College Information Bubble Strengthens Town/Gown Divide
November 9, 2012
Oberlin College exists within the City of Oberlin, in Lorain County, in Northeastern Ohio, but most Oberlin students do not come from Ohio, much less from Oberlin. For most Oberlin students, the City of Oberlin is merely the periphery of the College, rather than a place where life happens. Our minds are on our studies and on national and international news, not on the goings-on in our own backyard.
The College reinforces this arbitrary mental bubble by providing students with The New York Times instead of the Oberlin News-Tribune, the Elyria-Lorain Chronicle-Telegram or even the Cleveland Plain Dealer. These local newspapers not only tell us what is important to our neighbors, they also help to instill a sense of place that makes us better community members and better citizens. Opportunities to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others abound at a local level, and it is at this level that our educations may be most immediately useful.
The College should acknowledge this reality and do what it can to teach its students about living-local, a process that might reasonably start by shifting our attention to our immediate surroundings. The College should provide local newspapers to students instead of, or in addition to, The New York Times.
