October 15, 2021

The Oberlin Review Established 1874

Welcome Back Class of 2020!

Congratulations on your offical Commencement!

We hope you enjoy Homecoming weekend.

Oberlin City Schools Unveil New Elementary School, Green Updates Walter Thomas-Patterson Senior Staff Writer

Activists are planning to protest the College’s decision to keep Professor Mohammad Jafar Mahallati on faculty after his alleged involvement in massacres carried out by the Iranian government in the 1980s. The protest will take place on Nov. 2 at Cox Administration Building.

Photo courtesy of Sela Miller

College Finds No Evidence of Wrongdoing in Mahallati Investigation Gigi Ewing Managing Editor

The College has concluded its investigation into allegations that an Oberlin Religion professor made antisemitic and anti-Baha’i statements and aided the Iranian government in covering up the mass killing of political dissidents in the 1980s.

The College’s investigation found no evidence that Nancy Schrom Dye Professor of Religion Mohammad Jafar Mahallati was aware of or participated in covering up the mass killing, nor that he demonstrated any antisemitic behavior.

The allegations against Mahallati came to light last October when a letter calling for the College to terminate Mahallati’s position — signed by 626 individuals, including former political prisoners and victims’ family members — was sent to President Carmen Twillie Ambar. The letter alleged that Mahallati helped cover up the 1988 mass killing of political and religious dissidents in Iran during his service as Iran’s representative to the United Nations from 1987–89.

According to records from the 1983 U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Mahallati denied reports that the Iranian government had executed 22 Baha’i citizens and accused Baha’is of terrorism.

“Reports of arbitrary executions in Iran were complete fabrications and had been submitted to the United Nations by those very organizations which instigated terrorism in his country,” the report stated when describing Mahallati’s defense.

At the time, Mahallati likened Baha’is to murderers and terrorists and questioned why

the U.S. and European countries were allowed to pursue execution of people who committed such crimes, while Iran was unable to enact similar punitive measures.

“It would also be interesting to know why the European Parliament had the right to restrain the activities of the followers of certain sects and, for example, to prevent sexual abuses committed by those sects whereas [Iran] was required to tolerate all immoral behaviour or sexual abuse, sometimes advisable according to groups such as the Baha’is, why some countries such as the United States had the right to execute murderers, while [Iran] could not punish terrorists who burned schoolchildren.” the report stated.

According to a press statement Director of Media Relations Scott Wargo sent to the Review, the College’s investigation did not find any evidence to support the allegations that Mahallati helped cover up the mass killing or demonstrated antisemitic behavior. The statement did not mention the allegations of Mahallati’s anti-Baha’i rhetoric.

“Oberlin deeply empathizes with the pain and suffering caused by the executions in Iran,” the statement read. “After becoming aware of the allegations against Professor Mahallati, Oberlin initiated its own process to determine their validity. After consulting a number of sources and evaluating the public record, the College could find no evidence to corroborate the allegations against Professor Mahallati, including that he had specific knowledge of the murders taking place in Iran.”

The initial allegations that Mahallati made

The newly completed Oberlin Elementary School, which cost $17.8 million, was unveiled in a ceremony on Sep. 12 as students fully returned to in-person classes. The opening marks the completion of the first phase of Oberlin City Schools’ five-year school consolidation plan, aimed at combining the entirety of OCS into one cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable campus to accommodate a smaller student population.

The funding for the school was mainly provided by a controversial bond issue passed in November 2018, which enabled the City of Oberlin to buy bonds totaling $17,760,000 for the construction of the school. These bonds will then be repaid by Oberlin taxpayers over a 37-year period through an increase in property taxes that will be adjusted over time to correlate with changes in housing prices.

“What happened is that in November of 2018, taxpayers passed a bond issue for $17,760,000,” said Robert Rinehart, OCS treasurer. “In essence, they justified us buying bonds for that amount.

They gave us permission to go into debt saying that they would repay it over the next 37 years.”

The funding allowed OCS to build the new elementary school, which consolidated students from Prospect Elementary School and Eastwood Elementary School into one building. The new location is immediately next to Oberlin High School, bringing the two campuses closer together. The second phase of the project will involve the construction of a new building for grades 6–12.

The bonds also allowed OCS to implement the school’s sustainable infrastructure — the elementary school contains a solar array, which will purportedly generate 80 percent of the school’s power, air conditioning for all classrooms, and five electric vehicle power stations for public use.

“We have an Environmental Dashboard that is connected to the vehicular charging stations, the solar array, [and] meters in the school and the community as well,” said David Hall, OCS superintendent. “We have more data coming in than previously, and we can then incorporate that into a wide range of curriculum.”

With assistance from Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Biology John Peterson, OC ’88, the school district incorporated the interactive Environmental See Oberlin, page 4

See College, page 3 CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 American Rescue Plan Act Funds Community Improvement

05 Editorial: Grieving Students Need Support

08–09 Look Into the Life of a Double-Degree Student Athlete

14 In the Locker Room with Bonnie Wileman, Field Hockey Captain

04 Off The Cuff with Joshua Angrist, Nobel Laureate

07 Delayed Pay for Review Editors Unacceptable

10 Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Opens at Cleveland’s Karamu House

The Oberlin Review | October 15, 2021

11 First Indoor OSLAM Performance Since 2020

16 First-Year Athletes Find Team Support Through Extended Preseason

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

1

Ne w s

American Rescue Plan Act Funds Community Improvement Kush Bulmer News Editor Oberlin City Council has begun discussions on how best to allocate the first tranche of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law on March 11 to assist the nation’s COVID-19 recovery. The City received $429,426.97 through ARPA at the end of June. In its Oct. 4 meeting, City Council discussed possible social and economic programs that the money could be directed toward. The Council’s proposals will be reviewed by the City’s Law Director, Jon Clark, and ratified in the next year. The City will receive the second tranche of funds in summer 2022.

The City will allocate its ARPA funding to address the ongoing negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, City Manager Rob Hillard explained that the funds must be spent according to the federal government’s regulations.

“There are five areas that the funds can be spent on — everything from public health expenditures, needs to address negative economic impacts, replacing lost public sector revenue, providing premium pay for essential workers, and finally, investing in water infrastructure,” Hillard said.

Within these five designated areas, the City Council discussed possible expenditures and found four particular interest areas — the formation of a grant program to assist small businesses negatively impacted by the pandemic, maintenance of the Oberlin Connector, improvements to the City’s water infrastructure, and the creation of a Social Equity Coordinator.

According to Hillard, the Social Equity Coordinator would help implement the City’s evolving social equity plan. A working group of community and Council members have been busy with the plan since March 2020.

“The City is in the process right now of putting together a social equity plan,” Hillard said. “Much of that work focuses on assisting individuals and workforce development, transportation, recreation, and other critical needs. Also, housing is another bigger issue in our social equity plan that we’re developing, so if there’s a coordinator, that coordinator can help prioritize that.”

Hillard also discussed improvements to the Oberlin Connector, a transportation service for those who have been adversely impacted by the public health emergency. The City recently expanded the service to provide transportation five days a week to the greater Oberlin area.

“It’s basically a response bus service that the City partners with Lorain County on,” Hillard said. “So we’ve expanded the service. The question being offered to the Law Director is if we can continue to do that.”

City Council President Linda Slocum acknowledged that although the funds are regulated by the federal government, the City has more flexibility in their allocations than with previous federal relief efforts.

According to Slocum, this allows the City to address longer-term projects, such as improvements to the City’s water infrastructure.

“Unlike the [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Act money, this one has a little longer to spend and to account for how we’re spending it,” she said. “So, in my view, we can take a broader overview of maybe putting in some relief that’s more longlasting. For example, one of the permitted uses for this is wastewater infrastructure, so we can perhaps take this opportunity to look at that system.”

The final interest area that the City Council proposed is a grant program that would aid Oberlin’s small businesses that are continuing to cope with the economic pitfalls associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Janet Haar, executive director of the Oberlin Business Partnership, the impact of the pandemic on Oberlin’s businesses varied. Though available relief programs aided many businesses across the downtown area — and some new businesses even opened up — others struggled and were forced to close.

“Obviously, the whole pandemic has been very challenging for our businesses, especially our smaller micro-businesses,” said Haar. “We had some businesses go out of business, and we still have two empty restaurant locations — the Oberlin Kitchen location and the Black River Cafe — but we’ve also had five new businesses open who just kind of decided it was the time to do it. … There’s a scale of how businesses have been able to actually come out of this and enter what some people call the ‘new normal,’ which I call the ‘now normal.’”

Krista Long, owner and operator of Ben Franklin and MindFair Books, stated that her businesses were very fortunate to receive support from the community.

Yet, since the pandemic, she has witnessed a diminishing interest in supporting local businesses.

“The one thing that has also proven to be a real challenge is people — and especially college students — have gotten really used to Amazon delivery, and all those kinds of online competitors that we are really not able to compete against,” Long said. “While the town and the student body do support us, and many people are aware of this issue and are deliberate in their support, it’s still a transition that’s happening away from brick and mortar stores to online shopping. … My concern is what it does to communities. When we stick together as a community and support each other, then we survive and thrive. When we don’t think of the place that we live as the community that we need to stay connected with, learn about, and support, then that’s a real damage to — I hope it’s not an overstatement to say — our democracy.”

Opt-in Policy, Recycling Pledge Now Part of Oberlin City Recycling Eric Schank Senior Staff Writer In March 2020, the City of Oberlin suspended recycling collection services due to COVID-19, but resumed collection on an opt-in basis on Nov. 9, 2020. The new program dramatically decreases the scope of recycling in Oberlin, as it shifts to an opt-in system, removes most large-scale recycling services, and changes the way it provides services to the College.

Currently, the College is not making use of the opt-in recycling service, although students living off-campus and in Village Housing can opt-in to the curbside recycling program. Recycling bins located in campus buildings and dorms are emptied into the trash.

Jeff Baumann, City public works director, states that without a dedicated point person — referring to vacancies in sustainability positions — the College is unlikely to find and manage an alternative recycling system. Individuals optingin for recycling must first sign a pledge to strictly recycle rinsed cans and #1 and #2 plastic bottles and jugs, as well as clean paper and corrugated cardboard.

Since altering the scope of recycling and shifting to an opt-in system, no recycling delivery has

The Oberlin R eview

P ublication of R ecord for Oberlin College Oct. 15, 2021 Volume 151, Number 2 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch. Second-class postage paid at Oberlin, Ohio.

Entered as second-class matter at the Oberlin, Ohio post office April 2, 1911.

POSTMASTER SEND CHANGES TO: Wilder Box 90, Oberlin, Ohio 440741081. Office of Publication: Burton Basement, Oberlin, Ohio 44074. Phone: (440) 775-8123

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

incurred a contamination fee — a vast improvement compared to the 65 percent of recycling residents that incurred the fee prior to this policy. A recently created contamination fee of $100 is borne by the City if over 15 percent of a load is non-recyclable.

Baumann attributes the inability of the City to resume mixed-recyclable dumpster services to contamination issues.

“Because recycling services are offered free to the community, some people, we believe, were using those essentially as a second trash container, sometimes mistakenly, sometimes intentionally, just to move their stuff out,” he said. “And we believe that that’s happening in the commercial sector as well.”

Studies in Professor of Environmental Studies and Psychology Cynthia Frantz’s class on community based social marketing found that a large amount of recycling contamination in Oberlin is a result of misinformation. People are often unsure of what is recyclable, or otherwise partake in “wishful recycling.”

“The biggest obstacle that emerged was people just not being sure what to recycle,” Frantz said.

“And it was interesting, because I am a very wellinformed person who’s highly motivated to do things the right way, and I was wrong about what was recyclable. And I was putting things in the Editors-in-Chief Managing Editor News Editors

Opinions Editor Cont. Opinions Editors This Week Editor Arts Editors Sports Editor Cont. Sports Editors Photo Editors Senior Staff Writers

Web Manager

2

Anisa Curry Vietze Kushagra Kar Gigi Ewing Ella Moxley Kush Bulmer Arman Luczkow Emma Benardete Ashley Xu Maeve Woltring Lilyanna D’Amato Zoe Kuzbari John Elrod Zoë Martin del Campo Mads Olsen Khadijah Halliday Eric Schank Walter Thomas-Patterson Sydney Rosensaft River Schiff Ada Ates

In spring 2020, Oberlin ended recycling for many common items in order to accommodate social distancing measures for sanitation workers.

Courtesy of Holly Yelton

recycling bin that were not actually recyclable.”

Frantz said that the recycling pledge is rooted in many psychological principles that should reduce incorrect recycling practices. A little over See Changes, page 4 Ads Manager Production Manager Production Staff

Layout Editors

Illustrators

Distributors

Yuyang Fu Katie Kunka

Claire Brinley Eric Schank Allison Schmitt Sumner Wallace Yuhki Ueda Isaac Kucher Kathleen Kelleher Liz Kannon Lia Fawley

Grace Gao Elizabeth Aduwo Genevieve Kirk Adrienne Hoover Clair Wang Danny Valero Holly Yelton Olivia Lee Thomas Xu

Security Notebook Thursday, Oct. 7, 2021 1:18 p.m. A student reported their bicycle missing as of sometime in May 2021. The bike is a gray Cannondale with green lettering, unregistered and of unknown value.

9:40 p.m. A custodial manager reported students climbing up the outside of King Building. Campus Safety officers responded and observed three students coming down the building. The students were advised to stop climbing down and to exit through the roof hatch.

Contact was made with one student who was identified and warned about their actions; other students ran from the area.

Friday, Oct. 8, 2021

Oberlin Celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day Kush Bulmer News Editor Oberlin residents and students gathered and held signs in Tappan Square to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day this Monday. In 2017, the City of Oberlin formally recognized the second Monday of October, previously celebrated as Columbus Day, as a holiday for the recognition and celebration of Indigenous peoples. Oberlin was the first city in Ohio to adopt the holiday, and this past Monday was the fourth time the City has celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Sundance, executive director of the Cleveland American Indian Movement and a Muskogee person of the Turtle Clan, began the event with a prayer. He thanked his ancestors and the spirits of the land who, according to the prayer, provided the world with life. Following this prayer, City Council President Linda Slocum recited Oberlin’s

2017 proclamation, which replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Following these opening remarks, the event lasted for an hour as students and residents held signs at the College Street and Main Street corner of Tappan Square. The signs both acknowledged the ongoing violence of settler colonialism and honored the histories and cultures of Indigenous peoples.

Jean Foggo Simon, clerk of Oberlin City Council and member of the Indigenous People’s Day Committee, was integral to helping the city adopt the holiday in 2017.

“I think it’s long overdue for a celebration like this and to recognize what Columbus really did in his life,” Simon said. “I’m Native — Pequot — and I never knew anything about Columbus [Day] because we didn’t observe it. ...

This sort of gave me the opportunity to sort of come out and acknowledge who I really am.”

Photo by Mads Olsen

Amplifying Simon’s wish to recognize Columbus as who he really was, Sundance stated that the holiday helps spread awareness about the ongoing violence perpetrated against Indigenous peoples.

“Atrocity has been repeated throughout the centuries,” he said.

“Even ’til this day, we have a highly disproportionate number of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls. And, you know, it should be noted that we represent [approximately] 1 percent of the population. So I feel that it’s important to let people know that Columbus raped children and that Columbus was taken home and charged for crimes against humanity. Yet he has a holiday in this country as if he can do no wrong. … In order to honor the truth, you have to tell the truth.”

The Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee hosts screenings at the Oberlin Public Library on the third Thursday of every month.

College Investigation Clears Professor

12:38 a.m. The Oberlin Police Department reported receiving complaints about a loud party on Elmwood Place.

Officers responded and were standing near their vehicles when approximately 10 students began throwing rocks at the officers and vehicles. When officers started to approach, the individuals ran from the area. No one was injured and there was no vehicle damage.

Saturday, Oct. 9, 2021 2:21 a.m. Officers were requested to assist with an intoxicated student who fell and hit their head in the lobby of Firelands Apartments. An ambulance was requested and the student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

7:36 a.m. A contractor reported vandalism on the freshly poured concrete on West College Street just north of Talcott Hall. The affected sidewalk sections were resurfaced immediately.

Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021 12:36 a.m. Officers responded to a noise complaint from a loud party on Elmwood Place. Upon arrival, approximately 60–80 students were observed leaving the area. The small number of guests who remained were advised to keep the noise down.

1:20 a.m. A student reported a group of five unknown individuals knocked over a portable toilet by Harkness House. Barricades were put up until the toilet could be put back into its upright position.

Continued from page 1

antisemitic remarks referred to a statement Mahallati made to the U.N. on Feb. 14, 1989.

“Palestine is an Islamic territory, and Islamic heritage, and it remains an Islamic point of identity,” Mahallati said. “The land of Palestine is the platform of the ascension of the Prophet Mohammad; its significance is that it contains the first Qibla direction — towards which Muslims prayed. Its occupation by Zionist usurpers is a transgression against all Muslims of the world and its liberation is therefore a great religious obligation and commitment.”

This April, Chief of Staff David Hertz informed the Review that the College had reached out to Jewish representatives on campus to extend support to the College’s Jewish community. Rabbi Megan Doherty expressed gratitude to the College for working to combat antisemitism.

“Oberlin Hillel is committed to ensuring Oberlin College is a welcoming and safe environment for Jewish students,” Doherty wrote in an email to the Review.

The Oberlin Review | October 15, 2021

“We appreciate the College’s investigation of Professor Mahallati, its commitment to addressing these issues and its partnership in preventing, combatting, and mitigating antisemitism on campus.”

However, the College has not contacted Baha’i faculty or students regarding either the allegations against Mahallati or the subsequent investigation. While the Baha’i Faith does not have clergy, and individuals are not authorized to represent the larger Baha’i community, Chair of the Geology Department Amanda Schmidt was the Baha’i affiliate with the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life when the accusations were initially made. According to Schmidt, no one from the College has contacted her regarding the accusations or the investigation despite her position.

“I was not reached out to by anyone in the administration to follow up on or provide support for the Baha’i students on campus [or] Baha’i faculty and staff members related to these accusations,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt also said that she does not

harbor any ill will toward Mahallati.

“I have interacted with Professor Mahallati in a relatively limited capacity and have always had very positive interactions with him,” Schmidt said. “For example, during my second year at Oberlin, we served together on a faculty interfaith council and we got along quite well. ... From a Baha’i perspective, the question of one’s involvement in anyone’s accusations against an individual is something that is to be dealt with through the [Baha’i] administrative order or judicial system — not by individuals — and that the role of individuals is to love all people for the sake of God. Because if we look at individuals and try to love them for themselves ... we’ll become disappointed in them, but if we love them for the sake of God, then we will see God reflected in all human beings.”

A group of activists — most with no affiliation to the College — has announced that they will hold a protest on Tuesday, Nov. 2 outside the Cox Administration Building to

demand that the College remove Mahallati from his teaching position.

Several members of this group were signatories on the October 2020 letter sent to President Ambar. The group identifies itself as the Oberlin Committee for Justice for Mahallati’s Victims.

“We believe the continuation of employment of Mr. Mahallati is in contrast with Oberlin’s mission statement, emphasizing ‘an enduring commitment to a sustainable and just society,’” read the committee’s press release regarding the protest.

“Regrettably, despite the promise of [President Ambar] and Hertz … to investigate Mr. Mahallati’s role in this atrocity, they did not publish any report, did not engage with the families of the victims, and allowed Mr. Mahallati to go back to teaching students. We repeat our campaign demand of October 2020 and ask for Mr. Mahallati’s immediate removal.”

Mahallati did not respond to a request for comment.

3

Ne New wss OFF THE CUFF

Off the Cuff with Nobel Laureate Joshua Angrist

Ella Moxley News Editor On Monday, Joshua D. Angrist, OC ’82, was named a winner of the 2021 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, better known as the Nobel Prize in Economics. Angrist was honored for his work in developing better methods to establish causality in social sciences. Angrist shares half of the award with Guido Imbens, and the other half of the award goes solely to David Card. Angrist and the other recipients spearheaded what is known as the “credibility revolution,” transforming economics into a more empirical and scientific academic field. We sat down with Angrist to discuss some of his most influential research and his time as an undergraduate at Oberlin.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What kind of economics work did you do here at Oberlin?

My honors thesis is called “Sample Selection Bias and the Nature of Unemployment.” I had been reading papers by the man who became one of my thesis advisors, [Professor of Economics at Princeton University] Orley Ashenfelter. I was trying to program, and in those days physical software was more primitive.

Computers were not as convenient. There was a computer in the basement of Mudd Library — maybe there still is! It’s a big mainframe computer called a 9 Xerox Sigma. And you had to go down there and work with it on terminals, and I wrote code in SPSS and BMDP, packages that I’ve never used since, and ran regressions. I don’t think I learned too much. I learned for me, but I don’t think I contributed to science very much, but I loved doing it. I had an office in the library.

You get a little office on the top floor of the library and you feel like you’re a graduate student.

How did you end up at Oberlin?

I had a great time at Oberlin and I felt super lucky to get into Oberlin because I wasn’t a very good high school student. I had left high school early, sort of in a tricky way. I had figured out the graduation requirements

and I found a way to meet them in 11th grade. I didn’t take any advanced coursework of any kind. I took two healths, two gyms, and two English classes, and I met the state requirements. I got my diploma and I went to work, but then I thought I should go to college. And you know, I wasn’t going to get into any selective schools. I had okay SAT scores. And I had some short stories I had written. I think based on my SAT scores, and my short stories, Oberlin admitted me. So I’m very lucky that [Oberlin] took a chance on me.

When I was a first-year, I read one of your most influential papers, “Does Compulsory School Attendance Affect Schooling and Earnings?” I remember thinking your research design was so innovative. Can you speak to your creative process and how you developed some of these methodological techniques?

People born at different times of the year enter school at different ages. Because they enter school at different ages, they’re allowed to drop out of school either sooner or later in their education career. So if you enter school young, you’ll be kept in school longer, until your 16th birthday. That’s going to actually have a small effect on your schooling. We kind of stumbled on that method.

We initially discovered that men who were born earlier in the year were drafted first for World War II, so Alan and I got some census data. We started to look at the relationship between birthdays for men born in the 1920s, and various outcomes. And we saw that there’s a very strong correlation between birthdays and schooling. And we didn’t think that had anything to do with military service because it was there for all cohorts, regardless of whether they were at risk of military service. And then we said, “What would explain that?” So in this case, we kind of stumbled on it and then we figured out the compulsory attendance. I don’t know exactly how we figured it out. I remember we discussed it among ourselves. We discussed it with Larry Summers, we discussed it with Orley Ashenfelter, and somehow we came up with the idea that it all works through compulsory attendance laws. And so that became that paper.

Joshua D. Angrist

Photo by Lillie Paquette

What was most influential about your time at Oberlin?

Economics is not something I knew about. I certainly hadn’t taken it in high school, but then I took ECON 101 because, in my family, we did like to talk about it.

My father had some small businesses and he was also a financial journalist for a while. I took ECON 101 with [Emeritus Professor of Economics]Bob Piron. He was just such an awesome teacher. Oh, I loved him. It was funny and challenging, and I just loved it. I loved every minute of it. I think I actually got a B in his class, but I loved the material. And then I just took more and more economics. I also took some math ’cause I understood I needed that. That was a struggle for me. I had to be tutored initially to pass my calculus ’cause I hadn’t really taken much math in high school and I didn’t know elementary math. So I had great teachers, and great teachers make all the difference in a student’s life.

Looking back on it, the important thing was I discovered economics and it’s something I loved and was good at. And everything else is sort of second-order in retrospect. More power to all the Oberlin economists, both students and faculty. I hope everybody else in the Honors Program and the Economics majors and the faculty will take some pride in this having set me on my path her

Oberlin Unveils Sustainablydriven Elementary School

Changes to Recycling Program Cut Contamination Fees

Continued from page 1

Continued from page 2

Dashboard, which aggregates the energy usage of both school and community infrastructure. The data from this dashboard can then be applied to a large amount of the school’s curriculum, from the social sciences to mathematics, giving students the opportunity to apply firsthand skills they learn in the classroom.

The Environmental Dashboard has been crucial to saving the school district money by revealing inefficiencies in various school buildings. In one such case, students were the first to notice a water leak that created an irregularity in the Environmental Dashboard.

“We actually found a [water] leak because of the Environmental Dashboard,” Hall said. “Students actually asked ‘Why is this area using so much water?’ and brought it to our attention. We then got the City involved, and they were able to shut it off.”

OCS also received grants from the Environmental Protection Agency for the electric charging stations, as well as support from Oberlin College’s Green EDGE Fund to support the implementation of solar panels.

For Linda Slocum, president of Oberlin City Council, the solar array is a particularly impressive achievement given the way it reveals the support OCS receives from the community in their pursuit of sustainability.

“On my list of things that I feel were most significant during the time I was

4

on council is that the City was able to help the schools with their solar array,” Slocum said. “I love it for everything that it is.”

Yet, according to Hall, developing all of the school’s environmental infrastructure has led to a degree of uncertainty. There is no full guarantee that the solar array will produce 80 percent of the power for the school, and OCS is not sure whether the electric-vehicle charging stations will be heavily used. Nonetheless, Hall hopes the amount of data the school receives will prove transformative in the environmental education of Oberlin City Schools’ students.

“I know we mentioned that we expect the solar array to produce 80 percent of the power,” he said. “Let’s see if that really happens. … We’re not really sure what data will come out, but it will be good data for us to utilize.”

The unveiling of the new school also coincided with a return to inperson classes for all of OCS, an unprecedented adjustment for the students. Hall noted that the vast majority of pupils and parents opted for in-person instruction.

“We did have an online option for some of our students, and we’ve had probably less than 10 kids apply for an online option,” Hall said. “I think it’s been a blessing to have everyone back.”

half of the former customers now participate in the recycling program, saving money for the City at the cost of higher carbon emissions and more waste entering the landfill.

Recycling was initially halted in 2020 due to public health measures put in place during the pandemic. Waste collection crews split into two teams that operated on alternating schedules for the sake of social distancing. When the measures were lifted, recycling became entirely subscription-based.

The City now limits mixed-stream recycling to 64- and 96-gallon carts for residential and commercial customers, respectively. Recycling dumpsters are only available for corrugated cardboard.

During the initial suspension of recycling, the City took the opportunity to carefully reassess costs of the recycling program. From April 2019 to January 2020, the City’s recycling processor, Republic Services, had more than tripled the previous processing fee, boosting it to a rate of $70 per ton. This raised the City’s fee from an average of $2,000 to an average of $10,000 per month, including an additional fee for any load contaminated by more than 15 percent.

These changes were largely driven

by China’s “National Sword” policy, enacted Jan. 1, 2018, which banned imports to Chinese recycling plants, where the majority of U.S. recycling

used to end up. According to Baumann, unless global markets drastically shift, Oberlin is unlikely to rescind the new policies in the short term.

“Ultimately, these decisions at the municipal level are being driven by global commodity markets, which … [we have] no control over,” Baumann said. “If we want to continue to provide some level of service, we need to provide that in the most sustainable way — including economically.”

As the fate of Oberlin’s recycling system remains unclear, some students expressed disillusionment with the effectiveness of recycling and are more concerned with other aspects of the waste stream. College third-year Mia Veissid, a member of the Resource Conservation Team, suggests that a problem of greater importance is the proliferation of waste entering the waste stream.

“I really think it’s all about reducing waste, and that feels like a much harder problem to tackle, because you can’t just throw it in a bin and be like, ‘We recycle, yay,’ — like we get a sticker for doing the right thing,” Veissid said. “We really need to be conscious of not using any single-use plastics, reusing things, not throwing anything away, composting — all the dining halls should be composting.”

October 15, 2021

OPINIONS Established 1874

Why Must International Students Assimilate?

Aishwarya Krishnaswamy I remember flying into Cleveland from Mumbai two years ago, excited at how drastically my life was about to change and how lucky I was to be able to live my dreams. Three months into my stay at Oberlin, as my giddy excitement began to wane, I realized that while most of my identities were accepted and celebrated, being international was not one of them. I use the word “international” for anyone who has spent most of their life outside of the U.S., irrespective of their passport status.

Like plenty of international students, I remember fumbling my way through my first year, balancing being a college student for the first time, finding my identity in a whole other country, and rapidly adapting to a new culture. When I would bring up that international students have different needs from domestic students — like adapting to the language, navigating social dynamics, and coping in a place without any resemblance to what we have grown up experiencing — I would often hear, “I don’t see any difference.” I wonder how that is possible when so many international students go through experiences like mine.

When I introduce myself to people, I often receive a “You don’t expect me to say that, right?” in reference to my name. When I went with my friends to Walmart and struggled in the self-checkout counter — having been to Walmart no more than five times in my entire life — my friends were impatient and uncomfortable, slowly skirting away from me. When I sit in conversations laden with American-centric references, I reach a point where tuning out the conversation is easier than asking for the 10th time, “What does that mean?” I’ve even walked into my professor’s office hours and introduced myself, only to have them ask, “Do you have a shorter name?”

Sometimes I think I’m merely the diversity token friend for white people to check off of their “holier than thou” checklist, embarrassed during

moments when I’m still learning what’s apparently so obvious in American society. Clearly, I have learned to do things differently most of my life. How can you embrace differences when you choose to ignore them?

As a foreigner here, I am eager to learn aspects of this new culture, but I refuse to do that at the cost of my identity. Two years ago, it was not easy to brush away subtle acts of “othering,” such as exclusively conversing in American references — on cinema, music, politics, sports, etc. — or mocking me for not doing things the “right” way, not realizing that what happens in this country is just a way, not the way, of doing things.

I am a third-year now, and not one thing has changed.

I didn’t just come here to be a tourist. I applied and was accepted into Oberlin College with the promise of not just being able to pursue my learning and educational goals, but doing so in an environment that accepts me for who I am and celebrates what I and students like me bring to campus.

When international students first arrive on campus, we are invited to an orientation to be more “American,” covering topics like tipping culture, politeness, double-meanings, and whatnot. While I appreciate the intention to make us feel more comfortable, I’m perplexed by the lack of an analogous orientation for domestic students on how to treat students from a different country. While I’m here to adapt, there is a delicate balance between adaptation and assimilation.

A few months ago, I channeled my disappointment into fueling change, meeting with various departments on campus like the Multicultural Resource Center, the International Dean of Students, and English for Speakers of Other Languages, and planting the seeds of a domestic student orientation. I instigated conversations with students, faculty, and staff on campus and developed concrete plans to kickstart what I tentatively called the “culture coheSee Oberlin, page 6

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

The Oberlin Review appreciates and welcomes letters to the editors and oped 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 15, 2021

Volume 151, Number 2

Editorial Board Editors-in-Chief

Anisa Curry Vietze

Kushagra Kar

Managing Editor Gigi Ewing

Opinions Editor Arman Luczkow

Grieving Students Need Support Editor’s note: This article contains mention of death and suicidality.

On Jan. 18, College first-year Helen Hastings was killed in Texas in a gun accident. Hastings’ friends — many of whom were first-years themselves — were left to cope with their loss entirely on their own, working to keep up with schoolwork while processing the tragedy.

“The school did nothing to attempt to memorialize her, they organized nothing for us, and forced us to fight for our right to mourn,” Elizabeth Hawk, College second-year and one of Hastings’ friends, wrote in an Opinions piece in April. “The email we got about Helen’s death included one singular link to the Counseling Center. Nothing else.”

Helen was not the first student to die during that academic year. On Aug. 29, 2020, College fourth-year Aiden Day passed away from acute myeloid leukemia. Day was a well-known lacrosse player and Politics major, and a vital part of the Oberlin community. After his death, the College failed to send so much as an email to the campus community or reach out to Aiden’s younger sister, College fourth-year Aniella Day. The College doesn’t have the best track record in supporting student mental health. In 2019, there was a staffing shortage in the Counseling Center, resulting in overbooking and extended wait times for therapy appointments. In 2020, state health laws and the College’s three-semester plan made it difficult for students to access the College’s resources, particularly if they were out of state at any time. The acute shortage of resources — paired with the unique challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic — left students ill-equipped to deal with everything thrown their way.

Three years ago, in an attempt to bolster the institution’s available mental health services, the College partnered with the JED Campus program to update Oberlin’s mental health services.

The JED process reviewed campus resources and surveyed over 800 students, culminating in a report with dozens of action items to improve mental health services. JED found that Oberlin students self-reported nearly double the national average of suicidal ideation, and that the College had “critical issues with student mental health support,” according to students working on the project. Yet even with these alarming findings, Oberlin steadily fell behind on JED’s four-year implementation schedule, and the project has been struggling to get back on track following the departure of several Student Life deans this past spring. The College is aware of the glaring gap in its mental health services, but it has been unable to dedicate the necessary time and effort to fix the problem. During this national moment of grief, when supporting members of our community is more crucial than ever, it’s evident that the College’s leisurely pace on the JED project may have serious consequences.

Most of the College’s resources don’t have the bandwidth to support grieving students. Instead, students have been left trying to create spaces to grieve and honor their losses, and sometimes they have even encountered pushback from the College. College second-years Lulu Chebaro and Imani Joseph wrote a letter detailing the hurdles they faced from the administration organizing a vigil honoring Duante Wright. In the spring, a group of first-years found themselves in a heated debate with College faculty after the students wanted a Tappan rock commemorating Hastings to be left unaltered, and professors claimed that this was disrespectful to the broader community.

This disagreement sparked weeks of student efforts to create a more permanent memorial for Hastings, until the College finally decided to plant a tree outside Burton hall in honor of Hastings.

“I want her to be remembered,” Hastings’ friend and College second-year Ros Kish-Levine recently told the Review. “​​I don’t want her to not be talked about. I don’t want the College to pretend that their students don’t die sometimes.”

In the last two years, COVID-19 has changed the way we experience grief, in part due to the sheer number of people grieving. Current estimates suggest that at least five million Americans have lost someone close, and millions of others — no doubt including Obies — have waited anxiously for someone’s recovery. Grieving students need support. When the College becomes aware that a student is grieving, it needs to reach out to them directly.

The inevitable consequence of a systemic lack of support is a feeling of isolation even amid a campus teeming with life. It is difficult enough to hear pleas for support bounce off an unbothered administration, but the fact that many students aren’t equipped or educated to talk about grief means that the conversation is actively avoided. It can be a lonely experience. This is especially true in the case of grieving first-years, many of whom are away from home for the first time and are still building a network of support in Oberlin. The College can and should expand preexisting resources like the Peer Listening Center. Investments can be made in the Student Help and Resource Exchange or other programs that reach out directly to students. The JED proposals are long overdue in being implemented and are the bare minimum at a time like this.

Because of the lack of resources that she experienced firsthand, Aniella is working with Assistant Dean of Students Monique Burgdorf to create a Barefoot Dialogue group specifically for students who are grieving. The College can support student-directed initiatives like this as well as conduct their own.

Finally, students and administrators alike can work to cultivate a culture where our campus does not shy away from talking about grief. Grief is most isolating when people dance around the subject, preserving their own comfort and leaving mourners to experience their loss alone.

Check in with your friends. Check in on your students. Make every deliberate effort you can to find, support, and guide hurting students through their grief.

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

5

Opi n ions

Standardized Testing Should Remain Optional Emma Benardete Contributing Opinions Editor Last year, the Admissions Office initiated a three-year pilot of test-optional admissions cycles in response to the difficulty of scheduling and sitting for standardized tests like the SAT during the pandemic.

Given the inequitable nature of these tests, it is my hope that Oberlin will recognize the value in this shift, both for prospective students and for the College, and make it permanent.

In 2001, The New York Times published an article titled “Is This the End for the SAT?” Thus began the seemingly endless debate about the merits of standardized testing. Early arguments focused on whether the test was really a useful predictor of success and if its content matched what teenagers were being taught in school.

In recent years, however, the focus of the debate has shifted toward the ways in which standardized testing harms minority and underprivileged students. In 2019, the average white student scored a 1114 out of 1600 on their best SAT attempt, while the average for Black students was 933. Students whose parents had bachelor’s degrees scored an average of 1121, while those whose parents did not complete high school scored an average of 926.

The ACT is no better. In 2018, the average ACT score for white students was 22.2; for Black students, it was 16.9.

Wealthy students often have access to high-quality test preparation and can pay to take the tests multiple times. It is also easier for students with means to receive testing and diagnoses for learning disabilities, allowing them to receive accommodations such as extended time.

With issues of testing inequity becoming more visible, many students are objecting to the use of standardized tests in college admissions. In December 2019, a group of students sued the University of California system over the consideration of standardized test scores in the admissions process, arguing that the tests are racist and ableist, and therefore unconstitutional. A settlement reached this May prohibits the UC schools from considering any SAT or ACT scores until 2025 for admissions or merit aid purposes.

During the most recent Oberlin admissions cycle, the first year in which test scores were optional, 56 percent of enrolling students for the College of Arts and Sciences class of 2025 chose not to submit standardized test scores, according to Manuel Carballo, Oberlin’s vice president

and dean of admissions and financial aid.

As the tests’ biases are made more apparent, students who value social justice will likely become more and more resistant to supporting these outdated metrics. If we want to keep recruiting progressive, socially-minded students, we have to make the admissions process appealing to that demographic.

“Oberlin is such a liberal college with pretty advanced ideology when it comes to equality — that kind of thing — compared to other schools, that it doesn’t surprise me that that many people didn’t submit,” said College first-year Simone Shapiro, who chose not to submit her scores.

Shapiro’s decision not to submit test scores was largely a moral one.

“The reason I chose not to submit them was partly because I just don’t agree with standardized testing,” Shapiro said. “It fundamentally goes against my … ethos.”

Not only does the decision to go test-optional appeal to socially aware students, it also opens the door to excellent candidates who would otherwise believe that their test scores would be deal-breakers. Shapiro said she scored lower than she hoped on the math section, which affected her admissions opportunities during her first round of college applications during her senior year of high school.

Having taken a gap year, Shapiro started her college applications process before the pandemic. Applying to college before the move to test-optional admissions processes, she felt hindered by testing requirements.

“It was really hard for me to find institutions that I wanted to apply to my senior year because most of them were really selective, and I didn’t have the scores to go to those schools,” she said. “Then this year, I was kind of like — you know what, screw it. If I don’t have to submit them then they’re gonna have to … look at me as a whole person.”

She also noted that a test-optional school was important to her even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“Being test-optional was really important to me because it just showed that it prioritized actual learning and they weren’t trying to weed people out just because of a certain, single number. They actually put effort into finding people who wanted to go to that institution.”

Choosing to remain test-optional after the end of the pilot program will encourage a more diverse and socially aware group of students to apply and enroll at Oberlin.

Transitional Housing Poor Solution to Over-Enrollment Andréa Jones As we enter the 2021–22 school year, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic seems more manageable than it did last year. While I now have some hope for a normal college experience, the start of the semester has hardly been smooth, with many students unable to receive the housing they wanted. Some students have even been placed into transitional housing — spaces originally intended for other purposes that have been converted into dorm rooms.

Due to over-enrollment, the small liberal arts school I thought I was attending has gotten a lot bigger. As a result, the Office of Residential Education staff had to deal with the chaos of assigning housing to more Oberlin students than normal. Phones were ringing off the hook, and concerned parents and students were left on hold and told to fill out a Google Form to get on waitlists for dorms.

The majority of my teammates and classmates were shocked and outraged to learn that none of our housing requests were honored.

One of my teammates even had accommodations from her doctor and still had to be placed on a “priority waitlist” to be considered for a single in any dorm on campus. You would think that athletes would be easier to accommodate because we were either the first ones to arrive on campus or, for those taking classes during the summer semester, stayed on campus during the September break. However, it was harder for ResEd to give us our desired housing selections due to over-enrollment with first-year students. Asking ResEd to get on a waitlist seemed pointless because other students just like me were having the same problem.

Unfortunately, applying for housing with two other roommates did not work in my favor. I had no choice but to deal with the housing assignment originally given to me. Once I stepped into my assigned open triple, which had been a lounge area for students last year, I discovered that the furniture setup could not accommodate the space

the three of us needed. The room lacked the necessary coverings for outlets and had exposed wiring located near the beds. Moving into a space that was not ready to be settled in, especially with two other roommates, became unbelievably stressful. My roommates and I were constantly stepping over things, invading each others’ space, and closing the blinds because our window faced the South patio. The dorm seemed unbearable to live in, especially with the constant construction occurring right outside our windows. With all of those problems arising, along with the stress of starting classes, I knew that my roommates and I were in need of immediate assistance.

When the first week of classes began, I discussed the problems with my parents, and they quickly got to work making many calls. In just a matter of days, my father found someone to help. Andrea Stone, an interior designer from Wooster, Ohio, owns a business called UnComplicated Designs LLC. I gave her the dimensions of the room and the furniture to draw up a floor plan that would help with space efficiency. She sent me a 3D and 2D version of the floor plan in just 24 hours. My roommates and I picked a day that we were free to rearrange the room and quickly got to work. It took me from Sept. 20 — the day I received permission to move into my permanent housing — to Oct. 11 to settle into my room completely. This was only possible with the help of my parents and UnComplicated Designs.

I understand that Oberlin College is not the only academic institution struggling to go back to normal. All schools are encountering difficulties working through this seemingly never-ending pandemic.

Even though the move into my permanent housing wasn’t ideal at first, what is most important is that we work through these issues together.

I thank ResEd for listening to my issues when I needed assistance, and I will always thank Andrea Stone for putting me first in creating a living space that is equally space efficient for all three of my roommates.

Oberlin Fails to Embrace International Students Continued from page 5

sion program.” I received plenty of nods and hands-off “support,” but at the end of the day, I found myself alone, burned out, and in the dark. It was exhausting to simultaneously unpack my own traumatic experiences while constantly explaining and justifying the inception of this idea to others. It didn’t take me long to realize that one person cannot change the world; it takes a village and then some.

When we call ourselves “Obies,” the term implies symbiosis, a mutually beneficial relationship. This symbiosis allows us to go beyond facts and theories learned from books to uncover lived emotional experiences from real people. Why is it that international students are the only ones expected to go all in? Why don’t you meet us in the middle? Are we not as much

6

Obies as those who grew up in the United States? International students are not just a number to flaunt on admissions websites or diversity tokens to spice things up.

Whether it is me from India or my friends from Chile, Zimbabwe, China, Australia, Afghanistan, Japan, or Mauritius, we bring diverse perspectives and add value to an Americentric learning environment.

In the time I’ve spent here, Oberlin has truly come to feel like home. Because of that, I think it’s worth addressing not just what works well at Oberlin — for that, feel fre read my Oberlin blog — but also what we need to change. At Oberlin, many people genuinely care and don’t shy away from plenty of hard conversations, yet the conversation surrounding international students’ needs is often neglected.

For now, I have put my project on hold as I seek more support from student leaders. But there are still things we can do in the meantime. First, we need to have more conversations about diverse cultures on campus — if we don’t talk about it, how will anyone learn? Let’s create an atmosphere where people are unafraid to ask questions and learn about culture.

Another low-stakes way of extending empathy to international students is to ask questions to better understand someone’s experiences and culture — and actually listening to their answers. The key here is open-minded curiosity, including your peers in conversations laden with American references by explaining the whole deal — conversations are much better when everyone feels heard. Don’t be afraid

to kindly ask that burning question. While you could have Googled it or heard it from someone with a similar background, we all have unique experiences, and most of us would leap at the opportunity to share a portion of our lives before living in the United States.

If you have read this far, I need support from fellow Obies, faculty, staff, community members and alumni like you. You don’t have to have experienced the same things as me or other international students to be the ally we so badly need. If you see me around campus, know that I am always down to find some time to have a conversation about this. If you are not here at Oberlin and care about this, please feel free to reach out to me via email at akrishna@oberlin.edu.

Delayed Pay for Review Editors Unacceptable

Comic: The Freshmen Horde

Reginald Goudeau Columnist I could say that I didn’t want things to come to this, but deep down, I knew this article would be necessary months ago. As I alluded to in a previous article, payment for my work as the sole activism editor for The Oberlin Review’s 2021 Special Issue was delayed by over a month.

Many of my colleagues on the Special Issue staff also waited weeks before receiving a dime for their hard work. Before I explain the worst implications of this error, I need to give some context.

On May 24, the day I was accepted to work for the Special Issue. I agreed to the original pay arrangement of a $72.20 weekly stipend for a total of nine weeks. This arrangement came with the assumption that I would have a co-editor to help me do my job. Well, instead of this going smoothly, my co-editor had to back out due to prior conflicts — no hate here, as I heavily value them along with their decision. As such, I handled my section completely independently while remaining unpaid.

After a month, I was beginning to wonder if I should’ve bailed as well when I had the chance.

Although it took a while, I eventually did hear back about my hours and plan for payment. The Review’s senior staff decided to raise my hours to reflect my increased workload without a co-editor. This gave me a needed reassurance that my money was on its way. As more time went by, however, that hope slowly faded away. I still worked hard despite receiving no compensation. Although I would’ve liked to stop working out of protest, how my section turned out reflected on me and my abilities. Quitting would only have put me in a more compromising position than being unpaid already did. The stress of doing this work — on top of being a member of several clubs and working two other jobs — made it difficult to complete coursework and maintain my mental health. I can’t speak for anyone else on the Special Issue staff, but the circumstances regarding my compensation negatively impacted my entire semester.

Almost two months after the original wage agreement, I finally received a contract to sign on July 13. This new contract featured a notable change in how I was being paid; whereas I initially expected pay at two-week intervals, I would now receive two stipend checks for the cumulative hours I worked on the entire issue. Unfortunately, the Review staff barely mentioned this before giving me the document, which stipulated that I was now supposed to receive half of my money in late July and the other half in the middle of August. Despite not receiving details about this change, I accepted the deal simply because I was exhausted.

Getting my money later than intended was better than nothing. Unfortunately, the deadlines outlined in the contract were missed, and I did not receive any compensation by the end of July.

I started to wonder if I would even see a check by the end of the summer. I tried to contact the Review’s Managing Editor and the other members of senior staff, but they were as in the dark as I was. I was told that there was a lack of communication from the organizations responsible for getting the Special Issue staff paid, such as the Office of the Student Treasurer and the Office of Student Employment. I was not the happiest by this point, but I refused to blame people advocating for me and my colleagues. My patience continued to wane until I received an informal update from the Managing Editor on Aug. 6. According to them, I hadn’t gotten paid for the entire semester because of policy changes, shifts in administration, and typical miscommunication between offices that I cannot work with directly. It’s unsurprising to me that the only resolution for getting my money back is happening behind closed doors.

I’ve only communicated with the Managing Editor to receive updates about payment for Special Issue work, but it appeared that the College couldn’t bother to keep them updated and informed. I wouldn’t have even gotten the information I did on Aug. 6 without a co-worker asking about pay in a group chat that day. That fact lets me infer that either the Review or this school would be more than willing to let our concerns go unnoticed far longer than they did without continued pressure.

On Aug. 13, I received an update in an email from the same editor who had been advocating for me and my co-workers for weeks. This email claimed that the earliest we could expect to receive payment was on Aug. 20. Truthfully, I was so exhausted by this whole ordeal that this part of the email wasn’t the most important to me. What stood out was that they gave us an apology, an explanation for the delay, a date to expect our check, and even offered to lend money to anyone in dire need of the funds. If the error in our payment truly did derive from lack of communication in the College’s administrative offices, then I would hope to receive correspondence from Oberlin clarifying this, but I doubt I ever will. Most of the team working on the Special Issue are low-income and have to regularly budget for other concerns inside and outside of Oberlin. We should not have to take time away from our schedules to beg for the money that we rightfully earned.

Frankly, the fact that I’ve had to actively search for the few updates I have received about pay tells me enough. It tells me that either the College or the Review does not want to prioritize paying a primarily low-income, first-generation, and POC staff member working on highlighting racial justice and diversity. Well, I refuse to accept that reality, and I hope this piece serves as just one warning to this place. I do not accept injustice without a fight, and my work is more than worth being paid on time — preferably with interest.

The Oberlin Review | October 15, 2021

Clair Wang, Staff Cartoonist

Male Workers Allowed Into Baldwin, Unsettling Residents Peter Fray-Witzer On Oct. 7, residents of Baldwin Cottage received an email from Josh Matos, the area coordinator for Multicultural and Identity-Based Communities.

“I am reaching out to you to give you an update on the radiator project,” Matos wrote.

“Starting tomorrow (Friday, 10/8) the contractors will be entering rooms between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. to install the radiators. This will mean that they will be in your room for a period of time to complete the work.”

I had not been contacted about any sort of radiator installation before this email, so right away the word “update” stood out to me as untrue. I grew concerned reading the second line, which informed me that I had less than 24 hours to prepare for the arrival of the installation crew, and I was further perturbed by the ambiguous “for a period of time.”

In general, I am very averse to people entering my personal space. This anxiety was compounded by the fact that the crew would be strangers, and they were more than likely to be cisgender men.

Baldwin Cottage is the home of the Women and Trans Collective. The College website describes the dorm as “a close-knit community that provides women and transgendered persons with a safe space for discussion, communal living, and personal development.” Cisgender men are not allowed to live on the second and third floors, and many residents choose not to invite cisgender men to that space.

I was angry, scared, and confused. Why didn’t the College complete the installation over the summer, when the building was empty? Why couldn’t they tell us precisely when the workers would be there? Why were they only notifying us the day before the installation was due to begin?

I considered reaching out to Matos, but what would I say? The College was unlikely to address any of my concerns the day before the scheduled installation, and if they did, it would more than likely be in a passive weare-truly-sorry-for-the-inconvenience sort of way, punctuated by an insistence that I would not be excessively bothered and that the installation was necessary, whether I liked it or not.

The next day, I waited apprehensively.

The workers began installing in common spaces, and I could see immediately that they were all men. It was clear that the College had not made a special request that male workers not be allowed onto the upper floors of Baldwin. Predicting when they would reach my room was pure guesswork. I was trying to anticipate whether I would be in class when they arrived, or if I’d have to welcome strangers into my room only to be ejected to allow them space to work.

When the insistent knock eventually came, I scrambled to get my mask on and repeatedly shouted, “Coming!” through the door. Four or five construction workers stood outside, accompanied by someone who I could only assume — by his neat polo and clipboard — to be an emissary of the College.

We stared at each other for a moment before I moved aside to allow the workers to enter.

The emissary began issuing platitudes that the work wouldn’t take long and encouraged me to prop open my door. I asked meekly if I could actually not have a radiator installed in my dorm. I knew the answer was no before I had even said it, but hey — worth a shot.

I left for class, and by the time I had come back, they appeared to be done, though Polo Man warned me that they would return later in the week to check the insulation. Sure enough, they were back the next day. I felt mildly violated and a little peeved.

I couldn’t help but think that, though there were other dorms affected by the installation, Baldwin Cottage was one of the worst places for it to occur. There are myriad reasons to want to be housed in Baldwin Cottage, but many people — myself included — choose to live there for an added degree of privacy and a feeling of safety and protection. A significant portion of students choose to live in Baldwin because they are victims of sexual assault or abuse, have suffered past invasions of privacy, or have some other reason to fear cisgender men.

When I asked other Baldwin residents how they felt about the whole debacle, some responded with the usual complaints about any hardware project — the mess, the noise, the suddenness — but others admitted that they weren’t entirely comfortable with the way the installation had been handled and the fact that they were subject to the whims of the contractors. One resident told me that they were instructed to ask another resident to hurry up in the shower so that the workers could have access to the bathrooms. In my experience, if the workers couldn’t hear the water running, they would come into the communal bathroom as they pleased, regardless of who was occupying it.

I understand, of course, that installations like this are routine; the College needs to improve its facilities occasionally, and who am I to stand in the way of that? After all, I get a brand-spanking-new radiator, right in time for the cold weather. But why not finish the project during the four months of the summer semester, when the building was unoccupied? Why not alert us earlier to the intrusion? Why didn’t the College make a schedule detailing when the workers would be likely to arrive at each dorm and in each room? They should have taken measures to keep students comfortable and safe — especially those who have elected to live in a specifically designated safe space.

7

T h i s We e k

Look into the Life Degree Student-A Ashley Xu This Week Editor Oberlin College is nationally-renowned for its music conservatory. The Conservatory is an essential part of student life and culture, and Oberlin is one out of a handful of colleges in the U.S. that offers a doubledegree program. The double-degree program draws students from all over the world to Oberlin.

A wonderful part of Oberlin student culture is the overlap between students and disciplines, since students can take classes in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Conservatory.

The divide between Conservatory and College students seems to grow wider as students in each program continue deeper into their specialized

MONDAY 7 a.m. Wake up 7:30 a.m. Breakfast and coffee from the McGregor Skybar

8 9 a.m. Music Theory III

“Music Theory [III] is a challenging class. It’s very tedious, technical, and theoretical, but also quite helpful for music-playing. I’ve learned how and why music is written in the common practice [period]. I think music theory is very much about the ‘grammar’ of music structure: how sheet music is structured in terms of notes, time signatures, key signatures, and rhythm.”

10

11 a.m. La décolonisation du corps féminin (French language course) 12 p.m. Lunch from DeCafé

“My favorite meal from DeCafé is the bacon and blue cheese salad, celery with peanut butter, and coffee.”

12

7 a.m.

8 a.m. Warm-up practice session, French horn

“When I practice, I get my horn out of my case, I sit down, and I play a few notes to make sure I’m in tune. Then, I go through this warm-up set I do every day that involves playing a series of low, connected notes — going to the bottom of my range. Then I play higher notes, and I’m done. I don’t warm up too much. It’s easy to overplay, which you don’t want to do because you can tire out the tiny muscles in your lips. Horn players can only play 3–4 hours in one day.”

9 10 a.m. Aural Skills III

“If music theory is grammar, then aural skills is more like the spoken language of music; the syntax. We learn to sight-sing and ear-train to hear intervals and harmonic structure.”

11 12:30 p.m. Practice French horn

“Sometimes the Conservatory will hold master classes, where they invite renowned performers to come to Oberlin and perform for students as well as listen to students play and offer critiques and advice. For example, in about a month, the principal horn of the Cleveland Orchestra will be coming to the Conservatory, and I’ll be playing for him, so I’ve been preparing a piece.”

Saturday, Oct. 16

Weekly Events 8

Faculty and Guest Historical Performance Recital: Works of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, 4:30 p.m. // Fairchild Chapel or live webcast Oberlin Jazz Society Presents: Griffin Woodard, 10 p.m. // Clark Bandstand, Tappan Square

Wednesday, Oct. 20

Empathy Café, 4 p.m. // Robert Lewis Kahn Hal Physics & Astronomy Lecture Series: Munazza A 4:30p.m. // live webcast From Hispanic to Latine: The Terms That Bind Us, Ward Art Building Room 103 Concert: Jackie Hayes, 8 p.m. // Cat in the Crea

e of a DoubleAthlete studies. Oberlin students are known for their intensely dedicated and chaotic lives. Ask multiple students what their schedules look like, and you will hear remarkably different answers. To shed some light on the small double-degree student population — about 7 percent of the student body — we’ll take a look into what the schedule of one double-degree student looks like. The Oberlin Review interviewed Oscar Duffield, a second-year double-degree student-athlete, to hear about a day in his life.

While arts and sciences, conservatory studies, and athletics are all time-intensive endeavors, out of the colleges and universities that offer double degree programs, Oberlin remains one of the only colleges in the U.S. where you can do it all, have fun while doing it, and still have room for a colorful college experience.

Layout and photos by Ashley Xu

1 p.m.

2 p.m. Homework at the McGregor Skybar

“I try to do my readings and homework as soon as possible after it’s assigned. Last year, I didn’t prioritize sleep, which really impacted my focus and energy. This year, I’ve been keeping sleep a top priority, because everything else in my schedule depends on consistent sleep.”

3 4:40 p.m. Cross country practice

“I have cross country practices every weekday at 4:40 p.m., with the exception of Monday, since I have Horn Ensemble. Practices last anywhere from one to four hours and are structured so that we start with a team meeting with coaches and captains. Then, we run or cross-train in groups, and then we have circuits or weightlifting after. I wasn’t planning to play a sport at Oberlin, but I tried out and walked on the team, and I love it now. Cross country gives me a great, supportive community.”

6:15 p.m. Dinner

5

6:45 p.m. Homework “One aspect that drew me to Oberlin was how this is a place where people can pursue all their interests. I certainly had a steep learning curve my first year, especially with COVID-19 last year, but I’m feeling great about this year. I feel more organized, prepared, and confident in my music abilities.”

Thursday, Oct. 21

ll Alam,

, 5 p.m. //

Senior Launch: Wellness & Burnout, 4 p.m. // Nancy Schrom Dye Lecture Hall The Awakened Steppe: Traditional and Contemporary Music from Mongolia, 7:30 p.m. // David H. Stull Recital Hall

1:20 p.m. Orchestra rehearsal (brass-specific)

“I’m one of four horns, in a group of around 15 other brass players, and during our rehearsal, we go through different parts that feature the brass section in the orchestra piece.”

2 3 p.m. Orchestra rehearsal (entire ensemble)

“The Conservatory has four large orchestral ensembles. One out of these four orchestras performs every Friday at Finney Chapel (‘Finney Fridays’), with a rotating schedule of performances by each orchestra. Arts and Sciences students have the option to audition and join any of the four ensembles.”

3:40 p.m. Homework at the Conservatory Library

4 5 p.m. Horn Ensemble

“The horn ensemble is an informal chamber music group.

All horns who are available at that time — typically around 10 students—meet and play. [Associate professor of Horn] Jeff Scott assigns us music and then we rehearse it. The horn ensemble didn’t have a performance last year, but this year, we will likely have a performance once a semester.”

6 Friday, Oct. 22

Fridays at Finney: Contemporary Music Ensemble, 7:30–8:30 p.m. // Finney Chapel or live webcast Norelle, 8–9:30 p.m. // Cat in the Cream

am

The Oberlin Review | October 15. 2021

9

A r t s & C u ltu r e

October 15, 2021

ARTS & CULTURE Established 1874

Volume 151, Number 2

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Opens at Cleveland’s Karamu House

Ma Rainey: Starring a combination of Oberlin students and Cleveland actors, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by Oberlin Associate Professor of Theater and Africana Studies Justin Emeka, OC ’95, opened on Oct. 8 at Karamu House.

Photo by Wil Lindsey Maeve Woltring Arts & Culture Editor Cleveland’s Karamu House, the oldest Black theater in the country, kickstarted its 2021–22 season with August Wilson’s 1982 play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Oct. 8. The production, which will run through Oct. 31, is directed by Oberlin alumnus and Associate Professor of Theater and Africana Studies Justin Emeka, OC ’95, and stars a nine-person cast of Cleveland actors and Oberlin students. After COVID-19 derailed the theater world, this play marks a prodigious return to in-person acting for the director and actors alike — a moment of epic proportions compounded by the legacy of Karamu House and the relevance August Wilson’s work holds in our current day and age.

Set in a 1920s recording studio, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom follows “Mother of Blues” Ma Rainey and her band players as they record her new album under rapidly mounting pressure. The characters’ richly emotional and introspective dialogue explores Black identity and blues culture within the social and political traumas of the Great Migration, imparting Black history, joy, and rage with a poignancy that transcends time.

Oberlin students acting in the play include College fourth-year Cyril Amanfo as Sylvester, College fourth-year Ro Miller as Irvin, and Jaris Owens, OC ’20, as Levee.

Emeka has been teaching at the College for 16 years, and Ma Rainey marks his fourth time directing at Karamu House. This play in particular reflects a multifaceted convergence of novelty and excitement in his seasoned work as both actor and director. It’s Emeka’s first time directing live since a play he was working on in Pittsburgh was forced to close on its opening night in March 2020, and it’s his first time directing the work of August Wilson, a longtime icon in Emeka’s professional and artistic career.

“August is one of the most important playwrights in American history, really, but definitely of the 20th century,” Emeka said. “He wrote a play for every decade of the 20th century and a play that explored the Black experience in each decade. As a young, aspiring theater art-

10

ist, August Wilson was always one of my heroes and I always dreamed of directing an August Wilson play. … I’ve been directing for a little over 20 years, and so this is the first time that I get to direct one of my favorite playwrights’ work.

And so it was really exciting for me.”

The day before Ma Rainey’s opening night, Emeka found himself stepping even further into Wilson’s work. He lost one of his actors, who was set to play the role of philosophical pianist Toledo, and had only 36 hours to prepare to take on the part. Luckily, he came to the role with some very relevant experience under his belt, having acted in Oberlin’s 2008 production of Ma Rainey.

“Toledo is one of my favorite roles in all of August Wilson’s plays,” Emeka wrote in a message to the Review. “He has a Pan-African sensibility that I really identify with. I love how he sees the world and engages the other characters with his wisdom and sense of humor. … I first played the role of Toledo in a production that Professor [of Theater and Africana Studies] Caroline Jackson-Smith directed at Oberlin College when I was a visiting assistant professor in 2008. Though it was 13 years ago, that production really prepared me well to step into the role again and be comfortable because I knew I had a ‘Toledo’ living inside of me.”

This wasn’t the first time Emeka has taken on a role at the very last minute — once, he had to go on for an actor with only 45 minutes’ notice. To him, theater is all about the thrill and risk of make-believe. he finds that audiences tend to appreciate the ability to witness actors execute on-the-fly adaptability in light of unique challenges; at the very least, it makes for a good story. Flexibility aside, Emeka makes it a regular habit to cast his students in his productions, and was thrilled to work alongside his cast.

“It was a strange and wonderful experience to create a world as a director with a talented cast and then literally step inside with them as an actor and live in the moment of that world,” Emeka said. “I was able to experience so many new rhythms, intentions, angles, emotions, shapes, and relationships that I hadn’t seen before. Honestly, it was a lot of fun.”

Recent Oberlin graduate Owens, who plays the role of Levee, regards Emeka as a mentor and worked closely with him for the entirety of his Oberlin career, taking his classes and acting in many of his plays. Emeka brought Owens into his production of Ma Rainey after one of his Capoeira classes, and Owens took the opportunity to audition for his first professional role outside of Oberlin.

Owens sought advice from Emeka on the audition process, but it was his first time flying solo in the theater world — he auditioned for the Karamu House, not Emeka himself. Now, fresh off the show’s opening weekend, Owens is thrilled to be launching his professional career with Karamu.

“It [is] really significant for me because a lot of people that have been in the Black theatrical tradition have come through Karamu … Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee; … those two giants came up as I was talking about it with folks,” Owens said. “It’s a huge privilege to go from Oberlin College, which also has a strong Black theater tradition, and then to go on to Karamu and Cleveland.”

Prior to a rigorous two-month preparation for his role, Owens engaged with Wilson’s work through classes with Professor Jackson-Smith. For him, accessing the emotional core and history of his character revealed many references to current events.

“The play takes place during the Great Migration, around 100 years ago,” Owens said. “I think that’s very significant — looking 100 years later, what has changed and what has been the same?

One thing we’ve been talking about a lot during this process is how dangerous it was back then to be Black. I know some Black historians refer to it as the nadir of Black history; … that’s a lot of what my character [Levee] is about. His father was lynched and burned and his mother was raped when he was a young boy.

And so he’s wrestling with a lot of pain, a lot of desire … to escape. And I couldn’t help going into the role connecting that to 2020 and how we are dealing with the resurgence of some of those emotions of, ‘What are Black people going to do?

Where are we going to go next? Where is this country going in general?’ And that desire to escape for something new, for something different. … My character has these two huge monologues in the first and second acts — he’s channeling a lot of that … pain and those real heavy emotions.”

Similarly to Owens, Ma Rainey is Amanfo’s first professional gig. He is overjoyed to be working with Oberlin peers and with Emeka. For Amanfo, the pertinence of working with Karamu House is underlined by the triumph of being able to act in person and the opportunity to work alongside veterans of the Cleveland acting world.

“To be able to have my first professional role be at the Karamu House — there’s so much history in those walls,” Amanfo said. “It’s connecting me with a lot of professional Cleveland actors who are insane in what they do and very talented and also very welcoming. It’s really interesting to be the new kid on the block when they’ve been doing shows at Karamu since the ’70s, the ’80s. … I’m definitely very grateful for it — because COVID[-19] ripped the theater world away from us at a moment’s notice — and the fact that we can come back and we can do it safely. I’m in an August Wilson play and it’s the first thing I’ve done since the pandemic. … To be part of that reopening of such a historic place doing such a historic piece is kind of phenomenal.”

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom will be running every Thursday through Sunday at the Karamu House until the end of the month. You can buy tickets online at the Karamu House’s website.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is the first production in the Karamu House 2021–22 season and Emeka’s first time directing live since the start of the pandemic.

Photo by Wil Lindsey

AMAM Exhibit Advocates for Indigenous Land Acknowledgement

On Sept. 15, the Allen Memorial Art Museum debuted DIS/POSSESSION, an exhibit critiquing settler colonialism.

Sydney Rosensaft Senior Staff Writer On Sept. 15, the Allen Memorial Art Museum opened DIS/POSSESSION, an exhibit highlighting the Indigenous history of Northeast Ohio, in the hopes of stirring support for an Indigenous land acknowledgement project. The installation critiques the Western art world’s settler colonialist history and worldview in an effort to open conversations about the role of Indigenous land dispossession in Oberlin’s history. The exhibition is on view now through Aug. 7, 2022 “DIS/POSSESSION will reveal how images are tools of colonization that create and reinforce dominant white

historical narratives,” the AMAM’s website reads. “In fall 2021, the installation and related programs will explore the role that canonical American art has played in the erasure of Indigenous peoples and their stories. In spring 2022, we will consider the theme more broadly, asking how the AMAM has been able to grow and thrive as a direct result of global histories of dispossession.”

Assistant Curator of European and American Art and co-curator of the exhibition Alexandra Letvin chose to approach the project differently from others, placing an emphasis on collaboration. While a single curator typically makes all of the decisions, curators and educators have worked together

throughout the whole process of curating DIS/POSSESSION. Letvin worked closely with Assistant Curator of Academic Programs Hannah Wirta Kinney to craft this sensitive exhibit in an educational manner.

Letvin addressed the necessity of centering self-awareness throughout this process, regularly returning to a set of questions surrounding the exhibit’s central goals and intentions.

“How do we play with modes of relating to each other and conversing and making the museum a place for conversations that are difficult to have and are sensitive?” Letvin said. “How do we create this as a space that seems open to that?”

Photo by Khadijah Halliday Letvin wanted the exhibit to serve as a space for AMAM visitors to confront Oberlin’s long mistreatment of Indigenous peoples. In the fall, the exhibit will focus specifically on the North American narrative, but in the spring, the exhibit widens to a global view. In the first installation, on display now, the pieces explore the historical normalization of the American colonialist mindset.

The exhibition’s three works include a photo of Yosemite Valley by Carleton Watkins; Andy Warhol’s screenprint, Sitting Bull; and Frederick E. Cohen’s painting, Bentley Simons Runyan Family.

All of these pieces glorify an imperialist history, which curators at the AMAM See Exhibit, page 13

First Indoor OSLAM Performance Since 2020 Revives Community Lilyanna D’Amato Arts & Culture Editor In its first in-person performance at the Cat in the Cream in over two years, OSLAM, the College’s slam poetry team, returned to the venue on Oct. 9 for its back-to-school show. Primarily featuring first- and second-year members — most of whom had not yet had the opportunity to perform on stage due to the College’s COVID-19 guidelines on indoor gatherings — the show featured 14 poems, with guest musical performances by DJ Kopano, Conservatory second-year Nash McBride, and College third-year Anthony Singfield.

“It was so amazing to be back in the space,” said College fourth-year and OSLAM member Olivia Lee. “It’s such a beautiful environment, and there is just a really special energy. They have accessibility seating and the staff are so kind and welcoming; it just feels so open. This show felt really special because a lot of The Oberlin Review | October 15, 2021

our second-years, who performed with OSLAM virtually [during remote semesters], got to have their first experience at the Cat. OSLAM and the Cat in the Cream just have a really intertwined history, so it just made me super happy to be able to see them perform.”

Perfectly complementing OSLAM’s spoken word pieces, Kopano’s high-energy DJ set got the crowd on its feet while Singfield’s stunning rendition of Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man” radiated over the crowd.

“We were able to break up the performances with incredible special guests, so we got to stand up and dance,” Lee said.

“All the poets got their nerves out, and the music and poems blended together so perfectly.”

While the group staged outdoor performances in the Arboretum over the summer, finding seating and an adequate sound system proved difficult. “[In the Arb,] we were performing with a handheld mic, so it’s nice to have some

sound support,” said College fourth-year and OSLAM member Banu Newell. “Also, we usually have a bigger audience for our first couple shows because first-years are curious about what OSLAM is, and the Cat allows us to all fit in the space together.”

Even with the added seating, the venue quickly became overcrowded.

“We were definitely not expecting that many people to come,” Lee said. “But it was so wonderful to see that [the Cat] was over capacity. There was a line out the door, and from the stage you could see that people were actually outside sitting on the grass and sidewalk trying to hear the performances.”

College third-year Tesia Singh-Ragen noticed the large crowd forming outside the venue’s doors as she made her way up Lorain Street toward the Cat. “We were really excited — I’ve heard a lot about OSLAM performances, and I know they had a really beautiful one in the Arb this summer,” she said. “We saw

people congregating around the outside of the Cat in the parking lot, and as we were approaching, we spoke to them and they said that they were at capacity. … When we came around the corner we saw there were so many people in the grass waiting to see if they could get in.”

While some students were disappointed that they couldn’t listen to the performances in the Cat itself, OSLAM members were thrilled at the turnout.

“There were so many new faces, and it was so refreshing to see our new members use their natural instincts,” Newell, who emceed the performance, said. “[OSLAM] means so much to me. It’s definitely elevated over the past couple of years.

[Participating in] a writing community [interested in] creating stories and telling truth is such a relieving process. …

Hav[ing] a network of people who are familiar with your work and your voice, who want to see you become a better poet, is so important. We want to collaboSee OSLAM, page 12

11

A r t s & C u lt u r e

“Hang On Tightly, Let Go Loosely”: Protecting Oberlin’s Comedy Scene Katie Kunka Production Manager During my first week at Oberlin I mustered up the courage to attend an improv comedy showcase by myself. Applying to colleges in my senior year of high school, I prioritized schools with a prevalent comedy culture. When I decided on Oberlin, I was worried that I would lose my ties to improv and comedy performance.

Oberlin’s student body is not known for having a sense of humor; the popular media loves to cover our scandals of “free speech” and excessive wokeness. Naturally, when I got to Oberlin, I thought the improv troupes would fall victim to these stereotypes; I expected safe, if not slightly dorky, humor.

But as I sat in the back of the Cat in the Cream, I watched the four troupes’ multidimensional characters navigate kooky situations and quickly realized that our student body’s intelligence and self-awareness created an environment where aspiring comedians could take risks and innovate.

When I auditioned for the OberlinCollege Improv coalition in 2018, I was terrified. Even with my prior experience, I couldn’t imagine making any Oberlin student laugh. And at first, I didn’t. I was ridiculously nervous, and I flopped during my Primitive Streak audition. But when I auditioned for Kid Business and the Sunshine Scouts the following day, I found my footing and bonded with the captains. A few days later, I received an email from the Sunshine Scouts that read, “Unfortunately, we had to make a decision about who to accept this year, and we’ve agreed that you will be an excellent addition to the family!” Thank you for the mini heart attack.

After the initial adjustment I was so grateful that I had the Sunshine Scouts.

I spent four hours every week chatting,

joking, and performing with people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. I was surprised by how well we all got along — how well we all complemented each other. Outside of rehearsals, we went to brunch and held game nights. I knew about their lives and they knew about mine. My troupe made me feel safe and happy; improv made me feel cool. And as a first-year, it was great that after one month, I already had an automatic, built-in group of friends and mentors.

As I begin my fourth and final year at Oberlin, my feelings have not changed, but our circumstances have. In March 2020, the improv scene was in full swing. My predecessors were organizing and finalizing the logistics of our annual improv conference when the student body was asked to leave campus due to COVID-19. Since then, none of the four improv troupes have held auditions, rehearsed, or performed. Even worse, one of the troupes, Neurotic Fiction, completely dissolved after all the members graduated.

Now, as the College loosens restrictions on clubs and performances, I’ve been tasked with reviving one of the most important and pivotal parts of my Oberlin experience. Sunshine Scouts, Kid Business, Primitive Streak, and Neurotic Fiction are not household names anymore, but I’d like to change that. With any luck, the Oberlin College Improv Coalition and its three affiliate troupes will survive the pandemic.

Performing comedy at Oberlin — whether it be improv, sketch comedy, or stand-up — is not the challenge many might suspect. The students here attend comedy shows ready to laugh.

Even during my worst performances, I can happily say that I got at least one impressive laugh. And when you’re working with a group, like in improv, you are completely supported by the other members — it’s their job to make you look good! Everyone in the equation

Continued from page 11

The Cat in the Cream hosted OSLAM’s first indoor, in-person performance since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo by Mads Olsen

12

wants to see you succeed.

Doing improv at Oberlin has taught me valuable skills that extend beyond the rehearsal space. Performing with a group of people whose success is your responsibility taught me how to listen, watching more experienced players helped me focus on what’s funny, and I’ve become smarter and more creative from in-scene problem-solving. Bottom line: I wouldn’t be the confident, funny person I am today without the Sunshine Scouts. And for that, it is my duty to protect the legacy of improv comedy at Oberlin. I’d like to thank Imke Hart,

OC ’19; Brian Weaver, OC ’19; Jonah Fox, OC ’20; Will Axelrod, OC ’20; Ezra Andres-Tysch, OC ’20; and Marie Romanelli, OC ’21, for laying the groundwork for me.

The three troupes are performing in a joint show this Sunday in Norman C. Craig Lecture Hall at 7:30 p.m. Auditions for new members will occur on Monday and Tuesday of next week, from 9–11 p.m. in Warner Center. Email kkunka@oberlin.edu, jreeshil@oberlin. edu, or czucker@oberlin.edu if you’d like to know more.

Sammie Westelman, OC ’19, performing a standup audition in 2019.

Photo by Talia Barton

OSLAM Returns to the Cat in the Cream for First Indoor Show Continued from page 11 rate and create.”

For Lee, OSLAM’s performance marked a new chapter of the group’s legacy.

“During the pandemic, it was really hard to make OSLAM feel like a family,” Lee said. “[Since we’ve been back,] we’ve been having lots of conversations about how to uphold this tradition — not for Oberlin or the image that people have of OSLAM — but with the intentionality of centering this Black art form and these student works; even just expanding what poetry looks like. Reggie Goudeau performs rap songs; that’s his mode of poetry. And Imani Badillo has shown pieces of their fiber art or drawings they’ve done.

That is poetry too.”

As graduation nears, Newell is thinking about how to preserve OSLAM’s legacy, emphasizing the importance of cultivating a slam poetry community at Oberlin.

“This art form requires a lot of reflection and vulnerability,” Newell adds. “As a [fourth-year], it’s really important to me that we leave behind a space where

people feel like they’re held and [made to feel] comfortable in their writing, where they feel like they’re heard as artists and poets. Slam poetry is a Black art form, and we need to make sure [those students feel that] they’re equally and fairly represented on this campus and in the group itself.”

Looking back on her time in OSLAM, Lee recalls one of her first meetings with the team.

“I remember after I was first accepted, [the group] was reading a poem,” Lee begins. “I read it out loud and I started crying. I don’t know — for some reason I just kept apologizing, and I felt embarrassed.

And I remember everyone telling me that it was totally okay, telling me to take my time and talk it out. That moment of vulnerability and being accepted — not only when you’re sad or doubting something but also when you’re feeling anger or anxiety or paranoia about things going on in the world — is so special. Having that support through whatever you’re going through, it’s such a supportive community, and it’s a hugely fundamental part of Oberlin.”

Exhibit Challenges Stereotypical Portrayal of Indigenous Peoples Continued from page 11 want to repurpose as an opportunity to start a conversation about land acknowledgement in Oberlin.

It may seem counterintuitive that this installation includes only pieces by white people; the original intention was to highlight Indigenous artists in the exhibition. However, curators soon pivoted after acknowledging the ethical problems that arise when collecting and displaying Indigenous artwork.

“In terms of historic Indigenous art, we don’t collect in that area because there are so many ethical pitfalls and concerns,” Letvin said.

Instead of displaying Indigenous artwork in the AMAM — a space just reaching the precipice of acknowledging its history of displacing Indigenous peoples — curators chose these colonization-focused pieces to encourage the viewer to critically examine their own biases.

These three works had not been finalized as the first installation’s repertoire until recently. The project was an ongoing journey with weekly changes to the list of pieces exhibited. While plan-

ning DIS/POSSESSION, the concept of humility arose frequently; as white people, Letvin and Kinney felt this was especially important to keep in mind.

“We’ve really tried to embrace that [ journey] and embrace kind of the humility that comes with that,” Letvin said. “That we don’t have all the answers, that it’s okay for this to be an iterative process where we’re all learning together.”

The curators recognize that the installation’s educational goal means that their product can’t stand as a final statement. Next year, the project will develop as students, educators, and community members interact with the exhibit.

Kinney welcomes the evolving nature of DIS/POSSESSION and recognizes that the pieces’ main purpose is starting a conversation and a space for Indigenous people to speak their narrative.

“One of the questions we’ve also been thinking about a lot is how we listen,” Kinney said. “How we listen as curators, how we listen as experts, how we listen as an institution.”

To further enhance the reach of this installation, curators have planned pro-

grams to facilitate conversations with Oberlin students, faculty, and community members. For example, the AMAM has collaborated with Barefoot Dialogue to create a space for students to discuss and process Oberlin’s histories of dispossession. In these programs, Letvin and Kinney have been conscious of including many perspectives by consulting Indigenous community members, Oberlin students, and faculty.

“We were kind of consciously trying to bring in as many voices as possible and to be open to those critiques,” Letvin said.

Students returned to campus last week, a few weeks after the exhibit’s opening. Lauren Marohn, a College second-year, visited the exhibition during move-in. Last spring, Marohn took a class on the art of colonization and efforts to decolonize museums.

“A lot of our culture’s art is based in colonial and white supremacy ideologies, and I think working toward decolonizing our society starts with a discussion focused on Indigenous people,” Marohn said.

Marohn was thrilled when she heard

about DIS/POSSESSION, excited to see the AMAM taking steps to speak up about the brutal histories of Oberlin’s Indigenous peoples.

“This type of work needs to be publicized more because we are students of a college situated on stolen Indigenous land — and that needs to be addressed,” Marohn said.

Letvin and Kinney are eager for more students to interact with the work and build discussions in the spaces they created for this purpose. Beyond the DIS/ POSSESSION exhibit, Letvin and Kinney want to continue involving nature artists and land acknowledgement in the AMAM’s future. Due to ethical problems that arise, the curators decided not to collect historical Indigenous art, but are eager to include more contemporary Native artists in AMAM galleries.

Both Letvin and Kinney are open to students reaching out with opinions, reactions, questions, and their own stories. Their goal is to facilitate student learning of Oberlin’s history and to create spaces for students to grow through discussion. Their emails are aletvin@ oberlin.edu and hkinney@oberlin.edu.

Music, Athletics in Conversation at Opening Faculty Concert Zach Bayfield This past weekend, the Oberlin Conservatory, College, and Athletics department came together for a two-day symposium titled Music, Sports, and the Enduring Influence of Ancient Greece.

The program included Conservatory musicians and faculty, College faculty, and student-athletes alike. According to the event organizer, Professor of Violin Sibbi Bernhardsson, the event was a celebration of solidarity across disciplines inspired by the interconnectedness of music and sport in Greek culture.

“It just sort of struck me, in Ancient Greek time, the most important things in society were sports and music,” Bernhardsson said. “Then I was thinking, since we have such a fabulous Athletics department and great Classics depart-

ment, and a wonderful Conservatory, it would be fun to explore that collaboration.”

Despite the seemingly different experiences of athletes and artists, this weekend’s symposium worked to explore the connections between the two.

One panel was titled “Musicians and Athletes: United in Commitment,” and was specifically dedicated to find commonalities between the two student groups.

“Passion, commitment, striving for excellence, performing under ­­­pressure — ­[this panel was created] to just talk about the similarities because I find that the Conservatory students and student-athletes actually have the most in common among Oberlin students in terms of time management,” Bernhardsson said.

However, the symposium demon-

strated that there is more in common between athletes and artists than just time management skills. In between performances by Conservatory faculty, professors from the Creative Writing department recited poetry interweaving themes of athletics and the arts. Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Robin Beth Schaer performed that night and felt that all students who attended the event could connect to the pieces.

“Many of the poems I read spoke of the space sports and music make in our lives for healing and transformation, which seemed especially apt after the harrowing 18 months we have all had,” she said.

The event also included family-friendly activities aimed at helping children get involved in sports and music while having fun. Last Saturday afternoon, children were invited to the

Oberlin College, Conservatory, and Athletics department collaborated on a two-day symposium last weekend.

Photo by Dale Preston.

The Oberlin Review | October 15, 2021

Heisman Club Field House to participate in numerous activities, including a sports section with tennis, lacrosse, and baseball, along with stations to try out various instruments.

Sports and arts both have the power to heal and transform, but the similarities do not stop there. There are many comparisons, both in terms of preparation and performance. Conservatory fourth-year, Jazz Bass major, and baseball player Ian Ashby, who performed at the symposium concert on Sunday evening, is acutely aware of how these shared skills translate between both music and athletics.

“I think I’m realizing how important it is to not forget your foundations and the stone-cold fundamentals of both,” Ashby said. “It’s just this universal process of buying in and knowing that this teacher or coach knows what he’s talking about and is trying to make you better.”

Additionally, overcoming performance anxiety is a challenge across all performative disciplines. The similarities between the ways that athletes and artists combat performance anxiety are striking. For Schaer, overcoming performance-related stress begins with reframing the audience.

“I always remind myself that the relationship between the performer and the audience is not adversarial,” she said. “They’re not there to see me fall or fail; they’re there to hear what I’m about to say or what I’m about to perform, but they want to see me succeed.”

Having the right mindset is crucial to success in any performance, but what about physical wellness? Though some may not view music as being a physically demanding activity, Professor Bernhardsson stressed the importance of taking care of the body and mind in all performative activities.

“Being healthy and staying in shape is critical for longevity in music,” Bernhardsson said. “We have to make sure that we’re doing physical things correctly, so that is something that I think musicians and athletes have in common.

You just have to take care of your body.

If you do things correctly and have a healthy mind, healthy body, you can do it for a long time and that’s critical.”

13

In the Locker Room with Bonnie Wileman, Women’s Field Hockey Captain

IN THE LOCKER ROOM

College fourth-year Bonnie Wileman has been playing field hockey for the last 10 years, and has been a starting player since her first year at Oberlin. This will be her last season at the College, but it is also her first as team captain and midfielder. While she has created many memories on the field, she also values her team’s traditions off the field which have drawn her close to her teammates.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kushagra Kar Editor-in-Chief You’ve been playing field hockey for 10 years now, and I’m curious how the game has impacted your life and how it has helped you learn about yourself.

I think one of the big things is teamwork, and being on a team is how I work best. I did track for two years in middle school, and I remember I hated it; it was all me. So I think being on a team for this long and playing a team sport has made me able to work in teams outside of athletics, like in classes.

Perseverance is a huge thing, too, because field hockey is hard, and workouts are hard, and it gets tough. As I’m sure you’ve seen this season, we haven’t won any games yet. It’s just about being able to push through — feeling stuck and like you’re not getting better, but knowing that if you keep trying, you will get better. With sports in general, a huge thing is perseverance and sticking with things even if they aren’t working and knowing that hard work pays off.

What do you expect for your relationship with your sport after graduation?

Well, I’ll be moving to Charlotte, North Carolina when I graduate. I know there aren’t any field hockey schools in Charlotte, but I know Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest University are all within a two to three hours drive. Most of the North Carolina Division I schools are in the same conference, so I’ve watched a lot of UNC, Duke, and Wake Forest. I’m hoping, on weekends, I’ll be able to drive to see those games, which will be cool. In Oberlin, we don’t really have the opportunity to go see the Division I level of play. But the actual playing of field hockey, I’m not sure about.

I’m hoping, since North Carolina has so many good Division I programs, that more people play the sport and that I’d be able to join a pickup league or something. I’m definitely gonna keep running.

Really, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll play much,

but maybe one day I’ll be a high school coach or something.

Thinking about the team on the field, what are some strategies and core players this year?

My other fourth-year co-captain, Lea WatkinsChow, plays defense, and I think she has the most defensive saves on our team. And she just has an iron stick. The second she puts it down, nothing gets through her; she plays right back. Eli Modahl is another fourth-year, and she’s on defense, but she’s been playing some midfield this season.

She’s been shifting a little bit, but she’s also in the defense and she and Lea shout out advice and tell people what to do. Then we have our two goalies, Post and Julia Vincent, and they switch around, and they’re also the lead communicators. I think most of our communication comes from the defense, because they can see the whole field, so that’s who you’ll hear yelling.

With most of the team’s leadership graduating this year, what does the future of Oberlin field hockey look like?

Well, luckily, one of our captains — Post — is actually a third-year. They’ve already had this leadership role, which I think is awesome, because when they get to their fourth year, they’ll already have been a captain and hopefully will continue that. Lea, Post, and I have actually been talking about trying to create an online document for future captains or future teammates. We were trying to think of traditions that we had done in the past, but it was weird, because we had no season in 2020. It’s hard to remember before that, so that’s why we were thinking of making this online document and maybe just putting in some notes about things we did this season that worked well and things that didn’t work well. I learned a lot from the seniors when I was a first and second-year.

I’ve been trying to emulate them in everything that I’ve done this season. I’m hoping that this year we can set that sort of same example that the younger players will continue to look up to. And I’m sure they all know that any day – no matter how many years from now, if they need to reach out to us, they can do that.

You mentioned traditions that you want to document. What are your favorite team traditions?

My favorite tradition is “Teamsgiving.” I’m sure most teams do this sort of thing, but it’s usually over fall break; because of our sport, usually we have to stay on campus for fall break. One of the days we would all cook something and we’d fill out

The field hockey team sings around a piano at their “Teamsgiving” in 2018.

14

Field hockey captain, Bonnie Wileman, competes in 2019.

Photo courtesy of GoYeo.

an Excel sheet of who’s bringing what. All the team members would pair up and cook something, and we’d all bring our food. The coaches would come, we’d dress up, and we’d usually go around and say a few things we’re grateful for. I remember my first year, it was towards the end of the season, and, that fall break, I was really missing home because I wasn’t able to go home, and all my friends were going home. I just remember having that Teamsgiving and having that ability to get together outside of sports and really realize that it’s so much more than just playing field hockey with each other. That was really special to me. And that year one of our older players — she has this beautiful singing voice and she plays the piano beautifully — just started playing the piano and singing and then by the end of it, we were all gathered around the piano singing songs for 30 minutes, and that’s still my favorite field hockey memory.

Photo courtesy of Bonnie Wileman.

Revisiting Heisman Era of Oberlin Football Effects of ThreeSemester Plan Hard on Fall-Athletes

John Heisman in his iconic stance.

Photo courtesy of GoYeo.

John Elrod Contributing Sports Editor Without the contributions of professional and college football programs in Ohio, the game would look much different than it does today. Around the turn of the 20th century, Oberlin College football helped shape the sport into what it is now, and its innovative role was sparked by one of the game’s most famous names.

One of the most coveted awards in all of American sports, the Heisman Memorial Trophy, is awarded to the most outstanding player in NCAA football every year. The award is known to all college football fans, but few people know about the trophy’s namesake, John Heisman, and his coaching start at Oberlin.

In 1892, the second football season in Oberlin’s history, 22-year-old Heisman took control of the team, instantly transforming the program. After Oberlin routed The Ohio State University 40–0 in its first game under Heisman, the Review wrote that the team’s work was “far more systematic, more scientific, than last year.” The squad went on undefeated that year, going 7–0, including a controversial victory over the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

While coaching at Oberlin, Heisman’s success was largely due to his ability to innovate and create new strategies. He implemented plays that would catch the opponent off guard, and he was largely credited with popularizing the use of offensive guards to block for the running backs.

In When Oberlin Was King of the Gridiron: The Heisman Years, author Nat Brandt describes how Heisman introduced the “double pass” at Oberlin — a trick play where the quarterback throws a lateral to a receiver, who then throws a forward pass.

This play is seen often in football today, including in the NFL.

After the 1892 season, Heisman left Oberlin to coach football and baseball for a year at Buchtel College — now the University of Akron — but came back to coach the Yeomen again in 1894. The team had another winning season that year, but Heisman left Oberlin for good the following season. He continued to innovate the game at several schools, including Auburn University, Clemson University, and Georgia Tech University.

While the Heisman era of Oberlin football history has certainly had an impact on the football world, it may also be representative of what Oberlin has done as an institution over the years.

Oberlin Chemistry Laboratory Instructor Rob Thompson is a lifelong football fan who started attending Oberlin football games in the 1980s as a way to support his students on the team. He spoke about how the early history of Oberlin football contributes to the school’s overall identity.

“The history is important because it’s another example of how Oberlin has been an innovator and starter of many things,” Thompson said. “We were right there in the beginning with getting college football established.”

Thompson also believes Oberlin helped set up Heisman to do great things after he left to coach elsewhere.

“In terms of Heisman, his story is a reminder of how Oberlin continues to bring in students, faculty, and coaches, and get them started on wonderful careers,” Thompson said.

Oberlin Emeritus Archivist and Professor of History Roland Baumann believes it is important to recognize how the rise of the football team under Heisman played a role in the school’s introduction of athletic and physical education programs.

“The birth of the [football] movement at Oberlin ultimately led to physical education training and to team sports with competition,” Baumann said.

Baumann also noted the role that the women of the student body played in promoting the introduction of competitive sports and physical education.

In addition to his success in football, Heisman was also a theater enthusiast and often acted during the football offseason, once performing on Broadway. Oberlin football and lacrosse letter-winner and 2018 John W. Heisman Club Hall of Honor inductee Andy Zvara, OC ’63, believes Heisman’s combined interests are strongly representative of how Oberlin cultivates a range of talents and career paths.

“That’s very Oberlin-like isn’t it? A guy involved in both theater and athletics,” Zvara said. “There’s a mix of personalities and talents that blend in [the Oberlin] atmosphere.”

Continued from page 16

only two hours, but it’s a much larger time commitment than just those two hours.”

For Fitts, navigating the late practices with the hours that dining halls are open has been a struggle.

Most student-athletes aren’t done with practice until around 8:30 p.m., but Stevenson Dining Hall closes at 8 p.m. and Fitts says the line to eat in the Rathskeller can take up to an hour.

“I feel like I’m experiencing the worst of my burnout now, and the fact that there are all these problems coming up with the way the school runs now is extremely frustrating,” said Fitts. “We’re halfway through the season, and that’s almost relieving to think — but at the same time, I don’t want to think like that. I should be trying to enjoy this season and year as much as possible because it’s my last collegiate season and the last time I’ll play with this team ever.”

Jandeleit, on the other hand, thinks the break from school between the spring semester and summer semester along with the week-long break from sports in July 2021 amounted to enough time for students to recuperate.

“Break is great, but it is something that we drift away from after college,” he said. “I just see this continuation of semesters as preparation for the real world.”

Student-athletes, like any student, are free to utilize campus resources like the Counseling Center or the Student Help and Resource Exchange program.

However, the athletic department has not provided any resources specifically for athletes who are feeling burned out due to the lack of a break. Felton says her support system consists strictly of her friends.

“My friends, who were here over the summer, and I talk about being here for so long a lot,” she explained. “Most people who haven’t experienced it just say ‘Sorry, that sucks,’ or tell me I chose to be here. Being on campus for almost a year straight was not something anyone signed up for when they applied to this institution.”

While Jandeleit also acknowledges the lack of official resources, he recommends talking to your coach.

“I don’t see myself needing any of these support resources; however, we should still have them for anyone who needs it,” Jandeleit said.

If student-athletes need help finding campus resources to fit their needs, they can reach out to Assistant Director of Athletics Erica Rau by email at erica.rau@oberlin.edu or by phone at 440-775-8505.

Oberlin’s Department of Athletics did not respond to requests to comment for this story.

2021 Homecoming Schedule Friday, October 15

Saturday, October 16

Heisman Club Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony • 6–8 p.m. at Knowlton Athletics Complex. Capacity 120. Registration required.

• The Oberlin Heisman Club will officially enshrine four new members: Teresa Collins, OC ’05 track and field; Young Kim, OC ’85 swimming; Matt Filner, OC ’91 soccer; Chris Schubert, OC ’08 football • Due to current COVID-19 restrictions on campus, the Hall of Fame Ceremony will move to offering a take-home treat and drink for all attendees.

Field Hockey vs. Wittenberg University • 6 p.m. on Bailey Field Women’s Soccer vs. Hiram College • 7 p.m. on Fred Shults Field Black Student-Athlete Group Alumni Bowling • 7–10 p.m. at the Oberlin College Lanes

Women’s Lacrosse Alumni Breakfast & Game • 10 a.m.–12 p.m. at Mount Oberlin Hill Men’s & Women’s Cross Country Inter-Regional Rumble • 10:30 a.m. at North Fields (40 teams) • Post-race lunch for all cross country alumni, families, and friends at 3 p.m. at Williams Field House • Send RSVP to Izzy Alexander via email at Izzy.

Alexander@oberlin.edu Men’s Lacrosse Alumni Game & Luncheon • 9:30 a.m.–12 p.m. at Knowlton Athletics Complex • RSVP to Jackson Mumford via email at jmumfor2@ oberlin.edu Heisman Club Philips Equipment Room Dedication Ceremony • 11 a.m.–12 p.m. at Philips gym. Registration required.

• Honorees: Equipment Room Managers Larry Ramey (1981–2020), Vera Peterson (1980–2018), and Virginia Covalt (1980–2016) Heisman Club Homecoming Tailgate • 1:30–3 p.m., outdoors between Knowlton Athletics Complex and Williams Field House. Capacity 300.

Registration required.

• The tailgate has an “eat and drink local” theme, with food from Steel Magnolia, iCrave, and Lorenzo’s Pizzeria, as well as drinks from Unplugged Brewing Co. and Duck Island Cocktails. Attendees will be able

The Oberlin Review | October 15, 2021

to remove their masks as they enjoy all the local flavors. There will be tents and seating available.

Women’s Volleyball vs. DePauw University • 1 p.m. at Philips gym Football vs. Wittenberg University • 3 p.m. on Bailey Field Women’s Tennis vs. University of Findlay • 3 p.m. at Hunsinger Courts or Heisman Club Field House Men’s Soccer at Hiram College • 7:30 p.m.

Student-Athlete Advisory Committee/BSAG Yard Sale & Brownie Bar • 7:30–8:30 p.m. outside of Knowlton Athletics Complex Homecoming Fireworks Show • 8:30 p.m. at Knowlton Athletics Complex, sponsored by the Program Board and the Office of Student Involvement

15

October 15, 2021

SPORTS Established 1874

Volume 151, Number 2

First-Year Athletes Find Team Support Fall-Athletes Feeling Burned Out Without Through Extended Preseason Summer Break

Fourth-year student-athlete Lauren Fitts goes to serve in the volleyball team’s Sept. 23 game against Kenyon College.

Photo courtesy of GoYeo.

Zoe Kuzbari Sports Editor

The women’s soccer team warms up on North Fields before practice.

River Schiff Senior Staff Writer This year, first-year athletes who arrived in September were thrown into a situation where, without classes or Orientation to keep them busy, sports were all they had to connect with campus. For these students, the already difficult transition from high school to college was accentuated by the extended lack of structure and sparsity of students to befriend in their early days.

Isa Morales, a first-year on the women’s soccer team, felt that the adjustment was quite tough.

“I didn’t know anything beyond the soccer fields, so I felt really lost,” she said. “I didn’t know how dining worked or where to seek help for my different problems.”

Usually when athletes come to campus, they have a couple of weeks of training and preseason before the general campus population comes and classes start.

However, this year classes didn’t start till Oct. 4, which meant that athletes who were on campus between summer and fall went through most of that time without normal semester functions, like dining and housing, operating as usual.

While the transition was tough, first-year Morgan Cianfichi found that the support of her team really helped her navigate her first few weeks.

“Once I got on campus, my team made me feel very grateful and welcomed. I’m really grateful that my teammates showed me around and made sure that I was prepared for classes to start,” she explained.

Cianfichi emphasized how her teammates taught her, as well as her fellow first-years, about the dynamics at Oberlin. Salem Holter, a first-year field hockey player, talked about the experience of understanding Oberlin from their teammates before officially going through Orientation.

“It was very funny, having already learned the structure by which Oberlin works, but I enjoyed the actual experience of going through it with other [first-years],”

16

Photo by Anisa Curry Vietze

For Morales, Orientation was an opportunity to build on her knowledge of campus with proper guidance on academic life at Oberlin.

“In some ways, I felt really cool because I knew where the buildings were and how the dining system worked, but at the same time, I was equally as lost as my classmates as to how academic life worked in college,” she said. “It’s been very fun to learn so much about what the school offers.”

Athletes are notorious for juggling their social and academic lives — balancing daily practices, games, and lifts, while staying on top of classes and making time for themselves. For first-years, the intensity of this balancing act has been a jarring experience. Both Holter and Morales described the month leading up to the start of classes in October as similar to a summer camp: a worryfree environment where they could focus on following their passion for their sport. With the introduction of classes, however, they have found that being a collegiate athlete is quite different from their initial impressions.

“The adjustment of having classes during the season has been a bit rough, especially due to the fact that I’m missing classes early on in the semester because of away games,” Morales said. “I feel like this adjustment is a really difficult one because, all of a sudden, I have a full curricular workload and many more responsibilities that I have to balance with soccer.”

Cianfichi believes the first week of classes improved her ability to balance her day-to-day activities as a college athlete.

“Being in-season while starting school has definitely been a challenge, but I have learned how to balance my academics and soccer,” Cianfichi said.

Despite a rough start to the academic year, first-year athletes have found support in their teams and practices.

With a little perseverance and some more guidance, the latest class of rookies will be ready to take on their new responsibilities at Oberlin.

With classes amping up in intensity as students enter the second week of the fall semester, some student-athletes who have been on campus for a month and a half already say they feel burned out. Fall athletes were required to stay on campus to practice during the September break between summer and fall semesters, but this back-to-back schedule has been taxing for some.

Fourth-year volleyball player Lauren Fitts says she started feeling burned out before classes even began– and now, with school in full swing, the stress has definitely increased. Fitts, who is from California, hasn’t been able to travel back home, where she feels most comfortable, since February.

“I’ve had no time to relax and feel like I’m being stretched so thin,” she said. “The upside is that our season overlaps with this semester a lot less than it has in the past, so hopefully it will be more manageable.”

For fourth-year soccer player Nic Jandeleit, the fall semester has been going very well so far. He is feeling reinvigorated now that the whole student body is back on campus.

“Despite being here for the spring and summer semester, I feel very motivated for this fall,” Jandeleit said. “The addition of everyone returning has brought energy to this campus that hasn’t been here since we were sent home. I’m sure there will be times later in the semester where I will feel burned out, but that’s normal for everyone.”

Fitts agrees that having a full campus is nice, but she also says it’s quite a change to what she has become accustomed to over the past month.

“It is nice seeing a full campus again, but it is taking a lot of adjusting,” she said. “I kinda got used to having a relatively empty campus as it was more peaceful, but I’m happy that I will have a normal-ish senior year.”

Third-year volleyball player Lindsey Felton has also felt the burnout despite only being here for the summer semester and not the spring.

“The three-semester plan really messed me up,” she said. “Especially because I decided to stay home in California for the fall 2020 semester, it’s been hard to get back into the swing of things academically now that things are full force.”

Felton highlights that playing a sport in college is a much bigger time commitment than some may think.

For many student-athletes, class doesn’t get out until 4:15 p.m. some days, and practices start at 4:45 p.m.

“You need time to walk all the way from King [Building] to the gym, go to the trainer if you’re hurt, get changed into your practice gear, and set up the nets and bring out the balls,” she explained. “Then, you need to put stuff away, shower, sometimes go to the trainer again, and eat dinner. ... Practice itself is See Effects, page 15