October 04, 2019

The Oberlin Review October 4, 2019

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 5

Lever Press Seeks to Promote Accessible Digital Scholarship Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief

very clear that this policy will be enforced going forward.”

Raimondo denies the claim that the College administration has not previously upheld the provision in OSCA’s rent contract concerning coop meal cancellations.

“The College follows its contract with OSCA,” Raimondo wrote in an email to the Review. “This contract provision is designed to prevent student hunger. Because it is a contractual agreement, the College and OSCA must always follow this plan.”

According to Raimondo, the current contractual provision regarding canceled meals has been in effect for at least three years.

“OSCA is expected to notify the College if it cancels meals so that the College can add meal swipes for OSCA members,” Raimondo wrote.

“Our shared goal is to ensure all students have access to food if there is a kitchen closure.”

Every Monday, the OSCA Fab 5 and the OSCA president meet with Assistant Dean of Business Operations Jessica Bayer-Crissman, Projects Director Scott Callow, and Assistant Vice President of Facilities Operations Jim Kleiber.

Donovan specified that, prior to these meetings, OSCA was already aware of the meal cancellations and motivated to solve them.

“We were getting a lot of stuff about canceled meals from members who were just concerned about their co-op, [and] not entirely happy with how the year was starting,” Donovan said. “I think that when it came to our attention from the College side, I wouldn’t say that [was what] motivated us to do anything about it because we were very much motivated before and upset.”

The provision in OSCA’s rent contract states that the College will provide and pay for meals for co-op members in the event that an OSCA kitchen is closed due to an equipment issue for which the College is responsible. This happened last year when the Hobart dishwasher in Pyle Inn co-op was inoperable for a brief period.

A group of 57 colleges and universities spread throughout the country have collaborated to create Lever Press, an open-access publishing platform that aims to make high-quality, liberal arts-focused digital scholarship more accessible. Oberlin College is among the press’ partner institutions and Root Director of Libraries Azariah Smith sits on the oversight committee.

To date, Lever Press has released four books, with several more on the horizon — the press recently released a catalog revealing a number of titles slated for publication in 2020.

According to Hudson-Ward, Lever Press was originally envisioned a few years ago by a group of 80 library directors from selective liberal arts colleges.

“The group came together and said, ‘We have to figure out a way to have high-quality open-access material available for our students, and also to provide another publishing pipeline for talented faculty,” Hudson-Ward said. This need was identified in response to larger presses that seek to profit from scholarly research.

Currently, Lever Press comprises several committees that draw from faculty and staff at partner institutions.

Significant among them are the press’ editorial board, which sets a vision for its content, the oversight committee, which provides strategic guidance, and the operations group, which handles production logistics.

Associate Professor of History at Haverford College Darin Hayton is the current chair of Lever Press’ editorial board. He described the press’ work as having the potential to fundamentally change the way that scholars and students alike interact with research produced by liberal arts institutions.

“This press is a radical intervention in scholarly publishing,” Hayton said. “Here’s an open-access press that doesn’t charge author’s fees, doesn’t charge any reader fees. … That’s astounding. And we do it with the full rigor of standard academic publishing.”

Lisa Trivedi is an associate professor of history at Hamilton College and former chair of the editorial board, which she continues to sit on. She shared that, while Lever Press doesn’t focus on a particular genre of content, it does seek work that fits the press’ overall vision.

“We are not interested in hyper-specializing in a particular field,” Trivedi said. “It’s typical for academic presses to have particular strengths, and what we see as really important is that liberal arts focus. … So we’re looking for manuscripts that are communicated in a way that is broadly accessible.”

According to Beth Bouloukos, director of the Amherst College Press and Lever Press’ senior acquisitions editor, finding content for a press depends heavily on networking.

“The acquiring editor is like a baseball scout in the sense that we go out and talk to the rising stars and the established people (the scholars, in our case) to populate our teams (the book lists),” Bouloukos wrote in an email to the Review. “Acquisitions editors at university presses shepherd manuscripts through peer review and board approval.”

Bouloukos added that Lever Press shares the same model as the Amherst College Press, which she directs — the key difference is Lever Press’ consortium approach to funding.

For Hudson-Ward, the consortium model represents one of Lever Press’ greatest strengths.

See OSCA, page 4

See Liberal Arts, page 2

Members of the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association prepare a meal in the kitchen of Keep co-op. Canceled meals due to a turbulent interim period have raised concerns for OSCA members over ongoing negotations with the College administration.

Photo by Chris Schmucki, Photo Editor

OSCA Negotiations Stable Despite Confusion Katherine MacPhail Editor-in-Chief Ongoing negotiations between the College and the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association have not been affected by recent meal cancellations, according to Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo and OSCA President and College third-year Gio Donovan. These negotiations were sparked by the Academic and Administrative Program Review, which recommended that the College and OSCA work together to craft a sustainable financial relationship.

In an email to Keep co-op members, the Dining Loose Ends Coordinators of Keep Cottage, College third-year Zoe Iatrids and College second-year Sophie Falvey, sent a quote attributed to the OSCA “Fab 5” that expressed concern over canceled meals during the interim period. Interim is the election period at the start of the semester before schedules for cook and crew shifts have been permanently set, making canceled meals a more common occurrence during that time. All of OSCA is out of interim at the time of writing.

“These issues [of meal cancellations] are being talked about among high-level college administrators,” read the quote in the email, which was sent Sept. 23. “This perception is massively harmful to us as an organization and threatens our credibility and reputation with them.”

The “Fab 5” consists of two all-OSCA operations managers, two cleanliness and maintenance coordinators, and the food safety advisor.

“Per OSCA’s rent contract with the College, OSCA is supposed to buy meal swipes for every member of a co-op when a meal is canceled,” the email read. “This means using your co-op’s budget to buy swipes for every single member, every canceled meal. Since canceled meals haven’t been a serious problem in the past, this section of the rent contract hasn’t been enforced by the College.

From our meeting this morning, the College was

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 Despite Zoning Challenges, Lorain Street Food Truck Opens

05 Lever Press Represents Lever for Change

08–09 You Can Get THAT At The Local?

10 Secrets from Seventeen Years of Long Island Night

03 City Council Candidates Engage With Voters

07 Religious Beliefs Exploited for Personal Agendas

16 Varsity Athletes Find Teammates and Friends in Former Competitors

The Oberlin Review | October 4, 2019

13 New Food Columnists Rate Campus Dining Hall Desserts

16 Oberlin Welcomes Trustee-Student 5k Fun Run Tradition

oberlinreview.org facebook.com/oberlinreview TWITTER @oberlinreview INSTAGRAM @ocreview

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Ne w s

Despite Zoning Challenges, Lorain Street Food Truck Opens

Steel Magnolia, a food truck and catering service serving Caribbean and Southern-style cuisine, is located at 408 E. Lorain Street.

Photo by Daniel Firebanks

Anisa Curry Vietze News Editor After over a year of searching, Steel Magnolia — the only food truck currently located in Oberlin — has found a home on 408 E. Lorain St., near IGA. The truck serves a mix of soul food and traditional Caribbean cuisine and was opened by Oberlin native Shontae Jackson who runs it with her mom, Sarah Jackson, and 17-year-old daughter, Tanzania.

Sarah says that seeing her daughter succeed has been incredibly fulfilling.

“Ever since she was a little girl, it’s been her dream,” Sarah said. “She always talked about, ‘I want my business and I want me a food truck.’ And you know what I’m so proud about? I thank God that He kept me here to see her dream and to help her work on her dream.”

Shontae says it took a lot of planning and organization to make this dream come to fruition, especially because Oberlin has heavy regulations on where food trucks are allowed city limits. These regulations

were passed by City Council in 2015 and don’t allow food trucks to operate on the street or any public parks.

“The city’s not gonna let them park on the street and they’re not going to let them park in a park, like most other communities do,” Planning Development Director Carrie Handy explained. “Like Elyria — from what I understand — they’ll let people park on the street downtown with their food trucks. We won’t allow that. Unless it’s a special event where the street’s blocked off.”

Additionally, if food trucks want to operate on private property, they must get a conditional use permit. To get this permit the area in question must be 50 feet away from any residential zoning district.

Shontae originally came to the planning committee with several potential spots in downtown Oberlin, but none fit the requirements.

“We have a lot of residential zoning, so it’s really hard to find somewhere that’s going to be 100 feet away,” Handy said.

The 2015 ordinance was passed by City Council in response to concerns from local

restaurants.

“It was an issue of fairness,” City Council President Bryan Burgess, who was also on council in 2015, said. “There was the notion that brick and mortar businesses pay property taxes and food trucks don’t. And so even though food trucks do pay sales tax, sales tax is remitted to the county; the city did not get sales tax. The brick and mortar businesses … thought it was profoundly unfair that we would permit food trucks to operate essentially tax free.”

Food trucks were not prominent in Oberlin at the time, rather, the concern was sparked by one food truck in particular.

“If I remember correctly, there was somebody that — they were students at Oberlin College and they bought a food truck. ... I think that’s what started the whole debate,” Handy said. “If I remember right, it was like gourmet grilled cheese.”

Despite these regulations, Steel Magnolia was recently able to find a home about a mile away from the College, on a lot that previously housed a car wash. This location is different than Jackson’s original plan of being situated in downtown Oberlin — still, the food truck has found success in its current location.

“I’m where I’m supposed to be because I’m filling the need,” Shontae said. “You know, if this wasn’t working out, or if it was nobody knew about me, or if the college students [weren’t] coming down here and stuff — that would be different. [But] we have all these businesses around us who come for lunch. ... You know, Tappan Square is the ideal. But I kind of liked not having to go through politics.”

While Shontae understands the fear some restaurants might have, she believes that — rather than taking a competitive approach — more variety is a good thing.

“Some of the restaurant owners, from what I hear, [have] the concern of food trucks being able to move about and interfering with the business of the brick

and mortars,” Shontae added. “I respect the brick and mortars, but I respect the food truck community too. … There’s enough taste buds and different flavors for everyone. Oberlin may be small, but it’s ever-changing.”

For Shontae, the ability to run her own business while also being a single mom to her three kids is invaluable.

“I am a single mother, so it took some loss, because it takes a lot of work to want to be an entrepreneur, to want to own your own, and it takes a lot of time,” Shontae said. “I’m okay with everything because guess what? My children are with me. They bring their board games [into the truck]. That’s what it was all about. I always wanted my family to be with me.”

From making banana bread by herself at eight years old, to learning family soul food recipes in her mom’s kitchen, to watching her father grow vegetables in their backyard, food and the community that comes with it has always been integral to Shontae’s life.

When Shontae learned traditional Caribbean recipes from a close friend 12 years ago, she expanded what she was able to do with food. The food truck is a result of this collaboration between these Caribbean flavors and her mom’s southern recipes.

“Ever since I’ve been nine years old I was a cook,” Sarah said. “And, see, I love cooking, but I cook soul food. Now, I don’t do the food [my mom] cooks — like the Caribbean food and all that. So what we do sometimes [is] we throw it in together and it just flows.”

Even with the obstacles that Steel Magnolia faced to get where it is, Shontae wouldn’t trade where she is for anything.

“I grew up in Oberlin and Oberlin — to me — it’s just one of those special places,” Shontae said. “It wasn’t easy to bring my business right through the door, but it was worth the wait.”

Liberal Arts Consortium Challenges Major Academic Presses Continued from page 1

“Small liberal arts colleges oftentimes cannot afford to have presses producing at [the same level as large universities],” Hudson-Ward said. “We wanted to figure out a way to expedite a high-quality, openaccess publishing engine that we all collectively could contribute to financially, so not one institution would be solely burdened with all of the startup and maintenance and management costs.”

Due to these potential financial limitations, Lever Press needed to find a sustainable location for its work to be hosted — and it did in Fulcrum, a digital publishing platform that was created at the University of Michigan in 2015. Charles Watkinson, Michigan’s associate university librarian for publishing and director of the University of Michigan Press, described how Fulcrum supports Lever Press’ work. “[The] publishing is really about helping authors who are doing digital scholarship to create a preservable, discoverable, and accessible publication that has the form of a book, but actually has multimedia embedded,

The Oberlin r eview Oct. 4, 2019 Volume 148, Number 5 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch.

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3-D models embedded, interactive maps, and things like that,” Watkinson said. He added that Fulcrum’s funding has largely come from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Hudson-Ward argued that Michigan’s support is indicative of Lever Press’ broad-based appeal.

“It’s interesting, you wouldn’t think [Michigan] would have a dog in this race — they are big, gigantic Michigan — but the fact that they partnered with us on this shows how universal open access is in the context of libraries,” she said. “We don’t silo ourselves. We’re all supporting each other around this important work.”

Both Hudson-Ward and Hayton see Lever Press’ mission to publish broadly accessible digital scholarship as having a strong social justice element that should appeal to students.

“We’re now in this war with these major corporate entities that are seeking to continuously monetize the experience of information,” Hudson-Ward said. “We’re fighting that battle in a different way — [your] voices are going to matter now, because as the years go on and we have fewer and fewer corporations that are controlling information, we need you all to say [that] it is important

Editors-in-Chief

Nathan Carpenter Katherine MacPhail Managing Editor Ananya Gupta News Editors Anisa Curry Vietze Katie Lucey Opinions Editor Jackie Brant This Week Editor Lily Jones Arts Editors Kate Fishman Aly Fogel Sports Editor Jane Agler Cont. Sports Editors Khalid McCalla Zoë Martin del Campo Photo Editors Mallika Pandey Chris Schmucki Senior Staff Writers Carson Dowhan Ella Moxley Imani Badillo

Layout Editors

that people have access to information.”

Trivedi also shared that October is Open Access Month, giving students, faculty, and staff further reason to appreciate the work that librarians have put into creating the Lever Press platform.

“The libraries are basically repositioning themselves as not only producers of scholarship, and not only curators of scholarship, but also as preservers of knowledge,” Trivedi said. “The University Press began at Oxford and Cambridge as a means of making sure that [every] important new discovery was available and preserved for generations to come. And the way that publishing was commercialized in the last 30 or 40 years really chipped away at that critical relationship between scholarship, teaching, and the library. I think the librarians are really doing an extraordinary service for all of us.”

While Lever Press is young and using an untested model, many — including Hudson-Ward — are optimistic about its future.

“We’re definitely stepping out on faith, but we’re excited about the fact that we are also asserting the importance of the liberal arts,” she said.

Emma Jane Haas Lila Michaels Parker Shatkin Nico Vickers Ads Manager Jabree Hason Web Manager Sheng Kao Production Manager Devyn Malouf Production Staff Gigi Ewing Christo Hays Jimmy Holland Olive Hwang Kushagra Kar Allison Schmitt Ivy Fernandez Smith Jaimie Yue

Corrections: To submit a correction, email managingeditor@ oberlinreview.org.

Toni Morrison Honored at “Bench By the Road” Ceremony

Security Notebook Thursday, Sept. 26, 2019 8:46 a.m. Campus Safety officers were requested to transport a student from East Hall to the Mercy Allen Hospital emergency room.

7:20 p.m. Officers were requested to assist an ill student at Noah Hall. The student was transported to the Mercy Allen Hospital emergency room.

Friday, Sept. 27, 2019 6:34 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the third floor of East Hall. An electrician responded and changed a faulty detector. The alarm was reset with no further problems.

7:38 p.m. A student reported that they left their laptop in a locker at the Conservatory over the summer. When they returned to the locker, the laptop was missing. The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 7000, silver in color, and valued at approximately $700.

Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019

Campus and community members gathered at the Toni Morrison Society’s “Bench by the Road” to celebrate the life and work of the late Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison last Friday. Attendants honored Morrison, who grew up in Lorain, Ohio, by reading passages from the author’s seminal works, The Bluest Eye and Beloved.

“The tribute was wonderfully warm and solemn — exactly the atmosphere you’d want to honor an amazing writer and intellectual who is now transitioning into our cultural ancestor,” Associate Professor of English Gillian Johns, who organized the tribute, wrote in an email to the Review. “And I was heartened to see faculty and students from both English and Africana Studies gather together because Morrison has been an extraordinarily significant presence to both our departments here at Oberlin and our disciplines at large.”

Morrison maintained a close relationship with the College and gave commencement speeches in 2009 and 2012. Her work continues to inspire Oberlin students in their academic and creative pursuits.

“Toni Morrison’s legacy lives through each of the dedicated Black artists on Oberlin’s campus,” College secondyear Nasirah Fair wrote in a message to the Review. “Oberlin is special to her, this land was her stomping ground and where she held roots. Her light and spirit is evident in the wisdom of professors … as well as all of the talented Black students who grace this campus and share their work, especially Black women. We have gained an ancestor to guide us and influence our artistry, and we will continue to try and honor her memory.”

Text by Katie Lucey, News Editor Photo courtesy of Oberlin College Office of Communications

City Council Candidates Engage With Voters Anisa Curry Vietze News Editor Rachel Serna-Brown Eleven local candidates running for Oberlin City Council met with voters at The First Church in Oberlin for Tuesday’s Community Candidates Night. The event was organized by Oberlin’s chapter of the League of Women Voters with the goal of giving voters the opportunity to ask the candidates questions about local issues.

In previous years, Community Candidates Night has showcased candidates for other offices in addition to City Council, such as Ohio State Senate, the county auditor’s office, and local judicial spots. College Science Librarian Alison Ricker — who is a member of Oberlin’s LWV and helped organize the event — explained why this year’s event only focused on council.

“The only candidates who spoke were the 11 candidates running for City Council,” Ricker said. “They’re the only people who [spoke] because the other candidates were essentially unopposed.”

In response to voter concern over housing availability, many candidates proposed financial incentives for local businesses and commercial development opportunities in order to secure better housing — especially for lowincome workers.

“We should similarly court new housing projects that provide accessible, eco-friendly options for all persons who would like to live in Oberlin,” wrote City Council candidate Mary Price in a message to the Review.

City Council incumbent Kristin Peterson has served three terms and is running for re-election. Peterson agreed that housing was a big issue on voters’ minds during the event.

“The two topics brought up most often during the conversations I had were about the perceived need for economic development and citizen participation in our governmental process,” wrote Peterson in an email to the Review. “The City has had an economic development The Oberlin Review | October 4, 2019

position filled in the past, full time for many years and most recently part time. If elected, I plan to bring that conversation to the table.”

City Council candidate Peter Comings felt that some voters are concerned that City Council’s focus on environmental concerns come at the cost of looking into social issues.

“I support the broad goals of the city’s Climate Action Plan, but I worry that residents feel that local social issues are being given lower priority,” Comings wrote in a message to the Review. “More than once, I heard someone say that some residents felt disenfranchised in that regard.”

Voters also voiced concern regarding a perceived lack of communication from council. Currently, the main communication between City Council and the Oberlin community are bimonthly council meetings.

“We need community deliberation where all voices are equal and all voices are heard, where we listen to one another with empathy and understanding and think together about how best to address our issues,” wrote council candidate and Director of Libraries Emeritus Ray English in an email to the Review.

City Council incumbent Kelley Singleton was surprised that the issue of town/gown relations was not a concern voiced by the voters he talked to. If re-elected, he hopes to reach out to Student Senate and create more conversations directly with students.

“We desperately need to work on the relationship between the City and the College,” Singleton wrote in an email to the Review. “One cannot exist without the other.”

Ricker hopes the event will help encourage discourse between local government and the community and wants voters to continue engagement throughout the year.

“I wish more people would understand that City Council is composed of people who really care a lot about the city and they do try their best,” Ricker said.

Voters can voice their concerns by taking to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 5. The deadline to register to vote is Monday, Oct. 7.

3:34 p.m. Officers were advised of a possible injured student near the Student Health Center. The student, who injured their toe, was located and transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

4:27 p.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle from outside of Kade House. The bicycle is a Cannondale Quick, blue in color, men’s 21-speed, and valued at $650. The Oberlin Police Department was also notified.

5:46 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm in the Fairchild Co-op kitchen. A sudden release of heat from an open oven activated the detector. There was no fire or smoke. The alarm was silenced and reset.

8:10 p.m. A student reported their bookbag was either lost or stolen from their Union Street Housing Unit. The black Under Armour bookbag contained a MacBook in a light blue case, a charger, schoolwork, and football gear.

11:51 p.m. The Oberlin Police Department received a loud party complaint at Tank Hall. Officers responded. Attendees were dispersed from the area, and the party was shut down.

Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019 12:09 a.m. The Oberlin Police Department received a loud party complaint on Elm Street. Attendees inside and outside the house were dispersed from the unauthorized party, and the music was turned off.

1:12 a.m. Campus Safety staff observed individuals on the roof of Dascomb Hall. Officers responded, located and identified the students, and warned them of the dangers of being on the roof.

1:12 a.m. Officers were requested at Barrows Hall to assist with a student ill from alcohol consumption.

An ambulance was requested to attend to the student, who fell in and out of consciousness. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

9:06 p.m. Individuals running on Kahn Track reported that they heard someone yelling. Officers responded to the area and spoke with one person on the soccer field, who said they were just sitting there and hadn’t heard anything.

Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019 10:07 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student feeling ill in the Allen Memorial Art Museum.

The student was seated and given fluids. The student declined further medical treatment. After a short time, the student returned to their class.

11:29 a.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle, a Trek Dual Sport Hybrid, gray in color, 21-speed, and valued at $600. The bike was locked to a bike rack on the south side of Burton Hall.

1:13 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm on the second floor of Fairchild House. The alarm was activated by smoke from burnt toast. The area was cleared, and the alarm was reset.

3:00 p.m. Officers were requested to assist with a transport for a faculty member from Mercy Allen Hospital to their residence in Oberlin.

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Ne New wss OFF THE CUFF

Jessa Klotz New, OC ’01, Slow Train, The Local Co-Founder

Jessa Klotz New Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor

Jessa Klotz New, OC ’01, co-founded Slow Train Café in 2010 and The Local Coffee and Tea in 2012 with her husband, Oberlin’s Head Men’s Soccer Coach Blake New, and Zach Tesler, OC ’06. Born in Rochester, New York, she received a graduate degree from Ashland University certifying her to teach third grade. A few years later, she decided to make a life and career change. She moved back to Oberlin to settle down with her family and tackle a new challenge. She is now a mother of two daughters and is passionate about making Slow Train and The Local welcoming to all Obies.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Alana Blumenstein After graduating from Oberlin, what inspired you to open Slow Train?

So, with Slow Train, I actually was not a huge coffee drinker at all. I didn’t start drinking coffee until we had our second kid. I was like, “Okay, I need to start drinking coffee.” But I had no discernible taste. And, you know, no preference. It was like just caffeine,

whatever it is. My husband is the men’s soccer coach at the College, and one of his players is from Seattle, WA. His name is Zach Tesler (OC ’06.) They kind of had this running joke, like, “What do you want to do when you graduate?” Zach was like, “I really want to open a coffee shop in Oberlin.” And I was like, “All right, well, if you’re serious,” because at that time, I was staying home with our kids.

I had gone through a master’s program for education, decided I didn’t want to teach. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. It was sort of this bizarre combination of factors.

It wasn’t like it was a lifelong dream to open a coffee shop. But I wanted to do something in the community because I had been a student, and I wasn’t a student, and I hadn’t been a student for a long time. I wanted to find a different identity in the town, and I wasn’t really sure how to do that. This opportunity came up… The more I thought [about] it, I [realized,] we need a community space, with really good coffee. Whatever we serve, coffee, bakery, food, it needs to be really good, or it’s not worth doing. But [we also need] also a spot where people who aren’t associated with the college or aren’t any more associated with the College [could gather].

After successfully running Slow Train for two years, what inspired you to open The Local?

As soon as we felt like we had stuff under our belt, we listened to our friends in the community, which I guess ended up being a good thing.

But they were like, “You have to open another one. It’s always full. The lines are too long, we want another one.” And I was like, “That’s absurd. Like, this town cannot support two independent coffee shops. That’s crazy.” But Zach

and Blake are way more [risk-taking]. ... And so, Zach went on a hunt for a spot. Our friends, Jason and Matt [Adelman], who own The Feve, had just bought the building that was the laundromat that is now the bike shop and us. They took it from this hideous, hideous thing to this gorgeous building. … And then Jason was on a hunt to find a tenant. As soon as he found out that we were even considering it, he was like, “Oh, we have to do this. We’ll make it work, we’ll help you with the build out, it’ll be great.” I had no say after that. Everyone was so excited. I was like, “Oh my God, but then we have to run it.” But we all seem to balance each other out in terms of logic and rash decisions in a way that works. So, when we decided to go through with it, we knew a lot more at that point.

bagel shops right in my little town.

When I got here, and I was like, “Oh my God, these aren’t bagels. This is gross. This is bread.” And so, we were like, what if we found really good bagels. There was a shop in Cleveland — not the one we’re currently using.

They’re amazing, obviously, as well.

But the first one we started with, basically, they were from New York, and they started this little bagel shop 20 years ago, and it’s gone through the family. And so, we brought them in. As soon as we did that, we found a way to drag people in here. Then we almost couldn’t keep up with the bagels. So yeah, I don’t know if it’s just a matter of making a ton of mistakes, but then making just the right amount of good decisions along the way. But it’s turned out to be a really great adventure.

In the beginning, did you face any obstacles?

When we opened [The Local,] nobody came, which was really bizarre.

When we opened Slow Train, it was like we didn’t even say we were opening and there were just lines. Then we opened The Local, and no one came, and we were like, “Uh oh, did we make a huge mistake?” I thought, “Okay, well we opened almost in the wintertime, it’s in the basement, people don’t totally know about it, you can’t really see it from the street. We’re really going to have to actually try harder with this one.” We were really lucky [with Slow Train]. And then with [The Local,] we were like, all right, if we’re going to make this work, we gotta find a way to drag people in there. And that’s where the bagels came in.

So, I’m from upstate New York, and Zach and I are both huge bagel fans. I don’t know if it’s because we’re both Jewish. We just crave bagels. Where I’m from, there was like three stellar

Between Slow Train and The Local, do you personally have a favorite?

I have a favorite sometimes, like in the summer, I want to be [in Slow Train]. In the winter, I want to be in the cave at The Local, you know, where I can’t see the gray sky.

What did you love most about being an Obie?

Honestly, I think what I loved most was [that] I proved to myself that I could be independent. Growing up, I had never gone away for the summer to camp, which a lot of my friends did.

And I had never really been apart from my family for very long. When I came out here, my first year, I was super nervous. It took me a good semester to acclimate. It’s hard at 18 to come out to somewhere that you’re not familiar with, and continue living and take care of yourself and do well in school and make sure you’re hydrating. It’s a lot.

But once I made that transition, I kind of felt like I could do anything.

College, OSCA To Release Joint Negotiation Update Continued from page 1

“To my knowledge, the [provision] ... is the same,” Donovan said. “This interim was a bit more rough, [which is] something that has come up in our weekly facilities meetings.”

The provision also requires co-ops to pay for College-provided meals when a meal is canceled due to an operational issue that OSCA is responsible for, such as when a head cook calls in sick. In the instance that a kitchen is closed due to a circumstance that is beyond either OSCA or the College’s control, the two parties are required to split the cost of the co-op members’ meals.

OSCA pays a reduced business price, which for the 2019-2020 academic year amounts to $7.50 per meal. The regular price of lunches and dinners is $10 at Stevenson Dining Hall this year.

“This represents the first increase since the [2015]-2016 [reduced business rate] rate was set at $5.50 based on increased costs,” Vice President for Finance Administration Rebecca Vasquez-Skillings

wrote in an email to the Review.

OSCA Financial Manager Linda Doan commented on how this cost affects co-ops.

“Each co-op has a budget for expenditures, and all expenses are tracked weekly,” Doan wrote in an email to the Review. “Of course, if the co-op in question has to purchase meal swipes for its members, the co-op treasurer logs the expense amount. We want all of our students to have meals.

All co-op expenses and income affect the bottom line as with any financial report.”

College second-year Mikael Frey, one of Keep’s kitchen coordinators, believes that there could be better ways for OSCA members to get food in the event of a meal cancellation than through CDS. “I’ve heard people concerned about [food access who] cannot use CDS,” Frey said. “Those are people who have their meals swipe for CDS and cannot use CDS — because of dietary restrictions, because of various food anxieties, because of Stevie’s crosscontamination issues, et cetera.”

Fairchild co-op developed a strategy that helps

them improve meal consistency.

“One thing that I think is really great is that Fairkid actually started a reserved head cooks list, which is really awesome that they have people that get trained that aren’t [one of the normally scheduled head cooks],” Donovan said.

“They’re just someone who was head cook-trained, ServSafe-certified, that’s like, ‘Oh, [if ] this meal gets canceled, I can head cook. … I think that’s something that I would love to see in other co-ops.”

Donovan and Raimondo both stated that the concerns that have come up at the start of this semester have not affected the ongoing negotiations between OSCA and the College.

“None of this has any impact on negotiations,” Donovan said. “… Right now, we’re focusing on the bigger picture of OSCA and the College’s relationship and figuring out a way that we can both be sustainable.”

Raimondo stated that there will be an update on the ongoing negotiations between the College and OSCA sent out to students in the next week.

Ohio Legislative Update

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Rob Portman

Jim Jordan

U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) and U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced a bipartisan bill titled The Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act of 2019 to Senate on Monday. The bill would amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 by requiring federal agencies to publish budget justifications online in a centralized location in addition to publishing these justifications on each individual agency website.

U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) tweeted Thursday that, “The facts we learned today from Ambassador Volker undercut the salacious narrative that [Representative Adam Schiff (DCA)] is using to sell his impeachment ambitions.”

In his tweet, Jordan referenced reports that House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff member knew of complaints surrounding the phone call between President Donald Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky prior to the official release of the whistleblower report.

Sherrod Brown U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) met with auto industry workers this week in Toledo, Ohio. The United Autoworkers Union members went on strike earlier this month to protest General Motors’ employment policies. Brown gave a speech on the Senate floor on Sept. 17 that indicated his support of the workers.

opinions October 4, 2019

Established 1874

Carmen Ambar and Bobby Fuller: Contrasting Two Presidencies Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Board Editors-in-ChiEf

Nathan Carpenter

Katherine MacPhail

Managing Editor Ananya Gupta

Editor’s note: This column is part of a series that will focus on Oberlin’s history as a town and an institution. The series will be published regularly throughout the fall semester.

“The time is ripe for a new look at the fundamental propositions and the fundamental building blocks that underlie a liberal arts college education.”

So said Robert Fuller, Oberlin’s 10th president, in his 1970 opening address to the Oberlin community held in Finney Chapel. But it could have been said just as easily by President Carmen Twillie Ambar, Oberlin’s 15th president, who came to Oberlin in 2017 with a similar vision — to respond to broader shifts in higher education by reforming the Oberlin experience.

According to Geoffrey Blodgett, a longtime History professor who had been on the faculty for a decade by the time Fuller’s tenure began, Oberlin’s trustees expected Fuller — just 33 years old at the time — to shake things up from the beginning.

“Fuller arrived with a mandate from those who chose him to launch a radical restructuring of Oberlin’s educational and governance arrangements — to bring the college in line with the needs of students as it emerged from the 1960s,” Blodgett wrote in an essay included in his collection titled Oberlin History.

As Blodgett references, the transition from the ’60s into the ’70s was a particularly formative and traumatic time on campus. Against the backdrop of civil rights activism, protests against the Vietnam War, and emerging advocacy for racial, sexual, and gender rights on college campuses and in cities across the country, Oberlin students frequently found themselves grappling with their role in an unjust world.

Then, in the span of two weeks near the end of spring 1970, the very first Earth Day and the horrific shootings at Kent State University took place, as well as a significant anti-war protest and occupation of Cox Administration Building. Oberlin shut down for the rest of the semester, and many felt that reforms were needed in order for the institution to move forward.

Enter Robert Fuller. Fuller’s time in Cox certainly resulted in a number of attempted reforms, some successful, others not. His was also the shortest presidency in Oberlin history, lasting only about three-and-a-half years.

One of Fuller’s first major initiatives as president was forming the controversial Education Commission. The purpose of EdCom, as it came to be known, was to “review and rethink education at Oberlin,” according to the Nov. 13, 1973 issue of The Oberlin Review.

This task is not dissimilar from the charge given to the steering committee of the Academic and Administrative Program Review by Ambar and the Board of Trustees in September 2018. Like EdCom, the AAPR — which concluded its work this past spring — spent about a year evaluating and strategizing, before ultimately submitting its recommendations to the president and board.

Both EdCom and the AAPR, at different points in their processes, also faced charges of elitism from the campus community, who felt as though the goals and priorities of each review were out of touch with campus concerns. In the case of EdCom, the pushback largely came from faculty; for the AAPR, it was students and union leaders that expressed concern about compensation for hourly workers.

According to Review coverage of Fuller’s resignation, EdCom’s recommendations, like the AAPR’s, were far-reaching.

“Its final report, released a year later, called for drastic changes in the structure of the College, including a full-year modular calendar, tuition deceleration, redesigning of courses, and granting of credit for traditionally non-academic activities,” the Review published on Nov. 13, 1973 (“Fuller Analysis: Why Did He Resign?”).

However, where the AAPR succeeded in generating broad-based campus support for nearly all of its proposals — earning nearly 80 percent support from Oberlin’s faculty and a unanimous endorsement by the Board of Trustees — EdCom faced significant resistance, especially from members of the faculty.

Some parts of Fuller’s vision were successful, though, such as the elimination See AAPR, page 6 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 | October 4, 2019

Volume 148, Number 5

opinions Editor Jackie Brant

Lever Press Represents Lever for Change The current generation of college students faces many existential challenges. For good reason, the fight against climate change has recently received significant attention in the national media and in this publication, but it is not the sole crisis that we must contend with. Another fight that has intensified in recent years is the one over access to information, particularly as threats to net neutrality and sources of publicly available information have mounted.

For many colleges and universities around the country, October is Open Access Month. In recognition of this occasion, the Review chose to spotlight Lever Press, an important digital scholarship initiative led by a consortium of liberal arts colleges, including Oberlin. A feature story about Lever Press is on page 1 of this issue (“Lever Press Seeks to Promote Accessible Digital Scholarship”).

In many ways, Lever Press is taking a stand on important questions on digital access in the 21st century — particularly as those questions pertain to the work of liberal arts colleges like Oberlin. This stand is important for a number of reasons. First, as Azariah Smith Root Director of Libraries Alexia Hudson-Ward, who sits on Lever Press’ oversight committee, is right to argue, battles over the public accessibility of reasoned, well-researched digital scholarship have a strong social justice component. Over the last several decades, larger presses have moved towards publishing models that make important scholarship more commercialized and less accessible.

If this trend continues, it will compromise the mission of institutions of higher learning in a significant way. Already, so much important scholarly work is kept behind paywalls and protected by other means of social and economic exclusion — such practices only heighten the ivory tower and lessen the impact of scholars at Oberlin and elsewhere.

Perhaps more importantly, this commercialized approach to academic scholarship loses sight of how colleges and universities are capable of producing the kind of knowledge and innovative solutions that can push the world forward in concrete, progressive ways. Part of Lever Press’ work is to chart a path for colleges and universities to once again fulfill this core part of their missions.

The second, connected statement that Lever Press makes as an organization is around the essential value of a place like Oberlin. In a time when the landscape of higher education is rapidly shifting, small liberal arts colleges need to find a way to set themselves apart from the competition; Oberlin, for example, needs to make the case for why a high school student should pick them over, say, the much-cheaper honors college at their local state school.

Students, faculty, and staff at Oberlin and peer institutions already understand that there is something fundamental about the liberal arts approach that contributes to a deeper, more nuanced, and more critical worldview. Such institutions certainly aren’t the only place to develop these perspectives, but they’re an excellent option. Still, many of them — and Oberlin has certainly been guilty of this — have floundered in attempting to articulate why exactly this is the case, and the time for small liberal arts schools to passively rest on their laurels expired a long time ago.

Lever Press reminds us of the kind of language we can use to describe what makes a place like Oberlin special, because its very mission articulates the way in which it attempts to set itself apart from presses operated out of large, research-intensive universities. The press’ consortium approach is reminiscent of the style of leadership found in an Oberlin co-op, and all members appear to have fully bought in — a remarkable level of consensus.

Further, Lever Press’ editorial board’s stated goal is to publish work that carries with it a liberal arts ethos — not a pretentious snobbishness, but a commitment to producing scholarship with the potential to make a tangible impact, and to making sure that scholarship is shared with anybody who wants to read it. That spirit of sharing and communal support is certainly familiar to anyone who has engaged in scholarship at a liberal arts institution, and it’s exciting to see these values being woven into a digital publishing platform that will hopefully bring forth some of the most exciting, impactful scholarship of the next decade and beyond.

Finally, we would be remiss not to acknowledge the profoundly important role that librarians — including Hudson-Ward, but library directors at other partner institutions as well — have played in bringing Lever Press’ vision to life. They are, as a member of the press’ editorial board put it, the unsung heroes in rebuilding the connections between scholarship, teaching, and the power of libraries, and we are indebted to them for it.

Lever Press is charting an exciting course, and it will be incumbent on students, faculty, and staff — at Oberlin and elsewhere — to both support their work and consistently push it to be even better. The accessibility of scholarship has had dramatic impacts on the path of human history, and the same will be true of the future. It’s in all of our interests to ensure that the liberal arts values enshrined in Lever Press become those that we boldly embrace as we step forward into increasingly uncharted territory.

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

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Opi n ions

AAPR Finds Success Where EdCom Flopped Continued from page 5

of academic distribution requirements, which would later be reinstated. Still, those victories were tense, and the ultimate nail in the coffin of Fuller’s presidency was his belief that faculty governance at Oberlin was fundamentally flawed and needed to be reformed.

For anyone who knows how fiercely the Oberlin faculty cling to their independence under the auspices of the Finney Compact, the swift and strong rebuke to Fuller’s attempts to expand the powers of the presidency should come as no surprise. The short version is that the trustees passed a bylaw in June 1973 granting Fuller oversight of faculty lines; the faculty protested and very narrowly voted down a proposal to unionize. Fuller announced his resignation five months later.

According to Blodgett, this brief episode was so significant and institutionally unnerving that Oberlin was forced to spend “the next decade quietly knitting itself together.” However, this statement appears largely informed by Blodgett’s vantage point as a professor. While the faculty largely felt threatened by what they viewed as administrative overreach, not all faculty members opposed Fuller.

Further, many students saw merit in his proposals.

Reflecting upon Fuller’s presidency, the Review’s Editorial Board wrote on Oct. 22, 1974 that Fuller “served as an important catalyst for educational reform” (“You Say Hello… I Say Goodbye”). In particular, students seemed to support Fuller’s work to provide greater access for Black students and women, his advocacy for ExCo, and his general visibility around campus.

This is not to say that students ignored the consequences of Fuller’s bull-in-a-china-shop approach.

“The openness, dynamism, and many of the educational ideals that Fuller brought to Oberlin should be preserved, but to them must be added an appreciation of existing interests and problems and a spirit of tact and compromise,” the Review’s Editorial Board wrote earlier in 1974, in a Jan. 1 issue that also marked Fuller’s departure from campus (“Interim Presidency: A Time to Heal Past Wounds”).

That spirit of tact and compromise which proved to be Fuller’s greatest foil has been, to this point, one of Ambar’s greatest strengths in her own attempts to shape Oberlin.

Throughout the AAPR process, Ambar kept herself at a distance, emphasizing her respect for autonomous faculty governance. It was not until the final public forum before the recommendations were submitted to her office that she even appeared publicly alongside the steering committee that she had formed more than a year prior.

While Ambar is doubtlessly operating in a different political climate than Fuller was, examining the varied success of their different approaches reveals that parts of Oberlin’s campus culture — namely the fierce defense of faculty autonomy against presidential overreach — have not changed much through the decades. So, too, some of Ambar’s rhetorical justification for the AAPR mirrors Fuller’s from more than 40 years ago.

“We’re at one of those watershed spots this year,” Fuller said in the Feb. 1, 1974 issue of the Review (“Fuller’s Last Stance”). “We have a lease on life. We have a chance. I hope we’ll make it, but the odds are against any such place making it. The place can continue but it’s got to become something significant and special, or it’s failed.”

Oberlin students of today can recognize this justification — that Oberlin must stand out from its peers in a world that is not friendly toward small liberal arts colleges. Fuller had a plan for these reforms, but was ultimately not the person for the job — only time will tell if Ambar is, but her presidency is already off to a more tactful start.

And it’s worth remembering that, though the road to change is long and fraught, there is value in a community coming together to shape its collective future — a process that students, faculty, and staff have engaged in wholeheartedly over the last year and more. This collective advocacy, if the story of Fuller’s presidency is any indication, will — for better or for worse — reverberate throughout the years.

“In the future we may look back nostalgically to those few years when Oberlin students turned their political energies to the task of educational reform and were joined by a faculty ready to change, uninhibited by financial pressure and job insecurity,” wrote Associate Professor of English John Hobbs in a Nov. 13, 1973 letter to the Review editors (“The Fuller Years: A Period of Innovation and Diversification”). “The Fuller years were good years for Oberlin. We may wonder when such times will come again.”

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Meet Your Student Senators: Part Two Joshua Rhodes Contributing Writer This article is part of the Review’s Student Senate column. In an effort to increase communication and transparency, student senators will provide personal perspectives on recent events on campus and in the community.

In an effort to raise awareness for what Student Senate is, each senator has written a statement explaining who we are as students on campus, what our goals are on Senate, and what you can find us doing beyond being student senators. This is the final installation of a two-part series profiling student senators.

Emma Edney: My name is Emma Edney. I use she/her pronouns and am a third-year Politics and History major. When not on campus I love to visit friends at other schools and work at my old summer camp. This year on Senate I would like to continue my work around advocating for improved mental and physical health services for students. I hope to organize a Mental Health 101 workshop to help equip students with important skills regarding dealing with a variety of issues as well as improve administrative policy to better support students.

Wenling Li: My name is Wenling Li and I use she/her pronouns.

I am a third-year student majoring in Environmental Studies and Economics. In my spare time, I often clean up my room, especially my wardrobe and my desk. Putting things in order is of healing power for me. To aid relaxation, I also cook Chinese food with my friends and I do yoga. It’s an honor for me to work for Senate this year. My big-picture goal this year is to help international students thrive on this campus. Specifically, I want more international student involvement on campus and more bonding among cultural organizations.

Hopefully, that would culminate in a summit discussing our status quo and our needs. On top of that, a more diverse and inclusive environment could be created. I invite everyone who feels such responsibilities to join the working group or tell me your thoughts.

Austin Ward: Hi Oberlin! My name is Austin Ward, I use he/him pronouns, and I’m a third-year Environmental Studies and Anthro-

pology major. In my spare time, I like to eat barbecue chips, watch ASMR, and sleep — in that order.

This year I will be serving again as a Student Senate Sustainability Liaison. Some of my main goals this semester focus on the informational and physical inaccessibility of sustainable practices on this campus regarding composting, recycling, and using reusable materials. I’m excited to work with the administration, Campus Dining Services, Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, and the Green EDGE Fund to make change. If you have any ideas, please reach out at award@ oberlin.edu.

Emarie Rose De La Nuez: My name is Emarie Rose De La Nuez, I use she/her pronouns, and I am a third-year Africana Studies and Economics major at Oberlin. In my free time, I enjoy taking naps and watching TikToks on my phone. My goal for Senate this year is to make campus dining more accessible for students with dietary restrictions. I am excited to represent the Oberlin student body this upcoming year!

Cait Kelley: I’m Cait, I use she/ her pronouns. I’m a a fourth-year Politics major and a new senator from Northfield, Minnesota. When I’m not working as a senator, I’m working at Catrina’s — come say “hi!” — and watching all of the movies at the Apollo Theatre, even the really bad ones. As a senator I’m excited to continue my work with campus dining and I will focus on issues of transparency and institutional memory. Before I was a senator I didn’t really understand what Senate was and wasn’t capable of. I had no idea how to bring questions I had to Senate, or how they could help me address my concerns. As a senator I want to reach out more to the student body, especially to first-years, and explain Senate’s history and its future potential. As the post-Academic and Administrative Program Review, One Oberlin plan comes into effect, I hope to keep the student body as up-to-date as possible and to empower students to bring any questions, concerns, or ideas to Senate. If you see me around, don’t hesitate to ask me questions or chat. Thanks!

David Mathisson: Hi! I’m David — if you don’t know me yet you may have seen the 300 flyers from my Senate campaign around campus! I’m a second-year, and I use he/him/his pronouns. I’m cur-

rently working on a double major with a triple minor. The majors are Politics and an individual major called Professional and Creative Writing, and minoring in Economics, Rhetoric and Composition, and Law and Society. When not doing policy work, writing, or studying, I play Magic: The Gathering at a semi-competitive level. As I said during my campaign, my main goals as a senator are to raise the standards of our dining, improve transparency in the administration, especially in Residential Education, and push my multifaceted policy package to change the course selection process. Beyond that, I’d like to improve the relationships between Senate, community activists, and the administration — and advocate for environmental sustainability using policies that benefit the whole community. I’m excited to work for all of you this year as part of Senate!

Lena Golia: My name is Lena Golia, I use she/hers, and I’m a first-year. This year I’m hoping Senate can become less of a mystery to the student body, as well as hoping to increase communication and transparency between the administration and the school. I can’t wait to learn more about Oberlin and help out in any way I can by serving on various committees and working groups. I take courses in religion, Arabic, dance, theatre, and a first-year seminar. I’m also on the club rugby team — go Rhinos! — and currently in the student-run production of The Wolves.

Joshua Rhodes: Hello! My name is Joshua Rhodes, I use he/ him pronouns, and I am a fourthyear student studying Classical Double Bass Performance in the Conservatory. My goals this year on Senate are to create a bigger presence from Senate throughout the campus with special emphasis on the Conservatory, and to build relationships among students from different backgrounds, classes, groups, and identifications. As Communications Director, I am very intent on keeping everyone up to date with what is going on in the Senate, and encouraging peers to provide input for and be a part of the direction that our campus is taking— in any and all ways. When not doing the whole student thing, I can be found swimming, having deep conversations that go on for hours, or reading classic American literature.

COMIC

Athina Apazidis, Staff Cartoonist

Religious Beliefs Exploited for Personal Agendas Kushagra Kar Production Editor Religion is the oldest form of control. From the implicit consequences of pre-colonial missionary efforts to the tangible control over rhetoric shaped by King James’ Bible, the pervasiveness of religious institutions throughout history cannot be ignored. By placing themselves in positions of religious authority, individuals enable themselves to construct generalized structures of life that actively define community. Even today at Oberlin, we find organized religion influencing the periphery of our lives, both personally and over intangible distances.

Faith is meant to be positive, both within individualistic moral contexts and in broader social implications. Corruption and informed cruelty manifest when bigoted individuals become overly assured of their own beliefs, undermining the validity of any alternative possibilities. However, this deconstruction only happens when a handful of people, to their personal benefit, try to define what religion is for anyone who subscribes to that particular system of belief.

Belief is inherently personal, and religion by extension prioritizes the nature of the self. The moral guidelines that religion establishes uses this construct of a selfaware individual to make us cognizant of our effect on the people around us, using this route to create notions of social interactions and mutual benefit through cooperation.

The majority of religious individuals in the U.S. identify as Christian. While specific attribution may be toward smaller and varied denominations, the basic adherence to and belief in the community is based in the same ideas. Although I am neither Christian nor vaguely religious, I do value the existential values promoted by the culture. At the same time, my five weeks in the United States thus far as a student have been marked by a very specific form of evangelism, be it from street preachers or good Samaritans merely working on community outreach.

Preachers far and wide adopt different forms of rhetoric to make their point and

spread their belief, yet one form in particular seems to outshine the rest. The concept of preaching is as old as religion itself, but its congruence with the mechanics of fear has been increasingly prevalent since the dawn of the Middle Ages. By imbuing in people the fear of God — more specifically, damnation as a consequence of a lack of belief — the Roman Catholic Church turned belief for a profit by selling indulgences. Today, a very similar structure is actively equipping evangelists with the tools to spread not religious faith, but fear.

Last Thursday, a man by the name of Joseph stood outside Stevenson Dining Hall with a sign that read, “Feminism destroys. Jesus Restores.” A few weeks earlier, he stood outside Wilder Hall giving out pieces of paper titled “What Is the Best Way to Live Your Life?” On both occasions, he was equipped with a speaker and microphone, making sure he was heard by anyone within a 20-yard radius.

The spectacle that was this man, spouting misogynistic and anti-Semitic “gospel,” was the most absurd sight I have come across in years. You see, his supposedly logical interpretation of the Bible and the Word of God is rife with inconsistencies, besides the invariably problematic attitude towards various communities. He writes, “God had high expectations from the Israelites. Why shouldn’t He? Should He drop His expectations for love and grace? If He drops His expectations to accommodate what man wants, then He compromised His perfection for man’s imperfection. Does a Perfect God compromise His Perfection?”

Humanity is problematic; it is imperfect because we are constantly in conflict with each other and with ourselves. The inherent nature of people is in our imperfections, and it is through learning and acceptance that we broaden our horizons to accommodate for these shortcomings.

Genesis 1:27 states, “So God created man,” imbuing him with imperfections that we know to be reality. If the basis of Joseph’s anti-Semitic rhetoric is supposed perfection in God’s work, his premise is flawed even by his own standards.

Through this distorted understanding of the nature of God, and therefore con-

structs of theological power, men like Joseph make creation about subservience as opposed to freedom of one’s will and intellect. God stops being benevolent and embodies a malevolence instead, where belief to the contrary of their supposed “truth” is sin. Under Joseph’s rhetoric, God is not meant to be revered, but feared. The rest of humanity is, in the meantime, considered delusional for believing anything to the contrary. So Joseph picks up a microphone and declares himself a “Servant of God sent by Christ to evangelize the whole world.” This archaic savior complex roots itself in the propagation of fear; people are expected to organize single file to attain salvation, previously through indulgences and presently through faith in Joseph’s word.

“Are you an atheist? When you die, you will believe in Christ. Then, it will be too late, for you will already be damned, but you will believe in Christ,” he said. No longer is religious typical discourse about the teachings of Abrahamic religions, or even the spiritual benefits of belief. Instead, it’s dominated by implicit threats from roadside evangelists with a false sense of importance.

While it is abundantly clear that this form of evangelism is not the mainstream Christianity that people in America subscribe to, observing the extent to which self-appointed evangelists will go to spread their bigotry is concerning. People in cities regularly organize sparsely-attended marches or movements against secular and genuinely positive ideas. In January 2017, such individuals disrupted the Cleveland Women’s March by spouting ideas of a conservative, Christian-only America, claiming that feminists want to make the country “one nation under the devil.” The video link to this confrontation starts with, “the secular feminist movement is trying to brainwash our daughters to become disrespectful, Jezebel spirits.

Jesus shut the mouths of barking dogs and hypocrites with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, so that their ears could hear, then be converted, then be healed.”

No part of this particular scenario seems like the work, word, or wisdom of God. Rather, it seems like narrow-mind-

ed patriarchs with a desperate need for authority and an audience, seizing the opportunity to exploit their freedom of speech. Instead of preaching or teaching through kindness the morality and ethics the Bible recommends, they spread hate, lies and mistrust.

In the delicate socio-political context of the 21st century, it goes without saying that individuals promoting xenophobia, racism, chauvinism, and bigotry are better off without platforms. The confrontational nature of such people incites aggravated responses from rational individuals who are enraged by the rhetoric. As expletives are slung either way, deeper fissures of hate and misunderstanding are nurtured, and the only benefit is to the mechanics of fear, which root further and further into societal consciousness.

Religion especially holds power over social structures that constantly endangers the reality we live in. Take it from Margaret Atwood who, in the introduction to the 2017 edition of The Handmaid’s Tale, wrote, “‘The second question that comes up frequently: Is The Handmaid’s Tale anti-religion? Again, it depends what you may mean by that. True, a group of authoritarian men seize control and attempt to restore an extreme version of the patriarchy, in which women — like 19th-century American slaves — are forbidden to read. Further, they can’t control money or have jobs outside the home, unlike some women in the Bible. The regime uses biblical symbols, as any authoritarian regime taking over America doubtless would: They wouldn’t be Communists or Muslims.”

Yes, we’re still some ways away from Atwood’s dystopian Gilead. However, as with any plausible reality, it is disconcerting to find a particular discourse of agency-based disenfranchisement gaining traction. These are realities of our time, and while it may seem distant from our contexts, they are already far too close for comfort. Really, if people were created in the image of God, a benevolent being capable of sacrifice for the benefit of humanity, we already have an ideal to strive toward; whether we attain it or not is entirely in our hands.

One Oberlin Implementation Compromises Catholic Values Claudia Baker, OC ’19 Thomas Valle-Hoag, OC ’19 Contributing Writers Many voices have already spoken up regarding the austerity measures recommended by the Academic Advising Program Review steering committee, an effort now known as One Oberlin. In the interest of highlighting a plurality of views on the subject, we want to speak against the austerity measures as Catholic alumni and former community members of Oberlin College. We do not claim to have all the answers and we certainly don’t claim to be experts in economics. We want to speak out from a moral and ethical perspective, supported by the social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

It is a well-established axiom in the social teachings of the Church that the economically disadvantaged among us deserve, and are indeed entitled to, preferential treatment in economic matters. The weight of austerity under the AAPR recommendations will be borne primarily by the most vulnerable members of Oberlin’s community. This is unethical. The economic crisis we are in is, in part, the result of mistakes made by past administrations; as such, the administration should bear the brunt of the fiscal cuts we need to make. There is not a single member of the upper administration of this college that would have difficulty finding another job, let alone have their financial future thrown into uncertainty by the loss of their job. This is not true of many of the hourly paid staff at the college.

As Christians, we are called to recognize that all peoThe Oberlin Review | October 4, 2019

ple, regardless of class, race, gender, or any other signifier, are equal in human dignity and equally deserving of respect. The true evil of capitalism, especially in relation to our calling as Christians, is that it values people not as inherently equal children of God, but as producers or consumers alone.

To be clear, the veiled threats within the AAPR recommendations clearly point to the College’s intent to cut staff positions and benefits for hourly wage employees. This decision implies that these people are more of a burden than a boon to our community. However, there are no recommendations to cut the benefits of the wealthiest members of the Oberlin administration.

As Pope John XXIII says in Mater et Magistra, “[Work] must be regarded not merely as a commodity but as a specifically human activity. In the majority of cases, a man’s work is his sole means of livelihood. Its remuneration, therefore, cannot be made to depend on the state of the market. It must be determined by the laws of justice and equity.”

To claim that the hourly staff is a burden and then to plan to strip them of their livelihood is nothing less than a refutation of their dignity. As One Oberlin is implemented, we, the Oberlin community, need to ask the administration why they view a president or a dean more worthy of respect than a member of the DeCafé staff.

We don’t want to come out against the implementation of One Oberlin without suggesting alternatives, as we understand Oberlin faces an economic crisis. Perhaps instead of reducing pensions, the dean’s office could stop its practice of eating lunch at the Hotel at Oberlin and

charging the bill to the College. Furthermore, trustees could also start paying for their accommodations and food when they stay at The Hotel at Oberlin for trustee weekends. While we know that a $15 salad will not make the difference between financial solvency and bankruptcy, the fact that administrators and trustees can eat beetroot and arugula salads for free while janitors are facing unemployment constitutes a blatant disregard for the human dignity of those workers.

As Pope Leo XIII wrote in Rerum Novarum (1891), “according to natural reason and Christian philosophy, working for gain is creditable, not shameful, to a man, since it enables him to earn an honorable livelihood; but to misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain … that is truly shameful and inhuman.” Leo XIII’s words speak to One Oberlin’s problem: The committee did not treat these people as people, but reduced them to nothing more than numbers on a page. The committee spent no time considering the human cost of their proposed cuts and the danger they pose to the lives of our staff and their families.

In conclusion, we submit that the most ethical way to face our financial crisis would be to adopt a model that protects the lives and livelihoods of the greatest number of people. That model would require those who are currently most enriched by Oberlin to tighten their belts before the benefits of a single hourly worker are touched.

To finish with another quote from Mater et Magistra: “Any adjustment between wages and profits must take into account the demands of the common good of the particular country and of the whole human family.”

7

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Weekly Calendar: Homecoming Edition

Saturday, Oct. 5

Yard Sale

Cheer on your fellow Obies and show your school spirit at Homecoming this year!

Raffle tickets for gift cards to local businesses will be handed out at each event by members of the Oberlin Student Athlete Advisory Committee.

Come find vintage OC gear, uniforms, and warmups.

11 a.m. – 3 p.m. // Grass area between Knowlton Complex and Williams Field House

Fi Co (W

11

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ield Hockey vs. oncordia University Wis.)

1 a.m. //

Bailey Field

olleyball vs. Ohio Wesleyan University p.m. // Philips Gym

Football vs. Kenyon College

Women’s Tennis vs.

University of Findlay

3 p.m. // Bailey Field

3 p.m. // Hunsinger Courts

Women’s Soccer vs. Ohio Wesleyan University

Men's Soccer vs.

Ohio Wesleyan University

3 p.m. // Shults Field

6 p.m. // Shults Field

Fireworks Show Around 9 p.m. // Above Shults Field following the men’s soccer match — but there are many other possible viewing locations!

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE October 4, 2019

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 5

Secrets from Seventeen Years of Long Island Night “My first day of working here, I didn’t believe in that,” Wilson said.

“I [thought] that’s the urban legend kind of thing. But it kept happening.

A couple of different times, I’d come out back and just be like, ‘God, people [are] going [out of control].’ And I look up and a it’s a full moon. I don’t want to admit it, but this is a real thing. It just kept happening to the point where I was like, ‘All right, this is real.’”

Aside from the debauchery and rumors, there’s something magical about the routine of Long Island Night. The fact that there’s only one late-night bar in town and one dance club on campus may seem detrimental to partying, but it actually pushes people in the community together.

“Oberlin is not known for [the ability] to go out,” said Jude Fernandes, OC ’19. “[The Feve] was the one place where you could get a bar experience.

I actually got to meet a lot of new people by going there because you Students line up at The Feve counter for Long Island Night this past Wednesday, in what has become a beloved Oberlin tradition. just kind of meet at the bar. I find it Photo by Nathan Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief more social than other Oberlin going Island Night was different. Wall-to- much fun they were,’” said Asheley out type things like a house party, and Aly Fogel wall people, sipping Iced Teas trying Smith, OC ’03, in an email to the Re- people seem more open to new conArts & Culture Editor versations for some reason.” to talk over the blaring metal as they view.

In addition to current students, Luckily, we have the bartenders’ People often use the phrase, “If pregame for Quarter Beers at the ’Sco. only these walls could talk,” but at This became part of the Wednesday memories to rely on. Josh Wilson, alumni often visit The Feve when they The Feve, they actually can. Hidden routine: Pregame at The Feve, hit the who has bartended at The Feve for 12 come back to campus.

“My fond memories are more as an between the small cracks in the brick ’Sco around midnight, and then back years, said Long Island Nights have alum,” said Mel Maisel, OC ’93 in an walls are small pieces of paper that to The Feve for a night cap. The post calmed down over the years.

“It was like war,” said Wilson about email to the Review. patrons leave with notes to future cus- ’Sco nightcap might be a thing of the “For a few years I was coming tomers. Looking at these notes, I won- past, but the enthusiasm displayed Long Island Nights in years past.

“This year we haven’t really had a cra- back to campus every fall for Alumni der about the folks who have come during the pregame is unrivaled.”

Students and residents all have zy Long Island [Night]. I would say [Leadership] Council, and The Feve here before me.

The Feve is one of the few bars in their own stories of The Feve from the craziest one, times that [craziness] was where you could go and invite town, and, subsequently, the setting over the years: nervous first dates, by like four, easy: standing room only yourself to any table of people wearfor many urban legends. The night belligerent 21st birthdays, instant and instead of hearing music and peo- ing alumni name tags and have a great that generates the most rumors, by far, friendships, or awkward run-ins with ple talking or even yelling, you’d just time!”

There are too many memories to is the Long Island Night special every professors. All this in addition to the hear glass breaking 20 feet away, concampus gossip, which ranges from stantly, all night long. And then hav- print them all, Gregus pointed out Wednesday during the school year.

It’s the best weeknight on campus attempted threesomes in The Feve’s ing to chase people out, make them when asked for stories about Long Isto drink. The combination of Long Is- bathroom to celebrity comedians be- bring their drinks back in, [and] peo- land Night.

“My years tending bar at The Feve ple [were] throwing pints off into the land night – where a Long Island Iced ing refused service. have yielded more anecdotes than I Seventeen years of history at The parking lot.”

Tea is only $5– and Splitchers at the Feve is a lot to uncover — especialHe’s witnessed a range of wild have time to tell,” wrote Gregus. “But ‘Sco make it an ideal hump-day treat.

“Long Island Night became a ly when memories are lost so easily nights, resolving bar fights and even for the sake of modesty, I’m going to Wednesday staple in Oberlin the same to drinks containing a questionable driving customers home. What sur- leave them up to speculation.”

What can’t be imagined can be disprised me more than these stories, week The Feve started selling liquor,” amount of hard liquor.

“One of my friends said, ‘I’m not however, is the strange way the bar- covered from alumni, residents, barmanager and bartender Dan Gregus wrote in an email to the Review. sure anyone ‘remembers’ Long Island tenders know they are in for a rough tenders and, of course, the iconic little notes in the walls.

“It was packed every night, but Long nights, which is a testament to how night: the presence of a full moon.

An Obie Recommends: Night in the Woods Video Game

Kirsten Heuring During my second year of college, I was browsing video game playthroughs on YouTube. It was spring semester exam week and I was trying to find something to get me through the 20-something pages I needed to write. I stumbled upon a series of videos on a game called Night in the Woods. The art style looked cute and quirky, and it seemed like something that would keep my mind from completely being numbed by the monotony of academic essays. I clicked on the playlist.

What started as some pleasant background noise to keep me focused became a distraction in and of itself.

Instead of focusing on the essays I needed to write, I was drawn in by the existential crises of an anthropomorphic cat. I resolved to buy it and play it myself on my Nintendo Switch — once my essays were done, of course.

A few weeks later, I was in the car with my parents, driving to Colonial Williamsburg. I loaded up Night in

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the Woods and began to play. Honestly, if you’re going to play this, a road trip with some headphones on is probably the best time. It nails the feel of the game.

You play as the main character, who is a 20-year-old anthropomorphic cat named Mae Borowski. Mae just dropped out of her second year of college. She’s moved back to her small dying midwestern town of Possum Springs, and she’s trying to cope with the emotional struggles that she’s faced since middle school. Meanwhile, Mae reunites with her old friends, Bea the alligator, Gregg the fox, and Gregg’s boyfriend Angus the bear. Another friend, Casey, has mysteriously gone missing. As she wanders through the town of Possum Springs, she starts to deal with her own existential issues and the mystery behind some strange happenings in the town.

The sense of intimacy in the game is created by the art style. Each of the endearingly cartoonish characters was designed with some sort of anthropomorphic vertebrate. Their eyes are big, and though their mouths don’t always move when dialogue bubbles

pop up, they nod their heads or wiggle their ears as they speak. The dialogue, though, conveys real human sentiments that make up for the lack of voice acting.

Whenever Mae was talking with her mother, for example, the conversations reminded me of interactions with my own mom — all the same questions about school happenings, mental health, and romantic interests.

There are also little details in the background characters that change as time passes. At the beginning of the game, there’s a pregnant raccoon walking down Main Street. By the end, she’s pushing a baby stroller down the street; all signs of a baby bump are gone. It’s the little details like that which make the world feel so real.

It’s hard to capture the exact wistfulness and existentialism of Night in the Woods. If you have the time, play it. For a less time-consuming experience, listen to the soundtrack on YouTube while studying. It makes for great background music and captures the game’s purpose, thoughtfulness, and existential themes.

Gamelan and Bali Dance Group Perform at Finney Chapel

One of the most respected Balinese performing companies, Çudamani, came to Oberlin to perform in Finney Chapel last Tuesday. The 18-member company is internationally recognized, and their Oberlin performance was part of their world tour. The group name Çudamani means “to do something with your whole heart without expecting something in return,” according to the group’s website.

Watching their performance, it’s easy to see this goal come to life through their passion.

The performance integrated costumes, dancing, vocal performances, and Gamelan, which is music played us-

ing traditional Indonesian instruments.

Each of their performances had a specific theme. “Teruna Gandrung” showcases a tradition of challenging gender norms, featuring women in energetic, fearless, and powerful roles. Another piece called “Ramayana Wayang Wong” featured two people dressed in red and yellow, wearing masks. The story followed twin brothers who jumped into a pool of water while fighting over a chalice. After they fell into the water, they turned into monkeys.

There were also sections in which dancers improvised their movements and signaled to the percussionists to change the tempo and melody. In order to com-

municate while on stage, performers made eye contact with each other and smiled.

“We are told to put ourselves into the story but not just technical movements, so we don’t practice with mirrors, because my teacher said that it is better to feel your partner than watch them in the mirror,” said Dewa Ayu Eka Putri, one of the dancers and the group’s secretary.

In addition to performing, Çudamani holds workshops wherever they tour including at Oberlin this past week. “Çudamani told not only traditional dramas but also shared stories about their community and philosophy of collective

care,” College fourth-year Kara Nepomuceno, a Dance major studying Southeast Asian dance, wrote in an email to the Review. “In [the] workshop held on Wednesday morning, Associate Director Emiko Saraswati Susilo described how the group collectively owns the instruments at their home base of Banjar Pengosekan.”

The group also has permanent summer programs in Bali that teach people about their dances and instruments in order to preserve their traditions and spread knowledge of their culture.

Text by Rachel Fang Photo courtesy of Office of Communications

Jordanian-Palestinian Band 47SOUL Performs at ’Sco Carson Dowhan Senior Staff Writer In a rare moment for a weeknight performance at the ’Sco, a band had students on their feet and dancing their way into the next morning. Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace sponsored a performance by Shamstep group 47SOUL and pop soloist Zach Matari which took place this past week.

47SOUL is an Arab group that blends traditional dabke music with punchy electronics and synthesizers. This combination creates an upbeat and danceable hip-hop sound with hints of reggae, including exciting vocal runs and satisfying melodies. “Dabke” in Arabic means “stamping of the feet,” which is the tra-

ditional Arabic folk dance that accompanies the music.

There was something satisfying about the punch of the Sbeit’s bass drum intertwining with Kwaik’s darbuka. Heavy synths and rhythm guitar rested on the driving percussion, and the mixture of Arabic and English lyrics filled the venue. Audience members were quickly engaged by captivating synthesizer solos and choruses that were easy to sing along to, such as the lyrics in “Mo Light:” “We’re good, we’re good/ We just need more light/ We just need more light.”

“As an audience member and friend of the organizers, I felt like it was one of the best and most energetic ’Sco performances I’ve seen in a long time,” College third year and SFP member Zoe Jasper wrote in an email to the Review. “It was

The band members of 47SOUL light up the ’Sco stage during their Tuesday night performance.

Photo by Chris Schmucki, Photo Editor The Oberlin Review | October 4, 2019

so cool to see people both having fun dancing and learning about SFP’s Sabra Boycott at the merch table.”

47SOUL pioneered the term “Shamstep” as a way to define their blend of tradition and electronics. “Sham” refers to Bilad Al Sham, a former region that included modern Palestine, Syria, Israel, and Lebanon. On the group’s website, their personal statement reads, “Their lyrics, mixing Arabic and English, call for celebration and freedom in the struggle for equality, inside Bilad Al Sham and throughout the world.” “[SFP] strives to fight for a free Palestine in our own way on Oberlin’s campus, connecting Oberlin to Palestine through the ultimate idea of decolonization,” College third-year and SFP liaison Alex Black Bessen wrote in an email to the Review. “In bringing 47SOUL we saw an opportunity to bring music to Oberlin that resists occupation, apartheid, and the erasure of Palestinian people and culture. Bringing 47SOUL was an opportunity to present radical decolonial action and consciousness in a fun and musical way.”

Political history and activism is a priority for the 47SOUL. None of the members grew up in Palestinian National Authority, but they are all Palestinian.

They all hold different passports, which made traveling and meeting in the Middle East difficult, a common issue for bands in the region. 47SOUL’s message of political unity has been successful so far, and the group raised over $30,000 in a crowdfunding campaign to finance the self-recording and release of their 2015 EP, Shamstep. Since then, 47SOUL has released a single in 2017, and an eight-track album titled Balfron Promise,

which refers to the 1917 Balfour Declaration that established “a national home for Jewish people.”

The concert opened with Zach Matari on vocals and Emmanuel Mendez on drum pad and backup vocals. The pop duo used a backing track and Mendez maintained a driving rhythm with techno-inspired beats. The modest crowd at the beginning of his set slowly built up, and the duo played more confidently as the audience grew.

Delving into his Palestinian and Brazilian heritage, Matari uses his position as an artist to advocate for social change.

He has a knack for strong hooks and pop melodies, with a vocal performance reminiscent of Maroon 5’s Adam Levine.

“I really liked how interactive it was,” College third-year Gwen Cappel-McCoy said after attending the concert. “I thought [the] music was incredible.”

47SOUL and Zach Matari put on a successful show, exhibited by the high student turnout – especially for a Tuesday night performance. It was an enriching performance that gave light to the creation of a new genre blending traditional and modern music, as well as building on the political call for inclusivity and unity.

“Palestine is alive, it is a real place with real people and as Oberlin students, we have many ways to fight for the freedom of Palestine,” Black Bessen wrote.

“Part of our mission in bringing 47SOUL was to remind students that Palestine is not hypothetical, and we have a duty to fight for a free Palestine.”

One can only wonder what’s next for 47SOUL, how they will continue to innovate tradition, and who will follow in their footsteps.

11

A r t s & C u lt u r e ON THE RECORD

Neva Cockrell and Raphael Sacks, OC ’09

Raphael Sacks and Neva Cockrell, two Oberlin alumni, performed their dance-theater work Prime in the Warner Main Space this past Wednesday. The two created their own ensemble company, Loom Ensemble, and have also worked with the Art Monastery Project, which they now run out of a communal living farm in Vermont. Cockrell also dances with the renowned company Pilobolus. They spoke to the Review about their focus on collaborative art making, and the paths they have taken building careers in a creative field.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kate Fishman Arts & Culture Editor Because you were both pretty involved in dance and theater here, could you talk about how you ended up following that, or if you directly followed that after graduation? What have the last 10 years been like?

Neva Cockrell: I didn’t dance before college. I mean, I’d probably seen some contemporary dance before, but I remember my first semester I saw a modern performance in Warner Main Space and just totally fell in love and ended up studying dance. And then after school I was really deciding between pursuing a career in environmental science or moving to New York City and trying to dance. There was a visiting professor I took some classes with in Seattle, [WA] right after graduating. I remember that we went out to lunch in this cafe and I was like, “What should I do with my life?” And she said, “If you can do anything else, I really recommend it. … And if you can’t do anything else, you’ll know, and you’ll dance.”

I left that conversation just really like, “Wow, I think I’m going to dance.” And so Raphael and I moved to New York City together after graduation and I just got whatever odd job I needed to have to prioritize taking classes and auditioning, and we were in that.

There is paid work in the arts. It’s very rarely available to people fresh out of college and it’s really easy to get distracted. I feel like I watched a lot of people struggle with, “Okay, I’m trying to pursue this thing that I know I’m going to have to probably pursue for a few years before I can make any income doing it.” Now our lives have shifted such that we are totally oriented around these activities and make our money doing it, but it took time.

Raphael Sacks: In our first years out of college I used grant money from Oberlin Creativity and Leadership matched by the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance to gather together the professional theater companies that I most intensely admired, and organized a workshop series in our living room with a dozen other peers in New York City — the coolest kids who would answer our emails. Guest teachers would come in, teach us a workshop, and then we would continue to have sessions on our own to unpack all of the tools that they had offered us. Those workshops funded by Oberlin Creativity and Leadership were eventually the start of the theater company that we continue to run now, Loom Ensemble.

How does Loom Ensemble function now?

NC: So in the past almost ten years with Loom, we’ve made nine or ten evening-long shows, and many short things for smaller projects. We specialize in the overlap of dance and music, and theater that’s not quite like musical theater. That’s taken a lot of

COMIC

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different forms because we’ve moved around and we’ve taken the company with us and collaborated with lots of different people. What it’s looked like the past few years is that we work on a show in a series of what we call devising intensives. So we’ll bring together a group of performers and artists for five days, and we’ll have an intensive work period on new material, and then they’ll go home, and then Raph and I will continue to work on the material for a month or two, and then bring back a group of performers again.

What have some of your past themes for your show been?

RS: We have a show that’s about white folks stepping up to take responsibility for dismantling white supremacy. I have a solo show that’s about ocean ecology that’s really this ecoactivist call to action riffing off of David Attenborough’s deep sea Planet Neva Cockrell and Raphael Sacks, OC ’09.

Earth.

Photo courtesy of Lucie Weismueller NC: This script that I just wrote for this past show was about looking at self-destructive behavior and and sing songs together every day. The Art Monasbody shame. The piece before that was looking at a tery is a lot like Harkness [co-op]. It’s like Harkness classic love affair, but how relationship models could meets Sola Luna. be explored as new information for classic love afNC: I really feel like our lives are composed of fairs. We end up with a show and then when we’re those three things: Loom, the Art Monastery and ready to perform it, we’ll cast the performers in the freelance touring. place where the show is. So we spent a year making RS: Neva is always so humble about this, but she a show and then decided to perform it in Dubai. So dances with Pilobolus. While we’re talking the nuts then we spent two months in Dubai working with the and bolts of trying to make a life in the arts financialperformers. We have also toured. ly, that was the game changer. A steady supplemental income from that high profile gig has made so many What’s the Art Monastery Project and how are other things possible. you involved with that?

NC: I’ve been dancing with them for three years.

RS: The Art Monastery is an artist collective that I auditioned for Pilobolus in 2014 at a mass open call centers spiritual practice as the source of creativity. with probably 600 people there in New York and it Neva and I went as artists in residence when the Art was a five- day-long audition. And I made it to the Monastery was operating in historic empty monas- end with maybe six other women and they sat us teries in rural Italy in 2012. I met someone from the down and said, “We really like you all but we aren’t Art Monastery in New York City and she was bring- hiring women.” We’re like, “No way. I just spent five ing together a group of artists to collaboratively de- days.” But eventually, in 2016, I got offered my first vise an interdisciplinary performance in context of gig with them. They do a combination of live dance daily meditation and group song and communal liv- and shadow work and they got hired to do a shading in a rural place. We both applied — they were ow background for Britney Spears at the MTV Music looking for an actor and a choreographer. When we Awards. were there, we fell in love with the people and we I saw Pilobolus in Cleveland while I was at Oberfell in love with the lifestyle. In the seven years since lin and I remember thinking, “Oh, I could do this.” then other people who were in charge have gone on Not, “I can do this now.” But I used to watch ballet to other things. Now it’s me and Neva and two other and just feel like, “I cannot and I will never be a propeople who run this organization and have brought fessional ballet dancer.” But I remember watching it home from Italy to a farmhouse in Vermont. We Pilobolus and thinking, “Wow, I have that kind of host other artists in residence. We use it as a commu- athleticism.” It’s been a dream to get to dance with nal living container for our own creative process. We them. grow a lot of our own food. We practice meditation See Dance, page 13 Claire Wang Staff Cartoonist

New Food Columnists Rate Campus Dining Hall Desserts Ella Halbert Jordan Rempel-White One evening at Stevenson Dining Hall, we entered the bustling buffet area with our newly-found friends. The desserts had been topped up seconds before, after a wave of sugar-starved students had eaten everything in sight, and we knew we had to taste everything. But, as young adults refining our taste palettes, we decided it would be unreasonable to stomach an entire dessert bar alone.

So instead, we decided to split the dessert bar.

The result was glorious: four diverse delights piled high onto one modest plate. Overall, the selections exceeded our expectations, considering we were eating in a college dining hall.

The first sample, custard pie, was arguably the worst of the bunch based solely on texture. While its flavor was okay, the mushy texture threw it all

off. Its redeeming factor was the crust, which was beautifully flaky and crumbly, earning it three out of five stars.

The cheesecake came next — it was your average cheesecake, except drier than we cared for. Its raspberry topping was incredibly sweet, but complemented the cheesecake’s flavor wonderfully. The filling was better than store-bought options, and overall the cheesecake came in at three-and-a-half out of five stars.

This brings us to our third dessert: the lemon crunch pie. While this treat wasn’t as crunchy as we’d hoped, its zesty filling was tart and delicious.

We originally braced ourselves against its highlighter-yellow color, but we loved every bite. The texture dissolved effortlessly into our mouths, landing this sweet treat a solid four out of five stars.

This left the fourth and final selection: the Black Forest pie. It appeared, backlit as if by some holy

light filtering down through Stevie’s skylight. We were in love. While the cherry compote was slightly unappealing, we were willing to risk it for the promise of the rich, dark center. This was the dessert we had set out to find — the Black Forest pie at Stevie, worth all five out of five stars.

Our friends dissolved into fits of giggles at our spontaneous transformation into food critics. We let the idea marinate for the remainder of dessert.

We imagined exploring and documenting the experience of eating on campus, from food reviews to dining spaces. We left Stevie, ready to take on our role as the campus food critics you didn’t ask for but always needed.

Pro tip: Use the waffle machines in Stevie to create any delicacy under the sun. Want chocolate chip waffles? Take the chocolate chips, sprinkles, and whatever else your heart desires from the dessert section and add it to the waffle batter.

Dance Alumni Perform Duet at Warner Main Space Continued from page 12

and frustration. Sometimes we take hands and all just run, and when one person is flagging or losing steam, we pull each other up. The difference between those two situations is totally elusive — it seems magical. It requires good chemistry and all of the secret powers of good facilitation, inspiring leadership, good listening, leaving space for other people, knowing when to step up and step back.

Can you talk a little bit about what the themes or questions or ideas behind Prime were in development? It was created by an ensemble of 10 artists — how did that process look with this specific piece?

NC: This show was created in 2014 in Italy, and Raph and I were running the Art Monastery for many years, and did something called an art monastic laboratory where we brought together a group of artists for mul- Is there anything else that you would like to say? tiple months and made a show over the course of those NC: It’s just so cool to get to come back to Oberlin — months. So we’re living together and training together to discover dance and interdisciplinary processes here in the mornings, rehearsing in the afternoons — and at and then end up where that’s actually what I’m doing that point the Art Monastery was exploring different monastic hours of the day each year. For a year we’d exCROSSWORD plore a certain hour for a day. Prime was made in the year that we were exploring prime, or sunrise, 6:00 a.m.

Lauren O’Hear All of the material came from that exploration. There was a director, a choreographer, a sound designer, a costume designer — Raph and I were the two performers.

There’s an assistant director, there was a chef there, and a composer, a songwriter in addition to the sound designer, and a writer. Everyone was living together working on the material all day everyday. I think it’s a really cool process because there’s not a super layer — every layer was contributing. The different pieces are really nicely knit together.

RS: I don’t think if you saw the show, your first takeaway would be that that was a show about dawn. But a bunch of the artists there realized that that something we had in common was trying to work through long term, committed partnership in a way that doesn’t get represented in a lot of love stories — in the sexy new love of most romantic comedies. So in the show this couple is at their dawn time breakfast table having two completely different experiences — like what happens at any breakfast table — and this multiplicity and this possibility for two mutually exclusive contracting experiences to be happening right at the same time became the central exploration born out of these questions.

with my life, with someone else who went here — and now 10 years later to get to come back and perform and teach some classes after all of the experience we’ve been gathering.

RS: I think that I learned more about the theater that I want to make from attending Jazz Forum than from any other performance or masterclass. It’s the way those badasses listen to each other and respond in real time. It just lit up something that I keep coming back to about how performers can be together on stage in the moment, co-creating and wild. Holding it together without diverging in an incoherent way, but each totally free.

Can you talk a little more about the specific ways that all of these different artists and creators are prompted into making material and making ideas for something? A chef and a composer are doing different types of work. Can you speak more to what that looks like?

NC: I think each director does it differently. Oftentimes in a devised process there is a director who is kind of guiding the show. I think this is really where tablework — sitting, talking, writing, discussing — comes into play. You bring in research, you bring in readings, and we’re all sharing ideas and then each person is going to be stimulated in different ways by the ideas. Each form is going to offer direction or limitations. Collaborative processes also really depend on the social sculpture that they’re held in. If the people feel cared for and heard and that they’re valued and there’s space for them and there’s a general respect in the room, then I think that people take more risks.

RS: Sometimes collaborative process feels like locking arms together with a group of people where no one in the line can take the step forward that they want to take because they’re being held back and have to push each other forward at the same time. There is a slowness

The Oberlin Review | October 4, 2019

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Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Dave Tempest, ’OC 72, Heisman Inductee

Dave Tempest, OC ’72, is one of the former Oberlin student-athletes being inducted into the John W. Heisman Club Hall of Fame at a ceremony later today.

While at Oberlin, Tempest was an All-American cross-country runner and swimmer, and his wife, Kathy, also OC ’72, played women’s basketball in the pre-Title IX era. Dave and Kathy both arrived in Oberlin on Wednesday after biking from Seattle, WA, one of multiple cross-country bike trips that the couple has undertaken. After graduation, David spent two years in the U.S. Army, later got a Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology, and then went to medical school for Rehabilitation Medicine. The Heisman induction ceremony coincides both with this weekend’s Homecoming activities, as well as the Board of Trustees’ annual fall meeting.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief When did you start biking seriously?

My wife and I started to do bicycle tourism [when] our youngest kid went away to school and we realized we’d been raising kids for 30 years and had our professions and ... it gave us a chance to be together. It turned out it was such a great experience that we’ve done it ever since. So, we would’ve ridden back [to Oberlin] anyway. We’re just looking for an excuse to go on a ride. Then being invited back for this Heisman award was just a nice touch. ... I just said, “Hey, do you want to use the ride for a fundraiser for the Heisman Club and the sports teams?” And they did everything else, all we did was ride.

We’ve ridden because it’s just a great lifestyle. There’s a lot of exercise, but it’s not intense exercise. Everyone says, “Oh God, it’s like the Tour de France guys, right?” No, nothing like that. It’s like a walk, you know, you have to be able to be alone with your thoughts for a while because we don’t talk a lot. But really, you see a country in a way, you just can’t see it any other way. It’s really a great way to see the country. I think everybody would benefit from it. I think politicians ought to be required to do it. That’s my own personal opinion.

Is this the longest trip you’ve done?

No. Last year we went about 8,300 miles. We went from San Diego, [CA] to St. Augustine, [FL], then up to Philadelphia, [PA], and then back to Seattle. That took five months or so.

That was the longest that we both — well, I’ve been retired — but Kathy was able to carve out a lot of time. So we ... had to scratch an itch, that was kind of wanting to do that.

Do wild things ever happen on these long bike trips?

Lots of crazy stuff happens. You know, we went through Glacier [National Park], on Going-To-The-Sun Highway. It’s a beautiful highway ...

and we’re doing it at the end of August, and it’s just a zoo there with tourists. I mean, it’s just this big beautiful park. So we camped at the highest campground we could before the pass and got up at four in the morning and biked GoingTo-The-Sun Highway at four in the morning. There was nobody there. You have no idea what you’re gonna run into. It’s a partial moon, so you get the mountain silhouetted, you’re going up this beautiful winding valley — it’s like the park’s your own, and it’s just magic.

That was one.

The second would be, we were in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We spent part of the day biking around and we were out looking for bison — didn’t see any. We’re riding back to the campground and come around a corner and there’s a van parked [on] a little narrow street, and then a bison sitting on the side grazing and it’s blocked off and we can’t get around the guy. So we have to go right by the bison. We stopped and thought about it for a while, but he looked definitely more interested in the grass than he was in us. So we got within a couple feet of him. It was kind of a treat because it’s such a beautiful animal, you don’t think about it, but it’s gorgeous. So there are lots of those types of things.

And the people along the way — I guess the land and the people are the two.

It’s a big country. And [if ] you get to see [it at] the speed of a bike, it’s really nice.

We find that we set a lot of stereotypes of what people are like around the country and they all get smashed. ... So it’s been really helpful that way, to get a little more exposure to the country.

Is there a community of other people who do trips like this?

Oh yeah, we’re not special in the slightest. There’s a group called [the] Adventure Cycling [Association] in the United States that has about 52,000 members and they’ve mapped routes all over the country. So we don’t go on really busy highways a lot, like coming up from Columbus, we were on the greatest farm roads you ever saw. Ohio’s just this mile-

Dave Tempest Kathy Tempest, both OC ’72, during their 2,400 mile bike ride from Seattle to Oberlin.

Photo courtesy of Oberlin Swimming and Diving

by-mile grid of beautifully smooth-paved roads that [have] no traffic whatsoever.

This is the first time you’ve biked through Oberlin, right?

Yeah. Last year, we came down through Southern Ohio and we were kind of getting a little homesick and ready to get home so we didn’t take an extra 400 miles to do our own trip up through here. We thought about it but couldn’t pull the trigger.

The Heisman ceremony isn’t related to the biking, though, right? You just happened to arrive on a bike?

Yeah, we knew I was coming back because I’m part of the Heisman ceremony. So I knew we were coming back and it was just a question of how we got here.

What is the honor that you’re receiving from the Heisman Club?

The Heisman Club supports Oberlin athletics, and they have a selection process to put former athletes into their hall of fame. So [the athletes have] to be nominated and selected. I was a swimmer and cross country runner back in the day, late ’60s, early ’70s. My old coach nominated me, and for some reason the Heisman Club said, “Okay, yeah.”

We have a little ceremony tomorrow ...

It’s really, really nice. It’s a great honor because it was very important to me — sports played a big role here, it was really helpful to me.

What else are you doing while you’re here besides the Heisman ceremony?

It’s a chance to catch up ... we got a lot

Dave Tempest Kathy Tempest, both OC ’72, with students outside Shanks Health and Wellness Center.

Photo courtesy of Oberlin Swimming and Diving

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of alumni coming in that we’ll catch up with. My wife, Kathy, hasn’t been back since 1972 or so ... so it’s been 47 years since she’s been here. ... She played basketball before Title IX — that’s the biggest difference I note [on campus]. I think that she’s come back and she’s seen the richness of our sporting tradition, because I’ve been meeting with friends and having dinner with folks and she said, “Wow, I never got that.” And it’s true because it didn’t exist for her. They had a basketball program that was just starting and no one had experience so it was really rough around the edges. But there were no women in cross country, there were no women in swimming, there were no women in sports. I mean, I guess there was a field hockey team. So Title IX has made a huge difference.

And it was my coach that helped break that down in 1973. He had some women ask if they could train with the cross country team. He said sure, you know, and so they trained and they said, “Well, can we [race]?” And he said, “Well, you can’t run as scoring points, but you can certainly run exhibitions. Yeah, fine, let’s do it.” He took the team to Ohio Wesleyan [University] and the coach protested, pulled his team, and the guy said either don’t run the women or I’m not running my guys. And [my coach] said, “Well, they trained, they’re going to run.” So they ran, and the Ohio Wesleyan [University] coach filed a protest with the Ohio athletic conference because a regulation said the sporting goods were for men in good standing.

That went to the Ohio athletic conference committee meetings and the next year they changed the wording — that was right before Title IX. ... That was the era back then, that things were just starting to open up.

What are some of your favorite memories of Oberlin athletics?

Oh, there are several. I actually break it down into three. I think the mentorship that the coaches had, because you spend more time with your coach than [anyone]. I mean, he coached cross country and swimming and so I had him pretty much year round, and he was just a very competent, capable person. He was my mentor. I loved the professors here, but I didn’t spend that much time with them. [Second], the team experience just made it so much richer. You just got exposed to stuff that you wouldn’t get exposed to in the classroom, and it’s not for everybody, there’s other ways to get meaningful experiences, but that was a really good one for me.

Former Athletic Rivals Discover Friendship as Varsity Teammates Continued from page 16

Despite the rough start to their relationship, both Laird and Godfrey have managed to put the past behind them. Now, they are not only teammates, but housemates too.

“It’s kinda insane to think that the dude I played in high school would be one of my closest teammates in college,” Laird said, “Obviously, there are still jabs at the past, but it’s all in good fun.”

Sharing a similar sentiment, Godfrey thinks their past could explain why the two have become so close since arriving at Oberlin.

“We hang out a ton and it’s cool to have grown up in the same area and have similar experiences, so I think it made it easy for us to become good buddies,” Godfrey said.

He and Laird aren’t the only two who have managed to bond over their past encounters. Widran and Fitts have also become close since they’ve teamed up at Oberlin.

“Kiki is way more than a teammate to me,” Fitts said, “She is one of my best friends and I’m so lucky

to be able to play volleyball with her.”

Campbell and Finestone have also fostered a relationship since getting to Oberlin, with Campbell holding this connection to his teammate close to his heart.

“Coming from [San Francisco] to Ohio is a drastic change and very few people are willing to make the hike,” Campbell said, “It’s fun to have him on my team. He reminds me of home.”

For many athletes, coming to Oberlin is a new experience entirely full of new people. Developing a support system is crucial. Occasionally, high school teammates and even siblings will link together at college.

However, since these are rare occurrences, many athletes find themselves looking for anyone who they can connect with. For some, this can mean bonding with a familiar face, even if it is someone who you’ve competed against in the past. Like Campbell said, for a few athletes, these connections can bring a piece of home to Oberlin.

Trustees and Students Bond Through 5K Run Continued from page 16

about a nine or ten-minute pace, and it’s ordinarily dark due to the time change. At sunrise, it isn’t until after seven and we’re running along the bike path. It’s as casual as you can because you’re running, your heart’s beating, and you’re breathing hard.”

Gavin hopes that the 5K Fun Run serves to not only emphasize the importance of physical health, but also highlight that a community can be built through exercise and athletics.

“We want people to get together and enjoy [exercising] using the brand new facilities, which are phenomenal,” said Gavin. “We’re trying to broaden the appeal in understanding that there are many pillars to a traditional liberal arts education and the strength of both mind and body are equally important.”

Women’s Volleyball Takes Home First NCAC Win Of the Season

The women’s volleyball team picked up their first NCAC win of the season at Philips gym last Wednesday night. It was a collective effort with the defense and offense putting forth their best game. College second-year Natasha Radic cited team dynamics as a key factor contributing to their win against Allegheny College.

“We’re a really close team, and when all of us can connect we’re a team that’s hard to stop,” Radic said. “It felt great to feel like we were all playing to the level that I know we can, and I’m excited to see how this win will propel us into the rest of the season.”

College second-year Lauren Fitts expressed similar enthusiasm after the victory. “We’ve been working so hard in practice these past few weeks,” Fitts said. “We were able to execute all the plays and systems we’ve been working on and they worked well.”

The Oberlin Review | October 04, 2019

According to College second-year Kiki Widran, the Yeowomen are hoping this win has pointed themselves in a stronger direction after a rocky start to the season.

“I feel like we’ve finally hit our stride as a team,” Widran said.

“I’m excited for what’s coming next starting with [our] Homecoming [game].”

Oberlin takes the court again at Philips gym on Saturday, Oct. 5 for a Homecoming Weekend match against Ohio Wesleyan University at 1:00 p.m.

Text by Zoë Martin del Campo, Contributing Sports Editor Photo courtesy of Oberlin Athletics

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SPORTS October 04, 2019

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 5

Oberlin Welcomes Trustee-Student 5K Fun Run Tradition Maranda Phillips

College second-years Kiki Widran and Lauren Fitts

Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor

Varsity Athletes Find Teammates and Friends in Former Competitors Khalid McCalla Contributing Sports Editor Oberlin students come from 39 different states in the U.S. and more than 30 countries around the world. This diversity is reflected in the athletics department, where athletes from all over the world compete for the College. Despite these circumstances, several athletes have had encounters with and even competed against their current teammates during their high school careers. These encounters, while not necessarily significant in the moment, can be a unique experience that later develops into an incredible connection.

This year, College fourth-year André Campbell and College third-year Isaac Finestone are both members of the men’s basketball team. In 2015 and 2016, they were competitors in California, with Campbell playing at the Urban School of San Francisco and Finestone leading Lowell High School.

While Campbell’s team ultimately won both times, Finestone made a strong impression on his future teammate.

“He was very tall and had a perimeter game that was very impressive for his height,” Campbell said.

“I remember him always sticking out like a sore thumb with his length. His physicality was challenging for me, so I had to figure out a way to maneuver around him.”

Finestone wasn’t the only one who managed to make a solid impression during these early encounters. “[Campbell] has always been strong, athletic, and lethal from midrange,” Finestone said, remembering his now-teammate’s knack for scoring and imposing his will on a game.

Similar to the basketball duo, the volleyball team also features a pair of former competitors. In high school, College second-years Kiki Widran and Lauren Fitts battled against each other in a club tournament in San Diego towards the end of their senior

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year. Knowing that they would team up in college, Widran wanted to impress her future teammate.

“I remember being really intimidated because I really wanted to prove myself to my future teammate,” Widran said, “I was telling my [club] teammates that we needed to win the game because I wanted to show Lauren that I was a good player.”

After the game, Fitts and Widran spoke briefly, both in awe of the skills and talent the other displayed.

“My team won in two games but I remember talking to her after the game and finding out that half of her team was injured,” Fitts said, “I remember being really impressed with her blocking, which made me happy being a backrow player.”

Like Fitts, Widran also noticed some strengths in her future teammate’s game.

“I remember thinking she was pretty good and that she was an extremely confident player,” Widran said. She and Fitts would suit up together for Oberlin volleyball mere months later.

College fourth-years Justin Godfrey and College and Chandler Laird were both familiar with one another before they joined forces on the Oberlin football team in 2016, having played against each other for all four years of high school. With Laird playing offensive guard and Godfrey at defensive tackle, the pair even ended up in a competitive play that led to a heated moment.

“I stomped on his leg after he cut blocked me and almost got kicked out of the game our senior year,” Godfrey said.

While Laird doesn’t remember this specific incident, he does remember having to specifically prepare for his games against Godfrey.

“If I’m being honest, I don’t distinctly remember the specifics of the games and game plans for my high school games,” Laird said, “[However], I do remember a more focused approach to [Godfrey’s] defensive line [when compared] to other teams in the conference.”

See Oberlin Athletes, page 15

This weekend, Obie alum will make their way back to campus for Homecoming weekend, a tradition centered around the Oberlin community coming together to celebrate varsity sports. With the arrival of alumni from various class years, Oberlin students have the opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new connections.

Additionally, the Board of Trustees gathered this week for one of their four annual meetings. Currently, the board comprises 30 members with different professions and skills. However, they are not only meeting to discuss the future and welfare of Oberlin — on Friday morning, students had the opportunity to participate in a jog with two trustees: David E. Shipley, OC ’72, and Sean P. Gavin, OC ’98.

Shipley is a law professor at the University of Georgia, where he teaches civil procedure, copyright law, remedies, and administrative law. While teaching, he has also written a casebook on copyright law, book chapters, and over 20 law review articles. He majored in history at Oberlin and wrote for The Oberlin Review while running and swimming during all four years of college.

“It’s an excellent way to get to know students,” Shipley said of the 5K Fun Run. “You’re on a conversational run, and it’s relatively slow. We ask about a variety of things: what [your] major [is], how you like it [at Oberlin], where you’re from, what year you are, [and] what your plans [are] after graduation.”

Shipley will be joined by Gavin, who is a portfolio manager at Fidelity Management & Research Company in Boston. At Oberlin, he was a double-degree student, majoring in Mathematics and Trombone Performance. Gavin finished his major requirements in only four years while playing varsity football and club rugby for the Yeomen. In 1998, Gavin was president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee, and is now a John W. Heisman Club board member, which allows him to continue to have a voice in student athletics beyond graduation.

Gavin is aware of the rarity that a varsity athlete could also be a double-degree student. He explained that he owes his positive experience as a double-degree athlete to the diversity that existed on Oberlin’s campus.

“I think it’s very unique,” Gavin said. “When I was here, I wasn’t the only varsity athlete in the Conservatory. There were a bunch of us. I think nowadays with varsity athletics, athletes are very highly trained and in a recruitment type of situation. Overall, [Oberlin is a] rare place where you can get a sampling of everything.”

Both Gavin and Shipley try to do the 5K run every time the board meets while students are on campus, and the early-morning start time is designed to work around interested students’ schedules. The trustees are also planning on possibly doing a gym workout in the winter to allow the bonding between students and trustees to occur in the event of restrictively cold weather.

Jared Steinberg, OC ‘19, has attended the run in the past and echoed similarly positive sentiments.

“The run [is] a great way to meet students and learn about what goes on behind the scenes at oberlin,” Steinberg said. “It might be early and cold, but it gets your blood pumping and you feel great afterwards.”

For those that are nervous about the three-mile length, Shipley and Gavin want them to know it’s not a competition or opportunity to show off athletic prowess. The run is more of a casual jog, and the pace is slow to allow conversation.

“We’re not running really fast,” Shipley said. “It’s See Trustees, page 15