Judge John Miraldi of the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas ruled Tuesday that Oberlin College and Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo would not be granted a new trial in the lawsuit filed against the College and Raimondo by Gibson’s Bakery. In June, a Lorain County jury ruled in favor of Gibson’s, initially awarding $44 million in damages. This figure was later capped at $25 million under Ohio law. The College and Raimondo requested a new trial or remittitur in the same court where the initial verdict was made. A remittitur is a ruling by a judge to lower the amount of damages awarded by a jury; in this case, the College alleged that the level of damages awarded in June were “excessive.” I...

To the Editors: I’m writing to disagree with almost everything in Booker C. Peek’s recent opinion column, “Oberlin, Gibson’s Should Settle Out-of-Court” (The Oberlin Review, Dec. 1, 2017). I laughed at Peek’s opening comment that the lawsuit “has the potential to be earth-shattering.” Really? Let’s maintain some perspective here. This is a tempest in a teapot, a tiny incident at a small college. Potentially earth-shattering would be President Trump’s brinksmanship with North Korea, or the increasing severity of tropical storms fueled by global climate change. Those are earth-shattering issues that Oberlin and its students should be addressing. Peek also writes about the damage of a financial settlement. Ma...

We should all root for a quick out-of-court resolution between Gibson’s Bakery and Oberlin College. It can be exciting for us to root for our favorite teams; that is what sports are all about. We may debate who the greatest composer is, the finest painter, or the best dancer. Having all those options is what we enjoy in America, along with the right not to take part at all. But there are times when the outcome of a matter affects us quite profoundly. This lawsuit is not a sporting event; its outcome has the potential to be earth-shattering. The founders of the College settled in a wilderness in the 19th century, a site where there were no humans at all. In the intervening period — more than 150 years — we have...

Following last semester’s arrest of College sophomore Elijah Aladin, which sparked intense protests in light of accusations of racial profiling, Aladin is once again facing felony charges and could be indicted by a Lorain County grand jury. Aladin was arrested Nov. 11 following an alleged shoplifting incident and was charged with robbery, a felony charge, when the situation escalated to a physical altercation between him and employee Allyn Gibson. In the most recent development, Aladin was expected to receive a misdemeanor charge for pleading guilty to shoplifting after both his lawyer and City Prosecutor Frank Carlson agreed to drop the felony charges as part of a diversion program. However, municipal court...