Jackie Brant, Opinions Editor

March 6, 2020

 Texas on Super Tuesday in the wake of numerous accusations of rampant voter suppression across the state. This voter suppression could have contributed significantly to Biden’s win in the state. This result is alarming and something that the Democratic Party must take notice of and capitalize on in future elections. Texas is one of 21 states in the U.S. ruled by a Republican “trifecta,” meaning that the Texas House of Representatives, the State Senate, and the office of the governor of Texas are all currently controlled by Republicans. There has been a Republican...

Ilana Foggle, Columnist

February 28, 2020

 For the past year and a half, we have seen constant coverage of one primary and one primary only: the Democratic presidential primary. At this point, many Oberlin students and community members have already decided who they will be voting for as the Democratic nominee for president. Yet, if you asked Oberlin students who is running for Congress in our district, most would be at a loss for words.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that students see no scenario in which a Democratic opponent unseats Republican incumbent Representative Jim Jordan in our heinously...

Leo Hochberg, Columnist

February 14, 2020

 You’ve doubtlessly heard that on Jan. 3, President Trump ordered an execution strike, killing Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, along with Iranian politician and commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and several others at the Baghdad airport. In the following days, many speculated: Are we headed towards another undesirable Middle East conflict? Is this the beginning of a dangerous and illegal shadow war between Iran and the U.S., rife with rebounding political assassinations? Have years of growing tensions between the two countries now triggered an irreversible wave...

Leo Hochberg, Columnist

February 7, 2020

 Today, citizens and residents of the U.S. are more angry, emotional, and divided than we’ve ever been — and, doubtless, there’s plenty to be angry about. Children remain separated from their parents and locked away in prison camps on the southern border; successive conservative administrations have all but annihilated the pro-poor welfare policies of the mid-20th century; and now, the president has been acquitted by spineless politicians who seek to avoid accountability for aiding and abetting high crimes and misdemeanors. The racist and colonialist foundations...

David Mathisson, Columnist

February 7, 2020

 Amy Klobuchar just finished fifth in the Iowa caucuses with 12.3 percent of the vote. A near nonfactor in the presidential race until December, Klobuchar could certainly spin such a performance as a victory. But a more apt term for her performance would be pre-defeat. She’s spent more time in Iowa — her downstairs neighbor — than in every other state combined. That’s left little time for campaigning anywhere else. The next primaries will take place in the notably more progressive New Hampshire and Nevada, then South Carolina, where Joe Biden’s dominance...

David Mathisson, Columnist

December 17, 2019

Recently, Student Senate presented findings on mental health to the Board of Trustees. I’d like to thank fellow Senators, including College third-year Emma Edney and College second-years Raavi Asdar and Kofi Asare, for leading Senate’s efforts in this area. They identified a distinct connection between the mental health of students and investment in student happiness. Their presentation made it clear that Oberlin must expand resources available in times of crisis; invest in areas that impact Oberlin students’ day-to-day happiness — i.e. housing and dining;...

Julie Weir, President, OCOPE Reference & Academic Commons Assistant

March 13, 2020

We, the members of Oberlin College Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 502, stand in solidarity with our United Automobile Workers union brothers and sisters, and we wholeheartedly support them in their fight to preserve their jobs and the dignity of labor at Oberlin College. We strongly condemn the administration’s plan to lay off unionized custodial and food service workers and to replace them with outsourced labor, and we oppose any union-busting techniques. Furthermore, we are convinced that Oberlin’s future is best secured when...

Les Leopold, OC ’69

March 13, 2020

Oberlin College’s administration claims that contracting out 108 union dining and maintenance jobs will save over $2 million a year. But where is the evidence for this claim? Good governance requires full transparency so that all the stakeholders impacted have the information needed to evaluate such dire actions as well as the overall financial health of the College. That is far from the case here. Here’s what we have NOT seen to date:  1) The proposed non-union sub-contracts: How much do they cost, and with whom? How long do they last? How are quality control...

Paul Moser, Professor of Theater OSTF Producing Artistic Director

March 6, 2020

 The Oberlin Summer Theater Festival is closing its doors and will not be offering a 2020 summer season. Nagging fiscal and staffing problems that we’ve found increasingly challenging to overcome have finally come to a head and made the operation unsustainable.  A group of us started OSTF in 2009 as an experiment. It had a clear mission to present professional productions of great masterpieces of our theatrical heritage in rotating repertory; to make admission free, so we could attract a diverse audience of all ages and socioeconomic backgrounds; to develop...

Leo Hochberg, Columnist

March 6, 2020

 Coronavirus has now spread to 81 countries after breaking out in Wuhan, China just a few weeks ago, with over 97,800 confirmed cases and 3,332 confirmed deaths as of March 5. As is typically the case with contagious diseases, false news, overblown risk assessments, and conspiracy theories have spread quickly, inducing plague-level fears surrounding a disease that is only slightly more of a risk to the global population than the common flu. And while everyone should doubtlessly be taking coronavirus seriously, the hysteria surrounding the disease, on both a social...

Peter Takács, Professor of Piano

March 6, 2020

 Saturday night, I went to Finney Chapel to hear Beethoven’s first two symphonies. It was exhilarating — hearing fresh, committed performances of revolutionary music. The student performers were on the same wavelength with each other and with our wonderful conductor, Professor of Conducting Raphael Jiménez. The audience was listening in rapt attention, cheering at the end of each revelatory piece. What’s wrong with this picture? Well, this is old music, part of the “hegemonic institution of the canon,” written by a dead white male, Eurocentric, a remnant...

Booker C. Peek, Professor Emeritus of Africana Studies

March 6, 2020

 Most of us agree that Oberlin College must pay all its workers a living wage. But perhaps not all support this view. There is no universally agreed-upon definition for what amount of dollars represents a “living wage” — a sum for one person or a family of four, for those living in the most expensive area of the country or the least expensive?  Let’s allow that the term lacks precision, but is a concept that must cover what we all think of as basic needs — food, housing, clothing, health insurance, etc. — with some notion of a barrier still, but hardly...