It has been interesting as a senior to see the cycles of discourse and focus on campus shift and be recycled. When I was a first-year, one of the big pushes happening was around financial transparency and demanding that the Oberlin Board of Trustees disclose its investments, particularly in the wake...
Oberlin is ending their partnership with Barnes & Noble at the end of this school year, and the College bookstore will no longer be in its current location across from Bibbins Hall next year. The school apparently plans to move the seating from what is now the periodicals section in the back of Azariah’s...
Outside the doorways that display the iconic green sticker that promotes how Oberlin College has been tobacco-free since 2016, you can often find groups of students congregating, cigarettes in hand, blowing smoke into the air. The smell of smoke permeates the air. It’s almost funny. Here at Oberlin,...
Halima Ahmed When I read the NBC article suggesting that U.S. President Donald Trump could possibly run again in 2028, I was distraught and disappointed. Everyone knows a third term is unconstitutional, but the fact that it’s being floated at all — even jokingly — is alarming. The Trump Organization...
We love the History department. We aren’t saying this just because we are History students but because we believe students deserve a substantial say in the administrative decisions made about courses offered in the department and about the professors who teach them — and the History department...
My first year could be defined by the tireless nights I spent in the Science Library. Having yet to develop any time management skills, I would frequently be there until close, falling asleep over my books and writing papers that were barely coherent due to exhaustion. That was, until I discovered the...
On May 4, Oberlin College Choir and Musical Union, under Associate Professor of Conducting and Director of Vocal Ensembles Gregory Ristow, OC...
This week, Grammy Award- winning percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion visited Oberlin for a series of workshops, culminating in the final...
The Now Chorale presented their spring concert Tuesday in the Carnegie Building Root Room, featuring six works by current Oberlin students. The...
The Oberlin College Black Musicians’ Guild was founded in 2001 by Martha Newland, OC ’03, and Ivy Newman, OC ’04, to promote and connect...
Questions regarding cultural appropriation have often floated around the Composition department of the Conservatory. Is it suitable for me to...
One of Oberlin’s last remaining large unions, OCOPE, is entering a new round of negotiations this summer — and its members say what’s at stake goes far beyond wages and benefits. The Oberlin College Office and Professional Employees, a unit of Office and Professional Employees International...
On Wednesday, Robert S. Danforth Professor of Politics Eve Sandberg taught her last class before her retirement after 35 years at the College. As she left, a number of students, faculty, and staff surprised her in the entranceway of King Building to commemorate her career at the College and the impact...
Oberlin enrolled its class of 2028 containing 701 students this past fall, a 10 percent decrease compared to the class who entered in the fall of 2023, according to self-reported data provided to the Review by the Office of Institutional Research & Analytics. The losses occurred almost entirely among...
After a 42-year career at Oberlin College, Susan Jane Colley, the Andrew and Pauline Delaney Professor of Mathematics, is retiring. For over four decades, Colley has been a pillar of the Mathematics department, her impact stretching beyond the numbers and formulas she taught. Dr. Colley arrived at Oberlin...
On Wednesday, the floor of Azariah’s Café filled with students protesting the recent College announcement that Azzie’s will hold the Oberlin Campus Store in the fall, arguing that the change was symptomatic of a larger removal of communal spaces on campus without student input. The Oberlin Bookstore...
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Why did each of you choose to run for Student Senate president? ND: This is something that I’ve been passionate about since before my time at Oberlin. I ran for first-year rep my freshman September. There’s so much available on this campus...
New Pope Elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected pontiff of the Catholic Church on the second day of the conclave, choosing the papal name Leo XIV. This conclave was made up of the largest number of cardinals in history — 133 across 70 countries — gathered to vote on the next pope...
Last Friday, emerging pop duo Magdalena Bay played at House of Blues Cleveland as part of their “Imaginal Mystery Tour.” Their 2024 release, Imaginal Disk, was met with critical acclaim, making their tour one of my most anticipated concerts of the year. A fundamental part of the show was its off-kilter...
There is no better accompaniment for a rainy day than an acoustic guitar and a cup of tea. On May 1, I made my way to the Cat in the Cream to see Will Paquin, an artist whose career started unexpectedly during the COVID-19 pandemic. When his classes at Boston University were cancelled, Paquin followed...
When it was announced that the theme of the 2025 Met Gala was “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” I had my hesitations. While the red carpet itself was themed “Tailored to You,” with an emphasis on menswear, the annual fashion fundraising festival’s overall theme focused on Black culture and...
Last week, the 2025 participants in the Guggenheim Fellowship, one of the world’s most prestigious awards for work in the humanities, were announced. Of the 198 2025 Guggenheim Fellows, five recipients are Oberlin alumni: Josh Faught, OC ’01; David Getsy, OC ’95; Elizabeth Otto, OC ’94; Huang...
You’ve heard of Spotify Wrapped, but to change things up a bit, may I present you with Oberlin Wrapped, where Obies recall the most memorable, meaningful pieces of art that they experienced this spring 2025 semester. These interviews have been edited for length and clarity. Armand Andry, College...
At first glance, the latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems like an odd choice. With just two films left until the final stretch of this wildly inconsistent saga, why make one an ensemble piece for a bunch of second-rate supporting characters? This is what many people thought when this film...
ACROSS 1. Deodorant brand recently popularized for strong sweat-stopping ability and focus on natural ingredients like eucalyptus oil 5. Company with a spokesduck 10. Device that records airplane flight information in a digital format using magneto-optical disk media, abbr. 12. Governing student...
This past week, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life hosted a variety of events, from Oberlin Buddhist Fellowship Daily Sits in Lewis House to mass at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church, to celebrate Interfaith Week. This series of events aimed to strengthen religious and spiritual connections...
This Thursday, the Multicultural Resource Commons and Asian American Alliance collaborated to hold an oral storytelling event in ObieXing at Price House. College fourth-year Loren Carter opened the event with a speech on storytelling, followed by two musical pieces played by College second-year Jenny...
Omukoko Okoth is a fourth-year Economics major with a concentration in Mathematics and Business and a minor in Politics. He is a student leader and mentor, having served as a Resident Assistant, Peer Career Advisor, Peer Mentor with the Center for Student Success, and Peer Advising Leader. Okoth was...
Calliope Lissak is a fourth-year student majoring in Comparative American Studies and Classics with a minor in English. On Monday, April 14, Lissak was honored in a campus celebration for the Leadership Award which she received from the National Student Employment Association. Lissak was commended for...
Liz Schultz is the executive director of the Oberlin Heritage Center, a member of the Ohio Local History Alliance, and recent recipient of the 2024 Ohio Museums Association Professional of the Year award. Schultz was recognized at the OMA Annual Conference Sunday, March 20, in Athens, Ohio, and gave...
Kash Radocha Contributing Conservatory Editor This week, the Review went into the harp practice rooms to speak with Conservatory fourth-year Elizabeth Johnson, a Harp Performance major with History and Music Theory minors, and Conservatory third-year Kiki Li, a Harp Performance major. They have been...
Chris Jenkins has served as the Associate Dean for Academic Support for Oberlin Conservatory since 2016. This year, he will receive his D.M.A. in viola performance and Ph.D. in Musicology with a focus on African American musical aesthetics. Jenkins is the author of Assimilation v. Integration in Music...
Lena Leson joined the Conservatory faculty in fall 2024 as assistant professor of Musicology. She teaches courses on 20th- and 21st-century music, and her research primarily focuses on the intersections between music, politics, and dance. She has been published in the Journal of the Society for American...
College fourth-year Oona Shain is a Comparative American Studies major with a minor in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and an Education Studies integrative concentration. She currently helms a 26-member ExCo that has revived the Hi-O-Hi, the Oberlin yearbook that had been discontinued since 2006....
College second-year Ayesha Ghosh has already made a strong impact on the spiritual arts at Oberlin. In her first year, Ghosh started the Healers Collective, through which she organizes a variety of programming including sound baths, events that merge collective musical performance with meditation,...
Margaret Killjoy is an author, musician, activist, and anarchist. She is best known for her speculative fiction, particularly the Danielle Cain series, which began 25 years ago as a series of zines. Killjoy will release the third book in the series, The Immortal Choir Holds Every Voice, this year. Killjoy’s...
Hwaejin Chung is a second-year majoring in the 3–2 Engineering program with a minor in Spanish. After his first year at Oberlin, he returned to Korea to serve his mandatory 18 months in the military. Upon returning this fall, Hwaejin has a newfound sense of pride in his home country and has since reconnected...
Kyle Baxt is a second-year majoring in Economics with a Business integrative concentration. In his sophomore year of high school, he underwent brain surgery to heal a Chiari malformation that had developed in his brain. In his first season at Oberlin, the first baseman broke the school’s all-time record...
Natalie Winkelfoos is in her 12th year as the director of Oberlin Athletics. During her time at Oberlin, Winkelfoos has been named the Division III Administrator of the Year by Women Leaders in College Sports in 2015 and the Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year in 2018. This interview has been...
In what is shaping up to be a golden era for youth sprinting, high school and under-20 athletes are redefining what is possible in the 100-meter dash. The 2025 track and field season has already produced some of the fastest times ever by high school athletes, culminating in a staggering new national...
In a truly Hollywood moment, Welsh football club Wrexham AFC has achieved something that no club in English football history has ever achieved before: back-to-back-to-back promotions through England’s multi-tier football pyramid. After their thumping 3–0 win over Charlton Athletic at home, Wrexham...
From selling baked goods at Mudd Center to handing out pies for Pie a Rugger, the Oberlin College Rhinos are often seen orchestrating fundraising efforts to support their season. The Rhinos are a women’s and trans club rugby team that have established themselves as one of Oberlin’s most prevalent...
Last year, I went back to my home state of Kentucky to revisit the Kentucky Derby for the first time in a few years (“Review Editor Revisits Kentucky Derby Roots,” The Oberlin Review, May 10, 2024). This year, I decided to take two newcomers, News Editor Layla Wallerstein and former Bulletin Editor...
On Friday, April 25, the women’s tennis team beat the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops. Despite the women’s team’s strong record this season, winning three conference matches against The College of Wooster, Wittenberg University, and OWU earlier this month, the most recent win against...
In a hard-fought North Coast Atlantic Conference semifinal matchup, the Oberlin College men’s lacrosse team left everything on the field but ultimately came up one goal short, falling 11–10 to top-seeded Ohio Wesleyan University Wednesday night. The narrow loss brings the Yeomens’ season to a close...
The 2025 NFL draft was surprising for many fans who followed the pre-draft process as projected first round pick, University of Colorado, Boulder quarterback Shedeur Sanders, wasn’t taken until the fifth round. Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN’s most prominent draft analyst, projected the reigning Big 12 Offensive...
Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge has taken his game to new heights yet again — a remarkable accomplishment for a man who already stands at 6 ‘ 7’’. The reigning MVP is fresh off a season where he led the league in home runs with 58 and RBIs with 144. When Judge was called up to the big leagues...
The Oberlin College baseball team broke through with its first two conference wins of the season, sweeping DePauw University in a doubleheader by scores of 6–2 and 7–4. The Yeomen leaned on dominant pitching, timely hitting, and a full-team effort to claim their first North Coast Athletic Conference...
Tennis has long been considered a “gentleman’s” sport, one associated with sportsmanship and class of the highest level. Like any sport, tennis requires years of training to become great, and a special talent to be one of the best. However, some players have been found guilty of using other means...