Amid potential budget cutbacks, students are joining together to create a union that both supports students of Middle Eastern and North African descent and advocates for the expansion of MENA studies at Oberlin. Two groups of students, one geared toward creating a space for people of MENA descent and another aimed at developing the MENA Studies department, are taking action to make the region more visible on campus. College senior Aatifah George is the co-chair of the new Middle Eastern and North African Students Association. “It’s needed for a lot of reasons,” she said. “We are a community of color, but we’re not treated that way; we’re basically invisible.” In the United States, the government’s classification ...

Two Oberlin Conservatory professors resigned last month following allegations of repeated sexual misconduct involving students. World-renowned organist James David Christie, chair of the Organ Department, and Robin Eubanks, associate professor of Jazz Trombone and Jazz Composition, were accused of violating Oberlin’s Sexual Misconduct Policy after Oberlin’s Title IX office received reports against both men. Dean of the Conservatory Andrea Kalyn notified Conservatory staff and students of the accus...

Amid concern over the ongoing Academic and Administrative Program Review and staffing changes this summer, over 58 Oberlin College and Conservatory faculty members have joined the American Academy of University Professors. At 64 members, the AAUP of Oberlin does not have the numbers to become its own chapter. It does, however, have the power to become a faculty advocacy program. The AAUP is a national organization with local chapters in each state, which serve as either bargaining or advocacy chapters. A private college like Oberlin can only become an advocacy chapter, which would not allow the collective bargaining found in public university chapters like the AAUP branch at The Ohio State University. “Ideally w...

Student Senate and the Office of the Student Treasurer will delay the Student Finance Committee member appointments until this fall rather than completing them before the end of the semester — an action that’s part of Senate and the OST’s recent plan to restructure the student finance system to become more transparent, flexible, and efficient in allocating funds. Senate and the OST’s pivot to restructure campus student financing came about after they evaluated how student activity funding is allocated. Out of a pool of about $1.2 million in the allocated funds to student organizations, $600,000 remained unspent as of April 24, said Senate Chair and College junior Kameron Dunbar. With the ad hoc pool emptying t...