from competing, the team is back up and galloping.

Oberlin competes in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (Zone 6 Region 1), which includes some schools from the North Coast Athletic Conference as well as other schools in Ohio. The commit ment that Oberlin riders make to their sport is extraordinary. Hunt shows take around two days, often requir

ing riders to commit to the whole weekend, and Oberlin takes part in four to six shows a year per divi sion. Participants are assigned ran dom horses for the show rather than bringing their own, and while they can watch their horses perform in the classes prior to their event, they don’t have time to warm up. The team’s first outing was the Lake Erie College Hunt Seat Fall in Painesville, Ohio, last month.

Riders competed in their sec ond outing of the school year at the University of Findlay this past Saturday and Sunday. Hunt seat is a particular form of English riding, a more traditional style than its Western counterpart. College third-year Emily

Ferrari and College fourth-year Michele Eggleston competed in the event, and both took home fifth place in their classes.

Although Oberlin currently does not have enough points to score in shows for the IHSA, that doesn’t stop students from entering competi tions. Equestrian team members also encompass a wide variety of experi ences, from those who are just start ing out to those who have been riding since they were little.

Members practice at Equine Differences, a barn about a mile north of campus owned by Coach Ric Weitzel. Not all college riders at Equine Differences are from Oberlin, however — in the Lake Erie College

show, two students from Lake Erie College and the University of Findlay who train at the barn won their events last weekend. Students can be trained in hunt seat equitation, Western horsemanship, or both. Oberlin stu dents can also ride and compete in dressage — there’s a separate club for that — and many riders participate in both.

College first-year Max Lang hopes to hone his skills this year at the barn.

“Practices have been chill and a lot of fun,” Lang said. “Equine Differences has a lot of really great lesson horses. … All of the teammates [I’m in lessons] with are super sweet and supportive, as is our coach Michelle, and it’s been a great environment to learn in.”

Niels Vanderloo, Runner and Track Star

Chris Stoneman Senior Staff Writer

Fourth-year Math and Physics major Niels Vanderloo is a runner on the cross country and track and field teams. During this October’s NCAC Championship, he finished sixth, first out of Oberlin runners, to help men’s cross country win its first championship in pro gram history. When he’s not preparing for the winter track season, he can be found researching compu tational plasma physics, serving as an Accessibility Coordinator for Pyle Inn, and preparing for graduate school to continue his studies in physics.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When did you start running, and how did you join the team?

I started running track in elementary school, but I didn’t really seriously start training until high school. In high school, I started training every day after school, but I was never that good at it. I didn’t know if I could compete at the college level, and then I came here. I joined the team, but I was unsure if I would run. However, when I finished high school, I was like, “If I don’t do this, I’m gonna be very bored, and I’m gonna have so much more fun if I am doing something challenging.”

What’s your favorite event to run?

Cross country is one of my favorite things, but in track, definitely the 10 kilometer because it’s the longest event that they have. When it’s a longer event, it’s like a slow burning pain the whole time. I like the less intense but longer, drawn-out race. The 10K is so much fun because it’s 25 laps on the track, so you just completely zone out when you run.

How do you balance athletics and being in a co-op?

One good thing is that co-ops have a time aid poli

cy. Based on how many hours of a paid job you work, you can work fewer hours in the co-op. If you work five hours of a paid job, it’s one hour less. That’s been helpful because I don’t have to work the full five hours required. Co-op work takes up time, but it almost doesn’t feel like work because you’re eat ing and doing things that are fun with your friends every day. I also know I can go to the co-op even if it’s after 8 p.m., which is when Stevenson Dining Hall closes.

What made you want to become an Accessibility Coordinator?

Accessibility is just very important in the co-ops because there are so many different commitments and everyone’s needs are different. It’s a job that I care a lot about. Part of it is just food accessibility and dining, especially in Pyle. I really like working with my fellow co-op Accessibility Coordinator, College fourth-year Sammy Siegel. We’ve done a lot of physics research together in the past, so I knew I would work well with them.

Andrea Nguyen Sports Editor

Riders pose with their horses at practice.

Fourth-year cross country runner Niels Vanderloo posing at the NCAC Cross Country Championships

Photo courtesy of @oberlinequestrian on Instagram

Photo Courtesy of Chase

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Recounting Oberlin’s Storied Rivalry with Kenyon College

Celia Perks Staff Writer

It is often said that familiarity breeds contempt, and this has certainly been the case for Oberlin and its longtime rival, Kenyon College. Formed from frequent athletic matches and the similarity between the two schools, this rivalry has been embedded in the cultures of both schools; the Yeomen and the Owls have been close com petitors for as long as students and faculty can remember.

Oberlin closely competes with schools such as Ashland University, Denison University, and The College of Wooster, yet Kenyon has tradi tionally been the largest and longest running rival. In 1892, the schools clashed at the first ever football game between the two colleges. The Yeomen won the game with a score of 38–0, crushing the Owls in a heart-stopping first victory. The current statistics show that Oberlin leads the all-time record, 44–41–6. Even though the Yeomen fell to Kenyon this year in a close 28–21 game during Homecoming weekend, they will surely be back with a ven geance next fall.

The energy between all of the players, coaches, and spectators is

increasingly electric in comparison to when Oberlin plays any other team.

“The rivalry isn’t just in football, either,” Jason Hewitt, OC ’20, wrote in an Oberlin blog post. “I’ve watched many Oberlin sports teams compete in athletic events … and I can honestly say that when our teams play against Kenyon, the energy is different.”

This rivalry stems primarily from similarity. Both Oberlin and Kenyon have a small student body of less than 3,000 students and are private four-year schools that are ranked in the top 50 national liberal arts col leges by U.S. News and World Report. Students will typically pay simi lar tuition to attend either school and have similar chances of admis sions based on the acceptance rates. Because these schools mirror each other in so many ways, they compete in terms of academic prestige and athletic recruitment.

Oberlin’s rivalry with Kenyon mim ics those often seen at larger, more athletically adept universities. Big 10 schools such as the rivalry between the University of Michigan and The Ohio State University. OSU will cross out Michigan’s “M” throughout the city on game days, a tradition that Oberlin mimics; on game days, the Yeomen cross out the K on banners,

shirts, and any items that display sup port for the Owls. A Kenyon pendant with a crossed out K was even includ ed in a raffle during the women’s soc cer Homecoming game this year. Sometimes one may wonder: why is this rivalry such a big deal? Every institution within a particular niche

wants to be the most prestigious and lauded. Both Oberlin and Kenyon attract students from across the nation because of what their respec tive campuses have to offer. Perhaps because the schools are so similar, this rivalry is one that will most likely live on for many years to come.

Oberlin Athletics Concludes Fall 2022 Season

James Foster Staff Writer

Oberlin Athletics has nearly reached the end of its fall season, with the football team concluding its season this weekend at home against The College of Wooster and cross country competing in two NCAA tournaments Nov. 12 and 19.

The men’s cross country team, led by fourth-year captains Chase Sortor and Sam Russ, took home its first North Coast Athletic Conference Championship this season. To top off the championship win, Head Track and Field and Cross Country Coach Ray Appenheimer, Associate Head Cross Country Coach Izzy Alexander, and Volunteer Assistant Coach Anna Scott, OC ’22, took home NCAC Coaching Staff of the Year for the men’s division. Cross country now looks toward the NCAA Great Lakes Regional tournament and the NCAA Championships in the coming weeks. Fourth-years Niels Vanderloo and Sunniva Sheffield earned NCAC first-team honors, followed by fellow fourth-years Ross D’Orfani, Sam Russ, and Matthew Walton, third-year Eliza Medearis, second-years Walter Moak, Jonah Barber, and Sage Reddish earning NCAC second-team. On the flip side, football’s performance has been dis appointing, with a 0–9 record thus far. However, the Yeomen have had close, hard-fought battles against Kalamazoo College, Alvernia University, and Kenyon College. Notable performances came from the team cap tains: fourth-year and quarterback Chris Allen Jr., who threw 11 touchdowns with only eight interceptions, and fifth-year Brian Colarusso, who leads the team thus far in both receiving yards and touchdowns.

Although they began this season with 12 incoming

first-years making up nearly half the team and a brand new head coach, women’s soccer has been another one of Oberlin Athletics’ bright spots this fall season, finishing with a winning record of 7–6–2. In the postsea son, second-year Heather Benway was named NCAC’s Women’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Year, third-year Brynn Adams and second-year Sofia Mitchell earned NCAC second team honors, and second-year Zoe Garver earned third team honors.

“Starting a new season with a new coach is always a hard thing to settle into,” fourth-year midfielder Camille Franklin said. “[Head Women’s Soccer] Coach Taylor Houck made it a priority to make sure the team felt comfortable with her and with each other. [She] always told us that our greatest strength was the love we have for each other.”

Men’s soccer had an up and down season this fall, going 5–7–3 overall and 1–4–3 in conference games with well-earned draws against Denison University, DePauw University, and Wooster and a triumphant 5–1 victory against Hiram College.

This team was spearheaded by experienced cap tains: fourth-year Jon Schafer, fourth-year Zack Butter, and second-year Anthony Pacewicz. Second-year Toby Wells-Zimmerman led the team with 16 points and 40 shots taken while tying for second in the NCAC with six assists, and Pacewicz came in clutch for the Yeomen, scoring two game-winners and putting up an additional goal and assist for seven points on the season. As a result, Pacewicz and Wells-Zimmerman earned NCAC sec ond-team and third-team honors, respectively.

Field hockey has not seen copious amounts of success the last few years, but it banded together to win some crucial games this season, finishing with a 4–12 record,

its best season since 2013. The team proved to be mental ly tough, emerging victorious in both games this season that went to a penalty shootout, and third-year defender Abbie Patchen earned her NCAC third-team honors for the second year in a row.

“We have grown so much as a team,” fourth-year goalie Post said. “I think the biggest way is how we continue to treat each other with grace, motivate each other on and off the field, and push each other to be better athletes.”

Oberlin’s volleyball team, led by captains third-year Andréa Jones, third-year Taylor Gwynne, and fourthyear Zoe Kuzbari, started its fall season off well, winning six of their first seven games. However, the wheels fell off toward the end of the season, resulting in a 7–16 finish. Second-year Cami Sweet and fourth-year Iyanna Lewis also earned NCAC second and third-team honors for volleyball, respectively.

Although the team didn’t achieve all the results they hoped for, Jones highlighted the importance of the team’s culture and relationships.

“I felt like we had a winning season within the improvement of our chemistry as a team, and I feel like that is the most important part of being on a team — making sure that every one of us has each other’s back as we go through the tough times as a team,” Jones said. “I have never felt more supported by a team that I call family.”

Although some teams, such as men’s and women’s soccer, who will have an abbreviated season this spring during which coaches will be able to return and work with their teams, and many cross country runners, who will transition to winter track, most are preparing to stay in shape for unofficial winter training, when they can receive no coaching per NCAA rules and regulations.

Fall sports have concluded their seasons and are preparing for winter training.

Oberlin College and Kenyon College athletics have a storied rivalry.

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Comic by Helly Yelton

Oberlin Basketball Starts Season with Mixed Results

Kayla Kim Contributing Sports Editor

This Tuesday, men’s and women’s basketball started their seasons with the women’s team traveling up to Michigan to play against the Alma College Scots and the men’s team staying at home to compete against the Ohio Northern University Polar Bears.

Women’s basketball is coming from one of the most successful seasons in program history, with a 21–4 overall record and a dance in the North Coast Athletic Conference semifinals during the 2021–22 season. Their skill was evi dent when they established a 7–1 lead in only the first five minutes of the game. Taking advantage of the Scots’ weaknesses, such as the absence of their two starters and the 24 turnovers made, the Yeowomen continued to set the pace with the help of second-year Bryana Woodard, who led the team with 22 points throughout the entire game and has been called a potential candidate for NCAC player of the year.

“Our offense had some amazing spurts where we really all seemed to flow well together which was exciting,” Woodard wrote in an email to the Review. “We have some serious depth and players who all bring something super valuable to our game, so it’s fun to watch the different ways we all play with each other. The other team was trying to double me for the entirety of the game, so I was really grateful for my teammates being able to read the help side defense and their decisions on when to give me the ball.”

Also contributing to the victory was Oberlin’s rookie class of first-years, specifically Angela Kumler, Anora Lee, and Lily Najmulski, who achieved a combined total of 20 points and seven rebounds. Additionally, third-years Alyson Jefferson and Gina Lombard made all 11 free throws attempted between the two of them. Although the Scots shot multiple three-pointers and ended the fourth quarter with a 15–12 score, it was not enough to slow down the Yeowomen’s momentum, and Oberlin’s team went home with a 77–62 victory.

Notably missing from the action was last season’s first team honoree and NCAC Newcomer of the Year, sec

ond-year Camille Zinaich, who is currently out due to a femur injury. However, she was proud of the team’s accomplishments, especially the first-years, and has high hopes for the rest of the season.

“I think last year we all knew we would be a good team, but I don’t think we realized … how good we can be,” Zinaich wrote in an email to the Review. “I think that inspires us all, and it especially showed in yesterday’s game how much better we all collectively got and how much potential we have.”

An hour after the women’s game began, the men faced off against ONU back home, motivated by a pep band and a lively group of spectators, starting the first full season for Head Coach Shiva Senthil. Fourth-years Đorđe Otašević and Dimitrije Radusinovic led the team in scoring with a combined 29 points, exactly half of the total points for Oberlin. Second-year guard Yuuki Okubo moved with agility and speed to post up eight assists, and first-year Milun Micanovic made his collegiate debut with eight points, stunned the crowd with a slam dunk and provided much of the defense against the Polar Bears.

Unlike the women’s match, the Yeomen did not find points so easily. From the beginning, the scores were only single digits apart from each other, and by halftime, they were only in a 28–27 lead. Unfortunately, the gap between scores slowly began to widen throughout the second half as Ohio Northern continued on an intense offensive cru sade that Oberlin could not answer to in time, continually missing shots and failing to block.

The last five minutes saw the most action as the team slowly but surely recovered from a nine-point deficit, finally narrowing down to a 59–57 score in the last eight seconds thanks to a successful three-pointer by sec ond-year guard Will Bousquette. However, they racked up fouls and even with a successful free throw by Okubo and boos from the student section against the Polar Bears, ONU made three more free throws. The game concluded with a 62–58 loss.

Afterward, Micanovic noted that one reason for the loss was because of a difference in experience. Ohio Northern was much faster and older and comparatively, only eight of the 19 Yeomen are third years or above. Despite the out

come, Micanovic appreciated the support from the older players, such as Otašević, and believed the game provided valuable insight into the dynamics of the team, giving them a baseline for improvement.

“[The upperclassmen] are really supportive towards all of us,” Micanovic said. “They give us the best advice they could, especially in this game. They were leading us, telling us what to do in order to achieve our best potential. … We should definitely work on keeping the same men tality throughout the game. We need to stand behind our principles, which are trying to be tough on defense and on offense.”

Today, the Yeomen are traveling to Case Western Reserve University for the Bill Sudeck Tournament, and the Yeowomen are heading back to Michigan for a game against Adrian College.

Jewish Athletes Discuss Antisemitism in Sports After Kyrie Irving Suspension

Zoe Kuzbari Contributing Sports Editor

Last week, NBA star Kyrie Irving was suspended in definitely by the Brooklyn Nets for promoting an an tisemitic film on his Twitter account then refusing to condemn antisemitism and declining to apologize. As a result, some have criticized the Nets for taking nearly a week to act. Despite the NBA’s continual efforts to make social justice a bigger part of their brand, NBA star Charles Barkley said that “the league dropped the ball.”

Most know that Asians face discrimination in athlet ics due to the model minority myth and that Black and Brown communities have less access due to systemic racism in the U.S. However, antisemitism in sports is often overlooked.

College fourth-year Oliver Ripps, men’s basketball manager and sports fanatic, said that although he has never been discriminated against in athletics for being Jewish, he is aware of prevalent stereotypes.

“There’s a stereotype that Jews are bad at sports, but it’s personally never made me feel like I couldn’t par ticipate in athletics anywhere that I’ve been,” he said.

Unlike Ripps, first-year women’s soccer player Syd ney Epstein has experienced antisemitism in athletics. Growing up in Indiana, a state with many rural com munities, Epstein also had to be cognizant about con cealing aspects of her Jewish identity.

“Many antisemitic tropes and stereotypes have been used to describe me or my Jewish teammates,” she said. “Whenever we would travel for sports, I would have to be very aware about things, like if I was wear ing my [Star of David] necklace or anything identifi

ably Jewish. Having to hide at times things that make me more noticeably Jewish was definitely hard and has shaped my Jewish identity a lot.”

While Epstein doesn’t necessarily believe that the Jewish community has less access to athletics than others, she wants awareness about the limitations they face.

“In high school, many times sectionals were sched uled on high holy days — the holiest days in the Jewish calendar — so I had to pick between my commitment to my sport and team or to my synagogue and family,” she said. “One of my best friends in high school had to miss every Friday night and Saturday morning game for her sport so she could attend Shabbat services.”

Similar to Epstein, third-year football player Jack Diskin has experienced discrimination in football and often had to choose between sports and religion, espe cially throughout his childhood.

“All through high school, [antisemitism] was some thing I had to deal with from friends and teammates — it became so persistent I eventually became numb to it and just ignored what was said,” Diskin said. “I wasn’t able to play football until an older age because my parents weren’t okay with our games being played on Saturdays. I grew up in a pretty religious household, and throughout most of my childhood, Saturdays were a sacred day — the Sabbath — where we wouldn’t do work. It’s said in the Torah that Saturdays are the day of rest. Once I was a bit older, it became hard for my family to maintain a strictly religious household, [so] I was able to actually play football.”

Fourth-year baseball catcher John Schooner said that he hasn’t experienced harmful antisemitic behav ior in sports, but he knows it exists and believes that

Jewish athletes can feel excluded because the athletics community is predominately Christian.

“There’s a ton of religious imagery in sports today, but the vast majority of it is Christian: players coming together to pray before or after games, wearing cross es,” he said. “I don’t see it as an issue necessarily, but it definitely creates boundaries to some extent that end up leaving Jews — or any other minority religious group — on the outside.”

The news about Kyrie Irving has left Epstein feel ing disheartened, but she is glad that the public is con demning him for his actions.

“I am glad that many are taking a stand against him in the league and calling him out for what he’s done,” she said. “There is a lot of growth and learning on his part that needs to be done. The number one thing that can be done about antisemitism is education. Just learning about Judaism and the culture prevents stereotypes and tropes spreading, as well as showing that there are more commonalities than differences between Jews and non-Jews.”

Ripps is encouraged by increased representation in professional and collegiate sports. He highlighted the rise of Yeshiva University’s basketball team and Ryan Turell as the team’s star athlete, and believes that this kind of visibility will inspire future generations of Jewish athletes.

“Seeing an athlete like Ryan Turell — who is an Or thodox Jew playing in the G league — shows that any thing is possible,” he said. “The way the Pistons affili ate has accommodated his religious needs shows that sports are learning how to support practicing Jews. … Whenever people come together over sports, it’s al ways wonderful to see.”

Milun Micanovic makes a slam dunk in a game against Ohio Northern University on Tuesday.

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor