February 25, 2022

The Oberlin Review February 25, 2022

Established 1874

Volume 151, Number 12

Oberlin Welcomes Deans Cross, Smith Lauren Krainess Contributing News Editor

Snow coated the College’s campus during the February 3–4 snowstorm.

Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor

Heavy Winter Storms Prompt Environmental Justice Efforts Kush Bulmer News Editor Local organizations have been working over the last month to provide resources for low-income and other residents impacted by increasingly volatile winter storms. Providing Oberlin With Efficiency Responsibility, a nonprofit environmental justice organization, has worked to weatherize predominantly low-income residents’, while Oberlin City Schools has developed pre-packed lunches, .

While there have been several storms this winter, the most significant occured at the beginning of February, when parts of Lorain County received as much as eight inches of snow. According to OCS Marketing and Communications Consultant Melissa Linebrink, superintendents across Lorain County had been watching the heavy storm before it battered the Great Lakes region with heavy snow, winds, and ice on Feb. 3–4.

Knowing that the storm would shut down operations for more than a day, OCS operations manager Jim Eibel worked with AVI Foodsystems, Oberlin College’s dining partner, to provide meals to any students that might need them. As 52 percent of OCS students are on the free or reduced lunch program, this proactive response allowed residents to weather the storm without fear of food insecurity.

“We knew that we were going to get hit with either the snow part of it or the ice part of it — either part of that was going to be detrimental for our families if they needed to get out to the store,” Linebrink said. “At the end of the day, all of our administration came together and decided that that price point — while it was $2,000 — was definitely

worth it to make sure that our students had food security during those days and that they were kept safe.”

Cindy Frantz, professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies, and co-founder and board member of POWER, stated that with human-caused climate change, harsher, more frequent storms will likely hit in areas that have not historically experienced this kind of extreme weather. POWER works to provide residents with fully weatherized homes so that they can save money, lower their carbon footprint, and stay safe amid weather emergencies. This type of work is especially important for low-income residents, who, during these storms, have to make choices that threaten their life and safety.

“Energy efficiency helps protect people from these really extreme weather patterns that we’re going to be seeing more and more of,” Frantz said. “[POWER is] trying to reduce the carbon emissions of homes and is also making homes more comfortable — particularly for the lowincome community. They wind up spending a huge proportion of their income on energy. If energy expenses are really, really high, people have this choice between: ‘Should I heat my house or should I feed my family?’”

POWER — which was formed in 2008 and receives funding from the City’s Sustainable Reserve Fund and the College’s Green Edge Fund — provides home efficiency grants to all Oberlin residents on an income-based sliding scale. According to its 2020 newsletter, homeowners who are below 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Level are eligible for Warm Choice, which covers the entire cost of insulating and weatherizing the home.

For more information see poweroberlin.org.

The College welcomed Harmony Cross as dean of student success on Jan. 24 and Rebecca Smith as assistant dean and director of student accessibility services on Jan. 18. Both appointments come amid ongoing turnover and restructuring in the Division of Student Life.

Cross will also take charge of Oberlin’s efforts to increase student retention as a part of her role overseeing the Center for Student Success. Cross comes from Holyoke Community College, where she served as the dean of student development, engagement, and inclusion. Smith will take over the Office of Student Accessibility Services and comes from the University of Northern Colorado, where she worked as the director of disability resources.

Both Cross and Smith listed Oberlin’s rich historical legacy as part of what attracted them to their respective positions, and both new staff members have many ideas for initiatives in their departments. Cross stated that the Center for Student Success plans to launch a listening lounge, where students can share their experiences and concerns directly with staff. Cross also stated that she would like to amplify the College’s Learning Enhancement Across Disciplines program to offer students educational services that fall outside of academic boundaries.

Cross also emphasized the importance of analyzing data in her efforts to rebrand the Center of Student Success so that students are more aware of its purpose and the services it offers.

“As I’ve spoken to students, some students may not know that CSS exists,” Cross said. “Other students are like, ‘Yeah, that’s where Executive Functioning resides.’ So, we’re really looking at a way to rebrand in a more confined and focused way.”

Smith said her immediate priority is to fully staff the Office of Student Accessibility Services; the Office has historically experienced high turnover, which has led to inconsistent practices.

Smith also stated her goals of implementing a testing center for students with testing accommodations on campus and hosting universal design workshops to make classroom environments and teaching more accessible.

“I have interest in bringing some universal design workshops to campus to talk to faculty about … creating an equitable environment for all students, not just students with disabilities,” Smith said.

Although Cross and Smith have experience working in higher education, they both emphasized the importance of familiarizing themselves with the Oberlin student body so they can best meet everyone’s needs.

“Really understanding the needs of our students and making necessary adaptations is going to be critical because the challenges at Oberlin may be different than what they were at another institution in which I worked,” Cross said.

Smith echoed Cross’ emphasis on the importance of learning about Oberlin students.

“I really am going to spend a lot of time initially just listening and learning and observing how all of the pieces at Oberlin kind of fit together, and what I need to do to make sure that I’m integrating our experience with what Oberlin’s mission, vision, and values are,” Smith said.

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

CONSERVATORY

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 Primary Elections Uncertain Due to Drawn-Out Redistricting

06 Abandonment of Ukraine Allows Conflict to Drag On

08 Conservatory Creates African American Music Minor

10 Olympus Fuses Greek Myth with Afro-Centered Histories

14 Oberlin Athletics Celebrates Black History Month

04 SEJ Hosts Atlanta Forest Defenders

07 Debate Around Rap’s Music Validity Rooted in Racism

THIS WEEK

11 OTR with Indigo De Souza

16 Yeowomen Look to Build on Successeses in Semfinals of NCAC

The Oberlin Review | February 25, 2022

09 Winter Term Spotlight

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Committee Misses Court Deadline, New Districts Remain Uncertain meet this deadline, so the court gave the members until Wednesday to explain why they should not be held in contempt of the court. On Tuesday, all seven members The Ohio Redistricting Commission failed to meet a of the commission will appear in court to defend their deadline last week to produce fair legislative maps as choice to miss the deadline.

“The court ordered them to submit a map and they ordered by the Ohio Supreme Court. With the Ohio primary elections scheduled for May 3, uncertainty blatantly disregarded the court’s order,” said Oberlin regarding congressional districts has created City Council Member Bryan Burgess. “And what does that mean? Will the Supreme Court order the challenges for candidates and voters alike.

The Ohio Redistricting Commission was created members of the commission to be jailed? Fined? Who as the result of a 2015 Ohio state constitutional would impose those punishments? What happens amendment to address gerrymandering. The when the executive and legislative branches refuse an amendment was passed in a vote that garnered nearly order from the Supreme Court? We’re in uncharted 75 percent of popular support for the creation of the territory. No one knows what’s gonna happen.”

It is unlikely that any one of the seven members of commission.

“I was very optimistic when the constitutional the commission, which includes Ohio Governor Mike amendment was passed,” said Head of the Science DeWine, will be jailed, but the maximum penalty for a Library and member of the League of Women Voters​​ first offense of contempt of court is a $250 fine and up Alison Ricker. “People were so, so excited and thought, to 30 days in jail.

The extended back-and-forth between the Ohio ‘This will do it! The bipartisan commission will be wonderful and will work together.’ And they just Supreme Court and the Commision has created didn’t. ... We worked so hard to get signatures and get challenges for the upcoming May 3 primary. On it on the ballot. And we were really talking about how Tuesday, Secretary of State Frank LaRose wrote to it was going to improve politics in Ohio and we really the Ohio Redistricting Commission to warn members that the May primary would not be able to go forward believed it would.”

The road to producing fair congressional maps after without a completed map. LaRose himself is a member the 2020 census has been anything but smooth. After of the Ohio Redistricting Commision.

The limbo state of the map makes it uncertain which the Ohio Redistricting Commission produced a set of maps in September, a number of lawsuits arguing that district will include Oberlin. In previous elections, the maps did not meet constitutional requirements to Oberlin was part of the Ohio 4th Congressional District, fairly represent the residents of Ohio were filed in the held by Jim Jordan; the 56th State Congressional District, held by Joe Miller; and Ohio Senate District Ohio Supreme Court.

“I think what we’re seeing here is the growing pains 13, held by Nathan Manning.

Maps that were passed this fall and later struck of some folks in politics who really don’t want to let go of partisan gerrymandering, and they’re trying to see if down by the Ohio Supreme Court changed some of they can still get away with it,” said Associate Professor the boundaries for Oberlin’s U.S. and state districts. of Geology and Oberlin College Votes member Zeb Oberlin was moved out of Democrat Joe Miller’s Page. “And that’s frustrating because I think that there district; in response local city council member Bryan are some groups that are really trying to get away with Burgess decided to run for Ohio House against Republican incumbent Dick Stein in the 53rd District. as much as they can.”

“The second map that [the commission] submitted After numerous back-and-forths between the court and the commission, the court ruled that the showed Oberlin being out of the traditional district commission would need to produce constitutional that we’ve been in for decades,” Burgess said. “Oberlin maps by Feb. 17. Last week, the commission failed to has often been in the same district as other cities and Ella Moxley News Editor

central Lorain County and the new map that they drew pulled Oberlin out of that district and put it into Southern Lorain County and further west into Huron and Erie counties.”

As the maps have yet to be finalized due to current litigation, the boundaries for the district Burgess is running in are not yet finalized. Nonetheless, the filing deadline to run was Feb. 2, so Burgess filed in the 53rd District even though future maps could put Oberlin in a different district.

“Candidates across the state of Ohio filed to run in a district,” Burgess said. “Those districts are up in the air, they’re undefined. They may not even exist on the next map that gets approved. And so even though I’ve filed in the 53rd, Oberlin may not be in the 53rd District on the next approved map.”

The chaos of the redistricting has also caused confusion for voters who are uncertain what the boundaries of their district are or what candidates they will be voting for this spring. Nonetheless, Page urges voters, especially students, to focus on things they can control while they wait, like getting registered to vote.

“I think it’s less important to focus on the details of what the ultimate congressional districts will be, but to remember that participating is important,” Page said.

“And although there’s not that much we can do right now about what congressional district or legislative district that we will be in Oberlin, we can make sure that we’re ready to participate.”

Despite the uncertainty created for voters and candidates like Burgess, the month-long legal fight could result in more democratic maps that better represent the residents of Ohio.

“I think [having a fair map] is a reasonable hope,” Ricker said. “I think that we’re not gonna be left with the really gerrymandered map that the Republicans came up with. I mean, some parts of the state will seem pretty gerrymandered possibly, but there’s some really glaring problems, especially down around Cincinnati that were really obvious gerrymanders.”

The deadline to register to vote in the Ohio primary is April 4. Students interested in helping with voter registration can reach out to OC Votes at OCvotes@ oberlin.edu.

Allyn W. Gibson, 93, Passes

Anisa Curry Vietze Editor-in-Chief

Students and community members vote at the Heisman Club Field House in 2020.

Photo by Mads Olsen

The Oberlin R eview Feb. 25, 2022 Volume 151, Number 12 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods.

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Editors-in-Chief Managing Editor News Editors Cont. News Editor Opinions Editors Arts Editors Sports Editor Cont. Sports Editors Conservatory Editor Photo Editors This Week Editor Senior Staff Writers

The owner of Gibson’s Bakery, Allyn W. Gibson, died on Saturday, Feb. 12 at the age of 93. Allyn’s passing was announced on the bakery’s Facebook page the following day.

“With a heavy heart, we say goodbye to Allyn W. Gibson,” the Feb. 13 post read. “He passed yesterday during baker’s hours. … Mr. Gibson was one of the most kind and genuine individuals we have ever known. He will be greatly missed.”

Allyn was a long-standing pillar of the Oberlin community, graduating from Oberlin High School, before attending The Ohio State University.

Allyn married Melba Mason in 1948, and they remained happily married Anisa Curry Vietze Kushagra Kar Gigi Ewing Ella Moxley Kush Bulmer Lauren Krainess Emma Benardete Angel Aduwo Lilyanna D’Amato Kathleen Kelleher Zoe Kuzbari John Elrod Zoë Martin del Campo Walter Thomas-Patterson Khadijah Halliday Abe Frato Wiley Smith Adrienne Sato Nikki Keating

for 51 years, until her passing.

In 2019, the Gibson family was awarded $44 million — later capped at $25 million under Ohio law — in the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case against the College and former Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo.

Allyn was preceded in death by his parents, Burt and Leota (Goodrich) Gibson; wife, Melba; and son and bakery co-owner David Gibson, who died in 2019. He is survived by sons Rick and Don, nine grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren.

Family and friends gathered to pay their respects to Allyn on Thursday, Feb. 17, at The First Church in Oberlin, and held a memorial service in his honor on Friday, Feb. 18, also at First Church.

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Security Notebook Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022 6:42 p.m. A student reported their vehicle was stuck in the grass and mud between Burton Hall and Langston Hall. Campus Safety officers contacted a tow truck to remove the vehicle.

Friday, Feb. 18, 2022 7:16 p.m. A student requested transport from Langston Hall to Mercy Allen Hospital to have an injury checked. Officers completed the transport.

Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022 3:38 p.m. Officers and Oberlin Fire Department members responded to a fire alarm at a Union Street Housing Unit. Contact between steam from running water and a hot frying pan caused the alarm. Officers reset the alarm with no further issue.

Sunday, Feb. 20, 2022 4:38 p.m. Officers were requested to assist an ill student at South Hall.

Officers requested an ambulance, which transported the student to the Mercy Allen Hospital emergency room.

Construction workers implement the first phase of the Sustainable Infrastructure Project in summer 2021.

Photo by Mads Olsen

College Reflects on Phase One of Sustainable Infrastructure Project Nikki Keating Senior Staff Writer The first phase of the Sustainable Infrastructure Program drew to a close last semester, encouraging members of the project to reflect on the precedent it set for sustainability on college campuses. With the goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2025, the project will continue during the summer months for the next three years. Additionally, as the project continues, various internship opportunities for students will be provided through the Office of Environmental Sustainability.

The SIP is a large-scale program to implement a geothermal energy system which will require the removal and replanting of more than

100 trees across campus. The first phase of the project replaced the College’s deteriorating steampipe system and rehauled it with a more efficient heating system. In the future, geothermal heating and cooling system will make buildings over 30 percent more efficient through fiber networks, cooling systems, and improved electrical and mechanical systems. A clean energy system is guaranteed for future Oberlin students and will serve as an example to campuses across the nation.

“For the energy system work, we will continue to engage students and faculty for this great learning opportunity,” Chief Facilities Officer Kevin Brown wrote in an email to the Review. “We will also be extending this to the community with community

upcoming engagement sessions and campus tours. We are also extending our knowledge-sharing to other institutions that would like to learn from Oberlin’s experience.”

College fourth-year Milo Hume had the opportunity to meet SIP construction workers when he filmed an informational documentary on SIP over the summer semester.

“I really enjoyed being able to work and connect with the construction workers who were laying the actual pipes,” Hume said. “Getting to know them was a privilege as they often go anonymous.”

The next phase of the SIP, which will occur over summer 2022, will focus on the construction of geothermal wells below North Fields.

COVID-19 Update Ella Moxley News Editor Oberlin College Updates

Ohio Updates

Between Feb. 11 and 23, the College administered 2,840 PCR tests and 47 rapid tests. During this time, there were six positive PCR tests, eight positive rapid tests, and two positive self-reported tests.

The College’s Feb. 18 deadline for students, faculty, and staff to submit booster documentation passed last week.

Students who have yet to upload proof of their booster shot can reupload their vaccine card to the Student Health Portal, and faculty and staff can upload theirs via a form on Oberview.

ObieSafe reported on Feb. 16 that campus positivity rates were at 0.36 percent. Because of the low rate, the College revised original plans to keep all classes remote during the first week. Students were able to attend inperson classes this week, but all meals are currently graband-go.

As of Dec. 18, 98.8 percent of students, 97.1 percent of faculty, and 90.7 percent of staff are fully vaccinated.

Ohio’s COVID-19 situation continues to improve in recent months. Between Feb. 11 and Feb. 24, the state recorded 16,490 new cases and 680 hospitalizations. Currently, there are 160.7 cases per 100,000 Ohio residents, which is a significantly lower proportion than a month ago, when Ohio had 2,154.8 per 100,000 residents on Jan. 20.

Over the last six weeks, COVID-19 rates in the state have fallen from record highs caused by the Omicron variant.

While statewide cases are declining, Ohioans are lagging behind in getting booster shots — roughly half of vaccinated Ohioans have had a booster shot. The CDC recommend that all adults receive a booster to complete their vaccination series.

Currently, 61.8 percent of Ohioans have received their first dose of a vaccine and 57.1 percent of residents have completed two doses.

Monday, Feb. 21, 2022 8:50 a.m. A student requested an officer’s assistance after falling outside of a South Main Street business and injuring their ankle. An officer responded and transported the student to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

10:33 a.m. Groundskeeping staff reported vandalism to several areas in Tappan Square. Staff found spraypainted tags located on the bandstand, trees, two light posts, a trash can, and the sidewalk. Groundskeeping staff made requests for paint removal.

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022 2:30 p.m. Staff at the Science Center reported that the handicap button and interior components were missing from the south entrance of the George R. and Ruth Schoeni Bent Corridor. A work order was filed for repair.

6:19 p.m. Officers, a maintenance technician, and the Oberlin Fire Department members responded to a report of smoke coming from the second-floor women’s restroom in Carnegie Building. A burnt odor was detected and the building was evacuated. A burned-out light ballast was located and an electrician removed the burnt components. An alarm reset was completed with no further problems.

Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022 9:31 a.m. Officers and Oberlin Fire Department members responded to a fire alarm on the fourth floor of Peters Hall. Burning incense caused the alarm. The individual responsible for the burning incense was advised to follow Oberlin College policies. The alarm was reset.

1:33 p.m. Officers were requested to assist with a life safety inspection on the third floor of Dascomb Hall. Located in plain view was a prescription bottle containing a green leafy substance consistent with marijuana, a glass water pipe with residue consistent with marijuana, a baggie, and a grinder, both containing the green leafy substance.

The items were confiscated and turned over to the Oberlin Police Department.

The Oberlin Review | February 25, 2022

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College Appoints Matthew Lahey as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

The College announced the hiring of Matthew Lahey as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary in January.

Courtesy of Matthew Lahey Kushagra Kar Editor-in-Chief The College announced the appointment of the new Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary Matthew D. Lahey on Jan. 11. At Oberlin, Lahey will be responsible for a number of Oberlin’s legal needs, in addition to overseeing the restructuring of the Board of Trustees bylaws and supporting the implementation of One Oberlin. Lahey’s appointment has sparked controversy among alumni who are concerned about a LinkedIn profile that included “union avoidance” among his skills.

Following the creation of the Office of the Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary in 2008, the general counsel was placed in charge of organizing board meeting agendas, arranging briefing packets, and keeping the board informed of goings-on around campus along with the President, among other functions. Already, Lahey is organizing the board meeting scheduled for March 4, in addition to his work on the ongoing revision of the board bylaws.

“The Board of Trustees said to the faculty early on that they were gonna be looking at their bylaws over the course of the next year,” President Carmen Twillie Ambar said. “They’re having discussions with the

General Faculty Council about that. So the secretary to the Board of Trustees is the person who kind of makes those meetings happen, sits with the General Faculty Council and others to think about what those potential changes may be.”

As a member of the College’s senior administration, Lahey will also play a role in the future of One Oberlin, providing legal advice to deans and other administrators directly responsible for executing the plan.

Lahey joins Oberlin’s leadership team after eight years at the University of Notre Dame, where he served both as associate general counsel and, for the last three years, as concurrent professor of law. While he specialized in labor law, his career highlights include work in diversity, equity, and inclusion and serving on faculty. “[Matt] had a real breadth of experience around all the types of issues that I think come before the general counsel’s office, particularly around employment law, around diversity and inclusion issues, around policies and processes that institutions have to think through,” President Ambar said. “I was really impressed with some of the work that he had done around diversity and his work to try to build more diverse applicant pools.”

Now into his fourth week at Oberlin, Lahey has identified the Presidential Initiative on Racial Equity and Diversity as the project he is most excited to support. During his time at Notre Dame, Lahey worked to design and implement more inclusive hiring practices and has already set his agenda for similar work at Oberlin.

“At Notre Dame I was a faculty member in the law school where I taught employment discrimination law in addition to labor law,” he said. “Understanding the history of our civil rights laws has been important to me. And I was able to bring some of the passion that I’ve got for that area of law to the work that I did at my former institution, specifically related to the importance of greater representation of people of color among faculty. And for my former institution that was the case as well. So trying to create a process that was legally compliant, but really drove that important goal forward. Notre Dame was able to track the results and see the improvement over time in relation to faculty

hiring and staff hiring, which was really gratifying to go from concept to implementation to start to see results.”

Lahey’s appointment has, however, raised concerns among alumni groups after finding Lahey’s LinkedIn page which includes “union avoidance” as a skill.

Although Lahey wasn’t a part of the original decision making, some alumni believe this represents a growing anti-union trend in Oberlin following the outsourcing of the United Auto Workers union employees in the spring of 2020. Peter Miller, OC ’84, is particularly concerned about the hire after the outsourcing of UAW workers in spring 2020.

“Word got out that the school had appointed a new general counsel, and the general counsel was proudly anti-union and listed on his LinkedIn profile among his skills that he was skilled in union avoidance and union avoidance training,” Miller said. “The idea that President Ambar and [the] Board of Trustees would’ve chosen this person as the general counsel, the school’s lead lawyer, seems impossible to separate from the horrific recent history the school had with its labor relations.”

In response to these concerns Lahey emphasized the breadth of his work with labor law, including working with labor organizations to achieve common goals.

Lahey believes he should be evaluated on the entirety of his record rather than a list on LinkedIn. “I think what is important is the work that I’ve done, which is represented in my description,” he said. “In my labor work representing companies, I’m proud of the work that I did in the labor space. Negotiating collective bargaining agreements and working with labor organizations to achieve collective goals. … I think the characterization of union avoidance is not an accurate representation of the actual labor work that I’ve done in representing companies. The other thing that I’ll point out, is that when I was on the faculty at Notre Dame, I taught labor law. It was something that was incredibly important to me, because I took the responsibility of helping bring labor law to students and helping shape perspectives — I took that seriously.

I was very proud that I presented labor law in a very open and unbiased, neutral way.”

Students for Energy Justice Hosts Atlanta Forest Defenders Kush Bulmer News Editor Editors’ note: The protesters often confront law enforcement as a result of their activism, and are known within their communities by “camp names,” such as Trench Foot, Sumac, and Marinara. This story will refer to individuals by the camp names that they use in their daily life at the encampment.

Four organizers from the Defend the Atlanta Forest encampment gathered in Wilder Hall on Tuesday to discuss their activism with interested Oberlin students.

The Defend the Atlanta Forest campaign uses direct action tactics to oppose the construction of a police compound and soundstage in the largest contiguous forest in Atlanta. Oberlin’s Students for Energy Justice planned the event, compensated the organizers for their talk, and voiced support for their efforts.

Following a meditative exercise that aimed to ground students in their bodies and within a global interconnected system, Raina, one of the guest speakers, read a statement from a Muscogee traditional chief. The statement referenced the displacement of the Muscogee Creek people from their traditional lands in what is now Atlanta and called for listeners to learn how to become better stewards of this stolen land. The four members of the group then explained how the construction project is a continuation of the country’s history of colonial and racial violence.

The Atlanta Police Department is pursuing a plan to claim roughly 300 acres of forest — converting 85 acres into a tactical training facility while maintaining 265 acres for green space. The facility, known to the activists as “Cop City,” would draw police recruits from around the nation. Among its proposed features is a mock city street, where recruits could practice using riot gear. Additionally, Atlanta’s DeKalb County is attempting to sell another parcel of nearby forested

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public park to a major film and TV production company; Blackhall Studios would clear-cut forest to create the state’s largest soundstage.

These proposed plans would be located directly adjacent to the grounds of the Old Atlanta Prison Farm. The site was the focus of a 1980s ACLU lawsuit, which alleged that the prison farm used inhumane punishment tactics against its prisoners, particularly Black and Brown people. Already, the police have repossessed the site of the ruined farm — which is being transformed by a burgeoning new growth forest, to construct a firing range. To the many residents of Atlanta — the “city in the forest” — the land repossession was unwelcome news.

“There is a large grassroots movement in Atlanta,” said Trench Foot, one of the organizers. “There are a lot of people who are very upset about the Cop City and about the movie studio. And I think that the convergence of these forest defense tactics with urban mass organizing tactics is really special.”

For Oberlin’s SEJ, supporting this campaign aligns with its central ideology; the radical environmental student group supports direct action tactics, especially those that resist the power of the fossil fuel industry.

SEJ uses both its allocated funds and human expertise to support the actions in Atlanta — which include blockades, tree-sits, and other forms of direct action against the construction efforts.

“These folks don’t make money,” said members of SEJ in a group statement. “The work they do is counter to anything that any business would pay for. … Being affiliated with the College and being connected to the College’s resources, I think, is both a big privilege and comes with a big onus and a big responsibility to give it away as much as possible. And I think this is an example — this talk is incredible. And Oberlin students wanna hear about this and in return, this will feed people or buy climbing gear or whatever else needs to happen.”

One of the speakers, Marinara, is a former member of SEJ. Marinara’s journey to Atlanta began with a similar radical encampment in West Virginia, the Appalachians Against Pipelines. Through SEJ, Marinara learned about and connected with organizers at the AAP movement. AAP similarly uses direct action tactics to resist the creation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline that is currently under construction and planned to range from south Virginia to northern West Virginia. Members there have conducted one of the longest tree-sits in the country — 932 days — and have helped deter the construction of the environmentally devastating and climate-changing pipeline.

“The sort of informal community of friends that we made fighting the pipeline ended up moving down to Atlanta to fight Cop City as the pipeline is not being built currently,” Marinara said. “And so I decided to go and join my friends doing stuff that mattered to me. It was through amazing networks of trust and affinity.”

As they closed their presentation, Trench Foot called on listeners to find their frontline — where one can make the biggest impact and resist apathy and complacency in the midst of the worsening climate crisis.

“Atlanta has been identified as one of the most stable cities in the so-called U.S. against the climate crisis, in large part due to its urban forest setup,” Trench Foot said. “It’s also a very likely destination for climate refugees, from the coasts and from increasing climate chaos. As the climate crisis grows worse, and with the rise of the far right, and just sort of the everyday disasters of capitalism, I think that the police are going to become more emboldened, that they’re going to become more repressive and they’re going to be used by people who are already wealthy and powerful in society to hoard what resources are left. This is bad and we should work to dismantle these systems as quickly as possible.”

Feburary 25, 2022

OPINIONS

LETTER TO THE EDITORS Dear President Ambar: Matthew Lahey’s Appointment is Shameful Dear President Ambar, I am a 1973 Oberlin graduate, and I am now a professor of Computer and Information Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. I have been on the faculty there since receiving my doctorate from NYU in 1981. My faculty profile reads, in part: “From his earliest days, science and social justice have been essential concerns of Professor Arnow. As an undergraduate, he went to Oberlin College because of its tradition of social responsibility and first-rate science education.”

The current trend of union-busting and poor treatment of faculty (with inevitable consequences in recruitment), in addition to the hiring of Matthew Lahey, if it continues, will force me to revise my profile.

Of course, one professor’s web page is of little consequence, but don’t you realize that the recognition that Oberlin is abandoning its values will eventually become widespread and will have far-reaching, generational consequences?

I urge you to remove this from your legacy and to take to heart the moral imperatives of the early leaders of the Oberlin community — Charles Grandison Finney, Asa Mahan, and others. Rescind the appointment of self-proclaimed union-buster Matthew Lahey and remember that Oberlin’s motto, “Learning and Labor,” demands respect for both.

David Arnow OC ’73 SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and op-ed submissions. All submissions are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board.

All submissions must be received by Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. at opinions@oberlinreview.org or Wilder Box 90 for inclusion in that week’s issue. Letters may not exceed 600 words and op-eds may not exceed 800 words, except with consent of the Editorial Board. All submissions must include contact information, with full names and any relevant titles, for all signers. All writers must individually confirm authorship on electronic submissions. The Review reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity, length, grammar, accuracy, strength of argument and in consultation with Review style. Editors will work with contributors to edit pieces and will clear major edits with the authors prior to publication. Editors will contact authors of letters to the editors in the event of edits for anything other than style and grammar. Headlines are printed at the discretion of the Editorial Board. Opinions expressed in editorials, letters, op-eds, columns, cartoons or other Opinions pieces do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of the Review. The Review will not print advertisements on its Opinions pages. The Review defines an advertisement as any submission that has the main intent of bringing direct monetary gain to a contributor.

The Oberlin Review | Feburary 25, 2022

Established 1874

Volume 151, Number 12

Partisan Gerrymandering May Cause Primary Delays Emma Benardete Opinions Editor On Thursday, Feb. 17, Ohio’s bipartisan redistricting commission failed yet again to produce a set of fair maps for State House and Senate districts. After presenting two sets of legislative maps to the state’s Supreme Court, both of which were rejected, the commission was given 10 days, until midnight last Thursday, to complete a third set of maps, one that adhered to the court’s restrictions. This time, they didn’t even try. The majority-Republican commission neglected to meet until the last day and turned up empty-handed, claiming that it was impossible to meet the court’s demands. Republicans’ refusal to attempt a fair redistricting map demonstrates a blatant disregard for the state’s constitution and democratic values. Beyond the prospect of another decade of horribly gerrymandered districts, the lack of fair maps poses a risk of significant delays during the 2022 election cycle.

Currently, Ohio’s open primary, which allows voters to participate without registering with a political party, is scheduled for May 3.

However, if fair maps cannot be drawn in a timely manner, which at this point seems probable, it will have to be postponed. It is unclear whether individual candidates’ chances of winning their primaries, especially races which do not include an incumbent candidate, will be particularly impacted by the delay.

“I do not believe the delayed primary will have a significant impact on the outcome of the primary elections,” wrote Lorain County Democratic Chair Anthony Giardini in an email to the Review.

He also noted that the state has historically held primaries as late as June.

“Those candidates who started slow may benefit from the additional time, but otherwise it is not a problem,” Giardini wrote.

However, the primary ballots themselves are a different story.

“The biggest impact on the delay is the difficulty for candidates to know where exactly their area of representation will be,” said Kristin Peterson, Oberlin City Council member and first vice chair of the Lorain County Democratic Party. “At the current moment, we do not know what the districts will look like, and the deadline to file has already passed for state districts. The Board of Elections needs to know who and what will be on the ballot so that they can have ballots ready to send to military members out of the country, among all the tasks they have. Delaying the approval of districts throws the entire election system into disarray.”

The delay will also create barriers to entry for newer candidates.

“As someone running for office for the first time, there are many steps that need to be completed, both legally and necessary to start up a campaign for office,” wrote Anthony Eliopoulos, a Democrat from Lorain running for State Senate District 13, in an email to the Review.

“What these delays do is disincentivize new people to run for office during a time where Ohio desperately needs new leadership.”

The primary delays will almost certainly affect the general elections in favor of the Republican party. The May 3 primary date would give parties around seven months of active campaigning for their nominees before the general election. However, due to Republicans’ failure to draw fair maps, it is likely that the primary

races which rely on the State House and Senate maps will have to be postponed. If that happens, it will put incumbents at even more of an advantage than they already have. Incumbents in Lorain County elections this year, many of whom are Republican, are already known to their constituents. Their challengers, who won’t officially be named until after the primary, will have to rely on a shorter-than-usual period between the primary and the general election to recruit donors, volunteers, and ultimately voters.

“Incumbents have the advantage of already established campaign committees and the privilege to have a say in what their own district looks like,” Eliopoulos wrote.

For candidates who face primary challengers, the delay will be even more of a burden.

Nominees who face primary opposition are tasked with garnering support from the challengers’ core supporters. Parties that are divided during the general election tend to perform worse because their voters are unwilling to unite behind a single candidate. Given the shortened period between the primary and the general election, tensions within the party are likely to be running even higher than usual come November.

It is true that there are ways the Democratic party can mitigate the effects of the shortened post-primary window. They can, for example, pre-emptively endorse a candidate for the primary. Just last week, the Ohio Democratic Party endorsed Congressman Tim Ryan in his Senate primary against Morgan Harper. However, while this practice gives the party a longer span of time to provide support to the likely nominee in anticipation of the general election, it also gives undue power to a small group of politicos to dictate the outcome of the primary.

Regardless of the impact of the primary delays, Republicans must be held accountable for their blatantly partisan gerrymandering efforts.

“The failure of the Republican-controlled redistricting commission to draw constitutional maps will have an impact on the general election as it will bring to light their incompetence and arrogance as it relates to the mandate the vast majority of Ohio voters gave them when the Constitution was amended to prevent gerrymandering,” Giardini wrote. “Republicans at all levels in Ohio should pay for this anti-voter mentality.”

Eliopoulos echoes this sentiment.

“Ohio voters sent a message in 2018 that they want a better process for district maps to be created,” he wrote. “Let’s not be mistaken, this is the Republican majority’s plan to create chaos and confusion in order to retain their majority in both chambers of the statehouse.”

For its part, the Ohio Supreme Court promised to hold the commission in contempt if they failed to produce an adequate written explanation by Wednesday afternoon for their failure to present a set of maps. The commission filed an explanation on Wednesday, hours before the deadline, though it remains to be seen whether the court will find it sufficient.

Holding the commission in contempt would be a start, but it is merely symbolic. The best way to hold Republicans truly accountable for their unconstitutional gerrymandering efforts is to make sure that Democrats turn out in droves to the polls this fall.

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Opi n ions

The Online/Offine Dilemma Clair Wang, Staff Cartoonist

Failure to Adhere to COVID Guidelines Demonstrates Lack of Compassion Danny Valero

Abandonment of Ukraine Allows Conflict to Drag On Editors’ note: Yesterday, Russia invaded Ukraine, breaching international law and inciting sanctions from the U.S. In light of the ongoing brutalities, this Editorial Board has chosen to reflect on the moment by reprinting this Opinions piece from 2015. The piece was written after the Russian annexation of Crimea in the wake of the civil war in southern and eastern Ukraine. Especially at this moment, this piece is a poignant reminder of our responsibility in a fractured world.

Sean Para, OC ’16 Mass media has covered little of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine over the past few months. Since the success of February’s Minsk-2 accords, large-scale fighting has abated in Eastern Ukraine. Nonetheless, violence continues. Small numbers of soldiers in both the Ukrainian and rebel armed forces are still dying.

Minor firefights break out often, artillery fire is still exchanged — the conflict has not ended. The international community needs to refocus its attention on the civil war in Eastern Ukraine and come together to forge a peaceful resolution that takes into account both Russian and separatist interests. This is the only way the conflict will end.

Civil war erupted in Eastern Ukraine after an uprising in the spring of 2014. The region, known as the Donbass, because it lies in the Donets Basin, is comprised of two industrial oblasts, or provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk. In order to understand this conflict, it is important to realize that the Soviet Union only broke up 24 years ago, and before that, Russia and Ukraine had never been separate countries. The cross-border ethnic, linguistic, economic, and cultural links still run deep. Ukraine has always had a large Russian-speaking population concentrated in the south and east of the country. Many of these Russian speakers are ethnically Russian, while others are Russian-speaking Ukrainians; these divisions are often very blurred, as one might consider themselves Ukrainian, speak only Russian on a daily basis, and have both Russian and Ukrainian ancestry. Before the breakup of the USSR, these divisions had no significant importance; Russians and Ukrainians were “brother peoples.”

Things changed dramatically after the fall of the Soviet Union. Legally speaking, the USSR was succeeded by the Commonwealth of Independent States, a multinational organization that was originally conceived of as a confederation of sorts but only ever held symbolic power among the post-Soviet states.

Different post-Soviet states had very different relationships with Russia. Some, like Belarus, Armenia, and Kazakhstan, became and remain Russian satellites, which are integrated militarily, economically, and politically with Russia. Others, like the Baltic States and Georgia, took opposite paths and sought alliances with the West. Then there was a category of states that drifted between the two poles, Ukraine being the most notable and, for our purposes, the most pertinent example. Closely tied to Russia politically and economically, Ukraine nevertheless expressed some desire for alliance with the West and for the creation of a Western-style liberal democracy.

The events of February 2014 were a turning point in the Ukraine-Russia relationship. At the time, Ukraine was being run by a pro-Russian regime headed by Viktor Yanukovych. In November 2013, he scrapped a strategy to make an Association Agreement with the European Union. Instead, Yanukovych accepted a deal from Russia, under which Ukraine would join the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union in exchange for much more financial aid than the EU had offered, as well as less stringent regulations and

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reform requirements. This anti-EU swing sparked a protest movement in Kiev. The protests increased in size, intensity, and violence in February 2014, when pro-EU protesters occupied Kiev’s main square, the Maidan, prompting pro-government forces to launch a violent crackdown against them. Unable to contain the protests or retake the city center, Yanukovych fled to Russia on Feb. 21. Ukraine’s legislative assembly, the Verkhovna Rada, stripped him of power in an unconstitutional vote, and a new, pro-Western government took power. This was the Maidan revolution of 2014, and its consequences shall cast a shadow over the world for a long time to come.

Events quickly spiraled out of control following the Maidan. The new, pro-U.S. government was weak; it was composed of a broad coalition from student intellectuals to radical right-wing nationalists. Protests against the revolution broke out all over southern and eastern Ukraine, from Odessa to Kharkov. Paramilitaries, who were in fact Russian special forces, took control of Crimea. Crimea largely accepted these “polite green men” and seceded from Ukraine, declaring independence with Russian backing. Crimea was populated mostly by ethnic Russians and had only been part of Ukraine since 1954, when no one could have imagined the Soviet Union would fall apart or that Russia and Ukraine could be separate countries. In March, Crimea voted in a heavily disputed referendum to join Russia. It was the first time a power had seized land by force in Europe since 1945.

The Russian annexation of Crimea, condemned by the international community, also had major implications for Ukraine’s other Russian-speaking regions.

These parts of Ukraine looked to Russia as a protector, a mindset bolstered by Russian propaganda that portrayed the new government in Kiev as fascist and bent on the destruction of Russia and Russian-speakers everywhere. Protests in other parts of Ukraine continued. In three major cities in Ukraine’s industrial east — Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkov — pro-Russian protesters took control of the main government administration buildings and declared “People’s Republics.” While Kharkov was retaken by the central government, rebellion spread across the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Ukrainian government then launched an anti-terror operation to retake the rebellious regions. However, the rebels, while not being officially recognized by Russia, received huge amounts of Russian financial and material support, as well as aid from small forces of Russian troops — the “popular defense militias,” as they are known.

The war in the Donbass has had many twists and turns, but in the past eight months it has settled into a stalemate where the rebel republics control many of the region’s main population centers and the Russian border area; Kiev has retained or retaken significant parts of the area as well. This conflict cannot be overlooked. It lies at the nexus of nationalism, sovereignty, capitalism, and communism — many of the great historical themes of the past century have converged in the Donbass. The world needs to turn its attention back to the conflict and bring about a peaceful resolution to the stalemate.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I kept hearing from people that the reason Oberlin had been doing so well with mitigating COVID cases was because Obies cared. They cared about the pandemic, they cared about their neighbors, and they cared about disabled people, low-income people, and people of color.

However, since the beginning of the fall 2021 semester, there have been more masking violations than ever before. Not only that, there have also been people who are vehemently anti-mask, refusing to wear one outside or inside. I have seen anti-maskers engage with increasing hostility with people trying to remind them about COVID-safe practices. However, those who are quieter about their disregard for safety guidelines are just as dangerous. With the rise of the Omicron variant, hospitalizations, deaths, and reports of “long COVID” — a chronic, debilitating illness — have increased. Students who are refusing to wear masks, especially indoors with this highly infectious variant, simply do not care about anything — or anyone — besides their own comfort.

While some of the uptick in COVID cases on campus is attributable to Omicron, the lack of compliance has exacerbated the trend. Just before winter break, as testing became more limited and more people refused to wear their masks, the spread of COVID grew exponentially. This has heavily impacted our disabled and immunocompromised students, who are afraid of contracting this disease from people who refuse to consider their safety.

Not only that, but students who have elderly family members or family members with serious illnesses were afraid to return home this past holiday season due to the inconsiderateness of their peers. My own grandmother was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. Because of this, I have been unable to visit her in her last few months, since my family and I fear that I could spread the virus from Oberlin to her while traveling. If she were to be taken early by COVID when she is already so ill from cancer, my family and I would be even more devastated.

Not to mention, COVID hospitalizations and deaths disproportionately impact low-income individuals and people of color. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Black/ African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, and Alaska Native persons in the United States experience higher rates of COVID-19-related hospitalization and death compared with non-Hispanic White populations.” According to their COVID Data Tracker, at the most recent peak of the pandemic — Jan 8, 2022 — Hispanic communities had 1,186.2 cases per 100,000 people, while white non-Hispanic communities only had 622.1 (which is still an incredibly large number). This trend is again true for the Black and Asian/Pacific Islander communities in this country, which had 978.6 and 943.2 cases per 100,000 people, respectively.

The College has not taken serious action regarding the violations that have occurred. Students who have been reported to the ObieSafe program often do not face any real consequences for endangering others, even after multiple reports. As much as I hate that this system needs to exist in the first place, the lives and health of our students and community members are more important than anti-maskers getting their feelings hurt after talking to an administrator. If you’re upset that someone values disabled lives, and expects the institution to do the same, you’re part of the problem.

It’s become increasingly evident that Obies don’t care. Oberlin students don’t care about the sick, the disabled, or anyone who may be negatively impacted by their selfishness. Obies only care about optics — the optics of being viewed as caring and socially responsible — but they’re not willing to put in the work, even when that work is as simple as wearing a mask.

Debates Around Rap Music’s Validity Rooted in Racism

College COVID-19 Guidelines Unnecessary, Ineffective Walter Moak

Conservatory second-year Inayah Raheem Photo by Abe Frato, Photo Editor Angel Aduwo Opinions Editor Earlier this month, Oberlin announced that it will be introducing a new minor in AfricanAmerican Music for both College and Conservatory students. According to Professor Charles Peterson, chair of Oberlin College’s Africana Studies department, this minor will “examine musical forms in the African diaspora through the lenses of theater and dance, history, cultural studies, literature, and philosophy.” While many are excited about this new minor, it’s important to examine the historical condemnation of African-American music styles as well as the larger debate over African-American music in general.

Just about every African-American music style, from jazz to blues to hip-hop, has been criticized and politicized by white American society. This is largely due to the fact that these art forms were typically a reaction to and a rejection of the oppression and discrimination faced by the members of the communities that these styles originated with. These critiques were often rooted in racism and a distaste for Black American expression, rather than any real discourse on the music itself.

“The term ‘jazz’ within itself is derogatory.

It literally comes from ‘jackass,’” said Conservatory second-year Inayah Raheem. “That’s basically how they referred to Black music, and that’s the reason why it’s called jazz.”

Raheem is referring to a music critic from the 1890s who wrote in The New Orleans Times-Picayune that the music of jazz musician Buddy Bolden sounded “like the braying of a Jack Ass.” The term stuck, even if the sentiments that the term originated with have faded over time.

So the critique of African-American music styles is not new. As a younger but no-lessestablished music genre, rap faces similar criticism. However, critics of rap take a different approach than those of jazz, blues, or rock, and debate whether rap music should be considered music at all. This debate is not only baseless and reductive, but it is also clearly rooted in the racism that rap seeks to expose and call out.

A common reason why people claim that rap is not music — most notably touted by right-wing political commentator Ben Shapiro — is that rapping alone can’t be considered music, because rapping is just rhythm and music must be more than just rhythm.

This is an absurd notion that any student of music worth their stripes can see past.

Conservatory first-year Solomon Leonard expands on the invalidity of this way of thinking.

“Music is not that much different from life,” said Leonard. “Music is just like any art form, whether it’s visual art or film or dance.

It’s a reflection of our lives. And the only reThe Oberlin Review | Feburary 25, 2022

quirement is that it has to reflect something about reality. I don’t think it comes down to something like, it has to have a melody or it has to have a type of harmony, or something like that. I don’t think that really makes it music.”

Rap rejects the principles imposed by classical music and resists Eurocentric standards of what music should be. It is a style of music that’s accessible to just about anyone, anywhere in the world. It allows for free-form creativity and individuality, and does not have a rigid set of rules one must subscribe to.

“In my opinion, a lot of white people have the inability to think outside of the box of what they have considered music,” Raheem said. “It’s [a] very common notion in Conservatory settings and classical music settings. I think people have created this strict kind of structure in their mind and they think that anything that goes outside of that can’t be considered music.”

At the heart of rap music is a call to end racial injustice. While older white generations would prefer to disregard rap music altogether, younger white generations love to listen to rap and hip-hop but disregard the genres’ roots and the principles of its original creators.

“Rap is being used commercially like any other genre [of ] music, but also it’s just weird that people like to capitalize off of Black things and don’t do anything about what the people who created rap music stood for,” said College second-year and guitarist Dee Pegues.

In the end, it comes down to a lack of respect for African-American culture. When we say things like, “Don’t say the n-word,” or, “Don’t use AAVE,” or, “Don’t wear black protective hairstyles,” it’s all ignored. This is due to the fact that white people, but also non-Black people in general, don’t want to see African Americans as having their own distinct culture. If they do see it, they don’t consider it to be worthy of respect.

If there’s one thing white people hate, it’s competition. If we consider rap music to be music, then we must question the validity of the claim that classical music and other Eurocentric art forms are superior. If we consider Black Americans as having their own distinct culture and identity, then we must question why we believe Black people in America are so undeserving of respect, and deserving of persecution and abuse. If white people have to view rap music as “real music,” they will be forced to question the cultural superiority they have comfortably and securely maintained for generations. They will have to compete with other extraordinarily talented musicians who didn’t “count” in the past. All of their insecurity and resistance to change cannot alter the fact that rap music is music, end of discussion.

Almost two years ago, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic a “public health crisis.” However, in the time since the original outbreak, our country has significantly improved its resources to deal with this pandemic. Almost 65 percent of Americans are now inoculated with highly effective vaccines. Rapid tests are provided free of charge by the federal government. Masks are readily available. Omicron, the dominant and most viral strain, “causes less severe disease than infection with prior variants,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Oberlin’s COVID-19 policies have failed to reflect these improvements. Throughout the current academic year, the College has imposed excessive restrictions at a cost to students. These policies do not effectively prevent disease, but rather serve to promote Oberlin’s image of social responsibility. As the spring semester begins, Oberlin should be prioritizing students’ education over positive publicity and minimizing restrictions for the rest of the year.

Oberlin College’s series of misguided policies began with the fall semester’s outdoor mask mandate. The CDC has maintained since last summer that “people do not need to wear masks when outdoors.”

According to an August 2021 analysis, COVID-19’s outdoor transmission rate is likely less than 1 percent. However, on Sept. 27, days before the fall semester began, President Carmen Twillie Ambar stated that she wished “to go above and beyond the CDC guidelines.” Given that outdoor masking has little public health benefit, the policy’s apparent purpose was to support the College’s image as a socially responsible institution.

On Dec. 23, Oberlin issued another illogical restriction: a shift to solely grab-and-go dining. Eating inside dining halls does pose transmission risks. The College, however, did not prohibit indoor dining elsewhere; students currently eat meals in the Science Center, Wilder Hall, and other common spaces. At the time, President Ambar asked students to “eat meals in their residences,” but that policy is neither listed on the ObieSafe website nor enforced on campus. As such, Oberlin’s grab-and-go policy merely redistributes transmission risk on campus. Like outdoor masking, however, it is a visible policy the College can reference to support its reputation.

Most recently, Oberlin planned to move all classes online for the first week of the semester. If not for the College’s own communication failures, that likely would have been the case. According to the College’s Feb. 9 announcement, virtual classes would have “allowed for the completion of arrival testing before starting in-person classes.” The College’s desire to test returning students was logical, but their plan for virtual classes had several flaws. For one, it gave students no reason to return before the beginning of in-person classes. Many students would have just stayed home an extra week and missed the testing window anyway. In addition, the online-only plan would have applied to students indiscriminately. Students, such as athletes who had been on campus for Winter Term, had already been subjected to rigorous weekly testing, making further testing redundant and bothersome.

However, it was not for these reasons that Oberlin reversed course.

Apparently, some faculty only learned of the College’s plan when students did — just a week before classes started. In the policy reversal announcement of Feb. 16, ObieSafe recognized “concern about the timing of the announcement and its impact on academic plans.” The proposed plan resulted in some remote classes as professors who had already altered their plan for their first week were unwilling to modify it again.

It seems that the reason for restrictions such as outdoor masking and grab-and-go dining is that Oberlin sees COVID-19 policy as a way to bolster its brand as a progressive school. Oberlin prides itself on having admitted Black and female students since the 1830s and wishes to continue its legacy of progressiveness today.

However, stringent restrictions are not the way to achieve this. In 2022, the College isn’t saving lives by stopping students from eating in dining halls. Oberlin’s restrictions create negligible social benefits and only serve to contrast with looser policies adopted by conservative institutions. Presumably, the College expects that its posturing will attract progressive-minded students and their tuition.

The College is wrong to prioritize its image over current students’ experiences. Not only is this plan self-serving, but it is also ineffective.

Many progressives are also tired of interminable virus restrictions: San Francisco voters recently ousted three school board members over prolonged school closures. The progressive students Oberlin hopes to attract are likely equally weary.

It’s true that Oberlin has pursued some sensible policies such as the vaccine mandate. The College should realize, however, that performative restrictions only squander students’ patience and weaken compliance with more appropriate measures.

It’s time for Oberlin to respond to COVID-19 as the annoyance it is in 2022, not the crisis it was in 2020. The College should commit to in-person classes for the rest of the semester. The College should reopen communal eating spaces in dining halls. If cases continue their rapid decline, the College should lift the indoor mask mandate before the academic year’s end.

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C on s e r vat ory

CONSERVATORY Established 1874

February 25, 2022

A Vision for the Conservatory Section For the first time in the Review’s 148-year history, the paper is introducing a one-page section dedicated to covering Conservatory news. This section will serve not only as a venue for traditional news coverage of Conservatory events, curricular changes, faculty, and students, but also as a way for individual artists and groups to tell their stories — stories that capture pivotal moments in their artistic development. The ultimate goal for this new section is to serve as a dynamic bridge between the College and the Conservatory.

The content in the section will demystify the kind of work Conservatory musicians do. Since we spend so much time practicing, rehearsing, collaborating in ensembles, and learning from our professors, many of us have few opportunities to relate our experiences to the wider Oberlin community. Yet all students, regardless of their major, should be able to connect to the

frustrations and discoveries we make during those hours.

The introduction of this section also comes at a critical moment in the Conservatory’s history as it modifies its curriculum to include the formal study of music that has been historically marginalized, a shift that creates a notable starting point for this section.

Chief Classical Music Critic of The New York Times Anthony Tommasini provides a guiding vision for this section. In a retrospective on his first byline for the Times, Tommasini writes, “I’ve always believed that people who love music, even if they lack any training, are more perceptive of the nuances and complexities of a piece than they realize.” As a universal language, music, in all its wonderful complexity and diversity, is more critical than ever in bridging the divides that separate us.

If you are interested in contributing, please email conservatory@oberlinreview.org.

Conservatory Creates African American Music Minor Walter Thomas-Patterson Conservatory Editor The Conservatory has established an African American Music minor that will be available to students beginning in the 2022–23 academic year. The minor will be interdisciplinary in nature; courses will be offered within the Conservatory’s Jazz and Ethnomusicology departments and the College’s Africana Studies, Dance, and Theater departments, among numerous other cross-sectional courses available to students.

The introduction of the minor actualizes a broader curricular expansion toward historically marginalized musical fields, following the Conservatory’s Racial Equity and Diversity Action Plan released in September 2020. The Conservatory is restructuring the music theory curriculum to de-emphasize Western art-music as the sole theoretical canon and instead provide students with a greater array of forms to explore.

Along with this pedagogical shift, the Conservatory is hiring new faculty for positions in Jazz History, as well as in African American and African Diasporic Music, to help teach newly available courses in this minor.

Africana Studies Department Chair Charles Peterson, Conservatory Associate Dean Chris Jenkins, and a not-yet named professor in African American Music will collaborate as co-chairs of the minor. They will be responsible for approving students’ academic proposals.

Jenkins says that although new positions will be hired for the minor, the program will also draw on pre-existing academic infrastructure.

“The curricular elements of the minor have been around for a long time; we just needed to formalize them to articulate a single area of study,” Jenkins wrote in an email to the Review. “There

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is already a lot of interest at Oberlin in studying Black cultural topics, so expanding Conservatory offerings in this area seems like an obvious opportunity.”

The minor requires 20 credit hours for completion: 12 are obtained through required introductory courses, and eight are approved from a variety of courses, contingent on a student’s particular interests in fields ranging from theatrical performance to gospel singing.

For College third-year and Africana Studies major L. Joshua Jackson, the curricular expansion has mostly been a positive change. However, Jackson has concerns that the minor will plaster over pre-existing problems they see in Africana Studies, primarily concerns around professors who do not have tenure-track positions.

“My question would be: Are we taking care of these departments and what we have already that is so rich within Africana Studies — within the context of dance and Africana Studies or theater in Africana Studies?” Jackson said.

“This is a huge step for music and Africana Studies, but how are we taking care of what we already have?”

Still, Dean of the Conservatory William Quillen said that being able to draw on both the College’s Africana Studies program, as well as the Conservatory’s resources, is exactly what will make the minor such a special opportunity.

“In many regards, this program formalizes and recognizes pathways of study long-pursued by students in these areas, and lines of scholarly and creative inquiry of interest to faculty and staff throughout campus,” Quillen said in a Campus Digest email. “We are delighted to create this program in partnership with our colleagues in the College, and we look forward to the intellectual and artistic explorations it helps inspire.”

Jenkins says that he has already

Volume 151, Number 12

Alum Donates $1.6 Million to Jazz Department Walter Thomas-Patterson Conservatory Editor The Conservatory received a monumental $1.6 million donation from James R. and Susan Neumann to establish a new postdoctoral fellowship position in Jazz History. The soon-to-be announced fellow will have the chance to teach a slate of newly-offered classes in the Jazz department, as well as pursue individual research projects in conjunction with Oberlin students. The endowed position will begin in fall 2022 and will cycle every two years.

The donation from the Neumanns builds upon their prior gifts to the Jazz department over the past few decades.

In 2011, the Neumanns donated more than 100,000 artifacts documenting the history of jazz from its inception. Now, $100,000 of this most recent donation will go toward supporting the Nuemann Jazz Collection.

With the recent establishment of a minor in African American Music, as well as the hiring of a new professor in African American and African Diasporic Music, this donation helps cement the Conservatory’s push toward including marginalized music as part of a formal study in its curriculum.

“The Neumanns’ magnanimous gifts to Oberlin Conservatory reflect their ongoing, passionate dedication to preserve and propagate jazz as a true American art form, a notion that cer-

tainly resonates profoundly with the students and faculty of the Jazz department,” wrote Director and Associate Professor of Jazz Studies Jay Ashby.

According to Conservatory Library Head Deborah Campana, the donation will allow students to immerse themselves within the world of history, sound, and social movements that jazz encapsulates. As they navigate the terrain of this new subfield, students will have a Jazz History professor to serve as a guide, encouraging them to foster their own perspectives on key topics.

“Whether studying jazz, contemporary culture, or African-American history, students can experience a sort of material culture in sound and documents, and a newly-minted jazz historian will stimulate them to develop their own interpretations of the social and artistic developments evolving from the unique art form, jazz,” Campana said.

Campana extended her gratitude to the Neumanns and acknowledged how their support will extend long into the future.

“In the Neumann Collection, the Oberlin College and Conservatory were gifted the treasure trove of ardent collectors,” Campana said. “Now in providing the funds to take care of the collection and the endowment to support a postdoctoral fellowship, [James] and Susan have ensured that their passion lives on into the future.”

The work of historically marginalized composers will gain more attention in the curriculum for the new African American music minor. In clockwise order from top left: Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George; Jessie Montgomery; Roque Cordero; J. H. Kwabena Nketia; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor; and Florence Price.

Courtesy of Abe Frato, Photo Editor

heard from students who are excited about the new program.

“I think that interest in the minor is likely to drive the creation of new courses to satisfy its requirements,” Jenkins wrote. “Many students have written to me already to express their interest, so I am hopeful that many students will take advantage of this pathway and that their interest will nudge faculty towards creating new courses.”

Jenkins is also hopeful that the mi-

nor might be the start of creating more academic programs that more broadly represent historically Black music in the Conservatory curricula.

“There are many different directions this type of study can take,” he wrote.

“Curricular change is very slow, but it’s not unreasonable to imagine that over the course of years, this might be expanded into a major or some other type of program, given sufficient student interest.”

T h i s We e k

Performing Silent Film Scores

Squirrel Behavior Research

Photo by Abe Frato, Photoby Editor Photo Abe Frato

EEc coolo loggi eies soof ft

Writers and choreographers were ographers paired up to create paired a collaborative collaborative work on an element of nature. In the photo, College fourth-year photo, fourth-year Nora Mendez performs Mendez performsa adance dance inspired inspired by the the by origin origin of fire. of This This fire. project project was directed was directed

by Assisby tant Professor Assistant Profesof Dance sor of Dance Al EvanAl gelista and and Evangelista Assistant Professor Assistant Proof Comparative fessor of ComAmerican Ameriparative Studies and Gender, can Studies Sexand uality, and Gender, SexualiFeministand ty, Studies Feminist KJ Cerankowski.

Studies KJ Cerankowski.

Flour & Water

hthe eSSe elflf

Prin t

ing

In n an introinductory course troduction to on the technical scithe technical science ence conceptual and conceptual and art art of of 3Dprinting, printing, students students 3D were tasked taskedwith withbuilding builda 3D aprinter from a kit, ining 3D printer from safety measures, astalling kit, installing safety and re-programming the measures, and re-profirmware. the Onefirmware. student gramming built student a PET built bottlea PET recyOne cling machine that turned bottle recycling maplastic that bottles intoplas3D chine turned print filament, tic bottles intoand 3D anothprint er built a small functional filament, another built This project atrebuchet. small functional trewas instructed

by Direcbuchet.

This project was tor of Language Technolinstructed

by Director ogyLanguage and Academic Supof Technology port Abe Reshad.Support and Academic Abe Reshad.

Courtesy of Yvonne Yvonne Gay. Gay

Courtesy of Johnathan Clark

3D

Courtesy of Mike Crupi

College and and Conservatory College Conservatory students students developed developed musical muscores to enhance the viewing experience of silent sical scores to enhance the viewing experience of films, sisuch as Why Be Good and Blackmail.

Students stitched lent films, such as Why Be Good and Blackmail. Students together together short mood-setting musical musical modules modules known as stitched short mood-setting “photoplay” sheet music to create a final score.

On Feb.On 15 at known as “photoplay” sheet music to create a final score. the Birenbaum Performance Space, students hosted a live perFeb. 15 at the Birenbaum, students hosted a live performance formance of the scores they had composed.

Throughout this proof the scores they had composed. Throughout this process, stucess, students were dents were mentored mentored Rodney by Rodneyby Sauer, OC Sauer, OC ’85, direc’85, director of the tor of the Mont Alto Mont Alto Motion Motion OrPicture Picture Orchestra. chestra.

This projThis project was ect was overseen by overseen

by VisitVisiting Associate ing Associate ProProfessor of Musifessor of Musicolcology Emily Lauogy Emily Lauranc rance.

In an anoutdoor outdoorand andhands-on hands-on project project directed directed by

by Professor Professor of Biology of Biology Keith Keith Tarvin, Tarvin, students students performed research performed research on squirrel on squirrel “eavesdropping” “eavesdropping” behavior in Tappan behavior in Tappan Square.

Square.

Students Students observed observed squirrels behavior squirrel behavior andand recorded recorded nearby nearbybird birdcalls. calls. This project builds on Tarvin’s previous findings that gray squirrels listen to the chatter of birds to determine if the environment is safe.

In In this mouth-watering, mouth-watering, flour-dusted flour-dusted project, students studentslearned learned the the basics sicsofofworking working with with dough.

Students Students made made pizza, pizza, noodles, dumplings, dumplings,and andcrusts crusts for for pies. Baking ing can can be be aa highly highly precise form of artistic tistic expression, expression, such such as molding delicate lattice lattice pie crusts. crusts.College Collegesecond-year second-yearMarissa Marissa Kuriakos Kuriakos saidsays herher favorite favorite thing thing to make to make was was egg egg pasta pasta and and that she she loved loved folding pasta into different shapes while chatting with friends. This project was instructed by Associate Professor of Art History and East Asian Studies Bonnie Cheng and Chair of Religion Corey Barnes, OC ’98.

101

Courtesy Courtesy of of Yvonne Yvonne Gay. Gay

Papermaking and Book Art In this intensive studio class, students manufactured paper and books by hand.

Students scraped bark off of a paper mulberry tree, refined the plant material into paper, and then decorated it using a variety of global techniques. In the photo, College second-year Lanie Cheatham performs marbling technique with a glass dropper of blue paint. This project was instructed by artist Aimee Lee, OC ’99, with help from Special Collections and Preservation Librarian Ed Vermue.

Courtesy Courtesy of of Yvonne Yvonne Gay. Gay

Illustrated by Holly Yelton, Yelton Illustrator The Oberlin Review | February 25, 2022

Written Writtenby byWiley WileySmith, Smith,This This Week Week Editor 9

A r t s & C u ltu r e

February 25, 2022

ARTS & CULTURE Established 1874

Volume 151, Number 12

Olympus Fuses Greek Myth with Afro-Centered Histories

In College fourth-year Cyril Amanfo’s original musical Olympus, young people of color grapple with immortality and claim their power.

Erika Scharf College fourth-year Cyril Amanfo’s original musical Olympus premiered at the Irene and Alan Wurtzel Theater this Thursday. The plot takes place in a world that exists outside of white supremacy and aims to center Black joy and expression. Amanfo, who studies neuroscience and theater, originally conceived of the idea while feeling overwhelmed by news stories centering on Black trauma in recent years.

“Olympus is creating this world where Black people are immortal, not under the gaze of white supremacy,” Amanfo said. “The cast is entirely people of color. The biggest theme for me is that we are here, and we exist.

Olympus is a celebration. Not all Black art is Black trauma.”

Caroline Jackson-Smith, professor of Africana Studies and chair of Theater at the College, serves as the director of Olympus. She echoed Amanfo’s belief in cen-

tering Black stories in an uplifting way.

“Cyril and I both felt strongly that healing is important, Black joy is important, and the notion of communities and how they negotiate conflict and come together is important,” Jackson-Smith samid. “Ultimately, Cyril’s goal for this piece is to provide joy for the community.”

Olympus follows the story of young Black immortals navigating their power in a mythological world inspired by concepts from Greek mythology. The plot is multi-layered with its main strand focusing on the power struggle between the brothers Hephaestus and Ares, sons of Zeus.

“The story is about how these characters grapple with this change in power, and what it means to step into their own power and their glory, and to find the power within themselves,” Amanfo said.

As a whole, Olympus is nothing short of remarkable.

The entire cast and crew prove this through compelling acting, powerful vocals, infectious music, strong

Courtesy of John Seyfried

creative direction, and captivating set design. Most impressive is Amanfo’s own detailed work on the show.

As the writer, he presents an original, creative take on Greek mythology by weaving themes of family and hierarchy into the script and lyrics. As an actor, he lights up the stage by taking on the character of Apollo, the god of music. He also serves as the show’s choreographer, with each of his dances more enthralling than the last.

“Cyril is enormously creative, entrepreneurial, and visionary,” Jackson-Smith said. “I’ve been reading Olympus and seeing its workshops for the past two years and have been excited by how Greek mythologies can be transitioned into Afro-centered histories and cultural practices. The idea of younger people of color negotiating some of the kinds of conflict that is part of Greek mythology is really enlightening.”

Family, Amanfo said, is at the heart of the show.

“I wanted to create space for actors of color,” Amanfo See Olympus, page 13

CI@50 Celebrates 50 Years of Contact Improv at Oberlin Adrienne Sato Senior Staff Writer

This year marks the 50th anniversary of contact improvisation at Oberlin.

Courtesy of Mark Ostow

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Oberlin’s contact improvisation group, Critical Mass, will host a series of events this year, culminating in a five-day festival in July to celebrate the 50th anniversary of contact improvisation. Contact improv is a style of experimental dance that was developed at Oberlin in 1972 and later expanded into a globally renowned art form.

“Critical Mass: CI@50,” aims to honor the history and values of contact improvisation by encouraging students to explore the art form through events like an exhibit in the Allen Memorial Art Museum, a historical exhibit in the Mary Church Terrell Main Library, and a collection of essays about contact improv.

Through these events, Critical Mass hopes to draw people from around the world to come and exchange experiences and ideas about contact improv.

Contact improv was first taught in Oberlin in 1972 by choreographer Steve Paxton. During Winter Term, Pax-

ton created a piece called Magnesium, which showcased 12 Oberlin students as they experimented with the concepts of standing, falling, and contact through dance. This performance is widely credited as the first instance of a contact improv performance, and it sparked a movement that spread across the globe.

Contact improv combines aspects of dance, gymnastics, and aikido and experiments with the concepts of gravity, physics, and intentional falling throughout each performance. Although there are some elements that remain the same across performances, it is an art form that, for most of its existence, has escaped formal rules and definitions.

Rebecca Janovic, OC ’18, is the project coordinator for “Critical Mass: CI@50” and teaching assistant in Oberlin’s contact improvisation courses; she is passionate about introducing audiences to the abstract art form. “[Contact improv is] kind of undefinable in some senses,” Janovic said. “It’s a space to research into your own exSee Honoring, page 13

New Podcast on Pioneer of Aviation, Katharine Wright

Katharine Wright.

Courtesy of Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company Lily D’Amato Arts & Culture Editor In Her Own Wright, the new podcast hosted by award-winning author Harry Haskell, explores the extraordinary life of Katharine Wright, Oberlin Class of 1898. Broadcast on 91.3 WYSO, the public radio station in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the show uncovers Wright’s invaluable

contributions to society as a New Woman of the early 20th century. Her legacy has long been overshadowed by the triumphs of her older brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, the fathers of powered flight.

In each of the podcast’s three episodes, various scholars, historians, and family members offer illuminating insights into the life and times of the “Wright Sister,” casting her as an indispensable member of the Wright family and an invaluable force in the history of aviation. Though her story is often left unsung, her dauntless dedication to her brothers served as an essential factor in their heroic first flight. Dramatic readings of her letters are interspersed amidst captivating tales of her childhood, time at Oberlin, and her late-life romance with Kansas City journalist Henry J. Haskell, Class of 1896, whom she met at the College in the mid-1890s.

For the podcast’s host, who is Katharine Wright’s step-grandson, the story is especially personal. While most people are familiar with the Wright brothers and the Wrights’ impact on Ohio, very few know of Katharine’s.

“Katharine has always been part of that story, but usually very much in the background,” Haskell said. “I think that began to change around the time my mother made available for public inspection the letters that Katharine wrote to my grandfather when they were effectively courting before their marriage in 1926. They revealed a side of Katharine that hadn’t been fully appre-

ciated before, particularly with the new interest in women’s history and the new appreciation of women’s contributions to what had formerly been considered male domains. And, of course, aviation is a very prime example of that.”

When Katharine arrived at Oberlin in 1893, the College was one of very few co-educational institutions in the United States. Following the death of her mother in 1889, 15-year-old Katharine took control of the household and learned to move freely in a male-dominated landscape. At Oberlin, she again found herself surrounded by men; She studied Classics and gained confidence in her leadership capabilities, intellect, and worth. According to Judith Hallet, professor emerita of Classics at the University of Maryland, Katharine’s experience as a female classicist in Oberlin’s co-educational environment was rare and an essential asset to her future endeavors and travels.

“This co-education, male- and female- integrated world in which she moved was very different from what one would have found with most educated women,” Hallet said. “At that time, in the field of classics, women went to all-female secondary schools and then went on to all-female colleges. Some went to all-female graduate school, but it was very rare for women to get their PhDs at all. I would underscore that because she thrived in this co-educational environment, she was much better equipped to deal with the world of aviation and the world of her brothers. She never felt

monopolized or controlled by men.”

Through his research, Haskell found that Oberlin became Katharine’s safe haven. In the 1920s, decades after her graduation, she became the second woman to serve as a trustee of the College.

“Oberlin was, for Katharine, the foundation of her life,” Haskell said. “It reinforced an existing faith in progressiveness. She referred to Oberlin constantly for the rest of her life as a bedrock of values. By the time she returned to the College as trustee in the 1920s, she was a world celebrity. Wilbur and Orville had invented the airplane and they had conquered Europe with her help as their ambassador to the world. She had made a real name and a profile for herself.”

When Katharine began teaching Latin and history at Steele High School in Dayton, Ohio, her brothers ventured to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In 1903, after four years of experimentation, they became the first people to successfully man an airplane flight. Katharine taught until 1908, when a broken propeller sent one of her brother’s airplanes flying out of control. The crash killed the passenger and seriously injured Orville, who suffered broken ribs and a broken leg.

Katharine immediately went to his bedside at an army hospital in Virginia and never returned to teaching.

In 1909, after Orville recovered, Katharine traveled to Europe with him and Wilbur, quickly becoming a social marvel in comparison to her notoriously shy See In Her Own Wright, page 13

Student-Led Art Collective Rind Debuts Its First Gallery Show Jocelyn Blockinger Staff Writer Over Winter Term, Rind, a new student-run, community-based art collective, held its first show. Hoping to revitalize a community of artists on-campus, the event offered participants an exciting opportunity to connect with fellow artists and showcase their own work in an informal, intimate setting.

Rind is the brainchild of College fourth-year Milo Hume, who hopes the collective will achieve a future as a leaderless community. Hume was originally inspired by Los Angeles-based nun Corita Kent, who opened the doors of an abandoned warehouse to local artists in search of a community where they could connect while sharing their work.

Since his first year at Oberlin, Hume believes he has seen a shift in the College’s priorities; where the College used to highlight the student body’s thriving arts community, he believes it now emphasizes — both on social media and financially — the Athletics program.

“I started thinking about how we don’t really have an artist community here at Oberlin anymore,” Hume said. “Since COVID, they’ve all kind of been deflated.”

College Fourth-year artist Anna Scott, who showcased their work at Rind’s first event, shared that Rind — which was hosted in Hume’s on-campus house — was able to provide a casual and fun space for artists to appreciate each other’s work.

“I think Rind has the potential to be super special since it is definitely a more intimate approach to sharing and talking about work,” Scott said. “It’s kind of like a traditional gallery show and a dance party, artists showcasing their musical or performance-related talents in alternative spaces.”

While Rind is leaderless, Hume and Scott offered similar visions for the collective. Both artists emphasized the importance of creating a welcoming environment where artists and observers alike can be themselves.

The Oberlin Review | February 25, 2022

Photo by Katie Kunka, Production Manager “I would love for it to be an ever-evolving, ever-present organization at Oberlin that just makes itself available to students,” Hume said.

Since many of the artists who displayed work in the first Rind show are graduating this spring, Hume wants to get younger students involved. In doing so, he hopes to establish Rind as a campus mainstay. Hume wants shows to become regular social events.

“We want everyone to come,” Hume said. “I would

love for a [first-year] to say, ‘Oh I heard there’s a Rind show on North Cedar tonight. Let’s stop by,’ — that kind of thing.”

Rind hopes to expand its bandwidth to include students who are not necessarily enrolled in Studio Art courses at the College. Hume and Scott expressed interest in involving everyone from student chefs to performance artists to DJs, a reflection of Rind’s goal to provide a space for creatives of all kinds.

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A r t s & C u lt u r e

In Her Own Wright Podcast Follows the Triumphs of Katharine Wright, Oberlin Class of 1898 Continued from page 11 brothers. According to Richard Maurer, author of The Wright Sister: Katharine Wright and Her Famous Brothers, Katharine’s outgoing, spirited personality tremendously benefitted the Wright brother’s flight pursuits.

“After they became famous, particularly after they’ve gone to Europe to introduce their flying machine, they get much more attention than they had in the United States,” Maurer said in the second installment of In Her Own Wright. “They become known not just as the ‘Wright brothers’ but as the ‘Wright brothers and the Wright sister.’ The three of them were thought of as a team. In France, there was speculation in the press that Katharine may have done the calculations for the machine or done some of the technical work.”

While they were overseas, Katharine often represented her brothers in public, speaking to foreign dignitaries like Alfonso XIII, the King of Spain, and Prince

ON THE RECORD

side when she died in 1929.

In 1931, Henry J. Haskell gifted the Katharine Wright Haskell fountain to the Allen Memorial Art Museum, which still stands outside the museum today. The younger Haskell, who has spent the past ten years poring over his grandparents’ letters, visits the monument often. Still, he feels the Haskell-Wright legacy is lost on some of the College’s newer students.

“All these people walk by every day, and they say ‘Katharine Wright Haskell? Is she a Wright? Is she a Haskell? What’s her story?” Haskell said. “I don’t know if anybody ever looks at that anymore. But it struck me that if you look out from the Allen across Tappan Square you’ll see the Wright Physics Laboratory that Orville donated to the school. … Our family was able to fund the installation of a plaque. The podcast and the plaque, those were some first steps [toward reconnecting the Wright family and Oberlin].”

Indigo De Souza, Indie Songwriter

Wiley Smith This Week Editor Geri Mishra North Carolina-based indie singer-songwriter Indigo De Souza will perform at the Cat in the Cream on Feb. 28 alongside student-band Jane Hobson and the Hobgoblins. Since 2018, De Souza has released two studio albums: I Love My Mom (2018) and Any Shape You Take (2021).

Like many of the tracks on her sophomore record, the leading single “Hold U” explores queer joy in order to grapple with the nature of love in a year of isolation and virulent political instability.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I am really drawn to your lyrics. You have this range of direct and earnest statements to the lyricism of prose poetry. What does your lyric writing process look like?

I don’t really have a super special-looking process. I mostly just write when I have something to say. It’s normally just a very natural process that is kind of mysterious to me, because I’m not thinking a lot when I’m doing it. I’m just following some kind of feeling and the words just string together.

I learned about songwriting mostly from this person that I dated for four years. He is just an incredible songwriter, and he showed me a lot of underground music that really inspired the style of writing that I use. I just try to be, like, very honest and open with my lyrics, too. And that just always feels right.

My lyrics sometimes come when I’m in a moment of extreme emotion, but I think usually it comes from a place of calm. It can’t happen when I’m in a heightened place and feel really hyperactive. It’s more like once I’ve settled into an emotion, when I feel kind of heavy and still, or reflecting on the emotion and thinking about how it impacted and changed me. That’s when I am able to say something about it.

Your mom designed your cover art, which is so incredibly special. How did that come about?

Well, she is a really incredible artist.

She has hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and just random mediums of artwork that she’s made that nobody has ever seen because she is a manic creator.

Like, she is constantly creating things because she needs to.

That’s something that I don’t think

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Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia. French newspapers became fascinated by her charm and wit; in many ways she came to signify a more human side of the Wright brothers. When the siblings returned to the United States, they were international celebrities. They became lionized as the pioneers of aviation, and although there was still an impression that Katharine played a significant role in the construction of the airplane, she denied these rumors.

In the years following Wilbur’s death in 1912 and the selling of the Wright Company in 1915, Orville became increasingly possessive of Katharine. In 1926, when Katharine wed Haskell on Oberlin College grounds, Orville refused to attend the wedding. The last episode of In Her Own Wright, titled “The Hazards of Love,” explores the dissolution of their relationship. Although he stalwartly refused to contact her when he discovered she had contracted pneumonia, he was at her bed-

she will ever be able to give up. She’s always thinking about the next thing she wants to create. For example, before we left on tour, she gave my whole band these jumpsuits; that she sewed us. And she had made probably like 13 of these jumpsuits, she’s just been honing in this design. That’s just how she’s been my whole life. She’s always thinking of something, some kind of project or some kind of invention, then she starts making it and can’t stop for a little while.

Then she starts on something else.

She’s had multiple restaurants as well. She’s incredibly creative with food and really good at cooking. She is wildly active in making things in general and I wanted her to be seen for her artwork. I realized that the cover art was the perfect way for people to notice her artwork, because she doesn’t really put it out in any way. I guess my hope is that someday, some publications will want to do a piece on her and her artwork because of the number of album covers that she’s painted for us. She’s just finished the third album cover recently. I’m hoping to have her paint all of them.

Does the grocery store image on the album cover of Any Shape You Take have any significance?

Well, it didn’t. When I thought of it, I just thought of it. I’ve always just thought grocery stores were insane, and I’ve always felt really anxious in them, so I think that imagery just came to me naturally. We were in the process of getting ready to put out the album, then the pandemic happened. I remember being in a grocery store, and thinking that it was strange that grocery stores now looked the way that the cover had portrayed them. Like, in the moment when there was no toilet paper. I just remember, like, standing in that empty aisle thinking, “This looks just like the painting.”

Do you feel the soul of the I Love My Mom album is different from Any Shape You Take?

Yeah, for sure. I think that every album is very different or has a very different soul. I changed a lot as a person in between those two albums. I shifted out of a lot of pretty bad spaces into a lot of new and healthy spaces, and I felt stronger and clear-minded when I made the next album. It feels like I Love My Mom came from the most angsty, depressed state that I’ll probably ever be in my whole life. Because I think I am constantly learning how to be more and

Indigo De Souza Courtesy of Charlie Boss more stable; I don’t really think I’ll be able to go backwards to that space. Any Shape You Take just felt like I was more grounded when I made it. I recorded another album recently and it was amazing how different it felt. Yeah, it’s just wild — the way that you change as a person really affects the way that you record.

If I were to show someone one song of yours, which would you want me to show them?

I would probably want to share “Real Pain.” I think it is a good example of the kind of emotion that I draw attention to.

I don’t know, I just feel like that song is very representative of the kind of energy that I bring into recording. The idea for that song also felt very important. It felt very important to share that with the world, and I think that if someone heard that song as the only song they’ve ever heard from me, hopefully they would be interested in learning more.

“Real Pain” is the one with the crowdsourced screams, right? How did you get the idea for crowdsourcing that?

I have lots of ideas constantly. I remember that one popping into my head

because the song was about a collective idea of pain and how to move through pain by feeling it all. It was the middle of the pandemic, and I was kind of struck by the idea that there was a lot of collective pain happening at that time and that I could represent it by getting people to send voice bytes of themselves. I could hear it in my head, the cacophony of many people’s voices.

Okay, my final question: who are your favorite artists right now?

Really, my favorite artists are the bands I’m taking on tour. We’re taking our friends Horse Jumper of Love and Friendship with us. The singer of Friendship is Dan Wriggins, who also has a solo project, and he is, in my opinion, maybe the best songwriter I’ve ever heard. At least, of this time. His lyrics are absolutely nuts. Every time I hear them, I want to cry because I can’t believe that it came out of anyone and that they exist in the world. And it blows my mind that he doesn’t have more listeners than he does; he’s pretty under the radar right now. He just deserves so much more attention.

Honoring Contact Improvisation’s 50th Anniversary at Oberlin Continued from page 10

Contact improvisation is an abstract style of experimental dance that flourished at Oberlin in the 1970s.

Courtesy of Oberlin College Department of Dance perience of touch, and not just physical touch — although that is part of it … but the degree to which we want to touch and be touched.”

Ann Cooper Albright, chair of the Dance department and project director for “Critical Mass: CI@50,” describes contact improv as an experiment with weight and a shared point of contact between two people. “[There is a] moment of mutual weight interdependence,” Albright said. “That point of contact is inherently unstable. …

So in order to survive the improvisation of that point of contact moving through space and across the body, you have to train in a way that incorporates martial arts skills, dance skills, [and] improvisational skills, as well as some aspects of meditative skills.”

She also noted that, along with being an art form, contact improv can be applied to our daily lives as well.

“It’s a form that for me is exciting to do, but I also think that it has kind

of metaphysical implications about all kinds of ways of being in the world,” Albright said. “How do you sustain yourself when the world is falling apart?

Well, you get used to disorientation and learn how to move with it. That’s an amazing skill.”

Although all forms of contact improv have some shared aspects of touch and partnering, there has never been any official requirements or definitions placed on the art form. Rather, the practitioners of the dance style around the world each have their own unique understanding of the style and how it is performed.

“It’s always geographically unique and also [unique to] who’s teaching it and whoever’s body it’s coming through,” Janovic said. “The flavor here [at Oberlin] is very fierce, and it’s very physical.

It’s committed, and that’s upheld by being within an academic structure.”

Albright, who has been teaching contact improvisation at Oberlin for over 30 years, noted that Oberlin’s style of con-

tact improv has also changed over time.

“When I got here in the ’90s, students were way more willing to throw themselves around,” she said. “They were much more interested in taking physical risks. I think students [today] are a little more fearful and a little more fragile in their bodies, so they have to be coaxed to come out of that a little bit.”

The year-long celebration of contact improv at Oberlin will draw practitioners from all over the world, sparking the transfer and sharing of ideas and practices. The festival will be comprised of a variety of different events throughout the year, some of which have already occurred or are ongoing.

Over Winter Term, as part of this celebration, Oberlin hosted Slovenian artist Jurij Konjar, who partnered with the Dance department to host a series of workshops teaching students the skills needed for contact improv and leading them to a final show in which the students re-enacted Paxton’s original contact improvisation concept, Magnesium.

College second-year Katy Masterman took part in the contact improvisation Winter Term project. Before the project, they didn’t know much about contact improvisation, but through Winter Term, they came to appreciate the form.

“Jurij was an excellent teacher, and everyone there was very supportive,” Masterman said.

They also noted that through their experience with contact improv, they have learned a lot about certain aspects of dance and this particular form.

“I think I have a better relationship with falling,” they said. “We did in class a lot of work in learning how to fall safely and different roles and techniques in how to do that. I feel like now I’m not so scared of it in a dance sense.”

Also part of the celebration is Collective Gestures, an exhibit in the AMAM’s

Ripin Gallery that explores the history of experimental dance in Oberlin, focusing particularly on contact improv.

The exhibit features art from Yoko Ono, Theresa Antonellis, John Cage, Robert Motherwell, and other artists, as well as historical photographs and audio and visual representations of contact improv. This exhibit will be on display from Jan. 18—July 17.

Additionally, on May 6, the Mary Church Terrell Main Library will premiere an exhibit detailing the life and work of Nancy Stark Smith, OC ’73, one of the first practitioners of contact improv who was vital in the spread of contact improv across the world. This exhibit will run through July 31.

“Critical Mass: CI@50” will culminate in a five-day festival in July which will include a variety of different workshops, performances, and writings, all with the aim to commemorate the roots of contact improv in Oberlin. Hoping to foster meaningful discussions on the intersections of activism and art, the festival will run July 7–11, and event registration will open on March 22.

Although there are specific skills needed for some parts of contact improv, Janovic maintains that anyone who wants to get involved in this dance style shouldn’t be scared away. The Dance department is hosting in-person contact improv sessions, or jams, every Sunday in the Warner Main Studio, and they host pre-jam crash courses in contact improv techniques for beginners.

“A jam space is always open for new and old and anyone interested,” Janovic said. “It’s not a closed container. We continue to welcome new people. Anyone curious [can] come throughout the semester, we always have jams Sunday from 4–6 [p.m.]. … If you want to be dancing, you can.”

Original Student Musical Olympus Celebrates Black Joy Continued from page 10

Olympus is an innovative new musical that draws on hip-hop, rap, and Afrobeat influences to challenge preconceived understandings of Greek mythology.

Courtesy of John Seyfried said. “I wanted to make them feel welcome, seen, and give them a family. The real show is the people on that stage and this family that we’ve created.”

Caris Gross, a College third-year who is part of the show’s ensemble, is excited about participating in a show that amplifies Black students and students of color on-campus.

“While Oberlin and its Theater department are progressive in many ways, I’ve been disappointed by the slow route to supporting and amplifying students of color, and Olympus is a massive celebration of us and The Oberlin Review | February 25, 2022

our abilities,” Gross wrote in an email to the Review. “As a multiracial (half-Indian and half-white) student and artist, this production has allowed me to embrace my identities fully without feeling any need to erase a part of myself, and to feel 100 percent comfortable in our rehearsal room. It’s also beautiful to see the cast come together as a family in the face of many obstacles and support one another no matter what.”

College third-year Fafa Nutor plays the character of Aphrodite and relished the opportunity to re-envision Ancient Greek myths.

“To play a character who does not have to exist in a world where anti-Blackness reigns is so freeing,” Nutor said. “It makes me imagine a world in which Black young people can grow up without that weight.”

The music, written by Amanfo, Max Addae, OC ’21, and double-degree fifth-year Mark Ligonde, is far from typical Broadway show tunes. The show’s soundtracks are infused with elements of gospel, hip-hop, rap, R&B, and Afrobeat.

“Olympus is all types of music from the Black experiences,” Amanfo said. “It’s creating music from our own lived experiences. I didn’t want to give basic show tunes because I don’t relate to that — that’s not me. Mark, Max, and I infused ourselves in this world to make music.”

Amanfo is not new to creating musicals. In his second year he wrote, directed, choreographed, and starred in his original work Equilibrium through Oberlin Student Theater Association. Olympus, though, finds itself in a faculty-directed time slot because of its visionary concept and the immense dedication it received from the cast and crew.

“We don’t usually have students work in the faculty-directed slot, but we really have not ever seen a group of students who have put this much time into developing a work,” Jackson-Smith said. “This work has a vast vision. I think the department really wanted to honor Cyril’s vision of work and it seemed bringing it into the bigger theater was the best thing to do.”

Amanfo says he’s very proud of the work and the stage the musical is at right now, but he’s also eager to take it to the next level.

“I am absolutely thrilled with what we have right now; however, I’m hungry,” Amanfo said. “I have a goal and a dream, and that is to get this show on Broadway.

Not because of the Broadway check, not because of the publicity, but because I want to tell this story to as many people as I possibly can.”

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S p or t s

Beijing Olympics: Double Standards Between White and Black Athletes Zoe Kuzbari Sports Editor Over the years, the Olympics Games have seen numerous controversies regarding participating athletes.

The latest scandal at the Beijing Olympics occurred this past month and surrounds 15 year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva and her failed drug test.

Last summer, Sha’Carri Richardson was banned from competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana. Richardson, the favorite for a gold medal in the women’s 100-meter dash, received a one-month suspension, meaning she could no longer compete in the games. Simone Biles, who was the favorite to win gold in the women’s all-around gymnastics in 2020, took time off while at the Games for her mental health after getting the “twisties” mid-competition. All athletes received an extreme amount of media attention criticizing their actions, but they shouldn’t be to blame.

It was revealed that Valieva failed a drug test administered in December and had one banned drug — trimetazidine — in her system as well as two that are not banned but increase heart performance, L-carnitine and Hypoxen. Despite these test results, which were divulged after the Olympics started in February, Valieva was allowed to continue competing.

The young athlete was considered a “breakout star” and is credited with helping the Russian Olympic Committee take home a gold medal in the figure skating team event.

Many individual Russian figure skaters are only able to compete in one year of Olympic Games due to the high-pressure nature of the sport. After they compete, they are effectively discarded and never qualify for the team again. All the criticism and judgment that comes from being an athlete in the public eye brings to light an important question: how can individual competitors be held accountable for their actions, while also placing the appropriate blame on systems responsible?

Public scrutiny needs to fixate on the Olympics, not a child. To place all of the blame on a 15-year-old would let the institution off the hook and allow similar controversies to continue happening. The way Richardson and Biles were attacked and punished by the public over the summer is appalling. Now, Valieva is being condemned by the entire world when she is still a minor. Who do we hold responsible for her mistakes? Can we even call them her mistakes if she’s only 15 and most likely doesn’t have full autonomy when it comes to her medical decisions?

President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach released a statement soon after Valieva’s final individual skating event, during which she completely broke down and stumbled throughout the entire routine.

According to a Washington Post article, Bach was troubled with the way things played out for the athlete and was “unsettled” to see the way that her entourage of coaches, sports officials, trainers, and doctors treated her post-competition.

“When I afterwards saw how she was received by her closest entourage, with … what appeared to be a tremendous coldness, it was chilling to see this,” he said to the Washington Post. “Rather than giving her comfort, rather than try to help her, you could feel this chilling atmosphere, this distance, and if you were interpreting the body language, it was worse because it was some kind of dismissive gesture I saw there on TV.” Seeing this treatment of a child did not give Bach confidence in Valieva’s support system.

“How to deal, how to address, how to treat a minor athlete at the age of 15, I can only wish for her that she has the support of her family, the support of her friends and the support of her people who help her over this extremely difficult situation,” he said.

Despite the harsh treatment Valieva faced from her entourage, Richardson clearly felt that the 15-year-old was receiving better treatment from the IOC than she

had. Through a series of Twitter posts, she implied that this double standard was due to race.

“Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mines? My mother died and I can’t run and was also favored to place top 3. The only difference I see is I’m a black young lady,” she posted on Feb. 14 on Twitter. Later that day she tweeted, “It’s all in the skin.”

The IOC’s decision to allow Valieva to compete when they didn’t offer the same opportunity to Richardson wasn’t a surprise to many. This past summer, Olympic and WNBA athlete Sue Bird announced her partnership with a CBD brand in an Instagram post which has since been deleted. The same day, Richardson was suspended for having THC in her system while Bird faced no consequences. Back in July 2021, I asked a question in an article I wrote about Richardson’s ban, which has still gone unanswered: how is it fair that a Black athlete gets banned from the Olympics for using THC, a cannabinoid, while a white athlete gets paid to use and post about CBD, which is also a cannabinoid?

It also comes as no surprise that the statement the IOC would later release during a press conference would be extremely hypocritical. Director General for the Court of Arbitration for Sport for the Olympics, Matthieu Reeb, said suspension from Olympic competition would cause the 15-year-old “irreparable harm,” but this was not considered when the Committee suspended Richardson for smoking marijuana to cope with the loss of her mother.

Olympic athletes inspire younger generations all around the world. Richardson and Valieva both have unmatched talent, but it’s clear that they lack support. When considering Valieva’s and Richardson’s cases, it’s important to remember that athletes in the public eye should not be reprimanded the way that they have been. In order to better support Olympians, the Olympics needs to refine their policies to protect young athletes and reform the institutional biases harming Black athletes.

Oberlin Athletics Celebrates Black History Month Zoë Martin del Campo Contributing Sports Editor The Oberlin College Athletics Department has hosted a variety of events in coordination with the StudentAthlete Advisory Committee and Black Student-Athlete Group to celebrate the diversity and experience of Black student-athletes. This has included social media campaigns such as interviewing Black student-athlete alumni on what Black History Month means to them and featuring current Black student-athletes on the Oberlin College Athletics Instagram page.

Last Tuesday, the groups organized a pledge drive to raise funds for the Black Women in Sport Foundation during the North Coast Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals game against Kenyon College. BWSF is a nonprofit organization that works to increase the involvement of Black women and girls in athletics, coaching, and sports administration. They do this through the development and management of grassroots-level outreach sports programs.

Before the tournament, the Athletics Department read a diversity, equality, and inclusion statement written by SAAC members. Second-year volleyball player and SAAC Secretary Taylor Gwynne outlined the process of writing the statement and emphasized the importance of recognizing athletics events as safe spaces. “[Third-year volleyball player] Zoe Kuzbari wrote the DEI Statement for the conference and got feedback from the other Oberlin SAAC officers, reps, and the other North Coast Athletic Conference SAAC reps,” Gwynne wrote in an email to the Review. “Each school was given the freedom to use the statement as they see fit. At Oberlin, the SAAC reps for each team voted for the statement to be read before every game.

We hope the inclusion of this statement before competition will help foster a more inclusive and respectful environment for all the players, coaches, students, and spectators that are attending the games.”

Assistant Director of Athletics Communications Amanda Phillips added that she and Senior Associate Director of Athletics Creg Jantz wanted to make this Black History Month action-oriented, celebrating the

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A packed crowd in Philips gym holds up their hands in support of women’s basketball.

accomplishments of Black student-athletes while also raising money for organizations that support Black communities.

“We were thinking of different ways that we could celebrate Black History Month in the Athletics [department] while also taking action,” Phillips said.

“We didn’t want to focus on just posting on social media or just sharing history. These things are also very important but we wanted to have some action behind our words. So we decided to have events where we could actually raise some money that could go to supporting communities.”

The Athletics Communications department coordinated with BSAG to choose organizations to donate to, selecting groups that focused on community-level work such as BWSF. “Being able to support a local organization is very exciting,” Phillips said. “We involved SAAC in the organizing process and we planned the event on BSAG’s behalf — they knew everything that was happening

Courtesy of V Dagnino

and helped make suggestions and recommendations, but did not have to worry about setup. It’s always great to be able to work with student groups, and it’s what makes Oberlin so special. Oberlin involves the students almost as much as they involve anybody in administration. While this event was an idea that came from the Communications department, it was flourished and nurtured by the student-athletes.”

In addition to the pledge drive, SAAC and BSAG are planning another Black History Month event.

“The Black History Month Basketball Tournament run by SAAC and BSAG is coming up soon as well,” Gwynne wrote. “The tournament will take place on Sunday, March 6 starting at 11 a.m. Teams are encouraged to sign up at the link in SAAC’s instagram bio.”

Proceeds from this event will be donated to Black Girls Smile, a nonprofit organization that aims to empower the mental well-being of Black women.

Annie Payne and Bette Imhoff: Women’s Lacrosse Captains, Inseparable Friends IN THE LOCKER ROOM

This week, the Review sat down with College fourth-years Annie Payne and Bette Imhoff to reflect on their past four years playing lacrosse at Oberlin. Both Payne and Imhoff have had successful collegiate athletic careers despite only having played two full seasons.

The duo is hopeful for this upcoming one, which is also Payne’s first season with a fully-healed ACL. Payne, who plays attack, is a Politics and Psychology major; Imhoff, who plays midfield, is majoring in Psychology and minoring in Africana Studies.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Andrea Nguyen When did you start playing Lacrosse?

What made you decide to play at the collegiate level?

AP: I started playing lacrosse when I was in second grade and there weren’t many girls playing at all in my area.

I was the only girl who played at my school, but my brother played, and I wanted to do everything that he was doing. I kept going after he quit. I played club and varsity all through high school, and then I just couldn’t really imagine stopping. I started looking at schools where I could play that were also really academically-oriented.

Oberlin fit the bill.

BI: I didn’t start playing lacrosse until I was a freshman in high school.

The summer going into my senior year of high school, I realized I didn’t want to end my athletic career. My dad was the one that pushed me to pursue lacrosse at the collegiate level. He played lacrosse in college, and whenever he got the chance he would tell me that it was an incredible experience that he wouldn’t change for the world.

This is the last season for both of you and Annie’s first season since getting injured. What are you looking forward to for your first game next week and this season in general?

AP: We’re playing Baldwin Wallace University for our very first game, and that was our very first game my freshman year. That was the day after I tore my ACL — my second ACL tear — so I’m looking forward to redoing that.

It feels like a fresh start. Our team’s looking really good, so I’m just looking

Courtesy of Amanda Phillips

Annie Payne (left) and Bette Imhoff (right).

forward to having a good season.

BI: I’m excited to finally compete with our entire team and show the North Coast Athletic Conference how much we’ve improved since we last played. I might be overly confident, but I believe we could win the NCAC tournament and maybe even go far in the NCAA tournament. The first-year class brings many strengths, and our returning players have only gotten better. It’s going to be the best season in Oberlin’s history.

What’s the team culture like this year? What’s your approach to being a captain for this year’s group?

AP: I think most of the team is already pretty disciplined. We have a higher level of play this year than we’ve had in years past. I think keeping that discipline and that consistency and also keeping the positivity at the same time — those are our primary goals with this team.

BI: From the first day of practice, I’ve been happily surprised by our skill level and how well we work as a team.

The team culture is supportive and competitive, and we make each other better players, students, and people. I have so much confidence that our team

will do well this season. So as a captain, I will be disciplined and driven because I want us to succeed. However, I want to keep morale high, uplift my teammates, and make sure that we have fun.

Do you have a favorite memory from the past four years as a collegiate athlete?

AP: The only games that I played were in my sophomore year — before COVID hit — and our very last game before we got sent home was against John Carroll University. We weren’t supposed to win, but we ended up beating them. It was a really close game, and we didn’t know it was our last game, but finding that out right after made it even more special. It was a great game.

BI: When we beat Hope College on a buzzer-beater goal. I believe we were down seven goals at the half, and we came back in the last five minutes of the game. I happened to have the buzzer-beater shot, and I still remember the crowd going crazy and being tackled by teammates. That’s definitely a memory I won’t forget.

If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?

AP: Oh, not have COVID hit! Skip a couple knee surgeries … I mean, besides those things, it’s been pretty great. Those are the most obvious.

BI: While I’ve been at Oberlin, I’ve been asked to play a few other sports, so I think I would be a dual-sport athlete if I had the chance. Not only would it be excellent training for the offseason, but the relationships you make on a team are irreplaceable and special.

What advice would you give to your underclassmen about navigating college?

AP: Don’t take it too seriously.

Nothing is permanent. You don’t have to have everything figured out the moment you step on campus because nothing is gonna turn out how you think it’s going to anyway, and that’s okay. Get out of your comfort zone because this is the time to try new things and take risks.

BI: I would tell them to take advantage of Oberlin’s resources and make the most of their time here because time really flies by. Lacrosse is a significant aspect of our College experience, but don’t let that be the only thing.

Try new things, and join different programs and groups.

Men’s Lacrosse Opens Season with Win Continued from page 16

off with a huge goal less than 20 seconds into the game, and we were able to feed off of that giant energy boost,” he said. “Another long-pole goal by [fourth-year] Matthew Huang in the second quarter kept the energy level high and pumped up the crowd of Oberlin parents.”

The rest of the Oberlin goals were scored by fourth-year Michael Muldoon and first-years Sam Ryu and Niko Maheras, who each scored once.

Both Decker and Cha emphasized the role of defense in the victory.

“Our defense played with more grit and heart than the opposition,” Cha said. “I would say that their toughness has led to our success on the offensive side.”

Decker also noted third-year goalie Eugene Kang’s efforts in the win, racking up 22 saves.

Polak, who coached the Yeomen to a 2–1 record in a shortened season in 2021, is looking to continue finding success in a full slate of games this year.

“I came to Oberlin to compete at a high level, and The Oberlin Review | February 25, 2022

I expect the program to do so,” Polak said. “We like to have fun and joke around at practice, but we know when it’s time to be serious and get to work. Our coaching staff has put a strong emphasis on player accountability, and we expect our players to be doing the right things on and off the field. We understand that we won’t win every game but feel that winning can only increase our players’ overall experience.”

Decker, who is motivated to get the most out of his final season of College lacrosse, believes that Polak and the rest of the coaching staff can help make that happen.

“Coach Polak, Coach O’Neill, and Coach Mumford all bring an experienced, intense, energetic coaching style to the team,” Decker said. “They know when to hype the team up and also when to give us a reality check and tell us what we are doing wrong. The offense that Coach Polak has implemented gives us a lot more freedom to dodge when we see a weakness in the defense while also providing the necessary structure to run successful plays to pick apart any

opponent.”

The Yeomen, who play again Saturday at Albion College, are taking a number of measures to prepare for another victory.

“We are looking for our team to be able to watch the film from last week’s game and work on correcting our mistakes during this week of practice,” Polak said. “This will allow us to be as prepared as possible to compete at a high level against Albion this Saturday.”

Cha believes the offense can play more collectively and Decker is confident this can happen through improved stickwork and taking care of the ball more often during attacking opportunities.

Albion, which is 2–0 with decisive victories over Hanover College and Otterbein University, will also be ready to compete.

“This Albion team probably still has a sour taste in their mouth from our victory last time we played them in the 2019–20 season, so I’m sure they will come out fighting,” Decker said.

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February 25, 2022

SPORTS Established 1874

Volume 151, Number 12

Men’s Lacrosse Yeowomen Look to Build on Successes in Semifinals of NCAC Defeats Chatham in First Game of Season

Men’s lacrosse player Aidan Johnson on Bailey Field.

Courtesy of GoYeo

John Elrod Contributing Sports Editor The women’s basketball team poses for a team picture in Philips gym.

River Schiff Senior Staff Writer This past Tuesday’s win against Kenyon College marks the Oberlin women’s basketball team’s 21st win, solidifying its impressive record of 21–3 in the 2021–22 season, and matching a school record. The Yeowomen, who are currently ranked second in the conference and seventh in the region, take on Ohio Wesleyan University, ranked third in the conference, in the semifinals of the NCAC tournament this Friday.

Second-year Gina Lombard, who was an NCAC Player of the Week this past November, cited the coaches as a big part of the team’s success.

“It’s so exciting to learn from coaches who have accomplished what we want to do,” she said. “I chose Oberlin because I loved that they were trying to turn the program around, which is a cool thing to be a part of. The idea of building a program up is really appealing.”

Head Coach Stephany Dunmyer came to Oberlin from Virginia Wesleyan University, where she earned Old Dominion Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honor three times and led the Marlins to the NCAA tournament in 2015. She also assisted Division I Indiana State University in earning the regular season conference title.

Dunmyer, an accomplished coach, reflected on the impact that her own coaches had on her and her desire to instill that same leadership and trust in her own team.

“I knew I wanted to coach from my sophomore year of college,” Dunmyer said. “I had an amazing opportunity to be head coach at Virginia Wesleyan, but after their leadership had changed I looked elsewhere. When the job at Oberlin opened up, Natalie [Winkelfoos] and mine’s philosophies for the program at Oberlin connected.”

Despite confidence in the culture that the Athletic Director Natalie Winklefoos desires to create, there were still some uncertainties as to how the team would approach the season. However, those fears were soon put to rest when the new athletes showed up for the program.

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Courtesy of GoYeo

“Not having a competitive season due to the pandemic was hard, but it allowed us to focus on recruiting and the culture we wanted to create,” Dunmyer said. “We have 11 kids who have never played collegiate basketball, so there were definitely some unknowns. But I go back to our first game, which was at home against Alma [College], where Gina led with 29 points. The successes from that game truly made us believe.”

The team’s strong emphasis on trust and collaboration has contributed to its successes just as much as individual talents, and the team members’ shared goals are top of mind.

“We know what we’re capable of, and though we are not as experienced, we proved we can compete with everyone,” Lombard said. “Being 12 and 1 at home and going into the playoffs with a home court advantage, we are confident in our ability to win a championship. We’re so focused on continuing to build the history. We are never satisfied.”

First-year Camille Zinaich, who earned January NCAC Player of the Week and DIII Hoops Team of the Week accolades, wrote in an email to the Review that her expectations were not formulated by past successes, or by a motivation to prove herself in the face of a changing program.

“I didn’t know how much I would play, or what my role would be on the team, but whatever it was going to be I was gonna give it my all,” she wrote.

“We have so much talent and so many players that are willing to give it their all. This team is a family and we want to make history at Oberlin. This team wants a lot of things, whether it’s our team goals or individual goals, and we are gonna achieve all of them.”

As a member of a team making history, Zinaich looks to the semifinals with a new fire, ready to face a conference that didn’t acknowledge the team’s full potential.

“In past years, Oberlin wasn’t a top team and people didn’t take us seriously, but ever since our new culture, people know who we are now,” Zinaich wrote.

Tip-off is tonight at 7:30 p.m. at DePauw University, where the Yeowomen aim to best the third-seeded OWU Bishops.

The Oberlin men’s lacrosse team defeated Chatham University 10–7 in Pittsburgh last in their first fame of the season last Saturday. The Yeomen led the whole game, fighting off numerous Chatham comeback attempts, ending the game with a win for Coach Ryan Polak to kick off his first full season as the team’s head coach.

“Starting off with a win is always nice; we feel that it allows the team to see that we are doing the right things and trending in a positive direction,” Polak said. “It also gives the team some confidence going into our next game.”

Polak feels that the older players, who had limited opportunities to compete in recent years due to canceled and shortened seasons, returned to competition smoothly.

“With some of our experienced players having not played for two years, it was nice to see them take the field and be able to compete,” Polak said. “Being away from the game for so long, it’s important to get in-game experience to knock off some rust.”

Third-year Max Cha, who had not gotten a chance to play in a game since 2020, readjusted well, scoring two goals.

“It felt pretty good to get back into the swing of things,” Cha said. “I feel like it has been a very long offseason to improve my game, and coming back to play after two years has been long awaited.”

Polak also feels the younger players who had not yet had a chance to compete at the collegiate level gained much needed experience that will help the team find success as the season progresses.

Fourth-year Tom Decker, who had two goals and two assists in the game, was impressed with the team’s ability to make smart plays and hold off Chatham’s comeback attempts. He also believes the team’s ability to take advantage of its opponent’s defensive strategies helped them find success.

“Chatham was quick to slide during our dodges, so when we were able to move the ball around the outside quickly and take advantage of poor approaches from their defense, we were able to capitalize,” Decker said. “We were also able to convert on important man-up situations.”

Decker felt the team’s early goals played an important role in setting the tone for victory.

“Senior defenseman Kiernan Stone started things See Men’s, pg 15