The Oberlin Review

Junior Practicum Aims to Provide Career Readiness Skills in Lieu of Summer Internships

Ella Moxley, Senior Associate Editor

July 19, 2020

While third-year College students won’t enroll in the fall due to the College’s three-semester plan, they will have the opportunity to continue their education off-campus with the Junior Practicum program. The practicum is designed to help build career readiness skills. Although the practicum offers an opportunity for experiential learning, some students remain concerned that it will not make up for lost internships during the summer semester. “I think that everyone in the community is making an adjustment that they would rather not make [due to COVID-19],” said Chair of the Board of Trustees Chris Canavan, OC ’84. “[But] if we think about other ways in which Oberlin could provide an experience for juni...

College No Longer Employs ResEd Staff Member Following Offensive Facebook Comment

Gigi Ewing, Senior Associate Editor

July 18, 2020

After a contentious Facebook comment posted by a Residential Education staff member surfaced in early June, students, alumni, and others called for the employee’s termination through a petition to College administrators. Though the College cannot comment on the employment status of its staff, by mid-June the employee’s name no longer appeared on the Oberlin campus directory. The Facebook comment was made by Administrative Assistant Norma Frasher in reference to the May 25 murder of George Floyd. “Yeah, & IF some people would SHUT their mouths & follow the RULES that EVERYONE else complies with they WOULDN’T get a Knee to the Neck,” the comment read. Many of Frasher’s critics felt that ...

Oberlin: We Are Still Your Concern

Nico Vickers, This Week Editor

March 13, 2020

I am perfectly aware that this is an impossible situation. Oberlin College and the City of Oberlin do not have the infrastructure, facilities, staff, or resources to deal with an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, and it is true that it is best to act quickly in unpredictable situations such as the spread of disease. However, it’s impossible not to take into account how devastating these changes are for many students at this school given their personal circumstances. For some students, going home and completing remote education is an inconvenience. Their lives aren’t drastically changed. They will go home and do their coursework from bed in their pajamas. Maybe they’ll be relieved from some of t...

Mercy Allen Nurses Win Wage Increases

Roman Broszkowski, Senior Staff Writer

May 3, 2019

Nurses at Mercy Allen Hospital voted to approve a new contract agreement with the hospital that will result in continuous wage increases over the next three years. The ratified deal comes after the Ohio Nurses Association created a petition last week accusing Mercy of underpaying and understaffing its nurses. Following this, the ONA and Mercy administrators negotiated a proposal on April 26. It will go into effect retroactively April 1 and affects approximately 30 nurses. “The new agreement is similar to the old [agreement],” Haley Poggiali, a spokesperson for the Mercy Allen Hospital nurses, wrote in an email to the Review. “The primary negotiations focused on maintaining pay increases throughout the durati...

Nurses at Mercy Allen Hospital, located on West Lorain Street, have raised allegations of unfair working conditions and
could go on strike in the coming weeks.

Ohio Nurses Association Enters Contract Negotiations With Mercy

April 26, 2019

The Ohio Nurses Association is entering negotiations today with Mercy Allen Hospital Administrators on behalf of nurses at Mercy Allen Hospital which could result in a hospital-wide nurses strike if the group’s requests are not met. The ONA is accusing Mercy Allen Hospital of underpaying its nursing staff and failing to consistently and adequately staff the hospital with nurses, resulting in inadequate patient care. “The nurses at Mercy Allen Medical Center work around the clock caring for pat...

Demonstrators requesting Tom Reid’s reinstatement confront President Ambar in her office.

Students, Alumni Present Ambar Tom Reid Petition

November 9, 2018

Nearly 40 students, alumni, faculty, and community members crowded into President Carmen Ambar’s office Monday afternoon as part of a delegation meant to show support for former Associate Director of the Student Union Tom Reid, OC ’80. Reid — who had worked at Oberlin since graduating — was let go over the summer as part of a wave of staff reductions due to budget problems. His elimination was met with disapproval by students and community members who valued Reid’s contributions to the C...

Office Manager Michele Spiroff talks to a student at the Counseling Center. Student Senate is gathering signatures for a petition to move Student Health Services and the Counseling
Center to a more central location on campus.

Petition Proposing Student Health Relocation Circulates Campus

April 29, 2016

In what could be the culmination of a year-long effort, student senators are attempting to rally support for their petition to move Student Health Services and the Counseling Center to a more central location on campus. Student Senate’s Student Health Working Group issued the petition April 18 via Facebook and email. It states that the current location of Student Health Services and the Counseling Center “prevents these resources from effectively serving students.” At press time, 530 students...

Students Protest in Wake of A-House Petition

Melissa Harris, Staff Writer

December 12, 2015

Rather than Sunday dinner, student diners at Afrikan Heritage House were met with protestors blocking the entrances. According to members of Oberlin’s Black student union, ABUSUA, as well as other students, the protest was their response to Campus Dining Services’ failure to address their concerns outlined in a petition submitted to the College in late November. A petition protesting both the quality and selection of food options served at Lord-Saunders Dining Hall began circulating on Wednesday, Nov. 18. Students called for CDS to adhere to more traditional meals, including making fried chicken a permanent feature on the Sunday night menu and providing more vegan and vegetarian options. “The food quality at A...

GSFS Majors Need Permanent Faculty, Intro Course

Tory Sparks, Talia Nadel, and Tony Moaton

October 9, 2015

To the Editors: Oberlin’s Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies majors, minors and allies are asking for student support of our petition to the Dean’s office to hire a faculty member for the GSFS Institute (we currently do not have the status of a department or even a program). Oberlin College prides itself on the history of its stance on gender issues, and we believe that this legacy is not currently being maintained academically. Oberlin’s peer institutions have well-established Gender Studies departments, while Oberlin’s GSFS Institute has neither a permanent faculty nor enough institutional continuity for students or faculty. We believe that the appointment of a faculty member specifically trained...

Groups Collect Signatures for Legal Marijuana

Katherine Kingma

February 13, 2015

ResponsibleOhio, a large and well-funded group pushing for the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana in Ohio, listed the city of Lorain as one of 10 suggested growing locations around the state in ballot language released this past Monday. The group is one of many marijuana legalization organizations in Ohio. However, proposals regarding what weed legalization should look like vary, with many organizations raising questions about who should be able to grow, sell or use and for what reasons. Responsible Ohioans for Cannabis supports legalizing marijuana for all adults, and representative Tonya Davis emphasized the personal, rather than financial, benefit to legalization. “Right now, marijuana is...

Krislov’s Response Fails to Address Concerns

Kiley Petersen, Staff Writer

December 12, 2014

Oberlin College President Marvin Krislov, the Board of Trustees and the Oberlin administration have been put under a lot of pressure by students during the past several weeks, from the “Hands Up, Walk Out” call for action to the protest at the Board of Trustees function on Dec. 4. Their response came in the form of an “Open Letter to the Student Community” emailed to students on Thursday night. Since this was the only real acknowledgement of student activists’ call for change since President Krislov’s Dec. 3 article in the Source, “Confronting Difficult Issues Through Education,” I was hopeful about what the email would entail, especially since I had been pretty disappointed with the article. For the...

Students hold signs expressing a variety of demands outside Friday’s trustee dinner, including what many idenify as the College’s complicity in the systemic oppression of people of color. This week, some are pressuring the administration to temporarily suspend the standard grading system in the wake of nationwide protests and conflict following the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice.

Students Fight for Academic Leniency

December 12, 2014

As of Thursday evening, over 1,300 students had signed a petition drafted by College junior Kiki Acey and other students of color demanding President Krislov suspend the standard grading system in the aftermath of the high-profile cases of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Tamir Rice. The deaths of these three Black males — as well as the non-indictments of the white officers who killed Brown and Garner — have gained national attention as representative of the country’s historic and ...