October 5, 2018

The Oberlin Review October 5, 2018

established 1874

Volume 147, Number 5

“Boldness. Tradition. Vision.”

President Carmen Twille Ambar who was recently inaugurated as the 15th President of Oberlin College.

Jenna Gyimesi News Editor Carmen Twillie Ambar was inaugurated as the 15th president of Oberlin College in a historic moment today.

The weekend’s inauguration events are spread out over three days are inspiree by themes of boldness, tradition, and vision.

Ambar hopes that her own career also embodies these principles.

“For me, the notion of trying to lead higher education and to be bold in our efforts to reimagine liberal arts is a part of how I thought about my own efforts,” Ambar said.

“How can I make the courageous choice, which is what I think boldness is about? How can I be on the cutting edge, to explore new ideas and new ways of thinking? How can I support other people who choose to step out of the norm?”

The inauguration committee selected these themes to reflect Oberlin College’s values and Ambar’s priorities.

“Boldness, tradition, and vision [fit] what President Ambar talks a lot about on campus,” said Jan Miyake, co-chair of the inauguration planning committee and associate professor of Music Theory. “Especially the theme of being bold. Inaugurations are one of the few traditions that we have kept at Oberlin College, and vision is what we need for the future. We thought the theme summed up something particular to President Ambar, her vision, and the way she views Oberlin’s history.”

Ambar hopes that the events collectively celebrate Oberlin as an institution and recognize Oberlin’s successes in a diverse range of fields.

“From the beginning, when the committee started this work, we agreed that this was not the celebration of an individual; this is the celebration of an institution,” Ambar

Photo by Tanya Rosen-Jones, OC ’97

said. “It is an opportunity for us to celebrate Oberlin’s legacy and also to celebrate Oberlin’s future. I just happen to be representing the institution in this particular way. I never thought about this as Carmen Ambar Day. This is about Oberlin and a chance for us to take our rightful place in leading higher education.”

Events kicked off Thursday with Sir David Adjaye’s address in Warner Concert Hall. In 2017, Adjaye was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services in the field of architecture. The same year, Adjaye was named as one of the year’s 100 most influential people in TIME magazine. He is commended for his extensive accomplishments and innovations on an international scale.

“He embodies a lot of what Oberlin is great at, which is excellent work that is creative but grounded in academic integrity,” Miyake explained.

See Inauguration, page 4

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 Residents Make Bullying Allegations Against Local Teacher

05 President Ambar: We’re Still With You

08 Dorm Decor Contest

15 ITLR: Allie Trimble, New Philips Equipment Room Manager

03 Conservatory Thefts Prompt Concern

06 YeoFit Should More Actively Support Trans Fitness

10 Oberlin Dance Department Celebrates Its Ranking Among Nation’s Top 25 Programs

The Oberlin Review | October 5, 2018

12 OTR: Sir David Adjaye

16 Men’s Lacrosse Bolsters Philanthropic Efforts

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Johnnetta Cole, OC ’57

OFF THE CUFF

Oberlin alumna Johnnetta Cole, ’57, delivered the opening remarks at the Inauguration Ceremony of President Carmen Twillie Ambar earlier today. Cole was the first female African-American president at Spelman College and also served as the President of Bennett College. She has been the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art and was awarded the Legend in Leadership Award for Higher Education from the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute earlier this year. She is a dedicated leader and a committed educator.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jenna Gyimesi, News Editor Kameron Dunbar

Johnnetta Cole

So you talked about Oberlin being an intellectual home for you. Can you elaborate on that for me?

Well, you know, in many ways I dream of the day when everyone feels at home almost everywhere. That would mean that all of these deeply etched divisions that exist now among us based on, you know, these attributes that should not matter in that way — race, gender and gender identity, and sexual orientation, and I could go on — all a part of systems of inequality. They divide us, and they say this can be your place or your home, but you can’t be here.

This is reserved for us. When I came here, Oberlin became another home for me. I had known of a very special warm, nurturing southern Black family and community, but I had also known the dominant narrative that said, “You’re Black, you’re colored, you’re Negro, you’re whatever, and you can’t be as good as us.” In the days when I came to Oberlin, this place was the end of that. This is one of my homes. I have, in a sense, three intellectual homes. As a young 15-year-old girl, I was sent off to Fisk University in an early entrance program. My parents, they believed in education like the devil believes in sin. So I never finished high school. I went to Fisk. It was a great year.

What advice would you have for current students about how they can accept difference?

How can you be passionate about your own identity, your own community, and yet be respectful of others? I’m prepared to say that is one of the critical questions of today.

I mean listen to the rhetoric, which unfortunately now also has policies behind it, right? I’m prepared to move further and say [that] when one has experienced the intensity of oppression beginning within slavery, through reconstruc-

tion, through Jim Crow, through the civil rights movement, when you have experienced all of that, it’s not hard to understand that one seeks comfort and safety in one’s own community. And then one can become intensely passionate about one’s own community, and the danger that you and I are bringing up is if passion becomes so intense that it may begin to say, ‘Only I and those exactly like me can belong here.’

Inaugurations are as inwardly celebratory as they are opportunities for colleges to tell their stories. What is the Oberlin story today in your opinion?

This is no ordinary inauguration. Look at the history, the meaning, her story, and the current reality of Oberlin College. I don’t have to convince you that we were the first college that saw co-education as a necessity right from the very beginning. Nor do I have to convince you that we were the first college to admit African Americans. The first to admit students regardless of race. So race and gender have been so central in our history and her story. Can you imagine how those abolitionists, especially how Mary Church Terrell, Mary Jane Patterson, and Augusta Savage, are jumping for joy when they will witness, looking from glory, the inauguration of the first African-American woman to be the president of this institution! When I was with sister president, as I call her, I said to her, “You know, sister, President Carmen, if you want to use biblical terms, you are our Esther. You are our leader for such a time as this, a time when there is such divisiveness, this coming from the highest places of authority and power saying that based on these attributes, race, gender, sexual orientation, class, religion, abilities, [and] disabilities should keep us apart.”

P hoto by Kameron Dunbar

Here is a woman whose own multiple identities as woman, as African American, and so much more is a walking statement of how we need to celebrate and respect difference.

As the first African American woman president of Spelman College, what does this integration mean to you?

I have such sisterly love, admiration, and respect for Carmen Twillie Ambar. I am looking at her and I am seeing a younger me. You know, in 1987 at a place called Spelman College, one of the historically Black colleges for women, as I prepared my remarks, I couldn’t help and reminisce about my own inauguration and what that meant. And I have to be honest and say what that meant in terms of its historical significance, but also the responsibility placed on someone who is a first. It’s an unusually demanding responsibility. And I am so convinced that she will bear it in an exceptionally sterling and successful way.

How can we as a community work to make sure that President Ambar has a successful tenure?

You know, I’m going to go with something that just struck me. First and foremost, practice human empathy.

Now, I’m an Obie, so I know our traditions of activism. I know our traditions if we do not feel that a president is listening to us. I respect Oberlin activism. I respect it especially these days, when there’s so much we need to do to change the ways of our communities, our nation, and our world. But if you want to support your president, I ask that you first imagine yourself as sister president, Carmen Twillie Ambar. I really think that at some point, we’ve got to figure out how we begin to better understand each other.

Residents Make Bullying Allegations Against Local Teacher Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief A group of Oberlin parents is calling for an investigation into Oberlin City Schools teacher Sharyle Strayer, citing allegations of bullying dating back to 2002.

In a Sept. 25 email addressed to OCS Superintendent David Hall and members of the Oberlin Board of Education, the group said Strayer has had many complaints filed against her over her 16-year career with OCS. Strayer, who taught sixthgrade math during the 2017–18 academic year, is currently working as an intervention support instructor at Oberlin High School.

The position will be re-evaluated at the end of the 2018–19 academic year.

A 49-page document was attached to the email, which was

signed by Oberlin residents Jeanne Lee Singleton, Rich Ruggieri-Katz, Joshua Katz, Debbi Walsh, and City Councilmember Kelley Singleton. Among its contents was a 2014 letter addressed to Strayer from then-OCS Superintendent John Schroth.

“Consider this memorandum to serve as a reprimand for your inappropriate conduct during the past school year,” it read.

“On many occasions during this past year, you have engaged in student interactions that have been described as bullying toward students. Any repetition of these behaviors will result in my recommendation that the board terminate your employment.”

The group alleges that, since Schroth’s letter, the district has done little to address Strayer’s behavior.

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Editors-in-Chief

former students and parents as well as a timeline … to show the numerous complaints made in the 16 years Ms. Strayer has been with the district,” they wrote.

“It is remarkable to note that parents have made substantive complaints to almost all 11 administrators (six principals and five superintendents) since she started in the district in 2002.”

According to Oberlin Board of Education President Anne Schaum, the district is taking the allegations seriously.

“Upon [reported] allegations at the end of the last school year, Principal Michael Scott and Superintendent David Hall conducted an investigation and worked with the accused teacher and the union to put together a plan to address the concerns,” Schaum wrote in an email to the Review. “Part of that plan

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involved removing the teacher from the classroom and increasing oversight of the teacher’s interactions with students and families.”

Singleton said that when he examined Strayer’s employee file earlier this year, Schroth’s letter was among many documents that were not present.

“We asked to see [Strayer’s] file, to see what kind of history there is in there,” Singleton said.

“And there’s nothing in there.

There’s no supporting documentation for any of the problems that everyone around town knows that she’s guilty of.”

However, neither Schaum nor Hall corroborate Singleton’s account.

“The review of personnel files and practices that the board asked to be conducted did not find that any anticipated items

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were missing from personnel records,” Schaum wrote. “Access to them is controlled.”

“The district has performed an audit of personnel files,” Hall added, also in an email to the Review. “All records on our audit list were located in the files. We will perform a random audit not less than three times a year.”

Also included in the email is a five-page timeline of alleged events involving Strayer and nearly 40 pages of testimonial from parents whose children have been enrolled in Strayer’s classes over the years.

The Singleton and RuggieriKatz families both have students who were enrolled in Strayer’s sixth-grade math class during the 2017–18 academic year. Both families say that accounts of Strayer’s inappropriate behavior See Parents, page 3

Corrections: The Review is not aware of any corrections this week.

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

Conservatory Thefts Prompt Concern Sydney Allen, Editor-in-Chief Amber Scherer After at least six thefts inside Conservatory practice rooms and lockers, Campus Safety will be increasing its security presence in the Conservatory complex with more rounds and potential additional security measures.

Over the past few weeks, at least four students returned to their practice spaces after brief intervals to find money taken from their wallets. Students also reported that their lockers, which often house personal belongings and instruments costing up to tens of thousands of dollars, had been broken into.

Campus Safety is not yet aware of who has been committing the thefts, though they will be taking additional security measures to dissuade the thieves, according to Conservatory Dean Andrea Kalyn.

“The safety and well-being of our students is a primary and fundamental concern — nothing is more important,” Kalyn wrote in an email to the Review.

“Unfortunately, there have been six reported thefts of personal items (cash, keys, and backpacks) within the Conservatory complex since the beginning of the semester. While in each instance the stolen items had been left unattended, this activity is both disappointing and concerning. We are working with Campus Safety to ensure that we continue to have adequate security coverage in our Conservatory spaces, most especially in the evening hours and on weekends. In the hopes of [theft] prevention, we are also increasing our communication with students to remind them to keep their instruments and belongings close at hand and to not leave them unattended.”

Conservatory first-year Jihoon Chun stated that his locker was robbed Sept.

24 between the hours of 5 and 6 p.m.

Although most of its contents were untouched, about $200 in cash was stolen.

“I had been there an hour before,”

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018

2:00 a.m. A student reported a suspicious male in Tappan Square who appeared to be following them.

Campus Safety officers and Oberlin Police officers responded, located and identified the male, and escorted the student to their residence.

Friday, Sept. 28, 2018

Kahn students retrieve personal belongings from conservatory lockers.

Patrick McBride, Staff Photographer

Chun said. “I came back and checked my bag. Everything was there, but all my money was gone.”

Chun began storing valuables in his locker when he heard about robberies in student dorms.

Other students echoed Chun’s concerns regarding security in the Conservatory.

“I’m at a point in my life at which my instrument is my foreseeable future,” said Conservatory junior and cello performance major Andrew Johnson. “I cannot afford another one, and I think most of us in the Conservatory are in the same situation. The thought that somebody could take my instrument away from me if I left my practice room for a few minutes to get a snack or some music from my locker is incredibly scary. We pay enough in tuition for the Conservatory to find a way to keep our belongings safe if we have to leave our rooms for a short amount of time to do something as simple as go to the bathroom.”

Senior piano performance major Shaoming Yang shared a particularly frightening account.

“I believe I left for [15–20 minutes],”

they said. “On my way back to the room, I saw my door [was] open, and a man was standing in the hallway and looking into my room … He said he is just looking for the restroom … I saw another man is in my room at this time. I said, ‘Hold on, I want to check my bag first.’ I opened my wallet and found all my cash was gone.

The man who I saw later gave my money back and [apologized]. Then they left. [I notified Campus Safety].”

Conservatory juniors John Jihong Son and Wanwan Yang had all of their money stolen as well. Unlike other reported Conservatory thefts, Yang’s money was taken from Stull Recital Hall, a performance venue, in full view of a class. A man reportedly walked into the hall and claimed to be cleaning Yang’s belongings, all of which he put in the lost and found except for $300 cash. Campus Safety retrieved the empty wallet, which Yang received Oct. 4, two weeks after the theft.

These incidents are the latest in a string of campus thefts. Last week the Review reported the arrest of community member Que Freeman, 20, an Oberlin See Thefts, page 4

Parents Ask District to Investigate Strayer Continued from page 2

involving their children prompted them to draft the email.

“What finally happened was she forced a friend of our son’s to call his father and tell him that my son and another child were not good friends of his because they always get him in trouble,” Kelley Singleton said. “We never heard about this.

You’d think that if it was my kid causing trouble that I would get a phone call and that it’d be from a teacher.”

According to Singleton, this has been a regular practice of Strayer’s.

“She had a history of forcing children to call their parents,” he said. “In this instance, though, [the friend] left a voicemail.

And that’s how this all happened, is we actually had physical proof of her forcing a kid to do this.”

Ruggieri-Katz reports that his daughter also had a negative experience in Strayer’s class, saying that she witnessed inappropriate behavior towards other students. One alleged incident involved Strayer telling a male student that girls wouldn’t like him if he didn’t do well in class.

“As a parent, it was like the twilight zone,” Ruggieri-Katz said. “This can’t be a teacher doing this and saying this.”

Ruggieri-Katz also cited that Strayer wouldn’t allow students to go to the bathroom during class, which he views as particularly damaging during a vulnerable middle school period.

“It goes beyond bullying — it’s abusive to do something like that,” he said, adding that his family filed a complaint with the Ohio Department of Education. Hall declined to comment on whether the district had been contacted regarding a complaint filed against Strayer at the state level.

Allegations included in the Sept. 25 email are similar to Singleton’s and Ruggieri-Katz’s. Parents submitted testimony that Strayer would regularly berate students publicly, eat in class, compel students to call home about bad grades and misbehav-

The Oberlin Review | October 5, 2018

Security Notebook

ior, and assign grades inconsistent with the level of work students had actually completed.

Schaum emphasized that she and other members of the district’s leadership are significantly limited in the depth to which they can discuss personnel matters. She did, however, characterize the allegations against Strayer as an “ongoing matter” and shared that Hall is in the process of following up with disgruntled parents who shared experiences at the most recent school board meeting.

“All complaints are taken seriously and investigated by the administration,” she wrote. “As requested, the district is undertaking a more thorough investigation of complaints concerning this teacher.”

Ruggieri-Katz isn’t confident in the district’s commitment to addressing the allegations.

“It seems like every time we talk to the school board, you’re looking at [the blank stares] of a bunch of people sitting up there with no response to anything that’s going on,” he said.

Ruggieri-Katz claims that he has never received a response to emails sent to the entire board, and characterized Hall’s reaction to the situation as “weak.”

Hall says he respects the commitment and dedication of parents in ensuring academic excellence for the district.

“Our school community has the same goal,” he wrote in an email to the Review. “We need to work together to achieve this goal and move the district forward.”

Both Ruggieri-Katz and Singleton say that they are advocating against Strayer out of a commitment to the school district and future students.

“I love the Oberlin school district,” Singleton said. “That’s what I went through, and I’m really happy that my kids are going through it. It’s just such a great place … We were kind of blindsided by a situation like this.”

Sharyle Strayer did not respond to request for comment.

5:48 a.m. Custodial staff reported two end tables missing from the secondfloor lounge of Wilder Hall. The tables were taken sometime between 4 p.m.

Sept. 27 and 5:48 a.m Sept. 28.

9:37 a.m. A student said they were confronted by an unknown male while walking in Wilder Bowl around noon on Wednesday, Sept. 26. The student said that they felt extremely uncomfortable with how the male spoke to them.

10:39 a.m. A resident of Keep Cottage reported two suspicious, non-student males swipe into Keep Thursday, Sept.

27 at approximately 8:03 p.m. The individuals were observed in the lounge and walking up to the second floor. A student reported the individuals leaving the building at approximately 8:45 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 29, 2018

1:06 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student who had been drinking and had fallen on the first floor of Talcott Hall. The student was able to answer all questions and said they felt nauseated and dizzy from the fall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

10:59 a.m. Officers were requested to assist an ill student in Dascomb Hall.

The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

7:21 p.m. A student said they accidentally backed into a vehicle that was parked directly behind their vehicle on the north side of Asia House. There was minor damage to the hit vehicle.

The involved parties decided that they would handle the issue on their own.

Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018

12:22 a.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at Langston Hall. Smoke from burnt popcorn activated the alarm.

1:11 a.m. Officers were requested to assist an intoxicated student in the driveway of a Lorain Street address.

The student answered all questions but was unable to stand on their own.

The student was taken to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Monday, Oct. 1, 2018

11:29 p.m. Officers and members of the Oberlin Fire Department responded to a fire alarm at a Goldsmith Village Housing Unit. Smoke from an extinguished candle activated the alarm. The alarm was cleared and reset without further problems.

Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018

12:46 p.m. A student reported the theft of their backpack from a lounge in the Kohl Building. The backpack contained a MacBook laptop. Officers checked the area for the item with negative results.

4:45 p.m. Officers responded to a report from Monday, Oct. 1 of a suspicious person in East Hall. The description of the suspicious person was minimal. The camera footage was reviewed and the incident is under review.

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Thefts, Concerns Continue Continued from page 3

High School alum who was arrested after he was found in possession of numerous stolen goods, including two laptops, a credit card, a pair of Beats headphones, and various other electronic devices. Freeman, who was on the College’s no-trespass list, was caught on camera entering Harkness House, Langston Hall, and other buildings on campus.

The recent developments have left some students questioning how to best engage with community members.

“According to the policy, leaving the practice room is all my fault,” Jihong Son said. “But [the] school should have installed [closed-circuit television systems] somewhere, not just on the middle of each hallway, you know, maybe put more, like, each corner of the building. Now I’m kind of skeptical about if it’s really OK that school is open for any town people.”

Oberlin’s no-trespass list has caused controversy in the past, particularly in 2013 and 2014 when debate around the list was picked up by local and national press. In 2013, a series of protests launched under the One Town Campaign, a group formed to combat the College’s no-trespass list.

Around two or three Campus Safety officers patrol campus at a time; however, most of their time is spent responding to student calls

and lockouts.

“We do our very best to patrol areas and maintain a presence across campus, and especially in the Conservatory, but we can’t restrict access to our facilities to just students,” said Mike Martinsen, director of Campus Safety. “We can’t be in every building all the time.”

Martinsen advised students to take preemptive precautions against thefts by locking their practice rooms and lockers and being mindful of their belongings.

“Oberlin students are very mature, hardworking, and dedicated to their work,” Martinsen said. “We rarely have any problems from our Conservatory students.

We understand that it’s difficult, but we ask that you just take the time to lock your space and take the necessary precautions against people who do choose to prey on our students.”

Kalyn added that students should report their concerns to Campus Safety.

“I would encourage students to contact Campus Safety if they witness concerning behavior, to consult the bulletin board next to the SkyBar elevator for Clery security notices and a list of student support resources, and of course to be in touch with any of the [Conservatory] deans if they have questions or concerns relative to safety,” Kalyn said.

Students Protest Open Carry

Three Oberlin students attended a demonstration at Kent State University to protest an “open carry walk” across campus on Saturday, Sept. 29. The walk attracted a large counter-protest from leftist groups, whose members outnumbered those of the far-right. College senior Maxim MatheeO’Brien was arrested along with three other counter-demonstrators; all four were charged with misdemeanors, and one was charged with a felony. More police were in attendance than demonstrators.

The demonstration was organized by Kent State graduate Kaitlin Bennett — a member of the alt-right who went viral for toting an AR-10 rifle to graduation — in an effort to bring attention to, and eventually reverse, Kent State University’s policy that bans students and faculty from openly carrying weapons on campus.

Text by Saul Kester

Photo Courtesy of Ian Feather

Inauguration Events Seek to Encourage Community Continued from page 1

“He embodies the liberal arts but also science and technology together with passion and social justice,” Ambar added.

The Inauguration Symposium Thursday evening highlighted the commitment to education shared by Oberlin faculty and community members. While the event featured a faculty panel, many community members also had the opportunity to address the crowd.

After the symposium, guests proceeded to the Inauguration Concert in Finney Chapel.

“The concert is in the style of a prism,” Miyake said. “A prism divides light into its component parts. There is no formal programming. Think of it as a pop-up concert inside and outside of Finney. There are a lot of people involved. [Conservatory] students, College students, the [Oberlin] High School orchestra, as well as a dance troupe.

We worked really hard to make it inclusive and representative of more than just the College.”

Students and community members got to enjoy a variety of selections inside and outside Finney Chapel.

“There was music happening all around, and in Tappan; I was super excited and really enjoyed it,” College sophomore Gayla Walcott said.

Ambar emphasized that she wanted the events to celebrate Oberlin’s excellence in

academics and music.

“We wanted to make sure that our connection to music and art was present,” Ambar said.

The inauguration events seek to resonate with students as well as faculty members and guests. One event specifically focused on student inclusion was Thursday’s ’Sco Night with President Ambar’s Playlist.

Students enjoyed dance tunes from the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and 2010s as well as Ambar’s favorites from Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé. Ambar noted the difficulty she faced in crafting the playlist.

“I have to say that this has been more difficult than the speech,” she said.

Members of the ’Sco staff are appreciative of Ambar’s willingness to connect with students in a student-oriented space.

“The fact that she sees the ’Sco as a place for programming events is really meaningful for students, and ’Sco staff especially,” said College senior and ’Sco student manager, Emma Broun. “She sees how important it is to connect with us.”

Today at 1 p.m., the Undergraduate Research Open House showcased student academic work and offered an opportunity for students to express their thoughts on Ambar’s inauguration. College junior Naeisha McClain, a student representative on the inauguration committee, noted the importance of student participation. “[At the open house], there are students’

voices there,” she said. “How President Ambar has come into the College, what we see her doing, and how it is affecting students and not just administrators. How does a new president affect students and the future?”

Zoe Keeley, a senior in the College, is one of the students who presented research.

“I think it is really good that this is happening. It is a good way to feel a part of the events,” she said.

About 1,000 people RSVP’d to the Installation Ceremony, during which Ambar was inaugurated earlier this afternoon.

The event was accompanied by a gospel choir, at Ambar’s request, as well as organ improvisations and live jazz.

Events will conclude Saturday with the Mary Church Terrell Main Library Dedication, the Oberlin Homecoming football game, and the Patricia ’63 & Merrill ’61 Shanks Health and Wellness Center Dedication. Organizers hope the events encapsulate all aspects of Oberlin, including athletics, academics, art, and dedication to creating change.

College junior Justin Godfrey, a member of the Oberlin football team, is excited that homecoming weekend is connected to the inauguration.

“I think that combining the inauguration with homecoming weekend celebrates student-athletes and academics,” he

Oberlin Community News Bulletin Kishi Bashi Duo Comes to Oberln The Cat in the Cream will welcome performer Kishi Bashi on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. Kishi Bashi is primarily a violin performer but is also skilled in composition and vocals. He was selected “Best New Artist” of 2012 by NPR and has toured and recorded with Regina Spektor.

The public can enjoy the electic and dynamic sounds of Kishi Bashi for free at this performace.

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Sowing and Growing at the New Agrarian Center The New Agrarian Center and Farm offers volunteers a chance to get back to nature with their Sowing and Growing event. Dig, compost, fertilize, and plant local produce at the George Jones Memorial Farm and Nature Preserve to learn more about sustainable foods and organic farming. Volunteers can get their hands dirty Oct. 9 from 5:30–7:30 p.m.

said. “We are combining school spirit with this monumental moment.”

Miyake added that the event is particularly historic as Oberlin is inaugurating a woman of color for the first time in its 185year history.

“We have a lot to celebrate,” Miyake said. “Thinking about Oberlin’s history and where we are headed and reframing it in boldness. Frankly, you are present at a historic moment. She is our first president of color. There are not that many women of color in presidency in America. It’s a big deal.”

Students are also excited to be enrolled during this significant event in the College’s 185-year history.

“It’s a really important inauguration, with her being the first president of color,” College sophomore Molly Thayer said.

For Ambar, the weekend’s events are a chance to reflect upon the values of Oberlin College and share her personal successes with her family.

“My parents and my siblings will be here,” Ambar said. “It’s always a nice family moment to get together and to enjoy each other in the context of this opportunity. The opportunity to celebrate Oberlin and connect with our students, faculty, and alumni, and celebrate the institution and also my family coming to be a part of the Oberlin family. It’s those pillars that make this weekend exciting for me.”

Learn How to Write Your Own Psalm Rabbi Rachel Barenblat will host a workshop on writing biblical psalms Tuesday, Oct. 9 from 4:30–6 p.m. in Wilder Hall, room 115. This event is open to all community members, and no writing experience or religious affiliation is required. Barenblat is an accomplished poet who has published a collection, Texts to the Holy, in addition to reliably posting on her popular blog, The Velveteen Rabbi. After the workshop, Barenblat will read some of her own poetry in Hallock Auditorium at 8 p.m.

OPINIONS October 5, 2018

Letters to the Editors

New School Facility Would Serve All Oberlin Residents

Starting fresh with new facilities in our public school system offers our community the opportunity to envision something bigger than solely accommodating the needs of our school-age population. Let’s look at the campus as a way to serve all residents! How can we best utilize our structures for more hours of the day for things like music and drama, adult education and exercise, social support services, preschool care, computer literacy, library services, and city recreation programs? If we maximize the potential uses of our facilities, we can also share expenses, lessening the burden on school district taxpayers alone.

A comprehensive plan requires creative thinking, cooperation among many stakeholders, and clear and transparent communication throughout the process. I believe this community can rise to the challenges.

Let’s strive to make a new campus the bustling hub of our community!

It should be a welcoming learning space for everyone. Rather than focus on the dwindling number of students, let’s start to ask how we can all benefit from modern learning environments. Such a positive attitude might just attract more young families to Oberlin.

Linda Slocum Vice President, Oberlin City Council

Issue 11 Will Not Solve District’s Problems I attended Oberlin City Schools and so did my children. I do not remember a time that the community said “no” to higher school taxes.

We had approximately 250 students that parents chose to send to non-OCS

established 1874

schools last year. One reason was bullying, and it is my understanding that we have a teacher who remains in the school system that many parents have said bullied their child.

Do you really think we will draw people into the district because of a new building? No, families look at outcomes — are students ready for college and are they receiving a quality education? If your report card is an “F” now, it will not change just because of a new building.

I was a part of the committee that proposed alternatives to a new building, but the board did not want to hear that. Fifty-one percent of Oberlin student are on free or reduced lunch.

Does that sound like a rich community?

We have less than 1,000 students and we pay $1 million in administrative salaries and benefits. We pay per school to remain in the International Baccalaureate, but last year only three students received an IB diploma. We all remember the bus incident when we were paying way more for repairs than any other school system. How much have we paid lawyers just last year to fight parents we don’t agree with?

Houses are for sale all around me because the taxes are already ridiculous. Please, Oberlin community and students, do not put us Oberlin residents out of our homes. Please vote no on Issue 11.

Sandra Redd Oberlin Resident

Community Should Support Issue 11 Our schools reflect what we value.

In the upcoming election, Oberlin residents will have the opportunity to vote on Issue 11, the bond issue that will result in the construction of “a state-of-the-art, cost-efficient, centralized educational campus that will be a key investment in the future of Oberlin designed for 21st-century learning practices, safety and security, sustainability, and community use.”

See Letters, page 7

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 5, 2018

Volume 147, Number 5

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief

Sydney Allen

Nathan Carpenter

Managing Editor Ananya Gupta

Opinions Editors

Jackie Brant Luce Nguyen

President Ambar: We’re Still With You Today’s inauguration of Carmen Twillie Ambar as Oberlin College’s 15th president gives our community a moment to reflect both on the first year of Ambar’s presidency and the collective challenges and opportunities now in front of us.

In some ways, it’s hard to believe that it’s only been a year. Ambar has assumed the reins at a time of great turbulence, true; but she has stepped fully into the moment, and her commitment to tackling the challenges Oberlin faces has not wavered. She’s become an integral part of this campus — certainly to the point where it feels like she’s been here for a while.

Be it conducting the Oberlin orchestra, being a regular face around Philips gym, sharing her playlist with the ’Sco, holding regular office hours, hosting student organizations in her basement, or presenting the school’s budgetary and financial decisions campus-wide, Ambar has committed herself to transparency, visibility, and learning what it means to be an Obie.

Her commitment does not just extend to students. Over the summer, Ambar and her administration reaffirmed their faith in faculty governance.

Following faculty uproar this spring over their role in the ongoing Academic and Administrative Program Review, which the Editorial Board wrote about last week, the administration changed course and strengthened the role faculty will play in important academic decisions (“Faculty Body Should Follow Junior Faculty Lead Through AAPR,” Sept. 28, 2018).

Further, Ambar has been committed to developing strong ties between the College and town communities that have often found themselves at odds. Beginning with the arrival of first-year students in August, her office, in collaboration with the Dean of Students Office and the Peer Advising Leaders program, launched a Discover Oberlin campaign, which encourages students to shop at locally-owned businesses.

Another town-gown initiative was the “Community 101” panel that all new students attended during their orientation week. The session focused being a good neighbor and developing successful partnerships between College students and other community members. While it was not terribly well-received, the effort truly matters, and is indicative of the fully immersive approach Ambar has taken throughout the first year of her presidency.

There have certainly been bumps along the way as well. Student frustrations have mounted over changes to campus spaces and eliminations of jobs. Early in her presidency, Ambar fielded complaints about the quality of campus housing, and her administration continues to be criticized for the state of Campus Dining Services.

When the AAPR was announced, there was tremendous campus pushback against Ambar’s consulting firm of choice, Stevens Strategy, particularly after a faculty letter circulated, outlining concerns from faculty members at other institutions who had encountered Stevens Strategy in the past.

In those moments when trust has been threatened or fractured, Ambar has not shied away. Instead, she has tackled concerns head on, being more visible in the face of controversy, not less. It’s a remarkable and intentional approach — especially in comparison to the end of former President Marvin Krislov’s administration, which was marked by a lack of transparency around difficult decisions.

We — students, faculty, staff, and other community members — have put Ambar through a lot. We’ve held her administration’s feet to the fire.

But what makes her leadership so effective is that she wouldn’t have it any other way. She wants to be held accountable, and understands that tough times can only be endured by communities, not individuals.

Following this weekend’s festivities, we’re not turning down the pressure. We will continue to scrutinize Ambar’s decisions, to tell her when we think she’s messed up. This is our collective duty, and we understand that a sustainable community keeps a close eye on its leaders.

But as we write this Thursday night while President Ambar hypes up the crowd at the ’Sco, our message to her is this: Thanks for being here. Thanks for becoming one of us. The past year has been hard, and the coming years will be harder, but we’re still with you. Congratulations on your inauguration — we look forward to the many years of principled leadership ahead.

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

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Opi n ions

YeoFit Should More Actively Support Trans Fitness Evan Corey Contributing Writer I had the good fortune to attend a guided tour of the newly constructed Patricia ’63 & Merrill ’61 Shanks Health and Wellness Center on Aug. 31. Not all of the machines had arrived yet, but the high ceilings and multipurpose rooms showed that the wing was capable of facilitating hundreds of people exercising at the same time.

It was a distinct upgrade from what Sara Shoenhoft, Oberlin’s head softball coach and our tour guide, called the “sweaty hallway” in which the cardio machines were formerly housed.

During the tour, Shoenhoft confirmed that Oberlin varsity athletic teams would use the old weight room for training, leaving the new spaces available primarily for non-athlete students and other community members.

The new space also comes with a new YeoFit program that includes weekly

drop-in classes for boxing, spinning, yoga, and other activities, all of which are open to the College community.

With all of its great initiatives, YeoFit has won me over. I’m a huge fan of the opportunities it affords our student body and its mission to “energize, empower, and engage the Oberlin community through fitness and fun,” as stated on the GoYeo website.

However, the YeoFit program overlooks active trans inclusion in exercise spaces at Oberlin as a necessary component of the program’s mission. If Oberlin Athletics staff members want to engage the whole student body in health and fitness, they must address the fact that transgender students are a demographic that struggles greatly with body image, highly gendered spaces, and muscle-building as a gendered activity. All of these struggles actively keep trans students out of athletic spaces.

When I asked about the possibil-

ity of “trans hours” in the new space, Shoenhoft replied that there were no plans to dedicate specific times for transgender community members to have priority in or exclusive use of the space. She recognized that “trans hours” have been proposed before for gym spaces on campus, but seemed to doubt its feasibility. I was surprised by her response. I thought it would be rather simple for some of the new fitness space to be dedicated for trans community members a couple of times a week. At the very least, some hours could be put aside as non-exclusive “trans-priority” hours.

Transgender students face restrictive factors that keep them out of the gym, at Oberlin and elsewhere.

These factors include gendered locker rooms, the lack of transgender staff at the desk, and the general conception of trans bodies as shameful. The repeated failure to implement trans hours at Oberlin suggests that Athlet-

Oberlin Students Must Evaluate Their Place in Local Elections Jackie Brant Opinions Editor As critical midterm elections approach, Oberlin students need to again consider where and how we will vote. Many of us are transient residents both in Oberlin and Ohio more generally; thus, we need to think about what our role in these communities should be.

Consider Issue 11, which will be on Oberlin’s ballot this November. It’s the first phase of a levy that would consolidate Oberlin City Schools into a single building by 2025, increasing the tax burden of many Oberlin homeowners.

Because of its impact on local taxes, Issue 11 is highly controversial. Many Oberlin residents feel that their taxes are already too high, and that has driven people out of town in the past. A significant percentage of the city’s population is low-income, meaning that further tax increases could be financially devastating to some residents.

A group of residents have even come together in their opposition to Issue 11, forming a group called Oberlin Concerned Citizens, whose goal is to raise awareness about the levy’s potentially damaging effects.

At the same time, it is clear that district consolidation is, on some level, necessary.

The district currently has four schools: Eastwood Elementary, Prospect Elementary, Langston Middle School, and Oberlin High School. It is unsustainable for a district with total enrollment of less than 1,000 students to maintain that amount of space.

Members of Oberlin Concerned Citizens say that the existing school population could be consolidated into some combination of the

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four existing buildings; however, the facilities are expensive to maintain, and the school board claims that sufficient renovation would be essentially as costly as the new building itself. The board also says that consolidating into a single building would ultimately save the district over $1 million a year.

Clearly, Issue 11 prompts nuanced and complicated conversations. It also centers around issues that simply do not affect most Oberlin students. Most of us do not pay property taxes to the city — nor does the College — and we do not use the public school system.

Issue 11 also appears on the ballot at a time when students have an already tumultuous relationship with the city. Many residents deeply disapprove of the way we handled the conflict with Gibson’s Bakery; if you drive around town, you can see many houses with “Support Gibson’s” signs in their yards.

Further, many feel that the lack of tax revenue from students leaves an undue burden on residents.

For these reasons alone, Oberlin students should likely abstain from voting on Issue 11. While we each may have individual thoughts on the levy, we are not affected by its outcome. Obviously, students who are actually from the city are in a different position. However, why should the rest of us have a say in an issue that will have no effect on us?

Since coming to Oberlin, I have felt strange about voting on city issues. I do not feel that I fully understand local politics, nor do I have an adequate understanding of the issues that affect fulltime residents. I did not vote in the City Council elections last year, nor do I intend to vote for any city issues — including Issue 11 — in

November.

I am simply a visitor in this town. Anything I vote on will, at the most, only affect me for the few years I live here, while it will impact full-time residents for years to come.

When I first came to Oberlin, I was excited to vote in Ohio because it’s a swing state. I voted here for the 2016 presidential election — an example of when I think it is justifiable for College students to vote in Ohio.

Midterm elections are more difficult to figure out. Our district deals with extremely complicated issues common in rural Midwest communities, including alarmingly high opioid overdose rates and high unemployment rates.

These are not issues one can fully understand and knowledgeably vote on as a transient member of the district. Furthermore, midterms are much lower stakes than presidential elections. Because Ohio is a swing state in presidential elections and presidential elections are much more focused on national issues, it makes sense for many students who are from solid red or blue states to vote in Ohio instead.

However, midterm elections are meant to choose representatives for individual districts that will best represent the local communities’ specific issues.

Thus, it does not make sense for students who do not live in Ohio to help make a decision about who should represent the district when many of us will already be gone by the time the next midterm rolls around. It may be very tempting for you to try to help oust a representative that you strongly disagree with. However, keep in mind that the representative of See Local, page 7

ics staff does not think transgender students need the “extra” space that trans hours provide. It appears that restricting access to certain parts of the athletic facility for the sake of a minority group sits uncomfortably in the minds of those in charge.

That mindset needs to change. If the YeoFit program aims to include everyone in its mission to encourage non-athletes to practice fitness, it needs to consider boundaries that might disincentivize or fully prohibit students from exercising or using the new space. Initiatives like transpriority hours, gender-neutral locker rooms, or athletic classes specifically for trans and nonbinary students would go a long way in including the Oberlin trans community in YeoFit’s general mission of health and fitness.

YeoFit is an excellent initiative, but it can and should do better to provide inclusive spaces for trans and nonbinary community members.

What Would You Do with $1.5 Million?

Elijah Aladin Student Finance Committee

This article is part of the Review’s Student Finance Committee column. In an effort to increase communication and transparency, SFC members will provide personal perspectives and updates on the goings-on of the committee.

If you had $1.5 million to allocate to services and activities on campus, how would you spend it? Would you throw a music festival in Tappan Square? Start a community garden in South Bowl? Host a workshop or lecture series? Renovate the Student Union building? Or maybe initiate a community service project?

This question is not hypothetical, but a literal scenario that the student body has the opportunity to answer each year with the Student Activity Fund.

Included in each student’s annual tuition is a $428 student activity fee; the aggregate of these fees, coupled with unspent funds from the previous year, constitute the SAF. The Student Finance Committee allocates the SAF to support a range of student organizations, programs, activities, and services for the student body throughout the year. In a nutshell, SAF is a fund that is collected from and run by students to serve the entire student body, so it is imperative that we have as many students participating in allocation processes and decisions as possible.

Currently, SFC is restructuring and reviewing its policies to improve allocation efficiency and better serve the student body. One of the key barriers to achieving this goal is that many students are unaware that the SAF is an available

resource, nor do they understand how to access it.

Thus, students miss out on a key resource that gives them financial agency in creating opportunities to shape their Oberlin experience. In reality, any and every student is eligible to receive funds from the SAF, and there are two major ways to do this.

The first is through ad hoc allocations, which are made to individual events or programs that receive the allocation to host the event in the same fiscal year that the request is submitted.

Any individual or student organization can request funds to host a program or event through ad hoc, working with a member of SFC to identify the event’s costs and develop an itemized budget for the event.

The itemized budget is especially important to be fully prepared for an ad hoc request. Successful events require a lot of planning, so to ensure organizers have planned sufficiently, the committee needs as much information as possible.

SFC reviews ad hoc requests weekly on Sundays from 1–5 p.m. and accepts ad hoc requests until 11:59 p.m.

Thursday nights. To get help drafting a budget, feel free to meet with an SFC member as many times as necessary before submitting a request.

The second method of accessing the SAF is through the spring budgeting process, which is for chartered organizations that should discern the specific costs necessary to their group’s operations. Necessary costs include items that groups can specify or need to function; expenses should be limited to those with certain and known costs.

Historically, the primary See Oberlin, page 7

Letters To The Editors (cont.)

Continued from page 5

This description is taken directly from the oberlinyes. org website that details the goal, the rationale, the cost savings per year for maintenance and upkeep of the current buildings, the amount of income the bond issue will generate, the timetable, how the project will be financed, and the projected cost per household. The information presented bespeaks a thoughtful process and careful analysis of the current state of the buildings, the solutions considered, and the desired outcome described in the goals. This clear, persuasive presentation leads us to urge you to vote yes for Issue 11 on Nov. 6 as a statement that we value our children, our resources, our environment, our community, and our future.

John and Linda Gates Oberlin Residents

Let’s Celebrate, Together There is a celebration in Oberlin this weekend worthy of at least a moment’s note, as Oberlin College inaugurates its first black and second fe-

male president in its history, Carmen Twillie Ambar. Some 250 years ago, America’s founding fathers were men of towering courage and intellect, but they saw no need to free blacks or compensate Native Americans fairly, if that had been possible. Nor did they perceive the wrong inflicted upon white women by subjugating them, not allowing them to vote. However, the founding fathers of Oberlin College — in the midst of a nation insensitive and complicit in its inhumane treatment of others — did take an amazing stance by becoming the first college to admit women and blacks.

Oberlin College’s celebration at this moment is one that transcends all borders and requires us all to be participants. George Washington had no higher priority than that of freedom for his times and his people, and he fought to gain it from King George. Though the freedom of many slaves was not Abraham Lincoln’s primary interest, he did fight for it because he knew that a united country offered the nation a far better hope for freedom than one split on the question of slavery. Americans have the advantage today of knowing that we can never be truly free if we do not work for the freedom of all others in the world. Our dreams become more a reality as we seek to

help others achieve theirs.

It is fitting to celebrate that no college has in its bloodstream more instincts and history for freedom for everyone than Oberlin College. While this weekend’s celebration is properly focused on one person, President Ambar, the panoramic view may reveal that she is being used as an instrumentality of fate to bring us at Oberlin, the nation, and the world far closer to our truest humanity pursued often by our ancestors but never attained. The historical roadblocks of the oppression of others, suspicion, discrimination, and more sometimes resulted in fleeting victories for a few but never much for others long-term. To be sure, our nation is saddled with those same infirmities of divisiveness, anger, meanness, and hopelessness rending us right down the middle.

This celebration challenges us all to do our best, not necessarily to be the best, and surely never to adopt a “holier-than-thou” posture or philosophy. Our inspiring history is meaningless if we learn little from it. It instructs us to focus less on walls to protect us and more on compromise.

Our history counsels us to offer less braggadocio and more action, less hostility and more amiability. Our Oberlin history sheds a bright light for us to see the 99 percent of

the views, values, and visions we share with each other, the need for food, shelter, sense of well-being, healthcare, education, jobs, and hope. That barely one percent of what our party affiliation is, what our position is on any single issue must not remain the litmus test forever fragmenting us.

George Washington faced a dark future, Abe Lincoln felt the earth shake, Franklin D. Roosevelt dealt with our greatest Depression, and President Obama took office when we were losing more than 700,000 jobs each month. They all prevailed.

And, in Obama’s case, he left office eight years later with a one-million job increase, enough to provide President Trump with a chance to shout daily what a great job he is doing, and while he boasts that he has kept things going in the right direction, a little less stridency would help legitimize this achievement.

The point is that though Oberlin College has challenges, its chances of being as great today as it was over the past hundred-plus years are terrific, and the need to excel in its distinctive ways will be more beneficial than ever.

This is the opportune time to celebrate.

The trustees of Oberlin College chose President Ambar over many other outstanding candidates; she and

her family deserve this celebration and all the congratulatory remarks that will be heard. From afar, President Ambar appears to have already seized upon the challenge and opportunity afforded her to move Oberlin to a new level of excellence in spite of the difficult times we face.

Unofficially, the celebration is for us all, a moment to remember and be grateful to our heroes of the past, to remind ourselves of how much more work needs to be done, and to commit ourselves anew to pass the baton of humanity to those younger, faster, and wiser. The trust is that they will avoid the pitfalls of hate, isolation, and contempt for those who don’t look like them, whose cultures and languages are different, and embrace diversity in all its manifestations to make the College, town, and the world greater than ever before by feeling and displaying the power of forgiveness, redemption, and optimism.

Like life, this celebration is not one for spectators but for participants who are excited just doing or trying to do their best to make things better.

Booker C. Peek Emeritus Associate Professor, Africana Studies Department

Local Midterm Elections Should be Decided by Residents, Not Students Continued from page 6

CARTOON OF THE WEEK Anya Spector

this district should represent the people who actually live here and that their lives will be directly affected by their performance in Congress. They should be the ones choosing who will best represent them.

As a Houston native, I have a different lived experience. I don’t really know what life is like in an area like Oberlin. I don’t know what the best answer is to solving the problems in this district, and do not have a deep understanding of what has or has not worked in the past.

For these reasons, I do not feel comfortable voting in the Ohio midterm elections and will be voting via absentee ballot in Texas instead.

It would be disingenuous of me to deny that the Texas Senate race isn’t

of particular interest to me. It’s an extremely important, heated, and close race at the moment and is a large part of the reason I am choosing to vote in Texas for midterms.

However, I would encourage all Oberlin students who are not from Ohio to truly consider where they are choosing to vote. Can you relate to the experiences of the members of our district? Do you honestly know what this community needs from its government? If you cannot truthfully answer these questions, your votes may be better spent in your home state and district. Let the people who live here elect the people that will be representing them for years to come.

What you believe to be in their best interest may not actually ring true in the long run.

Oberlin Students Should Take Advantage of SFC Resources Continued from page 6

method of funding has been through spring budgeting; this year, however, SFC is looking to make ad hoc the primary method of funding from the SAF. The past spring budgeting process created a lot of inefficient allocations. Some groups received allocations that they never touched, while others sacrificed events because they did not have enough money, and most groups hosted

The Oberlin Review | October 5, 2018

programming that differed vastly from the budget they requested in the spring.

I believe ad hoc is a more flexible allocation process that allows groups and individuals equal opportunity to request funding as demand for events surfaces. As SFC works to review its processes, feedback and participation from students are necessary to decide how we allocate the SAF’s $1.5 million.

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1st SAGE VOUSE OFF-CAMPUS HOUSE Year: Senior Major: Computer Science Dorm decor dogma: “It’s been described as ‘the most occult room I’ve ever seen’ by a friend. I’ve wanted a black room since childhood. The rest of the decor was just an accumulation of things I’ve decorated with throughout my life, largely gathered through adventures with friends and family.

By the time it came together, it was both something fairly creepy but also quite beautiful, which is all I aspire to be. It also helped to highlight how much natural light the room gets, which quite literally brightens up my day.”

Room 2n

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3rd

Ho Me norab nti le on

LAUREN ELWOOD, FAIRCHILD HOUSE Year: Sophomore Major: Dance and Theater Dorm decor dogma: “The best way to describe my style, both in room decor and in life, is maximalism. I’m a bit of a quiet person, so I like to express myself more through my space and my clothes. Filling up a space I’m allowed to inhabit. I love colors.

I love patterns. I love clashing concepts. I love home. Mixing all my interests. Old and new. A little scattered and cluttered.

Sentimental objects. Family. Friends. Events. Pieces of my life and what I would like to be part of someday. Or maybe just something cute. One big collage of myself. A place where I can find warmth in at the end of the day.”

Calendar SATURDAY, OCT. 6 Main Library Dedication Ceremony The main library in the Mudd Center will be dedicated to Mary Church Terrell, OC 1884. Terrell was an educator, civil rights activist, and feminist who helped found the National Association of Colored Women as well as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Mudd Center, 9–11 a.m.

EMILY HIGHKIN, VILLAGE HOUSE Year: Senior Major: Economics Dorm decor dogma: “I think about taping up the wall like a puzzle, which is finished when no more white space is visible.”

CORA HASEGAWA, OFF-CAMPUS HOUSE Year: Senior Major: Cinema Studies Dorm decor dogma: “I’m really far away from my home — I’m from Oklahoma — so I like having this place here that’s just my space because I’m going to be in it for a whole year. I wanted it to feel cozy, and I like it being organized too. I wanted it to be a space where I could do whatever I want with it. I wanted to put up things I like to look at — I’m a very visual person — so I have art and things like that because it keeps me thinking.”

SUNDAY, OCT. 7 Oberlin College Black Musicians’ Guild: Back to Black This free concert will feature Black Oberlin musicians performing an eclectic range of music, from rap to classical. There will be a cash bar and free food starting at 7:30 p.m.

Birenbaum Innovation and Performance Space, 8 p.m.

SUNDAY, OCT. 7 Canvassing Event The Ken Harbaugh for Congress campaign is hosting a canvassing event in which supporters will go door-to-door to discuss the upcoming election with local residents. Meet in the Wilder Hall lobby for training before the actual canvassing.Transportation is provided, but if you have a car and are willing to drive, it would be much appreciated.

Starting in the Wilder Lobby, 2:30–6 p.m.

Decor Contest This week, the Review held its first dorm decor contest. Contestants were judged based on how intentional, thoughtful, cohesive, unique, and beautiful their rooms were. There was also a category for themed rooms, which was not ranked. Extra points were given to students who transformed rooms in the dingier dorms into lovely spaces to inhabit.

Layout and Text by Mikaela Fishman, This Week Editor

Theme

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GAVIN EPSTEIN HARKNESS HOUSE Spaceworm Theme Year: Senior Major: Computer Science and Math Dorm decor dogma: “I was feeling a sci-fi theme for my room this year. I asked my roommate about his preferences, and he said he wants something cozy. Spaceships and cyber things tend to have a lot of pointy angles, so I spent a few days making a cuddly spaceworm instead.”

CLARE CURRY, SOUTH HALL Rainbow and Trophy Theme Year: Junior Major: English Dorm decor dogma: “I just wanted it to be fun! I have some pictures from when I was little that I just found at home, lots of postcards, and some photo booth prints. I [also] have some art rental pieces that I really like! One is from 1520. Half the time my room is super messy, and the other half it’s super clean. I’m kind of bad at putting things away when I use them, but I always fully clean my room about 2–3 times a week. I’ve studied in my room twice this semester — I normally just hang out and sleep there.”

MONDAY, OCT. 8 Food, Health, and Culture in Latino Los Angeles Sarah Portnoy, associate professor of Spanish at the University of Southern California, will lecture about the Latinx food scene in Los Angeles and food-related health problems plaguing low-income Latinx neighborhoods.

She will also discuss potential solutions, such as encouraging urban agriculture and legalizing sidewalk vendors.

Hallock Auditorium, 4:30–6 p.m.

KATE LITTLE AND ZOE HEUSER, EAST HALL Bear and Forest Theme Year: Seniors Majors: English and Environmental Studies, Music Performance Dorm decor dogma: “Zoe came to visit me [Kate] in Washington this summer, and we love trees and nature, so we decided to do a forest theme, which then morphed into bears because there were so many in the room already.”

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 10 Connect Lab — Lunch & Headshots Learn how to build your online profile on websites such as Wisr and LinkedIn during this hands-on workshop led by the Career Development Center. After the half-hour workshop, attendees will have the opportunity to take a free headshot.

Please bring your own laptop. Lunch will be provided.

Science Center, room A154, 12–1:30 p.m.

THURSDAY, OCT. 11 Faculty/Guest Recital: Amir Eldan and Misha Namirovsky Professor of Cello and Chair of the Division of Strings Amir Eldan will perform Bach, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev with guest pianist Misha Namirovsky.

Kulas Recital Hall, 8–10 p.m.

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE October 5, 2018

established 1874

Volume 147, Number 5

Oberlin Dance Department Celebrates its Ranking Among Nation’s Top 25 Programs

Michal Schorsch, OC ’18, and College junior Kara Nepomuceno dance in last year’s Spring Back, one of the school’s semesterly faculty-run showcases.

Photo Courtesy of Dance Department

Kate Fishman Arts & Culture Editor In my junior year of high school, my lifelong dance teacher told me that she hoped there was a strong dance program wherever I chose to go to college, because she was sure I would miss it.

I nodded politely, sure she was wrong. During my college search, I barely considered dance — and yet, I spent much of my first semester at Oberlin rapturously watching dance, writing about dance, and fangirling over the pieces being created here and the amazing dancers doing the creating.

When I began to dance again in my second semester, then, it was unsurprising. I participated in a couple choreography projects, and felt thrown back into my body every time I set foot in Warner Main Space.

This semester, I took a movement class in the department for the first time. I’d thought I was done with dance, but dancing at Oberlin has made me fall more in love with it than ever.

When Onstage Blog released its annual college dance program rankings this August, Oberlin’s department (which last spring had just 16 majors and 15 minors) was among the country’s 25 best. Coming in at lucky number 13, Oberlin was highlighted for its emphasis on somatic studies, utilizing “both theoretical approaches and movement practices to increase kinesthetic awareness and an understanding of what creates optimal physical performance.”

Ann Cooper Albright, Chair of Oberlin’s Dance department, finds interdisciplinary scholarship invaluable. “[Dance studies] is starting to blend [two things that] used to be much more distinct, which is scholarship and practice,” she said. “One of the things that’s great about our department is that all of the faculty teach across ideas.”

Nonetheless, it’s surprising to see Oberlin’s tiny department ranked among such esteemed programs as The Juilliard School, The Ailey School, and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Unlike traditional dance conservatories, Oberlin does not outline specific technique requirements, nor does it require an audition to declare a major; the only required auditions are those determining placement in advanced technique classes. The lack of formal auditioning is easily perceived as a disconnect from the traditional standards of a good dance department, but more and more it seems to be a strength in producing passionate and self-directed dancers at Oberlin.

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“We don’t have an ideal dancer that we’re trying to create,” Cooper Albright said. “What we have is a whole group of people just really curious about what is possible. It means that people who’ve never danced before and start dancing in college can major.

It means that people who have lots and lots of experience outside of college can come in and grow. There are people in the department who end up majoring who would never have thought they’d major in dance. … We’re not really thinking about the answers. We’re really about forming the questions.”

In addition, Oberlin offers an array of classes in African and African diasporic dance forms each semester, including capoeira, West African dance, and samba. This variety in non-Western forms is highly unusual for a program of its size, and allows Oberlin’s dance department to cater to a range of student interests and cultivate exploration.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Alice Blumenfeld joined the faculty this year teaching flamenco. Meiver de la Cruz, a Visiting Assistant Professor of

Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, has taught Raqs Sharqi belly-dancing classes at Oberlin and will be receiving her doctorate in Performance Studies for a dissertation that is the first ethnographic history of Arab-American dance practices in the U.S. College junior and Dance minor Rosemary Shin said that her ability to connect with faculty is one of the aspects of the program she treasures most.

“Because I’ve taken classes with almost all of them, I find that I’m close with each of the professors in different ways,” Shin said. “They create that environment.”

“My goal is to offer a program that is personalized, community-oriented, and relevant to the complexity of modern life,” wrote Assistant Professor of Dance Alysia Ramos in an email to the Review. “From [the various faculty and their expertise in different professional, scholarly, and choreographic areas] the students here get a rich and varied curriculum, personal mentoring and vital connections to the professional field. We also have wonderful facilities, opportunities for independent projects and collaborations with the conservatory that are unmatched in other programs.”

“I’m especially pleased that the department was graced by this outside recognition, because it will hopefully help validate our existence at a time when there is a sense of competition among Oberlin College departments for a shrinking pool of tenure track positions,” Cooper Albright said.

The interdisciplinary nature of Oberlin dance also makes it unique. Last year, despite the small number of majors, a remarkable 473 students enrolled in department courses.

“One of the things I always say is that I love the fact that the people in my classes aren’t just dance majors, that they also bring in their perspective for economics or neuroscience or English or a language,” Cooper Albright said. “This is [all] part of what we’re doing, and we’re not shutting that off.”

Even for those who have chosen to pursue dance more intensively at Oberlin, the ability to apply the discipline in a variety of ways is crucial.

“My dance work usually intersects other mediums like sculpture and film,” wrote College senior and Dance major Sophia Attebery in an email to the Review. In looking for college programs, Attebery was drawn to Oberlin’s “unconventional pedagogy See Dance, page 13

Rachel Ford, OC ’18, College juniors Zach Arfa, and College senior Charlotte Andrews perform in “One Breath,” the Oberlin Dance Company’s spring semester show last year. This performance was the culmination of work through the Varsity Contact class.

Photo Courtesy of Dance Department

New Pinegrove Album Re-Opens Questions on Separating Art From Artist in Wake of Controversy Carson Dowhan Staff Writer After nearly 11 months of silence and confusion following a provocative Facebook post by Pinegrove lead singer Evan Hall, the indie band independently released their third album, Skylight, on Bandcamp.

Pinegrove’s activity came to a halt in November of last year, after Hall made a Facebook post that revealed allegations of sexual coercion made against him by a fan. Pinegrove’s tour and album release were cancelled, and they parted ways with their label Run for Cover.

Hall’s post had come without warning — the lengthy announcement was accompanied by apologies and claims that the singer was beginning to recognize the power dynamics that exist between male musicians and female fans. He claimed that when he pronounced his love to a fan in a relationship and had intimate contact with her after the relationship ended, he “misread the situation.”

“I have always tried to approach all of my relationships under the premise of equality, but I see now more clearly that the inherent privilege of my gender and the accumulated privilege of being a recognized performer most certainly impacted this interaction,” Hall stated. He did not go into detail about the allegations, instead issuing a blanket apology for his misdoings, which included making female fans at concerts uncomfortable.

“I am also led to something that I said regarding all this that I regret immensely,” he wrote. “I said that I could sense who from the crowd would be interested in sleeping with me based on how they watched me

perform. This comment applies such a dark layer to my interactions with people after our sets. Nobody coming to a concert deserves to be evaluated based on their sexual potential by the performer. I absolutely crossed a line with that comment and that behavior, and I am so sorry.”

Sheridan Allen — founder of the organization Punk Talks, which provides free mental health services to touring musicians — claimed she spoke to the alleged victim. Hoping to drive Pinegrove out of Cleveland’s Snowed In Festival, she sent emails to Pinegrove’s label and the organizers of the festival, claiming that the victim was not the first.

Pitchfork magazine released a 6,000 word piece about Hall’s post and the subsequent behavior of the band. Pinegrove, known for its open communication with its youthful base, went silent for almost a year after Hall made his public statement. In the article, writer Jenn Pelly revealed that the alleged coercion “took the form of ‘verbal and contextual pressure’ and that ‘the accusation is not of a physical nature at all.’”

Pelly’s reporting added more context to the situation, illuminating both the backlash from the band’s perspective and how Hall has personally dealt with his actions. Pelly sympathized with Hall and highlighted the year he took off as part of a resolution with the alleged victim, which included the singer entering therapy. The article served as a platform to clarify his actions and painted Hall as a victim of his own mental health.

Now, almost a year after Hall’s apology, it appears Pinegrove is moving forward by reorienting its focus and giving back to the community. All of the pro-

ceeds from Skylight will be donated to MusiCares, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the Voting Rights Project. Even before the release of the album, Pinegrove donated the proceeds of prior releases to other charities. Though certainly not an excuse for Hall’s actions, this decision — clearly a bid by Pinegrove to win back some of its fans — is not unwelcome, as these are worthy causes in their own right. Still, some fans may question why none of these organizations specifically work in sexual assault prevention.

What does this mean in the context of the #MeToo movement? Fans may be torn following Hall’s post, but that hasn’t stopped them from purchasing Skylight — after all, album sales are benefiting charities instead of Hall’s bank account. Many have claimed that Pinegrove’s music has helped them through tough times themselves.

But where do we draw the line between art and artist? Why has Hall faced no legal repercussions?

Is he a changed man after apologizing and entering therapy?

Skylight was fully recorded and ready to be released prior to the allegations, so the contents of the album don’t interpret the situation or Hall’s experiences dealing with it. Is it acceptable to buy the album if it was recorded before the controversy began?

Whether longtime fans or new listeners purchase Skylight, these questions surrounding the allegations against Hall will follow the group for a considerable time. Listeners have the discretion to decide if Hall’s response to his actions was appropriate, and whether or not the band’s music can be listened to outside the context of controversy.

Dr. Ridha Moumni Speaks on Tunisian Art, History Imani Badillo The Art History department hosted Dr. Ridha Moumni in Hallock Auditorium Tuesday, Oct. 2 for his presentation, “Art, Life, and Politics in Post-War and Postcolonial Tunisia.” Moumni’s presentation discussed how the aesthetic of Tunisian art was influenced over time by political actions in and around the country.

Located in North Africa and bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, Tunisia gained its independence in 1956. Although the French never officially colonized Tunisia like they did neighboring Algeria, they established a protectorate in 1881. Although the governmental structure was preserved, Tunisian ministers were still appointed, and the bey remained the official monarch, supreme authority was passed to the French resident general.

This political climate resulted in the substantial development of both traditional Tunisian painting and European aesthetics.

Moumni’s talk covered the history of Tunisia under the influence of France and addressed various artists who either worked under the traditional Tunisian aesthetic, learned and studied under a French lens, or incorporated the forms together.

“One of the main concerns of the artist is to sell their art and live through their art,” Moumni said.

Moumni discussed the painters Yahia Turki and Jellal Ben Abdallah in depth. Turki painted landscapes of Tunisia with a dynamic and rigorous style that was distinct from tight European aesthetics. With this type of work, Turki became a famous painter in the Tunisian art scene. In contrast, Jellal Ben Abdallah had a very traditional

style. He painted Tunisian scenes that he grew up seeing. “The traditional Tunisian scene was [Abdallah’s] identity,” Moumni said.

Moumni also explored the role of women in Tunisian art and the importance of the female figure. He discussed Leila, the first feminist icon presented in Tunisian art. Painted by artist Aly Ben Salem, Leila promoted everyday Tunisian women. Salem painted clothed women, subverting the dominant Europen aesthetics of the time which showed the naked female body. He also strived to show the traditional Tunisian way of living through his work.

In contrast, Jellah Ben Abdallah’s paintings of traditional environments highlighted women’s important roles in society. Abdelaziz Gorgi made tapestries and mosaics which illustrated women’s lives after Tunisia’s independence.

The event was attended by students, and faculty members, and community members. Students in attendance said the event was a useful supplement to their ongoing art history studies.

“Dr. Moumni’s presentation was a wonderful addition to the study of Tunisian art history, relating Tunisian independence to its relative artistic bloom,” said College first-year Grace Kirk, who is enrolled in the Art History department’s Approaches to African Art class.

Moumni’s talk highlighted the broader cultural significance of the shifting political climate of Tunisia, particularly as it changed over a relatively short period. Understanding the way that art developed in this transformative time allowed for an additional visual aid into the ever-changing culture in Tunisia’s path to independence. The window into art made that transition much more accessible and comprehensive.

COMIC Claire Wang

The Oberlin Review | October 5, 2018

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

On The Record with Sir David Adjaye, Architect Acclaimed architect Sir David Adjaye, designer of the Museum of African American History and Culture among other notable projects, gave a keynote lecture yesterday as part of President Carmen Twillie Ambar’s inauguration weekend. Born in Tanzania, Adjaye is a global citizen whose work balances both the needs of surrounding communities and his own fascination with material science. Adjaye was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 and named as one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People last year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Katie Lucey, Arts & Culture Editor Olivia Smith school that did that. It’s always had a very important figure in my mind. And it’s wonderful to see the alumni in their 70s and 80s, just walking around still, and [I] was just like, ‘wow.’ It’s very touching for me to be here.

Sir David Adjaye gave the keynote lecture for President Ambar’s inauguration weekend this Thursday, Oct. 4. Adjaye spoke about using architecture to engage and cultivate community.

Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor

What’s your process for approaching a new project?

Where do you start?

So I start by not sketching. I try very hard not to draw when I have a new project, but I start by collecting information. I used to do it with my architects, but now I have research teams that work with the architects, and basically we start with a little sociological experiment. We go into the communities, we try and get formal and informal stories. We go into bars, we chat with people … we try to get a feeling of a place.

That’s a critical part of starting.

And then there’s a kind of pin up in my studio at a certain part when we feel like we’ve saturated and we’re getting repeats and we sort of understand what’s going on. And then that’s when the creativity starts. I start to work out a matrix of things that make sense to start to informally [design], and that’s when I start to sketch.

So when you go to the Museum of African American History and Culture, you start in the bottom of the museum. Is this something you included in the design, and how does it reflect the African American experience?

Absolutely. So the exhibition design was done by an exhibition designer, but the narrative of how you use the space was done by us. The whole premise of the project was that [in] a typical museum, you come into a lobby or an atrium, probably, then you go left or right and up a series of stairs, and you come back into the lobby.

We really wanted to turn that on its head, and to go deep into the ground first.

Now, most museum specialists will tell you that’s the worst thing to do, because no one likes to go down and then nobody likes to go all the way up. But I said that it was compelling and very important, because the story was

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about a certain kind of going into the matter of things. For me, the earth represents a past, a history, layered and built up on, that you literally went into. In it, there was no daylight, because it’s the past and it’s gone. We could use it to talk about that. And then we would start to use the light and the views to unfold the migration, and then the cultural explosion. You can use the light and the context of the windows to actually choreograph that. And that’s what the exhibition does as you go up, and that was really important to the way in which we designed the museum. Thankfully, they didn’t deviate from that.

And what you said in the talk about congestion within the first exhibition gallery really rang true. I remember feeling that way in the space.

That was important, because also, we didn’t want to make literally a galley ship from the 16th century. But actually what was going on was that those were the scales of galley ships. You know, eight-foot [ceilings], claustrophobic, packed in. And you know, in a way, we just wanted you to feel that a little, but not be too literal.

So that’s what’s going on with that. And what’s good about that is that it sets up that moment when you suddenly come into the main hall, because it’s such a release and you’re like, “Oh my God. What just happened?” And then you realize, you’re in another period. And then you unfold.

Space and emotions.

Oberlin was the first institution in the United States to admit African-American students. What does that legacy mean to you and your decision to speak at President Ambar’s inauguration?

It’s part of the reason I’m here.

I’ve always wanted to come to Oberlin; I knew it was the first

I want to ask you about your Sugar Hill project, which I was able to visit a few years ago.

Can you speak a little about that project, especially its mixed-use features?

Well, the Sugar Hill building is trying to be a little piece of resistance to the typical model of gentrification and development that happens in New York. You know, it was really trying to make a project that deals with the strident issues in the community — [for example], homeless housing. You know, nobody wants to talk about big bucks, so nobody is doing it. Community [spaces] are really important for these neighborhoods that are growing and getting bigger and there’s not enough of [them], or they’re in basements, or in out-of-area places. To try to make a ground plane that’s not about shops, not another Starbucks, but about community infrastructure.

It was about that infrastructure, and [figuring] out a way to support it. To create, in a way, a neighborhood destination. By doing that, we would counter the stigma that, ‘oh, that would be the building where the homeless people are,’ and nobody would want to go. [Instead it would] become, of course there are homeless people there, how amazing, but also we have the great [Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling] and it’s the place where my kids go. It sort of created a reversal of the negative stereotype that you’d have on such a thing, which is very important to me. We worked really hard with the client to develop the programs that were specific to that.

At one point, we were considering just putting a shop in there.

I remember just being so upset, you know, and thinking, God, if we put another shop here, we’ve sort of lost. It would just sort of be whatever, another bodega, and that’s not what the neighborhood needs. Absolutely not another Starbucks, and definitely not another bodega. It was just like, no.

Actually, I was also working with them on the Studio Museum at the time, and I got the Studio Museum to come in and talk to them about how to make museums.

From that conversation, the idea of a storytelling museum was born. It literally was invented for them, and it came out of the fact that they were really invested in looking after young kids as part

of their program. This was an opportunity to maybe do something that could support that teaching, but maybe be a neighborhood facility. And it’s amazing. It’s become the neighborhood thing.

which is finding out about stuff, and then [figuring out] what I’ve got to do. The gap between those two things [is] the moment of creativity, you know, that’s the creation.

TIME named you one of the most influential people, you’re well-known for designing the museum and other buildings — how are you experiencing this newfound fame?

You know, it’s really interesting. I think for me, it’s really allowed me to have more access to more places and more things. So, for me, fame is a tool. I’m actually not interested in fame. I’m interested in using it to do what I need to do. So I’m able to talk to leaders, to talk to city mayors, etcetera, in a way that they listen more carefully now than when I was just David Adjaye the architect.

For me, I use it that way, and I really value that and treasure that.

What role do materials and light play in your designs and the story you’re trying to tell?

I believe that we live in a physical world, and that the manipulation of physical materials is really important. Material science is really important. Without understanding material science, you’re not able to understand how to manipulate things. I’m interested in being able to manipulate matter, like I want you to not realize that this is concrete, or I want you to think that this is really light. I can’t do that by just imagining it. I have to kind of understand it.

I’m deeply interested in the way in which material science kind of works, and how it emotionally affects us, and then fundamentally, I’m interested in gravity and weight. The idea that gravity is an eternal position, and we can’t get past it. ... In my forms, there’s always this idea of weight, and then this idea of light. Light is what allows us humans to see each other and to express our relationship to the world. These three things are the three key pillars of what I do.

Your work is grounded in the community that surrounds it.

How do you grapple with the history of a certain location when you’re designing a new building? How do you design a building that is both rooted in the past, in history, and also one that looks toward the future?

So, one thing I always say when we do that research, is [that] we’re not trying to represent the history or trying to say [that] we’ve got all these stories that we think matter and now we’re going to make a building out of that. It’s deeply personal in the end, because I’m the creative person, so it’s autobiographical.

It’s almost like a writer writing.

I can go into a community and write about something, but what I choose to pick up on is how I creatively work. I always say, I could pick up on something that was just sort of there.

For instance, with the Sugar Hill building, the rose [motif ] idea was really putting together ... somebody talking about the Aretha Franklin track in a bar.

That’s where it came from. And I thought, that’s amazing, there used to be these [rose] farms [in Harlem]. Why don’t we put those two things together? That was not a community conversation. I made that up. But it comes out of the community, and it’s interesting that it then became part of the story of the building and the story of the place.

It’s really how I creatively listen and put things together, rather than making something that represents other things. … I would always fail if I tried to do that. I need to give myself that moment of the creative synthesis,

What changes are you seeing in the field? Do you think there’s a growing need for architecture to be responsive to the community, and how is technology changing how you approach a project?

Technology is so important in the field. We use more technology than ever before. Mapping, getting data, sunlight studies, the sort of things that I do — we can’t do them without the data and the software we use to map out how the light works, etcetera. So I’m not guessing and being really clever, I’m literally just mapping it out.

But I think that my generation is really interested in the way in which we can reconcile technological advancements in construction, which happened at the end of the 19th century to the 20th century, and how we can bring back stories. How we can make stories, which is the history of architecture, connect back to place, which connects to people. We think the 20th century was amazing, but it was all about technology and construction. It didn’t have the storytelling. We think that the beginning of the 21st century is about telling stories again, and making architecture humanist again.

Unused Room 1 Showcases Student Artwork in New Biweekly House Show College seniors Alexander Freundlich and Zaid Milefchik stand in their exhibition Unused Room, a space in their home that they will be using to showcase contemporary student art. Their first show this past Wednesday, Oct. 3 included art made from mixed greens, a diffuser, and tape, among other avant-garde materials. From Oct. 31 onward, their shows will be running bi-weekly. “We consider art to be a substrate out of which new ideas and understandings can emerge,” they said in a statement to the Review. Unused Room is an organism. Better yet, it’s a genus of potential organisms contained within each show. Moving forward, we hope to offer a new space for both art and vernacular expression on our campus.

We strongly encourage writers, STEM students, and other non-artists to submit.” They will be accepting submissions at dollooollob@gmail.com.

Text by Kate Fishman Arts & Culture Editor Photo by Maria Turner Photo Editor

Dance Department Ranked Thirteenth Best in Country

“MUSIC TO MY EARS” CROSSWORD ANSWERS

Continued from page 10

compared to classical conservatory training.”

Zach Arfa, another junior Psychology major with a Dance minor, finds dance invaluable to his scientific pursuits.

“Whether [in] performance and virtuosity, choreography, tech, or community organizing, the dance department is structured to help students look past the artwork and be a little more inquisitive about the impact it actually has,” wrote Arfa in an email to the Review. “For me personally… I learn about people, how to change people’s perceptions and behaviors and what aspects of a project make something compelling and meaningful for someone; the same questions that psychologists ask in their research.”

Shin approaches things from a pre-med perspective.

“As someone who wants to be in the medical field, [Body Re-Education with Jennifer Shults] just changed my perspective on the body and health as a whole,” she said.

Contact Improvisation, the class that I’m currently taking, has done the same for me. I leave every class, no matter how exhausted or stressed I’ve been, feeling empowered. It’s made me think much more about our psychological relationship to touch, and about the courage it takes to depend on others through both connection and resistance. I’ve also been doing a whole bunch of handstands.

As Cooper Albright says, “Put the body in the world.” And that’s what I hope to do.

The Oberlin Review | October 5, 2018

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Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Allie Trimble, New Philips Equipment Room Manager Hailing from Wakeman, Ohio — a small town 11 miles west of Oberlin — Allison Trimble began working for Oberlin Feb. 7, 2000, as part of Campus Dining Services. Trimble, who was born in Oberlin at Mercy Allen Hospital, started working in Wilder Hall, then transitioned to Dascomb Dining Hall, and ended up back at Wilder before accepting her current position in Philips gym. Trimble can be seen strolling the halls of Philips wearing the new Good Vibes Only gym uniform and handing out equipment to patrons.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Ify Ezimora Sports Editor Where did you work in CDS and for how long?

I worked at Wilder, and I worked off-and-on for 18 years. ... I worked at Dascomb for about seven years, so I worked at Wilder for 11.

Well I have to wash all the girls’ uniforms — indoor and outdoor sports. I have to sign out different equipment, like basketballs, rackets, stuff like that. Work with all the coaches.

What was your favorite part of working for CDS? Getting to know all of you guys. That was the best thing. You know we call ourselves in food service “the Obie Moms.” We’re your moms’ voice of reason when they’re not here. And we’re more than cooks — we’re like psychiatrists when you’re having a bad day, or if you just need someone to talk to. We were always here for you, and it’s just a huge support system, and that’s one thing I loved about it.

What is your favorite part so far about working in Athletics?

I lost 10 pounds from walking. And it’s like, you see everyone, but then you see them in a different perspective. You know they play basketball or play softball, but now I really know what they do. Over in CDS we just see you guys all the time. But here, I actually know, like [College junior] Ally [Driscoll, Equipment Room student worker]’s a basketball player. Over there I would just say, “Hi, Ally,” and that’s all I would know. It’s a different eye-opening experience.

Do you miss CDS? I miss the people. But this is so different. It’s a whole different animal than CDS, but I have a lot of friends over there that I miss. But we still keep in contact over Facebook!

How has the transition from CDS to Athletics been?

It’s been wonderful. It’s been absolutely wonderful; I am 100 percent in love with my job, I really am.

You know I love food service, but sometimes you need a change. I was there for 18 years and just got to the point where it’s like, “Oh, here you go, here you go.”

Now it’s like, “Hey, I’ve got something to do; I’m more challenged now.” I love it here, I really do.

What are some of your responsibilities under your belt now?

I heard you posted postcards in one of the locker rooms.

I’ve done it for all the girls’ locker rooms. I tell them I’m like their little cheerleader. I put like, “There’s not just one member of a team; every member is the team,” and just inspirational quotes, and that makes it good when you’re feeling down. If you lose a game and you go in there, if you play your heart out — that’s all that matters. If you played the best you could, then you did well. Just because you win or lose doesn’t mean anything — I mean, it does mean something — but if you know you played your best then that’s all that matters.

Do you anticipate working in Athletics until you retire, or do you imagine switching to something else?

Oh no, I really like this. I’m hoping to stay here for a

Allison Trimble

Photo by Ify Ezimora, Sports Editor

long time. Or until I grow, like, 50,000 moms and take over the mom world.

What are you most looking forward to this year, in terms of your new position?

Learning sports. My husband teases me that I am the one person [who] knows nothing about sports, and how I got this job he has no idea. I told him I had the most seniority. But I’m learning. I found my first jockstrap.

My husband was like, “I hope you wore gloves.” I’ve never played tennis before — I played tennis for the first time last week. Fell in love with it — I love tennis! And I’m just learning different things and different sports.

Happy Homecoming for Former Baseball Standout

Phil Brua, head baseball coach of the Hiram College Terriers, interacts with the Oberlin dugout during the teams’ exhibition doubleheader Sunday, Sept. 30. Brua, who was a star pitcher for the Yeomen from 2008–11, holds the program record for pitching appearances (65) and ranks second in career wins (15). His No. 6 jersey was retired after he graduated. In 2013, Brua returned to Oberlin to serve as the pitching coach, recruiting coordinator, and associate head coach over three years. After spending two seasons with the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens, Brua — a native of nearby Avon, Ohio — returned home to Northeast Ohio this summer to take the helm at Hiram. The teams split Sunday, leaving both sides encouraged. College junior and pitcher Bradley Jamison said he was impressed by the Yeomen’s rookies and pleased to see his fellow returners do well.

“This team has a lot of promise,” said Jamison. “The [first-years] held their own in their first couple games against a real opponent, and our returners showed up ready to play.

We’re all looking forward to the spring. We have big goals this year and are certainly putting in the work.”

Text by Alexis Dill Sports Editor Photo by Mallika Pandey Photo Editor

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Men’s Lacrosse Bolsters Philanthropic Efforts

The Men’s Lacrosse team raised money for University Hospital Rainbow Babies, a local branch of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation in Cleveland.

Photo Courtesy of Men’s Lacrosse

Julie Schreiber Senior Staff Writer Oberlin Men’s Lacrosse Head Coach Topher Grossman has always believed in the importance of giving back. Most collegiate athletic teams, at Oberlin and elsewhere, may partner with a local non-profit throughout their season, or maybe play an “awareness game” or two, where baked goods are sold for medical research. The men’s lacrosse team, however, has taken its philanthropic goals a step further and partnered with University Hospital Rainbow Babies, a local branch of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation in Cleveland.

“It’s so important to help others and

give back,” Grossman said. “At some point in time, everyone needs help in some way, shape, or form.”

The idea for the philanthropic partnership was born when Grossman ran into an old coaching friend at a recruiting camp a few months back who had stepped away from a long-time career in coaching to work for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation full-time.

The foundation, which has been around since 1991 and has raised more than $30 million, directs its mission toward “increasing survivorship, improving quality of life, and helping survivors and families thrive.” Providing free services for pediatric brain tumor families, the foundation

serves the ten of thousands of U.S. youth battling brain tumors through the investment of research and by providing practical, informational and emotional support to families.

“I asked him how we could get involved when I saw him over the summer,” Grossman said. He and the team took it from there. In just a matter of weeks, the team was hitting the four-digit mark on their online fundraising page, and as of Oct. 3, the Yeomen had more than doubled their fundraising goal of $2,500, clocking in with $5,557 total.

“The majority of the team has raised lots of money for the cause,” said College sophomore Max McAllister, who also noted the generosity of donations from friends and family members of teammates. “Our coaches have been very persistent in making sure we have as many people as possible working towards this communal goal.”

The partnership with UH Rainbow Babies is not the men’s lacrosse team’s first brush with philanthropic and community engagement; fundraising and volunteer work have been major aspects of the team’s mission for a long time. Last year, the players participated in a partnership with Oberlin’s Langston Middle School, where they spent time with and mentored kids, particularly through sports and outdoor activities during the recess period.

“This was a lot of fun,” McAllister said, “and it gave us a real chance to connect

with some community members outside the College.”

Grossman sees the team’s involvement with UH Rainbow Babies, and charity work in general, as nothing less than their responsibility.

“It’s a privilege to get the opportunity to study, compete, and work at Oberlin College, and someone helped us get to where we are,” Grossman said. “In my opinion, that’s a debt that can only truly be paid back by helping someone else.”

The team hopes to continue their support for the UH Rainbow Babies and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation..

Coach Grossman expressed his interest in utilizing the team’s creativity to expand fundraising efforts. “We want to go beyond the traditional ‘asks’ to friends and family,” Grossman said.

This cause hits close to home for many Yeomen on the lacrosse team, who, according to McAllister, have had numerous friends and family members who have been affected by cancer in some way or another. Although they haven’t taken a trip to Cleveland yet, the team will soon have the opportunity to spend the day touring the facilities at University Hospital and meet some of the kids and families they raised money for.

“We haven’t been able to visit them yet,” McAllister said, “but it will be lovely … when we get to let them know how strong they are and that we’re fighting for them.”

NCAC Athletes Must Increase Tolerance for Opponents Jason Hewitt Staff Writer Oberlin is an institution composed mostly of students whose political views fall on the left side of the spectrum.

Because of this, there are many stereotypes associated with the typical “Obie.” As a member of the Oberlin football team, I can personally say that my peers from other institutions have stereotyped me on multiple occasions.

Bigotry is definitely a contributing factor to the stereotypes Oberlin studentathletes face. For instance, I have been called the N-word on the field before — and yes, the person was white. We shared a few choice words afterward and he tried to accuse me of being soft for being offended by his disrespectful word choice.

At that moment, I felt that I would have been 100 percent justified to act out, but I could have faced ejection

and cost my team a penalty. It wasn’t worth all of that, especially since the referee didn’t hear this person say the Nword. It’s quite frustrating to deal with, and I’m definitely not the only person who has been called such a derogatory name on the field. I have Black teammates who have experienced that kind of racist altercation before. Unfortunately, it’s normal for Black athletes to face racism.

The worst part about this — excluding the blatant racism — is that whenever I try to defend myself, the response I get is, “Oh, well, you go to Oberlin. Of course, you’d be upset.”

You’re absolutely right. I am upset, and I have every right to be upset. Just because I go to a school that is predominately on the left side of the political spectrum, doesn’t mean I get offended by every little thing. I feel like I can speak for my fellow student-athletes on that.

When I’m faced with racial slurs, I’m not going to sit back and tolerate it. I can’t imagine how many other Oberlin student-athletes have experienced bigotry on the field or on the court.

I hear these criticisms often when I am on the field against other teams: Obies are soft; they don’t know how to take a joke; they try their absolute hardest to be woke; they are the typical social justice warriors who find — and create — problems to be upset about.

I have heard people stereotype Oberlin students as over-sensitive more times than I can count. I’ve heard this from our opponents and non-Oberlin students all the time, and it’s extremely frustrating to know that this is their flawed view of our school. Then there’s also the stereotype of Obies being coddled in their social bubble. Oberlin students can’t handle the dangers and ad-

versities of the real world.

These are real-life interactions that Oberlin studentathletes receive from their opponents all the time.

It’s time for our fellow Division III institutions to understand that Oberlin College contains more differences within our community than people realize. Our athletic programs are some of our strongest sources of diversity.

I have teammates who identify as liberal. I also have teammates who identify as conservative. Most people who know of Oberlin’s progressive reputation wouldn’t believe I have conservative teammates, but it’s definitely something worth acknowledging.

When our opponents assume that our entire team is on the left side of the political spectrum, it speaks against the values of those who don’t associate themselves with that. I’m not validating their views by any means — I’m

simply pointing out that there is more diversity to the team than people assume. When our opponents make assumptions about our beliefs, it puts the focus on politics rather than our overall talent and effort.

Many schools in the North Coast Athletic Conference consist of homogenous demographics from a small region of the country. The people we play may not have as much tolerance for other races and sexualities, which leads to immediate conflict when it comes to those who belong to marginalized communities.

While Oberlin has its own problems, I’m proud to admit that it attracts students from diverse backgrounds.

Because of this, there’s more acceptance within our athletic community than many of the teams we face. Hopefully, the conference as a whole will improve its tolerance of all people, but we have a long way to go until that happens.

Documentary Advocates for Student-Athletes

Continued from page 16

“I know people say, ‘Well, these players get everything,’” Shoop said. “No, they don’t get everything. What they get is a facility that might have a barber shop in it, tons of flat-screen TVs, [and] they might get a bunch of Nike spikes. At this time in their life when they really did have incredible value, I was the one absorbing all that value. Not them.

That didn’t feel good to me. I was the one getting paid, and paid a lot. Not them.”

The three highest-paid college football coaches are currently University of Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban ($8.3 million), Ohio State University Head Coach Urban Meyer ($7.6 million), and UniThe Oberlin Review | October 5, 2018

versity of Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh ($7.5 million). It’s absurd that coaches are making millions while there are players out there who don’t have a roof over their head or enough money to put food on the table.

If the NCAA isn’t going to pay its student-athletes, then it should at least take a good, hard look at its rules. If a student-athlete is struggling to get by, they should be allowed to accept help from family friends and others wanting to help out. Either the NCAA is in denial, or it simply doesn’t care about student-athletes’ well-being.

While James’ documentary isn’t going to fix any structural issues within the NCAA, it should at least

turn some heads — especially those who can relate to the struggles faced by the five men highlighted in the film.

“What the players don’t recognize is that they are the game,” said Don Lee, agent of New England Patriots legend Tom Brady. “And when you are the game, you are everything. No one else has the talent to do what they can do. That gives you immense leverage to create something better for yourselves if you have the vision and courage to do it. The players, I’m telling you, have no idea how much power they really have. If they wanted to, they could take the whole thing down.”

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SPORTS established 1874

October 5, 2018

From Fresh Water, Comes New Beginnings with Carr Pool Luke Sprecher The new Patricia ’63 and Merrill ’61 Shanks Health and Wellness Center has given Oberlin students access to a new fitness center, state-of-the-art cardio machines, and several multipurpose rooms. But perhaps the most impressive renovation is the swimming pool. Although Carr Pool is open to all students, those who have most directly benefited from its renovation are the athletes on Oberlin’s swim teams.

Pools constructed for competitive swimming all tend to look the same: the water is a fluorescent blue, lane lines stretch horizontally across the surface, and the walls display banners, clocks, and records that have been set in the facility.

Carr Pool is no different. It has the same chlorine smell, the walls bear Oberlin’s colors and logo, and there’s a certain peacefulness to the space. However, the pool has idiosyncrasies whose importance can only be understood by those who spend enough time there.

The men’s and women’s swim teams have been practicing in Carr Pool for only a month or so, but for them, it already feels like home.

“The new pool is super fast and feels great,” said College sophomore and women’s team captain Molly Marshall. “I love swimming in it, and having our own pool is making the start of the season feel fantastic. I am very excited for our home meets this year.”

Last year, both swim teams were forced to practice at the Splash Zone Aquatic Center half a mile south of Oberlin. Their practice schedules were grueling.

For much of the year, the athletes had to commute to their 6:15– 8:15 a.m. practice each morning and 7–8:30 p.m. practices twice a week.

“Not going to lie, last year was definitely tough with the whole pool situation, but I’m super excited for the season this year,” said College sophomore and swimmer Ellisa Lang. “With the new pool and new coach, I think Oberlin Swimming and Diving will really excel this year. We’re really hyped as a team.”

In previous years, both the women’s and men’s teams consisted mostly of veteran athletes.

But this year, first-year students fill up most of their rosters. This change is extremely exciting for College senior and men’s team captain Jacques Forbes.

“This year we’ve got a really young and talented team,” said Forbes. “[Our swimmers] have a great outlook on both this season and the direction we’re headed in the future.”

The specifics of a col-

16

Sophomore Laura Young dives into the new pool.

Photo by Maria Turner, Photo Editor

lege sports team change every year; the rosters shift, and the strengths and weaknesses of the team change.

“I’ve had [the fortune to have swum] with a number of great people all throughout my time here at Oberlin,” Forbes said. “I try to remember what the people that I looked up to in the past did and how they acted, and try to emulate some of those qualities when interacting with my teammates.”

Drawing on what he praised in his past teammates, Forbes exemplifies the higher mindset of a senior on a serious sports team — he knows it’s important to show newer, younger members of the team practical strategies for improving their swimming skills and attitude. The key to a team’s longevity is its ethos, what the team stands for beyond each game. This is often only known by the athletes on the team. When Forbes was a first-year, he studied the sport from the seniors and emulated them the best he could, in technique but also in behavior and attitude.

Seniors are responsible for supporting first-years, but the coach’s job is to help everyone.

In addition to the new facilities, the swimming and diving program welcomes new Head Coach Alex de la Pena, who previously worked as an assistant coach at Oberlin from 2009– 2011. Since then, de la Pena has coached at Monmouth College,

Brown University, and Pfeiffer University, all of which achieved considerable success under his coaching.

After a nine-year reprieve, he finds himself back where he started in 2009.

“The community and sense of pride that everyone has in the College separates Oberlin from other schools,” said de le Pena.

“The passion and drive of the student-athletes here for both academics and athletics is what helps them become successful after they graduate.”

Members of the team are eager to get to know their new head coach better.

“Coach de la Pena is really great, and his enthusiasm to be back at Oberlin is really apparent to the point where it is contagious,” said College sophomore and swimmer Jill Jaczkowski. “I think the team is just as excited for him to be here as he is, which is really great.”

Carr Pool, a large number of first-years, a new head coach — there are plenty of changes to the swimming program. But Forbes and any upperclassman will probably tell you that a team, underneath the surface, is made of wisdom and tradition passed down through generations of athletes. The pool is new, the coach is new, and a lot of the faces are new as well, but the team isn’t.

The first home meet is Saturday, Nov. 10 against the University of Mount Union Purple Raiders.

Volume 147, Number 5

LeBron’s Student Athlete Exposes NCAA Hypocrisy Alexis Dill Sports Editor Shamar Graves sat in the home bleachers of the Woodbridge High School football stadium with a wistful expression on his face, overlooking the field he sprinted up and down over a decade ago as a star wide receiver.

The sky was the limit back then. Graves was offered more athletic scholarships than he could keep track of, and making it to the NFL seemed like a feasible dream.

After playing four seasons as tight end for the Scarlet Knights, Graves got his degree from Rutgers University. But his postgraduation options were limited. A shoulder injury derailed his chances of trying out for an NFL team, and he didn’t have a plan B. Graves woke every morning at 4 a.m. for his shift at Old Navy.

Then he taught at a middle school. Then he coached a youth football team. Then he worked a two-hour shift at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Then he worked as a security guard.

He worked 18-hour days, yet only made $1,500 a month.

In the opening scene of Student Athlete — an 88-minute documentary which aired Tuesday on HBO — Graves pulls into an empty parking garage and turns his car engine off. He pulls a blanket over himself and goes to sleep. He’s homeless.

Student Athlete — which was co-produced by Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and his business manager, Maverick Carter — sheds light on the hypocrisy of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. While schools are bringing in millions of dollars in revenue, the players who make it all possible see none of it. The film follows the stories of five men who have been failed by the NCAA model.

In addition to Graves, we meet Nick Richards, a Jamaican immigrant and 18-year-old enduring the demands of being one of the top high school basketball prospects in the country; Mike Shaw, whose debilitating back pain forced him to quit basketball and prompted mental health issues; Silas Nacita, a former walkon football player for Baylor University who was dismissed from the program after receiving housing and financial help from a family friend; and John Shoop, a former college football coach who was blacklisted for advocating for student-athletes’ rights.

The film makes clear that, while select student-athletes receive a free education, they are not at school to achieve academic success. They’re tools used to rake in money and win games.

They don’t get to pursue interests outside of their sport, and they don’t have the time to network and explore internships that will set them up for success after college. They can’t attend study sessions or meet with their professors for extra help because they have practices, lifts, film sessions, and meetings every day.

Sometimes I wonder if Division I athletes at major schools have time to eat.

“I’ve always heard the narrative that [college athletes] get a free education, but you guys are not bringing me on campus to get an education,” James said. “You guys are bringing me on it to help you get to a Final Four or to a national championship, so it’s just a weird thing. I’m not a fan of the NCAA. The NCAA is corrupt.”

The NCAA argues that schools provide student-athletes with the resources to make it big. College recruiters ensure prospects that their program will help get them to the promised land. But what happens when an athlete just isn’t good enough, or when their chances of becoming a professional athlete are shot down by an injury?

As of April 2018, only 1.2 percent of men’s college basketball players make it to the NBA, and only 1.6 percent of college football players make it to the NFL. The odds are stacked against college athletes, many of whom strive to make it to the next level in order to provide for their families.

Many of these athletes struggle to pay for college as well.

While the NCAA surpassed $1 billion in revenue for the first time in 2017, and many major college sports programs bring in millions of dollars, the money goes into coaches’ salaries and state-of-the-art athletic facilities, not back to the student-athletes who win games and championship titles.

“The thing that’s disgusting in college is that coaches are making millions of dollars, and they’re coaching players whose families live below the poverty line,” Shoop said.

Shoop claimed he asked 50 different players of his if they would rather have a locker room worth $10,000 with a 40-inch flat-screen TV, or portions of that money sent back to their families. Every single player chose the latter.

See Documentary, page 15