The Oberlin Review

Former Professor Files Lawsuit Against The College for Discriminatory Hiring

Katherine MacPhail and Anisa Curry Vietze

September 18, 2020

A former Oberlin dance professor filed a lawsuit against the College on Sept. 3 alleging discrimination in hiring for being a straight, white, married woman from the Midwest, as well as workplace retaliation. The College has not yet responded to these allegations. Former Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Alice Blumenfeld worked at Oberlin from 2018–2020. In the summer of 2019, Blumenfeld learned that the College planned to terminate her position and instate a tenure-track position in its stead. Blumenfeld was one of four candidates considered for this role and was not hired. “While Ms. Blumenfeld was more qualified for the tenure-track position than the individual Oberlin hired, she failed to meet the id...

College Releases Details for Three Semesters of In-Person Classes

July 18, 2020

Information about changes to housing, dining, student activities, and campus social life was sent in an email to students, faculty, and staff last Wednesday, accompanied by a community agreement for on-campus enrollment. This year the College will adopt a three-semester model and enroll a limited student body in the fall, spring, and summer. The goal of this plan is to “de-densify” campus, allowing students to live in single rooms, practice social distancing in classes, and limit the potentia...

Oberlin faculty and Staff meet over Zoom to plan the new Uncovering COVID-19 class for accepted students.

College Creates Programs to Supplement Remote Learning

April 7, 2020

Editor’s note: Editor-in-Chief Nathan Carpenter is the course manager of the Uncovering COVID-19 class, and was uninvolved with the reporting and editing of this story. Three weeks after students were sent home and the College transitioned to remote learning, Oberlin administrators continue to respond to the academic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. A variety of new programs and classes have been created to address complications caused by remote learning, including new second-module classes ...

Administrators, Faculty Governance Committees Decline to Endorse Universal Pass

Nathan Carpenter, Editor-in-Chief

April 4, 2020

Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences David Kamitsuka and Dean of the Conservatory William Quillen announced to the Oberlin community Thursday afternoon that administrators and faculty-governance bodies had declined to endorse a Student Senate-led petition advocating for a Universal Pass grading system. The petition, drafted in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, had been co-signed via Google Docs by more than 1,300 current students. “Student Senate sees it as being imperative that our grading system reflect the unprecedented situation presented by the current COVID-19 pandemic,” College third-year and Chair of Student Senate Henry Hicks wrote in an email to the Review. “Given the inaccessible reali...

Faculty and staff distributed packing boxes to students in the Root Room in Carnegie Building beginning Friday morning. Students in College housing are required to vacate campus by Monday at noon. Box distribution will continue 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

COVID-19 Outbreak Continues, College Moves to Remote Campus

March 13, 2020

In an email sent to the campus community Thursday afternoon, President Carmen Twillie Ambar announced that today will be the last day of classes prior to spring break and that students should plan to leave campus by noon on Monday, March 16. The decision is meant to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus — known as COVID-19 — following the discovery of five confirmed cases in nearby Cuyahoga, Stark, and Trumbull Counties. Students should not expect to return to campus for the remainder...

Posters Call Upon Students to Boycott Course Evaluations

Rachel Choi

December 13, 2019

Conversations around the ethics of student-submitted course evaluations have surfaced after anonymous posters were put up around campus urging students to boycott filling out their evaluations. The posters argue that inherent implicit biases may cause unfairness and inequity in the evaluations, particularly toward professors who identify as women or LGBTQ+, as well as professors of color. “Due to our implicit and internalized biases, we hold minority professors to disproportionately higher standards than we hold their majority counterparts,” the poster read. “This bigotry fosters an atmosphere in which marginalized people must work substantially harder to earn the same amount of recognition, opportunities, and...

Following Quillen’s Appointment, College Must Pursue Similar Stability

Editorial Board

December 13, 2019

At this crucial moment in Oberlin’s history, we need a seasoned captain at the helm of the ship. Particularly, at a time when significant changes are being instituted to improve the functioning of the College, we need all the stability we can get. Until recently, both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Conservatory have been entrenched in a hiring search for their respective deans. The hiring committee for the Dean of the Conservatory concluded its national search for a suitable candidate, which began in May of this year. The hiring committee for the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences also began earlier this semester and is currently on-going. The Conservatory has proven that promoting stability ...

College Seeks to Address Course Registration Challenges

Nathan Carpenter and Ella Moxley

November 22, 2019

The course registration period for the upcoming spring semester concluded today following concerns that class offerings across several departments had been restricted this past fall due to a number of factors, including faculty leaves. Some students and faculty members feel that students — particularly first-year students — had more difficulty registering for classes than in previous semesters. Others, including Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences David Kamitsuka, argue that the data don’t support this conclusion. According to Professor and Chair of Economics Ron Cheung, who sat on the steering committee of last year’s Academic and Administrative Program Review, the Economics department has experi...

Search for Next Vice President for Advancement Ongoing

Katie Lucey, News Editor

September 27, 2019

A search is underway for Oberlin’s next vice president for advancement, a position previously titled vice president for development and alumni affairs. Candidates will be expected to build upon previous institutional fundraising campaigns, such as Oberlin Illuminate, as well as articulate a strategy for Oberlin’s financial future as shaped by Academic and Administrative Program Review recommendations. Rachel Smith Silver assumed the position on an interim basis following the retirement of Bill Barlow last June. Upper-level administrators, including President Carmen Twillie Ambar, Acting Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences David Kamitsuka, Acting Dean of the Conservatory Bill Quillen, other administrative s...

The Cox Administration Building houses the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences’ office. Currently, both the College and the Conservatory are engaged in an active search for new deans.

Searches Launch for Next College, Conservatory Deans

September 6, 2019

In a time of unprecedented institutional change following the recommendations of the Academic and Administrative Program Review, both the College and Conservatory have launched active searches for new deans. The AAPR, which concluded this past spring, was chaired by Acting Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences David Kamitsuka and vice-chaired by Acting Dean of the Conservatory William Quillen. Both Kamitsuka and Quillen are currently filling their positions on an interim basis. Kamitsuka ass...

Students in the Arabic 101 course taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of Arabic Mahmoud Meslat. Following a faculty petition this spring, the College Faculty Council approved introductory Arabic courses for both the fall and spring semesters.

Introductory Arabic Courses Offered On Campus in Fall, Spring

September 6, 2019

Following significant controversy last spring, Oberlin will once again offer introductory Arabic courses on campus this academic year. In April, a group of faculty petitioned the College Faculty Council with a proposal to offer a section each of Arabic 101 and 102. Visiting Assistant Professor of Arabic Mahmoud Meslat was hired over the summer to teach the introductory courses. “As is our process, a group of faculty submitted a request for a temporary line in Arabic to the [Educational Plans and P...

CDS workers prepare pizzas in the Wilder DeCafé. Hourly employees continue to express concerns over the impacts of the AAPR recommendations.

Hourly Workers Maintain AAPR Concerns

May 10, 2019

Tensions remain high between Oberlin’s unionized hourly workers and the Academic and Administrative Program Review steering committee. After weeks of collecting community feedback, the committee is wrapping up its work and preparing to submit its final recommendations to President Carmen Twillie Ambar at the end of this semester. Many constituent groups have endorsed the AAPR’s recommendations. Last week, the Educational Plans and Policies Committee, the Educational Policy Committee, the College F...