The Oberlin Review Feb. 10, 2023

The Oberlin Review

Winter Storm Elliott Caused Damages to Student Housing, Impacted Personal Property

Yasu Shinozaki

Approximately 50 students’ residences were impacted by pipes bursting due to extreme cold weather in Burton Hall, Tank Hall, Asia House, and three Village housing units during winter break. Oberlin Facilities Operations Staff discovered the damage during routine checks Friday, Dec. 23, according to Mark Zeno, assistant vice president and dean of Residential Education of Student Life Auxiliaries.

“Our facilities staff discovered damages to water pipes and heating systems caused by the winter storm and frigid temperatures, which may have also directly affected your residential space,” an email sent to affected students Jan. 19 read. “Therefore, we are proactively reaching out to inform you of the potential damage caused by the winter storm and the freezing conditions.”

The email went on to say that the College had contracted several professional cleaning companies to “identify damages, fix broken systems, perform initial water cleanup and drying, dehumidification, and replace carpet and other materials where necessary,” and included steps students could take to report missing or damaged property and seek reimbursement.

“The professional contractors came in, inventoried, packed, relocated and stored property while they went through and looked for damages.” Zeno said, adding that he was very impressed with the Facilities Operations’ speedy response. Student property that was

“Almost all damage was preventable and caused by windows being left open,” Chief Facilities Officer Kevin Brown wrote in an email to the Review He encouraged all students, faculty and staff, to make sure windows are closed when leaving a space in the future, especially during cold weather.

College second-year Ava Cantlon, who received a voicemail informing her of damage in her dorm room, said she felt the vagueness of the original message made the situation unnecessarily stressful. However, she was pleased with further communication she had with the administration.

“I asked for photos,” Cantlon said. “I asked, ‘Is [the damage on] the walls? Is it on the floor? Is it on what side of the room?’ Because I was concerned about specific possessions.”

To her relief, her room was mostly unaffected — only a notebook was damaged by the water.

Ramanuj said.

Ramanuj felt the cleaning company did a good job of returning the items they removed from the room, but added that the school could have been more transparent about the process.

“[My roommate and I] didn’t have our basic amenities like toothpaste or detergent pods, so we didn’t know what we should spend on versus what we shouldn’t,” Ramanuj said. “We tried to email [the College]. They weren’t as communicative as they could have been.”

Ramanuj said when she tried to contact the school to inquire about important possessions left in the room, they redirected her to the third-party contractor.

Conservatory fourth-year Ezra Rudel also described the situation as chaotic. Rudel, who works as a Housing Loose Ends Coordinator in Tank Hall, a building that is rented to the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association by the College, said they did not hear about the damage until New Year’s Eve. They said they wished that the college administration had communicated more with OSCA staff, rather than sending emails directly to residents.

Rudel also described the process of moving back into Tank as “hectic.” Because of Conservatory auditions, the Hotel was completely booked the weekend before class started and Tank residents who were temporarily housed there had to leave. According to Rudel, originally the Hotel wanted students to check out by 9 a.m. on Friday, while the See Property, Page 2

Ava Miller Senior Staff Writer

As of Wednesday, Feb. 1, students, faculty, and staff can make room reservations through a new feature on OberView. The feature is part of Event Management System, a software used by campuses among other businesses and can be used by the Oberlin College community to reserve or request spaces for studying, classes, meetings, and performances. EMS was originally deployed as the scheduling platform for the College 25 years ago, but until this latest update, reservation for rooms was done via Google Docs.

In the new system, individuals can log directly into EMS themselves, see what spaces are available in real time, and instantly make a request — certain meeting rooms receive approval automatically.

For performance spaces, outdoor areas, and large lecture halls, reservations take longer because they need to be reviewed before being confirmed. When reserving these spaces, users will get email updates on the status of their request.

The software also lists the amenities available in each space, such as whiteboards, audio-visual equipment, and Zoom capabilities, as well as the style of each space, such as lecture-style seating or stage.

Students can reserve study rooms and classrooms in King Building, Mary Church Terrell Main Library, Adam J. Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, Peters Hall, Rice Hall, the Science Center, and Wilder Hall. Additionally, the Carnegie Root Room, Finney Chapel, Hales Gym, and the Bowling Lanes can be reserved. Outdoor spaces including North and South Quad, Science Center Bowl, and Stevenson Green are also available.

Director of Student Involvement

Tina Zwegat highlighted the efficiency of the software in an email to the Review

“The ultimate goal of EMS is to better serve our community by providing a platform that quickly and efficiently allows the scheduling of spaces, so that Obies can turn their attention to other pursuits,” Zwegat wrote.

Tidal

Man In

Burton Hall was among the buildings that suffered damage as a result of Winter Storm Elliott.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Photo courtesy of Ben Jones

Love In the Times of Oberlin | 8-9

removed from rooms was inventoried so it could be returned to them. Students who returned for Winter Term were put up in the Hotel at Oberlin until their residences were cleaned and repaired. Zeno said that water damage due to winter temperatures is not unusual and that a similar incident happened a few years ago at his previous institution.

R

February 10, 2023

Volume 152, Number 13 (ISSN 297–256)

Editors-in-Chief

Kushagra Kar

Emma Benardete

Alexa Stevens

News Editor

Emily Vaughan Opinions Editor

Last Monday, Oberlin student representatives from the social media application Fizz distributed donuts in Wilder Hall, Stevenson Hall, and outside of King Building in exchange for pledges to download the application.

Other students received messages from Fizz marketing analysts on LinkedIn prior to the app’s arrival on campus, offering them positions as content moderators on the app at a rate of $500 per month, like College second-year Gina Thompson, who ignored the offer she received.

“When they tried to recruit me, I ignored it as spam since we’ve had issues with job offer phishing emails recently,” Thompson wrote in an email to the Review Thompson was also skeptical about the details of the offer.

“Usually when a company offers you a good amount of money to be a spokesperson there is some kind of catch, so I didn’t pursue the offer,” Thompson wrote. For students who elected to accept the moderator position, Fizz presented them with a

Continued from page 1 school said Tank would be ready for residents to return at 8 a.m.

“We were originally going to have a one hour window to move all 10 or 15 people who were living in the Hotel and all their stuff,” Rudel said. “Almost none of us have cars, it was going to be kind of a disaster.”

Eventually, the school agreed to allow residents to move in to Tank at 8 p.m. Thursday evening.

“We were told [the College was] going to shut down the whole [Tank Hall], and drain the pipes and shut off the heating and the electricity, because there

contract that includes a nondisclosure agreement, clauses regarding compensation, and a waiver of the right to legal action against Fizz.

“Consultant shall maintain full confidentiality about role and responsibilities at Fizz,” a December 2022 version of the contract reads. “In addition to the Confidential Information written in Section 5 of this agreement, Consultant shall not disclose: a. Title of role or affiliation to Fizz on any public social media site (e.g. LinkedIn) at any time. b. Role of generating content on any public social media site (e.g. LinkedIn) at any time.”

Fizz, founded in 2021 at Stanford University, is a social media platform similar to YikYak, which has been a popular app on campus for the past few years. Both applications share the same basic functionality — users make anonymous posts that are then up or downvoted by fellow users.

However, Fizz requires that users sign up via their college email accounts, while YikYak is open to everyone based on geographic location. Requiring a college email is similar to the model Facebook first followed on college campuses.

Some, like College second-year Faye Carter, are suspicious of

this reliance on an email address, as well as the app at large.

“It just seems like YikYak but sketchier,” Carter said. “And I heard something about you having to put your school email on it, which I don’t like.”

According to public statements by the Fizz development and marketing teams, the app is looking to expand into all colleges across the U.S., and Oberlin is one of the first 1,000 campuses on which the app has been rolled out.

In the week following the app’s arrival on campus, Thompson has not found Fizz to stand out amongst other social media applications that already exist.

“The app isn’t really filling a gap in the market,” Thompson wrote. “It’s mostly just YikYak with a bit more flexibility of types of posts. I personally don’t use it much, but also don’t use YikYak much, so I can’t really pass judgment on which I prefer. I’m mostly just watching to see what happens since this whole situation has been odd to me.”

Carter was particularly put off by Fizz’s marketing strategy — representatives of the app placed an advertisement for its Oberlin charter under the door of her South Hall dorm room.

“I thought it was weird that I got something at my door

advertising it, and I don’t know if that happened to everybody, but I definitely noticed that for people in my hall,” Carter said. “I went out in the middle of the night one time and there’s these little postcards advertising Fizz, right by everyone’s door. But when I woke up in the morning...I left mine out on the floor–I was like, ‘I’ll just get it in the morning.’ But when I woke up, it was under my door in my room.”

Carter is also skeptical of Fizz’s commitment to data security.

“It just seems like another app that’s sort of meant to steal your data and I don’t know, just everything about it seems extremely sketchy to me,” Carter said.

According to Fizz’s Security Practices webpage, the company follows “industry-standard security protocols.”

“First, all interactions between Fizz users, content, and our systems are done using unique and anonymized account identifiers,” the webpage reads. “We’ve ensured that at no point can Fizz users, moderators, or our launch teams see another user’s Personal Identifiable Information. PII on Fizz is stored in a separate secure database, which is only accessible by Fizz administrators.”

Fizz Social Media Launches on Oberlin’s Campus College Refurbishing Water-Damaged Property

was soon to be nobody here,” Rudel said. They added that their views are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of OSCA.

Students also had questions about what caused the damage. Pipes bursting and flooding struck Cantlon as an easily avoidable situation.

“I’m from Minnesota so I’m very familiar with freezing temperatures and all the misrule that can bring,” Cantlon said. “And I know that Oberlin does not get as cold as Minnesota does, but it definitely does get cold.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

Starting this week, the The Oberlin Review is introducing a weekly events calendar. This is not a comprehensive list of events held in Oberlin for the coming week, nor a space for advertisments. Rather, this is a curated list of events intended to draw attention to several kinds of community organizing. The subjects of these events are not endorsed by the Review. To submit an event for next week’s calendar, contact us at newseditors@ oberlinreview.org.

Friday, Feb. 10

8 - 10 p.m.: Valentine’s “Day” Dance at the Cat in the Cream with Oberlin Swing and Blues Society and Dani Assis: Universal Swing Band

As part of OSwing’s first dance of the semester, the organization invites students to an introductory dance lesson for the first half-hour, which will be followed by an hour and a half of music and dancing.

Saturday, Feb. 11

1 p.m.: Women’s basketball vs. DePauw University in Phillips gym

3 p.m.: Men’s basketball vs. DePauw University in Phillips gym

4:30 - 5:30 p.m.: Everything and

the Kitchen Sink with Musikos Collective

Student-led organization Musikos Collective is launching its spring 2023 concert series Saturday. The Collective will explore percussion, TIMARA, early music, new music, vocal performance, and composition during its performance later this week.

Monday, Feb. 13

12 - 1:30 p.m.: Music to Picture: A Cross-Disciplinary Overview with Composer Timo Chen, OC ’93, in the Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space Timo Chen will give a presentation on how music, sound, and picture have evolved together from silent motion pictures up through the digital age.

Tuesday, Feb. 14

7:30 - 9 p.m.: Love in Many Tongues in the Nancy Schrom Dye Lecture Hall Students, faculty, and community members will read up to 15 works of romantic, seductive, and erotic poetry and prose in languages other than English as well as English language translations of these works.

Wednesday, Feb. 15

1:30 - 3:30 p.m.: Woodworking Workshop with Norman Teague in the Allen Memorial Art Museum Chicago-based artist, designer, and co-founder of blkHaUs Studios Norman Teague will lead a woodworking workshop for 30 pre-registered participants.

Managing Editor

Nikki Keating

News Editors

Alexa Stevens

Cal Ransom

Opinions Editors

Emily Vaughan

Hanna Alwine

Arts & Culture Editor

Dlisah Lapidus

Sports Editors

John Elrod

Kayla Kim

Conservatory Editor

Delaney Fox

Photo Editors

Abe Frato

Erin Koo

This Week Editor

Eloise Rich

Senior Staff Writers

Ava Miller

Chris Stoneman

Celia Perks

Gracie McFalls

Maeve Woltring

Poetry Editor

Gillian Ferguson

Web Manager

Nada Aggadi

Production Manager

Isaac Imas

Production Editors

Addie Breen

E.J. LaFave

Gideon Reed

Lia Fawley

Jasper Swartz

Serena Atkinson

Sumner Wallace

Trevor Smith

James Foster

Layout Editors

Erin Koo

Grace Gao

Katie Rasmussen

Molly Chapin

Illustrator

Molly Chapin

Distributors

Leah Potoff

Nondini Nagarwalla

Neva Taylor

Will Young

5 - 6:30 p.m.: Queer Spring Fling in Wilder Main Lounge with the Multicultural Resource Center

The MRC invites LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff to socialize at the Queer Spring Fling.

6 p.m.: Women’s basketball vs. Kenyon College in Phillips gym

8 p.m.: Men’s basketball vs. Kenyon College in Phillips gym

Thursday, Feb. 16

6:30 p.m.: City of Oberlin

Comprehensive Plan Public

Open House at Prospect School

The City invites the public to provide comments on the City’s Comprehensive Plan.

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A screenshot of the Oberlin College edition of the Fizz app shows the titles of the three separate content tabs: “Top,” “Fizzin,’” and “New.”

Damaged property was relocated, restored, and returned to its owners.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Zeinab Abul-Magd

Professor of Middle Eastern History and Chair of International Affairs

with our partner there, and we closely developed our three syllabi and made sure that the themes were coherently tied to each other and that our students in both schools were going to enjoy the experience of interacting with each other on Zoom.

they would like to monopolize knowledge production, and also monopolize memory or remembrance — how people remember their past, and how people recollect their historical memories and put them on display.

Kushagra Kar Editor-in-Chief

Zeinab Abul-Magd is chair of the International Affairs integrative concentration and a professor of Middle Eastern history. This January, she developed an international Winter Term project in collaboration with the American University in Cairo titled “Museums, Historical Memory, and Politics in Egypt.” The Review spoke with AbulMagd about the creation of the project, the current political regime in Egypt, and important things for U.S.-educated students to consider about global freedom of expression.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you decide to create this Winter Term project?

I would like to actually begin the story with Donald R. Longman Professor of English, Cinema Studies, and Comparative Literature Anuradha Needham. When we did the StudiOC learning community “From Bombay to Cairo: Cinema and Social Change” in 2019, we connected it to a course offered at the American University in Cairo, and our students met virtually with Egyptian students. Dr. Needham was the one who had the contact at the American University in Cairo, Ferial Ghazoul. Ghazoul is a comparative literature professor originally from Iraq. So, Dr. Needham and I went to Egypt and met

I knew through this that our students are really interested in talking to other students in other campuses across the globe, so I thought that a wonderful follow-up on this would be the Winter Term this year instead of them talking to AUCians virtually from here. It isn’t possible to take them there during a regular semester, but it is possible to do this during a Winter Term. I closely collaborated with an AUC professor to create this Winter Term course in which both Oberlin and AUC students participated. It was as if it was one course co-taught between Oberlin and AUC on the AUC campus. It was one group of students, AUC and Oberlin students, with two instructors.

Was there a contemporary political context that played into the things you were teaching in the Winter Term?

Absolutely, contemporary political context is an integral part of this because Egypt now has a military dictator. Military dictators usually are not liked by the international community. As soon as he was elected president in 2014, the international community was very reluctant, very opposed in some cases, to recognize him as the president of Egypt. He quickly realized that the field of museums is an ideal field for him to gain legitimacy domestically by fostering notions of Egyptian national identity. He over-emphasizes ideas of Egyptian nationalism and over-celebrates Egyptian nationalism and the heroism of the Egyptian military. So, he put this over-emphasis into museums. By selling the myths of Egyptian nationalism to the Egyptian people, he bought their loyalty and their recognition. For the international community, he posed as a man who cares for the history of the country, for the global Islamic history — as an intellectual man.

I wrote a whole book about the military and the economy in Egypt. The military institution — his institution — controls the economy. So many sectors are monopolized by the military, and now

Thinking also about how an Americaneducated audience could come into this context, what were some things you were hoping your students would be aware of during the project?

I have two factors that come together to answer the question. The first factor is that I wanted my students to be exposed to universal ideas that any community could engage in, whether it be American communities, Asian communities, Middle Eastern communities, or African communities. Any community, regardless of where it is, normally engages with questions of identity and questions of remembering the past and what museums could do to remember a certain past and emphasize certain identities or give more superiority to certain races or certain ethnic groups over others. These are universal questions that students anywhere engage with or people who care about history anywhere would like to learn about.

At the same time, keep in mind that there is another group of students with them in the same course, the Egyptian

students, who are actually living under this dictatorship. When they go to a museum and they notice something that they can politically criticize, they would keep silent. They are young people who live in a security state and, 10 years ago, youth like them led the revolution against a similar security state, and they went nowhere with it. A lot of them are in prison now. So, if you dare to speak up and politically criticize your military dictator now, thinking that you can have another revolution like the previous generation had, then you might be very mistaken.

So, we have two groups of students who enter into the same space of a museum. One of them is free to think and criticize, and the other one is so restricted and restrained, they have to self-censor all the time. There are communities of youth like this globally, who live under very politically oppressive conditions. They manage to go through their life on a daily basis. They manage to go to college, finish their education, and get jobs under these kinds of circumstances, whether in Egypt or elsewhere. I wanted my students to see this and to understand what other communities outside the U.S. go through and appreciate what kinds of totally different experiences other youth go through to get education and to learn something.

College Initiates Legally Mandated Anti-Hazing Training

Cal Ransom

News Editor

Online anti-hazing training opened for Oberlin students Tuesday. The program is mandatory for all students and must be completed by March 10, 2023. Coaches, volunteers, and staff who run campus organizations and have direct contact with students are also legally required to undergo anti-hazing training according to Sec. 3345.19(E2) of the Ohio Revised Code.

Students will complete the anti-hazing training via Vector Solutions, a third-party online training site. Oberlin has used a Vector service, Everfi, for online alcohol safety training and decided to expand that relationship by using their anti-hazing training as well. The anti-hazing program was developed by Norman J. Pollard, former dean of students at Alfred University, to be available on a national scale. The training is meant to help students at a broad range of colleges and universities identify hazing in a variety of situations.

There is no standard definition of hazing, so the training uses a definition developed by Alfred

University’s National Survey on Hazing: “any activity expected of someone joining or participating in a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers them regardless of the person’s willingness to participate.”

This definition is broken down into three parts — what hazing can be, who can experience hazing, and the fact that hazing can happen regardless of consent. Hazing does not only happen during initiation into a group — students can also be hazed when moving into a new role or position. Any activity that can cause physical or mental harm falls under the definition of hazing, even if the victim agrees to participate in the activity.

According to Section 2903.31 of the Ohio Revised Code, “‘hazing’ means doing any act or coercing another, including the victim, to do any act of initiation into any student or other organization or any act to continue or reinstate membership in or affiliation with any student or other organization that causes or creates a substantial risk of causing mental or physical harm to any person, including coercing another to consume alcohol or a drug of abuse,

as defined in section 3719.011 of the Revised Code.”

Ohio’s state law has included both mental and physical concerns since 1983, when the law was first introduced. However, it was expanded to its current purview in 2021 after the death of Stone Foltz at Bowling Green State University.

In Ohio, hazing is a second-degree misdemeanor, which carries up to 90 days in prison. If drugs or alcohol are involved, it becomes a third degree felony that can carry up to three years in prison. Starting in the 2022–23 school year, all higher education institutions must report any hazing cases from the past five years in a publicly available report. The Ohio State University has had 13 reports of hazing in its sororities and fraternities since 2018. There have been reports of hazing leveled against four organizations at Kenyon College. Oberlin does not have any hazing reported from the period of 2018–2022.

Second-year College student

Abby Rickin-Marks felt that the training could have been improved for Oberlin students by including identity-aware information, but understood that the

training provides broad coverage in a short period of time.

“They didn’t discuss any of the racialized or gendered aspects of hazing,” Rickin-Marks said. “There wasn’t any identity based stuff, but in 25 minutes you can’t cover that.”

Thom Julian, associate dean of students, says that he hopes the

anti-hazing training will begin a dialogue around hazing.

“Students may have a good basis of the major points of hazing, but the training actually talks about some of the more subtle barriers,” Julian said. “Hopefully, that will spark some conversation on campus so they’re more educated on it.”

Security Report

Friday, Feb. 3, 2023

Officers were requested to assist with an ill staff member at the Student Health Center.

Officers responded to a report of students on the roof of Wilder Hall.

Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023

While conducting a building check, officers located several individuals smoking marijuana in the kitchen area of “Language Complex.”

Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

Custodial staff reported a vandalized fire exit sign on the first floor of Barrows Hall.

Monday, Feb. 6, 2023

An individual reported falling on the slippery sidewalk on the east side of Philips gym. No injury was reported.

Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023

An officer reported locating what appeared to be a “makeshift” bed in a room in the Kohl Building.

Winter Term students pose with Professor Zeinab Abul-Magd on their last day in Cairo.

Photo Courtesy of Zeinab Abul-Magd

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Zeinab Abul-Magd

For more information about any of these topics and to visit the sources used, readers can click the hyperlinks in the online edition of this piece, published on oberlinreview.org.

Tel Aviv Protests Enter Fifth Week

According to an article published by Al Jazeera, protesters continue to rally in Tel Aviv against judicial plans brought forward by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The plans would limit the Supreme Court’s authority and expand the power of the government to appoint judges. Protesters also expressed concern over proposed policies by Netanyahu’s government to expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and institute social reforms affecting LGBTQ+ families.

7.5 Magnitude Kahramanmaraş Earthquake Strikes Syria, Turkey

According to an article published by Reuters, the death toll has passed 20,000 after an earthquake classified as major in magnitude hit Syria and Turkey Monday. Aid has been slow to reach Syria and Turkey as survivors have been left homeless and without power in the middle of winter. The first U.N. aid convoy reached Northwest Syria Feb. 9.

Nigerian Presidential Elections Slated for Late February

18 candidates are running for office in Nigeria’s upcoming presidential election Feb. 25, with each candidate representing a different political party. According to Reuters, the top three contenders are All Progressives Congress candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, People’s Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar, and Labour Party candidate Peter Gregory Obi.

Biden Gave State of the Union Address on Tuesday

According to an article published by BBC, President Biden’s State of the Union Address this past Tuesday signaled an “America first” attitude toward the upcoming policy year. Biden additionally issued a warning to China against threatening U.S. sovereignty. Biden also discussed U.S. bipartisanship, the economy, gun control, and other domestic policy items for the coming year.

Hong Kong Court Rules Surgery Not Necessary for Gender Change on ID

Transgender individuals in Hong Kong no longer need to undergo full sex reassignment surgery to change the gender marker on their ID. The Final Court of Appeals ruled with the appellants Henry Tse and “Q,” stating in the judgment that the treatment is invasive and not required medically for many transgender individuals.

Kalamazoo Vapor Closes Oberlin Location After Five Months

Isaac Imas Production

On Jan. 23, Kalamazoo Vapor announced the closure of its Oberlin location, formerly at 21 West College Street. A message sent out to their email list read, “We are sorry to announce that due to lack of business, we have closed our Oberlin location.” The store opened in August 2022, staying in business a total of five months.

“We had great interactions with the community,” Adam Tahan, district manager of Kalamazoo Vapor, said. “It’s not that it was a bad experience, there just wasn’t enough traffic.”

The difficulties Kalamazoo experienced are not unprecedented. Small businesses in Oberlin’s downtown notoriously face competition, especially with the increasing prevalence of major restaurant chains. In the past several years, eight local eateries — including Catrina’s Tacos y Margaritas, Dave’s Cosmic Subs, Black River Cafe, (which recently reopened as a wine bar), Agave Burrito Bar and Tequileria, and Oberlin Kitchen — were forced to shut their doors partially because of the pressures imposed by the pandemic. Executive Director for the Oberlin Business Partnership Janet Haar offered her guidence for any small business looking to open a storefront in Oberlin, aggregated from 10 years of experience connecting local organizations with resources in times of financial strain.

Oberlin College

According to ObieSafe Campus Testing Statistics, in the past month, five positive rapid tests were reported to ObieSafe. As of Sept. 26, 2022, the campus had an 81.5 percent booster rate, which included 80.4 percent of students, 89.2 percent of faculty, and 82.4 percent of staff. College students, faculty, and staff are required to receive a booster dose unless they have qualified for a medical or religious exemption through the College.

“Here’s what I always tell businesses, especially ones coming into a small, rural, college town: Do your market research first,” Haar said. “That’s going to tell you that there are some fairly lengthy downtimes when you have to depend mostly on the people who live in the community, not the people who come here to go to school.”

According to Tahan, Kalamazoo conducted market research prior to expanding the business into a new town.

“We study demographics and then research, like, ‘Are there other shops in town?’” Tahan said. “We just kind of try and figure out what would make

COVID-19 UPDATE Lorain County

From Jan. 5 through today, there have been 1,104 new cases of COVID-19 in Lorain County per The New York Times. During the same time period, there were nine reported COVID-19 deaths.

Per the Ohio Department of Health, 68.9 percent of Lorain County residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine for a total of 213,486 recipients — 123,667 and 59,054 residents have received their first and second booster doses, respectively.

sense for opening a location.”

Based on the research it conducted, the company had reason to believe its Oberlin location would get off the ground.

“There’s not a vape shop in Oberlin — and in the surrounding areas, there’s no vape shop,” Tahan said. “We sell devices to help people quit smoking; [Doobie’s Smoke Shop] is selling different products.”

Kalamazoo’s tenure on West College Street was short-lived, despite indicators that there was a lack of supply elsewhere for the service they provided.

“You should not be undercapitalized,” Haar said. “You have to have some money

Ohio

From Jan. 5 through Feb 8, there have been 31,456 reported new cases of COVID-19 in Ohio. There have been 1,265 hospitalizations and 206 deaths according to the Ohio Department of Health.

Per the Ohio Department of Health, 64.71 percent of Ohio residents have begun vaccination, with a total of 7,564,160 vaccinated individuals. 3,968,445 Ohioans have received their first booster dose and 1,757,298 have received their second dose.

in the bank to support your basic business operations for at least six months or more during the inevitable slow times when you could be operating in the red.”

However, more crucially than the financial safety net that gives bigger businesses a better fighting chance, Haar hammered home the importance of good-faith engagement as a stakeholder in the Oberlin community.

“In a small town like Oberlin, you have to join the community,” Haar said. “Which means you can’t spend all of your time working in the business — you have to also work on it. You’ve got to help people get to know you by passing out your business cards, you’ve gotta have a flyer … you’ve gotta do all of those kinds of things so people get to know you. So if you come in, you’re undercapitalized — meaning you don’t have enough money to take care of you during those slow times — and you don’t get out in the community cause, you’re probably not going to succeed.”

Haar expressed her belief in the need for an economic development program in Oberlin that would guide property owners in choosing businesses best equipped to survive and thrive on their properties. Programs currently underway, such as Downtown Strategies’ plan to revitalize Oberlin’s downtown, carry Haar’s hopes for a future of facilitated collaboration between merchants and the owners of the buildings they operate out of. However, no economic development department unique to Oberlin currently exists, and small business owners are often faced with an uphill battle.

“We’re not really sure why there wasn’t enough business,” Tahan said. “There wasn’t enough traffic in the store. Other [Kalamazoo] stores do a lot more business, and we’re trying to be financially responsible.”

Two doors down from Kalamazoo’s now-empty storefront, Doobie’s Smoke Shop has flourished since its opening in 2020, providing an example of a successful smoke and vape shop that, despite Tahan’s insistence otherwise, serves a very similar

clientele as Kalamazoo. Doobie’s success can be attributed partially to resources the business has at its disposal operating under the same ownership as the Arb at Tappan Square. The Arb had only opened about a year prior, but its popularity among residents built a loyal customer base and cemented the restaurant’s foundation, with Doobies taking residence in the lower floor at the time. Brittany Campbell, manager of Doobie’s Smoke Shop, recalls how Doobie’s managed to attract customers even when it operated out of the basement of the Arb.

“When I was downstairs, everybody would come in and wait for their sandwiches or whatever and [ask], ‘Oh, what’s going on downstairs?’” Campbell said. “It was an ‘if you know, you know kind of thing.”

Kalamazoo carried vaping equipment that Doobie’s didn’t, and in contrast to Doobie’s, it marketed itself toward individuals interested in switching from cigarettes to nicotine vapes. However, when customers enter Doobie’s and express a desire to quit smoking, Campbell said they are pointed in the direction of products that can help them meet their goal.

“We have hemp cigarettes, and I have turned a lot of students on to hemp cigarettes,” Campbell said. “They’ve gone from cigarettes to vaping to hemp cigarettes, and they come back and they’re not smoking nicotine anymore. [It] makes me really happy. Anytime somebody comes in and they’re kind of waffling on, ‘I’m trying to quit,’ I mention the hemp cigarettes and sometimes they bite.”

In addition to factors including familiarity and simple convenience, there is something intangible about Doobie’s business model that keeps customers coming back.

“I just kind of try and connect with everybody that comes in,” Campbell said. “Most of you guys are far away from home, and everybody’s struggling, and I just try and make it a personal moment with everybody that comes in if I can.”

Manager

Kalamazoo Vapor announced its closure Jan. 23 of this year.

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Henry Tse celebrates the ruling in Hong Kong.

Photo Courtesy of Anthony Kwan AP

Earthquake damage and death tolls continue to rise across Syria, Turkey, and other nations.

Photo Courtesy of Francisco Seco AP

OPINIONS

College Would Benefit from Welcoming Scholars at Risk

Ava Miller

Senior Staff Writer

Due to various global crises, many international graduate students have been unable to continue their studies. Graduate students in Ukraine face displacement due to shelling and mass violence. Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, Afghan female scholars have been banned from attending university. Scholars in both countries have been given an ultimatum: leave all of their work behind or fight for their educational pursuits.

Oberlin College’s official motto is “Learning and Labor.” However, a more popular mantra has been placed on admissions pamphlets, brochures, and posters: “Think one person can change the world? So do we.” This quote emphasizes how Oberlin bases its values upon serving the greater community. Students aren’t just attending Oberlin to take classes and work a job; they are here because they have broader intentions of contributing to society. This same standard applies to faculty and staff, too; many applied to work here because of values geared toward global-oriented thinking.

This has been demonstrated through the College and community’s response to international crises and inequities. After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Oberlin faculty held a teach-in and students organized protests. In September, Oberlin announced a partnership with the United Nations and the Global Foundation for the Performing Arts. In collaboration with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, Oberlin is extending opportunities to students unable to afford tuition and housing costs. The Oberlin community has taken steps to respond to global events, but further action is needed. There has been less discourse on campus about Ukraine since spring 2022 and no acknowledgement of humanitarian violations in Iran from the College. Despite widespread media coverage of continual atrocities committed in both countries, there hasn’t been much recent action in the Oberlin community. It is not possible for Oberlin to address and alleviate every international issue, but there is value in reflection. It’s important to take time aside to consider whether more action can be taken collectively. What efforts can we take to support those just like us — individuals with educational passions and a desire to change the world?

A part of Oberlin’s large endowment should be used to aid scholars at risk. As of June 2021, Oberlin’s total endowment was at $1.272 billion. I’d argue that this leaves at least some room for support for the international community. By support, I don’t mean solely donating money. Oberlin has a unique opportunity to foster international learning by hosting scholars temporarily. In order for

Oberlin to uphold its values, there needs to be further action in the international arena. Providing educational accessibility to scholars at risk is the right way to do that.

Scholars at risk are individuals in higher education who have been prohibited from continuing their studies due to regional conflict, ideological pressure, or other factors. The Scholars at Risk Network has a database of scholars from Afghanistan, China, Ethiopia, Syria, and Yemen. For one academic year, a scholar can stay on campus as a lecturer, program assistant, researcher, or student.

A scholar at risk would be a valuable asset to any Oberlin department. Hosting an individual from another country allows for international research. Learning from individuals with different experiences and backgrounds is essential to fully evaluating any topic. Instructors from the program could hold lecture series, workshops, and teach-ins. Learning about geology, history, or education from an international perspective is a unique opportunity not available at every American institution.

Additionally, scholars at risk would have the ability to engage with Oberlin’s many identity-based groups like the Chinese Students Association, International Students Organization, or African Students Association. Scholars at risk not only bring their intellectual achievements, but also cultural contributions. They could take advantage of teaching ExCos in their home language and organizing cultural events. There would be opportunities for scholars at risk to experience and share elements of their culture in a new environment.

An exemplary model of a Scholars at Risk program is at Harvard University. Here, scholars are given a stipend and insurance coverage, and their travel costs are covered. "The Scholars at Risk fellowship is intended to provide a safe environment for a scholar to pursue research and scholarly or artistic interests,” the program website reads.

Beekan Erena, a 2015–16 scholar at risk from Ethiopia, has gone on to write 33 books in four different languages. Before attending Harvard, Erena was stalked, arrested, and beaten for his efforts to advocate for the Oromo ethnic group.

At Harvard, Erena honed his writing skills, researched, and raised awareness about inequality in Ethiopia. Through this program, Erena was given the security to pursue his humanitarian vision.

At Oberlin, we often take for granted the ability to publish articles, create artwork, and write books. Erena was not afforded this opportunity in his homeland. By reaching a hand out to scholars at risk, we can help ingenious, devoted, and creative students pursue their educational goals.

A Scholars at Risk program may not be traditional, but Oberlin has never claimed to be that. Changing the world doesn’t always take one person; it takes a community.

EDITORIAL

Memories of Place Should Be Preserved Through Campus Renovations

WOBC, a radio station that has been broadcasting since 1961, never managed to get on air last semester because they were on alert to be asked to move out of their old office in Wilder Hall at a moment’s notice. With some essential broadcast equipment already moved to a different location and the rest prepared to be relocated within 24 hours, the station existed in limbo for several months. The official notice didn’t actually come until finals week last semester, and WOBC lost four months of broadcast time for no real discernable reason.

The west side of Wilder Hall is undergoing construction as of the start of this semester. This means many rooms serving as offices, study spaces, and headquarters for student-run organizations have been relocated or closed to make space for maintenance. There is a sense of displacement throughout Wilder Hall: parts are sectioned off with plywood, making entire wings of the building inaccessible. The College has several renovation plans in place for the coming months and years, and while this is overdue, we cannot forget the history and value of familiar physical spaces. At the cusp of this onslaught of changes, we wish to take a hard look at the importance of institutional memory and the effect such modifications have on the student environment. Study rooms that people used to frequent are no longer open. For some, those spaces served instrumental roles in the process of self-discovery and cultivation of personal interests, but now they no longer exist in their original form. Even when construction ends, it will be different than it was before. That is jarring. Traditions will continue, but they will be altered. There won’t be drawings on the walls from years ago, or little notes left by people who have since graduated. Parts of the history of the space are lost in this transition. The process of rebuilding can bring discomfort and distress because of the sentimental value the space held. Wilder Hall is a prime example of the cultural significance of institutional spaces.

During the 2020–2021 school year, Wilder Hall was one of the few communal spaces students could access, as Stevenson Dining Hall only offered food to go and the libraries were shuttered,

with books available for pickup only. Wilder became a hub for students, one of the only places where they could study, eat, and just hang out as the cold Oberlin winter made spending time outdoors unpleasant. As such, many of us who were at Oberlin during this time developed a close attachment to the building — popping radiators, creaking floors, peeling paint, and all. Call it Stockholm syndrome, but the loss of Wilder as a communal space on campus is deeply felt by those of us who once relied on it as a backbone of our daily routines.

Institutional spaces are imbued with memories and have unquantifiable value to so many different people. It is essential to remember and highlight these spaces, because in doing so, we also highlight the people who have passed down the traditions of the space to us. With its distinctive character built over decades of students passing through its rooms, Wilder Hall serves as a way to study and interpret the evolution of Oberlin’s culture. Even if, after construction, Wilder Hall looks the same, it won’t feel quite the same because so many little pieces of its heritage will have been built over. It is not simply the existence and utilization of spaces that fosters an emotional connection. Rather, it is the way that we mold the spaces to reflect the time we have spent in them. Photos and quotes on the walls and collections of old work give spaces a personal feeling, making them that much more difficult to leave when the time comes. Take the Oberlin Review office in the basement of

Burton Hall, where student journalists have produced articles on a weekly basis for multiple generations. Pasted on the walls of our office are photos, articles, and quotes from decades of Obies who have come through this place. We may not remember every detail of their stories and experiences in this office, but we find clues in every corner of the room. Even our main door handle, activated only by code and temperamental in its willingness to open, is a beloved annoyance. One could argue for certain kinds of renovation in the Review office, but not at the cost of what makes its character instantly recognizable to the people who have come through it.

While it is true that renovations to Wilder Hall can feel abrupt and difficult to reckon with, particularly for older students at the College, we can also look at this change as a movement toward reimagining how Oberlin should interact with the world.

The construction in Wilder Hall does make the campus seem different, but Oberlin is an institution known for being ahead of the curve, ideologically and otherwise. Rather than mourn the shift in spaces, we can recognize what made these spaces so special: shared values of intellectual curiosity and creativity that students hold so close to their hearts. Each generation of Oberlin students coming into the College factors into an ever-shifting culture. It is up to the current students, faculty, and administration to decide what legacy Oberlin wants to leave and what legacy it is in the process of creating.

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

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

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

The current stage of Wilder Hall construction is scheduled to be completed by fall 2023.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Water Bottle Debate Reveals Plastic Environmentalism

Jonah Barber

Chances are you’ve seen them littered under trees, cresting over the tops of bulging trash bags, or flying in the wind across Wilder Bowl as a sort of ankle-seeking missile of rubbish. Like cigarette butts and DeCafé receipts, plastic water bottles are a ubiquitous eyesore, a commodity that stocks fridges across campus to the brim, just for students to grab, drink, then throw away. Much of our waste is inescapable; unfortunately, in our capitalist, consumption-centered society, the systems that produce and dispense food and materials are inherently unsustainable. Yet, plastic water bottle use is easily avoidable and the first rung on the ladder of reducing waste that we can easily scale as a student body. Oberlin has water fountains and bottle refill stations in almost every building on campus. Water bottles are cheap and available; the water bottle I use from the Free Store remains the best one I’ve had. Alternatives to disposable bottle use are extremely accessible, both financially and in terms of infrastructure. Oberlin’s historical relationship with plastic water bottles is complicated and, like most discourse on campus, extremely charged. According to an Earth Day Q&A with the Office of Environmental Sustainability conducted in 2015, Oberlin banned bottled water in 1999, spurred by a student initiative. Yet the ban did not last, and a 2010 campus-wide movement called for the ban of plastic water bottles again, culminating in a motion passed in the Student Senate when dining services were still under Bon Appétit Management Company. From numerous opinion pieces in the Oberlin Review during that time, the discourse surrounding bottled water was divisive; many called for an end to their sale not only based on environmental grounds, but also out of protest for the inherent inequalities that commercialized water presents to society. Some disagreed; Andrew Lipian, OC ’12, condemned the Student Senate’s ban in an article titled “ProChoice When It Comes to Bottled Water,” citing concerns for the local business that supplied bottled

water to Oberlin and expounding upon free market ideals.

Now we are over a decade past these debates, and arguments like these hold no water. Much of our bottled water is supplied by large corporations like Dasani (owned by Coca Cola) and Aquafina (owned by PepsiCo), and there is high demand from the student body. AVI Foodsystems would be all too happy to get rid of them, if not for the Oberlin community’s continued reliance on convenience. In a meeting as part of my job with the Office of Environmental Sustainability, Director of Operations of AVI Foodsystems

Lilkeisha Smith explained that, when AVI took away plastic water bottles, it received significant backlash from Oberlin students. It came to the point where AVI received hate mail for its decision to eliminate plastic water bottles, and, under pressure, continued providing them. This is unacceptable.

Many calls for individual actions toward waste and climate change have been met with trite arguments blaming corporations. Some people attempt to absolve themselves of guilt by placing the entirety of the earth’s problems on abstract, unspecified companies. Corporate plundering has indeed been the main cause of our current environmental state, but the relationship between corporations and individual choices is more mutual than we might think. Companies supply goods, and we as consumers buy and use them. Instead of immediately accusing those who call for a more sustainable lifestyle as moral high-grounders, let’s instead take an honest look at what we can do individually and as Obies to truly commit to a green lifestyle. Plastic water bottles are perhaps the easiest way to reduce our consumption; they are, quite literally, within our reach.

Of course, banning bottled water doesn’t solve sustainability issues on campus. A multi-faceted approach to sustainability is required to transform our campus in conjunction with the ideals we hold, and much of this work is already being done by various departments and workers. In fact, AVI has made significant

strides in sustainability this past year, eliminating disposable to-go boxes, some single-use plastics at Stevenson Dining Hall, and discussing composting options with Oberlin Environmental Services. AVI’s transition away from disposables used for the past two years back to all reusable dishes is largely being hampered by the student body. As Smith explained in our meeting, students take plates and cups from the dining halls, which quickly go missing, or are unretrievable due to food safety rules. But these are other problems that will be addressed; bottled water use is the easiest, most achievable disposable to curb use of. What remains in terms of sustainability on campus is largely governed by what we choose to do as the student body of this campus. We must intentionally choose what we consume, encourage others to do so as well, and collectively campaign against the use of bottled water. If not, we’re only further supporting the sustainability pantomime that the Oberlin student body has become.

What is your favorite Oberlin tradition?

College first-year Anjali

Blacker: I went to the Winter Fest [Walkin' in a Winter Oberlin] … where they lit the Christmas tree and there was a parade and everything. … I enjoyed it because I love the holidays, and I like to see everyone out and about.

College first-year Luke

McCann:

Oberlin linguistically has some traditions, like specific names for certain places … that people outside the school wouldn’t understand, which is super specific to Oberlin … culture itself. When I first got here, I had no idea what the heck anyone was talking about … all the restaurants and stuff and then all the specific places in Oberlin like the ’Sco. I didn’t really know what it meant when I got here. … It’s a cultural thing that you kind of pick up the more you’re here.

College second-year Ember

Carrera:

One of my favorite traditions that happened last semester was in OSCA, and it was the Iron Chef competition. It was super

exciting. All of the co-ops got together and they made food for each other. We had a fun competition where we got to try all of each other’s food.

College third-year Elsa

Friedmann: My favorite tradition to see around campus is the tapping of the trees in Tappan Square. I just think it’s really cool. My favorite tradition that I’ve participated in was the Banned Books Read Aloud in the library.

College second-year Emily

Amenda: I like the Jellyfish Parade because it has the best vibes. It is the weirdest, it makes the least sense, and it’s the one that I feel like other colleges wouldn’t have. Every full moon, people congregate at Harkness [House] and then come outside and do a series of chants until they reach Tappan and go into the [Memorial] Arch and start dancing — frolicking even — in the moonlight. And there’s always someone dressed as a jellyfish, which just adds to it. I’ve only done it, like, two or three times. It’s fun.

College third-year Nora

McIntyre:

ExCos are a fun tradition. … I taught an ExCo about Barbies called BarbieCo, and I’ve taken a lot of ExCos that I liked. I took one about fanfiction my first year.

College third-year Elena Rabin: I have two favorite traditions. One is the Banned Books in the library. I’ve gone for the past two years. It’s just really amazing. They pull books from special collections that have been banned historically. They even have some that have had the Royal Seal burned off. … They kind of talk about why [the books were] banned and why that’s important and why we still should read them. Then … you get to read a paragraph and excerpt from either your favorite book that’s been banned or just one that they have. It’s just, like, a really beautiful, cool thing. … The other one is Art Rental, which is, like, a very core Oberlin thing, but it’s really amazing in that you get this great art and then also that you get to stand in line with cool people and see what everyone chooses.

Oberlin College banned bottled water on campus in 1999 but has since overturned its decision. Now, bottled water can be purchased at several dining locations across campus for Flex Dollars or meal swipes.

Photos by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Art Rental, which will take place this Saturday, has been an Oberlin tradition since 1940.

Photo courtesy of Jack Lichtenstein

DeSantis’ War Against Higher Education Will Not Stop in Florida

Mischaracterization of Intrusive Thoughts on Social Media Damages Individuals With OCD

Selena Frantz Columnist

Editors’ Note: This article contains discussion of potentially harmful OCD compulsions.

One of the most popular genres of videos on social media can be described as “people doing stupid things and filming it.” Whether it be someone spontaneously giving themselves choppy bangs or deciding to jump into a pool fully clothed, these videos quickly go viral and can be found on every platform imaginable. This, on its own, is obviously not an issue, as shocking videos are essentially the backbone of the internet. The real problem behind these seemingly innocent posts can typically be found in the caption or comments.

with intrusive thoughts has zero desire to act out their thoughts, which is what then causes them so much pain and distress.

Intrusive thoughts can happen to anyone, but frequent occurrences of intrusive thoughts that cause significant distress to the individual can be a symptom of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Additionally, though less commonly, they can be a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, and anxiety, among other illnesses. However, as someone who has suffered from OCD for as long as I can remember, I am familiar with its effects.

I am therefore no stranger to intrusive thoughts. There have been times where I have spent eight or more hours virtually unable to move, being held prisoner by my own mind.

number of different compulsions. I struggle with trichotillomania, or hair-pulling disorder, and skin picking. I spend hours praying for forgiveness from a God that I'm not completely sure is real. These compulsions provide temporary relief, but eventually end up being the only way someone can relieve their anxiety. People with OCD often become ruled by their compulsions.

As a whole, OCD often causes those who suffer from it a considerable amount of distress. According to a study by the International OCD Foundation, “risk of suicide is roughly 10 times higher in the OCD population as compared to people without OCD."

Emma Benardete Editor-in-Chief

Last month, Republican governor of Florida Ron DeSantis launched a mission to strip Florida’s higher education system of what his Director of Communications, Taryn Fenske, called a “political ideology that puts trendy, truth-relative concepts above learning.” DeSantis wants to model New College of Floridaafter Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian college in Michigan.

On Jan. 6, DeSantis appointed six new members to the Board of Trustees at New College . Among the appointees are Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute — a New York-based conservative think tank — and Charles Kesler, Dengler-Dykema distinguished professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College and a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Claremont Institute.

The new trustees then ousted New College President Patricia Okker and moved to replace her with former Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, an ally of DeSantis and a former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. Corcoran is set to be confirmed by the board as interim president next week.

For Oberlin Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics Rudabeh Shahid, a former visiting assistant professor and postdoctoral fellow at New College, the change represents a destruction of a safe haven for progressive students in an otherwise conservative state.

“It was like a sanctuary for a lot of people who could not really fit into other schools in the Florida system,” Shahid said. “They signed up for a place where they would be accepted — a lot of trans people, for example, [attend] the school — but because [of] what happened, they’re very worried.”

Beyond the marked loss of a liberal oasis where Florida students could feel comfortable with their identities, the changes will also hinder the quality of academics that has earned New College its reputation as a top public liberal arts college. Shahid, whose focus is on South Asia, noted that Hillsdale College’s Politics department offers almost exclusively western-centric courses.

“Since I’m a South Asia scholar, … I would [probably] never be able to teach a course there. Then, of course, [my class] Citizenship and Statelessness, where we talk about various debates surrounding how certain groups have been treated in the U.S., how their citizenship actually was determined … [it] would be very hard to teach

citizenship at New College.”

At the K–12 level, DeSantis has attacked “critical race theory,” a position that will almost certainly leech into his plans for New College.

“The whole idea is to attack … critical race theory, and when you do that you can’t understand the structures of various societies, especially the U.S., given our whole history as a settler colonial nation,” Shahid said.

DeSantis has also floated reforming tenure, hoping to subject tenured faculty to review at any time after the state legislature approved a measure to conduct a “comprehensive review” of tenured faculty every five years. Not only is this antithetical to the spirit of tenure, but it also jeopardizes faculty security and, by extension, their ability to teach students in a way that they, the experts, feel is best. For the party that claims to support “free speech” and “academic freedom,” this sure feels a heck of a lot like unnecessary censorship.

It may be tempting to assume that this is an isolated incident, but DeSantis has already started going after Florida State University. Beyond that, his successful overhaul of New College has shown what’s possible and will likely embolden similarly ambitious state governments to do the same.

“The fight over the future of New College is about more than just the fate of this small school in Sarasota,” prominent New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg wrote in a Jan. 9 article. “For DeSantis, it’s part of a broader quest to crush any hint of progressivism in public education, a quest he’d likely take national if he ever became president.”

With the notion of this agenda expanding to a national scale comes another terrifying possibility: private colleges and universities, while independent, usually receive money from the federal government.

“Private institutions shouldn’t think they’re immune, [if they’re] high-ranked like Oberlin," Shahid said "...If things happen federally, a lot of the loans [and] grants can be cut for students."

There are already guidelines that institutions are required to meet in order to receive federal funding, and while I would like to think it is highly unlikely, it is not inconceivable that additional rules could be added that align with the Republican educational policy platform. DeSantis’ new mission represents a threat not only to public colleges in his state but to the collective ethos of higher education nationwide.

The phrase “I let my intrusive thoughts win” is something almost anyone who has spent some time online has seen before. People will often excuse their poor decisions shared via social media apps by saying that it was simply their so-called “intrusive thoughts” taking over. They seem to characterize intrusive thoughts as quirky urges they secretly want to succumb to and not as the debilitating ruminations that plague people with certain mental disorders.

Intrusive thoughts are defined as “an unwelcome, involuntary thought, image, or unpleasant idea that may become an obsession, is upsetting or distressing, and can feel difficult to manage or eliminate.” When people online describe their actions as submissions to intrusive thoughts, what they almost always mean to say is impulsive thoughts.

An impulse can be defined as a strong and sudden desire to act in a certain way. This is the key difference between impulsive and intrusive thoughts. Someone

OCD is often referred to as the “doubting disorder,” as it makes you question everything about yourself, the world around you, and reality itself. It forces painful thoughts and images into your mind, then makes you believe that you are an evil person for having those unwanted thoughts. These thoughts stem from your brain finding the idea that causes you the most mental pain and using it against you. When someone equates impulsive thoughts to intrusive thoughts, they promote the idea that people with OCD secretly want to act on their intrusive thoughts. This could not be further from the truth.

In order to avoid these intrusive thoughts, people with OCD will often resort to any number of compulsions or rituals. These can range from washing one's hands until they are raw, crossing one’s eyes, hoarding, or even hitting oneself to rattle the negative thoughts out. Personally, when I have certain intrusive thoughts, my mind forces me to perform a

EDITORIAL COMIC

Molly Chapin Staff Illustrator

Due to the taboo nature of certain intrusive thoughts, people are very hesitant to share them with others out of fear of ostracization. This can lead to a lack of willingness to share important information about their mental disorder with anyone, even medical professionals. If someone with OCD is online and sees that the majority of references to intrusive thoughts are relatively harmless urges, they might feel as if theirs are monstrous in comparison. Then, because the person is trying harder to dispel their intrusive thoughts, the thoughts become even stronger as a response. This then can turn into a vicious cycle of self-hatred and mental distress.

In general, the misrepresentation of mental illness through social media is not uncommon. It can be very difficult to explain the harmful nuances of certain phrases and trends, especially when you only have a certain number of characters to do so. By simply noticing false rhetoric, educating ourselves on the truth, and subsequently changing the way we use certain phrases, the spread of damaging misinformation can be stopped.

Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis has been criticized for his administrative overhaul of Florida’s New College. Photo courtesy of Rolling Stone

Love in the Times of Oberlin

Love in Talcott

Penny Norris, OC ’84, and Ted Norris, OC ’82, met through overlapping friend groups. They were on different academic tracks — Penny was an English major and Ted was a Physics major. At the time, Ted lived in Talcott Hall, where much of their socializing occurred through lying on the floral carpet listening to Pink Floyd. They stayed together even once Ted graduated and went to University of Rochester for his doctorate, where Penny joined him once she graduated.

For those two years while Penny was still at Oberlin, almost all of her funds went to phone calls. By the time she graduated, her phone bill was so high that she sold everything she owned right in front of Mudd Library, under a tree, including her bike, leather jacket, and guitar.

Their first date was quintessentially Oberlin: a large ballroom in Talcott frequently hosted dances, one of them being a lesbian social. The pair decided to go in, since the event wasn’t crammed. Subsequent dates were characterized by movies, shown almost every night in lecture halls in the late Kettering Hall of Science.

They loved bowling at College Lanes, walking around the Arboretum, playing pool, and going to see music at Finney Chapel and jazz at the Cat in the Cream when it first opened.

Their first “real date” was at the restaurant in the old Campus Inn, similar to what 1833 in The Hotel at Oberlin is now — they fondly remember the salmon there.

Love Across Campus

Tanya Rosen-Jones, OC ’97, was a South Campus girl and Ben Jones, OC ’96, was a North Campus boy. Loosely united by separate a cappella groups and campus jobs at the Dionysus Disco and the Cat in the Cream respectively, they were never officially together until the end of Ben’s fourth year.

Seeing her perform in Nothing But Treble, Ben didn’t even know if Tanya was attracted to men after she sang a song written by a man to a woman without changing the pronouns.

When email was first introduced to campus, it was accompanied by a simple page where people would post quotes. Those who visited the page were given the option to look up others and be presented with their personalized quote. Ben searched “Tanya Rosen” and found her quote which read: “And then it hit me: I can totally afford all this cheese.”

It was a line from a California lottery commercial, and an inside joke among Tanya and her friends. Ben, though, was concerned that Tanya would (hypothetically) buy too much cheese, thus gaining “like 100 pounds.” Tanya was quick to reassure him that chocolate was more of a problem than cheese. With incredible suave, Ben sent her a chocolate bar with a note detailing that he hadn’t won the lottery yet, but he could still afford to buy chocolate. All of this was right before Ben’s spring break of his graduating year.

Fortunately, before they left, Ben saw Tanya in the mailroom where she assured him that he’d see her after break.

Their first date was to the Japanese tearoom that used to be located near Lupita’s Mexican Restaurant.

They talked for hours and hours, until Ben dropped her off at the ’Sco for her shift. The next night, she went to his band’s show and the subsequent after-party. They never wanted to stop talking to one another.

When Ben graduated, he “just so happened” to have signed a lease to remain in Oberlin for the following year while Tanya finished up her last semester. That spring after Tanya had graduated in the winter, was almost like one big date, without the pressure of papers, readings, or anything academic.

Tanya and Ben came back to Oberlin for their class’ 10-year reunion, only to fall in love with the town anew after living around both the Bay Area and Boston in tandem. Living in Oberlin now is a different experience for the two, but the similarities in their ways of life are remarkable. They still go to on-campus performances, now with greater frequency without all the responsibilities of student-life.

For Tanya and Ben, Oberlin was able to unite them, even though Ben was really not her type. Still, she took the chance after hearing that he would treat her like a queen — clearly, something worked, for now the greyest winter days in Oberlin are made better when they each know they can come home to a cozy blanket and someone to love.

This Valentine’s Day, you may be wondering where to spend some sweet time with your lover. College is an environment that prompts adjustment and life-changing shifts in relationships, both with oneself and with others. By extension, Obies seem to often end up with other Obies. So, here are some narratives of love from Oberlin.

Eloise Rich This Week Editor

Tanya embraces Ben at their wedding in 2001.

Tanya and Ben took a selfie at their home earlier this week.

Penny and Ted pose together for a wedding portrait.

Tanya and Ben share a treat in 1996.

Photo courtesy of Ted Norris

Photo by Ben Jones

Photo courtesy of Ben Jones

Photo courtesy of Ben Jones

Love in the Literature

Claire Solomon, OC ’98, and DeSales Harrison are united through the humanities — language and literature characterize their life together. Claire is an associate professor of Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature while DeSales is a professor of English. While sitting in Claire’s office, they both wear beaded bracelets of contrasting colors made by DeSales’ daughter.

They met for the first time at the home of Wendy Hyman, another professor of English and Comparative Literature. They became friends then and connected with one another through humor, especially about being professors at Oberlin. At the time, they were married to other people, only to later find themselves each in similar situations out of their relationships.

Claire and DeSales coincidentally met again in New York while Claire was living there on extended leave. Their first date was a walk around the Met Cloisters, only to randomly stumble across a Renaissance Faire in Washington Heights, which was composed of a vast array of Obies they both recognized.

Their first date in Oberlin was a bit less outlandish — a simple jaunt to Slow Train.

With their love of literature, the pair frequently exchange book titles, both fiction and nonfiction. Claire has read and reread a variety of poetry courtesy of DeSales. In their home, they enjoy reading together in front of their fireplace. They reread Paradise Lost — which, by pure coincidence, other Oberlin professors were reading simultaneously, as if there existed a collective consciousness among faculty.

Like so many other couples, Claire and DeSales recognize Oberlin’s intrinsic ability to unify through intentional community. There’s confidence in knowing that connection is inherent between those intensely associated with Oberlin, whether they’re alums or longtime faculty.

Love Abroad

Elizabeth Rogers, OC ’07, and Sarah Newman, OC ’07, balance one another. They’re both writers, although of very different sorts: Elizabeth, a poet, and Sarah, a lawyer. Sometimes, they disagree about sentence length. They were both Shansi Fellows post-graduation — Elizabeth went to China and Sarah to Indonesia. They met in Shansi House, on the first day of orientation training, when Elizabeth was admittedly intimidated by Sarah’s cool demeanor.

On Feb. 8, they celebrated the 16-year anniversary of their first date at The Feve. Back then, and even still, their favorite thing to get was whiskey ginger ale and tater tots. Everything moved rapidly for the pair after that date, although any potential relationship was characterized by uncertainty, as they were both about to leave for two years.

Still, they kept in touch. Over the course of their time separately abroad, not only did they call each other frequently, but they visited one another four times, generally for extended periods during breaks in their academic schedules. After a few more years of long distance, living together across many domestic locations, marriage, and the birth of their son, they moved to Oberlin two years ago.

Now, they live a block away from where Sarah lived her senior year. When their son, Newman, was younger, they would often push him around in his stroller on promenades past the house. The two love their life in the town, as different and at times, surreal as it feels to be “townies” and not students.

Love in Music

Yerin Kim, OC ’10, and Brendan Shea, OC ’11, met as second-years. They met through Brendan’s roommate, Andrew, president of the Oberlin Korean Student Association, at an OKSA party early in the semester.

Yerin and Brendan were both in the Conservatory. Yerin graduated with a double-degree in Piano Performance and Psychology, while Brendan followed a year later, with a degree in Violin Performance and an Artists’ Diploma. They attended Indiana University Bloomington for their respective masters’ degrees and later earned their doctorates together at Stony Brook University.

In 2014, the pair formed what was known as the Shea-Kim Duo.

Still, their marriage and love for one another is far from strictly vocational. Though admittedly not the most romantic people themselves, they complement each other. From Oberlin to now, no matter their busy schedules, they’ve shared their life together.

First dates were characterized by ping-pong in South Hall, blowing bubbles in the quad for Yerin’s birthday, and both pretending to be morning people to meet for breakfast in Dascomb Hall, followed by practicing their instruments in the beautiful morning sun.

When one of Yerin’s professors in the Conservatory found out she was dating Brendan, she marched across the hall and knocked on his professor’s studio, demanding to know who Brendan was, to which his professor in turn questioned who exactly Yerin was.

The pair married at Oberlin, returning to the place where they both feel as if they grew up. Surrounded by friends, family, and former professors, Fairchild Chapel made for an idyllic destination. Oberlin is in the deepest nuances of their relationship. Plus, they have a Ginko Gallery cat together now.

Wedding ceremonies and receptions are hosted in Fairchild Chapel throughout the year. Elizabeth and Sarah pose together at The Feve for Sarah’s 22nd birthday.

Yerin and Brendan kiss at their Oberlin wedding in 2014.

Yerin and Brendan pose together for their wedding.

Photo by Tanya Rosen-Jones

Photo by Tanya Rosen-Jones

Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Rogers

Photo by Abe Frato

ARTS & CULTURE

Graphic Designers Create Posters Showing Off Campus Life

Maeve Woltring Senior Staff Writer

There’s a kind of infectious enthusiasm inherent to a wall welldressed in advertisements and announcements of student events, concerts, and organizations. In so many ways, Oberlin cork boards — featured at campus hot spots such as Azariah’s Café, Wilder Hall, and dorms — serve as de facto microcosms of the diverse interests and extracurricular pursuits sustained by Oberlin’s student body. Not to mention that Oberlin posters are fun to look at — visually engaging surrogates for our TikTok or Instagram feeds while we wait in line for a latte or bide time in the hallway before class starts. And yet, if you really think about it, a kind of mystery presents itself; with no graphic design classes available at our arts-focused school, who makes the posters we see everyday, and how?

College fourth-year and virtuoso poster-maker Ben Burton had many of the answers I was searching for. They started working as promo director for WOBC during the fall of their second year, and since then they have acted as a freelance poster designer and promotional media creator for the Dionysus Disco, the Cat in the Cream, and Solarity. If you recall any especially stimulating posters circulating when big names such as Junglepussy, DJ Assault, or Girlpool came to campus — yeah, those were Burton. They make the kind of posters you’d want to hang on your walls, with dynamic lettering and stylish, funky graphics that catch your eye even amidst the crowded cork board chaos.

Burton did not begin their poster-making journey at Oberlin from scratch. They credit their foundational design fluency to their engagement with film-making and yearbook design in high school, the latter pursuit providing them with the opportunity to learn Adobe InDesign. Since then, they have transferred their digital design skills to other Adobe products such as Photoshop and Illustrator. With only the help of YouTube, steadfast determination, and a patience for trial and error, Burton now has access to an endless toolbelt.

“To some extent, there’s a learning curve, but once you learn one [Adobe product], you kind of know the format of all the Adobe things,” Burton said. “I feel like what really helped was learning that these things are creative. Like, this is silly, but creative tools where there is no right way to use it [are tools] that you can use to make whatever you want to make… That made me feel a lot better about struggling or using something that didn’t feel right.” And yet, technical skills are only one half of the recipe when it comes to poster making. An eye for design constitutes an ingredient of equal — if not chief — importance. Burton possesses a robust and eclectic stock of aesthetic knowledge and inspiration that not only renders their posters visually successful, but pays homage to the kind of Rube Goldberg machine of iteration that defines music and art.

“I have — I think it’s like 50,000

at this point — different images that I just constantly am collecting for design,” Burton said. “I’m into fashion, so it’s a lot of fashion shows, but a lot of it is graphic design. A lot of times those will be references and, if there’s an artist who’s coming, I’ll look at the artist who influenced them. So, for Girlpool, I know they’ve talked about Siouxsie and the Banshees.

I found a Siouxsie and the Banshees poster, and that was how that poster kind of began. … I’m always looking for strange graphic design things or zines that can be enlarged, business cards that can become full posters. I try to just look at the kind of printed media that people want to collect and keep and to try and design posters that a student would want to take off the wall for after a concert.”

While Burton’s design aesthetics are heavily influenced by fashion, College first-year Eli Rosenkim draws on the influence of experimental musicians. He recently designed a poster for Marie Carrol and Noa Jacques’ Oct. 30 performance through Oberlin’s Modern Music Guild, but does not anticipate repeating the task any time soon. He does, however, design his own album covers and, when prompted to touch on his views regarding the relationship between music and advert, referenced the stripped-down modes of artistic representation seen in the work of circuit-bending experimental musician Toshimaru Nakamura and minimalist sine wave musician Sachiko M.

“They talk about removing the context — the covers and the titles from a work — because they feel that it colors the work,” Rosenkim said. “[Their] covers are typically very minimalist, like a colored square, because they want the music to speak for itself. That sort of poses itself in opposition to what I think album art and titles can do, which is supplement the work and color them in a really profound way where, to me, they’re part of the medium of putting out an album.”

Beyond concerts and arts events, posters can also serve to

Man in Tidal Blue

There was the draft. There was the war overseas. There was the domestic base where I was stationed. My education was saving me. There was my work in the military laboratory. I wore fatigues beneath my lab coat. The substrates and reagents names were hidden from me in a code string. I had one repeating function in the experiment’s chain. There were relaxed regulations at our post. Some officers dispensed with our salutes. Our hair grew out. There was open dissent among the officers at the off-base bar. There was bullshit war. There was a theatre. There were long walks along a lakeside beach. I felt free to say I felt America changing insomuch as I joked around with white boys. There was mutual laughing. Mock preparations to keep us in shape. There was a sense we escaped the worst fates. I was beginning to look forward to the future, like it belonged to me as certainly as the blue air.

Man in Tidal Blue by Derrick Adams, 2017

Photo courtesy of the Allen Memorial Art Museum

Assistant Professor Chanda Feldman teaches Creative Writing at Oberlin College. Her poem, “Man in Tidal Blue,” is inspired by a pigment print of the same name at the Allen Memorial Art Museum (pictured left). The print by Derrick Adams has a companion titled Woman in Optimum Blue, also in the Allen’s collection. Neither print is currently on display.

POETRY

Chanda Feldman

See Posters, page 12

Dlisah Lapidus Arts & Culture Editor

The day before Visiting Assistant Professor of Sculpture Kasia Ozga’s installation in the String Room Gallery at Wells College opened, she used a stencil and hay pulp to print the exhibition title on the wall. The installation, RE_MOVE, is the culmination of a year-long transatlantic dialogue between Ozga and the multimedia artist and poet Dan Rosenberg. Ozga has been teaching at Oberlin since fall 2022, guiding students in experimenting with various mediums as she continues to create new work and develop site-specific projects here in Ohio. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell me about the current exhibition at Wells College.

I started this project during the pandemic with the poet Dan Rosenberg, who is an associate professor of English at Wells College in upstate New York. At the time, I was actually living in France. I lived in France right up until I moved to Oberlin. I was thinking of a good art form that could deal with the logistical constraints of that time. I had wanted to do some kind of call-and-response dialogue with a creative individual working in another medium for a long time. I have worked with dancers and musicians before, so I thought it would be fun to work with a writer. We had this idea of communicating for a set period of time exclusively through him sending me poems and me responding with images. The duration of the project was determined by the amount of material I had. I had this handmade paper that I used to make sculptures with when I was in grad school. At a certain point I had to take these large sculptures apart, just for storage. I cut them up and repurposed the paper, which is a process of pressing the water out and reforming the sheets. The paper was made from hay in Poland, which is where I went to grad school, and I was just waiting for the right moment to use it. When I had the idea for this correspondence, it seemed like the best use for it.

Did the pandemic influence this dialogue?

It was a time in which everything was so digital, and the palpable dimension of materials was largely removed. I wanted to create something where I would get these poems in a digital format but then give some kind of presence or body to some of the ideas that those poems were invoking. It wasn’t about illustrating the poems. It was really about taking some elements of them and creating a new work that would then be the impetus for Dan’s next contribution in a back-and-forth. Sometimes we had more than one poem or drawing going at one time; it wasn’t totally linear. The work proceeded until there was no more paper.

How does the work itself engage with the gallery space?

At some point we had the idea to display them in a show. We wanted to explore them in space and see how we can both give body to the poems, not by explaining them, as text alongside

Kasia Ozga

Visiting Assistant Professor of Sculpture

the images, but really thinking about how texts can affect the space in different ways. In the show, at Wells, sometimes there are fragments of poems that go up columns and on the walls or are printed on windows. There is a poem that’s read by the U.S. Poet Laureate, recorded and projected. Visitors can read the poetry as a part of the space itself. There’s one printed on a scroll and one that’s cut up into trinkets and distributed on the wall. It’s also about getting viewers that walk through the space to see some of these correspondences and to make links between the visual and the textual in new and interesting ways.

What other site-specific elements were you able to include in the installation?

I had the opportunity to be there in residence for a week as we were installing the show, and I did make a site-specific piece for the show. For that piece, I took fresh cut hay from upstate New York and pulped it myself there. I made a wall drawing installation on-site that involved a chimney in the gallery. There is hay coming out of the chimney and a geometric wall drawing with the pulp above it. To transform the consciousness of the material substrate of the work of the pieces was really fun for me.

How did you bring these works out of a digital conversation and into a physical room?

It was the first time Dan physically saw the pieces, which was exciting. We also had to think about how different ways of embodying the texts creates new relationships between the works themselves. I think that the way of installing this exhibition is very specific, because there are these columns in the space, and right away we wanted to use them and even have the work partially go on the floor or in different directions. We even put in a little press in the corner of the exhibition where people could do a letterpress version that they can take home with them. When we show the work elsewhere, reinstalling it in relation to that site will be part of the process for us now. We are always thinking, how does the architecture, the site where the work is really represented, play a part in the experience of all the pieces?

What are you working on currently?

I’m working on lots of different stuff right now, everything from soft sculptures and textile-based works involving blue workwear that I was working with in France. I’m also working on another project involving Native American Hopewell culture really concentrated in Ohio. When I moved here, I was really interested in creating something site-specific to this place and also thinking about how we situate ourselves in relation to time because of my life experience of moving into different sites. While reading and thinking about topics that interest me here specifically, Hopewell culture and earthworks were something that I discovered. The more I read about them, the more interested I became in this capacity of Indigenous people creating earthworks the size

of football fields with an insane amount of geometric precision back in 400 AD. These are, of course, extremely impressive, but also speak to this overarching question of, “How do we position ourselves in relation to the time that we live in and larger ideas about cycles, beyond the scale of human life?” I’ve started to make some artworks based on these forms that also incorporate CNC chatbot technology. When using these wood-carving technologies a fair amount of glitching happens, which is also interesting in terms of thinking about areas of control as we make artworks. It has also been fun because I’ve been able to talk to different researchers in a really interesting interdisciplinary way.

Are you planning to continue working in collaboration with text after this project?

Even the show title — on the wall tag when you walk in — was an interesting collaboration between my materials and Dan’s text. We had wall tags that were printed in vinyl, but we forgot to do the title. The day before the show opened, I made a stencil of the text and then used the pulp to print it on the wall. That was really fun. I want to do some more wall text posting. I brought a lot of the pulp back here, so I kind of want to put it everywhere.

Photo courtesy of Wells College

Kasia Ozga’s paper works are on display at Wells College.

Stories of Indigenous Oberlin Amplified in Oral History Project

Cindi Byron-Dixon Joella Byron-Dixon

We most often consider the word “history” in a broad context. We are driven to explore the human past in terms of social, political, economic, cultural, and religious developments in an effort to evolve and grow into a better society. While it is, of course, important for us to examine the past from a global perspective, there is a special satisfaction that comes from focusing on individuals. Personal histories allow us to connect and empathize with others and experience the impacts of history in a unique way. A firsthand account of the successes and struggles of others helps us to reflect on our own lives and experiences.

The offer to be interviewed for the Winter Term Oral History Project was such an honor. I suppose I felt that the sharing of history is somehow relegated to icons and heroes of their time. However, I didn’t understand why I was chosen to do this. Sometimes I feel small. I cannot end wars. I cannot clothe or nourish every hungry man, woman, and child. I cannot ease the pain of all who grieve the loss or infirmity of a loved one. I cannot calm the turbulence felt by my hurt, lonely, and broken neighbors across the globe. I suppose I needed to recognize

more clearly that I don’t need to worry about being a hero to the world. I need to worry about being a hero to my own family, to the young people who have become a part of my life, and to my own community. Great leaders in history had personal heroes — small people in their lives who touched them and helped to shape them. Perhaps by being part of this project, in some small way, I might make an impact on another who can carry with them my own story in a way that uplifts, guides, or propels them. I might become a personal hero. As the project progressed and I looked upon the faces of the other participants, I was keenly aware that I was in the presence of some of my own personal heroes, people whose advice and knowledge had helped to shape me. These are people who have been important pieces in the puzzle that is reconnecting to my Indigeneity. I began to wonder whether or not they had shared my experience of feeling small.

If one is to understand my family’s journey as reconnecting Haudenosaunee, there first needs to be an understanding of where the disconnect from our cultural identity happened in the first place.

Imagine for a moment armed soldiers riding into your neighborhood and forcing you to hand

over your children. Suppose they demand to train your children to be part of a foreign culture and to leave their customs, religion, and even language behind them. It sounds like something out of a horror movie, but it isn’t. It is truth; truth that broke communities and broke down the familial construct of generations of Indigenous families. It is called cultural genocide. The earliest iterations of off-reservation Indian residential schools — assimilation schools — started popping up in the 1600s. In 1891, the American government enacted a “compulsory attendance” law. It wasn’t until 1978 that the Indian Child Welfare Act gave Native parents the legal right to refuse to enroll their children in these schools. My own family is an example of what would have been considered a success story by the American government. My grandma, Helen “Little Star” Starett, married Orville, and did not teach her children her language. She did not sing their songs or share with them the rich culture of her people. She had been taught to be ashamed and to do whatever she could to fit into mainstream society — meaning white society. In order to reclaim the identity of her people, we have opened our hearts and minds and tried in the best way we can to honor who her people are. We take seriously

the advice and teachings of Native community members and participate as much as possible in that community. We wish to be a voice that was silenced not so long ago.

Another aspect of being a reconnecting person is the awareness and acknowledgment of a privilege that we have been afforded that many in our community, both past and present, have not. It is a delicate balancing act between being a voice and listening to the chorus of others whose experiences and histories lack any resemblance to our own. It is vital that we hear those histories clearly, without judgment, and honor those who share them.

The Winter Term Oral History Project put on full display the necessity of a connection between the interviewer and the interviewee. By asking meaningful questions and showing genuine interest and concern in the answers, my interviewers were able to put me at ease and allow

me to be open and vulnerable about difficult topics. Through the process, I feel reminded of the importance of listening fully to others — not to respond, but to empathize and grow. I am all at once desirous to hear more stories, to spend time with the histories of my own peers and community as opposed to limiting myself to the icons aforementioned. I am spurred to harness the patience, flexibility, and legitimacy of my interviewers and apply it to my eventual interactions. I desire to approach conversation in a more meaningful, productive way. After all, each one of us carries a unique history that has the potential to unknowingly impact or inspire others. I implore any who will heed the advice: Take the time to become both an interviewer and an interviewee, for the tales that are shared and received will enrich your life and ornament your soul in ways you never could have imagined.

Despite Absence of Graphic Design Courses, Students Create Exciting Posters

Continued from page 10

401k alternative:

12: Resistance to disease:

17: Like most sonnets:

1: Oberlin’s Kosher dining hall:

2: Album that made Beyoncé break records for Grammy wins:

3: Used for cover:

4: German sub:

5: Biblical garden:

6: Busy hospital areas, for short:

7: Lacking iron:

13: Disheveled:

14: Phrase after “peekaboo”:

15: Symbol on South Korea’s flag:

16: Magician’s saying: 20: Delivery method: 22: Messenger:

The Review apologizes for errors in the previous crossword (02/03/2023)

Answers to last week’s crossword:

spread the word on other vital campus resources. I caught College fourth-year and long-time Sexual Information Center staffer Tiffany Yuen in the middle of creating a handmade poster for a free STI testing event. Though Yuen often uses Canva to design infographics and promotions for sexual health events on campus, she reminisced about her recent discovery of handmade collages and posters in the SIC archives — a likely moment of inspiration for her current creative endeavor. These are not, however, the only kinds of posters that put a smile on Yuen’s face.

“I really liked the poster Anokha [Venugopal] made for the France vs. England game,” Yuen said. “It was an [Asian Diaspora Coalition] event, and it was also co-hosted by other identity orgs. It was real-

ly funny because it was France vs. England, right — two countries that are colonizers — but it was bread with beans and a baguette with a beret on it, so I think that was the last poster that made me laugh. I like posters that make me laugh and have a playful twist.”

From hilarious to aesthetically striking, minimalist to supplemental, posters act as unassuming propellers in the engine of Oberlin student life. Beyond the organized endeavor, they can even serve to spread the word on extra-extra-curricular events like house parties — a subject Yuen also touched on with a hint of whimsy in her eyes. Though it may strike as commonplace to all of us bouncing between the walls of the Oberlin bubble, we live in a pretty unique poster hub and have our peers to thank`.

Photo courtesy of Oberlin College

Students amplified Indigenous voices during Winter Term.

CROSSWORD

CONSERVATORY

Student Reflects on Conservatory Life After Dropping Double-Degree

Gabi Allemana

If someone had told me two years ago that I would drop the double-degree program to just major in music at Oberlin, I would have been astonished. Going into my collegiate years, I had no idea what I wanted to pursue. Growing up in a musical family made majoring in music seem like the easy choice, but I never actually believed I would find the same success my relatives did. Even when I was successful in my audition process and received intense support from my peers, I did not think I had what it took to be a professional musician. Therefore, in addition to a Jazz Voice major, I also started the track to a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry. Why chemistry? It was the non-musical subject I was best at, and I needed a backup plan.

In the fall of 2021, the month before classes began, I was convinced I would drop my Conservatory degree. I worried I would be less talented than my peers in the Jazz department and also viewed my major in Chemistry as the clearer path, something I knew I was good at. Luckily, after the first month of classes, I made a group of close-knit friends in the Jazz department who changed my mind about my Conservatory degree.

After deciding to stay in the Conservatory, I assumed I could leave Oberlin in four years with two degrees, if only I just managed my time well enough. I would have multiple daily classes and labs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., followed by ensemble coach-

ings, rehearsals, a part-time job, homework, and a ton of personal issues that would keep me up past midnight every night. I reluctantly pushed through labs and organic chemistry courses so I could make music, something I truly enjoyed. Last spring, I established a prominent Conservatory student organization which required a lot of time to complete paperwork and other tasks. I was addicted to doing it all, being the “busy one,” and averaging four to five hours of sleep a night.

I spent the summer working over 12-hour shifts and stumbled into the fall semester of my second year with an intense schedule that had me immediately drowning in work. For the longest time, I believed there was light at the end of the tunnel and that this double-degree program would get

Philip Ewell

easier. With each conversation I had with my friends and family outside of Oberlin, though, I received the same, recurring question: “Why are you majoring in chemistry?”

My answer to that question kept changing. I told people, “I enjoy the content I learn, and I want to be a gynecologist someday who does music on the side.” After a while I said, “I find the content interesting.” Once the content became tremendously more difficult, my answer became, “I just need a backup plan.” I would find only an hour or two a day to practice my music — which I came to Oberlin to improve — and even then, I was too mentally or physically exhausted to be productive during that time. Truthfully, the Oberlin Jazz department is extremely time-demanding, with a

Guest Lecturer, Professor of Music Theory

Walter Thomas-Patterson

Philip Ewell is a professor of music theory at Hunter College of the City University of New York whose research focuses on race studies in music theory. He notably penned the 2019 piece “Music Theory and the White Racial Frame,” in Music Theory Spectrum which helped catalyze the movement to substantially reform the way music theory is taught at the collegiate level. Ewell is also the editor for a brand new series, “Theorizing African American Music.” Ewell will be giving a guest lecture titled “Racialized Musical (Hi)stories” at Oberlin Mar. 1 as part of the Black History Month series.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Could you talk about the influence your parents had on your development as a musician and music theorist?

I often say that while it was my dad who got me started in classical music because he was a big classical music fan, it was actually my mom who taught me the true tenets of anti-racism and anti-sexism. She was a white Norwegian who came over to the country in 1959 and married my father, who was African-American, in 1960. She didn’t have the baggage that whiteness has in our country. She

just kind of came here and fell in love with a Black guy.

My dad graduated Morehouse College in 1948 with Martin Luther King Jr., as a matter of fact. And he was part of that mid-century Black intelligentsia who were very committed to assimilation. He wore tweed coats and drove a Mercedes he couldn’t afford — he was doing the things that whiteness teaches us, makes us more sophisticated and more civil. In terms of music, that meant listening to Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin and going to the opera and buying a pair of opera glasses to look at the stage. That’s what whiteness has taught about what great music should be. My dad bought that hook, line, and sinker. He was extremely committed to what whiteness teaches us is “excellence.” As part of a white supremacist patriarchal structure, he was being taught to love Rachmaninoff, to go to the opera and watch Verdi, and somehow think that would make him a better person. White supremacy teaches us that there is a mythological goal of excellence.

Given that your father associated whiteness with classical music, how did you begin to untangle those things and recognize the structural racism in the music theory field?

It was really my parents’ pass-

ing — my mom’s in 2007 and my dad’s in 2010 — that helped change my perspective. That, coupled with the very, very aggressive anti-blackness I experienced in the tenure battle, kind of allowed me to look at academic music with a pretty new set of eyes. Once I came out of my tenure battle victorious, I started to do a deep dive into all kinds of reading that was not music theory. You can’t really read music theorists and do any of the work that I’m doing now, because none of it really honestly confronts the racism within music theory — it’s 99 percent written by white people.

What are the kinds of standards that music theorists once held themselves to regarding who should be considered the most venerated composers? How do your ideas about race relate to music theory?

The metrics are piano, German, white, cisgender, and man. Those five things are absolutely crucial. I often say that if you’re a German speaker, an excellent pianist, and a white man, you’re basically a music theorist, you just don’t know it. You don’t even really need to know how to write. What we don’t say is, “Oh, by the way, everything that we teach you in this curriculum represents not even 0.1% of our planet’s music.” You’ll

call with my College advisor to drop my Chemistry major.

The rest of the semester, I was incredibly proud of my decision. However, once I started classes last week for the spring semester, I became doubtful; more time in my schedule just meant I had more time to be a bad musician! Once I sat with the discomfort of mental stillness for a little, I started to have so many more ideas about my music. Now, after two weeks, it feels like I have the same amount of obligations I did before with all of my labs and classes, but the difference is that I created half of them for myself. I finally have time to make music I’m proud of — to dedicate myself fully to rehearsals, ensembles, and my student organization.

myriad of late-night rehearsals, several ensembles, and other musical expectations. Some weeks, I had three to five performances. There was no way for me to complete all my work, get enough sleep, and be satisfied with how much time I spent in the Kohl Building practice rooms. One afternoon, I had a lesson after a long weekend of performances and preparation for exams. I had barely practiced, and it showed. My private teacher saw how exhausted I was and expressed her disappointment in my performance that week. I saw, for the first time, that I wasn’t truly improving. Even though I worked so hard, I was proud of none of it, and this lack of improvement was taking a toll on my mental health. Less than thirty minutes after that lesson, I hopped on a Zoom

The double-degree program at Oberlin is undeniably a unique opportunity for students who have interdisciplinary interests, but I sometimes feel it fosters the notion that musicians need a talent outside of their music to make it professionally. Many students lose a lot of time practicing their instrument because they are convinced the double-degree program is something that will help them, only to come to the conclusion that it is too much. The only way we can improve as musicians is to give ourselves enough space and mental capacity to improve, and that boundary is different for everyone. I am thankful that I realized how important my music is to me, and I can only hope that other students at Oberlin in a similar position will read this and know that it’s okay to prioritize their music.

never hear that statistic because it’s not that flattering. We’re supposed to know Bach, Schubert, Mozart, maybe Tchaikovsky.

And Bach is a great composer for that. There’s this notion that his music is just so great that it couldn’t be a human who wrote it because it just sounds divine. It just goes to show this nonsense of creating mythologies. We can

just say, “This is music that people wrote, and if you want to play it and you get pleasure from it, that’s great,” but what we can’t do is shove a certain type of music down our students’ throats or down anyone’s throat and then try to tell them that this is what they need to be listening to and doing and thinking about if they want to make it in this career.

Music theorist Philip Ewell.

Photo courtesy of Philip Ewell

Second-year Jazz Voice major Gabi Allemana performs in Finney Chapel with the Oberlin Jazz Ensemble.

Photo courtesy of Gabi Allemana

Zack Lee

Oberlin’s Star Long Jumper

Chris Stoneman Senior Staff Writer John Elrod Sports Editor

Fourth-year Zack Lee has been outstanding as a long jumper for the track and field team during his time at Oberlin. On Jan. 23, he was named North Coast Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week for his performance at the Wooster Invitational in Wooster, OH. The New York native took the top spot in the conference in the long jump with a 22’08” clearance during the meet.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What got you into competing in track? How long have you been doing it?

I started running track in the fifth grade. I was lucky to have a track coach and gym teacher with experience as a world championship coach for professional athletes. His name is Leroy Solomon, and he is currently the assistant coach at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. It was because of him that I started to run and jump initially, and it was also because of him that I continued into high school. While I loved soccer at the time, Leroy recognized the talent I had for jumping, continued to coach me through high school, and then connected me with the track club I would join during my sophomore year, the Bronx

Tigers. I have been competing since, aside from my freshman year spent at Binghamton University.

What’s your favorite event?

I enjoy triple jumping more overall. It has always been my second best event, but I enjoy the technique and patience it requires. I think long jumping is more fun though. It’s nice that in long jump, you don’t have to think. You just run as fast as you can and jump into the sand. Triple is harder.

You’ve had quite the career here at Oberlin, highlighted by your winning of NCAC Athlete of the Week last month. Is there anything else you want to accomplish before graduating this spring?

I have goals of making trips to nationals in both events. I would love to break the school records and win conference again as well, but if the initial goal of nationals happens, the others will as well.

Oberlin track and field has been very successful so far this year. What do you think has helped your team have as much success as it has?

I think the time and effort we have put into bonding as a team has paid off. Winter Term definitely helped. We all have big goals, and we know each other’s goals and hold each other accountable. There’s no weak links.

The horizontal jumps have a solid group — shout out the horz. crew — sprints and hurdles have a solid group, the throws and distance have solid groups. We are all happy to be around each other and are excited to practice hard together, and that has allowed us to be successful thus far, and hopefully continue to be.

What’s your favorite part about being a student athlete in an environment like Oberlin?

I have enjoyed the ability to leave practice and do other things. I get to attend concerts, be a part of student groups, and hang out with my friends. The coaches and team as a whole encourage that. A lot of my work outside of track revolves around the Asian Diaspora Coalition, which I am chair of, and I am excited that we get to host and organize the annual Asian Night Market — this year it’s May 5, so mark your calendar. Track is a break from my extracurricular and academic work and vice versa.

What’s in store for you after graduation?

I’m not sure yet. I hope I get a chance to travel — as a result of COVID-19 and track, I didn’t get to go abroad. However, I was lucky enough to visit my girlfriend in Seville last year and was wildly jealous, so I hope to do something similar.

Cavs Fan Recounts Major Moments, Eras in LeBron

James’ Rise to NBA Points King

John Elrod Sports Editor

2006–07 NBA season: 8,439 points

The first time I registered the existence of LeBron James was in 2006, when I was in kindergarten and getting into sports. My dad always put Cleveland Cavaliers games on the TV when they were on, so I took an immediate interest. The first thing I noticed, even as a six-year-old, was that LeBron was different from everybody on the floor. He was stronger, faster, and smarter, and utilized his skills better than anyone else.

What my dad made sure I learned as I got to know LeBron the player was who he was before he became an NBA star. His tough upbringing involving childhood homelessness in Akron, OH, is now well known, but it continues to stick with me today. How could a kid that missed 83 days of school in fourth grade due to his unstable home life become so unbelievably successful?

I couldn’t relate to his life story, but I was inspired by it. It made me feel like I could do anything as I watched the kid from Akron take Cleveland to its first NBA Finals appearance in team history in 2007

2007–08: 10,689 points

One of the first times I ever saw LeBron in person was in the 2008 NBA Playoffs against a veteran Boston Celtics squad that had Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen. The Cavs pulled out a 74–69 win thanks to LeBron, who tallied 32 points and six assists, meaning he had a hand in over 50 percent of the team’s points.

When I got to first grade the next day, I was so excited to tell my gym teacher — who allegedly met LeBron at some point — that I was at the game.

The Decision and the Miami Heat years: 15,251 points

Although I loved LeBron during his first stint in Cleveland, I wasn’t mature enough to give him a break when he made the first — and pretty much only — big mistake of his career. In July 2010, he infamously announced he was leaving Cleveland for Miami during an hour-long special on ESPN called “The Decision.” The event led to the burning of his jerseys all around Northeast Ohio, and I would have set mine ablaze too if it wasn’t for my belief in the “don’t play with matches” line they told us in school.

Seeing what LeBron did in Miami was extremely painful. His team won all the time — two titles in four years — and he seemed to have so much fun while it happened. How could he leave Cleveland in the dust like nothing happened when he had been the biggest sports figure in Northeast Ohio for years?

The Return: 23,170 points

In Summer 2014, LeBron’s contract was up with Miami, and the discussion over where he would land heated up again. I remember I was at the dentist when former ESPN analyst Chris Broussard OC ’90, tweeted July 6, 2014, “Cleveland has replaced Miami as my frontrunner to land LeBron James.”

Five days later, LeBron announced he was coming back home in an essay published in

Sports Illustrated. It rejuvenated Cleveland, which had seen zero playoff wins by any of its teams during LeBron’s tenure in Miami. The only frustration for me was that my old jersey was now three sizes too small.

Ending the Drought: 26,833 points

I was 15 and watching with my dad on June 19, 2016 when LeBron James and the Cavaliers ended Cleveland’s 52-year pro sports championship drought. His famous block on Golden State’s Andre Igudola is cemented into my mind as it is in every other Cleveland sports fan’s. The fact that his most famous moment was a defensive hustle play encapsulates who he is as a player — great in every facet of the game. Unlike his championship celebrations in Miami where he was smiling and palling around with his teammates, LeBron broke down during his postgame interview and yelled, “CLEVELAND, THIS IS FOR YOU!”

2018 Carry and Second Departure: 32,958 points

By 2018, the quality of the Cavs roster was diminished by player turnover, including the departure of a key point guard. What LeBron did with this team was something I have never seen another athlete do. With a roster of zero other x-factor players, he put the team on his back and willed them to a Finals appearance, sporting double ice packs on his knees after each game. The team eventually lost to an unfairly stacked Golden State roster led by Steph Curry and Kevin Durant, but I can say that year was the most impressive

individual performance by a single athlete I’ve ever seen.

When LeBron left Cleveland for the second time that summer, I couldn’t even be mad about it. He brought Cleveland a championship and did all he could to do it again. As an extremely mature high school senior, I wished him the best as he joined the Lakers.

Feb. 7, 2023: 38,390 points

After a tumultuous four and a half seasons in LA that included an NBA championship but also a couple of losing seasons, LeBron closed in on what was once thought to be an unbreakable record. For nearly 40 years, Lak-

ers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the all-time NBA points leader with 38 387. Last Tuesday, LeBron passed him with a fadeaway jumper over Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kenrich Williams in Los Angeles.

When I watched the shot go in, I wasn’t reminded of Cavs highlights or any other of his NBA moments. What I immediately thought of was LeBron’s roots in Akron. A kid whose childhood circumstances were stacked against him, achieved one of the most impressive milestones in sports history. I’m 22, and I already can’t wait to tell my grandkids about him.

Zack Lee prepares for jump at a meet.

LeBron James hoists a jump shot against the Indiana Pacers.

Photo Courtesy of Oberlin Athletics

Photo Courtesy of Michael Conroy

Timeline of “Save Women’s Sports” Act in Ohio

Isaac Imas Production Manager Kayla Kim Sports Editor Erin Koo Layout Editor

Ohio is one of many states to have introduced legislation restricting or banning transgender athletes, specifically transgender women, from competing in women’s sports. This timeline documents the journey of the “Save Women’s Sports Act” in the state legislature, where it currently stands today, and the current guidelines for trans student-athletes in Ohio.

State Representative Jena Powell, who represents the 80th House District, announced plans to introduce the Save Women’s Sports Act also known as HB 61. The legislation designated that sports teams are separated by “biological sex of an individual, meaning that biological males cannot play on female teams.” If an athlete’s sex was disputed, it would have to be confirmed by a physician’s note. The bill would protect schools and colleges from being penalized and would protect cisgender students from retaliation by schools or colleges and provide them a private right of action if they were uncomfortable with a transgender woman playing on their team.

HB 61, sponsored by Powell and 15 other Republican representatives, was formally introduced in the House. It moved to the Committee on Primary and Secondary Education the next day.

Governor Mike DeWine signed an executive action allowing college athletes in Ohio to profit on their name, image and likeness, effectively bypassing SB 187 and the HB 61 amendment, the latter of which he publicly denounced, saying that it’s up to leagues and athletic associations to best determine policies.

Senate Bill 132 was introduced and sponsored by Kristina Roegner, who represents the 27th House District. Much of its content was similar to the content in HB 61. The bill moved to the Committee on Workforce and Higher Education the next day.

This issue is best addressed outside of government, through individual sports leagues and athletic associations, including the Ohio High School Athletic Association, who can tailor policies to meet the needs of their member athletes and member institutions.

HB 61 was added as an amendment to HB 151 and passed the House 57–30. HB 151 originally addressed the Ohio Teacher’s Mentorship Program. Republicans also added more requirements — if an athlete’s sex was disputed, a physician’s note would be needed and they could be subjected to internal and external exams, or “genital inspections,” as well as testosterone checks, an addition that received national attention and criticism.

Dec. 6, 2022

The Ohio Senate Committee on Secondary and Public Education replaced the requirement of internal and external exams with a birth certificate requirement. Also removed was the authorization for athletes to file for civil action if they are negatively affected by a violation of the bill’s requirements or if they suffer from retaliation for reporting violations. The ACLU of Ohio denounced the amendment to HB 151.

Dec. 14, 2022

The Senate passed the bill 23–7; however, it did not make it through the final House 46–41. Republicans added SB 178 as an amendment to HB 151, which would overhaul the Ohio Department of Education. As of this time, only four transgender girls were approved by OHSAA to compete on the women’s team. If the bill were to pass, they would be allowed to continue their season, but other transgender athletes would be banned. Republicans also removed this provision to colleges and universities.

What happens next?

“If you really actually cared about girls’ sports, maybe you could put your energy toward the fact that girls still don’t have fair facilities,” Minna Zelch said. Zelch is the mother of Ember, the only transgender girl on a varsity team in the state. “My daughter plays on a field at the elementary school that floods every time there is a drop of rain while the boys have two beautiful new fields.”

“Passing HB 151 in its amended form is the quintessential example of how rushed and ill-advised lameduck legislating can be. As you all know, this bill passed the House with HB 61 tacked on as a floor amendment after a mini version of lame-duck prior to the summer recess. Instead of stripping out HB 61’s provisions, which are wholly unrelated to the intent of HB 151, this committee may decide to keep them, rush the bill to the Senate floor, and send it back to the House for concurrence.”

SB 132 and HB 151 are dead. The former never made it out of committee and has not been voted on since the 134th General Assembly ended, and the latter failed to make it out of the House. However, the contents from either bill could be introduced or added as an amendment to an unrelated bill in the next session, which is something Senate President Matt Huffman expects.

What are the current regulations for transgender athletes in Ohio?

Currently, regulation on transgender athletes is provided by OHSAA for high school athletes and the NCAA for colleges. According to OHSAA regulations, trans men can compete on either the men’s or women’s teams if they are not undergoing hormone replacement therapy, but must be on the men’s team once they start and must “demonstrate to the Executive Director’s Office by way of sound medical evidence that the muscle mass developed as a result of this testosterone treatment does not exceed the muscle mass that is typical of an adolescent genetic boy.” If testosterone amounts are over the acceptable limit, the athlete would be monitored every three to six months. Transgender women who are not undergoing HRT must stay on the men’s team, but are allowed to compete on the women’s team after at least one year of HRT and blood work proving that testosterone levels are lower than certain levels or medical evidence that they do not “possess physical (bone structure, muscle mass, testosterone, hormonal, etc.) or physiological advantages over genetic females of the same age group.” Athletes need to reapply every year. Since 2015, 15 transgender women have been approved to play for women’s teams. No transgender athletes have won a high school state championship in Ohio.

The NCAA’s policy is similar to OHSAA’s. It was updated at the end of the 2021–22 season so that participation of trans athletes would now be on a sport-by-sport basis. The policy is in phase two of implementation for the 2022–23 school year. All transgender athletes need to document testosterone levels three times — the first at the beginning of the season, a second six months later, and the third a month prior to championships.

The contents of HB 61 were added as a floor amendment to Senate Bill 187. SB 187 would allow college athletes to earn compensation for their name, image, and likeness.

Ember Zelch testifies against HB 151.

Photo Courtesy of Equality Ohio

Chandler Rupert speaks at a protest.

Photo Courtesy of Kyle Richardson Protesters hold up signs in support of transgender athletes.

Photo Courtesy of Forbes

Gina Lombard Scores Nine Three-Pointers, Breaks School Record

Celia Perks Senior Staff Writer

Last Saturday, women’s basketball defeated the College of Wooster Fighting Scots 100–65. Gina Lombard, a third-year guard for the team, made history, scoring nine three-pointers throughout the game and beating the previous school record of eight. Overall, she scored a total of 29 out of the 100 points and added six rebounds and two assists, contributing greatly to the Yeowomen’s victory. The team now has a 14–8 overall record and a 7–4 record in the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Before the game began, however, Lombard was unaware of the previous school record and was primarily focused on breaking her own personal record as the game went on.

“I was really just trying to break my career high, which was six,” Lombard said. “I had already hit six by halftime, so I was just telling my teammates that I wanted to hit one more and break my own record. I hadn’t even thought about what the program record was at that point.”

After emerging from the game, Lombard was surrounded by her encouraging teammates and coaches.

“My teammates have been extremely supportive,” she said. “After the game, I walked into the classroom and they all dumped water on me and we celebrated. It was really sweet.”

Lily Najmulski, a first-year guard, was impressed by Lombard’s accomplishments, but moreso with her teammate’s leadership.

“As a first-year shooting guard, seeing Gina break the three-point record was inspiring,” Najmulski

said. “I feel lucky to play alongside Gina, and I can’t wait to keep learning from her. Gina is an important part of the team, both on and off the court. Even while she was setting the record, she was encouraging me to shoot the ball. Gina is a competitor who wants to play well and pushes others to do the same.”

Camille Zinaich, a second-year guard and forward on the team, scored 12 points throughout this game and was also awed by Lombard’s abilities and the team’s victory on the court.

“I was really happy with the win and scoring a hundred points, since Oberlin women’s basketball hasn’t scored a hundred points since 2002,” Zinaich said. “Gina has been a consistent leader on and off the court and, with momentum from the Wooster game, the team is well positioned for our final games and the tournament.”

After her outstanding performance on Saturday, Lombard has high hopes for the remainder of the season.

“I think if I had to pick my next goal, it’d be to break the 3s made in a single season,” she said.

Najmulski also highlighted how essential the victory against Wooster was for the team.

“Beating Wooster this year was important because it will, hopefully, give us momentum as we continue our conference play and into the conference tournament,” Najmulski said.

Beating Wooster was no small feat, and it demonstrated how the women’s basketball team continues to put up impressive performances on the court. Since the Wooster game, the Yeowomen defeated Hiram College Wednesday, Feb. 8, 64–47. They face DePauw University Feb. 11 at home

1 p.m.

Cleveland Open Shines Spotlight on Amateurs

James Foster Production Editor

This past week, the Cleveland Racquet Club hosted the Cleveland Open, an ATP Challenger Tour Event. The Challenger circuit is best described as the minor league of tennis, where many young up-and-comers make their first mark and struggling veterans rediscover their form. Fans could watch players such as Alex Michelsen, Wu Yibing, Zachary Svajda, Ryan Harrison, Stevie Johnson, and most notably, Jack Sock.

Tennis great Mary Joe Fernández, who resides in Cleveland, was in the stands throughout the week. Fernández is a former World No. 4 who reached the finals of three Grand Slams in singles: the 1990 and 1992 Australian Open, along with the 1993 French Open. She also represented the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where she earned her country a bronze medal.

“This is where you can really see the next generation develop and go on to do really well,” Fernández said in an interview with the Review Tennis is a notoriously expensive and exclusive sport that can

be inaccessible to many young people. The equipment is not cheap, and court rental prices can be high, with some clubs charging $20 an hour just to rent a court. Lessons are even more expensive, with high-quality coaches often charging $100 or more for just 60 minutes of teaching.

Since access to attending professional tennis matches can be rare, the Cleveland Open, which is completely free to attend during the first five days, is a prime opportunity for fans to watch elite tennis players.

“I’ve lived in Cleveland for the last 20 years, and this is my club and where my kids learned to play tennis,” Fernández said. “To be able to come when the kids were little was really inspiring for them to watch such great tennis.”

The most famous and celebrated player in the draw, Jack Sock, took on Alex Michelsen in the first round. Sock, a former World No. 8 and Champion of both Grand Slam Doubles and Mixed Doubles, played his first match of the new year against a red-hot opponent. Michelsen came into the Cleveland Open having made the finals of his past four tournaments, winning two, including

his victory over Lucas Renard in the finals of the Edmond Open on Jan. 23.

18-year-old Michelsen’s lack of experience against top players was on display early in the match, where he was visibly tight and missed multiple routine shots that gave Sock the early break of serve and a quick 3–1 lead. Sock was seemingly in control of the first set until Michelsen found another gear and broke Sock back to even the match at 5–5. Michelsen went on to dominate the tiebreak and carry that momentum through to the second set. As his opponent’s level rose, Sock’s spirits crashed and the match ended with Michelsen prevailing 7–6 (3), 6–4.

Michelsen was proud of his performance and his perseverance throughout the match.

“I was feeling good throughout the match, and I did everything well,” Michelsen said in an interview with ATP Tour. “I executed the game plan very well. I knew he was going to come out firing. His serve and forehand are obviously fantastic, that’s how he got to top 10 in the world. But I stuck to the game plan and it worked well. Best win of my life so far.”

Another young American was

especially impressive this week.

Aleksandar Kovacevic, a 24-yearold from New York City and the fifth seed at the Cleveland Open, had crashed out in the first qualification round at the Australian Open in early January and had not played a tournament since. In his first round match, he held a match point against Alex Rybakov at 7–6 in the second set tiebreak. After floundering that match point and losing the set, Kovacevic recovered well and won the third set with ease, ultimately prevailing 7–6 (7), 6–7 (7), 6–2. Kovacevic’s sole straight set victory this week came at the expense of a veteran Ukrainian, Illya Marchenko. Kovacevic’s serve was never broken and he saved both break points he faced as he cruised to a 7–5, 6–3 win.

Kovacevic wowed fans again in his next two matches, both of which were grueling three-set wins against the third-seed veteran and crowd favorite Stevie Johnson, and first seed Emilio Gomez, respectively. Kovacevic found himself running the gauntlet, since second-seed Wu Yibing stood in the way between him and the trophy. Wu and Kovacevic had previously faced off in the

finals of a Challenger Tour event in Indianapolis in July 2022, with Wu winning 6–7 (10), 7–6 (13), 6–3.

The final was full of stellar tennis and tense scorelines. Wu came out firing, breaking his opponent in the third game of the match and then again to close out the first set 6–3. The second set was incredibly tight with neither player facing a break point until 5–5. Wu could nearly taste his fifth Challenger Tour title, but Kovacevic broke his serve easily and subsequently held serve to even the match at one set all. The final set was about as tense as a set could be. Kovacevic broke Wu’s serve at 4–4 to serve for the match, but was broken at 0–40. He didn’t waste his second opportunity, however, and won his maiden Challenger Tour event 3–6, 7–5, 7–6 (2).

The Cleveland Open is an excellent annual opportunity for fans to witness professional tennis at an affordable cost and create a personal experience. Players like Kovacevic often leave their first lasting impression on tour and will hopefully be seen raising trophies at higher levels of the game in later years.

Gina Lombard posesses the ball against The College of Wooster.

Photo Courtesy of Thomas Hill