The Oberlin Review Feb. 24, 2023

Community Discusses City Policies, Future Comprehensive Development Plans

Beth Weiss

A public meeting was held Thursday, Feb. 16 in the Prospect Building for Oberlin community members to provide feedback on key issues affecting the town. This was in continuation of the survey conducted by KM Date Community Planning, OHM Advisors, and Downtown Strategies, Inc. for the Oberlin Comprehensive Plan. The comprehensive plan will serve as a guide for Oberlin City Council’s policy decisions for the next five to ten years.

The current comprehensive plan was created in 2005 with help from Northstar Planning and Design and was reviewed and updated by City Council in 2011.

“A lot has changed economically since 2005,” Director of Planning and Development Carrie Porter said. “We’ve been through a major recession, a pandemic, that has changed a lot of the ways people develop and use property.”

The 2005 plan, which was the most recent comprehensive plan until now, defined its approach toward Oberlin development in contrast to a number of plans created for Oberlin in earlier years.

The first plan outlined was 1970’s Plan for Oberlin, which projected that Oberlin would have a population of 13,299 by 1985. The plan focused on outward growth, proposing suburban-style zoning and a number of commercial spaces on the edge of town. To

this day, Oberlin’s population has not surpassed 9,000 residents.

In opposition to the suburban sprawl mentality of the 1970 plan, the 2005 plan recommended “infill” as a guideline, which was proposed to encourage both the development of existing lots within highly populated areas of Oberlin and the construction of new developments inside City limits.

“The intent of both types of infill is to make full, efficient use of the infrastructure in which the community has already invested (streets, sidewalks, utilities),” the 2005 plan reads. “Intensification of the core areas also means that more people will be within walking distance of local commercial areas, schools, parks, and other community amenities.”

The 2005 plan called for Oberlin to focus on developing density, but also acknowledged pressures from New Russia Township and Pittsfield Township to develop the “southern corridor,” a strip of land situated along State Route 58 from Hamilton Street to U.S. Route 20, which sat partially within City limits and partially in New Russia Township. It was projected in 2005 that the intersection between Route 58 and U.S. Route 20 would attract large-scale retail that would be positioned to serve Oberlin and the regional area south of Oberlin. The corridor currently houses Walmart and the forthcoming Oberlin Crossing

For the upcoming comprehensive plan, KM Date Community Planning, OHM Advisors, and Downtown Strategies, Inc. conducted a survey to identify the core issues facing the Oberlin community. They found that Oberlinians were concerned about affordable housing, job opportunities, public transportation, and the relationship between the City and the College. The 555 respondents represented a broad range of people invested in Oberlin, but in comparison to the overall Oberlin population, the respondent pool was on average older and disproportionately white.

“There was an extra attempt made here to reach out to the people of color, the communities, and that did help,” Principal of KM Date Community Planning Kirby Date said. “We kept the survey open longer in order to accomplish a little better balance, and we did improve the balance.”

The results of the survey were presented at the open house, and the 33 attendees were encouraged to add comments to the responses. 53 percent of the survey respondents expressed that single-family homes for sale would benefit their future housing needs, while attendees at the open house emphasized interest in multi-family housing.

See City, page 4

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

The Black

Fashion Show exhibited sustainable fashion.

The Comprehensive Plan Public Workshop was held at the Prospect Building yesterday.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor Shopping Center, where an Aldi recently opened.

The staff of The Oberlin Review extends our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Beth Weiss, director of Conservatory admissions and enrollment management. She passed last Friday morning surrounded by her family.

Photo courtesy of Weiss family

Black History Month Fashion Show Promotes Sustainability and Thrifting | 09

Green EDGE Fund Fridge Project to Start Mid-April

Alexa Stevens

News Editor Ava Miller Senior Staff Writer

For the past several months, College fourth-year Anokha Venugopal and third-year Charlotte Spence have been working with the Green EDGE Fund to create a community fridge to serve and be stocked by the broader Oberlin community of College students and residents. The fridge is set to open for use mid-April.

Community fridge programs have popped up throughout the United States as part of grassroots responses to food insecurity since the early days of the pandemic.

Community fridges serve as a free system where members of the community are asked to “take what you need, leave what you can.” In this way, they ideally operate on non-judgmental, honor system principles. Venugopal and Spence hope that the fridge will be regularly stocked and cleaned by a network of student and community member volunteers.

The community fridge project will supplement existing free and affordable food options in Oberlin, such as those provided by Oberlin Community Services. OCS is a public service organization located on South Professor Street. It already offers 10 different food programs including drive-up food distributions and pop-up pantries, as well as programs at Oberlin City Schools. Although OCS is not officially affiliated with the community fridge, Food Programs Coordinator Liv Hanson is excited about Spence and Venugopal’s initiative.

“I think it has the capability to fill a real gap, especially around

timing, where OCS is only open nine to five on weekdays,” Hanson said. “A community fridge, at least in theory, might be open 24 hours a day. It would be reaching people who might not be able to get to us.”

The fridge will consist of a pantry to hold dry foods and household items and a refrigerator that will have fresh groceries. These resources will be completely free, and the fridge will be available 24/7 to anyone who needs it.

According to a VOX article about community fridges, “Although official data is not yet available, Feeding America estimated that the number of food-insecure Americans almost doubled to 50 million people in 2020.” Being food insecure means that they faced, per VOX, “the uncertainty of having, or [being] unable to acquire, enough food due to insufficient money or other resources.”

Oberlin has a 19.41 percent poverty rate, compared to 11.6 percent nationally. Due to rising inflation and the dissipation of public benefits from COVID-19, such as EBT funds and SNAP benefits, members of the Oberlin community are struggling to make ends meet. Further, food stamp benefits will significantly decrease at the start of March.

“Food insecurity exists at the heart of environmentalism, as it is something that disproportionately impacts socio-economically disadvantaged people, often people of color,” Venugopal wrote in an email to the Review. “Within Oberlin specifically, food access is incredibly limited. The primary grocery stores available within the town are IGA and Walmart. For those who lack cars, these are inaccessible locations.”

According to Hanson, the amount of people who require food services is increasing as a result of economic inequities exacerbated by the pandemic. With this increase comes a rising need for services such as the community fridge and those OCS provides.

“There are some people who are going from almost $200 food stamps down to like 50 bucks a month,” Hanson said. “How far is $50 a month gonna really go at the grocery store right now? On top of what was already a high rate of poverty, food insecurity, economic insecurity, we’re seeing people lose a lot of lifelines that they were relying on.”

Venugopal and Spence are considering a potential location next to the back patio of the Oberlin Public Library. The fridge might take this central location to combat the aforementioned transportation challenges. They

aim to not replicate or take away from any of the work that OCS does. Rather, they believe that the fridge can act as an added resource for food rescue in Oberlin, especially for those in immediate need.

“A community fridge could act as an intermediary for this issue — for both Oberlin students and community members to access in a way that is both public and private and may reduce associated discomfort with the visibility needing food aid,” Venugopal wrote.

People can donate to the fridge in different forms: unused groceries, toiletries, cleaning products, or kitchen supplies; money that volunteers can use to stock the fridge; or volunteer time. They hope to eventually partner with local restaurants and businesses to stock the fridge with food that would otherwise be thrown away.

February 24, 2023

Volume 152, Number 15 (ISSN 297–256)

Editors-in-Chief

Kushagra Kar

Emma Benardete

Managing Editor

Nikki Keating

News Editors

Alexa Stevens

Cal Ransom

Opinions Editors

Emily Vaughan

Hanna Alwine

Arts & Culture Editors

Dlisah Lapidus

Yasu Shinozaki

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

James Foster

Trevor Smith

Layout Editors

Erin Koo

Grace Gao

Katie Rasmussen

Molly Chapin

Illustrator

Molly Chapin

Distributors

Leah Potoff

Nondini Nagarwalla

Neva Taylor

Will Young

Saturday, Feb. 25

2:30–4 p.m.: Defend the Land at the Oberlin Public Library

Learn about Land and Water Protection as it pertains to Indigenous Culture. In honor of fallen activist Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Teran who was killed protecting forests outside of Atlanta.

3–6 p.m.: Charleston Workshops with Adam Lee in Warner Center Oberlin Swing and Blues brings Adam Lee from Pittsburgh to Oberlin. He will host two workshops on incorporating the Charleston into the Lindy Hop. No experience necessary.

10 p.m.: Warp Duo at the Dionysus Disco

A project from Baltimore

UPCOMING EVENTS focused on electroacoustic improvisation brought to Oberlin by the Modern Music Guild.

8 p.m.–12 a.m.: The Black History Month Ball at the Hotel at Oberlin Dinner will be served and a bar is available for attendees who are 21+. Tickets required. Doors close at 9 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 26

4–7 p.m.: Study Away Fair in Moffett Auditorium

The Office of Study Away will present more than 20 study away options for students to pursue at the A-level of Mudd Center.

Monday, Feb. 27

3 p.m.: Oberlin Heritage Center Strategic Planning Public Forum

at the Oberlin Public Library

The Oberlin Heritage Center will host an open-ended conversation on how it can serve the Oberlin community.

Tuesday, Feb. 28

2 p.m.: Unitarian Universalist Kendal Monthly Gathering Rev. Mary will lead conversation and check-in on love and intentionality.

Wednesday, March 1

5 p.m.: Guest Lecture: “Racialized Musical (Hi)stories” by Philip Ewell in David H. Stull Recital Hall

Professor of Music Theory Philip Ewell will present on histories and stories within music theory in the context of race.

7:30–8:30 p.m.: Beethoven’s

Complete Violin Sonatas: Peter Takács, piano in Kulas Recital Hall

Peter Takács, pianist, collaborates with faculty violinists, including Sibbi Bernhardsson, OC ’95; Francesca dePasquale; and David Bowlin, OC ’00; live and available via stream.

Thursday, March 2

5:30 p.m.: Oberlin Heritage Center Strategic Planning Public Forum at Mt. Zion Baptist Church Fellowship Center

The Oberlin Heritage Center will host an open-ended conversation on how it can serve the Oberlin community.

Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods.

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Office of Publication: Burton Basement, Oberlin, Ohio 44074. Phone: (440) 775-8123

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To submit a correction, email managingeditor@ oberlinreview.org

The community fridge may be located near the back patio of the Oberlin Public Library.

Photos by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Shanta Devarajan Alexa Stevens News Editor

Shanta Devarajan

Former Chief Economist of World Bank

University. I did mathematics, and then I did my PhD in economics at Berkeley. My first job was teaching as an assistant professor at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. As you can tell from up to now, my training was pretty theoretical. But I was teaching economics in a public policy school, so my students kept asking me, “What’s the policy implication of what you’re teaching us?”

That got me interested in trying to figure out what are the applications of all this economic theory, and that’s how I got interested in international development.

College

Today at 7:30 p.m., former Chief Economist for the World Bank and Chair of the Georgetown University International Development concentration Shanta Devarajan, in conversation with College professors, will give a talk titled “Economies in Economic Crisis” in Craig Auditorium. This talk will feature Professor of Politics Eve Sandberg, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics Rudabeh Shahid, and Visiting Associate Professor of Economics Udara Peiris. The talk will discuss Sri Lanka’s economic crisis with an emphasis on why it happened, how Sri Lanka can emerge stronger, and approaches to protecting vulnerable populations.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Just to start out, I’d love to hear a little bit about your academic and professional background.

I was an undergraduate at Princeton

So in 1991, I went on temporary leave to the research department of the World Bank. But then I decided I liked it so much, I decided to stay. So then I stayed 28 years at the World Bank and increasingly worked on the problems of developing countries, and I went from the research department to be the chief economist of three regions of the World Bank: South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa.

I was the chief economist of the Middle East and North Africa soon after the Arab Spring, for instance. So trying to sort that out was a remarkable experience. I had at that point spent 28 years at the World Bank, and I’d learned a lot and felt like I had gained a fairly deep understanding of development. And I was asking the question, “What should I do now with all this knowledge?”

You can always write another paper or a book, and I’ve been writing tons of papers and books over the years. But I thought, “Well, why not do something different with it?” — which is to use that knowledge to train the next generation of development policymakers. And so that’s when I decided I wanted to go back to academia. And then an opportunity came up at Georgetown to be a professor in the School of Foreign Service.

Why did you select Oberlin as a fitting audience for this conversation?

They invited me — I’ve always been an admirer of Oberlin. In fact, I visited

Oberlin maybe seven, eight years ago when one of our daughters was applying to colleges. So I’ve always liked Oberlin.

I’ve had some friends over the years, including a classmate in graduate school who is an Oberlin alum, and Oberlin has some of the most loyal alumni I’ve ever seen. I remember this friend at Berkeley who was an undergraduate at Oberlin, and then she was a graduate student at Berkeley. We would be walking by and there’d be a car parked on the street with an Oberlin sticker on it, and she would immediately write a note and put it on the windshield saying, “Hi, I’m so-andso, class of ’72. I went to Oberlin too.”

This is a complete stranger. And you don’t even know whether the guy who owned the car went to Oberlin or if he just happened to have a car with an Oberlin sticker. But that seems to be the syndrome.

What should Oberlin students — or maybe U.S. residents at large — know about the state of the Sri Lankan economic crisis right now?

Sri Lanka is having the worst economic crisis since its independence 75 years ago. With the economy contracting by 9 percent last year, inflation is at 50 percent. There’s huge shortages of food and medicines and fuel. So it’s really a horrible crisis.

And the question is, how did this happen? Because on the other hand, Sri Lanka had been seen as a really successful economy. I mean, it’s the richest country in South Asia and it has maintained steady economic growth until this collapse, with per capita economic growth at about 3 percent a year for a good 40 years.

Keep in mind that during these 40 years, there was a 26-year-long civil war, and despite the civil war, they were maintaining rapid growth, and they’ve also been known to have some of the best human development indicators in the world. The child mortality rates are as low as those in Europe, and secondary

enrollment rates are the highest in the world, up there with Western Europe and places like that.

So how does this successful economy come crashing down so badly? In the short run, it was gross mismanagement by the former president and his administration, the Rajapaksa administration — they cut taxes in 2019 drastically. And that led to a huge fiscal deficit. The people who were lending money to Sri Lanka saw that and said, “Okay, now we’re going to cut off any lending,” but usually when that happens, you go to the International Monetary Fund for a program and you try to restructure the debt so that you don’t have to pay back as much as you originally did. But Sri Lanka refused to do both of those things for various domestic political reasons. So for two years, they continued to repay the bondholders out of their reserves.

Two years later, they ran out of reserves. But I would say that’s the proximate cause. It wasn’t just that the president made some mistakes. This was a crisis that was building up over the years. And if you go back and look at a whole host of economic policies going back to the 1950s, most of these policies have been aimed at helping the government control the people, rather than the people holding the government accountable.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know in advance of the talk, or in general?

It doesn’t help to just come up with a policy solution and then give it to a policymaker and say, “Here, why don’t you just do this?”

It’s much more to inform the public about those solutions so that they will demand it from the policymaker. That’s something I didn’t quite realize. I used to think that life was all about technical solutions, and I now realize it’s really about strengthening the voice of the poor or empowering the poor. And I’ve dedicated the last maybe 20, 25 years of my career to that endeavor.

City Council Approves Crosswalk, Other Proposals at Meeting

Selena Frantz

On Feb. 21, the Oberlin City Council met at the council chambers to discuss a number of proposals and ordinances. All members of the Council were present, as were City Manager Rob Hillard, Finance Director Sal Talarico, Law Director Jon Clark, and Clerk of Council Belinda Anderson.

The meeting started with a presentation by the Oberlin City Land Trust, where they showcased the first home they completed with their land trust model. The organization also requested two more vacant residential lots to create more affordable houses for members of the community that have historically been excluded from the housing market. They would like city fees such as implementing electricity, water, and sewer connections to be waived in order to save the homeowner money.

Representatives of EDL, a global producer of sustainable energy, updated the council on the Lorain Renewable Natural Gas Project, which was approved in 2022 and involved building a natural gas plant in Oberlin. Both the council and one member of the public questioned the representatives, mostly regarding their approach to safety and possible pollution by the plant.

A subsequent ordinance aimed to authorize the City

Manager to enter a contract with Utilities Instrumentation Service of Cedarville for testing and equipment energization at the Hill Creek Switchyard, which is part of the new Lorain Renewable Natural Gas Project. They requested emergency status, which was unanimously granted, along with the initial proposal. There was no old business for the council to attend to, but there were eight items on the new business agenda.

The Oberlin Public Works Department asked permission to purchase two new Toyota pickup trucks, both of which were different from the original trucks allocated in the budget. They also requested that this ordinance be elevated to emergency, which means that the council will waive the typical three-reading requirement. Therefore, the ordinance will take effect as soon as it is passed. Both requests were unanimously granted by the council.

Public Works Director Jeff Bauman presented an ordinance authorizing the Ohio Department of Transportation to review and approve a changed speed limit from 35 miles per hour to 30 miles per hour on State Route 511 between North Park Street and Cedar Street. This ordinance also involved adding a crosswalk between Oberlin College’s Wilder Hall and Science Center, which would include multiple

updates to that area. Bauman then asked for emergency status. Both requests were unanimously granted. An ordinance looked to authorize the City Manager to enter into a contract with statewide Ford Lincoln of Van Wert to buy 2023 Ford Hybrid Utility Police Interceptor Vehicles for the Oberlin Police Department. The department asked for emergency status. The council unanimously granted both requests.

Recreation Superintendent Ian Yarber then presented an ordinance to update fees for recreation programs, such as the Playground Experience to keep up with the increasing costs of running these programs. The council granted this request unanimously.

The Planning and Development Department proposed an ordinance that looked to amend the general residential and Ohio building code permit fee schedule. They requested emergency status “to reduce certain permit fees and to establish new permit fees without delay so as to decrease the financial burden on applicants for permits.” The emergency status was not granted, so there will be two subsequent readings about this ordinance.

An approval was requested by The Charter Review Committee requested approval for the updated Rules of Procedure,

which would change the overly specific requirement of six members for certain actions to a more easily convenable “quorum.” The committee requested emergency status, which was unanimously granted along with the initial proposal.

After being requested in emergency status and unanimously granted, the City Manager was authorized to enter a contract with Utilities Instrumentation Service of Cedarville for testing and equipment energization at the Hill Creek Switchyard, which is part of the new Lorain Renewable Natural Gas Project. They requested emergency status, which unanimously was granted, along with the initial proposal.

Finally, the ordinance requested to permit the City Manager to

manage and lease 212 acres of Oberlin land for agricultural purposes. The council amended this slightly so that they would have some say on the price and lease length. The representative of the City Manager also requested emergency status. The council granted these requests unanimously.

At the end of the council meeting, multiple members encouraged the Oberlin residents to fill out a Social Equity Assessment Survey they would be receiving in the mail. They also reminded residents that if a recycling can is full, not to put their items there until it is empty. They rounded out the meeting with compliments to the Arb, downtown Oberlin, and to young people who are aware of Jimi Hendrix.

Photo courtesy of Oberlin

City Council meetings are held

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

City Deliberates on Comprehensive Plan

“Homeowner vacancy in Oberlin is 0.3 percent, when 5–10 percent is normal,” Date said. “Rental vacancy rate is 8.8 percent. So when people say, ‘There are no houses here for me to buy,’ they really mean it.”

Developing unused land is one option being considered to expand access to affordable housing.

Continued from page 1 carefully thought through as well … If you’re going to develop on the far end of town, how are individuals going to access the downtown, the College, the retail, the shopping, everything that goes along with it? Folks had mentioned to us about parking being an issue downtown. If you start to develop more housing on the outskirts and there’s no good, safe connections back into downtown, then you’re kind of doubling up on your potential issue with respect to parking. So everything kind of needs to be looked at in terms of, how does it affect one another?”

“The City has quite a few vacant lots that it owns that could be developed with housing,” Porter said. “We’re working with a developer on a proposal to build eight single-family homes that would be affordable. [It] would ensure affordability for at least 15 years.”

The location selected for use is an essential consideration in future developments.

“If you were to look on a map, there’s a lot of potential — all the former farmland, just open areas all around,” Project Manager at OHM Advisors Arthur Schmidt IV said. “The development of infill housing, where appropriate, makes sense in Oberlin … Looking inward needs to happen, and then outward needs to be very

Transportation was another core issue identified in Oberlin.

In 2020, Oberlin received the Paradox Prize from the Fund for Our Economic Future, an organization which funds projects that advance the development of Northeast Ohio, and used these funds to establish the Oberlin Connector Transit Service.

“The City and several nonprofit organizations in town had pooled their money together back in 2010, when the county cut almost all public transportation service for

the county, so people here locally pooled their money together to provide that transportation service for two days a week from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Porter said. “So we applied to the Paradox Prize to expand transportation to five days a week from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and then 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., so we could hopefully hit some secondand third-shift people as well.”

The Oberlin Connector had been used 3,408 times from its creation to October 2021.

“In 2022, we did 4,800-andsome trips,” Porter said. “We’re probably reaching max capacity during our busiest hours now because it’s pretty much one vehicle dedicated to Oberlin.”

While the Oberlin Connector is an available public transportation option, the attendees of the event said that they did not travel via public transportation and expressed interest in future development in the sphere of transportation.

The results of the survey and open house will be presented to the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee at the next public meeting in March.

South Africa Continues to Face Its Worst-Ever Electricity Crisis

Since the beginning of 2022, the power utility company Eskom has been unable to meet the demand for electricity across South Africa. Throughout 2022, nationwide power outages spanned 3,775 hours over 205 days. These outages have continued into 2023. Further, heat waves are affecting water supply issues, resulting in shortages across the country.

New Earthquakes Affect Syria, Panic Results in Injuries

Two new earthquakes hit across Syria and Turkey on Monday,

WORLD

killing at least six and injuring hundreds. “Many were hurt because of stampedes, panicking, and even jumping off buildings,” Oubadah Alwan, a spokesperson for rescue group Syria Civil Defence, told Al Jazeera

Approaching One Year

Since the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Putin Suspends Nuclear Treaty

With today marking the oneyear anniversary of the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, developments continue to unfold. On Tuesday of this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to Western nations by suspending a nuclear arms control treaty.

“The elites of the West do not

hide their purpose. But they also cannot fail to realize that it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield,” Putin told members of the Russian political and military elite per Reuters.

India Forms Panel to Assess Wheat Crop Success Amid Rising Temperatures

On Monday, government officials in India announced the institution of a panel to determine how the rising temperatures would affect the national wheat crop. As the world’s secondlargest wheat-producing nation, the panel expressed concern as to India’s ability to produce wheat at projected levels amid rising temperatures and a lack of rain throughout the winter.

Security Notebook

Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023

Campus Safety officers responded to a report of vandalism at Philips gym in the pool area.

An officer responded to a report from South Hall to transport an injured student to the Mercy Health - Allen Hospital emergency room.

Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023

Officers responded to a report of a large group of students gathered at the Conservatory who were possibly consuming alcohol.

Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the second floor of Dascomb Hall.

Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at the Barrows Hall kitchen.

Officers, the Oberlin Fire Department, and paramedics responded to assist a student ill from alcohol consumption at Asia House.

Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023

Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a pull station activation on the first floor of East Hall.

Officers responded to a report of vandalism on the third-floor kitchen area of Barrows Hall.

Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023

Officers and a maintenance technician responded to a trouble alarm at the Union Street Housing Units.

Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023

Officers and the Oberlin Fire Department responded to assist a student in the elevator at Mudd Center.

The event was hosted by OHM Advisors and KM Date Community Planning.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

OPINIONS

Americans Should Reject Hawkish Attitudes Toward China, Russia

Yasu Shinozaki Arts & Culture Editor

In a text conversation I had this year with a very liberal high school friend, he admitted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had majorly shifted his foreign policy views.

“I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but that invasion has made me significantly more of a defense hawk,” he said.

My friend’s change in outlook mirrors that of many Americans, particularly liberals, who were the harshest critics of the Global War on Terror and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Yet they now cheer as ballistics roll off the assembly line to be shipped to Ukraine, and the new aggressive outlook doesn’t stop with Russia. In the same conversation, my friend said he was glad President Joe Biden was taking a hard-line approach against China’s encroachments on Taiwan. Americans increasingly see China as an existential threat instead of as a disagreeable partner, the once prevailing view.

As the war in Ukraine enters its second year and the grim anniversary is commemorated by another wave of media attention, we should think critically about how the war has changed how we see the world. On one hand, Americans’ outpouring of support for the Ukrainian people in the face of horrific circumstances has been instrumental in Ukraine’s survival. However, the war has also revived ugly Cold War politics that increase the danger of violent conflict between major powers. I fear the conversion of Americans like my friend may lead us into a new cold war or — worse — a destructive, violent conflict.

Biden has continually framed the war in Ukraine as an inflection point in a global fight for democracy. At this year’s State of the Union Address, he described the invasion of Ukraine as a test for America and commended the United States’ role in the war, saying, “Would we stand for the right of people to live free from tyranny? Would we stand for the defense of democracy?”

While this rhetoric sounds benevolent, it hearkens to a troubling past. Framing regional conflicts as global battles for democracy led to the justification of ill-advised military action in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Ukraine differs from these other situations in that the Ukrainian government and the majority of the Ukrainian people want the assistance of the U.S., but the portrayal of Russia as an evil empire that must be defeated by the liberal West is reminiscent of the imperialist view that the U.S. should act as a “global policeman” and promote Western democracy everywhere. The U.S. should be very clear what its goals are. Ending the war in Ukraine and alleviating suffering is a noble goal. Weakening Russia for the sake of wiping out “the evil empire” is not.

For a look at how zeal for Russia’s defeat has entered the mainstream, consider Late Show host and comedian Stephen Colbert’s commentary on the war. Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Colbert mercilessly mocked the Kremlin and Russia. In one segment, a parody of a Coca-Cola ad suggested that Russian citizens enjoy a “carbonated borscht” in the aftermath of the company suspending business in Russia. Reducing an entire nation, culture, and people to crude stereotypes because the actions of its government is unjust. To be fair to Colbert, the segment also implied that Russian people hated President Vladimir Putin for separating them from Western commodities, but there was still no consideration of the genuine hurt Russian citizens are feeling because of the sudden economic and cultural isolation imposed by the West. Colbert’s commentary shows how American opinion on the Ukraine war can transform quickly from solidarity with the Ukrainians to anti-Russian schadenfreude.

Belligerent attitudes toward Russia have real effects on policy.

In October, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus released a letter calling on Biden to engage in direct diplomacy with See Americans, page 6

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

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EDITORIAL

Campus Mental Health Crisis Predates Pandemic, Requires Systemic Address

Last week, the Review reported on faculty workshops intended to start a conversation about supporting student mental health.

Over the last three years, the institution has seen an increase in requests for incompletes and withdrawals — reaching such a point where a faculty member offered an anecdote in December’s General Faculty meeting that half their class was seeking incompletes. Not only are students themselves burnt out and struggling, their increased requests for incompletes and withdrawals place an increased burden on already overworked faculty and staff.

As a direct result of this, the General Faculty chose to dedicate last week and next month’s sessions to workshops that focus on supporting student mental health in classrooms. While these workshops won’t constitute any mandatory or structural changes to Oberlin’s curriculum, they are designed to encourage faculty to consider how best to support students through improving communication and making potential alterations to their existing curricula that account for the fallout of the pandemic. The existence of these workshops is a positive step by the faculty, especially because they will start a long-overdue conversation on the need for higher education to adapt to our new reality — something we wrote about last semester (“Academia Must Adjust to Post-Pandemic Landscape,” The Oberlin Review, Dec. 2, 2022).

Yet, the beginning of this conversation brings two other concerns into focus. To start, faculty

must contend with their own mental health issues and burnout with minimal institutional support. Additionally, the institution lacks sufficient mental health resources for systemic efforts by faculty to support student mental health. In this absence, the weight of responsibility for student wellbeing falls to the faculty. While we applaud the faculty’s commitment to addressing and improving student mental health, it is disheartening that it has to be done in workshops at general faculty meetings rather than through broad and substantive institutional support.

It is also important to note that, according to Executive Director of Student Health and Wellbeing Andrew Oni, the number of students at Oberlin demanding mental health services is nearly double that of the national average — and that fact predates the pandemic. Moreover, the rate of students of color seeking incompletes or course withdrawals has stayed more or less constant for years prior to and through the pandemic, which is evidence of a persistent structural issue faced by students of color. These facts, all no doubt bearing incredible significance in their own right, are indicative of a long-term failure by the College to support its students. Each of us has, in various moments, felt the impact of this failure, but the data just proves that the damage to student and faculty welfare is felt across the board.

Acknowledging the years of struggle felt by students of color and opaque indicators of insufficient resources, we implore our

administration to focus on doing right by everyone now.

In order to address this multifaceted issue in an effective manner, the administration should start small and with exacting precision by shortening wait times at the Counseling Center. Students shouldn’t have to be in crisis to qualify for a meeting with a licensed mental health professional within a day, because frankly, anything less than prevention is just callous. We understand there is a national shortage of mental health professionals, so create avenues for telehealth services or operate shuttles to nearby support centers. To the people responsible for our community’s mental health: find a solution that is feasible and execute it swiftly. The fact that things have gotten to the point where faculty must take it upon themselves to support student mental health is an indicator of dire straits. We appreciate the efforts of our professors, but a solely curricular approach isn’t going to solve anything in the short or long term.

An inherent quality of our community is that we feel each other’s pain just as much as we celebrate each other’s joy. That, if nothing else, is why community should be cherished, because we are all in this together. To that end, the unilateral efforts of the faculty, while admirable, cannot alone solve the crisis of mental health that our institution is facing. Concrete and substantive steps must be taken to address this crisis before it spirals even further. The health and wellbeing of the entire institution depends on it.

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

Western Silence Deafening Following Earthquake in Turkey

Ada Ates

Editors’ note: The quotes in this article were sourced from Turkish news articles and videos.

Feb. 6, 4:17 a.m. “There was so much dust. I could hear other people screaming, I told my brother to calm down and kept praying. We’ll be saved, I said.” – Abdülbaki Enes; he and his brother were saved in the 198th hour from under the rubble of an eight-story building.

It was 4:17 a.m. in Turkey when the 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Kahramanmaraş. The people of Kahramanmaraş were still asleep in their beds. Given time differences, the Turkish students on Oberlin’s campus were still awake when it hit. My heart

dropped when I saw the text my friend sent, breaking the news to me. I remember my eyes losing focus, desperately trying to call my family with my shaky hands, ears ringing as my housemates asked, “Are you okay?”

Will I ever be okay? Will my people ever be okay? “Okay” is now a forbidden word.

When I learned about the earthquake, within the first hour, the death toll was 17. I am only giving numbers as the Middle East seems to be only statistics for some people. But, the moment the death toll was above zero, I knew the world collapsed. I knew our government was going to be inefficient, unprepared, and penniless. I wanted to fly out, volunteer, do something. Had breathing al-

ways been this hard?

Feb. 6, 10:07 a.m. “I kept thinking to myself: ‘Am I hurt? Yes. Is it deadly? No. I will be okay. I just need to keep myself alive until help is here.’ But it was so hard to breathe in there and believing that became harder.” – a 14-year-old boy who was saved from under the rubble in the 86th hour.

Like all Turkish people, I spent that night checking the news for any updates, calling everyone I knew asking if they were okay. The whole night. Have you spent hours trying to contact your possibly dead family members?

The earthquake had covered a radius of 285 km (177 miles). But somehow, we felt it in Oberlin.

See Western page 7

Oberlin College Should Reopen Mahallati Investigation

On Dec. 12, 2022, President Carmen Twillie Ambar received a letter from three prominent Iranian-born human rights advocates: Nobel Peace Prize laureate and lawyer Dr. Shirin Ebadi; acclaimed author of the international bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran Dr. Azar Nafisi; and historian and co-founder of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, located in Washington, D.C., Dr. Ladan Boroumand. In their letter, Ebadi, Nafisi, and Boroumand call upon President Ambar to conduct a new investigation of Professor of Religion

Mohammad Jafar Mahallati with respect to his role in covering up Iran’s 1988 prison massacres. The 1988 prison massacres refer to a crime against humanity that took place during Mahallati’s tenure as Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations from 1987–1989, when several thousand leftist political prisoners were summarily executed on orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. In 2020, the families of the prison massacre victims organized a campaign to revoke Professor Mahallati’s tenure on the grounds that his deliberate obfuscation of the massacres and lack of contrition made him morally unfit to be a professor at Oberlin.

Faced with intense media scrutiny, Oberlin College initiated an internal investigation into the allegations and released a fact sheet summarizing its findings on Oct. 28, 2021. The report claimed that the institution had engaged a law firm to investigate the allegations and had conducted several clarifying conversations with Professor Mahallati. The report took at face value that Mahallati’s residence in New York meant that he was not aware of the prison massacres, even though it is well known that he was receiving alarming reports about mass atrocities from Amnesty International and credible news sources at the time. Additionally, protesters staged demonstrations in 1988 outside the U.N. Headquarters where Mahallati’s office was located. The report went on to highlight Mahallati’s constructive role in ending the Iran Iraq War and depicted him as an exemplary professor devoted to humanitarian causes. The College report’s conclusions contradict the 2018 Amnesty International Report — “Iran: Blood-soaked Secrets” — as well as the earlier 2011 report by internationally renowned human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson — “The Massacre of Political Prisoners in Iran, 1988”.

Ebadi, Nafisi, and Boroumand claim that the “secretive” manner in which Oberlin College conducted its review and the report’s “bizarre findings” motivated them to write the letter. The authors underscore that the College did not explain how it came to the conclusions published in the report, ignored evidence from human rights experts, and refused to engage in dialogue with the victims’ relatives. As a result, the authors conclude, the College’s handling of the affair represents “an exercise in whitewashing a controversy rather than an attempt to arrive at the truth.” In concluding their letter, the authors call on President Ambar to allow a neutral “third party to conduct a transparent investigation of the allegations

against Mahallati.”

Ebadi, Nafisi, and Boroumand have confirmed that they have not received a response from the College to date. Quite apart from the high public profile of these human rights advocates, their letter comes at a critical juncture in Iranian history. Iranian women and their male supporters have launched nationwide protests designed to dismantle repressive gender laws imposed by the clerical regime. The Iranian regime’s response has been vicious: according to the Human Rights Activist News Agency, as of Jan. 29, 527 protesters were killed — 71 of them minors — and nearly 20,000 were arrested. The presidents of major academic institutions, including Case Western Reserve University, have issued statements publicly affirming their support for the Iranian community, whereas President Ambar and Oberlin College remain silent. Let us make this outrageous hypocrisy patently obvious: The institution that is justly proud of its role as a historic pioneer in women’s education and women’s rights refuses to condemn a religious autocracy that is killing women who wish to discard the veil, wear jeans, or dance in public with their friends.

As for Professor Mahallati, to the best of our knowledge, he has never shown any contrition about the 1988 massacres. While in his courses and public events Professor Mahallati professes values of peace and friendship in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela — in 2016 he organized an online Peace Posters Dialogue Project at the Mary Church Terrell Main Library to which Iranian art students from his hometown of Shiraz contributed — he remains silent about the current violations of civil rights and women’s rights in Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of demonizing its victims and opponents as imperialist warmongers — an umbrella slogan that seeks to discredit regime critics of very different political persuasions, but one that is very difficult to apply to the leftist revolutionaries and others, like members of the minority Baha’i faith and Kurdish rebels, whom the regime brutally executed after holding them captive for years beforehand.

Oberlin College should not be complicit with this strategy of discreditation. We demand that President Ambar respond to the request of prominent human rights activists and conduct a more transparent investigation of Mahallati’s role in covering up the 1988 massacres. The College should also consider Amnesty International’s most recent report, published Feb. 6, 2023, which provides a more thorough account of the role of Iranian diplomats, including Professor Mahallati, in deliberately deceiving international public opinion. Rather than summarily dismissing the victims’ claims, the College should follow standard academic and ethical practice, consider the evidence provided in all the above-mentioned human rights reports, and conduct its investigation in a transparent and public manner.

Coverage of Nikki Haley Campaign Demonstrates Double Standard in Media

politician, specifically a woman of color, starts to make points that political pundits disagree with, the automatic response is for the commentator to publicly voice their disapproval. However, they rarely do so by attacking specific policies or plans. Rather, they tend to fall back on insults laced with misogyny and racism. Members of both major political parties fall prey to this cliche. The fact that Nikki Haley is a Republican, or to some is not Republican enough, does not make discriminatory comments made about her any less harmful. When someone insults a prominent woman of color for arbitrary characteristics that are unrelated to her values and ideals, their unconscious bias comes through and they indirectly insult women and people of color as a whole.

Selena Frantz Columnist

On Feb. 14, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. Unsurprisingly, this news made headline after headline. Haley was placed at the center of an ongoing media frenzy. Her declaration made her the topic of many political commentators’ discussions and in turn highlighted the flawed treatment of women in politics by the media.

To start, notorious Fox News pundit Ann Coulter recently called Nikki Haley a “bimbo” when critiquing Haley’s stance on the removal of Confederate statues. Coulter also went on a racist tirade, telling Haley to “go back to her country.” Nikki Haley was born in the United States of America to two Sikh parents who immigrated to the United States from Punjab, India. Coulter also attacked India itself, asking, “What’s with the worshiping of the cows? They’re all starving over there. Did you know they have a rat temple where they worship rats?”

If Coulter disagreed so heavily with Haley’s actions, she could have easily criticized those actions themselves. Instead, she attacked Haley using specific language meant to belittle and discriminate. The word “bimbo” references an attractive but stupid woman. It could have easily been swapped out with “idiot”

or “moron.” However, if Coulter had done this, then she would not have been able to take Haley down a peg by making her poorly perceived choices boil down to her identity as a woman. It is also doubtful that Coulter would have made that same xenophobic remark if Haley had immigrant parents from a country she deemed “white enough.” Coulter not only showed her ignorance, but also her prejudice toward anyone she disagrees with through her automatic response.

Later on in the week, CNN anchor Don Lemon made a comment about how Nikki Haley was “not in her prime.” Haley is 51 years old, five years younger than Lemon. This statement was made in response to Haley’s call for mental competency tests for any political figure over the age of 75. He also mentioned that the prime of a woman is typically considered to be her 20s and 30s. Lemon later went back on this statement, and he said that he was just warning Haley that she should be careful about saying politicians are losing their mental competence.

The attempt to mitigate possible offense taken by his comment is pointless. Regardless of whether he “meant it” or not, by repeating a sexist concept to his millions of viewers, Lemon is perpetuating the idea that women can somehow expire and that their ability to work is defined by a timeframe set by men.

In general, as soon as a woman

I am not arguing against critiquing Nikki Haley, and her policy positions have plenty of reasons to be criticized. She recently stated that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ new “Don’t Say Gay” bill did not go far enough. She argued that classroom discussions of gender identity and sexuality should be banned in elementary schools altogether, instead of only in kindergarten through third grade as proposed by the original bill. She has also harshly criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, slammed critical race theory, and lied about the words of fellow politicians to get ahead.

Personally, I do not believe that Haley is the best candidate for president, but this perspective is based on her political stances and her lack of clear, organized goals. My decision is not based on her racial or gender identity, nor do I believe that her choices are a result of those factors.

Because Nikki Haley only has support from six percent of registered Republican voters, it is illogical to expect an extensive amount of coverage on Haley and her policies. However, if there is enough media interest in Nikki Haley to write numerous detailed articles about her husband and family life, then there should be enough media interest in talking about her politics too. It should not be too much to expect that the coverage she receives does not rely on sexism and racism. You don’t have to agree with someone in order to treat them like a human being.

Americans Should Prioritize Diplomacy Over Hostile Attitudes Toward China, Russia

Continued from page 5

Putin. Less than 24 hours later, after receiving backlash from other Democrats, the Progressive Caucus rescinded the letter, claiming it had not been properly vetted. This wariness to criticize the status quo is dangerous. Similarly, there has been little debate in Washington on the ethics and efficacy of the sanctions the U.S. has placed on Russia. While the U.S. understandably does not want to bankroll Putin’s war machine through international trade, there should also be acknowledgement of the economic hardship sanctions cause to Russian citizens. Similarly, little consideration is given to how our rhetoric and attitudes affect our relationship with the People’s Republic of China. During and since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government and people were frequently scapegoated

in the U.S. Americans have a right to be concerned about how the Chinese Communist Party has become increasingly militaristic and nationalistic under President Xi Jinping; the balloons that floated into U.S. airspace in recent weeks are the latest in a series of increasingly hostile actions from the PRC. However, viewing China as an enemy is unrealistic given that hostilities have amounted to little more than saber-waving.

The prospect of conflict between the two nations is dangerous. Last May, President Biden told a reporter that the U.S. would use military force to defend Taiwan should the PRC threaten the island nation’s sovereignty, despite the fact that the U.S. has no obligation to do so. This major break in diplomatic precedent is troubling. Once again, there is too little debate in Washington and among the general public about the form our foreign policy is tak-

ing. An underlying fear of appearing weak and sympathetic toward the “them” limits criticism of reckless actions. Military action to defend Taiwan would mean direct conflict between two nuclear powers. Americans do not take this reality seriously enough.

If Americans view China and Russia as enemies rather than difficult global neighbors, tensions will continue to escalate and will inevitably boil over into violent conflict. The Cold War between the U.S. and the USSR cost the lives of millions in Vietnam, Korea, and elsewhere, and the Cuban Missile Crisis brought humanity within a hair’s breadth of nuclear annihilation. We should avoid the fear and enmity that fuels cold and active wars. Americans have a duty to support the people of Ukraine in their fight for peace and independence, but we also have the responsibility to tread lightly and practice restraint.

Dr. Fatemeh Pishdadian, Dr. Frieda Fuchs, and Dr. Hamid Charkhkar

Photo courtesey of CNBC

Coverage of Haley’s campaign displays double standards of treatment.

Fetterman’s Step Back Promotes Positive Masculinity

Western Response to Turkey, Syria Earthquake Inadequate

Hanna Alwine Opinions Editor

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman checked himself into treatment for clinical depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Feb. 15. A statement released by Fetterman’s office assured that “John is getting the care that he needs, and will soon be back to himself.” The announcement came after Fetterman’s widely publicized, near-fatal stroke last May and a more recent hospitalization on Feb. 8 after a Senate Democratic retreat.

This has come on the heels of a months-long campaign largely focused on Fetterman’s personal style. In order to paint him in a way that reflected the blue- collar values of the moderate and conservative voters, coverage of the campaign focused a disproportionate amount on his clothing. Fetterman’s 6’8” stature, thick eyebrows, and tattooed forearms work together to create an intimidating persona, but it’s his clothes that got the most coverage during his Senate run. He does not look like a traditional politician, and despite his degrees from Harvard and the University of Connecticut, he has used this fact to pose himself as an everyman. The persona he has created caters to a certain image of what traditional masculinity dictates a man should look like — big and strong with little concern for polished fashion or rhetoric. This is part of the reason Fetterman’s admission to the hospital for clinical depression has been so jarring for many of his constituents.

Historically, masculinity within the U.S. and the Western sphere more broadly has been associated with a repression of weakness in order to emphasize strength — both physically and emotionally. This repression, in recent years, has led to the formation of a term we see thrown around regularly online and more recently in political spheres: toxic masculinity. The term was used as early as the 1980s, but really gained traction in popular culture in the 2010s.

Toxic masculinity points to a particular understanding and performance of masculinity that causes harm — sometimes physically, but generally mentally — to its adherents. Researchers have found a connection between this conformation to masculine norms and higher rates of male suicide.

Fetterman’s traditionally masculine image promoted by months of campaign efforts, combined with an admission to needing help with something like mental health, seems revolutionary. His choice to take care of his mental and physical health as a prominent figure in the political sphere presents him as a new type of role model for young people in this country.

Fetterman’s win was highly contentious because the seat he competed for was one that determined the Senate party majority, but the response to his announcement has been largely positive, even among members of the opposing political party. South Dakota Republican Senator John Thune came forward to say, “The more open, transparent people can be, the better our understanding is.” Even Senator Ted Cruz, a prominent detractor of Fetterman during his campaign and a hardline Republican, tweeted out, “Heidi [and] I are lifting John up in prayer. Mental illness is real [and] serious, and I hope that he gets the care he needs.”

The bipartisan support that has been drawn from this campaign is a breath of fresh air in a country that seems increasingly divided. However, I would challenge Republican senators who voiced their support for Fetterman’s withdrawal and bravery to put their money where their mouth is and support mental health initiatives and bills within the Senate. What Fetterman has done is an admirable feat, one that is evidence of a shifting political and national emphasis on the importance of mental health and one that presents a good role model for young boys growing up in a continually shifting political climate.

Feb. 6, 11:20 a.m. “Does anyone hear my voice?” echoed in the streets of Hatay. Voices were heard, but help didn’t arrive until after the 80th hour.

It destroyed around 4,500 buildings. People were nowhere to be found, buried deep underground. Roads were cracked and undrivable, airports damaged and unflyable. The temperature is around 20 degrees Fahrenheit, with heavy snow and a blizzard. How do you send help in those conditions? Where would you put the millions of displaced people? How would you act in the critical 72 hours after an earthquake?

Feb. 6, 1:25 p.m. “Allah, it is happening again. More and more people are screaming. My Allah, help us all.” – a middle-aged man who was recording a video when the second earthquake hit.

The second earthquake, a magnitude of 7.5, struck not long after. It was not a tremor — the first one was so powerful that it triggered the next fault line. The total number of destroyed buildings is now 5,600. Many cities are unreachable. Classes? I am in Turkey currently, sorry. May I be excused? No.

Feb. 7, 7:26 p.m. “‘Where is the help? I have lost my perception of time. Will I survive this?’ were the only things I could think of. I felt like I was buried alive.” –a middle-aged woman who was saved in the 200th hour.

Let’s do some quick math: 5,600 buildings demolished, 385,000 apartments seriously damaged. People were sleeping as the first one hit at night. As-

Continued from page 5 EDITORIAL COMIC

sume that we assign 20 rescuers to each destroyed building: that is 112,000 rescuers in total, not even taking damaged buildings into account. Let that number sink in.

Assume, magically, that Turkey found that many rescuers; they still have to get to the area. It’s already been nine hours. We need heavy machinery to remove the concrete. Remember you have no roads, no airports. Transportation to those cities is nearly impossible. The tremors are with magnitudes above 6.0. It is not safe to go down there. By this time, we are begging people to share and donate. Are we on mute?

Feb. 8, 12:28 p.m. “I lost everyone I know. My two daughters, my mom, my dad, my cousins, my aunt. I am a nobody. What’s the point of living?” – a 43 yearold woman, who is now staying at the temporary tents, crying during a news interview.

That’s when the despair sets in like a dark foggy creature sitting on our chests. People have died. Many more will. Not because of the earthquake, but due to terminal dehydration and hypothermia.

My friends and I immediately started to think about how we can help: social media, donations. We need outside help. Where is everyone who shares GoFundMe or Venmo links every day? Oh, right. We are used to tragedy. Surely, we cannot be devastated by this after years of wars and terrorism. I am angry, crying on the phone to my parents: “Do we not matter at all?”

The death toll is already in the thousands. What if I was there

Molly Chapin Staff Illustrator

under the rubble? Would you care then?

Feb. 9, 3:45 p.m. “Adıyaman was left to its destiny. No one came to help. We heard the screams: ‘Does anyone hear my voice? Does anyone hear my voice? Does anyone hear my voice?’ I saw people trying to dig a pathway into the rubble to save their loved ones with bare hands. But we couldn’t do anything. We watched, felt, and heard them die.” – a nurse, who had been working non-stop and interrupted the news conference to voice her grievances.

I am so tired. I am fading.

The death toll is above 43,000 in Turkey, 5,000 in Syria, and 100,000 injured in Turkey, soon to be more. 26 million displaced in Syria and Turkey combined.

Such a poorly handled situation, such insensitivity by the West. I am sorry we are nonwhite. I am sorry we are from the Middle East. I am sorry, I am sorry, I am sorry. Please help. Please share. Please donate.

I was a zombie for two weeks, I still am. Nightmares, not being able to breathe. Constantly on the news, learning that some people I knew passed away. “Are you okay?”

Turkish culture has always been founded on collectivism. None of us were relieved that some people we know were okay. Not when all those people were suffering, suffocating, fading away. We are one and we are bleeding.

I can’t stop hearing: “Does anyone hear my voice?” Does anyone hear my voice? Why is that so hard to hear?

Senator John Fetterman has been uniquely open about his mental health in recent weeks.

Photo courtesey of CNBC

Eastern European Students Call On Peers to Take Action in Ukraine Crisis

Eloise Rich This Week Editor

It has been one year since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. The world was faced with daily breaking news headlines giving us a clinical overview of the violence happening in Ukraine. Now, however, the frequency of headlines has decreased and the news tends to focus on major cities like Kyiv or Odesa, with infrequent direct coverage of the lives of Ukrainian citizens and those in surrounding Eastern European countries.

Perhaps it is difficult to conceptualize that the war is still directly impacting the lives of Oberlin students, like College first-year Anya Molodtsova, an international student from Kyiv who has only been in the U.S. since the beginning of this academic year.

“It’s surprising how many people think [the war] is over,” Molodtsova said. “I wasn’t in the States, so it’s hard for me to get the right scope, but I feel like, overall ... Ukraine took a much bigger part in [the] news post-invasion, obviously because it was a huge shock for the whole world. … It’s really sad because the scale of the problems didn’t decrease.”

When College fourth-year An-

dreea Procopan, an international student from Moldova, would introduce herself and where she was from, she would be met with questions about the war. She noted that this phenomenon fizzled out as time progressed, and her nationality was rarely referenced when she was in the U.S. Procopan believes that as long as the war is no longer breaking news covered by major news outlets, awareness of the war in the U.S. substantially decreases.

“I’m from a neighboring country that has a similar history in terms of Soviet occupation, [so] maybe that makes it easier for me to empathize with what’s going on [in Ukraine], but it shouldn’t be just that,” Procopan said.

Similarly, Molodtsova is conscious of the fact that if there is a reflection of a major event in Ukraine, like a missile attack, conversations are scarce due to a belief that the war will continue regardless of media coverage, as it was plentiful during the spring.

The past year, in total, has been marked by violence that has led to the loss of lives and the destruction of entire cities and communities. Despite these events continuing, conversations of the war have greatly dwindled.

However, ensuring that attention remains focused on the

war is a primary tool to secure a quicker victory for Ukraine.

Procopan has been working alongside Molodtsova and College first-year Katia Chapin, a member of the tight-knit Ukrainian-American community, to organize a vigil and rally commemorating one year of the war in Ukraine today, Feb. 24, at 6 p.m. outside of Wilder Hall.

“I really want [the vigil] to be a space for people who are personally affected by the war and who feel like having a vigil or a public event will help them ease that pain or feelings that may have built up inside,” Procopan said. “That’s on one side, and on the other side, I’d like for Obies to remember that this is still happening and there’s so much pain and conflict in the world right now.”

Last spring, Procopan organized a protest in Oberlin of the war, and Molodtsova and Chapin both have a range of experience in organizing similar events. For Molodtsova, the bulk of her advocacy work was organizing rallies and demonstrations over the summer in Germany, before she arrived in the U.S. Chapin, on the other hand, worked on the U.S. front, organizing a rally in New York as well as doing advocacy work with Razom for Ukraine, a humanitarian relief organization

she has been affiliated with for much of her life due to her mother’s involvement since its founding in 2014.

“I started with setting up cheese plates at events, and then, as I became more familiar with the organization ... the odds and ends I did turned into actual projects,” Chapin said. “Now, the most consistent thing I do is ... make a weekly news round-up from Ukrainian news sources for a couple of congressional offices that have asked for it. Since we’re not corporate lobbyists, we mostly provide information about Ukraine that, a lot of the time, offices can’t get.”

However, immense involvement with war efforts and organization of protests or vigils isn’t Procopan’s, Molodtsova’s, or Chapin’s expectation for every Oberlin student.

“I understand that the major reason I spend time organizing is because the story’s really close to me,” Molodtsova said. “I don’t expect every Oberlin student to go around organizing rallies, because the story’s not as close to them, but I would picture, in my perfect world, students sharing more information about Ukraine [and] raising awareness so more people will know about the problem and, potentially, more people will be able to help.”

One of the ways Procopan feels she is making a difference is through direct donations to non-governmental organizations like Razom or UNICEF, which will both be present at the vigil at a donation table.

“If you get Slow Train coffee once a week, then maybe you can sacrifice some of that for donating [to] something that could help kids impacted by the war,” Procopan said. “I think just checking in with people that I know who are really going through it, in terms of what’s going on, helps me. It’s really easy to feel powerless, but cumulative effect is a thing where each of us doing something small can really help.”

Humanitarian aid organizations can provide important resources, such as lifesaving tourniquets and first-aid kits, for the price of only thirty dollars, an amount easily spent weekly by many students.

“I think an important aspect to think about is your position in life and where you are as a person,” Molodtsova said. “I think the majority of students that go here, and not only here, are privileged, as well as I am — we have access to education, we can study, we can live peacefully and not [wake] up to the sounds of explosions, we can go to classes and not experience constant blackouts that restrict access to education.”

Importantly, there are other ways for individuals to fight the war outside of making donations or organizing. For Chapin, an important emphasis is the decolonization of departments across academia.

“It’s important to reexamine, even just within Oberlin, how classes about Russia and how classes about Eastern Europe are taught,” Chapin said. “Here, we have such a strong, progressive culture where we want to be at the forefront of change within academia, and we haven’t yet decolonized our Russian department. It does take a long time, but [we should come] into these classes and [understand] that Russian imperialism is real and very much alive, even to this day, and [move] forward with an attitude where people want to change that.”

Now as much as ever, it’s imperative to remember not only that the war is still happening, but also that there is a vast array of things students can do to help.

“You can go and fight on the actual front, but that’s only one out of so many fronts,” Chapin said. “People fight the war on the informational front, combatting disinformation and misinformation, and people fight the war on the academic front. There’s even a cyber front, where people will try to hack into Russian news broadcasting [networks] and broadcast the truth about the war, or there’s a meme front, called NAFO, the North Atlantic Fellow Association, [where] they use Shiba Inu memes and just spam Russian bot accounts. There’s a gradient, so everyone has their own front, and it’s just a matter of finding out what it is or which ones are your fronts to fight on. … Fighting little battles has a lot of impact in the long run, and, in general, contributes to Ukrainian victory.”

Students carry a variety of hand-made signs as they protest the war in Ukraine last spring.

Procopan leads the protest for Ukraine last spring.

A QR code to a list of resources compiled by Oberlin College for Ukraine

All photos courtesy of PORUSZONE

ARTS & CULTURE

Black History Month Fashion Show Promotes Sustainability and Thrifting

Maeve Woltring Senior Staff Writer

The annual Black History Month fashion show may have only begun in 2018, but it has quickly become one of Oberlin’s most popular events. This year, the Root Room in Carnegie Building was packed to the brim and ablaze with movement, immaculate looks, and music for the show’s hour-and-a-half-long duration, which passed by in the blink of an eye. Even the intermission had the audience swaying and hooting; the Oberlin College Black Musicians’ Guild graced the stage with a powerful live band and set list. The show began with a student performance: College fourth-year Reggie Goudeau laid down a trifecta of original tracks to set the show’s tone. The show’s DJ, Diwe Augustin-Glave, OC ’22, announced the theme of the show: “Woven, Worn, and Reborn: A Sustainable Black Fashion Show.” The event was organized in partnership with the Green EDGE Fund.

The show exemplified sustainability through various innovative angles, including pieces repurposed from last year’s show, thrifted items, and clothing made from unconventional items such as beauty blenders and trash bags. Audience members left the show inspired by its imaginative inventions. Though each look represented months of the Black History Month Fashion Board’s ongoing work, many were contributions of student designers working to the last minute to

make sure everything was in place.

College fourth-year Divine McAllister has participated in the Black History Month fashion show all four years at Oberlin, but this was his first year as a designer. He created five pieces for the show in total, including the spectacular and memorable trash-rosette piece — a gown with a huge bell skirt made entirely from a box of Hefty bags — which he describes as “giving Ursula with roses.” He also designed a look that involved a very particular and meticulous piece of craftsmanship: the bottle cap vest, which he made by punching holes through each of the bottle caps with a piercing gun and sewing them to the back of the vest by hand. He drew inspiration from the line, “Anything but Fabric,” an original theme that spawned a host of striking and innovative looks from his fellow designers.

McAllister expressed how the BHM show provides an opportunity for designers and members to carry on and reimagine the work of designers from past shows and build connections within the Black community at Oberlin.

“I don’t think I was as connected to the Black community here at Oberlin before my first Black History month and Black History Month fashion show,” McAllister said. “I think the possibilities that the show allows [are endless]. What does it mean for a Black trans woman to put on a wedding dress and walk across

that stage? Also, it gets to show parts of you that you didn’t think people would see. I don’t think I get to create as often as I’d like — there’s many parts of my style that I don’t get to express. It’s just always amazing seeing people stand differently, just [doing] something that they didn’t know that they might’ve needed.”

College fourth-year Kamcee Ugwokegbe crocheted a twopiece set in her first try at clothing crochet and, like McAllister, has been modeling in the show since her first year. She expressed that although this year’s thematic focus was on sustainability, “Woven Worn and Reborn” certainly isn’t the first BHM show to utilize sustainable practices.

“We had different meetings to try to throw out different ideas, and because we were collaborating with the Green EDGE Fund, we knew we wanted to do something that revolved around sustainability,” Ugwokegbe said. “In terms of the actual sustainable actions, we had a lot of stuff from the fashion shows before, and so we wanted to reuse that and also go thrifting and just see what people also had in their closets, just to make sure we weren’t buying as many things. I think every year, the fashion show definitely uses some element of sustainability, because they’re always using stuff in the shows before or using stuff from people’s closets.”

Students can look forward to next year’s Black History Month event and, in turn, recognize the culture and art that comes from the Oberlin Black community.

Sideways Stories from Wayside School Cast Facilitates Workshop for Community Youth

Yasu Shinozaki Arts & Culture Editor

This weekend, Oberlin College students will perform Sideways Stories from Wayside School at the Kander Theater for an audience of local children. After the performance, based on the book by Louis Sachar, the cast and directors will host a “talk back” in which they will answer questions from the audience and discuss their interest in theater. There will also be a workshop on acting and comedy improvisation for children interested in the performing arts. The production is the capstone project of fourthyear Theater majors Caris Gross and Maggie Elsen.

Gross and Elsen both said they wanted to do something for their final project they had not yet done at Oberlin. They hope to introduce local children to an art form they feel passionate about and give back to the community where they’ve lived for four years.

“I was in a class with Caris last semester, and we had a response post on Blackboard, and Caris mentioned being interested in working with kids,” Elsen said. “I was like, ‘Wait, this is perfect.’”

She approached Gross, and the pair started planning the production. Elsen directed the play,

while Gross served as stage manager and community engagement manager.

“I would say a lot of the senior capstone shows are very, very serious because they give the actors and the director a lot of material to work on their acting chops and their directing skills and things like that,” Gross said. “I think those are wonderful shows, and I myself have been part of many of them, … but we wanted to do something that we hadn’t had the opportunity to do at Oberlin before and that we felt could serve a new part of the community that hadn’t been served in recent years by Oberlin College.”

Gross and Elsen chose Sideways

Stories from Wayside School because they felt its wacky scenarios and zany humor would be well received by the young audience.

“I felt [even very beloved scripts] were very coddling to kids and were telling them, ‘This is the life lesson in this,’” Elsen said. “I think this show has lessons, but it’s also just kind of silly.”

Sachar wrote Sideways Stories from Wayside School after working as an elementary school teacher’s aide and recess supervisor during college. Due to Sachar’s experiences, the stories are attuned to young children’s accep-

Photos by Abe Frato, Photo Editor See Wayside School, page 11

Models posed in fashion show wearing desgins crafted by students using sustainable clothing and resources.

The cast of Sideways Stories from Wayside School rehearse prior to their performances this weekend.

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Nikki Keating Managing Editor

Michael Boyd Roman is an assistant professor of design and Black visual culture in the Studio Art and Africana Studies departments. He focuses on exploring the concepts of beauty and divinity within the Black community. Recently, he facilitated a collage workshop titled, “Collaging and Storytelling Circle,” inspired by Mickalene Thomas. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What type of art do you create?

My work is dealing with this large theme of divinity within Blackness and what that looks like on an everyday level. The great thing about being an artist is that I don’t have to be an expert in all these different fields in order to have a conversation about it. But so much of Black culture and history boils down to a disconnect with this sense of divinity in ourselves as a people. We are one of the few peoples in the world where our spiritual belief system does not revolve around creatures that look like us. For example, in a Black American context, we were given white Jesus. We don’t have images of Black Jesus in our art. So it was this idea that we don’t have a belief system — a spiritual belief system that revolves around us — and my art explores what that does to your psyche.

Michael Boyd Roman

Assistant Professor of Design and Black Visual Culture

What made you come to Oberlin?

Oberlin was attractive for a lot of reasons, [including] the community and the sense of history.

I’ve been to and taught at a range of different types of higher education institutions — small liberal arts colleges, massive state schools, HBCUs — but the Black community in Oberlin is connected in a way that I have not seen in other places, and that’s actually really unique. When I first interviewed here two years ago, I was really intrigued in what that would look like for me and what I could do with that sense of support. You know Black students have Afrikan Heritage House and in that, a lounge, dining hall, and dorm to hang out in. Yale’s the only other place that’s also done that in my personal experience. It’s just those kind of day-to-day things where, if I want to see my people, I can go there. No matter what, if I need to be supported, I can go right there.

This Tuesday you worked on a workshop titled “Collaging and Storytelling Circle.” Would you expand on the purpose of the workshop?

So the Allen Memorial Art Museum reached out and asked if I would be interested in facilitating a workshop on collaging and storytelling based on the work of Mickalene Thomas as a starting point. One of her pieces is on dis-

play right now in one of the little mini exhibits in the front of the AMAM. Mickalene Thomas is a fantastic Black-American, female-identifying artist. Her work speaks to a wide range of not just race and feminine issues, but also dealing with issues within male homosexuality and femininity. She really kind of pulls from the history of the female nude — what that looks like and the way that that’s changed over the years — and that’s where the Black body comes into how her art has been continued in Black spaces and conversations. The workshops were really cool, and I was nervous because I haven’t done one of these here and collage isn’t really my medium, not in the way Mickalene Thomas does it. It was fun to hear students chatting it up and getting into the medium in whichever way they wish, though.

Do you want to start incorporating more African diaspora classes when it comes to art?

It’s kind of tricky because I don’t want to get into the trappings of trying to teach how to make Black art — building a studio class around how to make Black art is really problematic and hard to do. What I do is crosslist everything that I teach with Africana Studies. For example, I am teaching a graphic novel seminar right now, and at some point, I’d like to be able to kind

of specialize that class toward African-American graphic novels. However, then you get into conversations around appropriation, things like that. That’s a conversation to have with my Africana Studies colleagues about how they navigate that space, because you never want to turn someone off from learning about Black culture. It’s those types of moments when, as a professor, I want people to kind of grow and expand. You don’t want to feel like your work, your struggle, is being tokenized or anything like that, though. All in all, I want to find a way to offer Africana diasporic knowledge in a way that allows students to get something out of it and for myself to still get something out of it.

Do you enjoy being an assistant professor? Especially with the turnover rate within the department?

The department is always in flux because of the number of visiting professors that come through, and in a very real way that’s been by design. I can understand from a student perspective how that might get frustrating because you hire someone as a visiting professor and even if it’s for a two- or three-year term, visiting professor is always temporary. From the faculty standpoint, even if you get a visiting position, if a tenure track position opens up somewhere, you’re gonna shoot your shot because they don’t always open up. So, I can understand how there’s a lot of turnover in that way.

Oberlin Students Should Utilize Reproducible Media Studios

other print studio at Oberlin, located on the second floor of Terrell Main Library. Although the letterpress studio does not offer classes the same way the print lab does, it is currently housing the Letterpress ExCo, co-taught by College third-year Elena Rabin. Rabin’s experience with printing at Oberlin solely consists of using the letterpress studio. She has printed everything from cards to books in the small space on the second floor of the library. The letterpress studio is currently run by Ed Vermue, a special collections and preservation librarian and member of the Book Studies committee.

the print lab. Through the course I took, I was able to dip my toes into this secret world that exists within Oberlin, but there are many people, both staff and students, who are far more familiar with reproducible media as a subculture and as a medium than I am. Take, for example, College fourth-year Chloe Casdagli, who is majoring in Studio Art and Creative Writing. They took their first print class in their second year, and they’ve been practicing printmaking since then.

“I find a lot of joy in making things by hand,” Casdagli said.

Casdagli, however, recognizes that many people cannot engage with the process in the same way that they’ve been able to and hopes to see more opportunities for a wider range of students.

Ava Canton Staff Writer

Hidden behind the Allen Memorial Art Museum, and behind locked doors on the second floor of the Mary Church Terrell Main Library lie Oberlin’s print lab and the letterpress studio. The studio is filled with different methods of printing — for example, moveable type, a form of printing text that involves placing characters or letters on metal pieces. The courses offered in reproducible media studios are competitive: there are only a handful of spaces available, and they fill up quickly.

Associate Professor of Studio Art Kristina Paabus sees two sides of the printing world on campus: the side that involves working with students and teaching the techniques required to produce images, and the cogs and gears that make the print lab function.

“The Oberlin College Reproducible Media Print Lab is a curricular space, but also one of making, belonging, and community,” she said. “Students become authorized users of the lab through taking classes and in that process also become part of the shared

atmosphere of creation, knowledge, and stewardship. Many print processes are complex with very steep learning curves, so the community aspect is one of the most magical elements of any print lab.”

Since 2014, Paabus has worked hard to expand the printmaking category of the Studio Arts department to include many different printing techniques, from screenprinting to lithography and digital forms of printing. She is very grateful to the college for investing in the reproducible media lab. Even with these new additions, there is always room for more machines and more space.

Paabus noted that although print classes are relatively small by nature, as they require a lot of physical work, it is possible to access printmaking at Oberlin in other ways. Paabus hopes that the student body at large is aware of these opportunities. “The print lab hosts various community events throughout the year, including live printing events during all of the end-of-semester Art Walk/Art Hop open studios,” Paabus said.

The letterpress studio is the

“Ed Vermue works so hard to keep the letterpress studio accessible and organized,” Rabin said. “I’m thankful for him and for all of the amazing things we have access to because of him.”

Despite the fact that the letterpress studio is small, Vermue keeps it tidy and organized. There are many drawers of moveable type, every letter in almost any typeface you could dream of, as well as symbols ranging from decorative flourishes to trees and animals. The collection seems robust given the space, but Rabin still wishes there was more.

“I wish we had a larger space to work in, mostly,” Rabin said. “The Winter Term and ExCo are really the only ways into the letterpress studio, and both only accept eight to ten students. I wish the space itself could accommodate everyone who wanted to work in it.”

Like Casdagli, Rabin wishes the studio spaces were more accessible, but also recognizes that given the small space and cost of both tools and materials, it makes the most sense to keep the use of the space limited.

I was lucky enough to spend the spring semester of 2022 in

“While I’ve grown fairly comfortable with Photoshop, photography, and other forms of digital art, I don’t get the same joy as I get with art I can actually touch.

The physicality of printmaking is something I find rewarding and therapeutic, and differs from painting in its repetition and monotony. I love making work that I can reproduce easily and sell for much cheaper than a painting, but that also holds more personality than my digitally printed images.”

“I definitely wish the print world here and in general was more accessible,” they said. “I understand why we can’t just open the doors to the print lab, but it’s a shame that taking Studio [Art] classes, which take a lot of time and money, are the only way to really get involved. I wish the art world was more accessible and less classist in general — considering printmaking’s history in protest, it’s sad to see it become another gatekept medium.”

The print resources at Oberlin may seem inaccessible or scary at times, and although that can definitely be true, there are many ways to access them. Through enrolling in courses or clubs, supporting print artists by buying their work, or by attending lab crawls or art walks, interested artists and art lovers can engage with the seemingly hidden printmaking community.

Photo courtesy of Phyllis Graber Jensen

Assistant Professor Michael Roman

Photos by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Students are able to craft in Oberlin’s print lab and letterpress studio.

Students Host First Open Mic Night at Azariah’s Cafe

Lucy Curtis Staff Writer

On Tuesday night, Azariah’s Cafe in Mudd Center was transformed — or perhaps it fulfilled a purpose it had been destined for all along. In the back corner around the piano, performers and audience members gathered for the first ever Open Mic Night at Azzie’s.

On the surface, it could be hard to see what set this event apart from other, similar ones. Upon entering the space, not much had changed from its dayto-day setup. There were two microphones, one by the piano and one standing freely, the lights were on at their normal brightness, and a table was set up with hot water for tea, though the café itself wasn’t open. Upon first glance, it seemed that Azzie’s was merely a spot to host a social event that could have taken place anywhere else. But unlike other open mic events, this one wasn’t organized by the College; it was spearheaded and led by College third-year Dan Freiband. News of the event was primarily spread by word of mouth and a few student-distributed flyers, with College promotion limited to a short blurb in the Campus Digest. The network effect facilitated by word of mouth has the potential to grow attendance in the future — friends will tell friends, who will tell more friends. The location made the event distinct because Azzie’s is more central to Oberlin’s campus compared to the Cat in the Cream, which is considered the most popular venue for events of this nature.

“Azzie’s is a pretty central and comfortable place to have a creative event like this,” Freiband said.

The location of this open mic

created more flexibility for how people could enjoy and partake in the event. Many spectators and performers chose to attend the entire event, but it was entirely possible for people to pop in and out. Additionally, for those who appreciated the live performance but didn’t want to commit themselves to being in the center of action, the rest of the Azzie’s seating remained open and available to anyone wanting to study.

Freiband jump-started the event with his performance, playing the piano and singing.

Freiband’s act was followed by a wide variety of performance styles, including more songs accompanied by instruments including the guitar, ukulele, and accordion; poetry readings; and stand-up comedy. While, at first, the crowd seemed fairly stoic, as the night went on, the audience’s engagement and reactions increased.

Many performers remarked that this open mic in particular was unique. For some, it was their first time performing at an Oberlin open mic, and they said that they were just excited that there was a convenient opportunity to perform. Seasoned performers were also able to offer

Oberlin Footpath

Jada-Leigh McGregor

There’s a footpath

A secluded shortcut between trees that students take when going from one direction to converge with another. Each time I tread on its dirt, I listen for the beyond, past the sound of leaves unlucky to fall before my arrival, But it is so quiet

How is it this quiet?

Perhaps I’m not listening hard enough for the voices that often go unheard I get peace from this walk but I never pause to think of who gave it to me, Who was here when the grass still grew and the earth wasn’t flattened for their convenience;

The pioneers of this pathway that did the work so my feet glide easy. I know not of the hard toil and labor that comes with trudging the same path again and again Footsteps relentless for validation in classes they were unwanted, But I get to love.

They walked with strength and heads held high wore the ground into compliance til nature heard them coming And knew not to grow there.

Jada-Leigh McGregor is a fourth-year Creative Writing and Law and Society double major with an English minor. She primarily writes short stories and flash fiction. In writing this poem, Jada-Leigh wanted to pay homage to all of the Black students who attended Oberlin before her, with high esteem to those who studied here at the start of Black admittance at this institution. The titular footpath in this poem is the dirt walkway next to Barnard House leading up to the Science Center. She chose this path because of how calming it is to walk on as the leaves above cast shifting shadows on the ground. With all the work Oberlin has yet to do to make its campus fully inclusive for its marginalized students, Jada-Leigh is hopeful that it can be done because of the people who achieved monumental change here in the past.

more perspective on this specific event. College second-year Megan Beehler, who sang and played the ukulele, said that there was a “very different vibe,” noting the bright lighting, the fact that it was held on a weeknight, and just that it was in Azzie’s. Beehler said that she loved being in Azzie’s to perform and appreciated the availability of tea.

Some students took advantage of the accessibility of this event and used it as a way to promote their clubs. College third-year Hannah Belmont, head of the Oberlin Stand Up Comedy Coalition, was excited by the opportunity to perform at Oberlin and encouraged other members of Obie SUCC to do a routine. Belmont usually travels to Cleveland for most performances, but said that she was glad to show up at a local venue.

College fourth-year Theo Canter, a member of the Oberlin College Folk Music Club, also appreciated the open mic at Azzie’s. Most of the Folk Club’s performances are held at co-ops, and while he enjoys those, he recognized that being at Azzie’s “brings exposure to a wider and different audience of people.”

While it was similar to open

mics Freiband had attended in the past in terms of the types of performances, he noticed that more people were in attendance. He also mentioned that he overall “felt more of a sense of community” amongst the audience and performers. Freiband

plans for this event to become a weekly occurrence at Azzie’s, beginning Tuesday, March 7. He is excited for the potential of this event to grow over time, and hopes to work with Azzie’s staff to keep the café open later on those nights.

Capstone Project Brings Family-Friendly Comedy to Kander Theater

tance of and delight in absurdity. The set is composed of desks and chairs with feet protected by tennis balls — a setting reminiscent of many of our elementary school experiences — but the scenarios the students face are unexpected and surreal, more similar to our craziest childhood daydreams. In one scenario, an unruly new student, Sammy, arrives dressed in many layers of coats, which when removed reveal that he is a dead rat. In another, Ms. Zarves, the teacher on the nonexistent 19th floor, is summoned when someone suggests she does not exist. College first-year Ronan Park, who plays several roles, including Sammy, said that a big value of the play’s wackiness was encouraging children’s creativity that is too often stifled as they grow.

“I get to play a lot of really big, silly characters,” Park said. “And part of doing that is connecting to kind of an inner child. … I think, if you start young in theater, you’ll always have a space where you can have some of that silliness and that fun, which I think is really good for you. I think it’s really good to show kids that, even as adults, we can do it.”

As community outreach manager, Gross spent a significant amount of time publicizing the play in the community.

“I have done a lot of work meeting with folks from Oberlin Elementary School; MAD* Factory, which is a youth theater organization in town; … [and] the Girl

Scout troops in town, all to get them to come and see our show [and] enjoy what we’re putting together for them,” Gross said.

Gross mentioned that doing theater productions for local children is not something that frequently happens at Oberlin and hopes that the Theater department will build off the connections with local organizations forged during this project.

Gross, who grew up in a “very theater-oriented family,” plans to enter a career in theater education or theater for kids and feels very passionately about the bene-

fit theater can have on children’s development.

“I do think it’s a really good way to allow kids to play, especially in the sense that … there’s more and more pressure for kids to grow up as quickly as possible,” Elsen said.

The first performances will take place this Saturday and Sunday. The presenters ask that Oberlin students and other adults not accompanying children under 12 refrain from attending these performances to save seats for the target audience. Additional performances on March 2, 3, and 4 will be open to the general public.

POETRY

Students showed up to Azariah’s Café for the first ever Azzie’s Open Mic Night.

Photos by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

The cast of Sideways Stories from Wayside School rehearse prior to their performances this weekend.

Photo by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Continued from page 10

45. Hair arrangements

46. Transparency

48. Bit of forest on campus

50. Psych major aid

51. Breakfast stack

56. Tiny-eyed mouse cousin

59. When an Obie might go to the answers to clues 20, 26, 40, 46, 48

acr0ss

60. Common Sense author Thomas

61. Compel

62. Jacket part

63. On a cruise, perhaps

64. Recycled TikTok

65. 21d, Sp.

66. Slip up

67. Slinky sea creatures

68. Barbie counterpart

DOWN

1. Temporary loss of function

2. Sherlock’s sister 3. Arias, often 4. You might do this to your steps 5. Preferable 6. Brand of ibuprofen 7. Indian flatbread 8. One element of a burpee 9. Bewilder 10. Better follower 12. Semiaquatic critters 15. Before, to a poet 16. Spanish king

51. Smoothie form

52. Virtuous individual

53. Umami ordering station

54. Overact

55. S.U.V. alternative

56. Relaxation destination

57. Alternative to 62a

58. Variable jeans element

59. Entice

Answers

2000s club anthem

17. Flag holder

18. Trendy sandal brand

19. One may be blank

20. Locomotive low on fuel, say

22. Pooh’s dear

23. Building across from Kahn

24. Top knot

25. Where an Obie might go to grab contraceptives, for short

26. Mexican restaurant in Oberlin

30. Some SFX

33. Closed completely

36. Lounge staple

37. Band

39. Vietnam Veterans Memorial

architect Maya

40. Moon-loving co-op, familiarly

41. Blackfish subject 42. Llama

CONSERVATORY

Students Perform Traditional Music in Conservatory Despite Lack of Resources

Delaney Fox Conservatory Editor

Within the Conservatory, students are limited in study and access to a specific set of musical instruments that draw mainly from the Western classical tradition. This causes a lack of spaces for students wishing to practice instruments and music that are directly linked to their heritage and culture. How, then, do Conservatory students create and find spaces on campus to practice traditional music?

Spaces within the Conservatory do exist for students who want to perform traditional music from around the world on their primary instruments. Second-year Jazz Voice major Aanya Sengupta, for example, has found a community where she can practice traditional music through the Performance and Improvisation Ensemble.

“The goal of the program is to really bring together musicians and practitioners that come from different traditions and musical backgrounds to make music together — to make art together,” Sengupta said.

The ensembles vary in size and instrumentation, as students from both the Jazz and classical departments collaborate in these spaces. This unconventional mix of instruments presents a unique challenge for students, requiring them to figure out not only the larger orchestration but also how to adapt one’s instrument individ-

ually to the sound or technique of the traditional music they are working with.

“It’s about being a part of this other music and just adapting to the music you’re playing,” Sengupta said. “That comes from paying attention to the tradition that it came from and seeing what you can do with your instrument — exploring the limits of the instrument a lot.”

Sengupta stressed the importance of learning about the history and culture of the musical tradition students are working with in order to approach the music respectfully, especially considering the biases of our musical institution.

“There’s this attitude toward music from China, from India — where I’m from — from Latin America that is very exoticized, which is the value of the PI program,” Sengupta said. “This music becomes the norm, and it becomes just as worthy of study as the music in the classical department[s], in the Jazz department.”

Sengupta grew up learning Hindustani classical music before starting jazz voice lessons in high school. She communicated her appreciation for the PI ensembles as a space to reconnect with the music she studied growing up as well as the many other traditions she gets to interact with.

“To this day, if there’s one regret I have, it’s that I wish I had kept studying Indian music and given it the respect then that I give it

now,” Sengupta said. For students who don’t see their traditional music represented within the Conservatory, they create their own spaces. Second-year Bass Performance major Emily Bergin grew up playing traditional Irish music on a multitude of instruments including the tin whistle, accordion, Irish flute, harmonica, and mandolin. This semester, she is offering an Irish music ExCo.

“I’ve played Irish music since I was in second grade,” Bergin said.

“I wanted to continue passing that on to other people because it’s not an extremely common

thing; not a lot of people know a whole bunch about it, but there’s a good amount of interest for it.”

Because Irish traditional music is orally transmitted, the melodies and forms are quite accessible to less experienced musicians. Although the Conservatory does not provide Bergin’s ExCo with instruments, she emphasized that Irish traditional music can be played on any instrument, and her students come to class with whatever they have.

Bergin also found a community for her passion within the Oberlin Contra Dance Club, a club for American folk dance

with music provided by student folk musicians, and the Oberlin Folk Music Club, both of which are student-run groups that span both the College and Conservatory. These groups often hold jam sessions and connect students on campus who play all styles of folk music.

Like Bergin, second-year Viola Performance major and composer Katia Rumin experiments with playing and composing folk music at Oberlin through the Folk Music Club and Contra Dance Club. Because folk music differs technically from classical music See Students, page 13

The Kenny Endo Contemporary Music Ensemble featured a koto player at their performance in Finney Chapel last spring. Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

to last week’s crossword:

Kate Martin

CONSERVATORY

Wu Man Pipa player and musician extraordinaire

Gracie McFalls

Senior Staff Writer

Wu Man is regarded as one of the world’s leading pipa performers and educators. The pipa is a 2,000-year-old, lute-like instrument that likely arrived in China by way of Central Asia. She will give a masterclass for students in the Performance and Improvisation Ensemble Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and will culminate her time at Oberlin with an evening performance in Warner Concert Hall with the Verona Quartet. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What does it mean to you to play a 2,000-year-old instrument? What do you consider to be the most salient historical points of the pipa’s history?

Holding that instrument is like holding history. I’m holding a very modern version of my instrument, which is a very different version compared to 2,000 years ago. It’s very interesting to see how things have developed through all those years. The instrument came from Central Asia 2,000 years ago from Persia, and somehow it traveled and landed in the place that today they call China. So to me it’s not only the music, but also the history.

You mentioned that there are different materials for the modern instruments versus the traditional ones. What is the difference?

Well, the shape is still the same pear shape, but in ancient times they held it very much like a European or Middle Eastern lute, like horizontally. Also, the material of the string used to be silk. Now it’s metal. In the old days, you’d hold an animal bone to pluck the strings. Later on, they used natural fingernails, and now we use plastic-like fingernails. You have to put fingernails on all five fingers to play the instrument. There used to be less frets on the instrument. Now we have 20- or 30-something frets.

You also play pipa in non-traditional settings. Can you talk a bit about your introduction and inspiration for starting that sort of work?

I grew up with traditional music in China. The first repertoire for pipa was notated in the 19th century, so we have less than 20 pieces because a lot was taught through oral tradition. After I learned all those 20-something pieces, I was like, “What’s next? What can I do if I want to play with other friends from different cultural backgrounds?” That’s how I became inspired by music from Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and of course Western classical music. Does doing that kind of work influence the way that you play in more traditional settings? Does it change your relationship with the pipa in any way?

I don’t think it changes, but it adds up. It’s like when you have different kinds of nutrition instead of only having one kind of food you eat every day — you become more rich, musically. You learn the different styles and you learn the different rhythms, intonation, ornamentations, and languages. So when I come back to do my own tradition, a lot of the time I feel like now I have more language in my body.

I know that you did a documentary where you went to different towns in China and learned from their folk music traditions. What was that process like? What was the most surprising or inspiring thing that you learned?

Many people have asked me, “Tell me about Chinese music. What is Chinese music?” And it’s like I’m asking, “What is American music?” So, what is Chinese music? It’s not only the pipa. There are so many kinds of different genres and different art forms. So that’s what began my curiosity to visit the northern part of China.

There’s a lot of music rooted in their daily lives. They’re not what we call concert musicians. Some are farmers, but

they’ve grown up with a family that plays music for the funeral, weddings, or the local festivals. There are a lot of traditional practices for funerals. If someone passes away in the wintertime, they will put the body in the coffin and keep it in the home until the funeral season or until winter passes. And then in March or April, they can do the ceremony. They start up the car and put the coffin in there and then there’s a whole ceremony with music.

To me, it’s also fascinating watching those instruments for the first time. When I was there, my eyes just couldn’t look away from them. I had to ask a lot of questions. That also tells me that the music, the culture, even in the same land, are very different.

I know you work a lot with string quartets. What is that process like and how has the process been with the Verona

Quartet in particular?

I’m very much looking forward to working with the Verona Quartet. I have not met them personally yet — we just met them from a Zoom meeting — so I’m very excited. It’s going to be brand new. Working with string quartets or with Western instruments in a chamber music setting or even improvising with other instruments is a part of my passion. I really enjoy it. Sometimes I don’t like to just play by myself. I want to work with them in some way. It’s like: How can we make a Western string quartet sound combined with Chinese traditional form? That’s a challenge. But to me that’s also great. I take that challenge.

Do you have any advice for students who want to broaden their musical experiences or get out of their musical comfort zone?

I think you have to know your instrument well. You have to know your instrument’s history, the language of the instrument, and the repertoire. And then once you have those foundations, you can fly. I think, especially for the younger generation, if you only play one kind of music, you will not survive as a musician in the future. That’s my experience.

Are there any genres of music that you haven’t explored that are on your bucket list? Rock and roll. If you’re talking about musical performance, that’s the area I haven’t done. You know, like pop. I listen to pop songs and kind of try to understand the musical arrangement, the instrumentation, the colors of the instruments, the sound. Pipa is like a guitar, like a bass. It could definitely do a lot of the same kind of material.

Students Drive Greater Diversity in Music Spaces

Continued from page 12

and comes from an oral tradition, writing classical music with folk influences or just notating folk music itself presents challenges.

“I want to do this thing that only comes up in folk music and I’m like, ‘Oh, how the heck do I notate this?’ because in folk music we mostly learn things by ear,” Rumin.

When asked if the Composition department was well-equipped to instruct students like Rumin who face these notational problems in their compositions, Rumin responded with insightful criticism.

“This school does not really have a real support for folk music, and I really wish this school would do more to get their students to play folk music, because I think in the 21st century, we as

musicians could be called to do anything, like playing in a folk band,” Rumin said. “I think it’s just important that we have these skills.”

She reiterated this concern in regard to the lack of educational and professional opportunities in the Conservatory to perform and study folk music, as well as access to mentorship and gigs.

“I just wish the Conservatory would give more support to people who play folk music and offer more connections, because we have to do this all by ourselves right now, you know?” Rumin said.

Second-year Violin Performance major Laoise Matsumoto started playing the koto, a sixfoot-long wooden traditional Japanese stringed instrument, in

high school, but spent much of her life surrounded by traditional Japanese music at her Japanese dance school, where she had been taking classes since she was two. Although the Conservatory offers no course of study for the koto, Matsumoto is committed to continuing her practice of this instrument, storing the large instrument in her dorm and taking Zoom lessons from a professional koto player in New York. She mentioned that because of the instrument’s large size — and the limited sizes of practice rooms and lockers — she never transports her koto to the Conservatory building. Even if Matsumoto could bring her koto to the Conservatory, there is virtually no community for traditional Japanese mu-

sic within its walls. Aside from Oberlin College Taiko, a student group that performs traditional Japanese drumming, Matsumoto could not name a single space, ensemble, or professor for students who play traditional Japanese instruments in the Conservatory, which makes playing the koto, an instrument most often performed with other kotos, quite isolating.

Echoing the difficulty faced by other Conservatory students who play traditional music in addition to their Conservatory studies, Matsumoto commented that she struggles to prioritize her koto.

“It’s not my primary instrument, ... and I think I’m okay with that, but it’s also hard because my professor here actually doesn’t know I play a different instrument,” Matsumoto said. “I try

to do a couple hours a week, but sometimes I can’t and that’s okay.”

While the Conservatory doesn’t have a community for Japanese music, it does offer opportunities for students to attend traditional music performances on campus through its concert series. Matusmoto recounted her experience watching a Japanese music ensemble, the Kenny Endo Contemporary Music Ensemble, which came to perform at Finney Chapel last spring.

“It is definitely nice that the Conservatory does bring artists, at least,” Matsumoto said. “There was one koto player … it wasn’t with other Western instruments, it was with other traditional instruments. I thought it was cool and I wish I could do that sometimes.”

Wu Man plays the pipa, a traditional Chinese instrument.

Photo courtesy of Wu Man

Emma Benardete Editor-in-Chief

Third-year Alyson Jefferson is one of the captains of the women’s basketball team. She is currently the highest scoring player on the team this season and the sixth highest scoring player in the entire North Coast Athletic Conference. In the quarterfinal game against Denison University, Jefferson scored five free throws, the most out of the team. Besides playing basketball, Jefferson is also a co-chair of the Black Student-Athlete Group. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What is the age distribution like on the team? Are there a lot of younger students?

There’s two fourth-years, four in my class, five second-years, and five first-years. The captains are three third-years and one second-year, but we definitely have a lot of leaders on the team whether they’re captains or not. Just talking to the first-years and the second-years has been a challenge for me personally because I didn’t have my first year of playing, so last year was my first year of playing.

I’m one of the captains on the team, so I spend time being more of a leader for the other 15 players on the team instead of just focusing on myself. My focus is being more vocal, more communicative, and more receptive to feedback.

It’s my first year being a captain in college on this team, but in high school I was also a captain.

How has your team contributed to your success?

We all get along well, and we all are willing to put in the work to understand what we like and what we don’t like with our passes and how our pace is. And that is something that helps us on the court. I believe we have great chemistry, especially when there are certain rotations. As a team, I think communication has definitely been a challenge, but we’ve been working on it throughout the season.

Alyson Jefferson

Women’s Basketball Captain and BSAG Co-Chair

Beyond the court, you’re also a co-chair of BSAG. What’s that like? Has it had any impact on your basketball experience at Oberlin?

Being a co-chair of BSAG definitely keeps me busy. We’ve had a few events, and we’re planning a few more in the spring. I’m definitely busier now than in the fall. Being co-chair allows me to connect with so many athletes across campus, which I enjoy because I don’t always get to talk to people outside of practice or see them a lot in the training room. It’s a lot of coordinating and event planning, talking to different groups on campus and talking with Delta Lodge Director of Athletics & Physical Education Natalie Winklefoos and Senior Associate Director of Athletics Creg Jantz. On the court, it helps me with the communication aspect and the time management aspect because with basketball, you have to learn plays and show up to practice, lift, recovery, all those different things. When I also have BSAG on the schedule, it can definitely be a lot to juggle at times, but it has helped me to prioritize a lot.

What are you most excited for in your role with BSAG this year?

I’m definitely most excited for the basketball tournament. Last year, we had one in March when Black History Month events were in March, and it was called the Black History Month Tournament. This year, it’s called Obie Madness, and it’s going to be in April. I’m definitely excited for that because we get a lot of participation in the basketball tournament because it’s not just athletes, it’s people across campus — people in the Conservatory can join, and people in the community come out to watch.

I’m glad I can spread the word about the different Black athletes on campus and share their accomplishments because there aren’t a lot of them in different spaces and on different teams. It’s nice to highlight it.

Yeowomen Beat Denison, Facing Wittenberg University in NCAC Semifinals

Overall, scoring slowed in the second quarter, with good defense and intense pressure on ball handlers and shooters. Buckets by first-year Lily Najmulski, third-year Jaedyn O’Reilly, and third-year Alyson Jefferson kept the Yeowomen in contention, and a buzzer-beater by second-year Kendal McCall lessened the Big Red’s lead to two, with Denison leading 30–28 at half.

Second-year Bryana Woodard tied the game with layup to start the half, which set the tone for the third quarter. The two teams kept the scoring numbers high and stayed neck and neck thanks to Najmulski and third-year Gina Lombard. The duo knocked down a pair of two three-pointers each, which gave the Yeowomen a fourpoint advantage entering the fourth.

Najmulski and Lombard continued their success in the fourth by knocking down back-to-back three-pointers in the opening minute, which got the crowd rolling. Second-year Camille Zinaich, fueled by the moment and the crowd’s energy, knocked down three mid-range jumpers in a row to extend Oberlin’s lead to 14. Down 66–52 with five minutes

remaining, Denison crawled back valiantly and scored nine consecutive points to cut the lead to 5.

First-year Angela Kumler held her nerve and sank her free throws, solidifying the Yeowomen with an unreachable seven point lead. Oberlin held on to knock off Denison 72–62 and advanced to the NCAC Championship Semifinals. They will face the number one seed, Wittenberg University, in Greencastle, IN.

Zinaich is looking forward to the upcoming matchup. She’s not only excited to be in the semifinals for two consecutive years, but she also hopes to avenge the team’s previous losses against Wittenberg this year, one of which was the final game of the regular season.

“It feels pretty awesome to be back in the semifinals,” Zinaich said. “Last year we did not play our best and we left Indiana feeling pretty bad, so it’s good to be back for some redemption. I am really excited to be playing Wittenberg. We lost to them twice this year, so we really want this win and want to end up in the championship game. The team and I are definitely striving for a championship this weekend.”

Continued from page 16

Jaedyn O’Reilly passes the ball in a game against Kenyon College, the final home game of the season.

Alyson Jefferson competes in games against Denison University and Kenyon College.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Photos by Amanda Phillips (top and left) and Abe Frato, Photo Editor (right)

Gendered “Yeo” Team Names Not Representative of Oberlin

John Elrod Sports Editor

I don’t think I would be wrong in saying that small, non-sectarian, liberal arts colleges like Oberlin are often at the forefront of progressive dialogue. So at a school that takes pride in being inclusive to transgender and non-binary students — a number of whom are on sports teams — it doesn’t make sense to have team names based on the gender binary. I’m not arguing that Yeomen or Yeowomen as names are particularly offensive, but I think we can do better to represent the students. If Oberlin wants to maintain its status as a school known for social progressiveness that values inclusivity of people of all identities, dropping Yeomen and Yeowomen seems like a reasonable change to make.

Before I get into what a change would look like, I want to clarify that my issue is with the “men” and “women” components of the names. I also want to ac-

knowledge the extensive history of the Yeomen. As someone who grew up in Oberlin and went to the College’s sports games as a kid, I understand why people would feel a strong connection to it. Hearing the late Oberlin football PA announcer George Abram say, “First down … YEOOOOOOMEN,” in his deep voice was a big part of my Oberlin sports experience growing up. There’s no doubt that the unique name has become iconic in Oberlin sports.

The history of how the teams became the Yeomen is also really interesting. When Oberlin first introduced athletics teams, the athletes became known for the letter “O” on their jackets. This led to people referring to them as “Ye-O-Men,” and the name Yeomen was chosen after a contest held in a 1926 issue of the Review. The cleverness of this decision — a yeoman is someone who holds and cultivates a small plot of land — was also considered. There is definitely a strong history with the name, and the

teams that have gone by the Yeomen and Yeowomen shouldn’t be forgotten. While all this history is important, we must also consider the present. Recognizing what other schools have done when faced with similar issues regarding sports team names should be a part of this process. Just last year, fellow North Coast Athletic Conference member and our biggest rival Kenyon College renamed its teams to the Owls from the Lords and Ladies. An article published in the Kenyon Collegian detailed the need for a name change in 2021 prior to the switch, citing the issue of the gendered binary that the names set.

It’s also important to point out that many college athletic programs have never even had gendered names. In addition to names inspired by animals, there are other creative genderless college team names — just in Ohio there are the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Akron Zips, and the Denison Big Red. Having

gendered team names isn’t the norm — and it’s pretty odd that Oberlin, of all places, has them.

So, what else could Oberlin’s sports teams go by? The answer lies in the albino squirrels that have been seen on campus for years. After all, there are already albino squirrel logos and merchandise used by the athletic department, not to mention the physical albino squirrel mascot named Yeobie — who uses they/ them pronouns.

Because my main problem with the current name is the “men” and “women” part of it, the “Yeo” part can and should stay around in traditions and imagery for the teams. Many other college teams have nicknames and imagery that they are associated with that aren’t their official team name. University of Auburn sports fans shout “War Eagle!” even though the actual team name is the Tigers, and the University of Alabama Crimson Tide teams have an elephant mascot and logo.

We can keep the “Go Yeo!”

chants and probably even GoYeo, the website for Oberlin Athletics. As mentioned before, Yeobie, our mascot, has “Yeo” in the name. I am not looking to erase the “Yeo” tradition; rather, I just think we can better represent the diversity of gender identities on our teams with a new official name.

I know how much sports team name changes make people mad. Oberlin City Schools went through a name change when I was a kid, and my favorite baseball team, the Cleveland Guardians, adopted a new name just last year. A lot of people were angry at both these changes, making accusations that they were erasing history or just looking to appeal to people of certain political groups. To anyone who thinks I’m trying to cancel an important piece of Oberlin College history; I am not. I’m just asking Oberlin to reflect on whether having sports team names that follow the gender binary — when many of its students don’t — makes sense.

Physical: 100 Much More Than Another Version of Squid Game

Kayla Kim Sports Editor

Netflix’s Physical: 100 has been taking the world by storm so far with an audience rating of 81 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 4/5. The nine episodes that aired since Jan. 24 followed 100 competitors —

including firefighters, Olympic medalists, dancers, and cheerleaders — as they competed in a variety of challenges testing their physical fitness. The ratings, critical praise, and thirst trap TikTok edits were a testament to how successful the South Korean show was in breaking through in the U.S., and with this success

came the inevitable Squid Game comparison.

The show doesn’t shy away from these references either. A 300 million won, or $230,000, prize awaited the winner, an anonymous voice guided the competitors, and instead of dying, those eliminated destroyed a marble bust of their bodies with a hammer. There is even a “50 percent survival rate” on the first test. The tests themselves include Herculean challenges — literally. Competitors must work together to move a one-and-ahalf-ton ship, carry a boulder on their back in resemblance to the punishment of Atlas, and climb up moving ropes in the Wings of Icarus challenge. Even some of the competitors themselves were aware of the potential references.

“I had a feeling it would be like Squid Game,” Korean-Japanese MMA fighter Cho Sung-hoon remarked before the pre-quest challenge.

Besides the unique challenges, the show is unique because it does something almost unheard of, especially for American audiences, and something that Squid Game in particular doesn’t do: It makes Korean people human.

In Western media especially, it’s not uncommon for East Asians to be portrayed as two-dimensional. Men are often seen as effeminate, and women are passive and submissive. Physical: 100

breaks down these barriers as well as stereotypes about Asian athletes, backed up by the model minority myth. We are making progress with greater representation of East Asians in sports — for instance, athletes such as Nathan Chen, Shohei Ohtani, and Sunisa Lee have achieved success on big stages. Physical: 100, though a little dramatic, is a first step in breaking down these barriers, especially for Western viewers.

In making the show’s characters well-rounded, Physical: 100 makes sure to highlight that the competitors aren’t perfect either. For instance, the women competing, who only make up a third of the competitors are often looked down upon by the men, who doubt their abilities as athletes or valuable contributors as teammates. While we don’t get in-depth stories on everyone competing — after all, there were originally 100 competitors — the introduction segment in the debut episode lasted nearly 27 minutes before the actual challenge began. The competitors were allowed to be authentic — confident, sexy, brave, persistent, and vulnerable. And while it can feel at times heavily scripted and edited — it is a reality TV show after all — the viewer can still feel invested in who these people are as athletes. Physical: 100 is intense, but it is not brutal. It is

simply as human as reality sports TV competitions can be.

Squid Game itself is a critique of South Korea’s capitalist society. In doing so, it emphasizes how players, like the infamous and controversial Cho Sang-woo, devolve to becoming inhumane animals driven by their own desperation to survive. In the end, however, the games are an allegory for real-world issues, not an event intended to be recreated.

For Physical: 100, hearing the plot and the aesthetic makes it seem like American Ninja Warrior on steroids. But on the inside, the support and camaraderie resembles that found on The Great British Baking Show. For instance, in the pre-quest challenge that required competitors to hang from a metal bar for as long as possible, competitors who dropped out were eagerly cheering for the others to continue going and stay strong.

Comparing Physical: 100 to Squid Game — whether it be calling it the wholesome version, the better version, or the worse version — disregards the strides made by both shows. Instead, it makes the former seem like a bloodthirsty and cutthroat competition, the competitors equivalent to the nameless faces on Squid Game. Both shows are great pieces of media, but they are independent of each other, not complementary.

Physical: 100 is a reality competition series that has received critical acclaim. Photos courtesy of Netflix

College Basketball Teams Compete in NCAC Quarterfinals

James Foster Production Editor

The men’s and women’s basketball teams competed in the quarterfinals of the 2023 North Coast Athletic Conference Championship Tuesday. The eighth-seed Yeomen took on the College of Wooster Fighting Scots, which were the top seed, on its home court, while the fourth-seed Yeowomen competed against fifth-seed Denison University at Philips gym.

Before heading into the match against Wooster in the NCAC Championship Quarterfinals, fourth-year Đorđe Otašević took time to reflect on his three seasons competing for Oberlin.

“I am sad that my college career is coming to an end, but I’m proud of my team and everything we’ve done so far,” Otašević said. “We proved that we can play against anyone, even a great team such as Wooster. We will play our game, stick to our principles and game plan, and leave it all out on the court.”

Coming straight from a victory against the Fighting Scots for the first time in 35 years, the Yeomen competed valiantly against Wooster but ultimately came up short. Down by nine at halftime, the Yeomen struggled

in the early moments of the second half but went on a 13–2 run to shrink Wooster’s lead to just three points, 65–62. Otašević; second-year Will Bousquette III, who was Oberlin’s scoring leader with 16 points; third-year Dimitrije Radusinovic; and first-year Adam Navarre all contributed to the scoring sheet, but their efforts proved futile as the Yeomen went on a five-minute scoring drought and ultimately lost 92–77.

Meanwhile, the Yeowomen entered their contest against fifthseed Denison as the fourth seed with a 15–10 season record. Oberlin had swept the Big Red in its previous two meetings this season and entered the game brimming with confidence. The stakes for this game were even higher, as Denison Head Coach Maureen Hirt was previously an assistant coach for Oberlin’s team and played a significant role in helping the Yeowomen get to the semifinals in the historic 2021–22 season.

Both teams came out of the gates firing, combining for 20 points in the first five minutes. Denison stayed one step ahead throughout the first quarter, which finished with the Big Red leading 20–17.

See Yeomen, page 14

Men’s Lacrosse Wins Season Opener Behind Experienced Players

Chris Stoneman Senior Staff Writer

This past weekend, Oberlin men’s lacrosse opened its season in spectacular fashion, taking on Chatham University in a home game. The Yeomen obliterated the Cougars, outscoring them by 10 goals for a final score of 17–7 and setting the tone for the season to come.

Oberlin’s talent was felt across the entire roster, with the Yeomen scoring against the opposing team on many occasions. The Yeomen were also sound defensively — second-year goalie Joe Barocas played strong in his first career start, stopping 11 shots on goal and three ground balls.

“It was a great team win,” fourth-year Ryan Blasberg, an attack player on the team, said. “Our defense played well with Joe Borocas coming up big in the net. We continue to flow better and better [both offensively and defensively], and I’m looking forward to a great season.”

Men’s Lacrosse Head Coach Ryan Polak and the nine fourthand fifth-years lead with experience, and the Yeomen have great chemistry within their ranks.

“We’ve got a big group of seniors with lots of experience who’ve done a great job supporting our underclassmen in their new roles,” fifth-year defensive player Kiernan Stone said.

With a host of fifth-year players included in the bunch, the skill and level added to the team by veterans is undeniable as they pass the torch down to their underclassmen successors. Firstyears Solomon Brennan, Jacob Starcke, Drew Bornstein, and Michael Dinkel will definitely be

highlights of the roster in years to come, with both Bornstein and Brennan recording their first career goals in the game.

Blasberg led the charge with a career-high six-goal performance. Starcke also got in on the action, sitting closely behind Blasberg with four goals for the day. Second-year Sam Ryu was also a top scorer, notching an impressive three goals. Both Ryu and Starcke recorded the first hat tricks of their careers.

Second-year Niko Maheras and fifth-year Michael Muldoon also scored goals during lock-in penalty moments to help secure the victory.

Dinkel explained that the ef-

fects of senior leadership are a key part of the Yeomen’s success felt throughout the ranks of the team.

“It’s a great team, and all the older guys have done a really good job creating a great team culture,” Dinkel said. “Not only are they great guys and make the team a lot of fun, but they are great leaders that I look up to.”

Overall, it seems that Coach Polak and his class of fourth- and fifth-years are fostering a positive environment that should steer the team in the right direction in years to come. The Yeomen look to continue their winning streak against Albion College at home tonight.

Oberlin competed against Chatham University Saturday.

Alyson Jefferson dribbles in a game against Denison University for the NCAC quarterfinals.

Photos by Erin Koo, Photo Editor

Photo courtesy of Maggie Balderstone