Sydney Allen – The Oberlin Review

Off the Cuff: Melissa Harris and Christian Bolles, Editors-in-Chief

May 11, 2018

College seniors Melissa Harris and Christian Bolles are the outgoing Editors-in-Chief of The Oberlin Review. Harris has been involved with the Review since her first semester at Oberlin, when she started out her journalism career as a staff writer. Since then she has worked as a Review Production Editor and News Editor and has interned for publications such as The Chronicle Telegram and Homeland Security Today. Bolles got involved his sophomore year at Oberlin and served as an Arts & Culture Editor before his tenure as EIC. Bolles is most known for his movie reviews. They were interviewed by the incoming Editors-in-Chief, College junior Sydney Allen and College sophomore Nathan Carpenter. This interview has be...

ResEd Decommissions 17 Village Houses

May 4, 2018

As housing selection for the 2018–19 academic year wraps up, many students have been left disappointed as Residential Education struggles to meet demand for Village Housing and private dorm rooms after decommissioning 17 Village Houses due to disrepair. The change is partially a result of Oberlin’s increasing financial austerity, as the College is reluctant to pour more money into dilapidated, depreciating houses each year. All 11 of the Woodland Street Village Housing Units are set to be razed ...

College Goes All In For Oberlin

April 27, 2018

President Carmen Ambar and Associate Vice President for Athletics Advancement and Delta Lodge Director of Athletics and Physical Education Natalie Winkelfoos pose on a golf cart for yesterday’s All In For Oberlin fundraiser. Ambar and Winkelfoos cruised around campus yesterday asking students and community members to go “All In” for Oberlin and donate toward the fundraising challenge. Organizers sought 1,500 donors, and every dollar donated up to that point was matched with a $100 contribu...

Rebecca Vazquez-Skillings Named VP Finance, Administration

April 20, 2018

Rebecca Vazquez-Skillings, the current vice president of Business Affairs at Otterbein University, was named Oberlin’s new vice president of Finance and Administration last week, pending the approval of the Board of Trustees during their June meeting. If the board approves, she will officially take over July 1. Interim Vice President of Finance and Administration Alan Norton came out of retirement last May after Vice President of Finance Mike Frandsen’s departure last year. A 10-person search c...

NLRB Sides With OCOPE in Suit Against College

April 20, 2018

The Oberlin College Office and Professional Employees union recently won a suit against the College with the National Labor Relations Board. The charges, filed in January, claimed that the College violated their mutually agreed-upon collective bargaining agreement by placing temporary workers, who make $14 an hour and receive no employment benefits or insurance, in OCOPE positions longer than is stipulated in the contract. The NLRB found the College in violation of the contract during arbitration. ...

Stevens Strategy Presents to General Faculty Amid Controversy

Sydney Allen, News Editor

April 13, 2018

Filed under Campus News, Features, NEWS, Recent Stories

Editor’s Note: A revised version of the letter mentioned in this article is filed under Letters to the Editors. It can be found online at the following link: https://wp.me/p4BnSC-4ak Stevens Strategy, the academic consulting firm President Carmen Ambar tapped to lead the upcoming Administrative and Academic Professional Review, presented its intended strategy to the General Faculty Council Monday. Amid pre-existing skepticism from faculty members, many who attended the meeting felt the firm came across as unprepared, further heightening concerns. The firm describes itself as “a full-service consulting firm specializing in managing the process of strategic change in colleges, universities, and schools.” Stevens Strat...

Feature Photo: Entrepeneurship Club Celebrates Health, Mind

April 13, 2018

Pre-med advisor Lynne Bianchi introduces panelists at the first of three “Innovation Talks” sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Club in the Science Center Atrium Thursday. The talk was about “Healing the Mind and Body” and discussed innovation in the health and well-being sectors. The talk was the first of a three-part series where leaders in entrepreneurship within a particular field discuss new and exciting developments in their field. The panelists discussed innovations biotechnology, neurology, bi...

Consent Month Reframes Sexual Conduct

April 6, 2018

Editor’s Note: This article contains mentions of sexual assualt, violence, and misconduct. Oberlin’s first official Consent Month debuts this April marking a collaborative effort between the Oberlin’s Office of Title IX, the student group Preventing and Responding to Sexual Misconduct, the Sexual Information Center, and the Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. There will be speakers, programs, workshops, and events in the coming weeks to raise awareness around consent and healthy s...

Off The Cuff: John Elder and Steve Hammond

April 6, 2018

John Elder and Steve Hammond are co-founders of the group Citizens for Safe and Sustainable Energy, an environmental group that has been working to fight the NEXUS pipeline and advocate for Oberlin’s Community Bill of Rights. Hammond is also the Pastor for Oberlin’s Peace Community Church. The group has been fighting the NEXUS pipeline since 2013, pursuing lawsuits, engaging community members, and advocating with City Council. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How did y...

Trustees Return to Oberlin to Better Understand Student Life

Sydney Allen, News Editor

March 9, 2018

Filed under Campus News, NEWS, Recent Stories

This week, Oberlin administrators, faculty, trustees, and student senators convened for the Board of Trustees’ first 2018 meeting. The trustees participated in several events, including President Carmen Ambar’s proposed financial review and the first ever student organizations expo, as well as the traditional student-trustee forum and board-sponsored 5K run. After a successful December trustee meeting, where board members learned about campus via student-led tours — tours that largely led to Wilder Hall’s renovation — Senate hopes to further its creative approaches in engaging students and board members in dialogue. “We identified that trustees were concerned about a lack of student interfacing,” College s...

Council Votes to Settle with NEXUS

February 23, 2018

“They’re breaking our laws, they’re taking our rights, but we won’t give up without a fight,” chanted the more than 60 Oberlin students and community members who protested during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Councilmembers voted 4–3 to move forward with a potential $100,000 settlement with Enbridge, the company set to build the NEXUS pipeline. After nearly an hour of public comments asking Council to oppose the agreement, the ordinance authorizing the city manager to execute the...

Ambar Announces Budget Plans to Faculty, Staff

February 16, 2018

President Carmen Ambar and other senior administrators have launched an 11-day presentation campaign in which all College and Conservatory faculty, administrative and professional staff, Student Senate, student media, and other constituencies will see the largest overview of Oberlin’s financial situation to date, along with Ambar’s proposed plan to rectify Oberlin’s ever-worsening deficit. The College managed to reduce its deficit from $5 million to $3 million this year, largely due to a las...