September 20, 2019

The Oberlin Review September 20, 2019

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 3

Property Records Reveal Gibson Family Holdings Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief

Oberlin launched its rollout of TimeClock Plus, a digital employment management software, this semester. Employees will now electronically clock in and out of their jobs instead of using paper time cards.

Photo by Chris Schmucki, Photo Editor

Oberlin Shifts to Electronic Payment System Kyra McConnell In a move away from paper time cards, Oberlin recently adopted a new electronic platform to track student and staff workers’ hours. Many employees will now use a third-party system, TimeClock Plus, to electronically clock in and out of work in real time.

Some college employees have engaged in a trial period of the new system for the past year, but the system didn’t go live for most student workers until classes started this semester.

Chief Human Resources Officer Joseph Vitale explained that the digital system facilitates communication between supervisors and employees.

“The biggest change for students is being able to clock in and out on mobile devices,” he said, citing the change as “the best practice for compensation and labor standards.”

All hourly workers, including students and non-students, will use TimeClock Plus except for those who work in Campus Dining Services.

Students who are paid on a stipend instead of hourly basis — such as RAs — do not yet use the system. Students who are paid through the Office of the Student Treasurer and not directly though the college still have not been informed if they will have to use the system or not. Professional, salaried workers such as professors and deans will not use TimeClock Plus.

Despite its intended simplification of the payroll process, the shift to TimeClock Plus has caused some controversy. One issue is that not all managers have the ability to access information for their student employees, as not all student positions have been set up within the system yet.

Another unresolved question is how the system will handle stipended student employees, some of whom work more hours than they report.

College fourth-year student Zite Ezeh is a controller at the Office of the Student Treasurer, and explained that integration with these types of positions present concerns.

“The shift to making it hourly doesn’t work with every organization,” Ezeh said, adding that the new system complicates “the way that [students] are doing their work — whether in the office, or elsewhere.”

In response to this concern, Vitale acknowledged that some stipended jobs on campus may be classified as hourly, though this change has not occurred in full yet. The Student Finance Committee is coordinating with the Human Resources office to accommodate these changes in the interim period.

“We are continuing with stipends for now but will continue to have conversations with HR, payroll, and [Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith] Raimondo’s office on how we will change the system to move away from that,” College second-year and Student Finance Committee CoChair Rebecca Kukushkin wrote in an email to the Review. “We do not know what that will look like yet.”

Ezeh also mentioned concern from domestic students, who are capped at 25 work hours for the College per week, as well as international students, who are maxed out at 20 work hours per week. Because of this constraint, student employees must take care to remain within the confines of the new system’s quota.

“The main reason these changes were put in place is so that Oberlin College is compliant with labor laws,” Kukushkin said in an email to the Review. “At the end of the day, the College has to pay people for what they’re working.”

However, Vitale suggests that limits on work hours can help provide balance

in students’ lives between campus obligations and employment.

“We as an institution want to be aware that students are not overburdened with employment,” Vitale said.

As TimeClock Plus gives employers easy access to employee hours, some worry that a shift to a digital employment platform will lead to an analytics-based approach to employment and the eventual limiting of job positions.

Vitale responded that “trend reporting has always been in existence,” and that the new application gives employers no deeper access to employee records.

“It is not [HR’s] role to limit student positions,” Vitale said. “We just want to make sure students are paid.”

Some student employees with hourly jobs support the new system despite the concerns of their peers.

College second-year Emery Bosela works at the Science Center Library circulation desk and prefers TimeClock Plus to his previous experience with time cards.

Bosela, now in his third semester as a student employee for the College, describes the system as “pretty easy” and “faster to get into,” although he expressed concerns with the mobile app interface.

Members of the HR team stated that the TimeClock Plus mobile application seems to be working fine, and that employees can find TimeClock Plus tutorials on the HR page of Oberlin’s website.

Garcia encouraged the student body to keep offering suggestions and to review the online documents to stay informed about the new system.

Vitale, too, echoed the desire to continue resolving problems.

“Be patient with us,” Vitale said.

“We’ll do everything we can to make sure concerns are addressed.”

Property records obtained through the Lorain County Auditor’s office reveal that the Gibson family, who recently won a $25 million judgement in the lawsuit they filed against Oberlin College and Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, own property within Oberlin city limits worth approximately $1.7 million, a sum figure not previously discussed in the media. The value assessments are calculated by the auditor’s office using tax information and in-person assessments.

The figure does not include properties owned outside of Oberlin or controlled through Off Street Parking, Inc. — a corporation in which David Gibson owns a majority stake.

While the Gibson family’s property ownership was not a key element of the trial that concluded this past June, the topic was raised by attorneys representing the College and Raimondo, largely to call into question the degree to which the Gibson family was harmed financially by the student boycott against Gibson’s Bakery.

David Gibson, bakery owner, felt that the focus on his family’s property was misplaced and disingenuous.

“I saw the statements when [representatives of Oberlin College] smear[ed] our brand, they talked about [how] the Gibsons have many properties that are key properties in town,” Gibson testified on May 21, 2019. “We have properties downtown that [are] the last block of properties that … are independently owned and surrounding college campus.”

Gibson also alleged that the College was engaged in efforts to push out local business owners and assume control of downtown properties, including those owned by the Gibson family. This claim was denied in court by President Carmen Twillie Ambar.

However, property records reveal that David Gibson and his father, Allyn Gibson, own several residential properties outside downtown Oberlin, including two multi-unit rental residential properties. Those two properties are estimated to be worth nearly $900,000 in total, representing more than half of the value of the combined property owned by both men.

According to Fred Westbrook, chief appraiser for the Lorain County Auditor’s office, his office assesses the market value of all properties in the county every six years.

“We do that by visiting each property, hopefully speaking with an owner or a tenant,” Westbrook said. “We try to get the physical characteristics and the amenities of the property … that information is then compiled and brought in.”

The auditor’s office conducted their most recent assessment in 2018, according to Lorain County Auditor Craig Snodgrass. During this appraisal, office representatives visited all 166,000 parcels registered in the county, about 141,000 of which are residential, Snodgrass said.

Snodgrass added that, for both residential and commercial properties that are rented out by their owners — as is the case for several properties See Gibson, page 4

CONTENTS NEWS

OPINIONS

THIS WEEK

ARTS & CULTURE

SPORTS

02 Oberlin City Schools Receive Poor Report Card

05 EICS Act An Essential First Step In Climate Fight

08–09 Oberlin Namesakes

14 Atheleticism, Competition, or Neither: What Constitutes a Sport?

03 Court of Appeals Sides With Oberlin in NEXUS Dispute

06 Oberlin’s Early History Rooted in Religious Convictions

10 New Approach to Art Rental Attracts Record Number of Students

The Oberlin Review | September 20, 2019

11 Musician Raveena Recieves Warm Wecome from Obies

16 I’m Tired: The Official Best Sports Movies List

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

1

Ne w s

Oberlin City Schools Receive Poor Report Card

Ohio State Report Card downgraded Oberlin City Schools from a C rating to a D rating after reviewing key academic performance statistics.

Photo by Chris Schmucki, Photo Editor

Drew Dansby Oberlin City Schools received a D rating on its School Report Card released by the Ohio Department of Education last week.

This is down from last year’s C rating.

The Ohio School Report Card measures the performances of public school districts across the state. A district’s letter grade is calculated using multiple predictors, including achievement, progress, and career preparedness.

Oberlin City Schools Director of Curriculum William Baylis expressed that the D rating was deeply upsetting.

“It’s gut-wrenching,” Baylis said. “No one wants to have their district rated ‘D.’ I’ve been at many districts, and when I say our teachers are working hard, they’re working extremely hard; they’re not just handing out coloring pages or worksheets.”

Oberlin’s public school district is made up of four schools: Eastwood Elementary, Prospect Elementary, Langston Middle, and Oberlin High. The city originally designed the schools to have a capacity of about 2,000 students, but current

enrollment is less than 1,000. Last November, Oberlin voters passed a $4.8 million bond issue that greenlit a plan for OCS to consolidate the entire district into a single building.

Associate Professor of Sociology Clovis White, who has two grandchildren enrolled in Oberlin’s elementary schools, attributes the district’s rating drop to the city’s long-term population decline and demographic shifts.

“We’re getting a lot of people with some money [in] Lorain County moving to Avon because it’s one of the few areas where there’s a lot of new housing,” White said.

“If you’ve really been here for a while, you know what’s happening.”

Oberlin is one of nine city school districts in Lorain County. The three school districts that received grades of B or higher — Amherst, Avon, and Avon Lake — are located in the three cities in Lorain County with the highest average income.

By contrast, about 70 percent of Oberlin’s public school students are labeled by the Ohio Department of Education as “economically disadvantaged.”

White argues that district report cards for underperforming schools in lowerincome communities like Oberlin and Elyria don’t fairly represent the members of those communities.

“You’re depending on a population that traditionally has not had the kind of access to educational experiences [or] family members who know the best ways to handle growth academically,” White said.

“It really is troublesome.”

Eddie Burgos, a College first-year and Oberlin High School graduate, feels that the additional resources available to students in wealthier areas of Lorain result in better educational outcomes for those students.

“Places like Avon and Westlake do a lot better than Oberlin does — there’s a lot more white people there, more money, more opportunities, more home value, more tax money,” Burgos said. “[Oberlin College] owns a [large amount] of this town, and they don’t pay taxes on a lot of the land.”

Burgos also attributes OCS’ low rating to the challenges faced by teachers and students in adequately preparing for state tests.

“My math teacher has had to rewrite her curriculum every year because we’re changing our testing, we’re changing our state standards,” he said. “What mattered … on paper were the test scores, and the test scores just weren’t there.”

Four out of the six predictors on the Ohio School Report Card are calculated using statewide standardized test scores.

One of the other predictors, “Prepared for Success,” is related to national standardized tests — the SAT and ACT, as well as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams. The only predictor

independent of test scores is graduation rate, for which Oberlin’s school district received a sub-rating of B. In a press release responding to the report card results, OCS focused on its assets instead of its shortcomings. The statement mentioned industry-specific graduation paths and the College Credit Plus program, which allows high school students to take classes at Oberlin College.

“We do not have to pay for IB, and we can apply to any [college] we want, and they’ll cover the fees,” Burgos recalled while describing his experience at Oberlin High. “We had Oberlin College students come in for content tutoring.”

District administrators acknowledge the need to continually improve academic equity and success in school, though not necessarily their performance on tests.

“We want a diverse curriculum,” explained Baylis. “In IB, we teach a variety of literature; we’ll have students read A Thousand Splendid Suns and [learn about] women in Afghanistan to make those connections.”

Since 2017, Oberlin City Schools has been developing a strategic plan to keep up with state curriculum mandates.

There are currently three districts in Ohio — including nearby Lorain — that have received ratings that are so low that they are controlled by state-appointed commissions instead of elected school boards. Like Oberlin, these are highpoverty districts that are underperforming.

If Oberlin’s report card grades continue to drop, Oberlin’s district could also come under the control of a state-led academic distress commission. Legislation to minimize state takeovers of school districts was put before the Ohio Senate Wednesday and is in the process of being considered.

Dana Hamdan Named Director of Career Development Center Dana Hamdan has been hired as executive director of the Career Development Center after serving in the position in an interim capacity during the 2018–19 school year.

As director, Hamdan will collaborate on the implementation of recommendations made by the Academic and Administrative Program Review last year. Many of these recommendations involve better preparing Oberlin students for their professional lives after graduation and will directly impact the career center’s role on campus.

“Oberlin is at an exciting crossroads, and the One Oberlin report has created a blueprint for innovative connections,” Hamdan wrote in an email to the Review. “I look forward to the opportunity to connect students’ co-curricular and curricular experiences. I also want to continue building on Oberlin’s ethos of Obies helping Obies by building seamless connections among the PAL program, SOAR, and Career Communities to propel all students forward.”

President Carmen Twillie Ambar is confident in Hamdan’s ability to leverage the existing functions of the Career Development Center to positively impact students’ lives at Oberlin and beyond.

“Dana has already demonstrated her ability to build programs, collaborate across the College, and engage students,” Ambar wrote in an email to the Review. “As the executive Director of the Career Development Center, she will be a dynamic and innovative leader who will make the CDC a springboard for launching Oberlin grads into meaningful and rewarding careers by connecting their academic work to internship experiences.”

Text by Katie Lucey, News Editor Photo by Tanya Rosen Jones ‘97

The Oberlin r eview Sept. 20, 2019 Volume 148, Number 3 (ISSN 297–256) Published by the students of Oberlin College every Friday during the fall and spring semesters, except holidays and examination periods. Advertising rates: $18 per column inch.

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

POSTMASTER SEND CHANGES TO: Wilder Box 90, Oberlin, Ohio 44074-1081. Office of Publication: Burton Basement, Oberlin, Ohio 44074. Phone: (440) 775-8123

2

Editors-in-Chief

Nathan Carpenter Katherine MacPhail Managing Editor Ananya Gupta News Editors Anisa Curry Vietze Katie Lucey Opinions Editor Jackie Brant This Week Editor Lily Jones Arts Editors Kate Fishman Aly Fogel Sports Editors Jane Agler Alexis Dill Photo Editors Mallika Pandey Chris Schmucki Senior Staff Writers Carson Dowhan Ella Moxley Layout Editors Emma Jane Haas Lila Michaels Parker Shatkin Nico Vickers

Ads Manager Web Manager Production Manager Production Staff

Jabree Hason Sheng Kao Devyn Malouf Gigi Ewing Christo Hays Jimmy Holland Olive Hwang Kushagra Kar Allison Schmitt Ivy Fernandez Smith Jaimie Yue

Corrections: In “College Should Respect Any Future Appeal Decision,” published Sept. 13, Oberlin College’s president in 2016 was mistakenly listed as current President Carmen Twillie Ambar. The president at the time was President Marvin Krislov.

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

Court of Appeals Sides With Oberlin in NEXUS Dispute Ella Moxley Senior Staff Writer

In a legal blow to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the City of Oberlin and other plaintiffs who opposed the NEXUS pipeline’s proposed use of eminent domain in the construction of the natural gas pipeline.

Oberlin took NEXUS to court because the 256-mile natural gas pipeline, which stretches from Kensington, OH to Canada, runs through land within city limits.

The city argued that under the Natural Gas Act, FERC could only grant authorization for the use of eminent domain to companies like NEXUS for interstate projects, not international ones. The legal concept of eminent domain concerns reclaiming of private land for public need without compensation. In addition, Oberlin’s Community Bill of Rights bans pipelines on city land.

In the decision, Judge Robert L. Wilkins asked that FERC provide further explanation as to why the use of eminent domain was needed. He added that NEXUS had not sufficiently justified its market demand.

Carolyn Elefant, a lawyer for the City of Oberlin, was satisfied with the outcome of the hearing.

“Now it is up to FERC to decide what happens next,” Elefant said. “I think it’s unlikely this pipeline would have to stop operating, but we will have to see what FERC does. It’s really important for future projects even more than for this one. Right now, companies are building pipelines to ship gas to China and other countries in Asia, and those pipelines do not supply gas domestically. They are only for export.”

The decision follows years of contentious and controversial negotiations between NEXUS and Lorain County residents and Oberlin City Council that started in April 2015.

In 2015, NEXUS Gas Transmission, LLC applied to FERC for approval to build an interstate pipeline running from Kensington, OH to Ypsilanti Township, MI. Under Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act, once NEXUS obtained approval from FERC, the company could use eminent domain to complete the infrastructure project.

FERC’s approval of the NEXUS pipeline sparked controversy in affected areas across Ohio. The company eventually settled with every property owner that the pipeline crossed except for the City of Oberlin.

Oberlin City Council President Bryan Burgess voiced his opposition to NEXUS in 2015 and continues to oppose it today.

“How can a corporation justify taking public

property for private purchase?” Burgess asked.

In the FERC report, the commission explained that the decision to approve the pipeline was made by weighing all possible outcomes.

“In deciding whether to authorize the construction of major new natural gas facilities, the Commission balances the public benefits against the potential adverse consequences,” read the FERC report.

The report also detailed the compromises it felt NEXUS was willing to make.

“NEXUS incorporated 259 route variations into its proposed route for various reasons, including landowner requests, avoidance of sensitive resources, or engineering considerations [which shows that the company] has actively worked to address landowner and community concerns and input,” FERC wrote.

Some student activists remain skeptical about the validity of these statements, and cite environmental damage at nearby NEXUS sites as a cause for concern.

“Sustainable Medina Country brought in these infrared cameras and found this massive plume,” College fourth-year Rachael Hood said about Wadsworth Compressor Station, a NEXUS site located in Guilford Township, OH. “They have been working to get air testing and air monitoring done.”

Safety concerns also exist in Oberlin. According to reports published by the EPA, chemicals associated with the compression of natural gas can be carcinogenic and pose public health risks. “[The pipeline] runs near all the neighbors of Reserve Avenue,” Burgess said.

There are between 40 and 50 houses on Reserve Avenue which are within 50 feet of the pipeline, and all of these residences could be affected by leakage or explosions.

In 2018, Students for Energy Justice, an environmental student group in Oberlin led by Hood, took part in the activism against the NEXUS pipeline because of these safety concerns. The groups attended City Council hearings and were involved in construction monitoring training.

“In Oberlin, it’s both the risks of the pipeline exploding and leaking and it’s also the fact that Oberlin has this Climate Action Plan and Community Bill of Rights and is committed to a livable planet and a sustainable planet,” Hood said. “So there is [the] wider issue of expanding pipeline infrastructure and locking us into natural gas energy in the United States.”

Many Oberlin students and community members continue to stand firm in their commitment to policy that supports environmental action on both a local and global scale.

Security Notebook Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019 12:36 a.m. City-wide power outage interrupts Splitchers. Facilities personnel responded to check on various alarms on campus.

3:57 p.m. Campus Safety officers responded after receiving several reports of an unattended suitcase in the atrium closet in Robertson Hall. The building was temporarily evacuated. The suitcase was checked and found to be empty and was disposed of by officers.

Friday, Sept. 13, 2019 12:26 p.m. Officers were requested to transport an ill student from Student Health Services to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

5:00 p.m. An alumnus reported a student being struck by a vehicle at the intersection of College Street and Professor Street. There was no one in the area upon officers’ arrival. Oberlin Police Department and Mercy Allen Hospital had no information on the incident. Contact was made with the student involved, who advised they were okay and had only sustained some small bruises.

10:30 p.m. Officers were requested to assist a student who had fallen and hit their head in Barrows Hall while under the influence of alcohol. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for evaluation.

Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019 11:43 a.m. Officers were requested to assist an ill student at Kahn Hall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

11:27 p.m. Officers were requested to assist a student, ill from alcohol consumption, at the intersection of Walnut Street and Main Street. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019 12:49 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student, ill from alcohol and marijuana consumption, in the middle of North Quad. An ambulance was requested, as the student could not stand. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

12:57 a.m. Officers responded to a loud noise and possible fight complaint in the Union Street housing area. The Oberlin Police Department also responded.

Approximately 50 individuals on Goldsmith Lane dispersed when officers were observed in the area; no one was seen fighting.

Monday, Sept. 16, 2019 10:58 a.m. Officers were requested to assist an ill student in South Hall. The student was transported to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

11:40 a.m. A student reported a suspicious individual looking into their practice room window in Robertson Hall then continuing down the hallway.

Officers checked all floors of the building but were unable to locate the individual 2:11 p.m. A student reported a possible suspicious person at their Elm Street Village House. Officers responded, and it was determined that a Facilities Operations employee was at the house to follow up on a work order for a window air conditioning unit.

9:22 p.m. A student reported they were possibly followed home by an unknown male, who then followed them into Kade House. Officers responded and checked the entire building, along with Price House and Harvey House. No one fitting the description could be located.

Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019 9:58 a.m. Officers were requested to assist a student who injured their ankle while playing basketball. The student was transported from Student Health Services to Mercy Allen Hospital for treatment.

4:45 p.m. A student reported the theft of their bicycle from the bike rack on the west side of the Allen Memorial Art Museum. The bicycle is a blue, singlespeed women’s Texas Rangerette with black and blue handlebars. The bicycle was not locked at the time of theft.

The Oberlin Review | September 20, 2019

3

Ne New wss OFF THE CUFF

Rev. Erica Saunders, Peace Community Church Pastor I was wondering if you have a particular focus within your religious studies.

I am a little bit of a New Testament nerd. I love to dive into the history and into the Greek. I’ve written lots of term papers, particularly about sexual ethics and gender and Greco-Roman antiquities.

I do have a passion for queer and trans theology — kind of constructively looking at the experiences of queer and trans people. How we experience God and spirituality and discerning the gifts and the viewpoints and the ideas of who God is and what it means to be human.

Rev. Erica Saunders Photo courtesy of The Morning Journal

Rev. Erica Saunders is one of the first openly transgender women to be ordained in the Baptist Church. She joined the Oberlin community last July as the new pastor for Peace Community Baptist Church. She is passionate about her work in congregational ministry and LGBTQ+ education and advocacy. Saunders earned her B.A. from Queens University of Charlotte and her M.Div. from Wake Forest University School of Divinity.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Katherine MacPhail Editor-in-Chief What brought you to Oberlin?

When I was graduating, I was looking at denominational job boards, and I saw that Peace Church was searching for a pastor. ... I went on their website, and I saw this thing that they have that lists some of their beliefs. “Science is real, Black lives matter, love is love,” all of this stuff. I was like, “This is a community that I need to know about.”

So I ended up applying for the position. I came here for two different trial sermons, and then I ended up falling in love with the people and with the community as well.

Could you tell me about some of the articles you’ve published?

I’ve written a few things for Christian Feminism Today. I received a scholarship from them, so I presented a workshop at their annual gathering about transgender justice, and what justice — particularly in the church — looks like for trans people. … I kind of conceived of it as a “trans 101” kind of thing because the audience was mostly older and not super knowledgeable about trans issues. I think what set my presentation apart from other general ed things is I conceive of trans peoples’ experience, especially my own, in theological terms — as a kind of spiritual journey and a calling from the divine.

I was wondering what your personal approach has been to spiritual leadership?

I come from the Baptist tradition in which the pastor is definitely a spiritual leader in as much as she provides care for the community and she teaches every week. But we have this idea called the “priesthood of all believers,” where there’s not anything really special about a pastor or an ordained clergy person, aside from our calling to serve the local church.

So with that context, I guess I would view my spiritual leadership in terms of relationship. I think that where God is most clearly present and where the spirit most clearly moves is in the context of two more people coming together to do God’s work of forming beloved community,

releasing the captive and freeing the enslaved.

Did you always want to be a pastor and to do work in the church?

When I started divinity school, I actively did not want to do congregational ministry. I had started my program with the idea that I would just be doing preparation for a Ph.D. in New Testament.

But as I came out as trans and really kind of faced my theology and my spiritual life and completed my internship at the congregation that ordained me, I realized that’s definitely where I’m called, at least at this point in my life. I think that the role of the church is in a period of transition ... that we are kind of in a new reformation period, and there’s a lot of really important work to be done that needs to happen in new and creative ways. And I think it’s just too important to lose, and I have to be a part of it.

Is there anything you’d like folks from the College or the community to know about your church and about your work?

Peace Church is openly welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ+ people. They decided that by consensus in 2005. It’s a congregation that is very warm and hospitable and loving, and the folks there care deeply about peace and justice. I am also an affiliate with the [Oberlin College Office of Religious and Spiritual Life,] so I am also available as a resource to students. … I was just conducting interviews for a position that we have at the church, the peace and justice intern. Every year they call a student to help with our efforts to educate the community and be involved in peace and justice issues, issues of God’s reign coming to fruition here.

What role does activism play at Peace Community Church?

So I understand the folks [at Peace Community Church] to be very passionate about activism, and there’s a lot of energy there. And part of what I can conceive of my role to be is helping the congregation to discern what kind of issues they’d like to

be involved in and help them to organize most effectively to make an impact both in Oberlin and beyond.

Have you had any idea so far of what those issues might be?

I see a lot of interests, a lot of hands and a lot of different cookie jars. I don’t think that’s just in the church. I think that’s in [the] town and kind of a common thing among more progressive people generally, just because there’s so much to be done. But really coming together and forming partnerships around one or two big and important causes is really, I think, one of the only ways to be agents of real change. Especially when you have limited resources.

How do you respond to liberal people who are critical of the church?

So much of the churches’ public image has been hijacked by one strand of the tradition that’s conservative. ... The Christian tradition is so much broader and deeper than what most folks read in the headlines. But it’s also difficult to hold that in tension with the fact that those folks with more harmful theologies — or that do oppose justice movements that actually help people — they do hurt people that are in the pews, too. We have to be with them as they process their own trauma and to bear witness to that and repent for it, even if we’re not directly the ones who caused it — to own that as a part of our tradition. I would say that’s part of why I ended up in the church is to help redeem that image and to help unveil the possibilities for the future.

Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

I do office hours every week from 12–3 p.m. at different coffee shops around town on Tuesday afternoons. I’m usually over at Slow Train if folks want to stop in and talk. But I would just say that I’m really excited to be here, I am already falling in love with the people and the place, and I can’t wait to see what God has in store.

Gibson Family Owns Properties Worth $1.7 Million in Oberlin City Limits Continued from page 1

owned by the Gibsons — rental revenue is accounted for in the calculation of market value.

“They are handled a bit differently if they are income-producing properties,” Snodgrass said. “We look at market rents, and we try to gather as much of that as we can. Hopefully, [with] the property itself, we’ve had an opportunity to talk to those people to get their particular information on that property. But sometimes [we’re] unable to do so.”

In the event that contact with the property owners cannot be established, Westbrook says that appraisers use local data to estimate rental revenue.

“We do cull the other data that

we have been able to accumulate and [make] a judgement as to, based on those characteristics, what the rental property could run for,” he said. “We do use that to help determine what the value would be.”

Despite the vast number of properties that the auditor’s office is required to appraise, Westbrook is generally confident in the office’s assessments.

“We are not correct on everyone, obviously,” he said. “But, just to give you an example, out of 166,000 parcels, we only had questions on a little more than 4,000, which is about a quarter of one percent.”

“When we look at those properties that have sold prior to our valuation and our valuation results, they’re generally fairly close,” he continued. “We always strive to get … somewhere around 94 to 95 percent

of market value.”

Krista Long, who owns downtown business Ben Franklin & MindFair Books, says that the ability of a business owner to also own their property creates valuable opportunities. “[You’re] paying rent to [yourself ] … so to the extent that I’m not paying [rent] out to someone else, it clearly benefits the business owner to own that property,” Long, who does not own the building or land that Ben Franklin occupies, said.

“Plus, you’re building equity throughout the course of your ownership of the business to the point where, when you’re prepared to sell, [you’re] selling actual real property as opposed to a business which has so many intangibles that it’s difficult to ascertain the value.”

Oberlin Legislative Update Sherrod Brown This Monday, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) delivered an impassioned speech to the Senate regarding the concerns that prompted the roughly 50,000-person strike at General Motors last weekend. The walkout came after contract negotiations between GM and the United Automobile Workers stalled, marking the first major strike since a two-day walkout that occurred in 2007.

In his address, Brown called upon his fellow senators to support the auto workers as they demand “fair pay and benefits, better working conditions, and a voice in their

4

company.” He argued that, as of now, they do not receive the rights and benefits they are owed. Brown brought the issue home in citing the closure of one of GM’s plants in Lordstown, OH, last March, which had a disastrous effect on the local economy.

Jim Jordan During a hearing on Sept. 17, Rep. Jim Jordan (ROH) spoke out against the House Judiciary Committee’s questioning of Corey Lewandowski, former Donald Trump campaign manager, claiming that “the president

In addition to the $1.7 million in property owned by Allyn and David Gibson, David Gibson also recently acquired a majority interest in Off Street Parking, Inc., a collection of parking spots located behind several downtown businesses. Gibson paid approximately $170,000 for his controlling share in 2016, according to trial transcripts.

According to the auditor office’s records, the 17 parcels controlled by Off Street Parking, Ink. are worth in excess of $400,000 in total market value. These parcels were discussed at length in court this past May, with attorneys representing Gibson’s alleging that the College had an interest in removing control of the parking spaces from the Gibson family.

David Gibson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

is falsely accused of colluding with a foreign state to impact the election.”

As committee members repeatedly asked Lewandowski if Trump had tried to interfere with former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential race, Jordan reprimanded House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler for being “too busy trying to impeach the president.”

During the hearing, Jordan also claimed that Democrats “don’t care. … They don’t want to figure out how the false accusations happened. They just want to drag people in front of this committee and find some way they can go after the president.”

opinions September 20, 2019

Established 1874

lEttErs to thE Editors EICD Act An Essential First Step In Climate Fight Many thanks to the Review for Alexa Stevens’ fine article and your good editorial about the Global Climate Strike (“Sunrise Strikes for Brighter Future” and “Oberlin Climate Strike Engages International Emergency,”, Sept. 13, 2019 ). Your editorial is absolutely right in stating that climate change is “a quickly-approaching emergency” and that “this is a fight of and for our lives.”

It’s very heartening to see a worldwide movement of young people raising awareness of this issue and it’s exciting to see such engagement here in Oberlin. I’m looking forward to seeing what I hope will be massive global participation in the strike, accompanied by widespread media coverage.

I encourage everyone in this country who is concerned about climate change to think carefully about the best political strategy for accomplishing what absolutely has to be done to meet this global challenge.

To do our part, the U.S. simply must pass through Congress and sign into law effective legislation that will reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to levels that will limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as recommended by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Such legislation has to be sustainable over time. It cannot be a bill that, when passed, generates such strong opposition that it will be undermined, overturned, or weakened when control of Congress changes from one party to another.

In my view, such legislation has to have significant bipartisan support. By that, I mean it must have enough Republican support that it won’t be viewed in subsequent years as highly partisan. There are encouraging signs of change within the Republican Party that suggest that such a strategy is achievable.

As but one example, Senator Mike Braun of Indiana has recently joined Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware in forming a U.S. Senate climate solutions working group.

A similar group in the U.S. House, which was facilitated by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, has already produced positive results — including the introduction of several carbon-pricing bills.

I believe the best bill so far, the one that will be effective in reducing emissions and has the potential for gaining the needed bipartisan support, is the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (HR 763), which is supported by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby. It would put a steadily rising fee on fossil fuels at their source, returning the net revenue from those fees to all Americans on an equal basis. Conservatives like it because it’s a market-based approach that’s revenue neutral. Folks like me like it because it would be effective, reducing U.S. emissions by at least 40 percent in the first 12 years. You can learn about the bill and how to express support for it in Congress at: https://energyinnovationact.org.

Passing a bill like the EICD Act won’t fully solve the challenge of climate change, but it will be an essential first step. Among the many things we need to do, foremost on my list is the need to elect an American president who will help push bipartisan legislation forward and also re-engage with the nations of the world on this issue.

This means that Donald Trump must be defeated. He’s the dark shadow hovering over those senators and representatives in his party who would like to step out on this issue and work for an effective bipartisan solution. He has denied climate change, worked to defeat Republicans who challenged his negative climate change policy, has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, and alienated countries that would be our strong allies on this issue. We must make him an ex-president in 2021.

– Ray English Director of Libraries Emeritus

SUBMISSIONS POLICY

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

The Oberlin Review | September 20, 2019

Volume 148, Number 3

Editorial Board Editors-in-ChiEf

Nathan Carpenter

Katherine MacPhail

Managing Editor Ananya Gupta

opinions Editor Jackie Brant

TimeClock Plus Implementation Requires Better Communication This fall, returning students braced themselves for several changes in the way things are run at Oberlin. However, despite the good intentions and planning of the Human Resources and Student Employment offices, the unveiling of the new payment system for student and staff workers — TimeClock Plus — has been underwhelming, to say the least. Coverage of the new system is available on page 1 of this issue (“Oberlin’s Shift to Electronic Payment System Causes Controversy”).

On the student and professional worker front, communication regarding TimeClock Plus has been negligible. The application was not mentioned, let alone demonstrated, during student treasurer training. Furthermore, no emails directly informing students about the shift were sent, and it seems like most offices on campus — such as the Office of the Student Treasurer, Student Finance Committee, Office of Student Employment, and the Student Union — are unable to answer questions or clarify confusion about the new process. While Oberlin’s Compensation/Payroll webpage does offer tutorials and other resources to help users operate the application, the only point of contact for inquiries regarding the application is an email address with no appended timeframe of response or point person to contact if issues are not resolved.

We do not fault HR for switching the compensation system from physical to digital timecards. It is clear that this decision was made in an effort to maximize efficiency and convenience, an important improvement moving forward. And certainly, students should expect hiccups when engaging with new technology and be reasonably patient during the transition.

What we take issue with is the way in which this change was sprung as a surprise on students — as well as some College employees — midway through the first week of the semester. Many of the decisions that have been implemented over the last three weeks should have been made and communicated well in advance of the semester, in order to prepare both students and supervisors. Furthermore, the lack of communication and support during this transition has caused a great deal of anxiety among students who are confused about the new technology and unsure how regularly their paychecks will arrive.

While it is true that some students at Oberlin are privileged enough to be unaffected by a lapse in payment, many Obies are also low-income students on financial aid. It is unacceptable that the offices involved in implementing TimeClock Plus did not consider the consequences — or worse, considered the consequences and accepted them — of rolling out something as important as student and staff wages so last-minute.

This is not the first time such a financial transition has been poorly carried out.

Returning students will remember last spring, when once again, mid-semester, student employees paid by OST were asked to submit Google Forms in lieu of timecards. Many students, despite compliance, were not compensated for several pay periods. Eventually, we were asked to revert to the physical timecards for the semester, because the digital forms did not actually work. While the student workers not linked to the Student Union have actually been paid by logging their hours on TimeClock Plus — thus proving the application’s functionality — there are still many students who haven’t been given access to, or information about, when they will be able to use the app in order to get paid.

After the panic caused by a similar decision last semester, we cannot offer HR or the other offices involved in administering TimeClock Plus another pass pass for making such a transition without considering all stakeholders. This level of disorganization regarding employment and wages is unjustifiable. Further, HR and other offices need to acknowledge that TimeClock Plus is not a one-sizefits-all solution — stipended positions need to continue using timecards, a system that has worked reasonably well for the last several years.

As the TimeClock Plus rollout continues, HR and other campus offices must be diligent in communicating to students, staff, and supervisors about how the system will be applied moving forward. This transition — while made, it appears, for good reason — has been shrouded in mystery, and left many, especially students, wondering about the stability of their College-related income in the near future.

Students have shown themselves willing to be as patient as possible through this process; we ask the offices behind the implementation of TimeClock Plus to meet us halfway and ensure that the next few weeks proceed more smoothly than the previous few have.

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

Oberlin’s Early History Rooted in Religious Convictions Nathan Carpenter Editor-in-Chief Editor’s note: This column is part of a series that will focus on Oberlin’s history as a town and an institution. The series will be published regularly throughout the fall semester.

In the winter of 1858, John Price, a formerly enslaved person, was captured by slave catchers traveling through Oberlin and taken to Wellington, ostensibly under the authority of the Fugitive Slave Law. A group of Oberlin residents followed Price and his captors, ultimately bringing him back to Oberlin after a prolonged standoff.

Now known as the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue, the event is widely regarded as one of the key incidents precipitating the Civil War, and continues to hold an important place in Oberlin’s collective history.

Despite the significance of the moment, Charles Grandison Finney, a religious leader in the Second Great Awakening and foundational figure in Oberlin’s early history, left for England just a few weeks later without saying much about it to anybody.

For those familiar with Oberlin’s history, Finney’s omission may be surprising. After all, Finney was one of the earliest advocates for Oberlin to admit Black students — a key moment in popular narratives about the school’s social justice pedigree.

However, Finney’s apparent disregard for the Oberlin Rescuers, as the group of people who spirited Price away from Wellington came to be known, is representative of a larger, often overlooked truth of early Oberlin.

From the beginning, Oberlin’s organizing principle was religious faith. At nearly every key moment of Oberlin’s early history, religion was a key feature — from the community’s opposition to enslavement, to its endorsement of prohibition in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and everything in between. Indeed, Finney himself felt that the abolitionist values he had initially championed in Oberlin were secondary to his central effort of religious conversion. At points, he felt that his religious work was being unfairly dominated by Oberlin’s growing focus on abolishing slavery.

While it may seem contradictory to us today, Oberlin’s early leaders were not the champions of racial equity in the ways that we often make them out to be. They were fervent abolitionists, it’s true — but that priority was tied deeply to their religious convictions.

They were not devoted to social justice as we understand it; rather, Oberlinians found themselves opposed to enslavement because they believed God opposed it, and their perspective gave them a moral and theological high ground.

Take, for example, Oberlin co-founder John Jay Shipherd. A devoted admirer of Finney’s, Shipherd was instrumental in the decision to admit Black students to the then-Oberlin Collegiate Institute. He even went so far as to threaten his resignation if Oberlin did not meet a number of his demands, including racial integration.

However, Shipherd’s motivation in embracing integration was, on its face, financial — a budgetary crisis early in Oberlin’s history challenged his ability to carry out his religious mission

through the school. An influx of students and high faculty salaries meant that Shipherd needed to find serious investors in order to keep Oberlin’s doors open.

Shipherd found an avenue to secure Oberlin’s long-term financial stability through a group of students from nearby Lane Seminary in Cincinnati.

Known as the Lane Rebels, the group had withdrawn from the seminary due to a conflict with its Board of Trustees over the issue of abolition.

As an abolitionist on religious grounds, Shipherd traveled to Cincinnati, where he was told by the lone Lane trustee who sided with the Rebels, Asa Mahan, that New York-based businessmen and abolitionists Arthur and Lewis Tappan had promised to fund the Rebels in their post-Lane life.

Immediately, Shipherd realized his opportunity and returned to Oberlin to make the case to his own trustees.

Shipherd wanted to bring the Rebels, alongside Mahan and Finney, to Oberlin. However, all of them made racial integration a key condition of their agreeing to come. Shipherd knew that he must convince Oberlin to integrate, otherwise the funding for his religious mission would be lost.

So, as a deeply racist man who openly and strongly believed in Black inferiority even as he opposed enslavement, Shipherd embraced racial integration.

Even as he did so, he assured community members that he did not wish for Oberlin to “fill up with filthy, stupid” Black students. The case he made in favor of racially inclusive admissions was almost entirely pragmatic.

“The men of money which would make our institution most useful, can-

not be obtained if we reject our colored brother,” Shipherd once said.

Some may question the necessity of distinguishing between different motivations; after all, if the outcome is the same, why does it matter if the decision for Oberlin to accept Black students — or an event like the Oberlin-Wellington rescue — was motivated by faith instead of a deep-seated belief in racial equity?

It matters because if we misinterpret the motivations and values of those who came before us, we cannot hope to fully understand our present-day challenges. This disconnect was a large focus of the book Elusive Utopia by Professors Emeriti of History Carol Lasser and Gary Kornblith. Their book explores the historical roots of why racial and economic divisions continue to exist in a community that is widely lauded for its social justice commitments.

It matters because the three wings of East Hall are, to this day, named for Mahan, Shipherd, and Shipherd’s Oberlin co-founder Philo P. Stewart.

In large part, this community’s early values were derived from religious piety, rather than a commitment to social justice itself. Within this context, Finney’s non-statement on the Oberlin-Wellington rescue makes much more sense. His primary goal, as well as Oberlin’s, was not to abolish slavery in order to achieve racial equity; it was to serve God, and just about everything else in Oberlin was secondary.

Even Shipherd’s pragmatic search for funding was driven by his firm belief in Oberlin’s evangelical mission. Without understanding this path that led us here, which is nearly always misrepresented, we cannot hope to understand the path forward.

Oberlin Should Pioneer Lasdun Overlooks Downsides of Nuclear Network Studies Shogo Ishikawa Contributing Writer

Max Herman, OC ’89 Contributing Writer

The recent One Oberlin report states that for Oberlin to flourish, it must “pioneer a new, more relevant curriculum and educational experience for our 21st-century students.”

To this end, Oberlin should seriously consider the academic field of Network Studies. It is not yet prevalent in higher education, but Oberlin could both lead and benefit from its development.

Like any concentration, Network Studies would adhere to the traditional liberal arts disciplines, but engage with them from a unique perspective.

The core content would, of course, include the impact of networks in society; recent advances in network science, theory, and technology; as well as address the constantly-evolving network structures in our world and the cumulative increase of their impacts.

However, Network Studies is a fundamentally interdisciplinary field that goes far beyond technology. Networks touch on every level of social phenomena, from quantum physics to protein networks; they are fundamental to all complex systems, and hence to all life. They precede technology and human intelligence, and, from both an ontological and an epistemological perspective, they relate to all fields, fully embracing the humanities and affirming their mutual relevance to the sciences.

Sample subjects of study could range as widely as the liberal arts themselves: from the Human Connectome Project to the novel as a network; from complexity theory to systems chemistry; from the network neuroscience model of intelligence to ethnomusicology and the cognitive science of improvisation. An English major might pursue a network See Network, page 7

6

Many people have read the article “Nuclear Represents Best Option” by Leo Lasdun, which was published in the Review last Friday. This piece is a direct response to that article and an attempt to encourage further discussion regarding nuclear energy and U.S. energy policy in the future.

Lasdun uses four main points to support his argument that nuclear energy is the most realistic option for energy production in the United States: nuclear power is emissions-free, which is pertinent given the rise of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere; is economically feasible due to the fixed cost of existing nuclear power plants; has high energy production efficiency compared to other energy sources, such as solar, wind, and coal; and is safer than other methods.

Lasdun’s fourth point — the safety of nuclear power plants compared to other power sources — is unrealistic. Lasdun presents statistics from NASA to argue that nuclear power does not kill more people than other power sources do. “[B]etween 1971 and 2009, nuclear … prevented 1.8 million deaths — thousands of times more than it caused — that

would have resulted from extracting the energy using more dangerous and polluting methods over the same time period,” he wrote.

I do not know how and with what methods NASA calculated the value of 1.8 million. I can say, though, that phenomena that have happened in a parallel reality, where “more dangerous and polluting methods over the same time period” exist instead of nuclear power, are not sufficient evidence to support one’s claim, and cannot be calculated accurately in any way. Although the writer wants to emphasize the necessity of facing “the reality,” the writer supports the argument using statistics that are not realistically calculated. Furthermore, Lasdun evaluates different energy sources by comparing the number of deaths that each energy source could potentially cause. This utilitarian approach to analyzing the “safety” of nuclear power is dangerous, as it affirms and even strengthens support for the possibility of future nuclear meltdowns or nuclear-related incidents.

Additionally, this article does not realize how catastrophic a nuclear meltdown is and misunderstands the relationship between nuclear power and ecology. Lasdun states that “I’m happy to say I’ve reviewed more

accurate literature, and confidently believe that the future is nuclear.” I do not know what “accurate literature” is and, moreover, I cannot understand where Lasdun’s happiness and confidence comes from given the numerous people who are affected by nuclear meltdowns and their aftereffects and have to strive to live their lives normally because of them.

Another upsetting and disturbing sentence that Lasdun writes is the following: “Fear of nuclear disaster is pervasive, maybe even more so than fear of climate change, the much more imminent and dangerous disaster.” It is very disappointing that the pervasiveness of the climate crisis motivates Lasdun to write such an article. Although I agree with Lasdun’s point that nuclear power plants do not produce greenhouse gases, reducing and eliminating dependency on nuclear power is still compatible with solving the climate crisis.

Still, we should not just immediately refute pro-nuclear arguments. We must carefully look at language and framing devices such as “economic feasibility,” “efficiency,” and “productivity” that are often used in pro-nuclear arguments. We must holistically analyze nuclear power; while it may provide some benefits, the negatives gravely outweigh the few positives.

Retribution, Restitution, and Race in Ohio Ava Zuschlag Contributing Writer Five years ago, Tamir Rice is shot and killed. In the aftermath, several things happen. The two officers who responded to the call, who fired the shots, are temporarily reassigned to more menial positions. Tamir’s family files a wrongful death suit against the officers and the city of Cleveland. Almost a year and a half later, “in an effort to reduce taxpayer liabilities,” the city agrees to pay the Rice family a six million dollar settlement.

This year, a thirty-minute drive away from Cleveland, Gibson’s Bakery wins damages for defamation.

After a shoplifting incident ended in violence, student accusations of the shop owner’s racism negatively affected the business. In the judgement, the jury awards the bakery an initial $44 million in damages, an amount that is later capped at $25 million under Ohio law.

I don’t know how to phrase what went wrong here. I would hope that it doesn’t need explaining. But before either of these suits were filed, certain events unfolded. Certain people were harmed. The exact nature and order of these events are a matter of contention even now.

So for incidents resulting in such grave consequences, why are the substantiating events so unclear?

The story so uncertain?

Let’s back up a bit. Oberlin College is a small liberal arts school in northeastern Ohio. Despite Ohio’s recent reputation as a swing state and its location in the northern U.S., only eight of the state’s 88 counties went blue in the 2016 election.

Oberlin’s Lorain County had a close vote that ended up blue. Cleveland’s Cuyahoga County was overwhelmingly blue. But right now, the geography and voting history of the state should remain mere context.

In Oberlin, there is a family with a business, facing accusations of racial bias. There is a shoplifting incident, there is a violent altercation between the white shop owner and three Black students. In Cleveland, there is a 12 year old boy. There is a phone call, and there is a gap lasting a few seconds, between the moment the police arrive and the moment Tamir Rice is shot.

There remains a lot of debate about what “else” happened. What did the dispatcher relay or not relay to the officers? Did the student actually attempt to shoplift wine?

Who instigated the physical violence between the student and the shop owner? Why did the dispatcher ask the 9-1-1 caller if the boy was Black or white, twice? When your son is dead, do any of these questions even matter?

I’m not the right person to decide what questions to ask. Arguably, I have little qualification to pass judgment on legal minutiae such as “settlements,” “damages,” and “appropriate compensation.”

But ultimately, it doesn’t matter if we are the judge or the jury, the cop or the bystander. However we got to this point, the consequences remain the same. Whatever the context, there are certain losses that can never be restored.

Tamir Rice should not have died. But there is the fact that he did. There is the fact that a white police officer killed a Black boy.

There is the fact that a white shop owner scuffled with a Black college student, the fact that a college campus was outraged, the fact that the jury awarded a shop $44 million in damages to the reputation of their business.

There is the fact that no amount of money can ever replace or undo or absolve the death of Tamir Rice.

And there are those six million dollars.

COMIC Katie Lucey, News Editor

The Oberlin Review | September 20, 2019

Letters to the editors (cont.)

Community Healing More Important Now Than Ever Almost two years ago, in 2017, I wrote you pleading for Oberlin College to seek an out-of-court settlement with the Gibson family (“Gibson’s Links Black People to Anti-Semitism,” The Oberlin Review, Dec. 1, 2017). But nothing seemed to take place until it was announced in April that efforts had failed and that the case was going to trial this past May. It did, and the jury ruled in favor of the Gibson family.

Last week, I wrote again hoping that Oberlin College would appeal the local jury’s decision to award millions of dollars to the Gibson family (“College Should Respect Any Future Appeal Decision,” The Oberlin Review, Sept. 13, 2019). But after receiving more information, I urge the College to try to get the family to accept a lower amount, if only symbolically, of just one dollar less. I now know that the transcript of almost 4,000 pages could bolster either party’s position on appeal.

Regardless of the final outcome of this entire grueling and painful race, we must dash to embrace the opportunity to make all of Oberlin far greater than it has ever been. Even if we cannot easily forget, we must quickly forgive.

– Booker C. Peek Emeritus Professor of Africana Studies

Network Studies Benefits Liberal Arts Education Continued from page 6

reading of T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” in collaboration with a Peace and Conflict Studies student’s project on psychological resilience in military veterans. A neuroscience major could study the musical frameworks of contemplative traditions.

An eclectic yet short reading list, in no way definitive or prescriptive, might include: Italo Calvino’s Six Memos for the Next Millennium, David Bohm’s On Dialogue, Olaf Sporns’ Networks of the Brain, and James Austin’s Chase, Chance, and Creativity.

Core academic values of a Network Studies program should include: creativity, incorporating interdisciplinary innovation, design, development, insight, and change; responsibility, incorporating harm reduction, sustainability, access, restoration, and social justice; urgency, prioritizing focus on time-critical contexts and applications; and agency, a full recognition of the depth and diversity of human experience, capacity, and empowerment.

Networks continue to aid in cutting-edge research across all academic disciplines. Immense challenges including climate change, habitat loss, food production, and mass migration will require network-oriented solutions. Just keeping up with current research requires increasing knowledge of network principles. Network Studies would clearly support the collaborative and interdisciplinary aims stated in the One Oberlin report — both between the Conservatory and the College, as well as among academic departments.

Perhaps more importantly, networks embody values and sustain traditions that are essential to cultural progress and resilience. A thoughtful and rigorous approach to their study can offer a rich fabric for Oberlin’s founding principles of excellence and social responsibility. Creating the sustainable, equitable, restorative networks of the future will require leadership and deep study. Network Studies can strengthen the academic ties between the human-

ities and the sciences and move all of these disciplines beyond narrow technological biases. It is creative in nature, hence ideally suited for the undergraduate experiences of discovery and exploration without neglecting professional goals and career relevance.

Since Network Studies is new, its future potential benefits — though widely unknown at this point — must be considered, as should the risks of inaction. The shift to network thinking in modern society, including education, is happening whether addressed consciously or not. An active, strategic engagement with Network Studies can help us find opportunity in times of increased risk and keep track with changes to higher education already underway.

How should such an effort begin?

The means will be unique to Oberlin and therefore somewhat improvisational. Time is of the essence, but action can be informal at first.

The conversation could begin as a Network Studies co-op or club. Students could ask faculty and advisors about Winter Term options, and more formal faculty or administration involvement could follow. Eventually, a module-long or cross-departmental introductory course could be offered.

Network content will certainly be central to the planned integrative majors in business and global health. Alumni could offer invaluable feedback and connections.

If such a project seems daunting, recall the state of society in 1833, Oberlin’s founding year. The curse of slavery and impending civil war hung over our still-new nation, but was met by the assertion of elevated and aspirational ideals. Then followed work, simple yeomanry, and the unity of service and purpose that follows from working together.

In whatever form it eventually takes, Oberlin has a key role to play in upholding traditional standards of excellence and rigor in the liberal arts curriculum while integrating the principles and conditions of the network age.

7

Langston Hall (North) Named for John Mercer Langston (1829–1897). The younger brother of the Oberlin Institute’s first Black students, Gideon and Charles Langston, Langston arrived in Oberlin in 1844 and enrolled in the College in 1845. In 1862, when Edmonia Lewis, a Black student accused of poisoning her two white roommates, was charged with attempted murder and subjected to brutal harrasment and physical violence, Langston represented her in court. Her case was eventually acquitted, and Lewis later rose to fame as a sculptor. Langston served as the president of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society and went on to serve as the founding dean of Howard University Law School, the U.S. Minister to Haiti, and the first Black congressperson from Virginia. He was the greatuncle of poet Langston Hughes.

Dye Lecture Hall Named after Nancy Schrom Dye (1947–2015), the first female president of Oberlin College, who served in that role from 1994–2007. Dye was a historian and philosopher who oversaw a number of ambitious construction projects, including the building of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center, and increased selectivity of Oberlin’s admissions.

Mary Church Terrell Main Library Named for Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954), OC 1884.

Terrell was one of the first Black women to earn a fouryear degree in the U.S. She was a prominent suffragette, education, and civil rights leader, serving as a founding charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Association of Colored Women.

Azariah’s Cafe Named for Azariah Smith Root (1862–1927). A library director at Oberlin, he led the growth of Oberlin’s collection through gifts and exchange programs. By 1924, Root had established Oberlin’s library as the largest college library in the nation. He served as president of the Ohio Library Association and was a founding member of both the Bibliographical Society of America and the American Library Association’s College Library Section.

Oberlin Namesakes Text & Layout by Lily Jones, This Week Editor It is well known that Oberlin College has a history of leadership in social justice, activism, and innovation. However, we often overlook how those who have shaped our history — for better or for worse — are remembered on campus. The following buildings and places are just a small selection of locations around the College named for individuals who have contributed to the Oberlin we know today.

Map courtesy of Oberlin College Admissions

Wright Physics Lab Named for aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright, whose elder sister Katharine, OC 1898, attended Oberlin and taught them about physics. In honor of his sister, Orville left $300,000 to Oberlin in his will.

Keep Cottage Named for Rev. John Keep (1781– 1870). In 1834, Keep was elected a trustee of Oberlin College. Keep is remembered for championing the values for which Oberlin College eventually became renowned, including rights for women and Black students. In 1835, Keep cast the deciding vote that allowed Black students to attend Oberlin College.

Weekly Calendar Friday 9/20 – Sunday 9/22 Startup Weekend Students can pitch business start-up ideas and work in teams to take ideas from conceptual to execution stages. The weekend features speakers and mentors from the Oberlin and Cleveland areas, catered food, and prizes.

Event begins at 6:30 p.m. on Friday in Wilder Main // Tickets are $25 individually and $20 a person for clubs that bring more than 5 members. There are opportunities for free or reduced ticket prices for those with financial need.

Saturday 9/21 Mannequin Pussy

The Carnegie Building The Carnegie Building was the result of a local scandal.

Canadian con artist Cassie Chadwick stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Citizen’s National Bank of Oberlin, claiming to be the daughter of Andrew Carnegie, and used a forged endowment to withdraw the money from the bank. When Carnegie became aware of the scandal, he anonymously donated $15,000 to reimburse Oberlin students for their lost money, and in 1905 agreed to endow the College with a library. (“Strange Acquisitions: How We Got The Carnegie Building,” The Oberlin Review, April 19, 2019)

Tappan Square Named for prominent New York merchants Arthur and Lewis Tappan. In 1834, the brothers financially supported rebels from Lane Seminary during the founding of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, which would become Oberlin College, after they were forced to leave Lane for their abolitionist beliefs.

Philly punks Mannequin Pussy are in Oberlin to tear up the ’Sco with their hard, fast, emotional new album: Patience.

Doors open at 9:30 p.m. // The ’Sco

Monday 9/23 Shansi Fellowships Info Session Learn about Oberlin Shansi Fellowships.

Each year Oberlin Shansi awards fellowships to current College and Conservatory seniors, as well as alumni up to three years after they graduate, to live and work in China, India, Indonesia, and Japan. Shansi also offers one Independent Fellowship position, where applicants have the opportunity to propose their own full-time Shansi Fellowship. Fellowships are open to all Oberlin students at both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Conservatory of Music, regardless of their academic department.

4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. // Wilder 101

Thursday 9/26–Saturday 9/28 But Never Doubt I Love A one-woman show inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Conceived, written, directed, and performed by Marina Wright ’20.

8 p.m. // The Cat in the Cream

A r t s & C u lt u r e

ARTS & CULTURE September 20, 2019

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 3

English Department, Library Staff Team Up to Read Banned Books

Drawing by Alex Tash

Gwen Cappel-McCoy “Censorship keeps us in the dark, keep the light on!” is the theme for this year’s Banned Books Week, a national anti-censorship campaign that began in 1982. Banned Books displays will appear in Mary Church Terrell Main Library from Sept. 22 to 28. Additionally, there will be a read-aloud in Azariah’s Café on Wednesday, Sept. 25 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. This new event, which is open to

the public, involves reading passages from an extensive list of books that had previously been banned from libraries.

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom publishes a list of the new releases which have been censored by schools, libraries, and stores in the last year. In 2018, the list included titles such as George, a novel about a transgender middle-schooler, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, a children’s book about a gay rabbit, and Captain Underpants, a series that features a same-sex couple in the newest book.

For the first time, Terrell Main Library is teaming up with the English department to put on a read-aloud event and reaching out to students and the Oberlin community to participate. They will read from works such as George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. Participants are invited to bring their favorite banned book to the reading, and there is a signup sheet for volunteers who would like to read passages from various banned books during the event.

“Every year many books on library shelves or assigned reading lists for schools are challenged,” Reference & Academic Commons Assistant Julie Weir wrote in an email to the Review. “Some group[s] of people or a person tries to close off the voice of an author because they may disagree or don’t like what they portrayed. For me, the many different voices, thoughts, and experiences told by authors in their books is key to lifelong learning.”

This is the first time Oberlin has put on an event like this to commemorate Banned Books Week.

“It is wonderful to be hosting an event like this at Oberlin, which has long celebrated freedom of thought and the democratic circulation of ideas, even challenging ones,” said Associate Professor of English Wendy Hyman regarding the read-aloud event.

For some, this event is a time for self-expression through these books.

“I read [Carrie for] the first time when I was in middle school experiencing hardships similar to those of Carrie — without the abusive mother and the fantastical power,” said College second-year Emily Hudson, who chose Steven King’s horror classic to commemorate the occasion. “There was something altogether jarring about watching a disenfranchised young woman seize control [of ] her power and utilize it in such a frightening way … It’s rare that women are allowed to be as violent and angry as Carrie is.”

Join the English department faculty next week in celebrating Banned Books Week at the read-aloud event on Wednesday, Sept. 25, from 4 to 6:30 p.m., in Azariah’s Café.

New Approach to Art Rental Attracts Record Number of Students Klara Jacobs A crowd of over 340 students lined up outside the Allen Memorial Art Museum last Saturday to participate in this semester’s Art Rental Program.

For only $5, students were able to rent pieces of art from the museum’s collection, an event that College paraphernalia has boasted since 1940.

However, as College fourth-year and chair of the newly-formed Art Student Committee Jacey Davidson explained, Art Rental is not always easy to navigate.

“As someone who has participated in it for a long time, it’s been really hard,” Davidson said. “It’s not an easy process to participate in, or it hasn’t been in the past. It’s been pretty disorganized and oddly elitist.”

Davidson, along with her peers who also serve on the ASC, are attempting to change this experience by making the process more accessible and democratic. One of the ASC’s goals is to engage more of the Oberlin community.

Molly Bryson, another College fourth-year on the ASC, noted that, “Mission statements [of ASC] have been to enforce better communication and values of community between the Art department, the larger Oberlin social scene, and the museum — to connect all of those.”

Efforts made to increase interest and connection worked well this past weekend, as there were a total of 340 people on the Art Rental list — significantly more than the average 250 or so.

10

“It was a fun experience, and interesting to think about not only what art I liked but also what would fit well in my space,” College third-year Emory McCool wrote in an email to the Review. McCool tried art rental for the first time because of the greater transparency of the process.

Davidson, who posted the list early Friday morning, was “astounded by the number of people that showed up.”

“I came at 7 a.m. to put [the list] up ... and there were [already] 100 people waiting,” she said. Unfortunately, with only 381 pieces available in the museum’s Art Rental collection, and students allowed to rent up to two pieces each, they quickly ran out.

As the Art Rental Program continues, the question of who gets to be involved and who gets priority remains.

“It has always been a complicated thing because the whole point of Art Rental is a practice in the democratization of art,” Bryson said. “Both in the fact that the museum is giving away these million-dollar pieces to students and also in the fact that the list is totally student-run.”

While ASC’s work to increase access to the event was successful, there are still many flaws that the committee members hope to address in the future.

“Even though we were trying hard to be democratic and accessible ... it could still be interpreted as a group of Art students [undergoing] this process for themselves,” Bryson said. “I don’t think that’s ever what it was intended to be. I think there is a real conversation to be had about who has

ownership over this process.”

Both Davidson and Bryson suggest that a lottery system may be beneficial in creating greater access, and they hope to host open discussions on how to best reform the program.

Regardless of possible event reform, Art Rental continues to be a staple of the Oberlin experience. Davidson remarked that she loves see-

ing passion for Art Rental on campus.

Whether it’s camping on the AMAM lawn to save a spot in line or participating in this semester’s 3 a.m. checkin costume contest, the Art Rental program will continue to spark joy.

At the same time, student leaders will continue to foster an open and transparent process to put art on student’s walls long into the future.

Works of art are lined up before students arrive to rent them for the semester.

Photo courtesy of the Office of Communications

Tall Girl Highlights Questionable Values for Young Girls

A screencap from Tall Girl, a new Netflix original movie.

Ananya Gupta Managing Editor First, I must clarify that I am five feet and three inches short on a good day, so I do not have personal experience with being shamed for being tall: if anything, the opposite is true. Though I am critical of this film, I am in no way denying that high school is brutal and that bullying is a rampant problem with serious and lasting consequences. Additionally, the lead actor Ava Michelle has actually been at the receiving end of public bullying for being too tall, well documented in her stint on the popular show Dance Moms, making her an apt choice for this role.

That being said, Tall Girl is a cringy teen movie that reeks of white people problems. The film centers around 16-year-old Jodi Kreyman, played by Michelle, who is bullied in high school for being taller than everyone else at six feet and one and a half inches — only slightly taller than the average Victoria’s Secret model. The arrival of Stig, a hunky Swedish exchange student played by Luke Eisner and even taller than Jodi, shifts her entire focus to winning his love.

Throughout the film, Kreyman is preoccupied with earning Stig’s romantic validation. For a film desperately trying to stand on a valid platform of spreading body positivity, accepting diversity, and transcending prescribed gender roles, it disappointingly plays into a widely denounced stereotype: that women only care about men accepting how they look. This message is further driven home

Photo courtesy of Netflix

by the “traditionally” beautiful — if we accept the unconvincing notion that Jodi is not also traditionally beautiful — Harper Kreyman, Jodi’s beauty pageant-winning older sister, played by Sabrina Carpenter. Though there are clumsy attempts to break stereotypes — Jodi wears a suit rather than a dress to prom for example, and considers dating a short guy — Tall Girl is clichéd and unable to cash the check of gender and body nonconformity it aims to write.

It is therefore surprising that a woman of color, the very talented Nzingha Stewart, would direct such a one-dimensional film. She is known for directing several episodes of blockbuster shows such as Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder. These projects explore issues of greater consequence than above-average height — racism, classism, sexism, and the U.S. prison system — and also highlight strong women of color. Stewart’s decision to work on Tall Girl is puzzling. While there does seem to be representation of people of color in the film, they all fill the roles of extras, or, at best, supporting characters. This choice, in all honesty, seems to be a desperate attempt to compensate for the rich, white, cisgendered, hetrosexual protagonist and both of her rich, white, cisgendered, hetrosexual love interests.

The film’s saving grace, however, is Jodi’s Black, confident, and carefree best friend Fareeda, played

by Anjelika Washington. Fareeda is not only a supportive friend, but also one of the only blessed voices of self-awareness in the film. She exhibits this in

lines such as, “Sometimes, I wonder what it’d be like to go to lunch with my friends and have them ask me about my problems.”

Stewart defended her film in an interview with Black Girl Nerds, saying, “I think if something doesn’t offend you outright — it’s not something that is coming after you or someone you love — then let it live. A movie doesn’t have to be about you or for you to be of artistic value in the world.” In the same interview she mentions how most people share the experience of feeling insecure, particularly as teenagers, and how seeing this film would resonate with audiences. All I will say to that is the film currently has a 5.5/10 on IMDb and a 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. Furthermore, in a New York Times review of the film, Elisabeth Vincentelli writes, “America’s mood has changed, and many viewers might not feel much empathy for the small-minded grievances of wealthy teens who drive to school in S.U.V.s.” I agree.

Lines like, “You think your life is hard? I’m a high school junior wearing size 13 Nikes. Men’s size 13 Nikes. Beat that,” gloss over the rampant social and economic privileges the film’s protagonist has that, in my opinion, have had more than their fair share of screen time in history. Throwaway, crowd-pleasing lines about immigration or standing tall in the face of adversity are not enough to justify spotlighting privilege. In the list of underrepresented groups and oppressed communities that haven’t had the opportunity to be seen, let alone rightfully heard, on screens for decades, this niche issue does not make my top ten. Even if it’s under two hours long.

Musician Raveena Recieves Warm Welcome From Obies Musician Raveena performed at the Grog Shop last Friday for a crowd full of Oberlin students. Obies turned out for the show in full force, car-pooling to the venue in Cleveland Heights.

“She’s got this fairy-like aura to her, but is also so grounded as a person,” College third-year Bhairavi Mehra, who attended Raveena’s concert, wrote in an email to the Review. “I also love how supportive she is of her fans and people who enjoy her music in general. I also want to support her as a South Asian artist, since we have really little representation or presence in the music industry.”

Raveena’s music is a mix of contemporary R&B, jazz, and soul.

She is also influenced by Bollywood and South Asian traditions. The cultural mix of her sound is representative of her background as an Indian American, and she hopes to empower other women of color and promote healing.

Text by Kate Fishman & Aly Fogel, Arts & Culture Editors Photo by Isabel Tadmiri

The Oberlin Review | September 20, 2019

11

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

Jacques Rutzky, Meditation Teacher Do you have to believe in all of it to benefit from the practice?

It isn’t necessary to believe any of it. I was asked to be on a panel last week about death and dying, and one of the people on the panel asked me, “As the Buddhist affiliate, do you believe in reincarnation?”

And I said I neither believe in it nor disbelieve in it. I said I don’t remember. And so, I find living my life is a whole lot easier if I don’t carry a lot of beliefs and opinions around.

What does meditation mean to you?

To me, it is the center of my existence. It started out as something exotic and obscure when I was young. I was interested in meditation as a fifteenyear-old, because like most teenagers I was suffering.

I was depressed, I didn’t have a sense of where I fit in the world. I hoped that this would be a path towards that. I started out meditating in the transcendental meditation tradition. … When I came to Oberlin as a student, my roommate was also a meditator. … And then the summer after I left, he said, “Oh, there’s a meditation retreat being given by Joseph Goldstein.” … And so I attended that retreat with him and one other Oberlin student, and I had decided to go to Los Angeles to follow my Tai Chi teacher there. I did that for about six months, and then realized that meditation was drawing me more. So I, in a very dramatic way, made a decision to fly to Thailand and become a monk. I was really dedicated. I was looking for something to dedicate myself to.

About a month later after I made the decision — I got a flyer in the mail. … It was advertising that a Thai meditation master was giving a month-long retreat in Connecticut that fall. ... So I wrote them a letter — there were only letters back then, not email — and I said, “Do you have a cook?” because I had learned to cook at Harkness.

One of the specialties of my cooking at Harkness, because I had a summer job at a pizzeria, was making pizza. And so in 1973, every Friday I would make dozens and dozens of pizzas. And we would walk out in aprons with towels wrapped over our arms and holding the pizza — that became a very popular thing. I think it’s still a thing to this day.

So you invented Oberlin co-op pizza night?

I guess so. I can’t take credit for that. But it was the first time pizza was made at Harkness.

Jacques Rutzky.

Jacques Rutzky is the Buddhist Affiliate to the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life at Oberlin or ORSL. A student of Thai Meditation Master V.R. Dhiravamsa, he leads multiple Vipassana meditation groups on campus every weekend, including an intensive Winter Term retreat in January. Rutzky worked in California for twenty-five years as a psychotherapist for adults suffering from childhood trauma. He retired at Oberlin, where he has taken on many roles, including owning a woodshop dedicated to creating Japanese Tansu.

While a student, he has been credited with creating coop pizza night.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Carson Dowhan Senior Staff Writer What is your relationship to the college?

I am the Buddhist Affiliate to the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, and as such, I make myself available to two student groups. They’ve asked me to be their meditation teacher. One is the Oberlin meditators, they meet at 11 a.m. on Saturdays. On Sundays, the Oberlin Buddhist fellowship [meets] at 11 a.m. as well. The difference is the Saturday group is more secular, so if people have a non-Buddhist religion that they follow, it’s no problem. Many students are interested in meditation for all sorts of reasons — stress, anxiety, depression, tension. … The Oberlin Buddhist fellowship [is] mixing more Buddhism into the meditation practice as well as reading from contemporary Buddhist teachers. There’s a little bit more sharing in that group; it’s a little more social.

And on Sundays at 1 p.m., a group started up about five years ago at the request of a saxophone player in

12

Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor

the jazz department. He was a meditator and wondered whether meditation could help his improvisation. … Hopefully [on] Oct. 5 this year, I’ll be starting a group on Saturdays from 1–2 p.m. for faculty.

I’m also available during the week for consultation to students, faculty, and townspeople who meditate to help them work through their difficulties in the meditation practice and to transfer the benefits of meditation into daily life.

How long have you been leading the meditation groups? How long have you been living in Oberlin?

I’ve been leading the meditation groups for I think six or seven years, and I’ve been in Oberlin for about eight. I was a student in 1973. I was studying Chinese in order to read Zen poetry in [its] original [language]. Later, I had retired for health reasons, and I was looking for a quiet place to retire. Oberlin came into my mind. When we moved here, it just felt right.

How did you get involved with meditation on campus?

One day, maybe it was the fourth year I was in my woodshop [when] a student came in just to see what I had made. He was very curious, and something about the pieces stirred something in him.

And then he noticed that I had a picture of a Zen monk that was carved out of wood on the wall. And he said, “Are you a Buddhist?” And I said, “Well the simple answer to that is yes.” And he said, “Can we talk about meditation?” And we did, for two hours.

And he said, “Well, we fired our meditation teacher last week. Would you be willing to come and lead a session, and we’ll decide whether or not it’s a good match?”... I’ve been there for the last six years.

Did the retreat take you in?

They wrote back and [asked], “Do we need a cook?” And having been at a retreat, I knew how important the cooks were. I wrote back and said, “Oh, absolutely.” Next to the teacher, the cook is the most important thing because so much focus is placed on food when you’re eating less of it, and when there isn’t any entertainment or sense of pleasure you can have in the middle of the wilderness.

What is something you think people should know about meditation and your practices?

The meditation practice is called Vipassana. The prefix “vi” means “something that rises up,” and “passana” comes from the verb that means “to see.”

So, it’s the arising of seeing. So we train our minds not to get carried away, but to be present and attentive to whatever rises up in the body or the mind.

And as the distractions begin to lessen, we see things for what they are. A thought is a thought, regardless of the content. An idea is an idea. A feeling is a feeling. A judgment is a judgment. It’s not necessarily reality; it’s what the mind creates in order to form a coherent sense of worldview.

When I started meditating, I thought that sitting meditation was the only time to be aware. And it took years and years to practice to be able to apply it to the rest of life. One student asked me, “How many hours do you meditate a day?” I said, “Sometimes I sit one hour. Sometimes three. If it’s [during] the summer, I may sit six hours.” But if the question is “How much do I meditate?” it’s the moment until I wake up until the moment I fall asleep at night. Every moment I’m applying this practice to whatever it is I’m doing, whether it’s walking down the stairs, making dinner, this is the center of my existence. They support each other — the attention to daily life and the attention while sitting in meditation.

An Obie Recommends: Walking on Your Own Kate Fishman Arts & Culture Editor When we lived in the same building during our first year at Oberlin, a friend and I developed an odd, only semi-spoken rule. We would purposefully leave at different times for a mutual destination. I remember more than once noticing her backpack ahead and deliberately slowing my pace to allow her solitude. It wasn’t that we didn’t enjoy each other’s conversation; we just shared the pleasure of walking alone.

It follows that when I picture Oberlin, I don’t think of my dorm room or a favorite study haunt or even the best parties I’ve been to — I see Tappan Square. Most of the pieces of my life, and the lives of other students, faculty, staff, and residents, seem to be arrayed around this stretch of lawn and trees that we walk, usually to get to somewhere else. A walk through or around Tappan lets one see many different pieces of Oberlin life being lived: people lingering outside storefronts, people striding briskly toward

their unknown destinations, people zooming by on bikes and in cars, people playing catch or listening to music or lying in a hammock or just sitting and talking. Walking by with my earbuds in, I’m soaking in that world while also living in my own narrative — my own space between point A and point B. This past weekend, the Cat in the Cream hosted a bring-your-own headphones event called “Silent Disco.”

While I couldn’t make it, the event got me thinking a lot about my relationship with the community — how sometimes I feel most tender toward others with that layer of separation brought on by a private soundtrack.

A self-proclaimed introvert, I treasure the world given to me by my music. It’s emboldening and enlightening to pass through somewhere looking around confidently, moving confidently, confident in your aloneness. On days when my Google Calendar is filled with colorfully-labeled blocks from morning till night, giving me no time to block out for myself, small increments of passage be-

come sacred. I soundtrack my walks with middle-school pop and shameless oldies, with the most self-indulgent ballads and chaotic riffs. I think Oberlin became my home when such alone-ness became readily habitable to me, even desirable, and putting on headphones and going for a walk has always made it so.

Sometimes, after ascertaining with a quick glance over each of my shoulders that no one else is close, I’ll even break out into a full dance, à la someone in a music video. The perfect song for the moment is rocking along in my ears and I’m out in the air and I have the energy to move, no room for the moment to do anything else. This feeling is rare and awesome.

The more I think about it, the more I think there’s something bizarrely revealing about locomotion.

Some of my best conversations with those closest to me, and those I was just getting to know, have come out of long walks. Without having to look at each other, we are more free to be honest. Our only physical focus is forward.

I think our conversations with ourselves are the same. Walking a hard day out of my system can be more cathartic than venting about it to a friend. Likewise, listening to “The Best” by Tina Turner has sometimes made me feel more in love than any heart-to-heart, “Moonshiner” by Bob Dylan more tired than any aimless drunken night, and “Dancing on My Own” by Robyn more tied to a community than any party — to name a few of my summer anthems.

Walking along with only my Spotify playlist, my backpack, and my thoughts makes me kinder to myself than any blocked out time to sit in my room and watch Netflix. I’m untouchable and un-naggable, even by the unforgiving productivity standards of my own brain. I am listening and participating and moving actively through my home. I’m also beholden to no one. There’s nothing else for it, nothing else to do but get to where I’m going — I really can’t stay. When that’s the only time in the day that you have to yourself, why not make it a ritual, a secret, and the best part?

COMIC Clair Wang, Staff Cartoonist

CROSSWORD ANSWERS

Kate Fishman Arts & Culture Editor

The Oberlin Review | September 20, 2019

13

Sp ort s IN THE LOCKER ROOM

Laila Telles, Senior Club Soccer Captain

Fourth-year Cinema Studies and English major Laila Telles has her hands full.

When she isn’t attending film screenings or tearing through books, she can be found playing soccer in Oberlin’s North Fields. Telles is the captain of Oberlin’s Club Soccer team, one of the few all-gender sports collectives on campus. She has been an active member since the first week of her first year, and intends on leaving a legacy of inclusion for the remaining members after she graduates.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jane Agler Sports Editor How did you discover Oberlin’s club soccer team?

When I came [to Oberlin], I immediately knew that I wanted to play soccer. I had played through high school, and I grew up playing soccer at [the American Youth Soccer Organization] with my brothers and their friends. I discovered the team at the Club Fair my first year. So, I signed up that first day and I’ve been going basically everyday since then.

Oberlin Club Soccer team is an allgender team. What is that like?

It means that you can play on our team no matter what gender you identify [as]. We just want it to be inclusive and welcoming to everybody. It’s a really fun atmosphere. At first, it was a lot of learning how to navigate people’s comforts, especially [now] as captain. It’s constantly adapting to people’s concerns. … Recently, at the beginning of when we were recruiting this semester, a lot of players told me that they would be really interested in having a non-cismale practice. So, once I heard that from multiple people, I brought it up with my other captain and I asked him what he thought about it. Later,

I sent out a poll to all the members to [gauge] their thoughts on having a women and femme practice. People were [supportive] of the idea, and I’m really excited about it, so now we’re actually having these practices once a week. I would’ve only known to do that because people voiced their interest and what they wanted.

I think creating a comfortable space for all is just adapting to what people want.

What are the advantages of club sports? Do you commit as much time to club soccer as a varsity athlete devotes to their varsity sport?

I feel like varsity kind of seems set in stone; they [often] recruit ahead of time. I actually did want to do that at one point, but it didn’t feel as welcoming as club soccer. Club soccer also actively looks for players all throughout the year. We’re constantly recruiting. I think there’s benefits to both [varsity sports and club sports]. They both foster communal environments.

I think the benefits of club sports are [different], though, and you can play with people of all genders, so it’s a slightly more inclusive space. It allows you to get to know a diverse group of people because the stakes are lower. It’s nice because it’s not a lot of

College fourth-year Laila Telles.

pressure. People can commit however much they want to club soccer. They don’t have to put all their time into it. They [have the flexibility] to enjoy everything else they want to on this campus. That’s the great thing. This team can be your life, or this could be something that you go to once a year.

It’s nice having the option to be part of something.

The space is important beyond soccer, too. I have people that I say “hi” to all the time from club soccer and they’re all pursuing very different majors, from very different backgrounds, and I probably would not have run into some of them on this campus if I had not met them through the team. It’s a family. We eat dinner together after practice most nights.

A major theme I’m detecting is that club soccer is comprised of many people with different backgrounds and hobbies. How do you fit this mold?

I’m majoring in English and Cinema Studies. It’s a lot to juggle. [As a result,] I do a lot of reading when I’m not playing soccer. I’m also part of a group of writers that visits juvenile detention centers and teaches literature and poetry to the inmates there. But club soccer has largely shaped my experience here [at Oberlin]. It was the first place that I ever felt welcome.

aerialist for OCircus!. “Acrobats and aerialists have to be incredibly athletic to do what we do.”

Britt Broadwood, a College secondyear and Dance major, agrees that athleticism is a key component for being deemed an athlete.

“Dance is very difficult and requires a lot of athleticism. Like any other athlete, [dancers] have to stretch, condition, and train daily,” she said.

If being an athlete requires doing something athletic, then everyone who participates in a sport would be an athlete. College fourth-year Melvin Briggs, a member of the varsity football team and a dance minor, doesn’t see athleticism as a necessary requirement for being an athlete. “[Being] an athlete is more about your commitment to something rather than physical ability,” he said.

His beliefs were echoed by firstyear volleyball player Iyanna Lewis. “[An athlete is] someone who dedicates a significant amount of their time to a sport,” Lewis said.

“And what they define as a sport is subjective.”

“No, I don’t believe dance is a sport, simply due to the fact that competition is not central to the appeal or practice of dance in the way it is for football, basketball, or baseball,” Broadwood said. Her sentiment was echoed by Morgan.

“I have never personally felt like [OCircus!] claims to be a sport. That said, I do not speak for everyone,” he added. Both pointed toward the performative, as opposed to

competitive, nature of their activities as the reason they would not classify what they do as sports. When comparing football and dance, Briggs had similar thoughts.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call [dance] a sport, but it has been useful in [football] and has helped me find my center,” he said. “There are other forms of dance that I believe could be a sport but [I] haven’t been able to take them so I couldn’t personally speak on them.” Briggs also mentioned that several football players at all levels have taken dance classes to help them with their performance on the field over time.

Like dance and football, the benefits that other physical activities have on more-established sports could lead to them being legitimized as sports themselves. However, some see this point of view and the conversation surrounding what qualifies something as a sport problematic.

“I question the significance or relevance of trying to label what specific category it fits into. In questioning if dance is a sport, we’re asking if we should socially legitimize its difficulty,” Broadwood said.

Lewis also sees the conversation as problematic for its potential gender bias.

“In general, I think that women’s sports are underlooked and undervalued, especially sports that have a male counterpart,” Lewis said.

The conversation about what counts as a sport is exclusionary in nature and, as with any similar creation of boundaries, some people

will be left out. However, even with the potential issues that categorizing activities into sports and non-sports could present, the debate still rages on.

So, with all of this being said, what is a sport?

“What immediately comes to mind is any kind of physical competition,” Morgan said.

His thoughts were supported by Lewis.

“Anything that requires hard work, effort, practice, and competition,” she said, before contradicting Broadwood’s earlier statements.

“Even though it may seem easy, usually it has some complexities.

Dance is a sport, cheerleading is a sport, and gymnastics is a sport. I don’t care what anyone says.”

At the end of the day, this is a debate that may never have a clear answer.

What is clear is that when it comes to physical activity, whether something is or isn’t a sport is not the most important thing to discuss. The way that these activities impact the lives of those who play and participate in them is the key.

Briggs articulated this perfectly, providing an answer to a question that seems to have none.

“When I think about what makes something a sport, I think about the experiences that you can gain,” he said. “I believe that sports are more than activities or competition, but [rather] something that builds character and challenges you to stretch beyond the comfort of normal day-to-day activities.”

Photo by Mallika Pandey, Photo Editor

Anything else you want to add?

Everyone should come out to club soccer Mondays through Fridays at 4:30 [p.m.]! We are always looking for more players.

Athleticism, Competition, or Neither: What Constitutes A Sport?

Khalid McCalla Contributing Sports Editor Across the globe, people are playing, watching, and interacting with sports on a daily basis. Most children are put on a sports team from an early age and, for some, that initial love of sports never fades. However, despite the fact that sports as a concept is an integral part of society, both at Oberlin and in the world, there is still no general consensus about what a sport really is. There is the mainstream list that includes football, basketball, soccer, baseball, and a few others that are legitimized as sports by the presence of high-profile major leagues and million-dollar television deals at the collegiate and professional levels.

However, a larger portion of potential “sports” exist on the outskirts of the conversation. The inclusion of dance, cheerleading, and gymnastics as sports generates debate, while activities like archery and bowling complicate this issue further. Another question is whether the inclusion on e-sports and poker on ESPN means that these pursuits should also be labeled “sports.”

For some people, sports are defined by those who participate in them.

Athletes have to play sports. While this may seem like a clear distinction, in practice it only substitutes one unclear term for another.

“I suppose I don’t see a difference between doing something athletic and being an athlete,” said College fourth-year Matthew Morgan, an

14

The Last Ohio Team to Beat OSU? Oberlin The Real List of

Best Sports Films Continued from page 16

The Oberlin Review front page from Oct. 11, 1921.

Maranda Phillips One of the four announcers on ESPN’s Sept. 7 College Gameday segment held up a crisp hundred dollar bill and posed the question, “Who is the last team from Ohio to beat Ohio State?”

He was met with silence. One announcer answered, “Miami?” The other announcers laughed, and all agreed that no Ohio team had ever beaten the football powerhouse. The Buckeyes are a legend in American football and have amassed eight national championships since their establishment in 1890. The university also holds the distinction of being the only team in college football to never lose more than seven games in a single season.

Still, none of the College Gameday anchors earned the hundred dollar bill.

In the year of 1921, Oberlin College football managed to beat Ohio State, 7-6. Ninety-eight years later, no other Ohio school has managed Oberlin’s feat again.

Adding to the shock is the fact that Ohio State had more than four times as many students as Oberlin, at the time.

The Review covered the event. Its Oct. 11, 1921 front page read, “OBERLIN INVASION TOPPLES STATE 7-6,” and described the face-off as a triumph: “State was outclassed at every point finding it almost impossible to penetrate the Oberlin line for any appreciable gain.”

According to the article, the Yeomen silenced over 10,000 Buckeye fans during the third quarter when a 20-yard pass led to a touchdown, marking one of OSU’s only two touchdowns conceded over their entire 1921 season.

However, this anecdote from Oberlin football history may be on its way to being forgotten.

Photo courtesy of Oberlin Review Archives

Oberlin College inaugurated its varsity football team in 1891 as a result of a student petition that called for the opportunity to play casual athletics after classes.

Nowadays Oberlin is not known for its athletics, and many would now be shocked to discover that Ohio State was the losing team when the two schools first played back in the 1890s, with Oberlin winning their first six games by a whopping combined score of 200-14.

The culture of football at Oberlin has changed since 1890. After the 1920s, Oberlin found it hard to keep up with more prominent academic institutions who had more money allocated to their varsity athletics.

Additionally, Oberlin never wanted to use football for profit. Ohio State built their Ohio Stadium with its original seating capacity of 66,000 in 1922 while Oberlin completed a stadium for 3,000 seats in 1925. The goal of Oberlin’s administration and faculty has always been for students to play sports for the love of the game while still focusing on their education. The Oberlin football team excelled until the early 20th century, and today, the 1921 win against OSU stands as an anomaly.

In 1978, Oberlin Athletics created the John Heisman Club, named after the legendary football player who coached at Oberlin in 1892, with the goal of funding athletics with donations. The success of the Heisman Club money raising efforts led to the new Health and Wellness building and other athletic facility improvements.

It is important to revisit this aspect of Oberlin athletic history nearly a century later. Although Oberlin prides itself as a rigorous academic institution, the 1921 football victory demonstrates a rich and varied history that stretches to multiple areas of the college experience, including athletics.

6. A League of Their Own (1992) This is a movie about professional baseball players in 1943, and there’s only one central male character. One. And it’s Tom Hanks, a national treasure. But A League of Their Own is a look into a very real, but forgotten, aspect of baseball history: when there was a women’s league.

This movie has everything: a brunette Madonna, a quick-witted Rose O’Donnell, some mean fastballs, screaming home runs, and an intense face-off between rival sisters. This movie is everything that Field of Dreams and The Natural wish they could have accomplished.

7. Senna (2010) This is a documentary about Brazilian F1 racing icon Ayrton Senna. I have never watched an F1 race in my life, and have no interest to watch one in the future — and yet, I still think this is one of the greatest films I have ever seen.

8. Creed (2015) This Rocky sequel is better than all of the Rocky movies combined. Creed implements the same underdog plot as the original Rocky, but executes it better.

Creed refrains from using overdramatic tropes, music, and other theatrics to move the story forward. It relies on raw boxing footage, smooth cinematography and the father–son relationship between Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and protagonist Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan). The film also addresses the dangers of boxing and Rocky’s metaphorical reconciliation with the glorified portrayals of boxing in his previous films. He warns Adonis that his life is on the line when he is standing in the ring. Adonis’s love interest, Bianca (Tessa Thompson), is also a complex character in her own right and is fighting personal battles alongside Adonis. The soundtrack features a stacked list of artists, such as Future, Meek Mill, The Roots, 2Pac, and Nas.

Cross Country and Track & Field Teams Work at Community Service Site

The mens’ and womens’ Cross Country and Track and Field teams volunteered at various Oberlin and Lorain County establishments on their Day of Service last Sunday. A group of 76 athletes and five coaches helped workers at the Oberlin Heritage Center, Family Promise of Lorain County, Kendal at Oberlin, Prairie of Western Reserve Conservancy, Oberlin Community Services, and the Legion Field Community Garden complete various site-specific tasks throughout the day. This event was the Cross Country and Track and Field teams’ contribution to the yearly goal of the Oberlin College Athletics Department to give back to the community surrounding the campus.

Text by Khalid McCalla, Contributing Sports Editor Photo courtesy of Oberlin Track & Field Team

The Oberlin Review | September 20, 2019

15

SPORTS September 20, 2019

Established 1874

Volume 148, Number 3

I’m Tired: The Official Best Sports Movies List Jane Agler Sports Editor

College fourth-years Nae McClain and Maya English and College second-year Zac Ntia.

Photos courtesy of OC Athletics

Bonner Scholar Athletes Contribute To Oberlin, Both On And Off The Field Zoë Martin del Campo Contributing Sports Editor When imagining the typical college experience, volunteering for night shifts in churches to help care for individuals in need is not the first thing that comes to mind for most. But for College fourth-year Nae McClain, this was part of a normal day during her first two years as a Bonner Scholar at Oberlin. She balanced not only her academic and athletic responsibilities, but also dedicated 140 hours per semester to community service. Working in the church until 6:30 a.m., she would return to her room and sleep until 8 a.m., attend classes, and then head to athletic practice later that afternoon.

The Bonner Scholars program is a four-year community service scholarship program that was created to annually provide 15 first-year students with the opportunity to “develop as leaders and change agents in the local community,” according to the Oberlin Bonner Scholars website. The program aims not only to provide selected students with leadership and volunteering opportunities, but also to nurture a support network for students to utilize throughout their Oberlin experience. Students complete 140 hours of community service per semester, and are required to spend two summers participating in at least 280 hours of service.

Like McClain, College fourth-year Maya English is a thrower on the seven-time NCAC Champion Women’s Track and Field Team; both have balanced commitment to their sport and community service throughout their time at Oberlin. When not in class or at practice, English mentors students from Oberlin High School and is part of the Bonner Leadership Team. Being an athlete has allowed her to connect with her mentees, who also play sports.

“Having that element of our relationship lets us talk about how we balance going to school, being an athlete, extracurricular activities, and still having a social life,” English said.

College second-year Zac Ntia shared similar sentiments about his service within the Oberlin community. As a member of the Oberlin football team and thrower for the Oberlin track and field team, he enjoys that children at the Oberlin Early Childhood Center see him as a role model.

“They tend to look up to me,” Ntia said. “They’re like, oh my gosh, a football player. They made me feel really welcome and they really appreciated the work that I’m able to do. … It’s a great way to help the young-

16

er kids that will eventually grow up and become part of the community. It’s something that I’m really passionate about and I’m glad that I get to be a part of it here at Oberlin.”

Bonner Scholars cite time management as one of the most difficult parts of being an athlete and Bonner Scholar.

“Bonner is already an 8- to 10-hour-a-week commitment on top of the other jobs that you have, and practice,” McClain said. Nevertheless, all three athletes have worked and communicated with coaches, peers, and professors to ensure that they do not fall behind in any of their responsibilities.

“It gets really stressful at some points when you’re working at your service site and also trying to manage school and sports,” English said. “But it gives you a good perspective of how the real world is, where you have to learn how to balance the things that you’re really passionate about.”

Another aspect of Bonner that keeps these athletes motivated is the community that the Bonner program works to foster. The phrase “Bonner Love” and “Bonner Family” are often used to describe the family-like dynamic that exists among scholars.

“Both while at service around the community and at school with other Bonners, the friendships and relationships that I have formed through the Bonner organization are unmatched,” McClain said. “I have literally found my best friends, and people that I could not imagine living without, both while at Oberlin or in my life after Oberlin.”

Ntia expressed similar thoughts in explaining the ways that his athletic and Bonner communities intersect.

“I consider my teammates and Bonner like family because we’re all so close, and it’s great to have a group of people you can lean on,” he said.

Within the Bonner Scholars program, there is an emphasis on reflection, both for volunteering and interpersonal goals. This mentality is especially helpful for athletes, where learning from previous competitions is crucial to improving performance and goal setting. This year, McClain is working towards her goal of winning another NCAC Conference title for her team.

“To me, my team is part of my community that I have here at Oberlin,” she said. “Those are the people that I have to work with and support. … In Bonner, I feel like we are also always trying to figure out how we can best help others and be there for others, and I also always ask myself this question when it comes to my team.”

I’m tired. Too many publications have released definitive lists of “the greatest sports films of all time” that always include the same films that share similar problematic tropes: disrespectful treatment of women, racism, and other forms of bigotry. The genre itself does not reflect the real diversity that exists within the realm of sports. It’s time to look beyond films like Hoosiers, Any Given Sunday, and The Blind Side.

That being said, the following eight films have subverted these troubling themes.

1. Hoop Dreams (1994) Don’t stop reading just because the film at the top of my list is a documentary. I’ll get to the fiction in a moment; but first you should know that this documentary is not just a great sports film, it is one of the greatest films of all time.

Even if you’re not a Chicago native like me, Hoop Dreams connects with all audiences. Set against the backdrop of the Windy City’s best and worst circumstances, Hoop Dreams captures the years-long journey of Arthur Agee and William Gates — two ambitious boys who hope to make it to the NBA one day. The film is as much about family and adolescence as it is about basketball, highlighting what sports are all about: intersectionality and the ability to reflect the world around us.

I also bought a Bulls starter jacket just because William Gates rocked one outside of a corner store early in the movie.

2. Love & Basketball (2000) Written and directed by female auteur Gina PrinceBlythewood and starring the romantic comedy icon Sanaa Lathan, Love & Basketball was released only four years after the establishment of the WNBA. The depictions of women’s basketball — as a sport and culture, privately and publicly — are sharply accurate. We see Monica Wright (Lathan) grow and shape herself as a young woman through the lens of basketball, something that audiences had never seen before at the time of Love & Basketball’s release.

Moreover, the soundtrack elevates the film to sky-high success, featuring artists like Zapp & Roger and Maxwell.

The best part about this film, though, is that Omar Epps’ portrayal of Quincy McCall, Monica’s love-interest, is the least interesting contribution to the story. If anything, he is a solid depiction of what misogyny in the sports world looks like when confronted by a talented female athlete.

3. The Sandlot (1993) I watched this movie every Friday night after school when I was a kid. It shaped me in so many ways; it was a racially diverse account of little league baseball — sorry Bad News Bears — and its plot was poignantly realistic.

Rather than relying on plot to carry the movie, the film is a quiet meditation on friendships between some of the most well-rounded, fascinating characters that I’ve ever seen on screen. Moreover, it really captures what it feels like to be obsessed beyond reason with baseball.

Plus, this movie features the first boy I ever had a crush on: Benny Rodriguez, star homerun hitter who played baseball with silent prowess. I found him downright chivalrous in The Sandlot and was prepared for him to sweep me off my feet.

4. Stick It (2006) Jeff Bridges — yes, The Dude from The Big Lebowski — is a gymnastics coach for a group of young women who rebel against misogyny in women’s gymnastics competitions. What more is there to say?

5. Skate Kitchen (2018) Maybe the least known film on this list, Skate Kitchen introduced the world to skateboarding from the rarely seen perspective of a young woman. Skateboarding, a maledominated sport, is having a cultural revival right now, in part due to people of color and women — two groups previously shut out by the skateboarding community.

Skate Kitchen is a subtle look into the life of a teen who wants to find a crew of female skaters to glide through the streets of New York City with. There is hardly a concrete plot to follow; rather, Skate Kitchen focuses primarily on exploring the complexity and closeness of adolescent female friendships in a patriarchal space.

See Real List, page 15