Green EDGE Fund Installs So lar-Powered Outdoor Workstation

Adrienne Sato

Senior Staff Writer

This summer, after more than a year of planning, the College’s Green EDGE Fund installed a solar-powered outdoor working station complete with charging ports, LED lights, and Wi-Fi connection that is now available to students, faculty, and community members.

Located outside the northern entrance to the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies, the workstation is equipped with six 120V outlets, five dual-port USB/USB-C outlets, and two Qi Wireless Chargers. It also employs LED lighting for nighttime use and connects to the College’s public Wi-Fi to boost the signal for users.

The workstation project was originally proposed by Justin Lee, OC ’22, a former member of the Green EDGE Fund board. Over the summer semester of 2021, when students were on campus but primarily attending classes virtually, Lee noticed that many students faced difficulties doing online schoolwork outside.

“Ohio in the summer is beautiful, so I’d seen a lot of students outside doing work over the summer semester,” Lee said. “[There were] a lot of frustrations coming from the students, whether it be the lack of internet or really shoddy internet connections — especially in Wilder Bowl — and if you had to charge your laptop, you had to go back inside.”

Over the same summer semester, the Green EDGE Fund had also been working with community members to brainstorm potential new structures and spaces across campus that would serve as shared spaces where students and community members could interact in order to strengthen town-gown relations.

Lee’s workstation proposal served as a solution to both problems, and Lee worked with the Green EDGE Fund board as well as Facilities Operations to initiate the project.

“The Green EDGE Fund took it one step further and asked ‘How can we incorporate sustainability into this? How can we also tackle other problems that we’ve been having?’” Lee said.

Sionainn Rudek, College fourth-year and current chair of the Green EDGE Fund board, was involved with the approval and research process of the workstation project. They noted that the project proposal was wellreceived by students and College staff.

“I think that it was met with a lot of positivity with everyone involved, so it kind of got pushed along really fast, which was great,” Rudek said.

Ben Hobbs, AJLC facilities manager and community outreach coordinator, also participated in the planning of the workstation, particularly when it came to finalizing the station’s location.

“I worked with Becky Bode of Grounds [Service] to determine the best location that would also allow for delivery and enough sun to keep the batteries charged,” Hobbs wrote in an email to the Review. “Originally, I had hoped that somewhere with a wide open, south facing location on Wilder Bowl would be the best location, but those spaces would have impeded access and were rejected as initial sites.”

Lee mentioned wanting the location of the table to be more central to campus to increase accessibility. According to Rudek, however, the table is still getting plenty of use at its current location.

“I’ve only walked by it a couple times, but every time I’ve walked by, somebody’s been sitting at it,” Rudek said. “It’s been faculty members, a student and another student, so it’s already been a group of different people using it, which is really amazing to me.”

In addition to serving as a functional workstation, Lee explained that the workstation is an important structure on campus to shape students’ view of sustainability at the College, especially when considered within the context of the four-year Sustainable Infrastructure Project.

“While the [SIP] is a great thing, it’s very underground,” Lee said. “Nothing that you see there is visible or tangible. We also wanted to provide something ... that you can interact with, something that is tangible for students to use, … and we decided to do that through a solar table. They can charge their devices on all renewable energy, which I think is pretty nifty.”

According to Hobbs, if the workstation is popular, there’s a chance that Facilities will install more across the campus.

“[Bode] … is evaluating their use as well as the ease of ordering, delivery, branding, and how they are received by the campus community to decide how many more to purchase and place around campus,” Hobbs said. “If it is popular, I’d expect to see more soon.”

Although Lee graduated before the workstation was officially installed, he emphasized how much he learned from working with the Green EDGE Fund Board in the project’s planning process.

“[Installing the table] was a great learning experience, and I hope that it inspires other students to realize that if they wanted to do a sustainable project, the Green EDGE Fund is a huge resource,” Lee said. “That table was just a dream of me and a community member, and we made it a reality.”

The Green EDGE Fund is currently accepting applications for future sustainability projects. In particular, the board is encouraging applications for non-traditional and interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability.

Over the summer, the College assisted the Green EDGE Fund in creating a solar-powered charging and Wi-Fi station. Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

The Oberlin review

September 23, 2022 Volume 152, Number 3 (ISSN 297–256)

Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch. Second-class postage paid at Oberlin, Ohio. Entered as second-class matter at the Oberlin, Ohio post office April 2, 1911. POSTMASTER SEND CHANGES TO: Wilder Box 90, Oberlin, Ohio 44074-1081. Office of Publication: Burton Basement, Oberlin, Ohio 44074. Phone: (440) 775-8123

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OFF THE CUFF

Allegra Kirkland, OC ’12, Teen Vogue Politics Director Talks Journalism

Allegra Kirkland Photo courtesy of Allegra Kirkland

Alexa Stevens News Editor

Allegra Kirkland, OC ’12, is the politics director at Teen Vogue. During her time at Oberlin, Kirkland served as a News Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the Review. Before joining the Teen Vogue staff, Kirkland worked as a reporter and Senior Editor for Talking Points Memo, an independent news organization dedicated to politics and public policy coverage.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you tell me about your role with

Teen Vogue and how you got involved

with it?

I started at Teen Vogue in the summer of 2019 as a Senior Politics Editor. Basically in that role and this one, I oversee everything that goes into the Politics section — everything from op-eds to breaking and daily news, to longer feature reporting and all of our franchises and columns. It’s a lot, and we’re a really tiny team, so it’s pretty full-on. I have basically been working in politics journalism since I left Oberlin, with a brief stint trying to figure out what the hell to do and working as a receptionist and not getting the journalism jobs I hoped for. Then I just moved through a series of internships and lower-level journalism jobs. And then I was at Talking Points Memo for five years in a whole bunch of different roles, from breaking news writer on the 6 a.m. shift to Senior Editor. And then I went from there to Teen Vogue.

What does your day-to-day look

like at Teen Vogue as the Politics

Director?

You know, I feel like no one ever told me how much of being an editor is answering emails, which isn’t a really sexy answer, but it’s true. It’s a lot of moving parts — especially where we don’t have a print edition anymore and we’re still mostly remote. We mostly work with a team of freelancers. We don’t have any full-time staff writers, so there’s just so much coordinating with our fact-checking and copy teams and then with the writers. It’s a lot of just editing drafts and making sure other drafts are moving along. Again, because we’re such a small staff, I have to input all the stories into our content management system, write headlines, and pick art. It’s everything from the nitty-gritty to planning what we wanna have for the Politics cover three months out. A lot of Zoom meetings. Yeah, just a lot of managing little details.

I’d love to hear about your time at

the Review as well.

I think I started working there in my sophomore year. I just came in and was like, “Can I start writing for you?” John Light, OC ’11, who was the Editor-inChief at the time, became a super close friend of mine — we worked together, actually, at Talking Points Memo. I helped him get his job there because the Oberlin network is small and very close-knit. I think my first assignment at the Review was to cover Dr. Seuss Day at the Oberlin Public Library or something very corny, but I still loved it. I was just like, “This is so fun and such a fun way to get to know the community — not just the school, but Oberlin as a town.” Then I was a news writer there for a while, and then I became News Editor at some point, maybe a year later. Then I was Editor-in-Chief my last year at Oberlin.

Do you feel like your work at the

Review prepared you for your role

now?

Yeah, I definitely do. I always tell writers who reach out to me about this kind of thing, like, “Write for your school paper. It’s a good way to just get a sense for what it’s like to be in a newsroom, to work collaboratively with other journalists.” Just get that sort of practice of, “Okay, I can turn things around on deadline. I can find good angles, find good story ideas.” And again, my friend John was a great editor who made my work a lot better.

I think the Review has a lot of really great journalists working there. I learned a lot just from my peers and also stayed in touch with a lot of them. A lot of them have gone on to careers in journalism, and I’ve crossed paths with them either at social events or in jobs I’ve had. So, definitely really, really helpful. It also really clicked for me when I was at the Review like, “Oh, s**t, this is a career. I can do this after college and I love this.” And it just made it seem like a real possibility.

More generally, what was your time at Oberlin like?

My time at Oberlin was good. I grew up in Manhattan and I went to Oberlin in part because I was like, “Oh, I’ll probably end up back in New York, so I should go try something new.” Then I was like, “Oh wait, so many students here are from New York and from the Bay Area.” But most of my best friends ended up being from the Midwest. I loved spending fall breaks and spring breaks going to different places around the Midwest, like Missouri and Detroit and Chicago.

I had amazing teachers — I was a History major and Art History minor — and just had really good relationships with them. They were incredibly smart and I learned a ton. Steve Volk — he was my advisor — was great. Yeah, I loved my time at the Review. Oh, and studying abroad. Everyone should study abroad and get off campus, ’cause it’s just too small to be there all the time. I went to Chile for six months and it was excellent.

What advice would you give to

students at Oberlin or at the Review

as they look to leave Oberlin?

I guess just don’t feel like you have to have it all figured out when you graduate. I mean, I was a History major, and I didn’t really end up doing anything specifically with that. But I think once you leave the kind of bubble of college, no one really cares what you majored in. You don’t have to check every little box. It’s more like you went to Oberlin, you got whatever you got out of that experience, and no choice you make is the wrong choice. It’s just a choice. Whatever job you got, you’re just building the story of your life. It doesn’t have to be exactly perfect and exactly what you wanted to do.

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022

Staff reported graffiti on the door of a practice room in Robertson Hall.

Officers responded to an accident in the Talcott Hall parking lot. There were no injuries.

A student reported their laptop missing from a charging unit on the second floor of Mudd Center. The laptop was located.

A student reported their Electra Cruiser bicycle stolen from the north side of Johnson House.

A student reported an AirTag on their tablet. The Oberlin Police Department was notified.

Friday, Sept. 16, 2022

An officer discovered graffiti on the Clark Bandstand in Tappan Square.

A student with a foot injury was transported from Philips gym to the Student Health Center.

A student reported their blue scooter missing from outside of Stevenson Dining Hall.

A student reported the theft of their Huffy bicycle from the bike rack on the south side of Barnard House.

OPD informed Campus Safety about an intoxicated student at the corner of Cedar Street and Lorain Street.

Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022

A student, injured from a bicycle fall, was transported to Mercy Health - Allen Hospital.

Monday, Sept. 19, 2022

Officers responded to a report of a bat in the laundry room of Talcott Hall.

Officers responded to a faculty member’s report of a bat in the firstfloor restroom at Warner Center.

Officers responded to a student’s report of a bat in Talcott Hall.

Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022

Officers transported a student who cut their finger from Talcott Hall to Mercy Health - Allen Hospital.

Staff reported graffiti on the southwest asphalt drive in Tappan Square.

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022

An officer on patrol located graffiti on the back of a practice room door in Robertson Hall.

Oberlin Hosts Annual Community Candidates Night

Continued from page 1 violating a 2018 amendment prohibiting partisan gerrymandering. The resulting confusion compelled Ohio election officials to hold two separate primaries.

“Gerrymandering is just a vile thing for democracy,” Ricker said. “If you’re in a safe seat, you’re not feeling pressured to respond to the needs of all constituents, maybe just those that donate to you. [You may] happen to be a lower-income constituent and you’re putting pressure on lenders, but the lenders aren’t putting that pressure on the elected official, because they’re all comfortable with how the status quo is.”

Ricker also mentioned that Republican candidates may feel their participation in a forum held in Oberlin would not garner them any votes and ultimately prove futile, considering the City’s solid Democratic lean.

Montoye, however, was encouraged by responses the OCCN planning committee received from candidates, even those who declined to attend.

“We talked to the current [Ohio] attorney general, and I talked to his scheduler on the phone,” Montoye said. “He said that they had already committed to an event in Toledo that night, but he had stressed that he thought this was a really, really important event and wanted to be there, and just couldn’t make it happen. I do think it was a well-received invitation.”